A/N: I'd like to thank PSVT and thescarredman for their feedback; it was very encouraging. Gunslinger Girl is a work of enduring power, the kind that should be remembered, and if my story can bring some attention back to our section on FF I would be thrilled to see that happen.

III: La Sforza

Giuseppe Croce looked extraordinarily busy as he sat alone in the dining room, one hand occupied with a plate of tortellini and the other fingering through a sheaf of papers. So absorbed was he in this information that he didn't notice his brother walking up to the table.

"You're still here?" Gian said with a bemused expression. "Is it another stargazing night?"

The dark-haired handler shook his head with a wistful expression. "Just getting a better look at this file. I'm surprised they assigned every fratello in the Agency to a simple assassination."

"Ahh, that one. As I told our new guy this morning, it's a chance for him and his cyborg to get some field experience. What I didn't tell him is that our mark is a former Section 2 employee, and you won't find that in the file either."

Giuse looked up at him in shock. "Another one?"

"A man named Sergius, from the early days. He started hitting the bottle too hard and became unstable. Now he's threatening to expose everything and Lorenzo needs him dead, soon."

"I guess that's why he was so on edge when I met with him earlier."

Gian nodded wearily. "Don't go mentioning it to anyone else. Staff morale is already down because of Angelica. We tried to convince Marco to stay and train up another girl, but he wouldn't hear of it, so we had to bring in someone else."

Giuse closed the file with a grimace and turned back to his meal. "I've only met this Beto Silvano briefly, on my way to breakfast. What do you make of him?"

"Former military, though I'm sure you could tell that. Already hates my guts. Very serious and keeps to himself. I'm surprised Giorgio recommended him. Apparently he's doing this for a job referral like Claudio. I hear he's also in it for revenge, not that I can blame him for that. But he's too self-righteous for this sort of work. I'm not sure he'll last."

"Then let's make sure he does. The last thing we need is another failed handler and another cyborg wandering the facility with nothing to do. If a rogue staffer doesn't do us in, that just might finish the job."

Gian frowned and sat down. It wasn't like Giuse to be so concerned about business. Usually all he talked about was Henrietta, if he said anything. He was not only Gian's younger brother but the Agency's as well; the innocent one, relatively speaking, whom everyone handled with kid gloves. Perhaps he identified in some way with Beto's moral hang-ups. Or maybe Section 2's vulnerability had become so obvious that not even he could ignore it.

"You may be right," Gian allowed. "The higher-ups are already putting pressure on us, and Section 1 isn't helping. We've got group training in two days, so do what you can to loosen him up starting tomorrow."

"Me?" Giuse said uncertainly.

"You're the 'nice' one, aren't you? Maybe you can get through to him. I know an excellent bar in Sorrento ... "

"Let me get this straight," Silvano muttered as he nursed his beer at the counter in Piazza Andrea Veniero. "In the past year alone, this agency has lost two cyborgs and three supervisors? What the fuck are you people doing?"

Giuse shook his head slowly. Uncharacteristically he'd been in the mood for strong drink, and so was a good deal further along than his co-worker. "I wake up mornings and fall asleep nights looking for the answer, Beto. And it's not at the bottom of a glass, no matter how many times I check."

Silvano's eyes crinkled, and he let out a staccato laugh that sounded like a bark. Giuse looked surprised, and in fact Silvano was too. He'd never so much as smiled at anyone in Section 2, but this Giuse person wasn't so bad even if he was Gian's brother.

"I know where you're coming from," he said, gesturing to his own glass. "The answers to life's questions, friends we've lost ... I know none of 'em are down there. But it doesn't hurt to make sure."

"One of the cyborgs was Angelica; you already know about her. Her handler Marco retired from the Agency after she ... broke down. The other was Elsa, who was killed in a terrorist attack along with her handler Lauro. At least that's the official story, which is all I can give you right now. Some of their intact parts were used to make Kess. Our funding might dry up at any point so Bianchi has to be resourceful."

Silvano counted on his fingers. "So that's, uh ... two cyborgs and two agents. What happened to the third guy?"

"Claudio Raballo? He's another long story."

The veteran turned to him sharply. The smile was gone, and now his voice sounded more like a growl. "The Raballo from the Carabinieri?"

Giuse hesitated. "I think so. Did you, uh ... know him?"

"The one who had to retire when a gun discharged into his leg and died less than a year later? That Claudio Raballo? We only spoke once or twice, but I knew him by reputation. He was a good cop." Silvano leaned towards him, his voice rising slightly. "We always thought it was kinda strange, the way he got killed in a hit-and-run."

"Um ... "

"In broad daylight. With no witnesses. After taking a new job he wouldn't tell anyone about. That was strange too."

Giuse's shoulders sagged. "Beto, if we had anything to do with it, they never told me. That's the truth. But I do know we're in a dirty business. Even our most loyal people understand that. We're state-sponsored criminals using brainwashed children to do the government's dirty work. Half the people we report to want us shut down. Even Section 1 hates us, and they're part of us. This program can't survive security leaks of any kind. If we're exposed the higher-ups will deny any knowledge of us and hang us out to dry, maybe even kill us themselves. Gian and the others don't talk about such things when I'm around, but ... it's easy enough to figure out."

"Then why are you still there, man?" Silvano hissed. "If you know this whole thing is screwed up and doomed to fail, why are you sticking around?"

Giuse finished his drink and closed his eyes. He looked very tired all of a sudden, staring through half-lidded eyes at the paper lanterns that hung above the bar.

"My brother and I have our reasons. Besides, have you ever seen the night sky from the Agency's rooftop?" he said with a weak smile. "It's one of the best stargazing spots around."

Silvano's derisive snort made it clear what he thought of that answer. This man was not quite right, he decided; different from Gian but with a similar feeling of wrongness, like there was something lodged inside of him he couldn't quite swallow or absorb. He knew that feeling too well. Perhaps, in that, they were not so different.

They sat for a long moment in silence.

"I bring them out there," Giuse whispered finally. "To show them the constellations. All the girls, but especially Henrietta. By sharing that with her, being people they all can look up to, introducing them to art and beauty and the wonders around us ... we tell ourselves we're giving them a real life. Making this all okay somehow. Even if it's a lie, it's the best we can do."

Silvano tightened his fingers around his glass. An unwelcome thought entered his mind, an image of himself doing something like that with Kess—perhaps introducing her to music or teaching her woodcarving as his father did him—and he took another drink to chase it off. Better not to fall into that trap. Better to keep her at arm's length and do his job. The kindest lie you could tell was still a lie.

A slight hangover wasn't the only headache Silvano had to endure the next morning. Kess' first group training session started bright and early, and it was tough sledding so far. Oh, she followed orders well enough and took to her brand new sidearm right away—occasionally looking over her shoulder at him after a good shot, which drove him to distraction—but when it came to working in concert with with the other girls, her timing simply wasn't there yet. She lagged too far behind Triela during the breaking-and-entering exercise, then overcompensated with Henrietta so that the two of them nearly tripped over each other. There were audible chuckles from the staff (except for Giorgio) when the blonde misjudged her own inhuman speed and ran smack into a wall, which Silvano endured in livid silence while nearly biting through his cigarette.

Let them point and laugh and take their humanity for granted. None of them had endured what Kess did to be "hired" by the Agency, and if they were lucky they never would ... but he scowled and quickly derailed that train of thought. What Kess had endured as Nelleke no longer mattered. She was a resource now, he told himself, as much a tool of the trade as the gun she carried.

At least his fellow supervisors were more professional. Pale, impassive German agent Victor Hilshire looked on with a perpetually bored expression, perhaps daydreaming of Dresden; if so, he had earned the luxury. His cyborg Triela was certainly the most skilled and accomplished of the four active models. Giuse was too preoccupied with whispering instructions to Henrietta to really notice Kess' mistakes. No such luck with Gian, who periodically turned away and winced, as though wishing for more opaque sunglasses.

By the time that Perro woman ordered Kess to try an exercise with Rico, Silvano wasn't holding out much hope. But when they took up their sidearms and crept into the practice building in unison, something clicked. It wasn't seamless, but Kess anticipated Rico's timing, emulated her every move, and even adopted the same untroubled stare. Bullets punched unerringly through targets as they cleared the course with above average scores. The staff applauded, but it was Silvano Kess looked to. He acknowledged her with a stiff nod.

The one cyborg Kess could work with was under the tutelage of Silvano's least favorite supervisor. Wasn't that just his luck?

"Hey, I never told you this would be easy," Giorgio said under his breath.

I am called Kess. I am a cyborg designed by the Social Welfare Agency to serve and protect the government of Italy. Beto Silvano is my supervisor.

I do not understand the need to keep a diary, except that the others tell me I should. They say that if I operate for long enough, I will forget things. That I may suffer short-term memory loss, like Angelica. They speak of Angelica often even though she is gone.

I have little patience for writing and even less that I want to report in detail. My performance in group training was not acceptable. I embarrassed my supervisor until the final phase when I paired with Rico. I do not intend to perform so badly again.

All the others have offered help and advice except for Claes, who did not participate. She reads much and says little. I did not think she had accepted me as a member of the team until she gave me this diary.

Tomorrow I will join Rico, Triela, and Henrietta in the field to observe them assassinating a traitor. I look forward to it.