#I get that part of it is just that younger Nero's a complete asshole | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

thebad---catholic · 4 years ago

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My problems with AOS

Well here I am, 10 years late with an opinion no one asked for, but I have to write this down and throw into the void so that I can be at peace. I’ve been salty about this film franchise for a very long time now. This will mostly focus on Star Trek (2009) with the other two movies sprinkled in.

1. Starfleet

Honestly where do I even begin? In TOS, Starfleet was modeled after the navy (idk how accurately, but Roddenberry was in the air force so I’m assuming he’d know how all that works). You can get a feel for the chain of command, and everything feels natural with character ages and things like that. There’s a procedure for everything.

AOS Starfleet feels more like a high school club than an interplanetary exploration organization. Jim is supposed to be twenty-five when he gets the rank of captain- after he was almost expelled for cheating. He has no idea how to operate or run a starship. TOS Kirk moved through the ranks of Starfleet and was promoted on merit and leadership skills- he worked for his position.

Why was Jim the only person who knew what was happening when Nero showed up? Was there any requirements to joining to Starfleet other than get on the shuttle? Why did the linguist not know the difference between Vulcan and Romulan when they’re the linguist? How did Pike bypass the chain of command to appoint Jim Kirk as First Officer which was an obvious show of favoritism to someone was about to be thrown out of the academy? Why the fuck was he allowed to keep the title of captain? What the fuck?

Speaking of Jim.

2. Jim Kirk’s Character

I...don’t like Jim’s character in this film. It’s not terrible for a younger version of Kirk, but like I said though, there’s no reason Kirk should be this young. And in this one he’s just kinda a douche.

We know from TOS that Kirk gets around, but he genuinely cares for his exes, and in general respects women. He uses sex appeal as a strategy, but more than anything this comes off as a subversion of the femme fatal trope bc Kirk is a man. In the movie, he’s just a standard action movie protag who has lots of sex just because.

The scene when the Orion woman says she loves him and he replied “that’s so weird” is just...so weird? Like I can’t imagine Kirk doing anything in that situation than backing off and explaining that he doesn’t feel the same way. The scene continues with him hiding under the bed when Uhura walks in. Watching how the camera angle makes Jim out to be a voyeur made me uncomfortable then and it still does. It could be explained that Jim is trying to figure out Uhura’s identity or that he’s listening in and people look at who they’re listening to but like...she was in her underwear. You shouldn’t look at people while they’re getting undressed, especially when they don’t even know you’re there? Is that a hot take? Apparently.

In TOS there’s this really nice scene in This Side of Paradise(S1E24) where the whole crew is high (again) and has abandoned ship, leaving Kirk to tend to things. We see Jim move around the ship with a little clip pad and make the proper checks. This is a captain who knows his stuff. That is the Kirk we should have seen if we’re going to see Jim become captain.

AOS kirk goes through a standard “stop being an asshole” arc commonplace for male protagonists, but this happens well past the point he should stop being an asshole. Either the AOS series should’ve been a prequel with Jim becoming captain at the end of the trilogy, or he should’ve been older with a completely different arc- maybe coming to terms with his rank? Imposter syndrome? Learning to trust his crew and building trust with them? Building a friendship with Spock and McCoy? There’s a lot to work with here.

3. Spock and Uhura’s relationship

Why. Like why. For what. Por Que.

I like giving Uhura a bigger role, I don’t like making her a love interest to do that.

It doesn’t make sense for either of their characters. Lieutenant Nyota Uhura, linguist expert who handles all transmissions to and from the enterprise- an icon of black women’s representation is now demoted to Spock’s nagging girlfriend. This bothers me more than a little bit.

It manages to make even less sense for Spock. A hallmark of Spock’s character is his duality. He struggles to combat his emotions and the human half of him. His repeating character arc in TOS is coming to terms with humanity while upholding the Vulcan way of life. Having him in an established romantic relationship before this arc is supposed to happen just makes for a boring romantic subplot about a relationship that shouldn’t happen and that I don’t care about.

TOS Vulcan culture is kinda shitty. Explicitly patriarchal and stuff, and also kinda racist against humans. The source of Spock’s inner conflict is not himself but a society that views him as lesser for being half human. However, one thing that I can certainly understand from a “logical” (logic in quotations bc racism and sexism is fucking stupid) people is ritualized arranged marriages. It just...makes sense to me that Vulcans would simply have their mates chosen for them and then marry that person and be done with it. Neat. Logical. Conformity.

This makes Spock and Uhura’s relationship even stranger. Why would Spock go so against conformity that he dates someone before he truly comes to terms with himself? Even if they throw out ponfarr and arranged marriage, it still doesn’t work but now it especially doesn’t work.

My personal theory is that Spock and Uhura’s relationship was established purely to make shippers shut up. It’s no secret Spirk is the most popular ship from TOS. I have no doubt they knew this while writing the movie. So to quietly wrap a no homo on Spock and Kirk’s friendship, they use Uhura as a prop to do so.

The teacher/student dynamic should only be relegated to fan fiction and the throwaway line about oral sensitivity makes me cringe. Every. Time.

4. McCoy

Karl Urbans performance is easily my favorite part of this movie. He captures DeForrest Kelley so well it hurts. He made Leonard Nimoy cry. His chemistry with Pine made McKirk go from the most underrated triumvirate ship in TOS to rival Spirks popularity in AOS. His scenes with Zachary Quinto are just *chefs kiss*.

So why doesn’t he have more of a role? The triumvirate is missing a third.

In particular, there’s a scene where Uhura, Kirk, and Spock make their way down to a planet to talk to a Klingon. I can’t remember which movie it was or why, but Spock and Uhura were bickering and Kirk remarks “can we do this later?”

The line was funny. It would’ve been golden if it was McCoy and not Uhura.

A fantastic performance by an underutilized character in a movie where that character should’ve been at the forefront.

5. Representation

I am skeptical of any movie that advertises diversity. Nonetheless, it made me happy to know Sulu was going to be gay. This is Star Trek after all, known for its diversity and large LGBT fan base, and an homage to George Takai who’s a gay man irl. So whatever.

The fact that I wasn’t expecting much says a lot about the current state of LGBT rep in media but this blink-and-you-miss-it shit is really starting to get to me.

I mean he jus- he doesn’t even give his husband a KISS. Like why.

6. Destroying Vulcan

WHY. Oh god why.

This isn’t Star Wars, JJ. We don’t do that here.

Imploding Vulcan was the most god awful shock value bullshit plot device I’ve ever seen in a movie and it was done entirely to make Spock sad. Besides the gaping plot hole of “why did Nero go back in time to destroy Vulcan when he could’ve just saved Romulus” I’m just grasping to find a purpose for this particular event. New fans don’t care at all about Vulcan while I was enraged that they would do Amanda that dirty.

It’s not just that they did that, it’s more that they did it like that. Vulcan’s destruction should’ve caused a federation wide meltdown as the biggest catastrophe in the entire franchise. If they were gonna make the stakes so pointlessly high, they should’ve treated the destruction of Vulcan exactly how they would treat the destruction of earth. There a million ways to treat that event with more gravity and million better plot lines that don’t involve G E N O C I D E

7. Miscellaneous petty bullshit because I’m a baby

-lower the fucking stakes Jesus Christ

-Don’t like the set. It’s bright and white and boring and gives me a headache. You don’t need a remake of the old set but like have fun ya know? Shit looks like an Apple store.

-Christine and I are the same in that we are both soft and are thirsty for Spock. Imagine my surprise to learn she wasn’t fucking there. Same with Janice but I’m more pressed about Christine. I don’t even remember the name of that blonde doctor lady who is Not Christine but i didn’t want her.

-The costumes in AOS look boring but still don’t feel like a uniform either. I deadass think Chris Pines outfit in the SNL skit looked better than the actual movie (minor adjustments needed)

-I didn’t notice this at first but someone pointed out that women’s uniforms don’t signify rank and now I can’t not see it. I don’t...think this movie treats women good? Or McCoy? Or just people who deserve better?

-Lens Flare

-I get why they did it but I don’t like that they misquoted the opening theme to say “no one” instead of “no man”. I probably wouldn’t have even notice except they gave the line to Uhura. Comes off as just a touch too “yay feminism” which is really rich coming from that treated Uhura like an object to be looked at when she wasn’t too busy being Spock’s emotional support gf, and completely cut two women from the main cast.

8. Conclusions

If I could describe these movies in one word it’d be generic. Which sucks because Star Trek far from generic.

They’re fun to watch but not think about. It was nice that I got to see a Star Trek movie in theaters. I just wish it as the same Trek I saw on TV.

#star trek the original series #star trek tos #star trek aos #star trek alternate original series #jj abrams #jim kirk #captain kirk #dr mccoy #bones mccoy #spock #mr spock #lt uhura #nyota uhura #hikaru sulu #star trek #star trek headcanon #trekkie #trekker #star trekkin

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oveliagirlhaditright · 3 years ago

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Hoping to Help

An AU story about who I thought might have been Swallow for a while. Neo spoilers (moreso in the AN than anything, I think, but still maybe stay away if you haven't finished the game, to be safe).

https://archiveofourown.org/works/33528064

Author’s Note: Just imagine that in this AU, Rindo and Shoka just fall for each other because of the Game and the Game alone:)

‘Don’t worry, Rindragon. I’m coming to get you,’ Eri thought, as she typed a message to her most recent friend and prayed beyond measure that Neku and Shiki might be able to get him out of the Game.

For you see, Eri was none other than Swallow: Rindo’s online friend he’d been worrying about so much during his Reapers’ Game.

And Eri, honestly, was only ever in the UG a few times (the instances that Joshua would let her in to help Neku and Shiki with whatever mission they were on about something called an “Inversion”. And the Composer was far more lenient with Shiki coming and going from the UG than her… probably because if Josh had his way, Eri never would have been told about the Reapers’ Game at all). So Eri sometimes being in the UG (the times Josh would let her) explained some of the reason that she and Rindragon were still able to text.

But the other, Eri imagined, was that maybe in being around so many Ex-Players… they had somehow touched her, so that fate itself thought she was one of them and always in the UG, too.

And Eri would of course happily take being able to still talk with Rindragon this way, over Neku’s situation… where he wasn’t a Reaper yet, but every day Joshua was getting closer and closer to breaking his defenses down so he would choose that, Eri thought. Though part of her did wish that she was in the UG constantly, so she might be able to do anything for Rindragon.

And, yeah… Eri had technically lied to Rindragon, something she never wanted to do, about her being in the UG (all the time)—but it had been simpler than explaining her actual situation. And she really wasn’t even supposed to do that, according to Joshua, since he warned her that the Higher Plane would probably strike her down for knowing so much without being a former Player, if she wasn’t careful.

So, most of the time, Eri was mum’s the word about it at all, over anything that could be traced, and wouldn’t talk to Shiki, Neku, Beat, or Rhyme about other Plane stuff over the phone and might even go so far as to only whisper to them about it in their houses… but now Eri was almost willing to the risk of being murdered by the Higher Plane, just if it gave her one shot at saving Rindragon!

He was younger than her—Eri had been able to tell that right away—but she didn’t mind it. She’d always been popular with most ages, honestly, and he had been there for her when she’d been somewhat left out of Reapers’ Game talks with her friends (they tried with her. They really did. And Eri appreciated them for it, but it was clear that there were some things about it that they could really only share with each other) and wanted to start a game of her own with a new friend, like Shiki had new friends… it was why Eri had started playing FanGo to begin with.

But now, it almost seemed like her dream of playing FanGo with Rindragon was going to fade, too. And Eri was a go-getter, who worked so very hard and usually achieved her dreams that way… so lately, the fact that she’d been losing so much (like with Neku’s death, that had mortified her until she got to see him again) didn’t sit right with her at all, and she wanted to fix some of it… somehow and someway. And so, she’d try.

“Neku… I feel like you’re the key to going in and saving him, oh, Legendary Player. Any chance you can do that for a friend here?”

And if Eri wouldn’t have known better, she would have thought it was just a normal night with the three of them, sitting around her apartment, casually eating pizza… but of course with her luck lately, it was anything but.

“I’ll try, Eri,” Neku promised her, sending a small smile Eri’s way (he saved his big one’s for Shiki), while he pulled the cheese off his pizza (he was thinking about going vegan lately, Eri knew). “Even though the Reapers are trying hard to create walls I can’t pass—and will be on my ass the moment I try it--…but you do know there’s a chance we’ll have to fight him, right? If he remains Kubo’s lapdog? I’d say it would just be me doing that… but the way Josh is, the asshole may try to recruit you guys into the UG, too.”

And as Neku was clearly starting to get worked up here (at the idea of having to fight an innocent, or the two of them entering the UG again like him), Shiki reached over on the couch they were on together and ran soothing circles all over Neku’s back. And Eri found that she couldn’t blame Neku for being stressed… especially since he was pretty much a murdered specimen right now. Eri was stressed, mostly for Rindragon, but she didn’t even have the half of Neku’s issues going on for her. “Hopefully it won’t come to that!” Shiki encouraged Eri too, sending the large smile her way that Neku had been incapable of—but Eri thought it was kind of nice, in that regard. This couple clearly completed each other… even if it made her feel a bit lonely to see sometimes. “I’m sure Neku—and us, if it comes down to it—will find a way. Like when Neku got the Red Skull Pin off of my person, so he wouldn’t have to defeat me… We’ll think of something, Eri, I know it. And Rindragon seems strong,” Shiki continued on, proving that she was still very much was the new Shiki who believed in things, and not the old one who so easily got tripped up.

But Rindragon most certainly was that, Eri knew. You didn’t become one of the top FanGo players for nothing; you had to walk all over and work hard for it, to be strong enough and savvy enough catch the best creatures. So Eri knew that Rindragon was clearly fit—and had gamer’s hands, and therefore fast reflexes—but she was still so paranoid about him here.

“Shiki’s right, Eri,” Neku promised, squeezing her hand—that had still been on her keyboard—in an aim to comfort her even more now. Was she really that shaken up? “I’ve been in so many Games now, that I’m not going to make them say that I can’t have my way without a fight. And even though I don’t think I’m as reassuring as Beat would be here… If I need to carry all of us in the Game, I’ll do so.” And Neku did end up attempting to do that for them—which Eri knew she would always appreciate him for—but she ended up helping Rindragon (Rindo, who she properly knew the name of by then) against the Plague Noise, too (and Shiki aided in it as well, whose Imagination had gotten so powerful, that she didn’t even have to be a Player or Reaper to use some of her powers now. Eri got desperate and did kill herself for Rindo’s sake—and entered the Game that way—and that was something that Rindo gave her a mouthful for: and Eri had smiled amusedly at that, because in some ways… it felt weird to be chewed out by a kid. But it was a kid she adored, so she would take it… especially since she knew that if she survived, Josh had promised he would bring her back, so Rindo would no longer be able to be mad at her for throwing her life away for him then).

But it was no easy thing. Eri imagined she had as much trouble finding a psych she could use, as Shiki once had. But eventually, Eri had learned that if she carried pieces of fabric around, and something to draw on them with, the clothes would transform into what she’d drawn on them and she could then use them for a bomb… that took a while to set up this way, but did massive damage when it was done, so she could try and really best the bird that giant phoenix.

Then, everything was finally over. Peace rained in her friends’ lives again, and Eri couldn’t have been happier for it… and that Joshua kept his promises.

And now, Rindo was meeting up with Eri after he had aided his girlfriend, Shoka, find a better apartment to stay in, than the one Joshua had rented for her.

“It’s still so weird to think that you’re Swallow…” Rindo remarked, as the two of them played FanGo on their phones and headed towards 104 to shop some. “One of the lead designers of Gatto Nero. Damn, what are you doing hanging out with a loser like me?”

And at that, Eri had to laugh and give Rindo a quick hug around his waist, because he didn’t even know! “…Actually, I was starting to feel like the loser in not having played the Game… it was why I got into FanGo and met you. And I’m so glad that I did! But then when I found out you were in the Reapers’ Game… well, it was ironic, for sho, but I was afraid I would send Shiki and Neku to save you, and I would do nothing… and so you’d have no good opinion about little old me, when you finally met me at all! So, it meant a lot when you actually chewed me out for joining you in it, and throwing my safety away!

“You’re a good kid, Rindo. A good kid, I’m happy to be friends with,” Eri said, as the two of them dug out the lollipops they’d bought and sucked on them now… She hoped she wasn’t sounding too much like a mom here now, and scaring Rindo off, but when she looked over at him, she could tell that he still looked happy and deep in thought about this all. Good. “And you should totes intern with me for Gatto Nero, if you want. Your friends can too, really!!”

Rindo was guffawing now, as the two of them decided not to go into her and Shiki’s store, but rather up the stairs of the 104 building just to get a nice view.

Eri had no doubt that the girl who had given Rindo lots of advice in the past had finally reared her head, unlike the scared version of her, who had only been able to send him a few scared words in texts lately. And Rindo must have realized that, and been moved by it, because Rindo suddenly took Eri’s hand to shake it, and he smiled. “Sounds like a good deal, Swallow. Count me in!”

Author’s Note: Man, I had so many theories about Swallow while I played the Game… that all turned out to be wrong. Hahaha.

At first, I REALLY thought it was Rhyme, because Swallow sent Rindo a squirrel picture (essentially) and her name is “Swallow.” And I was like, “Squirrel Noise? And Rhyme got SWALLOWed by a Shark Noise?” Also, she’s around Rindo’s age. Ehh?!), but it quickly became clear that that wasn’t the case.

Then my next best guess was Eri for the longest time (which I wrote here), mainly because for a second, I was thinking the person at the computer (Rhyme) and Swallow were the same person, so all of this jumped into my head as to how it COULD have been Eri, even though I really didn’t think they would go this way (because I kind of figured they wouldn’t include Eri, sadly). Though it would have been cool.

Then I thought it was Shiki, for the same reasons I thought it was Eri (and I know that when I was thinking girl at their computer—Rhyme—was Swallow, the color palette should have been a dead giveaway that it was Rhyme. And really, it was. But I thought they MIGHT try and pull a fast one on us, sort of like they did with the Neku and Beat twist, and change the character’s color palettes or something), though clearly they didn’t. But then I didn’t think they would do that, because it might seem like Shiki was in love with Rindo over Neku or something… even though that would be kind of silly, because girls CAN have guy friends that are JUST their guy friends. So, I was really thinking Eri the most, out of the two of them.

I also thought it could be Joshua, for obvious reasons, but mostly I knew Swallow was a girl from the way they talked… typed.

And I think I thought it could have been Neku for five seconds, because when I thought the person at the computer desk and Swallow were the same person, and we then saw “Neku” come and save the Wicked Twisters (like computer-desk-person, Rhyme, had said about coming to save him [Beat], but at the time I thought she meant Rindo), I thought it was Neku because of that, fulfilling the promise, maybe. But I don’t really think I ever truly thought it could have been Neku. I think he was the one I imagined the least, because it would be too obvious.

Somehow, I missed the Shoka thing entirely… even though it seems so obvious now. But I’m kind of glad that I did, because it was a cool twist for me that way.

But here’s the Eri idea. I might the rest of them for fun, too (I already wrote the Shiki one… before this actually, so I hope in doing that, I didn’t steal some of this one’s thunder). Who knows?:)

Hope you all enjoyed!

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the-storyteller-and-her-soldiers · 5 years ago

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'Night, Night'

Title: 'Night, Night'

Word Count: 1,221

Warnings: Some cursing, and if you're a fan of Credo (dmc4) then skip this as he's the conflict here. Other than that FLUFF!!!

Ship: The Demon and the Choir Girl (Nero x Myself)

Summary: if you keep calling when I'm trying to sleep, especially when I'm cuddled up and comfy with my fiancè... I'M NOT NICE!

[[MORE]]

Darkness engulfed the usually spacious chambers of Rebecca's room of rest. The young girl was already snuggled beneath her plush blanket of dusted rose and in the warm grasp of her ivory tangled husband-to-be. All appeared to be perfect as the pair let silence overtake their tired mumbles so that they could both drift off to sound slumbers.

Peaceful silence is a fragile thing however, making it where the low vibrations of a phone could leave it shattered. A groan of actual pain buzzed against Rebecca's lips as she listened to the set of five spaced vibrations for what had to be the ninth time. Her only compensation was Nero's smooth fingertips crawling down her arm and a quietly muttered apology as a small yet blinding light spooked the already sleeping shadows.

"Lemme guess," Rebecca slurred with precious sleep eluding her as she peeled one eyelid open. "It's Credo, for the ninth time?"

"Tenth now," Nero muttered while the phone began to buzz again in his palm. Although Rebecca faced away from Nero and the irritating glow, she could easily hear the hard roll of Nero's icy orbs from the tone of his voice. "I don't think he'll get off my ass until I answer."

When it came to the general of the refounded Order, an answer usually meant forcing Nero to drop whatever he had to come help him with whatever mundane and most of the time meaningless task that troubled him. Due to acting as a surrogate older brother in his younger years, Nero would still comply with Credo's uptight demands even if he had grown reluctant in recent years. Having to put up with her own dysfunctional family, Rebecca understood where her fiery fiancé was coming from. But as of right now, both parts of the pair came to the unspoken agreement that this was asinine.

"Hey, I'm not one of those controlling people. At least I hope I'm not! So if you wanna go see him feel free to love. I'll do my best to wait up for you." Rebecca murmured softly, doing her best to hide the disappointment lacing her voice. She had grown used to her partner having to leave for countless reasons, it was his life to live after all. Yet that didn't mean she didn't miss him when he did or didn't get chilled when she was left to fall asleep without the comfort of his heartbeat.

"You're good, Angel, don't worry about it. My only problem is what this asshole thinks is so important! It's already after midnight, even Dante knows better than not to call this late unless it's for a mission!" Nero hissed at his humming cell once more when it lit up for the twelfth time.

"Maybe he needs help getting out that stick he rammed up his ass all those years ago. Might fix his 'Oh-so-holier-than-thou' attitude."

Hearing Rebecca outright mock someone never ceased to amuse Nero. It was rare that she felt the need to since she usually settled whatever issue she had in one way or another. But since this was someone she couldn't cut out and still tried to look down on the lavender locked lady so openly, she couldn't help herself anymore. Giving her a light squeeze as a chuckle rolled from his lips, Nero dismissed the hasty apology that followed her statement.

"I really don't know how you continue to deal with him!" Rebecca grunted as she finally flipped over to squeeze her love like a beloved teddy bear.

"Right now, I really don't want to but he can't seem to take a hint that I'm busy."

"Then do you want me to deal with him?" Rebecca said, propping herself to sit up in the bed. "I mean he can't get pissy at you if the 'stupid little girl' is whiney, can he?"

"You're probably smarter than him, all things considered. But go for it."

Nero handed her the phone which was on his fourteenth set of rings. With her free hand she brought a finger to her own petal-like lips to signal silence from Nero before picking up the call.

"Mhrr... Mr. Credo why're you calling? It's after midnight and you woke me up!" Rebecca whimpered in her best drowsy voice.

She then had to pull her face away from the phone when Credo loudly launched into an interrogation of where Nero was, what he desperately needed, and why Rebecca was using his phone. Just like the two had guessed prior, all that was needed was another set of eyes in a search for paperwork.

Feeling frustrated from the lack of remorse for the disturbance, Rebecca dropped the act. "Look, before you go telling me what manners I need to learn, you should practice what you preach! I'm using my fiancé's phone with prior permission yet you can't even respect people's personal lives and schedules enough to look at a clock?! --Don't interrupt me, Nero's in the bathroom!-- For God's sake we're trying to sleep and if you're so incompetent that you can't read both a clock and paperwork then you really shouldn't be the head of the Order! --

Yeah, yeah, you took Nero in but I think that guilt-trip story kinda lost its merit when YOU TRIED TO KILL HIM FOR YOUR OWN GAIN, YOU DUMB FUCK!"

For once in the past hour a complete silence filled the air. It was only to be broken by the sleepy couple stifling their laughter when they exchanged glances between the phone and each other. That battle had hurt Nero years ago, but after wiping the floor with him and getting a half-assed apology urged by Credo's sister, Kyrie, days later, he barely thought about it much anymore. Seeing how his small sweetheart actually left him speechless by handing him his ass only acted entertainment to the hot-headed hunter.

Resuming with her sickly sweet tone once more, Rebecca spoke again, "Now Nero's gonna be coming back in a moment and I will give him the phone. When I do, you're going to apologize for being a bother and wish him a good night, got it?! Night, night~! --Yes, yes, I'm such an insolent brat but whatever! Maybe some sleep would do you good, night, night, Bugsy..."

After another moment Rebecca did hand phone over to Nero while informing him who was on the line in a much more cheerful and airy tone. Nero lifted the phone to his ear, surprised to hear an actual apology being sputtered out through the small box. It was frustrated, exasperated, and exhausted, but still genuine. The two men agreed they'd discuss matters in the morning before the commander promptly bid Nero goodnight and hung up.

"Oh jeez, I hope I wasn't too harsh." Rebecca murmured, falling back into the pile of pillows and more importantly, Nero's open arms.

Bringing her silken roots to rest over where his heart resided beneath his bare chest, Nero only questioned if Rebecca really just used the phrase, 'Oh jeez'. Cloaked in darkness once more, Nero was only left to feel how his love's pale face burnt against his skin as she told him to hush up. This only made him laugh again before he planted a kiss on Rebecca's darkened roots.

"God, I love you. G'night Angel."

"I love you too," Rebecca softly spoke as a sleepy smile spread across her lips. "Night, night, sweetie~..."

#selfshipdom #self shipping #selfship community #self insert #ship: the demon and the choir girl #self insert community #selfinsert community #self ship community #self shipping community #self ship #selfshipper #selfinserts #self inserts

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skvaderarts · 5 years ago

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Soliloquy Chapter 2:

You can check out the Masterlist Here for more links to places to read!

Otherwise, you can read the new chapter below. Enjoy!

Chapter Two: Reparations

Note: Thank you all for reading the first two parts of the story! I’m so touched by the reception the story has received from the fanbase! A huge thank you to Mallovarwen from FF.N and BeansWithBones as well as That_Random_Kid. Your comment, in particular, cracked me up and I spent several minutes laughing at it as I spent a late night working on this chapter to get this done on time. Thanks a bunch! That was just what I needed today. This chapter is for the three of you. I hope you enjoy it!

Was it possible for things to escalate any quicker than they just had? Not likely. In one single, fluid motion, Nero launched himself across the space between the van and the front steps. He grabbed Dante and Vergil by the face with his wing talons, slamming them back first into the stairs with devastating power. The sheer force of the impact was so strong that it completely stunned Dante, mentally and physically. Vergil, on the other hand, was taken completely off guard by this attack. In his state of immense anger towards the blond demoness, he had barely registered his son’s arrival before he found himself becoming violently acquainted with the front steps of his new home.

The eldest Son of Sparda jumped to his feet almost as quickly as he had been snatched off of them, somehow even angrier than he had been moments ago. He made the rapid and decisive decision to skip any and all conversation and go straight to violence, unsheathing Yamato and tossing away the scabbard in a rare act of absolution. He wasn’t going to need it for what he planned to do next.

Unsure as to what the commotion was all about, Nico was just about to exit the van as the girls and Morrison onboarded, shouting for her to get clear. There was about to be enough collateral damage as it was, and they didn’t feel like adding the wily mechanic or her mobile workspace to that list. Or themselves, for that matter. Nico slammed the gas and threw the clutch into reverse, launching the van backward at a speed rapid enough to give everyone within it whiplash and vertigo simultaneously. And her timing couldn’t have been any better considering what happened next.

Nero unsheathed his beloved sword Red Queen from his back and revved the exceed throttle in both a preparatory action and a not so playful taunt. The blade glowed a vibrant red, the once gleaming metal now searing hot and ready to melt anything in its path like butter. Vergil’s own blade glowed a sinister shade of dark blue before bursting into blinding black and blue flames as he entered his own Devil Trigger state. The two descendants of Sparda leered at one another ragefully before launching themselves at jet propelled speeds towards one another, their flame coated blades connecting in an earth (and ear) shattering display of destructive power. Blue and red flames blasted skyward and out across the pavement in a wide arc around them, scorching everything in their path. The attack carried a powerful shockwave with it a half-second later, rattling the windows of several nearby buildings and vehicles. Dante shook his head, his ears and head still ringing from Nero’s initial slam attack. He leaped to his feet and over the wall of flames that would have stopped just shy of the front door to the office, and landed out of harm’s way. The younger Son of Sparda cracked his neck (mostly to relocate it) and groaned, shaking his head as he entered the fray. He needed to stop this before they leveled a whole city block or killed each other. Or more importantly, destroyed his office. Again.

Vergil and Nero planted their taloned feet into the cobblestone ground, tearing it up out of the earth as they pushed hard against one another, blades locked and sparking from the sheer friction of the contact between them. As Vergil bore down on the younger man, Nero slammed his blade against Yamato’s hard, breaking their blade connection and stepping backward, using the brief window provided by the lack of contact to deliver a brutal double footed kick to his father’s chest. The eldest twin flew back and slammed against the pavement, cracking several pavers and peeling them up as he slid against the hard ground. Vergil exhaled sharply, gritting his razor-sharp demonic teeth as he rapidly regained his footing and surged forward again, recalling Yamato’s sheath to his free hand. Okay, so maybe he was going to need it after all...

He slashed the blade down towards the broadside of Nero’s blade and the younger man blocked it, sliding back a few feet from the force of the sliding charge attack. Suddenly, Vergil rapidly sheathed the blade and withdrew it again, a black ball of darkness and precision cuts rocketing towards Nero. The youngest descent of Sparda stepped wide to avoid the phantom slashes, noting that Vergil now stood directly in his path. How on earth had he just done that?! Vergil pressed towards him with a deadly barrage of thrusts and slashes that he just barely withstood, his eyes not even remotely able to keep up with every swipe. For every perceivable movement, there seemed to be several dozen more slashes that he couldn’t process, his father’s movements causing an afterimage that was disorienting and hard to combat. He needed to act. Now!

Nero pushed forward and broke loose as he slashed upwards, launching them both skyward. He pirouetted in a series of arcing upward slashes, gaining additional altitude before using one of his demonic wing arms to grasp Vergil around the waist and send him careening towards the ground at speeds nearly fast enough to cause reentry burn. As soon as the older twin made impact with the cobblestone street, Nero streaked downward in a barreling spin, slamming down on him. Vergil managed to counter the attack at the very last second and sent Nero spiraling back into the side of the stone staircase, his back making impact with the wrought iron bars and bending them with a loud metal screech. Nero yelped, exiting his Devil Trigger as he gasped for breath in surprise and discomfort. If he were a weaker being, he would probably have just broken several bones from that impact alone. Just as Vergil was closing the space between them, Dante sent a shockwave comprised of several red beams of demonic energy slamming into him at a blistering speed, knocking his twin flat onto his back. Vergil sat up and moved to collect himself, but found his younger twin standing in front of him. Dante planted his boot firmly against Vergil’s chest, forcing him onto his back on the pavement again with enough force to shake a few more bricks loose. The twin in red then pointed his blade down at him and his gun in Nero’s general direction, not so subtly implying that this fight was now over and that he was ready to take either of them to task if they attempted to resume it.

“Alright, enough of this already!” Dante yelled at them both. He was clearly not amused. “Nero, feel like telling me why the hell I probably have a concussion right now?!”

Nero groaned in irritation and attempted to peel himself out of the metal bars that he found himself embedded into. No such luck. “Gee, I don’t know, Dante,” He yelled back, clearly no less pissed than when this had all started,” Maybe because I just body slammed your sorry ass head first through your front steps?! Because if I was in a guessing mood, I’d say that’s why your empty head probably hurts right now!”

Dante let out a sound somewhere between a growl and snarl and fired a round from Ebony up into the air, for once not entertained by his nephew’s spitfire attitude. Maybe it was the rapid onset of the massive headache that he could feel creeping its way into his head (and the gunfire that had just made it several times worse), but he was not in the mood for this shit right now. “I’m not playing around, Nero. What the hell is your damage this time? You have a few screws loose or something?”

The young man with the white hair used both of his hands to pry the bars apart and slipped loose, using his newfound freedom to stand up and approach Dante. He left Red Queen laying on the ground, but the younger Son of Sparda kept his guard up. The younger man more than likely had Blue Rose on himself somewhere. He came to a stop less than three feet from his uncle, breathing heavily and probably still banged up from his rapid meet and greet with gravity a few moments ago. “What’s my damage, Dante?” Nero retorted defiantly,” Maybe it’s the fact that you’ve been gone for like two fucking months and I thought you were dead! Or maybe the fact that this asshole,” Nero gestured towards his father who was still firmly planted under Dante’s boot on the ground,” is just walking around like he didn’t unleash some blood-sucking demon plant from hell and destroy a whole goddamn city because he got bored or upset or some shit! Do you have any idea, any idea at all, how crazy shit has been since you jumped your crazy ass into hell and left me up here to fix everything?! Any idea how much sleep I’ve lost wondering if your stupid old ass was ever coming back?!”

Nero leaned forward and put a hand on his upper thigh, breathing more rapidly and unsteadily than he had been a moment before. He reached up with his free hand and wiped his eyes, trailing the shimmering remnants of tears he hadn’t yet shed across his face. He trembled ever so slightly before looking back up at Dante, the tears he had tried to blink away now running freely down his face in thin ribbons. He sniffed, trying to regain his composure but failing before the anger left him and he spoke in a quieter, more anguished tone of voice. “... Do you have any idea how worried about you I’ve been, Dante?” Nero was clearly on the verge of falling apart as he spoke. He was well past his emotional limit for the day.” I thought I was never going to see you again, you fucking prick! You can’t just pull some shit like that and leave me here alone!”

Any and all anger and irritation that Dante had left in him dissipated instantly. Nero’s trembling intensified and he shuddered, trying and failing to compose himself. He wiped his face yet again in an attempt to hide the fact that he was near to breaking down and crying, but any hope of hiding how he truly felt was completely gone at this point. Dante felt a powerful wave of guilt wash over him as he took a step forward and placed his hand on his nephew’s shoulder, completely at a loss for words. “... Nero…”

In a move that took Dante totally off guard, Nero misinterpreted his attempt to calm him for an invitation and embraced him, burying his tear-stained face into the older man’s shoulder. Now free of the ability to see Dante’s reaction, he allowed himself to release his emotions fully, stifling his pained sobs against his uncle’s battle-worn leather coat. Dante stood for a moment in surprise before opting to give the younger man a few tentative pats on the shoulder. He had never seen Nero so upset and he wasn’t at all equipped to deal with this. But regardless, he hated knowing he had caused this.

Vergil had risen to his feel once again during the commotion, having been freed from his place under his twin’s boot. Although he wanted to be furious with him for what he had just done, the eldest Son of Sparda found himself incapable of doing so. He found himself mesmerized by the scene unfolding before him, unsure of how to proceed or process how he felt about seeing Nero in such a state. He felt… something, but he wasn’t sure what word to put to it, and that made him uncomfortable, to say the least. Thankfully, after a long, painful moment, Nero collected himself and pulled away from Dante, thoroughly done with this entire situation. He turned away and walked towards the front steps, sitting down on them and letting out a long, steadying breath before making eye contact with his uncle again. “... Just don’t pull something like that again, or I’ll come down there and personally beat your ass myself. You got it?”

Dante shook his head and scoffed lightly, a look of semi sad bemusement crossing his face. “Whatever you say, kid.”

Nero growled and pointed at him as if to emphasize his point. “How many times do I have to tell you to stop calling me that shit, old man?! We’ve been through this!”

Dante laughed as Nero groaned in displeasure. The younger man then turned to Vergil who was watching his whole debacle, entirely lost as to what to say or do at this point. “And as for you, douchebag,” Nero said in a manner so matter of fact that the casual passer-by might actually mistake that was his father’s name,” What the fuck do you think you’re doing back here after all that shit you pulled in Redgrave?”

Vergil repressed the urge to roll his eyes, half amused and half befuddled by his son’s outrageous behavior. “My apologies, but every reservation in the underworld was taken, so I had to resort to plan B.”

Nero stared at Vergil, thoroughly unamused by his father’s answer. He glanced towards Dante and gestured towards Vergil, disregarding the older twin’s sarcastic comeback. “Does he actually think he’s funny?”

Dante chuckled under his breath, shrugging playfully. “Who knows? You’d have to ask him. I hope not, though, because he’s definitely not.”

“Quiet. Both of you.” Vergil virtually growled at them both as he headed towards the steps,” I’ve had enough pleasantries for one lifetime. If I am not mistaken, before this little mishap occurred, you were going to show me around, were you not, Dante?”

Dante held up his hands in an act of surrender before following his twin to the bottom of the steps. Nero took his sweet time standing up, clearly trying to test Vergil’s already depleted patience reserves. After he moved, Nero glanced over at the van. It had lodged itself in a corner between the Devil May Cry agency building and the building it was connected to diagonally. The seemingly indestructible vehicle had more than likely lodged itself there during the blast. Morrison and the girls were disembarking. Going to check on them seemed like a decent idea. “You're just mad you lost again.” He said as he headed over towards the car.

Vergil glanced back over his shoulder, clearly incensed by the comment. “I won’t lose next time, child.”

“Uh-huh. Sure. Whatever you say.” Nero shouted over his shoulder before jogging off towards the van. Vergil leered in disapproval before turning back towards his twin. Dante was repressing a snicker. “You’re the reason he’s like this, you do realize that.”

At that comment, Dante burst into an almost hysterical fit of laughter. “Oh no, he was like that when I found him, Vergil! That attitude is all your fault! I guess the hardass gene comes from your side of the gene pool.”

Vergil shook his head and spared Nero a final glance before stepping towards the front door. “Just open the godforsaken front door, Dante!”

-~-

For the first time in what seemed like decades, the front office was actually clean. Considering the fact that Lady and Trish had more than likely been waiting here for Dante to return, that wasn’t too shocking to the youngest Son of Sparda, but it still wasn’t something he was accustomed to seeing. It wasn’t so much that he hated to clean (which he kind of did) or that he enjoyed living in squalor, it was just that he rather do literally anything else than tidy up around the office. His desk was still in the exact same place that he’d left it, and no effort had been put into redecorating since he’d left. Even the seemingly indestructible jukebox was still functional. Well, presumably. There was no power at the moment, so they couldn’t check.

While Dante checked his desk to make sure that everything was still in order, Vergil stalked around the office. The eldest of the two twins seemed to be examining the space quietly, assessing things for himself. Considering the events of the last few minutes -if not the last few days- Dante was just glad that things were so calm once again. It was good for his mental state. And the headache that he still hadn’t shaken.

Thanks, Nero.

As if he had heard his name called or something, the front doors to the office opened a moment later and in walked Nero, seemingly calm and collected again. Despite the emotionally charged fight that had taken place less than fifteen minutes prior, he seemed to be in high spirits. But then again, beating the ever-loving hell out of Vergil did that to a person sometimes. He dared even call it therapeutic.

The younger man walked across the room and placed his blade onto one of the weapon mounts on the wall before flopping down into the desk chair, folding his legs up onto the desk. Dante gave him a sideways glance, razing an eyebrow before grabbing the back of the chair and catapulting Nero from it, sending the white-haired youth rolling across the floor. Nero collected himself and stood up, repressing the urge to snicker to himself at Dante’s response. Somehow he just knew he’d do something like that. “Ya know, you could’ve just asked me to stand up.”

Dante spared him a glance from his position at the desk. He had taken Nero’s place in the chair and was filing through a stack of old mail, shaking his head at the number of bills he’d received. “Oh, I know I could’ve.”

Nero scoffed playfully and walked over to one of the couches, flopping down onto it. He stretched his arms out over his head and let his legs hang over the armrest, seemingly making himself comfortable. A moment later, every electronic device in the house came roaring back to life, producing a litany of loud noises. Vergil glanced up from his current place on the stairs, his eyes scanning the space for the source of the noise. After locating it, he filed past Nero on the couch and walked over to the tv. It was older, perhaps some sort of cathode display? Regardless, Vergil didn’t plan on watching it, and the noise was interrupting his otherwise serene mood.

The younger man raised his head and glanced over at Vergil, semi startled by his presence. “Where the hell were you this whole time? The bathroom?”

Vergil didn’t bother to look up from his place in front of the tv. “I do not know where the bathroom even is in this place, child.”

Nero was going to make a snarky comeback when a thought occurred to him. He turned to face Dante, the older man still going through his mail with a discontent look on his face. “Hey, Dante, I have a question.”

Dante spared him a quick glance before returning his focus to the envelopes. Some of them had past-due notices on them in red letters. Wonderful. “You and me both. For starters, how the hell is the power even on right now? I have at least twelve power bills in this stack alone with past due stickers on them!”

Nero stood up and headed past Dante’s office towards the back kitchen. Now that the power was on, he could find the refrigerator. “Don’t worry about that. I had Morrison take care of it on his way out of town. Said something about him and the others needing to check something out in the next town over. Nico’s checking out the van. She’ll probably be in soon.”

A look of surprise crossed Dante’s face at the younger man’s statement. He glanced between Nero and the pile of bills on the table, shuffling them until he located the most recent bill. He scanned over it briefly and then glanced back over at Nero, somehow even more bewildered than he had been a moment ago. “You know she’s going to kill you for that, right?”

Nero returned to the room empty-handed. The kitchen had been a bust. The closest thing to food in this house were the two empty pizza boxes on the front desk. Somehow he was more irritated with himself for expecting a different outcome than he was about the fact that he was practically starving to death from the lack of sustenance. “It’s fine, I talked to her about it. The water and gas should be back on, too. Just keep your fucking bills paid this time, damn it!”

Dante shook his head in disbelief before shooting Nero an appreciative glance. He was the only person that he could think of who would bodyslam someone into the pavement one moment and then pay their utility bills the next. Nero was truly something else. “I’m never going to understand where you got the cash from to do that. I mean, don’t you have two kids to feed?”

Nero held up three fingers, shaking his head. “Last time I checked, it was three. And I said don’t worry about it, ok? I’ve got this.”

At that, Vergil gave up on figuring out which of the seemingly endless knobs on this arcane contraption actually turned it off and unplugged it from the wall, solving the simple issue in the most Vergil way possible. No, he couldn’t have just heard him correctly. “... Did you just… You have three children, Nero?”

Nero watched Vergil approach from across the room, having nearly forgotten that he was still in the common area due to his silence. For some undisclosed reason, he was the only person present who insisted upon toting his blade around the building as if he thought that something would attack him here. Perhaps he did think that, considering how much time he’d supposedly spent in the underworld from what Nero had heard. Nero took a moment to consider the question, debating the merits of letting Vergil know about his personal life. But then again, what harm could come from him knowing? “Yea, three boys. Kyrie brought them home from the orphanage a while back since they didn’t have anywhere else to go while the repairs were going on. When it was time to send them back, she couldn’t make herself let them go so we just decided to keep 'em’.” Nero drifted off for a moment, recalling the fond memory. He then returned his attention to Dante.” But yea. So, why doesn’t he know where the bathroom is? Like, you’ve basically lived here forever, right? I don’t get it.”

And awkward silence blanked the room at the twins both considered the ramifications of such an innocent question. Vergil allowed himself to lean against the desk, earning him a raised eyebrow from his younger twin. If he didn’t know better, he would have assumed that Vergil was attempting to relax. But was he even physically capable of doing that? Dante wasn’t banking on it.

“Because I’ve never been here before,” Vergil answered succinctly. It was the truth, but admittedly, he didn’t grasp the significance of the statement until after he’d spoken the words. In at least two decades of Dante calling this office home, Vergil had never come to visit. Admittedly, they had not been on good (or even amicable terms) until now, but it had never occurred to him, much like it hadn’t occurred to him to come and visit, that he hadn’t made an effort to spend any meaningful time here and try to work things out with his younger twin.

Nero glanced between them, a look of disbelief and disappointment on his face. “How is that even- you know what? Nevermind. I’m not even gonna ask.” Nero shook his head before addressing Vergil again.”Why’d you wanna know anyway? What, did you think I was too young to have more than one kid or something?” Nero teased the subject casually. He didn’t honestly care what Vergil -or anyone else for that matter- thought about the subject. They were good children and he enjoyed having them around, despite the fact that they seemed to eat their weight in food on a daily basis.

Vergil seemed unfazed by the response he’d been given. “Yes. I did think that. At least, biologically.”

Dante laughed sarcastically at his brother’s response, drawing the puzzled gazes of both of his relatives. “Oh, your one to talk, Vergil. You did the same thing, and they are probably even closer together than his kids are!”

If looks could kill, Dante’s soul would have literally flown out of his body and plunged straight into hell. Vergil stared at him with a look he could only describe as blind horror and rage as he tried to process the ramification of Dante’s statement in front of Nero. This was not the time to have this conversation. Nero looked at them both in obvious confusion, completely unsure as to how to process his uncle’s statement. “Dante, what the fuck are you talking about?”

Dante felt a profound sense of regret wash over him as he realized the can of worms that he had just opened. A quick glance at Vergil confirmed his initial suspicion that his twin had seemingly turned a few shades paler. The eldest Son of Sparda had hoped that the statement would go over his son’s head, but Nero wasn’t quite as clueless as he’d hoped. There was no avoiding this topic of conversation, then.

Vergil let out a long sigh and accepted his defeat, along with the inevitable ass-kicking he was certainly about to receive. Additionally, he accepted the fact that he deserved it as well. He had never related to a defendant on trial so much in his entire life as he did at this very moment. “... You have a sibling.”

Nero stared at him blankly, every gear in his brain slamming to a stop and his cognitive abilities fled him. The silence that fell over the room was physically painful. After a prolonged period of time enduring the mounting sense of discomfort, Vergil decided to stop dodging the inevitable fight that was about to unfold and elaborate on his previous statement. “Moreover... you have a brother. The two of you are already well-acquainted from what I understand.”

The Sons of Sparda watched Nero scour his mind, combing it for a possible candidate. And they could also see the precise moment that he hit the jackpot. Nero’s state of utter disbelief was as threatening as it was uncomfortable to be on the receiving end of, and as he exhaled a tentative breath, he closed his eyes and nodded slowly, seeming to understand before he even asked. “It’s fucking V, isn’t it?”

Vergil nodded once as if not moving would somehow keep the eruption of emotion threatening to escape Nero at bay. Nero took a deep breath and growled under breath, unsure of how to process what he had just learned. He didn’t need Vergil’s confirmation. In some small measure, he just knew something had been different about him from the moment they had first met in his bedroom in Fortuna three months ago. Vergil simply waited for his son’s response. He did not fear Nero, but he acknowledged the destructive power that he possessed and the fact that he may very well never speak to him again after learning the truth. But a part of him dared hope for a different outcome despite everything.

“I guess I should rephrase that, shouldn’t I,” Nero said, a certain uncanny darkness tinting his tone of voice,” I had a brother. At least until whatever the hell you did to him happened.” The calm fury in his voice made the statement carry so much additional weight that it was unreal. “So unless whatever you did to him you can undo, I guess I’ve been downgraded to only child status again. I can’t fucking believe you.”

Vergil dwelled on Nero’s statement in silence. He seemed to consider something for a long time before carefully speaking. “... I never intended for him to meet such a fate. In truth, his involvement in my affairs was never planned from the start and if I could undo what has been done…” Vergil stopped dead in his tracks, a metaphorical lightbulb coming on in his head. In that very instant, something had occurred to him. An idea that he could not yet elaborate on, but also one that might have potential nonetheless. Dante and Nero both looked at him questioningly, wondering what part of his mind had come undone at that moment.

Vergil adjusted his coat and his posture, no longer leaning against the edge of the desk. He nodded to himself once before speaking, as if to confirm something to himself. “... There may be something that could be done about what you suggested. But first, I need to find her. It has been some time now, and I do not know if she still resides where I last visited her.”

Dante sat up straight in his chair, now more invested in this conversation than he had been before his brother had dared suggest something so outlandish.”Her who?”

Nero seemed to share Dante’s sentiment, although in a less agreeable state. Vergil sighed. Of all the bridges he had burned over the years, he never thought this would be the one he would come to regret the most. “Magnolia”.

Note: Thank you so much for reading this chapter! Hopefully, I haven’t lost any of you, but as I mentioned before this is a cannon divergent au. A while back, I did a questionnaire, and over half of the participants said that this was an idea that they personally liked, so I can only hope that you will keep reading to see what happens next! I hope to do two more chapters next week, one on Wednesday and one on Friday, but at the very least the Friday release is always guaranteed for this fic. In the meantime, I hope you enjoyed this chapter and if you don’t like the direction, I totally understand. Just please, don’t send me hate mail. Thanks!

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sethrine-writes · 6 years ago

Text

Daughter of a Devil - Ch. 12

Main Characters: Father!Dante & Daughter!Reader

Words: 1377

Warnings: Light Angst

Summary: Being a parent wasn’t easy, nor was there such thing as being perfect at it. Good news for Dante, seeing as how he doesn’t have the slightest idea in hell what to do with a child. Sometimes, he was certain that fighting off a horde of demons was a far better match than keeping up with his own daughter. Well, at least he wasn’t going down without a fight.

A/N: The second part with Nero has arrived!!

Fun fact - This fic is roughly 8 years old, and it was around the time that I was just getting into the 4th dmc game. It’s why I have about 5-6 chapters that follow the plot of that particular game. Fresh in my mind, and all.

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Chapter 12 - Open Up the Heart (19 yrs.)

“You know, my Dad used to tell me this story about when I was younger. He said a man who had been corrupted by a demon took me from him and carried me away to this dark, demonic tower that had risen out of the ground.”

Your eyes roamed over the looming castle and all its cold, icy glory, fully aware of Nero’s clear blue gaze watching you with a careful expression.

It was strange for you to be so open with something so personal that it had taken Dante many years to get over the incident and even longer for him to even tell you what had happened. Regardless, Fortuna Castle had brought your father’s words to the forefront of your mind, and you couldn’t quite stop the story that tumbled from your lips.

“I was only about a year old, then, and my old man had been hiding me away from the world, afraid he was going to lose me after my mom died. Didn’t really work, I guess, ‘cause I was used as bait to lure my father deeper into the tower in order to complete some demonic ritual or something. Funny thing about it was that the one who had taken me was ordered to by my Dad’s brother, my uncle.”

You paused then, sighing and shaking off a shiver as you continued forward, kicking up some of the snow layering the ground.

It had been so long ago; part of you wished you could have been older so you could remember everything that happened. Dante had been through so much while you were very young, so much pain and distress over you and your mother’s safety, only to lose her and very nearly losing you. Part of you wished you could have been older so that you would have been able to comfort him when he needed it.

He may have played the tough-guy act and knew that persona well, but you knew so much more behind the mask…

“How did that end, for the both of you?”

Surprised, you looked over at Nero who was still focused on the castle ahead, but his tone held interest over what you had told him. You had somehow pulled him into the story; it was only courteous of you to finish what you had started.

“Well, apparently the ritual had been completed after a few false starts of which opened the portal to Hell. Turns out the lackey that took me had planned on betraying my uncle from the start and had used him and my father into gaining entrance to the demon world in hopes of attaining the legendary Sparda’s power. I, at this point, had been stowed away somewhere safe in the tower. My uncle may have been obsessed with obtaining power, but there was a part of him that still cared for family.

“Anyways, my father had to stop this demon of a man, and while he did so, there was this woman who had been after the lackey because it was her father, a whole other story, mind you. In the end, she was able to find me and keep me safe while my father battled both the demon lackey and my uncle, as his goal had been the same.”

Stopping in your tracks, you looked over the castle for a long moment, contemplative.

“My dad won, in the end, but even winning has its prices.”

You paused once more, looking up at Nero and giving a sad, yet bright smile.

“I’ve never known my uncle, because, on that day, my Dad sealed him away beyond the gates of hell.”

Nero frowned at the almost empty look your once glowing eyes had shown. It was obvious the topic, though not embedded in your memory, was rather touchy and a story better left in the past. Despite that, you had continued and told him the whole thing as if it were nothing. You were a much stronger woman than he had initially made you out to be, despite how the both of you had met.

Wind, harsh and biting, blew past suddenly, and you, having already zipped up your coat and lowered the arms that had been rolled up to your elbows, were still affected by the bitter icy touch that found its way through your clothes. You tried to force back a shiver, but your efforts were unsuccessful as the tremor wracked your form.

A burst of warmth engulfed your body without warning, and upon looking up, you were surprised to find Nero much closer than before and without his coat. You wanted to give it back, but he didn’t seem as bothered by the cold as you were.

Well, he certainly was a gentleman.

“I was an orphan when Kyrie and her family took me in, gave me a home. I wondered, for a time, why my parents never wanted me. I figured it was because I was…too different for them to handle.”

He gave an almost shunning look to his right arm, the arm you had noticed he had been trying to hide from your view since having met. It wasn’t too hard to notice, but the way he attempted to keep you on his left, ensuring you didn’t have any view of his right side as if he were afraid it would somehow scare you spoke a lot about his character as well as how he was raised.

You reached out and took hold of his arm, holding steadfast as Nero gave a severe flinch and tried to pull away. You gave the half-demon a determined though calm look and, with a gentle tug, pulled the red sleeve of his hoodie out of the way to reveal the dimly glowing red and blue swirled hide of his arm.

With gentle strokes, you traced the glowing blue lines that seeped into smooth, almost leather-like skin tainted a deep red color. You had known from the start that he was quite different than those demons that had been running rampant throughout the city. He was special, in a sense, and despite what he may have thought of himself for having something others may have feared

“You may be different, but that doesn’t mean it’s a bad thing. We all have something that we hide, Nero. But hiding what’s essentially a big part of you…well, it will ultimately be your downfall, and it will never bring you happiness. Embrace what makes you different, and screw the assholes that can’t see you as the person that you are.”

You gave him a smile that bordered on a smirk, completely catching him off guard at the sudden fire that had found its way back to your eyes.

“If that’s the case, then what are you hiding?” Nero asked, his voice shaking ever so slightly.

Once again looking over the scene of the snow-covered Fortuna Castle, you gave a small sigh of apprehension.

“Well, I’m-“

A horrible screeching sound reached both your ears, causing you to flinch and turn toward whatever was making the sound. Just behind you, a cluster of five Frosts had gathered together, seemingly forming for a group attack. You gave a frustrated sound, both from being interrupted and from the intense cold that surrounded you.

You were definitely a summer person, not a winter, and at that moment you just wanted to get this stupid mission over with and be warm in your bed back at home.

“Tell ya what, whoever kills the most Frosts can have the first hit on the bastard we’re after. You game?”

You looked over at Nero who now sported an excited sort of smile that was well on its way to being a full-fledged smirk. You had already given him the first strike as part of your current deal. However, his current challenge was too good of a chance to pass up.

With a smirk of your own, you pulled out Rein and twisted the gun in your hand a few times, catching it by the handle and setting yourself in a fighting stance.

“Time ta rock!”

In the end, you still didn’t have the first hit on your dear old man. As long as you had the last one, you didn’t mind.

#dmc #dmc4 #devil may cry #dmc4 nero #reader #reader-insert #devil may cry 4 nero #dmc4 dante #dante sparda #dmc dante #Daughter of a Devil

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iblue-kitzune · 5 years ago

Text

Of Rising Calamities Beyond the Cosmos: Chapter 6

“Okay Kid, can you run that by me again? I don’t think I heard you over the music.”

“Jane and your daughter went out on an errand three days ago and we haven’t heard anything from them since,” Nero said. “I tried calling Jane on her phone two days ago, but she didn’t answer me,” he continued with a frown on lips. “Did the same thing with Kagome...and I, unfortunately, ended up with the same results.”

Tony looked up and paused the song that was playing on his phone. Then he slowly took his earbuds out, sat both it and the device down on the table in front of him, and massaged the side of his temples with a sigh.

‘Wonderful...just wonderful...’

There was a small headache he could feel forming now, right along the bridge of his nose and near his brows, and not all of it had to do with him forgetting to eat breakfast this morning. Hopefully Pepper doesn’t decide to kill him once she and Morgan come back from the store. “Yeah, I thought I misheard you there for a second but apparently I didn’t. Ugh!, Shame on me for wanting to be wrong just this once,” the short brown haired man said that last sentence to himself with a wince. “Did you look everywhere for them?” he reclined back in his chair, laced his fingers together, and sat them on top of his lap, looking intently at each and every one of his seven guests sitting on the couch, covered in cuts and bruises.

“We did. We searched through every island in the surrounding area,” Lady spoke up from her spot on Nero’s right tiredly. “Then we retraced our steps back to Snow Lunar Island yesterday morning to see if they made it back to the suite yet, and they didn’t.”

Tony narrowed his eyes. “Are you sure? Did you check every island thoroughly?”

“What do you mean by “Did you check every island, thoroughly”? Of course we did! We’ve spent two days combing through all six in that area and we found nothing!” a seed of irritation slipped through Alvin’s voice as he said this. “Unless you’re trying to tell us that there’s another island out there hidden somewhere?” he folded his arms.

A smile appeared on Tony’s lips as he unlaced his hands and sat up. “Actually...” he got up and walked out of the living room, much to their confusion. “There is one. There's another island that’s a bit farther away from the other six, and it’s considered to be the biggest one of them all,” he came back into the room a minute later with a red and black laptop in his hands and sat it down on the table in front of the group, already turned on with a few windows displayed on the screen.

“The biggest one?” a young woman with long blond hair in two pigtails and pale green eyes repeated, clutching onto a small purple and pink plush toy with horns and green eyes in her hands.

“A seventh island huh? That’s...interesting,” a young man with long spiky black hair and amber eyes said in slight awe.

Tony clicked on a few keys, that lit up blue, and brought up a small map hologram. “Yep! The biggest one!” he flipped through the islands, “Let’s see...Snow Lunar Island, Sun-fort Blaze Island, Deepwood Crystal Island, High Gold-rails Island, Night Maze Island, Glimmer Shardz Island...” and listed each of their names off. “Ah! Here it is!” the short brown haired man grinned in triumph as he found the seventh one, located over on the other side of the ocean near one of the mainland, and clicked on it.

Within mere seconds, a wall of text filled with information about the island showed up next.

Lady squinted her eyes and zeroed in on the name of the island that was highlighted in bold orange. “New Stargate Island...? That’s a pretty normal-looking name for an island...well, compared to the other six at least,” she said with a raised brow. Then she looked down and continued reading. “Huh? It says here that the island was made through the combined efforts of the Stark Enterprise and their CEO, the M.A.N.O.P.I. and their CEO, the King of New Asgard along with her Gatekeeper, the King of Rieze Maxia along with his Prime Minister, the Talim Medical School, and Laforte Research Center, Dr. Selvig and his team of scientists, and the Five Great Spirits of Earth...” Lady trailed off in shock. "Two years ago!?"

“That’s a buttload of people to come together for one project. But then again, it was an island they were building after all. It must’ve taken a lot of time, money, and resources for them to come up with something like this,” Darcy remarked, finally speaking up for once. “And they finished it within two years too? Damn...that is actually pretty freaking impressive I’m not gonna lie.”

“It went in development at the beginning of 5016 actually,” Tony corrected her.

"And it's 5024 now..." Lady stated matter-of-factually and folded her arms. "But since the island was completed two years ago, which was in 5022, I'd still say that's impressive. It took them six years to create and build a whole artificial island," she finished with a smirk.

“Gaius, Rowen, and almost of all Fennmont were involved in this too?” the black spiky haired man mumbled with a blink. “They never mentioned anything to me about this in the past,” he turned to Alvin, the light blond haired woman in pigtails, and the plush toy. “What about you Alvin? And you Elize? Teepo?”

Elize and Teepo looked at their friend and shook their heads. “No, they never told us anything either, Jude.”

“Same here I’m afraid,” Alvin unfolded his arms and gave the younger spiky dark haired man a small shrug.

“That’s because Pepper and the others kept the whole thing under wraps after it was shortly "announced" back in 5015 on November 1st, and only then, they entrusted a few select sum to keep quiet on it,” the group snapped their attention back on Tony. “Sure the Stark Enterprise may have said that they had a new project in mind and that it was going to be a collaborative one, but they were pretty vague on what it was going to be about, who they were going to collaborate with, and other things.”

“So it was intentional then?"

"And I suppose you were chosen to be a part of that select sum, right?”

“Y...yes...” Tony looked slightly hesitant as he answered Lady and Jude's questions.

"And the public, which includes us as well, is not supposed to know about this being finished just yet..." Alvin asked, looking at Tony. “Am I right?” when the man said nothing in response, the ex-mercenary continued. "Which means you pretty much failed on your part."

Tony closed his eyes in defeat and sweat-dropped. "Guess I did huh?"

"Hey don't worry Mr. Iron Man, we won't tell anyone!" Teepo leaned forward with a grin on his face, which caused the short brown haired man to open his eyes and do a double take. "Especially Mrs. Stark! We’ll keep it a secret! Our little secret!" he declared with an enthusiastic voice, making Tony sweat drop again.

"That sounds so reassuring coming from a weirdly odd talking magic doll like you but sure, whatever,” he laughed once he got over his surprise. “Go ahead and knock yourself out...Teepo."

Teepo let out a small “whoop!” as he freed himself from Elize’s arms and flew around the room, as well as everyone else’s heads, in a circle.

Nero narrowed his eyes and gave him a serious look.

"Alright, in that case, you might as well just tell us what the island is for then. What's its purpose?"

Tony sat back down in his chair, closed his eyes, and scratched the side of his beard in thought.

“Well...it was created to be a sanctuary for some of the more powerful and rarest of spirits, monsters, and animals that previously had a hard time living amongst us folks on the mainland because of the few...special abilities they’ve possessed. And some of their special abilities can, unfortunately, leave a negative effect on the land and damage it,” he explained. “Not only that, but they were a few less than unsavory assholes out there who hunted these poor creatures into near extinction in the past for many years until we found them and stopped them for good,” the man added with a frown. “By doing that, we were able to save what beings were still left alive. And by the time New Stargate Island was finished, we took the survivors and transferred them over to the island under the agreement that they help us out with future projects that could help Earth advance even further."

"Advance in what areas if I may be so bold as to ask? From what I've learned and seen over the years since visiting this world—especially in my readings about it beforehand, Earth has come pretty far in a lot of things since the last three millennia or so. And it was quite the significant jump at that I heard too. So what are you guys hoping to advance more in?" Jude inquired, his amber eyes lit with so much unguarded interest and curiosity.

It was almost enough to make Tony smile.

‘Well this Jude here seems like an interesting guy. Bright, curious, intelligent, has a passion for learning, and is just an overall bookworm it seems...’ Tony inwardly shook his head in amusement and with laughter. ‘If he and Jane ever meet, if they haven’t already yet, the two will definitely get along for sure,’ he opened his eyes and looked at the group, though most of his attention was mainly focused on the black spiky haired man.

“{Vegetation, herbs, medicine, armory, technology, and more. What else is new with you humans and non-humans.}”

The sudden new female voice made everyone except Tony jump and they looked around to see where it was coming from. Then they all gasped in shock when a small green fairy with blue eyes surrounded in thick black rings appeared before them, hovering in the air, and without a word, she claimed a spot on the table next to the laptop and waved at the only guy was not in shock.

Tony just sighed and looked up. “F.R.I.D.A.Y., why didn’t you tell me Celebi was here?”

“She just got here, Mr. Stark. I was going to alert you, but it seems she decided to bypass my security and let herself in,” the AI answered.

The man rolled his eyes, though a bit playfully from what it seems like to the group.

“As usual and doesn’t even bother to use the door like some of her friends do whenever they decide to visit,” Tony lightly snorted. “I should probably get used to it huh...?” he looked at the mythical pokemon in front of him. “Okay Princess Pixie, not that I’m happy to see you here because I actually am—but it’s still early here, like nine a.m. early, so what do I owe the visit for?”

“{We have a poisoned half-spirit woman named Jane in our care on the island,}” Celebi started, immediately gaining the people behind her their attention. “{She and her niece along with a griffin, who turned out to be a tall man with long black hair and wearing some kind of weird clothing and armor, arrived to us three days ago covered in injuries,}” she explained. “{The other pokemon took care of their injuries but they had no success in curing the girl from the poison. Right now I have Zoroark and the others looking for your daughter, Absol, and her group to pick them up from their trip to finding ingredients for an antidote.}”

“Because of this news, I’m gonna let it slide that no one —except for you and your legendary friends, the monsters, spirits, and animals as well as Lucario and his friends with special permission given from me because of their situation— is supposed to be on the island since it hasn’t been announced open to the public just yet.”

Celebi’s antennas and her wings drooped at the man’s look.

“{I’m sorry.}”

He shook his head. “Don’t worry about it. Who’s watching over Jane right now?”

“{Misdreavus’ group and the tall guy,}” she replied.

Tony rubbed his chin with a hum. “So you came here to see if I have something on me to help her.”

Celebi smiled. “{Actually, I was hoping to bring you to the island with your stuff and cure her there,}” she said.

“You know what...” Tony picked up his laptop and turned it off, making the map hologram disappear. “Bring her, Kagome, and the guy here as fast as you can and I’ll cure Jane. It’ll be much better this way because I’ll have full access to everything in my lab,” he instructed the pokemon before getting up from his seat and grabbing his computer. “Meanwhile, I’ll call my son to see if he can fly over to the island and pick up all the pokemon there and bring them here too. I have something for them that they might like.”

“{Okay,}” the mythical psychic and grass pokemon nodded. “{I’ll let the others know once I make it back to the island,}” she told him and then added, “{Just to make sure that there won’t be any surprises when he stops by.}”

“That’s fine,” Tony turned to the group. “You guys go with her. I’ll stay here and get everything ready and set up in my lab. Can you do that?”

“Sure can!” Darcy spoke for everyone and gave Tony a mock salute as she and the others stood up from the couch.

“Just one question,” Lady said and everyone turned to her. “How are we gonna get there? Sota dropped us off here, but I’m sure he’s long gone by now and heading back to Snow Lunar Island.”

Before Tony could answer, he heard a familiar roar outside. With a small grin, he walked past the surprised group and Celebi and towards the front door. “Rayquaza’s got perfect timing! I can hear him now!” he opened the door and ran outside, immediately spotting a huge green and black serpentine dragon pokemon with red accents on the fins of his back and tail and yellow ring-like symbols running across the length of his body and on top of his head. “Hey Green Sunshine!” he called out to the dragon and flying type legendary in greeting.

Yellow eyes with black sclera met dark brown ones.

And as for his form of greeting? He immediately fired a weak multi-colored shock wave of energy in the shape of a dragon at the human man without a word.

BOOM!

“Aw damn it?!” Tony shouted as he was knocked back.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Rayquaza could never get tired of this, firing weak Dragon Pulse attacks at Tony every time they greet each.

Or, at least, for as long as he keeps calling him by that ridiculous nickname.

It may have gotten annoying in the beginning and he may have tried to freeze the man once or twice with an Ice Beam out of irritated retaliation, but he got used to it the more Tony called him “Green Sunshine”. It was an odd way of greeting someone—and the others sure thought that when he and the man started turning this into some kind of routine.

In fact, the legendary dragon always got a kick out of the man’s reactions every time he stopped by to say hello, which in this case was fire an attack at Tony and see if the guy manages to dodge it or not.

Sometimes he’d switch it up and throw two different attacks at Tony simultaneously, and other times he didn’t...

It was the variety he always looked forward to.

And today was no different, Rayquaza mused, watching Tony knock the soot and dirt off of him as the group from behind the short brown haired man stepped outside too and turned to him in shock.

“Another Legendary pokemon...”

“{Hey Rayquaza!}” Celebi, who flew out from behind the group, waved at the dragon.

Rayquaza merely glanced down at the fairy and nodded at her, acknowledging her greeting

“Phew! Guess I was slow to dodge that one this time around,” Tony coughed as he got to his feet and looked the serpentine dragon. “Hey buddy, I got a favor to ask for ya.”

“{What kind of favor?}” he descended to the ground and flicked his tail through the green grass of Tony’s front lawn.

“Think you could take Celebi and these guys here over to New Stargate Island and bring back a friend of mine named Jane?”

Rayquaza narrowed his yellow eyes and looked at the group of humans standing before him. “{Hmm...}” before he could say anything further, Celebi flew up to him and whispered something.

Without taking her eyes off the two legendaries mumbling to each other quietly, Lady leaned over to Tony’s shoulder and whispered to him. “Hey Tony, you never told us that Pokemon were real and, from what it seems, have been living among us this whole time! What’s up with that?”

“They’ve been among us for many years now. Some of them just haven’t decided to show themselves out in the open until some time last year,” he whispered back to her. “And that was purely by accident. A few of them, including Rayquaza and Celebi, appeared before me and the guys in the team in the middle of our battle with Malekith and his right hand Algrim, and saved us.”

The other six, who were listening in, looked at Tony in shock.

“Long story short, me, Clint, Bruce, Rhodey, Peter, Strange, Bucky, Rocket, and a couple of hand full of civilians in a few cities know of their existence,” he mumbled in explanation.

“And the regular pokemon?” Darcy quietly asked.

“Unlike the legendaries and mythicals, let’s just say that Lucario and the others are the visitors who’ve arrived here at the beginning of this year.”

“In other words, they’re not from this universe and are currently stuck here,” Jude stated matter-of-factually.

“Eh, yeah...” Tony confirmed with a shrug.

“{Okay...}” Rayquaza spoke up and grabbed all of their attention. “{I’ll take them to go get the girl, your niece, and the guy,}” he said, looking straight at Tony.

“Great!” the man said with a grin.

“Sweet! We get to ride on the back of a legendary dragon pokemon!” Darcy and Elize cheered in unison along with Teepo, who flew around above the two in excitement. “This is gonna be a blast!”

Nero, Lady, Alvin, and Jude sweat-dropped at their enthusiasm.

Tony, on the other hand, just laughed.

Rayquaza rolled his eyes, and with a sigh, he turned around and waited. His friend Celebi flew up and sat down on his head. Then she looked back down at the group and motioned for them to get on.

Nero stay behind a bit as the others started making their way over to the huge dragon and getting on his back. “Hey Tony...” he turned to the man and slowly pulled out a familiar blue cube, that was still inside of the transparent case, from seemingly out of nowhere. “Can you look after this for me until we get back and figure out what to do with it?”

Tony froze and looked down at the infinity stone with his eyes wide in shock. “That’s the—”

“Yeah, it’s the Tesseract. And the stone’s been causing us some problems for the last three days,” he said with a frown and held it out. “One of those problems turned out to be an old enemy of yours and the Avengers. They appeared and attacked us yesterday in the afternoon time.”

Tony narrowed his eyes, looking over the white haired man before carefully taking the case and vanishing it in his pocket dimension. “Let me guess, the Black Order?” when Nero nodded, Tony sighed and continued speaking. “So that’s why you all look beat up and bone dead tired,” he gave the younger man a hard look and folded his arms. “Alright, fine, I will. But just make sure you guys hurry up and get back here with Kagome, Jane, their friend, and the pokemon. I don’t want to hold onto this damn stone any longer than I have to and risk bringing trouble onto my property.”

“Don’t worry, I won’t let them get anywhere near here!” Nero bawled his left hand into a fist. “Not if I and the others can help it!” his eyes burned with intense determination and promise as he looked at Tony in the eyes.

“You sure?”

“Positive. All of us took an extra shot or two, maybe four, of something this morning before we left. And now we’re running purely on determination, power, energy, and a lot of caffeine if you can’t tell.”

For his part, Tony kept silent as he stared back at Nero, his eyes matching the other man’s intensity. He heard the devil hunter loud and clear, and understood him.

“Trust me, I can. But for the love of god, please don’t crash or I swear I’ll come out there to the island, in my suit, and drag every single one of your guys’ reckless behinds back here myself and blast you all to Kingdom Kong with my repulsors.”

“..........”

“Or if you can’t help but crash and burn, just make sure y’all do it here and not out there! Got it all, Kid?”

“...Yeah—”

“Nero!”

“C’mon, what’s the hold up? We’re waiting for you!”

Nero turned around to see everyone sitting on the dragon’s back, who was now giving him a look that clearly said “hurry up”. “Time to go...” he mumbled to himself as he started walking towards the legendary, and without looking back, the devil hunter threw his left hand up in a wave. “Thanks Tony!”

In just a few steps, Nero reached Rayquaza’s side and leaped high up into the air. “{Nice jump!}” he heard Celebi said from above him as he landed near the dragon’s first set of fins and took a seat in front of Lady, who was sitting ahead of the others.

‘{Finally, now we can get going,}’ Rayquaza turned his head and looked up at the sky.

Once he felt everyone grab a tight hold of either his fins or body, the Sky High Pokemon shot up into the air like a bullet and flew through the cloudy morning sky.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Tony stood there on the porch of his lawn, letting the wind ruffle through his hair and clothes as he stared up into the sky. ‘Well, time to go back inside and get everything ready for their arrival,’ he closed his eyes right as the wind died down.

The man held out his hand and channeled a bit of mana in it. Then with a quick few gestures, he began to chant the words:

“I call upon the Great Spirit of Lightning, Raiden, and the Great Spirit of Wind, Gale, to appear by my side!”

Two figures—both reaching about six-foot-ten in height, materialized in front of Tony in a bright flash of light that consisted of a single blue lightning bolt and a mini green twister, stirring up a bit of dirt in the air and making the man back up and close his eyes.

“[Why have you summoned us, Tony?]”

The short brown haired man opened his eyes back up and looked at the two great spirits hovering in front of him.

On the left was Raiden, the one who just asked Tony the question. He was a tan colored humanoid griffin with golden-yellow spiky hair and had two long bangs hanging over his intense ruby eyes—which were rimmed black on the sides, long feathered white pierced ears that stood on top of his head and bled black at the tips, huge black and white accented wings that were flapping away in the air, and a long black-blue tipped tail that was current wrapped around his waist.

He wore a white and sky blue-gold accented haori that was sleeveless on the right side, revealing his arm that was covered up by his black leather arm warmer, over a tight sleeveless black shirt and dark blue undershirt. And lastly, on his lower body he wore black dress-like pants that were stylistically cut out in middle area to reveal the dark blue-white accented tights he had on underneath, all of which was tucked into his sleek black and sky blue accented knee-high boots with armored white soles.

“[Did something happen here?]”

And hovering next to Raiden was Gale, the one who spoke up next. He was a fair skinned humanoid cabbit with long wavy emerald green hair and six lighter green colored side bangs, stormy silver eyes, long white ears that were tipped black at the ends and hanging down behind the back of his head, and a black bobtail.

He wore a dark charcoal gray and white-green striped dress hat over his head, a dark green sleeveless shirt that stopped right underneath his ribs and showed off his whole stomach—which was colored black from each side, a black and white open zip-up vest over that, deep black elbow guards with silver armor attached to them on his arms, and black gloves that were colored white on the front. And lastly, on his lower body he wore some white and black striped three-quarter pants that had a waist cape attached to it and bled green at the very bottom, and some dark charcoal gray-black accented armored boots with silver soles.

“Oh yes, something definitely did happen here,” Tony answered with a small roll of his eyes. “And quit pretending to be surprised. I sensed you two lingering around the area earlier, so I’m pretty confident that you guys overheard the whole conversation between all of us.”

“[We did,]” Gale flat-out admitted the truth, deciding not to beat around the bush now that their human companion saw right through them.

“[And it’s such a shame to hear that young and powerful Jane has fallen apart due something simple as poison,]” Raiden closed his eyes and shook his head in slight disappointment. “[I’m sure she could’ve burned it out of her system with her fire if she wanted to. She’s done it before.]”

“That may be true, but if it’s a different kind of poison she’s been afflicted with—one that I might think belongs to a certain Komocorpion Dragon species...the Purple Headed kind, then I have just necessary items here at home to take care of her.”

Gale frowned at the mention of the hybrid creature. “[Those monsters in particular, as close to extinction as they are, can be a bit bothersome. Their poisonous claws and venom can pretty deadly and will kill if you’re not too careful,]” he gritted his teeth in worried irritation.

Raiden cracked open his eyes and turned at the wind cabbit spirit. “[But...if the venom is procured under the right conditions, you can make some great medicine out of that stuff,]” he pointed out with a knowing look.

“...Or an antidote,” Tony looked down and turned away, hiding his face from Raiden and Gale. “And other things as well...” he trailed off in a strange voice. “Which is why I want you two to follow them and check on Jane to see exactly how bad her condition is.”

The two great spirits blinked and turned to each other with furrowed brows. A look of agreement seemed to pass through their eyes as they turned back to Tony and looked at him.

“[As you wish.]”

They both took off into the sky within a blink of an eye.

Tony sighed and harshly rubbed his hand over his face. ‘Ugh fucking damn it, Jane! You really got yourself in pickle this time huh...’ he cursed the woman who he cared for like a little sister in his head. ‘Just...please try to hang in there. Help is on the way!’ he slowly removed his hand and dropped it at his side, feeling extremely tired and stressed all of a sudden as he started walking back towards his mansion-like home.

“Now to make that phone call to Sota,” he mumbled as walked inside and shut the door closed, locking it behind him.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

“Talonflame...Magmar...I believe you two have done enough for now.”

The two fire types looked up, snapping their eyes open to see Misdreavus and six others trail along behind her.

The first two were pretty small. It was a female Emolga, who was an electric black and white flying squirrel with gray eyes and yellow cheek pouches, and a male Roselia, who was a light green plant-like creature with three horns on his head, roses for hands —the left one being blue while the right one was red—, and black eyes. And they were both sitting on the back of a female Liepard, who was a purple and yellow leopard-panther with small yellow ring markings all over her body and wore a pink mask over her green eyes and nose.

Behind them, there was a male Leafeon, who was a tan and green colored fox with brown paws, brown eyes, and tiny green sprouts over various parts of his body, walking just to the side of Liepard.

And the final two who took up the rear turned out to be a female Gardevior, who was a tall green and white humanoid creature with short spikes on the side of her face, red eyes, and had red fin-like horn extending from the front of her chest and out through the middle of her back, and a male Bisharp, who tall red and black-white humanoid creature with a golden double-headed axe blade attached to hit war helmet, black eyes, and two white blades encircling his torso.

“It appears that we have fallen asleep...”

Misdreavus shook her head at the two as she and the other six stopped in front of the fire types. “It’s alright,” she reassured them with a slight smile and looked down at the sleeping half-spirit. “At least you two managed to keep her warm throughout the night.”

Magmar and Talonflame followed her line of sight and looked down at Jane. From what they can feel, the woman wasn’t that cold anymore. But that didn’t mean she was out of the woods just yet.

There was still that poison that needed to be taken care of. And since they couldn’t really do anything about that, they left it alone and focused on keeping the woman alive by healing her whenever her health dropped at bit.

“Where is that guy at?” Magmar asked as he moved away from Jane’s side while Talonflame carefully flew off her chest.

“He left with other remaining Pokemon to go check out the front end of the island last night,” Gardevior spoke up.

“And I think he also mentioned something about finding a way to remove the chains,” Bisharp added with a mumble.

“((Which I finally did as a matter of fact! And I have the water pokemon, Turtonator, and Tyranitar to thank for that.))”

The group turned around to see the dark haired man standing in front of a huge group of pokemon, which consisted of the following: Skarmory (male), Turtonator (male), Lapras (male), Dewgong (male), Pikachu (female), Mudsdale (male), Tyranitar (female), Floatzel (female), Passimian (male), Flygon (female), Swanna (female), Ledian (male), and Mienshao (female).

“You guys are...” Emolga trailed off in her greeting, noticing something completely different about the man. “Wow! Your chains are gone!”

Before Leafeon and Roselia could point out the muzzle still wrapped around the man’s mouth, they noticed the look he and the others had on their faces. “What’s wrong?”

Mienshao stepped forward. “I think the rest of you should come with us and take a look at what’s happening at the front of the island.”

Liepard narrowed her eyes in suspicion.

“Why?”

“Just get the girl and follow us.”

Misdreavus and her group frowned at the Martial Arts Pokemon’s words as she, Loki, and the other twelve pokemon turned around and headed back up the hill, in the direction of where the cave was at. Then they looked at each other and sighed.

“Guess we’ll find out soon...” Talonflame said with a shrug of his wings.

“Yeah,” Liepard nodded.

The two along with Emolga, Roselia, Magmar, and Misdreavus started running after the others up the hill.

“Don’t worry about it, Bisharp,” Gardevoir stopped the dark/steel type right as he was about to kneel and pick up the woman up. “I’ll carry the girl for now. But if I get tired along the way, then I’ll let you take over.”

The Sword Blade Pokemon nodded his head, watching his friend pick Jane up in her arms, bridal style. “Let’s go...” with a shared look of understanding between them, the two moved closer until they were standing side-by-side and ran up the hill to catch up with the others.

#lokane #fanfic #chapter six #tony stark #jane foster #half-spirit!jane #loki laufeyson #nero and the others in his group #ocs (original characters)#marvel #mcu #dmc #tox #inuyasha #pokemon #au verse #multiple crossovers #a tale of new beginnings gallery #of rising calamities beyond the cosmos

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yeehawdante · 4 years ago

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Heaven on a Landslide pt. 11

June 15th, 12:36

Penelope’s eyes fluttered open, a dull ache pulsing through her entire body and she grimaced when she moved to stand up from the floor. The events of earlier smacked her like a ton of bricks and she shot to her feet, all previous pains completely forgotten as she burst out of the van. Her chest felt tight when she picked up on a familiar voice as she walked around the van. She came to a halt when her eyes fell on the red leather jacket, her breath stuttering.

Whatever conversation had been transpiring before she showed up came to a sudden halt when the group noticed her standing there. She was painfully reminded of that day in the office...when Dante had lied right to her face. That said man noticed her presence and turned around to face her, his face breaking out into that big, dumb and beautiful grin and his arms opening to welcome her in a hug. It almost felt like a dream, the scene playing out just like every painful fantasy that played through her head when she thought he was dead. She started toward him, and with every thud of her boots against the ground, she recalled pieces of their last moments together; every blatant lie, all the worry she’d felt. She had eventually broken into a sprint, her blood boiling like magma beneath her skin.

“Dante!” His smile vanished, eyes growing wide when she growled his name. It was far too late for him to realize he had really, really misjudged her mood. Too late to run now.

She swung her fist before Dante could beg for mercy, her knuckles connecting with his jaw and emanating a loud crack. He toppled backward to the sound of Nero snickering from the sidelines.

“You fucking asshole! How dare you lie to me!” Dante opened his mouth to speak but all that came out was a groan, his hand coming up to rub at his jaw.

“Ow, fuck me.”

“Damn, think you dislocated his jaw, mom,” Dante shot a glare in response to the younger devil hunter’s smug grin. Penelope sighed and put her hands on her hips, her fury simmering down to disappointment. She actually felt a little guilty...a little.

“Alright, I’ll reset it on three, okay?” She took hold of his head, inwardly grimacing at how greasy his silver locks felt, “you count.”

“Okay, o-” everyone watching the scene unfold cringed at the loud crack that sounded from Dante’s jaw, and the man in red let out a rather creative string of curses.

“Fuck, what happened to three?” She scowled at him.

“I don’t know, what happened to an honest relationship built on trust?” He sighed, she had a point. He hadn’t even known what he had expected, for her to fall into his arms like some sappy romantic movie? Maybe she would have if he hadn’t of lied to her.

“Yeah...guess I deserved that,” he let his hand fall to his lap. He slowly rose to his feet.

“You bet your ass you did! I can’t believe you lied to me. I thought I was gonna-I thought I’d have to go my whole life not knowing,” her voice cracked, composure breaking down fast, “not knowing what hap-happen-” Dante’s shoulders slumped in guilt and he reached out for her, pulling her against his chest. She let out a shaky breath and grabbed fistfuls of his black shirt, clutching at him like she was afraid he’d disappear. The flimsy dam holding back the downpour of tears was destroyed when his lips pressed to the top of her head. She buried her face in his chest in a hopeless attempt to muffle her sobs.

“I’m here,” he murmured against her hair, heart splitting in his chest at the way her body shook in his hold, “I’m here.” She sucked in a deep, shaky breath and pressed her ear where his heart was, willing the steady beating to calm her.

Dante held her until her cries simmered down to sniffles and soft hiccups. She suddenly removed herself from his arms, clearing her throat and casting her eyes to the ground. She was now painfully aware that everyone had seen her break down and hastily wiped at her tear stained cheeks.

“So, uh, what now?” She put her hands on her hips, scanning her group of companions as she waited for an answer. She felt a little relief when she noticed Trish, happy to see she was safe as well.

“Trish just told me our friendly neighborhood demon king went to the top of the Qliphoth, so I’m going after him,” Dante answered, and she eyed the sword leant against his shoulder in curiosity, that was new. Nero suddenly appeared at his mother’s side, a look of determination on his face.

“I’m gonna go, too.” Penelope’s head snapped in her son’s direction, opening her mouth to protest but her boyfriend spoke before she could.

“Why don’t you sit this one out?”

“Oh, let you call me dead weight again? No thanks,” the woman stood between them raised her eyebrows at Dante. “I’ve got all the power I need, right here,” he held up the intricate replacement for his arm to further his point and Dante let out a sigh.

“You don’t understand, it’s not what I mean-” Penelope stuck an arm out when Nero growled in frustration, ready to hold him back like she’d done a thousand times. But a voice caught everyone’s attention.

“Let him go, Dante.” V warily rose to his feet, approaching them, “time is a luxury we can no longer afford. We must chase after him, post-haste.”

“What, does that mean you’re going too?” It was only when he was close enough did Penelope notice the horrible state V was in. His skin was cracked all over, eyes sunken and dark. Penelope’s eyebrows furrowed in concern, she’d have to check on him when she had the chance.

“I have a duty to see this through,” Dante let out another sigh, his gaze meeting with his girlfriend and he threw his head back with a groan when he noticed the look on her face.

“You’re...you’re going too,” she crossed her arms and gave a firm nod, silently daring him to argue. The ache in his jaw made his decision for him. He ran a hand down his face, placing a large hand on her shoulder. “Alright, we’re gonna go my way, and you guys can go yours,” he started to back up, “let’s just say that’s best for the cause,” he saluted before walking off, grasping Penelope’s hand in his and pulling her along with him.

The legendary devil hunter rolled his eyes when the two men landed next to them. Nobody ever listened to him. The others disappeared into the hole in front of them, and Dante went to follow only to be stopped when a hand grasped his shoulder. He turned to the woman in blue, light eyebrows raised slightly. Her eyes wandered over his face, spotting how thick his stubble had gotten-and how much longer his hair was. He looked pretty good for being knocked out in a ditch for a month.

“What babe?”

“You called Nero dead weight?” She crossed her arms, and he could sense a spat coming on. The soft smile on his face fell to a frown.

“He wouldn’t get outta there when I was losing! Kid only had one arm and wanted to fight Urizen, it was just the heat of the moment. I panicked,” the crease in her brow softened, the tiniest hint of a smile tugging on her cheeks.

“I hear you, just wanted to know what he was so worked up about,” the taller man nodded, spinning on his heel and joining the others down below. Penelope landed with a thud beside him as he noticed the room had already been emptied by their unwanted sidekicks.

“When are you going to admit to yourself that you care about my son?” He watched with far too much interest when she let down her wavy hair, watching the blonde ends of her dark hair cascade down her shoulders. She pulled her hair back into her hair tie as Dante chuckled in place of an answer to her question. “He still thinks you’re his father, you know?” The legendary devil hunter paused for a moment to look at his lover. He’d never say it out loud, some idiotic masculine part of him wouldn’t allow him to but he really wished the kid was right. He’d give anything to take away the guilt Penelope felt over her son growing up without a father.

“Can’t blame him for thinking that,” his voice came out softer than he had intended.

“I definitely wish you were,” she murmured and his chest twisted up at the sincerity of her words. He took her hand in his, squeezing it before interlocking their fingers. She opened her mouth to scold him, he always had such a bad habit of PDA when they were working but spending a month thinking he was dead made it difficult to let go. She could let it slide that time.

“Hey!” Nero called out to them, standing in front of another entrance to the lower levels of the Qliphoth, “you two gonna make us do everything?”

“Thought you wanted to play hero?” Dante taunted and Penelope audibly sighed next to him. They couldn’t go two seconds. She released Dante’s hand and lightly elbowed him in the ribs, stepping towards her grumpy son.

“Sorry, kiddo,” she ruffled his hair before she jumped down through the hole, leaving the two white haired men to glare at each other.

A whole plethora of demons and six blood clots later and they were even lower in the tree. Penelope had an absurd amount of energy, traversing the Qliphoth with a bounce in her step she hadn’t had for a month. It was hard to believe she had been five seconds away from death an hour ago. She landed in the middle of Dante and Nero, nearly stumbling and chuckling when both men instantly reached out to catch her.

“Looks like we still got a long ways to go.” Dante confidently strode forward, the group following close behind. The ground started to quake beneath them, the five devil hunters plummeting below when the ground split apart beneath their feet.

Penelope landed with a swear, it was a miracle her back wasn’t broken considering the pounding it had taken throughout the past month. And as if that wasn’t enough, Dante came crashing down right on top of her-eliciting a string of curses from the small woman.

“Fuck me, you haven’t eaten in a month how the fuck do you still weigh a thousand pounds?!” She pushed at his chest, pushing him off of her. He propped himself up on his elbows, lifting himself enough to stop crushing her but didn’t move away. A smirk played on his handsome features as he looked around.

“Can’t help but notice we’re gettin’ some alone time,” she gave him an exaggerated eye roll as he tilted his head towards her until the tip of his nose was brushing against hers, “and you haven’t given me an apology kiss for breaking my jaw.”

“Dislocated,” she corrected.

“Either way it hurt like a bitch-” he let out a muffled noise of surprise when she yanked him into a kiss, lingering far longer than she had originally intended. She couldn’t help but giggle when she pulled away and he tried to chase her lips. She clasped her hand over his mouth before he could steal another kiss.

“Come on, we’re wasting time,” he pressed a kiss to the palm of her hand before jumping to his feet, heaving the woman in blue up from the ground like she weighed nothing. She peered down the hole in front of them, letting out a loud sigh. “They couldn’t of just had an elevator that took us right to the top? Or bottom-whatever,” Dante chuckled as he joined her side.

“Think that’s a demon king exclusive, spitfire.”

The couple spent more time jumping down further into the Qliphoth than they did vacating the demons in their path. Penelope was almost grateful for a fight when it happened, the repetitiveness of the structure making her antsy. Dante could sense her anxiousness and tried to put her at ease by recounting what had happened to lead up to him rescuing her.

“So, you...stabbed yourself with the Rebellion? And unlocked your crazy super awesome demon powers?” She asked as she jumped down onto the ledge he was standing on, his arms held out to catch her.

“Yeah…” he noticed the odd she was giving the sword in her hand and pointed a finger at her, “don’t even think about it, babe.” She looked up at him like a cat that was about to knock something over. He went to grab for the sword, forgetting momentarily the flaw in his plan. He yanked his hand back with a hiss when the blade scorched his skin. She doubled over and clutched her stomach, the force of her laughter nearly making her drop Hellreaver.

“Oh...I was hoping you’d try that,” he tried to glare at her, he really did but god damn if he didn’t love her laugh. He broke out into a laugh of his own, shaking his head before taking another long jump to the platform below.

Even more layers below in the Qliphoth, and they came upon quite a dangerous room of lizard-like demons Penelope had never seen before.

“There is a serious overpopulation of reptiles in the Underworld,” she sighed and drew her sword, taking note of the deadly blades attached to the demon’s arms.

“You take the red one, be careful, he likes to teleport,” Dante patted her on the back before busying himself with the other demonic reptiles in their way.

Penelope was still dealing with the red skinned demon when Dante had finished off the last of the spinning death lizards. She stood still, her head cocked like she was listening for something. In a flash, the lizard was behind her ready to swing but she spun around on her heel, holding up her sword in defense. The demon’s blades elicited a sharp clang when they collided with Hellreaver, and the lizard nearly toppled back from the impact. With a grunt, she kicked the demon back and swiftly swung her sword, slicing its head clean off. She could feel Dante’s eyes on her back, turning around with a cocked eyebrow.

“What?” He was leant against the wall, his arms crossed over his chest with a look of pure adoration in his icy blue eyes.

“I love you,” a blush crept up her face and she blinked in surprise. She recovered quickly though, shaking her head with a laugh.

“You’re such a sap,” he moved from the wall to stand in front of her, holding back a smirk at the fact she had to strain her neck so much to meet his eyes.

“Hey, I went a whole month without you. I missed you,” she scoffed.

“Please, you were out cold the whole time.”

“But I dreamt about you,” she stopped for a moment, chewing her lip and he smiled smugly, “give it up babe, you only do that when you’re trying not to smile. You’re lovin’ this,” he stumbled when she stuck her foot out in front of him. He straightened himself hastily just as she snorted. “Oh, I’m not falling for that agai-” she nearly fell over herself from her laughter when Dante face planted, somehow not smart enough to look out for her foot a second time.

He hopped to his feet, a maniacal grin forming on his face and Penelope subconsciously backed away.

“Oh, it’s gonna be like that, huh?”

“Uh-huh,” she chuckled, still backing away from him as he stepped toward her.

“You know what happens-”

“Dante, no.”

“When you fuck with me-” she squealed when he lunged for her, trying to scoop her up in his arms but she narrowly avoided him. She remembered the last time he got a hold of her after she embarrassed him, her sides hurt for hours even after he’d stopped tickling her.

The lighthearted moment was cut short when the doorway she’d gone through was closed off by strange web-like vines. She could see Dante’s look of panic from the other side, he tried to strike the wall with his sword a few times but the strange vines were unaffected.

“Oops,” she smiled sheepishly. “You go on ahead, I’ll find another way.”

“Fine,” he sighed, “you hurry your ass up, don’t be late.” She left the gate, sighing to herself. He just had to try and tickle her.

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