The Devil's Bride *Sebastian Love*

Her Butler, Serene

  Alette lay bleeding on the floor. Kelvin lay in a puddle of his own vital fluids as well. Ciel huffed and puffed with frustration, not knowing what to do. His only friend, lay dying at his foot while his two enemies still clung to life. Looks like he'd have to finish the job after all.
"Private...soldiers...?"
"Phantomhive is a shadow which exists solely to dispose of Her Majesty's worries, aided now by the Queen's Scorpion."
"It's sink or swim and you're swimming with sharks." Added Alette.
"Shut up!" growled Joker.
"You're in the world of wolves and we welcome all you sheep."
"You sure have a lot to say for a dying little girl." Smirked Joker. He was so wrong she couldn't even reply. She was not little; she was almost a woman grown. And she wasn't dying.... was she?
"Once you enter our den, you can never return to the light." She frowned at that. She always believed that, despite her sins, she could somehow return to the light. But not according to him. Did he believe in redemption?
Joker's violet pupils shrank with fear at this realization.
"They're pros too! They won't be easy to--."
"You're free to believe what you like, but don't forget, I choose them."
"My butler was there as well, and she matches his abilities." And as he watched his adoptive father bleed out, he couldn't help but think of them.
"Please...live..." he muttered. "Even if I can't..." It was then the sound of heels clicking against linoleum reverberated around the room. Selima approached, emotionless. She strode past Alette, to the bleeding men. She drops a handful of pictures. At first Joker doesn't know what he's looking at. Then he realizes, and let out an awful scream.
"I killed your children. I killed your friends." Her voice was deadly quiet, almost dangerous. Tears leaked from the corners of Jokers eyes. There were pictures of bloody holes in Peter and Wendy's heads, Jumbo's body was covered in multiple lacerations and contusions. Beast had her throat ripped out, lying a puddle of her own blood, Dagger's bones were charred from the explosion.
"What should we have done?!" he yelled out. "Like Tom the Piper's son, we can only play one tune. We can only do one thing. But...maybe if we had been born in some other country...If we. If our bodies weren't like this... We wouldn't..." Tears streamed down his face as he sobbed, voice cracking.
"Don't cry; it's pathetic." Chastised Ciel. "Crying won't change anything. The world isn't kind to anyone."
"Smile?" It was now Alette could see how hard he had become on the inside, the loss of everything, his house, family, pride, had changed him, molded him into something dark. Would she be able to change that?
"I only have one name, and it's Ciel Phantomhive." It was then Selima walked over to Alette, who lay still, breathing slowly. She placed a cold hand to her master's jaw and tilted it upward.
"Arise, and be all that you dreamed." She whispered. Alette felt a sudden surge of energy, was this what it was like to die? Everything became clearer, she was more aware of her surroundings. "Sebastian, you had one job." She growled.
"I know, my lady. And I have failed you." He fell to his knee in a deep bow. She nodded.
"Should she live; I shall forgive you for this misdemeanor."
"Sorry I'm late! I brought more! Hmm? Black, Smile, Lady of Pyre, and Siren? What are you doing?"
"Stay away, Doc! They're the Queen's servants!"
"Hmm? You're the ones?"
"Run, please!"
"What? Why?" Joker's mouth dropped as he stood up, legs perfectly fine. "You're the kidnappers and I only did what the baron hired me to. I have no reason to run.
"Doc...your legs aren't...lame?" stammered Joker as he quivered.
"My legs? Oh yeah, they're perfectly sound. I've just been sitting in that chair...kids like you trust me more easily that way. Lord Kelvin!" He rushed to the bleeding man, putting a hand over the knife wound created by Alette. "Well, he's done for. That's just cruel. I'd finally found a patron that understood my ideals!"
"Ideals?" asked Sebastian, who knelt beside Selima. She was stitching Alette's wound as she drifted in and out of consciousness.
"Right my ideals! I've been working for years to make the perfect prosthetic." He elaborated, a crazy gleam in his eyes. And after all that research, at last I arrived at the finest material. Lighter and stronger than wood, and with the unique sterile beauty of ceramic. I created what no one before me had been able to." He saunters over to Joker and wistfully picks up his detached prosthetic. "The only problem with my material is that it was a touch difficult to gather."
"Yes, your prosthetics did have a lovely texture." Noticed Sebastian. "Almost like bone china."
"You can appreciate this beauty, Black?! But you're off the mark! I wish you wouldn't rate my work the same as cattle bone china!"
"I do recall you saying you used special materials..."
"That's right!" the doctor seemed ready to explode. He was busting to talk about his work, it was clear he didn't get to often. "Special materials I can only get here!"
"D-do you mean?" asked Ciel. As Alette arrived at the same realization, she retched violently. It felt as if her entire insides were coming out, which only put pressure on the stitches, sending white hot pain through her chest.
"It saves the trouble of dumping them somewhere." Smiled the doctor manically. "Brilliant recycling, don't you think?" Alette looked up from her vomit to see a small girl, looking emaciated and sad. She wanted to puke all over again. Joker thought back to all the innocent children he'd lured to their deaths.
"It can't be." He lets out another scream filled with emotional turmoil, then slams his prosthetic on the ground multiple times.
"See? Another patient rejecting it." Blood resumed flowing from his lost appendage.
"I can't... believe...what we've..." Tears trickled down his face smearing his purple paint.
"And you were so happy to have this right hand too!"
"If I'd have known, I wouldn't have..."
"You wouldn't have wanted it? Are you sure?" It was then he lost the will to live. Traumatized by the truth, his family dead, he simply gave up and let the darkness take over him.
"Well, that's the end of my job here. Oh I say! Lord Phantomhive! Would you hire me? In fact, introduce me to the queen! She is getting on in years, surely she could use some maintenance? I've got a record of successful experiments, and I do excellent work."
"Shut your mouth, you scum." Growled Ciel.
"Aw, are you another pigheaded type that cares more about the process than the results? What about you Lady Vamphina? Everyone sings my practices until they know!" He opens a cage and drags out the red headed girl that was looking at Alette. "But the baron was different. He was highly motivated t seek beauty. And he spared no expense covering my materials and costs. He was a top class patron. Making top class product takes top class ingredients." He picks up the girl and places her on the table. "It's just common sense don't you think? " Ciel's mouth dropped to the floor as he raised the knife. He saw himself on that table, struggling. But the girl did not have the energy to struggle. He stumbled backward, shaking, eyes wide. "A cow's bones are fine to use, but a humans aren't?" He saw himself, reaching out, pleading, for someone, anyone! "Who decided that?" But then, the doctor let out a scream as did Ciel. Ciel began to gag. No one had been paying any attention to Alette. She had crawled over toward the doctor, opened the drawer, and stole a knife from it. That knife was now in the doctor's stomach. He screamed as she raised the knife again, and plunged it into his soft flesh. Repeatedly. She screamed as well, in pure sorrow. She had killed two people tonight. Even when the doctor was dead, she could not stop stabbing. Ciel walked over to her, shaken. He placed a hand on her shoulder. It was then she dropped the knife, looked at her outfit, mixed with her blood and his.
"It's okay." He whispered. And that was all she needed, she broke down sobbing.
"Selima, get them out of here."
"Alette, they're too far gone."
"No one is too far gone."
"that's foolish to think."
"Not everyone is you, Ciel!" she yelled, a mess of tears and snot and blood. Ciel gently squeeze her shoulder, then fell to his knees beside her.
"Sebastian, make sure everyone is dead." Sebastian went around, cracking the skulls of everyone who lay around. They sat there, until she stopped crying.
"You have nothing to fear now, Ciel. You're outside the cage. Selima. Get the children out. Burn it." The children were unlocked, carried out until all that remained was a hollow shell. Selima picked up Alette, and Sebastian did the same with Ciel. They both walk over to the flame, and soon the conflagration is swirling around them, hot to the touch. Sebastian's mark glow purple while Selima's glowed green. They interlocked their hands as fire shot up and around them. Alette buried her face into Selima's chest, to avoid the smoke and ash. Sebastian leaned in and pressed his lips to Selima's, sharing a passionate kiss before they exited the burning mansion