Disclaimer: I don't own Devil May Cry.
The fic is technically complete, but it can go on hiatus if it wants to! Seriously, for the next month+ I'm going to be working on editing my original novel for a college project and am not going to be writing fanfic. I'll keep updating SIn because I'm doing chapters in advance, but that'll be it. So that means it'll be a while before there's any more of this, sorry. Let me know what you would like to see next, romance or non-depressing chibi fluff or…
Well, the novel actually doesn't give that much information about Eva's death. Code 2: Vergil (the manga) actually gives more. So it looks like I'm not going to have to majorly revise Rapture due to the novel. Huzzah. If anyone wants to see my first thingy on Eva's death, check out Rebellion's story in SIn. All the chapters are really stand-alone, and this one takes place before all the others anyway, so don't worry if you're not reading the story.
For anyone interested in the genesis of this story, I have three goals here: a) Dante likes strawberry sundaes in the novel, b) to show why he quotes the phrase "devils never cry" so much, and c) Dante talks about Eva having to tell him to clean up after himself a lot in the manga. Since we know so little about Dante's childhood I'm trying to cover everything we do know.
This is the first of the Codicils so far, taking place when they are four.
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"Now remember to put them back when you've finished using them." Eva gave them a level stare, hands braced on hips, to impress them with the seriousness of this task.
"Yes Mommy!" Vergil took the box of tools with the hammer and Dante took the saw and they ran outside to go find some poor defenseless tree.
Eva smiled after them and looked around the gatehouse that served as the garage. They should be able to cobble something together, and she'd have plenty of time to check them over and make sure they hadn't left any sharp nails pointing out. Although they were pretty good carpenters, she'd made them put back together so much furniture over the years. It didn't stop them from breaking it. In fact, she had a sneaking suspicion that they'd deliberately wrecked the dining room table one time so they had an excuse to play with nails. She would have punished them, but they'd fixed it before she found out and she'd been too busy to see the smirks. Hindsight was always twenty/twenty… although usually they regarded it as a chore. Although they'd made their own loft beds for their rooms after she'd made them go into separate rooms. She was amazed they didn't fall down… not that they would be seriously hurt by this.
Carpentry wasn't a chore today.
She just hoped this was a good idea. They'd promised to look after them, and it would teach them responsibility.
"Lunch is in the refrigerator!" She called after them. She'd made sandwiches and put them on one of the lower shelves.
She checked her watch and got in the big truck, driving down to the village at the bottom of the mountain. The truck from the train station in the nearest big town had come on Saturday as usual, and there had been a call saying her orders had arrived. The postmaster had kept them for her overnight.
She'd debated making it a surprise, when she'd first had the idea, but having hostages against the twins' good behavior had been priceless. They'd had to earn these gifts.
She hummed as she drove down the mountain. She probably wouldn't be back before dark.
When the children were young she'd had people make deliveries, but now? With the twins the bundles of curiosity they were? They might ambush the driver or something.
She always tried to find something for them to do before she went down, but one time they'd almost followed her and she'd had to discipline them. She'd told them to stay home.
The village wasn't New York. It was small and everyone called her Lady Eva, in German of course. It made her homesick. This was Sparda's place, not hers, this little village like something out of a horror movie. And she lived in the dark castle on the crags they warned people not to go to.
In her case, not because of a vampire (or devils) but because trespassers would be (detected by the wards and) shot.
Coloring books. Salt, sugar, flour, meat, more vegetables… they just ate so much. Little black holes.
She loaded everything herself. She couldn't open all the boxes and bags, but she could check for tampering. Though she doubted anyone would try a bomb, and the wards wouldn't let anything cursed pass.
She'd driven through the boundary once and felt the truck shake. When she'd stopped on the other side she'd found boxes strewn on the road where the wards had stopped one coming with the truck and that one pushed others out. She'd had to carry each one through one at a time until she found it was the canister of olive oil that held the curse, one specifically targeted against baby demons.
She'd put it in a special box she had gone to get and followed the directions for a counter-curse.
The next time she'd gone down to the village the paper had news of a group of tourists that had come to hike having died mysteriously. She'd smiled.
Sorcerers got what they deserved. People after her family got what they deserved.
And if they hadn't been sorcerers (the curse had been a very familiar type) she didn't care.
Sparda's children. Who knew how powerful they would be. She didn't. So she had to teach them responsibility and caring, and what better way than this?
She put the last box in the seat beside her and headed back up the mountain.
When she got to the ancient gate across the gully the road went along that marked the boundary of the territory Vergil and Dante were allowed in the boys were standing on top of it and waving. She smiled at their eagerness and drove through, waving back. They ran along beside the car, jumping up to peer through the window at her cargo and shouting.
"Yay!"
"Thank you Mommy!"
She smiled at their joy. They looked so bright and happy, so innocent. She'd do anything to keep them this way.
She arrived at the gatehouse eventually and ordered, "Help me with the perishables."
They eagerly carried boxes they couldn't see over too and fro. They had no trouble navigating. They never tripped. Never. Not even when they took their first steps, Vergil first then Dante copying him, walking over to Sparda's arms… she shook her head.
And cursed, that she would have to flinch from such a blazingly happy memory.
Still raw. She would heal in time, she told herself.
It had been two years. How long would it take? How long until she would stop yearning? How long for the phantom pain to disappear, for her body to learn the limb was severed?
Finally she went back to the car and carried the box.
"Can we see?"
"Please Mommy?" They jumped up again in their eagerness.
She laughed softly. "Come on."
They followed her into the kitchen where she put the box down and opened it.
Revealing two Husky puppies, big-pawed and awkward.
Vergil and Dante knelt down next to the box and watched, eyes wide open.
The puppies braced their paws on the sides of the box to try to get at the new people. Her boys looked at her. "Hold out your hands like this, fingers curved and palms down." She went first, letting them sniff her and lick her hand. The boys did the same.
The white and grey puppies hesitated, tails pausing in their wagging, then they wuffed and licked enthusiastically.
Why had they... Oh. They were young, but they must have been able to tell there was something odd about Vergil's and Dante's scents. What if they had rejected the boys? They would have been heartbroken! She gave a quiet sigh of relief at the close call.
"Mommy, which one's mine?" Vergil asked.
Eva looked at their collars. "This one is Blue, so he's yours, Vergil." She'd been a little nonplussed by the names they'd picked, but they boys had been adamant.
"So you're red. Hello Red!" Dante grinned. Red wuffed again, tail hitting the box with increasingly rapid thumps.
Eva reached in and picked up Blue. "Boys, go make sure all the doors are closed. I'm going to take them out of the box."
"Okay!" They ran and came back quicker than they should have been able to. Eva put down Blue and then Red.
"Boys, hold still."
The puppies ran around, sniffing everything, and though her boys clearly itched to catch and pet them they didn't move, not wanting to have the puppies they had just gotten taken away. That was good self control. She was very pleased with them.
The puppies frisked around, the boys watching them avidly.
Eva stood up. "I'm going to get food for them, they must be hungry. I'll show you how to feed them this once and after this it's your job, okay?"
"Yes Mommy!" Eager little beavers.
She knelt and opened the cupboard with the bowls and dog food. A blue bowl for Blue and a red bowl for Red. The boys had made them themselves. "Now, you take this scoop, fill it once and pour it into the bowls. Then you carry the bowls over to the sink and run the hot water until it's bathwater warm. Then you pour the warm water into the bowls with the scoop. Then you leave it five minutes until the food gets mushy enough and then you give it to them to eat." She left the bowls on the counter to wait. "Got that?"
They nodded.
"Now, sit down at your table and we'll have sundaes to celebrate. I just got more frozen strawberries."
They sat down, the dogs following them. Now they pet the puppies. One of them yelped as Vergil tugged on an ear. "Gently!"
"But Mom, Blue is my dog and he was going to Dante!"
"He doesn't know he's your dog yet. Dogs are slow to learn, they're not as smart as people. And you're not going to make him want to be your dog by hurting him, now are you?"
"Yes, Mommy." Vergil apologized to Blue as Eva made the sundaes.
Red was perched on Dante's lap and licking Dante's face. Dante licked him back, laughing. When Eva saw that she frowned. "Dante, stop that. People don't lick things, dogs do."
"But he likes it!"
"It's still not a good thing to do." Not that Dante needed to worry about germs.
Soon after the boys started on their sundaes she gave the puppies their food.
Her children were happy and the puppies were wagging their tails. She smiled and made herself a sundae too to celebrate. She hadn't eaten in the village.
"Okay, you can play with the puppies now." They immeditly got down off the chairs and crouched on all fours. The puppies licked their faces and Dante batted at what she thought was Red.
They all tumbled down on the ground and Eva found she needed to go to the bathroom. "Stay here!"
When she came back, Vergil met her in the hall looking guilty. "Mommy, we broke…"
"If you broke something, you'd better fix it, mister!" What was it this time? "Vergil, I'm ashamed of you. You can't even manage one day of good behavior? Now we'll have to put the puppies away on their very first day here!"
Vergil looked ashamed. "I'm sorry, Mommy. We tried fixing them, but we don't know how." Vergil tugged on her arm. "Please show us how?"
The puppies were lying still on the ground, Dante sitting by them and poking them. His face looked up at hers expectantly as her face fell. Oh no. Maybe it was just a broken leg? Then why were they silent instead of whimpering? There wasn't any blood… She knelt by them and checked their pulses. Nothing.
"Vergil, I'm sorry. I can't fix this. They're dead."
Dante reached in his pocked and took out a gold orb. He touched it to Red. When nothing happened, he touched it to Red again, harder. Jabbed it. Dante whimpered questioningly at him. "Mommy! It's not working! You said…"
She shook her head. "Gold orbs only work if you use them right when you die." If the spells even worked on animals at all. They had to be targeted specifically enough they didn't go off when bacteria died, right? "They're dead, Dante. And they're going to stay that way."
"But Blue! Mommy, you gotta fix Blue!" Vergil tugged at her, face crunching up. Dante whined again.
"I can't fix Blue," she said evenly, trying to calm him down. "What happened."
"We were playing roll on the ground, and then we chased them, and pounced, but they didn't get up to pounce back."
Eva felt around. "You snapped their necks." What an accident. This was her fault, she must not have mad it clear enough how gentle they needed to be. "Living things are easy to break!"
"We killed them!" Vergil wailed.
Dante echoed him.
Eva's eyes shone with desperation and she gathered up her babies. "Vergil, Dante… I'm sorry I can't make it all batter." She'd do anything to be able too.
Vergil hit at her. "Blue! Make Blue come back!"
She grabbed his arm and wrenched it around. "Don't you dare hit me or so help me I'll…" Cold fury. That was the tone she needed for this. She could not afford to let them think they could hit her… later she would shoot them.
"It's cause we're demons and demons kill things!" Dante wailed. "I didn't mean to!"
If it was inevitable because he was a demon than it wasn't Dante's fault, Eva figured after being startled. "No, you're not just a devil." They had to learn they were human to.
"Why not?" Vergil asked, sniffling. "Daddy was. People say we're devils, that's why you said we can't meet people yet."
She wiped away a tear from her precious baby's face. "Devils never cry."