Disclaimer: Nope, not mine. This is where I try to explain what the hell is going on.

While Devil May Cry was a fairly gloomy looking place, unavoidable because of the decrepit furniture and various arcane markings and talismans littering the walls, get-togethers between hunters that took place there were usually pleasant. It was a refuge of sorts, a place where one could pretend that all people were good and that demons were merely over-imagined flights of grim fancy.

Lady wanted to laugh at that long lost memory. The air in the shop right now was so tense, she doubted even Dante's Rebellion could cut it.

She craned her neck over at...well, he certainly looked like how she remembered all those years ago and she'd be damned if she didn't admit to feeling a tiny bit of terror at the prospect of him still being alive all those years.

Dante had called her in the middle of the night, telling her that they had an emergency at hand and it involved the Fortuna kid, the one with the arm.

And so, she found him waiting downstairs by her apartment, apparently having gotten there a few minutes after he had called her, on foot. He was smoking a cigarette too when she saw him, looking haggard and dare she say it, tired.

When they had finally arrived in his shop, all hell broke loose; she took one look at him, kneeling in front of a crying girl and proceeded to empty the revolver she had brought along into his head. There was a few more seconds of screaming, cursing and guns being cut in half and now here they were.

"Okay...okay..." said Lady, finally speaking. She too had taken Dante's offer of a cigarette and was currently on her third cancer stick.

After she had been smoke-free for nearly two years too. Damn.

"If I don't get an explanation in the next five seconds, I swear to God I will kill someone." she said, before taking another drag and proceeding to drop the remnants of the cigarette on the floor and stamping it out.

With a tired (damn it, it was weird seeing him like this) sigh, Dante took her aside and began to elaborate.

How the job in Fortuna had gone, along with the weird kid and his right hand of doom. And more recently, how the kid was getting even weirder and how his right hand wasn't looking so doom-y anymore.

"Jesus Christ. Fucking Nazareth." Lady muttered, hand on her hips as she took a moment to digest the information. "Are you sure it's him?"

The half-devil snorted. "Pretty fucking. He sure moves like him. And he asked for a change of clothes when he got here."

Lady snuck a sideways glance at their current predicament, who was sitting amenably across the still frightened looking girl. "So, what is this? Possession? Clone? Another brother of yours?"

"Considering the age difference, a son more likely." Dante muttered.

Lady had an unreadable expression on her face. "You're right. He does look kinda young. Makes sense though; when was the last time you had sex?"

Dante smiled.

"Never mind."

"Nah, he can't be mine," groused Dante. "I'm always careful when it comes to that. Fucking CSI and House won't be able to find anything if they tried."

"Good to know. Your fuck buddies know that?" she snipped at him.

"Jealous?"

"Fuck you."

"You wish."

Another beat of silence ensued as both hunters turned slowly back at the impromptu houseguests. Striding over the couch, Dante took a tentative seat on one end as the kid occupied the other. Lady had chosen to stand by Kyrie who was sitting by a smaller couch perpendicular to the larger red one.

"So, what do we call you?" asked Dante, not looking at the kid.

"I really don't have a clue. I remember everything – who I was, who you are and who we became...but I also remember...other things."

"What kind of things?"

"I remember having you for a brother. But I also remember having Credo as a brother," he whispered, his grip tightening around his katana.

"Nero..." said Kyrie, this time rising from her spot and moving to sit beside the troubled youth. She placed a delicate on his, squeezing gently.

"I remember having you, Kyrie. How I swore I would protect you from everything that tried to hurt you. But...I also remember her and how I promised the same thing, but failed."

The auburn haired girl swallowed and her lips drew into a thin line. "Her?" She knew it was selfish of her and it made her feel absolutely terrible, but she had to know.

"My mother."

Kyrie's shoulders relaxed. "Oh."

The young man glanced over at Dante. "Our mother."

Dante gave a heavy sigh. "So, what now? Do you do your old 'power' schtick and I get to kick your ass all over again?"

"No, it's not like that...," replied the kid weakly. "I...I remember who I'm supposed to be but...I don't feel like I'm supposed to. I mean, I know I should hate you Dante."

"And why's that?"

"Because of your weakness before and because of your strength now. I—I remember feeling that we've been given such power, power that frightened everyone we ever came in contact to and we couldn't even protect the one person who was never afraid of us. I hated that you wouldn't embrace the power that was rightfully ours, the power to change everything. I hated that even through all that, you managed to surpass me.

"But I don't hate you for that."

"I'm touched," snarked Dante.

The kid (he still wasn't sure what to call him) smirked. "I hate you because you're a smug, cocky jackass."

Lady spoke up. "I'm not getting this."

The kid glanced at her briefly, before shaking his head and dropping his gaze on the floor.

"It's like fucking twenty-four hour déjà-vu. I know you too, but at the same time, it's like I'm meeting you for the first time."

Kyrie, still holding his hand, offered her thoughts. "What I think he's saying is that he has two memories, two feelings about everything he'd come in contact with before. And it's confusing because he doesn't know which one to follow."

Lady put a hand on her chin. "Still doesn't explain why he's...how old are you, kid?"

"Twenty-three," he replied, a bit hesitantly. "But...I remember the Order took me in when I was just a kid. They...they took me to lab...and they did stuff to me there..."

Kyrie let out a horrified gasp as her grip tightened around the boy's hand. Dante's eyes hardened and Lady looked stricken.

"You remember anything?" the older half-devil finally asked.

"Yeah, I remember them trying to find out why I was growing so goddamn fast. I could already speak full sentences in a month. I had the mind and body of a two-year old at four months. It was like my mind and body were working overtime so I could survive by myself, if needed."

"Humans are the only creatures that are born almost completely helpless – also, it takes us nearly ten times the amount of time to get ready for survival as other animals do," said Lady.

Dante sighed through his nostrils. "So, how come you're not bitching about 'those damned kids' right now and eating applesauce through a tube?"

The young man closed his eyes, trying to remember the details. "Because they found that the demonic energy I had around me was accelerating my growth. They tried to use it to repair some of Yamato but they only ever got so far – my power was still immature."

"So what did they do?"

He said nothing for while, his mouth drawn into a thin line. "They decided to perform a little experiment. They extracted the demonic energy from everywhere in my body, except for one place, just so they could see what would happen."

"Your arm." Kyrie stated.

"Yeah, the Devil Bringer. It pretty much grew up and left the rest of me behind," he chuckled, giving the songstress a tiny smile.

"I don't get it. That one lab rat I met in Fortuna didn't seem to know dick about you and the arm," said Dante, crossing his arms over his chest.

"I don't think he did know. The Order's got a hierarchy for this sort of thing – nobody has all the pieces to a puzzle."

"Your arm seems okay now though. How'd that happen?" asked Dante.

"I just redistributed the energy around my entire body again. No big deal," the kid replied with a grin.

"Don't get too full of yourself, you little punk," Dante said, returning the grin with one of his own. "I just kicked your ass a while ago – must've hit you too hard if you can't remember that."

The young man responded by raising his middle finger.

To his utter surprise, Kyrie actually laughed softly.

"What's so funny? You hate it when I curse or do stuff like that," he asked her gently. She had been crying for so long, he had been afraid he would never hear her laugh again.

"N-No, it's just that...I guess it's reassuring?" she replied, as the young man stroked her hand affectionately.

For a while, there was relative silence, as everyone recovered from the barrage of information.

"We'll turn in for now," said Dante, decisively. "Kid, if you start feeling something or hearing something or fucking anything at all, you give me a call, you got that? No dickin' around – you call, immediately."

"Yeah, yeah, don't get your panties in a bunch..." came the irritated reply from the young man, dusting himself off.

"By the way, why are you still dressed like that?" asked Lady, noting the boy's attire.

Nero shrugged. "Dunno, just feels kinda right somehow. Although..."

He ran both hands through his hair and, shaking his head, restored his former unkempt hairstyle from the spikes he had worn not a moment ago.

"That's better," he said, smiling at Kyrie. "What say you and I go home?"

"That would be great," said the girl with a grin of her own. Turning towards Dante and Lady, she bowed in gratitude. "Thank you so much, Mister Dante and Miss Lady."

"Not a problem," said Dante, with a wave of his hand. "Remember, if anything comes up, just give me a call."

With that, the two residents of Fortuna moved towards the door.

"Hey Dante," said the young man, his back turned. "Thanks. And I guess...it was good to see you again."

Somehow, Dante knew he wasn't referring to any of their recent meetings. Without waiting for an answer, the kid exited the shop and closed the door.

There was a few seconds of silence as Dante and Lady stood side by side.

"I should go. Call me if anything comes up," said Lady, making her way to the exit as well. "You gonna be okay?"

Dante smiled at her. "Yeah."

Lady gave him a small nod and a grin of her own. "Goodnight."

With an audible click, the shop door closed again. Alone in his office, the red clad hunter made his way to his desk and sat upon his chair old chair, propping his legs up on the table. Glancing sideways, he opened up a small drawer and picked up a item he hadn't looked at for a long time.

It was an old glove, slashed across the palm, stained with blood.

"It was good to see you too, Vergil."

A/N: And here we are! This is more than likely an introduction fic to a universe I'm creating, so I'll probably be doing something with an actual storyline next time! One more chapter after this, maybe as a setup to the aforementioned future fic. Please read and review guys!