Integra was not thrilled with the news. Not at all. Not with any of it. According to the soldiers that were there and that were interviewed, they felt as though they were ill-prepared, as they moved from destination to destination. The short notice that they had for the first location was bad enough, but then they learned that the target was no longer there and had to move again. They simply were not prepared for this task that they were given, and everyone paid the price.

The Sudoku Killer's remains- what could be salvaged, were sent back to the prison from whence he came for his family to deal with at a later date. Meanwhile, the HELLSING organization's research department gathered what they could of August's body, going about examining and taking samples from her as respectfully as they could. She knew it was coming. As soon as a supernatural agent of HELLSING passed, that is what would be done to them. It was one of the conditions for associating with them. Despite this, however, once they were finished, she would be dressed like any other and be remembered as a HELLSING operative, funeral and all.

Arrangements were being made while the researchers worked. It would be a while, especially since everyone knew that August would have wanted her "master" to be there. The moment Ciel gave her a name, the moment she came under his control. Slowly, but surely, she had started to form her own person, much to the sadness of her coworkers who observed it happen. Still, she had trouble with following orders. By that, she followed orders perhaps too closely at times, forcing her superiors to have to be very specific when instructing her. As a lesser demon under the rule of another higher demon, that was her nature.

It was that same nature that was her undoing, yet saved the bluenette from a worse fate. While self-preservation was not the strongest suit of a lesser demon, ensuring the safety of her master was, so she shoved Ciel away at the last moment so that he wouldn't bear the brunt of the oncoming train. It was cruel, really. It couldn't be undone, however. Her soul was collected so it may go through to the next stage of the cycle.

She was gone, but her master stayed, although he was technically "dead" by human standards for a while several hours ago. His head and his leg were healed, but his arm was still attaching itself. The staples in his head were pushed out onto the pillow and the doctor was to pick up the twisted metal. While the Watchdog was stable, he wasn't going to be moving any time soon.

He would be there when his husband was free to see him. But first, the blonde was interrogated by the organization's head. Questions about what happened were asked and Alois repeated what he told Sebastian, which matched up with what the soldiers said. Integra had no reason to think that they did this on purpose. They were in a hurry to get their target while they were still hot on his trail and in fact, Integra was the one who approved the mission to the initial location, despite them not being prepared for that either.

Thus, it was Integra who accepted responsibility, despite the scolding Alois received for his behaviour. Both she and Dafydd were shocked by the blood on the barrier when they walked in. On their way out, however, the sorcerer told her something that would have been dangerous to let the menace know.

"That barrier was significantly weakened in that spot." he said in a hushed tone while walking down the hallway. "If he kept that up, I'm pretty sure it would have cracked!"

"You should perform another strength test on Mister Jim Phantomhive." the Hellsing woman instructed. "Compare it to the data from before. Has he gotten stronger? If so, is it natural, or due to his emotions?"

"Sir?"

"Mister Phantomhive is a tenacious one. When his weakness is threatened, he comes out fighting three times as hard. Find out if he has a limit."

"Yes, ma'am."

"Also, once you're done entering Ciel's data, I want you to release the barrier and tell him that he is free to see his husband." Integra instructed, causing the man's face to go pale.

"Uhm… On my own? He was pretty mad about that barrier thing..."

"Fear not. Once he is told that he can see his spouse, nothing else will be on his mind but finding him."

"If… If you say so..." the sorcerer replied nervously. It was unwise to talk back to Sir Integra, but even still, he took his time in doing whatever he needed to before going to release the lion. It was so much time, however, that Miranda actually had to come remind him before he very begrudgingly got up and made the long walk back down the hallway.

That demon almost put a crack in his barrier. Granted, it wasn't a very strong one in the first place, given the man's lack of time to prepare an actual one, but that was still significant. If there was bad blood between them, Dafydd was as good as dead. Sorcerers, unlike demons, cannot reattach their limbs once they're torn off, which was a real shame given his predicament.

His breath was shallow and his hands were clammy as he gripped the door handle, stepping inside to see Alois alone in his room, quietly sitting on the bed and waiting. The look on the blonde's face was hopeful when he looked up, but that didn't alleviate the intimidation and fear that Dafydd felt. Swallowing, the man spoke.

"Integra told me to let you go." the sorcerer said, causing Alois' face to light up. "She said you're free to go see Ciel once the barrier is down."

"Well, what are you waiting for?" Alois startled the other man by leaping out of bed. "Drop it!"

"Alright, alright!" Dafydd waved away before rubbing his hands together. Clearing his throat, he took a strong stance and took in a deep breath. "Scientia de anima!"

The barrier flashed and a gust of wind blew the sorcerer's hair back as the weakest point of the barrier gave out. The blood that covered it fell when it vanished, having nothing to cling to any longer. Alois didn't even wait for the entire barrier to disappear before he took off. All he did was wait for the hole to grow big enough for him to jump to like a circus act.

Gracefully, he made it through the opening and rolled before landing on his feet. Once he had them on the ground, he ran past the warlock and burst out of the room, leaving the other man there in a state of confusion while the rest of the barrier disappeared. Dafydd did call out to him, but no words he could have uttered could have possibly reached him. Alois was long gone. He was running down the hall with his bare feet slapping against the cold tile. He had honed in on his husband's signature long ago, so he knew precisely where he was going.

Reaching for the door, he realised that it was locked and he didn't have his keycard on him. Gritting his teeth, he was just about to break the handle and force his way inside, but to his surprise, it opened. On the other side was an angel. Elizabeth had heard what happened and naturally visited her cousin. Having sensed the menace barreling down the hallway, she decided that it was best that he didn't break the door to his husband's room. Pressing her finger to her lips, she shushed the demon before stepping back inside.

"He's still asleep." she whispered before walking back over to her relative's bed. Standing behind the chair at the side, she gestured for the blonde Phantomhive to sit. "You should really be the one to sit here. Just be gentle. His left arm is still in bad shape."

With raised brows, the Phantomhive stepped into the room. He was surprised that he wasn't blamed for this and was also taken off guard by the fact that Elizabeth wanted him to take the seat closest to the bluenette. Once he was halfway there, his eyes moved from Elizabeth and trailed over to the Watchdog in question, only to audibly gasp and his heart to drop to the pit of his stomach. Immediately, his pace quickened and he rushed to Ciel's side right side, taking his hand.

The eye that Ciel could actually see properly out of was bandaged up along with the left side of his head, his shoulder, and his arm. He wouldn't be able to see the menace very well when he woke up if that stayed on. While the Watchdog was mostly healed, the bandages made him look absolutely dreadful. Alois had to treat him delicately as not to hurt him while he intertwined their fingers on his husband's good side. The blonde held onto him for dear life, bringing his hand to his lips while tears freely fell.

"Oh, Ciel…" he sobbed, being overwhelmed by the sight. He sniffled and he choked as he tried his best not the fall apart in a battle he was losing. "My Ciel..."

All Elizabeth could do was look on with a concern-riddled expression while feeling her own unrest start to grow anew. It hit her hard as well when she first saw the bluenette, but had calmed down since then. She understood what Alois was feeling perfectly. It didn't matter that they knew Ciel was most likely going to be perfectly fine. It didn't make the worry and sadness go away. They couldn't even talk to the blueblooded Phantomhive, although that wouldn't do them much good.

It was everything at once to Alois. The sight of his beau, the knowledge that he was hurt badly and would take a while to heal, and the knowledge that once he woke up, Ciel was going to be thrown into a loop as well, if not worse than the others. It was he who had actually lost a limb, after all. That would definitely not go over well. Alois would have to put himself together enough to be there for him when that happened, so the menace cried freely for now. It was like he was mourning Ciel without the man being dead. His relief and sadness stung his eyes while his fear caused him to cling to the man as he was terrified of how his husband was going to react.

It was painful to look at. Alois couldn't help but imagine what it would feel like, tempting him to grasp at his own arm. He was on a mission, however, and couldn't be distracted by himself. It was his priority to take care of the bluenette, even going so far as to offer to wipe off the blood when the doctor came back in to remove the bandages from his spouse's head. He assumed that he was going to be doing a lot of this sort of thing for a while, so he came right out of the gates wanting to be involved.

This was his beau. Their history together made them inseparable as they both rebuilt each other from filth that lurked in the dark into people who enjoyed life itself. Every day was amazing journey with each other and they vowed never to go back. They only moved in one direction- forward. They walked hand in hand with their heads held high as they danced on air, each keeping a firm grip on their spouse should they ever slip and fall so they can help them back up again. Ciel made him happy. Alois was concerned with the Watchdog's happiness in turn. Just the thought of how he was going to feel once he awoke hurt his heart.

Gently, he leaned down and placed a soft peck on the Watchdog's cheek, unaware of how it made the bluenette's eyelid twitch in his sleep. Sucking in a deep breath, Ciel let it out again in the form a groan as he teetered on the border between sleep and wakefulness.

"Jim..." he sighed, his throat dry and raspy despite drowning in sleep. His hand lightly squeezed his husband's back, causing the corner of the blonde's mouth to twitch ever so slightly.

"I'm here..." the menace replied in a hushed tone. "I'm here, darling..."


A/N: The song of this chapter is "Memory" from CATS.

Because it's a good song. Jus' sayin'.

I feel like this is going to start becoming a thing. I tell you what song I was listening to while writing pfff... It happens. Like, I will seriously keep pushing repeat for a certain song while writing for several hours.

It seems to be pretty common for 2,000-word chapters to take two days. Has anyone noticed that? That's so odd. Sometimes, though, I can just pump them out like nothing. Sometimes, I really struggle, though. It happens.

Something interesting happened as I was writing this chapter, and that's that as it went on, it became more about Alois being worried about how Ciel was going to feel when he woke up. Like, he became very much worried about how afraid and upset Ciel is going to feel and I think that's very fascinating. So Alois isn't just upset about himself and how he doesn't want Ciel to be hurt, he's upset about how Ciel is going to feel and how he does feel and wants him to be taken care of. Alois has become a very empathetic person throughout this fic. It's kind of amazing?

Until the next chapter, my duckies~!