Escaflowne of the Sky

...Yeah I couldn't come up with a better title, so I decided to use the literal meaning of the name from Japanese...

This is by far the longest story I ever wrote being 60 pages long! This is sort of an alternate reality type fan fiction about the best anime ever, Escaflowne. All the characters and their characteristics are basically kept the same, and much of the story line is kept intact, just some of the events have been changed. I actually got the idea for this story after seeing a picture of the shoujo manga online. I never read it, since it is in Japanese, but I did borrow the idea of Van having a mark of his hand. Yes, I also know that Van is slightly out of character, being so nice and all, but I always thought he was really nice deep down, just never got a chance to show it because he felt so awkward. So in this story, he is a lot nicer and not so awkward or withdrawn as he is in the anime. I guess Hitomi is a little less depressing too, and slightly out of character...sorry. I also make the two of them a little less awkward with each other, so that helps to move their "relationship" along a little bit. And yes! As everyone can tell, I do like Van's wing ^_^

I don't own Escaflowne, really I don't...and am making no money off this story..._ Really, I am a poor college student who has no life! I'm telling the truth here! Escaflowne belongs to Bandai and Sunrise, I think, but I know for sure that I don't own it, and am not claiming to own it.

I just wanted to thank everyone one who reviewed my last stories!

Enjoy and Happy Reading!

9/01-12/06/01

Escaflowne of the Sky

Cynic X

"..."- dialogue

'...'- thoughts

..... - scene change

Chapter 1- Change

"Hey Hitomi!" Yukari called after her friend as the two exited their school. They had just finished their classes, as well as track practice, and were now going to walk home together like they did everyday.

"Yukari, What's up?" Hitomi asked, as she slowed down to wait for her friend to catch up.

"N...nothing much" Yukari said as she caught her breath. The two walked towards the train station that would take them home. "Have a lot of homework today?" Yukari asked as the two boarded the train.

"Same as usual." Hitomi responded unenthusiastically as they took their seats near the windows. "The sun looks so pretty today." Hitomi commented as she watch the setting sun out the train's window. The sun made the ocean glow with reds and golds as the train sped off to the next station.

"Yeah" Yukari replied in agreement. They were silent for a moment, until Yukari who had been fidgeting with her hands stopped. "Hitomi, what's wrong? You've been so quiet lately", concern showing on her face.

"Wrong? Oh Yukari, nothing is wrong." Hitomi mustered a fake smile, hoping to convince her friend, as she played with the red pendant around her neck.

"You promise?" Yukari asked.

"Of course I promise, I've just been tired lately, that's all. Hitomi said. 'More like tired of everything.' Hitomi thought instead.

"How about this weekend, we go shopping? I want to pick up those shoes I saw, and afterwards we can got to a movie?" Yukari asked, hoping her friend would agree.

"Sure, sounds great." Hitomi replied, but groaned inwardly. "Hey, look, this is my stop, gotta go Yukari, see you tomorrow in school." Hitomi said as she waved good-bye to her friend and exited the train.

"Bye Hitomi!" Yukari called just before the door closed and the train took off again.

Hitomi started to walk in the direction of her house, which was not that far from the train station. She sighed heavily, deep in thought. 'I know Yukari means well.' She walked up the front steps and opened the door.

"Mom, I'm home." Hitomi yelled, as she made her way to the stairs and up to her room.

"How was school?" Her mother called back from the kitchen.

"Boring!" Hitomi yelled back.

"You're father should be home soon, and then we'll eat dinner."

"'Kay" Hitomi called, as she opened the door to her room and shut it behind her. Not bothering to take off her school bag, she literally fell on to her bed so that she stared at the ceiling.

'Same thing everyday.' Hitomi thought sadly as tears came to her eyes. 'I wake up at the same time, eat breakfast at the same time, go to school at the same time, got to the same classes everyday, go to track practice at the same time, come home at the same time everyday, eat dinner at the same time, do my homework, and go to bed at the same time. Everything is so predictable I want something different!' Hitomi thought as the tears started to cloud her vision. She laid their looking at the ceiling until she heard her mother call her for dinner, just like she suspected. With a final sigh, she got off her bed, threw her school bag on her desk chair and went down to dinner.

After dinner was over, Hitomi made her way back up the stairs to her room. 'Guess I'll do my homework.' She thought sadly, as she sat at her desk and started on the books in front of her. After a few minutes, Hitomi threw her pen down in frustration. "I can't concentrate on this." She pushed her chair back and walked over to her window, night was upon the city, and stars illuminated the sky. As the cool breeze washed over her, she sighed in frustration, and looked up into the night sky, as she lifted the pendant off her neck and held it in her hand.

"I want something different." She said softly as she gazed out her window. "Another day, another waste of time. Why does everything always have to be the same, why doesn't anything ever happen? A little excitement would be really good right now. Life is so boring, something unexpected, something that wouldn't seem mundane, that's what I want. I want adventure, I want to live." She laughed at the last part, sure she was living, but sometimes it felt like she went through the motions of life, without ever stopping to experience them.

"Maybe I'll do a tarot reading and see what the future holds." Hitomi thought with a smile, as she rolled her eyes and pulled out her tarot cards from the bottom draw of her desk. Both the cards and the pendant had been a gift from her grandmother, and whenever Hitomi held them she felt better. Hitomi liked to read her friend's fortunes, but as of lately she started to lose interest in it. Here friends always wanted to know the same things, who were they going to fall in love with, would they get into the college of their choice; they never asked anything different, and it had started to depress Hitomi. She usually didn't read her own fortune, but right now she needed a distraction to forget the pain she was feeling. She shuffled the cards and placed the stack to one side, carefully she pulled cards until they formed the traditional Celtic Cross.

'Hmm...Let's see.' She thought as she placed her finger on the first card. 'The environment around my question...Strength? So I should have courage about what is going to happen. The Chariot.' She thought as her finger fell onto the card. 'War, Trouble? My obstacles. Could it be that there is going to be a war?' She sat thinking as her finger moved on to the next card. 'The card I have to work with...The reversed Empress? Light, truth, the unraveling of matters involved? So does that mean that eventually everything will make sense, even though this whole reading doesn't? She thought with a smile and continued on. 'The Wheel of Fortune...The current that is coming into action. Does this mean that my future is full of uncertainty, or change? But it can also mean luck.' Hitomi proceeded to analyze the next card. 'My relation to the problem...The High Priestess. Secrets, mystery, the future as yet unrevealed. Does this mean that the future won't make sense? I should stop, none of it makes sense...yet, I do want to see how it will turn out. The next card...the people around me in relation to the problem...The Emperor. Protection? The next card, my fears... The Tower? Great distress and distance? And the last card, the card that holds the future, the card of what is going to happen, The Lovers?! Love, trials overcome? What can this mean?' Hitomi looked at the card with disbelief, as she stood up.

"What the hell?" Hitomi said as she stared at the card, hoping somehow she would absorb the meaning as to why the card came out the way it did. 'What can this mean? The whole reading is off the wall...war...mystery...trials overcome. If this is what the future holds, then I say that my life is definitely going to change.' She thought as she put the card, along with the others back into the deck. She opened her closet to get changed for bed when her track bag caught her eye.

"Damn!" Hitomi said as she pulled the bag out of the closet. 'I was so caught up in my sulking that I forgot I had a track met this weekend. Yukari is going to kill me. She wants me to go shopping with her, put I have a met I totally forgot about.' With a sigh, she started to get her track back ready, throwing her track outfit, her track shoes, a pair of jeans, a t-shirt, her sneakers, and various other items into the bag. 'It's no use me telling her now.' Hitomi thought eyeing the clock and seeing that it was already midnight. 'Guess I'll have to tell her on our way to school tomorrow.' She left the bag at the foot of her bed, and went down the hall to the bathroom to get changed. After she was done, she climbed into bed. She closed her eyes, but all she saw were the images of her cards from the reading she had done earlier. 'I have to get some sleep.' Hitomi though with frustration as she tossed and turned, trying to get the images out of her head. Finally sleep did come to Hitomi, but in it, she heard constant banging and scraping of metal.

"What is that sound. I don't think I've ever heard anything like that before." She said out loud to no one. She opened her eyes, and was greeted by a sight that made her inhale sharply.

"Where am I?" She asked, taking in the scene before her. Two giant machines, if that is what the where, were locked in combat, fighting each other with what looked like a sword and liquid metal. 'What are those things? Where am I? Why are they fighting?' Hitomi thought as she tried to get a better look.

"Wait, I'm dressed in my school uniform." She said as she noticed that she was no longer in her pajamas, but rather in her beige and brown school uniform she had worn for the last year. 'How did that happen? It doesn't really matter, I want to find out what those things are.' She thought as she tried to approach the battling duo, but as she took a step closer, the ground all around her gave out, and she began to fall into blackness. The only thing she heard was her own scream, and then everything when black.

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