Chapter 2
He came round slowly voices filtering in and out of his coherence though none of the words registered in his dulled ears. Dante was jerked back to the waking world rather harshly when someone thought it necessary to pry his eyes open and shine an extremely bright light into his sensitive pupils. He grunted twisting his head to the side and making to sit up only to find that he was held down by a firm hand on his shoulder.
Dante grimaced and tried to protest only to find that his tongue seemed to have glued itself to the roof of his mouth. When he attempted to fight back he found it nearly impossible, his limbs were heavy as lead and he wasn't even certain he could feel his fingers or toes. He couldn't quite focus on the people… things… whatever they were hovering above him and that was what worried him the most. He had to strain his ears to catch snippets of conversation and a chaotic storm of colours swam in front of his eyes making it even more impossible to see. The world was spinning of its own accord and he felt the sensation of moving though he couldn't tell if he was imagining it or not.
"V…Vergil?" he croaked. It was all he could manage at the moment. He was shaking, either from the cold or his injuries, he wasn't sure.
Breathing was becoming difficult and he felt his small moment of lucidity was slipping from him as panic set in. There was something wrong with the situation, but his dazed mind couldn't pin-point exactly what. A shuddering gasp and his eyes fluttered as he found himself unable to hold them open anymore. Somewhere in the distance there was the sound of an engine roaring to life, but it slowly petered out of existence as he gave up struggling to figure out what was going on.
Dante's next thought came a while later with the realization that he has passed out again. This time there was something alien about the place, the smells, something he knew he hated and couldn't quite place. He lost interest in that when he noticed that there was something jammed up his nose and running down his throat pumping air into his lungs. The sensation was a weird one and he didn't like it one bit. But when he moved his hands to try and rip the tubes away from his face he felt the cannula in the back of his hand and the wire wrapped around his arm connecting him to the ECG monitor... What the hell was going on?
He moved slowly aware of the tangle of wires he appeared to be lying in and began to raise his other hand to his face only to have it pressed back into the mattress.
"Dante!"
It was a voice he recognised and he turned his head towards the sound weakly, trying to make the world focus and failing miserably. He blinked a few times, but that did nothing for him and so he concentrated on the voices instead though that also proved impossible.
"What's wrong with him?" Lady asked worriedly eyes darting between the prone form on the hospital bed and the doctor opposite her. Dante's eyes were currently unfocused rolling beneath half-closed lids as he moved with a general lack of lucidity. She'd heard that he had been taken into the hospital a few hours ago and had only just been allowed to see him. Of all the things she'd thought of this she had not expected. A bruised and battered demon slayer lying sprawled in the intensive care unit hooked up to so many machines he looked like the wires were merely an extension of his body.
When she'd first walked into the room she'd nearly run straight back out again. He looked awful laying there relying on those machines to keep him alive.
The doctor looked up at her eyes grave. He really hadn't wanted to bring her in here yet, but she'd been rather… insistent.
"He was in shock when we found him due to severe haemorrhaging-" Lady tried to keep calm as she listened. She didn't care much about the technical side of things she just needed to know how long it would take Dante to get back to his usual self again "-he has a broken rib and a punctured lung, his shoulder bone's been fractured in two places. We can't wake him up just yet because of the endotracheal tube, but his breathing seems to be stable so we'll get him back to his normal self ASAP."
Lady nodded only half hearing what he had said as she brushed some of the hair from Dante's eyes. They had fallen shut again, lashes dark against the even darker rings already appearing beneath them, standing out in stark contrast to his all too pale skin. She couldn't quite understand how this had happened to him – in fact she knew it to be impossible – and was having more than a little trouble comprehending that this was in fact the same person. When she'd first asked about his condition she'd been told to prepare for the worst and whilst he was at least stable now there were so many risks.
Dante shifted eyes fluttering and they caught hers for a moment – at least she thought they did – before they drifted out of focus again.
"He's going to be alright now isn't he?" She asked softly trying to keep her voice even as she watched the doctor insert a needle into the cannula and saw Dante's breathing return to a slow and steady pace as he slipped back into a deeper delirium.
The doctor nodded his head and smiled slightly. Lady couldn't tell whether he was merely trying to reassure her or whether it was meant sincerely.
"He should be fine now, it was touch and go for a bit, but he's been lucky," the doctor left out the fact that the patient had died on them once already. He'd been sliding into shock when they found him in the church and his body had given out on them just as they reached the hospital. To be honest it was a miracle he was still alive, they'd been certain he was dead when they first found him simply from the amount of blood he'd lost.
Lady sighed still keeping her eyes fixed on Dante. "Do you have any idea how this might have happened?"
"Actually that was something we were hoping you could answer," the man replied moving away from his patient though Lady was reluctant to leave his side. Eventually she got the message and left the ICU with the doctor confident that Dante would live though she wished she could have stayed with him.
"What do you want to know?" She asked finally when they were sitting in his office and she had a mug of coffee clasped between her hands. Lady felt a little better now though she was still shaken. When she'd first heard Dante was in hospital she'd thought that it must have been some mistake. It had been almost impossible to recognise him then with the amount of bandages and wires he'd been wrapped in; the neck brace hadn't helped matters. She'd felt sick, part of her had wanted to deny it and run, but the white hair had made him unmistakable.
Lady was anxious to ask questions, but she knew that her cooperation would probably help far more so for now she decided it was best to wait. It wasn't exactly like Dante was going anywhere, but until he woke up she would have to rely on what information she could get out of the doctor.
They were currently being accompanied by a police officer who was standing dictaphone in hand. Apparently it was procedure for situations like this… where it obviously wasn't just an accident. Lady swore that she'd find whatever demon had done this to Dante and make it pay, but until she could get enough info she'd just have to sit tight.
"Maybe we should start with your name?" The policewoman offered.
Lady paused loathe to say her real name, but knowing that there would be a lot of questions if she didn't. The words left her lips with a visible hiss and she pursed them smiling to try and cover the visible annoyance in her voice.
The situations continued to get even more annoying and personal until she was about to demand that it was her turn to ask them something. That was until their last question which threw her off guard.
"There was something our patient-"
"Dante," she cut in irritably.
The doctor smiled knowingly. Lady wondered if he had something else he should have been doing.
"Dante said when we found him."
She folded her arms though her hearing sharpened. "And what was that?"
"A name we think, maybe the one of his assailant," the man paused and Lady was about to snap when he spoke again. "Vergil."
Lady's eyes widened and her jaw dropped slightly though she fought to hide her surprise immediately. The officer looked unconvinced, but she brushed it off and pleaded a head ache brought on by her stressful situation and left the room, heart racing.
Vergil… he was alive? Dante had never told her that he was dead, but she had always just assumed.
Lady paced down corridor after corridor having no particular place to go; just needing to let off steam. She wanted to see Dante, but she'd be turned away if she tried (not that he'd be with it enough to tell her anything relevant) and she didn't want to go home to merely sit and wait. No she needed to find out what the hell was going on.
A familiar voice caught her then, coming from one of the nearby cubicles, and she stood stock still for a heart beat trying to recall who it belonged to.
A nurse pulled back the curtain to leave before turning back to her patient. Lady tried to catch a glimpse of the person occupying the cubicle, but it was no use. "You'll be fine now then I hope?"
"Yes, thank you," came the voice again and the nurse smiled before leaving completely oblivious of Lady's presence.
Lady bit her lip thinking hard, certain that she's heard the voice before. Realization snapped into place a moment later. It took her a second to turn to her left and tear back the curtain to one of the hospital beds.
"You!"
Vergil was sitting on the end of the bed pulling on a light blue shirt over his well toned chest. What he had done with his usual attire Lady didn't know and didn't care either suddenly livid with anger.
"What on earth-?"
The elder twin didn't get the time to finish as Lady pulled the screen back around them and stormed up to him eyes blazing.
"What did you do to him?!" She fumed hands on hips, pinning him with an unmoving gaze. The last time she'd met Vergil had been on similar terms and he'd beaten her in a second, something she hated to remember. Right now though she was far too angry to care and more than a little confused. She was frightened of him, of course she was, but she didn't let it show, she wanted answers.
"I'm sorry, but I don't generally engage in conversation with rude little girls," Vergil replied smoothly making to stand. Lady shoved him back down onto the bed and was slightly surprised at the force she had managed to exert on him. Was Vergil suffering from the same lack of strength Dante was?
"I'm not finished with you," Lady snapped glaring, her eyes so bright Vergil feared he would get hit by the sparks. "What did you do to Dante?"
He threw her a sharp side-long glance. "What makes you think I did anything?"
"He's half dead and he said your name," she shot back. "He could have died."
Vergil smirked his voice laced with sarcasm. "You think I care?"
She had to stop herself from smacking him then. The cold, bored, tone was trying her patience and she couldn't quite understand how someone could be so heartless. Dante was his brother, Lady knew that Vergil had tried to kill him at least three times, but she hadn't been hit with the full gravity of the situation until Vergil said it like that.
She frowned anger dissipating into what she could only place as sadness. "Well you should."
Vergl regarded her quietly for a while then finished buttoning his shirt up and ran a hand through his hair pulling it back though most of the hair-gel had been washed out when the blood was cleaned off leaving the soft spikes in a state of disarray. He stood up and made to push past Lady but she stopped him bi-coloured eyes sparking.
"You're not just leaving!"
"Do you think you can stop me?" He asked eyes flashing with an in-human light.
She grimaced. "I can try there are police here you know. I could tell them."
"Would you want them all to die?" He asked dangerously and her eyes narrowed to slits. God she wished she had brought her gun, she'd be forever happy if she could plant a bullet between his eyes right now.
"He's your brother," she said desperately unable to understand how he could appear so completely ruthless. Vergil didn't seem psychotic like her father had been, he was calm and collected and she knew from his eyes that everything was there so how could he act this way? How could anyone be so completely cold? Simple, her mind told her; he's a demon.
Then as Vergil tried to leave again something clicked into place something she hadn't noticed before because she'd been too busy wanting to kill him. "Why are you here anyway?"
Vergil faltered and looked at her. "What's it to you?"
Lady glanced at Vergil's heavily bandaged left shoulder still visible beneath his shirt and then at the stitches in his temple and the apparently broken nose. "You're just like Dante; you're not healing are you?"
It was Vergil's turn to be silent then. With the evidence staring Lady in the face he couldn't deny it though he knew she'd just found the leverage to make him consider staying. He had intended to talk to Dante about this anyway, just not in this place. He would have cornered him in some alleyway when the demon slayer was better – he didn't want Dante thinking he cared about him. He may have been heartless, but he was not unnecessarily cruel.
"What happened to you two?" Lady asked suddenly bringing him back from his thoughts.
"Why do you care?" Vergil asked sharply running out of patience with her. He could kill her right now with his bare hands, but that probably wouldn't solve the problem.
"If you think for one second I care a bit about you then forget it. I just want to know what's wrong with Dante, alright?" She folded her arms. "And until I get some answers you're not going anywhere. You don't have any weapons right now do you and from my guess you're not as strong as you were. How hard would it be really to catch you when you're like this?"
Lady appeared to have hit a nerve. Vergil's brows knitted together in frustration and his lips twitched downwards in annoyance.
"Do you want to risk it and find out?" He asked his jaw clenched slightly.
"No, I want you to talk to me and see the state you've got your brother in," Lady replied curtly.
"I didn't know," Vergil said his voice almost too quiet for her to hear and there was something in it then which sounded an awful lot like regret.
Lady raised an eyebrow quizzically thinking she must have heard wrong.
"I didn't know it would kill him alright, I didn't know what that demon had done," he replied begrudgingly. "Happy now?"
"Not until you've told me everything."
Vergil sighed. It was beginning to look like he didn't have a choice. Yes he could take on a couple of police officers and security guards, but he knew how many were here. He'd seen them and the sheer numbers might overwhelm him if he didn't even have a weapon (and then there was the wounded shoulder to consider). Once he was in a prison that would be more or less it without his demonic powers to break free. And as he followed Lady down to the relatives' room he hated her for figuring all this out. He would have to remember not to under-estimate humans.
Lady glanced across her coffee cup (this must have been her fifth cup that day) looking at Vergil confused. "So you called the ambulance?"
"Yes," Vergil replied quickly his gaze not once leaving hers.
"But why?"
"Like you said he's my brother," Vergil answered, that same bored tone managing to leak into his voice. "And I want the chance to finish him off properly."
"Figures," Lady tried to remain nonchalant, but her eyes betrayed her. "Did you see the demon which attacked you?"
He shook his head, lips pursed; Lady could tell Vergil wasn't at all happy that he had been beaten so easily.
"The police are looking for you," she informed him deciding that he probably needed to know. As much as she hated the fact her and Dante needed him here so that they could figure out what was going on, not locked up somewhere. "Well they don't know what you look like, but Dante said your name," she looked him over, those wounds were pretty obvious, "and if you're wandering around bandaged up like that they'll put two and two together. Did you give the receptionists your name?"
Vergil shook his head; she wouldn't have put it past him to give a false name really and was glad that his quick thinking might have bought them time. The only problem now was how to keep track of him. There was no way she was letting him out of her sight and she'd planned on staying here until Dante woke up – well more or less anyway – but keeping Vergil in the hospital was going to be risky with all the police milling around.
"So you don't have any of your powers?" Lady asked trying to get everything straight and wondering how on earth either of the twins were going to deal without it. For now she would avoid the more pressing questions, mainly what on earth was Vergil doing in the human world.
Once again his only response was a shake of his head as he drummed his fingers against the arm of his chair.
"How are you going to get them back?" She asked taking slight enjoyment in Vergil's annoyance.
He narrowed his eyes; he knew exactly what he was going to do. He was going to hunt down the little squirt who had taken them and beat him into a bloody pulp. He just knew he couldn't do all that alone, something he did not want to tell Lady.
He was saved from having to answer by a doctor entering the room and clearing his throat. Vergil was inwardly glad though he kept his face impassive and looked down. He didn't quite know how they were going to avoid the fact that Vergil looked exactly like Dante and was also pretty beaten up.
"Err Miss?" The doctor glanced at Vergil, but when he continued to stare at the floor he turned his attention back to Lady. "Your friend's awake."
A/N: This chapter is 1000 words shorter than the last one and a bit of a filler, but it seemed sensible to cut there. Once again apologies for my random updating hopefully I'll get back into the swing of things soon. Thanks for the reviews, favs, alerts and what-not :D
-Luce
