Author's Note: So it's been 14 years since I last wrote fan fiction. A lot has happened in that time. On the plus side, I have learned a lesson. This story is complete. I went through 3 pens and a lot of paper but I have it all written out. I will try to edit and post updates to this once to twice a week.
Disclaimer: I do not own the characters in this story, they belong to Capcom.
Eva's Wish
Chapter 1
The moon shone brightly with the clouds darting to and fro. The soft light danced across the ground below, illuminating patches of ground. A cloud shifted and the moonlight cast its gaze on a frenzied sight. A battle raged below. Horribly deformed creatures struggled against a pair of adversaries.
"Trish, drop!" one of the women yelled. The lithe blond woman sank down as a large boom echoed off the abandoned buildings around them. The missile found its intended target, striking the grotesque demon square in the chest. Vile liquid erupted forth, striking the crouched blond right in the face.
"Whoopsie," her companion said, mirth dancing in her mismatched eyes. Trish narrowed her eyes at her companion. "Sorry," Lady called out. "I wasn't anticipating that."
Trish snorted. "I'm sure you didn't," she said as she stood and pivoted toward the demon fast approaching from her right. The sword in her right hand danced through the air, cutting into demon flesh at each turn and weave.
Her companion gave a chuckle and turned to the Hell Caina demon coming from her left. Her eyes-one red and one blue, flashed with anticipation. She lived for this struggle, the opportunity to send the foot soldiers of hell back to their realm. It drove her, a mere human, to fight with the intensity of a demon. "Don't think so," she called out, reaching behind her and drawing a pistol. With marked aim she placed a slug between the vile creature's eyes.
The battle raged on. Each woman cutting through the demons that rushed at them, until an eerie silence took over the street. "Think that was all of them?" Lady asked, walking toward Trish and dusting some grime off her hip.
Trish examined the gunk clinging to her blonde strands of hair with a disgusted look. "I don't sense any more demonic auras in this area," she said. "Ugh, this stuff is disgusting," she said, wrinkling her nose.
"Yep, you need a shower all right," said Lady, waving her hand in front of her nose. Trish shot her a dirty look. "Hey, I didn't know he was full of that," Lady protested. "Nor could I have predicted the blowback or that you'd get hit. Usually you just jump out of the way."
Trish nodded. Lady had a point; usually she'd avoid a situation such as that. "Still getting used to this sword," she said softly. "The weight still has me a bit off balance."
Lady's eyes softened. "I understand. Hey, let's head back to the shop," she said, starting to reach for her friend's shoulder and pulling back at the stinking black goo that rested there.
Trish huffed. "Let's go," she said turning on her heel and walking away down the dark street. Lady gave a last look over the scene of the battle and followed her friend. As she walked, her thoughts drifted.
It had been almost a year since the battle with Urizen-no Vergil, she reminded herself. Dante was gone. Morrison was running Devil May Cry with her and Trish working as the muscle of the operation. Nearby, patrolling Fortuna and Redgrave City, Nero and Nico kept busy with Devil May Cry Mobile. Demons were still popping up and it kept all of them busy.
However there were changes too. Nero struggled with his family legacy. They all missed Dante terribly, some of us more than others, Lady thought. It was tough to imagine missing the mess that he'd always have around but the shop didn't feel the same without him. After the battle with Vergil, when Trish lost the Sparda sword, she'd been forced to switch to a new sword they'd found in a box in Dante's storeroom at the shop. She hadn't fully mastered the sword and sometimes in battle she encountered difficulties with it. They hadn't found a suitable replacement for the Sparda for her.
Lady was broken from her thoughts as the familiar red neon glow approached. At least some things remained the same, she thought as they approached the shop. Hopping up the steps, she held the door open for Trish with a smile on her face. "Your shower awaits my lady," she said, grinning. Trish rolled her eyes and stepped across the threshold.
The shop remained much the way Dante had left it, with a few changes. The worn floorboards glowed with an unfamiliar look-the layers of dust and grime were missing. There were far fewer cobwebs about too. The bathroom was no longer the breeding ground for nightmares either. The pool table was still there but it wasn't the same without a bet with Dante, one he was sure to lose. The familiar red couches were still just as ratty as the day he left. It was the same, but different. Much like all of them.
As Lady walked in, her eyes flicked to the two feet propped up on the heavy oaken desk. Morrison smiled at his "employees". More like slaves, Lady grumbled in her thoughts. The jobs he brought paid but they were shit jobs in her opinion. "Ladies," Morrison said as they came in. "Good to see you back so soon." He smiled. "I trust that wasn't too difficult for you?"
Trish snorted. "Not difficult at all, but rather messy," she said, sighing. "If you'll excuse me, I have a date with the shower," she said, walking toward the stairs to the upper bedrooms and the shower she so desperately craved.
"Just be quick about it," Morrison cautioned, his voice taking on a serious tone. "We've got a new job and this one's urgent."
Lady's eyes snapped to Morrison. She wasn't used to Morrison speaking so seriously. Trish stopped mid-stride up the stairs and looked at Morrison. She and Lady exchanged a look. "What's the job?" Lady asked, feeling some trepidation in her stomach.
"Last night a demon busted into Our Lady of the Glorious Sun orphanage," Morrison began. The trepidation in Lady's stomach turned to cold fear. "A little girl named Lilith was taken," Morrison said. Lady felt a rising sense of panic.
"Why would a demon take a little girl from an orphanage?" Trish asked.
"Don't know," said Morrison. "There's not much here to go on, but we've been hired to get her back and a job is a job," he said.
Lady spoke up suddenly. "Trish, you've got a shower with your name on it," she said, turning for the door. "I've got this," she said pushing the door open and walking out into the cold night air.
Trish and Morrison exchanged a look. Morrison nodded. "Yeah, something is odd there," he said slowly.
Trish shook her head. "Let me grab a shower and I'll head over there and meet up with her," she said.
Morrison looked at the door for a moment, with a considering look. "Nah, don't worry about it," he said, reaching for the phone. "I think maybe this is a job for the kid to be back up," he said, as he dialed a familiar number.
Nero's head bashed against the headrest behind him, waking him from his dozing. Blinking the sleep from his eyes, he stared at the truck headed straight for them. His head shot to the left to see Nico spun around in the driver's seat, reaching around behind her on the floor. "Damned lighter," she muttered.
"Nico, truck!" Nero yelled, diving for the steering wheel and jerking it to the right. The truck's horn blared as they scraped by it, coming within centimeters of contact.
"Don't get your panties in a wad," Nico said, wrapping her hand around the missing lighter.
Nero blinked at her. "Don't get my what?" he blurted out. "You nearly killed us."
Nico grinned. "But I didn't," she said. "Because you and your lightening quick…" She didn't get to finish as the ring of the telephone between them interrupted. Nero stared at the phone for a moment. "You gonna get that?" Nico asked, lighting the cigarette at her lips.
Nero glared at her. "Devil May Cry," he ground out while staring at her. His expression changed at hearing the voice on the other line. "Oh hey Morrison, long time no talk to," he said. Nico's eyes lit up as she paid close attention to her partner. Nero listened intently. "Yeah…hunh, ok. Yeah, that's totally not like her…Sure, we'd be happy to help…Yeah, Our Lady of the Glorious Sun…Yep totally familiar with it…Yeah, it's the other one in Fortuna…No worries, we can totally help. I'll give you a call once I meet up with her and find out what's up….Hey thanks for the call…Yeah you too." Nico watched Nero's face as he hung up the phone with a look of confusion on his face. He wasn't saying anything.
Nico snapped her fingers in front of his face. "Hey moody, what did Morrison want? He got a job for us?" she asked hopefully.
Nero snapped back from his thoughts. "Yeah, we need to get a move on. We're backing up Lady. Job's in Fortuna," he said.
Nico raised an eyebrow, but settled into the driver's seat and pulled out onto the roadway. Swinging into a wide U-turn in front of an oncoming car, she ignored the blaring horn. "So what's the job in Fortuna that we're backing Lady up on?" she asked.
Nero looked out the window for a moment before looking back to his partner. "Apparently a little girl was taken by a demon from an orphanage there last night," he began. "When Morrison told Trish and Lady about the job, Lady started acting really odd and took off on her own."
"So Morrison thinks somethin's off and wants us for back up on a job with someone who it sounds like doesn't want back up," Nico said whistling. "Sounds like this one'll be a doozy."
Nero nodded. Something about this whole thing felt off. He couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong. "Nico, I'll be honest, I've got a bad feeling about this," he said.
"Pffft, bad feeling?" Nico said, shaking her head. "Just about anything to do with Dante and his crew has been a bad feeling. He was a hell of a hunter but man oh man did he and his get involved in some screwy shit," she said, taking a long drag on her cigarette.
Nero felt the familiar tightening in his chest that came whenever Nico spoke about Dante like he was dead. "Yeah, screwy shit," he said absently, his gaze drifting out the window.
After an hour of harrowing near miss collisions they pulled up in front of the orphanage. "This place gives me the heebie-jeebies," Nico said shaking.
Nero shot her a look. "I've never known you to be afraid of a demon before," he said.
Nico looked at him in disbelief. "I ain't afraid of any demon Nero," she said, shaking her head. Staring at him she said slowly, "This place is full of nuns Nero. Those women are downright frightening. It's like they got some infernal sense when you're doin somethin wrong and they just show up outta nowhere. Like they just materialize or somethin" Nico said, reaching for her cigarettes.
"Like her?" Nero said, pointing past Nico's shoulder. Nico spun her head around and yelped at the sight of the wizened old woman, whose face was framed in black, standing outside the window next to her. The nun frowned and motioned for Nico to roll the window down. Nero laughed as Nico tried to roll the window down while leaning away from it.
"Hello sister," Nero said, smiling.
The nun continued to frown. "You can't park here," she said, a tone of steel in her voice.
"Not a problem, ma'am," Nero said. "My friend here was just dropping me off. I'm here about the girl who was taken last night. I believe my partner may have already arrived."
"The woman with the short dark hair?" the nun asked.
Nero nodded. "That's her," he said.
"I can show you to her," the nun said. Nero smiled and started to get out of the RV. The nun looked back at Nico, a frown still on her face. "Park over there," she instructed, a wrinkled finger pointing off to the side of the building. Nero had barely cleared the RV when the tires chirped and it lunged away. He shook his head. "This way," the nun ordered and started toward the stairs at the front of the building.
Nero followed the old woman through the corridors of the building, his shoes squeaking on the polished floor. Passing down a hall lined with windows, he heard the sounds of children yelling and playing. He stole a glance to his right and saw the central courtyard filled with small children running about and tossing balls around. It brought back memories. He quickly tamped them down.
"Did any of the other children see what happened?" he asked.
The nun nodded. "They described an impossible creature," she said slowly. "They said it possessed six arms, had red eyes and gave off a sickeningly sweet smell. I didn't see it myself, but there was a lingering scent when we entered the dormitory after the commotion. The smell was certainly odd, but such a creature as they described cannot exist. There must be another explanation for what happened to Lilith."
Nero kept quiet and simply nodded. He'd been around enough people exposed to demons to know that they fell into two camps. There are those that could accept what was in front of them and those who shut down and tried to explain it away. In his experience those who were deeply religious had the most difficulty accepting the existence of demons.
The nun stopped at a door way. "Your partner is in here," she said, turning and gliding down the hall. Nero entered the doorway into a long room. Windows lined one wall and beds were lined up on either side of the room, running the length of it. A dormitory, Nero thought to himself. He spotted Lady leaning against a window toward the end of the room. Her right hand held a paper of some kind that her thumb ran back and forth over. Her forehead was resting on the window pane.
Nero walked down the aisle way between the beds. Stopping at the foot of the bed Lady was next to, he looked at her for a moment. She didn't appear to hear him approach. That wasn't like her. The bad feeling he'd previously had came back.
"Hey Lady," Nero said softly, trying not to startle her.
Lady lifted her head from the window pane and looked at him. "N-Nero," she said with confusion. "What are you doing here?" she asked.
"Morrison called me," Nero explained. "He said you'd taken off on your own and he thought you needed some back up, so he rang me up." Lady just nodded a faraway look in her eyes. Nero could see now that the object in her hand appeared to be a photo. "Is that a picture of the little girl who was taken?" he asked. Lady nodded. "Can I see it?" he asked, extending his hand.
Lady took a deep breath and handed him the photo before turning back to the window. She bit at her bottom lip. Nero looked at her for a moment with concern before turning his gaze to the picture. After one look, his face scrunched in confusion at the photo. A small girls' face stared back. She had a heart shaped face with a small chin, bright rosy cheeks. What really stood out though was the girl's mismatched eyes and pure silver hair with bangs that fell to each side. Nero's eyes shot to Lady. "Lady," he started, "is this…is this my sister?" he asked haltingly.
Lady's eyes widened and she slowly looked at Nero. Mentally the image of Vergil came to her and she shook her head emphatically. "Oh god no," she said. "No Nero, she's not your sister. She's your cousin," she said softly.
Nero felt his heart skip a beat. He looked back at the photo and his eyes softened. "You and the old man, hunh?" he said, smiling at Lady.
Lady gave him a sad look. "Our great mistake," she said bitterly. Nero stepped closer and put his hand on her shoulder and gave a gentle squeeze. Lady hung her head. Mentally she snapped back in time to that cold January night five years ago…