Moiranna is the world's best Beta.

TehOdd1 xoox

Recap:

This thing, started from underneath Devil May Cry and shot through the entire building. As Nero and I clambered down the stairs, where I had half a notion that master Vergil and Dante finally started to fight – we found something much, much worse.

Welcome to world war seven.

Everyone was fighting something.

Eva was sending giant blue orbs – created by her hands, no less – at a giant, fire demon at least three times her width and height. She did it so calmly, it no longer bothered me where my master had gotten it from. She spun, and delivered a kick into one particularly small demon, her hair fanning around her like a golden wave.

The tiny demon flew through the air, and landed on the light – where it sizzled, and promptly turned into a skeleton.

Sparda and Angelo both had taken to fighting the twin end of a snake – except instead of a tail, it bore two huge torsos that wielded axes. The heads on these things where huge, and they had horns that shot something looking like icicles.

I watched Sparda deflect one attack by one of their axes, and as the blade sunk into the floor, it spread ice in an arc three meters across, turning one of Dante's tables into an ice cube.

Angelo jumped to avoid being touched by it, landing on the table, which shattered under his weight. But he had enough time to gather his bearings and launch an attack, bare handed, on the thing. He caught it around the neck, and started to squeeze.

I shuddered.

Nero tugged me out of the way as a stray bolt of lighting blew up the spot I was standing in.

He had me pressed against a wall, looking at Trish in awe, as she battled a demon that looked like a minotaur. It had the body of a regular sized horse, with the torso of a regular (though, rather muscular) human, but two extra pairs of arms. Its horns shot glowing, green acid.

She let loose another lightning bolt at it, that literally blew one of his arms into bits. The minotaur threw his head back – he must've been roaring, because I still couldn't hear him – and let fly with a kick from one of his front hooves.

I saw it make contact, but then it was my turn to push Nero and trip him purposely so that we avoided a scorpion's tail… that Dante had somehow lassoed and was riding, like a bucking bull.

He mouthed "YEE-HAAW!", waving some random cowboy hat around, then dug his heels into it's throat and it ran through the shop's front wall, and onto the street.

The whole building shook from the impact, the combined pressure from whatever the column of light was making the foundations weak.

I rolled myself up and ran at top speed, running vertically on a wall to deliver a head shot kick to the remaining torso and now headless thing that almost attacked Max.

Max didn't hear it – of course he didn't, no one could hear anything – but Dom saw it, and gaped at me as I grabbed the axe firmly, and struck down onto the conjoining tail, severing it from the snake.

The snake turned around to bite me, it's mouth the size of a school bus, but both me and Sparda were ready. He pointed his sword at it, and I my axe. It waited, hesitating, before Sparda gave me a leg up and threw me at the snake, slicing down into it's skull.

Sparda was a split second behind me, driving his sword into it's throat.

It still didn't die.

I caught a grip around it's chin with my knees, and hacked into a major artery that should have killed it, if not rendered it helpless, immediately, whilst Sparda kept at keeping it's attention.

My knee slipped, and almost got bitten by the snake – but I locked my knee straight, keeping it's mouth open.

So now picture this – I was upside down, wrestling my leg around in the mouth of a huge, demonic snake, hacking into it's artery with everything I had. My hair has masses of bright orange goo in it, and my locked knee was starting to slip against the saliva of the thing.

I realized that in hacking into said demon with an axe made of ice I was purely freezing the wound closed, and rolled my eyes, catching Sparda's eye and throwing him the sword.

He caught it, buried it in the snake, then through the other one up to me.

This sword was huge.

It outweighed me, an I was all muscle, so go figure how much it weighed.

I let a silent scream of frustration go, then dug the sword into the snake's jugular, getting doused in orange blood.

It collapsed, and I slipped, it's teeth clamping shut on my leg.

I screamed, and Sparda wrenched the teeth open for me, helping me up. I pointed to the boys – who were shooting and slicing back to back, in perfect sync – and he nodded, jumping over an attacking slug the size of a horse, (with teeth and spikes in place of slime), and stood me in the middle of the fight.

I handed him his sword, and he gave me another, thankfully lighter one, fashioned a lot like Yamato.

Only this one was purple in colour, all over. I instantly took to battle again, using my throbbing leg as a means to spin on.

Max was protecting his brother when a large tentacle, protruding from the column, grabbed his ankle. I ran – as fast as I could, with a snake bitten leg and unfamiliar sword – and sliced it off of him. The blood burned through the floor, and he pushed it off shakily.

I turned to Dom, helping Max up with a free hand, and was mortified when another tentacle had him suspended in mid air by his ankle.

I growled, and me and Max both sliced at it, our swords connecting in the middle of the thick and vibrating tentacle.

I caught Dom and collapsed, my sore leg not helping.

"Thanks!" Dom said, his voice shaky.

I blinked. "I can hear you!" I exclaimed.

"I can hear you!" he repeated stupidly, then the sounds we needed to fight with were amplified to unbearable.

The 'CRACK!' sounds from Trish's lightning. The 'BANG!' sounds from Dante's bullets. The growls, and screams of frustration and success were suddenly ringing in my ears.

Dom and Max both cowered, and I rolled onto my back, my whole head disorientated. Everything was shaking, and my ear drums were banging, almost popping. Everyone around us dropped, except for the tentacles. The demons all made a break for it, outside.

Dom was snatched up, and even though I knew it was a mistake, I yelled: "DOMINICK!" and sliced at the tentacle from my place on the floor, but I too, was picked up and flung into a warm wall of meat I knew was Angelo: he caught me, tears pouring from his eyes, squinting at the light.

That's when I noticed, the light was getting brighter, and the sounds where going back to normal.

Dante was rolling around on the floor, pummelling absolutely nothing into bits and pieces, shouting swears and words that melted into one another.

Sparda was just staring at a dead demon, a blank look on his face, his sword pointed at it like he'd just killed a small puppy.

Trish was sobbing, rocking back and forth, no weapons any where near her, the tips of her hair crackling on the odd occasion.

Nero was screaming so hard blood was flying out of his mouth, and when he stopped to breathe, he tore at his chest with his claw.

Dom and Max were holding each other, cowering crying into the other's shoulder.

I couldn't see my master.

I locked eyes with Eva.

"What's happening?" I yelled, struggling against the grip Angelo exerted. My leg throbbed, and I felt tears of my own pain spring into my eyes.

"We're humans!" She yelled in return, making her way over to me. "They're demons, they're seeing things!"

"What is it? A spell?"

"Yes, I think so." She said shakily, looking around. "I'm a witch, but I'm a human made witch, and you're just as human as I." she explained hurriedly. "But everyone else in this room has demon in them. I know magics, but this…" she shook her head and looked at me.

"This is something else. This is…Power."

Angelo was muttering something into my hair, stroking it on my sides.

"I love you," he whispered. "I love you so much, come away with me. Don't leave me."

Eva froze. "They're…Seeing…the only thing that could ever…Hurt them…" she whispered, then spun to look on as her husband fell to his knees.

"What have I done?" he asked nobody. "Eva, my Eva… My sons… My brother… Dead… it's all my fault."

He then proceeded to attempt to kill himself, if not for Eva, grabbing his face and zapping him into reality.

"Sparda, get up, come on!" she said, pulling him to his feet. "I need you!"

"I love you." Angelo said into my ear again.

"That's nice." I told him, patting his head.

He still wouldn't let go of me, no matter how I struggled.

"Don't leave me, please…" he moaned. "I'll be better, I love you more… Let me love you, don't leave me again…"

"I won't, just let go," I tried.

His arms tightened, and I couldn't breathe. He literally squashed the air right out of my lungs.

"I can't let you go." He said fiercely, still stroking my orange blood soaked hair. "I love you."

I heard a raw voice bellow: "RACHEL, INTEGRA! NO!"

Before Sparda flew in the air and into Angelo, the impact enough to knock the air out of him and into me.

He let go, and I scrambled away, pulling myself up on a bit of frozen desk and leaning my now useless leg against in effort to stop the pain.

I saw my master and Eva, coming around the still glowing column of light.

He saw me and sprinted, leaving his mother in his wake, jumping over the giant dead snake and sliding under a the body of a minotaur that was stabbed through the stomach and left in midair, on the blade itself.

He came over to me and wrapped me up fiercely in his arms, picking me off the floor with the momentum.

His heart was beating so hard I felt it in his chest, and in his pulse, vibrating through his arms.

I wrapped my own around him, and buried my face into his shoulder, tears leaping into my eyes.

"What is it?" I asked him urgently. "What did you see?"

"I…I saw…" He swallowed and stroked my hair.

"I have you." Was all he said. "I'm not letting you go. Not letting you out of my sight."

"More so than usual?" I aimed for joking but he pulled me away, one eye twitching.

He opened his mouth to speak, but gave up, and hugged me tightly again.

I'd never been hugged by him before. It was far too intimate, for him. The most I got was a back pat, or a scruffing of the hair, or something to that general effect. Anything I could shrug off or slap away, I noticed briefly.

He carried me, still hugging, to the couch. He kicked it right side up and sat me down on it gently, eyes looking over the two large holes in my leg.

"It was dead before it bit you." He murmured, fingers prodding.

"It was a mistake on my part." I said, a little breathlessly.

"That snake has violent venom that attaches itself to the blood cells. You would've been in horrible pain." He winced, like the thought actually hurt him. He looked up, caught my eyes, and hugged me again.

He picked me up that way, and carefully picked up my legs, carrying me bridal style. Though instead of one arm around him, I had both, because as I went to let go he made the saddest sound in his throat. If I didn't know him like I know him, I would've thought it to sound like a choked sob.

He carried me over to where Eva was having a hard time waking Dante up.

"Dante, you dolt." He said shakily. "Take your medicine." And promptly kicked him onto his back, where Eva caught his head and zapped him back.

Whilst Dante's pummelling of the floor ceased, master Vergil sat us down.

Dante was panting, the sound painful – I hated seeing him like that. He must've been crying, because the first thing he said was: "I'm not crying." and wiped his face like mad.

Max and Dom were crying into their mother's leg, but soon threw themselves onto their father, who accepted the hugs then stood to give Trish a particularly long, passionate kiss.

I made an 'ew' face, and my master chuckled at it flicking the tip of my nose with his forefinger.

I blushed, caught out making three year old faces. He just gave me a rare smile, and hugged me again.

I touched his hair, and patted his shoulder, making 'shh' noises. It wasn't like me, and it wasn't like him, but for a moment, the feelings there were raw.

He was shaking, and I soon took to it too, so worried about what he had seen that made him so…weak.

Eva went over to Angelo, who was still on the floor, squeezing Sparda, and was shooed away.

"No, I love her, I do, I do, I'll love her better, I'd give her anything, I'd give her my life, please, let me love her…"

"Angelo, please." Eva said, as Sparda turned a pretty shade of purple. "Just hold still."

"I love you." He said madly. "I love you I love you love you. Why don't you love me? Eva, please, love me. Don't leave me, I love you so much."

I turned around to look, shocked, as Sparda's face turned more red than purple, and he flexed his arms, throwing his brother off.

He growled, and my master Vergil swept me up and away, half hiding me behind him as Angelo saw Eva in his magic induced haze and went for her with open arms.

Sparda punched him in the face. Just one punch. And he flew through the wall, and kept going. I didn't hear him stop.

"Holy shit." Nero said, from somewhere to my right.

Everything went completely silent, with all eyes on Sparda, and Sparda's eyes on the place where his brother had flown through the wall.

Then Sparda said a single word that made me drop my jaw.

"Slut."

I blinked, and master Vergil had moved to stand near Dante, who passed his kids to Trish. I was placed down as gently as I'm sure he could manage, and given a kiss on the forehead.

I blinked up at him, but he wasn't looking at me.

"You take dad." He said to Dante quietly.

"No way." Dante shot back. "You take dad."

"You take dad."

"Are you insane?"

"Are you scared, Dante?"

"Hell yes."

"Fine. I'll take dad."

"Good."

"Fine."

"Fine."

"Who am I taking?" Nero asked, stepping over me.

"You can help Vergil."

"I don't need his help." Snapped the eldest brother.

"Fine. You take my mum, just hold her back, and move, god damnit. This is going to be some hell of a family get together."

"None of this family is 'getting together'." My master ground through gritted teeth. And though I wasn't sure what that could possibly imply, I had a feeling it had something to do with Eva and Angelo.

With out proper warning, they jumped up, with master Vergil wrapping his arms around his father's left and locking his hands around his waist, bracing himself in one of the strongest stances known to man. Dante mirrored his movements, taking the other arm and locking his own around his father's stomach.

Nero took to their mother just as she went to attack (murder) Sparda. He didn't move, and neither did my master Vergil, or Dante, as Nero had picked her up, cackling magic's and all, and hefted her away, screaming in Latin at him.

I could translate. But I'm not going to. A lady shouldn't say such things.

Max crawled into my lap, and I held his head close to my chest, blocking his ears as Trish did the same for Dominick.

Sparda just snapped, all of a sudden, and thank God for Nero hauling their mother away, rough though he was, because Sparda started to fight against his sons furiously, and he was already winning.

I was scared of Sparda for those few moments. I hid Max's eyes away from his seething grandfather, then hid my own.

Trish was whispering to Dom, who was sobbing into her shoulder, as the parents of the most infamous half bloods growled and spat and went completely insane at each other.

"You knew he loved you, didn't you?!"

"Of course I did, but you did too!"

"He's my brother, my twin brother, I know everything about him!"

"So what's wrong with me knowing?!"

"YOU DIDN'T TELL ME YOU KNEW!"

"NEITHER DID YOU!" Eva screamed back, ripping one arm free and aiming it at him. Nero knocked her off balance as a giant sword dropped out of the roof and very narrowly missed the three.

Eva sent Nero flying back with one curse, as Dante let go of his father's arm to wrap his mother in one of his own and bawl her to the floor.

Sparda leaped, and narrowly missed her. My master Vergil was hit, and sent head first into a brick wall, a cloud of dust flying up in his wake.

I got to my feet, glaring.

"Stay back, Rachel!" Dante yelled, rolling his mother out of the way as a sword sliced down at them.

I handed Max to Trish.

"What are you doing?" she asked, mortified as I began to limp away. "Rachel, don't!"

Max cried out my name as I took a running jump – and three inches away from kicking Sparda in the face he hit me with a back hand that would've thrown me after Angelo, if I didn't immediately held on.

He looked at me like: "Seriously, this is it?" and tried to shake me off, but I remained stubborn and held on, digging my nails into his forearm so hard it bled.

Have you ever made a Sparda bleed? No? It's not easy. I was astounded all he did was keep shaking.

Dante tried to hold his arm, but was pushed away, into the wall above where his brother had landed.

I let go, swung down, and used the power from his shaking to propel him over my head and into the floor.

He went half way through, then got stuck.

I retired, holding my bloody leg up to my chest, hissing at the pain.

My master Vergil pushed Dante off of him, dusted himself off, then spotted me and came to my side.

"Telling you not to move wouldn't have done anything, would it?" he asked, helping me to my feet.

"Not a thing." I replied, squeezing my eyes shut.

Eva saw Sparda's ass and legs wiggling from the floor and started laughing, followed by Sparda's own pelts of chuckles like him being half in and half out of the floor after they tried to kill each other was hilarious.

She pried him from the floor, but gave him a stern look.

"I am not a slut. I just didn't want you to go off and kill him. He's your brother."

"I know."

"And you would've tried to kill him."

"I know."

"And I love you so much."

"I know."

She smiled her angelic smile, and helped him up.

Then all hell really broke loose, and Trish screamed her head off.

"DOM! DOM! MAX, MY BABIES!"

Max stabbed the tentacle around his waist and managed to scamper over to my side of the column before another one ensnared his thigh.

Dom was shooting at it, and Dante had grabbed onto it and tugged, to no avail.

"DOMINICK!" he bellowed.

Eva went to help them, as did Sparda, but both were taken by tentacles of their own and… absorbed…into the column.

"Dante!" she yelled, going to zap away the tentacle. Dante rolled away accordingly, but as she shot a perfectly aimed shot at the base of the thing, it moved Dom in it's way, and he was struck instead, his tiny body jerking until he just sagged into stillness.

I let a sob like gasp go.

Nero's eyes were wide.

I heard Sparda bellowing through the column, before it started to shudder, and moved down, into the floor.

He was slid down it, Eva in tow. The entire building quaked.

I pushed away from my master and sliced at the tentacle holding Max captive.

He screamed my name, and I said: "I'm coming!"

Dante tried to punch the column, but it sent him back. He dug his heels in and did it again. And again.

Soon, his hands were cooked, raw, and bleeding, his upper lip drawn into a feral snarl.

"DOMINICK!" He bellowed. "DOMINICK!"

We all heard him sob and then a muffled: "Dad!" before his shadow went down to. A piece of plaster fell next to Trish, and she leapt forward, zapping the column with tears pouring down her face.

"NO, NO, NO!"

I sliced another tentacle, before my master grabbed my arm.

"We have to leave – the place is falling apart."

"No, I can still save him!" I yelled, pushing him back.

I cut another tentacle, then another, and sliced into another, fighting as fast as I could. But it was as if the column knew what made me weak – and my master was snatched up.

I tried to get him down, and he was slammed into a wall, knocking a chunk of foundations along with it. Dante ran over and slid along the floor to grab Max, but missed, and was whipped away by another tentacle.

Max was being dragged into the light.

I made my decision.

I jumped over Dante, throwing my sword to the side, and grabbed Max's biceps, holding on for dear life.

"I got you!" I yelled, and he tried to climb back up onto me, but his feet were in the column and weren't letting go.

Everyone was fighting the tentacles – a piece of rubble made a huge bang and Trish screamed at the thing to let her babies go.

"I'm not letting go." I told Max breathlessly, and he nodded, tears pouring from his ice-like eyes. "I've got you, Max, I've got you."

"Rachel!" Master Vergil bellowed.

Somehow, with the whole building falling around me, I didn't care. I didn't care about anything, except the fact that a child was in danger, and I was the one protecting him.

Dante seized my hips and pulled me back with a grunt, and the light let him go for just a moment before Dante was whipped back by another tentacle.

It tried to pull me away, but it only tugged Max away too. So I was left to pull him out myself.

I tried to get onto my bum so I could dig my heels in and pull him back, but it chose the precise moment to tug so that he was half in, and half out of, the light beam.

I growled and tried to shimmy back on my stomach, but it wasn't working.

Nero – and I knew it was Nero, kicked a chunk of falling plaster away from my head, and tried to grab me, but I shouted: "No, you get rid of the debris!"

He did it without question.

I saw the house shudder and heave, and fall to a diagonal.

Max screamed as the light beam was pulling him down, and I, pulling him up, the house collapsing, his mother screaming, his father growling so loudly that it was almost in my ears…

When I saw it.

Him. The thing in the middle of the light.

He was beautiful. My age. Black hair, white eyes.

He looked surprised that I had seen him.

I was surprised I had seen him.

He didn't have tentacles, just held up his hand, and they stopped fighting.

There was a moment where he reached out of the beam, and the house froze halfway through falling. Everyone, except me, Max, and Nero, made no move, or one sound.

He touched my cheek with the tips of his fingers, so gently, my eyes half closed and I leaned into it, my grip on Max slackening.

"Such strength…" the boy said, his voice echoing.

"Let him go." I whispered.

"I can't." he replied airily, then: "Who are you?"

"Rachel." I replied, then closed my eyes tightly and pulled Max with all my strength. I managed to get him all the way out, too- and time continued to move, the shop collapsing, Trish screaming, Dante shooting.

"Max-!" I gasped, because he was free, and I had saved him –

"Rachel!" he said, eyes wide.

Then the house fully closed in, and Nero knocked me to the floor, me pulling Max to my chest to cover him with my body, as Nero had done to me.

When all was quiet, I opened my eyes and hugged Max like I thought he was dead. He stirred, then hugged me too, sobbing into my shoulder.

Nero was unconscious, a little blood leaking from his forehead.

The sun was high in the sky- and the air smelt fresh. It was the next day. I'd slept under rubble with an unconscious half demon on top of me.

The light had disappeared, and I sat up, pushing a large wooden beam away from Nero's skull to conclude that he was fine. It had just bumped him.

"Dante?" I called, my voice croaking. "Master Vergil?"

"Rachel-" Trish gasped, zapping a large piece of plaster away from both her and Dante. "Where's Max?!" she shrieked.

Dante got to his feet and saw Max, his face relieved, but still – depressed.

"Oh God," he said, and helped his wife up. They began to limp as quickly as they could towards us.

My master Vergil knelt at my side, his hand on Max's shoulder. He helped me up, and I leaned against him fully, unable to walk at all with the wound on my thigh. We approached the middle, ready to check and fawn over Max, when a thinner beam of light shot up, and the boy snatched Max away with his bare hands.

"No, you leave him alone!" I yelled, diving in after him.

I managed to grab a hand – but it wasn't Max's, it was the boy's – and he leaned up, out of the light, to kiss me firmly on the lips.

I blinked stupidly, but he pulled me closer with an arm around the back of my neck.

His lips were soft – and so was the rest of him, actually – and he pulled away, giving me a lighter and quicker kiss.

He touched my palm (covered in demon blood and dirt) to his cheek, then kissed that too.

"Such strength." He sighed.

Then disappeared.

I stayed with my hand hovering in the air like a stunned mullet. Then started to throw the world's biggest tantrum, pounding on the floor, screaming my head off at the boy with no name.