DISCLAIMER: Everything you can recognize isn't mine. Please don't sue.

Van's eyes are cast heavenward. His chest was heaving and his eyes were starting to cloud. He strains to see the last strays of brightness as it slowly vanished from the sky. The pillar of light is gone. So is Hitomi.

Waves of bittersweet feelings washed over him. Opposing realms of hope and despair, of serenity and turmoil, of love and loss all came together to form a thrashing, tumultuous sea of emotions locked within his very heart. It threatened to engulf his whole being. The young king sinks to the ground, his knees giving way...

A painful weeping shatters the stillness of the woods...

...

"We can see each other anytime, as long as we share a common feeling..."

Hitomi opened her eyes. The dim light of the fading sky entered her room through the fluttering curtains. Instinctively she looked for the person who has softly uttered the words to her ear. But she soon found out that she was alone. She shook her head as if to clear it of the confusion that was befuddling her senses.

Then her memory started flooding back.

She remembered being swept up in the wind, being enveloped in white light... being carried away... away from Gaea... away from Van.

She felt numb. She stared unseeing at the white ceiling of her bedroom, unmindful of the cold dampness on her pillow. "I'm back."

On the floor, unnoticed, lain a white, silken feather...