Nero the Sable

Nero the Sable (漆黒の闇ネロ, Shikkoku no Yami Nero, lit. "Nero the Pitch-Black Darkness") is an antagonist in Final Fantasy VII: Dirge of Cerberus. A very mysterious man who keeps to himself, Nero is the second in command of the Tsviets. He is also the only Tsviet whose power Weiss does not possess.

Appearance
Nero is a thin man with long, unkempt, black hair and red cat-like eyes (possibly caused as a result of using tainted Lifestream in his creation). Perhaps his most striking features are a mechanical pair of wings that spread from his back and the various restraints on his body. A mask, vaguely resembling a muzzle, obscures his mouth, while a strait-jacket covers his upper torso. Nero has the power of teleportation and fights with stylized handguns. He always has orbs of darkness that emanate and rotate around him. He speaks with a dry English accent.

Birth
Nero is the biological younger brother of Weiss and only successful test subject of the stagnant Mako experiments. The experiment itself was based on the Omega Reports left by Grimoire Valentine. Upon Nero's birth, a vortex absorbed his mother into another dimension. The scientists of Deepground discover Nero has power over darkness and confine him in a suit of Mako to contain his great power.

Nero, Weiss and Rosso continue their training and grow stronger over the years. Eventually, they are feared to be too strong to control and Nero's arms are bound to prevent him from using his hands to manifest his dark powers. Nero was then chained inside Mako Reactor 0.

Crisis Core -Final Fantasy VII-
Nero and Weiss are released and sent to retrieve Genesis Rhapsodos after he is defeated by Zack Fair. He and Weiss take Genesis's body away in a helicopter under secret orders from President Shinra. Weiss and Nero inform Genesis of the Deepground situation and ask him to join them in an upcoming rebellion against the Restrictors, but Genesis refuses.

Dirge of Cerberus -Final Fantasy VII-
Just before the events of Dirge of Cerberus, Weiss is taken over by the digitized mind of Professor Hojo. It is during this time, that Hojo (as Weiss) teaches to Nero "the secrets of rebirth" to bring about Omega. Nero learns of Lucrecia Crescent’s theorem of the planet's ultimate and final weapon, Omega, and its herald, Chaos. Nero orders the Tsviets and Deepground under his brother's name to make a pure stream of mako (in Hojo's own words; Lifestream untainted by either Jenova or G-Substance) and to search for the Protomateria to bring about and control Chaos. Shelke's findings of Lucrecia's data eventually lead to information about the ex-Turk, Vincent Valentine, whom the DGS were ordered to pursue.

Although not seen in Edge, it is likely that he was there, as a small group of WRO troops was sucked into darkness. Nero's first in-game appearance is not until the middle of the game while Vincent is searching in the abandoned Shinra Mansion. One of the Cait Sith robots encounters Nero in the very heart of the Deepground complex beneath Midgar, "Mako Reactor 0". Nero summons darkness to engulf Cait as he did to the soldiers in Edge.

He is next seen during the WRO assault of Midgar, where although he does not engage in the fighting with the ground assault, he discusses tactics with the Tsviet commanders. He teleports onto Cid Highwind's ship, the Shera, and wreaks havoc in the engine room by absorbing the engine room crew into darkness. Shelke enters the room and, after a conversation, they begin to fight. He dodges Shelke's attacks and tries to destroy her with the darkness.

He watches over Vincent as he progresses his way down through the Shinra building. He sees Chaos emerge from Vincent and as Nero teleports away, accidentally drops Shelke's mobile telephone, which allows Vincent to control Chaos again.

Vincent later encounters him deep within the Deepground complex, where they duel. Upon being defeated, he taunts Vincent about Shelke's fate and then tries to absorb Vincent into the darkness. As he turns to go, Vincent and Shelke unexpectedly appear from the darkness. He then realizes that Vincent is immune to the effects, as he has Chaos, "a soul wrought of terra corrupt" inside him. The "terra corrupt" is tainted Lifestream, the same substance from which Nero's darkness come from and which Chaos is fully born of. As he is about to question them, Yuffie intervenes by giving a speech. Slightly confused, Nero vanishes into a portal, insisting that his brother has called him.

He is finally encountered in Weiss's chamber, where, after Vincent and Yuffie find Weiss's seemingly lifeless body, he informs Vincent and the accompanying Yuffie of Weiss's rebirth and the start of Omega's awakening. The reactor then activates, briefly illuminating the chamber with blinding light. Vincent and Yuffie draw their weapons and attempt to attack Weiss. Nero, in a furious rage, sucks them and himself into darkness.

Upon exiting the darkness and finding that both Yuffie and Vincent were still very much alive, Nero comments to Vincent that "there are some things that cannot be absorbed by my darkness". Nero then transports Vincent into a hellish world with mysterious floating platforms and crystals above a pool of lava. Nero himself appears in a spider-like machine and is known as Arachnero. Eventually, the machine loses it's footing and plunges into the lava pit. In a scream of both agony and anguish, Nero blasts upwards in a pillar of fire. He floats down to a rock, and draws his guns, while Vincent clambers up to meet him. Then the battle with Gorgonero commences.

After the gunfight, Nero and Vincent return to Mako Reactor 0 where a fatigued Nero limps off to Weiss. Back in Weiss's chamber, Weiss has become 'reborn'. An excited Nero rushes over to Weiss and embraces him, begging him to never leave again. Weiss just sneers and tells Nero that he has no further use of him. Nero glares at him in disbelief. Weiss then plunges his hand into Nero's chest and throws him across the room. After it is revealed to Vincent that Hojo is in control of Weiss, Weiss and Vincent battle.

After losing the battle to Vincent, a shocked and confused Hojo wonders why Omega's power has begun to wane. Nero, in a spectral form, appears, and begs for his brother and him to become one, so that they'll never be parted again. When Hojo orders him to leave and stop polluting Omega, Nero merely ignores him. Weiss, now nearly free of Hojo's influence, agrees, and proceeds to hug Nero. Nero then fuses into Weiss, completely freeing him of Hojo's control. Weiss walks slowly towards the center of the Mako chamber, with the compulsion that he needs to bring about Omega, and vanishes in a ball of light.

Nero's actual fate is speculative. He is either in some form of existence inside of Weiss, or he may have been destroyed along with Hojo when Weiss entered in Omega, since they both were tainted beings.

Nero explains to Vincent Valentine that Weiss was the only one that ever loved him and Nero would only ever love Weiss.

Battle
Nero is fought as a boss at the end of Chapter 10. Two other forms, Arachnero and Gorgonero are fought in Chapter 11, one after the other.

Weapon
Nero's weapons of choice are guns (from their appearance, possibly handguns based on the real life IMI Desert Eagle), two of which are carried by him and used by his mechanical hands (on his mechanical wings), and two identical ones drawn from darkness which he uses with his real hands. He also has the power of darkness, gained from the Mako associated with the dark being Chaos, which he can use to transport people, objects, etc, or, indeed, absorb them into the darkness like a black hole and destroy them. While fighting him in the game, he is shown to be able to spin around using his wings as melee weapons, and able to shoot dark orbs at Vincent, which he calls "Dark Rain." Vincent is revealed to be the only person capable of entering and leaving Nero's darkness, for his own darkness is apparently far deeper. It is said that the restraint like outfit he wears is to keep his power under control.

Etymology
Nero is the Italian word for "Black". Sable is an adjective commonly used to describe the black fur of some animals. It is also used in heraldry to denote "black".