Disclaimer: As I've said before... I don't own the boys or anything related to Devil May Cry.

Author's Note: Well the time has finally come for my long anticipated sequel to 'The Little Things Give It Away'. I do apologize for the long wait but I've had serious writers block after living through an accident earlier this year that kinda turned my life upside down. Enough of my sad story though, as I'm sure you are all eager to get to the story, but first I must give my thanks to ShyAnon for helping me with a few lines and finally allowing me to get this chapter out to you. I must warn you though, updates will be irregular as I'm still suffer from that block. But anyway, enjoy and please review!

When Worlds Collide

Chapter 1: Don't Fear The Reaper

"Is there anything else I can get for you, sir?"

Lady looked up the task of cleaning her guns to watch the brunette flight attendant set a cup of foaming espresso down on the table. The attendant leaned over the table more than was necessary, displaying her ample bosom and keeping her brown eyes focused exclusively on the platinum haired devil hunter sitting across from Lady.

Frowning in absolute disgust as the brunette still tried to gain the attention of the half-devil; Lady turned her attention to the man himself.

"That will be all." Vergil stated coldly, reaching for the frothy cup of coffee, his icy blue eyes never leaving the book in his other hand.

The attendant turned away with a disappointed look on her face, returning to whatever tasks she was supposed to do during flight.

Sighing in exasperation, Lady returned to her gun, knowing full well that the other woman would be back before long. Only an hour in the air and the woman had already attended them nearly a dozen times. Lady was beginning to wonder why the stuck up, blue-coated son of Sparda hadn't told the woman off yet.

Maybe he was enjoying being waited on hand and foot? Or maybe Dante had told him something, Lady mused remembering her own instructions from the younger twin.

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"I've got a job for you in Las Vegas. I'm sending you cause you're the best at gambling and after… well… you know." Dante pulled a hand through his mop of white hair. "We kinda need to replenish our bank account. I told them that you would decide the fee, with a starting rate of one hundred thousand."

Lady nodded, knowing well the reason for their lack of funds. Having found numerous demons posing as children, Dante had set about seeing to their elimination. Unfortunately for him, it had been an elaborate trap set by the demons to use the human world and its laws against the devil hunter. After a possessed human had alerted the police, Dante had been arrested and subsequently needed to be bailed out of jail. Fortunately, she and Trish had found the demonic children and sent them back to Hell, while Lucia had exorcized the last, firmly disposing of all witnesses. Thankfully, all charges against Dante were dropped, but that hadn't stopped the FBI from keeping a close eye on his activities. Thus when the rich casino and hotel owner from Las Vegas had called, it might as well have been a godsend.

"So how much do you want me to pull in?" Lady questioned, knowing if she won too much than the IRS would be breathing down their necks too.

"Double, triple… whatever. Just don't 'lose' any of our pay!" Dante answered, watching her with his piercing blue eyes as if he was yet debating internally if he should tell her more.

"Hah!" Lady snorted and laughed at him. "That's something only you do!"

Dante frowned and glared at her in mock anger. "Yeah, yeah. No need to rub it in."

"So when am I leaving?" Lady asked, getting back to business.

"They will be sending their company jet for the 'both' of you," Dante emphasized sternly, causing Lady to lift a dark eyebrow in surprise, "in the morning."

"Lucia's coming too, or have you decided Trish needs a vacation?" Lady asked humorously, watching as Dante suddenly busied himself with something on his desk. Lady's stomach immediately clenched in anticipated dread of the next words she was sure to hear leaving his mouth.

"Neither." murmured Dante, digging through one of the drawers on his desk. "I'm sending Vergil with you." He rapidly mumbled out, leaving Lady to wonder what he had actually said.

After a few moments of Lady's brain working out the mumbled, jumble of words Dante had spat out, she frowned. Did Dante want to punish her or something? Since Vergil had actively begun taking a role in the business of Devil May Cry, he had strictly worked with Dante. The times that she did happen to interact with the elder son of Sparda, he was curt and unappreciative of anything she did. Sometimes he was even down right insulting, which would then generally end up in a furious sparing match that at times would become so deadly and intense that it took one of the other members of Devil May Cry to intervene and separate the two before they could seriously injure each other. So having to go on a trip 'alone' with him was simply repulsive.

"You can't be serious?" Lady nearly gapped at Dante, in complete disbelief.

"Dead." Dante spoke, glancing up from his search of the drawers.

"Why? I can handle myself? Don't you dare start…"

"Whoa! Hold on there!" Dante cried foregoing his searching to lift both hands in emphasis. "I know you're very capable of taking care of yourself…" he soothed, lowering his hands to his desk once more. "But 'we' decided it would be good if the both of you went and then maybe you could resolve your differences."

Now Lady did really let her mouth hang open; he really was serious! The 'we' portion of Dante's explanation, already had Lady's mind deducing the true reason's for why she and Vergil were being thrust together on the trip. Ever since Lady had told Lucia and Trish what had transpired between her and Vergil in Temen-ni-gru, the two women had gotten it into their heads that she was in love with the eldest twin. They even went so far as to inform her on a fairly regular basis that the reason for her and Vergil's spats came from repressed emotions of love that they both were too stubborn to admit.

"At the very least," Dante continued, a slight devious smile lighting his features. "You could use Verge's extra muscle and make him dig up any graves."

Forgetting her previous thoughts, Lady could only return Dante's smirk. "Mr. Priss-Pot dig up a grave? That'll be the day!" Although the idea of watching Vergil digging through the dirt to reach the decaying corpse of some nasty ghost was a rather entertaining idea.

Dante's smirk widened, "You forget, Mr. Priss-Pot also prides himself on being a 'gentleman'. There's no way he'd let you do it." Dante out right grinned now, looking slightly devilish at the thoughts of what Vergil would do.

Lady chuckled, "Alright, you've got a point."

"See, it's not so bad after all!" Dante laughed and pulled a few papers from his desk, handing them to her. "Just don't piss him off, alright?"

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But what about Vergil pissing her off? It wasn't like she was going to allow him to walk all over her just to refrain from pissing him off. That was just simply not going to happen in this lifetime or the next!

Checking the barrel of the gun critically, while still deep within her own thoughts, Lady nearly jumped at the sound of a voice speaking.

"Is there anything you need, sir?"

Lady glared up at the brunette flight attendant, about ready to point the disassembled weapon in her hands at the other woman. Not only had the brunette further pulled down her top, but now she had also hitched up her skirt all in an attempt to seduce her platinum haired passenger.

Opening her mouth to tell the flight attendant to get lost, since Vergil obviously wasn't going to deal with it, Lady was forced to snap her mouth shut and coolly return her gaze to the gun in her hands as Vergil finally lifted his face from the book.

Glaring at the woman in a look of shear annoyed displeasure; Vergil glanced over the brunette, his eyes moving slowly over the woman's entire figure.

Lady could almost feel the temperature drop in his direction, even as the woman warmed, mistaking Vergil's seemingly lazy gaze for something other than what it was.

"In fact there is something." Vergil began smoothly, his voice dripping with honeyed sweetness.

Grinning inwardly in anticipation, Lady controlled her glee and kept her face carefully emotionless, feigning complete indifference to the scene unfolding before her.

Leaning closer in anticipation of Vergil's next words, the flight attendant paid little heed to Lady.

"You can take your horrendously large and obviously manufactured breasts out of my sight. And while you are at it, you may as well pull your skirt back down over those terribly thin legs. Truth be told, I have no need to so egregiously lower myself in bedding someone so perceptibly needy and significantly lacking in any real sense of intelligence or dignity."

The brunette backed off slightly in shock not quite believing what she had heard even as tears began to well in her brown eyes.

Relentless, Vergil continued. "Though if you believe such activities are entirely necessary, than I am sure the co-pilot would be more than happy to indulge your wishes, since he has been out here an unnecessary amount of times." Vergil finished in a frigid tone of finality.

The attendant backed off further, looking much like a deer caught in headlights, and was just about to bolt when Vergil held up his empty coffee cup without even bothering to look at her. "Aren't you forgetting something?"

Tears streaming down her cheeks in rivers, the brunette quickly grabbed the mug from Vergil's hand and promptly fled.

Snapping her gun back together, Lady chuckled in relief. "It's about time you told her off." she stated, lifting her eyes from her gun to meet Vergil's, gaining a slight perplexed look from him that was even more satisfying then having him finally tell the stewardess off. "I was beginning to wonder if you were going to put up with her the whole flight."

Sharp blue eyes narrowed as Vergil placed his book down on the table between them and sneered, "And what pray happened to 'women' sticking together?"

Lady shrugged indifferently, setting her gun down as well. "I don't support sluts that like taking shit from men." she explained.

Frowning, Vergil continued glaring at her. "Then what does that make Nevan?"

Grimacing in guilt, Lady easily remembered the incident that he was referring to. A simple sparing session had once again turned into a full out battle when Vergil had insulted her yet again. Not one to ever back down, Lady had decided to get the upper hand on the stuck up half-devil and enlisted the help of Nevan. Unfortunately for Vergil, he had decided to disarm her first, consequently leaving his back exposed to the red-haired vampiress, who has much faster than he had anticipated.

Lady had never thought to see such fear in the frigid eyes of the eldest twin, and hoped never to again, when Nevan had sunk her teeth into his neck. Thinking quickly, Lady had retrieved her weapon and shot the sorceress in the head, successfully detaching Nevan from Vergil. Unfortunately, in his own efforts to escape the red-haired demonic witch, Vergil had nearly torn his neck asunder.

Swallowing her guilt, Lady firmly told herself that it really had been his own fault, if he wouldn't have been such an ass in the first place, it would have never happened. Thus, Lady responded to Vergil's question in a matter-of-fact tone. "Nevan is a slut that 'doesn't' take shit from men."

Snorting, Vergil returned to his book and content to leave it at that, Lady set about returning her cleaning supplies to their pre-ordained positions in her kit.

Taking out a fresh clip of ammunition, she placed it absently on the table beside the gun, ready for when she would be finished putting the rest of her tools away. Just as she put the last cloth away, a sharp lurch of the plane sent her gun and ammo clip skidding across the table. Looking up in surprise, Lady found Vergil holding her gun in one hand.

Closing his book with a sharp snap and setting it down on the table, Vergil spoke in frosty tones. "You should keep better track of your weapons. You never know whose hands they might fall into."

Narrowing her eyes at Vergil's soft threat, Lady watched as he reached his free hand down to his lap, retrieving the ammo clip only to load it into the gun with as much ease as Dante might have.

Another sharp jolt of the plane sent Vergil's book sliding across the table to be caught easily by Lady, just before the Captain's disembodied voice came over the speakers. "We are experiencing some turbulence. If everyone could put on their seat belts, we'll be through it in a few moments."

Clipping her seat belt on with one hand, Lady held Vergil's book up with the other. "Now who should be paying more attention to their things?" she asked in slight mockery of his previous threat.

"A trade?' she offered, when his thin lips pursed together in a deep frown.

Saying nothing, Vergil reached one arm over the table, her gun dangling from one finger.

Taking the gun and passing over the book, Lady caught the title of the book, 'Demonic Curses and Their Origins' stencilled out on the old leather cover in flowing script. Curious and not recognizing it as one of the many books located in Dante's large reprotour of reference material, Lady asked, "I didn't know we had a book like that?"

"This," Vergil murmured, taking the book back from her hand, "is not from my brother's impressively vast library. It is one of my own."

"Oh," Lady answered and when he didn't seem to offer up any more information, she sighed in disappointment and returned her gun to its proper case. Then recalling clearly how many boxes of presumable junk she had had to carry out of what had apparently been Vergil's former apartment, she looked back to Vergil, meeting his cool gaze steadily. "Weren't all of your assets turned over into Dante's possession after a year of your presumed death?"

"Not all of it. I never truly believed I would die and left many more items in safe keeping. In the event that I did not return for them within twenty years… then they too would have been passed into Dante's hands." Vergil answered truthfully, his gaze remaining locked with hers.

"So what is interesting you about curses then? Was it something Lucia was having problems with?" Lady asked. Though she didn't know much about the dark spells, curses and wards that Lucia often dealt with, she did find them rather interesting.

Instead of answering though, Vergil broke eye contact and opening his book began paging through it.

Sighing in frustration, Lady looked around for something else to do, now that she was done with her guns and Vergil obviously had no intention of continuing their conversation. She was completely surprised however, when the open book was passed back toward her.

Lady's bi-coloured eyes immediately sighted on a miniature representation of a painting that ordained a space on her wall back in her room at Devil May Cry.

Frowning, Lady looked up at Vergil in confusion. "What…" she started, unsure of where to go after that. Why was he researching something that belonged to her any way?

"Your painting seemed familiar since the first time that I saw it." Vergil started, not waiting for her to formulate her thoughts.

"You could have just asked." Lady growled softly, feeling just a little violated.

"And you would have given me much the same story Lucia did." He returned, glaring at her in contempt.

Lady couldn't help but blink in surprise, he had asked Lucia, but had refrained from even mentioning his interest to her. Was he deliberately trying to avoid her for some reason? Why then did he also have to insult and fight with her the few times that they were together? And why could he be a complete gentleman one moment and an infuriating ass the next? And lastly and certainly not least, why the hell hadn't she shot him yet?

All these questions fluttering through Lady's head simply confused and frustrated her, and as a result it was beginning to give her a headache. When Vergil continued she was only too happy for the distraction.

"I was interested in its origins, not in your acquirement of it."

Intrigued by what he may have found, Lady firmly shoved all her previous annoying thoughts away and asked, "So what did you find?"

Leaning back, Vergil regarded her with frosty eyes as if debating with himself whether or not to answer her question. "A bit." he finally answered and then coming to a decision he leaned forward once more, his eyes twinkling ever so slightly, catching Lady's full and undivided attention. "Would you like to hear their tale?" he asked softly as though afraid that she might reject the offer.

Lady nodded eagerly, enthralled by Vergil's shinning eyes and ever so soft voice.

A small smirk graced Vergil's thin lips and he pointed to the woman in the picture, his finger jabbing down on the page inches from Lady's nose. "The High Priestess Minerva." he spoke, his tone still soft as he withdrew his finger and pulled the book back toward him, closing it and then resting his hand on the cover.

"She's not…" Lady started, still finding herself slightly at a loss for words and remembering that she was a descendant of the High Priestess's order.

"Doubtful." Vergil answered, already deducing where she was going. "Though anything is possible." he shrugged indifferently and then relaxed back into his seat. "The painting is old though, far older than you could imagine. But their story begins long before the painting was created.

Thousands of years ago when Lucifer still ruled Hell, he came across Minerva in his travels of the mortal world. Only a child then, Minerva was beautiful, strong willed and most importantly pure of soul. Lucifer, of course, desired the girl and decided to take her as his bride, but not until she came of age."

Vergil's eyes frosted once more and he frowned looking deeply into the table as if there were something more to the wood. After a few seconds he abruptly lifted his gaze to meet hers again and he spoke thickly, "Now, think what you like of the denizens of Hell, but the molestation of children is not an act that is condoned by the rulers of Hell."

Lady knew well of Dante's hatred for pedophiles and it only seemed natural that Vergil have much of the same feelings toward the perverted act. The deep frown gracing his sharp features telling Lady as much and giving her new insight into the frozen landscape of Vergil's mind. Maybe not everything was so frozen after all.

"Therefore, Lucifer set out to find a way to protect his future bride. In the end he sought to employ the assistance of the angel of death."

"The Grim Reaper." Lady murmured and Vergil nodded his assent.

"The Reaper is the only truly neutral entity in this world and the next. He cares nothing for good or evil, young or old, black or white. All souls who come before him are treated equal. Thus who better to protect Minerva than the man who governed death.

"At first though the Reaper refused Lucifer, concerned that such an act would upset the balance of life as we know it. In the end, he finally accepted, taking in payment a weapon of such power that it could end the lives of even the highest ranking demons and angels. Can you guess which weapon that was?" Vergil's eyes shone with the challenge he issued.

"The scythe." Lady answered without a hitch.

Vergil smirked in approval and then continued. "Thus the Reaper set to guard his young charge's life. Always though he kept to the shadows - ever watchful and ever distant.

"It was on Minerva's seventeenth birthday that the fates seemingly conspired against the Reaper's well thought out plan of distancing himself from his charge.

"On that fateful day Minerva and two other priestesses, along with their mortal guards were attacked by thieves along the road. When the priestesses' guards fell to the swords of the thieves, the Reaper intervened, revealing himself and protecting his charge from harm.

"In the end with all the attackers slain and only one surviving priestess besides Minerva herself, the Reaper turned to Minerva, who knew from the moment that she looked into his eyes, what he was. Though unlike all others whom had come before the Reaper before, she did not fear him."

Lady sat completely enthralled as she listened to the story, her mismatched eyes never leaving Vergil's frosty blue.

Vergil's voice continued to speak in tones that even the best storytellers would envy, keeping his audience and quite nearly himself completely captivated.

"As time wore on, Minerva was able to break through the icy barriers that the Reaper had set around his heart. In turn the Reaper became closer to the girl that he had been set to protect. And as fate would have it, the two fell in love."

"Star crossed lovers, just like Romeo and Juliet." Lady murmured thoughtfully, unable to so much as even tear her gaze away from the blue coated devil.

Vergil nodded in assent of her assessment. "Undoubtedly it is where Shakespeare got the idea from." Then after a moment's pause of watching Lady and revelling in the new sense of power he had achieved over her, regardless of how short lived it may be, he continued, "And just as Romeo and Juliet's love ended in tragedy, so to did the Reaper's and Minerva's.

"On Minerva's eighteenth birthday, the day she fully came of age, Lucifer came to collect his bride. Of course, both lovers refused and took refuge in the temple of the High Priestesses. That was when the first war between the mortal realm and Hell broke out. Armed with his scythe and those powers of death already his, the Reaper cut down any that dared come before him. Unfortunately, the Reaper's own past fears came to pass, as the balance of life and death was upset. With spending all his time protecting his love, the Reaper did not attend to his job and all those souls that should have been taken to the next world by him were left to live on within the dead husks of their bodies.

"Therefore, for the first and quite possibly the last time, Heaven and Hell joined together, demons and angels fighting alongside each other to stop the Reaper and reset the scales of life.

"Finally after three years Minerva was captured and the Reaper was forcibly shone the errors of his way. Damning himself for the havoc and suffering he had caused, the Reaper returned to his job and cursed any and all things that reminded him of his love for Minerva."

"That's so sad." Lady stated sadly.

Giving only a soft snort in response, Vergil removed his hand from the cover of his book and picked it gently up.

Putting an elbow on the table Lady leaned her head into her upraised hand, before thoughtfully continuing her train of thought. "I think it's worse though."

"What is?" Vergil asked absently, tucking his book into an inside pocket of his coat.

"Romeo and Juliet."

His hand still lingering inside his coat, Vergil lifted an elegant eyebrow and cocked his head slightly, his interest in Lady renewed. "How so?"

"Well," Lady mused and paused a moment before meeting Vergil's gaze once more. "Romeo and Juliet both died believing that their lover was dead. In the end though they were together, even if it was only in death. But the Reaper and Minerva were ripped from each other for the rest of eternity. Both knowing that their true love was out there, but always beyond their grasp."

Sitting in contemplative silence, Vergil's eyes seemed to search Lady's ruby and sapphire gaze for a few moments almost daring her to blink before he issued a disgusted snort and turned away. "Love is a foolish notion, contrived by humans long ago in attempts at making themselves feel better about the act of reproduction."

Frowning, Lady opened her mouth to retort, but then decided against it. There was really no sense in arguing with Vergil, it would only start a fight again and she had promised Dante to behave. Instead she switched topics, "So what happened to Minerva anyway? I mean obviously she was taken back to Hell."

Looking back to her once more, Vergil sighed. "She was corrupted and wed to Lucifer. Though she did have her revenge in the end."

"Oh?" Lady asked curiously, happy to know that the Priestess had found a way to prevail even in the depths of Hell.

"Minerva's hatred for Lucifer and great pain from being torn from the Reaper made her a powerful matriarch within Hell as well as a devious and passionate mother to many of the greatest demons. One son in particular she nurtured carefully, schooling her child to hate his father as well as be as cunning and devious as she herself was. This son, under his mother's tutelage, remained obscure and seemingly weak to both his father and any would be opponent. Finally after carefully bidding his time, this son rose up against his father and brutally ousted him from his seat as ruler of Hell. Can you guess whom that son was?" Vergil asked, a slight smirk of challenge twisting his lips.

Rising up to the challenge, Lady thought over her answer carefully, knowing that anything less than the correct answer would merit her as unworthy of Vergil's further attention. Not willing to let the little bit of respect that she had gained in Vergil's eyes slip away so easily, Lady finally answered, "Mundus."

The only sign of his approval was in the slight glimmer in his eyes as well as the slightest lift of his lips as he grinned. "Well done."

Privately feeling very proud of herself, Lady was about to ask another question when the Captain's voice coming over the speaker prevented her from doing so. "We're coming in for a landing. If everyone could return to their seats and buckle up, we'll be on the ground in a few minutes."

Looking around in confusion, her discussion with Vergil forgotten, Lady couldn't believe they had actually been in the air for four hours. Apparently the feeling was mutual as Vergil's gaze shifted to the window with a frown.

Checking her seat belt, Lady found it still attached firmly around her waist. Wondering why the Captain was asking them to return to their seats when they were clearly already in them, Lady's silent question was answered a second later when the door to the lavatory opened revealing the brunette stewardess.

The woman was still buttoning her blouse back up when the co-pilot emerged from the lavatory a moment behind the stewardess.

Lady shook her head in disgust. "Guess she took your advice after all."

Not bothering to even look, Vergil turned his head from the window to regard Lady with a smug smile. "Of course she did. She needed another man to restore the image of herself that I so kindly shattered."

If Lady hadn't already taken a great dislike toward the woman, Vergil's confident and cruel voice would have bothered her. But as it stood Lady could only shake her head again and reply scornfully, "Like I said before, she puts to shame all the work that women of the past have strived for in gaining equal rights. I have no compassion for anyone that willingly takes crap from someone else."

Saying nothing in response, Vergil only sat in smug silence as the small private jet was brought back down to the ground.