Note: I change a lot in this chapter. Hopefully you'll like it better now. I'll be putting the next chapter up today, though I'm not sure of when. So there's going to be two updates in one day. I'm going to be busy. Well please enjoy and review. And please tell me if there's anything you think I should change.
After getting home, Dante dragged Rona into his room. "Give me the ring." He growled, holding his hand out.
Angry about what had happened, Rona tore the ring off and threw it at Dante. He caught it just before it could hit him in the face. Rona then went to the dresser and started digging out her clothes.
"What are you doing?" Dante asked.
"I'm not sleeping in here any more." Her voice was devoid of any feeling. "I'm going to share Trish's room, at least if she doesn't mind. If she doesn't want me there, I'll live on the streets. I'm sure I can survive until I'm killed by your brother."
Rona listened to Dante's footsteps as he walked past. When she heard the door close, she fell to the floor and sobbed. She leaned her head against the hard wood of the dresser, receiving no comfort. How could everything have turned out so wrong? She wanted to hate Dante and Virgil. But she couldn't.
Before Dante could come back in, Rona finished gathering all of her possessions. She knew it was over between them. She hoped she could find a place to live, living under the same roof, as Dante would just make things worse. She wanted to have a life without all this pain. She wanted a life where she wasn't attacked. She realized she was in the wrong world for that but didn't care. Everything could work out later on.
Walking towards Trish's room, Rona saw that Dante and Trish had been talking on the couch. She didn't care if it was about her. She was prepared to leave if she wasn't wanted.
Trish was the first to notice her and motion for her to go ahead and put everything in her room. It was something Rona hadn't expected. She thought Trish would help Dante and throw her out. She was closer to Dante anyways. She couldn't understand why Trish would be welcoming her after she had hurt the man that was like a brother to her. They had always seemed so close in Rona's opinion. Why would Trish be helping the one that had practically destroyed Dante?
A few minutes after putting everything away, Trish came in and asked her where she wanted to sleep.
"The floor is fine with me." Rona answered glumly. "He told you what happened?"
Trish nodded. "I wanted to ask you what happened when Virgil came."
"Nothing." Rona answered. "I didn't even know he was there the first night. The second, I waited for him because of something I noticed when he was sleeping."
Trish sat on her bed, listening to Rona and becoming curious. "What did you notice?"
"I think he's been having nightmares. I woke up before him and saw this troubled look on his face. It's something I never thought possible for him. Not when he seems to handle everything so well." Rona answered. She told her everything. The strange fear that seemed to be in Virgil's face and how he had left.
"Hell isn't an easy thing to forget." Trish explained after hearing everything Rona had to say. "It doesn't surprise me that he would be dreaming about it."
"It didn't seem like it was just hell that he was dreaming of." Rona whispered. "I think he was also dreaming of his revenge." She sat on the floor and looked at her hands, not wanting Trish to see the guilt in her face.
"It wasn't your fault." Trish seemed to have known all along that she felt guilty for Virgil's fate. Yet she didn't know that it was Virgil that had told her where he was after being sent back.
"I could have stopped it." She looked at Trish, a cruel and hateful look for her trying to oppose what Virgil had told her. "If I hadn't stopped him, he never would have suffered. He never would have been fighting Dante on Mallet Island."
"You never could have let him kill your brother." Trish moved to the floor to force Rona to look at her. "You had a terrible choice. I couldn't have chosen better than you."
Rona looked into her eyes and soon fell against her, crying even harder than before. She thanked Trish, mentally, for comforting her when she could have been yelling at her for keeping secrets. But hadn't she kept her secret too? Dante hadn't known his brother was alive until earlier. "I just realized I've been proposed to and practically dumped all in one day." Rona gave a weak laugh. "I guess that means I have worse luck than Dante. It's even worse that it was all by Dante."
Trish tried to smile comfortingly. "You've had a hard day." Trish moved back a little and added, "You should rest."
"It's too early for sleep. The sun hasn't even started to set." She stood and turned towards the door. "I don't want Dante to know this, but I'm going to leave tonight. I thought about it while talking to you. I can't live here any more. Not without reminding Dante of…"
"Where will you go?" Trish seemed to be trying to sound neutral but instead seemed afraid of what could happen, something Rona never would have expected or wanted from her.
"I don't know. I was going to figure that out while going for a walk." She took a step to the door and added, "I'm going alone." She walked through and didn't look back. She had almost expected to find Dante listening outside the door, but he wasn't.
Trish had an idea of whom she would be talking to. Devon. She didn't like the idea but knew she couldn't stop her. She hadn't even heeded her warning about him from before. Would it be too late when she figured out who and what he was? Or would she even care? She looked ready to die when Trish had been talking to her. Could all of this have hurt her so much? Or was she taking everything upon herself so they wouldn't feel the blame?
Dante came in to ask her a few questions about what her and Rona talked about. She didn't know what to tell him, so she told him nothing. She knew he had listened anyways. Why wouldn't he have? He had wanted her to find out the truth. Which was strange since he had never doubted what Virgil had told him. He had never lied to him; he never had a reason to. Would Dante go after Rona? Would he try to prevent Rona from making a fatal mistake?
Rona met Devon about five minutes after leaving Devil May Cry. She told him her situation and soon got an invitation to live with him.
"I don't think I could do that." She told him. "I hardly even know you."
"You can get to know me." He persisted.
"If I do, you have to promise me that you'll keep your distance. I need to adjust to everything before I get into another relationship. And that's probably going to be the day I die." She hoped this would change his mind, but it didn't.
"Agreed." He threw an arm around her shoulders. "So, when are you going to move in?"
"You're in a hurry for me to move in with you?"
"Yeah." He pulled her closer and strutted down the street.
"You'll have to wait then." She muttered. "I haven't made up my mind yet." She knew he had heard her but was ignoring what she said. There was something about how he was acting that made her uncomfortable. And he seemed to be leading her somewhere instead of her going back.
Rona had walked with Devon until late at night. They had talked about what she could do until she found a place of her own. Most of it involved her working with him. She hadn't figured out what he did for a living but knew it would be a bad idea. There was something about him that seemed too familiar.
They stopped about a block away from Devil May Cry when Devon told her to get her stuff and he would help her start a new life. She didn't know why, but she did as he had said. She walked towards the door, thinking of what everything would be like without Dante and lowered her head in shame. Could she do this?
"You're leaving?" Rona quickly lifted her head to see Dante standing beside the door. "If you are, take this with you." He stepped towards her, lifted her left hand and slid the ring onto her finger. "It belongs on your hand, not mine." He whispered.
Rona looked down at the ring. Was he proposing to her again? "Are you serious about this?" She asked, her voice full of uncertainty.
"I heard what you told Trish." He smiled when Rona glared at him.
"You were eaves-dropping?" She asked with a low voice.
"I had to find out what happened. I knew you would tell Trish anything she wanted to know."
Not anything. Rona thought. "So you listened. What did you find out?"
"That it wasn't your fault." Dante placed his hand under her chin and gently forced her to look up at him, giving him the chance to look into her eyes. "I was wrong to believe you had invited him in. I know you wouldn't do that."
"So what now?" She asked, afraid to hope that she didn't have to leave.
"Now you come inside. You must be freezing." He took off his coat and wrapped it around her. Massaging warmth into her arms, he looked into her eyes again. He slowly leaned towards her, noting that she wasn't moving away from him. He saw her eyes close and nearly smiled. He gently kissed her, expecting some interruption. When nothing happened, except for her kissing him back, he allowed himself to hold her closer to himself.
Virgil watched from the rooftops, his fists balled so tightly that blood dripped from his hands. He hadn't expected Dante to do this. He should have thrown her out. He was supposed to hate her. And she was supposed to come to him for help. She was supposed to beg him for forgiveness.
None of it mattered now, they would soon pay. His revenge would be complete when she felt the pain he had suffered, when Dante died a death that would destroy her as well. They would both know his pain, his suffering. And both would regret the day they betrayed him.
Banith waited in darkness for his master. He could feel his anger, his malice. He knew the time was drawing near that he would have to act of his own volition. He would take revenge for his master. And he would soon reveal to Rona who he truly was. After all, she was the target. She was no longer half demon but that hardly mattered to Banith. She would fall faster, but she would suffer greater.
Turning to leave, Banith changed to his disguise. She wouldn't know, until it was too late, that the man she was beginning to trust was soon to be her killer.