I guess I should say that I'm using what the animated series has for Dante's office, of everything I've seen it has the clearest picture and most room, just imagine a pool table where it needs to be. And just to let you guys know, I've played 1-4 and watched the anime so any information outside that is out of my realm and therefore wiki-ed only at my need. And I'm messing with ages since this story would be a bit awkward at 45+ or whatever it is that Dante's official age at the end of 2 is.

Lucia stood inside the shop, almost morose. Dante was not here. Of course she had seen him go into the portal and knew he killed whatever demon lay behind it but…would he ever come back became the question.

The sound of a motorcycle filled her heart with glee 'maybe!' and without another thought she rushed out the door to find something different. Two beautiful women were getting off the bike, one a blond with a corset top and black leather pants and the other a brunet with a white suit style outfit "If I may ask, who are you?" she asked hesitantly.

The blond pulled down a set of sunglasses "We're Dante's partners."

Lucia's face flushed "Oh, I didn't not know he was in such…living arrangements."

The blond laughed while the other took a step back in shock "N-NO! Business partners! Nothing else!"

The redhead bowed a bit "Sorry, I was…unaware. My name is Lucia."

The blond smiled "Trish."

"Lady. Now where is Dante?"

Refusing to meet their gaze Lucia whispered "Perhaps it would be best for you to come inside…"

Unbeknownst to everyone, a bigger shock for everyone lay inside.

Lucia was leaning against the desk while Lady and Trish sat in the chair behind it and leaned against the wall respectively "After that he jumped in the portal…I know he defeated Argosax but I do not know what happened afterwards. I fear he may be trapped there."

The two partners looked at each other before Lady groaned "That idiot, I swear, he just got out of debt with me too! If I have to bail him out-"

Whatever rant she was about to go on died quickly as a loud snore ripped through the air. In a flash knives, handguns, and Sparda were in their wielder's hands and the trio quietly peeked over the couch to see "Are you freaking serious?!" Lady shouted.

"WHA?!" Dante screeched as he shot up "What? Who? Oh, hey there Lady, Trish…What's going on Lucia?"

The newest demon stared with mouth agape "But how…?"

The bags under the demon hunter's eyes were massive "I just spent four weeks in Hell. Literally and I'd like to inform you that a second here is an hour there. Now I didn't get a chance to rest. So I'm going to sleep, eat and take a shower before I explain what happened. Good night." and Sparda's son promptly passed out again leaving the three woman at a loss.

Trish, the only one smiling offered "Lady, why don't we show, Lucia wasn't it, around town. Knowing sleepy-head over there he'll be out for awhile."

Shrugging the only human among them agreed "Sure, why not?"

Several days later after Dante had finished his list he called all of those affiliated with him to the shop. Kyrie walked in with Nero who greeted ever so cheerfully "You look like shit. What happened?" eyeing the wounds on his friend.

Chuckling at the young man Dante replied "I'll get to that. First introductions." and they were made quickly before they got down to business with Dante starting "Nero, you been keeping in practice?"

Clenching his arm he smirked "Hell yeah! I bet I could even take you on right now!"

A voice that none but one knew chuckled sensually "I doubt that, you see, this big, bad, ole man just beat the king of Hell, isn't that right Dante?"

Not even bothering to turn around as he felt the arms drape around his neck Dante sighed "How are you still in that form Nevan?" still looking forward he noticed everyone but Kyrie had a weapon pointed at the half-naked demon

The lightning witch giggled before kissing his neck "Oh come now, my king, I prepare for anything."

Turning to see the demon he lifted a brow "Really? I'm a king now? Then how come the other demons all tried to kill me?"

Nevan floated around to kneel before him "You had my allegiance before you became king and that is the difference." she stretched out a hand and purple lightning slowly wound it's way from her to his wrist before with a zap it became a tattoo on his wrist "And that is proof of my loyalty." she looked up and smirked "And it wouldn't be the first would it?"

Sighing the recently returned hunter let out a piercing whistle and a flurry of snow appeared and sitting on the back of the couch with her leg touching Dante's shoulder was a blue Rusalka "Guys, this is…well, no one without a demon mouth can really say her name so just call her 'Snow'. She's the one who helped me get out of Hell."

Two questions were asked simultaneously by Nero and Lady "Isn't she a lure?" and "Demon mouth?"

Snow answered for herself "When the toad demons are children they hunt us down and attach to us, taking us over like parasites. I managed to stay free long enough to find Dante. He's my king as well." her voice was very soft and she revealed her arm which had a 'U' shape with the bar's flared out and a large dot in the middle.

Dante answered Lady's question "A 'real' demon has four tongues and three pallets so their speech can get a bit…wild."

Before anyone could interrupt again Dante started "So here's the deal. My last mission I jumped through a portal to Hell to keep a demon dad beat from crawling back here. Got trapped as the portal closed and decided to go deeper." rubbing a gouge on his arm he looked at them "Got into what's essentially the demon version of New York and learned a lot. Not to mention kicked Mundus's ass again and apparently that made me king."

Nero was slouched back on the sofa "Okay, so what'd you learn?"

For the first time in, Trish, Nero or Lucia's memory Dante looked sad. Very, very sad. "I had a brother. Vergil." gnawing on his lip he lightly tossed a photo onto the table where it slid around so Nero and Kyrie could see the man in blue. "Apparently he took a look at the Order in a…less than professional way."

Lady, the only one to have met his brother, scoffed "Okay, what proof do you have? I met him and he doesn't seem like the type to do anything like that."

"I saw part of his soul in Hell, it showed me. Told me Yamato was in his heir's hands and the fact that it called out to him and his demon looks too much like Vergil's should have tipped me off when we met."

Kyrie didn't like the smile on Nero's face and gently slapped his knee "Be nice-" she stared.

"You know this means I'm gonna call you 'uncle' now right?"

His girlfriend looked mortified and everyone else looked afraid of the fact that Dante teaching the next generation. The hunter himself only looked amused "As long as you're fine with me calling you 'kid'." the nephew looked like he bit into a sour lemon "Thought so." Dante snickered.

Trish looked at him "Okay, so you learned that…but that's not why you called all of us is it?"

Sighing he ran a hand down his face "Someone's opened a portal."

The red-eyed blue-eyed looked at him "Okay, big deal. So what? Not like we haven't taken down thousands of those."

"The size in the problem. Right now something twice my height could waltz through. In two weeks though it's going to be much worse." he looked at his friends and pointed at each of them in turn "Arkham as a blob, Mundus, the Savior, and Argosax, could walk through with legions at the same time. Hell, a city could probably go through."

Everyone tensed at that "That's why we need to shut it down. now. I need your help." everyone looked at Dante in shock, he never admitted that. "If we can spend a week and a half getting everything ready we can still get there in time to close it before the big beasties come through."

Every the cocky one, Nero said "Where is it? Why don't we just go up there and bust it up now?"

"It's up in Northern Canada, it's so cold up there even most demons don't want to go." when he propped his feet up on the table everyone relaxed- it was the most like himself they'd ever seen him "And besides right now the rifts are all out of whack so if you went you'd be turned into a puddle of goo. That's why we need to wait before we can get up there, since personally I don't think I'd like being sucked up by a straw."

Lucia whispered in the near silence the room had become "So what will we do in the time before we leave?"

The answering grin was slightly manic, "We've still got work to do!" he turned to the one who had known him the longest "Hey Lady, remember that favor you asked me last year?"

Putting her hands on her hips she shot back "The one you said no to?"

He waved his fingers towards him "Hand 'em over. Give me a few days and they'll be done, in the mean time take Lucia and Nero out to the range."

Trish false pouted "What about me?"

Grabbing the offered handguns Dante looked up "Why don't you go get us a plane? Morrison should have connection." Trish's head snapped to Lady before Dante laughed as the target scowled "Relax, I'll be flying."

The favor that was being done was customizing her handguns. In the end her guns would be far different than anything she could have ever dealt with before. To help make the transition easier he had loaned her Ebony and Ivory. Currently he was alone in the office with the guts of one of the guns scattered around him, a jeweler's glass was in one eye and a small screwdriver in his hands, his tongue was sticking out as he delicately placed the parts back.

The sound of shoes on the steps caused him to look up as Trish entered but he went back to work just as quickly. "I got the plane, bought it off Morrison, says that since he's been working as our mediator his reputation has skyrocketed."

"And the fact we don't owe him anymore makes a lot of difference." he said as he slid the firing pin in place.

The lightning demon nodded "Um…where are the two demons?" he looked up at her for a moment before she sighed and rolled her eyes "You know what I mean."

Putting everything down and leaning back in the chair he finally gave her a straight answer "They're at the range as well. Nevan is teaching Snow how to use her powers for something more than hiding. Which is what she's been doing to survive."

Trish took off her glasses to stare at him, she knew demonic culture well enough to want to know what wasn't being said "How did it happen?"

Dante rubbed his eyes "Nevan was in Temen-ni-gru and when we fought I thought I killed her and she turned into a guitar, sick on the base and amazing reverb with just a touch of amazing on the string," her answer was to stare at him drolly. "Anyways so she went into the armory after that so I was just as surprised as everybody else when she popped back up in her demon form."

He went silent for a moment before she prompted "What about Snow?"

Dante looked at the door meaningfully, Trish caught the message and traipsed over to the door before sliding the deadbolt "I don't think you really know how harsh the demon world is. You were created by Mundus then used immediately." he wove his fingers together and laid them on his chest where his thumbs tapped in a steady but uneven rhythm. "Snow's type of demon are very low on the food chain. They live their lives running and hiding hoping not to get caught by the parasitic toads, eaten by almost anything or…"

He trailed off but she got the message "So how did you meet?"

"Want some tomato juice?" he asked as he stood up. Her answer was to shake her head. He continued with his head in the fridge "I was wandering around when I literally ran into her…well, she ran into me. She was running from something and apparently even in Hell I'm known. The demon that was going to eat her saw me and decided to eat me. Last mistake he ever made. Anyways, I didn't chase her away."

He paused and stood still, Trish found herself leaning forward "Why?"

Opening his mouth several times he said "She was crying. In fear."

Trish stood up and nodded "Ah." that was all he needed to say.

Dante was at the range returning the two guns, Lady didn't care what their names were so he took the liberty of naming them. He thought long and hard before he settled on Fate and Finality. The range itself was a large abandoned quarry that Morrison's family used to own when it was operational, he gave it to Dante as payment so that the demon hunter could try out his new experiments without wrecking the shop.

Nevan and Snow smiled at him, well, there was a seductive wink from Nevan as they went back to work, both of them in an assumed human form. Nevan had the same body type, large bust and hips with a trim waist and flaming red hair and eyes so blue they seemed purple, apart from black heeled boots and skin tight jeans she wore a white tube top with a bat in the middle and a jacket like his but it only came down to her waist and was a vibrant purple.

Snow was a very different case, her body was the same but she wore tennis shoes and baggy jeans along with a large white sweater that seemed to swallow her, her eyes were crystal blue and silver hair. While Nevan radiated confidence Snow seemed to call out other people courage to defend her.

He continued past them to see Lady firing shot after shot from Ebony and Ivory "Why don't you try these on." he said.

She turned to see her guns and gasped, Fate and Finality were closer in size to their model, and he shoved Fate in her left hand and Finality in her right so they matched the color of her eyes, the grips were made of the same stain of wood as Dante's own but set inside was a picture of her mother. Looking up she noted that while she was studying them he moved away.

Trish sauntered up beside her "Wanna do some sparing?" she asked before she let out a whistle at the guns in Lady's hands. Trish extended the offer to Lucia when Lady declined and the two of them were soon darting in and out as the landscape was getting blasted with ice and lighting.

Nero looked over from the target he was firing at the piercing whistle then caught Dante walking towards him "What's up?" he asked as he reloaded Blue Rose.

Dante waited until his nephew looked up "We need to work on your Trigger."

"What?"

"You're not using nearly as much power as you could be and it takes you a long time to finish releasing it. You and I are the only ones who use Devil Triggers."

Nero jerked his chin to Lucia "What about her?"

Holstering his guns and drawing Rebellion he answered while Nero mimicked his weaponry "For her it's more like the opposite but instead of getting power she's hiding it."

Nero revved Red Queen and activated his Trigger. The blue aura surrounded his body and his voice became overlaid with a much deeper one "We gonna do this or what?"

Dante nodded "Not bad. Now come on, let's see what the Kid's got!"