Disclaimer: The Rose and Rayne in this story have nothing to do with Bustahead's! This was purely coincidental…and the fact that I also don't own DMC (or else Hannah would kill me) should be mentioned.

Chapter Two

After we moved in more, getting a better look at the room, I sighed in frustration. This was hopeless! Parts of the staircase were missing. "Look, I don't want to try those staircases right now, so what are we going to do?"

"Well," Rose's voice came from the left, "we could try this door here."

"After you, Ms. All-Knowing-One," I said, bowing her through the door.

She walked through the door, her nose high in the air and strutting like she ruled the world. I followed her into the room and almost started crying. We were on one side of a room with a giant door, and on the other side was another door that was the one we obviously needed to go through. But of course…there was a gaping pit right in front of us.

"This is useless!" Rose yelled in frustration.

"Unless…it's an optical illusion. Here, give me a gun," I said, not moving my gaze from the hole, but holding a hand out to her.

After a few seconds she complied, grumbling. "If I lose a gun because of you…"

Once I felt it in my hand, I threw it out into the air while Rose yelled at me. But as it began to fall, and she tensed up, it hit the air and bounced. Yes, it bounced; it seemed that the air was hard.

Smirking I walked out to pick it up, "What'd I tell ya, huh?"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, at least I didn't lose a gun," Rose commented as she joined me on the opposite side. "If this is the wrong door, I'm going to kill you…just to let you know."

"That was my gift to you. You… amuse me," the voice of the 'annoying twit' from earlier echoed over our heads suddenly.

I watched as Rose looked everywhere for the speaker. "You know he isn't here."

She sighed, "I was going to thank him…"

I looked away scowling, thinking to myself; he doesn't deserve to be thanked, but instead I told her we should keep going if we wanted to help anyone.

We cautiously turned the corner, ready for an ambush, but we were relieved to see an elevator waiting for us to get on with four statues upon it; one on each corner of the elevator.

"Shall we?" Rose said, holding out her arm.

"We shall," I replied as we linked arms and got on the elevator.

After a couple minutes, Rose spoke up. "Um…why aren't we moving?"

"Hmm…I dunno, maybe these statues are weighing us down?"

I moved to take them down, but was stopped by a sudden burst of bullets. "Shoot them or use your blades; it'll go faster," Rose spoke up.

With a nod, I complied, quickly taking down two while Rose shot apart the other two. When we still didn't move, we looked around for a switch. I walked across a wall and came upon a wheel with eight spokes sticking out of it. Looking around me, making sure the coast was clear, I began to attack it with my blades to release some stress. When the ends of the spokes began to burn, I was surprised, but I kept hitting it till all of them were lit and I could hear a loud grinding noise.

"Hey…it's moving!" Rose shouted excitedly, running up onto it.

I ran towards it, jumped up, and flipped onto it just before it got too high. We stood there as it went up, waiting for something to jump out at. It wasn't too long before our suspicions were answered. Demons began to rain down on us (Rose screamed bloody murder) with giant scythes.

"Pride has come to play," I taunted them with a smirk. "Here Pridey, pridey."

After we had defeated them, (ending with me yawning with boredom from them), we reached the top and jumped off. As we explored our surroundings, Rose happily yelled out, "Balcony! Oh…pretty moon…" She skipped outside and placed her hands on a railing that soon crumbled away. "Oppsies…" she said embarrassed, rubbing the back of her head.

I rolled my eyes at her, "Don't touch anything again."

"But if I am to walk…or stand, then I just have to touch something."

Slapping my forehead, I groaned, "Oh god, I'm rubbing off on you."

We entered another long corridor that held signs of a massive fight. Giant lengths of chains lay around on each side of the door and giant piles of rubble lay everywhere. As we walked across the ground, our feet scuffed against giant scratches in the ground.

"Once again, I think I'm glad someone already defeated this demon," Rose said, her hands near the guns strapped to her legs.

"Demons," I whispered.

"What?" Her head shot in my direction.

"This is the Firestorm Chamber where two headless demon brothers were once housed. Well, maybe not completely headless…. Their heads were on the tops of their swords." I said thinking back to their legend. I read it out loud from my mind.

"Once two brothers named Agni and Rudra tortured human villages using their brute strength to demolish and obliterate everything. A demon hunter tried to defeat them, and succeeded in decapitating them. But his hope in stopping them was crushed as they soon welded their heads to their sacred swords of Fire and Wind. (The two sacred swords of Water and Earth have been long lost for centuries now.) Now, combined with the sacred swords they had stolen, they were more powerful then ever. With vengeance they attacked and killed the Demon Hunter who had removed their heads. Their reign of terror continued until the great demon Sparda chained them up in the Firestorm Chamber of Temen-ni-gru."

Rose gave a nervous laugh, "Oh…shall we move on?"

We did, and soon we arrived in a chamber with a pedestal in the center. Mounted on top was a mechanical arm with something that was akin to a laser gun. I inspected it closer, and saw that there were three engraved circles on the pedestal, all linked by a line to form a triangle.

"Think we need to find something, Rayne?"

"No duh," I said sarcastically back to her.

"Gosh, you don't have to be so rude and mean to me," she said dramatically.

"Oh, but I do."

We continued on enjoying our fun banter as we walked towards the doorway that wasn't blocked by massive boulders. As one, we reached out and opened the door with a bang. A sudden light shone behind us, making our figures brilliantly outlined.

We stood there looking at the three paths before us. The Trials of Wisdom, Skill, and the Warrior stood in the way of saving our beloved city. But what one should we conquer first?

"Since I'm probably not the one with the skills needed, why don't I do Wisdom and you do Skill?" Rose suggested to me, still looking ahead.

"Sounds great to me," I answered, looking to the middle path.

"See ya soon then!" She said before running into the path on the left.

"Be safe," I muttered before walking into the middle path and unsheathing my sword.

Trial of Wisdom: Rose's Point of View

As I walked up to the door, I read the riddle inscribed on the pedestal in front of me:

'Your wisdom will be put to the test in the chamber ahead. Use your lifetime experience: from the crawling infant; to the man standing tall; and finally to the old man leaning on his cane.'

"Hmm," I said aloud walking into the first room. I inspected every part, knowing that this was important. I looked at the top of each doorway and noted that there was a different amount of glowing stones in each: 4, 3, 2, and 1.

"So," I continued to speak to myself in order to think well. "The crawling infant comes first…so when you crawl, you're on all four legs, right? Yes. So that means I should take the door with four glowing crystals."

As I stepped through the door, I took out my guns just in case I was ambushed. But when I walked in and stood waiting for the anticipated ambush, nothing happened and I relaxed and grinned. "Ha, take that you trial of Wisdom you!"

Then I looked around and groaned; another room? Sheesh, you really hate me right now don't you? I thought to myself as I looked around. "Alright…the man standing tall was next. So, I can make the man a woman…cause I am no man." I began to walk around, as I thought. "If I was standing tall, which I am doing now…I'd be standing on two legs."

And without a second thought I walked straight into the two glowing gems door. "Ha! Conquered you again, can't touch this!" I exclaimed doing a small dance to relieve some stress…and, well, have fun too.

"Okay, old woman right? Well, once I'm an old woman, I'll still be on two feet, so I take it it's two again! Onward ho!"

Once I stepped through the threshold, I immediately realized my mistake. It had mentioned a cane! "Crap," I exclaimed whipping out two of my guns as demons materialized around me. I began to shoot them down, managing to somehow get away from them all with only a scrape or two. Once I had finished, I returned the guns to their holsters and walked through the door of three in order to fix my wrongdoing.

With a groan, I recognized the marking on the floor that I had made in the first room. "So now I have to start over? Sheesh guys, give a girl a break…"

I continued on my merry journey, making sure that I took the right door this time Finally, I came to the final room. "Hah, you're not going to trick me this time… 'The old man leaning on his cane' obviously, that's three, so through the three glow door I go!"

I triumphantly stepped through into a new room. It was like the others, except this time there was a pedestal right in the middle of the floor. I circled this pedestal, trying to determine if it was a trap, before I took a closer look at the glowing sphere like thing set on it. I took it off with one hand, and loosened a gun with another, just to make sure. As nothing appeared, I looked around me.

"Ok…it said nothing after the old man with his cane or whatever, and I've already gone through three, two, and one, so I guess that means I go with le one glowing gem!" I once again spoke to myself and confidently walked through that doorway.

Trial of Skill Rayne's Point of View:

I advanced into the Trial; my blades loosened and out in my hands in the ready position. I turned around a corner, hearing grating noises that didn't sound too great. But what I saw almost made me drop my blades in shock. There in the vast expanse of me was a maze of giant spears shooting up, out, and down in a timed pattern. Combinations of down and out stood in between the blades shooting up from the ground. To test how sharp they were, I tore off a piece of my jacket and tossed it out into the pattern. Immediately, the piece was torn to shreds. I gulped.

Then I grinned, sheathing my blades and rubbing my hands together. "Hey! This is no worse then fighting some stupid demons, or talking to that annoying brat from earlier…" I finished scowling.

I began jumping up and down to warm myself up before I took a running start. I jumped up and flipped over the first set that was jutting up from the floor as if it wanted to shish-ka-bob me. I dove quickly to the left to avoid being bloodied, and painfully being killed. Regaining my rhythm I jumped over another group of protruding spears and then to the right before I stopped in front of a pedestal.

"Ha, I beat you!" I said, sticking my tongue out at the spikes.

I turned back around and looked at the bright, shiny thing. 'Ooh…shiny.' I thought to myself.

"Rayne you idiot! Just get over the nice, shiny, pretty thing, take it, and go!" I muttered to myself, slapping my face mentally to get out of my trance.

I took the glowing sphere and turned around, and instead of seeing spikes, I saw Enigmas and Gluttonies milling around like the stupid demons they were.

."Hmm, Mystery and Gluttony want to dance? Well, let's tango." My smirk grew as I ran towards them.

The giant eyes of Enigma followed me as I ran up to them, my blades dropping into my hands. I ducked under a giant blade and slashed up with the blade in my left hand. Spinning around I stabbed the other one in the eye. Kicking the Enigma off the right blade, I jumped up and popped off the head of the last Enigma.

"Aww, did the Mysteries not like our dance?" I said pouting. "Maybe Gluttony will!"

I ran in like before, but this time I flipped over them and attacked their backs, quickly slaying the first three. I held Mara and Aram tightly in my hands and spun in a circle, cutting the last three demons in half.

Wiping off my blades, I sheathed them. "Who ya gonna call? Demon Busters!" I sang as I moon-walked out.

Author's Note: I am successfully writing more! Yay! But thanks to all my reviewers! Sorry about the confusion in the last chapter, that end part after my note was a bit of a sneak peak into the future, I guess I should have made that a bit clearer. rubs back of head ashamed But I should have plenty of time in Driver's Ed to work on my story.

Anyways, responses to reviewers:

Sasha: Thanks! Sorry about the confusion, but Rayne is the main character for this story. Hope it makes more sense now!

Bustahead: Lol, I'm sorry about the same names, I didn't even realize it 'till you said that. Umm, anyways, hope you liked it!

AnalisDestiny: Then why do you write in first person so much? Lol, thanks for the review. Hope you liked this one!

Vampy Sparda: Mm, I was delighted to write this story for you! As for the beginning, that's just the way it happened, sorry it kind of didn't work for ya. Hope you like the action (or at least what I tried) in this chapter! (P.S. Thanks for being my beta!)