The final OP of stone ocean gave me the silliest idea. Essentially I saw how they made callbacks to the Phantom Blood OP, having Pucci and Joylne fight in the crumbling remains of the Joestar mansion, just as Dio and Jonathan once did. Well let's make this literal, shall we? 😉 The end of the old universe goes exactly as canon, Pucci kills all his enemies but Emporio escapes. Except what awaits him after the end... isn't the prison. Instead he finds himself in a home richer than anything he's ever read in his books. And it's on FIRE. Two men he's never seen before are locked in a fight to the death, screaming and lashing, and with everything he's already gone through, now THIS? His heart is about to give out- until the Priest shows up in the door frame. And says they're in the new year of this universe's 1889. As Emporio forgets all about the two strange guys and decides to fucking HOOF it for dear life, he can hear Pucci tailing him ever so steady, despite the horrible heat from all sides, explaining what heaven REALLY was, how he and Dio planned this for so long, how all his enemies were gone except one, and he was gonna finish it in the place where it ALL started. Through ash and embers, the last hope of the joestars will die with their ancestral home. The hallways are a maze, and he can't even breathe. The child pitifully is reduced to a crawl, lungs heaving the smoke, and the priest closes in on his final victim, not noticing how Dio and Jonathan's attention have turned to them the moment their presence became known...
OOOOOOOOOO YESSSSSSSSSSSS
Oh my god I ADORE this and I had a fucking THOUGHT
because of course Jonathan is going to be concerned. He's just spotted a child being chased through a burning building, absolutely terrified
but Dio...... with Dio it's going to feel more personal :)
normally Dio wouldn't have cared. By all means, he shouldn't have. He had no idea who this child was and therefor would have no investment in his safety or wellbeing
but then through the smoke and ash, Dio manages to make something out
Blonde hair and gold eyes with a man looming over
"Ironic, is it not. That with her final breath she futilely kept you safe from me." the man speaks, and just over the din of cracking wood and snapping fire Dio can make out the words. "And just like her, there will be no one left to mourn you."
And Dio remembers soft hands keeping him safe and holding him close being brutally ripped away before his eyes, remembers his only protection and happiness being cooling and dying while he did nothing, remembers the sharp scent of alcohol and the ache of bruises, remembers trying to get away but always being pulled back, remembers begging, pleading for it to stop but it always falling on deaf ears, remembers remembers REMEMBERS-
and Dio
sees
red
his battle with Jonathan is all but forgotten as he bolts across the room, the man's neck easily found in his grip and hauled up into the air. He doesn't even attempt to drink the man's blood, doesn't want the filth that reminds him to much of his father staining his stomach, and instead stares into him with every ounce of hatred he has. The carnal part, the predator part of his mind that had been heighten to an incredible degree and lusts for his death
so he does. Barely gives the man a chance to react, to speak, to comprehend what was happening to him. Looking back Dio almost thinks he saw something akin to recognition in the man's eyes, but he just waves it off as something conjured by his clouded mind
and Emporio...... he can only stare. Pucci, Whitesnake, the man who'd been haunting him since he knew how to walk, who'd killed EVERYONE...... was simply dealt with just like that
he should probably be afraid of the man who killed him. After all, obviously the man was a Stand User, there wasn't any other way to explain how fast he moved or how strong he was or the slitted eyes
But Emporio honestly couldn't care less
he'd seen monsters. You didn't grow up in a prison without learning very quickly how to tell the monsters apart from the rest
and right now....... this man wasn't a monster. Monstrous maybe, but not a monster
"What's your name, boy?" he asks, his voice deep but also quiet, as if he can't believe what he's seeing
"My name is Emporio." he says back
(tl:dr, vampires are just murderous cats with opposable thumbs and Emporio has obtained One(1) new father figure and Dio, who doesn't want to be a shitty dad, is Doing His Best To Make Him Genuinely Happy and if that means having to get along with Jojo then so be it)
((doesn't mean he has to like it though))
