Puppy Love
Kerlak stroked Deanna's head absent-mindedly. She didn't notice the tears sliding down Deanna's face. Kerlak swirled her glass of wine before taking another sip. Raynok was on the floor a few feet away. In front of him was a large statue of a man with his arms crossed over his chest. Raynok placed an offering of raw bloody meat into the statue's lap and kowtowed at its feet.
"This isn't working," Kerlak said. "Are you sure this is the right one? There are plenty of statues of gods of destruction. How do you know this one is your father?"
Raynok continued the kowtow. Kerlak scratched Deanna's scalp. "How was your day?" she asked Deanna.
"He wants to know everything."
"I'm sure he does." Kerlak finished the wine in one gulp. "I suppose he'll want to meet us to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that you are indeed Deanna."
"It might help." The chain attached to Deanna's collar rattled as she shifted position. "How did you do it?"
"Do what?"
"Bring me back?"
Kerlak dug her nails into Deanna's scalp until Deanna cringed. "That's more than you need to know, honey."
"He needs to know."
"Then I'll tell him myself. In the meantime, you have to continue your own mission. Remember what happens if you don't."
Deanna lowered her head. "I understand."
"Raynok! Do you have anything yet!"
Raynok lifted his head from the floor. He turned to Kerlak and smiled. "We're finally getting somewhere."
Kerlak stood. "What do you have?"
"If we can break him loose, he will give us back what we have lost. He says he can do it."
"Then how do we break him loose."
"He wants a sacrifice."
Kerlak linked her fingers together and popped her knuckles. "What kind of sacrifice?"
"The son of the one who trapped him here. The son of Sparda."
"Him specifically? Why?"
"It's a long story. I'll tell you later."
Kerlak nodded slowly. "Oh yeah. Deanna, honey, it looks like you're back in business."
*
"She's not Deanna," Lilith said as she moved a blue army into Kamchatka on the Risk board. "Deanna is dead. Whatever she is, it's a trap."
"How do you know?"
"How do you know it's not?"
"I don't, but neither of us knows anything for certain."
"Fair enough. I'm attacking Mongolia from Japan." Before Lilith could roll her dice, a clock alarm rang. Dante put his dice down and grabbed his trenchcoat.
"I'm off. You coming?"
"It depends. Is that woman coming back?"
"I don't know, but it's possible."
"I'll come in later on the Ninja, then. I have to run an errand."
Dante tilted his head. "What kind of errand?"
"Don't worry. It's legal, and it won't get me into trouble. It will also make or break that woman's story."
"How?"
Lilith smirked and winked. "Wait and see."
*
Dante turned the page carefully. The tome was yellow and brittle with centuries of age. He read over the archaic dialect while simultaneously channel surfing with a remote control in his right hand. His hands froze only when he heard a knock at the front door.
"Who the hell would that be?" He put the remote down but kept his eyes on the tome in his hands as he approached the door and opened it. "Yeah, what do you want?"
"Dante?"
Dante remained still as the tome slid from his hands. It landed on his left foot. It might as well have been a hammer. He quivered just barely and groaned with the pain, but he didn't move his foot. "Deanna?"
"Can I come in?"
Dante straightened. "I don't know. Can you?"
"Let's find out." Deanna maneuvered her way around him. She picked up the tome and held it towards him. "You dropped something."
"Be careful. That book is centuries old." He snatched it from her and slammed it onto the nearest table.
"Me be careful?" Deanna folded her arms. "You're the one who's about to destroy the poor thing." She turned off the television. "Where's Lilith?"
"Running an errand."
"Good. I want to talk to you alone."
"What about?"
"Actually, I want to continue our conversation from yesterday."
"That conversation ended."
"Too soon." She walked towards him and placed a hand on each arm. "Sit?"
"Just this once."
"Please! Work with me!"
Dante pulled out a chair and sat on it backwards. He crossed his arms over the back and rested his chin on top. Deanna sighed and followed suit. "Well," Dante said, "get to talking."
"Look," Deanna retorted, "if you don't want to hear me out, then I'll just leave and never return."
"Wait!" Dante's hand reached out like a striking cobra and grabbed her arm. "Stay. I'll listen."
"All right." Deanna pried his hand from her arm. "I know that since I showed up in Romania, you've been trying to find every possible contingency to explain what I'm doing here. The truth is, there's nothing I can tell you that would satisfy you. I don't even know all the answers myself."
"Then what do you want? Why are you here?"
"Don't you understand? This is an opportunity to fix the past. I want to make things right between us. I know that I wasn't the best person in the world, but I wasn't the worst either. If I knew then what I know now, then we never would have left Earth to begin with, and we wouldn't be going through this right now."
Dante stretched his neck until a bone popped. "Did you know that for the past two years, Lilith has suffered nightmares about your death?"
"I would imagine."
"At least once a week, she wakes up screaming and sweating. Each dream is different, but they all end in your death. Sometimes she spaces out as if dreaming with her eyes open. She's had visions."
"What kind of visions?"
"She claims to have made contact with my father's spirit."
He noticed Deanna tense up. "Really? Why doesn't she come face me about her problems, since I'm obviously the source of them all."
"If you're really Deanna Min Ná."
"What will it take to convince you? A touch?" Deanna reached out to brush her hand against his face as she had done before. This time he could not back away. He closed his eyes and held his breath. He tried to fight the sensation, but his brain overcame his resistance. He exhaled as a tingling feeling spread across the side of his face.
"That wasn't so bad," Deanna said. "Was it?" When Dante didn't respond, she rubbed a thumb lightly across his lips. He remained still. Daring herself, Deanna tilted her chair forward. She leaned over it and kissed him. He held his breath again but didn't push her away. She worked against his mouth with no resistance. Then she leaned back and stared at him. "Familiar territory?"
All he could do was stare back. The reverie was broken at the sound of a motorcycle approaching. Dante stood to give himself some distance from Deanna. The motorcycle was shut off, and seconds later Lilith entered the building. She had one hand behind her back. Lilith showed no surprise when she saw Deanna.
"You're back. I'm glad. Come here." Deanna folded her arms and scowled. "Just come here," Lilith insisted. "I won't do anything harmful."
"Fine." Deanna stood and put both hands against her hips. "What do you want?"
"Do you remember a black Labrador I used to have?"
"Of course. Guess. Dante gave her to you when you were ten. What about her?"
Lilith slowly walked towards her. "You and Guess never really got along, but it wasn't until the disaster at Shangri-La that I understood why. People have said for who knows how long that animals can sense things that people can't. I realized after some time that Guess hated you because you weren't right somehow."
"You mean, because I was missing half of my soul."
"Yes. Which is why I picked this up." Lilith carefully pulled her arm from behind her back and held it up. A brown puppy was propped against her hand and wrist. "Let's see how you hold up to this."
She pressed the puppy against Deanna's chest. To everyone's amazement, the puppy wagged its tail and pushed itself towards Deanna. Smiling, Deanna lifted the puppy from Lilith's arms and held it against her chest.
"What do you know?" Deanna mused. "He likes me."
"Oh my god!" Lilith backed away. "It's not possible."
"Yes, it is." The puppy licked Deanna's face. "May I keep him, or did you have other plans?"
"No, that's fine." Lilith stepped around her. Deanna turned to face both Lilith and Dante.
"Now do you both believe me? I really am Deanna Min Ná. All of her."
"If you don't mind," Lilith whispered to Dante, "I think I'll call in sick today."
"You do that. I need some time to talk with her."
"Take your time."
*
Lilith sat on her bed. She stared at the statues on her dresser. One of them was the statue of the God of Time Dante picked up from Mallet Island. The one beside it was the statue of Sparda she snatched from the church in Romania.
"You have quite a number of fan clubs, don't you, Grandpa?" She picked up a set of meditation beads and wrapped them around her hands. "Let's have a heart to heart." She stretched out on the bed and closed her eyes.
Lilith stood on the edge of a cliff at night. The ocean waves crashed against the cliffside hundreds of feet below. A powerful seabreeze tempted her to take flight.
"Not yet," someone said behind her. Lilith watched a man approach her. "You can't leave yet. We are not done here."
"What do you mean?"
The man stood beside her and smiled. He had platinum white hair slicked to the back of his head. The flaming red sword Sparda hung from his back. Lilith glanced towards the ground where he cast a shadow against the moonlight. Though his body appeared human, his shadow had curved horns sticking from its head, a tail, and a pair of wings.
"It's you," Lilith whispered.
"What?"
"You're Sparda."
"The one and only." Sparda stepped to the edge and tottered back and forth as if challenging gravity. "You want something?"
"There are many things I have asked of you over the past months, but you have yet to give me any of them."
"Such as?"
"Why you've come to me."
Sparda remained silent for some time. "I came because you called me."
"That's not possible. How could I call you if I didn't even know you were available?"
"I came because you called me," Sparda repeated. "You were lying at the bottom of a frozen pond while my son fought for your life. I came to help protect you."
"Why?"
"Because you are my granddaughter. A child of my blood."
"So I've heard."
Sparda looked over his shoulder. "You don't seem too proud of that."
Lilith positioned herself beside him and began imitating his movements on the cliff. "I am proud of that, but it's not easy. I have yet to discover whether it's a blessing or a curse."
"That is relative. It is also irrelevant. Dante walks the Earth for a reason."
"Which is?"
"To continue my legacy. You, also, must do the same for him."
"Okay. Enough of the riddles. I need to know the truth about my mother."
"Then ask her."
"So, she really is my mother?"
Sparda smiled. "I'm just here for myself."
"I should have known you'd say that."
"Good girl."
"Can you tell me the future? Even vaguely?"
"Why should I show you your future when you don't understand your past?"
"What do you mean?"
Sparda's human visage disappeared in a flash of black light. A wing slapped across Lilith's face. She felt herself fall over the cliffside. Sparda in his demon form jumped after her. She didn't bother transforming so he could catch her and fly away. He carried her several feet before dropping her.
Lilith landed on her feet on a smooth stone floor. She took one look around and froze in terror. Sparda landed beside her and spun her towards three people on the other side of the room. Lineia was standing over Deanna and a copy of Lilith. Lilith realized she was watching a replay of the past.
"Why are you doing this?" she asked Sparda. "Why are you showing me this?" When her grandfather didn't answer, she faced him. "Why are you showing me this!" Sparda seized her face and forced her to look at the scene again. Right after he did so, she watched the sentry kill Deanna again.
She opened her mouth to scream, but never got the chance. Sparda wrapped his wings around her. She sensed the environment change with movement in the air. When Sparda released her, she found herself in a dark room. She covered her mouth with abashment when she saw the bed in front of her. Dante and Deanna were lying there. From the room design, she could tell they were in Shangri-La. The bedroom door creaked open to let a head slide in. Lineia hummed as she leaned over Deanna's body.
"You did the deed," Lineia teased the sleeping woman. "Now it's my job to make sure you bring it back." She swept her hand over Deanna as if gathering up something. A white mist lifted from Deanna's body and collected into her palm. "See you later." Lineia planted a kiss on the mist to make it contract into a small globe of light. Then she left the room as quickly as she entered.
"I suppose that's how my mother lost half her soul," Lilith said to Sparda. "What about it?"
Once again, Sparda enveloped her in his wings. This time he took her home. Deanna was sitting in the dining room. A half empty bottle of champagne was on the table, but she wasn't drinking any. She simply sat there with a look of worry. She sniffed a little.
"Is she crying?" Lilith asked. Sparda's only response was a finger over his lips. Deanna sat up when she heard the front door open and close, followed by a child crying.
"Deanna?" Dante called from another room.
"In here!" she called back. Dante entered with a two-year-old Lilith in his arms. They were both wet and muddy. Deanna vaulted from her seat and took Lilith from his arms. She coddled Lilith until the toddler stopped crying. "Did you kill them all?" she asked.
"I hope I did," Dante said. "If any got away, I didn't notice. I killed every single one I saw, and I kept tabs. If my math is right, they're all dead."
"Good. Did any of them blab?"
"Definitely not. Lilith's existence is still secret."
"Good." Deanna kissed the toddler's forehead. "Let's get her into something dry before she gets sick."
The real Lilith shook her head. "I don't remember this. I was too young. What's the point, even if it's real? If you're going to keep this up, can you show me something that's not sugary ad nauseum?"
Sparda nodded and folded his wings around her as usual. The first thing Lilith noticed before he released her was the sound of Sandstorm blasting through speakers. She recognized the nightclub they were in. "I asked for it," she said to herself. She saw a sixteen-year-old version of herself dancing with a man more than twice her age.
On cue, the real Lilith glanced towards the entrance. Dante stepped in. His eyes quickly found the only other platinum white haired person in the club. He watched the thirty-five-year-old man lead her to the bar. By the way she was walking, it wasn't her first trip there. Dante's frown deepened; then he bared his teeth when he saw the man's hand attempt to go where it didn't belong. He plowed a path through the dancers. When Dante reached the couple, he snatched the man's hand and bent it back at an unnatural angle.
Lilith shuddered at the screaming. She nearly fell from her seat when she saw Dante. He released the man's hand and said to her, "You are in a shitload of trouble right now!"
"It's not what you think."
Dante leaned over her. His eyes took on the trademark glow of a parent infuriated beyond reconciliation. "Say that closer to my face so I can smell it." Lilith knew he could detect the alcohol anyway.
A hand clamped down onto Dante's shoulder. Dante turned and shoved the hand aside. The man glared at him. "Hey, man, get your own girl," Dante snapped.
"What's it to you?"
"I'm her father, that's what. Go play with someone else." Dante turned back to Lilith. Before he could open his mouth, the man tapped him on his shoulder. "Lilith, do you mind?" Dante asked.
"Michael," Lilith called around him. "You don't want to do that! Really!"
"Why not?" Michael dared.
"Because he will break every bone in your body. Twice. If he's happy. And right now, he's pissed."
"Yeah?" Michael flashed his middle finger. "Tell him to piss on this."
Dante's only response was to snatch Michael's finger and snap it three times in one move. Without waiting for a response, Dante slammed Michael's head against the bar. Dante grabbed Lilith's glass, gulped the Orgasm, and dragged Lilith outside. He cursed at her the entire time.
The real Lilith shook her head. "I wish I hadn't seen that. Grandpa Sparda, I'm done with all this. I need something to help me with my future. Something pertaining to what's going on now."
Sparda tilted his head as he considered her request. "All right." Lilith braced herself for Sparda's wings. Moments later, she found them standing in what appeared to be a massively volcanic location, like a vision of Hell. Lava flows and geysers of fire erupted in the distance.
"What's so special about this?" Lilith looked around, then stopped and stared at the ground in horror. Dante was stretched out before her. He appeared a way she had never seen--unconscious, bruised, and bleeding. Lilith spoke to Sparda. "How is this possible? How could anyone do this to him? He's your son!"
She reached down to touch him. Sparda grabbed her hand to hold her back. "Is he alive?" Lilith asked. He dragged her away. "Is he alive!" Sparda threw her to the ground. "Why are you doing this?"
"Blessings. Curses. Heaven. Hell. Those who carry my blood must suffer so. Let them truly know me."
Lilith shook her head. "What?"
Sparda kneeled beside her. He ran a claw across his palm. Blood spilled onto the ground. "Know me and my power." He placed his palm against her forehead. She felt the blood pour down her face as she lost consciousness.
Lilith awoke abruptly. She gasped and sat up. The clock read midnight. "You never were much for frankness, were you Grandpa Sparda?" The God of Time flooded her room with yellow light. "I'm not in the mood for you right now, Chronos." The light dimmed as if in response. "She really is my mother, isn't she? And just as before, she will lead us to disaster. Why does she feel the urge to do this?" She looked at the statues as if expecting one of them to answer. When neither did, she shrugged. "I'll worry about it later. Right now, I need a drink."
*
"Is this your idea of talking with me?" Deanna asked as she stretched.
"I didn't hear any complaints," Dante replied.
"True. I never had grounds to." Deanna rolled to her side and reached for her shirt. "Still, it may not have been the wisest move." She slid out of bed to get dressed.
Dante decided it was sensible to do the same thing. "Why's that?"
Deanna stopped to think about her words. "We're in the middle of a crisis."
"That's nothing new."
"That's true, too."
Deanna slipped her feet into her sandals. Dante opened the door and motioned for her to exit first. She scampered over the bed, bowed, and ran out. She proceeded down the stairs at the end of the hall. Lilith was standing at the bottom with a bottle of Vanilla Coke to her lips. Lilith swallowed half of what was in her mouth and spit out the rest.
"What are you doing here?" Lilith inquired.
"Hello, Lilith," Deanna said.
"Deanna," Lilith answered.
"Give it time." Deanna patronized as she walked past her.
Dante stood on the middle step. Lilith grimaced at him. When she realized what she was doing, she forced her face to soften. "You said you were going to talk to her."
"We did talk."
"Before or after."
"Both." Dante tried to ignore her long enough to walk past her, but she stopped him with one statement.
"I saw Grandpa Sparda."
"Again?"
"We had a very serious conversation. I saw things that frightened me, especially..." Lilith suddenly wished she hadn't mentioned it.
"Especially what?"
Lilith nibbled on the bottle for a while. "If something were to happen to you, what would you expect of me?"
"What do you mean, if something were to happen to me?"
"If, somehow, someway, for whatever reason, you were to die, or at least disappear for all eternity, what would you expect of me?"
"Lilith?" Dante took her soda. His face showed moderate concern. "Did you have a vision of my death?"
Lilith bowed her head slightly. "I don't know how to answer your question."
"But I know how to answer yours." He tilted her head up so he could look her in the eye. "If anything were to happen to me, even death, then I would expect you to continue my legacy. I'm a devil hunter. My father passed his legacy to me, and I want you to do the same when the time comes. Does that answer your question?"
"More than I would care to admit." Lilith took her soda and embraced Dante. "Don't ever think I never appreciated you, Dad."
Kerlak stroked Deanna's head absent-mindedly. She didn't notice the tears sliding down Deanna's face. Kerlak swirled her glass of wine before taking another sip. Raynok was on the floor a few feet away. In front of him was a large statue of a man with his arms crossed over his chest. Raynok placed an offering of raw bloody meat into the statue's lap and kowtowed at its feet.
"This isn't working," Kerlak said. "Are you sure this is the right one? There are plenty of statues of gods of destruction. How do you know this one is your father?"
Raynok continued the kowtow. Kerlak scratched Deanna's scalp. "How was your day?" she asked Deanna.
"He wants to know everything."
"I'm sure he does." Kerlak finished the wine in one gulp. "I suppose he'll want to meet us to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that you are indeed Deanna."
"It might help." The chain attached to Deanna's collar rattled as she shifted position. "How did you do it?"
"Do what?"
"Bring me back?"
Kerlak dug her nails into Deanna's scalp until Deanna cringed. "That's more than you need to know, honey."
"He needs to know."
"Then I'll tell him myself. In the meantime, you have to continue your own mission. Remember what happens if you don't."
Deanna lowered her head. "I understand."
"Raynok! Do you have anything yet!"
Raynok lifted his head from the floor. He turned to Kerlak and smiled. "We're finally getting somewhere."
Kerlak stood. "What do you have?"
"If we can break him loose, he will give us back what we have lost. He says he can do it."
"Then how do we break him loose."
"He wants a sacrifice."
Kerlak linked her fingers together and popped her knuckles. "What kind of sacrifice?"
"The son of the one who trapped him here. The son of Sparda."
"Him specifically? Why?"
"It's a long story. I'll tell you later."
Kerlak nodded slowly. "Oh yeah. Deanna, honey, it looks like you're back in business."
*
"She's not Deanna," Lilith said as she moved a blue army into Kamchatka on the Risk board. "Deanna is dead. Whatever she is, it's a trap."
"How do you know?"
"How do you know it's not?"
"I don't, but neither of us knows anything for certain."
"Fair enough. I'm attacking Mongolia from Japan." Before Lilith could roll her dice, a clock alarm rang. Dante put his dice down and grabbed his trenchcoat.
"I'm off. You coming?"
"It depends. Is that woman coming back?"
"I don't know, but it's possible."
"I'll come in later on the Ninja, then. I have to run an errand."
Dante tilted his head. "What kind of errand?"
"Don't worry. It's legal, and it won't get me into trouble. It will also make or break that woman's story."
"How?"
Lilith smirked and winked. "Wait and see."
*
Dante turned the page carefully. The tome was yellow and brittle with centuries of age. He read over the archaic dialect while simultaneously channel surfing with a remote control in his right hand. His hands froze only when he heard a knock at the front door.
"Who the hell would that be?" He put the remote down but kept his eyes on the tome in his hands as he approached the door and opened it. "Yeah, what do you want?"
"Dante?"
Dante remained still as the tome slid from his hands. It landed on his left foot. It might as well have been a hammer. He quivered just barely and groaned with the pain, but he didn't move his foot. "Deanna?"
"Can I come in?"
Dante straightened. "I don't know. Can you?"
"Let's find out." Deanna maneuvered her way around him. She picked up the tome and held it towards him. "You dropped something."
"Be careful. That book is centuries old." He snatched it from her and slammed it onto the nearest table.
"Me be careful?" Deanna folded her arms. "You're the one who's about to destroy the poor thing." She turned off the television. "Where's Lilith?"
"Running an errand."
"Good. I want to talk to you alone."
"What about?"
"Actually, I want to continue our conversation from yesterday."
"That conversation ended."
"Too soon." She walked towards him and placed a hand on each arm. "Sit?"
"Just this once."
"Please! Work with me!"
Dante pulled out a chair and sat on it backwards. He crossed his arms over the back and rested his chin on top. Deanna sighed and followed suit. "Well," Dante said, "get to talking."
"Look," Deanna retorted, "if you don't want to hear me out, then I'll just leave and never return."
"Wait!" Dante's hand reached out like a striking cobra and grabbed her arm. "Stay. I'll listen."
"All right." Deanna pried his hand from her arm. "I know that since I showed up in Romania, you've been trying to find every possible contingency to explain what I'm doing here. The truth is, there's nothing I can tell you that would satisfy you. I don't even know all the answers myself."
"Then what do you want? Why are you here?"
"Don't you understand? This is an opportunity to fix the past. I want to make things right between us. I know that I wasn't the best person in the world, but I wasn't the worst either. If I knew then what I know now, then we never would have left Earth to begin with, and we wouldn't be going through this right now."
Dante stretched his neck until a bone popped. "Did you know that for the past two years, Lilith has suffered nightmares about your death?"
"I would imagine."
"At least once a week, she wakes up screaming and sweating. Each dream is different, but they all end in your death. Sometimes she spaces out as if dreaming with her eyes open. She's had visions."
"What kind of visions?"
"She claims to have made contact with my father's spirit."
He noticed Deanna tense up. "Really? Why doesn't she come face me about her problems, since I'm obviously the source of them all."
"If you're really Deanna Min Ná."
"What will it take to convince you? A touch?" Deanna reached out to brush her hand against his face as she had done before. This time he could not back away. He closed his eyes and held his breath. He tried to fight the sensation, but his brain overcame his resistance. He exhaled as a tingling feeling spread across the side of his face.
"That wasn't so bad," Deanna said. "Was it?" When Dante didn't respond, she rubbed a thumb lightly across his lips. He remained still. Daring herself, Deanna tilted her chair forward. She leaned over it and kissed him. He held his breath again but didn't push her away. She worked against his mouth with no resistance. Then she leaned back and stared at him. "Familiar territory?"
All he could do was stare back. The reverie was broken at the sound of a motorcycle approaching. Dante stood to give himself some distance from Deanna. The motorcycle was shut off, and seconds later Lilith entered the building. She had one hand behind her back. Lilith showed no surprise when she saw Deanna.
"You're back. I'm glad. Come here." Deanna folded her arms and scowled. "Just come here," Lilith insisted. "I won't do anything harmful."
"Fine." Deanna stood and put both hands against her hips. "What do you want?"
"Do you remember a black Labrador I used to have?"
"Of course. Guess. Dante gave her to you when you were ten. What about her?"
Lilith slowly walked towards her. "You and Guess never really got along, but it wasn't until the disaster at Shangri-La that I understood why. People have said for who knows how long that animals can sense things that people can't. I realized after some time that Guess hated you because you weren't right somehow."
"You mean, because I was missing half of my soul."
"Yes. Which is why I picked this up." Lilith carefully pulled her arm from behind her back and held it up. A brown puppy was propped against her hand and wrist. "Let's see how you hold up to this."
She pressed the puppy against Deanna's chest. To everyone's amazement, the puppy wagged its tail and pushed itself towards Deanna. Smiling, Deanna lifted the puppy from Lilith's arms and held it against her chest.
"What do you know?" Deanna mused. "He likes me."
"Oh my god!" Lilith backed away. "It's not possible."
"Yes, it is." The puppy licked Deanna's face. "May I keep him, or did you have other plans?"
"No, that's fine." Lilith stepped around her. Deanna turned to face both Lilith and Dante.
"Now do you both believe me? I really am Deanna Min Ná. All of her."
"If you don't mind," Lilith whispered to Dante, "I think I'll call in sick today."
"You do that. I need some time to talk with her."
"Take your time."
*
Lilith sat on her bed. She stared at the statues on her dresser. One of them was the statue of the God of Time Dante picked up from Mallet Island. The one beside it was the statue of Sparda she snatched from the church in Romania.
"You have quite a number of fan clubs, don't you, Grandpa?" She picked up a set of meditation beads and wrapped them around her hands. "Let's have a heart to heart." She stretched out on the bed and closed her eyes.
Lilith stood on the edge of a cliff at night. The ocean waves crashed against the cliffside hundreds of feet below. A powerful seabreeze tempted her to take flight.
"Not yet," someone said behind her. Lilith watched a man approach her. "You can't leave yet. We are not done here."
"What do you mean?"
The man stood beside her and smiled. He had platinum white hair slicked to the back of his head. The flaming red sword Sparda hung from his back. Lilith glanced towards the ground where he cast a shadow against the moonlight. Though his body appeared human, his shadow had curved horns sticking from its head, a tail, and a pair of wings.
"It's you," Lilith whispered.
"What?"
"You're Sparda."
"The one and only." Sparda stepped to the edge and tottered back and forth as if challenging gravity. "You want something?"
"There are many things I have asked of you over the past months, but you have yet to give me any of them."
"Such as?"
"Why you've come to me."
Sparda remained silent for some time. "I came because you called me."
"That's not possible. How could I call you if I didn't even know you were available?"
"I came because you called me," Sparda repeated. "You were lying at the bottom of a frozen pond while my son fought for your life. I came to help protect you."
"Why?"
"Because you are my granddaughter. A child of my blood."
"So I've heard."
Sparda looked over his shoulder. "You don't seem too proud of that."
Lilith positioned herself beside him and began imitating his movements on the cliff. "I am proud of that, but it's not easy. I have yet to discover whether it's a blessing or a curse."
"That is relative. It is also irrelevant. Dante walks the Earth for a reason."
"Which is?"
"To continue my legacy. You, also, must do the same for him."
"Okay. Enough of the riddles. I need to know the truth about my mother."
"Then ask her."
"So, she really is my mother?"
Sparda smiled. "I'm just here for myself."
"I should have known you'd say that."
"Good girl."
"Can you tell me the future? Even vaguely?"
"Why should I show you your future when you don't understand your past?"
"What do you mean?"
Sparda's human visage disappeared in a flash of black light. A wing slapped across Lilith's face. She felt herself fall over the cliffside. Sparda in his demon form jumped after her. She didn't bother transforming so he could catch her and fly away. He carried her several feet before dropping her.
Lilith landed on her feet on a smooth stone floor. She took one look around and froze in terror. Sparda landed beside her and spun her towards three people on the other side of the room. Lineia was standing over Deanna and a copy of Lilith. Lilith realized she was watching a replay of the past.
"Why are you doing this?" she asked Sparda. "Why are you showing me this?" When her grandfather didn't answer, she faced him. "Why are you showing me this!" Sparda seized her face and forced her to look at the scene again. Right after he did so, she watched the sentry kill Deanna again.
She opened her mouth to scream, but never got the chance. Sparda wrapped his wings around her. She sensed the environment change with movement in the air. When Sparda released her, she found herself in a dark room. She covered her mouth with abashment when she saw the bed in front of her. Dante and Deanna were lying there. From the room design, she could tell they were in Shangri-La. The bedroom door creaked open to let a head slide in. Lineia hummed as she leaned over Deanna's body.
"You did the deed," Lineia teased the sleeping woman. "Now it's my job to make sure you bring it back." She swept her hand over Deanna as if gathering up something. A white mist lifted from Deanna's body and collected into her palm. "See you later." Lineia planted a kiss on the mist to make it contract into a small globe of light. Then she left the room as quickly as she entered.
"I suppose that's how my mother lost half her soul," Lilith said to Sparda. "What about it?"
Once again, Sparda enveloped her in his wings. This time he took her home. Deanna was sitting in the dining room. A half empty bottle of champagne was on the table, but she wasn't drinking any. She simply sat there with a look of worry. She sniffed a little.
"Is she crying?" Lilith asked. Sparda's only response was a finger over his lips. Deanna sat up when she heard the front door open and close, followed by a child crying.
"Deanna?" Dante called from another room.
"In here!" she called back. Dante entered with a two-year-old Lilith in his arms. They were both wet and muddy. Deanna vaulted from her seat and took Lilith from his arms. She coddled Lilith until the toddler stopped crying. "Did you kill them all?" she asked.
"I hope I did," Dante said. "If any got away, I didn't notice. I killed every single one I saw, and I kept tabs. If my math is right, they're all dead."
"Good. Did any of them blab?"
"Definitely not. Lilith's existence is still secret."
"Good." Deanna kissed the toddler's forehead. "Let's get her into something dry before she gets sick."
The real Lilith shook her head. "I don't remember this. I was too young. What's the point, even if it's real? If you're going to keep this up, can you show me something that's not sugary ad nauseum?"
Sparda nodded and folded his wings around her as usual. The first thing Lilith noticed before he released her was the sound of Sandstorm blasting through speakers. She recognized the nightclub they were in. "I asked for it," she said to herself. She saw a sixteen-year-old version of herself dancing with a man more than twice her age.
On cue, the real Lilith glanced towards the entrance. Dante stepped in. His eyes quickly found the only other platinum white haired person in the club. He watched the thirty-five-year-old man lead her to the bar. By the way she was walking, it wasn't her first trip there. Dante's frown deepened; then he bared his teeth when he saw the man's hand attempt to go where it didn't belong. He plowed a path through the dancers. When Dante reached the couple, he snatched the man's hand and bent it back at an unnatural angle.
Lilith shuddered at the screaming. She nearly fell from her seat when she saw Dante. He released the man's hand and said to her, "You are in a shitload of trouble right now!"
"It's not what you think."
Dante leaned over her. His eyes took on the trademark glow of a parent infuriated beyond reconciliation. "Say that closer to my face so I can smell it." Lilith knew he could detect the alcohol anyway.
A hand clamped down onto Dante's shoulder. Dante turned and shoved the hand aside. The man glared at him. "Hey, man, get your own girl," Dante snapped.
"What's it to you?"
"I'm her father, that's what. Go play with someone else." Dante turned back to Lilith. Before he could open his mouth, the man tapped him on his shoulder. "Lilith, do you mind?" Dante asked.
"Michael," Lilith called around him. "You don't want to do that! Really!"
"Why not?" Michael dared.
"Because he will break every bone in your body. Twice. If he's happy. And right now, he's pissed."
"Yeah?" Michael flashed his middle finger. "Tell him to piss on this."
Dante's only response was to snatch Michael's finger and snap it three times in one move. Without waiting for a response, Dante slammed Michael's head against the bar. Dante grabbed Lilith's glass, gulped the Orgasm, and dragged Lilith outside. He cursed at her the entire time.
The real Lilith shook her head. "I wish I hadn't seen that. Grandpa Sparda, I'm done with all this. I need something to help me with my future. Something pertaining to what's going on now."
Sparda tilted his head as he considered her request. "All right." Lilith braced herself for Sparda's wings. Moments later, she found them standing in what appeared to be a massively volcanic location, like a vision of Hell. Lava flows and geysers of fire erupted in the distance.
"What's so special about this?" Lilith looked around, then stopped and stared at the ground in horror. Dante was stretched out before her. He appeared a way she had never seen--unconscious, bruised, and bleeding. Lilith spoke to Sparda. "How is this possible? How could anyone do this to him? He's your son!"
She reached down to touch him. Sparda grabbed her hand to hold her back. "Is he alive?" Lilith asked. He dragged her away. "Is he alive!" Sparda threw her to the ground. "Why are you doing this?"
"Blessings. Curses. Heaven. Hell. Those who carry my blood must suffer so. Let them truly know me."
Lilith shook her head. "What?"
Sparda kneeled beside her. He ran a claw across his palm. Blood spilled onto the ground. "Know me and my power." He placed his palm against her forehead. She felt the blood pour down her face as she lost consciousness.
Lilith awoke abruptly. She gasped and sat up. The clock read midnight. "You never were much for frankness, were you Grandpa Sparda?" The God of Time flooded her room with yellow light. "I'm not in the mood for you right now, Chronos." The light dimmed as if in response. "She really is my mother, isn't she? And just as before, she will lead us to disaster. Why does she feel the urge to do this?" She looked at the statues as if expecting one of them to answer. When neither did, she shrugged. "I'll worry about it later. Right now, I need a drink."
*
"Is this your idea of talking with me?" Deanna asked as she stretched.
"I didn't hear any complaints," Dante replied.
"True. I never had grounds to." Deanna rolled to her side and reached for her shirt. "Still, it may not have been the wisest move." She slid out of bed to get dressed.
Dante decided it was sensible to do the same thing. "Why's that?"
Deanna stopped to think about her words. "We're in the middle of a crisis."
"That's nothing new."
"That's true, too."
Deanna slipped her feet into her sandals. Dante opened the door and motioned for her to exit first. She scampered over the bed, bowed, and ran out. She proceeded down the stairs at the end of the hall. Lilith was standing at the bottom with a bottle of Vanilla Coke to her lips. Lilith swallowed half of what was in her mouth and spit out the rest.
"What are you doing here?" Lilith inquired.
"Hello, Lilith," Deanna said.
"Deanna," Lilith answered.
"Give it time." Deanna patronized as she walked past her.
Dante stood on the middle step. Lilith grimaced at him. When she realized what she was doing, she forced her face to soften. "You said you were going to talk to her."
"We did talk."
"Before or after."
"Both." Dante tried to ignore her long enough to walk past her, but she stopped him with one statement.
"I saw Grandpa Sparda."
"Again?"
"We had a very serious conversation. I saw things that frightened me, especially..." Lilith suddenly wished she hadn't mentioned it.
"Especially what?"
Lilith nibbled on the bottle for a while. "If something were to happen to you, what would you expect of me?"
"What do you mean, if something were to happen to me?"
"If, somehow, someway, for whatever reason, you were to die, or at least disappear for all eternity, what would you expect of me?"
"Lilith?" Dante took her soda. His face showed moderate concern. "Did you have a vision of my death?"
Lilith bowed her head slightly. "I don't know how to answer your question."
"But I know how to answer yours." He tilted her head up so he could look her in the eye. "If anything were to happen to me, even death, then I would expect you to continue my legacy. I'm a devil hunter. My father passed his legacy to me, and I want you to do the same when the time comes. Does that answer your question?"
"More than I would care to admit." Lilith took her soda and embraced Dante. "Don't ever think I never appreciated you, Dad."
