Okay guys, since I'm in one spot for now, I'm going to be uploading on Saturdays now.

He was sleeping, curled up in a tiny ball as he whimpered strange things. He mumbled "Kyrie" a few times, Alastor and Ifrit watched as this boy tossed and turned in his sleep. They looked at each other, then back to him.

"This kid's not dangerous." Alastor said firmly, "But he's been through a lot, from what I can tell. That castle out there…what the hell do you think goes on in there?"

"Nothing pleasant, I can tell you that," Ifrit replied, "Look at how Choirgirl came out. So much blood, no voice…"

"…Do you think Kyrie…is Choirgirl?"

"She could be. But the thing is this: Do you remember the ghost? You know, the spirit pressing against Purgatory? The revolver…she said it was his…and now, these cries from the Underworld…then suddenly this kid shows up. Do you think there's any connection?"

"You know what else? Where the hell is Dante if he was in there, too? And this kid…he looks just like Dante! Well, not exactly like him…"

Ifrit nodded, "I can smell Sparda's blood in his veins…and…his." he stood and looked at the boy, he examined his red and blue claw, "And this arm…"

"Well, maybe he'll tell us exactly what happened when he wakes up. You stop being so hostile to him, and maybe we might be able to sit him down and have a civilized talk with him. So when he wakes up, that means you don't attack him, ok?"

"Oh, shut up." Ifrit growled.

"Hey, I'm just saying, that's what made him…you know…jumpy."

It didn't matter that the two of them tried to not be hostile, Nero was still skeptical to see the two of them there, looking at him. He stood up, Alastor stood with him, Ifrit stayed sitting, as he would make the situation worse.

"Don't." Alastor said, "We've been hitting it off all wrong, we're not your enemies. We're here to help you, I'm Alastor, that's Ifrit…and…you're Nero, right?"

"What do you want with me?" Nero demanded, "Leave me alone! I have to get to Headquarters! I told you!"

"We know, but we just want to…"

"Want to what? Leave me alone!"

Nero turned to leave, he brushed past a bush, and saw the small leaf demon, prepared to pounce. As it leapt, Nero caught it, and without even a second thought, he tore it in half.

Ifrit and Alastor looked in amazement, they looked at each other; Ifrit smiled.

"This kid could be useful…"

Nero turned to face the two of them, Ifrit was smiling in a way that made Nero uncomfortable. He looked at the wilting plant, then back at them. "It was trying to bite my god damn face off! What was I supposed to do?"

Alastor laughed, "That was…pretty cool."

Nero scoffed, "Not that impressive."

Ifrit walked up to Nero, who backed away, the demon placed a hand on the boy's shoulder, it burned a little bit, as though this demon was suffering from some terrible fever. "We'll get you to Headquarters, but first, you should help us with something."

Nero yanked Ifrit's hand away, "And just why should I do that?" He snapped, "I don't see any reason to stick around with you two."

"Really? Because I see a few. We saved you from that tangled vine, which, for your information, was actually a carnivorous plant that was going to eat you. That, and, if you go straight for Headquarters, you just might get ambushed."

"By what, dare I ask?"

"In these conditions I don't think you'd want to know." He sighed, "But, alright, you can go on and head home…unaware…confused, lost. You know. But if you hear anything about children, you might want to run." Ifrit sighed and turned to Alastor. "Come on, Al, we'd better leave him alone, he doesn't want any company…you know…to watch his back."

Alastor nodded and left with Ifrit. None of them looked back at the seventeen year old boy, and it may have been a good thing, as they would have seen the suddenly terrified look on the poor boy's face. He watched in awe as they left. He couldn't believe that after all they had done to keep him still, that they left him, just like that.

There was a rustle in the bushes and vines next to him, he took in a deep breath, he looked around. There was another rustle, causing his heart to skip. He took in a deep breath. After all, the forest had certainly changed since the last time he was here, it was a lot more vegetated and dangerous than it used to be.

He felt something beneath his feet, a large, blue light blinded him, he saw tentacles surrounding him, he gasped, and before they could close on him, he jumped out of the way, rolling on the dirt, he picked himself up quickly and ran after the two devils.

He had fallen for their trap. They smirked at each other as Nero staggered and tried to keep up with them, he called them out, asking them to stop. They paused and turned to him as he fell to his knees and gasped for breath.

"What's the matter?" Ifrit said, "Can't brave the forest, Mr. Devil-Knight?"

"I thought you wanted us to leave you alone?" Alastor followed, shrugging.

Nero looked at the two of them in disbelief, "You have to be kidding me!" He gasped, "You two…were just playing me! I should have known with the way you left without a second thought…you two...are worse than my boss…"

"Your boss?" Ifrit questioned, "You mean your commanding officer?" He shrugged, "He might not even be alive."

Nero stood up, "Bullshit, Credo's too damn stubborn to up and die."

"Are you sure?"

"You have no idea." Nero growled. He paused and sighed, reminiscing about his superior. He wondered just how Credo would react to Nero's return, he wondered how Credo must have reacted when he found out that His Holiness was dead. He was glad that he wasn't around, Credo must've been in a terrifying rage. "I have to get to Headquarters as soon as possible, so you two had better tell me exactly what you want so that I can get this damn thing over with."

"You're a mouthy one." Ifrit snapped, "Maybe we should keep an extra close eye on you."

Nero smirked at Ifrit, "Fine by me." and there was a swift movement, Ifrit could feel the boy's hard scales smash against his eye socket. He stumbled to the ground, clutching his face, "Is that too close? Sorry…"

Ifrit scrambled up and lunged for Nero, but Alastor positioned himself between the two of them, his fingers lit with sparks of electricity. He glared at the two of them, "I am not going to play referee for you two anymore!" He snapped, "That was uncalled for! Both of you! Why don't you guys loosen up and shake hands and…make up?"

"You've got to be kidding, Al." Ifrit snarled, rubbing his eye, now swollen and bruised. "You expect me to make up to this brat?"

"You expect me to make up to this guy?"

"Nice comeback."

"Shut up."

"Oh, come on, If. Can't you be nice to anyone? You're really starting to bum me out with your 'we can't trust anyone' attitude!"

"He punched me!"

"You started it! It was your own fault! I would have punched you too!"

"Thank you!" Nero called.

"Hey." Alastor snapped, "You keep your mouth shut until I say it's safe for you to talk."

Nero took a step back abashedly, Ifrit snickered, Alastor immediately smacked him on the top of the head. Nero rolled his eyes and turned the other way, he looked up, and he could see in the distance, Headquarters, towering just barely over the trees and hills. Alastor and Ifrit were bickering, he wondered if he should just run out and see how far he could get before the two of them attacked him and held him back.

Fortunately, Nero was smart enough to decide that this may not have been the smartest idea and decided to stand still. As he very soon learned, this was, indeed, a rather smart idea. He was looking at the building and the forest when he saw something rushing around the sky. Some kind of snake, a kind of dragon, maybe.

He took a step back towards the devils, he nudged Alastor in the ribs, "What is that thing?" He asked, casually, as though it wasn't any kind of threat.

Alastor would have turned white, if his complexion wasn't already that color naturally.

THE ALMOST SQUEAK OF AN ANSWER

"My ex-girlfriend…"

With a shriek, the dragon dove right for them at almost blinding speed, Alastor and Ifrit immediately turned their heels and ran, Nero slipped and fell back, he felt a sudden rush of air as he watched the scales flew above his head, if he moved even an inch, he'd be quite injured.

He waited until the dragon was gone before sitting back up, he watched as it rushed after Alastor and Ifrit, for a second he wondered if now would be a good time to try to make a run for Headquarters. He really wanted to, you could tell just by looking at his face that he was very, very, very tempted to.

Oh, how Nero was conflicted. He could feel the guilt before he even took his first step. Groaning, he turned and followed after the dragon. He quickly bounded over rocks and fallen logs and moss covered old structures that had been long abandoned.

Quickly climbing up a tree, he could see it, it was chasing after Alastor, he had no clue where Ifrit was, but it didn't matter, the dragon's mouth was open, and Alastor had regrettably tripped over one of the leaf demons. Nero jumped from his perch, his right arm cocked back, and as he closed in, he punched the dragon in the mouth, altering its course; it stumbled mid-air and fell to the ground.

Alastor was tangled in a few vines as he struggled, Nero held out his arms and helped him to his feet. He was gasping for air, "Thanks…" He said, "That…that was pretty close, eh?"

"Where's the other guy?" Nero asked, Alastor shook his head; he was looking at the dragon, squirming on the ground. Its head lifted up, and split apart, and to Nero's shock, revealed a woman as part of the tongue.

"ALASTOR!" She screamed, Nero covered his ears and took a step back. "You bastard!"

"Echidna!" Alastor called, "I told you, it wasn't working out! I didn't want kids!"

"That is not how it went! You ran off with that succubus whore!"

Alastor glared. "She came on to me, I couldn't stop her! I tried to tell you before even then that it wasn't working out!"

"How could you have done this to me! You ran off and you fathered her children!"

"Well that's because they weren't required to burst out of my stomach! If it makes you feel any better, things didn't work out between the two of us, either!"

At this, the woman only shrieked, Nero continued to cover his ears, he pressed his hands close to his head. "God! Just kill that woman already!"

The dragon's tail flicked and smacked Nero and Alastor, they soared and smacked against a fallen building. "YOU!" she screamed, "You got in my way, you little brat!"

"Echidna!" Alastor yelled, getting up and waving his arms, "Leave the kid alone! It's me you're after, isn't it? Well, here: I'm sorry. Are you happy now? I apologized."

"Your words of apology are worthless! I will not be satisfied until I can feel you inside me! Wiggling around in my stomach!"

"…Oh, I get it now…" Alastor mused quietly. Nero grabbed him from behind and tackled him to the ground as Echidna flew out to attack him, they hit the ground hard, but it saved both their lives as she screamed at the two of them. As they tried to stand up, she turned and was ready to attack again. Nero shoved Alastor back down, and as their heads collided with dirt, they could feel a warm blaze right over them and hear an even more deafening scream.

The scream grew farther and farther away as the area cooled down. Nero and Alastor stood up and looked around, and saw Ifrit approaching, dusting his hands off. "Sorry for being so late." He shrugged, "She sent me pretty far away."

"You speak as though you're so great." Nero snapped, "It's not a very good way to keep friends."

"Oh, I'm sorry, did you do anything? Other than running around and crawling like a little girl?"

"Ifrit, please." Alastor said, "He did more than what you'd think."

"Oh really, and what was that?" Ifrit said smugly, looking at Nero, who bared his arm.

"Care for a demonstration?" He replied.

"What he did doesn't matter, what you did doesn't matter, either."

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

"Apparently it means that you're not as impressive as you think." Nero said with a smirk.

"Well then same goes for you, kid."

"…Oh there is no pleasing you two. Look, she's been after me this whole time."

"Well yeah, you're the idiot who dated her."

Nero shook his head in disbelief, "Why would you date something as psychotic as that?"

"If you were as drunk as I was on that night, you'd see why I did it." Alastor mumbled, staring at the ground, "Regardless. She's been spreading her children across this forest, making it a natural habitat for those leafy little predators."

"And let me guess…" Nero sighed, "That's exactly why you guys want me to stick around?"

"I don't usually give these out," Ifrit said, "especially not to kids, half-breeds who I've only known for so long. But what you did was impressive, and impressive in this state can be useful."

"Ok, fine. I'll stick with you guys and do what I can to get rid of this disaster, but we're still going for Headquarters."

"What?" Ifrit snapped.

"I don't have time, and the walk looks like it'll take a few days or so. If you come with me, we can work together to get anything in the path. The demons, the dragon-bitch, whatever, we can get them on the way."

"Now, hold on."

"Done." Alastor agreed, "We help you, you help us, it's only fair, and its better if we do both simultaneously."

"Excuse me." Ifrit said, dragging Alastor away, "Are you crazy?" he whispered, "If we go towards Headquarters, we might get caught! And that's the last thing we'll need, especially since we were involved in the incident with the old man. How do we know he's not going to point us out the second we get there?"

"That's why we'll bail the second we see the first step towards the building. And in case a situation does arise, well, the two of us should be able to take that little twerp on."

"But…"

"I see that your eye isn't black anymore. Trust me, Ifrit. I'm not going to get us killed or anything."

"You'd better be right, damn it, Al."

"Trust me, how many times do I have to say it? I know what I'm doing."

The two of them turned back to Nero, who was eyeing them, his arms crossed, "So, what's the plan, are you going to kill me the second we get there?"

"What? No!" Alastor said quickly, "I was just assuring Iffy here that no situation's going to happen and that everything's gonna be alright."

"Ok…then let me ask you guys this: where exactly did you two come from? I mean, no offense, but you guys look like you just flew out of a bad action flick."

"And you look any better?" Ifrit snapped. "You look like you popped out of a foreign cartoon!"

"Okay, if you two don't stop right now, I'm going to be the one throwing the punches!"

"I was just asking exactly what you two were doing here. And exactly why you're doing this. If that thing is your ex-girlfriend, then wouldn't it be better if you left this forest or something?"

"Trust me, we'd like to leave this place as much as you, but we've got a job."

"What kind of job?"

"You probably wouldn't believe us," Ifrit sighed, "But we're trying to make sure that Echidna doesn't hurt anyone from Fortuna. Or attack the entirety of Fortuna, for that matter."

"So…you two demons are trying to help the city that worships a demon."

"You know, in the face of us, 'demons' is a demeaning term. We're devils. Sparda was a devil. Not demons."

Nero scoffed, "Same difference."

"Not really." Alastor said, fidgeting with his fingers, "I mean, demons, they're like grunts, they always attack in big numbers, but separated, they're pretty weak and just about useless. A devil is more unique."

"Look, I didn't come all this way just for a lecture."

"Then learn the difference between us and them, quick." Ifrit snarled, "Because believe it or not, it's offensive."

"Come on, you two, deep breaths, deep breaths, let's try not to fight each other." Alastor begged, holding his hands towards the two. "We're friends, remember?"

"Right." Nero snapped, turning around abruptly. He looked up to the sky, he could see Headquarters poking barely out of a few trees. "I'm coming, Kyrie…" He mumbled. Looking around, Nero walked up to an old, abandoned church and forced the doors open.

As he walked in, he saw that there were two scarecrows looking at him, they began to laugh that awkward laugh at him as they twirled for him. Nero was about to grab his sword, when something knocked him over. From the black clothing, Nero could tell that it was Alastor.

"What are you doing?" Nero snapped, pushing the devil off of him, Alastor pointed to the scarecrow, which was now on the ground, writhing as vines wrapped around it and crushed it's body. A flower blossomed and the vines began to swing dangerously as the plant's host lifted itself back up and continued for Alastor and Nero.

"What in the hell…?" Nero gasped.

"The plant takes host of any living thing it comes by, and if it wasn't for me, you would have been next. You should thank me."

Nero was about to grab his sword again, when the creature was engulfed in flames. In mere seconds, it was no more than dust. Nero looked around, and saw Ifrit, looking at him smugly. Nero glared at him.

"What's the matter, Devil-Knight? The big bad plant scare you?"

Nero stood, brushing himself off, "You're really the type who likes to piss people off. Ironic, as you seem to have a shorter temper than me." He pulled his sword out, Ifrit pounded his fists together, "Let it go, I'm not after you." He ran the other way and swung quickly, dispatching a scarecrow that had been on the other end of the church.

"Damn kid thinks he's king of the world." Ifrit whispered to Alastor, who frowned.

"There's a lot of green here, and I don't think it's just the plants." He sighed.