For the first time since she had stepped out of that arena, Kanae could remember everything. She didn't know why those memories had come back to her now. All she knew was that the harder she pressed down on the cocoon in her hands, the more she could remember. She had suspected Anthy of poisoning her father, so she had gone to the Mikage Seminar in hopes of feeling better about it. But the therapy session hadn't made her feel any better. It had only led her to duel that girl, Utena Tenjou, so that she could kill Anthy Himemiya.

But there were still so many things that didn't add up. Why had that man, Souji Mikage, wanted her to kill Anthy? Who was that boy who had been with him? Why did he want Anthy Himemiya dead? He had called her the Rose Bride. What did that mean? And why had Utena Tenjou been protecting her? Why had Akio moved her into the Chairman's tower later.

There was only one thing that was still on her mind. Why had Anthy done any of it? Why had she poisoned Kanae's father? Why had she killed Kanae? And how? And what did she mean when she said that she hadn't done it "on her own?" Kanae pressed down on the cocoon as hard as she possibly could, in hopes that it would finally tell her. But this time, instead of showing her a flash of memory, she felt something wriggling in her hands.

She opened her palms to see a green and black striped caterpillar. It wriggled around in her fingers, searching blindly for food. She pressed down on it gently with her fingers, wondering if it would trigger another flashback. Nothing happened, so she tried pressing down harder. It wriggled in pain, but Kanae didn't remember anything new. She let the little creature crawl around in her hands for a while. She had never liked insects of any sort, but something was comforting about being with a living creature that wasn't going to hurt her. After having to talk to Anthy and that horrid illusion of her mother, it was nice to be visited by something that didn't want to hurt her.

"Hello there, I'm Kanae," she said quietly to the caterpillar.

Suddenly, the sound of the trap door being flung open filled the room. It hadn't ever disappeared after Anthy left, had it?

"Have you already forgotten me, my love?"

It was Akio's voice. Kanae couldn't believe it. Had he finally come to rescue her?

"Akio? Is that you?"

He didn't need to answer as he hoisted himself up through the trap door. It was undeniably him. At first, she thought that he was just another illusion because he was wearing a strange, fairytale prince costume complete with coattails and epaulets. But she could tell from looking in his eyes that it was him.

As he hoisted himself through the trap door, the room seemed to fill with light. His presence seemed to change the whole attic. Maybe it was wrong to call it an attic at all, with the way it had changed. She was sitting in a spacious room with white marble floors, Greco-Roman pillars, and domed ceilings. There were indoor fountains and heavy, ornate furniture made out of gold and hardwood. Small potted plants dotted the walls. The whole room seemed to have grown. The only thing that remained the same was the stars, which still glittered outside the windows.

Kanae tossed the caterpillar onto the floor and rose to her feet. It felt so good to finally be able to stand after being curled up in a ball for so long. After sitting in the dark for so long, she would have been thankful to run regardless. But being able to run into the arms of the man that she loved was nothing sort of ecstasy inducing. She practically threw herself at Akio, and he caught her.

There was no time for words. She reached for his face and kissed him. His kiss was just as gentle as it always had been. Kanae usually allowed him to set the pace and take the lead, but she was so desperate for human affection that she couldn't hold herself back. After only a few seconds of her fiancé's soft kisses, she bit down hard on his lip, which caused him to pull back.

For a moment, Kanae was terrified. What if she still looked like that hideous corpse she had seen reflected in Anthy's glasses? What if Akio had only kissed her to be polite. He must have been disgusted now, but no…He was smiling. There was humor in his cool green eyes that she wouldn't have expected to see from someone who had just kissed a corpse.

"Have you finally come to rescue me?" Kanae asked.

"No, I haven't" he still smiled as he said it.

Kanae felt all of the strength drain from her body. This couldn't be her Akio. He may have had the same eyes, but this was not her fiancé. He may not have been particularly attentive. But surely he wouldn't have come to torment her like this.

"I come to bid you in this place, before the final blow, adieu," Akio said.

"What do you mean?" Kanae said.

"Well, surely you'll want to kill me," Akio said.

"Why would I want to do that?" Kanae asked. "Is it because of how I look? Because I know it's not exactly the way you remember me, but I'm sure that there's a way to fix it."

"I don't know what you mean," Akio said. "You look lovely."

"Really?" Kanae asked.

"Of course, go look in the water of that fountain over there," Akio instructed.

Kanae wasn't sure which of the fountains in the spacious room he had been referring too, so she knelt next to the closest one. It was nothing like struggling to make out her reflection in Anthy's glasses. The moment she laid eyes on the water, she could see that her skin was soft, fair, and most importantly of all, completely intact. She touched her hand to her cheek, just to make sure the hole was gone. It was!

She was even more beautiful than she had been before. Her hair was somehow longer, and there was a simple golden tiara perched atop her head. A purple dress with red trim and black ruffles underneath it had replaced her clothes. It looked almost like the red dress that Anthy had worn in her memories, but this dress much prettier. It might have been the same design, but the color scheme of that last dress hadn't been anywhere near as appealing as this dress' was.

"Do you like it, my princess?" Akio asked her.

"Of course, I do!" Kanae said.

"Then why don't you come here, Kanae?" Akio asked. "I can take you far away from this place."

"Now?" Kanae asked. "Couldn't we stay here together, just the two of us, a moment longer?"

She watched as a stray leaf from one of the nearby potted plants floated across the surface of the water, scattering her reflection. The ripples distorted her face, making it look similar to the that way it had when she had looked at her reflection in Anthy's glasses. But Kanae quickly plucked the leaf out of the water and crumpled it up in her hand. She wasn't going to let anything distract her from this moment.