Akira slowly opened her eyes seeing she lying in snow, which was weird. She lifted herself up and looked around, seeing she was in a forest that looked like someone had burned it. She suddenly remembered what had happened, but how she got out of the tower was beyond her as she heard a girl's voice, singing. She turned her upper body to where she could see a girl that looked just like her but maybe the age of five. The little girl continued to sing as Akira stood up and said while noticing her voice echoing, "Hey, little girl, where am I?" The girl stopped singing and looked, causing Akira to hold in a scream as much as she could; the girl's face was practically burned while Akira turned and ran from her as a voice laughed at her and it was mocking her in some form of language she had never heard of as she continued to run. Akira screamed for help but so far, nothing, not even Dante was anywhere to be seen as she cried out their names, even Vergil's name, screaming, "Dante! Ann! Lady! Vergil! Please anybody, help me!" The voice felt like it was everywhere around Akira while she tripped on something and fell, causing her to crawl, but she stopped and covered her ears.

"Please", she cried out, "Anyone, somebody, help me" "No one can help you, girl", the voice said, "Your soul is mine for all eternity" Akira felt the tears on her face as she soon heard Annabelle cry out to her, but it sounded far away, while Dante's voice also called out to her, making her cry out, "Dante! Dante, please help!" "The son of Sparda cannot help you girl", the voice said, "Nor will that other voice. Accept your death now"

"What's happening, bro?", Dante demanded as he saw a pained expression on Akira's face and Annabelle was deep in concentration while Vergil said, "That girl is fighting Her" Dante was confused by his older twin's response, making Vergil explain, "She's fighting against a demon that takes lost souls, souls that have felt nothing but pain, sorrow, and anything else along those lines. She tries to let them accept their fate, and whatever Arkham did, the demon is forcing her to accept death" Dante's eyes grew wide at Akira accepting death, making him reach for her hand as he said, "Fight the demon, babe. Fight it, Akira" Vergil could see in Dante's eyes that he felt something towards Annabelle's friend, as he does the same for Annabelle, but he never will admit it, at least to her. He looked over to her and saw she was doing everything in her power to save her friend. His eyes gazed onto Akira as he thought, 'She's losing her fight. If it keeps up, she will soon die'
Annabelle kept her eyes on the wound, but even though it was healing, she was still in pain. "Akira", she whispered, "please wake up. I don't know what to do" She could see Akira's wound had almost fully healed as she let out a sigh of exhaustion and felt tired, and when she stood up, she felt her head get dizzy and fell, only to have Vergil catch her. "You should rest, Annabelle", he said, "You've done enough for her"

He slowly lowered her to the floor telling Dante to get a pillow from the bed while Annabelle tried her best to keep her eyes open when Dante dropped a pillow beside her and helped Annabelle lay her head on the pillow. Annabelle tried to keep her eyes open but she finally let sleep take over while Dante took off his boots and climbed into the bed lying beside Akira and he placed his hand on her face, only to have his eyes widen. Her face felt cold but she was still breathing as he said, "Babe, please, fight it. I can't lose you" The whole room fell silent but the only thing that was heard was demons outside the door when Vergil said, "These girls…they are different" "I wouldn't say different", Dante said, "That is an understatement, but I'd say brave in their own way" Vergil looked at Annabelle and then said, "If they don't wake up soon, we'll leave them here. I've placed a barrier up in this room so that way demons won't bother them" "What 'bout Akira?", Dante asked, "from the looks of things, she's not going to wake up anytime soon" "She's losing her fight, if you've noticed", Vergil said, "she may not wake up, brother. If She wins, that girl is dead"

Akira felt her legs get very heavy as the voice keeps telling her to accept her death. "I don't want to", she cried when she heard her name being called by Annabelle. "Ann!", she cried out, "Ann! Over here" The sight of her old friend was a relief as the two hurried to each other, but the ground shook and it caused the ground between them to crumble, causing Akira to stop. "Akira!", Annabelle cried out, "Jump!" Akira was hesitant at first but did so as Annabelle reached her hand out. Akira could still hear the voice but this time it was angry as it formed into a dark shadow of Akira's mother, Lauren. "Mom?", Akira breathed. "It's not her, Akira", Annabelle said, "She's taken the form of your mom to try to kill you" "She?", Akira asked when Annabelle shot her a look that said, "I'll explain later" "You disappoint me, Akira", her mother said, "You've been misbehaving and now you must be punished" She looked at Annabelle and said, "As punishment, you must kill her" Annabelle felt the air get hotter and turn to her friend and saw that her flames were getting hotter and hotter as they began to swirl around her as she said, "You are not my mother. She would never make me turn against my friends and make me fight them"

The shadow gritted its teeth as Akira's wings formed on her back and she summoned her bow and arrows while Annabelle stood back when Akira said, "Farewell, Mother" She fired the arrow and it hit the shadow and it screamed at the pain. "There's someone that needs my help, and I will not let him down", Akira said as the shadow vaporized into nothing, and both girls noticed the forest began to grow grass on the ground, leaves on the trees came back, and the woods was soon filled with the sounds of animals. They both looked and noticed their bodies were fading away as Akira asked, "Ann, what's happening?" "You won your fight", Annabelle said, "Dante and Vergil are waiting for us in their world. We're in your soul and you saved it" Akira was about to ask more, but they both vanished into nothing.

Akira slowly opened her eyes to see she was in a bedroom and she turned her head slowly to see Dante asleep. She looked over to Vergil and Annabelle who fell asleep on the floor when Dante's voice said, "Akira" Akira looked at Dante and said, "It's alright, Dante. I'm alive" They both hugged but Akira cringed as she felt her arm was in pain when Vergil said as he stood up, "It looks like you won your fight" Annabelle was the last to wake and the sight of her friend alive made tears fall from her face as she cried out, "Akira! Thank God you're alive!" "How's your arm, babe?", Dante asked. "It's fine", Akira said, "It just needs some healing" Akira held up her hand and noticed her flames turned green as she placed her hand over the wound, and it healed quickly. "Well", Sedna huffed, "now that that's over with, we need to go after Arkham now" Everyone nodded their heads as Akira said, "We should split up, just to cover more ground" "Akira's right", Annabelle said, only to have Vergil quickly say, "Annabelle, I hate to say it but, stay with Dante and your friend" Annabelle looked at Vergil as if he was a madman and said, "What?! No, I can't let you-" "Ann, it's better", Akira said, "Besides, if we get to Arkham first, we will need all the help we can get" Annabelle was about to say something but kept her mouth shut while Dante said, "Don't forget, Lady also holds a grudge against him, so if we find her, she won't stand a chance against him"

Vergil remained silent and nodded his head. "Dragons", Vergil said, "Best do your job in protecting these girls and my foolish brother" "Aww", Dante teased, "does someone finally have love for his brother?" SLAM! The door slammed shut as Dante stood up and said, "Well, ladies, let's get a move on" Akira stood up and said, "Alright, let's go"

As luck would have it, the three ran into Lady, who was panting as Dante said as he walked past her, "What's wrong? You tired? Then stand back, we'll take care of this" "No!", Lady said aiming one of her guns at him, "You stand back!" Everyone stopped and Dante turned and grabbed the gun as she fired one shot, hitting his gut. "I told you", Dante said, "you can't do it! Don't you get it? This is not a human's job-" "You're the one who doesn't get it", Lady snapped, "It's not something you can reason with. It has nothing to do with me being a human and you three being demons" Dante let the gun go as she continued, "I'm driven by the inability to forgive him! My soul is screaming, demanding me to kill him!" Dante took the gun away from her when she took a few steps back and said, "That's enough motivation to keep me going. Besides, this is my family matter you three should stay out of it" Lady grabbed her rocket launcher and walked away when Akira said, "So that's what you think" Everyone looked at her as she turned to Lady and continued, "Don't you see, Lady? Arkham had all of us here for a reason. We are all pissed at him too, ya know?" Dante tossed the gun to her and said as he drew Ebony and Ivory, "Now, get out of our way, or there will be some consequences" "Fair enough", Lady said as she readied herself, "I wasn't planning on letting any demons live anyway. Not…even…one"

'There's no point now', Annabelle thought, 'We're going to have to fight her, but she looks weakened already and not just from what happened in the basement, just getting up here. Dante looks like he doesn't want to kill her, but just weaken her so that way she'll be safe from harm' 'I hope Dante knows what he's doing', Akira thought.

Author's note:

This chapter is finally up thank goodness, one of the longest ones I've done so far yay. The next one will be up soon