Vanquished does not mean dead; just defeated.

What was Nelo?Dante had asked himself that but after doing so and with the sensitivity of the issue looked into it himself. He of course had to start with when he last saw his brother as, well, his brother. The child that protected him in a sick way had manged to gain what he sought. Vergil unlocked Sparda's power imbuing it into Dante and himself. It turned out that even if what he did was twisted wrong Vergil wanted to get their fathers power so no other demon could use it against them or others, but mostly against Dante.

He was still protecting Dante; as he always had in his own way.

About Nelo Dante thought about it and while most people that KNEW about it passed it off as being aether Vergil himself or someone else for Dante he knew the truth. First there was the encounter before he meet Tish, Grevil, the man had shot him in the gut and while he had to admit the bastard looked like Vergil her certainly as hell didn't smell or fight like him. Vergil was a sword man preferring swords to guns and would sooner use a blade against Dante than soot him. In fact Dante was quite certain that the fucker that was his twin was gonna chop off his head with a sword before shooting him int the gut. The mans voice didn't sound like him aether, even his demon forum didn't sound like Grevil.

The next was Nelo Angelo; The demon he fought and killed was nothing but a Prison. Something powered by his brothers soul, rather his brother was really dead because of this was beyond his understanding. Having to give credit to himself he did manage to track down the spell and method in one of the books he jacked form the wreckage of Mundus' castle. It was a nasty piece of work for in order for it to last as long as it had the body must be kept intact. Dante knew for a fact as long as Vergil's body was intact he was alive. The side effects of the spells dictate that its actually his bothers Doppelganger that is the body so disappearing in a puff of smoke when the shadow of its owner isn't there is just how they move between realms.

To avoid conflict Dante never spoke of his brother, besides all the thinking and research gave him a headache. But he KNEW Vergil fought and failed to defeat Mundus, what Mundus did with him was obvious, the demon had giving his bother a fate worse than death. Whatever the case he was cretin it was his turn to defend his brother the only way he could.

Nero; no one knew what he was aether.

Genetically he was Vergil's son, his brothers blood was the same demon blood that gave Nero his power. Rather or not he was Physically related was beyond Dante's understanding but what he did know was this; It wasn't like Nero to call Vergil daddy if the kid knew. Hell Vergil might get the same feet to the face greeting Dante got. This thought made him laugh, oh he could just see it now an little toddler version of Nero clawing his 'Daddy's' Face, soon as that image was in his head Dante burst out laughing harder and fell form the chair he was resting in. Lucky for him no one was there to ask why he was laughing his ass off.

"What the hell are you doing Dante?"

Correction Vergil was...