I was going to sit on this final chapter, but I'm finding it distracting from other writing projects to have this hanging open when it's been finished in its entirety for days already.

A/N: I just had my weekly call from my mother. Who proceeded to say she wanted to speak to me about 'stuff' and then called me a 'crabby shit shit crap' because I'm a master at arguing, lol!

Dedications: This fic is still dedicated to: Alvara19, Flowing Tears, Pushka, AmorBour, Blood of Dusk and SirenaLoreley (because you review every chapter, special person you). All amazing people. All in my awesome book. Have a hug.

Disclaimer: I do not own Devil May Cry or its characters. They belong to Capcom.

Warnings: Some gore, some language, probably a slew of inappropriate facial gestures and a bad ending.

Forever thanks to all of you who have reviewed and enjoyed this story. Because of you all, I managed to belt out this entire story faster than I've ever written anything in my life. Kudos and love to you all. Enjoy the final chapter, perhaps?

Chapter 6: Relief

Dante was on his way out of the kitchen with a glass of water for Nero when the doors opened. He looked over to them hopefully and for once he wasn't disappointed. He went to meet Trish halfway as she came into the office. "Please tell me you found a way to help him."

Trish looked him over. Dante was a mess, though she supposed that was to be expected. The instant Nero had moved in, the older half-devil had become incredibly protective of him. "I did." She replied, lifting up her arm, an ornate orb filled with water resting in her palm, a pale glow from the clear liquid shining on her skin.

"Holy water? That's it?" he said in disbelief.

"Nero isn't cursed…not in the practical sense of the word anyway. The demon you guys ran into was probably just some poor schmuck who got infected like Nero. It's a parasite. A low-level demon feeding off his insides. The only reason he hasn't turned into what you saw is because it hasn't killed him. His demonic healing is keeping him alive longer than any human would survive the parasite. When you killed its last host, it must've released some spores in the hopes it could find a new one." She explained calmly, looking to the glass of water Dante was holding. "Holy water should be enough to kill it. Since he was going to drink anyways, just give him this."

Dante frowned slightly as he took the orb of water from her and looked up the stairs. "That simple?"

"There's no telling how the parasite will react to being drenched in holy water. But since anything he ingests is absorbed by it, yes. It's that simple." Trish shrugged lightly. "Want me to stick around in case something happens?"

He grunted at her offer, already heading back to the kitchen to dump out the tap water and refilled the glass with the holy water. He picked it back up and went straight for the stairs, aware that Trish was following behind him, probably curious as to what would happen, maybe a bit worried for Nero herself, he didn't know, nor did he care at that moment. He had a possible cure for the kid in his hand right here. The thought of Nero not having to suffer this anymore was enough to convince him.

Dante entered his bedroom again, seeing Nero was back to shifting uncomfortably, but dull blue eyes opened and focused on him, which was a good sign he hoped. Though the desperate look in them made his heart ache and his devil side growl for him to hurry up and give him the holy water and make him better.

"Here, kid," He sat on the edge of the bed to help Nero lift his head to drink the water. "Trish brought some holy water. She thinks it's going to be enough to make you feel better, so try to drink all of it." He explained softly while Nero nodded weakly and sipped at the water.

About halfway through the glass, Nero felt his stomach clench and he tried to push it away, but Dante forced the rest of it down quickly, making the younger hunter choke a bit and start coughing.

"Sorry, but you needed all of it."

Nero would've glared, but was distracted by the heat centering in his stomach, just like in his nightmare. Eyes wide, he stared down at the bandages on his middle that were covering the claw-marks he didn't remember making on himself. The whole world seemed to recede as the pain came roaring back, stronger than before, the taste in his mouth getting unbearable as his lips parted in a silent scream. The skin over his stomach started to stretch and something under the surface started wriggling around. Horrified, he couldn't look away.

It was all happening, just like his dream.

Dante barely caught Nero as the teen suddenly turned red eyes on him and growled, lunging as if to rip out his throat, the parasite in him apparently reacting adversely to the holy water, causing Nero to trigger in a desperate attempt to escape the pain. He struggled to restrain the younger man as Nero bit and clawed at him, filling the room with agonized howls. Just when he thought Nero would break free, Trish stepped in and helped him hold the kid down, the two managing to keep him down.

After a painfully long minute, Nero stilled as if he'd lost all his strength, going limp. Warily, Trish leaned back, Dante still hovering over the younger part-devil, though his grip relaxed a bit.

"Kid…?"

Nero shot upright suddenly, claws digging into Dante's shoulders as he screamed, blood exploding over the blankets and Dante's shirt as the younger's stomach ruptured, a wriggling black mass falling out and rolling to the floor.

Unconscious once more, Nero fell back onto the bed, Dante quickly pressing his hands to the gaping hole in his stomach in an attempt to stop the bleeding, glancing to the floor where Trish had a heeled boot planted firmly on the wriggling parasite's back. The little black demon was roughly two feet long, several rows of legs clacking against the floor as it tried to get free, tooth-ringed mouth snapping at the air.

They barely stared at it longer than a second before Trish obligingly shot it to pieces, the demon dying with a shriek.

Days passed like years as Dante did everything he could, with Trish's help, to keep Nero from bleeding out while his weakened body tried to heal itself. Though the parasite was gone and dead, the damage it had done was immense.

But eventually, the bleeding slowed, the once darkened devil bringer flickering a bright white-blue, a sign that Nero's demon side was working hard to heal. And so far it was making steady progress. Though it was slow and agonizing to watch over the kid in such a vulnerable state, so close to death, Dante couldn't have left the room if he wanted.

When Nero finally started to stir, Dante wasn't sure if he was dreaming or not, but a quiet groan from the younger man convinced him that much more that it was real.

Nero groaned again as he turned his head to the side, his headache dulled to a faint annoyance rather than a full blown pounding. He didn't recall any dreams he might've had, bad or otherwise, so there were no images there to haunt him. He felt relatively rested. But for all of that, his body hurt more than ever and his stomach was stiff and breathing still hurt. He wanted to cry as he realized that the holy water hadn't worked.

"You're up. It's about time, kid, I was about to bury you." Dante said, not even bothering to hide the relief in his voice as Nero blinked open his eyes and looked over at him from where he was lying on his back. Those blue eyes were no longer dull and darkened with despair, though Nero was still pale and looked to be on his death bed.

"It…didn't work?" Nero managed to rasp, voice hoarse and his throat was sore.

"Of course it did." Dante replied with a scoff, as if it was ridiculous to think otherwise, leaning over Nero's prone form, pulling back the blankets to check the bloody bandages on his middle. "Hm…looks like it's almost all closed. That's good. How're you feeling kid?"

"It worked?" He mumbled, lifting his human hand up to press it against his forehead, staring up at the ceiling before looking down to his stomach, seeing that beneath the bandages, there was a star-shaped red, raised wound. It looked fresh and raw, but it wasn't bleeding anymore. Though judging by what was on the gauze that had covered it, it had been. Excessively. "What happened?"

"You don't remember?" Pale blue eyes lifted up to him again as Dante let the wound air out a bit. When Nero slowly shook his head, then groaned when it made his lingering headache worse, the older sat up straighter and cleared his throat. "Well, we gave you the holy water and then you went apeshit. Triggered on us and tried to tear everything apart. I guess it hurt too much and your demon side didn't want to take it lying down anymore."

Nero stared at him blankly as he listened, honestly not remembering any of that. "I did?"

"Yep. And then that parasite that was in you ripped itself out and Trish shot it. Then we just had to worry about you bleeding out, since it ripped open your stomach."

"Parasite?"

"Right, the thing we killed a week ago? That was a parasite infected person that turned demonic after the parasite had killed it and reanimated its body."

Nero's eyebrows rose at that as he dropped his hand. "Really? So it infected me?"

Dante shrugged. "Well, demons will usually do anything to survive. Since we were there to kill it, it was probably just waiting for one of us to get close enough for it to transfer to a new host." He smirked. "Guess that stupid asshole was you."

The kid growled half-heartedly and weakly punched at Dante's arm, ignoring how the movement aggravated his wound.

"So…it's really gone?" Nero asked quietly after a moment.

The older hunter nodded slowly. "Yeah. It's gone. A couple more days and you'll be good as new." He assured, gently tucking the blankets back in around Nero's waist, leaving his ragged stomach exposed before reaching for the glass of water waiting on the nightstand. "Thirsty?"

Nero practically ripped off Dante's hand grabbing the glass to gulp down the water, eyes widening in surprised relief when he realized that the bad taste that had been lingering in his mouth was finally washed away and he sighed happily.

"I guess you were." Dante chuckled, helping Nero prop himself up on the pillows before tiredly climbing into the bed with him, much to the kid's displeasure.

"What are you doing?" Nero demanded.

Dante smirked as he pressed against the younger man's side. "Hey, you're in my bed, kid. I just spent the past three days watching you, I think I've earned a nap."

Nero shifted around as Dante cuddled against him and looked up at the ceiling as if praying for some intervention. When none came, he finally gave in and stopped arguing, taking a slow look around the room and only now realizing how filthy it was. "Lazy ass." He muttered, stifling a yawn though he let his eyes fall closed with a sigh. Dante was warm, the spicy scent of him wrapping Nero up and making him relax to the point where he fell back asleep without incident.

He barely slept for an hour before waking again, a hauntingly familiar gnawing sensation in his gut, but this time not painful. Nero rubbed at his eyes tiredly and tried to sit up, failing when his weakened body protested any movement. He looked over at the lump curled up next to him, absently placing his demonic hand on silver-white hair.

When Dante started snoring, he nudged at the older man. "Hey. Hey old man, wake up!" he shook Dante harder, getting no response. Finally, Nero shoved him off the bed.

Falling with a loud thump, Dante immediately sat up and glared at Nero over the edge of the bed. "What was that for?"

"I'm hungry." Nero complained.

"So? Go eat." The half-devil grumbled.

"I can't even sit up on my own, old man."

Dante heaved a sigh before getting to his feet. "Fine. I'll get you some soup or something." Though he groused about it, he was so relieved that Nero was actually hungry and was clearly feeling much better that his knees almost gave out.

He made it out into the hallway before Nero called him back in.

"What?"

"I want pizza."

Dante couldn't have stopped the grin that spread across his face if he tried. "Ha, I knew you secretly loved it as much as me."

Nero just flipped him off. "Screw you, old man."

So things shall continue as if Nero didn't have a parasite baby. The world keeps turning and pizza is still eaten (though we all know that there's no way Nero is going to REALLY eat pizza after starving for so long and then going through that...or maybe he will, who knows?)

Thanks again to my readers and reviewers. I'll hopefully see you all soon with the current oneshot I'm working on -salutes-