Disclaimer: I do not own Escaflowne or any of the characters. I also dont own the idea of the unknown that idea was basically thought up in the book series Animorph in the Ellemist chronicles which I do not own.
Chapter #1
Death, Rebirth, and the Unknown
Flouting that was all she felt. Hitomi was floating in nothingness, she was looking for something but she could not find it no matter how hard she looked. But then she saw something she stared as the vision lay itself before her very eyes. She saw herself she was standing on the edge of a field, then something loomed up behind her looking up she saw Dilandau's guymelif as she tried to get away he just laugh fed. The liquid metal on the left arm of his melif melted and turned into a razor sharp blade. Hitomi ran but the guymelif was faster. SWOOSH! That noise was all she heard. Hitomi saw the pain in her own eyes as the girl looked down to see that she was falling she had been cut in half at the waist. She didn't even have enough time to scream out in pain. After both pieces of the body hit the ground, the life quickly left the body. She heard the sinister laugh of Dilandau's as he flew away his job was done...
~~**~~**~~
Van paced back and forth. Hitomi had been unconscious ever since she had started her vision. They were aboard the Crusade, Allen had gone off to talk to Gaddis about something but Van didn't care about what. Hitomi was unconscious and all he could do is sit while she went thru gods knows what. He paused to look at her still figure. 'She's so beautiful. God's! I wish I could help her, the look that comes on her face after she has a vision is just horrible. Why can't I just tell her that I care about her. God's what the hell it the matter with me!!' He thought.
"Van stop pacing your getting me dizzy, and don't worry about Hitomi she can take care of herself." Merle said.
~~**~~**~~
"No it can't be." Hitomi said. "I will not die." She said stubbornly. She was looking into the face of herself, blood pooled at her feet. The girl that she laid next to was herself, cut in half. She refused to acolyte the fact that the vision was telling her that she was going to die.
"I will not die!!!!" She cried out into the nothingness.
You have no choice. This path not even you can change.
"What who are you? I can change this I will not die!" She screamed at the unknown voice. "Do you hear me I will NOT DIE!!!!!!"
There is no choice you will when the time comes. Except that fact. Understand that you must die so you can be reborn to save Gaea. You must do this you must understand.
Then she understood what the unknown being said she understood. Then she excepted what had to be done...
~~**~~**~~
There was a mone then Hitomi's eyes fluttered open. She saw Van run over to her. Merle was right behind him.
"Hitomi are you all right? How do you feel?" He asked nervously.
"Yeah Hitomi you ok? What about that vision should we bent over and kiss our tail good buy?" Merle asked.
"No there's nothing that we can do about the vision, and no point to worry about it." Hitomi lied.
After that Allen came back and asked her about what was her vision about. But like she had told Van and Merle she said it was nothing to worry about. Hitomi shortly went to bed after that.
She laid awake in bed. No matter what she did she could not sleep. But she thought that she was doing just fine deleing with the fact that she knew she was going to die.
~~**~~**~~
Van smiled, he could not help it. Hitomi for some reason was being nice to Merle no matter what Merle did to upset her. It wasn't just Merle ether she was being nice to every one. Once they bid good bye to Hitomi they left to head towards the village that they had landed near for supplies. For some reason Hitomi hadn't wanted to come so she stayed behind with Gaddis who was to look after the ship. He still couldn't believe that they had managed to hide the Crusade as large as it was where no one would find it.
~~**~~**~~
"Gaddis I'm going for a walk ok I need to stretch my legs." Hitomi said to the older man.
"Alright but don't you go far I'd hate to think what the boss would do to me if you got hert when I was suppose to be looking' after you" Gaddis replied with a smile.
Hitomi forced a smile onto her face. Pain tired at her hart, she gave Gaddis one last glance then left. She knew that he would blame himself for her death. He was a nice man and she didn't want him to blame himself but there was nothing that she could do. With one last glance around she left and started to walk away from the Crusade, the ship that had been her home for most of her stay while she had been on Gaea.
~~**~~**~~
She found herself on a edge of a field. No matter how much she tried to calm her nerves she couldn't help it she knew what was going to happen. Tilting her head upwards she found comfort looking into the depths of the earth. Then she heard a small mechanical noise behind her. She knew what was coming. She spun around and there was a huge guymelif that loomed up in front of her, Hitomi knew what was going to happen but she tried to run anyways in was in her instincts to run. All Dilandau's did was laugh, then his melif's left arm's liquid metal molded into a sharp and deadly bald. Hitomi ran tears ran from her eyes. Any moment now. The grinding of gears came up behind her. Then screaming pain pierced her body. She looked down blood all she could see was blood she needed to scream but couldn't. She needed to. Needed to. To. She had to--
~~**~~**~~
There was no more pain. She was only half aware. Like when your on the verge of sleep but not yet sleeping.
"Van I don't want to leave you. I will live a thousand life times before I can see you agene. Please stay safe and the one thing you must remember is hope there is always hope." That's all she could say the darkness was over whelming her.
Slowly she sank into the living hell that aweighted her. The place that she would live in for more live's than a mortal could ever wish to live.
~~**~~**~~
Van sat there. That's all he really did now. Was sit. It had been about fifteen days since Hitomi had been killed. Every one was still morning there loss. Merle was taking it hard because she had never been nice to Hitomi, and the day that she had died she had been exspshaly mean to her. Allen just tried to deal with what happened by working every one at there hardest. All Van did was sit in the room that Hitomi had stayed in.
Then when one of the crue gave him word of Zibach guymelif he snapped out of his funk and ran to Escaflowne. With only the thought of revenge in mind.
Allen had to stay behind because it would be to hard to make a quick escape in need be because his guymelif could not fly.
~~**~~**~~
The next thing that Hitomi had a concuss memory of was being tangled in a web of living tentacles. She was alive that she knew but she could not breath she was under water, and the thing that was attacking her raped itself around her forcing its gray green tentacles up her nose and down her mouth. She felt them crawl up in to her brain thru her nose. Then once they reached her brain, it was as if she has been plugged into a battery. Then there was a voice that she heard. But then she wasn't in water any more. She was standing in a meadow. Looking around in wonder, Where was she?
"That's simple your apart of me." A voice told her from behind her.
Turning around she stood face to face with Dilandau.
"Dilandau! What are you doing here?!" Hitomi cried.
All Dilandau did was laugh.
"Do you think me to be Dilandau. Well I have to admit that I'm a pretty good likeness don't you think? You can call me Unknown because that's what I am to you." The unknown said.
"Explain to me what is this. This isn't real is it? It doesn't have a real feel to it." Hitomi demanded a answer.
"Very well I am the unknown I am made up of the creatures that wander into my swamp. You are a part of me now. And this is not real, this is a place in a memory of foolish young girl that wanted death because her love was killed in a battle. You see all that wander into my swamp die, I preserve there bodies and keep there memory's." A smile crossed the unknown's face "And now I found this memory of Dilandau. A suitable body that will serve it's purpose. Now do you wish to see exactly where you are?"
Before Hitomi could respond she found herself beneath the water once more, suspended by the tentacles that drilled there way into her body. They drilled into her lungs to feed them the oxygen that they needed. They drilled into her stomach to feed her nurturance so that she would not starve. Then the real horror struck her the unknown was in her brain in her vary mind the only reason she saw this was because the unknown was allowing her to. Then he eyes moved not because she moved them but because the unknown moved them. Her eyes focused on what was behind the tentacles. Lifeless bodies floughted there like her but dead, there was one that wasn't intact. It's stomach was split open, and its insides were visible as well as the tentacles that had started from the mouth of the dead person that came out of the gash in the stomach. They were all dead. Then there was the shock that not all of the bodies were human. Deer, wolves, dogs, cats, mice, rats, and even part of a dragon was visible. The unknown reading her thoughts gave her a mental list of all of the different species that were apart of the unknown. There were so many. So many that had died.
Then she was back in the meadow, with the unknown that was an exact replica of Dilandau. 'O god I'm in hell, why am I here?' She thought. Then the unknown looked at her with an answer.
"The moment before you died you thought 'Van I don't want to leave you. I will live a thousand life times before I can see you agene. Please stay safe and the one thing you must remember is hope there is always hope.' I believe those were your exact thoughts well now you are alive but as to for fill my part of the barging I will alter your perception of time so to you a hundreds of life times will only be about fifteen in to real world. So prepare your self were about to spend a thousand life times together."
"What! But how-? Why!?" Hitomi's mind was reeling with question.
"I want you here because I'm lonely. You see having only the dead as company is quite boring. In your stay here we will play a game, and it is up to you to figure out that game and once you do and you can beat me at that game then you will be free to live your life. So now that you know what has happened to you we shall play a game, don't you think?" The unknown said a smirk crossed Dilandau's/the unknown's face.
~~**~~**~~
All Van could think about was Dilandau. It was HIM. He had killed Hitomi. 'You will pay Dilandau. You will pay' Van thought. Escaflowne made it's way down to meat the Zibach guymelifs, somehow he knew that it was Dilandau. Every ounce of Van's being wanted to kill him and his intentions were to just that. He flew closer and closer to him, closer to Dilandau.
~~**~~**~~
Hitomi walked towards her home. She turned to see Almono walking towards her. Hitomi didn't even smile. She hated it when ever she thought of something that she missed or was just wondering about, it would apier. It was the unknown's work. Hitomi looked in the reflection of a stream, it ran thru one of the streets in front of her house. The unknown had taken the memories of all the victims that he or she whatever the unknown was and had built a new world as there playground. That just made the world more bazaar, like her school that was perched on top of a cliff or the waterfall that was next to the toy store.
She examined the reflection, in the real world she still knew that she was a fifteen year old. But the face that looked back at her was a person that was reaching there mid fifty's. That's how it always happened she would age then she would fall asleep only to wake up as a three year old, to live her life over agene. She had begged the unknown to kill her it was horrible to live this live everything looked real but it didn't feel real.
The one thing that really made her hate this place was the fact that she was practically a slave if she refused to play a game with the unknown would end the image of this world and she would find herself under the water once more surrounded by the lifeless bodies. She could never stand it just flouting there, the worst part was that she had no sense of time in the years that she had become accustom to one could have passed or a hundred she never new.
She sighed, long ago she had stopped counting the days that she had been trapped here she found it pointless now. Looking around she was getting board. She and the unknown had played every game that could be played and when she said every she ment every game. She had learned how to use a sward with exalint skill she was so good that if she were to ever go up agents Allen she would win with ease, parsley because she has had more life times than she could count of practiced to perfect her skill. She had played every human game invented, and actually invented some herself. Hitomi also had the privilege to play games that no human could ever play, she has duled with the unknown as all sorts of animals. They had fought together as dragons, or as wolf, or sharks any animal that you could think of. In her life here she had finally realized that she cared deeply for Van, the image of Van that lived in this 'world' was like the real one but then as the years went by she like Dilandau's form realized that it was incomplete. Van would act like Van but only the Van that Hitomi knew he had no memories of his own he was only made up of Hitomi's memories. Just like Dilandau's form, Hitomi had only seen him a few times that ment that the unknown that used his form only had a few expressions most of them were of Dilandau pissed off. She looked around this false world that tortured her mind. She was board and in this world when you board there was only one thing to do. Play a game.
"Unknown I want to play a game." Hitomi called out.
The unknown appeared as Dilandau like he always did.
"And what do you want to play?" He asked.
"I'm in a irritated mood how about a fighting game. As birds of pray." She responded.
The next moment they were both in a field on one end Hitomi was in the form of a red tailed hawk her favorite bird of pray, and on the other perched in a tree was the unknown in the form or a golden eagle. Hitomi was used to the amazing sight and hearing of the hawk. Eager to start the game she opened her wings and flapped into the air as the unknown did the same. They clashed in mid air in a ball of wings flapping, raking talons, and snapping beaks..
In the end the unknown won he always did in every game they ever played he would win.
~~**~~**~~
Van charged the enemy guymelif with fury in his hart. He jumped left, the spiraling blades shot past him. Then Van trusted Escaflowne's sward up into the cockpit of the guymelif. A rage filled battle cry came form behind him. Van whorled Escaflowne around to meat his challenger then he saw who it was; Dilandau.
"You will DIE Dilandau!!" Van screamed as he charged Dilandau.
"O poor Van do you miss that slut that fallowed you around all the time. And here I was thinking that you fanalin's were civilized but you just let your whores run around in indecent dress's!" Dilandau mocked as he blocked Vans blow.
"Never talk about Hitomi like that!!!!" Van screamed as he turned Escaflowne around to come at Dilandau agene.
~~**~~**~~
Hitomi sat in a tree up on the far eastern part of the world that she and the unknown shared. She was a five year old once more, looking up into the sky. She missed Van so much she wanted to see the real Van so much. But because she had thought of him the false Van appeared. He walked beneath the tree and looked up at her and smiled.
"Hitomi." The false Van said.
Pain ripped at her hart as she stared at him. 'God what I would do to just speak with the real you Van just for a moment.' She thought. It was then that the unknown came to her, and she knew why.
"I want to play a game." He said.
"And what do you want me to play?" Hitomi asked him.
"It's a guessing game." As he said that they were no longer where they were now they were in a small room with a table in the middle. In the middle of the table there were three small cups and a small pebble. On ether side of the table there were chairs. Hitomi sat on one side of the table and the unknown on the other side. Dilandau's face twisted into a smirk like it always did.
"The game is vary simple." He said. "I put the pebble under the cup when your not looking then you guess what one it's under. A child's game really but that fascinating power of yours should help you."
A smile crossed Hitomi's face, the unknown can control her body. The unknown can almost control her mind with the threat of leaving her to drift in the swamps among the field's of corps's but he could never figure out how to use her power to see the unseen and know the unknown. Then her smile faded he was trying it agene the unknown was trying to make her use her power. Long ago she learned that if she didn't use her power, the unknown could not copy what she did and use the power for herself.
"Now close your eyes." The unknown gently told the five year old.
"No." Hitomi said simply.
"Do you like the fields of dead? Do you enjoy looking at them because if you don't play you back there." The unknown said acidly. "Now close your eyes."
"No." Hitomi said stubbornly.
"Fine." That was all he said.
Then she was no longer in the small room once more she was the fifteen year old floating in the sea of dead bodies. She couldn't tell you how long she was there. All she knew was that the hold of the unknown was slightly weaker than before that ment that he wasn't paying attention to her. Finally she began to think of a way to get out of this hell hole.
~~**~~**~~
Van was ready to lung at Dilandau then suddenly a pillar of brilliant green light apered. It carried him away. Far far away.
~~**~~**~~
Hitomi thought of the tentacles that had drilled there way into her brain. She saw the closest human to her a young boy. She reached out on a mental link to the boy's dead body, the tactical that bound them worked like a telephone line connecting them directly. She felt the boy's mind or what his mind had been. All she saw was his memories he had died long ago. His name was Deric, he was what was equivalent to seven earth years. He had stumbled into the swamp on accident when he had gotten lost on his why home from a naboring farm. It had been his first time going to there nabors by himself.
Then Hitomi grabbed all of his memory's and dragged them into her own body, then shock hit her once his memories came into her mine which was still living it almost came alive. 'Amazing tell me what it the name of this swamp.' She asked the boy. He didn't answer because he was dead but the memories came up to answerer for his lack of life.
"Father what is that swamp and why can we never go near it?" Deric asked.
"Because a demon lives there that eats up all who enter it or gets within the demons reach, that's where it got it's name my son. It's called Dark Reach Swamp." His father replied.
It was amazing the information that the little boy posessed. Then she reached out agene and this time reached out to a deer that near by. She touched the mind and absorbed it as well.
The deer had wandered into the swamp because there had been a lack of food and there looked like there might have been food in the swamp. That and other memories of the deer flooded her mind like the boy's did.
Next she absorbed all of the birds, wolves or dogs, and most of the human minds that surrounded her. The next thing Hitomi found out was that there was a large zone around her that the unknown could not penetrate. Then she reached out agene and tried to grab another mind but the unknown was there to stop her, so she slid around to the other side of zone that surrounded her before the unknown could stop her she absorbed twenty more minds. Then it all became clear, Hitomi remembered part of the conversation that they had had when Hitomi first came to this place. The unknown had said.
'In your stay here we will play a game, and it is up to you to figure out that game and once you do and you can beat me at that game then you will be free to live your life.'
'So this is the game to see who can absorb all of the minds.' Hitomi thought. 'So be it. The unknown may have won every game in there world but this is the one game that you will not win.'
~~**~~**~~
Van landed in Escaflowne on the edge of a swamp. He looked around, then he spotted something on the ground. Immediately he jumped out of his guymelif and picked up what he had seen shining. It was Hitomi's pendent.
"But how I made sure Hitomi was burried with this." Van said in amazement. Then the pendent began to glow, then it swung in the direction of the swamp. Van looked at the swamp, it didn't look like a friendly place. But the pendent told him to move that way and that was he was going to go.
~~**~~**~~
Finally after so many life times. The unknown only had five minds left. Hitomi reached out and absorbed them all. Then she realized that the unknown was made up of all the creatures that it had absorbed. Hitomi opened her eyes and moved her hand. Pain shot through her she hadn't moved her body for so long that it had entirely fallen asleep. Slowly at first Hitomi ripped the connection that linked her to the dead bodies. She pulled away jerking moving her arms and legs trying to swim to the surface. The last of the tenicals ripped and then she and the memories of the millions of victims were finally free. It was like having a million people in her head all talking at once. But all she had to do now was to swim to the surface because the unknown had supplied her with air but now she had to breath on her own. Hitomi broke through the surface of the water she pushed aching muscles to move forward.
After what seemed like hours of swimming Hitomi finally reached the muddy bank of the swamp. She just laid there, exhausted. Then she heard a noise of foot steps. Hitomi managed to lift her head up to see who was coming. Then she heard a voice that made her stop her breath for a moment.
"H-Hitomi?" The voice asked.
"V-V-Van?" She asked in return.
To Be Continued
Authors Note: So what do you think this is only my second fan fic. I personally think that I did a pretty good job. I was going for a more serous thing this time.
P.S.-please review