A/N: Cliff hangers are annoying, aren't they? Well, looks like I'm coming back a little early with a new chapter! Here you go! Thanks to BlueForestAngelCat and James Birdsong once again for reviewing. :)
Disclaimer: I don't own Princess Tutu.
Princess Tutu
Hour of the Swan
Act 3:
"Mysterious Silence" The Girl Knight
"The Mirror Shard of Hate," answered a voice from above. "I think I'll take that, Princess Tutu."
The redhead turned her head to the source of the voice. A girl wearing a red skin tight dress stood behind her. Her dark red cape billowed behind her and a red had covered her long brown hair and shadowing her piercing purple eyes. On her waist was a black belt holding a fencing style sword. A pendant with a star-shaped dark pink gem embedded in it hung around her neck. The red figure pulled out her sword and rushed in.
Princess Tutu pulled her fan out and used it to block the blade. One moment later, Princess Tutu's and the new comer's necklaces glowed. The girl's eyes flew towards the ballerina's necklace and her eyes narrowed, growling. "You have a special part in this story, too?" she asked annoyed. She jumped back a little and snatched the glowing glass shard.
"Who are you?" asked Princess Tutu, holding her fan at the ready if she needed to protect herself and Monet from the sword. "Why are you attacking me and why do you want that 'Mirror Shard'?"
The girl pointed her sword at her and narrowed her eyes. "I am Silence," she answered. "I fight you for the Mirror Shards, Tutu, because that is my role in the story."
"The story? Is Drosselmeyer writing it?" Princess Tutu asked. "If he is, you can defy the story! It'll only end for tragedy for all of us. I know you don't want it."
Silence gave her a questioning look. "Drosselmeyer? Are you trying to distract me, Tutu?" The red knight shook her head in annoyance before pouncing. "Give me your necklace!"
Princess Tutu held up her fan to protect herself but Silence anticipated this and knocked it out of her hands and held the blade close to her throat. The ballerina froze, unsure what to do. The tip of the sword hovered only an inch from her throat and fear grasped her.
Suddenly, a new cry caught the attention of the two. Turning towards the new comers, they saw that it was a white haired boy holding a sword in front of him and a dark haired girl standing only a few feet behind him. "Mytho," whispered Princess Tutu thankfully. Her heart slightly ached. "Rue."
"Get away from Tutu," Mytho said. "Fight me."
Silence eyed both of them and glared at Rue. The princess slightly flinched, recognizing Silence. She's the one who sent the ravens at me, she thought. Ahiru must have something to do with the story that she was talking about in Mytho's kingdom.
Silence turned towards the silver haired prince. "Fine," she answered, jumping towards the prince and the two began clanging their swords against each other. Attacks were blocked and thrown back. While this happened, Rue snuck around them to check up on Princess Tutu. "Ahiru, are you okay?" she inquired.
Princess Tutu nodded. "I don't know about Miss Monet, though," the ballerina answered, getting to her feet before looking towards the battle. Princess Tutu frowned. Forever, she had a problem with people fighting. Turning towards Rue, she said, "Watch over her please, Rue." Without waiting for an answer, Princess Tutu leaped towards the two. When she landed only a yard away from them, she twirling on her toes. Flowers around her began to spout out from under her and created two pillars, drawing the two combatants away from each other.
"Tutu?" asked Mytho, looking down at her in surprise.
Silence groaned as she glared daggers at the ballerina as she kept spinning. Finally coming to a stop, she bowed and looked up at the two. "You don't have to fight, Silence," she said, standing up straight. She twirled her hands above her head and held out her hand towards the red knight.
Silence waved her hand in front of her in refusal. "Fine, one is all I need," the knight declared. "Next time we meet, though, your necklace is mine. So is my role in this story." With that, she whipped her cape around her and disappeared.
The flower pillars gently lowered themselves and Mytho stepped off, sheathing his sword. He walked over to the ballerina and bowed his head. "Ahiru," Mytho greeted her.
Princess Tutu looked at him in surprise but bowed her head all the same. "Mytho," she greeted back. The redhead wondered how long he had known. He probably figured it out after the battle, she reasoned. That's just like Mytho. The same one I love. Princess Tutu turned back into Ahiru, confirming what he had known. They went to join the unconscious artist and Rue. "I'm glad you're both here," she said happily. "And you came just in time. Thank you for helping me."
Mytho smiled at his friend and Ahiru looked down. Rue broke the pleasant silences. "You were able to turn into Princess Tutu, that means that a new story had begun, doesn't it? Do you or Fakir know anything about it?" she asked. "Where is Fakir anyway?"
"Fakir's back at the dormitory," Ahiru answered. At that moment, Monet began to stir. Blinking, she sat up and looked around.
"Ah! Miss Monet!" exclaimed the redhead. "You're okay! We've been worried."
The artist looked around curiously. "Where is that giant swan?" she asked. "Why do I feel different?" Snapping out of her thoughts, she noticed Rue and Mytho. "AH! L-Lady Rue! S-Sir Mytho! What are you doing here?"
They quickly explained that they had found her just when a great swan flew away. "I remembered that she said, 'I hope you can create beautiful art from now on.'" Ahiru added.
"It's late," stated Mytho. "What were you doing out here this late?"
Monet looked down shamefacedly. "How about we all head back to the dorms?" suggested Rue, getting up.
~X~*~X~
Deciding to meet at Charon's place, Mytho went to fetch Fakir and the girls went to Charon's place. When Mytho found him in his room, Fakir had head in his hands and was rubbing his right eye. Alerted to the creaking of the opening door, the dark haired boy looked up to see his old friend. He only gave him a surprised look but quickly set aside as he rubbed his eye. "Hey, Mytho," was all the boy said in greeting.
"Hello Fakir," the prince said in response. "What's wrong with your eye?"
Fakir stopped trying to calm his irritated eye and turned back to his friend. "Something's in it, that's all," he answered. "So, what are you doing here so early?"
"Ah! That's right," Mytho said. "Rue and Ahiru are waiting at Charon's for us." Mytho quickly explained what had taken place earlier.
Startled by what the boy relayed to him, Fakir jumped up and rushed passed him before he could finish. Blinking for two seconds, Mytho registered that Fakir had rushed past him and the boy ran after him.
That idiot, Fakir thought to himself as he rushed to his adopted father's house. Why didn't she tell me what she was doing? Worry was in his eyes.
Slamming the door open, he shouted, "Ahiru!" He found Rue, Ahiru, and Charon were in the kitchen, sipping tea from hot mugs. Seeing that the redhead was all right, he sighed to himself. Mytho had finally caught up to him just as the teen had walked in to the house and gave Ahiru a hard look. "Don't go off on your own like that, idiot! What were you thinking?" he demanded, a little too harshly. He then added, "I was worried that something happened when Mytho told me what happened."
"Fakir, I thought I could do something," Ahiru answered, noticing the pain in his eyes. "I was able to, even! I turned into Princess Tutu!"
Fakir paid no mind to this. "Don't do it again," he said. "Tell me before you go off on your own."
Ahiru inflated her cheeks in annoyance. "I'm not a little girl," she argued but the two dropped it. "Besides, I'm fine."
Charon pulled out a cup of tea for his son. "How about you take a breather?" suggested the blacksmith. "They have something to explain, from what I hear. I'll be in the back if you need anything." With that, he left the kids in the room alone.
Mytho sat down next to Rue and took the cup of tea that Fakir denied. "A story has begun," Fakir said, cutting to the chase.
Rue nodded. "We know," she said before narrowing her eyes at Fakir. "Do you know anything about it?"
Ahiru noticed the tension between her and Fakir. "He didn't write it," she said, defending the older boy. "Drosselmeyer has something to do with it. He gave me this pendant that allowed me to turn into a girl and Princess Tutu."
"Drosselmeyer?" asked Mytho suddenly. "How could he be writing the story? Isn't the machine destroyed?"
Fakir nodded. "I checked yesterday and it was still in ruins, untouched."
"If that's the case, then who's writing it?" asked Rue. "Maybe there's another machine that Drosselmeyer is using to write the story?"
"If that's so, then why didn't he use it before now?" Fakir pointed out, raising a critical eyebrow.
"I don't know," Rue answered, a bit frustrated.
Mytho decided to cut in. "Maybe someone else could be writing it but we don't know," he said. "For now, what do we know about the story? It centers around Rue and Ahiru as Princess Tutu."
"And that red knight named Silence and something called the 'Mirror Shards'," added Ahiru. She paused, trying to piece everything together. "Maybe Drosselmeyer has something to do with the story? He was the one who gave me the pendant and said that the story was out of his hands."
"The question is: if Drosselmeyer isn't writing the story, who is? What kind of ending do they have planned for us?" asked Rue, taking a sip of her tea before setting it back on the table. "What kind of roles do we play in this story?"
"Who knows," Ahiru answered, suddenly standing up and the chair clanged behind her. "We may know nothing about our new story but one thing I do know is that we will fight any unhappy endings that await us, just like we had done before!" The other three nodded. They refused to disappear.
With that, they had finished up their discussion and found that it had gotten late. Deciding to turn in for bed, they stayed at Charon's house instead of heading towards the dorms.
~X~*~X~
Drosselmeyer cackled to himself as he watched the story unfold in the gear. "Oh my, what mystery and drama is unfolding! Oh, little duck, little prince, little princess, little knight, how do you expect to fight something you don't even know how it's going to end? I do hope that this unfolds into a beautiful tragedy much like my older works and Shakespeare's work."
While the writer was going on about drama and praising whoever the benefactor was, Uzura crept away towards the "loophole in time" so she could sneak away to see her friends. This time, she managed to get to the grandfather clock and got through it, appearing in a deserted street outside of a library. It was almost morning, so little Uzura began walking off, banging her drum, to find Fakir or Ahiru.
~X~*~X~
The next day was a free day for the ballet school children. Deciding it would be a good idea to check on Monet, Ahiru headed out alone while Mytho, Rue, and Fakir went to the library to search for Autor and any possibility of what the story they were in could end up as. Ahiru had never been good at research and decided that it would be a good idea to try to find pieces of whatever those 'Mirror Shards' were. Maybe she could find whoever Silence was and find out about her motives but she knew Fakir would shake his head and scold her for thinking like that.
Ahiru made a face and thought, He can be overprotective sometimes. When she thought of Fakir, two feelings welled up inside her. She knew both of them. Gratefulness for him staying with her when she was a duck and caring about her enough to be overprotective and concern. Fakir had been acting strangely ever since she had gotten the pendant. Maybe it was affecting him somehow? She frowned. Maybe it was something else? A third feeling rose in her gut. Puzzling over this one, she hadn't expected anyone to try to grab her attention.
The loud bang of a drum and a shout of "Ahiru" startled the girl so bad that she quacked in response. In a sparkle of gold and orange, she turned into a duck and quacked as she tried getting out of her clothes and figured out who had startled her so badly. "Oh, zura! Ahiru still is able to turn into a duck, zura," observed the voice of Uzura, bending down to see the duck get out of her clothes. The little puppet girl ran off to find water to pour of Ahiru.
Ahiru quickly began to gather her clothes up before the girl could pour the water on her head and have her turn back into a naked human in the middle of the street. She began running off down the street. Finally, thinking that she had most likely lost Uzura, Ahiru gave out a sigh. Man, that was close.
Her peace was quickly shattered when the call of several young street boys came from behind her. Looking over her shoulder, the duck saw that three young boys had appeared behind her. "Oh, a duck," grinned one. His front teeth had been missing. The other adjusted his hat.
"My Mama makes the best roast duck," he commented. "Maybe we could use this one."
Ahiru quacked in fear. R-roast d-d-duck?
"What about that strange necklace?" asked the third boy, pointing to the heart necklace around Ahiru's neck. He reached to take it but Ahiru struggled to keep it on her neck.
No! Leave me alone! Help! Fakir! Rue! Mytho! Someone! Ahiru quacked as she struggled to get her necklace back from the boy before another picked her up by the foot. "We have to kill it first before we can have your mother fix it for dinner," stated the boy with missing teeth.
Ahiru fought her best to be released but it wasn't doing any good. Help! she quacked, tears rolling down her eyes. Is this my ending?
"Hey, brats!" shouted a voice of a girl. "Let that duck go!" A girl that bore a striking resemblance to the red knight Silence ran up to the group, holding her shopping bag at the ready to smack them.
The boys, not wanting to cause any trouble, dropped the necklace and the duck in fear and ran off. Ahiru quacked as she landed on the ground. Sore form the landing, she rubbed her aching butt but was relieved that she wasn't going to be anyone's dinner. Ahiru went to pick up the necklace and her clothes. After she finished tying the clothes around her neck, she turned towards the girl and gave her a quack of thanks.
The girl had a hard expression. She raised an eyebrow. "A duck stealing clothes and a necklace?" she asked. "How did you get those things?" Bending down to scoop up the duck, she began walking. "Disgusting," she muttered. "I hate them all. I'm glad I'm able to turn into Silence and collect all those shards. One day, every one of them will get what's coming to them."
Ahiru heard all of this. She quacked in response. The girl looked towards the duck. "Ducks don't talk, so I know you knowing won't be bad," she said. "You most likely can agree with me. How many people go duck hunting and kill your kin for dinner." Finally stopping at the park, she put the duck down. "Now, don't go off and get eaten today, got it, clumsy duck?" The girl walked off.
Ahiru hid her clothes and pendant in a bush nearby the lake. Sitting on the lake, she decided to think about what had just happened over the last hour. That girl, she said she was able to become Silence. What did she mean by "they'll get what's coming to them" and that she hated humans? What's up with her? Just who is she really?
Act 2: End.
Silence is based on a female knight from a 13th century romance called "Le Roman de Silence" by a French writer Heldris of Cornwall and her outfit was slightly inspired by The Red Whirlwind from Romeo x Juliet. An amazing anime. ^^ Sylvie/Silence has a French motif about her despite Princess Tutu's German and Russian inspirations. Oh well. Hope you enjoyed!