A/N: I'm just on a roll with this one tonight so yup! Although I am going to pause long enough to make myself a whiskey coke… alright, good to go

Disclaimer: this is the third one in an hour and a half, why on earth do I need to keep doing this…?

It Hurts

The brunette looked different than the last time that Nero had seen her. A lot of her softer edges were gone, instead there was a hardness there and an anger in her eyes that the partial devil couldn't place.

"Hi Nero." she said, her voice lacking it's usual musical lilt to it "It's been a long time hasn't it?" the partial devil didn't know what to say to that. Thankfully Dante came up the stairs behind him in that moment and the former songstress paused again, her eyes locking onto the half devil next to her former foster brother.

"Hi, I don't think we've ever been formally introduced," she said, rage dripping off her words "I'm Kyrie, you're Dante right?" she asked the question simply enough.

"Yes?" the half devil responded, he wasn't used to this kind of greeting, this was one that they both felt wary about. Kyrie was outright hostile but both of them remembered the last time that they'd seen her, screaming into the sky as Dante had carried the partial devil off and away from the island after they'd killed her brother…

"After you left, I decided that I should be stronger. Credo wouldn't have wanted me to mourn him and move on. He would've wanted revenge on the demon who killed him…" her eyes began to glow as she spoke and the partial devil froze even further than he had when he'd seen her.

"Kyrie no…" she looked at the two of them

"So, I participated in the ascension, I've moved above humanity, I've become the angel that I was always meant to be." she said, bright light surrounding her and causing both of the hunters to flinch away and shield their eyes.

"No Kyrie…" Nero said softly as the light faded and he saw what had become of the girl that he'd once loved. "All you've become is a demon." the demon's form was sleek and silvery, much like the girl herself, with a blade connected to one arm which she swung with a familiarity that made a shiver run down Nero's spine. That meant she knew how to use it and the partial devil didn't want to think about why she knew such things. Credo had tried so hard to protect her from the cruelties of the real world when she was a child and it had worked, for a long time anyway. Now… now she'd had them all thrust upon her and had broken under the pressure.

"I shall destroy you demon!" she cried, her voice warped from the demonic form that she currently inhabited. And then she flew forward, leading with the blade, Nero tensed, anticipating the attack and instead it flew straight for Dante. The partial devil rolled his eyes, he should have known… Dante had been the one to land the killing blow on Credo. The half devil snagged the blade with his bare hands, blood flying everywhere as she nearly chopped the appendage off. For his part, Dante didn't even flinch, he just took it, looking into the eyes of a monster with no fear, only sadness.

"Kyrie." he said, so softly that Nero nearly didn't hear it. "I am so sorry. So so sorry." it nearly broke Nero's heart, Dante felt just as bad and guilty for breaking apart his former friend's life as he did. He sighed and called up Ifrit onto his hands and Gilgamesh encased his legs like another pair of boots.

"No! Die demon!" she shrieked, yanking the blade down and cutting through Dante's chest while she was at it. Nero charged then. There was only so much of a beating that he could watch his partner take while he just sat back and did nothing. He'd been there once while the half devil had battled his own brother… He looked back to Kyrie, she deserved more than the blade of a man that she didn't know. He looked back to Dante and rather ungracefully shoved him from the platform, the half devil would be fine, he could swim. He looked back to Kyrie.

"You! And you betrayed me!" she shrieked, clearly caught up in the heat of the battle. Nero let a single tear slip from his eye as he met her strike, blocking with his Devil Bringer and looking to the place where his partner had been before turning back to the fight at hand.

"I'm sorry Kyrie." he said, shoving her away and coming in for a couple powerful strikes of his own.

"You tricked me! I thought you loved me!" she charged forward and Nero had to leap to the side to avoid the strength of the blow as it cut into the concrete beneath their feet.

"I did!" he landed one blow, then two, then three before she staggered back, some of the white feathers burned and others glowing as the embers from Ifrit catching on them.

"I never meant to hurt you!" he said, charging back in only to clash with the elegant blade. The partial devil let go of his devil trigger then, allowing the power to flow over his form, adding fire and power to his blows and he pushed back the girl that he'd grown up with.

"I'm sorry…" he said quietly, before thrusting his Devil Bringer forward, it's power boosted by both Ifrit and his trigger, the claws sliding through her ribcage and out the other side.

"Nero…" clarity came back to human eyes for one more moment. "It hurts…" and then she went limp.

A/N: Still just plugging along with catching up…

Till next time,

-Winged Element