Author's Note: I do NOT own Devil May Cry or any of the characters from the series-they belong to Capcom. Kyro, Anastasia, Vincent, Serpent/Adrien, and Jezebel belong to their respective creators, who will be thanked at the end of each chapter for their contribution to this fanfiction in the form of these wonderful OCs. Alexi and Danika Hill are my own OCs.

I do NOT own the dustbunnies in my closet-they're just visiting!

A woman walked down the street, a strangely menacing aura to her despite her gentle, motherly-looking face and sweet smile. Her dark, waist-length obsidian locks curled slightly and her eyes were an unnatural shade of golden yellow. Her lips were painted a shade lighter than the color of rubies, and her nails were abnormally sharp. She wore a black turtleneck sweater-dress with dark purple leggings. A pair of sleek, black pumps adorned her feet and a pair of diamond earrings dangled from her ears.

The woman seemed to perk up as she heard the sound of a child crying. She walked towards the soft cries and soon found herself staring down at a very frightened little girl with brown pigtails. The woman kneeled in front of the child and took her hands.

"Why are you crying, Little One?" she asked, a venemous undercurrent in her sweet tone-though the little girl didn't seem to pick up on it. She opened her eyes and looked up at the older woman.

"...I-I got separated f-from my mommy..." the little girl sniffled as she watched the woman with her big, blue eyes. The woman smiled.

"I'll help you find her." she said, and stood up with the little girl's hand in hers.

"What's your name, miss?" the little girl asked.

"You may call me Chiyo." the woman replied. "And what's your name?"

"Annabelle." the little girl replied. Chiyo smiled down at the little girl.

"What a lovely name, Annabelle. Now come on. Let's find your mother..."

A tall, white-haired man dressed all in red sat behind the sole desk inside a very beat-up looking shop with flickering neon lights reading Devil May Cry. He was looking over the newspaper one of his female partners had brought in. The front page story was about a little brunette girl who had been found in an alley, brutally ripped apart like a cloth doll.

"Geez...whoever's doing this must have one hell of a set of anger issues." the man mused darkly, tossing the paper aside. He picked up one of the magazines near his desk and put it over his face as he propped his feet up.

Danika and her "family" were unpacking in the nice hotel room that she had sweet-talked the people running the place into letting them stay in for free. It was by no means a five-star place, but it was definitely better than some of the places they'd stayed in before. Danika walked over to Alexi and hugged him from behind, resting her chin on his shoulder.

"...I know you're worried about how dangerous this job might turn out to be, darling, but if we can keep that awful demon Ushio from murdering any more innocents it'll be worth it." she murmured, smiling as he relaxed in her embrace.

"I know, but anyone were to get hurt-especially you-I don't think I'd be able to keep myself in check anymore." he replied. "We have to be very careful on this job."

"Don't worry. Everything will turn out fine. I just know it will, darling."

Ann had decided to take a walk and get to know the surrounding area in case Ushio's minions ever targeted them at the hotel. She seemed very casual about it, but she was absorbing every detail of the people and places she passed and committing every detail to memory. She had her twin pistols inside the bulky upper pockets of the cargo pants she'd decided to wear for this job. As she walked she bumped into a man with white hair who wore all red. The man paused and looked at her for a moment before continuing on his way. Ann shook off the faint memory of a similar man in all-red, continuing on her way.

Sometime later that night, Ann was making her way back to the hotel when she heard gunshots. She dashed towards where she heard the gunshots coming from, just in time to see the exact same man she'd bumped into some time earlier-and he was fighting demons. Ann pulled out her twin pistols as a demon was preparing to jump the man from behind and put a bullet between its eyes before it had time to act. She watched impassively as the thing turned to dust and vanished from this world forever.

When she looked up, the man was staring at her with a smirk. He had a massive sword resting on one shoulder-how she missed that detail, Ann had no idea-and a gun in the hand not holding the sword's hilt. He sauntered over to her.

"Hey, babe...you have some skill with those guns, it looks like. Where you from?" he asked, his icy eyes staring into her own, beautiful blue ones. She kept an impassive face as she replied,

"I'm certainly not from around here, if that's what you're trying to ask."

"Woah! Chill, babe-I'm not tryin' to stalk you or anything. Just curious." the man said, putting his hands up in a gesture meant to convey that he means no harm. Ann laughed softly.

"You seem pretty laid-back." She noted. Ann pulled out a glove from her cargo pants, running a hand over it as a wave of nostalgia washed over her and she once again felt like she was nine years old. She didn't know why she felt the need to bring the glove out at this particular time, but she didn't question it. It was nice to reminisce about that one moment in her life that acutally gave her something to strive towards.

Dante looked at the glove for a moment before his gaze returned to the teenage girl in front of him. She seemed familiar to him, though he couldn't remember why or from where. So he opted to say something that would break the silence between them.

"How did you get this glove?" he asked, as the face of a nine-year-old girl with dark brown hair and large, blue eyes flashed through his memory. She couldn't have been that strange little girl he'd met-the little girl who seemed to see exactly what he was, but who hadn't run screaming in fear. It wasn't possible...was it?

"...back when I was nine, I took a train-to anywhere, really-with the hopes that I would be dropped off somewhere exciting. I met a young man with white hair. He was riding the rails, too. We were sitting side by side, but we never really said anything to one another...I doubt he even really understood that I was there. He seemed really lost in thought. It was only after he'd already gotten off that I noticed he'd left one of his gloves behind-so I held onto it in case I ever met him again." she replied, her gaze distant as she rested her chin on her left hand. She suddenly blinked, and then smiled. "Oh. I'm Anastasia Leiandros. You can call me Ann if you want."

"I'm Dante." he replied. Anastasia smiled.

"Well, I'd better get back to my friends. We're on a job today-we're supposed to be taking down an abnormally strong demon by the name of Ushio. See you around, Dante!"

Why did I just tell him all of that? I only just met that man today!, Ann thought, shaking her head in disbelief. She could believe she'd just spilled something so personal to a random stranger! As she walked back towards the hotel once again, Ann couldn't shake the sensation that she was being watched. She looked around, but nobody was there-however, that didn't mean it was safe to let her guard down.

A small spider scuttled along the sidewalk behind Ann, watching her every movement and sending it back to its master at her base. In the shadows, the mysterious person using a small spider to spy on Ann was smirking, their chin resting on one hand as they toyed with a child's dismembered arm with the other as the owner of that arm lay at their feet in a puddle of blood. The strange person opened their eyes for a brief second, gold orbs flashing in the dark briefly before they were once again closed.

"It's almost time to start the games..." they murmured, a sadistic grin on their face.

Okay, as stated in the first chapter, this one's a tad bit longer. Sorry for yet another cliffhanger, and I tried not to be too detailed about the more gore-centered parts-I don't want to change the rating JUST yet. Thank you again to LinkMaster997 for allowing me to use Kyro, XxxZesty LemonXxx for Anastasia Leiandros, CrimsonWolfClaw for Vincent Hawke, StylishDescent for Serpent/Adrien, and JezebelBelfire for Jezebel Evans! You all submitted wonderful OCs~! Again, I'm looking forward to any reviews I get from everyone! ^_^