The Black Parade

The Black Parade is a story about Victor, Koutali, and Lisa and their history together. It can be read here.

Background
The Black Parade tells the story of Victor and Lisa's history in the early 2000s, as well as Koutali's complicated feelings toward the both of them. It is written by Techno Tinker and is based on the My Chemical Romance album of the same name.

The End.
Koutali awakens with a splitting headache and no idea where he is. He can tell there are two people around him, who he later discover to be Lisa and Victor, but none of them seem keen on answering his questions. When he's finally conscious enough to speak, Lisa explains how she reanimated him, and he notices the metal plating covering his body. He is horrified of what he sees, but Lisa brushes it off and tells him to be glad for what she did for him.

Dead!
Victor criticizes Lisa on how she seems to take having power over life and death not as seriously as she should, saying there will be consequences for her actions someday. She ignores him, jabbing at Victor about how he's helping her as well. Lisa notes how she wishes Victor would stay for her to study him, but she gets nothing positive from him in response. Soon after, Lisa debates on where to take Koutali, seeing as she can't house him forever. She brings up Becile Industries as her first choice, but Victor shuts down that idea.

While they speak, Koutali sits in his room and thinks on the circumstances that brought him here. He wishes he could go back to change his fate, but knows it would be impossible. Forced to come to terms with his new life, he realizes everything so far has truly led up to nothing.

This Is How I Disappear
Years later, Koutali and Victor are spending time together in the Manor. Victor explains to Koutali how he plans to take his revenge on Lisa, but it takes him telling intimate details of his construction for Koutali to realize they really had met all those years ago. Koutali begins to understand why Victor is planning to do what he will, but he knows if Lisa goes, then he will die as well. Victor has his mind set on it, though, and Koutali realizes there's nothing he can do to stop him.

The Sharpest Lives
Back in the past, Lisa drops Koutali off at Walter Manor, leaving Victor and her alone at her house. She thinks to herself how to force Victor into staying, and while the two of them are idly chatting she attacks Victor and hits him with a frying pan hard enough to knock him out. Victor wakes up in her makeshift garage workshop, realizing he is bound to the chair he's sitting in. As he inspects his surroundings, Lisa comes in with equipment and rips out one of Victor's fangs to 'investigate' it. A month later, Lisa has still kept Victor confined to her workshop, this time without food. She comes in and complains about his attitude before getting an idea. Back in the house, she mixes rat poison into roadkill blood to begin a new experiment.

Welcome To The Black Parade
Victor thinks back to his family back in Dimension Omega and a bonding experience he had with his ill-remembered father. He recounts how he had thought of the name Adder far before Admiral was even planned in his mind. A few years after, Victor sits with his new robot as he plans to power it on. He knew the name Admiral was perfect, and that having a companion in the foul mines would make things so much better.

Koutali thinks back to his youth, out in school. He was teased by the other children for being different, and whenever an opportunity arose for gender roles to come into question he was always the butt of the joke. Gym class where the boys and girls were separated into two teams, health class that was supposed to teach children about human biology. None of it was set up for him to feel comfortable.

I Don't Love You
While thinking about what Victor had said about bringing justice to Lisa, he thought about the circumstances that had led up to this across all of his life. The dealings with the mafia because of his medical bills bankrupting the family, his meeting with Finsternis that had been his first unsuccessful hit, his unfortunate circumstances involving his failed American Dream, and his death and eventual indebtitude to Lisa. All his life he had been exploited by others, never learning to grow and never becoming his own person. Even so, he thinks about how poorly things will go for him if this new wild card in his life, Victor, kills Lisa. Throughout his entire life, he was the problem. He had always been the one constant that made things go sour. He realizes that nobody, esecially not his family, ever truly loved him.

House of Wolves
Lisa brings Victor a glass of blood to entice him, but Victor refuses. She leaves him be, and he chews through his restraints, entering her house and seeing if she was still asleep. He went over to the fridge, drinking the rest of the pitcher of blood. Unfortunately for his moments of freedom, it turns out Lisa is awake and she walks in on him in her kitchen. Lisa begs for him to stay, and Victor only complies with the promise of food. Lisa also promises not to lock him in the garage anymore, but he can't leave the house.

Cancer
All the time that Lisa was feeding Victor, she was lacing the blood with rat poison. Lisa was studying him, seeing how much of it he could take, just as she'd done to Koutali in the past. Of course, Victor was feeling its effects and was sick with a fever. Eventually, he gets sick enough to start retching it back up, and he overhears Lisa talking to herself about the rat poison. Victor berates her for her inhumane experimentation and cruelty, but she brushes it off.

Koutali looks at what he has become, an amalgamation of man and machine too horrific for both worlds. He wonders what's still keeping him around after everything he'd gone through, and looks to his faceplate for any kind of comfort it might bring. This was all that he had left at this point, he realized. And he just had to keep on going.

Mama
Victor and Koutali reminisce about their families together. Victor tells Koutali about how his father was always supportive of his interests, but his mother was not. Koutali agrees that family is a strange concept to both of them, and tells Victor that his relationship with his family was difficult as well. As he speaks, trying to put thoughts into words, he reveals to Victor how he was intersex, and expects Victor to be just as dismissive of his condition as everyone else, but to his surprise Victor speaks nothing but support about his condition. As they keep speaking, Koutali finds out that Victor is actually far older than him, despite looking far younger. The conversation ends with Koutali's good mood being ruined by Victor repeating how he is going to bring justice to Lisa.

Sleep
Victor and Koutali are dreaming, but their dreams are anything but peaceful. Victor dreams of his abusers from the mines and the constant reminders he has of what they did to him. Eventually, he sees Nigel in his mind. Victor wishes he could spend just one last time with Nigel, but before he could fully take in the moment, Nigel was gone.

Koutali dreams of all the people he had murdered under the instruction of the Tramonto Orientale. They question who he is, and he is unable to answer, and before he can think of anything meaningful to say he falls down into a white void. When he reaches the bottom, he is flesh and blood again, but he is left to rot away inside the void.

Teenagers
Koutali reminisces about his youth and the antics he got into. Balancing his home life with the restaurant and the things he did with the mafia to keep it all afloat was difficult, and the consequences of it were still felt all these years later. Eventually, the balance was shifted. Koutali failed in one of his assassination attempts. He would have to suffer the consequences of that for years to come.

Victor's teenage years were spent alongside Admiral, finally feeling some kind of sense of peace from the abuse he had felt in his younger years. He finds solace in the mining town's church organ, teaching himself to play with the songs held within. When he was playing music, he finally felt free.

Disenchanted
Victor and Koutali are watching the sunset together outside of the Manor. They note some of the similarities between them, like the constant identity struggles and trying to be something that they weren't. Koutali notes how he has decided on what his identity is at this point, he's just him. Victor notes his identity is always seeking approval. The two of them note how neither of them have truly known gentleness throughout their troubled lives, and Koutali notes how he's always looked up to Victor. Victor returns the sentiment, saying he is glad to see how far Koutali has come as a person since the two of them met, and they both go on to say how thankful they are for meeting each other.

Famous Last Words
Victor finally decides to go through with bringing justice to Lisa, but Koutali cannot stand the thought of the only person able to keep him alive being gone. Even with all she has done, Koutali finds it in his heart to forgive her, and knows he has to stop what Victor is about to do. He borrows Captain's revolver, driving out to her house, preparing to do whatever he can to defend his reanimator.

Lisa's newest taxidermy project was interrupted by an unexpected guest. Victor had returned after at least a decade, and Lisa was surprised, but overjoyed, to see him again. He cuts through her pleasantries and tells her his intents, and she protests that she was simply acting out of scientific curiosity. Victor believes her actions were more than unethical for the results, and he comes over to end her in the true vampiric fashion.

Just as he gets close to her, Koutali arrives at the door, holding the revolver out to Victor. He truly didn't want to do anything to Victor after all they'd been through together, but he knew Lisa's death would bring nothing good for him. Koutali had never liked the idea of revenge, either. As Victor didn't seem to be changing his actions, Koutali knew what he had to do and shot Victor in the back with the revolver. Victor only replies that he was doing it for Koutali's sake.

Blood
Koutali regrets his actions towards Victor and visits him in the Manor infirmary. Victor says that he should have aimed for the head, but that only makes Koutali feel worse. Victor brings up the possibility of him becoming Lisa's apprentice so that eventually he will be able to take care of Koutali and dispose of Lisa. But Koutali isn't satisfied with this answer, saying that this is more a matter of life and death than one so easily discarded. Victor brings up that it is truly about his revenge, not about his potential gains from her knowledge or her blood. Victor forgives Koutali, saying he was proud of him for finally standing up for himself, and Koutali feels slightly relieved, though still worried for Lisa's safety. While the conversation becomes more casual, Victor finds himself hungry, and as a nurse comes in he bites their neck and drains them right in front of a very shocked Koutali.