Narrator's POV

Astre was not sure when he had fallen asleep during his late night chat with his grandfather, but he woke up back in bed with Ciel.

Today was the day he would tie up all his loose ends, Finny was the last servant to take care besides Snake and Sebastian —but they would be facing them in the Manor.

The blunette was very worried about how Ciel would act, knowing his brother took all threats to his position as Astre's only brother seriously.

Soma had paid the price for that already and Astre did not know if Ciel knew how brotherly the gardener acted to him.

***

Finny knew with absolute certainty that this orphanage had to be a blood collection facility.

Every day, someone ended up horribly sick and had to be taken to the nurse's office.

But, most looked past that since children were dirty and prone to sickness and likely spread it to each other.

Even the undercover gardener would have excused it if he had not been under orders to look for strange things.

What had truly confirmed it to him was seeing Madam Red was the orphanage's matron.

He was disguised a bit and he had only briefly interacted with her, so he was fairly certain the noblewoman did not recognize him.

She was undercover too, her name here was Anastasia Lazarus but everyone called her Madam L.

Where she was pretending to be the matron, the nearly seventeen year old was pretending to be a fifteen year old orphan called Timmy Burgh —any older than that then the would not have taken him since he would be considered grown enough.

So while he knew this place was definitely collecting blood from the ill children, he had made himself sick a few days previously to get into the nurse's office but had found no evidence of the collection.

And without it, he could not complete his mission.

And if he did not complete his mission, he would not be able to meet back up with the others to rescue the Young Master.

If the nurse's office did not have the evidence of the blood collection, the only other place he was yet to search was the matron's cottage across the street.

When to sneak in was the question, the matron only ever visited the main orphanage for meals and only ever stayed briefly for prayer.

Lunch would be happening soon, he would do it then.

***

As everyone in the orphanage gathered for the midday meal, the undercover servant snuck out and made a mad dash for the matron's cottage.

Being careful with his inhuman strength so he did not rip the door off its hinges, he opened the front door.

As he stepped inside the cozy but tastefully decorated living room, he was greeted by the sight of his young master and his imposter sitting on a couch side-by-side with books opened on their laps —also noticing Undertaker leaned against a nearby wall, a dog biscuit half-hanging out of his mouth.

"Hello, Finny." The eyepatch clad twin greeted, his tone neutral

Finny stood in place in the open doorway, the breeze blowing past him into the room.

He had not expected to see his young master here, he had thought him a captive in the manor for him and the other servants to rescue.

"So tell me, Subject Number Twelve," The imposter cruelly injected, ripping Dinny from his thoughts, "Do you still think you are going to 'save' my little brother?"

Finny stopped listening to what the undead teen said the moment he was referred to as a test subject, his slightly tanned body covering with goosebumps.

The 'S-012' tattoo on the back of his neck tingled, the bandana around his neck barely hiding it like his hat usually did.

The strawberry blond teen gulped —or at least he tried to but his mouth was bone dry— but he did nothing else.

He did not even put up a fight as Madam Red creeped up behind him and injected a syringe into his neck, just slipping easily into unconsciousness.

***

Later on, Finny woke up connected to a blood collecting machine and chained to a cot.

Try as he might, the drugs in his system had paralyzed his inhuman strength, stopping him from freeing himself.

Though, the blond did not care about his freedom at that moment, instead staring at the other person in the room: his young master.

"W-We were gonna save you, young master." Finny whimpered, his teal eyes brimmed with tears, "W-Why did you betray us?"

"You, Bard, Mey-Rin and Snake are unfortunate sacrifices in the fight against Sebastian." Astre replied, "Caught in the crossfire between us."

Finny was confused, "W-What? Against Mister Sebastian? Why? We want to save you!"

"I am perfectly safe from my brother, he would never hurt me." The blunette answered, "The one I need protection from is Sebastian, he seeks to kill me."

"What?! That isn't true, Sebastian is the one tryin' to protect you!" The older teen argued

Astre sighed and removed his eyepatch, revealing his lavender eye and the seal on it, "Sebastian only wants to 'rescue' me so he can eat my soul. He is a demon."

The gardener was shocked, he did not believe that the strict but kind butler he knew could be evil incarnate.

The nobleman stood by the bed feeling bad, out of all his servants Finny was the one he had felt closest too; the older boy reminded him so much of Ciel, especially when he had been under the affects of the mustard gas in Germany —he also knew if his twin ever found out about that sentiment, the undead boy would not hesitate torturing and killing Finny like he had Soma.

Astre looked to the vial collecting blood from Finny, reading the 'Canopus' label —Aunt Ann would likely keep Finny alive, if only for the sake of his blood type.

"Sweet dreams, Finnian." Astre softly said, injecting a syringe into Finny's arm, "Dream of the garden and of the book I named you after."

The drug that would send Finny into a coma worked fast, but the Gardner managed to slur out a final sentence, "The Fen-Fenian Cycle."

With that, Finny slipped into a coma, dreaming of his young master and of the Celtic myths of Finn MacCumhaill he was named for...