Naturally, the Phantomhives were informed of the situation. They almost couldn't believe the state of the Order. They hadn't anticipated it to become this big, and neither did H.E.L.L.S.I.N.G; it seemed. Immediately, a Round Table meeting was called and the council met to discuss what has been discovered. They needed to formulate a plan quickly before the Order grew any larger.
Everyone was hit with the severity of the situation, but the duo were hit especially hard. Had they made a mistake? Ciel let the group go in exchange for the stolen genetic material that the group had acquired, as well as the return of the ring that he was going to propose to his then-boyfriend with. He lamented how irresponsible he was, and felt guilty that he couldn't imagine himself changing his actions, even if he could. The greater good took a backseat for the Phantomhive's happiness, and he wasn't sure if he was apologetic. Most of his guilt was from not feeling guilty.
The council invited them to come speak with them in order to obtain their input on the matter. In truth, the demons hadn't the faintest idea as to how to proceed. Alois was not a soldier, and Ciel hadn't the foggiest idea as to how one would go about fighting a war of this scale while still maintaining secrecy. Neither of them knew how to handle the weight of this, and hoped that the discussion would spark some ideas.
Standing there while waiting for the members of the convention to assemble and get situated was agonising, to say the least. The demons simply wanted to get started, but not everyone was in their seats yet. Even when it seemed that they were, they didn't start, much to the confusion of the duo. Then a man who neither of them recognised walked into the room.
The man wore a yellow tie with small, blue sailboats on it, along with a dark blue suit and matching turban. One could see his smile quite clearly even through his thick beard, but it faded as soon as his dark eyes glanced around. He looked lost with the way that he looked around, as if hoping someone would tell him where to go. Fortunately for him, the Hellsing woman spoke up.
"Just take the empty seat, Sir Sharma." she said, encouraging his smile to return.
"Thank you, Sir Hellsing." he politely answered before swiftly making his way to his seat. He was fortunate to sit away from Sir Kirkland, who appeared to be glaring daggers at him, and instead sat in between Sir Midford and Sir Greendown.
Leaning over, the menace whispered to his spouse: "Is that the twelfth?"
"It would appear so." Ciel answered, meeting Alois halfway and mimicking his volume.
"He, Rupert, and Greendown look like the trinity of impressive facial hair." the blonde mused, earning a small smile from the other demon.
"You're right. They've seemed to have gravitated to that one spot." Before they could continue their conversation, however, the meeting had finally started and they were forced to stand up straight again and be quiet. Immediately, the chairwoman of the council addressed the elephant in the room.
"Thank you all for coming." Integra began. "Before we get to business, we should welcome the newest member of the council, Sir Manjeet Sharma."
Applause filled the room from the council members and the two spectating demons while Sharma smiled and nodded. "Thank you very much for having me." he said. "I have read the information of the matter at hand cover to cover, and I will do everything in my power to give as good of input as I can."
"Welcome aboard." greeted Sir Midford, offering the new councilman a handshake. Somehow, Ciel thought that they would make good friends, despite only hearing a few sentences from the other man. Sir Sharma shook hands with Rupert before both of their attention was directed back at Integra again.
"Now that introductions are out of the way, we can move onto more pressing matters." the Hellsing began, pulling out a file and then opening it for her notes. "As you are all aware, the Scarlet Order appears to have a number amoung them who are dissatisfied enough with the way things are going to feed us information. We have already confirmed several ships in their possession and in addition, other equipment such as snowmobiles, trucks, and miscellaneous supplies have been traced to them. Now, the question is: what do we do about it?"
The room was quiet as no one had a solution right away. It seemed as though everyone was in the same predicament where they hoped that someone else would start the dialogue. Looking around the room, the newest member of the council found confusion in this, and found it best to speak.
"Well, there was talk of discussing a removal operation with the local government, yes?" he questioned, twisting the ends of his mustache absentmindedly. "Now that you know the areas that the Scarlet Order's troops are in, isn't it possible to narrow it down in regards to who you need to ask?"
"True, but there is no guarantee that they will be cooperative. If they are, however, the obstacle lies in how we will feesibly do this." Hellsing replied. "My organization can spare a few troops, but even still, we are not equipped for the climate or terrain."
"I will try to get a hold of a few of the countries." offered Dame Cooper, earning a nod from Integra.
"Very good. If you need help, please feel free to ask." the Chairwoman answered. "Anyone else?"
"I can probably drum up a few special operations troops." chimed in Sir Midford. "None of my men speak a lick of anything but English, I'm afraid."
"We can work something out with that, I'm sure." said Sir Greendown. "This is going to be a mess, though… It often is when things are international."
"Don't the Scandinavian countries have H.E.L.L.S.I.N.G.-esque organizations of their own?" questioned Manjeet while arching an eyebrow.
"I don't think so, but then again, we don't exactly have a yearly convention or anything." answered Integra while crossing her arms.
"That's actually an interesting concept." said Midford. "That way, you can share your techniques and methods!"
"Unwise. Iscariot would have to be invited, and that is never a good thing."
The group delineated while the demons remained silent off to the side. They listened in rather attentively in order to understand the situation, but their feet were starting to get tired and Alois was starting to get bored. Eventually, he started leaning against the bluenette and resting his head on the man's shoulder, despite the situation. He tried to be proper and a good, upstanding agent, but he couldn't stand at attention for an hour and a half without being allowed to talk. Poor Ciel was not holding up his husband in addition to himself, and started to find the situation a bit trifling as well. It was all politics, without any real need for them to be there. They understood that it was preemptive, just in case they had any input, but so far, the duo had nothing. Now they were silently hoping that the meeting would end soon.
They were already displeased with the subject matter. It was frustrating to know that if they simply killed their former friend, they wouldn't be dealing with this now. Never did they ever imagine that this would become so large. In truth, they expected the order to dissipate as people realised that it was malarkey, but many stayed loyal, even though there were turncoat operatives. The letter writer was right. This is no longer about justice. It is about power.
The duo's odd behaviour was noticed by the newest member of the table. Rather, he simply noticed two out of place men who seemed bored out of their minds off to the side and wondered what they were there for. Soon, he couldn't take the curiousity anymore and had to ask.
Leaning over, he discreetly whispered to Sir Midford: "Who are those two gentlemen in the corner?" The other man followed his gaze before setting his sights on the duo. Sir Midford inadvertantly made eye contact in the process, prompting the menace to wave at him. The action caused Rupert to smile, but then he quickly answered the new councilman, leaning closer and matching his quiet volume.
"Those are the Phantomhives, Sir Ciel and Mister Alois." he explained. "That isn't the latter's real name, but that is what he prefers to be called. They're two of our top agents. We send them in to do dirty work and other things. Oh, and for the record, they aren't human, either. They're alright, though. Just be nice to them, and they'll be polite in turn."
"Interesting..." Manjeet replied, arching an eyebrow. "What are they here for? Are they bodygaurds?"
"Not at all! They're here in case they have something to add." stated Sir Midford. "They're experts in this case, and have proven insightful in the past."
"They haven't said a thing yet..." Noted the other.
"True. I wonder what they're thinking." Midford replied, perking up at the sound of pause in the conversation. With this, he spoke at normal volume.
"Sir Sharma has made a good point just now." He said to the group, gathering everyone else's attention. "We have yet to consult the Phantomhives once during this meeting. Sir Phantomhive, Mister Phantomhive, what are your professional opinions on the matter?"
The duo seemed genuinely surprised at being called upon, and quickly, they both stood upright once again. Clearing his throat, the bluenette said: "I have nothing to really say. You lot have covered most everything I could think of."
"I dunno, either." Alois chimed in with a shrug. "Oh! But there's a lot of talk about getting ground troops in. What about boats? Can't we like, airstrike a couple ships? Or what about drones? Do we have drones?" he asked, turning his head to ask his spouse.
"I have no idea. I know the Americans do..."
"Thanks, Obama..." Jested the menace, encouraging Integra to butt in before any more jokes distracted from the mission at hand.
"That is a very good point." the Hellsing said, folding her hands in front of her. "We need to utilize the technology that we have in order to dispatch this group swiftly, with minimal loss of human life."
"What about inhuman life?" questioned the menace. "Will all of those elf villages be wiped out too? You could be knocking off an entire race, if you do that, and from the sounds of things, they were just joining the guy who gave them resources. It's not like they all agree with the Scarlet Order's ideas a hundred percent."
Alois had pointed out something important. There were many complications with simply exterminating all civilians associated with the order, as many of them were simply in it for the supplies. In addition, there was no way the local government was going to be keen on having their forests bombed. There would have to be a combination of methodology. Air, land, and sea would have to be utilized in order to rid the world of this threat. It was going to be a delicate but messy operation. A secret war was never a good thing, but it was unavoidable. The Scarlet Order had to be destroyed. Still, genocide was not the answer.
Despite being demons, the duo was very well-versed in the subject of what it meant to be a man or a monster. Most supernaturals were indeed people, not beasts. Sir Sharma, having never seen or heard of demons speaking so eloquently about their peers, was very impressed.
"Orchestrating all of this will be difficult, but I'm sure that it can be done." the new councilman stated. "They may have magic, but their technology and organization is lacking, at best. Tracking them down will be the hardest part, I believe. Once that happens, however, everything else will fall into place."
"Agreed." Ciel replied with a slight nod. "Once all of the pieces are in place, we will be able to hit them with everything we have. Once we do that, they will be no more."
A/N: Hello! Finally, I was able to get this website to work on a computer. I've been unable to access it on every device I could find, but it finally worked on this one!
I have to make it fast, though, because it's in the living room...
This is why no "Character Shet" this time, but I will get back to it as soon as FF stops being a shit, so keep the questions coming!
Until the Next Chapter (whenever I can upload it *sobs*) my duckies~!
