"I can't believe it!" Ruby squealed atop her bunk, swinging her legs back and forth in excitement. Weiss pushed her legs out of the way to avoid being hit as she sat down, and Ruby rolled onto her back and looked at the rest of her team upside down. "I mean, we haven't even been here a whole week and we've already got an official search and rescue mission!"

Blake shook her head. "Ruby, you need to calm down and think about this. Those three could try and betray us out there, and if we lose track of them then we're going to be in a lot of hot water with Ozpin."

"She's right." Weiss said, nodding at Blake. "We can't let those three out of our sight for a second." She made eye contact with Ruby when her leader tilted her head to the side. "Not to mention we could be helping bandit scum search for their party and end up in a fight we aren't ready for."

"Then we practice so we are ready! The mission isn't until this weekend. We wake up early and go to bed late!" Ruby said, rotating so she was laying on her stomach. But when neither of the three seemed keen on sharing her enthusiasm, she frowned. "Do you still not trust Dante and his friends?"

"No." Came the resounding response from the other three.

"Ruby." Yang stepped forward, her voice gentle. "You can't take everything someone says at face value. Just because Dante says the truth isn't bad doesn't mean… well, anything. Until we find out the truth for ourselves, we have to be cautious around them. We don't know what they're planning or what they've done in the past."

There was a pause, and then Ruby asked, "You mean Vergil and Lady?"

Blake and Yang nodded. "We told you what happened when they first met in the Emerald Forest during initiation. One of them did something to the other, and until we find out what happened and who's to blame, we can't-"

"Trust them! I get it, you're sounding like a broken record!" Ruby cut off Yang. "Gods, can't I just be excited that I get to spend some time learning on the job?"

"Since you're so excited, why don't you go ask Dante or Vergil what it is we'll be looking for?" Weiss muttered.

"Good idea!"

Yang's fast reflexes and past experience catching Ruby when she was using her semblance caused her to instinctively reach out and grab Ruby's arm before she could make it to the door. "Not right now! It's late, you can ask them in the morning."

"Oh. Heh, my bad." Ruby muttered sheepishly. "Well, we should all go to bed. And be prepared to wake up early tomorrow! I meant it when I said we would be getting some extra training in!"

That was at least one thing the team agreed on; whether it was Grimm or bandits or the three outsiders, one could never be too prepared for a fight.

-The Devil Hunters in Remnant-

In their room, Dante and Vergil were sitting across from each other on the beds. Neither had spoken much to each other after leaving Lady in the infirmary, but now that they were here Dante asked, "So, how are you going to get a demon to talk?"

Vergil didn't answer right away, instead choosing to finish unlacing his boots and put them to the side before he looked up. "Well, like I said earlier, defeating a demon without killing it is about all it takes. The lesser demons, like the Seven Hells, won't be able to give us anything. Typically, the physically larger a demon is, the smarter it'll be."

Dante thought to his past battles; the only time he'd talked to any demons had been with larger demons like Cerberus and Beowulf, and to a lesser extent Nevan. Suddenly coming to yet another realization, he felt like smacking himself for the second time that day. He summoned Agni and Rudra, then raised them so their eyes were level with his. "Hey, I'm lifting the no talking rule! Can you two tell us anything?"

"Are those the gate guardians?" Vergil asked.

"Look Brother! It's the rude one!" Agni said.

"Yes, the one who ignored us and teleported past the gate!" Rudra agreed.

"We felt like failures!" Agni said. "We were charged by Sparda to guard the gate, and yet we were bypassed by such simple magic!"

"Apologize at once!" Rudra ordered Vergil.

Dante clicked their heads together three times. "I asked you two a question!" He reminded them through grit teeth.

There was a pause before Rudra answered. "No. We are of no help to you."

"Yes, Sparda bound us to the tower before he sealed the two worlds apart, two thousand years ago. We have no insights to offer you." Agni added.

"Nothing at all?" Dante sighed.

"No. But I believe your current path is the right one to take." Rudra told him.

"Alright. No more talking you two." Dante dismissed them, then pinched the bridge of his nose. "It was bad enough having to listen to them the first time."

"They think I teleported past them." Vergil shook his head. "I walked right through the gate they were guarding while they were busy talking to each other."

Dante laughed at the image that popped into his head. "Well, that explains why they were still alive before I got to you." His smile fell from his face pretty quickly when he remembered just how their meeting had gone down at the top of the tower. "Are you still going to try and claim Dad's power for your own?" He asked. Vergil looked at him, but didn't answer. "Because if you are, then I don't see any point in postponing our rematch any longer. We may as well just go outside and finish it now."

"Is there some reason you want to keep me from Father's power?"

Dante scoffed. "Yeah, cause I don't know what you'll do with it. Nevermind the fact that you destroyed an entire city getting to it, but if you did succeed, what were you going to do? Rule the world?"

"My ambitions aren't so primitive." Vergil almost sounded insulted. "I have nothing to gain from ruling the world."

"Then what's the plan Verg?" Dante asked. "Cause I gotta be honest, I'm having a hard time figuring it out."

Vergil just rolled his eyes and turned to lay down on his bad with back to Dante. "If you want to fight me, then go ahead and issue the challenge."

Dante just sighed, moving to center right bed so there was some space between him and his brother. "I don't want to, you damn idiot. Why do you have to make everything difficult?"

-The Devil Hunters in Remnant-

The next morning, Dante found himself in the kitchens, idly washing the dirty trays leftover from breakfast. He'd scrubbed about… oh, fifty, and had about seven hundred more to go, so he wasn't in any rush. If there was one thing he'd learned in his life, whether for better or worse, if you do a bad job the first time you (probably) won't be asked to do it a second time. They could make him do community service, but they couldn't make him do a good job. Another reason he was moving so slowly was because he hadn't gotten much sleep last night. He'd stayed awake trying to figure out what Vergil's plan could be. About the only logical conclusion he'd come to was that Vergil simply wanted the power of Sparda just because. There was no plan, and there was no endgame. Vergil simply wanted to be the strongest around, and claiming Sparda's power was the easiest way to go about that.

"Hey, Dante."

He turned around to see that Lady was walking towards him with a barely noticeable limp, her leg lacking the bandage that had been covering her wound. She was also dressed in the Beacon academy uniform, apparently having been to the temporary abode they'd been granted. "Morning." He greeted, too tired to try and give her some quip as a greeting.

Lady looked at the mountain of dirty trays next to Dante. "Looks like you'll be busy all day." Dante just sighed, and Lady smirked for a moment before her face fell. "We need to talk about Vergil."

"Can we not?" Dante stopped what he was doing, shook his arms to get some of the water off, then turned to Lady and crossed his arms. "What about him?"

"When are we going to kill him?" Lady asked, not bothering to beat around to beat the bush. "You've had plenty of opportunities to finish the job already. Why are you letting him live?"

Dante shrugged. "Vergil hasn't given me a reason to attack him yet. He's had plenty of time to turn on us, or run off and grab his sword, but he hasn't. I'm not going to try and kill him without a good reason." He held up a hand to silence Lady's retort. "And I will make sure he answers for his crime of summoning the tower. But if I don't have to kill him, I won't."

"Do you remember when we found my father on the ground, and I thought he was dead?" Lady asked after a pause. When Dante nodded she continued. "He wasn't. Obviously. And all it took was a few honeyed words and I fell for his lies about being manipulated by your brother." Lady's fists clenched at her sides. "It was because of me that things escalated the way they did. I had the chance to kill him, to stop him from using my blood and opening the portal. I failed. Take some words of advice from me: Don't let your emotions cloud your judgement. There's nothing Vergil can do to make up for destroying an entire city, and as a result possibly trapping us on an alien world for the rest of our lives. He has to die. If you won't kill him, I will."

"Oh really? How do you plan to do that when you couldn't even kill me?" Dante asked seriously, then took the chance to gloat. "Vergil's not as strong as I am, but he's no pushover."

Lady shook her head. "I'm sure I'll figure something out. No demon's been able to kill me yet." With that she walked off, leaving Dante alone.

Dante shook his head, turning back around and getting back to his task. "She's right." Dante admitted to himself. "Just because he's my brother doesn't change what he did. And he had no issue trying to kill me to get what he wanted." He tossed aside the tray he was cleaning and grabbed another one. "I'd only been trying to beat him before. I'd finally been ready to kill him before we got sent here. What changed?"

-The Devil Hunters in Remnant-

Lady found the gym after asking for directions from one of the students she passed by. Regardless of finding demons or fighting Vergil, there were still creatures of Grimm in the forest and she needed to be ready for that fight. No demon had killed her yet, but that didn't mean she'd made it through the Temen-Ni-Gru without a scratch. Plus she felt the need to do something active after having been forced to lay down for the past couple of days.

Just as she was about to begin stretching, a familiar voice called out, "You aren't really going to work out in your school uniform, are you?"

Lady turned around to see that Yang was standing there, dressed in appropriate workout attire. She looked down at her clothes, then back up to Yang and shrugged. "I don't have anything else to wear."

"Well, why don't I lend you something to wear instead?" Yang asked, stepping closer and lowering her voice a little to add, "That way people don't give you weird looks the entire time you're here."

Whether people were giving her weird looks was none of her concern, but if Yang was offering… "Alright. Let's go." It didn't take long for Yang to lead her to her dorm, but when she what was inside Lady raised a brow. "Uh, those bunk beds are not safe."

Yang laughed. "They haven't given out yet!" She turned around after reaching into a suitcase in the closet. "Here, you can change in the bathroom right there."

Lady thanked her, returning a moment later with her school uniform in her left hand. "Let me put this away and then we can go back."

Yang nodded and followed her, walking down the hall and watching as Lady tossed her clothes onto the far left bed. "Where are Dante and Vergil?" She asked when she saw the room was empty.

"Dante is washing dishes and I don't know or care where Vergil is." Lady told her, closing the door and walking back down the hall.

Yang didn't follow after her, and when Lady turned to look back at her she asked hesitantly, "What happened between you two? Why do you hate him so much?"

Lady's face fell. "Vergil is responsible for the deaths of a lot of people. At some point I'm going to have to kill him for what he's done. Whether we find what we we're looking for in the forest or not, this truce isn't going to last."

"If he's done something that horrible, why haven't you told us, or Ozpin!?" Yang asked, her voice raising in shock of the revelation.

"Because Vergil is out of the league of everyone besides me and Dante. We're the only two that can stop him, and if anyone else gets in the way they'll only end up dead." Lady said. "He's our problem, and no one else's."

"Then why tell me?" Yang's gaze lowered to the ground.

"Because Dante doesn't seem keen on doing what needs to be done." Lady sighed. "And I need you to know the deal so you don't end up on Vergil's side when we end up fighting. Dante is-" She hesitated, but continued, "-A good person. He helped me once before. You can trust us two, but Vergil is evil." She stepped forward and placed a hand on Yang's shoulder. "Sorry to dump this on you. I know that it's a lot to take in."

Yang looked up. "It's alright. At least now I know why two don't get along. Should I- Do you want me to tell my team about this? About Vergil?"

Lady shrugged. "That's up to you. If you think they can handle it, then go for it. As long as you're sure they won't try and fight Vergil." Yang looked to the ground, and Lady bent down to make sure Yang looked at her. "I'm serious, Yang. Vergil is dangerous, if you and your team go up against him it'll be disastrous."

Yang nodded. "Alright. I believe you. I won't tell my team." She gently moved Lady's hand off her shoulder. "C'mon, let's go back to the gym. It's cold in this hallway."

-The Devil Hunters in Remnant-

After being handed a pair of gloves, a roll of trash bags, and a cart, Vergil had been told to check every trash on campus and replace it if it was more than half full. Then, he'd been sent on his way after being told what buildings to check in what order. In most circumstances, he'd have refused, but this was the first time he was going to be alone after having come to Remnant. It would be a good time to reflect, and to plan. Doing a simple chore was a small price to pay for that, even if he didn't plan on prioritizing it.

As he thought about the future, he realized how much depended on getting back to Earth. If they couldn't find a demon to manipulate, then he wasn't sure what path he would take in this new world. Fighting the Grimm could be an option, but he wasn't keen on becoming a Huntsman in order to do that. But it wasn't like he planned on opening a bed and breakfast, either. However, the option of giving up and settling down wasn't in the cards; he'd search for a way back to Earth until his dying day, regardless of what his future here might hold.

But when he got back to Earth, Dante would still be there, and his father's power would still be out of his reach. If Dante refused to hand over his amulet, Vergil would take it. In their last true battle, Dante had caught him off guard with the new weapons he'd acquired on his way up the tower, constantly switching up his offence and catching him by surprise. But now that he knew what Dante was equipped with, he would be prepared for their next fight. If they hadn't been interrupted after defeating Arkham, then he would've won. He knew it.

"You have lost… because you underestimated humans."

Vergil frowned as he remembered what Arkham had said to him, shortly before claiming the power of Sparda for himself. Humans had nothing to do with it; he'd failed to make sure that Arkham was truly dead after attacking him. He'd been blinded by how close he was to completing his goal. He'd failed to claim his father's power because he'd relied on someone else, and as a result he'd had vital information kept from him and been humiliated by a fool dressed as a clown. The two fights with Dante had taken their toll on him too, he hated to admit. Just because he could defeat his brother didn't mean it would be easy.

"Sparda wasn't powerful because he was a demon, or because he was some goody two shoes, he was strong simply because he did the right thing, Vergil. No matter how hard you try, you won't be like father because you don't care about what's right and wrong. But if you did, maybe-"

Dante's words from their last fight rang through his head, clear as day. His brother was naive. Right and wrong had nothing to do with Sparda's legend. Sparda overcame Hell itself because he was the strongest demon in existence, regardless of his choice to side with Humanity. And nothing proved this more to Vergil than the fact that Dante had lost the fight at the top of the tower; if his brother hadn't forsaken his demonic heritage and chosen to continue as a human, he would've been much more of a threat. But Vergil had won that battle, and he knew why: He was much stronger than Dante, and that was all there was to it.

When they went out to the forest, he would deal with Lady and his brother, and team RWBY if they interfered. He didn't need any of them to move forward with his plan.

-The Devil Hunters in Remnant-

At dinner that night, Yang found that she was constantly glancing at Vergil who was sitting on Dante's left. If he noticed, he didn't say anything. And Lady wasn't acting any differently to him either, sitting on the other side of Dante and calmly eating her meal. She must've already come to terms with the fact that she would have to fight him to the death, because Yang sure hadn't. She knew that if she had to kill someone, if there was no other way of stopping them then she could probably do it. She knew even in a hypothetical she would regret it. She didn't want to kill anyone and no matter the circumstances she neither could nor would derive pleasure from it.

"So, Dante…" Ruby said around a mouthful of food, causing Yang to look to her sister, "What should we be expecting this weekend?"

"We're going to look around the forest for anyone we can find or anything that looks like it doesn't belong there. It should be pretty obvious when we find what we're looking for."

"Should we be expecting combat?" Weiss asked.

"Maybe." Dante told her. "I can tell you now we aren't looking for anything friendly, so you might as well forget about going on a nice hike."

Yang glanced at Lady, before looking back at Dante. "So can you give us anything more than 'not friendly things that don't belong there', or…?"

Dante took a drink before telling her, "Moving statues. Humanoid creatures with weapons, most likely a scythe. Animals big and small that will attack on sight, that aren't Grimm or native wildlife. That sort of thing."

"Aren't you forgetting something?" Vergil asked.

"Oh yeah! If we find what we're looking for, these creatures or the Humanoids, don't kill them. We need them alive." Dante added.

"But if we end up separated, you can kill them. Don't risk your life trying to help us." Lady said.

"We're not going to end up separated." Weiss declared. "And if you try and ditch us, we'll find you. Ozpin has given us a duty to fulfill, and-"

"Yeah, yeah, we get it!" Dante picked up a pea and tossed it at Weiss, where it went down her throat and caused her to start coughing. "We're not going to try and run away. If we were going to do that, we would've done it back when we all first met in the forest." He pointed out.

"Moving statues? Humanoid creatures?" Blake whispered to Yang, causing the blonde to turn towards her. "What are they talking about?"

Yang shrugged. "I don't know. I guess we'll find out what they mean Saturday."

-The Devil Hunters in Remnant-

Saturday came soon.

Dante, Lady, and Vergil had their weapons returned to them, and after spending a moment inspecting them, got on board an airship large enough to transport the three of them, Ozpin, and team RWBY into the forest. After a few minutes of travelling from Beacon Ozpin said, "This is your stop. Be warned, we've been tracking a large Grimm in the area, and it may get in your way. But it isn't your priority. Ruby, you're in charge, but you and Dante will work together to help him and his friends find what they're looking for."

"Yes sir!"

"Alright, off you go." Ozpin said.

The seven fighters jumped out of the airship and landed in the forest below. "Okay, Dante and Yang, you two are on point. Lady, Weiss, Blake, cover them. Vergil and I will bring up the rear."

Everyone got into position, and Dante and Yang began leading the way through the forest.