Author's note: Well, everyone wanted this. People even commented on my other fics asking me to update. And here it is. Couple of disclaimers: this should be obvious, but many things in this fic are different from RWBY canon. Also, the direction the story is headed in is vastly different from RWBY itself, but again, that much is evident. Anyway, enjoy.

Chapter 17: Want to Know the Name?

In another dimension, far removed from the realms home to mortals:

Lucifer the Lightbringer stepped through the portal and on to ground. So light was he on his feet, it was almost as if he was floating. He looked around, taking in the sight of the world he was in. It had been a while since he had come here. Looking at the place, he immediately remembered why that was. It could not be described accurately by any terms mortal beings possessed. The closest one could come was to call it a realm composed entirely of matter vibrating at a high frequency, that is to say, energy. There was positive and negative charge, swirling around, constantly at odds. It was in this chaos that there was a balance, keeping the dimension stable.

Lucifer shook his head.

He continued to walk forward, as though there was an actual ground. He had chosen to temporarily replace his golden, celestial appearance with one that was "closer in scale to human". The reader will notice that these words are used loosely. There is no accurate way that we possess to sum up the process by which a transcendent being assumes a lower frequency form. Perhaps one could call it the equivalent of a human drawing a two dimensional image on paper as an avatar of himself. Only, Lucifer needed an avatar to appear within the five-dimensional space of this realm. If our eyes were capable of perceiving him, we would have seen a tall, handsome man, with long silver hair that trailed down to his hips. His lithe form was muscular but graceful, and his black eyes perfectly serene.

Sensing his presence, the residents of that world responded, transmitting their thoughts in the form of hostile telepathic waves, intent of forcing this visitor into submission.

Who are you?

How did you come here?

Why are you here?

How dare you come here?

Lucifer smiled.

He had telepathic barriers up, and the attacks on his mind crashed against them harmlessly.

It was tempting to lower those defences of course.

The barriers weren't for his protection.

He tried to remember what these two fools who lived here were called. Did they even have names? Well, for now, he'd give them nicknames.

Light and Dark. This is no way to greet a guest. Come forward, and let us speak properly.

It is we who will decide that.

You are not welcome.

The telepathic attack against him strengthened.

Lucifer sighed. He had tried to be polite. A smile appeared on his face, more terrifying than any snarl.

He had tried to be polite, but violence was fun too.

There is no place where I am not welcome.

The self-proclaimed gods of light and darkness then experience something they had never felt before. Sheer, logic-defying agony ripped through their very souls. The energies that composed their beings began to come apart, particle by particle. They felt themselves falling to pieces physically, as the very core of their minds and spirits were utterly and completely dominated.

The only thing that was left was their free will.

Out of respect for his Father, Lucifer left that intact in these two.

Come forward… and kneel.

It was a command.

The twins had their free will, and could refuse. But if they did so, they would be immediately and painfully destroyed in a way that they could not comprehend.

And so, they appeared before him. Both figures horned, one purple, one gold.

Who… are you?

The god of light repeated his initial question, but the tone was different this time. There was fear in it.

Me? I am Lucifer.

How… do you have the power to do this to us… to gods…

Gods?

Lucifer's voice was amused.

Ah yes, that is indeed what you call yourselves. I always did notice that the weaker pantheons cared more about the titles.

T-titles?

There is only one God. All others are pretenders.

Y-you lie!

The god of darkness searched his memories. The earliest he possessed was that one day, he had become sentient.

He searched for something to contradict what Lucifer had said.

But he knew in his heart that he had spoken the truth.

What… do you want?

Lucifer brought a finger to his chin, evaluating the two kneeling figures before him.

To destroy them here would be beyond easy.

But where was the fun in that?

He wanted to see the story play out.

You will return to the world you both abandoned once. There, you will find my descendant. You will attempt to fight him. Don't hold back: use all your might, all your power. Try with all you have, to kill him. You will fail, of course, but it will serve a purpose: in defeating you, he will achieve his true potential.

Light and Dark looked at Lucifer with trepidation, fear and anger.

Your descendant…

Is he strong?

Lucifer smiled once more, and the twins recoiled. In his body, they beheld a multitude of universes… the entirety of the fabric of existence. A third eye opened on his forehead, gleaming dark.

When his time comes, he will be even stronger than me.

As the twins quaked, Lucifer moved his mind to other matters.

There was also his other descendant. And come to think of it, didn't that one have a son already? In a different timeline, he had sent the blue-clad brother to Remnant. Maybe he should set up a battle between the Sons of Sparda in this timeline. That was always fun to watch.

As he pondered the matter, he opened another portal, and walked into it, leaving the so-called gods to their own devices.

Meanwhile at Beacon:

Dante sneezed.

Someone thinking about me? That could be really good, or really bad.

He decided to put the matter out of his mind. For the moment, he had other things to deal with. He looked around the room, at the figures gathered.

"Well, here I am, Oz. What's so urgent?"

Ozpin stared intently at him. While his gaze was steady, his usual composure was missing. The situation was no longer within his calculations. In the thousands of years he had had to prepare, nothing like this had happened, and thus, he had no experience to fall back on. Normally, even in the worst circumstances, he could think of countermeasures. He had his own powers, of course, as well as the hunters of Beacon. In addition, there was his personal council, as well as his allies from the other kingdoms.

But all that simply didn't matter.

The multitude of arms and ammunition, Bullheads and Dust, the military might of Atlas, the combined forces of the hunters, even his own magic gifted by the gods; none of it mattered.

In the face of the man in front of him right now, who stood casually, arms behind his head, completely nonchalant, none of those things mattered.

Angering him was a bad idea. He would have to be cautious. But at the same time, if he backed down too far, it would give the appearance of weakness, and that might invite him to take advantage.

No, that wasn't it.

If his read on him was correct, he didn't care about ruling over others, had no interest in authority.

"You already know that, Dante. You've kept a few secrets, haven't you?"

The red-clad man looked at him impassively.

"Maybe. But you of all people shouldn't be complaining about that."

Ironwood, who was present in the room, took a step forward.

"You'll answer the questions-"

Glynda Goodwitch, also in the room, had expected something like this to happen. She was about to intervene, but Dante spoke.

"I'll do what I want," he said calmly.

As far as he was concerned, his days of operating from the shadows were over. The people of Remnant had no problem with him.

In fact, the only people who did have a problem with him were all in this room.

Barring Glynda, the rest were all looking at him with distrust and fear.

And they were all members of the institutions that ruled Remnant. Those who controlled the military, and the kingdoms.

In other words, exactly the same kind of people who were a problem back on Earth. The kind of people who had a problem with anything and anyone they couldn't control.

From around the room, clicks were heard as guns were pointed at him.

"Come on, Oz. Those pea-shooters can't hurt me. You should know that by now."

Ironwood cocked his revolver.

"We could find out," he said.

"Your funeral," replied Dante.

His general rule was to not hurt humans. He'd even spared the White Fang members who had tried to blow up the city. But those had been people on the ground, who had suffered. He wouldn't make the same allowance for leaders who sent people to die.

"James, stand down!" said Glynda. She was next to Dante, her riding crop in hand as she glared at the General.

"Move away from him, Glynda! He's dangerous!"

"To scumbags and idiots," said Dante. "Which one are you?"

Savage, said Balrog telepathically, also hinting not so subtly that hitting the General with Real Impact was an option.

Glynda nudged him on the arm.

"Hey, cut it out. Are you trying to pick a fight?"

"Hey, they're the ones that started it."

"So take the higher road, will you?"

Dante sighed.

"Fine. You all want to talk facts, let's do it. When were you going to tell me about the Woman in the Tower, Oz?"

Ozpin's eyes widened momentarily.

This… was not good.

For him to say those words, had Salem already made contact with him? Or had she simply given him a copy of that old book? Her agents were in Vale, after all. While there was no conclusive way to be sure, he'd always had a feeling that the movements of the White Fang were being manipulated by her. Dante had been supposed to keep an eye on them. Was that when they had given him that piece of propaganda? Had he been a double agent from the start?

No, that doesn't make any sense.

He's far too powerful. He's never been anyone's agent.

"You should know, Dante. That Witch tends to lie when it suits her purposes. She is a skilled manipulator."

"That makes two of you then."

Ozpin's jaw tightened.

This was going in a direction he didn't want. But he had feared it would be like this. There had never been much hope that he would be able to control Dante, especially after his true nature had become clear.

Divine power. He too was a god, like the twins. But he seemed to have no interest in ruling. Indeed, as far as who Dante was, it seemed he really was a hunter, through and through. Someone who fought and killed those who would harm humanity.

But with the kind of power he had, what did that mean for Ozpin's mission?

For the war against Salem?

And how exactly would he react if he learned the Ozpin himself had been around for a long time, building humanity's forces, sending them into battle, leading them, guiding them, so that one day, they could be judged by the gods?

Leaving things to him was far too dangerous.

But going against him was suicide.
In this situation, Ozpin saw only one solution. But to implement it, he needed to survive, and he needed to avoid conflict against Dante, at least for now. Long enough that he could put his plans into motion.

His hand was being forced. He was in a situation where he needed to do what he otherwise would not have done for perhaps thousands of years more. But this was the only way out.

"I suppose this means we are at an impasse," he said aloud.

It wasn't a correct statement.

But it was based on a valid truth: Dante dealt with humans as a human.

Ozpin was counting on that.

"Well, we will consider your employment at Beacon to be at an end then, and wish you well in your future endeavours."

Ironwood wheeled around to look at Ozpin, not believing what he was hearing.

"Oz-!"

The headmaster's face remained impassive, an unspoken warning to his ally.

"Ozpin!"

Glynda glared at him. He was making a mistake. The real solution was so obvious, it seemed incredible to her that everyone was missing it. There were things about Ozpin's inner council that were secret even to her. She had always believed that there was a reason behind it all. But meeting Dante, and being present for this encounter had showed her that maybe there was more to it than she had thought.

All they needed to do was tell Dante the truth. He would take care of the problem.

The fact that Ozpin wasn't doing that was a warning sign to her.

Despite Dante having kept his demonic heritage a secret, he had never lied about who he was. Never tried to mislead anyone. The only reason for anyone to not trust him… was if they thought he might be an obstacle to their plans.

And the only thing Dante stood against was evil.

The world might not be split between good and evil, the division between those two things might not always be clear. There might be people who had a bit of both in them.

But if she had to choose, she knew by whose side she'd stand.

If Ozpin was doing something Dante would not have approved of…

Then she was certain it couldn't be anything good.

As for the Devil Hunter himself, he brought a hand to his chin.

"So I lost my job here, huh?"

Then, to everyone's surprise, he grinned.

"Well, maybe that's a good thing. I liked being here, but maybe it was a little too confined for me anyway. Yeah, going back to my real job sounds good."

"Your real job?" asked Glynda.

Dante nodded.

"Yep! In fact, I think business would be really good in a world like this. And I have got plenty of savings. Shouldn't be hard to set up shop. Oh! But there's the wilds too, right? Won't have to pay for the land out there. Maybe I'll build a house instead."

He looked at Ozpin.

"Well, this is it, then. See ya around. Stay out of trouble, will you?"

For some reason, the idea of Dante's "business" didn't sound entirely good to Ozpin. But it was a compromise he had to make. He'd been able to buy time, and that was what he really needed right now.

He turned to Glynda.

"Well, this is going to be a bit difficult. We won't be able to see other as often. But I'll try and come over to town every evening."

"What are you talking about?" she replied "We'll be seeing each other all the time."

Looking at Ironwood and then Ozpin, she said her next words very clearly.

"I quit."

It wasn't often that both the Atlesian General and Beacon's Headmaster were lost for words. But Glynda Goodwitch had managed to make it happen.

It might have been the sheer shock of her of all people leaving, and so suddenly at that, or just the fact that this was one more stressful event in an already stressful day, but Ozpin stammered.

"M-miss Goodwitch? Are you quite sure about that?"

"Absolutely," replied Glynda, smiling.

"Glynda!" shouted Ironwood. "You're making a mistake! Your duties… are you just going to abandon them?"

When she answered, her gaze was strong and her words were steady.

"The duty of a huntress is not to the kingdom or its rulers. It is to the people. You're the ones who made a mistake today. I could explain at length why exactly it was a bad choice. But I think neither of you will open your eyes to see it."

She turned to Dante.

"This business of yours. I'm guessing you ran it back in the world you come from?"

"Absolutely."

"And let me guess. You were broke all the time."

Dante winced.

"And the place was probably a mess."

He winced again.

"And you probably had to sell off things to make ends meet."

Dismal, said Balrog.

Glynda sighed.

"You're going to need someone to keep things on track and look after the business side of things. If I can handle the day-to-day running of a school, I'm pretty sure I can help run your business."

She was smiling, her face slightly flushed. It was a spur of the moment decision, and she'd been making far more of these recently. But she was genuinely excited.

Even being a huntress, every day at Beacon had, for a long while, been the same.

With Dante around, every day was a potential adventure.

"You might have a point," the Devil Hunter conceded.

He tried not to let it show, but her spur of the moment offer was everything to him.

Back on Earth, Dante had run his shop alone. Clients were rare. All visitors were. Entire weeks went by, with no one else around. Going on missions was a relief, because he didn't have to hear the silence. Didn't have to deal with his own thoughts. It had gotten to the point where even being able to see the very demons he killed helped alleviate the loneliness. That might even be part of the reason why he had developed his habit of trash-talking his opponents.

Killing demons, drinking. Drowning himself in a haze of violence and alcohol so that he wouldn't have to deal with that lonely office.

Glynda's offer changed everything.

This time around, he wouldn't be alone.

He grinned.

"Well, no point standing around here. I don't really have much luggage, so I'm ready to head out right away."

"I could come back for my belongings later. But I do think there are at least a few people who might want to see you before you leave."

"You could be right."

With that settled, the two left a completely shocked council behind them as they made their way into the elevator.

As they reached the ground floor, they walked out of Ozpin's tower.

"You might be a little surprised," said Glynda.

Dante actually stopped walking just to take in the sight in front of him.

It was a crowd of Beacon's students, all gathered there, waiting. As he looked, he saw many faces he had taught, and many others he had spoken with.

"It turns out a lot of people took videos of that battle in the city, and uploaded it to the CCT Net. Somehow or the other, word also got out that the one who went to that city was you. And the rest was everyone putting two and two together."

No one said anything. They were all staring at him expectantly.

They were waiting for him to say something.

He had been their teacher.

Well, if this is goodbye, doing it the right way is how it should be.

Regardless of the people running the show on Remnant, these were all good kids. Warriors in training, with good hearts.

"I guess I've been keeping a lot of secrets from you guys, huh?"

Pushing their way through the crowd, a few people managed to make their way to the front.

Teams JNPR, RWBY and CFVY were right there in front of him.

One by one, he looked at his students.

When they had started a few months ago, Jaune Arc had nothing more than courage and heart. Now, he was a strong young man, who could hold his own with his peers. A real warrior.

Yang Xiao Long had been a headstrong thrill seeker, who acted first, thought later, leading to regrets. Now, she had calmed down. She still had that fiery streak, but she knew what she was fighting for, and she knew how to be in control of herself.

I was able to make some difference, right?

He remembered almost being too late, but being able to bring Team CFVY back alive.

Remembered that Velvet had seen, long ago, what he truly was.

And that she didn't fear him because of it.

He smiled slightly to himself.

"Dante," said Yang. "Is it true? Are you really…"

He stood firm and faced her. He realized now. He had finally accepted all of himself. He was proud of it. His human side. And his demon side.

"A long time ago," he said, "there was a demon who realized that there was right and wrong. He took a stand, fought for what he believed in, protected the human world. Many years later, he crossed over, and fell in love with a human. And then… well, here I am."

He looked all of his students in the eye.

"I won't tell you what to think, what to believe. I've met humans who are as cruel as any demon. And I've met demons who can be kind and care for others. I am what I am. The existence of demons won't be a secret any longer. And when it's widely known, I'll be what all of you are: a hunter.

But maybe… a part of me will be hoping that one day, others like me can find a place to call home too."

He could see it all. There was some distrust.

But the vast majority of them were not seeing him any differently than before.

He was still Dante.

Still their teacher, and still a hunter.

"Hey, you're making it sound like this the last time we're seeing each other," said Yang. Though she tried to hide it behind humour, she was far more nervous than she let on.

In truth, she had experienced something like this before. Several times.

The first and most prominent incident was her mother leaving her behind.

And then, Uncle Qrow being closer to Ruby than he was with her.

She was close to her father, but maybe because he too was afraid of losing her, there were things he never said to her. Sometimes, they were things she needed to hear.

Dante had been willing to say those things.

To put her in her place when her rage and brashness got out of hand.

Yang had had the uncomfortable experience of meeting many sleazy adults.

Grown-ups she could actually trust and count on were few.

And out of them all, Dante was the only one who neither treated her like second best nor put up with any of her bullshit.

And so, the feeling that he might be leaving felt like she was being abandoned. Again.

"Well, the truth is, I kinda lost my job here," said Dante.

"What the fuck?"

Similar outbursts of anger followed from all around.

It was clear they were not happy about this.

"Lost your job?"

"For what? Being a badass?"

"That's some bullshit!"

"Hey, we'll talk to the headmaster. He'll listen to us if we all go, right?"

Shouts of approval followed.

Dante decided to intervene before the situation got out of hand.

"Hey. Don't go causing a riot in school. You should be training, not wasting time. Besides, there's a bright side. I'm more suited to being on the field anyway. So I'm going to be starting up my business again."

"Business?" asked Jaune.

"Yep. Devil hunting. Though I guess it includes Grimm too. So maybe monster hunting is a more accurate term."

There was more murmuring as they took in this new information, until a voice cut through it.

"If that's the case, then I'm coming with."

Yang stepped forward.

There was a fire in her eyes.

Before Dante could even reply, Jaune stepped forward as well.

"Me too. You're the first real teacher I've had, and I want to continue to train with you."

The rest of team JNPR followed.

"If our leader's going, then so are we," said Pyrrha. Being a skilled combatant, she had originally come to Beacon to get away from her fame in Mistral, while also furthering her goal of being a huntress. But in Dante, she had seen that it was still possible for her to get much better. And if that was the case, then he was the one she needed to learn from.

"Teach," said Coco, addressing Glynda. "If you're out here, it means you and Dante are finally an item, huh? Which means you're leaving too. And if that's the case, then we'll be tagging along too."

Ruby and Weiss nodded.

"You're the coolest teacher I've had," said Ruby. "And… I think you're what a hunter should be."

"The dolt is right."

"Hey!"

"As I was saying, the dolt is right. Despite you throwing me into the stands (I haven't forgotten about that), you're indeed a true warrior… and a real hunter. I've probably already been disowned just for coming here. And if that's the case, then I want to go all the way. I want to be the real deal too. A huntress who can fight."

"You guys…"

Dante looked at them all.

These were the same people he had picked out to be part of his special demon hunting class.

Back then, his reasoning had been based on the fact that they would choose doing the right thing over Ozpin's orders.

Unnhh… what do I do now?

Looking past the knee-jerk reaction of refusing, he was surprised to see that he couldn't actually see a good reason for turning them down.

Unlike on Earth, monster hunting was a large scale profession here on Beacon, with money and respect to be won from it.

In which case, there was good reason to want to become skilled at it.

And… each of these kids was going to become a hunter anyway. It wasn't as though refusing would give them safety.

They had ability.

They were determined.

And if that was the case…

Why not train them himself?

"It won't be easy," he said aloud. "I haven't got a place to live yet. I'll need a house, and an office. A place to train. And it'll take time to get clients. It's not going to be as comfortable as living at Beacon. And if you're going to be on the team, I'll warn you now: it's going to be a lot of work."

"So it's a yes, then?"

Blake had finally stepped forward.

It took her some effort, but she was able to meet Dante's eyes.

"I didn't trust you before. And it was because I'd already sensed that you were part demon. But I realize now. You could have hurt us long ago if you'd wanted to. I know it's late to be saying this, but I was wrong, and I'm sorry."

She took a deep breath.

"I won't lie. You already know this, but my kind haven't always been welcomed by humans."

She undid her fake bow, revealing her cat ears, causing gasps to go up from the crowd.

"But there's hope yet. If there are demons who can learn to live with humans… and if humans can learn to accept them, it means we can change. It means Faunus and humans can coexist too. And I want to be part of that."

Admitting that she had been wrong had taken courage, not to mention asking Dante to let her join him.

She exhaled, feeling like a load had been taken off her, though she was nervous, unsure what his reply might be.

Looking around, she found the rest of RWBY giving her the thumbs up.

Dante sighed.

"Ozpin's not going to like this… but that's fine with me. All right then, you brats. You're on board. But you'll need to move fast. We'll be waiting in town. Be there with whatever you need in an hour, because we won't wait longer than that."

This had gone better than he had expected.

Not only had he done it right, his students had unexpectedly decided to join him.

With this many members…

Something Morrison had once said played in his mind, and he grinned.

"You're a real agency now."

Feeling excited, Dante decided to go all the way, and make a flashy exit.

He summoned Cavaliere, and the living, demonic motorbike appeared in a flash of electricity.

"Ooooooooh!"

Exclamations of wonder went up as Dante got on the Devil Arm and turned to Glynda.

"Well?"

Smiling, she got on behind him.

"Full throttle!"

With a blast of flaming exhaust, the bike shot off into the sky, clearing Beacon's grounds and walls as it sped away towards town.

Elsewhere in Remnant:

As the villagers rebuilt, the five members of the demon cabal stood watching over them.

"I can't thank you all enough," said the chief, who was standing next to them.

"Unnecessary," said Valkyrie. "We merely serve our true and future king."

"Your king?" asked the chief, puzzled.

The one who answered was Nevan, voice so strained, even her fellow demons winced slightly.

"The future Demon King. He values you humans, so we have decided to see what it is exactly that is so great about you all. To that end… we look forward to working with you."

As these previously unthinkable bridges were being built between humans and demons, we shift our attention elsewhere, to Earth, where a certain demon had arrived.

Vergil stood with one hand on the handle of Yamato, ready to unsheathe.

Nero had Blue Rose out, levelled at the new arrival.

Trish had Luce and Ombra in her hands, ready to fire.

And Lady was holding the Kalina Ann Mk III, loaded, finger inches from the launch button.

"I will ask only once," said Vergil. "Who are you?"

The handsome, silver-haired man in front of them smiled.

"Ah yes. This is the Devil May Cry's way of greeting guests, is it not? I think Dante himself started the tradition with Arkham when he first set up this business."

"How do you know those names?" asked Lady sharply.

The demon looked at her.

"I know many things," he said simply.

"Enough!" said Vergil.

Dashing in, he swung Yamato outwards, seeking to take the demon's head off.

To his utter surprise, the blade halted when it struck his neck.

Yamato's razor sharp edge had not been able to cut it.

Even the tremendous force of Vergil's swing had been unable to cause the demon to so much as flinch.

A cold sweat rolled down Lady's face.

"Ah yes. Nice slash. Your technique and power have improved considerably. Had Mundus been standing in my place, your blade would have beheaded him, without damaging anything else in the vicinity. It's truly remarkable how far you've come. Indeed, like your brother, you grow at an incredible pace."

"Who are you?" demanded Vergil again.

"I am your ancestor. You may have heard of me. My name… is Lucifer."

The cigar and cigarette dropped from Morrison and Nico's mouths respectively.

"It's… the Devil himself," muttered Nico.

Lucifer grinned.

His bloodlust surged. It was only a little bit, but it was enough to instantly incapacitate everyone besides Nero and Vergil.

The younger Devil hunter struggled to remain upright, sweating heavily.

Urizen himself had had nowhere near this kind of power and menace.

Vergil, knowing now who he was facing, immediately stopped holding back, transforming into his Sin Devil form.

As he did so, he equipped Beowulf, the heaviest hitting weapon in his arsenal.

The Lightbeast's power was in truth not light itself, but the cause of it.

Every hit from it created a miniaturized nuclear fusion reaction.

A tiny star, exploding each time it struck.

Vergil focused that power, intending to obliterate Lucifer where he stood.

But to the one known as the Lightbringer, an attack such as that was exceedingly familiar.

As Vergil's gauntlet-clad fist came towards him, he caught it, and immediately reversed the flow of time around the point of impact, undoing the fusion reaction.

He had turned Beowulf's attack into a punch, nothing more.

"Calm down, descendant of mine. Fighting you would be fun, but I rather like the Earth, so I have no wish to do it here. Besides, I have news you might be interested in. I know where you can find your brother."

Vergil frowned, but reverted back into his human form.

"I'm listening."