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: I guess I'm reduced to begging again, hmm? Please?
Rating: R.
Notes: I'm getting used to a new keyboard (on a laptop), so if there are more errors than usual, I'm sorry. And as a crazy aside, Kingdom Hearts is incredibly fun especially the platinum match. Argh, he's a hard bugger…
Crossover: Devil May Cry / Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Continuity: DMC1, not 2 (except for a few enemies). Xander's road trip. That's pretty much it. Enjoy.
*
"I'm telling you, Giles, this guy has to be evil! There was just this weird vibe from him…" Buffy paced the room nervously, looking at the door regularly as if she expected someone to come bursting through at any second.
Giles was sitting in his favourite easy chair, cleaning his glasses while watching Buffy wear a path in his carpet. "Yes, well… I am afraid, Buffy, that without more conclusive evidence, we cannot accost an honest citizen and declare him a demon."
"But you saw his card, Giles! Granted, he's a detective, but I've never heard of a 'Devil Never Cry' detective agency!"
Giles pulled a face at his charges attitude. He had heard of a 'Devil Never Cry' detective agency, all too well, in fact. He knew Dante personally. He shook his head slightly at his delusion. Maybe not personally but he did know him. Certainly of him. The most feared and respected demon hunter in the world, capable of walking into situations without harm that even a Slayer would not walk into without dying. All with those twin pistols of his… and that sword.
He cleared his throat, and pushed his glasses back onto his nose. "Well, I am afraid also, Buffy, that Dante might not take too kindly to you butting your nose into his business. There is a reason he works alone, and I have nothing but the utmost respect for the man, and his methods."
Riley chose to interject a piece of information that Buffy seemed to have forgotten. "Um… when we questioned him Giles, he said that the man we were asking him about was his partner."
Giles fixed Buffy with a piercing stare. "And you chose not to tell me this why?" he asked.
Willow replied, both Riley and Buffy wincing. "His partner looked like Xander, Giles."
"You are sure?" quizzed Giles.
Willow looked down, then back up again, meeting Giles eyes. "Well… not entirely… I was the only one who saw him, you see, and well…" She trailed off.
"So you could have just been seeing what you wanted to see?"
"I… suppose so…" finished Willow limply.
Giles stood up and headed for his kitchen. "Very well. I suggest that you leave Dante alone, Buffy. He doesn't like people pushing into his business. That is one lesson I hope you don't have to learn the hard way…" he poured himself a cup of tea. "Of course, I will endeavour to talk to him myself… see what he wants here… for you can be certain of one thing; all of you… if Dante has come to Sunnydale, it is because something immeasurably bad is going to happen."
With that warning to all of them, he headed upstairs, allowing them to let themselves out.
*
Riley walked through the campus grounds on the way back to Lowell House. He pulled out a small radio, and spoke into it tersely. "Be on the lookout for a man with white hair and dressed in a red full length coat. I have a feeling that he is dangerous, and Professor Walsh may be interested in him." The radio crackled, and Riley listened for a second.
"Yes," he said, "it appears that he has a partner and they may both be HST's…"
One word came clearly over the radio. "Understood."
Riley sighed and glanced around him. A pang of hunger struck him, and he shook his head. "I know the food at Lowell isn't much, but damn, it's better than Buffy's cooking…"
*
Dante and Xander walked down the main path of Resting View cemetery, one Xander didn't recognise. But with the number of cemeteries that got spawned in Sunnydale, he wasn't completely surprised that one had opened since he left. A bit more work for Buffy to do, and less for him to worry about when he wasn't there.
Unfortunately for him, at that second, he was there. And so were several vampires and a Slayer.
At the sound of the battle, both Xander and Dante took off in the direction of the sound. Xander slowed as he saw Buffy fighting, but sped back up as Dante cast a look back that plainly said 'if you don't help, you'll be next…'
All Xander could do was shout a warning to Dante. "Don't DT!"
Dante nodded to the shout even as he decapitated a vampire with a lightning fast swing of Alastor, saving Buffy from having a sudden case of sucking neck wound. Xander stood back from the fray, drawing both of his pistols and opening up on targets of opportunity. Three vampires died before they realised the biggest threat lay in the guns.
As the vampires turned to Xander, Buffy followed their course, and came face to face with a person she thought she would never see again. She stopped in mid stake, and stared at the green-coated figure that was cutting a swathe through the vampires.
"Xander?" she asked, half incredulous and half frightened.
"What?!" he asked more harshly than he intended.
"Is that… is that you?"
Xander fired one last shot at a vampire that was fleeing, causing the bloodsucker to dust as he ran, and turned to look at her. "I don't know. You tell me." He turned and walked away.
Buffy looked at Dante, who shrugged and followed his partner.
*
Buffy stood in the middle of the group of dust piles that showed the location of her fight. Her eyes were locked on the place where Xander had vanished into the darkness of the night, and they unfocussed as she stood there unmoving.
"…Xander?" Buffy asked weakly.
*
The Initiative was on patrol. Riley led the crack 1st team on a hunt for the red-coated man. Professor Walsh had authorised the use of deadly force, being sure that it was a person that the brass had been hearing rumours about for months. If it was, not just the Initiative, but she herself would score major points with the various senators they needed to convince about the actual uses of the 314 project.
Riley led Forrest and Graham through the underbrush near one of the cemeteries in the neighbourhood, while three others did the same the other side of town.
For the tenth time in the same number of minutes, Forrest checked the charge on his tazer, and scowled at the unfairness of the world. He had had to cancel a date with a really hot brunette, and with the way she had reacted when he had called her to explain, there would be no second chances.
"Damn it! Why did this guy have to turn up tonight, of all nights?" He muttered.
Graham shushed him, and smirked at his friend's misfortune. "Unlucky, buddy…" he whispered before Riley shushed him in turn.
The three marines hid behind a bush as their target and another man walked past. They were in the middle of a heated argument, and not fully paying attention to the area around them. Riley shook his head. In Sunnydale, that was fatal… but then again, if the red coated man was as powerful as Walsh suspected, they wouldn't have any trouble.
"I don't… I didn't want to meet them!" Said the first, dressed in green.
"So, you what? Wanted to leave her to the demons?" said the one in red in a fit of rage.
"She would have deserved it!"
"No Slayer, ever, deserves being turned!" returned Dante, "and you know full well that any vampire worth his salt will turn a Slayer… if only to have one as powerful as that as his childe!"
"When I left, she called me useless!" screamed Xander, before calming slightly "I just saved her pitiful life! Like I have done so many times before! I'm sick of this… this… contempt for my abilities by my so called 'friends'!"
"I wont leave an innocent to be hurt, Xander. And I thought that you held to the same ideals." Dante sneered at him. "It looks like I was wrong."
Xander opened his mouth, but no sounds came out. The words Dante had just spoken rang painfully in his soul, tearing him up inside. Finally, he spoke, his voice coming out barely above a whisper. "You know what? I can't handle this right now… I'll see you back at the hotel." The final words stuck in his throat, but Xander eventually forced them out. "Be careful, Dante."
A momentary flash of regret showed in Dante's eyes, before he nodded and turned away. "See you in an hour or so."
*
Riley watched as the man in green walked off after a bitter exchange of words. He didn't know what a 'Slayer' was, but he figured the research department could figure it out.
"Ready?" he whispered to Forrest and Graham.
"Sir." They both echoed at the same time.
Riley sighted along his tazer at the man in red. "Fire." He whispered.
As lightning played over the unprepared Dante's body, he collapsed to the ground, his muscles contracting and relaxing as the nerves overloaded, causing him to jerk spastically on the dirt beneath him.
Forrest ran over, and injected him with a sedative. "Get the HST recovery teams in here now." He said, "I don't know how long this will keep him out…"
*
Walsh looked at the security monitors displaying their new visitor.
"He is certainly a lively one…" she mused quietly to herself.
A panel operator by her side heard her comment, "Yes, Ma'am."
Walsh turned away. "Have him fully sedated and examined. Open him up if you have to, but don't kill him."
A scientist nodded, and went to perform the ordered operation.
*
Xander and Nathan sat in the hotel room, with Nathan looking in amusement at Xander's discomfort.
"You said that you had an argument about methods," said Nathan, "so why are you so worried? He's probably staying in a different hotel to get some rest away from us both."
Xander shook his head. "No. Dante wouldn't do that. He knows how dangerous it is in this town, and just how much trouble can come. Something's happened."
Nathan shrugged. "Well, if it has, it will be safer to do it in daylight. Get some sleep, or at least some rest, boy. Dante can take care of himself."
Xander gnashed his teeth, but nodded and headed for his bed. The last thing Nathan saw was Xander stripping out of his coat as the door was kicked shut.
*
Dante woke up in pain.
His head hurt, his muscles ached and he felt like he had the mother of all hangovers. Then the past night came back to him.
"Who were those guys?" he asked himself.
A feminine voice answered his question. "You mean these bloody wankers that captured you? Seem to be researchin' on us or something…"
Dante frowned. "Uh… thanks for the info. How do we get out of here?"
The voice now sounded incredulous. "Get out? You don't get out, it's that simple. And even if you did, they've stuck a chip in you're 'ead to stop you from bitin' people…" the voice sounded pissed off and whiny now, "or they did me!"
Dante took a shot in the dark. "Are you a vampire?"
The voice laughed. "That's right, kick a girl when she's dead…"
"But I'm not."
"Don't matter to them, buddy. If you're hostile, you're a target."
"But I'm not a hostile."
"Oh, come on, pull the other one, lover, its got bells on! If they got you, you're a hostile! At least to them…"
"Whatever…" said Dante, effectively ending the conversation.
He walked over to the camera mounted in the wall, and jabbed a finger hard into the lens. It shattered as the half-devils finger forced its way through, cutting of the video feed in his cell. He pulled his hand back as the electrical current burnt it. After the tazers, he was going to be wary of electricity for a while.
"Now how do I get out of here?" Dante wondered aloud.
*
Xander marched through the streets of Sunnydale, guns loaded and sword ready, seeking vengeance. Dante hadn't come back, and it was looking increasingly grim. He had an idea that he had gone back to help Buffy, but still; he couldn't be sure. Nevertheless, it was a place to start.
After Hell, and several missions that would have made any of the group loose their lunches before the really vile things even began had hardened him to the point where he was no longer the useless baggage the he had been when he left the company of Sunnydale.
Now he was strong, tough and very angry. His final words with Dante were not the sort of thing he wished to remember as his last conversation with him if something went wrong. His conscience wouldn't be able to take it. Too much was spent reanalysing his final moments with Buffy, and if his decision had been the right one.
So, he planned on scouring all the graveyards in Sunnydale until he found Buffy and the rest. And the cardboard hero, too. That would be a big bonus.
*
The entire Scooby gang were on patrol that night. Buffy had insisted. All except Riley were there, because he was with the Commandos, and neither group knew about the other yet.
Buffy was on point with Spike, with Willow, Tara and Giles bringing up the rear. Buffy held a stake in each hand, while Spike went bare knuckle against anything he fought. Willow and Tara simply used their Wicca skills, and Giles was the group's non-magical artillery with a crossbow. All carried the normal cross and holy water… except Spike, for obvious reasons.
They had covered three cemeteries, and had not encountered one vampire yet. Whoever, or whatever, this Dante was, he wasn't messing about…
*
Nathan smiled into the book he was holding. If Dante had have been there, he would have shit bricks. Nathan, a Research Watcher, was holding the Codex Mortis in his bare hands. The Watchers, for some inexplicable reason, thought they were immune to curses in languages that they couldn't understand. Well… it was more ignorance if truth were told… they couldn't figure out what something meant, so they ignored it. Simple, really.
Nathan's eyes flashed darkly as he turned a page, revealing the summoning in all its glory…
That half-devil and his unknowing partner were about to get a shock…
*
A vampire stepped out of the shadows into Xander's path. "Where are you going, buddy?" the vampire asked with a sneer.
Xander stopped, and waited until the vampires had completely surrounded him. "Well, buddy," he mirrored the vampires own words and tone back at him, "it looks like I'm going nowhere."
The vamp laughed. "You know, you're right. You are so right!" he took a threatening step forward. "I need a new coat. Get 'im, boys!"
Xander rolled his eyes. "You need to try some new lines… do you have any idea how many times I've heard that?"
The vampires as a group paused for a second. This wasn't the way it was supposed to go… the victim was supposed to scream and beg for their lives. Or mercy, at least. They weren't supposed to offer cheeky defiance. As far as the vampires were concerned, that was against the rules.
The leader tried his hardest to inspire fear. "What are you? Frickin' crazy? We're vampires! We're gonna kill you!"
Xander held a hand to his mouth in mock fright. "Oh no! You're gonna kill me!" He started running in a circle waving his hands around in the air inside the ring of vamps. "Help me! Somebody save me! Please! Save me!"
Xander pulled up short of the leading vampire. "Right." His tone turned deadly; "now we have that over with, lets get on with it, shall we?" he pulled a gun, and fired at the kneecap of a vamp to his right.
The vamp went down screaming; "It burns! It burns!"
Xander levelled the gun at the leader. "Care to try?" He fired before the vampire could even move its mouth, let alone say anything. Dust accompanied the gentle gust of the wind a fraction of a second later.
One of the vampires at his back caught on and charged. "You'll die a painful death, human!"
Xander spun with the vamps charge, whipping it round the back of the head with the butt of the pistol as he did so, and made a noise in his throat, akin to a game show failure buzzer. "Ehuh… wrong again, dusty."
The pistol fired once more.
Some of the smarter members of the gang had now decided that it might be in their own best interests if they weren't in that area when Xander noticed them. One took off; running as fast as it's undead legs could carry it.
Its friends tightened the circle around Xander some more. It was now beginning to get far too close for comfort in the engagement, and Xander dropped his pistol while drawing the Ragnarok. Seven vampires now remained, and Xander was of a mind to lower that number slightly.
One swing took three through the middle, cutting them cleanly in half as he spun away.
"It's too open here…" muttered Xander, "no way to pull any real stunts… and someone might see me DT."
Another vampire had its arm taken off at the elbow as it tried to claw him.
"No." said Xander flatly. "That's not allowed."
The three remaining looked at each other, and one sidled off from the other two. The two together charged, one aiming high and the other low. Xander cut off the low one with a sweep of Ragnarok, and turned his head as the vampire's fist headed for his jaw. It was worked around badly, but Xander had come a long way from Angel's seeming betrayal so long ago… it seemed like decades.
His retaliatory strike took the vamp in the face, pulverising its nose and spraying blood everywhere. Drawing the blade of his sword up, Xander split the unfortunate vamp from crotch to neck.
The single vamp left looked around. If all of his gang had been taken down in a few seconds, how could he, only one, kill him? It turned and ran.
Xander stared after the back of the retreating vamp. "Now, that wasn't very friendly, was it?" he asked to himself. "You didn't stay to play. And me with all these cool toys, too…" Xander sighed, "can't have everything…"
Ragnarok flew like a boomerang from his hand, spinning in the air and heading for the vampire. As it caught the cursed creature, the blade cut cleanly through its neck, dusting it instantly.
As the spinning blade reached Xander's outstretched hand, he breathed slowly and moved to retrieve his pistol.
Xander stood, in the middle of the cemetery, holding his sword in his right hand, and one of his pistols in his left, when a sudden warning came from the blade.
Look out.
Xander stepped sideways to feel a crossbow bolt whip past his arm. If he had stood where he was, it would have surely impaled him.
Turned round, Xander saw the people he wished he couldn't, and heard an uncertain voice say his name:
"Xander?"
*