MANOSOUTA WEEK : DAY 4 : SWAP AU (A LOT of text + collection of illustrations)
so. it has come to this. THE day.
this au has been on my mind for such a long time, and i'm finally getting to share!
i'll be the first to admit that some things have not been thought of, so feel free to make em up!
TW FOR COPIOUS AMOUNTS OF BLOOD,
enjoy!
I call it "Turnabout Sacrifice"
this an overhaul of the story (made with the help of FEYA!!! THE SMARTEST PERSON EVER!!)
First thing to change:
Simeon ran away from the orphanage the day of presidents assassination, and Bronco was left to distract and take the fall, unbeknownst to Simeon. Simeon was the one to send the drawing and did not look back, staying with Kanis, but the drawing was pinned on Knight, and all three were after him, not Saint.
Another change is that Simeon is no longer the one to remember the car incident, Bronco is. and he resolves to take revenge FOR Simeon and himself, no matter the cost.
after enduring whatever-the-fuck, everything goes as we know. Knight becomes the presidents second-in-command (while knowing his secret and in hopes of getting to kill him) and Simeon joins the circus while keeping in contact with Kanis.
because he had not endured what he did at Fifi, Winner and Wangs hands, the threat of the past being relatively out of his mind AND not remembering what happened 18 years ago makes Simeons ditzy sweetheart persona obsolete. so he becomes a bitch
Knight, on the other hand, needs to be close to Wang and for him to find a confidant in him, to trust him with his life and not have a single suspicion about him. so, he adopts the persona of a soft lovable guy who is a little skittish and shy despite being as big as a fridge.
Sometime in the future, Knight and Saint reconnect (through Bronco basically stalking him) and start developing a relationship together.
Now onto the game.
TURNABOUT TRIGGER
First change to be had: Knight does not kill Rooke. Instead, it's Wang who does out of fear of being named a fraud, and naturally tries to pin it on the stupid little second-in-command, who would do anything for him, right after commencing the fake assassination.
Next change is that Simeon wasnt the one to think of the plan NOR to hire Shelly (idk who feel free to get creative). Still, the real assassination attempt commences, resulting in an injured Bronco, and the fake one begins.
Rooke is killed by Wang, and an "attempt" on Wangs life gets made. Miles Edgeworth is called.
Bronco presents as a sweet and helpful individual, a bit bashful and nervous, but otherwise competent and, strangely enough, averse to violence.
After some time, Miles starts suspecting Bronco, but then learns that Bronco only assisted Wang because he wanted to help Zeng Fa and didn't know his colleague would die!
THEN! Miles deduces that it was Wang. But what can you do against a president?
Knight is falsely arrested on the murder of Rooke as well as an attempted assassination.
THE IMPRISONED TURNABOUT
Next day, we learn of something horrible that had happened in prison.
Blood, a lot of it - belonging to Knight, with him nowhere to be seen, and a ring that supposedly belonged to him.
While the body can't be found - the suspicions fall on his best friend, who'd visited him yesterday.
So, Miles and Kay go investigate.
And they meet a bratty, arrogant rising star of the animal training world and Big Berry Circus - Simeon Saint! (slight spoiler to aa4 on the pic (line courtesy of Feya!))
He is cocky and rude, bragging about how he's "free do do anything" and immediately takes dislike towards Miles, yet has no choice but to accept his help.
While investigating, Kay and Miles learn of what was inside the case, and how it got there, as well as Simeon travelling to Knight without permission and with a huge cage to boot.
After determining that a chisel in the case might be Knights work (which it is in this AU - a LaGuarde lure), they turn to accuse him of trying to aid a criminal in escaping prison.
And he snaps.
Now Miles fully trusts Simeon. He tells him how he tried to get Knight to climb into a cage, "But Bronco was always the kind of guy to follow the law to the T. Nevermind the law being wrong..."
This is an inverse of that one scene from the finale of the game. The idea was proposed by @diableriezer and it near made me weep.
After more investigating we finally get on Fifi's trail, and get her to confess.
Knight's body is missing because he ran away from her wrath, and thus HE is presumed missing, although she claims that he couldn't have survived the attack.
In reality, he did. (cw blood)
(contains lyrics from "Evil" by Electroforez, a song about being obsessed and in love)
Kanis lied about not knowing him, and secretly patched him up with Helmut's help and helped him escape, so he'd finally take revenge.
Inherited and Forgotten turnabouts play out, second probably with a lot of changes which I didn't think of, but in the end Winner gets arrested, so does Gusto.
Knight hates Gusto with his whole heart, and wishes to rip it out for letting him and Saint suffer like that. He remembers his father, and he only wishes he got to kill him first.
Now, without further ado...
TURNABOUT FOR AGES
TURNABOUT SACRIFICE
We get evidence of Fifi, Blaise and Wang working together, and decide to finally confront the latter, only to learn that he went missing.
We find his corpse and realize that Simeon also hasn't been seen in a while. Learn from Kanis that his pup has gone to seek revenge, determine that it's Simeon the same way.
Weirdly enough, we do NOT find Saint at the circus
Regina says that he left in a hurry.
We determine that he'd gone to retrieve a piece of evidence from the crime scene, which in this case is the presidential plane because I thought it'd be rad.
There we find Knights "corpse", but it turns out he is asleep and Simeon is helping care for his wounds here, since he thought it'd be safe. They ask Knight if Simeon has harmed him, he says no.
We learn that Simeon has been notified of Knights location by Kanis.
When Miles attempts arrest, Knight quickly takes Simeon hostage, revealing himself to be Wangs killer.
Knight reveals his motivations, his story. Reveals that he'd been abandoned by everyone, even by his darling friend, and nobody was there for him. Despite that, he still forgives Simeon, because he is all he has, and all he wishes for is to finally stay together - leave and never look back on the horrors they've endured.
Unfortunately, it does not work out.
Saint is adamant that he wants to stay together, and he is truly grateful for the revenge, but that he didn't trust Saint with that, so how could he trust him?
After talking through things, and various threats from Knight, he concedes. But not in a way one would expect.
Knowing that he won't take being apart easily, Knight tells Simeon that there is only one road to go from there.
And pulls the trigger.
