Falling On Venus
And when I feel like I can feel once again,
Let me stay awhile…
If we can hold on……
We can fix what is wrong,
Buy a little time…
I met him. A real demon from the Legendary Sparda's bloodline. It wasn't a myth after all. He was so real, as real as my dreams and the weapons I held in my hands. My father's voice droned on and on about how he wanted me to get something from Vergil. Something that only Vergil himself can give me freely and I would know it. This was my next mission as a puppet in his schemes and the silver haired demon and the coldest eyes.
But to…extract what? Blood from a Sparda?
I was staring at a complete madman and because of my mother, I stayed on. We'll see about that, father. I may have your blood running through my veins but I have chosen a different path. I'm someone who doesn't have the desire of power, one who doesn't completely disregard family and compassion, and something else. Something more.
"I thought you said that he's been weakened? Is he in the spectral realm where you took me through that that monstrous machine?" I pointed at the large contraption over the make shift hospital bed. He had gone into one of his moods now that he had gotten what he wanted. Backing away slowly, it didn't take him long to stop my heels from taking flight, "You're not the type to back away from this, Mary, you're in too deep now and curiosity is such a nagging thing isn't it?"
He was right. I needed to know. I wanted to see him again. Only to find out so many things. The way he addressed my real name sent chills down my spine. Arkham gave me the birth Christian name, but it didn't fit me. I couldn't swallow the fact that he, not my mother gave me this label.
Even plans can go awry. This gave me some comfort and I started over to the bed, pulled back the sheets and looked back, my face blank, "I am ready whenever you are, father."
"I never expected you to be so compliant but then again, you're a young girl with a taste of danger aren't you? Something your mother lacked, and all the things you've gotten from me."
But not your cowardice, I longed to scream back. At least I hoped. The more I thought of it, the more I was so much like him. Isn't it the choices you make that determine who you are?
"How long have you had this demon Vergil locked away?" I desperately wanted to know.
The answer I received was a blow to my head and the darkness took me in their arms.
When I came to, my head was spinning and the eyes that stared back at me were mine. The mirror in front of me, as I lay there mocked me. She was youthful, almost childish in appearance and the scar across her nose came from childhood. Verbal abuse later in life and learning to avoid my father's anger left its mark. The rest of the scars on my body were from my own training and testing the limits of my human stamina. I could take the pain and that was the only things I knew.
If it weren't for my mother, my own sanity would snap and I wouldn't know the loving caress of a parent. Weak as she was, she was so opposite from me in strength, but her resilience to stay alive for me made me grow as a young woman. Though the face that stared at me now showed none of that maturity. Her hair black as night, like a stark relief against white sheets, accentuated the ivory texture of my skin. She was the little girl who cried at night and stopped asking for love.
She was me.
The mirror was whisked away, only to be replaced by the blinding sky light that struck the irises of my eyes. Sun light paling my skin further, and my dark lashes fluttered, blocking the offending light from further damage, "What's going on!"
My hands tried to reach up to hide my face from the sky lights intrusion, but they were held down by wires and I looked over to see my father extracting blood from my veins. There were two tubes laying there by the side table marked, Mary. And a needle was seeping down my blue vein, sucking the rest into the third tube. My lips parted, dry as they were, "Why do you need my blood?" I felt a little weak and asked again, "Did you have to knock me out!"
"You talk too much, Mary, you just relax and let your papa take care of things." His eyes so like mine, looked crazy, "I need your blood, Mary, to make the serum complete. Like Sparda's blood to create twins and powerful half demons, he would have to have a human female to accomplish this….but alas, not just any human female. Someone like his wife. I made inquiries about her, her background and her character.
She fits the description so much like yourself and I made sure of this when I met your mother. Your mother was the gentlest soul in the world." He gave a harsh laugh, "But she was weak. Not like you, Mary. Your strength came from me but I needed to have the innocence of her essence to create you. My experiment was only too great since after all, I originally wanted a son. Never did I dream that having a daughter would actually be beneficial. Knowing now that Sparda had two sons for you would unarm one of them with your charm. I was hoping for the other one. The cockier one, who easily had a roving eye, but this one could be difficult. Although it was his quest for power too that brought him to me."
Tears fell from my eyes. My mother. I would take her away from all this and myself. How much power has he had over us? I was getting stronger day by day as my puberty came upon me. I would prevail I tell myself and I would make a place for me and my mother. The only demons I knew is the one who sired me. Isn't it ironic, I told myself as hot tears blurred my vision, that I stung the demon when the real one sits here with me?
It wouldn't be long now I tell myself. To meet him again, the man in the dream and the spectral who whispered in my mind, Are you not the huntress?
The skylight exposed the falling of the day; bright skies opened up a blinking of stars behind the long dying mid day, and the hours seem to slip by. Mars was invisible for my human eyes. The god of war had not made its appearance and would armour itself with a flash of red, dramatic, and impulsive.
Instead, Venus dipped down like the falling star.
Spiralling back to the realm, everything brought me back like de ja vu. My boots touched ground, and the cobblestones shone and sparkled, leading me the way like the yellow brick road. The dipping dark sky gave me the same peripheral vision of splattering stars. The cosmic blast of the universe in your very own back yard of hallucination.
It was then that I saw him.
Overlooking the far edge of the cliff, leaning weakly against one of the trees, his head tipped back. The shadow of his self appeared dejected, tired and worn. Have I done this to him? Sapped the strength of one of the Legendary Sparda's sons? I had heard there were two sons, but I had not known about the human part of him. This thought made me question my feelings. Demons were to be vanquished even in dreams. In this dream world, it was my mission to conquer him. I was the tool to get him to my father and was the reason why he had been able to communicate with Arkham in the phantom shape. I took care of that when my arrow met his spectral form. Have I slowly poisoned his life force?
The blanket of stars illuminated his masculine yet boyish features, the soft display of his silvery hair haloed his head and a stray set of bangs hung over his eyes.
I approached him, but before he could turn his silver blue eyes to me, his words stopped me, "Have you come for another round, huntress? Or have you decided to do as your father bids?"
"You're part human, are you not?" it was something I needed to ask, to make clear. My father has been known to lie to get his way, but my guilt would not assuage.
He took a deep sigh, "I had lost a mother once and she was as human as you." At those words, my breath caught and he glanced at me, a slight smirk crossed his otherwise hardened features, "Do you see how far Orion is now?" the breeze picked up, and the smell of cinnamon fell on our skin, soothing our senses. He continued his astronomy lessons, "You never asked me where Scorpius is did you?"
As amusing as all this appeared, being in the dream realm with a demon, as legendary as his father, perhaps. I couldn't help but snap at his comment, "I heard you talking to Arkham. You said something about me. About me failing the first time. What is your game?"
He grinned at me despite his weak condition and I noted that he tried to hold up his body against the tree, his silver combed back bangs now fell across his eyes, "Let me finish."
The glint in his eyes sparkled for a moment, before they were replaced by the same coldness. His voice, saccharine, yet deep and masculine, "You know why you don't see Scorpius? When he appears on the horizon, Orion starts to sink into the other side of the sky, still running from his attacker. They can never ever be seen together in the same sky from human eyes.
Registration sunk in my mind, "Are you saying I am Scorpius, and you are Orion? Because I had hunted you down with my arrow?" I almost laughed at this bit of metaphoric news, and he stopped me with another cold look,
"On the contrary, no. You are deceptively the sting, but you are she. Sometimes, this little myth can be rather romantic really," he scoffed at this, "I would like to think it be idealistic." and slightly rolled his eyes, "A human female. Here I was expecting a goddess." Then he gave a laugh. It made me angry. He was mocking me!
"You have been weakened. I am supposed to ask you something…" I came closer and he raised himself up against the tree, his height so much taller than me. I reminded myself that I could fight him in this realm if this demon Sparda should try anything. Once I do as my father wills, I will extract myself from this mission and concentrate my efforts in releasing my mother's prison. Nothing mattered now.
"Still doing your fathers bidding?" he snarled, and tried to reach out to grab my arm, I reacted violently, and in my own command, fabricated my weapon aimed at his chest, "Don't even try it."
The smell of cinnamon around us made me woozy, and my fingers were enveloped by stronger hands, pulling them aside, "Do you not wonder about the scent?"
"I'm more concerned about what you said to my father. Now, if you would just answer me…..and no I don't want to hear any more astronomy tales."
The realm around us roughly altered, and the sudden blanket of stars shifted. Venus dipped further down. The hothouse nova made us feel constricted, choked and light-headed.
"Good," he sneered, "The only one who can sting and heal me." But Vergil moved so fast that I was caught unaware of the centaur that sent a charge of arrows at us, missing us by centimetres. The half demon stood in front of me. It happened so fast. A half man, half horse, with great big hooves; stomped on the ground, smoke furling up around him and snarled, "Move aside, demon! And let me at the girl!"
The row of arrows flew at us, and Vergil moved them aside like they were flies. He tried to swing me aside, "Move, girl, I know how to take care of them!"
"Them? You mean you're not the only one here!"
My question was not answered as a galloping herd of his centaurs friends came behind him, their accusatory glare at Vergil, "We want no quarrel with you, demon, since your prison is here, but the girl, she's ours!"
"Right." The half demon scorned back, still shielding me, his hand stayed my movement and his voice, dripped with cold threat at the centaurs, "To get to her, you'll have to get through me." Vergil produced a long thin sword. It made a swooshing noise as he whipped it out in front of centaurs and before the half devil charged at them, a volley of arrows whipped through that space of time, hitting him in the chest. I screamed and started to shoot. My weapons now two pistols which sent a catapult of bullets their way, but I was hit in the chest by another arrow and another, and another…..
and together, Vergil and I fell back from the cliff's end, falling like the stars, dipping further down like Venus….
