THE CYCLE

Chapter 1: The Fate's Game

"She was heartbroken for she could not speak of her love and turned into foams in the sea just as the prince sworn to marry another."

Once upon a time, there was a duck that had fallen in love with a prince with no heart that danced beside her pond everyday. With doll-like perfection etched on his face, he seemed emotionless. Yet the duck, being the observant she was, could see the torture, the pain and the loneliness inside the prince's golden eyes, making her wished to be able to see him smile and be by his side forever. She would give anything to make it came true.

One day, she was granted a human body and a magical necklace that could turn her into a beautiful princess. So she helped the prince gathered pieces of his heart with this power; hoping that one day she could see him smile at her. Jealousy, loneliness, sadness, fear, curiosity, devotion. With each piece of his heart, she grew to love him more and more. She thought she was able to see from the glimpses that those shards had shown her, the person he was; she thought the prince loved her with each piece of his broken heart that returned to him. She thought that she would be able to have her wishes after all.

Unfortunately, her destiny had already written long before; a most tragic end was prepared in a storybook. And then, the knight came, trying to stop her from giving back the prince's heart, so that there wouldn't be any end to the story. The duck refused to stop, she couldn't let her prince back to what he had been. As the story progressed, the knight should had been the first victim of the storybook, but the duck who never gave up tried to help the knight to change his fate. The knight then turned into the author, acquiring the ability to write his own story. The death that had been anticipated passed, leaving both even more determined to be something more than storybook characters without any ability to change fate.

By the point the prince's heart was half-complete; it was corrupted by the Raven's blood, the evil creature who desired chaos and domination. The prince was no longer a doll, but an insane villain, ordered to seek a pure heart to be sacrificed for the Raven. His golden eyes turned purple, his kindest turned into malice, his tentative smile turned into maniacal laughter. The duck couldn't reach him, she tried and tried, only to see glimpses of gold that turned back to purple within minutes.

At this time, the corrupted prince stayed with the raven's daughter who insisted that she loved him. She was the one whose duty to keep the prince's heart tainted with her father's blood within each day of the corrupted prince's attempts to create suffering for owners of pure heart. Attempts, because he was always stopped by the duck who always knew how to calm those hearts before they were tainted and taken from them. The raven's daughter was sure a beautiful brunette with dancing talent that far surpassed the duck and elegance that couldn't even be possessed by every royals making her a perfect princess if not for her black heart. Despite everything, the duck still admired the princess and wanted to befriend her. So pure was her heart that she desired happy ending for everyone.

Yet such ending couldn't be attained without sacrifice.

Even with the author's ability, some things couldn't be changed. The previous author of their story already prepared the twist ever since the beginning of their story, ever since he gave his gift to the duck: the magical necklace. He gave the characters their own freedom; yes, but he also decided what the consequences behind every actions.

They did not know it, not the duck, not the prince, not the author. No one.

They couldn't change something that they did not know.

The duck's heart would break if the prince couldn't get pass his test.

The prince's heart along with the all of the citizen's hearts would be taken if the duck couldn't get pass her test.

One of them did not.

The swan prince and the duck would be separated again.

At the final battle, as the prince stood tall, freed from the raven's magic, he declared that he chose the black princess over her, the one who had helped him becoming himself, the one who had to refrain her feelings to be able to save him by always being by his side, the one who sacrificed everything she held precious for him even her human heart. Just because the black princess had been there before her, just because the black princess could say she loved him without fear of vanishing and could break the raven's hold on the prince, just because suddenly she turned out to be the victim of raven who needed to be saved by the prince.

Even the purest heart could break.

With a smile to cover the pouring blood from her bleeding heart, she gave away her existence that the prince asked of her to save "his princess". They were the last parts of his heart: Hope, Love, and Happiness. He didn't know. No, if he did know he wouldn't have the heart to ask her. He was too gentle, too kind, he wanted to save everyone. He was just like her. That was why she gave it to him, her very life, while saying goodbye to the prince for she knew her tiny duck heart couldn't handle meeting him again after this. As the yellow light engulfed her, she turned back into a duck.

Shock and horror of what he had done were evident in the prince's face. He just realized what he had been asking of her; that his ignorance turned out to be the cruelest thing for the duck. The three pieces of his heart from her did not help to ease his heart, they did the exact opposite. He had not known the meaning of love before , he had not had the piece of his heart to recognize love. At the time he knew who she was and what she was to him, he had already said he wanted to make the raven's daughter his princess; he had promised himself to another. He had thought his desire to save her, to ease her pain had been love.

He had chosen, and he chose the wrong princess.

He almost faltered on his knees there and then with his hands trying to reach Her.

Yet the duck gave him a weak nod of approval to go to his battle, the one he entered to save another princess.

No, she was not just duck, she was his princess - his beloved princess that he had abandoned and cursed forever with his heart's rashness.

The prince went to save his chosen princess with heavy heart. So heavy with feelings that at one point he almost decided to give up and shatter his heart once more to seal the raven.

But then she danced.

To save the prince who no longer hers to have, to ensure happy ending for everyone else, to say what she may not say in words. Not as the princess she could transform to, not as a clumsy human girl she had been given chance to be, but as what she really was. A duck.

I love you.

Seeing his rightful princess, dancing proudly even with each falls in her tiny duck steps, reminded him of the sacrifices that couldn't be undone; of reasons to fight and win;

And of the power of love.

The raven was slain. The prince saved the princess. The people were freed.

They lived happily ever after.

.

.

Or did they?

The duck was back into her pond, with nothing to do except feeling for each crack in her broken heart everyday.

She didn't want her heart to be more stained than it was.

But the pain didn't stop.

She suddenly understood the reason for the ending, her ending.

In the time when she had been a human girl, she had read books.

One of them told her a story about a mermaid who exchanged her voice for a pair of legs because she had fallen in love with a human prince.

She remembered the ending.

The author promised that he would always be there with the duck. So she asked him to write her a story that could give her a chance to be the princess she used to be, just for one night. She was lucky that the author understood her, even without saying a word. The author, who pitied and loved her at the same time, granted her her wish.

Her last wish.

That night she kissed the author goodbye when he was asleep. She left a letter on the table with a white feather. She wanted him to be happy, because he was the only one who stayed with her until the end. The one who dared to show that he loved her and the one she might be able to learn to love in return if she stayed.

But she couldn't stay.

Not with her ugly broken heart that secretly wished for suffering of the one who caused it.

Her prince. No, not her prince, the prince.

He did not choose her.

He was not hers.

Never would be.

With her borrowed power, she went to his castle. It was past midnight and the moon shone brightly with a hint of red. Seeing this, she could only think of one thing:

Tainted

She stood in front of their room, she was too afraid to enter and to see behind the closed doors. She wanted to stop the suffering. Stop! Not to prolong it! She was afraid of becoming selfish and jealous. She only wanted others to be happy...right? Her suffering was nothing compared to their happiness. She was only a duck after all. Small, weak, insignificant duck; yet she had one pride that she needed to be able to survive, to stand tall against everything:

Her pure heart.

So she called out to him in his dream, asking him to wake up and meet her at the roof of his castle.

A voice is calling to me…

At last...

And there she was, sitting under the moonlight looked just like she had always been. She remained the same, unchanged; his princess, his first white princess, his tragic princess. She had been calling him in his dream, he had thought she didn't want to see him anymore; he had thought she wouldn't be able to forgive him for what he had done to her; he had thought he couldn't see her like this anymore: the flutter of her long eyelashes, her sunset shaded hair, her sweet pair of lips, her fragile looking hands, her small feet clad in pink toe shoes, her blue eyes, her smile... He was drinking her in greedily with his eyes, still didn't believe that she was there with him.

Now I open up my eyes

"Come, sit with me." She said softly with a soft smile playing on her lips.

He walked closer to her and sat down next to her. They just sat there while watching the moon, enjoying the peacefulness that they could only have when they were together.

Suddenly she leaned in to him, her head on his shoulder, her eyes still on the moon and then she asked quietly, softly:

"Are you happy now?

It was a question that he couldn't answer with negative for he knew his white princess wished for his happiness more than anything. He couldn't tell how guilty he felt for abandoning her, his beloved princess just because he thought the other princess suffered too greatly to be left alone; never knowing that she, too, had suffered for him. The difference was just that she never told him anything, never asked for anything, always being his selfless princess, his savior, always doing everything that he asked of her, sacrificing everything she had for him. He hadn't known her pain and suffering until it was all too late to turn back. He hadn't known the depth of her love for him or his love for her, until he was already way past point of no return to come back to her side.

So he pretended that now that she asked was really "now" with her besides him, just the two of them. He put his arms around her and answered.

"Yes, I am happy now"

She closed her eyes, nestled her body more comfortably to his embrace and said

"I am glad."

She too pretended that he meant "now" with her by his side, just the two of them.

"Are you happy there?" Now it was his turn to ask.

Wipe the tears from my face…

She smiled a little while looking at the floor, momentarily silenced and said "Fakir has been kind to me, he visits me everyday in my pond and he has been taking really good care of me... he reads to me and talks to me, he put me inside his house when it rains and feed me some bread once in a while."

"...You are not answering my question. Are you happy there?" he needed to know, no matter how painful her answer might be to his ears, he was the one responsible for it.

She closed her eyes now "As happy as a duck can be, he even granted my wish to be Princess Tutu for a night."

She still evaded his question, but he let her for now. His curiosity got the better of him."Why only one night?"

Now she turned her eyes to him while smiling a little bit restrained, sad.

"Because it is all that I need."

A brilliant light and the dew on the trees…is born…

Before he could think the meaning behind her answer, suddenly she stood and did the

motion of hands that he already knew too well.

"Will you dance with me?"

At the secret place by the waterside that no ones knows about…

And they danced, pretending they were not where they were but in the place that they both knew well, in the time when he had not been what he was now and she had not been what she was now. No obligations, no burden, nothing. Just two souls that loved each other so deeply in their peaceful time, without anyone or anything to separate them. Trying to convey to each other what they felt into their dance, without any words. For they had been cursed with words.

The last Pas De Deux.

Dance the pas de deux of life…

As their dance came to the end, they gazed at each other; searching what they needed to find in the eyes of the other. As they found what they were searching for, she began to speak.

"I am happy here now." Her voice trembled with tears in her eyes.

…and I'm dreaming again today.

Seeing her tears flowing freely from her sapphire eyes with an honest smile on her lips, he had the urge to run away to the place where they could be one and never be separated again, but he knew he couldn't for he was the prince and he had chosen his princess, and it was not her; so now he had to deal with the consequences of his choice. He embraced her tightly to his body

"I am sorry, I am sorry. Please forgive me, Tutu."

Tears started to leak out from his golden eyes for the pain was too much after the taste of what could had been.

She embraced his trembling body in return with her hands fisted a bit too tightly, her head down.

"I wish I could."

She mumbled so softly in his embrace. She didn't want him to hear it. Not even a word.

So I find myself gently…

After they both had calmed down, still tightly joined in the bittersweet embrace, she looked up into the sky and said

"It will be dawn soon."

"My time is up."

She looked into his beautiful golden eyes, her prince's eyes.

He was her prince tonight, only hers.

Even if he only had done everything due to his kindness or guilt, she could pretend he loved her and only her.

She did see love in his eyes after all, only that his love would not be reserved for her.

She thought his love for her wouldn't hold a candle to his love for his bride.

'At least for tonight, let me pretend that he only loves me and loves me the most.'

…drifting in a tempestuous current.

She thought wrong, but no one told her that. Not even her prince.

Her prince said sorry but he never said the word she would give her soul to hear.

Her sweet unforgivable prince.

Now was the time for his punishment, the only time she would punish him.

She was almost too afraid that he would find it too much to bear. Almost.

But she had to, for her pure heart would be corrupted in the darkest emotions if she didn't do it.

He treasured her pure heart.

So she wouldn't let it be tainted. No more.

'He has his bride, he will get over it. For love will give him strength to live on.'

At the moment, she didn't have the will to hate, to be jealous of the chosen princess.

She was pure once more.

So with that she let her lips touch her beloved's lips.

The first and the last kiss.

Just how far will this labyrinth take me…

He kissed her softly, tentatively at first as he closed his eyes, trying to pour his heart that she had returned to him one by one into the kiss. Feeling her soft lips on his, accepting her love and giving his in return. He showed her his desperation, his regret, his desire and his love for her as he deepened the kiss. It was their first kiss, the very first one. They hadn't kissed like this a lifetime ago, he would had remembered if they had. Such sensation of loving and being loved in return wouldn't be able to be forgotten even with his memories locked like before.

His real princess. The first and should had been the only if he had not been cheated by his own heart.

She understood his kiss, she only did not know she was the only one who could give him strength through her love, that there was no other. Not even the bride.

Had she known it, she would had stayed, for him. Even only as a duck, even if she had to see them together everyday, even if she could not be with him the way she wanted to for she loved him with all of her existence.

So she kissed him back like there was no tomorrow.

And there wasn't. At least not for her. She could not even see the sun rise with him.

'Sadly this is not a story where a kiss could break a curse.'

As they reluctantly ended the kiss, she whispered her last words right besides his ear.

"She was heartbroken for she could not speak of her love and turned into foams in the sea just as the prince sworn to marry another."

He pushed her back abruptly at the arm's length, hands tightly clenched on her shoulders. His eyes turned to her tearful ones, wide with panic, confusion and even a tint of madness from his raven blood as she said the three forbidden words, the cursed words that separated them from being together at the first place a hundred years ago and now forever.

I'll go along, and hold on tightly to this dream…

A flash of blinding golden light and she vanished.

He stared.

And stared.

At the place where she had been, at the arms that had been holding her to him, at the hands that had been caressing her softly.

She had been here.

She was gone.

Forever.

He never told her that he loved her too.

He couldn't see her when he missed her, he couldn't talk to her when he needed her, he couldn't hold her when he wanted to be with her, not even as a duck, not even for a second, not even for a glimpse. Not anymore.

And it was his fault.

For not being able to follow his heart.

For wanting to be noble and selfless.

For being ignorant to her cries of pain.

His brain couldn't process what had happened.

His soul refused to accept the reality

And his heart...his heart simply crying

He fell on his knees.

Tears fell on his face like a child's.

Screaming to the rising sun, asking why she had to be the one who vanished, why not him. Why.

He asked for death, for a repentance, for a way out of the pain.

He yelled to god, to the writer of their story, to fate, to the devil.

At the end of the night, he laid still like a puppet.

His heart was broken into pieces once more.

But there wouldn't be anyone to make it whole again.

He had killed the only person who could.

.

.

~End of The Chapter~

Authoress's Rant:

READ ON YOUR OWN RISK. Bashing-complaining-badmouthing.

DO NOT READ IF YOU LOVE THE ENDING OF THE SERIES.

We obviously know how unsatisfying the ending of Princess Tutu. She was not only turned back into duck, she also didn't get ANY of the boys. I know, I know, if it were continued Fakir would be the winner most likely for he could write his own happy ending. But it is NOT continued. BIG difference. HUGE.

In my opinion these are what went wrong with the characters:

Mytho was an *sshole for leaving Tutu after her ever present sacrifice for him. Egoistic jerk. Stupid betrayer of true love. Where was that noble prince we had been promised at the beginning? I hope you burn in hell. *CRYING A RIVER*

Tutu was an easy-to-be-swoon princess, almost as bad as a fangirl that we are. She was not us. I know how appealing Fakir was, but again, she was not us. She should not be THAT fickle. What was the curse for if she did not love The Prince's back? Screw the storyline and the magic and the logic.

Rue was nasty *ITCH who only remembered that she would do anything to get Mytho on her hands. She didn't even mind only to have a puppet made of Mytho. Someone please give her a dating game with Mytho in it, she would be really, really happy.

Fakir, well, nothing was wrong with Fakir except that he was a certified seducer with natural talent and sexy mysterious-dark-stranger aura oozing around him.

The real author tried to screw with our minds and hearts and morals.

Here the morals I got from the story:

1. The bad can turn to good within minutes of one last episode and managed to steal everything from the heroine, plus managed to escape without ANY punishment or karma., except for another few minutes inside uncomfortable belly of a giant bird.

2. Hearts are fickle and no one would be loyal to their partner, not even the legendary couple, especially if there are seducers with higher SEX appeals included. So please, never marry for love, you will be betrayed. Marry sex icons instead; Rue and Fakir were perfect example.

3. When you are a duck and given a chance to be a human to save a prince: REFUSE. You are only deceived and taken advantage of. Believe me. I tried.

4. The feelings that characters in the book had were not real because they were only written by the author, the characters' existence however were real although they were also written by the author. *uck Logic.

5. The characters do not and will not have their own free will. The real author was the one who decided everything. *uck the story. Don't believe me? Ask the writer in Japan!

I was only 13 for God's sake! I thought the story would be ended with happily ever after! It ruined my innocent mind and gave me a nightmare for eternity. Let me dream of true love again, please! I have been robbed of my naive mind for 7 years now! Return it to me at once!

The big jerk only wanted to make the story unforgettable for the twist.

I HATE YOU!

Curse you, curse you, CURSE YOU!

P.S.: Sorry that I made this story a little bit AU. I forgot the story and did not want to watch the nightmare all over again, so this fic was made with the memory of my 13 years old self back then. I made the necklace consisted of 3 pieces instead of one: Love, Happiness, Hope. Just change the episode of Love shard with Desire shard. Must be a hell of episode, if there were one. LOL.

"Tutu, let me make love to you."

"Eeep? My..Mytho!"

Bwahahahahahaha!

Reviews will be appreciated, flames will be flamed back, and healthy critiques of story and grammar will be taken notes of~

By the way, the song is Morning Grace of course. Raw translation from internet, but beautiful still.

Plus, change * with W and * with D to make them less offensive.