Chapter 6: old grudges die hard.

OH MY FREAKING GOD! AN UPDATE! HAS IT BEEN LONG ENOUGH?

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Rayne awoke in a dark room hours later, with no clue where she was. It smelled musty, like deteriorating books and cobwebs. Dust hung thickly in the air, making it difficult to breathe. The darkness was no issue: Rayne could see as well in the dark as a person does in the daylight. What was bothering her about all this, though, was the fact that she was on her back, staring up at a blank ceiling. She tried to sit up, but was stopped by a set of heavy chains binding her arms to her sides, and it was attached to the floor. Her blades were still on her arms, but they did her no good where they sat pinned to her sides. There was a way to escape, but…

Rayne cursed under her breath as she began to twist and strain against the chains. Her arms had become loose enough to cross at the wrists, just as she needed. She reached her middle fingers towards the button on the inner part of her wrists that triggered the blades. She braced herself for the pain and held her breath as she pushed the buttons. Both blades flew forward and struck the chains. The pressure caused the chains to push against her flesh, leaving several little welts and pinch marks. However, the trick worked. The chains shattered against the blade edges, enabling her to sit up. She made a move to stand, but was overwhelmed by a shooting white-hot pain up and down her spine. Rayne had no choice but to sit back down.

Soft laughter floated out of the darkness. Rayne turned her head to the left to see her captor striding slowly toward her. Virgil brought out a small device that looked like a computer mouse. He studied it in fake interest.

"You know what this is, don't you?" he asked.

Rayne sneered and narrowed her eyes.

"It's just like in the cartoons. I push this button, you get a shock. I can even control the voltage. There's a metal disc under the skin in your back. If you don't want to feel that again, I suggest you behave. "

Rayne spat at him, hitting him right in the face. Eew. He wiped the glob off of him with a look of disgust before jacking up the voltage on the control and zapping Rayne again.

"So feisty. No wonder my useless brother has a thing for you."

On a rooftop directly across from where Rayne was being tortured, Dante stood surveying the activity through the window. He saw Rayne's struggle, saw her sit up, saw her fall back to the floor, his brother shocking her, and finally her spitting in Virgil's face before he shocked her again. As he saw each of these things happen, Dante's rage grew. He had finally admitted to himself that he liked her. Now, she'd been taken away from him. Dante didn't like it when people touched his stuff. And what was all that crap Virgil had said about her intending to return to Brimstone? He didn't know, and didn't care. All he knew was that Virgil had something important to him, and he wanted it back. Now was the time to move.

"Ninety-eight bottles of beer on the wall, ninety-eight bottles of beer…"

Rayne sat on an ornately decorated chair, singing the song out of boredom. She had her chin propped on one hand, and was tapping the mahogany table with the fingers of the other. Virgil sat across from her, sharpening a sword. Wanting to torment him as much as possible, she was singing and tapping. Virgil looked up from the sharpening for a second, glaring at Rayne. She glared back at him in hatred. He reached into a pocket and withdrew a pack of gum. He slid it across the table, bidding her to chew it and stop singing that infernal song. She stared down at the gum. Spearmint flavored. This gave her an idea. Rayne slid a piece out of the pack and popped it into her mouth. After a couple minutes of chewing, she began to blow bubbles and pop them loudly. Every time the popping sound clicked in the air, Virgil winced in annoyance. At first, he tolerated it. Eventually, though, it grew more and more aggravating. Rayne looked at him shortly before smiling and defiantly popping another huge bubble. At last, he could take no more. He grabbed the sword off the table and leaned over, placing it against Rayne's throat. She merely grinned slyly.

"Now, now. If you kill me, that sword will get blunt. Then you'll have to sharpen it all over again. We wouldn't want that, now would we?" she said softly.

Their conversation was cut short by a tinkling of breaking glass in another room. Irritated, Virgil put down the sword and went to investigate. Rayne in the meantime began to furiously tug and wrench the chains on her wrist. Her attention was brought to a crashing sound. She looked in the direction of the commotion and saw Virgil standing up and cursing bitterly. Rayne sat there with an utterly puzzled look on her face, until she saw why he was cursing. A particularly angry looking Dante strode out of the room, guns raised.

"Wha-?" Rayne began. Dante looked in her direction, and she saw a glare of fury in his eyes. It was like he would rip out his brother's throat with his own hands. Virgil, now recovered from his backwards crash, bull-charged at Dante. Dante threw down his guns and sword, pulled back his arm, and socked Virgil right in the face. Again, Virgil flew about ten feet backwards. This time, though, there was a very lovely and expensive stained glass window to greet his back as he crashed through it. Still Rayne sat, shocked at what had just taken place. Dante walked over to where she was chained and shot off one of the links.

"What the hell? When did you? Where did you? What the hell?" Rayne spat out.

"No time to explain right now. Come on. Let's get the hell out of here."