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skvaderarts · 4 years ago

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Soliloquy Chapter Six: Machinations

Soliloquy Chapter Five: Adrift

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

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

This one was a wild ride to write! And even worse to edit and prof read.

Chapter Six: Machinations

Note: Hey everyone! Thank you all for your understanding about the last chapter being a little shorter and more than a few hours late. Life happened, unfortunately. But thanks for sticking with me anyway! A special thanks to Skylarmorgan1899, Mallovarwen, BeanswithBones, HunterJamie, and RubixaSeraph for your kind words of encouragement. I had a great time responding to your comments, and seeing what you guys thought about the story so far was fascinating and helpful! I hope you guys enjoy this chapter and thanks for taking the time to reach out! Now, let’s get back to this long ass chapter!

The ferry made port, it’s foghorn shattering the peaceful serenity of the coastline like a stone through stained glass. The medium-sized vessel eased into it’s designated space between two of the end docks, carefully threading the space. After the ship came to a complete stop, it anchored, finally allowing it’s sizeable ramp to lower and make contact with the road. Before they had left the mainland, one of the deckhands had taken the liberty of informing them that they would only be in Fortuna for about a half-hour before they would be returning home, so leaving as soon as possible was paramount.

With everyone now on board the van, Nico pulled up to the top edge of the ramp. Nero, who was seated in the front seat next to her, took notice and sighed loudly. Nico and everyone else on board clearly noticed, but no one said anything about it.

“Ok, now look. Let’s not do this shit again,” Nero started as Nico reached down to switch the throttle from idle to drive,” Don’t go launching off the-”

Nero’s sensible warning fell on death ears. Just for the hell of it or perhaps form pure spite, Nico floored the gas and the van went flying off of the boat, making virtually no perceivable contact with the offramp. As soon as they landed, the mechanic made a far too tight hard left and sailed up the road, homebound. Nero groaned and rubbed the top of his head as he settled back into his seat. He had just bashed his head against the roof of the van during the landing.

“Seriously, where the fuck did you get a license from?! Are you trying to kill us?!” Nero said through gritted teeth. It was a wonder that the vehicle hadn’t been totally destroyed yet. He’s heard from V during the Redgrave City Disaster that Nico had somehow tunneled through the ground to meet the mysterious devil summoner. Twice. How did a basically square van that was towards the end of its lifecycle even do something like that in the first place? Before Nico had come along and helped him fix it, the old van had barely been able to drive correctly, but act like a boring drill? Just what the fuck? Did V put a spell on it or something?

Nico reached into her front pocket and pulled out a cigarette, placing it in her mouth. “Aw, stop your bellyachin’ and shut up,” Nico said, clearly expecting him to react that way. He always did, after all. This was nothing new. “I don’t know about you, but I wanna get home before dinner starts! Kyrie’s cookin’ is amazin’ and you know it. Now unclench your britches and gimme a light, would ya?”

Nero grumbled and fumbled for the lighter that had been sitting in the cupholder between them before reaching over and lighting her cigarette. Dante burst into laughter from the back seat, leaning over his knees as he sat on the couch across from Vergil. It was always great to see someone give his nephew the same kind of hell that he gave him every day. Nico was a living form of neverending karmic punishment for Nero. Vergil simply watched the situation unfold and shook his head, fully realizing that every single person that Dante and Nero knew was probably insane. Well, except for the gentleman in the suit. He had been relatively fine, although his decision making could be called into question for spending time at the Devil May Cry office with Dante and his cohorts.

The vehicle continued down the road, dodging and weaving its way through parked cars and sudden curves as it headed towards the interior of the dimly lit city. Dante and Nico continued to poke fun at Nero as they went, sufficiently riling him up. Vergil, on the other hand, took the time to think about what they were here for. On their way to the docks back on the mainland, Dante had asked both of them what was going on and Vergil had given him a very succinct answer. He knew that it was best to not go into things at the time. Although they could have still come here without him, the eldest Son of Sparda preferred it this way and wasn’t in the mood for further obstruction of his plans. To be fair, he never had been, but in times like this, keeping things as manageable as possible was key. He didn’t have to worry about his youngest son. Despite the fact that he was their father, he had gleaned from their various interactions that V and Nero had a much stronger relationship than he had with either of them, despite the relatively small amount of time that they had spent with one another. Nero had too much to lose in this investment to just give up and call it quits. Or to cause any issues, for that matter.

Either the ride had gone exceedingly quick due to Nico’s atrocious driving, or Nero’s home had been closer to the shoreline that Vergil would’ve guessed because It took less than ten minutes for them to arrive. The worn-out old vehicle pulled into the side driveway of what seemed to be an old stone and Plaster of Paris building, unremarkable in its appearance compared to the rest of the block. It blended into the busy street, having more than likely been built at the same time as most of the other buildings. The same trademark white and grey store surrounded the first floor, with the exception of the concrete trim that separated the first two feet or so of the home from the pavement below. The upper floors, which there were two of, not counting the possibility of an attic, were covered by a simple, worn coating of medium grey Plaster of Paris. Several white framed windows covered the length of each floor, shielded by curtains inside the home. The side driveway ended in a wooden gate that separated a small yard from an alley. A few children’s toys could be seen littering the short grass. A tiny driveway only a half a dozen feet long next to the side yard led into the metal garage door.

They stopped mid-turn, leaving Nero just enough space to get out and open the folding metal garage door. After he let it up, he stepped to the side and allowed them to pull all the way in. The doors to the van opened and everyone exited through them as the door was being let back down. On the far side of the room, the inside door cautiously opened and bright light flooded the otherwise dark concrete space. A young woman with medium length auburn hair in a long grey and white dress stood in the doorway, seemingly checking to see what had made the noise. Upon seeing them, she sighed in what could only be relief and waved quietly from across the room. “Oh, your home!”

Nero stood from letting the door down and turned to face her. The pair approached one another meeting halfway in the middle of the garage and Kyrie hugged Nero around the waist, clearly happy to see him. “Sorry if I scared you, Kyrie. I should’ve said something. Everything been okay since we’ve been gone?”

She nodded happily and turned to face the rest of their guests. Nico raced up to the young woman, happy to see her bright smile again. “Hey Kyrie,” she practically yelled in glee,” We woulda got back sooner, but we got held up. Hope we didn’t miss dinner!”

Kyrie giggled at the statement and pointed back in the direction of the open door. Three small heads rapidly recoiled back into hiding from the doorway at the sight of the attention being thrown their way. “Of course not! In fact, the children and I were just about to sit down and eat. Feel free to join them. Everything’s hot. I made a lasagna.”

Nico pumped her fist, exclaiming in excitement before taking off running into the house to join the boys. She was now home and had no intention of doing anything besides enjoying a nice hot mean and relaxing. The young couple watched her go, trying not to laugh at her neverending enthusiasm for Kyrie’s delectable cooking. Kyrie then turned back to look towards the van and gasped, holding her hand up to her mouth to try and stifle her breath. She couldn’t believe the sight before her. Dante, she recognized but…

“Dante! It is so good to have you back! We were all worried sick about you,” Kyrie exclaimed joyfully, clearly eager to see the devil slayer in red. As he waived, she spared a curious glance at their last guest, slightly thrown off by the new but familiar face in her home. Nonetheless, she stepped forward, her warm smile inviting and kind. “Hello there, stranger! I don’t think I’ve met you before. Either way, It’s wonderful to meet you.”

To say that Vergi was taken aback by Kyrie’s kindly demeanor and warm persona was an understatement. So this was the young woman who Nero shared a home with? She was lovely. Despite the awkward silence that settled over the two of them, Kyrie continued to smile, paying his silence no mind. After what felt like an eternity to Dante and Nero who were watching from a few feet away, Vergil performed a gesture somewhere between a nod and a bow before quickly returning to his regular upright position. “... Likewise. Nero has mentioned you in passing. I am his father, Vergil.”

To say that Dante and Nero were both very uncomfortable with how friendly Vergil was being would have been a gross understatement.

As if it were somehow possible, Kyrie’s smile brightened. She giggled shyly and gestured with open arms to both of the twins, herding them and Nero in the direction of the house. “I’ve been hoping to meet you! Nero hasn’t stopped talking about you and what happened since you left…” She trailed off as she noticed how pale and destressed Nero looked,” But we can talk about that another time. Dinner is ready and I made extra!”

Nero shook his head and smirked to himself as they crossed into the threshold of the house. Kyrie always made extra. That was just who she was. Like her parents before her, she had always been welcome to strangers from outside of her home, especially when it was someone new to town. It was so rare for an outsider to come and visit Fortuna.

The moment that they stepped into the entryway, Nero was accosted by the presence of three messy haired children who looked like they could all be siblings. The eldest child didn’t look older than six or so and the youngest was maybe two. The middle child seemed to be about four or five, and they all sprouted the same light to medium brown curls with light brown, vibrant eyes. The children were climbing all over Nero in what seemed to be an attempt to topple him and send him crashing to the ground. Dante laughed as Nero pretended to falter under their combined attack before the children pinned him to the floor and showered him with their seemingly endless adorations. It was clear to anyone present that they had missed their adopted father and that sturred something in Vergil that he had never felt before. He hadn’t really considered it too much until now, but this was one experience that he would never have with either of his children, and he couldn’t put to words why that cut him so deeply. He recalled doing the same with his brother whenever their father returned home from taking care of some important task, but he had never considered how little things like being greeted at the door by wide-eyed children could be to be so important until now. He didn’t so much envy Nero as he did feel uncomfortable, even guilty, with the realization that he had inadvertently deprived them all of such a moment.

As if she had read Vergil’s thoughts and wished to spare him from them, Kyrie called them all from the dining room. “I’d hurry if I were you! I think Nico is planning to eat everything herself!”

The children leaped to their feet, exclaiming in horror as they raced into the kitchen, heading towards the dining room. They had no plans of missing out on food again because of their insatiable house guest. Dante headed after them, although not running. One way or another, he was going to get some of that lasagna. As Nero climbed back to his feet, Vergil looked in the direction of the kitchen, lost in thought. The room they stood in connected the front and back doors with doorways on the left and right leading to either end of the home. The walls were adorned with drawings crafted by small children and a clothing hamper willed with unfinished laundry that had probably been put down in a hurry sat on a bench against the wall near an umbrella holder. Several pares of shoes in different sizes were stuffed under it. The house was clearly very well lived in and it carried a comfortable warmth with it. Although significantly smaller than his own childhood home, Vergil would have been lying to himself if he didn’t admit that it reminded him of that long since past chapter of his life.

Nero headed into the kitchen behind Dante, stopping for a second to look back at Vergil. The eldest Son of Sparda had been totally silent now for several minutes. That wasn’t exactly abnormal for him, but Nero still felt the need to make sure he still had a pulse. “You coming or what? Because I don’t know about you, but I’m starving.” He inquired playfully. Clearly being home had allowed him to let his guard down a bit.

Vergil stared at him blankly, unsure if he was being sarcastic or genuinely inviting him to dinner. “You can’t actually still be hungry. You just consumed an entire platter of croissants an hour ago.”

Nero scoffed. “I can too still be hungry and I am. Now get in here so we can all eat. Kyrie isn’t going to start without us, and the kids need to be put to bed. It’s getting pretty late and knowing her she probably has important volunteer work to do in the morning.”

Vergil continued to state at him, this time in vaguely concealed disbelief. Nero was actually serious. Vergil folded his arms and furrowed his brow, unable to comprehend what he was being told. “So let me get this straight. I cut off your arm meer months ago in that very garage,” Vergil tilted his head in the direction of the door behind him,” And now your lovely girlfriend is inviting me in and you’re standing here just feet from where you nearly perished and insisting that I eat dinner with you and your children? Am I correct?”

Nero flinched inwardly a the unpleasant reminder and Vergil’s blunt statement, but nodded in earnest anyway. “I invited you to dinner last time you were here. It’s not my fault that you decided to be a total bastard and tear my goddamn arm off instead of sitting down and having a meal with us.”

Vergil would never admit it if asked, but he was taken aback by his son’s sincerity. There was no way that he had been forgiven for his actions. After all, a severed limb was no easy thing to recover from. Fresh out of excuses and questions, Vergil gave up and opted to follow Nero into the dining room. He hadn’t eaten dinner with anyone in his family in well over two decades and yet, he didn’t dread this as his logical mind told him that he should. Maybe this wouldn’t be as bad as he figured it would be…

-~-

The dinner had gone over surprisingly well, despite the fact that Nico and Nero’s middle child Kyle hadn’t shut up the entire meal. It had been a good time filled with laughs, playful jokes, and adorable children making equally adorable funny faces. Vergil wasn’t one to laugh, be he had been amused at the very least. The children were… charming. And that was to say nothing about the lasagna that Kyrie had made. It had been unnaturally delicious. The eldest Son of Sparda found himself questioning if the young auburn-haired woman possessed some magical powers of her own. Assuming that her skills had simply been overstated had been a mistake on his part, and no one at the table that night was ever going to get over the fact that Vergil had actually requested an additional serving.

Once the meal had been finished, Nero had forced Dante to help him do the dishes while Kyrie herded the children off to their bedroom. Vergil had overheard Nico say something about them voluntarily sharing a room after the attack had happened because they felt safer that way. The oldest child, Julio had sworn to protect his younger sibling, despite not being older than seven and having no experience with weapons. Vergil’s attack on the house and the near loss of their beloved adopted father had apparently been quite traumatic for them. Wonderful, now Vergil could add “emotionally scaring helpless wide-eyed orphans” to his long list of sins. As a result of his actions, there was an extra room on the main floor that they planned to use as a guest room, but right now, it was full of boxes stacked on top of a spare bed. It was unfortunately useless at the moment, which was a shame considering the fact that they would be staying the night here. The ferry ran every two hours or so, starting at around 9 am when visibility was better. Fish was a popular export here, but fog could be an issue at times.

After Nico and Kyrie had headed off to bed, Nero joined Dante and Vergil in the living room. The two had retired here while the children were being put to bed so as to not disturb them. Nero flopped down across from them and opened a drawer on the coffee table between them, producing an elusive yet oh so familiar brown and gold leather book. Vergil sighed quietly. Now that was truly a sight for sore eyes.

“Kyrie said she put the book in here today when she was cleaning up. She wanted to make sure the kids didn’t get it. They can be pretty rough, and anything they see that’s made of paper, they draw on.” Nero said casually. He was clearly tired and in need of a good night’s rest.

Vergil reached out and took the book from Nero, taking a moment to look at it. Of all the things to survive this long, he would have never guessed that this memento from a kind neighbor would survive this long. For a moment, Vergil wondered if that man was still alive. He silently hoped that he hadn’t been living in the Redgrave city during the attack. Maybe one day he would find out. He turned the book over in his hands and opened the front cover. To his surprise, what he was looking for was still there. Funny, he’d expected it to have worn off by now.

“... I wrote my name in this book when I received it,” Vergil said simply, reminiscing about the day that the kind man living next door to them had given him such a wonderful gift,” Dante had a nasty habit of making things I owned disappear when we were children, especially if my name was not on them. The fireplace was never short on kindling.”

Dante shrugged uncomfortably as Nero gave him a disapproving look. He was worse than his kids! “Yea, um... Probably shouldn’t have done that. My bad, Vergil.”

Vergil didn’t answer verbally, but he gave a small nod. He would consider his younger twins half-ass apology at a later time.

Nero yawned as he stood up and stretched. He was at his limit for today. “Well, I don’t know about you, but I’m going to bed. The guest room is out of commission, for now, so your gonna have to stay in here. Nothing I can do about it tonight.”

With that, Nero headed out of the room and left them to their own devices. Unless the house caught fire, he didn’t want to hear anything but the sound of his own snoring.

-~-

It was early in the morning when they finally left the house and headed towards the docks. The sky was a beautiful mixture of several shades of orange, pink, and purple, the vibrant colors reflecting in mesmerizing swirls off of the placid waters of the large bay area that separated Fortuna from the mainland. Despite the thin layer of mist that covered the portside as they docked, the return trip almost seemed to go faster than it had the night before. Or maybe it was just anticipation. Who knew?

They arrived just after twelve. The boat pulled into the dock and anchored the same way it had the previous night, only allowing the ramp to be let down after everything had come to a complete stop. And just as she had the night before, Nico rocked off of the boat at a speed that could probably shatter the sound barrier. Nero didn’t know how it was possible, but she continued to shock him at just how dreadful she was at driving. How in the hell had she not killed them all in a wreck yet?!

As soon as they left the docks, they headed towards Magnolia’s house. She lived much closer to the docks than Dante did, which was fortunate considering that time was of the essence. The alchemist had predicted that they had seventy-two hours to get this done, but the eldest Son of Sparda knew better than most that nothing was concrete when you were dealing with the underworld, especially time. That was a very generous estimate, given the circumstances.

Dante was in his usual spot on the couch, reading one of the magazines that he had probably read a thousand times before. But it was better than talking about the matter at hand. After all, he didn’t really understand how this was supposed to work, and it would probably be easier to just ask the woman who would be casting the spells when they finally met. He wasn’t sure how he felt about this entire situation, to be honest. Up until now, he had always figured that death was pretty much final. But if Vergil could come back from the great beyond, then perhaps this could work after all. What had happened to V was awful, he wouldn’t argue that… but he would hold his opinion on this situation until after he saw the results. But a the same time, he couldn’t help but ask himself if there was a reason that more people didn’t do something like this? The death of a loved one was always agony. And it always would be. If there was a way to reverse that, then why wasn’t it more commonly used?

As he pondered this, the van came to a sudden and hard stop. They had arrived. Nero leaned out the window and looked over toward the front door, squinting to make out something. “Looks like there’s some kind of note on the door… I can’t make out what it says from here though.”

Nico shrugged, unsure of what type of response he was hoping to elicit from that statement. “Well, take your ass over there and go and get it, then! We don’t got all day!”

Nero gave her a “duh” look and popped open the door, hopping down onto the pavement. He then jogged up the steps to the front door, glancing back at the van as he went. He couldn’t quite place why, but he had a bad feeling about this. Upon reaching the front door, he found a note stuck under the knocker. It was scrawled in an elegant script, seemingly written with some sort of ink. He pulled it off the door and hurried back to the van, unsure of what to make of it. As he climbed back into the waiting vehicle, he was met with an uncomfortably tense atmosphere. In an instant, everyone seemed to be expecting the worse.

“What does it say?” Vergil inquired. He didn’t sound worried so much as he did morbidly curious.

Nero turned the piece of cardstock paper over in his hand, his forehead scrunching as he took in the information. “2460 Zephyr Court?” Is that a street around here or something?”

Dante nodded. “Yea, It’s an off-street to the one that Bobby’s Cellar is on. Haven’t been down that way in a long time. It’s the cross street at the other end of that block.”

Vergil could practically taste the disgust he felt at the mention of that godforsaken bar. If it was possible to develop indigestion from hearing a word, he would have just done it. Nico took the note in her hand and looked it over before shrugging and putting the car into reverse and heading off again. She’d had passed by that bar a while back with Nero when they were heading out of town to go take care of a mission. It was on the outer edge of town on a wooded block that headed up into the mountains. What could this Magnolia woman want them to come there for? Was this some sort of trick?

As they hurried down the road, Dante couldn’t help but note the bitter irony of their situation. Never in his entire life did he think that he’d be heading past Bobby’s Cellar with Vergil and Nell Goldstine’s granddaughter. If you’d told him that a decade or so ago, he would’ve probably written it off as an awful joke. And yet here they were, doing just that. And to try and save a member of his own family at that. Absolutely unbelievable.

After several agonizing minutes of silent trepidation, the van turned onto Zephyr Street. They scanned the outside of every building looking for the correct address, noting that the area was mostly deserted. What buildings there were seemed to be boarded up, no one having stepped foot inside of them for a very long time. As they navigated their way through the seemingly forsaken city block, Nico pointed down one of the side drives towards what seemed to be an old warehouse or factory building. “I think that might be it over there! Let’s go check it out!”

With that, she made a sharp left and turned onto a little dead-end street. As she veered right and pulled into the broken old wire fence, they all got a better look at the building. It was a two-story brick warehouse with led glass windows. In the space where a single huge sliding barn door used to be was an opening into the building. From inside they caught a glimpse of a passing light. Tall pine trees lined the entire lot, making it a very secluded and out of the way area. As such, it was very dark here. She pulled into the worn-out gravel parking lot and stopped the car, jarring everyone inside. Nico then cut the engine and handed Nero back the note they had found on Magnolia’s front door before turning her attention to her passengers. “Alright, this is the place on that note Nero found. Address matches up and stuff. I’m stayin’ out here in case we need to leave in a hurry or somethin’. Holler if you need me.”

Everyone nodded in agreement and stood up. There wasn’t any time to lose. Nero hopped out of the front of the car while Dante and Vergil took the side door. As they exited, Dante exhaled, the reality of what they were here to do sinking in deeper.

“... Vergil, do you really think this is really gonna work?” He asked quietly. Nero had gone ahead of them to investigate the building.

Vergil stopped just ahead of his brother but didn’t turn in to face him. He glanced up, noticing that the overcast seemed to be darkening, much like his fatalistic mood at the moment. The wind was picking up as well. A thunderstorm seemed to be rolling in. He then let out a long sigh and looked down slightly, seemingly taking his brother’s words to heart. “...It has to…” He said so quietly that Dante nearly didn’t pick it up from behind him. The Youngest Son of Sparda felt the words more than he heard them. There was a note of finality and desperation when his brother spoke that he was unfamiliar with. Dante wanted to say something, but decided against it and made the decision to just follow his twin brother into the building instead. Considering how high the stakes were right now, this just wasn’t the right time for that conversation.

They entered the building and nearly walked into Nero. The younger man was standing in the middle of the space, looking around in seemingly every direction at once. The woman they had come here to meet was nowhere in sight. Nero held up the note she had left on her door and, to his surprise, the piece of cardstock suddenly caught fire and turned into a smoldering pile of ash on the floor. Nero released the remnants and let them fall to the ground, surprised but unwilling to dwell on it. He looked down the corridor into the next doorway. It led into a black room that he couldn’t see into very well.

“Hey Magnolia! You there?!” He shouted, startling all of the nearby pigeons into taking flight,” We got what you asked for! Were back!”

An uncomfortable silence settled over them. The three descendants of Sparda looked at one another before silently deciding to approach the darker back section of the building. Perhaps she hadn’t heard them? Just as they reached the doorway, a figure in a dark teal knee high dress appeared from seemingly nowhere and met them in the doorway. She seemed slightly out of breath. She bent over and put her hands on her knees, panting for a moment before standing up and exhaling, regaining her lost composure.

“Oh, please forgive me,” Magnolia said as she took several deep breaths,” I was in the middle of reading an incantation, so I couldn’t respond. Sorry for the note. It didn’t cross my mind to request your phone number before you left. But you lot are all here now, and that’s lovely because we’re a bit short on time.”

Magnolia gestured for them to follow her and they all headed into the room, now realizing that the impenetrable darkness was due to a tinted plastic screen that covered the doorway and a litany of boarded-up windows. Strange glowing symbols were written on different surfaces around the room, making up a semi triangular shape. They seemed to be scrawled in chalk or something similar. Dante raised an eyebrow at the setup. “So, where’s the blood and bones and the candles and stuff?”

Magnolia put her hand on her hip and gave him a sassy but humorous look. “You lot really are twins, aren’t you? It’s a pleasure to finally meet you,” She said smiling as she turned and headed towards the center of the room,” Sorry to disappoint love, but this isn’t that kind of spell, although there is a bit of bone ash in the chalk. It’s just old chicken bones though. That said, I do need that book Nero mentioned before. I came here and set up everything while you were gone. It took me all night, so I apologize if I’m a bit out of sorts. I haven’t had a wink of sleep.”

Vergil stepped forward and handed her the aged book, careful not to drag his feet over one of the nearby symbols. She took it and nodded graciously, positioning it towards the middle of the work area. She then stepped back and grabbed something off of a nearby cardboard box. It was the hourglass from before. And the top was nearly empty.

Nero blanched. “It took a lot less time than you said it would…”

Magnolia nodded, a grim look on her face. “Yes, it accelerated considerably after you left. That’s why I started preparing this the moment you were gone. I wanted to make sure we had enough time,” She gestured towards the ground,” Vergil, I’m going to need you to make a perimeter around the outside of the symbols with your blood. Hurry, we don’t have much time!”

Vergil looked at his longtime companion as if she had lost her mind for a moment before obliging her. He didn’t have time to ask why she needed him to do this, and he had a feeling he knew why anyway. During his youth, he had studied up on this sort of thing. Although the way this spell worked was far from ideal, a direct blood bond was integral to the functionality of the spell and they had no other option. As he had done last time, the eldest Son of Sparda used Yamato to slice open his palm and apply the line around the markings. He then sheathed the blade and stepped back out of the way.

The alchemist examined his handiwork and nodded, griping the hourglass tightly. “Well then… this is it,” She said solemnly,” If this does not work as intended, know that I did everything that I could. Spells like this are complicated, and they always come at a cost. Sorry to make you come all the way out here on such short notice. I just wanted to make sure that this didn’t happen at my house, especially with all the attention demonic activity has garnered as of late. Stand back. This could be dangerous.”

With that said, everyone stepped back and watched as Magnolia began to read an incantation out loud. She spoke clearly, though no one there aside from maybe Vergil could make out any of the language used. The ground trembled as dust suddenly began to rise off of the ground and into the air. Dust swirled around the symbols on the ground, forming a circular column that rose several dozen feet into the air towards the small hole in the triple-height ceiling. The ground cracked deeply along the outline of the line that Vergil had drawn in his own blood and the air became statically charged and cold. The walls developed hairline cracks and the boarded-up windows trembled in their frames. A low, rhythmic thump could be heard throughout the room, although that could simply be their collective heartbeats hammering in their chests as the chant intensified.

On the very last word of the spell, Magnolia took the hourglass and threw it forward towards the center of the swirling black miasma as the once small opening in the roof sheered open to make way for a white-hot bolt of lightning. It crashed down with a deafening boom and made impact with the hourglass, shattering it into a red mist and blasting everyone back against the walls, knocking the wind out of them. The black smoke streaked red and then glowed bright purple, humming vibrantly before releasing one last devastatingly powerful shockwave that succeeded in shattering the remaining glass out of every single window in the building. The swirling mass then emitted a loud, otherworldly howl before the cracks along the ground swallowed it up and snatched it into the underworld, closing with a loud boom. And then everything went completely silent.

So much for being inconspicuous…

Everyone gagged and moaned as they collected themselves and tried to force themselves to stand up. Nero was the first to succeed, perhaps due to being the youngest and therefore the most flexible. He leaped to his feet and cautiously inched his way towards the center of the room, waiving residual dust away from his burning eyes as he approached. A wall of fine dust particles floated around the area where the column of blood, chalk, ash, and dust had once been, blocking all sight. As Nero stepped through into the open space he stopped dead in his tracks. To his utter amazement and disbelief, laying prone face to the side on the concrete ground was V.

And he was missing all of his clothing. Wonderful.

Nero couldn’t believe that this batshit crazy plan had actually worked! As he heard the others stir around him from different ends of the room, he made the split-second decision to shrug out of his coat and use it to cover him with it in the absence of another alternative. He couldn’t place why, but he felt it was necessary aside from the obvious reason that he didn’t really want to see him this way. As he wrapped him in the worn, warm garment, he noticed something that troubled him. He didn’t seem to be breathing. At all.

Nero reached up and brushed V’s hair out of his face, truly noticing for perhaps the first time ever that V had white hair. How in the absolute fuck had he missed that?! Had he been so carried away fighting that he simply didn’t pay it any mind? And for that matter, where were his tattoos? As thought-provoking as all of those questions were, he had bigger things to worry about right now. Nero carefully rested his hand against V’s throat to check his pulse in a gesture that he just knew would have made him crawl out of his skin if he were awake. After a short moment that felt like an eternity, Nero exhaled in relief. V had a pulse. Good. That was something, at least.

From his position leaned over him, he could just barely feel V’s breath ghost across the nearly imperceivable hairs that adorned his now bare arm. As he recoiled his hand, the prone man let out a ragged, almost pained cough as if the air had been pulled from his body and he had been plunged underwater, only now being reacquainted with oxygen for the first time in a long while. He gasped and then coughed feebly, trembling. Nero wasn’t entirely sure what to do about this, so he reached over and gave him a few firm but careful pats on the upper back, trying to help him clear his throat. V jerked slightly at the contact but stopped coughing, his breathing still shaky but much better than it had been moments ago. He curled up into the coat, pulling his legs closer to his chest. He seemed cold from what his brother could tell. Nero wasn’t sure if he had actually helped or not, but he was going to keep telling himself that he had. It made him less anxious.

Just then, Dante, Vergil, and Magnolia stepped forward to observe the scene. They all seemed to be in a similar state of disbelief and relief to the one that he had felt upon seeing the young summoner again. Nero sighed in relief and looked up at them from his position on the floor, totally overcome by the shock of what they had just succeeded in doing. V had migrated closer to him, the top of his head propped up against his lower leg. “... He’s actually alive,” Nero said as though he couldn’t believe the words that he was speaking,” It actually worked...”

Dante and Vergil exchanged unreadable glances and looked down at V, still somewhat unable to process what had just happened. Magnolia broke the silence with a short, crazed laugh. She was in total shock. “Oh my- I am most certainly going to hell for this one!” She looked down at V and sighed, nodding to herself in self-satisfaction. So this was who all the fuss was about. “But I have the feeling that this might be worth it. He’s a cute kid, after all.”

Vergil nodded quietly, not entirely sure what to say. Thank you would never be enough. He would need to find a better way of thanking her. “You are absolutely right, Magnolia. This is worth it.”

-~-

PHEW!! After two days of sleepless nights and 6.8k words, this chapter is DONE. Thank goodness this is the Friday release because my brain and my hands need a good break. I hope everyone enjoyed reading this chapter as much as I loved writing it. Everything is going to really kick off from here, and I am so glad that I finally made it to this part of the story! Once again, thank you all for taking the time to comment and read the story. It’s very helpful and it always makes me smile! Now, I’m going to go eat dinner… and work on the first chapter of the story that V will actually be in! Gah, it is so nice to finally be able to say that!

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