I'm back! I know it's been a long while since I last updated this, but I kinda got diagnosed with a brain tumour. Good news is it didn't kill me. Bad news is I do have some health issues. As a result, updates will be erratic (ie completely random) and probably rubbish. Sorry. I have written a recap of events so if you don't feel like re-reading everything up until this point, you don't have to in order to follow what's going on. So ... here it is! I hope you enjoy this episode despite the gigantamous hiatus this story has been on.

Previously on Rozen Maiden Erdgeist

Celia, a young homeless girl with no memory, travelled to Lebensbaum in search of shelter. She soon found herself staying at the Rozen Manor, where the Rozen Maidens were having some problems of their own. They had been attacked by a group of dolls known as the Faust Maidens, created by a maestro named Wagner. The Faust Maidens had stolen the Rozen Maidens spirits, leaving them lifeless. All save Kanaria, who was absent at the time of their attack. Celia agreed to help Kanaria, and together they were able to recover the stolen artificial spirits and restore the Rozen dolls to life. Jun, who they had to awaken from a magical sleep, recognised Celia as Alice. During the initial attack, Wagner had also kidnapped Rozen, in an effort to force Rozen to disclose the location of a mythical spirit known as the Erdgeist. Wagner wanted to trade the Erdgeist for his soul, which he had sold long ago to a demon named Mephisto, in exchange for becoming a maestro. Wagner has only a limited time to make the trade before Mephisto claims his soul. In order to learn more about Celia, the Rozen Maidens enter her dream world in the hopes of examining her soul tree, only to discover that she doesn't have one. As she runs crying from the manor, she bumps into Wagner, who introduces himself.

And now the conclusion...

Rozen Maiden: Erdgeist

EPISODE 6

Faustian Bargain

Jun stood several feet away from Wagner, arms crossed, his features fixed into a scowl, whilst Celia peered out from behind him, her hands clutching the back of his tailcoat. Wagner chuckled at them.

"I was planning on speaking with the Rozen Maidens," he said. Jun didn't budge an inch.

"Not gonna happen, mister. Besides, I'm pretty sure they all wanna kill you after everything you've done. Count yourself lucky I don't just let Suigintou go to work on you."

He did not seem remotely moved by the threat. Instead he casually glanced at his pocket watch and stifled a yawn. "Very well," he said, "I will trust you to relay my proposition to them. Here is the situation as it stands - I have a little over a week left to live, after which Mephisto will claim my soul."

"Yeah, my heart bleeds," said Jun. Wagner snapped his watch shut, his expression hardening.

"I have hidden your master, Rozen, somewhere you will never find him. If I die, he will be lost forever. The only chance I - and indeed Rozen - has, is to locate a certain entity known as the Erdgeist. My efforts to convince Rozen to disclose its location have been ... unsuccessful thus far, and I am no longer certain he will talk before my time is up."

"Well then I guess you're screwed, huh?"

Wagner's face contorted into a vicious sneer. "Idiot boy! Don't you see? Unless you and your little dolls find that Erdgeist for me, you will never see your precious Rozen ever again. Is that what you want?" He spread his arms. "Then by all means, allow me to die! You can explain to the Rozen Maidens why their father is forever lost to them. I am certain they will be thrilled."

Celia frowned and forced herself to speak up. "How do you expect us to find it? What makes you think we can? If it was that easy you'd have done it yourself!"

He lowered his arms and smirked. "It so happens that my two brightest daughters have a foolproof plan to locate it. The only problem is that they lack the manpower - or perhaps I should say dollpower - to finish in the allotted time. Were you to assist them, then they would have little trouble in finding the Erdgeist. Should you wish to pursue such a wise course, you can find them in world number 73453 of the N-Field. I leave it up to you; Rozen's return in exchange for a spirit that means nothing to any of you. That sounds perfectly reasonable to me."

"A liar and a fraud, you haven't changed one bit."

They all turned to see a blond man stroll across the lawn and into the pool of light cast from the patio. He was glaring at Wagner, who was startled to see him, as was Jun.

"Enju?" said Jun. "What are you doing here?"

"Interfering, no doubt," Wagner muttered. "Stay out of this, it doesn't concern you."

Enju stopped. "The fate of the Erdgeist concerns us all. You know what it is, Wagner. Are you really so selfish as to sell out the entire world solely to save yourself?"

"That's easy for you to say, it isn't your soul on the line."

"You made your choice," said Enju, "Now you must live with the consequences. Don't force everyone else to pay for your mistakes."

Jun looked back and forth between the two of them. "Does someone want to fill me in here? Why do I get the feeling there's more going on than I've been told?"

Wagner scoffed at them. "I have said all I came to say. You have my proposition. The choice is yours." He turned and vanished into the darkness, leaving Celia feeling just as confused and bewildered as Jun.

"I so cannot take this anymore! Why are we just sitting here while the bastard that kidnapped Father is standing outside in our garden?" Suiseiseki paced back and forth, her arms crossed, visibly fuming. When Wagner had shown up, Jun had asked them all to stay inside, concerned that it could be a trap. Wagner and his Faust Maidens were certainly not above using every dirty trick in the book, and then some. Even so, waiting around like this was infuriating. Suigintou chuckled from her perch on the window seat.

"Jun was probably worried we might be tempted to shoot the proverbial messenger. Smart boy, I know I'd like to." She glanced away from the window itself to regard the assembled dolls. "Are any of you going to tell me what you found in that girl's dream world? Whatever it was, she seemed terribly upset about it."

Suiseiseki stopped pacing and exchanged a deeply worried look with her twin, but neither of them said anything. Shinku also remained silent, though her expression was clearly troubled. Suigintou saw all of this and snorted.

"My, but it warms my heart to see how we've grown as sisters. How we confide in one another. I'm sure Father would be proud."

Souseiseki sighed and closed her eyes. "Celia ... doesn't have a soul tree. She's-"

"Incomplete," Suigintou finished for her, her voice scarcely above a whisper. She turned to look back out of the window, to where she could see the girl in question hiding behind Jun as the pair confronted Maestro Wagner. "She's an incomplete version of Alice. Just like us."

"She's not a Rozen Maiden," Souseiseki pointed out.

"Then what is she?" said Shinku, her brow furrowed as she tried to puzzle out the answer herself. Suiseiseki groaned and flailed her arms.

"Who cares! I get it, she's a mystery wrapped in an enigma! Am I really the only one that realises we have a bigger problem than figuring out what the heck her deal is? In case you all forgot, Father is being held prisoner!" She stopped for a second as she recalled something, and glanced about the room, searching. "Hey, speaking of, where the heck is Kanaria? I thought she was going to actually make herself useful and track down some leads to help us find Father. So where is the big bumbling bumblehead anyways?"

"Here! Here! I'm right here, guys!" Kanaria herself announced, bursting into the room and waving her arms about so that no one could possibly miss her arrival. Suiseiseki stuck out her foot and tripped her sister up, who landed painfully on the floor and cried out. "Oww! What was that for?" She rubbed her now sore head and shot Suiseiseki a hurt look. The gardener doll struck a haughty pose, her hands on her hips.

"That's for taking so long that I almost forgot you existed. I swear, you are so completely hopeless, it boggles the mind what Father was thinking when he made you. Really, why aren't you the last Rozen Maiden? I can so totally see him giving up when he saw how worthless you are."

Kanaria sniffed, her eyes welling up just a little. "You're ... you're really mean, y'know?"

"Yes," said a familiar voice from directly behind Suiseiseki, who promptly yelped and jumped away, revealing the eerie figure of Barasuishou. Needless to say she received a less than warm welcome, as Shinku, Souseiseki and Suigintou all produced their weapons. Kanaria leapt up and waved her hands back and forth in front of her hostile sisters.

"Wait! Wait, you guys, wait! She's here to help!"

"Explain," Shinku demanded, not lowering her cane an inch. Barasuishou smiled very faintly at her.

"Hello, Shinku."

Suiseiseki shrank back from the Enju doll, pausing only to snap at Kanaria. "You blithering birdbrain! Why did you have to bring her here?"

"You are not welcome in this house," said Shinku, her tone as icy as her chilling glare. "Explain yourself this instant."

"Still so bitter, Shinku. So many years of resentment." Barasuishou looked around at each of the dolls before continuing. "Would it help if I said ... sorry?"

Suigintou laughed. "No."

"I see. Even so ... I am sorry. I betrayed you. Your anger is justified."

"You're damn right it is!" Suiseiseki snapped, clenching her hands into fists, albeit whilst standing safely behind her twin. "We took you in! We forgave you! And after everything we did for you, you turned against us!"

"Sorry doesn't cut it," said Souseiseki, slashing at the air with her shears.

Barasuishou tilted her head lightly. "Yes. But that is why I am here. I wish to help."

"Help?" said Shinku, bewildered. She nodded.

"I will help you ... to save Rozen. Perhaps then I can atone for past misdeeds."

In the silence that followed, Suiseiseki looked around at everyone in astonished disbelief. "We're not seriously considering this, are we? We so don't need her help!"

"No," said Shinku, lowering her cane, "We do not. But perhaps she does." She looked to her fellow sisters. "What say you?"

"Kana says yes!"

Suiseiseki's face practically dripped with disgust. She crossed her arms and turned her back on the Enju doll. "Forget it!"

Suigintou dismissed her sword and sighed. "I don't really care one way or the other."

Hinaichigo was asleep in her case, so that just left Souseiseki. Aware that all eyes were on her, she glanced around at everyone before marching over to Barasuishou, standing face to face with her. The Enju doll didn't flinch or back away, her expression as passive as always. After several tense seconds, Souseiseki turned and walked away.

"So is that a yes or-" Suigintou started to say, at which point Souseiseki spun around, swinging her shears in a lethal arc aimed directly at Barasuishou's neck, the move so swift that it startled everyone present. Save for Barasuishou, who didn't move an inch, or blink, or try to defend herself in the slightest. She remained perfectly motionless, her expression constant. The shears stopped just short of connecting, and for an instant everyone else held their breath. Finally Souseiseki lowered her weapon and turned away.

"If you hurt my sisters ever again, the next time won't be a test," she said, not even looking at her. "Are we clear?"

"Yes."

Suiseiseki groaned. "Well screw this, I'm going to my case! And just for the record, I think you're all making a really huge mistake, and I'm going to take this opportunity to say 'I told you so' now, just in case I can't later when everything goes completely pear shaped." She stopped on her way to the door and jabbed a finger at Barasuishou's face. "And you stay away from me, or so help me I swear I will make you wish you had never been made, you great big freak, you!"

Barasuishou pulled her eyepatch off and then leaned close to the gardener doll, a sly grin on her face. "I never forgot that kiss we shared, when you wound me. Am I still your creepy yellow-eyed thing, Suiseiseki?"

She turned bright red and looked around at everyone in a sudden panic. "W-What? What are you all looking at? That was ten years ago! And she kissed me! SHUT UP!" She stormed out of the room, her hands pressed to her scarlet cheeks. Barasuishou watched her go and clasped the eyepatch to her chest, smiling fondly.