Author's note: I'm kind of digging these shorter chapters, since they're giving me a way to drive certain character relationships forward a little at a time. I more or less have an idea of where I'm going with most of them, but it's nice to see how all of you react to every step of the journey, and theorise about where things might go from here.

One of the dynamics that's really fun for me to write is the Oscar-Valkyrie relationship, which probably isn't what most people think it is. It'll take a while to fully develop the way I plan to, but hopefully the payoff will be worth it. Fun fact: I haven't actually watched RWBY past volume 4 or 5 (whichever one it is where the Raven/Cinder fight happens). But what I noticed was that the first few seasons had something in common with Devil May Cry: both were stories set in dark worlds, with some pretty serious events happening, but both overall had a message that was wholesome. As Shawshank Redemption put it so eloquently, "Hope is a good thing, maybe even the best of things." DMC 5 took that idea and dialled it up to 11, delivering some of the tightest character-driven storytelling, all while being humble and self-aware of its origins. If only I could be even a tenth as good. The whole Oscar/Valkyrie thing is based on the same principle. It's fun to take these very DMC-esque characters, who would normally become Devil Arms for Dante, and to put them in situations where they have the chance to grow in different ways.

And that goes for the rest of the cast too, of course. Nevan was a one-off character in DMC 3, which was a shame, because in a grand total of two cutscenes and one boss battle, she conveyed so much character and charm. Initially, when I started to write this fic, I didn't have much plans of deviating from canon. It was going to be RWBY + Dante, and that was all. But then, as things turned out, it got crazier and crazier, and I'm always blown away by how many people tell me in the reviews that they like that about this story. Nevan being added was a spur of the moment thing, and as it turns out, it ended up being really good, because it gives me the chance to take an excellent character and flesh it out. Will we get an expanded backstory for her? Probably.

I have an idea of the backstory for each of the Five.

Anyway, that's about it for now. Let's get this show on the road!

Chapter 24: What Is He To You Anyway?

Hoperow:

Valkyrie took in the view in front of her. Gaze still fixed in front of her, she spoke. "Did you bring what I asked for?" A short distance behind her stood Oscar, who nodded quickly, before remembering that she couldn't see him, mentally cursing himself for his blunder, and vocalising his answer. "Y-Yes!" Without turning around, the demoness held one hand out to the side, open in a silent gesture. Realising what she meant, Oscar bent down and grabbed the massive branch he had managed to drag all the way there somehow. With some effort, he was able to stand it upright. With some more effort, he pushed it along the ground until it was within Valkyrie's reach. Without a word, the imposing demoness gripped the branch and lifted it off the ground one-handed, as though it were no heavier than a twig. Holding it horizontally, level with her shoulder, she took a moment to align herself, then threw it.

The blast of wind from the throw nearly knocked Oscar off his feet. The gigantic branch tore through the air like a demented ballista bolt, shooting off into the distance. More than a second later, Oscar heard a faint but nasty sound, as it hit its target. A shadow-like spot close to the horizon disappeared, turning into barely visible wisps of smoke that floated up into the sky. It took a minute for Oscar to realise that the branch had speared a Grimm. He turned to Valkyrie, looking at her with awe.

"H-how did you know…?"

"It was one of the larger beasts among the foul breeds of unlife that roam your world. It couldn't have hid from my sight if it had wanted to."

Oscar's eyes widened.

"You can see that far?"

The black dot had been located well beyond the river, which itself was five miles from where they were at the moment, just outside the town walls.

Valkyrie looked at the boy. At first, the expression on her face was one of confusion, before it changed to understanding. She turned her gaze back towards the horizon as she answered.

"I'd forgotten for a moment that you humans are as blind as newborn kittens…"

Oscar winced slightly. The physical differences between his kind and the Five were always on clear display, but having them pointed out so directly still stung, just a little. Valkyrie, however, seemed completely unaware of this as she continued.

"Most demons worth their blood can see at least that far. My own sight would extend as far as the ocean that surrounds your land, were the mountains not in the way."

The young boy took this information in. He also noted that despite the matter-of-fact way in which she spoke, the demoness was standing a little straighter, chest up and hands crossed in front, a satisfied expression on her face. Oscar almost chuckled before he managed to stop himself. He had no intention of being thrown as far as that branch had been. Still, he couldn't entirely keep a slight smile off his face. The demon warrior was extremely proud, and more than a little full of herself, taking every chance to boast. But somehow, he didn't mind that. In fact, he had actually discovered how to use that tendency to learn more about her, as well as the other members of the Council.

"Wait," he said. "So there are some who can see even further than that?"

Valkyrie's confident stance shook somewhat, the smug expression replaced by annoyance as she almost reluctantly answered. Nevertheless, she didn't lie: a warrior never hid from the truth.

"... Orion the Hunter could see thousands of miles away."

Oscar's jaw dropped slightly.

"No way…"

"It is true. He was far and away the best archer in the Underworld. His arrows could hit a fly in motion from a league away, ten times out of ten."

Once more, the young boy was forced to adjust his perception of what Demons were capable of. Much like humans, they all had unique abilities and skills, each of them excelling in their own areas.

"What about among the five of you then?" he asked.

Valkyrie considered the question seriously.

"Iris the Seer has the best eyes among us all, but those eyes do not see as the rest of us do."

Oscar looked at her in confusion. Out of the Five, Iris was the least intimidating. In form, she resembled a petite, slender human woman, though her skin was jet black and deer antlers grew from her head. She was also the one most like humans in her personality, able to converse with most of the townsfolk almost as one of them. Oscar had never spoken to her himself, but a few of his friends had, and none of them had seemed frightened or put off by the experience.

"What do you mean?" he asked curiously.

"She sees the future," Valkyrie stated. "Or perhaps it is more accurate to say that she sees glimpses of it."

The youth looked up at the demoness, gawking.

"She can see the future?"

The implications of such a power made his head reel. Oscar had overheard hunters speak of Semblances, unique abilities granted by Aura that could have wide-ranging and strange effects. But he'd never heard of anyone with the ability to see the future, outside of dubious fortune-tellers.

"She can do it whenever she wants to?" he asked. "Just like that? What about…"

He paused, and swallowed.

Could she see…

"What about someone's future? One particular person? Can she do that too?"

Valkyrie turned around, all four of her red eyes fixing themselves upon Oscar. The youth shuffled nervously under her stare, barely able to meet it, but too scared to look away.

"Have you heard the tale of the heroes of the Greek Isles?"

He shook his head.

"A long time ago, there were great warriors in the human world, as strong as any demon. They were courageous, just and honest, fighting to protect their kind and make good lives for themselves."

She paused slightly.

"The truth was, these heroes were blessed with divine blood. They were stronger and wiser than their fellow men, and lived longer. But in the end, they too bore the great burden of all human beings: mortality. Fearing death, they sought to overcome their destiny, and in order to achieve this, they sought out those who could first reveal their destiny to them."

Oscar listened with rapt attention. This wasn't a story from any of the Four Kingdoms of Remnant. He knew that he was hearing something else: a story from another world.

"Many battles and dangers they braved, cutting down countless monsters and men alike and trudging through treacherous terrain, to find sought out the Seers of old, those gifted with second sight, the ability to look through time."

"Did… did they succeed?"

Valkyrie's eyes did not blink.

"When they found the prophets, they learned of a future more terrible than any could have imagined. Refusing to accept it, they searched far and wide, desperate to find a way, any way, to change their fate, not knowing that in doing so, they sealed it.

The wisdom and grace of their divinity was twisted, tainted by their human weakness. And so, those who were noble and brave became incestuous and murderous. In trying to avoid their fate, they did the very things that hastened that very fate, and set it in stone."

A bead of sweat rolled down Oscar's face.

"Imagine for a moment, once great men, becoming the architects of their own destruction. Their lesser peers took note of it, though they were powerless to help. And they gave such visions a name: self-fulfilling prophecies."

For a moment, Oscar could practically see in front of him legendary huntsmen and huntresses at the end of their lives, realising that they themselves had brought about their own endings. Horror and sadness washed over him.

"Do not be so eager to tempt the powers of time," Valkyrie said, simply. "The past is gone, and the future is unknown. Neither of them exist. All that is there is the here and now. That is how it should be."

Having delivered her warning, the gigantic woman picked up another massive branch lying around, and once more threw it like a javelin into the distance. This time, Oscar heard a screech of agony, faint but unmistakable, before the smoke cloud rose into the air.

"Go find more wood. There are many more left. We will not rest until we have given them all the gift of non-existence."

About an hour later, the two of them returned to town. Oscar was sore and exhausted: some way through the thing, Valkyrie had told him to "stop dragging the wood along like a sloth" and insisted that he properly lift and carry all the branches "in a manner befitting a squire". Even being used to farm work, his muscles had never taken a pounding like that before in his life. He already knew he was going to be too sore to even walk the next day, and also knew that Valkyrie would ask him to accompany her on patrol again. Needless to say, refusing was not a real option.

There's gotta be some kind of labour laws against this, right?

For a moment, his imagination supplied him with an image of a pencil-thin man in a suit and oversized glasses trying to get the demoness to understand that she was breaking the law.

Yeah, that wouldn't work out well.

Sighing, he dropped the train of thought. For better or worse, he was stuck being her artillery carrier/personal assistant/guide.

"Bathe yourself, change your clothes and return. After that, we will procure food."

A quick sniff and a look down at himself revealed that she was right: he was sweaty from all the lifting, and his clothes were covered in dirt and mud.

Huh. I didn't even notice it…

The work had been tougher than he had thought, and he had definitely needed to get his hands dirty. But he hadn't been the only one working.

"What about y-", he began to ask, but the words stopped dead in his mouth when his eyes landed on her. Unlike him, the demoness hadn't even broken a sweat. There wasn't a speck of dirt anywhere on her person, and her armour gleamed as usual. Once more, he noticed that said armour seemed to be fused to her flesh, as though it were a natural covering she was born with. Can she even take it off? And of course, that was the cue for his overactive imagination to supply him with an image of what (he thought) she might look like taking a bath.

"What is the matter with you? Your face is red, and your heartbeat is elevated. Are you ill?"

"N-no, not at all. I'll get going now!"

With that, he ran off before she could ask any more questions.

The demoness watched him go, puzzled by his odd behaviour. Sometimes, she didn't understand humans at all. Her expression changed as she sensed another presence, one she disliked.

"What do you want?" she asked, without even turning around.

Nevan glided smoothly up next to her. Since their last meeting, the lightning witch hadn't approached her again, until now. The memory of that meeting must have left its mark, because she was standing just out of arm's reach from Valkyrie.

"Oh, nothing. I simply didn't think you'd take my advice so quickly."

"Your advice? I took no such thing."

"You didn't? Yet here you are, having obtained yourself a toy to follow you around and do your bidding."

The four-armed swordswoman glared at her.

"He is not a toy, he is my squire, as befitting a knight."

Nevan smiled knowingly.

"Perhaps that is how you think of him. He, on the other hand…" Her voice trailed off delicately.

"Speak plainly."

Nevan blinked a few times. At first, she'd thought the warrior was simply bantering back in her own gruff way, but it soon became clear that didn't know what Nevan was referring to at all.

"You're… joking, right? You really don't know?"

"Know what, exactly?" Valkyrie was getting more annoyed by the second. Nevan was extraordinarily irritating in general, but she seemed to be even more so today.

The lightning witch took a step back.

"You really don't know," she muttered.

"Enough cryptic hints," snarled the warrior. "Speak plainly, or leave."

Nevan looked at her in silence for a moment, her expression unreadable. She could choose to leave things as they were here. It was none of her concern. As fellow members of the Five, they were united only by a single purpose: to see Dante crowned as the new Demon King, and to establish a new world in Remnant, one where demons and humans could coexist. Beyond that, they were under no obligation to help each other. Named demons normally did not interact with each other at all: usually, they each had their own domains, and did not concern themselves with what lay beyond. On the rare occasion that they did come across each other, it was far more common for them to be enemies than allies. Nevan was tempted to take the offer before her, and leave.

But strangely, she found herself unable to do so.

In her mind, an image flashed of glanced briefly in the direction in which Oscar had run off. They might be from entirely different worlds, herself and the young human boy. But in the end, they were not so different. Right now, it was nothing more than a misunderstanding, and a chance at an adventure. After all, how many humans could say they served the ruler of the Hall of the Dead? But in time, that misunderstanding would become a chasm that could not be crossed, a distance so small, yet, one that could never be bridged. And the pain from that would only grow.

It was a pain Nevan knew only too well.

"... You say he is your squire. Yet, you have no idea of his feelings, do you? The boy thinks of you as much more than just some queen or general to order him around."

For the first time, Valkyrie found herself at a loss for words, staring at Nevan in disbelief.

"What?"

"Must I spell it out? He sees you as a woman."

It took a full five seconds for what she had said to sink in, and when it did, all four of Valkyrie's eyes widened.

"No… you lie. He told me himself: he approached me because I am strong. He saw me fight, and he saw someone worthy of following onto the battlefield."

The memory of her countless fallen soldiers echoed in her soul. They had all followed her for that reason. That was why she continued to move forward. Until she could find the purpose she had been searching for all this time, she could not rest. Not until she found something that would give meaning to their sacrifice, to her own many battles.

"Always the honour guard, never the bride, is that it? Have you been wielding that sword for so long that you forgot about yourself? The possibility that someone would want you not for the strength of your arms, but for your self?"

Valkyrie shook her head.

"You lie. You lie. Either you lie or…" Her eyes narrowed in anger. "He lied."

Nevan saw the change in her expression, and knew what it meant.

Before she even knew what she was doing, she found herself squaring up to the towering warrior.

"Do not blame him for being true to his feelings."

Valkyrie took a step forward, so Nevan was once more within arm's reach from her.

"He lied to me."

Nevan did not back down.

"He got close to you the only way he could."

"Liars and traitors have no place in my army. The faithless and the unfaithful are weak."

Nevan stood firm as she answered. She herself did not know where the words were coming from. But she did know that every last one of them was what she felt.

"Among all your warriors, you will not find one soul more loyal to you than that boy. He is but a child. Even among his own kind, he is naive, weak and fragile. Do you think for a second he isn't aware of that?"

She paused for a moment, and scenes from her own life flashed before her eyes. Unlike her peers, her strength didn't lie in direct combat. Among the many hordes of hell, succubi were looked upon as little more than sources of entertainment and pleasure. And succubi themselves embraced and encouraged that perception, using it as a means to escape conflict, and survive. More than any named demon, Nevan knew what it was to bend her pride.

"Knowing he was weak, how could he have approached you? He would have been insignificant to you. As if the fear of rejection wasn't enough, there was the fear of being cut down. After all, isn't that who we demons are? Purveyors of violence and death? Yet, knowing all that, he couldn't bring himself to run from you. To give up on his feelings. The only way to act on those feelings, the only way he could possibly be close to you, was a lie. To become your squire. And so, he took that path."

She looked Valkyrie in the eye. It had taken a while, but she finally understood the meaning of the words Dante had said to her when she had arrived on Remnant.

"It's true humans are weak. But it's because they are weak that they can be strong."

Valkyrie's eyes widened.

"Every day is a struggle for them. And that's why they have courage."

She remembered what had happened earlier that very day. Oscar had struggled to gather the branches, but he had never once complained. It was true that the same task would have been easy for a demon. Being a human, it had taken everything he had had. Yet, he hadn't given up.

"If you think about it, knowing you're weak, knowing you're going to die, knowing your life is short, and probably won't even be remembered by your own kind… and doing your best anyway… that takes strength, doesn't it?"

Valkyrie did not reply.

Nevan stared at her in silence.

"Whether you allow him to stay with you or not is your decision in the end. But remember what I said. More than any of us, more than anyone in this town, he believes in you. Just know that."

With that, she walked away.

As she left, Valkyrie contemplated what she had just been told.

Following me into battle is not for the faint of heart. All who've done it paid the ultimate price, and died for me. He doesn't know that. Does he serve me thinking it's an easy way to stay by my side?

She shook her head.

She resented being lied to. And she certainly didn't believe everything Nevan had said. Yet, she couldn't bring herself to think that Oscar would have taken the easy way out. Was it really true that he had gone along with what she had said… that he saw her that way?

And what if he does? She found herself thinking.

Surprisingly, the idea was not completely loathsome to her. Putting aside the question of where he had indeed lied to her or not, Oscar had several good qualities, as humans went. He was hard working, did not complain about his duties, and did right by others, including those weaker than him, such as the other town children.

That did not mean, of course, that she saw him the same way Nevan believed he saw her. Of that much she was certain.

In the first place, he was far too young.

Valkyrie could not see him as anyone other than a child.

However, much to her own surprise, she did not dislike him, even given the possibility that he had concealed his true intentions.

In the past, she had killed many demons for the same thing: lies were the crutches of the weak and treacherous. Those who used them should be terminated without delay. Such had been her belief. Yet, she couldn't bring herself to do the same to the boy. When she tried thinking of it, Oscar's nervous, smiling face appeared in front of her, and she found all her anger melting away.

I don't think of him the same way as he does of me. Yet, I don't loathe him either. Nor is he a true squire.

What is he to me then?