This is a pretty long while in coming, but hopefully worth it.
Enjoy
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Devil Inside
Of course he knew they were in trouble. Dante could see that without having to hear it from a woman he'd met less than 24 hours ago; especially if it was her fault they were in this mess.
But it was more than that.
Dante realized with a growing dread that he and Raven were not just in trouble...they were dead, no matter what they did.
He couldn't tell why, but he just knew. He was staring death in the face. Because that's what those demonic eyes were...death. From their hellish luster to the evil somehow emanating from their depths-those eyes spoke nothing but doom to the half demon.
The Grim Reaper had finally come to collect the silver devil. It was sooner than he'd expected, but considering how many times he'd given the Reaper the slip in the past, Dante figured it was only a matter of time before death caught up with him.
And it had. But despite seeing the end, Dante couldn't welcome it. He didn't have the will to just pack up and punch out. He'd never been the type to back down and he was not about to start now. He was a fighter and would remain thus until the last breath was torn from him.
Dante wasn't going down easy, so if the Reaper wanted him, he'd have to be right on his game or he'd miss out on his trophy once again.
***
Silently and with a pounding heart, Raven waited for the wind to die down and for their-Dante's enemy to appear. After all, there was no way Raven was fighting in the condition she was in, so the creature was really only for the half devil to fight. But knowing that didn't help.
Raven's entire body was numb from the demon hounds' attacks. Her eyes were heavy and her lungs ached from drawing in breath. Her whole body was shutting down from the inside out and there was nothing she could do about it. She wanted to pass into a peaceful sleep and let the poison finish its work and at the same time her will to fight to the bitter end was growing every moment their situation worsened.
Raven admired how calm and composed Dante looked. He didn't blink or turn away, but stared resolutely at what would most likely be their downfall. Nothing seemed to faze him. She wondered if Dante was always this collected or if he was just putting on a show.
He was so hard to read, such a mystery, and that's what had intrigued Raven in the first place, what had made her push for her organization to agree to bring him on board. Sure the white-haired mercenary had a huge reputation, but more often than not the big guys were just nobodies surrounded by big talk, so the up-and-ups weren't easily swayed when she had originally suggested the half-demon. Her guys needed persuasion, needed proof that Dante could handle what they wanted him to do. They wanted tests.
Dante had passed the first. The incident in his apartment had proven to Raven at least that he could withstand an attack by a weapon that had destroyed both mortals and powerful demon's alike, but Raven knew it wasn't enough. Her people wouldn't send him through just because he managed to survive being impaled by an ancient weapon. They wanted more substantial proof. They wanted to see the son of the legendary Sparda in action, in all his glory. They wanted to make sure that he wasn't just some pretty boy prancing around with an arsenal of fancy weaponry, who somehow got lucky when he knocked off the worst evil to ever rise from the bowels of hell in two millennia.
Raven had faith in the white-haired demon, even if no one else did. All she hoped was that her trust and confidence in him was not misplaced because if Dante wasn't really who she thought he was, no matter how strong the blood of Sparda was that flowed in his veins, he would die.
And if that happened, they would all be dead.
Raven didn't want to think about the possibility of her making a wrong choice since so much was riding on her decision. Now that the new evil had surfaced, everything depended on her. She couldn't afford a mistake. Dante had to be it or they were all doomed.
'You better get us through this Hero.'
***
Dante exhaled deeply as the whipping rain stopped and the pain in his face slowed to a steady burn. He tried to regain normal breathing, having not realized he'd been holding his breath. Fire burned beneath his icy stare as he sized up his enemy, fingering the triggers on his handguns with anticipation.
This would not be easy.
His adversary had more than doubled in size and girth. No longer lanky and much more menacing, it cackled in the dead air, making no sound. Its mocking tone was visible in its sordid yellow eyes, which shone with a malevolent glow.
Its body resembled that of a long-decaying tree, black and covered in a slimy green skin, barely gripping its frame. Its skeletal appendages dangled to the muddy ground, shining metallic in the gloom, each cut to a lethal point.
"Well what d'ya think babe? Still sure about me not needing Alastor?" Dante spoke shortly, trying to hide his anger about having listened to Raven about not needing his sword. The way he was feeling now, he was very much concerned that they had both put too much faith in him and his skills and were about to pay for it.
Dante looked back and saw Raven wavering on her feet, holding herself upright with the aid of a nearby concrete block. She was silently watching him with half-lidded eyes, struggling through the pain in her body. She gave Dante a meager nod and collapsed to her knees in the sinking mud.
He was about to rush up to her when the giant gangrene swung out with two of its arms. The first nearly decapitating the silver-haired mercenary and the other ripping through his red jacket. He had just enough time to dodge-roll out of the way when a third arm came crashing through the cement block Raven had been leaning on, sending a shower of concrete over both mercenaries. Dante scrambled up to the dark-haired woman, digging her out from under a small pile of jagged cement shards. She coughed up a mixture of blood and concrete dust the moment she was free and fell into Dante's arms.
The silver devil frowned and wiped the dust off Raven's cheek before it mingled with the beating rain and became a paste. The woman's eyes flickered open with the touch and she opened her mouth to speak, but only a mass of garbled sounds came out. Dante frowned and began quickly scanning his surroundings for a place to put her out of harm's way.
As his attention was momentarily deterred from the creature, it attacked with a fury of five flailing arms. Raven tried to cry out a warning, but again no words would escape her lips. Her eyes went wide in alarm and she frantically gripped at Dante's arm. Dante felt the nails dig into his skin and immediately swung his head around to the demon, using his unnatural reflexes to take out three of the blade-like appendages with his hand guns.
Seconds before the other arms struck blood, he scooped Raven off the ground as if she were nothing more than a rag doll and leapt behind a pile of iron beams and cement tubes. He leaned her carefully against one of the tubes and rushed out to continue the fight.
***
'What!?!' Dante couldn't help his surprise as he raced back into the open. The creature had sprouted two new arms in every place he had destroyed the others. "I don't goddamn believe this!'
Dante set his jaw and walked steadily closer to the newly forged demon. Both hands holding his guns, but neither rested on the triggers. His arms hung at his sides. He glowered at the creature and its sickening yellow eyes. The demon remained motionless, resting its multitude of arms against its body. Dante bared his teeth in a vicious smile.
"So...looks like you're a lot tougher than I thought." His fingers found Ebony and Ivory's triggers. "Let's do this."
Dante leapt high into the air, raining down a shower of bullets onto the creature, whose arms flew up to meet him. At least twenty of them were destroyed before he touched back down, but Dante soon realized he was fighting a losing battle. Every time an arm was destroyed, the gangrene regenerated a greater number of in its place and soon the devil hunter was having trouble moving even an inch without having to duck or scramble away from the dangling blades.
"Arg," a blade caught him across the chest, "This isn't working. I have to-arg-" another ran up his back, "-find its weakness."
Breathing through clenched teeth, Dante crouched and rolled to avoid a barrage of arms, trying to take in the full image of the demon so that he could find the best place to strike. One arm made a swipe at his face, but was destroyed in an instant by a few shots from his handguns. They kept coming.
"Fuck-there are too many of th-"
Bright lights flashed across Dante's eyes as he was flung headfirst into a cement tube by an unforeseen arm. Groaning and suddenly nauseous, he barely noticed a blade dig into his side as another curled around his waist. He was hoisted into the air and brought slowly closer and closer to what looked like the demon's face.
Dante grimaced and raised his handguns to fire, but his arms went slack and he dropped Ebony and Ivory into the mud amongst a pile of wriggling arms.
***
Raven didn't know what was going on behind her. The pile of concrete tubes blocked her vision and she didn't have the energy to look behind them. She had already tried and failed. Her body had given up on her even if she hadn't.
All she knew was that the shots had stopped and that Dante had been hurt. She hoped to God he wasn't dead. Having only heard a thud and some groaning, Raven couldn't tell just how badly he was hurt, but she had decided he probably wasn't in good shape. Hopefully it wasn't so severe that he wouldn't recover fast enough to end the fight.
Or maybe the battle was already over. Maybe the gangrene had succeeded where so many others had failed. Maybe the son of Sparda was dead and she was next. Maybe Dante had finally hit his stride and couldn't take it anymore.
Did he throw the fight? Did he see the hopelessness and decide to join Trish? Or was he really the victor and just taking his jolly sweet time in retrieving her? Stranger things had happened and it would be so like Dante to make her wait.
Of course the struggle could still be going on and Dante and the creature were just taking a coffee break, or staring each other down. Or maybe Dante was just toying with the creature, pretending to be hurt to get the better of it. If so, the devil hunter was quite an actor because his groans managed to convince Raven of his pain.
But still, there were too many possibilities and no way of knowing. Her worry wasn't getting her anywhere so Raven opted to sit quietly and wait for whatever end she was destined for.
***
The shadow crept along the roofs of nearby buildings, calmly surveying the action below, wondering about the silver-haired fighter he had seen before. He recognized the man but had never seen him in action before-his strength was very surprising. He hadn't anticipated him having such power due to their last meeting, when the man had cried.
Now he was ripping through his demons as if they were nothing, armed with only a pair of handguns. And there was another power, lying dormant inside the man, waiting to be unleashed. This man was definitely more than he appeared.
The shadow was intrigued by the mysterious warrior and his skills. He wondered who he was and where he came from. But more importantly he wondered why he was protecting the woman he had been stalking for what seemed a lifetime; the woman safeguarding the one thing that he feared the most.
What had she paid or offered him in return for his services?
In any case it didn't matter. Soon the intruding slayer would be eliminated by his pet and the shadow would continue with his plans unhindered. The white-haired warrior seemed to already be at death's door. Having dropped what seemed to be his only weapons, he was now dangling like a fish on the hook, waiting to be devoured.
It would be over very soon.
The shadow let out a low gleeful wail and turned his attention to the dark-haired woman, hunkered behind the cement tubes. Like her companion, she would not last much longer.
With the ghostly whistle that never failed to strike fear in the hearts of his victims, the shadow slid down from his perch to remove, once and for all, the one object that stood in his master's way.
***
Dante's vision was completely blurred, like he had been staring directly into the sun for too long. He could see spots of light swimming all around him, and two of them, he knew, were the uncaring eyes of the demon. It was so dark, and his world so hazy that he felt like he was looking through frosted glass.
He needed to throw up.
Hanging upside down, all the blood was rushing to his head and then quickly seeping out from the large gash suffered when he collided with the concrete tube. The pain was stronger then any hangover known to man. He felt like his skull had exploded, or at least he was beginning to wish it had so that he wouldn't have to deal with the horrible, intense thumping.
He definitely had a concussion, or something near to it and he really needed to throw up. All his limbs were heavy and he doubted he'd be able to move again-not that he wanted to in the first place. He just wanted to pass out.
***
The creature tightened its grip around the devil hunter's waist, slicing through his vest to get at the flesh beneath. Dante didn't notice the added pain and he barely felt the warm trickle of his blood. The battle had dulled his senses and he wasn't about to ask for them back anytime soon-not until he had healed himself or his head decided to separate from his body.
As the creature swiveled its arms around, Dante felt himself swung around as he continued to dangle helplessly, his legs falling forwards until his knees were nearing his chin, compressing his stomach contents. He felt himself wretch and the tilting and swirling images continued to plague his vision.
A gust of foul air flew into the silver devil's face, nauseating him further. The gangrene raised him high above its head and through the mist before his eyes; Dante saw a large mouth with jagged teeth rimming a set of decayed gums. He scrunched his eyes, hoping to will the sight away, or at least close his nasal passages to the stench.
There was nothing he could he do. He was trapped like an animal. It was not the way he had planned to go, nor was it anywhere close to the time. It seemed he had finally met his match in the Reaper.
***
'Dante, what the fuck is going on? Are you okay? What's happening over there?' Raven frowned as her impatience grew. She couldn't help revisiting her worries concerning the devil hunter. 'Why haven't you killed it-better yet, why didn't you kill it when you had the chance? Why didn't you listen to me when I warned you? Why did you have to be so damned cocky?'
A high pitched howl broke her out of her reverie. She unclenched her tightening fists as the anger for her helplessness was redirected towards thoughts of the white-haired slayer. The sound made her heart jump back to life. She could feel it rapidly beating in her chest and her stomach sank. Her destiny was coming...only she wasn't prepared at all.
"No...NOOO!!!" she cried, the first words she had been able to since the poison at fully taken its effect. "NO!!!" she shouted into the darkness, finally noticing the swooping shadow moving towards her at an astonishingly slow rate. It was toying with her, knowing she didn't have the strength to fight if it came to that. It expected to pick her off like a daisy.
Well she wouldn't give it the satisfaction of an easy fight. She would go down kicking and screaming and would give it all she had.
"I know what you want and you're not getting it," she growled.
The shadow hooted in response, coming ever closer.
"I also want you to know," Raven's breath quickened but she tried to remain composed so as not to make her threat seem without base, "That you and your master are in for one hell of a surprise. Not only am I not going to let you have this," she held up her wrist with difficulty, showing that she grasped something invisible in her hand, "But I'm also going to give it to the son of Sparda."
The shadow stopped short and swung off the ground to hover in the air ten feet from the dark-haired woman. It didn't have a head or any facial features, but Raven could still tell that she had shocked and maybe even scared the creature.
"That's right," she smiled, regaining some of her courage, "Once Dante is done with your widdle Hydra thing out there, he'll be coming for you. Oh yeah-It won't be long before you and that sadistic fuck you obey are wiped from the face of the earth."
Raven grinned again, but a few tears trickled down her cheeks. "And I'll have my revenge for Tom," she whispered to herself sadly, but with a harsher undertone.
She glared at the shadow as if daring to it make a move, but silently hoping it wouldn't.
It called her bluff and she recoiled into the cement tube as he drifted forwards. She didn't bother looking up to see it looming above her. She knew how it killed its victims. She'd seen how the innocent were left slaughtered in its wake. She wasn't looking forward to it.
But the shadow didn't attack; instead it rested beside her, waiting for her to look up. She did and gasped in shock. Through the shadow she could see what was happening on the other side of the tubes, almost as if it were a magic looking glass.
"No," Raven shook her head in disbelief, trying to convince her mind that her eyes were lying to her; that the creature was just messing with her head. But somehow she knew the truth. Dante was dying and soon the world would follow.
"This can't be over," she told herself. "No...this-isn't-over."
Raven raised her gaze to where the shadow's eyes should have been and yelled at the top of her lungs, "DANTE!!"
***
A power pulsed from within as Dante's eyes flew open. The trance he had fallen into was broken the second he heard Raven's high-pitched shriek.
He was needed. This wasn't over.
The creature's mouth opened wider as it lowered its prey towards its gaping jaws. Dante felt a new rush of putrid air but overlooked it. He was awake, in more ways than one.
He felt warmth growing inside him, the heat trailing down his arms and legs, across his torso and streaming through his veins. His eyes flashed red and he smirked.
It was over-but not for him.
Crying out, almost an inhuman growl, Dante broke through the arms holding him in place above the gangrene's cavernous mouth. He felt his long dormant power once again unleashed and welcomed the familiar darkness. In an instant he was covered by the dark leathery skin of the devil, and was soaring into the air with his jagged wings.
He watched the creature below him almost pitifully then raised his arms, summoning up his electrical attack and sent a storm of lightening down into the creatures mouth-it had shown him its weakness in the moment of its near victory. It exploded and did not reform itself.
'Now it's over,' Dante thought, looking around at the wasted demon. His head shot towards the cement tubes which had protected and concealed Raven. 'Raven!' he had almost forgotten about the dark-haired woman.
He soared around the edge of the tubes and landed softly beside her, returning to human form as his devil trigger ran out. He was too weak from the previous battle to maintain it any longer.
"You alright?" he crouched beside her, not realizing they weren't alone.
"Dante, look out!"
The ashen-haired mercenary fell to the ground and rolled out of the way of the attacking shadow. He turned over onto his back, his fists raised out in front, realizing too late that he hadn't retrieved his handguns.
The shadow came down at him and Dante felt an icy chill up his spine as it passed right through him. He felt no pain and sat up, bewildered.
"What the hell was that? Raven?"
The leather clad woman wasn't watching him. Her attention was directed to the shadow circling above them. "He couldn't hurt you. He was just trying to scare you."
"Scare me?" Dante was watching the shadow with interest.
"Yeah, you're not weak enough...but I am. He can kill me."
"What?" Dante jumped to his feet, ready to protect.
"You saw what happened Dante. You can't hurt him. Not with your body, not with any weapon, you or any other man possesses."
"Then how do we stop him? There has to be something, some weapon. He can't be invincible."
Raven turned to him with tired eyes, "No...you're right. He's not invincible and there is a weapon...I've been protecting it. It's why he's here. You've already seen it, or to put it your way-not seen it."
"What?" Dante started. "You mean that thing you hit me with in my apartment?"
"Yes," said Raven, "That 'thing' is the one thing that can stop him and the one thing he's terrified of."
"Well then use it already," Dante was growing impatient.
"I can't, that's why I need you. I'm not strong enough."
"So I nearly got my ass thrashed because you can't pick up a make believe sword or something? If you're not strong enough, how were you able to use it on me? Did I inspire some hidden strength in you?"
Raven knew the half demon was frustrated but she and he didn't have the time to argue or dig into each other.
"Look, Hero," she said evenly, "I know you're a little pissed-"
"-a little?"
"Shut up and listen will you? We don't have time for you to take a hissy."
Dante folded his arms across his chest and let out a loud huff. He was still watching the shadow, wondering why it was taking so long to make his move. The way he was feeling right now, he almost wanted to let the creature have his way with Raven.
"Look, you can rip into me all you want after we get through this, but not before. Now come here a-"
Raven was cut short but the wailing of the shadow as it finally decided to go in for the kill. The mercenaries were getting too close. He couldn't allow the son of Sparda to get the sword.
At first he hadn't been sure if the white-haired warrior truly was what he was made out to be, but passing through the man's body, the shadow was now certain. He felt the devil inside and knew at that moment his situation had rapidly worsened. He needed to have that sword before it switched hands.
***
Dante leapt in front of Raven and by sheer instinct, or perhaps by some other force governing his body, he swung out with his right arm, making a fist. The shadow shrieked and howled and immediately tore a hasty retreat. The clouds dispersed as it went out of site.
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So hopefully that was okay and I didn't make that many mistakes. I was too lazy to proof read this thing, so let me know if you notice anything.
And of course remember to REVIEW.
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