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skvaderarts · 4 years

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Apocrypha Chapter Two: Homecoming

Masterlist is being made and will be available soon!

Chapter Two: Homecoming

Note: A warm welcome back to everyone who's returning for book two! It was great to talk to so many of you again! If you're a new reader, I recommend that you read Soliloquy first so that you have the proper context for this story, but either way, welcome! Nice to meet you! I hope to say hi sometime in the comments! Now on to chapter two!

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In the seven weeks since the Redgrave City calamity, the local news stations had struck a collective balance between bated silence, unintentional misinformation, and useless conjecture. No one in the general public really knew anything meaningful about the events that had taken place in that forsaken city except for a handful of ground zero survivors, and most of them had stayed surprisingly tight lipped about the ordeal as a whole, knowing little about the events that took place after they had fled to safety. A few had come forward to thank the mysterious white haired vigilante in the black coat that had been rumored to have stalked the streets at all hours during the month long siege in what seemed to be an attempt to help stem the tide of demonic activity, but reports were conflicted to say the least. Most couldn't decide if he -or she- possessed black or white hair, some were unsure as to if they had been working with or against the demons as they claimed that they had commanded several themselves, and several others claimed to have been saved from attacking demons by them and told to flee town while they still could. A few even speculated that perhaps this individual could be a demon themselves, though they all seemed to come to the conclusion that they didn't care all that much and they were simply happy to be alive and eternally grateful to whoever the person had been that had saved their lives.

Graffiti on abandoned city walls told horrifying stories of desperation and fear, while some even depicted what some had thought to be their savior in an indirect attempt to thank them. But the vast majority of the outside world would never see these works of art in person. The entire city aside from the very outskirts on the north side had been claimed by the government and a perimeter was in the process of being erected. They wanted to study it and try to figure out a concrete answer as to what had led to this horrible tragedy so that they could try to combat it effectively in the future, but it was slow work. They had started on the east and west sides of the city to try and keep neighboring municipalities and their citizens from meddling in what they considered "government affairs", and a considerably weaker foot perimeter had been established at the southern end of the area, leaving the northern side relatively accessible to prying eyes. They were apparently stretched quite thin at the moment and simply didn't have the resources and manpower to do anything more.

And that was good news for Nico and Nero since they had work to do.

Nero craned his neck to the side as he stared blankly at Nico, unsure as to what to say about the scene unfolding in front of him. Sitting along the side of the van were three medium sized moving boxes that were practically overflowing with old books. Most of them were covered in dust and slightly worn from the elements, but probably still readable while others looked to be in need of serious repairs. Some looked just fine. But the question was why were they here?

"Nico… Since when do you read? What the hell is with all these books?" Nero said as he examined one of the boxes of books disinterestedly, shaking his head at the sheer number of books. There were at least two large bookcases worth of them. This seemed beyond excessive to him.

She plopped down the box that she was in the process of loading into the van, allowing it to come to rest on the couch. A loud groan escaped her lips as she turned to step down the step that led to the pavement. She knew that old books were heavy, but these ones had to weigh more than she did! Her back was going to pay dearly for her generosity.

"Oh shut your trap! You know good and well I'm not reading any of these old things," She says as she held up one of the books for emphasis," I'm doing V a favor. He said he'd owe me one if I brought back as many of these as I could find that were still in one piece."

Nero did a slight doubletake, his brow furrowing in a mixture or surprise and confusion. While that made perfect sense, he had to admit that this was news to him. He'd never seen Nico accept an "I owe you" before. Cash was almost always a prerequisite to service when it came to her valuable time and effort. But she'd made an exception for V?

"Your doing him a favor? That's… well, that's nice of you, I guess." Nero said as he shrugged and reached for a nearby box. He knew that she wasn't going to let him help her with the ones she was already carrying. And besides, she'd managed the first one just fine without his help. But tossing the last two boxes in the van for her wasn't going to hurt anyone. Well, accept maybe their backs. How the hell was V going to pick these up anyway? One at a time?

The young mechanic put the box down next to the previous one and shrugged, not really sure what he expected her to say about it. "Yea, well he gave me some pretty rare stuff a while back that I used to make a pretty sick devil breaker, so I kinda owe him. It's whatever. Just a couple books. No bige."

Nero took a moment to consider what she'd said. He recalled a time in Redgrave City right after they had rescued Lady when V had found his way to the van with a chunk of some sort of glowing rock. Nico had seemed pretty excited about that at the time. Was that what she was talking about? Better yet, why did he care so much? Their dealings were none of his business and there probably wasn't anything more to them than V wanting something else to read. He'd tapped out the few books laying around their place that weren't for little kids several days ago (and some of those too, although mostly for the sake of providing entertainment to the children. They enjoyed when he read to them.) and Vergil still had his book at Dante's office, so he was probably starving for mental stimulation. But most of these didn't really look like the types of books you just read for entertainment's sake. Besides the heavy damage they'd incurred due to being left out in the elements for so long, most were educational texts such as dictionaries, legal books, and encyclopedia sets. Who the hell would read a dictionary for fun?

Oh.

As they loaded the final boxes and Nico climbed back into the drivers seat of the van, he couldn't help himself from digging just a little bit further. Now part of him kinda found this funny. As he flopped down into the passenger's seat and put his feet up onto the dashboard, he decided he'd ask a final question and then drop the matter entirely.

"Did he actually ask you for all these boring dictionaries and crap? I thought he was more into poetry." Nero said offhandedly. He'd heard his brother quote that damn book enough times to glean that from him. Despite popular belief, he wasn't clueless.

Nico shrugged again as she started the engine. "He just said he wanted "collections of books' '. Most of them just happened to be boring shit. Now stop playin' twenty questions with me before I tell him you read his damn book so he can quiz you to death on it!"

He wasn't sure if he actually did it, but he could almost swear that he visibly paled at the statement. That was the last thing he needed. After V had "died" and the rest of his family had swan dived into hell, the book had been left in his care. What had at first been just a few curious glances had somehow turned into him reading the entire book cover to cover despite the fact that he didn't really understand a lot of the concepts covered in the texts. It was all a bit philosophical for him. While he'd done plenty of reading in his lifetime, none of it had been on this kind of subject matter. The only thing it had really impressed upon him was the fact that V was pretty damn smart for his age. After all, they couldn't have been born that far apart.

And yet, Nero had actually enjoyed reading it. The context behind a lot of the quotes V had rattled off made a lot more sense to him now and they helped paint a picture of a person who was solemn and mournful, but still personable and easy enough to get along with. If he had to describe V in a single word, he'd say he was just misunderstood. Despite being surrounded by people, he always seemed so lonely and out of place. But he'd never say any of this to his face. The last thing he was ready for was a deep conversation with V, though he got the feeling it was an inevitability.

As they drove through the ruined streets of Redgrave City on their way back home, a shared silence fell over them as they crossed the barrier into ground zero. An area twice the size of the colosseum that used to consist of family homes and businesses; parks and plazas. None of that remained now, the entire city block now leveled and covered from head to toe in a thick layer of white ash. Jagged chunks of earth that seemed to jut out of hell itself stuck up out of a massive ravine in the center. On the far side of the clearing were the remnants of the house that V had once pointed out to him, a place he was admittedly curious considering the fact that it was somehow still standing after everything that had happened to this place. What had been the significance of it?

It was a haunting sight to behold, and a terrifying reminder of what his family was capable of when they got carried away. He couldn't stop thinking about how easily something like this had almost happened to Fortuna just a few short years ago. So much death and destruction. It chilled him to his very core and he suddenly felt an intense desire to leave this place and not think about it any further, at least for a while.

As they passed through the far side of the clearing, Nico suddenly slammed on the breaks. Nero jolted forward and smacked his head on the dashboard, his ears ringing and head throbbing. While the impact wasn't hard enough to give him a concussion, it still hurt like hell and he couldn't help but become instantly pissed at the fact that it had happened.

"Nico, what the fuck is-" Nero started to take her to task for her awful driving, only to realize as he sat up that she was no longer in the van. A quick, somewhat panicked glance confirmed that she was standing a few yards away from the van, her back to him. From what he could tell, she seemed to be looking at something on the ground. Nero let out a sigh that was equal parts relief and frustration as he threw the seatbelt over his shoulder and headed over to meet up with Nico. He was curious to see what all the fuss was about. As much as his head hurt, it had better be good.

Before he could say anything, Nico gestured to the ground in front of her. She seemed to know that he was on the brink of scolding her for nearly breaking his neck on the dashboard of their ride, although she didn't seem concerned. She knew he was durable. As he approached, Nero was surprised to find a small patch of red glowing flowers in the middle of space before them. He'd seen them before in the train station, but this was a relatively uncommon occurrence. From what he could tell, they had just grown in since they hadn't been here during their last visit to the city. Apparently something about the Qliphoth pollion made the soil hospitable. At least that's what he was willing to guess. Maybe Magnolia could tell them? After all, she was a botanist.

But as unusual as it was to see the demonic flowers just growing wildly out in the open, another sight caught his eye. More specifically, Nico gestured towards it in mild disbelief, a slightly wide eyed and giddy look on her face. Impaled smack dab in the middle of the small field of plants was a very familiar piece of shiny metal, a handful of vibrant blue feathers accompanying it. Somehow during everything that had happened at the top of the Qliphoth including it's violent destruction, V's cane had made its way down here and embedded itself in the ground. It was almost unbelievable. They had passed by here once before, but it had been dark out. How on earth had it managed to land in this exact spot so close to one of the only remaining roads? And why had this field of plants sprung up around it? The entire situation was nothing short of astonishing.

Nico shook her head and folded her arms, looking down at the scene unfolding before her. "Looks like I need to run some more tests on this damn thing! Guess I missed somethin' the last time. This is just weird. And what's up with these flowers? We're gonna need some samples of these things. Wonder if there's somethin' to em."

Nero nodded, agreeing in silent bewilderment. While it made perfect sense that it could survive a fall from the height that it did, he was amazed that it hadn't landed in the nearby bay or fallen into a casem somewhere. He wondered how V would react to seeing it again after all this time. More than likely, he'd be relieved considering how he'd used it to assist himself with walking up until the point where it had been lost during their final battle with Urizen. Well, Vergil. He needed to stop thinking about it. That whole situation was complicated and messy and sad and they would all get to it when the time came.

For now, they needed to find something to put these plants in. As supernatural as they seemed to be, they were practically screaming for a visit to Magnolia's shop. Nero was willing to bet that she could help them out with this. "Maybe… but we're never going to find out if we don't grab a couple. Oh, and if your awful driving gets us killed on the way back!" Nico shrugged nonchalantly as she headed back towards the car to grab the supplies they needed. "Quit cryin' you big baby, you're gonna be fine! Your heads made of thicker stuff than that, trust me. Now come grab a shovel and help me start diggin! I don't plan to still be in this damn place come dinner time."

Nero groaned and dragged himself over to the van. She made a valid point. Several valid points. V and the kids were definitely going to eat all the food if they didn't get back in time. And the last thing Nero felt like dealing with was being hungry and tired after having to fight off an entire city of demons if they were still here come nightfall.

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It's great having you all back again for book two! Thanks so much for the ongoing support! I'll see you all again on Friday for chapter three. In the meantime, stay safe and have a great week! I hope it's not half as hot where you live as it is here!

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