A/N: Let's get a few things out of the way before we can begin.
1. If you don't know by the summary, Part 6 does not exist in this universe, the only original character from Stone Ocean present in this story is Jolyne. So Dio never had a diary and whatnot.
2. I know that there are many returning characters from part 3, especially part 4, but this story isn't really about them. You'll see in future chapters that this story will really be about my own original characters and their own Stands, (I've made 20+ original Stands for this fanfiction).
3. This will be updated every Friday with no exceptions. Doesn't matter if it's a holiday or not. So expect a new chapter every Friday without any breaks until the story is finished. If I don't post on a Friday, then assume I'm dead. Or my internet's down. You choose.
4. Lastly, there is a bit of cursing in this fanfiction, but there will be no slurs or f words. Enough rambling, enjoy and feel free to comment, I will respond to all the comments I can, so feel free to ask questions.
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Episode 42: Broken Bells Part 1
Dianne, wearing only a robe wrapped around her body, poured the blood into the water in the bathtub, tinting it into a dark shade of red, "You sure you don't wanna join?"
Greta was wearing reading glasses, looking down at the open book in her hands before shaking her head and smiling, "I'm good, bathing in blood isn't really my thing."
"It's a celebration," Dianne said, "One of the two biggest hindrances in my life has been exterminated."
Dianne looked back at the tub, she had collected blood from the six members of The Wall before escaping from the hospital with Greta. Now, a day later, they were back at the mansion.
"Regardless of our victory," Dianne said as she dropped her robe before slowly stepping into the bathtub, "There is another reason why I want to do this."
"Really? What's this other reason?" Greta looked up from her book to look at her wife.
"I want to be certain," Dianne said as she submerged all but her head in the blood-mixed water, "That there's no one else left to avenge."
"I'm afraid I don't understand."
Dianne smiled, "It's fine, we'll all find everything out. Good Riddance."
The memories from the six members of The Wall suddenly flooded into Dianne's head.
The six men were all born within the same three years. The oldest was Tankian, born on April 6, 1976. David was born on December 15, 1976. Heatfield was born on February 28, 1977. Elliot was born on July 5, 1977, and Vitas was born on January 2, 1978. Lastly, Beedul was born on March 14, 1978. Coincidentally, the fathers left these boys before their fifth birthday. Even more coincidentally, for their tenth birthday, their mothers took them to Egypt on vacation to see the pyramids. During these trips, they stayed in a hotel in Cairo. Even though these events happened on different dates and sometimes different years, the same thing happened. A woman would mysteriously disappear, and a young boy would be left without a family. For all six members of The Wall, their mothers disappeared without a trace.
Dianne adjusted her posture in the tub as the memories set in, sitting up a bit more so her upper body was out. She looked at Greta.
"Their parents were robbed from them at a very early age," Dianne said, "By the time each member of The Wall turned ten, they visited Cairo and their mothers disappeared. Normally, this would be a strange occurrence, but I know what actually happened from my father's memories. It was he that killed their mothers, he sucked the life out of their necks. I remember their faces from my father's memories. They match up with The Wall's memories."
"Really?" Greta asked. She looked at Dianne, "What else happened? Before we met them all in 2005?"
Dianne sighed, "Let's find out."
Nobody left to care for them, the members of The Wall, still children, lived off the streets of Cairo. Nobody had been sent to rescue them, nobody seemed to notice that their mothers had gone missing. Nobody that was, except for them. Slowly over the years, they met each other, one by one. By 1989, The Wall had officially formed. The Wall consisted of one thirteen-year-old, three twelve-year-olds, and two eleven-year-olds. The Wall became their own family, six "brothers' helping each other out. Even though he was only the second oldest, David took leadership, and for the next ten years, The Wall was a well-known delinquent gang. One day, David found something. An arrow. He had found it in an old mansion that had been abandoned ten years ago. This was the Stand arrow that belonged to Enya the Hag, one of the people who worshiped Dio.
Using this arrow, the six children unknowingly unlocked their Stand abilities. With the six abilities that they had, they were able to rise up as the kings of Cairo underground. One day, during the summer of 2000, a man approached them.
"I've heard there's a bunch of people with Stands hanging out where Lord Dio used to live," the man said.
"Who are you?" David had asked.
"My name is Gerry Silver," the man said, "I'm one of the few people who worked for Dio left. Almost all the others got mutated into disgusting green freaks. What about you? How did you survive the flesh bud mutation?"
"What are you referring to, Gerry Silver?" Vitas asked, "We have not seen your face before. Please leave before we end up killing you."
Silver laughed, "If you don't work for Dio, then how'd you get that arrow? I've been looking for it ever since he died."
"We won't warn you again," David said, "You seem to realize that we have these abilities. Stands? Is that what you called them? I suppose they're a suitable name. Our Stand abilities are unbeatable. We will kill you if you don't leave us alone."
Silver sighed, "I've hit another dead end. Fine. I'll leave you be. Just know who exactly that arrow belonged to. Even in death, Dio will control your entire life." Silver walked away from the six, I'll leave Cairo, he thought, Ever since Dio died, I've always been drawn back here. But I'm going back to Florida, maybe there are some nice American bitches I can have fun with. The Wall never saw Gerry Silver again, for two years later, he would be killed by his son, Portobello.
Regardless, The Wall took Silver's advice and began to research the arrow and its alleged owner, Dio. This eventually led them to two Stand user brothers, who said that they used to work for him.
"Oingo and Boingo," David said, "You two both personally knew Dio?"
"Yes, that's right," Oingo said, "Devil of a man. Very charismatic. I advise you to stay away from anything to do with him, even if you're all Stand users. Even in death, Dio's influence is surprisingly persistent."
"Tell us all that you know," Vitas said, "We are very intrigued."
Oingo sighed as he looked at his younger brother, "Fine. But promise us you won't go off trying to find anyone who knew him. I'm not sure how many sane followers remain. Most of them got mutated back in 1989. But there are still others out there, they might not be as nice as us. Hell, we don't even worship Dio anymore, we've moved on."
"Yes, we understand," David said, "Tell us everything."
Oingo and Boingo spent the next hour explaining anything and everything they knew about Dio.
"That's about it," Oingo said, "Don't go getting yourselves in trouble, all right? We only told you all this so you wouldn't go ask other people. Stay safe."
"Yes of course," David replied, "Thank you for everything."
One detail about what Oingo and Boingo had said stuck out to Elliot in particular. The fact that Dio would lure women to his mansion often. He would often sleep with them and then later suck their blood to slowly attempt to fuse his body with Jonathan's. Elliot said that this was most likely what had happened to their mothers.
"This 'Dio' left quite the legacy behind, huh?" Heatfield said, "There must be more Stand users around. There's gotta be an ability that can bring people back from the dead. It's gotta be possible."
"Is that something we really want, Jim Heatfield?" Vitas asked, "One of the people we just spoke to explained how his Stand could predict the future, and whatever it predicted was absolute. Tempting with fate seems to have its repercussions. Perhaps we can not change what happened."
"We'll never know if we don't try, Vitas," Beedul said, "Even though it's been so long, I still miss my mother. We need to give this a shot."
"Yeah," Tankian agreed, "We need to give this a shot. No matter what."
"I agree," David said, "We will bring back what has been lost to us."
For the next five years, The Wall traveled through Africa, America, and Europe, trying to find a Stand user that could bring back the dead. Their efforts were in vain. Finding new Stand users wasn't an exceedingly hard task. They seemed to easily run into Stand users. Almost as if they were all drawn to each other. Most Stand users were harmless, not even knowing that others like them existed. Others were hostile, but didn't prove to be a big threat to the six members of The Wall, and were soon killed. After five years, The Wall's search brought them some mysterious individuals. It was here where The Wall had met up with Dianne, Greta, and three others named Karmiel Edwards, Bono Edge, and Sebastian Bache.
Dianne shook her head as she stood up in the bath, "So that's the reason they never left us?" she said aloud. After seeing Greta's confused look, she explained the other memories she saw to her.
"That's why they stuck with me." Dianne said, "For two reasons. The first may have been from Voltaire's ability to replay events. They thought that it might be able to replay far enough to bring their mothers back. Once they realized that was outside of the Stand's capabilities, they stayed with us because they figured that if they came across a Stand user that really could bring the dead back to life, and if that Stand user was an enemy, they could simply use me to copy the ability."
"All of this was for their mothers?" Greta asked, "Is that what motivated them even as recently as three days ago? There's gotta be more to it!"
Dianne shook her head, "No, they were always looking for a Stand user to bring back the dead. That's probably why they were gone so often, they never gave up. But they also wanted the Joestar lineage to end. The Joestars are what brought about Dio's rise to power. Granted, they brought his demise as well, but The Wall probably wanted some sort of revenge, some sort of retribution. Specifically, by defeating Jotaro, they would have proved themselves more powerful than the man who killed Dio. It was their own twisted way of getting revenge."
Dianne turned around towards the showerhead of the bath and turned it on, letting the falling water slowly wash away the blood from her red-stained body.
"Anyways, I've seen enough," she said, "I know everything else that happens after they meet us. Plus, I don't want to look too far into their memories and experience the pain they felt when they all died." She stepped out of the tub, rinsing her legs to get rid of the blood.
"God, you're so hot, you know that?" Greta walked up to Dianne before kissing her, "So, what are we going to do now? We have no more allies left, and Jolyne, Joanne, and Jotaro still live."
"I was thinking," Dianne said as she grabbed a towel to dry her body off, "After Portobello died, I'm not sure if you noticed, but I made sure to touch his blood. I saw all his memories using Good Riddance just before Jotaro and the others showed up. Even though they were all jumbled up, and a lot of them were missing, his memories provided me with enough details."
Espresso Love appeared and touched the blood water. The symbols on its body began to glow, and the water turned into steam, leaving the bath completely empty except for a few chunks of iron that formed from the blood.
"One of these details," Dianne continued as she creatively emptied the tub, "Is that Joanne Jones and Fletcher appear to be dating, a detail I was not aware of."
"Me neither," Greta said, "But it makes sense how much the two have been interacting. It's kind of cute, honestly. Reminds me of when we started getting together."
Dianne chuckled, "Yes, that was a fun time. But anyway, if we can find a way to separate Fletcher and keep her here, there are two things we might be able to accomplish."
"Separate?" Greta asked, "How are we gonna do that? Where are you going with this?"
"It's simple," Dianne said, "If we manage to bring her in one of these rooms, perhaps the basement, it'll give Jotaro and especially Joanne a reason to come to us head-on. With the new abilities I've gained, I'm confident that I can take them all down. The only one whom I still fear is Jotaro. And if Binns uses his The Space Between, that would be troublesome. So I've gotta find a way to get rid of those two first before trying to attack the others.."
"Mhm. You still haven't told me how we're even gonna separate Fletcher, to begin with? If we're going all the way back to Morioh just to take her, why not take the time to try and kill Joanne as well? And what is this second thing you hope to accomplish?"
"Those are good questions. I'll explain the plan in a moment. But the second thing I hope to accomplish is bringing Fletcher back on our side. I know how much Eaden's and Clayton's deaths are affecting you, Greta. You're trying to hide it from me, but I know you too well. You desperately want to somehow spare Fletcher too. Once we capture her, I'll use Ultra Violet to prevent her from touching Joanne or any of the others. Such a powerful edict may need me to use up to at least seven of Ultra Violet's curses. Maybe even all ten. But it'll be worth it. She'll be back with us. We could also use her as a trap to get the upper hand. That's how we'll beat everyone else."
"It's quite an outlandish plan. I'd have to hear it in its entirety to see if it'll work or not."
"Of course," Dianne dropped the towel to the ground before walking to the end of the room and opening up a wardrobe, "Let me get dressed and I'll tell you."
"This is a daring plan," Greta said, "But I understand it, it's the best way to minimize any more property damage or casualties in Morioh. Regardless, we'll need a few weeks to prepare some of the more minor details."
"Yes, of course," Dianne said, "This will most likely be our final move. I doubt Jotaro and the others will let us escape with our lives this time. But we won't let them escape with theirs either. The Joestar lineage will end."
Greta smiled. Her wife's determination reminded her of a younger Dianne back when they met in 2005. Greta thought back to where it all began, and how everything had all led up to this.
2005
Greta and Dianne had only been on the run for just over a week. Dianne had been a mess after the death of her twin brother, and Greta was trying her best to keep her in check. The two had been living in Van Fleet, flying aimlessly in the sky. Dianne had taken to alcohol to drown her sorrows, and there was not much she could do. It was on one of these nights that Dianne, freshly drunk off some booze, professed her love to Greta.
"You're really hot, you know that?" Dianne giggled as she said these slurred words, "I really wanna go up to you and give you a kiss."
This had caught Greta completely off guard, "P-please, Dianne, you're drinking too much! Plus, we barely know each other! I appreciate the compliments, but—"
Dianne took a drink straight from the bottle before staggering towards Greta and putting a finger up to her lips. "That's just your brain speaking," she said with a smile, "What does your heart say? Because mine says you're super hot!"
Greta felt her face grow red from embarrassment as she took Dianne's fingers off her lips, "W-well, my heart thinks that you're not so bad looking… But—"
"Enough with the buts," Dianne smiled as she went to hug Greta, "Just accept it."
"I… Okay, Dianne."
Somehow, the drunk college student had managed to win Greta over. The two spent another week together, strengthening their relationship as Van Fleet flew aimlessly into the sky.
"We're low on food," Greta said one day, "We need to go get some more?"
"We're also out of alcohol," Dianne said, "I could use some more of that."
Greta smiled, "I think you've had enough these past two weeks."
Van Fleet landed in a field and the two stepped out.
"Why don't you make your Stand disappear?" Dianne asked.
"It's a Bound Stand," Greta said, "Watch this."
Van Fleet shrunk in size, and its color changed as it reverted into an old, rusty zeppelin.
"My Stand is bound to this old zeppelin, it transformers it into the massive airship we ride around in."
"Wow, that's so cool!" Dianne said, "I can use it too! Van Fleet!"
Red smoke wrapped around the old zeppelin as it transformed into an airship similar to Van Fleet.
"You can even replicate Bound Stands?" Greta asked, "That's interesting."
"My Red Nightmare is a gift from my mother. I never would've discovered it had it not been for her."
"I see," Greta smiled as she looked at Dianne. She had been an emotional wreck for the past two weeks. But slowly, Dianne's newfound love for Greta was detracting her mind away from her dead brother. Greta knew deep down just how much sorrow Dianne felt, but she also knew that her presence was helping Dianne cope a lot. She suddenly turned her head around, "Someone's coming toward us!"
Dianne swung her head around to see three young men, all around twenty, slowly approaching the two.
"Who are you?!" Greta yelled before looking back at Dianne and whispering, "They might be working for the Speedwagon Foundation. It's not unlikely that they've tracked us down already."
"Can we fight back? The only Stands I have are Good Riddance, Voltaire, and Van Fleet. I don't think I can fight very well with those three."
"Let's see what they have to say. If they're working for the Speedwagon Foundation, replay ten seconds so we have a little more time to escape."
Dianne nodded after hearing Greta's plan. The three men stopped just five meters away from Dianne and Greta.
"You're Stand users, aren't you?" The first man said, "My name is Karmiel Edwards. It's a pleasure to meet you."
"Who are you and what do you want?" Dianne asked, "Are you three Stand users as well?"
"Yes, we are," Karmiel said, "These two are my associates, Bono Edge, and Sebastian Bache." Karmiel gestured towards the man on his left, 'Bono', and then to the one on his right, 'Sebastian'.
"You haven't told us what you want!" Greta said, "Do you work for the Speedwagon Foundation?"
"No," Bono answered, "At least not anymore. But we were only infiltrating. Are you Dianne Donovan, the twin sister to Damien Donovan? And you have yet to be identified by the foundation," he pointed towards Greta, "But I recognize your face. You're the Stand user who bombed an apartment complex, correct?"
"It was an accident," Greta said, looking down, "What do you mean you're not working for the Speedwagon Foundation anymore? You were infiltrating?"
"Do you two know of a dead man named Dio?" Sebastian stepped forward, being blunt with his question.
"Yes," Dianne said, "He was my father. But he's a monster who never should've walked this Earth. I have no loyalty to him."
"So it's true," Karmiel said, "Dio did have offspring…"
"What do you three even know about Dio?" Dianne asked, "I don't remember you guys in his memories."
"You have witnessed Dio's memories?" Bono asked, "Is that your Stand ability?"
"Yes, that's part of it," Dianne asked, "Are you three working for Dio?"
"That would make everything easier," Bono said, disregarding Dianne's question, "Can you activate your ability on me right now? If you see through my memories, we won't have to explain ourselves, you'll see for yourself why we're here, why we were looking for you."
"I'll need to touch your blood," Dianne said.
Bono nodded as he looked at Sebastian, "I don't have anything sharp on me, perhaps one of your homunculi could cut open part of my hand." he looked back at Dianne, "How much blood is needed?"
"Just a drop." Dianne held Greta's hand, "When he comes close, I want you to step away, do you hear me?"
"Y-yes," Greta said, "Be careful."
"Piece of Me," Sebastian called forth his Stand as a piece of his skin turned into a tiny toothed creature that ran down his arm on four paws and jumped onto Bono's hand before biting him, sending a small trickle of blood down his hand.
"I'm going to come close now," Bono said, "I won't attack you."
"Wait," Dianne said, "Let me see your Stand first. Tell me your ability as well, then you can step close."
"Very well," Bono said, "We might as well reveal all our abilities first so that you can trust us. I'll go first." a purple genie-like figure rose from behind Bono, it had bolts of electricity sparking through its body.
"This is my Stand, Ultra Violet. It can curse individuals with certain edicts. The more specific the edict, the more pieces of Ultra Violet it takes up. Ultra Violet can split up to ten times and can curse up to ten people at a time. If the edict is broken, Ultra Violet will stop the person's heart no matter what. The curses will remain after death. I can only hypothesize what'll happen then, but I can only assume that the curses active after my death will take on the form of my soul. I have to verbally say an edict before casting a curse, so as long as I stay quiet, you won't get cursed."
Dianne nodded before looking at Sebastian, "What about you? Something came out of your skin just now."
"Right," Sebastian said, "This is my Stand, Piece of Me. It allows me to turn my skin into homunculi which I can control. The size of the homunculi depends on how much skin I'm willing to sacrifice so I usually make them very small as you may have seen."
Dianne looked at Karmiel, "And you?"
"My Stand is named Uncontrollable Urge," he said. A mummified man who looked to have been starved to the point of death appeared next to Karmiel. The two-meter-tall Stand was bony and had gray decaying skin. Its right arm was swollen and large, and it had large claws protruding from it. "Its ability is simple. If it ingests the target's blood, then anything it eats thereafter will appear in the stomach of that target."
"Alright," Dianne said, "You can come, Bono. If you say a word, I'll assume that you're attacking me with your Ultra Violet's curse."
"Of course," Bono walked towards Dianne, not saying anything else as he held his bloodied hand up to her.
Dianne took one last look at Greta, who had backed away just as instructed. She grabbed Bono's hand, his blood now touching her. "Good Riddance."
Red mist appeared around Dianne's hand as she replicated her mother's Stand. Suddenly, all of Bono's memories entered Dianne's mind. After a few seconds, she looked back at Greta.
"It's okay, we can trust them," she said, "These men are here to help us."
"Are you sure?" Greta asked, "What did you see?"
"The fathers of these three men worked for Dio," Dianne said, "I remember seeing them in Dio's memories as well. They were lesser lackeys with Stands that didn't impress Dio. After Dio's death, the flesh buds mutated the body of Bono's father. Bono resented Dio for what he did to his father and wanted to somehow get revenge on the dead man. He met up with Karmiel and Sebastian who told him that they had similar experiences, and the three joined the Speedwagon Foundation to gain more information on Dio and Stands in general. After the Speedwagon Foundation used my brother's blood sample to figure out that Dio was his father, Bono, Sebastian, and Karmiel went out of their way to quit the Speedwagon Foundation to find me. They had two plans. If I was loyal to Dio, they would kill me, if I hated him as they did, they'd join me and help me escape from the Speedwagon Foundation."
"That's pretty good," Bono said, "You picked that all up in just a few seconds?"
"Yes," Dianne said, "That's not the only thing I acquired." The red mist around Dianne's hand moved to her side and formed into Ultra Violet, identical to the one that belonged to Bono "How did you do that?!" Bono said in surprise, stepping back.
"Don't worry," Dianne said, "This is my ability, I can store and use the Stand abilities of anybody I touch. If you don't mind, I'd like to acquire Piece of Me and Uncontrollable Urge as well. We're going to work together, right?"
"Y-yes, of course," Karmiel said, "Would you like us to step forward?"
"Yes, I trust you now, please come forward."
After Karmiel and Sebastian walked toward Dianne, they felt her hand on each of their shoulders. Dianne tested out the Stands and had Red Nightmare turn into Uncontrollable Urge and Piece of Me, "Remarkable," Sebastian said, "Truly remarkable. Is there a limit to how many Stands you can store and use?"
"I'm not sure, but I don't think so. Greta, we can freely welcome them into Van Fleet, they're not going to hurt us. When I went through Bono's memories, I felt all his emotions, saw all his thoughts and intentions, they're safe."
"Right," Dianne said, "But we still need food."
"There's no need," Dianne said, "They brought food with them when they deserted the Speedwagon Foundation. I saw it in Bono's memories." With the introduction of these three men, Dianne felt truly happy and hopeful for the first time since Damien had died. This happiness and hopefulness would not last forever, for The Wall would soon introduce themselves into Dianne's life.
...
A/N: And that's chapter 42! I know this didn't do too much to move the plot itself forward, but I've always wanted to delve into Dianne's backstory more. If given the choice, I'd probably make this arc up to five chapters, but for the sake of the pacing of the story, I've trimmed it down to three chapters. Let's get the musical references out of the way. First off is the chapter title, Broken Bells, named after my favorite Greta Van Fleet song of the same name. The two other musical references come from Sebastian's last name, Bache, which is a reference to Sebastian Bach of Skid Row, and Bono's last name, Edge, named after The Edge, the keyboard player from U2. Anyway, I hope you all don't mind this jump back in time. I had the first major chunk of the chapter take place in the modern day, and I also took the time to explain The Wall's origins, something that was supposed to happen in the last chapter, but that was already getting way too long. We also got a cameo from Oingo and Boingo, I enjoyed their characters and wanted to bring them back for a quick cameo at some point. Gerry Silver also returned, for those who don't remember, he was Portobello's father from back in chapter 14. Karmiel and Sebastian who were only mentioned finally make their grand appearance as well. The following two chapters will continue on with the 2005 storyline and explain the origins of a few more characters, and it will explain exactly what happened to Bono, Karmiel, and Sebastian, and how The Wall took control. But that's all happening in the next chapters so see you all next time in Episode 43: Broken Bells Part 2!
