Here's another chapter for you all! :)

Notes: The astronomical community was aware of star clusters during this time period, which they called nebulae (but I'm sticking to 'star clusters' to avoid being too fancy.) Therefore, Ciel would have had opportunities to learn about these heavenly bodies. However, for the most part it was incorrectly inferred that all clusters belonged to the Milky Way galaxy, and that our galaxy was, in fact, the entire universe. It wasn't until the early 20th century that astronomers realized that these gatherings of stars were much, much further away than had previously been theorized.

And there's your astronomy lesson for the day. Now, on to the story! :D

The first thing Ciel felt was a rushing sensation, as though they were falling through the floor. He blinked and peered around- or at least, he thought he did. He seemed to be a bit disconnected from his regular reflexes. It felt and appeared as though he was sinking in a warm, expansive, honey-golden world of light. The light seemed to be emitting sound, a kind of soft music which he could not liken to any voice or instrument he had heard before. It did not hurt his eyes to look into. Everything seemed to be made of light, a bright, flaming veneer of luminance, unbroken except for a few golden lines and angles here and there which stood out as if they were closer in proximity. Ciel beheld all this, and he did not feel afraid. He merely wondered at it.

He attempted to glance down at his own body. Before his vision, he instead discovered a radiant collection of golden points of light, gathered so close together that they almost seemed as one object. He had seen something like this before, but only faintly, and through a telescope- these looked like the star clusters which dwelt inside the midnight sky of their galaxy, and were hypothesized to be independent gatherings of celestial bodies. But this light was far closer, more detailed, more intimate….what was he looking at? Was this his body? Where was Lydia? She had been right next to him a moment ago….so was she part of the star cluster too….? Ciel's train of thought (it surprised him that he still had the ability to think consciously in this state, although his thoughts did not prick at his mind like before,)was summarily interrupted as the lines around him began to shift and turn about. He got the distinct feeling he was passing through some of them, although he could not feel them as solid objects. The light continued to caress the edges of his ambiguous form. Was he dead? Ciel wondered calmly. If this was death, it was not so terrible…. He thought that the music soaking through the light seemed a bit closer and clearer than it had been moments ago. He began to focus on it more intently, certain that if he listened long enough he would be able to tune in to voices, words, would hear the true sound reverberating in this place. Up ahead, he spotted two separate star clusters which seemed to be coming closer….he allowed himself to float toward them, admiring the way every jewel within them seemed to stand out simultaneously. They harmonized perfectly with-

The world changed instantaneously. Ciel felt his body jerk, and then the rough sensation of being abruptly dropped from a comfortable perch. The first thing he realized was that he could see his feet. His head, which he could feel physically once again, was angled downward. He lifted it in surprise and beheld the bodies of Bard and Finnian, standing exactly where the approaching star clusters had been moments ago. It was with a great shock that Ciel's mind took in the shine of silverware and the pervading aroma of food, and realized they were in the kitchen. Bard and Finnian were standing at the door- Finnian had his ear pressed up against the wood, and Bard was holding a spatula and nervously swatting his other palm with it. Finnian pulled his head away from the door and turned it back around. Immediately his whole body leaped back against it in shock. Bard jumped as well, whirled around, and jumped even higher. "Ah! Ciel- I mean- young master!" he exclaimed roughly. Ciel stood there dumbfounded, staring at them. A noise from behind him prompted him to turn around and see the green-clothed body of his sister. She was carefully wrapping a spare apron around the part of her arm from which she'd torn the bandages away upstairs- upstairs? Ciel finally remembered that there was something menacing upstairs. Intruders. They had tried to kill him- no, capture him. They wanted to kill Lydia. They had been upstairs a moment ago, but now- how had they gotten into the kitchen?!

"How'd you two get into the kitchen?" Finnian asked, frowning in puzzlement. "We only turned our heads for a second!"

"Where's my father?" Lydia returned, stepping out hurriedly from behind Ciel. There was a noise to the side of them, and Ciel and Lydia turned to see Aberlaine emerging from the kitchen's gigantic storage room, carrying a new cache of weapons in his arms. He looked like he might cry with relief when he saw his daughter. She bolted over to him, and he set the guns upon the counter and wrapped his arms around her, murmuring low-voiced comforts and thanks to God into her hair. At one time, Ciel would have snapped that they had no time for such displays of familial affection. Now he merely stood back and looked away in uncertainty. Finally, Lydia asked, "You're all right, then?"

Aberlaine nodded, placing his hands on Lydia's shoulders and pushing her outward so he could survey her for injuries. "We were able to get away, thanks to Finnian driving them back by throwing furniture at them, but they're still out there. We were so worried when we realized we'd been separated from you two!"

"We were chased by the knife-thrower and the leader, the tall one. They almost had us, but we managed an escape at the last second. We found out they're here to capture Ciel as well as kill me- and anyone who gets in their way. They seem to be taking orders from someone called 'Father.' " Lydia reported professionally, in a voice which belied her investigative upbringing.

"But how did you get in the kitchen without coming through the door?" Finnian asked, still puzzled.

Satisfying himself that his daughter was unharmed, Aberlaine tapped the wrist of her right arm and looked meaningfully into her eyes. Lydia nodded.

"What on earth just happened?!" Ciel demanded, finally finding his voice. His focused his uncovered eye on his sister. "You- that- what was all that?"

Lydia stepped back to his side. "Oh, Ciel, I'm sorry I haven't had the chance to explain before. You didn't seem to want to talk about it, so…." She murmured gently, placing her hand upon his shoulder. The young boy glanced incredulously down at it, eyeing the seams of the bandages and the apron knot which covered the unwrapped portion. He wanted to unwind the cloth and see if the light was still there, find out whether he had been imagining the music or if it was really…. But right now, he had to focus on the immediate danger unfolding in the manor. "I promise we can talk about it after we make it through this. Will that do for now?"

Ciel blinked. "But how did we-"

"Have a pistol, all," Bard cut in practically, reaching into the pile on the counter and handing one out to everyone. "I knew this stash'd come in handy one day." Ciel pressed his lips together and for a moment, the room was full of nothing but clicks and clacks as everyone opened up their guns' barrels to ensure they were fully loaded.

"Right," Aberlaine broke the uneasy silence. "We ought to cover all the weak points of this room. The door and the windows in particular. Who knows but they might try to sneak up on us again, and if so, we need to be pre-"

He broke off as a loud thud sounded against the other side of the kitchen door, as if someone had thrown a brick at it. Everyone gasped and pointed their weapons in that direction. Ciel heard an object hit the ground outside the door, and then silence- or rather, almost silence. His hearing sharpened by fear, Ciel knew he was not imagining the sound of a faint, crackling hiss coming from the other side of the locked door. His heart froze.

"Everyone get back! Get back into the storeroom!" he shouted, backing away from the counter. The next second, he found himself under his sister's arm as the lot of them whirled and ran as though fleeing an oncoming train. They dove into the storeroom's darkness- Finnian wrenched the heavy, fortified door closed behind them with a single pull- and then they were somewhere in the unseeing black, racing toward the back of the room. The loudest sound Ciel had ever heard in his life came screaming above their heads like a vengeful, terrorizing spirit, like Sebastian. Ciel's lungs inflated and his breathing hitched. He felt Lydia fling him flat against the floor as the whole world tremored and all around them, things began to crash to the ground.

/

Panting intensely and blinded by the sudden light flooding into the storeroom, Lydia only uncovered her brother's head when the cacophony of tearing, grinding, and shattering had come to a halt. Glancing up, she coughed weakly on a strange, dusty fog filling up the formerly enclosed space. The heavy storeroom door seemed to have held up, shielding them from the debris of the kitchen door and adjoining wall, which had surely been blasted away. However, the storeroom wall which had held all the spices, jars of sugar, and bags of flour had caved inward in the blast, coating everything in musky-smelling, fine dust and shattered bits of glass. Lydia checked underneath her to make sure Ciel was still moving and not covered in blood. She glanced up and saw her father, Bard, and Finnian roughly digging their way out of piles of kitchen supplies which had been knocked down from shelves in the blast. Bard swore profusely as he kicked aside useless bits of cutlery. "They did have dynamite, those bastards! The devil take 'em!"

"Over there!" Lydia hissed, motioning through the demolished storeroom wall into the uncertain world of smoky dust beyond. Through the dim gray air, they could just make out the black shape of a figure striding toward them. Bard swore again. "We can't stay in here, we're wide open with that wall gone! Get back into the kitchen an' follow me!"

"Come on, Ciel!" Lydia whispered, finally unfolding herself from the delicate frame of her little brother. Aberlaine helped them both to their feet and they waded quickly through the scattered mess of food and kitchen items, dragging their feet as much as possible to avoid bringing them down upon broken glass. Back in the kitchen, the door was no more. Neither were the surrounding wall and a good portion of the floor. There were haphazard scorch marks everywhere around the blast zone, as if drawn in a terrible work of art. Eyeing the darkened figure still approaching through the dust, Bard beckoned to them and dove behind the main counter, using its wide bulk to protect his body. They hurriedly joined him, Lydia's heart thumping wildly in her ears. What should she do? She could try unwrapping her arm again, but what if she wasn't able to take all of them with her? Bard beckoned urgently at them. "Right then, Finny an' I'll aim over the top of the counter. You an' your father take either side. An' young master, you stay covered in the middle an' hand new guns to us if we run outta bullets."

Lydia nodded silently; Aberliane squeezed her hand, and then they separated as they took positions on either side of the bulky counter, guns pointed toward the shape in the settling dust. For a few moments, Lydia dared to hope it might be Sebastian; but as it drew closer, she realized with a plummeting heart that it was too short to be the demon. It was the man with the strange coil wrapped around his neck, and a large pistol held in his outstretched hand. He fired several times as they dove behind the counter again, muffling yells of alarm. He was a very poor shot, and Lydia heard the bullets impacting walls and the ceiling in a wide circle around them. When the firing stopped, she leaned her head out very carefully, nosing the muzzle of her gun ahead of her. The man had ducked into an alcove and from inside his masked face she could see his eyes peering just as tentatively back at them. Now that the dust had almost settled, however, she realized that something was wrong with the scene."Where are the others?" she whispered huskily.

"What?" Ciel mouthed in reply, glancing sideways at his older sister.

"I still only see one. Where are the other three?"

Ciel whipped around and yelled in alarm, falling back against the counter. Something needling and knife-like and cruel ripped into Lydia's vulnerable left shoulder, spraying blood on her chest and face and she whirled around directly into the fist of the tallest attacker. Her head smacked against the broken tile and she saw dancing images of a pair of jester's shoes standing directly in front of her. For a moment, blackness beckoned. Shouting language she'd never heard him use before, Ciel fired several shots and the feet leaped away from her vision. Pushing herself unsteadily upright against the counter, Lydia gasped and mouthed in pain at the skin split apart on her shoulder. She saw her father physically wrestling with the knife-thrower, and Finnian and Bard exchanging fire with the scrawny one who had distracted them all. Ciel was a few feet away from her, diving for a freshly loaded gun. She had to get up…. She had to help….before….she lost one of them…. Somewhere to her right, the masked leader's voice screamed, "Stop foolin' around, you lot! We didn' come 'ere to 'ave a bloody stalemate! Get the boy! Kill the girl!"

"I'll get 'im!" shouted a female voice, and out of nowhere Lydia saw a shape like a long black snake flinging itself through the air. It wrapped around her brother's ankles, and the woman holding it gave a tremendous yank, dragging Ciel empty-handed across the floor. He shrieked in tempered rage as the woman pinned him down with a knee atop his chest and began to bind his hands with the upper portion of the whip. Lydia was not quite sure how she managed to get on her feet; all she felt was her right hand pulling at something, then the countertop cracking under the forceful pressure as she flung herself at the female attacker. She knocked her flat against the ground, instinctively seized her leg, and began to drag her across the floor away from her brother. The woman screamed and kicked and made several failed attempts to get up. She whipped a knife out of the folds of her billowing pants and attempted to hack at the arm locked onto her calf, but Lydia kept dragging her backward as the knife dented and blunted against her bandaged skin. If they could drive the others off and arrest this one, perhaps they could finally learn who was pulling the strings of this twisted plot….! Outside the world of her thoughts, she heard the knife-thrower yell, "Sis! I'm comin'!" Lydia lifted her head to see him shove her father aside and rush her, his hands a menagerie of shining daggers. Lydia gave her captive's leg one last yank as she tried to fling her into the corner, hoping to box her in while she defended against this new assailant. The next moment, she had forgotten about all of that as the leg she was holding shifted in a strange way, and Lydia felt a sudden release of tension in the upper joint. The next moment, the woman's body crashed to the floor at her feet, and Lydia was left with a pale, human leg in her hand.

She screamed bloody murder and scrambled away against the wall, staring at the disembodied limb in horror. It had come- it just came right off! She had pulled the woman's leg off! Just like a doll! A doll….wait! Lydia's mind caught up with her reflexes as she noticed the lack of blood and, for that matter, lack of warmth in the limb. It was cold and hard as a block of marble. Not….real? It wasn't a real leg? Lydia continued to back away as the knife-thrower abandoned his attempt on her life to fling himself to his knees beside the woman, helping her to wrap her arms around his neck. From behind Lydia, a furious voice shouted, "Goddammit all-! Take 'er down the 'all then, quick! Then come back fer the boy! I'll finish this 'un now!" From the edge of her vision, Lydia spotted a long blade, almost like a pike, rising up in the air as its bearer charged for her throat.

Several people screamed. Lydia felt her eyes widen and body soften, as if inviting the blow. She had no time to step back, no time to leap away- only time to do the last thing she'd expected of herself. Instead of stepping back, Lydia stepped forward, her head rising parallel to his upper chest. Still gripping the detached leg, she swung it desperately, like a cricket club, bashed it right across the temple of her would-be killer. Behind the mask, his eyes widened- and then the mask itself cracked and the top right section fell away. Lydia saw pale white skin, flamboyant orange hair, an ear with metal loops pierced all the way up and down, and an eye- a dark eye with a dark blue teardrop painted just below the bottom eyelid, staring at her in astonishment a moment before it closed and the whole body keeled over on top of her, knocking her to the floor.

Her legs shaking like a newborn calf's, Lydia wriggled herself out from under the man and lowered her ear to his lips, fearing she had hit too hard, been too brutal with her strength- but no, he was breathing definitively. "Lydia!" she heard someone shout, "are you all right?!" She turned to see her father rushing over to her. Ciel was on the floor behind him, still trying to work his legs free of the whip. Panting, she heaved herself up to her knees. "Father, I got him! I got-"

Aberlaine's face changed from relief to horror. "Look out!" he roared, seizing her arm and dragging her away from her quarry. Lydia didn't understand why until she whipped her head around and suddenly there were snakes- snakes! What the hell?!- crawling over the body of the fallen man, lashing out at the ankles of all who came near him. As they backed away, the scrawny masked figure emerged from the other side of the counter, flung his unconscious leader's arm over his neck, and proceeded to do the best he could to drag him down the hallway while the snakes advanced upon the humans. Lydia realized only now that the thick band around his neck was actually a snake. Ciel was still struggling on the floor, in the throes of what sounded like a full scale asthma attack. Lydia rushed to him just as the serpents reached him; suddenly Bard and Finnian were at their side. "Miss Lydia, please take care of master Ciel! We'll handle these pests!" Scooping her little brother up in her arms, Lydia was able to back away with her ankles unbitten as the two male servants and her father proceeded to beat back the hissing snakes with pots, pans, spatulas, and ladles. A shriek of rage rang out down the hallway, where the knife thrower had returned to help drag his leader to safety. The snake man was standing upright as if electrified, staring into the unfolding battle. "Stop it! Stop it! Stop hurting them!"

"Call 'em off, then, ya crazy bugger!" Bard roared, smacking a green snake across the room with a sauce pan. Lydia didn't hear the man give any sort of command as she frantically rubbed her brother's back, his fragile shoulders heaving- but the next moment the snakes all turned aside, as though following the pied piper, and slithered away through the bombed-out door. Down the hall, the last of their assailants disappeared around the corner, and all was still for the first time in what seemed like an eternity.

"Everyone get back behind the counter," Aberlaine commanded lowly, his face an ashen blank. "They might come back." As nervous as field mice, the group hurriedly scuttled behind the immobile block of wood, now pockmarked by bullets. Her father glanced around. "All right, now we've got to have our wits about us. Bard, I wanted you to keep your gun trained on these windows. Finnian, you take those windows. Lydia, you watch the storeroom, they can get in from there since the wall is down. I'll cover the hallway. If anyone sees any movement, let out a yell straight away. We can't be caught off-guard this time."

Still holding her brother in her arms, Lydia hurried to her post and ducked down, tucking him into the cabinet aside her. From behind the wooden half-door, Ciel's blue eyes peeked out at her. His breathing seemed to be slowing down, although Lydia knew he would need an herbal concoction and plenty of bed rest before he was fully recovered. But he was still here; still here for her to take care of, and she was still here as well. The attackers may have gotten away, but they had not gotten away with her brother or her life. Her group was all right. They were all alive. The silence stretched on for a long time as everyone fixed their eyes upon the openings before them, listening desperately for noises, any threatening sounds. Lydia thought she could see the light grow slightly dimmer in the sky. It seemed like forever before her father spoke again. "How many bullets have we got left? I only have three."

"None," whispered Finnian.

"One," muttered Bard, scratching his scraggly chin.

Lydia glanced slowly about the room. "I don't know where my gun is. I think it must've gotten knocked away while I was getting bashed around."

"Here," Ciel's hand thrust his pistol outside the cupboard. "I think I've got two shots left."

Aberlaine promptly opened up his gun's chamber and handed a small, sleek bullet over to Finnian. "Bloody hell, I hope they don't return. That's not much to defend with."

"Maybe they won't come back," Finnian whispered hopefully. "Maybe they'll leave. They've probably run low on bullets too, and they're not in good shape to fight us. Miss Lydia knocked out the man who was screaming all those orders, and she pulled the false leg off of that lady with the whip."

"To be fair, I didn't actually mean to do that last bit…." Lydia muttered balefully, looking over to where the disembodied leg still lay crooked upon the floor, turning her stomach even though she knew it wasn't real.

"An' I'm pretty sure I knicked the bloke with all them knives in the shoulder," Bard reported, grinding his teeth as he stared into his almost-empty chamber. "Damn it all! If Meirin was here with us, she coulda taken 'em all down in a second."

"Why is that?" Lydia asked, her mind starting as she tried to picture the clumsy, shy, red-haired maid with pistols in her hands.

"Meirin is a sniper. Or was, I should say. She has perfect farsighted vision," Ciel's voice reported matter-of-factly from the cupboard. "That is why I hired her, to defend the manor in the case of a crisis such as this. Likewise, Bard possesses tactical military knowledge and a vast enthusiasm for weaponry. And Finnian possesses enormous strength, as you may have noticed."

"Good grief," Lydia muttered, rubbing her forehead and exchanging an incredulous glance with her father. "….I see what you meant when you said they weren't to be trifled with."

"You didn't do so bad yourself," Bard nodded approvingly in her direction. "Hell, we were all pretty good, weren't we? I always said we didn't need to rely on Sebastian for everythin'!"

"Let's not celebrate prematurely," Aberlaine advised, scanning the empty hallway once again. "We might not be out of the woods yet. As long as we're not being attacked right at this moment, let's take an assessment of injuries."

Bard shrugged. "Well, I got a bit of a lump on my head, but I got no reason to complain. I think Miss Lydia an' the young master got hit worst off, they did. It was them those crazy buggers were goin' for."

"I will be all right," Ciel murmured tiredly. "Once Sebastian comes back and clears the manor out, we can all rest properly. My hands are only a little lacerated from that woman's whip."

"I think she got me with that, too," Lydia admitted, carefully peeling apart the split eaves of cloth to peer at the open wound beneath. The line of males flinched. "It'll be all right, once I can soak it….it just caught me off-guard, is all…."

Bard bit his lip thoughtfully. "Young master, I….well, not to pry, but….any idea why these blokes wanted to snatch you away an' off Miss Lydia? Who are they?"

"That is something which requires more investigation," Ciel replied vaguely. "Hopefully the clues we are able to glean from our interactions today will give us enough knowledge to move the case forward. They were able to take us by surprise at first, but they will not do so again. I did learn, however, that there are apparently more of them than were present at the manor today. The leader spoke of sending 'the others' off after the carriage because they believed I would be in it."

The male servants gasped, and Finnian sputtered, "But- Meirin-"

"Do not worry," the young heir murmured confidently. "Have you forgotten that Sebastian is with them? He will be able to defend her and Madame Red from all threats and dangers on the road. We were correct to send him along with them." From inside the cupboard, he caught Lydia's eye for a moment before lowering his head back to his knees.

The thatch-haired gardener nodded, visibly calming. "I hope Mr. Sebastian comes back soon…. But you know, there's still something I don't understand," he declared, tilting his head in puzzlement. "How did you and Miss Lydia get into the kitchen before? We had it all locked up and secure before they went and blew the wall open!"

The two siblings exchanged glances once again, and then Bard's body gave a sudden spasm. "Someone's comin'!" he hissed, gazing wide-eyed through the broken window above the counter. Lydia could not hear anything, but the certainty in Bard's voice was absolute. They all whirled reflexively toward the window.

"Everyone, keep covering your own entrances! Keep your pistols aimed! They may be trying to distract us again!" Aberlaine urged, locking his white-knuckled hands around his gun. Lydia crawled several spaces to the left and barricaded her body in front of the cupboard which concealed her brother. She glanced anxiously between the empty storage room and the shattered window. When a shadow fell across the counter, she turned and gasped- everyone did, they couldn't help it- as a long, black figure leaned slowly in front of the radiant light of the setting sun.

Our characters just couldn't get a break in this chapter, could they? At least they're all alive! I had to focus really hard when writing this chapter- it's not easy to depict a chaotic battle scene where everything is happening at once, and still convey all the necessary information to move the action forward. I hope I did all right!

On that note, reviews are appreciated! I want to know what people think. I'm open to constructive criticism, praise, general commentary...and ridiculous fangirling if you just can't help yourself. God knows I've done it a few times as well. :)