A.n.-Hiya, this fic will, obviously, most likely end up being D/H. This will include a little of the series and a little of the movie. I hope you all enjoy and please do review. No reviews, no new chapters. :). So feed the fire, it keeps it burning :)

Disclaimer-Moi? I own Escaflowne? WOOHOO! sound of bars being clanged shut uhhh...I lied? heh heh...

Chapter One

There is always a price to pay for pretending to be something that your not.

And the piper never misses a payment, that's for damn sure.

It was a price that Kanzaki Hitomi had come all too familiar with as the years of her life dragged on. A never ceasing weight around her neck dragging her down, down, down...into a slipper slope of blue-black madness. Hitomi shut the door softly behind her, pressing her back hard against it as though she could just shut out the entire world, put a lid on all the lies and facades and be able to stare anew...

A bark of laughter escaped her lips, cynical and bitter. A part of her wanted to blame it on Gaea...on that damnable world and its Knights in shining armor, on its villains and its heroes...on the King that she could of loved...on a war that she should of never even been in the middle of.

Oh but what a lie that was. Bitter as poison it's slipped down her throat and to her belly making it roll in waves of nausea and pain. Fate had no favorites, it had only pawns and they were as indispensable as any other. Easily replaced, easily reborn for the next game that it played.

Hitomi walked slowly across her room, her legs seeming to simply collapse from her weight onto her bed as she laid there, her face buried in her blue comforter.

The truth was her spiral down had begun long before Gaea, before her dreams of the grandeur ideal that she would no longer have to be alone would cure all of her problems. That she could simply stop being and become...become something. But dreaming does not a reality make. Things had been going so good though. Even she had fooled herself into thinking...thinking that...that it was over.

But it would never be over.

So again she had begun the vicious cycle. As Yukari drifted away into her romance with Amono-sempai and Hitomi was left as the third wheel, watching them laugh and be merry - hating herself even more for the spike of jealousy that ran like the blood in her veins strait to her heart.

Angry words dispelled the peace, false accusations thrown like a dagger through the air...shattering the illusions that Hitomi had spent a year trying to make reality. Hitomi balled her hands in fists against the submissive fabric, tears flushing down her cheeks as she fought down the agony that tore through her very being. Shoving herself up from the bed Hitomi pushed herself to her feet and turned to face her dresser and the wide mirror on the wall.

Walking slowly toward the mirror she stared at the stranger with her eyes. Dark brown hair the color of honey spilled in reckless locks over her eyes, coming down just long enough to brush the shell of her ear. Her already formless school uniform hung off her showing the weight she had lost. Hitomi forced a cheery smile at the mirror, propping her hands up on her hips and tilting her heart-shaped face upward in an innocent manner. Perfection. Innocent and sweet, hiding the darkness that threatened to swallow her whole.

Anger hot and fluid flushed within her. They didn't see her...didn't see how she felt day in and day out. Hatred blossomed in her chest and without thinking she struck the mirror as hard as she could. Pain flashed like lightening through the palm of her hand, blood thick and hot ran down her hand. It felt good. It felt real. Real.

Her legs buckled beneath her sending her to the floor. Shards of the mirror dug deep into her knees, as she crouched over holding her hand to her chest, smearing the white of her uniform crimson. Tears flowed deep and heavily from her as she fought for control. She couldn't let them see her this way...weak as always, needing someone to protect her as always. She would never let anyone see her this way, to witness the embarrassment of her break down. No - this was for her eyes alone.

Hours past as Hitomi sat there on her knees, her hand held close to her chest like a baby. Finally she raised, her uniform sticky with dried blood, her hand caked a rusty red. Licking her lips and nibbling nervously she stared at the broken mirror. Some of it still hung on by the hinges...most of it covered her dresser top and the carpeted floor.

I'll have to clean that before Okaa-san sees

Wasn't that it always how it went though? Break down, then clean up, smile prettily for everyone, forcing out the optimism you don't really feel then restart the cycle as soon as their gaze is averted.

How tiring. How utterly pathetic.

Hitomi swallowed hard, and listened through her door. Okaa-san was back from picking up her brother at last...they were in the kitchen it sounded like. Perfect timing as always. Hitomi slunk carefully from her room after donning her bathrobe over her uniform and got the vacuum from the back closet. She vacuumed up the glass carefully, after throwing the larger pieces that couldn't be in the waste basket, watching as every shard disappeared with an intensity that said she wished she could do the same to herself. Suck her away into an endless vortex so she wouldn't have to think any more...no feeling...no thoughts...freedom in ways she barely dreamed to be possible.

Swallowing hard she pulled gently, but firmly, the remaining pieces still stuck to the head board. Tugging them loose she threw them into her near by trash can...all but the last peace. The last piece she kept, turning it over in her hands with no expression. Memories flashed through her mind. How good it had felt...to feel real. To not feel as though everything...everything was just some horrible nightmare. That she wasn't just going through the motions but was really there...how the pain had just seemed to leap from her for a single moment in time...

She slipped it slowly into the pocket of her robe and walked from her room to the far bathroom. Closing the door softly behind her Hitomi turned and looked into the mirror. Her left cheek was smeared red, running in a line down her slender neck.

Shaking her head ever so slightly she let the robe fall to the floor, followed by her stained uniform. Naked she stood before the merciless glass, her gaze taking in that of her body with an expression tainted with disgusted loathing and fascination. In the two years and six months that had passed since Gaea she had changed rather little. Her body still thin, now unnaturally so, her emerald eyes slightly sunken from her constant rejection of nourishment. But even still, her body had the curves they had not when she had tumbled into a world where the sword ruled and honor lived and breathed.

Reaching behind her she pushed the lock into place. Now was not a time she wished to be disturbed. Reaching down into the floor she drew out slowly the sliver of the mirror. She looked up slowly at her naked reflection without expression. She pulled the jagged edge of the shard to her chest, running it almost lazily down her breast and under, tracing the lines of her rib cage. Without thought or means she added the slightest of pressure, the slight pain bringing both a smile and grimace.

So real...such a release from the pain she felt inside. Almost as though the key to her cage was dangling just above her finger tips in a teasing caress. She crisscrossed the blade gently over her body, watching the red just flow and drip downward with a morbid fascination.

Setting the shard down next to the sink she ran her fingers over the open wounds, bringing her already red-stained finger tips to her face. Running them down her unmarked cheek Hitomi stared hard into the mirror. Minutes past and she did nothing, merely stared at there red covered form.

Eventually, reality as it always does begin to seep in along with the panic. What would they do if they saw what she and done? They would be so ashamed, poking their noses into her business as though they really gave a damn and asking for explanations that she could not give. Wouldn't give, for how could they understand? They had not been there. They had not seen...what she had seen. They would never know...know what she had been through. Crazy they would call her and she'd be pushed into a padded room so drugged she couldn't even see strait. And where would that leave her? Locked away...smothered by her own memories unable to escape from the Hell of her own making.

Hitomi drew in a ragged breath, tears filling her eyes. It wasn't fair, wasn't fair, WASN'T FAIR! She...she needed this. Needed this to be alive...

Turning she turned on the shower with frantic hands, spinning the hot and cold knobs without care of what the temperature would be. Needing only to wash it away. Wash it all away. She jumped into the shower, crying out softly against the severe heat of the falling water. It beat down mercilessly against her back, like little needles worming their way into her flesh. She stood there for a moment or two, letting her body adjust before she turned to face the spray head on.

Pink swam over her toes and down the drain as the blood rinses itself away. Her self-inflected wounds sung out in pain against the waves but Hitomi didn't care. At least it was real. At least she was feeling something rather then nothing at all.

All at once it happened and her legs collapsed beneath her even as her hands reached out instinctively to the shower curtain to slow her descent. She succeeded only in ripping it slightly before she it the hard porcelain of the porcelain tub.

White filled her gaze, a blinding white that burned her more then the water had.

Laughter.

Teenage laughter echoed in her ears.

Malicious laughter...a voice she knew.

The white faded its way to red and before her she saw the pavement glistening in moonlight, the black tar of the road looking more like a lake then the road it was.

Seven men standing in the darkness, their faces incased in shadows.

Silver hair gleamed, red eyes flaming.

Wings pure and white fell around her, tinted at the ends a deep crimson.

They stuck to her arms.

Suffering. Laughter.

Reincarnation...reincarnation...reincarnation...

The word repeated over and over like a chant in her mind.

Fire...so hot...so pure and claiming its rapture.

Tokyo was in flames all around her, falling apart.

Her hands pressed against her face, her mind pounding wretchedly in pace with her own frantic heart.

Against her closed eye-lids the images persisted...

Abruptly all she could hear was the shower...and its cold spray.

Slowly she cracked open an eye, her clinched fists loosened on her short hair ever so slightly.

Tears flowed, mixed with water as she took in her surroundings without feeling. Her breath came in erratic gasps, her eyes wide with a sheen of terror and panic that belayed all she felt inside. She hadn't had a vision like that since...since Gaea. She reached up slowly, shutting off the water. Slowly she drew her legs to her chest, her lower lip trembling uncontrollably. There was no surprise to meet the fear and horror that welled up inside of her like an unstoppable flood. Why should their be? Gaea had never truly left her; it had branded both her heart and soul - claiming it as its own. But that didn't stop the anger. The anger that they were back. Back in her head...the visions of death and destruction. She wasn't on Gaea any more...she wasn't that scared little Seer any more...she wasn't a Seer at all any more...she was...she was...Hitomi.

But who was that? Who was Hitomi?

She didn't know any more.

Slowly, Hitomi stood. Her body trembled from head to toe as she grabbed a towel from the cabinet under the sink. She dried her body roughly, wrapping it around her. Dropping to a squat she bundled her bloodied uniform into her robe. Encasing it inside she tied the robe-tie around it and, holding it tight against her chest, she slipped slowly from the bathroom, just in time to hear her mother call up the stairs.

"'Tomi! Dinners ready! You're not still in the shower are you? That's a waste of water!"

Hitomi cringed against the door, guilt seeping through her as she huddled against the door as though she could hide from that ringing voice.

"HITOMI!"

"I - I hear you Mom, no I'm not in the shower! I'll be down in a minute!"

"Alright, but hurry! Foods going to get cold!"

Hitomi held her breathe tight inside of her until she heard her Okaa-san's footsteps as she walked away. Letting out a small sigh Hitomi felt a look of irritation stain her features as she walked quickly to her room. Shutting the door behind her she dropped her bundle into the floor, kicking it under her bed. Running her hand over her face and through her short locks Hitomi walked over to her dresser slowly. Her eyes flickered up to where her mirror once was nervously. She still didn't really have a good excuse to give about that...Oh well...she'd cross that bridge if...when she came to it.

Wiping her face hazard Hitomi opened her top drawer impatiently along with the left top drawer. Grabbing a random underwear and black blue-jeans she dressed quickly. Slipping on one of her older black bras she walked over to her closet, rustling through the shirts she eventually found an older dark brown long sleeved shirt stuffed way in the back. Pulling it out she pulled it over her head and glanced instinctively at her mirror only to shake her head as she remembered...she didn't have a mirror any more.

She'd bought the shirt a couple years ago, despite that it still slightly hung off her body. She remembered a time vaguely when it had actually fit her rather snugly.

Shaking her head slightly she fluffed her damp hair and exited her room, descending the stairs with a bounce in her step that didn't belong and a wide smile that hurt her cheeks to force. Skipping over to her younger brother she rustled his hair and kissed her mother's cold cheek.

"Mmmm, smells great Okaa-san! I'm starveing! Ah, you made my favorite! Vegetable Rice!"

"You know me; I aim to please." she responded brightly.

Giggling she sat down at her spot, engaging instantly in optimistic, cheerful chatter about school and her friends while rolling her food around on its plate and shoveling it into her mouth as though she really were starveing. Her mother smiled brightly at her, giggling with her as though she herself were one of Hitomi's school girl friends. Teasing her brother she flicked some of the steamed, vegetable rice inflicting a short food fight. Okaa-san merely laughed and with mock-severity made them stop, giggling all the while. Mrs. Kanzaki was a woman of rare beauty, the more she laughed the younger and more vibrant she appeared. Her easy-nature never failed to make a spike of envy dig deep into her heart.

The good daughter that she was, Hitomi helped her mother clean up the remains of the fight and even did the dishes for her. She put them all away, humming a tune under her breath and smiling all the while. Not once did she falter, as she put the dishes away she moved to the cabinets as though she were dancing to the tune she hummed. Hitomi was nothing if not a consummate actress.

After she was finished, Okaa-san came in and sat at the table, her eyes watching her daughter's small dance with a smile upon her full lips.

"Hitomi, you always have so much energy...you certainly didn't get that from me. Must have been your father I guess."

Hitomi shrugged," Can't help it, there's always something to do."

"'Tomi...I have a question for you."

Hitomi sat down in front of her mother, one hand going up to cup her cheek as she leaned on it. She looked at her mother with a look of open confusion, but indulgence as well.

"Why don't you read fortunes any more?"

Hitomi felt herself go cold, her body breaking out into a cold sweat as she fought to her mask in place. She could not falter, would not falter.

"Okaa-san, you've asked me this dozens of times. The answer hasn't changed. I just...didn't like predetermining someone's future. It should be a surprise, ne? What's the point if we already know it?"

"I know...but you were always so excited about it. I just...didn't understand is all. I'm not trying to be nosy, I just don't get it."

Hitomi sighed, "I know, Okaa-san...I just, didn't want to any more."

"Okay, I know how you young people are. You keep your secrets if you need to."

Hiomi laughed, standing up,"It's not a secret, Okaa-san. I just, didn't want to any more."

Okaa-san shook her head, smiling at her daughter.

"You've got such a good-head on your head, Hitomi-Chan. I don't know what I'd do with out you. I'm so blessed to have a daughter like you."

Hitomi smiled, hugging her mother close,"Eh, does that mean I need to go and do some teenage anarchary?"

Okaa-san laughed, "Oh, 'Tomi." she shook her head," I'm going to go lie down and watch some movies. Your brothers already suctioned to that new game I bought him, him and that American Resident Evil...it's just so violent!"

"He's a boy, the gores the best part."

Sighing with more drama then needed her mother gave her a quick kiss then walked away. Hitomi followed her shortly, watching her walk down the hall toward her room and her little brother's. The happy-go-lucky demeaned seemed to expire completely from her the instant the door shut to her mothers room. Closing her eyes slightly Hitomi walked up the stairs to her room, shutting the door behind her lightly. Her mother had given her the upstairs bedroom under the idea that teenage girls like her needed more privacy then she herself and boys.

Hitomi lay down on her bed, her arms wrapping around her small frame.

All at once she felt the barriers crash down, leaving her bare. She was so tired. Every day it chipped off another piece of her very soul to pretend this way, to move through the steps of this dance as though she herself wasn't dieing inside with every word said, every gesture, and every smile she had to fake. Where was the meaning, where was the girl...the girl that...that...

Hitomi shut her eyes tight, trying to swallow back the animal howl that rose inside of her chest. A howl of pain, a howl of desolation that was gliding through the cavern of her soul to her mortal spring, filling the chalice and drinking deep her mortal essence as though cheap wine rather then the most precious and unique in all the world. The Reaper came in the shadows, hiding behind the guise of friendship before appearing to shackle you to him for eternity. That was fate. That was life. There were no trembling prayers to escape her lips, no whisper of salvation. There was only her and the weakness that fought for control with her day in and day out, the mask becoming heavier and heavier with every wear...threatening to fall away at the slightest provocation. Wretched irony.

Her stomach rolled rebelliously at the food she had forced down into it when the Other Hitomi had been in control. Bile rose in her throat and in a second she was out of her room and on her knees before the porcelain God to make an offering. Vomit stung like pure acid as she threw up the entire meal. Tears wet her eyes as she rested her head against the side of the toilet bowel, absently flushing away the evidence. She rose slowly, her legs shaking beneath her.

Just another evening as the fake Kanzaki Hitomi.

Just another day that had passed her by without reason or care.

Just another payment to that god damn piper.

Hitomi leaned over the edge of the railing, staring down below at the ever flow of the traffic below and the people that marched like ants, doomed to follow their own trails of life in all its perks and dismays.

The wind rustled through her air as Hitomi dropped to her hunches, her arms hanging languidly above her, finger tips pointed upward. Squatting comfortably Hitomi let her gaze go upward to the clear blue sky. She could just barely see the pale crescent of the moon and behind it the arms of Gaea. Gaea, ever watching, never moving as it hide from all but those who knew where to look. Only those like Hitomi...the gift of sight. Or curse would be a better term mayhap.

Hitomi shook her head slightly from side to side, her bangs brushing the warm metal of the railing. She'd seen Yukari through the halls, and Hitomi nearly fell to be trampled her haste to turn and run away. Away from those eyes. Away from the feeling that spilled from them.

Even if she gave to them the truth, bared it all it still would not be enough. She belonged to her pain, she belonged to the memories she could not escape from, to the sorrow that enveloped her like a cocoon. Hitomi let out a bark of laughter. She had failed them all, hadn't she? Allen Shezar, Van Fanel...what would they say if they saw her now on her knees? Saw what she had done...Hitomi shut her eyes tight, her throat constricting. No...No one would ever know of that. She would die before she'd let anyone know. No, that was truth for her and her alone. .No one would ever know...never.

Hitomi rose slowly, descending down the stairs and walking through the bare hallways. In was lunch at the moment. She had a little over a half hour until she was to return to the monotonous classes that seemed to eat up more and more of her time. Not that it really mattered. It wasn't as though she had all that much to spend her time on lately any way.

Hitomi walked out into the school court yard, careful to avoid the large, various cliques of giggling girls, too cool boys, and the other varieties that were littered at different positions. Each at a different scope in the complex hierarchy that was High School. Walking over to one of the larger trees where, miraculously, no one was near by Hitomi sat down, leaning heavily against the bark. Soothing, rough yet so very solid. A sense of peace fell over her.

All at once it was ripped away and Hitomi felt her body tense up, her breath suddenly short and her flesh as cold as ice.

Her vision flew through her mind, cutting and clear.

"Itai!"Hitomi gasped out, bundling over ever so slightly.

Carefully, she forced herself to stand, her eyes searching through the dozens of students and peers that were laughing all around her and talking excitedly about one thing and another. Hitomi backed away a step. They didn't feel it. They couldn't feel...it...around them. The dark, cold presence that had seeped into her and currently was squeezing the very life out of her heart. They didn't even sense a flicker of a change.

And then, all at once, the tumblers fell into place.

All at the sight of short, silver colored hair reflecting in the sunlight. As though unconsciously, all males in his path and by it took a step backward, women instantly hushing ever so slightly as their gazes locked upon him. Power all but oozed from every arrogant step, pride in the strait shoulders and level chin, features that were nearly angelic in their beauty but for the eyes. Red as blood, as fire and magnetic in their hold. Power reeked from the teenager. He walked as though the earth were made for him and him alone, as though everything around him already was his and had no other reason to think otherwise. The vibe that if you stood in the way of what he desired he wouldn't bat an eye to spill blood for it...your blood.

Albatou Dilandau.

Captain of the Elite Ryuugekitai. Soldier extrodinar, Zaibocks finest. Nothing less, and so much more.

A man she thought was dead.

A man from Gaea.

Him. It was him.

Impossible...he can't...Oh Kami-sama...he can't...I saw HIM! I saw HER! Dilandau's...he's...why! WHY!

Questions, disbelief filled the young Seer's mind as Hitomi balked the urge to back away. He couldn't be here...he couldn't be...it just wasn't...plausible. Slowly, the panic receded and Hitomi took in more of the situation. Dilandau walked alone, his eyes surveying the crowd with an expression of dull anger crossed with amusement.

Hitomi chewed nervously on her lip until she tasted copper. But he wasn't dressed in the garb of Gaea, no, he was dressed...like a student...sort of anyway. Dilandau was wearing the button up top uniform but it was undone to show the black wife beater beneath, his pants weren't school issue either. Black leather with boots. Not school issue at all...But Hitomi couldn't imagine one of the teachers of even the principal being brave enough to say such a thing to him.

His eyes looked onto hers, they narrowed ever so slightly, and Hitomi watched as he changed his direction to instead come toward hers. The fear was nearly choking her now. Dilandau Albatou was coming at her...swordless maybe, but her imagination was filling in those blanks very easily. Even disarmed, Hitomi had no doubt whatsoever that he could...would even...kill her. She was still 'that bitch from the Mystic Moon', was she not?

Hitomi's fingers cut into the palms of her hands painfully. Her instincts all but screaming at her to run.

"Di...Dilandau." she whispered, her voice hoarse.

And those eyes, those eyes like the flames of hell itself, all but blazed at that name.

Though from that distance he shouldn't, couldn't, have heard.

FUCKING RUN!

That look broke the paralysis that had swept over her and without a thought she had whirled around and taken off in a dead run. She didn't know if he was following or not, she didn't care. She had to escape...escape those eyes, escape him and whatever revenge may of been going through his mind. Panic was welling inside of her as she took turn after turn, trying to lose him, if he was behind her. She was too scared to look, too scared to see the demon himself closeting in upon her. Hitomi had not been an All Star Track Member, even when she had been on the team a year and a half ago...but she could still run like the wind.

Cutting through the track field Hitomi all but flew into the backdoor of the building, rushing through the hallways and up the multitude of stairs until and running into the door marked 'no students allowed'. She followed the stair case, up, up, and up and out the door onto the roof she'd been only moments ago previously. Her place...the safest place in the world to her. No one, save Yukari, had ever found her up here...Hitomi backed away, watching the door with wide eyes lined with tears bred of fear and disbelief.

Dilandau Albatou was here...

Here in her world...

He had assimilated, obviously, but he was here...

Hitomi's mind flashed back to her vision and understanding dawned through her. Seven men? An albino individual? Malicious laughter...it was him. And how foolish she felt for not realizing it sooner...for not seeing more into her vision...for not thinking...for letting herself be so blind...

"Most people when they run away don't back themselves into a corner."

The cold voice, laced like poison in vino, cut through her like a blade. Hitomi's eyes snapped open and locked upon him, standing in front of her only escape...the door.

So he had followed...and here she was...with no where left to run, no where to hide, vulnerable in every sense of the word.

"Dilandau." she said softly.

Dilandau scowled, his teeth barring," How do you know that name?"

Hitomi swallowed hard, her arms wrapping around her mid-section.

"N-nani?"

He took a step toward her and before she could so much as cry out, his hands were on her wrists, pulling her close, his face so close she could feel his warm breath on her face.

"I asked you a question. How. Do. You. Know. That. Name!"

"I don't understand. That's your name! Dilandau Albatou, Ryuugekitai Captain! Zaibock..."Hitomi blinked," You...you don't know do you? You don't...remember me?"

Dilandau snarled, pushing her away sharply sending Hitomi stumbling back against the railing.

"I know your face, but I've never meet you before. No one but me knows that name...Zaibock...what is it? You know, don't you?"

Reincarnation...my vision...could he be...Dilandau's...reincarnation into this world...like how Amono-sempai resembles Allen-san...could he be...Kami-sama...But...

"Your not...your not him, are you? You're not..."understanding dawned in Hitomi Your not...him at all are you? Your not...You're not him..."

"What in the fuck are you talking about? Who the fuck is he? And for that matter who the fuck are you!"

Hitomi tried to take a step backward, only to feel her back press more against the railing. No where to go, no where to run and no King to protect nor Knight. She was on her own. Some how that thought brought comfort. No one to die for her, only her own life on the line.

"You're better off not knowing. If you knew, you'd just be like me." Hitomi said softly, swallowing her fear and walking towards him, "Forget about it. Forget about Gaea, Zaibock...don't bother with it. It'll bring you nothing but pain." She pleaded, her eyes eager with apprehension.

"That is not your choice to make, Girl."

Hitomi smiled softly, "No, if it was I wouldn't remember either."

"I won't ask you again. Tell me."

There was a threat in those words, one that would have made the Other Hitomi tremble with fear. But not this Hitomi. Not the one who had her own demons to contest with. Demons that slaughtered her on the inside, for those are the wounds that never heal. Wounds that lay gaping and open, but for her eyes and her eyes alone.

"I can't."

Dilandau grabbed her roughly, pulling her to him. His fingers were hard as bone against her flesh, the pain enough to make her bite the inside of her mouth. Hitomi held back the pain and instead laughed. A laugh that glowed with insanity and red hot embers of vengeance. He shook her hard, enough to make her bones rattle. A look of loathing crossing his features, even as the satisfaction settled at the sight of crimson dribbling down her lips. She'd bitten her tongue. The blood seemed to excite him.

"Do you want to know so badly? What does it matter, you are here. Gaea is beyond your reach, and mine. Be thankful of that." Hitomi whispered, her hand rising to whip the blood from her mouth.

"What is Gaea?"

Hitomi's eyes fluttered shut for a moment. What did she expect? Him to heed her warnings? That was not the Dilandau she remembered. He would not stop until he got what he wanted. He would do whatever it took to extract the information from her...why bother? Why keep hiding it, when one way or another he was going to know. How broken her body was by that time was completely up to her.

"I'll tell you...but not here, and not now. Meet me tonight at 10 in the track field and I'll tell you. I'll tell you whatever you want to know."

"And what assurances to me have you that you just won't show up? That you just won't fucking disappear?"

Hitomi laughed slightly, ignoring the throb of her tongue.

"You would find me, even if I were stupid enough not to show. You'd hunt me down."

He smirked at her, "I would. I will."

He released her, and instantly Hitomi's hands went to her upper arms, massaging them gently. His touch would leave bruises, already she could feel them forming beneath the skin. No, she would show. She didn't have a choice really. And besides...it was someone from Gaea...and not just anyone, someone from the other side. Someone as much of an outcast as she herself had become. Though they had fought on opposite sides of the war, Hitomi felt a sudden kinship with the once lord.

Hitomi turned and walked away.

The silver-haired teenager once known as Dilandau-sama himself let her go, all the while she could feel the heat of his hellish gaze boring into her.

The confidence that had swum in her veins that after noon had long sense abandoned one Kanzaki Hitomi leaving her feeling a naked vulnerability. This was insane, it had to be. Here she was, walking to what very well could be her death. All at the hands of a white haired sociopath.

Good. Bring it on, as they say.

As vulnerable as she felt, Hitomi couldn't help but feel a rush of elation. It was the same feeling she'd felt as she'd pressed that sliver of glass against her body and let the fluid just flow down her. That was bliss. A bliss that she partook readily, eagerly even. A bliss she would share with no one.

She sat down on the bleachers and waited.

Time chimed by, and Hitomi checked her watch very few seconds.

9:58.

Strange. She'd some how thought that he would be here long before she herself was. Something to do with that militant persona of one Dilandau Albatou. Home field advantage and all that. Perhaps she'd over estimated just how much sway his counterpart's feelings and reactions would hold.

After all, if her theory was correct she wasn't dealing with Dilandau Albatou but rather, an incarnation of him. Time flowed differently on Gaea then it did here, on Earth. Perhaps there hundreds of years had passed. Perhaps that is why, she could no longer feel Van's presence in her mind. She'd thought it was only her own spiral downward into depression, of loss that had shredded the bond that once carried their thoughts and emotions through time and space. But maybe, just maybe, it was because the other person to that bond had long sense...died.

Hitomi let out a trembling breath, feeling tears sting her eyes. A vision of a raven-haired youth with rash burgundy eyes flashing before her. Van, the arrogant King with the weight of his Kingdom upon his shoulders just as he barely entered man-hood himself. Van that fought for his people, for her and for the peace of Gaea itself. Sweet, ignorant Van. She had loved him in a way, that world...that world of Gaea had brought out the Other Hitomi more blatantly, and for a brief moment in time she and the other had merged and become one. She had thought everything changed while she was there. That she had, in a sense, grown up and shed behind her the darkness that had always nipped at her heels.

Gaea had only been a crutch though. And without it, she had slipped back down. Down into the blue-black haze, into a darkness that she herself could not escape from. It is the weakness inside of us all that we either had triumph or crumple beneath like a butterfly crunched in a fist. Hitomi had chosen to surrender rather then struggle as she had with Yukari and Amono-sempai. When even Yukari had abandoned her to travel with Amono for his schooling...Hitomi had drawn away. And without the presence of Yukari...Kagome, Sakura, Rei...all her so-called friends had vanished and when not even Van would reach out to her...Hitomi knew that she would always be alone. Alone forever, because if those she had trusted so deeply could drop her like a rock, why bother to hope or draw close to another? The result would, as always, be the same.

Shaking her head slightly, Hitomi glanced down at her watch.

10:08.

Still no sign of the silver haired youth. Hitomi stood, making her way to the middle of the red-dusted track.

He's not coming.

The thought sent a red-alert of panic shooting through her. If he was not here by now, he wasn't coming. Of that Hitomi was certain. But why? She had seen the questions that burned like a brand in his mind. Nothing could of prevented him from coming. Nothing at all, because if you stand in Dilandau's way, it was your funeral litterly. So, why? Why was he not here, when he was so sure that it was she that held the answers he had been searching for.

"What in the fuck are you talking about? Who the fuck is he? And for that matter who the fuck are you!"

His voice echoed in her mind, the conviction as strong now as it were hours before.

He wanted to know...and yet he was not here. Hitomi glanced at her wrist-watch.

10:15.

Hitomi's hands interlaced with her hair, fisting nervously around the strands. Where was he? Where was Dilandau's Reincarnation?

Hitomi waited until the stroke of midnight.

The once silver-haired warrior...never appeared.

Weeks turned into months and still Kanzaki Hitomi never even heard a whisper of Dilandau's reincarnation. If nothing less, Hitomi had come to believe that she had imagined the entire affair. After all, no one else knew anything about him. No one else had even seen him the day he had chased her. They had only seen her, running as though she were mad.

That was the whisper about her nowadays any way. That crazy, drug addict fortune teller. The one who used to say she knew the future, once track star and blah blah blah. Hitomi didn't really care to be honest. They could believe what they wanted. Just as long as they left her alone...it didn't matter.

Or at least that's what she kept telling herself.

The sun was high in the sky as Hitomi walked home, heat seemed to rise in waves from the concrete ground and Hitomi was thankful for the long-sleeved uniform she wore. A ready excuse for just why she choose to wear what would be termed as 'wrong' for summer weather such as this.

Hitomi wrapped her arms around herself, ignoring the sting of fresh wounds across her arms as she did so. Over three months had passed since her encounter with the once Ryuugekitai Lord. And still she could not get him out of her mind. Over and over she replayed the scene, still unable to understand. It had been so real...

It was real. He was there...I talked to him...there's no way I imagined it.

Or at least...that's what she kept telling herself.

Honestly though...that little line just kept getting older and older...ready to kick the bucket any day now.

Shaking her head slightly Hitomi rushed her pace. It wasn't exactly that she was wanting to be home, rather there was any other place she'd rather be. But at least there she could lock herself in her room...and ignore everything and everyone. Hitomi knew her mother was long sense getting exasperated with her, going to the point of even being angry. Because Hitomi had stopped playing. She'd stopped pretending to be that girl she'd let wither and die so very long ago.

Hitomi was tired of pretending, tired of the cost that it demanded from her. So she'd sought...alternative methods to try and keep her in the game, only to fall farther and farther behind in it. Until finally...she just didn't care any more. Didn't care what her mother thought or any one else.

Hitomi reached into her coat pocket, absently fingering the small plastic pack with what looked to be white dust inside. Her only way to stay sane in this world where everything seemed to spiraling out of her control. And at least when she got the rush from the coke, or got high from weed she could let go of herself, of her pain, of her memories...

Entering her house, Hitomi climbed quickly up the stairs and into her room. Shutting the door softly behind her she listened carefully. Good. Her mother was off picking up her brother from school. Once again she'd beat her home, and thus avoided all her penetrating, nosy questions.

'Hitomi, why do you always wear black any more?'

'Hitomi, are you sleeping okay?'

'Hitomi, what the hell is the matter with you lately?'

'Hitomi I got another letter from the school!'

Blah, blah, blah, blah...

Just more background noise, more things she couldn't bring herself to care about any more.

Hitomi stripped from her uniform and pulled on a pair of black pants but didn't bother with a shirt. She sat down at her dresser, staring vacantly into the new mirror her mother had gotten. It was older, smaller and hung from the wall rather then being connected to the dresser itself. Hitomi couldn't even recall what dumb lie she'd told about the last one. All that mattered was that her mother had bought it, not the story.

As she always did Hitomi stared into the mirror at herself. Scars crisscrossed her upper and lower arms along with her torso below and slightly above the breast. New wounds lined the old ones, glaring and red with their hateful gaze.

She didn't care. At least then she was alive. Better to feel something then nothing at all.

Reaching over Hitomi grabbed the outer part of her uniform from the floor, her hands digging hungrily into the inside pocket until she found what she had wanted. She'd had to steal carefully from her mother's purse and horde all her lunch money all week just for this little bag...but it was worth it. Well worth it. This was more then she'd ever been able to get before...this was the good shit.

Carefully, Hitomi emptied part of it onto the desk part of her dresser and with a razor blade she stowed in her jewelry box, she carefully cut them into 3 lines. Grabbing a clear straw from the same jewelry box Hitomi snorted one line...then the next...then the next. Then repeated the process.

Hitomi fell back in her chair, lights dancing in her eyes. A feeling of euphoria stole over her, and Hitomi at once felt relaxed...at peace, as though she knew every answer in the universe. She hadn't felt this good in a long time...so wonderful and perfect. Like she could do anything, because she was everything.

Hitomi laughed suddenly, the sound clear like a tinkering bell as she shrugged out of her chair. She stumbled a bit to her feet, falling onto her bed. It was as though she could feel every thread in the bed. It was great...Hitomi giggled again, her breath coming faster and faster.

Then all at once, her happiness diapered.

Fear, cold hot fear shot through her body because there he was. Dressed in his traditional red armor, silver hair falling over his garnet eyes with a seductive grace.

A sword was in his hands, it loomed above her.

"Mystic Moon Bitch..."he said, his voice guttural and low, and filled with such hate.

Hitomi watched his sword come down again and again at her.

Hitomi tried to scream but couldn't, her voice stubbornly caught in the middle of her throat. His sword loomed above her, just below her right eye. He cut down lightly, a shallow cut down her cheek to mirror the own damage that she had aided Van into causing to his own face. The pain that she had given him, daring to mar a face as perfect as an angel's.

She could feel the cold slice of the metal bite into her skin, it was not the poetic pleasure that she felt when her own hands traced over old and made new stripes over her flesh.

No, this was different. Because it was him...Him of all people.

There was a sort of sadistic pleasure to feeling his sword cut into her flesh...but a panic as well. A panic because if he was here then Van, Allen, all of them had to be here as well. Watching her, laughing at her weakness.

His sword loomed above her suddenly and came down in sickening thwack and when she looked up it was not her Angel of Death Dilandau Albatou...it was Van Fanel. Van who was twisted his sword, his eyes wide with a lust to see her bleed and bleed and bleed.

Hitomi found her voice suddenly.

And screamed as loud as she could, but in her ears it was muffled...almost as though it wasn't there at all. No one to hear her...they'd come when it was time to identify the body, but of course. But not before.

Hitomi's mind seemed to crash in out itself, distantly she could hear her own final cry before she dove down...down into the blue black that always seemed to welcome her with open arms.

End Chapter

A.n.-Well, what do you think? Do you want more?