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.

Nightmare

Eva was relaxing in her room with a book. Dinner had been finished, and now Dante was reading comic books in the twins' room while Vergil watched television downstairs. It was peaceful, and night fell softly across their home.

A deceivingly gentle shroud to cover the horrific events unfolding.

Dante came into her room just as she felt the barrier wards tremble.

Then they fell, and an eerie screaming invaded her mind.

She was momentarily stunned. Those wards should not have fallen; she had set them up exactly as Sparda had shown her, told her, with their first house!

"Mom?" Dante knew something was very, very wrong, but his mother's terrified eyes scared him more than the noise outside.

"Get your brother. Now!" She shot out of the bed. "VERGIL!!!" she screamed.

The back door shattered; she heard it, she felt it. The invaders swarmed across the downstairs.

She heard Vergil scream.

"Mom? What is it? What's happening?" Dante sounded scared. She didn't blame him. As far as she knew, she only had one son left now.

"Dante, I want you to run away. Run away, and hide." She grabbed his chin, forced him to look at her. "Do you understand? Get as far away as you can!"

"Mom?"

They were still downstairs, but something massive was climbing the stairs. Something that oozed pure evil in its wake. Vergil cried out once more, but his scream was abruptly choked off. Dante's eyes widened in sudden pain and horror. "Mom! Vergil's…."

"Run away, Dante! Don't worry about me or Vergil; go out the window, get as far away as you can, and hide. No matter what happens, you must never come out. Do you understand me, Dante? Do not disobey me!" She hugged him fast, a mother's last desperate embrace, then shoved him towards the window. "Go! Do not let the demons get you! Run!"

He stumbled away and out the window, his eyes so full of fear and vulnerability that she ached to go to him, to comfort him and tell him this was all just a dream.

But she could not. If Dante was to have a chance at life, she had to give it to him.

With one last breath to gather her courage, Eva sprinted out the door and back towards the kitchen. She heard an unearthly scream of victory as something caught sight of her, and ran faster. She had to buy her son time to get away; Sparda's guns were in his study, and she knew there just wasn't time to get to them. Leading the demons away from him where the best she could do under the circumstances.

But someone was in the shattered doorway. It was the pale woman who had followed her and her sons to the supermarket two days ago. She had brought the demons here!

Eva skidded to a stop, and backpedaled fast to race into the living room, to the front door. Shadowy things blocked her path, beings of darkest shadow with glowing eyes and massive scythes. Just like her dream….

She threw herself to the floor and slid between the legs of one demon, throwing herself back to her feet once she was out of reach. But she earned a deep cut across the back of her thigh for her successful maneuver. She fought the urge to cry out, fought the pain burning across her limb. Screaming would only encourage them.

Not that they needed encouraging….

As she passed through the living room, she noticed a bloody shape huddled at the foot of the television. Only a small patch of immaculate white hair told her the identity of the body.

She fought down her gorge, mastered her pain, and raced out the door. She could do nothing more for Vergil, but she had to buy Dante time.

No matter what the cost.

LLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL

Dante watched his mother run past his hiding spot in the bushes three houses down the street. She was followed soon after by a massive, loping shape with three floating red orbs where the head would have been. He saw that she would take a roundabout way, and get into the house again.

She was protecting him, allowing him time to get away.

But he was rooted to the spot, unable to flee as she had told him.

He was too scared, too much enthralled by the nightmarish scene before him, for his legs to obey his benumbed brain and run away.

LLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL

Eva streaked back into the house, and up the stairs. The thing chasing her was getting closer with every step, and with the loss of blood from her wound, the woman was barely able to run up the stairs. When she found her way blocked by the woman in white once more, she knew she could flee no more.

She turned, and the floating orbs came ever closer. Now a claw materialized from the darkness, and reached towards her, the deadly point glinting in the dim light of the overhead lights.

Eva whirled and lunged for the other woman. At least this threat to her offspring would be slain!

Before her reaching hands could close around the other female's throat, the claw pierced her backbone and tore out of her belly. An agonized scream filled her throat, and she collapsed to her knees, trying to hold her organs inside her body.

She fell to the carpet, and felt strangely relieved as her life leaked away from her, spilling across the floor in a crimson puddle and staining her golden hair red.

At least Dante was safe. She had failed Vergil, but she had managed to save one of her sons from the demons.

Sparda would be proud of her.

LLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL

Queen: I had to think long and hard before I came up with this. Capcom never really gives any details about exactly how Eva died, but little clues can be gleaned from the manga and the novels. I did some research in those while writing this. And while I've changed the setting from Dante hiding in an alley to hiding behind some bushes, you can still find a lot of influences from both manga and book in here.

(looks outside. Curses softly)

Queen: Shit! I thought they'd be home later than this! Next chapter will have to wait until they get called out again.

(transmission ended)