Disclaimer: I do not own the boys, Lady, or DMC. Capcom does and they should be ashamed about what they are doing to Dante!
Chapter 4: Stubborn Research
Lady was the first to step into the room as Danny politely held the door open to her.
Brushing past not even a second later, Vergil made a bee-line for the cart of their entire luggage which stood in the center of the room.
Lady watched him with a bemused expression as he pulled aside her carry-on bag and another suit case before reaching his prize. Running his hands slowly over the long, narrow weapon's case, Vergil deftly pulled a key out of an inner pocket on his long blue coat and carefully inserted it into the case lock.
Sighing, Lady wanted nothing more than to join him and ascertain that her own beloved weapons were all accounted for and in the same pristine condition that she had packed them away in. Unfortunately there were a lot more important things to attend to first.
Looking back to Danny, she found him watching Vergil with wide eyes. "Uhem," she cleared her throat slightly to catch the young man's attention. When his eyes turned at least part ways in her direction, she started with her orders. "Your boss said you had all the gear and video tapes that those local hunters had been using. I'll need to see all of it."
"Uh, yeah. I've got all of that stuff down in the security offices. Give me an hour and I'll have it ready for you." he replied, most of his attention still focused on Vergil who was lifting the elegant katana from its case reverently. "Is that real?" Danny breathed out in awe.
Glancing back in Vergil's direction to catch sight of the partially unsheathed gleaming blade as Vergil inspected it critically; Lady sighed and answered, "Yes. In the right hands it is a very effective tool against supernatural beings."
Danny's face went nearly ashen and his voice lowered even further. "Are his the 'right' hands?" he asked, swallowing noisily.
"It is his sword." Lady replied, hearing the click as Vergil sheathed Yamato. Relieved, she stepped into Danny's line of sight to take his attention fully off Vergil. "I'll also need to talk with your contact within the police department. If you could set up a meeting for tonight yet, it would be greatly appreciated."
With his sight forcibly diverted from Vergil, Danny's light brown eyes met hers and he nodded, becoming professional once more. "I'll have it arranged. If you'd like to meet me down in the lobby in an hour, then I should have everything you need by then."
"Thank-you" Lady spoke, and turned away from Danny as he took his leave, closing the door softly behind himself.
With Danny gone, Lady took stock of her surroundings, glancing over the room with a quick but trained eye. The room wasn't overly large but neither was it small. Separated by a small rise in the floor, a large bed took up most of the space on the elevated portion of the floor, with only two lone dressers standing against the wall beside it. On the portion of the room that wasn't elevated, on which she was currently standing, an antique wooden table and chair set stood just off to the side from where she stood. Further off and back toward the opposite wall another old piece of furniture sat, the antique globe and small representation of Leonardo DaVinci's flying machine ordained the top of the old desk. Paintings of all sorts decorated the walls, while pottery and sculptures sat atop any available space.
"Well, I suppose it could have been worse. It could have been a safari theme." Lady mused absently.
Spinning the old globe, Vergil looked away from it and toward her. "Oh come now, surely you wouldn't prefer snuggling up to the poor imitation of a skinned cat and run about pretending to be an Amazon warrior?" Vergil teased, a smirk tugging at the corners of his mouth.
Completely flabbergasted by Vergil's uncharacteristic teasing, Lady blinked dumbfounded at him for a few moments before she was able to collect herself and respond. "You know, most of the time I have a hard time believing you and Dante could even be related, never mind actually being siblings. But then every so often you go and say something 'demented', just like now, and I am very clearly reminded of the fact that you two are 'very' much twins." Lady said with a shake of her head.
Pointedly ignoring the glare that was now focused on her, Lady headed to the cart of luggage to insure that all of her own weapons had made it through the trip.
Pausing, Lady glanced toward Vergil again - now that he had given up glaring at her - to find him once more patrolling the perimeter of their hotel room. A smirk lit Lady's features as she watched him; her own personal walking, talking, breathing EMF reader. On the plus side, he was far more accurate and had the ability to inform her of what type of creature was producing the EMF signals, compared to that of a digital device. The biggest problem lay in that unlike the small electronic contraption, Vergil only told her as much as he was willing to give up.
Frowning at that thought, Lady mumbled "jerk" under her breath before returning to her previous task of pulling out and inspecting all of her guns.
Once she had insured that all her weapons were in order, Lady fitted a knife into the side of her boot - she honestly hated going anywhere without some sort of weapon on her person - and looked around once more for Vergil. Unable to find him within the direct vicinity of her, she mounted the few steps that would take her into the elevated bedroom. The bed was massive and an exquisite piece of artwork in its own as roses were intricately carved into the headboard, baseboard and even the legs of the rich wooden frame.
Behind the bed, the room opened out onto a balcony where Vergil stood leaning against the rail gazing out over the city. Joining him, Lady crossed her arms on the rail and leaned against it, enjoying for many long moments the comfortable silence and Vergil's quiet presence that he so rarely offered.
"Pathetic." Vergil broke the silence with his venomous voice. "A whole city devoted entirely to creating the illusion of perfection, little more than a mirage in a desert. It is insanity to believe that the world and its problems would come to an end upon entry."
"Maybe. But is it so bad to try and forget about the evils of the world and you own problems for a little bit and just relax in the sun and pretend even for just a few couple of hours that the world has stopped turning?" asked Lady, looking at Vergil through her hair as she continued to lean against the rail.
"Why try to pretend? The darkness beyond the light will always be there waiting. Why wait, hiding within the light, to confront the darkness? It will not disappear and the longer you pretend it does not exist, the stronger it will become. Just the same as a person who lazily puts off changing the burnt out light bulbs in his home, only to wake up one day to find that all the lights have burnt out." Vergil replied bitterly, his head turning just enough so that he could watch her.
Seeing that this wasn't getting anywhere and beginning to agree with Vergil - a dangerous notion in itself - Lady expertly changed the subject. "So do you think Dante had anything to do with it?" she asked, turning her head to look back out over the city and prevent Vergil from seeing how close he had come to convincing her of his point.
Blinking at the abrupt change in subject, Vergil stepped away from the rail, turning to head back into the hotel room. "Was there ever any doubt. Palmer has not the gall to come up with such an idea on his own."
Pushing away from the rail, Lady followed Vergil at a leisurely pace. "That's what I figured. Remind me to kick Dante's ass when we get back."
"I'm certain you will have no trouble remembering on your own." Vergil spoke with a glance over his shoulder as he headed past the large bed with long graceful strides. He paused at the railing that separated the elevated bedroom, looking out over the rest of the room, his frozen eyes falling on a painting directly across from him of a dark haired stern looking young woman. Though not the Mona Lisa it was a very good portrait, making the woman look almost life like.
"What are you feeling?" Lady questioned seriously, referring to the EMF signals that were no-doubt tingling Vergil's demonic blood. Dante had often laughed and jokingly said his 'spider-sense was tingling', when placed in similar situations.
There was no reaction from Vergil and after many long tense minutes when Lady was about ready to throw her hands up in frustration and thoughts of chocking the necessary answers out of Vergil, flittered through her head, did he finally speak. "There is a spirit trapped within the painting, but it is not the painting that I find most perplexing."
"What?" asked Lady, if Vergil found something perplexing then it usually meant nothing but trouble.
Instead of giving her a straight answer though, a devilish smirk pulled at his lips, causing Lady's insides to recoil and her defences to flare to life.
"Perhaps a game is in order, or rather a test to determine the depth of your own hunter instincts. Can you locate the object of my bewilderment without my assistance?" he challenged haughtily, making it sound as if she were nothing more than a novice hunter.
Bristling with barely contained fury, Lady pulled her hands into tight fists and with great effort kept them at her side and growled out, "I'm not playing your stupid game, I don't have anything to prove. If anyone needs to prove something it's you!"
Raising an elegant platinum eyebrow, Vergil did not rise to her bait; instead he turned from her and goaded her on. "Well then I will take your accusatory statement as an admission of incapability."
Outraged, Lady slammed her fist on the rail, wishing for nothing more than to wipe that smirk off the white haired devil's face. With her temper flaring, she nearly fell for Vergil's challenge, but Lady caught herself in the last second from marching down into the rest of the room and finding the offending object. Instead she forced herself to calm down and think rationally, she knew the game he was playing all too well. Two can play that game! "Or maybe…" she carried out the last word in a soft almost seductive tone. To further make an impact she slowly circled around Vergil until she stood directly in front of him before continuing her worded assault. "It's really you that is incapable, and your 'game'," she stressed the word and carefully kept full eye contact with the glacial blue eyes of her opponent. Lifting a hand to place on his black silk covered chest, Lady's wrist was caught and held before she could actually touch the icy cold demon standing before her. Paying no mind to his grip on her, Lady continued, "Is all just a ruse, to have me locate the object that is having your 'spidey-sense'," she used Dante's term for the ability, "tingling, so that you can keep face."
Vergil's eyes narrowed dangerously and he tugged her so close that all she needed to do was lean forward to press their bodies together. Dipping his head so that his warm breath ghosted over her ear and neck, causing shivers to race down Lady's spine, Vergil spoke huskily. "Don't push your luck." With that he released her and pulled away quickly, using his long strides to put distance between them.
Only when he was on the main level did Vergil speak again. "It is the vase." he proclaimed without giving away which vase in particular he meant or even bothering to look at her.
Lady continued watching Vergil's blue coated back as he moved away from her, still working on slowing the rate of her racing heart. She hated what he did to her when in such close proximity. Often, if their sparing matches hadn't been broken up by another member of Devil May Cry, the matches would also end up with the same results. It didn't matter who was the victor, their eyes would lock and their bodies stiffen and then abruptly they would pull apart with either one of them or both nearly running for cover. Convincing herself that it was merely because of her hatred for the stuck up son of Sparda, and his for her, Lady was slowly beginning to find it more and more difficult to convince herself of that reality and instead small nagging doubts about the issue began to bother her. She wondered if these same doubts plagued Vergil, though she'd rather die than ask him about it.
Bringing her body back under control with a final shuddering breath, Lady went to work. Taking the long way around in order to keep her eyes cautiously on Vergil, as one might watch a large predator - it wasn't that she was afraid of him, Lady was quite capable of holding her own against him, it was just that she didn't trust him - Lady did a quick sweep of the room until she found what she was looking for.
Taking all of her gaze off the blue-coated devil sitting nearly across the room from her, Lady focused entirely on the painting. The dark-haired woman within the painting seemed to glare down at any observer.
A shiver traced its way up Lady's spine and the hair on the back of her neck stood at attention as she felt Vergil's sharp gaze on her, his gaze as intense as the one she had been giving him. Quelling the shivers, Lady couldn't help but feel a certain measure of pride that Vergil - the high and mighty son of Sparda - considered her enough of a threat to warrant so much of his attention.
Giving Vergil no more heed, Lady focused on her job and lowering her gaze from the possessed painting gave her attention to the unassuming old clay vase that sat atop a cabinet that was used to store the table cloths in.
Picking up the vase, Lady examined the odd symbols and markings that had been etched into the clay. Somehow the symbols seemed familiar and yet… not. Frowning at the puzzle that was being provided, Lady pulled out the flowers that the hotel staff had casually placed into it and dumped them into a nearby waste basket.
Turning, she placed the vase on the dining table and pulled out one of the high backed chairs. Before sitting, she moved back to the cart containing their luggage and rummaged through it until she found the briefcase containing the laptop that Lucia had insisted on her taking, and the notebook that she always took with her on out of town jobs.
Returning to the table and the vase, Lady set up her research materials on the table and took a seat in the comfortable antique chair.
A look in Vergil's direction told her that he hadn't moved from his spot in an arm chair in front of the TV. He sat rigidly watching her, Yamato leaning in a relaxed position against his knee.
"So is this it?" Lady asked, gesturing with a sweep of her hand to both the vase before her and the painting still on the wall.
"I detected nothing more." Vergil answered stiffly and then visibly relaxing, his blue eyes looked elsewhere and a bored expression returned to his face.
Lady rolled her eyes at his attitude and then opened her notebook giving the vase her undivided attention once more.
After sketching the seemingly archaic symbols into her notebook, Lady opened the laptop and snarled in frustration as she caught a glimpse of the time. "Damn it!" she was supposed to meet Danny in only a minute.
Standing she shut the laptop and snapped her notebook closed. She was about to leave the room when she realised that Vergil hadn't moved even a muscle. Moving rapidly back through the room, Lady stopped to look down at Vergil in annoyance. "We're going to be late." she snapped irritably.
"'You' will be late." Vergil responded by stressing the singular pronoun, still making no move to get up as both of his arms were relaxed on the arms of his chair with his hands dangling over the edges.
Lady narrowed her ruby and sapphire eyes. "You're not coming?" she asked and even as the words left her mouth she knew he would rebuke her for it.
As expected he lifted his face, annoyance marring his handsome features. "I had taken you for higher intelligence; my apparent mistake." he spoke viciously. "In answer to your question… no, I am 'not' coming."
Grinding her teeth, Lady had the urge to try and throttle him yet again. "So what, you're just going to sit here then?" she asked through clenched teeth, her fists balled once more at her sides.
"That is precisely what I intend to do." The statement was said with such arrogance that Lady would have liked nothing more than to flip the chair over backwards and knock the pompous half-devil off his high horse.
Forcing herself to breathe and control her rising hatred for the dark twin, Lady recalled the words he had told her months ago about rushing into battle, now she used those same words against him. "And whatever happened to 'study your opponent before engaging in combat'?" she asked in mocking tones.
Vergil's glare would have instantly killed any insect unwary enough to fly through his line of sight. "I 'fully' intend on 'studying' the creature," Vergil sneered; the only sign other than his glare of his rising ire was a small twitch in the fingers of his right hand.
Lady noticed the twitch and curl of Vergil's long fingers as he undoubtedly thought of curling his fingers around Yamato's hilt, but as per usual she refused to back down to him and as he finished his sentence she wished for the comforting grip of one of her guns or possibly even Kalina Ann.
"Moments before I kill it." Vergil continued his onslaught. "But you - a human - would be incapable of understanding such tactics." Vergil sneered, his eyes tempting… No! Daring her to disagree and start the fight that they were both itching to begin.
Red bursts appeared in Lady's vision as she used every fibre of her being to keep herself from doing something… anything. She would behave herself, even if Vergil could not. He may have been too much of a gentleman to strike the first physical blow, but the white-haired devil before her was as much a master of words as he was a master of the elegant sword leaning against his leg, and at the moment those words may as well have been made of sharpened matter.
Seeing that she was in fact not going to attack him, Vergil looked away, bored once more, and with a dismissive wave of his hand let the last of his verbal strikes drop. "So run along then and attend to 'your research'. You can be assured that come morning the case will have been dealt with and then we can return home at the earliest opportunity."
If there was one thing Lady hated more than being called 'human', 'weak' and 'incapable', it was being ordered around. Screaming in both rage and frustration, Lady turned on heel and nearly ran for the door before she did something she would regret.
Passing the dining table, Lady grabbed a worthless candlestick that was being used as a centerpiece and turning back in Vergil's direction snarled wrathfully, "I Don't Take Orders From You!" With that said, she flung the candlestick hatefully at Vergil's head and without waiting to see, and not particularly caring about the outcome, she marched to the door, her booted heels ringing against the wooden floor boards with each step. Flinging the door open, she slammed it shut behind herself.
It took the entire trip down to the lobby of the hotel before Lady had calmed down enough to not only think rationally, but to also prevent herself from further frightening hotel guests with the venomous look she had worn since leaving Vergil.
She really couldn't believe how childish he was being - that normally being more of Dante's prerogative. Ever since this morning though Vergil had worked overtime at letting her know that he didn't want to be going anywhere and with only two respites, he also seemed to deliberately be trying to draw her into a fight. She knew though, like herself, it was only in battle where he truly relieved pent up stress. With the only outlet of his frustrations being her, and with an apparent overpowering need to vent that was great enough for Vergil to disregard the rules, it was up to Lady to ensure that proper behaviour was maintained.
Sighing, Lady pulled a gloved hand through her dark hair. Funny, she thought mildly, she understood Vergil so well... yet they just couldn't stop their constant bickering.
Stepping off the elevator as it came to a stop and the doors opened, Lady found Danny already waiting.
"Just you?" Danny asked craning his head around in attempts to look for Vergil.
"Yes." Lady answered grouchily, reminded of why that was.
"Oh," Danny visibly relaxed and smiled charmingly. "Our police contact will meet with you here at the casino around midnight. In the meantime I got all that stuff set up for you, but before that I was thinking maybe you'd like to get something to eat?"
At the mere mention of food, Lady's stomach quickly reminded her of the fact that she hadn't eaten anything since before getting on the airplane early in the morning.
Danny grinned knowingly as he too heard the loud grumble of Lady's stomach. "Come on, the restaurant here is really good." He gestured with a wave of his hand and began walking across the casino's main floor.
Flushing in embarrassment at the lack of her body's control, Lady nodded helplessly and followed the young sandy haired man.
An hour later and Lady readily admitted that Danny had been right; the food in the casino's restaurant was to die for. She couldn't help but eye the delicious chocolate cake sitting before her, even though her stomach felt about to burst. Giving in, she revelled in its rich taste and listened absently as Danny continued to talk. Within the last hour she had learned that despite his youth, Danny had already made head of security at the casino. An impressive feat and decidedly worthy of her respect, although his insistence that there was no such things as ghosts, goblins, demons and any other supernatural being despite evidence to the contrary, had lost that briefly won respect.
Sticking another piece of the moist cake in her mouth, Lady decided that Vergil was a fool for missing this. There was nothing better than chocolate cake with rich butter chocolate frosting! She paused that thought as her ears caught the words massage and spa coming out of Danny's mouth. 'Cept that, Lady mused thoughtfully.
Danny kept speaking, painting a vivid image of the beautiful pool and spa area, likening it to that of an exotic oasis.
Hmmm, maybe she would have to use at least one day of their trip and take the rare chance to relax. A stray thought that could only have come from some naughty part of her brain, entertained the idea of convincing Vergil to done a pair of trunks and join her in relaxing under the hot desert sun.
Horrified a second later by that particular thought, the sane and rational part of Lady's mind quickly caught and stomped out the insane idea hoping that it would be gone for good. Vergil in trunks… that'd be the day!
Finishing the decadent treat, Lady decided then that if she ingested anything else, she really was going to bust.
"Danny!" A woman's voice called and Lady watched as Danny cringed.
Looking up, Lady continued to watch as a darkly tanned woman walked up to their table. Much taller than Lady herself was, the woman brushed her curly black hair absently over her shoulder and looked down at Danny in both irritation and disapproval.
"Danny, I need you to look up some footage for me." she demanded, placing a hand on the hip of the black dress pants she wore. The rest of hr attire was also stylish yet conservative, with a glitzy light tan top standing out on the woman the most.
"Ah, Charlotte, I'm kinda busy right now." Danny answered softly, attempting to speak out of the corner of his mouth.
"I don't care." Charlotte responded, her full glossed lips pursing together in further annoyance. "I need that footage."
Seeing this as an excellent opportunity to get back to her own work, Lady integrated nonchalantly. "I actually need to get back to my own research, so if you'd be so kind as to show me that equipment I requested…"
Danny sighed in defeat while Charlotte, as if noticing Lady for the first time, looked over her critically, quietly sizing Lady up. Lady didn't mind the scrutiny as she similarly sized the other woman up. Like herself, Lady found that the concierge lived for her job, doing all that was necessary to complete her tasks and keep the guests of the hotel happy. Charlotte's style of fashion was right up Vergil's aisle. While accenting her figure, it was neither revealing nor overly conservative, leaving the black haired casino hostess as an ever unattainable object of desire to any she crossed paths with.
Lady could respect that, though often her choice of clothing was just more practical for the work she did - the less baggy clothing she wore, the less of a chance the demons had of catching a hold of her and therefore the greater her chances were of walking away from a battle unscathed.
Apparently satisfied with what she saw, Charlotte's gaze relaxed and she spoke in an approving tone. "Well I'm glad to see Palmer actually hired some decent hunters this time." she held out a well manicured hand. "I'm Charlotte. If you need anything, just come find me."
Standing, Lady took the offered hand and shook it easily. "Lady." she introduced herself, and then curiously asked, "I take it you aren't in denial about the supernatural like Danny here is?" Lady gestured with a gloved hand to the young security manager who was only now getting up.
Charlotte chuckled at the red blush that crept up the fair skin of Danny's cheeks. "I'm not so sure about ghosts, but I've seen what demons are capable of." Charlotte answered seriously.
"Can we get going?" Danny interrupted impatiently now that he was being ignored by both women.
Without answering, Charlotte turned and walked out of the restaurant, her heels hitting the tiled floor sharply. Quickly taking the lead from her in an attempt to maintain his role of importance and repair his injured pride, Danny led them though the casino.
Moving into step with the taller woman, Lady continued her conversation, curious about what Charlotte had meant by 'decent hunters'. "So the last hunters… you think they were just too young or something?" Lady questioned.
Charlotte snorted in disdain. "More like internet dorks on a mission to prove that aliens exist."
"Complete with face full's of acne." Danny added with a mocking chuckle.
Frowning at that information, Lady knew if Vergil found out he'd have a field day with it, going on and on about the wretchedness of humans.
Charlotte did not allow Lady's thoughts to go any further as she continued brightly. "But it's nice to see a woman capable of handling herself against the things that go bump in the night."
Utterly flattered by the comment, Lady smiled pride fully as Charlotte continued cheerfully. "Not to mention it must come with some pretty sweet job perks."
"Well," Lady started, happy to oblige Charlotte's curiosity. "I do have an arsenal of guns."
"Cool!" Charlotte murmured in awe.
"I even have a rocket launcher."
"Is that even legal?" Danny asked glancing over his shoulder to look at the two women behind him as he paused to open a door marked employees only.
Lady shrugged uncaringly, and Charlotte saved her from answering the question by asking another of her own. "I guess you also get to deal with a lot of hot guys, hmm?"
That was a topic that Lady was not altogether comfortable with, usually leaving it to Lucia and Trish to discuss and kept her opinions to herself. It didn't mean that she was blind though and feeling a new companionship with the confident casino hostess, Lady decided to indulge for a change.
"Well…" she began, allowing for a little suspense. "My business partner and his brother are Brad Pitt rivals."
"Really?" Charlotte asked in disbelief, her dark eyes widening. "Wow!" she exclaimed and then as an idea visibly hit her, Charlotte slowly smirked. "And one of these eye candy brothers is the man that came here with you, right?" she asked, a plan already forming in her mind.
"Yes." Lady answered slowly not yet sure if she liked where Charlotte's apparently devious mind was going.
"Hmmm…" Charlotte's smirk grew. "Then we'll need to see about…"
"Charlotte!" Danny rebuked crossly. "They are here to work, not to put on a show for the rest of the guests in the hotel!" He stood next to a door in the long hallway that they had just traversed through with both hand on his hips.
"Bah, you're no fun." Charlotte grumbled, and folded her arms over her chest in retaliation.
Looking between the two uncertainly, Lady waited for what seemed an eternity before Danny turned toward the door and opened it. "I have all the possessions of those dead hunters in here. If you need anything else at all, I'll be just two doors down on your right hand side in the control room."
Lady nodded and then stopped just as she was about to enter into the small room. "Actually I forgot my laptop and notebook upstairs in the room." she said, irritated that she had forgotten those two important items and all because a certain half-demon was being his usual asshole self.
"I can get it for you." Charlotte offered helpfully, though Lady could only guess of the ulterior motives behind it.
"Thank you, but I think it would be best to get it myself." Lady stated; she really didn't want to have to subject anyone else to Vergil's rotten mood, nor run the risk of someone else getting hurt because of him.
"Nonsense, it won't be a problem." Charlotte smiled and with a quick look into the room said, "Besides, it looks like you've got a ton of junk to wade through. You can get started, Danny can get the footage I need and I'll get your stuff."
Lady sighed, the hotel concierge was right of course. "Alright, thank you. But just to warn you, you may not want to disturb the white haired blue blob sitting in the easy chair."
"Bad day?" Charlotte asked knowingly.
"Something like that." Lady grumbled and walked into the room looking over the dead hunters' junk lying strewn over a table.
"I'll keep it in mind." Charlotte answered, and disappeared, her heels clicking against the floor as she walked back down the way they had come.
"Remember, I'm just two doors down." Danny supplied once more before he too disappeared, leaving Lady to sort through the collection of cameras, computers and other non-descript stuff once owned by the ill fated hunters.
Author's Note: Hey look I finally updated again! I went back to school last fall and am still taking the prerequisites for Medical Lab Technician, but I have the summer off from school and wanted to get back into writing again. Unfortunately, I'm struggling to get Vergil and Lady's characters right again, so if something seems amiss… please let me know. Also I haven't heard from shyanon, so if someone else out there is interested I am in need of a beta! Hope you enjoyed the chapter and don't forget to review!