Notes: Thanks kindly for the reviews and to the dumb asses who decided to post flames,
Katerot and Lacy: laughing asses off Send us more! These are a riot!
Platinum Blond equals White/Silver hair. So.. DANTE'S BLOND! pulls out the blond jokes What do you get when you line 5 blonds up in a row? A WIND TUNNEL!
Chapter 3
Grey is the wind blowing
Acrossed the dim light
A lonely song is sung
No one is coming home
Dante walked into the office a duffel bag over one shoulder and a small 1 gallon aquarium under one arm, a ceramic container in the other hand. He noticed Ba'al on his couch with her feet up on the arm rest and reading what looked like an old book of demon hierarchy. He set the stuff down one at a time to make sure she looked his way, the moment she saw her belongings she was off the couch and over cooing at the fish in its tank.
He went through the duffel bag "You know" he started and his voice snapped Ba'als attention onto him "I have never quiet seen quite a collection of" his grin was pure mischief "Thongs, in my life" and he pulled out the one he was hunting for and stretched it slightly between his fingers, bright pink with a poke'mon decal on it.
"HEY!" she made a grab at her underwear, overturning her duffel a couple other garments falling out "Unhand pikachu!" she got it back and turned up her duffle to get a look at what else he grabbed. Mostly her working clothing. Stage stuff, which was tight, leather and uncomfortable as hell. As well as scanty.
"You're one to tease! Say another word and I will post those tiger striped speedos for the world to see. I bet the demons would LOVE to know what you wear under those tight pants."
He had picked up another thong that had fallen out, a small rhinestone heart on them with the words 'eat me' spelled out, he didn't hear her threat at first "Woah, a little after work en-" he broke off just as her words and threat sunk in "What a minute, how did you..?" then he remembered that she gathered the laundry. After all his stuff was everywhere at the moment because he didn't care where it ended up when he took it off, "HEY!" he finished lamely as she grinned like a cat in creme. He was honestly scared, the tiger ones where tame compared to some. Half of them gag gifts from friends in the past. But still if it was common knowledge he'd be ruined. Rather hard to fight when the ones you're fighting are laughing at you instead of cowering "Let's not be hasty here! How are the kids to pattern their lives after me if they knew that?"
She leaned forward slightly and snagged back her undies "You were saying earlier?"
"Um...I was.. Just saying about all the wonderful after work activities you do... like helping the sick at the hospital and those kids at the school and all." trying to be this polite and defeated was not something he was use to.
"Lame save Dante, but I'll let it slide" and she made sure everything was in her bag before shouldering it and heading to the bathroom. She thought it was the best place for it since that was where she was use to getting dressed at anyway, "Oh, I left cold cuts and stuff for sandwiches on the counter in the kitchen, I do hope you can make a sandwich?"
"Why bother when the pizza guy is on the speed dial?" he shot back and crashed into his chair ignoring her for the moment. Once she disappeared though he snuck into the kitchen and raided the platter of cut meats and cheeses readily enough, even he got tired of pizza and Chinese takeout. With food in hand he went back to his work.
Evening began to descend. Dante left his desk for a moment and while he was gone a bowl of stew and a cold beer found there way there. The girl taking a perch on the stool near his drums as she ate her own meal. She'd glanced at the books he had pulled out and was hunting through for clues. Not all of them in English but with pictures that were informative enough, even if one couldn't read it something could be made of it.
He came in and blinked at her a moment. After their chat earlier he hadn't seen anything of her all day. "By all means, pick up a book, you might learn something" he wondered what drove her back into his presence after avoiding him all afternoon.
She nodded at the food on his desk. She was trying to be nice, no matter how hard he made it. But with demons chasing her she wasn't going to work, let alone they likely thought she was dead anyway. Which was fine, she hated that job to start with. Only it had given her some interaction with people, now she had none and she missed it. It was getting towards time where she would be going to be in front of people and talk to fellow employees, and she just didn't want to be alone.
Especially when the sun finished going down and the demons came out in hordes looking for her.
"Women, always keep to themselves" Dante muttered under his breath to himself as he sat down and picked up the beer popping the cap and taking a drink. He watched her a moment while she ate and then went back to his books taking a bite or two of the stew, while keeping an eye on her and idly flipping pages of a book that was proving another dead end. She was useless as the books. She didn't know what she was, and he only knew what the old man told him. The bits of references he found were too wild to be believed, likely exaggerations of the truth. Then how much was true and how much the exaggeration? He mentally sighed again. She was still just sitting there. Watching him, it was getting annoying really. But then, if she didn't want to talk that was her choice. He was only her protector, not her best friend.
Considering her temper he'd be honestly shocked if she even had a best friend.
Turning a page he began to feel like he was stuck under x-ray vision. If something wasn't said soon he was going to go crazy. So he finally said something "What's on your mind?"
If she didn't say anything now, he was leaving the room, or throwing her out.
While he pretended disinterest she could see she had his attention. Slowly she shrugged and set her dishes aside pulling her knees up and hugging them to herself "I.. I just don't understand it, why me? I'm nothing special, I mean, I work at a lesbian topless singles bar for Christ sake! I can barely pay my rent, I'm nothing and have no one. WHY?" that last word was filled with even more questions. She was alone, she had no one and nothing, why was she picked out for this torture. "I mean, why were you hired? Why any of this?" she finally articulated the things that drove her to clean his home, that made her work to keep her mind off of her trashed home and destroyed life. Who would be interested in her enough to want to kill her?
Dante was silent a long moment. Finally he spoke, not moving and not really looking at her "You should consider yourself lucky" he said after that pause and she began to wonder if voicing her questions was even worth the waste of words, "Clearly someone cares for you." pale eyes looked up and trapped hers in an intense and serious stare. She had voiced the questions he himself had been asking since he met her "Someone cared enough to hire me as your protector" even if he still didn't know when he was getting paid, reaching into a pocket he came up with something and looked at it a moment before looking at her "You have another thing on your side" he flipped the coin and she caught it easily and looked curiously at the odd little silver coin with the lady on one side "You have luck with you." he said with a tight smile.
"You really shouldn't let things overwhelm you so much. The answers will come if you are patient enough."
"I don't feel very lucky" she responded softly still looking at the coin. Slowly she pulled up one knee and rested her cheek on it, her arm wrapped around the leg hugging it close to her tiny form. She turned the coin along the fingers of her other hand juggling it around in a motion he'd seen slight of hand, and stage magicians use to keep their fingers nimble.
He smirked feeling more comrade with this girl suddenly "Well I know how you feel. Most people who are being hunted down by a legion of demons -for God knows what purpose- (and will most likely conclude to be an event of UNSPEAKABLE horror and death) wouldn't feel too comfortable either."
She gave him a slight glaring look of 'you're not helping' before she finally spoke again, "Who's the lady?" she held up the coin "The same as the one in that photo?" she indicated one with Dante posed like a sportsman over the body of something large and ugly smirking at the camera while the blond was posed like one of the girls on 'The Price is Right'.
Dante smirked at the picture remembering when that was taken "No, that is the person who is my partner here at Devil May Cry. She's an interesting person, but a better warrior and friend." He glanced at Ba'al who was still watching him and his reactions, looking for all the world like a tiny lost waif "I asure you, she is NOT the lady in the logo."
"Oh... Then who is it, if I can ask?"
"Her name is Trish" he responded not really paying attention to the question fully "But I'm starting to get a bit worried about her." he frowned and seemed to be talking to herself "She's already taken longer with this job than she thought it would be."
Ba'al blinked a moment and decided he was still talking about the lady in the photo, and not the lady on the logo "Don't you have a way of reaching her? Like a cell phone or something?"
He snorted "Of course not! Trish can take care of herself. She's not a baby that I must hold her hand, she'd likely take it off if I tried!" he frowned deeper "Besides, she's more careful than I am on solo missions." he chuckled a little bit as if remembering something "She's fine, just late is all." He chuckled a little at his own silly thoughts and then looked at her "Where did you learn to fight? As well as erect barriers and such? Not the sort of thing you find in Cosmo."
She ignored the last jibe at her likely reading material "My mother taught me" she said shortly with a bit of finality to her voice then added still twirling the coin in her fingers "Fighting, I learned here and there. Watching people, a couple classes when I was younger, movies."
Dante chuckled at the last bit "Who says you can't learn anything good from TV?"
He'd gone back to looking at his book, while he was still paying full attention to her he felt he should still be getting something done. At least turn a couple more pages.
After a moment she shrugged "So who is this person anyway" she decided to try once more, holding the coin up. He'd been avoiding the question and she thought she'd try once more.
He didn't even look up "I told you, Trish my partner"
"You said that the lady in the photo and the lady in the logo are different people." she added beginning to wonder if he was being purposely obtuse.
Dante suddenly realized she wasn't pressing the issue with Trish, she was curious about the logo design. He was going to have to take a break, all this studying about demons was effecting his brain.
He was becoming as retarded as them.
The blond sighed, "She was my mother" he answered pushing back his bangs from his eyes though he wasn't looking at her now, but to the side, his tone was unusually soft. This obviously was a deep subject.
Ba'al didn't seem interested in delving deeply into his past, just mildly curious "Was she nice?" she was looking at the floor her hands stilled, her entire form listening and her words oddly wistful.
Dante wasn't comfortable talking about his mother at any level. Every time he killed another demon it was one more pass as getting back little pieces of the whole that was taken from him. He would never fill that aching loss, but in the end he could only do the very best he could, "Yes," he answered her question "She was, a very exceptional woman" his eyes took on an slightly far off cast, as if remembering something "A wonderful person." He didn't notice how his voice broke, but he could feel the overwhelming approach of strong emotions. If he didn't stop now then he would hate himself later for breaking down. What was it about this little slip of a girl who looked at him with green eyes and asked such childishly innocent questions that made him want to tell her everything and cry like a child?
He turned his chair suddenly towards the wall as he waited in silence for a long moment. Ba'al never moved, and never stopped her scrutiny of the floor, suddenly very silent in a way that was different but the same as his own. As if they both needed a moment to regain a bit of self control.
"Do you miss her?" Ba'al suddenly asked and he had to close his eyes and take a breath, silently counting to ten, then twenty, finishing on 30 before he could find the voice to answer.
"Yes, I miss her." he glanced to the side and noticed Ba'al hiding behind the bangs of her dyed hair. He himself felt like he was hiding behind the strains of white, "So. Do you miss your mother?"
Ba'al suddenly sat up stiffly and if he hadn't been watching her carefully he would not have noticed the flash of pain that crossed her features before her eyes turned to steal and she shook her head vehemently.
Standing she started out of the room and paused a brief moment "No" and she left the room likely to hide somewhere in back again.
"Idiot." he muttered to himself. While uncomfortable that was indeed the longest and most informative conversation he had yet to have with the girl.
Before he could decide if he wanted to follow and try to talk to her again, or just leave her alone for the time being something hit the front door with enough force to knock it in.
"What the?" he jumped up grabbing his sword and making for the downed entrance.
Where stood a tall skeletal like creature shroud in black. Weapon in hand it launched itself at him without preamble and was followed by a flood of the normally solitary creatures.
Dante blinked one brief moment completely taken aback by the attack. He had many things come at him suddenly, but never had he have so many such demons attack him at the front door of his own home!
"BA'AL! GET YOUR ASS HIDDEN!" He shouted over his shoulder, happy to note that Ba'al was nowhere in sight. Meaning the girl anticipated the need to run for it.
""Dammit. You demons have just unspeakable timing..." He smirked at the demons. "Can't you see you are killing the romance in here?" He took a single step to the side his mind turning and it wasn't all with strategy either. He needed time, and all the extra time he could get he would use.
"Alright. The way it looks you have two options. You can either bow down and apologize for barging in here and ruining my chance to score. Then proceed to go back and to sucking your master's dick, or" He just held up his sword which shimmer with electricity. "I can personally demonstrate why the electric chair has been outlawed in most states."
The demon shrieked and seemed more interested in finding out what the electric chair was like.
Ba'al kicked at a demon that was between her and her target hiding place. There where not many places to hide, especially on short notice. He felt her foot connect solidly with the creature's neck and heard a satisfying crunch as it broke. The same time she felt an odd tingling down her nerve ends. The demon corpse fell back against the ones behind it in the hall and there was a scuffle as the others tore the dead one to pieces to get it out of their way. She used that time to get herself into the bathroom where she closed the door and locked it. She didn't realize that the bodies she left where not disintegrating like the ones Dante killed. All she knew was she needed something to block the door better than a bit of wood. After all many of those things out there had very large and sharp weapons.
She noticed that the cabinet that held towels and extra toiletries was not attached to the wall. As fast as she could she heaved. Every moment was like a growing nightmare. Her stomach rolled and her skin tingled. She felt a growing dizziness and doubling of vision which was not helping the situation any.
She managed to get the cabinet out enough for her to shimmy behind it and use her legs to push against the wall and the tall bit of furniture squeaked acrossed the floor and blocked the door. She grabbed her duffel and slung it over her shoulder. Planning on escaping out the very narrow window. Too small for the creatures chasing her, but just right for herself.
Instead there was another demon trying to get through to reach her there as well.
She huddled down against the cabinet and pressed back to keep the creatures out as they drove their weapons through the door wood.
This was not going to hold them long and she was so dead.
If she didn't throw up first from the increased rolling in her stomach.
Dante slashed down another demon and put Ivory to work shooting out more. His frown was growing with every body. This was getting easier, and not just because he was getting into a rhythm. But because the demons where getting weaker.
They were all the same type, how could they be getting weaker? He tripped over a body that had not disappeared and with a curse kicked the cadaver with enough force to send it flying into a bunch of demons that thought to try and mob him while he was down.
"HEY! ARE YOU ALRIGHT BACK THERE?" he noticed more demons massing from the direction of the hall. They likely had came in through a window, or the backdoor. But Ba'al was back there. And there was no answer. Chopping down more demons and this time being more careful with the astoundingly growing numbers of them that were not disappearing he began to feel a touch of worry. This fight was getting ridiculous!
"Coming through!" he slashed at a bunch fighting to get back towards where Ba'al was last scene running when the attack first started. His priority was her dammit! And these little cockbites where getting in his way!
"HEY! Are you still alive? Talk to me back there!" he shouted over the mob which as he tried getting back towards Ba'al was only growing more relentless.
There was a sudden crash sound as if something large was knocked over and broken. Followed by a scream that sent chills down his spine.
"I have no more time to play with you faggots!" he shouted and powered up his sword doing a single blasting thunder strike to clear as many of the demons as he could. Then he started a rapid fire method with his two guns single mindedly clearing the path.
And noticing that the demons had changed tactics once again. They were running instead of fighting. The ones that stayed in line of his pistols were simply distraction.
He hated being out maneuvered! He reached the bathroom where hte splitters of door and cabinet showed the effort the creatures had to go to get in.
He knelt and looked at the scene before him for clues. Around was a massive amount of demon parts and dark near black blood, but against the far bathroom wall was a streak of very disturbingly red blood. Ba'al's. He cursed, and more so when he noticed that the demons had not only taken her, they took her duffel bag as well. She was killed to keep her easy to take, they knew she would revive, or they would have put greater effort into taking her alive.
Remembering how he first found her he knew now why the demons had turned into pansies and didn't disappear.
They were mortal.
Frustration made him scream and start firing at a body till nothing remained recognizable of it but a pile of dog-meat. He kicked another still wanting to beat himself for losing the client. He paused when the body dropped a medallion. Picking it up he looked at it closely and grinned. Only it was a frightening cheerful smile. All teeth like a sharks "So now we know where we are going." he said.
He now had something to work with.
