Notes: I'm kind of sad these last couples of days, so nothing much to say. I hope you like the update. As always, feel free to comment your wishes and expectations!

This chapter is not betaed, so forgive the mistakes.

Good reading. Lova ya!

LINEAGE

By PCSP

Chapter 11

Vergil stood in front of the bedroom's door for several minutes, wondering if he was making the right decision invading his cub's territory. There was still time to turn around and get away from the couple's nest, hide from Nero and only make big decisions about his relationship with his cub when his heat ended. Perhaps that was the most sensible thing to do, because once he got out of his heat, he wouldn't be as emotional as he was at that moment, therefore he'd be able to make decisions based solely on reason. No harsh decisions driven by useless human emotions.

But before he could turn around and walk away, the door opened abruptly, and a surprise Kyrie stood in front of him.

"Vergil?!" she astonished asked, smiling largely as she wide opened the door, "Come in, please come in!"

Vergil took a step back, trying to get away from her before it was too late, but she acted quickly enough to pull him into the room by his sweatshirt's sleeve; bold move, and he just didn't give in to his instinct to attack her because she was carrying his newest descendant (no, the reason he didn't attacked her wasn't due his softening heart towards his soon-to-be-daughter-in-law, how absurd!).

"Well... I was just... hmm... I'm going to make dinner! That's it!" She lied, "I'm in the mood for something different to eat, so why not make it myself?"

Vergil noticed that she was clearly not intending to make dinner at all, because she was already wearing a nightgown and would probably only go to the bathroom for a few minutes before returning to their bedroom. But she was a smart girl, and were trying to give Vergil and Nero some time alone to talk.

"What do you want to eat, Nero?" She asked over her shoulder, smiling sweetly at her beloved.

Nero was in the corner of the room sitting in a chair and cleaning Blue Rose's gears. That was something Dante told Vergil that Nero usually did at the office after they came back from a job, and Vergil stayed in Dante's room to give his brother and Nero time to clean their weapons together after they came back from the little gig they did that afternoon. Apparently, Nero was trying so hard to avoid Vergil's presence in the building that he chose to do it in the privacy of his room, and not by Dante's usual company.

"Whatever you decide is fine, Kyrie." he didn't lift his head to answer her, but he said it in the sweetest voice he could muster.

Although Nero wasn't rude in his response, Kyrie sighed heavily and stared back at Vergil with a harder look than before. Despite his initial assumptions, Kyrie was little by little revealing to be a smart girl. Therefore, she didn't threaten him in words; but Vergil remembered very well what she had said to him back when he first arrived at Devil May Cry: "I am not against giving people a new chance, but I want you to know that I have a really strong memory […] just remember, I'll be on the lookout for any mistakes you make. Never forget it."

Yeah... he wouldn't forget. He wasn't afraid of her, that would be silly. But he did want to have a good relationship with her, because he knew that any chance he had to bound with Nero would be destroyed if he and Kyrie didn't get along well.

After the brief exchange of looks, Kyrie left the room, closing the door gently and leaving father and son alone for the first time after days of childish behavior.

Minutes went by, and nothing changed: Nero didn't stop cleaning Blue Rose, but Vergil knew that his son had at least noticed they were alone. So Vergil cleared his throat in an attempt to get Nero to speak.

The boy stubbornly ignored him.

How disrespectful, I would never treat father with this unacceptable behavior. – Vergil thought, choosing to ignore the fact that Dante would throw Nero's tantrum in his face if mentioned that to his brother. Dante would say 'You used to ignore mom and cry alone in the corner every time you two had an argument, my little spoiled big brother'.

Nero don't have to know details about his past taunts, thought.

"Nero, we need to talk." Vergil spoke in a definite tone, but his son didn't seem to be affected by the supposed implied order.

"I have nothing to say to you." He replied with the same hostility tone, not raising his head to stare at his father. Vergil was sure that Blue Rose never shone as brightly as at that moment, but the boy still insisted on polishing it.

"Curious... Among all the decisions I made that resulted in catastrophes situations, I never imagined that something beyond my control would become the reason for not receiving another look from my cub."

Nero let Blue Rose fall from his fingers, along with the flannel he was using to polish it. Although the impact against the ground was strong, Nero didn't seem concerned with the weapon's integrity, now finally looking up and staring at Vergil with wide eyes.

"What are you talking about?" he snapped back.

"I made many questionable choices in my life, but I didn't choose to become an omega." Vergil said, feeling hurt from his son way of treating him.

"The fuck...!?" he cursed, exhibiting a discontent frown, "Do you really think I don't want to look at your ugly ass face because you're an omega!?"

Vergil, stubborn as always, forced himself not to blink, keeping his gaze fixed on Nero's angry eyes and his chin lifted up. His heart was pounding like crazy, though, as he was afraid of being rejected again. However, he couldn't deny that what Nero had just implied gave him hope.

"That was certainly what your behavior showed me, boy." he answered in a cold voice.

"I knew you were an idiot, but I didn't know you were such a stupid asshole." Nero sighed, shaking his head and crossing his arms defensively, "Dante said you were, but since Dante just talks shit, I thought he was overreacting."

What a foul mouth. – Vergil thought, displeased by his cub's choice of words. Even Dante don't talk so... inelegant. But he didn't raised Nero, so it wasn't his place to scold him. Not at the moment, at least.

"If your discontent is not due to such discovery, why did you started avoiding me?" he genuinely asked, not understanding the motivation behind his cub's (lack of) acts, "A few minutes before you discovered this small detail, you were in my nest, talking to me and bringing me breakfast, and then..."

"Jesus Christ." Nero interrupted Vergil's speech as he brought his right hand to the back of his neck, caressing it briefly a gesture of self-comfort before he crossed his arms once again, "Look Vergil, I'll explain the obvious to you, because you seem to have the sensitivity of a fossil. The fact that you are omega, alpha, man, woman, whatever the fuck you hide between your legs, doesn't matter to me. It would never make me see you as inferior or superior to me or anyone. I'd never discriminate someone; I think the fact that Nico is a lesbian and that I get along with her is enough indication that I don't fucking care about genders and sexuality."

"What is a 'lesbian'?" Vergil asked in confusion.

Nero just widened his eyes and shook his head in disbelief.

"Oh fuck, no, no, no! Hell no! I refuse to experience this role reversal and explain to YOU things about human sexuality. Don't ask me that again. Ever!"

Very well. – Vergil nodded, not really wanting to receive an answer. He didn't care about humans, and certainly didn't have any curiosity towards human copulating preferences. But Nero seemed slightly less frustrated as he spoke, and although Vergil didn't really know much about human sexuality, he felt like a giant weight was being lifted off his sholders: his son didn't despise him for his biological particularity and told he didn't view him as an inferior creature liable to be enslaved and subjugated.

Nero wasn't ashamed or disgusted that he was omega. And that was the best news he had received in the past few days.

"Look, fath-…" Nero coughed trying to disguise the fact that he almost accidentally called Vergil 'father'; Vergil, stupid as a brick, didn't seem to notice it, "Vergil, the problem isn't that you are an omega; the problem is that you left me, even though you are an omega."

That... Doesn't make sense. At all.

Vergil frowned.

"I don't understand why being an omega intensifies the damage caused by and abandonment."

Nero got up from his chair and, for a brief moment, Vergil thought he would walk past him and follow Kyrie downstairs. He didn't. He walked to the near window, giving Vergil his back and looking to the full moon that appeared and disappeared between the dark clouds, remembering his feelings as a kid, when he used to look up to the stars and make wishes.

But there weren't any stars in the sky that night.

"I spent a lot of time looking for her ." He weakly said, and Vergil could only hear it because of his sharp demon hearing abilities, "Years. I lost years of my life looking for a supposedly woman who gave birth to me. I researched in hospitals' and cemeteries' archives, every place that hold some information that might give me a clue of who she was. But I found nothing: no birth records occurred in the cities near Fortuna, not even in Fortuna itself. No women died after childbirth near the day I was found in the orphanage doorstep. And, for a long time, I hated someone who didn't even exist."

Vergil was beyond confused, and after Nero stopped talking for more than thirty seconds, he asked:

"What do you mean?"

Nero scoffed, turning around and starring at his father with glowing hatred in his eyes.

"No woman died or had childbirth in legal conditions, so I accepted what all the children at the orphanage told me daily: I was the prostitute's son and was abandoned because she wanted to continue spreading her legs to clients without a brat interfering in her business. And I hated her for it." at this point, Nero was shouting, talking heavy steps towards Vergil, who stayed near the door without moving an inch, "And then you showed up, and Dante told me that you were my father. To me, you were an asshole to abandon a pregnant woman, but I found your act more forgivable then her abandoning me because, in my mind, you clearly didn't have feelings towards a casual fuck to stay with her and raise me. You didn't bounded with me, because you left. But she did, she'd felt me in her womb for months and still gave me away. Don't get me wrong, I still viewed you as a deadbeat father, but you were still Dante's brother, and I would have to accept you in the family because of that. I didn't want a father, but I didn't hate you as I hated my mother for leaving me."

Now Vergil was understanding where this were going, and he didn't like it at all.

"Nero-..."

But now that he started talking, Nero wouldn't let Vergil simply interrupt him. He would have to hear the ugly truth!

"Then Dante revealed that you abandoned me for a reason: to protect me from the Mundus So I thought 'well, so she is the real culprit, Vergil thought I would stay with my mother and thought it was safer that way, but she was afraid and didn't want to protect me, she preferred to run away,' and then..." he sobbed, and that make Nero feel even angrier, but now his anger was directed to himself: he didn't want to appear weak in front of Vergil! His father didn't deserve to see him like that! "When I was beginning to understand your supposed side of this story, I discover that in fact you are the person I hated all this time: you carried me in your womb, you were there when I was born, and yet, despite all that, you rejected me! YOU WERE 'HER' ALL THIS TIME. YOU REJECTED ME, YOU ASSHOLE!"

Nero spoke with anger and hateful tears shining in his eyes, and every pain he felt impacted on Vergil, who suffered from his kindred bond and his own regrets. Vergil managed to maintain the stoic facade throughout his cub's furious speech, but when he spoke his final words, Vergil lost his strength and looked away, ashamed.

"The story is not quite like that." he tried to defend himself, because it really wasn't like that. He didn't want to abandon Nero.

But that didn't change the fact that, in the end, he did.

Nero huffed, now so close to Vergil that he wouldn't let the bastard look away. He grabbed his chin and forced him to face him in the eye. He expected to be stabbed by Vergil, but what he got to witness were shinny small tears trapped between his white eyelashes.

That didn't make turn down the volume of his voice, because how dare Vergil feel sad about that!? He was the one suffering here! It wasn't fair!

"The only reason that I'm still here is because I need help dealing with Kyrie's pregnancy and my inner demon won't let other people get close to her, except those it considers family. For some reason, my stupid inner demon doesn't seem to give a damn about the fact that you abandoned me. But I don't accept it! Now, the only thing I really want from you is to know who the hell my father is, and whether he knows or not knows he is my father. Tell me. I deserve that, at least."

Vergil forced his chin out of Nero's grasp and finally looked at the floor, trying to hide his sadness, feeling too ashamed to keep facing Nero. It wasn't characteristic of his behavior to act like that, but there were too many emotions to deal with and assimilate. And he was in the heat process, more emotional than normal, and feeling his own sadness and Nero's sorrow... It was too much...

His vision blurred, and he noticed that he had formed tears in his eyes.

No. I don't get to this point. Not even for Nero. I can't cry. I won't. Never!

He blinked frantically, controlling the tears before they could fall. He took a deep breath to calm himself enough and speak without his voice breaking too much.

"Whether you like it or not, I am your parent." he managed to keep his voice recollected as he spoke, "In the demonic world, there is no concept of a father or mother, only a parent. I am a man in my human form, so if you want to transcribe our blood bond to human terms, I am your father."

"Call yourself whatever you want! You aren't a father, you aren't a mother, you're nothing to me! Tell me who the other parent is!" Nero ordered, losing his composure and letting his own tears fall as he gritted his teeth.

He didn't give a damn anymore. Let Vergil view him as weak; he doesn't give a fuck! He just wanted to know the truth.

His father managed to control his imminent tears and looked back strait in his eyes. And, after taking a long breath, said:

"Many can be your other parent. An omega in heat must copulate with humans and subtract energy to survive. I would not be able to say who your other parent is, nor would he know of your existence. You only have me, and you are exclusively mine."

It was a lie. Vergil knew very well who Nero's other father was. There were no 'others', he would never deliberately get dirty with humans... Not before he was pregnant.

When Vergil had his first heat, he chose the most suitable candidate for energy exchange. At the time, if he didn't find someone worthy to do bed him, he would rather die than submit to any weak and disgusting human. However, after becoming aware of his pregnancy, Vergil gave in to that horrible fate: he succumbed to humans, both men and women, so that he could acquire the energy necessary to generate the fetus. He was alone, without his mate to give him energy, so he had to find the energy needed in others. It was always torture, he hated every second of having sex with humans, but he had no choice: If he didn't accept this degradation, he would've suffered miscarriage. And he didn't want to lose the fetus... It was... The baby was his everything .

It was the only time that Vergil humbled himself for something he found inferior behavior. Only for Nero's sake, because he didn't even consider degrading himself to that for the sake of his own health, just for his cub's health. He would prefer death to humiliation; but when his cub's health was at stake, there wasn't even a choice to be made: he would do anything for his baby.

And he did.

But even while doing what he thought was the right choice, he made terrible mistakes...

"So, in the end, you were even worse than a prostitute. Because you didn't even charge money for your services." Nero growled, intending to hurt Vergil with words, since he knew it hurt much more than flesh wounds.

It was humiliating to hear such an accusation from Nero, it certainly was. But it doesn't matter. Vergil was beyond fragile at that moment, and he didn't care to feel a little more pain.

He was used of felling pain, after all.

"Think whatever you want about me. It doesn't matter." He murmured as Nero walked away from him and lay down in his bed on his side with his back facing Vergil, "It does not change the reality that you are my son and that I did everything possible to keep you safe, even if I had to stay away for that."

"Only to come and take my arm out later, right?" Nero snarled above his sholders, but kept his back facing Vergil. He feared that if he faced his father once again, he would lose his cool and attack him. Dante didn't deserve more destruction in his territory, though.

Vergil was silent for a moment, but eventually he answered with a weak voice:

"That day, I wasn't in my full mental and physical condition. Mundus' malevolence corrupted my emotions, feelings and memories to such an extent that I didn't identify you as my son. Otherwise, I would have chosen death instead of hurting you in an act of self-survival."

Nero laughed sarcastically.

"I don't believe you!" he snapped back.

Vergil was sure he would break; he was so near losing his mind. He knew he was about to sob and cry. He had to leave, he had to!

So he spun around and put his hand in the doorknob, but before he left, he chose his last words carefully. He wouldn't leave without saying it, and Nero could do whatever he wants with that information.

"Nero, even though life wasn't fair to you, it was the best life I could provide you." Vergil spoke in a choked voice, "If I had stayed by your side, you would've died before you even learned how to speak. If I had left you with Dante, who was also being hunted by Mundus, you'd be taking the same risk. The Order of the Sword, albeit lunatic, was the best option for creating a descendant of Sparda. In any other city on the planet, you would be killed when you showed any signs of your demonic nature."

He waited to see if Nero had something to say about it, but his cub kept silent. So he continued while he was still able to talk:

"I did what I did for you, not for me: I could've pulled you out of my womb and ended the pregnancy if I want, but for me your mere existence was a miracle, and I did everything to keep you well. I gave birth alone, with Yamato's singing as my guide throughout all the pain and suffering." He felt his throat hurt, as if it was getting harder and harder to hold his cry. He remembered the pain so well... But nothing hurt more than what he had to do after the birth, "I left you at the orphanage the next night, no matter how much each cell in my body longed to take you with me. A month after that, I raised Temen-Ni-Gru to acquire power, kill Mundus and ensure your safety. I failed, and I'm sorry for that. But I did what I thought was the right thing to do. I did all I could do."

He opened the door, signed, and looked by his sholders: Nero's body was shaking slightly on the bed, so he must've been silently crying. Always silent, just how he cried when he was born: Nero didn't make a single noise, and that scarred Vergil so much at that faithfull night. But when he understood that Nero was alive, it made him so relieved. He was so strong, so perfect.

Devils don't cry, he'll be a strong powerful devil. – he had though. And he was right about that, he was a powerful demon.

"But you're alive and healthy, therefore I must've done something right. You're alive, and that wouldn't have happened if Mundus hadn't spent so many years torturing me until he got tired and went after Dante. Even though things didn't go as I planned when I was a foolish naïve teenager, I came back eventually. If you don't want me to be in your life, I just want you to know that if I could go back in time and change the past, I wouldn't. I wouldn't risk a different outcome. Because I suffered more than a decade of torture, so that you wouldn't suffer at Mundus' hands. Even though his malevolence still managed to corrupt me to the point of hurting you one last time when I took arm... It was worth it. You are healthy, strong, capable of loving and being loved, and you'll start your own family. The family I never had the chance to have. But I know that, somehow, it was all worth it: even the humiliation, weakness and pain. It was all worth it. I do not regret my actions and my choices, and I would do everything again, indefinitely, for you."

He waited, but he only heard a low sob from Nero.

In the end, the silence said all he needed to hear.

"And for you, I withdraw." He declared, and closed the door gently behind his back.

Alone once again, Nero cried. A lot. With all the hurt in the world in each tear that stained his pillow. Because, on the contrary of what Vergil believe, devils may cry.

... To be continued...

Omegaverse observations so far:

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.

Omegas are usually subjugated and enslaved by alphas' power. The omega who tries to break this cycle, usually end up killed by the alphas.

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, and Dante seems to be less affected by his enchant by each chapter).

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!