Jill quirked her head. She'd thought that she heard…no, it couldn't be. Just so eager to be out of here that I'm hearing things. She looked through the bars in her cell door; Barry was leaning against the wall opposite, looking anxious. She paused again at a second strange noise. Just what was going-
The sound of heavy doors being thrown open echoed outside her cell. "Giant naked monster with a massive weak point and no lips…how that weirdo was supposed to be an effective killing machine…"
It couldn't be…
"Hey, Barry! Wesker managed to kill himself with that half-baked science project of his; we cool now?"
Barry sputtered. "Wesker is…he…how are you…?"
"Missed you too, pal. Now step back."
That voice…
"Whoever's in the cell, get away from the door! I'm staging a jailbreak." The occupants retreated to the far wall; with a loud crash, the steel door fell in two halves, a grinning white-haired man replacing the sword on his back. "Hey. Miss me?"
Jill gaped at Dante. "You're…you…"
"Aww, missed you too. Hey, Kyrie; a certain someone's been lookin' for you."
Kyrie strode past the immobile S.T.A.R.S. officer to the group outside the cell, giving Nero a glowing smile. "I knew you'd make it."
He smiled back. "Sorry I wasn't here sooner. But you know how much time Dante wastes showing off."
She stifled a giggle, and the Son of Sparda rolled his eyes. "Yeah, yeah, let's all make fun of Dante, how original," he grumbled. "Let's go, Jill. Unless you're thinking of making this a winter home or something."
"You died," she growled at him. "Wesker shot you. And DON'T try to wiggle out of it this time!" she snapped as he opened his mouth. "I saw it! I saw the wound in your forehead! What the hell happened?!"
He sighed. "It's…tough to explain…but I'm-"
"They're demons," Chris declared. Dante turned to stare at him. "What? No sense dancing around it now."
"…Well, only part-demon. And just Nero and me." He turned back to Jill. To his surprise, she didn't look disturbed or scared; in fact, she looked hurt. "What is it?"
"I knew there was something you were hiding from me! Why didn't you trust me?"
"What was I supposed to say? 'Oh, by the way, I can use superpowers because Dad was from Hell?'"
"As much fun as I'm having listening here," Lady cut in dryly, "maybe we can keep our priorities right. You know, zombie-filled mansion?"
Jill sighed, but nodded. "…All right. We can try to escape, but what's your plan for this place? We can't just leave things like this, even if Wesker really is dead."
Rebecca spoke up. "We need to set the self-destruct; it'll take the mansion and the creatures out all at once. Enrico found where it is; we'll time it so that we can still escape before it goes off."
Dante smiled. "Rebecca, you are my favorite medic. I second that plan."
Jill frowned. "It would work, but…if we do that…"
"…All of our evidence goes up in flames, too," Chris finished.
Lady nodded gravely. "It's a tough choice. But if the zombies get loose, evidence won't matter much. This disease will spread like nothing you've seen; we have to quarantine it here."
"Not to mention," Dante said, waving several sheets of paper, "I'm holding onto plenty of incriminating documents."
Barry smiled. "It's no smoking gun, but it'll be hard to sweep under the rug if they've got signatures or personal info."
"Sure won't hurt, anyway," Jill noted.
A familiar form took in the scene of the lab room. It stepped over the broken glass, walking up to the immobile form laying on the floor. "Well, since you're asleep and all…I'll be taking that, if you don't mind…" It reached down towards him…
Enrico met up with them outside the detention corridor. He, Jill, and Rebecca split off to activate the self-destruct while the rest waited for them by the elevator.
Barry tapped his foot, sighing irritably. Waiting was never really one of those things he enjoyed. "So."
Nero nodded. "Yeah."
"…Nice revolver."
Nero nodded again. "Same to you."
"Does it really have two barrels?"
"Yep."
"…Recoil must be murder."
"I manage."
Barry was spared trying to make further small talk as a cool female voice echoed throughout the corridor. "The self-destruct sequence has been activated. All personnel must evacuate immediately. Due to the emergency, all locks have been deactivated and released."
"The one time I'm actually happy to hear her…" Lady said wistfully. "Once the other three get back here, let's get to the roof as fast as we can. If your teammate is still here, we can signal him from there."
"How are you going to do that?" Chris gave her a curious look.
She patted Kalina Ann. "We have our ways…"
Their comrades raced back to them as lights flashed and sirens blared. They all piled into the elevator, returning to the floor with the cells. As they did, Chris's radio crackled. "This is Brad! I'm running out of fuel; this is your last chance. If there's anyone still alive down there, give me some kind of sign! I repeat, this is your last chance!"
Chris didn't bother reaching for the radio. Instead he led them through the corridors, replacing a fuse unit with one lying on the floor next to it. "Fifteen minutes until detonation," the speakers announced.
"Company!" Lady announced. She drew her guns, Barry, Rebecca, Enrico and Jill following suit. Slowly trudging towards them was a mix of the creatures they'd endured so far; the fly-hybrid things, the Hunters, zombies, zombie dogs, a couple spiders on the ceiling…and if the shrieks in the distance were any clue, a couple of Crimson Heads.
"They don't wanna let us leave without a sendoff…" Nero muttered.
"No time to play with you," Dante said, scowling at them. "We need to get to the roof, but I don't think we can all fit in the elevator at once."
"Chris and Jill, you take Dante, Lady and Kyrie to the roof," Enrico ordered briskly. "We'll join up with you before long."
Chris hesitated. "But-"
"Come on, let us have our moments too," the Bravo leader said with a small smile. "Go on!"
Reluctantly, Jill, Chris and their group left the remainder behind, taking the elevator upwards. Mentally, Lady was counting the time they had left. Come on…hurry…
Finally, after what seemed like several hours, they'd reached the roof. The instant the elevator doors opened, they all ran outwards. They scanned the area; they were on what seemed to be a simple heliport.
"Mind if I do the honors, Lady?"
She unslung Kalina Ann, handing the missile launcher over to Dante. "Be my guest."
He hefted the launcher onto his right shoulder, drawing Ebony with his left hand. Raising the bazooka, he fired a missile upwards into the air; after it had gained decent altitude, he took aim with the black pistol. After a split-second charge with demonic power, he fired; the missile detonated, an explosion blooming above them. "That should get his attention." He handed the launcher back to Lady, but hurriedly trained his pistol on the elevator as it shuddered to a stop at the roof. He holstered his weapon as the rest of their team exited; Barry was clutching his stomach and looking winded, and Rebecca had a slight limp as she clutched her gun arm, but they otherwise seemed okay.
Their sense of relief was short-lived, however, as the roof shook from underneath them. "It's too early to go off!" Lady said in disbelief. "But then…"
Chunks of concrete and steel burst upwards, making a large hole beneath them. A form leapt out of the hole, landing on the roof with the group.
"It's the Tyrant!" Rebecca yelled.
"What the hell…didn't you say it was dead?!" Barry shouted, pointing his revolver at it.
"Haven't had enough yet?" Dante challenged, pulling out Pandora's briefcase. "We'll keep kicking your pasty ass as many times as it takes!"
It glared at him. Its heart began pulsing, its veins growing and crawling all over its body. The veins turned black, but glowed red, and the Tyrant's pasty skin turned a dark yellow.
Looks like the demon blood's kicking in. Heh, no worries. Guns blazed on all sides of him as his allies began pouring every bullet they had into the gold abomination. With a flip of Pandora's case, his hands were covered in a bright light; when it cleared, both his forearms were covered with blocky gauntlets, each with two long tubes on the outside. He clenched his fists, and the tubes fired large metal slugs at the Tyrant. The combined firepower seemed to be staggering the monster, but it wasn't getting tired or showing weakness.
"Not enough? Have some more!" Pandora shifted, becoming its bowgun form. Two rockets raced at the Tyrant, impacting with a satisfying explosion. Dante grinned. His grin fell when the smoke cleared, and he saw his enemy had survived unscathed. "Stubborn, huh? I've got more where they came from!" Pandora shifted once again, becoming the triple-barreled bazooka.
KSHEW!
The rockets sped at the bio-engineered bastard. But this time its clawed arm, bulging with glowing veins, actually swatted the rockets away. They flew into the horizon at an angle, a distant explosion sending birds into flight.
Dante gaped. He'd seen demons weather punishment that would pulverize concrete several times over, but to think that this thing, with only a few drops of demon's blood, could swat missiles away…
The beast charged at him, and he moved to shift Pandora again. It'd only had time to return to its briefcase form before the opponent had reached him. It grabbed him by the throat with its non-clawed hand, lifting him into the air and squeezing his throat with surprising force. He gasped, pounding its arm to no avail. This T-Virus/demon mix…it's dangerous! It squeezed tighter and tighter, and he started to see lights pop as the monster reared its clawed hand back, intending to impale him as it had Wesker…
Suddenly, he was dropped to the ground. He coughed, rubbing his neck and staring at his former captor. It was staggering back, several glowing blue blades stabbed into its face.
He got to his feet, looking behind him. The blue spirit was settled over Nero, even larger than when he'd last seen it. Nero's eyes were glowing bright red, and unless Dante's own eyes were deceiving him, his coat and left arm were looking a little scaly. "Pathetic, Dante," the Holy Knight reprimanded him. "Is that the extent of your effort? Where's your motivation?!"
He felt the world freeze for a fraction of a second.
…Did he just…?
And then it restarted, Nero looking like he always did in Devil Trigger.
"Now get it together and let's finish this."
Dante nodded. "…All right, Nero. Get everyone back."
Nero's Devil Trigger deactivated. He blinked, and to Lady he almost looked lost. He shook his head, and then motioned for them all to back up by the door. They retreated, reloading their weapons.
Dante looked at the Tyrant, a mean grin spreading over his face. "So you can slap missiles away, huh? Okay." He readied Pandora.
It shifted, grew, and enveloped him. Within moments, he was comfortably seated in the floating missile battery nicknamed "Argument". Fitting; it sure as hell solves them.
He Devil Triggered, channeling power into the weapons. "Slap this."
Every single missile turret fired, dozens of rockets rising into the air with crackling red energy coating them. And then, arcing sharply, they all converged on the Tyrant as one.
The explosion dwarfed what the bowgun's projectiles had caused before. The blast rose into the air, hissing furiously. Moments later, it had died down; all that was left of the Tyrant was a massive scorch mark on the roof.
Pandora returned to its briefcase shape, and Dante stored it away, nodding in satisfaction as he regained his human form. "Give my best to Wesker."
And there we go! Only one more chapter to go, but we'll see that soon enough...
Right now, in fact.