Gladius POV

"Hello, so it seems we meet again, Joestars."

My statement caused all members present to spin around and stare at me with a look of shock. Within seconds Polnareff called out "SILVER CHARIOT!" Causing his Stand to manifest and attack me, however I had my own Stand appear and counter the blow locking us in a clash.

Raising my hands in a surrender of sorts, I explained "Relax, I'm not here to kill any of you. If I wanted to do that, I would have hit you from a distance with one of my knives" This prompted Jotaro to ask. "Then what are you doing here?"

I sighed "I won't lie to you. I have been following, or attempting to follow you since we left Karachi. I needed to time to recover from my injuries thanks to 'someone' however you should know me enough by now to know I don't give up easily."

Kakyoin asked "So, what now? What do you want?" I shrugged "Well, it's dark and you seem to have the only fire in our vicinity aside from your burning plane. So, just for tonight, I'm willing to bury the hatchet as it were. What do you say?"

Well, this provoked Polnareff to burst out laughing. "HAHAHAHA! You expect us to believe you?! You've been trying to kill us since Singapore, you honestly think I'd fall asleep knowing you're nearby? What's to stop you from killing us in our sleep?!" 

I gave a look of feigned hurt as I asked sarcastically "What? Do you really think that low of me? I'm a man of honour. As I said, what was to stop me from killing you all from afar before you even noticed me?" This made them go quiet for a moment before it was Joestar himself that sighed.

"Fine, you can stay. But if you try ANYTHING..." He trailed off and it was Jotaro who finished his sentence "I'll beat the crap out of you and make our last encounter look painless by comparison." I bowed and responded "The terms are fair. Thank you."

As soon as these words were spoken, there was a strange noise sounding throughout the camp. It wasn't that I didn't recognize the noise, in fact I recognized it all too well, it was the fact that it was here that confused me.

The noises of a BABY?!

Image of the Mannish Boy:

Turning to the source of the noise, I was surprised to sure enough, see a baby in a basket. The others had also been alerted to the baby's cries and Joestar said "Seems the baby's awake." He was about to go over however I put my hand up.

"No, allow me. I can handle this." Joestar raised an eyebrow, asking "Oh yeah? And what experience do you have looking after a child? Knowing you, you'll kill it or something like that." I just gave him a bored expression, responding in a way that surprised all the Crusaders.

"The experience that comes with actually HAVING a child."

This caused all except Jotaro to exclaim in unison "You're a father?!" For a moment, I ignored them, asking in a child-like voice. "Does the little man need changing? Hmm?" Sure enough, he did, luckily, the Joestar group had some supplies for this, so I handled that before saying "There you go, all done." 

The baby looked up at me and let out a little laugh as he smiled. For a moment though, I thought I saw a set of fangs in his mouth. I chose to ignore this and instead laid the baby back down in his basket, putting the blanket back over him, saying "There we go."

With that sorted, we all sat down around the fire except for Kakyoin who went to go feed the baby. At first I was completely quiet as Joestar and his group talked amongst themselves, however that's when they turned to me and Joestar asked.

"What's your angle? I can tell there's something driving you, something more than money. And the fact that your a father proves it. If so, why work for DIO? Did he threaten your family and blackmail you?"

I shook my head slowly. There was no hiding my reasons now. With a sigh, I said "I suppose I owe you an explanation." I went on to explain. 

"Yes, I have a son, his name is Sylvester, he's currently ten months old and is raised by his mother in Florida, America. I met his mother on one of my contracts and nine months later, when she told me she'd given birth to a child, I made a choice." I paused for a moment, thinking back over everything that had happened. Before continuing.

"I couldn't go back and raise the child, my work demanded that I be constantly travelling, I've made many enemies. However, whenever a job is completed, half of that money is sent back to America for him. I do wish I could be there for him, but that's not possible, I do try to visit whenever I can."

Joestar's group listened to every word as I said "Sorry for boring you with my story." Joestar shook his head as Polnareff asked "I have one question though. Why DIO? I mean, from what I've gathered, you aren't that fond of him or the company he keeps. Hell, I remember you saying that if J.Geil had defeated me, you'd have killed him anyway. If you hate working for him, why do it?"

At this, I closed my eyes. "Enya was the one who introduced me to DIO. Of course, I couldn't refuse his job to his face. However, the reason I stuck around so long is because of this." Reaching into my pocket, I pulled out the Century-old diary once belonging to my ancestor.

Now that I thought about it, it was clear that DIO had history with the Joestar bloodline. If he knew the answer to my question, then there's a chance they would as well. Looking to the diary, I explained that as well.

"This diary belonged to my ancestor, my great grandfather to be exact a hundred years ago. As was tradition in our family, I inherited this from my father and ever since I got it, there was one entry that always confused me." Polnareff asked "And what does this have to do with DIO?"

To that I answered "I don't know. However I wonder if he may know the answer." Joestar asked "Can I see the extract?" I handed him the diary, coldly ordering "Be careful with it please. It's a family heirloom." Joestar muttered "Yeah yeah..." Before he began reading.

At first his reaction seemed plain as he skimmed over the text. However his eyes narrowed as he read it again, and again. Jotaro asked "Hey old man, you alright?" Joseph didn't answer though, he looked at the passage before looking back to me.

"You said your great grandfather wrote this?" I nodded before asking "What of it? Do you know what he meant?" Joseph hummed before explaining something what could have been the answer to my question.

"According to the date, this passage was written eight years after the passing of my grandfather Jonathan Joestar. In your entry, he mentions being delivered to an orphanage eight years prior when he was a baby, by a man who resembled a Vampire."

I nodded, saying "I understood that part. But I still don't know the identity of the man, nor do I know any Jonathan Joestar. Tell me!" Joseph sighed this time however he did begin to explain. "Jonathan Joestar was my grandfather, he died a century ago. A few years before your ancestor wrote this entry. You're English, right?"

Unsure where that was going, I answered "Yes." Joseph stated "You see, there were only really two Vampires prowling England at that time. One of which was DIO." So, DIO was a Vampire. Joestar continued "The other, was his brother. Damian Brando-."

Before Joestar could finish his sentence, he was abruptly cut off by Kakyoin exclaiming "Mr Joestar, Polnareff, did you see that?!" We all turned to see a very distressed Kakyoin pointing towards the baby's basket. 

Stepping forward, he rambled "That baby's not normal! He just killed a scorpion! The boy skewered it with his own safety pin!" At this my eyes shot to the baby and back to him as I asked "Are you sure?" Kakyoin replied "Positive!" 

I wasn't fully convinced, we were in a desert after all, perhaps the heat and stress was getting to Kakyoin's head. Even Joestar spoke with doubt in his voice. "Kakyoin, hold on. What the hell are you talking about?"

Kakyoin retorted "I'm saying that baby is not a baby! He's not even a year old yet he knew what a scorpion is! And he killed it with those tiny hands of his!" This sent Joestar into a panic, he rushed over to the baby's basket, as did I, wanting to remove the scorpion as quickly as possible. 

However there was no sign of it, or the safety pin. I picked the baby up to make sure he wasn't sat on it. Kakyoin was still convinced though "I swear it's true! Check his clothes!" He tried to pulled the baby from my arms, causing me to exclaim "Get the hell off me Kakyoin!" 

Joestar actually agreed "We got it Kakyoin, knock it off, that's enough! You're clearly exhausted, get some rest and we'll talk about it in the morning." Sitting down, I handed the baby back to Joseph who began trying to feed him.

Though the baby wasn't having it, in fact he flat-out looked repulsed by it. I leaned forward and asked "Is someone being fussy? I'm sure it's lovely little one." Joestar seemed surprised by my change in attitude causing me to remark "What? This isn't my first experience looking after a baby. Let me try." 

Before Joestar could answer though, Kakyoin flung the spoon from his hand blurting "Mr Joestar, I'm not imagining things! I don't know where he hid the scorpion, but I'm sure he's a Stand user!"

Polnareff looked to me asking "Is this your doing?" However I gave him a look "Polnareff, my Stand summons weapons! I couldn't hypnotise someone if I tried and believe me I have! Whatever is wrong with your friend, has nothing to do with me!"

Kakyoin stated "There's something I have that will prove it to you! Look at these cuts, read what it says!" He rolled his sleeve up to reveal bloody cuts in his arm! It was what they spelt though that made my eyes widen.

'BABY STAND'

For a moment, we all just stared as Kakyoin explained "It's a warning, it must have happened to me while I was sleeping!" We all just continued to stare at one another, Polnareff muttering "It finally happened..." I said quietly "What the..." 

And that's when he blurted "It's time for a little force! HIEROPHANT GREEN!" Hierophant emerged and lashed out at the baby however before he could attack, Polnareff summoned Chariot and had it strike Kakyoin on the back of the head, knocking him unconscious.

After that, we fell into silence, Polnareff and Joestar debated whether or not Kakyoin would be suitable for travel anymore. I placed the baby back in his basket, staring at it blankly as I pulled the blanket up. 

Had Kakyoin been right? If so, this baby may have been one of the mysterious Stands Steely Dan told me about. I turned to the Joestar group and said "Right, I've got my own sleeping supplies, I'm going to head off to sleep now."

All three still gave me a mistrustful look, not that I blame them, as Polnareff asked "And what's to stop you from killing us in our sleep?" To that, I answered "That's why I'm going to bed now. In the morning I'll head off on my own. Sound good?" 

I didn't wait for them to respond, instead I pulled out my sleeping back, climbed into it and went to sleep. Right before I passed out, I looked to the baby's basket and for a moment, I thought I saw a grin etched across his face. However before I could comprehend this, sleep claimed me.

When I awoke though, I'd discover a nightmare...

Author's Note: And that's it for this chapter, I really hope you enjoyed and as always, thank you for reading.