:::7:::

It was a busy mid-morning in Trafalgar Square as Warren and Margaret sat on a bench just in front of the large fountain, unassumingly keeping an eye out for the dark haired woman that was their quarry. Margaret was visibly nervous, her movements were jittery and she kept looking around with a very anxious face.

Warren clasped his hand over hers in an effort to calm her. If he was being honest, he wasn't exactly calm himself. The lingering feeling at the back of his mind that something was going to go wrong today still stood and it was eating away at his usual bravado and confidence. He knew that this was the first part of the plan. To succeed Margaret had to be herself.

"You should not worry Margaret you will be fine. The woman does not know who you are and she will simply assume that you are a tourist from the North who wishes to know more about the city." Warren inhaled deeply from his cigarette. "Just be your usual wonderful self and everything will be fine." He squeezed her hand and looked at her with a pristine mask of complete composure.

Margaret turned her body to face his. "I have no idea how you and Ceceila do this Warren, just sitting here waiting- it is so stressful, it wracks my nerves to think what is going to happen."

Warren laughed. "It is indeed stressful, why do you think I smoke so much." His smile seemed to put her at ease a little and she turned around.

They were both silent for a while as they kept their eyes peeled for Crippen's lover. The square was busy with many women. Most were walking together perhaps talking of commonplace and trivial topics and there were mothers pushing their babies in baby carriages, completely oblivious to the horror that lay just under the surface of this city.

"Thank you." Margaret's voice was soft.

"Whatever for?" Warren said puzzled.

"For not treating me like a silly little girl. You have been honest with me Warren. You have told me what you and your family are and I appreciate that honesty, truly, I am glad that I can help you in some way even if it is small." She cast him a small, but genuine, smile.

"You're welcome." Warren said, but the words tasted bitter in his mouth. The work his family did was grim, it was not something that a girl like Margaret should ever be thanking him for, but despite this he smiled in return even if the smile did not reach his eyes.

Suddenly his peripheral vision caught sight of a dark-haired woman walking quickly toward a newspaper seller. She was dressed in a stripped maroon and dark purple dress and her thick dark brown hair was tied neatly in a bun with an elaborate hat on top.

"There, that's her." Warren pointed her out discreetly to Margaret and she nodded.

She casually made her way over to the seller and the woman and effortlessly started conversation with her. Warren watched on as he thought the woman would try and brush her off, but after Margaret said something that made her laugh, the two women walked together around the square fitting in perfectly with all the other people there. Warren smiled to himself in triumph, maybe today would go well and that feeling he had was just unnecessary anxiety. Margaret was doing fine, she was indeed stronger than he gave her credit for. He figured that she would distract Crippen's lover long enough for Ceceila to do… well, what she needed to do.

Across Town

Ceceila waked down the back alleys of the east end keeping a quick pace with her mission in mind and despite her unusual appearance she was not getting any odd looks. She was dressed as a boy, wearing ragged trousers and a worn white shirt with the sleeves rolled up and haphazardly tucked into the front of her breaches. Her long black hair was pulled up and tucked under a flat cap and she wore scruffy brown boots instead of her usual neat black healed ones. She looked entirely androgynous, but the man behind her definitely stood out, Ceceila did not understand why he had not at least tried to change his clothing to better fit in.

"You seem quiet little one are you nervous?"

Ceceila could hear the smirk in his voice. "No, I just do not want to draw attention to ourselves. " She paused as she backed against a wall and stealthily peered around its corner. "Which is why I told you to change your clothing."

Sebastian chuckled "My dear no one will pay any attention to me, they do not even realise I am here, and might I enquire as to why you are spying around that corner like some weasel policeman?"

"The entrance to where Crippen has been staying is here, he is on the top floor and there is only one way in." Ceceila stated in her dry monotone.

He leaned down to her ear and placed his hand on her shoulder. "There is always more than one way in, you need only think about what is impossible for those unlike us."

Ceceila turned back from around the corner and stared straight ahead at the wall opposite. She was not entirely sure what he meant, but she figured he was implying there was another way into the building. How? She walked over to the opposite wall, turned and looked up. It was at least nine stories high, but as she inspected the wall closer she noticed small wooden prongs sticking out of the sides, dotted randomly all the way up and as her eyes reached the top she saw a small open window. Crippen was hiding out on the top floor, so, that was her way in.

Ceceila tried to jump to reach the nearest prong but it was too high, she tried again stopping only when the occasional person passed. Sebastian leaned against the wall watching her with ardent fascination on his face, and every time she jumped his smirk grew more amused.

"You are thinking as a human would, a human would jump, trying to grab the prong and pull themselves up, but we are not human are we." He moved over to stand next to her. "You must feel through your being, reach down into your centre and then use what your find there to propel yourself up onto the prong, do not merely grab it, jump onto it."

Sebastian followed this explanation by jumping on all the prongs in rapid succession and landing with complete finesse in the roof of the building, after which he straightened his waistcoat and checked his pocket watch.

"You had best be quick little one, I doubt that simpering little brunette can keep your killer's companion occupied for long." He shouted down.

Ceceila closed her eyes and took a deep breath she tried to focus on what Sebastian had said about reaching into herself, and she when she did, she found rage. Rage at her mother for not telling her what she was, rage at her brother for never fully understanding her, rage at the Sinclair girl for being too nice for her own good, and rage at herself for not realising sooner that she was more powerful than them all.

She opened her eyes looked at the prong and jumped. She landed elegantly on top of it with perfect balance; she then jumped to the next one with exactly the same grace. She did exactly what Sebastian had done only instead of landing on the roof she neatly propelled herself feet first through the open window and landed on the floor in a crouch. In an absent minded thought she reminded herself of a cat. She stood up and looked around the room it was empty and she heard no noises coming from the rest of the flat. She quietly manoeuvred her way around the rooms (of which there were 3) and found them all empty. This was wrong. Crippen's schedule had been like clockwork for the last few weeks he was always here at this time, why would he not be here? Frantically Ceceila searched the place several more times looking for some sort of clue as to where he would be. Upon arriving back into the room she first entered, she found Sebastian standing there.

"Something amiss little one?" Sebastian said coolly.

"He is not here." Even to Ceceila her voice sounded panicked and her usual blank expression was nowhere to be seen.

"Oh dear, where ever could he be, I do hope he has not made his way to his death room of grizzly corpses, that would be unfortunate. The poor young master would most likely get caught in the cross fire if that was indeed the case." Sebastian said with a frown that held no real concern.

Horror pinned Ceceila to the spot when she realised that Warren was walking straight into the clutches of Crippen and she was not going to be there to protect him. She looked to Sebastian with a helplessness she had never felt before.

"What do I do?" she was troubled. Ceceila was not the brains, when it came to the watch dog work she merely followed her Mother and Warren's orders and because of the argument this morning Warren had not provided her with a back up plan should things go wrong.

"Do not concern yourself with your brother little one, I do believe he is capable of taking down Dr. Crippen and his companion on his own. He will be fine."

"No! He will not be fine! Warren had never killed anyone before, he is not strong and he is a terrible fighter, we need to find him now." With this she jumped out of the window and down onto the street heading straight for Trafalgar square. With any luck Margaret was still distracting Crippen's lover and she would be able to stop Warren from following her.

Sebastian sighed; his little raven's love for her sibling was getting in the way of progress. Oh well hopefully after today's events unfolded in their entirety, that unbreakable bond between twins would start to crack. His form shifted and smoked as he vanished from the room to his child's side and he watched in displeasure as she ran, the strong feelings she had for her brother radiating around her chaos.

He was on his 9th cigarette. His excuse: this was a tense situation. Warren's eyes were tightly trained on the dark haired woman and Margaret, well, so far so good. Margaret had kept the woman busy for a good 30 minutes she just needed to keep it up a little longer and then he would follow her. Wait. Why was she leaving, no, keep talking to her! Warren saw the dark haired woman stand and make her way across the square heading towards the river, Margaret rushed over.

"I tried ahm sorry I couldnae keep her-" Warren cut off Margaret's thick Scottish ramblings and grabbed her by the shoulders.

"You did well, I do not doubt Ceceila will have completed her mission by now. Go back to the townhouse and wait for me there I will follow this woman to the riverside location. Go." He let go of her and walked quickly in the direction the woman went.

He soon caught her up, her hat was easy to spot in a crowd. Warren followed her through the main streets, but he had to back up several times when she started to make twists and turns down alleyways, it was becoming harder to not be noticed with the lack of people here and the fact that it was broad daylight. Usually he and Ceceila worked in darkness and as such it was easy to be stealthy, but here in the harsh light of day stealth was not something he could use so easily.

The woman made a right turn and Warren almost turned the same corner she did before stopping and peering around it. It led out into an open courtyard with several large shipping warehouses. He watched as she slid open the side door of warehouse 4. So it was that one. They had intel that Crippen was keeping his trophies down at the riverside docks but they were not sure which warehouse had been used as storage, now however he had her in his grasp. His plan had worked perfectly.

He sidled along keeping tight to the wall and stopped just shy of the side door. Warren took out his revolver and checked it was loaded, he knew he would not have to use it. He was certain that when confronted with a gun to her person she would give up. He quietly opened the side door and moved to the inside. She was talking to someone; Warren's heart sped up. No one else was meant to be here, he crouched down behind some crates to see if he could listen further. He heard 2 pairs of footsteps coming towards the main area and an unmistakable American accent.

"We need to move all this and fast, word is that Scotland Yard knows we're here and are coming soon." Dr Crippen's American drawl was low and displeased.

"That's impossible, how would the bloody pigs know where we are, they don't know nuffin'." The woman had a nasal East London accent and she sounded equally aggravated.

"Don't you worry your pretty little head sweetheart, I have my sources. Of which I would be dead without. And it's not the pigs we have to really worry about, no; it's the so-called 'watchdog of the King.' He had planned to put a bullet in me today, but luckily I was tipped off this morning so all's well and good. But we really need to get moving. C'mon."

So that's why he was not dead, someone had betrayed them. The only people who had known of Crippen's location had been Ceceila, his mother and himself. The information was kept in files under lock and key and Warren was willing to bet money that the unscrupulous butler had no problem stealing that information and turning traitor. And now Ceceila was with said butler. Oh he hoped she figured his game out quickly and gave him a piece of her mind.

Crippen started to move towards were Warren was hiding and he realised he needed to move, but as he did his foot caught on a rope and he knocked over a crate creating a loud crash.

"What the hell?!" Crippen said as he pulled out his gun.

Warren had no choice now, escape was no longer an option. He moved around from the crates his face hard and tone deadly serious. He pointed the gun at Crippen.

"By the orders of his majesty King Edward VII, I, Warren Phantomhive the watchdog of-"

Bang.

"Ah!" Warren fell to the ground in pain, clutching the calf in his right leg his gun lying forgotten to his left hand side. He groaned as he rolled to his left reaching for his gun but it was kicked away before he could reach it.

Crippen laughed. "Word of advice kiddo, if your going to shoot someone just shut your god damn mouth and shoot them." He tuned his head. "Lysa! Fetch a chair, some rope, and my surgical kit. I think I will have some fun with…Warren was it? Warren Phantomhive?" he grabbed Warren by the chin and punched him in the head proceeding to knock him out cold.

The townhouse door burst open at inhuman speed and Ceceila immediately sought out Miss Sinclair, Sebastian was only a few paces behind her.

"Ceceila, what is wrong?" she was grabbed by Ceceila in a vice grip "Ow, be careful your hurting me!"

"Where is Warren! Where is he!" she was frantic her usually well-guarded expression was wild and untempered.

"He followed after the woman, Ceceila let go of me." Margaret tried to free herself from the young Phantomhive's grip to no avail.

Ceceila let go of the girl, she had lost her hat at some point and her long black hair was a mess as she pushed her hand through her hair in an attempt to keep it out of her face.

"Is Warren in trouble?" Margaret asked Ceceila anxiously. It was not however Ceceila that answered.

"Most likely he is in dire trouble and I fear what should befall the young master if we do not find him soon. The good doctor was not at home when my young mistress went to 'take care' of him so I can only presume he is where our young master is." Sebastian's lips quirked up into his signature smirk.

"And you find this funny do you?" Margaret snapped at Sebastian before turning to a frantic Ceceila and taking her hands gently in her own. "Listen to me, Warren headed in the direction of the riverside warehouses east of Trafalgar Square, which means he is most likely in one of those buildings. It would make sense for Dr Crippen to keep his…souvenirs in a place like that, so all we have to do is find him before Crippen does. Alright?"

Ceceila's obsidian eyes were filled with unshed tears and Margaret could feel the black haired girls hands shaking in her own. She was blaming herself for this.

Margaret continued. "Warren is smart, if he cannot fight his way out I am sure he will be able to talk his way out. Now come, let us go." Margaret led Ceceila out of the townhouse by the hand never letting go for fear that she would run away.

Sebastian scoffed at the little whelp's optimism, that boy would never be the same after today. He went to follow after them but was stopped.

"You will stay here Mr. Michaelis, your snide remarks and comments are unhelpful and not what she needs at this moment, so…you will stay here." The brown haired Scot stared directly at him her gaze full of fear yet unwavering. She was indeed brave.

"Very well Miss Sinclair, enjoy your excursion." He waved her goodbye as she quickly left to help find the blue-eyed brat.

Warren came to with a thumping pain in his head and a sharp pain in his leg accompanied by liquid warmth, oh yes now he remembered, he had been shot. He tried to reach for his head but realised his arms were tied behind his back and his legs secured to the chair he was sitting on.

"Well, well, well look who finally decided to wake up" Dr. Crippen had a demented smile on his face that was full of malevolent glee. "I was worried I had hit you too hard on your coconut, lucky me right?"

"You are making a huge mistake, you clearly do not know who I am or you would not be taking such liberties with my well being." He poured as much venom as he could into his words.

"Of course I know who you are, you introduced yourself, you're Warren Phantomhive the watchdog of the King and if I am not mistaken you were the one who was going to kill me today. Shame your plan did not quite work out" he said sarcastically.

"How did you know I was after you?" Warren said. According to his profile Crippen was a narcissist so of course he would like the sound of his own voice, if he could keep him talking for long enough, hopefully, Ceceila would realise something was wrong or Scotland Yard would show up. Right now he would take either.

"One of my many sources told me this morning. Told me you planned to come to Lysa's flat where I had been staying and kill me straight out." He lifted a leather doctor's case and placed it on the table beside him. "I must thank him if I see him again. He did me quite the favour."

Warren's eyes darted to the case, whatever was in there it was not good news for him. Keep him talking, he just needed to keep him talking.

"Scotland Yard are on their way, it will not be long before they arrive, so it would be sensible if you just let me go, that way you could escape before they arrive. No one has to get hurt." He said. He added a half hearted smile for good measure, perhaps he could charm him.

"Funny you should say that 'Warren Phantomhive', because not 10 minutes ago you tried to shoot me, so I would say someone does need to get hurt, and it ain't gonna be me." His American accent became more pronounced as he delicately removed various surgical tools from his case and set them down next to his bag with great care.

"You do not have to hurt me, we can settle this like gentlemen. You are an educated man, a doctor, so you are obviously intelligent. How about we come to an agreement, you let me go and I will facilitate your escape back to the United States." Warren kept looking at the instruments as the Doctor carefully laid them out one by one. Crippen did not respond, but instead started humming a tune to himself and that's when Warren really started to panic.

This man was insane he had killed over 17 people that they knew about, only when hell froze over would he listen to reason. Frantically he tried to think of a way out, goading him would not work, neither it appeared would charming him and he did not have his gun, but, he did have his knife. It was tucked up his sleeve. He tried as hard as he could to free one of his hands to grab it but the ropes were too tight. He kept trying and trying as he saw Dr. Crippen lift a peculiar metal instrument with scissor like handles and several hooked prongs at the end from his case. As he moved closer Warren started to squirm to get as far away from this lunatic as possible, if only he could reach his knife, his wrists were bleeding with the friction from the ropes, but right now bleeding wrist were the least of his problems.

"I made this instrument myself, what do you think? Beautiful is it not? It makes extraction cleaner and easier, there's less chance of the subject dying from blood loss." He smiled and polished the chilling looking apparatus with a handkerchief.

Dr. Crippen moved the instrument so that it was cool against Warren's skin and Warren turned his head away and closed his eyes tight shut.

"Tut tut Warren Phantomhive, you have to keep your eyes open, Lysa, help our subject keep his eyes open. You need to see."

Lysa moved to stand behind Warren and she held his eyes open forcing him to look at the unhinged man in front of him.

"Please, no, you do not have to do this, please, please just let me go, I will give you anything you want. Please!" he felt tears run down his cheeks, as he knew what was about to happen to him.

Crippen laughed "But I have exactly what I want right here."

There was a metal click and suddenly the screams of the young watchdog echoed through the large warehouse, followed only by the sound of insane laughter.

A/N

Yea, cliffhanger, you can blame NaNoWriMo for my frequent updates, I hate losing. Please follow, favourite and review. Peace.