Summary: Nero wakes up in the hospital, finding his arm is gone and his future in chaos. But there are two people there to help in totally opposite ways.

A/N: Thanks to Solynacea for reading this over. Just what I imagined happened after Nero was injured pre-DMC5. Thank you for reading, please enjoy and let me know what you think!

---

Freak.

"No…"

You're evil. You're a demon.

"Please… Kyrie…"

Do you even know what you are?

"Kyrie!"

"I'm here, I'm here. Shhh, it's okay." Hands press to his forehead, soothing and soft. "You're safe, it's okay."

"Kyrie?" Nero opens his eyes, the too harsh light making him wince, and he peeks through his lashes as Kyrie's face swims into view. "What happened?"

She doesn't answer, instead wrapping her arms around him, leaning over to press her face to his neck. He can feel her quietly crying, the sound making his stomach turn the way it always does. He frowns in confusion, trying to lift his own arms so he can hug her close. But his entire body hurts all of a sudden, his limbs too heavy, so he turns his head to rub his cheek against her hair with what little strength he has. "Hey, it's okay," he sighs. His voice cracks, his throat dry. "What happened? Can you tell me?"

Kyrie lifts her head, tears rolling down her face as she smiles. Nero realizes he is laying in a bed as she strokes his cheek, but it's not his own. Hospital, he immediately thinks. The smell of disinfectant fills his nose and he groans internally at how much this will cost.

"You were attacked," she whispers.

"A demon?"

She shakes her head. "I don't know. It was gone. You were screaming…"

Her voice fades, and Nero swallows uncomfortably. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to scare you." Bits and pieces come back in images: he was in the garage, working on the van. A silhouette in the door. Kyrie cooking something inside.

Then the rest comes, and he jerks out of Kyrie's touch to look, his eyes widening and a strangled kind of sound escaping him when he sees bandages where his cursed arm should be. "You're okay," Kyrie says in a rush, her hands still trying to soothe him. Nero can feel the blood rushing from his face as he stares. "You're alive. We thought you were dead, there was so much blood. But you're alive."

"What the fuck?" he breathes. He remembers the strange man who had stumbled in, looking for change and maybe a meal, and his arm glowing as warning bells went off in his head. Kyrie called his name and he reached out to tell her to stay out—then it grabbed him.

Nero's back spasms in pain as he remembers flying through the air and hitting the shelves. "It's okay," Kyrie murmurs. Gently she pulls his face towards her, and Nero blinks up at her. "Hey. Stay with me," she says, firmly this time.

"I'm… I'm fine," he says, his heart beating too fast.

"The doctors stopped the bleeding. You're healing fine. They gave you stuff to keep you asleep so you wouldn't be in pain, so we were just waiting for you to wake up." Kyrie's smile seems genuine this time, and he tries to settle back and keep it together in front of her. "Please rest," she says quietly. "I'm going to let the nurse know you're awake, and see if I can get Dante."

"Dante?" Nero frowns in confusion.

"Yeah. I called him when you got here, but I haven't been able to reach him."

"Why would you call him?"

Kyrie sighs, leaning over to kiss his cheek. "I'm sure he'd want to know."

She stands and leaves the room, keeping the door open. Nero glances around, taking in the stark white walls and the ugly yellow tile. She probably took him to the new hospital in Fortuna, built after the Order had left their main one damaged beyond repair. His mind starts to spin a million miles a minute, overwhelmed with questions. How long has he been here, asleep? Did Kyrie drive, or did she call an ambulance? She must have been so scared… Nero makes a fist, anger pulsing in his veins at the idea. He swore to protect her, and after they had been used by the Order, he had promised himself that she'd never be that afraid again. Now he is injured, in the hospital, and she has to take care of him and everything else on her own.

He closes his eyes, trying to fight off panic. What the hell is he going to do now, with only one arm? He can't fight demons this way, and without that he's out of a job. Once Dante finds out, he's not gonna let him run the mobile branch, and he can forget his contracts in Fortuna. Why the hell would something just take just his arm?

Freak… Demon…

No, that was a dream, the same one that he has always had ever since he was a kid. Nero groans as he tries to think, tries to remember, and the nightmare that he was having before he woke up swirls through his thoughts, making it a jumble, scattered in pieces from whatever the doctors had given him. He remembers a blue light, cutting through the air itself. What even was that? It looked like some kind of portal, made using his arm. Only his arm had… changed somehow?

What demon would know the truth about him? Hell, he didn't even fully understand it.

"Hey, you really are awake!"

He jerks out of his thoughts to see Nico standing at the door, her hands behind her back. She grins and steps forward, pulling a bouquet of flowers out to show him. "Brought you these. They're nice, aren't they?"

She presses her face to the flowers and takes a deep breath as she smells them, and Nero asks, "What are you doing here?"

Nico huffs. "Some gratitude. You scared us half to death, you know that?" She puts the flowers on the bed tray and wheels it away so she can drag a chair over. "Never saw a guy lose an arm before. Does that happen a lot?"

She plops in the chair and stretches her legs out. "Yeah, all the time," Nero hisses. "I just grow a new one each time."

Her eyes pop wide. "Get the hell out of here!"

"Nico, what do you want?" He feels exhausted, but she usually leaves him tired and agitated on a good day.

"I told you, I wanted to see how you were." She actually seems serious, tilting her head to examine him. "How do you feel?"

"Like shit," Nero confesses. "I'm not in pain, just like I got hit by a train. Then the train ripped off my arm."

Nico snorts. "So dramatic. Doctor says you're healing fine. Really fast too. You uh…" She nudges his bed with her foot. "You always heal like that? Faster than a human does? Normal one anyway."

Nero shifts uncomfortably. "I mean, I've always been—"

"We never talked about that arm of yours," she interrupts. He shoots her a warning look, but Nico ignores him, her hands moving as she talks. "You know, how it was all weird and blue and glowy."

"It's gone now," he growls. "No need to talk about it."

"Right." She pulls out a cigarette and slides it between her lips, but she only leaves it hanging there, thankfully not lighting it. They fall into an uncomfortable silence, and Nero scowls at the ceiling, wondering how he can tell her to get lost without being too rude. He really is tired now, and can feel sleep pressing on his head, fighting a bit to keep his eyes open. Before he can think of something to say, she asks, "So what's the plan now?"

Nero rolls his eyes. "I have no idea. Why, you got one?"

"Sure do." She leans forward, and he eyes her suspiciously as she uses two fingers to pluck the cigarette out before propping her elbows on her knees. "You know that research you gave me? Mentioned you in it." Nero frowns as she nods towards his bandaged arm. "That too. Got some ideas. Doctors probably will want to give you a prosthetic, but I think I can do better. Make you better. Plus, you'll need help. Kyrie can't run that wild household of yours on her own while you recover. And I need a place to stay." She grins at him. "Interested?"

Nico waits as he considers. They had just met a couple of weeks before, and honestly he found her pretty annoying. Knowing she was Agnus' daughter didn't help things, either. Yet Kyrie had embraced her like she was some long-lost cousin or something despite what Agnus had done to them, and to Credo. As is often the case, Nero makes his decision based on what he thinks Kyrie would do, so he nods slowly. "Maybe, yeah. What do you want?"

"We go half," she says. "You got this Devil May Cry thing going on, right? I'll make your weapons, help you out. I'm an excellent driver, and I got a real sweet van."

Nero grits his teeth. He already gives Dante a cut, and if Nico takes a part too, that means less money. But he could use the help, especially now. "Not half. I'll give you ten percent. I'm the one busting my ass and risking my life."

Nico laughs. "Twenty-five percent. And you pay for the special gadgets separately."

"Okay. But you gotta do something for me."

She shrugs. "Sure, what?"

"Kyrie is trying to get in touch with Dante. He's the one who is in charge of the Devil May Cry." Nico's brows go up in surprise. "I don't want him to know what happened. Not yet, anyway. It's uh… bad for business. Can you keep her from calling him?"

Nico stares at him for a minute before blinking out of a daze. "Dante, huh? Dante who?"

"Does it matter?" he snaps.

They gaze at each other for a long moment, and Nero can feel the secrets growing. But he's not ready to tell her everything: his past, his arm, what really happened in Fortuna. And he for damn sure isn't ready to explain who Dante is, especially since Nero doesn't understand it himself. It's been three years since Fortuna was wasted by the Order, and in that time getting to know Dante and working with him has only made things more confusing, made more questions that needed answers. But deep down he cares what Dante thinks of him, and has kept from asking those questions in case they were met with derision, or worse, led to Dante ditching him. Plus, he figured if there was something worth knowing, Dante would have told him.

More secrets, he thinks, and his head aches as he studies Nico. Does she recognize his annoyance for the fear it actually is? Her eyes are laced with suspicion, and he can see the wheels turning in her head, like she wants to ask something.

"Guess not," Nico finally says, but there is something weird in her voice he can't pinpoint. "Yeah, I'll make sure he stays away."

"Good." With that decided, he sighs and closes his eyes. "You really think you can make me a better fighter?"

"Hell yeah!" she cries excitedly, and Nero chuckles. "My old man was an asshat, but he left some good notes. And I know how to make a damn weapon. Combine the two and you got some real work of art shit going on. You ever heard of a Devil Arm?"

"No," he sighs, sleep pulling him under as he listens to her drone on about demons and guns.