Disclaimer: Princess Tutu does not belong to me, and neither to the characters. I only claim some responsibility for those whose names are unfamiliar. The rest is up to the story.

Counsel

'You can't protect everyone, Fakir… Pick which reality you want to protect.'

Fakir walked around town, Autor's words echoing in his mind. When he had written to protect before, it hadn't been such a dichotomy. He had known what he needed to write to protect both realities, or at least what to write about; he just had to sit down and do it. Easier said than done, of course, but he'd done it. Albeit, the realities had also been combined at the time, so that made things easier. He hadn't thought so at the time, but now… He didn't even know what to write, let alone how to write it. He needed to figure out what he was doing quickly, for every moment he waited the more was bound to change back. But…

What was his problem? His main concern was protecting Duck, and she was a part of this reality. If he preserved this reality, it would preserve how everyone else ended up, too. He had been able to write about Duck giving up the pendant as Princess Tutu without many problems. What was so different about writing the same thing for Princess Sylvia? The Princess Tutu title seemed to be a persona anyway, maybe just that part of her would disappear as light.

But with Duck, there had already been something else behind Princess Tutu: Duck. With Sylvia, Princess Tutu was an integral part of her, if the people's words were anything to go by. Sylvia took her role as a princess of the people too seriously to distance herself from the title given her. If he took away only that part, she would be incomplete; her heart wouldn't be whole. It would be like when Mytho was starting to regain his heart shards, but never be complete.

… Would that really be so bad? Mytho had survived for a number of years on nothing, after all. Surely Sylvia could get by with most of her heart? … Not as a princess, though. If she lost the part of her heart dedicated to the people, she might reign, but she couldn't be of nearly as much help as she would have been with a whole heart. The people would notice, as well. And if she couldn't fulfill the role that she was bound to in the story, why was he saving her in the first place? She herself had rambled about leaving the kingdom for the betterment of her people, and cried at the very notion. She could think of nothing else to do with herself except flee, or… kill herself.

Fakir shook his head. That was not an option. He was trying to figure out how she would live, not necessarily flourish. So what if she lost that part of her heart? Then she could flee. Without her devotion to her people, it would be easier to leave. The new lands she went to would not have knowledge of her previous state, and simply accept her as she was. Like everyone at the school had accepted Mytho's listlessness. Although, it would be difficult to get her to a place not ravaged by the Raven in the story… Or find a way to live in one that was. Who knew if she would find anyone as generous as Charon had been regarding Mytho. And she would still be leaving Siegfried behind, another thing that made her heart break. Maybe that love could be taken out with Princess Tutu as well…?

Fakir stopped walking. What was he thinking? Shattering another person's heart, even just a little, simply so he could make them do what he wanted? No, his mind argued, in order to best protect her! She deserved to live, too, after all. She wasn't just a character, just like no one in Goldcrown were just characters! He could protect all of their lives!

But, to take apart her heart in order to achieve it… Just because the Prince had done it didn't mean it was always the right option. Mytho hadn't suffered without his heart, but he hadn't smiled either. That would just be existing, not having much in it of meaning. And Sylvia would still have enough of her heart left to know she was missing a part of it. He couldn't do that to her, he should know better than to even consider it. Shaking his head, he resumed walking and turned around a house.

He walked down a pathway through some grass for a short time, then turned over to some stones. He sighed as he tried to calm down and prepare himself to listen. He hadn't come by for quite a while, but if anyone could help him right now, it was the oak tree. He knew it would probably be difficult to grasp some of the tree's advice without practice, but he had to try. He sat down and gently placed his hand on the stone before him.

Some time later, Fakir released the rock. He opened his eyes and stared at the rock, then put a hand to his head. "Listen to the spirit within… and let it speak through you." That was what the tree had said, a mantra repeated in his mind over and over. But what did it mean? The only thing that came to mind was Drosselmeyer telling Fakir to write 'more freely and irresponsibly,' and the tree spirit certainly hadn't meant that. But what else? What was the spirit within?

Fakir got up and turned, then stopped in surprise. Duck was asleep in the grass nearby. He thought she'd stayed in the library, probably still fuming at him. Maybe she had tired of waiting and come to find him. He smiled at her sleeping form. She was trying to support him, even though he hadn't told her the least bit about his story. He probably should have, although when or what parts he still wasn't sure about. Would she have understood that he was writing solely about Tutu and not her? And that Tutu was a different person even in the story? Was Tutu even separate from Sylvia? Even he wasn't entirely sure he understood all of that.

He knelt down and prodded Duck gently. She didn't respond, so he tried again. Still no response. He rolled his eyes; he'd forgotten how hard she slept. He poked her harder and said louder than usual, "Hey."

Duck jumped a little, blinking awake, and whipped her head around. When she saw Fakir, instead of calming down, she quacked and flapped backwards, afraid. Fakir went on alert, glancing behind him, but focused on Duck again when he didn't see anything. "Duck," he urged, "Duck!" He reached out to calm her as she freaked out. She stopped when she looked at his face, and his hands quickly smoothed her feathers.

He looked worried, and Duck felt guilty; "Quack…" she started, "qua-"

Fakir cut her off by picking her up and holding her close. He didn't know what had just happened, but it wasn't normal. Maybe she had been having a really bad dream. Maybe she had thought she'd seen Drosselmeyr behind him. Or maybe things were changing more than he thought, and she was starting to forget things…

"I'm sorry," Fakir murmured, not letting her go; "For before, and... I know I need to get on with writing, but… I just can't figure out what the problem is." His mind ran through plot points again, and still didn't see how doing them changed the story at all. If some of them didn't happen, nothing within the story would change; with others, it would completely derail the story if he neglected them, which wouldn't help either. Sylvia had to go outside the walls. She had to encounter the Raven if she was going to turn into a speck of light. She had to have Siegfried as an added incentive along with helping the people to embolden her enough to do those things. Marie had to pronounce the curse so that the speck-of-light transformation would happen. Leopold had to give Tutu his protection charm so that he would be injured and make Marie upset enough to pronounce the curse.

But again, another part of him whispered, what about just shattering her heart a little bit? Taking the Princess Tutu part of her heart to save Duck and Goldcrown, and leaving Sylvia to carry on a life with just a little bit missing?

No, he fought back. He had already decided that shattering hearts was not the answer. Besides, the curse didn't even mention anything about heart shards-

Fakir's thoughts stopped. The curse said nothing about heart shards or shattering or anything of the sort. The pendant that allowed Duck to change into Princess Tutu, the persona that filtered into this world, was a heart shard of the Prince. Fakir had assumed that turning into a speck of light would turn Sylvia into the heart shard, somehow, but he never mentioned it in the story. Of course, neither had 'The Prince and The Raven,' but that story wasn't about the Princess. Fakir's was.

That was it! The story he was writing was more involved in the Princess' life, and if there was a curse that she would turn into a speck of light, that's just what would happen! There would be no heart shard business involved, just the disappearing. If he wrote the curse, he had to write all of it. Almost in shock with delight, Fakir loosened his hold on Duck. All he had to do was go back to the curse, put in a little bit about becoming a part of the Prince's heart, and that should fix everything! Oh, but now there was getting Marie to word the curse right while she was still so angry… How would that work?

Fakir almost got up, when another thought struck. Sylvia still had no future. She was definitely going to turn into a speck of light now. But that was the point, he argued with himself, he was choosing a reality to save! And it also happened to save the most people!

But how did he know? How much longer would it be before Siegfried took out his heart on the story? How many more hearts would the Raven consume in the meantime? How many more knights would fall in battle?

Duck hadn't moved from his lap, and looked at him, concerned. "Quack?"

"I… I think I know what I need to fix in the story," Fakir started, not looking at her.

Ducks face lit up. "Quack!"

"But…" he went on, "I can't help but worry that it's the wrong way to do it."

Duck looked confused.

Reluctantly, he continued; "I feel like… I'm forcing it to happen. Like I'm letting all kinds of horrible things happen just so I can fix things here."

Duck's expression didn't change. "Quack?"

"I mean, yes, there's a war going on in there, and I can't stop it," Fakir said, "but it's not that. I could make it easier for some of them to get through, I could give them some hope, even a better life. But that would involve letting things here go back to the way they were…"

"Quaa…" Duck was still confused.

Fakir sighed. He couldn't explain it all right now, but he had to try something. The tree wasn't being of any help, and Autor expected him to come up with an answer. He didn't have time to tell her all of it, but he could at least count on her to be hopeful about what he could share. He set Duck on the ground and looked at her seriously. "My story is about the person Princess Tutu in the story 'The Prince and The Raven,' before the final shattering of the Prince's heart."

Duck's eyes widened.

"I thought that it would be safe to write about because it was in the past," Fair rambled, "and was already done with. But apparently not. Drosselmeyer left her character so open that I had a lot of room to work with. As I wrote, there were some turns taken in the story that led the Princess to question herself, and she ran away after the curse was pronounced." Again, the image of Sylvia crying at the lake's shore flashed through his mind. He had gotten rid of that part, it shouldn't still be bothering him. He moved on. "I feel like…" Fakir felt like Sylvia would still be torn inside herself, about going to find Siegfried or returning to her people, or even running away. He tried moving on again. "I feel like she might go either way, like she could either go to the Raven and then turn into the speck of light, or she could return to the people. I don't know which. The first is better for us, because she'll turn into a speck of light and become the last heart shard. But if she returns to the people…" Fakir scratched his neck with a hand and looked away, "That almost seems a more plausible option, since she cares for everyone so much. But that would mean no final heart shard with Tutu in Goldcrown." Fakir returned to looking at Duck; "That would mean you never became a human, or Princess Tutu."

Duck was shocked. She had guessed that something might have involved Princess Tutu back in the library, but not anything like this.

"Now I know that the obvious option is to just have her go to the Raven and turn into light, into the heart shard," Fakir continued, closing his eyes, "But every time I think about it, I can't help but think of us, of Drosselmeyer, of how Drosselmeyer forced us towards things we didn't want. How I would be forcing the Princess towards the ending I want. And… it might be for selfish reasons…" he opened his eyes, filled with guilt.

Duck was touched. Did he mean that he wanted to allow her to turn into a human and go through everything, to keep this ending, more than he wanted to change things in the past? Duck felt warmth in her face, and in her heart. But then she caught herself and shook her head, clearing her mind. "Quack!" she said, "Quaack quack!"

Fakir's face didn't change; "Are you agreeing that I shouldn't force her towards it?"

"Quack!" Duck argued, shaking her head harder; "Qua… quack!" she paused and changed positions, nodding briefly. Then she stopped again; "Qua…" she frowned in thought. "Quaack, quack quack, qua quack. Quack quaaack, qua…" she tried explaining herself, making gestures in general, but Fakir wasn't understanding.

He stood up with a tired sigh; "… I'm just going to do it. I'm going to write the curse and have her turn into a speck of light, whether she was planning to or not."

"Quack!" Duck exclaimed, frantically making an 'x'; "Quack!"

"… Are you saying you'd rather have always been a duck, and never had the chance to be a human?" Fakir asked, bitterness creeping into his tone.

"Quack!" Duck replied, shaking her head, "Quack quaaack!"

"Well I have to make a choice," Fakir replied sternly, although his voice held some desperation, "and soon, or else it won't matter what I think anymore."

"Quack quack quaaack!" Duck pleaded, "Quack quack?" she gestured at the rocks he had been sitting in front of.

"I already tried going to the tree," Fakir said, "and all it gave me was useless drabble. I don't know how to listen to the 'spirit within,' or even what the spirit within is! How can I let it speak through me if I don't even know that?"

Duck looked at him questioningly.

"The tree just repeated 'listen to the spirit within, and let it speak through you' over and over," Fakir recited irately.

Duck thought about it for a moment, then slowly gestured at her heart questioningly.

Fakir furrowed his eyebrows; "… You…?"

Duck quickly shook her head, then pointed at Fakir's heart. Fakir's confusion didn't lessen. Duck gestured at herself again, then at Fakir, and touched a feather to her head in the mime for 'remember'. Then she did a little pirouette.

Fakir remembered the dances they'd done together when she was human. There weren't many. She must have been referring to the last one, in the Lake of Despair. "When we were under the water…?"

Duck nodded, and gestured at Fakir again.

"I came to you…"

She nodded encouragingly.

"And… said that all stories… had to come to an end;" A lump found itself in his throat.

She motioned for him to continue.

He fought it back down; "And… that we had to be our true selves to do it."

Duck nodded. "Quack quack?" she asked, gesturing to the rock.

Fakir finally understood. "Perhaps it's my true self that is the spirit within…?"

Duck nodded, still inquisitive.

Fakir thought about it. "I guess… that does make sense… But if that's true, then my spirit within wants to protect you, Duck. I promised that I would stay by you, and the only way to do that… is to have Princess Tutu turn into a speck of light." He gritted his teeth. Why did he have to go and give the Princess a backstory?

Duck hesitated, then shook her head.

"What do you mean, 'no'?" he demanded, unable to keep his voice entirely even, "I am a descendant of Drosselmeyer. If I'm going to write, then I have to accept that I will use that power like he did at times, but to protect those around me! To protect you, Duck!"

Duck shook her head again, and before he could argue anything more, she stepped forward and hugged his leg.

Fakir's throat constricted, and his eyes burned. She was asking him to find another way. She was saying that she believed there was another way, and that he could find it. She didn't have to speak for him to understand that.

"… You have a lot of faith in me," he said shakily; "Do you really think I deserve all of that?"

Duck smiled; "Quack."

Fakir blinked away some tears, then scooped her up and hugged her. Even though he felt no closer to a choice in the matter, he treasured her trust in him. He hoped that would be enough to help him succeed. Then he took off with her down the street, and headed towards the library.