A/N: With thanks to @Darkareaders who came to me with a request to explore how Vergil thinks of Lady. It might not turn the way out exactly like requested, but I hope it was close enough!

[Ladylike]

Personality: DMC3/DMC 5 V/Post-DMC 5 Vergil

For a long time, the silence of the large room was all that Lady heard as she kept her head behind the barrier made by her arms rested on top of her knees. It had been deafening silence ever since the fight; a type of silence that Lady was not used to. It was an emotional quiet –a final silencing of the rage that had been screaming in her heart that kept her going forward without ever taking a step back to hesitate or think about her future.

Dante had gone ahead with her trusty rocket launcher, and left her behind to take a break from their exhausting fight. Lady wondered if she had the guts or motivation anymore to chase after him now that he had promised that he would help free her father. It had been her wish, but inside, she was not so sure.

Free her father? It was nothing but a stupid wish –a dream –that Dante could solve the issue just like that. Even if Dante stopped his attaining Sparda's power, her father was only going to go ahead looking for some other impressive demon general's power to obtain. He was never going to stop trying to be more than human, and Lady was never going to stop chasing after him to stop him –only to back out at the last minute because inside her still lived a naïve Mary Ann who still wanted her father's love.

The sound of hinges protesting as a door at the far entrance of the library opened rang and she froze temporarily. She was exhausted from the fight with Dante –which had honestly proved that no matter how much of a useless idiot the half-demon had appeared to be, he was still a force that could easily overpower her if he had any actual intention to do so in the first place. Lady could hardly move her arms anymore, and she had not reloaded any of the guns that she had burnt out trying to get just a single shot at the man. She no longer had her rocket launcher, and she was particularly vulnerable at the moment to any demon with impeccable timing.

The sound of steady clicks of footsteps across the marbled floor made her confirm that it was no normal demon that had intruded on her vulnerable time. There were only three other beings in the entire tower that walked on two feet with actual shoes, and two of them were scheduled to be battling it out at the top of the tower anytime soon. She could easily guess the identity of the last person who had walked into the destroyed library at the moment in his clear, sharp clicks.

"Leave this place. Weak humans have no part to play." The haughty declaration was made even while the footsteps continued. There was no asking who that statement was addressed to, as Lady heard the footsteps near her.

"It was a weak human who tricked and used you and your brother." She answered, finally looking up and opening her eyes back to the dim lights of the library to see the blue coat flutter in non-existent wind as the man walked briskly. "It was a weak human who helped you resurrect this demonic tower, and it is the same weak human who is on the top of this thing. That weak human is my father."

"That is an insane buffoon who lost every bit of his humanity and sold his soul to the wrong Devil. He will pay for overstepping his boundaries." Vergil's reply was equally biting, but at least her words had stopped him. Had he not been prepared for her retort against his words? Did he expect her to accept and obey his demand just like that?

"He was obsessed with being the devil and you only made it worse. You gave him hope that he could attain Sparda's power." Lady accused. "If he has lost his sanity with his humanity, then so have you. A half-demon? Don't joke to me; you are just like my father –you discarded every last shred of your humanity away to get your father's power. Soon your sanity will go and your brother will be the one who stops you."

"Watch your words."

Lady startled when the man moved so fast, he almost literally teleported the distance between them. She hadn't even heard it, but his sword was out of its sheath and pressed lightly against her throat in a split instance. Once again, Lady was reminded by how sorely sub-par she was in comparison to the sons of Sparda. How could she claim to aim for being a demon huntress when there were such powerful half-demons out there?

"Your father was foolish. He overstepped his boundaries assuming he can handle Sparda's power. But he hasn't come to the realization of his incompetence yet. That power belongs to a son of Sparda, and if you and your father have any sanity left in your blood, the both of you should get out of here."

This time, Lady heard the metallic ring as the sword slid back into its sheath, and the steady clicks of footsteps resumed.

"Wait." She called, regaining her wits after having it shaken out of her by Vergil's sudden show of power. "Wait, Vergil. Your name is Vergil, right?"

At the sound of his name, the man stopped, but didn't turn around –barely looking over his shoulder at her backed up against a destroyed shelf.

"Dante is already up there and he is probably facing against my father anytime now. I don't know... I don't know how strong Sparda's power is going to make him and if Dante can defeat him, but please... free my father." She made the same request, hoping that there was just that tiny bit of humanity left in the elder twin to accede to her request.

Dante had promised her with a head-on confident, charismatic smile that he would make things right for her. But that same man had his cocky, smiling attitude towards everything. Lady couldn't trust the man just as yet –she and Dante had only met literally a few hours ago –and she couldn't possibly put all her bets on Dante. She knew better than to place all her eggs in one basket, especially if the basket in question was as flimsy and full of holes like Dante's.

"The only way to free that worthless being from his misery is death. And if you believe so foolishly that this is purely a family matter for you, then you should be the one to end him." Vergil declared unforgivingly, resuming his walk as if she had not said anything of significance.

"But..."

"Wait at the top of the tower if you wish to end your misery. That undeserving individual doesn't have a place in the Demon World, and I will make sure that he is rejected from that place. After that, do as you wish with him."

The promise hung silently between them as Vergil pushed the door to the exit of the library and stepped out nonchalantly, continuing on his journey to the top of the tower, and further upwards towards where his twin would eventually be standing up against a human who had overestimated his own capabilities.

Neither of them knew at that time that Lady's father would turn out to not be the only one overestimating personal capability on that day.

________________________________________________________________________________

"I hope you are doing well." The deep, rich voice of a man careful with his words took Lady's attention.

She had barely just woken up from her long slumber only to find herself having been humiliated by Urizen to be used as a fodder for his demonic creations. She was thankful that she had been unconscious the whole time she had been caged inside Artemis, but the horror of realization that she had been weak and powerless against another demon still struck something raw inside her as she struggled to adjust her emotions back to usual.

"I've been better." She answered honestly, feeling bare both inside and outside (considering the fact that she was being covered by just a dirty sack).

"Try not to think too much and get some rest. You've been through a lot." V answered, taking a seat across her in the small, cramped van. It was the first time Lady had ever gotten the chance to have a calm one-on-one talk with the mysterious man ever since he appeared at the agreed meeting point beside Dante, declaring that it was his mission to accompany her, Trish and Dante to finish Urizen. Throughout her journey through the garbage hellhole of the Qliphoth tree, she had constantly been alternating between curiosity, confusion and wariness at the nostalgia and familiarity that she had felt from the man. But for some reason, ever since waking up in Nico's van, the dots had connected in her head as she kept her head bowed and staring at her exposed knees beyond the hem of the sack that barely covered her up.

"Are you... Are you a part of Dante's brother?" She went for the straight ball, slowly bringing her eyes up to the man to gauge his reaction –which turned out to be one of mild surprise and mostly resignation.

"I am the human side he cut away with the sword Yamato because he deemed me weak and a hindrance to his race for power." V confessed.

"Have you... Have you retained your memories from back then? Do you remember the words we exchanged?" She tried softly. Just waking up after one month of unconsciousness being caged inside a demon's body was truly a humbling experience that she felt had snuffed her fire for a little. It would be a short while before she got her confidence and demon-hunting fire back again.

"I still have some memories, though they are sometimes fuzzy. But I remember you. On the demonic tower. The conversation about your father. In the library." He answered steadily, the head-on honesty that Lady found herself unfamiliar with. Back one month ago, the man had kept his air of secrecy and any questions she or Trish made at him had been answered vaguely with a shroud of mysteriousness. Something had to have changed within this one month.

"Thanks to your words, I shot and killed my father at the top of that demonic tower." Lady revealed, feeling the urge to report the results of what she had done so many years ago to the man who had put that thought in her head. She was very sure that whatever she did with her father had not mattered a single bit to Vergil, but a part of her simply felt the need to report her result.

"He was a man too far gone to be saved." The sentence was spoken as if in some sort of strange comfort, but Lady only looked straight at the moment, shaking her head softly.

"I am not blaming you or him for anything. If anything, there is gratitude for the words that helped me pull the trigger. If I never talked to you, I would never have been freed from the hell that I created for myself trying to stop my father. If it had been Dante talking to me, I would never have been able to shoot him, and I would have forgiven him desperately. My father would have taken advantage of that softness in my heart, and he would have continued to do things that would disappoint me, and I would seek out revenge again only to back out last minute. That type of hell would only have continued endlessly." Lady admitted, turning to look out the window at Nero who seemed to be in the middle of an argument with his mechanic/driver.

"You have gratitude for the man who told you to kill your father?"

"Vergil told me that the only way to end my father and my misery was to kill him. It was the truth and it freed me from my hell." She turned back to look at the man who had been responsible. "It is something that I will never recover completely from, but without that experience, I would never have continued demon hunting the way I did with Dante. I would never have become the person I am now."

"It was not his words that made you who you are now." V declared, opening his book with the clear intention to read despite the fact that the conversation was still on-going between the two of them. "It was the act of killing the man who was responsible for your hell that freed your shackles. Killing your father made you stronger... I can only wonder if killing my nightmares and removing my own shackles will bring me more strength as well..."

The stark difference between the man sitting across her, and the young impatient and confident teenager that she had met back in the library in Temen Ni-Gru stood out to her. Lady had been a teenager herself back then, and she had definitely calmed down and matured with the years but that didn't mean that her change was as much as the one that Vergil had gone through. For better or for worse; Lady could not decide.

Still, it didn't matter as long as V had allied himself on their side. The years had taught Lady to trust Dante and those that he found trustworthy. He had proven himself a good judge of character once with Trish, and another time with Nero, after all. Lady was not about to doubt his third choice of V –even if he was the human side of Dante's twin brother. She was sure the veteran demon hunter was aware of V's origins. That old man was (supposed to be) a legend, after all.

"If the fool were to persist in his folly, he would become wise." V looked up from the book to level an evened gaze at Lady that she could not decipher. For all the changes that Vergil/V had gone through in the years that had passed, Lady could still not understand the inner machinations of that man –not that it had ever been an area of interest for her until now.

"Do you think I will be wise and strong once I am rid of my shackles the same way you did? Will the end of Urizen be my salvation or my death?" V questioned, but it seemed more like introspection, to which Lady could only shrug nonchalantly. It seemed like while her fight might have ended years ago when she pulled the trigger at the top of Temen Ni-Gru, the end had not yet come for Vergil and V.

V watched the nonchalant shrug from the injured and vulnerable woman, a distant memory of the last time he saw her in such a position of vulnerability floating through the chaos in his mind. She had been confused, weak and human. Now, years later, she was still in the same state –but undeniably stronger. She was a woman who had stood up against Urizen and walked out alive –albeit having been defeated and saved. Perhaps humans might not be completely useless. Her father had been the thesis that humans' capacity of growth was only limited to the extent to which they were willing to chase after demon's powers. She was the perfect anti-thesis to that.

He only hoped that he was trusting the correct instincts, because if he intended to overcome his limitations and break his shackles, then he was going to have to regain his demonic side and finally defeat Dante. Would there be a reason for him to continue struggling and gain power like Lady after his shackles were gone? V was not sure of the future beyond.

But one thing was for sure: if Vergil wanted to be free, V was going to have to play a part in killing Dante, fair and square.

_______________________________________________________________________________

Vergil reappeared into reality through his self-made portal, surprised at the sounds of gunshots and fighting that welcomed him back into the Human World. Having had just parted from his brother who had forced a promise out of him that he would duly return to the Devil May Cry Office once he was done visiting his son, Vergil had not been expecting to make much contact with anyone when he reappeared in Red Grave.

The place had to be flooded with demons after the fall of the demon tree. No human in their right state of mind would try to come back to Red Grave to rebuild a home here in the shambles. And, theoretically, nobody should be foolish enough to waste effort trying to clean the area off demons in the hopes of making this place livable all over again.

Still, Vergil found himself proven wrong as he remained within the shadows, waiting patiently for a small break in the fighting to see the person responsible for the mess and chaos. The realization of how Nero might have gotten power strong enough to defeat him despite being more human than he had made Vergil slightly more wary of humans and their capabilities. Years ago, he would have laughed and scoffed at himself for such a cautious mindset, but he was no longer sure.

Dante and Nero had both shown him that their strength came from their human sides, and that strength was almost limitless unlike Vergil's power.

A loud blast of explosion mildly surprised Vergil and he watched as a particular projectile was thrown out of the dust that had been conjured by the explosion. It took him a short while to realize that the projectile took a humanoid figure and a particularly female shape at that. Cool blue eyes tracked as the woman landed a good distance away from the blast site on her steady legs, the rocket launcher clutched casually between her arms without any show of effort or strain. The grin remained on her face despite the grime and explosive residue that had doted her arms and face.

"Bill Dante for damages!" She announced to no one in particular, though Vergil wondered if there would be anybody insane enough in the world to try billing for damages on an already-destroyed town.

Vergil remained safely hidden in the shadows as he watched woman jump around with her multiple acrobatics, moving in a way that he had rarely seen humans move. She was definitely not as mobile or agile as his brother and son, but there was something particular in the effortful way she moved to dodge strikes and how she made use of every bullet and explosion that she could trigger to her advantage.

Vergil slowly figured out her style of demon-hunting, being forced to admire the woman as he did so. The human woman knew that she was weak in comparison to the men in the industries. She knew and acknowledged that she was much weaker in comparison to her friend/companion/business partner/debtor. She could not even begin to compare against the young demon hunter who was his son in terms of strength and speed. Even if she was taken in comparison within the same gender, she could not compare to the demoness Trish in speed or strength as well.

But those weaknesses, faults and failures had not stopped the woman. Instead of brute force and speed, the lady had chosen to opt for mid-to-long range fight, paired with very strategic thinking. Every upgrade of her guns, every decision on which gun and equipment to bring along for each mission; they had all mattered in her every bit of effort to close to gap between her and her peers.

Weakness was something human. But her effort to surpass that weakness was also something inherent to humans.

The silent realization and (reluctant) admiration filled Vergil as he stood hidden in audience to Lady's dance with the demons. Her acrobatics were limited by her weapons, her mediocre (by Vergil's standards) strength, and her humanity. But in that imperfect acrobatic was precision, planning and accuracy to make the most of every move.

The woman took much longer than it naturally would have for Vergil to get rid of the demons, but if he forced himself to not measure her by his standards, he recognized that she probably finished the demons in a time considered legendary amongst human demon hunters.

He stepped out from the shadows just as the tired woman plopped to the floor with a large sigh, convinced that she was safe. His presence made her scramble to get to her feet, and he found himself mildly impressed at the speed at which she managed to grab her rocket launcher from her back, twist it around her body and point it straight at him.

"Vergil?" She repeated in surprised confusion at the sight of him walking towards her.

"Hello, Lady." He greeted formally. "Put away that weapon if you know what is good for you."

"Where is Dante? I should be the first person he visits when he comes back from Hell to return me the money he owes." She answered, lowering the weapon but still not completely off-guard.

"Unfortunately for you, the shower is the first place he wanted to visit upon coming back. Perhaps he wanted to make himself presentable for you." Vergil offered, but the lady only snorted in an unlady-like fashion.

"Please. He is making himself presentable for his bed." She answered knowingly. "What brings you here?"

"I was under the impression that I might be able to meet my son here. It seems like I have been mistaken."

"Nero lives in Fortuna with his girlfriend. He hasn't been back here since the demon tree fell." Lady reported, breathing a tiny sigh of relief to know that the man wasn't here with any new grand plans to summon demon towers or demon trees to attain more power.

"You know about my son?" He seemed mildly surprise at the woman's displayed knowledge at the identity of his offspring that he hadn't even been aware about until the last-minute right before he and Dante had to leave to sever the Qliphoth roots.

"Dante and Trish always had suspicions, and Nero confirmed it back when we were running away from the collapsing tree. He was really angry at you and was prepared to kill you. I warned him against him since... well, since I seem to be the leader of 'kill your own father' group here." She answered with a small depreciating smile and a shake of head as if disappointed in herself.

"Killing your father made you strong. It might have made Nero even stronger if he was actually capable of defeating me." Vergil admitted, briefly wondering what sort of mythical powers the brash young man would have if he experienced the same sort of growth that Lady had gone through. While he was curious at the different types of power and the limit to which Nero's growth might reach, he was still reserved on the idea of seeing unmeasurable powers in a young man as immature, brash and rebellious as Nero.

"Strong?" Lady repeated, casting a critical eye over the results of her demon-hunting. "I'm still not even close. If I was strong, I would never have been taken by Urizen and humiliated to be used as ingredient for his play toy."

"You cannot expect to be able to match up to a full demon powered by Sparda's blood and constantly feeding on the blood of humans. You are a mere human yourself, not a son of Sparda like Dante. Besides, he was knocked out as well. Age has been creeping on him."

"That is where you are wrong, Vergil." Lady finally took in a deep breath and began reloading her guns. "There should be no excuse that I give myself when I am defeated by a demon. If I cannot protect the people who I care about, then I am not strong enough. If I cannot help save them from their own struggles like how you helped me, then I have no excuse to be standing still and using humanity as an excuse."

"You speak as if you will be able to surpass your limits as a human." Vergil noted, surprised that scoff wasn't coming naturally. If he heard such words from the lady years ago, he would undoubtedly have laughed in her face at her audacity to dream so big. But now, after going through an (embarrassingly) humbling experience watching his own three-quarter-human son surpass him, Vergil wasn't so sure anymore.

"I don't believe in limits." Lady's answer was simple as she returned her guns back to their holsters and hiding places all over her body. "I don't believe that humans have limits that they cannot break. Sure, some people are faster or stronger than others. I have my guns and upgrades. Sure, demons are hard to kill. I have my rocket launcher."

"Remove your weapons and you are powerless." Vergil pointed out.

"I don't have to be strong to protect everyone." Lady answered, hiking the rocket launcher further up her shoulder. "I only need to be strong enough to protect the people I care about. But if that means I have to face you down again for something you do to the kid Nero, you will find me a difficult opponent."

Years ago, Vergil would have both been insulted and extremely amused at the threat that Lady was issuing. How could a puny mere human try to touch his power, much less match up or overcome him?

But years had passed, and Vergil had witnessed Lady's abilities back when they were teenagers, and now as they have both matured and gained experiences in ways that differed greatly and yet held similarities.

"You know, your brother likes to claim that I have daddy issues, but he has them as well." Lady's comment took Vergil by slight surprise. It was not a conventional comment that comes shortly after a threat.

"Daddy issues?" Vergil repeated.

"Maybe it runs in the Sparda family. Dante has daddy issues and now Nero has them too." The woman's theorizing did not make Vergil feel better. "Don't tell me you have them too."

"I have no idea what insane idea you are proposing. Daddy issues?"

"Well, maybe for Nero's case it's more of uncle issues since he's so obsessed with matching up with Dante. But you and Dante –Dante is still pissed off at his pops for abandoning him and his mother. What about you?"

"Sparda is but a memory to me." Vergil announced. "Any fond memories I might have had of him has been erased by time. Besides, four years of childhood do not match up to fifty years of loneliness."

"Four years of childhood may match if they were happy ones. Dante's only so angry on the inside with Sparda because he had happy memories with your father back when he was still around. Part of my rage that had me chasing my father up the tower back then was because we had years of happy memories –at least for me –that I couldn't let go. I didn't want the hunger for power destroy the image of a loving father that I once had."

"Do not measure me by your standards." Vergil answered sharply, but softened quickly as he spun the words spoken in his head. "But for me there was Dante. We lost our father and mother, but the desire to become stronger and eventually to overcome Dante was kept me occupied. I could not reminisce on the times with my father because I was always looking forward at Dante."

"His presence really makes a difference, doesn't it?" Lady agreed ruefully, putting her hands casually in her pockets now as if she had not just wiped out an entire area of demons.

How could the woman still claim herself weak? Forcing himself to assess the situation from a human's point of view, Vergil knew that the woman was the strongest human demon huntress out there. There was probably no other person out there in the world who could hold her own against so many demons and still come out alive and unscathed –all the while being completely human and never being able to tap into the well of powers that came with demonic blood.

If there was a rank for effort to be given, then Lady had topped it.

"Your presence makes a difference too." Vergil did not realize that the words had come out of his mouth until he heard his own voice stewing in the shocked silence that came afterwards.

"My presence makes a difference? To who?" There was slight nervous laughter from Lady as if she couldn't stand being made someone of importance.

To me.

This time, Vergil made sure that the words didn't come out of his mouth as he pursed his lips, then turned to walk away. He had already let slip some words, and this time would rather die than let Lady know that watching her growth and seeing her strength despite her humanity had forced him to accept one thing that he had always been struggling against: his own humanity.