I thank Unnoticeable_Demon for helping.
Long ago, there was a warrior. In order to protect his friend, the warrior had to take his friend's life. Long ago, there was a sword. This sword had continued to fight for peace, yet realized that to protect the peace, it had no choice but to kill the one who wielded it and thus took its master's life. The warrior and the sword had to do what they did, but was that really what they ought to have done? Uncertain of the answer even now, they wander aimlessly.
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Duck had this urge one morning to go down to the boys' dormitory herself to see if Mytho had returned yet and Tiger found herself wanting to join her. She wanted to see if Fakir had returned after weeks of absence from school. They would either be there or not.
'Fakir, please be my friend again, soon.' Tiger thought desperately as they stood in front of the building. Duck had started to throw pebbles at their window to see if someone was inside.
Unknown to either of the girls, the room was indeed inhabited again and someone had noticed them leaving after a while. Fakir had peered at them through a slit between the closed curtains.
'What am I becoming?' He wondered grimly as he watched the two redheads leave.
Disappointed, Duck and Tiger returned to their dorm. They had wanted to slip silently back inside without any fuss, especially because Piqué and Lillie had their rooms across from them. But Piqué and Lillie, no matter how dim they were, had a keen ear for gossip and secrets. One after the other they opened their front doors in high spirits and ambushed Duck. They grabbed her by the shoulders and pushed her towards her and Tiger's room, where Duck tripped backwards across the threshold.
"There you are, Tiger! We saw you confessing your love by the window with Duck! You're both so bold!" Piqué called over her shoulder to Tiger who had followed them cautiously.
"It was like a reverse Romeo and Juliet, but horribly different as it was so one-sided!" Lillie piped up happily.
"It's not like that, Pique! And Lillie, don't you ever refer to my case as Romeo and Juliet! You know I hate tragedies!" Tiger said to them fiercely.
"Oh, that's right! Mytho and Fakir haven't gone to class in a long time." Piqué said thoughtfully, obviously not listening to what Tiger had said.
Lillie too, was not listening. "It has been so long since you saw him, you just couldn't contain yourself, could you? You had to confess your feelings to him today." Lillie said dreamily, making up her own version of what had happened in her mind.
"I did not!" Tiger groaned, rolling her eyes in the knowledge that it was impossible to convince them.
Piqué and Lillie did not let go of their conviction that both Duck and Tiger tried to confess their love to Mytho and Fakir, but as always they soon forgot about Tiger and focussed all their matchmaking plans on Duck. They had snuck up on Duck as she was watching Mytho apprehensive in the grounds at school later that morning and pulled her behind a bush to plot her next move. Of course Duck denied any wish to confess her feelings for Mytho (being doomed to vanish if she did), but her friends didn't believe her. Lillie just called her a coward and pushed her off the low hill they were on.
"Oh, you poor thing!" Lillie called after her as Duck lay dazed in the grass.
"It was your fault!" Piqué said to her.
"No way!" Lillie laughed and they both ran off, leaving Duck to recover from her fall on her own. Tiger groaned as she saw what had happened and quickened her step to see if she could help Duck, but to her great surprise it was Mytho who beat her to it. She saw him approach her and speak to her. Duck stood up and quite suddenly hugged him tightly around the middle. She held him for a second or two, then seemed to realize what she was doing and spun awkwardly away from him.
"I'm sorry! I'm so sorry! I was looking all over town, but I couldn't find you, so I was wondering what happened to you. And now, seeing you're okay is such a relief and I-I… I'm just glad that you're ok." She sputtered when she calmed down. She smiled at him shyly.
"You were looking for me?" Mytho asked her in surprise.
"Yeah." Duck replied, before she caught herself. "Oh, that's right, Mytho doesn't know I'm Tutu, so.." She muttered to herself, but Mytho had caught some of her words.
"Huh? Tutu? Do you know about Tutu, Duck?" He asked her curiously.
"Uh, um, well-" Duck began to stutter again, not knowing how to answer that question, but a cold voice caught her off.
"What are you doing?" It was Fakir. He had followed his friends to the school's grounds through the inner bridge between the three buildings of the academy. In a blink of an eye Fakir had jumped off the bridge and landed between Mytho and Duck.
"Fakir!" Tiger and Duck called in alarm. Fakir straightened up, but chose not to look at Tiger. On the other hand, he glared viciously at Duck who began to tremble with sudden fear.
"Mytho, you go ahead. I'll be right there." Fakir said suddenly in a civil tone as he turned to Mytho.
"Yes." Mytho replied curtly and left immediately.
"Now, you." Fakir resumed coldly after Mytho had fully turned away from them and he crossed his arms irritatedly.
"Yes?" Duck squeaked in reply and straightened up, not much unlike she did when Mr Cat scolded her.
Tiger kept quiet, unnoticed by either of them, she secretly kept an eye on Fakir.
"You're such an eyesore. Listen carefully, never come near Mytho again. If you do, I'll make sure you pay for it." Fakir said to Duck and his expression was merciless. He kept her gaze with a murderous expression and Duck's knees wobbled.
"You don't have the guts to do it, and I know it!" Tiger hissed suddenly, taking both by surprise. She stepped protectively in front of Duck and stared hard at Fakir, actually baring her teeth. Her eyes were flashing and Fakir could see the murder intent of a predator in them. He backed away. Tiger stood her ground, not moving one inch, she would not stand for him to bluff like that, just to scare Duck!
Fakir looked at Tiger, his hard expression failing due to sheer surprise. He couldn't think of anything to say to her, so he turned around and walked away from them. He felt shaken by what had happened. Tiger had told him off before, but she always had been cool with him. Calm and certain, now however she had finally lost her patience with him. The look in her eyes, that blazing look, he had never seen that before. Then he remembered when she had danced Diana's solo in class that one time. Her expression had not been quite the same, she had not been furious with someone back then, but her eyes had blazed with the same willpower.
To cool down, Duck and Tiger walked up to the school's fountain and sat themselves down on one of the stone benches. Tiger sighed, she didn't feel good about snarling at Fakir. After all, she knew his reasons.
Next to her, Duck had her face screwed up in frustration. Clearly she had exchanged her fear with anger: "Why?" She suddenly burst out. "Why does he have to be so scary to anyone who comes near Mytho? No one is allowed to help him, but him, which is very suspicious to me! Mytho would be better off away from such a bad guy. I doubt he cares about his happiness at all!"
"Don't talk about Fakir that way!" Tiger said to her sternly.
Duck was surprised and startled at her sharp tone. "What?" She asked and she whipped her head around to look at Tiger.
Tiger looked at Duck without blinking, to show her how serious she was. She had just been painfully truthful to Fakir, now it was Duck's turn to listen to the truth.
"Fakir's not a bad guy, and don't you dare say he is!" Tiger told her she wanted to be firm, but her voice shook when she spoke his name and she could feel tears well up in her eyes. Duck was shocked to see the hurt in her friends' face by what she had said, but Tiger didn't notice that. She stood up quickly and went to sit on a different bench, where she opened her bag and got out her sketchbook.
'Why?' Duck wondered as she watched Tiger dig out a pencil from the bottom of her bag. 'Why can she see good in Fakir? She must know something I don't.'
Meanwhile Tiger tried hard to forget her frustration in order to draw what she had seen in her dream last night. Yet again it had been a tomb-like space with a lot of stone walls and dark shadows. It had been about a lone sword without a warrior and a mask that represented something else….
"Why does everyone continue to ignore what they see? Really see, not just at one glance" Tiger wondered aloud. She glanced down at her right wrist where she now wore the gem of courage on a handmade bracelet.
"Pretty." Someone said at her elbow.
"Oh, hi." She greeted the, by now familiar, boy who had appeared at her right side.
"Hi." He greeted her with a grin. "What is that gem?"
"A woman named Edel gave it to me. She said it was called Courage. A single gem made of two."
"Maybe it means you should work together with someone." The boy said to her brightly. It was clear he wanted to help.
"I already work a bit with Duck, but her mission isn't the same as mine." Tiger said thoughtfully. No, if she was honest to herself, she and Duck did not have the same goal, they just happened to meet the same souls in need.
"Then, maybe with Fakir?" The boy said.
Tiger's stomach flipped over, but the joy at hearing his name was short-lived.
"I wish that was possible, but I still can't get through to him." She told the boy with a sad sigh.
"I think you should try again." The boy told her, then he was gone again.
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That afternoon, during a free period, Tiger noticed a duck waddling as fast as she could through the deserted corridor (everyone else in the school had their usual lessons), carrying an envelope in its beak.
"Duck…" Tiger guessed immediately and she left the common room to change into her cat form to follow her. Tiger was faster than Duck and soon she slunk back in the shadows to observe Duck closely. To her surprise, Duck headed straight for the Boy's changing room and snuck inside. Tiger did the same. Once inside she watched Duck walk purposefully along the row of lockers. When she had reached the one she had evidently been looking for she ruffled her feathers excitedly and banged hard with her webbed feet against the locker door to get it open. It opened quite easily and Duck put the letter inside before shutting the door again. She sighed nervously.
"Duck, what are you doing?" Tiger asked her as she came out of hiding.
"Tiger! I was just, uh-" Duck cried out in surprise, but she was unable to explain herself, for someone else was about to enter the room.
"Oh, no! Someone's coming! Quack, quack!" Duck cried out and she frantically spun around to look for a hiding spot. Finding none, she flew into the locker on top of the one she just had opened. Tiger quickly jumped in after her. Once both safely in the locker, they squirmed around to see who had come in, resulting in Duck sitting on Tiger's back. They both held their breath as they peered through the round hole in the locker door, though which they had climbed in.
"An iguana?" Duck breathed quietly. "Ah, that was close." Then, quite suddenly, the door of the locker was opened from the outside and Tiger and Duck stared dumbstruck into Fakir's face. Tiger's stomach did a flip and if she could blush as a cat, she would have done. She stared at Fakir, who had not reacted to the fact that there were two animals inside his locker. He simply scooped them both gently in his arms and turned his back carefully to the iguana-student. Then he carried them both outside, keeping them close to his body to keep them as much out of sight as possible.
"There." Fakir said in a cheerful tone that Tiger had not heard in years and tossed them some bread and little bits of fish. "You're so stupid. There's no way you were going to find any food in there."
Tiger felt heat rising inside her head again. Her stomach flipped and her heart was racing as she looked into Fakir's warm, caring eyes. To distract herself she took a small bite of fish.
Fakir smiled serenely. "I guess you wouldn't have wandered in if you knew."
Tiger couldn't remember the last time he smiled at her, even though he didn't know it was her. She tried telling herself this, but her heart just would not listen to reason. Next to her, Duck also was pretty flustered by Fakir's care for them and together they continued eating.
"You both sure eat a lot." Fakir chuckled, something he also had not done in years.
Duck and Tiger looked up at him after hearing that, both annoyed. Then, to their surprise Fakir stood up to leave.
"Hurry home." He told them and he threw his last bit of food. "Don't come around here anymore."
"I miss his smile." Tiger whispered sadly.
"Somehow, he wasn't like the usual Fakir." Duck breathed in disbelief, then she gasped, remembering what he had said to her that morning. His threat. She shook her head frantically. Tiger watched her in silence, she could guess what was going through Duck's head, but she was glad Duck wasn't badmouthing him in front of her anymore. Duck then became very quiet and sadly continued to eat her bread. Tiger did the same.
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After lunch, Tiger and Duck resumed their human forms. Duck went to find Piqué and Lilie, but Tiger decided to go into the common room. She wanted to see if she could watch Fakir from a distance as he talked to Mytho.
Fakir had taken a letter from Mytho and Tiger was one hundred percent positive it was the letter Duck had put in the locker.
"Throw it away, there's no need to go." Fakir told Mytho decisively.
"No." Mytho replied, taking Fakir by surprise.
"What?" He asked, a threatening edge to his voice.
"I have chosen to go, Fakir." Mytho told him, unfaced by Fakir's tone.
"You're kidding, right?" Fakir sneered.
"I mean it." Mytho insisted.
Tiger stood up quietly from her chair and crept closer to hear them better.
"What point is there?" Fakir was asking Mytho as Tiger got as close as she could without being noticed.
"Maybe there's something she can tell me about Tutu." Mytho reasoned.
"Who, Duck?" Fakir asked, surprised.
"Duck?" Tiger was also surprised. Had Duck signed the letter? That was very risky!
"Moron, there's no way she can know." Fakir continued, dismissing Mytho's hope for more information about Princess Tutu, but Mytho was persistent now that he had gained a few pieces of his heart.
"But.." He tried, but Fakir would not change his mind.
"Don't get involved with Tutu. Her existence will only bring you unhappiness in the end. Don't be fooled. And on top of that, you have that Kreahe chasing after you right now."
'Kreahe? Who's Kreahe?' Tiger wondered, confused. That was a name she had never heard before.
"I don't care." Mytho said, still arguing.
"If I tell you no, it's no! You got that!?" Fakir began to raise his voice now, but still Mytho wouldn't let him change his mind.
"No." He simply said again.
Fakir lost control over his temper and slapped Mytho in the face. The sound of the hit seemed to vibrate in the air in the common room and everyone around them gasped in unison. Immediately after, Fakir realized what he had done and reached out a hand towards Mytho to apologize, but Mytho turned away from him.
"I am going." Mytho told him without looking at him and left the room.
"So I'm no longer able to stop Mytho with words." Fakir said faintly to himself and he clutched his shoulder where the birthmark that marked him as the doomed knight from the Prince and the Raven ran diagonally across his body.
"Fakir, maybe it's time to stop this." Tiger said to him gently as she came to stand next to him.
Fakir wasn't even surprised that she was there, but continued to stare forlorn at the door through which Mytho had left.
"It's already too late." He muttered.
"You've been hurting yourself over and over again by being cold to everyone around you." Tiger told him softly. "When's it going to be enough?"
Fakir shook his head at her words. "I just want to protect him." He said.
Tiger groaned. "This is too much for you. You have to let it go."
Again, Fakir shook his head. "No, I made him a promise." And with that, he turned and left the room.
Tiger watched him leave, feeling she understood Fakir's struggle even better now. Just like Fakir couldn't persuade Mytho to stop running to his doom, she couldn't stop Fakir from doing the same. She knew she had to keep an eye on him.
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As dusk approached, Tiger tailed Fakir. He had come out of the boys' dorm dressed in a dark cape and hood. Fakir was heading straight for a strange building Tiger had never noticed in town before. At first glimpse it looked like a church, but it did not have a towerbell nor a graveyard around it. It wasn't a castle either, it was too narrow shaped and seemed to contain a single space within. Maybe it had once been a cathedral of some sort. Fakir entered it and Tiger waited outside. When he came out, almost half an hour later, he was carrying two items he didn't have with him before. A sword and something small that looked like a mask.
"What is that sword? He couldn't…" Tiger muttered to herself, but she didn't want to finish that thought and she left her hiding place to follow him further.
Fakir stopped at a fountain, just outside the building he had just entered. Halting in front of it, he drew the sword out of his sheath and started muttering strange words. It sounded German, but the words were ominous and Fakir was saying them in a slow rhythm, like a chant. As he spoke he cut his own hand with the sword and let his blood drip into the water of the fountain. The water turned dark and Fakir dipped the sword into it. Slowly the mixture of blood and water crept up the blade of the sword, painting it black. Once it was completely covered, Fakir lifted the sword out of the water and swung it upwards above his head. Then, when he brought the sword down in front of his face, the dark liquid sprung from the blade in little specks of black, leaving the blade shining as good as new.
Tiger had been watching all this with her hand over her mouth, shocked by what she had just witnessed. Then Fakir put the sword back in its sheath and placed the mask upon his face. Tiger recognised it with a thrill of fear as the same mask from her dream.
"It's like Romeo and Juliet where Mercutio tries to tell Romeo his love for Juliet will make him suffer." Tiger mumbled to herself, her bad feeling increasing as she started to follow Fakir again. It was not long before Tiger realized they were heading back towards the school grounds. Fakir walked purposefully around the school to the back where he hid himself a little away from the arbor that stood there. Someone was talking, a young woman in a black tutu. She vaguely resembled Odile from Swan lake, the way she was trying to capture Mytho's attention as Princess tutu, being as always dressed in white, watched in shock.
"We will just give these heart things to the crows." The dark ballerina said and as she said it, crows appeared around her. Cawing loudly.
"No!" Princess Tutu cried in distress and she rushed forward to save Mytho, but Fakir planned to beat her to it. He ran forward in a flash of dark gray and cast himself between the two ballerina's and Mytho. Fakir placed himself at Mytho's side and stepped in front of him, raising his sword towards the two girls, who looked equally surprised at his arrival.
"That's the Prince's sword." The dark ballerina said and she scowled at him.
"So, you're Kreahe?" Fakir asked her in a challenging tone. He had heard enough of their conversation to know what she was. This was the person, dressed like a black bird, Mytho had told him about.
"How dare you address me, filth!" Kreahe spat back and she launched herself in an attack.
"Are you the raven's manifest?" Fakir asked on as he too moved forward to meet her attack.
They struck simultaneously, meeting each other high in the air in their jump. Kreahe's sharp claw-like fingers had struck Fakir's mask and Fakir's sword had cut Kreahe's side. It ripped her dress and a box fell out of the pocket that had been there. Then the box transformed into a crow and the heart shard fell to the ground.
"Who am I supposed to be?" Kreahe asked herself softly and vanished in a whirlwind of black.
"The shard!" Princess Tutu cried with some relief as she saw it fall down and she wanted to run towards it.
"It's no use, Princess Tutu." Fakir said to her grimly from behind his mask.
"Who are.." Princess Tutu began, but at that moment Fakir's mask split in two and she could see his face.
Fakir turned to Mytho. "Sorry you had to wait, Mytho. It's alright, you don't have to suffer." He told him gently.
"What are you doing?" Princess Tutu asked him in a scared voice.
"Sit down." Fakir said to Mytho, still in that soft tone. Mytho sat down immediately. "I'll set things right. I'll shatter your heart for you once again."
'This won't make things right.' Tiger thought. She had still not moved from her hiding spot and she wondered what she could do.
"What?" Princess Tutu was shocked.
"And you will not stop me Princess Tutu!" Fakir cried out, lifting the sword to Mytho's chest.
"No!" Desperate, Princess Tutu cast herself just in time between Mytho and the sword, reflecting it with a magical fan.
"You, Fakir? You shattered Mytho's heart? Why would you do such an awful thing?" Princess Tutu asked Fakir as she stood up bravely to face him.
"If you hadn't shown up, then none of this would have happened." Fakir told her bitterly.
"I…" Princess Tutu was put off by what Fakir had said. She did not know what he was talking about.
"Tutu…" Mytho muttered and in his vague eyes flashed something close to panic.
'That's not true!' Tiger thought. 'Fakir was planning to shatter Mytho's heart, but he was not the first one to do it!' Her friend did not understand any of it, but Tiger couldn't intervene yet, both needed to learn from this.
"Fakir, stop it!" Mytho suddenly cried out and it caught his friend by surprise.
"Prince!" Fakir lost his grip on the sword and Princess Tutu disarmed him.
"Is it all my fault? If I pierce my heart, would that satisfy you Fakir?" Mytho asked Fakir.
"That's right, then you will return to your old self." Fakir replied in earnest.
"Alright." Mytho said and he picked up the sword and placed it at his heart.
"Mytho, don't do it! Mytho!" Princess Tutu begged him and she began to speak to him imploringly in a loud voice. "You'd rather be without a heart?"
"Do it! Quickly! Pierce your heart!" Fakir yelled over her.
"Mytho, please don't." Princess Tutu pleaded, her voice breaking.
"Do it now!" Yelled Fakir.
"No." Cried Princess Tutu.
Tiger had enough of this and she transformed.
"Do it!" Fakir yelled again.
"No!" Princess Tutu screamed desperately.
"That's enough!" Cried Princess Clara in a ringing voice and she enveloped the whole area with bright light. Spinning gracefully, Princess Clara floated down, showing herself at last. "Stop causing chaos, both of you."
"Clara?" Princess Tutu cried out in surprise.
"You've returned?" Fakir said faintly. She had made him completely forget his anger.
"Who are you?" Mytho wanted to know, but this time he was not scared, but intrigued.
"I am Princess Clara." Princess Clara replied and she smiled, glad to see that they all had calmed down.
"Clara, please help." Princess Tutu said to her and the desperation was back in her voice. She turned to Mytho. "Mytho, The other day, you smiled, remember? When I saw that, I thought this must be the real you. I believe that if your heart is fully restored, you'll be able to show even more of yourself! Because that's the real you!"
"Tutu, Fakir, I understand that both of you want to help and protect Mytho. But neither of you get to decide who Mytho is. That is something he has to find out for himself. And truthfully, all this yelling isn't helping, so please, just be quiet and let's see what happens." Princess Clara told them kind, but firmly.
Mytho looked at her. It was hard to tell, but he seemed to mull over her words in his mind, thinking about what she had just said, but he loosened his grip on the sword all the same. Fakir meanwhile had his head down and was staring at his feet, saying nothing.
"Though it's true that none of us can save or protect you from the ravens or the suffering." Princess Clara continued softly, still addressing Mytho. "All Princess Tutu can do is restore your heart to you. And all Fakir can do is swing a sword. And my mission has nothing to do with you."
With a loud clang that rang through the peaceful night air, Mytho let the sword fall to the ground.
"Mytho." Princess Tutu breathed in relief.
"I see, so this is the path you have chosen." Fakir said and he walked away without another word or backwards glance.
"My work seems to be done here." Princess Clara said and she too went away.