An: Quick note, I have been suffering from writer's block and it is not only affecting me with FanFiction but with school as well. I have had trouble finding the motivation to do the simplest of tasks and I have decided to rewrite my first story in order to ease myself out of it. However, since this is a rewrite I will be changing things up. The pairing will be changed as well and some other key points, this story will be a bit AU considering the Devil may cry universe and I may have to take liberties with the RWBY story since Nero won't really be following cannon or going to Beacon. I love the cannon, but I have read to many regurgitations of the RWBY story with just bits where the new character says something and the response is totally the same, Personally, I have no qualms against that but it just bugs me. If you are going to take the time to write a crossover story with an interesting summery and strong first chapter, but you don't use anything original for the other chapters. I am going to try my best with this, and I am going to post this as a separate entity so people can read the other and see if it is better or worse than this one. Please be kind-ish, I'm still trying to get back into the swing of things. Let me know if this is better than the other one or if I should keep going with it. I'm going to try to keep Nero in character as much as possible as well as others but I hope that the story is good all the same.
Minor note: I haven't played DMC 4 for a long time now and some of the events are hazy, but I still have a general gist of the story. I hope people will forgive me for being a little wrong about other things and remember that things will be told differently than the cannon because I'm too lazy to look back and make it the exact same, and if I did this wouldn't be a crossover story.
Ok enough of my dribble, on with the show.
Nero groaned as he walked into the abandoned mining town, the buildings were worn down and falling apart at the seams. Nero barely noticed the giant demon, who was on fire as they walked right by one another.
"That smell," the demon intoned, "I smell the scent of the traitor, Sparda." It sniffed the air and turned to regard Nero. "But all I see is an insect."
"Why'd you go and say that? You're going to hurt my feelings." Nero sighed while stretching his shoulder. He moved his hand to grip Blue Rose, pulling it out of the holster slowly. "I'll have to kill you depending on what you say next."
"Hahaha, you are brave for an insect!" the demon laughed, "what is your name, insect? I'll do you the honor of telling you my name. I am Berial, son of Mundus, conqueror of the flaming Hell!" Berial said with clear pride in his name and title.
"What do you know? I guess demons can be polite, huh." Nero holstered Blue Rose and crossed his arms. "My name is Nero, son of not-your-business." He reached and placed his left hand on Red Queen, he is ambidextrous but he couldn't really use his right arm in public. He flexed his right arm, Devil Bringer, it glowed with a bright blue hue. It did that when he was in the presence of demons, which is useful but he had to hide it under a cast in order to stay in public. He pulled the sword off his back and held it before him.
"Nero, you are brave for a human. I respect your courage and will face you on the battlefield." Berial readjusted his grip on his flaming Zweihander, he gave a few practice swings destroying the buildings around them with one swing.
Nero yawned at his display, he drew Blue Rose in his Right hand while he kept hold of Red Queen in his left. He channeled demonic energy into the gun, infusing the bullets inside with power. He snapped it towards Berial's face, he pulled the trigger blasting the demon in the face with the two power infused bullets.
Berial ran forward on his four legs, swinging his sword. He was slow, but he had reach and power behind his swings. The flames that ran down the blade swept across the area, catching Nero in the blast he was knocked across the field hitting the stone walls that surrounded them. Berial raised his sword, charging it with the flames of Hell. The air around them became hotter and wisps of flame were running across Berial's body.
Nero grunted as he pushed himself off the ground, Berial hit like a truck. Nero scowled and holstered Blue Rose, he drew back his arm and summoned a spectral limb that gripped Berial's face and pulled him closer. Nero slashed at his face with Red Queen, scoring angry orange lines of his blood running down his face. Nero used Devil Bringer to grasp Berial by the face, he used an insane amount of his strength to yank the large demon off the ground and spin him in a circle in the air behind him. He smashed Berial into the ground, Devil Bringer keeping a grip on his face the entire time. Nero brought Red Queen forward and stabbed Berial where his heart was located.
Nero grunted, as he unsummoned the spectral arm. He flicked Red Queen, removing the orange magma-like blood that covered its length. The blood sizzled as it touched the ground, leaving scorch marks in the dirt. "Goddamn demon was a pushover. I thought that I would have a fight on my hands, but," Nero looked at his arm, Devil Bringer, "this thing was really useful in the fight." Nero looked himself over, as he turned away from the demon and faced the Hell Gate that he came from.
Berial rose behind an unsuspecting Nero, who believed the fight was over. Berial readied his sword, preparing to strike Nero from behind. He swung his Zweihander with all his might enough to split an ordinary person in two.
Nero's only warning was Devil Bringer glowing with intense blue light, giving him enough time to spin around and catch the sword in his hand. Devil Bringer grated against the sword it was currently keeping away from his body. Nero shot Berial in the face, causing him to step back in surprise.
"You are no ordinary human," Berial brandished his Zweihander pointing it directly at Nero.
"Don't ask." Nero swung Devil bringer at Berial, punching him directly in the face. Nero pushed forward getting close to the demon, so he couldn't swing his sword at him. Red Queen was glowing, her steel was orange due to the exceed system that was heating the metal up. Nero raked his sword across Berial's face, more orange blood covered Red Queen.
Berial tried to back away from Nero's attacks and let him fall to the ground, but every time Nero would pull himself towards him again with Devil Bringer. There was no escape for the demon.
Berial roared as he pushed Hell Fire outward from his body with tremendous force, it launched Nero toward the Hell Gate. Nero gripped Red Queen in front of him, keeping Devil Bringer behind him.
"You are strong, I know why you smell of the traitor. You are related to Sparda and his brood aren't you!" Berial howled with indignation.
"Why are you asking me?" Nero spat towards the hulking fire demon, "even I don't know the answer to that question."
Nero backed up placing his hand on the Hell Gate, Devil Bringer pulsed with energy as it contacted the Gate. Nero looked at the monolith looking gate, it glowed with a blue light just like his arm.
"You seek to escape like a coward, just like Sparda. You escape to a world, not of your own and gather your strength exactly like that coward!" Berial roared and launched his sword at Nero, it caught him in the abdomen scoring a deep gash that bleeds profusely. Nero fell back into the glowing Monolith, he was absorbed into the Blue Hell Gate.
Once Nero was all the way through the gate the glow died down, leaving Berial alone in the mining village. Berial kneeled down, he was weakened from his fight with Nero. He would have to return back to the flaming hell and recuperate his strength. Berial dragged himself to his gate, the color was changing back to his own. The half-breed affected the Gate incorrectly, meaning he didn't end up going to hell. That didn't matter to Berial all that much, he would find Nero and kill him at another time.
—-WS—-
Nero stumbled backward, tripping over his feet and falling back. He whipped his head around, examining his surroundings. He had fallen through the Hell Gate, while fighting Berial. Nero pushed himself up onto his feet and clutched his abdomen, it wasn't healing properly.
Nero grunted as he focused on the problem at hand. He was in a very dark place, he could see himself due to the light that Devil Bringer gave off. There was still a surface under his feet, but he couldn't make it out. He knelt down and brushed his hand against the surface, it didn't change or reveal any new details of it. It was a smooth surface and the light from his arm didn't reflect off the surface.
"Shit," Nero swore while brushing his hand through his hair, "you've got to be kidding me."
Nero sighed, "Might as well pick a direction and start walking," he muttered to himself.
Nero held Devil Bringer in front of him, it's light seemed dimmer. He narrowed his eyes as he slowly moved his arm around him, it got brighter when pointed in one direction while dimmer in the other.
"I'm playing hot or cold with my arm, fuck my life." He trudged onward in the darkness, following the trail. He pushed his headphones over his ears, "if I'm going to be walking in the dark. I am not doing it in silence and I sure as hell ain't talking to myself."
In what felt like seven minutes of walking in the dark, the Hell Gate was acting as a passageway it was leading him somewhere, he just didn't know where. Nero kept his eyes forward and spotted a light in the distance, it was sky blue. Nero smiled to himself and moved faster towards the light, his journey in the dark was finally reaching its end. He checked his arm one last time, it was still glowing with a strong blue light.
He jogged over to the light while keeping a hand over his wound. In the seven minutes of searching it still hadn't healed, whatever Berial's sword was made of it hurt like hell. The surrounding darkness changed from pure black to gray, the light from up ahead was getting brighter the closer he got.
Nero was seconds away from the light, Devil Bringer outstretched to reach it. The moment it came into contact with his hand, everything turned blue with splotches of white mixed in. Nero felt himself fall when he suddenly realized that he was falling through the sky.
Nero plummeted to the ground fast, he was dropping like a rock. He reached his hand back onto Red Queen's handle and gripped it as tight as he could, he did the same with Blue Rose. He couldn't risk being separated from his weapons in an unknown location that Hell Gate could have spit him out anywhere, maybe Hell itself. Nero felt his stomach churn at the idea of being in Hell, he would be surrounded by the very things he hates. He would not hesitate when it came to killing demons and if he found a "friendly" demon, he would give it a single chance to prove itself not hostile to him, otherwise, it was lights out.
Nero looked down on the incoming ground, there was green everywhere as well as what looked like a city. He knew that he couldn't land in the middle of a city, he had to find somewhere to land. As annoying as the trek back to the town would be, Nero would prefer to keep his arm hidden from view. Nero spotted a group of tents miles away from the city, without a second thought he angled himself in order to hit the ground nearby. He would hit the ground by the tents without a hitch until his wound started to burn him.
The pain was unimaginable, Nero felt as if his skin was boiling and the wind he felt whipping past him didn't help. His insides felt like they were full of pure fire, melting him from the inside out. Nero felt his consciousness fading as he approached the ground.
—-WS—-
Emerald internally groaned as she walked with Mercury through the forest, Cinder ordered them to patrol the area while she made a deal with Adam. Emerald disliked leaving Cinder on her own, but she was strong enough to handle herself. She trusted Cinder, but she couldn't really stand Mercury he was an annoying ass. He could hold his own in a fight, however.
"Sooo, what exactly are we keeping an eye out for in the forest, miles away from the closest town?" Mercury asked, with his hands laced behind his head. "I mean don't get me wrong, but wouldn't we be more useful in the camp? Where we could actually help should something go wrong. The White Fang have their own patrols that deal with the Grimm and other things. So why place us here?"
"It's not our place to question, Cinder. She told us to watch the perimeter, so we're going to watch the perimeter." Emerald said, her voice barely hiding her dislike of him.
"Don't be like that Em, I'm just saying that it feels like we were just sent away. Almost treating us like children that couldn't keep from doing something stupid, so she sent us away to keep from embarrassing her." Mercury-added with a small sigh, "I didn't join Cinder to be treated like a child."
Emerald bristled and was about to tear him a new one for suggesting she was a child when a loud crash caught their attention. They both froze as they processed the possibility of an attack, Emerald pulled her guns out of their sheaths while Mercury fell into his fighting stance. There was silence before the howl of a Grimm cut through, it was soon followed by a very human-like roar. The voice was more animal than human, like a wounded and cornered animal. The very forest came alive with activity, Grimm was honing in on the source of the disturbance.
Emerald looked to Mercury, who nodded in confirmation. They both rushed to the noise with speed being their main concern, the faster they dealt with the problem, the lower the chance of discovery. Emerald would succeed in this job in order to make Cinder proud of her, while Mercury just wanted to fight someone.
While heading to the noise Emerald and Mercury were passed by Beowolves and Ursa, all ignoring them and heading to the source. It wasn't unusual for the Grimm to ignore them, while on their trip with Cinder they haven't been attacked by Grimm at all but they still snarled and growled at them, so them fully ignoring them was strange. Emerald and Mercury slowed down and glanced at one another.
"Whoever this guy is, the Grimm really hate him." Mercury looked unsure of himself for a split second, "not even a normal Huntsman would be able to take on this amount of Grimm. Yet, we can still hear him fighting, meaning that whoever he is, killing Grimm is the easiest thing for him. We can't go in there without a plan." Mercury said with a serious look on his face, he wasn't joking and he certainly wasting going to risk his life. "I suggest we get close enough to observe the action and when he's done with all the Grimm we swoop in and kill him."
"No, we capture him. Cinder would want to know what he knows, it would be better to capture him while he's tired out. It's not like the guy could be a monster," Emerald said, while the roars grew louder and they could hear the combat clearly. There were no gunshots or clanging of metal on claws or armor, it was only the sound of flesh hitting flesh and large thuds that shook the ground. "Ok, I may be wrong but remember I could use my semblance to calm him down. If we don't have any other option we subdue him," Emerald stared at Mercury, until he nodded.
They crept closer to observe the fighting and what they saw surprised them. They saw a white-haired guy killing Grimm with his bare hands. Emerald and Mercury could see the sword that he had strapped to his back, yet he didn't make a move to use it. The guy kept fighting and took multiple hits from the Grimm, he was wounded himself. His clothing, what remained of them, were in tatters he wore a large blue coat with a hoodie underneath that, his jeans were just as tattered. There were cuts in his skin where the Grimm had hit him, but they steamed and healed as he ripped into them. The biggest thing about him was his glowing right arm and the glowing red eyes. The palm and last two digits of each finger glow blue, which is connected to blue streaks that runs along the back of the forearm that is also connected to a vague star-shaped glowing patch on the back of the hand. The back of the hand and the backside of the arm is covered in red hide that leads up to an extended elbow. On the front side of the forearm are navy blue streaks.
An Ursa lunged itself at him, swinging both arms downwards at him. He caught both arms. He roared as he lifted the Ursa into the air and slammed him down. The air around him was covered in .a blue fire, that seemed to bleed from his body. A Beowolf leaped at him from behind, only for it to get caught in the air by a blue spectral figure that appeared from the man. The specter slashed the Beowolf in half and pulled itself back into the man.
The man launched himself back into combat, killing Beowolves and Ursa alike. While he killed the Grimm effectively, they still landed hits on him. They raked bloody lines across his back and chest, his blood flowed down his clothing and on the ground underneath him.
The man leaped onto an Ursa, knocking it onto the ground. He punched his right arm into its chest, his arm grew brighter while the wounds on his body fizzled and hissed. The blue fire that surrounded him grew brighter as he leaped off the Ursa and back into the fray, his body flickered and he was covered in a sort of scaly armor. The armor flickered off of him again, returning back to his normal state.
A spectral arm appeared from nowhere and pulled an Ursa into the air and slammed it back down into a cluster of Beowolves, squishing them into paste. The final Beowolf slashed his back and he snapped around and backhanded it into a tree.
The guy had killed all the Grimm that had attacked him, his breathing was ragged and he was hunched over. He fell to his knees, with his right arm clutching at his heart. He fell face down on the ground, shortly after.
"Well, that was a thing," Mercury said with a whistle, he was impressed with what he saw.
Emerald walked into the clearing and called back to Mercury, "what are you waiting for? We're bringing him to Cinder."
She placed his arm over her shoulder and pulled him up. "Shit, he's heavy!" Emerald yelped as she struggled to lift him up.
"Geez, Em. I thought you were stronger than that." Mercury drawled as he walked over to the other side of the guy and placed his arm over his shoulder. The second he took some of the guy's weight onto himself, he stumbled over on himself, nearly knocking them all over into the floor. "Ugh, God you were right, Em. This guy is really heavy, uggh and we have to make our way back to the camp," Mercury groaned.
"Less complaining, more walking."
"You think this guy's a Faunus?"
"I've never seen a Faunus with any features like him, but what else could he be, Mercury?" Emerald sighed, as she knew that the walk back would be tiresome and not because of the guy she had to carry back.
—WS—-
Emerald and Mercury dragged the unconscious man through the White Fang camp to where Cinder was.
"What are you humans doing to one of our brothers!?" A White Fang member questioned them as they got closer to the main clearing in the camp.
"We found him in the woods fighting against the Grimm, we're taking him to Cinder," Emerald answered with a tense smile on her face.
"You two better not have brought harm upon him, otherwise Adam will separate your heads from your body." The grunt threatened with a sneer, "filthy humans," he muttered as he walked away from them. Emerald stared after him, she was tempted to use her semblance to show him something horrifying. It would be an act of petty revenge, but damn was it tempting.
"Would you look at that we're gaining a following," Mercury whispered to her, Emerald looked around and saw that he was correct. The surrounding White Fang were following them, they stared at them with suspicion and distrust. Cinder had only worked out the deal with Adam three weeks ago, they were still suspicious of their benefactors.
"What kind of Faunus is he?" "What are those humans doing?" "We should get rid of them!" "I knew they were nothing but trouble." The voices of the White Fang members mixed together, all of them ranging from suspicious to angry.
Emerald and Mercury ignored them and kept walking towards the main tent, where Adam and Cinder were planning how to procure more dust. The White Fang only got more vocal as they moved towards the tent.
"Why is there so much noise out here?" Adam asked as he emerged from the tent, his weapon drawn and ready for use. His head turned as he looked for what was causing the disturbance, his head locked onto Emerald and Mercury. "What have you humans done?" Adam asked, his weapon moving to point at them and his face twisted with a snarl as he regarded the two humans. "You've not only brought someone into our camp but attacked him first without figuring anything out. What do you two have to say for yourselves?"
"Nothing, we just found the guy fighting Grimm in the forest. He could be a huntsman or a huntsman-in-training, so we decided to bring him to Cinder. She can decide what to do with him, Cinder would want to know the facts before she decides to do anything." Mercury informed the Faunus with a straight face, which Emerald mimicked easily.
Adam considered the two of them for a moment, his snarl changed into a neutral frown. "Fine, take him to Cinder," Adam lowered his weapon, "however, I want to speak to him once he wakes up. I will not allow a fellow Faunus to die in my camp for any reason." Adam jerked his head towards the tent and stepped aside, allowing them to enter while he moved to calm his fellow White Fang members. Emerald and Mercury moved inside, quickly carrying the man over to a couch Adam had inside the tent. Cinder wasn't in the Tent, so they would have to take care of the guy and wait for her to get back. Mercury moved back and let Emerald handle setting him down on her own, she struggled under the sudden increase of weight but she managed to place him on the couch without throwing him down onto it. Mercury pulled the sword from his back while Emerald patted him down searching for other weapons. She found a large, heavily-modified revolver in a sheath that was hidden underneath his coat. They placed his weapons on the farthest corner of the room, not wanting him to wake up and start swinging.
"What do we do about his arm?" Mercury asked crossing his arms and falling back into a chair. "It's obvious that he can fight with that, even if we take his weapons he could rip us apart with his bare hands."
"Well let's hope that he doesn't start attacking us out of nowhere, we'll just have to play nice. He shouldn't attack us without a reason."
"Whatever, lets hope Cinder as a better idea on what to do with him." Mercury shrugged, not really caring either way. "What kind of Faunus do you think he is?"
Emerald groaned, "he may be some type of reptile Faunus, his arm is covered in a red scaly hide and the cracks show blue glowing flesh underneath it." Emerald sighed as she placed a hand over her forehead. "It's not like I'm an expert in Faunus biology, he could be a Salamander Faunus or a Chameleon. I wouldn't be able to tell the fucking difference."
"Eh, fair point."
Emerald couldn't wait for Cinder to get back, so she wouldn't have to babysit Mercury.
—WS—-
AN: OK, that's it. I hope people enjoy this rewrite of my first story. I am personally pleased by it and hopefully, any errors that are in this are corrected before I post it. Review and leave your thoughts on this so far, can't wait to write more.