The BattleGround II
The Gates of Hell
Chapter II
In a split second, the joy of seeing the woman's face lying on the bed drained itself from Dante's eyes as he was violently shoved back from the bed.
Nearly falling over, he braced himself on a tall brown cabinet in the corner of the room. He shook his head a little as he chuckled.
"Wow, babe. Some things never change," he said as he shifted his shoulders off of the cabinet.
Mary threw the blanket off of her body and rose from the bed.
"You know better than to call me by that name, Devil," she spat at him as she quickly opened her dresser drawer to search for some proper clothes. Dante sighed and frowned.
"I thought we agreed that you'd never call me 'Devil' again, Mary."
Infuriated, Mary walked quickly toward Dante, and knowing full well that the white-haired man in the corner of her room possessed the common sense not to call her by that name.
"And you know full well never to call me by that name!"
Dante smiled as he looked down at Mary. "Some things never change. You're still as fiery as you were when we were in the Temple together, Mary."
Mary stopped in her path back to her dresser. "What did you call me?" she asked in a low tone.
Dante squinted his eyes and apologized.
"Sorry Mary."
She clenched her teeth and balled her fists. "You're pushing your luck, Dante."
Dante smiled and crossed his arms. "So are you…" Dante leaned forward and pushed out his neck.
"Mary."
Mary screamed so loud that it caused Dante to cover his ears.
"Why the Hell did you come here, Dante?! Did you just want to torture me with your stupidity?!" she said as she turned around to face him.
Dante leaned back and tucked his neck back in to place.
"See, you turned to face me again. I knew from the moment I walked in the door, you wouldn't be able to stop looking at me."
Mary laughed a very sarcastic laugh.
"I guess it is obvious that some things never change…and by the way, you broke the door down…Devil."
This time, it was actually Dante's turn to go red with anger. If there was one thing Mary was able to do, it was verbally fight back with Dante, and in some rare cases, win.
"Admit it, Dante. You just cannot take the fact that I can outsmart you half the time."
Dante laughed to himself. "Are you kidding? I focus on the fact that you openly admit that you can only outsmart me half of the time, babe."
Mary scowled. "I'm not your babe, Dante."
Dante shrugged his shoulders and held up his hands.
"You could be if you fixed yourself up a little, Mary."
Mary opened her mouth ready to scream, but instead, she closed her eyes and held her hands up in the air. "Okay, Dante. You win. No more fighting."
Dante smiled as he began to shift the cabinet back to his original place after knocking it to the side. "Good decision, Mary. Because you know you'd lose, right?"
Mary, with a look of desperation on her face, pleaded with the Devil Hunter.
"Would you please try to search deep down and find the decency not to call me that name any longer, Dante?"
Dante nodded and responded. "Of course, Mary. I won't call you that anymore."
Mary sighed. Dante apologized once again.
"Sorry, Mary."
Knowing that Dante would never give up the verbal battle, Mary decided to try to stray away from the subject.
"Honestly, Dante, why have you come here?"
Dante sighed, and for the first time since their encounter, it was a serious one.
"I cannot explain everything right now, but you need to know that this place is once again in serious danger."
Mary, with a look of confusion on her face, inquired further.
"What kind of danger, Dante?"
Dante didn't want to disclose any information about The Dark Lord or the Temple in the middle of the Sea, or about his Father. He needed to try to convince Mary to come with him because he was afraid that if he were to explain everything at the moment, she might not agree to help.
"Mary," Dante started. "You need to come with us." Mary crossed her arms. "Who's us?"
Just at that very moment, it was as if a black cloud settled in the doorway and began to move toward Dante and Mary. Intimidated, Mary screamed.
"Dante! A Demon! Look out!"
Dante held up his hands and shook them back and forth. "No, Mary. He is an ally, he is with me."
But the sense Dante tried to talk her into had little effect. Mary began to scream louder as the shadowy figure moved closer to her, trapping her between the bed and the bedroom door.
As Mary closed her eyes and clenched her body, the clouded figure opened its fiery green eyes.
It held out its hand, seemingly reaching out to take Mary away. But instead, sitting on the veiny, charcoal-covered hand of the Demon was a small blue bird perched at the end of his pointer finger.
Mary stopped screaming and opened her eyes. She stared at the small bird, then gazed up at the very tall Demon.
Her one tinted blue eye and bronze eye locked with his burnt green eyes as the Demon pulled the bird away.
Then, to Mary's amazement, the Demon spoke.
"I know. These creatures can be quite frightening at first, but if you allow yourself to loosen up around them, they speak in very strange tongues."
The charcoal Demon studied the small creature on the end of his finger. "I have told him my name, but he has yet to tell me his."
The demon held out his giant, veiny green hand down to Mary. "I am Kade."
Mary slowly gripped his hand, then pulled it away as she stuttered. "Oh, my name….my name is Mary."
Dante held out his hand. "Uh? What was that you said?"
Mary shook her head and frowned. "No, no, my name is Lady."
She smiled as she slowly rose, meeting only the giant Demon's charcoal chest.
"Nice to meet you, Kade."
Dante smiled. "He has been a friend of mine since I was a child."
Kade turned around and smiled at Dante, then spoke to him. "Are we ready to go yet, young Dante?" he asked.
Mary frowned. "No, we are not. What is he talking about, Dante?" she asked.
Dante closed his eyes. "I already said I can't talk to you about it yet, Mary. You'll just have to trust me, okay?"
Mary shook her head as she walked up to him. "No, no it's not just okay! This is always like you!"
Dante sighed. "Please don't do this now…"
Mary spoke louder than him. "No! I mean it! You're never where you say you'll be, you risk both of our lives, you tell me to wait for you and I end up waiting for years on end, and now you want me to walk blindly into a situation with you and Thing over here?!"
Kade held out his hand. "No, perhaps there was a slight misunderstanding. My name is Kade, not…"
Mary just kept going. If there was one thing Kade did not have, it was a grasp of sarcasm or an understanding for jokes.
As Mary continued on, Dante began to raise his voice as well.
Mary continued the verbal attack. "I helped you time and time again, and you leave just like that, without even saying anything and this is how you confront me about it! What's so important that caused you to take time out of your oh-so busy day to come get me, huh? What the Hell could it be-"
"It's your Father!"
Dead silence filled the small bedroom.
A small tear trickled down Mary's cheek.
"What did you say?" she asked as her voice cracked.
Dante sighed and closed his eyes.
"It's your Father."
"It's Arkham."
Mary put her head down and wiped the tear from her cheek."
"I'll go." She said, almost a whisper.
"What?"
"I'll go!" she spat at him as she sighed. She walked over to her closet and grabbed a long-sleeved white dress shirt, a black bra, a black and bronze mini skirt and long, bluish-grey boots.
Dante smiled as he put a hand on her small shoulder. "Thank you,"
His hand was soon shrugged off as Mary took a step back. She still was not used to close human contact with anyone, especially Dante.
"So, are we ready?" she asked to try to hide the ackwardness in her actions.
Dante looked over at Kade. Kade nodded and held up his hand. A large, fiery orange portal opened up in the center of Mary's room. All three warriors held up their forearms to shield their eyes.
Dante looked over at the woman beside him.
"Ready Mary? He asked.
Mary sighed once again as all three warriors slowly entered the portal.
Author's Note: I know, I know. It's been like three years since I've updated this story. I practically re-wrote the whole thing because I wasn't happy with it. Also, I have a new story up in the Mortal Kombat section if anyone is interested. It's called "The Shadows of Destiny." Anyway, like always, please R&R.
-Chris-