Author's Note/Disclaimer: The creative works and characters of Fate/Stay Night and Revolutionary Girl Utena do not belong to me. I am merely using them for my own twisted enjoyment, and apologize for the huge delay in this chapter. Real life stuff happened. It's... um... long, at least?

Chapter 4

Once upon a time, years and years ago, there was a little boy. And he was very sad, for a great fire had killed his family and burned away everything.

Before the boy appeared a hero, who shielded him from the rain that put out the fire. He had a kind, relieved, almost overjoyed smile, and it was that smile that returned to the boy his will to live, and saved his life.

The hero wrapped the boy in an embrace that smelled of smoke, lifting him up tenderly and carrying him to safety, cradling him the entire time like he was a precious stone. Later on, when the rain had stopped falling, the hero came for the boy, and adopted him as his son, giving him a home and a name.

"If I can," he said, "I'd prefer nobody to be sad. If I can make people around me happy just by helping them myself, I think that would make the world a pleasant place to live in."

Perhaps the hero, being an adult, had regrets that the boy could never understand. So when he said something like that, it meant something to him that it had never meant to the boy.

This was all well and good, but so impressed was he by these words, that the boy vowed to become a hero himself one day.

But was that really such a good idea?

"I was wondering when you'd visit again."

Anyone else might have jolted by how suddenly Tohsaka Rin spoke, if they'd been caught up in the silence and emptiness of the cemetery. Archer was not like anyone else, and had heard the young woman entering long before she had come to his side.

He blew out a breath as she knelt down, gently brushing off the tombstone. "I had some free time," he said. He gestured to the small red gems. "When did you leave those?"

The younger woman shrugged, straightening up and stretching out. "I got back from school early today, and felt like going for a walk through the city before going home. I wanted to see what's changed. What's stayed the same."

Rin very carefully avoided specifying if her visit to Sakura's grave had been something she had planned the moment she'd left London, or something she'd thought to do the moment she was back in Fuyuki.

She wasn't looking at him, either, but then again Archer didn't mind it. This was always hard for both of them, in front of Sakura's grave. Remembering that she had died, along with Ilya, so that he and the others could live, could have flesh and blood bodies. Often times it was easy enough to work around or not think about, but in moments like this it was unavoidable.

Archer often wondered how Rin and Rider managed it, but it had been almost two years now and they seemed to be just fine. Perhaps it was different when you were in love. He honestly couldn't say.

"Besides," he continued lightly, steel gray eyes gleaming, "the last time you were here, you threatened to beat me and then drag me here to pay my respects yourself."

He glanced down, and saw her lips twitch slightly; not quite a smile, she rarely ever smiled here, but something close to it.

"How long are you planning to stay in Fuyuki?" It was a light question, and an easy one that didn't require much thought to answer.

"Ah…" Rin blinked. "I'm here for my vacation, since school let out."

So only a few weeks to a month at best, then, if he remembered anything at all about school breaks; granted, he was well aware that schools in London could also run on different schedules, but more or less his former Master would be back in her home city for some time before she was called back to continue her schooling.

Which meant that if Utena was going to stay long term—or even just a few days, really, but there was always the possibility that she could choose not to return to wherever she'd come from—Rin would find out about her sooner or later, either from Archer telling her himself or from Lancer messing up and revealing it without thinking.

Since Lancer was often prone to revealing things without thinking, the safest and easiest route was to be honest, and tell Rin about the young girl who had somehow dropped out of the sky and taken up the spare room in their small apartment. He knew that.

But a large part of Archer wanted to remain silent on the topic of his young charge. As long as he didn't know for sure if Utena intended to stay for good, then he reasoned it was perfectly natural to keep quiet about her. And besides, quite frankly, he didn't want Rin to worry about him. She worried about him enough as it was.

Archer was so lost in his own thoughts that he didn't realize Rin was looking at him until she gently tugged at his sleeve, trying to get his attention. "What?"

"Did you bring something for Ilya, too?"

The silence that followed her question was deafening. Archer looked down into her eyes for a moment, then looked away, focusing on Sakura's tombstone as if it held the answers. He couldn't bring himself to speak.

But his silence said it all.

Rin sighed softly. "It wouldn't be strange to, you know? Shirou brings her flowers once in awhile with Saber."

"This isn't her grave," Archer said.

"Archer…"

Rin wanted to say more. He could sense that much from her, but she was at a loss for words. It was true—this wasn't Ilya's grave. Ilya hadn't been like Sakura. There hadn't been a body to recover, a body to bury. If Sakura had been left cold and dead in the aftermath of her desire to save Shirou, then Ilya had vanished completely.

Oh, she was dead. Of that there was no doubt.

But how did you have a grave for a girl who had simply disappeared?

A soft, warm hand brushed his fingers; Rin didn't quite hold on, but it reminded him she was still there. "Don't blame yourself," she murmured. "They made that choice. Both of them."

A comfort to her, maybe. Not so much him.

Archer didn't respond, just gently shifted away from her. His dues paid, he headed for the gates of the cemetery. He'd done what he was supposed to do. He wanted to leave before the silence and feeling of the place suffocated him.

"Archer!"

Rin's call made him pause, though he didn't look back.

"… Just, promise me, okay? Don't do anything stupid," she said. "Ilya gave you a new life. Enjoy it."

Archer paused for a moment before he turned, an amused little smirk curving his lips. "Why, Rin, are you actually worried about me?"

The black-haired girl scowled, crossing her arms over her chest as her teal eyes blazed. "So what if I am? I'm your former Master, after all, it's my job to make sure you're taking care of yourself."

Archer stared at her for a moment.

Then, shocking them both, he laughed.

"W-What?!" Rin yelped. "It's a perfectly logical reason! I was responsible for you once, you know! I'd feel guilty if you weren't enjoying your life!"

"I know, I know." He chuckled, then gave her a small, slight smile. "Okay. I promise not to do anything stupid."

Her eyes were suspicious. "You mean it?"

He lifted his hand, before turning away and leaving the cemetery. "Yes, yes. I mean it."

Archer didn't look back, so he didn't know for sure if Rin actually believed him. A part of him thought she didn't.

Honestly, he couldn't blame her.

"So she's not your girlfriend?"

The blank look Lancer gave Rider seemed to be answer enough for the woman, as she smiled faintly as she adjusted her glasses. "Well," she said. "It's good to see you have some standards."

Lancer snorted. "I don't want to hear that from the woman sleeping with a school girl."

Rider frowned. "She's in university now."

"My point still stands."

Utena wondered what it said about her that she could tune out the current debate between the two to study the newcomers without much trouble. She also wondered what it said about her when, faced with a short green-eyed blonde woman and a tall woman with eyes that matched her lilac hair, she could say she'd seen much stranger looking people at Ohtori.

No one quite as tall as this Rider woman, but the point still stood. The name was still strange, though.

For the time being though, she seemed more interested in her argument with Lancer than in Utena herself. The same couldn't be said for the short blonde, though, who had spent the last few minutes studying Utena quietly. The pink-haired girl was starting to squirm when she finally spoke, her voice quiet but firm.

"Lancer. Who is your friend?"

Lancer blinked, red eyes cloudy for a moment as his mind shifted gears; he grinned toothily, patting Utena on the shoulder as he took another sip from the drink she'd brought him. "Her name's Utena. Archer found her the other night."

Rider lifted a brow, smirking. "I always did say you and Archer should adopt."

Lancer choked on his drink for a second time, gagging and coughing. "Dammit, Rider," he gasped.

"Hey, you two set yourselves up for it."

"Frightening woman," Lancer murmured, clearing his throat before he took another sip of his drink to try and soothe his now sore throat.

The blonde, though, was still focused on Utena. "What do you mean, Archer found her?"

The spearman shrugged. "Hey, you'll have to ask the bowman, not me. All he said was he found her unconscious and wounded in the woods."

Utena swore if those forest green eyes looked at her any more intently, they'd be peering into her soul. She knew she should have said something by now to introduce herself—hell, normally she'd have introduced herself long before this point—but her voice wasn't coming easily.

Lancer must have noticed, because he sighed. "Saber, stop staring at the kid like that. You're scaring her."

The blonde blinked and looked up at him, baffled. "Am I? I'm merely studying her. You have to admit, Lancer, finding her in the woods is a bit odd."

Another shrug was the blue-haired man's answer. "That was all Archer said."

"Um," Utena said, and almost immediately wondered if she'd made the right choice as Saber's sharp gaze focused on her again. "In his defense, I don't actually know how I wound up in the woods." Indeed, she only knew she'd even been found in the woods because of Archer's question. Her first memory of this new place had been waking up on the pair's couch.

Saber lifted a brow at this, but something in her forest green gaze seemed to shift as she turned the thought over in her mind; ever so subtly, tension seeped out of her body as she came to the mental conclusion that she wouldn't need to beat Archer senseless the next time he visited Shirou's house.

Utena, however, was completely unaware of this and continued to squirm slightly under the blonde's gaze.

"Saber, you're doing it again," Lancer muttered.

"Doing wha—oh." And just as suddenly, those forest green eyes became sheepish and soft, a faint embarrassed flush coloring her cheeks. "My apologies, I was lost in thought."

… And now she's cute, Utena thought, a little stunned by the instant transformation. That isn't fair. That isn't fair at all. She wondered if this was what the other girls at Ohtori had felt like, every time they had swooned and squealed over her.

"In any case." With a small smile, Saber offered her hand. "You've already heard my name, but let me introduce myself properly. My full name is Emiya Altria, but you may call me Saber."

Lancer leaned over, whispering softly into Utena's ear and making her jolt. "Yeah, see, only her boyfriend can call her Altria," he murmured, red eyes gleaming.

Saber's blush deepened, as she heard the words quite clearly; she simply huffed. "Honestly, Lancer," she said. "For the last time, Shirou and I aren't dating."

The spearman pulled back, grinning. "Hey, you and Rider tease me about the bowman all the time. I take my shots where I can get them. Makes us even."

Saber rolled her eyes, but the blush didn't fade.

Smiling, Utena took Saber's offered hand and squeezed. "Tenjou Utena. I'm a little new in the area."

Seeming pleased with how this had progressed, Saber nodded and released Utena's hand, stepping back. She glanced at Rider, an expectant look on her face.

Rider sighed, then held out her hand. "Officially, I'm Tohsaka Ouka," she said. "You can just call me Rider, though."

Cool, but polite. Utena took her hand, shook it, and briefly thought of Juri.

Rider, however, was focusing on Lancer again the moment her hand was free. "Does Rin know Archer found her?"

Lancer scowled. "How many times do you want to hear me say I don't know? It's not my business how he handles things."

"I'm just saying. You know how she gets if she feels he's hiding something from her."

"Why do you even—" Red eyes widened in understanding, before the blue-haired man nodded. "Right, I forgot the lass is due home today from that school of hers."

Rider couldn't resist the small smile even if she tried. "She is. It'll be nice to see her face to face again."

"I'm surprised you aren't home waiting for her." Lancer grinned. "Exchanging letters didn't quite do it for you, or is she a more romantic writer than I thought from what she sent the bowman?"

As the two dissolved into another round of light bickering, Utena glanced at Saber. "Do they do this often?" she asked.

Saber sighed. "Pretty much every time they meet. Believe me, you'll get used to it soon enough."

The small, rickety table rattled as Raiga cheerfully dumped the full folder onto it.

Archer slowly raised a brow. "You got all of this in just a few hours?" he asked.

Raiga simply grinned in response. Archer made it a point to never, ever question the man on how he managed to gather so much information so quickly or efficiently. He had the overwhelming sense that he was better off not knowing. Instead, he leaned back in his chair and waited.

He wasn't disappointed.

"Tenjou Utena, fourteen years old." Raiga didn't even need to open the folder, simply slid it across to Archer so he could flip it open and read for himself. "Her parents died in a hit and run incident when she was six. The driver was never arrested or charged."

Archer frowned, steel gray eyes dark. "Did she witness the incident?"

"Police reports don't say if she did or not either way." Raiga inhaled deeply from his pipe. "She was put into an orphanage not long after the funeral."

"She had no family?"

"Her maternal grandparents died before she was born, and her paternal grandfather was deemed unfit to look after her wellbeing." The old man sighed. "The system was considered a better alternative."

Archer said nothing, simply continued reading. Taking that as encouragement, Raiga continued.

"She was in the system until about four months ago. The last official public record I could find of her states she was enrolled into Ohtori Academy, and then she just…. vanishes."

Archer blinked, looking at him now. "Vanishes?"

Raiga nodded. "Vanishes. And believe me, I kept looking, but let me tell you; there's absolutely nothing on this Ohtori Academy, at least not on public record, that I could find. If the description matches the name you gave me, your girl has been missing for quite awhile."

A frown slowly turned down the dark-skinned man's lips as he kept reading Utena's application for the school. "It states here that Ohtori is a boarding school," he said. "And she was an orphan. Isn't it possible she just never went back?" She'd very clearly marked on the application that she intended to stay on campus in the dorms.

"Oh, I'd believe it in a heartbeat." Raiga inhaled deeply from his pipe and was silent for a moment, before speaking again. "But like I said, Ohtori Academy doesn't exist in any public record I've looked into. For all intents and purposes, Tenjou Utena packed a small suitcase of personal belongings and left the orphanage, and was never seen again. Any attempt to contact her simply never made it through."

"Well." Archer sighed. "For a school that doesn't seem to exist, this application looks official enough."

"Official enough to fool the orphanage, that's for sure. It came in the mail offering an athletic scholarship for the girl. She was close to aging out of the system, so it was a relief to them to have somewhere for her to go."

Archer said nothing for a long moment as he set aside Utena's application and continued to study the file, as if he believed that if he looked at the papers hard enough some information about Ohtori would materialize before his eyes. But nothing jumped out at him. Aside from the application letter Utena had been sent in the mail, there was nothing on the school. Not even a foot note.

Looks like I'll have to ask her after all, he mused, and resisted the urge to sigh. Honestly, he knew it might have been the dirty way to go about it, but he had been hoping to avoid having to directly ask the girl about the school. Utena's behavior clearly indicated some kind of past trauma that she associated with Ohtori, and the wound seemed to be still fresh. Archer was a lot of things, but confronting a child about a recent traumatic experience was something he'd never been able to do.

It seemed he still had enough of Emiya Shirou in him to not cross that line.

"And that's all you could find?" he asked, switching gears.

Raiga snorted. "All I could find, the boy says," he muttered, before nodding. "Yes. That's all that came up on your young girlfriend."

"… She's not my girlfriend, Raiga."

The old man grinned. "That's what you get for saying that's all I could find."

Archer sighed and rolled his eyes, making a mental note to never, ever become Raiga's enemy. While he had a vague idea of how the old man got so much information so quickly, he found it was one of those things he liked to pretend he didn't know.

Honestly, the thought that Taiga was related to someone like this scared him. Just a little bit.

In the end, Lancer considered it a good day. The talk with Saber and Rider had briefly edged into some frightening territory for him when the topic of shopping for Utena came up—after all, if the girl intended to stay with him and Archer for awhile, she'd need more clothes than jeans and a sweater he'd gotten off of Taiga after one of their nightly escapades and had forgotten to return to her.

Still, while he was open in many ways, the thought of shopping for a teenage girl daunted him. Utena, bless her soul, had saved him from having to consider it a possibility; she had spoken up and said she wasn't even sure how long she'd be staying, so for now shopping wasn't a major concern.

(Saber, bless her soul as well, had also offered to take her out and to bring Rider along when the time came, pointedly ignoring the way the taller former Servant had scowled at the thought.)

So now, instead of feeling wildly out of place as he watched Utena shop for things teenage girls liked to wear, they were both on their way home after his work shift had ended. All in all, he considered it a very good day. He'd gotten to work and see two of his friends, and Utena had gotten to go outside and relax a bit.

"So." He looked down at Utena, red eyes gleaming. "What did you think of them?"

"Saber and Rider?" Utena was quiet for a moment, thinking, before she spoke again. "They aren't the weirdest people I've ever met."

Lancer couldn't resist the laugh, smacking Utena lightly on the back; she still stumbled forward a few steps, clearly caught off guard, and winced as her hand came up to her stomach. Immediately, the man grimaced. "Ah, sorry. Forgot about that."

"It's okay. It only hurts a little bit." Honestly, it surprised Utena how little her wound had been bothering her while she'd been out. It certainly still stung and ached from time to time, enough to remind her it was still there, but she had been able to move around easily enough. It seemed Anthy had more skill with a sword than she'd ever let on.

The thought made Utena's head ache, so she quickly dismissed it.

"I had fun," she said, switching gears from that thought. "I liked being able to wander around and explore."

"Good, good." Lancer slid his hands into his pockets. "I admit, I worried about you being off on your own like that, but you managed well enough. Didn't have any trouble while I was working?"

Utena almost didn't mention it. It had been one freak encounter and she hadn't seen the man again, so overall she had dismissed it from her mind. But Lancer's question had brought the incident back to the front of her thoughts, and something about the young man's movements, the look in his eyes, stuck with her.

"Not trouble, but…" She trailed off for a moment, trying to think of how to describe it, before she continued on. "I ran into a guy while I was getting drinks."

Lancer grinned. "Attracting the lads already, eh?"

Utena blushed. "I-I'm not!" she yelped. "He just, he bumped into me after using the vending machine, and it was weird. He seemed really out of it. His hair was messy and he just… he had a weird look in his eyes."

Lancer had gone very quiet the more Utena talked; still moving, but his eyes seemed darker, sharper, as she described the man she'd run into that afternoon. "What did he look like?" he asked, and his voice was low and quiet.

She was a bit taken aback by his change in tone; she didn't think she'd ever heard him sound this serious and focused. "Um, blue hair and blue eyes. They were the same shade. Like I said, he seemed really listless. Almost confused. He snapped at me a bit before wandering off."

"Matou Shinji," Lancer murmured. "Damn, I didn't think that little boy was still alive."

Utena blinked. "… Who?"

Lancer sighed, now. "Someone from before your time. Rider said he'd vanished and not even Shirou could find him, so we thought he'd gone off somewhere to die. Surprised he's lasted this long on his own."

Utena now looked thoroughly confused at this point, even with the mention that this had all happened before she had appeared in the woods surrounding Fuyuki. Seeing the confusion in her eyes, Lancer chuckled and gently patted her back.

"Don't fret on it, lass. He's no one important. Just do yourself a favor and avoid him if you see him again. He's not in his right mind, and he has a history of being rough with women."

Sky blue eyes went dark. "Sounds like Saionji," she said, more to herself than to Lancer.

He heard her, of course. "Someone you knew from that Ohtori place?"

"Mmm." The headache was coming back now, throbbing faintly along her temples, the faded sensation of swords driving through her body. "He wasn't really nice to women, either. He was nasty to my best friend."

"Kicked his ass for that, I imagine."

The headache burned now, a pain of such blinding intensity that Utena was amazed she was still capable of appearing normal. But… she had, hadn't she? Because of the love letter that Wakaba had sent to him, had been pinned up for everyone to see. Yes, she'd gone to confront him on that, and of course there had always been the way he had treated Anthy—

But what happened after that?

Do you know? Do you know?

"I think I did," she said softly. "I… you know, it's strange, I don't really remember what I did."

His hand was on her back again, a steadying, firm presence. "Well, don't think on it too hard if you don't want to," he said lightly. "Don't want to hurt yourself."

"… Okay."

Her headache started to fade.

A normal man would have, at this point in time knowing what he knew, gone to the police and handed Utena over to them. She wasn't his problem to deal with anymore, and she was clearly part of something much larger, and it would have been easier overall to give her up.

A man who was not entirely normal but still smart enough to realize when he was possibly in over his head would have let Utena loose at this point. He would have left the choice of going to the officials to her, and she could decide whatever she wanted to do. It once more went back to her being part of a much larger problem.

Archer was by no means a normal man; he hadn't been one when he had lived as Emiya Shirou, and he wasn't about to start being one now. He was smart, but, well…

He was still Emiya Shirou to some extent.

Granted, none of this had anything to do with the fact that Archer was currently back in the woods surrounding Fuyuki. If anything, he pinned it on a feeling he'd had ever since leaving Raiga's, ever since learning there was definitely more to Ohtori than met the eye. If Utena had been cast out of the place—possibly because of her friend, as she'd hinted at last night—then there might be more to find where she'd fallen. It was just a feeling, but if there was one thing Archer had learned during his extended afterlife, it was that his feelings were usually justified. His track record wasn't spotty enough for him to start doubting those yet.

Returning to the spot had been easy enough, since he had come by it recently. Gently pushing aside the leaves and blinking at the sunlight, Archer peered down into the grass where he had found Utena.

And there it was.

To be honest, he hadn't been sure quite what he'd find; just that he'd thought he'd find something. He wasn't disappointed.

It had been a beautiful sword, once. Even just looking at it Archer could see it had been crafted with gentle care, perfectly suited for whoever used it. But its beauty was long gone now; the blade gleamed in the grass only a few inches from the broken hilt, as though some massive trauma had broken the sword clean in two.

The dark-skinned man knelt down, carefully picking up the hilt. Whoever had last handled the sword had done a thorough job of breaking it, but…

Well, he was Emiya Shirou. Emiya Shirou had always been good with swords, even broken ones.

"Can I stay again tonight?"

Utena had been quiet for most of the night since coming back home with Lancer; they'd already been around for awhile before Archer had gotten in with his find, but it had been easy enough to leave the broken sword in his study for preparing dinner. Utena hadn't spoken a word that whole time, and had in fact eaten mostly in silence until now.

Archer paused, his fork comically sticking out of his mouth as he took a moment to process what the young teenager had just said. Unable to resist, Lancer leaned across the table and lightly tugged the fork out of his mouth.

Utena, for her part, looked between the two nervously as an answer wasn't quick in coming. "It's just, um, you've both been really nice so far and I don't have anywhere else to go, so I thought…"

Lancer shrugged, setting the fork he'd stolen aside. "I don't have a problem with it. I liked having you around today."

Archer's mouth closed with a small click; it took his mind a few more seconds to catch up with the action. "Of course you can stay," he said after a moment. "You might need to spend another night sleeping in my shirt, though."

And that wasn't even getting into what she'd wear tomorrow. Archer firmly decided not to worry about it, and also decided that if shopping became an issue they'd need to address, that he'd send Lancer out with her to handle it.

It was worth it, anyway, just to see the relief in Utena's eyes and the way she relaxed back into her chair.

She didn't consider sleeping in Archer's old shirt a problem, anyway.

She'd been here before.

That was Utena's first thought. The path she'd walked, that elevator ride that had never stopped being mildly freaky to her ever since she'd started using it, the way Anthy would change them both before the duel; it was all so familiar. Even the warmth of Anthy's hand in hers was familiar, even if it had been the one thing about this duel that had changed.

But, well, that made sense. She'd been here before, after all.

She recognized this. She recognized all of this. The darkness of the dueling arena, the presence of Dios. And at the top of the stairs….

Yes, Akio would be there. Like he had been last time.

She wouldn't fail again.

"Himemiya." Her voice was soft, but sure. "I need your help. I can't get the sword out on my own."

Next to her, Anthy blinked; the first bit of open surprise Utena could ever remember her showing. "Utena-sama?"

"Please. I can't explain it to you right now. I promise I will later. I need to have my sword."

Anthy didn't reply, and at first Utena thought her plea wasn't enough. Then she felt the soft hand settle on her chest, right over her heart.

"As you wish, Utena-sama."

Utena paid no mind to the ritual as the sword was drawn, or the words that needed to be spoken for the summoning; by this point they were practically second nature. No, her eyes were always on those stairs, waiting, and only when her sword was firmly grasped in her hand did she have some measure of confidence.

She heard footsteps, and narrowed her eyes.

As the figure appeared before her, Utena felt ice form in her belly. She couldn't breathe. She opened her mouth, but no words came out.

Akio was not the one at the top of those stairs.

The garments were the same; those clothes of snow white that Utena had spent nearly all of her life chasing after since her parents died. The ideal of the prince, the one she had chased after for so long and so hard, was standing right before her.

But the eyes that gazed coolly down into hers were the same sky blue as her own.

"… You're me," Utena whispered, horrified. "How… why are you me?"

The other Utena—the prince, didn't reply. Her eyes didn't even flicker. She simply held up her hand, and in that hand was a sword. "I'm not you," she said softly, coldly.

And then she was gone from the top of the stairs.

It was so fast, so sudden that Utena almost didn't see it coming; the only thing that gave away the attack was the faint whistle of the wind as the prince moved, and even with that warning she wasn't fast enough. She was able to avoid the jab aimed at her rose, the blade buried into her flesh just inches from the flower.

The pain was blinding. Utena staggered and gagged, gasping, as wave after wave of agony washed over her. The prince's eyes were still cold as she lifted her foot off the ground and drove it right into Utena's stomach in a vicious kick.

Her back cracked painfully as it slammed against the floor of the arena; Utena's vision flashed red and she saw stars as her head ached. She shifted, tried to reach for her sword as she heard the footsteps approaching, but she was too slow. A foot settled firmly on her midsection, holding her in place.

The prince stared down at her for a moment.

"H-How…?" Utena didn't know how she could think through the pain, much less talk. "I… I wasn't good enough to become a prince…"

The prince smiled. She leaned down and gently, almost tenderly, touched Utena's face. The young girl felt a chill at how cold, how inhuman, that smile was. "Oh, little one," the prince crooned, I already said…"

Her foot shifted, settled over Utena's ribs.

"I'm…"

And pressed down.

"… Not…"

Down, down.

"… You."

Down, until Utena heard a crack, heard something break.

She sucked in a breath, but the scream didn't come. Still smiling, the prince stepped off of her. She felt cool, gloved hands brush against her fingers, gently closing them around the hilt of your sword.

"Get up, little one," the prince murmured. "We're not done yet."

What force of will drove Utena back to her feet, she didn't know. How she could even still stand was a mystery. But she was standing, one hand clutching at her broken ribs, the other wielding her sword, pointed right at the prince.

The prince was still smiling.

She moved again, faster than Utena could even comprehend, and being in her wounded state didn't help. The prince was on her in an instant, driving her back, the flashing blade of her sword chipping at Utena's, breaking it away, until nothing remained.

"I'm not you." Her voice was low, cold, a blade of ice driving right into Utena's heart. "I'm a prince. I'm a warrior. But you… you were never good enough to be me. Never a prince. You were always just…"

Flash.

"… A little…"

Flash.

"… Girl."

Utena's sword shattered, the hilt knocked out of her hand. She stumbled back, off balance—

And felt a sword drive right through her heart from behind.

"And never good enough to save me," Anthy whispered into her ear.

Utena saw black, and thought no more.

Utena jolted awake, a hand already flying to her mouth to muffle the scream she felt rising in her throat. The scream never came, but the tears did; hot and painful as they poured out of her eyes, streaked down her cheeks, her sobs muffled by her hand as she felt the nausea and horror curling in her belly.

One hand skimmed over her breast; no blood. The other pressed against her ribs and felt no pain, and she could breathe clearly and easily.

A dream. It had just been a dream, a nightmare. Those injuries hadn't actually been real, they had been part of the nightmare. Her death—

"And never good enough to save me."

Sniffling, Utena wiped at her eyes and stumbled to her feet, kicking the blanket aside clumsily. Water. She needed water. She just needed to cool down, and wash her face, and she'd be fine.

She pressed one hand against the hallway wall to keep her sense of direction as she made her way through the dark, too disoriented to bother with waiting for her eyes to adjust. Nudging the bathroom door open, she flipped the light on and ran the water as cold as she could manage, drinking from her cupped hands before splashing it on her face and neck.

As she dried her face, she heard the faint sound somewhere down the hall of Lancer snoring. The sound, a reminder that there was someone else in the apartment, was oddly soothing at the moment.

She sighed, brushing loose strands of wet hair out of her eyes, and flicked the bathroom light off, stepping back out into the hallway. The problem now was her mind was clear, the cold water a soothing sensation in her belly. Going back to sleep wouldn't be easy, especially with the images from her nightmare so fresh in her mind.

She was a little ways away from her room when she noticed a sliver of light peeking out from the closed door of Archer's room; was he still awake, this late at night? The thought gave her pause.

After a moment of hesitation, she approached the door and gently nudged it open.

Archer's favorite time to work was easily during this period, those hours between late night and early morning. He was the only one still awake, and all was quiet; not completely quiet, of course, Lancer always snored, but a closed door muffled the sound easily enough. His room was a bit cramped, between the bed and the desk, but he'd never needed a lot of space to live in.

The only real downside was his room didn't contain the tools and space he'd need to properly repair the sword he was studying. An annoyance, but Archer could handle it; he would simply take it into the shop tomorrow and work on it when he was between orders or when it was a slow day. For now he simply familiarized himself with the weapon, gently feeling the blade, the hilt, to try and understand what kind of person had created it.

And what had, ultimately, broken it.

His thoughts were interrupted, however, by the sound of the door opening. Startled, he turned around, pushing his glasses up into his hair.

Utena stood before him, her hand resting nervously on her arm. "Sorry," she said after a moment. "I had trouble sleeping and saw you were still up."

"Ah, Lancer's snoring." Archer slid his glasses off, setting them on the desk. "He could keep even a heavy sleeper up with the sound of it."

Utena hesitated a moment before nodding in agreement, giving Archer the strong suspicion that it hadn't been the other man's snoring that had woken her; he didn't push it, though. After a moment, he gestured to his bed.

"You can sit there if you like," he said. "It's a bit small, but it's soft enough."

Utena blinked, then nodded, heading over to the bed and settling on it, crossing her legs. The shirt she'd worn to bed—the same one she'd worn the night before, one of Archer's—looked especially large on her in the lamp light. After a moment, once he knew she was settled, Archer turned back to the sword and went to work.

"… Thank you," Utena said after a moment.

Archer didn't reply, but she seemed to get her answer anyway.

Utena couldn't see quite what Archer was working on; the light from the lamp was still dim, and his back faced her in such a way from her angle that she couldn't see the desk. She knew all she'd have to do to see was shift, but she couldn't bring herself to.

Archer had been right. His bed was soft, and the presence of him was soothing; the faded scent of motor oil and smoke clinging to the shirt she wore felt soothing. She couldn't quite put her finger on why she felt safe in his presence, not when he hadn't been as open to her as Lancer had been, and yet somehow she did. She wasn't even aware of when her eyes started drooping, when she shifted a bit and laid down, nuzzling into her pillow and watching him work with sleepy eyes.

She didn't even remember her eyes closing; the next thing she knew was her eyes were opening, blinking against the sunlight, and sometime before morning Archer had seen fit to pull back the covers and tuck her into bed.

Long chapter was long. This clocked in at eighteen pages on Microsoft Word. Happy April Fool's!

Read and review, please!

4/2/13: chapter edited for minor continuity error. Thanks to Muramasa for pointing it out!