Hey guys, Alito Here! Welp graduation has come and gone for me and college, and now I'm back home trying to find something to do with this mass comm. degree. That probably doesn't mean my time on Fanfiction will be a lot though. Still, I'm gonna try and be here for a little while longer.

Welp here we are with yet even MORE DOA5 costumes. Like...really? I know I shouldn't complain but I would rather new game mechanics or new characters, new levels, etc. Confirmation for a possible DOA6 wouldn't hurt. But I guess with all the other games they got coming up, it only makes sense that this is all we're getting. Plus the costumes DO look good.

Also, once again I only have one thing to say; WHERE THE HELL IS DEVIL MAY CRY AT CAPCOM?

Also unrelated note; I saw Wonder Woman and LOVED IT a LOT. My second favorite DCEU movie really (first being BvS)

But enough ranting on about nothing. As Wonder Woman said in the Justice League Trailer

"Shall we?"

DISCLAIMER I OWN NOTHING. DmC: Devil May Cry and Dead or Alive 5 belong to their respected owners.

Chapter 36
Memories Worth Burying

DOATEC MAIN BUILDING

NEW YORK CITY

8:30 am, Monday

Vergil had starred into the microscope for what felt like hours to him. He was fortunate that the lab department for DOATEC had decided to allow him the chance to be alone with their equipment. But a little help from the owner of the building couldn't be ignored. The real challenge was convincing Marie to not disturb him. Nothing a locked door couldn't fix.

And so Vergil sat in the quiet, white room with beakers, microscopes, and other things that you would expect in a lab. Within the microscope, for every strange anomaly, Vergil jotted it down in a notepad. So far, his research seemed to have come up with what he was afraid of—The DNA of these girls' blood samples were definitely abnormal. Yet they show no real signs of being any different from normal human beings...or at least what's considered normal in their case.

Kokoro, Helena, and Mila's blood samples where the ones that were a big red flag to him. Marie's appeared to be normal. He couldn't quite make out Honoka's blood however. Further research for another time he supposed.

Vergil took a moment to sit back and rub his eyes. He wanted to mentally prepare himself for what he was about to do. If his hunch was correct, then things could become much more complicated then he had at first anticipated. He was already responsible for releasing the Knights of Hell, the last thing he needed for anything else to go wrong.

Regardless, Vergil sat back forward and reached into his pocket for yet another blood sample he had saved from the takeover of the Japan-sector of The Order.

He placed the second sample onto the microscope and examined them along with Kokoro, Mila, and Helena's samples simultaneously.

After another few minutes of comparing his notes to the notes of the new sample, what he discovered almost made his heart sink...His hunch was unfortunately correct.

"No...! I was afraid of this...!" Vergil muttered to himself.

For a moment he tried to find his mind and figure out what to do next; should he tell them? No. He needed Dante to be hear to hear about this too. He wanted everyone to be here to explain it.

He turned off the microscope and grabbed the blood samples, along with his notepad, and his sword that was leaning on the table. He rushed through the door and ran bolting down the hall while passing other workers. He didn't want to be rude, but his discovery was far too important for him not to hurry back to Helena's office where they all were waiting for the results.

Once he reached the double doors of Helena's office, he immediately swung them open and spoke the patient girls inside.

"I found it!" Vergil claimed loudly. "I know why the Dead or Alive contenders are being sent to Limbo!"

The girls in the office all seemed to have stopped what they were doing, in order to give Vergil their utmost attention. Mila and Kokoro's small talk was cut short, while Helena's paper work could wait another hour or so. Marie was at first mad at Vergil and was ready to chew him out on leaving her so quickly, but was also silent to hear what her hubby had to say.

"do tell." Helena asked.

"I will...but first, I need to find my brother and the others." Vergil said as he quickly walked into the office. "Do you mind if your floor gets dirty?"

"No, but I—Hey! What are you doing?-!"

Helena referred to Vergil unsheathing Yamato and proceeding to remove his glove. He placed his blade to the palm of his hand and proceeded to slowly cut deep until the blood could practically pour from it.

"Jesus..." Mila uttered in similar cringe as Kokoro.

"V-Vergil, hunny, what're you doing to yourself?" Marie asked cautiously. "I-If you have some sort of weird habits going on, there's nothing proper communication can't fix...!"

"I appreciate the concern, but this is no call for attention." Vergil made clear, as he clutched his palm into a fist to allow the blood to fall to the floor. He walked in a small circle and moved his hand to form some sort of insignia within the circle. "This is a makeshift rift gateway. It will send me directly to where Dante with the help of our amulets. I'll be sent to Limbo, but I'll hopefully find Kat to let me out."

"Kat? Whose Kat?" Marie asked suspiciously.

I'll let you two explain that to her..." Vergil told Mila and Kokoro. He looked back at Helena before activating the portal. "I won't be long. I'll return with Dante and the others."

Helena nodded. "bonne chance."

Vergil nodded right back, before placing his glove back on his hand, and sheathing his sword. He took a knee and placed a hand right onto the floor where his portal laid. Suddenly a small light had enveloped the blood and a pillar of aura formed around him. It slowly began to increase in ferocity as Vergil was just about to make his jump into Limbo. It almost appeared as though everything was going according to plan...almost.

"Kyaaa~ Watch ooooout!-!~"

Suddenly, Vergil felt something soft slam right into the back of his head, with enough weight to almost make him collapse to the ground. Before anything could be done, the portal had vanished in a flash of light, along with Vergil and whatever had accompanied him. The girls in the room all looked at what had just occurred with matching expressions of uncertainty.

"W-Was...was that Honoka-chan just now?" Kokoro said meekly.

Marie was the first to facepalm. "Oh Honoka..."

"S-So what now?" Mila wondered. "She just fell into Limbo with him? Can she even GO into Limbo?-!"

"Do not worry." Helena stated. "Vergil is with her. She will be fine...I hope..."

PARADISE (LIMBOFIED)

LIMBO CITY

8:49 am, Monday

Minutes felt like hours as Kasumi and Dante searched high and low in the same staircase room. So far, all they found was continual wreckage, mold, and cobwebs hanging off of enclosed spaces. Kasumi had become frustrated of it all for two reasons; the first reason being that they've found nothing that could uncover more about this mansion and Dante's parents. And two...

"Okay, okay, I got another one..." Dante said in boredom. "What did the surgeon say to the patient with a bad hip's joke?"

"I dunno, Dante..." Kasumi sighed in defeat.

"I found this humerus, ha ha, funny joke..." Dante said in a monotone voice.

She swore he was doing this all on purpose.

"Y'know Dante," Kasumi said with great restraint, "instead of raising my urge to drop kick you in the face, could you, by any chance, try to remember something about this old place?"

"Yeah, 'cause I've just been sittin' around, doin' nothin' right?" Dante responded irritably. "But...look, I just don't have a goddamn clue what the hell I should even be looking for! Like, there could at least be somethin'; a logo, an item, a fuckin' keychain for god's sake...!"

Dante let out an annoyed sigh as he got up from the corner and strolled over to Kasumi on the other side. "I think we've searched all we needed to down here. Let's move on."

"Agreed." Kasumi nodded as she meet Dante in the center of the staircase room. "Where to next?"

Dante looked around at the possible areas to travel. Most of the doors were either boarded up or practically cemented by unbreakable doors. There seemed to be no way through them due to some strange, red aura surrounding them. Dante didn't want to risk going anywhere near them yet. He eyed the entire second floor for another way through but all the doors seemed to have been blocked off...until he saw it.

It was only for a split second, but Dante swore he could see something. His brow was raised as he looked over towards the only opened entry into a dimly lit hallway with a flicking light.

"What's wrong?" Kasumi asked, following his gaze towards the dark hallway.

"I...I think I just saw somethin' up there..." Dante said with uncertainty. "Call me crazy, but...it looked like a black shadow of a person..."

"Are you sure?"

"I'm not sure of anything anymore...c'mon!"

Dante took off up the staircase with Kasumi following right behind him. The two ran up the second half of stairs before jogging right into the flickering hallway that turned a corner to lead into a deeper pathway, with similar flickering lights going all the way down into an even darker room far ahead. There absolute silence save for the sound of the lights flickering above. There was not even a single gust of wind; only a dull chill like being in a freezer.

"I don't like this, Dante..." Kasumi warned. "It's way too suspicious..."

"Aaaw, don't tell me you're afraid of ghost~" Dante smirked.

"Dante, we've fought demons, dragons, and know a spirit medium; I don't put ghost off the table." Kasumi reminded him.

"Suit yourself. I'm goin' in." Dante declared.

Dante trudged on down the creepy hall with no intentions of waiting for Kasumi. Reluctantly, Kasumi followed along and walked closely with him. It wasn't that Kasumi was afraid of Ghost, but rather she was afraid of being ambushed by someone, or something in the dark. All it took was the time between the flickering lights went off and back on (which was about three seconds of darkness and five seconds of light) for anyone to strike them down. As such, Kasumi watched their backs, and hoped Dante was keeping an eye on their front.

Suddenly, Dante heard a splashing sound as he took a step into something wet and...surprisingly sticky.

"Ah, shit...!" Dante groaned as he lifted his foot.

He looked at it to see strange ink-like liquid under it. It had no real smell to it either. Ahead of him was a giant puddle of this black liquid that stretched out towards the end of the hall, and even into the dark room ahead. It was almost as if the darkness of the room was pouring out into the creepy hallway. He could see the ripples from his footstep, suggesting the black liquid was a good two inches of water.

"Is that...ink?" Kasumi wondered.

"No...I dunno what this is." Dante said as he reached into his pocket for his lighter and some matches, "But it's comin' from in there."

He handed Kasumi the matches as Dante lit the way through the black, watery mess of a floor. Kasumi lit a match and followed right behind him.

In a brief second, Kasumi stopped...she could feel a presence behind her. It was dull, sinking feeling that washed over her, as if someone had put a weight on her back. She slowly looked over her shoulder, towards the other end of the hall...

There it was.

A dark, shadowy figure on the far side of the way they came with piercing blue eyes.

It snapped its fingers and all of a sudden, the room went completely dark, save for Dante and Kasumi's small buds of light. Even the light from the stairway room had been plunged into pitch blackness. All was silent and still. Not even the water could be heard.

"D-Dante...?" Kasumi called out to.

"Yeah, I saw it too." Dante assured her. "That's the black figure I saw before.

"I-I still feel it behind us..." Kasumi whispered. "What's our next move...? Dante?"

She looked towards her Nephilim companion, and discovered him starring off into the distance. His eyes were wide open, as if he had seen a ghost.

"I...I recognize this place..." Dante mumbled under his voice.

"What?" Kasumi asked.

"I remember...I remember this hallway." Dante said more audibly.

Kasumi was about to ask more questions, however Dante quickly walked down the hallway. Kasumi obviously followed close behind, while keeping her eyes out for whatever had been following them in the darkness. They had continued walking, until Kasumi bumped into Dante's back while he stood still. She looked up at him to see his eyes surveying the room with his lighter. Kasumi did the same by raising her match-lit hand. Through the darkness, they could barely make out a living room with moldy, creaking floor, and the paint on the walls deteriorating from rest was shrouded in darkness.

"Kasumi, over here."

Dante looked forward towards Dante shining a light on, what appeared to be, an old portrait. She strolled over towards him to get more light onto it; it was of a man dressed in a red pea coat with a metal pauldron on his left shoulder. His face was ripped off of the painting, while his hands was in possession of an otherworldly claymore. Beside him was a metal shield with a strange insignia of a sword with wings.

"I-Is this your...?" Kasumi asked, but trailed off once she looked beside her to see Dante.

He only stared at the painting in silent contemplation. This immediately answered her question, as she also gazed at the old painting along with him. The two stood there in silence for a good minute before Dante spoke up again.

"My old man...you know about him?" Dante asked her; eyes still on the painting.

"I know enough." Kasumi answered. "Ryu told me all about it. Plus, I remember a little bit of the story from my father. He was a powerful demon who betrayed the demon king, Mundus, for love. The two disappeared and...well, I guess they had you and your brother at some point."

"Bingo..." Dante confirmed with a nod. "But that's all I can...huh?"

There conversation was interrupted by the sound of foot steps quickly approaching from behind them. Both turned on the heel with hands on both their weapons, but by the time they could contemplate anything, they were suddenly knocked off their feet, and sent flying back into the wall. But instead of coming in contact with a hard surface, their backs felt as though they hit a surface of water and they were thrown into the ocean. The feeling only lasted a moment as they had fallen onto the other side, and right towards the ground.

The first thing Dante felt was the pain the back of his head felt when it hit the ground. Kasumi, on the other hand, was able to land on her feet with minor issues.

"Augh...! The fuck was that...?" Dante groaned.

"Dante...?"

Dante rolled over to his side to see that Kasumi may have called his name, but her attention was kept on what was ahead of them. She wore an almost startled expression that even had Dante a bit worried. He quickly picked himself up back to his feet and looked followed Kasumi's eyes...he shared in Kasumi's astonishment.

What stood before them was a long, stone-stepped hallway. The stairs were held over a deep, dark cavern of abyss. Ahead of them was nothing short of an enormous cave that had been illuminated by a strange heavenly light that peered from the two, circular holes above. But what truly caught their eye was the immense statue that took up most of the giant cave's room. It was of, what appeared to be, a naked woman made entirely out of iron who was on her knees and her arms spread wide It was as if she were trying to hold the entire cave together. From her back, sprang a pair of wings that also attempted to hold the cave together. One of an Angel, the other of a Devil. It seemed it was looked down at something that was under her massive body. They couldn't quite see what it was, but they could see it levitating off the ground and twirling ever so slowly.

"What the hell is all this...?" Dante uttered without thought as he looked all around the cave.

"I-I...I don't know..." Kasumi said, just as dumbstruck as Dante was.

The red Nephilim looked all through the cave, until his eyes settled on the slowly, twirling item right under the statue's body. He squinted his eyes to get a better look, but just couldn't see what it was from where he stood. He had to get a closer look.

Without even telling Kasumi, he began to take a slow walk towards the stairs, before beginning to take one step at a time across the steps. Finally, his curiosity could no longer sustain him, and he ran down the stairs, right towards the statue. He could hear Kasumi calling out to him from behind, but he just couldn't stop. He couldn't ignore the feeling of it. The statue...it was as if it were calling to him—it wanted him to come closer. It could've been a trap, or a demon tricking him into getting himself killed, but those were only thoughts in the back of his head. What he truly felt was...odd. It was threatening but...at the same time, very welcoming. It was a strange feeling he needed to follow.

Finally, Dante had reached the end of the stairs, and stood face to face with the colossal, iron statue. Looking at it more closely, its facial features were so detailed that it almost looked human to the black-haired Nephilim. It's eyes were closed with wrinkles on its brow—it, or rather she, was struggling. It really did look as though she were holding the cave together with only her own strength. There were even veins on her iron arms.

Dante looked right in front of him, and saw exactly what was spinning ever so slightly in mid-air.

Kasumi quickly joined his side with a slight pant. She too saw what Dante was starring at so curiously.

"It's a...sword?" Kasumi said.

The sword itself was a long claymore. It's handle was a dark grey with detailed ridges, and a round pommel made of brass. It's crossguard was gold, with its prongs pointed outward with the skull of a golden buffalo as its rainguard. The blade itself was as long and thick as his previous Rebellion sword, and had ancient text written near the crossguard and halfway across the blade.

Dante took a step forward, before having his arm grabbed by Kasumi.

"What?" Dante questioned.

"You're not really just going to take it, are you?" Kasumi protested. "You don't know what it is, or what will happen if you touch it."

"Well, I know it's a sword, and what'll happen is that Ms. Iron Maiden here'll sit back and let me...borrow it." Dante said confidently. "Besides, I'm short of one already."

"But still!" Kasumi exclaimed. "You don't even know if it's cursed, or if it awaits someone else to claim it!"

"It's in my house." Dante pointed out. "And since it's in my house, obviously no one else can claim it, but me. Sooo...yeah, I call dibs."

"Dante no!" Kasumi insisted. "Look, let's not be rash. We should try and contact your brother first. You said it yourself; he's been in here before you. He may know more about this then we do." She tugged hard on Dante's arm. "Let's just go back to the others, then we'll get the sword, okay?"

Dante looked at Kasumi for a moment with furrowed brows, but could tell she was worried by the look in her eyes. He looked back at the sword that was just begging to be taken. Despite his strong desire to use it, even Dante knew that it was way too convenient that a sword would present itself so easily.

Dante sighed deeply as he began to let Kasumi tug him off towards the stairs.

"Yeah, you're right. We'll come back here as soon as we can—PSYCH!"

Dante immediately broke free from Kasumi's frail grasp of his arm and ran right towards the floating sword without a second thought.

"Dante! No!"

But Kasumi was too late.

Dante's hands had wrapped around the mysterious sword. The echoing sound of Dante's palm slamming onto the handle filled the hollowness of the statue and throughout the cave until had felt like a low murmur creeping about. Dante peeked through his squinched eyes for the nearest sign of danger, or even the sound of a trap being set to try and attack him...

...nothing.

Not single, solitary sound that was out of the ordinary could be heard. Only the sounds of wind from outside, filling the cave. He could find no immediate danger in his sights, and was slowly beginning to let his guard down at the prospect. He was surprised that there wasn't a bunch of arrows flying at him, or the floor giving way towards the bottom of the abyss. Nothing. It was a tad bit disappointing to him that there wasn't a challenge, but figured it was better that way.

"Well, that was a bust." Dante said, "Chalk one up for the man of the house, eh, Kasumi...? Kasumi? Hey, I get you're mad but that doesn't mean you gotta be so..."

Dante looked over his shoulder towards the ginger-haired Konoichi for a response. She said nothing...in fact, she was actually frozen in place. The last physical motion she was doing was taking a running stride towards the Nephilim, but was caught in a strange frozen loop in time.

"Hey! Kasu—huh?"

Dante turned back towards the sword to find he could not remove his hand from its handle. He tried desperately to pull away, but to no avail. It was as if the sword had been cemented into his palm.

"Aw, fuck! Come oooon!" Dante growled through his teeth as he tried to pull his hand away. "Oh yeah, nice job, Dante! Always gotta be extra! Dammit!"

Finally Dante gave up and took a knee to think about what he was planning to do now. With him being practically cemented to the sword against his will. That, and Kasumi was frozen in place. He couldn't even reach her to shake her out of it.

"Great..." Dante sighed. "Now what...?"

Within those moments, Dante only sat there in silence, and was, for a moment, becoming rather nervous. One of the worst things that could happen to him was being trapped in Limbo with absolutely no chance of getting out.

Suddenly, Dante happened to peek over towards the entrance in which he came from to at least see if the wall had changed in anyway. He was overcome with horror once he saw what had slowly crept out of it; it was that same black, humanoid figure that he assumed had pushed him into this mysterious cave in the first place. Once it's whole body had slipped onto the marble floor, it slowly levitated a few inches off the ground, right down the stairs towards him.

"Aw shit, not now...!" Dante hissed.

He reached for one of his guns and was shooting rounds into the shrouded figure, but they did nothing to it, as it only grew closer. With each inch it took, Dante could hear the sounds of very low moans coming from it. However it wasn't just one moan, but a mix of multiple moanings of men, women, and even children within its dark body. Finally it had reached the end of the flight of stairs, and was within a small walking distance towards the Nephlim.

"No...!" Dante yelled frantically. "Get the fuck away from me! Get away from—Fuck!"

Dante looked back at the sword with desperation for it to release him, or at least let him use it to defend himself. He tugged and pulled on it for it to release, but it just wouldn't budge an inch for him.

"Come on! Throw me a fuckin' bone!" Dante yelled. "Come oooon!-! Why! Won't! You! Let! Me! Go?-!"

The black-haired Nephilim was pulling as hard as he could, before he could feel the cold chill seeping down the back of his neck. The millions of moans rang through his ears as if they were laying in an abyss below the Earth's core.

He slowly turned to face the origin of the moans, but was suddenly submerged in shroud of black abyss that masked his vision. Instinctively, he began to wave his hands about but soon that feeling dissipated. His body felt numb, as if he were sinking into one of his most dangerous pill-popping highs of the past. But something was different with this one.

It wasn't as if he was really seeing what was happening, but rather, he swore he was...imagining it; almost like a dream.

He remembered his mother.

Her name was Eva.

He remembered kind she was. As sweet and overprotective as can be. She was the type of mother who was sneak their child sweets before dinner.

He remembered the amulet she gave him.

He even began to remember his brother too, and how they use to play sword fight in the garden. Vergil would always lose to him due to Dante pulling a cheap shot at the last second, but would always help Vergil back to his feet.

With what little he could recall, he even remembered his father, Sparda.

Sparda was strict; always pushing Dante and Vergil to be strong swordsmen. Despite that, the twins respected him, and he loved them both dearly.

They truly were a family.

But...then Dante began to remember something...peculiar at first.

He began to see the world through his younger self's eyes. He was strolling with his mother and brother through the market, and was on their way back home. He remembered it because it was a rare opportunity for Dante and Vergil to be able to go outside their home.

There was...a dog. It caught Dante's eye immediately. He had to have it. He followed it without his mother and brother knowing. It ran down into the forestry of Limbo; dead trees and leaves scattered all around him.

Dante had caught up to it, and called it over to him...then someoneappeared.

It was a strange man whom Dante had never met before. He gave a kind smile. One that Dante, at that age, felt he could trust. The man asked who he was. Dante answered, but remembered his mother and father's warnings to never talk to strangers. The man then said that he was a friend of his mom and dad; one who lost contact with them, and was happy to have been able to find them again.

Dante smiled and said they he could meet them again, and that he would bring his mom to him. The man said no, and instead asked him for his home, and that he would come visit them with presents to give. Dante loved presents and agreed. He told the man his address.

The man smiled kindly and said thank you to Dante, before retreating deeper into the woods.

Before Dante could go back to finding the dog, Eva had frantically ran to him along with Vergil. She was angry. She yelled at him, and brought Dante to tears. He remembered...being angry. So angry with her for yelling at him, that he yelled back.

He had said something he now regretted.

"I wish I could just go outside our home! I wish you would just go away!"

After that, she yanked him all the way back home with Vergil accompanying them.

Dante never did find the dog, but...he did find small red dots on the ground. Could it have been paint? He didn't know at the time.

Once the three got back home...everything happened so fast. Dante couldn't even figure out what had happened.

The door was ripped off its hinges, glass broken on the floors. The rooms were in shambles. Dante remembered running with his mom and Vergil through the halls. She called out to him; telling him that they were here. They had found them.

Dante and Vergil followed their mother into some sort of room. A room that was hidden away in a secret cupboard. She gave them both a tight hug and a kiss before leaving them in that dark space.

The two sat in petrified silence as they heard absolute silence. Neither knew what was going on or why. They could only follow their mother's wishes and sit in silence.

Suddenly, both heard the shuffling sounds of feet, along with the sound of a blade being dragged along the floorboards.

Dante and Vergil stayed quiet through their tears as the strange sound grew closer towards the cupboard. Dante and Vergil closed their eyes, and embraced each other tightly in fear as they waited for the inevitable.

What opened the door was not a horrible monster, but was instead their father Sparda, and, what appeared to be, the family sword; Rebellion in his hand. Sparda took the twins from the cupboard and lead them down another hallway.

As they ran, Dante only happened to have glanced through a hall to see...that.

That horrid scene that would forever be burned into his mind.

The scene that would have him run down that hall screaming her name as her eyes settled towards her crying son running towards her.

A fitting last thing for her to see before her life was forcefully taken from her as she could hear her slow beating heart from her ripped open chest.

As Dante yelled her name he remembered seeing the face of the man who had taken his mother away from this world...

...it was him. The man he had seen in the park again.

"MUNDUUUS!-!"

Dante had never heard his father so angry before. It almost made him wet himself out of fear. But Dante had heard his name; Mundus.

His father attacked Mundus, and used it as a distraction to take Dante and Vergil away from the home and out into the night.

Dante had remembered her mother as the one who gave her life so that they could escape...and he had been forced to remember what he did to her.

The last thing he could remember was his brother and him being separated...

and everything...went black...

...until now.

Without warning, Dante's eyes had opened once again.

He had found himself in a familiar room. The same living room that was a battered mess from the floors being ripped up, to part of the ceiling giving way to the rays of light from above. Behind him was the same portrait of his father that loomed over him. By his side he could see an unconscious Kasumi, who looked to have been coming back around from her groans.

But what really caught Dante's attention was the feeling of something cold and hard in his left hand. He rose it up and was almost caught off guard. It was the sword from that cave. It was no longer stuck to his palm and he was free to move it.

But all that simply took a back seat to what was truly on his mind. Those memories had resurfaced after so many years of being dormant. Dante had always wanted to know what had happened to his family, to his home, to his parents...only to discover the horrible truth of it all. Mundus destroyed everything. It was his fault that Dante's life was a living nightmare everyday, and his fault he was forced to forget his own mother, father, and brother. It was Mundus's fault...

But it seemed Mundus couldn't take all the blame...

Kasumi groaned as she began to wake up. She rubbed her eyes and looked towards the Nephilim.

"Mmm...Dante...?" Kasumi muttered. "Dante, what happened...? Why are...we...?"

Kasumi's words trailed off the moment she looked upon Dante's face. What she saw were a line of tears forming down his cheek and a look of distraught across his face. The grip on the sword had tightened, as he began to lower his head in, what Kasumi could easily see as, shame.

"Dante...?" Kasumi called for.

"No...I-I..." Dante's words were choked up in his throat. "I-I..."

"Dante!"

Kasumi looked towards the entrance of the room to hear the familiar voice that called Dante's name. What followed was not one, but in fact, two people; The first being Vergil, however the other was a young woman whom Kasumi had never seen before. She was a pink haired, Japanese high school girl who, quite honestly, had too voluptuous of a body to be wearing such a uniform. The two ran right into the room the moment they saw Dante and Kasumi.

"Thank goodness you two are alright!" Honoka said happily.

"Uh...yes...who are you?" Kasumi asked as she stood up.

"O-Oh, yes! This is pretty awkward to have just met you all on such short notice! My name is Honoka!" Honoka said with a small bow. "I worked for Helena-san, and...well...I may have accidentally fallen into Limbo with Vergil-san, so...yeah..."

"Fallen in...?" Kasumi questioned. "But how are you—"

"Dante...?"

All attention was turned back to the scene with the twins. Vergil had taken a knee towards the slumped over brother, who didn't respond to any of Vergil's calls to his name. No matter how many times Vergil said his name, Dante didn't respond at all. He only stayed silent as his head was cast down. He could barely lift his own hand from the ground, or even have the strength to stand up. All he could do was sit there in his own despair as the images of the past continued to play within his mind. He could no longer hear his own brother; the memories were too great and overpowered him. Everything he thought he knew, all that he had fought for; it all could've been avoided had he not chased that dog, had he not told Mundus where he lived. He would still have a home, a brother...a mother and a father...He ruined it...not just for himself, but for his brother, and all of Limbo too.

He was to blame for it all...

"...e...ante...dante...Dante!"

Dante slowly snapped back into reality at the call of his brother, Vergil. The moment he did...he could only let his tears fall.

"V...Vergil..." Dante tried to say through his pain. "I...I...I did it...I sa...saw it...saw it all..."

"Saw what...? What're you—"

"My fault...my fault, my fault, my fault...I-I didn't want to, I-I just...I didn't mean..." Dante had continued muttering while crying his own eyes out in a moment of inner weakness.

"D-Dante, hey come on, brother!" Vergil pleaded as he lifted Dante's face to see his own. He looked into the hopeless eyes of his twin brother to see the tears continue to fall down his cheek. But beyond that, he could also see the anger boiling inside of him. "Hey, hey, Dante! Dante, look at me, okay? Just look at me. Now, please tell me; what are you talking abou—"

"IT'S MY FAULT, VERGIL!-!"

Dante's yell had taken everyone by storm in making them jump.

"I did it! I'm the reason their dead! Mom and Dad are dead because of me!" Dante screamed. "I chased a dog, and then Mundus found me, and then I told him where we lived! I-I didn't mean to, but he said he was friends with our dad! He fuckin' LIED to me! A-and then...! And then they came...! They came and they...! They...!"

Dante couldn't finish the sentence. He was too choked up to find it in him. He could only mutter whatever he could through his teary eyes.

"I'm sorry, Vergil...I'm so sorry...! I-I'm sorry..."

Vergil said nothing. He couldn't say anything in those moments. He didn't contemplate everything that Dante had said at first, but he took it in slowly, until he had finally gotten a full grasp of what Dante was yelling about. Once he did, all seemed to freeze for him. He couldn't begin to think of what to even say. Instead he could only let his body do what came natural to him...and so he embraced Dante into his arms and held him tight. He could feel Dante's tearful groans on his chest as he continued to mutter his apologies.

"I'm sorry...! I'm sorry...!"

"It's okay, Dante...It's okay..." Vergil said. But it was obvious he too tried to stay strong. But even he couldn't hold in a single tear from leaving his eyes. "It's okay..."

Even from watching them, Kasumi and Honoka were speechless; almost drawn to tears just as the brothers were. Neither could even begin to understand what they must have felt.

After a solid minute of holding him, Vergil had finally released Dante and looked him straight in the eyes with furrowed brows and tears of his own.

"You listen to me, Dante...I don't blame you."

"B-But I—"

"I SAID...I don't blame you!" Vergil made clear. "What you did wasn't your fault...I don't blame you, and neither would mother and father...They did what they needed to do to protect us. They knew that day would come one day, that's why they hid us away...so, it is not your fault, you hear me?"

Dante sniffed and wiped his tears from his eyes. He was still filled with grief, but otherwise nodded to his brother.

"And you know what we're gonna do?" Vergil stated. "We're gonna find Mundus...We're gonna find him, and we're going to kill him...for our parents and they're legacy, we will kill Mundus...for everything. I swear it...!"

Dante saw it; the fire in his brother's eyes. the courage to say the words he had just said, and have it in him to mean them. He could also see the pain that had weld up inside of him, just as it did in his own heart. It was as clear as day due to them being twins. In that moment, Dante had seen something in his brother that he hadn't seen in him since the very first moment they met...passion. It was such a powerful feeling that some of it had radiated off of him, and found its way into Dante. He could feel it building up inside of him and taking control of his body. There was a new feeling inside of him now that was desperate to ignite. He had never felt this way before, but he knew he didn't want the feeling to go away. He wanted to keep the fire in him, and sitting around, crying wouldn't help it burn.

Dante cleared his eyes of all his tears he had shed, and looked his brother right in his eyes with the same confidence that Vergil had.

"Yeah...we'll kill him..." Dante said, "...For family."

Vergil nodded. "For family."

Finally, the twins rose from the ground with each other's support, and stood tall and proud; prouder then either of them had ever felt before. Both looked towards their father's portrait for the last time; they saw that same confidence and passion within their father, and in that moment, felt him standing with them. They could feel him pushing the twins towards their destiny. And like obedient sons, they listened.

Dante held his sword tighter in his hands as he looked back towards his brother with that familiar smirk of his.

"Well...what're we waitin' for..." Dante said. "Let's go get that bald-headed son of bitch."

"Let's." Vergil replied with a smile as well.

As heartwarming as the scene itself was, it was suddenly put on complete hold the moment the ground had begun to vibrate. All four of them also felt the pressure hit them like a ton of bricks as the room around them began to shift out of place. The walls had moved on their own, while the ground had become darker and murkier like a swamp.

"The hell's goin' on now?-!" Dante questioned.

"It's Limbo! Something's controlling it!" Vergil exclaimed.

"We need to leave! Now!" Kasumi called out.

In that second, Dante noticed something from behind Honoka had shot out at her. He didn't think, and acted out of instinct. He ran towards her, and practically tackled her down before whatever had shot out from the wall had lopped her head clean off her shoulders. Dante had landed on his back with Honoka in his arms. Before anyone could do anything, from the crack of the floor boards shot up a thick wall made of the black miasma of Limbo that separated Vergil and Kasumi, who were on the left side, from Dante and Honoka, who were on the right.

"Dante!" Vergil called.

"I'm here!" Dante called back while helping Honoka to her feet. "What happened?"

"Limbo's begun to form again! Someone's controlling this!"

"Are you gonna be alright? You got your identity to hide!"

"I'm fine! I'm cloaked with an ancient wiccan spell!"

Kasumi looked behind her to find another entry way that had opened for the both of them. "Hey, I think I found a way out of here. We'll have to go our separate ways and meet up back in the living room where the stairs were!"

"I can see the door we all came from is on our side of the wall!" Honoka noted.

Dante also saw the door that lead to the hallway was on their side of the room.

"Then that's where we're headed." Dante confirmed as he placed the new sword on his back in a similar fashion as his Rebellion was. "Let's move, Honkers!"

"Right," Honoka nodded.

Dante took a running start with Honoka quickly following behind as the two ran right through the entrance and were now running down the long hallway. He could only assume Vergil and Kasumi had already went their own way as well. He assumed it would take a while before they all would see each other again. Given how crazy Limbo was, he wasn't expecting an easy time.

"Wait..." Honoka realized. "...What did you just call me?"