Mores the pity, William reflected, continuing on his way through the town. It was clear, now, how the pair of them had been able to so calculatedly deceive Jonathan Joestar and even the woman who had given life to the children who had died under the wicked influence of the stone mask. Dio and Alice Brando; both of them merely nineteen years of age, he mused, using his Hamon-senses to detect and then slam aside a field of those same, fiendish spines that he had been encountering all throughout the night.

It was becoming clear that this pair of vampires were more dangerous than any others he had ever been forced to face. Still, the reason for such a danger was almost a thing to be celebrated: the pair of them had maintained some core of their humanity, even if it was only the least. It was enough to make him wonder if these particular vampires had been created with a greater purpose in mind.

It was not a thought that he'd ever entertained, but this pair were nothing like any of the other, more bestial vampires he had encountered before.

Perhaps there is something more to this, then. These vampires, after all, still possessed the foresight not to involve zombies in a battle against those who could wield the power of Hamon. It also appeared that none of the folk within the town had been harmed; the vampires he was facing must have, therefore, been used to striking with precision. They must have been made to understand that select humans were off-limits to them.

He did not relish the thought that there might have been a human willing to make use of the wicked power of the stone mask, yet there seemed to be little else that would explain all that he had seen during the time he had spent training Jonathan Joestar in the ways of Hamon.

It even made a terrible sort of sense: the Brando woman had clearly been mourning her lost children, but the Joestar man had not been nearly so demonstrative. And, while he knew that these British were not quite so open as his own people, the names were plain enough: Dio and Alice Brando, as opposed to Jonathan Joestar. Perhaps, much as he despised the merest consideration, the elder Joestar had even taken them in for just such a purpose.

In fact, the further he thought upon the matter, gruesome as it was, the more it began to assemble into a horrible whole: even a small family would struggle to make ends meet with only a mother to head them, and the Brando family was clearly not the exception to that rule. With the gratitude that they would naturally have felt for their benefactor, it would have been all too simple for the elder Joestar to separate them from their mother and then to raise them as he saw fit. The man had clearly encouraged their natural tenacity and inventiveness, since even as beasts the pair of them had managed to outwit him and his fellow monks.

The elder Joestar must have raised them to have no close bonds to humanity; a cold, cruel upbringing that had shaped them pair of them into the creatures he had glimpsed those times when they had clashed. For a moment he wondered about Jonathan's part in it, but it was more than clear that the younger Joestar was genuine in his feelings for the creatures he still thought of as his siblings; truly, the boy was far too pure for that kind of deception in any case. It was plain now: just as the young Brando twins had about come of age – as Alice was flowering into womanhood, and Dio had nearly become a man – the elder Joestar had masked them, transforming them into his undead hounds!

There's clearly nothing more for me to find here, William mused; merely the wires and spikes that had bedeviled him, and the pair of vampires that had acted to lure him in. And they, in the end, were not the true problem. No, though the souls of Dio and Alice Brando had been sacrificed to the stone mask, it was far more important to deal with their master – the man who was cruel enough to shape children into beasts for his own gain – than to end the last embers of the Brando twins.

The pair of them would doubtless come to the aid of their master; he could lay those unfortunate children to rest once he had dealt with George Joestar.

=PB=

Looking down upon the behatted charlatan who had been so foolish as to challenge the twin lords of London, Dio wondered just what the fool was at. He'd gone up to the rooftops, meaning to find either of those two remaining annoyances – he still grinned at the memory of his sweet sister carrying the headless corpse of one of them – or else to throw their remains into the nearby lake for the fish to gnaw on, but that fool's means of dealing with the tools his dear Alice had created was more than troublesome. Hopping from one rooftop to the next, following the path that the fool Zeppeli was making use of to leave Wind Knights Lot, Dio narrowed his eyes as he attempted to guess which path the annoying man would take next.

"Dio Brando."

Hmm? He turned, looking down at the man who was even then staring up at him. "Oh my, now whatever could you want with me, charlatan?"

"I know your secret now," the annoying man said, his face taking on an actual expression of pity; grinding his teeth behind his lips, Dio licked a fang to calm himself.

"Oh, do tell," he sneered; truly, Alice would tell him off for losing his temper before a lowly human such as this.

"There would be no point," the charlatan said, shaking his head in what was clearly meant to be some kind of conciliatory gesture. "However, know this: I will be dealing with your master soon. You may rest assured of that."

A snarl of pure fury escaped from him before he could tamp down the rage building in him. That bastard dares to suggest that I, Dio Brando, would answer to anyone?! By the time he'd managed to tame the crimson fury raging through him, the charlatan had long since vanished. Grinding his teeth, Dio set off in the last direction he'd seen his sweet sister heading in. Doubtless, he would need her clever brain if he was going to be able to devise how to properly exact his revenge for the insult he had just been offered.

=PB=

Straizo didn't quite seem to know how to react to having someone French-kiss him during battle, and while it was really funny feeling him squirm in her grip, Alice was fully aware that – once he regained his composure – he was inevitably going to attack her with those punchsplosions he and Zeppeli seemed to favor. So, shoving the two of them apart, Alice leaped lightly to the opposite side of the square. This was one of the places that she and Dio hadn't actually been able to fully lay with traps; her head-hunter wires were too short to be strung across the wide gaps, and those same gaps let in too much light for even the caltrops' matte-black to hide them.

That only left their respective powers and abilities to clash against each other, and thus far her own vampiric speed and agility were telling over him; not to mention the things that she, personally, could bring to a fight.

"Has anyone ever told you that you have a lovely arse?" she teased, grabbing a firm left buttock as she closed with Straizo again.

He'd probably claim he'd squeaked in a very manly fashion, if he ever proved willing to talk about the whole thing in the first place.

"Straizo!"

The sound of Zeppeli's voice drew her attention, and Alice turned to catch sight of the man as he made his own way into the square.

"Well, good evenin', Zep," she said, waving laconically at him.

"Alice Brando," he said, turning to look at her with what seemed to be pity. "I am terribly sorry about what happened to you. Mi dispiace veramente, sfortunato signorina."

"Va bene, tagliagole," she deadpanned, turning to head back up onto the rooftops.

It would have been a bit too much trouble to deal with two of them, particularly when she couldn't use any of the tools she had purpose-built for just this situation. However, Alice could still feel his eyes on her back until she passed out of sight. Another set of footsteps, these ones far swifter and more silent than any of the ones she'd heard before, let her know just who it was coming up behind her. The feeling of Dio landing on her back caused her to raise an eyebrow, knowing that the only reason her brother would do something like that was if he felt the needed the extra support.

"You're tense as a whipcord, Dio. What happened?" she muttered, loudly enough that she could be certain her brother would hear her; whether he was in a mood to answer was another story, of course.

In the end, all he actually did was bury his nose in her hair and inhale deeply through it. Sighing softly, knowing she wasn't going to get any real answers out of him until they could have a real talk back at the castle, Alice continued on her way. The sight of Bruford, standing up on the parapet with his right arm raised in salute, let her know that there was something of note inside the castle itself. Wondering for a moment what it could be, since neither Tarkus nor Bruford would have allowed anything in there if it could pose any kind of a danger to the pair of them, Alice put the thought out of her mind.

She could find out what was waiting for them later.

"It pleases me greatly to see your safe return, my Lord and Lady," the resurrected knight said, stepping quickly aside as she jumped up onto the parapet.

Dio had jumped off just before the pair of them came within range of even a zombie's eyesight, but as she hadn't been given a reason to think he wouldn't, Alice didn't pay much attention to it.

"So, what news while we were away, Sir Bruford?"

"Aye, milady, there is news," he smiled calmly. "And good, at that: your brother, Jonathan Joestar, has been found. I brought him to this castle as per your instructions, my good Lord and Lady."

"I thank you for your services, good sir," she said, since Dio still seemed to be composing himself after whatever had happened to rile him up.

"Of course, milady."

The three of them made their way back into the castle, and she watched out of the corner of her right eye as Dio visibly composed himself. Clearly, this was something he wanted to keep between the pair of them. Still, not like that wasn't usually the case.

=PB=

"Good morning, Jojo," he said, smiling widely for their puppy of an adopted brother.

He would have words with his sweet sister, and the pair of them would be able to plot a proper revenge on that behatted charlatan, but it was a simple fact that all puppies needed proper care and attention if they were to accept their training.

"Dio, Alice," Jojo called happily, running up to embrace them. "I'm so glad the two of you are well!"

"Of course, Jojo," he said, reaching out to gently stroke Jojo's head; puppies enjoyed a bit of coddling, after all. "No matter if we must run to the very ends of the Earth, we shall always find our way back to you, Jojo."

"I'm glad," Jojo said, smiling happily as he closed his eyes amid the circle of their arms. "I'd never wish for any harm to come upon you."

Chuckling deep in his throat, even as he stood alongside his sweet sister and their puppy of an adopted brother, Dio allowed himself to revel in this victory. He'd never doubted his sweet sister's words, of course, but to see that Jojo was willingly giving himself to them was one of the sweetest of the many victories he'd thus tasted. It was almost enough to let him forget the bitter taste of that charlatan's pity.

However, he was not about to let such a thing be forgotten so easily.

"How have you been lately, Jonathan?" his dear Alice asked, once the three of them had separated from their embrace.

"Well enough," Jojo said, his earlier cheer and enthusiasm seeming to ebb a bit too swiftly. "However, while I hope that you will not take it amiss, I feel that I should tell you both of something."

He laughed gently; doubtless, Jojo would tell them some simple thing that he'd managed to blow completely out of proportion. "What would that be, Jojo?" he grinned, just wide enough to show the very edges of his fangs. "Are you and Erina perhaps planning to elope?"

Jojo's cheeks flamed adorably. "No! Nothing like that," he exclaimed, clearly trying not to splutter in that way he did when either he or his dear Alice had managed to fluster him; such a common occurrence, and yet it had not lost one whit of its novelty. "The truth is, I have been learning the art of Hamon, under the tutelage of… Of Mr. Zeppeli."

"Well, I suppose knowing about that kind of thing could prove to be useful," his sweet sister said before he, Dio, could say a single word on the matter. "Still, I don't know if I quite approve of you training with him." The slight bulge of the folding fan his sweet sister habitually carried drew his attention to her pocket on that side. "I think I might just have to punish you," his dear Alice said, waving the neatly-folded fan now in her right hand. "Naught, naughty, Jonathan."

The light rap his sweet sister gave Jojo's nose was just the right strength to gently correct their little puppy; Jojo laughed, and he joined in, tapping Jojo's nose with the same force he'd seen his dear Alice using.

"Naughty, naughty, Jojo."

"Wait," their adorable adopted brother tried to speak through his laughter; it was such an amusing sight. "Stop. Have mercy!" Nearly doubled over with laughter as he backed away from the pair of them, Jojo managed to land himself sprawled in the throne that he, Dio, had earlier claimed for his own.

"Oh dear, it seems you've landed in a rather unfortunate location, Jojo," he said, raising his hands and wiggling his fingers menacingly. "I'm afraid you've just called down further punishment upon yourself."

"Dio, don't!" Jojo exclaimed, bursting anew into helpless laughter as he, Dio, went to work on him; he knew that Jojo's sides were the most sensitive part of their adopted brother's body, and so that was where he focused his attack. Grinning down at Jojo as their puppy writhed, laughing, in the throne that he, Dio, had claimed for his own, he reflected with some amusement upon what his sweet sister had shared with him when they were merely children.

Apparently, it was actually possible to kill someone by such an innocuous method as this one; a death by suffocation that would appear merely to be a child's game carried a bit too far. It was a rather intriguing thought, that something so seemingly harmless could be so utterly deadly if done to excess, but when he'd observed the effects on Jojo – both now and during those other times when he'd used the technique – he'd no reason to doubt that such would have indeed proved to be the case were he to carry such an assault to its ultimate conclusion.

"Beg for mercy, Jojo," he said, grinning down at their adorable puppy as he his inarticulate flailing dragged his head inevitably towards the floor.

"Have mercy, Dio!" Jojo finally managed, through gales of helpless laughter.

"There's a good boy," he said, grinning down at their adorable puppy.

He'd slid all the way down to the floor by the time that he, Dio, had seen fit to end his chastisement, and tears were streaming from his eyes. Jojo lay there for a few moments more, wiping the tears of laughter from his eyes, before their puppy got back to his feet. He was still laughing, though for obvious reasons it was more of a subdued chuckle than the sustained explosion of mirth it had previously been.

"Thank you for your forbearance and understanding," Jojo said, once he'd managed to regain his composure and get back to his feet. "Both of you."

"Of course, Jojo," he said, smiling. "Since you look to be here for a rather long time, I would suggest that you avail yourself of the comforts of this castle. You'll find that the bedrooms are quite comfortable. You'll know which one is ours, of course."

"Of course," Jojo said, smiling softly. "I don't suppose I would be welcome in Mr. Zeppeli's company right at the moment."

=PB=

Bidding his dear, strange siblings good night, Jonathan made his way up to the higher levels of the castle. Pausing for a moment as he saw Dio following Alice into what seemed to be her room within the castle, he wondered for a moment just what their brother could have been at. Perhaps he simply intends to bid her a more personal good-night, Jonathan mused, trying in vain to stifle a yawn that had crept up on him all unawares. Finding a bedroom that seemed to be in rather good condition – not even a speck of dust, in spite of the signs of clear disuse over the castle as a whole – Jonathan let himself in.

Even the bed had been made up; it brought a smile to his face, seeing the consideration that his siblings still showed for him, even after all that the pair of them had been through.

Settling himself down atop the bed, Jonathan just managed to stifle another yawn as he climbed under the covers. He'd have all the time he needed to catch up with Dio and Alice, and to persuade them to return home.

=PB=

"Dio, I swear, you've got knots from here to next Tuesday," his sweet sister said, kneading his shoulders with her lovely, strong hands; hands that were already beginning to vibrate in that way that served to relax him so well. "I've waited this long, so tell: what's got you so riled?"

"It might help me to relax if you sang a bit, sister dear," he said, leaning his head back and resting his left cheek against her knee on that side.

When she chuckled softly, a sound like a gentle sigh seeming to force itself out alongside, Dio smiled.

"You stripped your love down to the wire; fires shinin' cold alone outside. You stripped it right down to the wire; but I see you behind those tired eyes… "

Allowing himself to relax under the ministrations of his sweet sister's hands, Dio closed his eyes and allowed her song to wash over him. He did not think that she would have quite understood his true reason for wanting revenge on that behatted charlatan, since his sweet sister was a thoroughly practical person and gave little enough thought to how others saw her so long as they weren't important to what she wished to get out of life. However, it was a simple fact that that charlatan was a danger to the pair of them the longer he remained at large.

If nothing else, his dear Alice would understand the need to properly redress a threat.

=PB=

"You think it was their father who did this to them?"

"Adopted, but yes," he said, reading the horrified disbelief in every line of Straizo's youthful-seeming face. "Everything I have seen, thus far, supports my supposition that Dio and Alice Brando had been taken in by George Joestar for the sole purpose of becoming his vampire servants."

"I'd not have thought anyone human capable of such a thing," Straizo said, fists clenched with the strength of his fury. "No one who would do something such as that could possibly deserve mercy."

"Yes," he said, narrowing his eyes. "Jonathan Joestar must have been their sole companion, during the years that his father was shaping them."

He hated the fact of it, both that he'd chanced across a man more monstrous than many vampires, and also that he'd been too late to save the Brando twins from their cruel fate. All that was left now was to release them from it. And also, to see that George Joestar was punished for his transgressions; though it would need to be the laws of humanity that did so, as he and Straizo were forbidden by the oaths they'd taken to Master Tonpetty from directly interceding in human affairs.

Still, a man such as George Joestar was not likely to have much concern for human laws in any case.

=PB=

Waking with a sense of displacement, almost as though he were a child again and Dio had contrived to carry him down to the salon while he slept, Jonathan sat up with a start. The events of the previous day came back to him then, bringing a reflective smile to his face as he climbed up and out of the luxurious bed he'd been given for the night. The sound of someone knocking at his door drew his attention before Jonathan could gather up the clothes that he'd shed for the night – not thinking that he would be away overnight, he hadn't thought to bring any change of clothes or toiletries with him – and thus make some kind of effort at being presentable.

"Good morning, Jojo," Dio said, grinning widely as he swanned in.

"Dio! I'm hardly decent!" he exclaimed, eyes snapping to his brother; Dio was completely bereft of any clothing above the waist, and Jonathan felt his cheeks flaming. "And neither are you!"

"I'd say you're a fair sight more than decent, Jojo."

Yelping as he leapt away from the grinning form of his brother that was suddenly right beside him, Jonathan felt his cheeks heating all the stronger as he saw the look on Dio's face. "You're a shameless man, Dio Brando."

Naturally, Dio's only response to such a statement was laughter.

"All right, that's enough out of you, brother dear," Alice said, chivvying Dio out of the room with a gentle smile. "Let's not keep Jonathan from breakfast all day, shall we?"

Calling his thanks to Alice as she left with Dio, both for her assistance in helping to handle their odd brother, and for her discretion in doing so, Jonathan went to clean himself up and get ready for breakfast as well as he could manage under such odd circumstances. Once he'd managed to freshen himself up as best he could, Jonathan made his way back down into the main rooms of the castle.

The scent of fresh-cooked bacon was an enticing one, and Jonathan followed it down to what turned out to be a well-appointed dining room. The sight of Alice, calmly dishing out food for the three of them, brought the smile he'd previously been wearing right back to his face. There was no chance that Mr. Zeppeli could be right about them: Dio and Alice still had human hearts beating inside their vampire bodies.

When he occasioned to speak with Mr. Zeppeli again, he would tell the man just that.

"How were the pair of you planning to return home?" he asked, after a sip of wonderfully chilled apple juice. "Father and your mother have been quite worried about you both," he continued, glancing away from their interested gazes. "And, so have I, I must confess."