The Baroness Returns Chapter 20

Chapter 20


With tears in her eyes. Louise watched silently, as Baron, with his back facing everyone, carried the limp body of Haru silently and slowly laid her across a bed.

Louise looked around at the others, as she struggled to hold in a sob.

Toto stared at Baron and Haru, silent tears streaming down his feathery face. He stood like a statue, as he silently weeped while staring at Haru lying on the bed.

Muta stood next to the room's only window, staring out at it. His face was turned from everyone, so Louise couldn't read his expression. But Louise could see the large cat's chin, quiver more than once, before he quickly stopped.

Momo, who stood next to Muta, just wore a sad expression as she stared at Haru and Baron. Louise didn't realize how much Momo and Haru had interacted since they were first introduced. But Momo did seem surprisingly grief stricken, that made it clear that Momo did after all get a chance to know Haru in just this short time.

Louise then slowly moved her eyes towards Lune.

Lune's head hung low as his mismatched eyes stared down at the floor. Although his his eyes were dry, she had no doubt that he was struggling to hold back a sob as Louise and the others were. Louise felt her heart tightened as she stared at Lune in his most sorrowful state she had ever seen him.

Louise moved her attention back to Baron and Haru.

Baron stared down at Haru. He raised his hand to brush some of her brown hair out of her face, before reluctantly pulling away and turning towards everyone with emotionless face.

"We must get ready."

Toto who broke out of his trance, looked to Baron.

"Get ready? For what?"

Baron walked passed everyone and towards the door.

"Haru is gone, because she protected me. She told me a while ago that she wanted me to be happy. She wanted to help. . . she wanted to help all of us."

Baron then stopped walking and turned to everyone.

"I will not let Haru die with her wishes unanswered." Baron then turned to look at Louise.

"She wanted us to be happy Louise. She wanted us to fulfill our promise."

Louise flinched at Baron's words.

Louise has been believing this whole time that because of her dreams, her memories, and her connection with Baron, that the reason she came back was to fulfill their old promise to wed. Louise made her belief known and told everyone, especially Baron. But Baron never really acknowledged her belief of their promise so much. So hearing Baron speak of it now to her was startling.

"W-what are you saying Humbert?" Louise asked hesitantly.

Baron closed his eyes for a moment, then opened them to look at Louise again.

"We have to marry, Louise. Despite everything Kuro has done, I believe the reason you were brought back and met me again is to achieve our wish."

Louise froze.

Louise knew that at the start, Baron had mixed feelings about her reentering his life again. Baron never agreed or denied Louise's claim that they had to marry. This is the first time Baron finally said what he wanted to do, but Louise wasn't sure what to think of this.

"H-Humbert. . . I thought. . ."

"I've stalled this long enough Louise, and I'm sorry I never told you how I felt about all of this, until now. I'm ashamed I had to finally realize what had to be done, when Haru is gone. . . We need to fulfill our promise Louise, if we don't all of this will have been for nothing."

Louise stared at Baron, then slightly turned her attention to Lune. Lune stared at the two of them with a broken expression. Already broken from Haru's death and now because the 'Yuki' he knew and adored was soon about to slip through his paws forever.

Louise tearing her gaze from Lune looked back at Baron.

"But Humbert-!"

Baron then turned away and reached out for his cane, which leaned on the doorframe of the room and sighed.

"We should hurry. More time we stall the more time Haru's wish goes unrealized. Today, it has to happen."

Before Louise or anyone else could stop him, Baron left the room without another word.

Momo looked towards Lune sadly and put a paw on his shoulder for comfort, but Lune brushed off Momo's paw and quickly walked out of the room as well.

"H-Hey, Lune!" Momo cried running after him, before looking back at the those remaining and disappeared down the hall.

Louise not knowing what to do stood and watched as Lune and Momo left the room, wanting desperately to follow them, but couldn't will her legs to move.

It's official. She was finally going to marry Baron, after almost a century, it was finally happening. She can barely believe it was happening.

Toto sighed and turned to Muta, whose gaze was finally not focused on the window and instead on the human lying on the bed, motionless.

"What are we going to do?" Toto whispered.

"We follow Baron, like we always do." Muta said gruffly.

"Yes but, what about Haru's mother? What are we going to do about that?" Toto asked.

Muta then turned to glare at Toto.

"We tell her what happened! What else can we do?! Remain silent and let her mother worry about Haru and cause the humans to look everywhere for Chicky, believing she is still somewhere out there, giving her mom false hope that she's possibly coming back? We're just going to have to scare her, by revealing we can talk, and then break her heart by telling her that Haru is gone and not coming back." Muta hissed.

Toto sighed.

"You're right. Haru's mother needs to know. . ."

Muta then sharply turned to Louise.

"We'll do it after you and Baron are finally wed and promises and wishes are granted. Then after that, I suppose everything will be just sunshine and rainbows there on out! Yeah, sure, we'll all just be so happy!" Muta growled before storming out of the room.

Louise froze at Muta's last remark, her legs feeling ready to collapse on her.

Toto sadly watched Muta leave and turned to Louise.

"I'm sorry about Muta. He didn't mean to sound like that. I'm sure you and Baron will be happy together like you once were, Louise."

That being said, Toto trotted towards the door and gave Louise a sad smile, before leaving as well.

Louise finally let her legs collapsed under her and she sat in the middle of the room stunned.

“So it's really happening.” Louise said aloud to herself.

Louise let her mind wander back to the memories that she at last regained.

She remembered days where she and Baron danced together happily. She remembered days where they talked for hours about the happy future they wanted once they married. She remembered that sorrowful day Baron and her had parted. She remembered the promise they made to each other that they would meet again and at last marry and live a happily ever after.

But those days where distant memories to her now. Baron and her are getting married finally, yet she felt so empty. She loved and cared for Baron so deeply once, and Louise did suppose she and Baron could go back to the way things were. But now she wasn't so sure anymore.

Louise knew she cared for Baron, but didn't love him. The one who held her heart was Lune, it always had been that way, since the days she was still Yuki. But he isn't the one she is supposed to be with. Baron and her were brought back together. They had recurring dreams about the both of them and their promise. Even Kuro couldn't keep Louise from meeting Baron again, no matter how hard he tried. Louise and Baron will always be linked together, they were created for each other and no other. She and Baron are supposed to be happy together. But ever since Haru passed, that happiness I was so sure of having with Baron, is suddenly gone and she didn't know why.

Louise’s eyes then wandered back to Haru's limp form.

Louise could still barely believe that the beloved human girl was gone. She could barely believe what had happened just a short time ago.

OOO

Kuro holding up his cane, that glowed brighter than it ever had before, pointed it towards Baron, and the cane began to produced a beam to be shot at Baron.

"Baron!" everyone cried in horror.

"No!" Haru screamed.

Haru quickly pulled herself off of Toto and ran, ignoring the pain throughout her body, in front of Baron.

Everyone watched in mute horror as the beam of light shot out of Kuro's cane and landed on Haru.

The light engulfed her quickly and she then gasped out in alarm as it quickly shot out of her and towards an open mouthed Kuro. The beam smashed into him, making him stagger back, his eyes wide with an indecipherable expression.

Haru then collapsed on the floor, right in front of a horror stricken Baron.

"Haru!"

Baron used every ounce of his strength to fight against the beasts’ grips and managed to sit upright abruptly and hastily crawled to Haru. He then gathered Haru's limp form in his arms, as the beasts who held him and the others vanished. Everyone then quickly gathered around Baron and Haru.

"Haru?! Haru?!" Baron cried out in alarm as he tried to shake her awake.

". . . Wha- No!"

Everyone turned to see Kuro looking at his arms and hands in alarm.

"That human! What has it done?!"

Kuro's body began to tremble and he groaned loudly, as he dropped his cane, which was no longer glowing and collapsed on his knees.

Slowly, his face began to become a bit rounder and longer. His pointed dark ears, began to shrink slowly along with his nose and fur.

Everyone began to notice how his body was slowly turning very human like. However, everyone watched in awe as his transformation stopped abruptly.

The once dark and handsome cat was replaced by a odd looking creature. He had the face of a human, but his nose was still like a cats and his muzzle was still there. His ears were now at the sides of his head, but still pointed and thin. His body was still covered in his dark fur, but was very thin as though he was balding. His red eyes would have looked like a human’s if it weren't for that small, noticeable slit in the middle of his eyes. Kuro didn't look cat or human, he looked like a beast.

Kuro franticly touched his new form all over, let out an enraged roar and snatched up his cane from the floor, pointing it at the huddled group.

"Look at me! I'm a freak of nature now because of that human! I was supposed to have Baron's-!"

Kuro stopped in mid sentence, his eyes widened.

He slowly dropped his cane and held himself close as if he were about to prevent himself from erupting.

Kuro's body then shuddered violently.

Giving one last final glance up at a terrified Louise, he whispered her name and burst right in front of everyone, leaving only a pile of dust behind and seconds later his cane disappeared in a puff of dust as well.

Silence filled the room as they stared at the spot Kuro once was.

"Is he. . . gone?" Momo breathed out in shock.

"I think he is." Lune said staring at the dust on the ground in front of them.

Louise stared at the spot as well, hardly believing what just occurred.

Everyone then looked down at Haru and Baron.

"Haru?! Is she okay?!" Toto asked.

Baron held the brunette to his chest and didn't look up or say a word.

"Well?! She's alright, right?!" Muta demanded.

Baron slowly looked up from Haru and to everyone, with a stunned look.

"She's. . . gone."

OOO

I stared at the clock anxiously.

Baron and I decided our wedding was to take place in a hour from now and I don't feel at all ready.

Baron and I aren't going to dress up for the occasion. We are going to wed as we currently are and have a small ceremony below the cat tower, by the local cat priest.

The same cat priest who was to marry Lune and I.

I felt my eyes close slightly in sadness.

Lune had called for the priest and arranged for the ceremony immediately after it was decided  Baron and I were to wed immediately.

I felt heartbreak at the thought of how much Lune did to help me after all this time.

Now that I thought about it, I never really properly talked to Lune since I canceled our engagement. I never got the chance to fully talk to him since all this happened, especially now that I'm finally going to marry Baron.

Guilt started to build in me the more I thought about it.

'Maybe that's why I'm not mentally ready to marry Baron. I haven't really told Lune how I felt about all of this and didn't get the chance to say a proper goodbye to him and our relationship.'

I stood up from the lounge chair I sat on and walked to exit my room.

'I need to tell Lune goodbye. It'll bring closure for both him and me. Maybe then I can finally move on with Baron. I need to talk to him.'

I walked out of my room and closed the door behind me and looked down the hall.

'Where could Lune be?'

I walked down the hall, until I saw Natoru walking with his back facing me.

"Oh, Natoru!" I called out.

Natoru gave a curious glance behind at me and smiled.

"Oh Ms. Yuki- I mean, Louise. What are you doing here? Your wedding is soon."

I waved my gloved hand at him.

"I am aware of that, thank you, but do you know where Lune is?"

Natoru placed his paw under his chin.

"Hmm, where did I last see the Prince. . . Oh yeah! I think he left to go out in the fields to mope like he has been since you left him. Boy was he a mess today! But you shouldn't go to see your ex-lover right in the eve of your wedding. Others might mistake the situation and think you're cheating Ms. Louise." Natoru said giving me a cheeky clueless smile.

I groaned inwardly, wishing Natoru wasn't so blunt and oblivious.

"Thank you." I simply said and gathered the hem of my red gown in my hands and rushed as quickly as my heels could take me down the hall.

As I made my way out of the palace I thought of Natoru's words:

"I think he left to go out in the fields to mope like he has been since you left him. Boy was he a mess today!"

'Oh Lune, I'm sorry I caused you so much heart ache.'

'It's finally time I said goodbye to you.'

As soon as I made it to the open fields, that were bathed in the sunlight, I spot Lune's figure, sitting on a stump, looking up at the blue sky.

"L-Lune?" I hesitantly whispered, wondering if he can hear me.

Lune froze and turned to face me, linking his mismatched eyes with mine.

"Y-Yuki?" he said a bit startled, with horrified look on his face.

I wanted to smile at him for calling me Yuki, but my smile vanished when I noticed that look on his face.

I hesitantly walked over to him.

"I-I'm sorry Lune, I just wanted to talk to you b-but if you don't want to I understand." I said trying to keep my voice even.

Lune's horrified look quickly vanished and was replaced by a halfhearted smile.

"No, come and sit. I'm sorry if I gave you that impression." Lune said moving to the side of the stump to make room for me.

I gave him a smile in thanks and quietly sat down next to him.

We sat there silently, while I tried to find the right words to say.

'What should I tell him first? Thank you? Goodbye? How should I start this all out? Erm. . .'

It must have been awkward sitting there silently like this, because Lune muttered out:

"Ah- I believe you said you wanted to talk to me, L-Louise?"

I interrupted my thoughts to look up at him. I quietly sighed at him calling me Louise all of a sudden and decided to be honest.

"Lune, after all this time you never refered me as Louise until now. Why now?"

Lune looked startled at my question and looked down at the ground slightly.

"Hmm. . . well. . . I haven't really noticed that I did, actually."

Lune then looked up at me.

"I suppose it's because I've been clinging to this idea that you'll stay as Yuki if I kept calling you that. But now that it's your wedding day, I suppose I gave up on that hope."

I stared at Lune back, my eyes saddening.

". . . Lune, thank you."

"What-?" Lune said looking genuinely confused.

I gave him a soft smile placing my gloved hand on his paw.

"Thank you." I said again.

"For everything you've done for me. For helping me with Baron's and my wedding. For helping me when Kuro tried to take me. A-All the way back to the time you took me to the Cat Kingdom when I was a kitten." I said feeling my voice break a little.

Lune looked at me with a surprised look, but his expression softened.

"Yu-" Lune stopped himself from murmuring that name that seemed so forbidden now.

My smile faded and I removed my hand from his paw.

"And I'm sorry, Lune. All this time since I found out the truth, I ignored you and never got to tell you I'm sorry about all this and about us."

I looked into his eyes determined.

"I'm sorry we went from being a love stricken couple to being almost strangers. I really did want to marry you Lune, but you aren't the one I'm supposed to marry. Baron and I were promised to each other for so long, we loved each other, we wanted a happy future with each other. I started to remember him and my past when we were so close to being married. I can't be with you Lune, I'm not supposed to be, Baron is the one I'm supposed to be happy with."

"Like hell he is!"

Lune and I jumped at that voice and turned to an angry looking Momo, her arms crossed as she stood behind us.

"Momo?" I said.

She growled.

"Who says you have to be with him?! So what you had a past with him! Lune and I had a past before you showed up, yet you don't see him trying to break my door down wanting to marry me. So what, you and Baron were once upon a time promised to each other! People can easily cancel engagements to each other now! I don't know how old school you and Baron's creator had made the two of you, but you don't have to be forced to marry each other now. We're in the twenty first century for crying out loud!" Momo said giving me a hard glare.

I felt my mouth hanging at Momo's outburst, she never looked so angry before. She never yelled at me like this.

What she was saying did make sense, almost making me feel a bit foolish, but that still didn't change somethings.

"That may be true Momo, but what about the dreams I have been having?" I said standing up to face Momo.

"Why would I have dreams about my old fiance and my past, only after I got engaged to Lune. It's obvious I can't marry Lune!" I slightly yelled.

"Well, I don't know! Maybe your mind wanted to give you closure before you changed your life with Lune or something! But that fact is, you shouldn't let that stand in your way of happiness with Lune! I know you still love him as he does you! Why can't you see that-!"

"That's enough Momo." Lune interrupted.

We turned to see Lune slowly stand up and look at Momo.

"Louise knows what she wants to do. We shouldn't try to push her." he said in a slow voice.

"B-But Lune! Those aren't even the main issues! Yuki and Baron don't love each other like they once did. They fell out of love with each other a long time ago. They both moved on, they can do it again." Momo argued.

I stepped in.

"I had no choice, but to move on! I forgot everything! I forgot my life, Baron, and myself! Of course I moved on! I wasn't aware of anything before Lune took me in! I moved on without a choice!"

Momo then glowered at me.

"Can you say the same thing for Baron?"

I froze at that statement.

"Baron had his memories of his past with you, and yet he still moved on."

"T-Thats because he thought that I died." I argued.

Momo snorted harshly.

"Oh? What about when you did finally come back? He still looked as if he didn't want to be with his long lost love."

I flinched slightly.

"Momo!" Lune cried.

Momo gave Lune her paw.

"No, she needs to hear this."

"H-He must have been in shock and couldn't think it possible for us to be together, that doesn't mean-"

"I'm pretty sure that was not Baron's issue. The issue is actually: Haru. I don't know if you've noticed, but that guy and her obviously had something going on. Even when you announced to everyone that you were Louise, Baron still looked only at Haru. If he really loved you, he would have been very happy to have you back and he wouldn't have shown his love for Haru. Yuki, you're marrying Baron for nothing. He loves another already."

I froze.

'Baron in love with Haru? Why haven't I seen that? Maybe I was too wrapped up in both of my engagements to notice. What Momo is saying is true. . . it makes sense why Baron was never eager to agree or deny my wishes. He probably felt some sort of duty in marrying me but at the same time was torn because of Haru. Maybe it's true that I should-'

"Haru's gone, Momo."

I broke out of my thoughts to look at Lune who said that, his ears drooped and his eyes full of sadness.

"She's gone and Louise is here. Baron is hurting badly because of this. But that also means he probably needs Louise more than ever now. He'll need someone to help him move on." Lune said as he walked next to me to place a paw on my shoulder.

"I understand Momo. You're doing this for my sake, but Louise is free to do what she wants."

"Lune. . ." Momo said staring sadly at him.

Lune then looked down at me.

"I love you Yuki, I always will."

I flinched, my blue eyes widening, never expecting him to say this to me again.

"But you have a choice to do what you want, whether it's with me or not."
I felt my eyes swelling with tears, I quickly looked away from him and at Momo who stared at us longingly.

"Of course I'm doing all this for you, Lune. I can't stand the thought of you being miserable like you have been. I don't want to see you sad once Yuki is gone. However I'm not doing this just for you." she said walking to me and taking my hand in her paws.

"I want you to be happy too Yuki. You're my best friend. I don't want you to be unhappy either. The only reason I helped Kuro is because I thought he would help me get together with Lune and also help you on reuniting with your long lost love. But he tricked me, he didn't care whether I got with Lune or not. He just wanted to be with you. He couldn't tell me that though, because he knew I would have never agreed to help him in the first place. He tricked me into thinking I could help make everyone happy, including myself. . . but things are different now. . . and I know you won't be happy with Baron, Yuki. But Lune is right. It's up to you after all. No matter how much I don't want it, you can still marry Baron and live like you want." Momo said her eyes watering like mine are.

"I just don't want my friends to be unhappy." Momo said drawing me in a tight hug.

Feeling tears fall freely down my face, I hugged Momo back, just as tightly.

"But one thing's for sure, I must admit, Kuro did not plan on you and Baron meeting again. He also didn't plan on you having dreams about your past with Baron. That was not his doing. So your theory on being fated to be with Baron doesn't entirely sound like nonsense." Momo reasoned reluctantly.

"So Yuki. . . Louise, I actually don't blame you for being confused. After all Lune and I don't understand what it's like for you, we aren't in your shoes." Momo said looking to Lune as she released me from our hug.

I sighed.

"I still can't believe Kuro did all of this. He altered my life, meddled in everyone else's, tried to pull Baron's life out of him and killed Haru in the process. I can't believe he was actually capable of this all."

'He wasn't even a real creation, like Baron and I are. How on earth did he even have power like that-?'

I froze at that thought, something hit me.

"Well Louise, the fact is no matter what you choose to do, I hope you will find happiness." Momo said.

I broke out of my sudden though to look at Momo.

Lune nodded as well.

"I agree. I hope. . . you'll be happy." he said giving me a sad smile.

I then looked to Lune.

"Oh Lune. . ."

"And don't worry about me anymore Louise. I'll do my best to move on from you, I'll be hard, but I think I will be able to eventually. Although I'm afraid I won't be able to love another like I did you."

Momo looked at Lune sadly.

Lune then sighed and offered a smile to me.

"You've waited your whole life, to learn where you came from, and at last you finally know. I'm very glad for that. So whatever you choose to do, I will support you." Lune said softly leaning in to kiss me on my forehead.

I felt my heart quicken, I also felt it breaking.

'What am I going to do now? I- I have no idea what to do anymore. I've never been so lost in my life.' I thought, feeling a bit panicked.

I suddenly brought my mind back to my previous thought of Kuro, but before I could ponder some more, we all heard someone call out to us from above.

We looked up to see Toto flying just above us, wearing a solemn smile.

"The priest has arrived and Baron's ready. The wedding is getting ready to take place. . . Are you ready now, Louise?"

Lune and Momo exchanged nervous looks then looked towards me.

I stood silently, gathering all my thoughts together before I finally looked up at everyone and spoke.

". . . I'm ready."