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A Young Outlaw's Redemption Record

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A Young Outlaw's Redemption Record (Fanfic)
Isaac Morgan by Yakopak

A Young Outlaw's Redemption Record is a The Saga of Tanya the Evil & Red Dead Redemption 2 Crossover fanfiction by DeMonikr, where Tanya has died and reincarnated as Isaac Morgan, son of outlaw and member of the Van der Linde Gang, Arthur Morgan. When tragedy (likely caused by Being X's cruelty) strikes, Isaac has no choice but to join his father and become part of the gang.

Unmarked Spoilers from Red Dead Redemption 2!


A Young Outlaw's Redemption Record has the following tropes:

  • Adaptational Context Change: Downplayed; In canon, Bessie, Hosea's wife, is long dead by the time the story begins. Here, Isaac encounters her when he's moving in with the gang, but she ends up dying a couple of years later.
  • Affectionate Gesture to the Head: Isaac repeatedly receives this in his early years in the gang, much to his chagrin.
  • All for Nothing: Downplayed; Isaac is frustrated that the bank that the gang is planning to rob had been transferring their money out earlier than scheduled. While the gang still managed to rob some money, he didn't think it was worth practicing months of acting like a scared, lost child for the plan.
  • Alternate Self: Implied; When Hosea talks about robbing a horse for Isaac from a family of fleeing Russian noble family, Isaac starts to ponder if they are Visha's ancestors in this alternate life.
  • Anti-Role Model: Isaac sees Swanson as one and can't help but feel amused at how Being X must have hated him, being a walking bad example of a God-worshipper.
  • The Atoner: Henry Anderson, local sheriff and Eliza's father, chooses to maintain her house after her death while Isaac is away, while ensuring her killers' associates didn't find out that Isaac killed them, all so he can atone for his lack of presence in their lives.
  • Composite Character: Downplayed; In this fic, Isaac is Tanya's reincarnation, but since Arthur's son is a Posthumous Character in canon, how much of the present Isaac is based on Canon!Isaac is unknown.
  • False Friend: Ever since finding out that Dutch doesn't like his leadership or philosophy being questioned, Isaac has been faking his loyalty to the gang leader while he tries to find a way to leave the gang discreetly.
  • Gender Bender: In this fic, Tanya is reincarnated as a boy, just like his first life.
  • Give Him a Normal Life: Inverted; With Eliza dead, Arthur ends up bringing Isaac into the Van der Linde Gang and raises him to be an outlaw like himself.
  • Hypocrisy Nod: While sniping the O'Driscoll Boys members, Isaac Dehumanize them, internally calling them lowlives to not feel horrible about killing them, while reminding himself that the Van der Linde Gang are also outlaws like them.
  • Internal Reveal: Ever since he receive a discreet note in Isaac's handwriting calling him an idiot for returning to the gang after leaving them, John has noticed many subtle tells that Isaac has been disillusioned with Dutch for a long while and has been merely playing along with Dutch's leadership.
  • It Gets Easier: Downplayed; Isaac has experience in taking lives already as Tanya, but the gang didn't know that.
  • Killed Mid-Sentence: While robbing a bank, the Van der Linde Gang gets into a Mexican Standoff with the sheriffs. But then Isaac sniped the head sheriff mid-countdown, causing the rest of them to panic, allowing the gang to run away unharmed.
  • Leave No Witnesses: Isaac, who is nine at the time, kills the surrendering bounty hunter to ensure the gang's camp cannot be traced, to Hosea's quiet horror.
  • Meaningful Gift: Before leaving with Arthur, Isaac gives Henry a silver ring that Eliza has kept with her, claiming that it used to be her mother's, knowing that he is her father and thus his grandfather, and ensuring that he wouldn't sell Eliza's house out of sentimentality.
  • My Greatest Failure:
  • Named by the Adaptation: In this fic, Eliza's surname is Degraf.
  • Noodle Incident: There was a time when Dutch tried to teach Isaac how to shoot a repeater when he was seven years old, only for his small body didn't handle its recoil very well.
  • Point of Divergence: In canon, Arthur lashes out and resents John for leaving the gang in secret for a year before he returns because he left Abigail pregnant with his child, almost throwing away a chance to be a father when Arthur couldn't. In this fic, Arthur didn't hate John as hard in canon since Isaac is still alive.
  • The Promise: As Isaac is packing, Henry pleads with Arthur to be a good father for him and ensure his son doesn't end up gaining infamy like himself. Unfortunately, while he wears clothes that obscure his face, Isaac did end up with a high bounty.
    "I know what you do for a livin'. I won't lie and say I was any better, but I need you to keep him out of trouble. I don' want to see him on the bounty board or hanging from the gallows in the future. He's already killed two men in self defense and I fear what he'll do in the future. I've already buried his mother, and his grandmother before that. I don't want to bury him."
  • Properly Paranoid: When Isaac meets the rest of the Van der Linde Gang, he can't help but feel that the group is too well-oiled a machine and too benevolent for a gang, to the point that he ponders if they even have anything to do with what Being X is planning for him. Then he discovered Dutch's true personality when his mask slipped.
  • Real Name as an Alias: Isaac's public pseudonym is Zachary Degraff, which uses a mildly misspelled version of his mother's maiden name.
  • “The Reason You Suck” Speech: Implied; One time, Isaac verbally tore down Dutch's sloppy bookkeeping, telling him how much the gang bleeds money from their spending.
  • Red Baron: During his time away from the gang, John discovers that Dutch, Hosea, Arthur, and Isaac gain one in their bounties based on the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, thanks to their crime spree:
    • Dutch = Conquest, as he rides a white horse and is the leader.
    • Arthur = War, as he is Dutch's enforcer.
    • Hosea = Famine, as he's a conman and rides a black horse.
    • Isaac = Death, for his all-black concealing clothes, his death count, and that he rides a pale Kladruber.
  • Secret Secret-Keeper:
    • Henry knows that Arthur is an outlaw, but he never tries to arrest him because Eliza loves him.
    • Isaac manages to deduce on his own that Henry, the lawman, is Eliza's father, and thus his grandfather.
    • Isaac can tell that Uncle is playing up his lazy drunkard persona and is secretly smart and observant.
    • John discovers that Isaac has long been disillusioned by Dutch from his observation of Arthur's son ever since returning to the gang.
  • A Simple Plan: Downplayed; Hosea's plan to rob a Russian noble family is for Isaac to take one of their horses for himself while he and Arthur go for their vault. While the "getting Isaac a horse" part is successful, one of the family's servants found the guard that Arthur and Hosea killed and alerted everyone, forcing the three into a shootout to escape.
  • Smoking Is Not Cool: Isaac didn't like smoking, but he learns that it's the best substance to keep him alert and recharge the Dead Eye Targeting. Even when he becomes a smoker by necessity, he still tries to find a way to quit.
  • Spared by the Adaptation: In this fic, Isaac survived the robbers thanks to his combat skills training from his Past-Life Memories.
  • Suddenly Bilingual: Isaac retains his language proficiencies from his Past-Life Memories, allowing him to speak German and Spanish based on his proficiencies in Germanian and Ispanian.
  • Tempting Fate: You're not a Being X's Cosmic Plaything without one.
    • Isaac feels grateful that he has a mother this time around, feeling himself having a chance to grow up normally and avoid any conflict. Cue Eliza being killed by a pair of drunken robbers.
    • After discovering that his father is an outlaw, Isaac swears to never end up like him, only for Arthur to take him into the Van Der Linde Gang after Eliza has died.
    • Isaac believes that his first encounter with a cigarette is predetermined by Being X, and after trying it, swears to avoid smoking just like when he was Tanya. A year later, it is shown that Isaac has become a smoker.
    • Isaac has set plans to fake his death to get away from the gang, including having a heavy nest egg. Soon after, the gang's camp is on fire, burning the majority of the money he saved.
  • Troubling Unchildlike Behavior:
    • Henry noted how Isaac didn't react as strongly as most children would when he killed his mother's killers
    • The gang found Isaac's sophisticated way of talking, his penchant for coffee, and how he easily gets used to shooting firearms and takes lives, uncanny for his age.
  • Underestimating Badassery: When Hosea and Isaac are hunting deer, they are approached by a pair of bounty hunters who are looking for the former, completely ignoring the latter as he is a kid, long enough for Isaac to shoot one of them in the hand while Hosea shoots the other.
  • We Named the Monkey "Jack": Isaac names his horse Visha, based on Tanya's nickname for her 2nd lieutenant in his previous life.
  • You Remind Me of X:
    • Isaac sees the resemblance of Hans von Zettour in Hosea and Kurt von Rudersdorf in Dutch.
    • Hosea silently admits that he sees Isaac behaving more like himself despite being Arthur's son, based on his interest in reading and bookkeeping. Not to mention his way of talking makes the elderly outlaw see him conning people like himself in the future.
  • And Your Reward Is Clothes: One time, Isaac saved Mr. Millard, a black leatherworker, from being hanged after he was falsely accused of scamming his customers. In return, he made Isaac a thick-layered custom vest based on the teen's design that is highly resistant to the 1800's firearms.

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