I have a message from another time... Eyrie Productions, Unlimited presents UNDOCUMENTED FEATURES FUTURE IMPERFECT - SYMPHONY OF THE SWORD No. 4 - Interlude at Vortigern's Lake No. 2 in C (For Today) Benjamin D. Hutchins Anne Cross with Janice Barlow MegaZone (c) 2003 Eyrie Productions, Unlimited SUNDAY, DECEMBER 27, 2409 NEKOMIKOKA, TOMODACHI Corwin Ravenhair stood on the sidewalk in front of the familiar white house at 1140 Wildwood Road and gathered himself. What he was about to do was going to be difficult on several levels, and he wasn't looking forward to part of it at all. Marshaling his strength, he went up the walk, hesitated in front of the door, then rang the bell. For a moment, there was silence; then the door opened and the lovely face of Anthy Tenjou beamed out at him. "Corwin!" she cried happily. "Welcome back, at last!" She drew him into an embrace. He was momentarily taken aback to find her pregnancy advanced enough to be obvious when she did this, until he reminded himself yet again that he had been gone for more than five months. "Hi, Anthy," he said, ducking his head to accept a kiss. "Everything OK?" "Everything's fine, especially now that you're here. Come in," she said, pulling him through the door. He took his shoes and cloak off on the porch, draped his cloak on the back of the chair by the door, and followed Anthy into the house. Yes, he saw as he watched her, she was showing now - to be expected, she -was- six months pregnant - but she was carrying lightly, and she still moved gracefully. She had a lightness about her, too, that was more than physical. The phenomenon still mystified Corwin, who found himself in odd moments still being brought up short by the idea that he was soon to be a father, but he couldn't fault the effect it had on her. She led the way into the living room. Utena was there, sitting in her favorite chair, looking just as she had when Corwin had left back in July. He had to pause for a moment in the doorway to take her in; he'd held her image in his head during his irritating exile to Asgard, but there was little to compare to seeing her for real after those bleak months. Except for what came next, when she got up, crossed the room, and gave him a hug of her own. He returned the embrace for perhaps a bit longer than was strictly necessary (not that she seemed inclined to resist), then gently disengaged. "Merry Christmas, a little late," Utena said, smiling. Corwin returned the smile, though there was a shadow clouding his face underneath it. He seemed a bit preoccupied as he delved into his pockets and came up with a couple of small packages wrapped in silver foil. "These are for you," he said, handing one to each of the Tenjous. Both made appreciative sounds and opened the packages. Each contained a small, fuzzy box of an instantly familiar sort. Utena opened hers and made a surprised little noise at the sight of what lay inside: a pair of silver earrings intricately worked in the shape of roses. She looked up at Corwin with a wondering look. "I know jewelry isn't usually your thing," he said, "but I saw them in a silversmith's in Metalworkers' Guildstreet and thought they were just so... perfect." "Corwin, they're beautiful. Thank you." She turned to Anthy to show them off, then said to her, "What about yours?" Anthy smiled. "I was waiting to see yours," she said, then opened her own box to reveal a ring. At first glance it was a plain silver band, but closer examination showed it to be covered in very finely engraved, intricate patterns. Carefully, Anthy removed it from the box and held it up to the light, examining the engraving on the outside and the tiny runic inscription on the inside. "Wow," Utena said. "That's beautiful too. What does the inscription say?" "'I shall watch over you when others cannot,'" Anthy translated. Then she slipped it onto the ring finger of her right hand. Outwardly, nothing happened, but Anthy was a witch. She felt the ring's protection settle over her like a blanket - an invisible shield, surrounding her but not restricting her, undetectable by anyone without trained senses like hers. She smiled and tucked the velvet box away, then went to the Christmas tree standing in the corner, picked up a lone, hefty package from under it, and carried it across to Corwin. "This is for you," she said, "from both of us. We thought it would come in handy, since you'll be starting college soon." Corwin turned the package over in his hands a couple of times, then tore away the paper and laughed with delight. It contained a book, big, heavy and imposing, with a black leather cover stamped in silver: MARKS AND VALAKOR'S STANDARD HANDBOOK for MECHANICAL and TEMPOROSPATIAL ENGINEERS CLXVIII EDITION PRYDONIA PRESS GALLIFREY "Wow," Corwin said, turning the book over and back again. "Where did you -get- this?" Anthy's smile widened. "Professor Griffin at Beiwiru High was able to help me locate a willing supplier," she said. Corwin ran a respectful hand over the book's cover, then sat down on the couch and set it carefully aside. "Listen," he said. "I... I hate to do this, but there's something I have to tell you. You... you should probably sit down." Anthy and Utena shared a look of mutual understanding. It hadn't gone unnoticed that Corwin seemed oddly grave and shaken when he should, by rights, have been joyous. Now his subdued air settled over the room, muting the Tenjous' own joy at seeing him back in their world and their lives again. They sat down, Utena in her blue wingback, Anthy perching on its arm. The familiar tableau gave Corwin comfort and a mild pang of pain at the same time. "What's the matter, Corwin?" Anthy asked quietly. "You sounded so upset on the phone... and it's obvious you haven't gotten much sleep in the last few days." Utena nodded. "And why did you ask us to come back to Tomodachi to meet you instead of coming out to Ishiyama to be with the others? You know they'd all love to see you too." Neither asked in a confrontational tone. They both accepted that he must have a good reason for his unusual mien and his odd request; they just wanted to know what it was. So he told them. "On Christmas Eve," he said slowly, "I was walking back to my apartment from my grandfather's palace... when I ran into some old... acquaintances of ours." Utena looked puzzled. "In Asgard? Not any of our -friends- there, you wouldn't be acting like -this-." "No. No, I wouldn't, you're right." "Who then?" Corwin hesitated. Some part of him - some large and vocal part - didn't want to tell them, didn't want to be the one to bring them this news... but there was no avoiding it, and besides, he'd promised them that he'd have no secrets from them, even if the truth proved painful. So he paused for a moment, then said flatly, "Touga Kiryuu." "What?!" Utena blurted. "But - Touga's -dead-!" "And Nanami," Corwin went on, his voice becoming more leaden. Anthy recoiled in shock, drawing a sharp breath between her teeth. "Nanami is alive?" she asked in a shocked whisper. "And... " Corwin said in a slightly louder voice, regaining their startled attention. He hesitated one more time while they gazed at him - with puzzlement on Utena's part and a growing sense of dread on Anthy's, for the darker Tenjou had already put two and two together. "And... " Corwin repeated. Then he took a deep breath, steadied himself, and said it through his teeth: "And Akio." Anthy grabbed Utena's hand and clamped down on it, her emerald eyes wide. Utena didn't feel the grip, which was tight enough to have been painful ordinarily. She stared hard at Corwin, trying to read his face, but he had shut it down, his ice-blue eyes closed, the planes of muscle under the skin of his countenance rigid with self-control. Her first reaction was a microsecond pulse of anger - that wasn't fucking FUNNY - followed instantly by the cold realization that it must be true. It was Corwin speaking. He would no more joke about something like that than she would herself. Not for several seconds did anyone muster speech, and when it happened it was Anthy who spoke, her voice a strained, hushed rasp. "How... how can that be?" Corwin explained the powers of Surtur, the fiery king of Muspelheim, land of the damned and despised, to raise the spirits of the dead in his realm and make demons of them if he so desired. He held nothing back. He told them of his ride to Hell, of Akio's powerful station there. He gave them his complete recollection of Akio's twisted tale of woe, in which the resurrected False Prince had laid all the blame for his and Cephiro's troubles at the feet of his sister Anthy. He told them of Akio's gambit, too - how the newly-invested infernal duke had tried to use the starcrossed, never-quite-was love affair between Utena and Corwin to make the young Aes his minion. "Eventually, inevitably, the Rose Knight will be yours," Akio had said, after casting himself and Corwin as brothers made kin by the loss of her to Anthy's machinations. "Join me, do this for me, and I can make possible your fondest wish." By "do this for me," Akio had meant Anthy's death. "Of course," Corwin said, "I walked out. I -wanted- to twist his head off, but that probably would have started a celestial-infernal war. In the end, all I could do was leave. Leave, and come home as soon as they'd let me... to warn you. I couldn't tell you this remotely, and I didn't want you to hear about it first with all the others around, though I imagine they'll need to be told. So... " He spread his hands. "Here we are." His explanation finished, Corwin slumped back in the couch. Utena sat in silence for a moment, her own face shut down as Corwin's had just been. The only sign of the agitation going on inside her was the sudden, convulsive clenching of her left fist, followed by that hand opening and moving as if automatically to the silver-inlaid black metal cylinder slung at her hip. Corwin hadn't noticed that before, and now that his attention was drawn to it, he couldn't help but raise an eyebrow, even under the circumstances. Well, he thought. There must be a story there. I only hope there comes a good time for me to hear it. Finally Anthy broke the silence. She leaned forward slightly, fixing Corwin with a steady gaze, and said, "Corwin. We understand how serious this news is for Cephiro, and for ourselves. But how are -you-? What you describe... it can't have been easy for you." Corwin sat slumped for a moment, looking at his hands; then he raised his eyes to hers and said, "Anthy... I... I would -never- do what Akio Ohtori wanted of me." "We know that," Anthy said immediately. "And I can't imagine he expected you to. It's too direct for him. No, this was the opening move in a larger game. He just wanted us to know that he's out there, watching, waiting. He wanted to ruin our holiday and our reunion. To put us off-balance... perhaps create suspicion between us... and most of all to frighten us." "It'll be a hot day on Halloran before I'm frightened by Akio Ohtori again," Utena growled. "Dead, alive, or otherwise. My God, won't we -ever- be free of him? We -killed- him and he's still coming after you." Anthy shook her head. "Not only me, love. Don't you see? If his first effort had succeeded - which he can't have thought likely, but there was nothing lost by trying it - he would have destroyed a lot more than just my small life." "There's nothing small about your life, Anthy," Utena protested, but Anthy only smiled. "That's sweet of you, my prince, but in the grander scheme of things?" she asked. "He's already destroyed one High Priest of Cephiro. What's another? No, had he succeeded here, the effects would have been much further-reaching. He would have destroyed all our happiness, and Cephiro's Trinity into the bargain - and that, I think, is his true goal." Utena's face showed slowly dawning horror. "... You're right," she said. "My God... if he had succeeded... " "There was never any chance of that," Corwin said quietly. Utena got up and crossed to his side, sitting down next to him and taking his hand. "I know that," she said quickly. "I didn't mean to imply... " She trailed off, shook her head. "That miserable bastard. Playing on your emotions, on our... our -connection- like that. It's so -like- him." She shook her head, anger and sadness warring on her face. "Corwin... I'm so sorry." "It's not your fault," he said hoarsely. Anthy sighed gravely. "Except that, in a way, it -is-," she said, which caused both of them to look at her with matching looks of startled bafflement that would have amused her had she not been so preoccupied with serious matters. She looked back at them evenly. "I had hoped that the two of you would be able to sort this out between you, but given this... there's no time to spare you anymore," Anthy said. "Anthy, what are you talking about?" said Utena. "I'm talking about you," Anthy said. "I'm talking about the weapon you've inadvertently given our deadliest enemy. I'm talking about the simple, if unpalatable, fact that that Akio is -right-. You both -have- been denying your love for each other for my sake - since before I even came to Midgard." Utena opened her mouth to protest, and Anthy shook her head sharply. "I'm not done, dear. Now Akio is trying to use that love as a wedge between us - all three of us - and I'm going to have to be blunt about it. I've tried to say this before, but neither of you would listen. "I am -glad- that you both love each other. I want you both to stop denying it for my sake or for any other reason." "But - " Utena began. Anthy chuckled. "My darling prince," she said with slightly sad indulgence, "if you think I can't recognize self-denial for someone else's sake after decades of being the Rose Bride, you're deluding yourself over more than your love for Corwin. Neither of you diminish me in any way by loving each other - but you both diminish yourselves by standing apart. And that denial has given Akio a weapon to use against us all." "That's no reason to - " "Please don't interrupt me," Anthy said, in that way she had which was quiet and unassuming but instantly recognizable as a command. "What Akio said about you was true. You -do- orbit each other like a binary star. But he was wrong to claim that it amuses me. It doesn't. It -hurts- me. "It hurts me that the people I love most are incomplete because of me. It makes -me- feel like the interloper to watch the two of you constantly, self-consciously keeping your distance in order to spare my feelings - feelings that your love cannot hurt in the first place. I haven't pressed the issue because I haven't wanted to be difficult. I've tried to tell you how I feel before, but you've never heard me... but now we're out of time." She paused, gathering her thoughts, and then went on before either of her startled listeners could speak, "You cannot be complete without each other. I cannot be complete unless -you- are complete... and only if we are all complete can we hope to stand against the thing that was my brother, especially now." Anthy took a deep breath, leaned forward and speared both of them with an emphatic emerald gaze. "Now. I'm going back to Ishiyama. I'll meet the two of you in New Avalon on New Year's Eve, and when I do, I expect this problem to be -behind- us. Do you understand me?" She smiled indulgently, taking the sting out of her rather commanding words, and then bent to kiss each of them. "Do yourselves justice, for once," she said quietly, and then two pairs of stunned blue eyes stared at her as she crossed the room and left the house. "Ummmmm... " said Utena after a long moment's brittle silence. "Was that... what I think it was?" "I think... so... " Corwin murmured, then trailed off, deep in thought. /* Peter Gabriel "That Voice Again" _So_ */ Half an hour or so passed. The two sat at either end of the couch, pensive and silent, occasionally glancing at each other but for the most part lost in their own heads. Then Corwin broke the silence with, "So, uh... are you going to -say- anything, or what?" "I was waiting for you to say something," Utena replied. "OK, um... how does 'Holy jumping Christ, what was that?' sound?" Corwin asked, his tone only slightly wry. "Kind of... well, that's how I feel, but I'm pretty sure that's not what Anthy -wants- us to be saying to each other... " Corwin chuckled nervously. "Heh... yeah... probably not." He looked down at his hands. "(Man... look at me,)" he murmured, more to himself than to her. "(My hands are shaking. My hands -never- shake. ... OK, how about this.)" Then he took a breath, gripped his knees to steady his hands, and turned to her with a look of bright determination in his eyes. "I have loved you... since the very first time I looked in your eyes," he said, his face grave, his voice low and husky. "In that instant I saw, in a flash I wouldn't fully understand for years, everything that makes you who you are. The loyalty, the nobility, the laughter, the strength, the pain. All of it. And I knew - not consciously, but I knew - that whatever happened, I would never be the same. Even if I never saw you again. You would always be part of me." He paused, took his shaking hands from his knees, and reached out for her. She slid partway across the couch and took them. In a detached sort of way, he was gratified to note that her hands were none too steady themselves. "I swear," he said softly, "that this is true." Utena stared at him for several seconds, her wide blue eyes blinking a few times as she processed what he'd said. Then she said, in a soft, slightly strained voice, "... God, Corwin... how do I answer -that- one?" He looked down at their linked hands, then up at her face. "Just as long as you don't laugh at it," he said quietly, "I'll probably survive." Utena blinked at him in disbelief. "-Laugh- at it?! It was the most beautiful thing anyone's ever said to me," she said, pulling him into an embrace. "I'll never forget what you just said. Just like I'll never forget what you said at the Monolith, or Bancroft Tower, or a dozen other places. I... I've known you for five years, but it seems like you've -always- been there for me. I don't know what else to say. I love you, Corwin." Corwin smiled and rubbed his hands up and down her back as she hugged him. "I'll take that," he said with a soft chuckle. They stayed like that for a long time, silently embracing, just savoring the closeness. Once the initial surge of shock and tears passed, they found themselves speaking of everything. Even had all this not just happened, they would have been best friends catching up after a five-months separation. Now they also had to all but re-live their lives together, from their meeting on Earth five years before to the day he'd left for Asgard, looking at everything from this startling new angle. They also talked briefly about Anthy's sincerity, for the darker Tenjou had been known to abrogate her own feelings for the sake of those she cared for in the past - but they agreed that she was long past that stage. She must truly mean what she'd said. That conclusion was almost as startling as her little speech had been in the first place, and the two had to spend quite some time mulling it over before moving on to other things. As they talked, Corwin and Utena sat close together, partly embraced. Sometimes one would touch the other's face, or smooth a stray lock of hair. Often their hands touched, fingers caressing. Occasionally, during pauses in the conversation, they would kiss, usually gently, sometimes deeply. To their surprise, though there was a great deal of warmth and tenderness and affection in the touching and the kissing, what there wasn't was a spark that would fan that warmth into something greater. They'd both felt it before - most memorably on a night almost four years ago at the Hotel Monolith in New Avalon, when an accidental kiss had led to a wave of passion that had almost broken them both on the rocks of Utena's past. But tonight, it was absent, and somehow both knew that only disaster could come from trying to force it - and so they held each other, and talked, and touched, and then the night was gone. Somewhere amidst it all, they just drifted away and dreamed of pleasant things. Utena woke, stiff and uncomfortable, one arm asleep, to find herself still sitting on the couch. For a second she had no idea what the hell was going on; then the events of the previous day slammed into her forebrain all at once, almost making her physically jump. She pushed herself up, dragging her numbed arm from under Corwin's body, and rubbed with her good hand at an inexplicable sore spot on her left cheek for a moment; then she turned to Corwin and shoved him by the shoulder. "Wake up!" she ordered. "Hng?" Corwin replied, blinking sleepily. "Wha - wha'happen?" he asked. "We talked all night and fell asleep in our clothes," Utena said wryly. Corwin ran a hand down his face, twisted a crick out of his neck, and took in their situation. "Looks that way," he said. Utena slumped back on the couch and put a hand to her forehead. "Anthy's going to kill us," she said. Corwin chuckled darkly. "Very possibly," he agreed. Utena lifted her hand a bit and eyed him balefully with one azure eye. "You're not helping," she said. "Sorry," Corwin replied, shrugging. "Then again," he added, "she did give us until Thursday. Maybe she knew this would happen." Utena got up and stretched until her back cracked in a satisfying manner. "Maybe. Don't ask me. We've only been married three years. Sometimes I think I'll never really understand her." She held out a hand. "C'mon. Let's go get breakfast and try to... I dunno. Sort this out. I think it was probably just... too much to absorb." Corwin took the hand and got to his feet, his face thoughtful. "Yeah," he said. "Good idea. I need to throw some water on my face first, though." Grinning, he touched her cheek gently and added, "You probably should too. You've got button face." Utena blinked, looked him over, noticed the button on the breast pocket flap of his Frostproof shirt, and laughed. /* Seal "Love's Divine" _Seal IV_ */ They had breakfast - lunch, really, since it was after noon by the time they woke up - at a cafe downtown, then spent most of the afternoon walking around. They walked up Central Avenue, out of downtown and back into the outlying district of Beiwiru, where most of their friends and Corwin's relations in the city lived, and then roamed the side streets and parks of that pleasant, wooded borough. Their course, selected more or less at random, took them through the snowy, idle campuses of both of Beiwiru's colleges. The Nekomi Institute of Technology and Hotohori University were both closed for the winter holidays, as was Beiwiru District High School, whose extensive grounds almost made the school seem like a college itself. The day was cold but sunny, and the two were warmly dressed, Corwin in the heavy winter cloak of his Valkyrie uniform, Utena in a black wool overcoat. As they walked, they resumed the previous evening's conversation. After months without any contact beyond the occasional hastily written, illicitly exchanged note, they just needed to talk - about anything, about nothing, it didn't matter. It went beyond simply having catching up to do. What they didn't discuss - perhaps couldn't discuss - was the mission of sorts that Anthy had set for them. They tried, but there was a discomfort there, an awkwardness, that seemed insurmountable. It frustrated them, and each could tell that it frustrated the other, but there didn't seem to be anything to do about it. As the short winter afternoon petered out and twilight fell over Nekomikoka, they found themselves, as if by accident, cresting the hill on which stood the converted temple that was home to Corwin's aunt and uncle, Belldandy and Keiichi Morisato. The temple complex was warmly lit and inviting, just the sort of place for a pair of weary travelers to stop, rest, and warm up for a bit before returning home - so they did, crossing the courtyard and passing Aunt Bell's cleverly heated koi pond on their way to the main house door. The door was opened by a Bell who seemed even more bright and cheerful than she normally did, which was saying something for Bell. Clearly she was in the loop as far as recent developments went, and she had always had the ability to read her favorite (albeit only) nephew like a book; the sunny smile on her face slipped just a little as she took in the carefully-hidden glumness on the faces of her visitors and knew that all was not quite well. Bell conquered the momentary disappointment instantly and ushered them into the house. "My gracious, your ears are so red," she observed as she relieved them of overcoat and cloak, then bustled them into the dining room. "Have you been walking around outside all afternoon? Sit down and I'll get you some cocoa." They'd been sitting in the dining room for about a minute when it hit them at the same time: The house was quiet. Bell and Keiichi's house was -never- quiet, not with the comings and goings of their four children (five, if you counted their fosterling, Mary Broadbank) and all their friends. None of the children seemed to be in evidence tonight, though. In fact, the only person they'd seen so far was Bell herself. After a few moments, Bell appeared in the doorway and said, "Corwin, dear, would you give me a hand for a moment?" Corwin looked surprised. Bell very rarely asked for help in the kitchen. It was her exclusive domain, except for Mary, who was the only one of children who cared anything for cooking - a condition that had made the diminutive blonde Bell's de facto apprentice in the culinary arts. Surprised or not, he was a dutiful nephew, so he got up and said, "Sure, Aunt Bell." Bell smiled at Utena. "I'll try not to keep him for long, dear," she said. Utena told her it wasn't a problem - anything Bell might ask could hardly be an imposition in her own house - and Corwin excused himself and disappeared with his aunt into the kitchen. Utena watched them go with a smile, then sat back in her dining-room chair and sighed. "Problems, kid?" asked a familiar voice. "I'd have figured you'd be a lot more chipper than this, considering." Utena turned to see Corwin's dusky, white-haired Aunt Urd entering the room from the courtyard side of the house, dressed as usual in something with a big-cat print (cheetah, perhaps, or leopard?). She had a mildly sardonic expression as she slid into the chair across the corner of the table from Utena. "What's the trouble?" Urd asked. "So you know," Utena said, and made a vague gesture that encompassed the current state of her life in general. Urd nodded. "Skuld dropped us the word when she took Anthy back to Ishiyama," she said. "I have to say I'm surprised. I mean, I knew this day would come someday, but I had no idea something like this would finally break Cousin Anthy loose." She made a platform of the backs of her hands, rested her chin on it, and fixed Utena with a sparkling green look that reminded her a bit of Anthy's more mischievous expressions. "So. What's the hold-up?" Utena felt her face get red. "What makes you think I want to talk about it?" she replied. "Oh, I imagine you probably don't," Urd replied frankly, "but if you don't you'll never figure out what's wrong." "Aren't you supposed to stay out of this?" Utena inquired. Urd smiled. "Skuld let me out of that vow," she said. "She didn't want me pushing you guys to make a decision. Well, now you've made the decision. It's the execution that you're having trouble with. I can help you." Utena looked dubious. She'd heard the horror stories of how Urd, a self-styled love goddess, had "helped" various other hapless people, including Bell and Keiichi on more than one disastrous occasion during their courtship. Urd saw the look, understood its source, and became more serious than Utena thought she'd ever seen her before. "Listen," she said, "I admit that I was overzealous and stupid in my younger days, but, you know, the gods grow and learn like everyone else. I'm not a bull in a china shop like I used to be. I'm not talking about throwing potions or spells around. Just tell me what's wrong, and maybe I can help you." Utena laughed hollowly. "If I knew what the problem was, I wouldn't need help," she said. "It... I... there was no -spark-," she finally said, spreading her hands helplessly. Urd raised an eyebrow. "No spark? Between -you- two?" "I know!" Utena replied, a bit plaintively. "It's insane. Here we are, we've been in love for years, Anthy finally turns us loose, and... nothing. We sat up all night -talking-." "That's it? Just talking?" "Well, no, not quite," Utena admitted with a slightly sardonic shrug. "We cuddled up on the couch, we did a bit of kissing, but... it didn't -go- anywhere. Eventually we just fell asleep." She shook her head. "Pathetic. I mean, I remember - I remember the Monolith, before everything went wrong. You have no idea what I'm talking about." "I hear things," Urd replied. "I gathered you had kind of a near miss there, a few years ago." "My sixteenth birthday," Utena confirmed. "We hit the town that day, had a lot of fun, and then when we were watching the late movie, he... sort of... kissed me by accident," she said, her cheeks reddening at the memory. "And it was like... it was like somebody set off a -bomb- in my head," she went on, becoming more animated as the memory of the event brought an echo of its power back to her. "It was the most incredible thing. I just completely lost control. I mean I -literally could not stop- myself, I just... it was like I -had- to have him, right then, right there." The intensity faded from Utena's face, replaced by a crestfallen look, as she went on in a more subdued tone, "Except... it didn't work out that way. And it's just as well it didn't, in the long run. We couldn't have been happy together with the question of Anthy unresolved. He'd have felt like a thief and I'd have felt like a harlot. So we... -changed- things. Changed... -ourselves-, so that we could get as close as possible without crossing that line. 'Everything but,' we called it, and it -worked-, it worked for four years. But... " Urd nodded slowly. "But now you can't turn it off." "Exactly," said Utena, pleased that she was getting her meaning across when she herself found the matter so confusing. "All day I've been thinking... is it... is it too -late- for us? Have we changed ourselves so thoroughly that we killed what we could have had? Have we built the barriers so high that we can't get over them, even now that we -want- to?" Urd surprised her by giving a derisive snort. "Is this Utena Tenjou talking?" Urd said incredulously. "'Barriers'? You're a human hyperdrive. There are no barriers to you, just course corrections. You've never let anyone else limit you, and now you're going to let -yourself- get away with it? That's not the Utena I know, and it's sure not the Utena Corwin loves." Utena stared at the Norn for a moment, her expression somewhere between outrage and disbelief. Then it slowly settled into a deeply pensive look, as though her mind had just seized hold of something Urd had said and was now wringing some subtle truth from it. "... Course corrections," she murmured. When she looked up and met Urd's gaze, her bright blue eyes had that old spark of determination in them again - that quintessentially Utena look that said she wasn't going to let anything deter her from finding a way over, around, or (failing that) through any obstacle foolish enough to stand in her path. Before either woman could say anything else, the kitchen door opened and Corwin and Bell returned, Corwin empty-handed and mildly bemused-looking, Bell carrying a tray with steaming mugs. "Oh, uh... hey, Urd," said Corwin, a touch distractedly. "Hey, kiddo," she said, ruffling his thick black hair. "You been behaving yourself?" "Probably too well," he replied mock-sullenly. Urd chuckled and patted his cheek. "Well, I'm off," she said. "See you guys later." "Are you sure you can't stay for cocoa?" Bell asked. "Nah," Urd replied. "My work here is done. Oh - no, wait. One thing." She put a hand on Corwin's shoulder, leaned close to him, and murmured something in his ear, inaudible to anyone else in the room. Corwin suppressed a laugh, or possibly a sneeze, and Urd straightened up with a laugh and ruffled his hair again. "G'night, all," she said, then breezed out. Bell looked after her for a moment, then shrugged slightly with a mild "Hm," put the tray down on the table, and bustled out again. Nobody bustles like my Aunt Bell, Corwin thought with a smile as he sat back down. They sat in a comfortable silence for a while, eyeing each other through the steam over their cocoa mugs as they sipped, each trying to work out the other's inscrutable smile. "So," he said to Utena, at the exact same time that she said, "So." Then they laughed. "You first," said Corwin. "No, you." Corwin regarded her for a moment, realized that was an argument he wouldn't win, and laughed again. "OK," he said. "I was wondering if you'd let me take you out tonight." Utena tilted her head thoughtfully. "What kind of out are we talking?" she asked. "You know - on a date. Dinner. Dancing. Like we were normal people." Utena raised her eyebrows. "Wow," she said. "That's a bold plan. Think we'd be able to pass?" "Oh, hell, no," Corwin replied. "That'll be part of the fun." "Well, I dunno," Utena said, looking thoughtful. "I mean, I don't have a -thing- to wear," she added with a grin. Seeing that he wasn't going to be satisfied with her usual grade of flippancy, Utena modulated the grin into a warmer sort of smile, put a hand on his, and said, "Yes, Corwin. I would love for you to take me out tonight, like we were normal people." Now it was his turn to grin. He downed the rest of his cocoa, put down the mug, and rose to his feet in the same movement, then leaned down and gave her a quick kiss. "Great," he said. "I'll pick you up at 7." Utena blinked. "Wha - where are you going?" "To get ready," he replied, still grinning. "See you at 7!" And, before she could say anything else, he was gone. She stood looking at the door he'd just left through, heard him go through the kitchen and bid his aunt a muffled farewell, and smiled. Looks like he had the same idea, she thought. A moment later, Bell came in from the kitchen, smiling. "I understand you need a little wardrobe help," she said. Corwin spent the next two hours dashing madly around three cities on three planets in three sectors, plus a space station - a trick pretty much only an Aes can manage. It wasn't the only edge he had for pulling things together on such short notice - he had some contacts in a few places to ease the way as well - but only by making good use of his gate ability did he manage to get everything lined up by his deadline. As it happened, he got everything squared away with time to spare. He pulled his beloved old Griffon II limousine to a halt in front of the temple at 6:57 on the nose, climbed out, checked his appearance in the rearview mirror, then went up and knocked. Bell answered the door, her usual bright smile even brighter. "Corwin, dear. Come in. Utena's almost ready. Don't you look handsome!" Corwin smiled. He wasn't one to be particularly vain about his appearance, but he thought he -did- look pretty damn good. He'd spent the first 40 minutes of his frantic dash around the greater galaxy being fitted for a new suit, an Armani tuxedo of the Salusian cut, with an unstructured, double-breasted, mid-thigh jacket and a Mandarin-collared shirt instead of the traditional tab-and-bowtie. The suit was black and the shirt was a shimmery steel grey, the lot of it in lightweight, sturdy Hyelian silk. He had a white rose pinned into the jacket's breast pocket. He waited in Aunt Bell's living room, a friendly and familiar place, for several minutes. Just as he was beginning to wonder what was holding up Utena, she appeared in the doorway to the living room, and whatever he had been about to say was completely driven out of his head by the sheer, stunning -elegance- that she was exuding in spite of her self-conscious blush. Utena, undoubtedly with Bell's aid, had finally acquired a dress that didn't make her look like she should be wearing trousers. It was a long black sheath dress cut on the bias so that the slit up the side exposed her right leg from low-heeled ankle-high boot to mid-thigh. It hugged her skin in the bodice, then bloused over her chest and shoulders. Over it, she had on a suede jacket that reminded Corwin of a Colonial Warrior's uniform jacket, only it was black and it didn't have the silver buckles up the front - it was held together at her throat with a single, silver rose button. Like her old school uniform jacket, it had red piping, and a golden chain ran from the silver rose to the golden epaulets. Her long pink hair was swept up into a French twist, with her trademark white rose tucked in under a silver comb that held it in place, and she had her new silver rose earrings in her ears. They looked just as good on her as Corwin had thought they would when he first saw them in the shop window in Asgard. Hanging from a golden filigree chain belt at her hip was the Thorn of the Rose, with a white rose tucked into the black basket hilt. Her right hand rested gently on the rose-cut gemstone pommel. The other hand, rose signet glinting in the light, fidgeted nervously with an earring. The entire effect went together to make her look both martial and feminine, both simple and sophisticated. The fabric was rich but unadorned, and aside from the silver roses and the white rose in her hair, she wore almost no jewelry. She reminded Corwin of one of his mother's sword blades - a masterwork, and thus needing no adornment to enhance her elegance. "How do I look?" she asked. He didn't have an answer for the first few seconds; he just stood there looking at her. In a way, it was almost as if he'd never seen her before. He had a brief flash of the exact same sensation that had overtaken him the very first time he'd laid eyes on her. That was five years ago, on the Quad at WPI. He'd made his first solo trip to Earth specifically to pick up Kaitlyn and her new roommate from boarding school, whom she'd invited home for the Christmas holidays. He remembered the moment like it had just happened. Pulling his old Griffon limousine to the curb, hopping out, greeting Kate... taking off his sunglasses and turning to be introduced to... Five years ago? It seemed like only yesterday. It seemed like an entire lifetime ago. So much had happened since then, how could it all have been packed into five short years? Four and a half, if you counted the months Corwin had just spent locked away in Asgard. Kaitlyn's terrible Christmas, just days after Utena and Corwin met, had thrown them into a mess together and given them their first taste of the solidarity that would come to define them. Then tragedy had struck close to Corwin, and he'd learned something about her, and something about himself, in one long night in a cold stone tower far from home. It was all downhill from Bancroft Tower. If the link was forged that first Christmas, it was tempered and sealed at Bancroft Tower, and from there the bond between them only strengthened. In a year she'd gone from a complete stranger to his best friend. He'd gone from knowing nothing about her to knowing her better than anyone else. They connected on so many levels, easily, -instinctively-. The trust that developed between them was absolute and adamantine. That trust made resisting the pull of their mutual attraction easier - but the conditions had changed now. It was no longer necessary for them to resist in order to fulfil the trust in the first place. The conditions had changed, but they hadn't. To move past the barriers they'd set up for their own protection, they had to shed their skins - start over, become something new. They'd reinvented themselves once to -avoid- becoming lovers when it would have been disaster for them to do so. Now they had to reinvent themselves again to make it possible. Utena had realized that before him, and these clothes, this look, was her way of explaining it to him. That was the kind of connection they had - that this was all it took, and that she knew it would be enough. The last time she'd willingly worn a dress was also the first and last time she'd ever had sex with a man - when she'd been maneuvered into a liaison with Akio Ohtori as part of his complex and ultimately failed attempt to break her spirit and make her his puppet. Corwin still remembered, would never forget, the dark and painful day when he'd learned of that, and the vows he'd sworn that day. He tore his mind away from that track - there was nothing down it but pain, and pain was the last thing that dress was meant to symbolize. Rather, he thought, it represented her defiance, one of the many traits about her that had drawn him to love her. The dress was an upraised fist, a declaration that she would not be defined by anyone but herself. She had achieved her goal and become a prince, in spite of everything. If she now wanted to put on a dress and be a girl for a night, then by God, she would do just that, and nobody was going to stop her - not even the spectre of Akio Ohtori. Warmth flooded Corwin's spirit as all that rushed through his head like a fleet through a jumpgate, a complete train of thought in under five seconds. "You look incredible," he said. Utena's self-conscious blush deepened a little. "Thanks," she said. "You're not looking so bad yourself." "Shall we?" he asked, and offered his arm. Without hesitation, she took it. "Let's," she said. /* Icehouse "Crazy" _Man of Colours_ */ Corwin and Utena had been spending time alone together regularly for more than four years. Most people would have called that dating, but they never had. Dating, after all, is an activity which is generally intended, or at least hoped, to form part of a courtship, leading to the prospect of romance and all its attendant complexities. Since Corwin and Utena weren't after that (they said), they weren't dating (they said). They were just hanging out together. So tonight, they were doing something that, technically, they would say they'd never done before. Corwin used the overthruster he'd installed in his Griffon to take them to New Avalon. The city was his turf, and the first place where the two of them had spent any real time together, on that first Christmas break. They were both comfortable there - it was the closest they had to a "back home" in common. Tonight, they saw it from a different angle -as if everything was familiar, but yet everything was new. First they had dinner at Yahagi's, New Avalon's fanciest Italian restaurant (in spite of its name). Corwin dusted off all the courtly manners his Aunt Urd had drilled into him as a youngster, in anticipation of his part in the ceremonious formal life of Asgard. In Midgard today, they were positively archaic, but he used them all anyway - holding doors, holding chairs, the works. Utena, being a modern, independent sort of girl, generally didn't go for that kind of thing. This was a special occasion, though. Anyway, she had long ago realized that Corwin had an ability unique in her experience. He was the only man she knew of who could treat her like a lady without making her bristle. When he held a door for her, or offered a hand to help her out of the car, or what have you, he somehow managed to convey the impression that he didn't think that she was weak or fragile - that he wasn't patronizing her, but rather that he was doing it all as an elaborate gesture of respect. She wasn't sure how it worked; only that it did. As dinner went on, Utena felt herself getting more and more comfortable in this unaccustomed role. She felt... well, -feminine-, in a way that she didn't normally. It wasn't that she normally felt masculine, far from it. People who didn't know her saw the clothes she favored and her blunt, take-charge attitude and thought perhaps she was mannish, but she wasn't - she was very much aware that she was a woman, and very comfortable being female. Exactly what the distinction was between that and feeling feminine, she couldn't say. Such philosophical considerations were outside her usual sphere of interest. All she knew was that it -did- feel different, and normally it was a feeling she disliked; it didn't agree with her character, felt unnatural to her, and the times she'd deliberately tried to adopt it she'd both felt ridiculous and usually ended up in a bad situation. With Corwin, here, now, tonight, it felt right. It was like nothing had its usual freight of associations and double meanings with him around. He took her at face value and gave her back the same. There was no subterfuge between them and no reason for either to worry about what the other thought - and that made for a sense of great ease and comfort between them as they ate, and talked, and laughed. By the time dessert came, there was something else, too; a certain subtle tension, a particular light in the eyes whenever their gazes met, royal blue to ice blue. It wasn't much, but it was something that hadn't been there before, and each knew the other felt it. The slight slyness in the smiles they shared saw to that. After dinner, they walked a few blocks downtown to see to the second part of their evening's program - a night of dancing at the city's finest jazz club, the legendary Cobalt. The doorman of the Cobalt perked up when he saw them mounting the steps from the street. He doffed his cap, revealing grey-furred Salusian primary ears, and bowed with a smile. "Evening, Mr. Ravenhair," he said. "We haven't seen you at the Cobalt for some time." "I've been out of town, Rudy," Corwin replied with a smile. "No car this evening?" Rudy inquired. "It's at Yahagi's. It's such a pretty night, we decided to walk. Oh - Rudy, I don't believe you've met Utena." The round-faced Salusian doorman smiled broadly and bowed again. "No, sir," he said. "I'd have remembered a face like that. How do you do, miss? I'm Rudy Talavera. Welcome to the Cobalt Club." Utena returned the bow by making a graceful gesture, half-bow, half-curtsey, that she'd learned from a Jedi Knight some months earlier. "Nice to meet you, Rudy," she said. "I'm Utena Tenjou." "Well, you're in luck tonight, Miss Tenjou," Rudy said. "Cap'n Joe's just come back from his Christmas break and the band is rarin' to go. You're gonna hear some hot, hot music tonight." They emerged from the coat check into the club's main hall, and Corwin paused to let Utena take it all in. She'd never been to a place like the Cobalt before - they normally weren't her speed - and though she'd seen similar clubs in movies, there was something a bit awesome about seeing one in person for the first time. It was a room about the size of the main dueling room back at the Duelists' Castle on Jeraddo, but there the similarity ended. This room was draped in blue and carpeted in more blue, with silver and white accents in the Art Deco style that characterized many of New Avalon's better features. The band performed on a compact stage, all dazzling in immaculate white tuxedoes with blue satin ties and cummerbunds, ranked behind gleaming silver facades. Around the edge of the room was a scattering of round tables, some small, others large. Waiters circulated among the tables with trays of drinks and light snacks. The centerpiece of the room, though, was the dance floor - a great circular expanse of brilliant blue tile with a Roman "C" mosaic in silver. A dozen couples or so were on the floor, dancing to the fast-paced, peppy number the band was pumping out. /* Duke Ellington "Caravan" _Jazz Caravan_ */ Utena leaned over and murmured in Corwin's ear, "Is this a bad time to tell you that I don't know how to dance to this kind of music?" Corwin chuckled. "You didn't know how to swordfight either," he observed. "I imagine it'll work out about the same way." Utena mulled that over for a moment, then smiled. "Good point," she said. "Let's dance." The leader of the Cobalt's galactically famous band, "Captain" Joe Hodgson, had seen a lot of beautiful women in his day. It came with the territory, playing in hot clubs like the Cobalt. For that matter, he'd seen more than one lovely lady take the floor on the arm of this particular young man. Corwin was a regular at the Cobalt. The last time Captain Joe had seen him, he'd had with him a different girl, one with dusky skin and laughing green eyes, and there had been something different about that night. This was a first in the Captain's career, though. In all his years as a musician, in clubs from Salusia to Naboo, he'd never before seen a woman take to the dance floor wearing a sword... but the really odd part about it was that there was -nothing- odd about it. The woman dancing with Corwin had a sword because she was -supposed- to have one. Captain Joe wasn't sure how he reached that conclusion, but there it was, all the same. He'd never seen her before, and he'd have remembered if he had. She was slim and athletic, perfectly suited for the kind of active dancing the Cobalt's music required to do it justice, and she was a fairly tall woman, too - in her low-heeled boots, she stood only a half-head shorter than Corwin, who had grown over the last couple of years into a tall, strapping young man. She had perfect creamy skin, blue eyes that sparkled with intelligence and energy, and striking pink hair that seemed, to the Captain's practiced eye, to be natural. The last young lady he'd seen Corwin with here had matched with him well; they'd looked good together, and they'd left the place with an obvious spark of something between them. These two -arrived- with that spark between them, and as they graced the floor, it became an -arc-. They didn't look -good- together; they looked like they had been made specifically to -be- together. The Captain vowed to himself that he and his band would do them justice tonight. Corwin and Utena failed to notice that their dancing - or maybe just the growing energy between them that it expressed - was drawing an audience. By the sixth number, most of the other couples who had been on the floor were off to the side just watching as the couple in black did their thing, but neither one noticed that they had the floor to themselves. By that point, they could only see each other. Captain Joe wound up his band's performance of the Seat Belts classic "What Planet Is This?!", cast a glance over his shoulder at the new stars of the Cobalt, and smiled. Now, he thought. They're ready. He made a sign to the band, and they grinned. It wasn't every night they got a pair of dancers on the floor the Captain thought were good enough to play this song for. The last crashing hit at the end of "What Planet Is This?!" bled straight into a pounding, driving drumbeat. Corwin recognized the song instantly. His slightly flushed face, already smiling, broke into a broad, almost fierce grin as he recognized the gauntlet Captain Joe was throwing down. He raised both of his big, powerful hands and raked them back through his thick black hair, pushing it out of his face, and as the brass laid down their opening fanfare, he reached out his hand, took Utena's, and led her to meet the band's challenge. /* Benny Goodman Orchestra "Sing, Sing, Sing (With a Swing)" _Stompin' at the Savoy_ */ The opening drumbeat kicked the watchers' excitement up another notch, too. All the ones who were regulars or semi-regulars at the club knew what it meant. Captain Joe was making his feelings known. Only the ones the Captain decided were special got to try their hands (as it were) at "Sing, Sing, Sing". Utena, as Corwin had anticipated, had met the challenge of dancing in this unfamiliar setting with the same talent and aplomb that had made a champion duelist out of an untrained teenager all those years before. In fact, she was approaching the exercise rather like she'd approached those duels, and feeling the same result. The music, like the rhythms of battle, was just... flowing through her, and her body moved as if of its own accord to meet it. She could anticipate Corwin's moves as if they were her own, always where he expected her to be, always ready for whatever he was going to do next. And as "Sing, Sing, Sing" built and built toward its peak and her heart drummed harder and harder behind her ribs, Utena knew one thing with absolute certainty: Anthy's problem wasn't going to be a problem for much longer. Any remaining doubts left her at the end of the song, as if ripped away by the power of the last note. She and Corwin remained frozen where they were for a few seconds. She closed her eyes and just let herself feel the moment - the heat of her body and of his against her, the syncopation of their breathing, the strength and solidity of him as he held her. The applause broke the reverie. Utena opened her eyes to find the two of them standing in the middle of an empty dance floor, surrounded at its edge by clapping, bright-eyed people in formalwear. She and Corwin turned to see Captain Joe raising his cornet in salute from the edge of the band riser. Grinning like fools, they bowed to the band in thanks for what they had just received, then turned and left the dance floor through the small crowd of their admirers, which parted to let them pass. "Corwin?" asked Utena, a trifle breathlessly, once they reached the relative privacy of the carpeted periphery with its tables. "Yes?" he asked, his eyes sparkling. "What do you say we get out of here?" "You got it," he replied. "Go get the car," she told him, squeezing his hand. "I'll be right out." Captain Joe watched them separate, Utena to the powder room and Corwin to the coatroom, and smiled. That, thought Captain Joe to himself, is one classy lady. I'd say that young man has no idea what he has there - except it's obvious that he knows exactly, and it's just about ready to overwhelm him. The bandleader's smile widened. Ah, he thought, to be young in this city. Then he turned back to his beaming band and gave them the sign for the next number. Corwin did as he was asked. The last dance had broken something loose inside him, too. With every step he felt like he was in danger of taking to the air and not coming back down. It was a bit like the shivery pleasure he'd felt when leaving the Cobalt with Anthy, but there was a lot more of it now. That didn't take away anything from what he'd felt for Anthy - it was just that now his anticipation was magnified through the lens of all the years of longing. The Griffon was waiting by the curb as if he'd left it there himself. He turned to Rudy, but the doorman only grinned and tipped his cap. Unable to keep a smile from his face (not that he wanted to), Corwin stood with his hands in his trouser pockets and looked up at the gleaming golden facade of the building across the street from the Cobalt. After a few moments, Utena emerged from the club and joined him there. For a second, she looked up at the building too. Its damaged penthouse floor had been fully repaired during Corwin's absence from Midgard. The Imperial Hotel Monolith stood before them in all its Art Deco glory, once again the handsomest building in New Avalon. Corwin and Utena gazed at it for several seconds, then looked at each other and, without exchanging a word, knew exactly where they were going to go. Fuu Hououji finished putting the last of the groceries away in the cabin's refrigerator and neatly folded up the paper bags. "That's the last of the food that needs to be put away," she reported. "They should have more than enough to last until Friday morning if they choose to stay that long." Nall Silverclaw (in his human shape) looked up from stacking logs in the copper hod next to the fireplace and nodded. "Hikaru, do you want any of this newspaper for the fire, or just logs?" "Just logs is fine," Hikaru Shidou answered him, looking up from the small iron brazier she was setting up to keep the cocoa simmering. "If you guys wanna go start working the weather, I can finish up the fire stuff." Nall nodded, and he and Fuu left the cabin. Hikaru took Nall's place at the hearth stacking wood. A few minutes later Uu'my R'yuu'z'ky, who had been concentrating intently on the small copper kettle she'd been whisking, sighed with her success and shut off the stove. Turning, the Hyelian carried it out to the now-flickering brazier and set it down gently. The smell of hot cocoa began to fill the room as Hikaru smiled up at her fellow Rune Knight. "All done?" Hikaru asked. Umi nodded. "I'm going to go help Fuu and Nall now - are you done yet?" "Almost - I'll be out in a minute." Umi left the small cabin, shutting the door behind her, and outside Hikaru heard the wind pick up and the pine needles scrape softly against the windows. She smiled up at the ceiling, listening for a moment, then finished building the fire on the hearth. Standing, she inhaled, focused her attention on the stack of cedar logs and the carefully placed candles around the room, and then breathed gently out. A moment later, the candles all flickered to life, and a moment after that, there was a soft "phoomp!" and the logs began to burn merrily. Hikaru knelt next to the hearth and murmured to the fire, instructing it on how to behave for the rest of the evening, then stood and looked around. The room was warming quickly, gently lit by the dancing flames, and the smell of cedar burning and chocolate and cinnamon simmering together was rapidly filling it. The redheaded Salusian smiled, then went out into the gathering storm to wait for her friends to finish. Umi, Nall and Fuu stood in a neat triangle under the pines around the back of the cabin, a ball of glittering white-blue-green light flickering between them. As Hikaru reached them, they all said something together, and the ball flew up into the sky and dissipated. A moment later, snow began to fall. They stood in silence for a moment, watching the first dusting cover the roof and frost the gently-glowing windows, and then Hikaru said, "You did make sure it'll be good snowball snow, right?" Umi sniffed disdainfully. "Hikaru, -please-. We -are- professionals." "How deep is it likely to get anyway?" she wondered. Nall grinned. "They should have real trouble digging the car out tomorrow," he said cheerfully. "And the thunder should start shortly, so we may wish to get indoors," Fuu added, smiling up at the sky. "Especially if we don't want to leave suspicious footprints." Hikaru looked around at the ground, where they were, indeed, leaving visible footprints, then realized what Fuu had said. "Thundersnow? Oh -cool-. That'll be great ambience." She sighed nostalgically, the tips of her white-furred primary ears twitching. "Just like back home." "Right, let's go get some ice cream," Nall said. "I'd say we've earned it." "I'd rather have some of Umi's hot cocoa, it smelled -really- good," Hikaru answered cheerfully as the Knights linked hands, and they left their friendly conspiracy to do as much good as possible. The town of Prisoner's Base, Avalon County, lies at the feet of the Clemens Mountains, some two hundred highway miles northwest of the City of New Avalon. Corwin's black Griffon covered that distance in seventy-two minutes flat, a new personal best. It took another ten to get up the mountains and to their actual destination, Corwin's father's cabin on the shore of Vortigern's Lake high among the peaks of the Clemens range. It was snowing when they got to Prisoner's Base, but the car could handle that without difficulty; it was more the narrowness and twistiness of the road that called for caution here. It'd be a hell of a note to get stuck in a snowbank now. By the time they got to the cabin, the Griffon's prow had to plow its way through almost eight inches of snow to reach the end of the driveway. They crossed the ten feet from driveway to porch feeling as if they were on an arctic expedition, bucking fierce winds and driven snow, wading through a drift that made Utena briefly regret having worn the dress after all, before Corwin shoved the door open and they spilled into the cabin. Inside, Gryphon's camp was warm and inviting, with pleasant scents and the light of dozens of candles, only a few of which had been snuffed by the gust through the door when they entered. A fire crackled in the fieldstone fireplace, spreading its warmth and supplementing the candles' light. "Phew! It's like 'Scott of the Antarctic' out there," Utena observed, brushing snow from her sleeves. "Lot different from the last time we were up here, that's for sure," Corwin agreed. He turned to her, taking in the caked and melting snow that didn't do much for her elegance but did make her seem somehow more like herself, and smiled. "Um... so can I, uh, help you out of those wet things?" he asked. "In that way, or not in that way, or?" Utena chuckled, her eyes glinting at him in the firelight. The arc of energy that had developed between them at the Cobalt had banked on the drive up (which was filled like most of the last two days with conversation), but it had in no way passed. They both knew they were over the border now, that it was only a matter of time - and so, perversely, Utena had decided to draw out the anticipation a bit, in hopes of making everything even sweeter. "Why don't you pour us some of that cocoa?" she said. Then she reached up and drew the comb out of her hair, allowing it to fall back into its normal long, slightly unkempt, feathery configuration. "I'm going to go change for bed." Corwin gave her a puzzled look for just a second, then caught on and grinned, his own eyes flashing. "Why don't I?" he agreed cheerfully, and went to do that thing. Utena went upstairs to the loft, carefully hung up her dress so that it would dry properly and not wrinkle, and changed into the flannel pajamas she knew without looking would be in the top drawer of the little bureau in the corner. By the time she got downstairs, Corwin had hung up his jacket on one of the chairs in the kitchen nook, unfastened the collar of his shirt, and was putting two mugs of cocoa on the little table between the sofa and the fireplace. He looked up and smiled as she descended the narrow, steep stairs from the loft. Before she'd looked spectacular; now she looked familiar, much more like... well, like -herself-. Corwin would have been hard pressed to say which made him feel the stronger attraction. He recognized what she was doing, aside from drawing things out a bit for the fun of it. Now that they were "home", now that they'd dropped their old baggage and passed the barrier, they were free to turn back into themselves, so to speak. They could take off the masks they'd worn, fun as they'd been to wear, and meet on their old common ground for this last step. Corwin didn't think he'd ever been looking forward to anything so much in his life. She sat down at the end of the sofa, and he handed her a mug of cocoa. She thanked him for it with a smile and a nod, sipped it, and made an exclamation of joy. "Wow! This is incredible." "Must be Umi's," Corwin said after taking a sip of his own. "Nall's always going on about how well she makes hot cocoa." They sat and drank their cocoa and smiled at each other, making a game out of the distance between their ends of the couch, the distance between their eyes. Utena glanced at the clock over the mantelpiece, and her smile became just a little bit wider. She put her empty mug down on the table and then slowly, nonchalantly, slid across the couch toward Corwin. "Copper?" she said, noting his thoughtful expression. He put an arm around her shoulders and said, "I was thinking about the first time I ever saw you." "Oh?" "Yeah. Remember the first thing I said to you?" "'No, Cleveland,'" Utena replied with a giggle. Corwin nodded. Then he turned a bright-eyed smile to her. "I got lost in Cleveland that day. And you know what?" "No," Utena replied, matching his smile with her own. "What?" "I've been lost in Cleveland ever since," Corwin murmured, drawing her a little closer with his arm. "Do -you- remember," she asked a trifle huskily, "the first time I kissed you?" "On Daggerdisc, after we jumped to hyperspace," Corwin said immediately. He smiled. "Of course I remember it. It was sort of one of the defining moments of my life. So was the next time, in Asgard." Utena chuckled. "Not as much as the time after that." "At the Monolith?" She nodded. "I've never forgotten -that- feeling," she admitted. "Nor I," Corwin replied. "I think about it a lot, actually." He lowered his head a little. "So do I," Utena said, raising her own a bit in response. "Really?" he asked, his eyes closing. "Yeah," she said, closing her own just as their lips touched. "Yeah," she repeated when they separated a moment later. "That's the feeling, like... " Another kiss, this one a bit longer. "Yeah," she murmured for the third time. "Just like that." Now this is more like it, Utena thought as they fell together for the longest kiss yet. This is the way I remember it. This is the spark. They took their time over that one, savoring it, and parted breathless and flushed. "Wow," Corwin breathed. "Yeah... wow," Utena replied, and then she took the lead and kissed him again. This went on for some time, building in intensity much more slowly than had happened at the Monolith. Then, there had been a sudden, startling explosion of desire that had caught both of them by surprise and knocked them off-balance, leading not to a peak of joy but to a gut-wrenching crash. Now there was only a steady climb up an easy slope, nothing rushed or forced, everything working, everything right. Presently, Utena broke breathlessly away from one of the kisses, glanced again at the clock, and said, "You once swore that you'd never do anything to me that I didn't tell you I wanted." Corwin nodded. "I did that," he agreed. Utena grinned. "Then shall I tell you what I want?" "You're going to have to," Corwin replied, sliding one flattened hand up her back to lightly grip the nape of her neck (a gesture which sent a palpable shiver through her body). "If you don't, I can't do anything," he added with a wry grin. "Well. That will never do," Utena said. "In that case... " She leaned close, put her lips almost to his ear, and murmured a string of words in an urgent whisper, her breath hot in his ear. He raised his eyebrows. "That's a tough order," he said. Then he smiled slyly, ran the ball of his thumb down her spine (drawing another shiver), and added, "But I -am- a craftsman." Looking back on it, Corwin was never sure quite how the two of them had navigated that narrow, almost ladder-like staircase to the loft without killing themselves, nor how they'd managed to get their clothes off without scattering buttons all over the loft - but accomplish both things they did, somehow. Far from feeling oppressed or fearful, Utena felt light and free and full of joy as Corwin gently lay her down and, covering her face and neck with kisses, began to ease himself down upon her. Then she heard the chime from downstairs, just as she'd planned and hoped, and she raised a hand and splayed it on Corwin's chest. "Hey," she said breathlessly. "What?" he asked, instantly motionless, his eyes wide with nascent alarm. "What's the matter?" A new surge of warmth welled up in her heart at the complete lack of demur with which he'd stopped, even here, even now. Her trust in him was total and fully warranted. She'd never loved him more than she did right now, not -ever-. She smiled, her eyes shining in the dim light of the few candles up here, and asked softly, "Aren't you going to wish me a happy birthday?" Corwin looked at her for a moment, his face blank with astonishment; then he smiled, relief and affection visibly flooding his body and soul. With the spell far from broken, but made less immediate, Corwin took a moment to really look at Utena. He was glad he had. She looked absolutely breathtaking, her naked skin bathed in the soft light, her hair fanned out haphazardly on the pillow. This was a moment he had dreamed of for many years, and now he could hardly believe it was actually happening. He chuckled, acknowledging that, yes, she had gotten him good with that one. Then, becoming a bit more serious, he looked her in the eye and asked softly, "Utena... are you absolutely sure you want to do this?" Utena didn't hesitate for a second. She just gave him the warmest smile she'd ever given him, banishing any last worries that the sudden break in the fugue might have allowed into his heart. "Yes," she said with quiet certainty, "I'm absolutely sure. Make love to me, Corwin." "My lady's wish," Corwin replied; and then, a moment later, as she let out a soft, joyous little gasp: "Happy birthday, Utena." Some time later, Utena lay curled up and drowsing, barely conscious and not at all troubled by that fact. She felt completely, magnificently languid, as though she had no bones and didn't miss them. She lay and listened to the wind whip the snow against the windows, and felt exceedingly smug that she was in here, warm and cozy, rather than out in that. Better than all that, though, she felt... -complete-, as Anthy had said she was not at the beginning of all this. It was as if a great weight had been removed from her shoulders. A fundamental flaw in the universe was at last repaired. God's in His Heaven, all's right with the world, she thought wryly, then laughed to herself. Corwin would rather be here than in Heaven, she thought. That's enough to go to a girl's head a bit. She shifted her weight a little, snuggling back against him, and drew his arm a little tighter around her. He muttered some unconscious musing into the tangle of hair at the nape of her neck. This is the way this should be, she thought. And Anthy was totally right. It -was- as different as night from day. As the warmth, the darkness, and the delicious heaviness of her limbs overtook her, she had one last thought before surrendering blissfully to sleep: So there, you bastard. We win. Millions of miles away, on Ishiyama in the Outer Rim Territories, Anthy Tenjou stood in a snowy field next to a large cherry tree, looking up at the starry night sky. With one hand she was touching the bark of the tree. The other rested gently on the modest swell of her belly. There was a quiet little smile playing at her lips. The crunch of footfalls in the snow behind her let her know that someone was approaching; some nameless instinct told her who it was without looking. "Good evening, Kyouichi," she said. "Good evening, Lady Anthy," Saionji replied formally. "Are you well?" "Very well, thank you," Anthy said, turning her smile to him. "You don't need to worry," she added in a more personal tone. "I'm not going to take a chill. I'm very hardy. In my mother's homeland, this would be summer." Saionji smiled. "I believe it," he said. "I'm not concerned for your physical health - well, no more than usual," he added as she chuckled. His worries about her health and the state of her pregnancy had become something of a running joke in their circle of friends, albeit one regarded with warmth and fond exasperation rather than derision. "Well, I can assure you, my emotional health is even better," she said. "You do seem very pleased about something," he allowed. "I am. Oh, I am. I've never been more pleased in all my life, Kyouichi. It's over. The circle is closed, the Trinity complete." She took his arm and hugged it. "I've done it. At last I've done it. I've made everything right. Well, almost everything. Everything I can affect right now. Oh, listen to me, I'm babbling - I'm just so... so happy." "I can see that," Saionji observed fondly. "Well, I came out to tell you that the Duelists' Society requests the honor of your presence for tea and the late movie." Anthy looked up at the sky one more time, her smile deepening just a little bit more. "With pleasure," she said, and accompanied him back into Sakura Shinguuji's home. /* John Parr "Man in Motion (St. Elmo's Fire)" _St. Elmo's Fire_ */ The snow kept falling at Vortigern's Lake all the next day, though not with the fury it had shown in the first few hours after Corwin and Utena's arrival. They spent her birthday inside - practically spent it in bed, except when getting up absolutely couldn't be avoided. They had a lot of time and a lot of bottled feelings to make up for, and they made up for them with zeal, diligence, and a lot of laughter. The next day, they were back to something more like normal. They still laughed a lot, but nothing seemed quite as urgent on Wednesday. They spent the day doing regular-person things - digging out the Griffon, clearing the snowdrift off the porch, chopping and carrying in some more firewood, cooking huge meals from the provisions thoughtfully provided by the Rune Knights, having snowball fights. It was the kind of stuff they used to do before, and it came as something of a relief that they could still do it, still enjoy it, just as much now as before the universe changed. It reassured them that they were still who they were, that they were still important to each other in the same ways as before. They'd awakened with an odd, unspoken concern that the new dimension to their relationship would eclipse the rest of it, and were greatly relieved to learn that it hadn't. Everything balanced. They were who they'd always been, just now without the occasional awkward moments, withdrawn hands, and quiet pains. They were, in short, -more-, not less, than they'd been before. The thought gave them both considerable joy, though they never mentioned the matter aloud. Thursday came clear and bright, with a brilliant dome of blue sky that made the whiteness of the heavy snowpack all the more vivid. Utena woke to find herself alone. She climbed out of bed, put on a robe over her pajamas, stepped into her slippers, and went downstairs. Corwin wasn't there either, but there was a pot of cocoa on the brazier. Utena poured herself a cup and went out onto the porch. It was surprisingly warm out there for the last day of December - not above freezing, but not far from it. Corwin was out on the snowpack in front of the cabin, where the edge of the lake would be in summer, doing kata with his Draconic warstaff. Utena leaned against the window frame, rested her cocoa mug on top of the lower windowpane, and watched him. The crazy Viking - there he was out there on top of a baby glacier on the last day of the year, battling imaginary opponents in their dozens, and all he was wearing was a pair of jeans and his well-loved old traveling boots. Presently he finished, whirling out of what looked like a complex block series to whip the gleaming black staff across his back and hold it under one arm, his free hand extended in front of him as if stopping traffic. He held the pose for a few seconds, every muscle tense and sharply defined, sweat gleaming on his skin despite the cold, his face intent, dark brows lowered. Click! There's one for the mental scrapbook, thought Utena with a laugh. Then Corwin relaxed, sent the enchanted staff back to... wherever it went when he didn't need it... and tramped through the snow back to the cabin. He grinned when he saw her standing on the porch, greeted her, and gave her a kiss. It was all so easy, so natural, now. It was hard to imagine that they'd lived for so long with that last little distance between them, when everything was better now without it - even the things that didn't really have anything to do with it. "Hey," she said. "Yeah," he replied, heading into the cabin to find a towel. "We going back to town today?" Utena asked as she followed him back inside. "Could," he said, nodding as he toweled his sweat-dampened hair. "Getting lonesome up here?" Utena snorted. "I could stay up here forever with you," she said. "But we -do- have lives we should probably get back to, and other people who'd like to see us." Corwin sighed in a put-upon manner. "I supPOSE," he said grudgingly. "I guess if you inSIST on it, we can go back and see our... " He paused for effect before going on in a leaden voice, "... FRIENDS." Utena laughed, snatched the towel, wound it into a tight spiral with a quick flip of her hands, and snapped him on the seat of his pants with it. "Smartass," she said with a laugh. They spent the day tidying up the cabin and getting it ready to close up again, and also squaring away their belongings and eating the last of the food. Fuu had stocked the place intending to sustain them through Friday morning if necessary, but she hadn't reckoned on their ravenous hunger Wednesday morning. Cleaning out the pantry the old-fashioned way was no great chore for them now. After putting all the dustcloths back on the furniture and making one last sweep for forgotten possessions, they dressed back up in their formal clothes and locked the cabin up. Corwin bolted and padlocked the door, then turned to see Utena standing next to him, looking pensive and quiet. "What?" he asked. "I just want to remember this," she replied, smiling. "It'll never be quite the same again, you know." "That's true," he agreed; then he grinned and said, "But that doesn't mean it won't be as good." Utena laughed and drew him into a hug that lasted for more than a minute. "What you said to me when all this started, about having loved me since you first saw me," she said softly. "I meant what I said. It was the most beautiful thing anyone's ever said to me." She paused, still crushing him in her arms, then relented so she could look into his face again. "I... I don't have words like yours," she said softly. "All I can say is what I said on the dueling floor, years ago." Then she pulled him back into the hug again and murmured in his ear, "I'll always love you, Corwin Ravenhair." Corwin smiled, rubbed her back, and said the words -he'd- said on the dueling floor in answer: "And I, you, Utena Tenjou." They were about halfway back to New Avalon and night had just fallen when Utena spoke again. She'd been glancing speculatively at Corwin, who was dozing in the passenger seat, for several minutes before she finally said, "Hey, Corwin?" "Yeah?" he asked, sitting up. He'd only been in a light doze, and so was immediately awake. "I have a question I want to ask you. Promise me you won't laugh." ""I never laugh at you, only with you. Shoot." "Will you marry me?" Utena asked. "Assuming you know anyplace where that's legal," she added. Corwin blinked a few times, then said, "Absolutely!" "Absolutely you know, or absolutely you will?" Utena asked with a sly grin. "Yes! Both! Everything!" Corwin replied. Then he looked mildly thoughtful and added, "Just you?" "Just me," Utena replied with a contented nod. "I figure if Anthy wants to marry you, she can ask you for herself." Corwin mulled that over, then grinned. "Fair enough," he said. He reached across the seat and took her hand. "You've already got a ring on the appropriate finger," he said. "Then you'll have to seal it with a kiss," Utena replied. "You're driving," Corwin pointed out with a smile. "Owe me," said Utena, grinning. "Deal," said Corwin. Kaitlyn Hutchins stood with a smile in a small crowd of her friends, the whole a part of a much larger crowd. Avalon Centre Park's Grand Common was packed with revelers, as it ever was on New Year's Eve. They came to drink cocoa and hot cider, and eat sausages from the carts that dotted the park, and listen to the New Avalon Symphony Orchestra "slumming" (as more than one snooty music critic had characterized the selection of favorites the orchestra always played in the Common Bowl on New Year's Eve). The New Year was the City in the Sphere's favorite holiday, and it always celebrated it in style. Kaitlyn grinned and squeezed both the hands she held, Miki's on one side and Juri's on the other. She remembered the first New Year's Eve she'd spent in this park with one of them - five years ago, just days after Miki's arrival in Midgard. And, catching his eye and seeing his returned grin, she knew he remembered it too. She had another reason to be excited, besides the fact that this was one of her favorite nights of the year and she was spending it in the company of people she loved. There was every reason to believe that two more would be joining them before the night was out - two more who would bring with them multiple reasons for their friends to celebrate. Looking around, Kate reflected, not for the first time, that almost -everybody- was here this year. The Hanagumi had come out from Ishiyama with the rest of them. Her father was here, looking chipper, almost reborn, with Li Kohran on one arm and Sumire Kanzaki on the other, swapping jokes across him. Duelists almost beyond counting had all flocked to New Avalon, and Kate gave up trying to count their faces after getting to twenty. The only one she knew was missing was Kozue Kaoru, Miki's twin sister, who was in training to become a professional fighter pilot and hadn't been able to get leave. That was probably just as well - from what little Kate knew about the way Kozue and Corwin had parted when Corwin left for Asgard in July, their first meeting since should probably not happen in the middle of a public celebration. Miki saw the look cross her face, and with the almost preternatural sense he often had for what she was thinking, divined her concern. He squeezed her hand and gave her his reassuring smile; and he knew more about the situation than she did, so she was duly reassured and gave over worring about it in favor of spotting more friendly faces in the crowd. Yuri Daniels was here too, and so were Janice Barlow and Neal Krummell, along with John Hyatt and Xander Cage from the CID and a very tall and chiseled Salusian fellow Kate didn't recognize (from whose arm Janice was currently dangling, kicking her feet in a gleeful kid-on-a-jungle-gym sort of way). Kate didn't know the burly Kilrathi in the leather bomber jacket either, or the Selkath he was talking to - they must be part of the sub-crew Janice and Neal seemed to be picking up during their adventures with CID. ("I'm TELLING you, Tramm, the camel was ATTACKING the guy!" the Kilrathi was bellowing over the noise of the crowd, to the obvious amusement of his Selkath friend. Kaitlyn would have loved to know what that was about; she made a mental note to ask Janice to introduce her later.) Yes, almost everybody who was everybody to the Duelists was here - Liza Shustal and the Expert of Justice Azalynn had reportedly more or less goaded her into dating, Princess Koriand'r of Tamaran, Devlin and Amanda and Rina Dragonaar, even Joe Graf had turned up from someplace, or perhaps he'd never left New Avalon after the big jam session back in July. Heck, even Zoner had turned up from one of his inscrutable missions to join in the fun. There was so much fellowship and so much musical talent here that Kate almost felt like calling off the Symphony concert and setting up her band in the Bowl instead, if she'd had the power to do that. Only two people - well, only two people she could reasonably expect to appear - were missing; and as she thought that, so they came. Corwin Ravenhair and Utena Tenjou appeared out of the crowd in that startling way that people one knows tend to do in big crowds - and when they did, they utterly silenced the conversation around them as all their friends turned to stare. Corwin was wearing a tuxedo - a relaxed Salusian-cut Armani, yes, but a tuxedo, all the same - and Utena... was wearing... a -dress-. And nothing about any of it looked in any way wrong. Cheering erupted from the Duelists corner of the crowd as Corwin and Utena's friends rushed to greet them - to say hello to Corwin, whom they hadn't seen in months, and to congratulate the both of them on what everyone knew had taken place over the last few days. Everyone was full of goodwill and happiness bordering on glee - - except, apparently, Wakaba Shinohara, who suddenly and explosively burst into tears. Utena blinked, nonplussed. "Wakaba!" she said with concern, putting her hands on her friend's shoulders. "What's the matter?" "Nothing," Wakaba sobbed. "It's just... the last time I saw you in a dress... oh, Utena, I'm so -happy-!" she wailed, throwing her arms around her old friend and crushing her in the most powerful hug she could muster. "I'm so happy you've... you've... -beaten- him!" Utena understood, and laughed, scruffling Wakaba's shoulder- length auburn hair. "Not nearly as happy as I am, Onion Princess," she replied, kissing Wakaba on the forehead. "Now c'mon, you're gonna get salt stains on my jacket. Suede is a bitch to clean." That had its desired effect, and set Wakaba to laughing rather than crying. She sniffled, wiped her face with a handkerchief silently and automatically proffered by a smiling Kyouichi Saionji, and subsided with rather shyly murmured congratulations and apologies for having made a scene (the former accepted with pleasure, the latter happily rejected). Next to Kaitlyn, Juri Arisugawa felt a gentle nudge in her ribs. She turned to see Azalynn dv'Ir Natashkan giving her a grin and winking one golden eye. "You told me so," Juri said with a smile. "I wasn't going to say it," Azalynn replied; then she grinned even more broadly and said, "But I did!" Then she trotted off to shower the two with her own congratulations. Of all the Duelists there, Azalynn's friends figured she must be just about the happiest one not directly involved. She enjoyed nothing better than seeing people in love, and she'd had a special interest in these two from the start. The whole thing took on the air of a private party, even though it was being conducted as part of a huge gathering in an open public place. The Duelists were back together, and everyone was happy; and no one more so than Anthy Tenjou, who drew both of her beloveds aside as soon as it was politic, to beam at them and congratulate them. "I trust you feel better?" she asked with an arch little grin. Utena and Corwin both laughed. "Better?!" Utena blurted. "I feel so good I don't even mind knowing that Akio's alive. In fact, I'm a little bit glad about it. It gives us an opportunity to show him how totally he's failed," she added, grinning. Then a thought crossed her mind. "Say. You mentioned scrying earlier, but I was too preoccupied to think much of it," she said to Corwin with a look combining curiosity with distaste. "He's not watching everything we -do-, is he?" Corwin shook his head. "He's not watching anything we do, not any more. First thing I fixed." "Oh. Good." Then Utena got a slightly odd smile on her face and chuckled darkly. "Although part of me thinks it's kind of a shame, considering," she said with a wicked smile. Corwin looked like he couldn't decide whether to laugh about that or not, but it appealed to Anthy's slightly perverse sense of humor without reservation. "Ah, well! The hell with it!" Utena declared, gesturing grandly. "Forget him! We've got more important things to do right now - like get some of those sausages," she added, grabbing Anthy's hand on one side and Corwin's on the other and dragging them both toward one of the carts. "Man, I love New Year's Eve!" They ate sausages, drank hot cider, and listened to the orchestra. They cheered, counted down, watched the beacon slash the news of the New Year across the night skies of Avalon. Utena and Corwin danced - and dazzled onlookers - to "Sing, Sing, Sing" for the second time that week, since the Symphony always played it as the first song of the year in lieu of the overworked "Auld Lang Syne". After the song was over, as they stood hand in hand surrounded by their happy friends and listened to the City in the Sphere ring in 2410 in style, Corwin and Utena looked at each other and smiled, each perfectly aware of what the other was thinking. This will be a good life. Damn good. /* Evan & Jaron "Crazy For This Girl" _Evan & Jaron_ */ Eyrie Productions, Unlimited She rolls the window down presented And she talks over the sound UNDOCUMENTED FEATURES Of the cars that pass us by FUTURE IMPERFECT And I don't know why - Symphony of the Sword No .4 - But she's changed my mind Interlude at Vortigern's Lake No. 2 in C Would you look at her? (For Today) She looks at me She's got me thinking about her The Cast (in order of appearance) constantly Corwin Ravenhair But she don't know how I feel Anthy Tenjou And though she carries on without Utena Tenjou a doubt Verthandi Morisato I wonder if she's figured out Urthr Snowmane I'm crazy for this girl Rudolf Talavera Yeah I'm crazy for this girl "Captain" Joe Hodgson Fuu Hououji She was the one to hold me Nall Silverclaw The night the sky fell down Hikaru Shidou And what was I thinking when Uum'y R'yuu'z'ky The world didn't end? Kyouichi Saionji Why didn't I know what I know now? Kaitlyn Hutchins Miki Kaoru Would you look at her? Juri Arisugawa She looks at me Benjamin D. Hutchins She's got me thinking about her Li Kohran constantly Sumire Kanzaki But she don't know how I feel Yuri Daniels And as she carries on without a doubt Janice Barlow I wonder if she'll figure it out Neal Krummell I'm crazy for this girl J'onn Hy'aat Yeah I'm crazy for this girl Xander Cage MCPO Sir John Spartan, KDC, RSN Right now Chad Collier Face to face Tramm Wigzell All my fears Elisabeth R'tas Shustal Pushed aside Kurt Wagner Koriand'r Right now Amanda Elektra Dessler I'm ready to spend the rest of my life Devlin E.D. Carter With you Kitarina Telaia Dragonaar Joe Graf Would you look at her? MegaZone She looks at me Wakaba Shinohara She's got me thinking about her Azalynn dv'Ir Natashkan constantly and a horde of other friends But she don't know how I feel And as she carries on without a doubt Mr. Ravenhair's Tailor I wonder if she's figured out Elim Garak I'm crazy for this girl I'm crazy for this girl The Great Planner Benjamin D. Hutchins Would you look at her? She looks at me Second Unit Director/ She's got me thinking about her Miss Tenjou's Couturier constantly Anne Cross But she don't know how I feel And as she carries on without a doubt Wranglers I wonder if she's figured out Janice Barlow I'm crazy for this girl Rob Shannon I'm crazy for this girl... MegaZone With the gracious assistance of The Usual Suspects Just think - the whole Corwin and Utena thing was originally supposed to be Symphony 1's COMIC RELIEF. And you didn't BELIEVE me when I said the characters were driving. This one's for everybody who thought we were all done with this back at Bancroft Tower... and the Monolith... and the first time at Vortigern's Lake... and the end of Knights 3... and... But mostly it's for Corwin and Utena. I'd say they've earned it. --G. Millinocket, Maine December 28, 2003 The Order of the Rose will return E P U (colour) 2003