Disclaimer: To be flung into a pit of despair from which there is no escape and all must suffer is true tragedy! It would also be a true tragedy if I took credit for Princess Tutu seeing as it is not mine and all related characters are the property of Ito Ikuko and the animating team at Studio Gansis.
Authors Note: It has come to my attention that I've been miss spelling Autor's name: Altor. I apologize for any confusion this my have caused in chapters one and two. His name will from now on be spelled: Autor.
Vignette Three: Geschichte
Mytho felt betrayed. Like someone had thrown sand in his eyes. Like another had pored lemon juice on his still fresh paper cut. Like his heart had been shattered yet again, only this time within his body so that each individual shard contributed it's own pain to his suffering. It seemed as if he couldn't do anything right. He peered down from the ramparts of his glittering white and gold palace his people were assembled there all with pitch fork or torch in hand, ready and waiting to deliver their insurgent justice to a king that did not do right by them. And there, standing in front of the mob like a conquering general, heals forward, toes to the side, arms crossed, was Hoffnung.
Mytho gazed at his son, clad in black with a twisted silver crown upon his head... Yes, he fit the part of self proclaimed Neo Raven quite well. Mytho sighed as a wave of guilt washed over him to crash on the sands of betrayal. That was his fault to: he had known... he was fully aware when he took Rue as his Princess and his wife that they both still carried the Raven's blood within their veins. Knew that if it was in their blood it could be passed down to their offspring. He knew this and yet, he had still taken her as his Princess, wife, lover and companion because... well... he loved her. What else could he say.
And Rue... Rue had stuck with him through all of this. Through all the pain and sadness, through having to watch love and her child make war upon each other. That was another reason why Hoffnung hated him. Rue had chosen Mytho over her own son. Mytho sighed again, there were only two options open to him now, neither one was ideal but it was all he could do. He turned away from the mob and headed for the stairs.
Rue was waiting for him in the entrance hall. He met her eyes before exiting, they eyes were shining with unshed tears and he felt another wave of guilt crash over him and his heart threatened to drowned in the wash. He had put her through to much pain already, back when he was taken over by the Raven's blood himself and now he was doing it to her again. Only now it was worse, now she had two sources of sorrow to weep over and I was all his fault. His fault because he loved Rue.
The mob gave a loud almost feral sounding roar when Mytho stepped out on to the expansive oak draw bridge that spanned a glittering silver and blue stream that served as a moat. And there was Hoffnung, directly in front of him now wearing a sadistic smirk upon his face that accented the black clothes and wicked looking crown. Mytho gazed into his son's face and saw his own, just as he seen himself reflected in Tutu's eyes all those years ago... Hoffnung's over all features were different of corse, his face was not framed by pearl white locks but of ebony that shone a dark red when light hit them and cascaded around his face in waves or fell striate only to curl up at the tips. He kept cropped short which gave him a wild look that the women must have found very attractive.
"Hello, Father." The smirk widened into a malicious grin.
SPACE
Autor leaned back in his chair and massaged his stiff neck. This Writing (with a capital W) was much more difficult than he originally thought. He hoped he was making the disembodied voice was happy, 'cause he was tired hurting and sleep deprived. He glanced over what he'd just written. Well, Mytho had certainly had enough emotional suffering, might as well give him some more!
He bent back over the desk and began again...
SPACE
"Hoffnung," he began, "you don't have to do this... we can just-"
"Oh, just shut-up!"
There was nothing else for Mytho to do then, he could ether give his heart freely to Hoffnung and have it be devoured and his kingdom ruled by darkness or he could seal his own son away. Both were tragic, neither would give Rue a happy ending. Happy endings didn't come from Princes or Kings, they came from little yellow Ducks and true friends... He thought of Fakir, of every one back at the academy whom had admired him, of Cat-sensei and most of he thought of Princess Tutu... of the little yellow Duck that had worn his shard of Hope and had saved him and Rue...
Well, there was no Princess Tutu now, his shard of hope was within his chest now along with the rest of his heart and even if it were apart there was no Duck to wear it for him. Behind him Mytho heard the massive gates to the palace creak apart, he looked back to see Rue step out.
"Rue..." Mytho began at the same time that Hoffnung said
"Mother."
Both men watched her, waiting for her to speak. To say something, anything that would save Mytho from tragedy or allow Hoffnung to ascend to overlord. "I..." was all she managed to stammer out.
"Mother, go back in side."
Rue didn't move, she just stood there trembling. Her bottom lip quivered as if on the edge of speech but no words came out. Mytho stepped forward to wrap her in his arms, he bent down and gave his last kiss. Not the sweet "happily ever after" kiss they shared at the end of the Tutu anime, but a much more passionate and adult type kiss. The kind of kiss lovers only give in the privacy of the bedroom.
"I'm sorry." He whispered in her ear when they parted lips. That was when her knees gave out, she collapsed to the ground and cried.
"Are you quite done yet?" Hoffnung was impatient. "Don't worry, she won't be sad for long. I've found someone to replace you for her. Someone whom, if he does it 'write' will make her forget all about you."
"As long as she's happy." Was all Mytho replied. He was facing his son again, this time with a smidgen of resolve. He drew his sword, the same shimmering silver blade with twin swans as the guard and a inlayed gold crown in the fuller (the part of the sword that's directly below the guard). The same blade that that shattered his heart, the same blade that had pierced the heart of the original Raven. Now he turned it against his own son.
"Can we quit it with the drama? Drawing it out like this only show's that you don't have the balls to actually do it." He crossed the distance between himself and his father. "Now then," He grabbed Mytho by the hair and pulled his face back, better exposing his chest. "Give me your beautiful, Pure Heart!" And he plunged his hand into Mytho's chest.
Rue screamed, the crowd that had simply watched in puppet like silence up until now gasped and blood spurted from between Hoffnung's fingers. A faint red glow could be seen as Hoffnung began to pull the flawless gemstone that was his father's heart from his chest.
"...no..." Mytho's hand closed over his son's wrist. "NO!" He put all of his strength into yanking the hand from his ribcage. He collapsed to his knees gasping as the blood pored from the open wound. His heart left open and exposed to the world cast an ominous red glow upon the scene. He pulled his sword to him and positioned it on the ground in front of himself. Hilt to the ground, blade poised to strike his heart, he looked up at Hoffnung. "I'm sorry I couldn't help you."
"NO!" Hoffnung's and Rue's twin cries were so loud, so passionate, so violent that they reverberated off the very fabric of their world, made the pages on Autor's desk tremble and made the sword miss it's mark.
Instead of shattering Mytho's heart the glittering blade only cut off a single piece. One shard of emotion that went ricocheting off the uneven wood planks of the draw bridge to land directly in-front of Rue. She picked up the shard and clutched it to her chest.
"YOU FOOL!" Hoffnung roared. He seized his father by the collar of his tunic and drew him up to eye level. "I need you're heart to be whole. It's useless to me in pieces, even just two." He threw him back to the ground. "Mother..."
Rue looked up to meet her son's eye's.
"May I have that, please, Mother?"
"Rue..." Mytho began weakly. "Take that t-"
"Shut-up!" (kick)
"Please, Mother?"
Rue didn't think, she simply ran. Not in any particular direction, just away. Far away. Away form the pain, away from the sorrow, away from the drama. Just away. Mytho's shard felt warm in her hands, still warm from his chest, or was it warm from the sweat gathering in her palms? She didn't know, didn't really care actually. Tears stung her eyes, she couldn't see where she was going but she didn't care. It was getting darker so ether night was falling or she was entering a wood. Mytho's heart beat faintly against her finger tips. She was almost ready to slow down, almost ready to stop and look at the thing in her hands, almost ready to come to terms with what had just happened. And then she tripped on a tree root and fell.
S
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Autor stopped writing when he finally noticed the quill was out of ink. His breath was short for some reason, his heart was racing, he felt flustered and all around strange.
"Rue." He gasped.
He scanned the page for his last mention of her. She was running through the forest and then... and then what!? The quill had run out of ink at that point but he'd kept on Writing (capital w) who knows what could have happened to her! She could have tripped and broken her neck, or been eaten by a bear or... or... or... all manner of horrible possibilities ran through his head at lightning speed.
"RUE!" he said again only this time it was a cry.
Shut-up you fool! And stop over dramatizing!
"Mr. Plot Devise, Voice!" Autor never thought he'd be happy to hear him again.
Why did you go and shatter Mytho's heart?
"What do you mean 'why'?" Autor crossed his arms over his chest. "The agreement was to hurt Mytho, shattering his heart was the easiest way to achieve that. Plus, it got him out of the way so I can take Rue."
SHE'S A PERSON, NOT AN OBJECT YOU MORON! The voice seemed to shout. And I need Mytho's heart to be whole!
"Why?" Autor raised an eyebrow.
Isn't it obvious by now? I thought you were smart. There was a long pause in which neither said anything. Bring Mytho and his son out of the story. Do it NOW!
The last command the voice spoke seemed to echo in Autors mind in a none to comfortable sort of way. He sat back down at the desk and dipped his quill in the ink bottle. He had scribbled only a few sentences on the page when he heard the creak of wood behind him and turned to she the old grandfather-clock behind him open to reveal a man clad all in black dragging an unconscious Mytho into the room.
He threw Mytho to the floor unceremoniously. "Figured it out now, Writer Monkey?" He asked.
S
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Ahiru was a woken by a splash in the water knocking her under the surface. When she re-surfaced gasping and a little peeved she went to investigate the cause of the splash. As it turned out it was a woman, a woman with long black hair that fell in waves and curls over her face obscuring her features from view. She was wearing a long dark violet gown that flowed around her hips in the water. She also seemed to be sobbing profusely and clutching her chest.
Ahiru swam circles around her wondering if she was injured or needed help.
"Quak?" She ventured tentatively.
The woman looked up and Ahiru saw her face for the first time.
"Ahiru!" Rue exclaimed. She scooped the little duck up in her arms. "Oh, Ahiru I'm so glad I found you! I need you to use this again!"
Rue opened her hand to reveal, not a glowing fragment of ruby red gemstone, but instead a bloody and crudely operated on heart valve. Together duck and woman stared at the valve in confusion. Somehow, in coming to the real world Mytho's piece of heart had become a real piece of a heart!
Fin for now...
Thanx To:
Zenki379: for your feedback
samtheweebo: for the positive encouragement
James Birdsong: for his applause
Special Thanx To:
Zenki379: for adding me to their favs