A/N: I was thinking of Dante and Amateratsu from the game Ookami by Capcom here, but since this is a Vergil Oneshot, things have to change up a little bit. It is quite a coincidence as well that Amateratsu's characteristic is quite like Vergil as well.

Pic Credits: Cosett Alissa Foust (Ximena Rivera) on Pinterest

[Intelligent Pet]

"Vergil?" Dante paused for a short while when he had created a big enough berth all around him. The demons were still a good distance away from him, so Dante took the breathing space to look around in all directions, surprised that he couldn't hear anything else other than the remaining demon's approach.

Normally, he should be hearing sounds of his brother's grunts, or at least sounds of fight going on nearby. But Dante heard nothing. Vergil had told him shortly after the battle started that he was going to get to the root of this demon infestation first, and that Dante should try to regroup with him as soon as he was able to. It was the usual way the both of them worked as partners; Vergil going first to solve the problem and Dante taking his own sweet time to be done with all remaining demons as backup for his brother.

"Verge? Where are you?" Dante called curiously into the air shortly after dealing with the last of the demons, a chilled silence hanging all around him as he spun in all directions in hope of finding his brother. Could Vergil have gone too far out?

"Vergil!" Dante continued to call as he picked his way in the direction in which he had last remembered seeing his brother heading towards at the start of the battle. Dante couldn't exactly say that he was an overly-attached sibling, but they were partners after all. Besides, Vergil would have his head if the elder son of Sparda came back to find that Dante had abandoned him and gone back to the joint alone. "Answer me, Verge."

Silence still continued to chase Dante's footsteps as he stepped towards the entrance of the church. The lights were turned off, and the church had been orientated with its back facing the sun. It made the interior of the church rather shadowed, and the only form of sounds that followed Dante into the building was the sound of soft metal clinks as his sword jostled lightly against his guns and other accessories. An air of unnatural coldness hung around him in the church as he stepped down the aisle slowly and carefully, knowing clearly that he had not yet seen the end of the demons in this area yet. The group that he had conquered outside was much too small to be considered as an infestation.

"Vergil? You here?" Dante tried again, letting his voice echo through the empty church. The high ceilings were painted with murals that spoke of better days that had been enjoyed within the four walls, but they were not of Dante's concern now as he approached the front carefully, where a book and a candleholder sat singly on the table.

The hairs on the back of his neck rose when he picked up the coverless book, and there was quick sound of shattering glass as the demons once more broke through reality in what was supposed to be a surprise attack. Of course, the surprise was completely lost because Dante was the quarry this time around, and no demon hunter worth his salt should be taken by surprise by something so common to the low-levelled demons.

Still, Dante was surprised at the mere number of demons that had suddenly been triggered to attack him, and he worked hard to earn his keep, shooting and swinging his sword. There seemed to be no end to it, and even Dante slowly got tired of the sheer numbers of low-levelled demons. It seemed as if instead of quality, the mastermind behind this infestation was aiming for sheer quantity of demons instead.

Deciding quickly that he shouldn't waste more precious time with anything useless, Dante devil-triggered and expanded his range of attacks. He was almost done with the lot when he ran out of demonic energy to maintain his triggered form, and paused for a moment, leaning against the table for a short breather due to the toll taken on him following his triggering.

He was still mentally counting the demons left that he needed to clear before the sound of glass shattering surprised him. As he blinked in surprise, his eyes tracked as the projectile that had flown through the window come to its feet, rear back and jumped immediately on the closest demon. Jaws and teeth ripped through the demon and it disintegrated into ashes almost immediately.

The animal that had intruded on Dante did not wait for instructions to be given before it leaped from one demon to another, jaws snapping, claws swiping and strong legs kicking. Dante watched in silent awe as the animal quickly and efficiently dealt with every demon, already moving on to the next one while the previous one was still in the midst of crumbling to dust. There was no movement of flourish at all, and Dante was very distantly reminded of his brother's fighting style.

In silence, Dante watched as the white wolf finished every demon, and landed finally in the middle of the aisle in front of him. He was surprised to find blue eyes of the dangerous-looking wolf staring back at him. Blue eyes were definitely not something natural for animals, but Dante could offer no words at all before the wolf readied itself one more time, its hind legs bending in preparation for another launch.

Dante instinctively raised his sword in preparation as well. The white wolf had shown its aptitude in killing low-levelled demons, but if it was going after Dante as well, then he was going to put up a good fight –though he had to admit that he had never fought a wolf before. Dante had fought dog-demons before, but this wolf was almost half of his height and had the length of a large dog. There was simply no way that he could compare the size of this wolf to dog-demons.

The wolf opened its mouth and gave a strong bark that echoed all the way to the high ceilings of the church, and jumped. Dante swung his sword in readiness to swing it down at the wolf if it came to him at his chest level.

Instead, what he felt was paws landing on his shoulders, and then kicking off from him as if taking him as a jump board. Dante's second surprise came in the form of his sword being jerked upwards away from his grasp. Spinning around with surprise, he blinked in shock to find that the wolf had bit his sword at the halfway mark with strong, sharp fangs, and had landed on the table.

Then, without a cue at all, the white wolf tilted its head sharply and stabbed the tip of Dante's sword into the book.

There was a screech that emanated from the general direction, and Dante watched in surprise as the book slowly began to transform into a small spider-like demon, struggling and writhing as it was pinned to the table by Dante's sword. The wolf had no mercy as the sword came up briefly only to stab down once more. The small demon –which Dante was beginning to understand was the originator of demons in this area –screeched louder once more, then the struggles ceased and it crumbled into dust as well.

There was no flourish at all when the wolf pulled the sword out from the table, then jumped lightly off the table, trotting slowly over to Dante, then tilted its head to offer Dante his sword back.

"Thanks, little buddy." Dante said as he fixed his sword back on his holster. "Not really sure where you came from, but thanks."

The wolf looked honestly back at Dante, then barked once. Dante was no wolf-whisperer, so he didn't understand what the bark meant, but assumed that it was a form of polite greeting in reply anyway.

"Have you seen Vergil around? He's my twin and he went missing a short while ago." Dante asked, though not really sure why he bothered. The wolf obviously couldn't talk. Even if the wolf understood his words, it wasn't going to be the same the other way around.

The wolf answered with a double bark this time, but Dante was no more enlightened about his brother's location than he had been minutes ago. Still, he shrugged to himself, then reached forwards bravely to pat the head of the wolf. Its white fur was so pure and clean that Dante marvelled at it for a short moment. Even through a short touch, Dante could feel the strong muscles hiding beneath very smooth fur, and knew immediately that he didn't want to piss this wolf off for no good reason.

"You seem nice, but go on. Go back to the woods and pee up a tree or something. I'm gonna go look for Vergil." Dante said, patted it one more time on the head, then turned away.

A bark replied him, and Dante jerked to a stop in surprise to find that the wolf had snagged the corner of his coat with its fangs, tugging him back.

"Let go." Dante frowned a little, trying to tug his coat free, but the wolf was relentless. "Come on, it's not a chew toy."

The wolf didn't budge, but continued to tug him backwards until Dante was finally obliged to backtrack and go back to the wolf's side. As if satisfied with Dante's cooperation, the wolf intelligently let go off his coat, looking back up at him.

"What do you want?" Dante sighed. He knew that his flashy sword and guns sometimes attracted the awed attention of young boys, but it was completely another thing when a wolf –an animal –had complete attention on him.

Another incomprehensible bark came back in reply, and Dante was completely unenlightened.

Seemingly to finally comprehend that Dante didn't understand him, the wolf barked one more time, then made a move to go in the opposite direction. Turning back to look at Dante who was watching it with confusion and curiosity, it gestured quickly with its head that Dante should follow him, and then ran off.

Frowning and not really understanding the reason why he had felt a strange familiarity with the no-nonsense gesture that reminded him of Vergil when he was looking at a wolf, Dante followed quickly after the disappearing tail of the white wolf, admiring how fast the sleek animal was. Even with his demonic speed, the white wolf was able to keep ahead of him, and Dante was slowly made aware that he was being led through the back door of the church out to the forested area behind it. Dante followed the white wolf, wondering if he was sending himself into another demonic trap.

He was answered quickly when the white wolf stopped in a small clearing, and Dante paused when he spotted the coat on the floor beside where the white wolf stood. Looking at Dante with clear blue eyes as if it expected Dante to be able to understand everything, the wolf waited, sitting on its hind legs as it watched Dante stepped slowly into the clearing, picking up the blue two-tailed coat that had fallen on the floor.

"Vergil..." Dante said softly beneath his breath. "What the hell happened to you?"

The wolf barked, but Dante ignored it temporarily. The white wolf had most probably smelt his scent on Vergil's coat as well. It was probably the reason why the white wolf had led him here in the first place. Did the white wolf think that the coat belonged to him or something?

"Can you trace Vergil's scent from this and track him down?" Dante turned to the patiently waiting wolf, offering the coat close to its snout for a whiff but the wolf only moved its head away from the material. A moment later, it shook its head definitely with clear, unwavering eyes.

"Did Vergil send you or something?" Dante asked, completely confused. How was it that his brother was missing? Vergil wouldn't leave his coat behind for no good reason –especially in somewhere as desolated as this place. Something must have happened to Vergil, and if it hadn't been for the white wolf, Dante was sure that he would never have found this coat. Had the wolf been a creative and special way of Vergil trying to contact Dante?

Again, the wolf shook its head and barked softly. Dante wasn't sure why he trusted the wolf to understand him, but it seemed as if the wolf had understood his want of looking for Vergil and led him to Vergil's coat.

"Thanks for your help, doggie, but I gotta find Vergil." Dante patted the wolf's head in thanks once more, slinging his brother's coat over his shoulder as he chose a random direction, beginning to walk around and keep his eyes peeled. He couldn't even begin to imagine what might have happened to his brother. There had been no signs of struggle in the clearing. There had been no ashes in the clearing –clearly there had not been a demon.

But if there wasn't a demon, then what had Vergil been chasing? What had made Vergil take his coat off?

The white wolf followed a few steps behind Dante as he circled around the whole forest, trying his best to keep his eyes peeled for anyone with a head of white hair. He even tried calling for his brother in the forest, but the only reply he always got was the bark of the white wolf. He assumed that the wolf was trying to help him, but a bark wasn't technically going to help. Still, he couldn't blame the animal for trying to help, and thus Dante took small comfort in the fact that the animal had followed him and kept him company.

Finding Vergil was a complete flop as Dante finally set on the route back home. As he made out of the forest once more, he stopped and turned to the wolf who had stopped as well, eyes looking up at him curiously.

"I'm going home." Dante told the wolf. "I'll see you some other day, if I get to see you again."

The wolf probably really understood him, because it shook its head.

The problem was that Dante didn't understood what the shake of head meant, and so he tried to start on the journey back home –only to realize that the wolf had moved to follow him.

"No." Dante said firmly, pushing the wolf's body in the opposite direction in hopes to get the animal to understand him. "You're not coming home."

The wolf made a poor whining sound in the back of it throat, intelligent blue eyes looking pleadingly up at Dante.

"No." Dante said again, though his resolve was a little challenged. "I don't like keeping pets, and Vergil will kill me if he comes home eventually to find you. Besides, you're too big to be a pet."

Dante almost swore that he saw a frown drawing on the wolf's face, but he didn't wait a moment more before he tried to take a step again, and realized that the wolf had taken another step alongside him as well, clearly intending to follow him.

"I said no." Dante turned to push the wolf again, this time strong enough to force the wolf to take a few steps back to get his idea across. "You're not coming home with me."

He almost couldn't bear the sad look in the wolf's eyes as it finally sat back on its hind legs, looking up at Dante again. Then, as if to cut a pitiful figure of an abandoned pet, it laid flat on its stomach, putting its chin between its two front paws and looked up at Dante with the clearest blue eyes of begging.

"No." Dante repeated one last time, biting his lip this time though to reinforce his resolute. "Stay here and don't follow me."

Before the wolf could make any more attempt to follow, Dante turned around and dashed down the road. He continued running for three streets in a row, and eventually slowed down to a walk when he realized that the wolf hadn't followed him.

He had strangely adopted an uncanny companion, but it couldn't compare to his brother.

He hoped Vergil would come home soon.

________________________________________________________________________________

"You have got to be kidding me." Dante groaned to himself when he opened the door to Devil May Cry to see a familiar-looking animal curled up on the couch, eyes closed in soft, peaceful rest. There was definitely no mistaking the wolf; it was the exact same one that had tagged on to Dante at the church. The pure white fur was one that was rather hard to mistake.

As if hearing his words, the wolf slowly opened its eyes lazily, looking up at Dante coming in through the front doors and gave a small soft greeting bark –as if it was natural. Dante was in disbelief at how an animal was acting; as if he had already adopted it as a pet. Other questions flitted through his head, but the primary ones were the ones concerning how the wolf knew about Devil May Cry, and how it had appeared in Devil May Cry faster than Dante.

Maybe the wolf was really sent by Vergil?

"Get out." Dante said seriously as he pointed to the door that he had still yet to close. "No pets in Devil May Cry."

The wolf, now completely awake, slowly stretched itself as if it couldn't be bothered with Dante's words. In fact, it even made sounds of stretch as if were enjoying itself very much at the moment, completely ignorant of Dante's presence.

"Wolfie, you can't stay here." Dante's serious act dropped as quickly as it came as he hung up both his and Vergil's coat on the stand, then hurried over to the wolf's side, trying to grab at the oversized animal. All the wolf did was to twist itself, and despite it being large, it slinked out of Dante's grasp like oil.

"Wolfie!" Dante said in a chiding tone, but the wolf only tapped lightly to the shelf at the corner of the office, putting its front paws up against the shelf.

"Stop that." Dante followed it to the shelf filled with Vergil's many spell and research books, taking the wolf's front paws off the shelf by force. The wolf tried once again to put its paws up, and was denied access once more. This motion happened a few more times before the wolf finally backed away from the shelf a little, looking up at Dante with what seemed like unhappy eyes now, its lips pulled back in a low threatening growl.

"No. No touching Vergil's things." Dante said firmly, but a bark of rebellion sounded instead.

"Look, you want to stay here, fine. You can stay until Vergil comes back. But while you stay, you cannot touch Vergil's things. You get me?" Dante instructed seriously, resting his fists against his hips to portray the look of a stern teacher.

The funniest thing was that amusement seemed to flit across the wolf's face, and it almost seemed to laugh as it turned away from Dante, its body shaking. Was it really laughing?

"Hey, what's so funny?" Dante asked, but there was no way he could answer the wolf's bark of reply as he watched helplessly while the wolf grinned at him now. "Anyway, you'll keep me company while Vergil's not around, Wolfie. It's only you and me left in Devil May Cry for now."

_______________________________________________________________________________

Months had passed, and it was appearing to Dante that Wolfie had completely taken over Vergil's properties by now. As if holding completely no regard to Dante's ground rules set for it, Wolfie had taken over Vergil's bed at night, was found sniffling through Vergil's clothes and things, and more importantly, apparently reading Vergil's spell books. Dante had never imagined that one day he would be able to chance across an intelligent scholarly wolf, but 'never' was always a word too early for anyone to say, because watching Wolfie cleverly handle a spell book from the shelf, dropping it on the floor and using its paws to tenderly flip the pages open before lying down flat on its stomach to read the contents with fervour was now a very common sight for Dante Sparda.

Of course, owning a pet also came with its advantages. Wolfie often went out to get the groceries with Dante, and eventually after the staff at the supermarket had been used to its presence, Wolfie had been allowed to go to the grocers alone to buy goods. Everyone remarked that Dante was both brave and admirable at being able to tame such a huge beast, to train it to its current intelligence level, and of course Dante basked in the glory that wasn't rightfully his.

In fact, the presence of Wolfie almost made the hole that Vergil made when he left smaller. Dante was sure that he would have panicked and done something crazy at some point of time when Vergil didn't return after weeks, but it seemed like Wolfie was subbing in for Vergil. Dante had given up trying to search for his brother or even trying to ask the wolf if he was related to Vergil some way or another. Wolfie was always intelligent at getting its point across with its physical gestures, but whenever Dante asked it about Vergil's whereabouts, the only reply that he ever got was a soft bark and a shake of head.

Still, the unannounced departure of his brother made Dante wonder when he laid in bed at night. Had Vergil planned his leaving? Was his brother waiting to be saved from somewhere? Was Vergil in trouble, or did Vergil just not like living with Dante anymore? Dante didn't really think that his brother would be the type to up and leave wordlessly just like that, but his brother was –as always –unpredictable. Vergil could do anything, and not offer an explanation to Dante until much later afterwards.

Those thoughts at night always made Dante a lonely man, but the moments would never last long, because he would always heard sounds outside his door reminding him that he was not alone in the office. A pet could never really sub for the real man, but the way Wolfie acted resembled Vergil so much that Dante could not help but feel like Vergil hadn't really left him; maybe just changed a little.

Wolfie was exactly like Vergil in the way it turned away whenever Dante suggested something stupid. Like Vergil, Wolfie was determined and completely unshakeable whenever it decided to do anything, and no amount of talking, persuading and even manual manhandling of the wolf ever created any positive results for Dante. Wolfie simply couldn't be persuaded unless it wanted to be. Similarly, Wolfie was intense about his hunger for knowledge –evidenced by hardworking pouring over spell books –and used its free time exactly like how Vergil would –staring at boring spell books until the end of the day. What struck Dante the most, however, was the fact that Wolfie was –exactly like his twin brother –deathly protective over him.

When Vergil was still around, Dante had already gotten an inkling of how his brother felt about him when Vergil joined Devil May Cry as his partner. The idea of being a partner had been a complete disguise –Vergil had only done it to protect Dante. Vergil almost virtually never took jobs alone, and whenever he did take any jobs at all, he had been the one looking after Dante most of the time, covering his back despite the fact that Dante clearly didn't need it at all.

And now that Vergil had somehow suddenly disappeared on him, in his place was Wolfie who followed Dante out every single time he left on a job. It was not to say that Wolfie was a burden. No, Wolfie was perfectly capable taking care of itself, but it tended to get its pure white fur unsightly stained with blood and dirt sometimes, and Dante for some reason took unreasonable irritation to see Wolfie unclean.

All in all, with Vergil's silent departure and Wolfie's equally silent arrival, Dante figured out that nothing much had changed in the office at all. Perhaps, the only different to be found here was the fact that Dante now was replied by his partner through barks rather than real words.

Life was once more easy for Dante. In Wolfie's earlier days living in Devil May Cry, it had constantly dropped spell books in front of Dante, as if trying to get him to read it. Dante hadn't been able to understand Wolfie's obsession over spell books, but after many tries from the wolf, and many rejection from Dante –because Dante was never a scholarly person in the first place –Wolfie had eventually given up. Sometimes Wolfie brought a few things to lay them down before Dante, blue eyes looking at the man as if expecting him to know or feel something. The items had strangely all reminded him of his childhood –a red cup, a purple coat that Dante knew Vergil possessed to remind himself of their father, a headband that their mother had given each of them when they were young to push back their white hair while playing. All those items seemed to be pawed out of Vergil's belongings, and Dante had initially scolded Wolfie for playing around his brother's possessions and put them all back.

Yet, Wolfie refused to give up and brought out even more –until Dante didn't bother scolding anymore. Strangely enough, the more resigned to his fate Dante was about Wolfie's tendency to rifle through Vergil's possessions, the less Wolfie seemed to do it, until the habit eventually faded away into nothing.

"Wolfie." Dante called lazily as he opened his door one morning, scratching the back of his head sleepily. It was a day for another grocery run, and he knew that Wolfie would probably bite his balls off if it found out that Dante had left the house without it. Like the animal that it was, Wolfie loved to go outside and run –and Dante was wise enough to know that nothing good came out from standing between a wolf and its outside foraying. "Wolfie, I'm going to pick some stuff up. You coming along?"

Usually, no matter where Wolfie was in the apartment, Dante would heard a bark of reply, followed by sounds of a wolf running to the coat stand to grab his coat off the stand. The only time where Wolfie didn't remind him of Vergil were the times where he would see a wolf with beautiful white fur dragging his coat across the floor, bounding over to him with bright blue eyes brimming with eagerness to be released into the outside world. Dante didn't understand the wolf as well. Wolfie was perfectly capable of opening doors –he had shown the intelligence for that capability countless of times within the doors inside the office and apartment –but yet it had never tried to open the main door on its own –at least since the very first time since it let itself into Dante's house.

"Wolfie?" Dante asked again when he heard no sounds in reply this time around. "Wolfie, you heard me?"

Again, there was no reply –no enthusiastic bark. Turning his direction from making towards the front of the apartment, where Dante had his office set up, he made for Vergil's room instead. Opening the door to his brother's room did not reveal any sleeping wolf at all, and a strange sense of concern and anxiety began to creep in Dante's chest as he turned and rushed towards the office in hopes to find a sleeping wolf anywhere within the apartment.

Sweeping his entire apartment two times over –and even combing through places that were technically too small for Wolfie's size –Dante was met with the stunning realization that Wolfie was not in the house. For the first time since Vergil's departure, Dante was left alone in the house. Wolfie was gone.

A strange sense of fear that Dante had not felt in a very long time –not since he found his brother again many years ago. It was a fear of loneliness, and now that it was back, Dante felt its crushing weight in his chest. He had known that that feeling was always kept a bay because of Wolfie's presence after Vergil's disappearance, but now that Wolfie was missing, the feeling had slammed into him like wrecking ball.

But Wolfie couldn't be like that... could it? Wolfie reminded Dante so much of Vergil, and Vergil had disappeared on him in such a similar fashion. What if Wolfie was doing the same thing?

Dante turned to the coat stand and grabbed his coat off the stand with determination.

Vergil had slipped away from his fingers once, and Dante had not put in enough effort to search for his brother because he had Wolfie in replacement. But now that Wolfie was gone, Dante would rather be damned to hell than sit back and try waiting for either Wolfie or Vergil to come back to him. He would have to drag the wolf back one way or another –even if it meant harnessing or putting some sort of leash on that animal. Wolfie had wormed its way into his life, and Dante wasn't going to let it go as easily as he had unwillingly let Vergil go.

If Dante wasn't so suddenly angrily determined at his newest mission, he would have realized that Vergil's coat was also gone from the stand as well.

Dante charged down the steps to his office, not even bothering to lock up behind him as he looked up and down the road. There were no hopes of him finding a white wolf on the road in the immediate surrounding, but Dante did hope that the animal hadn't gone too far out. A large white wolf had to attract attention.

Dante thanked his lucky stars that some of his neighbours had seen Wolfie walking past their house a few hours ago. The wolf had not been seen to in a hurry and had been carrying its errand bag –the bag that Dante always strapped onto Wolfie whenever he sent it to get the groceries. No one had been terribly surprised –Wolfie going on errands were normal weekly-things by now. There had been some concerned questions when Dante explained that Wolfie hadn't come home, but no one seemed to be able to pinpoint the exact location of Wolfie.

Chasing leads all the way past the grocers, Dante expanded his search radius wider as the sun rose higher and higher in the sky.

He was almost desperate by the time he reached the edge of his town, within a suburban area. He was rarely in this place, and the only times he had been here was when he was called down to deal demon problems that came often from a demonic gate close by. He'd made sure to close the gate a few times, but it somehow always managed to pop open again. Dante couldn't complain about the extra income, but his arrival at this part of town wasn't for a job this time as he followed his demonic sense.

A strong source of demonic power had emanated from this place, and Dante couldn't be sure what it could possibly be. Could Wolfie have been trying to deal with demons alone? Wolfie was capable in dealing with demons, but there was a fine line drawn between joining Dante for a job, and going on a job alone.

Dante dashed down the last street and turned around the corner, knowing that it would lead him to an abandoned back street that had been the site of demonic summoning for too many times to be populated anymore. He gasped and stopped in shock.

Summoned swords pierced on the ground in a circle, creating a warding barrier around a white wolf who laid collapsed on the floor, its eyes closed. Its cage was glowing with a bright blue, and Dante could literally feel the power flowing off from it. It was a skill that he recognised. It was his brother's skill.

Vergil had been here.

There didn't seem to be any more action going on around here, but the entire place was teeming with evidence of a heavy fight. Cement and floors were scratched and bore marks of strikes from summoned swords. Little tufts and bits of white fur laid on the floor –clearly having almost caught Wolfie. Summoned swords laid everywhere, pierced to the walls, impaled on the floor, or simply laying innocently on the floor.

Vergil had clearly not only been here.

Vergil had been fighting Wolfie.

And since Wolfie was the only one left, lying unconscious in the middle of a summoned sword cage like a display of defeat, Dante could easily conclude who had won the match.

"Wolfie!" Dante yelled as he dashed forwards, trying to reach through the gaps of the swords of cage. The electrifying zap of power shot up his arm, and Dante instinctively had to draw his hand back. The cage was still going on strong, and it was scarily potent. Vergil had not been kidding at all when he had created it.

"Wolfie! Are you okay? Answer me!" Dante called worriedly as he steeled himself this time, grabbing the hilt one of the summoned swords, trying his best to pull it out. The heavy demonic power of the cage tried to push him back, but Dante was a half-demon with the blood of Sparda as well. Pushing away the power with as much strength as he could manage, Dante worked his muscles as he pulled with all his might. Vergil might be strong with his cage, but nothing came between Dante and his obviously injured companion.

"DAMN THIS SHIT." Dante poured his rage with his strength, and with one last jerk, managed to dislodge one sword from the cage. As if one important point in the circuit had been broken, the heavy power from the summoned swords broke apart and shattered into pieces. Dante didn't bother with niceties as he threw the sword aside, dashing into the cage where the white wolf was finally rousing, finally reacting.

"Wolfie!" Dante threw his arms around the wolf with utter relief to see movement of any sort at all. He never thought that he would ever feel so attached to an animal, but Wolfie had proved him wrong in every sense. "Wolfie, thank goodness you're still alive!"

The white wolf continued to stir slowly, but Dante pressed it against him with all of his strength, giving the animal the biggest hug that he ever had to give. An outsider would probably call him crazy for being so emotional over just an animal, but Wolfie wasn't just a pet anymore. Wolfie was his family, and Dante would go to the ends of the earth to find revenge if someone ever harmed Wolfie ever again.

A soft bark came from Wolfie, and Dante didn't know how such a sound –a sound that didn't even have words –could carry so much meaning. The sound of a wolf's bark was so relieving in Dante's ears that Dante didn't even know that his eyes were tearing until his vision of the white fur pressed against him blurred.

Another bark shocked him, and Dante blinked in surprise, the tears dropping as they were squeezed out from his eyes.

The first drop fell into Wolfie's fur, but Dante hurriedly wiped the others away before it could be seen as Wolfie turned his head to look at Dante, still rendered immobile because Dante had thrown himself around the animal.

"Wolfie?" Dante asked as the wolf stared at him for a long time, not trying to react. Now that Dante was so close to the wolf, he was beginning to realize that Wolfie actually didn't look that battered. In fact, all Wolfie looked was maybe just a little exhausted. But there didn't seem to be injuries at all.

In fact, there wasn't even blood.

Wolfie stuck out its tongue and gave Dante its very first slobbery lick. Then, as Dante reeled in disgust at being covered in wolf slobber, the animal laid its head back down on the floor and closed its eyes.

"Wolfie? What's wrong? You okay?" Dante's concern came back again as a glow started from its body. Alarm rang through Dante's being as the glow began brighter and covered Wolfie's entire form. Dante tried to hold on tighter, but his arms seemed to lose contact with the animal. It became so bright until Dante had to instinctively cover his eyes from the glare with his hands.

And then, as quick as the glow started, it finished.

"Wolfie? What was that?" Dante asked in confusion again, blinking furiously to keep the black spots out of his eyes. His heightened sense of sight took a quick while to adjust back to realities, and Dante was suddenly aware of what he saw lying on the floor right in front of him.

"Vergil?"

The question seemed to gain a stir from the man lying on his side of the floor in front of Dante, and blue eyes opened slowly again. Blinking slowly, Vergil seemed disorientated for a moment there, then looked up at Dante who sat on the floor dumbfounded and staring.

"Dante." Vergil greeted lazily, then cleared his throat a little, as if he hadn't spoken in a long time. "Good. This is good. I'm not barking anymore."

"What?" Dante asked, even though it didn't seem as if his brother was speaking to him.

Vergil continued to ignore his brother, looking down at his hands and legs. He moved slowly, as if he were like a new born baby trying to get used to his own limbs. Slowly, Vergil shifted until he was sitting up. And then, equally slowly, the man found his feet carefully as if the sensation was terribly weird for him. Like Bambi, Vergil swayed a little as he balanced himself on his feet, then looked down at Dante who had been so confused that no words could make out of his lips.

"I almost forgot the view from up here. I was getting tired of having to look up at you. Everything was so low when I was wolf." Vergil commented briefly to his brother. "But it's great to be back."

"Err..." Dante answered hesitantly. "Vergil? Where have you been for the past half year? And where is Wolfie?"

"You don't get it, do you?" Vergil shook his head, and suddenly Dante was very reminded by the wolf's shaking head. The same blue eyes looked back at Dante, and he swore he could see something wolfish in Vergil's face now.

"I was by your side the whole time. That day I met a witch in the forest and she cursed me into the form of a wolf. I knew that the spell to undo the curse was somewhere within my spell book collection, so I was always pouring through them. The tears of a half demon can undo the curse, so I've been trying to get you to cry. But you being you, Dante, completely couldn't understand me how hard I tried. Eventually, I gave up."

"So..." Dante started, then hesitated as if he was scared to come to the truth. "You were Wolfie all along?"

"Of course. I was practicing my demonic powers, since I didn't have as good martial arts combat as a wolf as compared to being in human form. I was tired from the hard work, so I summoned a protective cage and fell asleep. At least; until you woke me up with your crying and such."

"I..." Dante protested, jumping to his feet. "I wasn't crying!"

"And yet here I am, turned back into a human." Vergil grinned, and this time there was no mistaking it. The wolfish grin on Vergil's face could not be better replicated. "I didn't know you loved Wolfie so much."

"T-They were tears of relief!" Dante protested again, embarrassed that he had jumped to so many conclusions. How was he supposed to know that Wolfie was his brother, and that Wolfie was resting? The animal had looked dead!

"Whatever." Vergil brushed his brother's protest aside. Walking slowly to the corner of the backstreet as if still unused to walking on two legs again, Vergil bent down equally slowly to retrieve the errand bag that Wolfie had brought. Unzipping it, Vergil flapped his blue two-tailed coat out and threaded his arms comfortably through the holes. More confident with his feet now, Vergil walked easily back to where his brother still stood, still wrapping his head around realities and truth.

"Get me some food, won't you? I was practicing all morning and I'm a little tired." Vergil instructed as he pressed the errand bag against his brother's chest, watching as Dante's instinctive hands received the bag.

Vergil could not help himself. Patting Dante on the top of his head, he grinned wolfishly again.

"Be a good boy, Wolfie, and don't get lost." Vergil teased.