Mitternacht Chapter 10: Return to Hell, a resident evil fanfic

Disclaimer: I only own the games. Capcom owns the rights.

Recommended Listening:
Skindred – Nobody

Angst? – Eisbrecher

Castellorizon – David Gilmour

Left me for Dead – Rob D.

Mitternacht

Dante figured they had enough time for him to stop and set the two fullbloods down as soon as they reached the main mansion. He looked at Steve and then at Claire and back at the boy.

"Do you have a way off this island?" he asked. Steve nodded and Dante gave Claire a look as to say "stick with him". "Get out of this place and I'll catch up with you."

"I did find this seaplane in the hanger. But it needed Proofs to get inside the plane." Proofs? Dante reached into his jacket, pulled out three hexagonal objects, and gave them to Steve.

Steve hesitated. "Where'd you find them?"

"They appeared in my trench coat as if by magic. What, are you stupid? I found them! Now go!"

Steve obliged and picked Claire up; holding the proofs tight, and ran off towards the dock. Dante watched them until they disappeared from view. And as he watched, a familiar smell tickled his senses. For behind him, five black creatures stepped out of the shadows. Their padded paws squelched on the rainsoaked pavement and hidden claws clicked with each step. Crimson, glowing eyes gave away their positions and Dante struck as the creatures let out a battle cry and flowed swiftly and elegantly towards the hunter in attack. The half-devil whipped out Ebony and Ivory and began firing on the demons as he backed away. The bullets weren't doing him much good, and it became apparent as soon as he heard the wailing cries of the undead behind him, that he was surrounded. But he didn't sweat it as he let the Devil half of him take over. The Shadows fell one by one and he was able to position Ivory behind him to shoot at the zombies. As the last devil fell, he placed the twin pistols in their holsters and jump-kicked the last of the undead, decapitating them.

"Four minutes until detonation."

"Four minutes… no prob," Dante replied to the computerized voice and he ran off in the direction Steve and Claire went, following their previous path. He reached the door to get to the office when he heard a low growl. Turning, he found himself face to face with two Bandersnatches, their long arms pulling back to attack. A small smirk played on the half-devil's lips as he lifted his guns to the creatures and pulled the triggers. Chunks of flesh flew off the Bandersnatches with every shot they took until the monstrosities found themselves lying in a pool of their fluids as they choked on their last breath. Dante sighed and ran through the door, wondering why the two fullbloods didn't run into any danger. In any case, he was glad they didn't since he didn't think they would survive the horde that he came across while reaching the lobby.

Upon reaching the lobby, however, Dante heard a familiar bone-chilling laugh. Sin Scissors and Scythes appeared from the walls, well, floating through the pictures on the walls, as Dante could see, thrusting at the half-devil with their demonic weapons. He jumped backwards and onto the railing of the stairs, surfing down onto a Sin. He slid on top of the creature; towards the main entrance and jumped off onto the top of the stairs.

"Sorry. No time to play," Dante commented and shot at the nearest Sin, breaking its mask and watching it disintegrate into the floor. He shot a few more times at the Sins and then casually left the house. In front of him were two ways to go after descending the stairs. To his left was the way to the Training Facility. To the right was where the fullbloods went. But also to his latter way was a multitude of creatures he'd never seen, before the attack in the facility. He shook his head and sighed exasperatedly.

"When will they learn?" he muttered as he blew through the demons with Alastor

With Claire on his back, Steve struggled to run towards the doors, rotting corpses at his back. He held the proofs in one hand, a pistol in the other, and Claire held her gun; her other arm was around Steve for support.

"Almost there. I found it when we parted and saw we needed these…" Steve began as he held up said proofs.

"I'm just hoping Dante gets here in time…" Claire replied. Steve snorted and opened the door to the hanger.

"He's got a couple minutes to get here. Why do you care anyways?" he asked as he set Claire down. Claire gave Steve a glare and walked slowly to the lift. Steve continued as he started over and placed the proofs in their spot. The lift whined loudly as it stopped at their feet. Steve stepped on, holding Claire tightly to his back.

"I don't know… I just… do," Claire muttered as the lift lowered to the door of the plane. They stepped foot inside and he sat Claire into the co-pilot's seat as he took the pilot's. Steve looked at her for a minute before studying the controls. An uncomfortable silence filled the cockpit, knowing that the island would blow at any moment. Claire nervously checked the door for any signs of Dante.

"How's your side?"

"I'll live. I want to thank you for carrying me around…" Claire stopped short when she heard a loud bang at the plane's side. The door opened and a familiar face entered.

"Move kid, I'll start this thing," Dante said as Steve stood up. The older jumped over the back and into the seat, starting the plane with ease. Claire raised an eyebrow.

"Can't use a computer, but can fly a plane?"

Dante shrugged and eased the plane out of the hanger, getting it in the air before the island self-destructed. Steve and Claire cheered. "Free at last!" Steve revelled.

"I want to take a shower when we get back to civilization," Claire commented as she combed her hand through her hair. She slowly stood up, gaining some equilibrium before walking behind Steve. The young redhead gazed at her; from her mud-clod boots, dirt-streaked long legs, ripped shorts, torn vest and up to her slightly mud-streaked face and into her scared-looking blue eyes.

"You look and smell fine, Claire," Steve replied. Dante kept himself quiet. Something was wrong and he could sense it. It wasn't long before his premonition came to pass. The plane shook violently and an alarm sounded. "What's that?"

"Rear hatch is open. Probably nothing," Dante said. "Take the controls, kid, I'll check it out."

"I'll come with you," Claire interjected as Steve sat where Dante was. Dante shrugged and told Claire to take a few objects from the safe box near the door to the cargo bay. As she stuck her head in the box, Dante kicked her inside. Claire yelped when she connected with the bottom of the wooden box. As she looked up, Dante said, "Stay in here," and closed the lid. Darkness enveloped the girl as she deeply regretted following the white-haired man.

Dante, after shutting the lid of the box, placed a heavy typewriter on the lid to keep her inside. Whatever was in the Cargo Bay area was nothing for her to be standing around and letting it attack her. He turned towards the door, Ebony in hand, and turned the handle. After using some effort to keep the door in control, he slipped into the cargo area and slammed the door shut. He could feel the pressure escaping rapidly, attempting to pull him towards the back where the rear hatch used to be. What was left was now a gaping hole, and whatever was loose on the plane was now miles away in the sea where they were above. But it was nothing he was concerned with. For in front of Dante was a monster that looked freakishly familiar, and yet not in the least bit. It was large and humanoid, but rather different than what he's dealt with at the Prison island.

'Handsome', as Dante called it, towered over the half-devil and twice as large. Was large as well as nude, but also sexless and gray skinned. The weapons it held were not weapons at all, but his hands. On his left was a spiked club, and his right held a mixture of small and large, painfully sharp, blades. Dante was glad Claire wasn't in with him. It would be hard enough to get the monstrosity off the plane as well as keep the bitch in tow. He glanced at the floor where the strange creature was standing. A hydraulic track, Dante thought, but where does it come from? Handsome seemed to be staring blankly at the white-haired figure before it. It took a slow step forward as Dante found the start of the track. He turned to his left, spying a control panel that operated the track. If I can get the bastard weak enough…

He spied the creature again, about 15 feet away. Glancing at the track again, he shook his head and looked back at Handsome, who was now 5 feet away. Dante raised an eyebrow and ran towards the monster, jumping and using its head for leverage to get over. He landed at the edge of the bay, feeling the pressure try to sweep him off his feet. Handsome stood stunned for a second then started to slowly turn around to face the half-devil. Dante waited until the creature was 10 feet away before he charged again, this time with Alastor. He sliced at the creature and ducked away before it could have a chance to attack. And Dante stopped again in front of the panel. He glanced at the crates behind him on the track, kicking a couple to hear that a couple of the crates were empty. Handsome turned again and ducked his head under, quickly charging at Dante, minimizing the distance between them.

The half-devil mused at the large monster's sudden speed. For once again, Handsome was 5 feet away. Dante ran to his right before it had time to corner him in front of the door and smash one of his only plans to get rid of the creature. But he only went so far as the giant zombie turned and lunged at Dante, its left hand extended up to attack. As its club swung down, he raced away again, whipping his guns out and repeatedly shooting the creature in the back. The bullets sunk in, exposing tissue rather than bleeding vital fluids.

"Okay. Bullets are no good," Dante muttered as he searched for something else to attack the creature with.

Claire didn't enjoy being in the box. In fact, she thoroughly hated it. She punched at it only to find that the wood was hard and something was on top to keep the lid secure.

"Damn that bastard," she muttered and maneuvered herself so that she was on her back with her knees bent; her feet at the top. Despite the growing pain in her ribs, she coiled her legs so that her knees touched her breasts and kicked as hard as she could. The typewriter on top of the lid bounced off and clattered loudly onto the floor; the lid lifted hard to where it choked at its hinges. The girl murmured unintelligently and rocked back onto her butt. Now ignoring the burning pain at her side, she stood up and hopped out of the safe box. Upon looking into the safe box again, she spied a bow-gun and various ready- made bolts. She smiled and picked the weapon and ammo up, hoping it comes in handy for whatever's on the other side of the Cargo Bay door.

"What's going on back there?" Steve asked without turning around. It was for the best that she did not answer that question.

Claire opened the door to the Cargo Bay. Ran in and shut it; moving quickly due to the cabin pressure. What lay before her was, well, she couldn't really describe it in one word. Dante was fighting a monster twice the size of him. And despite that they were neck and neck; she found her ability to move and aimed the bow-gun armed with explosive ammo, at the giant monster. She fired three times into its torso, and the beast seemed to slow down a bit, giving Dante time to glance at Claire. He smiled, saying in his own way that he'd had an idea. Dante jumped over the beast to land behind it and pointed to the computer, then to the crates on the hydraulic track. Claire nodded. And the beast was moving for Dante again. He lured it to the edge of the open hatch and Claire shot at it again with three more well-aimed bolts. Instinctively she slammed the release button down and the crates were pushed hard towards the beast and Dante. The half-devil leapt off to the side before the crates hit the beast. Only something went wrong. Instead of trying to push the crates back in attempt to stay on the plane, it snagged Dante's red leather trench coat and went flying off the plane with the half-devil and a dozen or so crates.

"Dante!"

Dante was sitting on Handsome's chest whilst they were falling, trying to un-snag his trench coat. After a few minutes, he tore the article of clothing away from it, kicked the mutant undead in the face a few times and flew off in his Devil Trigger. Back to the island that had exploded. It wasn't far off and Dante had a feeling there was another ride coming onto that island.

After he'd landed and regained his humanoid form, Dante took a look around. The island was still there, but most of the building had been completely destroyed, with fires still burning brightly into the night sky. He kicked over a few dead devil bodies, putting a few holes in their head before moving on.

Dante trudged over to where Alfred's plane was, and in its wake was a Harrier. He paid no mind and headed towards the remnants of the prison area. As he neared the prison, Dante spied more dead bodies of Devils he'd been used to fighting for the past 20 years. He'd kicked a Bloody Mary onto its side and saw that its wooden jaw was ripped out; an oozing black liquid draining from the remains of its face. He heard the familiar click of a bullet entering a gun chamber. A male's voice spoke softly, but sternly, behind him.

"Are you one of those Devils too?"

A small smile played on Dante's lips. "A little harsh, are we?" he answered and whipped around, avoiding the round that was fired when he moved, and stuck Ebony into the lower torso of the man's body. He didn't fire. "You must be Chris Redfield." He pushed the muzzle of his charcoal-colored gun into Chris's torso to push him back. Dante stood to his full height and put his weapon away.

Chris Redfield was about an inch shorter than Dante and still held many his boyish qualities.

"Give me a reason why I shouldn't cap your ass? How did you –"

Dante didn't let Chris finish as he held a gloved hand into the air. "Claire's safe as far as I know."

"As far as –"

"She escaped on a sea-plane a few minutes ago…" he interrupted again. Chris gave a skeptical glance to Dante and was about to say something when her heard someone else call his name… They both turned and before Chris could register who it was, Dante tore after the figure, his sword drawn.

"WESKER!" he shouted, and, attacking with feral speed, stabbed repeatedly at Wesker. The blonde humanoid dodged all but three of the Stinger attack, his torso getting much of the blade. Wesker stumbled back a few steps and was ready to attack, but decided to go after the more human of the three, as he renowned the fullblood as the weaker of his two attackers. He moved directly in front of Chris and grabbed the younger's neck, lifting him up, squeezing at the same time.

Wesker, you're alive?" Chris choked as he tore at the older man's hands, trying to loosen his grip on his neck. Wesker sneered.

"As alive as I've ever been, and I see you're still the same Boy Scout I trained years ago."

"But—but you—" Chris struggled more, smacking the humanoid in the face, skewing the sunglasses. Wesker's head snapped to the side, deciding to let his sunglasses drop to the ground, and glared at the younger whilst Dante skidded to a halt meters away and whipped around. He stared at the two men in front of him, glaring at Wesker in particular.

"You insolent fool…" Wesker's eyes glowed a bright orange-red, his feline-like pupils narrowed to a slit. Chris's own eyes widened.

"What did you do to yourself?"

"I made myself better. However, my affairs are my own." Wesker turned his head and stared at Dante who held his blood-soaked sword at the ready. "Son of Sparda, we meet again, although I'm afraid I have no one to entertain you with."

"Cut the small talk and get your ass over here so I can kick the shit out of it," the half-devil growled. And at that very moment a shrill laugh echoed throughout the area. Wesker threw Chris to the ground and stared ahead for a second. The laugh receded and Wesker glanced first at Chris who was recovering from being nearly suffocated, then at Dante.

"You two are not my targets today. Alexia Ashford and the T Veronica Virus are." He turned to Chris again. "You'll find your sister in Antarctica. If we meet again, we finish this." And left without saying another word.

Dante clenched his fist and put Alastor away as Chris stood up, rubbing his neck. The red marks where Wesker had him were apparent. "So… there was an Alexia after all…" the older mumbled.

"What?"

"Let's go to Antarctica. There are some things I need to figure out."

Chris stood silently. After a few seconds, he headed to his Harrier, Dante following.

Dante sat silently as Chris manned the Harrier. Thousands of thoughts ran through his mind, much of it leading to how he was going to finish Wesker off. The younger turned his head and opened his mouth to say something. For a few minutes he just sat there, wondering what to say.

"There's nothing to say, so lay off," Dante muttered. Chris shut his mouth and turned back toward the nose of the jet.

"You remind me of someone," Chris finally managed to say. "Someone I met a few years ago… a month after I joined S.T.A.R.S." It grabbed Dante's attention and he stared at the younger.

"How so?"

"You look like him, actually… I think you two could have been twins."

Dante fell silent. Chris took advantage of it and continued.

"He warned me of… well… everything that happened in Raccoon City. Warned me it was going to happen. Then he just… disappeared. I never got his name. But you look like him."

"Bastard knew it was gonna happen…" Dante mumbled, "didn't think he'd tell anyone…"

The Harrier fell silent again. After what seemed like forever, Chris opened his mouth again. "Never got your name."

"…"

"Well, you knew mine, so it's only fair that I know yours."

"… Dante… look, wake me when we get there. I've been up two days straight," he answered and stretched in the co-pilot's seat, closing his eyes.

Chris looked at Dante." Sure," he said hesitantly.

---

After arriving at the Antarctica Base, Chris immediately set off after Claire. Dante stood back and glanced at the building.

"It's definitely been used recently." He muttered. Chris stopped and looked at him.

"It's cold out here, we have to get inside to find my sister."

"Ha. From what I've seen thus far with her, she can take care of herself," Dante remarked, but followed behind Chris anyways. They soon found themselves facing a small horde of undead scientists.

"Great, they're here too."

"Uh, it's a fucking Umbrella base. What did you expect, Boy Scout?" Dante replied and hacked into two zombies at a time. He cleared the horde in seconds, before Chris could even move an inch. "Let's go before the Calvary arrives." Chris agreed and followed the half-devil inside.

"So what the hell are you anyways?" Chris asked after a while. Dante struck down another zombie and uttered something too soft for Chris to hear. "Come again?"

"I'm a hunter. I have a job to do and I intend to do it. Now that it's personal I can't get out."

Chris sighed, "I know what you mean."

"You know nothing of what I mean!" Dante spat and slammed a stray zombie's head into the wall, dislocating it from the body. Chris kept quiet, looking around. He spotted a large door and pointed to it.

"Let's go that way."

"Sure, whatever."

The boys entered through the door into a large room, one that didn't fit at all with the rest of the surroundings. The room reminded Chris of a ballroom in a fancy mansion… or the foyer from the Arkley mansion. He shuddered when he spotted a large silky form dangling from a wall behind the stairs. He squinted his eyes to see that the head of the form had red-brown hair.

"Claire!" He ran over to the wall and took out his survival knife.

"Move over, Boy Scout. I'll handle the silk," Dante said and sliced it off with Alastor. Claire fell into Chris' arms and he cradles her until she woke up.

"Chris!" they hugged. The older Redfield helped the younger to her feet when he stood up.

"Come on. We have to get out of here."

"Not without Steve," Claire replied. Dante looked around.

"Where is the little bugger?" he asked. Claire jumped when she heard his voice. She turned and stared in shock.

"You're alive! But… but I saw you fall with that monster!"

"What I'm not allowed to live now? You make me feel great, woman," Dante mumbled.

At that moment, a shrill laughter echoed throughout the room, and as they looked up, they saw for the first time the real Alexia Ashford.

"It is almost time, you genetically inferior siblings," was all Alexia said. Dante lifted an eyebrow at the disregard of himself. The three of them ran after her up the stairs; Claire first, then Dante and Chris. Suddenly a large tentacle came out from nowhere and smacked Dante aside, knocking Chris down to the bottom step again. Claire stopped and stared with apprehension as she watched Dante struggle to his feet.

"I'm fine, go help the kid!"

Claire obliged and Dante went over to help Chris up. "You okay, Boy Scout?"

"Nothing I can't walk off," Chris replied. Dante led him behind a pillar and was about to head off after Claire when he heard a voice speak.

"I've found you, Alexia."

A note from Fenice:

I'm almost to the end! Woot! Then I can work on the sequel. You know, I should really start on the sequel before I end this… so I don't have months after months of dead-air, am I right?

Since this next one could be the last chapter, I'll try to make it the best chapter I can make. To be honest, I've been so busy with family and getting accepted into ITT Tech in Liverpool, NY that I've not much time nor inspiration for this and my other fics. But I SWEAR to the Gods that I'll finish them.

A GIANT thanks goes out to Shakahnna who proofread this chapter and who has been helping me along with the events in the game. Another thanks goes out to whoever decided the book "Resident Evil Archives" was a killer idea. It's also helped me out a lot.