It had been two years. Too long since I had last seen my prince. I missed him, but he would never know it. I had been a fool, a fool who couldn't see the truth. Brash, brazen, and bold were words often associated with me back in my younger days. Now, there I stood, still bold and brazen, but brash was no longer part of my being. That had been tempered out of me with the sword that pierced my middle and scarred my soul. I understood why my best friend literally stabbed me in the back, but it didn't stop the hurt.

I stared at the dueling ring, now no more than cracked marble and ruined bells. The great, gated entry had crumbled with the destruction of the hanging palace, and the rose insignia that had once permeated every brick was now scrubbed away, no more than smudges where once beauty reigned.

The wind howled and tossed my hair about my face, and I shivered in my loneliness. Here was the place I had last seen them. Above was the last place I had left him, the one I had once loved...Loved? Past tense. I was a child then, a fool. How could I have thought that I loved him? I wanted a prince so badly that I conjured one in my mind and projected him onto that shell of a man. I ignored everyone around me, people who wanted nothing more than to protect me, even though some of them went about it the wrong way.

A flash of red interrupted my thoughts, and I turned to catch a glimpse of red rose petals, but no one else was there with me. Sighing, I walked to the center of the ring and stood in the smeared out insignia. I closed my eyes and willed time to turn back. My sword wielding hand held high, I shouted, "Grant me the power of revolution!"

The wind ceased it's moaning and my hair and clothes fell to stillness. Not a sound was heard, no leaves rustling, no dead petals crackling, no skittering beetles. Deadly calm reigned.

"What is it you want, Victor?" I opened my eyes at the smooth, yet cold tone. I knew who was speaking, but I couldn't see him.

"Touga?" Tears pricked the back of my eyes. "Where are you?"

"You won the power to revolutionize the world but neglected to used it, so now we sleep," Touga's disembodied voice whispered.

"Sleep? Then are you dead?" The question felt heavy and thick in my throat, and I felt the tears I was holding back begin to fall.

"No. We are not dead. We have never yet lived, not since the dawn of this purgatory Akio trapped us in. With him now gone, there is no one to rule us, no one to free us."

My mouth fell open. Stupid, stupid Utena! In my childishness, I had believed that unifying the split Dios would restore balance to the world. I thought my prince would be whole and my princess would be free, but I had left this place to suffer. I had assumed that with Dios healed and Anthy emancipated that everyone would be released. I was wrong.

"What must I do?"

"The Victor has the power to revolutionize the world, any world," Touga replied in a disinterested tone. "Do with it as you see fit."

I closed my eyes again. "I have been both duelist and rose bride. Surely, I can call forth my own power." Slowly, I clasped my hands to my chest and said the words of old. "Power of Dios that sleeps within me, grant me the power of revolution!" My hands tingled and my chest burned, a familiar but unnatural sensation. A searing light scattered from between my fingertips as I pulled my hands away from my core. A sword, glistening from hilt to tip emerged from my heart. Its tip threatening to pierce me through if I moved a muscle. With my arms outstretched before me and the blade pointing at my heart between my hands, I raised my wielding arm above my head and the sword flipped to point skyward. I knelt beneath the holy sword, left hand to the ground and dueling hand grasping the hilt above me.

"What dost thou require, Victor?" This was no longer Touga's voice, but Dios's.

"I will save them all," I cried and began running.

"There is no one to save. The duelists you once fought exist outside of time now. They only existed to call you out." Unlike Akio's voice, this new Dios's tone was kind but firm.

"So, these lives that were stolen by the whim of your once dreadful self are to be forever punished because they are no better than pawns?" I could feel rage building inside me as I continued to run at nothing.

"There is no point in freeing them. Akio took them hundreds of years ago from their homes and enslaved them to the realm of Ohtori."

"Are you telling me that they have never lived beyond there teens? How many lives have you forced onto them?" I rushed back to the center of the ring and stabbed the insignia. The ground began to shake.

"They've lived countless generations, never aging, never knowing, just waiting for you and your revolution. These children will never be more." There it was, the calculated harshness of Akio's heart. "But, what more could they ask than eternal youth?"

The rose insignia bolted to the sky while I rode it to who knows where. "They ask to live! Aaaaaaaaah," I shouted as I rocketed to the heavens.

The pedestal came to an abrupt halt in a diaphanous hall. Great, marble pillars glistened in crystal light, and blue shadows floated outside fifty foot high windows. "Miss Utena."

I turned at the quiet call. "Anthy?" I nearly dropped my sword. Yes, she had found me outside Ohtori. Yes, we were still friends, but why was she here?

"Don't look so confused, Utena. I am fee to go where I want. Remember? Isn't it natural for me to visit the one I love?" She smiled that docile smile at me, and I sighed. Ever calm, the only difference in Anthy's behavior after I saved her was that she acted of her own free will.

"Yes, of course..."

"I am an eternal being after all."

"Anthy...did you know the other duelists were trapped in purgatory?"

"Yes." Her face was neither apologetic nor proud. She was carefully blank as always.

"Where can I find them," I growled.

"They are not allowed release, Miss Utena."

"Darn it, Himemiya! Who released you from your punishment? Weren't you forbidden freedom, too?" I advanced on my cringing, eternal best friend and got in her face. "I hold the power of revolution, and I WILL save them!"

A slow clap resounded in the great hall, the echoes resounded hallow and infinite, overlapping until a great chorus of applause rang out.

"So, The Victor, Utena Tenjou, returns to Ohtori." From the shadows, my once prince emerged. He was more beautiful than I had ever seen him. His face was devoid the capricious callousness he had had as Akio, but it was also divested of its sickening sweetness. Before me stood a complete Dios. His dark face was passion chained in calm. His flowing lavender hair was shorn closely to his neck, and his regalia was no longer garishly opulent. Instead he wore a simple white suit and gloves.

I stepped toward the being who was once my every dream. Steeling myself for rejection, I said, "I wish to free my fellow duelists from their imprisonment."

"I still see no point in this venture, but do as you wish, Victor Tenjou"" He waved a noncommittal hand toward a corridor to my right.

"You aren't going to stop me?" I really was hesitant at his lack of interest.

"There's no need for me to interfere. The task you have before you will be difficult enough."

I looked to my friend. "Anthy?"

"I cannot help you. You must do this alone."

Alone. Always alone. I swept my sword up in a salute to both Dios and his intended and then turned my back on both of them.

The corridor had none of the grandeur of the great hall. Its only pretense was the height of its arches. No light shone, no windows peeked, and no sound swept. I felt suffocated in the darkness, but I soldiered forward. An eternity passed in the pitch blackness of the hall, but I refused to cringe along the wall, looking for the exit. At long last, a pin prick of light appeared ahead of me. I sprinted toward it, shoes clicking on the marble floor. The light never got brighter or larger, but stayed steadily the same.

Bang!

I fell backward and brought my free hand to my nose. "Ow!" I rubbed my sore nose and buttocks and blinked my eyes a few times, trying to figure out what had happened. Blackness still surrounded me, but something was swimming in my field of vision. "That light!" I reached for the small light, and my fingers brushed wood. I rose slowly and brushed my hands along the surface I had run into. "A door?" The tiny light still shone in the same spot, so I stooped to look closer. I put my eye to the prick of light and realized it was a keyhole. Running my hands over the entire door, I could find no handle. I pushed it, but it didn't swing inward.

In a bit of a fix, I drew my sword and began hacking at the timber. Wood chips flew by my face in the dark, and I began to sweat from exertion. After several minutes, I sheathed my blade and backed up several feet. Lowering my left shoulder, I took a running start and barreled into the weakened door. Nothing. I backed up again, this time farther. I gathered more speed. Crack! I felt the timber weaken, but still nothing. I backtracked even farther and prepared myself for the pain. Clenching my teeth, I sprinted at the door and threw myself against it. Crash! Slice! Groan. The door yielded, and I found myself in a room with a dais. Upon the dais sat five coffins, each with a colored rose emblazoned on the top.

Blue, Miki; Yellow, Nanami; Orange, Juri; Green, Saonji; and, Red, "Touga," I whispered his name as I approached his prison.

The scene reminded me of my parents' funeral. Before Dios had appeared, two boys had wandered into the church where I was hiding in a casket, begging death to take me. I now wondered if Touga was doing the same in his coffin…begging for the end. The irony was not lost on me that once Touga had attempted to save me from my misery and now I was trying to save him from his.

I placed my hand on his coffin to remove the lid, but a bolt of electricity shot me backward. I laid on the other side of the room, the ends of my hair singed, my face bruised, and my arms and legs cut from breaking down the door. I don't know how long I was knocked out; but when I came to, I decided on another plan of action.

My sword had flown from my grip when the casket shocked me. I stared dazedly about the chamber. There! The blade was lodged in a pillar near the door. It was too high for me to reach easily, so I tried to scramble up the post lumberjack style. When that didn't work, I rushed at the column and ran up its side. I yanked on the hilt just as I lost momentum and fell to the floor, sword in hand.

"If I didn't know better, I'd say this castle was trying to kill me." I paused. That was it. Dios and Anthy may not have tried to stop me, but the castle had a will of its own. Victor or no, I realized I had to battle the building. The weirdness of the situation was disorienting, but visions of living cars, moving desks, and flying debris assaulted my memory. "So, that wasn't entirely Dios, Akio, or even Mikage. The castle was trying to keep me out." As if to confirm my hypothesis, light beamed from the seams in the five coffins. Each casket shone its owner's heraldic colors. My eyes squinted against the rainbow in the room, but it grew ever brighter. I felt my retinas begin to cease functioning as the swirl of color imprinted itself on my inner eye. "Stop!" The rainbow disappeared, and all was dim yet again.

I stumbled forward in my half-blinded stated, and experimentally tapped the tip of my sword in the seam of Touga's coffin. Nothing. I tapped it again. No reaction. "It is a mythical sword, after all," I smirked to myself. I wedged my steel under the lid and began to find purchase. As I worked, the light from Touga's casket began to shine again, and a dull hum sang beneath my feet. I had a sinking feeling that I might not leave the room alive, but I refused to give up. "Toooooougaaaa!" As I shouted, flames sprang to life beneath the lid and at the base of the dais. The flames slithered along the platform's base and licked at my sword from the coffin's interior. My fingers were seared as my blade picked up the heat running up its length. My skin was bubbling and blistering from being too close to the fire, but I would rather have died there than have left him to eternal suffering.

With a last effort, I rammed the Sword of Dios into the seams of the casket, and jumped on the hilt. The lid slid painfully to the ground, and fire burst forth. I glared at the flames licking at Touga's body, wondering how he was still whole and untouched by the heat. Just when I could stand the fire no longer, Touga's eyes snapped open and the flames sputtered out.

I gasped when he trained his gaze on my own. He began to stir upon his pillow, and I watched in awe as his ruby hair slid across his brow. A small, knowing smirk graced Touga's mouth as he began to rise. I backed up to make way for him, but let out a squeak when he hit a barrier, unable to sit up. His eyes widened, but he tried again with the same result. He brought his hands level with his face and felt for the barrier. When his fingers made contact, an iridescent pulse rippled the length of the coffin's opening. He began to push against the force field with only a slight give in the barrier. Frustrated, he began beating his fists against his clear cell while I tried stabbing at it with my sword tip.

After a few angry moments, Touga let loose a wail that threatened to break my ear drums and my heart. I placed my hands above Touga's and cried with him. "I will get you out, Touga." One of my tears slipped from my cheek to the barrier below. To my surprise, it went straight through the force field and fell on Touga's chin! He blinked twice in shock and reached a hand up to his face. Carefully, Touga brushed a finger over the little drop and brought it to his eyes. He looked at his damp finger and smiled that devastating grin that had all the girls of Ohtori screaming his name. I went slack jawed when he brought his hand back down to his mouth and kissed my tear away.

"I still love you, Utena Tenjou." That confession lit a fire under me that made the living flames from earlier look paltry.

"I'm sorry I didn't recognize you for who you are, Touga. You were always my prince." Our hands strained to touch each other through the barrier as I leaned over him again and lowered my head. Just when I thought my face should hit a hard surface, I realized nothing was stopping me. When Touga noticed I had not been prevented, he raised his face to meet mine. Our first true kiss was bitter sweet, filled with the regret of lost time. I felt his sorrow in letting me go to Akio, and I felt my own for allowing my prejudice to blind me. However, the promise outweighed the regret. This was a vow, a vow to aide and not hinder.

As the kiss deepened, I felt Touga's arms encircle my waist and shoulders, and immediately I began to worry. He wasn't rising from his place. 'He's pulling me down!' I tried to break the kiss, but Touga attacked me more aggressively, tugging me to lay next to him. The further down he pulled me, the more of the barrier I felt seal around me. My sword hand was still free from the casket, just above Touga and my heads. I carefully lifted the hilt and hit the barrier. While the force field didn't break, the sword sent a large enough jolt through it to allow me a moment to break free of Touga's grip.

Panting and heaving, I turned back to the coffin. The man inside was not Touga. A shadow being lay there, grinning a cavernous smile. "Not who you were looking for, sweetheart? Pity. Eternity would have been fun with you around. Haha."

I let out a war cry as I swung downward on the casket, little caring for the pain I might be rewarded. The Sword of Dios slid through it completely this time, and the shadow's laughter dissipated into dust. I approached the other four coffins in turn, carefully prying the lids off as before. "They're all shadows." Each casket held a blackened body that whispered inviting and mocking words to me. Disgusted, I dispatched with them all.

I paced the room like a caged cat. "The splintered door leads only to the empty corridor. Where are they?"

There was no sunlight, only the same dim light as before. I couldn't feel the passage of time as I sat on the floor opposite the dais, staring blankly at the empty space that had held Touga's shadow. I eventually curled into a ball and fell into a restless sleep with dreams of trapped duelists screaming for reprieve.

"Utena, don't sleep!"

I awoke with a start, and felt shadows scurry away from me. An eery feeling overcame me, and I knew I wasn't safe in that room. I ran through the dim light back to the platform and began feeling the ornate wall behind the dais. With a slight click, a panel shifted, and I felt a puff of ancient air hit my face. A yawning opening led to descending stairs. I turned back for a moment, but as I did I saw the shadows rush at me. I pushed the panel shut behind me and raced down the stairs at an alarming speed.

Again, not a single door was found in this passageway. Again, no light. The stairs were even, but narrow, so while I could rely on them to come at regular heights and intervals, I could trust my feet to always land on one. I edged down the winding staircase and begged it to come to an end. Finally, after an hour of descent, my foot slammed into the floor. I felt around for a door or continuation in the passage, but found none. "A dead end." I crumpled onto the lowest step and wrapped my hands around my knees. "Think, Tenjou," I coached myself. A thought occurred to me, and I began tapping for loose masonry. To my great luck, a stone gave way to reveal what felt like a key.

I held the key in both hands like a lifeline. It was my hope, and I raised it to my lips and kissed it in thanks. The foot of the key shone for a moment and then spluttered dark. A split second later, the key emitted a full beam of light that formed a huge, perfect circle on the wall. I tried to advance forward while holding the key, but it wouldn't move, so I experimentally let go of it. "Figures it would float." The circle of light began to heat and burn the wall as I approached it. I held out my hands before me and forced myself to keep walking. Instead of hitting a burning wall, I passed through a portal.

Completely white. Walls, floor, ceiling, and furniture- all were a blindingly pure white. I took an unsure step into the purity and noticed that my dirty footprints were being absorbed into the floor. "Odd." I stepped again, and again my steps were erased. It was like the room as trying to remove all traces of me.

"You shouldn't have come." Five beams of color shot from the ceiling in front of me. In each beam stood its respective owner. Juri was the one who had spoken.

"What?" I stared at them.

"Always so forceful," Miki replied to Juri. "Miss Tenjou, you are in danger. Leave."

"I've come to free you. I'm not going to stop because I might get hurt."

"We can see that," Touga replied while eyeing me up and down. Despite the two years since I last saw him, that look still made me nervous, and I flushed even though I knew he was looking at my burns and cuts. "You may want to free us, but you will only end up trapped yourself. I don't want that, and neither do the others. Go now." Touga pointed forcefully at the opposite wall and another portal appeared, one that opened onto the dueling grounds.

"Nonsense. As you said, I'm The Victor! If I'm not mistaken, I can revolutionize any world, and so I choose to revolutionize yours."

"Big brother, just let her try," the clingy Nanami wheedled. "If nothing else, at least, we'll never see her again."

"Don't be a fool Touga," Saonji's harsh voice cut in. "She'll die, and so will we."

"Thanks for the concert, Saonji, but I'll make my own choices," I chuckled.

The other four duelists looked at Touga as he thought it over. He looked at me as he thrummed in his chest, and I could see the concern in his eyes. "Very well. If she beat End of the World, she can free us, too. But I warn you, Utena Tenjou, it won't be easy."

"I never asked for it to be." With that, the portal disappeared and all five lights went out. I waited in the stillness, breathing carefully to conserve my energy for whatever was coming. I didn't expect arms to encircle me from behind or for an all too familiar voice to whisper my name. "Utena, you came back to me."

I whirled out of his embrace and brandished my sword at my enemy, my feigned love. "Akio!"

"Missed me bad, huh?" He flipped his ponytail behind his shoulder and advanced on me.

"I healed you. Why aren't you with Anthy?" My voice was shaking. He was all my fears, all my longings, and he was supposed to be gone.

"Silly, Utena, to think that I could ever be fully attached to my other half after growing so strong without him." He walked directly to my sword point and put his palm to it. He leaned over me as he raised the blade's tip into the air with his palm. "And, Anthy?" He smiled that seductive smile that had once mesmerized me. "How could someone who satisfied my other self satisfy me?" He grasped the blade as he wrapped his free arm around me and began lowering his lips to mine.

For a moment, I wanted to give into his charms, to forget the heartbreak. Then, I remembered what he did to Anthy, to me, to the duelists. The pain rushed back to me, and I flicked the blade against his hand and swung it over my head. "You will not get the best of this time, Akio!" I lopped of his hand at the wrist and waited for his scream.

Nothing.

A second later, I heard a snicker. Then a chuckle. I stared at the strange, eternal being as he laughed loudly at his missing hand and at me. With a flourish, he summoned a sword from mid air and grew his hand back simultaneously.

"Very well, Victor. En garde!"

He lunged, and I parried. I feinted, but he anticipated. I had spent the last two years of my life studying and practicing for the day I would return to Ohtori, but I hadn't expected to be fencing Akio ever again. We battled for thirty minutes, neither of us showing fatigue. It was all up to mental agility. As before, Akio's defense and offense were impeccable with no openings for me to exploit. I, on the other hand, was still too bold in my moves. I lunged at an in opportune moment, and Akio sliced at my heel, cutting my ankle wide open. He didn't leave me a moment to recover, but was on me in a trice. He disarmed me, and brought his blade to my throat. "Do you still wish to see this through," he whispered. "You remember what happened the last time." Akio leaned down to stare into my eyes.

"I seem to recall beating you at your own game," I yelled as I grabbed the blade and forced it above my head. I kicked his crotch and then his jugular as he fell. My hands now bloodied nubs, I picked up his sword with both and said, "I tried to free you, but you insisted on ending it this way."

"How will you explain to Anthy?" His smile was wicked, like he had hit on the only thing that would make me squirm, regret.

"I'll figure it out later," I rasped as I plunged the sword through his heart.

As Akio sank to the floor, the room began to crumble. I fell, fell straight through the floor. My blood looked like red rain around my hands. I tried not to go into shock, tried to keep my mind clear, but it didn't work. The five lights surrounded me in my confused state, and I felt the red light envelope me. I felt secure, like I was being cradled in someone's arms. Though, it couldn't have been. A cooling sensation washed over my cuts and bruises, my mutilated hands, and even my broken heart, and I felt all of my wounds begin to repair.

I opened my eyes when the pain subsided, and realized I really was in Touga's arms. The other four duelists surrounded us.

"Miss Tenjou," Miki queried.

I batted my eyelashes, trying to take in my surroundings. We weren't in the castle; We weren't in the fencing ring; We weren't even standing on Ohtori ground. All six of us stood in a rose garden I was quite familiar with, a garden I used to walk in as a child.

"Thank you, Utena." I looked up at the one who spoke. His clear, blue eyes wavered before he said, "This time, you were our prince."

It had been six months since the duelists had gained their freedom at my hands. Each had found a place in society. Miki was in college on full scholarship in Europe. Juri moved to France to live the fashionable life of a model. Having never been one for quiet living, Saonji joined a competitive kendo team and was training for the Olympics. Nanami was trying to finish her second year of high school. Touga put aside thoughts of college. "I've had enough school for twenty lifetimes." Instead, he opened a start-up fencing school.

Today, he was having demonstrations for new students. "Up next, my favorite pupil."

I marched onto the floor, rapier at the ready. "Please remember, Miss Tenjou, that fencing and our old duels run on different rules." The students snickered.

The teacher and I saluted each other and faced off. "Don't forget who always wins, Touga dear."

"I do recall having beat you before."

"Once. Just once."

The match lasted for fifteen minutes and ended with Touga taking the lead in points.

In the locker room, we stopped to chat. "Thanks for giving me that one, Utena." Touga leaned above me against the lockers.

"I did no such thing. You know I wouldn't give you anything." Touga smirked at that.

"I'm afraid you're right. You haven't given me so much as a date since we got back." He reached for a lock of my pink hair and toyed with it.

"Stop that. You know I can't stand it when you do that." I batted his hand away and tried to sidestep him.

"Then maybe I should try this." Touga grabbed my chin and lowered his mouth to my own. I resisted, plagued by the casket kiss with the shadow. He pulled back and sighed. "Utena, why are you still fighting me?"

I raised my eyes to his and searched their depths. I saw no trick. He wasn't trying to manipulate me like he had at Ohtori. He was just a man now, a man who seemed in love. I smiled carefully at my prince and drew his face toward my own.

"I can't promise I won't fight you. I can't promise I won't try to do my own thing. But, I will promise to protect you," I said with all the sincerity within me.

"I never would have thought I'd end up with a prince," Touga chuckled as he closed the remaining space between our lips.