I do not own Black Butler.

Chapter 4- Paint it Red?

Helix- London, England 1888

"Is this really the time for a game of chess?" Ciel asked as he and Madame Red sat across from each other at a chess board.

I rolled my eyes as I stood leaning against a wall watching the match play out. I had already spotted several flaws in her strategy and I already knew how this was going to end. "The whole case is a game of chess against an unknown opponent who seems to know exactly what you'll do at the exact time you make your move. Who ever they are, they seem to have information that they shouldn't have about what you do and how you do it."

Madame Red glared at me. "Obsessing about it won't help you solve the case, especially when you compare it to a game of chess."

"So what is any case then, if not a game of chess?" I asked as I stared her down. She was making herself look more and more like the murder we were after. She was probably just banking on the fact that she figured that her own nephew wouldn't suspect her because she was family. At least she didn't think that I was a prostitute anymore, since I had taken to wearing the clothes of the time period. The light blue dress that I was wearing was at least okay when it came to having to draw the knives fast that I had hidden in the folds of my skirt with a little bit of magic.

She never answered that, but continued on speaking to Ciel like I had never said anything at all. "Why not leave it all to Sebastian, dear?"

Of course leave it to the one person who was a complete show off, especially considering he was currently looking through the case notes, again. I was continually giving my input and she just directs everything back to Sebastian, though that meant that I was hitting the nail right on the head about who was responsible for the murders.

"Because he is simply my chess piece. I'm the one who moves him by giving him orders, but he he is no ordinary piece. He can move as many squares as he needs to," Ciel said as he moved the knight more spaces than it was actually allowed to move. "like that."

"Ah that was against the rules, you know," she said causing me to roll my eyes.

"That's life. Rules get changed everyday and you don't often know that they have been changed until your opponent makes their move with those new rules," I said.

"Indeed, there are always knights who break the rules, and pawns who betray. If you let your guard down, it's checkmate," Ciel said as he cornered her king and ended the game. Maybe what I had been saying had finally got through his head. He might not like that I was right, but with every little clue lining up perfectly in my solution to this whole puzzle, he had to believe me.

"You seem quite aware of a game you just walked into," Sebastian said as he no doubt addressed what was on everyone's minds.

"I've been playing this game for quite awhile. The only thing that ever seems to change is my opponent. Of course, anyone who dares to challenge me, never survives after the game is over," I said as I locked eyes with Madame Red. She visibly stiffened at my threat and I couldn't help but smirk just a tiny bit at her fear.

"But you have yet to play the same game that the young master is," Sebastian said as he used that opening to poke into my past a little more.

"Where I'm from, I play the same game all day, everyday. The only difference is, mine just happens to be far bloodier and more perilous than the one you are embedded in," I retorted.

Madame Red turned her gaze back to her nephew. "You must have had other options in life besides policing the..."

I would like to say that I zoned out for the rest, but I found myself getting dragged out of the room by Sebastian for what I assumed was another round of interrogation.

"What do you want now?" I hissed the moment that we left the room. "I already told you what you need you to know about me for the moment."

"But yet you act like you want someone to figure it out," Sebastian said as I glared at him.

"I'm a girl out of time," I said as he glared at me. "Come up with whatever meaning you wish."

He sighed at my ambiguous remark. Why did he think that I would make getting any information about my past easy. I slid past him to go to the kitchen to get some time by myself.

People like him, made my temper go off if I stuck around for too long and at the moment I didn't want them finding out the rest of my gifts. I wanted to have an edge in the battle that was quickly closing in.

Dusk had fallen, when Madame Red finally had left the townhouse and Ciel held his informal meeting about the case. He kept shuffling through the notes trying to find someway to connect all the pieces together. The same puzzle that I could already see completely finished, along with a way to finish the game.

"Yesterday's murder, the Viscount didn't do it," he muttered as I rolled my eyes.

"Nothing about the case is at it seems. Something that I figured that you could see by now," I said. "You've had your gaze directed at person who couldn't do anything that the murder has done. The bodies had been touched by a supernatural creature who aided in the murders, no one else would be so careless."

"Sebastian, you didn't," Ciel started as the facts finally lined up for him

I sighed. "No, I would have seen the evidence on the bodies if it was him. Each species of supernaturals leave a different footprint behind."

"I told you, I never lie."

"Right, get rid of the data that don't fit and the pattern is clear as day," I said causing Ciel to glare at me.

"You two know more about this than you're letting on, don't you?" Ciel asked.

"As you well know, I only carry out those orders my master has directly given me. You only saw the words, my lord, I become either your pawn or your knight," Sebastian said as he knelled on the floor. "Now master, move me into check."

"So, you two aren't planning to leave me behind are you?" I asked with a raised eyebrow. Those two would pay for it later if they dragged me through all of this and then wouldn't even let me take the idiot out.

A couple hours later I found myself back in my element. Stakeout. Hiding in the shadows waiting for my quarry to come out to play. I was back in my normal mission clothes with my sword strapped to my hip and adrenaline already flooding my veins.

"He'll show up if we stake out the place, right?" Ciel asked causing me to roll my eyes.

"I take it that you haven't done this before, then," I said as I leaned against the wall. "I've done stake outs like this for years, sometimes freezing my butt off sitting on top of a building to take a shot."

Ciel turned to look at me as Sebastian smirked as he kept playing with the cat.

"So your skill set is like that of the maid, interesting," Sebastian mused as he straightened out as the cat ran away.

"It's a useful set of talents for any situation, not just being a sniper," I said. "Though, if that was all I do, I would be completely bored of just doing that all day."

A scream cut through the air causing all of us to turn towards the source. Why did everything have to wrong on a stakeout?

"How could someone have gotten past us?!" Ciel asked as we rushed down the dead end alley towards the home of the latest victim as well as the Ripper's last one.

As Ciel yanked open the door to the house, Sebastian pulled him away and covered the earl's eyes. "You've made quite the bloody mess of things in there, Jack the ripper...or should I say Grell Sutcliffe," Sebastian said as Grell walked slowly out of the house covered in the blood of the deceased.

"N, no you're wrong! I.." Grell stuttered. "I heard the scream and rushed to help, but..."

I rolled my eyes. He was trying hard to get out of it, but he was still going to lose this game. No one was buying his silly act.

"You can drop the innocent act, Grell. It's over. You know this actually the first time I've met someone like you in the human realm. You played the role of the 'helpless butler' well. Your act had almost everyone completely fooled."

I completely missed the rest of the exchange as I mulled over the new information that I had gotten while watching Grell change his appearance. The red haired flamboyant version of him seemed to fit him better, but he was still a complete fool. He had even acknowledged my presence, which I was going to make sure would haunt his nightmares for years after this little encounter. Well, if he managed survived this night anyway.

"No I'll call you Bassy!" Grell said drawing me out of my mind making me realize that comment was directed at Sebastian. Grell was a complete idiot. "Let me introduce myself: the Burnett butler Grell Sutcliff. What do you say about us getting along?"

I nearly fell over laughing when the idiot made the the symbol of 'I love you' in sign language.

"Considering you're the one murdering everyone, i don't think so," I said as I rested my hand on my sword as I readied myself for the battle.

"Indeed, I never thought that I would find one of your kind playing a butler. You're supposed to be intermediary between man and God as a Grim Reaper," Sebastian said making me roll my eyes.

So that was what Grell and Undertaker where. Only of the only legends that I had dismissed as as false. I wondered if anyone else had guessed what Undertaker was yet. Oh well, I just figured that I would use that information to annoy people later, especially since things went from bad to worse the moment that Madame Red exited the the shadows of the house and revealed herself at last.

"Well, I hadn't counted on this. I didn't think that anyone would be able to tell who Grell truly is," Madame Red said as she leveled a glare at me and Ciel.

I snorted. "You seem to not realize the fact that I knew that Grell was inhuman the minute that I first saw him. In the long run you shouldn't be so surprised that you were a suspect this whole entire time no matter what you did to try to ease that suspicion.

She turned to Ciel. "You mean that you actually suspected your own aunt?"

"I was looking for a murder; degree of relation to me did not matter. Helix was the one who kept pointing me to look closer into the murders. In the end, you two were the only ones who could be Jack the Ripper," Ciel paused. "You Madame Red and Grell Sutcliff."

"My darling nephew, how unfortunate this turned out to be," she said. "If you had let it go, we could have played chess again. But now, you've taken everything!"

Grell chose that very moment to take out a chainsaw that looked older than the modern day style I was used to seeing.

"What is that?!" Ciel asked.

"Grim Reapers use tools for harvesting the souls of the dead. That is a Reaper's scythe," Sebastian said.

"Remind me to stay well away from that thing then," I muttered. "Cause that thing no doubt will hurt more than a normal scratched."

"Don't you dare call it that! This so much more than a normal scythe; I worked very hard to customize it! This is a special 'death scythe' of my own design. It can hack anyone into tiny pieces."

"You seem a little too proud of something that could easily fail in the middle of battle," I whispered. "You shouldn't rely on it all the time for everything."

Grell glared at me. "I've been far too well behaved. I should love to exercise my skills. So shall we play?"

"Perhaps you could be a bit more respectful of my position? I am on duty after all," Sebastian said.

I rolled my eyes. "He doesn't seem to have an ounce of respect in him, so why ask him to be more respectful?"

Grell gave me a sharp smile. "Red is my favorite color. It's perfect for hair, cloths, for lipstick. So I painted all those women pretty, pretty blood red and you're next."

The revving of the chainsaw was my first clue to get moving. With a flip backwards I avoided the moving blade as he lunged at me.

"You missed," I said with a grin as I landed in a crouch behind the Reaper.

"How?" Grell asked with a clenched jaw as he spun around to face me.

"You never fully did your homework about me and so you don't know all of the tricks that I have up my sleeve."

Grell then tried to take a swipe at me, but this time his favorite weapon hit an invisible wall that it could not cut through.

"You are completely pathetic," I said with a laugh.

"I would have to agree. You are a Grim Reaper. Your job is to quietly harvest the souls of the dead and as a butler, your job is to follow your master like a shadow. You have violated both of those expectations, and quite frankly I find it sickening," Sebastian said drawing the reaper's attention back to him.

"Bassy, you wound me. You know I'm more deadly efficient than I seem," Grell said causing me to burst out in another round of laughter.

"Then how come I'm kicking your but without even trying," I said causing the idiot to go after me again. This time i used my crystal to disappear to appear on the roof of the house where the deceased still laid in a puddle of her own blood. "You're all bark and no bite."

Grell then jumped and joined me on the roof as I drew my sword ready for what was coming next. With a flip I was behind him again and with a quick movement of my wrist I slashed open his shoulder causing blood to stain the white shirt.

"You know, I like to paint things red as well, but I only do it to the people who are stupid enough to challenge me," I hissed as he spun around and tried to run me through with the stupid chainsaw.

The cut to the shoulder seemed to slow the idiot down a tiny bit, but it didn't take him out of the game like I was hoping that it would do. I kept dodging and leading several more blows on his body, at least till I ended up standing with my heels at the very edge of a roof.

"Run out of real estate, did we?" Grell asked as he revved up the chainsaw ready to end my life.

"Now, now we can't have that," Sebastian said as he caught the blade of the chainsaw in his hands as he stood behind me and Grell.

"I have this under control, go deal with Madame Red," I muttered as I flipped so that I was behind the idiot again.

"The young master ordered me to assisted you," Sebastian said as I drew blood from Grell once again.

"Well ignore it, this threat is handled," I hissed as Grell broke away from Sebastian and tried to get me only to utterly miss once more.

Sebastian ignored me.

"Fine. I'll go make sure that Madame Red doesn't kill Ciel while you're acting so stuck up," I hissed just before I flipped off of the roof and landed directly behind her.

"You shouldn't have been born in the first place!" Madame Red shouted as she lunged at Ciel with a knife. Within two seconds, I'd moved and knocked the knife out of her hands.

"Your game is over is over Madame Red," I whispered as she knelled on the cold ground. "But I'll let the police deal with you, instead of killing you."

"You've a disappointment, Madame!" Grell shouted. "Come now. Hurry up and kill the brat already!"

I looked at the woman in question on the ground and then back at the idiot. "I don't think she'll ever do what you want her to do anytime soon."

Madame red started at the ground. "I loved my sister...I loved her husband...I loved their child. I can't...I can't kill their beloved son," she sobbed.

Grell glared at her. "Really? You're getting soft-hearted on me all of the sudden? After all of those deaths? If you don't end him, he'll end you."

"Madame," Ciel said as he stood there watching his aunt.

"But... this dear boy.. This child is my," She started as I quickly tried to put up the same barrier spell as earlier that night to stop the reaper if he tried to do anything.

I was just a little too slow to get it up and Madame Red's blood soaked the ground.

"Too late for that! How disappointing! What use do I have for you if you're just another woman?" Grell shouted as reels of film came out of her body.

"Is that her?" Sebastian asked surprising me. Apparently the butler did not know everything like he wished to.

I on the other hand did not care what was going on even though the information would probably come in handy in the future. My vision was colored red when it came to that idiotic reaper. No one killed someone who was under my protection and got away with it.

"A part of a reaper's job is to replay and examine the memories of those who are on the to die list. From that, we determine what kind of person they were. We see from their own perspective what kind of life they lived and we decide whether they should live or die," Grell said and I let the words sit in the back of my brain.

"Their lives flash before their eyes, while you play god," I hissed as I drew a few throwing knives from their sheaths. "You and you're kind are starting to get very annoying."

"Oh dear, do calm down. This is the reaper's true power: the cinematic records!" Grell shouted.

Oh, I was going to show him the meaning of power and going to kick that that idiot off of that throne of his. I ignored everything that held Ciel and Sebastian's attention. Ever so slowly, I was creating a web of magical traps that were really going to cause that reaper more harm than just my sword alone.

"How beautiful you were dyed crimson covered in your victims' blood, I loved you so. What a disappointment you turned out to be in the end. You don't have what it takes to wear red. Your cheap little melodrama ends now. It's over, Madame red. Goodbye," Grell said as he cut through the film.

"How would you like to be painted crimson with your own blood," I hissed as I heard Ciel tell something to Sebastian.

"I was going to spare you, professional courtesy and all that, but if you insist, I'll send the three of you to heaven," Grell said not even noticing the glowing lines below his feet.

"Heaven? You're joking. I know nothing of heaven," Sebastian said.

Thorns erupted out of the ground and dug into Grell's flesh causing blood to run down to the already stained ground.

"You should know by now not to underestimate what I can do," I said said as I leaped forward and nailed his wrist holding the death scythe.

"You really think that you can stop me," Grell said flashing his sharp teeth.

"I'm doing quite a good job, so I how no clue what you're talking about," I said sweetly as he managed to break away from my thorns.

"Sebastian, I ordered you to help Helix," Ciel said as he revealed the eye that was hidden beneath the eye patch.

"I do have this," I said as I held a ball of fire in my hand causing Grell to audibly gulp.

"I can see that, but reapers like this one are very hard to get rid," Sebastian said just before Grell lunged at me. Sebastian grabbed me and moved me out of the way before I could act, causing Grell to cut through part of Sebastian's tailcoat.

"Look a that , my clothes are ruined again. This is past mending," Sebastian said as he took off his tailcoat.

"Toy with him after he can't move," I muttered as I tried to get a couple of spells in place to slow the idiot down.

"You must be pretty confident to worry about you clothes right now," the reaper said not seeing what I was seeing when it came to battle tactics. "But of course you know I always appreciate a sharp-looking man. Well done, Bassy."

I hated stupid enemies, though they were very easy to take down.

"There was one technique that I absolutely did not want to use, but I have no other choice," Sebastian said as he took off his tail coat. What was the idiot up to this time? I hoped that it would not ruin my shot of making sushi out of the stupid reaper, well at least beaten to a pulp for the authorities to deal with.

"Shall we send the curtain down with the next blow? I'll miss you terribly, but perhaps we'll meet again. Farewell," the reaper said as Sebastian throw his tail coat at the running chainsaw causing the rotating blade to suddenly stop." What the Hell?!"

I burst out laughing. That was even better than what I had in mind hidden in the web of spells that I'd created, especially as I watched Grell try to tear the fabric out of his precious toy.

"That was my finest tail coat, it was made of the highest quality Yorkshire Wool. Wool is a very tricky fabric. Once it becomes caught in something, it is exceedingly difficult to remove."

A common item to drive someone insane. Now that was a trick that I would have to remember for later.

"I acquired that coat at the manor and I certainly didn't want to use it for something like this...But you had already ruined it after all," Sebastian said with a closed eyed smile.

"No! Please! Just one request! Not my face!" Grell shouted giving away a weakness, something one never did in the heat of battle, if they were smart.

"You look pretty awful," Ciel said addressing his butler as Grell landed face first into the cobble stones with a thud.

"He caused me a bit of trouble actually," Sebastian said.

"I'll show you some day," the reaper wheezed as he lifted his head a couple of inches from the ground.

"I doubt it," I said as I inspected my nails. "Considering I was going to put you through the ringer, before Sebastian interfered with that plan.

As I wiped the blood off of my sword, I noticed a figure standing on a nearby rooftop watching what was going on.

"We've got some unwanted company," I said as Sebastian easily pulled the fabric out of the chainsaw. He gave no knowledge of what I said as he revved the thing up to finish up the reaper.

Rod slashed through the air between Sebastian and Grell as the figure jumped down from the roof and landed on the back of Grell's head, cashing the already beaten up reaper's face to get smashed once more into the ground.

"I apologize for interrupting. Let me introduce myself; I am William T. Spears, an administrator at the Grim Reaper Staffing Association. I've come to retrieve that reaper there," the new addition to our pretty much ended party said.

"Glad to know he isn't a normal example of your kind," I said as I used one of my knives to clean under my nails as I leaned against a wall.

Spears looked at me with a bored expression. "And who are you."

"Someone you'll be seeing a lot of considering our two professions will end up crossing quite often in the future," I said darkly.

He frowned.

"I'm a bringer of trouble and death isn't that far behind me. You may be dealing with this reaper and the situation he created, but I can see the storm coming that you can't," I whispered before I allowed myself to disappear into the shadows of the night. Leaving the whole situation behind me.

Sorry for such a long wait between chapters. College decided to throw some real curve balls at me with mid-terms. It might be a bit before I can get the next chapter up due to way to many assignment coming down the pipe. It is written out in a notebook, but I don't foresee anytime open to type it up within the next couple weeks.