Disclaimer: I don't own Devil May Cry. I have two dogs, but they have only one head each.
I've decided Beowulf got his eyes back and Cerberus got his other two heads, because there are green orbs and now that they serve him, Dante wants them in top condition.
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"Cerberus!" he heard Dante call. "Cerberus, here boy!" Dante whistled and Cerberus pushed himself to his feet and came trotting out of the doghouse into the converted warehouse. "Over here," Dante said, smiling when he saw him and patting the couch. "Come and sit up here."
"As you wish." Cerberus complied, springing up on the couch and sitting.
Dante got onto the couch and leaned against him. "Damn heat wave."
"Heat wave?" Dante was wearing only shorts, his back pressed up against Cerberus.
"Heat wave," Dante confirmed. "Do you feel it?"
"It is hot." That was why Cerberus had been lying in the shade instead of patrolling the complex, as was his duty.
"Everything must feel hot to you, your body temperature is so low. Nevan, over here with those!" The succubus had walked in carrying several bottles of the red liquid Dante liked. Not blood, it was called tomato juice. It was similar to the stuff that was on pizza. "Cerberus, move over a little so Nevan can tuck those on your other side, okay?" Cerberus complied and Nevan placed them against him, handing one bottle to Dante. "Thanks." He took a long drink. "Want any, Cerberus?"
He shook his heads. "I would like water, however." The heat had been evaporating the ice that formed on his limbs. Most of it was condensation but it had been pulling his own body's water with it.
"Sure, you big pup." Nevan scratched under his ears and sashayed out to the backyard. She was also wearing very little and her bats were flying around her, flapping their wings to fan her. Cerberus heard the sound of the hose after a while.
Dante tossed the empty bottle into the recycling bin and reached over Cerberus for another. "Thanks, buddy."
"You are welcome." Cerberus had learned that was the polite response. Dante was a strange master, to ask instead of demand. He was his master, he had Cerberus' loyalty. He was a good master, however. Mundus had barely acknowledged Cerberus' existence, left them all trapped in the tower for two thousand years, although Mundus himself had been trapped.
If he was that weak he did not deserve Cerberus' service. But he had stayed, done his duty. He was a good dog. Until Dante had defeated him.
Dante already had his blessing, he did not need to earn it anew.
Nevan came back in, her bats carrying several buckets of water. Dante sat up. "Go and get yourself a drink."
Cerberus jumped down off of the couch and stuck his heads in all three buckets, Nevan having placed them so that was possible. Dante scraped off the frost that had started to form where his body touched Cerberus. "Is the freezer really broken?"
"I'm afraid so, sugar. It started smoking so I unplugged it."
Dante muttered something under his breath. "Of all the times to break. We're not going to be able to get a good new one for love nor money."
"Not that we've got a lot of money, sugar. You just bought bullets and paid the bill for your new motorcycle, remember?"
He grimaced. "Are you okay up there Rudra?"
"This is very exciting, but I miss my brother," Rudra's voice came from the ceiling. Cerberus glanced up to see Rudra had been tied to the fan and was whirling around. That was why it was so windy in here.
Dante shook his head. "Sorry, he's exiled to the roof until the heat wave's over." He reached for a bottle of tomato juice. They had slid all over the couch when Cerberus moved. He bit off the top, spit it into the recycling, and took another swig. "And we just bought a whole ton of meat, too. We can't eat it all before it spoils."
"If cold is needed, I could breathe on it," Cerberus offered.
Dante whapped himself on the forehead. "Man, I feel like an idiot. The heat must be really getting to me. How hot is it anyway? No, don't tell me." He sighed. "I never should have moved south. Having a high body temperature is great up north, but here?"
Nevan walked over and felt his forehead. "You'll survive, sugar."
Cerberus finished drinking and padded back over. Dante scooped the bottles out of the way so he could get up on the couch again. This time he lay down. Dante lay on top of him and positioned the bottles again.
"What does it say on TV?"
One of Nevan's bats flew the remote over to Dante. He turned the TV on. "Commercials, commercials, soap opera, I have no clue, local news." It was a robbery. A bungled robbery, the store owner had shot the thief. Another sin-laden soul headed for the Underworld. "They're going to put the guy on trial for defending himself? What the hell?"
"I'm sure he'll be acquitted, sugar." Nevan shrugged, sitting in an armchair. The bats that had been fanning her, tired, perched on it and others took their places.
"That's not the point. Gun control…" Dante laughed. "Defenseless people are just begging to be attacked."
"Fresh meat," Nevan agreed.
"Babes in the woods. All of them." Dante yawned. "Oh, that reminds me. Eb, Ive?" His guns took human form.
Cerberus had been surprised the human-made weapons had been enchanted by Dante to take female form. Human women were rarely warriors. But there were pictures of human females on the handles of each gun, and Ebony and Ivory took their faces from those pictures.
"Yes, daddy?"
"Bring me, Nevan, and Cerberus some ice cream, and ask Beowulf if he would like any. Then you can eat the rest yourselves."
They nodded and headed for the kitchen.
The news went to commercial. Dante clearly was feeling too lethargic to change the station.
Ebony and Ivory came back. "Here you go, daddy." Dante took the spoon and poked at his ice cream. "Yeah, it's pretty melted. Better go freeze it again. Come on, Cerberus." He sat up and headed for the kitchen. Cerberus followed.
Dante pulled open the door of the huge freezer. "Do your thing."
Cerberus roared and the entire thing was full of ice. Ice stuck out into the room. Dante futilely tried to close the door. "Nuts. It'll melt faster if I can't shut it."
"Forgive me, master." Cerberus bowed his heads.
"It's okay, I'll just keep an eye on the clock and check every so often to see if it's melted enough I can close the door." Dante shrugged and headed back to the living room, leaving Ebony and Ivory with the remains of a gallon of ice cream.
Once again, Dante cleared the bottles out of his way and Cerberus lay down on the couch. Dante lay down on his stomach this time but got off again. "Well, that's uncomfortable." Jagged ice had formed over Cerberus' body. "Let's see if we can smooth that down." He reached for Rebellion, which he had left leaning against the couch, and started to shave down the ice. Cerberus held still. "There, that's better."
"The heat wave shows no signs of abating…"
Dante growled and turned off the television, cutting off the announcer's voice. "Hell."
"It's not that hot, Dante." Nevan yawned.
Dante yawned. "Damn it, Nevan, now you've got me doing it too. Sorry. The heat's making me tired and snappy."
"You should just go to sleep." She adjusted herself in the armchair and was clearly preparing to do so. "Beowulf likes this weather, he can watch the phones."
"I just woke up." Dante yawned again. "Damn." He fumbled around and started petting Cerberus.
Cerberus panted happily, his tail thumping on the couch and fanning Dante. Hopefully the additional coolness would make Dante keep petting.
"Good dog," Dante said, a grin in his voice. Then he yawned again. "Rudra, tell me if you get dizzy. I've already got one sword nicknamed Woozy."
"This is very enjoyable," Rudra assured him. "It is a pity Agni cannot enjoy it as well."
"I'll try it out with him in the winter this time instead of sticking him in the old furnace. If you make fans go the other way they're supposed to actually make the room warmer." He laughed. "I'm being a bit of a bastard making you guys do all the stuff instead of just getting some electricians in here and doing it the normal way."
Nevan shook her head. "I don't mind charging up the battery, sugar. We're your weapons, we like to be useful."
"Weapons being the key word there. But I'm only one guy, I can't use you all all the time. And I need to practice with Force Edge a lot, to see if there's any way I can get Sparda's power from it without the other half of the amulet." Dante sighed.
"Something will turn up, sugar. I'm sure he wants you to use it." Nevan hummed and the bats started to fan her harder.
"Nevan, you should just go back down in the cellar and sleep. You're nocturnal, you like it cool anyways. This must be really nasty."
"I'm fine, sugar. You're so sweet to worry about lil' old me, though." She blew him a kiss, which he ignored. Cerberus thought this was very foolish of him. Nevan was a very attractive succubus and Dante had no mate to worry about the disapproval of. If Cerberus was her kind of demon and she wanted to mate with him, he would not pretend to ignore it. Pretending was a human trait. "Everything'll turn out fine. Why, wait a few more decades and you won't need your father's power to beat Mundus. You're growing up into a fine devil."
"She speaks truly," Cerberus growled. "You are already one of the strongest I have ever seen despite your human blood." And he'd mistaken him for a human at first. How wrong he had been.
"I prefer to think of it as because of my human blood." But Dante scratched him behind the ears anyway, first one head then the others. "It's weird. Enzo and Lady are back in New York, Daniels' okay to drink with but I can't really talk to him about stuff… all my best friends are demons who serve me. If you'd told me that a few years ago, back before Temen ni Gru, I would have thought you had all your screws loose." Dante shrugged. "You know what's weird? Why is the heat driving me crazy but I've got ice forming on me and I feel fine?"
"Sparda's form was like an insect, sugar. They like it cool and damp." Nevan hummed again. Several bats flew off after one snagged one of the bottles of tomato juice.
"Oh yeah, that was what the nutjob looked like at first. That explains why all my devil triggers with you guys look like weird bugs. Vergil's too." Dante laughed. "Didn't he take a look in a mirror? He wanted to be a devil and look like that all the bloody time?"
Cerberus remembered Dante using him to create a smooth pane of ice and trying out all of his devil triggers in front of it. He had used Beowulf to shatter the mirror in the end.
"Hmm… you were both handsome devils, sugar," Nevan smiled in remembrance.
The bats came back, carrying two of the glasses for special drinks. One was delivered to Dante, the other to Nevan. "Thanks, Nevan." Dante downed it.
"My pleasure, sugar." She sipped at hers. Other bats flew in with two thin white sheets.
"What are those for?" Dante asked.
"To put between you and Cerberus there. You're getting dog hair all over you."
"Never mind, Nevan, it's soft." Dante snuggled against him. "Mom got me and Vergil puppies when we were kids but we broke their necks playing with them. Wish I'd had you earlier." He pet Cerberus again. "You know, next time we have money I want to get a pool put in. You could swim around in it so it'd always be cool. Sound good?"
Cerberus nodded. "It has been a long time since I swam."
"I'm in the mood to play fetch with you, but it's too bloody hot." Dante yawned. "Damn. I'm bored now."
Cerberus' stomach growled.
"Perfect timing. Let's go check on the freezer."
The ice had melted enough it would now be possible to close the door. Water was all over the floor. Dante examined the ice. "Someone's been chipping away at this. Probably to get ice to cool their drinks. Wait just a sec, Cerberus." He went into the office, Cerberus padding after him.
Dante took down Force Edge from its position covering the picture of the human women and made his way back to the kitchen.
He hacked through the ice, pushing chunks out into the backyard, until he reached a piece of meat. He hacked it out too and took it out of the freezer, closing the walk-in freezer behind him. "I'll stick this in the microwave."
Cerberus' tail was wagging at the faint smell. "No need. I prefer my meat raw and frozen."
"Makes sense, that's probably how it ends up when you kill it." Dante put the meat down on the ground and Cerberus started crunching away.
Dante looked down at his bare chest. "Damn, Nevan was right, I do have dog hair all over me. You're shedding. Well, I guess that's natural when it's hot. He started to brush himself off.
As soon as Cerberus had finished gulping down the meat the phone rang. "I'll get it," Dante called out, and headed for the office. Cerberus followed.
Dante threw himself down in the chair in his usual sprawl. Cerberus sat beside him and got petted. He didn't like this heat, but he was getting a lot of attention and praise from his master, so this was a good day.
Dante kicked and the receiver rose up into the air, landing in Dante's hand. "Devil May Cry," he said into it lazily, his hand moving to another of Cerberus' heads.
Cerberus' keen ears made out a faint noise over Dante's breathing, but he did not bother to listen.
"That was last week's password." Dante yawned. "But you're in luck. I'm bored right now. What and where?"
More faint human speech.
"I'll be there in a second." Dante tossed the phone back in the cradle and got to his feet. He grabbed his coat and was considering putting on a shirt, but "Screw it, it's too hot." So the coat went on by itself and he looked almost as he had when Cerberus had first seen him, only the sword that he bore was Sparda's instead of Rebellion.
He also looked a little older, a little more mature. The one who had defeated him that time had been a pup. An orphaned pup.
"May I go forth with you?" Cerberus requested, bowing his heads.
"Sure. Let me grab the collars." Dante rummaged in his drawers. "No, they're on the roof of your doghouse out back." They tramped through the house out into the gravel backyard. Dante fastened the collars that hid his extra heads around two of Cerberus' necks, a regular collar around his central head, and pocketed the leash.
It was a length of silver chain. Cerberus could break it easily: it was just to reassure timid humans. Cerberus was still a rather large dog.
The first leash had been black leather but Cerberus had been bored one day and chewed through it. He'd liked the taste so much that he had also accounted for a pair of Dante's boots, although he'd known to leave the leather coat alone as tasty as it had looked.
Dante hadn't been too angry, but Cerberus had been very embarrassed later. That was something a mortal dog would do. He might have the form of an animal, but he was still as much a warrior as Beowulf.
He could learn to take human form, but dogs were loyal, as he was, and it was not an objectionable life.
Dante attached the sidecar to his motorcycle. Cerberus jumped in it, and away they went.
His tongues were hanging out. He loved to go fast like this, even though he could run just as fast, as several humans had had the misfortune to find out before he had been ordered to guard the entrance to the tower.
The traffic was bad. Dante cursed under his breath. "Should have just had you run behind me instead of taking the sidecar. We'd be able to weave between the traffic."
"Would a normal dog be capable of matching the speed of your motorcycle?"
"No, but normal people are blind. They'd think you're like a greyhound or something." Dante took off his helmet and shook out his hair. He was speaking very quietly, barely moving his lips. "All these people must be trying to get out of town to beat the heat. Could you do me a favor and breathe on me? I was doing fine with the wind, but now we're stopped I'm sitting on top of hot metal. Should have parked this goddamn thing in the shade."
"As you wish."
Dante was encased in ice. He shook himself loose, and the bike's metal was indeed hot: it melted quickly. "Not quite so hard would have been better."
The man in the car next to them was staring. They ignored him.
"Should have had Nevan take me," Dante muttered. "Lightening demons can travel at light speed… we're at a crawl here."
The traffic eased up after a while, and they were speeding along again. Cerberus' tail wagged. This was more like it.
They pulled up at a lakeside dock. Dante took off his helmet and tossed it in the sidecar. "Wait here while I talk to the guy."
Cerberus nodded, it was not good to speak where a client could hear. A client would believe and wonder why the hunter they hired was consorting with demons. It meant bother for Dante.
Dante went into the shack and came back out after a second, putting a check in a compartment of the sidecar. "Heel, boy."
Cerberus followed him down to the lakeshore where Dante pulled a needlegun out of his coat and laid the coat down on the railing. "We've been hired to take out something that's been wrecking boats. In a lake. Filled with cool water. Somebody up there doesn't hate me." Dante looked very happy. Cerberus wagged his tail.
They waded into the water. Dante splashed Cerberus a few times. He was a man by human reckoning but he was only a child as devils reckoned years. It was good to see him act like a child.
Orphans were not rare in the underworld, but rarely did they survive without a patron. To have become this strong with only his human mother's training, strong enough to defeat Cerberus when he was only a pup… Sparda's bloodline was powerful indeed.
Dante should have been a nestling, kept safe in a deep dark nest.
But he was a warrior now. Still, it was good that he had never lost the ability to play.
Cerberus let go of his dignity and tackled him, tails wagging.
Dante laughed, bubbles rising under the water, and pushed him off with only a fraction of his strength. "Down boy," he said smiling when he got to the surface. "Enough clowning around. Let's get to it." His smile became more predatory, and Cerberus wondered how he had ever mistaken him for a human.
They swam deeper.
Though the gloom of the lake bed Cerberus saw something stirring. He already smelled something.
Huge coils matched the scent. Snake.
Dante saw it too. He stuck his head above water to say, "I should probably head back to my coat and grab some depth charges." It would clearly be more fun to do it the hard way.
They dove down and Dante stabbed it with Force Edge.
The coils started moving. The two of them swam up slightly, waiting.
A head as broad as Dante was tall moved towards them with lightening speed.
Cerberus breathed and its head slammed into the sharp chunks of ice, which sank down and stabbed into the coils. While it was paused Dante headed for its neck and sunk Force Edge in deep.
The snake started to whip around, trying to dislodge Dante, but the sword was stuck deep. Dante was wiggling it from side to side, trying to saw away at the neck. Black-hot blood was filling the water. It scalded Cerberus, whose nose was getting confused by it as well as his eyes. Where was the snake's head?
He wanted to be useful to Dante, but if he dived down to attack the coils they would crush him.
He breathed out chunks of ice as sharp as he could make them and swam around erratically hoping that would make it difficult for the snake to find him and swallow him.
As he fought he felt his demonic energy build up. Finally, it was enough for him to reach his full size.
Now he dived down and worried at the coils.
He wasn't at it long when they turned to salt in his mouth. The snake was dead.
He shrunk back down again and headed for the surface to look for Dante.
Dante was treading water and rubbing at his face which was covered in black goo. "Must have been a baby Midgarsorm. Probably swam up the Mississippi. Damn it, why couldn't this have disappeared with the snake? I need a shower." Cerberus swam over to him. "Good dog. Let's head home, you can have the leftover pizza as a treat."
"Thank you." He loved bread with stuff on it enough he'd let humans bribe him to go past with it a few times when he was younger, when he served Hades instead of Mundus.
This was a very good day.