Disclaimer: No I do not own Gunslinger Girl. Lance and his other aliases yes but the rest of them no.

They think they are so smart are they. They think that tonight I am going to byte on their hook and they are going to reel me in like a fish. Well Lance Kane is smarter than that, Lance Kane always knows his way around. Tonight I will be there, but tonight it won't be you guys reeling in a prize. It will be me!

Chapter 22 Illusioni di Fuoco

Illusions of Fire

"Hey kid this is an office building, strictly personnel only!"

"I am personnel, here's my ID. My name is Euro and I am a hundred years old."

"I see… carry on then."

Rome is such a corrupt country; money is probably their religion here. Now where is my supposed target? The file said that they are planning to kill him tonight but if am going to plan my own surprise I guess I need to be here earlier. Here we are 'James Cindle' this is the guy.

"Good afternoon sir." I said, as soon as I came in.

"Umm, what do you need from me?" asked Mr. Cindle.

"Give me one good reason not to kill you." I said, as I drew my desert eagle.

"D-don't kill me! I am just a businessman." He said as he put his arms in the air.

"Armando Estolas was also a businessman, yet he is currently six-feet under. What do the two of you have in common?"

"You killed Armando? So it is true, a gun-wielding teenager was his assassin. I don't know why I am being targeted. I just dabbled once or twice in the criminal underworld and that was only through Mr. Estolas. Here are my files I can prove it!"

I looked through his papers and I have to agree. He was pretty clean, it is obvious now that he was not the one being targeted by the SWA tonight… it's me!

"Get on you're knees!" I commanded.

"Don't kill me! Please don't. I will clean up my act I swear! I never really knew that such small transactions would sanction me to death. Please I have a wife and a young daughter!"

"Save you're excuses for you're next assassin I am just going to check you're table! Do you have access to the entire building?"

"Yes! I have a card key. Here it is!" he said, as he pulled a key out of his pants and gave it to me.

"Ok, this will do. Make sure all you're employees leave the building by 6:30 pm tonight."

"W-what? You're not going to kill me? T-then why are you here in the first place?"

"You want me to kill you? I don't think so. You are right you're records are too clean to merit you a meeting with the grim reaper. You're not the real target, someone else is. I have to go, but before I do I have to ask. How old is you're daughter?"

"She's 12. Why?" he looked surprise with the sudden change of questioning.

"Well if she gets in some sort of near fatal accident and you have absolutely zero chance of saving her, don't talk to the Social Welfare Agency."

"And why is that? What does my daughter have to do with this? Is she in danger?"

"No, it's just wishful thinking. The SWA provides life saving surgery for young girls. In exchange they are recruited to do 'humanitarian' work. It would just nice for you to know, since you do have a daughter."

"How do you know all this? What do you mean by humanitarian?"

"Stuff for the government. I just came from there and I know what they are doing, I also know that one of their girls is leaving so they will need a new girl someday. Nice talking to you Mr. Cindle but I have to go."

I left his office and headed for an empty conference room. Which I got in via the card key Cindle gave me. I locked the door and opened my bag I got out my Kevlar vest and my trusty FAMAS rifle. 1 hour before show time!

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Here it is. Cindle inc. we will wait for Lance here. All we need to do is get inside and prepare the ambush now. When he comes to take out Mr. Cindle we will have to neutralize him. Jean gave us specific orders, 'If you can't disable him, kill him.' I am just hoping that Lance just gives up. I don't want him to get hurt. Unfortunately that is not the case. Lance is too tenacious for his own good. He could be dying and he would still be determined to keep fighting. Well I better just knock him unconscious or something.

"That's strange it's 6:45 pm and no one is in the building anymore." Said Joze, when we got in the building and started walking the halls.

"There is no holiday. Why is there no people then?" Jean added.

"Do you think he's already here?" asked Rico.

"It can't be. We made sure that the real motive of this assignment was to catch him. It should just be an ordinary assignment." Answered Jean.

"Triela, be alert just in case. Watch out for traps and… Grenade!" Hillshire shouted, as a grenade rolled into our view.

It exploded and produced black smoke; a dark figure appeared behind the smoke and opened fire with its rifle. We all ducked out of the way as the figure disappeared again into the hallway. Jean confirmed that the gunfire was from a FAMAS; it had to be Lance. We went forward into a room filled with office cubicles. As soon as we were there Lance opened fire on us again. We ducked behind the cubicles but he was using AP bullets, the rounds were going through the walls! We had to blow our cover since they had no use anyway. I jumped off a desk and fired at Lance. He jumped of a chair and dodged the pellets from my trench gun. For a moment we both saw eye to eye but he turned around and left the room.

"Find him! Take him out!" Shouted Jean as we ran after him.

Our ambush turned into a wild goose chase. We ran from room to room, Lance would fire some rounds sometimes grazing some of us, we would fire back he would evade and run away. Everyone was getting frustrated. We finally headed to the building's stock room. It was pretty large and it had smoke covering the floor. Everything was silent when suddenly I could not move my left leg. I realized that I was tied to a chain! I struggled to remove it but in the process I sat on a crate that turned out to be not being as sturdy as I thought it would be. It crumbled beneath me and I fell through a hole being covered by the crate! I fell through and landed on a pile of rags… a large pile of rags. I looked around me and realized I was in a lower basement. The way I came in was way above me and there was definitely no way back up. Suddenly I heard the sound of a gun being reloaded, from the shadows appeared Lance. He was looking back at me with eyes ever so steady. I don't know what got into me but before he could speak a word I pointed my trench gun at him and fired. He instantly dove sideways and as soon as he got up he fired back at me as well.

"It does not have to be like this, Triela!" he shouted through the gunfire.

"I am sorry Lance, I was given orders I need to stop you!" I shouted back and returned fire.

We exchanged bullets for quite a while but both sides did not get any damage. We were too evenly matched I guess. It remained like that when suddenly Lance's FAMAS used up it's last magazine. He pointed the gun at me and it just clicked back. I thought this would be my chance but when I reached for a bullet on my belt I realized I was out of ammo too!

"You're out of ammo too? Now can we talk?" he asked.

I drew my SIG from my belt and like a ghost he was gone again, he reappeared and dropping his rifle grabbed both of his handguns from his holster and started firing again. We were only meters from each other as we proceeded to sprint a tight circle firing wildly at each other, yet we were unable to do any damage. I tried to corner Lance but with a display of athletic ability he ran up the wall flipped in midair and fired at me as he was upside down. I tried to shield my self from the bullets but I realized that all his shots just landed all around me. He was in point blank range he should have hit me! Then I realized it… Lance's voice from a few days back echoed into my head. We were never evenly matched he always had the advantage. If he willed it, I would be dead right here…

You're the only person who I can't hurt…

I remembered him saying. Now I realized everything. Lance does not want to fight now. He does not want to hurt me… he still loves me. Lance landed behind me but instead of shooting me in the back, he dropped both his guns and tried to give me a kick. His foot was inches from my face but it stopped before making contact. I only realized that later on but now I caught his foot and spun him around. He was not armed so I dropped my gun as well. We had a stair down when suddenly Lance ran towards me. I tried catching him with a punch but I he ducked under that and from behind he kicked me on the back. I fell flat on the ground but when I turned around Lance was there again but this time he had a hand out. He was trying to help me up! I wouldn't let that happen though, I grabbed his hand and threw him to the ground as well. I got up and tried to kick him but he rolled out of the way and gave me a leg sweep. I was on the ground again!

"Triela, I can't keep doing this, please be reasonable." He said.

But I wouldn't listen. I knew that talking would be useless. Unless I will be willing to let him escape again, I won't resort to words. As soon as I got up he rushed to me and kneed me in the gut. At the same time I realized that his arm was around my neck. I saw this before; he did this to The Guide. Step 2 was to fall backward and send me face first to the unforgiving concrete. However, he hesitated again and let go of me. I wiped the blood in the corner of my lip and ran towards him. He tried to punch me but I stepped on his knee and kicked him in the head. He fell a short distance away. I thought I finally knocked him out but he kipped up and looked back at me again. I ran towards him but he avoided my tackle and grabbed me from behind reaching back and grabbing my head, he pulled my jaw above his shoulder and intentionally fell backwards forcing me to the floor but due to the way he held my head, my head never touched the ground. Instead, it landed on his shoulder, doing damage to my neck. Breath left my body and my vision blurred for a second but I still managed to get up. It was still a bad blow though and I felt groggy. He got up and we both had a stair down again but then we both simultaneously realized that both of Lance's handguns were a short distance away. Understanding the motives of one another we dove for the handguns and when we both got up. I was holding Lance's desert eagle at him and he was pointing his USP Tactical at me. Neither of us pulled the trigger. We looked at it each other and just stared menacingly, when suddenly Lance lowered his point and said:

"I can't do this Triela, I can't shoot you." He dropped the pistol on the floor.

"Well I will, so don't think for one moment—" I said, suddenly Lance pulled the head of the desert eagle to his chest and said.

"Then go! Go ahead Triela! Annihilate my heart!" he shouted, as he continued to have a grip on the desert eagle, aiming it at his chest.

Kill him? No! I wanted to disable him. I tried to pull the pistol down towards his leg but he kept it trained on his heart. I whimpered. "I can't do this Lance."

With that we saw eye-to-eye for once in this entire confrontation I knew that he didn't see me as a threat anymore, but as Triela… the Triela that he loved, "Well you don't have that much of a choice Triela. I am asking you to kill me!" he said.

"L-lance what are you saying, I-I still love you Lance." I said, as I could not accept his request to kill him.

"And I still do Triela. However, as long as I still love you and as long as we're separated every beat of my heart sends pain through out my body. I need you to break my heart one last time... so that the pain will stop."

"No, there has to be another way Lance. I'll tell them you escaped, I'll shoot my self and tell them that you injured me and you escaped." I reasoned, the situation was going downhill, he wasn't giving me a choice his fist wrapped around the barrel of the gun.

"They'll hurt you Triela, they'll punish you for not catching me. I saw them yesterday they are really desperate. Besides, me escaping would still mean we would never be together. I could not live like that anymore and it will do you good if you won't feel like that since you will know that I am dead. Triela I just want to make you happy!"

…The person who I just want to make happy…

His voice echoed through my head again. I couldn't pull the trigger. He was begging me too but I can't!

"I can't live like that Lance. I can't live knowing that I killed my lover! There has to be another way!"

"There isn't…" he looked at me as if searching for an idea when suddenly. "… here let me make this easier for you." With that he turned around and knelt down.

He added, "Here this way you won't have to see me when I die. I am just another person now, just another person you have killed."

"It's no use Lance, I still can't do it! Lance please… please get up and look at me!"

"I can't, I can't knowing that I will miss that beautiful face of yours. It is no use Triela, please ends my misery."

"L-lance I j-just can't." I said for probably the 5th time.

"W-well then if you can't do it then there is no reason that I can't." and with that he took the pistol lying on the ground and pointed it on his temple.

"LANCE! DON'T! PLEASE DON'T!" I screamed from the top of my lungs. I could feel the tears from my eyes this is too much.

"You leave me with no choice my love. If you can't do it then I will. Like what I said I am willing to die for you Triela!"

…And the person who I am willing to die for.

I heard his voice again in my head as I screamed, "LANCE NOOO!" I was crying, I kept crying I did not know what else to do.

"Well… good bye Triela… this is going to be the last time I will tell you this but I hope it will still be meaningful… I love you."

I lost it. I dropped the gun in my hand and tackled him before he could pull the trigger. I turned him over to check if he was till alive. He looked back at me looking very much alive and I just embraced him and cried on his shoulder. He wrapped his arms around me and found his way into a sitting position. I continued to murmur:

"Lance don't do it, I love you so much Lance, please don't do it."

He caressed the back of my head and whispered:

"Ssh…Ssh… it's ok…it's ok my love… I got you… I promise I won't do it again… I promise."

I turned to face him and he wiped the tears out of my eyes. We kissed like we never kissed before. It was like the first time we kissed. It was electrifying, I guess it's because we haven't seen each other for a long time or because it's only in his kiss that I felt so secure. After 3 days I was in his arms again. He held me as is I was the most precious thing in the world. Thinking about the things he was willing to do for me, and looking at the unfired pistol on the ground. I guess I am the most precious thing in his world. I was still troubled though. Everything he said was true, this could be the last time we might see each other. So I had to make sure he was safe.

"Lance, go! I don't care if they punish me. I want you to live, go!"

"I am not leaving you're side again, Triela." He said, refusing to break his embrace.

"They will catch you Lance. I don't know what they will do to you if they catch you." I said.

"So be it, if it means being in a prison, I would be glad to know that you will be able to visit me."

"Lance, don't joke. You could be risking you're life."

"I am not joking, Triela. I will not leave you're side. However, I did have something planned for this night but it would mean a dramatic change in your life Triela."

"If it means being with you, I am willing to try anything, Lance. I love you that much."

"Come with me to America." He said.

When he said dramatic change he really meant it. America? That is quite… far! What is he thinking? The SWA is my home, "Lance… my home is here in Rome."

"Triela you saw Angelica and Elsa, the only thing inevitable here is death and despair. I could promise you a life Triela, a new life. A life you have never dreamed of. I could not give you a normal girl's life but something close to that… I will be with you every step of the way."

Lance's offer was dripping with generosity. Then I remembered the other girls, "What about the others?"

"If Joze loves Henrietta then he will find his senses sooner or later. Claes is a smart girl, she will think of something. Rico… let's just say that Jean is not as heartless as he sounds. Jean is trying to hide it but I know somewhere in his thick skull, he knows how much Rico is really worth to him."

I saw no other reason to say no, I was going to think about Hillshire but Hillshire is a big man. He'll understand. So I told Lance. "Ok, I'll go with you… I trust you."

Lance smiled at me and together he got us out of the building via multiple locked doors, which he went through via a card key. We were walking outside when he suddenly asked:

"Before you fell through the hole, where were all of you?"

"In the stock room." I answered.

"Well then." He looked at his watched and pulled out a small remote control. He pressed the red button and the entire building went up in flames.

"Lance, they could still be in there!" I shouted, as I looked at the flaming building.

"Don't worry Triela, the explosion was only in the level we were in. The fire is just theatrics, now they have to believe that Triela and Lance had and epic gun battle, which ended with one of them shooting something explosive and blowing up the whole basement. The only thing we have to be worried about is that no one was in the basement itself, which I doubt since they are combing the building upwards not downwards."

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I ran out of the flaming structure as soon as I can, burned all over I did not worry about my self all I can think of was "Joze! Joze! Where are you?"

"I am right here Henrietta."

"O Joze thank god you're safe." I said running to him as he got out of the rubble and embracing him.

At that moment the rest of the squad got out, 1st I noticed was Claes "Rico you all right?"

"I am but Jean has some burns."

We were all glad the all was well when suddenly Jean noticed something "Where's Hilshire?"

"I can't find Triela anywhere!" Hilshire screamed from inside the building.

"Where did you lose her?"

"In the stock room"

With that Joze and Jean gave Hilshire a solemn look "Why are you looking at me like that?" Hilshire said.

"The explosion came from below the stock room…" Jean confessed.

It took Hilshire a few seconds to realize the meaning of those words when, but when he did "No it can't be! Triela! Triela!

Hilshire was going to run back into the fire when Joze and Jean stopped him "Hillshire don't go back in there." Said Joze.

"But Triela she's…"

"It looks like Triela and Lance Kane found one another down there and finished each other off."

"No! She's not gone! No!"

Hilshire's screams filled the night and our hearts as slowly but surely it sank into us as well…

… Triela's not coming back…

Epilogue:

So Lance and I got on a train to Milan. He said that that's the only place we could fly undetected so it was a 9-hour ride by train. I was looking at the stars from the train's window when I saw one of them…

"Lance, look a shooting star."

"Wow, there are? Those are pretty rare."

"You know one can make a wish when they see a shooting star."

"You first Triela."

"Ok, I wish for a blessing for all the stuff that is going to happen next. How about you Lance?"

"I don't need a wish. I already have everything that I ever wanted right here." Then he held me in his arms and kissed my cheek.

"Well then at least wish for something else."

"Ok… I wish that there will be no turbulence in the flight."

"Lance! That was so anti-climatic!"

"What? I get sick if the plane shakes a lot!"

"Hahaha. You're hopeless do you know that?"

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We never did find any sign of Triela. Her charred trench gun was there though so we presumed that the explosion obliterated her. There was no sign of Lance Kane as well. The explosion probably killed him as well. I don't get it, how could I be so clumsy? I lost her and now she's gone. Lorenzo is now combing the hospitals in search for a new girl but I will never get over this. How could I get over this? I approved of her relationship with that… that spy! This is my fault. It's my fault!

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"We fly tomorrow, Triela. So tonight we rest. I booked us a hotel so we can go to the boutique later and get some new clothes." I told Triela.

"You're too kind Lance… but how much do you have with you?"

I took two cards out of my pocket, one of them was the card key to the hotel, which I stuck into the door, and the other was a credit card. This I showed her and said, "More money than you will ever need Triela."

We got in the room when Triela asked, "Aren't you just 16? How could you get a credit card?"

I smiled back at her and said, "You have a lot to learn about me, Triela. The way Dorado Espada works is different from the way SWA works I'll explain— O no." I said as I looked at the room.

"What's wrong Lance? It looks like a 5- star room to me," she said as she looked at the room.

"Yeah but there is only one bed, I ordered 2." I said, as I pointed at the only king size bed in the room.

"What does that mean?"

"It means you sleep on the bed and I sleep on a sofa."

"You can sleep on the bed…"

"… And you sleep on the sofa? I don't think so."

She lay on the bed and told me to come closer. When I got close she grabbed my collar and threw me on the other side of the bed. She climbed on top of me and said. "Or we could do it this way, we could both stay on this bed and—" but before she could finish her sentence I replied.

"Yeah that's a good idea." And I pulled her down and pressed her lips to mine.

We rolled to the side and I pulled the bed sheet over the both of us and we continued to make out…

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Now that Triela was gone I was forced to move to Raballo's room. There are too many memories in our room for me to get over anyway. I had Lance's rose in my new room and one of Triela's teddy bears. Actually all 9 of Triela's teddy bears were distributed, one for each girl, three in Hillshire's office, and three stay in a corner of my room. With them I always put freshly cut roses as I promised to Triela the day before it happened and a note from all of us:

In memory of Triela:

She fought bravely for the security of all. She risked her life to keep as all safe. In the end she saved all of us but gave herself in the process. She'll always be remembered as…

The best Sister- Henrietta

The best Mentor- Rico

The best Friend- Claes

The best Daughter- Hilshire