The Price to Run [Maria & Nevan, Devil May Cry, R] Title: The Price to Run Author:jlsigman Rating: R Warnings: language, violence, some horrific imagery Word count: 1377 Prompt: Nevan and Maria: an unexpected act of kindness A/N: Takes place some months after Black Rain. Maria is becoming more unstable, her paranoia and unrequited obsession slowly poisoning her against Dante. Her only comfort comes from playing Nevan's guitar form, which quiets her ever-present connection to the Net. Dante watches with suspicion, but tells himself that he could handle anything that might go wrong. Finally, the day comes that he's been waiting for: Nero is on-planet again and desperately wants to meet his wayward descendant. Dante goes to bring him to the shop, leaving Maria with only a stern, “Stay here!” She immediately envisions a fearful and painful future, and, with Nevan's subtle encouragement, hacks into his computer.
HURRY UP AND TAKE THIS PSYCHO BRAT OFF MY HANDS
Maria whimpered, then bit her knuckles to stop the sound. Despite her screaming thoughts, the computer still responded to her commands. More messages of Dante desperately wanting to get rid of her. That she was a nuisance, crazy, he would've kicked her out if he wasn't such a nice guy. The last one was timestamped several minutes before he left.
ABOUT DAMN TIME GET DOWN HERE AND GET HER OUT OF HERE I DON'T CARE WHAT YOU DO
Tears splashed on bloody knuckles. “I have to get out,” she whispered without realizing it. “It could be worse I have to get out of here.” She stumbled to her feet, swaying as a blast of data passed through her mind. She was losing control of her connection, her ability to filter out random data packets deteriorating as her fragile grip on sanity did the same.
Take me with you, Nevan's voice purred over the chaos.
Maria stared at the camouflaged demoness propped against the opposite wall, wide-eyed. “Yes,” she whispered, reaching out a shaking hand. She couldn't handle all this without Nevan, who had shown her the truth, the only one who cared. The guitar strap tightened around her too-thin torso on its own like a gentle touch.
She didn't even look at her laser scythe, hypnotized by the soothing humming in her head. There was a heartbeat's pause when she touched the door. Then she opened it and ran.
**
Nero could barely contain himself as he followed Dante into the Devil May Cry. After so many years of fruitless searching for Nora and her twins, the baby girl was finally found. He stepped over the threshold and found that almost nothing had changed since the last time he had been there, a hundred and two years before now. There were signs that someone other than Dante lived there – food boxes that were not pizza sized – and some of the furniture had been replaced, but some things never really changed.
“Hey, Maria!” Dante yelled as he walked to his desk. He stopped, waiting for a response, and glanced at his terminal screen. Nero was too familiar with his moods to not notice the sudden sharp intake of breath and the too rapid tap of a button to clear the screen. He was about to ask when his gaze fell on something he had not seen in many years.
“Is that her weapon?” he asked, picking up the slender black staff. The last time he watched it being used was when Nora played at practicing against an overly-indulgent teacher. He found the button that extended the laser blade and pressed it on, then off.
Dante hadn't been paying attention when Nero spoke, but jerked his head up when the laser flashed on and off. “She - “ He broke off and looked around. “Where's Nevan?”
“You didn't have her out last time,” Nero shrugged, looking around himself. He was getting the feeling Dante had left out several important sentences during their conversation about Maria.
“Maybe she's upstairs...” Dante opened the back door. “Maria, you up there?” he yelled up the stairs. Nero looked into the room that had recently been slept in, found a few pieces of clothing, a warm drink, and an empty bottle. He was bringing the bottle out when Dante's computer started beeping loudly.
“Not fucking now,” Dante growled, but he punch the connect button. “What, Ned, I'm a little busy - “
“Looking for someone?” the cop's hologram asked. Both men froze. The camera pulled back to show a scene that looked lifted from a slasher movie.
Nero blanched, and looked at Dante. Dante had his lips firmly pressed together, his mouth a scowl but his eyes showing something other than anger. “Show me,” he said gruffly.
**
Maria stood just outside the spaceport, catching her breath. She had run most of the way, chased by inner fears and memories of her mother urging them on to the next place. She didn't know where she was going next and didn't care, as long as it was away from here. She'd have to hack herself a ticket, and looked for a quiet place to sit and concentrate.
“Hey bitch, gimme that!”
Someone grabbed Nevan's neck and pulled hard, trying to snap the strap. Maria stumbled backwards, arms flailing, screaming in terror. Someone laughed cruelly. Another hand punched her in the temple and she nearly collapsed. Her dead weight tore her free from her first attacked, who cursed. She staggered to her feet and screamed curses back at them.
The second attacker punched her in the back of her head this time, and she went down on her hands and knees. Data streams passed in front of her vision, distorting everything. Someone yanked on Nevan again, and she wasn't sure if the smell of ozone was real or imagined. The yelp of pain was real. So was the retaliation, a kick in the face. She tasted her own blood and something in her grinned.
“Fuck this, just shoot her.”
“No,” she whispered. But they did, in the chest, the exiting bolt just missing the body of the guitar. As she fell over she felt blood pouring onto her shirt, into her lung, coating the guitar's back. Each gasp was getting harder to take. Her fingers scrabbled on the ground. “Help me.”
She could see Nevan clearly. She was smiling. One last act of kindness, she purred.
Maria screamed.
Then everyone screamed.
**
“The patrol was alerted by the camera when the first punk grabbed her,” the detective reported. “They were arriving on the scene when this happened.”
Maria's scream made them both flinch. The camera zoomed in on her arching back as it slowly lifted off the ground. It zoomed back out as bolts of lightning shot out from her back to hit the two would-be robbers, causing their bodies to explode, making the entering police patrol stumble to a horrified halt. Lightning now cocooned the young woman's body, shielding it from sight and scan as it lifted higher off of the ground.
Some nervous patrolman fired at the glowing shell. The laser bolt was bent away and hit the ground near the remains of one of the former attackers. The lightning vanished with a thunderclap that was automatically muted due to the excessive volume. Dante and Nero ignored the patrolmen grabbing their ears in pain to study what had emerged from the demonic chrysalis.
“Is that Nevan?” Nero asked quietly, holding out one last hope.
“It's both of them,” Dante said shortly.
The body languidly stretching in the air was not as voluptuous as Nevan had been, but padded Maria's form into a slenderness far removed from her normal frame. The arms were slender, and the fingers tipped with claws seemed to be counting how many mortals were below her. Red eyes were heavy-lidded with fierce pleasure, the ferocious smile out of place on Maria's mouth. The part new to both demoness and woman was the huge pair of bat-like wings keeping her aloft.
Nero couldn't help but turn his head away when she dove into the patrol. Dante watched the entire massacre, feeling this was partially his fault. It didn't take long to rend half a dozen terrified men into pieces that would take DNA to identify as once belonging to a human. When it was over she stood and laughed, turning to fully face the security camera that was hidden to most human eyes. She blew it a bloody kiss, and the video's last image was a flash of light before it suddenly stopped.
“We'll handle it,” Dante said before the detective could bring his visual back up.
Nero back the video up to the milliseconds before it ended. The eyes were still red, but the face had subtly shifted, and looked almost sad. “Is that her?” he asked.
Dante turned away and checked his guns. “It's both of them.” His voice was harsh, and he didn't look back as they walked out.