Struggle, But Not Alone
A Berserk X-over with Red Dead Redemption
Prologue
"Man takes up the sword in order to shield the small wound in his heart sustained in a far-off time beyond remembrance.
Man wields the sword so that he may die smiling in some far-off time beyond perception".
"Take a gamble that love exists, and do a loving act."
It was cold… so cold… all that I worked for… all that I sacrificed meant nothing!
With Arthur gone, Dutch should have been easier to convince! Instead he shot me! The Traitor! And John had to be a hero! For what?! Some guy who was already dying and died?! Now here I am dyin- NO, I refuse! Not until I get them! Make them all pay for what they took! I had it all!
It was dark, all so dark. My form now no longer bore the figure I was. I could see what I truly was. Naked. It was enough to make me clutch what I could of myself as it was fading, increasing in agony.
In that pain, I felt something in my hand. I looked down in it to see a little purple carved stone that was crying out.
"Ahh, what's this?"
A new voice was before me. It was one that looked like a devil. Its eyes were sewn shut, and liken to that of a rotted corpse with an extra large brain.
"Fate has seemed to bring us together… But you are not from our world. Tell me 'Guest', what troubles you?"
Any man would be trembling at his sight, but I wasn't any man anymore. I was dying… Craving more. And this devil was mocking me.
"What does it look like?! I'm dying!"
"Hmmm so it seems, but rejoice my child. For you have been fated to live again. All that you desire is within grasp."
L-lies!
It was like them stories in that book, making deals with the devil and what not! It's too good to be true!
"I don't believe you!"
"It matters not, just answer me now. Do you want to live!?"
Live?! Live?!
That was all I wanted now, to escape this pain and suffering. My body was broken, my sanity fading.
"Yes! But what can I give you for it?! Do I have anything to trade for it?!"
No such thing as a free meal!
"That's alright. All you need to say is, 'I sacrifice' and it will be done."
Sacrifice! Some sort of cult for sure!
"What will I sacrifice? I have nothing now."
"Your bonds, your friends, and family. All that was yours…"
All that was mine, friends, families, Bonds-?
…
"Bonds?"
"Yes, people that you formed long standing memories with. Acquaintances perhaps, even if you didn't get along with them."
"Dutch?! Arthur?! John?! And the others!"
The devil said nothing for a time, and a deep chuckle escaped his mouth.
"Will you sacrifice that?"
Yes, yes yes!
"Would you accept dead men!?"
"Yes. They are not bound by death in our world. But they will be brought to ours, waiting for the day of sacrifice. Do you accept these terms?"
"Yes! I sacrifice! I sacrifice! Now save me!"
"So be it!"
A shell of violet color surrounded me. It was calming and my eyes seemed to close on me.
"Rest for now, my child. Soon you will be of great use for us."
It didn't matter, as long as I won and the rest became losers.
End Prologue
Chapter 1
Findings in the Woods
Arthur Morgan:
A Sunrise… of all the blasted things to see last… it was that… I wanted a sunset… So why was I lying here again?
I felt no pain, the wounds I had were gone. Now I'm just lost…
In my sight, a man walks Infront of it. The man with the top hat.
"Never thought we'd cross paths like this again… Don't worry, just remember what the good sister said."
Just as soon as he was there, he wasn't. He walked on into the direction of the Sun.
Why am I here?… WHY AM I HERE?!
I sat up from my rock. Looking around to see where 'here' was.
Rocks, trees, streams. Not the mountain I was on a couple minutes ago… Dying….
My hands rushed to check my body as I checked myself all over. Everything was there. Infact, better! Fresh air had never felt so good.
Not since my TB…
A conclusion came to me. This had to be heaven! Buy why? After all I had done…
After all I had done…
As much as I liked to believe it, something didn't feel right.
Why do I have my guns?!
My back held two holstered guns, a double barrel, a carbine, and my two revolvers. Aside from my guns, I had my hatchet and lasso. Even with all this equipment, something felt missing.
Not knowing what made me scratch my head. Doing so made me realize all too soon.
"My hat! Wha-."
Strong memories of what happened, came flooding in. John… Did he truly make it?
I guess I won't know now that I'm-.
"Dutch, stop it you crazy son of a-!"
John! That's John's voice! And did he say Dutch?!"
"No John! This isn't real! This can't be! Your not real! NO!"
That's Dutch! But he sounds… wrong!... What am I waiting around here for?!"
No longer thinking, I ran to the sound of the shouting. I ran as hard as I could, somewhat enjoying the air my lungs gave me.
After a minute I came across the pair, "Guys!"
Both turned to me and a pit fell in my stomach the longer I looked at them.
John looked alright, save for looking a little older. Dutch was worse. Thinner, shirtless, mad looking with a revolver in hand aimed at John. Then the said gun turned on me.
"N-no! Will my torment ever end?!"
A once proud man was crying before me, but why?
"What, Dutch! It's me! Calm down!"
John to my surprise took aim at me too.
"Who are you!"
"John you know me-."
"Who are you!"
Who was I? Was I not what I am?! This was too much for me!
"Arthur Morgan! John, you know this! You get amnesia or whatever them docs call it?"
"Wha- No! You died twelve years ago!"
I… yes… I died… twelve years?!
"Then why are you all here?! I was the one who died!"
"Yeah! And he died!"
My brother pointed to the raving mad man on the ground.
"And then!... And then…"
He got quiet, real quiet.
…,Oh, John…
"Who?"
I don't need to say anymore for John to figure out what I asked.
"Pinkertons… Ross got me in the end. Both Uncle and I."
"And Jack?! What about him and Abigail?!"
"...I don't know… I don't know."
Now John was on the ground.
"Jack… Abbigail…"
"Stay away from me! You aren't real!"
Dutch's ravings we're getting on my nerves. I walked over to the downed man with his back to a dead tree.
"Dutch! This is real!"
"No! This can't be! Our time is past! We're dead! WE ARE ALL DEAD!"
I swear I never wanted to hit him, despite what happened. Though Dutch makes it hard. A fist slammed near his face. Mine.
"Dutch!"
I grab him by his shoulder, "It's me!"
He looked at me for a few moments before calming down a little.
"Now get a hold of yourself! We're here! Alright?"
Dutch said nothing but nodded his head, clearly afraid of me. Ignoreing his fears
"John! I'm sorry for what ever happened after I was gone, but I'm here now! Wherever that is…"
Taking a better gander at our surroundings. The woods we found ourselves in were much thicker than back home. Giving off this eerie feeling of a tomb.
"Aww naw… let's get."
"Please do."
The new voice made me draw my gun to a strange sight.
A boy, no older than fifteen with armor and a very long sword you would see in a museum in the city. He was sitting on the ground, leaning into his sword to support his upper body.
"What you doing here, boy!"
His pointed ears twitched at the boy part.
"I should say the same for you old man. I'm trying to rest here for the fight happening tomorrow."
He was here the whole time?
"How much of that did you hear?"
"All of it."
Perfect, now we had someone who'd think we're crazy people.
"I don't care if that's what you're thinking."
"Wha-."
"Don't take it the wrong way. I just don't care about whatever you are. I'm just here to rest."
I glanced at my two friends to see they were still dealing with some internal struggles and didn't seem to mind the stranger with us.
"Ah, sorry about that. Then we'll be on our way, do you know how many miles to the nearest town?"
"No."
Ain't he a real shinner.
"Ok, can you atleast tell us how to get out of the forest before sunset?"
"I can't."
"Alright l, I get it, you don't want nothin to do with us. We'll find our own way-."
"No, I mean I can't. It's already sunset old timer."
"... Oh. Then are you alright with a trio of compadres for the night?"
The boy was baffled by something.
"Of What?"
"You know, Compadres? Spanish for buddies?"
"What's Spanish?"
This kid must have been sheltered from society.
"It's another language, surprised you never heard of it."
The teen smirked, "The only other language I know is this."
He nudged at the support at his side.
I sat down for some some support myself on a nearby stump. Still taking all of this in. Even so, that sword the kid clung to was something I couldn't ignore anymore.
"We'll, that's a mighty fine sword you got there. Isn't it a little big for you?"
"This is all I need."
"Nah come on, you got to have other hobbies than that. A kid your age?"
"What's it to you?"
"When I was your age I had something to do, fishing for one. Exploring, finding something to get myself in trouble with. Like this one time, a friend of mine had built this brand new shack-."
"I don't care."
I brushed off his crassness.
"Ahh, just listen! So I get some empty whiskey bottle and fill it up with oil and I lit the sucker up and burned the shack down! The man was crying for weeks about it to me."
There was a second part of me talking to the kid about this, and the second took the bait.
"Ha! As I recall, you were the one crying when Abigail came to skin your hide."
John made his way over, looking at him more and more made it feel so unreal… He was older for sure. More than me now probably.
"Wait… That shack was yours? And you are ok with that?"
Now the boy was interested, and we could get some info we needed.
"It wasn't a shack… it was my… first attempt at making a home for her."
"And I burned it down to prove that it was unsafe. Then he makes it with the girl, you're welcome John. "
John sighed in defeat, while the boy was now curious.
"Is that how you treat friends?"
"You can treat each other how you want, so long as you look out for each other. That's been my take anyways…"
It's how we did things, before everything changed. Things worked right by us then.
It was quite after that, nothing really more to say except getting ready for night.
"We'll. Think I'll make camp tonight. John, you wanna start a fire for us?"
"... Ah, sure. Just let me get some wood."
"Alright, just keep an eye on Dutch for me."
"Wait where are you going?"
"Hunting, last I checked we got nothing to eat tonight. Might find a deer if I'm lucky."
And these parts were foreign. Considering what the kid said, we would be too far to get anything for tonight from a store.
"Ok, well just don't lead a bear to us."
Oh don't I know it.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Guess I was lucky. Found a buck within twenty minutes of looking and the creature didn't have a clue what my "stick" could do. After cleaning the poor thing of blood and guts, I layed a few traps to see if I caught anything for breakfast.
A hog would be nice.
Along my way back, I came across some more goodies. Mushrooms. Ones I recognized as safe to eat. Another surprise came in the form of onions. The forest was a feast that kept on giving.
"Alright boys I'm back! I brought-."
I stopped to see a sad sight, neither the boy or John looked like they were getting along so well. But at least John started the fire like I asked him, all good and ready.
"Did I miss somthin?"
John coughed out, "No, nothing really. What did you get?"
"Got a big one, just walked up to my gun practically. Found some mushrooms and onions as well. Too bad we don't got a pot to throw all this in."
"Or salt."
"Yeah. Well, beggars can't be choosers. Let's get cooking."
While I handled skinning the meat and cooking it, John was kind enough to put the mushrooms and slices of onion on sticks to cook them. It made for a nice snack. Dutch was still having his existential crisis and the boy just watched.
"You're welcome to join us."
"I'm not hungry."
A stomach growl a second later said otherwise.
"Still, you're smart not to trust us. Your Pa teach you that?"
The boy gripped his sword harder at that.
Oh, touchy subject.
"Well, either way. You shouldn't… I'm a killer, a thief… No good I'd done…"
He scoffed.
"Don't cry to me old man, besides I'm killer too."
I had figured as much with how he clutched that sword.
"And too young for that."
"I'll live how I want!"
Probably heard that his whole life… then maybe not this.
"On your own anyways."
The raven hair boy was quiet, so I continued, "Having a family out there makes it much easier."
"I don't need a father!"
"Easy, I'm not talking-."
"Yeah! Well you sure are doing a lot of it!"
I walked up to the boy leaning over to him. Again he clutched at that sword.
"As I was saying! I'm not talking about family by blood. I'm talking about the people you fight with, argue with, and the next thing you know you're carrying them on your shoulder from the bar! The kind of people you do something new with and wonder where it's been your whole life! The kind of friends you'd-!... The ones you'd die for…"
In hindsight, I should have held back more than I did. Never was really any good at this kind of thing. The kid didn't seem to be either as he was eating up what I told him, Almost like he really seemed to think about it.
Can't say much for the rest of his generation.
"So again, you're welcome to have some. You at least tolerated our squabble earlier, so you can have first pick of the meat when it's done."
Speaking of, I had a job to do. Make the best meat I could with what I got. And an hour later, it was done. I motioned to the kid to help himself. For the first time, he sat up and I handed him the knife. He went straight for the hind quarter.
"Not bad, I'm more of a loin person myself. John, you want one?"
"Yeah."
"Dutch?"
Nothing. He wasn't raving like a mad man, thankfully. Still, he wasn't himself.
"I'll leave some here for you in case you change your mind. As for you kid, take a seat, I got a few more questions about the area. I'm Arthur Morgan by the way. This feller here is John Marston. The wallowing man over there is Dutch Van Der Linde."
I took a huge bite of the venison. The game flavor was strong, buty hunger was stronger.
"You're nobles?"
The teen's question made me choke for a second.
"Ha! Noble? I said we were killers, thieves. Where did you get that idea kid?"
"Guts…"
"What does guts have to do with-?"
"No, that's my name, Guts."
Who'd done name their kid a thing like that?
"We'll, Guts. Got a last name?"
"No, the only ones I've ever met with last names have been nobles."
Guts took a bite into the meat. His face lit up, but quickly fell away.
Sheesh, are we even in America? Mean, he sounds Merican enough. Him with that sword and armor kinda reminds me of them books that little Jack would read.
"Eh, not where we're from. Nobility kind of fell off the wagon about a hundred years ago for us."
He looked up from his meal. Clearly that idea was foreign to him.
"Then who rules you?"
"We the People, or that's what said on paper. There are still rules and people leading. Just not by birthright."
"Sounds like more trouble than it's worth."
"Aww it comes with benefits, get to say what you want, go where you want, be what you want! Just put the work into it."
"If it's so great, why become thieves?"
Sharp kid.
"Like I said, 'We the People' on paper. Some rules are too difficult to avoid. We wanted a piece of our own. At least that was the plan."
John made a snide remark, "Ain't that right, Dutch!"
Again he didn't say anything, "John, don't poke the bear."
"Well he started it."
"No! Micah did!… You know that…"
"... Right… sorry… It's been about four years. Guess I had forgotten lot more than I should have."
I picked up one of the mushroom sticks. And ate the thing in one munch.
"Four? Thought you said twelve?"
"No, I mean it's been four years since Micah died."
As the news hit my ears, my mind went in for a loop.
Ha! The Rat finally bit more than it could chew!
"You done him in?"
"Yeah… but I wasn't the first shot."
?
"Then who was it?"
He nodded over to the crazy former gang leader.
"Dutch? I- I don't know he had it in him…"
I knew things were bad, I mean I got shot and Dutch just watched me die. But for him to turn around and help John. Maybe there is hope for him.
"You people are weird."
A chuckle left me, "Trust me Guts, we're a lot worse drunk."
"Whatever, I'm going to sleep now. I have a job first thing tomorrow morning."
"Oh yeah? What's that?"
"Mercenary work. A noble wants to take over a fort. It's been under siege for a week now. Tomorrow, supposedly, is going to be full on assault."
"Hmm, what's the pay like."
"3 pieces of silver per a person, more supposedly for those who do more."
I felt my jaw drop at the thought.
"Silver! That's pretty good! Honestly, I'm short on cash right now. They taking anyone?"
"Arthur?"
"As long as you bring your own equipment and do your part, then yes. If you die, it will be of no cost to them."
Crazy times called for crazy action. And this would either make us or break us.
"Great! Mind if we tag along with you tomorrow?"
"Arthur?!"
I did my best to ignore John.
"Do as you please. As long as you don't hold me back."
"Don't worry, we just might say the same to you!"
"Arthur!"
"Come on John! You're not scared of a fight now, are you?"
"We just got out of our mess! Now you want to walk right into one?!"
I laughed at the irony. John, like me, always looked for trouble.
"But at least this is legal!"
"If you mean legal by getting our heads blown off!... Whatever, it wouldn't hurt to see them to get directions to the nearest town. "
That was two, needed three to make it official.
Considering Dutch was out, it was unanimous by default.
"Then it's settled! If you'll have us."
The kid didn't show any emotion otherwise.
"Fine."
"Good! I'll take the first watch, John. And the third for you know who, I guess."
John caught my drift.
"Yeah."
With that, all of us made our makeshift beds, except Dutch. Though he did move closer to the fire.
End Chapter