In spite of the lateness of the hour when he finally retired, Nero's sleep was far from restful. His dreams, when they weren't interrupted by fits of wakefulness, were troubled by a shadow he could not name. Sleeping or waking, he was aware of a constant pressure at the back of his mind, a near-imperceptible buzzing that vanished only when he attempted to focus on it.

Beside him, Kyrie had slept soundly, and awoke bright and refreshed. "What a beautiful morning!" she exclaimed, pulling back the curtains to allow the sunlight access to the room. "Not a cloud in the sky!" Nero grunted and burrowed a little deeper into his pillow, wishing the sun would have stayed below the horizon for an extra five minutes. "You'd better hurry if you want to beat the rush for the shower," Kyrie went on as she opened a dresser drawer. The squeak of the antique wood grated on Nero's ears, and he winced.

His lack of response finally caught Kyrie's notice. "Nero?" She came around the bed and touched his shoulder. "Are you feeling all right?"

"Just a headache or something," he mumbled. "Had trouble sleeping all night."

Kyrie's hand went to his forehead, automatically checking for fever even though Nero hadn't had so much as a cold in years. Satisfied that he wasn't ill, she picked up the clock and twisted the stud on the back to reset the alarm. "I suppose there's no reason you can't stay in bed for an extra twenty minutes. It will take me that long to get breakfast ready. But come down then, all right? The children will worry if they don't see you for breakfast."

Given the number of people occupying the house, Nero wasn't sure the children would even notice if he didn't show up for breakfast, but he nodded anyway. He buried his face under a pillow to block the sunlight, hoping to get back to sleep, but all he managed was a light doze. All too soon the alarm sounded, an irritating leitmotif to the soundless hum in his mind.

He descended to the kitchen just as Kyrie was serving breakfast. Lady was helping her distribute plates to the squirrelly children. She paused beside Rosso, who was bent intently over a word puzzle in the back of one of Trish's magazines, and bopped him lightly on the head with the underside of the plate she was trying to set in front of him. "Move it or lose it, Tony."

The boy scowled, but shoved the magazine and pencil into his lap. "Why? I can eat and read at the same time."

"Anyone can read while they eat, but carrying on a conversation is another skill altogether." Kyrie began dishing up the next round of plates. "I don't want you all learning to ignore the people around you."

"I can eat and read and talk at the same time," Rosso retorted, dangerously close to a sulk. "I don't know why I can't do things I'm good at just because someone else can't do them."

"Because those are the rules," Nero snapped. "You want to eat, you follow them. End of discussion." A momentary hush settled over the room, and Nero realized his tone had been sharper than he'd intended. He flashed an apologetic glance at Kyrie. It was just that damn pressure in his head, shortening his temper. "I can take the plates out to the other room," he offered. It was probably better for everyone involved if he moved someplace where the kids wouldn't chafe his raw nerves.

Kyrie handed him a tray and loaded it with four plates, which Nero bore out to the living room. Trish was stretched out on the couch. Vergil was nowhere to be seen. He started to set the tray on the coffee table, then realized it was buried under a spread of magazines, doubtless untidy from Rosso's rifling through them. "Hey, could you—"

"I'll get it," Lady said, ducking quickly around Nero to clear the table. She stacked the magazines and set them beside the couch. "Sorry, I left a mess out here. Trish? Breakfast?"

"No, thanks," Trish said without moving.

Nero and Lady stared at her, then exchanged glances. "Did you just… turn down food?"

Trish opened one eye to glance at the tray. "Maybe later. I'm feeling a little bit… off, just now."

"Huh." Nero dropped into the armchair and realized he didn't have much of an appetite, either. "You, too?"

Lady glanced between them, a crease forming between her brows. "Whereas I'm feeling fine."

"Well, I guess it's good somebody is," Nero muttered.

"No, I mean… Don't you think it's odd that the two of you and Tony would all be feeling 'off' at the same time, while the humans are fine?"

Nero frowned. "What's that about Tony?"

"You saw him in the kitchen, didn't you?"

"Yeah, but half the time he acts like a little snot without any good reason. I thought he was just mad that you threatened to take his magazine."

Lady shook her head. "I let him pick out the magazine earlier to distract him, because he was complaining about a ringing in his ears and said he didn't feel good. He told me he couldn't sleep because of it."

"Weird." Nero rubbed the back of his neck. "Same here. I had trouble sleeping, and it's like there's this constant buzzing in my skull."

Trish opened both eyes to join the conversation. "I don't sleep, but I imagine if I did, this would have kept me from it. It's not exactly a sound, though. More like a—a reverberation. A resonance of power. It feels like the underworld is drawing nearer, but… wrong. Like the planes have become misaligned."

Nero didn't know what most of that meant, but Lady was right: The fact that they were all experiencing the same symptoms wasn't a good sign. "So that's three for four. When Vergil gets out of the shower, we'll see if he's feeling the same thing."

"Vergil's not in the shower." Trish pushed herself upright. "He was out of the house by the time I came down this morning."

"I wondered why I hadn't needed to avoid him today." Lady went to the garage and opened the door. "The van and my bike are still here, and the drive door is closed. If he left, he went out the front door."

"Well, if he was gone during the night, that's something else that would have kept Tony from—" Nero's words trailed off in a rush of breath as all at once, the pressure in his skull eased. A dull ache pulsed through his neck and jaw as the tension in muscles he hadn't been aware of simultaneously let off. "Holy crap. It's like I can breathe again."

Trish had flopped bonelessly back against the couch cushions at the same moment that Nero had stopped speaking. "Oh, that's much better."

Lady paused in the doorway and glanced between them. "So… I take it it's stopped, then?"

"Yeah." Nero straightened and rolled his neck. "Like flipping a switch. It just quit."

"And yet I didn't feel a thing, before or after." Lady drummed her fingers on the doorframe. "I wonder if this has something to do with Vergil. Trish, what time did he leave?"

Trish shook her head. "I was distracted with whatever was going on with…" She waved her hand to indicate the general atmosphere. "I didn't notice his presence had vanished until Kyrie had to let me in this morning. Usually Vergil's the one who answers when I knock."

Nero hadn't thought about how Trish was getting into the house each morning, but it made sense that Vergil would open the door, considering he was the closest to it. He wondered how those morning interactions went, or if they just ignored each other. As far as he could tell, Trish and Vergil had never been on particularly sociable terms.

Breakfast must have wrapped up during their conversation, because a moment later a crowd of children pelted down the hall, carrying their school bags and lunch sacks. They eddied around the closet, jostling for their coats, then surged through the front door with overlapping shouts of farewell.

A little behind the current came Julio, with Kyrie right on his heels. "If anything starts hurting during the day," she was reminding him, "don't be afraid to ask to see the school nurse."

"I know. It's just a bruise." Julio stopped just short of rolling his eyes, but his tone conveyed the sentiment. "I was fine all day yesterday. Don't worry."

"All right." Kyrie smiled, though she still looked a little anxious. "Have a good day at school!"

"I will. Bye, Nero," Julio called over his shoulder as he opened the door. He began to step out and nearly collided with Vergil, who was entering at the same moment. "Oh! Uh… good morning," Julio stammered. He'd been a little in awe of Vergil since his thrilling rescue.

"Good morning." Vergil stepped aside to let the boy pass, then stood watching him for a few seconds before entering the house.

"Well, look who has mysteriously reappeared." Lady crossed her arms. "Your timing is convenient. Suspiciously so."

Vergil leaned the Yamato against the wall long enough to hang his coat in the closet. "If you see something significant in my having arrived after the children's departure but before breakfast has been cleared away, I'm afraid you may have mistaken me for Trish."

"Oh, I was here long before the kiddies left." As though prompted by Vergil's observation, Trish collected her breakfast plate from the tray on the coffee table. "Though I have to admit, I do find it curious that you've returned just after that resonant underworld energy disappeared."

"Unfortunately, I can't take credit for stopping that—though I did set out early this morning with the intention of doing so."

"Set out where, exactly?" Lady asked.

"Order headquarters." Vergil collected the Yamato and moved into the living room. "That's where the disturbance originated."

Lady's eyes narrowed. "And just how did you get to the other side of the island and back? Both vehicles were still in the garage, and I don't think Fortuna has much in the way of taxi service."

Vergil stared at her, then looked significantly at the sword in his hand before raising his eyes to her again. "I took a shortcut."

Lady's eyes narrowed, and Nero stood before things between them could escalate as usual. "You said that whatever it was came from Order HQ. What was causing it? What'd you find out there?"

Now that his preferred seat had been vacated, Vergil moved to the armchair. "Nothing specific."

"Then how do you know that's where it came from?"

"During the night, I sensed an abnormality in the planar divide—a negative pressure, as though something were pulling at the veil between worlds. It reminded me of the odd sensation I'd felt from that man Lauda, only magnified a thousandfold. That suspicion prompted me to visit the last place we'd seen him. The feeling was much more intense there, so it stands to reason that's where it was coming from."

"Did you find him?" Kyrie's hands were clasped tightly before her. Despite Lauda's crimes, Nero knew she didn't like thinking of the inevitable end of someone she'd once considered a friend. He moved to stand beside her in silent support.

Vergil shook his head. "The moment I entered the building, a summoning trap was activated, with an array similar to the one Nero and I encountered at the orphanage. By the time I had deactivated it and eliminated the demons it had unleashed, the abnormal power had abated—though there is still an echo of it in that area." Vergil rested his hand on the Yamato's hilt. "Something is not quite right with the planar divide, and it has its origins in that building."

"I'm surprised you came back here instead of tracking it down." Nero tried not to sound accusatory. He knew Vergil was more likely to pursue his own objectives than to report back to the group.

"I found something else of interest, unrelated to the disturbance. I thought you might like to know about it before I destroyed it."

"Oh, look, everyone, the lone wolf is learning to be a team player." Trish shoved another bite of toast into her mouth.

Nero ignored her, as Vergil seemed to be doing. He waited for Vergil to expound on his discovery, but apparently he was waiting to be asked. "You gonna tell us what you found?"

"A demon." Vergil waited until Lady seemed about to reply with a snide comment before adding, "Drained of its vitality."

Trish abruptly set down her plate. "The Nilepoch?"

Vergil canted his head in the gesture he used in place of a shrug. "Its condition seemed consistent with what I've seen the Nilepoch do before—though the effect on this victim seemed less severe than what I had been accustomed to. Perhaps its feeding was interrupted."

Nero exchanged a glance with Lady. "From what we saw, there wasn't much time to interrupt. It was almost instantaneous."

"Regardless, if we can keep this demon on ice, we might have another shot at the Nilepoch," Lady said. "This was in Order headquarters?"

"Just outside of it. The demon itself was one that had been summoned by the trap I encountered."

"And met the Nilepoch." Nero frowned. "But what was the Nilepoch doing all the way out there? You didn't see it on the way in, did you?"

"No. But I arrived quite close to the building, and it's likely the Nilepoch came overland. It could have been attracted by the increase in underworld energy." Vergil's fingers twitched where they rested on the Yamato. "It may have been seeking a means to return home."

"Or it might have just been hungry," Trish put in. "There are a few demons scattered throughout the forest, but they're all small fry. The Nilepoch probably hasn't had a proper meal since we ambushed it."

"And it was injured," Lady reminded them. "We scored a few good hits on it, not least of which was the one Nero landed that gave us those crystal shards. There's no telling how those wounds might have affected it."

"In any case, we should probably get out there and lock down that demon." Nero glanced down at the pajamas he still wore. "Give me ten minutes to clean up and get into some real clothes. Somebody want to call Nico? She'll be pissed if we let someone else drive the van without telling her."

"Who needs to drive?" Lady's tone was studiously innocent. "Apparently Vergil knows a shortcut."

Vergil flicked an eyebrow, but it was Trish who answered. "Absolutely not. He may be willing to hop between planes to save a few minutes on the road, but I recently discovered that a good portion of the underworld still wants to see me dead. I'd rather skip the detour than have to grow another leg back."

"Fair enough." Nero wasn't particularly keen on descending to the nether realm, himself. Vergil might still have high standing among demonkind from his time as Urizen, but he doubted any of Sparda's other descendants would be particularly welcome there.

"I'll call Nico," Kyrie offered. Her eyes slid to the untouched breakfast plates on the table. "Nero, you should really eat something before you go."

"I will, as soon as I get dressed," he promised. "If Nico gets here before then, I'll take it with me in the van."

Vergil, at least, took the hint and reached for a plate. "I assume one of these is mine?"

It wasn't until the van was veering around the tight curves of the coast road that Nero pinned down what had been bothering him since Vergil had reported his morning activity. They were each squeezed into one of the narrow seats on either side of the table, so when Nero stared at him and blurted out, "Hang on a second," there was no chance that Vergil hadn't heard. There was nothing to do but continue the question. "If you could just portal all the way from the city to Order HQ with the Yamato, why did we have to spend an hour on the bike to go after Julio?"

Vergil didn't seem surprised by the question. "I hadn't been there in decades. For all I knew, the landscape had changed."

Nero hadn't known Vergil had ever been to the Order's headquarters at all, but he left that question for later. "So you can't open a portal to some place you haven't seen?"

"The Yamato facilitates, but does not navigate. If I cannot see my destination, I must at least be familiar enough with the location to visualize it. It's the same principle as steering a vehicle—" He braced himself against the jukebox as Nico swung around a sharp corner. "—though not, perhaps, where Nico is concerned."

"Yeah, you're not wrong there." Nero used the table as leverage to push himself back into the seat he'd nearly slid out of. "But you could have used the Yamato to get back home afterward, when we realized we didn't have a seat for Julio."

Vergil nodded. "And I would have, if that girl hadn't offered a timely solution."

"Right." Perhaps there had been a good reason why Vergil hadn't volunteered to see himself home, but for now Nero was willing to chalk it up to Vergil's usual flavor of bastardy. He supposed it had all worked out in the end, anyhow.

Before long the headquarters building grew from a looming shape on the horizon to a towering shadow filling the windscreen. At Lady's suggestion, Nico pulled the van to a halt a fair distance from the end of the bridge. "Turn it around and keep the engine warm," she advised. "If you see something coming, run it over."

"Got plenty o'xperience with that back in Red Grave." After throwing the van into park, Nico promptly jammed a cigarette between her lips. "I'll be ready to roll when you are."

There was no sign of the Nilepoch—or any other life, save for the odd sea bird's cry—as they approached the building. One at a time, they braved the crumbling stairs and the boards lashed across the bridge until they reached the broad circular parade ground. "So where is this drained demon?" Lady glanced around. "I thought you said it was outside the building."

"It is." Without breaking stride, Vergil led the way toward the drawbridge.

Nero hung back to cover their rear, while Lady jogged ahead a few paces and fell into step with Trish. "It's too quiet. Can you feel anything?"

"A little too much." Trish's gaze swept their surroundings. "Vergil is right; something is still very wrong here."

Lady glanced up as they stepped into the gatehouse. "Demons?"

"That, too." Trish's shoulders wriggled, as though shaking off a chill. "There's a strange pull here. I felt a disruption like this once before, when I infiltrated the Order. After Dante shot the vicar, the High Council resurrected him. It stirred up all the demonic energy in the area and strained the veil between realms. That's when the gates began to open all over the island."

Nero took a couple of quick steps to draw nearer to the women. "I thought they saved his life with the Ascension Ceremony?"

Trish pivoted to look at him as she walked backward. "They did, but it was different from the usual ceremony. Perhaps it was because he was already close to death that so little of his humanity remained, or perhaps it was because they had turned the demonic power up to maximum since he was their leader. Most of the people who survived the Ascension Ceremony just took on some new physical characteristics that made them stronger, and became more loyal to the Order, but Sanctus was transformed into something else entirely."

"Huh. I hadn't thought about that, but I guess you're right. Credo didn't really change much at first; he was just wound a little tighter than usual. We thought it was just his new responsibilities as Supreme General." Nero glanced back at the parade ground they had just crossed. "Even when I fought him, it wasn't much different than the way he'd fought before. But Sanctus had all kinds of powers. I mean, he could fly, and shoot balls of lightning, and stuff. He could even control Alto Angelos with his mind. That was a pain in the ass."

"Don't forget that he was the only one who could pilot their Savior construct, as well," Trish added, spinning to face front again.

Nero gave a grim smile. "Oh, I'm not likely to forget that. I'm the one who got sucked into the damn thing, remember?"

"You think that was by design?" Lady wondered.

"What, getting absorbed by the Savior? It wasn't Plan A, believe me."

"I meant Sanctus piloting it. Maybe that's why he got the extra boost from the Ascension Ceremony, if he was meant to interface with it."

"I guess it's as good a theory as any. Doesn't much matter now, though." They had reached the drawbridge, and Nero paused to look around at the decaying structure. The last time they'd come through here, he'd been so focused on getting to Julio that he hadn't paid much attention to the condition of the building. "Man, this place is a wreck. That tower looks like a stiff breeze could take it down."

Lady followed his gaze. "Let's hope it doesn't, at least until we're safely back on land. The way it's leaning, it would probably drop the whole complex into the sea, and I don't want to think about how many tons of limestone and Carrara marble are looming over our heads right now."

At the end of the bridge, Vergil was waiting for them, an impatient twist to his lips. Nero braced himself for a snide remark about their slow pace, but when they reached him Vergil merely turned and pointed through the final gate.

The sight of the semicircular platform where Julio had nearly died shook Nero more than he'd expected. In the couple of heartbeats it took him to recover from the chill that washed over him, Lady and Trish had moved into position on either side of the opening. Through the stone archway he could see a lone Assault, moving aimlessly along the edge of the platform.

"You're sure the Nilepoch drained this one this morning?" Lady murmured, glancing at Vergil. "It's not nearly as subdued as the Riot we captured before."

"I'm certain." Vergil observed the demon for a few seconds. "Though it does seem to have recovered somewhat. It was hardly moving when I found it earlier. It didn't react to my approach at all."

"It took the Riot days to recover to this point, though." Shards of what appeared to be window glass crunched under Nero's boots as he stepped forward. Those hadn't been here last time, had they? "I guess we might as well get closer and see what it does."

What the Assault did was precisely what Nero would have expected any healthy demon to do when he walked up to it. Nero dodged the first swipe of the lizard-like creature's claws and rolled to one side. "Okay, definitely not as drained as the Riot," he called back to the group near the gate. He jumped over another attack and swung Red Queen forward just in time to block a blow from the demon's broken shield. Still, the Assault was moving more slowly than expected, and it hadn't used any of its more dangerous attacks. "It's not hitting as hard as it should, though. I think maybe it was drained by the Nilepoch, but it must have been a while ago."

Vergil spoke conversationally, as though Nero weren't fighting something that wanted to kill him. "When I arrived this morning, this entire area was deserted. I didn't encounter any demons until I reached the second floor of the building, and the only one I didn't kill outright was one that I knocked out of a window with a blow to its shield." He pointed to the Assault's shield, which had been sliced neatly in half. Nero recognized the Yamato's work; the cut edge was as smooth as though it had been milled that way. "By the time I finished off the rest and came down after it, its power had been drained. If the Nilepoch was responsible, it had only a few minutes in which to act."

Nero rolled under another blow and kicked the Assault in the back of the leg to throw it off-balance, then seized it with his spectral arm. It struggled weakly in his grip, and he had to plant Red Queen's tip into the into the walkway in front of him to protect himself from the lashing tail. "So what do we do with it? We're not going to be able to roll this one up in a tarp and throw it in the van."

Lady tapped a finger against her lips. "I don't like losing our only lead on the Nilepoch, but you're right. Unless there's someplace we can lock it up here, we can't keep this one on ice."

"I know Agnus had at least one of his creepy labs here, but…" Nero gestured to the crumbling stonework around them with his free hand. "This place isn't exactly secure anymore. It's a little too remote for a stakeout, and even if we could get here fast, there's no way we can run enough relays across the island to get a signal when the Nilepoch shows up aga—shit!" He ducked as the Assault kicked off the ground and swung its tail at his head. The tail missed its target, but the sharp scales raked a line of scratches across the forearm he'd instinctively thrown up to protect his face. "Uh, decision soon, please?"

"Kill it." A streak of blue light lanced toward the Assault, which screeched as Vergil's ethereal sword pinned its thrashing tail to the ground mid-sweep. Nero blinked; that had been a hell of a shot. "At the speed at which it's recovering, it will be more trouble than it's worth."

Lady looked mildly annoyed at having to agree with Vergil, but she nodded. "At least if the Nilepoch is feeding at this end of the island, we don't have to worry as much about it getting into the city."

"Do you mind if I do it?" Trish asked suddenly. "I haven't had a chance to try out this new sword you found for me."

"Be my guest." Nero angled his head away from the demon. "Just, uh, don't miss. I'm kind of attached to my face."

Trish propped a hand on her hip. "You can let go, you know."

Nero did so, hopping back quickly to escape the Assault's range of motion. The demon lunged after him, but its forward momentum was arrested by its pinned tail. It twisted back to look at what was preventing its movement just in time to see Trish coming at it with the Durandal. With a shriek of pure terror, the Assault charged. Its tail separated from its body, sending it tumbling toward the edge of the platform, and Trish's swing cleaved into the stone instead.

"Clever," Trish observed. "But not clever enough." She launched herself forward and slashed with the sword, which bisected the demon's torso. Its final shriek died away in the sea wind as it disintegrated into ash and dust.

Lady came toward them and stared at the demon's tail, which remained twitching where it was pinned. "That's both fascinating and revolting. I had no idea they could do anything like that."

"Well, real lizards can do it, so I guess we shouldn't be surprised that demonic ones can." Nero replaced Red Queen in her harness and crouched for a better look at the tail. "I should take this to Nico. She's always getting after me for more samples."

"You could scrape up some of this, while you're at it," Trish called. Nero turned and saw her standing near the edge of the platform, prodding at a broad rust-brown stain with the toe of her boot. "I don't know what kind of blood this is, but there's a lot of it. Knowing Nico, she'd probably love the challenge of trying to engineer something from it."

Lady joined her. "Oh, I see what you mean. It looks like someone had a very bad day."

Nero let out a self-conscious laugh. "Uh, it wasn't one of my best." He tapped a fingernail on the hilt of the spectral sword, which Vergil dismissed, then hefted the lizard tail over his shoulder. It was heavier than it looked, though thankfully it was beginning to twitch less. "Don't mention it to Kyrie, though. She'd be upset if she knew how bad it really was."

Lady looked from the bloodstain to Nero, and her eyes widened. "This is yours?"

"Like I said, not my best day." He shrugged with the shoulder that wasn't burdened with the tail. "But everybody came home at the end of it, which is all that matters." Their softened expressions made him self-conscious, and he bounced the tail higher on his shoulder. "Speaking of which, uh, I guess we ought to get going. This thing smells even worse up close."

"Take it to the van, then, and return quickly." Vergil had his back turned to Nero. "We'll wait for you at the tower door."

Lady's eyebrows rose. "We will?"

"Unless the short walk out here was too fatiguing for you." Vergil shot a cool glance over his shoulder at Lady. "That demon was by no means the only thing of interest in this building."