Chapter Two

Dante opened his eyes slowly and found himself staring up into clouds of swirling blue-green mist. He was lying on his black in blood red water, high above him he could see a speck of black that he assumed must be the ledge he had just dove from. The fall had knocked him unconscious.

He stood up slowly, shaking the water from his silvery hair. He checked to make sure he still had his weapons. He had a feeling he was going to need them.

He looked around, wondering where Vergil could have gone. “Well isn’t this grand?” he muttered, looking at the grotesque shapes that twisted and swam through the fog.

He was about to set off when suddenly he heard a noise above him. He looked up just in time to see someone crash full force into him, knocking them both to the ground with a splash.

“Well what do we have here?” Dante said, his face breaking into his characteristic smirk as he realized Lady was lying sprawled on top of him. “And here I thought there weren’t going to be any babes down here.”

“Oh would you shut up?” Lady snapped, pushing herself off of the cocky half-demon. “You never change do you?”

“Not a chance.” Dante picked himself up and shook water out of his hair for the second time in the last five minutes.

“So where are we anyway?” Lady asked, picking up her favorite weapon, Kalina Ann, and slinging it over her shoulder.

Dante spread one arm out in a mock bow. “You have been trapped in the world connected to the human world by this tower. Welcome to hell, Lady.”

“Trapped?” her eyes widened slightly as she looked upwards, searching for any signs of the portal she had just fallen through. “You mean there’s no way back?”

“Nope. Looks like you’re stuck with me.” Dante grinned at her.

“Now I see why they call it hell.” She muttered. She looked around as the realization that she was trapped there slowly sunk in. “Why are you here?” she asked, finally turning back to Dante.

“Call it a family matter.” He said. He was about to say something else but an angry roar came from somewhere far ahead of them. It echoed around their heads before fading. “I think that’s our cue to get going.” Dante started walking, his footsteps splashing through the water at their feet. “Somehow I don’t think we want to stay in one spot to long.”

Lady hesitated, unsure what to do.

“You coming?” he asked, glancing back at her with raised eyebrows. “Don’t know how safe it would be to stay here. After all, you could use a big strong guy like me to protect you.”

Lady rolled her eyes as he smirked at her. “Fine. But I can take care of myself.”

“Whatever you say Lady.”

They started walking in the direction the noise had come from. Dante figured Vergil was probably close by, after all, he couldn’t resist a fight.

They walked in silence for what seemed like hours. The scenery never changed; nothing but a thick fog on all sides. Occasionally faces seemed to leer at them, but they faded if they tried to look at them head on.

“So how come you’re here?” Dante asked finally, tired of listening to the constant sloshing of the water.

“It wasn’t by choice.” Lady said coldly. “If you must know, I got attacked by a demon and it drug me through the portal before I could kill it.” She hesitated. “My father fell out of the portal first. I…took care of him.” She finished in a quieter voice.

“Well, good. See? You got to work out your family problems after all. Everyone’s happy. Except for him. And probably Vergil. And maybe you since you’re stuck here. And me since-”

“Ok! I get the point.” Lady glared at him. “Has anyone ever told you you talk too much?”

He ignored this and kept walking. After awhile Dante began to notice something was different. Clusters of stones could be seen sticking out of the ground at random intervals along their path.

“Do you think we’re getting close to something?” Lady asked, following his gaze.

“Beats me.” Dante said with a shrug. “I guess we’ll know once we get there. Then we can-”

Suddenly the water in front of the erupted, raining down around them in crimson waves. Lady screamed and Dante whipped Rebellion out in front of him at lightning speed. The ground at their feet shook and groaned as the rocks slowly began to break and slid apart from each other.

“Get back!” Dante shouted over the thundering of the water and pushed Lady roughly backwards, out of the way of the splitting ground. A giant crack stopped just inches from their feet. Then as instantly as it had started, everything fell into an eerie silence.

“What was that?” Lady asked uneasily, drawing one of her guns and glancing around.

“I don’t know, but I have a bad feeling about this.” Dante muttered.

“Well of course you do. We’re in hell, what other kind of feeling would you have?” Lady snapped.

Dante glared at her. “You know sometimes you can be a real b-” He stopped mid-sentence as he found himself staring down the barrel of a loaded gun. He knocked it out of her hand and turned back around. She glared at his turned back as she bent to pick up her gun and put it back in its holster.

“Look.” Dante pointed ahead of them. “There’s something up there. It looks like a building.”

“A building?” Lady asked skeptically.

“Well we won’t know unless we check it out.” He set off in its direction.

Lady sighed. Why do I have to put up with this? She asked herself but started after him anyway.

There were so lost in their own thoughts that neither of them saw a shadowy figure slip into the fog behind them. It paused, pushing its hair back from its face, before it continued to stalk them slowly through the ghostly fog.