Chapter Text
Alessi laughs maniacally. He did it — he had finally gotten his revenge on both DIO and the rest of the crusaders! Serves them right for what they did to him. He blamed DIO for his loss to the crusaders since DIO didn’t warn him how hard it would be to fight against them. Not only that, but DIO made him feel small. Weak. No one does that to him! After getting his stand, he vowed to himself that he would never feel small again. Then the crusaders just had to come by and humiliate him even further when they fought!
Which was why it made this revenge even sweeter since he had hit two birds with one stone.
“You know, I do have to thank you. If it weren’t for you all, my shadow wouldn’t have gotten this close in the first place.”『Sethan』curled below his feet. While he and his stand were in a considerable distance from them, Alessi was still close enough for his stand to attack. It had managed to hit his target, DIO who was dazed, to touch his stand for more than ten seconds.
The smoke from the battle clears, revealing a crater where DIO had stood mere seconds ago from where『Star Platinum』 had punched him. All that was left from the vampire was a small pile of clothes that started to shift and stir.
Jotaro, the closest one to DIO, narrowed his eyes suspiciously at the pile along with his grandfather and friends that drew closer. They all had their stands out, with Joseph and Kakyoin preparing their stands to capture DIO if he was perceived as a threat.
The pile continues to stir until it reveals a sickly boy with blonde hair —
— who immediately threw dirt into Jotaro’s eyes before he could react. “Ghk!” Jotaro goes to remove the dirt in his eyes.
“Jotaro!” Joseph worriedly called out as he and Kakyoin immediately went to restrain DIO’s arms and legs with『Hermit Purple』 and 『Hierophant Green』.
Polnareff’s eyes widened when he noticed that DIO had been reverted to a five year old kid while Avdol and Iggy stood defensively, ready to attack at a moment's notice with their own stands. Even if DIO was a kid, they couldn’t afford to let their guard down just yet.
“...Alessi…How dare you?! Curse you all!” DIO screamed with rage, turning his utter confusion to anger in a last attempt to escape their grasps. While he still had some of his memories from adulthood left, it was blurry. His voice had changed and everything seemed bigger than it was before. Everything hurt and his senses were dulled. Memories from his childhood almost seemed fresh in his mind and it confused DIO so much that he had a hard time telling if he was still in Egypt fighting the crusaders or if he was being beaten again by his father with a whip.
Alessi couldn’t help but be amused by the display. “I wonder, what are you all going to do now? Even if he is Dio — You can’t possibly kill an innocent child, can you?!” He cackled. Jotaro clenched his jaw as his vision cleared.
Due to his plight, DIO was unable to see their stands. His mind continued to be wracked with confusion since something was preventing him from moving. His rational mind could feel that the texture is reminiscent of thorns and vines akin to『Hermit Purple』— but with the emotional fatigue; something within him just snapped and screamed ‘Father has his whip and everything hurts no no nono nonoNO —’
And suddenly, Dio Brando woke up in a world he didn’t recognize. His vision was hazy as a figure loomed over him.
“P-Please…Father, don’t! I promise I’ll be good, promise!” A young Dio covered in bruises wails out, curling in on himself as if awaiting for a blow to the head. “‘m sorry, I’ll try harder! I’ll win next time!” Dio couldn’t even see that the person in front of him wasn’t his father, Dario Brando, but someone else.
Jotaro hesitates. His breath was caught up in his throat. The vampire’s (?) amber eyes shone with so much fear and genuine sorrow that it ate away at his heart because god — nothing was ever going to be easy for him, was it?
In a split decision;『Star Platinum』’s fist hits Alessi instead, hoping that knocking him down would release the stand’s effect on Dio. Kakyoin and Joseph’s stands loosened their grip in their momentary shock from Dio’s words.
Alessi gets back up as a taste akin to copper fills his mouth. “...You thought that would work on me again?! I only released the effect of my stand because I felt like you had beaten me before. But now – I haven’t felt so sure of my victory in my entire life! Hit me all you want — It won’t erase the effect of my stand on Dio now that I’m sure that I’ve won!”
“Bastard!” Before Jotaro could hit Alessi again, the sound of thrashing and screaming captures his attention. Jotaro turned back to see his friends dealing with Dio.
“Kakyoin, we have to let him go!” Joseph said while Polnareff agreed with him. “Yeah, we’re scaring him!”
Kakyoin hesitantly lets go of『Hierophant Green』’s grip on Dio along with Joseph’s 『Hermit Purple』.
Alessi noticed the opening to escape and he gratefully accepted it; slipping away from the crusaders right under their noses once he saw that their attention wasn’t on him anymore. 'Attaboy, Alessi!' He thought to himself with a grin as he slipped away.
⊰☆⊱┈──╌ •| ⊱★⊰ |• ╌──┈⊰☆⊱
Dio could finally move again and once his vision returned to clarity he realized that he was surrounded by strangers he didn’t know. He was in some sort of crater and he didn’t recongnize any of his surroundings; which only amplified the fear and terror that he’s already experiencing. Even his own clothes were unrecognizable to him! Dio tried so hard not to cry but he could already feel the moisture building up in the corner of his eyes. ‘Weak. Pathetic.’ A voice that suspiciously sounded like his father uttered in his mind.
His judgment could only assume the worst; that these men are going to kidnap him and possibly sell him. It wasn’t impossible, it was well within the realm of possibility in Dio’s reality.
Too bad for them, he refused to go down without a fight. Even if he’s currently scared for his own goddamn life; He would claw, tear, and bite if it meant that he would survive just for another day.
Jotaro tried to look for Alessi again but he was nowhere to be seen. He seethed in frustration and went back to the others to help them with Dio.
“...S-Stay back!” Dio said as he prepared to fight, it didn’t help that his voice seemed to quiver whenever he was trying to scare them off. It also didn’t help that all of them seemed to be twice his height so he was already at a disadvantage.
“Good grief…” Jotaro muttered as he went closer to him. Dio immediately zeroed in on his movement. When Jotaro goes to pick him up, Dio screams and tries to punch his way out. However, due to all the bruises and injuries he has as well as his strength in general, it was futile. “Let me go! LET ME GO! NOOO —”
Jotaro knocks him out easily and Dio’s world fades to black.
“Jotaro, be more gentle with him!” Joseph said with a voice tinged in concern and disapproval. “Gentle? Jiji, this is the same person that almost killed you earlier.” Jotaro now held an unconscious Dio in his arms.
Polnareff looked over Dio’s wounds and bruises. Polnareff could’ve assumed that these bruises came from DIO’s prior fight with Jotaro but it couldn’t be because some of these bruises were older than others. Some bruises almost seemed akin to whip marks, something that『Star Platinum』couldn’t have caused. Polnareff frowned at what he saw. “But Jotaro…He’s just a kid now. He probably has no idea of what is happening.”
Polnareff recalled his own experience with Alessi’s stand and remembered how confused and scared he felt when he had turned into a kid. It was hard to make sense of things during that time — he could barely remember the place he was in or the names of his friends. He could hardly make sense of his own feelings as well due to the stress of fighting off an enemy stand user. Luckily, a kind lady was willing to help him and he had managed to defeat Alessi in the end with Jotaro. Dio however….he might not be as lucky.
Jotaro still wouldn’t budge on his suspicions against DIO yet. “I still don’t trust him. He might still have his memories of adulthood intact."
Kakyoin seemed to be deep in thought before he had to agree with Jotaro. “...I do have to agree with Jotaro on this, it might be a trick.”
Avdol went over and assessed Dio as well. “These marks…These are whip marks.” Avdol frowned. “Do you think he was abused, Avdol?” Polnareff asked hesitantly, getting straight to the point despite the uneasy air that loomed over them. Avdol nodded. “We don’t know for sure, Polnareff, but with all the evidence we have here — it might be a possibility. During the fight, Dio had anticipated that he was going to get hit. He braced for the hit, Polnareff. Not to mention the things he said…" Avdol trailed off.
The whole group knew that there were monsters besides vampires lurking in the dark. They couldn't be too sure of the situation but the mental image the crusaders had in mind wasn't pretty. After all, who in their right minds would torture a child?
Joseph had an unreadable look on his face as if he was contemplating something before he finally spoke. “I guess the only way to find out if it was a trick is to keep an eye on him. We’ll have to bring him home with us.”
Jotaro furrowed his eyebrows. “But what about Mom? Didn’t you say that we needed to kill Dio to break the curse?” He asked bluntly. Joseph went quiet and Avdol answered the question for him.
Avdol takes a peek to check if Dio still has Jonathan’s birthmark. There was nothing. “Hmm…I doubt that Dio’s curse is still active in the state that he’s in.”
Joseph followed him through Dio’s changes. “He doesn’t have a scar on his neck either. It seems that he’s back in his original body.”
“Yes. Besides that, what else is strange is that Dio should’ve healed himself by now.” Avdol comments as he goes to check if Dio still has his fangs. Nothing. All that was there was blunt teeth instead of sharp canines. Avdol lastly checked for a heartbeat and widened his eyes when he felt it. “That confirms my suspicions. It looks like Dio isn’t even a vampire either. He’s been fully reverted back to when he was a human.”
“Oh my god…” Joseph voiced out the surprise everyone felt about the revelation.
‘Dio?’
‘Human? ’
Jotaro himself couldn’t put the two words together in his mind. Joseph recovers after a while; his thoughts turning back to his daughter’s wellbeing and Jotaro. “Well, it doesn’t hurt to check! Give me a while to call home, I’ll see if Holly is doing any better.” From the corner of his eye, Joseph saw the tension from his grandson’s shoulders bleed out for a moment and he slipped away from the group to contact the Speedwagon Foundation as well as to check up on Holly.
⊰☆⊱┈──╌ •| ⊱★⊰ |• ╌──┈⊰☆⊱
Meanwhile, somewhere near the battlefield lay the body of a headless man which will soon be discovered by the SPW Foundation.
If they were to check the back of its left shoulder, there would appear to be a star-shaped mark on their skin.
The corpse is then identified as the body of the late Jonathan Joestar.