Hello there and thank you for choosing to read this story! I'm pretty sure I won't be updating this as often as Silver and Gold but I will if ya leave me a review. More reviews = more chapters, so have at thee (yes, this is blackmail XP)!

All right, on to the technical stuff, this story is a crossover between Black Butler (Kuroshitsugi) and Pandora Hearts. I will leave the rest to my storytelling abilities.

Btw, there are parts in this that are directly taken from the mangas. Oh, and I don't own either Pandora Hearts or Black Butler (wish I did, but I don't ). This applies to all of the chapters 'cause I ain't writin' it every time.

Hope you enjoy!

Here's Chapter 1: Losing Everything

"Come on, Ciel! You can do it! Come on…just a few more steps…" A blonde boy reached his hands out to the young child in front of him. The toddler was barely able to stay standing, but he was determined to reach the blonde. He took two tiny steps and collapsed into the outstretched arms. "Yay! You made it Ciel! Good boy!" The blonde scooped Ciel up and spun around gleefully.

Ciel giggled with happiness, "I love you, Nii-tan!"

"I love you too, Ciel," the blonde hugged the child tightly before raising him up again and saying, with a gleam in his eye, "Are you ready to try out our secret signal?"

"Yeah!" The blonde set a suddenly very excited Ciel down on the ground and knelt so he could look in his eyes.

"All right, let's do this!"

Together, they began chanting an odd little poem:

Oz and Ciel

Brothers together, friends forever

Oz and Ciel

Never parting the other and never hurting the other

Oz and Ciel

The two boys cheered and hugged each other again. When Oz's attendant, Gilbert (usually called 'Gil' for short), came to call them in, he found them positively covered in dirt since their happy hug had turned into a wrestling match.

"Young masters!" Gil screeched in a panic, "Why are you all dirty?!

Oz laughed loudly and said, "Calm down, Gil! We were just horsing around a bit. No need to freak out!"

"Freak out! Freak out!" Ciel parroted his older brother and clapped his hands, "Gil, freak out!" Gil sighed and hung his head. I have the most troublesome master, he thought despondently.

"Children!" A delicate voice called to the dirt laden kids, "What have you been up to all day? And you Oz," the owner of the voice (a beautiful woman with blonde hair and deep blue eyes) glided over to the three boys and stopped in front her elder son, "Miss Kate has been looking for you all over the place! You should be getting ready for your coming-of-age ceremony." The woman, or Rachel if you prefer, folded her arms across her chest, as if she was upset with Oz. She wasn't fooling anyone, though. It was very obvious that she wasn't mad in the slightest; in fact Gil could have sworn that she was actually smiling a little at her son's antics.

"Sorry, Mother!" Oz blinked up at her, a similar look of amusement playing across his own face, "I forgot." Rachel laughed out loud at the ridiculous excuse. The lie also attracted the attention of another man who was just coming up to check on them.

"Oh, come now, Oz!" The green-haired man (he looked like an adult version of Ciel) chided the blonde boy lightly, "I thought I taught you better than that!" Gil brightened a little at the man's words, Oh good! Even Master Vincent thinks that Young Maste-

"If you are going to lie, at least make it slightly believable," Gil collapsed in astonishment, "Personally, I would say that I was merely playing with Ciel and lost track of time. At least then there is the possibility of being believed. Remember that, Oz. It will do you good later on!" Vincent grinned and gave his son a cheerful thumbs up, as if he hadn't just been teaching him how to lie. Rachel laughed and nodded her head in agreement.

Ciel (who was very happy that his three favorite people were all with him) cooed with delight and said, in his childish voice, "Mama, Papa, Nii-tan, when do we get to go to the party?" Gil had tried his best to get the young child excited for the ceremony (Oz couldn't have cared less) and apparently his valiant efforts weren't in vain.

Oz grimaced. He loved his little brother more than anyone else in the whole world and he knew that it would break Ciel's heart to know that, although he could be present, he wouldn't be allowed to do speak and he certainly wouldn't be allowed to play or have any kind of fun at all, plus he wouldn't be allowed in the room were the actual ceremony would commence. That was why Oz detested the idea of this dumb coming-of-age ceremony.

"Soon, Ciel," Victor smiled gently at his young son, "But you have to remember that when it's time for your Nii-tan to actually go through the ceremony you must stay out of the room. Understand?" Ciel tilted his head, blinked a few times, and nodded solemnly. The beautiful child had always been rather perceptive (and articulate) so he easily noted the slight sense of urgency in his father's tone and was very willing to comply with that one rule. He didn't really want to have to sit through something boring and heaven knows what other kinds of awful things his ever so loving 'Nii-tan' had filled his head with.

Ϙ-Ϙ-Ϙ

About thirty minutes later, Oz was finally wrangled into the dining hall where his guests were awaiting the ceremony. As he was talking up one of his more influential guests, his uncle (who had come by a few hours ago) introduced him to a beautiful girl named Sharon.

"It's very nice to meet you, Oz-sama," Sharon bowed politely, "I'm sorry that I won't be able to attend your ceremony but next year when I turn fifteen, would you be willing to dance with me?"

Oz instantly fell head over heels for the quiet-spoken daughter of a duke. He turned up his natural charm and practically sparkled as he said, "Yes, of course, by all means! It would be an honor to dance with someone as lovely as you!" Sharon giggled with a bit of confusion.

After the two young people had chatted happily for a few more minutes, Sharon noticed someone standing in the corner and politely excused herself, "I'm sorry, Oz-sama, but I should probably leave now," she gave a small curtsy, "It was nice meeting you, goodbye." With that the pretty girl walked quietly over to the person she had seen. Oz decided that the person was a male, somewhere in his late teens early twenties (far too old to be sweet Sharon's beau, but that was just his own opinion), and had white hair that covered half of his face. Oz was a little upset that the two seemed to be so familiar but he didn't let it bother him too much. He was almost entirely confident that he would be able to win his princess over, in the end at least.

Eventually, it was time for Oz's ceremony to begin. As all his guests filed into the entrance hall, Oz looked around to see if he could find Ciel before it was time to join them. Unfortunately, the little toddler had already been escorted from the room. When Oz found out he shrugged casually, I'll see him later. Maybe we can get the cook to make us some cake! Little did he know that it would be many, many years before he ever saw the child again.

Ϙ-Ϙ-Ϙ

By this baptismal sword,

The impurities hiding within thyself shall be cleaned.

Oz kneeled before his father and waited for him to tap both shoulders lightly with the sword he was holding and finish delivering his lines. Afterward, Oz was supposed to stand up, walk over to their family's broken grandfather clock (he could never figure out why it was so important) and, while touching it, say, 'I vow upon my life to protect those I hold dear." When he was finished saying that he would be free to do as he wished.

Until the day thy scarred body and pulse vanish, do you swear to continually protect the name and honor of Phantomhive?

Oz rose regally (his father had drilled him hard when it came to this particular part; it was harder than it looked) and glided over to the broken clock. Before he began his vow he looked up at the clock's face. It was stopped a little before midnight (or afternoon, but Oz, a dedicated romantic, liked to think of it as stopped at midnight). The blonde smiled softly at it before reaching out and gently touching its dark mahogany wood frame with the tips of his fingers as he continued with his own lines, "I vow upon my life to pro-"

TICK

DONG

DONG

The old wood framed grandfather clock, that hadn't worked in centuries, suddenly began to move again. When it did, a group of strange black clothed men (and probably women too, but Oz couldn't really tell) appeared behind him and one of them began chanting his own mantra.

Oz Phantomhive.

I, who bear the Chain of Conviction, shall now pass Judgement upon you.

Your sin is…

The man placed a hand on Oz's head, nails digging into his scalp.

YOUR VERY EXISTENCE!

When he said that Oz shuddered as his sight began to go black. The last thing he saw before utter darkness was his father falling, a sword sticking through his chest, and flames beginning to lap up the sides of his beautiful home.

Ϙ-Ϙ-Ϙ

An hour after Oz had been sent to the Abyss, his little brother, Ciel, had been given the pleasure of watching his mother die in front of him as the house he had grown up in light up the night with the flames lapping up its walls. He wasn't allowed to watch for very long though. The arsonist, who happened to be a girl, caught hold of Ciel's beautiful blue hair and yanked him along. Ciel kicked and screamed, but he was just a child. Nothing he did helped.

The girl threw her cargo into the back of a crude cart and jumped up next to him. All of the other cloaked intruders also leapt up as one of them flicked the reigns, leading them away from the burning mansion. In the bright fire light Ciel happened to get a glimpse of the man who seemed to be in charge. He had jet black hair and cold violet eyes. Ciel remembered seeing a picture of him once. His name was Oswald. Oswald Baskerville. He was head of the Baskerville family and should have been the Phantomhive family's strongest ally.

Oswald noticed the toddler staring at him horror. He smirked evilly, "What's wrong child? Could it be that you remember me?" Ciel nodded slowly. Oswald chuckled before purring, "Is that so? Well then, what are you planning to do now? Are you going to kill me for destroying your family? Are you going to swear to take revenge on me? Or are you going to avenge your family by destroying the Baskerville family?" He grabbed Ciel's chin and forced the little boy to look him in the eyes, "Tell me, child! What are you going to do?"

The toddler's bright blue eyes met the man's violet gaze blankly, all trace of childishness glee gone from his face and voice as he said calmly, "I will survive. I will survive and when I grow up I will make you regret what you did to me. I will destroy not only you, but your family and your home and your reputation. I will take everything from you."

Oswald started at the speech. It sounded a little silly considering that Ciel was barely able to pronounce the 'r' sound, but even so the toddler's words sent a shiver up the man's spine. Ciel meant what he said; there was no denying that. However Oswald would have to be stupid take such a young child seriously. Why then, he thought in frustration, Why am I so afraid of him right now? It is quite ridiculous to be afraid of a child, so why do I feel so scared. He never could figure that one out. Even after he sold the offending child off to some slave trader, he still couldn't shake the feeling that Ciel would be the one to bring about his demise. He didn't like that feeling. Yet there was nothing he could do, besides wait for his rival's youngest son to come and fulfill his promise.

Whelp, if you liked this chapter, please leave a review and head over to chapter 2. If you didn't like it, leave a review telling me what I should fix and enjoy the rest of your day.

Either way, I hope you have (had) a happy Christmas (or Hanukkah or any other holiday you might celebrate instead)!

Have a Happy New Year! :)