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 renderedvoice, Laryna6, Meirelle (thanks for your support!), Yasmine, Sam Valentine, Some Random Reviewer (o.O), Hithluwen, The Tyrant Hamster ( 3), Ryoko-starwind, yodel, Rock-Angel150, Veronica ( 3), Cat the devilhunter (sorry if I misspell your name; is picky about symbols), Baka Zero, Demerah, Kerrianne Harrington (glad you're still with me!), Dark, kiliho, Avrile, KarribuHater, BladeMaster16, ShadesofBlood, and Zeromaru Chaos Mode. Phew, I think that's all of you! Thank you all so much for your reviews!

Disclaimer: Capcom owns the rights to Devil May Cry but I own peanuts! … Can we trade?

A/N: OK I'm back from holidays! LOL but I had this string of one-shots that wouldn't leave me alone till I wrote them! This chapter is long overdue, yes, but unfortunately it's one of those "got to get it out of the way," type things. I promise the next one will be much better/funnier. (Evil laughter).

Chapter 07: Breadwinner

With a satisfied smile, Lady wiped her hands on a rag and took a look around the room.

Things were finally starting to look decent around here, and that was saying something. They had all worked hard, well, almost all of them, and it showed. Now Dante's flat was starting to look like a proper home instead of a dump.

The trio had pooled all of their money together and had come up with a total of about $2000 dollars. Using that capital they'd bought much needed stuff like furniture, appliances, clothes, and everyday items. Of course they'd had to go to thrift and second hand stores, but beggars couldn't be choosers.

'But Agni and Rudra are Godsends!' Lady thought as she watched the two small demons running around the place. Like their master they were habitual packrats, but unlike Dante the stuff they scavenged were usually useful. With a little fixing and elbow grease most of their garbage finds were practically as good as new. She'd decorated most of the flat with their 'treasures', and was pleased with the results.

A large Oriental rug a hotel had thrown away dominated the center of the room. It was green in colour and a little threadbare in a few places, but it was still serviceable. She'd arranged their newly bought futon couch on it, as well as a couple of armchairs, an ottoman, and a coffee table.

One of Agni and Rudra's best finds was a still functioning TV. It had a 32-inch screen and its only fault was that it didn't play coloured pictures. But that was all right since none of them were big on watching television anyway; it was just nice to have.

The kitchen, or Vergil's domain, as she liked to think of it, now sported a working stove, a toaster oven, a coffee maker, plates, cups, and eating utensils. An old fridge noisily hummed in the background, but it kept the food cold so no one minded the noise.

Lady had officially claimed the small room for herself. They'd thrown away the old cot and had bought a twin-sized bed. She'd also gotten a small vanity table, mirror, and stool, as well as a cabinet for her clothes.

The twins slept in the main room where they'd taken over the south side. Vergil had bought a large folding screen made of rice paper and black lacquered wood. The artwork on it had faded, but she could still vaguely see the cranes and sea scenes painted on it. He used it to divide his 'room' from Dante's.

Naturally Vergil's area was closest to the west wall windows while Dante's was near the bathroom. The red clad devil didn't mind much since his illness made bathroom stops an irritating and frequent necessity.

They both had futon beds, a drawer set for clothes, and end tables to put knick-knacks on. Though they were twins, Vergil's side was much neater than Dante's.

"Excuse me," Rudra said as he ran past Lady's feet. He was using his powers to create a mini-tornado to suck dust off the floor. It made things much simpler since they didn't need to buy a vacuum.

"Pardon me!" Agni said quickly after as he jogged by while balancing a bucket and rag over his head. It looked like he was going to give the windows another washing.

Lady was grateful that the two demons didn't mind, nay, seemed to like doing chores. Vergil thought it was beneath him and Dante was a natural slob so no one else was really willing to do them. She wasn't crazy about housework either, but she refused to live in a mess any longer.

Bbrrrring. Bbrrrring.

"I got it," Dante said hoarsely as he shifted on the futon couch. He sniffed loudly as he groped for the phone on a nearby end table. After the fifth ring he managed to get the receiver off the cradle and near his head.

He didn't bother saying hello; Dante listened to the person on the other end for a few minutes than said, "sorry pal, wrong number."

Dante instantly hung up.

"Who was it?" Lady asked curiously.

"Feh, some jerk looking for a hitman," Dante mumbled as he re-arranged himself on the couch.

"Not your line of work?" Vergil asked condescendingly. He was currently wiping down a pine bookshelf he was planning on moving to the east wall. The elder Sparda didn't know how long he'd be here, but at least he'd be well entertained. The idiot box his brother preferred would only lower his intelligence.

"I don't go after humans," Dante glared at his twin.

"Well … I'm not saying you should," Lady cut in as the brothers stared each other down. "But we're kind of in a bind here. Our money is almost completely gone."

She didn't have to say that they needed some way to get more cash.

"Huh, don't worry, babe," Dante turned to grin at her. "I asked my, uh, liaison to spread the word that I changed my number. We should be getting some legit calls soon."

"Legit calls?" she furrowed her brows.

"The ones with the pass code," Dante said easily as he reached for a tissue.

Lady was about to press him further when the phone rang again.

Bbrrrring.

Hooking the receiver with his forefinger, Dante brought it to his face. Again he was silent as he listened to the caller.

"OK, what's the address?"

He listened intently for a moment.

"All right, I'll be right there."

Dante tossed the receiver and it landed on its cradle with a clack.

"See, whad I tell ya?" he asked as he sat up.

"What did the person ask for this time?" Lady inquired curiously.

"There's a demon infestation at an old factory and the new owner's asked me to … clean it up," Dante said as he unsteadily got to his feet.

"Are you sure you can handle it?" she asked dubiously.

"Hey, it's me we're talking about 'ere!" Dante spread his arms wide and gave her a confident grin.

"Exactly," Vergil muttered.

"I defeated the Demon Tower, didn't I?" his brother shot him a look. 'And I beat you too,' he didn't have to add.

"Yeah but you're sick," Lady frowned with concern. The fever hadn't gone away and Dante had been nauseous and dizzy for days.

"It's only Lesser Demons from the looks of it. It'll be a piece of, achoo! Cake," he sniffed.

"Uh huh," she strode over to him and pushed him on the chest. Lady easily managed to topple him back onto the couch. "Since it's just small fries, I'll go."

"You?" Vergil and Dante asked in unison.

"Yes me!" she snapped. "The Temen-Ni-Gru wasn't the first time I hunted demons. I can take care of myself."

"That's not the issue here," Vergil frowned. "Don't you recall what the Chus said? It's possible for us to speed up our recovery by absorbing demon energies. This would be an opportune occasion for us to do so."

"Mm hmm," she said and looked at him. "So what are you going to use? Your fists?"

Vergil opened his mouth to retort, then stopped.

'Blast! I forgot that brainless Dante left Yamato inside the Statue of Space and Time,' he glared at his younger sibling. It was true he didn't have a weapon of his own, but he'd be damned if he conceded to Lady.

"I can use Rebellion."

"No way! Over my dead body!" Dante shot to his feet in anger.

"That can be arranged," Vergil said icily as he rose as well.

"Here. Catch."

Having walked over to Dante's area, Lady had picked up Rebellion from its place against the wall and taken it to the living room. She tossed Vergil the large broadsword, much to Dante's dismay.

The older twin deftly caught it but couldn't stop the wince on his face. His other hand automatically went to his torso where his injury was still slowing healing.

"It looks like you're out of commission for a while too," Lady said with a triumphant smirk. "That leaves me."

"It's too dangerous," Dante said after he'd retrieved his beloved sword.

"I can deal with it," Lady almost growled in irritation. "You didn't have a problem leaving me with demons the last time."

"That was different," Dante said uncomfortably. It was true he'd left her to mop up seven Lesser Demons when he'd emerged from Leviathan. But he had bigger fish to fry, and she did manage to take care of them.

"No it wasn't," she said firmly. "It's decided. I'm going."

Without waiting for their consent she went into her room. In a few moments she'd changed into another one of her kilts; this time it was red with blue and gray lines running through it. An unbuttoned white, short-sleeved dress shirt was over a simple white t-shirt. She'd tied the bottom of the dress shirt into a small bow. Her ever-faithful red combat boots graced her feet. Lady was also carrying a black duffle bag over her shoulder.

"I'll be sure to be back before nightfall," she winked at the two sulky Spardas. "Now where's the place?"

Sighing in defeat Dante told her the address.

"Huh, it's kind of far," she wrinkled her nose as she walked to the elevator. "I guess I have to bus it."

"You should take one of us with you," Vergil suddenly said. His two companions looked at him.

"So one of us can absorb the demon energies," he barely managed to keep from rolling his eyes at them. Seriously, why else would he suggest it?

"Yeah, maybe he's right," Dante chipped in. "You know, just in case it gets too rough for you."

Lady almost stamped her foot in annoyance. What was up with these two idiots? Couldn't they just accept that she could handle it on her own? Or were their male egos hurt because they were too injured to tag along?

Deciding that they needed one last tongue-lashing before she left, an idea popped into her head.

"Oh, I'll take a demon with me all right," Lady suddenly chuckled. Puckering her lips, she let out a loud whistle.

"Cerberus, here boy!"

The hellish puppy scampered out from under Dante's office desk (his new official home). He made a beeline for Lady and pawed at her legs.

"OK, I'm off! Don't blow this place up while I'm gone," she grinned as they stepped into the freight elevator. Using the set of keys Dante had made for her, she activated the bank of buttons and pressed the one for the ground floor.

The two half-demons watched her go.

"Lady certainly has a way with them, doesn't she?" Rudra asked his brother.

"Indeed. It is most impressive," Agni agreed.

"Shut up," Vergil and Dante said in stereo. Then they looked at each other. They would be together in the same apartment. With Agni and Rudra. For the entire afternoon. With nothing much to do.

'Damn,' both thought.

The bus stopped besides a dirt road that was bordered with trees on either side. The back doors of the vehicle opened and Lady and her 'pet' stepped out.

'Well that was interesting,' Lady grinned to herself as she watched the bus go. Its tires squealed as the driver gunned the engine to get away from them pronto.

She'd forgotten to bring a bag to carry Cerberus in so she'd had no choice but to let him walk beside her. The three-headed puppy had stayed relatively close to her, and only left her immediate presence when he chased pigeons and other birds. They'd boarded the bus with no problems, and the other passengers hadn't mentioned a thing about the strange dog. Surely they'd seen his extra heads, but everyone pretended that they didn't.

Everything had been fine till a bee had flown in an open window. The left head, or "Lefty" as Dante had so creatively dubbed it, had snapped at it, but the insect had deftly avoided his jaws. Lefty wouldn't stand for that and so a merry chase had ensued.

The bus driver almost crashed the vehicle when Cerberus had suddenly slammed onto the pedals. The driver braked hard and was about to swear at the puppy when he'd caught sight of the three heads. The sharp teeth and strangely glowing eyes hadn't helped much either.

In the end Lady had to retrieve Cerberus and sit at the very back of the bus. The driver eventually continued on his route and could be heard loudly trying to convince himself that he hadn't seen what he'd seen. The other passengers had hastily exited on the next bus stop.

As what most people did when confronted with the supernatural, they either tried to reason it out or completely ignored it.

'Oh well, I guess it could have been worse,' Lady shrugged as she began to walk up the dirt road. The 'regular folk' would come up with their own ideas on what had happened today. She had other things to do than try to explain what the guardian of the gates to Hell was doing on a city bus.

After a ten minute walk the path suddenly opened up to a large lot. Lady stopped for a moment to look at the building looming before her.

It was indeed a factory, a brewery to be exact. She could see large brass coloured vats through the broken windows set in the building. Long and twisting pipes ran alongside the ceiling and three tall metal chimneys could be seen at the top.

No lights were on inside, and it was eerily silent. The sunlight illuminated the beige walls of the place, as well as the metal doors that were chained shut.

"Is this the right place?" she asked herself as she looked around. She knew it had taken them over an hour to get here, but she didn't think the owner would leave when someone had promised to get rid of his nasty problems.

As if on cue a luxury sedan emerged from the trees. It approached her slowly and stopped a few feet away. The engine shut off with an audible sigh before the driver side door opened.

An older man in a tailored business suit stepped out. His salt and pepper moustache was bushy but well combed. The wind played with his fashionably cut hair, and his cool gray eyes seemed to look down at her.

"Are you Dante?" he asked sharply and with evident disbelief.

"He's busy. You can call me Lady," she replied just as tersely.

"I was expecting someone else," he pursed his lips.

"Well you got me," Lady folded her arms across her chest. "Do you want me to take care of your problem or should I leave?"

The man gave her a long appraising look, and she didn't break eye contact. Finally he heaved a troubled sigh and nodded.

"Yes, you'll do," he said wearily. "My name is Mr. Gunderson."

"Nice to meet you," she said flatly as she took his outstretched hand. He gave her hand a solid squeeze and a brief shake before letting go.

"I'm from out of state and was looking to expand my business here," he gave an unasked explanation. "When I caught site of this property, I was … intrigued. As you can see it is quite a nice lot, and it came at a very reasonable price."

"I suppose you found out why it was so cheap," Lady snorted.

"Indeed," he nodded again. "The … problem began almost as soon as I started having the brewery renovated. My company makes cribs."

"Oh," she looked at him strangely. He didn't seem the type of man who wanted to make baby cribs.

"I come from a long line of carpenters," he unexpectedly smiled at her expression. "You could say it's in my blood."

"Ah, I see," she nodded as she looked at the brewery again. His words had hit her without warning.

'In the blood, huh? Sparda's blood, Arkham's blood … are we all just following our fathers' fates?

"Well," Lady said brusquely, "I better get started then."

"I suppose you should," Mr. Gunderson checked the sky. "They like to come out during the night though."

"Don't worry. We'll get them all," Lady smiled. If she had a mirror she would have been surprised at the predatory delight in her expression.

"We?"

"My partner and I," she pointed at her feet. The client looked down and finally noticed Cerberus. The puppy was staring intently at the factory, his hackles rising and a snarl curling all three lips.

"Don't worry, he's with me," she assured him when she saw Mr. Gunderson going pale.

"If you say so, Lady," he said as he nervously took out a handkerchief from his breast pocket. Mopping at his suddenly sweaty forehead he muttered, "I didn't see him before."

"Before?"

"I was waiting in the woods and watching out for you with this," he took out a pair of expensive looking binoculars. "I didn't want to stay near the brewery if I could help it."

"I understand," she nodded as she set her duffle bag down. Unzipping it, she began to take out her weaponry.

Mr. Gunderson watched in silent incredulity as she began extracting Uzis, a Kalashnikov type rifle, a shotgun, and several different models of pistols.

Lady took her time choosing her guns; the ones she didn't want went back in the bag. Once she'd chosen her arsenal she placed the correct gun clips in her ammo belt.

"Is all that necessary?" he asked tensely as he watched her slip knives in her boots.

"Most likely," she replied in a business like tone. It was never a bad thing to have too many weapons on a demon hunt. "Now I suggest you stay out here while we take care of this. We'll come out when we're done."

"All right, here is the key for the padlock, " he handed her the item. "Good luck."

Mr. Gunderson quickly re-entered his car. The engine roared to life, and he backed up into the forest once more.

"Humph," Lady snorted.

Tugging at the rifle's shoulder strap, she began to walk towards the factory, Cerberus running at her heels.

They reached the rusted front doors, and Lady unlocked the thick padlock holding the chains closed. Letting them drop to the floor, she cautiously opened a door.

Cerberus darted inside, but she didn't call out to him. He was a demon dog after all, and didn't need her to protect him.

Stepping inside, she nudged the door close with her foot since she didn't dare turn her back to the room. It was cavernous in here, and even though it was only the afternoon, deep shadows lingered in most places.

The summer sunlight glanced off the bronze brewing vats, and she squinted at the reflection. This reflected light did illuminate some parts of the room, but there were a lot of places the demons could hide. Catwalks crisscrossed above her, and old machinery littered the floor. Similar to Dante's flat before, dust hung thickly in the air and on the ground.

She held her 10 mm Glock in her right hand and a mini Uzi in her left. The Uzi also came with an attached bayonet at the top of the barrel. Another Uzi hung at her back, along with the AK assault rifle.

Lady continually scanned the room back and forth, her eyes and ears straining for any signs of her prey. A sudden howl above her made her point her guns up. Somehow Cerberus had managed to get on a catwalk and he was looking down at her, his eyes glowing brighter than she'd ever seen.

"What's the matter, boy?" she asked.

He didn't answer (not that she expected one) and ran off into the darkness once more.

"Huh," Lady frowned. He was acting weird.

Suddenly a green light attracted her attention. Looking at her right middle finger, she saw the ring Mrs. Chu had given her. The center stone was starting to glow a brilliant green.

"I guess it's useful after all," she smirked as she heard several loud booming sounds. Lesser Demons known to her as Prides and Lusts appeared around her, and she pointed her guns at the two closest ones. She sensed more shapes moving in the darkness, but she couldn't see what/where they were.

"Piece of cake, hmm?" she said as she stared a Pride down. "Yeah right."

A/N: FYI, Kalashnikov was a Russian colonel (I think that was his rank) who created the AK-47 type assault rifles. In honour of him, people refer to those types of rifles as Kalashnikovs.