Final part of episode six, despite what I said earlier. The Weeping Angels were shamelessly taken from Doctor Who, which I am a fan of. I thought they fitted Megu's dream world well. Tune in next episode for rampant silliness!

Rozen Maiden: Märchen

EPISODE 6

The Weeping Angels

Megu stared at the dolls arrayed before her bed, trying to digest the cocktail of confusing information they'd just sloshed in her direction. It was a little bewildering, to say the least.

"You want to go into my dreams?" she asked, hoping for some clarification. The doll in the green dress nodded enthusiastically.

"That's right human, we're going to enter your dream world. Everyone has one. It's a sort of manifestation of your subconscious, your inner psyche. It'll help us to see where the screws are loose in that pretty head of yours so we can tighten them back up again!"

"Suiseiseki!" Her twin gaped at her in frank astonishment at her bluntness. Really though, it was something Souseiseki should expect by now. Suigintou glanced sideways at her, frowning as she did so.

"'Pretty head'?"

"You will not come to harm, you have our word," Shinku assured her. It was the wrong kind of reassurance, given the person in question. Megu shook her head.

"It's alright, I don't mind if it's dangerous, really."

"Hence the problem," Suigintou said with a sigh. Not wanting to waste any further time, the twins released their artificial spirits into the hospital room, and a moment later Megu fell back against her pillows, sound asleep. A swirling grey vortex opened in the air above her, beckoning to the waiting dolls. Suiseiseki stopped in front of Suigintou before entering, fixing her elder sister with her stern mismatching gaze.

"Double flower topped hamburgers," she said as way of a reminder. Suigintou rolled her eyes but otherwise didn't bother to dignify the comment with an answer. Souseiseki followed her twin through the open doorway, leaving Shinku and Suigintou alone together for a moment. Suigintou was startled when something touched her hand, and even more shocked when she looked down and saw that it was Shinku, holding it in her own. She looked up and found two bright sapphire eyes watching her.

"I am here for you, Suigintou," she said gently. Suigintou was at a loss. It was ... odd. She'd been fighting Shinku for so long. Granted, things had been better between them of late, but it was still so very strange to be on such good terms with her. It wasn't something she'd been prepared for or come to expect, yet here it was. Her old instincts made her want to pull her hand away from Shinku's, but they were overridden by something else. And then, before she could even think to say something, Shinku squeezed her hand and then released it, vanishing through the doorway to Megu's dream world. Suigintou raised her hand and stared at it for a long moment.

Centuries of concentrated, obsessive hatred towards Shinku were being forced by circumstance to change into something else. The question was, what? No, actually she knew the answer to that one. The real question was, what was she going to do about it?

None of them knew what to expect, but what they found was somehow worse than their best guesses. Megu's dream world was shrouded in darkness, lit only by a sprinkling of stars and a half-full moon that seemed somewhat sinister. The fact that they all found themselves standing in what appeared to be a graveyard didn't exactly help matters either.

"And I so thought the runt's world was bad," Suiseiseki muttered grimly, "Compared with this, his is practically a theme park. Brrrr! It's so cold!"

Megu glanced around at the eerie, silent graveyard, filled with glossy white marble headstones as far as the eye could see. To any normal person, such a place would send shivers down their spine, yet Megu seemed perfectly at ease. "I quite like it here," she said, "It's so peaceful."

"See here," Shinku beckoned to them, standing before one of the headstones. They gathered around her and peered at the thing, and were just able to make out the inscription on the marble. It simply bore a name: Megu Kakizaki.

"It's the same on this one," Souseiseki announced, pressing her hand against another headstone several feet away. Suigintou marched over to one near to where she was standing and saw that yes, it also had Megu's name written on it. They all did. Every single grave was marked with her name. She didn't have the faintest idea what that meant, but it couldn't be a good thing.

"Whaaaaa!" Suiseiseki cried out in alarm. They all rounded on her and found her standing several feet away, trembling like a leaf and pointing at something. It turned out to be a statue of an angel that was covering its eyes. Souseiseki sighed.

"Will you relax already? It's only a statue."

Suiseiseki hurried over to her side and clutched her shoulder, still staring at the thing as if afraid it might bite her head off. "Oh yeah? Well why wasn't it there a second ago?"

"I am sure it was, you simply failed to notice it," Shinku tried to reassure her, "After all, statues cannot move."

Suiseiseki inched a little closer to her twin, still shaking slightly. "If you say so, but I'm telling you it so wasn't there before."

"Come on, we need to find her soul tree," Souseiseki reminded them. They set off with Souseiseki in the lead, and soon found an old worn path. Here and there they found the occasional dead tree, but what was odd was that the trees they encountered seemed to have only recently died. There were still dried up leaves scattered about, and Suiseiseki confirmed that it had been quite healthy not so long ago.

"What does that mean?" Megu asked, staring up at one of the sad, gnarled looking trunks and withered branches. Souseiseki stood at her side and followed her gaze.

"Your dream world is a reflection of your soul, of your state of mind. If these trees were once healthy but have only recently died, it means something has happened to you of late to darken your heart."

Megu turned away from the dead tree, guilt etched on her face for all to see. She raised a curled hand to her chest unthinkingly, and her eyes widened as it felt the beat of her own heart. Suigintou noticed all of this, and took a step towards her, extending a hand in her direction. "Megu, are you all right?"

"I'm fine!" the girl snapped suddenly, turning away from her. It was clear to everyone that she was not fine, yet none of them said anything. Lempicka floated out of the sky and hovered in front of Souseiseki.

"What is it?" Shinku asked.

"A building. Lempicka says there is a large structure up ahead. We should probably check it out."

They set off again, though Suigintou stayed where she was for a moment, watching Megu follow her sisters along the moonlit path. What was wrong with Megu? There was something she wasn't telling them. Suigintou glanced across at the dead tree standing beside the path, and immediately noticed the angelic statue behind it. It hadn't been there before, she was sure of it. It was just like the one Suiseiseki had pointed out earlier, and it occurred to Suigintou that, with its hands covering its eyes, it almost seemed as if the statue was crying...

"D'you think things could get any spookier in this place?" Suiseiseki wondered aloud. They were all standing before a truly magnificent gothic cathedral, towering spires reaching up to the starry sky above, the moonlight reflecting off stained glass windows. There was a suitably impressive double, studded oak door at the front of the building, and Shinku spotted an inscription over it, in English, carved into a scroll-like design.

"'Don't fear the reaper'," she read aloud.

"Yes, that's Megu alright," Suigintou observed dryly. Suiseiseki glanced sideways at her twin, growing increasingly anxious at her surroundings.

"Do you really think we'll find her tree inside there?"

"Normally I would say no," Souseiseki admitted, "But things are far from normal here."

There was a laboured silence as they all waited to see who would volunteer to be the first to enter, and were surprised when Megu confidently strode forwards. The doors creaked loudly as she flung them open, and a gloomy chamber greeted them invitingly. Whilst everyone had their eyes front, Suiseiseki alone chanced to look behind them, and continued to do so for several long moments. She swallowed.

"Umm ... Shinku?"

"Yes?"

"You know how you said statues couldn't move?"

"What of it?"

"Well ... you were so wrong."

Shinku turned around to see what she was talking about and gasped at what she witnessed behind them. The others did likewise, and were all suitably shocked. At least a dozen statues of angels were blocking the path they'd just followed, all frozen in various poses. Even though they were all as still as ... well, statues, they nevertheless radiated a palpable air of menace. Megu seemed visibly pained just looking at them, and extended a forlorn hand in their direction.

"They want me," she said, "They've come for me."

"Get her inside," Suigintou ordered, striding out in front of them and summoning her sword with a flick of her wrist. She grasped the hilt and held the point out threateningly towards the statues, pausing only for a split second to realise just how absurd that was. The dolls ushered Megu into the cathedral as Suigintou eyed the statues warily, waiting to see which one would make the first move. None of them so much as twitched however, and she felt increasingly stupid with each passing second.

And then she blinked.

Three of the statues were suddenly standing directly over her (they were all of human height). Their arms were outstretched as if to grab her, their hands more like claws. Their beautiful angelic faces were contorted with apparent rage, fang lined mouths wide open as if howling at her. Suigintou backed up quickly, her eyes wide. They were fast when you weren't looking. The problem was they were made of stone, so her sword would be of little use, and if she wanted to run she would have to turn her back on them.

"This could be a problem."

"Wait Shinku!" Suiseiseki grabbed her sister's arm and held fast, preventing the fifth Rozen Maiden from heading back the way they'd come. Shinku struggled to go regardless.

"I will not leave Suigintou alone back there," she insisted, moving with such force that she actually started to drag Suiseiseki across the floor until Souseiseki joined in and held her still.

"If there's one thing I've learned," Souseiseki said calmly, "it's that Suigintou can take care of herself."

No sooner had she said this than the giant stained glass window above them shattered into dozens of shards and rained down on them like a falling rainbow. A dark blur barrelled through in their wake and landed in front of them, a cloud of black feathers joining the fragments of coloured glass. Suigintou retracted her wings and stood upright. She turned to face them, extended a hand and said: "Move."

They did so without question, just in time to avoid a storm of feathers that enveloped the doorway to the entrance, sealing it up as completely as wax in a lock. And not too soon either, for a second later they all heard something heavy hit the door with such force that cracks appeared in the stone frame around it. The dolls backed even further away.

"What are those things?" Suiseiseki wondered, her voice trembling slightly.

"I have a better question," Suigintou said as she whirled around, searching for something, "Where's Megu?"

Deeper in the cathedral was a golden altar with a cross upon it. Megu was kneeling before it, her hands clasped together, her head bowed. Looking at her, one might think she was at peace, yet nothing could be further from the truth. Though her eyes were closed, they trembled, moist tears threatening to slip through.

"Why," she whispered, her voice almost lost to the dark, cavernous chamber. "I prayed for death every day. All anyone ever told me was that I didn't have long left, but they were all wrong. I kept going and going, no matter how much I prayed for someone to come and take me away. And now ... now ..." she jerked her head up and flicked her eyes open, her tears hitting the altar in front of her. "Now they tell me I must live! That's just not fair! I prayed for death, was promised death, and now I can't have it! Why? Why?" She buried her face in her hands and sobbed. No answer came, only the heavy silence of an empty cathedral.

It wasn't fair, not fair at all. Her whole life all she could do was sit and wait for death to come for her. That was all she had done. She was ready to face death. And yet here she was now, all grown up, and they expected her to just forget all of that and live a life she had no idea how to live. No one had bothered to prepare her for life, because doing so had always seemed like such a waste, such a pointless endeavour. Why teach her how to live like a normal human being when she could drop dead at any moment?

"Why are the angels crying?"

Megu lowered her hands and blinked back her tears, startled by the sudden voice. It wasn't the voice of God, no, but it was the voice of an angel. Her angel. Suigintou's voice. Megu stood and turned to see her very own guardian angel marching down the aisle towards her, her strange lavender eyes fixed upon her.

"Tell me Megu," she said, "Why are the angels crying?"

"Because ... they can't take me away now."

"Take you away?"

She nodded. "They have always been here. In my dreams. Waiting to take my soul away when I died. Every night when I went to sleep, I told them, 'just a little longer', and they would wait patiently and watch over me. But now they weep for me, because now-"

"You're not dying anymore."

"That's right. Now I am not dying. Now I have to live, and all those years they waited for nothing. You shouldn't have come here, Suigintou. You and your friends are different ... they will take you instead."

Suigintou reached the altar where Megu stood and looked up at her stricken Medium. Megu was vaguely aware that the other dolls were somewhere close by, watching them, but she focused only on her Suigintou.

"You're afraid," the doll said, as if finally realizing it and feeling stupid for not seeing it sooner, "You're afraid of living the same way other people are afraid of dying. You're afraid of the unknown. You don't know the first thing about life, and now you have to live one. And that scares you."

Megu nodded, feeling thoroughly wretched. She clenched her hands and sniffed, her eyes threatening to well up once more. "Dying is easy," she said, "You don't have to do anything - it just happens. Living is much harder. It's full of obstacles and problems."

"That's what makes it worth living."

Megu shook her head. "Not if you've never had to face them. I've never faced a challenge in my life. I've never had to overcome anything, never had to think for myself or solve a problem, or react to something unexpected. I wouldn't know what to do, where to start. I'm hopeless, Suigintou. I'm junk. That's all I'll ever be."

Suigintou had been so focused on her Medium that it took her by complete surprise when, out of the corner of her eye, she saw an angel. She glanced around and realised that they were surrounded. The eerie statues were all about them, watching them with their blank stone eyes. Given how fast and strong they were, she ought to be pretty worried right about now. Her sisters certainly were. But oddly enough she wasn't. She understood what they were and why they were here, and knew what she needed to do to make them go away. What Megu needed to do. She turned her attention back on the girl and reached out to take her hand, just as Shinku had done to her back in the hospital.

"You are not junk," she insisted, her voice firm yet devoid of anger, "You're my Medium. More than that, you're someone I care about." She looked deeply into Megu's confused eyes, trying her very best to convey feelings she was completely unused to having and totally unused to expressing. "It's because of you I learned how to care. Until I met you, my life had been filled with hatred and spite. That's all I knew, all I lived for. You changed that, changed me. You made my life worthwhile. You're not hopeless Megu, because you gave me hope."

Megu was at a loss for words. This was more than Suigintou had ever said to her before, and it was by far the kindest words she'd ever heard the doll speak. All she could manage to say was her name, yet she said it with such compassion that Suigintou found the strength to go on.

"Suigintou..."

"I want you to live, Megu. I ... I need you. You say that you don't have the first idea how to live, well ... neither did I at first. But I had someone to teach me, someone who showed me kindness when no one else would. So ... I'll teach you."

The angels were all around them now. They were ignoring the other Rozen Maidens and had instead formed a tight ring around Megu and Suigintou. Their angry posture had reverted back to weeping, to sadness, their hands pressed to their faces to stem the supposed flood of tears. And there were tears now, Suigintou could see them. Of all the things, wet tears were rolling down stone cheeks and splashing onto the ground of the cathedral. Suigintou did her best to ignore them. She gripped Megu's hand tight and pulled it close, brushing her fingers over the rose ring the girl wore on her finger. She stared at it for a long moment before smiling up at the astonished girl.

"Not so long ago, I saw a human boy get down on one knee and swear to serve and protect my sister with his life," she said. As if mesmerised, Megu got down on one knee before Suigintou. She almost chuckled at that. "He made her so happy doing that ... so much happier than I'd ever made her. I'd like to make you that happy Megu. So here, in front of all these witnesses," she gestured to indicate the angels, "I swear to protect you. To teach you whatever I can, to help you and to stay by your side."

"Until death do us part," Megu added, a smile creeping onto her face. Now Suigintou did chuckle.

"Until death do us part."

She blinked, and saw that the angels were gone. All of them. There was not a statue in sight. There were three dolls however, standing half a dozen feet away down the aisle. Suiseiseki jumped up and waved her arm in the air, cheering.

"Wooo! You may now kiss the bride!"

"Which one's that?" Souseiseki asked. Suigintou was about to snap off a cutting remark, but any such thoughts vanished from her mind as Megu wrapped her arms around her and pulled her close in an embrace. And she felt herself blushing again, right in front of her sisters. Yet, looking at Shinku's smiling face, she found that she didn't seem to mind so much. Suiseiseki dusted her hands off with a look of smug satisfaction.

"I think our work here is done," she said. Souseiseki frowned.

"We didn't actually do anything though..."

"Shhhh!" Suiseiseki raised a finger to her lips in an effort to silence her sister. "Keep quiet and me might still get dinner out of this!"

Shinku left the twins bickering and marched up to the altar, stopping before Suigintou and her Medium with an expression of such happiness and wonder on her face that Suigintou never imagined she'd have such a look directed at her. "Suigintou, truly you are not the person you once were, and I am sorry for all the hurt I caused you in the past. I am proud to call you my sister. I only hope you can say the same of me."

Suigintou stared at her in mute shock. Suiseiseki could have plucked the feathers from her back right there and then and she wouldn't even notice. A year ago, if someone had told her Shinku would say those very words to her, she would have scoffed at them and told them they obviously didn't know Shinku very well. She smirked and put a hand casually on her hip.

"We'll see, Shinku. If you can survive my cooking then I just might."

Suiseiseki snorted. "It can't be any worse than Shinku's!"

Shinku rounded on the Gardener, her face suddenly livid. "What was that?" she strutted over to her sister, who backed away hastily in the face of her crimson rage, "How dare you insult my cooking in such a manner. I try my best, and is that not what matters most?"

"Why don't you ask Kanaria," said Souseiseki, "she's so scarred from eating those cookies you made that she can't even look at one now without having to down a glass of water."

Megu chuckled as she watched the dolls squabbling, and Suigintou noticed the first rays of a new dawn shining through the cathedral windows, heralding a pronounced change in the girl's heart. And then the enormity of what she'd just done hit her. She'd given up playing the Alice Game, and now she'd pledged to take care of a human who wasn't even her father. It was ... unthinkable. And perhaps the strangest thing of all was ... she didn't even mind. It all felt right somehow. As she watched Shinku scolding Souseiseki, she clasped her hands together and spoke inside her own mind, yet her words were directed outwards.

Forgive me Father, but ... this is what I have to do now. This is who I am. I'm sorry. If this means I'm not worthy of becoming Alice after all, then so be it. I love you, Father, but ... I love them as well.

Hina: Oh! Oh! Suigintou's making dinner!

Jun: That's it, we're all dead.

Nori: Oh Jun-kun...

Jun: Nori, what the heck are you doing? Ahhh! Stay back!

Barasuishou: Life is so much more fun when you don't hold back.

Suigintou: Shinku is mine, you hear? She blongs to me, not you!

Jun: Not you too! Has everyone in this house gone insane?

Souseiseki: We're all mad here.

Shinku: Next time, on Rozen Maiden: Märchen,

Nori: The light of truth eludes us. And so does my Jun-kun!