Title: Dust and Memories
Characters:
Dante, Tess (OC).
Word Count:
2.896
Summary:
Dante and Tess happen upon the scene of their very first meeting: The apartment building from their teenage years and spontaneously, some memories come up.
Warnings:
Some mild language.
Disclaimer:
Devil May Cry and all related characters belong to Capcom. Tess Templar belongs to me.


"I am starting to hate lizards!" Tess said emphatically as another Assault leapt at her. The redhead swept her arm in front of her, releasing an arc of fire. The whip streaked out and struck the demon reptile right in the chest, sending it careening backwards through the air and right into two of its brethren surrounding them.

Dante scoffed slightly as he burst forward towards an approaching Assault. Easy as cake; step attack, stinger and CRACK! The Assault's shield broke under the impact of Dante's attack, blasting it backwards from the force. SHUNK! The Rebellion found its mark in the demon's gullet. Dante gripped the handle and swung the blade around, releasing the gutted demon into another Assault that had jumped at him from behind.

Dante smirked at his handiwork then looked over at Tess. The frustrated witch was beating an Assault by using a burst of flame to launch it into the air, then a whip of flame to yank it down and slam it to the ground. Even in the middle of battle he couldn't help his witty comments: "Aww come on Twig, you know you want one as a pet."

"Pu~lease! I've got a cat already! Everything else comes in second!" she replied. She launched a cheeky Assault backwards with a kick to the face. Her steel-lined boot heel made a hollow sound as it connected to the reptile's headgear before an eruption of fire shot out of the ground and juggled the shrieking Assault in midair, slowly cremating it alive.

The same pillar of fire knocked several Assaults away from her, screeching from the intense heat. With her trademark finesse she whipped around and used an explosive burst of fire to shatter the shields and headgear of two more Assaults, knocking them off their swift feet. The lizard demons may be hardy and resistant, but pitted against explosive, almost white-hot fire, they didn't last.

Dante turned Rebellion tip down into the ground and leaned on it with his arm resting on the cross-guard, giving Tess a faked sulk of disappointment.

"What's that supposed to mean Twig? Are you trying to say that I come in second—to a cat?" he jested.

He ignored the demons around him as they attacked. All it took was a twitch—such as a duck of the head or tilt of the shoulder—to avoid their attacks and let their momentum carry them over and away from him. And then there were the ones that were a bit more persistent and ground-loving, the ones he wanted to have a little fun with. All it took was a quick draw and a few blasts from Ivory to put them out of their misery.

Tess stopped and turned around to face him, hands on her waist. She too ignored the demons for a moment—after, of course, roasting the ones directly around her with a plume of fire and the distinct sound and stench of charred flesh and scales.

"You're inferior to my cat. After all he can do the dishes—among other things." Tess returned his gaze with a playful smirk. "Am I detecting jealousy towards my cat?"

"Hmph. That so?"

Dante grabbed Rebellion from the ground again and cut through an Assault that moved in between them. He walked up to her with an indignant expression.

"Well, there are some things that your cat just can't do for you," he said, voice laced with innuendo.

She chuckled and unfazed by the comment, poked his chest with her finger. "I know, that's why I've got you to do all the heavy lifting," she said sweetly, then caused an explosion of fire right onto an Assault trying to sneak up behind Dante, blowing a hole into its chest as it flew backwards, while Dante just turned a sour face at her.

"You know, it's almost too easy to tease you. No wonder everyone thinks I'm your girlfriend-" she said, then paused, just to dissolve into giggles. "Oh man...I just remembered...that Goatling...remember that?"

Dante choked up a laugh. How could he ever forget that? When they were teens, a Goatling made the error of calling her his girlfriend, which ticked both of them off. No matter how one looked at it, it had been impossibly funny.

"Haha, yeah I remember that," he chuckled and then smirked teasingly. "But you know Twig, maybe they got a point, don't they?" he said, turning his gun at an Assault and shooting it in the face. He was almost at point-blank range, giving it a mouthful of bullets.

She returned the smirk with a sarcastic look. "Yeah, yeah, you and your wishful thinking," she said. She turned to the side and kicked an Assault right in the face, then used a lash of fire to bounce it right back at her.

"Always trying...to get in my pants!" she added, bringing her heel down on the exposed demon's head, smothering its face on the ground before setting it on fire.

Dante just continued to smile as the demon she burned shrieked in pain and the foul smell of burning scales and skin permeated the air. "Well, you can't blame me!"

He then turned to face a wave of Assaults charging at him and smirked. He dropped into a stance with his knees bent and after charging Rebellion with his demonic energy, swept his arm in front of him and sliced through several of them with a wave of energy. Then he took out Ebony and Ivory started firing off a barrage of bullets into remaining enemies that lunged at him.

Overall it was an easy battle for the two of them. Either of them could have taken the mob on by themselves—except the numbers might have been more overwhelming for Tess had she been alone, which was exactly why she'd called Dante for help. When the last Assault was felled, Tess breathed out, content, and dusted down her skirt and shirt.

"That wasn't so bad," she said as she combed some hair off her face. She cast her eyes about the former battlefield; moving around so much and chasing down the last of the agile demons made her lose her bearings a little. Where were they now? She noticed a familiar park gate. "Hmm? Oh this is familiar..."

Dante looked over at the park gates, realizing what she was talking about, "What? Hey, wait isn't that..."

Tess' eyes lit up. "It is! We're back in the old neighborhood! It's the park—we fought Chernobog in here."

He chuckled. "Yeah, I remember; two rookies up against Big Bad Frostie."

"And then you nearly drowned, Dante" she said matter-of-factly.

"I know. Some scrawny little red head risked her life to save me," he replied with the same tone.

"And she caught a hell of a nasty little cold for her troubles," she chuckled and then looked down the street. "I wonder what's left of the old building..."

Dante's smirk faded, "Not much, I'd think..."

He wasn't sure how to talk about that subject around her. He'd never gone to see the old building in all his time living in the city. Halfway he'd avoided facing the site where he'd experienced something very close to his mother's murder, halfway he thought he could do without the inevitable sadness seeing it would've brought. The fact was that they had shared great times together there, back in their youth, but those fond memories were marred by the horrible incident that had happened there and resulted in her vanishing for ten years. He wasn't sure if she was ready to face the site of her grandmother's slaughter, where a demon had very nearly gobbled her up too—or worse. Hell, he wasn't sure if he wanted to go back there himself.

But Tess had other ideas. "Let's go take a look. I'm pretty sure that after ten years, I can look at that place and not think of nightmares," she said, tugging him by the sleeve.

He smiled with some relief and walked along with her. "Hey, if you end up with nightmares you can always run to my bed for comfort."

She gave him a quick smirk and elbowed him softly before shaking her head. They continued down the street, which looked all the more familiar as they went. She paused for a moment when they passed in front of the small store that had been the scene of their first joint demon encounter: One of the Madmen, as they had dubbed those poor humans, whose innate mental problems had been warped by the Underworld into something beyond psychology's comprehension. The result had been a veritable slaughterhouse they were too late to prevent. She still shrugged at the memory of the gruesome sight, the whole place soiled with blood and body parts of innocent victims. Now the store was nothing more than an empty space, weathered and worn down by time, with a 'For Sale' sign taped on the door. And it looked like it'd been there for quite a long time already.

Dante eyed it and then huffed. "Yeah, like they could ever sell that place. They're probably still telling horror stories about it."

"No kidding. I wonder if they're still talking about the asylum too," she said. She shrugged as they continued walking down the street. "I haven't thought of going to look, but Roy told me there's still a crater up there."

"Oh, you bet. After you left, the city chumps said it was an arson job that turned into a gas explosion. Like anybody'd believe that. I even had a crackjob in my office once, asking me to check it out. He said it was done by aliens. Aliens!" Dante said. He brought his arm up in amusement and Tess laughed.

Then he smugly draped his arm over Tess' shoulder as they walked down the street. "You know, it's funny, thinking about it. Those places are now haunting grounds for teenagers playing dares, trying to prove they got guts, hoping it'll net them chicks. If only they knew, huh?"

She scoffed and shook her head at the absurdity of the idea. "Boys will be boys..." she sighed, but she didn't brush his arm off her shoulders.

They finally reached the building, pausing right in front of it to see its condition. It was in much more derelict condition than Dante thought it would be. The demonic attack it had endured had left it badly damaged, for sure, but time had done worse. Very few windows had glass or shutters anymore and any sense of a door was simply nonexistent. The door-frame had warped and buckled a little. The crumbling facade was covered with graffiti and advertisement posters pasted over each other, while garbage was piled near the steps leading to the door. It looked almost foreign to them both. Foreign, but familiar like a friendly face.

"Wow...not much left, is there?" she said, looking up at it thoughtfully.

"Don't look like it. Pitiful. To think this was your home...well, mine too for a short time," he said, shrugging. "Hell, first place that ever felt like home in years."

She smiled a bit and looked at him. "Really? It did?"

Realizing he let his guard down, he quickly tried to recant the fact. "Well...you know...Ah shut up, Twig," he said, looking away, annoyed.

She just giggled and covered her mouth with her hand. "To be honest...you made the place feel more like home to me too."

Then she boldly took a step up the stairs to the gaping door-frame. "Let's have a look inside..."

He smiled. "After you babe," he said and let her step ahead, then feeling a bit teasing, he added: "Hey, I wonder if your old dresser is still upstairs," he said meaningfully. Grinning, he jabbed her side teasingly. "Then again, I already have to live with one curse because of that."

She started laughing at the memory. "Yes, you were begging for that one to happen," she scoffed and then stepped inside the ruined lobby that bore very little memory of its former, welcoming self. Half the ceiling was gone, caved in and opening a hole to the floor above. The doorway to what had been the kitchen and lounge room was blocked by large chunks of debris. The stairway looked rather intact, the carpet covering it burnt and now almost black from stain. The small office across the door, that had been Roy's station, was strewn with fallen plaster, bricks and other materials from the walls. The exposed walls were now thick with dirt and a bit moldy with moisture. The smell of mildew filled the air.

Tess eyed the corner under the staircase, between the foreman's desk and the stair's curve, and Dante followed her gaze. That's where the two of them had huddled after the demon invasion tided over, until the shock of the brutal attack and her grandmother's murder had passed enough for her to manage. He noticed her shuddered, likely from remembering that moment. Back then she'd been surprised and moved that he'd been so unusually kind and stayed to comfort her.

"Certainly is worse for wear," Dante said as he looked away from there and over the place.

He looked at Tess to see how she fared, whether she was really able to endure seeing the building again. He was half-expecting her second sight to kick in and give her a fit.

Tess looked uneasy and folded her arms as though she felt cold, but seemed alright for the time being. She saw him looking at her. "Don't worry. Whatever remnants of demons or memories were here are long gone. What's left isn't strong enough to trigger something. This place is just dust and memories now. It can't hurt anyone," she said softly.

She looked at the doorway that had led into her grandmother's private quarters. Just from the little she could see through a half-open, rotting door, she could tell it was in shambles. She hesitated and Dante knew didn't want to go in there.

"And...Grams is likely still in the back yard," she said absently. "Right where Roy buried her. May she rest in peace at last."

She shrugged a little at that thought, gulping at the memory of finding Magda's body. "Was it...really as horrible as I remember?" she asked him.

Frankly, Twig? It was worse. Hell, even I don't wanna remember that, he thought, holding back a frown at the memory of the butchered top half of the old witch's corpse, hanging from a noose, while the other half was strewn on the floor in a pool of blood, with guts hanging from her torso.

Despite himself, just as he had been so long ago, he reached over and put his hand on her shoulder. "Let's not dredge up that particular subject, Twig."

She smiled a little, somewhat sadly. "Yeah..." she muttered, then looked around. "Hey...remember before we went to beat the daylights out of Chax? I don't think I've ever been so scared."

He smirked, glad she changed the subject. "Yeah, so scared, you couldn't let go of me," he said with teasing suggestiveness.

She scoffed. "Oh that's precious," she snarked. "But it's true. You stayed. You didn't let me sink into helplessness. And you cheered me up..." she said and then motioned to leave through the door—exactly like she had back then.

Dante reached out and took hold of her arm, like back then, bringing her back to him. He shamelessly smirked as he pulled her close and leaned in to kiss her.

She had half-expected him to do that, a little deja-vu of the past, and then she raised her hand and pressed her finger on his lips, stopping him with a small smile.

"Haha, you sly man," she chuckled. "The same tricks don't work now, I'm not an impressionable little girl anymore."

He scoffed. "Aw, is that what I get for attempting some reminiscence?"

She giggled and gave him a small peck on the cheek and then pushed back and slipped away from him with a smirk.

He feigned offence, smirking and poked her a bit. "Fine, be that way."

She chuckled and hugged him. "I live in the present, Dante. Just the fact that we can still get together and go beat up demons like we used to is meaningful to me by itself, it doesn't need extras."

He smirked, a little taken aback from the sudden hug, but didn't question it, just put his arm around her shoulders in a similar gesture. "Well, maybe I just like to tease you."

"You always have," she chuckled, letting him go. "So...how about we call this a day, go get your payment and then go for a pizza?"

Dante smiled. In all honesty, Tess knew how to get on his good side without pretenses. She really did enjoy his company and appreciated his wit-especially when she could pit her own against his. Before he left the derelict lobby after her, he cast one last glance at it and agreed with her: This place was nothing but dust and memories now, some good, some bad, but all entirely harmless. This place had been a home to them both, but now it held nothing over them. He bid his last farewell to it and followed her outside.


NOTE: After the end of Frail Equilibrium, some readers expressed curiosity as to what happened to the old building and whether either of the characters were ever going to return to it for one reason or another.

That got me thinking and this story piped up. I didn't want something dramatic, like memories of old, haunting that building and making it unpleasant to visit. Most of what occurred within its walls in the story were fun to write and fun to read. Readers have often told me they enjoyed the simplicity of the fact, the characters trying to get along in that old house. So I wanted this story to translate that; the sense that despite it being the site of an unspeakable horror, it still mostly kept its benign appeal to the characters, particularly because I am of the belief that of all material possessions, people bond with places they call home the most.