Ciel was not too enthused about what was about to transpire this evening. Dinnertime was approaching, and he had no idea if he needed to put on a suit for his guests or just wear a polo shirt. He didn't think he needed to dress up for teenagers, but he still wanted to play the part of the scary, master of the mansion. In the end, he threw on a dress shirt instead before leaving the master bedroom and heading downstairs. As he walked, he rolled up his sleeves and saw a pair of teenagers sliding into the dining room ahead of him. Their backs were turned, so when he reached up to catch the door before it closed, he scared the poor kid senseless.

It was one of the boys, although Ciel didn't know his name. It was strange to see new people in his house so suddenly and admittedly, he wasn't exactly paying attention to his own expression. He raised an eyebrow, however, when he heard the lad yelp in response to seeing him.

"Hello." Ciel politely greeted. "May I come in?"

"Let him in. He owns the place." called Revy from somewhere in the room. Reluctantly, the stranger moved aside so that Ciel could enter. When the Watchdog did, he found everyone seated at the table, including a rather peeved Luka.

"See? He's here, now. You have to move." the boy said, turning back to Brittany. The girl was seated at the head of the table, right where the head of the family always sat. "You can't sit in other people's seats. It's the rules. There's an order to it!"

As seemingly silly and contrived as it was, Luka was right. There was an order. While both heads of the family were supposed to sit on opposite ends of the table in formal settings, however, the Phantomhives usually sat with Ciel at the head and with Jim to his left. Then came Luka and finally Revy. Thus, this was the order that Luka was familiar with and was determined to enforce. While Alois' chair had been cleared by the Macken and was readily available for Ciel to sit in if he so wished to, it was the principle of the matter. Ciel felt foolish for doing so, but he did take a certain amount of offense to the act.

Brittany looked to Ciel, then back to Luka, and then to Ciel again as she considered her position. The man with the eyepatch and sullen face, loomed off to the side, watching her as he waited to see what she would do. Ultimately, as much as she wanted to pretend that she was the lady of the house, she stood up and surrendered the chair.

"Thank you." the Watchdog said as sat down. "It may seem trivial, but it's simply how we do things. Once you leave here, you won't need to remember it again."

"This is Ciel." Luka said, taking it upon himself to introduce his brother-in-law. "He's Jim's husband."

"How do you do?" Ciel greeted again, trying his best to be polite. "Sir Ciel Phantomhive, at your service."

Meanwhile, Brittany sat down elsewhere as far away from him as possible while her friends simply stared. Not only were they inside a real-life mansion, but they were also meeting a real-life knight! None of them really knew what to do, but Lillian decided to diffuse the situation by speaking up about it.

"We've never met a 'Sir' before." she informed. "I don't think any of us really know how to act."

"Don't worry about it. Apart from the seating thing, as long as you maintain a basic set of manners, you will be perfectly fine." the bluenette gently informed, doing his best to appear non-threatening. "I'm honestly more interested in what exactly happened here."

"What?" asked Brittany, looking up.

"There must be a story, here." Ciel replied. "I here that you met someone who transformed you. How did that come about?"

"Internet." the supposed "leader" of the group confessed, acting as though she was ingenius for coming up with it. "I found this guy online and he said if I gave him two hundred pounds, he'd change me. Then I passed it on to my pack."

"HELLSING will want to talk to all of you, then. They're very interested to know about that sort of thing."

"Is he gonna get in trouble?" asked one of the boys.

"That's not for me to decide." the Phantomhive confessed. "What's done is done, however, so it isn't as though you can take it back. What's almost more alarming, however, is that you don't appear to understand how werewolves work. You called your group a 'pack,' yes?"

"Yeah?" confusedly answered Brittany, now hesitant as to what the man was getting at.

"Werewolves don't actually have those. They don't have them because neither humans or actual wolves have them. In reality, the closest thing you'll get in both species is a family unit."

"That's not true… Wolves have packs!"

"They don't. Even the man who 'discovered' wolf packs recanted his claims upon researching further. There's no such thing as 'alphas,' 'betas,' 'gammas,' or 'omegas' at all. It's just a regular family of wolves with two parents and children." the bluenette explained, only to be backed up by an unusual source.

"Yeah, that's an idea you're gonna have to drop in those supernatural towns." Revy chimed in from his side of the table. "It's a dead giveaway that you're a complete newb at the whole 'supernatural' thing."

"Oh, yeah? And just what are you?" the alpha wolf questioned, leaning forward to confront the young man with a slight snarl.

"I'm a revenant." the Macken informed, lowering his sunglasses so that his eyes were visible. "I'm a reanimated corpse that's possessed by a wandering spirit. Not at all like a zombie, though, so don't ask."

"How is that not like a zombie?" skeptically inquired the teen.

"I can talk and I don't rot or eat people. Also, I'm made in a completely different way! Know your supernaturals. Read a book." instructed the Macken, putting his glasses back on. "You all don't know nothin' about supernatural beings and you better learn fast. It's bad enough that you don't know about your own bodies, but you also have no idea how to interact with other people!"

"So if we can't trust movies or books, how are we supposed to learn about monsters?"

As soon as the "M-word" left Brittany's mouth, the residents of the household visibly expressed their displeasure at it. Luka even went as far as to suck in a breath through his teeth. Shaking his head, the revenenant composed himself enough to answer.

"Yikes. Wow..." he said. "Okay, first of all, don't say that word. It's 'supernaturals,' not 'monsters.' You're gonna piss a lot of people off if you start saying shit like that. Hopefully, being at Phantom House will teach you lot some manners, because as you are right now? I don't think you'll get along too well with the locals."

"Not everyone goes into Gehenna or Pyestock with knowledge of the supernatural, Revy." Ciel gently reminded, cutting his brother-in-law off momentarily. He knew that if left along, Revy was very good at getting a rise out of people, which is exactly the sort of thing the bluenette doesn't want to deal with in his home. "They'll learn, eventually. You had to learn too, didn't you?"

"Shut up… I was young and stupid." the Macken bashfully replied. It was true. His behaviour as a youth was abhorrent and he said some rather nasty things about the Phantomhives, in particular. While he knew he was already forgiven for his past transgressions, Revy still couldn't help but feel a bit of embarrassment. "That's just how teenagers are."

It was a light jab at the youths, but it stung all the same. They desperately wanted to grow up and handle things on their own, but so far, things weren't panning out. In fact, as more time passed, regret began to sink in further and further. The consequences weren't in their thoughts as they gleefully surrendered their humanity, but more and more, they were starting to wonder just what it meant to be a real-life werewolf. The confrontation between themselves and their own actions was hard to endure, so some shifted in their chairs while others grew annoyed or even angry at Revy for pointing out a wee bit of insecurity so easily.

This was a massive decision that none of them really understood the weight of just yet. The demons and revenant at the table understood this, but the others? They did not. They would in time. It's a process that all former humans must endure. It will make them or it will break them.

"I hope you really are tough and aren't just putting up a faking." Revy said. "I'd feel bad, otherwise."

"Quit trying to scare us! We'll be fine if we stick together!" Brittany declared before looking to the others. "Right?"

But she didn't get a response. They just quietly sat there, pretending to not hear her. Her eyes then drifted to Lillian, who refused to meet them.

"I'm sorry if you weren't already told this, but there's no guarantee that you'll be placed in the same location, or even the same town." Ciel reminded them, knowing that it wasn't what they wanted to hear. "You'll be informed of some of the options that are available, and you can sort of choose the area, if you like, or if you'd be alright with staying with another family or having a flatmate. It's not exact, but it's something."

The demon was going his best to be positive in light of this, but didn't think he was very good at it. His suspicions were confirmed as he looked over and saw a rather pained expression form on Lillian's face. Just as quickly as it formed, there was sniffling, followed by water in the eyes. Horrified at what he had done, the demon's mind began to scramble for a solution to the problem and before he knew it, his mouth started moving.

"You'll still be able to see each other quite easily, however! The towns are a good size, but you can still make it places on foot. There's even buses that go between them, so you can still see each other even if you're in different towns. Though, it's a two-hour long ride..."

His words didn't do a single thing, however, as the girl simply shook her head. It took her a while, but eventually, she was able to speak. "It's not that." she choked out. "Everything's falling apart and I just- I want it to stop..."

Ciel knew it was deep but now suspected that it was deeper than he thought. He didn't know a single thing about these kids. He didn't even know their names, really. There was a life beyond just this one situation and this one action. But they had thrown it away, hadn't they? It could have been an impulsive decision, yes, but what if there was the possibility that it could be purposeful? Ciel didn't know. He didn't know how to ask, either. All he knew was that these kids were stuck and he was the only adult around them at the moment who could really help them.

"Hmm… Life's like that sometimes..." he said absentmindedly, folding his arms and leaning back in his chair. He thought for a moment, trying his best to think of something to say. "Do you know that there's sort of a technique to sailing through rough waves?"

"What?" asked Lillian, looking up in confusion.

"When sailing through a storm, you can't let the waves hit the side of the boat. If you do, it'll be turned over and sink." he said. "So, how do you navigate the stormy sea?"

There was hesitance on the girl's part, given that by this point, the Watchdog admittedly sounded like a madman. But, it seemed as though he was trying to cheer her up, so she humoured him, even if it was only by shrugging. "I don't know."

"You sail into the wave head-on." the demon told her, miming a ship cutting through water. "If you hit it head-on, the water will be forced to bend to the will of the boat, but you can't be wishy-washy about it. It takes a firm hand and you can't give up halfway. Then, after a while, the storm will pass. It doesn't mean that there will never be another storm after it, but then you just take it in stride. When the water's finally calm again, you can take a deep breath and have fun sailing."

Lillian narrowed her eyes as she thought about this, only for a smile to appear on her face. Here she was, a werewolf, sitting in a stately manor while taking life advice from a demon with an eyepatch. The ridiculousness of the situation sort of hit her just then, only amplified by the fact that she actually understood what this strange man was saying.

"You're weird." she said, cracking a small smile.

"If you're just now noticing that, I don't really know what to tell you." replied the Phantomhive, leaning his elbow on the table. "Point is, you're here. You've managed to survive perhaps one of the most ridiculous situations that most people think is impossible to occur, and you're about to have a meal in the dining room of a mansion. Honestly, if you keep movingon and adapting to the nonsense you encounter, I think you'll all be perfectly fine."

"Alright." Lillian said, now nodding along with it. "So what kind of places might we end up in? The other one said their names, but I don't remember them."

"Gehenna or Pyestock." Ciel informed. "But given current real estate, you might end up in Pyestock or be waiting a while for a place in Gehenna. Pyestock is a few hours away and is built from the remains of an industrial plant. There's a forest around it, though, which you're free to roam in. There's a bigger mix of people due to the influx of people coming in. So you'll meet all kinds of supernaturals that you might not in Gehenna. It has restaurants and a very interesting market. It's an odd mix between an urban city and a small town."

"What about Gehenna?" one of the others asked. The entire group's interest was piqued. As they "What's it like?"

"It's a nice town nearby. It has shops and the like, just like Pyestock, but it's a little more urban. It's a pretty place, though. Lots of crafts and art. If you're into that sort of thing, you should love it there. I go their more frequently because it's closer and my spouse has a mailbox there. It's very nice."

"What about people?" asked Brittany. "What kind of people are there?"

"They're friendly. Way friendlier than people in London. Just be polite and you'll be fine with them. They will be a bit different than you, though, because the town has it's own culture. You might experience some culture-clash at first, but just be open-minded. Then there's the fact that there are supernaturals living there, and not all of them look human like us. Being polite means not staring too hard when you see them, alright?"

The poor demon. He was bombarded with questions all throughout waiting for the meal, and then again while eating it! As keen as the teens were on stuffing their faces full of food, they were also incredibly curious about supernaturals and the town they would be living in. Thank god Ciel had a bit of experience at explaining these things. He was very thankful to his recruits for this.

It was an odd dinner for everyone there. The strange people in the house was strange for the Phantomhive and the Mackens, while practically everything was strange for the werewolves. The supernaturals here with them, the fact that they themselves were supernaturals as well, and then there's the fact that they were in a rather bizarre setting. They had the image of wealthy vampires living in castles and mansions, but not demons! It was rather exciting, as none of them would have ever dreamed that they would eventually be able to set foot in a place like this. Neither did the Mackens, however, but they slowly got used to both it and the Phantomhive's strange blue-blooded ways. That included the seating arrangement at the table. In reality, it wasn't that big of an issue, but polite company mandated that Ciel sit at the head.

Polite company was hard to come by these days, however, as a few of the werewolves committed a few faux-pas that went overlooked for the sake of civility. Luka and Revy were appalled by the way they spoke of supernaturals at times, acting as though they are a mere trend or clique that one can join at one's leisure. Revy knew that the group was still going to assert their worldview of werewolves even after they get to Phantom house, but didn't say anything while in their presence. When they left and went to bed, however, Ciel was going to hear quite the rant from him.

"Don't talk bad about vampires." Luka said, finally having enough of their nonsense. He actually set down his fork to address them, giving him his full attention as he furrowed his brow. "Werewolves and vampires don't really fight. It's stupid to assume so just because you see it in movies. Vampires and werewolves get along perfectly well, so you need to drop that nasty attitude before you say that to the wrong person."

"Lighten up, it's just playful banter." said one of the other boys, but the youngest of the demons was not convinced.

"My teacher's a vampire and so is the lady who runs my school." the Macken stated rather seriously. "They're decent people who are respected in the community. It's not some little club or a team you're playing a game with. They're real people and you're being rude."

"Quite right." Ciel agreed, backing his brother-in-law up. "I have two married friends who are a vampire and a werewolf. They're perfectly happy together and I know that if you said half of what you've just said to the werewolf one, she'd want to deck you for insulting her wife."

"Why would she marry a vampire?" asked Brittany. "Why not another werewolf?"

"Because she loves her?" scoffed the Phantomhive, unsure as to how this wasn't obvious. "You can date and marry other types of supernatural, you know. Just because I'm a demon who married a demon doesn't mean that it's a rule or even a norm. It's perfectly common."

"What about gay marriage?" asked one of the wolf-boys.

"Nobody cares." stated Luka, who knew more about the town than either Ciel or Alois. The group looked at him skeptically, as if they couldn't quite believe that. "For real. It's perfectly normal, innit? You marry who you love, as long as they can consent to it. Nobody cares if you're both men or women."

"Doesn't that little friend of yours wear a dress?" the bluenette asked.

"Yeah, but that's just 'cause he has goat legs and it's hard for him to put on pants."

"Fair enough."

Despite their strangeness, it was obvious that a nice little family lived in this massive house. They were hospitable and pleasant not only to outsiders, but to each other as well. Some of the werewolves had never seen family talk to each other like that, which made them wonder just what the families in Gehenna and Pyestock must be like. Even when the conversation turned serious, everything eventually returned to being smiles again. Yet, this was only one facet of the family. It was them at home, being comfortable, and safe. The teens had no idea of what dangers the group faced outside those walls, and they never would. That was only for the master, the master's husband, and the family butler to know.

The one that was absent, Jim Phantomhive, had ventured out into the abyss that night. The inky blackness and chill of night called out to him, beckoning him to perform the unpleasant tasks that were required of him. Yet, they were not so infernal that even he, a demon, could not perform them. No, on the contrary. The blonde considered his actions to be quite the opposite, in fact. He was merely performing his duties as the patron Saint of Scoundrels.

Wearing a face that wasn't his own, he ventured out into London and into the apartment building that he needed. He walked without purpose, appearing unassuming in practically every way. On the security tapes, he appeared to be just any desk-jockey returning home from work. No one who passed him by paid him enough notice to register his existence, let alone notice that he had murder on the mind.

The plan was simple. Enter Julian Pomeroy's home while he was out and lie in wait for him until he returned. Once he did, Alois would pounce, killing him dead and leaving his lifeless body staining the floor. Go in, kill the target, and leave. It was a simple operation. Even a complete novice would be able to do that much with ease. For an experienced operative like Alois, it was the most simple thing in the world, as mechanical and thoughtless as breathing.

Yet, as he approached the apartment, he already noticed that there was going to be a bit of a snag in his plan. He could sense someone in there, and that wasn't the way things were supposed to be. While he could sense that the person was human, he couldn't tell who it was since he didn't recognise the signature. Anything was possible, really. It was possible that Julian never left. It was possible it was just a bodyguard. It was possible that it was a burglar, of all things. There was no way of really knowing. Now, the wise thing to do would be to walk away and try again when the situation was more ideal and there were more factors under his control. Had it been an ordinary mission, he probably would have, but since this was a Pomeroy and by extension, a Trancy? The logical part of his mind simply didn't have a strong enough case against his determination to destroy them. Alois has already failed once before, so he wasn't going to turn around and walk away this time.

Slowly, carefully, he reached out and picked the lock with his demonic garb. While the presence he sensed appeared to be occupied, he opened the door as quietly as possible. With another quick check, he confirmed that there was only one person in the entire apartment. Then, he followed the signature to see who it was. Regardless as to who, they were completely still, causing Alois to perhaps prematurely assume that they were distracted. Thus, he very carefully approached until nothing was separating them but a single door. Placing his hand on the handle, he gently turned it before opening it.

BANG!

Alois tilted his head to the side, allowing only his ear to be hit by the bullet, taking off a very small piece of it in the process. That wasn't good. Now there was a bullet in the wall behind him and possible evidence trickling down his neck. The demon only looked ahead, however, at the man seated in front of him. A portly fellow who was quite tall when he stood up, wearing white suit pants and a black dress shirt. His blond hair was pulled back into a ponytail, putting his slowly receding hairline on display. The man wore glasses and has a silly mustache the looked like he had two tufts of hair on both sides of his upper lip, but with the hair, that square chin, and those beady, black eyes? Alois recognised him. The man definitely had Trancy blood in him.

"I missed." he said, putting the gun on a coffeetable in front of him with a loud clatter. He sat on the sofa, hunched over while resting his elbows on his knees. "I thought about beating you to it, so I only loaded one bullet."

"Julian Pomeroy." Alois observed. "You weren't supposed to be home right now."

"I canceled my plans. I'm not up to going to shows right now."

"You're up to getting massages, though."

There was a moment of pause while Julian tried to recall what the demon was talking about. "You saw that?"

"I was going to kill you then, but your bodygaurds were in the way." the Phantomhive stated casually.

"Well," the Pomeroy began, sitting up straighter and opening up his arms. "Here I am right now. Completely defenseless and at your mercy."

"You don't seem surprised."

"It's not hard to figure out that somebody's bumping your family off no matter how good you are at covering it up. We don't have proof, but you can't help but assume in this business. The thing that confirmed it for us was… Miley."

"I meant to just drown her, but she pissed me off."

"Is that why you're doing this? Did we piss you off?"

"As a matter of fact, yeah, but that's not the only reason." Instead of elaborating on that, the menace narrowed his eyes and asked a question of his own. "Why are you so calm about this?"

"I'm not. There's just nothing I can do about it. I'm on my own, here. You're gonna kill me and that's that." Pausing, Julian reached over and opened a bottle on the table. He had been drinking and needed to refill his glass. "I don't give a shit why you wanna kill our family. My imagination can fill that in. What I do want to know before you kill me, though, is..."

Pausing, he set the bottle back down and stared at the now full scotch glass on the table for a moment. Then, his eyes looked upwards at the demon in front of him without moving his head and he asked: "Why Miley?" He shook his head as though he was shaking off some of the tension. "Why her? She's just a girl..."

Blinking, Alois furrowed his brow and invited himself to take a seat. He sat down in the chair on the other side of the coffeetable and just stared at the other for a moment. It was like he was waiting for Julian to realise something, but he knew that it was an impossibility.

"You said you don't give a shit why I'm killing all of you off, but that's part of it. I don't just go around, killing seventeen-year-old girls willy-nilly. She's young, she had her whole future ahead of her, so I did something that I never anticipated I would ever do. I gave her a chance."

Alois said this without breaking eye contact with the other man, blinking sparingly. He wanted to make sure that Julian knew that he was absolutely serious in everything that he had to say. "I hate your family. I've hated them for a long time. I hated them before you were even born. I hated them before you became Pomeroys, when you were still Trancys. I hate you and I always will hate you for what you did and do to people like me. You still do horrible things to people like me. That hate, however, is not the real reason why I'm doing this."

"Then why are you?" Julian inquired, his voice an expression grave.

"Because it's the right thing to do." Alois stated. "How many people are your clan selling right now? How many lives are you ruining right now? How many people are you having raped so you can profit? How many people would benefit if you just didn't exist?"

"It's not rape, they're getting pai-"

"Don't speak of things you know nothing about, Mister Pomery." interrupted the menace. "I might just kill you before you know anything about why your daughter had to die. Money ain't shit. When you're trying not to starve to death and provide for your family, 'choice' is an illusion. The only other 'option' is death. So don't you dare sit there and explain to me how 'it doesn't count.' It counts. It fucking counts. I'm not gonna sit here and try to convince you, though. I know you won't accept it because it's too inconvenient for you."

"But what does any of that have to do with Miley? She had nothing to do with this!"

"Really? Because according to my investigation, she was tasked with providing immigrants with fake passports to get them here, then you trap them by taking them away and force them into prostitution. She plays an active role in this. She knew what she was doing."

"I told her to do those things!" Julian protested, raising his voice for the first time during their encounter. He glared at the demon and twisted his face into a snarl. "She's just a child! She's a girl who just doing what her father asked of her!"

It was a good argument, but Alois knew the truth. "I gave her a chance to prove herself. I thought she might just be following orders, so I asked her. I asked her what she thought about all that. You know what she said?" he asked softly before shaking his head. The man he was talking to closed his eyes and tilted his head downward, anticipating the answer. "She said that it's their own fault. She said that they're stupid and that's why they were trafficked by you and your associates. I'll admit, it stung. I lost my cool. I killed her right then and there for being a worthless excuse for a human being."

"She's not-"

"She is." the menace cut Julian off again. "People like her are the reason why business keeps thriving for you. They're the ones who allow you to get away with this. And if you were to die, guess who would be next in line for the family business? Miley. Miley Pomeroy."

Pausing, the menace rested his elbows on his knees and looked forward, staring into the other man's very soul. Julian knew it, too. He was being judged right then and there. "I've endured a lot horrific things at the hands of your family, Mister Pomeroy." Alois continued. "I get flashes… Nightmares… Sometimes, I see glimpses of it when I close my eyes… The very worst of humanity. The most brutal, depraved things a person is capable of doing to another person. Children. Tortured to death in ways that are so vile, that the only way one could imagine it is by having seen it." Shaking his head, his gaze never strayed. Not once. Not even to blink.

"After all of that, I refuse to be talked about with such disrespect from anyone." the demon stated. "Not anyone. Especially the likes of you. I don't give a shit about your daughter. You don't have the right to be pissed at me about her death. She's not special... If she were anyone else's seventeen-year-old daughter, you'd sell her without batting an eyelash. You'd have her tortured, too. Hell, you might even join in."

"SHUT UP!" Julian shouted, standing abruptly. His nostrils flared, his teeth were bared, and he grit his teeth with clenched fists. Yet, the demon was unfased.

All he did in return was join Julian in standing, shedding his disguise in the process. Black flame engulfed his body, changing the shape of it. Then, after the Pomeroy man stepped back until his calves touched the sofa with his eyes wide and mouth gaping, Julian let out a nervous laugh. His fear had turned into hysteria.

"You're! You're one of them?"

"One of who?" Alois questioned, waving off the fire as he stood before the other man in his true form as Jim Phantomhive. He didn't find the question unusual in the slightest, as humans were tend to compare what they see to movies or pop culture.

"The Society! The Philosophers!" the Pomeroy answered, still cackling as he fell backwards into his seat again. "You're one of them! The immortals!"

The demon's eyes narrowed at that word as the gears began turning in his head. There was a choice to be made, here. Alois could either press further, or kill Julian Pomeroy. He was determined to do the latter.

"My name is Jim Macken." he said to the man having a fit before him. "I was born in 1874 and was sold to Araneus Trancy in 1886. I am the one who destroyed the Trancys. My only mistake was not killing all of you, however, and because of that, I will haunt you until the moment the very last of your kin draws in the very last of their breath."

Reaching out, the devil grabbed the very top of Julian's head, taking a fistful of hair in his grip. In one swift movement, he pulled the hulking man forward and smashed his head into the glass coffeetable between them, shattering it, and speckling his face with clear shards and red gashes. Turning the man's head, Alois checked to see if he was still breathing before letting go of him.

Then, he deviated from his plan and pulled out his cellphone. After dialing it, he placed the device up to his ear and calmly waited while listening to the dial tone. It was late, so it took a while for the person on the other end to pick up.

"Elizabeth." he said, using the woman's full name to indicate that what he was about to say was important. "I'm sorry to bother you, but I think I might have come across something that might interest you while on my latest mission."

Pausing, he stopped to listen. Nudging his victim's head with his shoe, he replied. "No, no... He's still alive. He needs immediate medical attention for a head injury, but he's alive. I'll give him to you for interrogation, but he dies when you're done whether you kill him, or I kill him. I don't care who does it, as long as he's dead. He doesn't leave the base breathing."

Another pause. "I'll send you the address so someone can pick him up. You should probably take his computer, phone, and tablets if he's got any, too. Just to be on the safe side. I hope your night turns out to be a lot better than mine. Bye-bye."

With that, he hung up and looked down at Mister Pomeroy with his nose in the air. Then, as some sort of consolation prize, he brought his leg upwards before harshly bringing it back down again on the unconscious man's back. For good measure, Alois spat on him, too. After doing all that he could, the Phantomhive was alone in the empty apartment with only the deafening silence to keep him company. Without turning around, he took a few steps back and sat down when his calves hit the edge of the chair behind him. Quietly, he sat, staring down at his foe and waited for HELLSING to steal his kill away.


A/N: This is unusual... I think what's important toward the end is the choice Alois made, hence the title of the chapter. What do you think about that?

Alois is kind of an unusual character in this. I feel like this is where the past connects with the present in a way, because Alois' behaviour is kind of similar to how he used to act, but with some very important changes. How he lashes out, or even how he doesn't lash out, is interesting. I don't want to over-explain it, but I hope that's sort of coming through.

I dunno what else to talk about, so I guess this is it for now.

Until the next chapter, my duckies~!