XDH Chapter 1
Jun. 30th, 2015 11:35 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
madimpossibledreamerThis is the good Dante, not that new one. Acknowledges the existence of the anime, don't know if that's a problem for anyone, but it's how I got into the series in general, so it deserves the homage. Also, as mentioned, includes the female Xander (Alex).
Main Points:
Buffy/Devil May Cry Halloween Crossover, Buffy AU
Chapter Summary: Dante wakes up in someone else's body.
Word Count: 3,351
Rating: Gen
Dante groaned. Whatever had hit him, it had been big. Though he must have killed it, or it’d have come back to murder his butt.
He pushed off the ground (huh, weaker…so it really did get me)…and then paused. He’d seen something out of the corner of his eye, and it really, really didn’t belong. He froze, feeling a shiver run down his spine but unable to stop the morbid curiosity. He turned his head to stare.
When he got himself together, he wasn’t sure how long it had been, but he was really very thankful that neither Trish nor Lady was here. They would be laughing their heads off at his predicament, not bothering to help out, and would never let him live it down. He had to agree, on principle, that it was kind of ironic that he’d faced down Mundus and other things that would make most people go insane from fear, but couldn’t deal with a simple gender-change. But still. When he was retelling the story, it would involve a bit of swearing or some self-groping or possibly both, not having hysterics like a teenage girl.
Although, from a second glance, he probably was a teenage girl at the moment.
At least he was a kind of sexy teenage girl.
The outfit at least was kind of practical, hugging all the right curves and leather (he even had the trenchcoat, which was a relief-something a little familiar to ground him), and didn’t show off too much skin. Not that he minded looking at things like that, although if he admitted to such things the two ladies who haunted his life would make it more miserable than it already was. Lady and Trish had kind of practical outfits if you thought about it; better than most of the drawings you’d see of so-called ‘warriors’. He hadn’t cared about that when he was young and stupid; he found it annoying him nowadays. There were certain things you wore into battle, and lack of them wasn’t one of the options. Especially if you couldn’t recover from being stabbed in the chest. It made his job more difficult, and while he enjoyed a challenge, he preferred it when it was just him in a room full of demons, with no rescue missions attached. Now, fighting alongside others who knew what they were doing? That was kind of fun.
This particular vest/jacket thing (okay, so yeah, he had been zoning out all those times Lady and Trish had babbled about fashion, but could you really blame him?) was attractive, in his colors, even, showing off the assets without leaving him exposed to attack. Her. He barely avoided another mental breakdown, turning instead to the weapons.
Nice. The guns weren’t Ebony and Ivory by any shot, but they were pretty sweet anyway. A bit more sleek, streamlined (kinda like the body and the outfit, actually), but they did have the light/dark scheme going. Dawn, a part of his mind insisted strongly, and he raised an eyebrow. Well, if I’m going to go with it, might as well go with it all the way, he mused, then… Dusk. Dusk and Dawn. I like it.
Next, the swords-one on the back, one at the side. Girl’s got an arsenal. I approve. Longsword at the back, some heft to it (probably from demon metals his mind supplied helpfully), but still sleek and quick, dragon. Curved wings for a crossguard, swooping with the tail as a hilt, gaping maw where hilt met blade. Black fire licking down the blade. Nice. No name popping up, though, and it’s not bothering to talk to me telepathically or anything, so…guess you’re unnamed for now, mister. The other was a curved sword, maybe a saber, with a longer hilt that looked like bone and a touch of dark, sinister purple and runes all over the thing. The look of the runes…he leaned forward, squinted. Yep, etched with blood. That one gave him a bit of a bad feeling, but he’d force it to his will. It wasn’t the first time, after all.
Well. Easiest thing to do now was go looking for a fight, or possibly some (any) indication of what he was doing here, where he was, and most importantly what had happened to his body. Also…why was he wearing girl’s clothes and had other weapons? If he’d just changed, well…he should be wearing his normal clothes, and shouldn’t have lost Ebony, Ivory, Rebellion, Alastor…
The headache was threatening to strike again, so he sped up his stride, going as fast as possible in human form. He wasn’t about to DT out in the open in an unknown city when he had no idea what was going on.
The street was deserted. Which made alarms ring in his head. When that happened, it meant absolutely nothing good. There weren’t even any people, normal people, around. Or lights on. It was late enough in the small quaint little town area that people should be home, and yet…
Nothing.
Wait, there was something after all. A scream. Most people wouldn’t hear it, but then, he wasn’t most people. He wasn’t half-devil for nothing. He tightened the grip on the gun he had out, drawing the sinister curved sword. It was an odd move. Usually, he did both guns or one of his swords (or…well, other hand-to-hand or ‘gun’-like things, considering a few of the weapons he’d picked up over the years). For one thing, Ebony and Ivory had required him to fire both for them to recharge. It had been kind of a pain to remember at first, but over the years it had saved him a ton of money on bullets, so he hadn’t complained. He was almost always broke, thanks in no small part to his friends, so any fewer expenses were good in his book.
Unless, of course, that meant not buying pizza. Or strawberry sundaes. A guy had to eat.
He was stalling. Possibly in shock, too, but that wasn’t that much of a surprise.
He began to run toward the sound, unleashing some of his true power without going in full-on Devil Trigger. It’d get him there faster, true, but there were far too many unanswered questions and if he ran in there, he could get himself killed. Unlikely, but possible. More likely and horrifying was something, like whatever had happened to make him a freaking woman, happening again.
Dante was so focused on watching out for demons (or, you know, wizards or mages or witches or whatever, since they were a highly possible cause of that stupid magic spell) that he didn’t notice the slight tremor the first time and so didn’t brace himself for it. Consequently, one moment he was running and the next he was sprawling on his back on the concrete and facing upwards, not quite sure how he’d gotten there in the first place. We’re not supposed to get earthquakes here, a voice that was entirely not his and a little fuzzy supplied, and then the girl mumbled something about a boca del infierno that he didn’t quite catch. There was a woman in Dante’s head. The day just kept getting better. Usually he’d be quipping about how this was his kind of party, but at this point he really wasn’t in the mood.
“Alex!” a pretty voice called in worry from somewhere above him. “Are you okay?”
Just peachy, thanks for asking, his mind snarked back, aside from the fact that your Alex, if she’s the girl usually in charge of this body, is sort of MIA and in any case entirely unhelpful and my head feels like’s it’s on fire. Except it’d be better if it was fire, because I can deal with fire, thanks to the old man.
It took the horrified gasp to penetrate through the fuzziness that was in his brain, and then he heard the whoosh of something, probably a car, coming.
He’d been fighting so long it was second nature, even if he’d been slammed around a bit, so rolling out of the way, relying a little bit on the devil’s speed, didn’t actually take a functioning brain. It wouldn’t have killed him, probably, if he’d gotten run over, but it definitely would have hurt and just piss him off even more. His day didn’t need to be any more dandy. Plus it would’ve upset the locals, and he was trying to avoid that just yet.
And then a chilling thought burst through the haze. Wait. This isn’t my body. I don’t know if I can DT. Which means I have to be much more careful because I don’t want some innocent girl to die and…this is definitely going to be a challenge. I’ve never had to be that careful before. I’ve always had these powers. I’m not sure I even know how to be careful. I mean, I can feel some of my power, but…that’s me. I don’t know how strong this body is, whether it’ll just block my power or whether I’ll kill the girl if I punch on through.
His hand was raising before he knew it, a few warning shots squeezed off in the general direction of the car as he sat up. His instincts were faster than his brain, it appeared, because there was something that looked like an evil fae, with a huge, gaping smile of ripping teeth, no nose, batlike wings and ears…well, that went a long way in explaining the fact that the car hadn’t used the brake. Also the apparent need for speed. The demon turned to look at him and hissed. Hopefully it wouldn’t charge, because he wasn’t wholly confident on fighting as a complete mortal for goodness’ sake.
I’ve got a new respect for Lady now.
It looked like there were two vampires, too, and a skeleton-headed thing with glowing red eyes. They turned and looked at him too, snarling. Shoot. Looks like I don’t do so well about thinking before I act. Not that that would surprise anyone. And, hey, while I’m thinking, why are members of different demon classes hanging around each other? Usually, they just…don’t. Whether it’s because they hate each other or whatever, I’ve never bothered to ask. Too busy burying bullets in their skulls or chopping them up.
And the owner of the pretty voice and the concern was suddenly in front of him, blocking his aim. If she got them both killed, he was coming back to haunt her because that was seriously not cool.
“Get out of the way, lady,” he hissed between his teeth and not lowering the gun arm one inch. The voice was a little higher than he was used to, but not as much as he’d thought.
“Don’t hurt them! They’re only children!” Pretty redhead, showing off way too much skin, and his brain couldn’t really decide whether this was a war zone or not. He settled for appreciative disapproval, if only to stop the quandary and get back to the real important stuff. Like dying. Or not dying, which would be the better option of the two.
“Children or not, they’re monsters and they’ll eat someone if we don’t do something.” He paused, thinking back to the empty streets. “That is, if they haven’t already.”
“D-don’t say that!” The girl trembled-she hasn’t seen half the darkness in the world then-and continued in a moment, “…besides, they’re innocent.”
Dante thought about daring her to say that while watching one of them ripping someone’s head off, but decided to keep that comment to himself. “Innocent, huh?”
“They’re under a spell! They’re just children!” Red-girl was a bit in shock herself, but the mention of the world ‘spell’ set the devil hunter to thinking.
Spell, huh? So when she says ‘children’, she means ‘human’. And then another thought. Oh, and here I thought it was just me. Well…that helps, actually. Something like this, affecting an area, that means someone or something’s responsible. And usually you can track down something like that, especially if you hurry.
He finally lowered the gun. Red looked relieved. “Won’t say I won’t protect myself, ‘cause that’d be a lie, but I’ll try not to kill anyone.”
She looked confused and disbelieving. “A-Alex, you can stop now,” she stated nervously, causing him to heave a sigh.
“I’m not Alex. Dante…” probably best not to mention Sparda, not here and now, just in case someone might know of the Legendary Dark Knight, “…the name’s Dante. I think I might’ve heard your Alex babbling inside my head, but whatever’s going on, it affected her too. So I’m here now.”
She gulped, looking scared. Then she sighed. “I should have known better than to think it hadn’t affected you too. Though someday our luck really needs to change. I mean, we’re equipped to deal with this kind of stuff, but that doesn’t mean we should have to all the time, and…”
Red went off babbling again, and he took the chance to peer around her to see if the monsters were still there. The street was deserted. He honestly couldn’t decide whether that was good or bad. Sure, it meant he didn’t have to make the conscious decision to kill possessed children, but it also meant that they could be off preying on the weak and there was nothing he could do to stop it without taking out the entire blasted town. Okay, first things first. They had to find the source of this thing and stop it.
He sniffed and reached out and felt something…
Okay, I agree with Dante, that definitely does not feel of the good. The girl in his head actually stated something loud and clear, and it made him blink a couple times.
The taint, the hint of a dark, spicy, blood-like smell, that feeling in the back of his mind…it felt like a Hell Gate. One glance around showed no sign of one, though, and they were kind of hard to miss. Still, more than one way to the Underworld existed. But if it’d recently become active, then someone might be trying to open it. Or something might have come out. Either way, they might have their culprit. Though this seemed like more a side effect or warm-up to the actual show. The only reason he could think of for something this elaborate would be the bloodshed and fear, but even then, it seemed a little low-key for something that powerful.
“What’s wrong?” Red had finally stopped yammering and had noticed he wasn’t paying attention. Usually, that’d be the point where he’d say something to appease the woman, but right now wasn’t the time to be worrying about something like that.
“You said ‘we’re equipped to handle things like this’, right?” The grip on a gun tightened.
“…Yeah.” She looked put out. He’d apologize later. Maybe with some pizza. It wasn’t the first time he’d been accused of being clumsy with women, and it definitely wouldn’t be the last if Lady and Trish had anything to say about it.
Now that he was paying attention, he was really getting the chills from what he was picking up subconsciously. Part of it felt at home, while another part was just spooking him, and the result was really, really weird. “Well, you should know something about the supernatural in the town, right?”
“Right. It’s mostly vampires.”
Vampires, huh? Bloodsucking half-demons that had traded away their soul but not all of their humanity. Most demons preyed on them, which ought to mean that they were low on the kind of uglies that he dealt with on a regular basis. Or could pull off something like opening a pathway to the Underworld, which meant either that for some reason one of the major baddies had decided to open it from the inside (only the biggest had the kind of raw mojo needed to power something like that), or they had a visitor in town. He was hoping for the latter, if only for the sake of the town and probably half the continent. “Right. Well, has there always been a gateway to the Underworld here?”
She looked startled, then worried and wary. “Um…well, Giles is always going on about the Hellmouth under Sunnydale. It’s not open, is it?”
He hadn’t bothered to ask the question, which was a good indication of why he just rushed in first and asked questions later, if at all. He closed his eyes, concentrated. Now that he was looking for it, it felt like the energy was…leaking…through available cracks, rather than coming straight out. “Yes.” Then he thought back to the question and reddened a little. He’d been distracted, but then, there was a lot to be distracted by. “I mean, no it’s not. It’s fine.” He didn’t bother to add the words I think because it really wasn’t like him to sound anything less than confident. Even if he wasn’t really. Improvisation had always worked well for him before, and he didn't see a reason to stop now. Oh, so that’s what it feels like. The girl was distant again. Really, if she could stay and be a little more helpful, that’d be all right in his book. If he had a book.
“Give me a heart attack, please!” She was giggling, but looked a little pale.
“Sorry about that.” He grinned a rogue’s grin. It felt odd on foreign lips, but he did his best to ignore that. “Are you affected, my lady?”
Now she was blushing and embarrassed. “U-uhm.” She reached out and reached through him. The skittering of fingers as they slightly touched him and slightly went through was an even odder sensation, and he shivered a little. She was some sort of intangible thing now, but she could touch him, just barely, due to his father’s legacy of blood. Is she touching Alex’s soul, or the combination, or is she touching me specifically? The question was too weird to think about, so he stopped. She quickly pulled her fingers back. “I’m a ghost.”
He ran his eyes over her body again, taking in the outfit. One eyebrow raised. “What kind of ghost?” She might go nuts and try to attack him, but his instincts told him that wasn't likely to happen. He'd just have to keep on his toes, but given that he was in the middle of a warzone in someone else's body with an unknown spell and spellcaster and little to nothing in the way of certainties, that had been a given from the get-go.
She glanced down and blushed even harder. I made a ghost blush. Cool. “I thought about wearing this, but I couldn’t…I mean…”
He took pity on her and smirked. “Look, as long as you don’t attack me, we’re cool. What’s your name?”
"She can't tell you?" she asked curiously.
It took him a moment to remember what the little lady would be referring to. Oh. "Nah, she's kind of...drifting in and out. And she's aware of some of the stuff but not all of it."
Red nodded. "Willow. Nice to meet you, Mr. Dante."
He couldn't help but snort. "Now you're reminding me of Patty, kiddo. You're not that young."
She giggled a little. "Compared to you, I probably am." Really, he wasn't that old...
Then she gasped, and the gun immediately came up as he surveyed the area. He didn't notice any obvious threats, so he hesitated and looked back at Red.
"Buffy. We need to find Buffy." She'd started looking antsy again.
The first question he wanted to say he held back. Who would name their kid Buffy? The second could wait, as he'd heard another scream. "Well, Willow, I don't have a clue where we can find her, but we can start with the screamer."
"What screamer?" Ghostly Willow asked, but noticed that Dante had already gotten a head start on her. "Alex, I thought we'd agreed not to wander off," she muttered and then quickly began running after.
Lady, I'm not Alex, and I'm not bound by anything she's promised.
no subject
Date: 2015-07-02 05:32 am (UTC)~lonelysouls
no subject
Date: 2015-07-03 05:51 am (UTC)...Actually, that's kinda counterproductive, huh? /grins
~Dreamer~