Dragon Heart CHAPTER 2

SirenaLoreley: Yeah, it was awhile ago on E&I but I've been working on it ever since! XD Glad you liked it! Thanks for reviewing! *gives cookies*

Afrieal: Glad I could brighten your day! I've been working on this story since I posted the chapter for E&I so, it's been in work for a long while now! Thanks for reviewing! *gives cookies*

Flame-Metal-Heart: Yep, Nero's in a bit of a pickle! Thanks for reviewing! *gives cookies*

xXViraXx: I'm glad you like it, I can't remember how I even got this idea but I really liked it XD The ending is this chapter :3 Thanks for reviewing! *gives cookies*

Guest: I know, I had to go read the ending too after I posted the last chapter XD Thanks for reviewing! *gives cookies*

L. K. Heinrich: Yes, I decided I could do a lot more with it and so I made it into a 12ish page story :3 Thanks for reviewing! *gives cookies*

Thanks for all the encouragement everybody, I really appreciate it. This is the last chapter (just a 2 shot) so I hope you guys like it! :3

"Credo," he croaked. "Credo stop, please."

"You don't belong here demon."

"I am a demon Credo," he admitted. "…but that doesn't make me bad." It hurt to breathe, but he continued regardless. "Good and evil is in what you do…not what you are."

"All demons are evil."

Nero found irony in that statement and released a breathy chuckle. "Sparda was a demon." As he spoke he felt his knees buckle and he fell to the floor. His lower position only gave the Captain better leverage to plunge the blade in deeper.

"How dare you!?"

Nero let out another howl of agony, but it was cut short as blood filled his mouth and choked him, making him cough and spit..

"Credo!" The voice belonged to Kyrie, sounding horrified and frightened at the same time. To Nero it sounded very far away. Black was starting to cloud over his vision and he could feel an abyss, that must have been death, opening to swallow him up. At the same time his arm flashed a bright blue and he could feel that power, the huge well of it that could be all his if he just gave a little something in return, just a little piece of his soul. He needed to get out of here. Dante was waiting for him to come back right outside the wall.

He tapped into the trove of power and a blue explosion surrounded him, but he paid it no mind, too busy with the demands for power, destruction and revenge trying to infiltrate his consciousness. He gathered his wits and started to dispel the urges. He didn't need more power, what good was it with no one to share it with? He didn't need destruction, what was the use of it? And he really didn't want revenge. Taking revenge on the people he cared about for making a decision they didn't fully grasp made no sense whatsoever. Rationalizing those thoughts, he was able to push them away, but they rested on the edge of his consciousness. He was in control for now.

He opened his eyes to find everything was sharply in focus, the pain and gaping wound in his chest were gone, as was Red Queen. He also seemed…higher. He looked down at himself and gasped. He had at some point assumed the form of an honest to goodness dragon! He looked much like his devil bringer did normally, covered in a thick rust-colored hide with thicker dark blue scales in vital areas. He also noticed stripes of glowing flesh down his back and sides. He even had huge dark blue wings, however due to the cramped space they were tucked up against his body, along with his tail.

So Dante really wasn't lying. He actually was a dragon. Who would've thought? He was so busy marveling at himself he'd completely forgotten about the two humans in the room. He looked down when he heard a murmur. The blast of his trigger had knocked Kyrie and Credo back. The female was unconscious, but his brother was standing, using the wall behind him for support.

"Dragon…you're a…"

"Demon," Nero interrupted. "Remember?"

"No-I mean I didn't know-"

"You weren't wrong Credo," he replied plainly.

"I don't understand why it's so hard for you guys to accept Sparda was good, and a demon, and a dragon. I just can't figure out why it's so damn incompatible." Dante spoke up from his perch in the broken out window. He'd felt Nero's power spike and assumed something bad had happened. Seemed he hadn't been too far off.

"Who are you?" Credo demanded, but Dante ignored him as he was wont to do.

"You make a pretty good dragon there kid, but if you don't want to break anything else you might want to take it down a few notches."

Nero took a deep breath, and could feel the power ebbing away from him until there was a gentle flare of blue light and he returned to human form. He stumbled, feeling weaker than a kitten and was kept from hitting the floor by Dante's arm going around him to steady him. He blinked at the fact that Red Queen was in his hand now, but decided now wasn't the time to question it.

Credo looked between the two of them incredulously. "You're both dragons."

"Uh, yes." Dante said, words slightly clipped. He was the only one here who could have hurt Nero enough to initiate his trigger response, so he wasn't terribly happy with the brunette.

"It's okay," Nero whispered to his partner before turning his attention back to his brother. "Where's my crossbow? Blue Rose."

"Uh, over there," the Captain gestured next to the door. No wonder Nero hadn't noticed it, it was behind him the whole time. The younger half-devil's right arm shot out and snatched it up. "What are you going to do?" Credo asked.

"I'm getting my stuff and leaving," he said, as though it were terribly obvious.

"But you can come back! You're a dragon, the people-"

"Turned on me at the drop of a hat!" he snapped angrily. "And so did you. I don't trust any of you, why would I want to come back?"

Credo looked shocked, as though this thought hadn't even occurred to him. "Nero, I thought-"

"Well, you thought wrong. You were wrong about me. I'm not evil and I never was. It wouldn't have mattered if I was a dragon, or any other kind of demon. I would never hurt you like you hurt me. That's why I'm leaving. If I can't even trust the people that I live with-that have known me my whole life, then there's no one in this city I can believe in. This is goodbye Credo. I'm never coming back," he stated, picking up the bag on the floor he'd thrown some of his clothes into earlier and putting it over his shoulder. He frowned and his voice softened when he looked at his sister. "Tell Kyrie I'm sorry if I hurt her…Come on Dante, let's go."

The red clad devil had been uncharacteristically silent, though it was probably because of the gravity of the situation. He nodded at Nero's comment before heading back over to the window and leaping out. Nero had regained enough of his strength to follow suit. Credo followed to the window.

"Nero, wait, please-" he stopped when he saw Dante had become a large red dragon and Nero climbed on his back. He'd flown with his partner more than a few times and figured this would be easier than sneaking back out of the city. Changing back into his own dragon form and flying was out of the question. He didn't think he had the energy to do it again yet and he wasn't even sure if he'd be able to fly without some practice.

"Don't come looking for me. I'm happy where I'm going,"

Dante made a kind of purring noise at that, Nero smirked and patted the side of his scaly neck.

"Yeah, come on ya big lizard, let's go home."

"Does that make you a little lizard?" he asked cheekily before launching himself off the ground and into the sky.

Nero chuckled as he relaxed, watching the sun peeking over the horizon, dawning a new day. The first day of his new life. "Yeah. I guess it does," he murmured, resting his cheek against Dante's mane and letting his eyes close. He wanted to block out any images of the city before they got away from it. He was done with the place. Or so he told himself.

Several days later…

Nero had yet to get a handle on his draconic form. At times it seemed awkward and clunky, like when he was trying to walk around, and other times it felt perfectly suited to him, like in flight. Learning to fly hadn't come quickly, it had taken a few prickly crash landings, before he realized he was thinking too hard about it and gotten the hang of it.

Dante was also teaching him to fight in his demon form, which came much more easily. As nice as it was for Dante to teach him Nero liked to do some things on his own. Dante was still asleep as Nero came out into the clearing they'd been using to practice.

He flicked his tail from side to side, figuring out the weight and balance before lashing it forward, the built in blade leaving a large gouge in the earth. He tilted his head, examining the damage before arching his neck, stretching the long vertebra and adjusting to his more sweeping range of motion.

Having a completely different body was…strange to say the least, but at the same time felt natural. It was a weird kind of duality but he was getting accustomed to it.

He paused his practice when he realized he was hearing something. He swiveled his head towards it, listening until the sound came again. His bright blue eyes widened. It was a scream-one that he recognized.

Kyrie.

His feet were moving, galloping towards the sound as his brain scrambled to figure out what was going on. Why was Kyrie out so far from the city? What was attacking her? Was she okay?

He found a break in the tree cover and beat his wings, launching himself into the air for a better view. Once there he saw immediately what the problem was. A phoenix. One that harassed Fortuna on a semi-regular basis. Nero was usually the only one able to chase it off after a long-winded fight.

A roar tore from his throat, the sound-one he'd never made before-primal and terrifying. Kyrie stopped fumbling through the undergrowth to look up in awe. It also garnered the attention of the phoenix who seemed to decide the he was a better target and flew upwards towards him.

Nero flicked his tail forward, causing the bird to move out of the way before flapping hard, flames flying from its wings. The young dragon rolled away through the air. He'd had the most practice at flying so he was pretty comfortable doing some advanced maneuvers.

He'd moved closer to the phoenix who scratched and pecked at him until Nero snapped his huge jaws making the demon quickly reconsider, and backed off, flying away. He was about to follow but stopped when he heard his name and looked down to see his sister.

Well, he couldn't…he wouldn't just avoid her. He flew down and landed through a gap in the tress, flattening the undergrowth as he hit the ground.

"Nero?" she whispered, looking him over. She was holding her arm, making him think that she was hurt.

He let his head bob once in confirmation before letting his dragon form melt away. He stumbled at the loss of power. Dante could shift back and forth with ease, Nero was still getting used to it. He did nearly topple over when Kyrie's arms flew around his neck..

"I'm so sorry Nero. I'm so sorry about everything that happened. It's all my fault," she cried burying her face in his shoulder. "I shouldn't have told Credo. I didn't know he was going to react like that. I was just worried about you. I thought he'd know how to help you."

Nero didn't know what to say, so he didn't say anything, just placed his left hand on her shoulder until she calmed down.

"Please say something," she begged, as she pulled back a little to look at him.

"I don't know what there is to say Kyrie. Is that why you came all the way out here? To apologize?"

She nodded, eyes filling with tears again.

"You could have gotten yourself killed. Are you hurt?"

She started to shake her head, but stopped to hold up her right arm. It was burned from elbow to wrist. He reached out with his demonic arm to examine it, then thought better of it and switched to his left.

"It's okay," she said, looking at the demonic appendage, curious. He hated that look. It made him feel like a freak show attraction. He tucked his arm behind him.

"Really Nero, you don't need to-"

"I don't like using it, okay?" he said impatiently and she shut her mouth, cringing as he touched the burn. "You're lucky you didn't get hurt any worse, but this is pretty bad, you're going to need someone to look at it."

"You okay kid?" His head snapped up at the familiar voice and Kyrie looked over to see the man in red-an outsider. She took a step back.

"I thought you were asleep," Nero offered in reply.

"Well, I was, but I heard you call."

"Call..?" He paused then remembered roaring at the phoenix. It was pretty loud. "Oh yeah." He glanced at the auburn haired girl. "Relax Kyrie, this is Dante," he introduced, said devil offered a bow with a flourish.

"Um, hello," she said shyly.

"I'm going to take her home, this phoenix was chasing her-"

"That damn thing is back?" he grumbled then sighed. "Yeah, it is about that time of year."

Nero quirked an eyebrow. "What are you talking about?"

"I tangle with that thing a few times a year, if I manage to damage it enough it doesn't come back for almost a whole year."

"That thing harasses Fortuna once in awhile too. I usually have to fight it off."

"Well, dragons are best suited to fight a phoenix, mortal enemies or something, so I guess that makes sense."

He let out a sigh and made a mental note to pick his partner's brain about that particular subject later. "Okay, well, I gotta get her home, she's hurt."

"You want me to go with you?"

The younger slayer's gaze went from his lover to his nervous sister and he shook his head. "No, I'll be alright."

The older dragon shrugged before giving a nod of affirmation.

Nero returned to his dragon form to take Kyrie home, he wanted to get her back as soon as possible, before the knights started tearing up the forest looking for her. Dante helped her up onto his back.

"You sure you're gonna be alright, kid?" he asked as the female looked at the dragon once more in awe. She lightly ran her hand over his scales.

"Yeah," he leaned down close to his partner to growl softly. "I'm not going all the way into the city. I'll be fine."

Dante reached out to pat his nose lightly and nodded. "You call again if you need me."

"I will," he promised, though he doubted he would. Why would he need to? The red devil backed up so that Nero could launch himself up into the sky.

The ride was fairly quiet, Kyrie holding on and just admiring the view and Nero concentrating on her weight so she wouldn't fall off. It didn't take long before Fortuna came into view and the dragon felt himself sighing, this was probably the last place he wanted to be.

"Nero, what is that?" the woman asked, pointing at something near the edge of town.

The dragon frowned and squinted into the distance and saw what she was talking about. It looked like there was a fire, something that happened once in awhile with the buildings in Fortuna so close together. After a moment though he saw some of the fire break away from the buildings. The phoenix had come to the city.

"It's the phoenix, must have come here after I chased it off," he replied as he flew down closer to the ground and landed, hunkering down so his sister could slide off his neck. She did and carefully walked around in front of him.

"You're going to do something, aren't you?" she asked.

"Why would I? That's what the knights are for, they'll handle it."

"But you're a knight."

He snorted. "Not anymore. I distinctly remember that title being removed before I was tied to a stake."

"Well it doesn't matter! What about what you said?" she demanded.

"What I said?"

"That being a demon didn't make you bad, and being human doesn't make you good? You told me that. You know it's the right thing to help, even if the people turned against you."

"Everyone in that city turned their backs on me. I'm just returning the favor."

"Nero!" she gasped in shock, and he cringed suddenly feeling guilty and not quite sure why.

Kyrie felt tears welling up again and tried to stifle them. "Please Nero. This isn't like you. You protect people. You want me to believe you haven't changed…but it's hard for me to see it."

He let out a long sigh. Maybe she was right. He had changed, he had to, but he couldn't let it make him bitter and callous. That wasn't the person he was nor wanted to be.

"Fine. I'll help," he agreed. "Back up and stay here."

She did as she was told and Nero launched back into the air, beating his wings to pick up speed as he barreled towards the city. The bird demon wasn't expecting the attack and Nero slammed into him like a freight train, sending him hurtling into the ground as he soared upwards. The phoenix shrieked in anger and beat his wings to right his balance before flying up towards the dragon. Nero's tail slashed out at his opponent, nicking the bird's body before he managed to dive out of the way. Red blood sizzled and smoked as it hit the stone street below, knights quickly moving out of the way.

The phoenix made a motion with his wing and a wave of fire lashed out at the new dragon. The half-devil quickly soared out of the way of it, a few traces of it licking at his scales, but the heat didn't reach him. After the flames stopped flying he lunged forward to snap his sharp fangs into his opponent, but the phoenix flew back, raking his taloned feet over Nero's face-too close to his eyes for comfort making him recoil.

Their fight was a flurry of slashing talons, teeth and tails, most missing or scraping off hard scales. Flames flew from both participants, roars and screeches rending the air as they fought until Nero lost his altitude, landing instead on the stone streets, sending a jet of flame at the phoenix. It was easier to fight from the ground when he didn't have to worry about where all his limbs were at any given time.

The half-devil realized that the bird's balance probably wasn't the greatest hovering there in the air he could use his wings to disrupt his flight. He turned a bit to lift his wings high and beat them in order to ripple the air. The phoenix struggled to keep his balance in the disturbance and fell backwards, flipping over the ground before trying to right itself. Nero didn't give it the chance as his right hand shot out and snatched the Phoenix closer again before slamming it into the ground. The creature let out a cry of agony and the vivacity of its flames died down as several of its fragile bones snapped under the brutal attack.

Nero had always found brute force worked well against this particular type of demon, and he had more brute force in one arm than the entire Order had. Even still, this was still the quickest he'd ever managed to down the usually crafty bird. Typically if he was able to injure it enough it simply flew away to come back and fight another day. It wasn't as though one could actually kill a phoenix. He smashed it once more into the ground before the flame extinguished and he gave a soft sigh. He'd never actually managed to down it before-just chase it off. So what happened now?

Before he got the answer to that question he saw a flicker of red and black and Dante slammed into him, wedging himself between the younger dragon and his downed opponent holding his wing up to block a suddenly violent torrent of fire.

"You don't want to be right next to a phoenix when it's reducing itself to ashes kid," he explained with a reptilian smirk, Nero rolled his eyes.

After a minute the flames ceased and Dante pulled back his wing, tucking it against his back before they saw a small bird come out of the ashes and dart off over the wall and into the wilderness.

"Well…looks like that's that. Shouldn't be back for awhile." Nero murmured.

Their exchange was cut short as they heard cheering. Nero tilted his head before swiveling towards the sound, taking a step away from his partner. A crowd had gathered-far enough from the fight they didn't get injured, but they were closing in now that it was over.

The young dragon was puzzled, he'd fought the phoenix dozens of times before, and usually got a clap on the back from some of the other knights-the one who liked him a little bit, or at least tolerated him because he could fight. Otherwise he was met with animosity and jealousy. This was a change of pace.

He then realized they were calling out 'dragon' and 'savior.' They had no idea who he really was. Looking over the crowd he didn't see Credo anywhere. He was the one who knew him, who should have been here. Well, it was about time everyone else found out.

He released the energy necessary to keep his dragon form and returned to human. Dante stood close enough to lean on if necessary, but Nero managed to stay very steady somehow. The cheers died down to shocked silence.

The ex-knight took a few steps forward. "What's wrong? I'm a dragon, your savior right?" he asked scathingly, opening his arms before letting them drop back to his sides. A few people in the crowd flinched.

"I just don't get it," he admitted. "I used to do the same thing when I was a knight and hardly anyone noticed or cared. Do it as a dragon and the whole city turns up. Fancy that." He snorted and shook his head. "None of you seem to recognize good or evil until it's force fed to you. His Holiness says I'm evil-a demon, and he's always right, so I am, right? Black and white. Then again I'm a dragon, does that make me good, or somewhere in between?"

He shook his head. "To tell you the truth I don't give a damn anymore. Think what you want of me, good or evil, but for crying out loud make up your mind on your own, instead of letting someone else tell you how to think."

Looking out over the crowd he was met mostly with blank stares and a lot of confusion and even some anger. He'd planted a seed though. A little doubt and uncertainty. He'd made them question themselves, something he'd never thought he'd have the power to do. Some people didn't like to think. It was simply easier to take in someone else's view of something and accept it. That was the way Sanctus preached, he was the word and he must be believed, but this time he was wrong and it was about damn time the people of the city realized no one was infallible.

It was hardly a fairytale ending, but rarely anything was. He'd done what he could and he was actually a little proud of the results. It was about time to go though, before anyone started asking more prodding questions. He glanced back at Dante, he was exhausted from switching back and forth to his dragon form, he wasn't sure if he could manage it again.

The red dragon grinned and shifted his shoulder down a bit. Nero ran up his leg and sat on his back.

"Wait, where are you going?" one of the women in the crowd called out as Nero looked out he couldn't pick out who it was who had said it.

"I'm going home," he replied. "This place is a little stuffy for me. Last time I was here I said I would never come back…but if things change…" he shrugged. "Maybe I'll be back."

"Can we go now?" Dante asked. He was completely unaccustomed to not being the center of attention and Nero chuckled.

"Yeah, let's get out of here before Sanctus gets here, or they try to stop us," he mumbled.

The red dragon laughed. "Like they could." He beat his wings, launching them off the ground and into the air as Nero hung on for dear life. This time as they left, Nero found himself looking back.

"You really think they'll change?" Dante wondered.

He shrugged. "I don't know. They could." he murmured.

"Guess that's the best you can hope for."

Nero looked to the side to see two figures heading back towards the city. Credo had found Kyrie, he must've been out looking for her. The two were looking up and he smiled a bit and waved and they waved back.

"Change happens all the time…I think the only thing we can ever hope is that it's change for the better," he said with a small smile, hoping he'd set Fortuna on the right path.

That's it! This story is finished and I really hope you guys like it. I agonized over this stupid ending forever. I'm terrible at endings ;_; Anyway, like I said, I hope you guys enjoyed it! Until next time!

Sayonara!

~Bitbyboth June 4, 2013