DMC: Abayo Okaeri, Farewell return

Mission 1: A sad song Or Yarusenai

"Fukaku fukaku ochite iku wasure kaketa yume no naka de watashi wa ima Les Miserables."

"Falling deeply into an almost forgotten dream I am now, Les Miserables."

Disclaimer: I don't own Devil May Cry, Capcom does. If I did Vergil would have a bigger role. Also don't own Mizerable by Gackt, or Birdcage.

Authors Note: Rated for Violence, Language, and other not for kiddies content

Summary: When Dante and Vergil discover a wolf demon as children and befriend her can she bring the two siblings together after the tragedy of losing their parent as well as heal her own wounds? Read to find out.

It was a beautiful day and the twin sons of Sparda were roaming the woods outside their home. The two eight year olds were rather suprised when they found a black dog lying beneath some trees. The biggest suprise was that the dog was easily as big as one of them and had odd colored highlights among it's fur. A sky blue and a bright red. The whimper sound it made when Dante stroked it's side caused several realizations. The first was that it was concious, the second occured when Dante saw the bright red liquid staining the palm of his hand, it was hurt and probably badly. The last was that they needed help.
"Dante stay here okay? Make sure it doesn't fall asleep, pet it, talk to it whatever." Vergil said before taking off running in the direction of their house to ge their father. Dante nodded as he scratched the dog behind the ears and under the chin earning sounds of thanks. It seemed that the attention took it's mind off the pain it was in. He was glad his twin didn't take long. Their father walked over dressed in casual clothes for once. When he spotted the dog he shooed Dante a bit away and began muttering in a language neither boy understood. The dog gave various whimpers, growls, and noises in reply. After a couple short minutes of interrogation he picked up the dog carefully.

"Boys tell your mother we're going to have a guest and to run a hot bath as well as get the first aid kit." Sparda said causing the two boys to run back to the house with him following albeit rather quickly. Eva already had the water running and the supplies sitting on the counter when he walked into the bathroom. Gently the dog was set in the slowly rising water so that it wouldn't bother it's injury. Dante and Vergil stood in the doorway watching as their father seemed to talk to it in a language they didn't understand.

"Everything's gonna be alright boys. You did good finding the poor thing when you did." Eva said reassuringly as she patted the boys on the head. It was a half hour before the boys were allowed to see the dog again. When they did it was curled up slightly in the middle of the spare bed looking tired but amused. Sparda sat on a chair next to the bed smiling slightly at the boys.

"She said her name's Max and she's very grateful to both of you for finding her." He said.

"What is she Dad?" Dante asked curiously as he sat on the bed scratching her behind the ears.

"She's a demon. A good one though." He explained as he watched Vergil sit on the bed as well and pet the demon. "She's a wolf quite obviously and an elemental one so she'll probably show you some interesting tricks later." He added as an afterthought. This seemed to get the attention of both twins as they grinned almost deviously.

"There's only one problem father." Vergil said. "We don't understand her." Sparda nodded.

"Not in this form. She'll be able to take another more human form once she's healed so you two can wait until then." Both boys nodded and bid their friend good night since it had gotten rather late and it was time for bed.

"You might as well get some sleep to Mackenzie. Those two can be quite the handful and you seem to have garnered their interest." Sparda said patting her on the head. The demon let out something like a rough chuckle then a series of words in a demon language which made Sparda laugh and grin. "They're bound to be very interesting when they get older."

It took just under a week for her to heal and when she did she was all too happy to take the time to get cleaned up and back to using a more human form. Sparda chuckled as he set a towel on the bathroom counter for her and left to wait in the kitchen with Eva and the boys. He had to admit he was suprised when he looked up at the stop of the sound of footsteps and saw a disgruntled looking teenage girl standing in the doorway wrapped in a towel and dripping water on the floor. Eva giggled slightly and lead the girl away without a word. Sparda was glad his wife was around. He had never understood women, demon or human. There was the sound of the blow dryer going followed by shouting and a bit of other noise before it was silenced. This didn't suprise him in the least. When the pair returned the smaller girl was dressed in a white button up shirt that was obviously too big for her since the sleeves were rolled up to her elbows and it was still baggy, and a pair of black pants. Semi long black hair was tied in a low ponytail with the same highlights as her fur. A pair of black ears twitched atop her head and a tail swished lazily.

"Sorry about that." She said quietly causing all four to listen carefully due to her slight accent. Dante moved over a seat and both boys indicated for her to sit in the now empty space. Violet eyes looked at each twin before she did.

"We were just about to have lunch, care to join us Max?" Eva asked. The demon girl nodded meekly followed by a nearly unheard, 'Yes, ma'am.'

"No need to be so polite my dear." Sparda said with a laugh. "The boys seem to have taken a liking to you so your quite welcome to speak as you please." She glanced at him nervously for a moment before muttering something that had the twins and Eva staring at her curiously. She shook her head for a moment.

"Pardon, I meant to say that I am simply unuse to such treatment. Remember sir that back home you are still considered a legend among our kind." She said softly. Sparda nodded.

"We'll discuss those things after the meal has ended. For now relax." He replied with a kind smile. This caused the other to smile briefly as she nodded.

"So your a demon?" Dante asked. She nodded as she began playing a game of tic tac toe on paper with Vergil. "Cool." The younger twin said with a grin. Because of who their father was and what he had done they'd never seen a demon this close.
"Hey! How'd you do that?" Vergil asked staring at the game to see that he had clearly lost the last three. Max chuckled a bit and began explaining her strategy in a manner that the eight year old could understand easily.

"Wanna play later?" Dante asked. Max smiled slightly and patted the younger twin on the head.

"Yeah sure." She replied. Dante grinned at this and seemed rather excited. After lunch Sparda sat on the swing on the porch while Max sat on the railing.

"So my dear. Would you mind telling me your story? I can not let a demon I know nothing about remain in my home you see." He explained calmly.

"Understandable. Yet how will you know whether I am lying or not?" She asked curiously.

"Because you aren't the type to lie to those who've given you no reason to." He stated simply. She chuckled a bit and nodded.

"Alright, i'll tell you my story from the begining." She said staring at the sky as she leaned against the beam behind her and wrapped her arms around one leg in a lazy manner. "I was born approximately thirty years ago. I was the runt of my litter but even so I like most matured into my form at a fairly young age. However I am a bit of an anomaly. I've got a duel elemental nature with neither side more dominant then the other. This caused me to be cast out of my clan rather early on. When the rebellion ended I was the only one left and some abused me because of my status and such. So I ran. I ended up here in the human world. I've been in this world for three years now and I was wandering the forest when I got attacked. I killed it but not before getting pretty hurt. That was when your sons found me. I was tired and I had honestly resigned myself to my fate. I owe you and your family a great deal Sparda." He nodded slowly.

"Very well. Your welcome to stay if you'd like since it seems the best option currently." He said before getting up and going back inside. She was quick to follow only to have the twins stand on either side of her and hold her hands.

"Can we go play now?" Dante asked. Max nodded and allowed herself to be lead back outside by the pair. The games quickly turned into tag, and hide and go seek, both of which allowed the twins to team up on the wolf. Her speed and agility were the only reasons she kept up with the highly energetic children.

Dante woke up panting heavily and stared at the sheets that had gotten tangled around his legs as he slept.

"Whoa." He muttered as he took a second and thought about what he had just seen. It was a rather old memory. Though he had no clue what had caused it to surface. Max had stayed with them for a long time. She'd disappeared about a week before his mother had been killed and Vergil had disappeared. He wondered what had happened to her and where she'd been if she was still alive. Shaking his head to clear it of the images the devil hunter got up lazily and began his morning routine. It was about three in the afternoon but that was morning for him. Late night was usually as early as six am when the city was just begining to wake from their own slumber. He lazily finished drying his hair letting the towel rest over his shoulders as he sat down in the chair behind his desk and propped his feet up picking up a magazine from next to the phone. It was a tuesday and for some reason he didn't understand they were always boring as hell. Hours passed and the devil hunter lounged around the shop doing minor things to pass the time like order pizza and play pool. It had been dark out for about an hour when the phone finally rang.

"Devil may cry." Dante answered. He nodded slightly as he listened intently to the person on the other end. They'd known the password to make sure he didn't hang up and the job sounded interesting. A pack of demons had been attacking people in the forest outside town. It paid fairly well and the only stipulation was to eliminate the demons. Throwing on his trademark red leather jacket before he made sure ebony and ivory were secure and grabbing rebellion from it's resting place he then strode out the door with a wild grin. The motorocycle he'd began using to get to some of the farther away missions revved noisily and he was off. It didn't take long to reach the forest mentioned a few miles outside of town as he easily went double the speed limit. He turned the bike off and set the kickstand as he drew rebellion lazily then wandered into the forest. It didn't take long for the voices to begin whispering.

"Son of Sparda." "Traitor." "Half breed." Common insults that were always thrown his way by the various low class demons he hunted down and destroyed.

"Come on guys, let's get this party started!" He called excitedly as he spun slicing a demon in half and watching it crumble to dust as it tried to sneak up on him. The trees rustled and a dozen demons hit the forest floor with what appeared to be glittering shards of something littering their bodies. As he stepped closer the shards looked like glass but when he reached down and pulled one from a pile of sand that had once been a demon it felt cold and wet. 'Ice?' He thought curiously. Several more demons attacked then and he dealt with them easily avoiding injury as uncommon as that was for him. Several more demons were also killed by the mysterious shards. As the last of the demons fell Dante glanced around wondering if he'd catch a sign of his helper. He was about to give up when he caught sight of something moving. A black canine shape that he barely got a glimpse off as it fled the scene. The speed at which it fled and the way it was moving he knew he didn't stand a chance catching whatever it was. So saying a quick thanks he went back to Devil May Cry to wait and see if he got any more calls. He'd no sooner gone back to relaxing when the phone rang. A familiar voice came through much clearer then his last caller.

"Hey Dante! What's up?" Lady asked curiously.

"Oh, it's you." He replied lazily. "What do you want?" He knew it was trouble. With her it was always trouble.

"Well for once I caught a demon instead of killing it. Damn things kinda big though and I need a bit of a hand." She answered. He knew she was grinning as she said this. There was a reason she hadn't killed it and he was curious why.

"That it? You want me to help you with some demon you decided to not kill for once?" He asked making sure he'd heard her correctly.

"Actually she asked that I call you." Lady replied cryptically. Dante frowned at this and stared at the phone for a second. "Well actually she asked me to call D, and since your the only person I know that would be called something that ridiculous I figured she meant you." Now things had just gotten even more interesting.

"Where are you at?" He asked.

"The forest just outside the west side of town." Lady replied.

"Alright be there in about ten." Dante said before hanging up. Gathering his things and starting up his bike for the second time that night the silver haird devil hunter was off. He hadn't been called by that name in many years. There was also only ever one person who had called him that and gotten away with it. At the time he'd thought said person could beat him into the dirt but now he didn't care. When he arrived he found Lady sitting on her bike watching a rather large black wolf looking thing. The hightlights in its fur of red and blue looked darker then he remembered and violet eyes once full of spark looked duller now.

"Hey, your late. You said ten and it's been eleven." Lady said with a slight grin.

"Yeah whatever. This the one you were talking about?" He asked walking closer to the demon. It's midsection was bandaged a bit as well as one leg and near one shoulder. "You manage to do all this?" Lady shook her head at this question.

"Nope, some other demons did. I bandaged it figuring it'd help it heal." She said. Dante nodded slightly in thanks.

"Okay cool. Thanks." He said as he crouched down next to the demon and scratched behind her ears earning an affectionate rumble he often called a purr. If this was her the minute he said it he knew the reaction he'd get. "Look she purrs, how cute." He said teasingly. The demon let out a few grumbles of protest and swatted at his hand with her paw glaring at him slightly.

"Oh, she didn't like that at all." Lady said chuckling a bit.

"No she never did. Been too long Max." Dante said with a slight grin. The demon nudged his hand and let out a small whine. He chuckled and nodded.

"So you know her?" Lady asked.

"Yeah, i've known this one since I was a kid. She's an old friend." He replied.

"Alright well then i'll leave her to you since my jobs done." Lady called as she waved and started up her bike before leaving.

"So can you take your other form at least for one trip?" He asked. Max nodded and he slipped off his coat as she did. His guess was right when she was finally finished changing to the half human form. She was wearing clothes similar to the last time he'd seen her but they were in a very bad state. Now however he had to chuckle. Back when he'd first met her she looked like a fifteen or sixteen year old girl and was a couple feet taller then him. Now she looked barely any older and he was at least a half foot taller he'd guess as she stood up. He wrapped her up in the red leather jacket as he picked her up carefully and got himself situated on the bike. The engine roared noisily as he took of and she clung to him trying to block the sound from her sensetive hearing. Once back at the shop he layed her down on one of the couches and went off to get some medical supplies. Just because he didn't really care about his own injuries too much didn't mean he wasn't careful. A spare vital star was all it took to heal the gashes in her shoulder and back.

"It has been a very long time." She finally said as he hung up his jacket and put away his weapons after getting her a blanket.

"So what've you been up to?" He asked. She chuckled a bit and he smiled. She still had the same accent even that he remembered.

"Not much, a lot of running. I'm still not exactly well liked it seems." She replied with a sarcastic smile.

"Nonsense. Your plenty liked when your here." He said with a grin as he sat at his desk.

"I thought you were dead to be honest. There was so much blood and no sign of either of you. I thought i'd failed." She said somberly as she stared at the floor. Dante was too his feet in an instant and kneeling infront of her making violet eyes settle on ice blue.

"Never, don't ever think what happened was your fault Max." He said softly as he scratched her behind the ears soothingly. She closed her eyes and leaned back slightly.

"He asked me to watch the three of you. He knew someone would come for you just not when." She seemed almost totally content but so very sad.

"There was nothing you could do. I thought i'd lost all of you guys too." He said with a sigh. "I found out Verg made it out but he sure wasn't okay. We spent a few years working together but he'd changed." She nodded slightly.

"It's almost to be expected. Everyone deals with trauma differently." She told him quietly as she swatted at him to get him to quit and stretched with a yawn several joints cracking loudly in protest.

"There's a new kid too. His name's Nero." Dante said. This earned her attention. He knew this because she was sitting straight up with hands in her lap, eyes locked on him, and both ears still so she was listening intently. "Yeah he's my half brother somehow. Not totally sure what happened. He's younger and he's got this wicked arm. Gave him Verg's sword since it seems to react to him." She nodded and gave a slightly curious grin.

"So you've made many new friends while i've been away. That's good. You two never seemed to make friends back then." She said with a nod. He chuckled.

"We didn't need friends. We had eachother, mom, dad, and you." He knew she wanted to argue that point but wouldn't. She'd given up arguing with him years ago when all it did was lead nowhere very quickly. As he glanced at the clock he was almost suprised at what time it was. It was nearing three in the morning and sleep sounded like a good way to pass the time. Max more then likely wouldn't say much for the rest of the night anyway. She'd never talked much he remembered mostly because she could always convey what she meant through other ways.

"Leaving?" She asked as he started for the stairs. He nodded and she smiled a bit. He did look a bit tired.

"Yeah figure there's nothing else that's gonna happen tonight so i'm gonna get some sleep and we can spend tomorrow catching up. Besides you got beat up so you could probably use some rest yourself." He said teasingly. She waved goodnight and lay down on the couch with a sigh. He shook his head and disappeared out of sight upstairs and into his room. Maybe he could catch up on the sleep he'd missed because of that dream. Max smiled almostly sadly as she waited. Once three hours had passed she rose from the couch and neatly set the blanket down and crept over to his desk. Finding paper and a pen she quickly scrawled down a note then made sure she had her things and made her way to the door.

"Sorry." She muttered softly as she slipped out the door of Devil May Cry and into the early morning. Dante sighed and sat up running his hands through silvery hair with a frown. Another memory, only tonights was much more violent and much easier to remember. It was of the day when he thought he'd lost everything. He remembered distinctly what had happened to Max now. She had said she was going away for a time to do some things of her own but that she would be watching them. She had infact bought them some time showing up just as the demons arrived. The wolf had seemed so dangerous in that moment until one of the stronger and faster demons of those there had caught her off guard and held her hands behind her back while on of his companions took a wicked looking long sword and sliced through her body aiming to cut the canine into peices. There was a howl or scream of agony, he was never sure which but it was heart breaking and terrifying all the same. When it was all over he'd wandered from his hiding place and found her rather quickly. She was where they had been forced to leave her and there were three large gashes across her body as well as a quickly growing pool of blood. It was after that he had woken up.

"Oh man, now that I think about it." He mused as he wondered how she had survived that and managed until now. Unable to sleep any longer he freed himself from the tangle once again and yawned slightly padding downstairs in just a pair of black pants. It was eriely quiet he decided for noon. The wolf demon had always been more of the daytime sort so he expected to see her when he reached the bottom of the stairs. Instead he found the blanket on the souch unoccupied and a note on his desk with the pen used to write it still laying on top. Walking over he picked it up and glanced over it. Unable to believe what it said he read it a second time more slowly.

"Dante, my dear little D. I am very sorry, I will say this now. I have missed you all these years since that tragedy. However I cannot linger in this place. I failed when I was relied on for the one time in my miserable life. I could not protect any of you and now your the only one left. I am sorry but this place brings me too much heartache. I wish I could remain here with you and reminisce but alas it is not to be. So now I bid you farewell and ask that you forget about me. It is for the best. With love and sorrow in mind I wish you the best, Mackenzie."

"Damnit!" He cried angrily as he crumpled the note into a ball and stared at the door to the shop. She'd left. He had just found her again and she had left.

"Aganau koto sae dekizu ni boku o tojikomeru..."

"I lock myself up unable to atone..."

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Anyway so there ya go. Hope ya enjoyed the first chaper.