Chapter Text
The fog stretched endlessly across the black waters, swallowing horizon and sky alike until the world itself seemed reduced to three things alone: the old wooden boat drifting through the silence, the demon guiding it forward with measured strokes of the oar, and the young Earl seated within it awaiting the inevitable end of his life.
No wind stirred.
No stars shone.
Even the sea beneath them appeared lifeless, smooth as polished obsidian beneath the pale wash of moonlight filtering weakly through the mist.
Ciel Phantomhive sat quietly near the bow, his thin frame wrapped in dark fabric that fluttered only faintly with the movement of the boat itself. His blue hair, dulled silver beneath the moonlight, brushed lightly against his cheek as he gazed out into the endless fog surrounding them.
Death was quieter than he had imagined.
Not cold nor frightening. Simply… still.
Then, slowly, lights began to emerge.
Small green orbs floated soundlessly through the mist, glowing like distant lanterns submerged beneath water. There were hundreds of them. Thousands, perhaps. They drifted around the boat lazily, some close enough for Ciel to nearly touch.
His visible eye widened faintly.
“What are all these lights?”
Sebastian Michaelis stood at the stern, one gloved hand guiding the oar through dark waters. His black coat swayed gently around his tall figure, the silver chains at his chest catching dim fragments of moonlight.
“The thoughts of the many people who have passed through your life,” he replied smoothly. “The warm regard they held you in.”
Ciel watched another light drift past him slowly.
“Other people’s feelings…” he murmured. Then, after a moment, quieter still, “Well… they’re nice.”
Sebastian’s hands slowed slightly against the oar.
“Nice?” he repeated.
“Yes.”
Ciel leaned back against the edge of the boat, eye fixed upon the drifting lights surrounding them.
“I can leave them without loneliness and sadness,” he said calmly. “But it’s still nice.”
For a moment, Sebastian merely watched him.
The demon’s expression could not be read.
Then, without warning, the rowing ceased altogether.
The boat drifted silently upon the dark water as Sebastian stepped away from the stern. His polished shoes clicked softly against old wood as he approached from behind, withdrawing something slim and weathered from within his coat.
“What’s this?” Ciel asked as the object was placed into his hands.
“Oh, it is merely a little something I brought along,” Sebastian replied. “To keep you occupied.”
Ciel looked down.
It was an old diary.
The leather cover was worn thin with age.
“A diary Tanaka left behind.”
Ciel’s fingers stilled.
“It’s from Tanaka?”
“Yes, young master.”
The Earl opened it carefully, flipping through yellowed pages covered in elegant handwriting he recognized at once.
Then his eye halted upon a single line.
There is a truth that I cannot tell you, young master.
Tanaka’s voice seemed to echo within his mind as he read.
The truth of Vincent and Rachel Phantomhive’s deaths. The Queen. The order Vincent had given. The silence Tanaka had kept all these years.
Ciel’s gaze darkened faintly.
“So that angel was not entirely off the mark with the fraud she showed me.”
Sebastian regarded him silently.
“What now, young master?”
Ciel closed the diary slowly.
“There’s nothing to do.”
His voice was calm, practically distant.
“My targets are all gone.”
He lowered his gaze toward his gloved hands resting in his lap.
“Besides which… just take a look at me.”
A small blue flower drifted past then, gliding gently atop the dark water.
Ciel reached for it instinctively.
Yet when his fingers touched it, the petals revealed a blue ring resting within his palm.
His visible eye widened slightly.
“It’s a ring.”
Sebastian approached once more and knelt beside him.
“Allow me.”
The demon took the ring carefully from Ciel’s hand before sliding it onto his finger with surprising gentleness.
“Forgive me,” Sebastian said quietly. “I wanted nothing more than to be a superb butler… but I failed.”
Ciel stared down at the ring.
Moonlight reflected against the blue.
“This flower does not define us.”
A faint smile touched Sebastian’s lips.
“I think it suits us, master.”
Ciel lifted his hand slowly toward the pale moon overhead, examining the ring in silence.
“This is me,” he murmured at last. “Ciel Phantomhive.”
His expression remained unreadable.
“I am nothing more than what I could’ve ever been.”
Sebastian rose once more.
The boat drifted onward through endless fog.
_____
The island emerged slowly from the mist like the corpse of some forgotten cathedral.
Broken brick walls jutted upward from dead earth. Rusted beams lay collapsed amongst weeds and rubble. A roof once stood there long ago, but now moonlight poured unhindered into the ruined structure through skeletal remains of shattered arches.
Silence hung heavily over the place.
Sebastian carried Ciel wordlessly through the ruins, his footsteps echoing softly across cracked stone.
The Earl had closed his eyes at some point during the journey.
“We’re here, young master.”
Sebastian set him carefully upon an old concrete bench stained with age and rain.
Ciel opened his eye slowly.
“So this is where it ends.”
“Yes.”
The Earl looked around quietly.
Then his gaze settled upon a lone raven perched atop a rusted beam nearby, feathers shifting slightly beneath the cold night air.
“What about that bird?”
Sebastian followed his gaze briefly.
“I will see to it.”
“Maybe you can give it what’s left of my soul.”
The demon’s expression softened almost imperceptibly.
“As kind as ever, master.”
Ciel lifted a pale hand toward his eyepatch.
“So…” he began quietly. “Will it hurt?”
“It will, a bit.”
Sebastian stepped closer.
“I am sorry. I shall endeavor to be gentle-“
“No.”
The word cut through the silence sharply.
Ciel lowered his hand slowly.
“Be as brutal as you want.”
His visible eye reflected silver moonlight.
“Etch the pain into me.”
Sebastian’s eyes widened faintly.
“It’s proof I had a life worth living.”
For the first time in many years, Sebastian Michaelis found himself without words.
Then slowly, elegantly, he placed one hand over his chest and bowed his head.
“Indeed… my young lord.”
Ciel leaned back against the bench.
Head tilted upward.
Waiting.
Sebastian stood motionless before him.
Then, with deliberate slowness, the demon removed one glove using his teeth and cast it carelessly aside. The contract mark upon his wrist glowed darkly beneath moonlight.
He stepped forward.
The discarded glove crumpled beneath his heel.
Ciel’s breathing grew quieter.
Sebastian knelt before him once more.
One cold hand rose to cradle the Earl’s face gently.
Then he removed the eyepatch.
It slipped soundlessly onto cracked stone below.
The purple contract sigil beneath glimmered faintly against pale skin.
Ciel’s eyes trembled slightly.
Not with fear. Never fear. But something dangerously close to grief.
Sebastian’s own eyes ignited crimson.
His sharp teeth glinted beneath the moonlight as he leaned closer.
Closer.
Ciel shut his eyes tightly.
And waited for death.
But it never came.
Sebastian froze.
His hand slammed violently against the concrete beside Ciel’s head with enough force to crack the stone beneath his palm.
The sound echoed through the ruins.
The raven startled violently into the night sky.
Sebastian was trembling.
Very slightly.
Yet unmistakably.
Ciel’s eyes flew open.
“Well?” he demanded sharply, anger suddenly cracking through the stillness. “Get it over with!”
It was his final order.
His final wish.
Sebastian could not obey it.
Slowly, the demon straightened.
His crimson eyes locked onto Ciel’s wide blue one.
Something unfamiliar twisted across Sebastian’s expression.
Something fractured.
Something terrified.
Then suddenly-
Exhaustion crashed over Ciel like black water.
His vision blurred instantly.
“What…”
His body sagged sideways.
The last thing he saw was Sebastian standing motionless before him beneath the moonlight, eyes dark with something far more dangerous than hunger.
Then everything went black.