Standing by the window, the Watchdog looked down at the small, dimly-lit street from on high, waiting for the signal that indicated that his prey had arrived. He stood in the CEO's office of FUNTOM's London office building with a loaded gun. As he waited, excitement began to well up inside of him, flowing through every blood vessel as he anxiously anticipated the ensuing battle. This was not the excitement of a "good" man, he knew, but he couldn't pay any mind to that at that moment. It would distract him. It would make him hesitate. That was something that none of them could afford. As soon as that door opened, the demons would strike, killing David Belmont as quickly as possible.

While the bluenette stood, arms coiled around him, one around his middle and the other reaching higher to touch his chest. Despite how on-edge he was, the slow gesture was met with a sigh and the relaxing of muscles as the man leaned into the person behind him. His eyes fluttered closed momentarily at the feeling of lips against his neck.

"Ready for this?" Alois asked, leaning his chin on the other's shoulder.

"Perfectly." Ciel replied, keeping his answer short as he was still focusing. "I'm going to kill a man. Should hugging and kissing be part of the equation?"

"Not if I kill him first." It was easy to forget, but Alois was just as blood-thirsty. While he was perfectly aware of how wrong it was to kill, he was unlike his spouse in that he did not concern himself very much with that detail. Was he a monster? No. The blonde simply rationalised his actions as being a benefit to society. There are simply some people who the world would be better off without. They were such a danger to others, that the demons had to be called in. If anything, this is a public service. Is Alois not a good man? He dedicates a massive chunk of his time to constructing a usable city for supernaturals and answering their concerns. He cares deeply for them. He cares deeply for his own as well. If anything were to happen to them, he would pull the trigger without shedding a single tear for the person on the other end of the barrel. Alois knew that the families and loved ones of his foe's victims would feel the same way. Some things, cannot be let to pass. It was his job to ensure that they don't. Was Alois a bad man? Not by his standards, at least.

The menace chuckled as he kissed his husband one more time before letting him go so he could concentrate on the matter at hand. His guns were loaded and ready to be drawn in an instant. Then, as he started to wonder if Belmont would have the guts to show up, they got a call on the radio from the security office, manned by one of HELLSING's own. The rest of the buidling also had operatives scattered throughout in strategic locations, posing as office workers who chose to stay late, janitors, and night watchmen. One of the agents posing as a security guard in the office observed a car pulling into the parking lot. When those inside stepped out, they immediately contacted the others.

"All units: We've got a positive visual of the target in the lot." they informed.

"Everyone assume your positions." Ordered the Watchdog, prompting the rest of the team to begin their facade. He and his spouse readied their weapons, keeping their guns trained on the door. Meanwhile, Skullface entered the building and started his ascent.

Nothing seemed out of the ordinary, but his fellow psychics were on edge. One of them, who was especially sensitive to danger, made the suggestion to proceed with caution. The ground floor of the building was quite whimsical with bright colours and toys, games, and candy on display, broadcasting that this is indeed a company with children and the young at heart in mind to all who come inside.

"It's quite nice in here." David said with a smile while looking around the lobby. "Sort of like it's own candy store, isn't it?"

"It is." one of his disciples replied. "I wonder if you can actually take the candy."

While the group casually pondered this, they made their way to the front desk and the woman behind it had to pretend that she was just noticed them while packing up to go home. She was in fact, a HELLSING agent with a gun underneath her counter, merely playing a part. Never again, did she think she would have to work in customer service, yet here she was.

"Hello, how can I help you this evening?" she asked with a polite smile.

"I have a meeting with Mister Hercule Phantomhive." Skullface explained, placing a hand on the counter. "Would you happen to be able to direct me to his office?"

"Oh! Yes, I believe he does have an appointment around this time." Turning away, she pointed as she instructed the man. "What you want to do is go down that elevator right there, go up to the top floor—careful not to go to the roof, and then once you're there, go straight, make a left, right, and then go straight again and it'll be the big door with his name on it."

"Thank you." the man said before turning to his associates. "Come on, lads! Let's get down to business."

With that, he turned and started to walk away before stopping abruptly. Looking over his shoulder, he looked to the woman behind the desk like something caught his attention. Immediately, her instinct was to grab for her gun, but couldn't let him see it.

"Hey..." he began, running a shiver down the HELLSING agent's spine.

"Yes?" she calmly inquired, hoping that the worst was not to come.

"Can people take the candy from here or what?" Skullface asked, pointing to the many displays. Nothing was locked up or put away, and it did in fact look as though his suspicions were correct.

"Of course! That's what it's there for!" the agent smiled, prompting Belmont to nod.

"If you guys wanna grab some candy before we go up, you can." he said to his group, but only two took up his offer. The others were focused on business. "Before you find us, get me some Chunky Blast-Offs, alright? Chocolate."

"Yes, sir!" his two flunkies said with a salute, prompting Belmont to walk away again.

"Right. We're off, then." Skullface waved. With that, he strolled down the hallway with his hands in his pockets, leaving two of his flunkies behind with the poor HELLSING agent who had to deal with them. Silently, they skulked over to the elevators and pushed the button to go up.

Once they reached the top floor, they followed the secretary's instruction further. They wandered down the long hallway, seeing lights on in some of the offices and hearing mumbling behind closed doors. Some doors were open, even, allowing the group to peek inside to see people working and offering a polite nod and smile.

"I don't like this..." spoke one of the gentlemen following Mister Belmont. None of them were absolutely certain that this was a trap or if there were HELLSING agents in the building, but a sense of unease was definitely about the group.

"Keep your heads. We'll be in and out in no time." their boss reassured. "It's just an ordinary building."

As he said this, the eyes of one of his followers fell to the guitar case fastened to his back. "Then what's that for?"

"Insurance." was all Belmont said. With how often his plans were going wrong as of late, even with his great power, he wasn't going to take any chances. This mission had to be successful. It just had to be! If it wasn't, then not only did that put a damper on the Belmont Organisation's mission, but their leader also wasn't entirely sure as to how they were going to get out of this if things went south. His confidence was shaken, just as his opponent had hoped. Now, all he had to do was open the door to Ciel's office and all of this would be over.

A hand gripped the handle and turned it before it's owner worked their way inside. In that moment, two gunshots went off, striking the poor sap. Belmont's eyes were wide as he saw his underling fall to the floor and the glint of a- no, two, gun barrels in the darkness.

"Retreat!" he roared, prompting the others into action. By this time, they were reaching into their jackets for needles to inject themselves with, all while frantically running from whatever just jumped over the table behind them.

Their eyes dilated and veins protruded from their arms and foreheads as they continued to run, even faster now, from the gunshots behind them. Several of the shots actually landed, but the adrenochrome in their systems prevented them from noticing. Suddenly, from one of the offices in front of them came a worker with a gun.

"Hold it!" the HELLSING agent ordered, but the group did not stop. Instead, David took the guitar case off of his back and held it in front of himself as a makeshift shield. To the shock of the soldier, the bullets fired at it bounced off as Belmont closed the distance between them. Then, the soldier saw a flashing image of a fist coming at him before finding himself on the floor with two front teeth missing and blood pouring from his nose.

With a flick of his wrist, Belmont opened the case and unhooked the weapons stashed inside with shocking grace while running. "Take this!" he said to his subordinates, tossing guns in their general direction, leaving them to catch them. Once armed, two began firing ahead in order to clear a path, while two more tried firing backwards at whatever was chasing them.

"Forget the elevator!" David shouted so that his followers would not slow down. "Take the stairs!"

While the stairs weren't as fast as the elevator, it lessened the chances of them being trapped even if it was only slightly. There is no graceful way of running down stairs, causing it to take almost all of the group's mental concentration not to trip and fall. They managed to make it down three flights before they heard sounds behind them, amplifying their fear.

Something jumped. It fell down the middle of the winding stairwell and it fell fast. Curiosity got the better of one of the psychics and they looked down, only to see nothing. Then, a pair of feet came in contact with the back of his head, forcing his trachea to hit the stairwell's railing. The figure leaped off of his head, leaving him to gasp for air while choking on his own crushed windpipe as they sprung into action.

Everything seemed to move so slowly, despite only seconds passing by. The psychics raised their guns while the demon raised his. Belmont's eyes locked with Alois' for a brief moment and instantly, he knew what was happening. He recognised this man although he knew not of his name, as Alois resisted his power without even acknowledging it! That is a power so rare for David to encounter that he never forgets a face of someone who can. They are the only ones who can withstand him, and now he knew why. This man, this blonde brute, was not human. He was an enemy to the new world and must be destroyed! If he didn't shoot the demon in the next few seconds, all he had fought for was over and humanity itself was doomed.

"DIE!" roared Skullface while he and his men pulled the trigger. Alois did as well, but one of the other man's underlings leapt in the way, unintentionally spraying his master with his blood and flesh. Fortunately for Skullface, none of the shots on his side missed and the demon was struck down. It took no further persuasion for the Belmont agents to start running again, leaving Alois' body as well as the bodies of their comrades behind.

Meanwhile, several stories down, the bluenette looked up after having grasped a rail and pulled himself up. He knew perfectly well what happened. On the other hand, he also knew that his spouse was going to be perfectly fine.

"Well, they've got good reflexes, I'll give them that." Ciel thought before making his way back up the stairs in hopes of meeting the group somewhere in the middle. He had planned for just a quick bullet to the head of Belmont, but his flunkie walked into the room first. Unfortunately, that's how these plans often went. Things went wrong and things got complicated. Ciel was going to have to wait for his husband to wake up again, now. Hopefully, it would all be over before then. "He's going to be rather miffed when he gets up again..."


A/N: Whelp. Shit happens. All that can be done is to deal with it the best they can. This chapter wasn't particularly philosophical, so it wasn't as fun to write, unfortunately, but I feel like that's what it needed. We'll get back to that sort of thing, just you wait.

I wrote such a long A/N last time that I feel like I need to do it again. Unfortunately, I haven't much to talk about. A lot of you guys did have really interesting stuff to say, though! For example, a guest said:

"Considering human Lizzie had struggles with her "darker side" ex. Campania arc, how do you think this has evolved in current DLTP angel Lizzie? Do you think she has a humanity vs monster conflict like her cousin, or do you believe she has a better handle on it."

This is a very good point and actually gave me a really good idea that I hope to incorporate. Her deal isn't so much "Man versus Monster," but "something else" versus "something else." It's a spoiler now, so I can't actually answer the question... I will say that yeah, I want in on this. This sounds interesting and why the fuck haven't I done this already? I need to get with it! Expect a slightly different conflict, though. It'll be fun!

Meanwhile, Novasix wondered if I intend to explore more about Ciel's personality and the way people see him and my answer will always be "yes" to this, because it's like, the most fun thing to write ever. Love this guy. Some people kind of disagree with me on this, but I love how he's changed over the course of this whole thing? He's got a few more layers added to him, yet I feel like in a way, he's still very similar. I don't know how to explain it, but his mannerisms and attitudes have stayed similar, but the way he implements them has sort of evolved on it's own. Instead of pushing everyone away, he lets a few people in close but is still very, very, deeply afraid of loss. "Loss" is another theme that I want to explore with him. "Perspective" and "Loss". Wouldn't that be fun? I dunno. Tell me if you agree with me on that or not. I might just be bullshitting things.

On that note, we shall separate temporarily.

Until the next chapter, my duckies~!