13.1

[fairytaleknight]

Scene, a lake in an underground cavern, separated from the gap by a narrow shore. In the center of the lake, there is something like a white branch, or a great ivory tusk, or the silhouette of a swan's neck. On it stands Princess Kraehe, in black tulle and satin.

Beside the branch, or tusk, or neck, lies a sort of bier or bed, white marble covered over with red roses, and on top of the roses lies Mytho, his eyes closed, as still as death.

On the near shore of the lake, Princess Tutu stands, all in pink and white, and the Knight of the story, dressed in black, a half-step behind her.

You might think, watching these four, that the stage has been carefully set. If you thought so, you would be right.

Fakir, being a character in the tableau rather than a neutral observer, isn't thinking about it. He stands in second position, hand on his swordhilt, waiting. (If it occurs to him that this is a ballet stance, not a swordsman's stance... well, it doesn't occur to him.)

Comments

[theladyrue.livejournal.com]

Kraehe stands above the prince, facing them.

"When our whispers are full of emotion," Kraehe says, tilting her head down so she can see Tutu better, "whose words will he be pulled to? If the prince chooses you, Tutu, I will return him and this piece," she uncrosses her arms, tilting the heartshard slightly so it catches the light, "to you."

She stops, and looks concerned, voice taking on the caring-mocking tone she has heard so often at Gold Crown Academy. "But...even if I would like to return it, you'd be nothing but a flash of light, would you?"

[reallyaduck]

Vanish . . .

Princess Tutu doesn't gulp. Duck would gulp. Princess Tutu is facing her destiny, and she does it with grace -

I'm going to vanish, really? That terrifies me . . .

Her eyes lower slightly, the only outward sign of uncertainty.

But -

[fairytaleknight]

Fakir, too, is facing his destiny.

He isn't uncertain any more. That's past. His enemy stands before him, and very soon now she'll finish her villainous monologue and the battle will begin.

Tutu won't need to vanish, if all goes well. Fakir will defeat Kraehe first, and die in the moment when he kills her, so that Mytho and Tutu can ... can ...

(Live happily ever after, supplies a voice from nowhere.)

Live happily ever after, that's right.

(You always have such good plans, Fakir.)

[theladyrue.livejournal.com]

Kraehe laughs, quietly.

"If you truly love the prince, there is no reason to be confused...is there?"

[reallyaduck]

Tutu looks up, meets Kraehe's eyes -

Rue's eyes, reminds the part of her that's Duck. Rue's eyes, still. Sort of. Probably. No - definitely. She's Rue in there, Duck's sure of it!

- and remembers the confused girl in Malen's painting room, when the heartshard of devotion was returned. If she can just reach her, then . . .

"But why do we have to fight each other this way? Because we both -"

They both love the prince, don't they? Don't they want the same thing: for him to be happy?

[theladyrue.livejournal.com]

"That's your fault," replies Kraehe coolly, crossing her arms, "because you returned the prince's heart to him.

"You set the story back in motion again, The Prince and the Raven. Everyone began to move in accordance with their fates in the story."

She stops, briefly, her voice taking on a story-teller's careful distance as she continues. "The knight shall one day be rent in twain. Princess Tutu shall disappear in a flash of light. And for the prince...the days of painful fighting shall return." Kraehe breathes carefully, anger nearer to the surface: "We continue down the path towards our destiny, for that is the fate decided for us.

"You are the one who set the story in motion! Even though no one wished for that..." Kraehe wins the fight to recapture her serenity, asking "Isn't that right, Fakir?"

[fairytaleknight]

The knight shall be rent in twain, yes. Fakir's known that much for a long time. But Princess Tutu shall not need to vanish, and the rest--

Tutu stands a half-step before Fakir, with the perfect form of a prima ballerina. Fakir can't see her face. But something about the curve of her arms and the angle of her head makes him think she is frightened, or horrified, or stiff and still with guilt. Fakir can't let her believe the things that Kraehe says.

He answers, clearly and confidently, meeting the raven princess's eyes, "That was true before. But now Mytho himself has the desire to regain his heart."

Fakir glances at Tutu, and delivers his next words directly to her, as one more gift. "I share that wish."

He gives Tutu and Kraehe a moment to absorb that speech before adding, dryly, "You're the only one right now who doesn't. Too bad, Kraehe."

[reallyaduck]

Tutu stares at his face, feeling her eyes widen as he speaks.

Fakir . . .

In her heart, alongside the determination and the fear for Mytho, she can feel a small spark of - triumph? Joy? No, not either of those things. Courage, maybe. She remembers Edel's words: two gems that are one.

Whatever it is, the warmth of it counteracts the cold splash of uncertainty Kraehe's words threw over her.

No, she isn't alone.

[theladyrue.livejournal.com]

"My," Kraehe says, amused, "that certaintly is too bad."

She laughs, quietly, glad almost that she no longer has to wonder if the Knight is working in the Prince's best interests.

"Isn't that right, my prince?" she calls out, smiling as she hears him start to rise from the bier behind her.

"Just when you had returned to being a fool again, too..."

[reallyaduck]

Tutu jerks her focus back to Mytho, and gasps.

He's - awake? Sitting up? Is it possible that he's going to take an active role in this story, after all?

(Answer: no.)

[fairytaleknight]

Mytho, Fakir observes, moves the way he used to move long ago: elegantly, but without personality.

(Puppets follow the pull of their strings.)

Mytho is missing all of the heartshards Tutu won for him. Only recently, Fakir would have been glad; now, watching Mytho, Fakir aches for what Mytho has lost.

(I possess neither feelings nor a heartbeat.)

But Tutu, Duck, will defeat Kraehe and return Mytho's heart again. It will happen, because it must.

Fakir stands and watches, waiting for the moment when he can help Duck to save Mytho.

[theladyrue.livejournal.com]

"When I pulled that piece out of his heart," Kraehe says, as if it was nothing in particular, "all of his feelings went to sleep again."

She smiles, watching them.

[reallyaduck]

. . . all his feelings went to . . . sleep?

All of them? After all that, the heartache and pain he went through to learn how to feel again - all gone, just like that?

"That can't be," she murmurs, shell-shocked, and then draws in her breath and shouts: "Mytho!"

She is, after all, Princess Tutu. He has never not responded to her.

[theladyrue.livejournal.com]

Kraehe's smile grows.

"It's useless, Tutu," she says, holding out the black box with the heartshard. It shifts and pulls downward like sand, a holding place for the blood-red shard inside it. The spiny thing pauses and shivers, retracting on itself so it's far below where Kraehe placed it, closer to the prince.

"The time for talking is over," Kraehe says, raising her voice and chin slightly, taking on the tone of command. "My prince, draw your sword."

Behind her, her prince rise and does so.

[reallyaduck]

Swords in this story have never boded well.

Tutu runs as far forward as she can, halting, reluctantly, once she gets to the lake.

"What are you doing?"

[theladyrue.livejournal.com]

"Hey, prince," Kraehe sounds nearly sympathetic. "It seems like Princess Tutu doesn't think that your feeling of love is worth protecting."

There's a growing triumph in her as she looks at Tutu. "So let's destroy it now, smash it so that it will never be whole again!"

[prinz-und-rabe.livejournal.com]

An obedient doll, the prince raises his sword and starts to bring it down.

[reallyaduck]

Tutu opens her mouth in horror, but no words emerge.

[fairytaleknight]

Even if Mytho's forgotten about it, even if he's lost whatever portions of his heart he gained, Fakir remembers that Mytho wanted to know.

If that shard breaks, Mytho never will know.

No, no, don't do it--

[theladyrue.livejournal.com]

Kraehe turns to watch him, to see if he will carry through.

(She feels a slight shiver of worry, before telling herself that he will.

That doesn't help.)

[prinz-und-rabe.livejournal.com]

The sword doesn't falter.

[reallyaduck]

In desperation, Tutu finds her voice.

"DON'T!"

[theladyrue.livejournal.com]

Kraehe's eyes widen and before she can stop she yells:

"STOP!"

[fairytaleknight]

Fakir's spent years telling Mytho where to go, what to eat, what to wear, who to speak to, who to avoid, all for this moment--

"Stop it!" he cries.

[prinz-und-rabe.livejournal.com]

- and the sword stops, hovering motionless over the shard. Waiting for further orders.

[theladyrue.livejournal.com]

Kraehe's frozen for a split second, and then she looks up, smooth and polished as ever.

"There is no other path for you to choose; let me see you disappear!"

[reallyaduck]

Mytho . . . this is all I can do now, isn't it?

Tutu knows - this is what was fated, from the very beginning.

Duck doesn't want to disappear. But Duck is a small, frightened bird, hiding at the center of the role that is Tutu - and what worth is a duck, weighed against a prince? Not much.

She'd said she'd give her life to help Mytho, hadn't she?


"I understand," she says, and closes her eyes, briefly. A moment to come to terms - just a moment - and then she looks up again, and there's a smile on her face. "In exchange for that, when I disappear -"

At least, if there's nothing else she can do . . . at least she can do this.

"Don't do any more cruel things to Mytho, okay?"

Kraehe loves Mytho. Tutu does know that, whatever else Kraehe feels. If Tutu's gone, then maybe she won't feel like she has to . . .

[fairytaleknight]

Fakir, suddenly suspicious, glances between Tutu and Kraehe.

[theladyrue.livejournal.com]

Kraehe's eyes widen, and then she laughs slightly.

"I was wondering what you would say."

[reallyaduck]

If there's one benefit to being a magical ballerina in a frilly tutu, it's this: you get very immune to being laughed at.

"Please, Kraehe," says Tutu, and her smile doesn't waver.

[fairytaleknight]

Fakir does not like the sound of this plan. "Now, wait--" he hisses to Tutu.

[theladyrue.livejournal.com]

Kraehe's smile softens, as she tilts her head. "That's fine," she reassures. "I'll love him even more than I have 'til now."

Her tone changes only slightly as she adds: "Enough to make him forget about you."

[reallyaduck]

Mytho told her that if she vanished, he would grieve.

But he'll only feel sorrow if he remembers her.

"All right."

Tutu steps forward, and closes her eyes.

She can do this, and she will. For Mytho, she will. She has the resolve to sacrifice herself - she promised this, when she became Princess Tutu.

Goodbye, Mytho.

If she never sees him

(or Pique or Lilie or Rue or Fakir or Armadylan or Anteaterina or Mr. Cat or)

again, that's a small price to pay for having gotten to see him at all, isn't it?

[fairytaleknight]

"Wait!" Fakir hisses to Tutu. "Why do such a pointless thing. Are you stupid?"

Fakir's been observing this scene, a half-step behind Tutu. Now he steps forward, irritated and ungraceful, and stands beside her. "Don't take what a crow promises seriously."

Fakir stares at Kraehe, still perched on the great white branch, but he speaks to Tutu. "If you just vanish, who is going to restore Mytho's heart to him? Hadn't you wanted to see Mytho smile when he gained back all the pieces of his heart?" He turns his head to face Tutu, who is serene as ever.

(If Mytho were able to ask, "Fakir, what are you feeling?" and Fakir had the time to answer, he might have said, "I am feeling respect.")

"You alone and nobody else could accept Tutu's fate so smilingly. That's why you mustn't vanish."

It's time. Fakir draws Lohengrin's sword from its sheath and raises it before his face to swear. "I will change this fate."

After all, what are knights for?

[fairytaleknight]

[Continued.]

[fairytaleknight]

Kraehe mocks Fakir. Tutu cries out. Fakir hardly hears them. Wagner's Prelude to Lohengrin is playing in his mind, all swooping brasses and stringsThe raven armies have come, descending from the roof of the cave in neat formation. Each raven carries an extended sword.

Should there be an observer in an armchair, somewhere behind the set, the observer might ask, "Why are those ravens en pointe? Why are they wearing tutus? Why do the raven armies even have human legs, anyhow?" The question doesn't interest Fakir, who is raising his sword in the first move of the Marozzi sequence--

No, Fakir isn't. He's spinning and pirouetting and swinging his sword in the old, familiar patterns of stage combat, and every time he slices at a raven, the raven vanishes in a spray of purple glitter.

Spoon would say, "You're dancing, son. Start over."

I can't start over.

Spin, turn, swing. Two ravens down, three.

I'm doing it all wrong, but it's working. Why can't I remember the moves?

Fakir reaches backwards over his head, killing a fourth raven soldier with a single stroke.

I didn't even see him there. How did I do that?

Now there are two staggered rows of raven dancers set before Fakir, and two more behind him. From somewhere, Tutu calls Fakir's name, but Fakir doesn't hear her. He jumps into a high backflip and lands in a neat second-position plié. Without pausing for a moment, Fakir runs forward, swinging his sword in a mighty two-handed strike and smiting another raven with a fresh spray of purple glitter. Grunting with the effort, he hits one, two, three more. Five. Six. Seven. The troops before and behind him move away, temporarily quelled.

I can fight. I can. Whatever's happening, it doesn't matter.

Fakir raises his voice. "I will no longer be afraid."

In the lull, he paces forward, waving his sword emphatically. "Give Mytho back, you crow."

Kraehe does not seem to be impressed. She only says, "I won't," and something in her voice inspires Fakir to look down.

Fakir was standing on solid ground a moment ago. Now it's water. SPLASH.

[reallyaduck]

"FAKIR!" Tutu shrieks, and leans forward over the swords of the raven guards. Why can't she move?

(The princess doesn't rescue the knight, silly duck.

The princess doesn't even rescue the prince.

The princess is not an agent; she's a tragedy.)

[fairytaleknight]

Fakir fights his way to the surface of the lake, gasping and coughing. I will not fail yet.

I will not fail at all.

A circle of ravens surrounds Fakir, slashing at him until the water is red with his blood. He strikes back, stepping forward with every strike, until at last Fakir reaches the island where Kraehe waits.

Fakir's bent over and can barely stand. His shirt's so torn that it hardly covers him. But he says, breathless, "Well..then. It looks like my body's still in one piece, huh?"

Fakir raises Lohengrin's sword for the last time.

Kraehe is saying something scornful, about how Fakir's too weak to be able to hurt her. Fakir only smiles, exhausted and triumphant. Oh, I have a better plan than that.

"Mytho," he gasps, "forgive me."

As the two princesses watch him in horror, Fakir swings Lohengrin's sword to meet the Prince's sword, and shears off the other blade halfway down. Mytho's hand loosens on the hilt, and the sword is only two swans, flying away into the roof of the cavern and vanishing in glowing light.

Fakir doesn't watch them go. He only sees Mytho, who is standing, his head bowed, his golden eyes empty of thought. Fakir whispers, the love bare in his voice at last, "Now you won't be able to go and senselessly shatter that heartshard."

That's it. Fakir's spent his last energy. All the pain he was ignoring hits him at once, and he can do nothing but let himself fall backward.

No, wait, Fakir has just a little more breath. "Princess...Tutu," he manages. "You must...see to Mytho's future."

It's enough. Fakir falls, and the water of the lake swallows him.