The Road
Outskirts of Venice

Viale woke up in pain, lying down across two seats. He was moving, and didn't remember how he got here. He shot up and winced, unable to ignore the pain that emanated from his leg.

He looked at his right leg. It was the bottom half – he didn't know what the bone was called. It looked like his leg had been set and wrapped, but it was a rush-job.

When he realised he was moving, he looked around, and found himself in a van.

He saw Vuoto asleep in the seat in front of him, his dark hair giving him away. Sana was next to him, her red hair messy and unkempt, as if she hadn't had time to fix it. She was awake, on her phone.

"Rossi…?" he slurred. He was still half asleep.

She obviously hadn't noticed he'd woken up, as she startled and looked over her shoulder. "Oh my god you're okay," she breathed a sigh of relief, "I didn't know if…"

Shizuka piped up from the front, "I-I'm sorry about your leg, Gioviale,"

"It's Viale," he corrected. He looked down at his leg again, "Sana, can't you just… use your Stand to… you know…"

She bit her lip. Viale could hear her breath hitch. "I–I can't, for some reason,"

"What do you mean 'you can't'? What's stopping you?"

"You don't understand… ｢Out of the Blue｣... it should be able to heal you, but I can't. I don't know…"

Viale sat up properly and attempted to put weight on his leg, but drew it back as he felt pain shoot up his body. "Why not?!" he interrogated.

"I don't know! We should be far enough away, but– but it just isn't," she trailed off, "working."

Viale slumped back in his seat and let out a painful sigh. His leg was very important to him, obviously. He was a runner. He couldn't just have a broken leg. How would this affect Stand fighting–

He shivered at the thought of fighting again.

The boss had really done a number on him, and his Sana-safety-net was malfunctioning. He saw Beneficci in the front purposefully not catching his eye in the rear-view. Vuoto was stirring at the sudden noise from Sana and Viale.

"So where are we going?"

Shizuka looked up from her phone, "To your father, I think."

"You think?"

"He should be able to heal you, and Venice isn't really safe right now," Beneficci piped up. She was focusing on the road.

They were on the outskirts of Venice by now. Viale could turn around and see the city on the horizon. Viale noted that this was the same road he and his Father had come into Venice from.

"What happened, after– after, uh,"

"I got you out. The school looked like a mobster mosh pit. Worst party I've been to in a while." Shizuka informed.

Viale was silent. He thought of the people not here. "What about… what about Polnareff? And Amicio? And Fragi?"

"Uncle Pol said he should wait behind," Shizuka said, "I've got his number, and apparently he's good with technology, so he can call anytime without being traced."

"We've told him about what's going on," Beneficci added, "Same with your roommate. Apparently Apatia isn't interrupting classes. Quite the opposite, in fact."

"What do you mean?"

Beneficci sighed. "They want to keep up appearances. The Foundation won't be able to intervene if Venice Police don't think anything's wrong."

"They're probably corrupt," Shizuka said.

"Yeah. They tend to do that."

"I'm thinking we go the long way around," Beneficci suggests, "Around the North-West. Avoid the cities."

Shizuka hummed. "Yeah… that's probably a good idea. How long's the drive?"

"About ten hours."

"Shit."

"Yeah."

Shizuka was silent for a minute. "No chance of taking a jet?"

"They'll see that coming."

"Yeah, but it would be eight hours shorter."

"They'll see that coming."

"But–"

"We aren't taking a jet when we're wanted by the Mafia."

"...you're no fun."

They stopped at a convenience store, just off the highway. Shizuka opened the door and stepped out.

"What do we need?"

"Phones, food and water. Preferably nothing that goes off, like fruit." Beneficci responded. Before Shizuka closed the door, Beneficci spoke up again, "And no junk food!"

"Sorry, door's closed, can't hear you!"

She was quite happy with herself after that one.

She made her way inside, feeling the cool blast of conditioned air. She was greeted by an older woman, around forty years old. She noticed the phones behind the cashier's counter, but she decided to go for the food first.

While she was pondering what potato chips to buy, she reflected on the day so far.

'So I found Giovanna, that's good. Bad news, his leg is broken, and I don't know how to explain that to his dad, who is kind of a big deal, big time Stand user mafioso.' She picked up a barbeque flavour in the end. 'And another Zeppeli is dead because of us. That's good. Can't wait to tell Sergio his uncle is dead.' She sighed. 'Maybe I should've brought reinforcements.'

She was on autopilot as she picked up her 'essentials' (bags of sweets and chips) and she'd heard Beneficci say something about fruits, so she got a few apples for good measure. 'Apple a day keeps the detective away.'

After visiting the cold aisle for bottles of water, she approached the counter to pay.

"Hello, miss."

"Missus. I'm married," she kind-of bragged. It felt like a brag to her.

"Yes." The cashier looked over the things that Shizuka had brought her. "Health food, huh?"

"You know it."

Shizuka looked around while her items were being scanned. She picked out two prepaid phones from the rack next to her.

She noticed the news was on the TV behind the cashier. No doubt a way to keep entertained on long shifts. But the programme was of interest to Shizuka.

"...Venetian Politician Scuderio Mercurio to announce a quote 'life changing product' next week, after his landslide campaign last year.." The TV showed his photo, him standing at a lecturn. Shizuka confirmed that it was in fact the man she had fought a few hours ago.

'Well that's concerning.'

"Three prepaid phones?" the cashier questioned, "you must be on the run."

Shizuka froze up for a second, but answered with a smirk, "Yep."

The cashier gave a little giggle, unaware that Shizuka was being one hundred percent honest.

Shizuka walked out a little too fast to be called innocent.

?
?

He stirred in his bed, not fully asleep but not fully awake. He felt himself dreaming, but it wasn't a dream.

"My, my, what an intriguing destiny. It seems as though your power is not fully awakened. I am excited to see what comes of you."

'Where am I?' he thought. It was just a dream, so it should have been a place he knew.

"This is a place between dreams and reality, mind and matter," the nasally voice croaked out. "You will return here soon, when you awaken your full potential. Farewell."

The soft piano in the background slowly faded away, until he was left with peaceful slumber.

Fragi Vole knew something was wrong.

Vuoto, Giovanna, and Rossi hadn't shown up to class all day. He'd looked out the window at one point and seen a bunch of respectable individuals entering the school, but when he'd checked again a few minutes later, they were gone.

After school, he went to check on Vuoto, only to get no response. He tried Rossi, but no dice. Finally, when he knocked on Viale's door, the door shook open, and he noticed that the latch was broken. He curled an eyebrow to find the whole room ransacked and searched.

"Polnareff?" he called, "You here, turtle?"

"Up here…" a weak voice called from above. Fragi looked up to see the turtle hanging inside the lightbulb cover. Fragi turned on the room lights. The shadow the tortoise now cast made his hiding place very noticeable. "Agh! Turn that off! It burns!"

He obeyed. "How did you get up there?" he called out. Fragi wasn't even tall enough to reach the cover, let alone get Polnareff out. "Aren't you, you know, a turtle?"

"Tortoise," he corrected, "And just so you know, you should never reveal your hand, even if you lost."

After some struggle of moving Viale's desk chair and unscrewing the light cap, Fragi finally managed to get him down and properly talk to Polnareff. He was told to enter ｢Mr. President｣, and when he did, he found Amicio and Romano sitting patiently on the couch.

He nodded to Amicio, but looked at Matito confused. "Romano? What are you doing here?"

Matito let out an obnoxious yawn. "You know, one would think a magical turtle with a Stand would be cooler than this, but what was I really expecting?"

Polnareff rolled his eye and answered for him, "He extorted my friend's daughter to give him ten thousand Euros, and in exchange he told her where Viale's room was. And seeing as he knows where she is, I'm keeping an eye on him so he doesn't rat her out to the gang running your school."

Fragi nodded, having fully come to terms with the weirdness that his life was now.

Vuoto had texted him earlier, something about how he wasn't going to be in school for a while. When questioned, Polnareff told him about the hostile takeover that Shizuka and Viale had been a part of. He didn't know everything, as communications were hard now that they were in hiding.

Fragi half-wished he could be with them – he'd rather be on the run than keep going to school, but he had a vague feeling that it was safer here than out there.

"So are we going to talk about what the hell happened?"

Vuoto brought up a good point. There was an uneasy silence in the van as Beneficci drove away from Venice. Shizuka was the only one eating the food she bought, which she had no problem with. "More for me," she had said.

"I mean, seriously, Viale got in how many fights today–"

"-I fought five people today."

" –five fights, and came out of it with a broken leg, and now we're running from some ultra powerful Stand user, who killed our teacher and captured our principal. And for some reason, Sana's Stand isn't working?"

Shizuka and Beneficci, the two adults in the car, and most experienced, were exchanging silent looks. Shizuka was blindly feeling around under her seat for a dropped chip, very much avoiding answering.

Viale spoke up. "Who are you, by the way?"

"I'm Shizuka Joestar. Your first cousin," and then more silently, "once removed."

"Right. And you're here, why?"

She hesitated for a moment. "Your… father–"

"Of course. Of course. It has to be my father. Everything comes back to him."

It was a constant reminder that he has no choice in his fate. It was always his enemies that he was fighting. He'd understand if it was people Viale himself had pissed off, but everyone's too scared to fight his father, so they come after him instead.

"I know your relationship with Giorno is… complicated, Gioviale–"

"–it's Viale. Not Gioviale. Stop calling me that."

"...right. Sorry. As I was saying, I know your relationship is complicated, but he's your best shot at getting your leg healed. And he could probably protect us. He's a powerful man."

Giorno Giovanna was not in a position of power.

Fires blazed across the city, in every Passione safehouse and base. Naples was crying, Passione was falling. All communication towers had been strategically hit. There was no cell, no internet, and certainly no landline.

He was cut off from his son and his wife, both of whom he had tried desperately to get ahold of.

"Come on, Grace, pick up!" He groaned in frustration and slammed his phone down on the bookshelf.

He let out a shaky sigh. A rare moment where he was unsure, and maybe even a little afraid. Here he was, caught with his pants around his ankles, with no Beetle-shaped arrow, and his work crumbling around him.

Giorno felt a life force appear behind him.

｢ELO｣'s imposing figure was lounging in his chair, casually munching on a flower on Giorno's desk. He would not easily admit it, but it did give him quite a fright.

"Who are you?" Giorno questioned.

The rat-like Stand spat out a rogue petal and stood up. "I work with Apatia. Your horrible organisation is done. Come to Venice – to your son's school. We have your wife."

And the Stand disappeared, leaving only a destroyed plant in its wake.

Giorno stood there, for the first time in a very long time, questioning his own actions. He felt numb to the stomach. He could not remember the last time he had been so vulnerable threatened, and in his own city, no less.

He nervously exited his room and made his way down the hall, where he could hear Mista and Pannacotta shouting.

He swung open the door. The two stopped arguing once they saw Giorno Giovanna, the unmovable pillar of Italian society, dishevelled and weak.

They stood silent for a considerable amount of time, before the former Boss of Passione spoke. If he was unsure of everything else in the world, this was the one thing he knew he would do in the end.

"I'm going to find my son."

To Be Continued ===