"Even you, Jojo?" he echoed, smirking at their puppy as he attempted to compose himself, still blushing slightly.

"We actually ran all the way out here, so Zeppeli and those two guys with him wouldn't be able to track any kind of vehicle," his sweet sister said, pausing for a moment to nibble delicately at a sausage-link. "I suppose we could take a carriage back, since we'd be traveling with you."

She'd always eaten with gusto before, but once the stone mask had granted them their new, eternal bodies, eating human food had become more of an amusement than anything else. His dear Alice had described it as something like a human eating nothing but chocolate: a lovely treat if one enjoyed it, but with little to no true value as a food. Their nourishment now consisted of the blood of beasts, and the more unsavory types of humans.

Though that second part wasn't for Jojo to know, of course.

"It would probably be best if we begun our return journey today, as soon as possible," Jojo said, once he'd finished his meal. "Father and your mother will be so pleased to see the pair of you again."

"I suppose we could be persuaded to leave this little castle of ours," he said, smiling languidly at the way Jojo's entire face lit up with pleasure; their puppy was so easily pleased.

"We'd best acquire that carriage quickly, then," his sweet sister said, rising from her seat at the table. "Try not to have too much fun while I'm away, brother dear."

Laughing softly as his sweet sister left to fetch them a carriage so that they could return to the home they shared with Jojo – as well as his blinkered father, and their own rather foolish mother – he turned to smile at their adorable puppy of a brother.

"Well, Jojo, what ever shall we do with the time we have alone together?"

Jojo flushed deeply; Dio laughed in warm triumph, truly this was the greatest victory he'd ever had the chance to attain. Even the death of his and his dear Alice's worthless father was not such a coup as knowing that Jojo was – willingly and completely – theirs for the asking. Even Erina, love her though Jojo truly might, did not hold nearly the kind of power over him that they two did.

It was a truly delectable thing.

=PB=

Explaining the particulars of their situation to Tarkus and Bruford took some time, though that was mostly due to Tarkus' reluctance to part with her – he'd developed something of an obsessive respect for her after she'd yanked him up off the ground and held him aloft on his back to end the fight he'd insisted on before he'd obey her dictates to be discreet in their operations in and around the town; but seriously, if he was going to fight like a tank, it really was best that he was made fully aware of any tank's most glaring weakness – than to anything that Bruford said. The smaller of their resurrected knights actually seemed pleased that she and Dio had managed to accomplish their goal in such a speedy manner. It was a nice thing to notice, but then Bruford had seemed to be the kinder of their knights.

Particularly when one compared him to Tarkus' bluntness and near-obsession with fighting in pretty much all of its forms.

"Miss Alice!"

"Good morning, Poco," she said, smiling down at the boy that had done such good work for them for the small price of a tray's worth of apple tarts. "How have you been?"

"I've been doing really well, Miss Alice," the little boy said, continuing to smile as he tagged along with her en route to their ultimate destination. "But sis wasn't very happy when I brought home all of those apple tarts you gave me," Poco continued, his smile turning conspiratorial as he took out a napkin-wrapped tart from his pouch.

"Well then, she's probably going to be happy to see the back of me, then," she said, laughing softly, even though she knew that Poco wasn't going to be pleased to hear this particular bit of news.

"What?! You mean you're leaving, Miss Alice?" the stricken expression on the little boy's face was about what she had expected, and she turned a gentle smile on him to be as reassuring as she could under the circumstances.

"Dio and I are actually heading back home," she said, turning to look back down the path that she and Poco were following; they were making fairly good time.

If she and her brothers were lucky, they might just make it back to the Joestar estate in time for a late, late lunch, or at least an early dinner. Of course, that would be after at least a few days on the open road, she mused; it'd gotten a bit harder, what with her newfound powers and abilities, to remember just how damned slow every mode of travel currently available to her and hers was. She could have outraced cars on the freeway, Alice was certain, if either of those had been invented yet.

Sighing softly, amused and annoyed in roughly equal measures, Alice continued on her way to the carriage house she'd made brief note of when she and Dio had first taken up temporary residence in Wind Knights Lot.

"You mean, you didn't come here to live with us, Miss Alice?" Poco asked, wearing that same, sad-eyed puppy look that couldn't help but remind her of Jonathan.

"We actually came here, my brother and I, to escape from those men that I told you to be on the lookout for," she said, glancing down at Poco as he slowed down slightly. "We didn't really plan on staying after we'd driven them off, and now that they're gone, we have the chance to go home. Really, think of how worried your family would be if you were chased away from home by dangerous people."

It was a half-truth, really: if they'd wanted to risk the property-damage – which would have been a pretty sure thing, considering the destructive capabilities of their respective powers and abilities – she and Dio could have easily proven themselves to be just as dangerous as the three idiots who'd been pursuing them. Or rather, the two idiots that'd actually survived their meeting the previous night.

"I guess," Poco said, looking down at the ground as the pair of them continued on their way. "I'm still gonna miss you, though," he continued, hugging her left arm and looking back up at her as the carriage house began to come into view.

For her, at least; a human would have probably needed to come a lot closer before they began seeing anything besides the basic shape of the building in question. Really, she was starting to feel like Tobias: slowly but steadily forgetting basic human things after becoming something else. Still, while being trapped as a red-tailed hawk was about the farthest thing from becoming a vampire via the stone mask, the basic ideas were about the same.

She was steadily forgetting little things about being human.

"I think I might be able to convince my brothers to come back here, once we've all had a chance to settle in back home," she said, not wanting to make any kind of promises, since there was ultimately no way of knowing whether something might come up to keep her away from this place. "Still, there's a fair few things my brothers and I have to take care of, so it might be some time before you see us again," she continued, since it was only right to give someone fair warning when you were going to be away for an indeterminate amount of time.

Particularly to young kids like Poco, since time seemed to weigh particularly heavily on them; she still remembered that much, at least.

Negotiating for the use of a carriage to travel back to the Joestar mansion was fairly easy, and the fee was reasonable for the time they would be needing it and the distance they would be traveling. After all, it wasn't like they could just call home and ask for a ride, much as she would have preferred that kind of thing. But, either phones just hadn't been invented yet, or they were still in the very early stages of development and were hence extremely uncommon.

Either way, it was simply one more convenience that she had had to do without.

Of course, now I'll probably live to see them come into use, she mused, settling more comfortably into her seat next to Dio, listening with half an ear as he and Jonathan chatted about something or other. She couldn't quite say that phones were going to come back into use, considering the fact that they probably hadn't been invented in this day and age, but somehow it didn't quite feel right to say phones would be coming into use, either.

Clearly, tenses got a bit wonky when you had memories of a previous future.

=PB=

Once they had all returned home, Jonathan didn't bother to even attempt holding back the wide smile on his face. Father and Dio and Alice's mother would be so pleased to see them again; even though he'd not been able to find a way of returning their human bodies, Jonathan knew beyond any possible doubt that his dear siblings had maintained their humanity. Truly, that was all that mattered.

Looking over at the hooded, cloaked forms of Dio and Alice, Jonathan smiled at the way even their means of shielding themselves from the sun reflected the differences in their character: Alice's white cloak showed her lightheartedness, while Dio's royal-blue, feather embellished cloak showed that, while he had a darker sensibility, he also enjoyed the finer things in life.

Announcing himself, Jonathan continued to smile as he watched Father and Mrs. Charlena Brando both smiled at them as Dio and Alice removed their hooded cloaks. Mrs. Brando was quick to embrace the pair of them, and Jonathan smiled as he caught the expression of pleased surprise on his brother's face. It shamed him as a gentleman to admit it, but Dio had caught him flat-footed so many times that he rather enjoyed seeing his brother in the same position.

=PB=

When their dear mother had finished clucking over them, he and his sweet sister were left to the not entirely tender mercies of George Joestar. As the man began yet another one of his interminable lectures, this one on the importance of keeping their condition – the grand, immortal bodies that they had been granted by that marvelous stone mask – a secret from those who might seek to exploit them, or as in the case of that behatted charlatan to harm them, he, Dio rolled his eyes in the same manner that he'd seen his sweet sister do when she was exasperated with a person or a situation. The feel of his sweet sister's slender fingers gently squeezing his own brought a small, contented smile to his face. Yes, the pair of them had been cornered by the senior Joestar and all but forced to hear him prattle on, but no one was forcing them to listen.

And, as his dear Alice had demonstrated on many an occasion, there was a distinction between the two.

"Quite a lot of hot air for a single human," he said, once George Joestar had passed beyond the range of his feeble, human senses.

"Yes; well, he probably stores it up for occasions just like this," his sweet sister said, an amused smirk stretching her lips. "Still, he has a heart warm as the sun," she continued, still smiling amusedly at the world as a whole and George Joestar in particular.

"Yes; and a brain as soft as cheese," he said, completing their usual joke.

He and his sweet sister shared a laugh, before the pair of them made their way to the separate rooms they had been given to use while they stayed within the confines of the Joestar estate. It was simply for appearance's sake that they did such a thing, of course; not being limited by the paltry mores and limitations of humanity, they were also not required to pay them any attention. Still, his sweet sister had long ago taught him the utility of appearances.

And also, how appearances needn't be at all similar to reality.

=PB=

After seeing the way that those two vampires had interacted with George Joestar, it had become clear that his first instinct – that these particular vampires had retained the least of their humanity, and hence were all the more dangerous for it – had been correct. And yet, he'd still made an error in his assumptions: George Joestar was very unlikely to have had anything to do with their transformation into the monstrous, clever beasts that they had become. Clearly, William would need to find out more about the pair of them if he was to eradicate them at last.

And he would; he would wipe every last trace of the stone mask's evil from the world, including the creatures born of it.

I'd best speak to Jonathan Joestar; he'd know those beasts better than anyone, William reflected. No matter that he still insists upon thinking of them as his siblings. That was what made this new hunt of his so difficult: he could fully understand Jonathan Joestar's desire to see only the good side of the vampires that had once been his beloved siblings. He himself had been almost mindless with betrayed horror when he had beheld the face of his father as the man had dissolved into ash under the sunlight.

He hadn't wanted to believe what kind of a monster his own father had become under the influence of the stone mask, so he could perfectly understand Jonathan's desire not to give up on those two vampires. It was yet another reason that the wickedness of the stone mask needed to be erased from the world: even the most pure of love could be corrupted by it. Leaving the grounds of the Joestar estate behind once more, William Zeppeli vowed that he would find out everything about who those two vampires had once been.

Once he had destroyed them, he could at last allow their family to properly mourn Dio and Alice Brando.

=PB=

The next morning, Jonathan woke up with a bright smile as he recalled the events of the past several days: Dio and Alice were both back where they belonged, and Father and their mother no longer needed to worry about how they were doing or what might be happening to them. Even though he would miss them while he was away at university, it was simply a pleasure knowing that the pair of them were safe at home.

Knowing that he'd helped them to return safely, even if there truly wasn't a way to return them to being human, was still a comfort.

=PB=

Returning to their usual routine, in absence of any further attacks by either Straizo or Zeppeli, was a bit more complicated than it had previously been. Owing to the fact that the pair of them now jointly owned and managed a hotel, as well as having partnerships with several of the stores in that general vicinity, they were out of the house a fair bit more often than they'd been previously. Sure, George did offer to have a few of his people keep an eye on Caritas for them, but she and Dio had both agreed that they preferred to handle as much of their business affairs as they could personally.

George had actually seemed pleased to hear that, something the pair of them found rather interesting.

Now, however, having finished their studies for the day, she and Dio were free to make their trip into London's Anderson Squire to see to the running of their hotel. And also to put in a personal appearance, which was about as important for conducting business in this day and age as the more practical aspects that they attended to. It was one of the more potentially annoying aspects of living in the age before telecommunications.

Comfortably ensconced behind her desk as she went over the current figures and those from the week they'd had to take off for Wind Knights Lot – it really had only been a week, despite feeling a fair bit longer – Alice sighed softly. It was good to be back.

=PB=

When he found himself facing Mr. Zeppeli once more, Jonathan didn't know just what to do. He'd not been expecting to see the man again, after the pair of them had parted ways at Wind Knights Lot.

"Hello again, Jonathan Joestar," the man said, making his way over to him once the courtyard he had been traversing was free of anyone else who might see the pair of them together.

"Mr. Zeppeli," he said, wondering just what in the world the strange man could want with him.

He'd already made clear that he'd not betray his dear siblings, simply because Mr. Zeppeli thought that vampires in general were evil and needed to be removed from the world. He wondered, therefore, just what the man was at to seek him out in this manner.

"I was wondering if you would be willing to speak to me about your siblings," the man said, all but coming before him with hat in hand.

Jonathan could not help but to be moved by the gesture. "Of course. I'd be glad to tell you about them. They truly are such kind people," he felt his smile became more reflective as the mood stole over him. "Though they can be rather a trial, at times."

=PB=

Listening to Jonathan Joestar as he spoke about the siblings he had lost to the stone mask, William found himself steadily coming to understand why the young man was so steadfast in his insistence that the vampires born from their corpses were one and the same. Dio sounded almost the same as he had been during the short encounter he had had with the vampire: self-assured, confidant, and rather boastful. He'd not expected the boy to have something of a trickster's nature, but it seemed as though such a thing had been the cause of a great deal of heartache for both the Joestar and Brando families.

"You mean to tell me that you were the cause of your brother's encounter with the mask?"

"It was an accident," the young Joestar said in a small, miserable-sounding voice. "If I had only jumped backwards, or shouted- done anything besides attacking heedlessly like that… Dio was simply attempting to play a simple trick, and I…"

Wrapping his right arm around the young man's shoulders as Jonathan Joestar's composure failed him at last, William offered him a handkerchief and waited as the young man gathered himself and wiped the last of his tears.

"I'm sorry for what you were forced to endure, Jonathan," he said, suspecting that the young man's research into the stone mask that he had previously spoken about was the cause of such a reaction; he was not nearly so callous as to say such a thing, of course. "How did your brother react, after he had been transformed?"

"He seemed oddly pleased by it, after… After he'd returned home," Jonathan said, looking away for a moment.

Clearly, the death of his brother weighed heavily on him; just as clearly, the presence of the vampire wearing Dio's face was of no help in allowing him to properly move on with his life after such a tragedy. For the sake of the Joestar family, and what little remained of the Brando line, he would see those vampires destroyed. After all, if they were allowed to continue existing as vampires, it would only be a matter of time before the evil of the stone mask ate away at what remaining humanity they could claim.

Alice Brando had clearly been a clever and inventive young woman; he'd no doubt in his mind that the vampire now wearing her face had been the one ultimately responsible for the fiendish devices that he, Straizo, and the dearly departed Dire had encountered within the small town of Wind Knights Lot. He'd no desire to see what such a vampire could make if it were given years to its unnatural existence. Truly, inventiveness without the constraint of human morality would produce only the worst sorts of abominations.

"Might you know how your sister came to her own unfortunate encounter?" he asked gently, once Jonathan had managed to compose himself once more.

"I… I'm afraid I hadn't thought to ask," Jonathan said, his bearing and demeanor seemingly overcome by hesitance.

"Could you? The next time you see them?" he requested.

Waiting for a handful of moments as Jonathan agreed, William bid the young man farewell and turned to leave the campus where he had met with him. He'd not lightly say that the female vampire was more dangerous than her male counterpart, but there was no question which of them he would rather be facing. A prideful opponent could be easily drawn into making dangerous assumptions and errors, but an inventive, clever opponent would not be so easily countered.

Clearly, he would need to be better informed if he wished to come out the victor in any of their future confrontations.

=PB=

When he had the chance to return home, Jonathan found that he could not quite manage to forget about the question that Mr. Zeppeli had asked of him. He'd not thought anything about it – not wishing to reflect overmuch on such a painful thing as Dio's transformation for any longer than he was forced by grim necessity to do – but now he recalled that Alice had merely departed to search for Dio. She had, in fact, been making a foray into London in order to make contact with Robert E. O. Speedwagon in an effort to get his help in conducting her search.

She had appeared beside Dio as a vampire, true, but that was only after he and Robert had lost sight of her amid the turns and twists of Ogre Street.

I truly don't know what might have happened to result in Alice becoming a vampire in the same manner as Dio, and on the same day, as well, he mused, knowing that there were indeed possible explanations for such a happening. And also knowing that few of them were pleasant. Sighing deeply, Jonathan settled himself back into the seat of the carriage as it continued to roll on.

When he finally arrived back at his large, well-appointed home, Jonathan thanked the driver and made his way inside. After greeting Father in the proper and expected manner, he turned his path toward the library. Dio and Alice could always be counted upon to be present there; even if they were not studying the many and varied subjects that Father insisted upon having them learn for the sake of their lives in the future – whatever future a pair of vampires such as they could truly have – Alice had made it more than clear that their library was one of her favorite places to spend time.

Jonathan smiled fleetingly as he recalled his sister stating her personal vow that she would read every book in the Joestar library at least once.

Continuing on his way down through the vast halls of the home he shared with his small family and the servants who made all of their lives so much easier, Jonathan steeled himself for what he might learn. He knew that Dio could be rather impulsive at times – truly, Alice was the one who grounded his wild schemes in at least some form of reality – but Mr. Zeppeli's words had brought a question he'd not even considered before to the forefront of his mind. How did their sister become a vampire?