Chapter 16

Finding Dante was slightly harder than Trish had anticipated, mainly because following Dante often meant walking straight into whatever carnage had crawled from the pits of hell to greet him. He wasn’t the sort to sneak around and attempt to second guess his opponent, mainly because most of the time he didn’t need to. She was often left to track him down, and she’d become pretty good at it, spotting a ruined surveillance camera, then a door and finally… a puddle of blood which made her take a step back, eyes wide.

It was Dante’s; something in her gut told her it was. The demons in this place bled black and the only person who could loose that much blood and survive long enough to drag themselves out of the room was him. Worry coiled in her gut as she wondered who could have outsmarted him and whether or not he had left the room on his own terms. There was no blood leading out of the room, she guessed he would have healed by the time he left, but it was still a lot of blood even for him.

She couldn’t dwell on it though; standing here wondering wouldn’t help her family. She picked her way across the room, avoiding the blood and exited through the door opposite. It was hard keeping track of where you were in this place. She knew she’d wandered in circles a bit before, everything was slowing her down and dread was slowly clawing its way up her spine. This was what she did, in every way what she was born to do, but this time everything was so much sharper in her mind. She felt each second slipping away and knew that a second could cost her family everything.

A couple more twists and turns and a set of double doors came into view. Her instincts told her to head straight for them, there was something different about the way this corridor was laid out, she could practically feel the energy waiting beyond…

Trish was nearly there when the room shook violently, sending her skidding into bleached white wall. She braced against the wall for support and pulled herself back up, regaining composure quickly then dashing down to the end of the corridor and throwing the doors open wide.

She stepped inside as another tremor shook the room and the doors banged shut behind her. It was hard to see in the sudden chaos as light flashed in the centre of the room creating a strange strobe effect which burned her pupils until she couldn’t tell if her eyes were open or closed. Her eyes must have been open though, in the surreal half-light she could see two figures across from her – and the flashes of red in the darkness indicated that one of them must be Dante.

The room shook again and Trish skidded on the white plastic floor, knocked off her feet when the tremors continued. It felt like being on a boat in the middle of a story sea – not that she had ever experience such a thing, but she gathered it was similar from movies she had seen. She hauled herself up, eyes searching the room for Dante and the stranger she had seen moments before.

Then her hand hit something which made her recoil in disgust. Blood… lots of it covering her fingers and staining her pale skin a deep crimson. She choked, not because she was unused to the sight, the viscid feeling, far from it, but because in the faint light she could tell it was clearly human.

Her heart jumped into her throat as she heard shouting across the room, the words unrecognisable over the crackle of electricity in the centre of the room. She reached out again, hesitantly, felt soft hair beneath her fingertips… and more blood. She wanted to stop, but suddenly she was struck by the terrifying clarity that she knew who it was even if she didn’t want to.

“Alex,” the harsh breath left her and she wanted to scream, but she pulled away instead, turned glittering eyes back to the pair across from her, the white lightning blinding her every couple of seconds.

“Trish!”

Dante saw the anguish in her eyes and felt his heart wrench in his chest. It was nearly enough to distract him from Vivienne, nearly, but he gritted his teeth and steadied his sword. The blast when the room shook had knocked him down as the circular platform below burst open into rays of white light. It blinded him for a second before he regained composure and when he did it was to see Vivienne, still eerily calm, leaning against the railing with wide eyes.

“It’s a portal,” she said clearly over the buzz of electricity and the howl of a supernatural wind which whipped her red hair violently around her face. She turned her head eyes wide and staring, filled with a surreal light. “To the demon world; I’ll rule it.”

“You’ll die!” Dante growled over the storm, the void was slowly growing below them, the wind growing more violent. He was amazed neither of them had been struck by lightening.

“I have nothing to live for,” she said her voice toneless though it still held that cultured air to it. She glanced down at the amulets entwined in her hand lost in the flickering red gem. “I have an army with me-”

“You mean the ones I wasted in the entrance hall?” Dante questioned with mock scorn. He didn’t quite know what she was going to do and the look in her eyes was disconcerting. Maybe more importantly he didn’t exactly know what to do about her. He didn’t plan on letting her jump into hell, but he didn’t know what he’d do with her if he saved her. “They won’t last for two seconds in there.”

She smiled, painted lips pulling into a practiced grin. “It’ll be fun. I’ve spent my whole life cooped up here.” She moved a little closer, covered his hand with hers on the railing despite the fact that he still had his sword ready to deliver a fatal blow. “You could come with me.”

Dante yanked his hand back gritting his teeth. “You just killed my son.”

She shook her head, eyes glittering. “Fine then,” she said her tone clipped as she moved away, around the controls. Vivienne moved with ingrained elegance as she slipped the heeled shoes from her feet, placed her hands on the railing and pulled herself up.

It took Dante a moment to figure out what she was doing as the room shook again. Vivienne crouched to grasp the railing and waited for the tremors to finish then stepped onto the opposite side, staring into the pit of energy below her. Before Dante could move a bolt of lightning flashed from the opposite end of the room. Trish’s outstretched fingers crackled with electricity as a blast left them, hitting the woman in the back sending her falling forwards.

Dante moved then and barely fast enough, dropping Rebellion to lean over the railing and catch Vivienne’s hands. Instead he grasped the intertwined chains of the amulets between his fingers as Vivienne grasped the other end.

“What are you doing?” Vivienne yelled feet kicking against the air. The shock should have killed her, but she had already displayed super-human qualities so Dante wasn’t all that surprised by her resilience.

“Saving you, what does it look like?” Dante grunted hauling her upwards praying that the chains would hold out. Vergil had broken his pretty easily when they fought on Temin-Ni-Gru so he doubted it would last long. “Give me your hand.”

“No,” she whispered fingers slipping, she couldn’t quite remember why she was holding on, but sudden fear was shocking down her spine. He saw it in her eyes, then they softened until only a bizarre calmness resided in the dark depths of her pupils. “I don’t want to be saved.”

“Vivienne!” Dante yelled, reached down, but she had let go and was falling too fast for him to reach her. She smiled again, her visage never once breaking even when she was falling to her awaiting death. And then she was gone swallowed up by the light and before Dante could even think to go after her the portal closed. The lights receded like water swirling down a plug hole and left only broken lights and scorched walls.

Dante pulled back eventually, blinking spots from his eyes as he turned to see Trish standing by the controls. He opened his mouth then shut it again unable to think of anything to say, not knowing what he wanted to say. He didn’t need to when Trish turned on her heel and walked back across the room to where Alex’s body still lay on the white tiled floor. Dante pocketed the amulets then called Rebellion running to catch up with her until he caught her arm. She resisted him when he tried to turn her to face him.

“You killed her,” it was a statement, not a question, his tone harder than he intended as he tried read her expression. “I could have saved her.”

“She,” Trish hissed finally turning her head, though not enough to look at him; just enough for him to see a tear trailing the shallow curve of her cheek. Trish swallowed hard before continuing lips trembling though she didn’t know whether it was from sadness or rage. “She murdered our son,” finally she looked at him, eyes glittering and filled with accusation. “A-and you wanted to save her…?”

“She was confused,” Dante tried to explain guilt settling in his gut. He had wanted to tell Trish about this in a different way, not for her to find out for herself. It was his fault their son was dead.

“She was insane,” Trish spat back. She tried to pull her arm free, but he didn’t budge. “Let go of me.”

“I didn’t-”

“Let go of me!” Her arm flared with electricity and Dante yanked his hand back reflexively as the shock hit his fingertips. She made her way over to the boy with short, brisk strides; Dante followed her not knowing what to say.

Trish knelt down next to Alex’s lifeless form; bit her lip as she stroked the hair from his face. Dante saw her open her mouth, but no sound came out and she closed it again moving gently to pick the boy up.

“Let me-”

“I want to carry him,” Trish cut him off her voice shook with the threat of tears. She scooped the boy up with ease and cradling him in her arms, her head pressed against his own cold one.

Dante watched helplessly as she made her way to the door, eyes scanning the room briefly for his guns before he left, he didn’t really care anymore. Suddenly there were things which were so much more important…

Lady had quite honestly had enough demons in her life and she was getting sick of them. She had forgotten how frustrating it could be when you were out of practice, when she knew somewhere inside that she could do so much better than this. As it was she was surprised she hadn’t been killed by now. Still there was a gash across her left arm which was slowly rendering her trigger finger useless and the girl she was supposed to be looking after was no where in sight.

The darkness in the passageway made the fight even harder, these creatures obviously had no problem seeing in the dark, Lady on the other hand had to make sure all her senses were on red alert in order to stay focused.

“Evey!” She yelled into the darkness and was greeted by her own echo bouncing back at her down the corridor. Great. She slipped onto her knee when a claw swung at her head then dragged her leg round, booted foot connecting solidly with a creature’s legs, sending it sprawling.

Then her arm gave out. She crashed onto her side, firing blindly with her right hand in order to keep her attackers at bay. She scrabbled backwards, struck out with her feet and then the earth was tilting backwards and it took her a moment to realize that she was falling. Lady yelled, nearly loosing her gun in an attempt to find a hand hold and feeling only smooth marble beneath her fingertips. The drop felt further than it was, if it was too far then she would be dead, she reasoned when she hit the floor and stared blankly up at the ceiling which, only moments ago had been the floor. She heard a grating sound and then the hole closed up completely leaving her laying there dazed and disorientated.

“Lady.”

Lady sat up, swore under her breath and swiped at the hair in her eyes with her uninjured hand. “What the hell just happened?” She turned to the girl standing next to her then pulled herself to her feet. “And where are we…?”

Evey shrugged eyes wide. Her attention had already turned back to the room they had landed in. It was lit by a dim green glow, which gave the room a ten on the creepy laboratory scale. Computers were whirring somewhere in the background and the floor was lined with steel tubes of cabling. The room was lined with containers, pods, things you saw in sci-fi movies, all empty save for one in the centre of the room which, rather than standing up straight, lay on its side like a coffin. The eerie light was emanating solely from the centre of the room and whilst Lady knew they needed to get out of here her interest was piqued.

She found her gun on the floor next to her, steadied herself and aimed the gun at the cylinder walking slowly towards it. Evey was following behind her; she knew she should tell the girl to stay back in case it was something gruesome, but like she’d listen anyway. When they finally neared the cylinder enough to peer inside both drew in a gasp.

Evey’s eyes grew impossibly larger. “Dad?”

But Lady was shaking her head, brow furrowed. “That’s not your father.”

She aimed the gun at the head of the figure laying serenely in the cylinder. No, it wasn’t Dante even after all these years she knew it wasn’t him.

“It’s a clone…” A clone of a clone how ironic was that? She shook her head, lowered her gun and took Evey’s hand. “We have to leave.”

“But-”

“No buts, we need to go right now,” Lady yanked on the girl’s arm and took off across the room towards the exit, praying that it wasn’t locked. She couldn’t fight him, she hadn’t even stood a chance in Temin-Ni-Gru, there was something seriously messed up going on here and she didn’t want to stay and find out.

She moved to the door, tried the handle, locked; typical. Moving Evey aside, as gently as she could despite her hurry, she aimed and fired once, twice, three times at the bolt until the door clicked open. She heard the whole room power down and realized that there was just that little bit more than locks and keys keeping the doors closed. Taking the girl’s hand once again she left the room hearing a hiss behind her and not having the courage to look round. She didn’t know what other systems she’d short circuited and she didn’t want to find out. Lady wasn’t prone to any form of cowardice, but she knew the futility or starting a fight you couldn’t win. She was also not planning on endangering Evey any further than she already had done.

They carried on walking hurriedly through white hallways until Lady eventually realised they were lost. Not that they hadn’t been to begin with, but this was a different kind of lost. A horrible confusion in a strange maze where everything looked the same. Every door she opened seemed to lead to another white corridor. It was hurting her head and soon the claustrophobia began to set in. Evey seemed to sense her panic as she was dragged down corridor after corridor until she finally stopped.

Lady turned back to her. “What?”

“We’re lost,” it was a simple reply and for some reason it infuriated Lady, maybe because she didn’t want to admit it to herself.

“We’re not lost,” Lady said firmly, mostly to convince herself rather than the girl. “It’s just…”

Evey raised an eyebrow and folded her arms; Lady sighed and slumped against a wall. “Okay so maybe we’re lost. I’ve been in worse situations; we’ll find our way out eventually.” She glanced down at her injured arm. The sleeve of her jacket was soaking up most of the blood, but it needed proper attention. Her fingers were going numb. Lady rolled up her sleeve and rubbed the index finger of her other hand into the blood around the wound. She ignored the irritation of the movement and swiped her fingers across the pristine white wall. Then she rolled her sleeve back down, pressed it against the wound with her free hand and grunted as she hauled herself up off the wall.

The girl was watching her with a curious expression then glanced to the blood. “Don’t you need to see to that?”

“When we’re out of here,” Lady said firmly. She knew her limits and she’d been in far worse shape before. Besides she didn’t have much else she could do at the moment unless they stumbled upon some medical supplies somewhere. Even then she didn’t want to stay down here a second more than she had to.

They had barely reached the end of the corridor when the whole building shook. Lady slammed into the opposite wall and braced herself as more tremors shook the room. Evey had been knocked off her feet and pulled herself back up quickly pressed against the opposite wall. There was a loud roaring sound somewhere in the distance, like thunder, a storm… underground?

“I bet this has something to do with your dad,” Lady said once the ground stopped shaking and she could stand without fear of falling over.

Evey smiled, but her face was strained with worry. Lady gave her a sympathetic look and turned back to the task at hand. They needed to find a way out of here… she turned left down the corridor taking the time to mark another swipe of blood on the wall before continuing on. They would get out of here eventually, hopefully before the place decided to blow up.

The room at the end of this corridor was one of the few with black walls. The person who designed this place appeared to be colour blind. It was smaller than the place she’d landed before, but similar, the familiar buzz of electricity filled the air. She took a step forwards and glass crunched beneath her feet. A broken computer monitor lay in the far corner of the room. It looked like there’d been a fight in here though there was no blood.

“Those are dad’s!” Evey shouted, darting across the room to grab the pair of hand guns rested on a counter on the opposite side of the room. Lady had been too busy checking for possible hazards to even notice the familiar weapons. Evey lifted Ebony and Ivory easily in her hands. Lady was slightly surprised by the girl’s strength, but she shouldn’t have been. She probably shouldn’t let the girl look after them, but with an injured arm she knew she couldn’t carry them anyway.

“The safety’s off right?” She asked hurrying over to make sure Evey didn’t injure one of them. It was anyway.

“Why are they here?” The girl asked worriedly. She didn’t have to voice her thoughts for Lady to know what the girl was thinking. Dante wouldn’t leave his guns lying around like this so they’d been taken off him, which meant that someone had over-powered him for long enough to get them. That worried Lady a little more than she would have liked to admit. She knew that he’d be fine though, Dante was always fine.

“Come on we have to go,” Lady took Evey’s wrist and began to turn, then stopped half way to the door. There was a silhouette in the doorway, highlighted by the light from the room beyond. Lady pushed the girl behind her slowly and drew a gun, wincing slightly as she jostled her injured arm in the process.

Glass crunched beneath the figure’s feet as it moved through the shadows, slipping into the darkened room until Lady could make out the face from the way the light reflected onto it. Catching pale strands of hair, hollowed cheeks, bright blue eyes.

“Dad!”

Lady reached out to grab Evey by the scruff of the neck with her injured arm. The movement was made before she could think and her fingers curled on thin air, her eyes screwed tight shut in pain. Her quiet gasp was enough to stop Evey and she had the time to move forwards and push the girl behind her.

“It’s not your father,” Lady hissed pointing her gun at the man’s head. He was still advancing towards her and at the moment without a weapon. Lady wasn’t one for dishonourable conduct, but she didn’t have the time for this. She squeezed the trigger and a gunshot echoed.

Evey yelled in shock and clamped her hands over her ears. She watched with wide eyes as the man faltered, stumbled, then finally collapsed. “You shot him!”

“Yeah,” Lady breathed watching the body unconvinced that he was dead. When there was no movement she shoved Evey in front of her. “Go.”

It was an order and the girl was too confused to resist as she bit her lip and stepped over the body heading for the door. Her father’s guns were clutched in her hands and she found the weight comforting as she held tightly to the textured grips. Lady followed quickly after the girl her feet barely touching the floor as she moved over the body. She wanted to get out of here now.

Then her foot was yanked out from under her and she was flipped upside down. There was a sickening crack as her skull connected solidly with the tiled floor then she went still.

Evey let out a frightened gasp then raised the guns in her shaking hands trying to keep her eyes fixed on the figure slowly climbing to its feet. It was hard when Lady was laying sprawled out in front of her. She wanted to check that Lady was alright, but she needed to concentrate. She’d never held a gun before, never been taught how to fire one – she didn’t even know if she wanted to.

Then the figure turned to her and she swallowed hard. The likeness to her father was uncanny, but Lady had told her it wasn’t Dante and she had to believe that now. She aimed between the man’s dead eyes and squeezed the trigger. Both shots missed, they slammed into the wall behind the clone’s head. The girl’s hands shook, she backed up a step and her back connected with something solid.

She sucked in a breath, then hands closed over hers, pried the guns easily from her grip. She knew it was her father without having to look up. A sudden sense of relief washed over her and made her light-headed. She hadn’t realised how tired she was until her mind could finally switch off. Even with the clone still heading towards them she knew she’d be fine.

Two shots cut the air, this time they met their target with ease and sent the man backwards, another round followed and Evey closed her eyes as blood splattered across the floor. There was a hissing sound and then the passageway fell into silence.

“Thanks for finding these for me,” Dante said softly holstering the guns as Evey turned around and wrapped her arms around his waist. Dante rested his hand on the girl’s shoulder, looked down to where Lady lay sprawled on the tiled floor. “Why are you here?” His voice was tired, strained; he couldn’t quite force happiness into it, not even to convince her everything was going to be alright.

“I’m sorry,” the girl said softly feeling all the adrenalin draining out of her. “I was stupid, it was my fault.”

“It’s not your fault,” Dante sighed, stroked some of the hair from the girl’s face. “Let me see to Lady okay then we’ll get out of here?”

Evey nodded and moved aside to let Dante get a better look at her. By the time he knelt down next to her she was already coming round. When he reached out to touch her shoulder she flipped onto her back gun raised and aimed at his temple.

Dante raised his hands in a half hearted surrender. “I always said you were fast.”

Lady narrowed her eyes then lowered the gun, pulling herself into a sitting position and hissing as the movement put strain on her injured arm – and made her head spin. Dante grasped her shoulders to steady her and she batted his hands away irritably.

“I can handle it.”

“But you can’t handle a thirteen year old I take it?” Dante asked with a slight quirk to the edges of his lips.

Lady put a hand to her aching forehead and closed her eyes. “Yeah about that, I’m really sorry.”

“Doesn’t matter,” Dante shook his head and offered her a hand up. For once she didn’t refuse his help.

“Where’s mom?” Evey asked finally seeing that everything was taken care of.

“She’s down the corridor, but-Evey wait!”

The girl had already broken into a run and Dante could only watch in despair – worried that if he left Lady alone she’d fall over. She must have had a concussion at least. There was a purpled bruise quickly growing around her temple.

Then there was something between a sob and a scream which made his heart seize in his chest. Lady turned questioning eyes on him and Dante looked down at the floor.

“Dante, what…?”

The man shook his head numbly. “Come on.”

“You go, I’ll catch up,” Lady offered knowing that whatever was happening was something private.

Dante nodded, feeling selfish as he left Lady with the wall as a crutch, hurrying down the hall. Evey had collapsed just around the corner; the girl was shaking with silent sobs as Trish tried to calm her down. Alex’s body lay rested against the wall; he would have looked like he was sleeping if not for the masses of blood. It made Dante feel sick and he turned away watching Trish’s vain attempts to comfort the girl. He had wanted to tell her in a better way. He hadn’t expected to find the pair of them here, it was too much of a shock for her.

Lady rounded the corner and a gasp slipped from her lips as Dante stood knowing that they needed to get out of here more than anything right now.

“Oh god,” Lady whispered a hand raised to her mouth. She couldn’t think of anything to say. She didn’t know the pain they were going through right now and hoped she never would. She’d killed her own father, seen her mother murdered, but none of that made up for the death of your own child. It wasn’t fair on Dante either, all the times he’d lost someone close to him you’d have thought for once fate would be kind.

When Dante moved to lift Alex up Trish stopped him, hauling the boy into her arms and nodding towards Evey. Dante didn’t want to argue over who should carry who and made his way back over to his daughter lifting her into his arms.

“You said… it’d be alright…” the girl sniffed into his chest and Dante had to force himself to keep on moving, because suddenly it was all becoming so much harder.

“I know Evey, I’m sorry,” he whispered hugging her closer and letting her cling to him tightly hoping she’d fall asleep soon and get some much needed rest. He kept his pace slow so that Lady could keep up and followed Trish as she lead the way out of the place.

Thankfully the elevator still decided to work despite the various damages it had taken in the past couple of hours. By the time they stepped out into the cool dawn air Evey was asleep and the first pink fingers of a blood red dawn were sliding across the horizon.

A/N: Sorry for not updating for ages and also sorry for updating so badly. I'm sorry to say it, but my inspiration for this fic has diminished somewhat. Anyway I think there'll be one more chapter after this and then that'll be it and I can start on something refreshing and new. I really did not mean for this thing to take over half a year to write.

Well thanks for all the reviews, they make me happy :)

-Luce