Vito was surprised when he saw that the other car transporting Joe entered a different street. He had a feeling of what was happening, but he still had to try...
"Hey, what's going on?" He asked. "Where are they taking Joe?"
"Sorry kid, Joe wasn't part of our deal." Leo revealed, looking a bit bad. Vito could only sit as he watched the car transporting Joe disappear on the city's great streets. He couldn't do nothing, it would only end up with him dead. He immediately regretted choosing this life, a life of crime, he should have listened to his mother and to Francesca. Now, there was no turning back, Joe was dead and everyone he loved was either dead or gone.
So this is the world I have entered, where best friends betray each other, where family members abandon others. He thought, remembering that asshole Henry who was a close friend to him and Joe, but in the end turned up to be an informant for the Feds and forced him and Joe to go on a drug deal with him for his own ends, it turned bad for all of them. Henry himself was brutally beaten to death by the Chinese gangsters he had made a deal with, and who discovered his true colors.
And we killed the one man who killed our supposed "friend" for a just reason, and now I'm in this situation because of it.
In the end he had to accept it, the past is the past, the life he had now was what mattered, even if it was brutal and cruel.
Joe noticed that the car he was in had split up with the one that was transporting Galante and Vito, driving off to a street that really didn't reached the Cathouse. There were always rumors that the Vinci's drivers were stupid and retarded, always missing the ways and loosing car pursuits with the Falcone's or Clemente's. Eddie told him those rumors during that drunken night at the brothel with him and Vito.
"Hey friend! Just wanted to say that you have gone the wrong way!" He told the driver, who sighed in response.
"You shut your mouth and stay quiet, Barbaro, we're taking the easy way." The gangster near Joe explained, watching the street. "The rest of the city is at war, Scarpa has made a deal with us and became the new Don of the Falcone Crime Family, but some of Carlo's loyalists are still around."
So, Eddie became the new Don after all. Well, knowing him, good riddance to what's left of the Family. Joe thought, knowing that Eddie will probably ignore his new responsibilities and spend all his new money on pussies and booze. But this explanation was still very doubtful.
"What about Mr. Galante's car?" He asked, curious and angry. "They went through the 'dangerous' part of the city!"
"You talk too much." The gangster replied, and before Joe could do something, the gangster on the other city silenced him with a garrote. "Don't kill him, you fuckhead!" The other gangster shouted, punching Joe unconscious and taking the garrote from the other's hand. "Chu wants him alive." He explained before handcuffing Joe and removing his Magnum revolver from it's place on the suit.
"Yeah, sure." The other one said, before ordering the driver to stop the car. They swiftly placed Joe's unconscious body on the trunk before any of the patrolling cops noticed. They then both entered the car again, and the driver resumed driving. "I feel bad about this poor fellow," A gangster started. "Knowing those crazy chinks, they'll probably torture him for weeks before cutting him in little pieces and scattering them around the whole city."
"Don't. This fat ass was responsible for this terrible gang war with the Chinks and consequently with Falcone's men, he's got it coming." Another one replied, lighting a cigar and smoking it.
"Yeah I know, but still... no one deserves the torture those Chinks have in store for their enemies." Replied the gangster who started the conversation.
"Can't argue with that." The other one said, throwing his cigar off the window.
Joe couldn't remember nothing, only entering an argument with Vinci's men and then, darkness. He soon found out, as the trunk to the car was opened and the two men he was arguing with held him at gunpoint and guided his handcuffed figure to the former Clemente slaughterhouse, now given to the Chinks as one of the rewards for the massacre at the Red Dragon Restaurant in Chinatown.
"Shit," Joe swore under his breath, the pain in his head troubling his confused mind. "What the fuck is happening? Where are you taking me?" He asked to the two gangsters who were guiding him into the slaughterhouse, where the horrifying views of people in pieces and torture sections were disgusting him.
"To a place worse than hell, friend." The gangster replied. "As a reward for your dear services, which caused a fucking gang war and the death of half of ours and the Chinks' men!" He completed angrily, pointing his gun at Joe's head and nodding at him to go faster.
"But I helped kill Falcone, I was pardoned!" Joe protested.
"Only your friend was, mate." The gangster said. "Toni told me that the face on Vito's face when he found out that his best friend was being led to death was priceless!" He said, laughing slightly.
"You fooled me and Vito!" Joe shouted angrily, wanting to tear those handcuffs and beat those men to death.
"That's how this business here works, mate." One of the gangsters said, fastening his pace.
"Friendship ain't worth shit in the life you choose." The other one declared. "A man of your reputation, should know that."
Joe didn't replied, at first, when he saw the chink gangsters appear from a large door.
"Give him to we, and we shall have fun with him." One of the chinks said with a very strong accent, as the Vinci gangsters threw Joe on the ground before the chinks.
"I guess we're even then?" The Vinci gangster asked, holstering his pistol.
"We are, tell your boss that no more trouble or shooting is need." The chink replied as he and his companion dragged him to the dark torture room.
It was there that Mr. Chu and two of his torture assistants appeared, Chu carrying an iron stick with fire on it. The others carrying menacing knives and a hammer.
"Me will have some fun with you, friend." Chu told Joe with a devil's smile, caressing his stick.
"Go to hell." Joe replied, spitting at the three figures in front of him.
That was the last thing he did before the endless torture assaulted him, draining him of all his energies.
22 days later.
New Bordeaux
The Bayou
The dark car approached the dark and misty swamp of the Bayou of the city of New Bordeaux, a city whose underworld was dominated by the brutal and tyrannical Marcano Crime Family. The car stopped in a small mountain before the swamp, as Pepe and his three accomplices exited the car and picked up two young men from the car.
"I'm sorry, Joe." Vito said as he looked at his heavily scarred friend, who was now missing an ear and four fingers. He and Joe were picked up by the Vinci's after 21 long days of torture to Joe, and Vito was sent to work for the Marcano's as a punishment for his previous actions. A much better punishment than the one suffered by Joe though.
"It was not your fault..." Joe said as he struggled to talk, spitting blood from his heavily bruised mouth and face. One of Pepe's accomplices was strongly holding Vito's arm, preventing him from doing anything to save his former partner in crime.
"Here and now, Vito Scaletta." Pepe started, circling around Joe's figure, who was kneeling in front of the swamp below, the crocodiles jumping and showing their tooth to him. "You will learn what happens to people like Joe here, who endlessly betrayed their families and disgraced them. A similar punishment will be held for you if you repeat your acts." Pepe continued, touching Joe's bloodied shoulder. "You have only been spared of the punishment because you saved Mr. Galante earlier and did less shit than our friend here."
"Pepe, please..." Vito tried, but was slapped on the cheek by Pepe. Blood covered his cheek, as he realized that there was no saving for Joe.
"Now, Joe Barbaro, do you have any last wishes?" Pepe asked Joe.
"Vito, please..." Joe struggled to talk. "Forget me, live your life as it is, work hard and don't mess up like we did, and who knows you'll meet a happier ending than me." Joe said as tears fell from his eyes."
"Joe..." Vito simply replied.
"Take me as an example of what will happen to you if you repeat my stupidity." Joe said as he lowered his head to look at the hungry crocodiles below.
Vito helplessly watched as Pepe placed his foot on Joe's back, and kicked him down to the murky waters. Joe screamed desperately until he hit the waters, and more pain screams could be heard as the crocodiles feasted on him. Vito couldn't help but cry, the tears flowing uncontrollably through his eyes. Pepe then introduced him to the Marcano's, his new family.
"My name is Vito Scaletta. I was born in poverty in a small town in Sicily, and when I was only a child who didn't understood how the world worked, my family and I took the long trip to America. We desired a happier and merrier life, dreaming of the American Dream.
However, in the time I spent in America, I learnt that things such as the supposed American dream don't exist, that life is unfair, and most importantly, crime doesn't pay.
In the criminal life I stupidly choose to lead, I lost my family, my friends and everything I had hold dear in my heart.
But there is no turning back now, as now I need to continue on with my miserable life and work to achieve a happy ending...
...but with all I've seen and learnt, I doubt such thing even exists.
Author's Notes
Sorry, but I HAD to write this. I had to write my opinion of Joe's fate and the aftermath of Mafia II and before Mafia III.
I almost cried while writing the end, Mafia II was one of the few games I really teared up in the ending, alongside games such as Red Dead Redemption and Assassin's Creed 4.
Please review!