This is the chapter where things get weird, and if you're thinking "things were already weird," well... True.

Nero hadn't been lying. He had almost no clothes to speak of. The only drawer with more than two articles of anything was his sock drawer, and the five pairs all had old blood stains soaked around the cuffs. I did manage to find a plain t-shirt, which wasn't great for the weather, but the one he was wearing was so shredded that the t-shirt was an improvement.

When I turned to toss the shirt toward him, I found him - or rather, Vergil - sitting up in bed. I'd dropped him onto it just a few minutes before. From the moment Nero fell asleep, I knew he wouldn't be the one waking up, but I hadn't expected Vergil to wake so soon. He should have let the kid's body rest. At the rate things were going, we were going to play a game to see who passed out from exhaustion first.

Since I'd turned on the light, I did find him to look worse than I'd first thought. He was pale as death, lips dry and cracked, eyes so glazed and heavy that he seemed to be looking more than seeing as he glanced over his arm. "What is this?" he asked, frowning at the black tendrils coiled around scaly flesh. The arm's glow was gone, faded to a dark, shadowy blue.

"It's a suppressant," I said as I threw the shirt to his side. He frowned at that too. "It'll stifle your powers for a bit. I was hoping to use it to get Yamato, but I guess the sword just feels like napping in your arm regardless."

He tugged at one of the tendrils with no luck. His brow was furrowed more with puzzlement than anger. "It is annoying," he said at length.

"So it's working. Good to know." I hadn't actually expected it to, not against Vergil. Had he been less exhausted, I felt he could have broken its grasp with little trouble. Nero certainly could have on his better days.

"For now," Vergil said as he picked up the shirt with the tips of his fingers as though it might have some disease. "I don't believe it will keep me for long, so what is your plan from here?"

Crossing my arms, I leaned against the dresser and held back a sigh. "I just want a minute to actually talk with you," I said.

"A waste of time. You gain nothing, and nothing changes." Dropping the shirt, he pushed himself toward the edge of the bed. His arms shook with the effort, and I wished I'd asked for more of those suppressants to latch onto him. A couple more could have knocked him out for a while. "Tell me," he said as he found his balance on bare feet covered in freshly-sealed cuts. "Why didn't you kill Nero when given such an easy opportunity?"

Every time I thought Vergil couldn't do anything worse, he found new ways to piss me off. The dark threat of a growl tinged my words. "Are you saying you would have let me?"

"No, but I was curious to see if you would try." His eyes were calm as he glanced around the room, as though our conversation was nothing important. "You didn't even consider it, did you?" he asked. "You're terribly sentimental, Dante."

A fresh wave of anger roared through my head and blurred my vision. "That's not sentimentality," I spat. "Nero isn't an object. You're torturing a kid, Vergil!"

His eyes snapped to mine, narrowing in a challenge to what must have been red burning around my irises. "Quit acting as though he's a child," he said. "You wouldn't have allowed him to fight the Savior if he were. And I should hope you wouldn't have allowed him to keep Yamato. I wouldn't have let you keep my sword, but I admit that it was irksome that you would leave it in the hands of an untrained boy you hardly knew."

I threw my hands up to keep from wringing his neck. "Fucking hell, Vergil! I thought he was your kid or something!"

He looked as though I'd slapped him, eyes wide and blinking. When he managed to open his mouth, it just stayed that way. His eyes darted to every corner of the room. I might have found it amusing if I didn't want to throw him through a wall.

After a few failed attempts at speaking that came out as short huffs, he grasped his voice again. "So that's why you cared. You thought the boy was family."

"It didn't matter if he was-"

"No," he bit out, his voice so sharp that it silenced me. "You were just interested in finding someone like yourself again. You never did like being alone."

He must have been aiming to be cruel and hurtful, but I couldn't find any reason to be insulted. I'd done plenty alone. I'd run my own shop for years, and yeah, Lady would hang around sometimes... and Trish, but it wasn't like I invited her or- Oh, and Patty.

If I kept up that train of thought, I might find a reason to be insulted, so I shifted my stance and cocked my head. Being a dick back to Vergil was always an option. "You're going to call me lonely when you've been joined at the hip with this kid for how long?" I said. "That's actually pretty creepy, Verge."

His eyes dimmed with irritation. He'd always been easy to annoy. "It would not have been my first choice, but it was my only choice," he said. "I wasn't even aware of much of anything until recently."

"When his arm changed?" I guessed.

He nodded, flexing the claws. "Yes, I gave him the power to save that girl, but I had little will of my own. Giving the boy strength sapped power away from me the same as this." He held up his arm and the spider-like suppressant along with it. "But I was able to more properly hear from then on. Before that, it had always been muffled whispers, too far away for me to understand. Then I was all-too-aware. It was a bit of a shock once I understood my situation. Though I tried to focus on regaining my own power, the boy was troublesome, reckless. I had to save him again, gave him that farce of a Devil Trigger. Then again and again. I saved this damned city as he wished, and yet you argue that I shouldn't even be owed this form when he and the girl would be dead without me, this city leveled."

"Hey, Trish and I did a pretty good job saving this city too," I said as he took to ignoring me again and headed for the closet. "I seem to recall saving the kid's ass too," I yelled. "You weren't doing the best job on your own."

Along with the clicking of wire hangers, I could hear him muttering. When he reappeared in the closet doorway, he had something white folded over his arm and boots on his feet. The hems of the sweatpants were stuffed inside them. "Yes," he said, his tone dry and harsh as sandpaper. "The boy let himself get captured because he hesitated when it came to the girl and then was distracted when…" His eyes rolled up in search of recollection until he shook his head. "I was still blind at the time, so there was only so much I could do. Being dragged into the Savior cost me a great deal of energy."

"So you admit that I saved you," I said. "Nero wouldn't have been able to break out without Yamato." Not to mention the fact that I'd destroyed all the Hellgates. The city would have been leveled without me there.

He clicked his tongue, his lip curling in distaste. "I suppose I'll have to concede that," he said, "but you were saving the boy, not me."

"You never let me save you." No matter how I tried. I'd always failed him. He said nothing, his gaze drifting from mine toward the demonic arm. The light was starting to come back in a soft, distant glow. I doubted he would continue to talk to me once he'd broken from the suppressant, so I couldn't waste time reminiscing.

"So you had no control over your own power?" I asked. "Nero could take what he wanted?"

Vergil hesitated. His lips thinned as he seemed to debate answering. When he did speak, the words still dragged with uncertainty. "No, I allowed him to take what he needed for a time. It was most important to ensure he stayed alive."

That dashed any hopes I had that the kid could just go back to leeching off of him. Despite Vergil's hesitation, he didn't appear to be lying, but another thought tugged at me like a barbed hook. "Then why give him the power to save Kyrie?" I asked. "Nero mentioned something about that, something about him not being the one in danger when his arm changed."

Vergil's brow furrowed, his gaze drifting off like he was having to think on the idea for the first time. "I don't...recall," he said so slowly that I couldn't decide whether that was the truth. "I wasn't really conscious at the time, so I suppose I didn't know who I was saving. The boy was more in control at the time, and I was blind. Does it matter?" He shrugged as he brought up his arm again. In a flash that stung my eyes, his arm reignited. The suppressant shattered, and Yamato appeared in his hand. "I hope this has been enough of a talk for you. I'm rather tired of it."

"I'm not just going to let you leave again," I said, pushing off the dresser to stand in front of the doorway. Rebellion was a cool comfort against my hand.

His brows shot up. "Really? Because you've done so well at stopping me before."

"You've been cheating, you teleporting ass," I snarled through a smile. "No cracks or windows this time, so quit running away and face me."

"So you can do what exactly? Kill me?"

I was starting to consider it. That deadpan tone of his was infuriating. "If you're so ready for a fight," I said as I leveled my sword, "then let's see you actually try to kill me instead of running away. Looks to me like you're still trying to buy time because you don't have full control yet."

His eyes tinged dark like a storm at sea. "I can assure you, the boy holds no control anymore. I didn't wish to bother with you, but if you insist, I will be happy to end you." The floor creaked under his feet as he pressed up to his toes and rushed me. His strike was simple enough to knock away with Rebellion, and the air rang with the familiar sound of our swords clashing.

He stepped back to correct his balance and tossed out his usual array of summon swords, so I snapped the door shut between us. The swords all smacked halfway through the wood and hung there. For all he liked to pretend, he was nowhere near full strength yet. I couldn't help but snicker at the sound of Vergil growling on the other side. "Sorry, kid," I called just before kicking the door in, knocking it halfway off his hinges. Vergil finished the poor thing off by slicing it in two. When he launched himself at me again, I had no trouble stepping out of the way of his swing.

"You're not up to par yet," I said. "Did that suppressant hit you that hard, or is this the best you can do?"

"Fight me if you're going to," he snarled before trying to gut me with a furious slash, lacking all of Vergil's usual finesse. Again, I caught it with a sweep of Rebellion. The weight of his swing made my arm buzz, but it sent him ricocheting back. He was wide open. I could have swung through and finished him off or at least done some real damage. If he could heal from those summon swords, a cut from Rebellion was nothing.

Then, once he was injured… Well, it had to do something. There must have been some way to get the kid back, and maybe hitting him hard enough was it.

Before my swing could connect, though, I had to lock up my arms and jerk back against the bright, clear voice at my back. "Nero!" Kyrie yelled.

As Vergil righted himself, I stepped back, Rebellion still between us and my arm out in a weak attempt to shield Kyrie from him. She had some terrible timing. "Kyrie," I said. "You should-"

"No," she said. The boards crackled under her feet as she stormed forward until my arm was the only thing stopping her. When I glanced over my shoulder, I found her glare on Vergil. "You're not him. You're Black." With trembling hands, she reached for her ankle and pulled two palm-sized throwing knives from a hidden holster.

"Uh, Kyrie," I attempted again. "Maybe don't-"

I might as well have not been there. "Give him back!" she snapped as she fit the knives into her hands. "I won't lose anyone else to demons. I won't! Let him go right now!" Tears rimmed her eyes, yet she stared Vergil down without flinching. Her bravery was commendable, but I couldn't fight Vergil and make sure he didn't stab her at the same time.

Some nagging thought in the back of my head told me that if anything could snap the kid back, it would be her in danger, but I smothered the idea under my heel. I would not let anything happen to her. If I did, Nero would pop back just to kill me.

But Vergil remained still, Yamato at his side. His eyes flicked over her with some vague interest. "You should stay out of this," he said. "Nero is gone, and humans shouldn't involve themselves with devils. The outcome is never good."

I felt like the floor had fallen out from under me. He didn't sound threatening, not his tone or words. He could have been talking to her about the weather. "I will not!" Kyrie said. "You let him go, or I'll-"

"Or what?" Vergil asked, still bored rather than venomous. "You'll attack me? That would be counterproductive, I think."

She took a sharp breath to steady herself. "Well, some pain might wake him up again."

I didn't think she would actually throw one of the knives, so when it whizzed past my ear, I could only shove her behind me and hope for the best - the best being a sword through my sternum. Vergil was bound to attack her now, and I would have to play human shield.

Except, he stayed still. He didn't even dodge. The knife ate into his left shoulder, drawing a fresh swell of blood to soak the already-ruined shirt. He frowned at it like it was an insect bothering him. "I thought the boy taught you better than that," he said as he reached over and wrenched the knife free with a fraction of a wince. "If you don't aim to do any real damage, it's a wasted throw, and then you're short one knife." He held the blade up between his claws, examining the silvery shine and rivulets of blood. "But I suppose that's to be expected. What was it? Blessed for song, not for sword?"

Kyrie's hand locked onto my arm. Her fingers curled into the sleeve as she pulled herself out from behind me. Something in her eyes was wrong, empty and ashen yet coated with grief. "Don't you dare," she breathed. "You can't… You don't get to use his words. Give Nero back this instant. I won't let you use him like that."

Though Vergil's eyes were still on the knife, he didn't seem to see it anymore. He stared off into something else, his brow furrowed with a growing unease. "Enough of this," he said, his voice as dark as hers. "You may have this back. Don't miss next time." When he flicked the knife her way, I stepped in front of her again, but the arc was so light that I was able to reach up and grab the handle from the air. At the same time, the glittering blue of a summon sword crossed the edge of my vision. When I looked up, he was gone again. Of course.

"Where did he go?" Kyrie demanded. "What happened? Is Nero okay? There was so much blood!"

Following him would have been pointless. I was certain he was out of sight already, and Kyrie deserved some answers. Some. I wasn't sure "my brother has been possessing him since he was a kid" would go over well.

I had to come up with some quick lies. "So things are a little difficult right now," I admitted. "Nero is okay. All those wounds are healed, but Black is a bit of a pain. I think it... came with Nero's arm when it changed." Guilt twisted my gut like a hand jammed into my stomach. I didn't want to freak her out, and I couldn't tell her things were hopeless.

If I had to kill Nero, I wasn't sure I'd ever be able to face her again.

Her eyes swam with fear. "Are you going to have to cut his arm off?"

I had to bite my tongue to keep from telling her that she wasn't the first person to suggest it. "No, I don't think that'll do any good. Just a waste of a perfectly good arm." But if I did cut it off, I wondered where Yamato would go. That could be a last resort if I needed to get the sword away. In theory, it would just fall out of his arm or something. Weird.

"But my friends are here now," I added. "They just arrived, and they're going to help me get Black wrangled so that we can fix the kid."

Liar. Liar. Liar.

"Oh," she said softly as her hands clasped under her chin. "So Black can… read Nero's mind or something?"

"I'm sorry?"

Her brow knitted, and she looked toward the living room walls. The first rays of morning shone across the photos. "That thing he said earlier," she murmured, "about how I'm not suited for swords. When I was little, I wanted to join the Holy Knights, but they didn't really let girls in. Nero tried to stick up for me and say that wasn't fair, but Credo told us that the Order wouldn't let me become a Knight, and he was very sorry, but really, I was blessed for song, not for sword. That was a long time before Nero's arm changed."

I had a lot more questions to ask Vergil.

"I've got to go after him," I said, darting back into Nero's room to grab my bag. Not much of what I'd asked Lady to bring was going to do me much good anymore, but they were too expensive to just leave around. I could sleep when this was sorted. Not now. "Kyrie, you should go back to wherever you were staying. Actually-" I looked up to find her pouting and hanging on the doorframe. "Why did you come here so early?"

"People were saying some weird things had happened around nightfall, and I was worried. I tried to wait until it was light out, but I couldn't sleep." She shifted her weight between her feet and heaved a sigh. "Do I really have to stay behind again?"

Standing with the bag slung over my shoulder, I gave her a half-bow. "Sorry, I don't trust Black to be on his best behavior around nice young ladies." And she would slow me down too much. "Also, sorry about your house again."

"Oh it's been through worse," she muttered, eyeing the shattered door. "Just bring Nero back, okay?"

"Of course." I flashed her a smile and waved as I rushed out. If only it were that simple. As usual, Vergil had quite a lead on me, and the island was huge. I knew of one path that wouldn't immediately get me lost, the same one I'd already taken twice before. Though I couldn't be sure he'd return there again, he did like that ruined building. I had thought he went there the second time just so I would follow.

Kyrie had mentioned Vergil wandering around the forest too, and when I came to the edge of the trees, the reason struck me. A half-dozen demon corpses littered the ground as a good ten more live ones lurked around, growling. "There are a lot of you," I said as I flicked my guns into my hands. "The kid wasn't lying. Sun's up, guys. You really ought to find a darker place to haunt."

Their answer, as usual, was a mix of screeches and groans. The little ones were never much fun. Taking them out was a relief, mindless work that I was used to. Killing demons was simple. I could do that all day. Dealing with humans and my family, not so much.

Though the forest wasn't the jungle from before, the area was still massive and dense. I followed a trail of carnage over cliff sides and around ruins that nature had reclaimed. I wondered if Vergil was taking out his stress on the demons the same way I was because even with all the dead I found, more were nice enough to come see me.

Nero never would have asked for my help in clearing out some demons, yet I found myself imagining that we could have met back up that way instead. I could have run into the kid on his island again, hassled him about his demon problem, maybe had a drink with him or something. No Black. No Vergil. No watching the life drain from the kid inch by inch.

No fear that I would need to deal enough damage to keep his body from mending.

"Where are all of you coming from?" I asked as a swarm of the floating ones wearing black drapes swam up around me. I didn't mind the distraction from my thoughts. "Is that big gate hemorrhaging somehow? Are there more mad scientists running around?"

The bedsheet boys were not much help. Their only answer was trying to make me a pincushion for their weird, glowing fingers. A few quick hops kept me from adding any new holes to my head as I twirled my guns into my hands once again. Before I could have any fun, though, a flash of blue came spinning in and sliced through three of the bastards. Without their shadowy cloaks, they fell to the ground writhing and skittering like flipped roaches. A flurry of the blue, spinning blades followed to finish the job and knock down the rest.

"So sweet of you to look out for me," I called, tossing my guns back into their holsters as I turned to find Vergil leaning against a tree a few yards away.

"They were in my way," he said. Still the kid's face. Still the kid's voice, yet the more I looked at him, the more I saw Vergil. It was in the way he held his head and his sharp tone. He didn't have Yamato in the arm anymore; instead, he held it in its sheath. I found it hard to see him as Nero at all, helped by the fact that he was in all-white now, the same uniform I'd seen on the Knights when I'd first arrived. I couldn't imagine Nero wearing something that stuffy.

"Is that what you took from the house?" I asked. "I guess it fits you. All you're missing is the cravat."

His brows rose as he shot me his patented "you're an idiot" look. "The boy used to wear this daily," he said. "It's the uniform for the Holy Knights. It just happened to be the only sensible thing he had left to wear. I was not going to run around in pajamas."

"I'm just going to ignore the fact that you have a working knowledge of the kid's usual wardrobe."

"What do you want now, Dante?" he asked through a sigh.

"I told you I wasn't going to let you get away. This is just going to be how it is until you let the kid go or kill me."

"Tempting as that is, I don't feel up to either option at the moment."

He just knew I'd beat him in a fight, but he did look halfway to passing out. I doubted he was up for much of anything. Every few seconds, his gaze would grow dull and distant until a harsh blink brought him back to reality. He was overexerting himself, and he was bound to get sloppy sooner or later against the swarms of demons. Then again, I couldn't imagine why he was out fighting them in the first place. Surely he wanted to get off the island as soon as possible, away from me.

"Vergil, what's your plan anyway?" I asked.

"I suppose I'll get rid of this infestation," he said. "It's irritating and makes for good practice."

"That wasn't what I meant."

"Oh?" He didn't sound interested. He wasn't even looking at me.

"What do you plan to do with control of the kid's body? What are you going to do from here on?"

Once again, his eyes rolled up, and he paused as though he hadn't considered it before. "I won't be able to return to the strength I once had with this weak form," he said at length. "But I suppose it'll do."

That wasn't an answer, and my patience with him was already wearing thin again. Annoyance dripped from my tone. "Because he doesn't have as much demonic blood? Or because you can't get full control?"

Vergil's lip tugged toward a snarl. "I have full control."

"Really?" I drawled. "Because you're favoring your right side so much that I barely see you use your left. I'd bet there's a drag to your left when you walk."

The way he refused to meet my gaze said enough. "I'm still adjusting to this form, but it won't be much longer before I have a handle on it."

"And then what?" I asked. "What happens to him? What happens to you?"

The exhaustion he was trying so hard to hide crept into his voice, giving it an odd softness I never heard from my brother. "He will fall into a stasis, as I was for so long. It is not a terrible fate. He will not suffer."

"Like you care," I snarled. "You can't take his body and knock him out, and then tell me he's not suffering."

"It has nothing to do with you anyhow!" He was awake again, eyes sharp with a frosty sting as they bored into me. "I will deal with this demon issue, and then I will leave. Then we needn't speak ever again. As far as you'll be concerned, I won't exist. As it's always been."

He tried to stalk off, but I matched my stride to his and kept at his back. "Why even bother clearing out an issue on some backwater island?" I called. "You're not being your usual 'what's in it for me' self." Everything about him was Vergil, yet there was something off, like a painting titled a few degrees off center.

"We haven't seen each other in years, Dante," he said. "How should you know which 'self' to expect? You've changed too."

"Me? Changed? Scruffier, maybe. More handsome, definitely. Overall, I'm not that different. But you said you were in stasis. Of course I'd expect you to be the same, napping for all those years."

"Yes, I suppose I would have thought the same." His words were thin, and for just an instant, something flickered in his eye. I couldn't catch whatever it was. By the time he turned back toward me with a glare, it was gone. "And what exactly do you expect to accomplish by following me?"

I didn't know. I suppose I didn't expect anything, but I felt that both Nero and my brother were my responsibility at that point. If all I could do was keep an eye on Vergil, then that would be my job until the kid returned. Or didn't.

"Should I just leave the demons to you then?" he asked when I didn't respond. "If you're already going this way, I needn't bother."

"You didn't answer my question before," I said. "Why are you bothering with these small-fry at all?"

"I am out of practice," he hissed through his teeth.

Flustered was always an odd look on Vergil, and I couldn't help but rush up to his side to see it better. He leaned away, his shoulders taut as a grin broke out across my face. "Is that why the kid kept waking up a mess?" I asked. His quiet growl was the perfect answer. "You kept getting your ass kicked by a bunch of low-level demons. Fuck, that's hilarious. I wish I could have seen it."

"I had very little control over this body at the time!" he snapped, which only made me burst into laughter. "I couldn't even see out of both eyes, and I was deaf in one ear. Besides, I hadn't had a form to use in years. Coordination was… difficult."

"You forgot how to move?" I asked, still smirking. "Was it like riding a bicycle? Did it come back to you?"

"You're insufferable."

It was too easy to joke with him, too easy to have him annoyed with me. I shouldn't have been so comfortable with it, but it fit like an old glove or riding a bike. I couldn't let myself be fine with Nero's state. I told myself that I was just tired. When I didn't feel like I could pass out in the dirt at my feet, we could go back to fighting again.

"Maybe we can find a way to get you your own body," I said. "Some weird Frankenstein's monster thing. I know just about everyone who works in occult stuff, so we should give it a shot."

"It's not possible."

"How can you be so sure?"

As his steps slowed, he looked up at the light shining down through bare branches. "When I was first able to gain control for a substantial amount of time, I looked for any materials that might aid me in my state. The lab here had a great deal of them, much of them regarding the combining of demon and human souls. When two become meshed, there is no extraction. I read the results of every experiment. They were...ugly to say the least. So no, there is no separation. There is only Nero, or only me, and I have given him enough time."

I wouldn't have wanted to take the scientist's word as law, but he had turned so many humans into demons. He was smart, and he knew what he was doing, the sick bastard. If Vergil was right, and there could only be one of them, then it had to be Nero. I didn't know what would happen to Vergil then.

"We won't know if we don't try," I said, still trying to hold a smile. "You can't just relive your twenties through Nero. You should at least attempt to get your own form. The Order's research isn't law."

"I never lived my twenties at all," he said. If he'd rammed Yamato through my chest, it would have hurt less than those words. "Even if we found some miracle," he continued, "even if you managed something that could extricate me from Nero, that would leave him with little demonic power and no healing capabilities. Do you really expect that foolhardy boy to survive without my power? He is far too reckless."

My lungs felt tight, like no air could get through. The truth was bitter on my tongue. "I'd rather have Nero die in some reckless fight than be a prisoner in his own body for the rest of his life."

Yamato sang as Vergil tore it from its sheath and tried to take off my head. I jumped back out of reach, Rebellion appearing in my hand before I could think of what had just happened.

"You understand nothing," Vergil spat. "I told you that Nero will not suffer in his state. I wouldn't do that to him."

The words seemed to surprise him as much as they did me. "Have you lost your mind?" I asked. "Kyrie already told me about you looking at the kid's memories, and now you're going to act like you're doing him some big favor?"

Vergil shut his eyes just as they began to burn red. His hand shot to clutch at his head. "I saved him!"

"Just so you could kill him later!" The air around me burned with my rage. He was welcome to try attacking me again because I would not hold back anymore. How dare he. How dare he?

"I would not wish him dead!" he said like what he was doing was any damn better.

"Don't act like you care," I growled, the edge of my Trigger tinging my voice. "You're just in this for your own gains."

"Of course I am. I don't care." He threw his hand to his side, eyes opening to reveal wild confusion. "I shouldn't care, dammit!"

I hadn't seen Vergil look so lost since we were children, and all my anger snapped away. Dazed emptiness took over as I tried to find some reason to his words, but maybe it was all just a ploy because I found Yamato jammed through my gut a second later. Before the pain tore up what little coherent thought I had, he'd vanished once again.

Dante's confused. Vergil's confused. Nero is... napping.

Super big thanks to my reviewers. Y'all're rad.