So I just finished re-reading this story and realized that I completely missed posting this chapter. The next few chapters posted in rapid succession are just reposts in the proper order, but look out for regular updates for a while on this story. I'm probably going to try and finish this story before working on the others, but as long as I can keep updates going for this I might look into some other ones as well.

Vergil and Diva arrived home just fine, as expected. Diva was concerned when she heard about Ritorno's attack, but upon hearing that Terrence had stopped him, she seemed a little proud. Either way, they were both glad to know that the current threat seemed over. With Ritorno "behind bars" and likely to spill his guts, most likely both figuratively and literally, there was little over which to be concerned.

That being said, it was lunch, and they had nothing to eat. Normally that wouldn't be all that big of a problem, but considering the local Wal-Mart and Tops and even Aldis had been crushed, vaporized, or otherwise put out of business, they had nowhere to get more food. Surprisingly enough, they hadn't gone through this before, and Dante was exceedingly frustrated with the current turn of events.

"Well, we could always just go to another city and get non-perishables to bring back." Saya offered.

"That's easy for you to say; not all of us can survive off the blood of our enemies." Dante retorted.

That started an argument between the two as the others remained uninvolved. They all knew it would be necessary to go elsewhere in order to get food anyway, so Dante and Saya's argument was purely a form of verbally-abusive fun.

"I wonder what luck Terrence is having with the interrogation." Lady voiced, soaking the side of her head with a piece of ice in a hand towel.

"Hard to say; Ritorno knows that the only thing he has going for him is that virus. And, save for some dramatic plot device like a missile that will result in complete global saturation, he's lost his trump card for now. But if he gives it up and we destroy it, he'll just be another punk demon." Vergil responded.

"So you think he'll stay quiet?" She asked.

"I'm not sure. Like I said, he's a coward. So he might give up his secret to avoid whatever pain Terrence is willing to inflict on him during the course of the interrogation. And my guess is the only limit on what he'll do is what is necessary to keep Ritorno alive and physically capable of speaking. Considering his now half-demon body, that doesn't narrow things down very much."

Their conversation ended as the doors opened and everyone glanced at the newcomer. Ironically, it seemed like demons and other undesirables came in through the doors more often than they did, and certainly more often than paying jobs. There was little chance the entrant would pay for work, but Anthony was well-received nonetheless. Unlike Terrence's standoffish personality, Anthony got along with others fairly easy. He acted somewhat like Dante if he had learned to be mature at an earlier age yet retained an overall devil-may-care attitude. Diva spoke his name with enthusiasm and hurried over towards the door to meet him. It was likely because of his relative normal behavior that he got embarrassed when Diva hugged him.

"Um, thanks."

Diva wasn't bothered by his response. In fact, it made her happy. This was the first time she had gotten to interact with Anthony since learning he was her son, and the contrast between his response and Terrence's made her feel like she actually had a chance of establishing a real relationship with them.

"Why did you come here? Do you want some dinner? We will be going to get food when Saya and Dante stop bickering. I don't know how long that will be, but I can hurry them up."

Anthony shook his head.

"No, no, I'm good. I don't eat human food anyway. Besides, Enzeru's Fantasia kitchen still has plenty of food left, even though we have to make our own food now. I actually wanted to talk to you about something."

"Sure, what is it?"

"It's um… kind of a personal thing. You mind if we talk somewhere else?"

Diva, as usual, didn't grasp that the matter was uncomfortable for him, but appreciated that he wanted to speak with her exclusively.

"Sure, would you like to go for a walk as we speak about it?"

Anthony glanced behind him as if there were a crowd of people eavesdropping on them, but ultimately decided to consent.

"We'll be back in a few minutes." Diva told everyone before the two exited the building. The air was fairly cold, but neither of them particularly cared. If anything, they had gotten used to the wind chill, which was now free to roam the desolated city. Despite the lack of any manner of desirable scenery, they walked for several minutes in silence before Anthony began to speak.

"I heard about what happened at the shop earlier."

"Mm, it worked out fine. Saya is a tough cookie. Haji is too, even though he bleeds most of the time."

"Thing is… I heard about it before the guy attacked."

"Hm?"

Terrence breathed a small, quick sigh before heading into his point.

"What I mean is I knew it was going to happen before it did."

"You can see the future? That's wonderful! Do you know what we're going to have for dinner tonight?"

"No, I didn't have a vision or any of that mystic stuff, I heard about it… from Terrence."

"When he sensed something was happening?"

"No. I don't remember exactly when, but it was before the attack but after you and Vergil went to fight that other creature."

Diva turned her head towards Anthony as they walked.

"I don't understand, Anthony. What are you trying to say?"

"Terrence knew what was going to happen, because he's the one who planned it. He met up with that guy and sent him to kill Saya."

Diva stopped walking, but Anthony's feet carried him an extra yard or two before he turned back towards her.

"He also intended to be there to stop the guy when he got there, but I guess he was a little late."

"Anthony, are sure that's what he meant? Terrence planned the attack?"

"Yeah. But he didn't tell me why he would do that. Terrence met with him to set it up, so if he just wanted to bring the guy in, he could have done it then."

Diva had, expectedly, lost her sunny disposition by now. And though her mouth didn't dip below a straight line, that didn't mean she wasn't disturbed by the news.

"Yes, I understand what you mean."

"I mean, maybe he thought he could overhear the guy talking about his plans or something so he wouldn't have to go through the trouble of capturing him; find out what's going on and just kill the bastard. I don't know. But I wanted to tell you."

The girl drew herself out of her thoughts to look at Anthony, who she could tell was disturbed by what was going on. It was hard to distinguish whether his current state was due more to his brother's plans, or telling them to someone else. Diva decided it didn't matter, and before he could look up again, she was hugging him.

"Thank you for telling me, Anthony. I'm sure it must be difficult to trust me when you haven't known me for very long. But I am grateful you do."

Though it didn't surprise her when Anthony hugged her back, she hadn't been expecting it either.

"You get me. And you want to help. Terrence is always talking about how we're so strong and how we can handle anything, but I'm tired of just throwing myself into one damn thing after another. I like a rodeo as much as the next guy, but it's too much."

"I understand. Don't worry, when this whole thing is over we can take a break. You won't have to fight anyone or conceal any secrets."

Anthony's mouth twitched, and his lips parted as if to say something, but his voice failed him, and he hugged Diva tighter.

"They've been gone a while. Did he have to tell her about the draft of his first novel or something?" Dante inquired, his feet on his desk.

"Who knows? I think it's a good thing they've gotten the chance to talk. He's her son after all, Dante. You don't just say 'hi' and walk along." Lady responded.

Dante sighed and picked up the phone. He held it to his ear for a few moments before glancing at the chord running along the floor which connected the phone to the wall. As luck would have it, the floor was fine, but the chord had been neatly severed by a sharp blade.

"Shit." He remarked, tossing the receiver back onto its base.

"Were you going to call Enzeru?"

"Yeah, go figure that the dude from like the sixth century has a cellphone, and I don't."

"If you didn't keep spending it on parts to replace the jukebox-"

"Whatever, I'm going to use the one in the back. I'm hungry, and we'll be able to find out how things are coming along with tall, dark and crazy."

Lady didn't retort at his interruption since he had a good point, and she was rather hungry as well. Dante disappeared through the doorway, and Lady turned her attention to Saya. She had lost consciousness before the fight was over, so upon awakening the young woman's first concern had been how the battle ended. At first, when she saw that Haji and Saya were still alright, she assumed they had killed Ritorno. But when she discovered Terrence had stopped him, she felt both relieved and unnerved at the same time.

Lady had learned long ago that one's family ought to be defined by your relationship to another, not just by your physiological relation. As such, she wasn't concerned for Ritorno's well-being. But at the same time, she was bothered at the news that Saya was about to be beheaded by the man before Terrence arrived.

Considering Ritorno's speech regarding their being the weakest links of the team, she wondered what must be going through Saya's mind right now. Lady had known she was the weakest link of them all since the beginning, but with Saya the equation wouldn't be as simple. Before she could ask the girl how she was, though, she heard Dante shout, and saw something fly out of the doorway to the back. It didn't take her long to realize it was one of the infected chiropterans she had encountered before.

"Bastard… the hell were you doing back there?" Dante demanded from it as a wound on his forearm closed up. Apparently the thing had scored a hit before his throw. The creature obviously did not answer, but instead rose from the floor for another attack.

"Dante, you can't kill it normally; it's infected with that virus." Lady told him.

"She's right… it feels different." Saya spoke, already having drawn her sword.

There was no more time for talking before the beast once again leapt at Dante, who gave it a spinning sidekick, smashing the thing into the air. Saya and Haji followed up, slashing the creature through from opposite angles before it fell to the ground. However, by the time it had risen the wounds were gone. As Saya's blood dripped from her blade it was obvious she had no effect on the creature.

"Guess we'll just have to decapitate the thing." Dante voiced, cracking his neck as Vergil rose from his position on the couch, moving towards Yamato.

Once more, the chiropteran's initiative was blistering, and it charged at Dante again. However, as if it suddenly changed its bestial mind, the creature changed direction and leapt upon Lady instead. She'd had Kalina Ann nearby, so its jaws closed around the thick metal instead of her torso, but it didn't account for the differences in their physical strength. She felt as if her back had broken as soon as she was thrust into the ground, but managed to hold it off until Haji and Dante could get ahold of it and pull the thing away.

"Enough of this crap!" She shouted, turning the missile launcher towards the chiropteran, flipping a switch, and firing a missile into the thing's abdomen.

"Shit!" Dante spoke as he and Haji dove away. Within a second or two the delayed fuse detonated and the creature was scattered into too many pieces to regenerate. The surrounding area was splattered with its blood, but at least the blast had more or less vaporized its organs.

"The hell was that, Lady? We had it under control." Dante complained as he pulled a canine tooth out of his hair.

"Oh, shut up. Not everyone can survive being a chiropteran's pin-cushion." She retorted, wiping blood off her face.

"Are you alright?" Saya asked her while sheathing her sword.

"Yeah. My back's probably going to hurt for a week, but I'll be fine. What I want to know is how that thing snuck in here, and why it was here."

"That's a good question. If it was the usual blood-thirsty animal they usually are, it should have attacked us as soon as it smelled us nearby." Vergil added.

"Well I was all over the first floor looking for Enzeru's number. I didn't see any oversized holes, so I'm guessing it didn't bash its way in. Either way, we gotta clean this stuff up before it soaks into the floorboards. I'm not a pina colada man myself, but 'Scorched Chiropteran Skin' isn't my favorite air freshener either."

No one laughed, but everyone agreed they didn't want the current smell lasting past the night. But even after Diva and Anthony came back the number one question on everyone's mind was why the mutated chiropteran had been sneaking around their home.