A well dressed man pressed his hand hard on a thug's throat in a dim alleyway.
"Where was the drug sourced from?" The aristocrat demanded, punching the man in the gut. "Three of my best men are dead and you-" a second punch to the stomach caused the thug to gurgle, "-delivered it. What was it laced with?"
"Got it… from Tremet. Ash Tremet." the words choked out from the man. "Didn't… know… it was bad."
"I want all my money back! And a head hunt for that bastard, Tremet! Spread. The. Word." Each word was emphasised by another winding blow to the stomach. "His crack can't be trusted and England needs the upper class! Dropping dead from tainted product is not on the agenda!"
The rich man dropped the thug, and walked away stiffly. The thug clutched his throat and gasped for air.
At the manor Rose winced as Sebastian stitched the wounds on her back.
"If only there were some of Jack's nanogens 'round, eh Doctor? I'd be patched up in no-time at all." she said smiling, trying to make light of the situation.
"True, but we don't want another load of the Gas Mask monsters asking for their mummies, do we?" The Doctor replied.
Lau looked quizzical as Rose shuddered slightly, causing Sebastian frown in mild annoyance.
The Doctor thought for a moment. "That t-shirt…you were wearing it back then too, right?"
"Yeah, it must be my bad-luck shirt. First a barrage balloon dangles me over thin air and now a Drashig cuts me up. The shirt's completely ruined now though," Rose said, looking slightly disappointed, then brightened up. "So I guess I might get some good luck soon."
Just then, a faint knock came from the front doors, and someone must have opened it since the sound of footsteps pelting down the corridor could be heard. The doors to the room were dramatically flung open in haste, and the panting messenger stood in the door way, scanning the room for Lau.
"Mister Lau, Mister Lau! There's bin a 'mergency. There was a bad deal with Tremet an' now twen'y six upperclasser's are dead!"
Lau raised his eyebrows in surprise and got up slowly.
"Ah, I better go then." he said, as he drifted towards the showing no signs of concern.
"Bye everyone!" He said cheerfully, turning to wave briefly at the assembled company. "Excuse me Earl, I have business." he said loudly into the hallway, while tugging gently at Ran Mao.
"Wait a second, what?" the Doctor said, getting up in alarm. "Twenty six people are dead? What happened?"
Sebastian looked up calmly from the stitching "It is no concern of yours. That man will deal with the situation as he sees fit."
Lau smiled broadly, and went to leave the room.
"That doesn't seem… good." Rose said uncomfortably.
"I'm surprised you are not stitching her yourself. I thought you were a doctor." Ciel said as he entered the room, ignoring Lau and Ran Mao completely as they exited.
"We-ell, it's kinda complicated." The Doctor said uncomfortably, scratching the back of his head.
"He's just the Doctor. That's who he is." Rose said defensively, crossing her arms and grimacing with the pain.
Ash Tremet made his way back into the dark cavern, and was surprised to see only one Drashig there, cowering and whining. A frown crept over his face as he noticed how badly it was injured. There was pale blue-green blood nearly covered the beast, some even pooling on the floor around it, but a splash of red caught Tremet's eye.
"What have we here?"
The Drashig looked up at him with malice in its eyes, snapping weakly as Tremet approached the creature.
"Tch! Stop that. Obey your master." He scolded.
The large beast glared at the man but made no further moves to harm him. Tremet reached down to its foot without fear and ran his finger along the claw. He examined the blood, and then sniffed at it.
"Human and a Time Traveller… Hmmm, it looks like the Doctor has himself a companion." Tremet stood up, smiling. "What luck."
"All done." Sebastian said, standing.
"That was quick. And very well done, I must say." The Doctor admitted.
"What would a Phantomhive butler be if he couldn't do such a thing?" Sebastian said, smiling slightly.
Human, The Doctor thought darkly, which you aren't.
"Anyway, I need someone to help me get stuff for perfecting the Drashig Tracker," The Doctor said, beginning to pace, "And Rose, you're obviously out and I doubt Mister Earl over there will want to run around fetching stuff so that leaves-" He stopped in front of the butler and looked up at him, "-you."
Sebastian's eyes flicked over to Ciel who nodded almost imperceptibly, then he said "Certainly. However, I must ask that I serve tea to the Young Master first."
"I fancy a cuppa." Rose piped up hopefully, but a pointed expression from the Doctor caused her to roll her eyes and rephrase, "I mean, may I also have a cup of tea?"
The demon butler nodded slightly, and bowed as he left the room.
The Doctor opened the TARDIS doors with Sebastian following behind him. He pulled out a huge tangled mess of wires, a box full of what looked like junk and rummaged around the light bulbs and miscellaneous circuitry before he managed to grab the Drashig Tracker.
He plugged a few wires into the machine and took out his sonic screwdriver.
"I need a thing, a thing, ah," The Doctor said, clicking his fingers, "Its the thing you beat eggs with, ah – a whisk! I need a whisk! With a handle and a spinny thing. It's a whisk. I need a mechanical whisk!" The Doctor held his hand out expectantly.
Sebastian stared at it, blankly.
"Well, what are you waiting for? Use that speed of yours to get me a whisk!"
Tea in hand, Rose tried to think of something to say. Something – anything – to break the frosty silence between her and the boy.
"So that Sebastian… He's pretty amazing." She ventured.
Ciel flicked his eye up from his tea to examine her, and raised an eyebrow.
"Yes." He said, taking a careful sip from his cup.
Rose waited for more, but when it was clear that nothing more was forthcoming she decided to change tactic. She might not be able to talk to an earl, but she knew how to talk to a kid.
"What's your favourite game?"
Ciel blinked in surprise. He was expecting more of the formal small talk, not a direct question about such casual things.
"Chess," He said. "I like chess. Do you play?"
"So, Mister Sebastian… what exactly are you? You aren't human." the Doctor asked, taking a wrench from his white gloved hand.
"I could ask you the same question." the butler replied smoothly.
This man knows I'm not human? This could be… troublesome. Sebastian thought, his eyes glowing dangerously when the Doctor wasn't looking.
The Doctor stiffened slightly, then replied, "Could you? And if I answered you would you answer me? Without just telling me you're one hell of a butler."
Sebastian was surprised - he hadn't expected that from the man. "Perhaps. If the Young Master ordered me to." the butler admitted.
"Hmmm," the Doctor mused, then focused on the task. "I need a light bulb and an ionic conversion matrix."
Sebastian paused momentarily. "We do not have any light bulbs in the manor. And I do not know what an 'ionic conversion matrix' is."
"The light bulbs are in the box over there," the Doctor said, pointing with the wrench in his hand. "And the ionic conversion matrix looks like a red, unshelled peanut. Same box."
Tremet walked with purpose through the dank sewer system. He stepped in a puddle and scowled at having a sopping wet trouser leg. Where he was heading was a distance away from the Drashig enclosure. It needed to be. There was no way he would let the beasts be anywhere near such fragile and potentially dangerous equipment.
"When will you catch up to me, Doctor?" He asked, smugly into the gloom.
He walked towards a concrete pillar covered in graffiti. He tugged gently on a metal coat hook and a door pulled opened.
Light poured out of the door, making the huge room glow strangely.
Examining his fingers he stepped inside, closing the pillar-door behind him.
"Checkmate." Ciel said calmly, as he moved his knight into position.
"You're very good at this." Rose said, smiling and packing away the marble game pieces. "I thought I was okay at chess, but I really can't play compared to you. It was fun though."
"We could play a different game if you like." Ciel offered.
She thought for a while – trying to think of any old games she could play. "Well, my mum taught me how to play tiddlywinks -"
"Your mother?" Ciel interrupted incredulously. "But it only was brought out last year!"
"Oh. Right... Anyway, I don't play it well." Rose said, wishing her knowledge of games histories were a little better. "So why don't you suggest a game?"
"I do have this new game. It's a prototype based off a game of 'karma' from India." Ciel said, walking over to a shelf and pulling out a plain cardboard box. He opened the box on the table and unfolded the board inside.
"It's called Snakes and Ladders."
Sebastian carefully examined the Doctor as he worked on the Drashig tracker.
This man is intelligent – unusually so, by human standards. But then, he is undoubtedly not human. He realised I was not human as I noticed the same about him, The demon thought. His soul – there is something so different, so unusual… just so alien about this Doctor. And another thing – he has a soul, despite being even older than I. How can he be older than a being of Hell and still have a soul? Just what is he?
"I just need to reroute it through the TARDIS circuits and triplicate the transmission output then change the integral from four to, oh I don't know, say twelve?" the Doctor said, holding up the device. "Ooh, no, it's more like twelve point three, and then I'll have to divide the sub-multiplier by the square root of the genetic disambiguation sequence. What do you think?"
Sebastian just stared at him in utter incomprehension, his manners thrown out the window in the face of such rambling.
"It's almost done." the Doctor clarified. "Can you get Rose and the kid? We're going to find our culprit."
Ash Tremet wiped the blood he collected from the Drashig on a small glass circle. He inserted the slide into a complicated machine and began drumming his fingers on his leg. A light on the side of the machine changed colour from green to red, and then began to flash. Tremet's mouth curved into a wicked grin, and he pulled a lever.
In the cavern, the concrete pillar disappeared almost silently.
A/N: Chapter 7 is finally finished! I'm very sorry I took so long to write it. The bit with Lau leaving was giving me a lot of trouble, and I have been busy, like everyone, with assignments and projects and now my exams are coming up but I needed to submit this. And I hope people have figured Tremet out, at least a little. Anyway, I am quite proud of all the rambling Doctor bits I put in. Also, I took a little liberty with the Snakes and Ladders since it came out a few years after this is set, but since Ciel has had contact with Prince Soma I thought I could get away with it. Oh, and the Doctor's second ramble doesn't actually mean anything. Sorry. Chapter 8 might be a wee while off yet, but I hope that it could be done-ish by the end of June, and put up here early July sometime.
Thank you everyone who reads this story, reviews it or put it into the story alert or favourite story. It really means a lot to me and it really encourages me to keep at it, and not let it wither away into oblivion. It wouldn't have got this far without you all, so thanks.
Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed it!