Notes: The usual thanks for merendinoemiliano for another review, and I finally know its username by heart now!
For sweetpye: aawn, thanks so much! Who knows, maybe one day this reaches Itsuno and he hires me (yeah, as if).

Chapter 11

"Hm... He's not as tall as I remember."

Dante and Vergil stood before their father, who stood in the middle of the room in his demonic – and original – form and with his eyes closed, not yet acknowledging the presence of his twin sons. There were strings of flesh attached to him – probably the things responsible for pumping more power into his body.

The older one stared at his brother with the corner of his eyes thanks to the stupid remark.

"You were smaller. That changes your perception." He muttered under his breath.

"Hmmm..." The legendary devil hunter tilted his head to the side as he crossed his arms. Not that Sparda was short, he still was taller than the twins in their demonic forms, but only slightly taller. "You sure?"

"Yes, Dante, I am sure." He answered slowly, trying to not lose his patience.

"Okay, then." The younger twin shrugged. "Ready to kick father's ass?"

Vergil didn't bother to answer, he only unsheathed Yamato and walked towards Sparda. The younger twin mimicked him as he conjured his own sword. Sparda heard their approaching footsteps and opened his glowing red eyes.

"Hey, long time no see, huh?" Dante circled around his father, the Demon Sword Dante leaning against one of his shoulders. "Did you miss us?" There was a long moment of father and son silently staring at each other, however, Sparda never answered. "I'll take that as a no."

"Stop teasing him. We need to cut those strings." The half demon scolded his twin.

"Fine." He scoffed.

The Dark Knight noticed when his sons readied themselves and summoned a sword in his hands. It was a very well made replica of the Demon Sword Sparda. At this point, he no longer recognized his sons even though he could feel their demonic energy, and charged against his older son when he saw him jump in the air. Dante ran to his father's side and slashed him, it created a distraction good enough so Vergil could destroy the strings as their father tried to hit the younger twin.

On the other side of the room, Phoebe positioned herself in the middle of the magic circle she had created, sittingcross-legged on the ground. Nero had the Red Queen on his hand as he watched the fight between his family.

"Am I supposed to do anything else?" He asked, not taking his eyes from the fight.

"Nope. Just not letting me die is enough." The redhead let the back of her hands rest on her knees and stared at Sparda, concentrating on him.

"Okay, easy enough." He muttered. For some reason, Dante would never let him in the big fights, almost as if he didn't trust in his skills. It was discouraging, really.

The sorceress was no longer able to listen to him, as she found herself in complete darkness. She rose to her feet and looked around, not being able to see not even her palm in front of her eyes. Whatever happened to Sparda's mind, it was bad.

"Hey!" The redhead called out, hoping for an answer. "Big guy?" She kept walking as she sometimes called, trying to find anything.

Usually, people's consciousness would be completely different. There were those times where she had found people with dark places in their mind, but nothing like this. There was always something going on, memories playing, and the person usually somewhere to be found and talked to.

The Dark Knight's mind, on the other hand, seemed to be emptier with every step she took. It was almost as if he had completely turned into a puppet. No memories, no consciousness, no feelings, nothing. Phoebe kept walking, searching for something, anything. Minds were tricky places where memories could be hidden where you least expected.

She started to walk faster when she finally saw some light in the distance, it led her to a badly lit room where she could only see the silhouettes of the objects around. It looked like some sort of study room. The light came from the fireplace, and the redhead could see the shadow of a man right in front of it. She raised her eyes to get a good look at him and knew it was Sparda: white hair, blue eyes, and the features that looked so much like both Vergil and Dante. Not to mention the purple long coat, those were definitely a fashion trend among the Sparda family.

"Sparda! Finally!" Phoebe let out a sigh of relief as she approached him. The demon, however, didn't seem to acknowledge her presence and kept staring forward. "C'mon, big guy, I'm here to help you." Once again, no reaction.

"Eva..." He smiled sadly and that caused the sorceress to tilt her head to the side, completely confused. Once she looked in the same direction as him, the sorceress saw his wife approaching. It wasn't his consciousness, it was just a memory.

"Fuck." She muttered under her breath.

The redhead watched as Eva stopped right in front of him and he pecked the top of her head. There were tears in her eyes. She was about to say something to him when everything seemed to flicker. When it all came back, Sparda already had his hands on the blonde's shoulders, his eyes were heartbroken. There was a piece from the memory missing.

"Goodbye." He let go of her and slowly walked away. The woman hid her face in her palms and cried her heart out, until the room flickered again and the memory started to replay itself.

Phoebe closed her eyes and sighed. In a desperate last attempt to find anything else inside his mind, she placed her palm on the ground and sent a pulse throughout the entire place. Nothing.

"We're too late..." She mumbled. Sparda was gone, aside from that last memory, his body was an empty husk. The redhead left his consciousness and returned to her body, opening her eyes and quickly rising to her feet. Nero looked at her with an arched eyebrow.

"Did it work? He's still fighting them."

As the boy had said that, Sparda had managed to attack both Dante and Vergil by throwing them against the wall and impaling both half demons through the chest with their own weapons. The sorceress walked towards the demon without even bothering to answer the devil hunter. She used her telekinesis to remove Yamato and the Devil Sword Dante from their bodies and throw them back at the Dark Knight. He just needed one movement from his arm to deflect them both with his sword.

He quickly charged at her, ready to swing his sword in a way that would cut her in half, but Phoebe teleported to his back and placed both index fingers against his temples. There was a yellow glow coming out of them that took over his eyes and he stopped on his tracks. This was going to stop him for a few minutes. In the meantime, the twin brothers had recovered from their wounds.

"Whatever you tried to do, it didn't work." Vergil snapped as he walked towards his katana to pick it up from the floor.

"What's going on?" Dante stopped by her side and watched as she slowly removed her hands from his father's head. The youngest devil hunter also approached them, as he wanted to understand as well.

"He's far too gone..." Phoebe whispered so quietly it took his enhanced hearing to understand what she said. She looked him in the eyes as she continued: "I can't get him back."

"Try something else." The older twin said between gritted teeth as he got closer to the sorceress.

"There's nothing else I can do."

"Figure it out!" His voice was deep and threatening.

"Didn't you listen to her? She can't do anything!" The legendary devil hunter yelled, almost as threatening as him. That was enough to cause Vergil to snap, throwing Yamato, still in its sheath, at him to make him lose his balance and take a few steps back. He used that opportunity to grab the sorceress by her shoulders, the strength in his fingers being enough to leave a mark.

"You're going back there, and you're finding a way to bring my father back."

The way he growled and his grip on her was enough to make Phoebe gulp and freeze in terror. That's it, that's how she was going to die, by being torn apart by her practically brother-in-law. The sorceress came back to reality when she saw Dante triggering with the corner of her eyes, the last thing she wanted was for them to fight right now.

"Don't!" She tried to stop him, but everything happened too fast: she only saw a red blur and in the next second, Vergil had his back against the wall with his brother's claws holding his neck. "Dante, stop!" He didn't listen.

"You must be happy about this." The older twin growled as he also triggered and punched his brother in the stomach so he could let him go. "You never cared about him or our heritage."

"He left us. He fucking left mother and us to die!"

The red demon punched the blue one on the face. Nero also triggered and was ready to get between them to stop the fight, but Phoebe stretched her arm to stop him.

"Not yet. They're letting their feelings out."

"You serious!?" The boy narrowed his eyes and looked at her. She slowly nodded as she looked back at him.

"Only interfere if they draw their weapons." She watched as he changed back to his human form and sighed.

"The only ones who left me to die were you and mother." Vergil said between gritted fangs and narrowed his eyes when he heard his twin scoff after he punched him back.

"How many times do I have to tell you until it gets into your fucking thick skull? Mom went out to look for you!" Dante punched him again, this time with way more strength and on the stomach, sending him flying to the other side of the room.

"It doesn't matter. In the end I had to protect myself, and the only thing I had was my sword, which was given by our father!" The blue blur tackled the red demon, throwing him on the floor. The older twin positioned himself on top of him and punched him in the face over and over again. "The only thing that matters is having power!"

The younger twin grabbed his arm when he grew tired of being punched and hit his brother in the stomach. "And yet you keep losing." He teased, laughing as his brother's back hit the ground. "Don't you ever get tired?" He stood up and his glowing orange eyes stared into the glowing blue ones. "You cut off your son's arm, took your own humanity away and still managed to lose. What's the next genius plan inspired by some cartoonish bad guy, huh?"

"You think you're better just because you hang around with the scum." The blue demon spat, referring to humans, as he also rose to his feet. "I'm not leaving father behind only because I don't accept who I am."

Dante laughed so hard, everyone else in the room could swear the ground shook a little. "You think that's the reason? I made my peace with that long before I stabbed myself with the Rebellion. You're the one who keeps running away from your human side like a frightened little girl!"

"Your words mean nothing to me, Dante." It wasn't exactly true, he knew his brother had a point, he would just never admit it out loud.

Phoebe's spell wore off and Sparda's eyes changed its color back to red. Both his grandson and the sorceress noticed it, and she nodded at Nero when he looked at her, giving him a green sign to fight the Dark Knight as a distraction until the twins could reach an agreement. She had to do something.

"We have to put him out of his misery." The legendary devil hunter pointed his index finger at their father as he looked into his brother's eyes. Vergil kept staring back, not moving an inch and not saying anything.

"I can show you how broken Sparda's mind is." She teleported and positioned herself between both half demons, also staring at the older half demon's glowing blue eyes. The sorceress stretched out her hand for him to grab. It took a few minutes but he eventually changed back to his human form and grabbed it. The younger twin had also turned back, and she stretched her other arm to hold his hand.

In just a few seconds they had left the room and found themselves in complete darkness. The redhead instructed them to not let go of her hand yet as she guided them through the darkness until she found the same memory from before and the only one Sparda had left.

"That's all there's left. A memory. Usually you could find some form of the person's consciousness inside to interact with it." She explained as she watched the twins curiously watch the memory. "There isn't. Whatever the underworld did to him, turned him into just a puppet."

"I know exactly what they did." Vergil still remembered all the tortured he had gone through to become Nelo Angelo. It still haunted him. "I don't understand how I managed to keep some part of myself alive while father didn't."

"Because humans are stubborn as fuck. It was your human side that held on to it." Dante actually muttered that more to himself than to his twin. He had a thoughtful expression on his face and an arched eyebrow as he looked at the exchange between his parents. "Can you try to restore the missing part of this memory, Pheebs?" He turned his neck to look at her.

"I can try..." She quietly sad as she approached Sparda's figure, not too confident in her skills at this point. "What exactly are you looking for?"

"There's something bothering me. I can't quite point my finger at it."

Phoebe raised both of her palms and they started to glow yellow. She made some movements in the air with her hands, as if manipulating something invisible and the memory started to flicker once again. After some minutes, some new scenes were playing as if they were on fast-forward, until the end played out again and the memory was reset.

All three of them watched as the Dark Knight stood in the middle of the study room alone, until he saw his wife coming in. He pecked the top of her head as soon as she stopped in front of him.

"Don't do this." Eva weakly sad, her eyes watery with tears about to roll down her face.

"I have to." He gently answered as he grabbed her hands from her sides. "It's the only way to keep you all safe."

"How do you know they will keep their word?" It was evident her will to keep herself from crying.

"Mundus' quarrel is with me. If he has me, he has no other reason to hurt you nor the kids."

The blonde woman sighed painfully, that was it. That was the last time she was ever going to see her husband, the demon she loved so much. She slowly nodded and Sparda's hands traveled all the way up to her shoulders.

"I love you." He reassured her, not waiting for her to say it back. He knew she loved him back however, she didn't have the strength to say so at that moment. "Goodbye." The memory ended as the same way as before, with the room flickering and it starting all over again, an infinite loop of grief.

"Mom knew." Dante said in shock. Their father hadn't just randomly disappeared, leaving his wife and kids high and dry against demons that eventually showed up at their house, wanting to kill all of them.

He had sacrificed himself for them.