A/N: Chapter 7, up for all to enjoy. Hopefully. Not much cursing in this chapter, nor much violence. It is a little shorter than some of the recent chapters, though somewhat on par for the rest. As always, let me know what you think - I love the reviews, even if its just a 'Gosh I love this!' (Hopefully.) Thanks to all of you who review, favorite, follow, or just read this! Jimli ;P
A special thanks to Be Rose, for your invaluable insights and thoughts. 3
Disclaimer: I tried to get a loan, so I could acquire the rights to Devil May Cry, but the bank said my credit was only good enough to buy one of three things: Jester's used underwear, Dante's empty pizza boxes, or the entirety of the second game, so I said I'd pass. XD
Mission Select - Part V
Mission 07: To Tread the Path of the Knight
My father dove at Mara as he fell, catching him like Dante had in the forest. Unlike then, Mara seemed unconscious at best.
"Dishonorable bastard," he said, "you said you'd explain yourself!"
I blinked at him.
"What…you're mad at him?" I asked incredulously. "He's helped me and Dante, risked his life to rescue you from the array, risked it again to get Dante here in time to fight the Trinity, and when he's collapsed, maybe dying, you're angry at him?"
I shook my head.
"Dante has called you a lot of things, and I thought he was just being an ass as usual, but-"
I felt a hand on my shoulder and jerked around to see Dante.
"Let it go, kid," he said quietly.
I opened up to give him a piece of my mind, but Mara interrupted.
"Quite…right to be angry."
He wheezed laughter. "I did promise him I'd explain. I came here because I felt a great source of power. I found those two nestlings, and I followed them. I didn't know what they were doing, so I didn't reveal myself."
He smiled at my father.
"I thought at first it was you, or perhaps your ghost."
He paused, clearly marshaling his strength. I thought to stop him, to keep him from talking more, but Dante squeezed my shoulder again. Mara looked at us.
"I watched the battle with Pazuzu. Quite the spectacle. I raced ahead of you to the next gate and defeated the devil there."
I frowned.
"The next gate was Echidna," I reminded him.
"No," he corrected, "it was at the mining town. Phantom."
Both Dante and Vergil snorted derisively.
"That couldn't have taken long," Dante said dryly.
"Indeed not."
Mara smiled and looked back at my father.
"I meant to head straight here," he indicated the roof area, "to continue my own search for answers, but I was caught in the forest by a group of lessers. Their numbers were admittedly overwhelming, but I was doing well against them. When these two caught up to me, I was grateful for the assistance none-the-less. We joined up, making it to the gate in Mitis Forest, where Echidna had set up housekeeping. As I told you before, your twin and spawn did well against her, and we cleaned out her Seeds as well. Dante became suspicious of the Order's methods and led us back through the forest to find the Order's entrance to your father's library. When Nero told me of the sweven he'd shared with you, I…I had to go back to release you. Without telling them where I was headed or why, I requested your sword, and your spawn graciously handed Yamato over to me."
He paused again, his breathing shallow.
"Ah yes. He handed me this also."
He handed the amulet with Mom's pendant to Dad. My father looked at it curiously and turned to me.
"I don't know, I-" I started, but Mara gave a soft cry of pain, interrupting my thoughts.
Vergil's attention immediately snapped back to Mara, and he shook his head at the devil.
"If you leave me now, I'll never forgive you, Mara," he said softly.
I knew he was upset, but I couldn't tell if he was angry or sad. Mara smiled at him.
"I said the same to your father, the traitor," he teased.
His expression grew serious and his words came out in spurts very unlike his usual eloquence.
"Always thought of you as my own, nestling. Had to rescue you this time, couldn't abandon you again. Forgive me for leaving you back then?"
My father nodded stiffly, and Mara closed his eyes, nodding.
"All worth it, nestling. Family is always worth it all."
One more cry of pain escaped him, then he faded, dissolving away like all the other devils had, and my father was left holding nothing. Dante squeezed my shoulder again, painfully this time, then went over to his brother. I noticed Mara's swords lying in front of my father, but they looked different somehow.
I looked at my uncle and father again. Dante had knelt and was actually holding Vergil as he cried. I hadn't seen that much sensitivity and sympathy from the old man at any point, so seeing him comforting my father was a little jarring to me.
"Before Temen-ni-gru, Mara assisted me, guided me at every turn and in the end, I shunned him, rejecting him and his advice," my father stated, his voice choppy.
"At Temen-ni-gru, you offered me your hand, and I refused it, choosing instead to fall into the demon world. At Mallet Island, you defeated me. My life was forfeit and you could have killed me; I would have killed you had our positions been reversed. You did not and I resented you for requiring my service instead. At Devil May Cry, my very presence, as well as my practices, alienated your friends, allies, and even some of your business, but you never forced me away or even spoke to me about it. Because of my long imprisonment, my own nestling barely knows me, yet he has risked everything he had for me. Mara expended his strength and his very vitality merely to release me. Why? Why have all of you done this for me?"
He was looking at Dante expectantly, almost pleadingly, in his search for answers.
"Because you're family, and at the end of the day, that's what's left," Dante told him softly.
Vergil nodded and buried his head against his brother's shoulder. Dante rested his own head against his.
Family. That's exactly what I had been accusing Credo of: forsaking his family. And where was my family? I had left Kyrie at home, blissfully unaware of anything, I had left Credo lying in the library, possibly bleeding out, and I had left my mother floating in a goddamned tube in the lab. I clinched my hands, angry at myself.
Dante and I had looked over that ritual in the book, trying to figure out how to open the tanks. Of all the keys and objects Dante had left from his raid of the lab and office, none of them was the one required. No doubt Agnus had it. We did learn one thing, though: we weren't pressed for time since the Order had no one of Sparda's bloodline. One of us, Dante, Vergil, or myself, was required for the last rite. Since the Order had used Vergil's blood in other parts of the ritual, he was actually a better choice than Dante, or even me, but they had needed a willing participant to perform the rite, which was why they had been grooming me all these years. If I had bought into the doctrine a little better, their plans could have been accelerated. Maybe if my mother hadn't disappeared at Academy eight years ago, I would have been a true believer by now.
Mom. She was trapped, imprisoned. I had the power to free her. I glanced again at the half-devil twins.
Family.
Vergil's amulet dangled from his hand, Mom's pendant beating inside. Mom. I had missed her so much growing up; I still missed her. She was my mother, my family. She, Credo, Kyrie, and Blue had been my family, the only family I'd known. It had been painful leaving her there in the array room. I turned away from Dante and Vergil and started walking to the edge of the roof.
"Kid?" Dante called.
"There's something I have to do."
I expected him to argue, or least flip a sarcastic remark at me, but he didn't. Instead, I heard his brother's voice.
Vergil. Blue. My father. My mother's mate.
"Do nothing foolish, Nero Angelo," he said. "I don't want to lose you too, nestling."
I nodded, not even knowing if he was looking at me, then dropped off the edge of the building.
I was reluctant to confront Kyrie just yet. I couldn't get back into the library without Dante. But I knew where my mother was, and I knew how to save her. I headed back towards Fortuna Town, to Academy.
"You know what he's going to do, don't you Verge?"
"I believe I do," I admitted. "If I am correct, we have little time."
"Shouldn't we stop him?"
"No. It would be…dishonorable. We must let him do what he thinks is right."
Dante nodded, but he was still looking towards the edge where my nestling had jumped. I smiled tightly.
"You have grown attached to Nero Angelo."
"He's a hell of a kid."
Dante shook his head.
"Well, looks like we've got to go to work."
I looked down, noticing the blades for the first time. I frowned. They were assuredly Lethe and Eunoe, but they had altered. Once bright, silvery wave blades with black hilts, they were now black with purple fullers and hilts. They were longer, with a lighter, thinner design, although they retained the same wave shape. I picked up one of the swords and heard a metallic chink. A long intricate chain of blackened metal links fell from where the pommel should have been, connecting the two blades by the ends of their hilts. I looked at my brother questioningly, but he merely shrugged.
"I'd say his power went into his blades when he died and transformed them. I suppose it should be called Mara. Library or office?"
"It doesn't matter at the moment. We need to go through the Headquarters and find Agnus' research if we can. The Order has profited from our library for far too long. Then I believe we shall need to go back to the array."
I jerked the blade in my hand and caught its mate as it jumped, before absorbing the Arm.
"Age before beauty," he smirked, gesturing grandly to the edge of the roof.
"I have both, fool," I replied over my shoulder as I walked to the edge.
We dropped to the circus below and entered the Headquarters of the Order of the Sword. The doors snapped shut behind us of their own accord.
"Why do evil lairs always have self-shutting doors?" Dante pondered. "How do they even get them to shut themselves, especially perfectly timed behind the hero's entrance?" I stared at my twin.
"Those are the things you think about in situations like this?"
He shrugged.
"A guy's got to have a hobby, Verge."
"Ridiculous," I muttered, shaking my head.
We proceeded through the entranceway cautiously. A group of Mephistos materialized, accompanied by a Faust. Seeing the slightly stronger devil reminded me of a previous battle Dante and I had had with these bug-like lesser demons. I quirked a smile.
"Do you remember the last time we fought a group of these?" I asked.
He nodded, then jumped into the air slashing the Faust with his usual barbarism.
"Yep. I was even thinking about taking this guy's hat. Those things look so much better on me anyway!"
"Indeed," I agreed solemnly, the memory of Dante stealing the dying demon's hat and flopping onto his own head rising in my mind.
Laughter escaped me as I jumped into the air, attacking the Mephisto in front of me with my favorite three hit combination. It fell to the floor, its true body exposed, and I threw myself downward, foot first, crushing its form with my heel before stabbing it once more with Yamato. It dissolved into nothing, and I jumped up after the nearest replacement. I heard the rapid fire of my twin's guns and caught sight of the Faust dropping, Dante pursuing it with yet more gunfire as it crashed onto the floor. I sliced my opponent's hazy cloak completely away and encircled it with my summoned swords, stabbing it from every direction. It died as it fell, and I tricked mid-air to yet another Mephisto. Dante jumped into my view, and I surmised that the Faust was no more as he had indeed stolen its hat. I shook my head and focused on the next demon, and the next.
I landed gracefully back on the floor after the last demon evaporated, Dante landing moments after.
"Well, that was fun. Too bad they never last very long."
Dante gave a long-suffering sigh, pulled the Faust's hat from his head, threw it into the air, and riddled it with gunfire until it, too, was gone. He grinned at me, and I couldn't help but return it.
"Tell the truth now, Verge: you missed me, didn't you?"
"Never in life, Dante," I replied, walking down the hallway.
"Hey! How could you not miss me?" he pouted.
I ignored him, and we began our search of the Headquarters.
We investigated every room we came to and found very little in most of them. None of the files or papers contained anything that could be remotely construed as originating in our library, there were no more demons floating around, and not an Order member to be seen. I glanced at Dante.
"Something is very wrong, here."
"Yeah. I'm beginning to think that everything must be back at the lab at Academy."
I frowned. "But that doesn't truly make sense, either, Dante."
"Yeah, I know."
We continued our search of the building, finding nothing.
"Dante. We have only encountered defensive measures once since entering this place."
"What? You mean the front lobby?"
I nodded, flicking my gaze around the carving-covered walls of the last room.
"So you think that there is a secret entrance or hidden room or demonic broom closet back there."
I nodded again. He shrugged, glancing around as I had.
"Sure, Vergil."
He rummaged in a coat pocket, throwing something to me.
"You want this?"
I caught the object: a statuette of a snarling lion. I looked at it briefly before jamming it into the wall. It clicked neatly into place, revealing a passageway with a scared-looking male wearing the Order's insignia.
"Savior preserve me," he whispered, looking at Dante and me.
I raised an eyebrow.
"From his own sons' quest to retrieve his stolen knowledge? I see that happening, don't you, Dante?"
The boy gulped and turned to flee, but I caught him by the throat and pinned him to the wall.
"Tell us where we may find Agnus' research."
I kept my voice low and quiet, but there was no mistaking the threat.
"His office is through this way! I don't know about his research, I mean, I knew about the array, and the ascension room, we all do! But I don't know more than that! Please let me go!"
I let go of him, disgusted.
"Your blubbering and puling are unbecoming to you and your Order."
My brother and I turned to walk up the passageway, and I heard the boy speak again.
"You, you're not going to kill me?" he asked incredulously.
"Not really our style, no matter what the Order's told you, kid," Dante answered calmly, looking over his shoulder.
"The Order will come after you! They'll stop you! You won't prevent the resurrection of our belovéd Savior!" he screamed at us as he ran.
Dante shrugged at me. "Kids these days, no gratitude."