Chapter Text
January 16th 6:30 PM
(5 months before the Red Grave Incident)
Nero was used to a lot of things.
Guess it came with the job description, only so many demons you can see and promptly take out before nothing phases you. This isn’t even counting all the other weird shit- like the demon arm, the giant statue that used him like a fucked up battery, hell basically everything about Fortuna really.
Today however, was really testing that fortitude.
Everything started out normal enough, a loud jukebox playing as he sat back in the passenger seat of the van. At the moment the streets were empty, which you know would usually be a good thing but-
A bump in the road was passed over, at speeds fast enough to cause the entire van to jump up for a second… much to Nero’s annoyance, as it nearly launched him out of his fucking chair.
“Can’t you drive a little slower ?”
The woman at the wheel snorted, Nico responding without so much as skipping a beat, “hey, you’re the one who said ya wanted to get this done quick- ‘sides, roads aren’t usually this clear, gotta keep my skills sharp somehow”
“I didn’t mean so fast we might end up in a ditch!” he just wanted to get home before dinner, and preferably he’d like to get there in one piece.
“Yeah, yeah, don’t get your panties in a twist” she rolled her eyes and the van slowed. Slightly. Only slightly. Nero had a feeling she wasn’t going to be budging more on that.
The devil hunter leaned back in his seat, taking a glance out the window. It really was quiet out there, he knew this was the more backwater part of town but it was only what… 6 pm? 7? Something wasn’t adding up here. Demons got people holed up inside maybe? That doesn’t match up with their intel though- said this was an easy job, some small fry stuck in someone’s basement probably.
Maybe he’s thinking too hard on this
“ What the hell? ”
… Or maybe not. At the noise from Nico he looked up… just in time to see what looked like a portal open not far down the road- hovering ominously above it.
“Did the guy who called us say anything about weird portals?” Nero asked, his tone leaning towards resigned as he realized that things were about to get complicated.
“Nope, I’d remember th-” she cut off her own response as the brakes suddenly slammed the van forwards, as it desperately tried to stop through the speed it had been at.
Nero would have asked what the fuck that was about, but he was instead taken back at the image before him of what looked like a motorcycle being flung through the portal… wait is that an actual dude on that thing?
Er, not that they were on it long- as the motorcycle shortly after crashed to the ground, flinging the guy off in a way that almost looked comical- if you know, that wasn’t something that’s likely to be a death sentence. Jesus Christ. It was only due to Nico’s reaction time that the motorcycle and it’s passenger didn’t dead on hit the van, instead it swerved to the left (nearly crashing them into the wall but that’s besides the point) and came to a stop as the brakes finally did their job.
“...”
“...”
“Well! That’s another quick save added to my belt, eventually you’re gonna have to pay me back for these” Nico brushed off the situation quickly with a joke (he hoped that was a joke)... and with a cigarette.
Ugh.
“I’ll mark it down for you later” he said back as he got up from his seat “should probably check on… whatever that was. Think that guy survived?”
“... Nah, couldn’t see if they had any gear on- but motorcycle crashes like those are nasty, even with ‘em. Falling from a portal don’t help either”
Nero grimaced. That’s not going to be a pretty scene. Has he seen worse? Probably. Did it make it any better? Not really.
“Guess I’ll find out now. Who knows what else will fall through” he gestures out the van window to the portal “that thing”
“Have fun, try not not to get more people raining on ya”
“Yeah, right” he waved her off before stepping out onto the street. It was all bathed in a red glow from the hole in space up there. Ominous shit.
Figuring out what happened to the person who fell out wasn’t hard- because there was a red streak on the ground following along to the motorcycle wreck. Looks like it straight up fell over on the guy by the time it stopped too, considering he just saw legs from here. Ouch… he could see what Nico meant by these being nasty.
Why did they even fall out of there anyways? Really unfortunate timing on the road? Rough break.
Least he could do was look them over, figure out who they are. But, before he could step forward his attention was grabbed by a glow of blue fighting against the red of the street, from his demon arm. So… a demon is nearby, guess that’s to be expected- the situation ain’t exactly normal .
Nothing in sight right now, better be ready to fight at a moment’s notice- usual business.
Now… he was over by the wreck. There is… so much red, not just from blood but their clothes were similarly colored, and what wasn’t red was black. It was torn to hell at the ends (and probably where it dragged against the ground) but he could make it out as a coat. Leather he thinks. Kinda like Dante’s if you made it edgy.
“Sorry about this…” Nero muttered to the body as he crouched down and moved the motorcycle off, somehow it managed to not be completely totaled- now whether or not that meant it could still be saved was another thing. Nico would have to give him a second opinion on that one.
With the motorcycle out of the way, now he had a view of the crash victim. He was preparing to see something pretty awful but…
The hell? The full picture he was given now was a man that, aside from the torn up clothes from the drag of the street, looked fine aside from some surface scratches- and he was breathing, heavy breaths noticeable enough that he could clearly see his chest rise up and down.
Wasn’t the only thing to catch his attention either- going along with the package the guy had snow white hair, similar to his own. Looked to be about shoulder length. That’s…
Let’s get this straight, surviving a lethal crash with little injury despite evidence to the contrary, red coat, white hair…
Upon a closer look he even had weapons on him, some sort of incredibly wide sword currently strapped to his back. (He was willing to guess he had guns as well).
It was like looking at Dante, but not. This guy was almost certainly younger, plus if he were to take the clothing as an account for personality… he’s probably more serious than the man he knew.
What does he do with him? He’s unconscious but he’ll probably just walk this off… nah, this is all too suspicious to just do nothing about it. Not only is there the uncomfortable resemblance to Dante (considering the healing, was he a demon? It’d explain why his arm is glowing…) but he’s also the only connection they have to whatever the hell that portal in the sky is which…
Uh.
The street suddenly dimmed. It was gone like it’d never been there. Well that’s great, fantastic really, guess this dude really is the only option.
“Better have some answers…” he muttered as he picked the unconscious man up (he was surprisingly light, not that carrying him would have been hard otherwise) and took him into the van.
Nico, who he spotted looking out the window, was quick to comment when Nero returned, “Damn, that guy’s lookin’ pretty good for smashing against the road” she took a pause as she took a good look at the white haired man… the unconscious one, before she turned her head back up to Nero, “didja have some long lost brother ya didn’t tell me about?”
Wouldn’t that be the twist of the century? Nero sighed, “if I did I wouldn’t know, but whoever he is he’s clearly someone like Dante and I…. and he’s our only connection to that portal, wherever the hell that thing went”
Nico nods, taking a drag of her cigarette (ugh…) “we switchin’ targets to that? We have another job to do ya know”
He waves smoke out of face before replying, “I know, I know just… let me deal with him first. If he’s willing to go with it maybe we can just keep him in here while we take care of that” considering the last time he met someone like him he shot an old man (in hindsight? deserved) in the middle of a crowd so he didn’t have high hopes- but Dante turned out to be alright, if a pain in the ass sometimes so…
“Righty then! You deal with ‘em and I’m goin’ to go check out that motorcycle, could do something with it if there’s anythin’ left” she seemed more interested in that than anything else about the situation for now, with a toolbox in hand she headed out the door.
Leaving only two in the van. Guess they get privacy at least? This is gonna suck…
He dumps the mysterious man onto the couch, waiting.
Fortunately it’s only a few minutes of that until he sees him begin to stir.
Alright, this is the moment of truth. Red Queen was sitting right where he could easily grab it in case things go south (if he woke up in a strange van with a stranger staring at him he’d probably jump to violence too, he wouldn’t blame him- though he will absolutely not let it be lived down) but he at least tried to make himself not seem threatening though uh… arm probably wasn’t going to help, eh, whatever. What happens happens… he’ll just try not to trash the van at least, rather Nico not kill him instead.
(Then again, part of him is convinced this van is indestructible)
“What…” Nero was torn out of his thoughts by a voice, low enough he couldn’t discern much about it.
“... Hey sleeping beauty, you took a nasty fall huh?” The younger of the two spoke casually. Hope for the best… prepare for the worst.
Nero coulda sworn the guy should have gotten a head rush from how fast he sat up, and before he could blink the man had grabbed for his sword and-
CLANG
Red Queen met the larger sword, blocking it. He didn’t exactly want to push for a fight yet, so he kept it there. His eyes met a similar striking blue… another similarity to add to the concerning large list.
The expression on the guy was hard to read, one of those stoic types? But, he could tell he was running off of some sort of instinct, like a cornered animal- what the hell was he doing before to be this jumpy?
“Do you always try to stab people you meet? You’re a pretty shitty house guest”
His quip was met with silence… but in the middle of the blade lock, the shitty house guest turned his gaze around the van (getting his bearings finally?) before returning to Nero.
Confusion filtered across his face, for just a moment.
The sword is lowered, not put away but he’s not trying to kill him at least. That’s nice.
“Not much of a talker are ya?” Nero rubbed the back of his neck, “I’ll give you the jist of what happened, if that’ll get you to say anything. You fell out of some weird ass portal over the road, nearly hit us. Took a pretty bad hit against the street, a normal guy would have died but… you’re clearly not a ‘normal guy’ right?”
His silent audience listened, taking in the information and finally some words he could understand left his mouth, “... where are we?”
… What the fuck.
As if the appearance wasn’t enough, the voice was similar- eerily so yet also so different. It sounded like Dante but so… uncharacteristically serious, and quiet. Way too quiet. God Dante couldn’t shut his damn mouth…
He can have this crisis later, focus on talking to the guy… “Capulet city. You far from home? Could give you a ride, if you stick around. I’m pretty sure your bike out there is gonna be unusable for a while”
The casual approach seemed to be doing the trick, not-Dante over there seemed to be closer to chilling out rather than about to stab a sword through him at a moment’s notice. Progress.
“I can figure it out myself” he’s scanning Nero up and down now… eyes lingering on his arm. Yeah, he expected as much. “Who are you?” he followed up with.
Figure it out himself? Unless he lives in the city he can’t imagine that’d be very pleasant.
“Nero. Nice to meet you, even if you tried to kill me. That’s pretty normal by now” Nero laughed to himself at that- sure is a weird normal to have, “by the way, didn’t your parents ever tell you it’s not nice to stare? I think we both know that neither of us are in the ‘regular dude’ category, yeah?”
“...”
Man. “You know, it’s real hard to keep up the conversation if you’re not going to say anything back”
“...”
He’s starting to think he’s doing it on purpose now, “can you at least give me… a name? You can say your name right? Please tell me you’re not one of those edgy amnesiac guys” he can only take so much here.
That one seemed to take some consideration (better than being ignored) before he responded, “Dante"
…………
Nero was used to a lot of things.
This was not one of them.