--Shoujo Kakumei Utena--
-Shredded Rose-
by Sionna Klassen
kurayami@yahoo.com

The water is sluggish and dirty, the white stone rose caked with mud and
       grime. The gate screeches with rage at being opened and the stairs
     crack and crumble under her weight. She staggers to the top panting and
         desperate, the lights of the castle above are winking out and
  crumbling, bits of falling marble raining from the sky white and hard
     like frozen tears. Desks are scattered haphazardly across the field and
 vases fall from the trembling surfaces to shatter into rose petals all over
       the stone stained with blood in the shapes of fallen. Her feet crush
chocolate and ice frosts her hair.
        The opponent is a blaze of swords, hair of rainbow swirling
     around faceless face. Sunlight blinds off of saber and scimitar, rapier
          and katana and dagger. Blades smash birdcages from the desks and
   crush the toy birds inside underneath the fragile bars. Red dress explodes
 into windswept motion and light washes wildly across the platform. The sword
      rips free of breast with a shriek and spatter of blood. She rushes
    forward and the red dress falls empty through her hands, the sword
        stabbed into the heart of the red flat shadow on the stone.
                Swords whistle through her hair, tear her shoulder. She
       wrenches at the blade but it holds fast in the stone shadow of a lost
         corpse. The folds of the red dress tangle her feet and trip her up.
    Desks hurl themselves at her and batter her with breaking limbs. Glass
      birds explode from their cages and crush themselves against her body.
  Rose petals choke her throat. The sword burns her hands. The rainbow hair
       blinds her vision. The taste of bitter chocolate fills her mouth as
                her teeth tear the inside of her cheek.
                        The castle slowly falls.
                                The ring on her hand shatters.

        Utena woke up with a gasp that wasn't quite a scream, shaking
uncontrollably. She held up her trembling hand and stared at the
pearlescent stone of the ring around her finger, the pale pink rose
gleaming softly in the moonlight. She carefully pulled herself to the
edge of her bunk bed and lowered her head to see Anshi sleeping, a small
smile on her face. Reassured, Utena pulled her head back up and settled
back into her bed, pulling the covers up tight and closing her eyes
against the chaos roiling beyond the realm of vision. She fell asleep.
                        Anshi's eyes opened.

--The End--

Author's Notes: Short and sweet, this one, as befits something more a
poem than a fanfic. This was sort of unavoidable, seeing how much Utena I
indulged in today. ;) Obviously, this is set somewhere during the Black
Rose business, since I haven't seen anything beyond episode 21 or so. I'm
sure that all my current notions about the show will be proven entirely
wrong, so I tried to write something that wouldn't be too damaging to
later continuity. :)