Synopsis:

Who is Lukas Phantomhive, and who trained him to be an assassin? The Phantomhive's thought their son Lukas had died during surgery to fix an impression in his face, but someone saw a beautiful blossom within the ugliness and fixed it. But now The Master has sent out Assassin No 6 to kill Vincent Phantonhive's cohorts because of their arrogance in throwing away something just because it didn't fit their view of the world. Assassin No. 6 attacks each one of the Vincent's friends after the Phantomhive Mansion burns down and judges them all for their crimes. All in the name of The Master.

Prequel to my Black Butler novel: His Butler With Two Masters (AU).

"Assassin's Creed - Part 1"

The ruins of the ancient Roman Colosseum, in Rome, Italy, have been crumbling for years. Half of its structure has fallen in years' past from natural disasters that have plagued the small country, and one earthquake in particular that struck Italy in this region caused extensive damage to the southern upper tier wall, causing it to crash down in 847 A.D.E.. Debris was still present within and without the once glorious monument to Rome's mighty civilization.

Rome itself, fell to the continued influx of immigration that eventually destroyed its proud people and its rich culture, and the berth of Christianity, turning Rome from a polytheism religion to a monotheism one. Never did it recover to the essence of Julius Ceasar's Rome or that of Octavian after him, and eventually, according to antiquity, its magnificence as well as its people, becoming conquered continuously by a multitude of invading armies over time, surrendered the mighty city to the the unforgiving hourglass of Time.

But history did not concern Dietrich Heimlich at the moment, and as he traveled through the streets in a horse and carriage, driven by a trusted driver, all his mind could think about was murder. Who had murdered his good friend Vincent Phantomhive? And for what reason?

Investigations by Scotland Yard, England's detective agency, had labeled it a tragic accident caused by an unsupervised fireplace, whereas a log had rolled out and set fire to the carpet in the Sitting Room, while the Phantomhive's, minus their ten year old son Ciel, were sleeping...and both were burned beyond recognition. It appeared that Ciel had also perished in the fire, but his body was never found.

But Dietrich suspected more.

It had been too much of a coincidence to be an accident, especially when the Phantomhive's had so many enemies being the Queen's loyal guard dogs, protecting the Crown from threats. Unfortunately, albeit tragic, like all things, it appeared they were unable to protect themselves from a hidden threat, and their luck finally ran out. Dietrich had a list of suspects, but he had not had time to investigation them yet.

One name topped the list: Bryon Kelvin, the recluse philanthropist, who had once visited the mansion during a social gathering and met Vincent Phantomhive and other guests, including Dietrich himself, for one of many of the Phantomhive's lavish parties at their mansion. Guests normally included various social elite of England's posh and high ranking society. Bryon Kelvin had arrived by a mistaken invitation delivered to the wrong address. However, he was never told this…notwithstanding, it was a happenstance encounter that did provide beneficial to Vincent. Or so he thought at the time.

Vincent's son, Lukas, Ciel's fraternal twin, was afflicted with a deformity to his face, caused by an adverse reaction to medicine and needed plastic surgery to correct it.

Bryon Kelvin said he knew of a prominent surgeon who could perform the operation, and this doctor had the credentials to do so. Vincent had never met the man, but Dr. Charles Hathaway was a renown surgeon who had performed countless successful operations in this particular surgical field. It was the perfect opportunity to fix his son and have him live a normal life.

It was also a way for Vincent to save face from the embarrassment of having an ugly son, while his other son was the embodiment of beautification, for a boy. He hoped one day both his sons will grow up, marry, and replenish the Phantomhive lineage, as Vincent and his two sons were the only true blood left - other than Chlaus, of course, Vincent's elder brother, born on Germany, but later raised in England, and named after a close and personal friend of his father's. But Chlaus was a womanizer and didn't have any children; this didn't worry Dietrich in particular, but it did make him sole heir to the Phantomhive fortune now.

When tragedy befell Lukas when he suffered failure during the operation and died, Rachel, Vincent's wife, blamed Bryon Kelvin for the death of her son, but Vincent, of a sort, defended Kelvin, saying Kelvin could not have known Lukas was not strong enough to handle the stress of the operation. Dietrich would have agreed with his friend if Kelvin didn't mysteriously disappear after Lukas's death, along with the doctor.

Strangely enough, this was also when the kidnappings of London's children began to escalate to a degree unseen. Children had disappeared before, on occasion, months apart, but never to this level. And Vincent and Rachel had, on many times, fed by tips and by the Queen's decree, went after the kidnappers. Where they discovered, prior to Lukas's death, that two serial killers named Sasha and Samuel Ironstadt were involved, and were hired to kidnap the children, and were using them as an army of brainwashed killers.

Vincent had thought long on the kidnapped children case and he suspected Bryon Kelvin may have been involved in some fashion, based on the deaths of some orphaned children Bryon had sponsored turning up in horrid ways, self-inflicted. Vincent had formed a theory and had telegraphed the assistance of some his close trusted friends to met him, Dietrich included. But the meeting never took place when it was learned the Phantomhive mansion had burned to the ground with Vincent and Rachel's bodies charred to near ash just six days shy of the meeting.

Had the telegram been intercepted or had the message Vincent sent fallen on the eyes of spies and into the hands of his enemies - or perhaps just one enemy - to cause Vincent and Rachel's demise?

The message only said:

ARRIVE 20 TH OF DECEMBER. IMPORTANT NEWS. FOUND TRUTH ABOUT B.K.!

It was a vague invite, but Dietrich knew what it meant.

Scotland Yard had yielded nothing in the case, but Dietrich, with others, had a theory of their own. And this was the reason why he had chosen to met secretly with Chlaus in Rome, Italy, after he received a letter. Dietrich received the letter at his residence in Germany.

The letter read in short:

"My dear friend, Dietrich;

It has recently come to my attention that my brother's theory about Bryon Kelvin was more correct than surmised. I also believe he is also some how behind the children kidnappings in London, and in such, may have murdered my brother to keep it a secret. We must meet to discuss this further. Come to my residence in Italy, near the Piazza del Colosseo, at your earliest convenience.

Signed,

Your friend, ("AofE");

Chlaus Phantomhive."

It has arrived with the Phantomhive wax stamp, sealed on the back.

Chlaus didn't need to tell Dietrich where he exactly he lived other than near the Roman Colosseum; which house number, for it was common to him. Chlaus had moved to Italy because he enjoyed its serenity. And just in case the letter was intercepted, Chlaus's residence address would be safe from unsavory eyes. The tone of the letter also indicated something nefarious against Chlaus, because now he was the last remaining Phantomhive. But Dietrich just believed his friend was being paranoid. Why would anyone want to murder Chlaus? He had nothing to do with his brother's situation?

The horse and carriage pulled up to a dapper looking, two-story house, about a ten minute walk to the Colosseum. The Colisseum's structure towered the landscape, once home to gladiatorial games and other blood sport. Chlaus had built a modest home deep in the heart of Italy's solid ground community. He didn't like the water, where quite a few buildings had been constructed to accommodate the warf's and other water businesses, even homes, near-by. Chlaus always like to keep his feet sturdy beneath him.

Being a military man, Dietrich had no preference for any particular terrain; land, sea or air. But there wasn't much cause for sea or air, because most of all fighting was done by soldiers in the field, albeit specialized war machines and artillery, that can slaughter an enemy with swift efficiency. But he preferred to his get his hands dirty with hand-to-hand combat, killing nearly a hundred men, and as a colonel, had been awarded the Iron Cross, the highest distinction to recognize extreme battlefield bravery or successful battlefield leadership, for which he proved he to be the master of both. And to date, he was the most highly decorated officer in the Germanic army wearing his metals proudly.

The Prussians, the French, even the Russians all included fronts to conquer. One massive swift advance into either one of their territories would bring Germany additional land to expand their ever growing population. But when the Treaty of Frankfurt came to pass, it left a very soul taste in his mouth. It alluded to cowardness, the French hiding behind Germanic forces. It didn't make France popular and they received a lot of hostility for it, aligning with Germany, but they felt it was best for their continued survival and it prevented continued, unwanted war against their already battered nation.

But Dietrich refused to learn a word of French!

He paid the driver, collected a bag, and the horse and carriage trotted off, leaving him alone in front of Chlaus's home. The sun was setting, and the entire front of the house was cast in shadow. Odd, however, that not one light was on, seen through the windows. But perhaps the butler was in the process of doing so?

Rapping his knuckles on the front door, he waited patiently for the butler to answer. But after a minute, no one did. He rapped again, waited for a minute, but again, no one came to the door.

He turned the handle to the door and surprisingly found it insecure, the tongue of the lock was not even inserted into the side of the door frame.

He pulled out his pistol and slowly opened the door. The main vestibule was dark, too dark to be natural. In fact, he saw no lights on at all, and no servants anywhere. However, the first thing he suspected wasn't fool play, but a break-in, seeing no one. But if so, then the door lock would be broken, not just left open.

He ventured forward into the dark and stumbled slightly when he boot hit a heavy object. He reached into his jacket pocket and took out a box of matches, striking one. His eyes narrowed when he saw a body lying on the floor. It was the butler with his throat slashed. He saw the maid not far off in the same condition. Blood pooling the floor.

Chlaus, he thought. I hope you're not…

Venturing around the rest of the house slowly, he eventually climbed up a flight of stairs to the second floor, where he found himself faced with three doors: the guest quarters, the main quarters and the water-closet, and each door was closed. He could search each one, but he had a feeling he only needed to go into one.

He struck another match and opened the main quarters, it was dark. Gazing cautiously around the room, here he found his friend in bed with a second body, both stabbed. Blood saturated the bed sheet. They appeared to be naked, either stabbed in their sleep or in the act of copulation.

"Oh Chlaus…" he whispered. And then looked upon the woman. "Lady Carolyne?"

Both had been members of Vincent's secret sect of aristocrats, an elite group formed in London, to be a second line of defense against a shadowy evil Vincent foresaw coming to his world in the near future, along with Dietrich and three others, including Tanaka, Vincent's butler. Vincent had allied himself with friends he had made in his travels aboard and within London to help protect his family and his interests. The Phantomhive's used to be a widespread family, but had dwindled down to just the pureblood of Vincent and his two sons, each prior family member tragically dying off from mysterious circumstances. Now the Phantomhive's were no more. Chlaus had been the last of their line, with Lukas dying three years earlier and Ciel disappeared and presumed dead.

But Dietrich had no idea that Chlaus and Lady Carolyne Eastbrook were involved. That was a surprise.

Lady Carolyne was a pioneer woman of power in her own rite, a strong-willed woman with a savvy business sense. Along with others, she helped form Vincent's elite group of world-wide contacts, which also aided in Vincent's business ventures, and the reason why Fantom Co. was a very prominent company. Each one of Vincent's allies were very powerful and helped Vincent reach the four corners of the globe, which some say only added fuel to the rumor that he was the leader to a group called the "Aristocrats of Evil", because it appeared Vincent was attempting to blanket the world, allying himself with influential people in power. But that was how the world worked and how the most powerful survived and the weak perished.

But if Chlaus and Lady Carolyne's deaths were any indication, someone knew of their connection to Vincent's network and had murdered them to try to end it.

But who? And who murdered his friends?

The blood smelled fresh, so they had not been dead long.

Something jumped aloft next to him to the bed and he jerked startled, pointing his pistol at it. Then he breathed easy when it was Chlaus's pet cat, a white Himalayan Persian, Sabby, which he named after Vincent's Russian bloodhound Sebastian, that had also died in the mansion's fire. It meowed at him, unfazed by the death of his owner, or had not noticed yet.

"If only you could talk, you would tell me who did this," Dietrich said.

The glint of metal caught his eye in a corner of the quarters, brought about by the struck match he held. He aimed his pistol at it instinctively. Then something sliced through the pistol barrel with the sharp, sheer precision of a blade.

The assassin!

He threw away the match, casting the room back into pure darkness, then reached into his jacket and unsheathed a bayonet, a small German sword half that of standard size. It was perfect for close combat. No military man was ever unarmed, carrying more than one weapon in his arsenal. He backed away and then yanked the curtains open, which had been shut, casting some illumination into the room, and was surprised to find a tiny man holding a bayonet of his own. A midget assassin?

Light cast half the assassin's face to show.

No, not a midget…a boy? He looked to be no more then ten years of age. "Did you do this boy?" Dietrich demanded, holding his bayonet in offensive posture. But the boy didn't respond, and merely gazed at Dietrich with dark, sinister eyes. "Who are you? I'll make you pay for this!"

But the boy quickly fled out the door and down the stairs, as he had been seen.

"Come back here boy!"

Dietrich followed the boy, albeit cautiously, but saw the boy flee out the front door of the house. Reaching the threshold, Dietrich saw the boy run down the road into an alleyway of some close-quarter, two-story, semi-detached houses, the worker-class of Italy, and followed him.

He ran through a midst of winding labyrinth alleyways hidden between the worker houses and cast in very little light. But the boy was much too fast and he escaped through an thin alcove just his size, that Dietrich knew he could not follow. And Dietrich cursed himself that he was not a younger man so he could catch the boy. Who ever this boy was and who he worked for, had trained him well. He had all the instincts and speed and stealth of an elite fighter and assassin.

Dietrich turned, and soon found himself in a precautious position. He allowed himself to be lured into unknown territory, and when he looked around, all the alleyways looked the same. He had been following the boy, but he had not paid attention of his whereabouts, or how to return back to the starting point.

The boy was either very smart, or he had been foolish to fall for such an obvious ploy. And for a military man, that was embarrassing. But he saw the towering structure of the Roman Colosseum ahead, and much like sailors followed the position of the stars, he too followed this beacon of escape, and soon found himself in open ground, standing close to the famous monument, with the moon casting a white luminous through one of its buttress windows.

He knew where he was now and could make it back to Chlaus's house. It was too bad the assassin had escaped…

He turned around, and suddenly found himself facing the barrel of a pistol aimed up at his face, the assassin boy glaring at him with glacial, blue eyes, a slight shadow across one half of his face still casting doubt on an identity.

Dietrich raised his arms in surrender, still with his bayonet in hand. "Easy boy, you don't want to use that," he said. The moon shifted its glow, as it emerged from surrounding cloud cover, and suddenly the boy's face became fully apparent.

Dietrich gasped in utter shock. "You? But we thought you were dead?"

The last thing Dietrich saw was the spark of the flint-lock of the pistol ignite.

To be continued…