Nero
For one hell of a long time, Nero hadn't really had much of an interest in anything really. Studying had kept him occupied, true, but it had never really been an interest, it just been mandatory, and it was just something that had to be done. So he had gone ahead and he had done it. Then he was out of school and straight into University, where he had eventually earned a degree in archaeology, a subject that had intrigued him at first but then had soon lost its interest and had left him feeling bored and unfulfilled. Had he been perhaps a little more outspoken, he would have been able to express himself clearly to anyone who was willing to listen, would have been able to say that he couldn't get rid of the feeling that he was meant for better things, that he had some sort of greater purpose.
He had known that had he ever given voice to his true feelings, he would have been seen as nothing more than an arrogant boy, perhaps even a little rude and would have been mocked when he had his back turned. And even though Nero knew it shouldn't have mattered to him, it did, and the knowledge caused him a considerable degree of mental anguish. If nothing else, he felt that it was a blow to his pride.
After all, he wasn't ashamed of who he was.
Or to be more precise, what he was.
He was at least part demon, he knew and he didn't care, treating the matter in the same way he seemed to treat everything else in his life. It was simply one of things that had to be dealt with and there really wasn't anything much he could do about it.
He'd taken steps to try and fit in of course after the fingertips of his hand had turned into a set of formidable claws, revealing his slowly wakening powers, always covering his hand with a thick leather glove, always trying to keep his temper under control because who knew what would happen if he let instinct get the better of him? His mother had shown him every kindness, even though he had frightened her. She was not to know that the handsome stranger she had met that night had been a demon and when she had seen her child's hand, only then had she realized. And she had tried to tolerate and understand his oddities despite the fact that really, she knew nothing.
Looking back, Nero knew that the cause of all his current anger was definitely linked back to his mother. She had tolerated him, she had been kind. Yet she had never really accepted him as her own after that, which had often given him cause of various degrees of upset previously, when he had been younger.
Younger? Hell, he was still young now! At University at eighteen, a three-year course done and dusted, a highly qualified degree under his belt, and all of this had been achieved by the time he was twenty-one. In a way it was crazy, how much could be gained in such a short time.
A single year had passed since then and now he had found everything he was looking for. He had found a group of friends that had somehow been able to bring out the best in him, had been able to reach into his previously untapped potential and actually get him to use it in a productive way. His life couldn't really get much better than this and while in the company of his friends, he found that sometimes, he could even forget the bitterness he felt when he thought of the human-race.
They had taken him and he had willingly joined their organization, which went under the name of…well, they hadn't quite reached that far yet, his friend's deciding that after their first task they'd set themselves, they'd come up with a suitable name. And who had he been to disagree?
His thoughts were suddenly broken as he heard a voice call his name. He looked up and smiled lightly as a dark-haired man walked up to him. Man…yeah…right. All of them, they were mere boys trying to masquerade as adults. Again, he found himself beginning to drift into a more thoughtful frame of mind. He snapped himself out of it and tried to pay attention.
'Zack,' he said, by way of greeting, his voice low.
'Nick says I gotta train you.' No greeting, no nothing. Straight down to business, that was always the way it was with this guy. Nero raised a silver eye-brow in question.
'Train?'
'Figures we gotta toughen up. I mean, hey, the guy's chosen a pretty big mission for ourselves considering we're only just startin' up.'
Oh yes…Sparda's seal. They wanted to study it in closer detail. As for him…well…
He smiled and stood up.
'What are we waiting for then?'
It had been a while since he'd had some form of a work-out, he could do with the exercise. Though he knew that the demon within him would never really be satisfied with a work-out, it would never be satisfied with anything but ripping into warm flesh, spilling fresh blood.
His pale eyes darkened as he followed his friend.
He could only hope that somehow, Sparda's seal would change that…