"Remember, Jonathan Joestar: the true power of Hamon comes from the breath," Mr. Zeppeli said, the ripples of his own Hamon energy spreading out evenly about him. "If your breath is strong, your Hamon shall be, as well."

He knew that Mr. Zeppeli was hoping for him to take to the training that he offered, but there was only one thing that Jonathan could find mattering to him at the present moment. "So, in order to stop channeling Hamon, all I must do is disrupt my breathing?"

Mr. Zeppeli sighed, the expression on his face falling to one of resignation, as well as what looked like some kind of saddened regret; Jonathan almost found himself wanting to offer comfort to the man, even in spite of the fact that he knew just how dangerous Mr. Zeppeli was and continued to be to his dear siblings. "Yes; it's true that any disruption of your breathing will in turn make it impossible for you to channel Hamon. I would ask, however, that you consider the outcome carefully before you put such knowledge to use."

"I will."

That was another reason that Jonathan had allowed himself to soften in his regard for Mr. Zeppeli: while it was clear that he was still wary of vampires in general, the man had seemed willing to give Dio and Alice the benefit of all possible doubt. Jonathan was glad for it, and had offered in return to allow himself to be taught the ways of Hamon. Because, even if he knew his dear siblings better than nearly anyone else in the world, it wasn't as though such a thing gave him any insight into the minds of vampires as a whole.

It might very well be that other vampires would not be so apt to retain their human kindness as Dio and Alice had been. And so, Jonathan allowed himself to be trained in the martial art of Hamon, if only so that he would be able to safely interact with his dear siblings once more.

=PB=

Dipping her hands into the water as she continued to scrub one of her larger stew pots, Alice heard the sound of heavy footfalls outside her door. She'd trained the staff well enough to knock if they truly needed something from her, or else to ask a senior staff-member or refer to their employee manuals. Those things had been a big hit with the people she hired, since they detailed what work needed to be completed for their particular jobs and were also small enough to be carried in a pocket or a satchel. Given all of that, Alice knew that this couldn't have been one of her people coming in now.

There were others it could be, but very few of those options were good; she already knew the sound of Dio's footsteps well enough to know that it wasn't him she was hearing.

The tall, long-haired form of Straizo barging into her workroom drew a long-suffering sigh, as Alice rolled her eyes.

"Yay," she deadpanned. "It's my stalker."

"I do not merely intend to stalk you, vampire," the man said, eyes narrowing as he fully stepped into the room behind her. "I intend to rid this world of your filth!"

Ducking under his sudden but all-too predictable charge, Alice slammed her head into Straizo's gut hard enough to lift the man off his feet and send him rolling backwards. Standing quickly, Alice grabbed the large stew pot that she hadn't yet started washing, snagged the heavy stirring spoon she'd purchased for just this sort of occasion with her elastic veins, slammed the pot down over Straizo's head while the man was still disoriented, and then battered the outside of the stew pot with the wooden spoon like she was aiming to wake the dead.

Having earlier detached her eardrums as a precaution against just this sort of thing, Alice was still able to feel the sonorous vibrations through her hands and wrist. Of course, for Straizo it must have been like sticking his head into a church bell when the clock struck noon, and as she crouched to keep pace with his staggering, faltering steps, Alice smirked slightly.

"You don't learn quickly, do you?" she asked; the question was basically rhetorical at this point, since even though she'd reattached her eardrums, his would still be ringing from the sheer barrage of sound he'd just been subjected to.

"Anything troubling you, sister dear?"

"Just throwing out some trash," she said, smiling up at Dio as he strode over to her.

Her brother looked down, eyes clearly taking in the crumpled form of Straizo at their feet, and grinned as their eyes met once again. A wink of his right eye told her that their impending conversation, truthful as it very well was, was also meant for Straizo's recovering ears.

"I think it's time we departed from this little hotel, sister dear."

"Oh?" she asked, tilting her head to the right so he'd know she'd gotten the message. "Where did you have in mind, brother?"

"A small town called Wind Knights Lot should be quite suited to us," he said, smiling in that "I'm planning something devious" way he had. "Such a small town, with such a large graveyard."

"Zombies, Dio? How scandalous," she said, smirking as she hammed it up for Straizo's benefit; Dio laughed. "Will I get to make them dance?" she asked, the thought of reenacting the "Thriller" music bringing a somewhat wider smile to her face; she couldn't really share the joke itself without a lot of background that her brother didn't have, but the general idea of such was clearly amusing enough in itself.

"Anything you wish, my sweet sister."

The pair of them had a laugh at Straizo's expense as they left, both knowing that a certain someone would be far more interested in reporting to Zeppeli and his ilk than in continuing to harass the pair of them, and since he didn't seem the type to destroy things out of spite – not anything that belonged to humans, at least – Alice turned her attention to what still needed to be done. She'd already informed the staff of her plans to depart, but until this present moment she hadn't had a concrete time and date of departure to tell them.

Such was, of course, no longer a problem.

=PB=

Once they had said their farewells, temporary as they were to be, to those who served under them, he and his sweet sister made their way swiftly to Wind Knights Lot. Capable of running many times faster than even the swiftest of horses, he and his dear Alice were soon safely ensconced within the tiny burg. They did indeed pay a visit to the graveyard, but unlike those Hamon-using fools would have been led to think, he and his sweet sister would not be bringing the lot of them back to glorious unlife.

The town itself was to become their weapon, not the flesh-hungering servants they could raise from the grave.

In the end, however, they did end up summoning the knights Bruford the Black and Tarkus, simply to aid dear Alice with her work in the blacksmith's forge. She employed them in collecting iron scraps from around the town when the sun had vanished from the sky, and in aiding her to manipulate the wrought-iron bars that she had forged when they had been properly cooled.

They were a rather ingenious creation: three five-centimeter spines formed the points of an equilateral triangle, all of them balanced by smaller, stabilizing struts that were perhaps a quarter of the length of the spines. The blackened iron would prove invisible in the darkness to feeble human eyesight, and the danger would be all the greater for it, for no matter if they were kicked aside, they would be a deadly danger wherever they landed. His sweet sister had also created long coils of fire-blackened wire, currently lying idle on the table, but soon to be strung at neck-height across the narrower alleyways within this little town.

As the two pairs of them had been preparing their tools for the battle that Zeppeli and his fellow fools were soon to bring to them, Dio couldn't help but smile as he watched his sweet sister ingratiate herself with the people of the small town. Humans were so easily manipulated: just feed them dainties, speak softly to them, and they would all but eat out of one's hands. She had employed some of the local children as spies, sending them to the edges of the town with orders to report any sightings of men fitting the descriptions the townspeople had been given.

Or else, of those traveling in the company of the men described to them.

Of course, during those times when she was not engaged in preparing their arsenal for facing those fools who would dare to challenge their dominion, his dear Alice made deeper forays into the castle. That was what had led the pair of them to a rather interesting discovery.

"I'd have never believed that something like this would be present here," he said, watching as the mere throw of a lever opened a secret passageway into the very mountain itself.

"Well, fortifications like these tend to be built with an eye to escaping from sieges," his sweet sister said, right hand cupping her chin as she looked down the winding tunnel that descended out of even their sight. "This tunnel probably ends down at the base of the cliffs. Once we make it back to the castle, we'll be able to escape through this before Zeppeli and his people – provided there are any left – can corner us here."

"Good thinking, sister dear," he said, grinning as he continued to look deeply into the tunnel, then returning his attention to his sweet sister as she re-engaged the lever that caused the tunnel to be hidden away again.

Looking back at the wall, Dio grinned as he saw the almost-perfectly concealed seams in the stonework that had clearly led his dear Alice to investigate this place in particular. No one but another vampire would have been able to spot them; which meant that any of those fools who survived the death-trap he and his sweet sister were going to make of Wind Knights Lot, they would be stymied by the last of the castle's defenses.

=PB=

Hearing Mr. Zeppeli as he spoke with a man named Straizo, Jonathan wondered if the man had truly given up his animosity towards Alice and Dio, or if such had merely been a façade; all a part of his efforts to pass on his teachings. It was clear from the way Straizo was speaking that he and Alice had met, and just as clear as that was the fact that their meeting had not been a happy one.

"The pair of them spoke of taking the town of Wind Knights Lot?" Mr. Zeppeli repeated, his eyes narrowing in clear contemplation.

"You must have heard wrong!" he exclaimed, no longer able to hold himself back. "They probably wish to avoid any damage to their hotel after Straizo attacked them," he folded his arms, turning a disapproving frown upon the man in question. "You had attacked Alice twice, and all she did was to throw you out."

"Even if your siblings have been able to maintain their human kindness, as you insist upon believing so steadfastly, it's merely a matter of time before the mask's evil eats away at them," Mr. Zeppeli said, his expression not changing one bit; he still didn't look one whit less determined. "They must be destroyed before that is allowed to happen."

"Mr. Zeppeli…"

Looking away from the cold stares of the men all around him – those who would see Dio and Alice die for circumstances entirely beyond their control – Jonathan could only hope that he would be able to get to them in time to warn his siblings about how many more of Mr. Zeppeli's fellow Hamon users had made the journey into England. Gathering himself as best as he could manage, Jonathan boarded the carriage with Mr. Zeppeli, Straizo, and his partner Dire. They would soon be making for the town of Wind Knights Lot.

And, with any luck, he would soon be able to speak face-to-face with his dear siblings once more.

Their journey was filled with muttered conversations between Mr. Zeppeli and his fellow Hamon users, but Jonathan didn't have the heart to keep arguing his case when it seemed like every one of them was against him. He knew that he was right – that Dio and Alice were not the kind of dangerous, near-mindless vampires that Mr. Zeppeli had said he had encountered before – but having everyone else undercutting every argument he made in favor of his siblings, particularly in the gentle way that even Straizo spoke, had quickly become exhausting. Truly, it would have almost felt better if they had been more argumentative.

At the very least, he would have felt better about defending them more vigorously.

The tunnel that stood as the entrance to Wind Knights Lot soon loomed before them, and Jonathan could not help but feel time closing in like a noose around his neck. Traveling with Mr. Zeppeli and his fellows, it was more than clear at this point, would not be at all conducive to his desire to meet up with Dio and Alice again. He would, therefore, have to separate from them at some point.

It was the matter of when that would provide the difficulty at present.

When they departed from the carriage, Jonathan found that it was not because the four of them had arrived in the town itself, but because there had been a young lad following them from the side of the road. However, before Mr. Zeppeli could say even two words to him, he turned and ran for a rope tied up at the top of a small rise. Using a rather ingenious rope-system, the lad flung himself almost completely across the river. He landed only a short distance from the opposite bank, but seemed to have dropped the small, white-wrapped bundle he'd been carrying into the river, if the way he attempted to grab at something in the water was any indication.

"Come Dire, Straizo," Mr. Zeppeli said, bending down over the river. "That boy seems to have been waiting for us."

"Yes," Dire muttered, moving to stand beside Mr. Zeppeli on his right, as Straizo did the same on his left. "We should follow him. He might be able to lead us to those vampires before it begins getting dark."

While the three of them made to cross the river with their Hamon, Jonathan found himself staying well back from them. He'd little doubt that they meant to launch as direct an assault on Dio and Alice as they could manage, and he'd no desire to be a party to that. Just before he could turn his path to intersect with what looked to be the main road of the town, however, Jonathan caught sight of a strange, while-cloaked figure beckoning to him.

"Young sir, would I be correct in surmising that you are the man by the name of Jonathan Joestar?" the figure's voice, when he was given the opportunity to hear it, had qualities of both youth and nobility; Jonathan wondered just who in such a small town would have had reason to know his name.

Only for a moment, however, since there was a rather simple explanation for that kind of knowledge.

"Yes," he said, turning eagerly to meet the gaze of whomever it was that had come to his aid in this moment of trial. "May I ask, sir, did my siblings mention me to you?"

A gentle smile spread across the man's noble face. "My liege Lord and Lady do indeed go by those names, young sir. Come; they desire your presence at the castle."

"Of course," he nodded, eager to be able to speak to the pair of them again. "It's been so long."

"Of course," the man said, his smile not having left his face once since the pair of them had met up. "They two seem quite eager to speak with you once more, young sir."

A feeling of warmth spread through him, but was chilled slightly when Jonathan recalled that the only interactions Dio and Alice had had with Mr. Zeppeli was the Italian Hamon user attempting to murder the pair of them. What would they think, once they learned that he was studying the very thing that had hurt them so much, under the very man who was so hell-bent on murdering the pair of them. What would Dio think?

Steeling himself as he was led to the castle upon the high cliffs that bordered the small town, Jonathan sighed softly; he could only hope that Alice would be able to make Dio understand his reasons.

=PB=

In the end, they were not able to find the young lad who had seemed to be waiting for them. However, finding the very vampires they had been pursuing for so long was a much greater boon.

"So, you finally show your faces again," he said, glaring up at the cloaked forms of the vampires standing upon a high spire of rock just in front of them; hoods thrown back, and inhuman crimson eyes staring down with arrogant amusement. "To the stone mask that consumed your souls, I will say only this: tonight, I break you!" the female vampire turned to face the male, and after a moment, the pair of them began laughing.

"Yes," the female said, bright white cloak seeming to glow from the reflected moonlight; a stark contrast to the male's dark-blue, feather embellished cloak. "Well, best of luck with that."

"Indeed," the male said. "However if you wish to survive this night, charlatan, I, Dio, would suggest that you leave."

"The only way the three of us are going to be leaving, is when the pair of you have been reduced to drifting ash!" he shouted up at them.

The feel of his own hat being knocked free from his head drew William's attention, and he looked back to see a small rock – naught more than a pebble, truly – rolling just on the brim of his hat, only a moment before falling to rest inside the garment itself. Narrowing his eyes, William gathered his Hamon.

"Come down here and fight, cowards!" Dire challenged.

"Why don't you come up here and make us, fools?!" the male vampire – the pair of them had no more right to human names; as he had told their mother, Dio and Alice Brando had died the very moment that the stone mask had done its hideous work – sneered, raising his chin haughtily.

Leaping to the top of the spire, William was hardly surprised to see the pair of them leap in opposite directions to escape. For all their infernal abilities, vampires lacked the courage of even the least of humanity. Truly, they were nothing more than beasts.

=PB=

When she gave the signal, Alice had been more than ready to make for the town; really, if she'd had to listen to much more of Zeppeli's idiotic grandstanding, she'd have jumped down to personally give the man a good, hard kick in the balls. Which would have just led to all kinds of problems, so it was just as well that she didn't. Waving and winking at Dio as the pair of them parted to make their way inward from opposite sides of the small town, Alice leaped easily up to the rooftops so that she would be better able to see the lay of the land.

And also, so that if any of the Three Stooges were in the area, she'd be in a much better position to bait them.

In the end, it ended up being the blond Vegeta-looking guy who spotted her and took chase. Dropping into a narrow alleyway – strung with decapitating wires at neck-height – Alice turned around just in time to catch the rather interesting sight of the man falling slowly through the air after what seemed to have been a fairly high jump.

"You seem taken aback, vampire," the blond said, his tone sounding about as arrogantly pig-headed as Zeppeli's; really, the pair of them must've gotten along like a house on fire. "My extensive training in Hamon allows me to float on even the slightest of air-currents."

"That's not floating, it's falling with style," she deadpanned, watching with a detached sort of curiosity as Mr. Flattop shaped himself into a human-projectile and fell back to the earth with the sheer speed of a drifting feather.

Dodging swiftly out of the way, she positioned herself just beneath the man as he was about to pass over her head, then kicked suddenly upward. Flattop managed to land on his feet after she'd tagged him, but it was a near thing. Besides, watching him scramble to get back upright was worth the price of admission.

"No vampire has ever managed to defeat my Thunder-Split attack!" Flattop exclaimed, seeming shocked at the mere concept of dodging.

"You seriously called it that?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.

"I have been perfecting that technique of mine for decades!" Flattop shouted, clearly becoming incensed.

Well, there was only one real way to respond to that. "I just made mine up three seconds ago," she said, cheerfully holding up the indicated number of fingers. "But really, you're leaving yourself a really big vulnerability when you use that technique of yours."

"What is that supposed to mean, vampire?!"

"It means flying-uppercut to the dick, genius," she deadpanned, giving Flattop a look that would have withered grass. "Anyway, this is your last chance: if you leave town, I won't pursue. You'll have the chance to go home, wherever home happens to be for you."

"You think I would so easily allow you to go on spreading your evil, vampire?!"

"Do you see any evil spreading, you pig-headed jackass?" she demanded, left hand going almost reflexively to her hip on the same side.

It was pretty damn obvious that Flattop was going to insist on killing himself for some arbitrary grudge he had against either her and Dio, or more likely vampires in general, so Alice wasn't going to let herself feel bad about that. Turning and dashing off down the alleyway, she ducked under the line of matte-black wire, listening for the tell-tale squelch of Flattop's head coming off. Twisting around as she heard that very sound, she watched Flattop's head separate from the remains of his severed neck.

Sighing in annoyance, Alice gathered up the two pieces and hopped back up onto the rooftops; she just had to find a place to stash Flattop where the kids wouldn't end up getting an eyeful of him before someone could bury him properly, and then she could meet up with Dio again. Or deal with Straizo; whichever came first.

=PB=

The infuriating sight of one of the brazen vampires that had lured him and his into this almost-impassible labyrinth of a town drove William almost to distraction from sheer fury, but he was more than aware by this time that such was exactly what the vampires who had drawn him and his into this death-trap of a town wanted. Cunning beasts that they were, they had not resorted to the use of easily dispatched zombies, but had instead turned the very environs of the town itself into a maze of deadly traps. The spines had been the first danger he had been forced to brave, and while he had been able to use his Hamon-senses to detect them, the fact that he had been made to do such merely in order to survive the journey through the town itself was rather troublesome.

It seemed that, while their human hearts and souls had been consumed by the stone mask, their minds had not.