There are many different worlds and many different realities, stretching through time and space. Some more similar than others. Yet, the smallest of changes can lead these worlds to break from one another. For no matter how similar a world can seem on the surface, nothing is ever truly the same. Even those who have the ability to travel these worlds know this. This is fact.
In one world, the Sons of Sparda fought one another for years upon years after losing their parents as children. The battles between them are the stuff of myth and legend. One son would seem dead for many years, until he returned and reclaimed his weapon from his own son. This son, the grandson of Sparda, would reconcile the brothers only to lose them again to their own mission to fix their many mistakes. In another, the sons were born of an Angel instead of a human. This desperate, broken ruin of a world would suffer from the utter madness of the younger son and the poor stewardship of the elder son.
Within yet a third world, the Son and Daughter of Sparda repeated many of the mistakes of the first world. They fought. They bled and suffered. They were puppets in the game of the Demon Emperor, twisting the children against one another. The Daughter was the first to realize this. Despite all the fighting, despite all the pain, she continued to love her younger brother. Knowing they were little more than pawns, she made her own plans. Her own contingency.
If they could not defeat the Demon Emperor, she would at least see to it that her brother survived. No matter what it took.
"Give up already! You know you can't win!"
The clash of blades, something very familiar to the two fighting, echoed through the tunnel. Katana against broadsword. Brother against Sister. A dance of death that would punish the slightest of mistakes. Had punished the slightest of mistakes. For the brother stood still over the fallen form of a black haired woman, protecting her with his very life, if necessary. He knew it limited him. As the broadsword clashed against his katana, he fought in a way that went against every instinct. He had survived these fights by being faster, by avoiding blows. His entire life had been fighting with movement. Never standing still. Always flowing around blows, striking in openings.
He still wouldn't budge. Not an inch.
"I can't give up. Not now!" He shouted at his sister, a brace of spectral swords surrounding his head before shooting out. Finally forcing the silver-haired woman back. "If I don't stop you, here and now, you'll use Father's power to destroy everything! I can't allow you to do that!"
His sister laughed. "Oh you foolish, foolish boy." There was no humor in her laugh. It was a dead, dry laugh. The kind a doomed man would make, staring at the noose. "I don't want Father's power to destroy the world. Nor to rule it." She jumped forward again, ignoring the blue blade that cut a sharp line across her cheek. Her massive black sword fell upon the slim silver katana of her sibling. "I want it to protect you."
"What?!" Her brother gaped, twisting his wrist to disengage, while staying over his fallen ally. "You can't be...protect me?! All we've done is fight! Our entire lives!"
"Without power, you cannot protect anything. My dear brother, I thought you knew that. You stand to protect her." A hand gestured at the fallen woman, breathing weakly on the ground. "Could you do that without power?"
The younger sibling grimaced. "No. So what, you've been fighting me all this time for...what? To make me more powerful?! Is that it? You've told yourself that Mother and Father would be happy with us fighting like this, because it makes us stronger?!"
With a bone-weary sigh, the sister stepped back. Her dead laughter coming to a halt, as she shook her head, and held her sword to her side. A hand came up and wiped at her hair, slicking loose silver strands from her piercing blue eyes. "No. I love you too much for that. I've been fighting to-"
"Love?" It was her brother's turn to give a dry, mirthless laugh. He had his own blade held at the ready. Never again would he lower it around his sister. "Did you love me when you were thrusting your sword through my chest on Temen-ni-gru to get Father's sword? Did you love me when you cut down so many people on Fortuna to raid their library?" He held his other fist tight against his side, blood leaking down his hand.
"Brother...I..."
Glaring at his sister, the Son of Sparda continued. "Or was it love that had you knock Shira down when she just wanted us to stop fighting? Where is the love you're talking about, Sister?!"
"SHUT UP!"
Silence. Nothing but the sound of rain pattering through a hole in the tunnel and the breathing of the two siblings. Identical blue eyes glared across a gap that seemed so much more than the few feet it was. It was not a physical gap. Years of pain. Years of conflict. Years of miscommunication. These divided the siblings as sure as any blade ever could. Not even the katana within the brother's hand could cut through such a gulf. It would take more than that to heal. More than there was time.
The sister knew this. She would be the first to break the silence, her eyes losing their harsh glare. Replaced by loss and sadness that would make the hardest of hearts twinge in sympathy.
"I'm truly sorry, Brother. For everything." She turned her gaze to the sword in her hand. The sword her Father had left her. Even now, she refused to use her Father's blade on her brother. "I would not change my actions. I do not regret what needed to be done. If I hadn't fought you, the Demon Emperor would have destroyed you as surely as he did our parents. If I hadn't gone to Fortuna, I wouldn't..."
Trailing off, she looked at her brother. Despite her words, regret was etched into every line on her face. She hadn't even bothered healing the gash on her cheek. It would scar. A mark of all she had lost in her foolish quest.
"...if you believe nothing else I say, at least believe this. I have never loved anyone more than I loved you. You're the most important person in this entire, cursed world, to me. I would do anything to keep you safe. Even if it meant sacrificing my own happiness. I...I know I hurt you. I can never forget that." Holding her own free hand to her side, the sister could no longer look at her brother. "I love you too much to lie, any more."
Her brother stared at his sister, eyes softening if only a little. "So everything until now has been a lie? Hunting Father's power was a lie? Working with Arkham was a lie?" He lowered his blade, only a little, yet enough to show he was putting some trust in his sister's emotional plea. "I loved you too, you know. My happiest memories were when our parents were alive and we could just..be kids. Damnit, why can't you just let us go back to that? Forget the Emperor! Just us and Shira. We can run away from everything, y'know. Live our lives like we were meant to!"
A sad smile came across his sister's lips. "Were it so easy."
Before the brother could blink, his sister had appeared behind him. His katana fell from limp hands, as she stabbed his pressure points. His arms were wrenched behind his back, ice-cold bonds holding them in place. A Devil Arm, wrapped around his arms and fed with his sister's power. Her very life energy. He could not break it. Not so long as she powered it.
"What are you-damnit! Damnit all to hell! You lied again!" He still thrashed and struggled, once his healing restored feeling to his limbs. Betrayal filled his blue gaze, as he spat at his sister. "All that talk about love! It was bullshit, wasn't it? Just like every other time!"
Shaking her head, the elder sibling backed away. Her hands reached down, and picked up the fallen katana. Her eyes fell upon the silver blade, before returning to her sibling. "No. None of it was a lie. I told you, dear Brother. I'm done with lying. To you or anyone else." She swung the blade. First down, then across. A black vortex, purple clouds and blue energy blurring the edges formed between the siblings. That done, she returned it to the sheath on her brother's hip. "I...we can't win, you know. Even together. He's too strong for how we are. Constantly fighting. Constantly weak."
Stepping past her struggling brother, the sister picked up the fallen form of Shira. Black hair and an equally black tail fell upon her arms, as she walked to the portal. The faintly breathing body was tossed into the portal, vanishing from sight and feeling. Her brother's struggles increased tenfold, the Devil Arm wrapped around his arms straining to hold back his strength, even as the ice surrounding his legs- when had that gotten there? -held him in place. Knowing that she lacked time, his sister walked to her brother once more. She stopped in front of him, staring deep and long into his hateful eyes.
"I'm sorry."
Her arms, no longer holding anything at all, wrapped around his body. His struggles stopped, in shock more than anything else, as his sister held him tight to her chest. Her red jacket covering his blue, as her arms held him as if he were a life raft. Her body shook with repressed emotion. Choked off sobs wracked her frame. Her shocked brother felt something wet falling upon his shoulder. Not blood. Tears. She was...crying. After all of that, she was crying. Like a child knowing they were about to lose something. She held him tight. She didn't want to let go. It was...
The first time either of them had hugged each other since they were kids. The first time they'd shown real care for each other in years.
"I already apologized for everything else. However...I must apologize for this as well." Tears continuing to roll down pale cheeks, the sister pulled away from her brother. She looked at him with red-rimmed eyes, sniffling away her tears. "You need to promise me. Promise me that you'll stay safe."
Her brother snorted. "Why should I promise you anything, after what you just did?"
"Because I did it for you." Was the only response. Leaning in to her brother, the sister rested her head against his shoulder. Her tears fell hot and fast against his side. "Everything for you. That has never changed."
She pulled back again, her hands holding her brother's half of the Perfect Amulet. His eyes widened at that, and at the sword forming on her back. She couldn't...she was. After everything, she was still going to use their father's power. A sad smile crossed her lips. She knew what he was thinking, of course. It was why she shook her head, and leaned in. A wet, tearful kiss placed against her brother's cheek. Her arms retracting from the desperate hug. She bore a crooked kind of smile.
Holding the Perfect Amulet, both halves reunited, she reached behind her head and pulled free Force Edge. The sword, the amulet, the power all merged together. With crimson light filling the tunnel, the sister looked at her brother. Her voice filled with the kind of pain that only someone about to lose everything could understand. "We cannot win. I cannot win. Not like this. Not even with Father's power at my side." Holding the Devil Sword Sparda, now, the sister planted it into the ground and walked to her brother once more. "That's why I'm doing this. I have no intention of dying here. I will find you again. But I won't let you die for my mistakes. I won't."
"You can't be..." Her brother gaped at her, his struggles once more intensifying. Stupid, self-sacrificing...he couldn't let her do this! Even after everything that had happened between them! "Listen to me! We can beat Him together! You don't need to fight him alone!"
A sad shake of the head greeted those words. "It always had to be this way. I can't fight if I'm worried about you. Please...please be safe." Reaching her arms forward, the sister pulled her brother into her arms. She walked to the still-existent portal, and looked down upon him with those sad blue eyes. "Live your life, Dante. Be free from all of this...and remember. I'll always be there for you."
"Damnit, Vergie! Don't do this!" Dante shouted with everything he had, trying to get his sister to see reason. "We're stronger together! You know that, I know you do! Let me help you, for the love of God!"
"I have no intention of dying." Vergie repeated herself, her sad smile continuing to linger on her pale face. Blood dripped down her chin, as she tossed Dante into the portal. In her hand, a shard of Yamato that she had broken off in an earlier battle. "I'll find you, some day, Dante. When I do...I'll make everything up to you. I promise. We'll finally be able to be brother and sister again."
"Vergie! Don't do this!" Dante screamed, as he fell through the portal.
The only response he got was his big sister mouthing the words 'Don't worry' to him, as she wiped her eyes and grabbed Sparda again. She strode forward to face the future, as the portal closed and Dante fell into darkness...
It was cold. That was the first thing that came to mind for Dante, as he fell to the ground. He didn't even feel the pain. All he felt was Cerberus, his once-loyal Devil Arm, finally falling from his arms. His sister's power fading from the Devil Arm and leaving it sitting there for the taking. As she had once taken it from him in the first place. The Devil Hunter paid it barely any mind, as he flipped his body over and punched the ground. His fist cratered the...concrete...beneath him. He wasn't in the tunnel. He was in a man-made passage of some sort.
He knew, more importantly, that he wasn't in his human world any longer. Nor was he in Hell. This was an entirely different dimension.
This is why you raided Fortuna, isn't it? To figure out a place to send me. Goddamnit. Vergie you...you...
The anger he had felt towards his sister faded away. Like dust in the wind. She...the big idiot had done this all for him, huh? She'd given up everything for him. Maybe even her very life.
"You have to live, Vergie. You have to come back to me." Dante whispered, not even noticing how his bruised hand healed from the blow to the ground. He felt tears prick at his eyes now. His feelings were a raging mess that he couldn't even begin to unwrap.
In the classic Sparda way, he chose to not bother for now. Sucking in a steadying breath, he climbed to his feet. Yamato rested reassuringly at his hip, as it always had. Leaning over to pick up Cerberus as well, he glared at the Devil Arm. The image of a kicked puppy rewarded him, prompting a heavy sigh. Cerberus served loyally, whoever was wielding it. That his sister had used Cerberus against him wasn't the Demon's fault. So, placing it in his storage, Dante looked around at his surroundings. His initial suspicions were correct. The tunnel was gone and he was sitting in a dust filled storage room instead.
Old crates were stacked all the way to the ceiling, covered in what must have been years of dust. Unfamiliar writing and unfamiliar insignia covered the crates, confirming his other suspicion. He and Vergie had been all over the world fighting each other. This wasn't anything he had seen on his Earth.
"Okay...this is fine. I can figure this out." Muttering to himself, Dante turned his eyes from the crates and looked for what- or rather, who -he needed to find. It didn't take him long. "Shira!"
His dear friend was laying on the ground, further in the room, still out-cold. Dante rushed to her side and fell to his knees beside her. The girl's ears were twitching weakly, both human and fox. Her black hair fell in a cascade around her body, some strands falling before her face. Dante softly rubbed those away, wincing at the massive bruise atop her head.
Vergie, I'm going to get you back for that. You hear me?
"Hey...Shira. Wakey wakey." Dante's voice was soft, as he gently ran circles across the kitsune's face. Her eyes slowly, weakly, opening up. "Welcome back, sleepyhead. I was worried I'd have to carry you out of here."
It was a weak joke, and Shira proved it by snorting at Dante's words. Her purple-eyed gaze telling him exactly what she thought about that. "Where are we, Dante? And what the hell hit me?"
"Vergie's sword, and I don't know."
Answering the questions in reverse was for a good reason. Dante had no idea where they were. Where could his sister have possibly dropped him off...? He didn't know. He didn't even know how she had found this place. He knew, instinctively, that Yamato had powers he had no idea of. Yet the idea that it could connect to worlds other than the Demon or Human had never occurred to him. His sister had figured out more about his sword than he had. A bitter chuckle escaped his lips. Of course she had. Vergie always was the type to dig through the old books like that.
"If you don't know where we are, we need to get moving then!" For her part, Shira sat up fully, and sent Dante her typical grin. Despite the situation, her personality wouldn't stay down for long. "Let's go exploring! We haven't done that in a long tiiiii-" Shira trailed off, as she tried to stand up and fell against Dante's side. "Ooooooohhhh that wasn't a good idea."
Dante just rolled his eyes, fondly, "Of course it wasn't. Don't you feel that bump on your head? It sticks out like a sore thumb."
"Shush!" Shira placed her hands on her hips and stuck her tongue out at Dante. Though she didn't hold the pose long, before raising one of her hands to run over her bruise. She winced at the sensation. "Ow. You aren't wrong though. Did she have to hit me like that? I just wanted you two to stop fighting!"
"She didn't want to fight." Dante replied, sighing softly as he rose to his feet. Running a hand through his silver hair, he looked around at the room again. If he knew his sister, she'd make sure he couldn't just use Yamato to get back. So he'd have to make a home here, until she hopefully-
No. No 'hopefully'. She would find him. He had to trust in that. After all, he had plenty to get his off his chest in her direction. She wasn't getting out of that talk so easily!
Sighing again, Dante looked at his friend and gestured towards the only visible doorway. "Shall we, Shira? I think we should figure out where Vergie dumped us before we do anything else. I don't sense any Demons other than us, but you never know..."
"Worrywart." Shira's response was to stand on her toes and give Dante a quick peck on the lips, before spinning around- wincing all the while -and summoning her own katana to hand. Joker that she may be, she understood his point. "Race you to civilization?"
"You'd lose by a landslide."
Ignoring how Shira sputtered at him, Dante walked past her and pressed against the door. Rusted hinges screeched with protest, prompting the kitsune to cover her sensitive ears and hiss lowly. Sending her an apologetic look, Dante continued to press against the door. It slowly, painfully, swung open. However long this place had been resting empty, it had been long enough for serious rot to set in. He was honestly more impressed the hinges didn't fail entirely with his strength pressing against it. Whoever built the thing had at least built it strong if nothing else. Either they were in a military base...
...or they had something they wanted to keep out. Something strong enough to require a door built like a tank, that even his strength needed actual effort to move. Granted he was a bit worn out from fighting his sister, but even so, that didn't bode terribly well.
I don't sense any Demons, that wasn't a lie. But there not being any Demons doesn't rule out there being something just as dangerous out here. We need to be careful. At least until I've recovered my strength and Shira has a chance to heal. I'm not going to get us killed before I have a chance to rip Vergie a new one!
As blue eyes scanned an empty passageway, cobwebs the size of a small child hanging from the ceiling, Shira moved up next to him. Her nose scrunched up in distaste at the webs. "Ew! Can you imagine the size of a spider needed to make those things?"
"Trying not to, actually." Dante snarked, if only to cover his lingering concern. Spiders, huh? "Let's keep moving. I don't want to meet whatever made those webs, even if we can probably kill them. I want to figure out where we are before we have to fight something."
What was left unsaid, that Shira picked up on with a dry look directed at Dante, was that he didn't want to make her fight. Not when she was still stumbling from the blow to her head. Any human would have lost their head, and even a Demon- one without Sparda's healing factor -was going to be hurting for a good long while. Vergie knew exactly what she was doing.
"Y'know," Shira idly spoke up, purple eyes curiously scanning the hallway. More doors lined the walls, each and every one built just as thickly as the one they had left. "Spiders or not, these people reeeeaaaaallllyyy built this place tough. Makes you think, don't it?" Her lips twisted into a slight frown. "I think Vergie sent us somewhere that isn't safe. Just a thought."
Dante just sighed, "Wouldn't surprise me. Power rules everything with that girl. If I know my sister-" I didn't know her as well as I thought. Not really. "-then she probably wants me to get stronger for when she finds us. I don't know if that's to settle our fight or because she doesn't want me to be killed."
"She has a very weird way of showing affection." Shira's voice was dry. But the way her lips twisted took the bite from her words.
Not seeing a reason to deny her point, nor could he, Dante stopped walking at the largest door yet. His blue eyes trailed up and up and up. It was, frankly, less a door and more a gate. A very, very large and thick gate. He wasn't going to be moving that thing on his own, not as he was. Maybe in his Devil Trigger but...he didn't want to use that. Wasn't sure he could use it, in the condition he was in right now. Sighing deeply at that, he turned and stared at Shira instead. She stared back, a single black eyebrow climbing her pale face.
"...you want me to help, don't you?" She asked, before sighing. A rhetorical question, really. "Fiiiiinnnneee. Get up there, big boy. I'll help you push! These arm's aren't for show, you know!"
Joking aside, Shira was a lot stronger than her lithe frame would seem to indicate. Kitsune, somewhat unique even among Demons, hid much of their strength behind illusions and misdirection. They never, ever revealed everything unless forced to. Dante was fairly certain even he didn't know how strong his friend really was.
Guess I'm about to find out. God I hope this works, I don't want to know what cutting that thing open would do to this place. It's old enough I don't want to risk a cave-in.
Leaning up against the vault door, Dante pressed his shoulder forward and began to push. Sweat rolled down his brow was he grunted with the exertion, his feet pushing into the concrete underfoot, digging into it. Behind him, Shira pushed her own strength against him. Together, half-demon and kitsune, they pushed with everything they had. And slowly, very slowly, the door began to shift. If the previous door had resisted moving, this one took what seemed an eternity for each and every centimetre of movement. Dust and small rocks fell from the ceiling, scattering across the floor with each hard fought movement. It was wearing both Dante and Shira down, even as they made progress.
It would have continued to do so, were it not for the sudden, thunderous roar that shook the entire hall. The vault door, shaken by the roar, was jarred loose. Old hinges snapped, the entire edifice falling forward.
"Oh shi-"
Dante was the first to fall with it, landing flat atop the crumpled metal. He had barely managed to rotate to land on his back, his arms open to catch Shira as she toppled with him. The kitsune squeaked as she did, while Dante let out an 'oof' at the impact. Both of them lay still for a moment, utter confusion crossing their faces, as they looked at each other.
"What the hell was that?" Shira spoke up, though she didn't move. She just continued to stare into Dante's blue eyes with her own purple. "Nice catch, by the way! You didn't have to push the whole door down, though. I would have let you hold me if you wanted!"
"Har har." Dante grumbled, rolling his eyes at Shira's antics. "Vergie hit you harder than I thought, if you're joking about this. Maybe she scrambled your brains a bit?" Ignoring the resulting protests with hard-earned practice, the half-demon looked at the area they were now in. A massive cavern, stretching as far as he could see in either direction. What would need...wait. "Is that a train I'm hearing, or am I going insane?"
Shira stopped pounding Dante's chest childishly, and perked her fox ears up instead. "Hmm...yeah! Sounds like a really old kind of train. Who'd need an actual train in a tunnel like this?"
"The same kind of people who built a vault door to keep something big out."
Holding Shira close to his chest, Dante got to his feet and looked out. In front of him, the barest hints of sunlight were filtering in from a ruined roof. At the base of the light, sat the broken remnants of a train cart. One blown out from the bottom as if a bomb had gone off beneath it, and crumpled at the front from the presumable impact with the roof. So. Someone was driving an antique train down a run-down and rotten tunnel. While blowing carts up and putting holes in a probably-not-very-stable roof. What kind of absolute moron would do something like that?
Not knowing the answer to his question, Dante instead directed his enhanced eyesight down the tunnel, looking for any sign of the train. It took a second, but he soon locked upon the caboose of the train, rumbling in the distance. Harder to make out were the figures atop the train, fighting others. He could only tell them apart from the multi-colored outfits worn by one group and the pure white worn by another. Even his eyes couldn't tell more from this far away, not as he was now.
Vergie did more to me than I thought. Normally I'd be able to tell their faces from back here. I need to rest and...wait.
"Oh you morons. You can't be serious." Dante mumbled under his breath, uselessly, since Shira could hear a whisper from a mile away. "They just detached another cart. Want to bet they've got a bomb in there?"
Shira rolled her eyes, gave Dante a quick kiss on the cheek, and pulled away from him. "Not taking that bet!"
"Didn't think you would." Placing his hand on Yamato's hilt, the young Sparda was prepared to jump right into the fray again. He didn't want to. But he couldn't just let this happen, either.
The problem, though, soon became apparent. Even if he wanted to rest, he wouldn't be given the choice. For the hole he had previously noticed would draw his attention once more. Both his and Shira's eyes drifted over to it with more than a little wariness.
"Oh that isn't good." Dante's eyes narrowed, looking at the ruined train car. Crawling all over it were...honestly? If he didn't know better, he'd say they were Demons. "I guess we know why the doors are so big now. What the fuck are those things?"
Black figures, resembling no Demon or animal he was aware of, crawled upon the car and seemed laser focused on the distant train. They had pitch black bodies, scales rippling across powerful muscles, and white bone armor. That would have been simple enough...if not for the red eyes, red lines on the bone, and the fact they had only two legs and a long tail. The creatures resembled absolutely nothing that either Demon had seen before. Which was a problem.
"...I don't like those things, Dante. I don't like them at all." Shira actually hissed, her entire body tense with suppressed feeling.
Dante looked over at her and winced under his breath. Shira's ears were twitching. Her tail was sticking straight up, the fur straight as a razor, and probably as sharp too. He hadn't seen her have that instinctual of a reaction in...a long time. "Shira. Calm down."
"They aren't natural!" She protested, sending Dante a pleading look. Her purple eyes were wide and her body remained tense. "I don't know what it is, Dante, but they aren't. Everything in my body wants me to get away from those things! But my soul wants to kill them!"
"I know. I know." Dante didn't have the same visceral reaction as Shira did. Yet even he felt his Demon blood boiling at the howling monsters. "I don't get it either, but we'd be wasting time fighting those things right now."
Dante placed a hand on Shira's shoulder, and pulled her into a side-hug. The two of them looked at the monsters, as the monsters seemingly ignored them. Whatever it was about those things that set their primal instincts alight, they didn't have the time to fight them right now. As another train car detonated and another hole was opened in the tunnel, that point was driven home. If they didn't stop that train, they'd have more trouble to deal with than they could handle right now. Dante didn't know if those things had some special power and he didn't want to find out. They weren't Demons, true enough.
Yet Demons had taught him, through long experience, to never judge something based on the cover.
Until we've had a chance to recover, I don't want to get into a pointless fight. We'll have better luck figuring out which group on that train is trying to stop the bombs. Work with them. If nothing else, it will get us away from those things before one of us snaps. Probably Shira, she's not in the right state of mind right now anyway. Damnit, Vergie.
Holding his friend to his chest, Dante flicked Yamato out of its sheath. His blue gaze narrowed on the train in the distance, as the things finally noticed the pair behind them. A confused roar echoed, as a few of them hesitantly began moving in his direction. They seemed as confused by what they saw- felt? -as Dante and Shira were. Good, that gave him some time to work with.
"Hold on Shira, I'm getting us on that train." Dante whispered into his friend's ears, as he tightened his grip.
Shira looked at him dubiously, "When was the last time you actually made a portal? I don't want to end up inside a mountain or something..."
"Relax. I've got this!"
Electing to pretend she wasn't glaring at him, Dante swung Yamato a couple times, just as Vergie had done. Another black-and-purple portal sprung to life. This time, Dante had full control. He had imagined his destination, inside the last car on the train, and knew that was where the portal would end. It was as much instinct as anything else. So, with one final look at the monsters, he stepped forth into the portal. The sound of the creatures finally getting over their fear and charging at him echoing behind the Demons, even as the portal shut them off. It was time. Time to figure out exactly what world the elder sibling had condemned her brother to.
At least they're human?
That was the first thought to occur to Dante as he stepped out of the portal. Three women greeted him inside the train car, though it was more accurate to say that only two of them properly greeted him. His eyes drifted over a blonde sprawled on the floor. Either unconscious or dead, he couldn't tell from a quick glance. Above her stood a black-haired woman with a mask that looked just like the bone masks on the creatures from before. Red eyes stared out from it, as well, as she leveled a long red ōdachi at the third woman. That woman was the one who drew Dante's full attention. Not because she was a threat. No.
Because the woman, behind a curtain of mismatched pink and brown hair, looked completely and utterly terrified for her life. Her wide silver eyes looking at the masked woman with unbridled terror as she held up nothing more than an umbrella to defend herself.
"Dante...you thinking what I'm thinking?" Shira stage-whispered from Dante's side, as she glared at the masked woman.
Dante nodded, "That the mask lady took down blondie and is going to kill the other woman if we don't do something? Yeah."
Putting actions to words, Dante- reluctantly -let go of Shira and stepped between the two women. Yamato remained out of its sheath, blade glowing dimly in the faint light of the old train car. He pointed it straight at the dark-haired woman, who tilted her head quizzingly at him. The two-tone haired woman seemed rooted in place in a mix of fear and confusion.
"Portals." A raspy voice spoke up from behind the mask, seemingly more interested than anything else. "No two people have the same Semblance. How did you do that?"
Semblance?
Filing that away for later, Dante just stared at the woman. "Yamato can do a lot of things. So." Pointing his blade at her to underscore his point, Dante nodded at the blonde by the woman's feet. "You going to move so I can make sure she's fine?"
A derisive snort echoed, "Why should I? I don't know who you are."
"I don't know who you are." Dante fired back, noting how the woman flinched. Shock. "Should I?"
There was no answer, save for the woman pointing her long red blade at him. Dante rolled his eyes. Figured. She was acting like Vergie, and he knew exactly how to deal with that. Tired as he was, he still flashed forward. The woman's red eyes widened behind her mask, while she barely brought her longer blade up in time to catch Yamato. Sparks flew from the impact as the two blades pressed against the other. Dante grunted from the exertion, before spinning away and slashing from the side.
As the red blade came up to meet Yamato, it shattered into pieces. The woman's eyes widened even further.
"No normal sword can stop Yamato. Hell, not many Demons can stop it."
While there was no flash of recognition at the word 'Demon' in the woman's gaze, she still looked at Dante warily. Her eyes trailed back towards the blonde, appraising, before returning to Dante. "...it seems I underestimated you. You've given me a lot to think about."
Before Dante could blink, the woman was gone. A flash of light had blinded him, and when his eyes cleared, all he saw was a single black feather on the floor. Well then.
Okay, I get the feeling I'll see her again.
Sighing heavily, he turned to look at Shira and the other woman. His friend was rolling her eyes at him, and shrugging her shoulders with a 'what are you gonna do?' look on her face. She hadn't seen how the woman left either. Damn. As for the woman with the two-toned hair, her eyes had changed from silver to brown and pink as well. On opposite sides, compared to her hair. Her face was filled with open curiosity. And more than a little wariness.
"Mind explaining what's going on?" Dante asked her, hoping that at least someone would answer his question.
He would be disappointed. The woman shook her head, and opened her mouth as if to say something. Before shutting it, and shaking her head. She simply pointed one finger at her throat.
A mute? Well, that could make things more difficult. His sign language was all sorts of rusty and this was an entirely different world. Goddamnit. She probably didn't speak the same kind of sign language. It was only now occurring to him how lucky he'd been that the mask lady spoke English. "Right. Well, if you want, you can help me get blondie here somewhere safe. Then we can...figure something out?"
The woman shook her head, and backed away. She held her hands up and made some sort of sign. At his look of incomprehension, she let out an inaudible sigh, and shook her head. Mouthing 'talk later' at him, she jumped backwards. A flash of light returned to the car...and another woman vanished into thin air. Only, this time, Shira looked at where she had vanished with a scathing look on her face. An almost insulted one.
"Shira? Something wrong?" Dante asked, deciding that he was way too tired for this shit. "Please tell me you're not about to pull a vanishing act on me. I can't deal with this alone."
"Oh Dante, I'd never leave you alone. Someone has to keep you out of trouble!" Shira was quick to deny that, smiling widely, though she still sent a suspicious look towards where the mute had vanished. Muttering something under her breath, the kitsune sighed and walked over to her friend. "Anyway! Let's get this girl out of here and get to the front of the train. I kinda want to see what the front looks like. It's just like our old adventures!"
Dante could only smile fondly, and nod his head. It really was. Though their old adventures typically involved a lot less world hopping. To the tune of no world hopping.
"Well, let's go ahead and get going th-" trailing off, Dante looked down at his feet and saw the blonde stirring. Purple eyes, a lighter shade than Shira's, stared up at him. He stared back. "Oh. She woke up."
The blonde snorted, "'Oh, she woke up'. Where'd the asshole who hit me go?" Stumbling to her feet, the blonde looked around the car, trying to find the masked woman. Probably. "And while we're on the subject, who are you two? No offense, but I'm not really in the mood to meet new people right now. You working with the White Fang?"
Dante and Shira shared a look, before the former shook his head. "We're...new here. What do you mean by 'White Fang'? Are they the ones running this train?"
"...you've got to be kidding me." With a deadpan stare, the blonde shook her head. Her hand- a golden gauntlet resting upon it -came up and pointed at Shira. "You're with a Faunus and you don't know what the White Fang are? How'd you even get down here?"
"I'm not a 'faunus'!" Shira raised her own hand and pointed back. "I'm a kitsune! And we can ask you the same question! How did you get down here?"
Apparently the girl was in the same mood as Dante, because she just rolled her eyes and started marching towards the next room on the train. "I'm on a mission to stop this train. It's what my friends and I trained for!" If she noticed the pun, she made no sign of it. "Name's Yang. If you're not with the White Fang, want to help stop this thing?"
Sharing another look, Dante raised an eyebrow at Shira. She returned a little shrug, her purple eyes dancing with excitement. She always was the adventurous type. Her body was coiled up and ready to move at a moment's notice, and her hand was clenched tightly on her own sword. He wasn't going to talk her into resting, was he?
Nah, that was never going to happen. Oh well. I trust her to know her own limits better than I do. I'll just stick close, in case she needs any help. Smiling at Shira, Dante moved his own hand to grip Yamato in a ready hold. I can't say I'm not looking forward to this myself. It'll be nice to fight something other than Demons or my sister for once. Even if I am tired.
Turning his gaze back to Yang, Dante nodded his head. "We're ready when you are. Mind filling us in while we move? I'd like to know who we're fighting, if I'm going to be beating someone senseless. It isn't easy for me to hold back if I need to."
"Ha! I think I like you, whatever-your-name-is." Yang smirked at him, cracking her knuckles and her neck. "Yeah, I can let you know what you're getting into. Just make sure you can keep up, 'kay?"
"Oh, I don't think that will be an issue." Dante returned the smirk. "And the name's Dante. Dante Sparda."
So. This.
Consider it mostly an interest check/me getting something out of my system. I was getting bored out of my mind subbing (which is largely just 'hand out worksheets, watch kids to make sure they behave' instead of actually teaching) and decided to write something. My muse was being spectacularly uncooperative on existing stuff, though, and reading RWBY fics poked that long-dead muse. So I decided, mostly out of lack of anything else motivating me, to work on this. It ended up...a bit more fun and a lot longer than anticipated, admittedly. But it is still fundamentally something I wrote while I was stuck watching high schoolers, so consider it an interest check as much as anything else.
To explain a couple things though:
1. Not an SI. I deliberately chose to not use regular Dante...but this isn't an SI of any form.
2. Not regular Dante. I chose to do that because...well. There's DMC crossovers on FFN already, and I didn't want to copy any of those. That's a big thing. The other big thing is that I, honestly, would have found writing regular Dante extremely limiting with this particular crossover. Why? Because regular Dante is a well-developed character...who wouldn't easily integrate with the main cast. You have a couple options. Pre-DMC3 Dante to get him the right age, and thus get arrogant asshole Dante who doesn't have his Devil Trigger unlocked or any weapons but Rebellion and Ebony/Ivory. Or you go for more chill Dante (most likely post-DMC5 Dante) who is so old that he only fits in the mentor role. Basically a more tanky Qrow, in this context. That has, again, been done before.
Limiting myself as a writer and copying what others have done.
I didn't much want to go for either route, because I think it would limit me on how to play the story out. So I decided to go with an original character, basically, who shares his name. I chose to give him Vergil's color scheme and weapon to further this point, and to make him have a sister who has regular Dante's color scheme and weapon (but more along Vergil's lines in personality, past her care for her brother). To further drive home that, yes, this isn't regular Dante.
(I also feel that Yamato is more useful in this crossover. Discounting the 'merge human and demon' thing, Rebellion is just a really big sword. Yamato has enough powers, even without adding extras, that it is more flexible from a writing perspective. I also just like it more :V)
3. Shira the kistune. This is fairly easy, actually. I wanted another demon to go along with him, both to give more perspective for the crossover cast, and to have another DMC-verse viewpoint. I didn't want to go with either 'a demon who looks like a regular human' or an obvious demon like an Oni, though. The former case wouldn't be sufficiently different from Dante. The latter is too obvious. So, and in light of RWBY's thing with the Faunus, I figured a kitsune- which is a human with animal features, from a visual perspective here -works pretty well. Allows for fun plot points with the RWBY side of things.
As for her name? Two things. RWBY's color rule for naming, since Dante doesn't follow that. It melds nicely by her name meaning 'white'. It's also a bit of pun in naming the character with black hair as 'Shira/White' :V
The second bit is a little in-joke, since my favorite character in KC (note: not my favorite ship outside of that) is Shira(tsuyu). Who has a lot of influence on Shira's character here :P
There's also a reason she glared at Neo's vanishing act, which will be very relevant.
4. Power-scaling. Not to jump into this mess head-first, but I'm going to make something clear. Dante is absurdly powerful. Broken even. And Shira isn't far behind. But they will not become a 'solve every problem' button. RWBY isn't a setting where raw power will win the day. Dante has no way to actually kill Salem- barring Yamato having weird interactions with her immortality. So he can mow through Grimm by the bucketload, but we have yet to see a limit on how many Grimm can be spawned. Nor that anyone knows where Salem's base actually is. Ergo, for all that he can beat the living crap out of just about anyone, he can't solve the story's problems on his own.
He's not as powerful as regular Dante, either, so there's that. I don't want to make a wank-fic. That's the last thing I want.
5. Neo and Raven. We'll get into their thoughts later on, but suffice to say that Dante's entrance got both of them thinking about how to use him for their own goals.
6. Please, and I cannot stress this enough, do not bug me over Soul Hunter. This is a different fic. If you would like to leave a review, please let it be about this fic. Since it is as much an interest check as anything else.
I think that's everything needed to go over...
Now to see how this goes :V