The Devil's Hourglass Chapter 2: A chance to change the past, a devil may cry fanfic

The Devil's Hourglass

Chapter 1: A chance to change the past

It had been a month since the incident at Vie de Marli and Dante had travelled into the deepest pit of Hell, but to the red clad demon hunter it seemed like it had been a whole life time.

It was the middle of the night and his shop was surprisingly silent; not a single sound could be heard, unless you counted the old, worn floor boards that creaked every time something moved. Moonlight shone through the windows and danced across the floor, highlighting the splinters and the gaps in the floor boards. The light spread into every corner of the room, reflecting off of the drum kit and the juke box, giving each an eerie look.

The light crept across the room. The Devil arms that were impaled into the walls were made to look even more deadly than they already did, by the glowing light that outlined each detail perfectly. The demon heads that were being held up by the Devil arms, were also highlighted by the moonlight, and they gave the shop a more gothic look. The shop had a damp, musky smell, which was odd since it usually smelt of pizza.

Dante was sitting at the desk in the shop, with his feet up, flipping his double-sided coin. Over the years since the incident at Mallet Island, the red clad Devil Hunter had become more serious and reserved. Sure, he had been cocky towards the Kid, Nero in the events of the Fortuna incident, but after that, he found that the Kid reminded him of Vergil so much. The way that Nero used Yamato was not as fast or as precise as Vergil had used it, but some of the combos Nero used were identical to Vergil's. The Kid also bore a striking resemblance to the red clad's twin; the back of his hair was choppy, like Vergil's had been when he had slicked it back. Along with this, the teen likes to wear dark blue, which may not be the exact colour the Dark Slayer wore, but it still shocked Dante a bit. Additionally, the young hunter had the same cold look in his eyes that the blue clad had worn when finishing off an opponent.

Dante watched the teen closely as Nero ran towards a Hell Vanguard with Yamato raised. The O-Katana clutched in his demonic hand was glowing a soft blue-violet colour, which highlighted its elegance and beauty. His feet splashed in the puddles that had formed from the heavy rain that was pouring down onto the ground. After having such an intense fight with the demon, the young hunter was ready to finish it off. Nero got close enough to the demon to strike it, so he impaled its stomach with Yamato, at which point the sword's glow intensified, as if it had a thirst for blood. The look in the teen's eyes was so cold and so unnerving, he could have made Medusa herself cower in fear.

The Hell Vanguard shrieked in pain using a horrifying inhuman tone. Nero removed Yamato from its stomach. He flicked out to the side and then slowly sheathed it, making a small click of metal sound when the entire sword was resting in its scabbard. Dante's eye's widened when he saw this. Not only had Nero perfectly copied one of Vergil's trademarks, he also looked like the red clads deceased twin; standing there in the rain with a cold glare which was directed at his opponent. To Dante, this was like seeing Vergil battling all over again. The Hell Vanguard disintegrated into dust and slowly, its remains were washed away by the rain.

Nero glanced over at Dante, while panting heavily. At first he smirked at the older man, as if he were proving something, such as being able to take down a Hell Vanguard after first dealing with several other lesser demons first. But his smirk was soon wiped off of his face when he saw the red clad's shocked expression and replaced with a look of concern.

"Dante, what's the matter?"

The fact Nero reminded Dante of his twin so much, had actually pushed the red clad into acting like his deceased twin so much, that his personality had completely changed and his once cocky attitude barely remained. In serious situations he took on a more calm, cool and serious approach as opposed to being a wisecrack and showing off his cocky aura.

Then there was Trish, who bore a striking resemblance to Dante's mother. When the red clad had first started to act like Vergil, he started to distance himself from Trish more, due to the fact that her appearance stirred up memories from when he and his older twin were children; when they didn't have to worry about anything. They didn't need to worry about their heritage; they didn't need to worry about losing each other and, they didn't need to worry about demons coming to attack them. The blonde demoness had obviously understood his reasons for being distant, but had tried to reason with the fact that she wasn't Eva; sure she had her looks and some of her caring personality, but she was her own person. But it seemed that the red clad would not listen to her attempts to reason with him; he seemed too caught up in mourning the loss of his twin once again, so the blonde left him alone in the shop and went around as a free-lance hunter again…

The blonde demoness walked up to the brooding Dante. She carefully sat on the corner of the desk like she always does, and looked into his distant eyes; they were full of many mixed emotions such as sorrow, remorse and even loneliness. Trish had noticed the red clad's changes in personality quite quickly; the way he was more distant and cut off from everyone. It had all started shortly after the Dante came back from a job he'd had with Nero; the hunter had told the demoness that the 'Kid' as he called him, had used Yamato in a similar style to Vergil. Trish immediately understood why he was a little upset, but she couldn't comprehend why he continued to act in this way. Then she had found out that the memory of Vergil had led the red clad to think of their childhood, when Eva was still alive.

Trish gently cupped her hands around the hunters cheeks, "Dante" she spoke, softy. The half-devil snapped out of his thoughts and looked up at her; his eyes widened slightly at first, but then he realized that he wasn't looking at Eva. "I'm not Eva and Nero isn't Vergil, you have to stop thinking about us in that way," she reasoned.

Dante sighed, "I know it's just… hard." He looked into her eyes; they were full of concern, but at the same time appeared caring and understanding, just like Eva's had been when he was younger. The hunter reached up to her face and placed his hand on her cheek, "You really are just like her."

Trish took hold of Dante's hand, "But I'm not her," the demoness said. She sighed, slipped off of the table and walked to the front door, "Dante, you need sometime alone to think, but please, remember; Nero and I we're... we're not Vergil and Eva." And with that she silently slipped out of the door, leaving a surprised and upset Dante to his thoughts…

Shortly after Trish had left, everyone else had started to stop visiting the red clad as well; in fact they all left him alone. Dante flipped his double-sided coin again, but closed his eyes when he caught it; there had been a reason behind him getting it, one that had confused everyone when he first got it. The reason was that he had absolutely no luck whatsoever; every time he showed up for a job, at least one thing would get broken, leaving him with a bill instead of a pay check or something else like an army of demons would come, which wasn't too bad except that people may get hurt and things would be broken. So instead of relying on this bad luck of his, the red clad decided to make his own luck and a double-sided coin would turn every single decision in his favour.

The red clad flipped his new double-sided coin in the air while sitting at his desk with his feet up, reading a magazine. Trish came up behind him and caught the coin in mid-air, just as Lady, Nero and Kyrie were coming through the door. The blonde demoness examined the coin closely, looking at both sides. She gave Dante a questioning look, "Why do you have a double sided coin? Are you hoping to win a few bets with it?"

A small smile touched the corners of the hunter's mouth, "Maybe." Trish raised an eyebrow, "Okay fine, I have no luck in life so, I figured I'd just make my own luck," he explained. Everyone looked at him in a questioning way.

"Make your own luck?" Lady asked, as she walked up to the desk along with Nero.

"That's right Lady; I'll make my own luck." said Dante.

The red clad decided that he had been awake for too long, so he put his coin down on the desk, lay back in his chair and closed his eyes.

A demon sat on a throne in a large marble hall, glaring down at the two wooden doors at the far end of the room. The hall was immaculately clean and the stone was pure white in colour, although this was difficult to notice, due to the lack of light. Eight great pillars stood tall and proud at the sides of the room, their shadows were being partly erased by the darkened hall. The ceiling was raised high above everything and depicted the night sky; it even had all of the star constellations and the movement of the planets mapped out, and they would change along with the real life ones. The throne that the demon sat on was made of black marble that was polished to perfection and was very basic in its design.

The demon appeared to be in a human-like form, although he could be distinguished from a human if you looked closely. He had long jet black hair which came down to just above his tail bone and skin so pale that it was almost white. The demon had a pair of dark red eyes, with slit pupils. He was clad in black armour; his gauntlets had razor sharp spike that stretched up to the middle of the demons upper arm. The gauntlets gave him long, pointed fingers with extremely sharp nails. The chest plate looked extremely durable and it had a black skull in the middle that had ruby jewels filling the eye sockets. The black spaulders on the demons shoulders had five straight spikes that pointed diagonally downwards.

The demon closed his eyes and slowly tilted his head back to face the ceiling. He slowly opened his eyes and studied it closely; the stars sparkled gently under his gaze. He looked closely at the alignment of Neptune and the moon; soon they would be in aligned with each other. It will happen in a few minutes, the demon thought. I can't help but wonder; who will be chosen?

Suddenly, the doors at the far end of the hall burst open, revealing a lesser demon that had a humanoid form, but was clearly identifiable as a demon. He had dark red scale-like armour with hints of black in the scales and pitch black eyes. The demon knelt before his master, "My lord Aeon, it has begun."

The demon named Aeon smirked and looked down at the lesser demon, "Finally."

Dante's eyes snapped open. He looked around and found that he was no longer in his shop, but in some kind of space area. No matter where he looked, all the hunter could see was dark red. The red space moved in a wavy-like fashion, but did so slowly and in an almost calming way. Instinctively, the devil hunter reached for Ebony & Ivory, but he found that they weren't in his holsters. He also noticed that Rebellion was nowhere to be seen. The half-demon growled and looked around to see if he could figure out what had happened.

"Do not be afraid, son of Sparda," a voice echoed. The red clad hunter whipped his head in various directions to try and see where the voice originated from, studying the red space, but he couldn't see anyone. "I will not harm you." The voice sounded like it belonged to a young woman, although the red clad could not be too sure.

"Who are you?" the red clad asked, trying to remain calm, which was very difficult with the fact that he had no idea where he was, how he got there, who this person was and to top it all off, he had no weapons.

"That, son of Sparda, does not matter at the moment," the voice replied.

"Why?" The red clad inquired. Dante didn't really like the sound of not knowing who he was talking to, especially if he couldn't see them.

"Because, it is not relevant at the present time."

Dante stayed quiet for a few seconds, pondering over the situation he was in. He decided upon the next question he was going to ask, "Where am I?"

The voice chuckled slightly, "Do not fret, son of Sparda, you are still in your office. This is merely your sub-conscious. You are, in a sense, inside a part of your own mind. However, this is not a dream; I am actually speaking to you."

"How do I know it's not a dream?" the hunter asked.

"Have you had a dream like this before?"

The red clad thought for a second; it was true that he'd never had a dream like this before and it did seem too real to be one. Maybe this person was telling the truth. "No, I haven't"

"Then you have your answer," said the voice.

"I have another question; what do you want with me? I doubt contacting people in their sleep is something you do for a living." Dante asked. His cocky attitude seemed to have returned briefly to allow him that remark.

The voice was silent for a moment or two, but then spoke, "What I want is to offer you a chance that shall not be granted to another. What I want, is to offer you the chance to journey to the Crystal Cave, where you shall be given the chance to travel back to a point in time in your past and shall be given an opportunity to change it."

Dante's eyes widened, "What?" he gasped. "That's impossible."

The voice chuckled again, "Wrong, son of Sparda, It is possible. Tell me, have you heard the legend of Chrona's Hourglass? Or, as it is more commonly referred to as, The Devil's Hourglass?"

The hunter searched his mind, trying to remember if he had heard such a tale. Once he was sure that he had no recollection of even hearing about the legend, he replied, "No, never."

"Then I shall tell you the tale." said the voice. "Long ago, at the beginning of time, a young demoness named Chrona was given the task of being the guardian of time, since a demon not much older than a human child would be easy to set on the right path of protecting something so valuable. So she would have to watch over time itself and protect its power with her life if necessary."

"She must have been really young, and to have all of that responsibility... it must have been hard on her at first," said Dante.

"It was merely what was best at the time," the voice explained. "Anyway, because time is an eternal thing, Chrona was blessed with the gift of immortality, so she could govern over time for all eternity. It was shortly after this that Chrona decided to make an hourglass to keep the powers of time in check, so she did and the object held the very essence of time within it. After the hourglass was forged, Chrona hid herself away somewhere in the human world, to escape the greed of demons but in a place that no human could find. Around one million years after this had happened, a demon named Aeon heard the tale and ever since he has wanted the power of Chrona's Hourglass."

There was silence for a few minutes. Dante reflected on what he had just heard; could it be true? Was there really a way to travel back in time?

"Son of Sparda, you and you alone have been given this chance that no other shall receive. You are a man who has truly lost everything that meant the world to him; you have had things cruelly snatched away from you all of your life, and so I must ask you this; will you go back to a point in your life and change history?"

Dante thought for a second; with this chance, he could have his family back and be more normal for once. He could see his mother and brother smile again. He and his twin could grow up and have a much more normal life, instead of being mortal enemies and fighting each other to the death. He could have a real family. "Yes, yes I will take this chance, of course I will!" the red clad exclaimed, having been slightly overjoyed at the fact that he could change the past.

"Then son of Sparda, you must journey to the Crystal cave. Within you shall find Chrona and her hourglass." the voice explained.

"How will I find this cave?" the red clad asked.

The voice was silent for a second or two, "I will not give you the exact details, only that it is located near the highest point in the human world."

The hunter looked down and noticed that his body was beginning to turn transparent and his vision of the wavy, dark red space began to blur; I must be waking up, he thought. "Wait, I have one last question; who are you, really and how do you know all of this?"

There was no reply.

Dante's vision became black.

The red clad half-demon slowly opened his eyes; his mind was a little foggy and unclear at first, and he couldn't think straight. But he soon remembered the dream that he had just had and the conversation that had taken place in it. Dante sat up suddenly and began to think about what the person had told him;

"Yes, yes I will take this chance, of course I will!"

"I can change history…" the red clad muttered, "By finding Chrona's Hourglass?" That's right, he thought, I can get my family back! The hunter stood up and began pacing his office, thinking about where he could possibly find the hourglass. All was silent for a few minutes, save the old, worn floor boards, which creaked under the red clads boots. Dante searched his mind, trying to recall the conversation he'd had in his dream. After a minute or so, he remembered something;

"…son of Sparda, you must journey to the Crystal cave. Within you shall find Chrona and her hourglass."

"How will I find this cave?"

"I will not give you the exact details, only that it is located near the highest point in the human world."

"Near the highest point in the world?" the red clad ran his right hand though his white hair; he never was too good at geography, even though his job often required him to go to foreign countries. "What is the highest point in the world and more importantly, where is it?" Dante muttered to himself. No matter how much he searched his memory, he could not find the answer. The hunter sighed in defeat and sat back down at his desk; there was no way he could change his past using the hourglass if he couldn't find it in the first place. But then he had an idea; sure, Dante didn't know where the highest point in the world was, but he knew someone who probably did; Lady.

The half-demon was about to stand up and rush out of his office to find her, when the thought occurred to him that he hadn't seen her, or any of his friends in fact, in a while and he knew that Trish was most likely saying with Lady and they along with Nero were probably hunting demons without him. But then he considered the fact that they were his friends, they would most likely be willing to help him, even more if they thought that Dante would go back to being his old self.

The red clad finally decided; he would go and pay his friends a visit and ask them for help.

Dante got up from his desk, holstered his twin pistols Ebony & Ivory and sheathed his legendary broadsword Rebellion on his back. He then headed towards the door, but stopped when his gaze was captured by the photo of his mother, Eva that stood in the right corner of the desk. A look of determination appeared on the hunters face as he looked at the other photo next to the one of his mother; it was one of himself, Vergil, Eva and Sparda. He barely remembered the photo being taken since he was only four at the time, but he did recall that it was taken a few months before his father left to seal a gate to the demonic realm. That was a mission that he had never returned from.

Dante looked away from the photo and instead stared at the door. "I promise I'll see all of you soon." He walked away from the photo and headed towards the entrance to the shop. He swung both doors open and stood there. The red clad was greeted by a crimson sunrise that truly set the scene for his departure from Devil May Cry. His coat flapped in the calm breeze and Dante, the younger son of Sparda, stepped out of the door and began his quest for The Devil's Hourglass.

"So... it has begun. The event that time itself, has waited for; the search... for The Devil's Hourglass. This... should be interesting..."

Damn, hardest chapter of my life. Hope you enjoyed it! Oh yeah, this is a new style of writing for me so it's a trial story so please tell me what you think! Thanks for reading. By the way, I have no idea how many chapters there will be, so bare with me here! Please review if you wish and tell me what you think!