A/N: Please understand before reading this, I have watched up until the 17th episode of the first season. I know only the most basic details concerning the antagonists in season two. I hope I have done them justice, all things considered. This idea came to me thanks to an image of Ciel fainting int his butler's outstretched arm.
A ~ indicates a shift in the perspective through which the narrative is told.
It was a disaster.
That much was certain.
The rest?
A blur.
Ciel saw precious little of the world around him as it began to spin; he could scarcely tell sky from ground. He barely kept his feet beneath him as the heavy fog in his mind grew thicker and thicker still. He could hear a shouting, a screaming really; hoarse and desperate. He was fairly sure the voice was his own. The young earl reached out blindly for something, anything with which to support himself.
He had chased down another loose cartel of drug traders, and sent Sebastian ahead to incapacitate them. They were rather beneath him, but Ciel had ample evidence that his young rival had been purchasing illegal substances from them. This could be a simple, tidy, legal way for the young earl to rid himself of the other boy at long last. After a good half hour, by his count, the warehouse had fallen silent, but his butler had failed to return.
"Sebastian!" He had hissed, stepping across the threshold. "Sebastian, come here!"
No one had answered. Further exploration had yielded no promising results, either. In fact, it wasn't until he had finished with the factory floor, strewn with the debris of the production line, and began to tour the offices on the second floor that he had found any trace of his servant. A shred of the fine silk of Sebastian's tie lay upon the catwalk, and Ciel snatched it up.
"Sebastian?" He had called, softly.
A door stood ajar.
The moment he had approached it, a dark blurred figure swept out of it, having been thrown backwards, into the metal railing at such a speed the catwalk began to shake.
Ciel grasped the railing, the flimsy piece of cloth drifting down into one of the large vats of unrefined product, still in its liquid state.
The figure straightened up, revealing himself to be none other than Claude Faustus, the demon in the employ of Alois.
"Claude," Ciel spat, "I knew your master was involved in this."
His rival's servant had no time to reply, however, as Sebastian rushed at him from within the office, and shoved him over the railing with a well placed kick.
Claude, however, had other plans. He had gripped the railing and twisted off of it, landing lightly on the rim of the vat. Then he eyed Ciel, almost thoughtfully.
Sebastian had caught the look, and gathered his master in his arms, carrying him away whilst the wall behind him was peppered with throwing knives.
"My lord, I suggest you make a hasty exit. The carriage is reasonably far safer than here," his butler had instructed, before setting him down at the top of the metal staircase and turning to catch yet another blade that had been whipped at him.
Ciel stood, raising a brow as Sebastian sped back down the catwalk to leap over the rail and confront Claude once more.
If he did not find the paperwork necessary to link Alois with this mess, he would have come all this way for nothing. He sidled along the wall, ducking beneath the knives embedded in the wooden posts and tin siding of the warehouse. He ducked into the office, and began scouring the pages and folders that had been strewn about. Clearly, Claude had been here to steal or destroy the very evidence Ciel had come to collect. Drawer after drawer had been full of falsified transaction records for legal herbs and spices, obviously forgeries. That would help close down the warehouse and allow for a thorough investigation on the part of Scotland Yard, at least into the lives of the individuals who worked here. But what could tie Trancy into all of this?
Suddenly, one of the demons crashed through the wall to Ciel's right, and he snatched up all of the documents he could carry, dashing out of the room and around the corner.
"No, no, no, young Phantomhive," Claude's smooth, deep voice came from behind him. "Do not run."
Ciel paid him no heed as he hurried along the catwalk, albeit further from the exit rather than towards it.
"I warned you," Claude said softly, immediately on the boy's heels.
Ciel whirled around, gripping the papers tightly, and came face to face with the demon. "What did Alois command of you? Why are you here?"
"Am I meant to answer to the Queen's guard dog?" He replied, his face twisting into a sneer.
"You will show my master the respect an Earl of Phantomhive warrants," Sebastian spoke calmly, approaching at a casual pace.
Claude grimaced, and before the boy had been certain of what was going on, seized Ciel by the back of his coat collar.
"How fast do you think you are?" Trancy's butler taunted his opponent.
"As fast as my lord requires me to be." Sebastian had not flinched.
"Is that so?" The other demon inquired, brandishing a file folder with his free hand. He had withdrawn it from inside his waistcoat, Ciel had noticed, but he could not have reached it. Claude thrust him over the edge of the catwalk, dangling him above a vat of the foul smelling green liquid. "Very well then."
"Sebastian, I order you to retrieve those files," Ciel had commanded, and watched as Claude's smug grin turned into a look of triumph as he released his grip on the young boy's collar.
Ciel remembered refusing to scream as he fell; refusing to force Sebastian to abandon his objective. Sebastian would save him before he had a chance to drown.
~~~
It was an order. There was only one instance in which he was allowed to violate a direct order such as this, and Claude knew it.
He lunged for the folder and tore a few papers from it before the other demon sped off, presumably back to his wretched weasel of a master. The young lord, he noted, did not scream. Whether trying to be brave or simply forgetting, Sebastian took it as a sign of resignation. He dove swiftly over the rail and into the vat, scooping the boy up and propelling the pair of them to the surface. He was not breathing.
The butler leapt from the edge of the vat and landed deftly on the concrete floor, the air disturbed by his movement creating a clear space, devoid of dust and other pathogens. He laid his master down, and after a few tense, silent moments of applying gentle pressure to the young lord's chest, the boy began to cough up the liquid.
If Sebastian had required air, he would have chosen that moment to utter a sigh of relief.
~~~
As soon as his mouth had ceased burning due to the mixture of bile and whatever acidic compound from which the drugs were made, Ciel doubled over on his hands and knees, dragging great heaving breaths of air into his lungs. He stood up slowly, and had begun to search for the exit once more, before he noticed the walls beginning to shift and waver, drifting closer to him.
Suddenly, he was surrounded by strange metal trees that towered to the ceiling, and patches of snow and fallen logs littered the floor. One reached up to grab him, and he exclaimed in surprise, while the shadows all about the place began to alter, closing in on him as well. They were all after him, a plethora of dark, shapeless forms that seemed to want to confine him, drag him to the ground. Ciel found that he had to drag himself to his feet, over and over again, as pale, white hands reached for him every way that he turned. His limbs were made of lead, and it was the greatest effort to draw his hands over his ears, in an effort to drown out the sounds that were trying to speak to him, tell him things he didn't understand.
~~~
Sebastian could only watch as his master traipsed around, staring in awe and horror at the vats, then turning his gaze up, into the rafters. He whirled about, frantic for an escape of some kind. It was apparent he was seeing something the demon could not. The young lord tripped over a number of the corpses Sebastian had left in his wake, and he grimaced, recalling the 'Jack the Ripper' fiasco. He rushed to his master's side, but the young earl refused to accept his hands. Obviously the unrefined version of the product in this warehouse was a very powerful hallucinogenic. For the life of him, he didn't seem able to hold still. His young master continued to try and run away from him, shouting and sputtering halves of sentences and bits of words all the while. Then with a disgusted cry, the boy put his hands over his ears, and backed himself into a corner.
~~~
At last, a single shadow creature stepped forward, its white hands floating around in the smokey substance of its body. Ciel could not do anything to ward it off, and instead began calling for his butler, shouting for his servant to come destroy the monster before him. Then, he could hear nothing. Silence pressed in on his ears, muffling his own screams and the strange babbling that came from the beast. He closed his eyes, waiting to be devoured.
~~~
"Sebastian! Sebastian, destroy it!" The child screamed, over and over, writhing on the floor.
He approached, anxiety beginning to crease his brow. "Master, I am here. Please calm down. My lord, do you recognize me?"
The boy continued to cry out for him, apparently oblivious to the world around him.
After a few futile attempts at catching the young earl's attention, the demon snatched his wrists and held him still against the wall.
"Master," he said softly, as the boy resorted to whimpering. His pupil was wide, a dark pool, surrounded by a thin ring of cobalt blue as his eye darted around. No doubt he envisioned some horrid monstrosity bearing down on him. The butler almost smiled at the thought. "Listen to me, my lord. Can you hear me?"
"Sebastian, help," Ciel murmured, closing his eye.
The demon set his jaw and drew both of the young lord's wrists into one hand. He then removed his master's eye patch. "I am here, my young master. I will always be here." He brushed his pale lips over the boy's eyelid, and all at once, he ceased shuddering.
"Sebastian...?" Ciel mumbled, his eyes half-lidded.
"Yes, my young lord."