[[To open this up, I want to try and justify my absence and recent thoughts:

I've been away trying to finish up one of my original writings, but the whole thing, the challenge of writer's block and that kinda junk, has prevented me from getting it done. So this'll mark the first time in five years I haven't finished a complete original work =(. It's a sucky feeling.

But with that said, and still wanting to stay committed to my work, I have decided I will FINISH this story right here by the end of the year! So it's time to stay strong and push through. Here we go!]]

All momentum gained against the doppelgängers was instantly halted by the twins' battle with the shadow Sparda. The demon's power was incredible, every clash of blades ringing through the night with a tremendous force and forcing the half-bred twins backwards. All around the great demon there was an aura of fire, its deep, distorted snarls challenging them to come at him with all their might… An action they were already taking.

As imposing as the phantom Sparda remained, the true one remained just the opposite, utterly defeated. He was leaned against his sword for balance, every breath seeming labored as he painfully watched his sons caught in battle with the opponent meant for him. They had made some distance between him and his double, enough so that he could not call out to them, but was left wishing he could.

"I only ever wanted to protect you, my little blue earth," he muttered quietly. "You… And your children… My kind… Born in the smokeless fires, the bloody joules of Hell…" He paused and wheezed. "Mundus never saw you for your beauty… He saw your sons and daughters as animals he could control. Just one in an ancient line of monsters who thought themselves gods, back to the first of my ilk."

In spite of his lack of proper speech, the phantom Sparda displayed full cognition against Dante and Vergil, able to effortlessly dodge and parry every strike from their blades. Signs of weakness were beginning to show in the both of them as each took swings and failed to make a proper strike. The two made a dual effort to slash at the creature's stomach, but were blocked with ease. The doppelgänger tossed aside his sword as they did, grabbed both of their heads and smashed them together with a sadistic glee.

"I abandoned my friends, my family for you… Led the rebellions for your sake, kept this nightmare at bay for two millennia…"

Both of them woozy, the doppelgänger raised its sword again and this time slashed Dante across the chest. Blood was now dripping all down his front and through the cuts in his coats as he retreated backwards, gnashing his teeth painfully and took a few gunshots at the demon, which, even coated in the brilliant lightning, were completely ignored as the creature stepped closer. Vergil rushed at it, attempting to run Yamoto through its stomach, but the armor and hide proved too powerful and the blade failed to make a cut. Sparda's doppelgänger stopped moving towards Dante for a moment, turned to face the elder twin and raised a hand, a blast like a burning kanji blasting Vergil backwards in agony.

"And yet Ragnarok seems upon us again… In the end… I couldn't even save those I cherished most…"

"You got any bright ideas over there?" Vergil asked, struggling back to his feet as Dante was caught in a blade lock.

"Hands are a little full right now!" Dante yelled.

Vergil took his stance and a line of cuts slashed across the demon's hands, forcing it to drop its gigantic sword for a moment. Dante responded to the opening by attempting several slashes, but even then, the creature's scales and armor would not give way.

"Make your distance!" Vergil called, teleporting out of the way as another burning kanji was fired in his direction, a second forcing him backwards but not quite over as he reappeared, his face twisted in pain.

"Vergil… Dante… Forgive me… Even in my return, I could not save you… I can barely even stand."

The twins regrouped by one another's sides, trying desperately to devise a strategy and catch their breaths.

"I liked our old man better as that androgynous guy at the golf course," Dante muttered, wiping the blood on his lips, "Hell, gigantic ball of purple slime was better than this! At least we could handle that!"

"That wasn't our father you idiot!" Vergil barked. "It was Arkham, his form altered by his own desires and-"

Vergil had become so ingrained in his explanation that he forget to raise his guard, allowing the demon to silence him with another heavy slash. Vergil gripped his wounds and tried to parry the next attack, but proved too slow.

Even with his attention diverted the towering phantasm showed no sign of weakness. Dante fired several rounds into his back before taking slashes at his wings, only for the demon to whirl around and, in a tone nothing short of mocking, raised his foot and booted him in the face.

The true Sparda's stance finally gave way as he fell to the dusty ground, unable to even grip his blade. In a moment of solemn weakness, he stared at the ground and muttered, "Mother…" Then turned just enough to look towards the sky, "Father… Forgive your adopted son…"

A hand was at his shoulder. He knew it, though only barely acknowledged it.

"Do you think the two you just called your parents or your sons need you admitting defeat right now?" His wife asked him, she herself on her knees at his side.

Sparda found only enough strength to force himself upwards a bit. "It wouldn't matter… This fight is in their hands now."

"They're fighting the greatest warrior this world ever knew," she said. "The one who forced out its demons and protected it for two millennia… They need all the help they can get."

"And what is it you think I can do?" Sparda asked. "Earth's protector, the legendary dark knight… And I couldn't even save my own family."

"Is that why you won't get up?" Eva asked. "Your weakness is what's going to make that thing even stronger."

"Do you think I don't know that?" Sparda asked. "If I could just push past that I would… But this… No one fell as hard as I did my darling."

"And no one can climb back up the way you can," she assured him. "If we are to overcome what lays before us, we need you, more than ever."

Both Rebellion and Yamoto were locked with Sparda's legendary blade, the doppelgänger pushing back against the twins with what only seemed to be minuet force, as if to imply to it, the battle was already won.

"Once a noble legend… Then killed in my own garden by a vagabond… And what world did I leave behind for my sons? I lost one to Mundus, the other is forced to carry on my work… I couldn't even save you…"

"You got any more bright ideas?" Vergil asked, gritting his teeth against the force of the doppelganger.

"Still… Working on it," Dante forced back.

"Most, men and demons, don't get the chance to make a difference after they die," Eva said. "Is this really what you want to make of that chance?"

"What difference does it make anymore?" Sparda asked. "They can overcome me… Somehow they will… But I just don't believe I can overcome myself."

A quiet came between the couple as their sons continued to struggle before Eva softly said, "You were their favorite character when I read them their bedtime stories."

"And I suppose that's all I could ever hope to be to them," Sparda said. "I suppose it's better than the old man who left them a mess to clean up."

In that moment, Dante and Vergil found strength enough to force the blade off of their own. The demon was taken completely by surprise and, though their attacks still did not seem to crack its defenses, they were at least capable of parrying when he swung again.

"Wait they… That's it… Boys! Both of you, over here!" She commanded to her sons, raising Madonna. "I'll hold him off."

With that she thrust her sword forward, forming its long, snake-like chain and stabbing the phantom in its stomach. It took little mind as it advanced on the couple and their children as they ran to join them.

"I want you both to talk to your father," she said. When they both gave her looks of confusion she continued, "He feels a failure to us, that's what's fueling his doppelgänger. If we're going to have any chance against it, he'll need all the help he can get in overcoming his doubts."

"Overcoming his doubts?" Vergil asked. "What are you talking about?"

"Ask him," Eva said, advancing on the doppelgänger. "I'll hold him off!"

With that Eva rushed up and began wildly swinging her chain sword, managing a few good hits on the beast but nothing showing him down. Dante and Vergil both remained by their father's side, perplexed, before Vergil cleared his throat.

"Father… I know I fell in life… I know that… Well if you knew everything you'd probably find me a little disappointing… I knew you ruled our world with a firm hand and incredible power… I wanted to do the same… I know I failed, I know I let loose a nightmare… But I only ever did it because I wanted to do what I thought you would have."

"Is it that legacy?" Dante asked. "That you left us with? Is that what's keeping you held down?" He knelt down at his father's side. "Dad… I never coulda been a normal kid. I didn't ever want to be. You and Mom? You gave me something extraordinary. And now maybe I can give something in return." Sparda looked at his son, confused. "Don't you get it? I'm a human. A human with your powers. And what am I using them for? Ending this fight. Up here? In my head, maybe I am a little crazy, but I really am a man, raised by a mother and given power by my father, out to do good… The same as almost any man would do if he could. The psychos I've fought off? They're the exceptions. Human beings look out for one another, they do whatever they have to for each other… And that's why you saved them the first time. And it's why, against all odds, you gave me strength to save them now."

It was now that Sparda found himself pushing upwards again, the tiniest of his strength restored when Dante said, "And I needed you… I got the ring. You know I needed you in order to come back. Well Dad… Show me what that was worth."

"I don't mean to interrupt back there!" Eva shouted, backing up, "But I don't think he's getting any slower!"

In a rush the phantom Sparda closed the distance and grabbed Eva's wrist, twisting it and forcing her to drop her sword. There was a single moment of real terror in her eyes as he raised his gigantic sword.

In a speed incomprehensible to the human eye, Sparda sprang back to life and forced his wife from the demon's hands, digging Force Edge into its stomach.

"You… You dare?!" He roared, suddenly fully aware and enraged. He took a swipe at the demon, seeming to finally do a little damage. "Use- my- powers- against- ME?!"

The devil was now afraid, every breath and shout accompanied by a vicious slash that seemed to finally chip away at its defenses.

"And against my family?! You- You-"

The demon raised its sword and slashed across Sparda's chest, only to find, in a fearful reversal, it had done nothing.

"That's my power you damned beast!" Sparda yelled. "And maybe I need to remind you, and Mundus, just what it's capable of."

As the doppelgänger again raised its sword, Sparda thrust forward his hand. In a moment of visceral glory, he pushed his palm into the demon's chest. As demonic shades of red began to illuminate around his gloved hand, the power and scale of the demon rapidly dissipated. In horror the creature tried to claw at him, tried to fight back, but it was reduced to his height in less than a minute, its sword disappearing entirely along the way.

Sparda clenched his ooze covered fist and the power emanating around it as he lifted Force Edge again. "You call that my power? I'll show you what it can really do!"

The Victorian-garbed gentlemen disappeared in a surge of demonic light. Standing now was the devil who overthrew hell, ten feet tall, gigantic goat horns, wings, both bat and insectoid and a layer of scaly brown armor. His sword had taken its true gigantic, mighty shape as well, as he swung and slayed his demonic opponent. A moment of quiet overtook them before Sparda turned to Dante and said, "Thank you, my son… I await your word of command."

The doppelgängers finally overcome, Dante turned his attention to Lady, Trish and Lucia, who had forced Behemoth onto its side, the creature clearly struggling, but with fight left in it.

"Killing them from the inside has been a safe bet before," Dante muttered to himself, "But you guys can't come along… And Kyrie's inside there already so…" A smile came across his face. "Guess we gotta bring the inside out, follow my lead!"

The four rushed to the aid of the three, who were dispersed around the toppled Behemoth's body as it struggled and writhed on its side, a few notable cuts clearly coming out from its stomach.

"Okay listen up!" Dante commanded. "Everyone, on the stomach to the sternum, now!"

"No!" Behemoth howled in agony. "Please-"

Already the focus had been drawn. Gun, sword and lightning all converged at the giant demon's stomach for slash after slash. In spite of seeming soft, it was a struggle to cut deep enough in, but with so little energy left, the demon could do little to resist. After a few minutes of blasts and cuts, a hand finally pushed out from between the increasingly gaping hole in the beast's body.

Kyrie forced her head out, gasping for breath. "Finally!" She yelled. "And… Where did all these reinforcements come from?!"

"No time to explain!" Dante replied. "You figure out how to kill this thing?"

"Keep working on this cut," she instructed. "I'll be right back!"

Though Dante was sure others were as confused as he was by her instruction, he just kept slashing, the others following suit. Longer and wider the wound became, until something else began pressing on it from the inside. Dante had to double take at this before it finally slipped through the lines of flesh. A large, still beating heart, veins still attached, was forced out of the monster's body as Behemoth shook with pain.

"There are seven more!" Kyrie yelled. "I'm getting them all out there!"

So one by one the demon's eight hearts were forced out of its body, with little resistence from it after the fall of its doppelgängers. Kyrie brought the last one out with her and, on her signal, all eight of the slayers viciously tore in. Within moments, every heart had been eviscerated and, in a last roar, Behemoth was defeated.

There was a quiet amongst the eight for a few minutes thereafter, everyone attempting to catch their breaths, a few throwing pats on one another's shoulders and Sparda's return to his human guise. When that time had passed there was another rumble, Dante raising his pistols cautiously before a rectangular chunk of earth seemed to carve itself from the ground and levitate just in front of him, another just a few inches forward doing the same. In curiosity they all watched as a brittle, make-shift staircase up into the flying city was formed from the land they had just completed their battle upon.

At the as time as this a dark smoke seemed to overtake the floating city, obscuring it from view. Sparda looked at it harshly, muttering, "It's set… That smoke will lead right to the other side."

Dante turned to his fallen family and comrades, knowing well what was coming. "You all… Really saved me back there. I can't thank you enough for that."

"Ha, as if we were doing anything else," Trish said. "Please, I needed something that exciting to happen."

"I know you can't follow me to the other side… I just wanted to be sure I thanked you now." Dante said.

"Hey, maybe you'll somehow need to call on us again, I don't know how exactly these rules work," Lady said, "But maybe. I'd like that."

"Vergil, how about you?" Dante asked. "You got anything reassuring to tell your baby brother before he saves the world?"

Vergil rolled his eyes and turned away from him, only muttering, "Just remember, Mundus used my corpse to create a personal weapon… Make him suffer for it… And… Alright," he turned back, and with only the slightest bit more strength, said, "Good luck."

Dante turned to his parents, both of whom wrapped their arms tight around him. "You've done so well son," Sparda said. "So very, very well… We're so proud of you."

"Can I… Can I ask you something?" Dante asked as they made some more room. "You guys coming… And when you did… Does this mean… There is something after? And there is… Someone?"

Eva smiled at her son and brushed at his hair with her hand a little. "I think that's best left for you to decide," she said gently. Dante took her hand, shaking his head and smiling a little, softly closing his eyes. Putting a hand to his back one last time, in a voice soft as dying wind, she whispered, "Whatever happens, no matter what comes after… We will all, always love you."

When Dante opened his eyes again the five leaned backwards as their bodies faded, first as thin and spectral as ghosts, then entirely, only great beacons of light now shining in their place. As the beacons soared skyward, a surge of energy was released from each and struck Dante in his chest. He clenched his muscles in expectation and felt all of his wounds healed. He looked over himself for a moment in satisfaction, "Alright… Guess I'm all set then."

He turned towards the makeshift stairs and took his first step, but a second after his foot touched the stair it crumbled beneath him.

"Damn, one way up, no way down," he muttered.

"You could jump over a few steps," Lucia suggested. "Then we could follow-"

"We should take the hint," Dante said. "They doesn't want you two following… They wants me. Mundus and-"

"Dante no!" Lucia insisted. "Kyrie is right-"

"No…" Kyrie said. "I… I know… I already know… Dante," he turned to her directly, giving her his attention. "Listen to me… I'm… Not convinced what I saw was real but… But I want you to know… I saw Nero… The true Nero… Our Nero." Dante tilted his head in a questioning manner. "He told me he is suffering… Told me holds back the Nero you've been fighting against… Dante he's still alive, he's still there… I… I don't know if there's anything you can do…" Tears were welling up in her eyes. "But… But he didn't want any of this… He's innocent Dante… You knew him too, he didn't want and he doesn't deserve this! I… Just if there is a way, please, please-"

"Shhh," Dante instructed, closing the gap between them. "I know what you're asking… I don't know if there's anything I can do Kyrie… I don't. But I swear, if there is anything," he took hold of her hands and looked her in her eyes, "Anything I can do… I will find a way."

She nodded quietly and wrapped her arms around him for only a moment, quietly saying, "Thank you."

As Dante released her he turned to Lucia, "I know you don't like it, but I need you to stay here… I know, I've learned a lot about keeping my friends close in all this… But you gotta remember, he killed me last time… I've found my strength, and a lot of it… But you remember what happened the last time he took my friends away."

"I understand," Lucia said quietly. "I cannot stop you… But I can assure you that now, more than ever, I believe."

He smiled at her, "Thank you."

Lucia took a few steps backwards and began collecting the weapons left behind by Dante's revived allies. "They won't need them anymore," she said, offering him Yamoto, "They are better off in your hands."

Dante accepted the weapons Yamoto, Kilianna Anne, Sparda and Madonna from Lucia. "How exactly are you going to carry all those?" She asked.

"I've always figured it out before," he assured her. "I'll be fine."

The two stood together in another silence before Dante grabbed Lucia from behind her waist and pulled her into him, the two locking lips and holding the position nearly twice as long as the last time. Lucia had been expecting it, enough so that when he let go, she gave a sad smile and asked, "For luck?"

"Not this time," Dante assured her, moving in and kissing her again. She was so shocked by this she gave him no reaction at first before she grabbed at a handful of his jacket with one hand and ran the other through his hair. "We'll figure out the rest after I finish my work."

Reluctantly, the two separated, Lucia wiping at her lips a little before saying, "Go… You have work to finish."

Dante looked up towards the black, fogged citadel, taking a last breath and a final look of assurance towards his companions before he began running up the stairs.