Dante did a pass through Devil May Cry. Claire and Sherry were fast asleep in the room Patty used when she stayed over. The Spy woman was pretending to sleep in his bed, but he knew she was awake and cataloguing everything she was seeing. The reporter was passed out on the couch, with the chair that had been set up with a blanket and pillows empty.
Yeah, Dante figured there would be one of the refugees who wasn't getting any sleep. And a lucky guess found him on the roof, staring at the stars in the sky.
"I've been there, you know." Dante offered, leaning against the small planters on the roof wall next to Leon. "I mean, I've always known i wasn't normal, but Dad wasn't in my life, and Mom died before telling me what we were."
"We?" Leon asked.
"Had a brother, I mentioned him earlier."
"Right. Identical twins, identical DNA. Sorry." Leon shook his head.
"It's been a bad few days," Dante said gently. "I know I didn't take the revelation that I was part demon well. Much less finding out my father was a demon of legend."
"Were those being you killed also demons?"
It didn't take a detective to notice Leon was steering the conversation away from their shared heritage. Well, fine for now. Kid had a lot to redefine in his head, let him do it at his own pace.
"Nah, while the comparison could be made, Malefactors are different. They're basically incarnations of violent deaths. They only manifest in places of mass death and suffering and mindlessly act out the deaths they represent. The ones in the town were death by starvation, that's why they were drawn in by the constantly hungry zombies in Raccoon, and why they ate every living thing in that town. Then the bomb dropping created some Death By Radiation Malefactors, which is why they were moving outward to spread their radiation trail as far as the could. There's also ones based on burning, decapitation, hanging, heck I think I even saw a police brutality one the last time I was in Baltimore-"
"But, the leader in the village wasn't mindless. He knew I was related to Sparda. He offered to pay me to take the Wasters." Leon's hand ghosted to the blue crystal dagger on his belt.
"He was probably a hybrid." Dante sighed.
"Like us?" Leon asked in a small voice.
"Not like us," Dante insisted. "We're born what we are, and we choose what to do with it. Malefactors can't...procreate. All they can do is spread death. But sometime a human becomes so obsessed with a particular form of death that they can draw unmanifested Malefactors to them. And when they die their soul mergers with them to create a thinking Malefactor, albeit one who's still obsessed with causing a particular kind of death. Malefactor hybrids may have been human once, but you don't become one without killing a whole lot of people."
Leon was quiet, staring off the roof for a while, then -almost too softly for Dante to hear "Do you ever stop feeling like a monster?"
Hoo boy. "It comes and it goes." Dante admitted. "There are times I feel like just another guy - listened to music, enjoying my favorite food at my favorite diner. There are time I'm happy and proud of what I am. My Dad, despite being a fully fledged demon, was a hero. And I can use this strength and power to protect others too. But yeah, there are bad times too. Times when I remember that no matter how much I identify with humans, I'm not one. That I'm a monster."
Leon shrunk in on himself.
"Crap." Dante ran his hand down his face. "I'm screwing this up, aren't I? I'm sorry, Leon. If I could-"
The door to the roof slammed open revealing a slender woman with long blonde hair wearing skintight black leather. "Where is my nibling, Dante‽"
"Christ, Trish. People are sleeping!"
"Don't care. Nibling now." Trish strode over to Leon and without hesitation picked him up under his arms like he was a small child. "Oh yeah, he's yours."
Dante facepalmed. "Leon, meet your Aunt Trish."
"Dante, why did I learn about my nibling from Patty and not you?" Trish demanded, still looking Leon over.
"Godammit Patty," Dante grumbled. "Because I knew you'd burst in here and people are trying to sleep." Dante reiterated. "They just survived Raccoon City and ran straight into a nest of Gorgers. They need some rest."
"The mercenary in your bedroom isn't sleeping," Trish pointed out.
"She doesn't feel safe enough to yet. She will." Dante sighed.
"Will he be staying here?" Trish asked.
"If he wants. He's old enough to decide for himself." Dante pointed out.
"For now yes. I need to understand more about what I am and what I can do." Leon allowed. "I don't know if I'll be staying permanently."
"That's fine. I don't stay here permanently either. But Lady and I will be staying in town for a bit to help with your training. It will be bonding time."
"He's mostly human." Dante reminded her. "You can't go as hard on him as you do one me."
"You're staying here?" A small voice came from the building.
"For now." Leon reiterated.
"Then I'm staying too!" Sherry insisted. "Me and Claire!"
"Claire can't stay." Leon explained gently. "She still needs to find her brother. And I'm staying because I'm not sure how safe it is for me to be around normal humans."
"It should be safe as long as your not fighting them." Trish stated.
"Not sure if that's true." Dante admitted. "Vergil and I caused a lot of damage to the house growing up till we learned some restraint."
"You know restraint?" Trish asked, causing Dante to roll his eyes.
"No!" Sherry insisted. "I just lost my parents! I don't want my new family to be torn apart."
"It's not tearing apart." Dante lowered himself next to her. "You know the room you're staying in? It belongs to a girl a little older than you named Patty Lowell. She was thought to be an orphan when I met her. Her father had died and her Mom was presumed dead. She stayed with me a bit, but eventually I found and rescued her Mom. Thought that would be the end of it. But her Mom? Well, she'd been through a lot as a prisoner and there were times when she knew she couldn't take the best care of her daughter. So she asked if Patty could stay here sometimes."
"So sometimes she lives here, and sometimes she lives with her Mom. But even when she's here, she and her Mom are still family and love each other very much. And if Claire has to find her brother, she's probably going somewhere dangerous. But I can see if Patty wouldn't mind a roommate sometimes, at least until Claire comes back." Dante winked.
"I can stay here with Leon?" Sherry asked excitedly. "And if you're Leon's Dad, does that make you my Grandpa?"
Dante sputtered and Trish cackled.
"I am not becoming a father and grandfather in the same day." Dante declared. He glanced and saw the frozen look on Leon's face. His son seemed a little panicky at the thought too. "Maybe Leon's more of a big brother?"
Sherry looked deep in thought. "I've never had a brother before."
Shortly after being named an official Guardian of patty by Nina when she realized she needed help, Dante entered what would be known as the Redgrave Agreement with the government. The agreement stated that Dante would not work against the interests of the United States and would even help them on certain issues for a discounted fee, and in return no government agent would harm or abduct those Dante has deemed his family.
At the time of the Agreement, this only applied to Trish, Patty, and Nina. Leon was automatically grandfathered into to it as Dante's biological son. Hence, any attempt to strong arm him into government service was stopped when Dante asked if they were breaking the Redgrave Agreement.
Sherry wouldn't be officially factored into it until Nina formally adopted her, leading to them keeping who had custody of her a secret until that point. (Simmons still tried to abduct her for a blood sample while Leon was in Spain. Auntie Trish was keeping watch. The evens of RE6 never happened)
Family friends, however, are not covered in the Redgrave Agreement. This includes Mary 'Lady' Akham, Ada Wong, Jill Valentine, Barry Burton, Rebecca Chambers, and the Redfield siblings. (MAYBE Billy. Dunno if he's going to appear in this). But it's also understood that if something happens to one of them, a Redgrave will probably come looking.
Nero was a hard choice, as announcing him as Dante's nephew should cover him under the Redgrave Agreement. But announcing he's Virgil's kid would also bring a lot of bad attention to him.
