Here we are with episode six. This puts us slap bang in the middle of season three, assuming of course I ever manage to write a full twelve episodes. Hey, how hard could that be?

*whimpers*

UPDATE: I was offline for a while because my computer got trashed by a mega virus bomb (my virus scan counted over 1000+ infected files!) and I had to reformat my computer. It's working again, although I still have a ton of stuff I need to install to get it back to normal. Fingers crossed it doesn't happen again.

Rozen Maiden: Märchen

EPISODE SIX

Angel of Mercy

Megu had changed.

Gone was the free spirited girl who would smile and sing, despite the sword that hung perpetually over her head. The girl who saw beauty in death, who waited with anxious anticipation of the time when she could finally embrace her own end and be free of the sick body she was trapped in. Gone, and in her place was ... something else.

Weeks had passed since the operation, and the doctors were convinced that she had recovered sufficiently enough to go home. Yet when her parents came to collect her, she had screamed at them to go away and leave her. Suigintou had overheard the entire painful exchange from her perch on the window ledge outside Megu's room. Things had even been thrown. She'd become so hysterical that the nurses had to sedate her.

Suigintou didn't understand it at all. Megu should be happy. For the first time in her life she actually had the prospect of life. The chance to live like a normal human being. Given a little more recovery time, she could go out, make friends, have fun. There was a whole world out there for her to experience. And yet ... her behaviour now was more akin to what one would expect of a person prior to receiving a new heart. Someone dying. But Megu wasn't dying, the very opposite was true.

It just made no sense.

Suigintou had listened to her sobbing into her pillows shortly afterwards, and decided to take off. She couldn't even begin to think of words of comfort in this situation, especially since comforting words had never exactly been her strong point. She flew aimlessly across town, trying to clear her head and make some sense of it all.

Kirakishou had done what she could not - fixed Megu's heart. But it almost seemed as if the girl didn't want a new, healthy heart. Suigintou had always known that the girl wished for death, longed for it even, but that was because it had always been there. Looming in front of her like a grim spectre, ready to cut her down at any moment. Instead of worrying about it, she had accepted it, even looked forwards to it. So why, now that it was gone, was she more unhappy than Suigintou had ever seen her?

She found herself over the Sakurada home, perhaps by chance, perhaps not. She set down on a neighbouring roof and stared down through one of the windows. The dolls were watching television. Suigintou wondered briefly just why they found that thing so fascinating. She considered joining them for a moment, perhaps even knocking on the door as a polite person would do. Then she scoffed at herself.

"As if I would."

She froze, the coldness of her own voice shocking her. Did she really have to be so arrogant all the time? Would it hurt to go down there and spend some time with her sisters? The very thought filled her with a jumble of confused feelings. Would they even want to see her? That had never stopped her from barging into their house before, but now she wondered. She'd spent so much time being alone, she'd almost forgotten what it was like to have company. She certainly found herself hanging around Megu a lot. True the girl was her Medium, but saying that was the only reason would be a lie.

Suigintou gave an idle twirl. "I suppose I could stop by for a chat. It would be nice to see Shinku again."

She floated down into the driveway, over to the front door, and reached out to knock. She stopped when she noticed the button to one side and pressed that instead, ringing the doorbell. And then for some silly reason she felt anxious. She set down on the ground and waited patiently for someone to answer the door, the anxiety growing with each passing moment.

Something was wrong. Very wrong. A deep sense of uneasiness swept over her, making her feel slightly light headed and faint. Her hand felt suddenly hot and she lifted it up to see that her rose ring had materialised on her finger. Then it hit her.

"Megu!"

Her Medium was in danger - immediate mortal peril. That was what she was feeling. She took off into the skies in the blink of an eye, leaving a very confused Nori to open the front door and find no one there.

Suigintou made for the hospital with such speed that she left a trail of black feathers in her wake. The sun had already set and a full moon was high in the sky, casting a pearly silver sheen over everything. As the building came into view, Suigintou spied a silhouette standing on the roof and a terrifying thought occurred to her.

She wouldn't ... surely?

Unfortunately her uneasy hunch proved to be correct. It was Megu, and the girl was standing at the edge of the rooftop. She certainly wasn't there to gaze at the moon, and proved as much when she spread her arms and fell forwards, her eyes shut. She plummeted towards the hard concrete below as Suigintou swept in, her wings spread wide as she intercepted her Medium in mid-air.

It wasn't easy. Megu was considerably bigger and heavier than Suigintou was, but the doll wrapped her arms around the girl's waist and strained her wings until they felt as if they might tear from her back. The ground loomed closer and closer, and for a moment Suigintou didn't think she could halt their descent in time. So she didn't try to; she turned Megu's swan dive into a pendulum swing, transferring her momentum into a sweeping arc that caused the falling pair to miss the ground by a hairs breadth and sail upwards into the moonlit sky.

"You idiot!" Suigintou barked just as soon as she caught her breath. Megu opened her eyes wide and gasped at the spectacle below her.

"I'm flying..."

"No, I'm flying, and I'm carrying your sorry weight."

Megu laughed, the first laugh Suigintou had heard since the operation. "You came for me! My angel of death. You came. I hoped you would. Please, take my life now and fly away with it."

Suigintou was finding it more and more difficult to keep a hold of the human girl. She gritted her teeth and concentrated on setting them down in a deserted park before she lost her grip. Only when they were both safely on the ground did she finally let her rage go unchecked.

"Of all the idiotic, moronic, stupid, crazy - WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?!" Suigintou snarled at her, wanting nothing more at that moment than to slap some common sense into the silly girl. Megu looked as if she were ready to cry.

"You're not here to take my life, are you?"

"Of course I'm not, I just saved your life!"

"I didn't ask you to! I didn't want you to!"

Suigintou couldn't believe what she was hearing. She felt as if she had been struck. "You ... you want to die that much?"

"Yes!"

Suigintou glared coldly at the girl for a long moment. Then she flew up to her face and slapped her. Megu turned her head instinctively away and pressed a hand to the stinging mark on her cheek. When she looked back at Suigintou, the doll seemed livid, and spoke with an extremely forced calmness.

"I could understand that before, but not now. A woman died to give you that heart, and this is how you repay her? By tossing away the gift she gave you? That's your life you're so casually throwing away."

Megu looked away from her, but kept her hand pressed to her face. "This is all wrong. This isn't the way it was meant to be. I'm not supposed to live."

Suigintou floated back down to the ground, letting the anger drain out before she did something even more drastic. She folded her arms and glowered at Megu. "So you thought you'd just end it yourself. Because you're supposed to die."

"Yes."

"Show me where that's written, because I don't believe it for a second."

"It's my fate. It's always been my fate ... to die." She lowered her hand now and stared up at the full moon, the light reflecting in her eyes, giving them a bluish white hue. "I was promised death, and now death has been stolen away from me. And it's not fair. I want what was promised. I want what I've been waiting all these years for. I want-"

"To die," Suigintou finished sourly for her.

"Yes."

Suigintou gave an exasperated gasp. "And has it occurred to you that there are people besides yourself that don't want you to die? Your parents for one."

Megu lowered her head and shook it sadly. "They hate me. They've been waiting for me to die as well, and now I've disappointed them. That's all I am to them, a disappointment."

Suigintou had to resist the urge to slap her again. She unfolded her arms and strutted away a few steps, glaring at a dark hedge as if daring it to do something to annoy her. "Fine then," she said shortly, "I don't want you to die. You're my Medium after all, and you've finally got the strength to be useful to me."

She felt Megu's gaze at her back, and it was angry. "You promised to use up my life. You were supposed to kill me. You said you would."

Suigintou rounded on her, meeting the girl's angry gaze with a far more effective one of her own. "I promised no such thing, and I said I would take your life only if it suited me. It doesn't. I told you before, I'm no angel."

Megu's expression softened and she even smiled a little. "You are Suigintou. I was just wrong about the kind of angel you were. You're not an angel of death; you're a guardian angel."

Honestly, this girl was impossible. Suigintou scoffed at her and glared at a set of swings. "I'm nothing of the kind. Now are you going to come back to the hospital with me, or do I have to drag you there myself?"

They returned without incident, Suigintou ensuring that Megu made it back to her room without attracting the attentions of the night staff. She sat in her bed and stared off into space for a long time. Suigintou was reluctant to leave her in case she tried something else stupid. There was no telling what she might do in this state.

"Suigintou..."

"What?"

Megu blinked and looked across at her, and for some reason Suigintou thought she seemed almost afraid. Of what?

"Would you ... stay with me tonight?"

Suigintou was taken aback. She had actually planned on staying with her, but she certainly didn't expect Megu to ask her to do so. Especially since she'd just foiled her recent attempt to become a chalk outline on the ground outside. She nodded.

"Well of course," she said, extending her hands, "I cant very well have you hurling yourself off the roof again as soon as my back is turned. Remember, I'm the one with the wings, not you."

Megu smiled a nervous little smile and pulled the covers of her bed back, before shuffling over to one side. Suigintou stared at her for a long moment, not understanding the reason behind her actions. "What, you're not going to sleep standing up are you?" Megu clarified. Suigintou's eyes widened for a moment as she realised what the girl meant, and she hurriedly looked away, feeling suddenly warm. Was she ... was she blushing? It felt like she was. Whatever for?

"No, I..." she trailed off, thinking of her case back at the church. She didn't want to risk leaving Megu alone to go and fetch it. So yes, it seemed she was going to have to sleep in the girl's bed. Megu giggled as Suigintou climbed in beside her, which did nothing to alleviate the embarrassment she felt at her predicament. "I don't know what you find so amusing about all of this," she said.

"Well it's just that I've never had someone in bed with me before," Megu smirked, showing a little of her old self again, even if only for a moment. Suigintou scowled at her, but was at a complete loss for words. They both settled down, Suigintou watching Megu closely to make sure she was falling asleep.

"Good night, Miss Angel," she said as she slowly drifted off. Suigintou continued watching until her breathing became regular and steady.

"Sweet dreams," the doll whispered, finally closing her own eyes and allowing herself to rest. Just before the dream world took her, the spark of an idea fluttered through her mind and she snatched a hold of it before it could escape.

Sweet dreams...

She would be paying her sisters a visit after all, because there were two in particular who just might be able to help her. Or rather, help Megu.