Author's Note: I think next time I have another long story, I'm going to have to seperate it xD This ones probably going to be like... six chapters... I think.

Anyway, hope you enjoy!

Chapter Three
Conflicting Encounters

The closer they got to Brigehop, the more Vergil knew that something was wrong with him. But he couldn't pinpoint what, and it was already close to driving him mad.

"So they didn't simply vanish, huh," Dante said with a quiet sigh.

"Unfortunately not," Vergil said trying to hide the way his fingers were latched far too tightly on the sleeves of his coat. He was not usually a man bothered by temperature. In fact, Ashira always said he was always cool to the touch regardless of how he felt. But right now, even with Nico blasting the air conditioner in the front seat, he felt as if he was burning alive. Yet, there was no sweat nor any outward sign of his discomfort. A small blessing, he supposed, but not enough to make him feel any better.

"But why their hearts?" Nico said. Her driving had slowed over the last hour, as the sun had gone down and even she wasn't crazy enough to risk barrelling through the wilderness in the middle of the night. Dante was pretending to be sleepy beside her, but his heart rate had been elevated since they left and showed no signs of slowing down.

Vergil shouldn't have known that. Not without focusing on it directly. But everyone's heartbeat, breathing, and every little sound they made was grating. He couldn't tune it out. Hell, he could barely think through it. When was the last time his senses had gotten this out of control?

He felt Ashira's hand rest on his thigh and recognized the concern between them. "Breathe," She said, but he could practically feel her heart plummet when he flinched at the sound. Even her voice, usually quiet (and soothing, though no one but her would ever hear him admit it) was too loud. She might as well have been yelling.

"Some kind of demon ritual?" Dante said with a yawn.

"I can't recall," Vergil said. He didn't miss the way Dante's eyebrow rose at his tone. Vergil hoped that his brother would think he was merely frustrated by his lack of knowledge on the matter. And that wouldn't be too far from the truth if he wasn't so on edge. If anyone knew demon magic and rituals, it should be him. And there was some part of him that thought he might know something, but he was too caught up in whatever misery was going on in his head.

Thankfully, Ashira was well aware of his distress and responded for him. "Whoever killed them has to be a reaver, or be working with one.

"Because the souls are missing."

She nodded. "Taking the heart, by itself, doesn't remove the soul. It's not a tangible object, nor is it attached to anything in particular. It takes someone very familiar with the inner workings of a soul to remove one cleanly." Vergil glanced at her, partially out of concern, and partially for a distraction. While she was sitting as proud as ever, wrapped up in his coat like it was the last thing holding her together, he could see the exhaustion in her eyes. Death always hit her hard, even when it was expected. He often wondered if all reavers were like her, or if her human empathy had something to do with it.

"Maybe it was a coincidence," Nico said. "One demon killed them, a reaver took their souls?"

"Maybe," Ashira said. "But we didn't find anything in the area, and Griffon scouted pretty far."

That was a bit of an understatement. Knowing they hadn't had much time, Ashira had given him one of her feathers. And the energy the bird had gotten from it was enough for him to circle miles outside of the town, searching through a massive chunk of the forest before he returned and collapsed at Ashira's feet.

"The townspeople hadn't seen any recently either," Ashira said. "If we had any information on why…" Her head tilted for a moment, then her eyes widened as her gaze snapped to Vergil. "Pythagoras."

Dante burst into laughter. "You think that old prune will talk to either of you again? Even if he did, where the hell are you going to find a door?" The one in Fortuna had been destroyed along with most of the city. Vergil hadn't bothered tracking down another one. Not because it wasn't useful, but mostly because Dante was 100% right. The chance of Pythagoras wanting to speak to either of them was minuscule at best.

"It's worth a shot." She muttered.

"Good luck with that."

A low growl echoed in the back of Vergil's head, but his demon was otherwise silent. It had been a long time since Vergil had thought of his other half as... well... his other half. The two were parts of a whole and had been for years. If anything, it was his human half that felt more alien before meeting Ashira and reconnecting with his family. But at that exact moment, he realized it was upset and searching for something. Except Vergil didn't know what, and his demon wasn't talking.

Ashira squeezed his thigh ever so slightly. "It's okay. We'll figure it…"

Nico slammed on the breaks. Vergil snapped outside, Ashira in hand, before realizing that he had picked her up at all. "Vergil." This time, her voice was barely more than a whisper. "Your eyes."

"Do you have to do that every time?" Dante groaned as he slammed the passenger side door.

"Brakes don't always work if I don't," Nico said with a grin. When her eyes met Vergil's however, it vanished. "Uhh… V-man?"

"What?" He snapped but stopped himself before anything else came out. His stomach was churning with… something. Not anxiety. Not fear just… something. But when Vergil tried to shove it back down, it only got worse.

"You've got a bad case of demon eyes."

Vergil looked away, not missing the fact that even Dante was staring at him. "Motel?" Was all he could force out. Everything was wrong. His skin felt warm and clammy. His heartbeat was erratic. It took everything within him to actually breath, something his demon half only did out of luxury.

"Up the road," Nico said. "You can stay in the van if ya want. She's pretty warm, considering." She jabbed her elbow into Dante's stomach. "You can come to get them later, yeah?"

Vergil heard his brother hesitate, but kept his eyes firmly, and stubbornly, locked with Ashira's. Though the sheer amount of worry that stared back at him was almost as difficult to handle. "Yeah, sure."

"Get some beauty sleep," Nico said. "We might see that Lucy person tomorrow."

Vergil felt his brother's skin heat up. How? He thought. Why?

"Not with my luck," Dante said. The crunch of his boots on the ground made Vergil want to rip his ears off. But that would require dropping Ashira, and- despite everything that was going wrong - nothing within him was asking for that. "Lucy though? She'd probably kill me if she heard you say that…"

"Saina," Ashira said as she reached toward his neck. Her fingers alone shot electricity through him. She froze, waiting, but he didn't want her to. That feeling was a somewhat pleasant distraction, given the circumstances. "It's okay." She whispered as she slid one hand along his skin, eliciting the smallest of shivers. His knees nearly buckled when she pressed the pads of her fingers against the nape of his neck. The sensitivity of his skin was both unprecedented and borderline unbearable.

"Something's…"

"Shhh," Ashira said. "It's okay." She pushed the front of his coat aside and pressed her hand against his chest. Her golden flames slipped right through the clothing, dulling his senses. She'd done this before, usually after nightmares. But neither of them had seen him like this. And while it was working to some degree, it wasn't enough.

"Let's rest." She said. "Can you manage that?"

He tried to say no, but his mouth went dry. Rest seemed like a lifetime away, but the more flames that coursed along his skin, the more he thought maybe he could. For how long, he didn't know. So he forced himself back into the van and let her slip out of his grasp long enough to pull out one of the beds, find a couple of pillows, and grab a blanket. But he didn't move again until she pulled gently on his wrist. "Do you want me to keep guard?" She said.

Another growl, followed by a sudden desire to pull her as close as possible and…

He shook his head. It can't be that simple. "Are my eyes still…"

"Yes." She said as she slid his coat off his shoulders. They both let it drop to the floor before she began pressing on his wrist. "Is he speaking to you?"

"No."

"Your soul says otherwise."

Vergil frowned. "How?"

"Your soul shifts colors when in your demon form." She said. "It's very subtle, but I've been admiring it for quite a while." Vergil might have smiled at that if the muscles in his body weren't permanently stretched to their limit. She didn't seem to mind as her thumb pressed toward his palm and eventually pushed its way up under his fingers. "It's mixed at the moment like it usually is in combat."

"That doesn't…"

His heart slammed against his chest. Vergil winced as he started to reach for it, but Ashira's hand held him back. Instead, she pulled it to her own chest. "Can you feel it?" She said.

At first, Vergil didn't know what she was talking about. Then everything - the overwhelming noises, the smell of the trees and the town and every animal in a twenty-mile radius, and his demon seemingly trying to claw its way out - honed in on her. Her pulse reverberating in his fingers. The sweet smell of her shampoo that she'd used hours ago. The lingering fabric softener in her clothes from last night's wash. His own scent clinging to her skin.

How did that not drive anyone else mad?

"Mine." His demon hissed. "No one else's."

"Shira."

"I hear him."

"Somethings wrong," Vergil muttered. "But I..." I don't know what. He didn't want to admit it aloud, but it made no difference.

"And we'll get through it." She said. "Like we do everything else."

That earned her a pained smile. "You are awfully calm."

"Trying my best." She said as she pushed him gently onto the bed and let her own coat slide off. The second time she pressed her thumb against his palm, his fingers finally unclenched. This time, it was he who reached for her, resting them on her hips as he pulled her closer. She fell seamlessly into his lap and kissed his cheek. "I think he wants a fight." She whispered.

"Maybe." Vergil murmured. She said nothing after that. Just brushed through his hair and waited.

After a few excruciating minutes, in which his own heartbeat finally retreated from his ears, she spoke again. "Talk to me. Anything you can think of."

Vergil closed his eyes, forcing his way through the haze and back to those long hours in the library when demon rituals and power was all he cared about. Surely one of those books had something that related to this. He pictured himself wandering the various libraries; the forbidden section of Fortuna, where the books were organized by the first letter on the first page to make it impossible for outsiders to find anything useful. Pythagoras' library, where he'd considered getting lost more than once, confident that he could get out, but had never tried it. He cycled through as many books as he could, grateful that his memories had held through his imprisonment.

A ritual…

When he opened his eyes again, he felt the tension in his body slip away. "Better?" She said.

"For now." He didn't want to admit that he could still feel his demon half simmering beneath his skin. He had it back under control and, for the moment, that was all that mattered. "I'm certain there is some kind of ritual, though I cannot recall what," he said. "But considering the power human blood gives demons, it's possible ingesting the heart could have a similar effect."

"But why not drain the bodies?"

"Might not have had time."

She didn't look convinced. "It's possible they were worried they'd get caught."

"The real question," Vergil said. "Why take both? Reavers don't sustain themselves off of blood as regular demons do, and a regular demon has no use for a soul"

Ashira sighed. "We don't have enough information."

Vergil paused again, continuing through his admittedly long list of books. The first few he could think of were useless. Human attempts at demonic rituals that didn't exist, most of which involved pointless sacrifices. But there was one book… a single tome in Pythagoras' library that had been so convoluted that even he had given up on it.

"We have to find him," Vergil said. "Somehow."

"There is a library." She said. "Isn't that how you found him before?"

"In Fortuna," Vergil said. "I doubt a resort town would hold the same importance."

"Every library is bound to have something different, right?" She said. "Surely he's visited all of them at least once over the last 3000 years. And I don't believe he can cut between words as seamlessly as you do."

"As far as I know."

"It's worth a shot." She said. "Dante's informant may have some information too."

Vergil's hands ran up her back absentmindedly. "Is this what you felt like?" He said.

Her head tilted. "Before accepting the Phoenix?" He nodded. "It's hard to say. I can hear your thoughts and latent distress... but not everything you're feeling. But our demons are very different creatures, so its difficult to say." Her thumb brushed absently along his jawline. "But you're not rejecting each other, and this only started the further we've traveled, yes?" When he nodded, she hummed in quiet thought. "Maybe there's a demon we missed?"

"Impossible." The only demon that had caused this kind of reaction was Mundus. But even that had been different. He hadn't felt anything like this the first time they met, and the second was clearly more driven by a fear of failure than… whatever this was. "No demon could cause this."

Her expression turned solemn. "Haven't seen any reavers since I killed Gaius either."

Vergil had no response to that.

Then, his demon growled again. This time, however, his senses snapped into perfect, eerily calm awareness. Everything before had been chaotic. Now, it only focused on a single sound. Footsteps on a gravel road. "Demon," Vergil said, his voice caught somewhere between his different forms. Kill it. His other half roared. He cannot have what is ours. "Shira."

"Reavers." She said. "Two of them, with a third demonic soul."

Their eyes met for the briefest of moments before both they and Ashira's cloak vanished from the van.

It took everything Ashira had to keep herself in human form. It shouldn't have been that difficult, as she hadn't had issues controlling her demonic form since the twins were born. But Vergil's power was nigh overwhelming her in a way that it never had before. It was difficult enough keeping that information from him, as he clearly had enough to worry about, but Ashira wasn't sure what to do if he did lose control. That had never been a possibility. Even as a child, his powers had been well under control, and she'd seen plenty of his memories to know that he had only lost that when someone else forced it from him.

She hoped this excursion would help somewhat, though she wasn't certain what would happen if they didn't find anything. Calling Dante to help "blow off some steam" was a legitimate option. Though even he had looked concerned when Vergil's eyes changed, and Ashira wasn't sure if they had any real answers to give him. Especially since Vergil's eyes had only changed back for a few minutes, and with an excessive amount of healing flames to soothe him.

A small part of her wondered (and worried) if all of this was related, but she didn't have time to think about it. Not with three unknown souls currently running from them. They were fast and had about a four-mile head start. But Vergil, fueled by whatever was going wrong with his demon, was on a mission: nothing in either world would come close to outrunning him like this. Ashira was certain he wasn't even moving at full speed, as only her Phoenix form had a hope of keeping up, and neither were too keen on showing that around souls they didn't know.

Not with a reaver killer on the loose.

The three souls were close now. Two were clearly reavers; one pink and white, the other green and white. A clear sign of twins or very close siblings. The third was bright orange-red demon soul, not dissimilar to Dante or Vergil, but comparatively weaker. There were a few, gray lines cutting across it, but that wasn't abnormal. Real-world trauma was often difficult to heal without reaver involvement, and it wasn't nearly as bad as Vergil's has been when she found him again. It also wasn't as damaged as Gaius' or corrupted like her brother's.

Why is everything so wrong?

A white feather caught her eye. Ashira jerked backward, throwing one of her own. Vergil appeared in front of her, slicing Yamato through the barrage that followed. The orange soul was close now, darting around them. The other two were still running. If Ashira didn't have her reaver vision, they'd be long gone.

"Go," Vergil said. "I'll deal with this."

Ashira nodded and took off in the other direction. A shower of feathers shot after her, but Vergil was faster, knocking them all down long before she had to worry about them. She felt another demon behind her but didn't bother looking back. "Wait!" She yelled as she threw herself between the trees. One soul, the pink one, hesitated. The green one didn't, only looping back on itself, likely grabbing the other's hand. Frustrated, Ashira tossed her hand forward. "Griffon." She said. The bird appeared and shot forward without a word. Shadow appeared beside her, but Ashira could feel her apprehension. "I know." She said. "But we have to try."

Shadow growled but kept running. "Get back here!" She heard Griffon yell from a distance. A girl's cry rang out, but Ashira was certain she was unhurt.

"Leave her alone!" A boy yelled.

"Lir wait…"

Frustrated, Ashira finally gave in, snapping into her half-demon form in a heartbeat. Shadow retreated back into her as she arched above the trees before diving straight at Griffon. She slammed down in front of him, shifting back as she swung her feathers out. They stuck into the ground at the man's feet, and he stumbled backward, barely managing to keep his footing.

"Leave us alone." The boy snarled as he reached for the sword on his back. Ashira said nothing, only glanced between him and the younger girl cowering behind a tree a few feet away. Both looked younger than her with blonde hair and eyes that matched their souls. The boy was somewhere under twenty if she had to guess. The girl in her mid-teens. Their brown cloaks were tattered and covered in dirt. The clothes underneath didn't fare much better. But it was the light blue ting of the small amount of skin she could see that drew Ashira's attention.

"Your partner sent me." She said. "Told me to find you on the way to Turtle Cove."

The boy faltered, but his eyes narrowed. "How should I…"

"Alice?" Ashira said, looking to the girl. The girl's eyes widened, but she said nothing. Ashira didn't blame her, given the tension. "I'm here to help."

"Bullshit," The boy said. "I'm not afraid of you."

You probably should be. She thought. Ashira would never hurt them, but she couldn't say the same for Vergil if they attacked her.

"You're a reaver." The girl said quietly as she slowly moved out from behind the tree.

"Yes."

"Did you escape too?"

"I've been out of the Underworld for a while," Ashira said. "I helped kill Mundus four years ago."

Both of the sibling's eyes widened as they glanced between each other. "Impossible." The boy said though Ashira could hear the hesitation, despite his attempts to hide it. "The demon king killed him."

Demon king? How much did they know? Or, more importantly, how much should she share? Ashira wanted to trust them. They were such young reavers, fleeing from someone who had murdered their family and desecrated their bodies. But Ashira didn't know them or their family. For all she knew, her instinct was wrong and they weren't related in the slightest. Her own appearance had been hidden by Celeste when she lived with them, and she didn't doubt that other powerful reavers could do the same. But debating on it would take too long, and she could already see Alice retreating back into herself. So, Ashira simply asked, "Where is the demon that was with you?"

"She went to intercept you."

A demonic roar echoed from behind her. Not Vergil. Ashira spun around and barely caught herself before chasing after him. "Come with me." She said to the reavers. "I can protect you."

"That woman was protecting us." the girl said.

"Quiet, Alice."

"She's a reaver!" The girl said. "And her soul is strong, Lir. She can help us."

"I said…"

"Vergil!" A male voice erupted in the distance.

Ashira's heart froze. Dante?

"Get out of the way." Vergil's own demon echoed back.

"Like hell."

Ashira held back a swear. "Come with me." She repeated.

"We have to help her," Alice said. "She's been protecting us since…" Her voice trailed off as she wiped a tear away. "Please."

"Well, then you're just gonna have to come with us, pipsqueak!" Griffon said as he landed on Ashira's arm. "Cuz neither of us are leaving without ya."

Alice glanced at her brother, but Lir was still glaring at Ashira. "If you endanger my sister's life," He said. "I will not hesitate to kill you."

For Hell's sake. She thought. One Vergil's more than enough.

It was Griffon who scoffed, though Ashira wasn't sure who exactly it was directed towards. "Good luck with that."