Devil in My Mind

Ultramarine

Thunk! Dante lands DISMALLY on the hilly plains of the Underworld. He rolls over on his side, curling in pain.

Cough. "Son of a bitch!" Cough. "Arg, shit!"

His severely bleeding chest, it's no big deal, right? The jab could have severed his spine, but it didn't, so it can't be that bad. Besides, he needs to get back into the Human World and retrieve his blade. He gets up and limps, doubled over. Nope, he can't do it. He falls on one knee, afraid he might not be able to stand back up.

"Get up, do it!" he tries to stand tall, then faints, landing on both knees, really out of it.

Nearby, Raven spots him struggling. Having trouble flying, she sprints his way. He glances up and sees her.

"Bunny, Slade's taken my sword!"

She kneels to him, about to rest her palm on his back, over the gash. A black sphere surrounds her hand.

"My powers are drained but I can still help!"

He lightly smacks her hand away.

"No. Get back to the Human World. If I stay down here long enough, this'll resolve itself."

"That doesn't make any sense!"

"Trust me," he tries to convince her, but also coughs up blood. "What the hell? This isn't right, I've had swords go through me hundreds of times!"

"Calm down. I just have to find a way to be able to fly again."

"What if, what if you use one of my weapons? I summoned weapons from this place."

"Then summon your sword."

"I can try and summon one for you. Ugh, one that, can catapult you upwards."

"Like what, a seventeenth century cannon? You can't even summon weapons for yourself."

"Don't get smart, I bet I could pull that off," he jokes, then spits up more blood. She tries very hard to hide how upset his blood loss is making her feel, now is not the time to give in to foreboding emotions.

"Until I can work out how to ascend, my powers are best used to keep you alive."

"I'll be fine! I've been fucked up worse than this. Lemme try looking for a..." he's not even sure what he's going to say. It's hard to stay conscious.

"Enough. I'm going to heal you as much as I can," she decides, returning the spheres to her hands.

"NO RAVEN!"

She pauses, trying to appease him.

"Raven, don't. That's what Slade wants. He wants to make you weak so he can do this to you too. He wants to cut you with my sword. I can't let... ugh..." he passes out.

"No, Dante, no!" she cries, his eyes closing before her as she turns him onto his back. "Let me heal you!" Palms shaking, she places them over his injury, trying to send restorative energy into his body. Black spheres expand like ghostly bubbles through his chest, causing his blood to appear blue.

"Come on, this has to work!" She tries desperately to focus.

Her emotions take over. She fixates on the memory of him holding her in her room, when she had a nightmare. Not just once, but several times over the course of knowing him. Her mind's convinced her she was much smaller when it happened. So small, that she second guesses herself.

"Is this really happening?! Please let it be another nightmare!"

On the verge of hysteria, she feels her child self altering the memory, clinging onto him with an anguished hug.