Chapter 105: Painful Reflections
While Damon was still in his world, Adrian continued to plummet through the portal for what seemed like forever, until finally he landed face first on pavement, forcing him to slowly pick himself up and wipe blood from his cheek before quickly regenerating.
He breifly inspected his surroundings, seeing he had been teleported to the front of what looked like a run down fun house; a large building with a multifaced opera mask with the mouth serving as the arc for the doorway.
"Why am I here?" Adrian asked, knowing full well Bloody Mary was right behind him.
"I brought you here because I needed you as far away from that handsome white haired devil and his witch girlfriend as possible," she answered, strolling past him so she could turn and face him, "reason being is that you actually have something Zeus wants." Adrian furrowed his brow,
"What could I possibly-?!"
"I can't say," interrupted Mary, "but I do know that whatever it is, Zeus wants to take it off your corpse himself," She held out her arms gesturing to the fun house behind herself, "and this is the perfect place to do so!" Mary then transformed into a swarm of bats with red smoke, and the swarm flew into the fun house, forcing Adrian to run to the doors, and with one powerful punch he sent the doors crashing to the floor. He then sprinted through a ragged hallway filled with cracked mirrors, and upon reaching the end he found a circular room with three more mirrors, and a solid steel door crashed down behind him, locking him inside.
"Terrific," he muttered to himself, and he walked around the room, seeing nothing worthy of noting, and to humor himself, he looked into the center mirror, but instead of seeing himself, he saw another reflection; of a certain red haired she-devil he knows all too well, "R...Rias?!"
"Adrian!" Cried the Rias refection, "Why did you abandon me?" Adrian then heard a wail of despair, and he turned to the mirror on his right, seeing a reflection of Asia, tears streaming down her face as she pressed her hands to the glass,
"Adrian! We trusted you! I loved you...and you gave me away to a creep like Issei!" Adrian took a step back from the mirrors, now understanding,
"You're not the real Rias or Asia. You're just mirror creatures or something."
"Oh! Is that all?" Adrian spun around, seeing another reflection on the left, seeing a more smug Issei in the mirror, sporting an evil twisted grin, "You know Adrian, I was always jealous when I found out you were with Rias...I mean, those MELONS! And you had to hog them all to yourself?!" Adrian cracked his neck to the side,
"Seven years bad luck or not, I'm shattering your glass ass!" Adrian quickly strided to the mirror, but as soon as he had, the refection was no longer that of Issei. Instead, it was now Katrina!
"Really? Is this what you have been up to as soon as you lost me? Picking fights with evil mirrors instead of looking for me?!"
"Of course it is." Adrian turned back to the right mirror, seeing a reflection of Wesker, "He, as the holder of the Blacklight, only cares about what suits him best, like the filthy plague he always has been." Adrian stepped back, hurt by what the reflection of Wesker had said, but he was frightened by what he heard from the center mirror,
"Adrian...?" The Devil Virus turned, agonizingly slow, dreading with every fiber of his being what he was about to see...and dread he did; inside the center mirror was the reflection of Victoria Michaels.
"Mom?"
"Adrian? Why did you let me die?" Adrian began to clutch his head, everything spinning around him all at once, "You had the power to protect me," she continued, "but instead you used that power to protect that devil whore girlfriend of yours." Adrian sank to his knees, covering his ears to no avail as the reflections began to overlap each other, scolding him, taunting him, verbally assaulting him, until finally...
"ENOUGH!!!" Adrian shot a Tendril Barrage throughout the entire room, smashing every mirror in sight and sending glass everywhere, silencing the reflections. His breathing heavy, he brought his tendrils back into himself, and to his surprise, he saw a hallway hidden behind one of the broken mirrors. Without hesitation he stomped down the hallway, popping his knuckles, and once he reached the end he found another room with three mirrors, and a steel door slamming shut behind him like before. The reflections appeared once again, but before they could speak Adrian was already smashing mirrors left and right, keeping them from speaking and finding more hidden hallways, repeating the process with each next room he was in, over and over and over, again and again and again, almost at a maddening rate, until he finally reached one final hallway, mirrors lined up on the left, and one at the end. He strode down without hesitstion, smashing the mirrors on his left as he walked past, not caring if they had talking reflections or not. Once he was down to just the one at the end, he had his Sacred Gear summoned, fist raised as he was ready to slam his fist into the glass, until he looked carefully in the reflection, seeing a swarm of bats with red smoke behind him, and he whirled around, aiming his gear arm at the newly formed Bloody Mary,
"Wow! You actually did better than I thought you would," she praised, clapping her hands in admiration.
"Cut the shit," Adrian said bluntly, "you're mirror gag did the best it could, but I'm still standing, and I'm still able to fight you and kill you." Mary laughed at the Devil Virus,
"Oh Adrian, what made you think it was me you were fighting?" Adrian was then confused, but had he turned around he would have seen what she meant; his own reflection had turned around and was now facing him!
The mirror Adrian then created a Whipfist, sent it flying through the glass, shattering it and grabbing the real Adrian, dragging him into the mirror as Mary cackled into the air, transforming into her bat cloud and following them, the glass shards then flying back into place, leaving no trace of Adrian or Mary...
Meanwhile, with Damon...
"Zeus?! You've met Zeus?!! And you didn't kill him on sight?!!" Damon shouted at his father, still craddling the dying Blair in his arms with teary eyes.
"I didn't fight him because I couldn't bring myself to fight," said Nero plainly. His tone turned serious, "When he found me, I was already lost...you had jumped through a portal to another dimension, with no way to return, I lost my arm, lost Dante..." Nero trailed off, shaking his head, "...when he found me I was already two seconds away from sticking Blue Rose in my mouth and pulling the trigger. But he smacked the gun out of my hand, and told me there was another way-!"
"By serving him..." Damon finished, dissappointed in the one he had called his father for so long, "...you chose to serve him instead of doing the right thing! You could have turned to Bayonetta! Or aunt Trish! Lady! Or hell, even mom!" Nero aimed the Blue Rose at Damons' head,
"Don't you dare talk about them! They were the ones who kept trying to tell me not to take the deal!" Damon gasped, and he finally figured it out,
"That Devil...the one you said killed our family...that was you...wasn't it?" Nero frowned,
"I had no-!"
"You say 'had no choice' I will kill you myself!" Growled Damon, earning a scoff from Nero,
"Oh really? Last time we fought you couldn't even get past me without the Blacklight or my Devil Bringer arm. What makes you think you have a chance now that I have both?" Damon kept silent as he lifted Blair up bridal style, carrying her to the furthest side of the room and gently setting her down in a seated position, quickly removing his coat and shirt and placing the latter on her wound,
"Keep as much pressure on that as you can!" Said Damon in an urgent whisper. Blair could only nod, and the white haired Devil Hunter faced his father, his green coat back on his shoulders where it belongs, and drew out the Green Knight, sticking the tip in the ground and revving the gearshift. "I don't think I can beat you," said Damon, "I know I can beat you!" Nero smiled evily at his son, and drew his own sword off his back; the sword in question was almost exactly like the green knight, but what was green on the Green Knight was replaced with red on Neros' sword. He stuck the tip in the ground and revved the gearshift on his own sword,
"So the Red Queen vs. the Green Knight," he stated, "father vs. son...this should be good..."
A/N: I hope I didn't turn any readers away with the twist, but it seemed good to have a decent surprise once in a while to keep everyone interested. Until next chapter!
