Nero watched from the top of the qliploth as the new family that he'd just managed to find head off to ditch him. After sucker-punching him in the face no less. And fuck that, he was not going to let them leave him behind. Not again. So Nero jumped to his feet with a growl and hurried after them. He unfurled his new wings and fell towards the bottom to join the two men. Dante predictably reeled on him the second he plopped down on the ground beside them.

"Kid, I thought I told you to stay put," Nero could feel his hot breath on his skin. Could practically smell the demonic energy roiling out of him.

Nero only picked up Red Queen with a huff and slid into its usual position on his back "You did."

"So then-"

"I'm here now, old man. And there's nothing you can do about it. So shove it up your ass, Dante," he snarled back.

"Nothing I can do about it, huh? You have one second before I-"

"Dante." Vergil's even voice cut through their argument.

The two of them had been up in each other's faces, teeth gritted and fists curled. But their heads both snapped up at the sound of Vergil's voice. Not for the first time, Nero's blood boiled at how calm he was about everything. As if the impending apocalypse, finding out that he had a son, and that his son was the same dude whose arm he'd ripped off was all just a regular fucking Tuesday afternoon for him.

Vergil, ever the human glacier, let his eyes flit coolly between the two of them. "The boy seems to have made up his mind. I like it about as much as you do-"

He didn't react at all to the hot glare that this earned him from Nero.

"-But we're wasting time here. We have an extra pair of hands, or maybe even two," he made a slight gesture with his head to the wings on Nero's back," and I suggest we make use of them. "

There was a small smile on Vergil's face. Had that been a joke? Had the man with the constant broody expression like he'd just drank a litre of piss just made a fucking joke? Nero hoped they finished up quickly because this was fucking weird.

" 'Boy'," he grumbled. "I'm like twenty-five."

The two brothers ignored him as they headed off.

It didn't take long to take out all the roots, but the hordes of demons were a different story. Seeing Vergil in action was kind of beautiful. Now that Nero wasn't on the receiving end of it, the surgical precision with which he held his blade was as impressive as it was scary. He blinked in and out of existence with startling ease, leaving a shimmering blue of summoned swords in his wake. He was there, slicing up a horde of empusa with a "scum!" and then he was suddenly behind another demon, yanking his katana out of its back with a spurt of blood. Man it was weird to think of him as his father. Even weirder that the porn mag connoisseur and man-child extraordinaire Dante was his uncle. And that he'd known it almost the entire time too, the fucker. More than once, Nero had an incredibly close call because he was too busy watching the old men in action. His instincts suddenly screamed danger at him and so he snapped back into action. He held up his sword to block the end of a riot tail that had almost pierced through his chest. He cursed softly, then fired off some warning rounds with Blue Rose to scare it back. He hoped that neither his father nor uncle (still weird!) had seen that. He had the weird overwhelming urge to impress the both of them. Then he reached for the hilt of Red Queen and revved.

"Nothing like a good family barbeque!" he exclaimed as flames roared to life.

He swore he caught a quirk of Vergil's eyebrow at his quip. "Dear god. There's two of them," he mumbled incredulously.

Dante laughed, "What do you mean, big brother? You always loved my one-liners!"

Vergil parried the blade of a Death Scissors with a scoff. "If you recall correctly, those 'one-liners' always ended with the Yamato through your back."

"Yeah, exactly! That's how you've always shown affection!"

The riot, recovered from the graze of his bullets, curled in on itself and began spinning towards him.

"Oh no you don't!" Nero exclaimed as he leapt towards his adversary.

He stuck the blade in one of the notches in its back and rammed it in, taking all of the spin out of the demon. This forced it back onto the ground, belly-up with all four limbs splayed uselessly beside it. Nero happily obliged with a bullet through its heart. He snuck a glance towards the other two men, but neither of them had noticed. They were far too busy with their own demons. Lady had said that the two of them were twins. Identical ones, at that. The same person genetically, split into two bodies. She'd explained that they had looked it too, when she'd met them, even if it wasn't so obvious now. With all that DNA-fuckery, Dante was probably more closely related to him than any typical uncle and nephew deal. God, it was weird. Nero had always thought that they were polar opposites, but their unknowability was the same. Vergil with his towering walls of ice that kept people out for miles, and Dante with his cheesy grins and stupid jokes. Nero had long since learned not to ask Dante any serious questions. He'd answer with nothing but jokes or insults until he was so frustrated that he'd just give up. Different methods, sure, but the outcome was the same. No one got to know what went on in those thick skulls of theirs. Man, but he sure knew how to pick 'em, huh? Kyrie and Credo's parents had given their lives to protect all of them and Credo… Credo had followed suit. And now there were these two bastards, about as easy to crack open as one of those Bianco Angelo suits. Worse, even. At least with the demons all it took was a few swipes with Nero's sword.

"Nero!" Snapped Vergil. "Focus!"

The angry retort died on his lips with a yelp as he sprang backwards. He was a hair's breadth away from receiving a fiery bath from a hellbat.

"Dead weight strikes again!" yelled Dante with a laugh.

He waved the Kalina Ann in his hand with a smirk. At his feet, lay a demon with a bullet hole still smouldering through its body, even as it disintegrated. Nero used his Bringer to drag the bat down, then put it out of its misery with a round of bullets.

"How about I shove that big gun of yours up your ass and pull the trigger, huh? Then we'll see who's a fucking dead weight."

Dante only grinned in response.

"Nero," Vergil commanded coldly. "You insisted on helping. I suggest you do so."

He couldn't decide which one of them was the bigger asshole. Definitely twins, alright. He muttered out a "fuck you" and did his best to ignore the way his cheeks burned with a mixture of anger and shame. But when his old man turned his back again on him again, Nero took to the demon hunting with focused vigour.

Things were going well. Almost too well. Vergil and Dante teamed up as flawlessly as if they had never been apart, able to communicate wordlessly and move in perfect synchronicity. This time, Nero even managed to keep his focus in front of him, as cool as the whole thing was. He'd been so focused on the horde of grunt demons in front of him, in fact, that he didn't even notice when a new wave spawned. It wouldn't even have been a problem if it hadn't been a fucking behemoth. Dante had been handling it on his own but it'd burrowed beneath the earth and he'd clearly shrugged it off to focus on the small fry around him. The whole thing shouldn't have happened, really, but maybe Nero had used up all his good luck for the day on all his other close calls. Because next thing he knew, the ugly son of a bitch had emerged right under him and taken a massive chomp out of his side. And fuck but it hurt. His scream drew the attention of the twins and Dante cursed under his breathe at the scene. He picked up his gun once more, firing at the behemoth again and again until it finally fell. It was all Nero could do to roll out of the way before he was flattened.

"Go! I'll handle the rest of them!" Vergil said calmly.

And Nero might have been imagining things but he swore the old man's hands were shaking. Dante didn't need to be told twice, he made a beeline for Nero, slicing and shooting at any demons in his path. Nero was lying on the floor, doing his best to breathe through the pain with clenched teeth. Dante took off his jacket off and props Nero's head up under it, then he lifted up his nephew's (and despite all the pain, yeah, still weird!) shirt to assess the damage. He let out a low whistle.

"That bad, huh?"

"You see Nero, this is exactly why I didn't want you to come."

He couldn't help but laugh bitterly. "You sure you want those to be your last words to me?"

"You're not dying, you dramatic little shit."

"Come on, old man. I'm not an idiot. That's a fucktonne of blood and my demon healing or whatever isn't doing jack."

There was also a fuzzy greyness to everything, giving his eyes a weird tunnel-vision effect. And everything sounded muted, like he was underwater or something. Everything except the loud, annoying ringing in his ears.

"You are an idiot. You're the biggest fucking idiot I've ever met. If you'd just listened to me for once, this all could've been avoided," Dante growled.

Nero only flipped him off in response. And then, as if on cue, everything went black.