I don't own Fable 3 or any of its characters, Lionhead Studios does. Based on the 2010 XBOX Game.

Princess/Logan

Rated M for explicit adult content and incest. Don't like, don't read!

The rating is listed as M for certain chapters, as well as the theme of incest. Also, my interpretation of Logan for this particular story may seem OOC to some readers, so be warned! Also, I will not be strictly following the plot-line of the game. There will be some changes and deviations.

King Logan and Princess Annika are becoming ever closer. Annika is determined to understand her brother and stand by him even while the entire Kingdom begins to turn against him. But how can she do that while her part in a Prophecy approaches and begins to claim her?

Come Closer

#38

"Damnation, why did this have to happen today?" Annika grumbled, smoothing her civilian skirt and tucking a stray lock of hair behind her ear. She had left Poopsie in the Sanctuary so that she could travel about unrecognised, and the common garb of a Bowerstone vendor also assisted in lending her the anonymity she desired.

She had known that this day would inevitably come sooner or later. Best to get this part of it over as quickly as possible. She hesitated on the outskirts of the Bowerstone Industrial Shelter near the garden and took one last look at the letter in her hand.

My Dearest Annika,

If you are reading this letter then Logan has taken mercy upon me and delivered it to you. Please meet me in the garden at the Shelter so that we may plan our future. I hope to the gods that it will be together, my dear one.

With love,

Elliot

But of course Logan would have gladly passed the note on to her, for his pride alone would take great pleasure in the act. Annika could not prevent the wry smile of amusement that crept to her lips. She was Logan's, and he knew quite well that she would refuse Elliot. His only regret would be that he would not be present to enjoy such a spectacle for himself.

Annika herself had mixed feelings churning about inside her. She knew that she should feel pity for Elliot, or at the very least, sorrow for their lost friendship. However, she did not save for a very little. What she did feel was a sense of loss for the sake of nostalgia. Why was her heart so hard?

Then she sighed in relief. Perhaps her heart was not so hard as she feared and that was why she was not looking forward to seeing Elliot again. If she was becoming the monster she occasionally worried she could become, she would be highly unlikely to dread a simple meeting with one man, and one she had never truly loved, at that.

The Princess took a deep breath and pushed her way through the trees and bushes that separated the garden from the street. A delighted gasp and a flash of white and gold told her that Elliot had been eagerly awaiting her.

"Annika, you came! You got my letter! You got my letter and you came; you actually came!"

The young man rushed to her and pulled her into an embrace so tight that Annika's air was momentarily cut off.

"Oh, my darling, you cannot know how I've waited, hoped, and agonised over this moment! But you are here at last, and now..."

"Elliot, please wait a moment!" Annika pleaded, pulling back and laying several fingertips over his lips to cease his flurry of words. "Allow me to speak!"

"Oh, of course!" he gasped around her fingers, then pressed them to his lips with his hand and kissed them.

Annika stifled a groan at the gesture and a wave of guilt surged through her body. However, the relief that accompanied the guilt aided in dampening her fear that she was naught but a heartless woman, although she had undeniably mislead Elliot into believing that they could have a future together. When she had rescued him from Ferret she had tested his bonds of loyalty to Linda, and he had proved himself fickle. His willingness to break Linda's heart and his desire to marry as highly as he could nearly made the Princess ill. He had also accused her of being deviant in being staunchly loyal to Logan. Oh, if he only knew! Walter did, and he was goodness knows where doing goodness only knew what, and...

That all had to be set aside for now. She had no time for luxuriating in worries. She had a situation to put to rest and a toweringly large and angry man to locate. She had a land to continue to prepare for salvation and more allies to secure. She could not allow herself to wallow in self-indulgent pity now.

"Annika?"

Elliot's pleading voice and large honey-brown eyes stabbed at her heart. He was who he was, and he meant no ill by it. He was simply a boy who had no place in her life.

"Elliot, I don't want to hurt you, but I fear that I must! You see..."

He stepped back and her fingers were left hovering uncertainly in the air. "Hurt me? Annika, the only way you can hurt me is to say you don't love me!"

Annika's lips parted, but to her chagrin no words emerged. Why could she not gently tell him that she loved another? Or tell him that she was in a war in which she may not even survive?

"Annika, surely you cannot mean to tell me that you do not love me!" Elliot burst out, giving voice to what she could not. "Tell me, is Logan oppressing you even now? Does his power and greed have you in his grasp so fiercely that you cannot see that there is life beyond him?"

"Elliot," she finally managed to say, "I... I cannot be with you." Her lips were suddenly parched and her throat nearly closed with pity and guilt. Still, she was determined to let him know that he not only had no chance with her, but that he could never return to Linda and have another opportunity to break her heart a second time, either.

"You can," Elliot said with all the conviction of innocent youth. He grasped her hands and pressed them to his heart. "You can flee with me. You can still be the Hero, but you needn't be under Logan's thumb any longer! I have friends I can call upon for favours. I'm sure I can help you secure men and coin to add to your cause."

"My... cause?"

"Yes, the Revolution! You must know there are whispers all over Albion about it. The Tyrant King will not last, Annika. You will defeat him and become the Queen Albion needs, and I'll be right at your side. I'll support you in whatever you do!"

Her eyes closed and tears seeped from beneath her swollen lids. How did she even have tears to spare? She had wept and sobbed so much for Page and over Walter that it was a wonder she had a single tear left in her worn and exhausted body.

"Oh, Elliot!" Now pity swept over her full force. Yes, she had tricked him, but he was merely a foolish and ambitious boy. He had harsh lessons yet to learn, but she hated having to force one upon him now. After all, he had been her beloved childhood friend.

"Elliot, the truth is that I love another. My heart is completely and utterly his." She opened her eyes.

Elliot's mouth worked silently. He dropped her hand and stared at her, looking like a frightened deer knowing that the hunter was about to end its life.

"And not only that, but this coming war is one I may not even survive!"

"But..." he spluttered, finding his voice at last, "but what if you do? And who is this man? And..."

"Elliot, it does not matter who he is! What matters is that my life is my own, yet it is not. I never could have dreamt or imagined all the things that are happening to me and because of me. The best thing I can do for myself and Albion is to press on."

"And leave me behind? Annika, are you certain that Logan isn't behind these words of yours? Do you love me or not? Am I the man you love and you are lying about it to protect your brother?"

If he hadn't been so serious she could almost have laughed. Protect Logan? Logan would need her help and likely her protection in time, but certainly not now, and never from Elliot.

"Elliot," she continued gently, "I do not lie. I am so altered that you would no longer know me as the Annika you once played with in the Palace Gardens. I am so altered that perhaps you would hate me now, or even fear me. Goodness knows I have both friends and enemies in equal measure. I have done and will do terrible as well as wonderful things."

"But... your love?"

She lowered her gaze. "I told you true. I love another. And before you utter another word, I must tell you if you do not know already, that Linda does, as well. She has found her soul-mate in Captain Finn. I do not wish you to go to her after we finish here and find that out and double your pain this day."

Elliot spun on his heel, turning his back to her.

"So, that is how it is, aye? I offer you my love and I even gave up Linda for you! I've now lost everything because of you!"

"You cannot blame me for your life and your decisions, Elliot! You alone are responsible for the path you take in life. Please, Elliot, begin anew and find happiness."

He turned back toward her and his face was red with fury. "Some day you'll regret not accepting me, Annika. I have known you your entire life and I know you like no other. If you ever come back to me, make sure you do it on your hands and knees, for I don't know how else I'll ever be able to forgive you for humiliating me like this!"

"Elliot, I'm sorry!" She was; she truly was. She did not regret her love for Logan or that Linda had found a man worthy of her, but she was truly sorry that Elliot, so innocently lacking in maturity, was taking the brunt of everything painful and embarrassing. But neither she nor Linda could change their hearts. Elliot had freedom that neither of them did, at least for the present. Elliot could start his life over again and choose his own way. He could mature and possibly even become so much more than a former Ward of the Crown.

"Save your poisonous words for some other poor sod!" he spat in fury. "I hope Logan dies a miserable death and that you find the Crown a burden you cannot bear! Now let me be, you deviant little bitch!"

Annika watched him storm away. She unconsciously reached down with her right hand and met only air, then was saddened to recall that Poopsie wasn't there to lick her hand. For now, she was truly alone.

"Ben Finn, you are a positive rogue!" Linda squealed, rolling over to escape her lover's tickling fingers.

Said Captain wiggled them playfully in the air and then reached for her ribs once more. "I told you these magic fingers can do many things to pleasure a woman!"

"Yes, but you didn't say you would use them like that!" she gasped, punching his arm playfully. "I can barely breathe!"

"Well, you had no trouble positively screaming my name just a few minutes ago!" he teased. "I wonder if the entire Shelter heard you?"

"They better not have," she retorted, but with a smile. "At least I was savvy enough to secure a room in a wing where there are no children!"

"And I'm savvy enough to have the new Leader of the Underground at my mercy in more ways than one!"

Linda laughed in pure joy. She hadn't been loved so genuinely, not to mention thoroughly, in her life. Ben Finn was the man of her heart; she knew it. She also knew that she was the woman of his. It took this man time to open himself to expressing his feelings, but she did not mind. She could wait. In the meantime, she saw all she needed to know in his eyes, his actions, and in everything he did for her, large and small.

"That you are," she admitted. "You are the savviest man I know, Ben Finn!"

"Well, are you up for another round of my savvy skills before dinner?"

Linda gasped. "Again? Ben, you can't have had time to recover!"

"Who said I need to recover? All I need is my hands and mouth right now, eh? Now, be a good girl and spread 'em for me!"

Linda blushed, knowing what he intended. He was the best lover she had ever had, and his skills in a woman's most intimate area were incredible, but she felt that her own in relation to a man were inadequate to return the favour.

Ben must have read her misgivings in her face, for he pushed her thighs apart himself. "My lovely Linda, never fear! You are beyond compare, do you know why?"

"Because I love you?"

He looked up from her soft and pink flesh to smile at her. His entire face was lit with joy and adoration.

"Yes. I've never had real love before, Linda, and that makes all the difference. And...well..."

"You don't need to say it, Ben," she whispered.

His ice-blue eyes narrowed in determination. "Yes, I do. I love you, Linda. I love you and I'd die for you."

She gasped. "Oh, please don't say anything about dying!"

"But I would," he said. Then he grinned. "But no worries, love; I don't intend to die. If I do that, how can I enjoy a lifetime with you?"

He lowered his mouth to her most intimate flesh and laved his tongue along her swollen femininity. "And besides, if I die and another bloke takes my place, I'd have to come back as a ghost and split him from groin to gullet, and then you'd give me a tongue-lashing like I'd never had before!"

"Well, plainly and simply; don't die, and give me your own special tongue-lashing right now, Benjamin Finn!" Linda ordered playfully. "And after that, we'll have dinner. And after that..."

"After that, we'll take care of Shelter business and then see what Kidd has to say. I wonder if he really has a lead on Walter or if he's just thick-headed and got his rumours mixed up with any facts he might have got?" Ben grinned. "Anyway, let me give you one more trip to the heavens, woman!"

"Gods, Ben, I don't know how much I can bear! When you do this, I...ah!"

"Shush! Just let me utilise my talents, eh?"

Linda closed her eyes and nodded. After all, when Ben set his mind to something, there wasn't anything to be done for it but to go along with him. Besides, in such cases, she didn't want to.

"Try not to faint, but feel free to scream, my lovely!"

Afterwards, she couldn't be certain, but Linda thought that somewhere along the line she had fainted. If so, the smug expression on Ben's face told her that he hadn't minded one bit.