Our carriage arrived at the Port of Boulogne-sur-Mer in the following evening. I immediately went to the port master's office to ask for the earliest ship that would be going to London.

"There is none until three days later?" I questioned in surprise.

"Yes," The port master said with a thick French accent, "Many are trying to go back to London after what happened in the Exposition Universelle. I assume you are one of them."

"Is there really none?" I coyly slid a bag of coins onto the desk.

He hesitated for a moment, but took the bag and smiled, "There is one ship tomorrow... But it won't be the ships you are used to."

"It's alright. Two of us, and two servants will be going on it." I said.

After having secured a mean to go back to London, I returned to where Charles was, standing by the carriage.

"Clare, Did you manage?" He asked when he saw me.

"Yes, but the ship is not until tomorrow." I replied.

"We have to find a place to stay then."

Just as we were about to go, a black cat ran past me, almost tripping me up. But what surprised me was not it, but the person chasing behind it.

"Ciel?" I said.

Ciel paused when he heard his name and look at us, "You two! Why are you here?"

"We were just looking for a ship to go back to London. And you too?" I asked Ciel.

He nodded.

"Well, the only ship to London is tomorrow, but I'm sure I can get you on that ship too." I looked around, "Is Sebastian not with you?"

His gaze darkened, "No... He had another matter to attend to."

Now I remembered from the anime. When they were on top of the Eiffel Tower, Ciel had ordered Sebastian to stop trying to kill Queen Victoria and Ash because the debris was causing a scene. The made Sebastian angry so he ditched Ciel the next morning. I was honestly impressed Ciel managed to get all the way here by himself, seeing that he has always been a well-cared for child.

Charles chuckled, "I can't imagine how great of a butler he can be if he leaves his master in a state like this."

Ciel looked away in annoyance of what Charles said. Looking between the two, I decided to break the tension, "So Ciel, I assume that you will be needing a place to stay the night also?"

The little earl once again reluctantly nodded.

I smiled, "It's alright, I can find you room."

Charles said when he heard that, "What, why do we have to-"

"Charles, please." I looked at him expectantly. He sighed and nodded. I said, "Do you know of a good hotel?"

He nodded, and said the French name of the hotel he had in mind to his servant driving the carriage. We then got in the carriage along with Ciel.

During the carriage ride, I decided to initiate a conversation. "Ciel, you were there, on top of the Eiffel Tower when the incident happened, were you not?"

He coughed. "No, I wasn't."

My lips pursed together. "You were, I saw you entering the lift right before it happened."

His eyes narrowed, "Why do you want to know?"

"Why was the Queen and Ash Landers there?" Charles asked him a question before I could say anything.

Ciel laughed, "I was trying to kill them."

I had to used all of my strength to hold Charles back from doing anything rash as he suddenly stood up in anger after hearing what Ciel said. "Charles, please, calm down."

He turned his head at me, "He tried the kill Queen Victoria! And you are telling me to calm down?"

"But if you kill him now you won't know why he did it and what reallyhappened. Why don't we just hear what Ciel has to say? He can't go anywhere anyway."

He huffed, and sat down heavily. I sighed in relieve.

"Ciel, what is the reason you would try to kill our queen?" I asked, knowing full well the reason as I've seen the anime, but I wanted Charles to hear the truth out from Ciel's mouth. It would make the explaining I have to do later way easier.

"She, and Ash, were the ones that brutally murdered my family." Ciel said hatefully.

I observed Charles's expression carefully. He didn't seem surprised, but rather, a hint of recognition and realisation flashed on his face briefly. He must have known about this then.

The rest of the carriage journey was filled with awkward silence, with each of us pondering in different matters. Charles must have been trying to suppress his rage while trying to make sense of all this, and Ciel must have been thinking of his next step of action when he gets back to London.  I was just thinking of how to not let the two kill each other.

We arrived at the hotel soon. It wasn't as grand as the one we stayed in at Paris, but nice nonetheless. We entered the building and asked for three rooms at the counter. We then received our individual keys and went upstairs to our rooms. Ciel entred the room quickly.

Once we were alone in the corridor Charles said to me, "Why are you helping him, Clare?"

I hesitated, and said, "He's just a boy, alone."

"A boy? He is the Her Majesty's Watchdog for god's sake, but he betrayed her trust!" He exclaimed in a hushed voice.

"You don't understand, Charles. You don't know the whole story."

"And you do?"

"Yes, I do." I said, "But as I have said, I can't tell you yet, but I promise I will once this is all over."

He frowned, "I still think we should have killed him right away."

I paused. "...He will die soon."

His brows furrowed, "What do you mean?"

"I mean what I said; he will die soon. That's all I can say." I didn't think I could tell Charles about the whole demonic contract thing yet without him witnessing any prove, as it'd just make me look like a complete lunatic.

"This is driving me mad." Charles said, visibly annoyed that he was being kept in the dark.

"The will all end soon." I said as reassuringly as I could.

-----

The next evening we arrived at the port at the time the port master specified. True to his words, there was indeed a ship heading to London, and that it wasn't a ship for the upper-class.

We approached the ship to find one of the sailers of the ship. He looked at us three, and the two servants carrying our luggage. "On m'a dit qu'il y a seulement quatre gens. (I was told that there are only four people.)"

"Eh bien, il y en a cinq maintenant. (Well, there is five now.)" To my surprise, Charles replied to him in fluent French, which I could barely understand with the little French I knew.

"Non, ce n'est pas possible. Seulement quatre personnes peuvent rentrer dans le bateau. Mais, si je devais un peu d'argent... (No, that's not possible. Only four people can enter the ship. But, if I had some money...)" The French sailor said to Charles. I looked in confusion between the two, hoping that this was working out.

Charles smiled falsely, and rested a hand on the hilt of his rapier. "Je pense que ma vie est plus importante que l'argent. Et toi? (I think that my life is more important than money. What about you?)" I head Ciel chuckle. Damn, why was I the only one here not fluent in French. I should start learning it again.

The sailor huffed staring at Charles, "Oui, je pense le même. (Yes, I think so.)" He then stepped aside from the boarding plank, allowing us to board the ship. When we were onboard, I asked, "What happened?"

"Nothing." Charles said, "He wanted money before we board, and I wasn't about to give him any."

"Did you threatened to use violence on him? We could have just payed him." I said.

He shrugged, "Well, it worked out."

I laughed under my breath. "You do you."

Soon the ship set sail towards London promptly, completely unaware of what they were about to see. As the ship ride went on, and we got increasingly closer to the destination, my worry increased. We all know how it ended with Ciel and Sebastian. Will I...try to intervene? Or should I just leave it be and let what is meant to happen happen?

Suddenly a question popped into my mind: what would happen to me? I first arrived in this world, the world of Black Butler, close to the start of the anime's timeline... And what happened when that timeline ends? Does this world just cease to exist? Would I just go back to the other world? In truth, I didn't want to. I have a well-establish life here already, with a noble title, land, and wealth... And I have Charles. But back in the other world, what do I have? I didn't even finish my university degree, nor was I rich.

My thought was interrupted when someone shouted. "What is that!?"

I looked up, and realised that the shore of London was already in sight. It was completely engulfed in flames. Charles ran up beside me on the edge of the dock to get a better look, so did Ciel, along with Undertaker, and many other passengers.

"They certainly put on quite the show!" Undertaker chuckled. I saw Charles shiver slightly when he saw him.

"Undertaker, why are you here?" I asked.

"Will asked me to go back to London to help him," he said, "There will be lots and lots of work to do tonight."

"Right." I muttered

"I must be on my way." Undertaker turned around, but was halted by Ciel shouting after him.

"Why did you come here?" Ciel asked.

"You and I have a lot history together. So I thought I'd give you a fair warning:" Undertaker turned his head and smiled creepily, "My lord, in just a little while... You will die."

Ciel's eyes widened in shock. "What do you mean...?"

"No!" Our attention was diverted to the woman whose piercing voice cried out as she fell to the floor in tears, her husband by her side trying to calm her. When we looked back, Undertaker has disappeared.

I looked at Ciel and saw that he was deep in thought, most likely about his death that was forewarned by Undertaker, as he stroked his eyepatch. Suddenly the ship started doing a 180 degrees turn. Ciel was snapped out of his thought and he started running towards where the ship captain was. I decided to run after him.

When I got there, they were arguing about why the ship was turning back.

"We can't go back to London like this," the captain said, "We'll have to hang about these waters for a while and-"

"What!? We are almost there!" Ciel shouted. He looked at the sea, and saw that there was another ship still going towards London, "Fine, I'll get on that ship. Get me a rowboat!"

"For one little boy?" The captain laughed, "Now, if you had money, that would be another story..."

"Don't play games with me! I have to get back to London or-" Ciel stopped speaking in the midst of his sentence.

The captain stared as Ciel, probably thinking that he was crazy, "Look, kid, I'm busy, so how about you get... huh?" He was interrupted by Ciel's crazed laughter. The captain definitely thought that Ciel was crazy now. "Wh-What's wrong with you?"

I saw that Ciel took off his blue diamond Phantomhive ring, and was about to offer this to the captain in exchange for what he wanted. I made a decision and quickly ran forward, snatching the ring out of his hand so he couldn't give it to the captain.

"You want money, right?" I said to him, "Well, here is some." I took out the bag of coins I have left from the pocket in my dress, and handed it to the captain. It wasn't too much compare to what I gave the port master, but it was quite a hefty sum for a middle-class ship worker.

His mouth hung open as I poured the heavy coins of minted gold into his hands. "T-This money..." His grasped the coins firmly in his hands and asked, "Do you want a rowboat?"

"No, get us on that ship." I said. I was not about to do any rowing. The captain nodded and ran inside to instruct the rest of the ship crew. This ship soon started sailing towards the other ship, sounding loud signal to it. That ship stopped, and the two captains communicated, and then a wooden plank was put between the docks of the two ships to allow us to board the other one.

Charles went over first with ease. I picked up the hem of my dress and carefully trod over, and was lent a hand on the other side by Charles. Ciel also came after us along with our servants. The plank was then retrieved and the boat we were now on continued its was towards the flaming London. I had to cover my nose and mouth as we moved into the water of the Thames with the amount of smoke that it was giving off.

Not long after, we arrived at the destination port near central London. As I walked down the stairs of the port with Charles's escort and Ciel in front of us, a bunch of Londoners approached us menacingly.

"Oi," One of the shouted rudely, "Are you a Frenchman!?"

Another one grabbed Ciel, "Take off your clothes!"

Ciel jerked his arm away. "Let go! What are you doing!?"

"You bloody French started this fire!" The first one said, "You're trying to start a war with England!"

"Hold on! That is-"

I didn't hear what the rest of Ciel said as a person came up to me, ripped me out of Charles' arm, and started manhandling me down the stairs.

"Clare!" Charles shouted after me, but he was being retained by two other man that was considerably bigger than him.

"Get off me, you simpleton!" I screamed as I tried to struggle out of the man's grip on the sleeve of my dress. Suddenly, the fabric the man was holding onto ripped apart, causing me to loose my balance. I couldn't grab hold onto anything as I fell. I plunged down the rest of the flight of stairs to the floor, where I laid, waiting for the pain all over my body to subside.

When I opened my eyes and looked back up the stairs, I saw a stunned Charles...with a murderous gleam in his eyes. He elbowed the man on his left, causing him to fall and roll down the stairs holding his nose. The man fell beside me and groaned with blood all over his face. I elbowed him again in the face rendering him unconscious.

Charles then use his now freed left hand to grab and pull out his rapier from its sheath on his side. Before the man on his right could dodge, Chales drove the blade into his stomach. As Charles pulled his rapier out from the man, the lifeless body of the his slumped over the rail on the other side of the stairs, plummeting into the dark water of the Thames.

Charles now slowly stalked towards the third man that grabbed me, his hand gripping tightly on the bloody rapier, like a predator eyeing his prey. The man backed away down the stairs in fear, accidentally tripping over the man that I hit unconscious, which made him fall onto his back. He continued cowering away from the enraged earl, looking around to what was left of his gang for help, but none dared to get in Charles' way.

Charles held his rapier in both hand as he raised it, stepping over the shaking man.

"P-Please, I-I didn't mean to hurt her!" The man begged, tears coming out of his eyes. However nothing but his life would satisfy the exasperated silver-head now. Charles struck the rapier right into the man's throat. Slimy crimson splattered out of the man's nose and mouth as he choked violently on his own blood, giving his life away to a grim reaper. And then he was still.

Charles put his rapier back into the sheath, and turned to me. He ran to my side hurriedly. "Clare, are you alright? Are you hurt anywhere?"

I smiled to him as reassuringly as I could, "I'm fine, Charles. My leg hurts a little but I can stand."

He nodded, and helped me up. I looked into his eyes when I was back on my feet facing him. He had a pained expression on his face. At that moment I didn't care about the etiquette of the Victorians any more. I threw my arms around his back and buried my face into his chest. His arms also went around me, holding me close to his body.

At that moment, I felt safe in his embrace.

-----

I really fucking enjoyed writing this chapter.