Gunslinger Girl is property of Yu Aida, not me.
The following events in this fanfic take place in the Animeverse, after Cristiano's disappearance.
Ch. 1
Terrore di notte
Jose lay in his bed, unable to get any sleep. He looked at the clock on his desk hoping that it was a reasonable time for him to get up, sadly it was only 2:13 A.M. With an annoyed sigh he rolled over and tried thinking of something, anything that could put him to sleep. He went over the last raid against the Five Republics Faction he and Henrietta did a week ago, how she was able to fend off Padania reinforcements all by herself while he destroyed a weapons cache that was due to be distributed amongst numerous terrorist cells in Italy. Though the higher ups preferred that the weapons be secured for their own ends, the unexpected extra trouble left the fratello no choice but to make sure they couldn't have their toys back.
Then his thoughts traveled to Henrietta herself, specifically how well she was doing her job. He noticed that whenever the two of them got split up, or were out in any other situation where plans had to change, she was getting better at adapting. Sure she'd get confused when Jose wasn't there to tell her what to do, but she was starting to make calls when necessary. This wasn't what the Social Welfare Agency intended, cyborgs were supposed to be completely obedient to their handlers, but Henrietta's recent success spoke for itself.
Jose didn't know if this was good or bad though.
Sure, a flexible assassin could get a lot done, but if he let her loose too much he was afraid she'd get a little too use to it. He remembered when Henrietta cleared out an entire terrorist safe house against his orders, failing the mission when there was nobody left alive to interrogate. If that happened again he'd be pressured to condition her to be more obedient, further shortening her life span.
Then there was the fact that Jose still wasn't used to seeing little Henrietta gun down people without remorse, he'd put on a face and praise her but the discomfort was still prevalent. Since he didn't condition her much she grew fond of him on her own, and would do anything for him. Jose couldn't tell which was more disturbing; killing because she was brainwashed or killing because she genuinely wanted to please him.
True, Jose had no love for Padania after what they did to his family, but a little girl slaughtering them in his stead made him want to vomit. Especially sense her devotion to him was more from Henrietta herself rather than just conditioning. The handler rolled back around and sighed, he just made himself more restless.
Suddenly a loud knock on his door startled him, followed by a young lady's voice.
"Jose? Sir?" She called, obviously panicked. "It's Triela, please open the door!"
Jose climbed out of bed, thought it would be more accurate to say he scrambled out of bed due to the urgency in his visitor's voice, and opened the door. Waiting for him was a very upset looking tanned skinned girl barley in her teens, her half open and blue iris decorated eyes suggested she wasn't fully awake, and her strained breathing and hunched posture indicated she sprinted quite a distance.
"Triela, what's wrong?" Jose asked, taking note that she looked ready to cry.
"It's Henrietta!" Triela replied, still catching her breath. "She woke up screaming, she won't stop crying, and I don't know what to….." She trailed off as her breathing turned in to hyperventilating.
"Calm down!" Jose ordered as he grabbed her shoulders. "Take deep breaths." Triela did as she was told, though what was happening to Henrietta still bothered her immensely. Once her breathing returned to normal, Jose patted her on the shoulder.
"Okay, now let's head back to the dorms." He said.
Jose and Triela were on their way to the dorms, sadly they were a bit far from where he slept. As they walked, Jose thought about how upset Triela looked and began to worry; she never freaked out that much unless Hilshire was around. Whatever was happening to Henrietta must be that bad.
"Hey Triela?" Jose asked. "Why didn't you go to Hilshire? He's your handler." Triela bit her lip in response.
"I wanted to." She replied. "But since its Henrietta that's in trouble, I thought you were the best person to help her." Jose was impressed by the cyborg's level of understanding, sometimes conditioning made cyborgs dependent on their handlers to a dangerous fault, Triela however was still able to recognize that Hilshire couldn't fix everything. Since Triela was the oldest cyborg, the others looked to her for advice they were too shy to ask from their handlers for whatever reason, so she kept note of their many needs and habits.
"You made the right call." Jose reassured her, making her smile. The smile quickly faded when they suddenly heard a scream from down the hall, followed by hysterical crying.
"Henrietta!" Jose exclaimed. He'd recognize her voice anywhere.
"Sounds like she's got worse since she woke up!" Triela pointed out as they picked up the pace. They turned a corner and saw three doors open, shadows could be seen moving around in one of the rooms.
"Henrietta it's me!" A little girl's voice could be heard from inside the room, barely audible over Henrietta's sobbing. "Please, just tell us what's wrong!"
"Angelica?" Jose wondered out loud.
"She must have woken up after I left." Triela concluded. "Rico and Claes were the only ones awake before." She was interrupted by a shriek and a loud crash, making her and Jose full on sprint. Triela easily outran him with her cybernetic enhancements. Once inside they were met with an alarming scene; Henrietta sat on the top bunk crying and violently shaking with her hands covering her eyes, Rico stood on the lower bunk as she attempted to calm her down in vain, and Angelica lay motionless on the floor with Claes trying to shake her awake.
"What happened here!?" Jose demanded to know from the cyborgs. Claes jumped a bit and looked at him with wide open eyes.
"Angelica tried to talk to Henrietta." She explained, shouting over Henrietta's crying. "But she flipped out and just shoved her off the bunk, I think her arm is broken!" Immediately, Jose's attention turned to Rico, who was about to try and hold Henrietta's hand.
"Rico! Get down from there!" He ordered. Rico turned to face him, but due to her conditioning she took the order without a fuss, and climbed down from the bunk.
"Now help Claes get Angelica to the infirmary."
"Yes sir!" Rico replied as she rushed over to Angelica. Jose turned to look at Triela.
"Triela, go wake Dr. Ziliani and tell him he's got a patient!" He ordered.
"Yes sir!" Triela replied as she ran off to complete her task, she was soon followed by Rico and Claes carrying an unconscious Angelica.
Alone with Henrietta, Jose walked up to her bunk and placed a hand on her shoulder, cautiously as she could easily snap his arm like a twig if provoked. Watching her cry and tremble, it was hard to believe this little girl killed scores of terrorists, regardless it still broke Jose's heart to see her so distraught.
"Henrietta?" He addressed her quietly. "It's me, Jose." The brunette cyborg hesitantly lowered her hands and opened her eyes, blinking in response to her own tears. Her eyes darted around before landing on Jose, making her jump a little.
"Jose?" She inquired through her sobs. Once he was sure Henrietta recognized him, Jose wrapped his arm around her and pulled her close, prompting her to curl up in his grasp and grab his shirt as she continued crying. It was a little awkward for Jose to comfort his little charge while leaning on the bunk bed, but he was willing to endure it for her. Eventually her sobbing ceased, however a few sharp gasps and hiccups still made it out.
"Now, do you want to tell me what's wrong?" Jose asked. Henrietta tensed up and looked up at her handler with puffy eyes.
"I….I had a nightmare." She said, interrupted by a sniff.
"What happened?" He asked with hesitation, the fact that she remembered having a dream was a bad sign. Still, if he wanted to help her then he had to know. Henrietta opened her mouth to speak but stopped, then curled up more and shook her head.
"It's okay." Jose said with a soft smile. "You can tell me anything." The cyborg looked down for a few seconds, and with a sigh she looked back up at him.
"You and I were in a nice house." She explained, her voice slowly becoming shaky. "We were having a party, I don't know what we were celebrating but….just having you there was nice." Henrietta leaned against Jose with a small smile, letting his warmth calm her some as she anticipated the scary part of her tale.
"There were other people there but I didn't recognize them, they all brought gifts but I was just happy having them around for some reason. We played games and had cake, we made quite a mess." The cyborg continued explaining. Jose couldn't help but feel a little warm on the inside as she recalled her dream in colorful detail; the games she played, the cake she ate, there was even an amusing little bit where Jose attempted to play an accordion with less than ear pleasing results.
"For some reason my hair was grown out, you said I looked pretty." She continued. After hearing that part, Jose's smile faded; it sounded like what she looked like before becoming a cyborg. Henrietta's smile followed his as her story took a sad turn.
"Then…these tall men broke in, five of them." She explained, her voice cracked a bit. "They grabbed everyone and forced them on their knees, one of them held me and made me look at them. Their leader had an axe, he started hacking everyone to pieces!" Her grip on Jose's shirt tightened. "I've seen plenty of people get killed, most of them by me, but for some reason seeing these people die made me scream. I looked for my P-90 but it wasn't around, and I didn't have my cybernetic enhancements!"
This was sounding all too familiar to Jose, there were a few differences from what he was thinking about, the most glaring one being his presence, but he was pretty sure he knew where it was going.
"Then you tried to stop them." Henrietta explained, her tears returned and she started hiccuping through her sentences. "But they shoved you down and….chopped off your head, your dead eyes stared at me! Then they took off my clothes, chopped off two of my limbs, and….did things to my private parts. It hurt so much and I couldn't move! I screamed and begged but they wouldn't stop!"
No longer composed enough to keep talking, Henrietta buried her face in Jose's chest as she starting wailing again. Jose's grasp around her tightened, after hearing that tale he was just as scared as she was. If what he thought was going on turned out to be true, then he didn't know if he could help her without conditioning her this time. On the other hand, if he did condition her then everything he did for her up until now would be pointless; he did not want the time he spent with her to go to waste.
"It's…it's just a dream Henrietta." Jose assured his charge, hiding his anxiety. "You're okay, I'm here for you." Slightly comforted by his words, Henrietta's crying began to die down. Her grip on his shirt vanished and she let herself relax against him, her night terrors were gradually swept away by the affection he gave her.
Jose however was still scared.
Should you stumble upon any grammatical errors whilst you read this, I encourage you to inform me. Otherwise, hope you enjoy the rest of this little tale.
