One of my nicest chapters, I think. I hope you like it :D

I've drawn a preliminary sketch of an AM-2 tank walker. If you guys are interested, I can upload it and post the link in my Author Profile. Just say so in a review :D Also, I'm going to get more in-depth with Dante now, and he'll take up the lead as main character. However, there will still be chunks or even full chapters from the secondary character's points of view, where it will show an outsider's view on Dante and other subjects. I plan to make this story very detailed.

Sister

"Oye. Robo-man. Where are we heading again?"

Dante made a sound suspiciously similar to a snort and stepped up to the pilot's area. "The Carpathian Mountains," he answered quietly. "Near Romania."

"What for?" Jack asked from his console. "Are we going to check out Gaia facilities there?"

Dante nodded silently. Something clicked in Sara's mind.

"Of course, only America has taken steps to stop Gaia so far," she said, tapping her chin with a finger. "I guess it only makes sense that we get rid of any other labs. But, shouldn't we head for home base at Isla Sorna?"

Dante shook his head. "While I was down in that hellhole, I found out some things," he said declared. "Too many loose lipped idiots working for my father. Turns out that one of the Romanian labs bred 97-series B.M.C.W.'s that weren't complete failures. Apparently they succeeded in injecting the G-Virus into freshly fertilized eggs and bred humans in test tubes. They were pretty tight lipped about it, but from what I heard there were a few 97s that survived initial testing and are still being held in their tubes."

"Are we going to save them or something?" Chris asked curiously. Dante's expression hardened.

"The exact opposite," he answered coldly. "I don't need any distractions or competition. Pilot, hurry it up."

-----

"Sir, we've got a faint thermal source on our sensors," a non-descript radar operator said in Romanian. "It's almost undetectable, but we have gotten faint flashes every once in a while that leads us to believe that it is some sort of aircraft and not the weather."

The ranking officer grinned unkindly at the holoscreen. "Well then comrade, what do you say we have our ... friends greet them once they arrive?"

"Yes sir. They seem to be heading towards the moutain facility in an erratic fashion, perhaps to try to throw us off. Whoever their pilot is, he's very good. He's already flown past the facility 7 times, each time being completely different in approach from what we can garner from the altitude vectors."

The officer chuckled. "Whoever they are, they won't be leaving us once they land," he sneered. "And we'll keep that interesting craft they have as well!"

-----

"Ugh," Sara muttered as she looked out the window. They had landed in a flat spot near the mountain and had disembarked onto one of the ship's hover LAVs. She was currently looking out in distaste at her surroundings.

"So dark and cold," she continued morosely, looking at the dead vegetation and rotting trees around her. "It's as if death has touched this place..."

"Probably because it has," Dante answered from his station at the 40mm launcher up front. He was suited up and ready for combat. "Anything Gaia touches brings death and destruction."

They drove along for another half hour before Jackson's computer displayed some readings.

"Here we go folks," he said, typing furiously and accidently jostling Allison's camera with his elbow. "Whoops sorry! The mountain wall 3 o' clock to us has a higher density than usual. The elemental readings show that the wall is in fact made out of titanium. I'm thinking it's a door?"

"You thought right," Dante answered, opening the hatch up top and hoisting himself onto the top of the armoured carrier. "You might want to stop, driver."

"Name's Sam," Sam grumbled.

"Whatever," Dante replied listlessly as he withdrew his canon from his pocket dimension. "Bang."

BOOOOOOOM!!

The fake wall was reduced to smoldering liquid metal as Dante's canon obliterated it. Klaxxon alarms sounded off, but after a few tense minutes, no one came to attack them and the sirens died out.

"Eh? What's this?" Chris asked as he charged his XM-30. "No welcoming party? I'm insulted!"

Allison rolled her eyes. "Keep it in your pants soldier-boy," she muttered, but somewhat fondly. Chris chuckled lecherously.

"That wasn't what you said last -"

"Shut up," Dante said tersely. "Let's go in already."

They quickly drove into the facility's entrance and exited the LAV, guns at the ready. Chris expertly directed his squad around to set up a perimeter and search for any hostiles, but Dante and Jack's scanners showed nothing. In fact, it was a veritable ghost town in there.

"Look's like the party's over," Jack said as he glanced at his scanner. "Showing a large number of organic life-forms, but none of them exhibit any signs of life. It's like Miami all over again..."

"Be wary," Dante warned. "The creatures won't show up on life scanners."

Sara tightened her grip on her XM-22 and shivered. If possible, this place was even creepier than Miami. At least that facility had functioning lights. The ones here flickered at best, casting long, ominous shadows. Sara's mind kept making them turn into monsters and other ghouls of the night. The intense beam of light her weapon gave out didn't reassure her.

"I hate the night," she muttered, her eyes flickering left and right. "So cold and uninviting. Death's embrace..."

Dante flicked his canon once and it transformed into sword mode. The bright blue beam blade made a large halo of light that made Sara feel slightly better. If not for the light, then for Dante's skill with said sword.

"Hayaku," he ordered. "Quickly, let's go already."

-----

"There's nothing here!" Allison declared as they headed down their fifth hallway. "Didn't you say there were bodies or something? Where is everyone?!"

"I don't know!" Jack spluttered, frustrated. "There should be corpses everywhere! God damn it, I wish all the lights were on!"

"Trust me, you're not missing much," Dante said dryly as he looked around. It was completely bare and empty. The entire facility was a ghost town, there were no humans, creatures or even bodies, despite what his sensors told him. Even the facility itself looked untouched. There were no signs of struggle, fights or even usage of anything there. There was no blood staining any surface, the computers looked brand new despite being several years old in technology and some haven't even been booted yet. The whole place looked... brand new.

And yet... the entire place stank something fierce. He could smell it.

"The main B.M.C.W. section is just up ahead," Dante said suddenly, startling Allison. "Let's go see what abominations Gaia M. cooked up there."

They entered an expansive room that had very high ceilings, at least 50 feet high. It was barren, like most of the facility save for the center, which was made out of titanium and had what looked to be circular depressions in the floor. There was a holo-console nearby.

"Check it out," Dante ordered Jack. A nod from his captain prompted the man to access the computer's data system.

"Hmm, well, not much here," he announced after some hand waving. "Most of the data has been hard-erased and whatever's left is heavily fragmented... I doubt I could get a single word out of this shit."

"What about machine commands?" Dante asked. Jack waved around a bit more.

"Something about locking the doors, don't need that... Alarm system, nope... hey, maybe this?" he said, reaching out to a white holographic cylinder. He grasped it with his hand and twisted it.

The room started to shake as loud mechanical grinds were heard. Everyone stumbled to keep their balance and Chris drew his rifle. "Dammit Jackson, what'd you do?" he hollered.

"I released the locks on something called 'embryos'!" Jack apologized as he jumped down from the console, shouldering his rifle in the process. "Sorry!"

Everyone took a defensive stance (minus Dante, who stood in front apathetically, and Allison, who hid in the rear) as the circular depressions opened up to reveal long glass cylinders. There were six total, and each were about 8 feet high and 4 feet wide. Five of the cylinders were broken, with the glass shattered on one side as if something had broken out but one was still intact...

It's glass had been fogged over and they couldn't see much inside the murky green depths. Dante cautiously walked towards the cylinder, which probably held some sort of Gaia M. monstrosity or worse. His sword was at the ready... Chris and his squad had their weapons aimed around Dante at the cylinder for backup.

"Something is alive in here," Dante whispered, pressing his fingers against the cool glass. The glass cracked, but not from Dante's strength.

-----

"They've entered the abandoned facility," a voice said deeply. "They are at its deepest levels. Orders?"

"It will be their new grave," another voice said. "Just like all the others."

"Very good."

"Send them out."

"Roger."

-----

"Dante..." Sara called shakily but it was too late.

The glass cylinder exploded and rained glass and green liquid all over Dante's suit. Even his lightning quick reflexes had been surprised at the suddeness of this and he couldn't move as something slammed into his stomach.

Everyone made to fire, but stopped, unsure, since it didn't look like Dante was being attacked. In fact... What the hell? Sara wondered.

A pair of thin, pale arms were wrapped around Dante's waist, in what appeared to be... a hug?

"Frate!" an incredibly sweet voice chirped.

"W-what the?" Dante gasped.

Looking down, he saw the creature that had him in a vice grip and couldn't even think for a moment. Wrapped around his waist was a tiny young girl, whose face was beaming up at him happily. She had a heart shaped face very similar to his and extremely long white hair also like his, that reached to her knees. When she finished beaming, and settled for a wide smile, she opened her eyes to reveal violet orbs that were large and wide. She was breathtaking, if not quite young. Pushing the girl back at arm's length, Dante saw that she was dressed in standard Gaia M. test subject clothes, which consisted of form-fitting white cotton pants and long sleeved shirt, which had velcro straps on the legs and arms. These straps could be attached together if the subject had to be restrained. Her identification was on a small badge on her tiny left breast, and it read 97-serious, număr 16 - Fiojna (97-series, number 16 - Fiona).

"Eu am chelner un timp îndelungat pentru tu!" the girl giggled, pressing against Dante again. She barely came up to his chest in height. Dante's onboard translator printed out what she had said to him on his inner display.

"What?" he dumbly asked in English. She looked up at him and cocked her head to the side.

"Oh, yoo speak dat?" she asked in a heavy Roman accent. She looked around Dante at the other broken cylinders curiously. "Vhere are our seesters?"

She broke away from a thoroughly confused Dante and wandered around the empty cylinders, examining each one. She spoke some Romanian each time she looked at one. She looked to be getting sadder and sadder as she passed each one.

"Vhere are seesters?" she asked sadly, touching the broken glass of one cylinder. "I am very sad. I vanted them to meet big brother... Seesters, vhere are yoo?"

She timidly walked back to Dante, and held his hand as if she were frightened. She turned her big violet eyes up at him. "Ve find them, da?" she pleaded.

"Who are you?" Dante asked in wonder. The girl smiled up at him and clutched onto his arm with both of hers.

"Yoo vouldn't know us, da?" she asked. "Ve are precursers to the von hundred series, da. The bad men try to make many of us, but many of my seesters died because of bad men. Vhen they found out dat ve had no powers like yoo, big brother, the bad men get very angry. Many seesters had bad things happen to them. They vere used as toys, but I vas special, so I vas lucky."

The young girl looked at the surrounding cylinders sadly. "My last seesters vere vith me last time I remember," she frowned, putting a finger to her lips. "I hope they are okay."

"Is your name... Fiona?" Dante asked. She beamed.

"Yes big brother!" she chirped.

"And what makes you special?" he prodded.

"Ummm," she made a thoughtful expression and put the finger from her lip to her temple. "Ah! I see mind!"

"You... see mind?" Dante asked incredulously. She nodded cheerfully.

"I see big brother's mind," she said. "I see vooman vith gun mind. I see man vith gun mind. I see mind."

She pouted unhappily. "Big man vith gun vant to shoot me," she pouted. Dante looked over his shoulder to Chris, who lowered his XM-30 quickly.

"Uh, er, well yeah," he said sheepishly. "I was thinkin' bout it."

Dante turned back to the girl Fiona. "You can read minds!" he gasped. She just smiled up at him.

"Da!" she said happily.

Sara braved herself and walked up to Dante and the girl. "How - how old are you?"

"I am sixteen," Fiona stated proudly.

"You look 12," Sara said dryly.

Fiona "hmphed" and tossed her long translucent hair to the side with a flick of her hand. "Blame the bad men," she said. "They make us age slow. Ve vere born vith Albinism OCA1. But luckily, ve veren't veak like normal hoomans vith OCA1."

"That explains the skin and eyes," Jack said as the rest walked up. "She's very pale, but it looks healthy, kinda like yours Robo-dude."

Dante growled and opened his helmet. "How many times do I have to tell you?" he grated. "I'm - somewhat - human!"

"Get rid of the suit and we'll talk," Jack waved dissmissively. He knelt down to look Fiona in the eye. "So little lady, can you explain what happened here?" he asked. "It's a ghost town, where is everyone?"

Fiona tilted her head to the side and smiled widely, so that her eyes were closed from it. "Dead!" she exclaimed happily.

"... Dead?" everyone surrounding her asked.

"Da!" she chirped. "Big seesters did not like being playtheengs. Bad men violate them, so they violate bad men!"

Everyone looked at eachother warily. Chris unconsciously flicked the selector switch on his XM-30 to auto.

"Do, uh, your sisters look like you?" he asked.

Fiona shook her head. "Big seesters change when hungry," she replied cryptically.

Suddenly, loud hyena-like shrieks of laughter were heard far off in the distance from the hallway. Soon, many more shrieks were heard and it sounded like a horrific symphony of inhuman cries.

"What the hell?" Allison cried, ducking behind Chris as she aimed her camera over his shoulder. "What is it?!"

"Aha!" Fiona giggled, turning away from Dante as she began to skip towards the hallway.

"Hey little girl, wait!" Sam yelled, but she sidled past him easily and went out into the hallway.

-----

"Soră!" she cried happily as dark forms loomed around her. Several of the 7 foot tall beings minded the tiny young girl standing in the middle of the hallway, but soon ignored her as they followed the others to the door to the embryo room. More shrieks of bloodlust were heard.

"Oh?" Fiona said softly, turning around to watch the creatures force their way into the room. "Big seesters are ignoring me. Big brother will be ok but the others vill be hurt. I must stop big seesters..."

She turned in a daze, and began to walk back to the room.

-----

"You think she's okay?" Sara asked from behind their hastily made shield. Everyone was behind several toppled file cabinets and had their weapons trained at the door.

"Well she did walk out into God knows what calmly and whatnot, so she probably knows what she's doing," Jack laughed nervously. "... Right?"

"She seems very sweet for a crime against nature," Allison commented as she trained her camera on the door. "I hope she's alright."

"Something evil, comes this way," Dante said with a tinge of excitement. He gripped his sword tightly in his right hand.

The door exploded from its hinges and tall, dark forms flew into the room, positively pouring out of the doorway. Everyone who could opened fire as the dark creatures darted around the large room quickly. Soon, however, it came clear to the Special Forces that they were just too slow to hit whatever these things were and it showed from their lightning quick movements, almost as fast as Dante himself, who stood still, watching the proceedings. Still, the soldiers poured fire into the room, somewhat successfully keeping the monsters at bay.

The largest shadow suddenly pounced upon the group, a darkly veiled arm streaking towards Sara, long claws aimed at her face. Sara remained frozen in the spot, and the claws drew closer... and closer...

Suddenly, the claws dissapeared from her vision as a grey blur entered. Dante used his incredible strength to leap over Sara's head and smashed the tall figure back with the pommel of his sword. It shrieked angrily and landed on the ground on all fours, hissing furiously at the titan warrior, who stood in front of it.

All other movement stopped as the largest of both sides prowled around eachother, looking for a weakness. The multitudes of dark forms lined against the wall, almost as if they were eager to watch what would happen next, and completely ignored the humans off to the side.

Suddenly, the tall creature leapt at Dante with incredible speed and reached out to eviscerate him with its claws. It would prove pointless, as Dante merely corkscrewed into the air, dodging the attack by a mile and grabbing the thing's leg. As he landed, he twisted his body around, bringing his arm into a powerful throw as he launched the creature into the sky. Not pausing in his attack, Dante leapt up to meet the creature in mid air, and once again he avoided attack by slapping its arms away from him. Grabbing the creature by the scruff of its neck, he hurled it towards the floor, where it slammed into one of the cylinder containers, completely flattening it.

Dante landed nearby and powered his sword, the bright blue dual edged blade hissing and crackling as it extended out to its full length. In the blink of an eye, he dashed towards the crumpled figure on the ground and slashed down at it.

"NO!"

Dante's sword stopped mere milimeters from the creature's throat and the blade hovered there, humming softly with power. Gritting his teeth, he turned his eye to see Fiona standing in the middle of the room, wrenching her hands together in despair.

"No big brother, don't!" she cried, tears in her eyes.

"I must kill this monster!" Dante growled, the sword shaking in his hands. "Don't interrupt!"

Fiona shook her head hard, her ivory locks whipping about wildly. "No, don't hurt big seester!" she cried again, fat tear drops rolling down her cheeks.

"Big sister?" Dante asked, shocked. He turned back to the humanoid shadow, which began to get lighter, and shrink. Lifting his sword a foot away from its neck, Dante watched in wonder as the 8 foot shadow creature transformed into a beautiful woman of average height and long ivory hair. She looked like an older version of Fiona.

The woman stood up neatly, and brushed off her subject clothes, which looked tattered with age. "Fiojna," she said in a warning tone, her voice deep and sultry. "Do not interfere vith me and the outsider."

"But you can't fight him!" Fiona cried, stamping her foot.

"Fiojna," the woman said calmly, but dangerously. "Yoo are still a young von, and do not know the ways of your older seesters. You know that all outsiders vill be puneeshed."

"But it's big brother!" Fiona argued. "Yoo can't fight big brother!"

"Oh?" the older woman asked curiously, glancing at Dante's still form. "Is this true? Hmm?"

"Show big seester!" Fiona prodded Dante. He shrugged and opened his helmet, causing the older woman to gasp, and sink to her knees in a bow of forgiveness.

"B-brother!" she exclaimed, bowing down so that her face touched her hands, which were flat on the floor. "I - I did not know!"

Strange sucking noises caught the others' attention as the shadow creatures that surrounded them sucked the darkness into their bodies and transformed into many gorgeous woman of varying ages. They too, got down onto their hands and knees.

"What's going on here?" Chris asked in an annoyed tone as he clutched his rifle tightly. No one could give him an answer.

Fiona ran up to Dante and threaded her hand into his with a smile. "Ve have vaited so long for big brother to come!" she said excitedly, and the women all murmured in agreement. "Now ve can leave this place forever, Daciana!"

"Fiojna," Daciana placated softly, touching the younger girls' arm. "Ve older seesters are not like yoo. Ve cannot stand the sun, or slake our lust for blood."

"But, but..." Fiona's eyes got huge and watery. "Ve vaited for this day for so long!"

Daciana knelt down in front of Fiona and gather her into a big hug, though the girl still clutched Dante's hand tightly. "Fiojna," she whispered, her pale blue eyes shining with unshed tears. "Our little moon child. Vhen you vere born, the hearts of all the seesters burst vith joy. Yoo vere different. Ve knew you vould von day leave us behind. Big brother vill take good care of you, da?"

Fiona sniffled and both females looked up at Dante, who could only nod helplessly.

Daciana brushed Fiona's hair back tenderly and gently stroked her cheek. "If ve big seesters try to leave here, the sun will kill us all," she explained. "Ve don't haff the natural immunity that Fiojna has in her body. Ve are trapped here."

"I.. I'm sorry," Dante said lamely.

Standing up, Daciana wiped her eyes and gave Fiona a pat on the head. "It is for the best," she declared. "Ve are killink machines, ve know that. But our little flower, Fiojna, has a chance to be happy. Ve seesters vould nevar take that avay from her. You vill make sure she leads a happy life big brother, da?"

"I swear it," he replied solumnly.

"Ah," Daciana said tearfully, placing a hand on his chest and stroking his cheek. "Ve haff vaited 30 years to see you big brother, and yoo haff to leave us too soon."

"We can stay a bit longer," Dante said with a frown. Daciana shook her head sadly.

"Vonce the sun goes down, ve cannot control ourselves," she said wistfully. "Ve are overcome vith bloodlust, ve kill and eat anything ve can find. If yoo stay, yoo vill either die or kill us all to save yourselves."

Dante put his hand to Daciana's cheek and stroked it lovingly, an act that shocked his companions to the core. "It's so unfair for us creations that it has to be like this," he said softly, cupping Daciana's cheek in his large hand. "How I wish you could be free, little sister."

Daciana smiled at him with watery eyes. "Ve are tortured souls brother," she whispered. "The bad men took our freedom, our lives and our purity. Ve vill alvays be tainted souls. But, ve have hope. Hope that lies in yoo brother."

She melted into Dante into a tight hug. "Yoo vill free us all, big brother," she breathed almost silently. "Nevar forget that yoo are not alone in this vorld, a part of you rests vith all us seesters, and a part of us, in you." She put a hand on his chest, where his heart beat powerfully. "Though ve have just met, know that ve love you very much brother."

Daciana kissed Dante lightly on the cheek, and stepped back as the hundreds of her sisters followed suit. Many gave him pecks on the cheeks, or hugs and all wished him well and good luck on his mission. When they were done, it was a slightly red eyed Dante that lifted Fiona up into his arms as he gave the 97 Sisters one last look, before sweeping away silently.

-----

"They're still alive sir," the deep voice said in disbelief. "Their vehicle is currently leaving the facility. What are our orders?"

"Damn!" the second voice cursed. "Sound the alarm! We will kill those fools!"

"Hello, bad man," a sultry voice purred from above in the shadows. The two military men froze dead in their seats, paralyzed in fear. The first man even gave birth to a new lump of joy in the seat of his pants. "Big brother left the front door open for us."

"N-no! NO! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGHHH!"

All around the hidden forest complex, Gaia M. mercenary soldiers were mercilessly slaughter by Daciana and her sisters as they slaked their bloodlust in the night sky. From that day onward, the 97 Sisters would flourish in the abandoned Gaia M. facility and the newly inhabited military complex for the rest of their unnatural lives. They would then keep a large number of soldiers alive, so that they would produce fresh blood for the sister to feed on for many, many years to come.

"Ah, big sister," a younger 97 called as she walked forward, freshly spilt blood on her lips as she bared her elongated canines in a joyful smile. In her hands she clutched a mutilated body of a soldier, blood pouring from inummarable slashes from his body. "Do yoo think big brother vill come back to visit?"

Daciana looked at the moonlit night with no small amount of awe. "Look at the night sky sister," she breathed. "It is the first time I have evar seen it."

Ilinca gasped at the sight of the full moon and starry sky. "It is beautiful, sister," she gasped.

Daciana smiled beautifully. "If ve believe in him, brother will come back to us from a free vorld," she declared. "A vorld he vill free."

"Da, soră," Ilinca whispered, smiling widely. "He vill."

Translations:

"Frate!" - "Brother!"

"Eu am chelner un timp îndelungat pentru tu!" - "I have waited a long time for you!"

"Soră!" - "Sisters!"

Revision 1 3/21/07