Disclaimer: Digimon and Escaflowne are owned by Bandai and Sunrise respectively. The following work is not intended to add to, promote or distort these series. This is a work of fanfiction, and the author does not profit in posting. This is simply a writing exercise written for fun.

Hephasti, Zaibach Empire, Gaea.

In the pale light of the moons bustled an iron city in the center of a desert. Like a mechanical volcano, the realm was divided into "molten" pits of various works. Factories for advanced machinery ran round the clock as large suits of gray and blue armored plates were cut and completed. Burly men worked long, tiresome hours constructing these plates, which were just the tip of the iceberg.

This city was building parts for the whole world. I-beams for Fanelia, Freid and Asturia, all still in the midst of their now fifteen year long reconstruction. Stained glass forged from the desert itself for Asturia and Ezgardia, both of whom love to look like glistening jewels. Gears and armors for Basram, Cesario and Fanelia, who like their armies primed. Guilded walls and ornate decorations were daily inspected by Freid's monks, whose temples suffered greatly during the sieges in the past. Yes, these men and women worked tiresomely to meet the desires of these six great countries.

But not because they wanted to. These were the reparations of war they were forced to pay after Basram's doomsday device destroyed more than half their armies. The day when the light of war lit up the sky. The day when the wishing machine came to life. The day when the world was certain to come to an end.

And when it didn't, General Adelphos had been there to save the day. With his sensibility, he strived to arrange deals with the many monarchs that now wanted his head on a stake.

Every day during negotiations between the seventeen war generals, three from Zaibach, two from their ally Malachia and twelve from their remaining foes, the people of Zaibach would watch the town wall for signs of security. They knew their days of living a remotely cushy life were soon at an end. They knew that the second Freid was sieged. But all were too afraid and superstitious to state their woes to the belligerent and thoughtless sorcerers. Especially that Strategos. He'd been just as drawn into the emperor's vision as everyone else was, if not more.

And every day, the flag of the great Goliath Gate had remained at half mast. Adelphos was still striving to save them.

It took some time for the people of Zaibach to realize that a great demon was helping them. From the small holes in the negotiation tent, their spies had seen this beast. The beast that had started the fighting in the first place, and the beast that had stopped it just as instantly.

This demon had a name; Lord Van Fanel. Most of Zaibach had seen his draconian wings as he flew through the city to the citadel at the center. The sorcerers had been the ones to confirm that this young man of only sixteen years had cracked the fate alteration engine by sheer force of will to rescue his beloved maiden from the mystic moon. Rumors of his unbelievable power echoed from forge to furnace. And many feared his wrath: what would his generosity cost them in the long run?

After all, they had destroyed his capital city on his coronation day.

It was only later that they'd learned that the woman he'd shared his bed with was the one promoting his unfounded generosity. Or so goes the rumors.

Either way, the terms of surrender were not nearly as bleak as they'd suspected. Zaibach would pay reparations through goods by discounting the purchases of the allies. And the allies took advantage of these discounts, some as low as 80 percent off appraisal value, which is what Freid and Fanelia received.

So the forges burnt round the clock and the people worked tiresome hours. But they thanked their lucky stars and the maiden of the mystic moon for their ability to work. Without work there was no hope for these people, who had to rely solely on imports for water and food. It was often said that the mysterious Hitomi Kanzaki had kept their ports open by opening hers, but any drunk man stupid enough to say that usually got slapped by some sober wife in frustration.

Many women had found her to be iconic, some even becoming priestesses for their newly found cult. They claimed that she could be none other than Irisa, the draconian goddess of the mystic moon. A new art style was formed thanks to this archaic revival, and the stained glass window industry profited heavily from it. Women belonging to this cult often roamed the streets with glass feather pendants, denoting their loyalty to the famed woman-goddess.

Their husbands, however, refuted her. After all, she came from THE land of demons.

But this was life in Zaibach, in the capital city of Hephasti. The air itself had become blackened by the soot of the fires burnt round the clock. Asthma, which was called smog cough here, was merely a matter of severity, not a question of presence. Yet these people worked, hoping to build a better future.

They were so overworked, it was no surprise that they'd missed the coming storm forming in the center of their citadel. In the place where the sorcerers worked sat the remnants of the fate alteration engine, still chugging away in its efforts to answer wishes. Most of its power had been depleted when the dragon king, Van Fanel, had not only cracked it, but flown through it, diminishing the severity of its effect on the world. Rumor had it that the king, himself, had some remnant power from it flowing through his veins. Some merchants had claimed that his temper resulted in the fiercest of tempests, which often ravaged the kingdom of Fanelia. But again, it's hard to put much stock into rumors.

The sorcerers worked round the clock here, tending to the other half of the treaty Adelphos returned home with. They were to tend to the machine, to protect it from evil influences, and to find a way to safely shut it down. It was a tiresome task, but none could escape it unless they'd chosen to die. And so, they rarely left their cave of a citadel, working in whatever light they could invent. Most of their people had even forgotten they'd existed.

Except for a group of shadows that ran along the metallic rooftops of the iron fortress of Hephasti.

The small cluster of cloaked men slinked into position beside the kitchen wing, anxious as ever to complete their mission. They sat silently, their muscles tense with anticipation as their most dangerous assignment flipped into motion the minute the steel door swung open. The wider shadow of a wide woman danced in the light of the hearth behind her as she waddled with a tune towards the compost heap she'd been working at for months. As she strutted across the yard, the cloaked warriors fell into position, each falling beside the door on all sides and sneaking directly into the basilica without hesitation.

The cook hadn't heard a sound as the men and women dashed inside.

Taking advantage of their stealthy entry, the group fanned out and scurried down the many hallways, all of which converged to a single point. They didn't bother to read the many signs that decorated the gray walls, and sought to avoid the lit torches and glow-stone sconces that provided light down the many corridors of the capital building. There was no time to admire such new technology.

Having arrived on separate floors, no one suspected a thing of the two cloaked figures that entered the varying departments of the sorcery wing. One white haired, glasses wearing sorcerer actually had the nerve to start bossing them around. "Get me those flasks, and be quick about it!" he demanded of the short, feminine shaped cloak. When she failed to move right away, he growled and cursed her under his breath, "The help they find these days… why in the days of Emporer Dornki-" he wasn't able to finish his statement as the woman's blade tore through his esophagus faster than he'd registered her presence behind him.

And that was only the beginning of the secret assault. There were no screams in the dead of the night, not even the pale moons' light could find a corpse wrangled in the windows. These warriors were quick and cunning, and they did not hesitate.

By the first light of dawn, the facility had fallen. The change of the guard took their posts without issue, having never seen the sorcerers themselves: these men never left their quarters and feared the sunlight like a Lyllt. Naturally they had no idea of the occurrences of the night before.

And so, the Great Gaean Alliance had no idea that their precious fortune machine was now in enemy hands.

Nearly a month later; Okinawa, Japan, Earth.

The waves churned slowly against the shoreline with sea foam gathering upon the sands most unpleasantly. The odor that the bubbles exuded graded on her nose, leaving her puffy, red-eyed face contorted as deep sobs drew in the foul air. But she was too drained to get up. No, she couldn't even dream of leaving this place, which was as aromatically foul as it was aesthetically beautiful. Perhaps this would be a suitable punishment for what had befallen her not two whole weeks ago.

Two weeks? She felt herself sob inwardly, it's been two whole weeks already?

As the tears ran anew down her face like a storm, she recalled that it was, in fact, two whole weeks since she'd last seen her husband alive. Today was Wednesday, and he'd died on a Wednesday. That Saturday the coroner released him to her, and the following Monday he'd been flown out here, to Okinawa, to be laid to rest beside his departed mother. The funeral had been a glum event, as was expected, but it had also been a whirlwind for her as relatives began lashing out at who they believed was the real culprit of his death: her.

Takehiro's sister, Kimiko, hadn't wasted any time in dealing out the cruelest of statements. "Did my brother even know of the trouble you were in?" She dared her at the brunch shortly after the actual ceremony. Her eyes were glazed over just a bit, and clearly red from crying, as she loved her brother dearly. Hitomi sighed, fighting back her tears once more and nodded.

"I told him long before we'd gotten married." She informed her sister-in-law with a sigh, "Which is why I wanted so badly to move down here, open the store here, where we weren't in the vicinity of those… those monsters!" At that point she'd cracked. She could still see the grin on the man's face, how his rolly-poly cheeks had gathered round those thin, crooked lips. It would haunt her nightmares for years to come, that smirk.

"And yet you didn't stop him when he decided to move into the lion's den?" Kimiko hollered belligerently at the now pitiful woman. Her dark brown hair was starting to fall out of its careful placement in a bun. Her chocolate brown eyes grew wide as her husband shot back to pull her away from the recently made widow.

"Honey." He'd whispered as their son stood nearby with Takato, his tanned face frozen in shock at his own mother. Takato, Hitomi's son, had turned his head away, unable to watch his own mother shed tears for his beloved father. And as hurt as Hitomi had been about the loss of her mate, she knew her son was suffering silently in ways that were ten times her own misery.

He'd felt the most guilty because he had not been there. He was at school, as he should have been, learning to become something wonderful as his father had dreamed for him.

"Mother." His soft voice called to her most hesitantly, "Grandpa wants to know if you were joining us tonight for dinner." She was afraid to turn herself around and face him. Afraid to see that his eyes were just as red as hers from crying, that his normally uncontrollable locks were disheveled from mourning and not play.

When she did not respond, she heard the sand shift beneath her son, indicating that he was moving. Probably turning around to give me some space, she thought to herself with disdain, what kind of mother am I if I can't comfort my own son?

"I met your father here you know." She told him gently, her voice surprisingly quiet despite the moans from before, "I'd just moved into the area for college, after… after the incident over in Kamakura. I-" she cut herself off, feeling the resounding tremors that usually accompanied another torrent of tears welling up in her chest.

The crunching and shifting of the sand behind her came closer. "I know." Her son admitted with his gentle, hushed voice . It was now more like his father's than it had ever been, "Dad had told me about it. He said you were the most beautiful woman he'd ever seen and he knew…" through the corner of her eye, she saw the familiar pain in her son's red eyes that showed how much like his father he truly was. His broad shoulders were slumped, his dishwater blonde hair falling into his face and shadowing it in the sunset. "He told me that he knew you were the one."

Just hearing that from her precious, only son made everything seem so much better. With a slight curve to her lips, Hitomi felt her cold sobs warm just a little. That man, she recalled as a fresh tear cleared the distance of her toned cheek, he was always so honest and forward. And I am glad to see Takato acting just like him in that regard.

"You can't seem to see how much like you that boy actually is."

That flicker. That image of her husband echoed inside her mind on the day he told her that. They'd been in the kitchen, alone for about a week by then, as Takato had left them for a while. And, as usual, Hitomi had been fretting over him nonstop like she'd just birthed him and was now facing the fact that someone else had to carry him around.

"I was happy with him too." Hitomi chose to inform her son, "He'd completed my life in a way I never thought possible. Now all I feel is a huge-"

"-Void?" Takato intercepted her statement, now turning his redder eyes her direction. Her son, already a handsome young man, was well on his way to becoming a heartbreaker with those big eyes of his. They were framed with his father's long lashes and made him look all the more like the man who sired him. His skin had become even tanner than it was naturally thanks to the sunlight of Okinawa, giving him that tall, dark and handsome look that was all the rage eternally.

"And here I thought those looks would just fade away and he wouldn't stand out so much." Takehiro had once told her, "But no, he has to give us reasons to remove our names from the phonebook… Little brat."

Hitomi had laughed hard at the statement, glad to see that Takehiro could laugh for just about any reason.

"Yeah." Hitomi told her son, proud of the straight angles in his jaw and nose, and how he was already starting to really show his transition from boy to man. Though he was rather young, and that was making her a bit uncomfortable. She wasn't quite ready to deal with the trials and tribulations of raising a child through the more mature stages of childhood. She fought not to groan at the thought. At least I could have handled it with Takehiro.

Bonding through the silence, the two of them continued to wrinkle their noses at the shoreline while watching the peaceful motions of the water.

But just as the sun was about to drift over the edges of the vast ocean, Hitomi caught a glimpse of something truly horrific in the corner of her eye. With a silver and blue gleam, she turned to find a soft feather, which was about three quarters of her arm-length, land on the sand in between her and her son. Takato turned to watch the peculiar object fall, and, filled with wonder, he reached out to touch the soft down of the feather. As his fingers came in contact with the plume, it suddenly vanished into a green light. The boy had not been expecting this, and jumped in his seat while pulling his hand away. He stared at the space with wide eyes, startled.

"What was that?" Takato asked incredulously.

Hitomi could only sigh, dreading the meaning behind that seemingly innocent plume, "It's nothing for you to worry about." Her voice must have sounded very flat, because Takato spun his face, jaw still hung open, and stared at his mother, his startled face twisting to frustration as he processed Hitomi's answer.

"Fine." He decided after a short while, standing up in anger, "Don't tell me then. Just don't expect me to be so cooperative when I'm keeping secrets... Not like last time." His father's tone echoed in his warning, surprising Hitomi at how much he was like his sire. But she only allowed herself to be distracted by the boy for a moment, before her eyes returned to the sand where the feather had once been.

As the crunches of her son's steps faded away in the background, she felt anxiety build up in her chest. He's calling me, she thought to herself in awe, But I'm forbidden from returning… why would he call me back?

Suddenly uncomfortable on the once serene beach, Hitomi hoisted herself from the ground with a large sigh and trudged down the forested path towards her father-in-law's house. Hopefully her son would have forgiven her in the time it took for them both to journey towards the dinner table, I'm not sure if I could handle him being angry at me right now… I'm just so spent!

Arsas, Fanelia, Gaea.

Deep inside the observatory's main lab sat a man deep in meditation. His eyes were closed shut and his low brow was furrowed in concentration as he took deep breaths in and out. His gold trimmed, red button-down shirt showed his breathing easily, as it was snug to his muscular body. Paling his usually tanned skin to ghastly white, the man clenched his teeth and focused harder, trying to reach someone with his mind, but finding the access-way clogged by some staggering emotion.

As he continued to concentrate, a small, lean, brown and black striped cat-woman tiptoed his way. She had been very quiet, but that would not have mattered to someone as open to the universe as this man was at the current moment, so he opened his eyes to greet her.

"Hey, Merle." The man's gentle voice sighed as he wiped stray sweat streams from his forehead. His blood-red irises contracted, adjusting to the light of the room as they had been closed for nearly an hour, "Is something the matter?"

The small cat-woman, whose blue eyes glowed against her tawny colored fur-face, merely smirked an impish like grin before lowering herself to the ground to be seated much like her companion. "Not really," she admitted with a toothy smile, "I just wanted to make sure you were all right. It's been at least a half a day since you came down here to try and reach her."

He nodded, straightening his black, wild locks towards behind his ears, "Well, I'm fine."

Merle paused a moment before asking, "Have you made contact with her yet Lord Van?"

Van shook his head wearily, "She's blocking me for some reason. I sense a lot of hurt, so… maybe she's mad at me or something."

"Mad at you after all this time?" Merle questioned as she sat forward eagerly, "I highly doubt that. She forgives too easily, to be honest." Van nodded, his wild hair falling back into his face, covering his ruby eyes once again.

"You are probably right." He admitted with a sigh, "But I still have to get through to her. Without her power, I won't be able to find the traitors among us…" his voice trailed off as he considered the many familiar faces of his court, any of whom was likely conspiring against him.

Sensing the darkening of his mood, Merle leaned forward and rested a gentle hand upon his. With warmth in her aqua colored eyes, she assured her king, "You'll reach her. Of that, I am certain. Just don't give up."

Seeing the confidence of her eyes in between her long, strawberry blond locks, Lord Van nodded and sat straight up again to resume his attempts to commune with the woman he sought on the Mystic Moon.

I'm running out of time. He attempted to call to her.

Author's Note: I've honestly wanted to write this for years and have played with so many different ways to present this idea. I'm glad to have finally arrived to a plot that I feel is decent enough. I was exposed to both series at about the same time (The Vision of Escaflowne and Digimon Tamers specifically) and watching them simultaneously made it real easy to see how compatible they are for a crossover. If you want a fun spoiler as well as justification, just google image Van Fanel and Takato Matsuda... you'll laugh yourself silly if you never noticed this before.

Please read and review! I love feedback!