Prelude: It seems that my poetic license to freely write this particular fiction of my choosing has upset some...keep in mind that we all understand the true nature of Lucciola's complex relationship with Dio and the knowledge that the friendship they shared was true and meaningful. It is a shame that an authors right to explore other alternatives and write freely is questioned if it fails to adhere to a set of ideals...after all the beauty of fan fiction is that every story is different but crafted in the same caring fashion. Without much ado..read on...and judge fairly...after all each story has a value that should be weighed individually.After all if you really read closely you'll see that in this particular fiction Dio recognized and understood that to Lucciola he was the guild as was Delphine, and it was Lucciola's sacrifice that kept him alive! Sorry for the longwinded dissertation but after being flamed because it had a different ideology I could not help but respond!

Et Tu, Lucciola?

He was surrounded by silence. The guilder who condemned him to an enslaved existence stared silently at him awaiting a response.

"Why, did you save me?" he asked still dazed.

"You are the Maestro, it is my duty, sir." The boy answered him.

"Lucciola?"

"Killed by Maestro Delphine for allowing you to be taken by the surface dwellers," the young boy stated emotionlessly.

Dio's eyes blurred, he tried to keep the tears from falling but it was to no avail. His shoulders slumped. His body was sore from the fall. At last he could think clearly. His mind belonged to him once again. He was not responsible for Lucciola's death.

"Cicada?" Dio inquired.

" Dead, sir,"

"So I am all alone." He stated flatly.

"My Lord?" the boy asked.

"I'm feel very tired, arrange for a bath. I need to soak." Dio told the guilder, "and have all the ships meet at the ordained point."

"Of course." The other replied leaving Dio alone.

Rubbing his shoulders, Dio suddenly felt older than seventeen. He seemed lost without Lucciola, his constant companion. His wings clipped by Delphine. His future seemed to embody everything that the Dagober engineer had said. It was empty and pointless. With Delphine dead, he was now Maestro of the guild. The chains of his enslavement tightened as he realized the destruction around him. She had done this. She had taken the only world he recognized with her. Now he would have to lead the guild out of the rubble, alone. He was their future. Dio would have to create a new world in order for the guild to survive. He laughed aloud at the ridiculous thought. What future, but then the screen flashed white and that is when he saw her, his key to recovering the leftover fragments of his former life.His obsession with Claus and the sky was over. Alvis represented a new freedom and an alternative future.

Jumping out into the gold wheat fields embracing Lavie and Claus was the key, Alvis Hamilton. A beacon of hope, her face radiating an uncontrollable joy when she ran up to the familiar vanship whose occupants he grew to know so well. Suddenly he felt jolted. Alvis had looked at him the same way when she surprised him with his only birthday party. How could he have been so foolish and blind to the young girls feelings. The petals she collected and brought just for him, always tagging along, when Immelman was on a mission. The realization shocked him and the reality of his situation stung him to his senses. He had been so driven by his compulsion to understand Claus's relationship with the sky that he completely ignored everyone else. It was a compulsion no one could understand with the exception of Lucciola. The only person in the guild who understood his obsession with flying.Dio'sunderlying need to feel in control of his own life.

Delphine had always controlled and manipulated the sky and everyone it to suite her whims. "This world belongs to me, Dio, I can fly wherever I wish and do whatever I want." She pronounced like a spoiled child. How he hated her. Even in death he could hear her still mocking him," An obedient Dio is what I love best. What say you, Lucciola?" as she laughed coldly.

"Et tu, Lucciola?" Dio asked aloud, "he could still taste the bitterness of Lucciola's betrayal. "How could you betray me to her, my only weakness," he uttered softly. "The only person incapable of understanding what it means to be free."

"you," he yelled into the empty air, "you are responsible, you took him from me. He did not belong to you. He was mine! This is all your fault." He sneered and finally the emotion boiling within him exploded. He fell onto his knees, while his hands flew up to his face. His body shuddered with his cries of pain and suffering, with only the empty air to comfort him.

"Why Lucciola, "he cried, "why did you go back and bring me there. I told you we could not go back to her."

In the silence he could hear the response," Lord Dio, it is futile to resist. I could not refuse her, to me, she is the guild, as are you."

"My Lord" a voice interrupted,"is something wrong?"

Quickly composing himself, Dio wiped all the tears off his face. He still remained crumpled on the floor. His steel blue eyes were emotionless. His white, hair completely disheveled.

"What is your name?" he asked.

"Whatever you wish to call me, sir." The voice answered him.

Dio looked at the young guild boy standing before him. His eyes suddenly flashed with emotion as he saw Immelman jump off the vanship and hug Alvis in the projection screen.

"I will call you, Lucciola. He saved me from myself, and he succeeded just like you. He got his wish"

"Sir?" the boy asked.

"Nevermind, that is a secret that will remain between friends."

"Yes Maestro." The boy responded.

"Now introduce yourself." Dio commanded sitting up straightening the golden ornament in his hair.

"My name is Lucciola, I am honored to have been named after a friend of the Maestro."

"Much better, now let us go to my bath. I'm sore after the fall in the grand stream and I need to think. We have much planning to do Lucciola, you see I have caught a glimpse of the future, we must prepare to obtain it."

The boy turned and looked blankly at the screen and images Dio was intently focusing on.

"Yes Maestro." Lucciola answered as he helped Dio stand up from the floor.

Dio accepted his help and continued to look at the reunion of his former comrades with interest. Dio had indeed become an adult, and the future was looking very interesting. After all, Delphine was no longer around to control him or the skies. Dio began laughing hysterically, ignoring the other guilder, it seemed that the fate of the Elaclaire family was safe after all. Lucciola got his wish, Dio now ruled the guild. He was alive and he had just discovered that the future of the guild lay intertwined with the only other surviving founding guild family member, Alvis Hamilton. Together they would create a new world, where the guild would rise up in glory once more. Feeling a hand touch his shoulder he returned to reality, smiled at the guilder who was waiting patiently and walked towards his impending fate.