The Devils Cry Chapter 2-12

[eiahmon]

Title: The Devils Cry Part 2
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: Devil May Cry and it’s characters and situations are the sole property of Capcom. I am making no money or profit off of this fanfiction and no copyright infringement is intended. On the other hand all original characters and situations are mine so please don’t run off with them without my knowledge or consent.
Summary: A year after the events in “The Devils Cry”, things in the Sparda family have calmed down, well, as much as possible with them at any rate. But when strange things start happening, including a reappearance of Alastair's dreams of the unknown castle, they realized that they still have a long way to go.
SPOILER WARNING!!!: Spoilers for all three Devil May Cry games.

12.

“This all began 2,000 years ago, towards the end of the human/ demon war.” Sparda said “Atalia and I,” He glanced over at the demon in question, who was in her human form once more. She smiled sadly at him. “were married then, and we had a three century old son.”

“Akemus?” Alastair piped up.

Sparda nodded. “Yes, Akemus. Luxian and I were friendly towards each other then as well, though we were not close. We had never been close, and we had feuded quite frequently as children. We called a truce for the sake of our younger sister, Areceli, whom we both adored.”

Talthos smiled a small, wishful smile.

“Why did you not get along?” the elder Vergil asked quietly.

“Luxian was.... jealous of me. Since I was the firstborn son, I would inherit the high ranking position of the head of this family once our father passed away. Luxian.. did not agree with that decision, even though it was demon law, and only the Sarcesti clan was exempt from it.”

“Why are they exempt?” Alastair asked.

“Because our power travels through the maternal line.” Zenedris answered. “And we are the only demons to do that.” Alastair nodded; that made sense.

“At any rate," Sparda continued," things were fine for us. The war was progressing right along, and the humans were falling like stones before us. I had a wonderful wife, and a son that I could be proud of. Even at birth, it was clear to all that he would be powerful. That, unfortunately, did not last. Akemus wandered from the safety of Lar’cincel one day. We all, even the Sarcesti family, searched for him for hours. When it became clear that he wasn’t in the demon world, we took the search up to the human world. I.. found him... on the outskirts of a small village. He had been.... tortured... and mutilated, and he was surrounded by the mangled bodies of several humans that I assumed he had killed himself. He was already cold when I picked him up.” Sparda paused for a moment and closed his eyes, taking a shuddering breath. Atalia, tears running down her face, placed a hand on his shoulder. After a bit, he looked back up at his audience.

“I was still there, cradling him, when Atalia and Luxian appeared. I handed Akemus to my brother, and I went to Atalia, trying to stop her from seeing our son. But she did see him, and she screamed and fainted. I made sure that she was alright and nodded to my brother.” He took a deep breath. “Then I destroyed the village, killing everyone and everything inside. After that, I threw myself even further into the war, determined to destroy the creatures that had murdered my son so brutally.”

“I did the same.” Atalia said softly “I believed that if they were so capable of murdering a helpless child, then they had no right to exist.”

“Did they know that he was a demon?” the younger Vergil asked.

Talthos shook his head. “All Sparda and Sarcesti children are forced into their human form as soon as their body can handle it without any pain or discomfort. Akemus had been in his human form since infancy.”

 

“Why do you do that?” Dante asked.

“Our human form is weaker than our natural form.” Talthos explained “This I’m sure you know. The Sparda and the Sarcesti are so powerful that we could destroy the Underworld if we wished. Staying in our human forms not only weakens us enough to where we couldn’t do something that destructive accidentally, it also prevents the power from going to our heads, I suppose you could say. If you’re not at your full power in your everyday life, then you can’t be arrogant about how powerful you are.”

“I continued this vindictive rampage for the next year or so. But then I overheard something, something that I wasn’t supposed to hear. Luxian and I had just returned from a important battle. Our side had won, but Mundus wanted me to personally inform him, once the battle was over. As I approached the doors to the throne room, I noticed that the guards were not there, which was unusual. Normally, Mundus had a guard stationed on either side of the door, for looks I guess, since the guards were usually the weakest of the weak. I was going to just return home and report later, but I heard voices on the other side of the door, and I heard Akemus’ name mentioned. I stepped up to the door and pressed my ear against it, listening to a conversation between Mundus and the two guards. I can’t recall exactly what the conversation was originally about, but suffice to say, I learned that Akemus’ murder had been premeditated, and it was Mundus himself that had done the deed. The humans that I though had been the ones to attack him, had been defending him.”

“Why would you think that to begin with?” Alastair wondered “Three centuries would have made him the equivalent of three years old right?” Sparda nodded, already knowing where this question was going.

“If he was so young, why would you think that he had killed those humans?”

“Sometimes demon children in a life or death situation lose control of their own power, often going into a blinding rage if they feel threatened enough and no one else is around to defend them.” Atalia said “It has been known to happen, and since it was obvious to us that Akemus would grow to be powerful...” She shrugged. “We just assumed.”

Alastair settled back into her seat. “Just wondering.” she said.

Sparda smiled. “It was a good question, and one we should have though of then.” His smile fell. “Akemus had been murdered for two reasons, I found out. One, because Mundus felt that I was paying too much attention to my son and not enough on the war. Two, because Mundus was afraid of Akemus and what he might grow up to be. Akemus had the potential to be more powerful than me, and Mundus felt that he would try to claim the throne for himself someday.” Talthos snorted. “Yes stupid, I know.” Sparda said. He stood up from his chair and began to pace, his hands clasped tightly behind his back.

“I didn’t report on the battle, needless to say. I went home and asked Luxian to take care of it, citing that I was not feeling well. It wasn’t a lie; I was feeling quite sick as what I had just heard sank in. My parents knew that something was not right and tried to get me to tell them, but I wouldn’t say a word. My agony of my son’s death had been bad enough, but to realized that it had been orchestrated by the one I had sworn my loyalty to was even worse. Mundus had even milked it, saying that by slaughtering every human I came across, I could avenge Akemus’ murder. I said nothing for three days. I never even moved from my bed, and no one, not even Atalia, could get me to respond.

“I was finally ordered back into duty, yet my heart was not in it. Then came the battle where my soldiers were slaughtering a large human family. I stood by and did nothing, not really even seeing or hearing what was happening. A child ran out of the burning house, and seeing what he thought was a well armed human, he ran to me and threw his arms around my legs, crying for me to save him and his family. I looked down at him and saw that he looked almost exactly like Akemus, though the boy’s hair was blond instead of white. For a moment, I actually saw my son there instead of the human child. As I stood there, trying to gather myself, one of the others snatched the boy away from me and gutted him before taking his head off and throwing the body aside. Something inside of me gave, and the rage I felt over my son’s death seemed to explode. I joined the battle, but not on my own side. I killed everyone in my company. That was the start of my rebellion.”

“As soon as all of us here realized what he was doing,” Atalia said “I was furious. My mate was siding with those that had killed our son. He tried to explain when we next saw each other, but I didn’t give him a chance. I cut the marriage bonds between us, essentially destroying a portion of our souls, and walked away, refusing to speak to him ever again. I left Lar’cincel without a word to anyone else, and went back to Dali’mar’ne. My family knew what I had done, and I refused to give him a chance to explain, despite being repeatedly urged to do so by my parents and grandparents. I ignored everyone, and I did not care when Sparda left the demon world, sealing the gate behind him.”

“For the next fourteen hundred years,” Sparda picked up the story again. “I wandered the human world, closing gates and foiling any attempts on Mundus’ part to reenter the human world. Sometime during the fourteenth century, I heard of a large concentration of demons slaughtering entire villages in the Swiss Alps. I went to investigate, and found a very large gate that was partially opened in a small valley above many of the villages. And it was Luxian leading the attacks. I confronted him and tried to tell him why I was there, but he refused to listen. We fought, and I was able to force him back through the gate, but I was unable to close it. My magic is powerful, but I could tell that it would take someone stronger, like my father, or myself and a few others to close the gate completely. When the demons were gone, I was given the land and a title as a gift from the locals, and I decided that the best way to monitor that gate was to live over it. So I built my castle over it. I did part of the initial work, the building of the sub basement that housed the gate, myself, and got workers to finish the rest. The gate had been covered once before, apparently by humans, but no stone floor can stop a gate. The seal just moved up on top of the stone floor.”

“Is that why the floor in the sub basement looks older than the rest of the castle?” Alastair asked.

“Yes. The villagers had apparently built the floor over the gate in an attempt to stop anyone from coming through. I stayed at the estate for several years, reinforcing the partial seal as needed. I did eventually move on. I had been there for several years, yet I was not showing any signs of aging, and I knew that the villagers would become suspicious if I stayed any longer. So I went back to traveling the world, running the estate from afar, and closing gates as I encountered them. I was given the Yamato as a gift for closing a gate outside Tokyo in the early fifteenth century, and it became the sword that I used for any demonic battles after that. The Rebellion, which I had used before that, I secreted away in my estate.”

“Hey, where did you get the Rebellion anyway?” Dante piped up. Sparda smiled at his son before directing the smile at Talthos.

“My father made it for me.” he replied “It was the first sword I ever used, given to me when I was a child.”

Dante smiled. “I like that. Your first sword, was my first real sword.”

Sparda chuckled. “I figured you would.” Talthos smiled.

“When did Rachel, or Atalia, or whatever she goes by these days leave the demon world?” they younger Vergil asked.

“About four hundred years after Sparda did.” the demon in question replied “I too overheard what had really happened to Akemus. It was too late to do anything about it, but I decided not to stay in a world where such an action was acceptable. So I left. Sparda somehow knew that I wanted to leave, and he was able to open a gate just long enough for me to pass through. And then he closed it. He guided me through the human world for a few years, then the two of us went our separate ways. We didn’t speak or see each other again until a little over a century ago.”

Luxian, who up until now had been fighting the patriarchal magic, managed to blurt out: “Tell them!”

“Tell them about what, Luxian?” Sparda asked coolly, turning to look at his brother.

“Tell then about Mother, and Areceli, and what you did when they tried to stop you!”

“Your brother did not kill your mother or your sister, Luxian.” Talthos said firmly “You were told this before.”

Sparda sank back into his chair and hid his face in his hands. “I didn’t kill them directly, no, but I might as well have.”

“It was not your fault, Sparda.” Talthos said gently.

“Believe me, Father, I’ve spent the past 2,000 years trying to convince myself of that.”

“What happened?” Dante asked, his voice unusually soft.

“Mundus sent them to stop me. They had no intention of fighting me. Mother only urged me to do what I thought was right, and Areceli reminded me to come and visit or at least write if I couldn’t do that. They reported back to Mundus, saying that they had been unable to stop me. He killed them for their failure.”

“Lord Mundus would never do such a thing!” Luxian managed to spit out before a glare from Sparda silenced him again.

“He would and did, Luxian.” Talthos said in a deathly quiet whisper “The monster that you have all but worshiped these past two millennia killed your mother and sister because they wouldn’t throw their lives away for him.”

“How could you believe him, Father? After all that he’s done?”

“What has your brother done, Luxian? Haven’t you been listening to anything he has said?”

“He’s confounded you, Father! You must go rest so I can take care of you! You’ll see what he has done!”

“That is enough, Luxian!” Talthos roared. His voice dropped back to that quiet whisper. “I am within my right mind, and I assure you that I agree with everything that your brother has said.”

“Perhaps you should tell him why you do.” Zenedris said quietly.

Talthos nodded. “Perhaps I should.” He turned to look his younger son right in the eye. “The day that I was put into stasis, what do you remember?”

Luxian looked at Sparda, who nodded, giving him permission to speak.

“You were summoned to the throne room. You left and told me to wait for your return, that you had something to tell me. But you didn’t come back, and I was later summoned to the throne room to find you in stasis. sealed in a capsule by the throne.”

“What did Mundus tell you?”

“He said that he had put you in stasis so you would be easier to protect when Sparda came to finish what he had started. He believed that Sparda had confused you, and would use that to his advantage when he next saw you.” Sparda growled. Talthos gestured for him to be quiet.

“Mundus himself confessed to me that he had killed your nephew, your mother, and your sister.”

“Your memories have been tampered with Father. Why would Mundus confess to doing such a thing?”

“Maybe you should let him see the memory, Talthos.” Zenedris suggested “It is difficult to alter the memories of someone as powerful as you.” Talthos nodded; that was a good idea.

“Can the rest of us see it too?” Dante asked. Talthos looked over at Zenedris, who shrugged.

“You can broadcast it to them.” she said. He nodded and let his eyes sink shut.

“Just be quiet and relax.” Zenedris advised everyone “You will see what he saw that day in the throne room. Closing your eyes may help.”

Sparda did as she advised. He knew all of this of course, since he too had been given a lengthy magical education as a child. Part of him was a little afraid of what he was going to see. He knew that it was not going to be good.
Luxian felt a little worried, yet a little smug at the same time. He felt confident that he would see that Talthos’ memories had been manipulated, yet a little worried that Zenedris Sarcesti was right. Altering the memories of someone as powerful as his father was very difficult, nearly impossible, and it was very possible that what he would see would be what really happened. He felt a gentle push at the back of his mind and gave himself over to his father’s memory.

He was in the library. Talthos was sitting in a chair, looking over a few books, his gaze dark and troubled. There were dark circles under his eyes and his slumped posture spoke of exhaustion.

“Are you alright, Father?” Talthos looked up to see Luxian standing in the doorway, looking at the elder demon in concern.

“I’m just very tired, that’s all.”

“Have you slept at all since....?” Luxian gestured vaguely to the otherwise empty room.

Talthos shook his head slightly and immediately regretted it when it caused the room to spin.

“Perhaps you should go rest, Father. It’s been three weeks; you need to get some sleep.”

“I can’t, Luxian. Thank you for your concern, but I just can’t.”

“Well then, I suppose I should give you this then.” Talthos looked up. “If you had gone to sleep, I would have made some excuses for you, but since you’re awake...” Luxian shrugged and laid a sealed scroll on the table. Talthos looked down at the scroll and saw Mundus’ personal seal on the paper and sighed. He did not want to deal with the dark emperor at the moment, but he knew that he had no choice. With Sparda’s defection and Nakisa - he felt a painful twinge when he thought of her - and Areceli’s deaths, the Sparda family was on shaky ground with Mundus. As much as he detested the bastard, it would be best to go see what he wanted and get it over with.

Talthos ran his fingers through his hair, shaggy and dirty from the neglect he had been bestowing upon it since the near destruction of his family. Closing his book and pushing it aside, he looked over at Luxian.

“I will go see what he wants then. I will be back as soon as possible. And if it makes you feel better, I will eat something and sleep for awhile when I come home.” Luxian nodded in satisfaction.

“I’ll have the servants prepare a meal and draw a bath for you. You need to take care of yourself, Father.”

Talthos waved his hand dismissively as he walked past Luxian and out of the library. He didn’t see Luxian watching him in concern as his father walked down the steps to the ground level and out the doors, heading towards Mundus’ throne room. He was so emotionally and physically exhausted that he did see the nervous looks the door guards were giving him. He waited, his head hung, as they opened the doors for him and announced his presence. He stepped into the brightly lit throne room, barely hearing the doors booming shut behind him, and stepped up to the dais, where he kneeled, though the kneel had been more of a controlled collapse.

“My Lord.” he said, bowing his head, trying not to pass out at the dark emperor’s feet. That wouldn’t have gone well for him.

“Rise, Talthos. I have a very important task for you.” Talthos carefully stood, trying to hide that his legs were shaking.

“What do you wish of me, Master?”

“With the betrayal of your son -” Talthos stiffened angrily. “- and the unfortunate loss of your wife and daughter, the Sparda family is on the verge of dying out. Therefore, I have decided to take steps to prevent such an occurrence.”

“My son did not betray anyone.” Talthos growled “It was you that betrayed him.”

“So he told you?” Mundus rose smoothly from his throne and walked calmly up to the then Sparda patriarch. “I’m not surprised. After all, he adores you like every son should.” Mundus chuckled. “Hard to believe that at one time, I saw my father in the same way that he sees you.”

“Yes, for all of the good it did him.”

“Yes, well, that is neither here nor there. I suppose that there would be no point in calling Sparda a liar, since the boy has never lied to you before. So I will just admit it. Yes, I murdered Akemus and yes, I murdered your wife and daughter when they refused to do as I ordered. I wanted them to stop at nothing to prevent Sparda from leaving, and they failed. I could not let such a failure go unpunished, you understand.”

Talthos grit his teeth, trying to keep his temper, and his power, under control. He suddenly regretted letting himself go, as he was now too weak to safely take on the Dark Emperor and have any chance at winning. Mundus chuckled.

“Oh come now, Talthos! You know that you’re in no condition to fight me! Which is why I waited awhile before summoning you here. I needed to wait until the destroyed marriage bond had weakened you enough before I could risk this.”
Talthos froze when he felt the first bands of magic wrapping around him. He felt the unmistakable feel of Sarcesti magic, and he jerked backward away from it with a wild cry. He recognized that spell from his childhood magical training, and he knew that once under it, he would not be able to break it. The magic chased after him as he hastily scrambled away, wrapping itself around his body, which was shaking from three weeks of self imposed starvation and insomnia. He tried to throw it off; he tried to summon his own magic to beat it back, but his exhaustion affected his magic as well, making him no match for the Sarcesti spellcaster. He vaguely recognized the signature of the demon in question, but he too busy trying to fight the magic to pay much attention. He felt his power being forced down deep inside of him, where the spell formed a impenetrable wall around it, preventing him from using it. He looked up at Mundus as his consciousness began to dwindle, seeing a self satisfied smirk on the devil’s face.
 

“I need you in breeding condition, Talthos.” he said “This spell will keep you well in hand until I am in need of you again.”

A tendril of Talthos’ power broke free, brought on by his sudden fury. With a scream of inarticulate rage, he sent it flying towards his former master, intent on doing as much harm as possible before he lost consciousness. He saw Mundus’ eyes widen in shock just before the hazy red dragon slammed into him, knocking him backwards across the throne room. With Mundus out of the way, at least for a moment, Talthos began fighting the magic, which only caused it to tighten its hold on him. He screamed again as he tried desperately to throw it off, but he knew that no one that could hear him would be coming to his aid. He saw Mundus getting to his feet, smirking despite the obvious anger smoldering in his eyes. He caught a brief glimpse of the spellcaster, saw her struggling to keep a hold of magic that was being stretched to its limit due to Talthos’ struggling. The spell clamped down even harder on his power, and he felt suddenly empty as he became little more than human. His power was sealed out of his reach until someone broke the spell. He let out another scream, this one filled with agony; demons were not meant to have their power forcefully sealed. He felt his heart slowing as breathing became difficult. The spell had his power firmly under control, now it was stopping his body’s functions. He thought briefly that, once it was done with that, it would force him into a deep magically induced sleep, a living death of sorts.

Talthos dropped to his hands and knees and gasped for breath as his heart shuddered to a stop. His consciousness, which had returned with his brief power surge, began to fade once more. He couldn’t breathe as his muscles for breathing locked up, and his lungs refused to draw air. He let out a silent moan as his sight blacked out and slumped forward to the floor.

“Summon Luxian.” he heard Mundus say as his hearing went and he was pulled down into the depths of a deep sleep.

Luxian shook his head as his father’ presence receded from his mind. It couldn’t be right! Sparda was a murderer and betrayer; Mundus knew all and would never do what he had been accused of, and Talthos had been confounded. He would not accept what he had just seen! He opened his mouth to give his brother a scathing retort to the distorted memories he had placed in their father’s mind when the patriarchal magic clamped down on him, forcing him to shut his mouth and keep quiet.

“It would seem that it didn’t convince him, Father.” Sparda said quietly.

Talthos nodded, saying nothing. He was pale and shaking, the memory not being a pleasant one.

 

“You are right, Sparda.” Zenedris broke in “But we have something far more important to deal with.”

“Like who cast the spell on Talthos.” Atalia added “Because whoever it was, I am willing to bet my library on them being whoever brought the wards down around Dante’s house.”

“The wards?” the younger Vergil said questioningly.

“There is no other explanation for them falling so fast.”

“Do you recognize who it is?” Dante asked, trying to keep his voice from shaking. Everyone that had seen the memory were all a little shaky, since they had experienced the emotions and physical sensations that Talthos had, including the suffocating feeling of not being able to breathe.

“I do.” Zenedris stood up, her eyes narrowing in anger. “And I will return shortly.”

No one made a move to stop her as she strode out of the room.
Sparda looked over at his father to see the older demon struggling to keep himself together. He glanced over at everyone else, who got the message and filed out of the room. Luxian he just forced out, ordering him up to his room again. Then he went and sat down next to Talthos, putting his arm around the shaking figure.

“Let’s get you up to bed, Father.” he said gently “That couldn’t have been good for you to have to relive that.”

Talthos leaned against his son, fighting to keep the emotions that threatened to burst forth under control. He didn’t notice as Sparda scooped him up and carried him from the room and up the stairs to bed.

Chapter 11 -- Chapter 13

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