Disclaimer: I don't own anything in DMC.
Summary: One mission, one secret, one person. A single night leads the way to a new beginning, a threat from beyond the grave, and severs even the strongest of bonds. Dante, Vergil, Lady, Trish, Nero, and Kyrie.
T for language and blood.
[A/N: Hi guys. This is my first take on Devil May Cry fanfiction, so bear with me. I'm a bit… new, by DMC gamer standards on the game, so I might get a few things wrong here and there. But whatever, I just felt like writing this. Also, I can't be sure that I can update frequently, since I'm extremely busy most of the time.
I'm going to include an OC, for the storyline's purpose, but since OC's rub my head sore most of the time I'll keep that out of the way, and concentrate on the main characters.
Yes, I will include pairings, (so *she* doesn't rip my head off) but you'll have to read through to find out. Well we know Nero and Kyrie are inseparable, so I won't mess that up. I prefer action, mystery, drama, and especially angst, but well, *she* can't get through without a few sweet moments. Go figure.
Sorry for OOCness. Like, Dante's attitude shifts from DMC4 to 3 to anime and that stuff. It's weird.]
Chapter One: Hell Stand
Everything was hazy. Left and right, blurred outlines dotted the corners of her vision. Her head was spinning, barely registering the oncoming waves of hellspawn that dawned upon her. Demons were appearing at an alarming rate, signaling the presence of a Hell Gate. It was near, and she could feel the aura, emanating dread throughout the street. Any moment now, she could collapse. Only the sheer force of will kept her on her feet.
Gunshots could be barely heard as an Assault launched itself toward her. It fell to the ground, but another took its place in a split second. Her eyebrows knitted and she let out a low growl, pumping her UZI semi-automatic to the limit. The heat wrapped its unforgiving fingers around her lithe form, drenching her in sweat and creating a suffocating atmosphere. Tendrils of piercing fatigue stabbed at her limbs, screaming at her to stop, but she resisted. She had to stand her ground, for the sake of the others.
Not long ago, they had come here because of rumors of a new Hell Gate. Trish went ahead and scouted for Mephistos and Fausts, while Dante and Nero went and searched for the gate. Lady had volunteered to fend off those that got in the way.
This was not an ordinary gate-wrecking mission. They were in for a day of hell in their lives – to retrieve one of their number that they had lost nearly ten years ago. This time, they would get Vergil back.
Everything had gone according to plan – Trish had gotten rid of the ghastly beasts that were likewise scouting for them, while the two silver-haired Devil Hunters had their share of fun hunting the devils. And of course, she enjoyed the killing too.
However, the present wasn't looking so good. Not when she was about to fall where she stood, razing through the last of her ammo like wildfire. The gate had been concealed… just a mere hundred yards from her. Without a moment's notice, it had appeared, along with the creatures that resided within it. And, Lady was taking the brunt of blow as an indefinite score of demons poured out of it.
Trish should be… here… by now…, she thought desperately as two Frosts materialized in front of her. Guns trained at their ice shards, she pelted them with bullets until they had to raise their shields to stop the merciless flow. The stream of metal broke as she ran out, and quickly changed magazines. However, one had seized the chance to lunge closer. Lady was forced to sidestep as it jammed it beak outward, nearly jabbing her throat. She pushed her pistol up to its middle and finished off the icy demon.
The other Frost let out a low, otherworldly shriek as its companion fell, making her shiver and her hairs stand on end. Her grip tightened on her pistol and semi-automatic, blazing toward the other one.
Smoke twisted out of the barrel as the Frost lay dying, forcing her to change magazines once again. She was breathing so hard she felt her lungs were on fire. The sudden stop in momentum took its toll and she staggered backward and doubled over, sweat plastering her flyaway hair to her face. Now, her head felt light and she finally fell to her knees as a group of Hell Prides and Lusts appeared. Kalina Ann found its way into her hands as she trained it on them.
Her last thoughts were for the others to be safe as the world faded to black in the sound of a whistling missile and charging Hells… and a wave of red.
---
---
Dante walked, almost strutted calmly through the halls of hell, almost opposite to Nero, who was really twitchy as his eyes darted around. They had just been attacked by a rather massive Leviathan, and the younger devil still couldn't shake off the feeling that another one could come crashing at them at any moment. Aside that, his Devil Bringer was itching like mad, and was now pulsating bright blue light.
"What the hell is wrong with this thing?" he growled, holding it in his human arm.
"Wrong with what?"
"My arm! It's been glowing and itching like mad ever since we entered this godforsaken place!"
"Hm. So that's how the thing found us," commented Dante, who had stopped walking. There was a multi-fork in their path, branching into five different directions.
"It's not like I can turn it off or something!" Nero shot back, who was still resisting the urge to scratch his arm. "I swear, if this thing doesn't stop I'm gonna—"
"Shush!" said Dante suddenly.
"What?"
"I mean shut up for a minute, I'm trying to think."
"Huh. Like you ever shut up for even a second."
Dante didn't reply as he scrutinized the paths. What lay ahead was pitch-black, so there was no use in trying to see. He could hear nothing either, except for small clicks that sounded eerily like beaks. Okay, so demons were hiding in the walls after all. He also couldn't smell anything aside from the faint blood stains many years old all over the walls.
"This place stinks."
"You got that right kid."
"… Are you trying to sniff him out or something?"
"No use, cause like ya said, this place sticks of rotten brains."
Nero squinted and pinched his nose mockingly. "Right. So, which one is he in?"
"I don't know. You tell me."
"How should I know?"
"You were the one who sucked Yamato into your system. Bring it out, maybe it'll glow in the dark or something."
"I can't do that."
"Why not?"
"I can only use it when I Devil Trigger."
He raised his eyebrow. "Sooo… why don't you try Devil Triggering?"
"I can't. Must be this place, because if I try, I feel like I'll lose my head, or lose control, or something."
Dante sighed. "Well that's convenient. Tell you what, try standing in each of the paths, and go into the one where it gets really itchy."
Nero frowned, and then a dawn of understanding washed over him. So that explained why his Devil Bringer was acting funny. A part of it was yearning to be back in its master's touch.
Dante watched him closely, slightly amused as he stepped toward the rightmost one first and cautiously held out his arm. Nothing happened for a moment, then suddenly the pulse died down, and there was a sound like a vacuum being turned on. A confused look lined Nero's face, then all of a sudden a portal opened in front of him and a group of tiny dinosaur-like beings pounced on him, knocking him to the ground. He reached for Red Queen and sliced at them, but they were very nimble and avoided his attacks. They were all around, hanging off his coat and scratching at his head with their tiny claws. One found its way to the hood of his coat and made for his neck, but he managed to fling it off. This time as he swung he used Exceed, and finally half of them turned to dust as fire pumped out of the fuel injection system. The remaining half lunged at him but he swiped at them with his Devil Bringer, and the last one was taken care of in mid air with a charge shot.
Dante moved his head two inches to the left as the shrieking demon dinosaur sailed over his shoulder, exploding into ash behind him. He grinned and turned back to a very disheveled-looking Nero, who was still panting from the attack.
"Those were actually kinda cute. Coming in next to the talking mutt, of course."
"You call a bunch of freaking demons that tried to rip me to shreds CUTE? What the HELL were those things?" Nero half-shouted as he took a look at his ripped coat.
"Ah, must be the kiddie residents of hell. They like to play along these streets…and they happen to like ears a lot for some reason."
Nero reached up involuntarily to touch his ear if it was still there. After confirming both were still intact, he crossed his arms and looked over to the half-demon.
"No way am I sticking my arm out like that again if a bunch of those things are gonna come bursting at any second."
Dante chuckled. "You scared?"
Nero scoffed. "Well I don't know about you, but I just don't like the idea of getting ripped to shreds and being dinner for who-knows-what especially in this place."
"Hah. You defeat the conqueror of Fire Hell, a jungle dragon-woman, a slimy ice-cold toad with feelers that have pretty hot asses if I may add, and you're scared of tiny lizards?"
"I told you, I wasn't scared. But no way am I doing that again."
"Hah, then chill off then, you got the right path in one go! Thanks for the help," he said, and ran through the black hole they were facing. Nero stood frozen for a second, and followed him. But before he could run into the black hole, Dante stuck his head out of it.
"Actually, I'd prefer if you stayed alive kid, so just wait out here for a sec."
"What the hell are you talking about—" Nero started, but just then a really huge Assault with two Chimera seeds on it that were swinging their blades wildly jumped out of the hole at his startled state. Fortunately, it crashed down inches from his nose, and he saw that a gloved hand had grabbed hold of its tail. The roaring Assault was pulled back tail-first back into the hole, and a second later Dante's head popped out again.
"See what I mean kid?" he called, giving his usual smug smirk before pulling himself back in.
---
---
Nero frowned at the black hole, fighting with his brain whether he should go in or not. He didn't fear anything, except when it was something that involved Kyrie, but Kyrie was in no immediate danger right now. Then again, Dante wouldn't hold him back if he knew he could take it, even to the point of watching him struggle for his own amusement.
'You gotta learn that life ain't just a fairytale, kid,' he said, holstering Coyote-A as he watched him with Kyrie in his arms, after he had fought off a horde of Mephistos that converged there, while Dante sat back, relaxed ,and enjoyed the action. 'There are some things that even you yourself can't protect, even if you had sworn to do so. No one can guarantee that. Not even me,' he finished, as he stood up and walked away from the couple. And, Nero could swear that for the first time, he saw sadness in the Devil Hunter's eyes.
Now, maybe he knew what Dante had referred to. His mother… his brother. His mother was human, and so she was gone forever. His brother, however, being half-demon like he was, never truly died. As he had learned, the souls of demons were 'recycled' and merely appeared in another form or so. Now, Dante was trying to stay part of his guilt by bringing back his brother.
He sat down and weighed his options. If he went in there to help Dante, the sooner they could finish off the demons, the sooner they could rescue his twin, the sooner he could get answers, and the sooner they could get the hell out of that place. But, the man's warning itched at the back of his mind, and his instinct told him to follow it. Then again, and even Dante had said it, he had fought and defeated masters and their minions straight out of hell. Why should he be afraid? He had saved the world once, and Dante had a lot of times - the true descendants of Sparda. What should they fear?
He set his mind and rushed toward the portal. He felt adrenaline flooding his system as he neared the pitch-black vault. He was about to run in when once again, he stopped.
'Why the hell should I listen to you!?' he yelled as he grabbed Dante's shoulder. The man merely looked at him with amused eyes. 'You should stay put on this one, Nero. I need to check these bugs out. Seems they can do more than just pass through walls now.' Nero grit his teeth and gripped tighter as Dante tried to turn around. However, the man pried his hand open and looked back at him. 'Come on, don't worry. I'll save your girlfriend along the way. And hey, I promise I won't try anything.' Nero was about to retort when Dante sped out the door. Snarling, he raced after him.
'Nero!'
'Kyrie!!' he yelled, as he ran towards her. Somewhere inside he wondered why Dante wasn't there yet, but that didn't matter. He shot his way through several Mephistos, though it didn't flinch them in the slightest. He snatched at them with the Devil Bringer, attempting to remove their gas cloaks, but somehow that didn't work either. He was getting more and more frustrated until one shot one of their long spikes. He dodged it by reflex, but something was wrong. As it collided into the ground, the air suddenly seemed to thin, choking both of them. Nero watched helplessly as Kyrie sank to her knees, clutching her throat. Nero tried to get to her, but he was immobilized.
Then, the other Mephistos did the same, shooting their 'finger' spikes to the ground around them. A sudden wave of exhaustion crashed over, suffocating them. His eyes met with hers as they lay on the ground, unable to move. As his breath slipped away, he barely noticed that cocky voice.
'Yo, longfingers. I'd prefer to have the lovebirds alive if you don't mind.'
Buckshots slapped through the air as bullets made contact with the demons.
He breathed in the cool air once again as the spikes lifted of the ground. As he looked up, Kyrie was down, barely breathing. Out the corner of his eye, the black devils quickly recovered and converged upon her, blocking her from his view. Time seemed to slow as rage flew through his system, activating his Devil Trigger. At that, he grabbed onto each of them and handed then a one-way ticket back to hell.
The last coward scuttled helplessly before he impaled it with Red Queen. As it screeched its final breath, the red disappeared from his eyes and he ran toward Kyrie, holding her in his arms.
'Told ya they had something up their cloaks.'
Nero looked up to see Dante sitting, twirling his shotgun. Nero frowned.
'Why? Did they evolve or something?'
'Nah, doubt that. I guess someone's behind this. But I did tell you to stay in the office. You could have died.'
'So could Kyrie!'
'Well you were screaming her name out and running toward her shooting their backsides... if they have one, that is. Of course they wouldn't notice you both.'
Nero wanted to retort, but he just fell silent. Dante spoke again.
'At least try to trust me sometimes kid. Like I said, I seem to have grown fond of your couple and I'd rather have both of you alive. You know you can't just run around saving your sweetheart without knowing what you're facing. You can't always be sure that you're the… what do they call it? Knight in leather coat or something.'
The young devil hunter looked at him. Dante sighed.
You gotta learn that life ain't just a fairytale, kid,' he said, holstering Coyote-A.
Nero backed up. At least try to trust him. Yeah, he did trust him, but it was hard to when he fooled around too much for his own good.
He wanted to come along because he had Vergil's sword, and he sought to know why the Devil Bringer had accepted it. Dante had also told him that if anyone knew how he was descended from Sparda, it would be Vergil. However, he did not elaborate why.
He took one look at the black hole, and looked down.
If he was going to get answers, he might as well make sure that the one who'll be giving it to him was alive. He'd gone too far in to go back now.
The man was probably having fun riding gigapedes or such by now. At that thought, he grew irritated. Maybe the guy thought he was touchy about giant flying worms. After all, since when did he listen to Dante?
Anger, confusion, irritation, determination and hesitation flooded his emotions.
He had to make a decision. He could either risk his life and possibly die, or ensure his safety while leaving his friends' lives in Fate's hands.
The question was whether Fate would favor them.
Wait for me, Kyrie.
---
---
The first thing he felt was annoyance. As he entered, a wave of blue and black lines materialized in front of his eyes. It was like being in a massive blue room with thin, weird black lines crisscrossing all over.
The second thing he felt… was more annoyance.
Well, the heck, thought Nero. Dante was indeed having his fun riding a gigapede. It was like watching a kid who had his fun riding a choo-choo train for the first time. Only, this choo-choo train was trying to kill its rider.
"Hey kid, what took you so long?" he chuckled as he stuck Rebellion into the gigapede's head, earning a rumbling screech as the demon crashed into the blue ground. He flipped over its back and landed a few yards from Nero. He grinned at the very angry boy and slung Rebellion over his back.
"I bet you were deciding if you should come in to play hero and never see your sweetheart again," he chuckled.
"At this point old man, I think I wouldn't care if a something tore you to shreds and ate you right now."
"Huh. That must mean I'm really tasty… and not only to babes."
"Scratch that, damn you! Why the HELL did you do that? We could have gotten your brother out of here ages ago!"
"Well I told you that you were better off with you head on your shoulders, otherwise Verge can't get his sword back."
"I can hold my own, Dante!" he yelled, grabbing Red Queen and holding its blade against his neck. Dante kept on smiling.
"I thought you were here to help me out?"
"Well that's just no good when you're just playing around with me!"
"Hey, I was telling the truth kid," he responded, and drew Ivory, pointing it at Nero's head. His eyes widened as Dante pulled the trigger, and was barely able to sidestep as the bullet grazed the tips of his hair. Nero felt almost dazed to register that Dante was attacking him.
Not another second was wasted as the Devil Hunter also drew Ebony and pelted Nero with bullets. Nero in turn pulled out Blue Rose and intercepted two bullets at a time in mid-air, a trick taught to him by the very man who was attacking him. The clash and disintegration of bullets filled and echoed throughout the room as they battled each other with their guns mercilessly.
Nero now felt a disadvantage because of the constant need to reload on his part. His gun fired two bullets out of six at a time, allowing him three shots after every reload. Somehow, this didn't bother him before, but he began to be increasingly aware of it now. Something was messing with time again.
Dante kept his cocky smirk plastered to his face as he charged his heavily-customized handguns. His hands now glowed with a reddish light, pushing back Nero's bullets. Bit by bit, the stream of disintegrating metal moved closer to Nero. Soon, he could see Dante's bullets clipping his away just a few inches from the double barrel. It moved closer and closer until bullets chipped at the tip of the metal. Finally, one more hit, and Blue Rose flew out of his hand.
Nero ducked and dodged the repeated stream and grabbed Red Queen, attempting to deflect the bullets. It did not last long, though. Dante holstered Ebony and Ivory and put his hands on his hips.
"Told ya you wouldn't last two minutes in here, kid."
"What are you doing old man?! Why are you trying to kill me?!"
Dante simply shrugged and pulled out Rebellion, charging at Nero. He snarled and did the same, weapons clashing in a power deadlock. Steel grated against steel as they battled for dominance. Dante was still smirking at him, seemingly amused by his efforts. The area of contact between their swords sparked, catching Nero's eye. He shifted his finger and charged Red Queen. As it filled with power, he pushed his hilt forward, igniting the area between the swords.
Dante let Rebellion be pushed to the side, and returned a swift counterattack. Nero parried it, using the second power gauge, and roared with a powerful sword uppercut for the last. Dante flicked the flat side of Rebellion against it as flames engulfed his blade, and slid it toward the fuel injection system.
A crack was heard and the Exceed gauge broke, though Nero managed his hold on Red Queen. He rolled to the side and streaked at Dante, who air hiked out of the way. The man landed behind him and swung at him, though he blocked it by holding Red Queen vertically across his back. He twisted his body and skimmed his sword against Rebellion, and then side rolled again and grabbed Blue Rose.
Dante unleashed a stinger at him which he was barely able to block. He turned to the side so that they were back-to-back, and rolled forward to shoot him.
All of a sudden, Nero noticed five things at once. First, he was down on the ground. Second, Blue Rose had been knocked out of his hand for the second time. Third, Red Queen was now lying a foot from his Devil Bringer arm. Fourth, unimaginable pain was shooting throughout his right calf and thigh, coupled with the warm spurt of oozing blood. Fifth, smoke twisting out of the barrel of Coyote-A under Dante's arm.
He yelled as the pain registered throughout his system. It blinded him so much that he was gritting his teeth so hard in pain, feeling as if his leg was mangled beyond recognition. Panting heavily, he watched as Dante turned around, resting the shotgun on his shoulder.
He was confused. Why wasn't he healing? He had discovered that he could heal quickly during several instances in the past, like when he was impaled by the Bianco Angelos with their lances and by Agnus with that huge Gladius. But now, he was losing a lot of blood, and fast.
As Dante took a step toward him, he reflexively reached out for Red Queen across the floor, but his Devil Bringer was stopped by Dante's boot. Rebellion's tip was now touching the ground beside his neck.
"Have you thought things over, kid?" he asked. Even with partly-squinted eyes, he could still feel that smile – a sort of gleeful, sadistic pleasure that coated every word. This was not the Dante that he fought against before. What had happened to him?
He grimaced as the boot applied a bit more pressure. Dante sighed. "I think this seems a bit familiar kid. Remember our little tussle at headquarters? You fight me, and I still come out the winner. Stop trying to prove yourself. It's useless."
"What on earth are you talking about…" he grunted in the midst of pain. Dante shook his head.
"I never thought you to be this weak, kid. You were never, even for once, up for a decent challenge. I mean, what are you doing here, anyway? You're just another pest in my way."
"What… are you…"
"Huh. So melodramatic. Haven't I told you that I'm never up for that kinda stuff?" he sneered. Dante cocked his head to the side to be able to see Nero's face. "Well kid, you're into drama too much. And it's getting on my nerves."
Nero looked up in defeat and disbelief as Dante raised Rebellion. He was going to die there, in Hell; he was never going back, never going to see Kyrie again…
That last thing he saw was the glint of a skull hilt as the blade descended.
***