Soliloquy

Chapter Six: Machinations

Note: Hey everyone! Thank you all for your understanding about the last chapter being a little shorter and more than a few hours late. Life happened, unfortunately. But thanks for sticking with me anyway! A special thanks to Skylarmorgan1899, Mallovarwen, BeanswithBones, HunterJamie, and RubixaSeraph for your kind words of encouragement. I had a great time responding to your comments, and seeing what you guys thought about the story so far was fascinating and helpful! I hope you guys enjoy this chapter and thanks for taking the time to reach out! Now, let's get back to this long ass chapter!

The ferry made port, it's foghorn shattering the peaceful serenity of the coastline like a stone through stained glass. The medium-sized vessel eased into it's designated space between two of the end docks, carefully threading the space. After the ship came to a complete stop, it anchored, finally allowing it's sizeable ramp to lower and make contact with the road. Before they had left the mainland, one of the deckhands had taken the liberty of informing them that they would only be in Fortuna for about a half-hour before they would be returning home, so leaving as soon as possible was paramount.

With everyone now on board the van, Nico pulled up to the top edge of the ramp. Nero, who was seated in the front seat next to her, took notice and sighed loudly. Nico and everyone else on board clearly noticed, but no one said anything about it.

"Ok, now look. Let's not do this shit again," Nero started as Nico reached down to switch the throttle from idle to drive," Don't go launching off the-"

Nero's sensible warning fell on death ears. Just for the hell of it or perhaps form pure spite, Nico floored the gas and the van went flying off of the boat, making virtually no perceivable contact with the offramp. As soon as they landed, the mechanic made a far too tight hard left and sailed up the road, homebound. Nero groaned and rubbed the top of his head as he settled back into his seat. He had just bashed his head against the roof of the van during the landing.

"Seriously, where the fuck did you get a license from?! Are you trying to kill us?!" Nero said through gritted teeth. It was a wonder that the vehicle hadn't been totally destroyed yet. He's heard from V during the Redgrave City Disaster that Nico had somehow tunneled through the ground to meet the mysterious devil summoner. Twice. How did a basically square van that was towards the end of its lifecycle even do something like that in the first place? Before Nico had come along and helped him fix it, the old van had barely been able to drive correctly, but act like a boring drill? Just what the fuck? Did V put a spell on it or something?

Nico reached into her front pocket and pulled out a cigarette, placing it in her mouth. "Aw, stop your bellyachin' and shut up," Nico said, clearly expecting him to react that way. He always did, after all. This was nothing new. "I don't know about you, but I wanna get home before dinner starts! Kyrie's cookin' is amazin' and you know it. Now unclench your britches and gimme a light, would ya?"

Nero grumbled and fumbled for the lighter that had been sitting in the cupholder between them before reaching over and lighting her cigarette. Dante burst into laughter from the back seat, leaning over his knees as he sat on the couch across from Vergil. It was always great to see someone give his nephew the same kind of hell that he gave him every day. Nico was a living form of neverending karmic punishment for Nero. Vergil simply watched the situation unfold and shook his head, fully realizing that every single person that Dante and Nero knew was probably insane. Well, except for the gentleman in the suit. He had been relatively fine, although his decision making could be called into question for spending time at the Devil May Cry office with Dante and his cohorts.

The vehicle continued down the road, dodging and weaving its way through parked cars and sudden curves as it headed towards the interior of the dimly lit city. Dante and Nico continued to poke fun at Nero as they went, sufficiently riling him up. Vergil, on the other hand, took the time to think about what they were here for. On their way to the docks back on the mainland, Dante had asked both of them what was going on and Vergil had given him a very succinct answer. He knew that it was best to not go into things at the time. Although they could have still come here without him, the eldest Son of Sparda preferred it this way and wasn't in the mood for further obstruction of his plans. To be fair, he never had been, but in times like this, keeping things as manageable as possible was key. He didn't have to worry about his youngest son. Despite the fact that he was their father, he had gleaned from their various interactions that V and Nero had a much stronger relationship than he had with either of them, despite the relatively small amount of time that they had spent with one another. Nero had too much to lose in this investment to just give up and call it quits. Or to cause any issues, for that matter.