Ehh, here is the final part of episode five. I can't say I'm happy with this one. I shouldn't have changed my plan for the episode just because I had an idea. Oh well, here's hoping I can do better with episode six. Next episode will be a Suigintou and Megu centric story, with some Bara x Kira stuff thrown in as well. I should be picking up the Pandora plot thread by episode seven.

Rozen Maiden: Märchen

EPISODE 5

Maid of Honour

She remembered the first time they'd met. She was at her father's doll shop, sulking because he wasn't paying her any attention. He hadn't been ever since he'd returned from his trip to that German town - what was the name again? Lebensbaum. That was it. Apparently he'd found designs for a doll made by Master Rozen, and was using them to create a new doll of his own.

So she'd sulked. Her father was pouring all of his love and attention into making his new, perfect doll, and ignoring her in the process. Shirosaki had said it'd mean she'd have a sister, but to Kohaku, it felt more like she was being replaced. She wasn't good enough to play that stupid Alice Game, so Father was making a doll that would be.

Occasionally customers would come in, and she'd have to pretend to be just a normal, lifeless doll. Given her sullen state of mind at the time, that wasn't difficult. And then around late afternoon, she came.

Eiko.

"Back again I see," Shirosaki had said. She remembered the words as if it were yesterday. Apparently this schoolgirl had been to the shop before, but Kohaku had never seen her. She was by herself. Kohaku thought she looked kind of quirky, what with her thick spiky black hair.

"Oh! You have a new one!" Eiko had squealed with delight and made straight for Kohaku, who was sitting on the counter with her legs dangling over the edge. She didn't move an inch as the girl leaned close to examine her, with such a look of wonder in her wide eyes. She giggled with glee. "This one is so cute! Isn't she just adorable?"

"That one's not for sale. Master Enju made her especially."

The look in her eyes was replaced with disappointment. She tilted her head to one side, as if noticing something odd. "That's a shame. She looks kinda sad ... like she could use some company," and then she muttered under her breath, so low that only Kohaku could hear, "I know how you feel."

"Hmm, you know, I think you may be right," Shirosaki peered at Kohaku, who itched to move. "I certainly get the feeling this doll could use a friend. What do you think? Are you up for the job?"

Kohaku turned her head slightly in his direction, but Eiko missed this because she had done the same. She gaped at the shopkeeper. "But you just said..."

"Well, to be honest Master Enju is busy with a new project at the moment. I'm worried little Kohaku here will just be left to gather dust on a shelf somewhere. We wouldn't want that, would we now?"

Eiko's face had lit up like a Christmas tree at the prospect of being able to take the doll home with her. She clasped her hands together and beamed at Kohaku with such enthusiasm that she looked for all the world like a cute puppy dog. "Oh wow, that would be so neat! Kohaku, was that your name? I like that. Well Kohaku, would you like to come and live with me?"

"That would be acceptable," Kohaku replied. The look on Eiko's face was so worth it.

Now, in the present, she looked into the same face. Or rather, the face of the same person. The face had changed over the years, and evidently so had the person. There in the picture beside her was her husband. That Sakurada boy, all grown up. And their two children, Nori and Jun. Children. Children. Kohaku's grip on the picture frame tightened. In a moment of blind rage she hurled the thing across the attic. It hit an old table lamp and knocked it over, shattering both the lamp and the glass in the picture frame.

"Such behaviour is highly inappropriate," observed Shinku, still trapped in her cage. She fixed Kohaku with her cool blue gaze, as if scolding her captor. "One should not treat another's possessions with such disregard."

"My, aren't we a well-mannered little doll," Kohaku sneered. She strode over to the captive Rozen Maiden, her hands resting on her hips. She stopped in front of the cage and met Shinku's gaze with her own. "I would have thought you of all people would understand."

"I cannot say that I do."

"No? So you can look me in the eye and tell me that you don't resent that girl there?" She pointed across the room to where Tomoe sat, her wrists and ankles bound with shackles and chained to the floor. Tomoe looked over at them, yet said nothing. Shinku regarded Tomoe for a moment.

"I haven't the faintest idea what you mean," she said. Kohaku lowered her arm.

"Oh I think you do. You and I are the same. We both love our Masters very much, and our Masters told us that they loved us dearly. Did your Master not profess his love to you? Swore to stay by your side for as long as he lived?"

Shinku didn't answer, but Kohaku could tell she was right by the strength of her silence. She chuckled, though there was no humour in it. "That's right. You know exactly what I mean. Well, lady Shinku, take a good long look," she took a step back from the cage and presented herself with a flourish, "Do you like what you see?"

"Should I?"

"No, not really. But get used to it, because what you're looking at is your own future. Give it a few years, perhaps less, and your Master will abandon you for that girl over there. Just as my Master abandoned me for that human runt."

Shinku tightened her grip on the bars of her cage, her face a mask of self-assured confidence. "Jun would never do such a thing."

Kohaku laughed at her, a cold harsh laugh that didn't seem to belong to her. "And why not? Because he promised? He's a human, and human promises carry less weight than sunlight. Not only that, he's the son of my Master. The apple doesn't fall far from the tree, as they say."

And there it was, the first hint of doubt that showed on her previously resolute face. There was still confidence there, Kohaku saw. Misplaced though it was. Shinku shook her head. "No, you're wrong. Jun is different. He would not-"

"Wouldn't he?" Kohaku snapped, interrupting her. "He doesn't seem so different to me. He even looks like Eiko. They're cut from the same cloth. But then, all humans are. Didn't one of your previous Masters lock you in your case and leave you? And what about little miss Ichigo over there?" She pointed across at Hina's cage without even looking. The doll within flinched and tried to edge out of the way, as if afraid the pointing digit might go off and hurt her. "One of her Masters abandoned her too. It's the same old story. Yours and mine just happen to share a few more details."

Tomoe managed to get to her feet and approached Kohaku as much as her chains would allow, which was not much. Both dolls watched as she strained against her bindings.

"You've got it all wrong," she insisted, "Sakurada and I are not like that. We're friends, that's all we are. It's all we'll ever be."

Kohaku rolled her eyes. "Where have I heard that before?"

"It's true! Jun is in love with Shinku, I've never been more certain of anything in my entire life. He'd die for her, I'm sure of it."

Kohaku snorted at her and folded her arms, glancing away into the dark corners of the attic with more than a hint of spite showing through in her face. "How very romantic. I wonder if he'll still feel the same way when he's older. When he wants children," she spat the word as if it were pure venom, "When he wants to build a life. When he decides it's time to stop playing with dolls and grow up. Do you think he will still be prepared to die for his true love then? Well?"

"Why don't you ask him," said Jun.

"Jun!" Hinaichigo jumped up and pressed herself against the sides of her cage, stretching her hand out towards him. Nori got up and cried out his name as well. She strained against her own chains, to no effect, but the sight of her little brother come to rescue them all was enough that she didn't care. Kanaria struggled to say something, but the curse Kohaku had placed on her was still in full affect, and all she could do was mumble. Out of frustration she turned and grabbed Souseiseki, who had been placed in the same cage, and shook her. The Gardener doll could only protest that she couldn't understand a word she was trying to say.

Shinku regarded Jun as if all of this were no different from any other ordinary day. "Honestly now Jun, you took your time in finding us," she tutted, "If you'd thought about it at all you would have realised where we were sooner."

"Nice to see you too, Shinku. Good job getting captured by the way."

"Oh, don't blame her," said Kohaku, extending her hands as she faced off against Jun, "I can be quite a handful when I'm angry." She flailed her arms, causing a mass of writhing chains to emerge from the darkness and ensnare Suiseiseki, who had been trying to sneak up on her. She cried out in alarm as she was lifted into the air and wrapped in metal like a cocoon, before being deposited on the ground beside Tomoe and Nori.

Kohaku smirked. "Do you have a plan B?"

Jun frowned and took a step closer towards her, his posture tense yet not hostile. He hoped. "Look, I get why you're doing this. You're angry. I would be too if I were you. What my mother did was wrong."

"How big of you, but I don't need you to tell me that," she snapped, glaring at him with enough intense hatred that Jun was worried he might spontaneously combust right there. "Do you have any idea what it was like? Being shut away in a dark place, all alone. For years. Alone with nothing but my own memories of her betrayal, playing over and over in my mind. A constant reminder of my own gullibility and stupidity."

Jun scoffed at her. "It's not stupidity to fall in love with someone."

"It is when you bare your heart to that someone and they toss you away like a worthless piece of garbage!" Kohaku raged, flailing her arms some more. Jun heard movement around him in the dark, and wondered how long it would be before she decided to tear him apart. Her eyes glistened with tears that she was struggling to hold back. "She lied to me! She swore we'd be together! She told me she loved me and I was foolish enough to believe her! I trusted her, and then one day she threw everything I felt right back in my face and stuffed me away up here. Here, a graveyard of junk. Because that's all I was to her in the end; junk. Just a worthless doll that she could play with and then casually toss aside when she was bored with me."

"Yeah?" Jun snarled, "So get over it already!"

Kohaku blinked, stunned by his blunt words. "What?"

Jun shook his head. "I can't speak for my mom, so maybe you're right. Maybe she thought you were all those things. I don't know. Say she did. Do you think she was right?"

Kohaku lowered her arms, seemingly knocked sideways by his question. She cast her gaze about as if trying to find the answer to something she'd never even considered before. "I..."

"The point is you can't let what other people think of you rule your life. I spent more time than I care to remember cowering in my room because I was embarrassed by what people said about me. You had one person turn against you. I had an entire school. Hundreds of people laughing at me to my face and behind my back. It took me a long time to realize ... so what? So what if people think I'm some stupid sissy boy that sews dresses and plays with dolls. I don't have to let what they think of me decide how I should feel about myself. I'm not worthless, and I'm not about to let anyone tell me different."

Kohaku sagged, her head bowed as she stared at the floor, her arms limp at her side. "But it hurts ... even now after all this time, what she did still burns me up inside. I can't forget it. I can't forgive her. I hate her and love her at the same time. I don't know ... don't know what to do," she looked up at Jun, uncertainty clouding her eyes, her voice almost pleading with him, "What are you supposed to do when you love someone but they don't love you back? What are you supposed to do when they love someone else instead?"

Jun couldn't help but glance over at Tomoe then. She noticed and looked away, a faint blush appearing on her cheeks. He swallowed and turned his attention back to the doll before him, desperately waiting for an answer.

"You move on. You have to. You can't force someone to love you. I'm sorry Kohaku, but you lost her. You have to let her go."

Kohaku scowled and glanced over at Shinku and Tomoe. "And what about them? How can I let you go, knowing that you will hurt Shinku the same way Eiko hurt me? I wouldn't wish this pain on anyone."

Jun took another step towards her and dropped to his knees so he was more level with her. He waited until she turned back before telling her, with as much conviction as he could possibly instil in his voice; "I wont abandon Shinku the way my mom abandoned you. I'm not that kind of person. I wouldn't do something like that. I care about her too much to ever hurt her that way."

Kohaku stared at him with a sort of sad, envious look. It seemed all the fight had gone out of her. He hoped that was the case. She jabbed a thumb over her shoulder towards Shinku.

"You know she's a doll?"

"I had noticed, yeah."

"And you still want to be with her?"

"Yup. Forever and ever."

"Why?"

Jun hesitated. Because I just do was the first thing that came to mind, but he didn't think it would suffice. Because I love her was another option, and certainly true. He looked over at Shinku and smiled as he thought back over all the time they had spent together, and the way she made him feel that made him want to be with her.

"Because," he said at last, "she makes me happy. Isn't that reason enough?"

Kohaku smiled as well, though hers was more a smile of sadness and regret. She sighed. "I wish Eiko had been more like you. But then if she had been ... you wouldn't be here, and neither would your sister. Don't you ever want children yourself?"

He thought about it, and was surprised to realise that it was the first time he'd ever thought about it. It had never once occurred to him before. Children? Him? He could barely take care of himself. Heck, he was still in school. How could he know what he might want five, ten, fifteen years down the line? But ... he sort of did actually. He blinked and looked up into the air, as if seeing his own future.

"No ... I don't. But you know, there's this guy called Rozen, and he has seven daughters," Jun glanced down at his hands, opening and closing them several times, before regarding Kohaku thoughtfully, "And it just so happens I'm pretty good at making things. Maybe someday ... I might."

Shinku clasped a hand to her chest, a rose tint blossoming on her cheeks. "Jun..."

Just when Jun thought everything was settled and things might return to normal without any bloodshed, he was startled to see a violet crystal punch through the floor behind Kohaku. Barasuishou emerged from it, dressed in of all things a maid outfit. She was clutching a crystal sword in her hand and her intent was clear. Kohaku saw Jun's eyes widen and glimpsed a reflection in his glasses. She spun around just in time to be impaled through the chest by a swift thrust.

"No!" Jun cried out, but it was too late. There were numerous gasps and shouts, but it was all background noise. Seemingly oblivious, Barasuishou yanked her sword free. Kohaku dropped to her knees and clutched at the wound in her torso, her face a mixture of pain and shock at what had just happened. Jun reached forwards and took a hold of the stricken doll. "What did you do that for?"

Barasuishou frowned, puzzled. "She was holding you all prisoner."

"She was done! She was going to let everyone go! You didn't need to ... do that."

Barasuishou just stared at him, not saying a word. She might have shrugged, if she were the type to do such a thing. Jun cradled Kohaku in his arms and found himself staring down into her bright orange eyes. There was a sort of dark emptiness spreading behind them, something he'd witnessed before when he'd watched her wind down. He brushed a strand of hair from her face.

"Come on, stay with us!" Jun pleaded. It was no use, the damage was too great. She was winding down, and this time turning her key wouldn't be enough to wake her up again. He wondered for a brief moment who had wound her up tonight, but the thought fled from his mind when she reached up and touched her fingertips to his face.

"Eiko..."

Her hand dropped as she stopped completely, her eyes closing, one final juddering click heralding the end for her. The same instant, all the chains in the attic evaporated like mist in the morning sun. The cages containing the dolls sprung open, and Kanaria found she could speak again, much to the dismay of some. And then Jun noticed something - there were markings on the doll's neck. He pushed the collar of her velvet coat down to get a better look and was startled to see the word Enju written there. He gasped and stared at it for a long moment, before turning his shocked gaze on Barasuishou.

"You ... you killed your sister!" he breathed, his words cutting through the air of apathy surrounding her. He thrust Kohaku towards her so she could see. "It's his mark! I saw him put his name on all of the dolls he made! Look!"

Barasuishou saw her father's name on the now motionless doll he held, and shook her head in denial. The sword dropped from her hands and clattered to the floor, where it shattered into glittering fragments. She backed up into her own crystal pillar, which cracked as she touched it. Eyes wide, she raised shaking hands to her face but didn't quite touch it, as if afraid she might break herself if she did.

"No, it cannot ... I ... no ..."

Jun tugged the doll back and clutched her to himself, glaring at Barasuishou. "Well now I guess you know how it feels," he said, doing his best to keep the scathing anger from his voice, the rational part of his mind pointing out that she didn't know. She was just trying to help. "Now you know how they felt when you turned them against each other," he jerked his head in the direction of the Rozen Maidens, who stood around them both in shocked silence. "I just wish you didn't have to find out this way. She didn't deserve this."

He laid Kohaku's still form out before her and stood, then turned and walked away. Barasuishou took a halting step towards the doll before falling to her knees. She gazed down at her sister, a single tear rolling down her cheek from her left eye.

Jun: AAGHH! Why is my window broken again?

Suiseiseki: Don't look at me, I didn't do it this time.

Shinku: Suigintou, why are you here?

Suigintou: Because ... I need your help.

Souseiseki: You need our help?

Suiseiseki: This is her dream world? It's even worse than the runt's!

Kirakishou: Barasuishou, it's time...

Barasuishou: Time?

Jun: Next time, on Rozen Maiden: Märchen,

Suigintou: The light of truth eludes us.