The End, The Beginning [Maria & Nero, Devil May Cry, R] Title: The End, The Beginning Author:jlsigman Rating: R Warnings: some horrific imagery Word count: 863 Prompt: Maria and Nero: "Don't give up now." A/N: Takes place very soon before Second Chance, Second Sight.
With all the spider-like demons jumping in his face from the dark, Nero was starting to wonder if arachnophobia was in his future. He and Dante had been separated by the chaos of battle and dark winding tunnels, but there was no time to backtrack. Maria was somewhere ahead, and he needed to get to her before Nevan could use her to open the rift.
He knew he was running out of time, which made the battles seem drawn out and the tunnels impossibly long. His pounding footsteps echoed back to him, distorted and somehow coming from behind him, like he was chasing after himself. He finally felt the tug in his arm that was his link to his blood family and followed it.
The cavern was huge, the ceiling lost to darkness. Even as Nero plodded forward he was too late, his feet too slow due to a spell he finally noticed. Dante was surging forward, a blur of red and steel. Maria was twirling in a slow dance of death, her laser scythe cutting down her fanatical bodyguards from behind. Lightning flashed intricate patterns, faster and faster until the strobe effect was hypnotizing.
Another slow step. Everything was happening in stop motion, while sounds were distorted and stretched. Dante continued forward, the sounds of steel striking stone and bone echoing. Maria finished her dance, opening her hand and letting her weapon fall silently to the floor. Her arms were opened wide, as were her eyes, which were fixed on her approaching doom. The pressure in the room increased, like someone was shouting in a tongue that couldn't be heard, only felt in the bones. He opened his mouth to shout a warning but nothing came out.
She never closed her eyes. She flinched when the sword point slid in under her breastbone, but her lips moved as if she was thanking her killer. Thunder rattled the floor as her back arched, head thrown back to a nearly impossible angle, mouth open in a scream that couldn't be heard. Lightning flared out in all directions, arcing across the walls to converge on a stone platform, and a shimmering oval burst into life. A second blast of lightning struck the sword still impaling her, throwing sword and owner halfway across the room.
Now he could move, Nero thought bitterly, stumbling over his boots as the spell wore off. She had staggered backwards, her wound a smoking hole in her torso. She was fighting with something he couldn't see, as if she was trying to pull something off of her back. She looked up, wide-eyed with terror, and he was close enough to read her lips: “I'm sorry.”
“Maria!” he yelled as he bounced off an invisible shield. Dante caught him before he could fall, grim-faced. Lightning was pouring out of her wound, her mouth, her eyes, her fingertips, focused on a spot just in front of her. The spot quickly became guitar-shaped, then formed into a woman's body. An ear-shatteringly loud clap of thunder heralded Nevan's reformation as Maria's broken body fell away. With a cackle of sheer demoniac glee, Nevan blew Dante a kiss and ran through the portal.
Dante ran after her, entering the portal without a second thought. Nero watched him go, then turned his back on the portal to go to Maria. She was laying on her side, her breathing shallow and raspy. When he touched her shoulder he could feel the bones move underneath his human hand. She felt like a bundle of thin sticks that could be easily cradled with one arm. When he turned her over, all he could do was weep.
The surgically precise incision Dante's blade had made was now a gaping, black-edged hole steadily weeping blood. Her fingertips were blistered and cracked. The shoulder that normally held her staff hung limp in it's socket. But the worst damage was to the face that she turned towards him, trying to see out of eyes that no longer existed. Her lips were cracked and bleeding, her nose was broken, and everything above that was a ruin of burnt skin and exposed bone and empty holes. “I'm sorry,” he whispered, holding her as close as he could without causing more pain. “I'm so sorry.”
The burnt fingers on the hand she could still move drifted up to his face, and gently touched the wetness there. “For... me?” she asked hoarsely.
“Shhh,” he shushed. “Save your strength.”
She made a choked sound that might have been a chuckle once. “Why?”
He looked down at her, so small and fragile. He could see some very small improvements around the edges of the stab wound. “Don't give up now, you're already healing.”
“He won't... kill me?”
“No,” he said emphatically. His breath caught in a hiccuping laugh. “I won't let him.”
She was silent for a moment, her fingers still brushing against his jaw. Her breathing got a little easier, and the external bleeding he could see tapered off. “I need to tell you... how to close the portal.”