Disclaimer: I don't own Devil May Cry: The Animated Series, sure wish I did though…
Warning! This chapter contains subjects that might mentally scar and/or make you guys want to hunt me down with pitchforks and torches, so if that makes you uncomfortable, just skip the majority of this chapter. You have been warned. Chapter title is proof in advertising, simply because of the squick factor, which I will try and make as gross as possible.
Long Live the Queen
It was smell that hit Patty first; it was the now-familiar smell of rotting meat, but with an added sting of sweat, blood, fear, and – strangely enough – vomit. She frowned at that combination and tried not to hope as she stepped into the room and looked around, sighing when she saw the rotted, partially eaten body in the corner, but then her head snapped up when she heard a quiet sob come from the corner of the room opposite the body. She did her best not to feel too hopeful, and she tried not to breathe in the smell too deeply as she turned towards where the sound had come from.
She was right not to feel too hopeful, judging by the condition the girl she'd found was in.
While Patty cautiously made her way towards the girl, she looked her up and down to determine what condition she was in, and what she saw wasn't good.
The lone survivor was a teenage girl with dirty, matted brown hair and terrified wide green eyes, most likely one of the teenagers who had disappeared right before the town had called Devil May Cry, but she looked like she had been down there for upwards of a year instead of barely a week. The girl's clothes – a shredded shirt that looked like it might have belonged to a man at one point and a pair of white ankle socks – were filthy and covered in dried blood, but what made Patty have to bite back the urge to curse was the girl's stomach. It was swollen and distended like someone had shoved a basketball up into her stomach.
The heir to the Lowell legacy moved as slowly and nonthreatening as she could while carrying two guns while she slowly knelt down a few feet away from the traumatized girl and spoke gently, "Hi, my name is Patty, and I'm here to rescue you." She could have slapped herself, saying that wasn't likely to make the other teenager trust her any more than saying she was an angel would. The other girl just wasn't liable to believe it, not after what she had been through.
The girl's head shot up and she locked terrified and horror-stricken eyes on Patty before she began screaming and shrieking, flailing around in such a way that the shocked demon hunter was almost convinced that she was having a seizure.
Patty dove forward and tried to restrain the hysterical girl, shouting to be heard over the survivor's screams as she tried to calm the other girl down, "Stop! It's alright! It is going to be okay! I'm here to help you, so stop fucking screaming already!" Okay, maybe she shouldn't have said that last part, but her ears were starting to hurt from all the screaming the traumatized girl was doing in her ear and all the racket had likely attracted all the demons remaining in the basement, if not the entire building. However, her unexpected cursing did serve to stun the flailing girl into silence, and she sighed under her breath in relief as she sat back on her heels.
The filthy girl sniffled, tears and snot running messily down what might have once been a pretty face under all the grime, and stammered, "N-no! You're one of them! You're here to hurt me again! To torture me! Get away, leave me alone!" The last part was said on the end of another scream, and Patty winced as her eardrums protested the treatment they were being given.
Patty shushed the girl and made her voice as soothing as possible as she told the victim – because that was what the poor girl was, a victim, "No, no, I'm not a demon. In fact, I'm here because the town hired me to come in here, kill all the demons, rescue any survivors that I find, and then blow this place sky-high." She bit her lip when she mentioned the town hiring her, but given the condition the girl was in, a little white lie wouldn't hurt.
Another sniffle and the girl stuttered out, "R-really?" there was a large amount of doubt in her voice, but given what the girl had been through Patty couldn't really blame her.
Patty nodded encouragingly but before she could say anything else, she heard the unmistakable sound of a demon forming out of the dust on the floor, and seconds later the girl in front of her began screaming bloody murder.
After that it pretty much went to Hell in a hand-basket.
The demon, she thought it looked like a Hell Pride, howled in an odd harmony with the shrieking coming from the girl behind her and raised its' scythe, but Patty was just a little bit faster in raising her guns and pulling the triggers. The rounds thudded into the demon's body and the thing was forced back, Patty taking several steps forward to keep the demon at bay as she tried to get a shot at the demon's head. The demon hunter tuned out the sound of the girl shrieking behind her and just focused on keeping the poor girl safe from the demon.
She had to jump back to dodge the scythe swing when the Hell Pride spun around to attack, and though the demon was clearly weakened it wasn't down for the count just yet. She jumped straight up to dodge the scythe's reversed swing and she landed briefly on the passing blade before using it as a spring board to jump over the demon's head, pointing a gun straight down and firing into the top of the demon's skull as she flipped over the Hell Pride. She landed in a crouch on the ground and then stood up as the demon crumbled into dust behind her, and she swiftly replaced the empty clips in her guns with full ones, just in case another demon decided to take a shot at her.
As it turned out, another demon did want to have a go at her, only this time it was a Hell Lust and it didn't give her a warning that it was attacking like the last one. She just barely managed to dodge the demon's charge and unfortunately the shot she fired hit the demon in the leg instead of the torso she'd been aiming for.
The demon roared, clearly ticked that it had been injured, and it charged again, this time swinging its' scythe and forcing her to go on the defensive. She jumped backward and fired several more shots, this time hitting her target and the demon stumbled back as the bullets pounded into the Hell Lust's torso. She smirked in satisfaction as she got her feet back on the ground and she blew a loose strand of hair out of her eyes, firing a single round into the demon's head before it could recover. It obligingly collapsed into a pile of dust, and Patty stood in the middle of the cell for several more minutes in case more demons appeared.
Thankfully those two seemed to be the only ones willing to try their luck, or so she thought.
She was forced to jump backwards again to avoid the scythe that came out of nowhere, and instead of getting sliced in two she merely got a torn shirt. She grimaced in disgust when her foot landed on one of the exposed bones of the corpse in the cell, crushing it under her heel, and her blue eyes flashed angrily as she hissed out, "Oh, you are so going down, you son of a bitch!" She raised her guns at the same time the demon bellowed in challenge. Time seemed to pause, the shrieking from the girl in the corner echoing strangely, before the demon and the demon hunter moved, almost at the same time.
Patty cartwheeled sharply to the right, firing several bullets into the demon's chest and stomach as she dodged its' initial charge. She landed upright and was almost immediately moving again, running and sometimes jumping to avoid the demon's attacks. Thankfully, this one seemed to favor lunging, and so she had plenty of warning for when it was about to attack. Unfortunately, the thing was fast enough that she had to settle for taking potshots at it in between avoiding its' scythe and jumping out of the way of its' charges. The game of cat-and-mouse continued for almost ten minutes, a lot longer than Patty was comfortable with, but luckily it seemed the shots she had been taking were beginning to have an effect. The demon was slowing down, and while it was trying to recover from another failed swing, she made her move.
The seventeen year-old got alongside the demon and fired a round point blank into its' head. It silently crumbled into dust as she stepped away and looked around, tensing up in case another demon appeared. Her eyes darted around, restlessly scanning the shadows of the cell for any movement, and when she didn't see any she slowly made her way back towards the traumatized girl in the corner. Her guns were held at the ready, just in case, but she was forced to holster them when she made it to the corner that the surviving teenager had crammed herself into.
Patty knelt down in front of the girl again and asked gently, trying to calm the shaking girl down a little, if that was even possible, "What's your name, sweetie?" She tried to give off an aura of confidence with just a dash of 'it's all going to be okay, trust me,' but she privately thought that Dante was a lot better at that sort of thing.
The girl sniffled, shaking so much it looked like she would come apart at the slightest touch, and replied, her voice barely audible it was so quiet, "M-m-iranda…" Miranda sniffled again, tears carving visible trails through the dirt and grime on her face.
Patty nodded encouragingly and was just opening her mouth to speak and hopefully convince the other girl to get up and follow her out of the house when Miranda suddenly screamed again, a high, piercing sound of pain that seemed even louder in the stone cell. The demon-hunter immediately tensed up and looked around quickly, searching quickly for whatever had made the poor girl scream again, her hands flying to grab hold of her guns, but after a quick, thorough look around, she didn't see anything remotely frightening except for the grisly, half-eaten corpse.
While the cadaver was scary in its' own right, Patty quickly disregarded that as the cause of Miranda's sudden scream. She turned back to look at the other girl, about to ask why the poor girl had cried out, only to shut her mouth with a soft 'click'. Well, she had her answer, Patty distantly thought, just as Miranda let loose another shriek of pain, causing the heir to the Lowell legacy to cringe.
The skin over Miranda's belly stretched and flexed grotesquely, like something was moving inside of her, and that movement was visible even through the filthy t-shirt the girl was still wearing. The girl in question sobbed, tears falling in renewed rivers from her eyes, and clear snot dribbled from her nose and down across her lips, which Miranda appeared to be struggling to keep closed.
Patty admired the courage it took Miranda to do that, even as she began panicking in the back of her mind. Outwardly however, she appeared composed as she knelt down next to Miranda again and gently touched the other girl's painfully thin shoulder, saying as she did so, "Hey, it's all going to be okay, just try and keep calm. I have an idea of what's going on, so you need to do exactly as I say, alright?" She swallowed, resisting the urge to throw up as Miranda nodded with a look of hope in her eyes.
Feeling ill as the dots connected themselves in her head, Patty moved so that she was kneeling between Miranda's outstretched legs, slowly and hesitantly lifting the edge of the girl's threadbare shirt, basically making things up as she went along. She only hoped that all those hospital shows had had some idea of what they were talking about, because they were the only reference point she had on how to help deliver a baby, let alone a demonic baby.
The next half hour passed in a blur of blood, sweat, tears, and exercises in self-control on Patty's part as she repeatedly had to swallow back the bile that tried to rise in her throat and escape her mouth. After Miranda was fully dilated (and Patty resisted the urge to puke once again) she began gently talking to the other girl, repeating what the doctors on the aforementioned TV shows always said when a pregnant woman started to give birth, "Okay, now when I say 'push', you push, alright? I think that the baby is ready to come out now…" She cringed at the uncertainty in her own voice, but Miranda was in too much pain to notice, which was a mixed blessing.
Patty knew that giving birth was supposed to hurt, but after another hour passed and Miranda stopped trying to hold back her tortured screams, she knew that there was no way she wanted to do it herself anytime soon.
A gush of blood and other fluids that she did not want to think about poured over her outstretched hands (she had taken her gloves off when the labor had started, thinking that skin on skin contact would help keep the other girl calm), and the crown of the baby's head began to emerge.
She was just grateful that the baby wasn't backwards or sideways or something even worse than that. She continued talking soothingly to Miranda, making up half the things she said as she went along, and she exerted sheer force of will to ignore her own discomfort and concentrate only on making sure that the poor teenager in front of her survived the labor and the birth.
The baby's head popped out, followed by the rest of its' body in a rush of fluid, followed by something that Patty was reasonably sure was the afterbirth…She quickly caught the child before it could hit the floor, cradling it uncertainly as she looked back at Miranda, only to see the other girl slump backwards like a puppet whose strings had just been cut. The demon hunter quickly shifted until she was crouching at the girl's side and using one hand to check the poor girl's pulse and vital signs. To her relief, Miranda was alive, though her pulse was rather weak, and she sighed quietly, turning back to the baby that she was still holding and that now was as good a time as any to check something.
All things considered and given the dubious lineage of its father, the baby looked shockingly normal, although it already had a tuft of thick black hair on its' head, and its' eyes were already clear and open, revealing their shocking bright purple coloration…and she would have to start calling the child a 'he', she discovered as she quickly peeked between the baby's legs, blushing slightly as she did so.
Miranda groaned, quickly attracting the heir to the Lowell legacy's attention, and Patty hurried to reassure the stirring girl, "Hey, welcome back, Miranda. You're going to be okay, so just take it easy, alright?" She adjusted the baby's position slightly, holding him a bit closer to her stomach as she check Miranda's pulse again, happy to find that it was stronger than it had been before.
The other girl blinked dazedly, murmuring softly as she asked, "Wha-what happened?"
Patty smiled as reassuringly as she could, even though she was beginning to notice the smell once again and the urge to throw up was returning, "Congratulations, it's a boy. Would you like to see him?"
Evidently that was the wrong thing to say, and it was like a switch had been flipped as Miranda began screaming and crying again as she scrambled away from Patty, who had been beginning to hold out the baby to the other girl.
Patty blinked and was left gaping in shock as Miranda screamed at her to "get that monster away from her!"
In a feat of surprising strength, Miranda managed to push herself to her feet and begin to stumble towards the still open door, trying to get away from her baby.
Patty quickly snapped out of it and stood up, following after the other teenager and calling out, "Wait! It's not safe out there! At least let me go with you to the stairs, so I'll be able to be sure that you made it out!"
Miranda made it to the door and shouted, her voice more than a little hysterical, "I don't care! I don't to see that-that thing anywhere near me!" She lurched out the door and Patty heard the sound of her running back towards where the stairs were.
A few minutes passed as Patty registered what had happened, and she slowly looked down at the baby, who was looking up at her with a rather disturbing look in his eyes, like he understood what had just happened and knew that his mother had abandoned him.
The seventeen year-old swallowed nervously as she tried to decide what to do, since she couldn't very well leave the kid there. First thing's first, she told herself, get something to wrap the kid in so he doesn't get cold. For want of anything better, she tore off the part of her shirt below the cut that the demon's scythe had made in it, winding up with both an impromptu baby blanket and a belly shirt.
She wrapped the boy in the improvised blanket, making sure that his face wasn't covered up and that his feet were, she muttered to him, "Well, looks like you're coming with me, kiddo…" She held him with one arm, tucking him close to her chest as she walked out into the hallway, tugging on her gloves as she did so. Once her gloves covered her hands, she used her free hand to draw and hold one of her guns while the other supported the baby.
Patty decided that she would have to think up a name for the kid later, after the whole mess was sorted out.
With a sigh, she turned and started walking down the hallway, eyes open for any signs of demons or other survivors. Whoever the big bad in charge of the other demons was, he/she/it had seriously ticked her off.
Author's Note: For those of you who might be wondering (you know who you are), the reason I call Patty the heir to the Lowell legacy is because she is, just not the Lowell's who the other Patty from the first episode is related to. The reason I explained is that someone reviewed my other DMC fic 'Movie Night' and asked that question, but they didn't sign the review so I couldn't answer them. Anyway, Patty will get back to kicking demon butt in the next chapter, so I hope you'll be patient with me!
I'm sorry for the long wait between chapters, but I've been swamped with plot bunnies and the muse for this story is all but dried up, only to be revived by watching the DMC anime again. Never fear, I shall finish this story, it just might take awhile. Thank you for being patient, and please R&R to tell me what you think!
