MEANWHILE IN ITALY

A Gunslinger Girl fanfiction, based on works by Yu Aida.

Epilogue

Darkness, again, they always seemed to meet in darkness... perhaps that was somehow fitting.

Reaching forward, Pieri Lorenzo picked up the black coffee, placed on his desk by an ever thoughtful Tea, to take a sip. It was good, it was always good... perhaps better than he really deserved sometimes.

Placing the cup back down, he looked around those assembled in low leather chairs before him.

"Tell me we pulled something positive from this."

It took a moment for anyone to reply but, eventually, from his position closest the chief's wood desk, Jean spoke up, face cast in shadow by the warm desk lamp between them. "I don't think the mission was exactly a loss. We did get the correct container: weapons, ammunition and all, which should put a dent in the Padania's operations, at least for a little while. Moreover, while we didn't find the ringleaders here, it sounds like the Blackers broke up their supply line's other end, so they will need a new source to buy from before receiving anything else. Even then, setting up a similar operation will require months, if not longer."

Words tailing off, the man glanced across at Priscilla, who nodded, leaning forward in her seat to look past the room's other female occupant at the chief. "That does seem to be what's indicated from the Blackers' report. I would guess Jethro and Monty are right now tidying up loose ends."

"We don't know?"

"Of course not... but when they're done the Padania will likely have to start completely from scratch again." The analyst paused briefly. "We're also running the photos Hilshire took, though nothing has come back yet, which means whoever was on the other end of the lens is no amateur, and that is worrying in itself. If the mission was worth it, I think, remains to be seen, depending on that result." Now her voice dropped. "It must be getting awfully quiet around the generation one dorm."

Silence.

Apparently no-one had an answer for that.

Eventually, taking his cue to move things along, Lorenzo cleared his throat. "Speaking of, what arrangements have been made for Gaetano?"

Opposite Jean, Ferro consulted her own notepad. "Up to us seemingly. He had no next of kin, none who were interested at least. He does have a wife and adult daughter, but they've been estranged for years. We tried contacting both, but neither wished to be involved."

"Poor man."

The staff manager ignored Priscilla's comment. "As it stands, Manfredi will be interred at the mausoleum with his cyborg."

Silence, again.

This time however, it was Jean who broke it, taking a sip of his own coffee to look toward Lorenzo. "What worries me is how we lost Gaetano. The enemy sniper only opened fire once the cyborgs appeared, and when he did, he fired on the handler first, not Chiara. It was with a .50 as well, which suggests whoever planned this was prepared to engage cyborgs if need be, and make sure they stayed down."

"If the FRF had that sort of firepower though," chimed in Ferro, "why didn't they issue it to Anasetti?"

"Because Anasetti was bait." The field commander's words were bitter. "Venice taught us that the FRF had some heavy weapons capability, Genoa was just confirmation. Anasetti was never meant to fight us, only to be fought by us, a sacrifice to lure the SWA out, and it succeeded. If they've figured out enough of how the fratelli work to stage that, then there's a chance they've also started targeting handlers to try and slow the cyborgs down. We make softer kills after all."

"Not all cyborgs are going to react to their handler taking a hit the same way."

"The FRF don't know that though," Jean's voice was grim, with an expression to suit, "and if they've had a positive result with their experiment here, they're highly likely to try it again. I would in their shoes. Probably Danilo's saving grace from a similar fate was being dressed like the SRT, with his cyborg separated."

"Which means the fratelli need to work even harder at not looking like fratelli," Lorenzo' voice matched that of his second in command, "and I get the impression our restream programme is not producing the results needed on that front."

In her chair, Ferro shook her head. "The sounds are not positive."

Another thing he was not looking forward to explaining to his superiors, suitably prepared spin or no.

"Even if they're not, should the FRF or anyone else be starting to crack our cover, we can't afford to keep sending fratelli into the grinder unprepared, and right now we don't have enough handlers, with enough serious covert expertise, to keep up regular operations in that event." Jean again. "As difficult as they can be, we need another Blacker fratello, another Jethro, another Monique... even if we keep them here at first just to ride herd on others and take the load off Ricci and Pagani."

"We're working on it." Opposite him, the staff manager's voice was dry. "I have got a small list of new handler candidates so far but, as you can probably appreciate, the likes of AISE are not exactly the easiest to squeeze a manning roster out of."

Letting that hang for a moment, Lorenzo steepled his fingers, contemplating his subordinates across them, before his gaze came to rest on Ferro. "From everything I'm hearing right now, we need something sooner rather than later. Whittle down what candidates you have and get one of them. I don't care how, but we need to start showing some movement again, and soon, before the restream runs its course. So get one of them."

Another pause, and opposite him, the woman's expression hardened.

"Yes sir."

AUTHOR'S NOTE:

And thus concludes Meanwhile in Italy. With this chapter, Danilo & Raych's story draws level with And the Adventure Continues timeline wise, so it is time to shift focus back to Jethro+Monty, and wrap up the storyline begun with their comic at Monaco.

Thank you to everyone who has read, offered comment, critique, encouragement, or any combination of the above, the feedback is always appreciated, and it helps to know I'm not just shouting into space all the time; I hope Meanwhile has been as enjoyable to read as it was to write.

Finally, thanks to the crew over at Cyborg Central, without whom I probably would have dropped out of the fandom years ago... particularly those who have done me the honour of loaning me their characters. You know who you are.