Panic was in the air. The H.E.L.L.S.I.N.G. Intelligence Department was in a tizzy at what they had found. It had been a few days, but it had not diminished in the slightest. No, how could it? One of their own was in enemy hands, as indicated in the oral report given by Sir Phantomhive upon his return while receiving treatment for his injuries.
He had tried to move on from the incident and to find a way to counter, but the organization was busy making sure that the even didn't result in an intelligence leak. The Macken's I.D. card had been deactivated and passwords had been changed. How annoying. It was all the more reason to fix things swiftly.
To the surprise of the staff, however, abductees were beginning to return home. The collaboration with the Girasol vampires was to blame for this. They attacked the Jacks in the streets, tearing off their amulets and helping them home. They toppled cars and uncovered moles, removing further threats while freeing the residents of the Glen. In a matter of days, the abductions stopped completely as Cerberus was forced to create a new game plan. H.E.L.L.S.I.N.G. was astonished. Vampires were helping them. In the end, the organization was also forced to reconsider how to handle this.
In a matter of days—just a few days—all of this happened. H.E.L.L.S.I.N.G. troops were instructed to temporarily collaborate with Girasol and vice-versa. While they still couldn't seem to pinpoint the offenders' home base, they were able to cut down their forces exponentially. Still, even with all of the recovered individuals, Sister Dorothy was not one of them, and neither was the blonde menace.
Cerberus was keeping Blackjack hidden. The demon hadn't been spotted since their first encounter with him. Obviously, Alois was somewhat of a "trump card" of sorts. They weren't going to risk losing him so quickly.
"Any news?" questioned Elizabeth, looking up at the main screen in the Intel room as she walked by. Once more, she was back in uniform, however this time, it wasn't a standard one. It was that of a high-ranking officer.
"Not yet…" nervously answered Audrey. While he was half of a divine being, he was still frightened of the angel. "The attacks have slowed down almost completely, but we still can't figure out where their base is."
"So we're still in the same place…" murmured the woman, patting the reaper on the shoulder. "Keep up the good work. Tell me if there's any developments."
"Yes, ma'am."
"Lady Elizabeth!" called a certain Draculina out of nowhere, prompting the woman's attention. When the angel turned around, she found that Seras was already more than halfway to her. "Something has happened."
"What is it?" the Hellsing woman asked, an astonished look on her face. Seras was usually by Sir Integra's side, always. She never wore an expression like this one, which was urgent. At least, Elizabeth hadn't.
"A Jack turned themselves in." Miss Victoria replied. "They walked up to a group of patrolling Girasol members, who gave this to H.E.L.L.S.I.N.G. forces." Elizabeth arched an eyebrow at the small, rectangular object in the younger woman's gloved hand.
"What is that?" questioned Elizabeth, inviting an explanation.
"A memory-stick." Seras answered bluntly. She tapped the shoulder of the eaves-dropping reaper seated near them and waved it in his face. "Plug this in and play the file on it."
"Okay?" answered Audrey, doing just that. He plugged in the gadget and clicked around on his screen, opening the device before opening the file. "Up on the big screen, or…?"
"Big screen will let everyone know at once." The Draculina stated. "Do it."
"Yes, ma'am." Replied the reaper, pressing play. Everyone in the room turned their attention to the main screen that took up a good portion of the front of the room as the video started playing, and within the first few milliseconds, they knew it wasn't going to be good.
Demons. There were four of them in total in an empty room with a few chairs. There was one man, one woman, and as for the final one, no one could seem to reach a consensus for their sex. The man had long pale hair swept back out of his face, a square jaw, and two fangs protruding from his mouth facing downward, with beady eyes and a gross expression on his face. The woman looked irritable; her long black hair loosly done-up out of her oval face, almost proudly revealing the scars that adorned her skin like tiger stripes. The androgynous demon wore a black sort of poncho-like garment, grey shorts and black thigh-high socks. Their hair was all swept to the left, out of their face. Oddly, they had no eyebrows, but they did have a piercing connected to a chain which lead to another one on their ear. Altogether they were an odd bunch, but the most concerning feature out of the entire scene was the fourth demon, who they flocked too.
Standing in the center of the frame with a seemingly neutral expression on what was revealed of their face by their half-mask; arms crossed and with a sturdy stance that seemingly couldn't be moved was none other than Alois. He was still wearing his black and gold mask, appearing to be unable to even see the other demons around him making peace signs at the camera.
"Ta-da~!" chimed the androgynous demon. "Wait, is that thing even on?"
"The red light's on, so that means that it's recording." Said the striped one.
"Oh. Well, in that case, everybody say 'hi'~!" spoke the first. "My name is 'Voros'!"
"I'm Verdigris." Said the other.
"And I'm Araneus!" chimed in the man.
"I'm sure you all already know this guy." Stated Voros with a wicked grin that put their white teeth on display. They gestured to the menace, who said nor did anything. "We call him 'Blackjack', here, though. Isn't he cute~?" They said, pinching Alois' cheek to no response.
"I bet he's quite the looker without the mask, though." Spoke Araneus.
"Now, now, we've talked about this. The mask stays on." The browless demon answered almost scoldingly before turning their attention back to the camera.
"Altogether, we're Cerberus! Hello!" they added, their grin warping into a smirk. "It's a pleasure to finally introduce ourselves to Her Royal England Legions of Legitimate Supernatural and Immortal Night Guard; H.E.L.L.S.I.N.G."
"You might be wondering why we've decided to reveal ourselves after all of this time." Pointed out Verdigris before continuing to explain. "It's simple. You've been putting a serious hamper on our operations, with your seeming alliance with the Girasol vampires."
"We're here to cut you a deal." Stated Araneus. "As much as I want to see this guy's face, we're going to give him up. As a peace offering."
"That's right." Continued the demon without eyebrows. "We'll give you back your friend. In return, however, you must promise us a clean escape. You'll never hear from us ever again. Let's just all pretend this never happened. It was just a bad dream you woke up from." They looked over their shoulder at the Macken and stroked his cheek. "Right, BJ?"
"Have your watchdog come pick him up." Instructed Verdigris. "We'll leave him alone, so there won't be anything for you to fear. He's yours for the taking."
"We've even marked the location on the map!" enthusiastically declared Voros. "So be a good doggie and do as we said, alright? Laters~!"
And with that, the video ended. The entire room was silent for the moments following after. No one knew quite what to say. It was Cerberus. And they wanted to be let go? It was all too suspicious.
"Send that video to Sir Phantomhive immediately." Seras ordered the Baines gentleman seated in front of her.
"What did he mean they 'marked it on the map'?" questioned Elizabeth, looking to the Draculina. Seras thought for a few moments before turning to another operative stationed at a different computer.
"You. Pull up a current image of the Special Zone via satellite." Instructed Miss Victoria.
"Uh-uhm… I don't know how…" the agent said, only to find themselves rolled out of the way in their chair by Lieutenant Chu.
"Out of the way." Suyin said, taking over their station momentarily. The department head quickly clicked around, and with a few presses of the keys, she had the image up on the big screen. "Everyone keep your eyes peeled for anything unusual."
Whispering filled the air as the staff stopped what they were doing and combed the image. Dozens of eyes fell on the screen all at once as they searched for something out of the ordinary. Suyin zoomed in a bit, and dragged the image so everyone could get a better look. Before long, someone stood up.
"There!" one of the operatives said while pointing. "On the roof! Right There!"
"Lieutenant! Zoom in!" instructed Seras.
"Yes, ma'am." The woman said, doing just that. Lieutenant Chu zoomed in on the general area that the agent pointed out, and once her eye caught it too, she zoomed in again, honing in on that particular spot. The whispering grew in volume at the sight.
A pentagram was drawn on top of one of the buildings. The star in the center had a rectangle running through it horizontally, with no other defining features. It was recognised by the angel, however.
"That's the same seal on the amulets!" she pointed out.
"Something's not right…" murmured the Draculina, squinting her eyes just a bit. "Lieutenant, once again, please."
"On it." With that, Miss Chu zoomed in one final time, suddenly revealing something new about the image. There was a figure standing in the center. They were clad in black with gold reflecting light off of their mask.
"Alois!" declared Elizabeth. It was just as they said. The menace was right where Cerberus said he would be.
"Send those coordinates to Sir Phantomhive!" ordered Seras.
"Send backup as well." The angel added. Something didn't add up. It was too all too easy. "It's most likely a trap."
"Understood." The Lieutenant answered, rolling the operative whom she commandeered the computer from back to their station.
"You heard them! Let's move!"
A/N: Yo.
I feel like this seems to be moving a bit fast, but it'll all make sense in due time (probably).
Hopefully things don't get worse~!
That would really suck, right~?
Oh... Some questions have piled up...
This first one's not really a question, but I need to clear it up again, it looks like...
"Sempai, you could totally bring Doll back right now, if you wanted to. :P" by Elphaba42
No I can't, actually. DLTD/P follows the bit from the TV anime (seasons one and two), not the manga or Book of Circus. Because of this, Ciel has not met Doll before, if she even exists in this universe. As much as I love her, it's not possible, unfortunately...
"Hate-chan can I ask you? Do you listen to jrock? I remember the opening theme of kuroshitsuji the title was SHIVER by the gazettE, and I watch the video of that song,.then I check all of there song, Its so freaking awesome, ENAMEL by SID is a good one, its a opening theme of book of circus just saying... If you do...what band is you favorite?"
I don't really, actually... I don't know any bands, and I haven't really listened to other stuff from the ones that did the Kuro openings hahaha... I'm bad at finding new artists to listen to...
"Was the bit where Lizzie slices the bullet in half a reference to SAO in the GGO arc where Kirito does basically the same thing to a sniper shot without making any attempt to dodge?" by Tyranapanda
Nope. I have no idea what that is...
Until the next chapter, my duckies~!
