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Lady leaned against a surprisingly intact lamp-post on the edge of Red Grave City's boundaries and glanced at her watch again. They still weren't particularly late for the rendezvous, but the action seemed to make the soldiers watching her less nervous. Not that she could blame them for keeping their guard up with so many devil hunters crawling around the place. Their profession had a well deserved reputation for attracting unsavory types.
She felt a little bad for dragging Nero back here only a week after what had happened, but the sheer size of the job meant she'd be more successful with someone watching her back. Whenever it came to bounty-per-head missions, it paid much better to work with another hunter -- especially when the hunter happened to be from Sparda's bloodline. Since Dante wasn't around, that just left Nero.
Which was part of the problem.
Dante had always been weird about 'the kid.' He acted aloof when Trish joked about Nero being his son, but then Dante would spin around and be suspiciously invested. Lady would find him passed out on his office floor, surrounded by a ring of empty whiskey bottles, and the second he woke back up he'd be off to 'check in on how Fortuna was doing.'
She'd made the connection. She'd just needed to put the pin one spot over on the family tree from her initial guess.
But Nero finally learned the truth about his heritage and was immediately left behind while the other two did some brotherly bonding in hell. It had to sting, somewhere under the Sparda bravado. Nero seemed like someone who wouldn't take well to being fussed over by a stranger, so bringing him on this mission was the easiest, and incidentally also profitable, way to check on him. Sure, it wasn't really her place, but he had saved her life and… Well. She had her reasons.
Lady straightened up at the sound of a large vehicle bumping along the patched up roads leading into the city. The Devil-May-Crymobile, as Dante had dubbed it, had a distinctive sound to the motor, one that made Lady wonder just what the hell Nico had done to it. Two soldiers stepped forward and exchanged a few words with the passengers before waving them through.
"It's about time," Lady called when they rolled to a stop near her. "I was starting to think you got lost."
"Took forever to get through all those damn checkpoints," Nico complained out the window. "Everybody had to see our paperwork and give us forms to give to the next guys, and those guys gave us more papers... It's nuts. Am I good parkin' right here?"
"Should be fine since everyone else has," Lady told her. The area was full of the weirdest assortment of vehicles already, though the van definitely stood out as one of the most heavily modified.
Nero emerged from the side door, big sword already strapped to his back. His expression was less tense than curious which seemed like a good sign. "Are they really offering to pay us for every demon we kill?" he asked. "How many are even left in the city?"
"More than you might think," Lady told him. Her eyes darted to nine other hunters lounging on the rubble. Far too many of them had homed in on Nero the second he showed himself, and that was a bad sign. She grit her teeth when one of them stood and headed in their direction.
"Well, well, well," the tall man said. His heavy leather duster, padded with armored plates and pouches full of ammo, swayed with his rolling walk. "Don't tell me you actually let that loud-mouth knock you up, Lady. I always figured you for bein' smarter than that."
"He's not mine, Cole," she said flatly. "And he's not Dante's either."
Nero seemed puzzled when Cole leaned forward to study him. "You serious? He looks just like 'im. Wonder if he's just as much a magnet for bad too."
"I'm standing right here," Nero said. He was getting annoyed, mouth tightening up and pulling down at the corners. "You got something to say to me, then say it to my face."
"Dante's a piece of shit who just brings trouble and death. How's that for something to say?" called Margot. Her brown hair was streaked with gray where it grew from the scars that traveled up her forehead and into her hairline.
Nero shrugged, though Lady could see how taut the tendons in his neck were. So much for not being tense. "Sounds fine to me. Not like he gave me too many reasons to defend him."
Lady tried not to wince. The remark was flippant and meant to get the hunters off his back, but she could hear the bitterness in Nero's tone. Dante had a lot of things to answer for when he finally got sick of the Underworld and came home.
Cole glanced at her and back to Nero, his usual unpleasant grin stretching his face. "How interestin'. Guess I'll just have to keep my eye on you…" He prompted the young hunter for a name with a wave of his hand.
"Nero. Feel free to remember it, but if this is gonna turn into some kind of bullshit hazing thing, don't think I'll just roll over for you," Nero said cooly. "I've been through those before. Didn't end well for the other guys."
A bark of laughter erupted out of Cole, and he mimed tipping a hat he wasn't wearing. "I'll remember that, Ne-ro ," he said, overemphasizing the name. "Look forward to seein' what you can do."
Nero glared at the man's back as Cole sauntered over to the other hunters. "What a great crowd," Nero muttered. "Are these all friends of yours?"
Lady shook her head. "We're competitors at best, but what you see here is pretty much all of the devil hunters in this hemisphere. It's not exactly a large group."
"They sound jealous to me," Nico put in. She sat down on a broken wall next to them. "I'm guessing Dante beat most of 'em out for the big money jobs?"
"Some of them have… history with Dante," Lady said. "I wouldn't call us tight knit or anything, but we don't always have much choice except to rely on each other when things get bad. Dante's run-ins with other hunters haven't always gone well."
Nico looked like she was mulling that over when Nero said, "I'm surprised you didn't call Trish in for this."
"She's not so big on being around people who prefer to kill demons first and ask questions never," Lady told him. "For obvious reasons."
Nero sent a dark look at the lounging devil hunters. "Can't blame her, I guess. They sure don't seem like the types you can reason with."
"It is you!"
Spinning around, Nero gawked at the excited soldier that approached them. He rubbed self-consciously at the side of his neck. "Oh, hey, uuuuhh… Crew Cut."
The soldier laughed. "Close, but it's Jim."
"Right, right, sorry," Nero said sheepishly.
"You were pretty busy when we first met, so I won't hold it against you for forgetting," Jim said. "We were hoping you'd be part of the clean up team."
"You know each other?" Lady tapped her finger tips against her leg. She wasn't aware Nero had any military connections.
Jim grinned brightly. "Sure do. This guy saved me and my entire squad from demons. You should've seen it! He swung in with his robo-arm and--"
"Oh god, are we gonna have to hear that story again?" another soldier moaned. "I know your unit loves talking about Nero-the-hero, but cut the rest of us a break."
Nico mouthed 'Nero-the-hero,' and Nero glared at her.
"Hey, it's a good story," Jim said, still smiling. "Anyway, we're glad to have you. If you need anything, just give me a shout."
"Thanks, I appreciate it." Nero nodded to him before the soldier headed back to his group. He turned to glare at Nico again when she burst into laughter. "Just knock it off, okay? Not like I asked for a dumb nickname," he groused.
Nico hopped to her feet and slapped him on the shoulder. "Still better than what they call you back home, yeah?"
The sudden stiffness in Nero's posture was a pretty clear indication of the names he had in Fortuna, and Lady decided it was time to change the subject before a sore spot got poked a little too hard. "They're getting ready to hand out the assignments," she said. "We'd better join in or risk getting the last pick."
Lady didn't wait for them to say anything, trusting they'd follow, and strode over to where everyone had gathered around a pinned up map of the city. She shouldered her way past a few people to get close enough for a good look. Nothing surprising, the city chunked up in big color coded sectors for risk assessment. The better hunters were lobbying for the more dangerous and demon filled ones.
Jim glanced at Lady expectantly, bypassing two others who were waiting their turn, and she tried not to smirk. Having a military contact was going to be handy. "Nero and I are teaming up."
"Just the two of you?" Jim asked. "Think you'll want a squad for backup?"
She gave him her most charming smile. "I'm pretty sure we can handle it, but I'll keep the offer in mind. We'll take number 8."
"Seriously?" Cole scoffed. "You slowin' down in your old age, Lady? That one's not even mid-tier. You won't find enough in there to cover your ordinance."
Now she did smirk. "I've got my methods."
Because she'd learned something interesting about fighting beside a descendant of Sparda. Demons didn't wait around for them to wander by; they'd come running the second they got a whiff of Dante, and it was a safe bet it'd be the same with Nero.
"Hold on, how exactly does all this work?" Nero asked. Lady looked over her shoulder to see the devil hunters leaving a subtle empty space around him. They'd always done that with Dante too. "I've never worked a job like this before."
"Cold feet, eh?" Margot sneered. "Maybe you shoulda brought your daddy along. He might be a bastard, but he never backed down."
Lady pressed two fingers to her forehead. Apparently her insistence that Dante wasn't Nero's father hadn't convinced them, but Nero cracked a smile sharp enough to make them back away. At least the kid could give as good as he got.
"Pretty sure none of you would want my daddy here. He's caused enough trouble already," he said frostily.
"True enough," Cole agreed. "This whole place'd probably blow the hell up if he so much as sneezed. Here's hopin' you're not a bad omen too, pup, or we'll all be screwed."
Nero rolled his eyes and leaned closer to Lady. "Number 8, right? Let's go before I get pissed off."
That wasn't something she'd thought much about, and it made her pause for a second. Dante just grinned like an air-head and let the comments roll off him while Nero seemed more sensitive. Not that she really thought he'd hurt a human, of course, but it might be a good idea to keep him away from people who were used to being able to endlessly needle Dante without fear of any consequences.
"Good idea," she said.
Jim frowned slightly when he handed over a document packet and two walkie-talkies. "Everything you need should be in there, and these will let you contact us if you run into anything you want to report or if you could use some help. I don't doubt you can handle yourselves, but there's no shame in asking if you need anything."
"Got it," Lady said with a nod.
"And we'll let you know if we get new information too, so make sure you keep these on."
"Thanks," Nero said. "We'll do that."
Nico elbowed her partner. "It'll be slow driving in that part of town, but I can give it a go if you want."
"Why don't you hang back for now," Lady suggested. She passed the document packet containing a map of the sector to Nico after studying it for a moment. Nothing she hadn't expected to see. "We'll do some scouting and call you in if we need some heavier support."
"Sounds good. Give me a ring when you're ready."
Nero nudged the weaponsmith back, probably a little harder than he meant when she stumbled, and it turned into a mini scuffle of bumping elbows and barely suppressed smiles. Lady shook her head. It was easy to forget just how young these two were.
She smacked Nero on the arm and startled him out of his mock fight. "Time to go, kids."
Mumbling something under his breath that sounded suspiciously like 'I'm not a kid,' Nero followed her as they started the trek toward their section of the city. Neither said much but kept alert for anything out of the ordinary.
This was going to take some getting used to, Lady decided. She hadn't really fought beside Nero before, and his mannerisms were different from his uncle's. While they both had a habit of cracking wise, Nero was a lot more outwardly intense. He glanced at her and went back to scanning the area.
"How's Fortuna?" she asked to break the silence.
Nero tipped his head side to side. "Fine. Place has been really quiet lately. I'm guessing most of the demons came pouring out here instead of waiting for the little gates that sometimes pop up back home."
"That sucks," she said and shrugged when he threw her a questioning look. "We make our money killing these things. For me, not having any around means I can't pay my bills."
"Fair enough. It's nice not having them in my backyard, though. And it feels like we've got more than enough right here."
Lady had to admit he was probably right, but something about the phrasing was strange. "Feels like? What do you mean?"
He rubbed his bicep above where the Devil Breaker attached. "I can kinda sense them, I guess. Makes my arm hurt. Weird, right?"
That was interesting. She'd always suspected Dante had an ability like that with the way he could home in on devils so fast, and he very rarely was fooled by the ones that tried to pretend they were human too. "Seems like it would be really useful in this line of work," Lady told him. "You'll let me know if any are close, right?"
"Yeah… About that." Nero pulled his sword from his back, so Lady unholstered her handguns.
A batch of Empusa scuttled out of the windows of a broken building, nothing special and easy enough to put down. It was clear Nero didn't have a lot of experience fighting with a partner when he dashed off and left her standing in the street. On the other hand, it meant she didn't have to waste her ammo while he hacked the majority of them into pieces.
On the other, other hand, the shear joy he took in the massacre was maybe a little more unsettling than when Dante did it. She couldn't quite put her finger on the difference, but it probably had something to do with Vergil.
"Is that it?" she asked him when he buried the tip of his sword through the last Empusa's head and into the dirt.
"More that way," he said, gesturing further into the city with his chin and kicking the corpse free of his blade. "I think there might be a cluster a few blocks over."
"Let's grab some pieces for the bounty-proof, and then you can lead the way." That demonic radar was going to make this a hell of a lot easier.
Nero took off at a trot after they'd collected what they needed. They had to stop part way after they encountered a brownstone collapsed across the street, finally deciding up-and-over was doable with a combination of climbing on junked cars and Nero using his ghostly arms to haul them up. They paused at the top of the fallen building when the radio crackled to life.
"Section 8, you've got inbound," said an unfamiliar voice. "7 and 6 are reporting that hostiles are headed your way. A lot of them."
"Copy," Lady responded. "We've got it." Turned out she was right and Nero was a big ol' demon magnet afterall.
The young demon hunter scrunched up his face in irritation. "Guess we've got our work cut out for us."
"Just a sec'," Lady called before he could run off. She pulled her monocular out of one of the pouches on her belt and took a quick survey of the area. There were more Empusa scuttling around and a few Hell Caina meandering in a plaza. She was more concerned about the small pack of Riots and two Furies that were sniffing around a remarkably intact building, though. "Looks like a police station. We should check that out."
Nero squinted in the direction she pointed and nodded. "Sounds good. We can smash the small fries on the way." He paused then, staring at the city, face going somber.
"Something wrong?" she asked.
"No-- yeah--" He scowled and scrubbed his metal hand through his hair. "Just realizing how trashed this place is. I didn't go through this section last time."
"Yeah, it's a lot to take in," Lady admitted. She wasn't normally one to let herself be too affected by the collateral damage of her job. It was hard enough as it was, but there were times…
Nero's shoulders sagged. "I mean, I heard the estimates, but that's just the confirmed deaths. How many people do you think he killed by doing this?"
Lady had been waiting for this.
She knew exactly what he was feeling. She'd felt the same twisting of inherited guilt looking out on the city while climbing Temen-ni-gru all those years ago. Nero would've been an infant at the time, left behind on Fortuna while their fathers conspired to bring hell to earth and damn their children. They'd both even used their children for their schemes.
Arkham and Vergil might not share too many similarities, but there were enough that she understood Nero's worries far too keenly. And that was why she was honest with him.
"I doubt we'll ever get a real count. Even one was too many, but there's nothing we can do for them now other than clean the rest of this up."
The steel slid visibly back into his spine, and he straightened up. "Yeah, I know. We should go."
He was moving before she could say anything else, so Lady filed it away. Emotional catharsis wasn't exactly her speciality, though maybe she could muster up a reckoning later when he really needed it.
Nero picked his way down the side of the crumbled building, using his translucent arms to steady himself and Lady at various points. He hadn't had them very long, but he was getting the hang of them fast.
"Heads-up," he called, setting Lady down and pulling his sword. She didn't even have time to ask what was happening before the Hell Caina charged around the corner in a pack.
Just like before, they focused on Sparda's descendant and left Lady to pick off the ones Nero didn't put down in a single hit. He was more strategic about his fighting than she'd first given him credit for, kicking one of the badly injured demons into her line of fire so he could focus on a fresh one. Even if he occasionally blocked her shots by darting around the field, she felt like they were learning how to fight together already.
She heard him laugh as he danced easily out of the way of a scythe swing. A smack of his blade against the devil's back sent it sprawling on the ground, and Nero planted his boot on its neck before discharging the double barreled gun into the back of its skull. It exploded like a ripe melon, sending pieces flying across the street.
"Aww, is that all you've got?" Nero taunted. "Nothing but pathetic scum."
Her shot went slightly wide, missing the Hell Caina's wound she'd been aiming for when she flinched. Cold spread out from her center, but Lady refocused and dropped the last demon with three more shots. Is it genetic? she wondered, still shocked by that sudden burst of Vergil from her companion.
"You good?" he asked. He'd already gone back to the earnest boy she was still getting to know.
"Yeah. Yeah, fine." Lady shoved her guns back into their holsters. "Let's keep going. Those Furies we spotted could become a problem if they catch us with our backs to the wall."
Nero sported a little frown, and he looked her over. "Yeah," he said slowly. "Let's go."
After grabbing their trophies, they headed toward the plaza at a jog while Lady wrestled with Nero's strange duality. There was something of that in Dante too, but she'd always assumed it was just part of his personality. Maybe there was more to having devil blood than just regeneration and super strength and really bloody family reunions.
"Hey, can I ask you something?"
She glanced at Nero when he slowed down to a brisk walk. "Sure, what's bugging you?"
He paused for a few seconds, keeping himself busy by scanning the streets for enemies. "What's he like? When he's not, ya know, cutting holes in reality and growing demon trees?"
Lady blinked. Right. The kid would probably want to know about his father, and he didn't exactly have a lot of people he could ask.
"Trish said you'd met him when he was younger," Nero rushed out. "She told me she knew him too, but that he wasn't… him at that time. Whatever that means. For someone who can be really blunt, she's pretty good at talking around stuff when she wants to be." His mouth clapped shut, and it was clear he thought he'd said too much.
Mulling it over for a moment, Lady peered down the intersection to check the direction they wouldn't be heading. As much as he wasn't going to enjoy it, telling him the truth was the only right thing to do. "Vergil was an immature, selfish, violent asshole."
Nero grimaced but didn't look surprised. "Not much change, huh?"
"It's kind of a long story," she said, drawing to a halt, "but I can tell you that Vergil and Dante have been at each other's throats for a long time. Vergil was so desperate to get Sparda's power for himself that he was tricked by my father into almost getting all three of us killed."
"Your father…?"
Lady flattened her lips. The kid deserved to know, but it wasn't an easy thing to talk about even after all these years. "My father helped Vergil raise Temen-ni-gru. Hell, he might've been the one who taught him how to do it. Turned out they both wanted the same thing, and they were willing to kill what was left of their families to do it."
Nero's mouth hung open a little. "Your dad tried to kill you too?"
"Yep. Tried to sacrifice me in a blood ritual." Didn't that sound casual. Maybe she'd finally gotten enough distance from her memories to fake it. "He tried to murder all of us, actually, but Dante and Vergil beat him in the end by working together."
"And then they turned on each other," Nero sighed.
Crap, the poor kid looked so disappointed. Lady wondered how Dante would feel if that puppy face got directed at him. He kinda deserved it.
"Look," she said, "Vergil was an absolute bastard. I've never met a more cold-blooded, closed off person in my life, and trust me, that's saying something. He didn't care if he had to kill his twin brother as long as he got what he wanted, and all he wanted was power."
Nero's shoulders slumped just the slightest bit. "Yeah… Yeah, I get it--"
"I don't think you do," she stressed. Because this was something that needed to be said, and she was damn sure the brothers would never tell him. "He didn't care about anything other than power and beating Dante. Until you stopped him."
Blue eyes darted to her, wavering.
"You told us what happened up in the tree, but I don't think you get how remarkable it really was. Maybe he changed after all these years and after… whatever V was," Lady continued, "but I think you had a hell of a lot more to do with it than you give yourself credit for. Dante tried to get through to him, begged him to listen and got stabbed for it. You, though… You just had to slap some sense into him once, and now those two are being pals in hell on a boys' night out like they haven't spent decades trying to tear each other to pieces everytime they got close."
He didn't believe her, she could tell by the face he made, and she was definitely oversimplifying things, but this was important enough to at least make an attempt to get it into his brain.
She hesitated and decided her old friend would forgive her, "After the last time Dante thought Vergil died, it took him years to pull himself back together, if you can ever call him put together. I don't know what would've happened to him if he'd had to kill his brother for good. And Vergil," she paused again, "He just gave up when you asked him to."
"He sure as hell didn't throw our fight," Nero muttered. "He hit me with everything he had left."
" Of course he did. Vergil's pride is too damn strong for anything else." Lady said. "But he stopped because you asked him to, voluntarily went into hell with Dante to fix the mess he made, and that's reason enough to think he's not the guy I met all those years ago anymore." She stared at him sternly. "You saved them both. You get it?"
Jaw working like he was chewing on the thought, Nero finally shook his head. "Not really, but I didn't know them before like you did. And, I guess I never really knew Dante at all…"
As if she wasn't already going to kick the Legendary Devil Hunter's ass when he got back. His only remaining blood relative at the time, and Dante had deliberately left the kid out in the emotional cold.
"That dumbass," she sighed, and Nero cracked a grin.
" That I can agree with."
She'd need to keep working on this. If there was some shred of humanity starting to crack its way through Vergil's concrete shell, the kid deserved a chance to know that part of his father. Vergil might be a murderous, self absorbed piece of shit with a raging superiority complex, but maybe there was some chance his son could redeem him from the darkness he'd fallen into.
And if Vergil fucked that up, she'd just have to shoot him until he made it right.
Nero's head cocked to the side, and he squinted in the direction they'd been traveling. "Something's wrong," he said. "There's a fuck ton of demons suddenly."
"Yeah, about that…" Lady started, but he was already running.
She sighed again, taking off after him. Apparently Dante had never bothered to warn Nero about his demon-magnet status either. Then again, when they came into the view of the plaza, the devils were all congregated at the foot of the police station, not rushing towards them. One of the Riots scratched at the heavy, reinforced door, and it didn't look like it would be long before the others started forcing their way into the building.
"Holy shit..." Nero gasped. He skidded to a stop and pointed to the busted out windows on the upper floors. "Tell me I didn't imagine that."
Lady pulled her monocular again and trained it where his hand indicated. She didn't see anything for a moment until something flashed by one of the windows. "That's… a person! There are people in there!"
What were the odds that anyone could've survived this long in the hell-blasted city? Suspicion prickled at her, but the eagerness of the demons made her wonder if it really was true.
Nero slammed his sword against the ground and dragged it, sending sparks shooting everywhere. "Hey, you assholes! Let's dance!"
Almost as one, the pack of demons turned to the devil hunters, but Nero was already attacking the back of their lines. His motor sword revved angrily, spewing flames when he kicked off the ground and took one of the Riots with him into the air.
Her partner out of the way, Lady grinned and heafted Kalina Ann off her back. "Time to go to work."
The exploding rocket sent demons flying, a good number of them already dead before they hit the ground. Nero landed in a pile of the live ones and hacked away with more urgency than he'd shown before. She couldn't really blame him considering this clean-up gig had suddenly turned into a rescue op.
Now that they'd disrupted the demons, time to take out the worst of them. She spotted one of the two Furies preparing to ambush Nero and set Kalina Ann on the ground, balancing her foot on the handle. "Oh, no you don't. I can do this too."
Smaller missiles fired out of the side and collided with the Fury in a shower of firework-like explosions. The demon staggered long enough for Lady to haul Kalina Ann back in position and charge up a rocket. The Fury recovered just at the point she was ready to pull the trigger.
"Buh-bye," she taunted when the missile blew a crater in the street. "One down. Where's the--?"
Nero stumbled, barely blocking a charging strike from the other Fury. He'd already cleaned out most of the weaker devils, but he was struggling with the sheer speed of his latest opponent. The monster snapped its jaws at his face, and Nero shoved his Devil Breaker down its throat.
"Bad idea," Nero said. A hail of electricity wracked through the Fury's body, making it shudder and convulse. It wobbled backwards to set itself for another attack.
Lady switched her finger to a secondary trigger, waiting and blowing out a slow, steadying breath. She hit the switch at the first tiny ripple of muscle in the Fury's flank, and Kalina Ann's wire-attached bayonet pierced deep into its side just as it darted forward. If it weren't for the secondary wire that shot out of the back at the same time to form an anchor, Lady would've been whipped off her feet.
The Fury jerked to a halt when it hit the end of the wire's reach, clawed feet scrabbling to keep going, and Nero sliced the demon's head right off its shoulders. His grin was maybe a little more sadistic than she'd like, but Lady couldn't argue with his results.
"Nice one," Nero told her, bending down to tear the bayonet free for her. It snapped back with a whirl and click.
"I think we got 'em all." Lady glanced around and only saw demon corpses, and boy oh boy did that make her giddy. This was going to be a huge payday.
Nero cupped his hands around his mouth to project his voice. "Yo! It's safe to come out!" He cast a look at Lady when there wasn't an immediate answer.
They waited almost half a minute before a man's head cautiously poked up over a window sill to stare down at them. "Y-you're human… Wait, you killed the demons?!" Suddenly he was leaning partly out of the window and gaping at the carnage below.
"Everything's okay now," Nero said. "We'll get you out of--"
He broke off when more faces appeared in other windows. Lady sucked in a breath and counted. One, two, four, seven total. Two men, two women, and three kids. "I'll be damned," she said. That was a lot of people hiding here for so many weeks.
"Everything's going to be fine," Nero repeated. "Come with us. We'll protect you."
The first man disappeared from view, and Lady heard voices briefly from inside. It didn't take long until all the faces vanished out of their frames. A creaking sound came from the alley beside the building as a door swung open.
Nero grinned breezily at the people who filtered out into the daylight. "Don't worry about a thing, folks. You're all safe now."
A soft murmur passed through their small crowd, and Lady smiled at the amazed relief she saw drawing on their faces. One of the women tried to hug all three of the children at once. It was downright heartwarming.
"We should radio this in," Nero said. "And maybe let Nico know too so she can meet us--"
Suddenly he stiffened, head turning to look at something. Without warning, Nero shoved Lady with inhuman strength, and she found herself tumbling just as something huge smashed the kid right through the reinforced front doors. An ear-splitting roar drowned out the sound of crashing masonry.
"Shit!" She scrambled to get back on her feet when she saw another wave of demons crawling out of the buildings across the street. Chaos', Baphomets', Sin Scissors, some of those weird demons dressed in knights' armor, a damn Empusa Queen… Where the hell had these things come from? The Behemoth that plowed Nero through the building backed out and shook itself free from the rubble.
This was bad.
Lady grabbed Kalina Ann and retreated toward the now terrified people they'd been trying to rescue. If it was just her, she might be able to pick apart a crowd of demons like this, but she had to protect the survivors too. The odds weren't nearly as good.
Something burst out of the roof of the police station, startling Lady. It moved with incredible speed, dropping into a steep dive and impacting on the Behometh's back. Dark blood burst from its severed spine, prompting a dying scream from the demon, but the flying figure was already moving on to the others.
She couldn't really get a bead on it, though Lady figured she'd take what help she could get. Staring into Kalina Ann's scope, she locked in multiple targets and fired all her missiles at once. Lady saw the -- person? Demon? -- whatever was helping her arc high into the sky while the rockets blew up in a cacophony of wreckage before plunging straight down and cutting one of the knights in half.
"What's happening?!" the man she'd first seen exclaimed.
A familiar engine growl caught her ears, fire erupting from the sword of the being that systematically tore the hoard of demons apart, and Lady smiled. That really should've been her first guess.
"Everything's under control," she said. "Just sit back."
Nero blew the mask off a Sin Scissors and crushed a Baphomet with his phantom Devil Bringers before he flew back up, panting and looking around for enemies that didn't exist anymore. It was the first time he was still and the first chance Lady had to actually get a good look at him.
A creature unlike any she'd ever seen hung in the sky. He was held aloft by translucent wings, a shining beacon stretching in the midst of a cataclysm. His skin was dark armor carved in glowing blue lines, and long silvery-white hair drifted in the subtle breeze. Two horns curled halo-like over Nero's furrowed brow, red lines like bloody tears spilling down his face from molten gold eyes. Eyes that reflected the fire wreathing his sword.
"Holy shit," Lady whispered. He looked like a--
Nero's eyes darted to her, and he snapped out of his battle trance. "Go with her," he instructed the slack jawed people crowded below him. "She'll lead you to safety." Then he was gone, streaking across the rooftops with a crack of sound.
Seven hopeful faces turned in her direction, and Lady motioned for them to come. If the kid was going to saddle her with this, she might as well get it over with. They'd just have to come back to finish collecting their bounties. "Hurry up. Don't have all day."
"But your friend--" a woman started.
Lady shook her head. "Don't worry, he's okay." When the woman gave her a skeptical look, she tapped the radio attached to her jacket strap. Sure it was technically a lie to indicate that her partner had contacted her, but she'd done that before when Dante had to 'disappear,' and it usually worked damn well to convince people when they needed it. "He'll catch up to us."
The woman's relieved look said it worked this time too.
"W-what was that thing?" one man asked as they all scurried behind Lady like ducklings. "Was that… an angel?"
If she hadn't seen it with her own eyes, Lady would've laughed at him for looking in the wrong direction. There was something bitterly ironic about the fact a bloodline out of the depths of hell was responsible for protecting the human world from demons, but how could she blame these people? Nero's devil form really did look like some noble guardian sent down from heaven itself.
Not that she'd tell the kid that. His confidence was at the level of being charming, and she didn't think it needed to be elevated to Dante proportions.
"Who knows?" Lady responded, knowing very well. "Maybe this is fate or something."
There wasn't much talking when they struck out toward the closest military checkpoint. Lady pushed the button on her radio and spoke softly into it. The reply took a moment to come back.
"Can you repeat?" the radio squawked.
"We found survivors," She said, raising her voice. "And yes, you heard that right. Can you send someone to-- wait, never mind. There's our ride."
The growl of the Devil-May-Crymobile's engine alerted her long before Lady saw the massive van careening its way toward them. Nico took a corner at such speed that the vehicle ended up tilted on two wheels for a moment. It bounced alarmingly when it hit the ground again, and Nico brought the van to a screeching halt.
Immediately Nero hopped out of the passenger side door. "Everyone okay?"
"We should be saying that to you!" exclaimed the woman who had been concerned about him.
He swiped his index finger against the end of his nose, looking embarrassed by the attention. Lady noticed his Devil Breaker was gone, leaving a flesh and blood arm, and hoped no one else would spot that change.
"Yeah, sorry to worry everyone," Nero laughed nervously. "Just got a little knocked around, but I figured I should go get us a lift out of here."
Nico leaned out of the driver's side and cheerfully yelled, "All aboard the express shuttle to civilization!"
The survivors didn't have to be told twice, and they filtered quickly into the van past where Nero held a side door open for them.
One of the men paused with a hand on the door jamb. "You didn't see that thing, did you?" he asked.
Nero's face went blank. "What thing?"
"The angel! Or whatever it was… I mean, it looked like an angel."
Blinking slowly, Nero had trouble processing the comment. "An… angel? That's… Uh…"
The man's expression was deadly serious. "I bet you think I'm nuts or-or hallucinating from the stress or something, but what else could that have been?"
Nero spared a look at Lady who smiled blandly at him. It didn't strike her as a big deal since no one seemed to have connected the white haired kid with the white haired 'angel,' but Nero was more disturbed than she expected.
"It must've been another demon," Nero said.
"But it fought off the other demons! And spoke like a person!" the man insisted.
Nero glanced away, and for a second, Lady noticed his stare wasn't seeing the here and now. "Demons can look just like angels," Nero said. "There's no such thing as angels."
The man examined Nero for a long moment before a small smile drifted across his mouth. "I know what I saw. Whatever they really were, they saved us. That's close enough to an angel for me." Then he pulled himself up and inside the van.
The look on Nero's face made Lady laugh, and she laughed even harder when he went from amazed to scowling at her. She clapped a hand on his shoulder. "Don't sweat it. You did good, and that's what matters."
"Yeah, yeah. Let's get going."
He sounded gruff, but Lady could see the way his muscles had relaxed, and his step was lighter. Even if it was only seven people out of millions, they'd managed to save a few lives, and she understood well enough to know it eased some of that inherited guilt. If there'd been anyone left to help after Temen-ni-gru she would've felt the same way.
Nero climbed into the passenger's seat and nodded to Lady when she settled into one of the chairs behind Nico. With a throaty rumble, the van started up again and rolled toward the checkpoint at the edge of their section of the city. The anticipation of the other passengers was palpable, whispering to each other and staring eagerly out of the windows at the passing scenery.
Sometimes this job actually let you feel good about yourself for a little while, Lady thought. She turned to Nero again, watching the faint smile visible in his profile, and wondered what his father would think of Nero saving the lives he'd condemned.
What would her own father have thought if she could've saved the people he'd killed?
Probably that she was wasting her time, if she was honest, but maybe Vergil had grown past that blind self-centeredness. Maybe he would start to care about someone other than himself again. Maybe Vergil, son of Sparda, the Darkslayer, wannabe king of the Underworld, would earn his son's forgiveness and be the best father he could be. Maybe he would realize just how much it meant to his son for him to try .
Maybe, just maybe, Nero could have the kind of father's love that Mary never really had at all.
And if not… Well, Lady had a lot of bullets, and she understood better than anyone just what redemption could mean, not for the redeemed, but for the one who'd been left behind.
Yes, she had her reasons.