Before I you begin to read this, I would like you to read this with the English adaptation voices in your head. I know that some of the fans prefer the Japanese voices, but I grew up with the English and feel that this should be read in that way.

I think that the voices really suit the characters in the English adaptation. I usually prefer the Japanese voices over English, but in this case please imagine the English voices.

I would also like to note that I prefer to spell Van's name as "Vaughn" and not Van. It's the exact same name, but I prefer to spell it similar to the way it is said :)

I would also like you to picture Vaughn with the personality as he did in the series, and not the blood thirsty personality he had in the movie. However now that it has been 4 years, he looks like he did in the movie and his is allot more musculature and taller. So same personality as the series, looks like the movie! Get it? :)

Hitomi looks like she did in the series, and has the same happy personality as she did in the series too. I don't like the whole 'wanting to die' personality she has in the movie. Since it's been 4 years she now looks a little bit taller and mature and with slightly longer hair.

When I get the time I will upload a link to pictures of the way I see them in my head :)

Enjoy and review please!

Escaflowne - Return of the Winged Goddess

Chapter 1 - Dreams

April 2nd, 2000.

I sighed as I continued to right on my note book, a normal day in normal Tokyo, a normal day on Earth. Four years to this date have passed since I first visited Gaea. I began to bite the top of my pen as I stared into the wall ahead of me. My professor was just babbling on about stuff that I didn't really want to know, but I'm stuck with it now, journalism. I decided to choose it because I wanted to get better at writing, I wanted people to know my story of Gaea, become an amazing author, even if they didn't believe me.
The whole class was silent; all you could hear was the sound of pens on paper and that ticking clock that just never seemed to move. I was bored, bored beyond my mind. I decided that I couldn't hand in a piece of work with only two lines on it, so pen to paper I began to write.
The bell rang to signal end of the day, how I was looking forward to that.

I stood up with my bags and handed my work to my professor.
"Miss Kanzaki, I usually have a lot more to mark from you than this." She slowly moved the glasses from the bridge of her nose down and had that 'intelligent' look on her face. She was young, had pale skin and short black hair, and eyes that where emerald green that pierced through anything she looked at. She was pretty and slim; it made me wonder why she became a professor and not a model. She looked at me, trying to figure out what was going on in my mind. I looked at her and smiled weakly.
"Nothings the matter, just tired from working on the essays from the other night, that's all!" A lie.

"Well, at least you're not slacking off then!" she replied
"Of course not!" another lie.
I walked towards the door and threw my bag across my shoulder and began the long walk home.
It was 6pm, dark and cold. How I hate the dark, and the cold. Today was just one of those days, nothing seems to go right, everything seems to go slower, and nothing seems to make me smile. I missed Gaea, and that was it.

I often wondered what Gaea was like now, it's been four years so allot of the re-building would have been completed by now. I wondered if Millerna ever got re-married, or married Alan for that matter. Alen, I paused. Alen Shizar, such a wonderful knight. I wonder how he is, and his little sister Selena. I wonder if Asturia and Fanelia had been rebuilt and if everyone was happy now. I thought about Merle and her little cat ears; she'd be a lot taller now, and the one person who I think about all the time, that one person who I miss most of all Vaughn Fanel. The King of Fanelia. How I miss you. But as if I would be fit for a king. I sighed and plodded on home.
I eventually arrived home, opened the door to the smell of my mother's cooking. I threw my bag on the floor and staggered upstairs towards my bedroom.

"HITOMI!" the screech was coming from my room.
A young girl, with long red hair stood at my bedroom door, it was Yukari. She had changed allot too in four years.
"Yukari! What on earth are you doing here? I thought you were in England!" I replied with a shocked look on my face.
"Duh! I'm here to see you! I have a few weeks off so I decided to come home!"
She had a huge smile on her face and her eye's where lit up with excitement.
"But what about Amano? Did you come home with him?"
"Nah, his mom wanted to go and see what England was like, so she's staying with him for a few weeks, anyway! I have it all planned!"
"Have what planned?" by this time I was worried, usually when Yukari says something like that, she has something extreme that she wants to try out. I looked at her and couldn't help but smile.
"I'm going to stay here for a few days because my mom is out of town and I have a million things that we are going to do!"

She grabbed my hands and pulled me into my bedroom which she had already rearranged. She had all of her home comforts in there, I couldn't believe it. It was like she just moved in; she even had her own bed made up already. She began to tell me about all the exciting things that we were going to do. Shopping and camping and nature walks and most importantly on her list, finding me a boyfriend. She was determined to find me one. I usually just went along with it so I wouldn't have her monologuing to me about 'moving on' and 'you'll never go back' kind of thing. Over the next few hours we talked about her studies in England and my boring life here in Tokyo. I started to feel light headed and a little sick, but I just assumed it was because I was tired.

I looked over at my clock, 3am. It was late and both of us where really tired. I turned off the light, rested my head on my pillow and closed my eyes.

I was standing on a balcony, and there was hundreds, no thousands of people staring at me. Wait no, not me. They are all looking at something next to me. It was a person, a male. Tall, dark hair, sword. Could it be Vaughn? No. Can't be him, he's too tall to be Vaughn.

Then it went black. I checked my surroundings; I was in a field now. Black and red colours flashed in front of my eyes. Cries of men fighting and tall figures in the distance, I could feel the heat around me, the smell of fire and blood started to get thicker. Smoke surrounded me and black ash covered my uniform. A light flashed in front of my eyes and the sound of swords clashed. Blood followed and white began to cover the floor.

I stared in front of me, trying to figure out who it was who was fighting. "Hitomi" rang in the air. My name, he said my name. I looked closer at the man who lay dying on the floor. It was Vaughn. It was Vaughn.
"VAAUUGGHHNN!" I screamed, tears streaming down my face as I called his name. I ran towards him, but no matter how hard I tried, he just got further and further away.
"VAUGHN!" but this time nothing. My voice wouldn't work. Tears poured from my eyes as I watched blood pour from his body. I shrieked with frustration and attempted to run towards him again, and then I heard my name.