Summary: Three years ago, when Ciel was only ten, his parents were killed by a powerful demon. Swearing to kill all demons, Ciel became a hunter to avenge his parent's death. He ran into a man named Sebastian who claimed to also hunt demons. Now they work together, killing the evil spirits. But unbeknownst to Ciel, Sebastian has a dark secret that he doesn't want him to discover...
Warnings (for this chapter): None
CHAPTER 2 - THE LAB
It was only 3:30 in the morning, but Ciel was already speeding down a mostly-empty freeway on Sebastian's motorcycle. The sun hasn't risen yet, and it was so dark that he could only see several feet in front of himself. He clung to Sebastian's waist as best he could, trying not to fall asleep.
"So… where in Germany are we going exactly?" he asked groggily.
"Nowhere special," Sebastian responded, his eyes still on the road. "Somewhere in the German countryside. Mey-rin claims there's some sort of lab stowed away amongst the miles of cornfields."
Ciel yawned. "Well, this is different. Should be interesting."
Sebastian said nothing.
They rode in silence for a while, the wind dancing around them, the dark world flying by. Ciel tightened his arms around Sebastian. Riding in the dark like this reminded him of that day three years ago. The day he had first met Sebastian. It was just as clear in his mind as if it had happened yesterday.
Ciel could feel himself start to drift off again, his eyelids drooping. Desperate to keep himself awake, he said the first thing he could think of.
"Why do you always wear that glove on your left hand? I've known you for three years now, you can tell me," he asked with a yawn. He'd wanted to know for such a long time, but there hadn't ever been a good time to ask. Sebastian was quiet for a while.
"Does it matter?" he asked after a few seconds. Ciel frowned. Why was Sebastian avoiding the question?
"I thought you trusted me," he said, irritation creeping into his voice. Sebastian knew almost everything about Ciel, but he knew nothing about Sebastian. Not his age, where he was born, where his parents were, or why he had decided to become a demon hunter. Literally nothing. And by now, his was more than a little curious.
"I do trust you," Sebastian responded emotionlessly.
"No, you don't." Ciel hissed, trying his best not to sound like a whiny child. "If you trusted me you wouldn't be so afraid to tell me about yourself. Three years, Sebastian, and I still know nothing. Trust goes both ways, you know, and we're partners. We need to trust each other."
"I shouldn't need to tell you why I wear a glove for you to trust me," Sebastian responded calmly, his voice almost patronizing.
Ciel narrowed his eyes and clenched his fists.
"I just don't want to know nothing about you. Especially if something- happens, okay?" He said angrily, his voice trailing off.
Sebastian's eyes widened for a second before he chuckled quietly to himself.
"There's no need to worry."
oOo
Ciel burst into the auditorium panting heavily, the pistols he had taken from his parents banging loosely against the side of his thigh. Surprisingly, his actions went unnoticed by any of the cultists below. They were all too busy chattering excitedly as another child was dragged onto the altar and sacrificed. Ciel bit back a scream as he was temporarily blinded by his rage.
They were trying to summon another demon.
In only a day Ciel had managed to find the cultists that had summoned the demon that killed his parents. He had tracked them down to this old church, only a few blocks away from his house. He was going to kill every last one of them, and then he was going to slaughter every demon he could find.
Not that he knew how to find or kill demons, but that didn't matter at the moment.
"Hey!" Ciel yelled, trying to get the cultist's attention. His voice was raw and gravely from crying over his parents. Immediately every eye in the auditorium turned to look at Ciel, their eyes widening as they saw him. A few of the cultists took in a sharp breath.
'I must look awful,' Ciel realized. He hadn't bothered to cover up his damaged eye, and he could feel the dried blood around his eye socket. Not only that, but he was drenched in his parent's blood, though it was mostly dry by now.
"What's that lil' kid doing here?" One of the cultists asked. His voice was slurred and he was holding a nearly-empty bottle of liquor in his hand.
'He's drunk,' Ciel thought sourly, 'filthy drunkard." He cleared his throat.
"I'm here to kill all of you," he said calmly. Then he lifted his guns off of his side and pointed them both at the crowd of cultists. He watched in satisfaction as their eyes widened and a few of them whimpered. They stood there frozen for a few seconds before one of them yelled: "Get the kid!"
The cultists all burst into motion, scrambling to either get away or to find a weapon. Ciel frowned. It would be a lot harder to kill them when they were all moving like this.
"Be still you idiots," He growled before he began firing randomly into the crowd.
His aim was terrible, as he'd only shot a gun several times before, and only several people were hit by the bullets before he ran out of them. Angrily, he slammed both his guns on the concrete floor. He hadn't planned this out.
The cultists started coming closer when they realized he was out of bullets, many of them holding different sharp objects in their hands. The person at the front of the nearing pack was a man with a large, bloody knife in his hand, the one that had previously been used to kill children. He snickered when he saw Ciel's eyes widen.
"You're a preeetttyyy one, aren't you?" He asked, grinning like a Cheshire cat, "you'll make a reeeeaaal nice sacrifice, little boy."
Ciel resisted the urge to vomit as the man grew closer to him. He stared at the gleaming knife in the man's hand but stood still.
Somehow, he felt calm. He didn't really care if he lived or died anymore. He wanted revenge, but he knew it would be impossible for him to kill even a single demon, even if he was alive. Accepting his fate, Ciel closed his eyes, tears flowing down his cheeks, and waited for the excruciating pain of death.
But it never came.
Instead, there was a loud whooshing sound as a what felt like a gust of wind blew across Ciel's face, whipping his hair. Then there was the sound of screaming. Hesitantly, Ciel opened his eyes to find himself staring at a mound of bodies on the cathedral floor. They were the bodies of the cultists, each torn open in a grotesque manner. In the middle of the pile of corpses stood a tall, thin man with silky, black hair and pale skin. He held two long swords, which hung loosely at his side and were dripping with blood. He was facing away from Ciel, his face hidden.
"Who are you?" Ciel asked shakily after a few moments, staring at the man in awe. The man turned to face Ciel. He had a thin face, high cheekbones, and brown eyes. His eyes moved up and down Ciel, scanning him hungrily.
Instead of answering Ciel's question, the black-haired man responded with a question of his own.
"Ciel Phantomhive," he began in a deep, smooth voice, "what is it that you want?"
oOo
"We're here," Sebastian whispered softly, shaking Ciel awake. Ciel blinked drowsily a few times, yawning. He'd managed to fall asleep, but somehow hadn't fallen off the motorcycle.
"Hmmm…" Ciel responded groggily as he rubbed his eyes. The sun was just beginning to rise, sending out brilliant rays of pink and yellow that illuminated the German countryside. Ciel scanned his surroundings slowly, shielding his eyes from the light. He and Sebastian were in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by miles of farmland.
"Where, exactly, is this lab you were talking about?" Ciel asked irritably. Sebastian sighed.
"You're quite blind, are you not?" he asked as he pointed towards a worn-down brick building about half a mile away from where they were standing. Somehow, Ciel had missed it. Sebastian cleared his throat.
"I believe it would be best if we entered through the back of the building and began exploring from there. Rumor has it scientists are conducting experiments in attempt to fuse human and demon, but there isn't any solid proof. Clearly, we should investigate before we do anything. Just in case."
"Okay…" Ciel said nodding, "We'll just have to split up and look for anything that might confirm the rumors, then. If we find any proof, we'll go ahead and put an end to their little experiments."
"Yes," Sebastian said as he entered a large field of corn, pushing the stalks out of his path as he made his way to the brick building in the distance. Ciel soon followed, craning his neck to see Sebastian above the corn stalks.
Damn this tall corn. Why must he be so short?
The two partners pushed their way through fields of corn until they finally emerged directly next to the rundown building.
"There." Brushing off his pants, Ciel pointed to a set of metal doors on the back of the building. They were bound by a thick metal chain and a large padlock. "Can you pick the lock, Sebastian?" He asked, already aware of the answer.
"Of course."
Sebastian approached the door in long strides, pulled a small pin out of his pocket and stuck it into the end of the lock. There was a small moment of silence as Sebastian moved the pin strategically around the lock. Then it clicked open and fell to the ground with a small 'thud,' disappearing into the high grass in front of the door. Removing the chain, Sebastian opened the metal doors or gestured broadly to the doorway.
"Shall we continue?" he asked Ciel mockingly, bowing at the waist.
"We shall."
Clicking on his flashlight, Ciel stepped through the doorway and into a long hallway. It was dark as night and eerily silent, the only sound being Ciel's footfalls as he stepped further into the building. Ciel turned to look at Sebastian. The pale man's eyes were sweeping the hallway, although he was still standing outside. His long fingers hovered over the swords at his waist.
Ciel cleared his throat.
"I'll go left. You can go right. If we don't find anything after an hour, we'll meet back here and leave."
Sebastian nodded and they parted ways, each moving to check their own expanse of hallway.
Ciel cautiously poked the door to his immediate left open to reveal a dark room filled with several tables and a chalkboard. Nothing special. He closed the door and moved onto the next room. Nothing.
The next several rooms were empty. Ciel sighed as he began to open the fifth door. Perhaps Mey-rin had been wrong about the whole 'evil scientists try to fuse humans and demons' thing. The so-called 'lab' seemed only to be an old, abandoned building.
The door swung open with a creak to reveal a pitch-black room. 'Just another empty room,' Ciel thought, and began closing the door before he saw a light from within the room. Freezing, Ciel opened the door again - slowly - to get a better look.
Near the far left corner of the dark room, there were two red dots of light. Eyes.
The metal flashlight he had been holding fell from his hands and hit the tile floor with a clatter. The eyes crinkled at the corners as if smiling.
Ciel's heart thundered in his chest as he fumbled for his pistol.
"Sebastian!" He tried to call, but his lips wouldn't move.
The eyes came closer as the demon neared. A wisp of black fog coiled around his hand, yanking it away from his gun and sending it tumbling to the floor. White fangs appeared out of the blackness, as well as various shards of metal which hovered in the air, point facing Ciel.
"What do we have here?" A gravelly voice asked. The voice echoed around the room and seeped through the walls. All of a sudden Ciel was ten again, standing in the doorway of his parent's bedroom.
The voice laughed and the ivory fangs snapped open.
Ciel closed his eyes.
oOo
"'What do I want?' What the hell are you talking about?" Ciel asked, thoroughly confused. 'This guy shows up, kills some cultists, then asks what I want? What the hell is he getting at,' he thought, knitting his brows.
"It's a simple question. Surely you are capable of answering."
Ciel scowled, glaring at the man.
"If you must know, I want vengeance for my parents. For myself. I plan to kill every last demon there is, give them a taste of the pain both my parents and I felt."
Silence.
"Now, who are you? And what the hell are you doing here?"
The man didn't answer him immediately. Instead, he placed a hand on his chin, rubbing it as though deep in thought. Ciel noticed for the first time that the man had a dark, leather glove on his left hand, but not on his right. The nails on his right hand were black.
"My name is Sebastian Michaelis," the man responded after a few moments, "I hunt demons, just as you do. I want to help you."
A/N: How was it? Please let me know. Thanks for reading!
