Disclaimer: Joss, WB, UPN et al. own Buffy. Capcom owns Devil May Cry, and DMC 2. I don't.
Title: Better the Devil You Know…
Author: Paradigm Shifter
Feedback: Yes! It doesn't take much time, and it lets me know if you like it...
Rating: I personally don't think this is too bad... but better safe than sorry... R.
Notes: Have now finished Lucia's disc as well. Now on the 'Hard mode' at level 9 for both characters. Hard is a big step up 'difficulty wise' from normal...
I am also aware that very few people actually know what the hell is going on in DMC cannon, and therefore the details may be a bit blurred. Please, persevere, all will be clear in time…
Finally, the idea I have is dependant on one thing. Hints were dropped in Chapter 1… how many people picked up on them, hmm? I was told I wasn't being very subtle. Sometimes subtlety has its place, but others? Use a sledgehammer.
Crossover: Devil May Cry / Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Continuity: DMC1, not 2, (except for Blood Goats) as it fits in between. Xander's road trip. That's pretty much it. Enjoy.
*
Dante walked slowly through the door of the 'Devil Never Cry' detective agency. In the past year, his partner had shown he had fear of only one thing- well, OK, two things- Going back home, and failing when he said he would do something. The second had got him into a lot of trouble with the things they fought, but for some strange reason, he always came out of it stronger, faster, more prepared for the next challenge.
That was one of the mysteries of Xander Harris.
Dante smiled despite him mood when he saw Xander sitting in his chair, spinning a pistol round his finger like the old westerns that he liked to watch so much. Dante had called him on his love of the, often terrible, films one day, and Xander had just replied, "The good guy always wins… I like the films because that isn't how it is in real life…" with that, he trailed off and went into one of his regular fits of depression. And they were pretty regular. It would be for any variety of reasons: someone he hadn't managed to save, a devil he hadn't killed fast enough. The choice that wasn't really; his inability to return home. Any and all of these caused a bout, and they lasted an indeterminate amount of time- usually until the next job.
Since that fateful day in the museum, Dante had often wished he had not offered Xander the job he had, but looking back, right this minute, he was also glad that he had.
It wasn't only because he sensed Xander's loneliness, it was also something he had felt from inside the boy… no, he corrected himself shaking his head: man. Both Dante and Trish had sensed the power in Xander. One both of them held… and neither of them wanted. But it wasn't a choice they could have made. It was made for them by history, and by their parent's very nature. Surely there must be others about?
Xander looked up as Dante slammed the door. "What's up, boss?" he asked with a listless tone.
Dante shrugged, feigning nonchalance. "Nothing much, the old job completed… gave that guy his little orb back… and got a new one. Some guy named Terrance Quentin… or something like that…"
"Quentin? Where have I heard that name before?" wondered Xander aloud.
"Don't know, don't care, my friend." Dante shrugged of his coat and flung it haphazardly onto an empty chair nearby.
Xander holstered his gun, and clicked his fingers. "I know! That idiot in the Watchers Council! Oh, man! Tell me you didn't accept a job from Quentin Travers?"
"OK…" nodded Dante, fighting a grin. "I didn't accept a job from Quentin Travers."
"Thank God…" Xander slumped in his chair, and put his feet on the desk.
"Even though I really did."
Dante said it so carelessly, that for a second, it didn't filter into Xander's mind. When it did, he nearly exploded. He flew out of the chair, knocking it over in the process, and looked angrily at Dante. "You didn't?!"
Dante looked at him coolly. "I did. He even paid in advance."
Xander walked over to a wall, and started to bang his head against it. "Great. That means he doesn't expect us to come back, and he wants a clean conscience. Although with that guy, I'm amazed his conscience was ever clean."
Dante walked over and patted Xander's shoulder. "Easy, Xand… you'll give yourself a headache… besides… it's done. We head to Cutler, Maine, to pick up a package and a person, and then to Seattle for a book, and finally to sunny California."
"Let me guess, just to make my life complete, we have to go to Sunnydale, don't we?"
Dante winced, but nodded, and then realised Xander wouldn't have seen that. "Yeah."
"Is Trish goin' with us?" At least if she was there, there would be more moral support than with Dante. He was a bit of a joker, but had otherwise become quieter over the period of Xander's knowing him.
"She might… we've got to see if her job finishes. If it does, she'll rendezvous with us at Seattle, if not, then we go it alone."
"I should be glad our last job gave us some new equipment and tools, shouldn't I? I mean, I don't fancy Sunnydale with just a gun… that would be suicide, even with the hyped up rounds you pump in these things…"
Dante grinned, and pulled out Ebony. "Hey, these baby's will take out any demon at 50 yards!"
"Yeah… I'm just worried about Buffy and Willow…" Xander dropped the subject like a hot coal as he mentioned the names of those left behind for the first time since he met Dante or Trish. "…Face it… I'm just scared…"
Dante holstered Ebony, and walked off to his office, aware that Xander had just let slip something he didn't wish to. Being a half-devil taught tact, if nothing else. "Hey, Xander, I would only be concerned for you if you weren't…"
*
That night, Xander dreamed about his first mission with Dante, the one where he had got his sword… and a whole lot more trouble than even he needed...
~
Flashback…
~
Xander walked next to Dante, a long dark green coat hiding his form from those who watched the two of them. He had been training hard, but still nowhere near matched Dante's proficiency with weapons or acrobatics. Dante told him constantly that it would come with time and practice, but Xander wasn't sure he believed him. His longish hair had been cut, and now did not flop in his eyes if he looked down. He asked Dante once how he managed to keep his hair that immaculate all the time, and what his secret was… Dante just laughed and told Xander he would find out eventually, and when he did, he would wish that he hadn't.
The two of them had come to Irenais Island, a small island off the coast of some larger island, two thousand miles from anywhere else. It was one of the most desolate places Xander had ever seen, and he told Dante so.
"You'll get used to it, kid." Was Dante's reply, "It's the influence of the demons and devils that have got too much of a foothold in our reality…"
Xander shook off the feeling of discomfort he had from the moment he set foot on the small isle, and followed the man who had so much faith in him.
Dante and Xander quickly came to a large mansion, seemingly carved out of the solid rock of the hillside. The main door creaked open slowly as they approached, and Dante stopped for a moment.
"Xander… this reeks of something bad. If you have any second thoughts, any at all, I won't hold them against you. I just want you to know, if we go in… we might not come out…"
"Dante." Xander's voice was hard, and certain. "I said I would come with you. I'm not backing out now."
"OK, Xander, it's your funeral." Dante pulled Ivory out of his thigh holster. "Take this… you might need it."
Xander looked at the gun, and took it with a nod. "Thanks… I know how much this gun means to you. Both of them."
"Just… don't loose it, OK?" Dante chuckled, and walked through the door.
Xander followed, the sense of foreboding increasing with every step he took…
~
"Xander! Behind you!" Dante's call made Xander spin into a crouch, raising the pistol even as he moved. A marionette was slowly approaching him from behind, its spastic movements belying the poor control its devil had over the inanimate wood.
Xander calmly shot it with Ivory, until the puppet fell to the floor of the room and began to disintegrate.
Dante himself was occupied with three of them, while he shot two; he whipped out Alastor, his sword, and hit the third with a sweeping hit.
The marionette was sent reeling as the powerful strike knocked it backwards, giving Dante enough time to finish the other two off with further well placed shots from Ebony. With those out of the way, Dante returned his attention to the remaining marionette.
Gripping Alastor with both hands, Dante brought the blade up in a powerful strike, lifting the marionette off its feet and crashing it into the ceiling high above. Stepping calmly below the falling enemy, he held his sword high, causing the marionette to impale itself as it fell. Flicking the no longer animated puppet from his blade, he went to stand by Xander, who was staring at the spot where his marionette had dissolved.
"It was dead, Xander," said Dante, "it was just possessed by a devil…"
Xander shook his head. "It's not that… it's just… how can a wooden puppet be so lethal? One, ONE, almost got me! And you took on three!"
Dante didn't know quite what to say. "I… when I first faced one, I was like you are, frightened, and none to weary. But its gets easier. The fact that they are trying to kill you helps matters considerably. I always want to survive. To do that, they have to be banished. The only way to do that is to kill their corporeal form… cause the ethereal devil sure ain't gonna come out to play…"
"How can you be so cool?" asked Xander with an unknown emotion running through him.
"Practice." Answered Dante simply. He turned suddenly, and stared at the wall for a long second.
"What?" asked Xander.
Dante pulled Alastor once more. "More are coming…" he said, before swinging for a shadow that had coalesced from the wall.
The battle, again, was joined…
~
Xander and Dante looked at the statue, wielding a large sword with, seemingly, astounding grace.
"What do we do now?" asked Xander.
Dante looked at him, and then gestured him forward. "I've got a blade I like. It won't bite… but it might sting a bit as it bonds to you, so be careful."
"Right." Said Xander, and stepped forward. The statue glowed as he approached, and the nearer he got, the more the glow intensified, until both Dante and Xander were forced to look away.
Still Xander approached.
The statue began to shake, until the sword suddenly flew from the hands holding it, and spun through the air. Xander sidestepped the blade that was spiralling toward him, and gripped it as it went past. Righting the blade, he tested its weight, marvelling at the blade and its craftsmanship.
"It has almost no weight…" he whispered. "It feels like a feather…"
"It will, to those that it chooses," said Dante, "to those it doesn't, they will barely be able to pick it up, let alone use it as an effective weapon…"
"How can it… argh!" Xander fell to the floor, clutching the blade to him, writhing in agony on the stone in front of the statue.
At the cry, Dante looked about warily, in case any devils decided to see what was making the sound.
Xander abruptly stopped, and levered himself up from the floor using the blade as a cane. "Woah… what a rush…" he murmured to himself. Dante smiled. His introduction to a new weapon was somewhat more painful. It killed him.
"As I was saying, before I was so rudely interrupted," Xander stared purposefully at the blade in his hand, "how can it do that?"
Dante shrugged. "How the hell should I know? All I know is, it's very useful when someone tries to kill you with your own blade…"
Xander frowned, and Dante grinned at him.
"What do you want to call it?" Dante asked.
Xander looked to the blade. He ran a hand down the edge, and brought it away with a cut on his palm. He wiped the wound on the flat of the blade, and then watched the wound as it closed up of its own accord.
"This writing," he said, indicating the runes now appeared on the blade because of the blood, "spells 'Ragnarok' the blades original name. It seems fitting, that after all these years, the sword should bear its own name once more…"
Xander looked up, with a confused expression n his face. "What was I saying? And why does my hand hurt so damn much?"
Dante looked at him with concern on his face. "You don't remember?"
"No. Should I?" asked Xander.
"Xander… you just cut your hand on the blade, and wiped blood on it. Letters appeared, and you read them out… you said it read 'Ragnarok' or something like that. Then your hand healed in seconds…"
Xander looked at his hand. "It doesn't even hurt any more…" he whispered. Looking up, with more strength in his voice, he said, "Yes… something told me to name the blade 'Ragnarok'…"
Dante looked at the blade with a worried expression. "Maybe it isn't safe, Xander… do you think you should leave it behind?"
Xander's expression at that suggestion told Dante all he needed to know about what would happen if he tried to forcibly remove the blade from Xander's possession.
"No." Xander's tone left no room for argument. "Ragnarok, the Doom of the Gods, has an owner once more…"
Dante had the distinct feeling that something bad would come of this. When and where, he could not tell… but something bad was going to happen, and he was going to be there to see it didn't kill his young friend…
~
"Xander, there it is… the Memory Stone!" Dante looked across the large hall, less the hall and more the B-52 hangar in its dimensions, with his eyes fixed on their target, a small and unassuming jewel placed on an equally unassuming pedestal.
"So go get it, Acrobat…" returned Xander. "I'm not going all the way over there…" A sudden squeal behind them made them turn around, and Xander to change his mind. "OK, so maybe I am…" he took off running, drawing Ragnarok as he went, spinning the blade through a Blood Goat that got too close for comfort. The demon spawn went spiralling for the rafters, screaming in torment at the sudden severing of its arm.
Dante was close on his heels, somersaulting and jumping as he shot at random targets that got into his field of vision. He landed on top of a large lizard like creature, and leapt into the air as he shot downwards at its head. Seeming to gain purchase in mid air, he put his feet together once more and pushed off of nothing, gaining extra height that he quickly put to good use in taking out as many of the airborne enemies as possible.
Landing awkwardly, Dante cursed as his ankle buckled underneath him and he rolled to a stop on the floor with a big spider leering down at him.
The spider-like monster was a good ten feet long, and had a leg span of at least forty feet. The face scrunched up, almost as if it was laughing.
It was.
"So, Son of Sparda," came a voice not unlike an earthquake. "You have come to face me once more…" he flicked a look at Xander with one of his eight eyes. "And what is this? You have brought more treats for me? Well, I'll certainly dine well tonight!"
Dante fixed the spider with a hateful gaze. "You'll not 'dine' on either of us, Phantom!"
"Oh, Son of Sparda? Is that so?" Phantom reared up and batted at Dante with one leg, which Dante leapt nimbly over and brought Alastor down upon. Phantom screamed in pain as the sword cut at his limb, causing the walls of the hall to shake, and backed up.
Xander rushed over to help, but Dante waved him back. "Get the Memory Stone! This is my fight!"
"Not if it gets you killed!" shouted back Xander.
"It won't. I'm better than that…" Dante sounded calm, in control of the situation. His ankle no longer bothered him, whether he was ignoring it, or that it had healed was uncertain, at least to Xander.
Dante snapped him back to reality. "Get the Stone!"
Xander ran for the pedestal, and the Memory Stone.
~
Phantom reeled as Dante swiped him again with Alastor. The blade crackled with lightning as it struck the spider demon, and the blow shook the foundations. Dante backed off and prepared for what he knew would be a painful retaliatory strike.
Phantom did not disappoint. The blow he delivered to Dante sent him flying into a wall, several metres away, and knocked him senseless for a few seconds.
Xander saw Dante slump to the floor, and hurriedly pocketed the Memory Stone. Turning back, he drew Ragnarok from its sheath, and flung it with all his strength at the huge volcanic spider monster that was closing on his friend.
~
Phantom reared up as he closed on the stupefied form of Dante, and uncoiled his tail. Standing tall against the rest of his body, it lashed about, ready to strike…
Ragnarok cut through the air, thrumming as it did, and cut cleanly through the tip of Phantom's tail. The appendage retracted quickly, with the spider turning to see who had dared to attack it. The severed end of the devils tail landed on the floor and melted through the stone, leaving a large hole with burning lava eating away at its edges.
Xander stood on the edge of the raised dais that the Memory Stone pedestal had stood on, and waved the demon toward him…
~
Dante returned to consciousness to see Phantom, his dear arch-nemesis, closing fast on Xander with murder clear in its body language. The legs pounded the ground, smashing the foot think marble slabs that had been laid as tiles on the floor of the hall, and enchantment burned thick and hot around it.
Xander stood with no expression directly in its line of sight, and drew Ivory like he had been born with a gun in his hand. He fired almost casually at the beast, and flipped suddenly out of the way, a somersault that even Dante would be proud of, to the side of the charging Phantom spider.
Phantom was moving too fast for it to change direction, momentum carrying it onward into the pedestal, and then skidding further into the far wall of the hall. The wall caved in around it, and daylight could be seen from inside the room. Dante breathed a sigh, and Xander brought his sights back to bear on the now partially buried form, and kept firing.
Dante joined him a second later when he saw the pile shift slightly. He knew what that meant. Phantom had survived. And he was not going to be happy…
~
Ragnarok stood embedded in the marble floor, like the sword in the stone of Arthurian legend, and raged. It could not get to its chosen bearer. Tiny tremors began in the blade, increasing until the slab of marble in which it was driven shook in sympathy to the vibrations.
Then the marble began to crumble.
Ragnarok broke free and began the flight back to its master… straight through anything in the way…
~
Dante ducked instinctively as he felt something brush past his hair, and looked up in time to see Xander's blade, the self named Ragnarok, flashing through the air like it had wings.
"It time to end this…" he growled to himself. "Before Phantom manages to kill Xander."
The air around Dante warped and shifted as his demonic nature asserted itself, bringing out his stronger form. Hair darkened and lengthened in seconds, skin blackened and eyes burned an angry red colour. Talons formed from fingertips, but not long enough to prevent manual manipulation. Dark, devilish, near bat-like wings grew slowly from shoulder blades. Finally, almost as an afterthought, small horns grew from his forehead. Sensing his master's surge in power, Alastor unleashed his full capabilities, lightning playing up and down the blade freely, the energy contained within each crackling bolt enough to power LA for a month.
"Phantom!" Dante called in challenge.
As the spider turned to see the new threat, Xander backed off and got out of the way. He didn't know who the new horned guy was, but if he had issues with the thing he was fighting, that was fine by him. Let them kill themselves. Just don't let them kill him.
Phantom allowed a malevolent grin to appear on its face. "Choose to fight me in your natural form, Son of Sparda? So be it…"
Dante drew Alastor, and moved forward so quickly it appeared almost as if he was stationary. He cleaved through a limb that was aimed for him, and ducked under another. "I will not be dying here, today, Phantom…" he cut through another leg, an avoided the spray of demonic lava that poured from the wound. Somersaulting over another attack, Dante landed in front of Phantom, and stabbed it in the face with his sword.
As the spider flailed about, it six remaining legs working hard to keep it stable, Dante leapt into the air, and sent himself higher than he ever had before. Gripping his sword with both hands, he aimed the blade down, and let himself drop.
The blade cut through the demonic skin of the Phantom, and severed its connection with the material plane. As it demonic power began to ebb, the spider simply began to dissolve.
A final chilling warning echoed around the hall. "I will be back, Son of Sparda… you can be sure of that…"
Dante slumped to the ground, the victory having cost him more than he would care to admit…
~
What about this development then?
A/N:
Daniel: To use a quote from 3Drealms, my other stories will be 'done when they're done'. Sorry if you're waiting for one particular one.
Vampyr64: I could have sworn you authored some stories on ff.net. The Buffy/Resident Evil crossover, yes? Can't find you as an author though. I also thought you were under the pen-name 'Socrates' for a while, but that didn't pan out either. Where are you now, only on yahoo groups? And if you started a DMC crossover, please don't stop, I want to see someone else's take on the idea…
Quote of the week:
"Recovering lost files is like getting a box of chocolates… if you're lucky, it happens once a year…"
"Hey, Forrest, shut up."