Trish timed her return to the house to coincide precisely with the children finishing breakfast. She slipped between them as the mob jostled out of the kitchen to collect their school things, and immediately began piling whatever food remained on the stove and counter onto an empty plate. "Morning, all."

"Nice of you to finally show up." Lady flopped into one of the recently-vacated chairs. "By all means, help yourself to some breakfast."

"Don't mind if I do." Trish carried the heaping plate of food to the table and glanced around at its occupants. "You all look terrible. I thought humans were supposed to wake bright-eyed and refreshed in the morning."

"That's only after a good night's sleep." Nero slurped some lukewarm coffee from his mug. He'd lost count, but he thought it was his third cup of the morning. Unless it was his fourth. Whatever number it was, it wasn't working. "Which exactly none of us got. You missed all the fun."

The group of kids passed on the way to the front door, and Kyrie pushed herself up from the table. "I'll be right back. I just need to make sure the children have everything."

Trish popped a chunk of melon into her mouth. "Something to do with that girl you finally caught yesterday?" she asked around it.

"That, too. Speaking of which, we've got a job for you, while you're recuperating. But we'll come back to that."

"A job? How exciting." Trish spread preserves over a slab of toast. "So what fun did I miss?"

Lady canted her head to listen, and didn't answer until Kyrie was locking the front door behind the children. "Dante and Vergil recovered their memories of Eva's death."

Trish froze with the toast halfway to her mouth, then slowly replaced it on her plate. "I see."

"Yeah. It was bad." Nero propped his elbows on the table. Kyrie touched his shoulder in sympathy as she returned to her seat. "I don't know how long it's gonna take them to bounce back from that. Rosso was really scared and upset last night, but Lady got him calmed down, and he got back to sleep eventually. I think he'll be okay, with time. But Zaffiro really has me worried. He went catatonic for a while, and he's still not back to normal. He won't talk, won't eat or drink, and won't sleep. I looked in on him again a little bit ago, and he's still just lying there with his eyes open."

Trish nodded slowly. "I can't say I'm surprised, after what he experienced. It's a wonder he came through it at all, especially on his own."

They all stared at her. "You know what happened to him?" Lady asked after a moment of shocked silence.

"I told you I saw his memories." Trish looked miserable. "Mundus reveled in the suffering he'd caused. It was one of his favorite ways to torment Vergil, drawing those images out of his mind and forcing him to relive them."

"What happened to him?" Nero demanded. "Why was his reaction so much worse than Dante's?"

"Because…" Trish looked away. "Vergil found her."

"Found… her?" Nero's stomach clenched. "You mean their mother?"

Trish nodded. "Vergil was away from home when Mundus's army came to Red Grave. He managed to evade them and find his way back to the house, but when he ran inside, he…" She shuddered, looking very human for a moment, before pressing on. "There was a sea of blood covering the floor. He slipped in it, and fell amid… what was left of Eva." She closed her eyes against the memory. "Mundus's servants had torn her to pieces. A message for Sparda, should he return."

Kyrie pressed a hand to her mouth as though she would be sick. Nero shared the feeling. "Did Dante see any of that?"

"I don't know. Dante never speaks of it." Trish tucked her arms across her chest. "He believed Vergil was dead too, so he must have left the house before Vergil arrived."

"He said she told him to run," Lady said quietly. She was looking a little queasy, as well. "Rosso, I mean. Last night, he told me his mother told him to run and hide. He heard her screaming, but perhaps he got away before… the rest."

"Thank goodness for small mercies." Kyrie's voice was scarcely above a whisper. "It's all so horrible. How could those poor children have endured that? It's a miracle that they didn't suffer serious psychological damage."

"Are you sure they didn't?" Lady lifted her gaze to meet Kyrie's. "I mean, I've always chalked up their eccentricities to being half-devil, but…" She hesitated, and her eyes flicked to Nero.

"You can say it," Nero sighed. "Vergil destroyed a city and caused the deaths of almost twelve thousand people last year. Those aren't exactly the actions of a well-balanced, emotionally-stable individual." He swirled the dregs of coffee in his mug. "Is it bad that I'm kinda relieved? I mean, at least he has a reason for being a psychopath. It's not, you know, hereditary madness or something." He huffed a wry laugh. "I hope."

A shadow of Trish's usual sly smile crossed her face. "Are you sure you wouldn't rather have that as an excuse?"

"Ha, ha." Nero scowled, but the return to her normal teasing was something of a relief after the heavy conversation. He drained his coffee. "Look, I hate to break up this festive chat, but I'm about to officially declare it nap time. What do you say we all go to bed for a few hours, and reconvene for lunch? Excluding Trish, of course."

Trish arched an eyebrow. "I hope you're excluding me from sleep, and not lunch. And wasn't there something you were going to ask me to do? Something about that girl?"

"We'll talk about it at lunch," Nero said through a yawn. "You're on… well, everything-duty until then."


It seemed Nero had only just closed his eyes when Lady shook him awake. "Sorry," she murmured. Her own voice was rough with sleep. "Trish woke me first. The monitor's been triggered."

"Shit." Nero rubbed grit from his eyes and carefully disentangled himself from Kyrie. They had fallen asleep holding each other close, both instinctively craving comfort after the traumatic revelations about Rosso and Zaffiro, but he didn't want to wake her when she was so far behind on sleep. "Have you called Nico?" he whispered.

Lady nodded. "Already on her way over."

"Go ahead and load up. I'll meet you in the garage." When Lady had gone, Nero dressed and quietly retrieved Blue Rose from the secure locker. The sight of the special ammunition in the safe summoned an image of Gigi and her mutilated hands to mind. Had that just been yesterday morning? So much had happened since then… His thoughts automatically tracked to the twins, and he wondered if Zaffiro were up to talking just yet. Then he shook his head at the juxtaposition. I am leading one hell of a strange life.

He paused to brush his teeth and splash water on his face, hoping to trick his body into believing he was fully awake, before heading for the garage. Trish was sprawled on the couch in the living room, reading a magazine. She waved without looking up. Nero paused at the door. "You staying here?"

She shrugged. "Rest still seems the best use of my time. It's been ten minutes since the monitor tripped, and you still have to get there. I suspect that thing will be long gone by the time you arrive."

"Yeah, you're probably right." Nero glanced back down the hall. "Check on the kids while we're gone, will you? Kyrie's sleeping, and I'm still worried about Zaffiro."

Trish's fingers tightened almost imperceptibly on the magazine, but she nodded. "You'd better hurry. I heard Nico arrive a moment ago."

In the garage, Nico was already behind the wheel, practically bouncing with impatience. "Let's go, let's go!" she shouted as Nero tossed Red Queen's case into the vehicle.

"So go already!" Nero slammed the side door and held on as Nico took the corner and accelerated down the narrow street. When the van had stopped swaying, he inched forward far enough to converse with Lady, seated in the front passenger seat. "All right, so assuming this thing isn't already long gone, what do we do when we get there? We need a plan."

"We know that beam of light it shoots from its mouth is dangerous." Lady raised her voice over the road noise. "And we can see when it's preparing for an attack. So as long as we can maintain solid cover between it and us, we can most likely avoid dying."

Nico tossed Lady an incredulous look. "You call that a plan?"

"No, I call that a recap," Lady shot back. "The last time we encountered it, that girl Gigi said that bullets didn't work against it. She was shooting .45s, but there's a chance something with more kick could still damage it. So step one is to find good cover that will protect us from the beam attack. Step two is to hit it with Blue Rose and Kalina Ann, and see what happens. If the ranged attacks show results, we lay into it with everything we've got. We'll stay close enough to cover that when it starts charging up for a counterattack, we can get to safety."

"And what if step two fails?"

"Then we move on to step three, which is me distracting it with rockets and grenades while you get in close and see what Red Queen can do."

"So step three is Lady turns you into demon chow," Nico translated. "Great plan. Won't work more than once, though."

Nero glared at her. "Thanks for the vote of confidence, Nico."

"Any time. Oh, an' if you wanna try somethin' that actually might work, I got some new toys for ya back there." She took her eyes off the road for a quick glance back at him. "They're just prototypes. One of each. No cash up front, since I still owe you for that warehouse thing, but don't get used to it."

Nero found a selection of new Devil Breakers swinging from the rack over the workbench. He unhooked one with tiny red marks scattered over the surface and slid his arm inside. It tingled as his flesh reformed and made contact with the metal. "What do these things do?"

"The red one is what I call the Flea Bite," Nico called. "It's like itchin' powder for demons. Gets 'em all discombobulated. Use it on a group, an' they'll just start bitin' an' scratchin' at each other, 'stead of attackin' you. Stand back an' watch 'em tear each other apart."

"Except there's no group this time. It's just the one Nilepoch." Nero slid his arm out of the speckled Breaker and reached for the next model. "What about this yellow one?"

"That's the Venomator!"

Nero rolled his eyes. "Catchy name."

"Ain't it? Made it from a piece o' those stabby Qliphoth root things. Careful, it spits poison. Kills low-level demons dead within an hour. Don't get any on you, though; it stings like hell."

Nero sighed and set it aside. Something that took an hour to kill a weak demon wouldn't be much use against the Nilepoch, either. The last Breaker on the rack sparkled and shimmered as it swung. "Let me guess," he muttered. "This must be the Glitter Cannon. Gives demons a makeover so they feel like a princess."

"Speak up," Nico called. "I can't hear ya back there."

That was probably for the best. "What's the one that looks like a disco ball?"

"You mean the real pretty one? That's the Quicksilver. It's like Ragtime, only backwards."

"I have no idea what the hell that means." Nero unhooked it and tried it on. The metal had felt cold in his hand, but immediately settled close around his flesh as though he'd plunged his arm into warm plasma. It felt good. Energizing. "What's it do?"

"Okay, you know how Ragtime messes with time an' slows stuff down? Well, instead o' slowin' things down, this one speeds you up. It should give you super speed. Haven't tested it yet, though. Might make you burn up from friction if you use it for more'n a couple seconds, so don't go crazy with it."

Super speed certainly sounded promising, caveats aside. Nero started to remove the weapon, then shrugged and left it on his arm. It was comfortable enough, and wearing it meant he could fit one more in reserve. He fished around behind the workbench for a few of the standard models, loaded them into the magazine at his hip, and made his way back to the front of the van. Thousands of pinpoints of light danced around him, reflected from the surface of the Quicksilver.

In the passenger seat, Lady squinted against the glare as he joined them at the front. "Wow, that is a disco ball. Do you do parties?"

Nero snorted and tried to pretend that he'd never used that line himself. "You've been hanging around Dante too long." He ducked to peer through the windshield at the dilapidated mining shacks Nico was speeding past, then braced against the bucket seats as she braked and threw the van into park near the old mine entrance. "Okay, let's get in there and see if this son of a bitch is still hanging around."

As they climbed out of the van, Lady rubbed her hands together. "It's really starting to get cold out here. Had I known I would be spending this much time in the mountains, I would have brought my winter gear from home."

"Just be glad we're going in the back way. There's snow year-round up on Lamina Peak." Nero pointed toward the top of the mountain and the winding path to the castle's main entrance. "Though it hasn't been as bad since the Hellgate closed. I think the Frosts were just getting out of hand."

The old mine was the shortest route to the castle's lower levels, but it was far from direct. Another quarter of an hour passed as the trio navigated the maze of tunnels to reach the underground laboratory, but apart from a few vermin, they encountered no enemies. After their planning—such as it was—in the van, it was almost more of a disappointment than a relief that the Nilepoch was nowhere to be found. The new energy fizzing in his arm made Nero itch for a fight.

Still, there were definite signs of the Nilepoch's recent apparition. In its cell, the Riot was staggered once again, its color faded to the same hazy purple-white as it had been two weeks before. It swayed weakly, not even taking a swipe at Nero as he checked the bars and lock of its cage.

"Well, at least it seems our theory was sound." Lady leaned back against a rusted barrel while Nico adjusted and reset the monitor sensors. "The Nilepoch returned to the same victim, and apparently drained it the same way as before. So in theory, it should come back here again in about…" She tallied the time on her fingers. "It's been thirteen days, hasn't it? I think we last saw it on a Thursday."

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure you're right. It was the day after Kyrie worked at the orphanage." Nero finished another restless sweep of the perimeter. "I wish we had some way to trap it here when it comes back, so we could just deal with the damned thing. I'm already sick of waiting for it to come to us."

"If we knew more about how its powers functioned, maybe we could, but it would likely require more arcane know-how than I have." Lady shrugged. "At least it's somewhat predictable, now. We'll just have to set up an ambush. A week from next Tuesday, we'll be back here, waiting. We can even set up some solid cover to prepare."

"Two more weeks until we can take another shot at it." Nero paced the room, burning off his agitation. "And we still don't even know for sure if we can kill it."

"At least we have a countdown." Lady rolled her neck and stretched. "Look at it this way: This is one problem you don't have to worry about for two more weeks. You can focus on other things."

"Yeah, an' now that Gigi or whatever her name is is off the streets, maybe we'll actually get some payin' work." Nico stood and dusted her hands. "We still gotta get some answers from her, too."

Lady nodded. "And now we can afford to spend a few days just working on that. Rosso and Zaffiro will likely need some extra attention, too."

"Rosso an' Zaffiro?" Nico frowned. "Somethin' happen to them?"

"You could say that," Nero hedged. "We'll fill you in on the way back. You finished here?"

"Yeah, everythin' looks good. Couple o' the mounts got knocked over, but the sensors are all still workin' okay."

They began the return journey through the twisting corridors, Lady giving Nico the highlights of the previous evening's events as they walked. Nero noted she omitted the details of the nightmares and what Trish had told them, which was just as well; knowing Nico, she'd be likely to say something about it and upset the twins, or irritate Dante and Vergil—if they were ever fully restored to their adult selves—by asking them inappropriate questions. Nico's heart was in the right place, but her mouth was usually somewhere off the map.

They were just approaching the mine entrance when Nero heard a chittering sound from up ahead. Lady drew one of her semiautomatics, but Nero held up a hand to stop her. "Allow me." He flashed a fierce grin. "I'm in the mood to punch something."

"Suit yourself." Lady re-holstered the pistol. "You see it?"

"Not yet, but it's close." He peered ahead to the square of light that led out to the clearing where they'd parked the van and caught sight of a staggering burlap body capped by veined petals. Dull sunlight gleamed from its bladed tentacles. "Aw, it's just a Chimera. Too easy."

The Chimera reoriented toward Nero as it sensed his approach, and Nero charged. His right hand automatically curled into a fist as he lunged forward, and something clicked within the mechanism surrounding his arm.

In the next instant, Nero had burst out into the sunlight. Light refracted from the Quicksilver, splitting into prismatic beams that spread and blurred like watercolors as Nero streaked through space. Dry heat seared his face and neck as he circled the Chimera and aimed a well-placed blow to one of its lower limbs. The leg snapped into pieces, but the misshapen figure remained suspended in the air. Nero reached back for his sword, more light splintering around him, and Red Queen's edge flared white-hot as she cleaved through the demon's body. The coarse fabric of the host Scarecrow sparked and charred along the edges of the cut, slow curls of smoke trailing out into the air.

Nero stopped moving, and abruptly the world caught up to him. The Chimera exploded violently into flame and ash just as heat pulsed through Red Queen's steel, burning Nero's hand even through the protective grip. He planted the tip of the blade in the ground and let it go, shaking his hand to cool it. "Hot damn!" Nero burst, with a complete lack of irony.

Before Nero could move again, Nico dashed out of the mine entrance and slapped him across the top of the head. "Ow!" Nero threw his arms up to shield himself, but she continued smacking him with flattened palms. "What the hell, Nico?"

"You're on fire, you moron!" Nico whacked him over the head a few more times, then gave him one final slap that he suspected had nothing to do with smothering a flame. "I warned you about the friction, idiot!"

"Would you cut it out?" Nero ducked away from her. "Get off me! I'm fine!"

"Your hair was smoking," Lady said mildly as she joined them. She brushed stray ash from Nero's shoulder. "I know I'm not the expert here, but I think that model might need a few adjustments before you use it again."

"Yeah, maybe." Nero flexed his fingers, then reconsidered the motion and slipped his arm free from the Devil Breaker. The Quicksilver energy that had surged through him departed abruptly, leaving his limbs heavy. Suddenly, every part of him felt utterly drained. "You know what? I'm beat. Let's go home."


NOTES:

I wrote this chapter six months ago—and of course the chapter of Visions of V that actually shows what happens when young Vergil returns to the burning house releases ONE DAY before this chapter is scheduled to post. /sigh/ I decided to leave my version as it is, because it fits with the way I've written the character in this story, and I don't want to try to do flying rewrites every time something new comes out. (Honestly, so much of DMC canon is internally inconsistent that I think there's room for a little fudging on the details.)

Technically Quicksilver (DMC3) and Ragtime (DMC5) are both derived from Geryon, so I figured, why not combine them? Also I'm sorry, but Nero is now a human disco ball. And I'm not actually sorry at all. [Vergil voice] But you already knew that.