'That Lady called to Lucia with her request

And said: "Your faithful follower has now

Such need of you that I commend him to you."

" 'Lucia, the foe of every cruelty,

Started up and came to where I was

Chapter 4:

Lady had not called on Dante for a long while, sending him small messages here and there to tell him how she was doing and if he had anything important to report. He wasn't much of a caller so when they did talk, which was very short, Dante always sounded so distant. Still, his cocksure attitude never faded. He joked with her over the phone, yet when he asked if she would visit sometime and she always declined. He was pretty cool about it too, but Lady could tell that he was perhaps a little lonely?

It's not a wonder, she thought wistfully, he had just lost his brother and she always wanted to know about his mother. Maybe she'll take a trip to visit him sometime. You'd think hunting demons down all the time would keep him occupied. Oh yes, he said to her many times, he had his hands full.

Lady managed to procure herself another bike: red hot cherry and brand new. She didn't know why she chose the color red, since the color itself was so bright.

When she finally arrived home, exhausted and feeling out of sorts, she laid back onto the bed, feeling the nausea of everything that transpired. She then took out her skirt of armour, dropping the bullets all around her bed covers. Lady picked a bullet up, its name engraved there: 9mm Lucia.

She then remembered where she got these special shells. They were delivered to her from one of her father's haunts: Vie de Marli. Mary heard the tales from Arkham, how the devils there had fought with Sparda against the minions of demons that threatened to overtake the world. These were special shells too and she was running out.

It was time to get in touch with Matier. The one who protected the place, but she heard about another younger female named Lucia who was named after these extraordinary shells. Lucia would be the new protector of the village since after all, Matier was so very old.

What Lady knew of Lucia so far is that she had the blood of the devils that protected Vie De Marli, or so she believed. There wasn't really much time so she had to make that call if she needed to get her job done. To eliminate every last demon. Her thoughts flew to Dante and she had the urge to call him. Lady always had the irresistible urge to drop in on him. She would do that, before paying a call to Lucia.

>>

Dante threw a dart at his wall, hitting its mark and sat back, blew the silver bangs away from his eyes and groaned, "Damn. Everyone keeps calling without a password." The bottles of whiskey were piling up on his desk. He didn't know why he started to drink. It was better to feel nothing after losing everything he's ever loved. His light eyes flew to the picture frame of his mother.

She smiled back at him, beautiful in her serene quiet reign inserted within the new frame he got. He reached over and lovingly touched the sides and closed his eyes, "Mother, I miss you so much."

He took a swig of drink from the closest bottle and wiped it with the back of his hand. If he wasn't going to do any devil hunting tonight, he might as well drink himself to oblivion. Dante's eyes started to close, flickering in the dim light of his place of business. The incoming noise of a motorcycle perked him awake.

"Now who would that be?" His light brows furrowed; eyes flittered over to the window, noting the dust that collected there and he cursed again. He must get this place cleaned up.

When he heard the knock, Dante grumbled, "Come on in. At your own risk."

He rubbed his eyes, closed them for a moment and when he opened them, she was standing there at the doorway. Shiny black hair near mid length to her shoulders, her eyes, he remembered them always, blue and red; gorgeous. It was odd really, while Arkham could repulse him with the same eyes, though on her, it was beautiful and mysterious. That was the first thing he saw when she came blaring on her bike. Right after he beat Cerebus.

He also scanned the rest of her appearance, and couldn't help that he was a guy and what he saw he liked.

"You grew out that mop of hair of yours," he chuckled, "About time, you were looking too tom boyish."

"Well hello to you too." Lady smirked. Then she looked around, "God, this place is a mess!"

"I wasn't expecting company. You know," he paused, "You could have at least called."

"I was on my way somewhere and I thought I'd drop by, but if you're busy. I can leave and come back another time?" She was about to back away, but Dante stopped her, "No."

He stood up and pushed back his disheveled silver strands back, "Ahh, damn, it's been so long, I'm glad you came by."

Lady took a few steps closer; he took another few steps until they were close enough that he could see the slight scar that lined the bridge of her nose. He had that impulse to lean down and kiss them, but chalked it up to having a few bottles of whiskey and was shame faced to realize that she'd probably smell it on him.

"Want something to drink?" Trying to be a hospitable host, yet her laughter came at him that made him lift the corner of his lip, "I'm glad I could make you laugh. Is it me again? Am I covered in blood this time?" He lifted his arm pits and pretended to smell underneath the leather jacket sleeves, "Nope, nothing there this time, Lady."

"Yes," she joked, "I don't date guys who smell like blood. And you don't go out on dates with women who shoot you in the head." Lady watched his expression, taking in the planes of his face and saw how much he had grown older. She had grown older too, but by a few years and she was glad of her decision to come by. She actually missed her demon.

Her demon? She chuckled to herself. When did that come in her head?

"You know, you keep laughing like that, I'd think there was something wrong with me."

"What do you have?" she looked around, "I'm not really interested in anything heavier than tea." Her eyes scanned the empty bottles, "You do have some tea left over?"

"As a matter of fact, I do."

Dante walked away from her and proceeded to heat up some water, leaving her alone to look around the very messy room. Glancing at the trophy heads of demons, she remembered each and every one of them. Weapons stabbed through some eye sockets and the skins of the skulls were scraped off.

She stood next to Dante's desk and saw the photo. The mother of both Dante and Vergil and lifted up the frame, "Dante."

"Hmmm." He called from the kitchen, "Hey, do you think maybe you could er, um, drink something heavier?"

Shaking her head, narrowed her eyes over at him, "What? You don't have tea?"

"I think I may have given you the last bits when you were here a few years ago." He scratched his head subconsciously, a grin plastered on his face.

"You're absolutely funny. No, I don't want anything heavier. I don't drink."

"I can tell." He rolled his eyes and snorted.

"Hey! What's that suppose to mean?"

"You don't look like the drinking type." He shrugged, "I'm sorry, Lady, I don't have anything, but these," he gestured to the bottles. "So," he noticed her agitation. Maybe he needed to make her relax. Having rotten luck with women, especially with women he wanted, only made him slightly cocky.

"I was going to ask you about your mother." Lady glanced back down at the photo. He tensed, "Yeah?"

"You can tell me can you? Where is she?"

He closed his eyes momentarily, "She's gone."

Nodding in acknowledgement, she didn't try to press him further, allowing him to tell her when he felt comfortable. When he opened his eyes, his light eyes lit up, the corners of his lips changed his expression, giving him that same reckless look she always remembered, "Hey, but you're here now. I've missed you."

They stared at each other for a long moment. She cleared her throat. Dante always made her feel so uncomfortable in that strange way.

"I need to go visit someone and I won't stay long." She backed away from him as he approached steadily, "It was really great seeing you again."

"You're leaving?" His eyes widened, "You just got here and you're leaving because I don't have a goddamn tea bag? You're pretty high maintenance, Lady."

"Yes, it's a shame too." She joked, "Because I would so love to stay longer."

"Don't tease me like that, little girl, 'cause saying things remotely teasing to me, will only make me think things I shouldn't think."

He was walking towards her; she was backing away until her back was up against the wall. Remembering the last time they were in this position, her breath came in short gasps, because this time, this time, she wasn't angry at him. She didn't hate him.

But he still made her feel uncomfortable.

By the time he had reached her, his arms imprisoned her in place there. Lady could smell the faint smell of whiskey on his breath, but his breath was sweet that she closed her eyes.

"Don't, Dante."

"Always don't. Am I so repellent to you?"

"I can't." she tried to talk, but he leaned down, and maybe in his head, he thought that the whiskey was doing this to him, "Can't what?"

But that can't be right, Dante remembered, the last time he imprisoned her, he wasn't drinking. He had just kicked her ass and for some foremost reason, he had to find out if she would accept his dominance over her.

When he finally made the courageous step to do what he'd always wanted to do and find out if she turned her head, he wasn't expecting the next thing: she didn't turn her head this time.

>>

When Lady got back to her motorcycle later the next day, she was feeling shaky and angry, "I can't believe it." She whispered, her tears were running down her cheeks, "I can't believe what I just did."

She was running late and hopping on her bike, the engine creating a loud noise in the empty street. Looking up, Lady saw Dante at the threshold of his establishment, his stony expression caught her by surprise, but he covered it up as easily as if nothing happened.

"Should I call you next time, or you call me?" He leaned back against the doorframe with folded arms, "Or will you come to visit in another few years?"

"What we have, Dante, it can never be. I can never be with you." She called out, "I like you, but we can never be together. You're the opposite of me."

"Because I'm a demon and you're not."

She nodded, her tears rolled down her cheeks, "Don't make me make a decision about us, Dante, there isn't any "us"."

"Yeah yeah," he waved a hand at her, "This demon hunting business, I'm doing it for myself, not for you, but for my mother as well. She's the reason why I do this."

"That's good, Dante. That's good. You keep thinking that. I hope you find yourself a good woman, a demon woman as good as you are. Someone like your mother." Then she was out of there as she swerved her bike around and the cloud of smoke came billowing out from her bike's exhaust pipes.

Dante mumbled angrily, "Who needed you anyway? Women."

>>

Lucia had just finished off practicing some target practice, throwing darts up in the air, using her devil trigger powers. She liked the feel of being in this mode, the surge of white power illuminating her existence. As she descended down on the ground, her booted feet touched the ground and she saw a woman, a human coming from a distance.

She can always tell who was a demon and who was human. Normally she would continue her practice, but this particular human intrigued her. Lucia waited for her arrival and when the woman stopped in front of her, there was a feeling of affinity between them.

"I am Lady," The human female said, "You must be Lucia?"

The red head smiled, "Yes." Then narrowed her uncovered eye at her, "Is there something I can do for you?"

"You got some of these?"

Lady threw her a shell and Lucia caught it as swiftly as it was thrown. Glancing down at the golden empty shell, she nodded, "Plenty more where this came from. You must be a demon hunter."

"Right. I am."

"Then you and I have much in common."