Pausing for a moment to study the form of Little Lori as she continued painting her beautiful masterpiece he, Dio, found himself smiling in a fond sort of nostalgia. He also found himself wondering if his sweet Alice could still find the time for herself to paint, in the way that she had done back when they had been not only children, but also simple humans living in the Joestar estate back in the English countryside. He wondered about that, and almost without his consciously willing it he, Dio, found his World standing beside him.

The pair of them shared a deep gaze into each other's eyes and then he, Dio, smiled softly. After all, if his World could indeed halt the gears of time, then such a thing could indeed present a way for him to present his dear Alice with something wonderful. Still, there was also the matter of Little Lori and her adorable boyfriend.

He would have to find something to bring the pair of them closer together; they truly did make a sweet couple.

=SC=

Once he and that annoying bishonen – Noriaki Kakyoin, though he still wasn't going to think of him as anything but the annoying bishonen he'd proved himself to be on so many occasions – had finished showing off their Stands to each other, about as much as they'd been trying to beat the shit out of each other with them, Jotaro made his way back to his room to get some rest.

Then, recalling that the Old Man was staying here and would probably want to come to his room and pester him about something or other, Jotaro turned to head for Aunt Alice's room. It was the one place that he'd be able to get some peace from the Old Man and his endless capacity to annoy him, and Jotaro knew that Aunt Alice would be willing and able to toss the Old Man out on his ass if he tried to come in there and irritate them. Knocking on the door, he smiled slightly when Aunt Alice came to open it.

"Jotaro," she greeted, her right eyebrow raised slightly in that way she had of questioning someone without actually having to say a single thing.

"You mind if I stay here for a bit?" he asked, sticking his hands in his pockets as he stood outside the door.

"Joseph?" she asked, a soft smirk on her face as she stepped aside to let him make his way into her room.

"Yeah," he said, smirking slightly as he made his way inside.

"Dio gave me another walk-in closet," she said, an amused expression on her face as she stepped behind him to close the door as he made his way inside. "I haven't really started to fill the thing yet, so you'll have a fair amount of room if you want to stay in there."

He chuckled, continuing on his way inside, pleased that he wouldn't have to deal with the Old Man if he wanted to come around and annoy him for some stupid reason.

=SC=

Humming cheerfully as he, Dio, made his way back from the chemist, he turned briefly to watch as Little Lori and her adorable boyfriend sat with each other and their respective Stands. And yes, it did seem as though the pair of them might indeed begin to make a more than token effort with respect to their courtship, but there was still no telling just when or how they would ultimately come out if he, Dio, didn't properly intervene. Really, the pair of them should truly think him for what he was going to do.

Both of them had seemed rather lonely, though Little Lori handled such a thing with a great deal more aplomb than her adorable boyfriend.

Settling back into his room with his purchases he, Dio, began carefully putting them away so that he would be able to conceal them from those who might chance to get a look inside his room for whatever reason. He would also have to make a point of speaking to Vanilla Ice about preparing some special meals for Little Lori and her adorable boyfriend; something that would put them on the proper path with regards to their relationship.

=SC=

Mommy… Shuddering as he continued on his way through the streets of Cairo, J Geil rubbed his arms to try to keep himself together. He'd felt the sheer weight of whatever kind of force had just crushed his poor mother, and had found himself falling to the ground. Luckily, he'd managed to drag himself into a secluded alley, so that no one else had been able to interfere with him while he was weak and all but helpless. Mother had told him that she was going to meet with that horrible woman who had attacked him back when he'd been in France with that girl.

And then… He shuddered again, leaning against the wall of the building whose shadow he was standing in. there weren't many windows in the alley he was standing in, so he wouldn't be able to send the Hanged Man out to take revenge for his poor mother on the ignorant people milling all around him, so he had to get somewhere that he could do something like that. Mother didn't deserve to die alone and forgotten, after all.

=SC=

Tapping his way down the hall, N'Doul lifted his head and sniffed the air, smiling as he continued on his way to the dining room; it seemed as though dinner was ready. The clatter of serving dishes and cutlery made a slightly unpleasant background as he settled himself down in his accustomed chair.

"So, Uncle Dio, tell us more about this girl you met," Holly Kujo chirruped, and N'Doul could almost hear the wide, cheerful smile that she was wearing on her face.

That was just the kind of person that Holly Kujo seemed to be; truly, she seemed to endeavor to bring whatever happiness that she could to anyone and everyone that chanced to come into contact with her. It was one of the many reasons that he could understand Lord Dio's desire to protect her, leaving aside the fact that she was a close member of his family. Holly Kujo was not a woman who should be exposed to the cruelties and savagery of the world; it was something that every member of Lord Dio's entourage could agree upon.

Smiling softly as Lord Dio discussed the woman that he had brought into their midst in order to bear the child that it seemed that she was carrying on his behalf, N'Doul thanked Joseph as he handed over a plate of meatloaf and settled more comfortably into his chair. It was at moments such as this that N'Doul found himself all the more grateful for Alice Brando and everything that she had done for him.

She was not a woman who would allow the simple-minded fools in the world to dictate what was good and what was evil, after all.

=SC=

Once they'd all finished dinner, even Aunt Alice and Uncle Dio who didn't actually eat, Jotaro excused himself from the table and made his way back to his room. At least long enough to throw the Old Man off his trail, anyway. Sending Star into the rafters, to keep an eye out for the Old Man while he was in his room, and then quickly left for Aunt Alice's room. Sure, he knew that he wouldn't be able to do this kind of thing forever, since even as annoying as the Old Man was he wasn't an idiot.

Well, not that much of one, anyway.

"Jotaro," Aunt Alice said, smirking slightly as she stepped out of his way. "Careful, I might start thinking you like hanging out in my closet."

Shaking his head, Jotaro grumbled good-naturedly as he made his way over to the walk-in closet that Uncle Dio had had built for Aunt Alice. Sliding open the door, Jotaro made his way over to the beanbag chair that he'd taken in the last time he'd stayed in Aunt Alice's closet. Pulling the chain for the light bulb in the center of the space, Jotaro smirked as he looked down at the collection of wraparound sunglasses that had been neatly lined up on top of the small chest of drawers that was standing just under the chain that he'd just pulled.

Chuckling softly as he plopped down into the center of the beanbag chair he'd set up for himself, Jotaro curled up, nodding to Star as his Stand handed him another of his manga.

=SC=

"Hello, Mr. Ice," she said, feeling slightly strange as she saw Mr. Brando's strange retainer showed up at the door of the room where she and Noriaki were staying. "Was there something you wanted?"

"Lord Dio sends his compliments," the man said, handing over the tall mugs that he'd been carrying when he'd first showed up. "He wishes for you both to enjoy this."

"Well, tell him thanks for us, then," Noriaki said, making his own way over to stand beside her in the door, taking the mug of what seemed to be the cherry soda that he'd enjoyed so much when he'd first tried it.

"I will be certain to convey your gratitude, Noriaki Kakyoin, Loreena McKennitt," the man said, nodding to the pair of them in a way that almost made it look like he was bowing to them, or something.

"Well, that was a bit odd," she said, looking at the door for a lingering moment, before turning back to Noriaki where he was standing.

"Well, I guess it just goes to show how much he's starting to care about us," Noriaki chuckled, taking a long sip of his cherry soda. "He's a bit meddlesome, it seems."

"More than a bit," she said, grinning a bit herself as she had some of the chocolate milk that Vanilla Ice had delivered to her, evidently on the orders of Mr. Brando himself. "Still, it was nice of him, at least."

Noriaki chuckled softly, as the pair of them made their way over to the table that had been set up for them – or, anyone who stayed in a room like this, really – and settled down around it to have their drinks.

=SC=

The ringing of the phone drew her attention to the office-section of the room that Dio had set up for her, and Alice made her way over to the elegant, polished cherry wood desk that had been set up on the far right side of the room. All of the furniture in this part of her room had been made from cherry wood, lending a certain elegance to the place, even though Dio had clearly come to understand her desire to have more of a focus on function over form, particularly when she was using something strictly for business.

Settling down behind the desk where the phone had been set down, she picked it up and held it to her left ear, raising an eyebrow as she heard the familiar, subtle crackling in the background of the line that meant that this call was being routed from her Lunar base.

"Hello?" she said, settling down on her left elbow and tilting her head slightly.

"Ma'am, it's good to speak to you again," Jim Lovell, the head of senior-staff at the Lunar base observatory, greeted with what sounded like a calm smile on his face.

It was something she'd become more and more used to, ever since she'd assigned Brando Aerospace to examine Apollo 13 for flaws and the problem that would have otherwise stranded them in orbit had been discovered before it could cause them the kind of problems that had occurred Before. Of course, NASA had still ended up being slowly edged out of their role of exploration beyond the environs of Earth by her own Brando Aerospace, but then politicians weren't typically known for their depth or breadth of vision. That, at least, was something that this place had in common with things that she remembered from Before.

Most of the astronauts that had been tapped for the Apollo program, and even the earlier Mercury and Gemini programs, had thrown in their lot with Brando Aerospace when the company had begun to truly rise to prominence in the world at large. The only thing that she hadn't actually been able to do was intervene to save the lives of Gus Grissom and his crew, during the fire in the Apollo 1 capsule. Still, the simple fact of the matter was that Brando Aerospace hadn't been prominent enough within the company in order to intervene in that kind of thing.

It wasn't the greatest kind of situation, but she'd done everything she could with the abilities and capital she'd possessed at that point in time; there was really no point in dwelling on things that couldn't be changed.

"Commander."

"Hold on a moment, Jim," she said, turning to N'Doul as he made his way over to the desk where she was seated. "Has something come up?"

"I'm afraid there's a situation in Cairo," the blind agent said, adjusting his darkened glasses in that certain way that all of her Blackwater and Blackwatch agents had been trained to use in order to communicate the seriousness of a given situation. "The man you encountered in France seems to be making quite a nuisance of himself."

Before she could do more than rise from the chair where she'd been seated, telling Jim that she would get back to him when she returned, she heard the heavy footfalls of her capricious twin as he made his way up to the room that he'd given to her when she'd chosen to stay in this place for what time that she could.

"-entire family of fools," Dio snarled, clearly having been muttering some kind of maledictions against something that seemed to relate to the man they were going to have to deal with soon.

"What was that?" she asked, as Dio made his way into her room at last.

"The man N'Doul is telling you about is the fool son of that traitor, Enya," Dio said, a tinge of annoyance remaining in his eyes, even as he turned to her with a cheerful sort of expression on his face. "It seems as though the death of his worthless mother has caused him to lose what little sense he had in that empty head of his."

"He's related to Enya?" she asked, feeling a slight tinge of annoyance for not having dealt with the man in a more permanent way when the pair of them had first encountered each other all those months ago when she and the Polnareffs had first met in the wake of that moment.

"The imbecile is her son," Dio sneered, the annoyance in his tone slowly shading into real anger, though Alice rather doubted that it had so much to do with the fact that Enya's son seemed to be attacking the people of Cairo, and more to do with the fact that there was a loose end that they'd yet to tie up. "And, it seems that he is just as much of a fool as she was."

"So, we're all going out to deal with him?" Jotaro asked, slamming his way out of her closet, and actually managing to sound like he thought asking was only a formality.

"Oh?" Dio asked, her twin's habitual good-natured amusement returning in force as he turned his attention to Jotaro where he was standing. "You want to come with us, my Littlest Jojo?"

"Yeah," Jotaro said, a distinct expression of annoyance on his face; he really wasn't a fan of the nickname that Dio had given him.

The four of them had soon come to an accord, and were able to move out. The signs of distress weren't exactly hard to find, since the man who'd accosted Sherry Polnareff in France was apparently as much of an idiot as he'd presented the impression of being, because there were people running and screaming in the shopping district, where there were a great deal of windows that his Stand was darting between, cutting down the people who happened to be unfortunate enough to be standing in its way.

All four of them summoned their respective Stands, and she nodded to Stardust, who obligingly launched itself at the Stand that had been causing so much trouble. When said Stand tried to leap to the window on the opposite side of the street from where they were all gathered, Alice could almost feel Stardust smirking as it teleported just in front of the point the enemy Stand was going to enter the other window, grabbed the enemy Stand's head, and drove its thumbs into the thing's eyes.

The sound of a man screaming in agony drew all of their attention, and Alice smirked as Dio laughed outright.

"Well done, sister dear," her capricious twin said, a wide grin on his face as he, Jotaro, and N'Doul turned toward the sound of the man screaming in the distance.

=SC=

When the asshole causing all the trouble had been caught by Aunt Alice, running out of the alley he'd been hiding in with blood dripping from his eyes, Jotaro ground his teeth. Uncle Dio had told him that damage and injuries were shared between Stands and their users, but up to this point he'd never actually seen that kind of thing in action. It was creepy as fuck, but there was still some element of usefulness to it. Or, at least that was what Aunt Alice probably would have said.

He just thought it was creepy, really; watching the guy running out of the alley, screaming and with blood pouring down his face from what remained of his eyes.

Sending Star after him, wanting to shut him up as fast as he could since the noise was not only pissing him off, but would also draw in more people who could only get in their way while they tried to get all of them out of the way, Jotaro had the Stand snap his neck after it had managed to jump him from behind. Uncle Dio's Stand appeared just beside Star, seeming like it could teleport in just the same way as Aunt Alice's Stand had shown that it was able to do.

"That was well played, my Littlest Jojo," Uncle Dio said, grinning widely as he sauntered over to where he and Star were standing, with the broken-necked form of the asshole who'd been attacking all of those people – at least the ones who hadn't been smart enough to scatter when that Stand had been jumping between all the windows in Cairo's shopping district – lying slumped at his feet.

"What happened to the Stand?" he asked, knowing that there would be hell to pay if they let that damned Stand up again and it started killing people even without the commands of its user.

"I had Stardust pin it down, and then it faded out when you snapped that guy's neck," Aunt Alice said, making her way over to the four of them where they were standing together, Stardust peeking out briefly to wave at them before it vanished into her body again.

"Good," he said, tensing up as Uncle Dio stepped over and hugged him, narrowing his eyes as the vampire nuzzled him. "Fuck off, Uncle Dio."

"You cheeky little brat," Uncle Dio chuckled, as his Stand ruffled Star's hair, mussing it up in a way that would have been annoying as all hell if he'd actually yanked off Jotaro's hat and tried to do that to him.

"If the both of you are finished," Aunt Alice said, in that tolerant way she had of letting people she cared about know when they were being dorks and she was just about to call them on it, but would give them one last warning, all the same.

"Yes, we truly should be getting back home," Uncle Dio said, as N'Doul made his way back over to them; probably after having gone to get the police or some kind of clean-up crew, or something like that.

As the four of them made their way back to the car that'd brought them to this part of Cairo in the first place, Jotaro almost sent Star to look back at the carnage that that Asshole and his Stand had been responsible for. If they'd managed to hear about this shit sooner… Shaking his head in annoyance, knowing that he shouldn't let himself dwell on things that couldn't be changed, Jotaro kept walking.

The past was the past, and he hadn't heard of any Stand that could change it.

=SC=

Once he, his sweet sister, his Littlest Jojo, and N'Doul had all returned to his holdings in Cairo at last he, Dio, made his way back to the room that he had so carefully prepared for himself when he'd prepared this place for the use of not only those transient tourists who would be staying in this place once the hotel and spa had been properly completed, but his lovely family when they would have the opportunity to stay with him. There were still matters of import that he, Dio, would have to attend to before he could truly call this day done.

Matters of a far more cheerful nature than being forced to clean up the lingering taint of Enya and her fool offspring, happily enough.

Making his way over to the concealed cupboard where he'd stored his purchases from the chemist he, Dio, hummed cheerfully as he began to prepare the next batch. He'd seen some results from his initial workings, and yes he was fully aware that some matters were best handled with delicacy, tact, and above all time, but there were simply times that one was better served putting a hand into something than simply to wait and allow nature to take its course.

Such a thing was particularly true when one found themselves dealing with mortals.

Thoughts of mortality, of course, could not but serve to remind him of the loss of his poor, sweet puppy. That damnable Kars…! Setting down the powders he was working with, before he, Dio, could have crushed them in the wake of the accustomed rush of white-hot fury at the mere thought of the Pillar Man he, Dio, found himself lost in memories for a time.

Not only had his own helplessness in the face of the sheer inequality of their respective powers and abilities infuriated him almost beyond all reasonable measure, but knowing just what it was that the creature had had the gall to plan for his sweet sister… Finding himself actually growling as he forced his thoughts back to the present moment and the matters he was currently attending to he, Dio, rubbed his mouth as he dragged his attention back to the happier matters of Little Lori and her adorable boyfriend.

=SC=

Sighing as he settled himself down in the beanbag chair he'd brought into Aunt Alice's closet, Jotaro found that he couldn't quite get the things he'd seen out of his head. Not like he hadn't been trying or anything, but every time he'd tried to think of something else, the sight of those people who'd been cut to pieces by that asshole's Stand would come right back to him, almost as fresh as the first time he'd seen them.

Hell, he could practically still smell the fresh scent of blood, just as nauseating as when it had first been spilled.

"Well, this is certainly an odd place to find oneself."

Whipping around at the familiar sound of Enrico Pucci's voice, Jotaro found that Star hadn't quite finished bringing him things when he'd discovered the Stand and gotten a name for it.