The Price of Desire

Disclaimer: I do not own Victorious

A/N: There's not much left of PRICE, so I think I'm going to just update it on a daily basis. Okay, this is IMPORTANT-I have a poll pertaining to the upcoming sequel on my profile, go vote if you can ^_^. Now enjoy this BIG chapter.

Chapter 21 (Captain Sinks His Ship)

Michael and Warren sped down the country road, they were responding to a 911 call that was related to this gang war. A man calling himself Giovanni was requesting them by name. It was suspicious, and they were prepared for a possible shootout. Several squad cars were behind them, as the man did not specify whether or not he wanted them to bring backup. All they knew was this was the name of the leader that Trina said she saw on the database. "Hopefully he's got something for us and isn't planning an ambush…"

"That might be too much to hope for," Warren said with a quiet tone. Michael stared ahead and frowned, he saw several black cars in the distance. Warren groaned and shook his head. "I'm getting too old for this, I'm telling you." Michael's eyes widened on the sight he spotted next to the cars, rather than the cars themselves. A man in a black suit, holding a black cane, bald and with a white beard, was holding a gun to the back of a man whose hands were tied behind his back.

"Shit! Warren, look at the ditch!" Warren looked over and spit his coffee out. It was David! Their hearts filled with dread and Michael quickly grabbed his radio, he needed to give out orders. Before he could speak, Warren nudged him sharply with his elbow. As he looked up, the world seemed to slam to a stop. His heart exploded and rage burned through his veins. He witnessed, in almost slow motion, blood splashing from the back of David's head. Warren screamed as David's body fell forward into the small creek, his face splashing into the water. The man met their eyes with a smirk.

Michael's body tensed as he slammed the breaks. The police behind them halted their breaks as well and he shouted through the radio at them. "That is it! Open fire men! Fucking kill them all! I don't want a single gang member left standing in those cars! Open fire now! Go! Go! Go!" Lethal fire eventually began flying around their car from both sides. Warren and Michael opened their doors, pulling shotguns from their car. Warren opened fire against the squad of black cars while Michael glared at the man, slowly walking from David's body. He bit down on his tears and narrowed his eyes. "I think not…"

He turned to steady his aim upon the old man, closing one eye and aiming carefully. The smell of smoke taunted his nostrils as the sound of bullets whizzing past his head attempted to distract him. He slowly licked his upper lips and squeezed the trigger. The man turned his eyes towards him and stared in shock as a bullet dug deep into his thigh. The man fell, sprawled on the ground, his cane rolled into the muddy creek.

He made a daring move to run towards David's fallen body and pull him from the creek. Warren followed soon after. When they looked up, they could see that the police and the gang members were ignoring them. David let out a moan, not fully dead, but fading fast. "David! David stay with us!" David lifted his hand, his cheeks were stained with tears.

"M-Michael, Warren, I will miss our card nights at the bar…"

"Don't say that!" Warren exclaimed. David groaned and clenched his eyes shut. How he was coherent enough to talk, they didn't know. It was nothing short of a miracle, though. They knew it was hopeless though, paramedics couldn't even make it over in time. "David, Trina's doing everything she can to save you! She's been taking down these bad guys, saving her friends! Come on! You can't die on us, you can't die on her!"

"W-What will happen to her? Please…let her live her life…" Michael clenched his eyes shut, tears were streaming from his eyes. Of course they would let Trina live her life, they weren't about to arrest her for everything she was doing! David rolled his eyes to the back of his head, his body shivered and the wind slowly blew his hair back. "Holly, Trina, Tori…I love you…My friends…take good care of…" The wind blew past them once again and David's body fell limp.

"David? David! Come on buddy, hang in there. Come on!" Michael shouted and bowed his head, shaking terribly. He and Warren laid David's body down on the grass and slowly looked to one another. "W-We didn't reach him in time, Warren. I can't believe…we failed him…" This was too much, too much. If they had made Trina allow the police to handle this, then they might have been dealing with more deaths, not only David's.

"Mike, what the hell are we going to do?" Warren was shaken, too shaken. They did not want to be the ones to tell Trina that her father had just been killed. They knew the level of devastation that would cause, on both sides. "Trina is going to..." He bowed his head and started to weep as his eyes fell upon his old friend. "This is too much…"

"I know…" Michael brought his fingers to his eyes as his stomach continued flipping. He felt the overpowering urge to vomit and fought it with everything he could. No amount of years on the force, no amount of bodies could prepare him for this. "I know one thing we're going to do…we're going to take out every last one of them!" He rose to his feet and narrowed his eyes upon the fallen gunman and growled, this old man had just become the new object of his hate and rage. Warren looked up to him, his hands gripped David's shirt mournfully. "Trina will be free to live her life, her name clear of any vigilante charges. She has one living grandmother, right?"

"Y-Yes, Ms. Keller. I believe she lives in a downtown townhome."

"Good, because she will probably wind up having to move there…" Michael clenched his fists and started walking towards the man on the ground. His leg had a giant hole in it. Rage coursed his veins as he reached down and grabbed the old man by the edges of his jacket and pulled him up into the air. "Who the fuck do you think you are!" The man looked into his eyes with a wide smile.

"Giovanni Lucas, at your service." Michael froze, anger and fear striking him in his moment of hesitation. He was holding the leader of this gang in his hands! "I've decided that since you've waged war against us, and we've been losing numerous casualties, that perhaps you deserved a casualty on your side."

"Fuck you!" Michael shoved the man to the ground. With his yell came the explosion of multiple enemy vehicles. Finally, one of the squad cars had a rocket launcher! His face grew dark as a mushroom cloud started floating into the air. "What gives you the right to kill this man? What is your purpose? You're the damn leader of this gang, you shouldn't even be this stupid! I hope whatever is on that chip is important enough for you! I hope it's worth all the bullshit!"

Giovanni started laughing, he put his hand to his stomach and grinned deviously. "I love this. Yes I put myself down as the leader of this group, and no I'm not afraid to kill the second Deputy Chief of Police. That chip? Yeah that chip has enough power to tear the entire gang apart! It was stupid for the person at the store to put the damn necklace under display, but trust me, the owner has paid for his mistake." Michael's eyes widened and he knelt down, grabbing the man's jacket.

"What the hell did you do, old man?"

"Same thing every gang does, killed the loose end. The chip has a history of all transactions, millions of dollars, every drug trade route possible. Is it important? Highly. Is it the object that the gang desires? Yes, but you see, it's a shallow plan."

"Huh?" He raised an eyebrow and narrowed his eyes. "What are you going on about?"

"There's a reason for everything, there's always something deeper…things are not always what they seem, Chief Michael." Michael threw the man to the ground and rose up, looking off at the battlefield. The gunfire was over, all the gang members were either wounded or dead. Giovanni laughed and shook his head. "Now now, there's not many of us left, I'm afraid. If it were important enough to retrieve that chip, we would simply have waited around to kill Trina Vega." Michael narrowed his eyes and stared down at the man. Warren moved over and frowned.

"What's going on?"

"Nonsensical ramblings of an old leader of a dying gang…" Giovanni laughed at the jab and slowly pulled his pistol from his pocket.

"Chief Michael, Chief Warren, again I say…things are not always what they seem. There's a reason that we asked Trina specifically to hand us the necklace, there's a reason that damned necklace and the chip inside isn't as important as it seems, there is a reason I have called you here with the majority of our gang members remaining, just to witness the death of your old friend, and there is a reason…that I do this…" The two men watched with wide eyes, stepping back as Giovanni whipped out his gun and narrowed his eyes. "Remember to mention my true position in the grand scheme of things. You know, criminal masterminds and all that…hear out my favorite quote: Behind every great man, is an even greater woman."

"What?" Before they could react, Giovanni pushed his gun into his mouth and pulled the trigger. Michael and Warren reached down, but the blast knocked them to the ground. They looked, shaken, upon Giovanni's body. His head had been blasted off and blood was spilling down towards the creek. What the hell was the point of this?

"Mike…could he have meant the gang didn't just want the chip?" Michael raised an eyebrow and slowly looked over to Warren. Warren's eyes quivered as paramedics started running towards them from behind. "What if they wanted the last Vega family member? What if that was their cause?"

"I don't know…We still have Dr. Richard's number, right?" Warren nodded. The two men looked to David's body, once more the sickness returned to them "Dr. Richards can…tell Trina…if you're right, could Trina be walking into a trap?"

"What would we do about that?"

"I'm pretty sure if we told her about David now, which we have no choice, she's not going to care if she walks into a trap or not." Whatever there was left to walk into, he wasn't sure. Wasn't Giovanni the leader? Was this Seth, superintendant of schools, the last person left? "Somehow we have to warn her. Dr. Richards may be the only way to finally get through to her."

They were helped up by the paramedics, who were checking them over for any wounds. The devastation on the road was tremendous. Bodies were scattered everywhere, blood soaked the grass and painted the road. This was going to take a lot of cleaning up. They were still gravely shaken by everything that had just happened, they needed time to recover.

So the phrase "Everything is not what it seems" plays a crucial role in these chapters. Mr. Vega's no longer alive...I can see this won't end well. Then again, pretty much the entire gang was just obliterated. What remains? What's the true desires? Stick around for the next chapter. We may get to see someone get neutered! XD Again, remember, visit my profile and vote in the poll if you can