Reincarnation

Chapter 16

Grell, who had been lurking on the roof assigned as a lookout, had spotted the handsome figure of the demon Sebastian Michaelis and the whelp of a boy called Ciel Phantomhive, walking up the road to the college.

He hung himself upside down from the edge of the roof and dangled his head into Will's open office window to inform him.

"They've arrived."

"The time has come. We shall join the demon and the boy in the school hall at the appropriate time. Until then we have to stay in the shadows. Pass the message onto Ronald Knox," Will instructed Grell.

Sebastian followed his master into the school hall without any hesitation. He had sensed the presence of the Grim Reapers immediately and had spotted Grell on the roof from a distance, but he knew that the reapers would stay away until the contract was made.

Ciel walked calmly into the centre of the hall and tried to slow down his hammering heartbeat. He couldn't back out now that he had come this far. His ancestor had given up his soul in order to get revenge, he was now going to do the same for him.

"Sebastian Michaelis, will you make a contract with me?" he said in a clear and loud voice from the benefit of the eavesdropping Grim Reapers.

"I will. What are your conditions?" Sebastian replied. The time had finally come for him to be bound to the soul that he had been craving and know what his former master had wanted to tell him.

"You will obey any orders that I give you unconditionally, but the power to order you can be transferred to another person of my choice. The contract will end when that person no longer has any use for you. Do you agree to those terms?"

As Ciel spoke his hand brushed past his trouser pocket in a seemingly natural manner and he slipped his ancestor's ring on his finger and kept his hand in his pocket.

The demon spotted the action with his sharp eyes and he knew that he could agree to the contract with the purpose of making him a servant to the Grim Reapers forever. Ciel Phantomhive had found a way out of making the contract.

"I agree to those terms," Sebastian answered and approached the boy. "Now I need to mark you."

He tore off his glove with his teeth. He pushed back Ciel's head gently and undid the know tying the eye patch. Sensibly, Ciel kept his eye closed and Sebastian covered the eye with his hand.

"You are now mine and this marks proves it."

Like a puppet with the strings cut loose, the boy slumped into his butler's arms.

***

White. Everything was white.

Ciel blinked and stared in front of him. There was nothing there but blindingly white space. He looked down at himself to find that he was wearing his favourite jeans and t shirt. He tried to remember what he had been doing and it came back to him in a flash.

He had just made a contract with Sebastian. The one that allowed the demon to be controlled by the Grim Reapers. As he thought about it he noted that the headache that had plaguing him ever since he had found the ring had faded.

"Who are you?" A voice behind him enquired.

Ciel whirled round to face someone that looked as if he could be his reflection in a mirror, only he was wearing different clothes; black shorts with matching knee high socks, a white blouse with a black ribbon and a plain navy blue jacket. The other person's hair was the same shade of blue grey as his and the left eye was the same shade of azure blue. The right eye had a purple pentagram which clinched the mysterious person's identity.

"You're Earl Ciel Phantomhive," Ciel said in surprise.

The other Ciel's eyes widened. "I am. I take it that you are my descendant that found the ring?"

"I did."

Ciel marvelled at how the other Ciel's voice sounded exactly like his only with a more refined tone. He wasn't sure what he would say when his ancestor found out about the Grim Reaper's contract.

"I hope that I did not make it too hard. What is your name?"

The Earl's expression hardened. "You looked exactly like me which is excusable as we are related, but to have the same name... Who are your parents?"

"Earl Vincent Phantomhive and Lady Rachel Phantomhive."

Ciel knew it would not be very wise to mention that his best friend was Alois Trancy as he knew from reading the journals how much his ancestor detested him.

"I see. What school do you attend?"

"Weston College."

It would not be sensible at this point to mention that the headmaster was William T. Spears and Grell Sutcliffe was a History teacher, Ciel decided.

His ancestor frowned and sighed. "I have been a part of you since you picked up the ring, but I can only permeate your consciousness when your mind is at its most vulnerable which is when you are asleep or when you have contact with a demon so I don't know much about you. Would you explain what is happening?"

From this Ciel knew that his theory about his ancestor's soul slowly merging with his was right. After pondering the vivid dreams that he had had and the intermittent headaches that had started occurring since he had found the ring and worn it around his neck, he had started suspecting that he had parts of the original Ciel Phantomhive within him. This theory had given him the idea that he could escape the contract that he was being forced to make.

Whilst he was still human Earl Ciel Phantomhive's soul had been stolen and swapped around, all using a ring, this lead to the ring having traces of his soul which then gave the ancestor that picked up the ring fragments of the original Ciel's soul if he or she put it on. Ciel the second had never directly put the ring on so the fragments had attacked him when he was the most vulnerable. This meant that part of Ciel was already contracted with Sebastian, making the new contract void or so he hoped. He hadn't quite expected to have a confrontation with his ancestor within his own mind- he assumed the place where they were now was within his own mind.

"My name is Ciel Phantomhive and I am 16 years old," Ciel began to explain. "I am your descendant but I am a result of In Vitro Fertilisation."

"What is that?" his ancestor looked puzzled, but intrigued.

"It's a long story, but you have to know all of it," Ciel replied. "It's absolutely necessary."

The teenager Earl nodded. "I have been waiting for someone to pick up the ring for eternity, I can wait a little longer to see Sebastian."

Ciel did not catch the significance of the last sentence as he launched into an explanation about his birth, the Grim Reapers, Sebastian and the threats that the Grim Reapers had made his he didn't make the contract.

"I take it that you have made the contract that they wanted you to make," Earl Ciel said calmly when Ciel had finished.

"Yes. Then I slipped on the ring, believing that it would make the new contract invalid as part of me which is your soul, is already contracted with Sebastian. I didn't expect this to happen," Ciel answered and glanced round at the white surroundings.

His ancestor grimaced. "I did not expect things to turn out this way either. Someone was supposed to take the ring and put it on, making the fragments of my soul bind to theirs which would hopefully attract Sebastian to them, then they would pass on the message and carry out my request," he blushed momentarily. "I never expected the Grim Reapers to be reincarnating my parents, creating a copy of me and recreating Weston College..." he signed heavily. "I never factored the possibility of any of that happening into my plan."

"What are you going to do now?"

The Earl concentrated for a few seconds, to Ciel it felt like an age. Then the Earl smiled angelically at his descendant. Ciel raised his eyebrows in surprise.

"I am sorry for all of this, Ciel. You were artificially created and your soul has been bartered with, all because I existed. You do not have to worry now. I will solve the rest," Ciel Phantomhive the first held out his hand to Ciel Phantomhive the second who hesitated before grasping it.

He had been expecting his ancestor to get go of his hand and then explain the plan. He had not been expecting to feel a sharp pain at the back of his neck and black spot to appear on his vision.

As he fell he could vaguely hear his ancestor speaking, in a voice that sounded garbled as it was coming from down a long tunnel.

"Those Baritsu lessons from Tanaka finally made themselves useful," Earl Ciel Phantomhive caught his descendant just before he collapsed.

"I'm sorry Ciel and thank you for everything that you have done for me," he said softly and laid him on the ground.

He picked up his descendant's hand gently and slid the ring off his finger.

"I never calculated that this would happen, but I have always been able to adapt. As we are very compatible I should be able to take over his body," Ciel Phantomhive the first said out loud to himself.

He slipped the ring back on his thumb, like he had always done in the 19th Century and watched the white turn into black. He had absorbed his descendant's memories when they had touched hands so he knew exactly what was happening.

It was time to see Sebastian again.