Thank you all for the reviews! I didn't think anyone was reading this story anymore! Thank you!
Alright this story is going to start picking up now. I feel that the introduction of Hezen, Pena, and Dante are almost done, so now things can move along with the villain and the main part of this story; Dante learning to deal with his human/demon side in a strange way. This is going well.
Enjoy!
In the nine hours of waiting for Hezen to get off of her shift, Dante had fallen asleep in the cafeteria. His arms were folded on the top of the table, and his head was resting on his crossed arms to create a pillow. As he slept away with the sound of rain behind him, Hezen walked over to his side and gently shook him.
"Hey Dante," she said. "It's time Dante."
Dante's eyes flickered open to see Hezen standing beside him with a usual large smile across her face. He sat up with a yawn and stretched his arms out over his head that came with a small crack.
"Have you been waiting here this whole time?" Hezen asked. "You could have left ya know."
"Yeah I know but…" Dante paused as another yawn came. "I just felt like comin' back here."
"Well come on then, my shift's over now." Hezen moved her head towards the hallway that led out of the hospital.
Dante perked. "I got your," he looked towards the bag of nachos to see that the grease had seeped through onto the table, "well…I had your nachos."
Hezen moved her right hand towards the exit. "Come on, I want to get home before I even look at food."
"Whatever." Dante shrugged.
xXx
Dante and Hezen walked out of the hospital and into the dark parking lot where Hezen had parked the car earlier. They passed street lights in silence as Hezen searched through her pockets for her keys. After a walk of nothing but silence, the two found themselves standing in front of the car.
"Gonna open it?" Dante asked as he looked at Hezen.
"I'm looking for the keys!" she hissed. Her fingers moved around in her pockets but she couldn't find the keys. "Dammit, don't tell me I left them in the hospital. What the hell is wrong with me?"
"You want me to go back inside?" Dante turned his body back towards the hospital.
Hezen shook her head. "I'll go. It's my fault."
Dante sighed. "Let me go."
"You want to leave me out here in this dark parking lot?" Hezen snapped as she threw a glare Dante's way.
"Oh but you want me to stay out here all by myself?" Dante said with a sarcastic grin.
Hezen twitched. She wasn't expecting that. "Fine," she turned towards the hospital, "let's hurry up. I'm hungry."
"I've got nachos!" Dante held up the wet brown bag.
"You're such a smart ass." Hezen rolled her eyes.
Together, Dante and Hezen began walking back to the hospital doors. It fell silent between them once more; Dante was too busy looking around the area to start or carry on a conversation with Hezen at the moment. Just a few feet in front of the hospital doors, a street light above the two flickered on, then off. Hezen stopped walking underneath the flickering light and looked up at it.
"Five B again?" she whispered. "I'll have to tell management."
Dante stopped in his tracks and turned back towards Hezen. "Hurry up! I'm hungry too ya know!"
Hezen looked away from the light and towards Dante. "Fine. I was just doing my damn job."
She's just like that damn cat sometimes. Dante thought with a shake of his head. I guess that's where he gets his attitude.
A humid atmosphere flooded the parking lot. The same humid, groggy atmosphere Dante had felt in the Hilton hotel. Dante fell to his knees as a strange, hard pressure came down onto his chest. The air became hard to breathe; something that Dante's body didn't need at the present moment. Hezen ran over to Dante's side, and began shaking his shoulder as she shouted his name but her cries fell onto deaf ears. Once again Dante's body became engulfed in a sharp, deep pain on his arms and legs that seemed to come from nowhere.
"Dante!" Hezen screamed once more. "What the hell is going on!?"
"S-shit," Dante managed to say as he fell forward onto his hands.
The plain, dark parking lot around the two changed into a solid red color. Every building, corner, and street light changed to a red color that intensified the humid air. Sweat began to fall from both Dante and Hezen while Hezen's breathing picked up as well.
"Dante," Hezen asked once more. "What's going on?"
"You gotta get outta here," Dante said through his panting. "It…ain't safe for you here."
"Safe?" Hezen repeated.
"GO!"
Hezen took a step back away from Dante, and then another. She wanted to run away just as Dante had told her to but she couldn't leave him here like this. She shook her head and walked back over to his side.
"Dammit kid," she hissed.
Dante pushed down on his knees and wrists until he managed to stand. He stumbled to his right a bit, but caught himself before he could fall over. Hezen push Dante over to his left side and helped balance himself out.
"I told you…to go!" he hissed.
"And where the hell am I suppo—"
Three large beams fell from the sky, and embedded themselves into the ground vertically. Dante turned around and looked at each of the strange, beams that appeared to be beams from a construction site. A light red barrier formed between the beams and trapped them in a triangle the beams made.
"Great." Dante straightened his back. "Now what?"
"I've been waiting for you, Son of Sparda," a deep, male, demonic voice said.
A figure dropped from the sky and stood in front of Dante and Hezen. The figure had a human look to it, a male with greasy green hair and black eyes that hid his pupils. He wore a large black trench coat that hid everything from sight. Dante looked up at the strange man and guessed his age to be the same as his, eighteen.
"And just who do you think you are?" Dante asked with a grin.
"A hunter," the man hissed. "I've been trying to track you down Son of Sparda. You've got a bit of a warrant on your head back in Hell."
Dante took a small step forward. "I have a name."
The man drew out a large sword from his back. "I don't care. I'm here to weaken you for my master."
"Master?" Dante laughed. "So your master doesn't have the balls to come after me himself?"
"I'm not here to talk. I've got a mission to complete." The strange man moved the tip of his sword towards Dante and bent his knees.
"Hezen," Dante said as he stumbled back towards her. "You've got to get back and avoid this fight."
Hezen pushed herself against Dante. She shoved her body against his until he stood on both feet once more. Once he was standing normally, Hezen stepped behind him and bent her knees in case she had to run.
"How are you going to fight?" she asked. "You can't even stand up in this environment."
"Oh Dr. Major!" the strange man said as his eyes landed on her. "I didn't even see you there. I'll have to find something to do with you."
As the strange man spoke, Dante moved down to his boots and slipped out Ebony, the only gun he had brought with him. He aimed it out towards the man when the man raised his left hand up towards Dante.
The pain Dante had been feeling suddenly disappeared, he felt fine. Perfectly fine to be exact. His vision narrowed onto the strange man ahead of him, and a grin crossed his face. Now that Dante was back to his normal self, this man didn't stand a chance.
"Come on!" Dante teased. "Let's start thi—"
Another pain came over Dante but this pain, this pain changed Dante. His eyes changed from a pale blue color to a black color with red pupils and his fingernails grew out until they resembled claws. The skin on his arms began to crack, and red mist seeped out from the cracks. This feeling was wonderful. Dante felt like he could jump up and touch the moon and drag it down with him.
"Dante?" Hezen asked.
"We'll be outta here in a minute!" Dante said with a cocky grin. "Don't worry 'bout nothin'!"
Dante didn't know what the hell was going on but whatever it was, it was great. This kind of power Dante needed, the kind of power Dante needed. The grin he wore on his face showed that his canine teeth were growing out a bit more then the rest while the rest of his teeth sharpened.
Just as Dante began to enjoy the power surging within him, a strong pain hit him whenever his heart pounded away inside of his chest. The harder and harder his heart slammed inside of his ribcage, the more intense the pain grew. Dante fell down to his knees once more. Seeing Dante fall, Hezen ran over to his side and grabbed his left shoulder.
"Dante!" she called. "Dante are you alright?"
"Don't!" Dante growled.
"But—"
Dante moved his left arm out and pushed Hezen away. She stumbled backwards and fell down onto her backside with a grunt. She started to stand back up when the ground underneath her began to shake and forced her back down to the ground.
"Excuse us Dr. Major!" the strange man said. "There's something inside Dante that I need."
"Inside Dante?" Hezen asked.
"W-What the hell?" Dante said with strain behind his voice. He moved his head up to the stranger as sweat trickled down his face. "What are you talking about?"
Two large gray angel statues came out of the shaking ground near Hezen. The statues reached out and grabbed Hezen's arms so she couldn't interfere. She struggled against the angels that held her back but couldn't get away from them.
"Dante!" Hezen called. "Dante!!"
But Dante couldn't hear Hezen calling his name over the pain running through him. He couldn't hear anything but his heart beat slamming away. The strange man walked over to Dante, his boots clomping against the cement. He stood in front of Dante with a grin on his face and moved the end of his sword underneath Dante's chin.
"What's your name?" the stranger asked.
Dante could hear him. "W-What?" he said through gritting his teeth.
"Your name!" the stranger repeated. "Give me your name."
Dante grabbed the sword with his left hand and gripped it until blood leaked from his fingers. Dante managed to pull the sword forward enough to grab the stranger's wrist. The stranger struggled a bit, but then allowed Dante to pull him forward.
"What are you doing to me?" Dante huffed.
"Taking what you don't deserve," the stranger answered.
The strange man pulled his wrist backwards, and pulled Dante's arm along with him. As Dante moved forward, the man's sword tore through the center of Dante's chest until it emerged out of Dante's back. The man drew his sword out of Dante's body but instead of falling to the ground, Dante moved onto his knees and sat up.
"Dante!" Hezen called out.
She couldn't take watching this. Every time she blinked the image of Dante changed back to what Evern looked like the night had had been killed. Her heart slammed away in her chest as fear and adrenaline pumped through her body. Tears began to stream down her face when an attack of nausea came over her. Her body flared as a high fever came over her body and her mouth dried. Her stomach began to cramp and in one hard cramp; Hezen bent forward and threw up.
"Dante," she whimpered once her mouth was clear. "Dante."
Strange, Dante couldn't feel any pain. He felt fine. There was no pain emitting from the wound in his chest even though blood was falling from it. His breathing had been labored; his trachea had been sliced on the left side and he was now using his right lung to breathe.
The stranger laughed. "Come on out!" he said with a grin crossing his face.
A bright white light floated from the hole in Dante's chest and towards the stranger. Dante's eyes watched the white ball float into the air and float over to the hunter. The ball danced in a small circle in front of the strange man, and dodged the man's hand every time he reached out to grab it.
"Hold still," the man whispered.
"Dante!" Hezen screamed. "Get up already! Dante!!"
The white light stopped dancing. It paused at the sound of Hezen's voice; the stranger took the opportunity and grabbed the white ball in his closed fist. The white ball, however, had heard its name be called and wasn't going to stay with the hunter. The ball pushed its way out of the hunter's hands through the gaps in his fingers, and floated over towards Hezen.
"What!?" the stranger yelled.
The stranger ran towards the white light as it moved to Hezen but before he could reach it, the light slipped into Hezen's open mouth. She glared up at the stranger and closed her mouth tightly. The white light in her mouth felt soft but Hezen could also feel a small hard middle dancing on her tongue.
"Don't," he warned.
She swallowed the white ball and opened her mouth to catch her breath after. For some reason, Hezen knew that she had to keep the white ball to herself. She couldn't let anyone else have it, no matter the cost.
The ball slipped down her trachea easily, and traveled quickly down to her stomach where it exploded. Dante suddenly fell forward onto his face in a pool of blood that had gathered from the hole in his chest. Hezen began tugging at her arms, trying to free them from the statues that held her back from Dante.
"Dante!" she called once more. "Get up!"
"Dammit!" the stranger hissed.
Dante's eyes fluttered open. The wound in his chest started to heal normally as he pushed himself up onto his knees and grabbed Ebony from the floor. He turned around, stumbling a bit, and pointed the gun towards the stranger. The red world around the three didn't affect Dante anymore, for a reason he didn't understand and didn't much care to understand at the current moment.
"Now," Dante panted, "what were you talking about before? Something about your master?"
The stranger turned around to Dante. "Shit," he muttered. "Don't worry; I finished half of my job here!"
The stranger snapped his fingers once and the right angel that held Hezen's upper right arm gripped down until her bone snapped. She screamed out in pain and fainted from everything her body had been through. Dante began firing Ebony over and over again at the stranger but it was too late, the stranger was slowly disappearing, along with the rest of the humid environment.
"Dammit! Hold still!" Dante ordered.
"I'll be back, Son of Sparda!" the stranger yelled.
The heat around Dante and Hezen disappeared, and Hezen fell from the two statues that had been holding her up. Dante slipped Ebony back into his boot once the safety was on, and ran over to Hezen. He turned her back over, and held her against his chest.
"Hey!" he said as he shook her. "Hey! Hezen, come on wake up!"
The parking lot returned to normal, and a cold breeze blew over the two. Dante shook Hezen over and over again but he didn't get a response from her. He moved her broken arm over her chest, and stood with her body against him.
"Damn you're heavy," he whispered.
Dante's body shifted back to a normal human body without the pain he had experienced before. With his body back to normal, Dante turned back to the hospital they had just come from, and ran towards the Emergency Room.
xXx
"What!?" Pena yelled. "Hezen's in the hospital!?"
Dante had returned home to Hezen's apartment, without her. He was now sitting down on the couch in Hezen's apartment as Pena paced back and forth on the back of the couch. Dante kicked his boots off and placed his feet on the arm rest of the couch, something Hezen told him not to do.
The doctors insisted that Hezen stay so that they could keep an eye out on her baby, and her broken arm. Hezen had been inactive in the hospital for three days but that didn't seem to worry Dante or Pena. In fact Pena didn't react at the story Dante told him about the indent in the parking lot until Dante began talking about how a strange white light had escaped from his chest.
"Yeah." Dante sighed. "She's been asleep for three days straight."
"Oh God!" Pena fell flat on his back and onto Dante's legs. "What if something happens to her?! What will happen to me?!"
Dante rolled his eyes. "Relax, nothing's gonna happen! She's fine now!"
Pena sat up. "You don't get it do you demon boy? Do you understand what's happened to you?!"
"No," Dante answered carelessly as he moved his arms behind his head. "I went out, looked for the ass that injured us, did a few missions along the way, made some money, and came back here. Everything's fine."
Pena stomped up to Dante's chest and looked him square in the eye. "You've entered a contract!"
"Contract?" Dante blinked. "What are you talking about?"
"You don't know anything!!" Pena hissed with a growl behind his voice. "When powerful demons come into the real world they need to make a contract with someone or something that gives them a name! When Sparda came into the human world humans gave him the name Sparda and allowed him to live in the real world with Eva."
Once again Dante rolled his eyes. He hated hearing his parent's history. "Tell me something I don't know."
Pena narrowed his eyes. "When you and Vergil were born your mother gave you names not only names for your human side, but for your demon side. That strange man you were fighting called out your human side, leaving you pure demon for once and without a real name. Without a name you lose all of your demon powers so what happened?"
Dante thought for a moment. All he remembered from the fight was falling face forward with the white ball had come out of his chest, but resurrected for some reason a few minutes later. The more he thought about, the more came back to him.
"Dante!! Get up already! Dante!!"
Hezen had called his name out after she had swallowed the light, his human side. Whether Hezen knew it or not, she had renamed him when he had reverted back to his pure demon side.
"Hezen," Dante muttered. "She called my name."
"Dante?" Pena asked.
Dante nodded his head as he thought it over for a moment.
"So she renamed you," Pena said with a sigh. "Good thing it's the same name you already know," he sighed once more, "moving away from that we have a lot more to worry about."
"Like what?" Dante asked as he cocked an eyebrow.
"Hezen's harboring your human side right now, and if she dies, your human side dies along with her," Pena explained.
"What!?" Dante sat up and sent Pena rolling down his chest. "How the hell did that happen?"
Pena rolled down Dante's chest and to the end of the couch. He sat back up and crossed his arms. "Like I said, that strange guy took your human side away and Hezen had to rename you entering you into a contract to allow you to live in the human world with your demon side. Hezen has your human side now and until you find a balance between your demon and human side, Hezen keep your human side."
"Shit." Dante shook his head.
What a pain in the ass this was turning out to be. Dante didn't know anything about what was going on around him; he had no idea about demons coming to Earth and having to be named. All he did was kill demons and devils; he didn't ask them their names or care how they got to Earth. Normally Dante would blow this whole situation over but now his life and Hezen's life were on the line.
"So what do I have to do to get my human side back?" Dante asked with a sigh.
"How many times to I have to repeat myself?!" Pena yelled. "You need to find the balance between your human and demon side. I think you're lucky Hezen has your human side! Her body has the capability to nurture human life right now so your human side will grow faster in her body."
"Whatever." Dante rolled over to face the back of the couch. "I'll deal with this tomorrow."
"Tomorrow!?" Pena slammed his paws onto Dante's legs over and over again. "What the hell do you mean 'tomorrow'? You have to deal with this now!"
"I have to wait for Hezen to wake up don't I?" Dante closed his eyes.
Pena paused. "Well…yeah. I guess we do."
"Good night then," Dante said with a small sigh.
Pena watched as Dante relaxed into the couch and fell asleep. It annoyed the feline that Dante was being so casual about the whole situation when it was in fact a big deal. The more Pena thought about it, the more it pissed him off so Pena rolled into a small ball near Dante's feet, and fell asleep as well.
R&R please!
