Author's note: So uh when I said I'd upload three chapters yesterday, I totally meant the last one would be today *ducks the rotten tomatoes again* It wasn't ready! There's a serious amount of context in here and I just wanted it to be perfect!
Anyway, please enjoy! Ciel and Sitri have managed to get Sebastian down into the underground warehouse but then Ciel finds himself somewhere completely different and has seen Undertaker? Just what does it all mean?
Warnings: Sebaciel (just hints of it), OCxOC, a buttload of plot, and an embarrassed babbling Sitri!
That Butler, Discussions
Ciel murmured as he awoke, the darkness on the edge of his vision creeping away slowly. He sat up and groaned; his whole body ached horribly. He blinked the muzzy feeling of sleep away,
"W-where…?" he mumbled and took in his surroundings. He seemed to be in a highly decorated day room, laying on a chaise longue. He hadn't expected that at all and immediately jumped to his feet.
"Sitri? Rachel!" he called, turning to look around himself. He was alone. He bit his lip, "Sebastian!"
No answer. Well he hadn't expected one but he hoped he might have. He finally took in the room's features, it felt strangely familiar, and noticed the large bay windows behind him, letting the bright sunlight pour in. Whoever put him in here either thought he wouldn't escape, or knew he couldn't.
He heard children giggling outside and looked out, noticing a well-kept flower garden and two very young children in much earlier period clothing, one blonde and one grey-haired. They were playing tag. He regarded them coolly, as he often did children, and pushed aside the usual childhood memories that threatened to surface.
He turned back to the room and jumped at the figure now seated inches from his face, sipping a cup of tea. There stood the Undertaker, smirking as he held the teacup with his pinky sticking out, looking ridiculous. He raised the cup to the dumbstruck Earl,
"Afternoon, Young Master" he said, as if it were perfectly normal. Ciel gaped,
"W-Wha!" cried the teen, nearly falling over backwards in surprise. When his heart rate had come down from the ceiling; he glared at the madly cackling figure, who had ended up on his back with legs kicking in the air.
"Shut up! It was hardly that funny!" he cried out, face reddening in embarrassment. Undertaker sighed happily and wiped tears from his eyes,
"Oh on the contrary, Milord, it was hilarious!" he stifled some more snickers, which only served to enrage Ciel more.
"Enough! What are you doing here, Undertaker? What's going on, where am I and where did Sitri and Sebastian go?" he demanded, glaring haughtily at the man.
Undertaker sat up again and grinned widely, finally calming down,
"Ah, Young Lord, always full of questions! But I'm not surprised! This mission has been quite the revelation, hasn't it?" Undertaker remarked, grinning his knowing grin. Ciel raised an eyebrow at the particular choice of words,
"So you know all what has been happening in Paris? Then you know it is imperative I find Sebastian and Sitri so that we can remove Sebastian's sigils! The angels have marked him and it's sent him insane!" Ciel demanded; his patience for this crazy Grim Reaper's elusive talk gone. Undertaker held up a hand to calm the boy,
"I understand the urgency, Milord, but I doubt you'd believe me if I explained everything is fine right now. However, I need you to listen to me, Ciel" the serious tone shook Ciel, bringing him out of his rage. He was now both calmer and curious. What could make even Undertaker act seriously? The boy sat down again quietly, expectant.
"To answer your questions; we're currently inside a memory, it's a safe place to talk. The demon prince and your butler are both back in the real world. As for, what's going on…" Undertaker seemed to look conflicted how to continue "I expect by now you've discovered that those angels are planning to use human souls to complete their mission" this was a statement, not a question. Ciel nodded,
"Yes…" Ciel replied, still wary. Undertaker nodded grimly and sighed,
"But what you might not know is this has happened once before. Only once in time" he explained elusively, glancing at Ciel with sincerity. "Many millennia ago, and I must say many of the main characters from that event seem to be present here too!"
The boy raised an eyebrow at this cryptic remark,
'Many characters? There's myself and Sebastian, along with Sitri, Rachel and Double Charles' Ciel thought harder. 'Humans and… non-humans? What does he mean?' Ciel caught a movement out of the corner of his and glanced at the wall behind the Undertaker's head. On it, a painting had materialised. It depicted angels and demons warring, just as they had in the Bible. The angels were painted as righteous muscular men with flowing golden hair and white wings fighting nobly against the smaller, malformed demons. The angels stood high on clouds in Heaven and he could see defeated demons falling into the dark abyss far below, their wings burning off. Ciel's eyes widened then he realised,
"You mean angels and demons? Are you referring to…When the demons fell from Grace?" he felt incredulous. That was just a myth though! It couldn't have happened! But a cold shiver ran through him as Undertaker nodded, still looking serious. He couldn't believe he actually missed the usually cackling demented persona of Undertaker; seeing Undertaker look so serious was just… unnerving.
"Yes, and at that time, humanity was still in its infancy. Only a few settlements had begun to form from those nomadic groups. At the time, angels were assigned to help the slowly growing human race flourish. Angels visited humans regularly, delivering the word of God to them and assisting them with creating sciences and tools to help them develop. Some of the angels seemed to love this work, especially one particular individual, as they watched the humans grow and start to develop on their own. But… but some angels that had grown jealous of humanity and God's favouring them; they started viewed this task of helping the humans as beneath them" Undertaker ended darkly. Ciel nodded and crossed his arms before he piped up,
"However, according to the Bible, the ones who thought like this were the demons who hated that they had to be servants to the lowly human race and were thus cast out by God for these sinful thoughts" Ciel countered, watching the Undertaker's face. Not a twitch showed, the Grim Reaper had an excellent poker face. Undertaker eventually sighed,
"Would it surprise you to learn, Young Earl, that the ones who Fell, the demons, were not the ones who were jealous of humanity?" he asked, looking sideways at the boy. Ciel blinked in surprise then frowned,
"But the Bible stated that it was the demons' mad jealousy that was viewed as sinful and caused them to be expelled from Heaven?" he pressed. Ciel felt like he was ending up with more questions than answers. "If this wasn't the case, then why would the angels that remained continue to serve humanity if they hated us so much? And just how would they manage to keep up such pretence to the entire human race for all this time as well? Someone would surely have spilled the truth eventually! It doesn't make sense!" Undertaker grinned bitterly at this comment,
"My Young Lord… have you heard the phrase 'History is written by the victors'?" he replied. Ciel felt so confused,
"What?" he replied. Undertaker pointed to the painting at the angels, showing the angels as heroic victors over the evil demons.
But it was just an artist's impression! It wasn't like it was the truth! Realisation dawned on Ciel suddenly. But that was the point! The angels didn't have to worry about a few petty individuals trying to denounce them; they had already made such a strong impression on humanity as being the righteous messengers of God that no one could imagine them as anything less! The angels could keep up the façade of being righteous whilst being able to navigate just what humanity knew as 'The Truth' and demons wouldn't be able to do a thing to stop them!
"But I still don't understand; what caused the demons to Fall from Grace? Just their feelings towards humanity?" he pressed. Undertaker's bitter smile seemed to grow more bitter and angry now. The hand holding the teacup was shaking slightly,
"Some of the more influential archangels thought the angels who did like humans liked them… too much. They thought this was completely against God's wishes and to like humanity was an abomination. Admittedly, some angels had started to get very close to humans and started to form relationships" Undertaker coughed slightly. Ciel stared, the usually crazy man that openly caressed skeletons with tender care actually looked uncomfortable at mentioning this. Ciel was so surprised to see this reaction; that it took a full minute for what Undertaker said to sink in. Then he realised who Undertaker meant,
"Are you talking about Sitri and Rachel?" he clarified, stunned. Undertaker nodded and Ciel sat back for a moment to take this all in. He knew Rachel had said she was old, but as old as the beginning of humanity? And Sitri had followed her all this time? Was that how powerful love from a demon could be? He felt amazed and the briefest thought of Sebastian doing that for him flickered past, making him turn pink again. Ciel pushed this away and listened intently as the man continued.
"Yes, although she wasn't called Rachel then. They were among many other couples that formed between the sons of God and daughters of men but the last that remains… still intact. Naturally, this type of relationship brought hostility from both sides. The angels saw this as disgusting and as defiance by a lesser race, bewitching their brethren into sleeping with them and producing mongrel children. The humans, who revered the angels as untouchable demi-gods, were confused by these relationships at first. However, lies and whispered words from the angels managed to convince the masses that these relationships were sinful and to lay with an angel was seen as an act of desecration." Undertaker paused to sigh again. Ciel was aware how much he felt drawn into this,
"Didn't those couples fight back?" he vaguely remembered the conversation between Sitri and Rachel he'd overheard.
Undertaker waved a hand irritably,
"Oh, there were attempts to retaliate and then reconcile with the angels, but those discussions broke down. The angels, disgusted with this turn of events, would not accept anything less than total removal of all interactions between humans and angels. But the couples would not relent; they didn't see any harm in it. And they didn't see the dark claws of the lies and anger the angels had spread fall around them either. They were trapped with no one to turn to. As such, as you know My Lord, it culminated in the demons and angels fighting and the demons' downfall"
Ciel hadn't realised until now that he'd been holding his breath. He exhaled slowly as he thought; this was unprecedented! This was a lie of such magnitude that it broke apart everything he ever knew!
"So the angels who were left were only those that despised humans? And they enforced this 'No Interaction with Humans' policy? But still, why continue to work with humans at all? Why not just simply… wipe us out then and there?" Ciel asked, still confused. Then he paused,
'For power, of course. They had probably seen the potential of humans and could use them to their own ends. They would be able to do as they please, whilst looking like, well, like angels as they did it! It's as bad humans, such as the Phoenix Society claiming killing people was for the 'greater good' whilst smiling innocently. Except, in this case, the angels ARE the 'greater good'' he felt sick. It was the perfect cycle; humans would listen to angels readily after years of brainwashing to believe they were always right and the angels could use humans to do their bidding under pretences such as being 'prophets' or having the word of God. Any mistakes or deaths would be waved of as the person 'ascending to Heaven' from being so good and the humans would practically fall over themselves, listening for more instructions! But there was something he still didn't understand,
"But why have they decided to intervene now? Why start killing people and collecting souls?" Ciel asked. Undertaker looked steadily at Ciel now,
"You have to understand, Young Lord, humans are powerful in ways you don't realise. They can shape the world to suit! Humans evolve and develop in ways angels and demons never expect and are therefore unpredictable. As science becomes more advanced and more of what was considered 'magic' in the world is explained to humans, less people are so inclined to believe in God and angels. This, along with the 'No Interaction' policy has led the angels to lose the influence they once had. If they convince a man to start working for them for the benefit of God, he now would have very little chance of convincing his neighbours to join him. Humans have become uncontrollable! Angels know this and it terrifies them; they know that if humans ever turned on them, they wouldn't stand a chance. So whilst they continue to feed the lies they started at the beginning and leave humanity to do the rest, they now need a back-up plan" the Undertaker paused for breath, panting from the sheer rage that seemed to be emanating from him. Once he had calmed enough, he continued, face dark like a thunderstorm,
"Human emotions can lead a man to believe anything, even when the truth is right in front of him. They'll kill each other in cold-blooded wars and, all the while use words like 'justice' to condone these horrific acts. That's what the angels are hoping to use to their advantage here, the blind faith that was instilled into the human psyche so long ago. Humans are sheep, Young Earl, they follow social norms without questions. Even you, 'the Queen's Watchdog' work under the orders of the Queen without ever questioning it" Undertaker sneered at mentioning the monarch, his hatred of her well known, and grinned briefly at Ciel jumping at this accusation. Ciel initially felt outrage
"Me?!" then he fell into thoughtfulness, "Yes, I'm just as bad as any other human" He thought about all those he'd lied to, deceived and killed to do the work Her Majesty set before him, all claiming it was the good of the country and to bring the Queen peace of mind. What reason had he to follow the orders of this one woman? Why did anyone? He had never questioned this before, following the Queen's orders was what was expected of him. But, to find out it was all a con run by angels, made those evil acts just seem… pointless and cruel. If he had to plead his case, he'd look as pathetic as any crooked bank manager or thug. Ciel looked at the blue ring, the ring all his forefathers had worn, that shone back his reflection and glared at it. Had they all just stupidly followed this tradition without questioning just why?
"But you know…" continued Undertaker, snapping Ciel out of his depressive thoughts. Ciel looked up at the man again who was now smiling gently "Just like how human can be influenced by things, they have influence as well. They can force the world to bend to their will, either through sheer numbers or through creating new tools to help them. And, as well as making useful devices, they can make wonderful things like art, poetry and jokes! Ahh yes, they can make laughter happen at just a few words. And what is life without laughter, Milord?" Undertaker started chuckling to himself before turning to the Earl again
"Angels, demons as well, do not have this ability to create. They do not have imaginations nor the ability to construct new wonderful things. The ability to ignore the obvious in favour of what we want to believe, to love someone unconditionally even when you know they have flaws like every other human is so difficult for them to achieve that most never do. They crave this ability and hunger for these emotions. That's why demons make contracts; the humans receive whatever their foolish hearts' desire and the demons ultimately get to feel emotions, albeit fleetingly"
"So, now, Double Charles want to stop all this creativity we humans have?" Ciel asked, starting to understand. "They're frightened we'll grow too strong and eventually rebel realising that the angels have lied to us? So, instead they'll manufacture humans to feel what they think is 'correct' and kill those that don't follow? That isn't how humanity works!" Ciel cried out. "Humanity is greedy, deceitful, cunning and disgusting! Even animals have more honour! We'll never follow such restrictive lives! Yes, it might last a few hundred years with the power they hold over us but someone will fight and then it'll be like a dam bursting! Do the angels actually think they can control all of humanity?"
Undertaker shrugged,
"Well, yes" he stated matter-of-factly.
Ciel sat there, stunned for the moment.
This was big, this was massive. This wasn't just about his orders from the Queen anymore, although if she knew all this then she'd probably instruct him to put a stop to this too. This was about saving humanity from a lie that had permeated all of human history! He hated to admit it, but he actually needed help with this one. But… what if this wasn't true at all? He regarded the man in front of him, who seemed to have used up all his ability to be serious and was now rummaging in a tin of bone-shaped biscuits.
"Why have you been telling me all this?" he asked quietly, watching the man who mumbled a 'Huh?' around a mouthful of biscuit. "What makes you think I should believe any of this?" he asked, wary of the man's erratic nature. "You expect me to trust your word that the angels have been lying to all of humanity when I know that you yourself had been lying to me about who you really are. And just what am I supposed to do now?" Undertaker seemed to regard the glowering boy for a minute then sighed theatrically,
"Ah, always more questions! And to think, I gave you quite a lot of valuable information for that cheap laugh! And you act like I'm some common criminal! I might not have always been upfront, but I've always had the best intentions at heart" the Undertaker spoke with a mockingly hurt tone before he grinned again. Ciel snorted, he clearly wasn't going to get any more sensible answers for now.
"Of course, along with throwing me to ravenous undead that you created and making me chase you all around a college to a tea party with more of those same undead! Just what was the point of all that then?" the boy snapped. He jumped as the man launched himself into his face,
"To wake you up, of course!" came the jeering reply. Ciel blinked,
"Huh?" he noticed the room was starting to disintegrate.
"I said wake up, My Lord!" replied the Undertaker as he started to break apart as well. Ciel screamed in horror as he fell backwards into pitch blackness again.
Wake up!
Wake up, Ciel!
Wake up!
"Seriously, Little Lord, wake up already! Jez'll kill me if you die!" came a familiar deep voice, pitch heightened with panic.
Ciel gasped as he awoke with a start, looking into Sitri's face, and sitting bolt upright.
"Wha-huh? Wha?" he rambled, staring around wildly. The Undertaker was nowhere to be seen and he was back beside the doorway in the underground warehouse again. He looked thoughtfully at the torn down metal door and listened to the roaring of Sebastian, still at large, within.
"Hey, you ok Little Lord? You just collapsed all of a sudden and seemed to be fitting!" Sitri looked over the boy with worry. "Perhaps this has all been a bit much for you to cope with? Maybe you should lie down whilst I deal with Malphas"
Ciel pushed away and held his head as it started pounding; it felt like his head was full of hot cotton wool. His thoughts were buzzing from all the information he'd learnt. Had he learnt it? Had it been real?
'Or was it just a dream? But… it felt so real…' he tried to gather his thoughts, piecing together what Undertaker had told him with what had been happening. He jumped at Sitri's touch,
"Hey kid, you alright? You did bang your head pretty hard when you fell" Sitri sounded concerned, looking over the boy again. The demon looked surprised at the calm and critical look Ciel gave him, "You still remember who I am right? I'm not going to have to deal with Amnesia-Boy now, am I?"
Ciel tutted at the irritating jab,
"I'm fine, you idiot!" he snapped before forcing himself to calm down. Ciel looked thoughtful; he needed all the help he could get with this case. Even if they got Sebastian back to normal now, this was too massive for just the two of them. He weighed up his options; he didn't know Sitri that well, he still didn't trust the demon at all, but at the moment he needed all the help he could get.
'I don't think I can afford to be picky now' he concluded and proceeded to tell Sitri about the dream and what Undertaker had told him. The demon sat quietly and listened, his face becoming more serious and grim as Ciel explained until he reached the point he wasn't even looking at the boy anymore.
Ciel regarded the demon prince again, now in light of the new information he'd received and this reaction,
'He seems genuinely upset by all this. Could Undertaker have been telling the truth?' the boy mused. He decided on a course of action.
"Sitri… I need to ask you a question" he continued softly. He was still mulling over all the information he had gained in his 'dream' and found just one question seemed to stand out right now. The question seemed to burn within him for many reasons and he couldn't wait until later to ask it. Sitri looked up at Ciel, curious.
"Sure, but it better be quick. We still have to catch Malphas" he replied gruffly, obviously still affected by what Ciel had told him. The demon proceeded to get up and helped Ciel to his feet too, dusting him off, before letting the boy continue.
"Why did you fall in love with a human?" Ciel asked, causing the demon to freeze in his dusting. The demon's face remained in shock for a full minute with his tail fluffed out before he seemed to run through some thoughts in his head. He now appeared reluctant to make eye contact,
"W-why'd do you wanna know that right now, after all you've learnt? That's not something kids should ask about, y'know, a boy your age with all those hormones and such" the demon rambled, trying to divert the boy's attention. Ciel started to grow impatient, scowling at the remark of 'his age',
"It was against God and what the other angels thought! Humans were considered beneath you and not to be interacted with like that! So why… what made you fall for one?" he pressed. Sitri started to rub the back of his head then focused on smoothing out his tail.
"It's uh…That's not… s'not an easy question to answer, you know?" the demon muttered, looking away. Ciel started to lose his temper; he needed to know the answer right now and couldn't be dealing with this embarrassed fool! Admittedly, a small part of him was embarrassed to be asking this question but he needed to understand just what made the demons give up their rightful place after the fight. Why had they just accepted their evil name and not continued to fight against it? Once he knew this, then he'd be able to form a plan. So he kept pushing Sitri,
"You threw away everything you'd known for this woman! All of your upbringing, beliefs and respect to just follow a strange feeling you'd never experienced before!" he berated. Sitri's furry ears now appeared and drooped as he looked away; they had turned pink now,
"I-it didn't feel like that at the time…" the demon mumbled. Ciel pushed harder, growling,
"You and the others even let the angels get away with calling you sinful and terrible creatures! What made that worthwhile?" he continued, getting more frustrated as the demon mumbled quietly to himself.
"It was all illogical, incomprehensible; you didn't know she'd love you back or want to stay with you! Humans are given to follow their own selfish desires all the time! She could still leave you tomorrow for someone else! What has made it worth all this pain and suffering?" he pressed, nearly yelling now.
"Because she was perfect; okay!"Sitri snapped back, stunning Ciel into silence and, to Ciel's further astonishment, turning bright red. He looked away as he mumbled the rest of his answer, "F-from the first time I spoke to her, she was perfect. I mean, I knew she wasn't a perfect human, she had flaws like that wicked temper but she was perfect to me. She made me feel so happy, and love is… is such a wonderful feeling! I didn't know what to do but I just… I just wanted to always be with her. I wanted to protect her and spend all my life with her. I didn't… didn't want to cause everyone so much grief but I couldn't be away from her either…"
Ciel listened as the demon babbled. He felt like he understood now. He had seen the earnest look in Sitri's eyes, the passionate fire that showed he'd fight Heaven and Hell, and probably had, for Rachel and do it gladly.
Undertaker was wrong; demons could feel emotions, but they didn't know what to do with them! They didn't live in a world where they could experience these wonderful things like love, hate, anger and joy daily and thus feeling them took more effort and also came as more of a shock to demons. Much easier to absorb them from humans and experience the highs without any of the consequences. They were more like bewildered children around these foreign things called 'feelings' and didn't know how to truly express them. If they had continued to fight, it would have meant risking getting hurt and being vulnerable. Hence the desire to appear strong, imposing, in control. Even if that meant being vilified as well. Take away that bluff and you got… Ciel listened to the desperate maddened howls of Sebastian and observed the reddening babbling mess that was currently Sitri. Well, you got this.
He finally understood just what made the demons accept their fate and what the angels were so frightened of! And even better, Ciel started smirking victoriously, he finally had a plan.
Whew! Massive overload of plot here! I hope it's not too confusing! Hooray that Ciel now has a plan and yay for Undertaker finally appearing! So what will be the plan and how does Ciel intend to set it into action? What will he do against the angels now? Find out next time! Please review, leave a like or kudos! Let me know what you think! We're nearly at the end now! Until next time, take care!