This chapter was begun in 2007 8O
I feel really ashamed for making you guys wait this long, I'm so sorry.
Characters not owned by me, nor princess tutu, but the concept is mine.
He woke up unwillingly to a lot of pain, mostly in his back
He woke up unwillingly to a lot of pain, mostly in his back. The explosion, he remembered well enough. But what had happened afterwards?
Fakir looked around and found himself in a familiar place: the room in Ahiru's house.
So she's all right. He thought, relieved. Whatever possessed him to save her from the explosion and to protect her was past him, but he didn't regret it.
And to his surprise, the redhead was sleeping with her arms resting on the bed, her head resting on her arms. It looked as though she'd been watching out for him the whole night, and he felt appreciative.
"Hey." He said, waking her up immediately. "Hmm? Oh, you're awake! How are you feeling? Are you all right?" She asked quickly.
"Better than I would've been if you didn't help me. Why are you so worried about me? You're injured too." Fakir said pointedly, looking at the bandages wrapped around her arms.
"Not as badly, really. I'm just so happy you're okay." Ahiru said, somewhat drowsily. Fakir got up slowly and motioned for her to sit on the bed.
"What happened?" "I got you out as fast as I could, but your side had already delivered a heavy blow to the ravens. It was all well but Mythos is still with the ravens and Kraehe." Ahiru replied sadly.
Fakir saw her eyes flutter and said, "Sleep." His tone was authoritative but there was some softness, and Ahiru was compliant. She was getting up when Fakir held her by the shoulder, and she lay down on the bed, falling asleep immediately.
Fakir ran his hand softly through her hair. Things had changed for him. They didn't have to fight; they could work together. He owed her at least that much.
"Tutu. Where is Tutu?" Mythos asked, sounding like a lost puppy. It broke Kraehe's heart to see him that way. Even more because he was yearning for Tutu.
"She isn't here. She left you." Kraehe said harshly.
Mythos didn't seem to hear her, although he looked at her with those innocent, questioning eyes. "Come dance with me, Prince. Forget about Tutu." Kraehe said.
Mythos took the hand she offered, and they danced a graceful pas de deux, but Kraehe knew, she could feel the emotion in Mythos' heart. This was all Tutu's fault. Ahiru was the puppet, but Tutu's will was off the strings.
Why? Why? I love you so much more than she could ever- why won't you love me? Why won't you look at me like you do her? Kraehe demanded silently. If her sorrow could ever materialize, she knew she'd drown in it.
"Where's Fakir?" That was the question coming from everyone's mouths. Autor was doing all he could to calm him down, but even he had lost the calm he was so accustomed to.
"I-I'm sure he's alright, but I believe he failed the task." He said gravely. As expected, this got a violent reaction from the crowd, but luckily, Autor thought, relieved; they weren't blaming him.
"Autor!!" Correction, not all of them were blaming him.
"Where is Fakir?!" Pike demanded, as though he'd know. "I don't know. I only know that he isn't with the ravens so there's a chance he survived."
"You never know anymore, do you Autor? I doubt that you even care!" Pike shrieked. This was happening too much for too long now, and Autor was irritated that Pike vented all her anger out him.
"If I didn't care, then I wouldn't have bothered to find out that Fakir was alive! Stop antagonizing me." He said irately.
"I'm not the enemy."
'Ahiru, what have you done?'
'Tutu-'
'We love Mythos, remember?'
'I know, but…'
'Ahiru, there's something you're not telling me. Do you know how painful it is not to know what you're thinking anymore?'
'Tutu… Do you know how painful it is for me not to be real?'
'What?'
'I'm not real, Tutu. I never should have existed. I'm not you; I'm nobody.'
'That isn't true, Ahiru. You are Ahiru, not nobody.'
'Even so, I don't belong. If only I had my own being, Tutu. I don't like borrowing your body.'
'Ahiru…'
'I don't like borrowing your heart, either. I'm sorry, Tutu.'
Ahiru was crying. Not even Tutu could stop the tears.
Fakir found that he couldn't really sleep. It surprised him when Ahiru started crying, in her sleep no less.
They were quiet, no sobs at all. They just flowed, silently creeping one after another. Ahiru's face seemed so calm, it was strange.
By impulse, he wiped away another tear before it fell from the crevice of her eyelids, the tear staying a perfect circle on his finger.
Without thinking, he brought it to his mouth, and his gaze never left Ahiru's face. He noticed then that the tears had stopped their flow.
Fakir might have asked what was happening to him, but he knew. He was softening, and it wasn't as bad as he thought it would be.
Kraehe stood in a dark room, her eyes clouded with rage. She wasn't going to take this, not anymore. There was a red glow and she set everything as was planned.
Perfect. She knew Tutu couldn't resist this challenge.
Fakir was practicing his swordplay again, and saw her standing at the doorway. It wasn't Ahiru though, he could tell by now.
"Kraehe had another piece of Mythos' heart. I have a proposition." Said Tutu, uncharacteristically. Well, not really. It's Ahiru who isn't like this. Tutu is just like that.
"If you don't stop me, I'll help you with getting Mythos away from Kraehe. Does that sound fair?" Tutu proposed calmly. Fakir replied calmly.
"I have nothing to gain in opposing you. The last few days have given me time to think anyway." He said. Tutu nodded. The silence that lapsed afterward was tense.
"Let's go, then."
They walked the dark path where they wouldn't be tracked by the ravens. Once or twice, Fakir heard something, but all he could do was to stay alert as they headed for the Castle.
After a while, he knew his suspicions weren't irrational when someone came out of the bushes.
A woman. She wasn't a regular person, he could tell, but she didn't seem to be a threat. From what he could see in the dark, her face was pale, her eyes almost blank, and her voice monotonic as she spoke.
"I know what you're looking for. Let me help you." She said, neither sincerity nor deceit in her monotone.
Tutu spoke. "Edel?"
She seemed to trust her. Fakir had no choice, anyway.
They followed her through a path that was even darker than before; it was almost pitch black, if not for the light that the woman held in her hand.
They got to an old wall, a carving of a jester there. The woman Edel took a stone from a box she held and inserted it in the jester's chest, and it opened immediately.
"Go." Said Edel. "Thank you, Edel." Tutu said sincerely.
They entered the darkness, but Tutu looked back at the light that was held by Edel.
Soon it was snuffed out.
A sanctuary safe and sound. A secret place under the ground.
"Hey, are you listening?" Fakir said, seeing Tutu's blank expression. She then snapped back to attention. "What? Where am I?"
Ahiru. Fakir thought.
Why hide, pretend that you could win? If you're aware of your sin?
"Come on. You don't want to fall. We have to hurry if we want to find Mythos." Fakir said authoritatively. "Right." Ahiru said, he eyes betraying a much different emotion than she'd ever looked at him with.
The truly innocent heart shall come, in the form of two with one.
"Fakir." Ahiru said suddenly. "Before… I thought Mythos was amazing. He was the Prince of our dreams, both mine and Tutu's." She said.
Fakir kept on, but he listened well to what Ahiru was saying. He leapt down into the pit of lower ground, and offered his hand to her.
When she took it, her gaze lingered on him. "But… I don't think so much of him at all now, to be honest." She confided.
She jumped down. "Me and Tutu… Or just me… I'm changing. I've got so many things in my head that I don't know what to do anymore." She said, her voice shaking.
Right then, he words were interrupted by screeching. The shrieks swelled as what they feared was coming even closer to them.
They were nanobot ravens… And they were ready to attack.
"Get down!!" Fakir shouted, but when he fended off the ravens, they dodged him. They didn't even try to attack him. No, they were assaulting Ahiru.
They pecked at her skin, and left jagged red gashes on the soft, vulnerable flesh. Fakir's eyes blazed with rage.
But inner conflict here takes place; they're different now, though share a face.
He slashed at them with his sword, taking out many of them successfully, but he saw Ahiru out of the corner of his eye. More importantly, he saw her foot slip over the edge of where they stood. She fell.
As quickly as he could, Fakir grabbed her, but knew that they both couldn't hold on to the edge. He then did what his instincts ordered.
Fakir pulled Ahiru on top of him and let himself fall, covering as much of Ahiru as he possibly could, saving her from the impact.
Their hearts are two though body one, two different loves under one sun.
When Ahiru woke up, she couldn't move her arms at first, and soon realized why; Fakir's arms were secured around her, and his body had apparently taken full impact of the fall they'd just gone through.
"Fakir! Wake up! Oh no... I'm sorry, Fakir! Please wake up!" She begged, wriggling out of his arms and carefully shifting him to a better position.
He was bleeding.
Although her love is small...
"I'm so sorry, Fakir..." She whispered, gripping the male, tears dripping.
It shall surpass all...
There's nano-technology in his system.
The thought came to Ahiru in a blaze of reckless desperation, but with just one thought, his eyes shot open, and the pained scream echoed in the caverns.
Else everything fall
The pain had jolted him awake, but it was gone in a second. Fakir looked to his right and saw Ahiru there, startled at his reaction but looking relieved.
"I'm so glad you're alive." She whispered, tears welling up. She jumped, wrapping her arms around his neck in desperate need just to know he was real. That he was alive.
"Ahiru..." Fakir slowly loosed her grip of him and stood up, squeezing her hand gently and going to the walls. They were solid and smooth, and much worse, unclimbable.
"Fakir! You're hurt!" Ahiru exclaimed. Fakir examined his arms and legs, his side; indeed he had multiple injuries on his body. Not that he really cared, although Ahiru did that enough.
"I'm alright. We have to find a way out of here." He said seriously. Ahiru came up to him and put a hand on his arm. "Let me just..." She didn't bother to finish her sentence when, to Fakir's surprise, his open wounds started to shrink, close up. Heal.
He pulled his arm away. "How did you-" He stopped. Ahiru was clutching the bracelet. The nano-technology. He remembered.
"Is it better now?" Ahiru asked quietly, hoping not to anger him. Fakir's expression softened.
"Thanks." Fakir said.
"Now how do you propose we get out of this?"
Ahiru looked around, and saw what Fakir saw: a wall, ground, and water. No way out otherwise.
But she seemed to understand what Fakir didn't, and she waded in the water till it reached to her thighs.
"There's a path here." She said quietly. "What?" "A path. It goes underwater. I don't know how far, but it might lead us out."
Fakir looked at her questioningly, but upon closer inspection, found that there indeed was a path, although it was too dark to see where it led to, and whether it actually led anywhere at all.
But even so, there was no chance anywhere else. "It might not be safe." Ahiru said. Fakir was bewildered; was she contradicting herself? Or was that Tutu? It was beginning to be hard to tell.
A gentle touch from the girl assured Fakir that it was still Ahiru, and she went in front of him, removing her blouse and leaving on her orange camisole.
"Wait, I thought you said it'll be dangerous." Fakir said, his eyebrows knitting together with concern. "If there's one thing I can do well, it's swim. Whether or not we'll find something there, it's safer to check." Ahiru said seriously.
Fakir wanted to stop her. He wanted to tell her that he'd do it himself, and he wanted to tell her that his life didn't matter too much anyway, so drowning wasn't an issue for him.
But he couldn't. For the life of him, he couldn't say it. Ahiru was so determined. She was so sure of himself, something he didn't expect to see from the naïve girl.
He nodded ever so slightly, and she dove into the water, the ripples soon ceasing after a moment.
Fakir mentally smote himself for allowing the girl to do it, but not for the reasons he might have before. He, unlike before, cared about what would happen to her.
It had already been a minute, with no sign of her. Worry started to plague the knight. Another few seconds passing, he waded back into the water, but was stopped when her figure broke the surface, sputtering and desperately bringing air back into her lungs, looking tired and much resembling something drowned.
Fakir took note that she was shivering too, and pulled her to dry land. He wrapped around her his fairly dry cloak like a blanket, drying her off and warming her, though she still shivered.
He gave her a few minutes to warm and dry up before allowing her to remove the camisole and just wear her still-dry blouse as he looked away. "Are you alright?" He asked tentatively. "I'm fine. I might have pushed it there, but I'm okay. Thank you."
"There's a path. It's far, but it's reachable. A place where we can come up for air. From there, I'm not sure, but there's no... other..." Fakir saw her become faint.
He held her and lay her down gently. "Rest." He said. His voice was much gentler, stranger than Ahiru was accustomed to. But she was happy to hear it.
She fell to slumber, resting on Fakir, and in her deep subconscious, resting on Tutu. And even then, Tutu didn't seem mad. As though their argument had never taken place. For now, there was only rest for Ahiru.
I posted this on my deviantart too 8D So maybe I'll have lots more motivation for this.
Thanks for all those people who read, even with my continuous writer's block.
Hopefully, the story will start moving again.
with love,
Billie