Disclaimer: I own none of the characters in this story (only half-own Enzo, but no one cares...)

Recommended Listening:
Underworld Domain-Dargaard
Maxx Unlimited-DDR Max2 Dance Dance Revolution
Bloody Tears-Castlevania original soundtrack

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Mitternacht

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Steve gazed at the guy from behind Claire, an odd feeling in his gut. Claire never really did say anything about where she met this guy, but he felt some sort of tension between the two. How could someone possibly survive a bullet to the chest, three to the stomach and one to each shoulder? Surely they would have died of blood loss, but it looked to Steve as if the guy didn't lose any blood at all by the way he was standing. Just stood there with his back turned to Claire, calmly telling her she couldn't hear his story. Well, she shouldn't be butting into other people's personal lives, but six bullets... six rounds pumped into her apparent bodyguard.

"Dante," Claire sighed.

Silence.

"You wouldn't understand even if I did have time to explain it to you," Dante quipped in a raspy voice.

"Time? To explain... is telling me the truth that hard? Who are you and why are you here, Dante?! Is it to save me, did my brother—" her voice became soft again. "Did Chris send you?"

Silence.

The shaft slowed to a halt as Dante stepped towards the door. Steve ran out from behind Claire.

"Answer her, damnit!"

"I answer to no one. Do you want to get out of here or what, pipsqueak?" He turned his head toward Steve, and he saw the ancient look in Dante's eyes, and Steve understood that now was not the time. Dante walked through the door.

Steve looked at Claire, "Come with me if you want to live."

Claire rolled her eyes. "Thanks, Ah-nohld."

Chris Redfield paced the room of the base that housed Barry Burton and Leon Kennedy. His big brother stature was wavering then coming back stronger as his worry for Claire deepened. He sighed inwardly and brushed a hand over his dark brown crewcut. The silence was thick, but good in Chris' mind. He had silence to think.

Claire... if anything happened to her, there was no doubt in how Chris would handle himself.

'She's only 19... supposed to be in college—'

"Chris! Get in here!" Leon's frantic voice carried through to the other room. His heart stopped, Chris ran into the other room where Leon stood beside the computer, glancing at the screen in disbelief. "Chris, she's alive, but for how long I don't know..."

He sighed and read the message:

--TO: Leon Kennedy et al (lkennedyrpd.net)

--SUBJECT: I'm alive—

---I'm on an island called Rockfort... an Umbrella Prison facility in the isolated Atlantic. 37S, 12W. Two other survivors with me

---Island's infected

---Umbrella's monitoring you, bro. Be careful.


"I've got to get her," Chris began as he started for the survival pack. Barry's large hand placed itself on the smaller ex-S.T.A.R.S. shoulder.

"I'm going with you."

"No. I have to do this alone. You two have to stay here and wait for Rebecca and the others."

Solemnly Barry nodded and took his hand off Chris' shoulder.

And Chris began packing.

He was there, Dante could feel it. Only remotely farther than he anticipated, but Dante knew that Albert Wesker had come to greet them all. 'But he won't get far,' Dante grinned maliciously. 'He won't get far.'

Dante plowed through a few zombies and searched the area for a better weapon than the shotguns he dropped not too long ago. He stopped and looked behind a fence. There. A grenade launcher.

"Now that's the shit," Dante muttered as he rattled the gate to attempt to dislodge the lock. Nothing.

'Must be one of those electronic locks,' Dante grimaced. 'I HATE electronics.'

It was at that time Claire stepped past the door, then Steve.

"Before we go any farther, check for possibly ammunition and weaponry," Dante began authoritatively as he turned back to the lock and began prying it open with a jackknife. Claire stared at Dante long enough for him to stop and toss the knife to her. "Don't look at me like that, babe."

"You've been lying to me, haven't you?"

"I said now isn't the time, okay? I can't be any clearer than that, Claire. Now find something useful, this night isn't over just yet," Dante commented as he backed up a bit. He'd had enough with the damn electronic lock that he might as well blast the damned thing to death. A carefully aimed bullet was just enough to short the fuse and he struggled, only slightly with the door. He placed his guns in their holsters and reached out for the launcher, a glint of excitement formed in his pale blue eyes. 'Who would leave a half-loaded grenade launcher lying around?' he thought as he gave the launcher to Claire. "I'll find some rounds." He grunted as he nodded towards a door on the far end of the fenced-in room, meaning he'd check in there. As he stepped near the door, however, a surge of pain swept through his person, caused by the demonic sword on his back.

It wasn't the time or the place to check things out. So instead of travelling to a room that probably had more useful things to destroy, such as zombies and other such devils and demons, he decided to walk the path toward the exit, not waiting for the full-bloods to catch up to him.

Steve burned with excitement as his hands touched a cool case of shotgun rounds. He was sure the big dude had something for 12-gauge, so he picked them up and pocketed them, hoping to remember to tell Dante that he had some. Before he had time to speak, though, he'd seen the silver-haired freak give something to Claire. He had to admit he was a bit jealous, but it seemed from his side of the room that Dante had no interests in her at all. Almost like he was on a secret mission and wanted something specific. Not just a pretty woman by his side. He brushed his hand through his hair to attempt to rid his long bangs out of his eyes. They were starting to annoy him, to be truthful.

The boy had finished looming in the corner of the room and inside an extra storage room when he heard a door open. Whipping his head around, he found that Dante had just gone through the door next to the farthest from him. He stood up straight and stretched somewhat, glancing at Claire to let her through the door behind the older man. He'd follow behind.

When he entered the next room, which looked seemingly like a boiler room, he saw a flaming pile of Zombie to his right, a few more scorched to his left and none at the bottom of the staircase. He sighed in exasperation when he found that the other two were descending the steps, leaving him behind. He jumped from the third step up and made haste to catch up to them. Dante already opened the door and walked through as Steve and Claire caught each other's eye. She smiled slightly as if to say "it'll be okay once we get out of here". Right.

They entered a long, dark room with a narrow hallway, a stature in the middle shaped like a demonic lion's head with its mouth in an etched roar. Water ran beneath the bridged hall and as the three of them walked along the bridge, the half-devil first, they heard a shrill cry from more than one demon, as Dante would call them. Claire took Steve's arm as they pushed past the older man, who stopped and registered the noises. With his enhanced vision, he'd seen creatures climbing the sides of the room, a demonic breed of monkey and frog. Another shrill cry from below, and a shrill laughter that could only come from a Sin Scissors or Sin Scythe.

As much as he wanted to stay and fight, he couldn't help but follow the pulling feeling he got when Claire and Steve made their way past him. Something to his immediate left caught his eye and he stopped as a monkey- like demon made its way to the bridge. Then two more, then five more. Their shrill laughter sounded in unison and they attacked.

"Dante!" Claire cried out, but he just smiled darkly. They were low-class demons, he could tell. He brought Alastor out after placing Ebony and Ivory in their respective holsters.

"Let's rock," he sneered and made his way to the first, second and third devils, slicing them in half with all the grace of a feline. He spun in place; Alastor outstretched as he grazed four more of the monkey-like beings. His trench coat trailed behind him as he repeatedly stabbed three of the grazed demons, and then swinging upward, elevating two of them as he quickly replaced his sword with his guns and fired into their stomachs repeatedly until they exploded. He then popped the last three in their narrow heads with a single well-placed bullet. He headed toward the fullbloods as the remaining monkey creatures fell limply to the water. "Piece of cake," he uttered as he entered the elevator shaft.

"What the Hell WERE those?" Claire pondered, he arms folded around her body. Dante shook his head and checked the rounds left in his guns.

"No clue. It seemed all-too easy."

"It is... if this is Alfred's idea of a playground..." Claire muttered as she pushed the button to the 2nd floor. The tiny elevator jerked slightly then lifted a bit smoother, slowing to a stop at the 2nd floor. As Dante was closest to the exit, he looked around outside of the elevator, finding the only was to go was left. So he walked out, the fullbloods following. Another shudder from Alastor made him ease back a bit, letting Steve and Claire take the lead. Whatever the cause, he trusted the demonic sword.

Steve opened the door then swept his submachine guns in an arc around him, making sure there were no surprises for the three of them, So Steve opened the door to an old wooden balcony overlooking a bunch of junk scattered all over below. Again Dante fell back, Alastor vividly warning him of an unknown terror.

"We should find a way down, I think the exit's down there," Claire began as she and Steve stepped onto the wooden planks. Dante watched from a distance as the two fullbloods went down after the boards gave in under their weight. Standing at the edge, he peered down at the two, making sure they were okay. Steve seemed unhurt, but the girl was pinned under a chunk of the wooden planks. The splinters and barrels that were above fell around them and some debris caught her by her leg. The way she moved to get it out, though, it seemed she was also unhurt. But then he heard a moan from below.

'This doesn't look good,' he thought as he searched for an easier way of getting down. He still ached slightly from the bullet wounds, so jumping was out. That's when he heard Steve scream and rapid firing from the gun. "Oh fuck this!" Dante growled and leapt from the top, whipping Ebony and Ivory out and landed hard ready to attack, but Steve had already killed the son of a bitch. And he was... weeping...? Claire had removed herself from the debris and was holding him closely while the boy repeatedly sobbed, "Father".

-

It was a while before the boy could speak again. During the time of his strife, Dante had found an old sheet and lay it over his dead father, then dragged the body away into a darkened corner, the blood trail only blending in with everything else. Dante sat on a crate that overlooked the two fullbloods as Steve began his story.

"My father worked for Umbrella, a truck driver. But secretly he was also helping this one other company, HCF. One day, an Umbrella operative caught him trying to steal a formula from the labs. It was a big mistake really."

Dante shook his head. Fullblood humans were stupid; he had to admit it. Even his mother had her days.

"My mother... she was at home, minding the house when they attacked. They killed her and took me and Dad here." Steve nuzzled into his arms more, his voice shaking. "I thought... I WANTED to think he died in the Air Raid, but then... I didn't... I..." Steve fell silent.

"Steve..." Claire began but was cut off by Dante.

"Why don't you give the Hemostatic to your friend in the prison. I... I've got to talk to this kid anyway." Claire nodded and took off while Dante slipped off the crate and kneeled next to the boy.

"Steve? Can you hear me in your little isolation there?"

A grunt and a sniffle. Steve was listening. And it made Dante feel a bit better, knowing someone else had killed a loved one, though not on purpose.

"Let me tell you a story about a man. A man, by all rights should have been dead a long time ago. When he was younger, his mother and twin brother were taken away from him by an unknown evil. His father had died before the man got to know him. The man's mother and twin tried to protect him, and in the end it cost them their own lives." Dante sat next to Steve, getting comfortable. The boy looked up at him, but the half-devil stared straight ahead. "For 20 years, the man fought the darkness, trying to find the one who left him alone without a family. And then a few months ago, a woman walked into his office. She looked just like his mother, so he was gullible enough to follow her to a deserted castle on an island. The man fought the demonic castellans to find the one who killed his family." Dante's voice hardened slightly. "And then he dueled with a creature with the exact same power as the man. He had the same techniques, and could kick ass in martial arts, knowing the man relied more on speed and weaponry. One time, the Dark Knight poised to kill the man, but something happened. An amulet shone on the man's chest, one that he wore ever since his mother gave it to him on his and his twin's birthday. The twin had the same amulet, mind you, but the Dark Knight let the man go for some reason."

Steve was fully into Dante's story now, forgetting all about his own lost family. Dante rubbed his temples and combed back his unruly hair before continuing, in a half-not-so-steady voice.

"The man had to endure more monsters and the Dark Knight again, well, twice more. But the final battle with the Knight, something happened. The Dark Knight transformed and looked almost just like the man's older twin brother. And that last battle, when the Dark Knight perished, he dropped an amulet. The same amulet that was around the man's neck. And he remembered. He had just killed his own brother." Dante whispered, "His own brother..." and sat silent for a while.

"That was you, wasn't it?" Steve questioned softly after some time. Dante nodded. "Vergil and I used to do everything together, but when he went out with his friends, and dragged me along, all I did was sit and stare. I wasn't one for other people. That's not how I am." Dante stood up and dusted his trench coat off. "Come on, we have to get off this island, right?"

Steve also stood up and gripped Dante's hand in a friendly, but tight, handshake. "Right!" As they started out, Alastor surged for the third time that night, the pulsating energy of danger, and Dante sped off towards the mansion, Steve hot on his heels. "Dante! Hey! What's up?!"

All Dante said was: "Claire's in danger."