[Saying that Vergil didn't expect that question feels like more than a little bit of an understatement. He tried to lighten the mood by throwing Dante an easy thing to get on Vergil's case about. Something to easily distract from the parts of their lives that neither one of them really want to think about. The silence that follows is a little troubling, but Vergil's prepared to take it as a sign he should stop while he's ahead. Dante moved himself into a space where Vergil can't see him, and he isn't taking the easy bait. That's more than enough to signal that Vergil should let him be and busy himself instead with reading or perhaps starting dinner so it will be ready by the time Nero returns home. His expression is nearly faded entirely when Dante throws him a curveball though in asking about their father, another topic that neither one of them are particularly good in talking about with the other without it devolving into an argument.]
[Swallowing thickly, he answers quietly and softly,] Yes.
[Vergil doesn't know if he should say more or not. He wishes he could see Dante now to gauge it better, but... Then again, would Dante even listen to him regardless of his mood? Any other time the matter of Sparda comes up, Dante is quick to dismiss what Vergil has to say. Vergil's not stupid. He knows Dante thinks it is nothing but blind hero worship, but that's not it for Vergil. He could never blindly hero worship anyone, not even their father. Vergil knows their father was strong. And he loved them and their mother more than anything in the world. But Vergil also knows he wasn't there when they needed him. Something took him away from them. Vergil's certain their mother knew why he left even if she never told Vergil and Dante. Why else would she never speak anything of him as being anything less than the noble knight of his legend when she could have just as easily not said anything at all? Whatever her feelings about the chance he might not return or whatever heartbreak and grief she felt when he did not, she clearly understood their father's reason for leaving and implicitly condoned it one way or another.]
I know you hate him, Dante, but he... [Vergil looks away from the divider towards the Yamato where Vergil left it propped near the front door. Speak father, speak to your little boy, or else I shall be lost. Vergil continues, although not with exactly what he was about to say.] If he was alive, he would have returned to us.
[And to his mother brought, who in sorrow pale, thro' the lonely dale, her little boy weeping sought.]
[Eva would still be alive. They would not have been separated, believing the other to have succumbed to the same attack that claimed their mother's life. Perhaps Vergil could have grown to be kinder, gentler than he is now. Dante would have fewer reasons to drink and be less insistent on handling matters on his own. Brothers would not be at great odds with one another, locked in battle after battle to the death. Nero would have grown up with a father. So much would and could be different if Sparda lived and they were together again.]
Or we would have found a trace of him by now.
[Assuming that Dante's most unkind, ungenerous thoughts of Sparda were true, and he had simply just not been there, abandoning them thoughtlessly. Somewhere in all of Vergil's searching for claiming his power would have proven some evidence he was still alive, somewhere out there. Surely he would have intervened with Temen-ni-gru being raised once more if not to stop his sons from their contests of strength then at least to protect his beloved humanity from the consequences of reopening the portal that he sealed. If something as extreme as that could not stir him to action, Vergil's only conclusion is, as it has been for years upon years, that their father is dead.]
cw: talk of death, child abandonment, attempted child murder
[Swallowing thickly, he answers quietly and softly,] Yes.
[Vergil doesn't know if he should say more or not. He wishes he could see Dante now to gauge it better, but... Then again, would Dante even listen to him regardless of his mood? Any other time the matter of Sparda comes up, Dante is quick to dismiss what Vergil has to say. Vergil's not stupid. He knows Dante thinks it is nothing but blind hero worship, but that's not it for Vergil. He could never blindly hero worship anyone, not even their father. Vergil knows their father was strong. And he loved them and their mother more than anything in the world. But Vergil also knows he wasn't there when they needed him. Something took him away from them. Vergil's certain their mother knew why he left even if she never told Vergil and Dante. Why else would she never speak anything of him as being anything less than the noble knight of his legend when she could have just as easily not said anything at all? Whatever her feelings about the chance he might not return or whatever heartbreak and grief she felt when he did not, she clearly understood their father's reason for leaving and implicitly condoned it one way or another.]
I know you hate him, Dante, but he... [Vergil looks away from the divider towards the Yamato where Vergil left it propped near the front door. Speak father, speak to your little boy, or else I shall be lost. Vergil continues, although not with exactly what he was about to say.] If he was alive, he would have returned to us.
[And to his mother brought, who in sorrow pale, thro' the lonely dale, her little boy weeping sought.]
[Eva would still be alive. They would not have been separated, believing the other to have succumbed to the same attack that claimed their mother's life. Perhaps Vergil could have grown to be kinder, gentler than he is now. Dante would have fewer reasons to drink and be less insistent on handling matters on his own. Brothers would not be at great odds with one another, locked in battle after battle to the death. Nero would have grown up with a father. So much would and could be different if Sparda lived and they were together again.]
Or we would have found a trace of him by now.
[Assuming that Dante's most unkind, ungenerous thoughts of Sparda were true, and he had simply just not been there, abandoning them thoughtlessly. Somewhere in all of Vergil's searching for claiming his power would have proven some evidence he was still alive, somewhere out there. Surely he would have intervened with Temen-ni-gru being raised once more if not to stop his sons from their contests of strength then at least to protect his beloved humanity from the consequences of reopening the portal that he sealed. If something as extreme as that could not stir him to action, Vergil's only conclusion is, as it has been for years upon years, that their father is dead.]