Disclaimer: I neither own Devil May Cry, nor do I make profit from my fanfiction of it. If I did, I would be rich. Or, at least slightly less poor. The original characters that appear in this story are mine, however, and I would appreciate them not being reused by anyone. (I say as though anyone gives a shit about my OCs XD)

Ok sooo I lied about being on regular schedule. SORRY. I'm sorry. I legitimately had a writer's block that I could only break by going back and playing some DMC. I know this chapter is sort of short too, I'm sorryyyy. I'll try to do better...


Mission 07: Tear


"So what's the plan here?" Nero shouted into Dante's ear as they sped down the street once more on his motorcycle.

Oh, how Nero was growing to hate this vehicle.

"Find them. Kick ass," Dante answered, succinct for once.

He hadn't called Lady back. Nero assumed this was because Dante felt one hundred percent. He couldn't help but be a little underwhelmed by this plan of attack, though. Just because Dante was back in top form did not mean they would be able to conclude this whole thing right here and now.

Nero turned his attention to the feather clutched in his fist. His grip on it was tight enough to keep it from blowing away, but they were forced to stop every few minutes to make sure they were heading in the right direction. It was something Dante's patience could barely handle, but there was no other alternative. They couldn't risk losing their only compass.

As they pulled over a fourth time, the feather pointed them in a new direction, and Nero groaned, "Dante this is impossible. The stupid thing is moving. There's no way we're catching up to it this way. We need a better tracking method."

Even putting the feather in some kind of clear box would be better than nothing, Nero thought, but he didn't voice the idea. Dante's attention wasn't on him, but he was looking…?

"Why are you staring at my crotch?" Nero demanded.

Dante looked up and grinned, "I wasn't, but don't let that kill your self-esteem. I'm sure whatever you're packin' under is the hood plenty stare-worthy."

The young Knight did his best to ignore the flush that crept up his neck at that.

"Your pocket's glowing," Dante finally explained.

Surprised, Nero looked down and saw that the other man wasn't lying. His pocket was emitting a faint bluish light, visible through the fabric. Cautiously, he transferred the feather to his human hand, and reached into his pocket with the Devil Bringer, drawing forth a fist-sized orb that pulsated with light.

It was the power source he had pulled out of the angel's cell. He had forgotten about it until now. Had it only just reactivated? He explained to Dante what it was, and both men frowned over the object for a moment.

Finally, Dante said, "It must be a demonic power source. It's the only good explanation."

Nero nodded, and questioned, "But, what is it reacting to? It didn't glow nearly this brightly when I pulled it out of the cell."

"Well you're in a different time and place," Dante observed, "It also might be reacting to that feather. That'd be my guess, anyway."

"You think?" Nero held up the angel's feather between two fingers and lifted the orb up in the other hand, holding both objects at eye level.

Without warning the orb let out a violent flash of light that sent Nero's head snapping back, optical nerves screaming, and the feather flew out of his grasp. He saw nothing of what followed through the heavy black and white spots obscuring his vision, but he could feel the energy in the objects changing. When he could finally focus on them again through blurry eyes, they had transmuted into a single object.

"The hell…?" he heard Dante mutter.

Cautiously, Nero examined the object. It looked something like a piece of amber with an insect frozen inside, if amber had been blue. The feather was contained within the orb, which had changed shape so that it curled upward from the spherical part in Nero's fist like the tail of a comet. The way the feather was encased in the crystalline object was reminiscent of the Wing Talisman he had found in the well…it seemed like forever ago now.

"Shit…I know what that is," Dante said so sharply that Nero nearly dropped the object. "You said it was being used as a power source? It all makes sense now…"

"Care to enlighten me?" Nero asked flatly.

"It's a Tear of the Fallen," the man in red elaborated, "You find them here and there sometimes, but they're pretty rare. Angels shed them when they Fall. The one we're going after isn't Fallen so it makes me wonder how your mad scientist guy found it."

"I try not to think about Agnus," Nero replied, returning his attention to the Tear, "Why did it absorb the feather? That sort of defeats the purpose of us using it to find the angel…"

"My guess? 'Cause they're both originally angelic," Dante mused, taking the object from Nero and examining it himself. Once it touched his hand the glow dimmed and the object went dark. "Well, that's new," he observed and handed it back to Nero.

As soon as Nero's fingers made contact it shimmered to life again.

"I think it likes you," Dante grinned at him.

Nero wondered suddenly if he could absorb it into his arm. It wasn't dissimilar in size to the past things he had used to get more powerful, it was worth a try…

There was a bright flash of light and the familiar sensation of new energy seeping into his Devil Bringer.

Nero grinned at Dante, feeling some self-satisfaction at the look of surprise on the other demon hunter's face. He flexed the talons of his right hand experimentally, and it wasn't long before the demonic arm had told him how to use this new upgrade. It always told him what to do with them, in its own little way, ever since he'd learned to Snatch.

"Let's find that angel," Nero smirked, holding up his Devil Bringer as it began to glow more brightly, and then it shot a beacon of light east. "Just follow the yellow brick road," he added.

Dante grinned, and turned to face front, gunning the bike's engine and then slamming forward the throttle. They rocketed off, skidding around a turn and then flying toward whatever waited for them at the end of the Devil Bringer's jet of light.


They were interrupted before they could reach their quarry. Nero thought it was unsurprising; things had seemed fairly quiet despite Dante's delay on the way to the cathedral earlier. The sun was beginning to set, its dying rays bleeding red across the sky, when the demon came out of nowhere, and slammed into the side of the motorcycle, sending both men flying.

Dante, being Dante, shot the demon in mid-air.

Nero's back slammed into the asphalt and an instant later Dante collided with him, landing sprawled on top of the Knight. For a second they grappled with each other, each trying to get to their feet and impeding the other at the same time before Dante managed to pin Nero's human arm between them.

"Why are we fighting?" Dante half-laughed, panting from the effort.

"We're not fighting you idiot," Nero snapped, and took the opportunity of stillness to pluck the other man off by the back of his coat with his Devil Bringer, and toss him to the side, "You almost crushed me."

"I'd bet you're tougher than you look," Dante replied cheekily, brushing some of his white hair aside and readjusting his askew jacket.

In front of them, the demon that had attacked them lay dying on the road, and let out a feeble whimper. They both shot it at the same time.

"Stop copying me," Nero said flatly to Dante, but after a second he broke into a grin.

"I think you're the one copying me, man," Sparda's son countered, blowing smoke from the barrel of Ivory before returning the gun to its holster with a flourish.

"Bullshit."

"No, I really do," Dante continued, "I mean I can't blame you. I am pretty badass. And you could wash laundry on my abs. As I'm sure you've noticed."

Nero had noticed, many times. It was sort of difficult not to notice, what with Dante's penchant for not wearing an actual shirt. But, Nero had kept that to himself.

"I've seen better," Nero lied.

"Oh I don't believe that," Dante laughed.

Rolling his eyes, Nero got to his feet with a grunt and dusted himself off. He didn't doubt Dante was flirting with him, but Dante was the type of guy who flirted with everyone. Nero had seen it first hand with older Dante during the man's brief invasion into Fortuna. This younger Dante was so much more over the top than the Dante Nero had known…he wasn't really surprised.

"We've got an angel to deal with, don't we?" he demanded.

"Oh come on," Dante sighed, also standing up, "Have a little fun, Nero. What, did I hurt your feelings?"

Nero frowned at him, "No. How would you have hurt my feelings?"

"So you don't like guys flirting with you," Dante concluded, "Is that it? Sorry, I assumed…"

Nero felt his face start to get warm, and he deepened his scowl in an attempt to distract from it. He really didn't want to continue the awkward train this conversation was about to crash into, but some morbid self-loathing part of him overpowered his good sense long enough to demand, "Assumed what?"

"Well…" Dante scratched the back of his head, suddenly uncharacteristically sheepish, "Well, I mean, no straight man wears jeans that tight."

Nero unconsciously looked down at his pants for a brief second before looking back up at Dante, "I'm not g—"

But he stopped before the word had completely escaped, and rethought it. It wasn't something Nero had ever really considered, being gay or being straight. He just did what he wanted. He'd lost interest in Kyrie when she had ceased to be interesting…right? Some part of himself mocked the fact that he and Dante were having this discussion on the side of the road after crashing a motorcycle. Automobile accidents weren't something commonly associated with sudden sexual awareness, at least as far as Nero knew.

"Hey it's ok if you are," Dante cut in.

"Why are we talking about this?" Nero groaned, covering his eyes with one hand in embarrassment.

"Sorry, sorry," Dante held up his hands in surrender, "I'll drop it. Jeez. Didn't realize it was such a testy subject. What were you raised to hate gays or something?"

"The Order frowned on it," was the grumbled reply, "It never really came up, though. I never really…"

He trailed off, horrified at what he had just nearly admitted. Nero would be damned and damned again if he was going to stand on the side of the road and confess to Dante of all people that he was a virgin. Nope. No way.

Quickly, he turned his back on the other man and righted the motorcycle, "Let's just go and find this angel."

But Dante had Ivory out, pointed at Nero. Before the Knight could even question Dante's intentions, the man in red fired off several shots which blasted past Nero's head. Red Queen was in his hand before he had fully registered the demons behind him. He spun on his toe and grinned, charging forward and cutting down the nearest demon, hardly pausing as he Snatched another and pounded it into the ground until there was nothing left of it but blood and crushed limbs.

When all the demons were dead, Nero turned back toward Dante and observed, "These are different from those…what did you call them? Hell Prides?"

The other devil hunter sauntered up beside him and looked down at their handiwork, "Well, kinda hard to tell with the one you got your hands on, but yeah I'd say they're definitely different. For one thing Hells Prides don't bleed. These things are different…"

He nudged the body of one with the toe of his boot, and it dissolved into a foul-smelling pile of bloody sludge. The one dead demon that hadn't fully dissolved yet lay on the sidewalk, blood staining the concrete. It was almost bat-like, but its head was more similar to a wolf's. Curved blades were attached to its wingtips like macabre scythes. As they watched it, the last demon also melted into the pavement.

"Disgusting," Nero growled, covering his nose with one hand and stepping back as the smell washed over them—sulfur and blood and entrails.

"They're demons, what do you expect?" Dante snorted, "Pretty bold of them to attack us like that, though. I haven't had something like that happen for a while…especially since they were such wimps."

"Well…" Nero said, flexing his demonic hand and then holding it up, "Should we get back on task?"

He focused his energy in the Devil Bringer and reached out for the power the Tear had granted…and it slipped away. He tried again, only to have the same thing happen. Frowning, he looked down at his glowing palm as though it might have an explanation for this sudden setback.

"Performance issues?" Dante questioned, and Nero wanted to punch him.

"I don't know. This has never happened before."

"Don't worry about it. It happens to the best of us," Dante quipped, patting Nero on the shoulder and walking back to the motorcycle.

Nero had the vague feeling that there had been a double entendre somewhere in Dante's words, but he didn't say anything. He was too concerned with why suddenly the ability he had just gained wouldn't work. As he climbed on the motorcycle behind Dante, he found himself wishing the thing had come with an instruction manual.

"What now?" he asked, gripping the sides of the seat this time; the awkwardness of their conversation too recent for him to want to wrap his arms around Dante's waist again.

"Well, now I guess we head back to the shop. Wash off the blood. Wait for your arm to get over its stage fright," was the reply as the engine roared to life.

"You make it sound so simple…" Nero muttered as they sped off.


To Be Continued


I feel as if I should clarify something from a previous chapter. No one's complained about it but in hindsight it seemed a little coarse. The quip about Lady from the anime was me voicing my rage about said anime. I just wanted to say that this story isn't counting the DMC anime as canon, but if you see anything mentioned from it, it's probably me making jabs about it. XD I'm sorry if this bothers anyone I just can't help it.

ALSO, new illustration. This one's of the Tear of the Fallen.

Unfortunately with FFnet's lame new update I can no longer even link with spaces. Sooo you'll have to find it through my deviantart, which I also cannot link to apparently, but the name of which is SchmutzigeBanane. This really sucks and I'm sorry but I do plan on continuing with illustrations for the story so if you want to see them that's the way it has to be. I made a DMC folder in my gallery so they'll be easier to find.