Disclaimer: JoJo's Bizarre Adventure and all equally bizarre concepts and characters belong to Hirohiko Araki. Original characters and other concepts (as noted) are copyright of me.

As Dio and Rosalisa made their way out of the elevator and onto the tiles of the twelfth floor they kept their eyes forward and fixed on their path. That didn't mean, however, that they weren't aware of their surroundings. Dio especially kept his senses sharp and his Stand at the ready for an instant invocation. Rosalisa kept a step behind him with her tiny notebook always in her folded hands and a pen in her hair. She summoned her Stand's face to peak through her blouse and spoke with Dio telepathically.

Lord Dio, I am sensing an unwant amount of hostility towards us.

I know Dio replied through the jagged mouth of SoaD. I'm positive that we're under a hefty amount of surveillance right now. Who knows just how many enemies the Joestars have amassed without ever knowing it. Dio finally took a brief glance to his side. The nurses were shifting about, doing their work and handing charts off to passing doctors. When one looked up she looked straight at Dio in a swift glare, then went straight back to meeting the eyes of her superiors.

How can we safely proceed? She asked. Obviously, without an unlimited source of paper for me, I can't use my full power. And you, Lord Dio, may only be able to fight if the quarters weren't so closed.

I can fight whomever regardless of the conditions. What's important is that we don't draw too much attention to ourselves. We just need to go in and out, swiftly as we can, and make sure that Jojo hasn't suffered too much of a shock from his last battle.

But why? She asked. Dio stopped her right in front of his room and turned to her.

"Because we can" Dio said with a grin. She was speechless. Dio took two quick glances to the sides and reached to open the door. It was swiftly slammed shut by a man with a long, stiff face and drooping eyes with the sides of his head shaved off, leaving a cropped brown top of hair.

"Where do you think you're going?" the man asked as he leaned back to his full, terribly high height. Dio had to look up to try and stare him down. "This patient isn't expecting any visitors..." His voice was as booming as it was annoyed, and the curl in the corner of his upper lip signaled that he was quite annoyed indeed. Dio just smirked and pocketed his hands.

"Oh yes he is" Dio said. "I already signed in downstairs. The nurse told us he was in this very room."

"Did she...?" he asked.

"That's right" Dio said, pointing to the door number. He was about to smugly make his point when he was faced with a shocking revolution. His face became dire and aggravated. The number for Jojo's room was 1211. This room was 1220. The room within sight, 1211 itself, was a supply closet. Dio smirked and turned back to the tall doctor. "The woman in there signed us in." The doctor peeked the door open just slightly, taking his eyes from Dio's angered face. Rosalisa turned with a start as a gurney was wheeled out from an elevator and into a nearby room. She saw a barreled chest under the blanket and then the chiseled jaw of a certain, unforgettable man. She quickly activated her Stand and saw, through its eyes, The World.

Lord Dio! She exclaimed. There he is! Dio used SoaD's eyes to see Jojo as he was carted into the room while The World, a Stand he had always sensed but never saw, caught his gazing and glared back with a hundred-fold cruelty.

How is it active when its user is unconscious? Dio demanded. He never broke his composure on his face and continued to stare adamantly ahead as the doctor came back to meet him with his neanderthal forehead furrowing his continuous brow.

"Looks like I was mistaken" the doctor admitted. "Go right in, if you please."

"Thank you very much" Dio said. Rosalisa followed him as he went inside. Once the door was shut the doctor stared at it and then fearfully, with his huge brow beginning to sweat up, looked up to the ceiling. A light flickered over his head and the tiniest spot of darkness began to form on the beige ceiling tile over his head. Eventually that spot grew into a stain that then dripped fresh blood into the doctor's hair.

"Damn" he said, biting his lower lip. "These two...are going to cause us all sorts of trouble!" Dio and Rosalisa had ducked away in the corner of the room, behind drawn curtains and around an empty bed. Dio quickly stole a box of tissues from the bed over and cut open the bottom of the box to steal them all away before placing them back just in time for the middle aged woman from downstairs to reach in and take one out.

"I'm so sorry you have to be here, mother" she said to an elderly woman who sat up against a stack of pillows.

"Oh, hush now Agatha" the mother said, patting her daughters hefty shoulder. Dio gave Rosalisa the tissues to write on and Rosalisa went hastily to work making a story of commands. Evanescence floated up with her doll-like grin and extended her paper fingers to roll out the door and latch onto the closest ten people on the floor. Rosalisa took a tissue to each finger tip and soon they were filled with text. Once the fingers were withdrawn and Rosalisa was relaxed Dio scanned over all the telekinetic documents and built himself a menacing grin.

So that's what they're doing... he realized. The sinister plan had been revealed, and with an excited and nasty snarl he raised his head up to Rosalisa who had vanished. Gone like a lingering heat, like a ghost. She disappeared. Now he was worried as the door was opened by the lumbering, tall doctor from the hall. Dio was close to audibly cursing but clenched his fist to hold it in.

Up on the thirteenth floor, a place where no elevator or flight of stairs could normally reach, a place locked up with padded locks and chains, there stirred a piteous man with a crawling aura of dread and evil around him. The floor writhed up with the rippling hands and arms and legs and faces of some living nightmare that traveled all around him as a puddle of sin, eternally forcing him to stand in the shallow water of his own mind. A man whose face was hidden by wrapped bandages and held together by the sloppy metal surgical staples that were surrounded by light, dimmed marks of blood. This man, in his heavy and aged white coat that faded to a gray from all the years he had worn it, slowly turned his wrapped head to look down the empty hall he stood in.

A girl. Now out cold from the rush of being lifted through the very ceiling and onto his floor. The dreaded, nightmarish thirteenth floor. Why this building hadn't gone past that most obnoxious of superstitions like the rest of the good hospitals in the country was beyond even its owner and its original contractor who was long since dead. Each of the rooms was locked down, the drawers all rusted shut. No chairs or implements for living existed here. Only the bare and dusty walls and things built into them were here. This was a stark and lonely plain of reality for a man to live on with only his Stand to keep him company in the emptiness that he owned.

Now he had a companion, and all was well. He breathed out a raspy breath and summoned up his Stand. The floor finally stopped moving and a humanoid figure of sleek black skin and lighter, dark gray meshed armor stood behind him with its body hunched so far over that its head was near the level of its hip. Its back was framed in a checkerboard pattern with the metallic shining grayscale bones. Its face contained a very human jaw and inhumanly visored set of eyes. They were hidden behind a solid piece of shiny metal that was connected from its ear hole to ear hole, both of which were circled by the mercury-color. It opened its mouth and let out a disgustingly hollow groan which raised the hear of its user.

"There are two more" he said "in hell. We must retrieve them...and judge them for heaven. None can stay in purgatory too long without getting lost..." Rosalisa woke up but dared not stir.

He dragged me through a solid wall she realized. I must be careful not to catch his attention, but at the same time I must somehow contact Lord Dio...no. First I must assess this Stand's abilities. Then I shall report them to Lord Dio once the threat has been fully noted. Rosalisa stayed still and waited for the Stand to move close to her, rather than antagonize it with her own wicked powers. The man threw his arm up in her direction and breathed out.

"Creeeeeeeeep" the Stand hissed as it lurched over. Its knuckles nearly dragged on the ground as it kept itself fully hunched over in its run. It's mouth was open and its rows of teeth were perfectly exposed and flashing with sinister white. It lurched down and started breathing harsh, wet breaths into her hair, poking it with its immaterial fingers and then hopped away. "........HHHHHHHH......!" It's loud hissing breath was obviously some sign of revolting panic as it pointed to her body and started breathing rapidly.

"Take up the others from down there" its user said as he approached "and bring them here for judgment. Show them the way through hell that so many have failed..." The Stand started melting away, becoming part of the floor, until nothing of it was left and it was traveling in-between the floors. Rosalisa saw that happen through the sliver of visibility she had between the curtain of her own hair and the floor she rested on. Already she was writing away with her pen carefully in hand into the blank lines of her still unused notebook pages.

"Now let us see" he began. "You lack any true purity. Instead, you seem to have a menacing yet subservient aura about you. You carry such characteristics to classify you as a Devil's Advocate. Perhaps you would be better down in Hell, with your devil." Before the man could summon his Stand back up Rosalisa hopped up to her feet and summoned up her own Stand. Her book was in front of her face, which was covered with her stringy bangs, and her legs were tightly pressed together. She looked down from her nose at the man, who was taller than her by an easy amount, yet held her own air of superiority.

"You're wrong" Rosalisa said. The Gothic marionette with ten long, weaving paper-thin fingers came up from thin air behind her and grinned as its tentacles stretched out to take their victim. The man jumped back and then hit the ground in a backwards roll, all the while he retreated from the ten-fold attack to claim his body. Upon ending his retreat with his back to the wall he reached into his coat pockets and threw two handfuls of scalpels. Rosalisa didn't even bother trying to dodge. Half of them didn't make it and the others merely hit against the wall that was behind her.

"Don't make me try to laugh" she said as her Stand's fingers returned to form actual fingers. "The only one that can threaten my life with throwing knives...is that man. That devil to whom I willingly advocate."

"But why?" the man asked.

"That" Rosalisa sternly began "is not your business." Evanescence howled in wretched soprano chord and held it so long the staples in the man's head began to shake. He clutched his head and summoned his Stand once more with a quick flick of his wrist.

Though its target was just a simple few inches away and the caustic, ethereal drool continued to leak from its mouth, Creep retreated up to the next floor just as Dio made his way inside Jojo's room and locked the door. The World, who sat within Jojo's range on the windowsill, looked over and turned to keep its glaring eyes on Dio. He had been frozen in place.

"Damn" Dio said. "Hehe...this is impressive, even for you, Jojo. I can feel its power from over here! Yeah! It's churning inside me, this lifeless pounding at my heart. That thing of yours, your Stand, it's a truly evil power! What an unfitting thing for you to have! HAHAHA!!!" Dio stopped laughing when he started bleeding. His face had a tiny cut just above his cheek bone. Now, with a sneer of a grin, he leaned forward and summoned up his own Stand to hiss threateningly at The World.

"Heh" Dio laughed. He couldn't help but find it all amusing. "All those years of preaching the better word, the holier-than-thou gospel, you can't even live up to it. Jojo, you've been subjugated to such a tremendous power that you can't help but feel that it's evil, and you can't control it. You're pathetic. So afraid of power that you can't accept it when it's given to you!" The World placed one of its feet softly on the floor and looked over. In the glowing light that hit its back its own eyes seemed to glow with a dull, pale green resonating behind a sheeted veil of white.

"Angry, are you?" Dio said, fully summoning his Stand out before him. Its arms unfolded from its chest and reached out to the sides. Its claws retracted and its arm muscles seemed to increase as its wings folded in from behind. A close-quarters fist-brawling pose, apparently. Dio began an approach. The World hopped over Jojo's bed and prepared to fight. Dio got just close enough that he could measure the exact distance of six meters between he and Jojo. If his range were any farther away the attack would have already come, but it seemed that they were both deadlocked for that position of power. Dio flicked a finger up and sent his Stand forth with the fastest punches he could control.

WRAAAAAAIIII!!!! SoaD roared as it swung its high-speed fists. The World saw each attack coming and blocked them with its powerful palms. Dio stepped further forward, just a single striding step in his usual gait, but The World acted cautiously. It tripped SoaD and gave it a slid chop to the side. Dio felt his gravity thrown and stumbled hard to the left, almost right into the wall. The World raised and jabbed with a knee now and knocked SoaD back into Dio, who was thrown back against the corner wall of the single-bed room and ended up panting.

So this is your power, Jojo Dio thought. It's not all looks. That thing is powerful! So this is what got you in so much trouble already! The door was quickly thrown open and in, with a scalpel in hand, stalked the tall stiff-faced doctor. He glared at Dio with a curled lip of annoyance and made a threatening gesture at him.

"You bastard!" the doctor growled. "I thought I told you! NO VISITORS!!!" The World drew down its guard and stepped back to watch. Dio saw its arrogant gesture and simply summoned his own Stand while the doctor came in for a low stab with the razor-sharp knife.

"How's this, Jojo?" Dio asked. "My control surpasses yours, doesn't it?" SoaD bit the metal from the man's hand and swallowed it. Then it thinned out its left arm and extended its claws before making a roaring grab for the man's broad face. He was stopped with an incredible pressure against his skull from five points at once, like some powerful, sharp-nailed hand was holding him back. SoaD jerked his head down and leaned in, punching him in the throat as rapidly as it pleased, making hissing grunts the entire time while Dio smiled.

"I'm willing to bet you can't control your own Stand yet. Why else are you here, in such pitiful shape?" The World had nothing to say. It just watched the mechanics of Dio's fleshy Stand as it finished its pummeling and let go of the man's face, sending him flying back with a whiplash of force on his neck. He ended up panting slowly and clutching his neck and face in sheer terror.

"You!" the man began with a cough. Dio humored him with a glance. "You're one of them, aren't you!? You're a damn Stand User!"

"What?" Dio grunted. SoaD pointed its slender, pointed fingers up and opened its jagged maw with a hiss. All five spear-tips extended forth in a flash, piercing five holes through the man's throat and summoning up a shower of blood to pour out. He gurgled and groaned as his heavy body hit the floor and a pool of blood formed around his gaping wound. What!? I didn't command that!

The World grinned arrogantly. It could see through Dio's cool demeanor right down to the sullen performance he gave. Dio looked back and redirected his Stand, now under perfect control once more, to spit out a dagger formed from the metal of the surgical scalpel. Dio took it in hand and tossed it straight at Jojo's head. Naturally, The World deflected it with a mach-speed punch that sent the dagger straight up. But it wasn't the ceiling that the dagger hit.

"SSSSSSSIIIIIIIIINNNNNNN!!!!!!" hissed the malevolent Creep. It reached down and took The World by the face. It vanished soon after, returning to Jojo's mind. Creep then stalked as a disgusting oddity, a mixture of sloshing liquid passing through solid, stirring ceiling tiles. Dio saw black as Creep reached for him...

...then he awoke on an abandoned floor in an empty, locked hospital room.

"You are experienced" the manic man praised of Rosalisa's skill. The frantically fighting girl had run out of paper. She had just two lines left in her notebook. Evanescence waited, floating behind her, for her written command. She looked around for something to write on, any kind of paper product at all, but upon seeing the floor begin to move she winced in defense. Creep came up and grabbed her throat, slamming her against the wall.

"Your power has limits" the man said as he drew close, lightly gripping a metal scalpel in his fingers. "Those limits are there for a reason. You hold a terrible ability, the ability to manipulate and guide people to your own whim. You take their freedom. God can't take away our freedom, so what right do you have to do so?" He took the scalpel close to her chin and stroked her soft flesh back and forth with the blunt side of the razor, flesh-rending blade. "God has decided the limit to your power, my dear. He has decided that you cannot attain anymore power than you already have, and yet like a greedy human, you reach ever upward at the chance for more."

"Greed" Rosalisa argued "is a staple of humanity." Creep choked her harder for that. She struggled in vain against the wall, unable to dictate anything more to her Stand but a single word. She wrote the word and let fall her notebook.

"Submit to the Lord's judgment!" the man bellowed, reeling his arm back to stab. Evanescence reached its long arm over and forced open a door just as Rosalisa lost consciousness and fell to the floor. The man looked over and, in a flash reaction, blocked a thrown dagger with his own slicing implement. Creep retreated and surrounded his feet as a fleshy, living puddle while Dio, in a tired stagger, joined the fight. He lazily brushed the hair from his face and leaned in the doorway while his Stand stepped out in its full, black form with the trailing, tattered flesh of its wings dragging on the ground like a two-part black cape.

"Screw his judgment" Dio said. "Mine is...much swifter...much more efficient!" SoaD spit a collection of sharp knives and held them in its fanged jaw. Dio reached through its phantasmal head and grabbed the handful, taking them all between his fingers and grinning so brightly that a glare was cast from the blades and into the masked man's eyes.

"Blasphemy" he said, raising his hand and summoning up his Stand at its full height. "I judge you to Prgatory!" Creep hissed out its terrible voice. SoaD roared back with a low, hollow roar of its own. The eyes of a crusader met with the eyes of the devil. The enemy of God against his soldier...