Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Nell heaved out a sigh, as she slumped over her workbench, repolishing a pair of handguns absentmindedly. Business has been unusually slow the past few weeks due to a massive demon outbreak in a neighbouring city calling away all of her usual customers.

While the demon hunting community was small, no hunter didn't know the name of the .45 Calibre Virtuoso, the best gunsmith this half of the hemisphere. As such, Nell was used to having a backlog of orders constantly vying for her attention, but the lull in business meant that for the first time in a long time she had absolutely nothing to do, and Nell for one was bored out of her mind.

Just as she was considering closing up the shop, the bell on the main entrance gave a cheerful twinkle, accompanied by a pair of heavy footsteps.

Hearing this, Nell immediately straightened up and hastily wiped her hands on a rag before heading out to the front desk.

“Welcome to .45 Caliber Art Warks, what can I do for ya…” Nell trailed off as she got her first good look at the person who walked in.

The first thing she noticed was his hair, a shockingly pure snowy white that shone through despite being caked in a layer of grime and dust. Coupled a flashy and loud red coat, he looked so outworldly that Nell almost missed his scrawny stature and gangly limbs that gave away his age.

“Hey kid, you in the wrong place or what?” Nell asked with a raised eyebrow. “This shop ain't for lil squirts like you.”

“HEY! Who you calling a squirt you old fart? I’m 18 dammit, not a kid!” The kid spluttered indignantly, his brow furrowed in clear annoyance.

“Old fart?! How old do you think I am you little brat? Get the hell out of my shop before I throw you out! Don’t think I’m scared to throw hands with a baby like you. I’ll do it!” Nell growled, slamming her hands on her desk threateningly.

The kids merely raised an unimpressed eyebrow, before swinging his backpack off and placing it in front of her with a loud thump.

“You Nell Goldstein?” he asked. “I heard you buy spare parts.”

“And who told you that?” Nell asked as she leaned back to cross her arms, eyeing the beat up backpack with disdain.

“The guys at Bobby's Cellar.” The kid replied with a shrug before opening the bag to reveal a large number of spare demon parts crammed unceremoniously inside.

Nells eyebrow, which was already raised, climbed past her hairline as she took stock of everything in the bag.

While the parts all clearly came from low level demons, with a couple of Marionette masks and a handful of Empusa legs, it was still a rather sizeable collection.

“I got some red orbs too if you want em.” The kid said casually as he dug his hands into the pockets of his coat, oblivious to Nells growing scepticism.

“ Alright kid,” Nell said with a sigh, pushing the backpack slightly to the side to look him in his eyes. “what's your name?”

The kid stiffened ever so slightly before slouching back down down, trying to play off the uncomfortable tense in his shoulders at that question. “Tony…”

“Ok Tony, I’m gonna level with you. You can tell whichever sleaze ball from Bobby’s to come to me themselves. They aint scoring any extra sympathy from me by sending a scrawny kid to do their business for them.” Nell said with a gentle but firm tone as she zipped the backpack back up and pushed it towards the newly christened Tony.

“What?” Tony replied, confusing written all over his face.

“You heard me kid, let's not play this game. We both know you ain’t the one who caught all this.” Nell said, waving her hands at the back pack.

“Trust me, you don’t want to get caught up with this whole demon hunting business. I’ve seen too many good men go down due to just one bad day or one bad move. Get out while you can.”

“Wait what? You think I’m some errand boy?” Tony growled indignantly, finally catching on to what Nell was saying. “Hell no! I'm not working for anyone, I caught all these bastards myself!”

“Uh huh” Nell said sarcastically, folding her left arm onto the desk and propping her chin onto her right. “Sure you did, bet you strangled them with your bare hands? Or maybe you asked them nicely to please die for you. Nice try.”

“UGH! Fine! Fine! I’ll prove it!” Tony scrowled as he slapped his hands onto the desk before shoving his hands into his breast pocket and drawing out a crumpled flyer. “This your job?” he asked as he shoved the flyer at Nells face.

Nell instinctively drew back, shooting Tony with a glare before reaching out to take the flyer and studying it. It was an old job posting she put up for some Riot tails. Unfortunately Riots tend to show up in large hoards, which made this job extra dangerous, and only groups of experienced hunters would even consider taking it on. Coupled with the fact that the city was currently a ghost town in terms of hunters, it was no wonder her commission was still unanswered.

“Yeah it's mine… dammit I really needed those tails for a custom build.” Nell scrowled. “I could probably send the call out to my contacts, but that could take months… or maybe I should just replace it…”

“I’ll take the job.” Tony cut in, breaking off Nells musing.

“What? Don’t be stupid kid.” Nell said, waving him off absentmindedly, already making plans to contact a few brokers she knew.

“I’m serious dammit. There's no one else in the city that can take this job, so if I bring you your tails you know I’m legit.” Tony said defiantly, swinging his backpack on his shoulder and turning to walk out the door.

“Hey! Hey! This ain’t a joke kid! You’re gonna get yourself killed!” Nell called after him, but Tony just gave a dismissive little wave as he pushed his way out the door.

“Your funeral kid, don’t say I didn't warn you!” Nell yelled after his retreating back.

“Not a kid!” was his distant reply as he vanished down the street.

“Geez… what a weirdo.” Nell sighed, running her fingers through her hair.

She sat idly for a few minutes, drumming her fingers on her desk while eyeing her phone, before picking it up and dialling up her contacts.

“Hey, I need you to look someone up…”

Chapter Text

Nell was fine tuning an order when she heard her door ring and a pair of muddy boots stomping into her shop.

“Hey old lady! I got the goods! Come out here so I can rub it in your face!” A distantly familiar voice echoed throughout her small workshop.

“Hold your horses.” Nell yelled as she put her kit away and made her way to the front.

What greeted her made her physically recoil back in disgust.

Tony stood in the middle of her shop with a shit eating grin on his face, covered head to toe with mud, with a trail of the nasty stuff being trekked onto her floors.

Just as Nell was about to rip the kid a new one, Tony suddenly thrust his right hand in front of him with a self satisfied smirk, and dangling from his fist were four Riot tails, still covered in blood.

“Wha… how?” Nell choked out, eyes bulging in shock.

“Told you I could do it!” Tony said proudly, puffing out his chest.

“Ok firstly, get the fuck off my floors your filthy.” Nell said with a disgusted look on her face. “And second, go round the building and meet me out back.” She jerked her thumb towards the back of the shop where there was a small entrance into a narrow alleyway.

“Yeah yeah fine, geez.” Tony said as he turned around to head back out the front door.

Nell paid her once pristine floors a moment of silence before heading out back as well, grabbing a bottle of water and a towel along the way.

As she pushed out the back door, she saw Tony rounding the corner into the alleyway.

“Catch.” She called as she tossed the towel towards him.

Tony grabbed the towel out of the air with a graceful flair and shot her a thankful smile.

That smile quickly turned sour when Nell dumped the bottle of water over his head.

“HEY! What gives!” He protested as Nell took a step back to admire her handiwork.

Tony glared up at her through his soaking wet bangs that were plastered onto his forehead.

“Trust me kid, I’m doing you a favour. Now wipe.”

Tony grumbled, clearly annoyed, but did as he was told, thrusting the tails into Nells arms to hold.

Nell carefully looked over each tail, noting with surprise that all four were not only real, but also freshly severed.

“Did you really come running straight to my shop after catching these?” Nell asked incredulously as Tony scrubbed at his head with the towel.

“Sure did, thought you said you needed these as soon as possible.”

“And you didn't think to take a shower or anything before trekking mud into my shop.” Nell replied with narrowed eyes.

“Heh, woops?” Tony said with a sheepish shrug, the towel now hanging off his shoulders as he ran his hands through his hair absentmindedly.

“How did you even get so muddy in the first place?” Nell asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Oh yeah that. Found these puppies in an old warehouse and chased em into a nearby park. They don't roll as well when they’re all slicked up with mud, made it easy to finish them off.” Tony said with a proud smirk on his face.

“That… that's actually pretty smart.” Nell conceded as Tony once again puffed out his chest with the praise.

“Yeah that's me, resident demon hunting genius.” He said with a flourish and an exaggerated bow. “You believe me now?” He asked, looking up at Nell expectantly

“Hm… alright fine kid, let's say you're on a probationary period.” Nell said reluctantly. “I’ve got a few more unanswered commissions and my go-tos are all outta town. Let's see if you can pull off another job. Then we talk.”

“Hell yeah!” Tony cheered, pumping a fist into the air.

“As for these…” Nell said as she raised the riot tails in her hands, “Wait here and I’ll bring you the cash. You are NOT coming back into my shop without a full body decontamination.” She scowled as she headed back into her shop.

She quickly placed the tails down on her workbench before grabbing the cash reward from her locked drawers. As she headed back out, she found Tony kicking a small rock around with a bored look on his face, which lit up immediately at the stack of bills in Nells hands.

“As promised on the commission. If you still got that backpack of nasties you can bring it back tomorrow.” Nell said as she handed over the money.

“You got it!” Tony grinned as he counted the cash and stuffed it into his pockets.

“You better be clean when you come by tomorrow or I'm scrubbing the floors with your face.” Nell warned, pointing a finger threateningly at his face.

“Yeah yeah, you got it old lady.” Tony said as he turned around to stalk back out the alley.

“Oh for the love of… just call me Nell you brat.”

“Only if you stop calling me a kid old hag.” Tony chortled, giving a lazy salute as he disappeared behind the building.

“Cheeky brat.” Nell grinned as she shook her head and turned around to head back inside.

Just as she was about to grab her mop to try and salvage her ruined floors, the phone on her front desk started to ring. She quickly strode across the room and picked it up.

“This is Nell, shoot.”

“Hey Nell, I got the info you wanted and it's a doozy.”

“I’m all ears.” Nell replied as she sandwiched the receiver between her ear and shoulder, rummaging around her desk for a pen and a pad of paper.

“Fire away.”

Chapter Text

The next day, Nell was sitting at her desk smoking a cigarette when Tony sauntered into her shop, dumping the same old backpack onto her desk.

Nell simply raised an eyebrow in his direction, stamping out her bud in the ash tray as Tony upturned his bag and poured everything onto her desk.

“So Nell, how much is this worth?” he said with a lazy grin as he leaned against her desk.

“Hmm…” Nell hummed as she sifted through the mess on her desk. “Not as much as the riot tails, but still worth a pretty penny.”

She rummaged through her drawers to find her cash box, propping it open on her lap and taking out a few bills before handing it over to Tony.

As Tony gleefully counted the bills, Nell observed him thoughtfully.

“So…” she started as Tony put his money away. “Before I get involved with a new supplier, I like to know them first. Think of it as an insurance policy, there's way too many sketchy folk in this line of work.” she said with a shrug.

Tony froze for a split second before forcing his shoulders to relax, but not quite fast enough that Nell didn't catch it.

“What do you want to know?” he asked, voice dripping with forced casualness.

“Well… anything you want to tell me? Like how a 18 year old brat got into such a dangerous line of work?” Nell asked as interlaced her fingers and propped her chin up on them.

“There's nothing to tell.” Tony said with a shrug, lips pressed together in a thin line. While his voice betrayed nothing, his body language showed just how uncomfortable he was as he crossed his arms and refused to look Nell in the eyes.

“Well, since its clear you're not in a sharing mood, how about I go first?” Nell said, as she pulled out her paper pad.

“Tony Redgrave. No known living relatives. Appeared in the system at age 9. Went through 3 orphanages and 2 foster homes in a span of 5 years before landing in juvie for assault and destruction of property amongst various other offences.”

As she read each point, Tony's face got paler and paler as his fists clenched onto his arms.

“How’d you find out all that?” he asked stiffly, still staring stubbornly at a spot on the wall.

“Tony, in case you haven't noticed there ain’t exactly a lot of white haired hunters running about. In fact there just ain’t many white haired people running around in general. And I pride myself on my information networks. All it took was a few quick calls to the right people.” Nell said, carefully observing Tony.

After a long pause, Tony sighed. “To be fair… the whole assault and destruction of property thing was a demon. Turns out the police don’t like it when a teenager tries to explain that the boogeyman wrecked a house. Kept calling me a liar until they locked me up, nearly had me put on meds.” He said bitterly.

Nell remained silent, simply allowing Tony to continue.

“As for the orphanages… It's not my fault they are all filled with bigoted assholes. Foster homes aren't any better, just smaller. Still the same bunch of self righteous asshats trying to ‘fix you’ just because you're different.” Tony's knuckles were nearly white with how hard he was clenching them now.

“Not that it made any difference… I could never stay in one place for too long before one of them showed up.”

“Who?” Nell asked, speaking up for the first time during Tony’s rant.

Somehow Tony’s face turned even paler as he clamped his mouth shut and refused to elaborate.

After a long and extremely painful silence, Nell sighed and accepted the fact that was likely all she was getting from Tony for today.

“Alright Tony… thanks for sharing what you did. For what it's worth I’m sorry for what happened to you.” she said gently.

Tony simply nodded stiffly from where he was standing.

“Now that that's out of the way… here.” Nell said as she held out a new flyer.

Tony looked up at Nell for the first time, confusion clear on his face as he carefully took the flyer and skimmed it.

“This… this is a job?” Tony said, looking up at Nell with wide eyes. “But… but I thought…”

“What? That I’d be scared off by your story? Please kid, ain’t not a single hunter in this city has had an easy life. From what I’ve seen so far you're a good kid and more importantly you're a good hunter. If you really took down those four riots yourself, you’d be a force to be reckoned with when you grow up short stuff.” She said with a smirk, leaning back from the desk.

“Hey…” Tony protested weakly, still clutching tightly onto the flyer as his shoulders gradually relaxed.

“I’d be a poor saleswoman to turn away a young talent such as yourself, so consider yourself an official associate of .45 Caliber Art Warks.” Nell finished with a smile.

“Thanks…” Tony responded faintly, as if still in disbelief.

“Now hop to it! Stop gawking in my store and march soldier march!” Nell teased playfully, waving a hand towards the door. Tony finally cracked a faint smile as he gave Nell one of his mock salutes.

“Yes Ma'am! I won’t let you down Nell, I promise!” Tony said with an earnest look on his face, stuffing the flyer into his coat pocket. Without much fanfare, he turned and swept out of the shop with a swish of his red coat.

After he left, Nells smile gradually fell off her face and a contemplative frown replaced it.

Tony was talented, there's no question about it, and there was an earnestness about him that made it difficult not to trust him. But his story was full of too many holes for Nell to justify. Where exactly did he come from? And what exactly was hunting him?

Nell sighed as she went about cleaning up the demon parts from her desk to bring to her workbench.

For now, she believed that she could trust him. But she definitely would have to keep an eye out on this mysterious new hunter.

Chapter Text

Tony was slowly but surely growing onto Nell despite her best efforts. The teenager would show up at her shop every week looking for new work or to turn in an old commission.

The young hunter was also twice as efficient as any others Nell has worked with, always returning with the parts she asked for within a day or two. As such, he quickly rose into becoming Nells go to whenever she needed new parts for her builds.

It also didn’t help that Tony was charming and witty, easily spending hours just bantering playfully with Nell as she worked.

While Nell had always been kind of a lone wolf, she had to admit that she liked having the kid around.

It was because they were now spending so much time together that she gradually noticed how Tony would often spend a long time staring at the guns hung around her workshop with a wistful look on his face, or get distracted by whatever custom order she was working on while they talked.

So, one afternoon, while Tony was lounging around her shop after dropping off an order, Nell decided to breach the subject.

“Hey kid, do you know how to shoot?” she asked casually while testing out the sights on a rifle she was working on.

“Hm? Just point and pull the trigger right? How hard can it be?” Tony said with a noncommittal shrug from where he was sitting with his head propped up on his arms, his attention completely taken up by the rifle.

“Just point and pull the trigger he says… bah!” Nell said disgustedly. “I’ll take that as a no then.” Satisfied with the rifle, Nell put it away in its casing before drawing out a pair of handguns from the corner of her workbench. She tucked them safely into twin holsters before tying the holster around her waist.

“Come on kid, you ain’t gonna last long in this line of work if you don’t even know basic gun safety.” she said with a snort, striding over to the front door and flipping the sign to closed.

“Uh… where are you going?” Tony asked, staring at Nell as she swept around the shop, preparing to close up for the day.

“Correction kid, where are WE going, and the answer is the woods just beyond the city. I’m gonna teach you how to shoot.” Nell replied as she put the last of her tools away.

“Wait really?” Tony exclaimed excitedly as he bolted up as well with a wide grin on his face.

“Yes really, so get a move on!” Nell said with a smirk as she pushed out the front door, Tony not too far behind.

She quickly locked up her shop before beckoning Tony towards the car park, stopping right before her bike.

“Ever ridden one of these before?” She asked. Tony shook his head as he walked around the bike, clearly fascinated.

“Well, guess todays going to be a day of firsts. Put on that helmet and hop on behind me.” Nell commanded as she pulled out her spare helmet from the trunk and threw it to Tony. Tony caught it without even looking at it, clearly still engrossed with her bike.

Nell laughed as she put on her own helmet and swung her legs onto the bike. “You coming or what?” She teased.

Tony looked up with a start and crammed the helmet onto his head. He hesitated for a second beside the bike before carefully swinging his legs over it as well, settling behind Nell.

“Alright short stuff, put your hands around my waist and hold on tight ok?” Nell instructed as she revved the bike.

Tony nodded on reflex before realising Nell couldn't see him. So instead he hurried to do as she instructed, wrapping his arms around Nells middle carefully.

“Alright! Let's ride!” Nell laughed loudly, pushing on the throttle as the bike shot out of its parking space.

“WOAH!” Tony exclaimed as they sped down the road.

“WHAT? THIS TOO FAST FOR YOU LITTLE MAN?” Nell shouted back at Tony.

“NO WAY!” Tony replied with a laugh. “CAN YOU GO FASTER?”

“Faster he says, I’ll show you faster.” Nell muttered under her breath with a grin as she pushed even harder on the throttle.

The city flashed past them in abstract shapes and colours as they sped towards the city limits. Soon, they had arrived in a little clearing just outside of the city which also doubled as Nells favourite shooting range.

Nell brought the bike to a gentle stop, mindful of her passenger as she put down the kickstand and pulled her helmet off. She then turned around to smirk down at Tony. “So, how was that for fast?”

“That. Was. AWESOME!” Tony crowed, pulling off his helmet hastily to grin up at Nell, his face flushed from the ride. “Can I drive?”

“And watch you crash my baby? Not on your life kid.” Nell snorted as she swung off the bike and flicked Tony playfully on the forehead. “Sides, we’re here to teach you how to shoot, not how to ride a bike.”

“Aww… Why can’t we do both?” Tony pouted as he too got off the bike.

“Because unlike some people I’m actually too busy to be holding multiple private tutoring sessions for some snot nosed street brat.” Nell responded as she stashed their helmets. “Come on.” She beckoned as she headed towards the centre of the clearing, Tony hot on her heels.

Nell quickly found the hollow tree stump where she stashed multiple glass bottles previously as makeshift targets and grabbed them, laying 5 of them out on the clearing floor in a straight line.

“Alright kid, listen carefully.” Nell said as she took a few paces back. Tony slid up to her side, eyeing the targets with thinly veiled interest.

Nell drew one of the handguns and held it up towards Tony. “This is a M1911 handgun. An old model but nice and reliable.” Tony nodded enthusiastically as Nell spoke.

“This one doesn’t have any modifications but you’d find plenty of modded variants amongst the hunter community, and they all operate on the same basic principle.”

Nell then gestured towards the back of the gun. “This is the safety. In theory the gun should be locked and unable to fire when this puppy is up. But any gunmen worth their salt knows not to trust it completely, so rule number one:” Nell held up a finger on the hand not holding the gun “do NOT point the muzzle at anything you don’t want to lose.”

When she saw Tony nod, she continued. “This is the magazine.” Nell said as she pulled a loaded magazine out of her toolbelt. “rule number two:'' she put up two fingers while still gripping onto the magazine, “do NOT keep bullets in the gun while you're not using it. That's just asking for a misfire.”

She then tilted the magazine upwards so Tony could see the bullets inside. “The M1911 takes .45 calibre rounds and ONLY .45 calibre rounds.” she said seriously. “I’ve seen too many dumbasses in desperate situations trying to load their guns with whatever ammunition they can get their hands on. Most of them end up nearly blowing their hands off, if they’re lucky. This brings us to rule number three:” she now put up three fingers “do NOT try to load a gun with anything other than the correct calibre of ammunition.”

With that done, Nell gestured back towards the pistol itself. “This baby's currently loaded with an empty magazine. This here is the magazine release, it does exactly what it says on the tin.” she said as she pressed it, ejecting the empty magazine onto the grass. “Now you load it up with the new magazine.” she continued as she pushed the loaded magazine into the gun, “and this baby is ready to go.”

Nell then gripped the gun in both hands, keeping her posture loose as she raised the gun to point at the targets. “This is how you grip a gun.” Nell said, beckoning Tony closer so that he could take a better look. Tony circled around her curiously, drinking in every detail as Nell waited patiently for him to be done. She then gestured for Tony to step back.

“Now when you're ready to shoot this is how you want to stand. This is the isosceles stance, with your elbows locked in front of you, shoulders squared and a wide and stable stance.” When Tony nodded, Nell placed her finger on the safety and pulled it down. “Now we disengage the safety, and as you so aptly put it, point and shoot.” Nell grinned, and pulled the trigger.

CRACK!

The bottle furthest to the right shattered as Nells bullet slammed into it dead centre.

“Woohoo!” Tony cheered as he clapped his hands.

“And that is how you shoot!” Nell grinned as she twirled her handgun in her fingers before placing it back in the holster.

“You ready to give it a try?” She asked and Tony nodded his head enthusiastically. He looked so much like an excited puppy that Nell had to bite back a laugh.

“Alrighty, here's your gun.” She said as she drew her other handgun and gave it to him. “It has an empty magazine just like mine did. Think you can go through all the steps alone?”

“Yep.” Tony said with an intense look of concentration.

He paused for a beat, simply getting a feel for the gun, then he suddenly twirled the gun in the exact same fashion as Nell before smoothly transitioning into the isosceles stance.

Nell felt her eyebrows shoot right past her hairline in surprise. “Hell kid you're a natural! You sure you never shot a gun before?”

Tony relaxed out of the stance with a bashful smile, “Eh… I’m a fast learner.”

“Ok then, go through the rules with me.” Nell said.

“One, don’t point the gun at anything I don’t want to shoot. Two, don’t keep bullets in the gun when I’m not using it. Three, always use the right calibre of ammunition.” Tony recited.

“Alright Mr Natural, have at it.” Nell said as she handed over a loaded magazine and taking a few steps back.

Just as smoothly as before, Tony ejected the old magazine and loaded the new one, his moves mimicking Nells perfectly.

Nell nodded approvingly as Tony slid back into the isosceles stance, staring down the barrel at the targets, his finger slowly pushing the safety down.

CRACK!

The bottle right next to Nells shattered as a bullet sailed right through its body. Nell nodded approvingly and started towards Tony when…

CRACK!
CRACK!
CRACK!

The remaining 3 bottles shattered almost simultaneously as Tony relaxed out of his stance.

“Wha… How?” Nell said, jumping back in shock, before noticing something else.

“Holy shit! Drop that gun!” Nell exclaimed, running towards Tony and the smoking gun he was currently holding.

“Oh shit!” Tony said, noticing the problem. He started fanning the gun with his other hand in a useless attempt to stop the smoke.

“Oh give me that!” Nell said, grabbing the gun out of Tony’s hand and ejecting the magazine, giving it a quick once over.

“Goddam, you somehow managed to fry the gun with how quickly you were shooting the thing.” Nell said incredulously.

“Woops?” Tony said sheepishly, holding his hands up placatingly as Nell shot him an annoyed glare.

“Your lucky its still salvageable.” She scowled as she quickly pulled some tools out of her belt to adjust the gun.

While she was doing so, Tony circled back round to the hollowed stump and pulled out a few more bottles, eyeing them thoughtfully before laying 6 of them out in a staggered formation.

“Hey Nell?” He called.

“Yeah? Gimme a minute I almost got it.” Nell muttered distractedly.

“Do you think I could try both guns?”

“Huh? Why’d you wana do that? They’re essentially the same.” Nell said with a frown as she finished up and placed her tools away.

“No… as in, at the same time.” Tony responded, one hand on his hip and the other scratching his chin thoughtfully as he looked at the targets.

“That… that sounds like an absolutely terrible idea.” Nell scrowled at Tony with her arms crossed. “Do you even know how to dual wield pistols?”

Tony shrugged. “Same basic concept and same 3 rules right?” he said. “It just… it just feels right.” he conceded after a beat.

“Feels right?” Nell muttered, unconvinced.

“Come on, please?” Tony begged, pulling out his puppy dog eyes. Nell raised an eyebrow, unimpressed.

“I’ll do your next job free?” Tony tried. Seeing how persistent he was, Nell sighed as she drew both guns from their holsters and handed them over carefully.

“Knock yourself out kid, but when you snap your wrists from trying to act cool, don’t come crying to me.”

“Did I ever tell you that you're my favourite?” Tony said with a wide grin, getting a feel for each gun as he twirled them around experimentally.

“Sweet talk won’t get you anywhere mister, I’m holding you to your end of the bargain.” Nell replied with a snort, taking a few precautionary steps back.

Tony shot her a cavalier grin before turning back around to the targets, both arms fully extended and pointing at the targets.

Nell studied him closely. While his technique was unconventional to say the least, his form was good, especially for a newbie.

CRACK! CRACK!
CRACK! CRACK!
CRACK! CRACK!

All 6 bottles shattered in an instant, as Tony alternated between firing the two guns at a rapid pace.

“Jackpot!” Tony whooped with glee.

“Hey Mr Natural, you might wana look down.” Nell called.

Tony paused and glanced down at his guns before cursing and throwing them to the ground as twin plumes of smoke rose from them.

Nell strode forward and squatted down next to the guns, poking them experimentally and withdrawing her hands with a hiss at how hot they had gotten.

“Well I’ll be dammed… I think they’re busted for good.” She said with a sigh as she straightened up.

“I can’t tell if you’ve got a talent for shooting guns or for wrecking them.” She said with a low whistle. “Honestly, at this point I’m more impressed than anything.”

“I’ll pay you back?” Tony replied with a sheepish smile that did nothing to hide the triumphant sparkle in his eyes.

“With what money?” Nell said with a snort. “You’re already doing my next job free remember?”

“Oh right.” Tony said with a frown. “Eh, I can always ask Enzo if he's got any other gigs for me.”

“Enzo? That's your broker? You know he’s definitely scamming you right?” Nell replied.

“Yeah but he's always got the best gigs, even if some of them are a little shady.” Tony said with a shrug.

Nell just sighed. “Forget it, call it a point of professional pride that I won’t charge you for a couple of broken guns. If my babies can even take a few shots before breaking then that's on me.”

“Oh, you sure?” Tony asked, fidgeting on the spot. “I can pay you back, honest… it will just take a while.”

“I said it's fine and I’m a woman of my word.” Nell said with a scowl as she tried picking up the pistols again, this time finding them cool enough to touch. She quickly holstered both guns and straightened back up.

“I think that's enough shooting for a day. It's getting late, I’ll give you a ride back, where are you staying?” she asked.

Tony suddenly looked very uncomfortable as fiddled with his hands. “It’s alright, just drop me off at Bobbys, I gotta talk to Enzo anyway.”

Nell took note of his deflective answer, but decided to dismiss it to address another day.

“Alright, whatever you say kid.” she responded, walking back towards her bike.

“Hey can I drive? Just for a bit?” Tony asked, instantly perking up.

“You already broke two of my babies today, let's not make it a third.” Nell snorted as she strapped on her helmet.

“Fair.” Tony replied with a wince as he did the same.

They both swung back onto the bike, with Nell in front and Tony hugging her from behind.

With a quick rev of the engine, the pair quickly sped back towards the city.

Chapter Text

“Hey Nell, got your Frost scales, where you want em?” Tony called as he sauntered into .45 Caliber Art Warks.

“Just dump them on my desk.” came Nells shouted response from the backroom where she was working.

Tony did as he was told, emptying his coat pockets on the desk before venturing round back to find Nell.

There he found Nell hunched over her workbench, tinkering on something he couldn't quite see.

“So… whatchu working on?” Tony asked curiously, rounding the bench to sit at his favourite spot on Nells ratty old couch.

“Well… if you’d just give me two minutes, I’ll show you.” Nell muttered, engrossed in whatever she was doing.

Knowing that ‘two minutes’ could mean anywhere from half an hour to the whole day, Tony simply hummed before slouching back, giving a big yawn and closing his eyes.

The store fell into a peaceful silence, only occasionally broken by the quiet clicking and clanging from Nells workbench and Tony's soft snores.

“Ah ha!” Nell suddenly exclaimed, standing up as she held her new creation triumphantly. The screech of her chair startled Tony out of his doze with a surprised yelp as he fell off the couch and onto the floor.

“Urgh… and a good morning to you too…” Tony groaned as he slowly sat up clutching his head and scrubbing his eyes.

“Oh, you're still here.” Nell said turning to face him before her face split into a grin. “Perfect timing, hold these.” She said before shoving what she was holding into Tony's hands.

“Wha?” Tony said blearily, as he took in what he was holding. Instantly his eyes widened at the two pristine new pistols sitting in his palms.

“These are modded M1911 custom made by yours truly.” Nell said proudly. “Given your insane firing rate, they could probably only withstand a single clip before jamming up so don’t go pushing it.” She warned, wiping her hands distractedly on a rag to get off the gun oil.

“You… you made me guns?” Tony said, taken aback as he carefully tilted the pistols about in his hands, observing their make with obvious awe.

“Don’t worry, they're going on your tab.” Nell said with a snort. “Unless you don’t want them?” she said teasingly, wagging her eyebrows at Tony.

“What? No way!” Tony responded, clutching the pistols dramatically to his chest. “You gave em to me, no take backs!”

“Ok then short stuff, what say you and I go for a ride to the clearing and you can test em out?” Nell said as she started tidying up her work bench.

“Hell yeah!” Tony exclaimed, jumping up and roughly shoving his new treasures in his back pockets.

“Hey! Hey! None of that you philistine, take this.” Nell scolded as she threw him a pair of holsters.

“Thanks!” Tony said as he buckled them on, walking over to the door in the process and waiting impatiently for Nell to finish up.

“Ok,” Nell said as she stepped out the door and flipped the sign, “lets ride!”

After a brisk ride back out to the city outskirts, Tony was practically vibrating with excitement as he leapt off the seat and made a beeline towards the hollowed tree stump.

By the time Nell stalled the engine and parked the bike, Tony had already set out 6 bottles just like the other day and was testing his aim.

Nell simply shook her head fondly, stopping a few paces behind Tony and nodding at him to continue.

With a grin, Tony pulled the trigger.

CRACK! CRACK!
CRACK! CRACK!
CRACK! CRACK!

Just as before, all 6 bottles shattered instantaneously, but this time Nells attention was directly solely at the guns instead of the bottles, striding forward to take a look.

Tony also peered down at his pistols curiously while Nell poked and prodded at them.

While the guns weren’t smoking like their unmodified variants, they were still hot to the touch.

Nell gave an approving nod. “Mhm… just as I thought. They’ll hold for another few shots, but that's about it.” She said with a shrug as she released the pistols.

“Cool.” Tony said with a goofy grin. He gave the guns an experimental twirl before holstering them, heading back towards the hollowed trunk.

Nell leaned back against a nearby tree and took out a cigarette, lighting it and giving it a quick puff.

As she observed Tony scrounging around the trunk, she started to slowly relax with a soft smile on her face.

Suddenly, Tony froze as his head snapped up to the right, seemingly staring at something in the trees.

Nells frowned in concern as she pushed off of the tree, throwing her cigarette down and stamping it out with the heel of her boots.

“Wha…” she just started to say when Tony spun around and gave her a wide eyed look, signalling her to be silent.

For a few seconds, Nell and Tony simply stared at each other in eerie silence before Nell suddenly heard it.

“Ssssssparda…”

A hissing voice echoed throughout the trees, its voice scratchy and off key, grating on Nells ears.

Tony instantly got up from his crouch, placing himself between Nell and the trees as he drew out his pistols again.

“Ssspardaaaa… Sssspaaarda…”
“Sspaardaa… Spaaardaaa…”

The voice called again, this time joined by a crescendo of others, all calling out the same thing.

“Shit.” Tony cursed. “Get back Nell, I got this.”

Before Nell could even respond, all hell broke loose.

A swarm of lesser demons jumped out through the foliage and surrounded them. Nell instinctively braced herself for an attack, but to her shock, every demon in the area had their eyes set on Tony and Tony alone, barely sparing her a glance.

Tony launched himself at the demons without a second thought, with the same inhuman grace he often displayed. However, this time instead of catching towels and helmets, he was bobbing and weaving his way through claws and spikes, parying what he couldn't dodge with his guns.

Nell snapped out of her stupor, and while the demons were distracted, took a chance and dashed towards her bike.

When she got there, she threw open her trunk in a hurry and desperately dug around for the spare pistol she knew she stashed in there.

BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!

Tony fired four times in quick succession and four demons fell, each with a bullet hole neatly between their eyes.

Nell picked up the pace, digging through almost the entirety of her trunk before she found the pistol, drawing it out quickly and turning back around.

BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!

Another four demon fell. However, there were still two more frosts left, slowly circling towards Tony who stood in the middle of the clearing.

Nell felt a stone sink to the bottom of her stomach as she suddenly realised something. The M1911 in Tony's hands could each only hold 7 rounds. With the 6 shots Tony fired off at the bottles, and the 8 more shots he fired at the demons, both guns were completely empty.

One of the Frosts suddenly screeched, and prepared to leap. Nell watched in muted horror as Tony raised his empty guns at the approaching Frost, seemingly unaware of his empty magazine.

Everything seemed to slow down to a crawl. Nell tried to raise her gun, but it was too late. As the Frosts' claws inched closer and closer to Tony’s face, all she could do was watch.

Suddenly, a red glow emitted from the barrel of Tony’s pistol. The glow got brighter and brighter, casting Tony's face in an inhumane light. Nell finally got a good look at Tony’s face, and instead of the grim and scared look she was expecting, Tony was instead grinning from ear to ear, with a dark glint in his eyes as he slammed his finger down on the trigger.

BANG!

The sound of a bullet firing echoed throughout the tiny clearing as a bullet made from pure red light exploded out of the barrel and hit both Frosts at once, killing them instantly.

Just like that… it was over.

Nell slowly lowered her pistol, staring around the clearing with wide eyes, taking in the disintegrating demon corpses, and taking in Tony himself, standing in the middle of the carnage, red coat fluttering in the wind, his right arm still out stretched.

Nell felt her legs grow weak as she stumbled backwards, tripping on a tree root and falling on her bottom.

The sound of her hitting the ground seemed to snap Tony out of his trance as he turned around and looked at Nell.

“Oh shit, are you ok?” Tony asked as he quickly holstered his gun and made towards Nell.

“STOP! STAY BACK!” Nell shouted, snapping her pistol forwards with shaky arms and pointing it directly at Tony.

Tony instantly came to a halt, a look of hurt and confusion flashing across his face before flattening out as he stood there, right arm still outstretched in Nells direction.

Nell slowly got up, her pistol still trained on Tony, who remained motionless other than tracking her movements with his eyes.

“I’ve always known…” Nell began with a shaky voice. “I’ve always known you were keeping secrets from me… that you ain’t normal… but this?” She waved her other hand around the clearing frenzily “This is too much. The way you dodged those blows, the last shot you fired… that not something a normal person could do. That's not something a normal human being could do. You… just what are you exactly?” Nell asked, both hands now on her pistol, trying to steady her wavering aim.

Tony just looked at her with the same unreadable face, lips pressed tightly together. After a long pause, Nell growled in frustration. “Last chance kid… last chance. Either you give me an honest answer or we are done.” She spat out.

Tony remained silent, now hiding his eyes behind his bangs.

“Ok… ok I see how it is… I’m leaving, do NOT follow me or I swear to god you're getting a bullet between the eyes.” Nell said, slowly backing towards her bike with her gun trained on Tony.

When she got to her bike, she swung on hastily, forgoing her helmet to slam on the throttle, feeling Tony's eyes burning a hole through the back of her head as she zoomed out of the clearing.

Chapter Text

The next few days left Nells heart a conflicting mess of guilt, fear and anger. Ever since leaving Tony behind in that clearing, she hasn't seen hide or hair of the white haired hunter. No cheerful greetings in the morning, no playful banter in the afternoons, no soft snores near closing time. Just complete and utter silence.

And Nell absolutely hated it.

In the time they worked together, Nell had gotten used to the boisterous and loud hunter. She had started to view him less and less like a business partner, and more and more like family, which is why it hurt so much now that she had cut him out.

However, despite how badly her heart yearned to seek out the spitfire teenager, her mind always convinced her not to. Tony's silence in that clearing had told her everything she needed to know. That despite how much Nell wanted to trust him, she could not. Not when he refused to talk. Not when his life and origins are full of suspicious and dangerous holes.

Nell was sitting at her workbench, staring off into space when the door of her shop opened with a tell tale twinkle, causing Nell to stiffen.

However, the footsteps that entered the shop were much softer and much more measured then Tony's usual loud and enthusiastic steps. This made Nell relax, as she poked her head out of the workshop to see who had entered her shop.

Grue smiled at her from behind the front desk, giving her a little wave as he took out his pistol and placing it on the desk.

“Hey Nell! Been a while hasn’t it?” He said cheerfully as Nell hastily exited her workshop to get behind her desk.

“Grue! That old thing finally gave out on you?” She said casually, waving her hand at the pistol.

“Nah… just need a tune up.” Grue replied as Nell hummed and grabbed the pistol.

“Come round back.” She said with a jerk of her thumb. “We can catch up while I fix this baby up for you.”

As the two rounded into Nells workshop, Nell quickly pulled out her kit and settled down at her workbench to clean the gun.

Grue walked around the shop casually, before stopping at the couch, giving a fond chuckle.

Nell looked up curiously to see what he was laughing at, just to see Grue picking up Tony’s old backpack from beside the couch. With a start, she realised that he must have left it behind from his last visit when he took his nap, and he never came back for it. Nell felt a pang in her stomach as she realised she would probably never see him napping on that ratty old couch ever again.

“So Tonys been round here huh?” Grue asked, as he took the pack back towards Nells workbench, settling down in the seat opposite of her. Tony’s usual seat, Nell thought blearily.

“He has…” she replied carefully, turning her attention back to the pistol, less to work on it and more to avoid Grues gaze.

“He must feel pretty safe in this shop to leave his bag behind. I knew you guys would make a good match.” Grue chuckled. “That's why I sent him your way.”

“Wait what?” Nell said, her head snapping up to stare at Grue.

“Well yeah? You remember that week where everyone was outta town?” Grue asked, oblivious to the Nells inner turmoil.

“Tony usually sells his catches at Bobby’s, but with how dead the place was he couldn't get enough buyers.” Grue said. “Poor kids been running real short on cash and was getting desperate. I knew he would be too bull headed to accept any help from me so I sent him your way. I knew you’re always looking for parts and would pay a fair price unlike some of the seedier characters at the bar.”

Nell drunk in this new information slowly, blinking at Grue before slowly lowering her head back to the pistol.

Grue, apparently in an unusually chatty mood, continued, “He's a real good kid despite how he looks… always taking the most dangerous jobs and helping out where he can. Heard he once turned down payment from a desperate old couple with a haunted basement and just accepted a home cooked meal for payment.”

Grue propped his chin up on his right hand as he talked, eyes full of fond warmth. “You know he saved my life when we first met? I’m not the best on the field as you very well know Nell, so I thought I was a goner when I got cornered by a swarm few months back. I was ready to go down fighting when in came Tony, crashing through a window like a madman and hauling my sorry ass out of that mess.”

Nell hummed, barely paying attention to the gun she was working on as she listened, completely enraptured.

“We’ve been taking jobs together ever since. Whenever Enzo comes up with some new big job Tony would drag me along for the ride… I think he's looking out for me, probably knows that the next time I get cornered alone would be the last time.”

“I… I didn’t know.” Nell muttered. After a beat, she gathered her confidence and asked, “Grue… I know you think Tony’s great and all but, have you ever noticed anything strange about him?”

“Strange? Well yeah.” Grue responded. “I know none of us in this line of business is exactly normal, but he’s a weird one even by demon hunter standards.”

“Oh?” said Nell with forced casualness. “Like what?”

“Well for one, I’ve never seen anyone who fights like him. He’s strong but doesn’t fight like some meatheads I know. Instead he almost dances across the battlefield. It would be beautiful if it wasn’t a little terrifying, especially when he brings out that broadsword of his.”

“Broadsword?” Nell parroted, confused.

“Yeah broadsword. A giant chunk of metal, never quite seen anything like it. It's almost as tall as he is but he wields it like it weighs nothing.” Grue responded. He then tilted his head and shot Nell a look. “You never seen it? He usually carries it around in a guitar case.”

Nell shook her head. “Huh, weird…” Grue said. “He never goes anywhere without it… unless…”

“Unless?” Nell prompted.

Grue grimaced. “He probably pawned it off to Enzo for some extra cash then… no wonder I’ve hardly seen the kid, he must be working his butt off to try and buy it back.”

Nell winced, thinking back to how Tony always seemed so excited and relieved whenever she handed him his pay. She wondered how he was doing now that he no longer had a steady stream of income coming from her side. She then pushed that thought to the back of her head, turning back to Grue.

“Anything else?” She asked.

“Oh hm… anything strange huh… well…” Grue scratched his chin thoughtfully. “Oh yeah!” He proclaimed, “A few months back we were doing a job for some eccentric collector who accidentally opened a mini hell gate in his attic.”

Nell waved at him to go on, pistol completely forgotten on the workbench.

“Well we found the ritual to close the portal but it was in some weird language that I couldn't make heads or tails of. Didn't phase Tony though, took one look at it and performed the ritual perfectly. Said some weird phrase, waved his hand around and the portal closed right up.”

“Weird phrase?” Nell asked curiously.

“Yeah… kid explained it to me after, said his mom taught him. Erm… he called it enochian I think?” Grue responded.

The second Nell heard that her spine snapped straight with surprise. “Enochian? Your sure he said enochian?” She asked, slamming her hands on the desk and staring at Grie intensely.

“Y…yeah?” Grue stammered, taken aback. “Why? Is it important?”

“Holy shit…” Nell muttered, striding towards the bookshelf in the back of the workshop, grabbing a worn old leather textbook and hauling it back to the workbench. Grue simply stared at her bewilderedly as Nell dumped the heavy book onto the bench with a thump.

“It can’t be… I thought they all went extinct ages ago.” Nell continued to mutter in a frenzied voice, flipping open the book and working through the pages in a rush.

“Uh… wana clue me in on your big discovery?” Grue asked cautiously.

“HERE!” Nell exclaimed, stopping her flipping. “It explains everything! The fighting sense, his natural affinity for a gun and the enochian, it's so obvious now!”

Grue leaned over, trying to decipher the text upside down. “Um… Umbra Witch?” He read.

“You think he's a witch?” He asked incredulously.

“What no, don’t be dumb.” Nell snorted, “Only women can join a witches coven. But you said his mother taught him enochian right?”

Grue nodded slowly, finally catching on to Nells train of thought. “So you think his mother was a witch, and passed some of that witchiness down to him?”

“That's my working theory.” Nell replied, as she looked down at the page with reverence.

“The Umbra clan produced some of the best gunsmiths in history… their weapons were all absolute works of art, I’ve been studying their craft for a long long time.” Nell murmured. “And to think Tony may be descended from them…”

“That's a big if.” Grue said, cutting into her train of thought. “Maybe you should check with him.”

Nell winced, and Grue shot her a look.

“What? What happened?” He asked.

Nell sighed. “I basically told him to fuck off after he pulled some creepy magic shit and refused to explain himself.”

“Oooh” Grue winced. “Yeah Tony's real cagey about his past. Clammed right up after telling me about his mom.”

“Makes sense if I'm right about this whole Umbra Witch theory.” Nell groaned. “From what I’ve read, the Umbra Clan basically went extinct because they were involved in a massive war that resulted in a good old fashioned witch hunt. Almost all the witches were exterminated, the rest forced into hiding. I can see why someone wouldn’t exactly want to advertise that.”

“Fuck…” Nell swore. “I may have just been the biggest asshole in the history of assholes.” She said as she ran her fingers through her hair in a frenzy, clearly distraught.

“There there…” Grue said with a tense smile, patting her on her back. “Tony’s a forgiving guy, why don’t you two talk it out?”

“And what if I’m wrong?” Nell shot back. “I’d been inviting a dangerous man back into my shop.”

“Then meet him at Bobby’s.” Grue said with a shrug. “I’ll set it up, he won’t try anything when there's so many hunters around, and it's a neutral territory.”

“Thanks Grue.” Nell said with a strained smile.

“You can thank me by maybe fixing up my gun?” Grue laughed, “You know, the thing I came here to do?”

“Oh right!” Nell exclaimed, immediately closing the text and pushing it aside to refocus on the gun.

“I’ll get it done asap for you, on the house.”

“Now how can I say no to that, not every day the Nell Goldstein offers her services so freely.” Grue teased while Nell shot him an annoyed look.

“Alright, joking aside, I’ll try to catch Tony tomorrow morning. I’ll call you with the date and time.”

“Thanks. For real this time, your a good friend Grue.” Nell replied.

Chapter Text

Nell wrung her hands nervously as she stood outside the doors to Bobby’s Cellar.

Grue sure worked fast. The day after he came into the shop, he called Nell to let her know that Tony was willing to meet that night at the cellar.

Nell spent the whole day distracted and stressed over what to say to Tony, so much so that she lost track of time and had to sprint to her bike to make the meeting, breaking several traffic laws in the process.

But now that she was standing in front of the doors, she hesitated, as nervousness and worry clawed at her heart.

Suddenly, the doors of the bar creaked open as Grue poked his head outside. “There you are!” He exclaimed. “Come on, come on! He’s waiting in the booth near the back. Already warned everyone to steer clear for tonight.” He said as he beckoned Nell inside.

“Thanks.” Nell shot Grue a weak smile, squeezing past him into the crowded bar, weaving her way to the back.

Squinting in the dim lights, she recognised a mop of shockingly white hair sitting alone in the far corner in the back, an area that was mercifully clear of rowdy customers.

As she neared the booth, she saw Tony slouched over the table, nursing what looked like a shot of alcohol.

“Hey.” she said as she slid into the booth. Tony looked up and blinked at her wearily. “Hey.” He replied quietly.

“You sure you old enough to drink that?” She said with a tense smile, nodding towards the drink.

“Eh… cellar rules, if you're old enough to fight, you're old enough to drink.” He said with a shrug, eyeing his glass before picking it up and downing the remaining alcohol in a single gulp.

“Well who am I to argue with that.” Nell chuckled weakly.

“So…” Tony started, fiddling with the glass absentmindedly, “Why did you want to see me? After what happened in the clearing I thought…” he slowly trailed off with a grimace on his face.

“Well… Grue and I had a talk… and he made me realise a few things.” Nell said fidgeting uncomfortably in her seat. “First things first I suppose an apology is due.” she said with a sigh as Tony looked up from the glass with surprise.

Holding on to his gaze, Nell continued, “I’m sorry for how I reacted at the clearing. I’m not going to lie, it's been a long time since I’ve actually been out in the field, so when that swarm came at us… I panicked. It still didn’t give me the right to act the way I did, especially after you just saved my life, and I’m sorry about that.”

Tony blinked at her a few times as if not quite believing what he was hearing, before saying bewilderedly “Why are you apologising? I should be the one who's sorry, after all I got you into that mess… and I scared you…” at that a look of remorse crossed his face as he bowed his head, hiding his eyes behind his bangs.

“No no no!” Nell exclaimed in a rush. “It wasn’t your fault kid. I overreacted and I hurt you. For christ sake I pointed a gun at your head. If anything you should be mad at me.”

Tony frowned. “Why would I be mad? Your right to be scared of me, especially after seeing… all that.” he said with a vague wave of his hands.

Nell heaved a sigh. “About that Tony… theres something I want to ask you.'' When Tony remained silent, Nell took that as a good sign and ploughed on. “I’ve been doing a lot of thinking kid… about you. About the holes in your story, about your unwillingness to share anything about yourself, and about your weird abilities. I didn’t quite understand it at first, until Grue told me about that job you took together, the one with the hell gate.”

She took a deep breath, before dropping the bombshell. “Level with me kid… was your mom an Umbra witch?”.

Tony's head snapped up instantly as his mouth fell wide open with shock. “Wha… how did you?”

Nell gave a shaky laugh of pure relief, as Tony’s reaction basically confirmed what she suspected.

“Kid, how did you think I became such a good gunsmith? I spent the better part of my life studying Umbra craftsmen and their bullet arts. Heck if you took a better look at that little bookshelf in the back of my shop, you’d find nothing but textbooks about the topic.”

“No way…” Tony said in disbelief.

“Yes way.” Nell chuckled.

“In all seriousness… I understand why you might have wanted to keep all this under wrap, mustn’t be easy being a witch's son especially with what happened to them.” She said with a solemn look on her face.

“Yeah…” Tony replied quietly, looking back down uncomfortably, his fingers drumming nervously on the table.

Nell sighed, before leaning foreward and playfully flicking Tony on the forehead.

“Hey!” Tony protested weakly, glaring up at Nell and clutching his head dramatically.

“Cheer up kid, it’s not like you to be all doom and gloom.” Nell said with a smile, as Tony grinned back at her timidly.

“So… are we good?” Tony asked tentatively.

“Yeah, we’re golden kid.” Nell replied, A radiant smile instantly spread across Tony's face as he beamed at her.

“Does this mean I have a job again?” he asked curiously.

“Sure kid, my doors always open to you regardless.” Nell responded with a fond smile.

“Cool!” Tony replied with a toothy grin, “No take backs!”

As Nell chuckled at his response, Grue slid up to the booth next to Tony.

“Scooch over.” he said as he squeezed his way into the tiny booth seat.

“So I see you two made up!” Grue remarked with a knowing smile as he settled down.

“You say that as if you haven’t been spying on us the whole time.” Tony responded with a snort, elbowing Grue in the gut.

“Oof, you hurt my heart and my spleen you little devil.” Grue cried dramatically, clutching at both his chest and his side.

“Grow up you big baby.” Tony replied with a roll of his eyes but a happy smile on his face as Nell observed them fondly.

“Alright! In celebration of this momentous occasion, drinks are on me.” Grue declared as Tony cheered.

“Thanks but I’m good.” Nell responded as she got up from the booth. “You boys have fun, I gotta head back to the shop.”

“Aww, but Nell you just got here!” Grue protested while jokingly making grabby hands at her. “Come on, just one drink?” Tony nodded enthusiastically next to him.

“You know its never ‘just one drink’ with you.” Nell replied with a snort. She then turned to Tony and shot him a small smile. “I’ll see you tomorrow, ok kid? Got a few new jobs lined up for you, and I fixed up your pistols… if you still want em.”

“Yeah… yeah sure!” Tony replied with a small grin. “I’d like that.”

“Alrighty then, adios children, try not to get too wasted tonight.” Nell said as she turned around and walked away from the back of the bar.

Just as she was about to push her way outside, she suddenly noticed someone from the corner of her eye in a booth near the front door.

Turning around to check that Grue and Tony were distracted, she quickly slid into said booth, and tapped on the table with a finger to get its occupants' attention.

Enzo startled for a second at her sudden appearance before a sleazy grin spread across his face. “Nell! Sweetheart it's been too long, where you been?”

Nell made a face as he took in the man’s appearance. The Italian broker was in his usual suit, with a pair of sunglasses on his face and a cigar between his fingers. All in all he looked exactly like a stereotypical sleazy conman that Nell usually avoided at all costs.

“Cut the chatter Enzo, you currently got a hunter called Tony under your payroll?” she asked impatiently.

“And what's that information worth to ya?” Enzo asked, leaning back into his seat and taking a long drag of his cigar.

“Cute.” Nell deadpanned. “I heard that you currently have in your possession his sword as collateral. I want it.”

Enzo blinked in surprise before barking out a laugh. “Really Nell? You talk to me for the first time in years and this is what you wana discuss?”

“Yep.” Nell responded.

“Sorry toots, no can do.” Came Enzo's reply. “I made the kid a promise that I wouldn’t sell his sword as long as he kept payin me, and despite what unsavoury rumours you might have heard, I am a man of my word.”

Nell paused, humming thoughtfully before asking, “What if I want to pay out his loan? You can hand the sword back to him yourself. You get to keep your word and I get what I want.”

Enzos eyebrow raised skeptically as he lowered his sunglasses over the bridge of his nose to peer at Nell.

“That's a lot of money to shell out for a kid you don’t know, which leads me to believe that theres some history here.” Enzo observed. “Now what could one of my hunters have done to draw the attention of the famous .45 Caliber Virtuoso herself?”

Enzo leaned forward to tap his cigar against an ashtray before taking another drag. “Kids one of the best bounty hunters I have currently under me, no no scratch that, he is THE best.” He then shot Nell a look. “But you and I both know it takes more than being good at the job to catch your eye, so what gives?”

“And what's THAT information worth to ya?” Nell parroted with a snort. “Just yes or no Enzo, no need to get into semantics.”

Enzo hummed for a second, looking at her contemplatively. Nell could see his mind racing, thinking about how he could spin the situation in his favour.

“You know what? For you Nell, I’ll make an exception. But you’ll owe me.” Came Enzo's eventual response, flashing Nell a sleazy smile.

“Fine. But I get veto rights on whatever weird favour you’ll eventually come crawling to me for. Unlike some people I have standards.” She replied with a scowl.

“Deal!” Enzo said, stretching out his right hand. Nell gripped his hand gingerly as they shook on it.

“I’ll send the bill your way and get the sword to the kid tomorrow.” Enzo said with a lazy wave of his hand. “Nice doin business with you again Nell.”

“Wish I could say the same.” Nell bit back as she slid out of the booth. “See you never Enzo.”

“Love ya too toots.” Came Enzos laughing response as Nell made for the door, pushing her way back out into the night.

Chapter Text

The next day, two sets of familiar footsteps graced the front doors of .45 Caliber Art Warks. One set was brash and loud, stomping into the shop with a flurry of energy while the other softer and gentler, bringing up the rear.

“NELL!” came Tony’s excited shout, as Nell sighed and yelled back, “I’m in the back!”

“Nell! I can’t believe you did it! You bought me back Rebellion!” Tony exclaimed, bounding into the room with a giant grin on his face, a massive guitar case swinging precariously on his back.

“Hey Nell.” Grue called, ducking into the back behind Tony and shooting her a smile.

“Thank you, thank you, thank you!” Tony exclaimed, pouncing on Nell at her workbench, and giving her a hug.

“Oof!” Nell grunted from the force, patting Tony awkwardly on the back as he squeezed.

“Alright enough, enough! I need to breathe.” She proclaimed, and Tony slowly drew back with a sheepish smile.

“You must really love that sword huh.” Nell chuckled. “Gave it a name and everything.”

Tony’s smile faltered for a second, before he replied. “My father gave her to me before he left… He was the one who named her and she's been with me ever since…”

His face turned contemplative as he stared into the distance, obviously reminiscing about the past, but unwilling to share more.

Nell shot Grue a questioning look, but he simply shrugged.

“Well, this was fun but I gotta bounce.” Grue proclaimed, breaking the silence and jerking his head towards the door. “I just came by to drop this troublemaker off.” he said with a fond chuckle, “and I gotta go pick up my girls from school. I’ll see you two around alright?”

“Hey! I take offence to that, I am perfectly well behaved.” Tony said, snapping out of his stupor with an over exaggerated look of mock offence.

Nell simply snorted and waved him towards the back door as Grue chuckled and ducked back out into the street.

“So…” Tony drawled, rounding her workbench to sprawl across his usual seat, swinging his guitar case off his shoulders and onto the floor. “What's this I heard about a job last night?”

“Mmm… this ain’t the usual job you're used to.” Nell hummed, as she got up and headed towards her bookshelf, Tony tracking her movement with curious eyes.

She withdrew a small leather bound journal from the shelf, and grabbed a set of twin pistols and their holsters on the way back to the desk.

“First things first, here.” She said, handing the pistols to Tony, who took it with a grateful smile.

“After seeing you shoot your… voodoo magic bullets.” Nell explained, waving her free hand vaguely in the air, “I made some modifications to your pistols. Hopefully they’ll be able to hold up to whatever weirdness it is you got going on, we can test 'em out later.”

Tony nodded, strapping the holster on quickly, and staring back at Nell expectantly.

“Now as for the job…” Nell said, placing the journal in front of Tony and flipping open the front cover. “You recognise this writing?”

Tony peered down curiously, and after giving the text a quick scan his eyes widened as he nodded.

“Good.” Nell continued, briskly flipping through the next few pages for Tony to see. “I got a bunch of these books a long, long time ago from a collector who swore he retrieved them from an abandoned Umbran coven. Problem is, it's all gibberish to me.”

“It's in enochian.” Tony offered. Nell slapped him goodnaturedly behind the head. “Yes I know it's enochian you little gremlin. But that doesn’t exactly help me when I can’t translate it. But luckily, fate dropped you on my doorstep.” She said with a raised eyebrow.

Tony's mouth formed an ‘O’ as he caught on to what Nell was saying. “You know technically, Grue dropped me on your doorstep.” he responded cheekily.

“Don’t play smart with me mister.” Nell snorted. “Can you translate it?”

“Not word for word…” Tony responded, slowly pulling the book towards himself and flipping through it slowly. “I only know the basics of enochian, the higher level stuff flies over my head. Different covens also used different ciphers to hide some of their secret techniques.”

“Well a basic translation is better than nothing.” Nell hummed, before shooting Tony a curious look. “What coven was your mother from?”

“Vigrid.” Tony responded off-handedly, and immediately startled back when Nell slammed her hands down on the desk and leant forwards to stare him straight in the eyes.

“WHAT!” She exclaimed.

“Uh… wha… yeah?” Tony responded weakly, leaning far back in his chair.

“Vigrid is renowned for producing some of THE best battle witches.” Nell said in awe. “The strongest witch in history was Rosa of Vigrid.”

“Oh yeah, my mom mentioned her before.” Tony said, twiddling his thumbs nervously. “Said she got locked up for breaking some taboo.”

“That is what the stories say.” Nell responded with a sigh, leaning back to Tony's relief. “But no one knows for sure, since the witches were always a secretive bunch.”

“Hopefully if you can translate these, we can learn more.” Nell said as she nodded towards the journal. “I’ll pay the usual rate. How's 20 pages for the same pay as one frost scale?”

“Deal!” Tony grinned, “Easy money, hand me some pen and paper?” he asked while making a grabby motion at Nell.

Nell groaned, reaching under her workbench to grab an empty writing pad and pen before chucking it unceremoniously at Tonys head.

Tony grabbed them out of the air with a cheeky grin as Nell settled back down opposite of him.

After a short scuffle where both Tony and Nell got comfortable, the shop fell into a familiar and peaceful silence as the two worked side by side. Nell couldn’t help but smile as warmth blossomed in her heart.

After two hours, Nell had finished refurbishing the shotgun she was working on. She pushed back from her seat and gave a large stretch, working out the kinks in her shoulder while taking a glance at Tony.

Tony was completely engrossed in his translation, squinting pensively at the journal and jotting something down every few seconds.

“Hey kid I’m gonna go grab a coffee round the street, you want anything?” Nell offered as she stood up. “Sure, anything…” Tony muttered distractedly, scribbling something down before frowning and scratching it away furiously.

“Alrighty then, sit tight kid.” Nell chuckled as she made her way out of the shop.

When she returned with two steaming cups, Tony was exactly where she left him, hunched over the table.

Nell placed a cup carefully beside him, far away enough that the gangly teen wouldn’t accidentally knock it over, before leaning over his shoulder and peaking at what he was writing.

“So… whatchu got so far?” she asked curiously.

“Mmm…” Tony hummed. “This journal seems to be a record kept on witches and the demons contracted to them.”

His fingers traced over the words gently as he continued. “It's separated by covens and by rank, covens going by age while rank goes by the rank of the demonic summons, then the rank of the witches, from weakest to strongest..” His finger stopped at a name as he giggled. “Lookie here, Sabrina of Polaris summoned a Demonochorus for a contract. That's got to be embarrassing.”

“Demonochorus? You mean those tiny annoying winged things?” Nell responded with a snort. “Even a civilian could probably swat that out of the sky with a bat.”

“I know right!” Tony laughed. “It wasn’t even listed with a name, all good summons have a name, that's a fact.”

“What about the section on Vigrid? I’d love to see what Rosa’s contract was.” Nell asked curiously.

“Hmm… let me check…” Tony muttered as he flipped the journal all the way to the back. “Aha! Vigrid.”

“Cereza of Vigrid is contracted to Madama Butterfly, Jeanne of Vigrid is contracted to Madama Styx, and Rosa of Vigrid is contracted to Madama Khepri…” Tony's voice trailed off as his finger hovered uncertainty on top of the next name on the list. The very last name.

Seemingly missing his hesitation, Nell leaned in to take a closer look, clearly fascinated. “Madama Khepri huh” she said with a low whistle. “Now that's one hell of a contract. That demon could control the fabric of time itself.”

She then noticed the name Tony was hovering over. “Huh? I thought Rosa was the strongest witch in the coven? So why's there a name below hers?”

“Strongest witch yes… but not the strongest summon.” Tony muttered quietly. He took a shaky breath, and read “Eva of Vigrid… contracted to the Legendary Dark Knight Sparda.”

“No way…” Nell responded. “The rumours are true?”

“Rumours?” Tony asked, glancing up at Nell. Nell hummed thoughtfully as she crossed her arms and leaned back onto the desk.

“Everyone knows that Sparda split the demon and human world apart two thousand years ago, but sightings of him ever since then have been sparse and unreliable.” Nell mused. “Many communities have popped up over the centuries claiming to have seen the Dark Knight, but most of them aren’t verifiable. Only very few places have an actually concrete claim to Spardas name, like Fortuna island where Sparda reigned as a feudal lord for a while.”

Tony nodded distractedly, gesturing at Nell to continue.

“Well… a couple years ago, way before your time short stuff, a rumour popped up in the demon hunting community that Sparda was spotted again in the human world. Not only that, rumours also claimed that Sparda had a son. Of course, not many people believed the rumours, and after a few years where no ones heard hide nor hair of Sparda or his so-called son it faded away. But now with this,” Nell gestured towards the journal, “we at least know for a fact that Sparda was in the human world in recent times.”

“Woopie.” Tony deadpanned with a bitter voice.

Nell raised an eyebrow. “Not a fan of Sparda I take it?”

“No.” Tony responded with a tone of finality.

“Ok, touchy.” Nell said, her hands held up placating. “Drink your coffee while I close up for the day. It's getting real late, skys already dark.”

Tony nodded while eyeing the cup of coffee, closing up the journal and carefully laying it aside before reaching out for the cup.

As Nell tidied up around the shop, she kept a close eye on Tony, who sat at the workbench, sipping his coffee with a contemplative look on his face.

“Alright kid, I’m all done here, you want a ride anywhere?” she offered. Tony shook his head, gulping down the remains of his coffee and crushing the paper cup in his hands. He then stood up and grabbed his guitar case.

“I’m alright, gonna walk back and clear my head. I’m not used to spending so long sitting down reading. Was always more of Verge's thing…” he suddenly trailed off, freezing like a deer in headlights as Nell looked at him curiously.

“Verge?” She asked.

“It’s nothing… he's no one.” Tony muttered angrily, shoving his way past Nell to get to the door. “Cya tomorrow.” was all he said as he stormed down the street.

Nells brow frowned with worry as he watched his retreating back, hunched over and tense with none of the calm from earlier in the evening.

Whoever this ‘Verge’ is is obviously important to Tony, she mused tiredly as she trudged towards her bike. Just another piece to the ever growing puzzle that is Tony Redgrave.

Chapter Text

Over the next couple of weeks, Nell fell into a comfortable rhythm. Every morning she would ride to her shop to open it up. About an hour after she arrives, Tony would trudge his way in as well, lugging his guitar case behind him.

They would banter for a few minutes before Nell directed Tony to whatever book he would be working on for the day, and they would both settle down at the workbench.

After a couple of hours, Nell would call Tony for lunch and they would head out to a little hole in the wall Italian place near the shop. It was there that Nell made the shocking discovery that Tony was in fact an Italian when he and the VERY Italian chef struck up a conversation over pasta of all things.

When they were done with lunch, Nell would usually take the time to read through Tony’s notes while Tony took a cat nap on her couch. By the time late afternoon rolled around, Nell would leave the shop to go get two cups of coffee, and when she came back Tony would be awake. After a quick shot of caffeine, they would both work again for a couple more hours before Nell closed up the shop for the day and they would say their farewells.

It was all very predictable and all very comfortable. Tony was slowly but surely making a sizable dent in her library, while Nell was able to gain access to a variety of new gun smithing techniques through his translations.

However, despite how well things were going, there was one thing that kept nagging at the back of Nells mind. Every night she would offer to drive Tony home, and every night he would refuse with one excuse or another, walking off alone.

As winter was approaching the nights slowly got colder and colder, and everyday as Nell watched Tony's retreating back, a sinking feeling would settle in her gut as an uncomfortable image began to form in her head.

However, before jumping to conclusions, Nell decided she needed to speak with Gru first.

So, one afternoon while Tony was taking his nap, Nell scribbled out a note for him saying she's heading out to see a customer, before sneaking out of the shop and heading towards Bobby’s Cellar where Grue had agreed to meet.

The chilled afternoon air nipped at her face as she sped towards Bobby’s on her bike, causing her to shiver involuntarily.

As she parked her bike, she hurried into the bar, wrapping her jacket tightly around her shoulders.

The bar was pretty deserted with only a handful of customers huddled in scattered corners, which made it easy for Nell to spot Grue sitting in a booth near the back.

She quickly waved the bartender down for a rum to warm her up, before sliding into the seat opposite of Grue.

Grue shot her a tired smile, nursing a glass of whisky himself. “So, what's up Nell? You sounded pretty worried on the phone, everything going alright?”

“It's about Tony.” Nell began, taking a sip of her drink.

“Alright, shoot.” Grue responded, sitting up straighter in his seat.

“You know how he's been doing the translation job for me?” Nell asked. Grue nodded and waved at her to go on. “Well, every night he acts real cagey whenever I offer him a ride home, so I gotta ask, where is he staying? Does he have a place to crash?”

Grue winced. “So you caught on huh?”

Nell sighed at the look on Grues face. “So he's really is living on the streets. Dammit.”

She then shot Grue a questioning look. “But how can that be? When I talked to Enzo the other day he said Tony was the best hunter he got, he shouldn’t have any trouble getting enough high paying jobs to get a place to stay.”

Grue clutched at his drink, staring at it contemplatively before saying, “Well you're not wrong on that count. Problem is Tony’s not doing this for the cash.” Grue shrugged. “Kid won’t go anywhere near jobs that he doesn't deem ‘unusual’ which is basically his code for demonic.” He added on with a weak chuckle. “Tony’s basically a demon sniffing machine, 9 out of 10 times he’s right on the money when it comes to whether a job really has demonic involvement. Drives Enzo up the wall sometimes when he would turn down high paying jobs on a whim.”

Grue paused for a moment, letting Nell process this new information while taking a swing of his drink. “Demon slaying jobs are rare and they usually don’t pay that well since most people don’t even believe in this stuff. Even though Tony’s real good and finishes his jobs in record time, he's constantly strapped for cash. On top of that, from what I could tell kids got a hell of a record. He tried asking around for a rental once and got turned down immediately cause of how sketchy his background checks came out.”

Nell winced at that, remembering the result of her own digging when she first met Tony. “So where exactly is he staying?” She asked.

“Bobby likes him, and would let him crash in the back booth whenever the cellars open. When he closes up usually Tony would camp out in the park or in the alleyway out back. I tried offering my couch to him a few times but he would always refuse. Kids real stubborn about that, seems to think it would be dangerous for some reason.” Grue made a face at that, shrugging helplessly.

“Well that's all fine and dandy in the summer, but it's going to be winter soon. If he sleeps out in the cold he’ll freeze to death. Literally.” Nell deadpanned.

“Well… Tony only appeared in this town last spring, so I’m actually not sure what he does for the winter.” Grue shrugged with a worried look on his face. “Hopefully he has a plan… a cold spell is due to hit the city any day now.”

“Shit…” Nell muttered, brows furrowed in thought. “I gotta head back to the shop, kids due to wake up soon. I’ll see if I can convince him to crash with one of us for the next few nights.” She said with a sigh, downing the rest of her drink and getting up from her seat.

“Alright, good luck. God knows you need it, kids stubborn like an ox.” Grue chucked. “Drive safe alright?”

“Yeah yeah I got it.” Nell waved Grue off, heading for the door.

The ride back to her shop went by in a blur as Nell mused over the problem, hatching a plan to convince Tony as she parked a bike.

“Yo.” Came a lazy drawl from her couch as she entered her workshop through the back door. “Good morning to you too lazybones.” Nell responded, heading for one of the various display cases around her shop and rummaging around.

“So… how was the meet? Must have been one important customer for you to go to them instead of the other way around.” Tony asked, stretching out on her couch with a satisfied smirk on his face like a sunbathing cat.

Nell pushed a couple of old projects aside, before finally spotting her prize. Grabbing onto the oddly shaped magnum, she took a deep breath and put her plan into action.

“Yeah, it was an old customer of mine” she mentioned casually. “He's a collector, obsessed with all things demonic. Few weeks back he dropped this puppy off with me and wanted me to figure out how it ticked.” At that, she waved the magnum around as Tony's eyes snapped to it in interest.

“Said he bought it off a widow of a demon hunter who fell in battle. Told him it was cursed and that a demon's soul is trapped inside it. Unfortunately though I have no idea how this thing works.” Nell sighed dramatically, placing the magnum down on her workbench as Tony scootched off the couch to come over for a better look.

“It looks like a gun but I ain’t never seen anything like it before. For one there's no way to load in any bullets, and the trigger seems to be permanently stuck. Told the customer that much and he seemed pretty disappointed. I managed to convince him to give me a few more weeks with it but I’m not sure what good will come of it.”

Tony hummed distractedly, gesturing at the gun as if asking for permission to pick it up, clearly intrigued. Nell grinned triumphantly. Hook. Line. Sinker.

She nodded her consent as Tony slowly lifted the magnum from the bench, twisting it this way and that around his hands as he got a feel for it.

The magnum was a dark silver grey, with a sinister aura around it. Large and unwieldy and covered in oddly shaped spikes, it looked more like a prop from a film than a firearm.

“Damn… I never thought I’d see one of these again.” Tony mused as he tested the aim of the gun, pointing it at the wall and squinting an eye. “This is a devil arm.”

“Devil arm?” Nell asked curiously.

“Mhm…” Tony nodded. “Lesser demon souls dissipate when their bodies die, but when a greater demon dies its a different story. When a greater demon is defeated in battle, if they deem their opponent as worthy, their souls could transform into weapons that the victor can claim as a prize. That weapon’s called a devil arm.”

“Woah.” Nell replied with wide eyes as she observed the magnum with a new critical eye.

“For a demon to acknowledge a human, a greater demon at that, is basically unheard of, Whoever this hunter is probably found it in the possession of another demon, or left behind in the aftermath of a battle.”

“Well, do you have any idea how to use it?” Nell asked.

Tony hesitated before responding slowly, “I’m not sure… never actually held a devil arm before, let alone used it. From what I was told, only the person acknowledged by the greater demon can wield them to their full potential.” His face then turned contemplative as he stared at the magnum in his arms. “I could probably get it to fire at the very least though.”

“Let's go test it out then.” Nell said, standing up halfway before pausing with a frown. “Damm… we can’t go to the clearing anymore, not after that last attack. Gotta find another spot….”

“How about the abandoned parking lot behind Bobbys?” Tony piped up. “Bobby lets me hang out back there sometimes when the bar gets crowded. It's technically private property so Bobby’s got it blocked off, we won’t have to worry about civies walking in on us. We can definitely scrounge up a couple of bottles from the bar too for targets.”

“He’ll let us test out high powered unstable weaponry in the back of his bar?” Nell asked with a raised brow.

“As long as it's not in his bar.” Tony snorted. “Neutral zone only goes so far. He’ll probably agree if we ask nicely.”

“Ok then, to Bobby’s it is.” Nell said, grabbing her keys and twirling it on her finger.

Tony nodded enthusiastically, grabbing a spare holster to keep the magnum as he made for the door. “Race you to the bike.” He said with a cheeky wink.

“Why you little!” Nell groaned as she tried to grab him while he darted past her. She missed the tails of his coat by just a hair, as Tony turned around and made a face at her before sprinting off.

When they arrived at Bobby’s Cellar, Tony headed straight for the bar to talk to Bobby while Nell found a place to park her bike.

By the time she pushed her way into the bar, Tony was there to greet her, lugging in his arms a crate of empty bottles while jerking his head at the back door.

Nell gave Bobby a quick nod as she passed by the bar, heading out the back behind Tony.

While Tony was busy setting up the bottles, Nell took a quick lap around the car park. It was a relatively small space, sandwiched between two buildings. There was an exit that ran out to the main road, but it was blocked off by a large metal fence with a locked door. In short, as long as nobody complained about the sounds of gunshot, which was unlikely in a neighbourhood as seedy as this one, it was perfect.

“You ready?” Tony called, as he stood up from the bottles and took a few steps back, pulling out the magnum along the way.

“Sure thing kid, work your voodoo magic.” Nell called, backing up to lean against the wall behind Tony.

“One magic bullet coming right up.” Tony muttered under his breath, his brow furrowed with concentration as he squinted at the targets.

A silence spread across the car park as Nell waited anxiously for Tony to fire. The longer it went on, the more nervous Nell got. Just as she was about to say something, a red light blinked to life around the barrel of the gun, just as it did that day in the clearing.

BANG!

Nell jumped at the sudden loud noise as a crimson bullet streaked across the parking lot, smashing through the bottle and embedding itself into the concrete wall behind it. Nell starred in fascination as the bullet slowly dissipated into a crimson shower, fading away and leaving behind nothing but a tiny crater.

Nell gave a low whistle, before turning to Tony, finding him staring at the magnum in his hands with wide eyes.

“Dam Tony, you spent so long staring at the damn target I thought you were never going to shoot. How’d you figure out how to fire it?” Nell asked, patting him on the back.

Tony blinked as if coming out of a trance. “I don’t know… For a second there…” he trailed off, looking up at Nell, “For a second there it felt like it was talking to me.”

When Nell raised a questioning eye at him, and gestured at him to go on, Tony continued. “I don’t know how to explain it… It felt like the gun was alive, like it was telling me how it wants to be used, and guiding me to use it.”

“Huh… must be something to do with your Umbran heritage.” Nell mused. “I’ve tried firing that puppy about a hundred times and it's never tried talking to me.”

“Yeah… must be…” Tony muttered distractedly.

Suddenly a loud crash came from inside the bar alongside a chorus of rambunctious laughter as a jukebox blared to life.

Nell shook her head. “Looks like the usual crowds filing in. Guess that's all the shooting we’re doing tonight if we don’t want any unwelcome guests. Let's head back to the shop to talk, I have a proposition for you.”

Tony raised an eyebrow questioningly at that last part but didn't ask any additional questions, simply holstering the gun and heading for the door, opening it for Nell with an exaggerated bow. “After you milady.” He said with a teasing tone.

Nell simply slapped him behind the head while walking past him back into the bar, then out the front door.

“Thanks Bobby!” Tony hollered behind her as she headed for her bike.

One quick ride later, the pair got off in front of Nells shop.

As Nell threw her bike keys on her workbench and switched on the lights, Tony crashed dramatically, face down, onto the couch. Nell rolled her eyes at him as she herself settled down next to her workbench, leaning against it for support.

“So… what's this proposition?” Tony asked, rolling onto his side and propping up his head with an arm.

“Sit properly and maybe I’ll tell you.” Nell snorted in response.

With an exaggerated groan, Tony lifted himself upright and made a big show of sitting up straight on the couch, raising an eyebrow expectantly at Nell.

Nell chuckled at his antics, before continuing. “Alright, here's the deal. This isn’t the first weird gun that graced my doorstep. In fact plenty of eccentric types would come to me whenever they find a new weapon and ask me to appraise them. Problem is, I ain’t got the time or qualifications to go through all of them. For one, some nutjobs would sometimes try bringing me swords or even nunchucks. No idea what they want me to do since I’m a gunsmith, even if I specialise in demonic weapons.” She snorted.

“This is where you come in.” Nell said pointing at Tony. “I want you to help me as a weapons tester. Not just for my customers, but also for me whenever I whip up something new. It's been too long since I’ve actually used a weapon in the field and I could use a hunter's experience.”

Tony nodded to indicate that he understood. Just as he was about to open his mouth to say something, Nell held up a finger to shush him. “Ah, I ain’t done. The thing is kid, while my shop gets plenty of business, I don’t exactly have the dough to pay for both your translation job and a weapon testing job, so how bout we cut a deal?” Tony nodded again, this time much slower and with questioning eyes.

Nell took a deep breath. ‘Here goes nothing’ she thought as she pitched her offer. “I’ll keep paying you the usual rate for the translations, and in exchange for being my tester, I’ll give you a key to the shop. You can crash here whenever you want, even when I’m not here. You can stay the night too if you want.”

When she was done, Nell waited with baited breath to see what Tony would say.

Tony sat there for a moment, digesting the information, before looking up at Nell with a raised eyebrow. “You’ve been talking to Grue, haven’t you?” He deadpanned.

Nell grimaced. “That obvious huh?” she chuckled weakly. “Yeah, he told me about your whole homeless situation.” she admitted. “But my offer is still genuine, I really do need a weapons tester and you still need a place to crash for the winter. This way we both win.”.

Tony frowned as Nell quickly added on. “Grue told me he offered you his couch but you turned it down because it was dangerous. It's because of those things that are hunting you isn’t it.” Tony pales slightly, but nodded hesitantly.

“I can’t stay in one play for too long…” he muttered.

“But Bobby’s Cellars ok?” Nell asked questioningly.

“No demon would attack a place with that many hunters.” Tony replied with a shrug. “And no one at the bars a civie… they know what they signed up for.”

“While Grue has his three girls… I see the problem.” Nell mused while Tony nodded dejectedly.

“Well then I guess it's a good thing there's no civies here.” Nell responded. “On top of that, this shop is now a demon repelling fortress.”

When Tony shot her a confused look, Nell laughed. “What? You really think I had you translate all those protection wards just to not paint them on every doorway in the shop?”

When she saw Tony's conflicted expression, Nell sighed, leaning over her workbench and grabbing her spare key, throwing it at Tony.

On reflex, Tony grabbed it before it hit him in the face, with a disbelieving look on his face.

“Just take it kid… it's up to you if you want to use it or not, but my doors always open.” she shrugged. “Sides, you don’t have to worry about me, I got my own place to crash so you get the shop all to yourself.” she added on with a playful tone.

“Ok then… I guess I’ll be taking you up on this.” Tony responded with a timid smile. “ Thanks Nell.”

“No problem kiddo.” Nell chuckled. “By the way, just out of curiosity, what was your plan for the winter if I didn’t say anything?” she asked offhandedly.

“Eh… same thing last winter.” Tony shrugged. “Camp out at whatever bar or homeless shelter that won’t kick me out, and wing it in whatever dry alleyway I can find when they do.”

Nell just stared at him. “How are you alive?” She asked incredulously.

“Dumb luck?” Tony said with a cheeky grin. Nell just shook her head in fond exacerbation.

“I’m gonna head home. You staying kid?” she asked. After a moment of slight hesitation, Tony nodded.

“Alright then, see you tomorrow, remember to lock up before you sleep.” Nell instructed with a smile, getting up from where she was leaning to grab her bike keys.

“Aye aye captain.” came Tony's response as Nell grinned and strode out of her shop.

Chapter Text

Just as Grue had warned, a cold spell hit the city not too long after. While Nell was initially concerned for Tony, it soon became clear that practically won out over stubborn pride as Tony began staying the night in her shop more often than not.

And so began a brand new rhythm, similar to the last but ever so slightly different. Instead of Nell arriving to an empty shop every morning, she would instead find Tony snoring on her couch or blearily polishing his sword in the corner of the room, a morning ritual she had come to learn.

Tony would continue her translation work from morning to the afternoon, while the late afternoons were now taken up by weapons testing in Bobby’s back alley, with Nell tagging along sometimes to observe and take notes.

Of course, being a merc for hire, Tony didn’t always stick to the schedule, often disappearing for a few days to take on whatever odd jobs Enzo threw at him, and reappearing at random times of the day.

This odd schedule was why Nell was not surprised one afternoon to find Tony lazing on her couch, reading one of her old Umbran texts, despite having been missing that morning.

“How the job go?” She asked casually as she dumped her keys on the workbench.

“Meh… just a couple of lesser demons, didn’t even have to bring out the guns for them.” Tony responded, barely raising his head from the text to respond.

After a few more minutes where Nell settled down to begin her work, Tony piped up from the couch, “Hey Nell… would you mind testing something out with me later today?”.

“Oh? What's this about?” Nell asked curiously, looking up at Tony.

“It’s something I found in one of your texts…” Tony shrugged, twisting around and getting up from the couch to take his own place at the bench. “We’re also going to need some rubber bullets.” He added on while pulling his half done translation from yesterday towards himself.

Nell raised an eyebrow at Tony sceptically. “And why would we need that Mr. ‘I can make bullets appear from thin air’?”

“Because I won’t be the one firing the gun, uh duh.” Tony replied with a cheeky smirk as Nell raised a hand to swat at his head.

“Wait, so I’m going to be firing a gun? I thought that's what I hired you for.” Nell snorted.

“Well yeah but it's going to be kinda hard to fire a gun at myself you know.” Tony threw out casually.

Nell felt her eye twitch as she stared at Tony with an incredulous look on her face.

“And why, pray tell, is ANYONE firing a gun at you.” she demanded.

Tony blinked at her suddenly serious tone, looking up to meet her eyes. “Well… I was going to explain later when we got to Bobby’s…”

“No no no. If you want my help you're explaining now.” Nell said, flailing her arms about in exacerbation.

“Ok ok jeez.” Tony said, raising his arms in mock surrender. “Did you read the translations I passed you yesterday?” He asked.

“Not yet… why?” Nell asked, opening the bench drawer to retrieve said translations.

“Well that explains a lot.” Tony said while making a face, while Nell quickly scanned through the papers in her hands.

“Witch time? You found a manual on witch time!?” Nell exclaimed with wide eyes, turning to stare at Tony.

“Yep!” Tony said with a grin. “Cool isn’t it?”

“Cool? Cool doesn’t even cover it kid! This is priceless! A lost Umbran art! The key to a witch's power!” Nell exclaimed giddily.

“Yeah well… unfortunately it's probably going to stay lost.” Tony said with a shrug, while Nell flipped through the translations again, reading it in much more detail. “A few pages in the middle are missing… the pages that explain the mechanics behind witch time in the first place.”

“Damn… you’re right.” Nell cursed, flipping between the middle pages where the texts abruptly cut off.

“From what’s left of the text, and from what I remember, I figured that the fundamentals of witch time is energy redirection.” Tony mused, twirling a finger in the air. “A witch absorbs the energy generated by their enemies' attack to cast a spell of speed on themselves, increasing their movements and perception of time so much so that everything else around them seems to slow down. The closer the enemy gets, the more energy a witch can absorb to lengthen the duration of their spell.”

Tony then pointed at the text in Nells hands. “The translations cut off right as it began explaining how to cast the speed spell, but the pages containing instructions about energy absorption are still mostly intact.” Nell flipped to those pages, humming at him to go on.

“Well, based on those pages, I came up with a theory.” Tony began drumming his fingers on the desk with a contemplative look on his face. “What if I can replicate the beginnings of the spell, the absorption of the energy, as a block instead of a dodge? To concentrate all my power for just an instance right before an attack to block it fully, and steal that energy as my own? If I can block precisely enough, and gather enough energy, I can release it all in one big attack, literally using my opponent's strength against them.”

Nells mouth fell open with an ‘o’ shape. “So that's why you want someone to fire a gun at you?”

“You realise that if your timing is just a fraction of a second off you would be leaving yourself wide open to an attack right?” She asked with a massive frown on her face. “This is also with the huge assumption that you can even pull off such a block in the first place, AND successfully store that energy.”

“Yeah well, it's just a theory.” Tony muttered, twiddling his thumbs. “That's why I wanted to test it out with you. Unless you don’t want to…”

Nell looked at his dejected expression, and sighed in defeat. “Better testing it with me and a rubber bullet then out there with the demons I guess.”

Tony immediately brightened up with a smile. “Really? You’ll do it?”

Nell groaned, rubbing her face tiredly. “I can’t believe I’m saying this but yes. I’m really going to shoot you with a gun. BUT” she raised a finger in Tony's direction threateningly, “If anything, ANYTHING AT ALL goes wrong, I’m calling this whole thing off. Got it?”

“You got it.” Tony said with a toothy grin. “Can we go now?” He asked with an excited look on his face.

“Alright… go get the bike, I’ll find the gun.” Nell said. Tony whooped as he grabbed his guitar case and dashed out of the shop.

A quick ride later and Tony and Nell were back in the alley behind Bobby’s. As Nell nervously checked the gun, double and triple confirming that it was indeed rubber bullets in the chamber, Tony walked to the far end of the car park, slinging off his guitar case to place at the side before getting into position.

“Ready?” He called over to Nell. Nell nodded, sliding the magazine of the gun back in place.

“Cool!” Tony grinned. “Count me down Nell!” He yelled before sliding into a lowered stance, all previous joking put aside as a look of intense concentration came over his face.

“Alright kid, get ready! Firing on three!” Nell called.

“One!” Nell yelled, taking a deep breath and steadying her aim.

“Two!” She cocked the safety down and hovered her finger over the trigger.

“Three!” She pushed on the trigger and fired a single shot straight towards Tony.

As the bullet sored towards him, Tony made no attempts to move. Dread built up in Nells gut, as it looked like the bullet was going to hit Tony right in the chest.

Just as she was about to call out in alarm, at the absolute very last second, Tony suddenly swung his arms up, placing one hand horizontally up in front of his face, and the other vertically at his waist. A flash of white light and a loud CLASH echoed across the car park as the bullet collided with Tony’s arm.

As Nell looked on in shock, the rubber bullet cluttered onto the floor, leaving a perfectly unscathed Tony standing right in front of it, with his arms still up in that weird defensive posture. After a beat, Tony suddenly slid out of his stance with a cheer. “WOO HOO!” he yelled, leaping into the air with joy as he bounded towards Nell. “Did you see? Did you see? It worked!” He yelled, stopping right before Nell to grin at her.

“Holy shit…” Nell muttered in disbelief. “Holy shit! It actually, really, worked!”

“Of course it worked!” Tony teased with a smile. “After all it was my idea.” He puffed out his chest proudly as he said that.

“Hey, don’t get cheeky with me mister.” Nell chortled with a wide smile on her face as she reached out to ruffle his hair affectionately, still slightly jittery with nervous energy.

“Can we go again?” Tony asked excitedly, barely able to contain his energy as he bounced on his heels.

“Give my poor heart a minute to calm down you little menace.” Nell exclaimed with an exaggerated groan, squatting down to rest her head on her arms, gun held loosely in her grip.

“Fine…” Tony pouted, sprawling down onto the floor next to Nell, placing his hands behind his back to look up at the sky.

After a few minutes of peaceful silence, Tony suddenly piped up, “After this do you think we can test out a few more of my other theories?”.

Nell felt her eye twitch for the second time today as she asked carefully, “What kind of theories? Because I don’t think testing your theories is very good for my long term health” she snorted.

“Don’t worry so much you fuddy duddy.” Tony responded, which earned him a smack on the back of the head. “None of the rest involve shooting me if that makes you feel better?”

Nell heaved a huge sigh. “Fine… lay it on me.”

Tony grinned excitedly, sitting upright as he scrambled to explain his other ideas, Nell listening attentively at his side with a fond smile on her face.

Chapter Text

“You, are a goddamn wizard Nell.” Grue said in an only semi jokingly fashion.

“It’s not that hard to convince him to crash at the shop once I got the idea in his head that he was doing me a favour.” Nell snorted into her drink. “Sides, stubborn teenage boys will be stubborn teenage boys no matter where or when, and I had plenty of experience.”

Grue’s smile turned gentle as he said “He reminds you of Rock, doesn’t he.”

“Yeah… a little.” Nell confessed quietly as she sighed. “When I look at Tony I guess I see Rock, and how I hope he grew up.”

“A little piece of shit?” Grue asked with a cheeky grin.

Nell slapped him on the arm with a scowl. “Oh please, as if my Rock could be half the trouble magnet Tony is.”

“No… I hope he grew up to be strong. ” She said with a small smile. “Strong enough to stand up for himself, and for those around him.”

“Most of all” she sighed. “I hope he’s happy.”

“I still don’t get why you don’t go and see him.” Grue muttered, taking a swing of his own drink. “I know you're divorced and all but he's still your son and you obviously love him. Heck you named your shop ‘.45 Calibre Art Warks’ instead of ‘Works’ because of a spelling mistake he made when he was five.”

“It's complicated…” Nell groaned into her arms. “Roy doesn’t want to see me… he made that perfectly clear.”

“But I’ll bet you my right arm that Rock does.” Grue prompted. “Go to him. Take it as advice from one parent to another.”

“Maybe…” Nell conceded, fiddling with her glass. “I don’t even know where they are even staying nowadays.”

Grue gave a sigh of defeat. Recognising that this line of conversation is likely over, he turned around and dug around his bag, pulling out a package and setting it on the table before Nell.

“Well, as promised, here's your commission.”

“Oh thanks!” Nell responded, perking up immediately from her contemplative mood as she took the package and unwrapped it.

“So… what kinda project are you working on that you needed two blessed portraits and demonic wood for anyway.” Grue asked. “Because these were NOT easy to find.”

“I’m working on a little something for Tony, something that can stand up to his crazy trigger finger.” Nell responded, nodding satisfiedly at the package and tucking it into her jacket. “I have a theory that if I mix both angelic and demonic materials alongside human metal, I can create a balance of energies stable enough to take whatever magic he throws at it.”

“Cool.” Grue replied, clearly not following but happy at Nells enthusiasm.

Suddenly, a hush fell over the bar. Nell blinked, surprised, as she turned around to see what was going on.

A man with bandages swathed across his entire head swept into the bar, like a predator prowling across a field. As he passed by the tables, every hunter averted their eyes, looking down at their drinks or at the decor in feigned interest. A few even got up and scurried out of the bar, giving the strange bandaged man a wide berth as they do.

Eventually, the man settled down in a booth in an isolated corner in the back, and the bar’s patrons slowly resumed their conversations.

Nell turned back to Grue with a raised eyebrow, jerking her head towards the man.

“That's Gilver.” Grue muttered under his breath, clearly sensing Nells question. “He rolled up into town last night and asked to fight the strongest hunter in town. Naturally Tony took him up on it.”

“That bullheaded brat.” Nell groaned. “Did he win?”

Grue made a face. “Kind of? Bobby wouldn’t let them fight in the bar so it became a drinking contest. Turns out our mysterious new guest is a lightweight and passed out after barely one drink.”

“Hm…” Nell hummed thoughtfully. “If that's all then why's everyone in the bar acting so jumpy around him.”

“Well, because there's just something off about him.” Grue said with a grimace. “Like there's a chill around the air whenever he's around…. Tony thinks he’s fine, but I got a bad feeling about him Nell, you should watch yourself.”

Nell nodded, downing her drink and sliding out of the booth. “Thanks for the heads up and for the package Grue. I’ll keep it in mind. See you around ok?”

Grue gave her a quick wave as she ducked out of Bobby’s, a shiver running involuntarily down her spine as she felt a pair of cold eyes bare into the back of her head from the corner of the bar.

Back at her shop, Nell shrugged off her jacket and retrieved her package, placing it down on her workbench next to a twin pair of silver and black gun barrels she was already working on.

As she settled down to begin assembling the pieces, she paused as something prompted her to open her desk drawer and pull out an old framed photo.

Rocks face beamed back at her as she carefully caressed the picture frame, smiling nostalgically and sadly as she thought back to the last time she saw her darling son.

After a moment of hesitation, she placed the picture on her desk carefully and picked up her phone.

“Hey… yeah it's Nell. I need you to look someone up again. Their names? Roy and Rock Goldstein.”

Chapter Text

It was a rather busy day at the Devil May Cry office. Vergil had discovered a series of old catacombs beneath the city from one of the various texts he studied. When he and Dante went down to investigate, they discovered a huge collection of occult texts and artefacts, alongside a healthy number of demons.

Given the scale of the catacombs, Nero and Nico had driven in from Fortuna to help out, with Nero leaving with the twins and the ladies to clear out the demons, while Nico stayed behind to take inventory. At the moment, Nico was squatting on the floor of the Devil May Cry office beside mountains of demon parts and dusty texts, attempting to organise them into some semblance of order.

Morrison was at Dantes desk, speaking on the phone to his various contacts warning them of potential leakages of demonic activity onto the streets and directing hunters to them.

As Nico heaved out a bored sigh, randomly tossing another amulet into a growing pile of oddities, she couldn’t help but groan, rocking back on her heels to sit on the floor, sprawling down to lie on her back as Morrision raised an amused eyebrow in her direction.

“Hey Morrison.” Nico drawled from the floor. “I have a question.”

Morrison hung up the latest call he was on with a quick goodbye before turning to look in her direction. “What's up?”

“You were part of Grue’s Cellar back when it was still called Bobby’s right?” She asked, sitting up with crossed legs, propping her head up on her hands.

“That's right.” Morrision replied, lighting a cigarette as he responded and taking a drag. Seeing that, Nico made grabby hand in Morrisons direction with a pleading look on her face. Morrision simply responded with a smirk and another drag.

As Nico pouted on the floor, Morrison continued. “I rolled into town pretty late in the game. Barely had a solid information network going before the tragedy that took Grue and Nells life.” At that, both Morrison and Nicos expressions turned sombre.

“It was a lucky break on my part I suppose that Dantes old informant decided to skip town after everything went down. I managed to talk Dante into working for me, and set him up here in this office. The rest is as they say history.”

Nico looked at Morrison with questioning eyes. “So… do you know any stories about my grandmother?” she asked casually, but her eyes betrayed her eagerness.

“Your grandmother Nell huh…” Morrison mused. “Unfortunately I’ve only heard of her in passing. She died not too long after I joined up at Bobby’s Cellar. From what I’ve heard she was a prodigy at gunsmithing, with a healthy dose of both natural talent and hard work.” He paused to take a drag as Nico leaned in with interest, work completely forgotten and abandoned on the floor.

“Almost every hunter in the city was clamouring for her work, but she was always very selective about her clientele. Had a mighty scary information network of her own that she would use to screen all of her potential customers, and she would turn down any work from more unsavoury sources.”

“She was also very reclusive. Hardly ever left her shop for anything and wouldn't let many people in. The one exception was Tony.” At Nicos confused look, Morrison quickly clarified, “Thats the name Dante was going by back then.” Nico nodded, queuing Morrison to continue.

“I remember that the two of them were thick as thieves. Dante was Nells go to hunter for any commissions, and he would also often be seen hanging out in her shop all day. Nell also had an unusually soft spot for Dante, she would always have a spare pair of pistols ready for him when he inevitably broke his current pair in battle.”

“Woah…” Niceo said with wide eyes. “I had known that Dante and Nell had worked together, but I never knew they were so tight.”

“That they were.” Morrison chuckled, before continuing with a sad look on his face, “A great pity what happened… From what I heard Dante was the last to see Nell alive when he tried to save her from the fire that burned down her shop.”

“Do you… do you think he’d have more stories of Nell?” Nico twiddled her thumbs nervously. “The only things I know are all from what Rock told me, but Rock only knew Nell from when he was a baby. Most all he talked about was how great of a gunsmith she was. I want to know more, I want to know what Nell was like as a person, not just as a gunsmith.”

Morrision opened his mouth to respond when suddenly the phone rang. He held up a finger, signalling Nico to hold that thought as he picked it up.

“Devil May Cry… Uh huh… That was quick. Alright then I’ll send out the all clear… Bye.” He hung up the phone and turned back to Nico.

“Well looks like your going to get to ask your questions in person. That was Nero on the phone. Looks like they cleared out the catacombs and are heading back now.”

Just as he finished saying that, a cerulean gash appeared in the middle of the room as a portal was slashed into life. Out of the portal stepped Vergil, in mid argument with Dante who had his arms slung across his twins shoulders.

“… that last kill definitely counted as three!” Dante exclaimed loudly, flailing his spare arms around as Vergil had a look of clear disdain plastered on his face.

“And as I told you the past 3 times, killing a shadows duplicates does NOT count as a kill.”

“But the shadow won’t die unless you kill the duplicates! Ergo they count.” Dante rebutted, lifting his arms off Vergil's shoulders to stand in front of him face to face, with a challenging grin on his face.

As the twins continued to squabble, Nero stumbled in behind them with an utterly exhausted expression. He made it two steps before collapsing on the couch.

“Urg….” He groaned. “They’ve been like this for the past FOUR HOURS.” He yelled the last part pointedly in Dante and Virgil's direction.

The two didn’t even acknowledge Nero, their attention focused purely on their argument.

Nico reached up to pet Nero sympathetically as he flopped over to swing an arm across his eyes.

“Well I hate to break up this clearly very important discussion, but if you could spare a few minutes Dante the little lady has a question for you.” Morrision piped up.

Dante paused to look at Morrison then at Nico questioningly. Vergil simply frowned, clearly unhappy that their argument was cut short, but tactful enough to not say anything.

“We will continue this later brother.” Vergil growled menacingly, crossing his arms to lean against the pool table. Dante just laughed as he waved him off.

“Alright Nico, so you got questions for me?” Dante prompted, heading for the couch. “Scootch over kid.” He said, making shooing gestures with his arms. Nero simply flipped him off with his spare hand, not moving an inch. Dante raised an eyebrow before shrugging, heading over to the desk to perch against it.

“Wha… uh… yeah!” Nico scrambled to say, clearly still starstruck by Dante. Nero heaved an even louder groan as Nico shot him a dirty look.

“Well, shoot.” Dante said curiously.

“Yes sir! Mr Dante sir!” Nico stammered, before taking a deep breath to calm her pounding heart. “Um… Morrision said that you might have some stories about my grandmother that you could share.”

At that, Dantes face turned a little sad. Vergil noticed the shift in his twin's mood immediately, glancing at Dante with an indistinguishable look on his face before glaring at Nico as if she had personally wronged him. Even Nero lifted his arms to glance at Dante curiously.

Nico ignored both of them, her attention solely on Dante who scratched his chin thoughtfully as he pondered his answer.

“Yeah… yeah I definitely have stories. What do you want to know?” he responded.

“EVERYTHING!” Nico exclaimed, slapping her hands against the floor with thinly veiled excitement. “How did you guys meet? How’d she end up making guns for you? What was she like?”

“Woah woah, slow down Nico.” Dante laughed, raising his hands in mock surrender. “Let me think… I met Nell when my friend Grue gave me the address to her shop. At the time I think I was trying to sell her some spare demon parts for cash, but she didn’t believe that a scrawny teen was a demon hunter and turned me away.”

“Wait really? So what did you do.” Nico asked.

“I took her biggest and toughest commission just to prove her wrong.” Dante responded with a grin. “And it worked! Though she did yell at me for a bit for trekking mud into her shop.”

Vergil's eyes twitched at that, clearly displeased at his brother’s cavalier attitude towards hygiene. Nico just nodded enthusiastically while Dante continued.

“After that we formed a business partnership. She’d send most of her demon hunting commissions my way and I also helped her out as a translator and weapons tester for a while.”

“Translator?” Nero asked, lifting himself upright, clearly invested in the conversation.

“Yeah, turns out Nell was a massive fan of the Umbran Witches and had a whole library of texts about them. Problem is, she couldn’t read most of em as they were in Enochian. So she offered me money to translate them for her.”

“Enochian?” Nero said with a frown. “What's that?”

“The language of angels.” Vergil responded, shooting Dante a complicated look. “Every Umbran Witch would have known it as it was the basis of most of their spells. Our mother taught us a little as children, but I didn’t expect you to still remember…” he trailed off.

Dante shot him a lopsided smile tinged with regret and sadness. “Yeah… my Enochian wasn’t the best but I knew enough to translate most of the basic texts. Sides, Nell wouldn’t take no for an answer.” He chuckled.

“Nell was also the one who taught me how to shoot and gave me my first pair of handguns.” Dante continued with a nostalgic look on his face. “She would also be the one who replaced my pistols whenever they broke.”

“Wait, why would you even need replacements? How often do you even break your pistols.” Nero said with a frown.

“Like every other week.” Dante laughed. “Turns out human guns ain’t cut out for demonically charged bullets, and unlike you kid, Nell and I didn’t exactly have access to an island of resources on how to make guns that were.” Nero’s face turned contemplative at that. “Huh, guess there were some benefits from growing up in the Order of the Sword.” he mused.

“Well good for you Nero but the rest of us had to figure this stuff out from scratch.” Dante snorted. Nero made a face at that but didn’t comment.

“Nell would always scold me for breaking her ‘babies’ but would always have a spare handy just for me.” Dante reminisced with a smile. “Eventually, she got a better grasp of my powers and made me these.” At that Dante drew Ebony and Ivory from their holsters, glancing down at them with a fond smile.

“It was the last thing she did, giving me these guns…” Dantes face fell at that, exhaustion and sadness flirted across his face as he placed Ebony and Ivory back in their holsters, crossing his arms and heaving a great sigh.

“What did Rock tell you about her death?” He asked Nico quietly.

Nico swallowed, wetting her lips before saying timidly, “Well… he wasn’t quite sure how she died. By the time uncle Rock tracked her down she was already dead. The informants he hired told him that she was killed by a bounty hunter who also burned down her shop… Gilver?”

Dante nodded, closing his eyes as if in pain. “Gilver… that's a name I haven’t heard in an age.” He opened his eyes again and refocused on Nico. “It was my fault that Nell died… Gilver… Gilver was an agent of Mundus sent to kill me. Nell was just collateral in his attempt to get to me.” He muttered bitterly.

“Who was he?” Nico asked, her fists clenched at her sides.

Dante shot a nervous glance in Vergil's direction, which did not go unnoticed. Vergil straightened up, looking at Dante with his brows furrowed in question and concern.

“Gilver was a homunculus, a prototype I suppose of the technique that was eventually used to create Trish.” Dante said carefully. “At the time, Mundus had no idea that there were two sons of Sparda running around. While I stayed relatively lowkey and out of sight to him, Vergil on the other hand was much more exposed and had more clashes against Mundus’s minions.”

Vergil nodded slowly at that declaration, his grip on Yamato tightening slightly.

“Well, Mundus used the experience gathered by all the demons that clashed against us to create Gilver. As most of those experiences were of Vergil, Gilver was in essence a clone of Vergil.” Dante revealed with a wince.

Nero's head shot up in surprise, as he turned his gaze at the man in question. Vergil said nothing, his lips pressed into a thin line as his grip on Yamayo tightened so much that his knuckles turned white.

“Honestly, other than the way he looked he didn’t act much like me or Vergil.” Dante said with a shrug, his eyes lingering on Vergils who returned his attention with a flat look. “The first few times we clashed he had his face completely wrapped in bandages. It was only when he took them off that I realised what he was.”

He then hesitated before saying in a tiny voice, “Knowing he was a demon didn’t make killing something wearing my big brother's face any easier though.”

Vergil startled at that, looking at Dante with wide eyes. Dante shrugged with a strained smile. “Wasn’t easy any of the times I had to do it.” He confessed, keeping eye contact with Vergil who looked away, clearly uncomfortable at Dante's blunt declaration.

Nero shifted uncomfortably in his seat at the tense air in the room as Nicos eyes darted between the twins like she was watching a particularly interesting tennis match. Morrison took the chance to stamp out his cigarette, clearly unwilling to be the one to break the silence either.

Eventually Dante tore his eyes away from his brother's face and back to Nico. “So yeah… that's basically the gist of it…” he shrugged. “Nell… Nell was extraordinary. Not just as a gunsmith but as a person. Not many would give a street rat with a record a chance, but she did. Probably saved my life along the way.” He then shot her a grin. “I see a lot of her in you.”

“Woah…” Nico responded faintly, obviously trying to digest all this new information..

Dante took the chance to glance at his twin who was lost in thought, likely trying to shift through his fragmented memories, and frowned. “Well… I think that's all I can take for this trip down memory lane.” Dante proclaimed, getting up from the desk. He looked to Vergil and jerked his head towards the stairs, clearly wanting to talk to him in private. Vergil nodded, heading up the stairs without a second glance at the rest of the room.

As Dante turned towards the stairs as well, he threw a quick word behind his shoulders. “Hey Nico, if you ever want to know more about Nell don’t hesitate to ask. You of all people deserve to know… and for what it's worth, I think she’d be proud of you.”

A grin split across Nicos face. “Thanks. I’m definitely taking you up on that.”

Dante nodded in her direction and gave a careless wave farewell to the room as he sauntered his way up the stairs behind Vergil, disappearing around the bend.

“Well that was enlightening.” Morrison mused, as he too pushed his way up from the desk, grabbing his hat along the way and placing it back on his head. “I got to run, promised to meet some of my contacts soon. I’ll see you kiddos around.”

“Bye J.D.” Nico waved, while Nero grumbled under his breath, “Not a kid… why does everyone keep calling me that.”

“Just face it Nero, in this crew we’re the babies. Instead of complaining, embrace it.” Nico said with a grin, scooting back across the floor to continue her cataloguing.

Nero just groaned, sliding onto the floor next to Nico to help out as Nico elbowed him in the side good naturedly.

“Hey, why don’t you bring out your demon arms?” she snickered. “Three pairs of hands are better than two.” She wiggled her eyebrows at Nero.

“Wha? No way Nico.” Nero exclaimed with a scowl, tossing a book into the correct pile. “I’d probably end up accidentally ripping most of these in half.”

“Eh… worth a shot.” Nico shrugged.

They continued to work in silence, the pile of unorganised artefacts shrinking much faster then when it was just Nico alone.

“So… Your grandmother and Dante huh…” Nero said quietly. “How are you feeling about all that?”

“Surprised? Happy?” Nico shrugged. “All this conversations done is made me even more determined to reach my goals.”

“Goals? You mean you have goals besides getting drunk off your ass and driving into demons like a mad woman?” Nero asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Hey! I take offence to that, I was saving your sorry ass.” Nico said with a look of mock offence before a serious and contemplative look came over her. “No, my goal is to surpass Nell. I’m going to be THE best gunsmith in the world and carry on her legacy. Both her and my uncle Rock, and when that day comes, I’ll finally get to claim the title of .45 Calibre Virtuoso.”

Nero gave a low whistle. “Damn, you're actually serious about this.” He sat quietly for a minute, leaning back on his arms and staring up at the ceiling.

“You gonna laugh at me or something?” Nico asked pointedly.

“Nah… nah you got this.” Nero finally said, tilting his head back down to grin at Nico. “I don’t know about Nell but as far as I’m concerned you’re already the best gunsmith in this generation. All you gotta do is prove what I already know to the world.”

“Aww shucks… you’re gonna make me cry Nero.” Nico teased with a blush, but she was beaming from ear to ear hearing her best friend's support.

Nero looked around the pile of artefacts around then, eyes zeroing in on a pair of goblets as he grabbed them and tossed one to Nico.

“To the future.” He proclaimed with an over exaggerated posh accent, raising the goblet in the air for a toast.

“To the future.” Nico agreed with a giggle, clinking her goblet against Neros. “And to Nell Goldstein.”