Fade

Dante looked around him at the lights that had been blackened. The "eyelids" of steel had closed upon them, shutting them out. He did not know what would happen if he turned the light back on; it could damage the Doppelganger, or it could produce a twin from Dante's dark silhouette. But he wasn't getting anywhere as things stood now, so he decided on taking the chance.

He ran to the nearest caged wall fixture and began hacking away at it. Every slash, he could feel the steel beginning to lose its holding, until finally the plate retracted into the wall and that part of the room shone brightly again.

The Doppelganger, already in a mad rush towards Dante, stumbled to a stop just outside the range of the light. So this was his weakness after all; Dante had called it right. It remained firmly in the darkness of the other side of the room. Secluded in safety, it began to use all sorts of tactics to lore Dante out of the light. Insults from his brother, screaming agony from his mother; all failed. Now that Dante knew he could win, he wasn't going to slip up.

The shadow began to near the edge of the light and seemed to perform a meticulous dance just on the edge. It was so close. And this was enough to attract Dante, who began to approach the creature and stood face-to-face with it. It swung its sword at Dante from within the darkness, but when its arm passed over into the light, it became solid. The light made it physical; the light made it damageable.

"What are you waiting for? I'm right here!" The monster knew better than to attack now. He had lost the advantage. But he still knew one thing Dante didn't, and began to laugh.

The monster flashed its glowing red eyes, and suddenly the light behind Dante was extinguished. He spun around to see where his light had gone. The steel had come back down upon it.

"So these things are timed now, huh?"

He turned back around to face his adversary, who was now nowhere in sight. Then, a stab to the back. Dante fell to the ground. The playing field was once again leveled, even unfair. Avoiding a powerful downward strike, Dante rolled away from the creature and ran towards another light fixture.

Dante thought it weird that the creature did not chase him. Instead, it had let Dante free another segment of brightness. The creature once again towed the line that separated good and evil, darkness and light. Dante stayed where he was this time.

The demon began to shake violently. Its feet began to melt into the ground and grow to form a large pool of chaos. The large shadow lifted itself in the air, now as a giant floating ball of distortion. It hovered ominously between the two combatants. Dante lifted his sword in a guard stance, unsure of what was about to happen.

Suddenly, the Doppelganger thrust his sword into the distortion, and it bolted across the room. Dante had seen this coming from a mile away and easily dodged it. But the ball hit its target dead center; the light, which went out immediately after.

Dante ran as back as fast as he could to break the barrier blocking the light again, but to no avail. The creature reached it firstand thrusthis sword into Dante's left arm. The wound was painful, but not paralyzing, and with some pain, he could still move it.

"I have to give you credit; you're definitely not as dumb as the rest of them in this damn place…"

"I learned that little technique from watching your brother… I'm glad you liked my little shadow version." He had said it while in Vergil's appearance.

"You were watching my brother to learn all your moves? You're nothing but a lame poser."

"Poser? I'm a doppelganger... But that doesn't mean I'm not at all original. How about I show you a technique I developed on my own?"

"Yea' how 'bout you…"

The creature leapt high into the air and was coming down right on top of Dante; its sword saluting the floor. Dante switched weapons to his powerful gauntlets and jumped into the air as well. Mid-air, the creature seemed defenseless, and Dante let loose a powerful diving kick. But when his leg connected, his body went right through the creature's body, which evaporated around him. He had just passed through a shadow for the first time. The pressure was hard on his lungs.

Dante landed on his feet. But the monster was again nowhere to be seen. Dante checked in all directions; every way but down. A surge of dark energy sprung up beneath him like a geyser of emptiness, and Dante was knocked high into the air. The creature then juggled Dante's body with a series of deadly rushes.

When Dante finally fell, he cursed at his own stupidity. He was once again close to the middle of the room with no sort of protection. He was as exposed as ever. He began to crawl towards the side of the room, but the creature swiftly chased after him.

The creature was about three feet away from Dante, when a loud shotgun blast cracked open a plate in the wall, shining light on Dante, the creature, and the battle itself. The creature stumbled back and fell to the lit ground. Dante unsheathed Rebellion from his back strap and drove it through the Doppelganger's leg. The blade passed all the way out the other side, and lodged itself in the ground.

The tide had turned; the spawn of the darkness was now pegged facedown in the light. Not wanting to accidentally free the monster with a barrage of sword attacks, Dante walked over to the creatures head and pressed the chambers of Ebony and Ivory to its head.

"Can you bleed?"

The shots were more than effective. But they were not alone either. Many shots, easily a hundred, in twenty seconds, intruded the creatures head. Dante had ceased to let up.

The creature produced a large sword of shadow and pointed it at Dante. It made Dante take a step back. But it did not swing it at him. Instead, it twisted its body around and cut off its own leg, freeing it from enslavement.

The dying creature made one last struggle to reach the other side of the room, where surely safety would await him. Dante walked along with the pitiful, crawling Doppelganger the whole way. He dismembered the other leg and severed one of its arms. At the same time, bullets had rendered the creatures other arm numb. The battle was truly over.

Dante lifted the creature up and carried him a foot above the ground, mere inches away from the darkness. He gave the creature one last look at his last hope; brought him just close enough to serenity, and in a second, it was all gone.

"Return to where you came from shadow."

"You have yet to realize the depth of your own shadow, Dante."

And with those last words, Dante beheaded his foe.

"Fade..."