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Dante had always figured he'd be there at the end of the world. It wasn't some cocky assumption, it just happened that he seemed to be enjoying a demon's lifespan and damn near every human theory about the end of the world had it pinned somewhere between the twentieth and twenty-sixth centuries. Admittedly the apocalypse had taken place earlier than he'd expected, but when his usual custom dried up and he'd been forced to seek employment abroad, he'd had the sense to realise something major was coming.
It had been painfully dull next to what he'd expected, no hellfire and brimstone, but somehow that had made it all the eerier. The world hadn't ended with a bang – not even a whimper. The heralds had all been clear and noisy enough – trumpeters, horsemen, harlots - but the actual end had been silent.
He hadn't told anyone – had no one to tell it to – but that had scared the shit out of him. If there had been roaring, screaming, at least you could rest pretty assured as to what was going on – but it was quiet, as though the planet had literally been sucked clean of life. Hell, even the higher demons – the bastards who'd talk just to hear their own voices – couldn't be heard until you made yourself known to them.
Now they'd all found leaders and made plans with a lack of organisation that Dante was torn between being pleased by, and being bothered by given the fact he was technically related to such brainless creatures. Of course there were always exceptions to the rule, same as there had been on Mallet Island – for every army of Phantoms you came across, there would invariably be a Griffon somewhere. His father would never have questioned cruelty against humans were it not for the intelligence he'd had, and Dante sure as hell wouldn't be entering a demon-run bar if he thought there was no one worth talking to.
"Hey babe," Dante greeted with a wink, keeping a happy eye on Lady Nyx's backside as she finished kneeling to replace a barrel. How she managed to carry out the whole process with elegance was beyond him, but he had long since given up making sense of the demons who frequented this particular bar.
"Hello my dear. Same as usual?" Nyx's voice had the strange but soothing habit of rising and falling across any sentence, probably force of habit from all the singing.
"As ever." Dante pulled up a seat, studiously ignoring Loki who'd held a grudge ever since the demon hunter pistol-whipped him for declaring amorous intentions in the middle of a sparring session.
"And what has my favourite demon hunter been up to?"
He shrugged, taking the glass as soon as it hit the bar top and looking into it as if it could offer inspiration. "Being bored. Tokyo blows." Putting the glass down after swallowing the contents revealed Nyx's less than impressed eyes, but he shrugged it off. "Sorry if you're attached to the place but you've got to admit, humans are more fun to mess with."
"I'm sure I wouldn't know," Nyx replied, refilling the glass swiftly. "I'm glad you called in, actually, I might have a little mission for you."
"Thank God." Dante decided the second glass could wait until his throat had fought off the burn from the first glass. "What's the pay?"
"Don't be silly. I only mention it because it might interest you, unless you have a cousin or little brother locally."
He stiffened, unable to help the instinctive reaction even after... what was it now, ten years? "No. Why?"
Nyx's suspicion was evident in her eyes, but she opted against pressing for answers. "Because someone came in to ask about lodgings who looked just like you. Add on a decade and he could be your twin." There was an embarrassing moment wherein Dante's mouth was open but words were refusing to come out, so the demoness continued with a small smirk, "I thought a rogue doppelganger might intrigue you, especially one attempting your likeness."
Dante swallowed the contents of the second glass, stilled Nyx when she went to refill it for a third time before asking, "Where did you send him?"
"The same place I send any stragglers who aren't full demons. Shibuya."
The demon hunter stood up and adjusted his coat. "How many days ahead is he?"
"Hours, actually." Nyx glanced at the cash register to check. "A little under..." Finishing the sentence seemed pointless when she returned her gaze to Dante's former seat. It seemed the demon hunter had already left.
.
Even amongst demons silver hair did not go unnoticed, and as they apparently had a living photo to make comparisons to it did not take long to track down his target's new home. Dante's legs ached from running and the fact that suddenly everything felt so damned weighty, as if his bones had turned to lead, and for the first time in his life breathing seemed an effort despite a complete lack of injury.
Opening the front door was easy given its owner had apparently decided against locking it, though entering the room immediately made obvious the reason for the slip in security. The room was empty, nothing present except a seriously ugly carpet and a shoddy attempt at a table up against the wall. Areas of the room had vague rectangular shapes where the paint did not match the overall shade of the walls, suggesting that either someone had moved out recently or the room already had been looted. It had to be a doppelganger. Doppelgangers weren't the classiest of demons, known for scavenging and squatting whenever they had yet to find a gullible host.
Definitely a doppelganger, he told his heart, trying to get the damned thing to quit its attempts to escape his chest cavity.
The living room had three doors left, one closed and two open, so after a cursory glance into the two open rooms he walked over to the closed door and took hold of the doorknob, breathing out again carefully.
He slid the door open and heard a dull metallic thud, turned to face it, dropped Ebony and Ivory. "You."
"You," Vergil replied.
.
Dante had been unable to react when Vergil walked over and dropped to his knees, wrapping his arms around Dante's waist and holding tight. "You," Vergil repeated, his grip intensifying until it was utterly bruising.
"Yeah," Dante managed at last, knowing his voice would break if he said another word but not caring, seeing as his breathing had long since decided regularity could be damned. "It's me." Vergil shook with choked sobs and the demon hunter slid a hand into his twin's hair, sliding an arm around his neck to hold him close. "How... how did you..." Words seemed wholly useless and he took Vergil's hands, pulled them away long enough for him to kneel too and be level with his brother. "How?"
Vergil seemed to be having trouble breathing, nevermind speaking, looking pale and painfully young in comparison to Dante, eyes wild and old. It was wholly alien to see him like this, to see him at all. "I survived." His hands moved up, gripping Dante's face so he could trace the changes time had wrought with his thumbs.
"Mallet Island," Dante reminded, shaking, finding that he was gripping his twin back just as tightly. "Nelo Angelo. I killed..."
"We can't die." Too young and too old all at once, and Dante remembered his father's stories, that in Hell you were immortal and so was time. Eternity could be captured in every second. Accounting for both sides of the dimension gap, Vergil had been undergoing torture longer than Dante had been alive. "It wasn't me."
"He kicked my ass," Dante replied, found laughter rising to try and ease the tension that meant both of them were quite ready to break the other's bones by holding on too tight. "I thought Hell might change you."
Vergil did laugh, but it wasn't a humorous sound, not even a bitter sound, it was broken. "Fuck, Dante." He pressed his cheek up against the demon hunter's, eyes wide and unfocused, talking straight into his twin's ear. "Dante, you have no idea."
Dante winced and looked around for a moment, wishing there was something, a decoration, an eyesore, anything, to focus on. "I'm so fucking sorry."
"Don't," Vergil muttered, "Don't be. I've learnt my lesson. I don't want to be like them."
Dante shook his head fiercely, pulling back and holding Vergil by the shoulders. "Bullshit. Bullshit. You can't change because some bastards hurt you, not again. You're meant to get stronger, you're meant to hurt them back!"
"Why?"
"Without strength you can't protect anything, remember?"
"I was a fool to believe it. Strength isn't everything."
"But you need it," Dante insisted. "You were right."
"I was your enemy."
"You were perfect." Dante hated this feeling, the utter elation of finding Vergil alive tossed aside because his twin had apparently collapsed internally while they had been separated. "I wanted to be like you, strong and calm and determined. You were perfect."
"You wanted humans," Vergil replied, not taking his eyes off Dante's. "Not me."
"Idiot," Replied the demon hunter. "I liked both, I wanted you. And it's not as if I can protect them now."
Vergil bowed his head and let out a long, shaky sigh, his body loosening with it for a moment. "Stay with me."
"Like you had a choice," Dante replied, watching Vergil move to lie down before joining him in stretching out on the floor. "You have really, really shitty taste in carpets."
"There are worse things to have on your skin." The words were horribly significant but Dante refused to think on them, flattened a hand against his twin's chest to feel the heartbeat.
"You're alive. I should have figured I'd see you at the end of the world."
"You're not that smart," Vergil replied with quiet affection, staring at Dante as if there were something extraordinary about his brother's face. It was an expression the demon hunter returned.
"You're alive," Dante stated blankly after a moment's silence, finding it the only thought his brain would hold onto for any length of time.
"Yes." The younger looking twin returned the heartbeat gesture, closed his eyes slowly after a moment before reopening them. "And you're still you."
"You're the only person I'll ever change for." Dante concentrated on the feeling beneath his hand before closing his own eyes.
.
Elsewhere, Lady Nyx reopened her eyes and smiled at the purple-skinned demon still sat in her bar despite the other customers having long left. "I didn't think a god of mischief like yourself would be so helpful."
"You think the great will appreciates twins fucking?" Loki replied with a lazy wink, before stretching in his chair. "Speaking of fucking, my bed's open for the night."
"One day you'll be so lucky," Nyx replied, but trailed a hand playfully across his chest before locking up the bar, content in having done her duty as a Lady and a barkeep.