CH14 – Ghost of the past
"Good to see you again. In the flesh!" It was a vicious, whispered hiss, pulsating cruelly in volume as it moved in and out of the edge of hearing, crawling all around her.
Rain instantly reached down for her swords, letting both hilts melt into her hands as she swung round with them vigilantly, looking for the source of the sound, a disturbed swell of leaves lifting from the ground.
"We had some fun, didn't we!" The voice rustled through the trees, scraping against the branches like skeletal hands playing in the wind.
"Some ugly things don't change! You are still a coward!" She spat furiously, yet inside, her entire body began to tremor and quake, tears of despondent rage wanting to push out of her tear ducts uncontrollably.
"Then tell me why am I the one left STANDING!?" The sound swooped on her from above like a mighty bird of prey, causing her to duck in a twist unwittingly, a wild spray of raindrops flying from her swords and hair.
"Not the only one!" She yelled at the empty forest as her katanas made the air whirl in a tornado of gold and orange leaves. Where was the heinous bastard? She glanced about frantically, her heart pounding, unable to pinpoint the voice that kept leaping from one place to another.
And suddenly there he was, a column of black smoke that gathered and rose like a slithering cobra, morphing into a humanoid shape on a flat roof of an abandoned wooden shack in the middle of the park.
"We shall see!" The hissing sound sharpened as it snapped and settled more into a human-like voice. The entity, draped in robes that flowed like black water to the ground, turned around slowly, affording her a view of its eyes for the very first time. They were akin to an abyssal darkness in their entirety, dripping with malicious mirth as they regarded her haughtily from above.
The remainder of his face was shrouded and hidden like his whole body by the same fluid garbs he wore, charcoal gloveless hands exuding rising mists of the blackest vapours as if drawn from the cauldrons of the underworld itself.
"It's only your death we shall see, scum of Hell!" Rain shouted as heated rage blinded her senses, causing her to spring across the forest floor, through the storm of leaves and water, her swords two hurricanes of silvery steel in her clutching hands.
The demon though, unfazed by her aggressive theatrics, only lifted one hand and let smoke curl from his palm. The smoke formed into a grasping shape and shot towards her just as she neared the shack, gripping her by her throat and lifting her into the air.
Reacting quickly, Rain swiped her sword through the ghostly hand, falling back to the ground as the vaporous limb loosened, before reforming again, this time morphing into a black forged double-edged cleaver that glistened with a thousand sparkles in the rain, hurling straight at her heavily heaving chest.
Rain dodged the attack well enough with a practiced reflex, pivoted and kicked the rear of the raven hilt, knocking it back into wisps of smoke.
"You have gotten better," Kuro let out a mocking sneer. "But not good enough!"
A horrific knife reformed and cut back in an instant, pushing at her harshly, making her step backwards and hence towards him, but she yelled out furiously and pressed harder, smashing every blow right back into his ghastly, unearthly weaponry.
"Temper, temper. You are so eager to kill me. Don't you want to know why I did it?"
She whipped her head to face him, while ducking to avoid the cleaver of a butcher from Hell.
"You want me…out of the way…so you can get on with your…psychotic diabolism," she huffed amidst the onslaught, knowing that soon she would get exhausted fighting a phantom instrument like this. She had to get to him directly somehow and fast. Only his dark blade suddenly stopped and vanished as he closed his real hand, a laughter interlaced with black amusement escaping from underneath his demonic guise.
"Aaah, but that's only one reason. Surely you must know by now, no?" He hissed haughtily, teasingly, a spiral of dark grey mist accompanying his every breath.
A new-born uncertainty started to wrap around her stomach, squeezing hard. What other reasons could there possibly be? Had he not killed her family for the very same reason, to stop the clan's threat to his vile attempts to colonize the human world with his hellish abominations?
Seeing the confused expression creep across her face, the demon's eyes flashed with an entertained glee. "So he hasn't told you yet…The devil in blue hasn't told you," he smirked in a melodic rhyme, palpably amused. "You see, I have met with perfection, a contagious little thing. She told me that neither a human, nor a half-breed can achieve perfection, both…so fragile, pestered by useless feelings. I have seen the truth of it eight years ago when she, the ruler of Darkness appeared to me and gave me the ultimate gift…In turn for killing you." His black finger pointed at Rain, a small vapour darting in her direction before puffing out harmlessly into the air.
"W…what?" She gazed at him incredulously, rivulets of rainwater streaming down across her face, drenching her hair and clothes. "Don't try to trick me! What would I ever have to do with a damned demon queen?" Rain's voice rose in a frustrated anger, a small tone of ridicule clinging to her words as her hands itched to skewer the liar with her blades yet her feet were cemented to the ground at what he had said.
"Oh nothing, just a pesky little prophecy that made the monster regent a bit scared of the little princess. Scared, scared, scared of being dead, so I must kill the Rain first, she says. Only the Rain didn't die." He spun round as if gliding, his outstretched palms catching the raindrops as they fell.
Don't you dare calling me little princess! Only my brother ever called me that! "You are the one who should be scared! I am going to shut that stupid mouth of yours right here, and I have friends who can take care of your stupid queen!" Rain screamed at him in denying disbelief and exasperation, mingled with sheer disgust she felt for every inch of his depraved existence.
"Wrong again. What do you see, little princess?" Three more figures emerged from behind the building and she could recognize them straight away. They were those thugs from the pub, the ones Vergil had gone out to chase and interrogate. "Where is your precious protector? Is he anywhere here? Ever wondered why he bothers with you? He wants nothing more than to give the queen a sweet kiss with his precious sword but can't do it himself since she left an even sweeter present in his blood, a gift for everyone who ever gets too close to her. Close, close, close! And now, he's not even here, led astray so easily as always. Pathetic little habit," he sneered cruelly.
The way he said those ugly things made her skin crawl and her stomach tightened into a knot of unwanted malignant thoughts. Could any of this be true? Did Vergil know about the queen? Was it that easy for him to lie to her?
But this whole prophecy was so ridiculously preposterous that the black demon must have made it up, trying to turn her against those who could protect her. His evil presence made her blood churn even more and called to her soul for its permanent extermination. Prophecy or not, queen of all this unholy evil or not, Kuro had to die, and nothing like the present. Her eyes darkening as her hands squeezed the hilts of her swords to bursting, there was only one more question she needed answered before she was going to go all out and try and decapitate this embodiment of all the sins on this planet.
"Is that how you knew my name? From this prophecy?" Rain gritted her teeth as she spoke, remembering all the horror like it was yesterday, and in a way it was.
"No." The curt word slammed into her like a thundering bullet.
"I knew your name ever since you were born," he said, with all the twisted evil he could muster. Then, Rain's eyes transfixed to his dark, veiled face, watching as the robes dissolved into vaporous tendrils that unwrapped from his skin as if they were alive, slithering away and warping into a human armour of an ancient warrior, the charcoal skin changing to a paler shade, eyes gaining the emerald colour same as her own, raven hair lightening to a shade the same as hers.
Rain's entire body and soul slumped both, as she stared at the man in utter horror and befuddlement, a man she once knew but who had been dead for eight long years. Yet he stood right before her, a man who would have never done the disgusting things that this monster had.
"Ra…Raymond?" She called out in a breaking voice and collapsed to her knees, her swords held slackly in her hands, water dripping down rapidly from the sharp tips of the glistening steel.
"That's right, little princess. Aren't you going to jump for joy that your big brother is alive and well?" He said with an unbecoming derision sullying his words, accompanying his maliciously twisted lips.
"No." She whispered, completely beaten. "It couldn't have been you." Her short breaths mingled with the rain and the falling leaves as she gaped at this stranger, this so called brother in numbing stupefaction, trying to see through this horrid deception yet not finding any way out.
"What! No ovation? Not a glimmer of cheer for what I have accomplished?" Raymond grinned evilly.
"You…you raped me?" Her words barely spoken, she fought the tears that now threatened to flee her eyes, her mind unable to reconcile what her eyes were seeing with the painful memories of her past.
"Well, you were a bad little sister, too honourable and irresistible for your own good. I would have asked you to join me and I would make you perfect, but it wouldn't have worked given the slight hitch with the prophecy and my dark queen. Shame, I rather enjoyed our splendid little reunion but now, if you excuse me, it is time to be done with you."
No! Talk to me, you couldn't have done this, it can't be you! Rain wanted to shout desperately, to beat some sense into him and say that he had used to be her family, the kindest and most honourable of them all. But all she could do was to kneel there in the muddy paddle of water and observe motionless as his hand let loose a swirl of that wicked smoke once more, transforming it into a long, deadly looking spear.
Then kill me, if it truly is you, brother. Because then, my life has been a lie. Rain let her eyes slip closed with a resigning breath, her head tilting ever so slightly into the rain that began to burn again instead of feeling joyful. Just barely, amidst the sound of pounding raindrops that have slowed down due to her numbed perception, she heard the spear launch fast into the air.
So, this was it, a split second train of thoughts travelled through her despairing mind. Her own older brother, brave as a lonely tiger, her fearless protector who had saved her life countless times, had shared his jokes with her and called her his little princess was the one who had betrayed and murdered everyone she loved, her brothers and sisters, her mother and father, and now had unleashed death upon her a second time. There was something very vile about this, his heinous demeanour, his diabolical deeds, the untoward cowardice and that stupid voice. This wasn't him, this wasn't Raymond at all. If only she could get a sample of his blood, then she could prove that something else inside him had done those wretched things…
Rain's eyes snapped open in an urgent need to postpone her death when she saw that it was too late to move out of the way. The tip of the hellish instrument was only a few paces away, hurtling at her with an unstoppable speed, about to pierce her rapidly beating heart. He always did have the best aim.
And then, it slammed into her as she expected and she was thrown to the ground, her breath knocked out of her lungs at the blunt force of the blow. Dazed and gasping for air, her hand lifted to her chest, grasping shakily around for any signs of the mortal wound that should have been gaping there instead of her heart. But to her surprise there was neither blood spurting out of her vital organ, nor a severe pain and as she looked up. Her slight puzzlement turned to a dawning realization when she saw a dissipating mist of blue, a few paces away.
Vergil stood in her place, a half of the spear's length lodged deep in his chest, a stream of scarlet steaming in the cold air as it trickled down along the metal handle to the razor sharp tip, the very end blackened and coated with something thick and glistening.
Oh God, not another poison! An alarming instinct whispered into her ear and Rain called out to him before her eyes could widen and register the slight falter of his posture and the stagger he made when he tried to straighten up.
"Could this be? The cold-blooded, ruthless son of Sparda, turning into a rescuer of fair maidens? Even your human loving brother, whom by the way I sent to a charming little place of a slight to no chance of return, would not have been so fast to get himself killed like this." A mortifying cackle oozed out of his mouth, a sound Rain thought of as completely alien and never belonging to her dear brother.
"As I recall, your incessant attempts at killing me have been anything but laughable, coincidentally…I'd be sorry for the place where you sent Dante...rather than for my little brother," Vergil wheezed, releasing a dark chuckle despite the air draining from his lungs, forcing his upper lip to lift ever so slightly into a sneer, eyes bordering on delirium rising to bore into the human's somewhat familiar greens.
"Don't be so sure about it. Maybe I forgot to tell you how this tends to work…She screams…and you both die!" He said, his voice transforming together with his form, shards of dark robes swarming across his body like a hive of killer bees to cover him whole apart from his black, inky eyes.
The three goons cracked three sadistic grins, their arms lifting to their necks as they held something in their hands. Their faces set in some kind of a trance, they injected themselves, releasing a black serum into their own veins. A several seconds later their clothes tore apart as skin crackled, blistering into thousand bleeding islands until it exploded out in a shower of red tissue, the carnivorous monsters like those from the top of the Shard standing and snarling in their stead.
Thousand damnations! Vergil swore mentally as he knew that his phantom swords drenched in the frozen spirits of the dead would not work on those darned clones of his demon form. Unless his swords were drenched in something else?
Faster than Kuro raised his hand and conjured another weapon, Vergil reached behind as he slowly blinked his eyes and two dozen ephemeral lights flickered into existence all around him. They were promptly dipped into the thick coating of the vile and potent poison that dripped from the tip of the spear.
Another blink and a frail acknowledgement of pain marred his otherwise fathomless composure as he snapped off the last inch of the metal spear out of his back with one swift jerk of his inhumanly strong hand.
Rain, seeing him do so, instantly gathered not to get in the way, and picking herself up she staggered away.
Then, eyes as blue as ancient glaciers and those of the darkest recesses of Hell locked together for a fraction of time in a standoff for demonic supremacy and might. Before either broke contact, an army of ice-blue ninja swords launched into the air, over half of them piercing through the exoskeleton armour of the three lunging demons, leaving the poison inside their bodily fluids that filled the so called perfect creations.
A moment later, a hideous, ear-piercing sound of infernal pain echoed through the trees and the relentless rain, demon bodies shrivelling and twisting crookedly in sheer agony until they folded to the ground. The other half of the summoned blades only skewered a blackly smouldering air as Kuro vanished from the roof, his massive black weapon plunging to the roof of the building, falling with a loud clank until it too puffed into a cloud of dirty smoke.
Once a coward, always a coward, Vergil growled amusedly under his faltering breath as he half collapsed from the exertion and half from the poison working inside his body, making him fold inadvertently down to one knee.
"Vergil!" He heard her call his name somewhere what seemed like a distance but soon after a gentle arm wrapped around his waist, pulling him up.
"Why didn't…you move?" His deep voice wavered as Rain held him up, all slouched and quaking.
"I…," Rain paused, not quite knowing what to say. It might have seemed stupid to want to die rather than to lose faith in her own family, but at that time she had felt so despondent, so completely lost. Vergil would not understand, Rain thought and so she just finished, "…froze up. Sorry."
"Sorry? You are…just sorry? You would have died!" He uttered bitterly, struggling not to lean into her more, failing badly.
Yes, I would have died instantly even if he had missed my heart, Rain knew, seeing what the poison had done to those humans turned demons. It was incredible that Vergil was still able to stand, even though barely. She wanted to yell at him and ask what did he care as surely all he wanted was to get back at the ruler of all evil, but she had to help him first or he would soon die too. Rain noticed with growing concern that he now snapped off the front of the spear as well with a shuddering grunt of fury and pain.
"No, don't pull that out!" She exclaimed quickly, seeing him about to yank the remaining piece out of his chest. "You would bleed out and then how am I to save you?" She added more sharply than she intended, much disturbed by her brother's appearance and what he had revealed.
"I assure you, I am fi…" His words ended by a violent spasm that sent him reeling into her, nearly causing them both to topple to the ground.
"I see, so what kind of fine is that exactly? The 'I will pretend not to be dying in excruciating pain' fine? We need to get you to my house, promptly, or you will be 'fine' very soon!" She told him scornfully, her arm winding around his waist more firmly to stop him falling down.
"Are you going to…keep nagging, or…get going? My car…is over there," he growled in a forcibly even yet laboured voice, stiffly shifting one foot in front of the other as they both began to stumble to the edge of the park. He cursed himself for losing the three humans' tracks in the rain, for expecting so foolishly that she'd stay put in the bar and finally for being almost too late. He had had to teleport over in the last fragment of time, unable to deflect the spear with Yamato in his reassembling state.
And now he found himself right where he had started, with Kuro at large and with an even nastier poison at large in his insides, searing and tearing him apart. Splendid. Well, at least the weather was nice, torrential downpour always being his favourite in dire situations. Vergil smirked at his own sarcasm that still seemed to function despite everything else failing, even his legs no longer being of much darn use, causing Rain having to sling his arm around her neck to close to drag him along the path.
"So you really got a new car? That was fast," she commented conversationally, trying to keep him somewhat alert, seeing as his eyes started to slip under, knees buckling more with every step they took.
"It's… a fast one."
"I meant…oh never mind. But which one is it?" Rain asked as they neared the road encircling the green park, lined with an assembly of majestic trees sprinkling their colourful leaves over a row of parked cars. "Oh, never mind again," Rain corrected, injecting a forced merriment into her voice as she spied the 'fast ride' amongst other means of transport that looked more like matchboxes on wheels in comparison.
"You have the key?" She asked him but his eyes were now closed, somewhat twitching, his whole body swaying precariously in her arms. Only Yamato remained somehow attached firmly to his hand like it was tied to him with a sturdy rope.
Her own blades tucked into her belt, Rain rolled Vergil onto her front with his shoulder blades against her soft bosom, holding him around the stomach by one hand the best she could, bending with him backwards to try and reach down and fumble blindly for the key in his pockets with the other. Surely the car keys should be on him somewhere?
As she felt him slipping, her knee shot up between his legs to hoist him up, when she glimpsed an older man and a woman walking along the other side, stopping to intently stare with an appalled look on their wrinkled faces, mouth opening wide.
"Oh, yeah, drinking too much," she yelled across the road, forcing on a smile.
Dammit! Rain sped up her shaky efforts, frisking him everywhere with fervent urgency, her hand finally stopping on something hard down his trousers, when she felt him stir and let out a loud grunt. So hoping it was from the pain and nothing else, Rain grimaced as her stretching fingers felt around the object, unable to see as his wet hair fell right into her face. The only way to look was back at that spooked couple, now shaking their heads presumably at the inappropriate public display.
"No, no, no, it's not what you think! It's…keys! The keys!"
Red injecting into her face, Rain grabbed the object fast, a sigh of relief escaping from her throat when she confirmed it was indeed the key. Quickly pulling it out of his lower pocket, Rain opened the door, happy to note the elderly couple was now well gone, not anymore caring whatever they had thought. Fast as the wind she dropped Vergil onto the seat together with his katana securely in his hand, running around to sit down in the driver's seat.
Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit. Rain glanced around, adjusting the strange controls as best and promptly as she could, noting in growing distress the paleness of his face, as if dipped in a fresh winter snow, in striking contrast with the pure rose red seeping so persistently out of that nasty wound. He might as well have a permanent hole in there the way things were going. Even her Kung-Fu Fighter was now soaking scarlet as well as being wet from the rain, making the sign cling to her chest.
Clenching her teeth to supress her frustration, Rain shifted the car into a gear and steered it into the road. Without giving it a thought she slammed the gas hard, nearly punching a hole in the seat with her body as the Veyron leapt out like a pouncing cheetah.
"Damn, that's fast!" Rain called out as she just about levelled the agile car, quickly swerving around another vehicle so as not to ram up its rear.
"Told…you."
She turned to the hoarse voice she could barely hear, seeing the sculpted angles of his face unusually twisted and taut, eyes firmly shut as he sat seemingly comfortably in the luxurious seat, the crimson now spilling over the edge of his seat and down onto the plush, velvety floor.
"Hold on. Almost there," she said quietly, grasping the steering wheel tightly as she drove along the last stretch of the long curved park road, being haphazardly fast yet with careful concentration, finally making a turn into her driveway. When she screeched to a stop in front of her whitewashed villa, Rain hurriedly jumped out of the car, sprinted round and opened his door.
Vergil though wasn't moving at all, sitting there in the same frozen way, Yamato now on the floor, separated from his opened fingers. He would never let go of his inseparable samurai keepsake, unless…
"V…Vergil?" Rain called out in panic, her two fingers creeping shakily towards his neck to press into the hollow on his pallid throat. There was…She didn't manage to feel anything as his hand flashed up to hers and clasped strongly around her feminine wrist.
"I'm not dead yet," he uttered curtly, one eyelid partially lifting up, soon followed by the other. But he remained seated, his eyes refocusing on hers with that kind of a distant intensity she had seen on him the first day they had met. She realised now what that look had meant. He despised anyone seeing him like this, almost preferring to die alone and in peace than to let his mortality lay bare.
"Can you get up?" Rain asked wearily, too late thinking that it was the wrong question. Although his outer façade appeared completely calm and composed, his eyes were betraying quite a different tale. They were overflowing with undiluted agony, shimmering and turbulent, struggling so hard not to show it, going well beyond any bounds to hide it. He must have hated her concern, her female fussing over a half-demon who would withstand death itself if he could. Literally.
"Of course you can." Rain feigned a smile, and set her wrist free from him, taking a few steps back from the Veyron.
His darkly piercing, scrutinizing eyes suddenly eased off, causing her to release a silent sigh of relief. Right, so helping less is helping more, she noted mentally, watching him try and find any unbroken shards of his demonic maleness to reach for the handle above the door and inch by inch hoist himself up from the car, Yamato yet again glued to the beige glove of his left hand.
His gaze swept her with a grateful look, when his entire weight became a problem for his muscles that have lost all the feeling and ability to communicate with his brain apart from the domination of an infernal, organ-ripping pain. Standing there for one fleeting moment, he started to shift off his normally straight as bowstring poise, toppling to one side like a giant falling tree, finally landing cheek down on the finely gravelled path.
Rain waited a little bit longer, her hand lifting to bite at her nail. He truly wasn't moving or trying to get back up this time. Hesitantly, she made a few steps toward him. Surely helping while consciously vacant didn't count? Slowly squatting down next to him, Rain poked him in his shoulder, not wanting to get a part of her body crushed by that scary vice of his again, but nothing at all happened and he remained as still as a square boulder.
"Uum, I really saw nothing," Rain assured his undeniably unconscious form, then ran to the front door, opened it and trotted right back. It was relatively easy to turn him over by pulling on his lean arm, but when she slid and hooked her female arms under his wide, sculpted shoulders and tried to pull him up, her feet only slipped on the gravel and she ended up on her backside with his head conveniently nestled between her legs.
Dammit! His devil's build was simply too heavy to lift like that on the slippery surface and she realised there was no dignified way to do this. "Really sorry about this." Glancing about as if to make sure there were no witnesses to bear, Rain grabbed his katana-free hand and yanked hard, letting out a strenuous grunt. Slowly, jerkily she dragged him backwards, bit by bit, over the sharp gravel and up the bumpy step of the door, over the smooth marble floor and the plush carpet of her living room to the large, dark brown, soft leather sofa where she just about managed to pull him up.
Rain stood up, stretching her back, and looked down at his form lying so peacefully and still breathing, her cream carpet now stained with a long streak of red. Crazy devil. Anyone else would've been a cold corpse by now.
Fast as the Veyron she then took a new sample from his blood and dashed to her lab, emerging an hour later with a glistening, lapis blue vial in her hand. Did Ray…no, Kuro really expect that she would not be able to get an antidote? Of course not…he had expected Vergil to die, well before she could even get to her home. They will both prove him wrong though, and then, she would shake that Kuro-disease right out of him and drag him back to Raymond where he belonged.
Rain hastened her way back to Vergil, hoping it wasn't too late after all that time she had had to spend in the lab. He had not moved at all since then, his breathing now almost easy to miss. If she had taken any longer…Rain quickly kneeled down and rolled up his sleeve, popping the vein on his smooth as glass arm.
The needle came down and plunged into the dark-blue carrier of half-devil's blood. He had a good chance, Rain chanted to herself, not wanting to think of the side effects, possibly as bad as those from the original poison. She had had no time to test this remedy and if he was to get plagued by those intense convulsions like before, she knew she would not be able to stop them by herself.
Rain thought to call Dante, but remembered Kuro's threat. 'I sent him to a charming little place of slight to no chance of return.' A cold shiver struck her and she quickly ran to the phone in the lounge, calling the directory. When they connected her to the Devil May Cry residence, no answer awaited her, only an endlessly ringing phone.
Oh dear God! Where are you Dante? Concern racing through her, Rain turned back to Vergil, a startled gasp leaving her lips when she saw him lying there stark still, his chest not moving at all. A sudden agonizing dread cut into her heart, a bleak flash of returning hopelessness, a cruel vision of being stranded on a deserted island filled with an unspeakable evil she could never hope to battle on her own. The ruler of darkness…in league with her own brother pretending to be a demon or a demon pretending to be her dear brother, both out on a cold, blood-thirsty hunt for her life and that of a humanity itself.
"Oh no you don't! I need you!" Rain leapt on the sofa like an enraged beast, her fingers pushing into the fading artery on his throat, feeling no pulse. "I won't run again, you hear? I like it here! I like Dante and I like you! I don't want to leave. I need you! You hear me?" Rain shouted at his lifeless form as her arms lifted, clasped hands crashing down onto his chest, giving his body a wild lifeless jerk. Then another crash and another shake, eliciting no other movement at all. "You can't leave me now! You lied to me and I still need you, damn you, you jerk!" A lonely tear pushed out of her eye.
There was no response, even as she bent down and pinched his nose, clasping her mouth over his to push air into his lungs. Over and over she pounded into his heart, breathing for him, then calling him names when he remained forever still, her warm, flushed face pressing against the increasing coldness of his with more tears threatening to roll down and mar his ghostly countenance.
Despair taking over, her hand smudged blindly over his bloodied torso, scraping against something sharp that was still sticking out. In a frenzy of a realization her fingers felt around the broken handle of the spear she had completely forgotten. Dammit! The darn thing was still inside of him, too close to his heart. It must have been stopping the antidote from spreading to the rest of his body!
Mortified at her untoward negligence and the horrid squelch it made when she grasped the metal shrapnel, Rain ground her teeth and pulled with all her might. The handle gave way only a little as if to tease and then was sucked in again by his clenching muscles and the gathered pool of his blood. Rain tried harder, again and again, her hands slipping…it was no use.
She stood up and bent down, using all her strength to lever out the blood-caked thing when her fingers slid on the slick as butter crimson, the momentum causing her to tumble backwards over the armrest and onto the floor behind.
Ouch! She rubbed her painful bum and then pulled herself up with her hands placed on the top of the armrest, eyes regaining a view of the sofa when they paused, shifting to a glimpse of frozen blue, as pale as ice itself.
"Vergil?" She breathed out, looking at him watching her from under thick white lashes, through the narrowest of slits between heavy eyelids, and her heart gave a sobbing start of joy. Maybe her moving the spear did something?
Then, his hand shifted an inch towards his side, ever so slowly creeping over his blood-sodden clothes to the centre of his chest. He grasped the stake with a thumb and a forefinger and pulled it out. Just like that. It rolled from his ribs and fell down onto the white carpet with a soft thud, the hand he had used now dangling lifelessly off the couch.
Rain blinked, unwilling to move as if any movement would undo what had just happened. She held her breath, awaiting the merest sign of his recovery, suddenly afraid of what he would have thought of her helping him yet again, not only in general but this time using her mouth as well.
Absently, she touched her lips, still remembering the feeling of his soft thin lips lingering on hers. Not quite the first kiss she had always imagined. Still, no matter how her shyness and inexperience in these matters prevented her from making it a reality, she could not help but wonder what it would be like to receive a proper full-on passion from a man, a half devil, who had withstood horrors so unimaginable a lesser man would have not survived a hundred times over.
To be truthful, she had never come across someone so strong and resilient, a man, a demon or otherwise. Only in her daydreams would she have always imagined an invincible hero warding off all the evil that pestered this world, a hero of her own. Yeah, stupid, she knew. The snag was that her hero only seemed to care about one evil. The queen of darkness, the vilest creature in the realm of monsters. It did not bode well for Rain if this nasty, inglorious beast was really after her.
It was also not hard to deduce that it was the she-demon's blood in Vergil's. It was her who had poisoned him, it was her in his nightmares and it was her he wanted dead. If nothing else mattered to him, then she would at least enable him his vengeance…and get rid of her own peril at the same time. And once it was all over she would know, truly know, if his heart only had room for revenge, deadly spears, and nothing else.
His hand suddenly twitched rapidly as if life filtered into his nerves, and then shot upwards, pressing against the red quagmire that was his chest. Rain let out the breath she was holding. He was going to survive, and heal, although should there be any side-effects…God help her.
Just as her thought completed a violent tremor shook through him, once, twice, thrice. An instinctual impulse taking over, Rain leapt over the armrest like a wild gazelle, sinking her hands down into his shoulders and her shins into his thighs. An unwelcomed feeling of déjà vu crept into her head and she closed her eyes, mumbling a silent prayer that this time would be different, that this time would not need an inhumanly strong half-devil, aka Dante, to restrain the effects of the antidote.
"It suits you."
Rain's head snapped to the deep, sumptuous voice coming from underneath her, her eyes opening to see him staring right up at her full chest that was greeting his face.
"What?" She managed to blurt out.
"My old t-shirt, it…hangs on you well."
Rain's mouth added to the hanging as she could not believe how fast he was indeed recovering, not missing the devil's twinkle in his shining, crystal blue eyes, somewhat scarily similar to Dante's. Fierce red swamped her cheeks at this unexpected and first ever appraisal of her as a woman, something that should have made her pleased but instead it made her scared. Now he was noticing her when he almost died? Feeling acute embarrassment mingling with rage at his unbearable calmness in dire situations, Rain began to scramble away. Well, Mr Taking-it-so-lightly, here is something to weigh you down; me and my words.
"And how does it hang that I know it is really the ruler of the ugly below who wants me dead?" She adorned him with a sweet smile, all the while shifting her way clumsily across his hard arms and legs to get to the rear end of the couch since unluckily there was a large glass table in the way at the side, and she really didn't feel like scrambling over his way too handsome head.
At the surprised scrunch of his otherwise smooth skin between his eyebrows, Rain added, encouraged, "It's her poison in your veins, and you want revenge through me since you can't do it yourself." She was nearing the end of the sofa, angry at him for making her blush like an idiot, when a strong hand shot up, grabbed her and brought her back onto him with one swift move.
Defiantly, Rain glared down into his face, not wanting to make it easy for him but not wanting to fight him either, besides knowing he had her wrist in that steely grip of his and it would be of no use. "So, tell me, is it true? I mean, someone must have had a few to dream up a prophecy as stupid-assed as that," she said deadpan, all serious, her lips pressed tightly together, though a little trembling.
A bit too late anticipating the worst from her daring accusation, one thing she didn't expect to hear was that dark, slow chuckle she had only had the privilege to witness once before, giving her deep goose bumps all over.
Vergil kept his focus on her earnest, unfazed features, secretly amused at Dante's concerns of her wellbeing should she have learnt about the queen of hell-denizens and her little deathly threats. Well then, now that she knew, all she had done was to be gloriously angry at him for withholding such information, not at the slightest weeping like a helpless child scared at the mention of the real monsters hiding under the bed.
"You don't find this information at the least disturbing?" He finally asked, genuinely and adequately amazed at her defiant reaction. He found it safe to assume that it was Kuro who had divulged this snippet before Vergil had made his not so well timed appearance in the park. And here she was, telling him his own secret like it was last year's news.
"I had…," Rain wanted to say brothers but corrected herself, "…demons after me my whole life. So what is one more?" She pressed down on his hand that held her and stretched it behind his head, and he let her do so. "What I find more disturbing…," Rain said, now calm as a windless night as she lowered her head to his, the ends of her long hair of morning sun framing his divine face. Her emerald green eyes flashed a questioning challenge into his arctic blue ones, "…is that someone I chose to trust has not been entirely honest with me."
Vergil's winter's-rain eyes narrowed mildly, holding her gaze all the while. "As I recall, you did not appreciate my honesty not so long ago," he commented flatly, not liking the confusion she was creating in his mind.
"There is blatant and there is honest. You were the former, lacking the latter it seems," Rain elaborated for him, drilling him with her confronting gaze. She knew she was walking, no, jogging over dangerous grounds but he was much weaker right now and she needed to get this out of her chest or resort to never silently trusting him again.
"Ignorance is bliss, so they say." His voice never once wavered as he meant what he had said, as that is what they had agreed on with Dante.
Still, he found himself intrigued by the new levels of boldness she became exuberated with and wanted to explore where this was going, only ever experiencing such daring from one female human before. Was she angry enough, not only from his dishonesty but also from something else? His hand let go of hers, and she instantly grabbed his wrist in turn, holding it next to the falling silver of his hair, adding his other hand to join the party behind his head.
"So… if it's bliss you want, then I should not be telling you how I am going to despatch the bitch of Hell then, should I?" She whispered slowly, her breath ghosting over his silky cheek, a teasing spark dancing in her eyes, and Vergil nearly lost his cool at the closeness of her sumptuous, plum-cherry lips gliding above him so excruciatingly, so ripe and ready to be picked, when he realised what she had insinuated.
As his pupils contracted dangerously, Rain let go completely and pulled away from him abruptly, sitting on his knees where he couldn't reach her so easily, with her arms folded over her chest and a look of grim resentment settled on her face.
"Oh you…," Vergil gave a deep, angered mutter, running his hand through his long hair to brush it back. He averted her awaiting gaze, still ashamedly shaken by her effective feminine allure that he had almost responded to, then turned back to face her. "You are not going to tell me, are you. Not without something in return." It was a stated fact, not a question, and he began to dread finding out what that something was as he would have to cooperate, should he want to complete his deeply seeded ambitions.
Rain nodded her chin, giving him a stubborn look of someone waiting, waiting for...
"You want an apology?" He asked astounded.
She nodded, forming that sweet smile again.
Oh, you are good, goddammit. Cornered verbally and emotionally, Vergil considered pointing out to her that it had been Dante who did not want her to know about the queen particulars and hence she should square any apologies with him, however unfortunately he was no stitch and as tempting as it was to become one right now, he was not going to.
The precarious situation was that his racial superiority and solitary upbringing, later compounded by the harsh trials of dog-eat-dog survival in Hell never had any room for apologies and his behaviours had not the opportunity to gain a capacity for such pointless human gestures. How was one even meant to give an apology?
"Therewith I give it," he said matter-of-factly, his features as calm and indifferent as ever.
Rain tilted her head, conveying her disapproval with a loud, exasperated sigh. "Therewith I give it? What on earth is that? If you don't mean it then I am saying nothing," Rain said uncompromisingly, her arms resettling on her chest.
"Mhhmm. Whatever it was, I meant it. I always mean what I say or do. Just like I mean right now for you to lie down, stop this childish nonsense and tell me all that you know." Quick as a flash, despite his less than favourable condition, he reached out, grabbed her hand and pulled her to him again, causing her to fall flat down on the length of his body, her stomach colliding against his blood-red wound.
"Well, I never!" Rain exclaimed, surprised beyond belief at his brazen despicability. What did he think he was doing, ordering her around again, and forcing her into an intimate contact like that after she had mentally and physically made herself shy away?
"As you can see I am still bleeding. Would you mind?" He said sweetly, his arm wound around her lower back, pressing her further into his firm body. "And as I am going to pass out at any moment I would appreciate less pride and more sensibility," he said with a tangible tiredness yet his strength did not seem to want to falter, since he managed to restrain her all the same and she was certainly no pushover.
"Oh! You are insane. And you know what? Just as well, because you'll need to be insane to go and fight the queen yourself once I remove her heinous blood from yours. So there, you can do her yourself since you two obviously deserve each other," Rain gave a huff of displeasure, trying to manoeuvre out of his tight hold to no avail.
Her squirming though seemed to have hurt him as she watched his eyes slip closed a few times, lips drawing into a thin line of pain and so she stopped moving, settling herself quietly on top of him, feeling his breathing become lighter and scarcer.
"I would have killed her a long time ago…for my own reasons…if I could have. But now, I will gladly deliver her death…for you. As soon as you have the antidote ready. Whenever that would be."
Rain's jaw nearly dropped from her face onto his shoulder at that, at the sincere tone in which he had said something so uncharacteristically poetic, right after his very characteristic arrogant banter. Laying there frozen for a moment, wrapped in an infinite confusion of his bi-polar demeanour, Rain finally found the workings of her speech.
"Two weeks. Maybe longer."
Something moved on his face, an almost unnoticeable hint of a frown, ironing out instantly into his skin's natural flawless perfection.
"Good. That's soon enough," he said in a low voice, knowing well that it was a lie, that it would be too late by then. They only had about a week to the prophecy's predicted fulfilment. He wasn't going to tell her that, this was one honesty he was going to hold out on.
After all, he had already contemplated about finding another way for some time, he was insane enough to fight the queen right now, and he was honest enough for this evening. Only shame that it would have to go down the hard way, since she would not be able to cure him on time, but then since when had he ever done anything the easy way? To start now, it would go against his prized collection of bad habits.
Then, conscious took a vacation from his mind.
The late afternoon slowly progressed into an evening, the setting sun painting yellow and orange smudges across the darkening sky, illuminating the outlines of the shadowy clouds with threads of gold. The colourful streaks soon collapsed giving way to a complete blackness that spilled into every corner of the villa.
A loud rumbling noise resounded through the otherwise silent room. Rain stirred from her nightmare free sleep with a silent yawn, breathing in the scent of warm dark chocolate and exotic spices, giving her a sudden sensation of hunger.
Her eyes flickered open into a near pitch black, the faintest of moonlight's ghostly breaths giving her a pallid view of the chiselled contours of the face next to her, turned to one side, away from where her cheek rested against his shoulder. For a few long moments she lingered her eyes on the cold beauty of his countenance, marvelling at the contrasting feeling of a warm hardness of his body under her, his strong arm coiled around the small of her back to hold her firmly against him even in his sleep.
Ever so slowly she lifted her upper body, propping herself with her arms, carefully unpeeling from the dried blood surrounding his heart, but her bum got stuck against a heavy as led hand. Great, how did his hand get there of all places? And why was his hand so darn heavy?
She turned her head just enough to see a long crescent of shine streaming down from under his fingers. He was holding Yamato against her bum! Now how was she to get up? Didn't demons realise that humans had to eat and do other things? Turning to face him, Rain drew in a breath and sent a gently tickling puff of air into the depths of his ear.
The next second Rain had to duck the sheathed sword as it whizzed above her head to scratch at his face, and swing nimbly away from him while her rear was freed. Tired and starving, Rain tiptoed her way through her house in the darkness, having practiced this so many times in case of sudden demon attacks, easily finding the kitchen without making a single sound or switching on the lights.
But all there was wasn't worth the effort, only the second half of the stale sandwich she had had the day before. Sighing as a louder rumble announced the grumpy displeasure of her stomach, Rain sat at the kitchen table and began to chew on the hard bread. Her bites becoming longer and slower, she soon started to drift away, falling asleep amongst the crumbs with a larger piece of bread still in her hand.
It felt like moments later when she opened her eyes again, wanting to eat that last bite but when her hand moved to her mouth she nearly bit her fingers instead. Lightheaded and confused, her eyes glanced desperately at her empty hand. But…Who would be so cruel to take away the last remains of her sandwich? And where was she? Only now taking a note of her surroundings Rain realised that she was lying down instead of sitting, and in her own bed instead of the kitchen.
Slowly propping herself up on her elbows she tried to recall her trip to her bedroom but could not remember it at all. At least, upon a quick glance, her clothes were still on, although…how was it that she was wearing her own fresh and clean Nightmare Before Christmas instead of Vergil's bloodied Kung-Fu Fighter?
Rain bolted upright, fumbling for her alarm clock to read the time when she felt a folded piece of paper under her fingers on the bedside table. Slowly scooping it up across the surface, Rain brought the note to her eyes, and opened it.
It read:
'I do not wish to detain you anymore, but not getting poisoned again would be nice so if you would please stay in the house this time? Besides, I have sent some friendly company to you this morning. Vergil.'
What friendly company? Rain pondered as she fumbled with the note between her fingers when the doorbell rang downstairs nearly causing her to fall off the bed. She tossed the duvet aside and jumped up, sparing another glance at the note. There was something else.
P.S. I will return once Kuro is dead.
Her eyes expanded wide at the post scriptum of his note. P.S. I will kill your brother? No! You can't! Not yet!
Heart thumping to the rhythm of her combat boots clacking across the marble floors, Rain sprinted to the front door having grabbed her swords that had been placed against her bed. Forgetting that there must have been someone outside she grabbed the handle and nearly ripped the door open, running past a man her mind refused to acknowledge.
"Lady Rain? Escaping trouble again?"
She stopped and turned to the familiar, kind voice she had not expected.
"Robert!" She exhaled, making a few fast steps back to her door where he stood. "I have to find him! Do you know where he is, where he went? I need to find Vergil!" She insisted all in one long breath.
"Calm down my child," he reassured her, putting down the bags he was holding to squeeze her shaking hands in his. "Master Vergil will be fine. He knows what he is doing. Well, most of the time," he admitted, shrugging.
"And this time he doesn't!" She yelled impatiently. "He is going to kill my brother, my only family. I can't let him do that." Her strong voice became a tiny echo of despair.
"I don't know where he went," Robert said mildly, taking both of the heavy bags into one hand, and holding her with the other as he nudged her back into the house. "Brother you say? Come my child, it will be alright. You must eat something first, not running out like that on an empty stomach. Master Vergil said you were hungry so I brought you your favourite things."
Her stomach rumbled at the word 'hungry' and suddenly she felt that she'd faint if she didn't eat. Vergil could not be far since he must have talked to Robert first. She could still go and find him after filling up with some food.
She showed Robert to the kitchen, helping him unpack it all to her fridge, watching as he took an amazing care with everything he did. It suddenly occurred to her how lucky Vergil was to have this man in his life and wondered whether he even deserved him.
"Forgive my intrusion, but how ever did you end up as Vergil's butler?" Rain asked, chomping straight away on her lip feeling the inappropriateness of her question.
He gave her a bemused look. "A butler? Oh no, nothing of that sort, although I can see why you'd think that way. You see, I was Vergil's teacher. Well, sometimes I am even now, when he doesn't realise." He gave her a merry wink.
Rain nearly snorted at that, imagining Vergil being told off by this sweet, wrinkly old man.
"I don't serve him truly, I am merely returning a lifetime of favours," he said fondly.
"But how on earth do you put up with him sometimes? Have you not even once wanted to leave him?"
"My dear, to be honest I have wondered why he stayed so long. It is my house and my home after all, so I have no reason to leave it. When I used to do my teachings there, Vergil liked to stay in the basement. It was all dark and dusty then, full of odd things far older than me and even fuller of cobwebs. Yet he never complained and slowly he turned it into what you see today, built it with his own two hands." He unwrapped a pot of noodles from layers of newspaper and served them on a plate, still steaming.
"Thank you," Rain said in astonishment, picking up a fork.
"I only wish he wasn't so hard to read all the time," Rain sighed and dug into the divine smelling noodles in front of her. They were rich with lean pork that fell apart at the touch and a perfectly cooked pak-choi and it all tasted like heaven. Darn, she'd never leave Robert either if he cooked like that!
"The complexity of a man should not deter you from seeing the truth about him. He means well, he simply does not know how to transpose this good meaning into the right actions," Robert told her in that wheezy, wise voice of his, closing the now fully packed fridge.
"No kidding," Rain let out yet another sigh, skilfully forking-on her food.
"There are some things he gets just right, you should know. To name one, he had memorised the battle scenes depicted on your bed posts and had them expertly remade to order. In fact, I have brought them with me on my truck, and if you permit, I will fix the bed for you this very morning."
Rain placed the last forkful in between her lips and chewed with her mouth half open while gazing astounded at his white-framed, seasoned face.
"Come again? And I thought that he didn't even care he broke it," Rain said bewildered, in a low voice, putting away her empty bowl.
"No one has ever saved his life like you did apart from his brother. Believe me when I tell you that he cares about a lot of things, in ways perhaps not so visible or conventional. But, for instance, if you were to tell him not to kill this Kuro, your brother correct? He would not do it no matter how much this man has wronged him in the past. Unlike Dante, who would choose not to listen, who is driven more by his head than his heart when it comes to these kind of matters. If you go and see Dante, don't tell him what you have told me, but he will be able to tell you where Master Vergil is, no doubt."
"But…Dante is in some kind of trouble himself, my…brother has sent him to some nasty place," Rain said ashamedly and sadly, not understanding why Robert was so calm about this all. Maybe that was at least one thing he and Vergil had in common.
"Master Dante? He is even more resilient than his twin brother. He will be just fine. In fact, I have a feeling that he might be home already. Why don't you go and see?" He gave her an encouraging smile, tapping at his nose with his brown spotted finger as if pointing to some sixth sense of his.
Without a further word, Rain nodded in thanks and pushed back at her chair as she got up and turned, walking at first, then legging it fast to the door.
"And don't worry about the mess Lady Rain, I have been cleaning blood ever since little Master have lived with me. I know all the tricks, be it stone, wood or carpet," Robert called after her, knowingly shaking his smiling head at her youthful rashness and eagerness.
"You are amazing!" Rain shouted back at him as she ran out of the door.
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A/N: I have decided to include more Dante and Lady in the next chapter. You may notice more differences from the original story in this chapter and also still coming up. I do hope you still like this Vergil? Quite a difference from the ridiculous clown-like version in the reboot, right? I so hope they will learn from that awful mistake!