Chapter 13

"There . . . beautiful again."

Undertaker stood over the body he'd been working on for the past few hours. A victim of a horrible carriage accident, her once mangled appearance was now restored to her former beauty. Her long brunette hair was elegantly curled. Her once tattered skin was now stitched back together, and the stitches were hidden with makeup. A clean white dress had been fitted and the beauty of her face had been restored with makeup, elegant flowers, and jewelry.

Undertaker let out a sigh as he sat down beside the coffin.

"You know, they say that this isn't noble work," he lamented, "anything that an undertaker or executioner – anything that involves working with dead bodies – is not considered to be noble work in this society. However, I have to disagree."

Undertaker picked up a jar of bone shaped biscuits and happily nibbled on one as he glanced over to Sebastian, who was trying to cope with another contraction. It'd been hours, and all the while the undertaker noted how close together they were becoming. They were 2 to 3 minutes apart, and Sebastian is finding it more and more difficult to cope as the time passed.

"Putting these bodies back together from such a hopeless state should be considered noble work," the elder continued, "it takes a certain skill to be able to turn a hopelessly mutilated corpse into the person they were before they died. Otherwise the funeral wouldn't be as grand. Loved ones could never be able to admire them at that wonderful celebration. It may not matter to a demon like you, Sebastian, but humans aren't so keen on staring at a mutilated hunk of flesh for such a lengthy period of time."

Sebastian had tuned out undertaker's rambling a long time ago. The old man enjoyed talking to himself; humming and singing while he worked. So long as the retired reaper stayed where he was, Sebastian could stand it. Now if only he could stop his labor and Vincent showed up, then he would be happy.

It was all only wishful thinking, though, as another contraction began to build. Stronger than the dozens that came before, Sebastian shifted from kneeling on his knees and stood. He moaned audibly against his gag and curled inward on himself as he tried to alleviate the pain. To him, it felt as though a set of clawed hands were gripping onto his womb and squeezing it as hard as they could. Beats of sweat started building on his face as the contraction did not stop after a couple seconds like the others had, rather the contraction was followed by another that hit him stronger than the one before. They came in intense waves and relentless waves at that.

Undertaker noted the demons pained state. Although he knew it wasn't welcome, he tried to approach him once more. As he expected, he was met with a harsh glare and Sebastian attempted to back away from him, but was immobilized by the contractions assaulting his body.

Fed up with the demon's reluctance to accept any sort of assistance from him, the undertaker stalked forward and grabbed him roughly by his lower jaw.

"Will you accept help from me now?" He hissed, "I can understand your unwillingness to accept any sort of help from me, but understand that you cannot catch your child safely in this position. Forget about your pride this one time, and let me help you."

"I think not!"

Undertaker whipped his head around as he was confronted by an unfamiliar voice. Before he could process who the person was, he was thrown against a wall. A pincer-like appendage clasped around his throat and a large barb was pressed threateningly against his face. It wasn't until then that he was able to get a good look at his attacker.

A creature, partly humanoid in appearance with the armored body of a scorpion, held him in place with a massive black pincer. The barb was the stinger of a massive tail that was likely to be as long as one of his custom-made coffins. The creature stood on four arachnid-like legs. The face of the creature was also hideous; all black with short, gnarly hair and four burning red eyes. It was so hideous that it was hard to identify the mouth from the rest of its face.

From beyond the creature another figure entered through the parlor door.

"Undertaker!"

The old reapers eyes widened in surprise as he saw Vincent Phantomhive approach.

The earl's eyes quickly found Sebastian; chained up and tucked away in the corner. It heavily reminded him of the day he and the demon met in the torture chambers not long ago.

Vincent sighed, "I'm disappointed in you, old fellow. I really thought you were better than that."

Undertaker's gaze averted his in shame. It never felt so bitter when it was the person he loved that said those things to him. And all this time he had thought the earl would not find him. He had clearly underestimated the Queen's Watchdog.

Vincent rushed over to Sebastian's side and wrapped his arms around him. He slid the gag off of his mouth and placed his hands firmly on the demon shoulders.

"Tell me everything," he demanded, "what did he do to you? Did he hurt you?"

"No," Sebastian replied, "No, he didn't hurt me, but . . . the baby is coming. Right now!"

"What . . ." Vincent placed a hand on the demons abdomen. The intense tightening of the muscles within confirmed Sebastian words, " Dr. Adrian, come over here quick!"

The large scorpion demon reluctantly let go of Undertaker and rushed over to the pair, morphing quickly back into his human form.

"What is it?"

"Sebastian's gone into labor," Vincent said, "We have to get him back to the mansion as quickly as possible!"

"We'll never make it . . ." Sebastian managed to gasp out between a brief pause in his contractions.

Dr. Adrian's nose curled and discussed, "Well, you most certainly aren't going to deliver this child here!"

The doctor effortlessly snapped the cuffs and chains that were holding Sebastian and the raven demon fell into Vincent's arms. Vincent scooped him up and carried him off towards the door.

"Realize that this isn't the end of this, Undertaker," he warned, "we'll discuss things on a better day, but for now . . ."

Vincent paused as he glanced around to realize that the undertaker had vanished from the room. It was possible that he wasn't even in the building anymore. The earl shrugged it off and focused on his current task; getting Sebastian home.

Vincent was the first to jump into the carriage, with Sebastian in tow.

Dr. Adrian called to Tanaka, who sat in the drivers chair with the reins gripped firmly in his hands.

"Let's go, butler! This baby isn't going to wait. We have a Phantomhive child on the way!"