This is all head cannon rules about the witches. You see very little spell work in DMC, but it's confirmed to exist in cannon. PM or review if you have a question. Trigger Warning: Non-explicit mention of rape in this chapter and some explicit violence and descriptions of inuries throughout the story.

V***V

Hazel woke up disoriented and lazily, as has been common for the past few months. The room around her was drab and boring. Her hands were in iron mitts and chained to the floor. The metal still felt cold to her, even after all this time with her hands in them. She had a gag in her mouth and numbers written across her forehead. The guard that saw to her came in, shutting the door behind him, his entrance was what had woken her. "I'm here with your daily meal." He said with a sneer as he put the bread and water at the foot of her bed, his hands reaching for his belt. "You'll have to earn it, though. All of you bitches will until an heir is produced."

Hazel had gotten very good at tuning this part out of her day. She had been saving up enough willpower over her imprisonment to cast a spell, despite the iron she was bound in. Hazel just needed to wait until he touched the metal and steel herself for the pain that was going to hit her. The lightening scorched her hands and burned her arms, but it knocked the guard out, if not killed him. Hazel didn't wait to find out. She hit the useless metal against the floor, breaking it. Hazel undid her gag with heavily injured fingers, tears rolling down her cheek and her face flushed. She grabbed the knife from the guard's belt and slit his throat, the warm blood splashing over her sickeningly. Quickly grabbing the piece of bread, Hazel left, not allowing her to care about the other girls. This could be her only chance to escape. The other guards were blind, they detected her as a demon because of the blood all over her and she took the chance to run.

V***V

Dante and Vergil hadn't a lot of jobs of late, the final harvest had just ended and they normally had a few weeks off before demons came back, attaching and attacking because of all the greed in the air. Dante was playing with a wicked looking demonic blade he took as a trophy while his twin was reading some sort of novel. The fact that Vergil was out of his room implied that he was in one of his less introverted moods, and Dante was thinking about asking him to play a card game with him when the doorbell rang.

"Ugh, It's your turn to get it, bro." Dante was feeling lazy and he had just gotten the perfect rhythm for twirling the knife around.

Vergil didn't miss a beat before replying. "It's a female. That means, it's for you."

"It's raining, how can you tell?"

"Because I'm not an imbecile." Vergil said and his brother got up to go see the door.

At first, he thought she was some drug addict. Her eyes were beady, her skin unhealthily pale, and she looked like she was going to throw up. And then he saw the splotches of demon blood across her that the rain hadn't washed away. She was wearing some type of a paper gown, like one would see on a patient at a hospital. She was soaked, but barely shivering, and then Dante noticed her hands, the were charred to the bone, some tissue still hanging off. "Uh, babe, you okay?"

She shook her head slightly and then was ill with the effort that that took her. Hazel raised her useless arm and pulled down the collar of her robe slightly, trying to show him the tattoo that would mark as a witch, and hoped he still recognized her. Hazel gave up trying to stay awake and passed out.

Dante awkwardly caught her before she could hit the ground and carried her into the living room, kicking his front door shut to keep the cold rain outside. "Vergil, I'm not sure what she is. She may not be human; she either killed a demon or rolled around in one's blood." Dante set her down gently onto the couch.

"There have been human hunters before, Lady is not the only one." Vergil said as he was getting up to look at the female.

"They don't all look like junkies with skeleton hands." Dante fished around his desk for a green orb.

An outline of the tattoo on the girl caught Vergil's eye, and he pulled down the collar of her robe down. "And they are not all witches. We need to put up more wards before we heal her, Dante."

"I don't think she's dangerous, bro."

"And that is exactly why she is. Anybody could have sent her here. We don't know what her motives are, but we know she has the touch of magic. We either put the wards up and then heal her, or we kill her."

"Fine, fine. I'll go get the book." He said and trudged into his basement. The basement was where they kept everything that they took off the streets for mortal's safety. That included everything from demonic drugs to weapons, and even the occasional spell book. The particular spell book was one that he had found on his very first job, and he had been using every since. Even though, the appearance freaked him out. It was on very old leather, possibly human skin, and it was written in what looked to be a potion that the author had used for ink. The book was about combating magics of all types.

He picked it up and walked upstairs to Vergil, who had already gotten out the other ingredients in the warding spell. Until they deactivated the spell, the only types of magic that would work in the area are pre-prepared potions and the like. They cast it quickly and quietly, neither of them wanting to drag it out for different reasons. When that was finished, Vergil went back to her and studied the tattoo across her collarbones. "I believe she was born a witch, that's rare. This type of mark wouldn't happen on somebody who just came across a book of spells."

"What's that mean? Besides the obvious." Dante cleaned up after the spell."

"It means that she is more powerful than the alternative." Vergil picked up her arm and turned it gently, seeing the path that lighting took up her arms. "Judging by the amount of demon blood that was once on her, there are three possibilities. Hunters were after her because she has a price on her head, she escaped from a demonic prison, or she likes to roll around in demon blood. When she wakes, we will get the entire story."

"Well, she came to us. That means that we won't have to fight another coven, right?" Dante said with a shallow smile. "Does she look familiar to you?" He looked down at the girl, her face hidden beneath messy and greasy hair, matted with blood. Her skin was dirty, despite the heavy rainfall outside. She was gaunt. Dante didn't really like the look too much, so he knew that she wasn't one of the ladies that he had slept with.

"You said yourself that she looked like a junkie." Vergil sighed as he opened his book again. "That look is not in any short supply around here." He added to sate them both, she did look rather familiar. But he couldn't place her and so he chalked it up to coincidence. Dante shrugged and sat back down, playing with his knife.

They had watches through the night; Vergil took the second one and so was alone when the girl started to stir. Her face scrunched for a moment and the nagging feeling of recognition cracked into place. "Dante." Vergil called calmly, knowing his brother would hear and that he would come. "I think I recognize her." He began when Dante walked into the room. "We took a contract to escort her somewhere a few years ago… We assumed she was possessed or dead after the fight." Vergil downplayed the horrific sight. Neither brother liked to think too much on it, it had been one of their few failures, and a drastic one at that.

"Hazel? She wasn't a witch." Dante cocked an eyebrow. "She was human, if a disturbed one. That little miss is at least part demon, I smell it on her."

"Perhaps she was possessed at some point." Vergil shrugged. He was sure that this was Hazel. "Perhaps even a demonic virus was what awoke her spell weaving abilities?"

"How could that have gotten past the seal?"

"I couldn't have." Vergil confirmed. "If that's what happened, they toke her past the seal and then took her back after she was afflicted."

Dante looked at the girl again, she had dropped to an unhealthy weight and her hair had gotten less thick, but it was her. "How the hell would she have survived that? Demons don't typically like outsiders."

"If a powerful enough demon ordered it… She was captured five years ago, that was right after we killed Mundus. Who knows what that did to the power struggle?" Vergil sighed. "Somebody is likely trying to kill us again."

Hazel woke up and immediately she felt sick. She rolled to her side lazily and threw up a slimy liquid, what the boys recognized as the green orb they gave her. With the expelling of the potion, she felt the spell rip through her again, her skin burning again and the electricity giving her a jolt of energy. With the pain and the strange surroundings, she screamed. Her arms weren't as bad as they had been, so she could hold them to her as she shook, afraid that this was another trick of the demons that had captured her.

"Hazel, calm down." Vergil snapped at her, remembering that the girl was prone to panic attacks. "You came to Dante last night after you killed a demon. Do you remember?"

She nodded and then threw up again, the cracks where the lightening went through her hands deepened again and the burns radiated further from them. She took deep breaths before she sat back up. Nobody spoke as she took deep breaths and looked around. "I don't remember coming here; did you guys pick me up?" Her voice was gravelly and soft.

"Naw, babe. You showed up last night. What do you remember?"

She shrugged. "It's a long story. Can I have something to eat? Maybe a shower and another green orb? I promise not to make a mess on your floor this time."

"I will get you a glass of water. If you can keep that down, we will give you food and another green orb." Vergil stood and started to get a towel. "Dante, get a towel." He added as he walked out.

"How long has it been since that… fight?" Hazel asked Dante when he returned with a towel and placed on the floor to soak up her sick.

"Just over five years."

"It's felt like longer." She looked down at her hands, the lightening pattern was up to her elbows on both arms, the cuts were deep, but the heat cauterized it, letting no blood escape. "I did this?" She asked incredulously. "I remember casting the spell, but I feel like this should hurt more. I had been cuffed in iron, I had to cast the spell, but it had nowhere to go but up my arms."

Vergil reentered the room and handed her the glass of water. "Drink this slowly. And start from what you remember when you can."

"Right." She said after a small sip. "Well …"

V***V

Five Years Ago

Jay walked up to Dante's shop and knocked on the door. "This is dumb." Hazel said openly. "I've been safe at home before." She said to her older brother.

"You won't hate it here. Dante is… nice." Hazel rolled her eyes. Jay knew what women thought of Dante and he was sure she wouldn't hate him. "And it's just for a week."

Dante opened the door then, shrugging on a tight-fitting tee shirt over black jeans. Hazel pushed her glasses up her nose and looked him up and down, quickly getting an eyeful of him. Maybe she wouldn't hate it completely. "Hey, babe," Hey began while thrusting his hand out to her.

"This is Hazel, Dante," Jay put an emphasis on her name, giving Dante a final reminder to keep his hands, and everything else, off her.

"I'm Dante." He said as he took her hand. "Why don't you go into the living room, first door on your right, b-Hazel." He waited until she was out of earshot. "She's a cutie, you sure you had the same mother?" He teased.

"She's only eighteen, Dante. Look, she's in college- she probably has work to do for this week. Just… let her do it. I'll be back next Thursday." Jay began to take a step back. "Be good, Dante."

"Hey, I put on a shirt, didn't I?" He called back with a chuckle before shutting the door. When he walked into the living room, he saw her looking at the skulls and weaponry hung on the wall.

"You kill a lot of demons." She noticed the case where he kept his devil arms. "With demons. Though those are mainly for show, aren't they? You like to display your battles that you've won." She looked back over her shoulder at him. "You like attention, don't you, Dante?"

He shrugged. "It's a demon thing." He said while going to get a glass of tomato juice. "You thirsty, babe?" He shouted to her.

"No, thank you." Hazel sat on the couch and pulled out a book. "So are you a trader like my brother? Or are you a hunter primarily?" She asked him when he came back in.

"I'm a hunter. I've traded for certain relics with your brother, though." He came back in, drinking the juice from a can.

"Are you who he gets the orbs from?" She asked him, her eyes slightly squinting.

"As far as I know. He'll give me relics and such that he comes across that are too dangerous to sell. I give him orbs, or some weapons or something that I come across. My brother and I are the only half-demons, and the only ones that aren't affected by the seal. Real demons wouldn't take too kindly to what he does." He said and wondered immediately if it was too much.

"Why would a demon care? Doesn't he just sell the stuff to rich people?"

"Yeah, but objects can be affected by the seal. So if he takes all the non-broken things, and instead of giving them to power thirsty demons, he gives them to cults, witches, or just regular people? Demons hate that shit, babe."

Hazel nodded. "I see." She bit her lip for a second.

Dante smiled awkwardly, unsure what to say around her. He hated silence, and he hated quiet people even more. Hazel put in ear buds and began to read, leaving Dante alone with his thoughts again. Hazel stole glances at Dante a couple of times, but otherwise she kept to herself.

"Do you just live on pizza?" She asked him after two days.

"Pretty much. Vergil will watch you tonight- he'll probably pick up something else." He almost added a joke about her not having to worry too much about her weight, but he decided against it. She was carrying a few extra pounds and he didn't know how she would react to a joke about it. Females were always so insecure about those types of things.

"That's your brother, right?"

"Yeah. He's umm… he's hostile. He won't hurt you, but he has a stick up his ass. You'll probably do well to just… not engage him in conversation or get in his way or something." Dante warned.

"Okay." She said with a small laugh, thinking she was exaggerating.

"Well, don't say I didn't warn you."

V***V

When Dante came home that night, Vergil and Hazel were playing Risk and discussing some book he hadn't read. "Well aren't you two cozy?" He teased.

"Hardly. The girl challenged me." Vergil cut off any other comments from his brother.

Hazel laughed as she placed her troops throughout her countries. "This is hardly a challenge, though."

"You were lucky." Vergil replied dryly as thunder boomed outside.

"Please." Hazel dismissed. Dante watched the game proceed for a while. Hazel was winning slightly and that infuriated Vergil, which amused Dante. "I'm going to get a glass of water, don't cheat- I've memorized the amount of troops I have." She said with an amused smirk while getting up.

When Hazel was in the kitchen, she saw through the neighbor's window. A split second when she thought about there being people in front of and behind her. She felt trapped. Hazel felt her heart begin to pound and her body began to shake. It had been months since she had an episode like this. She started to hyperventilate and Dante came rushing in. "Babe? What's the problem?"

Hazel didn't answer. She couldn't speak. Logic was past her and all Dante was doing was crowding her, which made it worse. The storm outside grew louder and she tried to concentrate on that. Hazel tried to think of open spaces and the sky. She wasn't trapped. She could stand up and walk outside. The storm was louder and louder and Hazel then found it deafening. She didn't quite know how much time passed as she was trapped in her fear. Lightening struck a few times and then the storm halted. Hazel started to take deep breaths and took Dante's hand for help standing.

"I'm sorry- that hasn't happened in months."

"It's okay, babe. You good now?" Dante creased his brows slightly

V***V

"I know that bringing that up seems random." Hazel took another small sip of her water, finishing it. "But I keep dwelling on it. If I hadn't seen your neighbors, I wouldn't have had that panic attack. Then Jay wouldn't have insisted on picking me up early. He wouldn't have called you all for help. I would have gotten my degree by now."

"You said that that hadn't happened in months at the time." Vergil began, wondering if this truly was a coincidence. "Were you on medicine?"

"No, the medicines all gave me sleep issues and migraines. I had a service dog." Hazel saw it start to click together. "He died less than a week after the plans were made for me during that week. Somebody hit him." She sighed out. "Fuck, I don't know how I didn't see it earlier."

"At the ambush, were you immediately captured when you backed off? What happened after that?" Dante pressed for more information.

"They took me to hell."

V***V

I update one of my stories every Friday. Which one I update depends on how inspired I am to create another chapter.