DEVIL MAY CRY: BIRTHDAY BASH

Chapter 2: Blast from the Past

Patty leaned back and opened her eyes, expecting to see and smell the smoke from the extinguished birthday candles. Instead, it was dark all around her, which made her heart skip a beat. She blinked a few times and then cleared her throat.

"Okay, you can put the lights back on, the jokes over," Patty said, trying not to sound as scared as she suddenly felt. Something was very wrong. It was colder, and some part of her mind felt that the space around her, although shrouded in darkness, was somehow larger than Dante's office. She carefully reached out with her hands to find the pool table that should be in front of her, but her hands just passed through empty air. Pulling them back after several failed attempts, she let them fall to her side and frowned.

"Dante? Mom? What's going on?" she called out. This time she noticed that her voice seemed to echo slightly. Where was she? She knelt down and cautiously touched the ground. It felt like smooth, glossy tiles. Definitely not Dante's office then. Weird. Not scary though, no. At least, that's what she told herself to try and stay calm.

As Patty stood upright, she heard footsteps, very faint but growing closer. She turned in the direction of the sound, her eyes going wide even though they could see nothing whatsoever. She thought about calling out again, to ask who was there, but her voice had deserted her.

Suddenly something stumbled into her, knocking her over. Patty fell hard, but the wince of pain was lost to her loud screaming as whatever it was fell on top of her. As she screamed, she was vaguely aware of someone else screaming as well, and then the darkness vanished in a blinding flare of bright light. When her eyes adjusted, she found herself looking into the face of a young boy who he seemed every bit as shocked as she did. They stopped screaming at the same time and stared at each other.

The boy was about the same size as her, maybe a bit shorter and younger, though not by much. His eyes were bright blue and his messy mop of hair was unmistakably white, an all-too familiar combination. His mouth closed and his cheeks suddenly turned bright red as he realised he was lying on top of a girl. Neither of them said anything for a long moment, too stunned to speak, and when words finally entered her ears it came from somewhere else in the room, the voice of another young boy.

"Dante, why were you screaming? What are ..." the voice trailed off. The boy glanced around for a split second and when his head turned back, Patty was even more shocked than she had been, something she hadn't thought possible a moment ago.

"D-Dante? Your name is Dante?"

The boy pushed himself upright and stood, brushing himself off and trying to regain his composure. "Yeah, that's my name, don't wear it out," he said, still blushing. "Who are you? And how did you get into my house?"

Patty got herself to her feet, winced from her sore back and shoulder blades where she had hit the ground, and looked around. The light was coming from a pair of electric chandeliers hanging from the ceiling, and revealed a huge stately gothic hall, like something out of a mansion. A huge flight of stairs dominated the centre of the hall, leading up to a second floor lined with large windows that were mostly covered by decorative curtains. Her questing gaze found the boy again.

"Your house? You live here?"

"Umm, yeah."

Patty noticed movement, and spotted the source of the voice that had spoken earlier. It belonged to another boy, identical in every way to the one named Dante save for the fact that he wore a blue shirt, whilst Dante wore a red one. It was the only way she could tell them apart. Twins? He stopped next to Dante, looking back and forth between the two of them, and then leaned his head close to Dante's and whispered; "Seriously, Dante, what's going on?"

"I don't know, I just bumped into her in the dark."

Patty remembered the footsteps in the dark and the terrible fright he had given her, and her confusion took a back seat for a moment. "Yeah, what exactly were you doing creeping around a room with the lights out?" she asked, folding her arms, "That's really not safe."

Dante frowned. "I was playing hide and seek with my brother. Now who are you?"

"You have a brother?" Patty shook her head, trying to get things straight. "Wait, are you really the Dante I know? You cant be, but you do look like him. You're just a bit young."

"Uhh, Vergil, she's not really making any sense."

"Tell me about it."

Patty pointed at Vergil. "Seriously, you have a twin brother? Why didn't you ever tell me that?"

Vergil gave his brother a shrewd look. "So you do know her then?"

"No!" said Dante, "I've never met her before in my life."

"Yeah, so you say, but when I find you the pair of you are making out in the dark-"

"We weren't making out!" Both Patty and Dante protested at the same time.

"That's like, totally gross!" Patty added.

"Yeah, exactly," Dante said, nodding. Patty glared at him.

"Wait, why? Is there something wrong with me?" she demanded. Dante blinked, taken aback.

"What? But you just said-"

"I know what I said, but that was because of a reason I know about and you don't. You said it would be gross to make out with me, and I want to know why! Are you saying that I'm gross?"

Dante gaped at her. He tried to answer, but only vague noises came from his throat that weren't very coherent. Vergil suddenly laughed and clapped Dante on the shoulder, wiping one of his eyes with a finger.

"Oh, you guys crack me up," He straightened up and faced Patty directly. "Okay miss-whatever your name is, do you know my brother or don't you? And who are you?"

Patty faced him down, unflinching. "I don't know if I know you or not, that depends entirely on whether or not you are who I think you are."

Vergil had to think about that for a moment. "Well, are we?"

"I don't know. Umm, let me think ... oh! Your mother!"

"What about her?"

"Her name - is it Eva?"

Dante and Vergil exchanged a glance and then looked back at her, frowning. "Yes."

"Okay, so maybe you are who I think. The date, what's the date? I mean the year?"

"It's 1984," said Vergil, "How hard did you hit your head when Dante knocked you over?"

"Maybe she's a time traveller," suggested Dante.

He's right, she thought, I am. If it really is 1984 then that is Dante, and I have gone back over twenty years into the past. Wow. How did that happen? She groaned, suddenly remembering what she had been doing just before everything changed; she'd been making a wish. Somehow, that wish had done this. It was ridiculous, but it was the only thing she could think of. It had to be some kind of magic.

"Good point," said Vergil, smirking now, "Maybe she's your daughter from the future, and that's why she thought it was gross to be making out with you."

Dante's eyes went wide. "You're not, are you?"

"Don't be silly," she said. Inside her head, all sorts of thoughts and feelings were whirling around, throwing her into turmoil. She couldn't let them know that she was from the future; she couldn't risk changing things. Dante had - no, would - save the world many times, and if she did something to mess that up then she might get back to her own time only to find it overrun by demons. Still, a chance to meet Dante as a child was too cool to pass up. And he had a twin brother! Where was Vergil in her time? And wasn't Dante so cute!

Vergil was laughing, and she realised that she had been staring at Dante, who was blushing again. Worse than that ...

"Oh god, did I just say you were cute out loud?"

Dante nodded, Vergil continued to snigger and Patty suddenly felt very warm. She turned away from them and brushed a strand of hair behind her ear. "My name is ... Skuld."

"Funny name," said Vergil.

"Look who's talking," said Dante.

"I was named for a mythical goddess," said Patty, feeling a sudden urge to impress them. "One of the Norns - three beings who controlled fate. She was also leader of the Valkyrie." Just thank heavens neither of them have ever watched Ah My Goddess, she thought.

"Cool," said Dante. "We were named after some boring old guys."

"Poets, Dante," said Vergil.

"Uh-huh."

Patty whirled around, drinking in once again the sight of such a grand hall. "This place looks huge. How come you live somewhere like this?"

"Our dad is loaded," said Vergil.

Sparda! "Your dad is here?"

Both boys suddenly became uncomfortable, and she felt she had hit a nerve. Dante had lost his parents, hadn't he? She gave herself a mental kick.

"He's missing."

"I'm sorry."

"Not your fault. So, what now?"

Patty thought fast. She clasped her hands together and looked up at the ceiling. "Oh. Well I come from a family of sorcerers, and I guess I was playing with things I shouldn't have been. I think I've been teleported here by accident."

"Why here though?" asked Vergil, somewhat sceptical. Patty glanced at him. He was cute too, she realised. Bit of a stupid realisation, seeing as he was Dante's identical twin brother. She tried not to stare.

"Not sure. Umm. Fate maybe?"

"She could be a demon," Dante whispered to his brother.

"She can hear you, you know," Patty scowled. "And talk about the pot calling the kettle black."

"What?" Both twins said at the same time.

"Nothing," she said innocently. Did they know they were demons? Now that she thought about it, Patty didn't actually know very much about Dante. She knew he was a lazy slob that had a very unhealthy diet. She knew he had lost his parents just as she had, and Trish had told her that his mother's name had been Eva. Unlike her however, Dante had never been reunited with his mother. The Dante in her time rarely, if ever, spoke about himself or his past. Well now was her chance to find out more. Time for a bit of reverse psychology ...

"Well I'm sorry for dropping in on you like this," she said sweetly, "I can see you're very ... umm, busy. I'll just be getting back-"

"Wait!" Dante took a step towards her.

"Yes?"

He glanced back at Vergil and then stuffed his hands in his pockets. "Maybe you could stick around here. For a while at least. What do you say, Verge?"

Vergil shrugged, though his face suggested that he clearly agreed with his brother. "Sure, we could use the company."

"Well ..." Patty looked doubtful, though in truth she was jumping for joy inside.

"C'mon. You hungry?" Dante asked her. She thought about all the party food that had been laid out for her ... and the fact that she hadn't gotten around to touching any of it. Her stomach growled and she recalled that she'd avoided eating anything before because she knew about her surprise party and had wanted to leave room to stuff her face. Food sounded like a good idea.

"Sure, why not." She followed him towards a large double-oak door at the edge of the hall, with Vergil bringing up the rear, smirking. "Oh, by the way, Dante?"

"Yeah?"

"You scream like a girl."