Undertow: Chapter 8

Hypnotic Poison

     The invitation came days later.  A plain white envelope with Club D.O.A.'s address scribbled hastily with Remus' name penned in the corner.  The letter had been pushed through the mail slot of the Club sometime in the morning - only hours after it had shut down.

     "How appropriate," Remus remarked when the driver stopped in front of a ruined of what was once a grand Cathedral, in a dilapidated neighborhood that looked like an abandoned shanty town.  Remus looked at the address that had been written neatly on the folded paper.  He nodded to himself and shoved the paper back into its envelope, then tossed it into the glove box.

    "Should I wait, sir?" 

    "No," Remus said and let himself out.  "I'll call you if I need you."

    "Yes, sir," the old man tipped his wheel cap and watched Remus walk half way up the small flight of stone stairs before he drove off.

    The front double doors were already torn off its hinge, each one dangling in odd angles.  He could already see Dante through the opening.  He was sitting on the alter with one knee drawn up and the other dangling over the edge of the table.  A sword with a dragon's head was driven into ground - Dante's right forearm leaned against the top of the sword handle.  His eyes were focused on something faraway, almost appearing as if he did not know Remus was there.     

    "I would like to call you brave but...." Remus said as he stepped through the tattered remains of the double doors.  "However, I like this."

    Dante said nothing.

    "A creature that God had long forsaken seeks to redeem himself in this Godless place," Remus said, his heels clacked loudly on the cracked tile floor.  "What do you hope to find here?"

    Dante's eyes narrowed and his mouth curved into a smile.

    "Death," he said and unanchored Alastor from the ground.  The eyes of the dragon swallowing the sword blade opened - suddenly aware of its master's energies.  "Nothing more."

    "I will not kill you," Remus said and stopped half way.  He glanced around and took in the rows of pew that had been  destroyed by age and pieces of the ceiling that had fallen onto it.  The stain-glass panes with random pieces of the glass shattered.  

    "No, you will not," Dante said and slipped on the gauntlet he had on his lap. 

    Remus looked back at Dante and snickered.

    "I love you even more," he said and shrugged off his coat, letting it pool by his feet.  "I would take you back to hell with me so you can be tried for your father and your crimes.  You don't deserve to die in the human world, darling.  Your home waits for its prodigal son."

    Dante catapulted himself into the air, high enough for his foot to find the beam to ricochet off from.  He slashed his sword out in a wide arc and nearly caught his startled target's head in the sweep.  Remus held up his arms reflexively and the sword sliced through one of the forearms down to the bone.  Remus leapt a few steps back and held his wounded arm.

   "Very nice," Remus said.  "Didn't expect this at all...."

   Dante's body crackled with energy that was from and to Alastor.  He couldn't find a weak spot to work on yet.  He only knew he had to try to kill Remus while he was in his human form.  He was not certain how well Alastor will work against a fire user.

   "Your sword is a demon, isn't it?" Remus said and looked at his blooded arm that had already healed.  "I felt him when he cut me."

   Dante backed away, his sword held out in front of him.  He need to find a place where he could take cover, when Remus' attack comes.  Although there wasn't much that the demonic magic will not go through.

   "You made me bleed," Remus said and gathered his arms together over his head.  "I suppose I should return your favor, sweets."

   It was pure instinct that guided him.  He could see nothing but bright lights and hear nothing but explosions as he ran and rolled along the benches.  Wood and stone splintered around him.  He didn't know where he was going but he didn't stop moving until the explosions ceased.  Through the dust, he saw Remus walk toward him.

   "Come to me..."

   The transformation had been instant.  There had been perhaps two seconds between the change and the attack.  Thick arm with a solid fist came down on the seat in front of him.  Dante dove to the side, narrowly catching the splinters of wood that would have spiked through him. 

    "I've hunted misfit creatures like you for over a thousand years.  I've killed hundreds of thousands of despicable insects like you," Remus said, his voice deep - almost like a roar, as he spoke.  He took one heavy step forward and instantly cracked the tiles beneath his hoof.  "What made you think you could kill me?"

    Dante looked for an opening and he found it as soon as Remus raised his arms to call another spell.  He drew Ebony from its holster on his hip and fired as he ran toward the wall to Remus' left.  He collected enough speed and momentum to run along the wall, defying gravity and too fast for Remus to follow.  As Dante passed Remus, he slashed out with his sword.  It hit Remus hard enough to push him a couple of steps back.  

    Dante came to rest across the room and reassessed his attack plan.  His guns made small pin-like holes in Remus' chest but they didn't appear to bother the goatling.  The cut he made barely showed on Remus' leg.  Remus' skin was thick and as resilient as an armor. 

    "Well," Remus said, a smile formed over the wolf-like face and he laughed.  "It looks like you are playing for real.  Wonderful... just fucking wonderful."

    Remus spread his arms.

    "I am so fucking turned on now that I think I might have to fuck your dead body for a couple hours before I drag it into Hell with me."

    Suddenly, Remus' hands were engulfed in fires that was creeping up the forearm.  Dante watched the fires grow then floated up to the ceiling.  They hung there, as if trying to gauge Dante's movement first, before they fell.  Dante waited for a long as he could before he rolled out of the way.  The fires rain down, following him.  Dante felt them pierce through his arms, his back and his legs.  No matter how fast he moved, they struck him.  He didn't remember stopping or falling.   He only remembered he found himself looking up at the wolfish smile staring down at him.

    "You are fast, darling," A ball of fire formed on Remus' right hand.  "I'm impressed..."

    Dante's hand tightened on Ebony and began shooting into Remus.  His right hand let go of Alastor and he drew out Ivory.  The cloud of smoke obstructed his vision.  He followed Remus' movement by sound, as he crawled backwards away on his elbows.  Dante stopped shooting, once his shoulder struck the bottom step of the stair that led to the altar.

    "What am I going to do with you....?" Remus said, his voice smaller and low.

    Dante struggled to sit up but he couldn't make his legs move.  From the distinct sharp pain he was familiar with, he knew his legs were broken.  The bones would mend but they would take a few more minutes than an open wound.

    "Shit...."  Dante whispered.  

    He held the guns out in front of him and waited for the acrid fog to clear.  When it did, he saw Remus on his knees - one hand holding a hole the rain of bullets had opened up in his belly.

    "Now, I am angry," Remus said.  "This will cost you, sweets."

    Remus' fist came down hard on the ground and a path of fire came from it - running along a straight line toward him.  Dante rolled to one side but the fire still singed him.  He could smell the burnt leather of his coat.  While he moved from the fire, Remus took the opportunity to close in.  By the time Dante reacted, Remus was already next to him, a clawed hand slapped Ebony out of his left hand.

    "You can't win --"

    Dante began to fire into the same hole his bullets had dug into, in Remus' belly.  Remus roared - his eyes reddened as he reached down at Dante- ignoring the bullets that was eating away at his hand, until he seized Dante by his forearm.

    "I'm going to hurt you so bad that you will beg for me to kill you -- "

    With a hard twist - a sickening cracking sound filled Dante's ears.  Dante bit down on his lip.  He refuse to cry out.  He will not scream.  Dante's arm had been broken - Ivory clattered uselessly onto the ground.  

    "What should your punishment be?" Remus said, lifting Dante up by the broken arm until his feet left the ground.  He dangled like a lifeless doll.

    Remus' wrapped the other hand around Dante's waist, holding him.  He let the words sink into Dante's mind first, before he tore the broken arm from its joint.  Dante threw his head back and screamed.  He might have blacked out but he quickly returned to the pain.  Remus was giggling.

    Then Dante was dropped back on the ground.  He was panting hard, trying to draw enough air into his lungs to remain conscious.  His torn arm lay a few feet away - its fingers twitching, the demon blood in it trying to repair itself even though the arm was no longer with the body.

    "You can have your arm back later, when you learn to behave," Remus said.  He had returned to his human form.

    "Fuck....you...."

    "Interesting you should say that," Remus said, his voice was like silk as he spoke.  He picked up Dante by his coat front and threw him on the table of the altar.  "You are reading my mind."

    Fingers slid into the waist band of his leather pants and tore, not bothering with the button and zipper.  Remus' sharp nail cut into Dante's hip and made a long line down the side of his thigh as the pants were ripped.  A cold tongue lapped the trickles of blood that bled out.

    "A proper fate for a wicked thing like you , isn't it?" Remus said.  He had stripped away the black leather pants and discarded them to the side.  "Being raped and murdered with the face of God looking down at you."

    Dante's eyes stared up, finding the figure of Christ mounted on a crucifix gaze down at him.  The face was cracked and dirtied from age and neglect.  However, in its painted dark eyes - there were mourning.  Somehow, that soothed him a little.  Even if no one grieve for him if he should die there, at least the figure of the tortured Christ did.

    He squeezed his eyes shut and gnashed his teeth together as Remus shoved his way into him.  It took little effort for him to tear through the rim and its way through the tight columns.  

    "Don't pass out on me," Remus said, breathless with arousal.  "I'll fucking tear off the rest of your limbs if you do."

    "Shut...up..."

    Remus bent over, tasting the blood on Dante's mouth.  The smell of the blood that still leaked from the armless joint was wonderfully sweet.  He dare not even drink from it - he knew he would lose control and bite into the wound, feasting on the flesh until Dante was truly dead.  He could not allow Dante to die.  Not yet.  Not this simple.

    "My beautiful Dante," Remus whispered, grounding his hips against Dante's thighs - savoring the warmth the wrapped around him.  "Isn't this wonderful? We are like two lost lovers who had found each other again...."

    Dante's eyes fluttered close, his mouth opened slightly - airy moans came from them.  Suddenly, there were no more struggles from him.  As quickly as the anger and hatred that came, it had left.  The tension had left Dante's body and the resistance had gone.

    "Fuck...me..."

    Remus almost laughed.  The words that escaped Dante's mouth were the last thing he had expected him to say.  Somehow, they sound unreal.

    Dante's eyes opened - the blue eyes glistened with tears that had risen.

    "I want to feel your cock cut my belly open from the inside."

    "You won't be able to take it, sweets," Remus said and cupped Dante's face in his hands.  He loved those blue eyes.  As he looked into them, he had a fleeting urge to pluck them out just to have them.

    "...or can't you give it?"

    His fingers stroked Dante's finger gingerly, then he laughed.

    "You never do know how to keep your lovely mouth shut," Remus said and leaned back, hooking Dante's thighs over his shoulders.  

    Without another word or warning, he thrust in and out - slicked by the blood that had bled from the ripped muscles inside.  Dante rolled his head to the side, holding his breath - refusing to make a sound.  The wet sound that filled the empty space of the destroyed church were heavy and dull.  Remus had already stabbed through his bowels and his cock was ripping at his organs.  The pains were blinding - he felt it more intensely than the ache that throbbed from his missing arm.

    "You can beg me to stop," Remus said, throwing his entire weight into each thrust.  "Ask me nicely and I will."

    "Shut...the...fuck....up...."

    A light blue haze rose from Dante's body - his eyes were half-lidded and his body was tense again.  

    "You are dying," Remus said, but his pace only increased.  "You are burning your Devil Trigger now...and when that runs out, you will die from a death that you might not recover from."

    Remus laughed and turned Dante over on his belly.

    "I know what you are doing  but it's not going to work.  Although somehow, being fucked to death would be what I had envisioned for you."  

    He hooked his fingers around the dilated and bloody hole, marveling at the warm blood that ran down in rivulets down his legs.

    "Or maybe I should spare you and just reach in there and pull your guts out now?"

    Dante didn't answer.  He was panting harder.  Staying conscious was becoming more difficult.  He needed to keep measure of the Trigger - and he could feel it burn away, taking with it bits of his soul.  His sanity.

    Remus ran his tongue along Dante's thighs - savoring the coppery taste of the blood.  The warmth of the viscous fluid burned in his mouth.  It was with great restraint that kept him from biting into the soft flesh - tearing into it hungrily.  Remus took a couple of steps back, as if trying to separate himself from the temptation.  

    "You will not die today," Remus said.  It was said to remind himself of his own powers and Dante's limits.  "You can't die today."

    Dante turned himself over, his legs barely working although he felt the bones in them had knitted.  There were red tints in his vision but he couldn't find the strength to wipe away the blood that were seeping into his eyes.

    "And I won't die here today, you shit --" Dante said, his voice raspy and weak.

    "Why are you doing this?" Remus said as he walked toward the side of the platform, toward the stone stand where the bust of Mary stood.  He cleared away the cobwebs that laced the sculpture and studied the cracks that ran along the surface with a mild interest.  "Why are you suffering for the humans?"

    A guttural laugh came from Dante's throat.

    "You stupid shit, you don't know a damn thing about me."

    Remus wound his arms around the bust and kissed the top of its head.

    "No, I suppose not...but that was what I find so wonderful about you," Remus whispered.  His arms tightened around the statue until the slight sounds of crackling came.  Seconds later, a thunderous sound of the stone exploding and striking the ground echoed the empty hall.  "It makes me want you even more...."

    "So much so that being inside you isn't enough," he continued, closing the gap between Dante and himself. 

    Remus seized Dante by his throat, the fingers pressing down hard enough to make breathing difficult.  

    "I want mark you so deep inside that I will always be in you...." Remus whispered and drew him up until he could taste Dante's breath.  "Isn't it wonderful to be loved like that?"

    Dante's eyes darted past Remus, suddenly catching a glitter among the dust and debris.  Alastor.  He could still feel its soul calling out to him - searching for his master.  

    Almost time.... He said to it in his mind.  Then it will be all over.

    "Let's make love, shall we?" Remus said and kissed Dante's mouth.  "I promise to be gentle this time."

    "You don't have to be," Dante said softly then smiled.  "I like it rough."

    Remus opened his mouth to speak - but found the word lost to the immense pain that nearly made him mindless.  He pushed himself away and saw the silver tip of a sword that had been driven out of his chest from his back.  From the energies that was burning through the sword - he knew what it was.  Dante had called his sword to come to him and it had driven itself through - trying to reach its master.

    "You fucking shit --" Remus screamed, pulling the bloodied sword from his back - ignoring the burning electricity that was scorching his human skin.  

    Remus thrust the sword through Dante's chest, the blade drove through the ribcage easily and into the stone table nearly up to the hilt.  The crackling of the energies that came from Alastor weakened, then dissipated.   Dante's form was unmoved - his wide dead eyes stared into the ceiling, his mouth slightly open as if he was surprised by his sudden demise.

    "Shit..." Remus whispered.

    Dante's wounds were not healing.  His chest was no longer rising and falling, trying to gasp for air.  There were no movements.  The only sound he could hear were the tiny tip-tap of the trickles of blood that had spilled from the sides of the table and onto the floor.

    It might have been a few minutes later when the metamorphosis came.  It happened when Remus was slipping on his coat, preparing to leave.  What were the intact stain glass windows exploded inwards - showering the room with colorful bits of glass and wrought iron.   Remus stood mesmerized in the center of the cleared floor, looking at the altar as the red mist formed around Dante.  

    When the fog cleared, a crimson and black demon rose from the table.  It pulled the sword out from his chest and discarded it to the side, as it spread his folded wings. For a moment, Remus thought it was fear that held him.  As he transformed into the Abyss Goat - he realized it wasn't.  It was sheer excitement that was pure pleasure.  The Sparda demon had been summoned.  Remus spread his wings but before he could take flight, Dante had begun his attack.        

    The first volley of electricity coursed through him, burning him from the inside.  The electricity that Dante was channeling was stronger before.  Remus' arm had been burned through when he held it up to block.  When he sent series of powerful fires toward Dante, they were effortlessly absorbed.  Remus realized then, he could not win.  He had released the true Sparda demon hiding deep inside the human blood.  Remus was torn from the need to flee and the need to remain there and fight to the end.  It took him little time to make his decision.

    "Let's finish this, shall we?" Remus said softly as he opened his arms and called out for his strongest spell.  A fire-demon in the shape of a serpent rose from him, coiling itself in midair then sped down toward Dante.  The white flame had swallowed Dante in that instant.  As Remus called for another demon to join the first, the shadow of Dante emerged from the fires - its movements too fast.  

    Then there were silence.  Dante had driven his arm through Remus' chest, burning a hole through - shattering everything in the cavity.  Dante withdrew his arm and drove his fist through Remus' belly - that hole wider than the first.  

    "You....little....shit...." Remus smiled, dark blood trickled from the corners of his mouth.

    Dante stepped back and let Remus fall backwards on the ground.

    The crimson demon said nothing, turning his back on the dying goatling and walked back into the flames.

    "There's nothing to see," Redgrave said as he parked the car along the curb.  "The Fire Marshall said there's nothing recovered from the site."

    "I know," Dante said and got out.

    He zipped up his coat and shoved his hands into his pocket.  A light drizzle had started to come down -- powdering his hair.  The scent of the embers was strong, as he neared the destroyed church.  His boots were caked with the cinders by the time he found the spot he had marked in his memory.  He stared down at the blackened clearing - uncertain what he should be expecting to find.  He felt unsettled.  

    Remus was gone, taking the answer he had sought with him.  

    "Fuck," Dante concluded and turned around and stepped through the burnt structures and into Redgrave's car.  Redgrave made a face and looked down at the soot Dante had tracked into his car but said nothing.

    "Who was he?" Redgrave asked.

    "Doesn't matter."

    "I think he does."

    Dante leaned back and closed his eyes.

    "No, he doesn't."

    "He gave you another death and opened another level to your powers."

    "He gave me nothing," Dante said.  "I worked him into killing me."

    Redgrave gripped the steering column hard -- so hard that his knuckles turned white.

    "Please don't do that again," Redgrave said softly.  "Deaths for halflings can be gifts...but it can also be their true death."

    "Wouldn't that be nice?" Dante said with a small smile.

    Redgrave said nothing more.  He dropped off Dante at his office and left, offering only his usual nod as his good-bye.  Dante stood in the misty rain that had gradually picked up a heavier tempo, his eyes stared into the alleyway a few hundred yards from his building.  There was a car parked there, with its silver fender and Jaguar hood ornament exposed.  He stared, then turned and walked up the stairs and into his office.

    It was the scent of something unfamiliar that seized his attention first - but somehow, he was not alarmed.  He pressed his back against the shut door and wrestled his wet, soiled boots off.  He cast them to the side and made his way across the unpolished wood floor on his bare feet.  He had left his twin guns upstairs, beside his bed.  His swords stood undisturbed beside his cluttered desk.  

    Someone's here.....          

    But he still had not the urgency to snatch up his sword and investigate.  He pushed a few straggling wet strands of hair from his face and let out a long sigh.  Whatever it was that was making his inside twist into knots, was not a terrible threat.  Someone unwelcomed but he  knew could not harm him. 

    He sank into his leather chair and leaned back as far as it will go and put his feet up on the table.  He was thinking of the bottle of bourbon that he had stashed in the right drawer but he didn't want to move.  The gentle sounds of the rain tapping at the glass panes of the window and his door was soothing -- giving him peace that he had not felt in a long time.  He fell asleep - with his hands clasped over his belly.

    He was dreaming of Vergil.  He knew it was a dream only because he had remembered Vergil had died.  Vergil smiled down - a mirror of himself stared into him.  Hands that was gentle.  Like his father's.  

    "I know you are not really here..." Dante said softly and closed his eyes.  He leaned into the open palms that were calloused from handling the sword.  "You are only visiting me, in my mind..."

    Then there were silence.  Feather-like touches that gradually faded away and replaced by emptiness.  Cold.  Dante's eyes snapped open and was surprised that he made no move to reach for his sword when another familiar face looked back at him.

    "You really do have a lot of balls," Dante said softly and lifted his feet off the desk.

    "You would know that better than most people," Remus said. "Your instincts are right.  I can't hurt you."

    As to make a point, Remus unzipped his coat and held it open.  Most of his chest was marred with dark-red burns.  The demon blood had not healed it.

    "You lived because you are a fire user," Dante said and pulled out the drawer to fetch his bottle of liquor.  "But you can't heal completely because you were burned with electricity."

    Remus zipped up the coat half way and sat down on the chair he had dragged from the corner and placed in front of the desk.

    "I live but damage like this shorten my life considerably," Remus said. "The energy that takes to repair this...."

    He paused and smiled.

    Dante unscrewed the metal cap to the bourbon bottle and flicked the it across the room and into one of the pockets of the pool table.

    "What do you want?" Dante said and took a drink from the bottle.  "I don't usually take walk-in cases but I'd gladly finish my last job for free."

    Remus laughed.  

    "You've won," Remus said.  "There is no point to finish anything else."

    Dante took another long drink from the bottle and sighed.

    "You owe me," Dante said.  

    Remus gestured at the bottle and Dante placed it down on the desk and slid it into Remus hand.  Remus took a long drink from it and set it down.  For a few moments - neither spoke.

    "Do you understand the making of creatures like yourself?" Remus said.  "Halflings that were made by true demons?"

    "Asides from what you've told me?" Dante said.  "No."

    Remus spun the bottle slowly in his hands.

    "When demons crosses into a realm of the humans and mates with a human, their powers are split in their children.  Their children are the mirrors of the demon father.... two identical mirrors."

    "All halflings are made in pairs," Dante said.

    Remus nodded.  "And most of the time, their blood are equally halved.  The biological balance that made creatures like you a threat to both human and demons.  You have human hunters of this world seeking to eradicate your kind, no?"

    Dante shrugged.  

    "They are not a threat to me."

    "Although you will not admit it, but you have inherited the side of Sparda that adored humans.  The same way all of these humans have animals they keep as pets."

    Dante took in a breathe and stopped himself from commenting.  Instead, he reached out for the bourbon bottle and took a drink from it.

    "Of course you would not like to believe this," Remus said.  "Your mother, of course, had been one of his....pets."

    "Don't speak of things that you have no understanding of," Dante said - his voice leveled and low to hide his anger.

    "Your father was not a saint," Remus said.  "As your brother might have revealed to you and in case the situation was not evident enough -- your father was born into evil. He had been raised in it and he had held his sword against creatures like humans for thousands of years.  He eventually turned against his own kind but that does not change what he really is."

    Dante kept his eyes focused on the mouth of the bottle, letting the words absorb.

    "Tell me about the last memories you had with him," Remus said.  He folded his arms across his chest and leaned back on the chair.

    "Why should I?"

    "Because I will tell you the meaning of that memory."

    Silence.

    The rain came down harder - and the pecking of the hard rain against the glass was a comforting white noise that Dante needed to think.  After awhile and more gulps of bourbon, he spoke.

    "I was five when he left.  He only told me that he will return."

    "And he never did."

    Silence.

    "Well...he did die," Remus said.  "He had left the human world to return to his own because he was dying."

    Remus gestured for the bottle to be returned to him and Dante shoved it back to him.  The bottle was nearly empty anyway.  He got up to go to the liquor cabinet to find another bottle of anything to drink.

    "He returned home to find a Salamander."

    Dante froze but willed himself to walk again.  He crouched down and rummaged through the bottles until he found a half-empty bottle of whiskey.  He unscrewed the top and took a drink as he stood.

    "That doesn't explain a lot of things."

    Remus cocked his head to the side and laughed.

    "You've not been listening to me," Remus said.  "What did I explain to you about the twins?"

    "Vergil is dead.  There are no twins."

    "Vergil is dead in the same way your father is dead.  Both bodies lived through the captured salamanders.  Both have memories and some powers as their original hosts but they will never be the exact duplicates.  If it were -- then this salamander would not have left Vergil's body and perished by its own choice.  The conscious mind still belonged to the Salamander, even when it was driven by strong inclinations.."

    "And how does this involve me? With all of this fucked up plan?"

    Remus stood up and brushed the wrinkles out of his sleeves as he did so.

    "You are the last Sparda," Remus said and walked toward Dante in slow measured steps.  "You are a halved self of Sparda. Sparda wants it now that he no longer have his own."

    Dante shook his head and slammed down the bottle so hard that the neck of it broke, splashing the whiskey over the felt top of the pool table.

    "Vergil....or rather, what you thought was Vergil, was sent to you to lure you into his mind.  And once you are locked in there with him, your body would be free to host a new resident. You can't die yet you are not allowed to exist.  Difficult thing to juggle and took years to plan."

    "I don't believe you...."

    Remus stood in front of Dante, his hands shoved into his coat pockets.

    "I think you do," he said.  "And I think once you are done trying to numb yourself with these drinks -- you should ready yourself to find your father."

    "Get out of my house..."

    "You are quite welcome," Remus said and bent forward to plant a kiss on Dante's forehead.  Dante only stared up at him numbly - unable to make himself move.

    "When you are ready....come to the club.  Your new powers should be powerful enough for you to sustain the travel through the portal.  I am sure you would like to see your father again."

    Dante didn't look up or even registered that Remus had left.  The suddenly calm of the rain made the room bigger, colder.  He let out a long sigh and lied back on the pool table.  His eyes stared fixedly at the skylight in the vaulted ceiling.  His head hurt again.

    "Papa...."

   End Undertow