Devil's Playground CHAPTER 12

XXC-loudxS-trifeXx: About damn time you caught up! XD I'm just kidding. Glad you're reading and like the story though! Thanks for reviewing! *gives cookies*

SirenaLoreley: Yeah, Nero's doppelganger is pretty awesome XD I would love to see Dante riding a dragon too…that'd be pretty epic XD Thanks for reviewing! *gives cookies*

-Kor-chan-: Nero's doppelganger looks pretty cool in my mind *hands tissue for nosebleed* Yeah, I love Spirited Away, it's one of my favorite movies! :3 Thanks for reviewing! *gives cookies*

Pushka: Yeah, Dante wiped out those birds like it was nobody's business! They would have been harder for a human, or Nero since I doubt a human would make it that far to begin with! XD Nero does get to fight his own doppelganger, so it's pretty sweet. Nero also spends a lot of time pinned to walls and licked…hmm…I didn't notice until you said something XD I just must find it creepy having someone lick your sweat or blood. Thanks for reviewing! *gives cookies*

CommanderRatchet57: You want some of Dante's fresh meat? I don't think Nero would like that very much XD Thanks for reviewing! *gives cookies*

TheRealAkuRoku: The two are getting closer together, I'm glad you like my work. The bears were really fun to write, Dante spent a lot of time in that frozen room! XD Thanks for reviewing chaps 10 and 11! *gives cookies*

Okay, I don't own Dante or Nero, but all the other stuff in here I made up is mine! XD Enjoy!


Nero struggled to breathe his mind panicking, all he could think about was getting some air into his lungs. He started kicking and scratching, his claws slid between the armor plates of his doppelganger's bringer, slicing into the soft skin.

The demon screamed and yanked his arm away, letting Nero fall to the ground, as glowing red blood dripped from the wound. The devil hunter gulped in oxygen and started to roll out of the way when his dark double kicked him in the stomach, once again making him lose his breath. The doppelganger placed his foot on Nero's chest, pulling out Red Rose and cocking it.

The real hunter glared. He was tired of being in distress. He grabbed the barrel of the ebony colored gun, twisting it away from his counterpart and lifted his legs to kick the demon in the chest off and away from him.

"Tables are turning." he breathed, standing up, wiping the blood and saliva off his cheek. "I think I've had enough shit kicked out of me for one day."


Dante was tiring of the 'find the weak point' game. 'I think I like it better when it's a big glowing dot somewhere.' he thought blandly as he counteracted one of the dragon's jets of fire with his frozen breath from Frostbite. Then he lunged, feeling the flames ghosting over his legs and boots. He dragged the freezing claws all the way down the green dragon's back. The weapon caused the dragon to freeze, crashing to the ground, but no blood to be seen, after a moment the frozen body exploded, and still no sanguine liquid.

"One down-" he shot another breath of frozen air to stop a stream of fire coming for him, then rolled out of the way. He looked at the red dragon. "Wait your turn, would ya?" he asked with a smirk, ducking out of the way of another attack, his coattails getting charred as he barely escaped. "Man, you guys have something against my coat today don't you?"

Lucifer's wings opened on his back and he threw several swords up at his remaining opponents. The flying lizards roared as their sleek bodies twisted and soared out of the way of the glowing blades.

Dante grinned. "I love it when you play hard to get."

The dragons both turned back towards him and started breathing fire, one flipped onto it's back over it's sibling and both extended their claws, ready to slice the son of Sparda to ribbons whether he went over or under them. Dante dove forward under them, gasping as a claw sliced open his leg, his leather coat managing to keep the flames from touching his skin, though he could feel it burning him due to the proximity. He flipped himself onto his back holding back a wince and grabbed another of Lucifer's blades lifting it to cut into the dragon's belly, surprisingly enough he managed to jam it between two of the soft scale plates. The demon gave a short scream and blood dripped down the blade in Dante's hand.

"Jackpot." he whispered. His victory grin was cut short when he realized the dragon was falling towards him, and he only had about a foot of wiggle room at the moment. He'd stabbed the creature in the heart with one random jab and had killed it almost instantly.

He yanked out his blade and rolled to the side, managing to escape just in time. He exhaled in relief, then remembered what happened to the last dragon and rolled to his feet, leaping away from it as it exploded, sending huge chunks of gore and blood into the air a lump of it landing on the devil hunter.

"Aw, gross!" he grumbled. "I just needed a little blood thanks!" he flicked his hands off as he made his way to the door, dodging the final dragon's attacks as he went.


Nero fired a few shots from Red Rose, the first one nearly giving him a heart attack as the bullet casings flew towards him, it felt so much like his normal firearm, he'd expected it to work the same way. Blue Rose was modified to eject the casings to the left since he fired with his left hand, but the inverted revolver was meant to be used by a right handed wielder. After a few more successful shots he ran into the same problem he was having with his own firearm, he ran out of bullets and his copy grinned widely.

"Is my toy broken?" he asked. "You are not bad, not bad at all. This is an interesting form you have, almost human but with demonic strength." he clenched his devil bringer.

Nero shoved the black revolver in the waistband of his pants, even if he couldn't use it, it was better that the demon didn't have it.

"Other demons wouldn't agree with you there."

"No, I guess they wouldn't, but it does have it's appeals…You should know the name of the one who is to defeat you. I am Oren. I want to keep this form. To do that you, Nero, must die."

"I'm not too fond of that plan. I really rather like living. I'm the real deal, and you're a stupid copy so you're going down." he stated before rushing forward intent on punching Oren's lights out with his bringer. The demon laughed, flipping back to lift one leg, wrapping it over Nero's elbow, making the joint buckle.

Oren's foot wrapped around behind the devil hunter's back knocking him onto the ground and pinning him he grabbed his gun from Nero's waistband. He held the hunter down with his legs as the young male struggled. The demon grinned, sliding two bullets into the chamber.

"Buh bye now…Nero." He cocked the gun, but gasped when the sound of gunfire echoed around the chamber making him roll and disappear into the mirror that was the floor. The young hunter laid motionless on the ground thinking he was dead and Dante sprinted across the room, worried he was too late.

"Kid! Nero!" he shouted, running, before sliding down to his knees next to the younger male.

"Dante?" Nero rolled over so he was facing his lover and managed to lightly smirk. "It took you long enough…old man. Where have you been?"

"Fighting through hell to save you kiddo, ruined my favorite coat too." he said, looking over his shoulder at the three long tears in the back of his red leather as well as the burn marks.

Nero chuckled, sitting up and wrapping his arms around the older man's neck, hugging him.

"Glad to see you too." he said patting the younger man's back, lightly tucking his head under his chin. "Unfortunately seems our little reunion is going to have to wait. We have company kid."

"Tell me about it. Do you know how much it sucks getting your ass handed to you by yourself?" he asked as Dante helped to pull him to his feet.

"Can't say I have." he lightly smirked. "Why aren't you fighting back?"

"I am. But…Blue Rose is out of rounds…" he lightly cringed at the statement, slightly embarrassed to be caught unprepared.

"Here. Take Ebony for now. We'll finish off this imposter together." he winked, "No worries kid."

"Heartfelt…truly." Oren grinned, clapping his hands, until an inverted form of Ebony appeared in his hand, it was white, basically just like Dante's Ivory. "I really do like this form though." he grinned and lifted the inverted Ebony rapidly firing at Nero.

The older hunter pushed his lover behind him so he didn't get hit by the bullets and whipped out Lucifer, throwing the blades towards Oren, who simply disappeared back into the floor.

Nero frowned. "Well that's…annoying." he pressed his back up against Dante's as they watched the mirrors all around them, waiting for the demon to appear again. Nero held Ebony at the ready. Dante's right hand hovered over Ivory's grip, his left just a centimeter from one of Lucifer's blades.

"I don't see him." Nero murmured.

"Just wait."

The two hunters continued to flick their gazes around trying to find the demon. Being on the defensive put both of them on edge.

Suddenly Oren appeared in every mirror around them and both half-devils fired at the first one they saw making the demon laugh, his voice reverberating in the room. "Jumpy are we?"

Nero glared. "I wish you would jump on out here so we can kick your ass!"

"Two against one hardly seems fair, shouldn't you be the honorable type?"

"Sorry, honor takes a backseat to survival." he murmured. (1)

"Smart child."

Nero rolled his eyes. "I'm really getting tired of everyone calling me everything but my name."

"Better than 'Son of Sparda' trust me, that one gets old fast." Dante commented.

"You are the Son of Sparda?" the demon inquired.

"See what I mean?" the older hunter chuckled.

"How pleased then master Vinkus will be when I end you both." he said gleefully. "He may even free me from this hellish place!"

"Great. Like he needed another reason to kill us." Nero stated.

"Get ready, here we go!" Dante warned, as Oren seemed to appear in all the mirrors once again.


(1) I say this because Nero was the only one of the Holy Knights in the Order of the Sword to use a firearm. The other knights thought it was dishonorable, therefore Nero must think that something is more important than being an honorable opponent, so I'd think it was survival.

Hope you guys enjoyed this chapter! Dante and Nero are finally reunited! :3 So what's going to happen with Oren? You'll find out in the next chapter! Leave me a review! Until next time!

Ja ne!

~Bitbyboth August 28, 2010