Trinity Blood ficlet: Fool's mate

[narcasse]

The mirror-version of Endgame. Inspired by a comment by levyrasputin.
Character death. William and Isaak at the end of the game.


Fool’s mate

Disclaimer: Trinity Blood belongs to Sunao Yoshida, Gonzo and others.

++++++++++

The end will come soon, Isaak has no illusions about that but what does surprise him is the sight of William’s distorted face in his fading vision.

“You’re not meant to die!”

William is shaking him, yelling inanities but the blood loss is already too great.

“Damn you, Isaak. You’re meant to…”
“What?” It’s hard to even form the word. He can taste his own blood.
“You were meant to fix this, fix me… somehow.”

It costs him the last of his fading strength to reach up and cup William’s cheek with broken fingers. “You always… were… a fool.”

And then the rain starts to fall, cold and hard, splattering against the iron bridge like shrapnel. They’ll never reach him in time. After all, who’d come to somewhere as clichéd as Tower Bridge at this time of night?

It seems like William is calling his name again but it’s so hard to even think about opening his eyes. His hand is still against William’s cheek but that’s because William is holding it there. The stone at his back and beneath him is damp, leaching the heat from him. Death will come quickly.


When help finally arrives, William is standing in his shirt-sleeves in the rain, his back to a freshly covered corpse.
“It wasn’t him; it was me.”
His words are lost to the downpour but that doesn’t make much of a difference anyway, because they’d make no sense to anyone but himself and a dead man.

++++++++++

Fool’s mate is the quickest possible form of checkmate in chess.

“Be my saviour
And I'll be your downfall.”
- Matchbox Twenty (Downfall)


And since today seems to be opposites day: Pleasures too, which is a reversal of Lies more or less. I’m getting dangerously close to bastardising Arabian mythology at this point.

Also, just so I remember where I put this. I may well be over-thinking the sentiment.

Comments

[levy.livejournal.com]

Wow, I'm happy to have brought you back on this subject...
I can easily see William planning and fighting a battle he supposes to loose, or at least, not to win this way, and his reaction - “You’re not meant to die!” - is so his and touching.
I wonder lol plot bunnies sprouting what would happen to William after that *evilgrin*

and Pleasuresthe little later piece made me appreciate the Radu-Suleyman dynamic you built. Radu is proned to self destruction in everything he makes, and Suleyman is even too much sympathetic with others, he easily get involved...
so yes, you are really great at writing screwed relationships =)

[reichsfreiherr.livejournal.com]

It could probably go one of two ways I’d presume; either William retreats further into himself and while he’d still be of use to AX, stops being that charming, gregarious fellow that they’d all come to love or he turns into a bit of a fanatic and sets about pro-actively attempting to destroy Cain because to his mind it’s Cain’s fault that Isaak died. Homicidal and driven William vs ‘Oh, shit, Isaak did actually die’ Dietrich might actually be quite an entertaining match at the end of the day.

The funny part is that of all the pairings, if I could ‘fix’ the ending for any of them it probably would be Radu and Süleyman, in which case I’d have them run off to Carthago and periodically pop up in the later storyline as the comic relief who get to run about foiling almost everybody’s plans just because they can. It really wouldn’t fit with the story but you would at least get scenes like this:

Radu didn’t look up from the stove as the bedroom door opened, though he sighed as he continued attempting to deglaze a pan.
“I’m going out for a little while.”
“Where?” Concentrating on scraping the lamb pieces stuck to the bottom off with a spatula.
“Oh… just out, dear.”

The Duke made it about half way down the hallway before Radu spoke up again in tones of vague exasperation. “You’re wearing an Orden uniform.”
Süleyman put a hand to his cheek, eyes widening theatrically. “Oh my, I must not have noticed.”
“Just be back in time for dinner.”
“Yes, dear.” And the door closed softly.

An hour later, the first sight that greeted Süleyman when he returned was Radu wearing an apron and holding a bowl of salad. Byzantium, the Duke reflected, had never quite held anything so charming as this; it made exile entirely worth his while at the end of the day.

Alas, the problem would be that other than Radu getting to be the straight man to Süleyman’s comedic villainy it really wouldn’t be going anywhere as much of a plot which is always the way of things I suspect. So I’m stuck with writing unhappy but dynamic endings instead. The problem with Radu appears to be his gloriously violent overreaction to everything after all which does somehow seem to set off Dietrich’s stamp on it to make it quiet response as well as Süleyman’s propensity to attempt to fix everything which also bleeds into his strange inability to just stop talking so yes, realistically they were never going to have a happy ending.

[levy.livejournal.com]

otherwise I think Radu and Suleymann can compensate their tempers quite well, since the later has inherit from his belove/hated holy mother a twisted maternal disposition, and you are likely to fall for the nasty boy (Radu) when you stuck too much on the idea of taming them <3

“Oh my, I must not have noticed.”
“Just be back in time for dinner.”

OH god, so epic!! XDDD

As for William, it's not easy to imagine the homicidial!Professor, but, yes, Isaak might be important enough to him to mess him up like that. I SO HATE Yoshida to have not left notes about the fate of other AX members and I SO HATE the fact that, apparently, both William and Kate abbandoned Caterina as she falls into disgrace...... *_*!!

I have (or I'd better say -we, since a lot was created by the friend that moves Isaak, as I'm clueless at him, as I said you before....) a happy ending myself in wich William and Isaak teach together in a new born University they called 'Nova Sapienza' in Rome. I'll tell you how it happens if you want, but I don't pretend you'd care about it XDDD
They're not a couple, indeed, William is married to a girl he met after the war and Isaak is *sort of* with Diet, but William is at peace with him and consequently, with the world. and the Orden is gone. ..forgive my poor english, it has been a tasty but quite heavy lunch and a lot of wine and my head is a bit heavy/light/both at times... @_@!!

[reichsfreiherr.livejournal.com]

Süleyman’s take on it is probably very much to the tune that he wants to make the world a better/kinder place so that Radu no longer has to be so insecure and frightened of it that he feels that lashing out violently is the only solution. Which would be a very “People do bad things because they’re lonely” Tokyo Babylon take on it.

I’m really not convinced that William and Kate would stay with the Vatican out of cowardice or similar. It strikes me as being much more likely that Kate can’t leave because she’s stuck on the Iron Maiden and there’s probably very few ways to hide that and even if they could, should she need further medical treatment it would be very difficult to get so she doesn’t have a choice. Or rather her choices are narrowed down to live to fight another day or leave and die uselessly which would mean that she can’t help Caterina in the future. Thus in William’s case he has to stay with Kate because he can’t leave her to fend for herself especially in the condition she’s in and also because somebody needs to stay and keep an active eye on what the Vatican start doing in Caterina’s absence. Of course William would probably know that all his AX buddies would think he was being a coward or a fool but he probably makes one of the bravest decisions out of the lot of them to actually stay and do what needs to be done rather than run off for the sake of insta-heroism and pointless death.

I am actually curious as to how that whole scenario would play out, especially considering Cain’s influence over Isaak. I’d love to hear a summary, especially since most of the alternative scenarios I’ve written have been based around the Orden’s studious application of propaganda to reinvent themselves and render AX redundant.

[levy.livejournal.com]

I am very persuaded of the Tokyo Babylon quote myself... another version of it might be a quote from a radio- author of my country, Diego Cugia. In one of his program he was talking about Hitler's childhood and he said: " dietro ogni aberrazione della storia, non c'è altro che un amore mancato"( behind any aberration of History, there's nothing more than a love that didn't come to exist - it's an awkawrd translation, mostly for the latter part, but that's what explains better the meaning of the word 'mancato' in this phrase. It's like when you try to score at soccer, and you do not, you know..?).
It reminds me of a lot of TB characters, Caterina, Seth, Radu, Dietrich and we may find more, I guess...

I’m really not convinced that William and Kate would stay with the Vatican out of cowardice or similar.

I wish they'd stay with the Vatican, but, apparently, it seems that they're gone to Albion to side with Esther when Caterina is ill in Milan, and after, when she's in the Rosencreuz, and considering the relationship Caterina and Esther have in Canon.. it is... bah, I didn't like it.
But still, it's just side notes, it's hard to tell from such a small data, maybe it'd have made perfect sense and we'll never know ^^;

Okay, then I'll spam you my timeline once it's come into a more comprehensible language (it's a foolishly optimist scenario but, hell, who saids that Disney wasn't cool..? uh? *_*) and try to write the confrontation between William & Isaak bilingual, maybe. I was not in charge of Isaak, though.

and thanks for the other comment. I guess the Narsus-therapy have had the positive effect on my rottening english I wished it to. So thanks a lot ^_-
gotta look for the book!

[reichsfreiherr.livejournal.com]

“Behind every aberration of history this is nothing more than a lack of love” perhaps as slightly more fluid phrasing in English? Don’t mind my rearranging sentences though, I like to do this sort of thing sometimes just to make it easier to see how the differences would resolve into another language. ‘un amore mancato’ strikes me as being ‘a love not achieved’ more than lacking though. I’ll have to remember that phrase; it’s beautifully direct.
I had a ramble about the Tokyo Babylon line here (http://imperial-artist.livejournal.com/534118.html#cutid2) a while ago but it probably doesn’t cover much more than anything we’ve already discussed. I also suspect that part of my dislike of Seth stems from the fact that she appears to be some sort of failed version of Hokuto. If Hokuto had had Seth’s power and Seshiro’s bet had been with her I’m convinced that the ending of the manga would have been entirely different.

it seems that they're gone to Albion to side with Esther when Caterina is ill in Milan

Oh. In that case perhaps it really did seem like Caterina had given up the fight and gone home to die so there was nothing more that they could do for her other than carry on because she couldn’t. Yes, I am determined to make William and Kate the heroes in this situation regardless of how it plays out (It’s worth a demotivational poster (http://pics.livejournal.com/imperial_artist/pic/000gde98) really). It could well mean that Caterina deliberately let them think she couldn’t do anymore so that they’d leave her and go aid Esther, so that she could then go risk her life alone without putting any of her friends in danger. Of course she couldn’t get rid of Tres but she at least managed to make the others leave rather than attempt a suicide mission alongside her because she’d know that they had to be able to carry on once she’d destroyed the Orden. Also, if that was Caterina’s plan then it’s possible that either William knew what she was doing and went because he knew it was the only sensible choice or that this was proof of Caterina finally ‘graduating’ from being William’s talented student since she’d now managed to trick her own mentor. Of course it’s also possible that William persuaded Kate to jump ship with him because it was looking like the only way to get anything done wasn’t via Caterina anymore, in which case it would be that he was more focused on the cause of saving humanity to the point where he’s ruthless enough to simply drop any dead weight which is what an ailing Caterina had become to him. And if that’s then case then perhaps it’s not even for the sake of the world but due to some giant pissing match with Isaak so that William leaving Caterina is more of a “Here, you can have her now that I don’t want this tool any longer” which provokes Isaak to attempt to ‘rehabilitate’ her just to score a point against William. Unlikely as that last scenario is it would have been an entertaining twist if a good portion of those battles between AX and the Orden were just William and Isaak getting into a hugely petty pissing contest. It’d be a bit like The Prestige or at least the film version really.

[levy.livejournal.com]

'un amore mancato’ strikes me as being ‘a love not achieved’ more than lacking though.

yes, you got it! It's the love that could have spare you a lot of mess, but it didn't come to you by the time it was still possible to save something. I have to re-read Tokyo Babylon, I barely remember the plot ° °

Revisionist History LOL. we should start call fandom that way XD

he was more focused on the cause of saving humanity to the point where he’s ruthless enough to simply drop any dead weight

I opted for something similar to this, when he abandoned Rome and Caterina to her faith was not because of cowardice, but because of the higher cause that needed soldiers able to retreat and come back to fight two times harder, better then loyal ones that are ready to follow their leader into her ruin

[reichsfreiherr.livejournal.com]

It's the love that could have spare you a lot of mess, but it didn't come to you by the time it was still possible to save something.

That reminds me of a vague thought I had about Süleyman and Radu in so far as by the time Radu was born Süleyman had been alone for far too long for one idealistic child to make a difference and Radu wasn’t nearly mature enough by the time everything fell into place for the rebellion to save anyone. Dependent on characterisation at least it might work to say that Radu ran out of time while Süleyman had run out of hope. Which might work just as well for Dietrich and Isaak where Isaak was completely disillusioned by the time he met Dietrich and Dietrich was too young to make a difference and that having a knock-on effect meant that Dietrich was completely insane by the time he met Radu. Of course if Isaak had managed to contain Dietrich’s amorality and Dietrich hadn’t then been completely deranged by the time he met Radu then Radu’s idealism might have been kick-started again allowing him to go back to Byzantium with an effective plan that would have allowed Süleyman to off Seth anyway, in effect pushing forward the date of world annihilation. Or possibly causing the Orden to reinvent itself as monster slayers and set themselves on a campaign to rid the world of all the Nightlords which would culminate in AX being rendered redundant and Süleyman being crowned Holy Roman Emperor.