Mission Five

Interludes

Ave Maria, Metropolis, USA

10:35 AM

The sun had risen over the city four hours ago. The streets were swarming with the local populace rushing to work. The din of car horns, crossing signs, and the occasional road rage-fueled shouting match filled the tense city air. The Ave Maria, on the other hand, was completely quiet. The sun had risen on two sleeping night owls and one chronic insomniac. The only sound coming from any room upstairs was that of Dante softly snoring. He had been sound asleep since three o'clock in the morning in Mercy's games room, and had not budged since. Occasionally, he broke the silence with a barely-intelligible mumble, sometimes about a stolen slice of pizza.

Mercy's bedroom was completely silent, even with her in it. She was curled up in a queen-size bed with black sheets and a beige quilted comforter messily draped over her legs. One pillow was knocked aside, and the sheets were pushed down to form a large wrinkle at the end of the bed. The existing stillness was suddenly broken by Mercy letting out a sharp groan and uncurling her body, rolling over onto her back. The silence resumed for some time until she let out a louder groan, this one with barely-decipherable words. "N-no...I..." She suddenly curled up tighter, the next sound she made sounding like a weak moan of pain. "L-leave me..." The sounds one would hear from outside were barely distinguishable from sobs.

"Not again..."

Location Unknown

Time Unknown

The shadow grew closer to her, forcing her to retreat into the closest corner. His only visible features were a pair of golden orbs in the place of eyes and a wide, crescent-shaped grin with visible fang-like canines. His voice rumbled unintelligibly in her ears, creating a wicked echo that seemed to pierce into her psyche. She shrank back further, falling onto her backside against the wall. The dark figure's visage and aura seemed to completely overpower her, its presence stripping away any will she had to resist. She stared up at the yellow eyes before shutting her own and begging the being not to harm her.

The figure was unmoved by her pleas. A shadowed limb stretched out from the darkness, clutching the collar of her shirt and pulling her toward its source. The shadows gathered closer before completely surrounding her, consuming all light in her vision. She could see nothing but the shadowy void, and feel nothing except for an an abhorrence that weighed heavily in the pit of her stomach. The only sounds that pierced the silence were her own screams echoing through the suffocating darkness.

Ave Maria

10:45 AM

Mercy's eyes snapped open. The mild irritation of the morning light pierced the darkness from her nightmare. She gasped for breath and grabbed at her chest, staring blearily up at the off-white stucco ceiling. Without getting up, she scanned the room with her blurred, waking vision. On the bedside table at her right laid a revolver with a silver chrome barrel inscribed with the name "Azrael." As her eyes came into focus, she could see the closet to her right, door hanging open. Her military green bomber jacket hung on a coat hook on the door as if it had been carelessly tossed there. On the brown carpeted floor laid her khaki pants, left there since she had taken them off last night. Everything in her room seemed to be the way she left it when she fell asleep the previous night.

Finally mustering the strength to sit up, she let out a sigh of mixed relief and agitation. "Gah...just a dream," she muttered, placing a hand against her forehead. Though she had slept uninterrupted for the past eight hours, she felt as if she had not slept at all. Stretching her tired limbs, she turned to the side of her bed and lowered her feet to the floor. Finally pulling herself up to stand, she walked over to the mirror on the wall in front of her bed. She was clad only in a black tank top and matching black boy shorts, the right sleeve of the tank top dangling slightly off her shoulder. Her dark brown hair fell in disheveled curls that reached the middle of her back. She stared into her reflection for a moment, her jaw slightly slack, before pulling herself up and going into the master bathroom. Once there, she opened the frosted glass shower door and turned the faucet on until it ran lukewarm. Carelessly tossing her clothes away into the nearby hamper, she stepped into the shower. She let the tepid water run over her bare skin, carrying with it the brisk chill of the previous night. Her hair was soon drenched in the rain from the shower head, and she gazed at the ceiling with the same jaded thousand-yard stare she woke up with.

Dimitri opened the door to silence and the spectacle of the ruined office. The hardwood floor was stained with blood, broken window glass littered the corner, and a chair had been smashed into virtual nonexistence. This place had clearly been the site of a struggle. Judging by the crystallized blood on the floor, demons were involved. Dimitri let out a slight gasp, unsure of what to make of the scene before him. Remaining silent, he reached up with a pale fingertip and slightly loosened the white insert of his clerical collar. Calm yourself, Dimitri, he admonished himself as a distinct smell caught his senses. It combined the rancid odor of human blood, demon blood and a general miasma of death.

"Agh..." he grunted, bringing a palm over his face. What a foul stench.

Raising his head a bit and wafting away the smell, he stood still for a moment to let his mind try to draw a logical conclusion. From above, he could pick up the faint sound of running water and the occasional loud snore. What in the name of... He continued to listen, only for the snoring to cease. A set of footsteps thumped across the upper floor, drawing closer until they came toward the stairs. Dimitri followed the sound with his ears before finally looking up to see Dante coming down.

The devil hunter's white hair was rather unkempt, and he wore a black button down shirt with the top two buttons undone. He reached up and scratched at his scalp, slowly rolling his neck side to side before looking down to see Dimitri standing among the rubble. "Oh hey, Padre. Fancy meetin' you here."

"...Bonjour, Dante," Dimitri returned Dante's salutation, a stiff tone in his voice. "Do you know what in heaven's name happened last night?" He took a step back, indicating the wreckage around him with his hand.

Dante followed the priest's pale hand with his eyes. "...Oh, that," he muttered, tilting his tired gaze up into space. "That's actually mostly my fault. I was on my way back to the office when I heard some screams and smelled some demon funk coming from here. I was worried about Merce, so I busted in through the window." He paused, gesturing toward the smashed window. "I didn't find her, but I did find this human girl that seemed to be a friend of hers. The demon was about to kill her. Felt like I had to get involved. Anyway, apparently I now owe Mercy five grand in damages." He let out a plaintive sigh, shrugging and sliding his hands into his pockets.

Dimitri raised a hand and lowered his eyeglasses, peering over them as he listened to Dante speak. At Dante's mention of a human friend of Mercy's, he raised his head a bit, interest piqued. "About this human...what was her name, if I might ask?"

"I'm not that good with names. I think hers was Andrea." Dante gazed up a bit, as if staring into his own brain to find answers. I wonder if Frenchy here knows anything about that kid. Like why she's so damn crazy, and how the hell she could kill a demon with a chair leg. As he awaited Dimitri's response, he ran a finger through his hair and swept a bit of it behind his ear.

Dimitri's eyes narrowed slightly at the mention of the name. "I see, so Andrea stayed here last night. Tell me, Dante. Is she alright?" The way that Dimitri asked the question, it seemed as if he already knew the answer. He crossed one arm over his torso and rested the other one upon it, curling his fingertip against the point of his chin.

Dante shrugged nonchalantly, sliding his hands back into his pockets. "Well, she got out of it alive. But she kinda...lost it. She ended up beating this bastard to death with a broken chair leg. I have no idea what caused it, but she's one of the scariest humans I've ever met. I show up and she's this clumsy little kid about to be killed by a demon twice her size. Fifteen minutes later she's beating his face in." Dante lightly pounded his fist into his palm in an attempt to emphasize his point.

As Dimitri listened, he rested a fingertip across his glasses and raised them up along the sharp bridge of his nose. "I see. You were a witness to her berserk fury," he stated plainly. "Given your account of last night's events, I can only infer that the aforementioned demon somehow provoked her."

The way Dimitri spoke so matter-of-factly about Andrea's so-called berserk fury led Dante to the conclusion that it was a frequent occurrence. Great, he thought. Just wonderful. I'm in over fifteen grand worth of debt to two women I just met last night, one of them's got a friend who has a habit of going on ax-crazy murderous rampages, and this guy's talking about it like the weather. What the hell could happen to me next? A familiar voice almost instantly made him regret the question.

"Actually, you can blame Andrea's little mental episode on the dipstick you're lookin' at." Mercy sounded even more irritable than usual. She leaned on the wall next to the stairs, cocking her head in Dante's direction to emphasize her statement. Apparently, she had arrived downstairs in the course of Dante's conversation with the priest.

At the obvious ire present in Mercy's voice, Dante placed a palm against his forehead, using his thumb and forefinger to gently squeeze his temples. Why the hell do I even ask myself that question anymore? He could feel the beginnings of a headache as Mercy continued to speak, turning her attention to him.

"You know, I really hate it when people lie to me," she remarked. Though she looked fatigued, she managed to maintain her infamous icy glare at the devil hunter.

Dante responded with a confused tilt of his head. "When did I lie to you?" He crossed his arms as he asked the question, trying to remember any time where he had not been truthful to Mercy. Come to think of it, I did tell a little white lie last night when I told her that backing her up was my idea. I don't think she would've worked with me otherwise.

"Can't remember, can ya? Lemme jog your memory." Mercy answered gruffly as she descended the stairs. "And I quote. 'I offered to do it.' Remember now?" Her voice grew deeper as she finished speaking, looking back and forth between Dante and Dimitri.

Damn, Dante thought to himself. She really knows how to put a guy on the spot. He attempted to give himself a moment to consider his reply. You have two choices, Dante. You can either be straightforward and let her bitch you out now, or cover it up for a while and let her bitch you out harder later. The devil hunter scratched at the back of his head, running his fingertips through his white hair.

Before Dante could open his mouth to speak, Dimitri raised a question of his own. "Would you have accepted his help if he was truthful?" He reached up and removed his glasses, gently breathing on them and wiping them with a soft cloth before putting them back on and looking toward the Australian woman. "We both know just how stubborn you can get," he observed. "I would not be surprised if Dante had to stretch the truth by a margin just to gain your trust."

Dimitri's remarks seemed to momentarily catch Mercy off guard. Her eyes briefly widened and the icy glare she had fixed on Dante faded for a few seconds before she turned to face the priest. "Which leads to question number two." She stood up a bit straighter, leveling a glare at Dimitri. "Why'd you hire him anyway? We're in the same field and I can bloody well handle myself. I don't need anyone stickin' their nose into my business." Though she was shorter than Dimitri, her stance seemed to add a few inches to her height.

A brief silence hung in the air after Mercy finished speaking. Dimitri remained silent, but focused on Mercy through his silver-framed glasses. "I do not understand why you object so heavily when you are offered assistance, Mercy." He spoke with a tone in his voice that sounded almost plaintive. A flicker of worry was visible in his amber eyes, and he breathed a slow, inaudible sigh.

"And I don't know why you're so damn insistent on me acceptin' it. It's startin' to get on my last nerve," Mercy retorted, clearly not yielding to Dimitri's concern. The less people I involve in my real objective, the better. I can't let him get a hold of anyone else. Her expression became harder than before as she focused on her internal train of thought.

Dimitri raised his fingertip up to his glasses, lifting them back up on the bridge of his nose as he prepared his response.

"Did ya ever stop and think he might be doing it because you guys are friends and he cares about you?" Dimitri was too slow, in Dante's opinion, to respond at the speed Dante believed he needed to win the argument. He strode over to Mercy with a bit of a swagger in his step, lifting his shoulders and arms in a casual shrug. "I mean, in my opinion it woulda been worse if he'd just left you out there on your own." The devil hunter paused in his step, folding his hands behind his head and looking up at the ceiling. "Last night when I ran into you you certainly weren't handlin' yourself all that well." His head came back down so his eyes focused on her and he reached down from his head, gesturing toward himself with his free hand as he spoke. "Hell, when I showed up you were about to get a demon's toenail through your throat."

Mercy turned her head back toward Dante, her eyes meeting his with yet another stony glare. "Don't act like you're some kinda great bloody hero. I've come out of worse situations alive on my own. I didn't need you to come waltzin' into my business and swaggerin' about like the hottest thing since hellfire." She averted her eyes from him, crossing her arms and leaning on a nearby wall. She visibly shivered as the cold autumn wind blew in through the smashed windows.

Dante kept his attention trained upon Mercy for a moment, scratching the back of his head. Man, this happens with every woman I get involved with. They're babes, but they're stubborn as hell. He sighed to himself, almost in defeat, before an idea came to him that caused a hidden smirk to form on his lips. At last, he replied to Mercy's small tirade. "...I believe you, babe." The smirk became more visible as he took a few slow strides toward her. "I'll believe you could get out of that on your own, no sweat. I mean, you've got the goods." He paused to take a breath, his eyes briefly passing over Mercy's hips and legs. Before she could detect his wandering look, he continued speaking. "But answer me this," he requested, "Would you have enjoyed last night nearly as much as you did if I didn't show up?" His lips parted into a cocky grin as he leaned on one arm on the wall a few feet away from her, giving her a suggestive wink.

Mercy's cold glare melted almost immediately. As much as her stubborn pride kept her from admitting it right now, she did enjoy much of the previous night. She would have gone to the Checkmate for a few drinks either way, but having Dante there certainly made the night much more entertaining, at least until the incident with the incubus. She remained silent as Dante continued to stare at her as if trying to coax the truth out. "...Eh, it wasn't that much of a difference. I woulda gone to the Checkmate either way." She secretly hoped he wouldn't be smart enough to catch on to how obvious her own little white lie was.

"You know, I really don't like it when people lie to me." Dante echoed Mercy's earlier statement to him, but kept his cocky grin. "And here you are, tellin' me little white lies. Until we got interrupted, you were havin' a ball and you know it." He gave her a playful look, similar to one of the many he gave her last night. He leaned forward toward Mercy, but stayed at a distance comfortable to her.

Dimitri, meanwhile, had become rather livid. The turn of the conversation seemed to disturb him slightly. Unwanted thoughts began to creep into his mind regarding what sort of misbehavior the two devil hunters may have engaged in. He turned a worried and slightly nervous glance toward Mercy in particular. Mon Saints...she would never. Not after that time. He adjusted his glasses once again, this time eyeing Dante. I could see him trying to convince her, though. It is in his nature. For the moment, Dimitri remained silent. The awkward look on his face remained, however, and did not look as if it would be going away any time soon.

Mercy looked back up at Dante, seeming to completely ignore his slightly mischievous glances. Pushing herself off the wall, she raised her hands with a shrug that mirrored his own. "Alright, mate. Ya got me." Turning her head away from him, she surveyed the rubble that was much of her office. "Bloody hell..." she murmured under her breath, her expression visibly growing rather morose.

Dante noticed Mercy's change in expression and followed her glance, its cause quickly becoming apparent to him. Walking a few steps over to her, he rested a hand on her shoulder. "Hey, hey. Don't be like that. Once whatever it is you're involved in is over and I get my paycheck from Frenchy over there, I'll cover all the damage. Hell, I'll pay out of pocket just to get this window fixed for you today." In his own head, Dante was second-guessing what he had just said. Oh come on, Dante. Isn't payin' her five grand enough? Now you gotta dig for pocket change just to fix her window. Everyone's got their weakness. Achilles has his heel, Superman's got kryptonite...and I've got strawberry sundaes and babes in distress.

Mercy shook her head, waving Dante's hand away from her shoulder. "Nah, it's alright. I know someone who'll fix it free of charge." Her voice was a bit more silent than usual, without its trademark toughness. Her eyes remained fixed on the landscape outside, watching the traffic pass by and life go on. To someone even vaguely familiar with Mercy, it became somewhat apparent that something more than the destruction of her office was weighing heavily on her mind.

Dante watched Mercy for a moment, seeing her shiver as the chilly November wind blasted through the broken window. Through her shivering, he noticed her grave expression. His curiosity piqued, he continued to observe her. In her current state, it did not seem as if she would open up to a question. In spite of only knowing one another for a little over a night, she had already gained a reputation for being rather secretive, as well as considerably stubborn. The devil hunter raised his hand to the back of his head, once again scratching at his scalp. "...If you've got someone who can fix it for free, why are you still so down-lookin'?" he questioned innocently. Eh, she probably won't answer me. Probably gonna say "None of your business, wanker." Or somethin'. Still won't hurt to ask.

Mercy did not respond. To Dante, it seemed that not only was she reticent to answer, but she was completely unaware he was even there. Her eyes were focused on some unseen point far outside the visible distance out the window.

"Merce, you in there?" Dante asked, confused as to why he was being ignored. As he went to place a hand on her shoulder, he felt a strange, nagging feeling in the back of his mind. Not now, Dante, whispered a voice in his head. The devil hunter pulled his hand away, sliding it into his hip pocket. As he casually tilted his head to the side, he saw Dimitri standing there, hands folded neatly behind his back and an oddly knowing look in his eyes.

Dimitri moved away from the wall, pulling his hands forward and approaching Dante with an admonishing glance. "I advise against probing Mercy's thoughts at the moment. Given the recent events..." Dimitri trailed off, such as what you may have been involved with that included her last night, he thought before continuing. "...and this morning's altercation, I have the feeling..." His eyes briefly darted over to Mercy before coming back to Dante as he lowered his voice. "...that any further probing would only result in her becoming even more stubborn." He seemed to be trying to keep his voice below Mercy's hearing range.

As if that's possible, Dante thought to himself before giving a light shrug and turning to Dimitri. "Alright, alright. You win," he conceded before glancing to Mercy one more time and watching her shiver from the chilly breeze. "Eh, she's a big girl anyway. She can still handle herself." He gave Mercy one last concerned look, giving her a gentle pat on the shoulder.

Dimitri's facial expression occasionally matched Mercy's, but there was more of a twitch in his eyebrows, as if displaying a subtle layer of determination. He shifted his eyes from Mercy, to Dante, and finally to the empty space before him. In the lingering lull, his mind was left silent to mull over the possible events of last night. As his thoughts percolated, he was led to a variety of conclusions, each one ranging from mildly awkward to horrifying. There is no possible way she would ever agree of her own free will...he had to have done something to her. The priest clenched his fists at his sides, trying to hold his tongue and reserve judgment.

The rapid, staggered thumping of footsteps came from the direction of the stairs. A much louder thump followed, jerking Dimitri out of his thoughts. He looked toward the stairs at the sound of a sharp, human yelp and more thumps.

Dante curiously turned his head, only to wince as he saw Andrea come tumbling face first down the hardwood stairs. Her arms were out in front of her, flailing slightly as she tried to grab something to stop her fall. It was to no avail, however, as she reached the bottom of the stairs, slamming her face into the floor with a sharp thud that made Dante wince. After she did not move for several seconds, he walked across the room to assess her condition. "Yikes. You okay, kid?"

Andrea remained on the floor for a moment before letting out a harsh groan. "Nngh...Fuck..." She slowly brought one hand to the side of her head, forcing herself to roll over. She stared blankly at the ceiling, waiting for the stars to fade from her vision. A bruise was in the beginning stages on her forehead, already visible against her pale skin. "God damn," she grunted as her vision returned to normal. Once Dante came into view, her dazed expression turned to one of mild irritation. "Oh. You're still here," she muttered quietly as the throbbing headache began to set in.

Dante snorted, tilting his head to the side and looking at Andrea. "What do you mean 'You're still here?' Granted, I was gonna blow this joint before Merce woke up, but I woke up to this guy..." he said as he tilted his head over toward Dimitri, "...starin' at the damage." The devil hunter gave himself a moment to examine Andrea visually. When he had met her last night, the area was only dimly lit by the full moon shining through the window. He had never seen her full appearance until now. Taking her actions last night into account, finally seeing her real appearance left him mildly surprised.

Andrea had a rather stout and dense build, which showed some signs of being rather out of shape. Her figure overall was dominated by a large and prominent chest and wide hips. She wore a rather wrinkled blue T-shirt with many bloodstains and tears, including a large one that exposed her undefined stomach. Wrinkled black athletic pants covered her legs down to the calves. Her face was shaped like a sort of rounded heart, with a strong jaw, a prominent, round chin and otherwise rather plain features. Her eyes were round, narrow and wide-set, with blue-tinted, gray irises and the shadows of perpetual exhaustion. Her skin was pale from lack of exposure to the sun, with only a tinge of pink in her cheeks. Her hair was a rather dull blonde and fell to her shoulders in thick, unkempt clumps with the texture of corn silk.

She turned her vision from Dante to Dimitri as Dante indicated him. Rather than turning back to Dante, she raised her head in the other direction to focus her attention on Mercy. Reaching out and grabbing hold of the nearest object on the wall, she struggled to pull herself to her feet. She barely managed to stand up straight before she felt shooting pains going through her stomach, chest and head. She let out a yelp before dropping back to the floor, this time landing on her rear end and pulling down a large demon horn, the object she had grasped to pull herself up. "Shit..." she whined, curling up with her arms around her stomach.

The sound of Andrea and the horn hitting the floor made Mercy snap back to reality. She pulled her arms around herself, shivering from the bitter cold, before glancing over to see the other woman curled up on the floor, shaking in agony, and an ornamental demon horn trophy laying near her hand. The huntress rushed over to Andrea's location, roughly shoving Dante into the nearby wall hard enough to knock the wind out of him. She came to one knee next to Andrea and began to examine her injuries. "Doesn't look like fallin' down the stairs affected her too much," she observed, attempting to pull Andrea's legs away from her chest in spite of her resistance. "C'mon, mate. I need to look ya over." As she freed Andrea's torso for examination, her eyes widened and she let out an alarmed gasp. "...Bloody hell..." She clenched her teeth for a moment, raising her head to look at Dimitri and Dante. "Oi. I'm gonna need one of you two to help me get her to the couch in the back. This does not look good."

Dante took a step forward, lightly flexing his arms out in front of him. "Gotcha covered, babe." He casually glanced over at Mercy and Andrea, catching sight of the same wound that Mercy was looking at. The sight made him visibly wince before he leaned down, taking Andrea's upper body in his arms. "Yeesh. That's gonna leave a mark," he commented, waiting for Mercy to pick up Andrea's legs.

Mercy leaned down and grabbed hold of Andrea's legs, trying to ignore her groans of pain, as well as not to injure her in the movement. "Ten to one it came from last night," Mercy pointed out as she and Dante lifted Andrea from the floor. As they moved toward a back hall, she raised her head and looked toward Dimitri. "We're gonna need you too," she instructed before looking back down at Andrea.

Andrea shuddered from the pain in her chest, and the other two could feel it. Somehow, she managed to speak a few words through the pain in her body. "Then why the hell...am I only feeling it now?" She strained her eyes to look up at Dante, as if demanding an answer from him.

Dante could only briefly twitch his shoulders in a shrug. Any larger movements could risk dropping Andrea and harming her even more. "Beats me, kid. Maybe that berserker thing kills pain for a long time or somethin'." A whole night is a damn long time not to feel it. Even I feel it after a couple hours.

Dimitri returned Mercy's brief eye contact with a nod of acknowledgment. "Understood." He began to walk slowly behind them, sliding a hand into the pocket of his black tweed suit jacket. As he continued to walk, he groped about inside the pocket for a moment before pulling something out and concealing it in the palm of his hand. He lingered behind the other three, lifting one hand and adjusting his glasses before continuing to follow the others.

Mercy carefully led Dante into the nearby room, aiming for a small and threadbare green couch near the wall. "Just lay 'er down here," she directed, watching Andrea diligently. "I just hope this isn't as bad as it looks," she whispered to Dante before they both laid Andrea on the couch, facing up.

Dante tilted his head toward Mercy, muttering to her. "I just hope it isn't worse." As he looked toward Andrea, they made brief eye contact. His expression toward her was equally apathetic and chiding. You know, kid, if you had just bailed when you had the chance and let me handle him, this wouldn't be happening. He raised his shoulders in his trademark shrug, putting his hands in his pockets.

Andrea met Dante's detached expression with a dirty glare. "What's with the look, Wonder Boy?" she groaned dryly, trying to ignore the burning pain in her chest. Not waiting for Dante's answer, she looked back up to Mercy. As their eyes met, Andrea let out a sharp sigh, apparently from shortness of breath. "I have no idea how the hell you do this, Merce. Every time I see you after a mission, you're walkin' around like nobody's business." She hissed under her breath as the pain surged through her again.

The Australian shrugged, letting out an indifferent snort. "You spend long enough fightin' the bastards and you can walk just about anything off." As she finished her sentence, she and Dante gave one another a knowing look, but said nothing. She broke eye contact with him to watch for Dimitri as he came down the hall.

Dante briefly pursed his lips as he returned his focus to Andrea. "I tried to warn ya, kid. You didn't take the chance when you had it. Hell, you had two chances. Didn't take either one of 'em. Now look at ya. Maybe next time shit happens and I have to get involved, you'll listen." He leaned on the wall, completely unaffected by Andrea's looming glare. She's not gonna get far in that state, he thought to himself. The kid just has no sense.

Andrea's expression quickly grew even more sour. She tried to pull herself up, but a shooting pain kept her down. All she could do at that moment was give Dante an even dirtier glare. "Fuck you," she retorted to his observation, biting back the urge to scream in pain.

Dante's response to the insult was a quirk of his brow and a mildly offended expression. "Is that how you repay someone who saved your ass from bein' turned into demon chow?" He gave a slight huff and turned his eyes away from her. Seriously. Is nobody thankful for the work I do these days? I save two people's lives, and what thanks do I get? One says she doesn't need my help, the other tells me to go fuck myself. Wondering why I even stick around.

"It's how I repay someone whose idea of saving me is pointing a fucking gun in my face!" Andrea raised her voice, ending with another small grunt. She sighed to herself, looking down at her shredded shirt and the wound below it. "Merce, hurry up and look me over would ya?" she demanded. Damn, I'm lucky. Wonder Boy over there has no idea what the impetus for me sticking around last night was. She's standin' right next to me.

Dante held his arms out, raising them in a nonchalant shrug. "How the hell was I supposed to know that havin' a gun pointed at you would make you go apeshit and want to kill everything?" He ran a hand back through his hair, staring off into space as he awaited her response. Not like I wanted to point the gun in your face. Most people woulda bolted the first time I told them to.

The counterpoint never came. Upon hearing Dante's reply, Andrea could only remain silent. Dammit, she thought to herself, Snowflake's got me there. The human groaned to herself, turning her head away from Dante. "...Whatever."

As she finished her reply, a nagging feeling of faintness seemed to come over her. Her vision became somewhat hazy, and the pain in her body felt as if it was suddenly going numb. M...Merce? Something's wrong. Her blurring vision showed that Mercy did not react at all, as if she didn't hear her. Mercy! Dammit, do something! I can't feel...my...Oh God.

The realization quickly came to her that she was not actually saying anything. Her lips were not moving, her vocal cords were not producing sound. She tried to lift her arm, or even a finger, but her muscles would not budge. She could still hear the muffled chaos of sound around her and see the washed-out ghosts of faces and objects. The only sensations she could feel were a dull ache in her chest and a lead weight sinking into her stomach. She wanted to move, to leap from the couch, but her body would not yield to the panic signals her brain sent.

The few sounds she could make out began dissolving into inscrutable white noise. The only sound she could still discern was the throbbing of the carotid artery in her head. The nebulous fields of color left in her vision began to appear like the picture of an antique television with poor reception. Her brain seemed to be firing signals to the rest of her body to fight whatever it was that held her down, but her limbs remained in place, dead to the brain's dire warnings.

"...Kid? Hey, you still with us?" Dante leaned over Andrea from the arm of the couch, seeing that she had fallen silent after delivering her final word against him. The severity of her wounds and her sudden lapse of consciousness were enough evidence of the true gravity of the situation. Oh hell, Dante thought to himself. He subtly bit on the inside of his lip, shifting his eyes from Andrea to Mercy, then to Dimitri and back to Andrea. Dammit, I didn't mean it like this. He glanced back to Mercy, who was still examining Andrea's wounds.

As the extent of the injuries became clear, Mercy's face grew more livid than before. She moved aside slightly, letting the two men see the extent of the damage. There were two small claw lacerations and a larger one running from below Andrea's right breast to the center of her stomach. The immediate area around the lacerations had turned a deep black. Upon further examination of the wound, Mercy gave a stilted sigh of relief. "Doesn't look like it got to her heart..." she stated, briefly raising her head toward Dimitri and Dante. "...But I doubt she's gonna live through this." Mercy chewed on her thumbnail.

Dante's face briefly twisted into a disgusted grimace as he saw the complete wounds. "Eugh. Yeah, that one's gonna be there a while." His disgust seemed to turn briefly to morbid curiosity, such as one would have when examining the aftermath of a horrible accident after the shock wore off. "...Uh, Merce, what exactly is that anyway? Looks nasty." He finally forced himself to avert his eyes, looking at the nearby wall. Much of his earlier sentiment that Andrea got what she deserved had faded. Feel like a horse's ass yet, Dante?

Before Mercy could provide an answer, Dimitri spoke. "Those wounds are the result of some kind of toxin. The discolored areas around the wounds are a sign that the tissue is necrotizing." Even with the direness of his words, Dimitri spoke with a dissonant, almost unnerving, calm in his voice. He still had the object from earlier palmed away in his left hand, as if ready to use it. Standing perfectly still, he folded both hands behind his back and wore an unperturbed expression.

Dante's attention turned to Dimitri as he spoke, but the Frenchman's words barely made sense to the devil hunter. After a rather awkward silence as he tried to process Dimitri's observation, Dante cast a glance to Mercy, visible confusion in his eyes. "...Merce," he muttered, "can you translate that to English for me, babe?" Though he didn't quite get the gist of Dimitri's words, Dante's gut told him that it was not good news. This time, though, he couldn't blame the prosciutto.

Mercy responded to Dante with a nod before looking back to Andrea. "She got poisoned and it's causin' the flesh around the wounds to die. Thing is, I've got no idea how we're gonna go about treatin' it. There's two things they can do. Either the dead tissue's removed or they use maggots to clean it out." Her expression was an amalgam of disgust and worry.

Dante's own look of revulsion deepened as he tried to avert his eyes from Andrea's wounds. "Ugh." I just had to ask. Poor kid. I doubt she's the type to want maggots crawlin' around inside her. He felt a trace of nausea tugging at his stomach. It's a good thing I haven't eaten anything today.

Andrea's body would still not yield to her brain's demands to move. Through the deep fog that obscured her senses, she could distinctly hear the word "maggots" echoing clearer than the veins throbbing in her head. Whether it was the actual sound or just a delirium-induced hallucination, the word echoed over and over in her mind. Each time she heard it, she could feel her brain screaming at her body to react. Move, damn it...MOVE! She occasionally felt the sensation of something squirming across her skin and inside her stomach. Her body would not even so much as twitch in reaction to the feeling.

"AAAAAAAAAAAH!"

"Bloody hell!"
Mercy instinctively jumped as she heard Andrea's voice break through the barrier of unconsciousness. She looked back down to see that Andrea was blindly screaming at something, though it was unclear what. She caught a glimpse of the look in Andrea's eyes, and her expression turned to silent apprehension. Despite the situation suddenly becoming much more urgent, Mercy somehow managed to remain calm enough to speak. "Piss. This just went from bad to worse. She's gone berserk."

Andrea's eyes were open wide, and the right eye seemed to drift off slightly to the right. There was a distinct haze in them as she stared blankly at the air above her. All she seemed to be able to do was continue to scream in terror at something neither Mercy, Dimitri nor Dante could discern. After some time of being completely still, she suddenly jerked forward, her voice becoming somewhat hoarse from screaming. She flailed her arms out, apparently trying to strike out at something. Even through this, she seemed completely numb to the pain in her chest.

"Shit! Andrea!" Mercy moved her body away in time to avoid being hit by Andrea's flailing limbs. Her previous state of calm was broken by Andrea's sudden awakening. She kept her attention on her before poising herself to make an attempt to keep her still. However, it quickly became apparent that it would take more force to restrain Andrea than her currently fragile body could sustain. She silently glanced to Dimitri and Dante with an urgent and demanding look. "Oi! I could use some help with this!" She glanced back at Andrea with a sliver of anxiety.

Dante dashed over toward Mercy and the flailing Andrea. "I'm on it!" He positioned himself between Mercy and Andrea, attempting to keep Andrea from hitting Mercy with her arms. After a fraction of a second of watching Andrea, he lunged forward a step and brought his arms down. His hands caught her arms, holding them still. "Whoa there!" He came to one knee, firmly pinning Andrea in place. His physical strength was enough to hold her down without exerting much force. He was able to restrain her without further damage. "Cool it. You freak out like that again and you might hurt yourself." He tried to remain calm as she squirmed beneath him. Sighing, he adjusted himself so that he could look back up at Mercy. After thinking for a moment, he came to the conclusion that Mercy's mention of maggots was the catalyst for Andrea's sudden panic. "Babe, I think she could hear us. You brought up maggots right before she freaked out."

A being with a shock of white hair came closer to Andrea, his face barely visible in the white noise of her vision. She found herself unable to move again, but this time it was obvious that this was due to an outside force pinning her down. The white-haired figure seemed to be looking down at her, but his expression was still unclear. ...Dante? The being's resemblance to Dante was uncanny, but as it got closer, it became more apparent that it was not him. From what she could discern, his hair looked to be slicked back and one of his eyes was round, glassy and slightly larger than the other. A faint aura seemed to surround him, forming the vague image of a devil. Strangely, the vision of this figure left her feeling somewhat less fearful. Dante? ...no. You're not Dante. The figure did not speak back, or he did speak but she could not hear.

Dante felt Andrea's limbs finally go slack beneath him. He took a deep breath and sighed with relief. "That's it, kid. Chill out. We'll think of somethin'," he said to her without knowing if she could hear him. His attention went back to Mercy. "So..." he uttered in an attempt to fill the silence. "...Merce. You got any other ideas besides maggots and gutting the kid alive?" He pulled himself up off Andrea, but kept a close eye on her in case she panicked again.

The huntress dolefully shook her head, looking away from Dante and Andrea. "Nah, I don't," she stated plainly, a tinge of looming disquietude in her voice. "I'm sorry." As she continued to watch Andrea, she turned away from Dante and Dimitri. I'm such a fool. None of this would've happened if I was able to wake up and come downstairs in time. I hope you can forgive me, Andrea. But knowing you, it ain't likely, what with the way you hold grudges for years and all. When she was sure neither of them could see, she bit her lip.

"You're so quick to abandon all hope, Mercy."

Dimitri's voice broke the silence. He continued to speak, retaining the calm that by now had become somewhat of a trademark. "You may not have thought of the solution, but I have." He slid his hand down into the pocket of his coat and it visibly closed around something.

Mercy's worry turned to slight irritation as she turned to look at Dimitri. "Well? Let's see this miracle then." She turned to completely face them and crossed her arms with a judgmental glance.

Dante's expression was more of curiosity than skepticism. "I'm with her. Let's see what you've got." He tilted his head, looking down at Andrea for a moment before looking back to Dimitri.

Dimitri pulled his hand from his pocket, and a faint green glow could be seen between his fingers. "We will cure her by means of this. As for why I didn't mention it earlier, I was waiting for you to get her still. It would have been hard to use this had she been fighting." With the other two watching, he finally opened his hand. Resting in his hand was a star-shaped, crystalline object with a strange green glow, about the size of his palm. He held the object by two points, delicately balancing it between his thumb and two fingertips.

Mercy's eyes visibly widened, as if a light bulb had come on above her head. "Why the hell didn't I think of that?" she asked to no one in particular, looking back at Andrea, whose breathing had slowed to a state of relaxation."And more importantly, do you think it'll work?" Though her question was posed legitimately, it seemed that a weight had been lifted off her shoulders.

Dante's own eyes widened a bit and he pursed his lips briefly. "Hah! How 'bout that." His familiar grin had returned when he took in the sight of the green crystal star in Dimitri's hand. Heh, that's a Vital Star. If anything'll cure what ails ya, it's one of those things. I've seen them in different sizes, but the bigger ones seem to heal more. I don't exactly know where they came from, but I never leave home without 'em. He made brief eye contact with Dimitri. "Again, I'm with Merce. You think those'll work on a human? I'm aware of 'em workin' on demons..." He paused to lightly thump his chest with his palm. "...but I don't know if they work the same for humans." As he finished speaking his gaze turned to Andrea. You better come outta this alive, kid. He stepped aside to give clearance for Dimitri to apply the Vital Star.

Dimitri glanced toward Mercy, gesturing with his hand to call her over. "Mercy, I would prefer that you apply this Vital Star to Andrea's wounds. I imagine that Andrea wishes to preserve her modesty." As he spoke, he looked toward Andrea. Her shirt had been torn almost completely away, leaving barely a scrap covering the most intimate areas of her chest. Dimitri quickly turned his head away in an attempt to avoid giving the impression of staring.

Mercy rose to her feet, taking the Vital Star from Dimitri's hand. "Figured you'd say that. Oh well. Only one way to find out if this is gonna work." She moved back toward Andrea, kneeling down at her side and holding out the Vital Star. Taking a moment to locate the precise area of the injury, she carefully placed the green crystal over the claw wounds. Man, this sucks, she thought to herself. It sucks when you know there's no God, but you really need a miracle. She watched Andrea intently, waiting for the effects of the Vital Star.

The moment the stone touched her bare flesh, Andrea's entire body began to tremble. The tremors spread from her chest and slowly radiated out through her extremities. The crystal's glow began to fade, and Andrea's wounds seemed to turn a deep green. The blackened tissue looked as if there was something glowing behind it before the flesh itself turned deep red. Andrea's breaths became deeper and more labored with loud wheezing sounds behind them.

The vision of the white-haired figure seemed to fade away, leaving only a field of white that suddenly filled with a spectrum of color. Andrea could feel a sudden warmth in her chest, accompanied by a tingling sensation that slowly spread throughout her torso. Her heart began pounding hard, but there was no pain in its work, only a dull, stinging ache in the center of her chest. The tingling and heat quickly spread to her shoulders and thighs, leaving a strange chill against her chest that made her audibly gasp. This chill followed the heat in her limbs as it spread out along her extremities, finishing out at her hands and feet. As the chill faded, she felt the ebb and flow of her blood through the slight pulsing in her fingertips. It was as if someone poured a large bucket of ice-cold water over her, suddenly waking her up. As her vision finally cleared, she could see Mercy and Dante peering down at her from above.

"Hey kiddo. Welcome back. Thought we were gonna lose ya for a minute there." Dante flashed Andrea a very brief smirk before pulling himself to his feet, walking over to the nearby armchair, and flopping into its cushions. It's official now. That was about as close as you can cut it.

Though her senses had returned, Andrea still felt as if her cranial cavity was full of helium. "What the hell..." she groaned, shifting her eyes over to stare at Mercy as if waiting for answers.

Upon hearing Andrea speak, Mercy let out an audible sigh of relief, as if a weight had just been lifted off her shoulders. Taking a moment to compose herself, she looked down to make eye contact with Andrea. "Well, mate, to put it short, you got poisoned. That demon's claw had venom on it that kills human tissue cells and basically causes your skin and muscles to die. Apparently it was gettin' to your vitals just now. That's why you passed out." Mercy began walking to the other side of the couch, sitting down on the arm.

Andrea went slightly livid at Mercy's explanation. "Necrosis. They use..." Her hands trembled as she continued to speak, an abrupt silence cutting her off for a moment. "They use maggots to treat that," she observed, her breath becoming stilted. "Mercy...you know I'd rather die than be exposed to those things!" She clenched a fist tightly as her pupils began to sharply dilate. "How the fuck did I make it out of this! What the hell did you do to me!" She tried to pull herself up, displaying the same strange behavior as earlier as she focused on Mercy.

Dante, on reflex, leaped off the nearby chair and lunged over, placing himself between Andrea and Mercy. "Whoa! Hold it! Chill out, kid!" Making sure Andrea had no clearance to get close to Mercy, he remained calm and leveled his face with Andrea's. "Maggots weren't involved. We saw you freak out the first time." Seriously. I almost feel sorry for this girl. She doesn't seem to be all there.

Andrea sharply gasped before reaching up and roughly shoving Dante away from her. Catching her breath, she oscillated her vision between Dante and Mercy. "Alright then..." She took a deep gasp, her mouth hanging open a bit. After some hesitation, she spoke again. "How the hell am I not dead?" Her body was still visibly shaking, as she had used what little physical strength she had left to push Dante away.

Without missing a beat, Dante jerked a thumb in Dimitri's direction. "Thank that guy," he responded abruptly. Which reminds me. How in the hell did that guy get a Vital Star? For some reason, he had not yet looked directly at Andrea.

Andrea followed Dante's cue, glancing over to see Dimitri standing to the side, hands folded neatly behind his back. He, too, seemed to be avoiding looking directly at her, though it was more visible with him. He was facing away from her, staring ahead with his back to the couch. Andrea focused her eyes a bit, tilting her head. "What the hell is he doing here?" she asked, turning to look in Mercy's direction to find out that the huntress had inexplicably gone missing. The sight of the empty space on the couch made Andrea throw up her hands and groan loudly. "Son of a bitch..."

Dante let out a chuckle, leaning back in the chair and looking up. "She got up and ran off just now. Headed upstairs for somethin'." The results of Andrea throwing her hands up left a bit more of her visible than Dante felt comfortable seeing. Come on, kid, you're killin' me here! You're bigger up there than Merce! he thought to himself, turning his gaze away from her.

Andrea grunted. "The hell are you laughin' at, Wonder Boy?" She crossed her arms over her chest, but immediately pulled them away when she felt her bare arms touch bare flesh. Glancing down, she could see that the only thing covering her chest was the tattered scrap of fabric that was once called a shirt. Her stomach was completely bare and what little was left of the shirt seemed to be in danger of falling off at the slightest movement of her body. Her face took on a redder hue than Dante's coat as she huddled up on the couch, arms securely covering her chest. She avoided any eye contact other than watching Dante to see if he was staring. "Damn it, damn it, damn it, damn it..." she muttered through clenched teeth. She was visibly shivering as well, likely due to the cold air blowing in from the broken window at the front of the office.

Dante, however, managed not to stare. He simply did not have any interest. She might have some big tracts of land, but she just ain't my type. Doesn't look like she's the right age, either. He leaned back in the chair, staring up at the off-white stucco ceiling. He did not even seem to notice Andrea's visible shivering.

Dimitri raised his head, turning back to look at Andrea. When he saw that her arms were covering her chest enough to spare him from the appearance of staring at her, he turned around completely. The effects of the chilly air on her were now apparent to him. He reached up to the collar of his black wool coat and pulled it off, sliding the sleeves off his arms. Beneath the coat he wore a pressed black dress shirt, its collar raised and holding a white tab collar within. "Andrea, if I may..." He approached her carefully from behind and rested his coat against her shoulders.

Andrea bristled sharply at the wool resting against her nearly bare shoulders. She turned her head back to see Dimitri there, holding out his coat to her. She remained silent for a moment, unsure of how to reply. She took notice of his tab collar, a faint grimace appearing on her face. ...Damn it. This guy's a priest. Yep, this is totally gonna end perfectly well. Considering the circumstances for a moment, she pulled the coat over her shoulders and slid her hands into the sleeves, which were far too long for her arms. "Uh...yeah, thanks." Ever since she first saw him, Dimitri had left Andrea with an unsettling feeling that was only exacerbated by the sight of the garment marking him as a man of the cloth. Her earlier state of being either in constant pain or completely unconscious did not let her take notice before.

Dimitri quickly picked up on Andrea's unease, observing her with a concerned expression. "Is something else troubling you?" He briefly glanced at her eyes, noticing they were fixed on him, but not making eye contact. Remaining silent for the moment, he awaited her answer.

"What is this, confessional?" she replied with a sardonic tone. "Father, I have sinned. I've been practicing witchcraft since my early teens. You've probably sinned too by helping a heathen," she continued, the sarcasm becoming more intense. "So what'll it be? Ten Hail Marys?" She leaned back and watched for his response, seeming, for some reason, to relax. As unsettling as his presence felt, his coat wrapped over her felt quite comfortable. It was certainly better than her previous state, at least.

At hearing Andrea's acerbic response to his question, Dimitri cracked a soft smile and chuckled at a volume she could not hear. "Non, non. That will not be necessary. The need for kindness supersedes the sins of those who need it." He folded his hands neatly behind his back, looking at Andrea over the top of his silver-frames. "Were you worried that I would have treated you differently if I had known you were a witch beforehand?"

Andrea gave a single, offhand nod. "Pretty much. I was afraid you'd want to have me burned at the stake or something." She still refused to make eye contact with Dimitri, preferring instead to cross her arms, her head tilted to the side.

Dimitri's eyes briefly widened in mild surprise before he shook his head fervently. "Saints, no! I would never. Nobody wishes that kind of fate on anyone these days..." A brief flash of mild disgust appeared on his face. "...save for a few fundamentalists and zealots." He pulled his arms out from behind his back, raising them up in front of him. The disgust on his face filtered into his voice. "Some people just think that their own holiness is of more importance than kindness to their fellow human beings." He cleared up his distaste with a soft chuckle. "But I digress. Look at the sort of company I keep. Dante's a demon, for example. And Mercy-" He was cut off by a hand lightly striking the back of his head.

"Doesn't matter," Mercy curtly finished Dimitri's sentence as she brought her hand back down. She turned her head toward Andrea and lifted up her other arm, holding some kind of black garment. "Oi, Andrea. I-"

"What the hell, Merce? You coulda gave me some kind of warning!" Andrea put on a painfully exaggerated faux Australian accent. "Oi, sheila! I'll be back in a shake!" The others collectively winced, the men tensely awaiting Mercy's reaction. Andrea reverted to her normal voice as she continued to speak. "How hard is that?"she spat, throwing her hands into the air.

Mercy remained silent as she heard Andrea's pitiful rendition of her native vernacular. In response, she only raised a hand to her face and gripped her temples with her thumb and fingertip, letting her face sink into her palm. She shook her head and let out a barely audible groan. Nobody's talked like that since I was in grammar school. She inhaled sharply and displayed her usual stony expression, holding out the black garment to Andrea. "I brought you somethin' to throw on."

Andrea reached up and took hold of the garment, unraveling it to reveal a black button down shirt. She closely examined it, wondering to herself if it would fit. She pulled herself up, the effects of the poison and Vital Star from earlier leaving her still somewhat weakened and disoriented. Covering her chest with the garment, she left Dimitri's wool coat behind on the couch as she ducked out of sight into the hallway. As she sloughed off the tattered remains of her previous shirt and slid her arms in the sleeves of the button-down, she could hear laughter coming from the room. The voice distinctly belonged to Dante.

The devil hunter could no longer contain himself, and was now engaged in a fit of laughter. His gloved hand partially covered his face, and he bore a wide grin. Occasionally he would glance up at Mercy, who was clearly not laughing. "D-did you hear her, Merce! That...that accent...it...pfft..." He dissolved into another laughing fit, unable to complete his sentence.

Even Dimitri could not resist the urge to let out a few small chuckles. "She really has quite the talent for mimicry, non?" Though he was aware of Mercy glaring hard at him, his soft smile remained unshaken.

Mercy's expression was a mix of annoyance and general humorlessness. She seemed to be preparing to say something at first, but as she watched Dante nearly fall over laughing, the only response she could muster was a roll of her eyes. "Oy..." she muttered under her breath before flopping down on the right side of the couch, flinging one leg up over the other and staring at the ceiling.

After some time, and after the laughter had died down, Andrea returned to the room wearing the shirt she had been given. The black button-down managed to adequately fit her large figure. Its collar rose unusually high, and the sleeves appeared somewhat tight. Reaching up with one hand, Andrea carefully unfastened the top button on the shirt, letting the collar fall loose and open. The garment itself seemed to be made of high-quality, thick-weave cotton, which provided a bit of a barrier against the chilly air. Any air of dignity the shirt could have given her, however, was quickly destroyed by the ripped black workout pants and the mass of disheveled blonde hair on her head. Before she sat down, she reached over the back of the couch and took hold of Dimitri's abandoned coat. "Hey. You want this back?" She walked over to him, placing the coat on the back of the chair in which he sat. Before he could reply, she took a few steps and sat on the other side of the couch, putting space between Mercy and herself. She crossed her legs over each other, in the opposite direction to Mercy's. After a moment, she also crossed her arms. Occasionally, she would feel a twinge of pain in her stomach. Her mind echoed the events of the past night, playing them back inside her head. I don't know what's gonna give me worse nightmares. That hairy bastard that wanted me for a nighttime snack, or what I did to him while I was going apeshit. She let out a sigh of resignation and mild irritation. As if my insomnia wasn't bad enough already... Her eyes were fixed on some invisible point in the direction of the hall, far beyond Ave Maria's walls.

Moments later, the silence was broken by the distant thump of something hitting the wooden floor of the office. Someone, or something, was muttering and making more thumping sounds as it walked about. As the footsteps increased their pace, the muttering became louder and clearer, a distinct Scottish accent becoming apparent in the voice.

"Bloody hell..." Lori muttered as she wandered around the empty, ransacked office. She had entered through the broken window, vaulting over the windowsill. The rancid stench of devil blood was almost fresh in the air. As she examined the scene, she caught sight of the broken pieces of Mercy's chair. She followed the small trickles of blood with her eyes, ending at a broken chair leg. The chair leg itself caught her attention, and she picked it up from the floor for a closer look. Faded red stains on the wider end, along with trace amounts of demonic energy, indicated that the leg had been used against a demon.

Trying to keep her cool, Lori kept the leg in her hand and gave the room a final glance. She caught a glimpse of a shiny object out of the corner of her eye and looked over. In the corner of the room, still wedged in the wooden floor, was a small steel dagger with a grip wrapped in black leather. As she caught sight of the blade, a feeling of sudden realization swept over her, followed by shock. "...Oh god." She grabbed hold of the dagger, glancing around the room as her heart began to race.

"...MERCE!"

Mercy and Andrea both jumped sharply, Mercy leaping up from the couch. She slowly moved past Andrea and Dante, peering down the hall. She could see the broken window from the hallway and noticed that even more of the glass was missing from the bottom of the window sash. Walking down the hall, she could see Lori standing there with a fresh look of panic on her face. Despite the bartender's visible anxiety, Mercy's forcefully neutral expression remained. "Lori. Chill pill. Take one. Maybe with a whisky chaser or somethin' to calm your nerves. You're worse than Andrea."

Hearing Mercy's voice followed by seeing her seemed to ease Lori's mind somewhat. "Oh...Hey Merce," she sighed, followed by a nervous chuckle. "Sorry about that. It's just..." She cleared her throat, trying to stop the trembling in her hands. She reached into her black denim jacket, pulling out a large metal hip flask and screwing off the cap. She took a rather large gulp of whatever alcoholic substance was inside before wiping off her lips, screwing the cap back on the flask and storing it back in her coat. The shot of booze seemed to do the trick, as she was much calmer and no longer shaking. "It's just that I was comin' here anyway ta tell ya about somethin' I saw last night. I saw the window busted out..." She paused and gestured to the remnants of the window. "...An' everything in here was trashed. Then I found this," she held up the black-handled dagger in one hand and the broken, bloodied chair leg in the other. "I guess I just assumed the worst..." She glanced back at the dagger before staring at it. Oh god...that's right! She glanced back to Mercy with a look of urgency. "Is the Chief alright? This thing belongs to er."

"Yeah. She's fine," Mercy replied, averting her eyes from Lori and looking back down the hall. Now, anyway... She turned back to Lori, tilting her head back in the direction of the room at the end of the hallway. "She's back here."

Lori immediately headed down the hall at Mercy's instruction, looking around to see Dante kicked back in one of the armchairs with his legs up over an arm and Dimitri leaning against the wall next to a window. She turned her head to the right, finally catching sight of Andrea with her arms tightly crossed over her large chest, her head just slightly turned in Lori's direction, and her eyes focused on the dead air in front of her. Nothing else seemed to be outwardly wrong with her, much to Lori's relief. Lori gave the blonde woman a slight, relaxed smile before taking a seat on the couch next to her. She moved a hand up to rest it on Andrea's shoulder, only then noticing Dante and Dimitri both looking at her silently, as if demanding some kind of explanation. "...Oh," she uttered as she nonchalantly rubbed Andrea's back, but kept her eyes up at the men. "Oi, lads. Sorry about the..." She wore the same sideways grin that Dante was used to seeing her with, but it had a vein of awkwardness. "...heh, entrance."

Dante raised his shoulders in a nonchalant shrug. "Hey, not a problem." He briefly rolled his shoulders back before lifting his arms up and lacing his fingers behind his head, leaning back against the back of the couch. "So, Barkeep, what brings you to this neck of the woods?"

Dimitri responded to Lori with a polite nod from the wall on the other side of the room. "There is no doubt the spectacle in Mercy's office caused a great deal of alarm for you. It's fortunate no one we know was lost." As he finished the sentence, his gaze fell on Mercy and Andrea.

Before Lori responded, she pulled the hip flask from her jacket, taking another quick chug. "I wanted to tell Merce about somethin' I saw last night..." Her gaze slowly drifted around the room until she cast a brief glance back down the hall. "...but it looks like you guys had somethin' better to talk about than the shite I see when it's the wee hours and I'm pished." She let out a gruff sigh and slung one leg up over her knee.

Dante pulled his legs from the arm of the chair, setting them down on the floor as he leaned forward. "I might as well." He lightly sucked on his lower lip before he began to recount the events of the previous night. "I was on my way to my place. Heard somethin' from around here that sounded pretty nasty. Decided I should probably check it out. When I showed up, the window was busted out," he paused to tilt his head in Andrea's direction. "She was standin' there with a ten foot tall hairball ready to have a midnight snack..." Dante continued to recount the story in detail, but stopped when he noticed Lori looking as if she was going to fall asleep. "Alright, alright. Long story short. The kid snapped, the demon got his ass kicked, and now I owe Merce five grand." As he spoke of his ever-increasing debt, Dante pulled himself back against the chair, arms crossed behind his head. Such is life, he thought to himself. Wonder how long before I end up owing Andrea a pound of flesh.

Lori let out a dry chuckle, tucking her flask away into her jacket. "I wanna know why Merce can get her jobs done without destroyin' thousands of dollars worth of other people's stuff." She leaned against the arm of the chair, her eyes subtly drifting in Andrea's direction. They were focused on Andrea's chest. The half-unbuttoned collar left a hint of bare skin visible, but for some reason Lori was the only one paying attention. One corner of her mouth bent into a subtle smirk.

Andrea was rather quick to pick up on Lori's lecherous gaze, and looked none too amused. "I think the rest of us are more interested in what brings you here in the first place," she remarked with a harsh, chastening tone.

The tone of Andrea's voice made Lori avert her eyes back to the rest of the group. "Oh, right. About that..." She raised a hand and scratched her temple before continuing. "I was up in the middle of the night after sleepin' off the booze in my system. Couldn't get back to sleep so I decided to work on cleanin' up the lobby. I think it was about four or five in the mornin', thereabouts." She paused speaking, pursing her lips and looking up as she tried to piece together the vague memories of the previous night. "Saw someone walkin' on the opposite street. A man and a younger girl." She directed her eyes to Dimitri briefly. "The guy looked like you. The girl was a pretty lass, couldn't be much older than eighteen. At first I thought the guy was Dimitri so I thought nothin' of it..."

Dimitri suddenly started, letting out a quiet gasp. His posture became more erect and he lowered his glasses. Someone who looks like me...Dear Saints. He cleared his throat, noticing as the others looked to him with concern. "Ah, pardon me. Please continue, Lori. This story of yours suddenly has my interest." He went silent again, a mild twitch in his eye.

"Aye, right. About half an hour later, I see him walkin' the other way carryin' somethin'. I got a closer look after a couple seconds...It was the girl from earlier. She looked dead. That's when I knew I had to tell ya. And there was this really creepy feeling in the air. Still gives me the chills." Her gaze idly drifted over to Mercy as she spoke, but she stopped to focus on her.

The color had left Mercy's face and she seemed to be frozen in shock. Her hands were clenched and visibly shaking. Images from this morning's night terror flashed briefly in her mind. Those golden eyes, surrounded by infinite blackness. That unholy grin, framed by predatory fangs. Those ice-cold shadows that consumed her whole. That heavy sickness in the pit of her stomach. She tried with all her strength to fight back those images, but they still pressed their way into her thoughts. With her lips tightly pressed together, she gritted her teeth and shut her eyes tight as she tried to regain her composure.

"Uh...Mercy? You're doing it again." This time, the voice belonged to Andrea. She had leaned in closer to Mercy, close enough for them to make clear eye contact. "You gonna be alright?" she asked, a look of concern forming on her face.

As Andrea's eyes met hers, Mercy instantly forced herself to relax, or at least to play down the signs of trepidation. "...Yeah," she muttered with a slight nod, "Yeah. I'm right." To diffuse a bit more tension, she turned her head away from Andrea and let out a sharp cough before leaning back on the couch, her fingertips tightly gripping the worn fabric of the arm. She briefly licked her lips before letting out a gruff sigh.

By this point, Dante could not help but notice Mercy's lingering tension. He had resolved earlier, on Dimitri's advice, not to pry too much. There's only one thing I can do right now that won't make Merce want to rearrange my face. "So, uh, Merce." He made an attempt to lighten the mood, as it seemed to have been his unofficial duty as of late. "What would you say to us tryin' for another night out? You know...to make up for last night?" He cracked a small grin that, if one looked closely enough, seemed somewhat halfhearted.

Dimitri seemed to look slightly paler than usual when he heard Dante's attempt to invite Mercy out once again. Was one night with her not enough? What is that devil planning? The untoward thoughts from earlier were starting to rise in his mind again. For some reason, however, he still did not feel the urge to get into a confrontation with Dante or Mercy. He rested a hand against his chin, his thumb slowly stroking his lips. As he looked around the room and tried to avert his eyes from the others, they suddenly fell upon Lori. That's it. Before I act, I ought to be sure I am not jumping to conclusions. At last, he spoke up, addressing the bartender. "Lori, would you mind answering something else for me? It's related to last night."

Lori lowered the flask from her lips, staring over the top of it at Dimitri before finishing the last drops of its contents. "Aye, go ahead. I've got time." She swiftly screwed the cap back on the flask, once again tucking it into her jacket before leaning forward a little, her attention focused on Dimitri.

Dimitri took a few steps over to Lori in an attempt to keep the discussion between the two of them. "I wish to know exactly what happened at the Checkmate last night, regarding Dante and Mercy." He kept his voice somewhat low, trying not to attract too much attention from Mercy or Dante. Andrea, however, was still close enough to hear anything that was said.

Lori leaned a bit closer to Dimitri, her head cocked in a casual tilt and her hand resting on her chin. "Hang on a sec...I'm makin' sure I'm not too drunk to remember it," she remarked with a wry smirk that spread into a slightly wider grin. "Dante and Merce followed me there. They had drinks, fought over a pizza slice, he got a strawberry sundae and some git started takin' the piss. Turns out he was an incubus who wanted to shag Merce and steal her soul, whatever it is horny devils do. He had a square go with Dante..." She trailed off as the close of the story came back to her, her expression suddenly turned more serious. "...and the front lobby got wrecked. I lost about six grand in stock and another four grand in property damage." Her face slowly lost some of its color as the image of a three-inch-deep puddle of fine scotch flooding the Checkmate's floor came back to her. "Three barrels...eighteen hundred each...Ya can't find that stuff out here. An' the tables and chairs...D'ye think I buy 'em from Ikea?" Lori's speech soon dissolved into drunken, incoherent weeping and utterances of slurred expletives.

Andrea brought a palm to her forehead, rolling her eyes as she rested a hand on Lori's shoulder. "Come on, Lori. It can't be that bad. The Checkmate can be fixed up enough in a day to bring more customers, and Dante owes you money. Hell, if things get really bad I could dig into my college funds to give you a leg up." She turned on the couch to face the taller woman.

Lori managed to dry up the tears streaming from her eyes, and at least some semblance of pulling herself together. "Ya dun 'ave to do that for me, Chief...I've got it under control." She took a breath and let it out in a deep sigh, reaching for her flask one more time. As she tilted it back to take one more drink, a second passed and nothng came out. She stared into the empty flask for a moment before sighing and screwing the cap on, shoving the container back in her jacket and letting her shoulders sink. "...Damn," she grumbled plaintively, leaning against Andrea with an almost childish pout on her face. "Ah, well. I'll just 'ave ta drop back by my place an' get some more, I suppose."

Dimitri's brief sigh of relief at Lori's relation of last night's events gave way to a soft chuckle and a shake of his head. "I was wondering when you would finally empty that flask." He pulled himself back up onto his feet, turning a brief glance to Mercy and Dante. I suppose for now, I have dodged a proverbial bullet. He cracked a small smile as his previous fears were silenced, and looked back to Lori. "At any rate, thank you for putting my worries to rest." He moved back to his previous position, leaning against the far wall past the chair Dante was sitting in.

Of course, the half-devil had ears. Good ones, in fact, as he could hear every word exchanged between Dimitri and Lori. He craned his neck back to glance at the priest with a curious smirk. "I wanna know exactly what you think we did last night. What are you so worried about, Rev?" He chuckled to himself, making brief eye contact with Mercy. If he's thinkin' what I think he's thinkin', he's no more a saint than I am. Looks like even a man of God can have his mind in the gutter from time to time.

Dimitri crossed his arms behind his back, tilting his head toward Dante with a markedly deadpan, but still relieved, expression. "I had briefly gotten the impression that you had somehow...taken advantage of Mercy. That is to say, you had convinced her to have sex with you." He paused for a moment to adjust his glasses. "Fortunately, that was not the case."

Dante let out a sharp snort, which soon grew into a roar of laughter. "Hah! I wish!" He briefly gasped before hunching over, resting his hand against his forehead. Finally, he pulled himself up and leaned back on the chair, looking up with a wide grin and a breathless sigh. "Really. I knew from the minute I met her I didn't have a chance in hell." He brought his head down to glance in Dimitri's direction, still wearing the remnants of the same grin. "Man," he chuckled, "do you even know about my luck with women? I'd consider waking up in bed next to some bar fly who can't remember my name a good night."

Mercy, however, was not laughing. The chilling, almost murderous, glare she gave Dante was enough to quickly silence him. Once Dante was quiet, she raised her head to focus on Dimitri. They looked at each other with fixed eye contact for several moments. The way their eyes remained on each other appeared as if they were carrying on a conversation without a single word, but with many volumes.

Dimitri's expression grew serious and focused once more as he turned his attention to the others. "Now that last night's trivialities are behind us, I feel it is time to focus on the situation at hand." He left his perch against the walls, walking out to the middle of the room so that everyone could listen. "By that, I mean what Lori saw earlier this morning." He seemed hesitant to speak at first, but raised his hand up to adjust his glasses. "I know of that man, and it is vital that the four of you do as well."

Andrea's impatience had grown to be more than she could bear. Before Dimitri could continue, she raised her voice to interrupt him. "Well? Who the hell is he? If it's so damn important, get on with it already." She leaned back against the couch, crossing her arms over her chest.

Dimitri visibly narrowed his eyes at Andrea before continuing. "He is an immensely powerful demon, known to this world as Spinel." As he spoke the name, visible shuddering could be seen in his hands. "As of now, he is strong enough to be a serious threat to millions. I have been watching his actions, and Lori's accounts of last night have confirmed my suspicions that he is active within this city. He could be very close by even as we speak." Dimitri became conscious of his trembling, and tried to still it before he spoke again. "It is also certain that he is aware of Dante, Mercy and myself. He is also very likely getting stronger."

Dante pursed his lips together, lifting his head and turning it to Dimitri. "So he knows we're here, huh? Looks like that part of my work's done already. I've already dealt with some pretty tough bastards. This guy can't be too much of a challenge." He slid forward and planted his feet on the floor, briefly cracking his knuckles and wringing his hands. "And if he is, even better. It's about damn time I got a good workout. Any longer and I was gonna have to start cuttin' down on pizza before I get outta shape." He paused to lightly pat his stomach, which was still very well-toned. Hah, like that's ever gonna happen, he thought to himself with a smirk. "So, got a location? Anything else I need to know before I hand his ass to him, wrapped with a pretty red bow on top?"

Lori swung her upper body forward a bit, pulling herself up to a standing position and pulling off her coat. The coat dropped back onto Andrea's lap, revealing a set of rather muscular-looking arms. "Hope ya don't mind company, Dante. If this git's as bad as I think he is, count me in. I've kinda always wanted to save the world." To make a point, she pounded a leather gloved fist into her palm with a wide, cocky grin. She pumped both arms in front of her before letting them hang down at her sides. "'Course, I gotta run back to the Checkmate and grab Madainn Solus before we go..."

"Both of you should just kibosh it and forget about it." Mercy's voice seemed even colder than usual, as well as the glare she was giving both Dante and Lori. She rose to her feet, taking on a more aggressive stance and crossing her arms. "I am the only one of us who has the right to kill Spinel. If it comes down to it, I swear I'll kill both of you for the chance to slit his throat." Behind her cold glare, she could feel a black shadow looming at her back, and a strange, cold aura chilling her to the bone. It won't be much longer now. I'm so close to slaughtering him...all I need to know is where he is.

Mercy's sudden change of demeanor took even Dante by surprise. The look in her eyes told him she was quite serious about killing him to get to Spinel. He lifted a hand as if trying to calm her down. "It's not gonna have to come to that, babe. You want me to step aside, I'll step aside." He brought his head forward and leveled his eyes with hers, making sure she was looking at him as he spoke. "But I'm not gonna let you charge off into this alone, hear?" A brief memory came into Dante's mind from a few years ago. The vision was still fresh in his mind, though it had happened so far in the past. Vergil plunged down into the depths of Hell, slashing at Dante's hand as he reached out to try to save his brother. He had gone to find his father's power and defeat Mundus, Vergil said. He was never seen again after that day, and was most likely dead and rotting. Like hell I'm gonna let that happen to anyone else again. His eyes wandered past Mercy and Lori to see Andrea firmly parked on the couch, arms crossed over her chest and visibly reluctant to move. "Hey, kid. Somethin' wrong?" he asked with curiosity and slight concern.

"Forgive me if I don't share your enthusiasm," Andrea responded with a bitterly sarcastic tone. She shoved herself back even further into the cushions of the couch, as if to defend herself from anything said by the others. "Lucky for me, I learn quick. After the bullshit from last night and nearly dying of poison today, I'm smart enough to stay the fuck out of your way and leave the demon slaying to the professionals." She raised her hand to gesture down the hall, toward the door. "So, if you don't mind, I'm just gonna get up..." She pulled herself up from the couch and began to walk toward the back of the room. "...get the hell out of here, go back to my office and get back to my day job of catching guys cheating on their wives and busting script kiddies and con artists." She stopped in the hall for a moment, briefly turning her head so she could see Lori. "For Pete's sake, don't get yourself killed."

Lori placed a hand firmly down on the back of the couch, cleanly vaulting over it to avoid squeezing between Mercy and the chair to get out of the room. Once she landed, she headed over to Andrea and pulled her close with one arm, moving herself so they faced each other. "You be careful too, Chief," she replied to Andrea, her voice a bit softer than usual. Her arm slipped around Andrea's shoulder, allowing her hand to subtly cup one of Andrea's breasts. The other arm came around Andrea's back when Lori felt no resistance.

Before Andrea had the chance to leave, Dimitri approached her from across the room. "I'm afraid that it may not be so easy to forget about this, Andrea. That demon that attacked you was a servant of Spinel. He may already know that you killed that demon. If he does know this, your life could be in great danger." Dimitri pulled his glasses off, pulling out a cleaning cloth to wipe some smudges from the lenses.

Andrea turned to Dimitri with a skeptical eyebrow, raising a hand to gently push Lori away. "What the hell would this guy want with me? I'm a fuckin' human." She lifted her palms up in front of her, waving them out a bit as she continued to speak. "Alright, alright. I'm a bit messed up in the head, I can go batshit insane at the drop of a hat, and I'm a witch, but..." she trailed off, taking a slow breath. "...still. I'm a human. I'm not that special."

Dimitri let out a slow sigh with a tinge of worry. "That was no ordinary demon you killed last night, Andrea. Spinel usually sends demons of that strength out to test any possible opponents. Lower-ranked demons can easily be slaughtered by a human with enough firepower." Dimitri briefly turned his head to Dante. "Dante is the opponent that Spinel would have had interest in. Killing that demon, as you did, requires supernatural ability that other humans simply do not possess."

"What's your point?" Andrea cut in once again, rather rudely. She scratched at the back of her neck before crossing her arms. "For once in your life, why don't you just get to the damn point instead of just rambling on and on like there's no tomorrow?" She let out an irate snort that made her nose visibly wrinkle. "I'm half expecting you to send me off to retrieve some magical artifact or kill a dragon or some other quest only I can do."

Dimitri was torn between chuckling and growing irritated at Andrea's constant impudence. "I was just about to get to that," he stated with a bit more imperation than usual in his voice. "The point is that Spinel now sees you as a genuine threat because of the power he suspects, and..." He swallowed rather hard, hesitating slightly before he continued speaking. "...I suspect you have." He managed to hide the sliver of a frown forming on his face. I certainly hope we are both wrong, but at the same time...I hope I am right. Humanity may not have much time.

Andrea slowly raised an eyebrow, uncrossing her arms and resting a hand on her hip. "Eh, I just got lucky," she muttered passively, "I've gotten through life that way." She turned her head away from Dimitri, continuing to stare into the empty space that filled the hall. Why the hell did you say that, Andrea? Now something's definitely gonna get fucked up. It's not a good idea to tempt fate. You should know that better than anyone. She wordlessly headed down the hall toward the office's door, stopping as she felt a hand rest on her shoulder.

"Hey, Chief," Lori addressed Andrea once she turned around, not removing her hand from her shoulder. "I'll gie ya a ride." The corner of her lips twitched a bit, a faint flash of concern in her eyes. "I mean..." She trailed off to gain a bit of breath. "I know ya think Dimitri's full o' rubbish...but I wouldn't take my chances." She paused to reach into her jacket and pull out a motorcycle key. "Whether or not he's right, there's bound to be trouble about." She held the key in her teeth and cracked her knuckles.

Andrea opened her mouth to speak, but quickly silenced herself. Had she blurted out what was on her mind at the moment, it would be quite hurtful to Lori. She averted her eyes from the taller black woman for a moment, taking a rather loud and deep breath. She turned her head back to Lori, walking closer to her and resting a hand on her shoulder. "Fuck it," she grunted with defeat, "Let's go." She walked past Lori and down the hall, opening the door out into the city streets.

Lori turned her head back toward Mercy and the others. "Well, ya 'eard 'er." She gave them a casual wave before turning to follow Andrea. "See you lot later." Turning away one last time, she headed out toward the Harley with the white chassis and Scottish flag decals on the back, upon which Andrea was leaning. She nodded briefly toward Andrea before twirling her keyring on a finger and straddling the bike seat.

The sound of a roaring Harley engine faded off into the white noise of the city, carrying the two women with it. They soon disappeared into traffic, among honking horns and citizens in a frenzied rush to return to work before the end of the lunch break.

Dante slid forward on the old green chair, extending his legs and stretching them out a bit before standing up. "I hope those two'll be alright out there. I've got this feeling in my gut that this is gonna turn into a lot more than your usual mission." As Dante finished his sentence, he brought a hand down to rest over his stomach; it was rumbling rather loudly. "Speaking of gut feelings, I'd better head back myself. I'm starving and there's a pizza in the fridge with my name on it." He walked with a marked swagger in his step, stopping briefly as he passed by Mercy. He flashed her a brief smirk and a wink. "Later, babe." He tipped his head in a nod at Dimitri before pulling open the door and walking out into the cool November midday.

"Well would ya take a gander at that," Mercy remarked, the edges of her lips turning up into a very brief smirk. "He knows how to use a door after all. They grow up so fast." She mimed wiping a single tear from her eye before walking over to the wall to face Dimitri. Her stone-sober expression returned as she turned her head to the hall. "Involvin' Dante is bad enough, but Andrea too? She's the last person I want Spinel to know about." She crossed her arms over her chest, as if shivering from some cold breeze. "For another person to go through that..." She caught her words tightly in her throat, going silent.

"I understand, Mercy," Dimitri replied with a considerate, but still serious, tone in his voice. "But this runs much deeper than your conflict with Spinel." He pulled himself away from the wall and walked around Mercy to face her from the other side, both of them keeping their eyes on one another. "The threat we are dealing with has grown too great for us to be thinking about personal grudges." He turned his head just a bit toward the hall, only enough for his gaze to follow it out. A brief silence broke up the words between him and Mercy as he appeared deeper in thought than usual. Mercy could not perceive it, but minute tremors ran through his body, mostly in his thin hands. He drew in a deep breath and shut his eyes, waiting for the tremors to pass. After a moment he slowly turned from Mercy, arms folded lightly over his abdomen. "Moreover, you are not alone in your desire for vengeance." He kept his back to her and his eyes out of her view. Slivers of gold could be seen glowing among the amber in his irises. "The only one who will die if you rush into battle against him is you. I trust, after ten years, you might have known that."

Mercy's fingers slowly twitched as her hands curled into fists. "Why didn't you...stop him before then?" Her lips were pressed so tightly together that they turned white. She could feel the coldness at her back even more, and it almost became bitter against her flesh. "Why didn't you..." She could not seem to finish her sentence through the trembling that coursed through her body. "B-before..." She broke her words with a yell, throwing herself at Dimitri's back with a fist raised to punch him.

Her body collided with a wall of energy that felt like it was made of solid concrete. She stumbled back a few steps, clenching her teeth and catching her breath as she looked up at Dimitri. Bugger, that was a bad idea.

Dimitri kept his arms crossed tightly over his stomach, still not turning to face Mercy. A faint flicker of indigo light faded from the air behind him. "Attacking me will not accomplish anything either." He finally turned his head back toward her, slowly removing his glasses and tucking them into his pocket. "I suppose you are too determined for words alone to sway you." He rotated his entire body to face her and folded his arms behind his back. "If you will hear nothing else I say, hear this. Spinel has no end of uses for you. Whether you are dead or alive makes no difference to him. Coming at him as you are, alone and unprepared, is like handing yourself over to him to use as he desires."

The color seemed to leave Mercy's face again, and she looked ill. The heavy feeling returned to her stomach, and the bitter cold seemed to have a firm grip on her spine. Her attention wasn't focused on Dimitri. She looked as if she was listening to someone else who wasn't there. The sounds of disembodied voices rumbled through her head, their words indiscriminate in the sea of thoughts and memories. One voice, one word, seemed to echo louder than the others:

"Alice..."