Avatar: Taste the Blood

Chapter 1

A Chance Meeting

Okay, here we go. First of all, to all those who've never read any of my other stories before, hello! This is not only my first crossover, but also my first story for both DMC and avatar. I love DMC a lot, and while I didn't used to be all that into Avatar, I had to do some research on it for one of my previous fics, and it sort of grew on me, so I just decided to go through the whole series. It was worth it.

Now, to clear up any confusion that may be caused, I'll get this out of the way now. This story begins in the middle of the "Lake Laogai" episode. Now, as for Dante and Vergil (yes, Vergil), they're already part of the avatar universe (as in they were born and raised there), but they will still be half-demon, and they will still be the sons of Sparda, but I'm mixing a few things up and around here. Most of it will be explained a little later on, but for now, just know that this will be following the avatar storyline, but with incorporated elements of the DMC3 storyline. You'll see what I mean once we get into it a little further. I'd also like to say that I'll try my best to get Dante's personality down as best as I can, but don't be surprised if he's a tad more serious in some parts than he'd normally be. Don't worry thought, the funny and sarcasm is still there.

One last thing before we start, I'd just like to point out that his will be as short as the chapters will get. The rest will be much longer, probably double this size most of the time. Okay, now I'm done.

A sunny day in Ba Sing Se; clouds floated calmly in the sky, the sun shown down extending its golden rays of light across the land, and the city was alive. However, the focus of events on this day is not in the populated areas of the city, but a bit more remote. Our story begins at Lake Laogai.

"So where's this secret headquarters?" asked Sokka.

Jet scratched the back of his head as he replied. "Under the water I think."

"There's a tunnel right there, near the shore," confirmed Toph, pointing off into the water while the rest of her body stayed stationary. She walked forward, let out a soft but merry whistle, a leaped a short way up before stomping onto ground, lifting up a stone pathway with a tunnel leading downward into the lake at the end.

The blind girl was the first across and earthbent the covering of the tunnel out of the way, revealing its dark depths to her and the rest of her companions. A single ladder led down to a lower levels, leading deeper in the base.

They all stared down anxiously before descending downward.

Meanwhile, a distance higher on one of the hills overlooking the lake, not far from the group of young adventurers, another lone traveler made his way across the landscape. He was around eighteen years of age, had snow white hair, a red jacket flapping down to his ankles, and baggy pants with heavy boots. He had a large broadsword with a skeletal design decorating the hilt and base of the blade.

He reached the top of the most recent hill, stopped, and sighed heavily in frustration.

"Damn…I never should have left the main road. How am I supposed to set up my shop in the city if I can't find my way there?"

He put his hands on his hips and peered out over the geography before him. It was mostly hill, trees, and grass from here on out until he found his way to one of the cities gates. A lake was sparkling in the sunlight to his right, and he found his eyes wandering down to it.

At first he saw nothing worth mentioning, but on closer inspection, he noticed a group of seven on a narrow stone walkway with a tunnel leading down underground. One by one they descended downward until they were all out of sight.

He raised a curious eyebrow, and smirked. "Hm…I should be heading to Ba Sing Se, but a secret underground base, now that's too weird to ignore."

His grin grew and he raced down the hill with renewed vigor. He covered the hillside in leaps and bounds, sliding down to the walkway, and stopping at the tunnel. It had been resealed by the cover stone. With a swift kick, the slab of rock flipped off the hole, and plopped into the lake with a splash.

He peered down into the darkness, a smirk still plastered to his face.

"Jackpot."

He jumped in.

Jet peered out from behind a corner and waited for the hallway to clear. When it did, he nodded his head, signaling that the coast was clear. The group headed out into the corridor, Jet looking from side to side as they did.

"It's all starting to come back to me," he said as he cautiously walked down the hallway.

As they passed, Jet looked into a partially sealed room. It was filled with women in identical dresses, an emotionless expression on their faces. A Dai Li agent stood in front of them.

"I am Joo Di, welcome to Ba Sing Se," he recited.

"I am Joo Di, welcome to Ba Sing Se," they repeated in unison.

"We are so lucky to have our walls to create order," he recited again.

"We are so lucky to have our walls to create order," they repeated again.

The group continued on, trying to put the sight out of their minds. They continued on down the dimly lit stone corridors.

"I think there might be a cell big enough for Appa up ahead," whispered Jet.

A few moments later, they arrived at a stone door and they all came to a sudden stop. Jet turned back to them.

"I think it's through here."

They pushed the door out of the way and entered into an even less lit room. It was wide open with a high ceiling concealed in dark shadows. The group slowly stepped deeper and farther into the room, their eyes darting across the room for any sign of movement.

Suddenly the door slammed closed and they all turned in surprise as the majority of the rooms light was cut off, leaving them in almost total blackness. Only a second later, the room was illuminated again, far better than last time. The group looked up at the ceiling, which they could now clearly see was swarmed with Dai Li agents.

"Now that's something different," commented Sokka.

"You have made yourselves enemies of the state," said a voice they recognized as Long Feng's.

They had all turned to face him and stared him down with aggressive glares.

"Take them into custody," he ordered his agents.

At his word, the agents dropped down from the ceiling and surrounded the seven companions. Two agents fired stone fists at them, which Toph was easily able to crush in mid air with her earthbending. With a quick thrust of both her fists, two columns of rock jutted out of the grounds and knocked the Dai Li aside.

Jet sprung into action as well, charging forward at the nearest agent. He fired both his stone fists at the boy, but he used one of his swords to knock them aside, dropped down to slide by him, and used the hook of his other sword to grab him by his ankle and flip him off his feet.

Aang easily earthbent two agents out of his way sending them flying into the walls behind them, giving him ample breathing room. On the other end of the room, two Dai Li launched their stone fists as Katara and Sokka. They both knocked away one fist each, but were caught by a second pair and were being pulled toward the agent who launched them.

Luckily Toph intervened and freed her two friends by created a wall of stone, halting their progress, albeit somewhat uncomfortably for the two water tribe natives. The two agents bent a wave of stone at the young earthbender, but she was too quick and created a stone column that lifted her out of harms way. The two agents followed suit, and at the same time, two more Dai Li ran up the wall parallel on each side of her.

She easily swatted away the first two agents, and the jumped up over the two horizontal columns that the second pair of Dai Li attacked her with. She then felt a sudden tug as a stone fist grasped the back of her shirt and yanked her downward. Jet was able to swing down though, and catch her before the agent could deliver a painful kick, and instead struck a rock jutting up from the floor.

Longshot fired an arrow as the two landed and recovered, and struck an incoming rock, destroying it. Two more rocks flew past him, only to be swatted away by Jet. Three more were fired at him in rapid succession afterward, which he was also able to deflect into dust.

Watching over the battle, Long Feng scowled and decided it was now to make a strategic retreat. He turned tail and ran through a second doorway, then quickly earthbent it shut as he escaped.

Aang flipped down from the air and airbent three Dai Li out of his way. "Long Feng is escaping!" he shouted.

He and Jet ran after him and Aang earthbent the door out of the way, and raced down the corridor. They followed him in hot pursuit until they reached a room with a number of sewage pipes of varying size emptying out into the perimeter waterway that seemed to go on down forever. Long Feng leaped down and closed off the exit with his earthbending.

"All right avatar, you've caused me enough problems. This is your last chance, if you want your bison back."

Aang's gaze narrowed. "You do have Appa! Tell me where he is!"

"Agree to exit the city now," he bargained, "and I'll wave all charges against you and allow you to leave with your lost pet."

Jet raised his swords threateningly. "You're in no position to bargain."

"Am I not?" the earthbender smirked.

"Definitely not!" Aang shouted in response.

"Jet," Long Feng said calmly, "the earth king has invited you to Lake Laogai."

Jet's expression suddenly changed from one of battle readiness, to emotionless and empty, not unlike the Joo Di clones they had saw on their way in.

"I am honored to accept his invitation," he said almost mechanically.

In one swift movement he swung his sword for Aang's head, which he was barely able to duck under and leap away from. Jet, in his brainwashed rage, charged after him. Aang was still recovering from his leap and was sure to be hit with the blades. Just when it seemed like the steel of the swords were about to bite into him however, what could only be described as a miracle occurred.

Someone blocked the swords.

"Man, that was a close one," said a smooth voice.

Aang looked up at his savior. He had pure white hair, a tattered red jacket, equally less than impressive dark pants, large boots, but his sword was what inspired awe. It had an onyx colored blade with a skeletal design covering the hilt and lower blade. The base of the blade was encased in something resembling a human ribcage, and the hilt had a skull with two horns on it, and two bones that looked like femurs hugging the sides.

"Don't take this the wrong way pal," he said addressing Jet, "but attackin' kids with swords ain't exactly the best way to boost your reputation. In fact, in my experience, the ladies sorta look down on it, ya know?"

Jet, in his brainwashed state, wasn't the most responsive of conversation partners, and jumped back a few feet, keeping his swords in an aggressive stance.

Aang watched the swordsman that had saved him casually began flipping his sword around in his right hand, not even looking directly at Jet. It was like he didn't even consider him a threat.

"So, you want a piece of me, huh? Well that's fine. After all," he said, gripping the hilt of his sword firmly and pointing the tip of the blade straight at Jet, "there's plenty of me to go around."

"Wait!" shouted Aang.

The white haired swords man spared him a glance over his shoulder.

"He's still my friend, don't hurt him!"

He scoffed but complied, throwing his blade onto his back where it mysteriously stayed put despite not having a sheath or scabbard of any kind.

"Okay, fine, a handicap then. That should make things a little more interesting anyway. Just don't get in the way kid."

He swiftly shifted his feet back and forth and pumped up his fists. After a few jabs at the air, he got into a final fighting stance and waved Jet over, practically begging him to attack. Needless to say, the brainwashed freedom fighter complied.

Jet attacked with a horizontal slash aimed at his opponents head first, which he easily ducked under. The dual wielder followed up with another diagonal slash with both his swords. The swordsman rolled under both, rose up with heavy momentum, and twisted around delivering a direct kick to the freedom fighters temple.

He flew across the room and skidded over the edge, but threw out his feet and stopped himself from falling. With a strong push of his legs and arms, he flipped back onto safety and raised his swords back up.

Jet charged his opponent head on again, and slammed down with both of his hook swords with all his might. The swords were perfectly aimed, but never met their mark. Aang looked on in awe as the mystery swordsman gripped both blades with his bare hands and was holding them off with ease.

His palms were cut open from holding onto the sharp steel, but he could handle the pain, it was nothing new. With some added effort, he forced both blades down and to the side, all the while keeping his smirk.

"Sorry pal, some back and fight me when you've got some real swords."

With that, he ended the battle quickly, and head-butted him into unconsciousness. They both let go the swords and they clattered to the ground, landing near Jet's unmoving form. After a moment, the standing swordsman exhaled loudly and wiped his hands on his jacket.

"Man that was kind of a let-down. What a bummer," he said, casually cleaning his hands. After he was satisfied with the status of his hands, he turned to Long Feng.

"Well, maybe you'll be a little more interesting. How about it old man, wanna piece to?" he asked coyly.

Long Feng merely grunted and earthbent a column of rock that lifted him up into the until he reached one of the largest sewage pipes.

"Foolish boy, you've chosen your own demise, and you swordsman, I won't forget your face."

He scoffed again and stepped forward. "How about a name to go with the pretty face old man; its Dante."

The old earthbender only grunted and retreated into the pipe, disappearing from sight. Dante remained staring at the pipe for a few moments until he heard footsteps behind him and looked over his shoulder. The same bald kid he had saved was now standing over his friend.

"Is he all right?" he asked.

Dante nodded. "Yeah, just out cold. He'll wake up in a while with a headache."

"Thanks," he replied, and from the way he said it, Dante could tell he was smiling.

Just then the rest of the group made their way into the room after Toph earthbent the doorway out of their path. Dante turned his head again towards the advancing group of teenagers and let out a short laugh.

"You're friends sure got nice timing," he said to Aang in a sarcastic tone.

"Too late kiddies, the parties over; don't worry though, ya didn't miss much. No food, no drinks, no girls, nothing worth mentioning," he said, now addressing the rest of the group. Katara, Longshot, and Smellerbee ran past him to Jet. Only Sokka, Aang, and Toph bothered with Dante.

"So who's this guy?" asked Sokka, pointing a finger at Dante.

"The names Dante pal, and ya best keep that finger away from me and my face if ya wanna keep it."

Sokka frowned and retracted his hand, but kept his eye on the white haired swordsman.

"Hah, I kinda like this guys style," commented Toph.

"I've never heard a name like that one before, where are you from? Are you with the Fire Nation?" asked Sokka.

He shrugged. "Where am I from? Here, there, I don't even know really. I've been traveling so long I've just gotten used to not having a home. Anyway, I don't know about all of you, but I'm outta here, it smells like dead fish and feet."

He was halfway to the door when Aang called out to him. He turned slightly to the boy was at least in his field of vision.

"Yeah, what?"

"Long Feng isn't going to just let you walk away," he warned him, "we've got a plan to stop him, and we could use all the help we could get. Even if you're not interested, if you stay and help, we could give you a ride into the city, and after that what you do is your call."

Dante stopped to think about it. True, he had been on his way to the city anyway before he got sidetracked here, and they seemed to know how to get around or at least from the lake to the city. That Long Feng guy wasn't that much of a concern to him, but getting a free ride into Ba Sing Se was appealing.

"Why not, I'm kinda hungry as it is. Getting to the city and grabbin' some grub would do the body good."

Aang smiled and nodded, then turned to the freedom fighter trio.

"What are you going to do?"

"We'll get Jet out of here, you go get Appa and head back to the city. We'll be fine."

"Right, take care then you guys."

Smellerbee and Longshot both nodded, and returned their attention to Jet. Dante, along with Aang, Katara, Sokka, and Toph headed out of the room and returned to the dim corridor. They turned a few corners and found a door similar to the one they had passed through, and forced it open, only to find the room also empty. There were six large chains lying discarded on the floor, but nothing else resided within.

"Appa's gone," said Aang, disappointment heavy in his voice, "Long Feng beat us here."

"If we keep moving maybe we can catch up with them!" suggested Sokka.

At that, they turned right back around and headed back into the corridors.

Several minutes later, a rock jutted up from the water on a different end of the coast and from it emerged the five teens. They wasted no time in running down the rocky edge of the water, trying desperately to catch up to Long Feng. Aang and Sokka looked back, causing the other three to glance back as well, and saw several Dai Li in pursuit of them.

Sokka turned to Aang. "You think we can out run them?"

"I don't think it's gonna matter!"

Up ahead, Long Feng stood with a second contingent of Dai Li agents, and created a large rock wall that impeded their progress along the coast. The action was repeated by the agents behind them, boxing them in.

Dante immediately pulled out his sword again and spun it in his hand anxiously, anticipating a fun fight.

"Alright, looks like this party's finally getting good!"

This earned him some weird looks from the rest of the group except for Toph who voiced her agreement. "Yeah, let's crack some heads!"

At that moment, a white lemur-monkey flew in and landed on Aang's shoulder. Dante looked at the thing with a strange but accepting look, and shrugged. The little white creature began chattering wildly.

"What is it Momo?" asked Aang.

The little lemur quickly flew back into the air, into the light of the sun; only to fly back down a moment later with a giant white flying bison with a gray arrow on its head. The looks of surprise and happiness on his new companion's faces told Dante that, whatever the thing was, it was on their side, so he made no move to stop whatever it was going to do.

"Appa!" shouted Aang happily.

Dante and the other watched as the bison lowered in the air, below their field of view and behind the rock wall, only crash through it in a hail of debris and dust a second later, then repeated the action with the wall behind them, dealing with the majority of the agents.

While they still had the element of surprise, Toph and Aang ran up to the cliffside and earthbent the last of the agents off the wall and into the lake.

A laugh escaped his lips as Dante watched the bison called Appa circle around and land directly in front of Long Feng. He gave the animal a hard look and put up both his fists in a battle stance.

"I can handle you by myself," he growled.

He flew forward and attempted to earthbend with his foot, but was caught in Appa's foot, and was flung into the Lake as well. He spit out the benders shoe before he was embraced by the four younger group members. Aang was especially latched onto the animal and muttered something into its fur that he couldn't hear, but didn't particularly care.

He approached the bison as the rest of the group got off of him, and Appa took in Dante's scent, judging him. After a moment, the beasts tongue extended out and licked him, covering him in a think layer of saliva.

"Perfect," he grumbled, holding up his coat, "I just had this thing washed yesterday."

After taking a few minutes to shake off as much monster spit as he could –much to the amusement of his other four companions- he climbed onto its back and watched as they lifted off the ground.

"So," said Aang, catching Dante's attention, "I think introductions are in order. I'm Aang, and I'm the avatar."

"Avatar, huh? You're a little scrawny for a prophetic savior if you ask me, but hey, beggars can't be choosers."

"Anyway," said the tan skinned girl to sitting next to him, "I'm Katara, and that grumpy bump on a log over there is my older brother Sokka."

"Hey!" the warrior protested, but was silence by the short earthbender.

"The name's Toph Beifong," she said in her rowdy voice.

Dante smirked and leaned forward a bit as he sat cross-legged. "Dante, and I think this is the beginning of one screwed up party."

As the bison rode off back towards the city, the five were unaware of a pair of eyes that had watched the entire altercation between them and the Dai Li. He was now staring at the city in the far distance; he knew that was where he would be heading.

The figure had white hair and his blue coat whipped in the wind. He held a sheathed curved blade with a black and white diamond pattern hilt and two strands of gold lace hanging limply, being pushed back and forth by the wind.

Once the bison was completely out of sight, he turned and left the ledge, heading towards the city himself.

"I'm coming for you…brother."

First chapter and Vergil's already in the mix! So yeah, another thing I forgot to mention up top. Even though I'm going by the episodes and adding my own things in, I'll still be skipping things over. This story is about the exploits of Dante and Vergil, and the characters they interact with.

Any long sections without scene transitions will nine times out of ten contain Dante or Vergil. I mean, let's face it, I'm not going to describe everything that happens in an episode because without Dante or Vergil there, not much changes. If there is a scene where the two of them aren't present but I think it would change the scene because of what they've already done and how they've influenced said characters, then I'll put it in, but don't get all over me because I left something out. It was probably on purpose.

I also realize a lot of you might be wonder why I started smack dab in the middle of an episode near the end of the second season. Well, let's be honest, not much important stuff happens in the first season save for the last...oh, two episodes. Near the end of the second season is where I think the show really starts hitting it's real stride; not only that though, the story starts to mature to. The first season is just a little too innocent for Dante and Vergil to be introduced, but here at the end of the second seasons there's political coups and Aang get's freakin' killed. It was for all of five minutes, but still.

There's just a lot more I can do with both Vergil and Dante here than there was earlier in the show.

That said, review if you please.