Engarde

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Chronolith

Ink Burns

This is a work of fiction. All characters and events portrayed in this book are fictional, and any resemblance to real people or incidents is purely coincidental.

This is a work of fanfiction, produced according to the principles of transformative fair use as put forward in US copyright law, and abiding by the custom and practice of fan-produced work in Japan, where the source texts were created. No author is in any way affiliated with any of the creators of the source texts, nor with the companies who distribute their products, nor any other rights holder, and these stories were not authorized by either the creators or the producers. Ink Burns is a fan site and the material here is freely provided for the enjoyment of fellow fan-community members; there is no commercial infringement.

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 US license at the Ink Burns fanfiction archive (http://alltrees.org/archive/).

Published on 2005-01-05 14:36:47.

Attributions can be made by author's name and a link to the archive.

This ebook edition was published on May 16, 2012 by the Ink Burns fanfiction archive.

Engarde

Kurai is depressed and Hatter is curious. Drama with Angst, I-3

Kurai was used to walking her realm with Noise's steady presence at her back like a tether that kept her from flying apart from all the different directions in which her land, her people, her responsibilities pulled her. But today she walked the length and breadth of it alone. She did it to reminder herself that she, and her land, and her people, were not part of Assiah though they were so achingly close to it. Close enough that it rubbed against the softest skin until it broke and bled. She did it to remember that they were not angels, or demons--no matter how individual members might theorize or debate; that they were their own, a people apart. The forgotten and despised children of God.

It was the Witch's shattered realm that eventually drew her--with all its psychic pain and loneliness like a blackened mirror for her own.

She stood where she had stood that first time, the first time she had fallen through its silver borders. The first time she had seen Anthy as she really was, or was meant to be. Kurai knew the Great Angels, lords of Hell, Lucifer and the Messiah, and knew a fair number of their psychic reflections, but she had not--at least not yet--meet anything like Witch. Or like Utena.

Kurai placed her hands against the smooth dome of silver and leaned her forehead against it, careful to avoid thinking about going through the silvered glass-like stuff.

And it wasn't fair that she would fall in love, with one or both of them, when she couldn't have one or both of them. Just like last time--just like Setsuna.

It just wasn't fair. She wanted to know when she would find someone who loved her the way Setsuna loved Sara or Utena loved Anthy. Because she was tired of being in love, when no one loved her back.

"One thinks that one's lord's Royal Wife is somewhat ... distressed," Mad Hatter commented, hir voice sliding through the darkness like whiskey through rich coffee.

Kurai looked up to where se sat, lounged insolently really, on a twisted tree branch that she was fairly positive had not existed there moments before. "Hatter-san," she sighed resignedly. "What do you want?"

"Is it not enough that perhaps one wished to look upon Her Majesty's beauty and spend pleasant moments in her company?" Hatter asked sweetly. Cocking hir head to one side she managed to look both coquettish, innocent, and sly.

Kurai made a face. "I'm not beautiful."

"Oh, there you are very wrong." Hatter appeared before her. Clasping her chin with two fingers, se stared into Kurai's black and silver-blue eyes. "Her Majesty is quite lovely, and will only grow to be more beautiful with time."

"Stop it!" Kurai smacked hir fingers away. "Stop it..."

Hatter might have been angered and offended had it not been for the naked pain and distress on Kurai's face. So se dropped hir hand without further comment as se waited for the inevitable explination. Kurai wrapped thin arms about herself and looked away.

"You don't love me, or think me lovely, Hatter-san. You never have," she said without looking at her shadowed companion. Hatter's face was unreadable. "It was only ever a pretty lie to get the promise that you got." Kurai turned to lock eyes with Hatter, and despite the tears her face was hard. "You can stop lying to me now."

"This one does not always lie, Kurai. This one is honest and tells the truth when it needs to be said--and you are lovely..." Hatter stopped as Kurai shook her head violently, denying all se said. Se was not, perhaps, entirely sure what se would have said to Kurai, to make her believe. But it did not matter. Still shaking her head, and not looking at the demon, Kurai turned and plunged into the swirling silver mists.

Hatter placed one hand upon the border of the other realm thoughtfully. It hardened underneath hir fingers, and se got the very clear sense of no. Se could probably force hir way in, but it was not hir way to do so. Se cocked hir head to one side.

"What are you then, and what is our little Queen to you?" Se asked.

For a moment se saw the image of a girl with wild purple hair and emerald, inhuman eyes in a dirty and torn smock. Hir eyebrow arched. The girl mouthed only one word to hir.

Mine

~~~

It had not been one of her wiser ideas, Kurai determined in retrospect, plunging into the silvered mists that were steadily encroaching into her territory. But she had to get away from the Mad Hatter and all the pretty lies that simply were not true, no matter how much she wanted them to be. Ever since Setsuna had gone back to Assiah the weight of those lies--the ones she had told herself, the ones other people like Akane had told her--pressed against her until parts of her cracked from the strain.

Witch's realm was one of psychic eminenations. A maelstrom of seething emotions that shivered and changed, nearly physically tangible things that could rip and tear. It was an unsettling place to be even when Kurai was able to control herself, but when she was feeling shattered and beyond all protection it was unbareable. Emotions like shining lances, like glistening swords, speared her. Cut her open and left her to bleed.

She was rocking on the barren ground, hands pressed so hard against the sides of her head that her ears rang, trying to block out all the endless screaming that was as much her own as it was the the centuries of bottled emotions left in this place to howl. Kurai had the disconcerting feeling of falling and the sound of rushing wings. Then gentle fingers that were cold to the touch pried her hands from her head. Witch knelt next to her, emerald eyes bemused.

"You should have run from the swords."

Kurai resisted the urge to check herself for wounds. Somehow she knew that nothing here could hurt her body unless she believed it could. Rather than being reassured by the thought, she was terrified. She gripped Witch's slender arms. "Where are we?"

Witch shook her head. Pulling away from Kurai's grasp she walked a little ways away from the kneeling Dragon Queen and stared out at the endless horizons. "We are in the place inside my head that is larger than the place outside of it."

It was the same answer that she had been given before, but now it made more sense--and less. Kurai stood up slowly, as if pushing through heavy water. As she stood the decision she had start to make when she first stared into Anthy's strangely hopeful eyes clarified and solidified. "Come away from here."

Witch turned back to her. They were so close that whispers sounds like ringing bells, too loud, too likely to be heard. "Would you lead me from here?"

The air shivered around them, hinting at the return of the maelstrom. "We'll lead each other."

Witch's smile bloomed, blazing and fierce. It was the last thing that Kurai saw before the darkness claimed her and the rushing wind. When she awoke Noise was peering down at her with anxious concern. Past her worried retainer she spotted Mad Hatter who was staring not at her, but at the opalescent dome of Witch's domain. Kurai sat up, everything in her body screamed in protest, but her head felt strangely clear. As if she had been cleansed of the paralyzing depression. In its place was a hard determination.

She went to stand next to Mad Hatter, who glanced inquiring down at her. Without saying a word Kurai placed her hand against the silvered surface and thought: "Soon." It was enough.