However, when he was finally able to raise himself back upright once more, Jonathan found himself glowing with some kind of strange energy. Looking up as he heard the troubling sound of someone gagging and choking on water, he caught sight of Alice holding what seemed to be a ball of slush. He'd only a moment to wonder just where in the world she had gotten such a thing, before she threw the slush-ball at Mr. Zeppeli's face.

The slush melted quickly back into water, and when Mr. Zeppeli tried to breathe in again, he only spluttered and coughed as the water on his face was drawn inside.

"Jojo!" Turning at the sound of his brother's voice, Jonathan found Dio staring at him with a clear expression of perplexity. "What in hell did that bastard do to you?"

Lifting his hand, the appendage still crackling with otherworldly energies, Jonathan watched in horror as Dio merely brushing the tips of his fingers against Jonathan's own hand caused his brother to leap backwards with a brief scream, clutching at his hand. Able only to stare in mute, helpless terror as the three fingers that Dio had touched his flesh with disintegrated into delicate ashes, Jonathan felt warm tears begin to slide down his cheeks. Dio's expression of shock as he stared at his maimed hand was burned into his memory, and Jonathan looked in despair at his hands.

The otherworldly energies had faded, but that was hardly a comfort considering what had happened when he'd been offered the merest of touches by his brother. He felt awful; the knowledge that he would never again be able to embrace his siblings at the end of a long day, nor offer them the comfort of a shoulder to lean on. Composing himself as swiftly as he could manage, Jonathan made for the tall, white-suited form of William Zeppeli.

Alice had once more wrestled him into submission, this time with her legs firmly wrapped around the man's midsection, clearly crushing the air from his lungs whenever he chanced to breathe out.

The feeling of a heavy coat being tossed over him drew Jonathan's attention back to Dio. There was an expression of determined indifference on his and Alice's brother's face, but Jonathan could still clearly see the lines of tension and pain not-so-well-hidden by such a thing. It only made him all the more determined, here and now, to find out just what Mr. Zeppeli had done to him.

And, if such a thing could be reversed; he'd no wish to be deprived of the comforting touch of his siblings' hands forever.

"Mr. Zeppeli," he said sadly, making his way to a point just beyond the reach of the man's arms if he were to somehow escape the hold that Alice had him entrapped in. "I suspect that I was not nearly so diligent in finding out why you wished to meet my siblings. Still, I cannot forgive your attempts to murder members of my family. If I ask my sister to release you, will you swear to leave our home, and never return?" Yelping as something small and fast knocked against the back of his head, Jonathan turned to see Dio making his way back into the salon after having left so quickly.

=PB=

"Jojo, are you determined to see this man kill us?" he demanded; truly, anyone with eyes could see that this Zeppeli would only continue to attack them if he was given the chance to worm his way free from his sweet sister's grasp.

"Dio, you've recovered. Thank God," Jojo said, all but sobbing in relief as he wrapped the coat Dio had lent him tighter around his shoulders.

"You haven't answered my question, Jojo," he said, wishing for a moment that he could have given their adorable fool of a brother a thump upside the head; truly, there were times when his foolishness could be far more troublesome than adorable.

"I've no wish to see anyone die today," Jojo said, his firm tone not quite matching the lingering uncertainty in his eyes.

"Well then, you should probably close your eyes," his dear Alice said in a flatly amused tone, before he, Dio, could have expressed that selfsame sentiment.

"That was not what I meant, Alice," Jojo said, turning his imploring gaze upon his sweet sister; Dio shook his head, exasperated.

Before any of them could say anything more, however, Zeppeli threw himself to the floor. His sweet sister, who had braced herself against most of the directions that the human might have attempted to dodge, was thrown to the floor as the pair of them toppled over. His dear Alice wrapped her legs more tightly around Zeppeli's chest, but somehow – from some reserve of strength that he, Dio, hadn't thought humans besides Jojo possessed – the man flipped the pair of them over. His sweet sister was able to brace her hands against the floor before Zeppeli could slam her head into it, but somehow or other that aggravating human managed to thrash and squirm his way free.

The man breathed deeply, aiming to drive his now-glowing fist into her body, but the sight of his sweet sister flicking her ears in a distinctly catlike manner brought a grin of sheer satisfaction to his face. Dashing over to Jojo's side, he leaned in just enough so that his voice would only carry to Jojo.

"Cover your ears, Jojo."

"Dio, what-"

"Urrrrrrrrrrryyyyy!"

Watching in supreme satisfaction as Zeppeli stumbled and staggered under the sheer force of sound his sweet sister had unleashed upon him, Dio leaped to her side. Taking only a moment to savor the sight of that bastard Zeppeli with blood streaming from his eyes and ears, Dio firmed his throat and breathed deeply.

"Wrrrrrrryyyyy!"

=PB=

With his hands pressed flat over his ears, Jonathan clenched his teeth as he struggled to move back from the section of the salon that was swiftly becoming a battleground. His brain seemed to rattle inside his skull from the terrible noise; in some ways it was a relief, knowing that his siblings had developed ways to protect themselves from anyone who might seek to harm them, but Jonathan still wished – if only for a moment – that the pair of them had not been forced to resort to such a thing. Foremost in his mind, of course, was the simple fact that someone – either one of the many servants who worked inside their home, or possibly even Father or Dio and Alice's mother themselves – was bound to hear the sounds of combat even at such a distance, and Jonathan had no clear way of knowing just what Mr. Zeppeli would be willing to do to them in order to get at his dear siblings.

However, as though in response to his very thoughts, Dio and Alice turned and fled through the large window set in the rightmost corner of the salon.

He wished that the pair of them had not been forced into such a drastic course of action, but even as he wept for the loss of his siblings, Jonathan Joestar levered himself back to his feet so that he could face Mr. Zeppeli head-on. The man was just raising himself back to his own feet, and Jonathan found himself pleased by that, since he'd had no desire to assault the man when he was down; no true gentleman would do such a thing, he knew. Tying Dio's coat around his shoulders – the closest he could still have to an embrace from either of his dear, lost siblings – Jonathan drove himself forward, right fist extended for a knock-out blow.

Finding himself blocked by the man's outstretched right hand, Jonathan reacted slightly too slowly to keep himself from being caught by the man's strong, unyielding grasp. Feeling the crackle of that same, otherworldly power into his head and down through the rest of his body, Jonathan tried to leap backwards but found himself still harshly restrained by Mr. Zeppeli's grasp. The energies that crackled through his body were not painful in the slightest, but Jonathan clenched his teeth against the knowledge of what they were doing to him.

Clutching the sleeves of Dio's coat like a talisman, Jonathan could only pray that his dear siblings would be able to find somewhere safe to stay.

=PB=

Dashing up the side of a nearby tree, she paused for a moment to let Dio catch up. He wasn't quite as prepared to switch from the comparatively simple rooftop-style of Parkour to one that was more suited to running through the small forest that bordered the large estate, but he was getting better, all the same.

"Good thing you still have people taking care of that house you bought," she mused aloud for both their benefits, as Dio perched on a branch just to her left.

"I hadn't thought to be forced out of our home," Dio said, fangs showing as he ground his teeth, but he only sighed, running his tongue over them in what she recognized as her own habitual gesture of annoyance. "Still, Jojo would hardly have approved of our plans, if he'd been given the chance to find out about them."

She chuckled softly. "Who knows; we've got all the time in the world, brother mine. We can figure something out."

Dio's own chuckle echoed behind her as she moved out through the trees, the both of them on their way to the empty mansion that Dio had secured for them.

She'd asked him jokingly if he'd eaten the people who'd lived there before them, but the only scents of living humans she'd been able to detect were old and nearly covered by the scents of musty wood, dust, and the various kinds of crap left behind by every small animal that seemed entirely too eager to move into any abandoned building they could find. Still, the rats and mice had at least attracted a family of barn owls.

She and Dio, though mostly her since she had the patience for those kinds of things, had tamed them and then begun training them to respond to commands. She'd never been one for falconry before, but a lot of that had been due to a lack of time on her part, and the fact that even a pedigreed Siberian Husky like her old Sub-Zero had been easier to have as a pet than any kind of bird of prey back in California.

Dio, for his part, had been fascinated by the sheer silence of their owls as they swooped down on their prey. Even to vampire senses those things were quiet; there were times she found herself wondering just what a human would have been able to hear in the recently-renovated mansion she and Dio had been in and out of before they were forced to move in by some jerkass Italian with a severe hate-boner for vampires. It hadn't been something she'd expected, but in hindsight it was pretty obvious that if vampires were a thing in this world as they seemed to be, then it stood to reason that vampire hunters would arise, too.

"Simon," she called, holding out her right wrist for the owl to land on.

She'd originally suggested the names Simon and Garfunkle for the breeding pair of owls living in their attic as something of a joke; something that was both part and parcel of her old life, and also something that would fit with the "everything must be music references" setup that seemed to be going on. Dio, however, had been entirely in favor of the names, which given the fact that one of the vampires he'd sired to take care of their house was named Cobain, was pretty much to be expected.

"Come on, Simon," she called, smiling as the male owl of the pair swooped over to alight on her right wrist. "There's a good boy."

"Welcome back, Mistress," Cobain said, coming over to take her coat.

"Evening, Cobain," she said, smiling at her fellow vampire – still a weird thought, even after a couple weeks spent with the other woman – as Simon hopped and fluttered up to her left shoulder. "How are things?"

"Well enough, Mistress," Cobain said, smiling in that amused way she had; it really seemed like being a vampire had been good for her, since she hadn't seemed particularly happy as a human. Of course, considering both the country and the era… Well, she could hardly blame Cobain for the sentiment. "It's a nice, quiet place you've picked out. Still, it's a long way to market from here."

"Don't I know it," she said, leaning over to one of the heavily-curtained windows so she could get a look at the sky; her circadian rhythms had been thrown all to shit by the fact that she no longer actually needed to sleep, so she couldn't rely on it anymore to tell her what time it was.

She'd had a pocket watch, of course, but what with needing to haul ass out of the Joestar estate as quickly as they had, it was still merrily ticking away in the top drawer of her nightstand back in her old room. Sighing in annoyance, both for the loss of her property and for the fact that she could see the first hints of dawn just beginning to creep over the horizon, she turned back to Cobain.

"It'll be dawn soon," she said, reaching up to gently stroke Simon's head. "Best find somewhere to spend the day."

"Of course, Mistress," Cobain said, smiling softly as she bowed.

Turning to make her way to her room, she heard Cobain's fading footfalls as the other woman made her way to wherever she was going to be staying for the night. If the other woman were going to stay anywhere, as opposed to rambling through the house the way she'd sometimes do if there was a particular thought on her mind that she wanted to chase down. Gently stroking the soft feathers on Simon's chest as she headed up the stairs to her room, she heard the distinct pattern of Dio's footfalls and chuckled softly.

"Morning, brother dear," she said, feeling her twin's arms sliding around her neck; Simon having hopped back down to her right wrist when the pair of them had heard Dio coming.

"Good morning, my sweet sister," Dio said, and she could feel his cool breath on the back of her neck as he leaned in for a kiss.

Opening the door to her room, she released Simon and watched the owl swoop over to the perch she'd set up for him and Garfunkle when one of their two full-grown owls stayed in her room. Dio, as was his usual habit by now, followed her into her room. She took a moment to be grateful for the fact that, not needing to actually sleep anymore and all, she was no longer a chronic shifter the way she'd been in both of her lifetimes. Otherwise, she'd have ended up having to remove her clothes so as not to risk getting tangled up in all the layers of fabric that the people in this era still wore.

And, with Dio wanting to be so much more close, lately… yeah, no.

As she and Dio curled up together on the bed, her closing her eyes just as Dio had begun to arrange their heads to his liking, her thoughts turned inward again. She'd lived nineteen years of her current life, as opposed to the fifteen she'd had of her former one, and it had long since become obvious that she wasn't remotely likely to find a way back; really, it was past time she'd stopped living "caught between" like this. With that thought firmly in mind, Alice Brando relaxed herself into a state of vampiric torpor, and drifted off.

=PB=

When he'd awakened, tucked neatly in his bed, Jonathan's first hopeful thought was that the events of the previous evening had just been a horrible dream. Even Dio's coat, folded neatly atop his nightstand, didn't deter him from dressing up so that he could make his way down the corridor to his brother's room. Holding Dio's coat close, intending to return the garment to his brother when the two of them were able to speak once more. Pausing before his brother's door, Jonathan took a moment to gather himself before making his way in; he would, of course, apologize to his brother for being so brazen after they had had the chance to speak.

"Jojo."

"Father," he paused, seeing the troubled expression on the man's face. "What is it?"

"Come down to the salon," Father said gently, the troubled expression on his face transforming into something more kindly. "We will discus things further there."

"I truly should return Dio's coat," he said, looking again toward his brother's now-open door.

Father sighed, bringing Jonathan's attention right back to the man. "Jojo, please do not make this any more difficult than it must be."

Shuddering as he held Dio's coat close – he'd wanted so much for what had occurred last night to have to have been merely a terrible dream – Jonathan gathered himself and wordlessly fell into step with Father as the pair of them made their way down to the salon in the eastern wing; the western one likely still being set to rights, after… Jonathan bit his lower lip, tears welling in his eyes as he was forced to confront the truth of what had happened the previous night. If only it had been a dream…

When he found Mrs. Charlena Brando sitting down on a large divan, wringing her hands on a handkerchief that she was also using to dab tears from her eyes, Jonathan was quick to make his way over to her. Before he could even say a single word, however, he noticed the man sitting on a smaller chair…

"Mr. Zeppeli!" he exclaimed, narrowing his eyes in fury at the man he'd mistakenly placed such trust in only yesterday.

Charlena's hitching breath drew his attention before Jonathan could give the man a proper dressing-down, and Jonathan turned his attention to Dio and Alice's mother.

"Don't cry," he said gently, reaching out to place his left hand on her right shoulder. "I promise you, I'll do everything I can to bring Dio and Alice back home, where they belong. And a gentleman keeps his promises."

"That is indeed true, Jojo," Father said, making his way into the salon with them, then settling himself down on a chair directly across from Mr. Zeppeli. "However, before we may begin our search for wherever it was that Dio and Alice ran off to, there are clearly matters that must be addressed first."

"Clearly," Mr. Zeppeli said, the tension in his frame and tone clearly evident. "I have done everything in my power to free you and yours from the mind-control I thought those vampires had placed you under-"

"Stop talking about my children that way!" Miss Charlena exclaimed, tears gathering in her eyes; Jonathan wrapped his left arm around her shoulders as she struggled not to weep.

"I am terribly sorry to have to inform you of this, madam, but your children died the very moment that stone mask was allowed to do its wicked work," Mr. Zeppeli said, apparently trying to make his voice sound gentle, even as his words seemed calculated to cut them to their very hearts. "Vampires are nothing more than animals, driven by their basest desires, and an endless hunger that compels them to consume-"

"That is quite enough!" Father all but shouted, seeming almost to need to physically restrain himself from leaping out of his seat. "Jonathan invites you into our home, and you proceed to not only assault his siblings, but remain brazen enough to slander their very names even when neither of them remains to defend themselves! I will ask that you kindly remember that you are a guest in my home, Sir Zeppeli, and adjust your behavior accordingly."

"Have you all been so thoroughly deceived by soft words that you're completely unwilling to see the truth?!" Mr. Zeppeli demanded, all but throwing himself to his feet with the force of his misguided fury.

Jonathan wondered what Alice would have been able to make of Mr. Zeppeli, if she'd been able to stay in the same room with him long enough to observe him without setting herself against the power of Hamon that had proved to be so dangerous to her and Dio; the very Hamon that Mr. Zeppeli seemed so intent on teaching him. Alice always had seemed to know the hearts of those she met, even better than himself or even Dio. He only wished that his siblings could have still been present, but since it was swiftly becoming clear that Mr. Zeppeli would never allow such a thing, he could only wish them well in whatever place they had managed to find to stay.

=PB=

Another day, another employment drive, Alice mused whimsically, continuing on her way down through the streets of Whitechapel. Most of the women she met here were more than willing – and quite often eager – to hear her out about the new opportunities for employment she was offering them in her and Dio's hotel in London's "middle-class" district.

"So, this is not a brothel?" the woman she was speaking to; Annie Lennox, which fit pretty much all of the patterns that she'd seen established in this new world of hers.

"Of course not; it's a hotel with an attached restaurant," she said, smiling at Annie as the pair of them continued on their way through the streets. "Of course, if anyone does hassle you about your former occupation, you'll be able to speak to one of the bouncers about it."

"Bouncers?" Annie repeated, a look of curiosity overtaking her expression.

Alice smiled calmly, as though sharing a private joke; though really, it was more of an open secret at this point. "That's what I call them; it's their job to make sure that no troublemakers disturb the atmosphere," she grinned slightly, though not enough to show her fangs; people seemed to get the wrong impression when she did that. "If they do, my people are authorized to throw them out so hard they bounce."

"Oh," Annie said, laughing softly. "How clever."

The sound of footsteps, not as common in this part of the city after dusk as she thought they might be at other times, drew her attention for a moment. Putting the thought of just who it might be that had decided to follow the pair of them, Alice returned her gaze to Annie.

"So, what do you think? Does my proposal sound interesting to you?"

"I think I would rather enjoy it," Annie said, looking down as she continued speaking. "However, considering my sordid past, I-"

"Don't worry about it," she said, gently setting her right hand on Annie's shoulder. "If you don't feel up to interacting with customers yet, there are plenty of other jobs that need doing around a hotel. I can set you up with one of them, if that would make you feel better. At least until you find your feet again."

"Thank you, sir," Annie said; Alice didn't bother correcting the misconception, it was a common enough one when someone here encountered someone in pants, and it was useful enough in areas like this.

"I cannot allow this to proceed any farther."

Alice chuckled deep in her throat, lazily turning to meet the gaze of the large man that had been following them. "I was wondering when you were going to show your face," she flicked her eyes up and down his form, giving him and the large knife in his hands a flatly unimpressed look. "You get lost on your way to the butcher shop?"