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[He exhales, jaw setting as he glances at the open space beside V and his little fuzzy companion. Did something happen while he was gone? He can ask later. Nero sits, but he looks both exhausted and completely wound up all at the same time.]

Yeah, a lot. A lot happened.

[Words, they're hard. ]

Dante's... [Fuck. Fuck. Why does he have to explain this.] He's dead, V. Dumbass went with another group overnight, didn't even tell us he was going. Only way we found out was how he came back- as a wight.

[ Did something happen? Well, yes. Something always happened even if there was not any demons running rampant. V glanced over at him, watching his face, at how his emotions shifted and colored his eyes. So expressive. It amazes him now knowing what he did, when before he had thought it was because Nero had been Dante's son.

Dante had always been more comfortable among humans than h - then Vergil had been. But now he knew. No wonder Vergil had tried to separate him from his devil.

That thought fled though at Nero's words, V focusing on Nero as he felt unsettled. Dante was the strongest of them all despite his reckless nature. In fact V had felt that it was his recklessness that made him so strong. He fully embraced both sides, the demon and the human instead of focusing on one. Of course part of that was because of h - of Vergil, but still. Even during Redgrave's fall, V might have joked about him dying but he never truly believed it. ]

Dead. [ He turned into a wright? Lowly zombie controlled by another's will, what kind of mockery was that? ] By who's hands?

[That sound is the sudden slamming of Nero's fist against the bench back, anger rearing its head once again. He startles awake the ball of fuzz by V's side, but doesn't really take notice, still too upset to think about it. He grips the other end of the bench tightly, closing his eyes and sighing, trying not to take his temper out on V.]

Hell if I know. [He sighs.] We're all human here, V, we can't fight or heal like we used to. Whatever got him was enough.

[Nero runs a hand through his hair, pushes air through his teeth.] When he came back as a wight, it was... it wasn't him. He kept trying to kill us, swiped at us when we got close. [He absentmindedly touches his cheek, where Dante had hit him before.] Vergil sent me off before we could do much else.

["So I didn't have to see him be killed," is what he means, because he knows exactly what happened after.]

[ V doesn't jump like the kitten, almost expecting some kind of outburst the moment he started talking like this. He still was unsure of how to react, his mind going through all the possibilities and scenarios and then settling on the one fact that Nero had given him - they were mortal now. Not fueled by the demon blood in them, even as weak as V's connection to Sparda's blood, which gives them the boost to fight through everything and everyone. To be stabbed and gouged and impaled and lose limbs but still to heal yet again.

He cloese his eyes, reaching over to try to soothe the animal even as he wondered how this would effect Vergil - no he didn't have to wonder. Vergil would not consider this a victory by any means. It was more of a mockery of the kind of fight he wished for. ]

If thought is life
And strength and breath
And the want
Of thought is death...

[ He doesn't know what to do or say. Opening his eyes, he turns to Nero, reaching over to attempt to give comfort, any comfort. ]

If those controlling him knew much about any of us, they would know that we are not easy prey despite being reduced to human. Vergil probably did not want to lose you too.

[He listens to the poetry, even as it goes in one ear and out the other. It's... it's hard, and Vergil's gone into hiding, and Trish doesn't know how to deal with this sort of thing. Nero is very much on his own in his grief.

But V does have a point, and the touch on his arm causes him to relax, to ease some of the anger that is so visibly prominent in him. Little things mean so much in situations like these.]

.......he didn't. Vergil made sure of that, dumbass that he is. [Nero looks to V, sighing. He means this fondly but also? They're all a bunch of idiots.] You'd know how he'd feel after having to take care of his brother. He got reckless.

But he ended up saving my life when I took a blow for him.

[That's the important part. Because really, Nero may act like the jackass he is on the outside, but losing those he cares for scares him far more than he ever realizes. It's why he fights- to protect, to gain the strength to protect. Without that, what good is he at anything?]

[ It is hard, though not on the same level as it would be for Nero. V was Vergil's shadow after all, and emotions were never his strongest asset, especially the more human ones. Grief was often dealt with through rage or secluding himself in his books away from the rest of the world. They were not meant for sharing it as so easily as Nero could.

But touch seems to work with soothing Nero, at least not making that temper explode. V kept his hand resting on Nero's arm, rubbing the tense muscle very much like he was petting a cat. He was trying in his own way. ]

We all have our moments of stupidity, though some of us loathe to admit it. [ He knows, a small curl to his lips answering the slight quip. ]

It's not how he would ever accept defeating Dante, and we both know it. In all honesty... it wouldn't have been the deciding factor in Vergil losing his focus.

[ Dante as himself? Acceptable. Something pretending to be Dante? Annoying and stupid. Something stripping Dante of his will and leaving behind little more than a killing shell? Unacceptable and far to close to the nightmare that held Vergil - them - under Mundus' grip. ]

You're his son. He may not know how to speak with you yet, but he would never let harm come to you as long as he has breath left, now that he is in his right mind.

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