Chapter 20
Sharing a Brain

Damn, my first face to face with Batman. He sure as hell didn’t see me at my best. No joke, I think I swallowed my own heart when I saw Little Dante lying there. Is this really happening right now? I mean, yeah, cool, the one and only Batman is here, but fuck me, man!

Batman, being the guy that he is, cleaned him up, wrapped him up, treated him with so much dignity. The moment I saw him, there was no denying it. Little Dante had already left this plane. I know what death looks like.

But me and my brother are stubborn. Once we agreed on it, once we’d committed to it, our minds were set on resurrecting this kid.

Now, Vergil was right, he was going to need a pair of pants. That was the one problem I was able to solve in the moment. I had a feeling we would be the same size. Turns out I was right.

We got him floating with some magical finesse, which made dressing him easy enough, though, we had to be extremely careful. Still, such a straightforward task gave me a few minutes to screw my head back on. 

Flipping out, that might be useful if we were in battle, but the battle is already lost.

I need to bring him back. 

That’s when it occurred to me. A pair of pants, that’s it? That’s not good enough. So I gave him my coat too. Zipped it up to hide his veins. Too much, too sad.

Vergil searched my daughter’s collection of spells for an incantation to reveal his angelic wings. Not likely it would have worked if he was purely an angel, but for another half-demon, it was fairly easy. Once we got those ruined wings to appear, lit up with Cyborg’s tech, that cyan light against those torn feathers was too horrible. The fuck happened to you, Little Dante?

I know what the fuck happened. The fuck happened is I’m a fucking terrible father. That’s what the fuck happened. But all hope wasn’t completely lost. 

Much like how Raven was once a portal for Trigon, Little Dante’s wings were still tied to another dimension, still tied to Limbo. Hence why we needed magic to get them to even show up. 

I keep seeing a place that reminds me of Fortuna.

Like Fortuna in the mind of someone whose never actually been there before. 

Like Fortuna in the mind of someone who made up a fantasy about it. 

What they think it looks like, what they want it to look like. A sad sort of place. A lonely sort of place. Purgatory? Oh man.

“Devil Hunter?”

Nephilim?

“Feels like we share a brain. I need to show you something. Dunno if you’re gonna like what you’re about to see.”

I can handle it. Show me.

“First, I’m gonna be real with you.”

Lay it on me.

“I remember, for a few years, after you showed up in Limbo City, I wished for you to show up again. For a while, whenever demons would surround me, there was always a moment where I would anticipate you coming and taking me away to Fortuna. Even now, I still imagine it's a heavenly place. But it got too painful, the disappointment, so I made myself give up on you. I couldn’t keep hoping for something that was never gonna happen again.”

Shit, I really let you down.

“I remember where I was when I let you go. It was after a fight with four demons in a gutter. I was sixteen. Took a blow to the head. Dunno if you can feel it right now.”

I can feel it, yeah.

“Those demons thought they’d killed me, left me lying in some muck under a bridge after they cracked my skull. I still have the scar on my face, on my cheek and my brow. Never bled so much in my life. It was everywhere, but nobody saw. I could see people walking by, on the bridge, but I was in Limbo, so they couldn’t see me. Even when they looked down, they kept walking, like I wasn’t even there.”

Oh man, Little Dante.

“I remember I started wishing for you to lift me out of that nasty-ass water. I listened for your gunshots, for your footsteps, for your voice. Then it hit me… and I started to cry… because I realized… that you were never coming back for me.”

I’m not one of those people walking by on the bridge, kiddo. And I didn’t mean to abandon you. When we shut those portals off in Fortuna, I couldn’t go back to Limbo City. That’s no excuse though.

“I cried until it rained. After that, I made myself never think about you again. Not for a long time.”

I deserve that.

“I found a place for us. It’s what I think the ocean near Fortuna looks like. I used to come here with the memory of you and me on those cliffs. This is lame, but it’s where I used to go to never find you, it’s where I used to go to miss you.”

That’s not lame at all.

“I haven’t been here in this place in a really long time. I must need the wishful thinking real bad right now. I must be in a lot of pain because I wish you were here. This volcanic beach is the closest thing I have to the Angel Realm. I can’t call out for my mother, that’ll hurt even more. I know she’s gone, but Killer-Red told me you’re not.”

Hell no, I’m not gone.

“You were alive this whole time and you still never came back for me.”

I’ve traveled all over the place over the years, but I never found Limbo City again. I let Vergil’s son, Nero, have the Yamato. Then Vergil took it back. The Yamato is really the only way to get to a place like that.

“Trust me, I know what the Yamato can do. My brother has one too. And your brother, he showed up and comforted me when you couldn’t. He’s a good dad.”

I’ll tell him you said that. Listen, I can feel how disappointed you are, like I can actually feel it, Little Dante.

“It’s so stupid but I’m still fucking holding on, hoping you’re gonna show up. So fucking stupid of me, man.”

No. It’s the other way around. I don’t deserve you and I messed up. This is my fault. What’s happened to you is on me.

“That’s the funny thing though, is that, no it’s not! Don’t you see? That’s the joke! You’re not even my real father! You don’t owe me anything. Why the hell would you come for me? I brought this bullshit-heartbreak onto myself.”

You’re wrong. I would love to have you as a son. That’s how I see you.

“I’m done.”

What?! No, come on! Let me have a chance to fix this!

“Concentrate, Brother! You’ve summoned your sword, now keep your hands over his, over the hilt! Do it now, shove your Devil Sword into your chest! Hurry, while you’re Sin Devil Triggered! Do it now, quickly, while I hold him steady!”