"I hope sausage and green pepper is okay." Lady deposited a large pizza box on the coffee table. "I figured you wouldn't have had dinner yet."

"Thanks. Kyrie fixed something for Julio while I was cleaning up, but I haven't eaten anything since lunch." Nero tossed the damp towel he'd been using on his hair over one shoulder. "Let me finish getting the kids in bed, and then we can debrief."

In the hallway he dodged past Kyrie, her arms laden with binders. "I've got the photo albums, though I'm still not sure why you wanted them."

"I'll explain in a minute. Are all the kids down?"

"All except Julio. He was just finishing his dinner."

"I'll check on him and meet you in the living room."

It had taken far longer than forty-eight minutes to get the rest of the children home and ready for bed, but at least the day's stress and excitement had left them exhausted, so they didn't fight the instruction to go right to sleep. Nero knew that he and Kyrie would likely have to do some damage control, but there were enough crises on the table that he was more than willing to put off the explanations until tomorrow. They would all need to get their stories straight first, anyhow.

Once he'd seen Julio on his way to bed, Nero joined the others in the living room. "Okay, I think everybody's here and all the immediate fires are out, so we can get started." He slumped onto the sofa. "Man, I'm beat."

"Eat something," Kyrie prompted. "You're healing. You need to keep your strength up."

Nero dutifully started on a slice of pizza, but Lady scarcely gave him time to chew. "So I think the question on all our minds is… what happened today?"

"What didn't happen?" Nero said around a mouthful of cheese. He paused to swallow. "Massive demon attack at the orphanage, check. Kidnapping, check. Lunatic with an evil scheme, check. Multiple attempted murders, check. For those playing along at home, those are all down to the same guy." He wiped the grease off his hands before flipping through one of Kyrie's photo albums, then held up the book so they could see the picture he was indicating. "Meet Lauda, formerly a Lieutenant of the Holy Knights of the Order of the Sword. Currently running around calling himself Lord Sparda, and failing on an epic level to train teenage girls to be devil hunters. He's also the guy behind all the demon attacks at the orphanage. And today, he kidnapped Julio, held a gun to his head, and then shoved him over a cliff, which in my book takes him off the 'what the hell, man' list and straight to the top of 'terminate with extreme prejudice.' Any of you see this guy, feel free to take him out. I'm not even calling dibs."

"Lauda?" Kyrie gaped from the photo to Nero. "Our Lauda?"

"Credo's Lauda. I never claimed him." Nero set down the book and took another bite of pizza.

"But why? He was always a bit… strict, I suppose, but he wasn't a bad person."

"Revenge, I guess. Seems like Lady's theory was right on target: He blames me personally for the fall of the Order, and he wants me to suffer for that. Also I'm pretty sure he's gone bat-shit crazy. Kept going on about some kind of holy enlightenment he wants to bring to Fortuna."

Lady pulled the album toward her. "I said it before, but I know I've seen this guy somewhere. I just can't think where."

"Well, lately he's been running around in a traditional Order cowl, if that helps. He also walks with a cane. Julio saw him at the park a couple of times." Nero swore under his breath as he realized. "He must have been watching the kids."

"A cane. Now that sounds familiar…" Lady closed her eyes and concentrated.

"So lemme get this straight." Nico reached for a slice of pizza. "You two knew this guy back in the day. An' five, six years after the Order goes down, he shows up, creates a rival devil hunter, an' then kidnaps one o' your kids, just 'cause he thinks you had somethin' to do with the Order fallin' apart, an' he wants t' get back at you?"

"Pretty much, yeah."

"Why the hell would he go through all that trouble, 'stead o' just takin' a shot at you directly? I mean, he even got us outta town an' tapped our phones—"

Lady's eyes flew open. "That's it!"

They turned to stare at her. "What?"

"The phone tap. The garage. Nero, remember the day we were in the garage and I thought I heard someone trying to open it from the outside?" She tapped the photo. "This is the man I saw outside. That's why I thought he looked familiar. I dismissed him as the culprit because I didn't think an older person who needed a cane to walk would be going around breaking into houses. We hadn't found the wire tap yet, so I thought we were just looking at ordinary burglary." She leaned back with a huff. "I can't believe I fell for his helpless-old-man act. I even asked him if he'd seen anything suspicious."

"And I only saw him from the back." Nero sighed. "If I'd seen his face, we might have figured this out months ago."

"But why all the attacks on the orphanage?" Kyrie asked. "I don't understand what he's after."

"He's after me. He wants to punish me for taking down the Order. Maybe he set up the attacks at the orphanage in the hopes that one of them would get lucky and injure me. Or maybe he was testing me, somehow. Who knows."

"He could simply have been establishing a pattern," Vergil put in. "In order to get you out of the house immediately when he was ready, he set up a series of attacks with increasing risk to the orphanage, so you would not hesitate to respond to the threat. Otherwise, you might have taken greater precautions before leaving the children here alone."

"Dang." Nico's voice was full of awe. "That's downright devious. I mean, if that's true, he had t'be plannin' this for months. Do bad guys really think like that?"

Vergil flicked an eyebrow, but said nothing.

"What concerns me more is how he was able to plan it," Nero jumped in before Nico could connect those particular dots. "He's been watching the house for weeks, so he has to know that Trish and Lady have been staying here. Somehow, he knew that all of you would be gone today. His plan wouldn't have worked if Kyrie had been here. She never would have let him get away with one of the kids."

"Unless he meant to overpower me." Kyrie chewed her lip. "He was always very considerate toward me, and I don't like to think that he would be capable of hurting me, but before today I would have said the same thing about a child. He's obviously not the same man we knew."

"Less considerate, and more borderline-obsessed," Nero muttered. "You were only one notch below Credo on his creepy worship-meter. I wouldn't be surprised if that's another reason he's pissed at me. But even if he could have taken you on a few years ago, when he was in better shape, he looks… frail now. He seems to actually need that cane, and he said himself he can't use a sword anymore. Julio told me he wouldn't have gone with him at all if Lauda hadn't threatened him with a gun. If you'd been home, you could have just hit him with a frying pan and sat on him while one of the kids went for help. He had to know you wouldn't be here before springing his trap."

"But we only decided to go a couple of days ago." Lady frowned. "Do you think he's bugged the house?"

"I don't think so. He didn't seem to know about Vergil. Or Julio, for that matter. He thought Dan—er, Tony would be home alone. If he'd been listening in, he should have known someone else was here."

"But we didn't tell anyone we were leaving, apart from…" Kyrie looked up suddenly. "Surely it couldn't be someone at the orphanage!"

"What about whatsername?" Nico asked. "You know, the little redhead thief."

"Gigi?" Nero shook his head. "She wasn't there when we talked to the rest of the staff. I guess she could have heard it from someone else and passed the information along, but she seemed honestly shocked to learn what Lauda was up to. And there's no way she would have gone along with the attacks on the orphanage. Not with her brother and sister there."

"I suppose we'll still have to ask her." Kyrie clasped her hands tightly in her lap. "But if it wasn't her… Could there be anyone else who knew? I can't bear to think of anyone at the orphanage colluding with this kind of plan. They should all be concerned first and foremost with the children's welfare, and allowing someone to threaten and kidnap a child…"

"Not to mention, it would be pretty stupid for any of them to knowingly put themselves in harm's way like that," Nero added. "The attack at the orphanage today was big. If we'd arrived even a couple of minutes later, it could easily have gotten out of control."

"It's late enough that we can't confirm anything more tonight. We'll have to ask around tomorrow." Lady leaned forward for a last look at the photo album. "So in addition to the Nilepoch, we now have to watch our sixes for this wacko. Lovely."

"Will we be safe here?" Kyrie asked quietly. "Not that we really have any other place to go, but…"

"For now, I'll keep watch." Trish stood. "At the orphanage, Dante told me he felt something off about the man who came to the door. That means I should be able to feel him coming."

Vergil nodded. "I sensed something strange from him, too. Not a true demonic presence, but something abnormal."

"Well, who knows what kinda supernatural crap the Order exposed their officers to." Nero shrugged. "At least it'll function as an early warning system, as long as one of you is around."

Trish leaned forward to collect the pizza box. "Last call before this goes up on the roof with me."

"Wait a second, Trish." Lady glanced around the group. "Are we sticking to the original plan, or revising our schedule?"

"Plan?" Nero rubbed his forehead, trying to banish the dull ache growing there. "Remind me what the plan was."

"We were going out hunting for the Nilepoch, remember?" She gave him a critical look. "Though given how you're moving, I'm guessing that's off for tomorrow."

Nero flexed his spine and grimaced. "Yeah, I could probably use an extra day to put my rib cage back together, if we can spare the time."

"I second that," Nico jumped in. "I know I'm not in combat or anythin', but I spent two hours givin' horsey rides to a bunch o' rugrats tonight, and my back ain't gonna feel right for a couple o' days."

"We'll want to speak to Sister Benedicta tomorrow, as well," Kyrie added. "I won't feel safe until we learn how Lauda is getting his information."

"All right," Lady said. "Maybe Trish and I can do some more reconnaissance tomorrow, and narrow down the search area a bit more."

"Sounds like a plan. Call me in a couple o' days an' let me know when you need a driver." Nico stood, yawned, retrieved a slice of pizza from the box Trish held, and headed for the door. "Night, all."

Nero watched her go and shook his head. "From all her bitching, you'd think she was going to do something other than sit around on her ass in the van all day while we're out doing the legwork."

"Oh, let her go," Kyrie soothed. "You need the rest, anyway. And besides, you told Julio he could stay home from school tomorrow, and we don't want to leave him alone."

"Right." Nero sighed. "Poor Julio. He did exactly what I told him to do today, and I kinda wish he hadn't."

Kyrie's brow furrowed. "What do you mean?"

"When I got the call from the orphanage, I left him in charge here, and warned him to watch out for the guy in a cowl. When Lauda showed up, I guess Julio took the initiative and hid Tony under the stairs, because he thought he had to protect him. Julio told Lauda that he was the only one here, so Lauda took him instead."

"Well, it's certainly not an ideal scenario, but what would you have preferred he do?"

Nero shrugged. "I just mean that if Lauda had thrown Tony off a cliff, he might have just busted out some devil wings and flown back to kick Lauda in the face or something."

"Had Lauda thrown him off a cliff, Dante would have fallen like anyone else," Vergil said in a flat tone. "His abilities have not yet awakened. He may be more resilient than the average human child, but sufficient injury can still kill him."

"Oh?" Nero turned to observe Vergil, curiosity burning away some of his fatigue. "I knew we hadn't seen his devil form yet, but I thought you two were pretty much indestructible from birth."

Vergil shook his head. "We're not immortal. As for our other abilities… Those only manifested after contact with an entity of sufficient power."

Nero blinked. "Entity?"

"A powerful devil, or a weapon imbued with the soul of one."

"Oh." That was still relatively vague, but Nero was too tired to dance through Vergil's word games to try to glean the details. "So how long do we have until Tony grows wings and starts flying around the house? When will he come into his powers?"

Vergil didn't answer immediately, but after a glance at him, Lady broke the silence. "I'd say you've got a few weeks, at least. He was nineteen, the first time around."

"Huh." Nero automatically glanced down at his right arm. "Weird. So was I."

"Slightly different circumstances," Lady went on. "In Dante's case, it had more to do with someone running him through the chest with his own sword." She shot Vergil a dark look.

"Yeah, totally different circumstances," Nero said dryly. "I mean, I got run through the chest with somebody else's sword." He frowned. "Or maybe it was a sword-shaped demon? You never quite knew what you were fighting, when Agnus was involved."

"Oh, those Gladius things he kept around? Definitely demonic." Trish settled herself on the back of the sofa with the pizza box in her lap. "Agnus was a special kind of… special."

"I'll say. I'm just glad Nico got most of the brains, but none of the insanity. Or at least not much of it." Nero glanced at Vergil. "So how about you? Were you nineteen, too?"

"No." Vergil's words were clipped. "I was younger."

Trish raised her eyebrows, intrigued by his reticence. "And whose sword ran you through?"

"It wasn't a sword."

When he didn't continue, Lady rolled her eyes. "What is this, a game of Twenty Questions? Either tell us or don't, but don't drag it out. Poor Nero's about to fall over as it is."

"I'm fine," Nero lied. "What was it, then, if not a sword?"

They all stared at him, expectant, and Vergil's lips thinned. "When I was fifteen years old, an assassin sent by Mundus removed my still-beating heart from my chest as a trophy to present to his master. Presented with a choice between dying or embracing my true nature, I opted to survive. The assassin was not so fortunate."

The mention of her creator startled Trish into silence, but Lady was unaffected. "Ripped your heart out, huh?" She flashed a vicious smile. "I always wondered what happened to it." Vergil turned his icy glare on her, but she seemed immune. "Fortunately Dante's was big enough to recover from the experience of having his own brother try to murder him."

"Had I wanted to kill Dante, he would be dead. He was barely conscious, and at my mercy."

"And you impaled him. With his own sword."

"I awakened him," Vergil countered. "I knew the Rebellion would draw out his latent power. If I hadn't used it, he never would have survived long enough to escape the tower. Arkham would have seen to that."

Lady uttered a sharp laugh. "You expect us to believe that stabbing your brother was a benevolent act?"

"I don't particularly care what you believe."

"Do you care what Dante believes?" The amusement vanished from Lady's voice. "Because he spent years trying to figure out what he'd done to make you hate him enough to want him dead. You have no idea how badly your mistakes wrecked his life."

Vergil's face could have been carved from stone. "That matter lies between Dante and myself. It is no concern of yours."

"Spoken like a self-made pariah. But then, I wouldn't expect you to understand human relationships." She leaned closer, her eyes locked with Vergil's. "Just remember, I spent a lot more years watching Dante's back than you ever did. And in the human world, people don't have to share blood to be family."

Vergil looked away—but not, as Nero had thought in that first instant, because he was chastened by Lady's rebuff. His eyes fixed on something beyond Nero's shoulder. Nero twisted to follow his gaze and saw Rosso standing in the doorway, pillow in hand, and desperately hoped that the boy hadn't overheard the argument. "Hey, it's after lights out. What are you doing up?"

"I can't sleep." The boy's eyes swept across the group of adults and landed on Vergil. "Can I stay out here again?"

Kyrie sighed. "Tony, at some point you're going to have to learn to sleep on your own."

"I know. But today was…" He glanced back down the hall toward the cupboard he'd broken out of, and a tremor shook his shoulders. "I can't sleep," he repeated.

Kyrie deferred to Vergil, who nodded. Immediately, Rosso hurried over and joined him on the sofa. Lady's eyes followed him, but apart from a tightness around her mouth, she expressed no objection.

"Well, I think it's bedtime for me." Kyrie stood and stretched. "I was tired even before we got back to the orphanage, and this evening wasn't exactly restful." She nudged Nero's shoulder. "And you need to get some rest, too."

Trish headed for the front door, pizza box in hand. "See you all in the morning."

Nero followed Kyrie down the hallway, but paused at the stairs. "I'll come up in just a minute. I want to get something to drink first. That sausage was pretty salty."

"All right. Don't be long." Kyrie ascended the stairs, and Nero headed for the kitchen.

He was halfway through his second glass of water when Lady appeared in the doorway. "Do you think he heard any of that?" she whispered.

Nero lowered the glass to stare at her. "Who?"

"Dante." She nodded toward the front of the house. "He walked in right after we were talking about what Vergil did to him."

"If he did, he doesn't seem to have taken it to heart." Nero finished the glass and refilled it from the tap. "Now that he's accepted that Vergil's his brother, he seems determined to stick with him night and day."

"It does seem that way." Lady leaned against the door jamb, arms crossed. "I wish he wouldn't."

"Why?"

"Because I don't trust Vergil. And I especially don't trust Vergil with any version of Dante that can't defend himself." Nero must have looked skeptical, because Lady arched her eyebrows. "You can't possibly believe he actually wants to share his couch with a kid. He has to have some ulterior motive."

"Such as?"

"Gaining Dante's trust to make it easier to hurt him when the opportunity presents itself."

"If he wanted to kill Dante in his sleep, seems like he could have done it months ago, when they were both living at Dante's shop. Half the time when I call, it sounds like Dante's asleep at his desk. He can't stay on his guard all the time." Nero shrugged. "I grant you it's not like Vergil to hang around with kids, but maybe it's different when the kid is his brother."

Lady gave him a curious look. "After what he did to you, I would have thought you'd be even more suspicious of him than me. Do you really trust him?"

"I don't know." Nero watched the light refracting through his water. "I think I'm starting to."

"Nero, just because we know what he went through growing up doesn't mean that—"

"He saved Julio's life."

Her eyes widened. "What?"

"Today. He saved Julio." Nero's fingers tightened on the glass. "Lauda had me pinned to the ground. If Vergil hadn't been there, Julio…" His throat closed on the last few words.

Lady nodded her understanding. "Okay. I guess you have reason."

Nero gave a wordless nod and, in an effort to flush the tightness in his throat, drained the entire glass of water in one go. When he'd finished, he found Lady giving him an odd look. "The pizza wasn't that salty, was it?"

"I lost more than the doctor-recommended amount of blood when Lauda remodeled my vital organs. Demonic healing patches the holes, but it doesn't rehydrate you." Nero set his glass in the sink. "Don't tell Kyrie, though. If she knew, she'd run a garden hose down my throat every time I got a scratch."

"I never heard it." Lady raised her hands. "It's my policy never to get involved in other families' domestic affairs."

Nero shot her a knowing look. "Just Dante's?"

"Dante is family." More quietly she added, "As close as I've got, anyway."

Nero understood that; he'd felt the same way about Kyrie and Credo, growing up. Her overprotective streak where Rosso was concerned suddenly made a lot more sense. "I guess that makes us honorary in-laws, or something."

Lady rolled her eyes. "If it keeps you from ever calling me 'Mom' again, I'll take it." She pushed away from the wall. "I can still smell the gunpowder on my skin. Guess I'd better take advantage of the bathroom while there isn't a waiting list to get in. You need anything in there before I hop in the shower?"

"Just let me grab my toothbrush, and then it's all yours. I can use the sink in here."

When he'd finished, Nero could still hear the sound of running water from the bathroom, so he left the hall light on for Lady. He started to head for the stairs, then thought better of it and went to double-check that the front door was securely locked. With Lauda on the loose, a little extra caution was merited.

He automatically glanced into the living room as he passed. A beam of light from the hallway fell across the sofa, and without entirely knowing why, Nero felt his chest seize at the sight.

Vergil was stretched out on his side on the couch, face relaxed in repose. Rosso was curled into the narrow space in front of him on the cushions, looking much younger in sleep than he did when awake. The man's arm encircled the child in a protective embrace.

Nero struggled to regain his breath, and after a few seconds, he realized why the image had triggered such a powerful reaction. They look like father and son. In another life, that might have been him lying there, secure in the arms of a loving parent…

Nero shook himself. Such daydreams had occupied his fancy when he was a young child in the orphanage, but he was far too old for such fantasies now. Besides, Nero had doubtless been better off in the hands of Sister Benedicta and her associates. Vergil had never displayed the least inclination toward parenting, and there was no evidence that he was even capable of such a thing as love—hadn't Lady's revelation proved as much? Dante was closer to Vergil than anyone, and Vergil had very nearly killed him, despite his incredible claim that he had done it for Dante's own protection.

Even so, as Nero climbed the stairs to his bedroom, the tender scene he'd witnessed lingered in his mind, and a part of him couldn't help wondering if Vergil had been telling the truth.