The Black Swan and the Duck (Princess Tutu FanFic)

Chapter 15: Sweetest of Swans, The Darkest of Evil is the Black Swan Foe

Fakir looked around. Ahiru hadn't really been around since he'd seen the pages at sundown. Or at least he hadn't heard her come in from practice. She'd been Autor's partner but honestly he couldn't tell what it meant. She was almost distant with him today, like she wanted to spite him. But last night...she'd been perfectly happy trying to help him find the notebook pages...again. Black and White. Maybe this Black and white swan thing did have a bit of metaphorical similarity to Ahiru at this point.

He looked in the living room. Nothing. He looked by the fireplace. Nothing. He checked under the covers of his bed just incase she'd taken a nap or ... but nothing. He looked out the window to see if he could spot her coming home from the Academy but she wasn't. There was only so many places she could be and considering even Autor didn't seem imensely pleased with dancing with her, considering his realization of her behaviour in class, he doubted she was with him. Or Pike for that matter, who seemed rather smitten with the idea that she got to dance with him. To be honest it wasn't that he didn't ever want another partner...its just that those few times he got to dance with her really felt right. Or at least the pas-de-deux that he'd done the first few times with her. He was really her only friend at this point, and well she'd really only ever been his besides Mytho.

Maybe...well if his Knight self...which he realized never had gone away... A scars a scar, and he'd still had it. If his Knight self had feelings for Princess Tutu...maybe it wasn't his complete dedication to helping the Prince but his past feelings for Tutu that made him so eager to help her against the Raven. But now...until he could find out if the Sorcerer of this story was even present, he wouldn't know completely what the danger was that they were really in...

He felt a urgency in him to find Ahiru suddenly. Whether or not it was something more than friendship...there were too many variables in the air. The sky looked a lot darker tonight and hew knew there might only be one more place she might be.

Fakir left his cabin in a rush. Ahiru was nowhere...or at least not at the house. He left and began to move towards the lake. He looked around and saw shadows forming over the trees in the forrest. The darkness of the night was already covering the grounds. How could he ever find her in the darkness?

"Fakir?"

He turned to see Ahiru standing in front of him.

"Ahiru! I couldn't find you...where were you?"

"Nowhere really...just the lake for a bit." She looked at him. "You were looking for me?"

"Yea." He wondered how he should go about this. "Look, I have a theory. Actually three theories kind of...about what's going on."

"Tell me!" Ahiru said, she appeared curious.

"Well...one, I found Drosselmeyer's notebook...and its told me more or less that there was a prologue to the story that we didn't know about. Theres a good chance that your actually human...but were turned a duck. Theres also a good chance that a Sorcerer might be on the hunt for my head and yours."

Fakir watched her as she listened, staring intently at him. He'd skip over the love triangle part for now. "Two...well two, is that I'm pretty sure there are two swans around here. One, a black one who is relatively evil and stole pages from the notebook, and the second a white swan who saved me and gave back the pages."

Her face showed a slight bit more shock. He wondered if she was just speechless or he sounded crazy. "And three...I think this all has something to do with Swan Lake...maybe it's a coincidence but...can you tell me...is there something going on...I know...I mean I think...Ive noticed your change and-"

"There is." Ahiru said cutting him off from his struggling words. "I wanted to tell you but I didn't know how. I'm not really me all the time...Fakir I'm cursed."

He looked at her wide eyed. "Cursed?"

"I turn into a swan and then when the moon comes out I turn into myself until sunrise."

"Then who are you when -"

"It's more like Swan Lake than you'd think. To be honest, I think I'm remembering some of the past...I told you I wasn't myself but-" Ahiru walked closer to him, appearing troubled.

"Why didn't you tell me this sooner?" Fakir questioned.

"I couldn't." Ahiru said, taking a step closer, looking up at him. "But now that you know, I can tell you everything..."

"What's everything?" Fakir looked at her blue eyes.

"Look to the sky." Ahiru said.

He looked up. "What am I looking for?"

"What do you see?"

"Nothing...darkness...a few stars but..."

"Exactly."

Fakir thought for a moment about what that meant. Wait. No moon. If Ahiru changed into her self at night when the moon came out...but there was no moon tonight did that mean...

He looked down at Ahiru. Was this even Ahiru? Or was it-

She was now holding a black feather between her fingers. "Funny how things can look like one thing and be something else?" She flipped the feather and it turned into a dagger. "I guess you really don't know your Princess that well Knight...because you couldn't really tell the difference between the Odile and the Odette."

Ahira looked at him sharply and took a quick lunge forward, Fakir taken by surprise, as he saw a rather sharp looking blade coming straight for him.