|Moon's note : Okay people, last chapter up! Since the majority voted for a happy ending, this is the happiest ending that was realistically possible in my eyes. I hope you enjoyed the story, and I hope you will continue to support the writers of your favorite stories in the same way you supported me.
Special thanks to : Joker, for being the doll he is, Star, for being such a strong character in my mind, George, who was amazing to write, RedAppassionata, Little – Kitty – Momo, VivianKeinz and Sweetdreams705, and all the others who have read my story.
I wish you a very, very wonderful day, month, year and life|
|The Basement|
Star looked down at the big man lying at her feet, loose strands of dark hair hanging in front of her face. She was gasping for air as if she would never be able to breathe again, the heat of the fireplace beating in her face. Behind her back the voices of children murmured through the air. The woman took a few more moments to compose herself, before looking behind her.
A rough, tin key was lying on the crude desk. She grabbed it in one fist, taking big strides towards the cages. The tiny figures scattered to the back of their cages, not trusting the newcomer in the least. Star looked around her feverishly, trying to find the one person that was the most important at this moment.
'George, are you there? George?' she tried to say, her voice coming out as a feeble squeak. None of the children answered her. 'Please George… it's your sister…' she continued in a whisper. She didn't think she would be able to cope if her little brother didn't answer her.
A sudden inhale of breath at her right startled her. Looking that way, she could see a small boy looking up at her in confusion.
'GEORGE!'
She almost couldn't get the key in to unlock the hole, her hands shaking as if she hadn't eaten or slept in days. When she got the lock off, she scrambled in the cage, gripping the young boy in her arms. She broke down in a sob as she pressed her cheek against the top of his head. A girl in the cage next to that of her brother watched the ongoing scene with disinterest.
'You're alive!' she mumbled, over and over again, pressing him against her.
When she finally noticed the boy not responding to the hug, she pulled back. She swiped away his bangs, to see what the matter was.
Cuts and bruises were visible all over his face. A black eye seemed like it had just begun to heal, and she could see the damage went on below the shirt as well. In her brothers face there was no sign of recognizing her, not a trace of happiness at seeing his sister.
'George… it's me. Star. It's your sister.' She whispered, her heart pounding against her chest.
'Sis…ter?' he asked slowly, voice drawling out as if he couldn't remember the word. Star nodded, trying her hardest not to start crying.
'Yes, sister! I came here for you, George! I'll get you out, don't worry.' She said. The boy still looked her, the first dawn of recognizing on his face. Still the message didn't seem to register fully to him.
She slowly coaxed him on his legs, before turning to the other cages. George stood just inside his, watching as she unlocked the other doors. She soon discovered that her brother had been the easiest to persuade to get up and ready to leave the room. Several of the children crept away further back into their cells the moment she opened the lock, looking at her intensely until she moved away from them again. They never made an attempt to get out of the doors themselves.
A soft voice stopped her before she reached the second last door. Looking up from the door she could see a young girl with black curls looking back at her.
'Please wait before you let William out. He'll try to bite you if you're not careful.' The girl was missing her two front teeth, but seemed to be relatively unharmed past that.
'Oh…' Star said, walking over to the girl's door first.
'You are here to rescue us, aren't you?' the girl asked. When she stood up, Star could see she was more around the age of fifteen than the younger children. As soon as Star unlocked the door, she took her savior's hand in hers, squeezing it once. Her hand was icy cold, rags draped around her in order to preserve the most body heat.
'Uhm… yes.' Star replied. The girl didn't seem to be very much in the same state as the younger children. Catching on to Star's bemusement, the girl cast a bitter look to the tall man lying on the ground with the poker still jammed in his eyes.
'I was too old for the Baron. I was his reward.' She spat the words out, before straightening her back.
As the children saw the black-haired girl out of her cage, they started to come closer, hesitantly. Not one of them put a foot outside the iron railings. The girl held out her hand for the key, before walking towards the young boy that was supposed to bite other.
He came out hesitantly enough, taking the girl's hand gingerly. He looked at Star once and bared his teeth. George was still holding the side of his cage, as if he might drop through the ground if he let go of it.
Once the children believed that nothing bad would happen to them for stepping outside, they started to climb up the stairs, following the oldest girl. She stopped only once, to kick the dead man she had been awarded to for proven services.
At the top of the stairs, the three other children were still waiting. With a group of a little less than twenty people, Star thought it would be better not to take them with her on a search for Joker and his Father.
'Could you take them outside? There's a black horse tied to a tree outside the grounds. I'll meet you all back there, once I'm out of here…'
'My name is Rachel.' The girl answered, holding two children by the hand now.
'Rachel. Wait by the horse, try to hide nearby. Don't come out of your shelter unless you see me. There could be other people, friends of the Baron, out there.'
Rachel nodded once, before she started off again.
'Rachel… There are a lot of empty bed chambers around here. It's cold outside, so try to take as many blankets as you can outside.' The girl nodded, before she walked off again.
Star followed the directions she had managed to coerce out of the child-maid, before sending the girl after Rachel and her brother George. She didn't know what she was going to do with a bunch of children, but for now she didn't doubt they'd be better off outside than inside.
She wandered around the hallways, trying to ignore the growing multitude of doll parts arranged all over the place, arranged to look like children and mutilated bodies. When she came across a room with a decked table, she decided she must be on the right track. Traces of blood where on a stage in front of the room.
'This place is giving me the creeps…' she tried to mutter in a singsong voice, before realizing that the two actions were not as compatible as she had wanted them to be. How did Joker manage to come to this place, still thinking that 'Father' was a good person, a person he wanted to help. Finally finding the grand ornate steps she had been told to look for, she descended slowly. She thought she could hear talking from behind the doors.
She took a deep breath, slipping out her small knife as she pried the door open as little as possible. Once big enough for her to slip through, she did so. In an arena shaped hall, she could see Joker and the little Ciel Phantomhive listening to a man in a wheelchair. His imposing butler was the only one who noticed her arrival, casting her a quick wink as she entered. The man in the wheelchair was so engrossed with his speech that he didn't even see her descending the stairs so she could be near Joker.
She had wanted to start screaming at the man she loved the moment she stepped in. Until she saw how clearly he was being torn between a sense of doing the right thing, and doing that which he believed to be right. His smeared make-up betrayed he had been crying not much earlier.
With a step light as a cat, she snuck up closer, until she was only a few feet away from him.
Before she could take the last few steps as slowly as she had hoped to be able to, things started moving. Ciel pulled out a gun and shot the Baron without blinking. Joker froze for a moment, before pulling a knife that had been hidden in the prosthetic.
'Sebastian!' Ciel's voice rang through the air. The man clad in black took to Joker with a knife. Valentine decided in that instant that whatever Joker's crimes had been, she wanted him to live. She wanted him to live a happier life, where the lost lives would be remembered but not weighing him down forever.
'NO!' she screamed, rushing for Joker with outstretched hands. The man looked to the side, surprised to hear the voice of his lover in this place. That moment of confusion allowed Star to push him aside, trying at the same moment to ward of the butler.
A flash of pain seared through her left hand. At the moment it happened, she hardly noted it. Joker fell to the ground, underneath her. Dazed she brought her hand in front of her face.
The phalanx from both her little finger and ring finger had been severed, along with half of the top of her middle finger. She looked at her hand, vaguely wondering why she wasn't feeling more pain than this. She thought she could hear Joker say something to her, but she had trouble focusing on his face. After a few seconds she could make out what he was shouting.
'Star! Star! Don't faint, okay? Stay with me!' For a moment, everything around them was forgotten. Questions swam in his eyes, how she had gotten here, did she know everything, how angry was she? She brought up her bleeding hand to the side of his face, feeling woozy.
'You've been an idiot… I told you I was the smartest one of the two.' She forced a faint laugh when she said it.
'Stay still! It's goin' to be okay! Everythin'… Everythin' is goin' ta be fine!' he shouted in a panic.
She forced another laugh at his sudden distress. For some reason, the pain wasn't really all that bad. 'It's just a bit of my fingers… You lost a whole hand once… I'll live…'
Even as she said that, black was eating around the edges of her vision. She shook her head, willing them away. Joker wrapped her in his arms, sitting on his knees. She didn't think she would be able to move much just now.
'Don't kill 'im!' Joker shouted. He was pleading for the life of the man who had once saved him. As Star listened to his tale, she could understand his feelings. She wanted to tell him how it wasn't his fault, not all of it. He had been wrong, but he shouldn't torture himself this way.
Ciel spoke to him also. 'Why are you feeling bad? You have given everything for a dream you had. In this world there are two kinds of people, those who dream and those who take the dreams away. Right now, I am the one taking your dream away. It's your choice what you are going to do right now.'
When the Doctor suddenly burst in, she had hope for a faint moment. Until the man explained how he also was an accomplice of the Baron. When the Doctor spotted Star, he smiled for a short moment.
'If you're quiet and cooperate, Joker, I'll make sure to patch her right up. Maybe I'll give her some small prosthetics as well?'
'ARE WE NOTHING BUT TEST SUBJECTS FOR YOU?' Joker yelled at the man. Star fought to remain conscious as his hot tears fell on her face. She had to watch in horror as the Doctor killed a young girl on the altar, in front of their eyes. The sight made Ciel lose his mind, causing the boy to scream, ordering the butler to kill everyone.
The man obeyed his Lord at once, setting fire to the place. Star saw the Baron getting killed in front of her eyes. Joker's arms tightened around her, not wanting to let her go, but not wanting to let the Baron's death go unavenged either.
Star lifted her scarred hand once more, the last time she had it in her. 'Joker…'
Joker stared up at the face of the man he had once dubbed Black. The fire the man had started blazed the air around them, wildly tossing clothing and hair around. The little boy that had once smiled so wonderfully at him now looked upon him coldly. Star had gone limp in his arms, her bloodied hand falling away from his face.
'What will you do about your precious dream, Joker? Will you continue to cry, or will you grasp the last straw of light that has been granted to you?' the boy asked, as the tall man looked down upon the kneeling Joker with a light smile.
Joker followed the boy's gaze towards Star, feeling the weight of a decision bearing down on him. He looked at the face of his dead Father, frozen in a bizarre grin in his last moments. He could feel how the memories in his head demanded to be heard, could feel them tearing holes in his soul and resolve.
Star stirred in his arms. He looked down in surprise, grasped by a feeling of tenderness he had seldom felt before. Avenging Father would mean giving her up. Avenging Father's death would mean leaving her to die.
Tears streamed down his face once again as he thought about how to face this choice. The child kept looking down on him, seemingly undisturbed by the flames consuming the house.
'Will ye save her… if I were to die?' he asked, trying not to choke on the hot air. Soon she would have to be gotten out of the manor. Ciel narrowed his eyes at the question.
'I am allowing you to save her. That is the only chance she will have.' Joker sobbed, pressing his face against her head, burying himself in her hair.
'I choose her!'
|Outside the Manor|
As soon as Joker had made his decision, Sebastian walked his master out of the manor. He looked down at his master with a glance of surprise.
'Are you certain it is wise to let them live? There is a chance he will try to avenge his fallen comrades.'
Ciel avoided the look of the demon. 'I had no choice. To kill him was to kill her.'
'Have you grown to care for someone?' Sebastian sounded almost incredulous.
Ciel didn't look at the demon as he was being placed in the coach. 'She cared for me.' he muttered softly.
|A Year Later|
Joker watched over the graves of his fallen friends, as they were being covered by the snow. He had grown withdrawn in the past year, from Doll and George, even from Star. Every day he struggled with what he had done. Even now, he felt the urge to march over to the Phantomhive estate and demand some kind of retribution.
The only thing that stopped him was the thought of what Star would say. That, and the thought that his daughter would have to grow up without a father as he had done.
He slowly made the way back to the mansion. Star had taken over affairs as head of the house until her brother came of age. After that, he would manage the affairs of his mother's family, while she would continue as the only true heir of her father. Joker had become known around these parts as the new Lord, a title that felt strange every time someone pressed their knuckles against their forehead when greeting him.
He still felt chills when he realized that in saving Star out of the fire, he had also saved their child. The little Catherine had probably already been conceived in her mother's womb when he had carried Star out of the burning Kelvin mansion.
He felt guilty, about not being as close to Star as he had once been. But still, he could not bring himself to look in her eyes just yet. He shrunk away every time he passed George in the hallways, and couldn't think about what might have happened to Catherine, the daughter who was just now getting her first few tufts of bright red hair.
An man looked at him as he passed by. A huge grin showed on his face, as his long white hair fell down the front of his undertaker outfit.
'A look like that could scare death out of a corpse, young Lord.' The man said, with the undertone of a chuckle.
Joker said nothing, but kept walking. The man followed him, not breaking a sweat at the pace the redhead set.
'It's a shame, really. Too many people are worried about the dead folks, so worried that they forget the living.'
Joker glared back over his shoulder. 'What are ye talkin' about?'
How could he not think about poor Beast, who had died doing something Father had ordered them to? Should he forget about Dagger, who had died protecting the woman he loved? Obliterate the memory of the family he had once had?
'If you are so busy thinking about those who have passed on, you forget about the important ones that can heal you. Not completely, not immediately. But you have to allow the hurt to fade, Lord.'
Joker turned away, almost saddened by those words. 'Am I supposed to forget them then?'
The white-haired man smiled an incredibly large smile at that. 'No. You're supposed to remember the happy times you had with them, and cherish the happy days you have with your family right now.'
Joker turned around to say something else to the man, but saw nobody around him. He looked surprised, before trekking back home.
Once he arrived, the young woman called Rachel opened the door. He winced once when he saw her stern face fixed upon him.
'The ladies are upstairs, in the little one's bedroom.' She told him. She always told him where they were, even if he never went to see them. But this time the stranger's words seemed to echo in him, as he nodded once before walking up the ornate stairs.
He could hear Star softly singing a silly nursery rhyme to the baby. Sometimes George would join in, but mostly he was just muttering nonsense at his niece.
He looked inside the room. Star, dressed in a dark green gown, was standing at the window, looking out over the snowy landscape, probably trying to see where her husband had wandered off to. George stood next her, gazing at the baby adoringly. Further down the hallway the sound of the playing children that had been rescued from the burning mansion could be hear.
He walked towards her. She didn't move immediately towards him, but when he was close enough to lean against him, she did so. He looked over her shoulder to the hardly awake baby.
'You're back.' She said softly. He gazed down at her, for the first time in a long time seeing how beautiful she exactly was in his eyes. He took her left hand, the one that had been damaged in saving him, and pressed it against his cheek.
Her mouth formed a surprised 'o', before she smiled and pressed a kiss on his cheek. George surprised him by taking his other hand. He surprised them even more by not flinching away. And then Catherine opened her eyes to look at him with a crow of laughter. Her blue eyes were exactly like her mother's. Just like the smile on her face. He felt a little bit more healed, a bit more like a whole again. Perhaps the stranger had been right. It wasn't wrong to enjoy the life he had now. These were the people he had to treasure now, without restraints or regrets.
He leant his head against Star's, looking down on his small family.
'I'm back.'