Utena, Revolutionary Girl Fan Fiction ❯ A Tale of Two Princes ❯ Through the Darkness of Their Dreams: Salmon and Maroon ( Chapter 5 )

Title: A Tale of Two Princes

Chapter 5: Through the Darkness of Their Dreams: Salmon and Maroon

Rating: PG-13

Shoujo-ai Content

Utena and its character do not belong to me. I am just borrowing.

 

The tickle of the dream lingered over him, and even if he had wanted to escape from it, there was just no way it would let him slip away. It was dark, but, to him it was hardly as menacing as he thought it would be. It was the tone of the young man's voice, really; it comforted as it prodded. It was so steady it could have been mechanized, and yet, no computer or robotic sound could manage, what was, a sad lamenting edge in the very sound.

 

He sat in a dark confessional and the voice entreated him to speak. He kept his hands on his lap, and his head bowed so that his long red hair covered his face. He began to speak quietly, confessing lightly, and with anguish. And as he spoke the elevator began to rise.

 

And the voice said, "Deeper. Go deeper."

 

At first Touga resisted, but then, there were the words mixed in anger and sadness spilling forth into the current of darkness that seemed to be growing around him. He paused, briefly. He wanted to hold part of it back. He didn't want to say all he was saying, because it was not quite right. It was partly truth, but it was more the amplified expression of emotions he could not be rid of.

 

"Go deeper."

 

And with the simple request he did, until at last he was a crumpled mass on the floor of the confessional.

 

The door to the elevator opened and the voice, simple and calm, said, "Then you have no choice but to revolutionize the world."

 

He grimaced and he looked up but the doorway was empty, and before he could rise to his feet and walk into the darkness beyond the door another voice called his name. Light replaced the dark and there she was.

 

He squinted against the light but could not make out the form, just the voice, he could never forget such a voice.

 

"The way has not been cleared for you. You have no path here, Touga."

 

"Wait," he cried out when he saw her leaving. "Wait, come back. Who are you?"

 

"Wake up, Touga... Wake and remember... everything that should not have been forgotten."

 

And so he did.

 

His first instinct upon waking was to reach for his phone and call Juri, but he stopped himself. He would tell her...later. Yes, he would tell her when his head felt clear and he could truly wrap his mind around what he had seen. He would wait so that he could tell the dream as it was meant to be told.

 

In a light of dawning

There are whispers that touch my ear

There are secrets I don't wish to hear

But they are mine

They are the definitive mark of time

Come the memories of the rose

Of the path I clearly chose

And all the things I can not forget

Things that linger like regret

In my dreams I yearn to take them back

But I've been frozen, my heart's painted black

 

Dread ate the inside of her stomach, because she wanted to wake up, but she couldn't. She wanted to say that it was because of what had been going on at the school. She wanted to think that logically it was just her mind taking in everything and twisting her dreams, but there was solidity to everything around her. There was a sense of memory, and then, of course, there was that voice. She did not want whatever it was the dream was going to give her, but she could not fight the pull. She could not resist the request, or the anguish of that voice as it asked her to speak.

 

The dream had turned sour when she had begun walking down the corridor lined with chairs, atop each a fairly large card imprinted with a finger pointing the way. At the end of the line was a confessional, with a single chair, and the walls were painted black. Everything was dark, sinister, but oddly comforting. When she sat in the chair the door slid shut, and she felt in that moment she could say anything.

 

She tried to remember what had brought her there. Something had happened during the day; at school...Was it after fencing practice? Something happened and she felt she needed to talk to someone. She needed an ear that would listen, and she had come...she went to the hall. She had been invited to attend. She had been... And the confessional was dark and the young man's voice was soft, almost electronic and unreal, but there was sense, that lingering touch of emotion that made his voice real.

 

"Begin," the voice said.

 

Her normal reaction to conceal and repress lifted. She spoke, almost too softly to be heard, but he heard her. He heard every word. The confessional began to rise.

 

"Deeper. Go deeper."

 

And he did not have to ask her a second time, because her quiet manner was lost to anger, a rage intertwined in the depths of sadness that had her in tears on the floor. With her last confession shouted to the darkness the elevator came to a halt and the door opened.

 

"I see. It appears you have no choice now, but to revolutionize the world."

 

She stood up but could not look at him. She staggered forward to follow, but her arm caught on the doorway. She hesitated.

 

"The way for you has been prepared. You need only follow the path."

 

"What path?"

 

An androgynous voice from behind her whispered, "This path that gives you a new heart."

 

And she couldn't remember the rest. She couldn't remember anything except a sharp stabbing pain in her heart, and then nothing at all, nothing at all but Kozue's voice telling her that it was just a dream. It was only a dream.

 

This bit of haze creates in me a maze

It covers me in doubt as I begin to shout

And all that once was real begins to feel

Like misery and butterflies

Like sticky candy and pretty lies

It takes the heart of me and threatens to drown in a sea

Show me back to the shore, won't you please show me the door

Tell me how I can get back, now that you've colored my heart black

 

The sound of a drop of water falling into a shallow pool echoed throughout the room. There was darkness and nothing more. No light seemed able to penetrate through the veil of shadow that resided there. And then as the black was just drawing into a deeper silence voices marked the void and filled it with a blinding light.

 

"I don't like using them this way. This isn't they way I do things. Can't we just tell them the truth?"

 

"If simply telling them were enough then I would not have dragged you into this. We can't simply let the memories die. They should never have been forgotten."

 

"But this isn't right. This is the way he would have done things."

 

"No, he would never understand why they have to remember."

 

"I barely understand."

 

"One hundred students...one hundred souls marked for something that we can not let occur. If we did then everything else was for nothing."

 

"But is it right to involve them?"

 

"No, but they're the strongest. They're the ones who can help us put this right."

 

"A revolution...is that what this is for?"

 

"No, this is for memory. We do this...we do this to make sure it never happens again."

 

"Then I'll agree to continue, but-"

 

"I understand."

 

"It loses its purpose if they get hurt. If they are hurt-"

 

"We will find another way. Please...trust me."

 

"I do... Even after everything I do."

 

To be continued....