The Angel's Demon

Chapter 9: Nightmares Of The Past Part 1

The strong winds began to die down as Angela and Dante appeared in front of Devil May Cry. Considering that they were far away Angela had suggested they teleport back to the shop since they had no more means of transportation.

Dante had held on to Angela tightly not because of other reasons but because he wanted to trust her control on her abilities and also not get lost while warping. Landing softly on the stairs, Dante let go of Angela slowly but felt her sway on her feet. He held her tightly as he looked upon her, she had her eyes tightly shut but her expression was slightly in pain.

"Don't let me go just yet Dante." She pleaded out of breath, resting her head on his chest. Dante without objections held her tightly, he didn't mind this situation one bit. He heard a quick pacing approaching the door, Lady flung the doors open, her expression upset but then she hid a smile.

"You guys keep escalating higher and higher, next time get yourselves a room."

"What's going on?" Patty came from behind Lady and saw the scene unfolding before her, she blushed slightly, "Angela and Dante?! No way, she's to pretty and good for you lazy bum!" Patty accused.

Angela had been hearing the fuss around her, she pushed slowly away from Dante to face them, "I'm not use to my teleportation ability and I get really dizzy when I use it, there's nothing going on between Dante and I, we're just friends."

"Ouch, friend zoned within a few days..." Lady murmured hiding her smile behind her hand. "You've lost your charm Dante, no wait, you had none to begin with." Patty seemed to have agreed because she nodded.

"Impossible women are just becoming harder to please…my fire for you was just bruised." Dante said crossing his arms over his chest, he had unusually serious expression on his face.

"Dante!? Stop confusi…twisting my words." She certainly didn't dislike Dante but she hadn't known him enough for her to even consider a relationship. Plus her priority right now was to learn about her situation there was no time to think of other things.

"The angel is flustered." Lady said shrugging, her voice just reeked of sarcasm. Lady settled her gaze upon Angela and Dante and then she frowned. "You used your teleportation ability to get here which means…" Her eyebrows twitched and her expression was distorted with fury, "WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO WITH MY BIKE?!"

"It was very useful while it lasted." Dante said casually, he knew it didn't matter how he responded to that question Lady would still be pretty pissed off.

Angela could tell Lady was about to respond with a barrage of insults so she spoke beforehand to try and calm the situation, "what Dante means to say, it saved our lives and don't worry I'll pay you for your trouble the bike's amount double as soon as I can." Angela bowed slightly towards Lady, "I promise." She said looking back at Lady who was still holding a furious gaze.

Lady didn't understand why all of a sudden she started to calm down, when things like this happened she would rant for hours until calming down, maybe it was Angela's power relaxing her or maybe its that she really was easy to trust. "I'll hold you to it then, but that means I'm stuck here until I get my money." She said breaking eye contact with Angela. "Come on Patty let's finish our game.

Patty looked at all of them slightly confused but soon followed Lady inside to finish there poker game. Dante and Angela were left outside looking after them but then they turned to look at each other.

"I'm not use to women saving my neck, they're usually trying to slash it off and sever my head along with it." Dante gave her a smirk and plopped his hand on her head and ruffled her hair.

"We do owe her for her help, it's the least I could do, I'm grateful." Angela smiled softly, she averted her gaze and Dante took his hand off her head and gestured her to walk inside before him.

The evening was calm Angela had spent the rest of it reading the journal, Dante had spent it napping or better said trying to, Lady had gone out and Patty had left before the sunset.

Angela was seated on the couch going over an important passage in the journal:

My own curiosity towards the human race is what led me to live among them, that and it seemed like Lord Sparda had fondness towards them as well, he spoke to me casually about some possessing strong spirits.

I had lived all my life shrouded by darkness of what I was, never truly excepting my fate as a leader of the Dacelai. When the opportunity arose to defend the humans I took it and fought alongside Sparda and a few others that shared this "traitorous behavior" as others would call it.

After that battle things were never quite the same, I lived in disguise for a very long time, switching appearances every fifty or so years, I knew humans didn't live past seventy and I didn't want to draw attention to myself. It was easy, except the concentration I needed to maintain my human form was rather difficult at first. It had to be a constant thought in the back of my mind, it was a mental strain, a challenge but as time passed I mastered it.

"A constant thought kept lightly in the back of my mind? Hmm…" Angela pondered. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath and thought of her wing concealing themselves once more, she thought about having a normal human appearance. She kept her eyes closed thinking this for a while, an ever so faint sound of flapping caught her ear but she didn't want to break concentration.

After a few moments she opened her eyes and looked behind her and her wings were gone, she reached her hand to her back to touch but there was no sign of her wings, she almost screamed with joy but remained calm and with that thought lightly in mind.

She was going to test her concentration by maintaining the thought while she read through the rest of the journal entry.

I wandered for what were centuries, wondering at the time if I had done the right thing but when I met Candida your mother, I knew it was worth it. I was so intrigued by her that I found myself constantly with her. I strived to know everything about her but naturally she was curious about me and I feared the day I would have to tell her the truth.

It wasn't right of me to hide the truth for as long as I did from her, right after you were born I admitted what I had so desperately hid from her, she feared me and feared for you but I knew of Sparda and his son's so I explained that there was nothing to fear.

She believed me but she mentioned it was the last thing she would believe, I could see the pain in her eyes, her depressed expression was caused because of me. She told me she never wanted to see me again but that she would permit me to see you every now and then.

I decided to maintain the human form Candida had fallen in love with, without her or you Angela, life would be meaningless, what good would it do me to continue to wander ages alone?…

"So that's why…" Angela sighed but as she did a loud flapping noise emerged behind her, scaring her out of her seat, she let out another breath. The wings were back since she had broken concentration.

"What's with the sighing? Found out something you didn't like?" Dante said peering at her from behind his magazine.

"Dante, your father was Sparda, a lord and warrior of the demon realm and your mother was a human." Angela said seeing it as Dante and her were not so different.

"Everyone knows that, quite frankly it annoys me when I'm dealing with demons and they bring that up." He yawned after the comment.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to-"

"Since it's you it's fine, what did you find?" He said placing the magazine back in a cabinet in his desk. He walked over to the couch where Angela was sitting and sat next to her.

"Well much like your father, mine fought in that battle to protect the human race and he lived among humans. He met my mother after many centuries of living and well after my mother found out he was a demon she couldn't stand the sight of him and made him leave." That pretty much summed up what had happened.

"Well at least your's didn't disappear when you needed him most." There was resentment in Dante's eyes, Angela could see that much but she didn't understand, there must be a hidden reason. Whatever it was seemed like a touchy subject and was best to leave it alone.

"I'm sorry to hear that, did you ever…" She bit her lip, her curiosity getting the better of her, she was prying in Dante's probably delicate memories.

He looked straight into her eyes, Angela wanted to break eye contact but she found it impossible. Just as she thought Dante could be lazy, sarcastic and many other things but it didn't change the fact that she perceived sadness in his eyes, that and something else…

"You look tired." Dante said reaching to touch her face but dropped his hand and clenched his fist.

"A lot's happened today, and-" She found herself unable to continue. Dante was a little to closer to her which was very distracting, she looked away feeling herself become warm. He was still looking at her curious about what she was going to say but then the silence was broken when Lady came through the front door.

"I'll crash here for a couple of nights, well actually it depends how long the job I found lasts. I should finish it pretty quickly considering I don't want to stay in this dump any longer than I have to." Lady said annoyed. Angela found this as an excuse to take her leave the night.

"Well I'm beat, I'll see you guys tomorrow, so, umm night." She was still blushing furiously as she scurried to the stairs leaving Dante and Lady alone.

"I expect my money TOMORROW!" Lady yelled after her.

"You are such a pain, so demanding since the first day I met you." Dante was already leaning back on the couch ready to drift into sandman land as he called it.

"Oh shut up." She said going up the stairs.

"Well goodnight to you too." Dante said with a smirk on his face, he closed his eyes in a dreamily fashion and soon was fast asleep.

Tempus was high in the sky, his dark cloak concealing every inch of him except his hands, he was a shadow blocking the moon from hitting the Devil May Cry building. From his cloak pocket he took out his pocket watch, "let the nightmare commence and never cease." With his long fingernail he started twisting the hands of the watch until the were spinning all on their own in a continuous frantic circle.

The watch started to emit pulses that covered the building with dark waves that soon consumed the building with a dark aura. Soon after the aura's color began to dissolve and it looked as if nothing was wrong. "This will truly be interesting." Tempus let out a hardy, raspy laugh and his laugh echoed even when he had faded into the night sky.

Dante's Nightmare*

"Where are the ladies?" Dante walked around in the darkness for a while, there was nothing in sight, no light but the one above him, tailing him. The dream progressed in this fashion for an extensive amount of time and it was thoroughly irritating Dante. "What the hell?!" He blurted out irked.

"Wouldn't you like to know?" A raspy voice answered. Dante looked around trying to find the source of the voice. He continued to walk straight and he could swear there were voices in the distance, a woman? "No!" It wasn't just any woman, Dante began to run in the direction of the voice.

As he approached he heard it more clearly, "I don't know where he is and even if I did, why would I betray him?"

"For him perhaps." A sinister voice answered. The door opened and a demon was carrying a silver haired little boy in a net bag.

"VERGIL!" The woman screamed.

Dante was running full speed towards the woman, "Mom don't get close to him!" He warned.

"I didn't like your tone from earlier," The demon stabbed her in the midst of her stomach and pulled out the sword, a malevolent smile on his face, "worthless human."

"Mommy! MOMMY!" Vergil screamed and kicked frantically in the bag, soon after the demons disappeared with him.

She stepped back, the crimson stain soaking her shirt. Dante had finally caught up and was in complete shock, his mother turned to look at him, tears in her eyes as she plummeted to the floor. He tried to catch her but he was transparent as if he was the illusion, Eva fell with a heavy thud.

"Not this again," Dante said falling to his knees beside her, he saw her chest move up and down a few more times before she ceased. He sagged his head but he heard a noise come from the floor board next to him. The floor piece wiggled out of place and a little boy with silver hair appeared. He pushed himself out of the hole, tears visible in his eyes already.

"Mommy?! Mommy? Hey Mommy…" The younger version of himself shook his mother but she had long since given her last breath. But he didn't understand and continued to try waking her. Dante watched his younger self full of grief try and wake her effortlessly.

The pool of blood under Eva starting to soak the knees of his pants as he knelt their crying uncontrollably.

"What would I give to be able to save you." Dante murmured tears falling from his eyes.

"The answer is simple…" The same raspy voice commented. The light above them turned from being white to a shade of light red, Dante looked up at the light but then looked back to see his mother, except the scenario had changed.

His mother and younger version had disappeared and who lied before him was Angela, dead much the same way his mother had fallen. There was something entirely disturbing about this scene which had Dante stand up wide eyed, Rebellion was placed next to Angela and the sword was oozing blood.

"What have you done son of Sparda, you did this."

"Never." Dante said firm, looking up at the light which is where the source of the voice seemed to be.

There was a loud cackle before the voice responded, "yes you did, take a look at your hands." Dante looked at his hands, his gloves were stained crimson, they reeked of blood. "Look at what you have done, you killed her, murderer.."

Dante couldn't believe it, he fell to his knees and propped Angela up into his arms, she was so cold and very pale. "NO!" He screamed in frustration, his scream echoed in the darkness.

Angela's Nightmare*

Angela was walking in what appeared to be Capulet Park during the weekends, there were many families walking with there children enjoying themselves. She continued to walk ahead when she found a child seated at the fountain in the middle of the park. She approached him and gasped by his appearance, he had raven hair and angel wings much like hers, the same white as snow color. "What's wrong?" she asked softly as she sat near him.

He rubbed his tears to look at her, he had large emerald eyes, Angela couldn't help but think he was so adorable. He looked at her, tears still falling, he sniffled and hiccuped. She knew he probably didn't say anything to her since she was a stranger. "It's alright, you can talk to me maybe I could help you." She urged while maintaining a soft and calm voice.

"You're a Dacelus too." He said pointing at her. She turned around and looked at her wings, her wings were the obvious give away. "I guess.." He hicupped once, "I guess I can trust you." He murmured, he had a pouty expression, it was as if he was embarrassed to ask for help. "I lost my mommy, I'm not sure where she is."

"Oh, we'll find her, where did you see her last?" Angela asked, her eyes wandered over to the many people crowding the park.

"I was up there with her." He said pointing up at a long plight of stairs, the stairs were a white marble color and were shining, illuminated by the sun. There was something ominous about that staircase but Angela would help the child, so she put aside her fears and got up.

"Alright lets go." The child smiled happily and got off the fountain's edge. He took a hold of her hand and they approached the staircase. It was a long way up, the stairs appeared to go on forever, Angela couldn't see the end of them.

The boy seemed to be in much better spirit, he had stopped crying and was very quiet. Angela looked down at him and he was curiously looking up at her, he had a question in mind. "Is there something wrong?" Angela asked.

"I've never seen another Dacelus beside my mommy, your wings are the same color as mine too," He said, his eyes narrowing.

"Really? Hmm, what color do they tend to be?" She asked curious.

"Black." He responded curtly.

"I see." She puzzled her chin with her free hand.

They continued to go up the never ending staircase, Angela began to feel tired after many stairs and the boy on the other hand began to have more energy.

"There she is mommy!" The boy let go of her hand and finished running to the end of the staircase that was shrouded in gray fog.

"Wait!" Angela called, she faltered on a step and fell to her knees, she tried to get up but her legs wouldn't budge, it was as if she were paralyzed from her waist down. Though she wasn't about to leave the boy, she had to make perfectly sure that he had found his mother. She used the last of her strength to pull her way up using her arms.

After much effort she made it to the top, full of exhaustion she managed to lift her head up to see her surroundings. The fog had dispersed and there was a man kneeling in front of two grand doors. The doors were behind a set of golden bars and there was a grand light in the middle of the bars which appeared to be holding everything into place.

The man reached for the light and held onto it, he pulled at it but it didn't look like it was about to budge. "You see this truly is all your fault." The man said, his back to her.

"What do you mean?" Angela spoke out of breath, it was if the air was lighter in this area, making it hard to inhale.

"You shouldn't even exist, everything I was suppose to inherit….." He growled as he turned to face her, his expression furious. Oddly enough he sounded and looked like the older version of the little boy she was helping.

"Why?" This character before her seemed to know a lot about her and she wanted answers.

"There is a saying among you humans: Curiosity killed the cat, which seems to befit your current situation." He smiled sinisterly and began to walk towards her, Angela knew she couldn't linger here any longer. She tried to get up again but her limbs felt numb and the man was at her side within seconds.

He swept her off the ground by the neck and made her face him, Angela struggled to loosen his firm grip around her neck but he was incredibly strong. Nothing but pure hatred resided in his eyes, hatred directed at her, "you and I have much more in common than you know, it disgusts me." He spat.

Angela gasped for air, "ple..a..se...stop." Using both of her hands she tried to unwrap his grip but it was still futile, he smiled but just before her vision darkened any further he loosened his grasp.

"I want you to be conscious for this." He held onto her and walked to the edge of the stairs except the stairs were gone an all she saw was a heavy fire raging, she could feel the blazing heat from where she was. "This won't kill you but it will hurt maybe you'll understand my pain."

Time seemed to have slowed as he let her go, she slipped from his grasp and began to fall, she was unable to react, not able to fly or to use her powers.

The man watched from above as the flames engulfed her, he still held a grim expression unsatisfied up until he heard her shrieking, there was a slight curl to his lips into the malevolent smile.

Lady's Nightmare*

Her childhood was something she didn't really like to remember, with it she would remember her mother and what her father did.

She was in a house, the surroundings were so familiar, as she continued to walk further around she noticed a bedroom, "my old bedroom?" she said but it was much more high pitched, Lady covered her mouth and saw her reflection in a mirror hung low in the room. "Why am I a child? This makes no sense?" She pouted at her reflection, crossed armed. She had the appearance of a seven year old, her same jet black hair except it was more of a bowl cut hugging her face. She wore a white and green uniform, she had attended a private school most of her life.

"You want to grow up already? I want to keep my little princess a little longer." Lady's inhaled a sharp breath, a soothing voice behind her, the reflection was of a smiling dark haired woman, she wore an apron and was still carrying a large spoon for soup in her hand.

"Mommy?!" Lady turned around, Kalina Ann - her mother was there. She slowly approached her and touched the hand that was at her side, it was warm but most importantly it was real, she was there. The tears muddied her vision but she hugged her mother.

Her mother dropped to her knees and embraced her strongly, "there, there don't cry Mary, I'm here and I always will be." She soothed while patting her back.

"That's just it….your…" before she could finish what she was saying there was a knock near the door, she peeked from above her mother's shoulder to see her father there.

She narrowed her eyes at him there were still tears falling from her eyes, "Kalina, I need help finding-"

"No you don't!" Lady said interrupting whatever her father was going to say, she held on tighter to her mother.

"Whatever is the matter with you today Mary?" Her father looked at her puzzled.

"You. Are. Not. Taking. Her. Away. From. Me." Each individual word had emphasis but not only that, her voice and height range changed with each word until she was her adult self. Even there surroundings had changed, they had formed into Temen-ni-gru, the eerie tower, a true nightmare all on its own.

"You monster!" She said, the tears had stop flowing and she noticed she had a gun in her hand and pointed it firmly in front of her at Arkham.

"Mary, don't do it I was being controlled, I would have never killed-"

"STOP LYING!" She fired one shot which hit him in the chest knocking him down on his back. Lady stood over him just staring.

"Mary, my sweet little Mary…" He gasped once and Lady out of anger and frustration continuously shot at him until all the rounds in her clip were gone. She continued to press the trigger but all that happened was the faint click sound of an empty gun. Slowly she dropped onto her knees and covered her face with her hands.

She cried for her father, for what he had done, her lost mother and herself. "I didn't want to do this, you made me…" she said in between her sobbing. The room grew colder and darker, Lady looked up an noticed that even her father's corpse was gone, she was completely alone.

She would never admit it aloud but she feared being alone, she had never been happier than when she had met Dante, Trish, Patty and even Angela, should wouldn't ever be alone again. But this place made her think otherwise, dark, cold and pitch dark.

She felt despair and continued to cry, her sob echoing in the nothingness.

Tempus was delighted with the reaction of each individual, it was better than he could have imagined.

The sun was beginning to rise and the second part of his plan was about to begin.

A/N: Wow it has been forever since I've updated but alas work has consumed my time and I can only get so much written on a weekend but hopefully at least this coming week I will have enough time to update a couple of times :)

This chapter was originally going to be much longer but it would be way tooooo long so I decided to divide it into two sections which will work better.

Each nightmare had a theme can you guess which belonged to who: Betrayal, Loneliness and Guilt/Helplessness.

As I was writing this chapter I noticed that most all DMC characters are orphans, that is so sad :'/

Anyways I hope you reders enjoyed this chapter there is still a lot more coming.

Thanks for your support and most importantly your patience!

Till next update

-roseimagine