Chapter 2: Behind The Mask

The social season in London.

A time of year when the nobles and the wealthy would gather in London for various events from the Christmas holidays until the early summertime. During this time several balls, charity events and numerous dinner parties were held.

And of course it was Ciel's least favorite time of the year. He despised dancing, no matter how many lessons that he had received. And no matter how hard he tried to avoid the numerous social events in London, he never seemed to be able to get away from them. Especially when it came to his fiancée, Lady Elizabeth Midford, who always wanted to be right in the thick of things when it came to social events.

After much discussion between Ciel and Elizabeth – which actually was more along the lines of Ciel refusing to go until Elizabeth broke down in tears – Ciel had agreed to attend the masquerade ball, which was being hosted by one of the barons who sat in Parliament. Of course, Sebastian, ever faithful to his young lord, would attend the ball with them. The only caveat to Sebastian attending was that Elizabeth would get to choose his outfit instead of his typical butler wardrobe.

"Doesn't he look cute?" Elizabeth squealed in the carriage during the ride to the London manor where the ball was being held.

Ciel could not help but smile a bit as he glanced over at his loyal butler who looked to be very different then he normally was. As usual, his tailor, Nina Hopkins, had out done herself. While not only creating similar royal blue colored outfits for he and Elizabeth to wear, she had also created an outfit for Sebastian – which had taken a bit of begging from Elizabeth since Nina often found that Sebastian had too stiff of a personality. Sebastian was dressed in a dark brown tweed suit with a dark green shirt, which went with the mask that he was to wear during the ball – the white mask had been painted with green and gold paint, along with being adorned with bits of glitter.

Sebastian could live with the outfit that Lady Elizabeth had chosen for him, but the mask was a different story. But to abide by his master's wishes, he would wear it for the evening.

As the carriage continued its trek across London, Sebastian sat quietly and watched Lady Elizabeth fuss at his master for one thing or another. It was as he watched them, that the memory from a few days prior came back to him, just as it had done several times since he had experienced it in the teashop.

Everything about his beloved seemed so vivid in the memory – her blue eyes that could light an entire room, her gentle smile and even the way that the sunlight had played upon her brown tresses. Yet one thing still bothered Sebastian – why had he had a vision of her? Why had he been presented with something that he could never obtain again? Was this some evil trick?

If it was not some evil trick, then why now? Why was he having visions of her again?

Wasn't it supposed to be his past – long and gone when he had become a demon?

That was another thing that was bugging him.

What had exactly caused him to become an agent of darkness?

He could not remember! The only thing that he could remember was awaking in darkness with a hunger for human souls and even that had been well over 700 years ago.

But still the fact remained…why now?

Her masked eyes slowly panned the magnificent ballroom that she was currently standing in. All the vivid colors and masquerade masks were breathtaking. Even the dresses that the women wore were gorgeous as well. Everything that was around her reminded her of some of sunrises that she had witnessed over time. The sunrises and the sunsets were one of the few things that made her existence bearable.

Healing people was another. That was the reason she had been invited to this masquerade ball by the Baron – she had helped his son after he had sustained an injury to his arm. At the time she had insisted that setting a broken bone in a plaster cast was nothing at all and that she did not need to be invited to such a lavish gala. But the Baron had insisted.

As she continued to look around the room, she began to feel a bit out of place. She did not belong with these socialites of London. Why was she even there? There were other matters that she should be attending to this night.

That was when an unexpected sight caught her eye and brought a smile to her masked face. Lucky for her, that other matter she should be attending to had just entered the ball. Ciel Phantomhive had arrived at the ball with his fiancée, Lady Elizabeth. While it was normal for Lady Elizabeth attend some of the social events of the season, having the Earl attend with her was a welcome sight and of course in the shadow of the young Earl was the Phantomhive butler.

She moved to take a step towards them when someone caught a hold of her wrist. She whipped her head around to see the Viscount of Druitt holding onto her wrist.

"My dear lady please allow me the pleasure of this dance," he asked taking a dramatic bow in front of her. "For you are one of the rare beauties here tonight."

Seeing that there was no way out of this, she reluctantly gave into the Viscount's request and soon found herself being swept across the dance floor. As she allowed the Viscount to lead her around the ballroom floor in a waltz, she could not help but find herself glancing towards the one she truly wanted to dance with.

Almost immediately once they had entered the masquerade ball, Lady Elizabeth had dragged Ciel towards the dance floor. Sebastian stood by and watched as his young master and Lady Elizabeth joined in with the waltz that was currently playing, along with watching the rest of the attendees of the ball from beneath his masquerade mask. Hopefully his master's two left feet would not get the best of him this evening.

After a few moments of watching his young master, Sebastian noticed something out of the corner of his eye. The young woman from outside the store window the other day was at this same ball. The same woman he had seen just prior to having the memory of his beloved…

Currently the young woman was dancing with the Viscount of Druitt, yet she had kept glancing over to him. Almost as if she was trying to get his attention.

Sebastian continued to watch the young woman during the waltz. The longer that he watched, the more that he felt a need to go and snatch her from the vile grasp of the Viscount.

But why? He owed her no loyalty. His only loyalty was to his young master and the Phantomhive household. Something like this had never happened to him before – not during this contract or even with other contracts.

Once the waltz had ended, Sebastian made his way from his place against the wall to where the young woman had departed from the lustful intentions of the Viscount. Yet he found that she had disappeared once again. After a few seconds of glancing around the ballroom, Sebastian finally spotted the back of her dress disappear towards one of the open doors to the outside. She looked to be heading out into one of the numerous gardens that the estate had. With his quickness and ease, Sebastian made his way across the crowded ballroom and followed the young woman out into the garden.

In the softly lit garden, Sebastian noticed that he and the young woman were the only two people out there. He slowly took another step towards the young woman, whose back was turned to him. it was then that the young woman turned to look at him and smiled softly from underneath her mask.

Sebastian was about to say something to her, but found that he could not…

Brushing the hair that was matted with crimson blood from her face, he felt an overwhelming surge of hatred course through him. who could have done this to his precious wife? What kind of creature could not only end of the life of a defenseless young woman, but also end the life of her unborn child – his unborn child? Who could have taken the one thing that he lived for away from him? WHO?!

Running a finger down the side of her still cheek, he leaned in and placed a soft kiss against her now cold lips one last time before realizing what needed to be done.

He needed revenge.

Revenge against those who took his beloved and their unborn child from him. Revenge against those who had even gone as far as to slaughter their family cat. Revenge against the ones who had taken away his reason for living…

As the memory subsided, Sebastian found that he had collapsed to his knees. The woman that had been standing several feet from him prior to the memory was now kneeling next to him. Her hand was gently placed against his cheek, as she looked at him with such sadness in her eyes…her vivid blue eyes.

Slowly, Sebastian reached towards her face and gently pushed back the masquerade mask away so that he could clearly see the young woman's face. His eyes went wide as he gazed upon a face long forgotten, completely wiped from his memory when he had become a demon.

Yet somehow the memories of her had lingered.

"My beloved," Sebastian whispered as he traced her cheek. "My Alena."

AN: So hopefully anyone who is reading this will continue to read! Reviews and adding as an alert and/or favorite is food for my muse! Please let me know what you think! I do know that Sebastian is acting a bit OOC, but there is a reason behind it! I promise!

And of course, Black Butler doesn't belong to me…