Immediately, the Convention of Twelve was assembled, or rather, Eleven. Mister Westley was not invited to this meeting, as it concerned him. Once the issue was brought to the attention of the council, an investigation was launched. What was found, they were not impressed with. Not impressed at all. The Round Table assembled. They put on their suits and their ties and arrived promptly at the meeting room before taking their seats. They were understandably outraged. They spoke angrily and shouted back and forth on how to handle the matter. None of them had any kind words, and all of them had something to say. Eventually, however, the verdict was reached and the Phantomhives received a call.

The two men came when called, although they were a tad sluggish. They knew what the verdict was from the simple fact that they were summoned. They also knew of the possible consequences, and did not want to carry out the mission they were about to be assigned. It was unavoidable, however. Nothing could stop it. It had to be done.

Walking through the doors of the meeting room, the pair stood before the conference with solemn faces. It appeared as though the others has calmed down substantially, however. If they hadn't, the demons would have been alarmed, as they had been in meeting for the entirety of a day and a night. As always, Integra greeted them.

"Good morning, Phantomhives." she said, alerting the duo to attention.

"Integra." Ciel replied as his partner nodded in acknowledgment toward the woman. "I take it that the council has decided on a course of action?"

"Indeed." the Hellsing replied. "Mathew Westley has been found guilty of stealing from the council. All evidence points toward this. It is an unprecedented act of betrayal. Thus, he will be removed from the council effective immediately. I take it that you understand what this means?"

"Yes. I understand." stated the bluenette, causing the blonde to close his eyes and furrow his brow. That is not what he wanted to hear.. "He knows too much to be let loose. Are there any specifics?"

"Given the fact that Westley is a figure in the public eye, it is best to avoid a murder."

"An accident?"

"Whatever you feel is best." said Integra. "I trust in your judgment."

Pausing to think, the Phantomhive folded his arms and rubbed his chin. He knew it was best to run a plan through the council before executing it. The situation was delicate, and he needed to make sure everything was in order.

"I have a proposal." he finally said, grasping everyone's attention. "With this method, I can get rid of Westley as well as the other loose end. Paul Blackwood, the assistant who alerted us of this, knows too much as well, and has proven to be mentally unstable. All I will need is a little cooperation from the council."

Leaning forward in her seat, Integra propped her elbows up on the table while tucking her intertwined fingers beneath her chin. "Explain."

"With the materials we have, we can easily get him a life sentence." the man elaborated. "He will go down in history as a lunatic who stalked and harassed a politician until his death, if you get my meaning..."

The blonde looked up at his spouse with a look of sincere concern across his face. He didn't want to carry out the mission at all. He just wanted the problem to go away. While he agreed with locking up Blackwood, he wasn't sure if he was on board with what his husband was proposing. He didn't like it. He didn't like this situation at all. The council, however, felt differently.

"Very well." replied the Hellsing. "All members of the council who approve?"

All around the table, a collective of "aye" piped up before stopping at what sounded like eleven "ayes". It was unanimous. There was not a single objection with doing things this way, and that made the duo officially on the case, no matter how much they were conflicted over the matter.

"Very well, then." the woman said. "That settles it. Phantomhives, it is your duty to carry out this order. I imagine that you understand what is at stake."

"Yes." answered Ciel, followed by a "yes, ma'am" from Alois. The blonde was still unenthusiastic, while Ciel maintained a facade of indifference.

"The secret must maintain thusly." she replied. "For that reason, Mister Westley cannot be allowed to get away. In the meantime, we will begin discussion on his replacement. This time, we will be much more thorough."

"Last time we were in a hurry, so we ended up settling." stated Sir Greendown from his side of the table. He folded his hands in front of him and sighed. "We will not be making that mistake again."

"I propose that we explicitly stick to candidates who have been knighted." suggested Sir Midford in an odd act of conservatism and seriousness. "We can't be a Round Table if we're not all knights!"

"For once, we agree." huffed Sir Kirkland. "We need to spend more time deciding this time around. Last time, we were in too much of a hurry to replace Sir Islands, and ended up picking an oaf!"

"We will begin the debate tomorrow." Integra piped up, trying to bring order back to the room. "In the meantime, we will get some rest. As for the matter of Westley himself, he is entrusted into the hands of the Phantomhive family. Meeting adjourned."

Chairs scuffled backwards as the members of the council stood up and collected their things before beginning to file out. The demons were no different. Their part of the meeting had been breif, but they had acquired their mission, which was the important part. The Phantomhives filed out of the room with the others and headed toward their car, where they spent the majority of the ride home in absolute silence. Their minds were too busy to talk right then. Ciel was plotting for the mission, while Alois was dreading it.

The blonde gripped the steering wheel tightly as he worried. He was having trouble paying attention to the road, and drove somewhat clumsily. He was far too concerned with what was going to happen next. While Daniel didn't like his father, he was still his father. How would he react when the duo is done? Would he be relieved? Sad? Distraught? What if it absolutely crushed him? That along with Blackwood inevitably breaking up with him quite soon may be too much to bear. What if they ruined their friendship? If word passed through the rest of the group, they might hate the demons as well. Alois couldn't bear that. He cared far too much about his friends to lose them like this. He was scared.

"Alois! Car!" shouted the bluenette in the passenger seat, prompting the menace to slam on the brakes. The car screeched to a halt just in time to avoid rear-ending the car in front of them. Suddenly, Alois was back in the real world and pulled out of his own thoughts. His heart was pounding and sweat coated his skin somewhat. His attention was further captured, however, when his spouse leaned over and put a hand over his.

"Are you alright?" he asked, causing the menace to think. The more he thought about how to reply, the more watery his eyes got. Suddenly, his lips pressed together in a thin line and he whimpered.

"No..." he replied, wiping his eye with his free hand. His spouse, obviously concerned, decided to address the man's unrest before attempting the drive home.

"Alright…" Ciel began. "There's a parking lot up ahead. Pull into it and stop the car. We'll talk."

"O-okay..." hiccuped the menace, doing as instructed. He pulled into the parking-lot and parked the car, shutting off the vehicle. He sat there for a moment without saying anything. All he did was look straight ahead and listened to the sound of his husband unbuckle his seatbelt and lean closer.

Ciel held out both hands and cupped one of the menace's between them. The action was soothing, somewhat, and helped just a smidgen. The Watchdog pulled the other man's hand to his lips and placed a kiss on his ring before intertwining their fingers and covering it with his other hand. His sapphire eye was fixed on his beau's face as it contorted with premature guilt at what had to be done.

"It's going to be alright, love." Ciel cooed, his voice soft as he spoke to the other. "Everything will turn out okay."

"How do you know that?" asked the menace with a strained throat. He sounded croaky, and it was from desperately trying to stay calm to no avail. "What if Daniel finds out?"

"He won't. Trust me. I'll take care of it. As long as we don't tell anyone, no one will know."

"But what if… What if it hurts Dan?" Alois questioned as he finally turned to face Ciel. "I don't know if I could not tell him if that happened… I'm not sure if I could bear it..."

"That's the price of being a secret agent." his spouse replied. "Some secrets, you can't even tell your friends. Some, you can't even tell your collegues. It's to protect them."

"What about you?" the menace asked. "How far does it go? What if one day, I have to keep a secret from you? Even if it's to protect you?"

"You have once before, remember? Blackjack? I forgave you, and still wanted you to be my husband. I understood what it meant."

"But what if it's too far? Ciel, the others… They might not understand. Daniel won't, at least. You know how he is!"

"That's why he must never know." the Watchdog stated, rubbing the other man's hand with his thumb. "We already hold our share of secrets. August does not know that we killed her, nor does Maxwell. Johnathan doesn't know that we were there when he died, or that we killed his father."

The bluenette's words, unfortunately, did nothing to calm Alois, and only helped the tears that threatened to spill over fall. Alois' heart was big. So was Ciel's, but they had different ways in going about it. Ciel knew that secrets can protect people, even if he was wore his heart on his sleeve when it came to the menace. Alois, however, was inexperienced, still. The poor man was shaken by his own occupation, and worried about his husband, as well.

"How can you be so calm?" he asked. "You make it seem so simple."

"I've had practice, I'm afraid." answered his spouse. Ciel's tone sounded apologetic, almost. He knew that this wasn't what Alois wanted to hear, but it was the truth. He could no longer lie to the menace. The ability was lost. "The war was especially bad." Pausing, the blue Phantomhive reached up and attempted to wipe away his spouse's tears.

"I can take care of it on my own, if you like." Ciel offered. "You can stay home, or act as lookout. Whichever you prefer."

"It's not the killing that bothers me..." Alois attempted to clarify. "I don't like Westley, and don't mind if he dies. It's Dan. What if he's upset his father died? I know they didn't like each other, but… isn't that what family does? You still care about each other?"

The man's question threw Ciel off for a moment, and he had to think. "I don't know." he said solemnly. "I don't really remember my parents that well… If I did, and I'd known them for longer… I probably would. Maybe even if I was mad at them..."

"I'm sorry…" his beau said, looking down. "I forgot..."

"It's alright." the Watchdog replied with a small, yet kind smile. It was a wonder that such a man was a killer, the way he awkwardly shifted in his seat and leaned over so that he could place a gentle kiss on his beloved's forehead.

"I love you." he said, trying to comfort the blonde. He wanted to hug the man, but couldn't manage it while still in the front seat of the car.

"I love you, too." hiccuped the menace, sniffling before he continued. "I know what I signed up for. This is just part of the job, right?"

"Right…" Ciel stated. "I can take care of the big part, if you want. And I'll be here if you need me. I know how awful it is..."

"I know..." Alois replied, looking up at the other again. "I can manage… It's just another hit, right?"


A/N: Yikes... Still beats working in retail, amirite?

Thank you all so much for your comments! I honestly wasn't expecting that big of a response. Maybe one or two, but that's about twenty, right there. Y'all don't play. I didn't think I was gonna end the series when I wrote the last A/N, but now I know that that's an impossibility! I dunno how many years this fic has got left, but a pretty good estimate would be "a lot". I considered ending it, but I didn't wanna. There's still so many things to tell!

Come to think of it, I had a really good idea earlier, but I can't remember what it was... Dammit... I need to start writing this shit down when I come up with it...

A few of you said that you'd like to see the "Character Shet" segment come back, which won't be a problem. Just start sending the characters questions in the reviews! You can also ask me questions about the series as well whenever maybe if you feel like it sometimes. You all had very thoughtful stuff to say and I've been rereading all of it over, and over, and over again over the past few days! I was thinkin' "Man, this chapter has got to be good." Hopefully it was. I never know because I'm looking at it from the author's perspective haha! It was really educational. I actually learned a lot from what you guys had to say about the series.

Though, one of my favourite reviews was actually for the chapter before the previous one (ch. 248), and it's by Honeycloud of RiverClan who says simply: "don't kinkshame him, Alois." It struck me as really funny for some reason.

FYI, while Ciel does love feeling Alois up all over, his kink is not shoulders. Just thought y'all would like to know...

Until the next chapter, my duckies~!