Spoilers/Warning: This fic contains spoilers about the game and its ending so consider yourself warned. And also there's some swearing in here, due to the Sparda brothers' potty mouths.

Dedication: To all my reviewers: yodel, Tas, Sam, Kerrianne Harrington (thnx so much for your continuing support!), and Simierelle. You made this chapter come that much faster. :P

Disclaimer: Capcom owns the DMC games. Lucky. :(

A/N: Well, much sooner than I thought, here's the next chapter! I couldn't wait to get this piece off my chest. :D Please keep on reviewing; I love getting them. :)

Chapter 03: A Chilling Discovery

Warily scanning the room, Dante could not see where his 'uninvited guest' had gone. It was dark in the flat since he'd managed to close the lights before falling asleep near Vergil's couch. Deep shadows filled the area, the streetlights from outside barely lending any light.

Automatically his hands trailed down to his hips in search of his ever-faithful handguns, but to his chagrin his fingers only met air.

'Argh!' he thought in irritation. 'Crap, I forgot!'

While he had been patching up Vergil he had found his sword harness and gun holsters to be too constricting. He'd taken them off and dumped them on the floor before resuming his medical treatment of his twin. Now he wished Rebellion, and Ebony and Ivory were with him. Though his hand-to-hand fighting skills were impressive, Dante was just a little jumpy. The thing he heard scampering around the flat could be a very heavy rat, or a demon that had followed them from the Temen-Ni-Gru.

With two injured and/or tired guests in his home, Dante wasn't willing to take any chances.

Stealthily he crept from the windows to where Vergil lay, his eyes always scanning the room for any signs of the intruder. He managed to reach the couch without incident, and began to pat the floor for his weapons. His probing hands soon touched cool metal and after picking them up he strapped on Rebellion and his handguns.

Feeling much better now that he was properly armed, Dante strode over to the light switches. Flipping them on the bare bulb fluorescent lights cast the room in its unflattering glow.

"All right," he whispered to himself, once again examining the room. His blue eyes saw nothing, but then again the floor wasn't the neatest place on Earth. The interloper could have hidden itself in any of the numerous boxes and bins.

Letting out a loud breath Dante's heart sank. It would take forever to search through all of this stuff! But, remembering that Vergil and Lady were still resting in his flat, Dante squared his shoulders and began looking.

The half-demon didn't know how long he searched; he opened and rummaged through countless cardboard boxes, storage bins, and piles of old newspapers and magazines. He found things he thought he'd lost years ago, but he didn't have the time to reminisce over them now.

Continuing his hunt, he failed to notice that he'd made an even bigger mess as he left his possessions scattered everywhere. However diligently he searched though, he found nothing. Dante even dared to peek into Lady's room again, but saw her in the same position as before.

Furrowing his eyebrows, Dante scratched his head in wonder.

'Maybe I imagined it?' he asked himself as he slowly walked back to his old desk. He'd looked everywhere and found naught a trace of the intruder. Or perhaps it had been a rat and he'd scared it off.

Leaning Rebellion against his desk, Dante sat heavily in the armchair. As per his habit he tipped it back to rest his legs on the desktop.

"Waaaaah!"

BAM

With a loud crash Dante and the chair fell over. He landed inelegantly on his rump and hit the back of his head on the floor.

"What the Hell!" he exclaimed from his new position. He'd owned that chair for years, and in all the times he'd done that it had never let him down, literally.

Rising from the floor he scowled down at his seat. Nothing was wrong with it sans the stuffing coming out of the red leather armrests. Peering closer at the furniture he noticed that one of the chair legs was ... iced over?

Looking down at the smooth cement floor he saw that a small puddle of ice had also formed there. What was going on? It was the middle of summer, much too hot for ice to be forming naturally. Was some pipe leaking coolant somewhere? He wouldn't be surprised; this place wasn't a shinning example of functionality or safety.

Righting his chair, this time careful to keep it off the ice, Dante sat down on it in a proper manner.

He was going nuts. First he thought he'd heard things, and then he'd gone chasing shadows. Now he'd fallen on his ass; thank God no one had seen it; and, checking a wall clock, his pizza was late. If Martin was expecting a tip he'd be in for a rude awakening.

Dante was hungry, confused, and tired. Bad things tended to happen when he felt all three emotions, rare as it was.

'Argh, I hate this!' he mentally moaned to himself. His starvation must be making him see things and it was starting to give him a headache.

In frustration he began to bang his forehead against the tabletop. When in doubt, pound your troubles away.

What he didn't expect was someone grabbing the hair at the back of his head and slamming his noggin against the wood. Hard.

"Ow!" he gasped, holding his forehead in pain. Though he was purportedly thickheaded even Dante's mighty forehead stung from the blow. "What was that for?"

Glaring up at his attacker, he was not so surprised to see that it was Vergil.

"You looked like you enjoyed banging your head so I decided to help," he answered calmly as he looked at his twin. However his stoic face couldn't fool his brother; Dante could see the annoyance in Vergil's blue eyes.

"Yeah, well thanks for you help," Dante growled out sarcastically as he rubbed the sore spot on his head. Man, he hoped it wouldn't bruise. Though his devil healing abilities should make short work of the injury, it still seemed like it wasn't working properly.

Giving his brother the once over, he saw that Vergil was still pale. It was better than before but he still wasn't completely healed.

'Ah, what's going on?' Dante frowned to himself. 'I hope we didn't lose our devil powers or something. I don't see a reason why we would but …' He glanced at his brother. 'If we did, Vergil's gonna be pissed.'

"So why were you making that infernal racket?" Vergil asked as he casually leaned against his partner in crime, a.k.a. the desk. "With all the running and fighting you've done, you seem pretty energetic."

Dante was about to explain the possible threat of an intruder in the flat (he wasn't about to admit to his older sibling that he'd been on a wild goose chase) when the Sparda twins were interrupted.

"DAAAAAAAANTE!"

The shrill scream had come from Lady. Like a hurricane, a very pissed off hurricane, she stormed out of her borrowed room.

Without even bothering with the pretense of helping Dante out with his newest 'hobby', Lady grabbed the devil hunter's hair and used his head like a gavel.

After beating Dante's head several times, Lady let him go. She then crossed her arms and glared at him. The look on her face said that she was imagining his head imploding and was now trying to make it a reality by just thinking it.

"What did he do?" Vergil asked with a tinge of amusement in his voice.

Lady redirected her wrathful gaze to him, and he met it unflinchingly. Still, he was very glad he wasn't Dante at the moment.

'Hair gel,' he thought to himself. 'I'll have to get more hair gel.'

At that moment he'd do anything to keep her from mistaking him for his idiotic younger brother. Most of the time it sucked being identical twins, though as children there had been a few amusing incidents. But that was then and this was now.

"He. Groped. Me!" Lady bit out in answer to Vergil's question and returned her glare to the even more aching Dante.

Vergil's eyebrows rose almost to his hairline. It wasn't because he thought Dante was above groping women; he was the more lecherous of the pair. It was just that he didn't think Dante would do it while she was asleep. The move would be a wasted effort, after all.

"Hey, hey, HEY!" the accused said in an offended tone. "I did no such thing! I was here all the time, right Vergil?"

He watched anxiously as his older brother seemed to mull it over.

"Well," Vergil said musingly. "He was over here, killing brain cells by himself …"

"Exactly! See!" Dante crowed triumphantly. Then his twin's words registered in his mind and he glared indignantly at him.

"Well if it wasn't you," Lady said sourly and turned her fierce gaze to Vergil. He shot her an incredulous look that clearly said, 'oh please, give me some credit!'

"Maybe you were having a dream," Dante said slyly. "You know, it was all in your mind? But I must say, you have a good choice in dream material."

He added in a sexy wink, or at least he thought it was sexy. Vergil thought he looked demented and Lady was considering strangling Dante next.

"I wasn't having a dream!" she insisted frostily and then blushed a little. "I … I felt something touching my legs."

"Maybe it was a mouse or some other kind of vermin," Vergil offered as an explanation. "By the looks of this place, I wouldn't be surprised if such things lived here."

"Oh you're welcome, brother," Dante said crossly. "I could have just left your ass out in the cold, you know."

"Speaking of which," Vergil's eyes narrowed dangerously, "about what happened in the Demon World …"

Dante opened his mouth to cut his brother off when a box fell over in the distance. It was one of the haphazardly stacked boxes located near Lady's room.

Everyone froze immediately.

Exchanging wary glances they turned to face the offending item. It had spilled yellowed folders full of documents that looked like old invoices. After the papers had settled down silence enveloped the room. None of them dared to breath as years of hard experience compelled them to scan the room for any signs of danger.

Silently Dante picked up Rebellion and started to stalk towards the upturned box. It had been a miracle that Rebellion hadn't impaled him when he fell from his chair, or fallen over when Vergil and Lady slammed his head onto the desk. But that wasn't the point. The point was he was intent on routing out the rat, bug, monster, or whatever else it could be once and for all.

"Be careful," Lady whispered.

Dante stopped and looked back. He saw that his brother and his guest were still standing behind the desk. They didn't look like they planned on joining him anytime soon.

"My guns are back in my room," Lady said apologetically. She could have kicked herself for forgetting them, but she had been so angry when the feather-light touches had woken her up.

"Yamato seems to be missing," Vergil frowned. "You didn't leave it in the Demon World, did you?"

It was a question but Dante heard the command behind it as well. He quickly shook his head no and turned back around. He'd rather face the mysterious intruder than his brother's incensed look.

The tension only heightened when a noise, the same skittering sound Dante had heard earlier, echoed through the flat.

The red-clad devil hunter began to walk towards the pile of boxes again, this time with Vergil and Lady following behind him (from a safe distance of course). They knew they were acting awfully paranoid for something that was most likely only a rat, but the events of the Temen-Ni-Gru was still fresh in their minds. It was better to be safe than sorry, as they say.

As they cautiously threaded their way through the jungle that was Dante's flat, Lady jerked back reflexively when a box on the floor shifted. Something was behind it! Her hands automatically grasped for her pistols, but all they met with was the cloth of her kilt. She frowned and berated herself once more for leaving her weapons behind.

She jumped again when she felt a hand close around her wrist. Looking down she saw Vergil holding her. Glancing questioningly at his face, the other half-devil didn't even look away from the box as he moved her behind him.

Lady didn't know whether to be touched or offended at Vergil's actions.

In less than a second she settled on offended.

'Why that arrogant prick!' she fumed. Did he think she couldn't look after herself? Well if so, he had another thing coming.

Ignoring the two Dante raised Rebellion in preparation to strike. He aimed for the box ... and was promptly bowled over when the thing behind it jumped.

Shouting in surprise he teetered on the heels of his feet before falling backwards. But before he could hit the floor hands caught and steadied him.

Gazing up in shock, Dante looked at Vergil's equally stunned face. Both men were surprised that one had saved the other.

"Gyah!"

Lady's own startled cry drew their attention. What they saw floored them.

Lady had sat down hard on the floor from the impact of the 'intruder' landing on her. It now perched happily on her lap, looking at the three other people dumbly staring at it.

Panting slightly, the carefree puppy began to chew on its ear. Or at least … one of its ears.

"What the Hell?" Dante asked in amazement as he stared at the three-headed, ice-covered puppy.

A heavy silence followed.

"Cerberus?" Dante asked tentatively.

As if recognizing his name, the hellish dog barked. It sounded weird coming from three heads though.

"Hey," Dante said easily as he walked over. Crouching in front of the apprehensive woman he picked up the dog by the scruff of his neck. Dante's fingers tingled upon contact with the frost-covered fur, but he lifted Cerberus to his face.

Instead of the three-story high guard dog with an attitude, Dante saw a cheerfully panting puppy about the size of a Jack Russell.

"What are you doing here?" Dante inquired. "How did you get out? And for that matter, how did you turn back?"

All he got for an answer was the middle head tipping sideways in incomprehension, the left head chewing on the middle head's ear, and the right head snapping at his fingers.

"Hey, answer me, will ya?" he growled out and shook the puppy.

"Dante!" Lady said disapprovingly and snatched Cerberus from him.

"Were you expecting an answer from that?" Vergil asked sardonically. "I know I got the lion's share of the brains, but I thought you knew dogs can't talk."

"Does this look like a normal dog to you?" Dante snapped. "I met him before. He was guarding the entranceway to the Demon Tower. But when I defeated him …"

"When you defeated him," Vergil prompted after Dante trailed off.

"He lent me his power," he frowned as he recalled the three-rod nunchaku type weapon Cerberus had morphed into. "It was an ice element weapon, and pretty powerful too. It saved me lots of time."

Turning his intense gaze back at the dog, which was now yipping playfully at a smiling Lady, Dante shook his head.

"Before I chased after you in the Demon World I stored him in the Statue of Time. How did he get out of there? And how has he turned back into his demon form?"

"This is his demon form? No wonder you were able to defeat him," Vergil teased.

"He was bigger than this," Dante rolled his eyes. "Much bigger. And he could talk. I guess he only managed to transform partially. But it doesn't answer the question of how he did it at all."

"Maybe it has something to do with the opening of the gateway to the Demon World," Lady piped up. She was now petting one of Cerberus' heads, and the other two whined at her for similar attention. "Or even the Temen-Ni-Gru collapsing. With all this arcane activity going on a lot of strange things must be happening."

"Yes, but we don't know that for sure," Vergil mused, going into 'think' mode.

"What is it?" Dante asked his brother, recognizing the look on his face. He knew Vergil had hit upon some kind of idea or solution.

"I know whom we can ask," he said seriously, looking straight into Dante's eyes.

"Who?" Lady asked curiously.

"There's a couple in this city who are heavily involved in the occult. I've consulted with them many times before," Vergil answered. "Perhaps they will know what to make of this strange ... phenomenon."

"Great, let's call them up now," Dante stood.

"They don't own a phone," his twin shook his head. "We have to visit them personally."

"Then let's go," Lady also rose from the floor.

"It's after business hours."

Both stared at him.

"I didn't set the rules," Vergil said grumpily. "We can see them tomorrow morning."

"So what do we do about him?" Lady peered at the dog. On closer inspection she saw that he was black furred, but the constant coating of ice made him look silverish in the light.

"He stays with us," Dante said immediately. "He's mine. In a way. I guess."

Cerberus looked up at Dante and barked in seeming affirmation. His long tail wagged and all three heads panted at him. Smiling at the dog; he liked this Cerberus much better than the one he first encountered; Dante scratched behind the middle head's ear. It leaned into the touch.

A buzzer sounding broke the brief comfortable silence.

"What's that?" Lady asked suspiciously. But Dante had already started heading for the freight elevator that was the only way in or out of the flat.

"Finally, pizza's here!" he said with the same relief a thirsty man regards water. Cerberus jumped out of Lady's hold and ran after his self-proclaimed master. However he did make a pit stop and piddled on a plastic bin.

Hearing the tinkling sound, Dante stopped, turned around, and then gaped. Cerberus was peeing out the demonic equivalent of liquid nitrogen. His urine almost immediately turned into a large ice puddle on the floor, as well as crawling up the sides of the plastic bin.

"It was YOU!" Dante said accusingly and made a flying grab at Cerberus.

The demonic dog deftly avoided him, causing Dante to fly into the frozen plastic bin, before scampering towards the elevator.

Vergil and Lady both shared a look. For once they both agreed; neither wanted to know what Dante was talking about.