"Well… Can't we just leave him somewhere for the day? Like at a motel or something?" Jack questioned. Nero shook his head no.
"Not with the wounds he has." He answered as he glanced over Aglæca's bandages. "He might have some kind of healing mechanism that speeds up the process of healing, like what me and Dante have, but his body is pretty worn and torn up."
"Dante and I." Jack corrected him. The tired young man looked back at Jack, genuinely confused. Now, with Nero facing him, Jack was able to see that, from the bags under his worn out eyes, Nero was very, very tired. He almost felt guilty for messing with Nero while he was so tired.
"What?"
"The proper way to say that sentence is 'like Dante and I have'." Nero's reaction to this was to roll his eyes and look over at Aglæca again, likely because he's too exhausted to even argue right now. Having heard his name said several times now, Dante began to unwillingly become aware of his surroundings.
"Mornin'." Jack greeted Dante, having turned his attention over to him once he noticed Dante beginning to move. The elder hunter simply waved him a greeting back, since he was still focusing all of his energy on waking up and keeping himself from falling back to sleep.
"At the very least, he needs to be disinfected and stabilized." Nero told them.
"Damn, kid. How long was I asleep? You look older than I do." Dante teased, having just fully opened his eyes and noticed Nero's fatigued state. "Well, as old as I'm supposed to look." He said with a cheeky smile.
"Shut it, old man." He warned shortly. Nero wasn't in a joking mood right now, that much is for sure. Dante threw his hands up in the air, symbolically gesturing that he surrenders and, presumably, won't mess with him anymore.
"Disinfected?" Jack questioned. "You mean in the surgery room at headquarters? We can't get him up to that floor without getting caught!"
"It's possible. You and Dante can act as lookouts, making sure nobody's around up ahead, I'll lead Aglæca, then you guys will go ahead of us and scout the area, and repeat until me and Aglæca are in the surgery room."
"And he can't wait until tonight?" He questioned, though Nero's answer was to simply pointed over at Aglæca. Jack observed that Aglæca is hunched over in his seat, arms draped around the wounds on his stomach, breathing shallowly with his pupil's dilated as his body violently shook; a textbook case of someone with severe blood loss. "I guess not, huh?" He turned his attention back to Nero, who shook his head no.
"You sure he'll even be able to walk that far?" Dante asked. The younger man shrugged.
"He'll have to." He replied. "C'mon, let's not waste any more time, the sun's gonna be up soon." With that, Dante and Jack exited the car. With Nero following behind him, Jack walked to the back of the car and popped the trunk to retrieve their items. Dante, meanwhile, went to the passenger side door and opened it. Gently, he shook Aglæca's shoulder.
"Hey, we're near the dock. You gotta get up now." He spoke softly as if talking to a sleepy child, rather than to a demon, like what Aglæca is. Said demon slowly began to stir - he hadn't been asleep, but rather just unaware of his surroundings. He looked awfully old and weary. "We're getting you some clothes to hide under, so don't get out of the car just yet." Jack told Aglæca as he searched through their bags in the trunk.
"Here, give these to Dante and I'll go return the keys." Jack offered Nero a pile of clothes after spending a minute rummaging through their bags.
"I was going to return them, I just wanted to see what clothes you'd pick out." Nero told him. Jack raised an eyebrow at him, which caused Nero to give him a confused look. After shaking his head, Jack gestured towards Nero's fully exposed demonic arm with his eyes. The young man looked down at his arm and gave a breathy "oh." He was so tired that he actually forgot he had a non-human arm. Reluctantly, he traded the car keys with Jack for the clothes. As Jack walked away, toward the rental business, Nero looked over the clothes he was given.
"Looks like this is the best we've got. A hoodie and some slacks. Do you think this stuff will fit him?" He asked while handing the clothes over to Dante.
"It might be a long shot, but it could work." Dante said as he gestured to Aglæca, telling him that he needs to stand up now. After some help from Nero, Aglæca was able to stand up, albeit a bit wobbly. Dante and Nero worked together to gingerly put the hoodie on Aglæca without causing any unnecessary rubbing against his bandages. Then, Aglæca used Nero for support as Dante put the slacks on him, one leg at a time, with much strain and pulling.
"Whew! That was a bit of a workout." He exclaimed, briefly putting his hands on his hips as he spoke once the laborious task was finished. "Can we fit his tail into the pants too?" Dante noticed Aglæca's tail awkwardly hanging out from the slacks, essentially blowing his cover.
"Hmm.." Nero hummed before grabbing Aglæca's tail, being mindful of the spikes, and started trying to manipulate the tail into going into the slacks. At this time, Jack was exiting the rental building and was approaching the others.
"How's he looking?" Jack questioned Dante, seeing that Nero is busy.
"Well, so long as nobody looks at his huge feet, or his oddly shaped hoodie covering his horns, or at his snout that's poking out…. Or at his left leg that looks twice the size of the right leg…" Dante said, observing Nero shoving Aglæca's tail into the left pant leg, "… I think he'll be okay."
"The clothes fit pretty tightly on him now too." Nero said while looking over Aglæca's outfit. "But, it'll have to do, we don't have time to go get baggier clothes." He turned his attention to Jack, who had walked back to the car's trunk. "We all ready to go?"
"Yeah, I've got the receipt. We just gotta get our stuff out." Jack said as he grabbed out their weapons. He handed Nero his and Dante's sword before equipping his own sword onto his back. Nero passed Dante's sword along to him before he too equipped his sword onto his back, and which Dante did the same with Rebellion. "You have your guns, right?" Jack said after searching through the bags and being unable to find their guns, as he himself didn't have a gun. Becoming more tired from standing, Aglæca leaned on Dante to temporarily relieve himself of his own weight. He glanced over at him to see what he was doing, but then returned his attention to Jack upon realizing why Aglæca was leaning on him.
"Always." Nero said as he patted the side of his hip, where Blue Rose is.
"Same here." Dante agreed.
"You know, one day, you're gonna get in trouble from the Order for having a gun." Jack told Nero as he gathered up their bags.
"They know I have a gun." He responded. Jack gathered up all the bags into his arms and hobbled over to the other three, hunched over from the weight.
"No… Credo knew… and he accepted it… but the others…. don't know." Jack struggled to speak from the exertion of carrying all their heavy items. Nero then took away several bags from him, seeing that he was obviously in need of help. Jack breathed out a "whew" before straightening out his back gratefully.
"I'm not worried about it." Nero said before handing Dante half of the bags he was holding. This action caused Aglæca to stop leaning on Dante. "Sparda had guns, I don't see why we can't." He looked over at Dante's guns. "Even Dante has guns.." Nero grumbled.
"It's the Order of the Sword, not the Order of the Gun." Jack pointed out as he grabbed his phone from his pocket. "And the Order itself doesn't worship Sparda or go by his rules, though most of us do, we just protect the city." He dialed a number on his phone and placed the phone to his ear before Nero could respond, though Nero looked too confused to respond immediately.
"His rules? …There's rules?" Nero questioned Jack, but upon seeing he is busy, his first instinct was to look over at Dante instead, even though he knew he wouldn't have the answer. Dante met his gaze.
"I dunno why you're looking at me, I have no idea." Nero simply rolled his eyes in response before turning his attention back to Jack. Jack gestured to them for them to follow him as he began to walk towards a modestly-sized ferry that could be seen in the distance. Nero shut the trunk of the car, then followed behind Jack. The eldest hunter followed immediately after Nero, but noticing that Aglæca was unable to keep his balance and walk as fast as them, he stopped and went back to the old demon. He put his arm around Aglæca to support him, and Aglæca likewise around Dante, and with his help, they were able to catch up with Jack and Nero.
"Hey, sorry to wake you this early. We need you to do something for us." Jack spoke into the phone. "You've been up for the past hour? Geez.." "Oh, in about 15 or 20 minutes, I need you to make sure nobody is in the surgical room, and that the path from the headquarter's entrance to the surgical room is clear." Panicked sounds could be heard on the other line. "No, no, we're okay! Well, most of us. Aglæca got hurt." A few seconds passed as Jack listened to the other person. "I'll explain when we get there, just make sure nobody's around so we won't get caught, okay?" "Alright, see you soon then. Love you." Jack hung up the phone afterwards. Nero raised an eyebrow at Jack, even though Jack can't see him since Nero is following behind him.
"Was that your… lady friend?"
"Huh? Oh, no, that was Willow." Jack responded as he put the phone back into his pocket. Nero squinted his eyes at the back of Jack's head. "Anyways, he'll have the place clear. We just gotta get him to headquarters and we'll be safe."
"Good, good. You and Dante will scout up ahead once we get to Fortuna." Nero reminded them as they approached the ferry, brushing off Jack's odd behavior.
"What? Why do I have to do the scouting?" Jack whined, even though it had already been previously established that he and Dante were to act as lookouts. Nero rolled his eyes.
"Because you're clumsy. If you get caught scouting, people will just think you're being weird. Like normal." Jack huffed in response. "But if you were to get caught sneaking Aglæca, people will get suspicious of the oddly proportioned person you're sneaking around with."
"And you must be the master of sneaking, huh?" Jack argued.
"No, but I'm smaller and quicker."
"But I'm smaller and quicker." Jack said in a mocking voice.
"Shh, we're getting close to the ferry." Nero whispered. They walked onto the dock in silence. They reached the entrance to the ferry, then Jack suddenly stopped and held out his arm, so the others would not walk around him.
"I'll take care of this." He whispered before boarding the dock. As he watched Jack, Nero suddenly became aware of his very visible demonic arm. He turned to his side so that his arm, and the faint glow being emitted by his arm, would be hidden from the ferryman. Dante noticed his embarrassment, but said nothing, for now.
"Hey man, you headed to Fortuna soon?" Jack asked as he approached the ferryman. The tall, burly man turned to face Jack; he had previously been looking out at the ocean.
"Hey Jack!" His voice was gruff. "It's pretty early for you to be up. Coming back from a mission from the Order?"
"Yeah, I would never be up at this God awful hour if it the Order hadn't made me." Jack joked, chuckling. "Anyways, we need a ride, are you going to town soon?"
"Well I don't usually set sail for another hour, but I can make an exception." The ferryman smiled. He peered over Jack's shoulder and noticed the odd looking person with them, his smile faded and he raised an eyebrow. "Is that.. Your friend?" Jack looked over his own shoulder to look back at the others.
"Oh! Yeah, he's a new recruit." Jack turned back to him, realizing he meant Aglæca. "His first mission. He got injured, which is why we're in a rush to get back to town." Jack explained nonchalantly. The ferryman's suspicion was cleared and his friendly smile returned.
"Ah! Gotta show the newbie's the ropes. I'll go ahead and get her moving then." The ferryman then made his way into the ferry's superstructure, where the ferry is manned. Jack turned to the others and gestured with his arm for them to get on the ferry.
"He's taking us to Fortuna." Jack informed them. Not even a few seconds after, the ferry jerked forward as it began moving, nearly sending the group down flat onto the deck.
"Well I guess that means we're going now." Nero grumbled irritatedly as he regained his balance. Somehow, Dante was able to keep both himself and Aglæca upright.
"It'll take about 30 minutes for us to reach the town. Just hang in there, alright?" Dante informed Aglæca after making sure he and himself were balanced again. Aglæca glanced up at him and nodded before tiredly dropping his head back down to continue resting.
"Alright, let's get going, we don't have much time." Nero said as he traded places with Dante in holding up Aglæca. The ferry had just docked and they had no time to waste in being slow to act.
"Here, take my coat." Dante said as he took off his coat.
"What? No, you keep it."
"Too late, I already took it off." Dante said as he tossed his coat to him. The younger man caught the coat, raising an eyebrow in suspicion at Dante before reluctantly putting on the coat, making sure Aglæca stayed upright as he did so. As he did, Dante watched and he noticed a few changes. With his arm now covered, Nero unknowingly relaxed his shoulders and became visibly, though very subtly, more confident in his posture. Dante smirked a little, taking Nero's change in body language as a sign that he did the right thing by lending him his coat. He then looked out towards the town of Fortuna. "Well, no use in standing around. Let's get going." He spoke to Willow before heading towards the ferry's exit ramp, since they were responsible for scouting ahead of Nero and Aglæca.
"Right, right." Jack followed behind Dante. "You make sure the area to the left is clear, I'll make sure the right area is clear."
"Gotcha." Dante responded, and with that, they split up, with him going to the left and Jack going to the right. After waiting for them to get plenty ahead of him, Nero walked towards the end of the exit ramp. He made sure Aglæca was balanced after they crossed over the ramp before they continued walking, since coming back onto land after spending 30 minutes on a rocking ferry can mess with the equilibrium. They continued forward with caution, with Aglæca doing his best to act normal and human, given his circumstances.
Working as a team, the group managed to make it through town without incident. It seemed as though the only ones wandering the streets this early in the morning were those who were still drunk from the night before; they didn't really much care if Nero and his odd looking friend were around anyways. Hurrying up the steps towards headquarters, Nero was practically dragging Aglæca at this point. After losing as much blood as he did, as well as the loss of energy he's had to put into walking, he is having to fight just to stay conscious.
"You're sure we have a clear route towards the surgical room?" Nero asked as they tried to run up the stairs.
"Willow said he'd have it clear by now!" Jack's voice was unintentionally elevated from anxiety.
"I hope so. This is when most of the members start waking up." Nero said as he looked out towards the seemingly rapidly rising sun on the horizon.
"Shh!" Jack said to them all as they approached the building. They all made a sudden stop at the headquarter's entrance doors, with Dante and Jack in front of Nero and Aglæca. Hesitantly, Jack grabbed ahold of the handle to one of the double doors, with Dante following his lead and grabbing the other door's handle. After taking a deep breath, Jack, followed again by Dante, slowly opened the doors. Jack peaked inside, just to make extra certain nobody was around. After listening to silence for a few seconds, he was satisfied that everybody was still asleep, and so he and Dante made their approach through the doors. Nero and a half-limp Aglæca followed closely behind them for cover. They walked in silence, having to periodically stop after crossing a creaky board, just to make sure nobody heard them.
Miraculously, they made it through the first floor without incident. Though, as they approached the living quarters on the second floor, where some Order members stayed, they could hear voices. The voices did not appear to be coming towards them, but rather engaged in conversation, to their relief. Now all they need to do it climb up the second set of stairs to the surgery room.
"Almost there…" Nero said under his breath, mostly to himself but also to Aglæca. As they climbed the staircase, the archway into the surgery room in sight, the gang began to speed up their pace. Jack's heart was pounding with anxiety, he had broken many rules before this, but being caught sneaking a demon this deeply into headquarters could easily get them kicked out of the Order and out of Fortuna; that is, assuming they weren't killed on sight. Meanwhile, Dante didn't seem bothered by the situation at all. With nervous sweat beginning to dot across his forehead, Jack attempted to fast walk across the few dozen remaining feet between them and the top of the staircase.
"Hey, look who's back!" Jack practically heard his heart fall to the floor. His head jerked towards the direction of the voice, finding that an Order member had come out from the left wing of the second floor living quarters. "You guys have been gone for a pretty long time. Demons must've given you a run for your money, huh?" The Order member joked as he began to take a step towards them.
"Oh yes! Definitely!" Jack practically yelled, as if speaking louder will make Nero and Aglæca, who were behind him farther up the stairs, invisible. He quickly stepped towards the man, effectively blocking his path to the others. "But he's definitely dead. Yup, definitely dead!" He yelled again, the sweat quickly building up on his brow. The Order member raised an eyebrow at him.
"You seem really nervous?" He questioned.
"He just got a bit of a scare, no worries." Dante quickly intervened. He came down the stairs to stand beside Jack, so that the Order member's vision of the demon would be completely blocked. As the two men distracted the member, Nero made a quick dash up the remaining stair steps, essentially carrying Aglæca at this point.
"Hey, don't you die on me right before we get there!" Nero demanded of Aglæca as they neared the surgical room.
"No…" Aglæca managed to groan, which Nero took as him saying he won't die. Busting through the swinging double doors, Nero took the elder demon to one of the metal operating tables. He gently but quickly put him onto the operating table after removing his slacks and hoodie, being mindful of his wings, then ran over to a nearby shelf for supplies. After rummaging through the various racks, he returned to Aglæca with plenty of bandages, gauze, a needle with surgical thread, a bottle of water, a pair of surgical gloves, and a bottle of wound care and disinfectant.
"Some of this stuff is pretty old, but it'll have to do." He said as he placed the items on the table, next to Aglæca. After putting on the gloves, he began the delicate and very tedious process of removing the strips of his coat that was used as bandages. Occasionally, he would douse the strips with water, helping the makeshift bandages detach from the dried blood without tearing open the wound and causing it to bleed again. It took him quite a while, but with time, the strips were completely removed.
"This is pretty bad." Nero said as he accessed the damage. "Looks like he tore open your abdominal cavity. I'm not sure how your intestines didn't end up spilling out.." He gingerly touched around the wound, but Aglæca didn't seem to notice. His body is probably too focused on staying alive to take notice of pain right now. "I guess we didn't notice since the blood was drying over the gashes?" Nero questioned himself.
"Going to try and suture up a torn abdominal cavity?" A voice spoke. Nero instantly froze. With his eyes widened, he looked over towards the swinging doors, where the voice was coming from. At some point, a man had come into the surgical room without Nero noticing, probably because he was too focused on Aglæca. The man had a tired, war-bearing face that had become aged much too soon. His posture was confident, his hands interlocked behind his back inquisitively. He was the captain of the Order of the Sword. "Sounds like a lot of work to save a demon that is meant to be slain." Nero was left speechless, his mind working hard to think up a believable excuse.
Seconds later, Jack entered through one of the swinging double doors casually. Upon seeing the captain in front of him, he immediately began backing out of the room. Dante, who had been following behind him, stood in his place at the doorway of the swinging door, despite Jack backing up into him, preventing Jack from leaving. Nero looked over at Jack and urgently gestured, with his eyes, for them to leave quickly, before he looked over at the captain again. "Well, you see…. Umm…." He stammered, unable to think quickly enough. He wasn't really concerned for himself, this wasn't his first time being in trouble and it won't be the last time either, but this was the first time he was caught breaking the rules with others helping him. The sense of guilt from knowing he pushed them to help, and now not knowing what would happen to them, was a new experience for him, and was clogging his mind too much for him to think clearly.
"Take your time, I would love to hear one of your world-famous excuses." The captain said, his words snapping Nero's mind out of the fog it was in. "But I will say, I know Jack and Dante helped in this." He turned to look at the two men behind him. Jack looked terrified and gave him a nervous smile, meanwhile Dante seemed unphased. After all, he's been in actual life threatening situations, this was nothing to him. He was not intimidated by a mere man. The captain looked back over to Nero. "Same as Willow. I woke up early this morning, I saw how Willow cleared out the Order members. I got curious as to why only a path leading to this room was cleared, so I waited. Then, I observed you, Jack, Dante, and that demon enter headquarters and make your way here." Nero looked confused by this.
"How did we not see you?" He questioned. The captain laughed.
"We have cameras throughout the building. Nobody watches them 24/7, but after I watched Willow, I went to the monitor room and watched you three move through the building." He explained. As they spoke, Nero noticed Aglæca beginning to shake again, most likely because the cold, metal table was sucking away his body heat. "Normally, the captain is supposed to banish those who affiliate with demons from Fortuna, especially after the Savior incident. But, seeing as Dante is involved, it'd be a nightmare trying to explain to the board why I banished the son of Sparda from a town that worships his father without at least giving you guys a chance to explain yourselves." He turned to his side, so that he could face all three of them. Jack hesitantly walked more into the room, allowing Dante to enter the room as well.
"Well, you see, sir.." Jack began timidly, causing the captain to shift his attention to him.
"Look, I can explain later, but right now he needs to be taken care of. He's had these wounds for over a day now, if we take any longer, he's gonna die." Nero said, aggravated. "You're just going to have to trust me." He said as he began cleaning off the dried blood and dirt from his wounds, using the disinfectant to do so. The captain looked over at Nero, his brows furrowed.
"Trust you? Do you have any idea how much I'm risking by just keeping you in the Order, despite your ailment? I could lose my job if word about this gets out." He said calmly, yet with an undertone of suppressed anger.
"You know, I don't get it. Dante's only part human - hell, Sparda himself was a demon! Why in the hell am I ridiculed and they get worshipped?" Nero yelled not-so-calmly, having stopped taking care of Aglæca to give the captain an angry look.
"C'mon Nero, now's not the time for a temper tantrum.." Jack whispered to himself.
"Because they don't look the part!" The captain told him, walking over to Nero and forcibly holding up his demonic arm to show him what he meant. Immediately jerking his arm out of the captain's grip, Nero willed himself to lean on the metal table, close his eyes, and focus on relaxing himself for the next few seconds before he did anything stupid.
"Fine." He said in a calmer, yet still quite angry voice. "Don't trust me." He reopened his eyes and looked over at the captain. "But shouldn't you trust the almighty son of Sparda?" Nero said passive aggressively, mockingly, before he continued disinfecting Aglæca's wounds. The captain looked over to Dante. He paused before questioning him.
"I want to know the meaning of this." He demanded.
"Well, there are good demons, just like there are bad humans." Dante put it plainly. The captain nodded to this understandably, looking away as he mulled over his options.
"Stand aside, I've sutured up abdominal cavities before. I'll be quicker than you." The captain said as he grabbed a couple surgical gloves from a nearby counter, his decision being clear. After finishing up cleaning as much as he could from the wounds, Nero stepped away from Aglæca, instead standing beside Dante and watched the captain work. For a short while, only the sounds of scalpels hitting the metal table could be heard in the otherwise silent room.
"Those were some pretty wise words from a smart ass." Nero spoke quietly to Dante, earning him a smirk from said man.
"Nah, I'm just good at persuasion." Dante said, causing Nero to smirk as well. "Hey, about what he said.." Dante began, whispering so that he would not be heard, his expression now more serious.
"It's fine." Nero interrupted abruptly, knowing Dante was about to try and reassure him that his arm doesn't make him any less human. His smirk faded into a blank, solemn stare at the space in front of him. It was clearly not fine, but knowing Nero will only shut him out if he continues to try and comfort him, Dante decided to instead look over at the captain and Aglæca.
"I need a blanket. He's unable to properly regulate his body temperature due to blood loss and my efforts will be worthless if he gets too cold." The captain said as he carefully and slowly sutured up Aglæca's torn abdominal cavity. Jack immediately went to one of the lower drawers in the medical supply counter, grabbing out several clean towels that are normally used to clean up messes.
"Are these good?" Jack asked, his voice slightly shaking from still being nervous about the whole situation.
"Yes, those are fine. Just put them over the parts of its body that I don't need to work on." He said after briefly glancing up to look at the towels. Jack did as he was told and placed the towels over as much of Aglæca's body as he could. "I need all but one of you to stay here until I'm done, partly because I might need assistance but mostly because we have some things to discuss after this." His voice was very serious. "But one of you needs to go get Willow. I don't want you two to go running off, so once Willow is here, nobody leaves until I say you can. Understood?" The captain paused in his work to look up at Nero, as he was really only talking to him, and only returned to working on Aglæca after receiving a nod from both Jack and Nero. Dante, of course, is not an Order member, and is not his problem. He can't and won't try to make him stay if he doesn't want to. Jack volunteered to go get Willow, quickly leaving the room to do so.
Dante could very well leave and head home - he had no real reason to stay here - but seeing Nero, with his dejected demeanor, quietly sit down next to a wall, scrunching up his legs so he could rest his crisscrossed arms on them, he didn't feel right leaving. Nero's not the type to have paranoia over the upcoming lecture he's bound to receive after this, but Dante knows how sensitive he is with his arm. Having someone touch it, without his permission, and use it against him as though a mutated arm is synonymous with untrustworthiness… that's more than enough to depress the otherwise fiery teenager. He knows he'll likely be here for a few more hours, the process of patching up something so injured being long and tedious, but he decided to sit beside the hurting young man in silent comfort regardless.