"You look tense," Lady said, finishing off the last of her drink. Their starters - despite taking as long as they had to arrive - had been even better than expected, and she found herself looking forward to the main course with almost fervent impatience. She just hoped she would actually get to eat it.
"I'm always tense," Vergil said somewhat dismissively. He was glancing out of the window again and had barely touched his food after the first few bites. The strange feeling that had passed through him earlier still lingered in his thoughts. And yet for some reason, part of him was tempted to ignore it. At least for now. His eyes flickered over to Lady, who was once again looking at him with more concern than he deserved. Trish's words flashed through his mind. You'd better not mess up tonight… Something seemed to be happening out there, of that he was certain. He'd no doubt that Lady had realised too. And yet …
"Let's ignore it," Lady said quietly.
"Hm?" Vergil straightened up and turned his full attention to the woman in front of him. Her cheeks were flushed slightly, and she looked almost embarrassed.
"J-Just for tonight…" she stammered nervously. She sighed. "For as long as we can at least, anyway…"
"How very unlike you," Vergil said cautiously, knowing full well that he too was being far more blasé about this than he should be. The rational part of him was screaming at him to pick up his sword, march outside, and confront whatever was going on out there. Based on Lady's uncomfortable stance, it was clear she felt the same. Just a few weeks ago they would likely have been walking through the darkened streets by now, weapons poised and ready. But tonight… He caught sight of the van again and wondered if they'd both had the same thought. Perhaps Lady hadn't been blind to their unwanted neighbours after all.
"Well you know, with Dante and Nero back now, I just thought maybe…" She started fiddling with her napkin. "Look, it's been a tough year," she said, a bit more firmly this time. "We've had to deal with everything by ourselves, and with reduced fighting capabilities at that." She ignored the slight twitch in Vergil's eyebrow at this statement and continued. "If it's anything serious then the other's will handle it, you know they will. In fact, I think they're physically incapable of ignoring even the slightest weird thing going on around them. We've had to deal with everything this whole time, and we deserve a break damn it!" She slammed her napkin down on the table and sat back, angrily crossing her arms.
"Are you quite done?" Vergil asked, a slight smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. This was the fiery passion that had drawn him to her to begin with, and he was almost tempted to provoke her into continuing.
"Depends on if you agree," Lady huffed, blowing some hair out of her eyes.
Vergil regarded her for a moment, a multitude of thoughts and scenarios spinning through his mind; a mind which had somewhat irritatingly ceased to be fully under his control as of late, and was instead filled almost constantly with thoughts of the woman in front of him. It wasn't like him at all, and yet for some reason he didn't entirely hate it. He took one final glance outside and sighed. The other's will handle it. Were such thoughts selfish, given the ordeal that Dante and Nero had suffered through in order to return to this world? Incredibly. Did it make him a terrible father to place such responsibility on the son he had not yet even bothered to reunite with? Absolutely. But then, had he ever done things any differently? And it was, afterall, just for one night. He would easily make it up to them in time. Besides, in a sense he'd already made the decision to stay out of things by rejecting their (albeit last minute) invitation to dine with them. It had been an extremely difficult year trying to ensure things continued to run as best they could while they awaited the return of the two devil hunters. A lot had changed in that time too. Surely, after everything they had been through, they could allow themselves just one evening of self-indulgence…
"You know…" Vergil mumbled, adjusting the cuffs of his shirt. "If we skip dessert, we might just be able to make that motion picture you wished to see-"
And then they heard the scream.
Dante stood rooted to the spot, torn between dashing after Nico and alerting Nero to the situation. Part of him still wasn't even sure what he'd just seen; it had just happened so quickly damn it! One moment it had been pouring with rain, almost impossible to see, and then suddenly there she was - or at least, he thought she was - disappearing over the horizon as she was dragged away by some unseen beast into the night. He'd barely had time to register her presence before she was gone. He wondered where they'd taken her, how far away, and for what purposes. He could only pray that he'd be able to locate her before it was too late.
Dante looked down and angrily kicked Nico's crumpled cigarette pack across the parking lot. It travelled a surprising distance given his new strength, and he let out a quiet curse. To think he had let things get out of hand so easily after just getting back… Maybe if they'd just stayed in Hell a little longer, burnt off some more of… whatever this was, then… He looked up at the sky again and sighed. With much reluctance, he came to the conclusion that if whatever those things were had taken Nico rather than just tore her to shreds outright, then they likely had some sort of plan for her and planned to keep her alive - at least for a little while. It didn't exactly feel like the right thing to do, but he knew he'd only cause further panic if he just disappeared without warning. The last thing they needed right now was an even more broken team. Besides, the more time he spent debating with himself about what to do, the less time they'd have to act. And so, with one last glance towards the van, he steeled himself and headed back into the restaurant. This wasn't going to end well.
Vergil and Lady were on their feet before the echo of the scream had even faded. Within seconds, they were running down the staircase towards the source of the noise, weapons concealed but ready for whatever awaited them. A low murmur filled the air, and as they approached, they could see a group of servers gathered around one of the tables. There was blood everywhere . It covered the floor, the table, and even appeared to have found its way onto some of the servers' uniforms.
"Everyone get back!" Vergil yelled, starting to unwrap his sword. A few confused waiters and waitresses stepped aside, revealing an extremely distressed woman in a fancy looking white dress sitting at the table. She was covered almost head to toe in red liquid and was sobbing hysterically. Lady carefully approached her and placed a hand on her shoulder. Lady's other hand was resting on the small handgun in her bag.
"Where is it?" Lady asked gently. There was an acrid smell in the air and she could feel her nose starting to tingle. Whatever had caused this was obviously still nearby.
"Wh-What are you talking about?" the woman asked, looking up at her with makeup streaked eyes.
"The thing that did this to you, where did it go? Are you injured?"
"The…?" The woman gulped and pointed a shaky finger at one of the waiters. " There! That's the one that did this to me!" Lady nodded to Vergil, and within seconds the waiter had been restrained, the Yamato aimed at his throat. The woman in white screamed again at the sight of the sword.
"It's okay, he's got this," Lady said confidently. "Now quickly, are there any more-"
"What the hell do you think you're doing?!" a furious voice called out from across the restaurant. "Unhand that man at once!" Lady turned to see the man who had greeted them at the front desk storming towards them.
"Wait, you don't-"
"Someone call the police!" the man yelled.
"Perhaps you should take a look at the state of your patron first," Vergil growled, tightening his grip on the waiter in front of him. By now almost the entire restaurant had gathered around them, only heightening the distress of the bloodied woman. "This is the one that did this to her."
The host looked between the pair in shock. "Punishment of staff is the responsibility of this restaurant, not some psychopath with a- Is that a sword?! "
"We don't have time for this!" Lady cried. "If we let him go then-"
"Now you listen to me," the host spat. "How many times do you think these idiots have spilt soup on someone? Hundreds! Thousands even! If we lopped the head off every waiter that messed up we'd have no staff left!" he screamed. "I knew there was something wrong with you two the second I set eyes on you god damn it! I should have taken the system glitching out as a sign. God knows we deal with enough awful things around here without adding you lunatics into the mess!" The man dabbed at his head with a handkerchief. "Good god how am I even going to explain this one… You shouldn't even have been here, I had to cancel that other reservation just for you, if the boss finds out I…" he continued to mumble frantically to himself, becoming sweatier by the second.
"Wait… Soup?" Lady asked, an unpleasant feeling rising in her chest. She glanced down at the woman beside her, who had suddenly gone very quiet. Lady sniffed. Tomato. Pepper. Some unidentified herb that was making her nose twitch. The carnage before them wasn't the result of some demonic attack, it was… She locked eyes with Vergil, who looked back at her, equally askance. "...Run."
"There you are," Nero said as Dante approached the table. Nero had his arm around the waist of a rather sheepish looking Kyrie, who glanced away as Dante sat down opposite them. Her face was still flushed, but whether from crying or embarrassment was unclear. Either way, it didn't matter right now.
"Nero-" Dante began, trying to keep his voice steady.
"Where's Nico?" Nero asked, looking over his shoulder towards the entrance. "Kyrie said she went out to look for her earlier but she wasn't there."
Dante took a deep breath. "I messed up," he said bluntly. "Big time."
Nero's already concerned expression deepened as he turned to face Dante again. "What happened?" he asked coldly. He unwrapped himself from Kyrie and slammed his hands on the table, quickly getting to his feet. "Damn it Dante, where is she?!"
Dante felt himself tense up. This was definitely not the sort of thing he wanted to be dealing with amongst this many people. "Well, you see, the thing is-"
"Which one of you is Dante?" their less-than-pleased waitress suddenly asked from next to their table. The trio looked up in disbelief.
"Sorry lady, now really isn't the time for this," Nero snapped. Kyrie shrunk slightly further into the seat. She'd seen him lose his calm before, of course, but it was usually directed towards denizens of the night, and definitely not in the direction of some innocent third party. A fresh set of tears threatened to spill forth. When she thought about it, he hadn't really been acting himself ever since he got back. She hadn't pushed him on the matter out of respect, instead willing to wait until he was ready to talk. In fact, they'd mostly been discussing how she was coping after the last year. She gasped internally. To think she had acted so selfishly after everything he had been through! She realised now that she was so used to him telling her everything that she'd been in denial ever since his return; trusting that if there was something bothering him she'd know about it. But she had known. Something clearly wasn't right, and yet she'd chosen to ignore it. She'd apologised to him for her brief outburst earlier, but she realised now that she had so, so much more to apologise for. And to think it had now come to this… She glanced over at their server, who was practically staring daggers at Nero.
"Alright time for you to leave," the waitress said calmly. "I'm bringing you the bill and then you'd better get out of here before we make you."
"I'd like to see you try," Nero sneered, earning a reproachful look from Dante.
"Don't try to get smart with me kid, I'd dealt with your type before," the waitress said, turning to leave. Dante reached out and grabbed her arm, perhaps a little more forcefully than intended, earning himself a glare of his own.
"Why did you want to speak with me?" he asked, unsure of whether he should feel concerned or hopeful. Whenever someone requested to speak with him specifically, it usually involved bad news or the loss of some extortionate amount of money. But sometimes, just sometimes, good news found its way over to him. He prayed this would be one of those occasions - he really didn't have time for anything else right now.
The waitress pulled her arm free with an irritated tut. "I don't see why I should bother telling you after your ridiculous display, but…" she glanced over at Nero, who was now sitting down again with a placating hand from Kyrie on his shoulder. "Some chick called and asked for a message to be passed onto you."
"And?" Dante asked desperately.
"And not much," the waitress huffed, although she looked slightly guilty now. "She just said to tell you: she's safe."
Nico held her breath, waiting for the impact to come. At first she'd feared they were taking her somewhere, and for a brief moment they might well have been. It hadn't taken her long however to realise that she was falling, and fast at that. Tossed aside like some spent cigarette butt. She vowed to herself that if she survived this, she'd never litter again. Heck, if she survived this then maybe she'd give up smoking altogether (yeah right). Life was short after all. Shorter than she'd thought, as it turned out. She realised that these thoughts, oddly introspective as they were, were flashing through her mind all at once, each one moving onto the next before she really had any time to dwell on them. If this was what they meant by your life flashing before your eyes then perhaps she'd had a more boring life than she thought. She thought of Alisa suddenly, probably tucked up in bed by now. Would Nero look after her or… Damn it, why was she wasting so much time dwelling on such things? She should be praying, or trying to slow her descent, or... something!
Trees and sky rushed past her, while all the while the ground below grew closer. If they had thrown her, they'd thrown her hard. She had no idea how far she'd travelled at this point. Finally, after what felt like an eternity but could have only been a few seconds (she thought at least, anyway - who could really tell what was going on when demons were involved?), the cold wind whipping through her hair ceased. She let out something between a sob and a scream as her body suddenly came into contact with… Wait.
Hesitantly, she slowly cracked her eyes open, wondering if she would see her mangled body lying below her as she ascended into whatever afterlife awaited her. Instead, she was greeted with the image of dark asphalt, as she'd expected. What she hadn't expected however, was that her face was floating a few inches above said asphalt. For one awful moment she wondered whether the creatures might have changed their minds and decided to take her with them after all. She barely had time to ponder the subject however, before the world started to move around her again. She quickly squeezed her eyes shut.
"Well, that was close," a familiar voice said above her. Relief flooded through Nico's body before the person holding her had even finished speaking. So relieved was she in fact, that she feared she might faint, but she forced herself to take a deep breath and look up at the face of her unexpected, but oh so appreciated saviour. Trish stared down at her with an expression that appeared to be a mix of concern, fear, and relief, although it was clear that she was trying to hide her feelings behind a cool mask of indifference as usual - either to avoid causing Nico any further panic, or to hide the fact that up until just a few seconds earlier, she'd frantically been trying to figure out how she would tell Dante and the others that Nico wouldn't be joining them for dessert. Nico opened her mouth to say something, but Trish shook her head. Nico felt her heart quicken even further as a few strands of Trish's silken locks brushed over her cheek. "Don't," Trish said. "Take a moment to recover first. The last thing I need is you going unconscious on me."
Trish adjusted their position slightly (which Nico was now coming to realise was some sort of variation of the princess-carry) and took a moment to analyse their surroundings. In the few moments of silence that followed, Nico realised that Trish's heart was beating almost as fast as hers. She wondered whether this was usual for all demons, or if the confident looking woman standing above her perhaps wasn't quite as calm as she seemed. Trish glanced down at Nico again, and this time her expression was one of what could have been perceived as slight irritation. "Do you think you can stand?" Trish asked. Nico closed her eyes for a moment, her head swimming, before weakly nodding. With some hesitation, Trish spun Nico around until she was on her feet. She held onto Nico's arms as she wobbled slightly, her grip tightening when Nico tried to take a step forwards. "Just wait here for a sec," Trish said. "I need to make a call." She looked Nico up and down. "You can sit down if you prefer."
Nico glanced at the wet ground beneath her and thought to protest, but her legs had other ideas, and before she could work out what was going on, she was sitting in an unsteady heap on the floor. Trish assured her she'd only be a few minutes and to call out if anything happened, before disappearing into the darkness around them. Nico took the opportunity to look around and try to come to terms with whatever the heck had just happened. The air felt cold, despite only being early autumn, and there was a light drizzle falling. It seemed they were in a parking lot of some sort, and a dark one at that. Other than the faint glow of what she assumed was the city in the far distance, she couldn't see a damned thing. After a minute or so, she managed to get to her feet again and took a few shaky steps. Her head was still spinning, but at least she seemed to be getting her bearings again. She ran a hand through her hair and laughed nervously to herself as it finally hit her that she was alive. Just a few minutes prior, she'd been ready to die, crushed into a pile of unrecognisable gristle and blood, and yet here she was. She looked up at the sky and took in a deep breath of damp air before practically cackling into the misty darkness. "Ya ain't gettin' rid of me that easy!" she yelled to no one in particular. "Looks like the world still has plans for ol' Nico after all!" She was still laughing hysterically to herself when Trish appeared at her side again. Nico practically jumped out of her skin when Trish placed a gentle hand on her shoulder.
"Glad to see you're feeling a bit better," Trish said with a smirk. "Just try not to overdo it, okay?"
Nico turned to face her, her eyes wide and streaming with tears that she didn't even realise had been falling. She lumbered forward and practically wrapped her entire body around Trish. "You saved ma damn life…" she sobbed into Trish's shoulder.
"Yeah so don't start making me regret it," Trish said, gently pushing Nico away with a slight chuckle. "Come on, let's get you out of here." She was only a little surprised when Nico didn't respond, and she looked down to see that Nico had passed out after all.
A/N - Thank you for your patience everyone, it's much appreciated ^_^
Thanks as always for reading!
P.S. There is now a short side story that takes place before this one, just for fun! It won't let me post a link here, but it's on my profile called 'Assistance'!