I Love You, I'll Kill You

*Fear not! Tis I Jade Tokier with a spur of the moment glimpse in Dante's psyche...enjoy!*

The tunnel was long, dark, and echoed with each step he took. The walls could be heard pulsating painfully as he made his way through the cavern. His body was tired and sore. He suffered from battle fatigue. However, his heart was in even worse shape.

It was eating itself away. He was alone. Crying out for his other half whom he had had no choice but to condemn to death. Dante continued to walk, however, never once looking back at the memories that haunted his torn mind. His heart ached for some stability that he knew would never fall into his possession.

He needed the only family that he had left. The one person that could ease his troubled mind. He needed Vergil Sparda. He needed his twin. The only person in any dimension that knew he better than all others. He needed some semblance of his broken family to help aleviate the unbearable pain of the sheer and utter loneliness that shredded him down to the very core of his soul.

"Vergil," he whispered pathetically into the darkness," come back to me. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry."

Dante sighed deeply and continued his pace. As he moved ahead, he noticed a small gleam of light. His dark countenance shifted suddenly to a more hopeful disposition. He ran. He ran as fast as his long demonic legs could grant him. He hit the light with a hard force, but as he stepped into the new area, all senses but sight left him.

He could feel the presence of his brother, but his energy was not as powerful as he last remembered. He looked to his left and saw two small twin boys chasing one another happily. Two big goofy grins lit up their faces as they did.

"Vergil!" called the first boy behind him," you're too slow!"

"I'm gonna get you Dante!" called the second child.

Dante watched with a bittersweet emotion in his heart. Vergil tackled Dante to the ground as both boys giggled wildly. Dante landed on top, pinning Vergil happily beneath him.

But Dante's eyes soon widened in horror, watching as both boys grew to adult size. Their clothes, faces, and mannerisms matching identically to those of the elder Dante and Vergil in their final confrontation, when Vergil took his last breath.

The now fully grown Dante gripped Vergil's neck tightly in his fist. Rebellion balanced strategically at Vergil's throat. Dante moved the blade and stabbed painfully into Vergil's neck, cracking through the bone and muscle.

As the other Dante watched, he reached out his hand to help his brother.

'Nooooooooooo,' he tried to scream but choked on the word.

Vergil groaned in agony as the blade cut through his windpipe. Dante did not stop the blade there, however, he continued to slice through his neck until his head was completely severed from his body. It rolled a few feet from his body due to the momentum of Dante's strength and anger.

Dante watched himself murder his brother again. He dropped to his knees in a heap of tears. The blood from Vergil's decapitation continued to pour. His muscles twitched gruesomely for a few moments after. As the spasms from Vergil's corpse finally subsided, the weeping Dante placed his hands on the ground.

"Bastard," he muttered to himself. His other self looked up and stared at the crying Hunter.

"Bastard?" he replied, amusement evident in his voice.

"Yes," Dante growled, looking angrily up at himself.

"Why?"

"Because you killed my brother!"

"Ahhhh yes, that," replied the other cooly, wiping the blood from his sword on his pants.

"How could you?" Dante said to himself.

"How could you?" the other replied.

Dante sheathed Rebellion and sighed.

"I don't understand you. He was going to destroy the world. We had no other choice," he said.

"There is always another choice!" Dante growled, tears streaming painfully down his face.

"No. Not this time. Life is choice and choice is life. You make it. I make it. Everyone makes it. Our brother is no exception. He made the choice to be evil. To kill. To destroy. To try and undo everything that our father worked so hard to protect. He chose the dark path. Not us. And in doing so, he chose to die. By us," Dante said calmly.

The other crying Hunter wondered where this cool and collected attitude came from. As if he could read his mind (which he could), Dante answered the wonderment.

"You are me. I am you...just simply the part of your psyche that you need the most at the moment. I am here to bring you enlightenment. I am here to guide you through this painful time of yours," he said, taking off the sheath from his back that bore Rebellion and setting it down in Vergil's open dead hand.

Dante stood and crossed his arms over his chest.

"Vergil chose his path. He chose to walk the path of evil. Of death. Of destruction and greed. Lust and carnage. He paid the price. We made him pay. Life is choice and he made his. There was nothing we could do. It's a lonely road, I know. Of course I do, I'm you, but it's a road you chose to be on. You are unlike any demon or human. You walk between worlds. You know of things that no other race in any dimension could even begin to comprehend. You will persevere. You have to. You are the only thing that stands between this world's salvation and its damnation. You are the only hero left," he stroked a single tear away from the Hunter's cheek," Vergil is dead and in his death will come power that you have never tasted before in your long life as a Devil Hunter."

Dante helped his weeping half to his feet.

"It's time for you to go," he said gently. As he led Dante to the light, he smiled. Dante, tears still in his eyes, turned to get a glimpse of himself one last time. He was dumbstruck to find Vergil's smiling back at him.

"B-but...I-I thought. How did? You?"

Vergil smiled.

"I am you dear brother. Always have been. I am what you could have been, had you chosen a darker path. My soul was never corrupt. It couldn't be, it's mom and dad's...and even a bit of yours. My heart may have been misguided in life but never my soul," Vergil kissed Dante soothingly on the cheek," go now. Be at peace. Know that you did the right thing, even though it was the most painful thing. Do not despair so much dear brother. I will always be here for you and with you...always."

Dante's eyes opened slowly. His head was on desk in a pile of drool. He took a deep breath as a solitary tear slid down his cheek, however, it was not a tear of pain but of joy. Of having the knowledge that no matter how painful the task he had to perform was, it was for the greater good. He had his brother's forgiveness and that meant more to him than his own life...

* 'looks up' damn....can't believe I actually wrote something...*