Reunion

Dante didn't quite know what to do in this situation. He was pretty sure it went against at least 6 of his moral codes to incapacitate this woman, but he also doesn't want to deal with the situation any longer than he has to.

"Can we at least just talk this out?" Her response was continued screaming and words of offensive nature towards him.

Dodging between different cartoon ghosts as though it was something normal, Dante was having a strangely enjoyable time. Though, the same couldn't be said for the young woman with him in the room.

"Why can't you just leave already!? Do the weird portal thingy and get the hell out!"

"Oh come on! I'm trying to leave but you won't let me. Make your mind up woman, do you want me dead or do you want me to leave!?"

"My name is Perona you peeping bastard!"

Well, at least Dante knew her name now. That was the only real positive in the situation, that and the sight of her slowly becoming more and more annoyed at her inability to actual harm him was entertaining. Though, pink pigtails are surprisingly in fashion it seems.

"Well then, Perona, would you mind telling me just what the hell is wrong with this island?"

Once again, he was met with screams and slowly Dante was realising that this was going nowhere. Maybe he should've given up sooner because now he has to fix this issue.

Using his incomprehensibly large brain to figure out a solution, Dante eventually comes to the conclusion that she started the fight technically by throwing ghosts at him, and uses that to internally justify his next actions being to Trick over and smack her over the back of the head, knocking her out cold.

After laying Perona on the floor, Dante turns and is face to face with a teddy bear that is somehow speaking to him, shouting all kinds of obscenities about his treatment of Perona, and so he makes the rational move and immediately summons the Cavaliere, crossing the halves over and revving the engines to obliterate every trace of that nightmarish bear.

With his work done, Dante pats himself on the back for a situation well handled and considers this to be a job well done. Neutralised the threat, erased all evidence and didn't become a criminal more-so than he already is.

After the mental ego-boosting, Dante decided that perhaps today's journey would be coming to an end soon, because he was quickly growing sick of the drab scenery this place offered him, and the lack of real weather here. The sun is tame due to the clouds and fog, and doesn't quite feel as refreshing.

Moving along on his travels across the island, dealing with zombie after zombie and becoming bored of the sewn up creatures, Dante decided that indeed today's journey perhaps should have been skipped. The SS Deadweight should have been commissioned by now, but instead he was staring down the laboratory of a fucking supervillain.

He wanted nothing to do with that. Absolutely not, no thank you sir. Walking away from the hysteric laughter he could hear coming from the laboratory, Dante suddenly felt that familiar chill down his spine, originating from the Palace structure in the center of Thriller Bark.

Swiftly entering his Devil Trigger, Dante blinks and finds himself directly above the odd castle and drops down, crashing through the ceiling of bricks and shingles, disengaging his Trigger afterwards and walking through for a few minutes, enjoying the furniture only to pause and grin.

Having sensed a hostile presence nearby, Dante summoned Balrog onto his body and began waiting for the invisible entity that was slowly walking towards him, most likely hoping to strangle him from behind or something along the lines.

The moment it came into his vicinity, Dante lashed out his gauntlet covered arm towards the now clearly male person, grabbing him by the throat and watching as the invisibility was slowly negated by the power of his Devil Arm.

However, Dante wasn't bothered with sitting around and waiting for the big reveal of who the invisible man was, instead choosing to continue along his path after snapping his neck with a simple flick of the hand, dismissing Balrog immediately afterward.

He had felt an odd resonance with the body after killing the man, but ignored it in favour of dashing to the throne room after the air had changed. He felt something, a twitch of the finger in response, but it was felt nonetheless. Demonic Power. A healthy dose of it too. Perhaps he should have recognised it the first time around.

If it could be felt from this distance, then Vergil may have been tailing him the whole time, given his lack of restraint when it comes to using demonic powers. Hell, Vergil may have just been playing the longest mental game he'd seen up to that point.

He didn't have time to care. The bastard had been toying with him, tailed him to this island and made his presence known with a challenge. Why now, though? Why not kill him when he awakens, why even bother playing this game? Wouldn't his brother be happy to chat again?

He didn't know. And that was concerning for Dante, so he decided to fix that, finding himself on the narrow path leading to the doorway of the throne room, kicking the door open and finding his brother sat upon the mighty throne in the center, a leg crossed over the knee and resting his head on his cheek.

His clothes were familiar to Dante, being that of post-merge Vergil, though in the same old blue and gold colour scheme he recognised from previous games. Immediately Dante knew something was wrong, because instead of respect and sibling rivalry like he expected, all he saw was hatred. Utter wrath.

At the foot of the throne lay a body, large and rotund in nature and slightly vampiric by the seems of it. He felt that same resonance from it as he did with the invisible man, though the body was littered in gashes, wounds and was missing both arms and a leg. 'Poor guy got fucking minced. The hell happened to Vergil?'.

"Dante. I'm impressed. All this time apart and yet still you seem just as foolish and incompetent as I remember."

────────────────────

Vergil didn't move an inch even upon seeing Dante, restraining his fury so as to not lost concentration. His anger did not subside, but temperance led to control over it, until it only served to fuel his motivation.

"Well well, I had a feeling you'd be here Vergil. Seems fitting considering how empty this party is. Is that a conscious effort, or does it just happen whenever you're around?"

Vergil scowled at hearing Dante's voice, annoyed at the mere sound of how uncaring his brother was. Constant whining, mentions of hedonistic goals and all of the love in the world.

"You should be more focused, Dante. This fight could be your last."

"Woah there, Vergil! No need for such finality. How would Nero feel if you killed his favourite uncle, huh?" Vergil cocked his head in confusion.

"Nero?"

'...Oh fuck.' Dante thought to himself. 'If he doesn't know Nero, that means the character development from Dmc 5 and V never happened. Is he fresh out of Nelo Angelo?'.

"Enough games Dante. My power has grown since you and I last fought. This time, I won't lose."

That was all the warning Dante had received before Vergil summoned 'a fucking deVIL SWORD!?' and Tricked straight in front of him.

The reunion had begun in earnest.