Summary: His family shattered before his eyes, the first time he ever took a life. The events that would steal Dante's innocence, making him the hunter he is today...
Disclaimer: I do not own squat. I know the twins, but I cannot claim ownership over them. Only the almighty Capcom can dare to do that, which is reasonable. They own the games, after all.
A Comic Moment
Dante grabbed the foam basketball off the dresser and shot it towards the hoop mounted on the wall without aiming. The ball missed by about a foot.
"It would help if you would aim from time to time." Vergil was lying on his stomach in his bunk, reading something. Dante glanced at the title as he went to retrieve the ball.
"The Lord of the Flies? What is that, a book about bugs?"
"No. It's about how these boys get stranded on an island, and all of them have live off the land to survive. Jack just killed a pig, and put its head on a stake. It's pretty cool." He turned a page. "I don't like Jack very much. He reminds me of you."
"Hey!" Dante threw the ball at his brother, and Vergil blocked it with the book. He peeked at him over the pages, his blue eyes seeming all the more mysterious for being so similar to Dante's.
"Don't you ever relax?"
"No way. Not if I'm going to be famous someday."
"So what's your latest scheme? Basketball?"
"Yep. Do you know how much basketball stars make in a single year? With that much cash, I could have booze, babes, and enough dough left over to swim in!" He shot the ball at the hoop again, and this time is sailed through the hoop. "Jackpot!"
"Ever think of not being famous? Of just settling down with someone and raising a family? Besides, you've never had a drink in your life. How do you know you'll even like beer?" The ball had rolled to a stop next to the bunk bed, and Vergil grabbed it. Without even looking, he threw it at the hoop.
It ricocheted right off the backboard into the basket.
"How did you do that? I've been trying to shoot without looking for days now!" Dante picked up the ball and stared at it as if it had betrayed him. Then he looked at his brother, still reading in his bunk. "How?" he repeated.
Vergil shrugged.
Dante let it go at that. He normally would have jumped across the room into his brother's bed, wrestling with him until he told him. But he'd promised his mother that he wouldn't fight with Vergil anymore today. He didn't like to let his mother down.
Instead, he climbed up the back of the bunks to reach his bed on top and somersaulted onto the covers. Dante never used the ladder. He thought it was much cooler to climb up the foot of the bed like a monkey, and besides, it was better for his muscles.
Vergil rolled his eyes as the plywood holding the upper mattress sagged violently before snapping back to a more usual shape. "One of these days, you're going to break the bed and come crashing down on me," he predicted.
"Then let's hope that you aren't in your bunk when it breaks." Dante rummaged inside his pillowcase and pulled out his comic book collection. He had always disdained the typical superhero comic. Superman, the X-Men, and their ilk held no interest for him. Instead, he focused on only two titles: Shu-gra, Queen of the Amazons and The Dark Knight. It was the latter which he pulled out now. Shu-gra was a hot, mature comic with enough adult themes he had to beg for it at the drug store, and consequently he didn't have that many issues of it. But his mother had gotten him a subscription for The Dark Knight because it was about his father, Sparda.
He relaxed with the latest issue, in which Sparda slew the Prince of Darkness and sealed away the Demon World forever. The comics took some creative liberties, of course, but for the most part they told the story accurately.
Like this part. In this particular spread, Sparda and a human priestess, Elisia, were working together to try and shut the main path to the Demon World forever.
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"To close the demonic road and seal away the tower, we need to combine the power of my blood with the sacred purity of you own," Sparda explained to the priestess, who stood staring at the room with a kind of horrified fascination. Strangely, she'd never looked at him that way. Certainly his true form was terrifying, but Elisia had only ever treated him like another human being.
"Do I have to die, or will I regain my strength and return to my husband and children?" There was a serene peace in her lovely features as she asked the question. She was afraid of this place, but not of what she must do.
"I do not know. I hope you will not die." He attempted a smile, one of the human facial expressions she had taught him. On his demonic visage, however, it just looked terrifying.
Elisia just shook her head, sending her dark hair slithering about her back. "Could you please turn into your human form? I do not fear you, but speaking with a 6'7 demon is a little unnerving."
"As you wish." There was flash of purple light, and suddenly a white-haired man with an eye-patch in the expensive garb of a nobleman stood where the demon had been. Elisia had always believed her husband to be the most handsome man in the world, but she had to admit that Sparda would turn any woman's head, including her own.
"Is this more to your tastes, Elisia?" he asked, looking down at himself.
"I believe it is adequate. Now, will the tower really sink into the ground and move somewhere else? Somewhere it will not be disturbed?"
"The other side of the world, if what I believe is true. My sword and power will act as part of the seal in the demonic realm, so no demon can unlock the seal from that side. Even if one of them could even touch the hilt, the tower will not rise unless the seals in this world, chained to my enemies trapped in this realm, are dispelled. But this will be the heart of the main seal." He motioned towards the blood-pan in the center of the tower. They were at the apex of the tower, the very top of the structure. While he had come through the main portal to Hell, Elisia had had to climb for hours to reach it. "If the seal is disrupted, the tower will live again, and rise to tower across humanity once more."
"I understand." Elisia pulled back the wide sleeve of her priestess robe, exposing the smooth white flesh of her arm. "Shall we begin?"
Sparda nodded, and drew his sword. A quick slash across the palm of his hand, and his blood flowed freely. This he allowed to drip into the blood-pan. "Are you ready?"
She swallowed hard, and nodded. Sparda cut across her wrist with one lightening-quick maneuver, and she gasped at the pain. Her blood spilt quickly, fueled by the pumping of her fast-beating heart.
As the blood mingled in the pan, the tower began to shiver. The red lines that powered the tower, that kept the portal to the Demon World open, turned to purest white. Elisia held tight to Sparda for balance as the floor beneath them began to sink into the stone. Another floor closed the way above their heads, sealing away their view of the collapsing portal. For long minutes they spun in darkness, until at last they came to a stop in the basement, far below the earth's crust.
Sparda released Elisia, and walked over to the glowing blood-pan. Stooping over, he lifted out two ruby jewels. "The key…" he muttered, and pocketed them.
"Spard…ahhh…" Elisia trembled and collapsed behind him, falling limply to the stone. He was at her side in seconds.
"Elisia…no…" he said helplessly. He'd cut too deep into her wrist, and she had neglected to bind the wound. Now the blood flowed weakly, far too slowly. Her blood pooled around her, a life-filled puddle she couldn't draw back into her body.
Elisia the Priestess was dying.
Weakly, she lifted a hand to stroke his cheek, a comforting gesture. "Don't….be sad. No….regrets. Thomas and I…. knew….would come….to this…"
A tear trickled down his cheek into the corner of his mouth. He was startled when he tasted its salt, for he had never shed tears before. Elisia smiled gently. "You find….woman. Remember….my friend...Devils….never…..cry…."
Her head fell back, her eyes closed, and her hand fell away from his face.
"Elisia? Elisia!" Sparda threw back his head in a helpless, grieving roar. Elisia, the one human whom he had thought of as what she had called a 'friend,' was dead.
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Later, Sparda and the husband of the priestess, Thomas, stood over her grave. They said no words. Speaking would have disturbed the solemnity of their mutual grief. Thomas had already cursed and railed against her death, but even in the midst of his shock and grief he had never blamed Sparda. Not once.
He lifted his head from his prayers for her soul just as Sparda completed his silent farewell. Now, if they desired, they could speak.
"How are the children taking it?" the white-haired man asked.
"They understand why she did it. Losing their older brother to the demon raid three years ago made them understand the necessity of her sacrifice." Thomas hugged himself. He had to be strong for his children; no one would offer him comfort in the days to come. "Raising five kids by myself is going to be difficult, but the older ones will help with the younger ones. We'll manage, somehow."
"That's good." An awkward silence fell, as if neither man knew quite what to say to the other.
After a moment, Thomas turned to face the other man. "What about you? What are you going to do?"
"I'm not sure. I want to experience a human life in all its joys and sorrows, but I don't know how. Elisia was going to teach me how to be human, but I can't expect you to." Sparda toyed with the sword hanging from his belt. "Any advice?"
Thomas chuckled knowingly. "I can give you that, and so can anyone else. Find a woman, friend. There is no better initiation into the joys and sorrows of human life then at the hands of a member of the opposite sex." He chuckled again and shook his head. "You should have seen Elisia and I when first we wed. Fighting as if to kill each other one minute, then loving as if it were the last time the very next! Like wildcats in heat, we were."
Sparda smiled. "I'll try, Thomas. Maybe not now, but someday I will search for a woman. A woman who can accept a demon such as myself, and who would be willing to give me children. I do not know where I will find a woman like that, but I shall search."
Thomas clapped his shoulder as if they were old friends. "You'll see. You'll find her someday. And you'll have plenty of children. A finer reward is not known to man than that."
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Queen: Believe it or not, Dante actually does collect comic books. The Dark Knight isn't a real title, but Shu-gra, Queen of the Amazons is his favorite. I think he's got every issue there ever was!
Vergil: Queen, you don't want to know what he used those for.
Queen: I think anybody out there who knows Dante can guess what he used them for when he was a little younger, Vergil…
Dante (coming into the room): Hey Queen! Have you seen my…
(static crackle, transmission lost)