I will say it now. This will not be a happy story. This will not be cheerful or light hearted. This is my idea of how things could go for the Agency and those involved with it. Whether the end is happy or not, not even I know, but if you choose not to read, I will understand.


Loretta slowly ascended a hill on the grounds of the agency... the hill where the tree she and Rico used to play under once stood.

"Officially, the Social Welfare Agency is a government sponsored agency in the business of saving lives... that's nothing more than a ruse from where I'm standing..."

Loretta stood before five headstones and gripped the bouquet she brought with her.

"Hey, guys..."she said quietly. She placed a rose on Angelica's grave, one on Beatrice's grave...

"In reality, it's a government agency on the fringe of technology... I've seen these girls kill without remorse, without fear, and without hesitation... perhaps there's a special pit in Hell waiting for all of us after what we've done..."

One on Henrietta's grave, one on Rico's grave...

"Henrietta was like a sister to me... I shouldn't have let myself grow attached to her, knowing what her ultimate fate would be... and now I've allowed myself to grow attached once more..."

Loretta placed the final rose on Triela's grave and turned to leave.

"There seems no end to heartache here, at the agency. Once an intelligence agency working throughout Italy, now we're an anti-terrorist organization working throughout all of Europe and Asia... how things change..."

"I miss my friends... all of them... I've seen so many come and more leave... Now my friends from now... Claes, Rowena, Opal, Christian, Christopher... I don't want to see you all go..."

Loretta silently passed Jose in the hallway as she proceeded to her dormitory. She opened the door to see Claes sitting alone with an open book, sunlight glistening off the braces on her legs.

"Hey there."she greeted quietly, as usual. Loretta nodded to her friend and climbed onto her top bunk, holding one of her teddy bears close to her.

"She's more like an agent than a cyborg, now... and who's to say she hasn't earned it? She's seen far more Hell than any of the cyborgs... and bloodied her hands more than any of the agents. She's broken, but she's progressed so much that we couldn't possibly fix her... Not without possibly killing her... we truly are damned..."

"Rico told me once that she loved being able to wake up and move... I don't know if I ever want to wake up... not if this is my life..."

The pain and sorrow of the Social Welfare Agency had reached such a peak, agony oozed from every crack in the now broken lives of all it's workers and cyborgs... if they deserved to go to Hell, Hell had come there long before and been there ever since... or, at least, it would now...


Here's the end of the prologue. I will say that it was kinda hard to write about all the girls dying off, save for Loretta and Claes (who, as we can all tell, is in bad shape), but it's the end that really gets me. I won't spoil it (obviously), but I will say, I have finished this story. All I need to do is type and submit. I hope those of you who do choose to read it keep with me until the end.