Title: In the Grand Scheme of Things
Rating: T
Summary: He never found what he was looking for because it was never there to being with.
A/N: This little ditty was inspired by the summary for a Trauma Center fic which I didn't even read. It's loosely based off the events in the last episode of the anime. (Translation: I don't remember what actually happened and am too lazy to watch it again.) Still taking requests.
Roberto was a clever man. He could lie, cheat, steal, bend women to his will, and even build a gun from fortuitously shaped scraps.
He was clever, yes, but very, very stupid.
He didn't even know what the end was.
That was why he was here, bleeding to death on the streets of Ruhenheim. He clutched his stomach in pain, gasping for each breath. He looked desperately up at his blond-haired God.
"Johan," he managed. The boy turned his head. A boy, and yet he knew so much. "Tell me."
Johan smiled innocently and shrugged his shoulders, as though unsure what to say.
"You promised me. Tell me."
Still standing, still smiling.
"Tell me what it is, Johan. Tell me about the end!"
One word. "No."
"TELL ME!" Roberto roared the words with more strength than he knew he had left.
The boy approached him. He knelt on his knees at Roberto's side. Roberto's fingers twitched, eager to wring the answer from the boy's skinny neck, but he was too weak. He wished he'd done it sooner. He didn't know why he hadn't.
Johan looked down at Roberto, sneering. Robert was frozen by the sheer contempt evident in such soft, blue eyes. Rain dripped from Johan's chin into the gaping hole in Roberto's stomach.
"No."
Roberto reared to scream again, but hacked up a glob of blood. He tried to spit the sticky blob in Johan's face, but he didn't have the strength to do that either.
Johan laughed quietly and shook his head from side to side. His wet hair gently slapped the sides of his face.
"You don't understand, Roberto. You never did."
The boy stood. Roberto glared at him, seething, but quickly his anger fled. He was filled with shame. What had he done to disappoint his God so? He had followed Johan to the ends of the earth, but was no closer to finding his own end than he had been when he started.
Shame gave way to fear. He was dying. He was going to die any minute now, and yet he had no end. Death wasn't the end. He knew that. He had seen death again and again, and each time, the sky did not fall. He had seen innocence shattered, romances fail, dreams destroyed, but he had remained. He had seen so much terror and destuction, but the world had continued on.
What would be the end? What would bring finality to his long, tortured existance?
When Roberto died, he saw no light. He saw nothing but darkness. In that instant, he knew.
There is no end. Only a pause in the grand scheme of things.
