The Ties that Bind

Dante peered down into the hole in the roof. The room was well lit, but he couldn't make out what was inside. After deciding the hole was large enough, he stepped forward and dropped himself through it. He landed behind the stone statue. He stepped around to get a good look at the environment. He saw a large crevice in the middle of the room. Two people sat on the floor on the other side. He approached the crevice but didn't bother jumping over it.

Both people noticed him, but only one stood to greet him. "I was wondering when you'd get here. You left earlier than you were supposed to, but you didn't get here in time to interfere. Just so you know, I held true to my threats."

"Really? Where is Lilith?"

Vergil's only response was a simple shrug. Jeremy began giggling as if he were drunk. Dante ignored him. "Look for her!" Jeremy called.

"How dare you get involved!" Dante challenged. "All these years you played with my daughter's emotions. Why the hell are you here?"

"I came home. You've met my father."

"What?"

Jeremy giggled again. Vergil shook his head. "Ignore him. He's not right in the head. He needs a few moments."

Dante lost what little patience he had. "Where is my daughter!"

Jeremy stood. For the first time since Dante's known him, he had the mien of something truly threatening. "Look for her!" He was in such a rage that he drooled with each word. "Look for her!"

Sensing that things were getting out of control, Dante withdrew Ebony and pointed it at Jeremy. "Where is she!"

Before he could pull the trigger or make any further threats, a familiar voice filled the room from above. "Don't you dare harm my son!"

Dante lowered Ebony. He immediately realized the voice was coming from the statue in the middle of the room. "It can't be." For the first time, he took a good long look at the statue.
The statue's lips didn't move, but it spoke. "Do not harm my son, and I will give back your daughter. She wasn't what I was expecting, but she didn't disappoint me. She was so much more."

For a second, Dante could register only the voice's owner and the statue's identity. "Mundus."

The statue simply responded with a resounding, "Yes."

"Your son?" Dante stared at Jeremy. "All this time, you were using Lilith to get to me. Why take the long route?"

Jeremy shook his head. "You don't remember?"

"Remember what?"

"When Lilith was two years old, she had been taken from you. For the past eighteen years, you thought you had killed them all. You missed one."

Dante's eyes widened in shock, then narrowed in sudden anger. "You. You were there. That's why you knew to come back."

"Exactly."

"Why put her in danger?"

"Why not?" Mundus asked. "She is of you. That is enough to make her the object of my wrath."

"What about Vergil? You were there when he was born. You were the midwife."

"Exactly."

"You ruined him."

"No less than you did."

Dante sighed once before turning back to Jeremy. "Where is Lilith?"

Jeremy pointed up. "Look for her."

Dante looked up. His eyes veered to the wall. Lilith was crucified to the wall the same way Trish had been the last time Dante and Mundus were in the same room. Blood leaked from her body down into the crevice. Dante felt his heart sink. Obviously, she had received a terrible injury that could not be healed.

"If you want her," Mundus challenged him, "then take her."

Dante looked from Lilith to Vergil as if trying to plot something. Vergil sensed it. "You have a choice," Vergil commented. "Us or her."

"Choose quickly," Jeremy added. "Choose wisely. The decision you make may be your last."

Dante's gaze returned to Lilith in an attempt to meet her eyes. Her eyes were open but blank. She seemed to be in another world. "Let me help you," Mundus said. He raised his hand with the palm facing Lilith. She looked up in time to see a yellow ball of energy form against his palm. Then she was covered in a hot beam of light.

Completely oblivious to the potential consequences, Dante leapt towards the beam of light. Vergil anticipated the move. He jumped across the crevice and slammed into Dante with more force than seemed possible. Vergil flipped over Dante's head as they hit the floor. Vergil rolled to his feet and swung Sparda around. As Dante rolled to his feet, he pulled his own sword free and turned to meet Vergil's swing. The two swords clashed. Vergil watched in shock as Sparda was knocked from his hands. He stared at the sword in Dante's hands.

"What is that? How could that happen?"

"Stupid question," Dante said, "easy answer. Sparda is dead in your hands because it does not acknowledge you. Your hands have tainted its spirit. This sword will cleanse it."

Vergil reached for Sparda, but Dante's sword nearly severed Vergil's fingers to keep his hand away. "That simple sword is no match for Sparda."

"Your ignorance proves your unworthiness. Do you think my father's namesake was his only companion?"

Vergil narrowed his eyes. "What does that mean?"

Dante stepped back and waved the sword under Vergil's chin. Jeremy laughed in the distance. "This is Yamato, the sword my father left for Lilith. When I kill you, it will cleanse everything you fouled with your hands."

"You truly intend to kill me?" Vergil challenged. Jeremy's laugh breached the conversation. Dante was suddenly aware that he was in danger on all sides, but he had no intention of turning his back to Vergil. He slightly turned his head to the side when he heard Lilith screaming. "Go on," Vergil insisted, "but you still have to deal with me."

"That will be easy," Dante answered. "You're more Mundus's son than mine now."
He didn't stay to see Vergil's reaction. Vergil grabbed Sparda and swung wildly, but Dante was no longer standing there. Vergil looked up to see Dante running up the wall towards the gaping hole where Lilith was once bound. Before he could run after him, Mundus put his hand against the floor to block Vergil's path.

"Let him go," Mundus ordered him. "He will never let any of us roam free unless he's dead."

"Then let me finish it."

"No! Let him go. He will be an easier opponent this way."

(X)

Lilith forced herself to breathe slowly. She lay patiently on her bed as she watched Dante quickly slide a needle through a candle flame. His other hand held the open wound Vergil had inflicted with the contaminated dagger. As was his custom, he had removed his gloves before tending to her.

Dante threaded the needle. "Think happy thoughts," he advised her. She merely rolled her eyes. "I take that as an affirmative." He waited several seconds, as if to catch her off guard, before sliding the needle through the laceration. "Happy thoughts," he reminded her as he finished the first stitch.

"Oh, shut up," she responded.

"Yeah, I love you, too," he answered with a tinge of sarcasm. The needle remained unnaturally warm. Dante knew the heat wasn't from the candle. A few minutes before, Deanna had taken Lilith's body temperature. It registered 160 degrees Fahrenheit. Though her skin was slick with sweat, Dante's hands refused to slip.

Deanna entered the bedroom and kneeled on the other side of the bed. She ran a hand across Lilith's forehead. "I'm not a baby," Lilith whined.

"I know," Deanna said, "but I never took the opportunity to do it when you were." She pulled her hand back and flicked sweat. "We'd better get her into the tub."

"We will," Dante said, "but not before I stop the bleeding."

"Can you do that? After all, you've never had to deal with an injury neither of you couldn't just shrug off."

Dante glanced at Lilith's face. She didn't register what Deanna said. "I can handle it," he finally said. "We've gotten each other through worse. Her heart and spirit will have a tougher time healing than her body."

"You mean Jeremy."

Dante looked at Deanna as if to visually reprimand her for saying it out loud. To make herself useful, Deanna went into Lilith's bathroom and turned on the cold water. She let the tub fill up before she returned to Lilith's side. By then, Dante had finished the stitching. He secured the ends of the stitching and handed Deanna the needle. Then he carried Lilith to the tub and lowered her into the water. She propped her head against the side of the tub and closed her eyes.
Deanna leaned against the doorpost. She and Dante stared at each other for several seconds before he walked past her.

"You're going back already?" Deanna asked in a desperate bid to make him stop.

He complied, but he did not face her. "If I don't, then Lilith is guaranteed to die."

"But do you have to leave now?"

"If not now, then when?"

Deanna walked around him to confront him. "Don't you think you should spend a little time with her, especially in her condition?"

"I can do that after I cure her."

Deanna opened her mouth to say something else, then sighed in defeat. "What?" Dante asked. "What do you want to say?"

"Nothing." Deanna stormed out of the room. Dante ran after her downstairs. She threw herself onto a couch. Dante sat beside her and placed a hand on her thigh.

"What is it?"

A single tear ran down her cheek. "You're going to say this is all my fault, aren't you?"

"What?"

"Everything that's happened is because I wasn't honest with you from the beginning."

Dante squeezed her thigh only because he knew she was ticklish. "I never said that."

"Not with words." Deanna slapped his hand away. "I could see it in your eyes. There is always that blame."

"It's been only a few days since you returned, if even that. You've always felt I blamed you, ever since the whole incident with Raynok and Kerlak. The only thing I blame you for is leaving. If you'd stayed, things may have been different."

There was a silence before Deanna asked, "You're going to kill him, aren't you?"

Dante knew where she was headed. He stood to leave. "I don't want to talk about it. Let it go and leave it to me."

"You can't kill him."

"I can't or I shouldn't?"

"You shouldn't."

"Why the hell not?"

"Because he's our son!"

The only reason Dante didn't slap her was the fact he was standing and she was still sitting. "He didn't think of that when he tried to kill our daughter!"

"Dante, you don't understand!"

"What's to understand!" Deanna looked away. Dante sighed. "He is not our son. He belongs to someone else now. He did the moment he emerged from your womb." Deanna leaned forward and covered her face with her hands. Dante sat beside her and put an arm around her. "I need you to take care of Lilith while I'm gone. She needs you now, more than ever."

"I know."

"Then I'll see you later." Dante hugged her a little harder than usual. He didn't know why, but he felt a need to do so. When he finally left, Deanna looked at her hands.
"She needs me. This time, I'll do right by her."

(X)

Lilith shivered in the cold water. It felt like she was sitting naked on ice. She exhaled through her mouth, then sighed deeply. She deliberately opened her eyes slowly so she wouldn't be surprised by her visitor. She knew he was there before she did so.

"I was wondering if you'd stop by."

The visitor kneeled beside the tub. He lifted Lilith's head with one hand and carefully lowered it into the water. After several minutes, he lifted her head. He let her lean against the back of tub. He carefully wiped blood from her eye.

"I guess you have something to say about what's been going on in the past few days," Lilith suggested.

"What's done is done. I believe you've handled it to the best of your ability."

"That doesn't make it all right. He's going to kill him. He's going to kill your grandson."
Sparda lowered his head a little. "My son has the right idea. People have to face such choices like this. It is life."

"So you believe Vergil should die?"

"It is a battle between you and your brother. Only one of you can be saved. The other must die at the expense of that choice. You know that between the two of you, even in my eyes, you are the more worthy one. Vergil has to die."

"Will you help my father?"

"If he asks for it." Cold water splashed over the side of the tub. Sparda scooped a handful of water and let it drip. "He has fouled what was sacred to me. He destroyed its spirit. It must be cleansed."

"You mean the sword Sparda."

"What else? I left it for Dante. Only he should have his hands on it."

Lilith grinned weakly. "I've had it."

"You're different." Sparda carefully combed her hair with a claw. "You and Dante are what I envisioned. To the world, it is as if I had never left."

Lilith summoned up the courage to ask a daring question. "What about your other son? Did you think of him?"

To her surprise, he did not hesitate. "He was lost to the darkness. It could not be helped. One child of darkness, and one child of light. I had no right to be surprised."

"Child of darkness? Child of light? Did you know you were going to lose Vergil?"

"Yes. Hundreds of years before, a prophecy was given to me, but I did not understand it. Now it doesn't matter." Sparda opened the tub drain. "Everything has turned out the way it must. I have no major regrets." Then he mentioned casually, "The water is too warm."

Lilith did not bother to ask him to elaborate. When the water finished draining, Sparda closed the drain and turned on the cold water. "Is there a chance of saving me?"

Sparda didn't answer. He seemed too focused on the water. He remained completely silent until he turned off the water. "Yes, there is, but your father is looking in the wrong place." Before she could say anything, he immediately responded, "Don't worry. He will find it in time. Just not where he's looking now."