Mission 01: Return

"So," Dante sighed as he stared out at the massive black Fortress out on in the sea of white, fleshy appendages that passed for grass in this area of the underworld. "That's Avalon."

"Yes," Vergil replied from beside him. "This is where Mundus ran to hide after his defeat on Mallet island. At least, that's what that blind old sage said."

Dante looked over the fortress, which was still a way off, but even from the distance he was at he could already tell; it did fit the description of a Demon King castle. The walls surrounding it were all lined with curved metal protrusions with various demons impaled on them. Dante could guess that they were the minions of the at least one of the other three demon lords who were vying for power in the underworld. He then looked to Vergil, who's eyes remained locked on Avalon. "You ready to make mom proud?"

Vergil remained silent but shot Dante a look that was equal parts annoyed and equal parts an affirmation before he began to make his way through the field to Avalon. Dante only chuckled to himself as he followed his brother. Still, as much bravado as he wanted to give off, Dante still wasn't feeling too confident about this. Not that he didn't think he and Vergil could take Mundus, of that he was pretty much certain; especially now. But something about this didn't sit right. Dante flexed his hand and watched as his very own Devil Sword appeared in his hand and smirked to himself. We got this.

As the sons of Sparda made their way through the field, nearing the foot of the fortress, which was even larger than Dante had realized, the main gate suddenly began to rumble and the deafening sounds of metal scraping against metal filled the otherwise still air. The ground itself rumbled beneath them as from the main gate, a demonic horde rushed from the fortress.

"They seem to be eager to welcome us," Vergil commented off handedly as he gripped the hilt of Yamato and blue arcs of demonic power began to dance on the sheath.

"Guess ol' triclops wants to give us a warm up before the main event," Dante replied stepping forward and pumping his own demonic power into Devil Sword Dante, awakening it.

"Don't say it this time," Vergil said as he disappeared in a blue flash, headed towards the oncoming horde.

Dante smiled to a toothy grin and followed his brothers lead. He opened with a stinger, ordering his own summon swords to give a little extra punch to it as it ran through an Antenora. The swords pushed through the cleaver wielding demon and lodged themselves deep into a couple of Caina behind it. Then, finding himself in the thick of the crowd, Dante swung his blade around his body and ordered his summon swords to do their own thing, carving up the assortment of Caina's, blades, assaults, and other low level demons as his summon swords fired themselves into the crowd around him.

Out of the corner of his eye, Dante caught sight of Vergil, who was cutting down the hordes like they were blades of grass, disappearing and reappearing, making it seem like attacks were moving straight through him. Deciding to give his Devil Sword a brake, Dante stored it back within himself and whipped out King Cerberus, gripping two of the three ends and slamming them into the ground, causing a ring of lightning strikes to form around him, disintegrating a few unfortunate demons in the process. Just as quickly as he whipped the nun chucks out did Dante store them away again and summon one of his favorite new toys: Cavalier.

Riding it into the a more dense part of the horde of demons, Dante began to do donuts, crushing the legs of the Cainas, Lusts, and gluttons before taking his back tire and burning it out against the masked face of a nobody which was scurrying up to him, probably hoping to grab him with that big back arm. It's mask quickly shattered under the pressure, debuffing and dazing it. Dante decided to give Balrog a bit of exercise at that moment, pulled out the boxing gloves and boots. He then delivered a swift kick to the dazed demons head, followed it up with a round house and another kick, followed by several more side kicks before he switched it up and gave it a straight punch to the nose, smirking in satisfaction as he felt bone shatter. He followed it up with quick jabs to the already tender head before bringing it in for a nasty uppercut. And, just to make sure the nobody would sit still, had his summon swords pin it in place by the hands and feet. Dante smirked hearing it cry out in fear as it realized it wasn't going anywhere before smashing his fist up into the underside of its chin and launching its head right off its neck.

It was then that the horde momentarily stopped their constant attack and gave Dante a little breathing room. Smirking to himself, the legendary devil hunter summoned his Devil Sword once again and placed it on his shoulder, spinning around with his left arm extended, daring the demons to come at him again. Of course, they would; they were smart enough to know to be afraid, but not smart enough to not let their anger get the better of them.

A Caina rushed Dante, dragging the blade of its scythe on the ground. It was so slow that Dante had enough time, to fix his hair before the thing finally got to him. As it brought the scythe up, Dante brought his Devil down on it in an overhead motion. Suddenly, the Caina was illuminated in a dark purple aura and the speed of its scythe increased, catching Dante off guard and cutting into him, sending him flying away on his back, and allowing the other demons to descend upon him.

Dante quickly recovered, however, and whipped out balrog and releasing a flurry of spinning kicks from the ground to give himself some room. He quickly got to his feet and focused on the Caina once again, noticing now that there were more and more demons popping the same purple aura. "Guess we're getting serious now, huh?" Dante asked rhetorically as he sauntered over back to the demon, who once again rushed him.

The son of Sparda didn't give him the chance this time, however, activating his devil trigger and hitting it with a heavy-duty stinger, sending it flying back into the crowd. Dante then began to rush them down with a fury of slashes and stabs, noticing more and more continue to pop their own triggers all the while. That only pushed him to work harder, pouring all the energy he could into his true form until he reached a boiling point and allowed himself into his sin form.

He sliced down the hordes around him, threw out demonic energy which obliterated the demons around him and finally drove the point home by putting all his energy into a whirlwind of slashes that his summon swords mimicked; giving him the extra range to cut up a few more unfortunate souls before pulling in his demonic power and releasing it in one last explosion, completely obliterating any demons around him, dropping out of his sin form. Dante remained on one Knee for a moment, taking deep breaths and trying to get some stamina back. It'd been two years, but that form still took a lot to maintain.

Even though it was only a moment, in that time, two Blitzs appeared on either side of him, ready to sandwich him between two steams of concentrated lightning. Great, Dante thought as he tried and failed to get his body to move, these bastards again. Dante soon realized that he wasn't going to be able to get out of the way in time and devil triggered once again, hoping it would give him enough strength to tank the blast without getting too fucked up, but at the last moment, a blue blur danced around him and the Blitzs'.

A second later, Vergil appeared in front of him, and sheathed Yamato, causing the lightning demons to burst into bloody chunks. The blue devil turned to Dante, who dropped out of his devil form and said, "You're getting sloppy."

Dante laughed at himself. "Maybe," he replied, getting to his feet. "But I bet you I already took out more than you have."

"I doubt that," Vergil replied, looking back to the remaining horde in front of them.

"Well, let's start keeping count. At the end, we'll see who wins," Dante replied, walking to Vergil's side.

"You won't be winning," An unfamiliar voice replied from behind, catching the attention of the sons of Sparda.

Dante and Vergil turned to find a woman, or at least a demon in the form of woman standing behind them. She was tall - at, or almost at, Dante and Vergil's height. She had flowing white hair that reached the bottom of her upper back. Her skin was a pale blue, her eyes red, and she wore an apathetic look on her face. She was also dressed in what appeared to be gilgamesh armor that covered most of her torso, the only areas that it did not were covered up with some kind of tightly interlocked chainmail robe that extended to her ankles.

Despite never having seen her before, for Dante, there was an air of familiarity to her. He tilted his head towards Vergil, keeping his eyes locked on her. "You remember her from your Nelo days?"

Vergil furrowed his brow and said, "I don't have any memories from that time anymore. You were the one who defeated Mundus. Do you know her?"

Dante was silent for a moment as he continued to study the woman. "I… don't think so?"

At that Vergil looked over to Dante, hearing the uncertainty in his voice.

She took that time to make her move, dashing forward at an almost imperceptible speed, and appearing before Vergil, much to his and Dante's surprise, and delivering a punch charged with what appeared to be red lightning into him. The impact sent him flying a few meters, before he landed, bolts of red demonic lightning dancing across his body.

"Nice -," Dante said, smirking a little, but quickly dodging as he caught glimpse of a blade headed for him. She's fast. He thought to himself as he cleared her reach. As soon as he had though, he and Vergil noticed something. That wasn't just any sword in her hands; she'd stolen Yamato.

"Now, that's not nice," Dante taunted her, "If you wanted to play with Yamato, you could have asked."

In a moment, Vergil appeared behind her, summon sword in hand, and brought it down on her in an overhead motion, which the newcomer blocked at the last second. "Give that to me," he ordered her, anger in his eyes.

"Learn to share," she replied before using the Yamato to shatter the energy blade and moving to Dante, attempting to slash him with the Yamato.

Dante, who had since become well acquainted with Yamato's edge quickly did his utmost to prevent that. He continuously threw up his arms and guarded against the blade, summoning demonic energy to take the brunt of the damage before it connected with his skin. He quickly back stepped once he'd had enough of playing defense, causing her to miss her swing, and giving Dante the opportunity to hit her with the stored-up force of every blow he'd guarded. This time, it was her turn to be sent flying as the force of Dante's counterattack cracked her gilgamesh armor and put her on her back.

In a moment, Vergil appeared above her, drove two summon swords into her abdomen, earning a satisfying groan of pain from her, and attempted to take Yamato back. She refused to let him however, as she snapped her fingers and suddenly the world around them turned pitch black and she disappeared. Dante and Vergil looked around them, realizing they could see nothing besides one another.

"What illusion is this?" Vergil asked aloud as he and Dante went back to back.

"This is no illusion," Her voice replied, echoing from all around, "This is a technique that Lord Mundus has bestowed upon me. This is my own personal dimension; where only I am in control."

"Yeah, I remember this," Dante replied, as he scanned the darkness, "Mundus did the same thing, only his was bigger. Got any meteors?"

"No," Came her reply, followed by a sharp, stinging pain from under his rib cage, coming out of his back. "But I have you."

Dante looked down to the floor, where the upper half of her torso had appeared along with Yamato, which he'd been impaled with. Yamato began to glow as Dante felt its power begin to affect him, weakening him, before it was yanked out, causing him to collapse, suddenly feeling weaker than he ever had. Somethings not right… This feels different… He thought, as he struggled to pick himself up.

Though his vision was beginning to fade, he caught sight of her, towering above him, holding Devil Sword Dante in her hand. She looked from the devil sword to him, before raising over him, poised to impale him and saying, "Thank you, father."

Dante's eyes widened as the words hit his ears and he attempted to pick himself up one last time before his body failed him and his slipped into unconsciousness.

Vergil watched as Dante fell to the ground, motionless. He had just missed being impaled by the Yamato himself. He'd heard what she had said, and though the revelation was surprising, he didn't allow himself to hesitate and think on it. He rushed back to the two of them, and once again impaled her with summon swords, staggering her, and ripping Yamato from her hands.

"I'm no longer amused," Vergil said as he activated his Sin Devil trigger, the force of which obliterated the pocket dimension and brought them back to the underworld.

The look in the woman's crimson eyes was evidence that she hadn't anticipated that, but Vergil didn't allow her the time to let it sink in. He quickly sheathed Yamato inside of the jets of Demonic Power that spewed from his forearms, and released a series of Judgment cuts her way. She dodged the first, but was caught by the rest, and she was assaulted by slash after slash, which left her bloody. If it hadn't been for the Gilgamesh armor she wore, it probably would have ended her.

Quickly realizing she was outmatched, the woman retreated, heading back to the fortress with Devil Sword Dante in tow, in a blur. Vergil was about to give chase, but was stopped when he saw Dante still lying motionless on the ground. Annoyed, Vergil pumped all the power he could into Yamato and turned to slice open a dimensional tear between the human and demon realms.

Exhausted by the effort, Vergil dropped out of his Sin form, and grabbed Dante, pulling him through the tear and back to the human world.

(000)

Nero leaned against the grill of the Minotaurus as Nico tinkered beneath the engine, a soft rock melody playing from the small radio on the toolbox. They'd just gotten back from a call earlier that day and, like usual, the client had overblown the situation. It wasn't much more than a few of those bug things; Empusas, is what Nico called them, and there wasn't even a queen. But, the one of the damn things ran out in the street as they were pulling up, one of the ones with the big red assess, and popped underneath the van. It was still running, but Nico didn't like the way it sounded. So now here they were, Nico cleaning out bug guts from the engine and trying to see what got screwed up; and Nero, bored out of his mind, handing her tools as she worked.

They'd been getting calls like that almost nonstop since the Redgrave incident, even all the way out in Fortuna. That hole that the Qliphoth had ripped between the Human and Demon realms still hadn't completely closed, not even after Dante and V, or Vergil, Nero guessed, had cut it down. It'd been two years and they still hadn't come back… What the hell is taking them so long? How hard is it to find a way outta' Hell? The demons seem to find it easy enough. Nero wondered recalling how Redgrave was pretty much still uninhabited and put on quarantine. Still though, the little bastards still found ways to get out. Sighing, Nero pulled up his right arm, made it disappear into a blue shimmer and ran his left through it, smirking. It was a neat trick, but he could really only manage it with his right arm. He'd tried to see if he could do the same with his left, so he could use two devil breakers at once, but the most he could manage was to get his fingers to disappear.

Then, Nico kicked at his shin, gaining his attention. "Hey, go start her up," she ordered. "Think I got it out."

Nero sighed; this was the sixth time in the last 15 minutes that she thought she figured out what was up. "Right," he groaned, pushing himself from the grill and moving to the driver's seat. Nero turned the ignition and listened as the car turned over for a second, then he heard a wet slapping sound before the van roared to life, loudly, louder than normal, surprising him.

"Ah, shit!" he heard Nico curse as she hurriedly pushed herself and the creeper she was lying on out from under the Minotarus.

Nero smirked from behind the wheel as she stood up and came into view. She'd gotten a face full of bug brains. The devil hunter kept the smirk has he made his way to the door and hung out of the frame. "She's running better!" He called to her as she wiped viscera off her face and glasses.

Nico shot him a quick glare before continuing to remove dead Empusa from her face and hair. "Funny," she said, monotone. "Make yourself useful and hand me that pack of the work bench."

Nero's smiled faded as he sauntered over to the bench and gripped a pack of Marlboros and lazily tossed it to Nico, who caught it and quickly pulled a cigarette out and put it to her lips. She began to pat herself down, looking for a lighter before Nero grabbed the lighter off the bench and tossed that to her too. She gave him a nod as she caught it and lit her cigarette up, taking a deep drag before closing her eyes and exhaling.

"You really need to kick that, you know," Nero said, earning a roll of the eyes from Nico. Anyways, we done here?" Nero asked, "'Cause Kyrie's almost done with dinner, I can smell it, and she's gonna be pissed if we take any longer."

Nico rolled her eyes once again, walking past Nero to the door. "Yeah, Yeah. There's still some bug stuck in there but she's running better. I'll get the rest of it later. Right now, I'm gonna' take a shower."

Nero followed her through the entrance of the garage, making his way to the lobby on the bottom floor of the orphanage. When he entered the orphanage dining hall, Nero was greeted with the sight of hungry children sitting at a long dinner table in the center. Nero noted how the number of empty spaces on the benches was increasing, which was a good thing, of course. After Redgrave, the orphanage had been filled almost to the brim. The people of Fortuna, though they could be a bit cagey, were quick to adopt some of the orphaned children. After all, many of them knew what it was like to lose your family during a demonic invasion; and many were seeking to fill a void the Fortuna incident left.

As soon as he was noticed, Nero was assaulted with a chorus of greetings from the children patiently awaiting their dinner. Nero returned their greeting as he moved past the dining table to the kitchen at the end of the room. As he neared the door to the kitchen, he backed up in surprise as it swung open, revealing Kyrie, carting out plates of food.

"Oh, Nero," she greeted, pleasantly surprised to find him standing on the other side of the door. "Good, you're here." Nero moved out of her way, allowing her to pass through. "Grab the other cart and pass out the plates, please… And take off that jacket before you eat!"

"Right," Nero said as he moved into the kitchen catching a good whiff of Kyrie's lasagna, causing his mouth to water. Man, I'm glad she makes too much, otherwise there wouldn't be any leftovers for later. Gripping the cart by its handles, Nero reentered the dining hall, pushed the cart to the table and joined Kyrie in passing out plates, until only one remained for himself.

After placing the cart back in the kitchen, Nero finally sat down at the end of the table opposite of Kyrie and was about to dig in when sudden screams of surprise and shock could be heard coming from the street outside. For a moment Nero simply stared at the lasagna at the end of his fork, which he was so close to putting in his mouth. Then he looked to Kyrie and the kids who had looks of concern on their face before sighing and setting his fork back on his plate. "Excuse me," he said, annoyance creeping into his voice as he stood up, pushing his chair back and making his way to the lobby, grabbing his jacket from the rack and slipping into it.

Drawing the Blue Rose from the holster in his coat, Nero kicked open the doors of the orphanage revolver at the ready. He didn't see any demons, however, instead he was greeted by a large crowd, who hadn't seemed to notice him (which he was thankful for as he slid the revolver back into his jacket) surrounding something in the middle of the street.

Curiosity peaked, Nero began to wade through the crowd of people, pushing past them to see what was causing such a commotion until he got to the center of the crowd and got a look for himself. He had arrived just in time to see the tare in the dimensional fabric stitch itself up as Vergil and Dante laid on the hard sidewalk, dirty and bruised.

"Dante? V – I mean, Vergil? What the hell are you guys doing here? What happened?" Nero asked as he knelt to help Vergil, who was attempting to prop Dante up on his shoulder.

As Nero got to the right of Dante and lifted his arms around his shoulder and they began to carry him back to the orphanage, parting the crowd, Vergil said; "I'll explain later first we need to get Dante inside."

When they got to the entrance of the orphanage, Kyrie was already there, with the children peeking out from behind the doors to the dining hall. "Nero, what's going on? What happened to Dante?" she asked before catching sight of the man in black who was helping Nero move Dante up the stairs. "Who's this?"

"We'll figure that out in a second, we need to get Dante inside first," Nero replied, as he and Vergil made their way past her and into the lobby where they set Dante down on a couch, to which he fell into with a groan.

Vergil then moved to a chair opposite of the couch and in a similar fashion dropped into the seat before leaning into the back, grimacing.

Nero waited for a few moments as the two Sons of Sparda remained motionless before he grew annoyed. "Well? What the hell happened!?"

"Nero!" Kyrie said, motioning towards the kids who had up until then been peeking out from behind the dining hall door frame. She then looked to them and said, "Okay everyone, up to your rooms, you get to eat there tonight." That seemed to please the children as they grabbed their plates and rushed up the stairs. Kyrie preferred it when they all ate together, without the distractions of television, but the kids always complained about it.

"So, what happened?" Nero asked in a much calmer tone.

Vergil exhaled and used Yamato to push himself up off the chair to stand. "We were attacked," he began to explain.

"Obviously," Nero scoffed, "By who? And who the hell could've done… this, to you two?"

Vergil opened his mouth before shooting a look to Dante, who still laid on the couch, disoriented. "Who indeed," he replied before a low growl emanated from his stomach,

"Well," Nero said, sighing, "The offer from the last time you came still stands… There's food in the kitchen."

At first, Vergil looked confused at Nero's statement, then realization dawned on his face, ever so slightly and he nodded a thanks to Nero before turning to the dining hall.

It was then that Nero caught a whiff of something foul in the air, before realizing it was coming from the two brothers. "And take a shower too!" he called to Vergil, "You guys smell like hot garbage!"

Nero suddenly felt Kyrie grip his arm lightly, prompting him to turn to face her.

"Nero, who is that?"

Nero paused before answering, "His name's Vergil…"

Kyrie blinked, "So that's your...," she started, but stopped when she saw the conflicted face Nero was making.

"Yeah," a strained voice answered from the couch, "That's his daddy."

Nero and Kyrie turned to see Dante pushing himself up from the couch and making a strained face as he did so.

"So, you're still alive," Nero pointed out.

"Yeah… Somehow."

"So, what happened down there?" Nero asked, hoping to get some proper answers.

Dante paused. "Man, what a rude host. Here I come, tired and hungry and all you wanna do is play twenty questions."

Nero was about to lose his temper again when Kyrie spoke up and said, "I'll get you a plate, Dante," and left to the kitchen.

Nero watched as Kyrie disappeared into the dining hall and looked back to Dante. "Look, I thought we moved past this whole keeping-Nero-in-the-dark shit already. What the hell's going on? And don't tell me not worry about it, because if you and him come crawling up to my doorstep looking like this, saying there's something out there who kicked your ass, then nothing you say is gonna' calm me down."

Dante looked at Nero for a moment before sighing and nodding his head. "Yeah, you're right," he agreed as he attempted to push himself up from the couch and stumbled a bit, quickly catching himself before Nero had a chance too. "Listen," he said, straining to stand up straight, "Let me get somethin' in me and wash all this grime on me and then I'll tell you everything."

"You better," Nero said, locking eyes with Dante, who moved past him to head to the downstairs shower.

Nero was about to move back into the dining hall when he suddenly remembered something. "Hey! Don't use the shower right now, Nico's-!," but he was too late as a surprised scream was heard followed by Dante apologizing.

(000)

About half an hour later, after Dante had showered (and Kyrie made everyone besides Vergil wait for him to finish) the crew had gathered around the far end of the long dining table. Nero, Kyrie, Nico, Dante, and Vergil all sat around eating in almost silence as Nico pestered the two brothers about what kinds of weapons they found in hell and if they heard of some demon named "Macky Velly" or whatever the hell his name was. Dante didn't know what she was talking about but Vergil had seemed to know who she was talking about and conversed with her… Well, as much as he does converse.

"So," Nero started, after finally getting to finish up his plate, "I'll ask again. What the hell is going on?" Kyrie gave his arm a light reprimanding nudge.

At that everyone stopped eating, even Vergil, who was on his second helping, and looked to Dante who was putting a forkful of lasagna to his mouth. Dante stopped and his eyes shifted from person to person as his mouth continued to hang open. Sighing, Dante set down his fork and began to explain.

"Me and Vergil were on our way to… settle an old score. I don't know if the order taught you guys about him, but there's this old, crusty demon king named Mundus -,"

"You mean, the Destroyer, Mundus?" Kyrie interrupted.

"If that's what you wanna call him. In my experience he only gets destroyed. Heh," Dante replied.

Vergil balled up a fist and jabbed his brothers shoulder with the side of it, causing Dante to grip it in pain and hiss. "Focus," the Dark Slayer told him.

Dante shot Vergil a look and furrowed his brow before looking back to the others. "Anyway, we were on our way to take care of him for good and things were going as expected, you know, when… Well… I guess…"

Vergil made an annoyed sound and answered for him. "A woman claiming to be Dante's daughter attacked us."

Nero gave the pair an incredulous look. "Your daughter?" he asked Dante. "You have a daughter?"

Dante shook his head and gritted his teeth as he lightly balled up his fists. "We don't know that-,"

"Brother, you said she was familiar," Vergil interrupted, emphasizing his point with hand movements.

"I never said that!" Dante replied, "You asked me if I recognized her and I said I didn't know!"

"Even so," Vergil retorted, "She stole your Devil Sword from you. She wielded it."

"That doesn't mean anything," Dante brushed off his brothers point.

"Then recall it," Vergil said, without missing a beat.

Dante paused, silent for a moment before realizing all eyes in the room were on him. He looked around and gave a confident smile. "All right. Watch," He said, standing up and putting some distance between himself and the others. He then flexed his hand out and smiled. However, his smile quickly dissipated as he realized that his hand was still empty.

Oh shit… he thought as he tried again, and again, and again. "Dammit!" he finally said, before turning and running his hands through his hair and taking a deep breath. What did she do? Shit! He then turned to the others who were staring at him in shock. Furrowing his brow, he looked to Vergil and pointed at him. "That still doesn't mean anything!"

"It doesn't?" Vergil argued, standing up. "Who else, besides a Sparda, could use the Yamato in such a way? Who could claim mastery over your own Devil arm to such a degree that it wouldn't even return to you?"

Dante was silent for a moment. "Okay," he said. "Okay, but what did she do to me? Why can't I recall it?" he asked Vergil.

Vergil was silent for a moment, seemingly mulling it over. "It must have been the same technique, or at least a variant of it, that I used to separate myself in two… I think."

"You think?" Dante asked. "I thought you were the expert on dad's swords?"

"There are still things about them, that even I don't know. I only ever studied the knowledge available in the human world, but there is still a sizeable amount lost in Hell," Vergil explained. "No one, at least in this realm, is even sure how they were forged."

"Wait," Nero said, catching their attention. "If she used the same technique that you used when you… separated yourself… Why isn't Dante all scrawny and weak? Why is he still Dante? I mean, you can still transform right?"

Dante paused and looked at everyone else. "Well… Let's see." He planted his feet slightly apart and took a breath. He was about to attempt to, when Kyrie shouted "Wait!"

Everyone looked to her as she ran to the dining room entrance and shut the doors. "I don't want any of the children to get scared…"

Everyone else shared a glance before Dante raised his fist and snapped his fingers. Much to his expectation and his anger, he remained in his human state. Dante then looked to Vergil, expecting an answer. Vergil fell silent trying to think up an explanation.

"Maybe," Nico spoke up, gaining the others attention, "Maybe, because Dante fully combined his devil and human sides, and that sword was the result, maybe by severing his link from DSD, maybe he cut him off from his demonic power!" Nico said, excitement inappropriately building up in her voice at the end. "Sorry."

"It… makes sense," Vergil admitted, earning a proud look from Nico, as the room fell silent once again.

"So?" Nero started, "What are we waiting for? Open up a portal and lets get down there and get it back… And take care of the destroyer." Nero suggested, pointing to the Yamato. "I'll get ready."

"It's not that simple, Nero," Vergil replied, stopping the boy in his tracks as he was walking to the garage. "The Yamato can open up a tare between the human and demon worlds but, its not as easy as simply slicing the air… It takes a considerable amount of power, from itself and the user… And both myself and the Yamato are depleted from opening that portal out in the street. We'll have to find another way to return to the demon world.

Nero groaned and looked off to the right in annoyance. "Great… Now what?"

"I – I may have an answer to that too, fellas," Nico spoke up earning the attention of the three devil hunters. "In what's left of my daddy's workshop there's a hell gate." Nero gave her an angry look when she mentioned that, but Nico quickly justified not having it destroyed. "A small one. And it's deactivated, but we could reactivate it and send you boys down there. How's that sound?"

Dante, Nero, and Vergil looked to one another. "All right then," Dante agreed, moving out to the lobby phone. "But first I gotta' make a call. I know a couple of ladies who would kill me if I didn't tell them about this opportunity."

Dante dialed in the number smirked when the other end picked up and answered with a "Devil May Cry."