Notes: Heeeey!

So... I said in the first chapter that I wouldn't take into consideration the plot of DMC2. I lied. Lol! Actually, I'll just mention one little thing in this chapter, so forgive me. I couldn't resist.

I hope you guys like the new chapter! Next chapter things are going to start to escalade, but I had to make two chapters (6 and 7) for them to bond a little bit with Nero and Kyrie. It was inevitable. Beware for chaos next chapter!

Sabrina, thank you, once again, for beta reading! You're a life savior!

Readers, thank you so much for reading, and don't forget to send me a comment If you want to!

Stay safe and healthy! Enjoy!

LINEAGE

By PCSP

Chapter 7

Undefined date – 09:40

Capulet City

Dante just gave up.

His room was too filthy to clean, and only Patty would know how to perform the "magic" needed to fix this mess. It's unbelievable that, by what it seems, Nero and Kyrie had been living in Devil May Cry for a few weeks, but neither tried to give him a break and clean his room (Nero would say that he isn't his maid to clean it, but come on! Doesn't he deserve to come back to a clean room after all the shit he have been through? A little sympathy would be appreciated!).

After sniffing a few shirts in his closet, Dante concluded that at least some of clothes were still clean: Capulet was not a very humid or cold city, so the clothes rarely became moldy or smelly when they were stored for a long time. He would be able to dress in clean garments for the first time in... How long had it really been?

Well, judging by Kyrie's belly, a long time.

Anyway, Dante finally felt clean and presentable when he put on a simple black shirt and shabby jeans that he hadn't wore since his teenage years. He went to his (filthy) bathroom and checked himself out in the mirror, realizing how big his beard was and how badly his hair needed to be cut. If Lady saw him at that moment, she would probably compare him to "Santa Claus" and make fun of him for the rest of his life. Dante questioned himself about how Vergil managed to not grow a beard in the time they stayed at the Underworld, maybe he used Yamato to shave or something.

This absurd thought made him laugh. He would ask his twin sometime in the future.

Displeased by his looks, Dante used his worn-out razor to shave, not being very careful and cutting his skin a few times; he didn't care, because he usually healed before one drop of blood would appear. Satisfied, he rubbed his chin and analyzed what he could do with his hair: a haircut would have to wait, because he maybe a little messy when it came to his appearance (Lady called him a "bum", but he prefers to say that he follows the trend of 'rugged fashionable style'), but he wouldn't risk cutting his own hair. No, he likes his haircut pristine, thank you very much. So he conveniently spotted a hair tie lost in the bathroom floor (probably was left by the last girl that he brought home, a few days before the Urizen incident) and decided that a messy ponytail would do for now.

When he left his room, carefreely whistling and feeling excited to finally be back home, Dante saw Nero running towards the exit. Before Dante could do or say anything, Nero stopped by the front door and looked up to the mezzanine; the boy sure sensed his presence faster now that his demon was awake.

"DANTE!" he shouted threateningly at him.

Oh boy, he is pissed. Vergil clearly wasn't a good company to our little Nero.

Dante raised his hands in a gesture of redemption.

"Kid, don't destroy the second floor too, please!"

Nero rolled his eyes, marched upstairs and pulled Dante by the arm, dragging him to the guest room. Dante blinked, visibly surprised by the change in surroundings.

The room didn't even feel like a guest room anymore: although there were no major changes in the furniture, there was an undeniable cozier an feeling, brought by some cute details like: the couple's photography, a laptop over the small desk and a few books on the previously empty shelves.

Well, the change made sense, because Nero and Kyrie had to sleep somewhere, but what really made him surprised was the addition of a wood baby crib next to the bed. This detail made Kyrie's pregnancy even more real now.

If the bratty Nero is going to become a father soon, it seems that time was passing faster than I expected. Damn... I'm getting really old.

"Damn kid. I leave you alone just for a little while and you go and knock up your girlfriend? Have you decided that it's time to give up demon hunting and become a family man?"

Dante half joked. He knew Nero loved to be demon hunter, but maybe, if Kyrie asks, he would give that up and work as a handyman just to live a comfortable life with his wife and kids.

"The pregnancy wasn't planned, idiot! And Kyrie has been pregnant since before your dirty little job with V; I discovered it when I got back from that mission. But no worries, old man: I don't intend to stop killing demons for a job, I like that too much to stop." Nero gave him a little smile, probably catching his hidden concern of losing his hunter partner. As fast as the smile appeared, it vanished, and Nero's expression became much more serious while he closed and locked the door behind his back, "Sit down."

Dante frowned.

"Giving me orders and trying to arrest me in my own house?"

"I locked it because this time I won't let you run away. If you want to try, you'll have to break the door to get out, which will be another addition on your list of home repair expenses. You sure don't want that, do you?"

"Run away from what?"

"From me. Sit down." Nero repeated in an extremely serious tone; Dante was scared at how similar to Vergil Nero could be when he wasn't joking around "This time you and I are going to talk like grown men. No more cowardice, Dante."

Dante still maintained his firm stance for a few seconds, but eventually sighed in defeat, sitting uncomfortably at the end of the bed. Nero simply crossed his arms and propped his back against the door, creating one more obstacle towards the exit as if he was still afraid of Dante escaping, while judging the older man with a hard stare, waiting for Dante to be the first to speak.

The legendary devil hunter, however, was really a coward in that aspect: throw him into a nest of angry and destructive demons, but don't make him talk about family drama. To him, that was the most difficult thing to do. So, as an attempt to escape Nero's judgmental gaze, Dante awkwardly began to feel the wood edges of the crib with the tip of his fingers, delicately, enjoying every sweet detail of the newest furniture.

Giving up on waiting for Dante to stop being a coward, Nero began to speak:

"When we met, you briefly said you had a brother." he said, and Dante didn't even have the courage to look up while listening "And that's it. That's all you ever told me. You never talk about your personal life, you just avoid answering me every time I tried to learn something about you. All I know is that you had suffered a lot, and even that I know just because Trish and Lady told me. I respect your personal space, therefore I've never forced you to speak, nor have I tried to confirm what I suspected..."

"Kid, I-…"

Oh hell no! Now he is going to listen!

"I knew we were related, but I didn't know to what degree! Actually, I didn't even want to know. Because I wanted you to be my father" Nero's voice weakened, and Dante could have sworn he heard the boy sniff. Dante looked up and saw a sparkle of tears in the boy's blue eyes; maybe that was only an impression, because Nero blinked hard, and all the tears vanished while he angrily stared at Dante "But of course you wouldn't be. You never cared for me enough to be my father! I don't know how I could think that!"

Dante was speechless. He didn't know Nero thought he was his son, but... Well, the kid isn't his son, but he's still his 'kid', isn't he? And it was about time for him to make some things straight.

"I gave you the Devil May Cry neon sign, I entrusted you the mobile branch." Dante didn't look away while softly speaking to the distressed Nero, "I called you to join my business, I sent you clients and made donations to the orphanage you administrate, always anonymously, because I know you were too stubborn to accept my money. I do care about you, kid. I even asked you to live with me." [1]

The revelation surprised Nero. Of course, he knew about the mobile branch and all that, but the invitation to move in... Well, Dante had actually asked him once, over the phone, amid stupid jokes and a dubious sense of humor. Nero never took the invitation seriously, although he knew that Dante has the habit of hiding serious requests behind false smiles and bad jokes, perhaps because of his difficulty in dealing with his own feelings. This time it seems that Nero was fooled, because he never thought the invitation was real. And donations? Yes, the orphanage was still operating because of donations, and sometimes they received some pretty big amount of money anonymously; he'd never imagine that Dante was the person behind all of that.

Now it all made sense. Dante was always busy, working more than he was able to work, but he never had a penny to pay his own bills. If Nero remembered it well, Morrison said that before V hired him to kill Urizen, Dante had his electricity, water and gas bill overdue for three months. Still, anonymous donations never failed to reach the orphanage account monthly.

Nero softened his features a little, experiencing a mixture of feelings that was difficult to deal with. Only Dante was able to lessen his anger while he was so sure he had all the right to be mad at him.

He groaned, walking to the bed and sitting by Dante's side.

"Why did you never tell me?"

Nero's voice sounded so much softer now. Dante was glad as he sighed in relief.

"As I said, you are proud, and the children-…"

"I'm talking about the truth. About Us. About Vergil."

Dante stopped poking the crib and let his hands rest on his lap. He took a deep breath and looked away, because it was difficult to talk about it. It always has been, and that's why he postponed it for so long.

However, now there was no way around it.

"You had already suffered so much." Dante explained, sounding exhausted "I had no right to come into your life and bring more drama for you to deal with. But I wanted to be near you, help you, train you, make you more fit and able to work with devil hunting business. On the other hand, I also wanted you to build a family with Kyrie and move on, like neither I nor Vergil were able to do."

"Are you implying that you didn't tell me the truth because you wanted to save me?" Now Nero sounded angry again, "That's the most cliché and idiotic thing in the world."

Dante let a joyless laugh escape his lips.

"But it's the truth." he muttered, looking back into Nero's still angry eyes, although his expression wasn't as angry as before, "Revenge clouded mine and Vergil's eyes for so many years. When I finally managed to revenge myself as I wanted, nothing changed. I was still alone, without my brother, without my family. Until I met you. I didn't want you to go that route, and believe me, demon blood always cries out for a good dose of revenge. Goddamn, If I had the opportunity, I would kill Mundus over and over again. But I know that's not good, so I don't want you to deal with these feelings. And since the guy who killed your father was still alive, I feared that you'd try to kill him once you knew the truth. And the circle would continue."

"Were you afraid I would kill you, old man?"

Dante choked on his own spit; Nero simply smirked at his reaction.

"How... How did you know it was me?"

"Nico told me." Nero muttered, getting Blue Rose and spinning it's cylinder in a distracted way, "I don't know if it was Rock who told her, but she told me. And all I can think about is that it was supposed to be you the one to reveal it to me. You liar!"

"I didn't lie! I just... Didn't tell."

"That's just like telling a lie and you know it!"

The most uncomfortable thing about that whole situation was that Nero was right. He should have told the boy. Nero proved several times that he was mature enough to understand the truth. The problem was that Dante wasn't ready: he hasn't forgiven himself for killing Vergil. The countless doses of whiskey and the melancholy that he experienced between four walls were the silent witnesses to that. Dante wasn't ready to accept Nero's forgiveness, because he hadn't forgiven himself. That made him hide the truth from Nero for five years.

"So... It was indeed you who killed my father."

Maybe he was mistaken. Maybe Nero wouldn't forgive him. That's what he thought as Nero pointed Blue Rose to his head, Dante believed that soon Lady wouldn't be the only one to put a bullet in his brain.

And, in all honesty, he deserved that.

"I'm sorry, Nero." he said, his voice was soft, in a tone that only Nero received from him. It was unbelievable how much he liked this kid. He knew a bullet in his skull would hurt like a bitch, but it wouldn't kill him. Besides, the fear that Nero could turn his back on him now and that he would never see him again hurt so much more.

He wasn't ready for this kind of pain.

"It seems that the Cain instinct is a common trait in this family. But, hey, I don't share this trait." Nero spun blue rose in his hand and tuck it away "Just... Stop hiding shit from me, okay? No more lies." He solemn spoke, not wanting to confess that he had already forgiven Dante after many weeks of reflection.

Dante, however, knew Nero well enough to be able to read between the lines. And he smiled, radiant, exhaling hard and feeling the weight of the world come off his shoulders.

"No more lies." He promised, concluding that he was the luckiest person in the world: to have his nephew's forgiveness and his own brother back in his life at once? This was a kind of luck that someone like him didn't receive often.

"That includes the answers to the questions I'm going to ask now."

Oh-oh… Hasn't he finished yet?

Of course, it wasn't going to stop there, things never go smooth in Dante's life. Nero clearly had many questions to be answered and, after so many years of silence, he couldn't stand to be in the dark any longer.

"Fair." Dante groaned. It was a pain in the ass, but he would do his best to tell everything Nero deserved to know "Just go easy on me, kid."

"Who is my mom?"

Oh fuck... That's what Nero calls an easy question?!

Dante sighed deeply, resting his head in his hands and his elbows on his knees. Why the kid didn't ask that to Vergil directly? It isn't fair! Even now, his idiot brother managed to escape his duty as a parent.

"I… I can't talk about it."

"Bullshit!"

"Nero, it isn't my story to tell. You'll have to ask Vergil about it, not me! He didn't tell me who..." Oh god, have mercy on my poor soul, "Who he... uh... procreated with. He doesn't want to talk about it with me, kid. You should ask him."

Nero looked at him with some incomprehension, clearly finding Dante's choice of words strange. But he didn't question about it any further.

"It seems that I'll never get to know, then." He bitterly responded.

"Just ask Verg, kid."

"And why would he answer me?" Nero shook his head in distress, "He abandoned me, he doesn't feel anything for me. He won't answer."

Dante hummed in comprehension, feeling sorry for his cheerless nephew.

"Nah, that's not true." He said while he put his hand over Nero's shoulder, making the kid get out of his self-pity bubble and look hopefully at him, "When we were in Hell, Vergil told me he had abandoned you for your safety. Maybe my stupid brother doesn't remember that he told me, because he was very sleepy when he started talking and-..."

"Wait, wait a second!" Angry Nero was back, and Dante concluded he preferred the hotheaded Nero over the melancholy one "My security!? You've got to be kidding me!"

"I wish I was." Dante said, thinking of how this conversation would become longer than he anticipated "Say kid, what do you know about Sparda's legend?"

"What does Savior... Uh… I mean, what does Sparda have to do with Vergil being a deadbeat father?"

"Everything." Dante smiled. Nero just called his own grandfather 'Savior', and it was still funny and cute when the kid does that, "'Pops' is the beginning of our lineage, and also the beginning our problems too."

Nero crossed his arms, thinking of all the lectures he failed to pay attention at the Order of the Sword. Credo used to nag him about paying attention to Sanctus words and all, but he just found it all soooo boring.

"Not much." Nero admitted, "I know that Sparda saved humanity by closing the connection Earth had with the Netherworld. I also know that, at some point, he must have knocked up someone for you and Vergil to be born and-…"

"Eva."

"Uh?"

"Your grandmother's name is Eva. Don't talk like that about her, she is the most important woman in my life and I demand respect. It's no wonder I still keep a picture of her."

Nero gaped, surprised to see Dante finally share something personal about his past! Dante had scolded him, but Nero was so excited that he didn't even cared to fight him over it.

"Is she the woman on your table's picture frame?"

"Yep. Isn't she beautiful?"

"I thought it was Trish's photograph!"

Dante laughed, finding Nero's confusion funny.

"If one day Trish dress up like my mom, you can be sure that the world has turned upside down."

"But she looks just like Trish!" Nero was still surprised, feeling his heart beat faster every second.

He was getting answers, finally! His grandmother now had a name, and he once thought that he would never get to know things about his family's past. It was so exciting!

Dante opened a huge smile, finding Nero's excitement contagious. He was also happy to finally be able to talk about it without any fears of rejection.

"Kid, you better get comfortable, because the story is long." He took a deep breath "Two millennia ago, there was a war-..."

And then Dante revealed the whole truth to him: how Mundus, the Prince of Darkness, consumed the Qliphot's fruit and dethroned the previous ruler, and eventually was confronted by Argosax, the Despair Embodied. The competition between the two demons ended up in the longest and ugliest war of the entire universe. He told him that Sparda became the right-hand man of Mundus and fought with him against Argosax, but he betrayed him when Mundus tried to dominate the human world in his thirst for power.

Nero listened carefully and with a practically childlike expression in his eyes. He was really intrigued by the tale and even cheered when Dante revealed that Sparda turned against Mundus by sealing the portal that united the Underworld to the human world, in an act of fidelity to all humanity.

"And then what!?"

Dante's smiled hasn't subsided one bit. He felt like he was telling his child a bedtime story, and that thought made his heart slightly warm from having the pleasure of being able to reveal that side of the truth to Nero.

"Pops defeated Mundus and sealed the bastard into a marble ugly vault, so Argosax became the new ruler of the underworld. Mundus was defeated, but he was still one of the strongest devils alive, even while sealed. In his despair, he swore revenge on Sparda and looked for him for two thousand years."

"Let me guess... Mundus took revenge on Sparda eventually."

Dante nodded, and his smile finally started to decrease. This part of the story he didn't like very much.

"He did. He found us and ordered a massacre to the devils that were still loyal to him: they found us in Red Grave City, and they killed mom. She protected me in Mundus's attack, but she died trying to find Vergil and save him. My mother died for us, and I thought for many years that they had also killed Vergil."

Dante averted his eyes, trying to hide his sadness from Nero. After decades, it still hurts. Not like before, no, but this is something that he will never be truly comfortable to talk about.

Nero understood his struggle, and remained silenced, waiting to hear anything Dante was comfortable of sharing.

"We found each other only when we became seventeen... and that's a story for another time!" Dante exclaimed in a (extremely) false enthusiasm, "So kid, you see, Mundus hunt us down for many years, and by the time that you were born, neither Vergil nor I had defeated the bastard. Vergil thought he would put your live at danger if you stayed by his side, so that's why you ended up at an orphanage. And no, he didn't consider giving you to me because he says I'm incompetent and Mundus were still looking for us. He was right, but only about the second statement."

"You didn't seem to think that, since you talked to me and all for the past five years."

Nero still wasn't convinced. Ok, he gets why Vergil decided to leave him, but what about his mother? He decided not to ask it again, since Dante made it clear he wouldn't talk about her.

"When I met you, I had defeated Mundus already. I did it a little bit before I met Patty. It was… uh… ten years ago, I think?"

"You think?"

Dante shrugged, thinking hard about his past and trying to remember when it all happened.

"I dunno, I know I met Patty before, but after Mallet Island everything is confusing, probably because of my best friend Jack Daniels."

"But you can't even tell how many years had it been since you defeated your worst enemy?"

"I... I drunk a lot."

"Jesus." Nero pinched the bridged of his nose "You're a lost cause, old man."

"Hey! I don't drink so much anymore, give me a break."

Nero made a distress noise on the back of his throat.

"But even with all the alcohol, you are sure you killed Mundus, right?"

"Sort of." Dante swore that Nero was a second away from using punchline against him, so he made the surrender gesture with his hands once again "Easy champ! You see, you can never be sure you killed a demon, because if his will is strong he can be reborn at the Underworld, though he would be weakened and that's an awful fate for a demon. Your old man is an example of that. That's why some demons choose to became devil arms instead of accepting their death."

Nero seemed satisfied with the explanation.

"But you never had a Mundus devil arm." It was a redundant question, but he had to make sure.

"No such luck. Mundus was to prideful for that. He probably is in the underworld right now, as a weak creature without power. You don't have to fear that, don't became like Vergil and leave your kid. Just chill out, it's all good."

That's exactly what Nero was thinking about. He now understands Vergil a little bit more, because fearing for even one second that Mundus would come to Kyrie and his child made him consider getting away. But he trusted Dante's words, and since it was all under control, he wouldn't fear a weak defeated demon.

"What about Sparda? Trish had a devil sword named Sparda." He asked, feeling curious to understand more about the devil arms "Was he defeated?"

"Nah, Pops' different. He created the Devil Sword Sparda himself and put all his demon power in it to stringed the seal between the human and the demon world. He didn't had to die to create it. Pops vanished a year before Mundus found us at Red Grave City, so I don't know what happened."

"How come you don't know?"

"I never felt his presence again. He probably was killed. I think Pops wasn't able to rebirth even if he wanted because he gave his demon power away, so I guess he has died for good."

Nero noticed that Dante seemed much more comfortable talking about Sparda's death in comparison of when Eva was de subject. It was evident who the favorite parent was. Sometimes, just sometimes, Dante was very transparent.

"What about Argosax?" Nero asked after a little bit of thinking "What happened to him?"

"I killed them too."

"Them?"

"Argosax is intersex; neither a he nor a she. The correct pronoun should be 'they/them'." [2]

"What the fuck!?" Nero widened his eyes.

"If you think sexuality and gender are complicated things among humans, you have no idea how much more complicated these stuffs are among demons."

Nero seemed loss of words, but eventually he cleared his throat and decided to catch the opportunity to bring the second subject he wanted to talk about with Dante. If Mundus and Argosax weren't a problem anymore, he didn't care to know more about that bastards.

"Vergil mentioned something about energies. And alphas."

"Uh… yeah."

"And he said that you could explain more about it."

Holy shit! Did Vergil leave everything for me to explain? Where is the parent responsibility?!

There was only one way to run away from 'the birds and bees' conversation. Dante didn't know if Nero would fall for that, but it was worth a shot.

"Tell you what, let's make a deal." Dante got up and snapped his back, moaning a little for sitting in discomfort for so long "I really want to test that cool ass devil trigger you showed us at the top of the Qliphoth. If you win, I'll tell you all I know about alphas."

Which wasn't much, but Nero didn't need to know that.

Nero was itching to accept the invitation, but he wasn't stupid: he knew there might be a catch in this proposition.

"And if you win?"

"You'll have ask your dear old daddy Vergil." Dante said with an innocent shrug.

Nero frowned, displeased.

"That's not fair."

Dante smirked and bent over a little bit, eyeing Nero from above in a predatory way.

"Afraid to lose, deadweight?"

Oh god, it was like watching a Hell Gate break loose! The kid made the angriest scowl Dante ever saw and run to the door, fumbling with the key and trying desperate to unlock it.

"You wish, asshole!" he snapped while he opened the door so fast that it smacked against the wall. He glared at Dante while he twisted the grip of Red Queen, revving its engine. "I'll make you eat your words, old man!"

In a second, Nero vanished outside, leaving only his dust behind.

Dante, very pleased with himself, made his devil sword show up in his hand, and before following Nero outside, he singsonged:

"Jackpot."

... To be continued...

[1] Since it was revealed in the DMC5 novel that Dante send money periodically to Grue's children since his death (although he isn't guilty of it, Vergil/Gilver is the guilty one), I like to imagine that Dante isn't broke just because of his excesses with booze and pizza, but also because he sends a lot of money that he makes in his business to people that he feels some sort of moral commitment because of Vergil's past actions.

[2] Since many members of the community didn't play DMC2, I decided to make it explicit here: Yes, Argosax is intersex and changes form during the last fight. That's one of the few things about that game that I find awesome, so I had to put it into the fanfic somewhere. Lol!

End note: I will put at the end of the chapter a guide to understand the concept of the demonic omegaverse that I am creating, since there are several types of omegaverse on different fanfics. By doing this, I hope I can help you guys remember the relevant points for the plot of this fanfic and not to be confused with other fanfics' universes. As I reveal new information in future chapters, new points will be added!

Demons spawn only one demon per pregnancy. The twins were born in the same gestation and that was something atypical, but it was only possible because their mother was human.

Demons are either omegas or alphas, and this definition does not depend on the demon's gender (female, male or intersex). Regardless of their gender, omegas can become pregnant.

Alphas fight with each other for territories' domination and to court omegas. The omega's heat affects the alpha as well, causing these alphas to become especially energetic when they are close to omegas in heat, to protect them and supply them with energy.

Omegas, during their heat, lose a lot of energy and need physical contact from an alpha so that the two can balance their energy levels. The exchange of energies' speed are intensified with the carnal contact, but the corporal approach is enough for this exchange to slowly happen.

Omegas that cannot obtain the energy of others during their heat dies.

As a consequence of this energy's need for survival, omegas are able to charm humans so that they can obtain energy in the absence of alphas to supply this need. Such power apply only against humans, which created the legend of succubus and incubus in the human world. (Observation: that means Vergil was able to charm Dante in the cemetery scene because Dante is a hybrid, so hybrids are also susceptible to this power because they are part-human. He cannot enchant a pure demon, though).

Hybrids have dynamics slightly different from pure demons: they acquire their needs from the demonic nature after their first devil trigger. Dante, however, only started to feel the effects of his alpha side only after acquiring his sin devil trigger (at least that is what it seems up to that point in the fanfic). The reason for this and more details about the difference in puberty moments between the three hybrids will be clarified in future chapters.

In a demon pregnancy, the pregnant omega/human need to obtain energy by someone, usually his alpha mate, to generate a heathy cub. In case they don't get the energy, the omega/human will be weakened and the pregnancy may suffer some… complications.

Regardless of being an omega or alpha, a dying demon has two options: become a devil arm and submit his power to the one who conquered him or, if his will and pride is strong enough, be reborn in the Underworld, but in a weaker form without the power he previously possessed. This is what happened to Vergil after Dante killed him in his Nelo Angelo form.

Any doubts? Let me know!