Disclaimer: I own nothing.

A note from Fenice: I'll tell you now, a couple of these songs (i.e. E Nomine) will be repeated. I think them sort of a theme for a few of these people... and maybe good battle music? You'll see Schwarze Sonne a couple times, as well as a song I'm going to be using in this chapter which I believe represents Alfred Ashford.

Recommended Listening:
Angst-E Nomine
Ghost Ship-Devil May Cry original Soundtrack

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Mitternacht

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Alfred Ashford watched in the monitor room of his beautiful palace. Watched in one camera the girl fighting off the dead; another, the redhead boy and in the other... something caught his eye.

"Alexia, dear, come and look at this marvelous piece of work," he replied, a small smile forming on his feminine lips. His twin sister Alexia, downed in a gorgeous lilac dress and satin gloves, glided over to the monitors.

"And what, exactly am I looking at, dear brother?" she asked, smoothing out a strand of pale golden hair from her face. Alfred pointed at the red-clad silver-haired form pressed against a wall, his twin pistols trained in front of his lithe body.

"Where had he come from? Certainly not a prisoner." Alexia whispered. Alfred tilted his head slightly. "Perhaps... perhaps he's gone after Redfield, but if he had... they would have left by now."

"Could it be that he's the one who attacked our precious island?" Alfred wondered. Alexia smiled.

"No matter. The mouse is in our hands now. He won't get away. Neither of them will get away. Brother, you set a trap for our dear... knights. I have an idea."

"Of course, Alexia," Alfred replied, gazing intently at the monitor that held the red-clad "mouse".

Steve Burnside just didn't care anymore for the fact that he was stuck on this island Hell... just wanted to get away. He could have sworn he knew every inch of this God-forsaken place, but where the Hell was that airport?! He took a small silver-enamel plate with a hawk on it out of his pocket and gazed at it. Perhaps, he thought, perhaps this thing was the key to him getting the Hell offa this island and back to civilization... like he cared anyways for other people. They just let you down, right?

A mournful cry from behind him told Steve to get his ass in motion and use the emblem to open the gate.

He knew that Claire would go after him for answers, but if he could get away beforehand... past the gate and the bridge, Steve found himself before a metal staircase; which would lead him to "Psycho-boy's" palace, or so he heard. "Psycho-boy" Ashford, who pleasured himself with torturing the prisoners, while he watched and sipped wine. Steve shuddered. He decided not to think much more of it until he met up with Alfred and gave him a piece of his mind.

"Done with Umbrella. It's gone when I get outta here."

Claire wandered past the observatory and towards the gate where Steve was most likely heading (there was no other place to go) when she heard a low growl emitting from underneath the prisoner's mess hall. Having had experience with undead animals before in Raccoon City with Leon, she took off, not looking back as massive Doberman-German Shepherd mix zombie-dogs snapped at her heels and aimed for the throat. She trained the 9mm behind her and shot off two quick fires, hitting one of the dogs as it let out a pained whine. The first one fell back and the second raced ahead, pouncing but found itself in direct fire. Claire pulled the trigger.

The second fleshless dog fell as limp as the first. She didn't hesitate a moment. Taking off for the door, Claire heard the dogs get up again, and the steady 'plip' of the blood hitting the ground. Claire spun around and aimed carefully as the foaming dogs charged. She feigned an attack and flung the door open, slamming it closed. As she turned to breathe out, she realized her troubles were beginning as she had about 17 bullets left and four zombies between her and the gate to the bridge.

"Shit."

Claire took careful aim; hopefully the bullets shoot through the dead cells instead of lodging themselves like they do in living creatures. "Right." Claire pulled the trigger.

Dante found himself in a secret room full of bloody, torturous goodies.

"I'd go for some masochistic S&M if it wasn't for those damned ugly demon dead." He muttered as he shot the putrid, rotting corpses in an angle no human would think possible.

Click... click, click, click, click...

'Just my luck,' he thought sardonically as he holstered his guns and brought out Alastor. 'Outta bullets AGAIN and it's only the beginning of the night.' Alastor seemed to sing as Dante sliced the corpses in half and walked downstairs, looking at one of those medieval torture coffins-- the ones with the spikes on the inside... iron maiden? He pried it open with the blade of his sword and jumped back as another putrid rotting corpse lunged at the half-devil.

"Not tonight, sweetheart," Dante growled and kicked it in the head, decapitating the corpse; sending the head into a few spikes in the coffin. Dante blinked, spotting a small parchment on the floor of the torturous bed. He picked it up.

'Piano roll? These went out of style in the late 20's... when people actually LEARNED to play the stuff... I guess... I guess it could come in handy,' he thought as he stuffed the parchment near Ebony. Taking one last look around, he scoffed and retraced his steps to find Claire and... the redhead; Steve.

Claire ran. She had no time to think, she just ran. Away from the zombies, leaving her with only 10 bullets in her 9mm and she was saving her MT's for later use. She needed bullets! She needed them fast! She needed them NOW!

As she ran through the large metal double-doors, she spotted a jeep. 'They ALWAYS have spare magazines in their vehicles!' Claire's heart raced as she stopped in front of the jeep that lay half on the bridge. In a small fit of panic, she fished around for another clip and found two more. She exhaled deeply and went on her way to find Steve again.

Heading up the steps she found herself staring at some sort of palace gate. She recalled the guillotine behind a fence and the prisoner's journal; reading about a torture chamber where this guy, Alfred Ashford sits back in a comfy chair and drinks red wine while he watched you die slowly. She shuddered. Dispatching the zombies in front of her, she entered through the gate--

--And found herself face-to-face with Dante again.

"How the FUCK did you get here so fast?!" Claire cried out while placing her handgun in the holster after she clicked the safety on it. Dante just shrugged and held out a piano roll. "Piano roll? Where'd you find it?"

"In a torture chamber."

"I had to ask." Claire glanced at the fallen dogs behind him, apparently cut in half.

"Ran out of bullets," he said simplistically," Decided to use Alastor. Come on, let's go in the mansion. I might find a couple new clips for my guns."

Dante leaned on a pillar inside as Claire closed the mansion doors. It seemed like a good place for him to dwell, if he had that money promised for completing this mission... whatever it was. Well, whatever, he was going to take the money anyways. He couldn't stand living in the city anymore; too many places for the Demons to hide, real OR imagined.

"The whole place is locked up, except for this room up here. Check that room over there," he heard Claire order. Dante sighed and jumped the top stair to land before the door. Opening it, he heard the high shriek of bats.

A bathroom.

With bats.

What a nutty mansion thus far.

Dante dove in and rushed for a small briefcase before being bitten by a bat. He swatted it hard, making it hit another, sending both falling to their impending doom. He took a first-aid spray for the next fix he needed and left the bat-infested bathroom.

"Hey Claire, check that room up there. I'm going to try to open this case, or give myself another dose of health-spray that works like shit."

"No problem."

Dante looked up just as the door shut and sighed.

Sooner or later she'd figure out he wasn't full-blood human.

Perhaps she already did.

He decided to sit at the computer desk and stored the hopeless briefcase underneath. As he began to prop his feet up on the desk, he hit the mouse. The computer brimmed with life, the tower's fan humming softly. He gazed lazily as the screen's background read "Umbrella Corporation". Completely off-track, Dante began typing on the keyboard to at least try to get more information on his new enemy. He wasn't completely computer-illiterate, but the new-age machines frustrated him to no end.

'Employee ID'

"Shit. Confounded contraption."

"Need help?" he heard Claire from above as the door closed. "I found an employee's identification tag on the floor. Oh, um... what size bullets do your guns take?"

"They're .45's and might I ask why?"

"Well," Claire started as she stood by him and took out a few magazines of bullets and placed them on the desk as well as the ID. "That's why. I found them while snooping the safe room." Dante looked at her and said sincerely, "Thanks."

"Are you any good?"

"Eh?"

"With computers, I mean. Are you any good with computers?"

Dante looked away as he reloaded Ebony and Ivory. He was going to get shown up by a woman... but only in the high-tech shit. "I didn't grow up with them."

"Oh come on," Claire moaned as she entered the ID into the computer, "You don't look a DAY over 24."

Dante flushed. 'That's what you think.'

"Ah! Yes, we have full access to the mansion. Come on, let's go check it out!" Claire exclaimed as she straightened up and headed away from the computer. Dante stood up, pocketing the rest of the clips.

"You're really into this suspense horror, aren't you, girly?" Dante wondered with a hint of sarcasm. Claire shot him a look and warned him not to call her 'girly' either. Dante scoffed, shrugged and said, "Whatever. Let me go first."

"Why?"

Dante stared at her. "I've been in this business for 20 years. I can handle these... "Zombies". Nothing but humans that once were... demons now. You see them all the time... well, I do. As such, let me go first; make it safe for the woman to go through."

Claire scoffed. "You are so full of shit." she exclaimed and walked through the door. Dante stared at the door for a few seconds.

"Trish used to say that..." A though hit him. 'Wesker... I know that bastard's here, I can smell him.'

A short cry ended his thoughts and he burst through the door and with demonic speed pounced on top of an undead and shred it with Alastor. He glanced back at Claire who was reloading her 9mm, bleeding from the arm.

"You okay?"

She nodded. "I ran into a ceramic pot, my arm broke through and the pieces grazed it. I'm fine. Oh! A red herb..." she walked over and clutched the dead-looking plant, mixing it with a green "herb", as she called it.

"This place is beyond unnatural. It's so much like a mission I went on before." Dante began before walking past Claire and her herb mixture to slice an undead in half who was waiting around the corner.

"Really? Where was it?"

Claire seemed interested. Dante turned and rested the blade of Alastor on his left shoulder. "A place in the north Atlantic near France. Called Mallet Island."

"I've heard of it! Wasn't that where the castellans died of a cultist plague? I heard they worshipped this three-eyed fallen angel named--"

"--Mundus."

"How--"

" --My mission was to investigate Mallet and destroy the god Mundus... as he had destroyed my family."

"Oh, I'm so sorry, Dante."

"Think nothing of it," Dante muttered coldly and opened the door.

A small warning sound alerted Alfred Ashford that his mansion had been, in fact, breached by two, if not three intruders. He knew it had to be his play-rodents. He scooped up his favorite hunting gun, a .22 with laser shot and headed towards the mansion, a wry smile forming on his feminine lips. He'd save his sister from the rats, even if he had to botch up her plan and kill them all.

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Even the gorgeous one in the red leather.

"Something's wrong..." Claire muttered as Dante watched the film containing two towheaded children watching as a wingless dragonfly was being maimed by an army of ants. "I can feel it in my bones."

"Well, Sherlock, the fact that we're on a deserted island with dead guys trying to eat us, not to mention the way that that kid was acting, running out of the observatory like that, I've ran out of bullets, not once but twice, I'm infected by some virus as you keep saying, and there's a crazy guy somewhere on this island running around, probably watching every move we make. YES, I believe something is wrong. QUITE wrong."

"Cut it with the attitude, Dante, I mean it," Claire growled. Why, oh why was she there with such an asshole? She rolled up the film screen and found a monitor viewing a hidden room that no longer was hidden as Dante rearranged the room.

"Steve! He's not moving..." she hit a button and the door to the room sprang open. Running in, she grabbed Steve by the arms, noticing gold- plated guns in his hands. She pulled him out and waited for a minute before forcing air into his lungs.

Dante coughed and pushed her aside, immediately noticing the guns.

"Gold Lugers... Man, I want to live here. Creepy or not."

A curse from below. Claire looked as Steve woke up.

"You okay?"

He stood up quickly and faced Claire. "I'm fine. I see you've found yourself a bodyguard. Cool."

"Where'd you get the Lugers?" Dante asked. Steve found himself face-to- neck with Dante. He stared up, looking slightly intimidated. Pointing to the hidden room he answered silently.

"It was a trap then. No wonder you'd passed out."

"Right. They're mine now," he said as he ran off.

"Hey, Steve! Rrgh! We need those!" Claire called and ran after.

Dante stayed behind for a few minutes to get a better look at the room... a rich-man's collection. He had guns of all shapes and sizes. Dante curiously walked into the hidden room and grabbed a few more magazines for his guns and spotted some things to his liking. Wondering why someone would pass up a 12-gauge and a saw-end shotgun, he picked them up and a few boxes of shotgun rounds. It was then that he decided to follow Claire.

A shot sounded and Dante tripped slightly, regaining his composure quickly as he burst through the door to the main hall--

--Only to be shot at himself.

Rolling behind a pillar, he loaded the saw-end and aimed at the upstairs balcony.

One shot.

"Dante!" Claire hissed.

"Dante, is it? Ah, yes... the cold-hearted Demon Hunter... what brings you to my island?" The voice from the balcony.

"Something led me here, and I intend to destroy it." Dante peered out from behind his pillar to take a look at the one with the snobbish voice. An older version of the boy in the video. So that must mean... "You know how it goes..."

"Ashford. Alfred Ashford. This is my fort... my prison, and I shall not let you destroy it!"

One shot from Ashford, ricocheting off of the pillar.

"So that's YOUR torture chamber? You should clean it once in a while," reload with one hand, "The blood spawned demons." Dante pulled the trigger of the saw-end--

--And heard the bullet rip through clothing and flesh, listening with a maniacal thirst for wanting to hear Ashford scream in agony.

"Argh!" the blonde psycho-boy whined in pain. "You'll pay, Son of Sparda! Pay with your own flesh and soul..." an annoying giggle and he was gone.

"Pay with your own flesh and soul? Does he know you're infected? Dante? Dante?"

"What?! Maybe. Come on. I'm getting sick of this place."