Disclaimer: This story is mine, but the characters aren't. Sigh

Recommended Listening:
Requiem of Gods-Symphony X (Castlevania)
Furious Angels-Rob D

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Mitternacht

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Claire noticed for that one split second of silence that Dante's eyes glazed over just slightly. He hadn't used the spray like he said he would.

He lied to her.

But she decided that now wasn't the time to ask questions.

She followed Dante out of the mansion.

"There's a door I bypassed when I ran after Steve. Let's check that out. I have to find some medicine for my captor." She said smally. Dante glanced at her.

"Why?"

"He's the one that let me out of the cell I was held up in. He's injured severely and if I don't find some hemostatic, he could die."

"Heroics..." he then muttered something else that Claire could barely hear. "So this door you found... it's up ahead?"

"Yes. Hey wait! Where are you going?"

"There's a dock this way. I'll check it out and meet you--"

"--Why don't we just stick together? We don't waste as much time and bullets."

Dante scoffed. "What about your friend, Steve there? He doesn't waste any time to just go off on his own. We split up to cover more ground."

"I'm coming with you then." Claire replied defiantly.

"Why are you being so difficult?!" Dante roared and hit the wall with a force so powerful, so hard, that his fist left a hole in the wall. "There's a good Goddamned reason why I want to go alone! I don't like being held back by a partner! That's why Trish died! I work alone!" Dante turned away, but only after Claire got a glimpse of crimson eyes.

--Creepy.

"You wouldn't stay with me to protect me?" Claire whispered. Anything to not be alone in the Hell called Rockfort.

"Why should I protect you?" he growled.

"Because I'm one of your only ways out of here."

"I can get out of here ANYTIME I want to, you stupid girl! Nothing's holding me back except..."

"Except?"

"Look, just forget it, Okay? Come on, let's go through your door."

Alfred Ashford winced in agony as Alexia wrapped the bullet wound in gauze after cleaning it out.

"Dante? The Son of Sparda? Demon Hunter extraordinaire? That's who it was?"

"Yes, sister. And he's with that Redfield witch."

"Brother, you tried to defy my plan." Alexia purred as she tied the bandage a little too tightly on purpose.

"Ow... I'm sorry, Alexia, but it's for your protection. Oh, the speed of that devil."

"He's infected. It can work to our advantage, dear brother," Alexia tittered shrilly and walked to a shelf holding her dolls. Picking one up, she began brushings its hair softly with her hand before ripping the head off. "Waiting for him to turn could be less time depending on how long he's been infected."

"Eventually he'll turn on Claire and she'll be..." Alfred giggled maniacally. "Oh Alexia, let me play with them some more. Let me turn the OR1's loose."

"Of course, the Bandersnatches. Lead them into the bay-area. I have full confidence in you."

"Nothing... nothing... shit shit shit... hmm... some facility."

"For being a pharmaceutical company, they sure don't have much medicinal supplies," Claire muttered. Dante nodded in agreement as he panned the bare shelving in a small lab. He already had to take out a giant worm and two dead scientists, and he was feeling pretty shitty. He knew he should've treated himself when he had the chance.

"Well, no medicine. Every inch of this room has been thoroughly checked."

Thump, thump... BANG BANG BANG!

Dante whipped around, Ebony poised in attack as he faced a glass pane. A worker had been locked inside and he was dying slowly by what looked like electrical shocking.

"Claire... go downstairs... now..." He heard the door open and footsteps down the stairs, knowing that after their last ordeal with Dante's short temper, she would obey instantly.

And she knew he was infected and it was getting worse.

The worker's flesh had deteriorated and melted off in small patches off the face. The nervous system was most likely infected by... Dante looked behind the worker... an explosion of glass... meaning that there were creatures either still in the room or in the working of the facility. He found a scientist's scribble on the desk that talked about a new experimental species that could grow quickly. Whatever. Dante wanted to face it if it meant getting off Rockfort with 2 mil.

He could almost hear Enzo when he returned to the city with the money. "Look at that, Dante! Zombies and C-notes to the ceiling!"

An alert brought him back to his senses when he realized that the worker collapsed on an emergency lockdown panel. The half-demon rushed downstairs, the tail end of his trench coat nearly caught by the shutter.

"Well that was fun," Dante began sarcastically, then dusted himself off and led Claire to the next room.

They had already been to the locker rooms and pathetic little shower room, where there was nothing but zombies and more zombies. No medicine.

"Too quiet. Reminds me of Mallet."

"Reminds me of how Raccoon City was when I went to visit my brother, Chris." The two remained quiet for some time when Dante surprised even himself.

"'If I traded it all... if I gave it all away from one thing, just for one thing...'"

Claire looked at him. "Finger Eleven...? We're in a desolate dead facility and you're singing that?" Claire chided, her eyes filled with laughter. Dante smiled slightly.

"It broke the silence; I couldn't think of anything else to sing." He opened the door and trained his twin handguns, panning what looked like a cobblestoned courtyard. He then mock-bowed. "After you, m'lady."

"You know, every time I think I have you figured out, Dante, you change directions."

"I'm going to thank you for that... that was supposed to be a compliment, right?" Dante replied as he followed her into the courtyard. Suddenly he heard what sounded like a loading of a rifle, the bullets settling into the chamber before being shot out. He saw the familiar laser sight and dove at Claire before feeling a ripping sensation of pain run through his back and out his chest. Ignoring the pain, he rolled off Claire and shot twice at the bastard Ashford. The first bullet missed, but the second one grazed Alfred's cheek and he sped off. Dante stood up and helped Claire, the pain immense. "After him--"

"You're wounded--"

"After him, I said! I'm fine!" he spat and jumped the stairs, leaving a fresh trail of blood behind.

It was only seconds before Claire realized what was happening. She blamed it on her amusement and distraction of Dante singing "One Thing". The shot, Dante's weight upon her, the crack of his own gun being fired twice. She looked down at her vest, stained with Dante's blood then at the hole in the cobblestones. If Alfred had been a hair off, the bullet would have lodged itself in her flesh. She followed the trail of blood leading upstairs.

As she entered the room the trail led into, she found Dante throwing a first-aid spray into the garbage.

"Thanks for taking your time." he muttered. "I wasn't fast enough to find where that fruitcake went. But it smells like a trap." Dante thumbed towards a blue door. Claire nodded, knowing what he meant. This way first. She opened the door--

--And found it to be quite pleasant. Two lounging couches, one which Dante immediately attached himself onto, a desk with an old typewriter and some plants for her herbal medicines--

"Claire... check this out," Dante said as he tossed something to her. She laughed. It was the hemostatic that Rodrigo needed!

"We have to go back to the prison now! Dante? Dante, are you listening?"

"Why not relax for a while? I could get the vending machines out there to spit out a few snacks and drinks. You hungry?"

"Famished, but we have no time for food--we have to find Steve and leave this place with Rodrigo." She started to pull him up, but he resisted, that crimson gaze back in his eyes. "I thought you sprayed yourself..."

"You just head on to the prison. I'll wait for you here. Maybe a small nap could clear my head..."

Claire did as she was told and left the room to get back to the prison.

SLAM!

'No!' Claire moaned as shutters overlapped the door to her escape. 'Dante was right, this WAS a trap...'

"Welcome Claire. I see you fell for my... little chase."

Alfred. Shit.

Dante could hear what was going on in the next room. The shutters closing over the door and Alfred's insane giggle. But it seemed miles away. His demonic blood was used to the virus and attempting to use him against the full-blood Claire. The more he resisted, the more it hurt. He couldn't handle it anymore--he had to break free!

Crimson eyes overlapped the ice blue and he crashed through the door, just as Alfred was saying, "I must warn you about your Dante..."

Claire squeaked and trained her gun at Dante, pulling the trigger three times. A bullet through each shoulder and one in the chest, Dante kept moving. He needed blood... hot sticky liquid... was that his blood? Could he smell Claire's blood?

He could sense her; smell her fear... an enhancement made by the virus infecting the demonblood.

"If you survive this, Lovely Claire, I have my playground waiting for you," a giggle and Alfred was gone. Dante pounced. Three more rounds in the stomach, but it didn't slow the demon down. He landed on top of the small female form, lowering his head towards her neck. She struggled futily against his strong body... his demonic fangs bared--

"Dante... Dante, it's okay..."

His mother?

"Little brother... Mama said you're safe with me!"

Vergil...?

Confused, the demon lunged off of Claire and busted through the only other way out.

Claire waited until her heart resumed a normal pace before sitting up. Was that Dante? It looked like him, but with a demonic gaze in his eyes...

Whatever it was, she fired six rounds into him and he didn't go down! Usually a good shot on a zombie would make him go down in one or two, but six rounds and that demon hadn't gone down...

... But why did it cease to bite her? Why did it... he flee?

If it was Dante... Claire stood up, still shaking slightly. She checked the remaining rounds in her 9mm and followed the demon.

There... crouched down slightly, the trench coat ripped slightly... it WAS Dante! Leaning up against a door--

--door sliding just beside her... Claire turned to glance at a humanoid creature, one arm longer than the other. She glanced at Dante to see that he was in the same predicament. Bandersnatch... like from the poem... a creature with a long reach... face... grin like the reaper's...

The bandersnatch lunged its arm at her but she dodged out of the way, bringing out her MT's. Perfect usage. The guns kicked in her hands as she spattered the wall with the bandersnatch's remains. Running down the stairs, she saw the other one fall to its doom, then the demon-like Dante flew through the next door, apparently avoiding her.

"Dante!" Claire ran after him but stopped short as a bandersnatch swatted the demon to one side, turning its dark soulless gaze towards her.

--The window--

--Steve--

She barely had time to think as Steve Burnside crashed through the window with the Lugers, catching the creature off-guard. He finished it off with style and looked at her.

"Not bad, huh? Just in time to save you, Claire."

"Thanks..." Claire looked around, spotting Dante sprawled on his back... next to a pair of sub-machine guns... "Hey, Steve... would you give me those Lugers if I gave you those guns?"

"Yeah, sure!" He glanced at Dante warily. "What happened to your bodyguard? Looks like a wreck." Claire silently kneeled beside the demon and checked for pulse. Still breathing, too. She handed the submachine guns to Steve and glanced at Dante.

"So who's carrying him?"

"What?! Oh no, I'm not carrying that dead weight--"

"Watch who you're calling dead weight..." came a mumble from the floor.

Dante's head hurt, pounding constantly like the offbeat rhythm of his half- demon heart. Opening his eyes didn't do much good, either, as the lights were bright, even though the bay was two stories tall. He heard the steady click of a 9mm round lodging into its chamber and didn't have to open his eyes anyway.

"I'm fine... I've calmed down..."

"So, seven bullets could kill you?"

Dante decided to open his eyes, staring at a confused Claire. He sat up and understood her question as immense pain saturated through his whole body. Painfully bringing a hand up, he lowered the gun in Claire's hands.

"One in each shoulder... three in the stomach and one in the chest. Six 9mm rounds. Would another kill you, demon?" The Steve kid stared at him from behind Claire. Ignoring the pain from the wounds, he stood and turned.

"I'll explain once we're off this island..."

The floor below them started to move, knocking the three of them off- balance, Dante the only one to continue standing.

"Tell me now, Dante."

"I... I can't Claire, I'm sorry."

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End note from Fenice: The original song I had put for Dante to sing was "The Rising" by Bruce Springsteen... as I reread it, I figured it wouldn't suit him any more than a country song. From the music in the background the first time we met Dante, it sounded like metal or alternative rock. I know. I listen to K- Rock (lovely, lovely Upstate NY alt rock station!) Ozzy, Evanescence, Finger Eleven, 12 Stones, Within Temptation... kinda Gothic too, by the soundtrack (I absolutely LOVE Nelo Angelo's theme!), but would he really sing Evanescence? Or what? I don't have any of Ozzy's earlier albums, or even Metallica (slaps self) so I was left with Finger Eleven, who totally ROCK!