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.

Prophetic Dreams

Dante sat bolt upright in his bunk, a cold sweat coating his skin. He took a wild look around the room, and slowly relaxed.

It was only a dream.

His mother and brother were still alive; he could hear Vergil, still asleep, moving around in his bunk. It had only been a stupid nightmare.

He lay back down and wiped the sweat from his brow. But it had been so real….

Dante tried to get comfortable and fall back to sleep, but he was just too restless. After a while, he quietly got out of bed and padded downstairs to the kitchen. He got himself a drink of water, then sat at the table and put his head down.

Why had this dream shaken him so much? He hadn't been this scared by a bad dream in years. It was a stupid nightmare, and his mother and brother were still safe and sound. Where had this one come from?

"Dante?" He felt a hand on shoulder, and knew it to be his mother's. "What are you doing up?"

"Bad dream," he muttered.

"Oh." She lifted her hand, and he felt a blanket being draped over his shoulders. He lifted his head, and noticed that she seemed likewise on edge. She had put on her robe, which meant that something heavy was on her mind, and was leaning against the refrigerator, her arms crossed and her eyes troubled. "It seems that we are of similar mind this night. I had a nightmare, as well."

"What was yours about?" he asked, wanting to get his mind off his nightmare.

She didn't answer. Instead, she opened the fridge and got out the leftovers of the cake. "Would you like a snack? That used to help me forget my bad dreams when I was little."

"Sure, Mom." He watched her cut two slices and pour herself a glass of milk. She gave him one slice, then sat across from him with the other one.

"I'll tell you about my dream if you tell me yours," she offered.

He heaved a sigh. "I don't know where this nightmare came from. You and I were sitting on the couch watching TV, and Vergil was reading a book in the chair by the door. Then the door shattered open and…..things…. flowed in."

"What kind of things?"

He took a bite of cake. The icing seemed far too sweet, sticking to the roof of his mouth as it hadn't that morning. He washed it down with a gulp of water. Even then, the cake stuck in his throat, then sat in his stomach like a stone. "Big, shadowy things. I couldn't really tell what they were. They had red eyes. Anyway, they swarmed in the door and dog-piled Vergil. He screamed, and when they were finished all that was left was a pile of stripped meat and bones. His head was still intact, though, and he was still screaming. That sound never stopped, no matter what they did to him." Dante shuddered, and plunged on. "Then the things came after us. We ran and ran, but they always seemed to get closer. At last they grabbed you, and I stood rooted to the spot while they killed you. Then they came at me. I woke up just as one of them touched me." He wiped his eyes, brushing away tears that were only just forming. "I couldn't move at all when they got you. I saw everything, and I couldn't do anything to save you. Nothing." He fought back tears. He wasn't going to cry over something this stupid!

Eva folded her hands and stared at them as if she could see straight through them. "My dream was like that. Dark, shadowy things with red eyes chasing us while we ran. I was dragging you and Vergil along behind me, trying to outrun them. Then something rose up in your way, and you tripped. I was too afraid to stop and help you up. I…." She looked away, unable to meet Dante's eyes. "I left you there to die, while Vergil and I ran on. I would never have done so if this was real, but in the dream I was terrified that they would catch me. You screamed for me while I ran, begging me to help you. But I couldn't stop running. Vergil tried to go back, but I wouldn't let him. We ran, and then something long and thin cracked out and caught him around the neck. He was pulled into their midst like a fish on a hook. Again, I couldn't stop. I just kept running. At last, I stopped running, for what reason, I do not know. I fell to the ground and wept. I had abandoned my sons, allowed the demon-things to kill them! I kept crying as they surrounded me, didn't fight back as they pierced me with their weapons, pinning me to the ground and spilling my blood. The pain was great, but the knowledge of my selfish actions was a far greater agony than anything they could inflict upon me. At long last, they ceased their actions and stepped away. I looked up, and then I saw you and Vergil standing before me. Vergil was behind you, a knife to your throat. You stared at me with emotionless eyes, and then he pulled the knife back, slitting your throat. Even as you fell to the ground, dead, your eyes stayed on mine, as if you were accusing me of putting you in this position. As if saying that I had killed you. Your brother laughed, and before my eyes he grew and grew, reaching adulthood in a matter of seconds. The demon-things cowered before him, and I knew him to be their master. Then he….I can only say that he became corrupted. His skin yellowed and cracked open, releasing clouds of sulpheric gas into the air. The scent enveloped me, choking me, and when he laughed again, it was deeper, far more threatening then before. His eyes flashed with red fires, and his mouth filled with fangs. I could only lay there as he approached me, his knife lengthening into a sword. He held it against his shoulder and stared down at me with hatred in his eyes. 'You made me this way, Mother,' he said. 'Now taste the fruits of your labors!' Then he swung the blade, but just as it touched my neck, I woke up." Eva looked up. "You know I would never have left you behind, don't you?"

Dante got up, clutching the blanket around him, and went to his mother. "I know, Mom. It was only a dream. It meant nothing." He put an arm around her and leaned against her back, offering her comfort. "It was just a stupid dream."

"But dreams always mean something. They are always messages from the subconscious, telling us something important." She put a hand on his arm, and bowed her head, both accepting and rejecting his hug. "I don't know what to make of these, mine or yours."

"Who knows what they mean? All I know is that I'm not going to let a stupid nightmare keep me awake." He put his cake back in the fridge, then looked at his mother. "Are you going to go back to bed?"

"I think I'm going to stay here a while longer. Will you stay with me?"

His mother needed him. Dante pulled his chair out again, and sat back down. "Sure, Mom. I will."

LLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL

Outside the door, Vergil leaned against the wall and listened to them talk. He had also had a nightmare, but his had not involved running from demons, or leaving his mother and brother to die. His had been a little different.

He had been standing on a platform of circular stone, surrounded by darkness. The only light had been where he was standing. A deep, deep voice had welcomed him to the Test of Destiny, and two more lights had come up, spotlighting two more platforms. His mother and Dante stood on one, quiet and unmoving as statues, and Yamato, the sword his father had left him, was stuck hilt-up in the other one.

"Choose the course of your life," the voice invited. "The loving embrace of your family, a peaceful life with your mother and brother, and the promise of a woman who will love you and give you a legacy of flesh and blood, or…." The voice seemed to move to hover over Yamato. "….the power that sleeps within you. Power unmatchable by any in the Human World, and the chance to gain even more. The strength of a god."

"Choose!"

He had looked from one to the other, unable to decide. Dante and his mother beckoned to him on their platform, asking him to stay with them and never leave. But their pleading was matched by the silent call of Yamato. The sword spoke to him, saying that it could make him into a warrior without equal, that it could help him mold the world to suit his desires. It offered a vision of him slicing annoying Lila apart with its sharp edge while she groveled before him, and thousands of humans and demons knelt before him, calling him 'Prince Vergil.'

"Choose!" the voice demanded.

"Choose! Choose! Choose!"

That call had awoken him, and he still wasn't sure what he would have chosen. Family or power? Power or family? How did one choose between those?

He listened to his mother and twin speak a while longer, and heard Eva describing her dream. He wondered where she had gotten even the slightest notion that he would kill Dante, or her, for that matter. Surely he would never do such a thing. As for the monster-thing she described him as becoming, he couldn't see himself ever taking on such an appearance. Volcanic cracks in his skin? No way!

He realized that Dante was planning on going back to bed. He didn't want his younger brother to see him like this, afraid of a damn dream; he sprinted back up the stairs as quietly as he could, and jumped back into bed, turning away to the wall so Dante wouldn't see that he was still awake.

He had to wait a long time before his brother came back into their room. He heard Dante quietly shut the door behind him, then approach the bed. He sensed his brother standing over him, watching him, and fought hard not to move, to force his breathing into the slow rhythm of sleep. He didn't want to answer any questions right now.

Dante stood there for a long time, then climbed up on the dresser and pulled down his pillow and another blanket. Vergil heard him spreading them out on the floor beside the bunk, laying down on the carpet with the blankets over him. A short while later, his breathing eased, and he fell asleep.

Vergil rolled over and regarded his younger twin. Dante lay curled on the floor, facing his brother's bunk, as if he thought his older brother could protect him from more nightmares. He seemed so helpless, so innocent, sleeping like that….

Vergil lay back on the bed and drew up the covers, facing his twin. He had sometimes guarded Dante's sleep from nightmares when they were younger. It cost him nothing to do so once more.

LLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL

Queen: These dreams are pretty important, so take note of them!

Dante: I think they would anyway, Queen…