#frostbyte13

But Dante gets more and more insistent, and eventually, gets really annoyed and attempts to pluck the ‘boring ole’ book’ out of his brother’s hands.  Vergil doesn’t make it easy, and in the ensuing scuffle, a couple pages get ripped.  In fury, the elder twin says something he really regrets later on.

“You’re the reason father left!”

Dante, understandably, doesn’t take this well, and punches Vergil in the face, breaking his nose.  By this time, Eva and her familiars realize somethings up, and come downstairs to break it up, but Vergil runs out of the house, using his sleeve to stem the bleeding.  

He’s going to move out, he doesn’t need his stupid brother, who’s probably spun some sob story about how he’s was the victim to Eva, and Vergil is going to get in trouble.  So Vergil makes his way to the playground (his nose has healed by then, but leaving his voice a bit different, a bit nasally.)  He goes on the swing... but no one is there to push him.  He goes on the slide... but there’s no one to cheer him on...he goes on the see-saw... but there’s no one to balance him out.  And slowly it dawns on him that he still needs his brother.  So, running away is out of the question, but prideful as ever, he doesn’t want to return home, unless his mother drags him back (so he can save face)

Hours pass... and now the sun is very low in the sky, and Vergil’s stomach is growling.  By now, his mother should have come here, it’s where he runs to after their fights, or at least sent Athena to find him.  But nothing.  And so he breaks his resolve and heads home..

To find the burning wreckage of his house...

Vergil in horror, rushes in, trying to find his family.  He screams Dante’s name first, then his mother’s... and then finds her sprawled out on the floor, neck bent in an awkward angle, a look of horror still in her eyes.  Horrified, runs to her and shakes her in the vain hope of reviving her.  So focused on her, he doesn’t sense the presence of a one eyed demon, out for long-due revenge.

It’s Beowulf, and he attacks the boy, blindsiding him and causing him to crash through multiple walls, until Vergil is implaled on a board.  Vergil passes out from the pain, and Beowulf, satisfied that he’s finally wiped out the last of the Spardas, leaves.  

Eventually, Vergil comes to, and after some excruiciating moments of getting the plank out of his abdomen, he heals himself up, and attempts to find his brother.  Even if he couldn’t protect his mother, surely he can protect Dante!  As he does so, more demons show up, and that’s when Yamato appears, responding to the boy’s desperation.  With a power he’s not sure if it’s his own, or the swords, he dispatches them, and dragging the katana that’s almost as tall as him, he continues.  

By this time, Dante has already fled the house, and is following his mother’s advice and laying low, (while keeping an eye out for Vergil) but the elder twin doesn’t know that.  All he knows is that he’s alone, and it’s all his fault.

Flash forward a little over a decade later....

Vergil is sitting in Devil May Cry, with a Devil that WON’t STOP CRYING...eight month old Nero.  He’s tried everything.  Peekaboo, songs, cuddling.  The kid just won’t settle down.  So in desperation, he looks through his brother’s unkempt bookshelf.  If he has to read a racy magazine or a gun manual to put his son to sleep, so be it.  

What he finds shock him.  In between the yellowed magazines, and ads for pizza joints, he finds a familiar brown hardcover book, with a V on the spine.  Gingerly, he takes it out, and finds out to his shock that it is indeed his old William Blake book, but in beautiful condition.  Not willing to look a gift Timesteed in the mouth, he sits down with the sobbing baby, and begins to read.  And like magic, the poetry lulls Nero to sleep, but Vergil continues to read out loud, for his own benefit.  So engrossed in the book is he, that he doesn’t register his brother coming over.

“I...uh... well, I went Home after the shit in Temen-ni-gru, and found it.  It wasn’t in the best of shape, but I took it to a book restore guy Lady knew to patch it up.” Dante scratches his head, embarrassed, “I... just kinda was looking for a piece of you to hold on to, I guess.”