ALL ABOARD THE 'MADAME LIBERTY'
Five Star Luxury Cruise Liner departing Bali for a seven day round trip in South East Asia!
The perfect vacation for families and holiday makers of all ages!
- Award winning five star service
- Award winning restaurants and chefs
- Boasts a three-story grand lobby
- A ballroom and dining hall
- 3 million dollar art gallery
- 700-seat three deck theater
- Swimming pool and Casino
And more!
We'd love to show you new and exciting ways to make memories!
Brought to you by Gandor Brothers Luxury Liners Ltd
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Disclaimer
Baccano! is the rightful property of Ryohgo Narita
Black Lagoon is the rightful property of Rie Hiroe
Gunslinger Girl is the rightful property of Yuu Aida
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Sometime in 2010,
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When the eventual degradation of her body came, Triela Hartmann was thankful that her eyesight was the first thing to go. Sure she was virtually blind without her glasses on and it forced her into an early retirement, but Triela had seen worse fates to befall a dying SWA cyborg.
Horrid memerious of Angelica's mental facilities slowly falling out from under her, Rico's agonizing wails as the blonde one day woke to the harsh reality she could not walk, Henrietta meeting her demise in a freak training accident of all things... those horrible memories of her sisters giving in to the inevitable still gave Triela nightmares to this day.
As the last remaining first generation cyborg still alive Triela knew that she should count herself fortunate among her sisters, especially since she logically should have passed on long before any of them should have. However Triela knew that her days were numbered. Despite the fact she and Victor had now been taken off the active roster and were enjoying an all-expenses-paid blissful retirement in Orlando, Florida, the shadow of Triela's impending death hung mournfully over the SWA's once most intrepid duo.
Still, Triela did concede that camping out in a five star hotel suite next to one of the world's best theme parks with the person she loved most for the remainder of her days wasn't as bad as fates went. Except of course, her inevitable death and everything.
A pleasant uneventful retirement...
...right up until Triela came face to face with a ghost.
-=-
Triela rubbed her eyes several times and even went as far to check her glasses to make sure the apparition in the doorway was for real. When she had heard the hard knocks at the hotel suite door she'd assumed it was Victor who had stepped out to meet an 'old friend' for dinner. Instead upon opening the door, Triela was greeted to the sight of a small brunette girl wheeling along a trolley bag who looked exactly like her old comrade Beatrice.
Except of course it couldn't be, because the biggest part of Beatrice anyone found after the explosion that disintegrated her friend three years ago was a pair of shoes that had definately seen better days.
Triela must have checked her glasses three times before the 'ghost' cleared her throat and spoke up. "Hello Triela. Your glasses aren't broken. It is me. Beatrice Hagen." The unmistakable voice of Beatrice said. Triela whose eyes opened wide enough to become saucers. "Well? Are you going to invite me in? Not even a hello? It has been three years."
"B-B-B-Beatrice!?" The taller cyborg exclaimed in complete utter shock. "But you-! You-! I saw you-! You're DEAD." The smaller girl, looking very well for someone who had supposedly been next to a giant bomb as it went off after being shot, could only frown as she watched Triela become deathly pale.
"Now this is unexpected. I thought she should have handled this better." Beatrice murmured to herself.
"You were blown up!"
"Yes I was, and it was very painful."
"You were blown sky high, and all you can say is that 'it was very painful'?" Triela asked flabergastered at what she was seeing.
Beatrice scowled in annoyance. "You'll be surprised just how many people have asked me what it feels like to die that way. 'How did it feel to get reduced to component atoms Beatrice'? It gets old, fast. Anyway, that is not the reason that I have come... are you even listening to me Triela?"
Unfortunately for Beatrice, Triela had not been listening. "That's it. It's finally happened. Something's gone wrong in my brain and I've lost it. Now I'm seeing dead people." Triela moaned sorrowfully as she realized that the inevitable had finally happened. "My sanity just went and now I'm haluci..."
"Triela."
"..nating! I knew it would happen sooner or later. I thought I had it lucky when it was just my eyes, but nooooo, I had to go insane because of some chemical imbalance in my brain! This is the pits! Next I'll see dancing..."
"TRIELA."
"...bears in the hallway. Or Victor and Ratiel getting married. Or Jean in a dre- wait not let's not go there. Think the whole dormitory showing up to welcome me to heaven. Wait... What if I'm already de-"
Beatrice slapped Triela in the face hard. "Triela. A very good number of people, myself included, have gone through a lot of trouble to set up this meeting and everything that comes after. You're a world class cyborg assassin, I know for a fact you've seen weirder things than this! Show some of your legendary backbone and pull yourself together!"
"...I don't remember you being this expressive." Triela mumbled as she rubbed her jaw, completely bewildered by the turn of events.
"Three years is a long time Triela. People change, especially when the person in question stops taking their conditioning and begins haning around a world class therapist. Now are you going to get out of the doorway and let me in or not?"
"If this is some kind of a joke..." Triela said as she shifted nervously and made an inviting gesture to the smaller girl.
Beatrice gave Triela a knowing smile as she stepped through the door. "Trust me Hartmann, the last thing this is, is a joke. If anything, my one visit might just change your whole outlook on life."
-=-
Triela cautiously checked out her new guest as she sat down on one of the chairs around the suite's windowside table. "I'm still not convinced you are who you say you are."
"Fair enough. The night before the mission I died, I gave you a stuffed bear in a doctor's outfit as a thank you present for saving my life on the Liberty. You named it 'Ratiel' on the spot after 'my mother' and then threatened me on pain of death should I tell anyone about it. Proof enough for you?"
Triela gasped as her eyes involuntary darted over to the stuffed doll in question, hidden among her collection of other furry bears. "I never told anyone about that bear. Not even Victor."
"Well then, if that's proof enough for you, we can get to catching up. I brought wine." Beatrice produced a bottle of wine, a decanter and two glasses from her stroller bag.
"Since when did you drink alcohol?" Triela asked as Beatrice popped the bottle and emptied the red liquid into the decanter. "And should we really be drinking this? We're children."
"Please, underage drinking happens all the time. If it bothers you that much, you can always wait until... don't bother with the medication anymore. It's a waste of time." Beatrice said when Triela took out her nightly dose of medication.
"Beatrice, In case you haven't noticed. I'm dying. I. Need. This."
"No you're not. The pills are what are causing your impaired vision. It was Hillshire's idea to 'retire' you by the way. Meeting you in Italy when I'm officially decuased was a bit of a problem." Beatrice curtly pointed out, causing Triela's jaw to drop. "Like I said, many people have gone through a lot of trouble to get you here."
Triela's eyes went wide. "Wha-What?! What are you playing at, Beatrice?"
As if not even paying attention to Triela, Beatrice gave a low hum at that before turning back to the decanter. "Let it breathe a little. There aren't too many bottles of this left. Just so you know, this bottle is one of the last of its kind; 1942 South Wolfenstein Brewery." Beatrice smiled as if enjoying a private joke. "Best stuff in the world."
"How did you come across something like that?"
Beatrice's smile broke into a full blown grin. "This was generously held on trust for you and Mr. Hartmann by one Mr. Luck Gandor for your help on board the Madame Liberty three years ago."
Triela licked her mouth in disgust as a flood of distasteful memories came flooding back to her. "Yes, I remember that fiasco. Over half of South East Asia's most wanted were involved in that. What's that mission got to do with anything?"
"Everything. How I am sitting before you tonight despite my apparent death, how you're still alive despite all our sister having passed away, why Mr. Gandor wanted me to give you this bottle of wine, what this bottle can do for you... everything comes back to the mission we took three years ago." Beatrice stated with a cryptic voice. "Tell me Triela, how much do you know about what happened aboard the Madame Liberty?"
"I read the compiled mission reports. I know the entire file inside out."
"The mere fact that you don't know how either of us are still alive already tells me about much you really know. Not that I can really blame you. Reading into the Madame Liberty affair has become something of a hobby of mine, and it took me sixteen months of compiling every account from over two dozen sources to fully understand what just happened on that ship."
Beatrice leaned forward on the table and rested her chin on her hands. "Tell me Triela. While you were so busy trying to rescue the hostages and the ransom money, did you even know that you had unwittingly prevented the theft of a priceless object? And did you know there was one other cyborg on the ship besides the two of us, a deep cover CIA agent so secret she and her handler don't even appear on any official documents?"
"Beatrice, you're enjoying yourself far too much. Okay, I get it. I don't know what happened." Triela sighed. Obviously, Beatrice's 'people change' remark was a gross understatement of the facts if the previously stoic girl knew how to be smug. Just who had she been hanging out with anyway? "Get to the point, don't leave me hanging here."
"Okay then." Beatrice poured the red liquid into the two wineglasses. "Hmm, where should I start?"
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And so, our story begins!
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