The first thing he'd done, of course, was to ask just what it was that had driven William Zeppeli into such a rage at his dear siblings that he hadn't even been able to think of them as people worthy of humane consideration – their vampire status aside – even as he'd been dying of the many sword wounds that Dio had been inflicting on him even unto the end of his life. He'd seen the misplaced fear and pity in William's eyes, looking up at him, even as the light had faded from them for the last time.

As it had turned out, William had made a terribly unfortunate misinterpretation of the prophesy that he'd been granted. The vampires that had defeated themselves he'd been told of did not refer to those who would merely lay down and die, but to Dio and Alice, who had defeated the cruel nature of the stone mask with their own, human hearts. It was a sad thing, to know that William had died because he simply could not accept that his initial interpretation of Master Tonpetty's prophesy had been wrong, but such a thing could hardly be helped by now.

Still, Jonathan couldn't help wondering how things could have been different, if such a thing could have been possible; he thought that William could have been a good friend, if the man had been willing to look beyond his own preconceptions about vampires and see Dio and Alice for who they truly were.

When Alice returned from her laboratory on this level, he greeted his and Dio's sister kindly, and watched as she turned her attention back to the work she was soon to be doing.

He knew that his and Dio's sister would soon have their brother restored to at least some semblance of mobility by the time she was finished, Jonathan allowed himself to relax slightly. Yes, he knew that there would be many more tasks that they would need to accomplish before any of them would be able to call this battle truly finished, and he knew that he himself was not going to survive the ultimate conclusion of it, but Jonathan couldn't help but wish to reach that conclusion.

If only so that his remaining family, and the world as a whole, would be able to live in peace.

=BT=

His sweet sister, brilliant creature that she was, had devised not only a pair of ingenious prosthetics to aid him, Dio, in running, fighting, and standing against Kars once again, but also equipped the ones replacing his arms with a variant of her Noisy Cricket – in his right hand – as well as a UV laser in his left. He was pleased to know that – even as he was recovering from the damage that that bastard of a Pillar Man had inflicted on him – he would be able to stand against him and his brutish cohort even so.

He, Dio, could hardly have been more pleased.

"All right, so you already know about the basic operation of the weapons I've built into your prosthetics, but I think it would be best if you familiarized yourself with operating them. Having something built into your limbs is different than just picking something up to use it."

"Whatever you wish, sister dear," he said, grinning back at his sweet Alice as she looked back at him, the usual, businesslike expression she wore when she was hard at work in her way.

She raised a subtly amused eyebrow at him, and the pair of them swiftly departed for the testing grounds that she had had built into this tower of hers. He'd become rather familiar with them, but moreso the training grounds that she'd designed for any place where he and their growing family chose to settle for longer than a few months. Places where those among their number who possessed abilities beyond that of the common rabble – either through the wonders of their own advanced biology, or through determination and training of the most esoteric sort – could not only hone their skills but develop all new ones without even leaving the comfort of the tower they were staying in.

He, Dio, had come to enjoy them quite immensely; he'd likely make a stop there, once his sweet sister had managed to familiarize him with the operation of the weaponry she'd been so kind as to install in his new limbs.

=BT=

The shattered remains of the human dwelling told only part of the story; it was the absence of the male vampire that Lord Kars had taken captive that truly displayed the full capabilities of the female vampire that Lord Kars had taken such an interest in; the one who had long since proven that she was a match for Lord Kars in every way but age and power. He'd no doubt anymore that the female vampire would resist every effort that Lord Kars made to court her in the way he was clearly doing.

It was, after all, what Lord Kars himself would have done, had their positions been reversed in some way.

"Not even a feather left to mark her passage," Lord Kars said, satisfaction in his tone, even as he surveyed the expanse of the abandoned human dwelling where they had been keeping the male vampire in an effort to draw Lord Kars' vampire to them. "Truly, I'm going to have to break her wings, if I'm ever going to cage that hawk of mine properly."

"Indeed," he intoned, though it was truly beginning to seem as though Lord Kars' vampire was determined not to be caged.

With every new creation the female vampire unveiled, it seemed that Lord Kars grew all the more infatuated, and all the less willing to consider that there might have been another way of gaining that which he wanted. It seemed that Lord Kars' vampire was the sort to hold an association with the humans who flocked to her, and so perhaps that could be a way to gain that which his Lord had come to desire so strongly.

=BT=

Disassembling his UV rifle with smooth, efficient motions, Caesar took a deep, harsh breath as he began reassembling it. Snapping it back together with the relentless efficiency that his training had engrained in him, he didn't even pause for a moment as the sound of footsteps closed in on the table where he was working.

"You're stewing again."

"Boss," he looked up at the vampire that had given him so much; a new home, a purpose, and even the chance to find out what had happened to his father. Shuddering as he felt her light touch on his right shoulder, Caesar leaned his forehead against her collarbone. "Even after all these years, nothing's changed since that day."

"You're not crying; that has to count for something," the Boss said, the gentle good-humor in her tone almost forcing a sickly sort of chuckle out of him, even as he felt his eyes stinging all the more.

The pair of them stood like that for a long moment, as Caesar tried to compose himself once more.

It truly was almost the same as what had happened on that terrible, long-ago day; the only difference was that the Boss wasn't carrying him back to one of her holdings in Rome, he hadn't been forced to witness the death of his father, and he knew just what kind of dangers there were in the world. In every other way, however, this was a clear match for the situation that he'd once faced. Even down to the gentle way the Boss was stroking his hair in an effort to help him regain his composure.

"Thanks, Boss," he said, once he felt capable of standing back up without the risk of falling to his knees in anguish from the memories that all of this upheaval had brought back to the fore once again.

"Of course," the Boss said calmly, gentle gaze focusing on him once more. "You know that you can always come to me when there's something on your mind, Caesar."

"I know," he said, smiling for the first time since he'd made his way down into the training ground to be alone with his training and his weapon. "Thanks, Boss."

The Boss nodded, turning to make her way out of the training room he'd been working in. Sighing as he looked up at her retreating back as she left, Caesar tried to compose himself again. He didn't know what kind of man he'd have become if the Boss hadn't been there for him, and the more time he spent with her, the less he actually wanted to know.

=BT=

Seated at the long table that he'd claimed for himself when he, and his bond-brother Tarkus had been invited to this place alongside their liege Lord and Lady, Bruford settled his right hand on the head of one of his feathered hounds – the ancient, undead creatures that his liege Lady had granted him access to – Bruford looked out over the expanse of the underground room that he and Tarkus had been given for their own use once they had been fully integrated in among the workings of their Lady's growing empire. He'd been seeing less and less of his bond-brother of late; however, as Tarkus had become increasingly enamored by their Lady's armored siege-beasts and his role as their keeper, Bruford had almost been expecting such a thing, truly. Tarkus would have had to have been a far different man for him to have done anything different.

The sound of the building-wide standby-alert brought Bruford out of his contemplations far more abruptly than he would have ever wished under normal circumstances; however, anyone who had ever participated in one of his Lady's readiness drills would know that such a sound was one that signaled the end of normal circumstances.

Rising from his seat, Bruford signaled for his feathered hound not to follow – whoever it was that had opted to confront them, his Lady had determined that an overwhelming show of force was not the best face to present to them – and made his way over to the elevator that would carry him up to the surface levels of the building they were all currently staying in. Grabbing the armored-cloth cloak that would allow him to survive in sunlight – there was little reason to believe that this was not one of the ancient creatures that had dared to threaten his liege Lady and been punished so for their temerity, and hence no reason to think that she would not take the precaution of having every one of her marksman windows filled by a UV-rifle armed sniper – Bruford made his way over to the small group that had begun forming around her.

She nodded to him, as he insinuated himself into the group, composed as it already was of his Lady's retainer – the vampire Straizo – as well as her right hand in this country, Caesar Zeppeli.

"Who are we facing?" he asked, knowing by the grimness of the expressions all around him that this was not to be a simple drill.

"Wham," Caesar all but snarled, an unbecoming sort of rage on his face; Bruford tried not to think less of him for it, considering his past with the creatures they were facing.

"Yes," his liege Lady said, sounding annoyed, but also sounding as though she had a reluctant sort of curiosity as to just what it was that the Pillar Man could have been intending by presenting himself to them in the manner that he had just done. "He's just been standing out there; pretty much the only reason I didn't send the entire building into high-alert status as soon as Melanie spotted him, really."

"Indeed," the vampire Straizo said, narrowing his eyes in contemplation as the four of them made their way over to the front entrance where the Wham the Pillar Man was waiting for them.

=BT=

For the life of her, she didn't know just what it was that Wham could have been planning. Sure, she had some inkling of what anyone generally affiliated with Kars would want – namely her – but she didn't know what Wham's particular angle was, here and now. It seemed that she'd just have to poke him and see how he jumped, so to speak.

Not always the safest of prospects, particularly under the circumstances, but there were few faster ways to produce results.

He seemed to have been studying they layout of her building, when she came out to see just what it was that he was doing, so it seemed like not all of the Pillar Men were such a dull sort as Kars.

"Paying a visit, are we?" she asked, narrowing her eyes as she studied the tall, broad shouldered, thickly-muscled form standing before her tower complex.

"I've come to ask your indulgence, if you would hear me out," the Pillar Man said, a slight tilt to his head so that he was actually looking at her rather than down on her, the way Kars always seemed to.

"You really think I'm going to invite you into my building?" she asked, narrowing her eyes as she studied the man in front of her.

Wham actually chuckled, though the sound was soft and rueful, rather than mocking the way it had been with Kars and ACDC. "I wouldn't presume to be entitled to your hospitality."

"Well, at least one of you has some manners," she said, raising an eyebrow at the Pillar Man before her; none of her entourage made a sound, though there was definitely some amusement – good humored and not – lurking in their eyes when she paused to check their reactions. "All right; you have my attention, Wham. What did you want to discus?"

"I'm curious: why do you keep rejecting the offer of perfection that my Lord, Kars has made to you so many times?"

"I don't recall ever hearing an offer," she said, beginning to see the obvious cultural divide that she and Wham stood on either side of; under any other set of circumstances, she would have been rather more tolerant of such. "Though I do recall a kidnapping attempt, several assaults on my companions and subordinates, and the destruction of a great deal of my personal property."

However, after everything that had happened, she'd more than had her fill of dealing with the overbearing arse that was Kars the Pillar Man.

"Yes, I suppose you would remember it in that manner," Wham said, his tone a great deal more conciliatory than she would have expected from someone saying those words.

She raised an eyebrow, and then her left hand when it looked like Caesar was about to yell something unhelpful. "I know that memories can be self-serving at times, but none of the sacrifices I was forced to make would have been necessary if you and yours hadn't been pursuing me."

"Yes," Wham said, sounding as though he was starting to understand just what he and his had driven her to. "I suppose I should apologize."

"You haven't actually done anything," she said, tilting her head slightly to the Pillar Man standing before her; she could hardly begrudge the man for following orders; well, not from someone like Kars, at least.

He did honestly seem the type to execute someone for not listening to what he said.

"I would not have expected such understanding, considering how many weapons of yours you have pointed at me," Wham said, eyes flickering around the compound he was standing in, stopping for a handful of seconds on each and every one of the marksman-windows that she had a sniper posted in.

"You can hardly blame one for taking precautions, particularly when dealing with someone like you," she said, folding her arms and tilting her head as she continued to observe Wham's actions.

He didn't seem particularly likely to attack; however, he was still a Pillar Man, and there was the inherent hazard in dealing with him.

"Yes," Wham said, chuckling as he closed his eyes for a moment, clearly having conceded the point. "I would hardly expect you to leave yourself and your people vulnerable when meeting with me," he sobered, becoming serious once more. "A leader must always look to the welfare of their people."

=BT=

As he watched the Boss and Wham interacting with each other, Caesar found himself wondering just how in the world someone like Wham had ended up working so closely with a bastard like Kars. When the pair of them parted in an amicable sort of way, Caesar found himself wondering that all the more. Falling in behind the Boss as she made her way back into the Tower, Caesar re-slung his UV-rifle on his back and stepped back through the doors once again.

"I have to say, that went better than I was expecting," the Boss said, once the four of them had made their way into the elevator and were on their way back up to her top-floor office.

"True," Bruford said thoughtfully, an expression of deep thought on his face. "It seems a strange thing, to find a man of such honor in the company of a beast such as Kars."

"You're right," he said, narrowing his eyes as he considered everything that had happened in the past; everything he'd learned about one of the two remaining Pillar Men that they had all been facing.

It really did seem like he had some code of honor that he followed, which did in fact make it all the more puzzling that he seemed to be such a dedicated follower of that bastard Kars. He could see that same curiosity of his firmly reflected on the Boss' face as she made her way back into the Tower, and so Caesar knew that it was probably only a matter of time before they would be meeting with the Pillar Man named Wham again. He could only hope that it would be on their terms, rather than those of that bastard Kars.

=BT=

As he made his way back to the new holdings that he and Lord Kars had claimed for themselves after the destruction of the previous two buildings where they had been able to take shelter – even if in the most temporary sort of ways – Wham reflected back upon what he had learned of the female vampire after meeting her. The first thing he found was that he could no longer entirely bring himself to think of her as Lord Kars' vampire. She had so clearly established herself as a leader of the humans who gathered to her that such a thing would have been disrespectful in the extreme.

Even if the vampire herself never came to know it, it was the one thing that he could do for her.

Because, even with the respect that the young vampire had rightfully earned with her poise, her actions, and the way she had spoken to him, it was still a simple, undeniable fact that she could never hope to best Lord Kars in combat. Even with all of her native skill and wit, Lord Kars would simply overpower whatever means of defense or attack that she could devise. He'd never been so troubled by the thought of an inevitable victory before; not since…

But no, the female vampire that Lord Kars desired had so little in common with that long-ago Hamon tribe member that even making the comparison was an insult to the strength that he had seen in every line of the young vampire's face when the pair of them had stood before one another; every command that she had given.

He'd not so disparage all of who and what she was by making such a comparison, even though the vampire herself was not at all likely to hear of it. As he continued on into the inner-rooms of the building that he and Lord Kars had taken up residence in, Wham found his Lord – and one of the only remaining members of their kind, but he tried not to think of things in those terms, when he could avoid it – standing over a table that seemed to be crowded with colorful papers.

"Lord Kars," he greeted, wondering for a long moment if he should call attention to what his Lord was doing, before Lord Kars turned to him with a look of pleasure on his face.

"Wham," his Lord said, nodding briefly before returning his attention to the papers that seemed to have absorbed it so completely.

The sight of the female vampire's face adorning nearly every one of them – those that actually featured images on the covers, rather than simply text – gave him at least some idea of just what it was that his Lord was looking for in what would have otherwise seemed like a purely indulgent collection.

"It seems that my pet has been quite thoroughly busy," Lord Kars said, the pleased smile on his face twisting into a smirk as he traced the contours of the female vampire's picture on the front of a brightly colored sheaf of papers.

He'd no knowledge of the written language that the female vampire and those humans that she had drawn to her used, but the more pictures that he studied, the more the female vampire stood out to him as a leader and a guide to the humans who had gathered around her. It also appeared as though she was a match for Lord Kars in sheer inventiveness, as well.

"Lord Kars, I know it is not my place to question you, but I have my doubts that this path you're currently on will give you the resolution you desire."

"What do you mean, Wham?" Lord Kars asked, the expression on his face transforming into one of interest.

"I feel I must apologize; I went to take her measure, rather than reporting back to you as I should have," he said, dropping to his knees before his Lord, and hoping for a moment that he would not be punished too severely for his presumption.

"Oh?"

"Yes," he said, bowing all the deeper before his Lord, in the hopes that he would somehow be able to make himself understood in the way that such a matter required. "She seems to be not only a dedicated leader and guide to the humans who gather around her, in addition to the weapons and tools that she designs and builds for herself."

"Yes, that seems to be one of the only weaknesses that my pet is still prey to," Lord Kars mused, turning his attention back to the sheaves of paper lying all about the table that he'd gathered on the journeys that he'd clearly been undertaking, and waving to Wham in order to signal him to stand up.

Briefly parting his lips, Wham realized that it would do him little good to speak his mind when it was clear that Lord Kars had very little interest in the perspective that he had gained with regards to the female vampire and the humans – and even other vampires – that she presided over. He thought it rather a sad thing, that Lord Kars seemed completely disinterested in learning about the female vampire, where she herself had seemed to be rather interested in learning everything that Wham had come to know about the Lord of the Pillar Men during the millennia the pair of them had spent together.

He not felt that it was his place, to tell her about the young warrior of the Hamon tribe and how Lord Kars had been forced to dispatch the boy, and of the deplorable state of mind that such a thing had spoken so clearly of. Still, he wondered just what it was that she would have said, if he'd deigned to tell her of such a thing. He expected, given all that he had learned of her proclivities, that she would not have held such a thing against him.

Alice Brando was not a woman who took her underlings lightly, after all.