STIGMA 2: Memory
Chapter 12: Passage
"OW! MY FUCKING HAND!"
Calm down, Lariska. You can heal the damage.
The pain subsided as my shattered right hand repaired itself from the inside out.
Now let's try again. I grimaced.
I don't think so Vergil. I've already broken my hand about five times already. Mastering your healing ability was hard enough. I don't think I'm going to be able to channel your strength.
"You must try again, Alex." Vakos said with a strange air of serenity. "Unless you can become as strong as a devil or a vampire we are not getting out of here."
"We've been at this for five hours. Picking up healing was a fluke. I don't think I'll be punching you into a wall or helping you to break the bars of the prison we're in anytime soon."
"Then we will try the exercise again until we succeed. And we will succeed. I will not leave my Niki in the hands of that monster Krases!"
I frowned. There was something in her eyes when she had mentioned Nikolai. It was something very familiar to me.
"You love him, don't you?"
She sat on the floor, eyes faraway. "He has asked me so many times to change him, to make him one of us. But he is so young, so full of life. It would break me to take that away from him."
"He wants to be with you for eternity and you won't give him that?"
Vakos' glare was colder than the arctic. "Do not make judgements on something you could not possibly understand. To be one of us is to be damned! And that is not worth the price of eternal life. Most of us did not have a choice in the matter!"
"I'm sorry. I guess I don't understand what it means to be immortal."
"You will soon enough. It is most likely that your connection with Sparda's son may lengthen your life span significantly or even make you ageless."
I sat stunned; her words repeating themselves over and over again in my head.
"What?"
"Never mind. Let's continue on. Close your eyes."
Vergil, we're starting again.
I'll be waiting for you on the other side of the passage way.
The passage way was the link that we shared. My mind drifts to him as I walk down the dark passage. Voices scream at me to stop. They scream that he will be my end and that I should turn back.
But so what? So what if he's a monster? He is mine and that is all that matters. And he will be mine for all eternity.
'I love you, Lariska.'
His words echoing endlessly inside my brain. Pictures of us together form around those word.s He becomes my strength and suddenly I see the answer so clearly. Trying to borrow his strength was not the way.
'Take my hand, Vergil. I will bear this burden for the both of us. Give me the devil inside and help me to destroy these bars.'
Blue flames consume me. They harden and become scales. I am the dragon from my dreams.
'Lariska, NO! Don't let it swallow you!'
"Alex, wake up!" Vakos has a sound of panic in her voice which sounds strange on her.
My hands still appeared human but they felt different. I placed them on the bars.
"I am the dragon." I whispered.
"Your skin, it is like a lizard's." Vakos took a step back from me. "You glow like a sapphire."
Blue flames engulfed the bars and they start to melt away. The silver that could repel the vampires touch was no match for the hellfire of a devil.
I looked at my arms and hands once more. The scales were now a reality.
"Come on, Vakos. I need to find him."
I stalked the hallways feeling the power inside screaming to be used. I had no idea where I was going but I could feel him. I could feel his love, his concern and his fury. I focused on him and let those feelings create a trail that lead me right to him.
Raised voices from the end of a hallway come closer towards us.
"Alex, get behind me. I will deal with these lowly cretins."
Her words meant nothing to me. I walked forward, completely unarmed.
"Here kitty…kitty…kitty." My nails extend into claws. I let all conscious thought go and my (his) instincts take over.
"They're escaping. Alert Krases at once!" A guard shouts. The next few minutes become a blur as I watch my hands move in front of my face and claws slash into the guard's neck. Thick red blood bursts and lands all over my face My right leg launches itself into his chest and he goes flying backwards.
"Damn! The other guard's escaped."
"Let him go, Alex." Vakos seems strangely on edge. "Can you find Vergil and Lord Sparda?"
I regained my concentration and the trail appeared to me once more. "This way."
Eventually the trail led to a solitary cell on the other side of the 'prison block' where I found my silver haired boyfriend and his father.
"Lariska!" He reaches for me through the bars. Flames surround us and the barrier between us dissolves. His warmth surrounds me as my strength leaves and my knees collapse beneath me.
"I told you. Don't let it swallow you.
P
P
P
P
P
P
P
P
P
P
P
"Damn, that girl can sleep." I recognise Dante's voice as I open my eyes.
"You're telling me." Adrian or Lawrence rather is sitting in a chair across from where I'm lying. "It's been nearly a day since you brought her back here."
"Larry," I whisper weakly. Lawrence turns his head to look at me as if surprised.
"Lariska."
"Did Vergil tell you that?"
"He told me enough." Lawrence stroked my head. "But I've been remembering things. Not much but it's a start."
"Have you told Micah yet?" I sat up and looked around. I was back at Devil May Cry and lying on the couch on the ground floor. "And where's Vergil?"
"He's on patrol, making sure no vamps are coming to get his little princess." Dante said wryly. "Once he's back we all need to have a nice little conversation about just what in the hell is happening to you."
"And about the impending war that is about to happen." An annoyed Russian accent echoed from the direction of the kitchen. Vakos and Nikolai sat closely together at the table. Trish was drying some dishes.
"Krases will not give up his power. He will eliminate his enemies one by one and that includes all of us." Vakos fiddled with the lace on her white blouse. "Xerxes, Vexille and Erykah will ally with me but their forces will not be enough. You must convince Sparda to fight. If he fights then surely the rest of STIGMA will fall in behind him."
"And could your vampires resist the taste of human blood in amongst the carnage." Sparda emerged from the front door, Vergil was behind him. They both looked dirty as if they had been fighting. "An alliance would be almost impossible between our species."
"Your species?" Vakos laughed. "You are far from human, Sparda. And your agent is becoming less so by the minute."
I looked to Dante and Trish. Dante was refusing to look at his father. Trish placed a hand on his shoulder.
"Who did we have against us besides Krases?" I asked.
"Elisabetta, Julius, Marco, Vladamir and Jean- Paul. So far we are outnumbered which is where STIGMA comes in." Nikolai replied sipping from his mug. "Maria, Paulo & Verona are remaining neutral in the hopes that they can negotiate peace but they are fools. It is doubtful that Krases wants peace."
"Sparda, we need to get back to STIGMA." I pleaded with him. "I agree with Vakos. If Krases is going to start a war we need every soldier we can get. And I think Carmen would have a lot to say on the matter."
"We lost all communication with Carmen's team about three hours ago." Sparda took a seat next to me. "I agree that we should head back to STIGMA. However there is a danger that we would be walking into a trap."
"Then we don't walk." Dante changed into his devil form. "We fly!"
P
P
P
P
P
P
P
P
P
P
P
"TRISH, SLOW THE FUCK DOWN!" I heard Lawrence yelling in the passenger seat of her yellow Lamborghini through my headset. "Jesus, why the fuck do you get to fly and I get stuck with the crazy bitch?"
Dante and I exchanged glances and smirked.
"Poor Larry." I muttered.
"Meh…she's only messing with him."
I glanced over at Vergil who was carrying Sparda and not looking too pleased about it. His spiky hair barely moving in the gale force winds.
Don't look at him like you're planning to drop him, Vergil.
I won't drop him. But I would rather be carrying you.
A blush crept up my face that was almost impossible to hide.
"Hey if you two are going to be sharing dirty thoughts then I think I'll be switching passengers."
"Dante, why didn't you tell me you could hear that?" I demanded.
"I couldn't. I was just guessing. But thanks for sharing."
"Tell me why I agreed to this again?"
"Because my father and I are not on speaking terms right now."
"You mean you're the one not talking to him. You'll have to talk to him eventually."
"Yeah yeah. I'll figure out the details later."
We descended below the clouds. We were now probably only a mile from STIGMA. But as we started approaching a tower of grey smoke appeared on the horizon.
"What the hell?" I muttered. "Dante, fly faster. Something's wrong."
"As my lady commands, I obey." And then as if he had turbo powered engines strapped to his boots we suddenly sped up. The horizon came at us much faster. I closed my eyes and buried my head in his shoulder to stop the wind from whipping my face.
"Lariska, you have to see this." I opened my eyes and gasped. STIGMA was on fire and thick smoke was arising from the forest.
"My god. Who could have done this?"
"Krases!" Sparda growled, Vergil now flying right next to us. "Rest assured little one. That bastard will pay for his crimes!"
Author's Note: Thanks again guys for reviewing and reading the story. I don't know if anyone noticed but I removed the prologue. It didn't turn out the way I wanted it to but I may add a new prologue in the future.
Next chapter: What Once Was Lost.
