Snakes get a bad rep, wouldn't you agree? A snake symbolises cunning and evil. A snake symbolise the devil's form when he told Eve to take a bite out of the forbidden fruit. A snake symbolises a twisted thought or plan. But what is a snake? A cold blooded reptile, that slithers it's way around things. It eats it's full and goes to sleep for a long time. But a snake also seeks warmth; it would spend hours bathing on a rock, soaking up the heat. A snake, in fact, is more scared of you then you are of it. A snake would only attack you if you provoke it, otherwise, if you made enough noise, it'll just slither away, avoiding you at all costs. You can keep a snake as a pet and it'll love you to bits, curl around your hand and seek your warmth.

What is a snake to you?

The path to the Hell Gate was invested with vines and such, like spiderwebs infesting the underside of furniture. If you looked you could see vines that had been cut away recently littering the path, Nero's tracks from when he came through. Odd that the flora grew back so quickly, but nothing worth much note. All that mattered was this small fact meant that Nero had indeed gone through here, which elevated Lady's tarnished hopes.

When ducking and stepping over the vines became too taxing, Lady opted to a quick solution; Rocket power. Which cleared the way rather efficiently, eradicating both vines and stray weak demons.

"Hurry up, princess," Lady called behind her as she cut her way through a fresh mob of small fry.

"I'm coming!"

Kyrie ran up to her after Lady finished off the last wobbling chimera. With the acceleration, she ran into her back, but retracted herself soon after.

Lady nudged her with her elbow, "You take your sweet time. You do realise you're suppose to be the guide, right? I'm starting to feel a bit like a body guard."

"I'm sorry."

"It's fine. Are we getting close?"

Kyrie nodded walking close beside the voluptuous woman with one hand resting on her shoulder. The forest was very lively, some noises were soothing, others sounded unnerving and abnormal.

"I'm sorry...I realise I'm not very useful...if there's anything you need me to do..."

"You can stop apologising for a start, and take your clammy hand off my shoulder."

Kyrie looked at her from the corner of her eye, "I take it you're not use to having company on these sorts of things."

"And I take it you don't get out often."

Kyrie smiled, "I'm right, aren't I?"

"Shut it, Princess."

They travelled with silence between them for a long time, up until they broke through the last wall of vines and arrived at the Hell Gate. The ruins were scattered, as expected, and there was no sign of activity.

Lady walked up to them and studied the stones one by one, looking for any clues.

But there was nothing. Nero's tracks ended here.

"Do you think it closed after he went in?" Kyrie offered.

Lady brushed a gloved hand over the nearest decorated stone, rubbing the dust and rubble that came off between her fingertips. It was vaguely warm. A strange property, as the stone should be ice cold, considering the winter weather.

"Maybe," she mumbled eventually. Whether it was true or not, either way, she had once again come to a dead end.

Off in the distance, the two damsels heard the sounds of approach. Voices could be heard, so they were human. Or at least, humanoid. Lady reached for her gun, ready to fight. Kyrie, however, grabbed her wrist and made a strange proposal.

"Let's hide."

"What? Oh no, you can hide, I'll talk with the strays. If their friendly, fine. If not, boom."

"Lady please. I think we should hide. If we're discovered you can...boom later."

Lady frowned.

"We might be able to learn something, if my gut is anything to go by."

Lady rolled her eyes and said, "Fine. Alright, we'll hide for now. Where?"

"Um, over here!" Kyrie took Lady's sleeve in her grasp and led her behind a far stone from the entrance. There they crouched and waited for the mysterious figures to show themselves.

The first one was tall and thin, draped in a black cloak. Oily black hair spilled out of the hood. His face, barely visible from where they hid, was pale to the point of blue. He had the face of a man who had stayed up all night, and shaken awake. The kind of man one would feel the desire to drag outside somewhere warm and bright and say, "This is the sun. Say hi."

The second one was an even bigger man, wide and ripped, and donned in heavy silver armour. Strapped to his back was a war axe the size of a horse. His face was hard and rugged as if carved from bricks, with a deep scar that cut down his lips and to his collarbone.

He had a low bass in his voice, which almost seemed to thrum in the earth.

"Do you think that Incubus is still alive?"

The one in black coughed into his hand before wiping it on his own shoulder, his voice was as oily and sickly as he appeared, "I couldn't care less, but as things are now, we'll never make any more progress if he isn't. But truthfully, are you sure he was even reliable in the first place?"

"He's our senior commander. You'll do well to remember that."

"True. But his sanity is…well, he's a bit of a lunatic. Who knows what he'll do down there."

"Everything will be fine. Damon may not be the strongest demon I know, but he's the most cunning one. All he needs to do is waste a bit of Vergil's time, keep his hands full, while we search for Purgatory. And we're getting close."

Lady perked at the name "Vergil". Who Damon and these two men were, was beyond her. But that one name brought back bitter memories. And "Purgatory". Lady had heard of that, supposedly a place where thousands of souls had been locked away, the one who opens it is granted otherworldly power. Though, that's how most legends go, there are many versions of purgatory. Some even believed it's the place the most powerful and cruel of creatures go, stuffed in their like the dumpster for the wicked. Nature's nastiest rejects.

Kyrie perked at the mention of 'Purgatory' as well. She's heard of that somewhere before, but she couldn't place a finger on it. Who are these people? Are they linked to Nero?

The one in black stood staring at the shambles of the Hell Gate, "If he is alive, I wish he'd hurry up. It's kind of hard to search for Purgatory while on the surface."

"It's not just kind of hard, it's impossible."

"It's called sarcasm, you ten ton moron."

The big man gave me the stink eye, before adjusting the war axe on his back, so it clang with his armour. He studied the clearing, eyes narrowing, "What's taking him so long?"

"Like I said: either he's dead, didn't get our message about the fact we uncovered the whereabouts of Purgatory, or he's fucking around as he always does."

"Can you quit fucking around?" Nero growled, pushing the Incubus away.

"That's like asking water if it can quit be wet."

Damon had been doing nothing serious, all he'd been doing was tilting all the paintings he crossed.

Nero was starting to regret his choice of going with Damon. He was on the verge of swinging punches and just turning around and heading back to Vergil. But by that point, anything was better then Vergil. And besides Damon's lewdness and inconsistency, he was - in the most loosely definition of the word - helping.

They had already dropped by the armoury and Damon was currently leading Nero down the halls to the front entrance.

Nero suddenly stopped walking. Damon turned to him, curious to his behaviour.

"What the hell is going on?" He said eventually, "Why does this have to happen to me?"

"You do realise I'm an incubus, not your guardian angel, right?"

Nero looked up at him, eyes lacking their usual fire, before mumbling heatedly, "Never said you were."

He walked past Damon, bumping shoulders with him.

"Hey, do you want to go by yourself from here?"

Nero stopped and said, "Yeah."

"Fine then, good luck."

And just like that, gone. Nero was all by himself. He leant against a wall and bowed his head. He had no idea how and when this feel came over him, but it came none the the less, a tidal wave of shame and humiliation. What had happened on that altar...how he had shown Dante such a shameless side of himself. How low he had become. How feral and needy and just plain nasty. Now he was afraid, afraid of what Dante would think of him.

A small, foreign part of him, burned humbly inside of him, yet stronger then any Fever. This small part of him dared whispered hope into his thoughts. That maybe...just maybe, It will be alright. Maybe Dante will come to accept this side of Nero that had surfaced. Maybe even come to...

Come to what?

He buried such thoughts before they got out of hand. He stood up straighter and walked on, mentally preparing himself for whatever is to come.

It's 1:30 in the morning and that was a pitifully short chapter, not to mention a late update. I have been so dead weight lately. I might add more to this chapter during the week, or I may just make my next update less half assed. And not left till midnight to do.

Inner voice: Yes that may help, Luna, if you stop writing these things at 1:00 in the freaking morning.

Oh well, the angry tigers have been put at bay, only to be back with more ferocity later.

Cheers!