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Denial
Dante’s lungs were screaming as he ran from the burning house. He couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think, but he had to get away. His mother’s last words in an endless loop in his head. Gotta get somewhere safe. Gotta get away.
His foot caught on a root and he tumbled forward. Arms coming up to protect himself as he skidded across the forest floor.
Dante couldn’t move anymore. Heart pounding as tears flowed down his cheeks as his little body shuddered from his sobs as memories flashed before his eyes.
If I don’t return
The crash of the front door
Maniacal laughter
You must run, alone.
Mother’s scream
Fire everywhere
-change your name
Blood outside
Nonononono, Verg-
Forget your past!
Dante’s breath stuttered as his vision swam. Collapsing on his side as he clutched his head, everything going black.
...start a new life as someone else.
The little boy slowly stirred awake hours later. He looked around at the forest surrounding him as the sunlight came through the foliage above. He couldn’t remember how he had gotten there or why he was so dirty. A quick check showed no injuries on him.
A new beginning
The boy didn't question the woman’s voice that floated through his head. He only knew that he had to follow it. And maybe somewhere along the way he would be able to fill his stomach too. So he walked onwards, away from the horrors forgotten behind him.
Bargaining
Dante gritted his teeth as Enzo helped him off of the floor in Bobby's Cellar. The pain lancing through his body was nothing in comparison to the realization that Gilver had been Vergil all along.
Through all of these past few months of practically following Gilver around like a little puppy. Taking the same jobs as Gilver, going out to eat together, hanging out at the bar. Yea, they drifted away a bit before the end, but they were practically joined at the hip for a while there!
Sure Dante had been suppressing everything from before the fire, but how could he not recognize his own other half? How could he have been so foolish?
In the next couple of days, he tried to push down that hurt, that missing piece of him as he left Redgrave and purchased his own building. Tried to console himself with meaningless platitudes that he had no other choice. That Vergil had crossed the line with killing all of those humans.
But during the quiet days, when there was no jobs to be taken. All Dante was left with was the pain of an incomplete soul that he would have given anything to just to be whole.
Anger
Vergil just left him. Just like that.
Not even a backwards glance at his long lost baby brother.
Dante smashed his foot into the skulls lining the ground. The loud crashing didn’t make him feel any better. Anger still hotly pulsing through him as he put his returned amulet back on.
“‘I can get it back anytime I wish’?! Pft, who the hell does he think he is?” Dante scoffed as he left the mausoleum, gritting his teeth and swiping his sleeve over his eyes roughly.
Gilver was a liar, he didn’t kill his brother. All of that pain and anguish that Dante had gone through from his death. All an absolute lie. Dante needed to keep hold of his anger if he didn’t want to break down then and there. Fall on his knees and beg Vergil’s retreating back to stay with him. That he couldn't handle the separation, not again.
But he couldn’t do that. Because no matter how much Dante wanted to be with Vergil, he couldn’t stand to work with the demons who killed their mother. And goddamnit Vergil. How could you have your head so far up your ass that you would actually do this kind of shit?
But Dante would stop him, no matter how many times he would have to stab his brother to get the job done.
Denial
Dante clenched his hand, digging his nails into the cut on his palm. A blink was all it took for Vergil's body to disappear down the hole.
Gone. Again.
Numbly, he turned around. Back to the sword that was the cause of it all. Dante took it with him, might as well right? He couldn't really tell what he was feeling as a sense of hollowness radiated from his chest.
Fighting the straggling demons alongside Lady was just a momentary distraction until he got back to his broken down shop. Dante fell back on the floor. No where else for him to lay from the destruction of his fight earlier in the day.
Alone. Again.
No.
Dante grit his teeth and he flipped back to his feet. Grabbing his desk, he started righting all of the furniture in disarray. No, Dante was not just going to sit back again like a coward. Vergil was still alive and he was going to get his brother back even if he had to burn down all of hell to do so.
Bargaining
Triumph shot through Dante as he finally landed the finishing blow on Nelo Angelo. It was a hard won third battle and he was just steps away from finally confronting Mundus. From finally getting vengeance.
The clink of metal on the ground was the only thing that gave him pause as he glanced down to see what made the sound. Maybe a new weapon for him to use?
Ice shot through his veins as he withheld the sparkle of gold, the shine of a red gem.
Nonono, that can't- There's no way that could be here. Because if that's here, then that would mean- It had to be something like Gilver again, a trick, a ruse. Another clone that Mundus threw at him. I'll give you anything so please just-
He couldn’t move as the amulet rose from the ground and combined with his own hanging around his neck. Dante’s body moved in autopilot as he lifted up the force edge before him for its true form to unleash.
Anger
As Dante held the Sparda in his hands, its power surging through him, the power that Vergil had fought so hard for, had died for. That Mundus made Dante kill Vergil for-
Pretty soon it wasn’t his father’s power flowing through his veins. It was rage.
Dante was going to destroy Mundus if it was the last thing that he did. No matter what it took. He was going to finish what his father should have done a long time ago.
Denial
Dante put his everything into showing Trish how to be human after they had flown back to Capulet together. He made the Devil May Cry livable again. Clearing out a room for Trish to stay in and let Morrison know that he was back to taking jobs again.
This, this is what he needed to concentrate on. Dante couldn't think about what happened on that island yet. Not while he still needed to guide Trish. And it was truly great that she was with him, because Dante should not be left alone right now.
Even he could recognize that in himself.
Bargaining
Trish had finally gone off on her own and Dante was genuinely glad for her. Spreading her wings and all of that. As a parting gift, Dante gave her the Sparda. It was really more for his own sake, so that he wouldn't have to be alone with the thing.
But the silence after the sound of Trish's motorcycle going off was more deafening than Dante anticipated. The weight of it pressing him down, full of all the “what if's” that Dante could have, should have done.
Sometimes he thinks that he should have just ignored Patty and let Abigail kill him.
Depression
Lady and Trish have teamed up. Patty went off to some private school. Has the shop ever been this quiet? Probably not since the day Trish had first left him.
Things started to lose meaning for Dante. Colors bleeding away until he could only see black and red. Not blue. Never blue. He would just lay in bed, not moving for days until Morrison came and bugged him. If he just closed his eyes, he could imagine it, a familiar pair of arms holding him gently. He just needed to keep his eyes closed for long enough otherwise he would just see his own arms wrapped around himself.
At some point, he just thought enough was enough. Dante changed his outfit. He stopped talking as much. He sold off all his weapons, emptied out the shop with the excuse of paying off his debts.
Now he just needed a job. Just one more job and he'll be done with it.
All of it.
Acceptance
Dante cut down the demons surrounding him. He had been in hell after defeating Argosax for what felt like years. Or months? He couldn't tell anymore.
After wandering around on his bike, Dante really couldn't see the appeal in coming here in the first place. Sure there were interesting biomes with some areas burning with magma and others frozen over, but when everything around you was crying out for your blood, it sure got old fast.
Yes, Dante had been ready to die. But apparently the magic dense air of the underworld was supercharging his healing to the extreme and just standing around letting scythes and claws and blasts hit him just wasn't going to cut it.
So he kept wandering around. Looking for the perfect quiet place to just lie down and hopefully just become one with the dirt until he felt it.
Like electricity gathering in the air before a storm, a current that sang through his soul. Dante was running off in the direction as questions swirled in his mind.
As he got closer, a blue light was pulsing in the air. Breath caught in his throat Dante reached out for that light, hand grasping on a small shard as the world shifted around him. Dante rolled to recover and finally looked down at his hand.
A shard of Yamato.
His breath caught in his throat. Their souls were linked to their swords. If this was the state of Yamato then Vergil truly-
A blade burst through his chest. Looking up, Dante realized that he had landed in a demon's nest in the human world. He had made it back. But none of that mattered.
Tears streamed down his face as he cradled the shard. Dante paid no mind to his magic pulsing around him, bursting out with such explosive force to decimate the demons rushing in to attack him.
He's not sure how long he stayed there really. Kneeling on the ground with eyes too dry to cry staring listly at the sky. He thought that he might have finally passed on when his mother came and wrapped her arms around him.
But the feeling of demonic magic across his senses told him that it wasn't her. A solid weight at his back warmed him and a flash of green and red eyes let him know that Lady was there too.
He truly was back. Dante let the babes lead him back to the shop. Somehow maintained in his absence with the help of Lucia. They didn't leave him alone after that. Working in shifts to stand watch over him, giving him time to heal.
One day though, the world just felt different. No longer completely crushing him down. The weight still there, just…less. There was really no other way to describe it. So he went out and got his tailor to make the flashiest outfit that they could make.
Life went on for Dante, actually getting better for him after he met Nero. And his chest still aches at seeing the ways the kid acts like Vergil, but also not.
This was fine. Dante was finally fine.
Until a man named V walks into his shop.