A/N: Playing on the premises that Devil May Cry was a TV Series instead of a game. In this alternate universe, the plot and name of characters of DMC TV Series were inspired and based around the 'actors', and these actors have moved on to acting other shows while keeping their personalities. 

[Twin Actors –Part One]

'Caught In The Middle'

Look forward to the latest romance-filled drama featuring the rising stars of the critically-acclaimed Devil May Cry TV Series that has been gripping our daily 9pm timeslots for the past few months! Set in the modern age, witness once again the brotherhood relationship between twin actors Vergil and Dante Sparda playing the roles as a Black and White Prince! The nation's favourite pair of twins will be coming to your TV screens early next year!

Plot synopsis: Loveless office lady Kitty (played by Angela Priss) had only just decided to enjoy the rest of her life without ever experiencing the affections of the opposite gender when she gets a visit from a childhood friend.

Zane (played by Vergil Sparda) had always been a polite and gentle young boy, and the grown-up version of him standing at Kitty's door, requesting to be put up temporarily while he finds a job to clear off his family's debts reminds her of how close the both of them had once been. Responsible, handsome and caring; it appears as if Zane has everything cut out for him... except money.

Lightning never strikes the same place twice; but the same cannot be said for the field of love Kitty stands upon: the director of her company is suddenly being replaced by the young heir of a multimillion-dollar conglomerate, King Randall (played by Dante Sparda)! Kitty accidentally attracts the attention of King, but as she gets closer to both new men in her lives, she begins to find that their relationship might be a little more than strangers. The same birthday on the same year, the same blood type, the same body shape and even similar birthmarks on their shoulders?

Caught in the middle; Kitty may find that giving her heart to Zane or King may be the hardest thing to do...

//

"Cut, good take!" The Director yelled, and both men relaxed from their positions, the tension in the air that had been created minutes ago disappearing in an instant. The serious expression on both men's faces faded away to relaxed smiles as they turned towards the crew who had begun to move around.

"That was some dangerous pronunciation there, Verge." Dante grinned as he clapped his brother on the back, absolutely no trace of the face of utter contempt and anger that had been drawn on his face just seconds ago. "I thought we were going to do another take because of your scary pronunciation of the word 'tenet'. I told you; it's probably a good idea to change the word to 'belief'."

"My character is a man who had to drop out of school to pay off his family's debt. I don't think he would have paid much attention to how 'tenet' is pronounced. Regardless, I pronounced it right and we did a good take." Vergil answered to his brother, removing his brother's arms from his shoulders. "You probably shouldn't dirty your suit, or our stylists might murder you. They threw some dirt and coloured liquids on my clothes, and I'm not sure if they are still wet enough to stain your clothes, but we shouldn't tempt fates."

"Oh. Thanks for the heads-up." The younger twin withdrew his arm almost immediately, taking a quick glance at the clock in the studio. "Anyway, seems like it's time for lunch. Shall we? I heard Angela bought everyone lunch today as thanks for helping her wrap up her scenes early."

"Maybe it's our turn to do the same soon." Vergil exchanged acknowledging nods with the Director who had stood up from his hunch over the camera to stretch while some of the crew members began to dismantle the props that had been used for their background. The crew definitely needed to clear some space in preparation for next scene that the two of them were to shoot after lunch. It would be their characters' first scuffle after Vergil's character Zane found out the truth of his parentage -that Zane had was an abandoned twin to Dante's character King.

Side-by-side, both Vergil and Dante wandered to the lunch table where the take-out boxes had already been delivered and waiting to be distributed. Deciding that they should not start having their meal while the rest of the filming crew still bustled around, the two lead actors of the drama helped out with the distribution of the food, making sure that every single personnel had gotten their fair share of the kindly-donated food from their female lead actress. It was only after the whole studio was settled down that the Sparda brothers found their space at a table in a small corner of the studio.

"You should eat more. You're getting punched later." Vergil commented off-handedly.

"I should have complained and made the writers change the script for you to get punched instead." Dante grumbled, glaring at his food and pushing it around but not truly finishing it. Unfortunately for the both of them, Dante and Vergil had to limit their calories intake in order to keep their perfect body shape fit for the cameras, which meant that their more-extravagant-than-usual lunch could not be finished even if they wanted it.

"It would not have made sense. Zane's character would have done all sorts of odd-jobs before he found out the truth about his parentage. In a scuffle fight between Zane and King -who has only been taught rules-based martial arts, it would make sense that Zane would score a wild punch on his brother since he would have learnt how to defend himself in fights without rules." Vergil answered analytically, but was only met with an unappreciative scowl from Dante. "But if it makes you feel better, I can promise to not enjoy punching you too much."

"I'm going to ask the stunt man to make your escape scene from being kidnapped ten times harder." Dante retaliated, but his brother simply shrugged. While the both of them might have once been unsure and inexperienced with action scenes of fighting and getting injured, it would be an understatement to say that they were both experts at it now.

After all, they had gone through shooting five whole seasons of the action, hack-and-slash supernatural genre of Devil May Cry. They had rehearsed and re-shot the scenes of brotherly-fighting with their heavy swords and acted receiving injuries for so long that the little bit of action required from them for this drama Caught in the Middle was just dirt off their shoulders.

"Be careful." Vergil warned all of a sudden, sparing a quick look over to his brother's outfit to make sure that none of the sauce from their meal had splattered onto Dante's suit. "How many times have I told you to be careful about your costumes? Remember when you had to pay to make a replacement of your coat in Devil May Cry 2 because you spilled wine on it and we couldn't get it out?"

The lecture from the elder brother made Dante grumble unappreciatively under his breath, though he was wise enough not to retort. The incident that had occurred during the filming of Devil May Cry 2 had cost Dante a big hole in his wallet, especially since the TV Series had only been beginning to gain a little bit of traction in the entertainment industry. Back then, Dante had almost been convinced that he would not be receiving enough to even pay off the cost of the coat. Still, it was by the luck of god that the company had decided to soldier on ahead into producing Devil May Cry 3 after season 2's lacklustre response, and from season 3 onwards, it had been an explosion to fame.

"You're having it easy." Dante complained after a short while of making sure that the sauce from his food bowl wasn't spilling. "With your poor man's clothes, you could even add in an extra stain and nobody would know."

Vergil took a quick glance at his own clothes upon the realization, grinning triumphantly back.

"Would you rather wear my poor man's clothes, then? I'm sure with a little extra bit of makeup, you can take over the role of Zane. I can be King, if you so dislike your clothes." Vergil offered.

"No way." Dante jumped up as if Vergil had made any physical move to remove his clothes. "I'm getting used to King's lifestyle of riches. The wine drinking on-set, the scenes of enjoying in the spa and getting massaged; I like being King. And the clothes... our pay can't cover the price of King's wardrobe."

"I'm glad you know that well. If you destroy King's outfits this time, you're going to land yourself in deep shit." Vergil reminded as Dante took his seat warily again despite the fact that Vergil had better things to do than to covet for Dante's role. Sure, Dante seemed to be enjoying himself living through the character of a rich young master, and from any third person view it might have seemed like Vergil had drawn the short end of the stick by acting as the poor Zane.

But Vergil quite liked Zane's character, and quite liked acting as Zane as well. Because Zane was written out to be a jack-of-all-trades, and a rather masterful one at all of his trades, Vergil had been forced to pick up many skills to show them off all on camera. Everything ranging from martial arts, carpentry, cooking, construction, repair works, sewing and patching up ragged clothes... Vergil had been forced to learn all of these and they honestly were skills that he appreciated having despite the fact that he would have little need of them in his occupation as an actor.

"Besides, enjoy all you want. We are wrapping up filming for this drama by this week, so that will be the end of King for you." Vergil continued. "You'd just better hope that you get offered more rich-men roles, especially after how well you played that lazy, unmotivated devil hunter in Devil May Cry."

"Hey it's not my fault that the character fit me well, right? Our characters were practically tailored for us, your workaholic idiot. That's why they named the characters after our actual names." The retort came quickly, but being distracted was a standard Dante-like trait as he changed the conversation topic again, smoothing his hands over his own clothes. "Do you think, by any chance, the staff here will let me take one set of King's suits home as present? Imagine how many girls I can attract with just the brand name of this suit."

Vergil wondered why the fact that the both of them had become rather famous and recognizable in public had completely evaded Dante. It made sense for Dante to say such things back when there were still struggling to make it big in the industry, but now that they had reached B-list stars status, their rising fame was something Vergil was becoming acutely aware of. It seemed like that same realization had completely missed Dante. 'Attracting girls' would quickly become least of Dante's worries.

"Don't bother having hope. If you're lucky, they might give you one of Zane's clothes, especially the ones I had to wear when Zane was supposed to be working as a construction worker. I overheard the stylists saying that they might end up dismantling the piece after this drama and use the rags as ingredients for other costumes." Vergil answered, packing up the remains of his lunch –he had enough self-discipline to stop himself from finishing the whole thing in accordance to his diet –before pulling out the script from his bag nearby. "Now, before you continue your useless arguments, go disturb someone else while I skim through the script for the next scenes."

Affronted at how quickly his brother had simply shrugged him away as a conversation partner, and otherwise bored out of his wits waiting for everyone else to finish their lunch in peace, Dante packed up his empty box similarly, left it on the table and wandered over to the big mounted camera where the Director, the Producer and a few of their assistants were crowded around the screen, reviewing their work seriously while having lunch.

Workaholics.

Dante was convinced that everyone in the entertainment industry was a workaholic, and he dreaded ever falling prey into such a trap.

Still, he had nothing better to do. Standing behind the group, he watched through a gap between their heads as the video on the screen played. It was the scene that his brother had shot earlier in the morning. It was a scene where Zane –a part-time newspaper delivery man –was delivering the morning newspaper to a local elderly home where the retired Randall House Head (King and Zane's father) had been placed in. The House Head had immediately been alarmed at someone who had his son's face, but was not the proud and arrogant King, and had snatched Zane to question him about his background. It was also supposed to be the scene where Zane first met his real birth father, where Zane was supposed to go through a complex array of emotions talking to his father who clearly loved him and regretted letting him go, but Zane hating the Randall family.

"Y-Your name is...is it Kail?" The old man who had been acting as Mr. Randall-Head was a very experienced actor who was past his hey-day, but reprising on TV and movie screens in elderly characters.

"You have gotten the wrong man." Dante watched his brother shake the old man's hand away roughly, turning away. The camera angle switched to catch the clashing of emotions on Vergil's face, and Dante watched as his brother's eyes slowly become moisturized.

He tried not to remember how often the same pair of eyes that could turn on tears with a switch had gotten him into trouble back when they were younger. Even before they become real actors, Vergil had already been a dramatic boy when it came to faking hurts and injuries in front of their parents.

"It's you! I might be old and senile, but I recognize my son anywhere. You are Kail!" The old man insisted.

"My name is Zane." Vergil expressed, wiping away the tears roughly. "You have the wrong man; you must be mistaking me for your son King Randall. I'm sorry that he hasn't been visiting you, but I'm just a newspaper delivery boy."

"No, I am not mistaken. You are Kail Randall. You are the son that I lost because someone out there thought that my wife only gave birth to one son and stole him to tear down my family's power."

"I have heard rumours about that." Vergil, in the guise as Zane, spun back around to glare, and Dante suppressed a shudder. His brother's glare was rather iconic –especially after having acted the half-demon character back in Devil May Cry. Unfortunately, it was also a glare that Dante had seen many times while growing up. "You lost a son and you didn't bother looking for him because you had King as backup. All you needed was an heir, so it didn't matter that one was gone; you just needed another one to take his place."

"T-That is not what-" The camera switched back to the old man, to show the expression of a devoted father who wanted desperately to explain himself. Dante had read from the script that the 'devoted father' was a guise as Mr. Randall-Head had been intending to find the missing son Kail and replacing the seemingly-arrogant and playful son King with someone Mr. Randall-Head could better control.

"You treated your son gone for twenty years, Mr. Randall. Please continue to do so and refrain from grabbing people off the streets and naming them Kail." Vergil's cold voice was captured well, and the camera followed as his brother left the scene, ending the video to a pause.

"It seems fine, but there isn't quite the impact I'm looking for..." The Director commented to the Producer with a pensive look who nodded in agreement.

"Would it be better if the camera didn't pan away from Zane's face when the Randall Head tries to protest?" The Producer suggested, but Dante unintentionally interrupted the brain-storming session with a loud sigh, then blinked in surprise when the Director and Producers both turned to find him standing there.

"I don't know anything about directing or camera angles or impact." Dante raised both hands in the universal gesture of innocence. "But if you're asking me from the point of view as Vergil's brother, you're asking him to cry too much here. Verge is famous for the hard-faced, unemotional character that he played in Devil May Cry. I know you want him to look softer and more boyfriend-material here, but Zane's still a guy who got betrayed by his own family. So instead of sad tears, shouldn't you be making Verge look more vengeful with a hint of bitter regret? At this point in the story, Zane is pretty much convinced that his family completely abandoned him for King."

The thoughtful faces written on the Director and Producer's face meant that Dante must have said something uncharacteristic. News had spread across the entertainment industry that Dante was an actor who liked to fool around and while he was a good actor who knew how to carry out his role well, he was not as well-studied as his twin brother when it came to grasping characters completely.

Still, Dante was clearly a man who knew his brother best, because the Director realized that the actor's word indeed made some sense.

"Since you're offering your expert opinion as Vergil's brother," The Director nodded, "then can you give us tips on how to lead your brother to the impact that we're looking for? How are we supposed to tell him how to play a vengeful but bitterly regretful man?"

"Err... how about a guide-video from yours truly?" Dante clearly did not think things through when he offered his expert opinion, but he was truly winging the process as he dragged one of the assistants to a nearby seat. "Get your cameras out, because Dante-Zane is going to shine."

The flustered assistant took a moment to realize that his colleagues were going with the actor's flow and did his best to remember the lines of Mr. Randall-Head while his colleagues positioned themselves around the two of them with their phone cameras, signalling the go-ahead.

"Y-Your name is...is it Kail?" The assistant was definitely not a better actor, but at least there was someone to help play Dante's opposite in this tiny scene.

"You..." Dante was quick to slide into his new role. He made sure to put a pregnant pause between his words as he glared at the assistant –with slightly less intensity than what Vergil usually did. He turned his head away dramatically, fists clenched. "You have gotten the wrong man."

"It's you! I might be old and senile, but I recognize my son anywhere. You are Kail!" The assistant was lucky to have memorized the lines of this particular scene.

"My name is Zane. You have the wrong man; you must be mistaking me for your son King Randall. I'm sorry that he hasn't been visiting you, but I'm just a newspaper delivery boy." Dante's words were soft, almost as if he didn't want anyone to hear the anger brewing in his tone.

"No, I am not mistaken. You are Kail Randall. You are the son that I lost because someone out there thought that my wife only gave birth to one son and stole him to tear down my family's power."

"I have heard rumours about that." Dante's volume rose again, tone sharp. Despite the heavy glare that Dante made on the assistant producer, there was a struggling in is blue eyes, and a thin sheen of moisture that was not there before rose. "You lost a son and you didn't bother looking for him because you had King as backup. All you needed was an heir, so it didn't matter that one was gone; you just needed another one to take his place."

"T-That is not what-" The assistant producer was so into the scene that he tried to reach out, but Dante only flinched back, snatching his hand back and stepping away as if the thought of being touched by the man ran absolutely against his instincts.

"You treated your son gone for twenty years, Mr. Randall." Dante rubbed his eye in an almost-casual move, as if to hide the fact that his eyes had been smarting with tears. He turned his body to the assistant producer, but gave one last look over his shoulder dramatically. "Please continue to do so and refrain from grabbing people off the streets and naming them Kail."

And with those words, he walked off the same way his brother had done.

"Cut!" The Director exclaimed, stabbing the 'stop' button on his phone and replaying the scene. He knew that the Producer and the other assistants had helped to cover the same scene from other angles, but he could not wait to refresh what he had just filmed through the lousy lenses of his phone.

Dante –still wearing King's suits –suddenly looked like Zane in the scene. For a moment there, it really looked as if Zane's character had somehow been given a status raise by wearing King's suit –instead of the original scene when Vergil had been wearing casual 'store-bought' street clothing.

The re-shot scene itself was impressive; Dante had breathed a completely different life into his brother's character while still keeping Zane's mannerisms down to the count.

But what struck the Director the most was how well Dante was doing playing Zane.

"Producer, bring me the Writer. We have things to discuss." The order was given, and in any shoot, the Director's orders were akin to words of a god. The Producer almost all but sprinted to where the Writer was taking a break, a look of excitement written on her face. She knew that she had just witnessed a deal-breaking scene. She could feel it in her bones.

Dante wasn't very sure if his act was being criticized as the group of the Director, Producers, assistants and now the Writer hunched together to discuss something. There was obvious excitement written on their faces, so he had to guess that there was good news regarding his acting. Still, semi-curious, he hung around the edge of that small crowd, idly playing around with some of the camera equipment fearlessly.

"What's wrong? Why is there such an uproar?" Vergil joined him shortly after, having completely revised the script.

"I don't know. I helped to act a guide for you to reshoot one of the scenes you shot in the morning, but they got all excited like little girls." Dante confessed with a nonchalant shrug.

"Don't let the Director hear you say that." Vergil warned, but got the sense that their answer was coming up soon when the group dispersed, the Writer excitedly dashing to grab her bags, then dashing out of her studio. The production assistants made a beeline for the others to share the news, and both Vergil and Dante waited patiently side by side as the Producer made towards them.

"Good news. Because of Dante's acting, we're going to add in a new buffer episode where your roles are going to be switched. Dante, you will be playing Zane while Vergil, you play King. It will be scripted as a 'dream' episode where the Kitty dreams about the men in her love life switching bodies and coming to terms with each other's lives. Our Writer is currently working on the script now."

"What?" Dante repeated. "You want me to act in Vergil's poor man's clothes?"

"It's just for an episode. We will do a little bit of cutting here and there, but this new idea answers a big problem that we've been facing so far." The Producer said, then gestured to where their stylists were waiting and preparing their costumes for the upcoming scenes. "As a form of compensation, we'll let you take home your costume for that day in that episode. Haven't you been complaining about how you wanted to take home your character's clothes as memorabilia?"

Vergil was silent about how Dante had actually been also intending to anonymously auction such 'memorabilia' to earn more money.

"But not Zane's poor man clothes!"

"Well, if it helps. It's not going to be poor man clothes. It will be a costume tailor made to you. One of its kind." The Producer whispered something to the stylist, who grinned widely, nodded and ran off –presumably to fetch the costume in question.

"I like that sound of that." Dante seemed appeased, but Vergil wasn't so sure. It would truly be suspicious of the crew to agree easily to give Dante a tailor-made suit, since they were on a tight budget for this drama.

"Perfect." The Producer answered. "Because in this new episode, you –acting as Zane now –will be working as a part-time mascot in the amusement park. You will be wearing the bunny costume for the whole day."

________________________________________________________________________________

'Shooting for the Sun'

From Demon Hunters to young conglomerate heirs, Vergil and Dante Sparda are aiming to return to your TV screens! Do not miss out the country's favourite pair of twins in their latest roles as long-lost princes of an ancient kingdom, climbing up the aristocracy ladder and taking their rightful places! In their newest historical-political drama, witness the strength of the brotherly-relationship between Vergil and Dante Sparda as their characters support each other to their rise to power. Let the warmth of an unyielding sibling relationship keep you cuddled in your sheets this coming winter!

Plot synopsis: Brought up by humble parents, far in the country side, brothers Joon Il (Vergil Sparda) and Joon Tae (Dante Sparda) were never aware of how talented they actually were in martial arts until their 17th birthday when they sneaked to the capital to celebrate adulthood. Against their parents' wishes, the two ends up entering the palace as guards thanks to their martial arts skills, but the simple story of country bumpkins entering the palace ends there.

Within the palace, the Joon brothers learn about the dark side of palace politics and realize that they had hit a little closer to home than they once thought. Their peaceful lives as simple palace guards begin to be overturned when Joon Tae is found carrying the birthmark of the supposed-late Third Prince Wang Tae, and that both the Second Prince Wang Il and Third Prince Wang Tae had been kidnapped and assumed dead when they were just young toddlers. Left with no other male heir, First Prince Wang So (Nero) had been named the Crown Prince, and fifteen years later, took the throne following the death of the previous Emperor.

Secret plans, assassinations, revolts and coups; The brother realize that living might truly be easier if they pretended to be unknowing country-bumpkins after all.

//

Vergil silently wondered if the Producer had consulted any weather agencies before choosing this particular day for the outdoor shoot for the revolt-scene, because the amount of clouds hanging low in the sky definitely created the perfect atmosphere of the scene they were trying to make. He had no doubt that the Director might even become excited if it started raining in the middle of their shooting.

He sighed, looking up at the sky with no hopes of figuring out whether the load would be emptied on him soon.

"What's with the sigh? It's been ages since we had an outdoor shoot." Dante questioned, the both of them standing still while their respective makeup artists stood in front of them, patching up the 'wounds' on their faces. As the forefront leaders of a supposed-military revolt, it was practically impossible for the two of them to appear unwounded in the messy fight.

"If it rains, we're going to end up with soaked shoes and clothes for the next half day." Vergil answered. "You should pray it doesn't."

"You're worried about being in wet clothes? You? Vergil Sparda?" The intruding voice made the two of them turn to find their fellow supporting character walking over to join them, his waterproof makeup already done. It was quite remarkable; how the makeup had been able to draw lines of age on the young man's face to make him look much older. In fact, the man who had acted as Vergil's son in another dimension was coming back to act as Vergil's elder brother. Such was the miracle of makeup.

"Like Dante mentioned, it's been ages since we had an outdoor shoot. I have long forgotten the days we stood in the pouring rain to film our fight scenes, and honestly I don't want to relieve them as much as possible." Vergil answered the actor Nero who had stopped to stand in front of them. Nero was certainly dressed much more impressively than the both of them –his character was the First-Prince-Turned-Emperor after all.

"Then keep your prayers tight." Nero answered, peering up at the skies. "Though I wouldn't be hopeful."

"I don't mind the weather." Dante added, grinning. "As long as I get to kill you on-screen. I've been wanting to beat your ass on screen since Devil May Cry 5. I can't let on-screen Dante be beaten forever by a snivelling young-ass like you."

A few years of working separately from the younger actor had clearly not given him anymore growth, because –as usual –Nero rose up to the challenge again. Vergil was given a heavy nostalgia dose of the many stupid challenges that his brother and Nero had issued to each other during the filming of Devil May Cry –so much that their competitive spirits had even made it on-screen to affect their characters. Quite literally, the characters of Devil May Cry had been tailored to suit exactly their very own characters –except with made-up supernatural power and fancy weapons to boot.

"Stop it." Vergil announced when their makeup artists were finally done with the patch-ups, interrupting the two's argument on who's ass was getting beat on screen. "It's a revolt scene today; there isn't much ass-beating and more instant-kills than anything. Have the two of you even read the script?"

The unhappy scowls and grumbles meant that the men unfortunately, did read the script.

"The Director is calling you over, Nero." Vergil gestured over to where he had spied the man pointing at Nero's back.

"Right. They want to see how to put the main character in a better light." The young man –with makeup to look like their older brother –could not resist the chance to make a dig at Dante once more before bounding off lightly in his heavy ancient warrior-armour. All three of them had been physically trained intensively during their work in Devil May Cry, and thus it was not surprising to find Nero having little problems with the armour despite it all weighing at least 10kg in total.

"We will be taking the fight scene in one go according to what we rehearsed. We're shooting simultaneously from different camera angles so that the editors have more to work with, so you two should know better than to try something funny on screen." The Producer took over where Nero stood seconds ago, scanning the appearances of Vergil and Dante to make sure that nothing was wrong. "Here."

On instincts more than anything, both Vergil and Dante received the small object that the Producer had passed to them, only realizing that the small pill sat on their palms when they opened their fingers.

"Oh, eww." Dante's face –almost as if on cue –turned disgusted upon recognition of what the pill meant.

"I don't think I have to teach you how these works, right? Put it in your mouth 1 minute before we start the fight scene and let your saliva mix with the solution. You should be able to spit up a good amount of fake blood on cue if you give it enough time to dye your saliva." The Producer was the careful sort, launching into the explanation of how the pills work despite confirming with them that they knew exactly how it worked.

"Can't I just hold some cranberry juice in my mouth or something? These things leave terrible taste in my mouth and mints don't help." Dante complained, trying to push the pill back.

"Nero warned me that this was going to happen." The Producer answered, crossing his arms with a shake of head. "He told me how much fuss you tried to make on the set of Devil May Cry because you didn't want to use the pills for fake blood."

"He complained too!" Dante's protest was loud. "At least give me flavours for these. Someone out there has to be smart enough to experiment to make flavours for these fake blood pills. Think about how long I have to keep a mouthful of this disgusting thing!"

"Imagine it to be a mouthful of cranberry juice then." The Producer tapped Vergil's shoulder in a show of confirmation that he was fine, then hurriedly escaped as the Director shouted orders for everyone not part of the scene to leave the grounds and that the shoot was starting in 30 seconds.

"Remember, Joon Il gets injured by a sword first and when Tae is getting him out of immediate danger, he gets shot by an arrow. The two struggle to get each other close to Wang So and support each other. The moment you get close to Nero, the crew will release the arrow and strike him, and that will be the end of this scene. It's all shot in one go, so we can't afford NG." Vergil warned, running through the scene quickly as a general reminder for his short-term memory brother.

"Yeah, yeah. The struggling and mushy words and all; I get it. But how am I going to get through all of that with this disgusting thing in my mouth?" Dante's focus was still on the completely wrong thing despite the fact that the crew and all their 'backups' had positioned themselves perfectly for the start of the chaotic scene.

"That's it." Vergil could hear the Director counting down to the start of rolling tapes. Abruptly, without warning, he slapped his palm over his brother's mouth, feeling with satisfaction as the pill in his hand entered Dante's open mouth of shock. He forced his brother's mouth closed, and grabbed the Dante's pill from his hand instead, grinning at the wide-eye shock on his brother's face.

"You don't have many lines before you get shot by the arrow. Keep it in." Vergil warned with an evil grin, popping the pill in his mouth too.

There was no more time for his brother to complain, because the Director called that the tapes were rolling.

"Today, we, Prince Wang Il and Wang Tae, stand up against the tyranny of our elder brother the Emperor, for the better of this country!" Vergil announced, pointing his sword up. The extras had been given their instructions clearly as the noisy cheer came from behind him, easily setting the atmosphere of a heroic revolt.

"Pathetic! Guards, I command you to get them! They are traitors!" Nero stood on a higher ground a distance away from them, but they had long worked out with the stuntmen on how the two main characters were supposed to weave through the mess to get to the Emperor.

For a short while, Vergil focused on his moves and the sense of the people around him, fighting and clashing against each other. The sound of metal clashing and props breaking (as they were meant to) was loud in his ears, though Vergil knew that heavy sound editing would be done to make the scene much more dramatic. Out of the corner of his eyes he could also see the Director sitting behind the moving camera as it panned across the 'battlefield'. But Vergil was focused –focused on his role as the usurper, Second Prince Joon Il.

A few minutes of fight passed, and finally Vergil saw the man who was arranged to be the one who would 'cut' him down run towards him. He made sure to look as if he was caught unaware of the sword as it came slicing, and spun around with the fake-slice, falling to the floor.

"Il!" Dante's acting was on cue as Vergil found himself held up by his brother, the look of worry so deep that it was almost genuine. They paused for a short moment as a camera zoomed in on them.

It really was not intentional at all, but as he tilted his head up slightly to look 'weakly' at his brother, a little of the fake blood-saliva that had been pooling in his mouth slid back down his throat and went into the wrong airway. The weak cough that he had been intending to fake turned out to be real as his body struggled to remove the foreign liquid from where it was not meant to go, the remaining fake blood flying.

The look of shock on Dante's face was legendary when Vergil's fake-blood splattered on his face.

But they were actors, and the scene had to go on as long as the Director did not put a stop to Vergil's unfortunate improvised acting.

Letting his body appear weak and injured, Vergil found his arm slung around Dante's shoulder as they both staggered through the crowd of fighting mess. A camera somewhere had to be focused on their faces of determination, and so Vergil made sure to stay very much in character like what his brother was doing.

A few more steps, and Vergil fell to the floor when a stray arrow 'hit' Dante on cue.

"Tae!" Vergil called, struggling to get back up to his feet and dragging himself across the floor to where his brother was lying, supposedly injured. "Tae, please be alright."

"I'm fine..." It was Dante's turn to show his bloody-carnage as he coughed. "Between you and me, I'm still the handsome one..."

"Fine, fine." Vergil wiped the tears from Dante's eyes, glad that his brother's ability to cry on cue was working just fine. "You'll always be the handsome one. Anything, as long as you're still here with me."

"You will be the ugly one forever..." Dante panted as Vergil dragged his brother's weight over his shoulder.

Together, the two of them must cut quite pitiful figures as they pretend-struggled their way through the fighting crowd, the arranged extras running up to them to serve as quick sacrifices to show off their 'martial arts prowess'.

"Brother... I don't think..." Dante cough-spoke when they reached the bottom of the stairs where atop stood their 'older brother' taking part in the fight against the rebellion. Vergil looked down to find the fake-blood very convincingly covered Dante's lower lip and jaw, trickling down his neck and staining their battle-uniform. Internally, he hoped that the stain of the fake-blood could be washed off easily, or their stylists were going to give them hell to pay.

"Tae, stay with me." Vergil temporarily rested his supposedly-more-injured brother on the floor while the chaos continued to occur around them, spying out the corner of his eyes that some of the drone-cameras (this particular drama had a high budget) had come swooping in close to them. Still, professional actors as they were, they had no problems ignoring the whirr of the drones staying close to them as they focused on their characters and each other. "You promised to be standing beside me when we take down Wang So. You can't stop here."

"I know, but..." Dante coughed again, cutting a real struggling picture with the arrow still 'poking' out of his back. The magnet holding the arrow to Dante's clothes was still going strong. "If I can't see this through, you have to go alone without me. I don't want to drag you down..."

"No." Vergil was definitely not going to let his brother beat him in the ability to cry on cue as the tears crowded his eyes and he blinked to let them drop upon his brother's bloodied face –ignoring the fact that some of that blood had been actually when he accidentally spit it upon Dante. "We take down Wang So together. It's meaningless without you, Tae. Who will become the next Emperor if you die here?"

"I think you're forgetting that you are a pretty impressive leader yourself, Il." Dante coughed again. "You can be the Ugly Emperor for all future generations to laugh at..."

Vergil laughed once despite the tears and blood.

"I don't want Father and Mother to crawl out of their graves cursing their ugly son for running a kingdom." He replied according to the script, then set a face of determination for the cameras to catch. "Even if you want to die, you have to wait until we finish this revolt. Stand once at the top with me before you drop."

Not waiting for his brother's weak protest, Vergil pretended to stagger as he heaved Dante's weight over his shoulders again and slowly made up the stairs, counting them mentally as he did so. The Director had previously told them that the cameras would do a pan-shot of the battlefield while their battered characters struggled up the stairs, so they would have to make the stair-scaling slowly to offer the cameras time to get back to them.

"Jesus." Dante whispered underneath his breath, and Vergil could not help his worried look down to check that his brother was still firmly in the act of being weak and struggling. "My mouth tastes bad."

"Shh. We're still filming." Vergil whispered back without moving his mouth too much, all but dragging his brother up the stairs as Dante stumbled very much like a drunk man. "Help me a little, won't you? You're heavy and your armour doesn't help."

"Shh. We're still filming." Dante's whisper back was not appreciated, and as punishment for his brother's twisting his own words back at him, Vergil made sure to hike Dante's weight further up his shoulder, making sure to jostle and dig his elbow in Dante's chest.

"You asshole." Dante cursed in his whisper, but thankfully no more private time between the two of them could be shared as the whirr of the drone-cameras returned to them as Vergil stepped to the top of the stairs where the extras were having their orchestrated fight with Nero in his Emperor-like armour.

"Hello, Big Brother." Dante spoke on cue as soon as the extras fell away to the floor, pretending to be either dead or unconscious. "Did you miss us?"

"Miss you?" Nero gave a haughty 'hmmph'. "I only regret never requesting to see your corpses personally seventeen years ago. To think our Honourable Father and Honourable Mother cried over coffins filled with strange children. You two are insults to the royal bloodline."

"Between us all, I wonder who the insult is." Vergil raised his sword, one hand still supporting his brother. "Besides, I am glad to never have grown up around you. One Tae is enough a brother for me without another maniac like you."

"Same here." Dante, though pretending to be weak, raised his sword alike. "I only need Il as my brother."

"Things would have been so much easier if you two remained in the countryside." Nero shook his head arrogantly, then raised his sword in reply to the both of them. "But thank you for showing up as you do now. You save me the effort of hunting the two of you down to make sure you stay dead."

"No need to be so hopeful." Dante took a step forwards, raising his sword in the cue for the fateful arrow to be prepared. "Say hi to Dad and Mum for me."

"Tae!" Vergil aimed himself carefully as he did his dramatic dive, and the both of them crashed to the floor as the prop-arrow made a beeline to Nero, the magnet holding the arrow to make it seem as though it sprouted from Nero's chest.

"Your Majesty!" The extras cried with dismay, as Vergil untangled himself from the mess of his brother, and thankfully the scene did not continue further when the Director gave his authoritative shout that the cameras had stopped rolling.

The cheers rang up at a successful scene from the extras around them, and all three characters climbed to their feet with no problem –looking completely strange with Nero sprouting an arrow from his chest, Dante one from his back and Vergil's clothes torn with the fake sword-slash.

"Fuck, Verge."

Vergil wasn't surprised at all when the first thing his brother did upon the end of the scene was to spit the remaining fake-blood from his mouth, wiping his face but smudging Vergil's fake-blood instead.

"You got your fake blood on my face!"

"It's just saliva. It's not going to melt your face." Vergil answered, working the rest of the fake-blood left in his mouth and spitting it out the same way as his brother while the extras around them sorted themselves out, awaiting further instructions.

"I'm actually surprised. With how acid your words are sometimes, I'm surprised Dante's face hasn't melted into a puddle yet." Nero added, pulling the arrow out from his chest as he strolled over to their side.

"Watch your words. You are still amongst elders." Vergil warned, but the young actor had clearly showed from long ago that things like age and hierarchy didn't come into mind when censoring his words.

"You're not my father anymore. I'm your elder brother now." Nero grinned guiltlessly, and Vergil was sorely tempted to spit the remains of his fake-blood on Nero's face just for the heck of it. Still, they were supposed to be civilized individuals –despite the fact that Dante was spitting like nobody's business in an attempt to get the bad taste completely out of his mouth.

"The Director is still looking through the scene, but I don't think there was any issue. Prepare to move to the next scene." The Assistant Director had reached them by now with the instruction, and the three of them nodded in understanding.

"Great thinking with that coughing of blood on Dante's face, Vergil." The compliment from the Assistant Director surprised them temporarily as Vergil turned around with surprise.

"I choked. It wasn't intentional." He confessed.

"Intentional or not, it added emphasis on how injured you were, and you still one-handedly dragged your brother up the steps to face the Emperor. It was a good move to sell your character's determination better." The compliment continued at the behest and horror of Dante.

"You have got to be kidding me. I got spit on, but Vergil gets the praise? Where is the justice in this?"

"Then do something to develop your character too." The Assistant Director was certainly one who did not entertain protests easily as she barely took a look back at her actor's complaints. "Don't blame me if at the end of the day, Joon Il gets more fans than Joon Tae."

"Blasphemy!" Dante's protest remained unheeded as everyone –including Vergil –sighed and moved on to prepare for the next scene.

In every set that they filmed in, Dante would always be the loudest and most annoying one of them all. It was just a fact by now.