Disclaimer: Is it to soon for one of these? **lawyer shakes head** Okay, well, as we've probably guessed I don't own Escaflowne but all other characters are mine (so far…). There we go, happy now? **lawyer nods**
Author's Note: Oh wow, the first chapter to my all-new fic! YAY! I am so happy! I'm reposting this because I've had people point out that on the old chapter you had a hard time figuring out when I changed scenes so therefore whenever there's a scene change this will mark it: *~*~*~**~*~*~*
Other then that, BE HAPPY BECAUSE I'M POSTING AGAIN!!!! YAY!!! Alright, shutting up now so you can read.
Sisters till the End
This is dedicated to Pablo/Cecil because he is such an awesome writer and he has inspired me to go farther. Thank you Pablo/Cecil for your awesome story and your awesome talent!
Chapter One: Paradise…
Did he dare say it? If he muttered those words that bit at the back of his brain do… would they become true? For so long his small lips had tried to spill the dreary thought but he had restrained not wanting to hear their nasty sound or foul taste as they tumbled across his mouth. Yet they kept coming back to him like some twisted dream. Every time he would reject them and turn away, hiding in the shadows of his mind, seeking refuge in a place where there was none.
The words haunted him day and night, tugging at his brain, begging to be released from the prison in which they were held. An invisible cage in which it hated and rattled at the iron bars all day long and night, with each shake the bars becoming harder and harder to contain. A couple of times he had almost uttered them, the consonants escaping so readily from his mouth and the vowels fighting as they tried to slip past his ever watchful lips. He realized his mistake and had clamped his mouth tightly shut.
In that moment of weakness, with more to follow, he had almost said his fate.
Suddenly a small sound pierced the silent night air. He turned, locating the sound coming from the bed across the tiny room, which was the current sleeping place of his roommate, best friend, and official advisor, Skates Jerrimin. He sighed as he relaxed his tense muscles; lately he had been on edge, more then usual. Sure he was uptight and jumpy on normal days, but occasionally he got really weird.
Everything would set him off, he would beat down someone just innocently walking behind him or he would leave a restaurant because someone casually glanced his way. There was nothing that didn't make him think something was wrong. Who could blame him? With those words constantly begging to be released he had been having a hard time. Simple tasks became hard to execute, concentrating was like wrestling a wild beast, and to top that off he had been having dreams.
These dreams weren't the ordinary kind. No, these were the twisted and fragmented parts of dreams. The kinds where you were so disillusioned you couldn't tell what was real and what wasn't. He would wake up in a dead panic, swearing that he had dreamt was real. Had he been right in the middle of that battle with the men in old knight armor wielding swords and ruthlessly killing each other? Who were those men that looked so real, with sweat falling off them as they swung their heavy swords.
What was strange was that while he stood there, the sounds of battle, killing, and the smell of dead flesh stinging his nose, he had watched as three girls fought along with the men. Why would women be fighting along men? Where was he? Nothing around him looked familiar.
They looked like they were used to this sort of chaos, this sort of massacre. They used their swords as well as anyone else on the field. The sounds of the battle didn't seem to affect them. In fact, they seemed to be totally deaf to the screaming of the dying and the sounds o their weapons piercing flesh. Who were they and why didn't they seem to care that they were killing innocents?
His heart ached as he stood there, watching as people around him died. Men in black uniforms and blue armor fought against men in gray uniforms with black armor in waves he watched as the black and blue men slaughtered the gray and black men. In a flash he would always catch sight of the girls. The one that always caught his attention had long dark brown hair, dressed in a black outfit.
As she turned around to face him, as if knowing his eyes were on her, he would watch as her midnight blue eyes widened as she gazed at him. Can she see me? He wondered.
Her hand would shoot forth, reaching out towards him. He would reach out to touch her hand when suddenly a darkly colored mist would form around her hand and then shoot forth. Fear sprang up in him as he watched the mist go through him as if he wasn't even there. She would always go back to work ruthlessly slaying the attacking men.
He would turn around only to see two more girls standing there, behind him, battling back to back; one with short brown hair like the first and the other with short blonde hair. As they battled he would watch as the brown haired one, dressed in a green outfit like the first one had been, paused with her sword. She held up her hand, palm facing her, as balls of electricity formed on her fingertips and she tossed it across the field and watching as they hit a man about to attack a wild haired man dressed in blue armor.
The blonde girl would sheath her sword and turn to battling with what looked like pink streamers that appeared from her fingertips. Dressed in a purple outfit similar to the other two girls she attacked anyone that came near her or her comrade with deadly accuracy. He would then realize that upon contact the opposing men would fly back a couple feet, hit the ground, ad never stand again. Once he realized that he would back away, fear making his whole body shake as he watched the streamers fly around him.
That was when one of the pink streamers would go astray from their course and lash out at him, hitting him hard across the chest as he jumped from the world of dreaming to the world of reason.
*~*~*~**~*~*~*
The air was stale glazed with the smell of blood and dead flesh. Like ants everyone moved, each in their own rhythm, each in their own way but joined together by a common cause: kill the enemy. People pushed against her and fought her, some friends some killers, all ready to take the other down. Swords clashed like rolling thunder, groans and shouts were like howling wind and the screams of the dying were like the tormenting rain.
Yet she was totally oblivious to it.
Her body moved in perfect harmony with her thoughts as she wielded her sword, bashing at the oncoming slaughterers. There was no mercy for those that took an innocent life because of a title. Her arms moved about, her legs supporting her movements with guided steps as she used the dead or dying to her advantage. Disrespecting the dead? No… giving the dead vengeance.
Many fell to her sword and many to others. The sounds of the battle were lost upon her like a wave crashing upon a rock-she was a sturdy as the hardbound core of the rock fighting against the wave to wash it away. She only saw, felt, smelt, and tasted the battle. Long ago she had lost the sense of hearing in a battle. Taking down an oncoming man, sword posed to take her down, she turned as his body fell limply from her sword.
Catching sight through the incredible fray of movement, she was able to pick out a man struggling to fight back two soldiers, wounded, with a third sneaking up. There is no justice! She cried within her mind, reaching out her hand to that struggling man. She could help him…
Suddenly a shimmer in the air before her and then a flash as the image came and went. Could that… be true? Surprise took her and her hand shook violently as a charged amount of deadly black transparent mist shot forth from her hand and glided easily towards the man, striking down the two battling opponents with such force that they simply disappeared from sight. What was that? She wondered, the image of the boy playing back in her eyes. He looked so hopeful and then scared…
A ripple in the air inches from her exposed back. An attack from a foolish man who thought he could take her down. Whirling around with lightning speed, she blocked the attack with her sword and quickly blew him back with the transparent mist again. No one snuck up on her.
Yards away two more girls battled back to back. United in one cause they moved in perfect harmony with the other, sensing the others movements before they were even started and moving to help. No one was able to penetrate their defense, for with two eyes they were able to defend the other when trouble arose and take down more together then apart. Did they hear the storm of noise and feel the turbulence as the dead left this world? They did not for they too had lost the ability to hear a long time ago.
Fighting with such vigor it was amazing that so many still dared to challenge them. Yet they still did. Was it the fact that two women who were thought so weak could take down an army that drove them to fight them, to prove that they were better, or was it the fact that one fought with a sword while the other fought with pink ribbons streaming from her hands?
Ribbons danced across the battlefield keeping a distance of 20 feet between the nearest attacking soldier and them. Like a spider web the ribbons flew around, hitting men and sending them back never to stand again. They deflected anything that their mistress commanded and protected whoever needed protecting. The other who fought with the sword fought back the few who managed to duck through the web of ribbons suddenly cast aside her metal weapon of death and brought force nature's own destruction.
Small lightning suddenly began to bound around her fingertips, growing and growing until they were each like a small storm upon each finger, yet they did not seem to hurt her like they would've a normal person. The lightning suddenly shot from her hands and attacked a horde of men who were attacking another with no defense. The opposing men fell to the ground, electrified to death.
That was when she would see it. In an instant there he would be, looking upon what was happening with scared eyes. She would whip her head around to look at him closely, to catch a better glimpse, but the stray of thought would send her ribbons astray and they lashed out at him, making him disappear into thin air. Cursing her luck, she returned to the battle, defending once again.
*~*~*~**~*~*~*
"No… that's not fair," Katrina Albatou moaned as she slouched against the wall of the hanger. Her thin athletic frame was shaking with exhaustion and her tan skin glistening in sweat. Her long dark brown hair was swept up in a high ponytail with strands all ready escaping from their holds. Her thin face with high cheekbones, full lips, dainty nose and midnight blue eyes was contorted into a look of distress as her body screamed at her for over pushing herself.
She looked at the man in front of her, standing six foot three, with burning garnet eyes, a boyish face with a long scar down his right cheek. His silver hair glistened in the dim florescent lights of the hanger and his muscular build stood steady beneath the black soldier uniform underneath his red armor that laced over his shoulders, arms, and chest. He looked as if she was the only one who would dare to protest against his order. Dilandau Albatou, the most feared man in all of Gaea, husband and General of the elite force of Zaibach known as the Dragon Slayers.
The room was large and would have been darkened considerably except for the lights that hung high above them. Catwalks hung a bit lower then the light, providing a web-like ceiling for one to walk around and gain access to the huge metal monstrosities known as guymelefs. These huge machines were like gundams back on earth in an anime called Gundam Wing. They were used for flying about or quick transportation.
Looking at Kat Dilandau quirked an eyebrow. "What?" He repeated sounding amused.
Kat fell over and lay on the linoleum floor, looking up at him with exhausted eyes. "I said that wasn't fair," she repeated.
"And why is that not fair?"
"Look around you Dilandau!" She suddenly screamed, motioning to the troops all around him, looking like they were about to die. "Look around you! We're tired! We're exhausted! We can't take anymore! We battled our hardest and now you want us to train? Just look around, look at Miguel," she motioned to a five foot eleven man with wild brown hair, brown eyes, a slim face and soldier build, who was practically passed out on a girl of 5'5" with shoulder blade length brown hair braided back, green eyes, and a slim build supporting the obviously heavy man, "he can't even take a step without passing out and he's always the one to go the farthest!
"What about Chesta?" She motioned to a five foot six man with a short stature, bluish-green eyes, a boyish face, and blonde hair that reminded her of a mushroom, who was swaying as a girl of 5'2" with short blonde hair, hazel eyes, a gentle face and slim build tried to make sure he didn't fall down. "He's willing to do anything and right now he's having trouble standing!"
"You are defying my orders, Kat?" Dilandau roared, anger in his eyes. "They are weak, they need to work!"
"You're going to kill them!"
"Then they die weak!"
"Dilandau look at me!" With one single movement, she was standing, her legs shaking furiously and her eyes aflame with anger. How could he be so stupid? "Look at me," she repeated, suddenly her voice softer and her tone not so harsh. "I can't take anymore. God knows I'm willing to kill myself just to make sure that you're happy and all's well, but I can't even move. Dilandau, we battled like demons out there. I pushed every part of me to the limit-physically, mentally, emotionally, and even spiritually. I fought like hell and now I'm paying the price. We're all paying the price."
"Then you're weak," Dilandau spat and left the room in a storm.
Kat lowered her head, biding the tears back. Nicole Byson, the blonde haired girl, and Alexandra Larvae, the brown haired girl, both came forth. They were best friends, all married to Dragon Slayers, all from the planet that hung in the sky just outside in the midnight sky, Earth, and all lived on the planet behind the moon called Gaea. They were united in a single cause, to protect this planet from evil, and all shared the connection that only sisters could have.
Alex put her arm around Kat's shoulders and let her friend burying her head in her shoulder. Nicole stood next to Kat holding her hand, her eyes saddened for the pain her friend was going through. "I'm losing him…" they heard her whisper.
With a single glance both Nicole and Alex understood. Dilandau Albatou was fading from Kat's life.
Author's Note: Uh-oh, trouble in paradise! The Protectors are having troubles, Dilandau's acting strange, and what's up with this dude? Well, that's why you have to read the second chapter! It's posted too! So go on, review, then go and read!
~The Shadow That Takes Form as a Kat~
~~ShadowKat~~