Chapter Text
1 MONTH BEFORE THE ECLIPSE
It’s so cold
And Dante remembered everything, though he was in deep slumber, he could still feel his surroundings and had his consciousness come back after he had been injected by Lady with a syringe. But it’s useless that he’s conscious but he was stripped of his dignity.
Remembering how he got here, Dante can’t help but feel frustrated at Lady (Mary) perhaps it was stupid on his part for reaching out to someone he met for a day but he can’t help but think of the times they worked together, even if it was just fighting against the White Rabbit.
They were in sync blasting the guy until the Rabbit turned demon and Dante with the help of Lady managed to kill him.
Closing the rift to the demon and the human world,
Seeing the sky turn blue and the sun shining as it was once red with demons entering the rift now closed.
Him and Lady sitting by the bridge resting,
Now finding out that his brother is alive and somewhere in Hell (Makaian?) or on Earth, Dante needs to reunite with his brother.
He offered his hand to Lady in the hopes of accompaniment,
But the last thing he remembered was the feeling of the piercing needle and something injected to his neck to finally realize that she can’t have him roaming around freely because he was ‘too dangerous’
I guess that’s how DARKCOM thanks their people, by backstabbing them in the back.
The needle may be strong enough to keep him unconscious for quite some time, at some point he starts to feel his surroundings, however he can’t open his eyes or control his body.
Everything feels cold due to the water that keeps him afloat, it seems that he was kept in a tube but not the captain America type of cryopod.
He was also restrained as he can feel his arms lock-tied and it sucks that he was kept prisoner out of his own consent and will to do so. It also sucks that he can hear what was going on outside and how they were talking to him as if he was some kind of animal, a savage that needs to be monitored.
They also bad-mouthed him which Dante was annoyed that he quite literally saved the world from an apocalypse and he wasn’t asking much for return, maybe a coupon for his favorite dessert spot and guns that won’t destroy from impact. But he didn’t get any of that, just a needle and a cryopod to be kept away and monitored for how long.
If we weren't listening to scientists talking smack about him, he would always hear someone entering alone after the scientist left their duty hours as he hears the room open with someone walking, alone and heavy and they sat down as they talked. It didn’t take long to realize that Lady was crying to him and he didn’t know when it started but he started counting the days that Lady came to visit him.
Though he didn’t count the days he was kept in the cryopod it was only after Lady’s visitation that he counted 14 days that she visited and talked to him.
Dante would summarize it as a mess of ugly cries, apologies and long accounts of what happened with DARKCOM. He didn’t know what to do since he can’t talk back to her or communicate since he’s ‘asleep’. (aware but can’t wake up) But perhaps he can listen to Lady and understand the way she is; he already accepts the apology but maybe he hopes that he can respond to it once he’s awake and he plans to escape this stupid pod.
Entering into his devil trigger form is almost impossible at this point and that being kidnapped by someone seems more possible since it happened to him, twice now.
CRASH
Huh?
“..ke .p Dan..”
Dante feels sluggish and he feels explosions that are happening to the cryopod as a silhouette is kneeled beside him, shaking his body.
He sees red and hears a woman calling out to him.
Rubbing his eyes, Dante returns to his senses as things begin to sound less muffled and his vision begins to clear. Standing up he looks down to see himself barefoot and appears to be wearing a gray bodysuit? Now that he’s free by someone and is confused as to why the woman in red set him free.
Because who in the world would rescue him?
Dante now wishes that Enzo would be by his side and makes a snarky comment but alas he remembered seeing Enzo’s lifeless body right in his eyes, he’s dead.
“We need to move now.” The woman then spoke and started to run for the exit as the loud speakers now glared at his ears. Not wanting to get captured once more or become a DARKCOM soldier boy, Dante followed her down the hallways. Though it would mean that he won’t get to see Lady for the time-being, maybe it’s for the best at the time being and that giving himself time to process all the mess in his life would give him the clarity that his mind needs to deal with the problems that he has now.
He’ll have to set aside his reunion for Lady.
“I’ll explain everything once we’re out here but now we need to get your weapons and amulet so that we can get the hell out of here.”
Her voice brings him back to reality as he observes her. Red hair, braided at the side. The most notable pieces of her wardrobe are her short, white cape and her exposed midriff. She also has deep emerald green eyes and he couldn’t help but remember her presence from somewhere.
“Supposedly, but maybe give me a reason why I should follow you?” Dante wanted to know where her loyalties lie so that he won’t fall in bad company because he already has a lot of bad company that’s potentially coming after him and his father’s legacy.
“DARKCOM works under the guise of UROBUROS, a company owned by a madman who wants to resurrect a demon called Argosax.” She replied.
The name sounds unfamiliar but if he knows one thing is that, resurrecting a demon will cause another catastrophic disaster and Dante won’t let that slide. “Guess I’ll trust you for now.”
“Freeze!”
Just turning around the corner Dante and the woman see a dozen of DARKCOM soldiers armed and ready as they both stopped at their tracks. With no sign of Lady around, Dante feels like he could do some warm up after being frozen for how long. “Sorry but I plan on becoming a free man.”
Shots were fired and Dante along with the woman dodged their bullets.
Dante readied his leg and round-house kicked the front line soldiers with his super-human strength as followed with a back thrust kick, falling over like dominos while the woman knocked out the remaining soldiers as she took their guns and smacked it to their heads.
As the soldiers fell unconscious, Dante and the woman continued their journey as she guided him through the hallways until they entered a room by destroying the password code and disabling the security measures, the woman managed to enter the room followed by Dante.
“Can’t believe they took my stuff into this cold room.” Looking at one of the long iron-boxed cases, Dante grabbed its handle and placed it on the table as he began to rip it open. Fortunately for him, his super-human strength came back in handy as he easily ripped both covers that reveal rebellion but no sign of his amulet.
Just great Dante cursed at his mind, slightly panicking as his jewel that his mother said to keep it close is still missing.
Dante then looked around the room and opened more of the boxes which revealed more weapons and guns but nothing came to his liking while the woman stayed back to keep watch as Dante motioned that he’s not yet ready to leave the room. He eventually gets his hands on one which was smaller in comparison and opened it which revealed guns that look similar to-
Looks like Lady’s guns have been repaired for sometime.
The gun is neat with anti-demon bullets encased; which is still wild to call a bullet anti-demon as it sounds childish and stupid. But he can’t lie and say that it’s ineffective because it works well. Since he started his mercenary work, he heavily relied on silver bullets which did its job to eradicate the demons and hearing about DARKCOM’S technology was impressive but tacky since it implied that using these kinds of bullets can kill the demons and that other weapons are deemed useless.
DARKCOM really wants to be stuck-up
He then picked up Lady’s guns as he decided maybe as payback for the amulet, he would borrow her guns for the meantime and restrain himself as much as possible to not destroy its handle.
Sorry Lady but I’ll get this for now, maybe that will teach you to not steal what doesn’t belong to you
“Dante, are you done getting what you need? We need to hurry up before more people come.”
“I can’t find my amulet- and I don’t want to lose it again.”
It was frustrating that as he gets the thing that identifies him the most, he doesn’t have the one that connects him to his family. No one is supposed to get the amulet, it’s his and not anyone else because it reminded him of his mother and his brother who ‘died’ in the fire that Mundus caused. Not only is it his family heirloom, but after finding out that it is one of the pieces that could open the gates in hell, he had more reason to keep it in his vicinity and not let any human and demon touch it.
And a certain Politician came to mind when he remembered what Lady said to him about Baines. That scum who opened the portal just to start some wicked crusade and nuke hell in the sake of religion.
“Sorry Red, I don't want to leave yet. I need my Amulet back and we seem competent enough to knock out these DARKCOM soldiers. Now that I feel rested I think a warm up is what I need before going to the man upstairs and taking what belongs to me before I get serious.”
The woman in front of him hesitated and a brief silence surrounded them as they assessed the situation they currently are facing. Although Dante just met the woman in red, her intentions alone by getting straight to the point and not beating the bush made him want to trust her for now but he hopes that she is telling the truth and not a guise to use him for other intentions.
“Dante I’m sorry I messed up I messed up, I messed up I messed up.”
“
You were right Dante, Baines was just using soldiers like nothing.”
“I guess I’ll be leaving again Dante, please forgive me.”
Dammit He remembered the things she said and how he too had to face that as well. Being stuck in the pod meant that you had time to think about what happened and how he felt about the whole thing. Enzo’s death became a pain in the back of his mind and knowing that his brother is somewhere out there alive. He could have found him if he wasn’t kept in a freezer.
Now that there was no sight of Lady in his awake, perhaps he needs time to be ready before he can face her or if destiny allows them to meet again.
“You’re right Dante, I guess getting the amulet meant delaying their plans in fully opening the portal to hell.”
Dante was satisfied with her response as he readied his gear up, with no sight of his red coat anywhere, he was just wearing a basic grey bodysuit that snatched his figure especially down there- in his legs of course. But one thing that kept him heavy as he was awake from his coma was his belly silently signaling to him to eat something because it’s been months and he hasn’t eaten or drank anything.
“Maybe let's try stopping by some vending machine because I’m starving as hell in here.”
Leaving the room, Dante and the woman ran down the halls, with alarms still ringing heavy as DARKCOM soldiers began to be lessen in numbers, Dante began to alert himself on whatever surprise that have in store but so far they were manhandling soldiers, making sure that they stay unconscious for a while.
Running the building blindly, Dante and the woman finally saw the stairs as they ran for it, empty and surprisingly the alarms were no longer ringing and this made them more alert than ever. This meant that the people upstairs knew what’s going on and the lack of soldiers appearing in their direction made them question on what’s happening behind the scenes
After leaving the stairs, they arrived at a corridor with directions and labels of the rooms in this specific floor that they’re at. What’s strange is how normal and empty it looked compared to the other parts of the DARKCOM facility where they leaned on sci-fi technology futuristic outlook, but this floor looked like a normal high condominium office room with some doors that lead to several offices with labels outside.
Entering the floor Dante sees a vending machine on the side of the room and breaks the glass before grabbing a bunch of snacks and munching them as he grabs the nearest drink to chug down the snacks that he ate on.
The floor was silent and no alarms were ringing.
“I don’t know if this is an appropriate question but may I know your name Red?”
He approached her as he held out some snacks that he hadn’t eaten, gesturing to her to take some but her hand gave a pass.
“Lucia. That’s my name. I know that things may seem moving fast, however, I will be explaining things soon.” She looked at him with apologetic eyes, Dante appreciated it because she wasn’t openly hostile and he hoped he could rest after leaving DARKCOM and plan on how to take down this ‘UROBORUS’ company.
Before Dante could respond, they failed to realize that the reason why things started to feel too peaceful was because they failed to recognize the silent steps that walked up the stairs a moment before Lucia spoke, or the sound of the trigger that was ready to shoot the woman who saved Dante from the cryopod.
BANG
Just as she finished speaking, the trigger released and the bullet began to ram straight to her skull as she fell fast on the floor.
Dante’s senses tensed as he readied his weapon to attack the person who entered the room.
“Quite the scary one I must say.”
Looking at the killer Dante sees a man whose skin was closer to grey than to human and an accent to his voice that Dante can’t seem to recognize where he is from.
And he wants to remove that smug on his face as he chuckled after shooting a human mere seconds ago.