Avarenda, I know what you're saying, but this story is primarily action.

Not to mention I didn't know how long it would take to get the fighting over with and once the storyline had established itself I couldn't(well wouldn't) just decrease the number of people to fight, since the number of people is part of the main plot.

I know the constant fighting has probably gotten old, but I would've felt really bad if I'd just said, these guys are somehow not going to be able to fight them. I'm not saying that's what you're trying to say I just mean that I'd rather have perhaps too much fighting more than make it seem like these guys just don't show up because I'm too lazy.

I hope this chapter will give you something to look at though. I made sure to give you(and everyone else who's reading it) a break from the chopping and hacking. And I thought this chapter was very special, because of what it is about. It's probably the first chapter I've written in a while that I really got involved in on a deeper level.


"These guys sure have strange tastes." Diva commented on the room they were in now.

It looked like… a warehouse.

What kind of ultimate-ruler-person-man stayed in a warehouse?

Diva had never been one to judge people on anything, really. Since she'd never really cared how other people did things. But it still seemed strange to her.

The warehouse was rather small, considering its appearance, and while it had a very high ceiling like most of them do, the room itself couldn't have been any bigger than fifty feet wide and long.

And separating the sides of the warehouse from the main area on either side were large metal containers that stretched all the way up to the ceiling, blocking out the spotlights that illuminated the rest of the room.

Across from them was a metal shutter that slid open to… wherever it led to. But this entire place was boring!

She gave a quick, light-hearted sigh.

"How many people do we have left to fight now?"

Nero glanced down at her.

"Why?"

"I don't know it's getting… boring, I guess."

One of his eyebrows rose up.

"You find life-or-death struggles 'boring'?"

She shrugged.

"Well, not all the time but how many people have we fought by now?"

He thought for a few moments.

"I suppose you have a point."

Diva nodded and looked around.

"Maybe we got lucky and they killed themselves like that Stalin guy at the end of that second big war."

"You mean Hitler?"

"Yeah him." She responded, obviously not caring she'd gotten the wrong person.

Nero took a few steps forward, past her.

"Well, if you don't like how many people we've had to and will continue to fight I suppose you could always take it up with Ritorno once we get there."

She bit a side of her lip in contemplation.

"Never mind. I'll be too busy cutting him up to complain."

A strange silence followed.

"…But isn't fighting what you were just complaining about?" He asked, turning to her.

Diva looked at him with a strange expression; she was smiling, but looked like she'd gotten tired of him.

"Stop talking now."

He looked away and started walking towards the shutter.

"Fine, then. Let's just get going."

As his steps echoed across the metal walls of the building, however, something violently shot upwards toward the ceiling, almost signifying the beginning of another-

It was Diva's hand.

"Excuse me! Excuse me!" She spoke like a small child in class.

"I'm tired!"

His steps ceased and the man turned around, looking at her with the largest expression of surprise he'd shown since she managed to hurt him back in the coliseum.

"What is your point?"

The girl's hand came down and her head tilted a bit.

"My point is, I'm tired and I want to take a rest."

He gave a sigh reminiscent of a dog's.

"Dante and Saya are fighting in the next room, how are you going to be able to just 'rest'?"

Her head straightened and her smile widened, the girl now standing next to one of the large metal containers.

"Like this." She spoke matter-of-factly while sitting down and placing her back up against the container.

Nero gave yet another sigh, prompting the girl to pat the area next to her like a person trying to get a pet to come over to them.

"Come on. You've got to be at least a little tired by now."

His eyes flashed just a hint of surprise, but he calmly walked over next to her and sat down as well, though his back was straight and he sat up as if he were a military officer; stern and immovable.

Diva found it amusing, and closed her eyes.

"So, what are you going to do after this?" She asked him.

She couldn't see his reaction to the question since her eyes were closed.

"It will depend on whether or not I survive."

"What do you mean?"

"If I survive, I suppose I'll think about what to do next. If I die, I'll decompose."

She let her relaxed expression show some humor for a moment.

"You sound like someone else I know."

"The man you always speak of? Vergil?"

An uncomfortable silence followed afterwards as she opened her eyes once again.

"Yes."

"I miss him." She added.

Nero shifted against the boxes.

"You're sure he died?"

Her eyes looked down at the ground in response to the question before she could form an answer.

"We found a man with white hair and wearing blue- he always wore blue- lying dead on the ground with his sword in his hands."

"Did he have the same face?"

Diva swallowed and closed her eyes again, bringing her legs in as a result of the uncomfortable question.

"His whole body had been dried up too badly, like the life had been sucked right out of him." She spoke, her voice tinged with shakiness.

Nero, despite seeming even more insensitive towards people than she or Vergil used to be, even waited a few moments before speaking again.

It made the room seem even colder than it was.

"You blame yourself for what happened to him, don't you?"

Her arms came around her legs and pulled them in further, tightening around them.

"Yes."

"Why?"

Diva's eyes opened, partially out of emotion and another part out of a strange kind of confusion towards the question.

"I let him go out alone, even though I felt like something bad was going to happen to him."

"That doesn't mean it's your fault that he died."

She looked over at him, slightly irritated now.

"I let him die." Diva repeated, her voice displaying her irritation.

Nero's eyes gazed back at her, not showing any emotion in them.

"You didn't stay behind knowing he would be killed, so you did not kill him."

"No-"

"If you had known that he would be in a situation where he could have died, would you have gone?"

She forgot about how he'd interrupted her to think about it for a split second.

"Of course not."

"And even if you had gone with him, I'm sure you know that you would have just been killed along with him."

Diva didn't say anything, but felt herself getting more flustered.

"Mizu, Incendio and Shiroihando, the strongest of the Nanbas, all went after him. And then after they had been fighting him, and winning, he had to face Ritorno, who could have killed every single one of us on his own. And you think that your having gone there would have changed anything?"

She was looking down at the ground again.

"No."

"Then why do you hold yourself responsible for his death?"

"Because-" She suddenly yelled out, tired of this man speaking as if he knew her. Let alone Vergil.

But the sentence wasn't being completed. and she couldn't say why.

As the seconds dragged on and her mind was incapable of producing an answer, she thought about it, and realized she didn't know why."

Her head fell down between her knees, defeated.

Once again Nero waited a few moments before speaking.

"I'm not trying to make you confused. I just want you to realize that it wasn't you that caused him to be killed. That's all."

However, she didn't hear him anymore. The girl's mind had drifted.


"My head feels like a demon's horn." He remarked in his head, thinking about how he'd gotten so congested in a single night.

Vergil hadn't felt strange the night before or anything, and didn't remember being in contact with anyone who had been sick, so he couldn't understand why this had happened.

His room seemed… colder for some reason, and the walls seemed duller.

It was an overcast day outside, but it looked like rain clouds would overtake the sky before the day was finished.

"How ridiculous; a son of Sparda getting a common cold." He remarked, sniffling.

"What was that?" He heard a voice tease him from the window-sill. The half-demon not even bothering to look over towards it, since he already knew who it was.

"Don't you have anything better to do than hopping over to my room to pester me?" He asked the girl as she stepped down onto the floor.

Her head tilted as she approached his bed.

"Maybe." She spoke, signifying her "non-caring-ness" a term he'd actually created specifically to describe the way she responded to most things.

The girl crawled onto the bed, approaching the sick half-demon.

"Did you say you're cold?" She asked him.

It was thankful that the girl hadn't heard him correctly, otherwise she probably would have teased him about it all day long.

Diva tried to lay down next to him, but, despite feeling as if he didn't have enough energy to do so, Vergil forced himself up out of the bed and walked over to his dresser, pulling out a few shirts at one time, despite the fact he'd only tried to grab one.

The young man pulled one sleeve of the shirt on, but struggled with the second one, missing once, and then twice.

It was tempting to just tear the garment off and throw it on the floor and kill the thing, but he restrained himself long enough to get the other sleeve on, if only so the girl wouldn't have one more thing to bother him about.

However, buttoning up his shirt when his eyes felt watery was very difficult, and it took him a whole minute just to get the bottom one done.

"Hey, what's up with you?" Diva asked him, actually losing her mischievous smile.

He sniffled again, turning away from her while trying to button up the rest of his shirt.

"Nothing. I'm just not awake yet is all."

Vergil knew it was a terrible answer. He'd gotten up whenever she came in and put a shirt on with no trouble before. In fact the days he did that likely outnumbered the days he didn't.

Even Diva wouldn't just let that lack-worthy response slide.

"Here. Let me help." She spoke getting off the bed and walking over to him.

"I'm fine." He lied again, having managed to get two more buttons done by now.

But that "winning streak" came to an end when she tried to turn him around.

"Come on, now. Don't be so stubborn. Just let me-"

"No!"

He shoved her away, onto the bed, before he'd realized what he said or did.

Diva hadn't gotten hurt in the least as she landed on the mattress, but when she looked up at him again it was if someone had told her she was going to die.

He felt his heart punch his chest while forcing his head to look away from her and walk over to the door, almost tripping on his own feet as he did so.

In the process Vergil had managed to get another button done, but he still had five left and not the time to stay in here doing them.

Taking the risk that someone would be downstairs, he opened the door to his room and walked through the hall, not bothering to close the door behind him.

His steps were uneven and he almost fell a few times, but Vergil was not about to just lie in bed all day just because of a little cold.

By the time he'd finished walking down the stairs all but the top three buttons on his shirt were done and he figured that was enough, opening the door at the bottom of the stairs and walking through the hallway before coming out into the office portion of the building.

Like always Saya and Haji were out on a couch doing something but he didn't feel like looking into it.

It felt much colder down here than it usually did and he felt himself mumble about Dante and the thermostat as he walked over to the other, unoccupied couch.

"Good morning, Vergil." Saya spoke, greeting him like usual.

All he managed out was a somewhat slurred "hello" as he more fell into the couch than sat in it.

"You sound sick, did you catch something?" She asked him as he gazed down at the floor.

"I don't know." He responded, noticing someone else coming down the stairs in the back despite it was impossible to see it.

They sat quietly as Diva revealed herself, walking out into the room.

He continued staring at the floor, trying to think if they had any medicine around, not noticing as she stopped to look at his couch.

After a few moments Vergil heard her walk over to Saya's couch and sit down next to her.

Vergil pushed himself up, leaning back in the couch now and staring up at the ceiling as he sniffled once again.

Diva leaned in against Saya, seeming to surprise the girl.

"It's been a while since you sat over here with us, Diva." Saya spoke to her.

She nodded back.

He felt it get colder, but his forehead felt like a fireplace, making him inhale unevenly as sweat began to form on his brow.

"Vergil, I think we have some Benadryl in the kitchen. That might help you a bit."

The sick young man inhaled once again, pushing himself forward.

"I'll go get-"

"I can get it myself." Vergil interrupted the recently arrived girl, standing up and walking around the couch, despite the fact he had to use an arm as a balancer to do so.

As he walked through the shop towards the back door, it looked like the thing was farther away than he remembered.

He did finally make it to the kitchen, however, and pushed himself up against the doorway while looking around to see where the small bottle was.

There were only a few cabinets in here, and those ones had plates and bowls in them. While the only drawer in the kitchen held cutlery, yet he saw no sign that the helpful medicine was in here.

His anger rose, as did his body temperature, which just made him angrier.

That's when he remembered that he'd taken the medicine upstairs the night before just in case something like this were to happen.

"So that I wouldn't have to go all over the place to get it." He recalled in irony, turning around and seeing the girl in front of him once again.

"What… do you want…now?" He asked, taking breaths.

She looked worried, but didn't get the chance to say anything as he pushed past her and made his way up the stairs.

On the tenth step or so his foot slid off the step and he fell forward, bashing his shin against the hard wooden steps and causing him to grunt in pain.

He took a sharp intake of breath and then forced himself up the stairs, reaching the top as if it were a mountain.

However, as he did so it felt like a jet stream was blasted into his forehead and he lost all muscle control, feeling his legs naturally allowing him to fall backwards.

Vergil cursed out lout as his absence of energy allowed him to fall back down the stairs, falling into his name as someone yelled it out.

He awoke again in his bed, underneath the covers and staring up at the ceiling.

"What happened?" He thought while trying to get up.

"Uh, uh. Stay down. You're not feeling good enough to get out of bed." A familiar voice told him.

Vergil let himself fall back down into the bed and looked to his right, seeing Diva sitting in a chair.

He stared at her for almost a full minute, not realizing it.

"You caught me." He said, not feeling good enough to actually turn it into a question.

She smiled.

"Of course I did. You didn't think I would let you fall all the way down the stairs just because you were being mean to me did you?"

His mouth gave no response, but she stared into his eyes for a few moments before closing her own and widening her smile.

"You silly, you left the medicine all the way up here. I was going to come up here and get it but…"

He endured the short "I told you so", mainly because he couldn't move.

Diva opened her eyes and reached back onto the nightstand behind her chair, picking up a spoon and a small plastic bottle.

"I wanted to wait until you woke up to give it to you."

Vergil tried to sit up as she unscrewed the cap on the bottle and put some of the medicine into the spoon, but was unable to do so.

But she didn't seem the slightest bit upset and simply set the bottle down on the nightstand before moving over to him and reaching and arm around his back, pulling him up into a sitting position.

"Ah." Diva spoke, a smidge of childish humor in her voice as she signaled for him to open his mouth.

However, though he was weak and physically defenseless, his will hadn't declined and he refused to be treated like a child.

She waited a few moments, long enough to see he was going to be stubborn and shook her head a bit.

"Fine. Be that way." She spoke, still not sounding impatient as she turned away from him and setting the spoon on the nightstand.

Afterwards she turned back towards him, smiling again.

She grew closer, second by second, until they were face-to-face.

When he didn't move away her smiled deepened and she leaned forward, placing her lips against his.

Despite his sick state, he still felt his expression widen in surprise and his mouth opened slightly-

-enough for her to tilt his head back and force the foul-tasting medicine into his mouth.

She continued the kiss until, due to the lack of an ability to breathe through his nose, he had to swallow the medicine to get her to back away.

"Good boy. Now rest." Diva told him lovingly while helping him to lie down again.

His initial anger lessened as he already felt the medicine just barely starting to work, and the unpleasant emotion was replaced with gratitude.

"Thank you." He told her, seeming to surprise her, if only for a moment.

"You're welcome."

"You're lucky to have suck a loving person like me by your side." She added, feigning narcissism.

His sense of humor was never all that developed, however, and especially now, he found no amusement in it.

"Right. I bet you're loving having me weak and at your mercy." He responded, his tone sounding colder than he'd intended.

Her smile disappeared and she looked down at the floor, causing him to look over at her again.

"You… dummy. That isn't it at all."

Vergil said nothing as she began to look at him again.

"I like having you like this because now I can take care of you."

His eyes narrowed as he realized how serious this was to her, and also realized how bad he felt for degrading her.

"You never… let me do anything for you." She spoke, her tone filled with sadness.

"Whenever you get hurt, you tell me not to try and make you feel better. When you're fighting, you never let me help you out so you don't get hurt. And whenever I try to do anything nice for you it's like you think I'm calling you weak."

He swallowed.

"You never…"

She trailed off.

"It's like we're in the same room, but you won't let me over onto your side. When I don't feel good I always let you take care of me, because it lets me show that I care about you. And it's nice that you take care of me. But what does it matter if you don't trust or care about me enough to let me take care of you?!"

Vergil looked away from her, his heart pounding in his chest.

Diva stopped speaking, and he heard her starting to cry when he didn't respond.

"Diva… I'm sorry."

He knew it made her feel better for him to say that, but it didn't stop her from crying.

"But it's not that simple." He continued, seeming to draw her attention.

"When you rely on someone all the time, it shows that you're weak. And that's part of why I don't usually let you help me. But there's more to it than that."

Vergil inhaled, as if it took more air to say these things than what he usually said.

"If you constantly rely on someone else and open yourself to them, anyone who hates you or who is your enemy can see that they matter to you. More often than not, those people are the kind of trash that will attack and hurt the people you care about just to get to you."

He heard her crying lessen as he explained.

"I would never forgive myself if you got hurt while trying to protect me."


Her eyes opened and she stared out at the room in wide-eyed realization.

"He…knew that would happen."

Nero said nothing, only looked at her, seeing tat she understood what he wouldn't have been able to get her to understand.

"Vergil knew he was going to be hurt. He knew that he wouldn't be able to beat them. But he- he didn't want me to go with him because he didn't want me to get hurt."

It was now that he chose to speak.

"It was his way of showing how much he cared about you; to die alone, without you there to help him, so that you could live and not be harmed."

Her body trembled, as if she were being rained on by cold rain.

"You're…….so stupid!" She yelled at the room, actually making Nero move away from her.

"Stupid! Stupid! Stupid! You're so…"

Her tears fell down onto the floor, slapping against the cold concrete.

"How could you…just leave me?"

Diva pulled her arms and legs closer to her than they were supposed to go.

"How could he just decide that so easily? To die for me. As if it were like going out for a walk? I'm not… worth it…"

They stayed still and quiet for several minutes.

Then Nero spoke up.

"I thought you said you wanted to live long enough to see him again."

It took her several moments to respond.

"I do. It's just… now I'm going to slap him when I see him next time."