"Gramps!"
Jonathan felt himself pushed to the side, narrowly dodging another rain of Kars' Hamon-charged feathers, he then looked over at Joseph. His grandson seemed to either have lost his breath in the effort, or else taken a severe injury. The horrid sight of Joseph's right arm, or rather the charred stump where his right arm ended – just above the elbow, in fact – struck Jonathan to his very heart.
"Glad-" the harsh pants of a man in unspeakable pain cut off whatever it was that Joseph had been intending to say, but his grandson smiled grimly and forced himself to continue on in spite of that. "Glad I managed to make it in time."
"Joseph," he said, raising a hand, filled with Hamon; it wasn't as though he could actually manage to do anything aside from easing the pain that Joseph was so clearly in, but he'd do that without a moment's hesitation at any time.
"Thanks, Gramps," Joseph said, smiling back at him, even as he steadied his breathing and the pair of them returned their attention to the mad Pillar Man that they were all facing.
=BT=
Watching as his sweet sister began to revive at last, the ice that had preserved her from the Hamon that his sweet puppy and his Little Jojo had used to free her from that bastard of a Pillar Man that had taken her captive beginning to melt at last he, Dio smiled widely under the ingenious, folding helmet that his brilliant Alice had designed and built.
"It's so good to see you again, sister dear," he said, wishing for a long moment that he could have properly greeted his magnificent Alice, now that she was recovering from this most troublesome of ordeals.
"It's good to be seen, under the circumstances," his sweet sister said, sitting back up, though there seemed to be a lingering sort of stiffness to the way she moved; he supposed that the last of the ice hadn't yet melted, even in the heat of such a place as this.
It was a troublesome thing, to be sure, but hardly a disaster, considering.
"Stay here, sister," he, Dio, said, reaching out to gently settle his dear Alice back onto the stone of the volcano they were all battling upon the face of. "Let us handle this boorish creature for you."
"Yes," his sweet sister said, eyes narrowing slightly, before she pulled down the flap of fabric that would act as a means of protection against the sun without the helmet that that bastard of a Pillar Man had deprived her of. "All other considerations aside, I wouldn't be much help against a Hamon-user without my armor."
Growling deep in his throat as he, Dio, remembered the sight of his dear Alice's magnificent armor shattering to pieces as that miserable Kars shredded it, he found himself brought swiftly back to his senses at the feel of his sweet sister's right hand upon his shoulder.
"Keep a lid on it, all right?" his sweet sister said, a sharp tone of command to her voice, even as he, Dio, saw her eyes narrowing behind their cloth shield. "The last thing we need is anyone here going in half-cocked."
=BT=
Forced to dodge yet another barrage of those damnable devil fish that Kars was launching at them again, since it was clear to even an idiot that the feathers that he'd been previously using weren't going to work on them anymore, Joseph panted as he looked over at Gramps again. Anyone, even the aforementioned idiot, could tell that the old man was worried about what had happened; or, what could happen to them, after their plane had been destroyed by that bastard of a Pillar Man. Still, there was a lot that had gone wrong during the battle against Kars.
For one thing, Aunty Alice had been taken out of the fight entirely; there was no way for her to use Hamon without the crystal-matrix in her armor to channel it, or the scarf that allowed her to fight more effectively.
=BT=
Glancing back at the form of his and Dio's sister, sidelined as she was by the fact that that horrid Pillar Man had shattered her armor and thus deprived her of both the crystal-matrix and the scarf that she used to channel and use Hamon safely, Jonathan sighed. Knowing that Alice had already done everything in her power in order to ensure that Kars was trapped in this place alongside them – held down in a single place, so that he would no longer be such a danger to the Earth and all of the people living on her – gave him at least some hope that, even if he himself would not be able to leave this place alive, his family would at least be able to continue on.
Kars had regained the air at this point, and was clearly aiming to capture Alice once again, and so Jonathan gathered himself and made his way back over to where Joseph was standing.
"Hey, Gramps," Joseph said, turning to smile at him.
"How are your Hamon reserves?" he asked, turning to look over at Kars as the Pillar Man climbed steadily back into the air.
"About back to normal," his grandson said, glaring briefly up at Kars, before he turned back to look at him where he was standing. "Do you think we might have the chance, in our current condition."
"Not in our current condition, no," he said, sighing as he gathered himself for what he was about to do; it seemed that there was truly no escaping the fate that had been planned for him. "Still, there is something we can do." Rather; a last thing I can do, he mused, knowing that Joseph would have attempted to stop him if he told his grandson just what it was that he planned to do.
Just as Alice, Dio, Elizabeth, and even Erina would have done, if any of them had been able to find out his plan in some fashion or other.
"All right, Gramps, sounds good," Joseph said, nodding in the decisive fashion that he'd come to expect from his willful grandson in such situations as this. "What do we need to do?"
"Just give me your hand," he said, feeling a distinct, sharp pang in his heart as he forced himself not to pluralize the word as he spoke it; it was simply one more reason that the Pillar Man before them needed to be destroyed.
Once Joseph's remaining hand had been sandwiched within his own, Jonathan reached deeply into himself, gathering all of the Hamon that he had managed to generate during all of the years that he had lived in this world. This last had been a technique that Master Tonpetty had given to him, alongside the prophecy that had hung over his head for such a long time that he'd almost become accustomed to such a thing.
"Ultimate Deep-Pass Overdrive!" he shouted, feeling all of his remaining Hamon – every last drop of it – draining into his grandson; in the end, all that Jonathan could find it in himself to regret was the fact that he'd not get to meet any of the future generations of his and Erina's family…
=BT=
"Whoa!" he exclaimed, as the sudden sensation of Gramps' Hamon flooded into him, throwing his head back and nearly causing him to stumble to the ground; panting as he tried to regain at least some of his equilibrium after everything that had happened. "Gramps…"
Looking down at the poor, sad, old corpse that had once been his dear Gramps, Joseph gathered himself for what he was going to have to do; the first thing, of course, would be to take Gramps' corpse to Aunty Alice so she would be able to keep it safe while he and the others dealt with that bastard Kars. Once he'd finished with that, Joseph turned his attention back to Dio and Straizo as the pair of them fought a holding action against the bastard Pillar Man who had already taken so much from them as a family.
"Welcome back, Little Jojo," Uncle Dio said, as the three of them all took up their positions in battle again.
"Good to be back, Uncle Dio," he said, bracing himself once again for what he was going to need to do.
Winning this fight wasn't even going to be the most challenging thing he was going to have to do; explaining what had happened to Gramps, particularly to Uncle Dio, that was going to be the real problem that he would face.
=BT=
Narrowing her eyes as she felt the increased rumbling from the volcano that they were all standing on, Alice stood back up, just as Kars was suddenly launched skyward on a broken piece of the ground. Dio and Joseph had also been dragged along for the ride, but if there was anything she knew about her brother and her grand-nephew both, it was that the pair of them were fully capable of getting out of situations that would have challenged the mettle of anyone else. Making her way over to Straizo as her aide struggled back to his feet, she called out as he started looking up into the sky where the rock was swiftly ascending out of even the enhanced eyesight of a pair of vampires like them.
"Come on; the volcano is about to erupt! We need to be out of the caldera when it does!" Watching as Straizo's gaze began to shift to the corpse that she'd draped over her back, she rapped out her next order in the tone that always drew her fellow vampire's attention as well as his obedience. "We can discuss things later; but if we don't clear the area now, we won't be leaving at all!"
"Yes, ma'am."
The pair of them turned quickly, leaping the rim of the caldera and sliding their way down to the sea. Hitting the water, Alice fast-froze a raft under the pair of them just as Straizo's gaze began to shift back to the air. Once she'd gotten Jonathan's corpse settled in the center of the raft that she'd constructed, Alice turned her own gaze to see just what it was that her aide was so interested in.
"Help me steer this thing," she said, as the falling forms of Joseph and Dio became clearer amid the mass of broken rock that was falling through the sky toward where she and Straizo were currently standing.
"Yes, ma'am."
Working together, the pair of them were soon able to position the raft close enough to the point where Dio and Joseph were going to be landing that they were able to pull the pair of them out of the water before they could start sinking.
"Where is he?" Dio asked, as soon as he'd managed to get his feet back under him.
"Back there," she said, knowing just what it was that her brother would be interested in; particularly after spending enough time with Joseph that he'd probably been informed of the specifics of what had gone on.
Pausing for a moment as Joseph slipped his remaining arm around her shoulders, Alice held his hand in both of hers and the pair of them made their way over to the center of the raft where they were all gathered at this point.
=BT=
"Jojo…" he, Dio, muttered, looking down at the sad, pitiful form that had once been his sweet puppy.
True, it was something that he'd known that Jojo was capable of doing – clearly, something that that old Hamon master had taught to him; though if he, Dio, had known about such a thing, he would have given the man such a lecture – if not in the specific, then in general because he'd known the puppy for so long. Jojo had never been the kind of person he could allow such a threat as that bastard Pillar Man to continue to exist in the world, particularly when he had the power to do something about it.
Sighing as he, Dio, dove into the water in order to sculpt the bottom of what was to be their transport back to the mainland that they had departed from what seemed to be such a very long time ago, he made his way back up to the surface to climb back into what had become much more of a proper watercraft by this point. Stopping to embrace his sweet sister he, Dio, continued on his way up to the side of the corpse of his and his dear Alice's sweet puppy.
"Uncle Dio," his Little Jojo greeted him, turning away from the corpse that they had both been watching over ever since his sweet puppy had sacrificed himself in order to ensure the death of that bastard of a Pillar Man who had threatened their family and the world they all lived in.
=BT=
While Dio and Joseph held their vigil over Jonathan's corpse, she and Straizo steered their course back to the mainland so that they would be able to let everyone know what had happened to Jonathan. To say nothing of the conclusion of their battle with Kars. Once they'd arrived back in one of her holdings in Italy, Alice stepped down from what had become a makeshift boat made of crafted ice.
"Milady, it pleases me greatly to know that you and yours are well," Bruford said, meeting up with the four of them as they carried their burden back towards the tower that their icy watercraft had arrived at.
"Not all of us," Dio said, a slight growl to his tone as the four of them began making their way into the tower so that they could get Jonathan's body settled somewhere.
There was a brief moment of hesitation in Bruford's manor, before the old knight seemed to realize just what it was that her brother was getting at.
"Ah, so Sir Jonathan has come to the end," Bruford said, making his way over to the wrapped form at the center of their group as they continued forward.
Bruford was quick to join up with them, taking his own position at the center of their group and propping Jonathan's body up with his right arm. The five of them then continued on their way into the lobby of her Triestina Tower, settling Jonathan's body down on a nearby couch, while Dio and Bruford set themselves to watch over it, and she went to inform the rest of their group about what had happened on the volcano. And also, what she'd been told of the battle with Kars.
=BT=
While Aunty Alice went to go tell everyone what had happened to Gramps, Joseph made his way back over to the couch where Uncle Dio and Bruford were sitting with his corpse. Wrapping his arms around Uncle Dio, as the vampire turned to look his way, the pair of them settled down into the plush cushions and allowed themselves to rest for the first time since this whole thing had started.
"My Little Jojo," Uncle Dio muttered, blond hair tickling his chin as the vampire tucked his head against Joseph's left temple. "Why do you think Jojo didn't tell me, Dio, what he planned to do?"
"I think Gramps was thinking of all of us," he said, feeling as though something of Gramps – aside from even the Hamon that Gramps had given to him at the very end of his life – lived on in him, even now. "I think he didn't want any of us to be worried about him, considering what was going to have to happen."
"It had to happen?" Uncle Dio echoed, something fragile in his manor, even for all the bluster he was clearly starting to build up.
"Considering what kind of abilities Kars was demonstrating, I don't think there was any way for all five of us to survive," he said, shuddering slightly as he recalled the sheer power and abilities that Kars had been demonstrating, even up to the point where he'd managed to overpower the Pillar Man and maneuver him into the place atop the volcano where he'd been able to launch him out of the atmosphere.
It almost reminded him of the way Dad had died; though his plane had broken apart in the upper-atmosphere, coming down as a shower of shooting stars while he, Mum, Uncle Speedwagon, and Uncle Dio had all watched in the kind of helpless horror that could only truly be experienced by someone on the ground when they were watching as someone so high in the air died in a blaze of fire and light.
Still, at least there was the hope that Kars wouldn't be coming back from such a thing, just as Dad hadn't been able to do such a thing, in the end.
Still, as the three of them all settled down on the sofa together, each trying to get a handle on what had happened in their own way, Joseph found himself wondering what would happen next.
The next couple days, as they got the funeral arrangements made for Gramps and got everyone up to speed on just what had happened to Kars at the conclusion of such, seemed to pass in something of a blur. Everyone seemed to be feeling the same, though, so at least Joseph hadn't found himself alone in all that.
"Little Jojo," Uncle Dio said, making his way into the room he'd been given within Aunty Alice's Triestina Tower, draping himself around Joseph's shoulders as though he was some kind of vampire mink stole, or something.
"Hullo, Uncle Dio," he said, gently pulling the vampire's arms over his shoulders, so that the pair of them could settle more comfortably into the large chair that had been placed within the large room that had been given to him when he'd gotten settled in the Tower along with the rest of their family,
Uncle Dio had been getting a bit more clingy of late, ever since Gramps had died; not as though Joseph didn't understand why such a thing had happened, but it was something he'd become almost uncomfortably aware of during the duration of their stay. Still, it was clear that Uncle Dio had been cast fairly adrift by being forced to essentially watch as someone he'd loved and cared about for so long as he had Gramps had died while he'd been ultimately helpless to do even a single thing about it. It had to be the worst feeling in the world, especially for someone like Uncle Dio.
=BT=
"You're certain about this?" she asked, raising an eyebrow at Bruford as he unclipped the clasp of his cloak, and then slipped the cloak itself off.
"Aye, milady," Bruford said, nodding in that way he did when he was certain about something that he'd decided to do. "I feel that I have seen enough for two lifetimes."
"Well, it is your decision," she said, and then smirked slightly. "Though you're going to be the one that has to explain this to Tarkus, you know."
Bruford chuckled softly. "Aye, I could hardly do anything less."
=BT=
When their family, extended and immediate, had all gathered for Gramps' funeral, he couldn't help but notice the fragility in Uncle Dio's demeanor; even after all this time, it seemed that Uncle Dio hadn't quite managed to come back to himself. Even with all of the support that he still had from Aunty Alice in particular – to say nothing about Granny Erina, Uncle Speedwagon, and Straizo, Bruford, and Tarkus – Uncle Dio still hadn't managed to pull himself back together again. It was one of the saddest things that Joseph had ever seen, knowing what kind of person that Uncle Dio had been, and then seeing just what the death of Gramps had done to him.
So, even as he was making plans to marry Suzie Q, Joseph was also talking to her about making a place for Uncle Dio to stay in whatever home they managed to establish for themselves when the pair of them were finally able to settle down.
=BT=
Turning at the sound of a rather familiar voice, grumbling what were clearly the kind of Elizabethan-era flavored obscenities that the man had proven himself to be so fond of – particularly when she'd told him about the terminology that was used to describe the era he came from – Alice raised an eyebrow as she watched Tarkus stomp his way into the room that she'd taken up a position in.
"I didn't know if you were going to show up for this," she said, stepping slightly to the left so that she could make some space for Tarkus to stand at the window beside her.
"Even though he is being a damned fool, he shouldn't do this kind of thing alone," Tarkus grumbled, folding his thick arms across his broad chest as he faced the large, UV-filtering picture window that stood before the balcony overlooking the eastern expanse of the Italian city.
Without another word, Tarkus knocked on the tempered glass that separated the pair of them from the open balcony where Bruford was standing, looking out toward the still-darkened horizon. Or, at least he had been, before Tarkus' knocking drew his attention back to the pair of them where they were standing. Watching as Tarkus and Bruford both pressed their hands against the glass that separated them, palms flat against one another's, Alice smiled slightly as Tarkus glared in response to Bruford's calm smile.
It was rather interesting, watching the interactions of two people who had known each other long enough to be able to communicate without words, in the same way that she and Dio were sometimes able to do when they interacted; still, it seemed as though she wasn't going to have that kind of a chance for much longer.
When the sun finally began to rise, with Bruford opening his arms wide as though he planned to embrace it, Alice narrowed her eyes as she watched the man's body crumble under the harsh light of the sun as it poured down on him. Tarkus sighed harshly, having clearly inhaled deeply for just such an occasion, and as she flipped the switch that would extend the bulletproof, anti-UV glass shielding around the balcony that Bruford's armor was now sitting on, Tarkus stomped out onto the balcony to fetch it.
"What are you planning to do with that?" she asked, raising an eyebrow as she watched Tarkus carry Bruford's empty cuirass back into the room where the pair of them had been standing while they stayed with Bruford in his final moments.
"If it's all the same to you, Milady, I'll be keeping it in my room from now on," Tarkus said, glancing briefly at her, before returning his attention to the cuirass he was holding.
"Very well," she said, nodding as she turned to make her way back to her office.
There was still work to be done, of course; as the CEO of a massive international corporation, there was always work to be done.
=BT=
As he made his rounds of the Boss' holdings, searching for Old Man Speedwagon at her behest, Caesar found himself wondering just how the old man was doing. Something had seemed to go out of him, when he'd heard the news that Jonathan had died on Isola de Volgano, and the Boss had asked him to keep an eye on the man while he was rambling about the grounds of her Santa Barbara estate. He didn't know just what he was going to find, once he'd laid his eyes on the man, but he was going to find him, all the same.
Once he'd made his way out to the elegant gardens that the Boss maintained, Caesar caught sight of Old Man Speedwagon, facing the statue of the dog, peacock, and owl that Dio and Jonathan had commissioned as something of a centerpiece of the garden.
"So, this is where you ended up, Old Man," he muttered, making his way over to check the man's pulse; as he'd almost been expecting, there wasn't one.