Part 4

Someday, I really am going to check my brain to make sure that it’s okay. Because instead of wondering if I was fine or not, instead of wondering when and how I was ever going to make it back home, the first thought I wondered about upon waking up was if Nero ever married Kyrie in the end of Devil May Cry 4.

It was quite a stupid thought to be thinking of, but nevertheless I spent a few precious minutes, still bobbing in darkness, thinking about it. Whatever conclusion I had was washed away when I heard the click of what sounded like a door opening, and I opened my eyes to it too.

Hard blue eyes stared back at me, and he stood in the doorway, a placid expression on his face. It was understandable that anyone who saw that face would naturally assume that he’s not happy. He usually isn’t the liveliest of men anyway.

“You are finally awake.” The way he said 'finally' was probably not a good sign, but I feigned dumbness as I stared back at him with fearful wide eyes. My mind struggled to remind me of that fact that I’d already seen his face and heard Daniel’s voice through him –that he was here in front of me.

“I do not understand what you wish running into me, but you are not welcomed here. You shall leave when you are well.” He announced, and seemingly with that, he closed the door behind me.

If I ever thought he would be more… ‘dramatic’, then I was sorely wrong. I never thought my life to be a drama or even a movie, but this moment had to be the most anti-climactic moment I’ve had all through my 21 years in life. I’d expected big-bad-ass-half-devil to say something about killing me or maybe just asking me if I was fine (like a normal person), but it was obvious that Vergil wasn’t going to manage anything more than telling me that I wasn’t welcomed.

But I am a 21 year old woman. I know when I’m not wanted. I sat up and stretched myself, appreciative of the fact that I was more or less fine. It was apparent that no one had sexually assault me, as I had heard in my half-coma, and I was grateful for that. For now, I guess I would have to deal with the crazy fact that I was staring at someone who resembled extremely closely to the twin brother of my favorite video game character.

Vergil-look-alike was downstairs, reading a book seriously on the couch when I went downstairs, marveling at how obsessed this DMC fan probably was. He had every detail of the inside of the Devil May Cry office pinned down perfectly; even the dirty corner where Dante had his couches. Vergil-look-alike being there didn’t exactly fit the picture, but I wasn’t going to judge.

I breathed a sigh to know that he wasn’t crazy enough to have a Dante look-alike brother or friend around.

“Um… Do you know where this is?” I asked, tapping softly on the desk he was sitting behind –which looked like the exact replica of Dante’s. There was even Eva’s photo on it, and she looked perfect as always. In fact, there was a strange photo of Dante and Trish hanging out together that I’d never seen before. This guy was good at Photoshop.

 Vergil-look-alike looked up from the book, his piercing blue eyes shooting through me like he couldn’t wish for anything better than to have me die just this moment. I wondered what the heck his problem was. Was it such a sin to ask a question? Why even bother bringing me to his place, his DMC-haven then?

“You are in Devil May Cry, but you are not staying any longer.” He stated simply, then looked back down to his book.

“I know you made this Devil May Cry haven, but I’m asking you exactly where in the world are we? Am I still in Chrisvale?” I asked, getting a little impatient. There was a limit anyone could take at getting glared at, and reminded that she wasn’t welcomed.

He didn’t bother looking up this time.

“There is no such place. This is Devil May Cry, Limbo.” It was clear that he’d dismissed me, and since he hadn’t been much of a help –none at all, actually –I decided that I’d had enough of this weird Vergil-look-alike.

“Fine, I’m leaving. You don’t have to be so rude about it, mister. I don’t get you, anyway. I mean I’m a Devil May Cry fan too, but I’m not crazy like you enough to change yourself to look like Vergil and spend probably millions on this place to make it look like Dante’s office.” I figured that since he’d been an ass to me, then there wasn’t anything bad in me being an ass back to him.

He gave no reaction, except for how his hands tightened over the sides of his books, his knuckles slowly turning white. I could almost literally sense the evil aura exuding from him, and stepped back one step in late realization that I probably pissed off the wrong guy. For someone who spent so long obsessing over Vergil, he must have entirely taken on the mad half-devil’s persona, for he very much scared me as Vergil would –if the man was alive in any way.

Still, I didn’t want to let him know that I felt threatened by him. I covered up my backtracking by turning around quickly, setting my shoulders straight and my spine straight in an attempt to show him that I was undaunted. He probably couldn’t hear how fast my heartbeat was going, because it was running at the pace of a racecar along the racetrack.

My dignified exit was spoiled when a brilliant flash of light exploded in the air in front of me, accompanied with a deafening crack that sounded like a shotgun going off in a silent desert. A force pushed me off my feet, and I found myself flying back towards Vergil-look-alike and his desk.

I closed my eyes, screaming in terror, but strangely my back didn’t hit anything. Instead, I found something warm pressing against my back, holding on to me. The warmth on my forearm seemed confined to five fingers, and I was very aware that someone was breathing over the top of my head. Someone had caught me, and if there was no one else in the room with me, then it was Vergil...

I peeked my eyes open, and finally saw someone familiar. He wasn’t my favorite man –or non-man –but at the moment, I wasn’t more grateful than anyone to see him.

“Azazel!” I jumped out of the arms of whoever who was holding me, flinging myself towards the angel who stood in the same clothes as he had been wearing since the last time I saw him. I have never hugged an angel before, but it felt as if I was hugging just any human –except for the fact that he was quite warm, and his wings were getting in the way.

“You’ve got to get me out of here. I don’t care what you told me. I don’t want to stay here.” I demanded, looking up at Azazel as if he were my father. It didn’t help that Azazel wasn’t really much of a smiler, so he didn’t look happy to see me at all.

You cannot leave until you complete your mission. Azazel’s voice was in my mind, but his mouth didn’t move. It was freaky, but nothing about him is normal, so I deal with it.

“I don’t want to do anything! I just want to go home. I promise you I’ll pray my hardest. I’ll go to Church every Sunday without fail. Just let me go home.” I begged, hugging him tighter in the childish belief that I would suffocate him and make him exasperated enough to agree.

This is non-negotiable. Be glad that you have been chosen. No one else have been given your second chance at life.

His eyes narrowed on me quickly as his voice pierced through my mind again, and he picked my arms off his waist in a movement that seemed casual –when I was fighting my hardest to keep latching on him. I was plucked from his side, and when I turned around, set at his side, I jerked to find a shimmery translucent sword floating in midair, pointing straight at me, the tip hovering dangerously close to my neck.

“I don’t know who you are and I do not wish to know. Take your angel and get out of this place.” Vergil-look-alike growled in Daniel Southworth’s voice, and I tried my best not to wonder how he probably had gone through enough plastic surgery to change his voice box so that he sounded like the perfect Vergil in DMC3.

I risked tilting my head to look at Azazel, surprised to see him standing calmly with the tip of a sleek silver sword resting on his chest. My eyes followed the length of the sword, and my breath left in a gust upon realizing that I recognized that sword…

“Oh my god, that’s Yamato!” My breath left in a muted whisper, and while both men flickered their eyes to me, they went back to glaring at each other –seemingly ready to ignore my fan-moment.

“I do not belong to the girl. I am Azazel, angel of Death and Redemption.” Azazel introduced evenly, seemingly unafraid of Yamato-look-alike pressing against his chest.

“I have no interest who you are, or what you represent. You do not belong in this place. Leave.” The cold voice held true to its sharp edge, and I wondered why he hadn’t cut his throat to tiny pieces with the sharpness of his tone yet.

“I will when I am done speaking. I am here with a role, and I must make sure you understand it as well as I do.” Azazel stepped back from the tip of the sword calmly with one precise, measured step, waving a hand over to me. I blinked to realize that the magical floating sword thing was gone.

“I have no business to do with an angel nor your woman.” I didn’t like the way he categorized me under the angel’s woman, but I decided it would be wiser for me to keep my mouth shut. I was still very murky on details here, but for some reason, Vergil-look-alike could summon magic swords. Considering the fact that I had an angel by my side, and as a temporary ally, I realized I didn’t find the magic swords very surprising.

“But you have business to do with Sparda and his power. Rather, you had business with those. Tell me, Vergil, what truly is your business now?” Azazel replied, as if he were greeting a long-lost friend, and I got the idea that he was very comfortable at using his chip of knowledge against this guy.

Mostly, I was freaking out. Vergil. Azazel wouldn’t lie. Angels couldn’t lie. Angels never lie.

So this must mean that this man… this Vergil-look-alike was…

The real Vergil?

“My business is none of yours.” He replied coldly, and I began to see exactly how identical he was to the video game character that had taken the role of the main character on my TV screen a thousand times.

“But your business with your parents is every bit of mine. Sparda and Eva were the reason I fell, also the reason I was forgiven. I was given the task to help you and your brother, and I intend, in every bit, to fulfil that mission, as well as to answer to your mother’s plea.” Azazel replied, still keeping between the fine line of ambiguity and information.

I was reminded by how I’d asked Azazel about Eva in heaven, and how he said she’d been made their ranks. I didn’t understand, but suddenly it all clicked.

“Oh my god.” I gasped, stealing the words from Vergil (though I was sure he wouldn’t be saying such things), “Eva is an angel now?”

Azazel’s eyes flickered to me irritatedly, and his handsome lip tilted in a frown.

“Yes. Eva’s pure heart and willingness to forgo the imperfections of her lover has gained her ranks with us. She is safe now, Vergil, and she begs for you and Dante to forgive yourselves. Neither of you failed her the day she died. She implores for you to know that she is happier where she is now.” Azazel detailed, and I felt the touched tears come to my eyes. Oh, Eva was such a loving mother to still be watching her children after so long. The people in the heavens above had truly done the perfect gift by letting Eva be an angel. That blessed woman had simply enough love for everyone, doesn’t she?

“She will never be happier where she is without Sparda.” Vergil growled, and I wondered how the heck someone wouldn’t cry at the warmth of a mother’s unfaltering love. Vergil was truly a hardened man, though I didn’t understand how he was now back alive, in Dante’s office.

“That is true.” Azazel agreed sadly. “She isn’t happier without Sparda, but we cannot do anything about it. Let your mother rest well, knowing you are happy, Vergil.”

Vergil shook his head, still holding on to Yamato as if he planned to skewer the angel anytime he deemed fit. For the angel’s sake, Azazel didn’t even seem fazed by the fact that a powerful half-devil was standing in front of him, holding the sword that could create portals between Hell and the Human World.

Wait, I am in the Human World, right?

Yes, you are in the human side of this world. Azazel replied, and I jumped a little to know that he was tapping on to my thoughts. Had he been listening to me all this while?

I try not to, but I do agree that I have handsome lips. He replied, and I scowled, quickly filling my mind with bad thoughts about him, focusing on the fact that he’d pulled me from the middle of nowhere, and deposited me in the middle of nowhere.

“Then I am at rest knowing that Eva is safe in the heavens. Thank you for your information. Now leave, because you are no more welcome than your woman. Take her and leave, for she has been a burden these few days.” Vergil finally retracted his sword, guiding it back to his sheath in a movement that was super nostalgic and familiar. It didn’t take a DMC fan like me to see that he was ready to whip that sword out whenever he felt threatened. I mean, he was freaking fast in DMC3, flying around and slashing everything.

“This girl, whom you view a burden, is actually more important to you and your brother than you know. I understand that Limbo is now under the rule of a demonic government. You are not happy with it, for it has been hindering your lifestyle and job.” Azazel announced, and I tried my best to not let my eyes pop out.

So… this was really the hard and painful truth? That I was somehow stuck in a parallel world that was dominated by demons, and that –somehow, by some stroke of extreme luck –I had met my favorite character’s twin?

“Where is Dante?” I demanded of Azazel, suddenly bursting with hidden excitement. If the man before me was really Vergil, and if this was really Dante’s office, then where was the man? Where was Trish and Lady? Oh man, I could totally touch Rebellion and see Ebony and Ivory up close!

My angel gave me a slightly-irritated look, as if unhappy that I’d interrupted his conversation with Vergil.

“Dante is on his way back.” He replied, and I really tried very hard to suppress the squeal of delight. I wasn’t very successful, because Vergil gave me a shocked look at my high-pitched squeal, and another exasperated expression made its way across Azazel’s face.

“You are leaving before Dante comes back, and so is your woman.” Vergil’s eyes narrowed on me, and it was scary enough for me to stop jumping and doing a crazy happy jig. I did my best to swallow my saliva and portray the innocent, helpless girl look, but I guess I wasn’t very good at it hiding behind a powerful angel.

“You cannot make her leave, Vergil. She needs to stay with the sons of Sparda.” Azazel urged, and it kind of got to me.

“I’m still here.” I tried to remind both of them, but the stupid masochists didn’t want to accept the fact that the woman in topic was standing right next to them (or behind Azazel).

“I don’t care what importance you view her. She has no business with me. You will do better persuading Dante to keep her, but I will have no dealings with your woman.” Vergil announced, seemingly knowing that he couldn’t ever out-argue an angel, much less the angel of Death. It kind of made me wonder what kind of angel Azazel was before.

“Guys! I’m right here! Someone should tell me exactly why I’m so ‘important’ to anything and anyone at all!” I exclaimed, but none of them even gave an inkling of a reaction to show that they’d heard me at all. Like any other self-sufficient, hard-backboned woman that I had any rights to have, I decided that I had enough of the two masochist pigs who could view me like an object. Vergil just couldn’t stop viewing me as Azazel’s woman, and Azazel probably thought me as some ‘important tool’ in his ‘godly destiny’.

Well, screw Destiny. I was out to look for someone who could listen to me, and I’ve had enough of listening to two men –no matter how powerful they were –bickering over keeping me. Why keep me, when I could be self-sufficient and somehow survive on my own, and find my own way home?

I was never the type of girl to sit down and cry and wait for someone to come by and give me a lollipop anyway. I always rolled with the punches, and occasionally punched Fate back in the face. I figured I could do it again.

So I walked out. I literally walked out on both of them –an angel, and a totally badass half-devil.

Sometimes I don’t understand why I do things as such.

But sometimes, I think I’m just the craziest, but most badass person around.

_______________________________________________________________________________

I closed the door to Devil May Cry behind me softly, hoping that none of the men inside would realize that I was gone until too late. Though I know that it probably doesn’t take very long for either of them to find me, I hope I’ll be gone for long enough to make them realize that I’m actually important in their topic of conversation, instead of just treating me like an object.

Someone was making up the steps to Devil May Cry when I made down it, though I could see a distinct feminine shape beneath the biker’s jacket and slim long jeans. She had her hoodie up, wearing a pair of dark sunglasses. Her strut was confident, and as she passed by me, making towards Devil May Cry, I wondered internally how sad it was that someone so confident, so charismatic (on first impression), was looking help from a place so down in the dumps like Devil May Cry.

I half-considered leaving her be, but I felt bad immediately as she passed by me, considering that she was helplessly walking into a heated argument between a certain half-devil son of Sparda, and an angel. So, like any guilty woman, I stopped and turned around.

“Hey, you don’t want to go in now. There’s an argument going on between the men in there, and it isn’t pretty to watch or hear.” I warned, and she stopped her steps, a hand reaching out for the knob. She turned around slowly, facing me. I guessed her eyes were on me, assessing me, but I couldn’t be sure with her dark-as-night sunglasses. I realized she had really pretty blood red lips too.

“Argument? Now, that isn’t something I heard every day. Dante is awake enough to argue with someone, much less a man? Whoever would be as suicidal to engage in such blood-pressure-enhancing activity?” She asked in a faintly amused and curious voice, and I struggled to keep my gasp in.

No wonder she looked so distantly familiar in the back of my mind. I should have known!

“Um… I-I-It isn’t D-Dante arguing.” I stuttered a little, trying to get past my shock. My idol was here, standing in front me in the flesh.

Beautiful lips turned slightly down in a frown, and she stepped towards me, still keeping her perfect model-like body posture.

“Why are you stuttering all of a sudden? Surely I do not warrant such a reaction?” She asked, seemingly disturbed that someone was affected by her presence. I would like to have composed myself perfectly, but it changed no fact that I was beginning to shake with contained excitement. I wouldn’t want to scare her off by bursting out at her, but it didn’t seem to be working.

“I…I…”I tried to find excuses for myself, but what could I say? In this world, she was just a demon, just a partner of Dante. She wasn’t a superstar, wasn’t someone whose figurine covered every possible inch of my drawer. She probably would freak out at the sheer amount of posters I had of her. In every step of my teenaged life, I had taken leaves out of her book, learning to live life the way she did –dangerous and without care of rules.

Kill. Hate. Revenge. Anger. Kill. Kill.                                                       

A low growling interrupted my train of thoughts, and I rocked suddenly on my feet, swaying from front to back as I pressed a hand on my head, a wave of dizziness literally washing through me from head to toe. Black dots clouded my vision, and I put out a hand to steady myself, though I kind of knew there was nothing around me.

Still, my hand made contact with something warm, and I took comfort in that support it gave me, still swaying a little.

Kill. Hate. Anger. Kill.

I shuddered as the low growling echoed in me again, my head feeling more painful that it had just a moment ago. I wasn’t sure what the heck was happening, but I knew that my head felt like someone had hammered it in with a rock.

“Hey, are you okay?” I heard her voice distantly, and I tried to make a smile for my idol. There was no telling her that I was fine, but at least a smile would suffice as I realized she was the one holding on to me, giving me support.

“You need to sit down, darling.” She urged, pulling me towards the door gently. I knew she had demonic strength, and I took comfort in the fact that she wasn’t forcibly pulling me in there, as I resisted her movement by jerking her back.

“No…” I groaned softly, still holding on tight to her, because I was pretty sure I was going to fall off my feet if I didn’t keep hold on her.

“Okay, so the office is off-limits to you…” She was strangely very understanding, and I was extremely grateful for that. “How about my place? I promise there is no one there, and I’ll bring you back here once you are well.”

I was all too glad to accept somewhere to hide. I squeezed my eyes shut to stop my world from spinning, and nodded weakly.

“Come on, then.” She urged gently, and I was led down the stairs by my idol.

Kill. Hate. Kill.

The words echoed again, and I whimpered softly. My head was exploding, imploding on itself. I need help. Someone…

“Lily!” A voice shouted, but I kept my eyes squeezed shut, simply moving my legs and trusting my idol to lead me away from Devil May Cry.

Kill. Kil- Lily? Who calls Lily?

“Leave her! She does not belong to you!” The voice called, further away from me now.

You lie. I belong here. I belong here, as I am meant to be. I have returned. I am home, where I am meant to be. I will destroy. Kill. Hate. Revenge. Anger. Kill.

“Come on, get in the taxi. You just have to hold on a little longer.” My idol’s gentle voice urged, and I cracked my eyes open enough to guide my battered body into the metal junk of a car. I sank into soft cushioning and squeezed my eyes shut again.

Destroy. Destroy Mundus.

I faded away at the growling inside of me.