ICE

Prelude

Disclaimer: Don't own Mai Hime/Otome (same goes for entire story)

Why? Why did it have to be like this? After all we've been though? After everything, why?

Thoughts ran wild as the raven hair girl raced though the night's streets on her bike at an inhumane speed that would have scared the hell out of anyone else, except her. A lone tear travels down her pale, almost white face, except for the red that stained it, red, red from anger. She felt betrayed.

After all that has happened she was betrayed by the one person that she came as close as to trust. Ever since her mother died she kept everyone at a distant, fearing that if one day if anyone got close enough to her they would disappear, like her mother. She avoided what she deemed to be unnecessary, any form of feelings except anger and hate. She locked out of her frozen heat useless emotions that would only later hurt her like kindness, care, compassion, and love.

Her heart was ice, that is, until she met her. Somehow, one way or another, the girl found her way into the ice princess's heart. The ice princess didn't even notice until it was too late. She had started to trust her and somewhat considered her a friend or even more.

All that came to a halt when it began, that horrifying, repulsive, dreadful event, the carnival began. The twisted fate of the Himes was what caused her mother's betrayal and now it brought another. Another betrayal occurred, her friend, the one she came to trust, betrayed her in her moment of weakness and did inexcusable things to her.

Even after being through such a betrayal, somehow, the raven hair girl still found it somewhere in her heart to forgive the girl. Baring the sin of being the reason for the deaths of thousands, yes thousands were kill, in her name, she embraced the girl, her fallen friend. She ensured the girl that she cared for her, whether or not it was the 'care' her friend wanted, and accepted death by her own hands as she called her Child to load the cartridge and to fire on her friend's Child, knowing fully well that she would die from the shot as well. But no, god was not that merciful, he revived all the HIMEs after Mai, another one of her friends, won the battle. The raven hair girl was brought back from her eternal slumber in order to play another role in this tainted sinful world, one that she would soon find out what it really meant and come to hate it.

The calm before the storm is always a bittersweet thing. As what happened during the carnival subsided and everyone and everything was coming back to normal the raven hair girl thought that she would too. Boy was she wrong. She tried, she really did. She acted normal around her friend as best she could even after the carnival, the time when her friend confessed her love for her and kill in her name, but no nothing fell into place as she would have liked.

She remembered it. Clearly she remember how Shizuru told her that she was thinking about leaving leave her, how she asked Shizuru to stay but Shizuru said no, how shortly after telling her that she was going to leave Shizuru left without even saying good bye. And now that brings her back to the present, her riding her bike at an incredible speed not knowing exactly where she was going or the speed she was going at. If this continued then she would either run out of gas or crash into something, the later being the more probable to happen.

The biker finally decided to stop but at a not so good place. She stopped in front of a bar and after parking her bike she went in. As she sat down she could feel the stares of the others in the bar but she could care less. Ordering the strongest thing on the menu she drank and drank until the bar ran out off drinks, that was a first but she did drink a lot. She continued this cycle on and on for many days, nonstop.

Perhaps it was her belated HIME powers or her ability to hold her liquor but she was never out cold, unfortunately. Mai became worried and questioned her about her actions, acting like her mother, like usual but she brushed it off. She continued this life style for months and everyone, even Nao was concerned about her.

It was a miracle that she didn't kill all her brain cells as she drank like that but one day at her door, while she was drinking in her apartment, someone knocked. She went out to give the person a piece of her mind and beat him up but when she opened the door her whole body was as stiff as Duran's ice. The person in front of her now was one of the people she least expected to see not only now but in her whole life. It was him, her father.

"Natsuki, is that you? Can I come in?" He asked her.

Natsuki stepped aside for him to enter.

What the hell?! Why is he here now?! He showed up once after mom died and left. He abandoned me! What's he here for?

Natsuki thought with the minimal amount of brain cells she had left in her head.

"What do you want?" She asked him careful, not trusting him at all.

He frowned. "Natsuki, dear, I don't blame you for acting like that but I want you to know that I didn't abandon you."

"What are you saying now? You left me after mom died! YOU left me!"

"Natsuki, I'm sorry. I wanted to protect you, that is why I left."

"Oh, yeah sure you threw me away because you wanted to protect me!" Natsuki said sarcastically, she didn't need this after Shizuru left her, no she wouldn't let anyone else even come close to her.

"Natsuki… After your mom died I… I picked up her research and found out some… things… things about what will happen after the carnival… Natsuki I… I want to protect you. Please believe me. I found out that they want to use you, to experiment on you! Natsuki come with me! Come with me, we can change your identity and live a peaceful life!" He pleaded with his daughter.

Natsuki stared at him, at Charles Kruger, and looked straight into his eyes. After all that she has been though she had picked up skills like judging a person. She judged him. She looked for any sign of lies, and in the end she made her choice.