1Hi this is my first ficcy so bear with me as I attempt to write. And remember, the little bluey purpley button at the bottom of the page is your friend so read and review. The rest of the chapters either won't be this long or will be a while in coming, depends on how I feel, what you, the reviewer say. I have a very vague general outline for the story, but I'm writing it mostly off the top of my head so we'll see how this goes.
Alrighty then, now for the disclaimer: I don't own Zoids or Escaflowne, both are the properties of someone else, I'm just borrowing them for my story ). Any characters I make up are free property, I don't care if you use them, just give credit where it's due. I probably won't bother writing this again for the rest of the story, so lets just say this counts for the whole darn thing.
"talking"
(:thinking:)
Edit: I realized after watching the Zoids series over again that Raven's anger towards Van has all but disappeared, so I added one line at the end of the paragraph fourth from the bottom in Raven's thoughts to make this more apparent.
Van Flyheight was stumbling aimlessly through an unfamiliar labyrinth of twisted caverns. One eye blinded by blood dripping from a wound on his forehead, his left arm with a severe gash running from mid bicep to his wrist. (:Figures. Stupid hole. I just finish wiping the Deathsaurer from the face of the planet and am on my way home with Fiona, Zeke, and the Blade Liger and I don't watch where I'm going. But still, it doesn't make sense, the ground we were traveling on should have been solid granite for hundreds of feet down, at least that's what the sensors told me. And one more thing has been bugging me, why didn't the verniers on the Blade Liger fire when I activated them? Sure, I mean, being fired out of the gravity cannon probably did a number on them, but Zeke would have seen that and repaired it immediately, no problem. Uuuugggg! I'm too tired to think right now, not to mention hungry too. I'm just glad that Zeke got Fiona out before the Liger crashed, too bad he's only got room for one in there though.:) "Hey, now that looks like a good spot to lie down," commented Van, now reduced to talking to himself out of sheer boredom. He was pointing to a small grassy clearing just outside of the caves he was navigation. "Oooh and daylight too," Van exclaimed "glad to be out of those caves!" As Van stepped out into the brilliant sun he also noticed a small, crystal clear river running nearby, "Heh, figures, I've gone and found myself a little peace of paradise, well almost, except for the fact that I'm missing my friends! Aaaaarrrgggggg!" Van yelled as he kicked at the ground in frustration. "Owowowow! Ah, whatever," Van sighed, "I can sort this out after a little nap; right here looks good." Van promptly plopped down in the grass and fell asleep almost as soon as he laid his head down onto the ground.
"You finally did it Van!" Fiona exclaimed from the back seat of the Blade Liger, "you beat the Deathsaurer!"
"Alright already," Van said with a chuckle "you've said that at least ten times by now."
"I know," Fiona said back with a giggle, "but it's still so unreal to me that I just have to keep saying it." "Oh, wow!" Fiona murmured, "Look at that sunset Van isn't it just gorgeous!"
"Yeah, it sure is," he replied. After a few minutes of complete silence, just looking at the view Fiona spoke up.
"Uh, Van" she said sort of hesitantly as if she was unsure of what she was actually going to say. "Yes, Fiona," Van asked curiously. "Uuumm, I've... I've been wanting to ask you something for a little while now..." Fiona trailed off.
"Sure, what is it Fiona," Van said, encouraging her to continue.
"I, uuumm... that is, I have uuuhhh... I mean I... will you..." Fiona paused, blushing, and sighed a little to collect herself, all the while Van sat patiently waiting for Fiona to finish saying what was on her mind. "Will you..." Fiona started again, "will you marry me?"
Van froze in his seat and Fiona hid her face in embarrassment. Van slowly started to turn around in his seat, unbuckling and getting up on his knees to look over the chair back at the young woman who had just asked him to be with her forever.
That was when it all came crashing down. The Blade Liger suddenly broke through the ground and tumbled downward ricocheting uncontrolled from wall to wall in a narrow gap. Van's mind was phased only for a moment after the initial impact as he quickly spun around in his chair while being knocked around the cockpit. Van tried frantically to work the Liger's claws into the walls, but he could find no purchase and his attempts only served to flip the Liger upside down. Then he yanked the blades out hoping that they might catch on something and slow his fall, but the walls were too far apart. Thinking quickly, Van pushed the vernier throttle all the way up, but nothing happened. Stunned for a second Van looked "up" and saw the bottom of the hole coming rapidly to meet him, at the last possible second Van turned his head and yelled "GET HER OUT OF HERE ZEKE, NOOOWW!" Van saw Fiona, a look of pure terror on her face, suddenly fuse into Zeke's familiar silver light and disappear. When Van whipped his head around to attempt to right the liger one last time he saw he was too late, the ground met him, and the world blanked out.
"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!" Van shot upright, screaming and covered from head to foot in sweat, shivering uncontrollably. "Uuuugggg," Van moaned aloud. (:Yeah that was what happened all right, but then, how did I survive that crash:) Van wondered to himself. "Eeeaaaaarrrrrrgg," Van let out a huge yawn and rubbed his eyes after he had calmed down a bit. (:You know, that river looks really tempting right now, I feel very sweaty and I probably stink too. Who knows how long I was in those caves.:) Without hesitation Van stripped to his boxers and jumped into the river. "Ooooh man this water feels great, it's got to be about seventy degrees in here, not a hot spring, but certainly not too cold either," Van sighed to himself in contentment. After a nice long relaxing bath van laid out on the grass to dry off and started to drift off to sleep again, which is exactly why he didn't hear the horse hooves coming.
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King Van Fanel of Fanelia has been out in the backcountry of his kingdom for four days searching for the source of a pillar of light that appeared out here. When he first saw the pillar from his palace Van Fanel thought it was Hitomi finally coming back to see him again, but after a few minutes of actual thinking after he had gotten on his horse, Quicksilver, and come out searching, Lord Van realized that Hitomi would have been able to direct her thoughts and come straight to Fanelia's capitol. Not only that but upon looking at the sky Van realized that the pillar of light could not have originated from the Mystic Moon, because the angle from which the pillar approached Gaia was far off of alignment with Hitomi's home world. But he still felt a responsibility within himself to check out anything that had a connection with Atlantis. (:Who could it possibly be:) Van wondered to himself for what must have been the hundredth time.
Suddenly Van heard a scream that was definitely too masculine to be Hitomi's and he took off in the direction where he thought it came from. King Van stumbled upon the clearing in a little over a half an hour of hard riding. (:Geez, sounds sure do travel for miles around the mountains here, I almost could have sworn the voice came from only a few hundred yards away.:) As Van broke through the forest edge he halted and dismounted Quicksilver immediately and found himself looking on a site that certainly was not what he had expected. There on the grass lay a wounded man, who must have been in his late teens early twenties, sprawled on the ground with a dragonfly on his nose. At first he thought the man might be dead, but upon looking closer noticed that the stranger was simply sleeping peacefully. At Lord Van's approach however, the insect took off, tickling the man's nose and causing him to sneeze himself out of his slumber.
"Hi there," the king of Fanelia greeted the half awake stranger with a small chuckle.
"Huh," mumbled the man, looking up to see a fuzzy red and tan blotch in his vision. Rubbing the sleep out of his eyes and sitting up the stranger's eyes were finally able to focus on the young Fanelian king, "Oh, uh... hi," were the next coherent words that came out of his mouth in reply to the king's introduction.
Van Fanel might have laughed outright at the sight if he still weren't so concerned about hearing the scream earlier and voiced that concern immediately, "Did you happen to hear a sharp scream out here about a half an hour ago or was that you?"
"Scream..." the stranger thought for a moment "oh yeah, sorry, that was me," the stranger replied sheepishly rubbing the back of his neck and then standing up and brushing himself off, "I just fell asleep out here and was having a nightmare, that's all; I hope I didn't worry you too much. The name's Van, Van Flyheight," he said by way of introducing himself extending his hand to shake Van Fanel's.
The king let a smirk play across his face for a moment before grabbing Flyheight's outstretched hand and replying in turn, "My name is Van as well, just spoken a little differently. Van Fanel, I am king of these lands we are currently standing on, Fanelia. Tell me, how did you get here?" Fanel had a sneaking suspicion he knew, this was roughly the direction the pillar appeared in, but he had to know for sure. However, he grew more and more certain as he watched each shocked and confused expression flash across Flyheight's face.
(:King Van Fanel? There's no king Van Fanel on Zi, heck there aren't any kings period on Zi. And I have never, ever heard of a nation called Fanelia. Ooookaaayyy... that only leaves one of three possibilities left: I am awake and am having one doozy of a hallucination, or I'm asleep dreaming one of the oddest dreams of my life, or...:) Flyheight shuddered at this thought (:I'm not even on Zi anymore.:) "I'm afraid, king Fanel, sir, that I really have no idea how on Zi I got here or even where here is in relation to any place I know. All I do know is that I was falling and as I hit the ground I just blanked out. I woke up who knows how long ago a ways back in that cave," Flyheight explained, jerking his thumb back at the cave entrance.
Following his gut instinct Fanel asked his next question: "When you blanked out did you happen to catch a glimpse of light just before you lost consciousness?"
"Light?" Flyheight wondered aloud thinking back hard, "There may have... Wait. I saw my self surrounded by a bright flash and I felt almost weightless for a second, but I thought I was dying or something."
(:So he is the one who came.:) Fanel thought to himself while Flyheight sat waiting for a response of some kind.
"Well," the king started, "I don't really know how to put this to you easily but, whatever planet you came from, you traveled here to Gaia by way of what is simply called Pillar of Light, for lack of a better term."
"Ooooohhhhhh boooooyyyyyyy," the zoid pilot groaned to himself and tilted his head back in annoyance. (:I knew it, I knew it, I just couldn't get myself the easy way out of this one could I, nope. Oh well it beats being dead.:) "Okay, let me get this straight: I got sent from Zi to, what did you call this planet... Gaia, right; to Gaia by a shiny pillar of light? And from what I can tell by the way you just talked I take it that I'm not the first one that this has happened to either, right?"
"You are correct," Fanel confirmed, "however there is some hope to cling to: the only other person this has happened to has found a way back to her own world, so there's a chance that the same can be done for you."
"Phew, I was really starting to get worried for a minute there," Flyheight said with noticeable relief in his voice.
"Might I remind you," Fanel interjected, "that I only said that there is a chance, it is not a certainty."
"I know," Flyheight returned, grinning, "but I'm certain that we'll find that way."
Fanel looked at the zoid pilot in curious confusion, "How can you be so sure?"
"Simple," Flyheight's face turned somber and determined, "I have to, I have someone very important to me I have to return to, I can't afford not to."
It was Fanel's turn to grin, "You're right, we will find a way." (:I know that determination I see in your eyes, it's the same way I felt when I broke free of the Zone of Absolute Fortune to go looking for Hitomi at the end of the war.:)
Simultaneously the two men grinned and extended their right arms in friendship and clasped each-other's forearms. The two men just seemed to hit it off right away for no real reason in particular, they were simply two kindred spirits thrown together by fate. "Alrighty then 'Your Majesty', I'm assuming that since these are your lands that you know your way back to civilization of some sort."
"Certainly, however I should really take a look at your arm and head you look a little banged up there."
"I thought you said you were a king not a doctor?"
"I have a little field experience, now sit yourself down." When it looked as though Flyheight would blow his injuries off as nothing the king rebuked him, "That's an order 'Commoner.'"
Flyheight groaned, "Okay I guess I had that one coming to me." Once Fanel had gotten field dressings on Flyheight it was time to leave.
"Okay, I still want my medics back at the castle to have a look at those when we get back. Now get on the horse 'Commoner.'"
Flyheight chuckled and jumped on Quicksilver behind where Fanel had already seated himself, "You know, it is possible to overuse a joke."
Fanel just grinned, "Hold on tight," Fanel said before taking off nearly throwing poor Flyheight off the back. "We're about an hour's hard ride outside of the capital," Fanel said, then he suddenly laughed. "My advisors are probably worried sick about me, I left without saying anything. I mean I left a note for the cleanup staff to find on my bed stand telling them I was looking for the Pillar of Light, but I've been gone about three hours, so..."
"You mean to tell me I was stuck in those caves for only three hours! It felt like three days!" Flyheight shouted right in Fanel's ear.
"Ooowwww! Don't yell! Yes you were." Fanel replied peeved for a moment rubbing his sore ear.
"Oops, sorry," Flyheight apologized.
"It's okay. I should be used to it by now with the way Merle always yells in my ear."
"Merle? Someone you know I assume?"
"Merle's my best friend and has been since way back before I can remember."
"That's pretty cool," Flyheight said, suddenly getting curious and trying to keep his mind off of Fiona he asked: "So who was this other person who came here before me, by Pillar of Light I mean?"
"Oh, her name was Hitomi, she came from the Mystic Moon." Seeing Fanel pause in thought as to what to say next Flyheight asked the only obvious question on his mind:
"What's the Mystic Moon?"
"Oops, sorry," the king said with a sheepish grin, "do you see the two moons up in our sky?"
"Yeah."
"I'll give you one good guess as to which moon is the 'mystic' one."
"I gotcha. So Hitomi came from the green and blue moon up there."
"Yep, although Hitomi says that up there everyone calls the Mystic Moon Earth."
"Really? So what do Hitomi's people call your planet?"
"Actually," Fanel replied, "for some reason or other noone from the Mystic Moon's surface can actually see Gaia in their skies, or so I'm told by Hitomi. The two times I was on the Mystic Moon I was too preoccupied to look up."
"You went up to the Mystic Moon?" Flyheight inquired.
"Well, don't ask me how I got there the first time, it wasn't by Pillar of Light so I haven't got a clue, it was like some hole in space just ripped open and I just stepped through."
"Wait a minute," Flyheight cut in, "you just said you didn't have a clue and then you described it, how does that work?" The zoid pilot was grinning to himself, knowing he was just giving the king a hard time of it.
"You know darn well what I was talking about you bonehead," Fanel returned jokingly, catching on quickly, but explained anyway "I know what happened I just don't know how it happened. It just did."
"Riiiiggggghhhtt," Flyheight said grinning even wider now. "Shut up you," was the punishing reply. At this Flyheight burst out laughing and Fanel joined in.
After the laughing fit was done the king continued, "The second time I went up to the Mystic Moon I rode Escaflowne what felt like half way and then a Pillar of Light grabbed us and sent us the rest. The first time I visited was only for about five minutes and the second time was more like five seconds."
"What's an Escaflowne," Van asked.
"Escaflowne is my guymelef, sort of a human shaped giant machine," Fanel answered.
"Pardon me if I sound stupid, but unless you have some serious verniers on that machine I don't see how a human shaped robot could ever get off the ground much less go to a moon."
"Well, Escaflowne is special, it can transform into a dragon and fly to unbelievable heights, even Zaibach's cloaked armors couldn't go as high or as fast as the Escaflowne. And before you ask Flyheight, Zaibach is the most technologically advanced empire on this planet. I don't know what you mean by verniers and I can't say that I know exactly how the invisible Zaibach armors were built either (we never did figure out their cloaking technology in the first place) but my guess is that those armors incorporated levistones into their makeup so they can just hover and move around using those."
"Um, what are levistones?"
The king sighed and buried his face into the palm of his hand but leaving his eyes unblocked so that he could still see where Quicksilver was going. "Levistones are what they sound like, floating stones, levitating stones, ergo levistones."
"Oh," was the only response made for a moment, "we don't have anything like that on Zi." After a few moments silence Van piped up "But we do have giant machines on Zi, it's just that they're in the shape of animals not humans. We call our machines zoids and mine is a Blade Liger. Although mine is a little special too, well it's rare, but that's not what I meant and in actuality it's not anything about the Blade Liger itself that I'm talking about being special. Rather it's my partner Zeke, who fuses with the Blade Liger giving the Blade Liger enhanced speed, strength, and fighting capabilities."
"That was a mouthful," came the expected smart comment from Fanel. To which Flyheight, after catching his breath, made a face at the back of the king's head, sticking out his tongue and with one hand pulling down the skin below his right eye in a classic anime insult, all the while using the other hand to hold on to the horse to keep from very nearly falling off. "When you say that Zeke fuses with your blade liger do you mean he gets in and helps you pilot," Fanel asked, curious.
"Sort of, he does help me pilot a little but what he does is integrate himself directly with the rest of the systems of the blade liger essentially becoming a part of the zoid."
"How can a human do that?"
"Oh yeah I forgot to tell you that Zeke isn't a human he is a smaller special type of zoid called an organoid, that's how."
"Then who pilots Zeke," Fanel asked confused.
"Noone does, Zeke can think and act on his own. I mean all zoids are sentient and can act independently to a certain degree, but organoids take that to another level. All zoids are friends to their pilots, or would be if the pilots would just open their eyes and see their zoids as more than just machines," Flyheight sighed. "In order to bring out a zoid's full potential, with an organoid or without, you have to get to really know your zoid, not just the mechanics and workings of it but also its little quirks and behaviors."
"I understand. I have the same relationship with Escaflowne. It truly allows for a more powerful and effective combat strategy, and, during lulls in the fighting, even though Escaflowne can't speak I always feel its companionship when it's near me. And sometimes…" Fanel thought back with a smirk to when Zaibach had captured himself, Hitomi, Allen, and the Escaflowne. When that wretched empire had attempted to dismantle the Escaflowne, how, with Hitomi's help he had been able to call to his guymelef and cause it to move, "…even when it's not so near me."
"Mm hm," Flyheight agreed.
"Anyway we were talking about Hitomi. Hitomi actually first came to Gaia when I returned from my first trip to the Mystic Moon, after slaying the land dragon."
"What!" Flyheight shouted in Fanel's ear again, or would have had Fanel not instantly covered his ears at Flyheight's sudden tightening of his grip on the king's shoulder, "sorry again," Flyheight said realizing his mistake before he continued, "you mean to tell me that there are real dragons here on Gaia?"
"Uh huh," was all Flyheight got in answer. "After she saved me from being skewered by the dragon's tail with her ability to tell the future," normally Flyheight might have had another outburst at this point, but after the previous incident he used one of his hands to clamp his mouth shut and simply nodded, accepting the fact that there were some new and crazy things on this world, "I was able to kill the dragon, and removed the dragenergist from it. A dragenergist, or energist for short, is a stone that is essentially the dragon's heart, it gives off tremendous amounts of energy and we use them to power our guymelefs. The two of us were then transported back to Gaia in the middle of nowhere by a Pillar of Light. Upon my arrival back in Fanelia I was coronated the new king as per right of dragon slaying since my father had recently died. Shortly thereafter Zaibach attacked and burned the city to the ground. I later learned that a large number of the citizens escaped unharmed, thank goodness. As for Hitomi and myself, we were saved after I activated Escaflowne by slitting my thumb and mixing my blood with the energist and inserting the energist into Escaflowne. The blood pact is necessary for the royal guymelef. We fought for a while and I saw my good friend and mentor, Balgus, die right in front of my eyes, after that another Pillar appeared and took us to another location on Gaia." Van Fanel continued to tell the rest of the Vision of Escaflowne saga from his own perspective and then to his recent supervision of the rebuilding of Fanelia after the war and his trip out to where he found Flyheight. He had finished summarizing the whole thing about an hour later.
Flyheight paused a moment as he digested all the information he had just acquired. "Sounds like quite the experience," Flyheight said. "I suppose it's my turn now. My adventure started a little about four or five years ago it started as a pretty much normal day for me," Flyheight began, "I was bored so I left the Wind Colony, my home village, for a day in some old ruins, my favorite pastime. On my way there I got attacked by some bandits, with this one jerk in a Guysack, a scorpion-like zoid chasing me and shooting at me all the way to the ruins as I barely dodge the guy's shots by zigzagging the hoverboard left and right. I had the hoverboard running at full thrust so I was able to ride it right up the side of the ruined building, the Guysack firing at me the whole way. It turns out that the shots knocked loose some debris that fell on top of the Guysack trapping it and the pilot inside while I went inside the ruins to get away from him. As I was walking around I noticed a new door, I'd been inside this particular ruins a couple of times before then but the shooting must've knocked some concealing stones loose, that led down to a secret room. When I got into the room I found a power switch and flipped it for fun, boy was I surprised to find that all the power was still working in the room. I noticed that in the center of the room there were two human size capsules. As I started poking around I saw that inside of one of them was a small wild zoid. This was a very rare thing to find as most zoids found these days were military runaways. But this zoid was definitely not a military runaway; it had never been touched before. After some more searching I finally managed to open the capsule and the zoid just tumbled out, however it only took a few seconds for it to finally wake up and activate, it was like he was just born or something. I was so excited, I'd never had my own zoid before so I tried to talk to it and convince it to come with me. Well the little guy wasn't buying it; he promptly spins around and whaps me with his tail. I figured that was ok though, I mean, come on, he was just born and here I am some strange kid asking him to come with me. After I recovered I tried to convince him again, offering to call him Zeke, yes this is the same Zeke I was talking about yesterday, after what my dad had called his own zoid. My dad had died a while back, fighting with his Command Wolf, his zoid, to keep the Wind Colony safe from other ruffians. Shortly after I found Zeke the same Guysack from earlier crashed the far wall down and charged in. Upon seeing Zeke he tried to steal him, I, however, wasn't going to let him anywhere near my new friend and stood between the Guysack and Zeke, not really sure what to do but I had to do something. I was quickly knocked aside and into the far wall, my vision went blurry for a minute or two, but when I was able to see again I saw Zeke ramming the Guysack, having little to no effect. I yelled at Zeke to stop and run but the little zoid just kept on pounding until the Guysack finally managed to sledgehammer him into the wall next to me as well. Desperate I grabbed a flailing power cable in the room and rammed it into the Guysack, electrocuting the whole thing, pilot included. Unfortunately that still wasn't enough and as Zeke got back up he motioned to me to get on his back. Once I did Zeke suddenly opened up hidden rocket boosters on his shoulders and underside, shooting us both out of the ruins over top of the Guysack. Once back out in the desert Zeke dropped me in an old beat up Shield Liger. It was an absolute wreck, covered with dust and having absolutely no power left in it. It must have been out there for years, but still Zeke motioned to me to get ready and pilot the thing, I questioned him and he simply nodded his head then suddenly jetted up again. A moment later Zeke rocketed back down and fused with the Shield Liger, to my complete and utter amazement the systems began lighting back up, the power turning on, the rust turning back to normal metal, the sand disappearing, and the canopy, which had been nonexistent suddenly formed over my head and the entire zoid began to stand up and roared. Upon finding that I could actually pilot the zoid I easily, with Zeke's help of course, trounced first the Guysack, and then the two other zoids that were with it sending them all running away with their tails between their legs. After the fight Zeke and I returned to the ruins to open up the second capsule. When we opened this one up we found that not a zoid stepped out, but a girl, a little human girl. This was my first introduction to Fiona." From here on out Van Flyheight imparted the details of the entire Chaotic Century and Guardian Force series and then up until his meeting with Fanel.
Van Flyheight finished his story telling just as they came into sight of Fanelia's new castle at sunset. "Wow," Flyheight said as he saw the city below him, truly amazed at the sight. After a few minutes of staring the zoid pilot's face saddened, "I wish Fiona was here to see this with me."
Nodding knowingly the king nudged Quicksilver, instructing the horse to continue into the city. Upon his return to the royal stables Fanel was about to be swarmed by his advisor's questions when they noticed the king's passenger.
"Lord Van! Hitomi!" a child-like voice called from outside. The owner of the voice finally forced herself through the mob of the king's advisors and stopped. Merle's smile fell in disappointment when she noticed that her childhood friend and king had not in fact returned with Hitomi, but another stranger. "Lord Van, who's this," the cat-girl asked as Fanel finished removing the bridle and reins from Quicksilver. Fanel chuckled at his friend's blatant curiosity while Flyheight just looked on with a slightly befuddled expression on his face.
"This is the person who came through the Pillar of Light, Merle," Fanel replied, completely ignoring the shocked look the one advisor gave him for not addressing the advisors first, Fanel made a personal note to himself to break in all the new advisors shortly. At seeing this Flyheight smiled, all the pieces falling into place in his mind.
Looking up at his advisors and then back to Merle, Fanel spoke "Merle, why don't you keep our new guest company for a while, it seems I have a few questions to answer, but first see him to the medical center."
"Oooohhhh, alright," the cat-girl replied, a little disappointed, she wanted to spend some quality time with her childhood friend, "so long as you promise me one thing."
"And what would that be," the king turned to Merle, curious.
"The three of us get some food first, I'm hungry, you're more of a toothpick than ever, and I can hear the new guy's stomach from here."
As if on cue Flyheight's gut made an unusually loud complaint and the zoid pilot just looked sheepishly at his new friends. The advisors grumbled and left the three alone, demanding an explanation later. One hour, a feast, and a trip to the medical center later Fanel was off with his advisors and Merle was keeping Flyheight company. "Hey," Merle suddenly spoke up, "I don't think I ever got your name."
"My name's Van Flyheight, and you're Merle, right? King Van told me all about you."
"What do you mean ALL?" Merle huffed. Flyheight just laughed. Merle smiled fiendishly and extended her hand in friendship. Flyheight accepted, but got a rude awakening when she suddenly started squeezing his hand, a smirk growing on her face. "What's the matter? Having trouble with a little hand shake are we," she asked innocently.
Finally understanding the situation Flyheight returned the favor, or rather, attempted to. The little cat-girl was just too much for him and a few minutes later a snickering Merle looked on as the zoid pilot attempted to shake some feeling back into his incapacitated hand. "Sorry, I couldn't help myself," Merle apologized knowing she probably hadn't made too good a first impression.
"It's ok, I've been victim to worse than that," Flyheight replied, grinning.
Laughing, Merle ran off beckoning for her new friend to follow her into the city streets, she just had to show him all her favorite haunts. Merle led Flyheight to each store and house in Fanelia that she knew, which took a while because she knew most of them. Having introduced the zoid pilot to about 98 percent of the kingdom's population, the cat-girl took him out to the city limits and some nice spots along the countryside.
Merle was just about to go and show Flyheight the mountain paths when a horse came barreling down the main road and through the main gates that opened at its appearance, it's rider severely wounded and barely hanging on. Tired as Flyheight was he was concerned for the well being of the man.
Merle and Flyheight took off up the path to the castle following the path the wounded rider took ignoring the stares of the townsfolk as they went. (:I wonder what happened to him, I hope he'll be alright:) the thoughts of all the people mirrored one another's as they made way for the critical condition messenger to get to the castle. Fortunately the man did not have to ride the whole way as word had already reached the castle and interrupted the young king's meeting causing Fanel to race directly down from his meeting room to the disturbance. Flyheight and Merle caught up to Fanel about the time that three royal guards had managed to get the man dismounted and on to a stretcher that the medics had brought right behind the king. The doctors were about to rush the messenger to the infirmary, but the man cried out that he had to speak to King Fanel, the medics tried to reason with him, but he resisted. They finally relented after making him promise to calm down for fear of worsening his own condition.
After the messenger calmed himself Fanel approached and the man turned his head and inclined it slightly in a show of what respect he could muster in his weakened state. "My Lord, Basraam is gone."
The eyes of everyone in hearing distance of these words shot open in disbelief. Fanel quickly regained his composure "Who did this?"
"I- It was a dragon, my Lord; a giant black dragon. A-al-almost like a mockery of your own my Lord, and yet it was not."
"What!" Fanel cried out in shock. (:He's not talking about any real dragon, he's referring to Escaflowne! A black Ispano guymelef attacked and destroyed Basraam? Who could have been piloting it and where would they have gotten it:) Voicing his concern Fanel spoke, "do you happen to know who was piloting the guymelef, or the allegiance of the attacker?"
After several moments of silence the medics moved in to check the man and they quickly moved him off to the medical center while one stayed behind to inform the king that the messenger should be ok if they treated him immediately. Fanel nodded and dismissed the medic retaining a pensive look on his face (:This is not good. That man was part of the escort for the local trading convoy that my advisors authorized to start out just three days ago.:) "Colonel Reshim!" the king snapped, "Get a search party together to find any other possible survivors of the convoy!"
"Yessir!"
"General Narsima, I want all troops on high alert status!"
"Yessir!"
"I will not be caught off guard this time," the king muttered to himself. "Captain Cid…" a soldier in his early thirties gulped noticeably. "Go inform my advisors I'm going out to check on this myself, and tell them I'm restarting Escaflowne."
"Yessir."
(:I feel sorry for him but if I told them myself they'd slow me down with so many questions that I'd never get off the ground. Besides the Captain's fast on his feet, he should be able to outrun those hotheaded bureaucrats, I hope.:)
Fanel went to follow his departing men up the slope to the castle to get his energist and go to stables to ride Quicksilver out to the royal family burial grounds where he had left Escaflowne. As he turned some dust that had been kicked up by Captain Cid's departure got into his eyes and when he tried to blink it out in his mind's eye he saw Hitomi's pendant swing. Van Fanel spun in the direction the pendulum pointed and came face to face with Flyheight. (:What! Am I supposed to take him with me? I suppose he must have been brought here for a reason.:) "Come on Flyheight."
As Fanel and Flyheight started up the slope Merle came bounding after them, leaving the crowd of curious onlookers behind. "No Merle."
"Lord Van," Merle whined.
"I won't put you or anyone else in anymore danger than is necessary, and it is not necessary for you to come," Fanel instructed.
"Yes Lord Van," Merle acceded. "Lord Van," Merle spoke up once more.
"Yes Merle," Fanel asked, the sternness in his voice gone.
"Be careful."
"I will."
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Back on Zi:
Van turned his head and yelled "GET HER OUT OF HERE ZEKE, NOOOWW!" In the next instant Fiona felt herself pulled backwards into the metal casing of Zeke's organoid body and felt the extra G's of Zeke boosting out of the Blade Liger at full throttle.
That is, her body felt all of those things, but her mind was still overwhelmed with terror, not for fear of her own life, but fear of losing the life of the man she loved. (:Vvvvaaaaaaaaaaaaaannnnnnnnnnnn! Nnnnooooooooooo:) As soon as Zeke landed on the surface above the crack he let Fiona out, who stumbled to the ground and screamed at the top of her lungs "Vvvvvvvvvvvaaaaaaaaaaaaaaannnnnnnnnnnn!" His own zoid mind riddled with fear for his best friend Zeke immediately powered up his rockets again to go after him. At the top of his arc and ready to come hurtling down Zeke suddenly swerved and plowed headlong into the ground as a giant explosion rocked the surrounding area.
However it wasn't the explosion that had stopped Zeke, no it was the column of light that appeared right before, so brilliant it was almost tangible. Fiona watched in awe and horror as she saw the light and watched helplessly as Zeke crashed hard into the ground. Then the world shook as the Blade Liger exploded on contact with the canyon floor. The ground beneath Fiona wrenched up and threw her backwards, landing her beside Zeke, unconscious.
Reese suddenly started; her back stiff as a board and her muscles taut.
"Reese? Reese what's wrong," Raven asked, concern for the blue haired Ancient Zoidian written all over his face.
"Van," she replied, whispering, "something's wrong with Van, and Fiona too."
"Huh," Raven asked, thoroughly confused, "But Flyheight and I just trashed the Deathsaurer, what could possibly be wrong with him?"
"I don't know but we have to find them Raven."
"Already on it sweetie," the words came out of Raven's mouth in a wry tone before he realized what he was saying. Both he and Reese blushed as Raven quickly diverted all power to the Genobreaker's thrusters letting Reese's hands guide the controls as she could connect on some deeper level with Fiona and therefore find her fastest, and, they assumed, Flyheight right along with her. The Genobreaker, with Shadow fused and Specula following behind, reached Fiona's location about five hours later, she was still asleep, but Zeke stood guard and watched them come in.
"Raven wait," Reese said and grabbed Raven's hand as he was about set down the Genobreaker.
"Huh?"
"Raven look over there, that gap, it's out of place, something tells me the ground is unstable around here, it might be aquifers."
"Right, I'll go take a look," Raven replied, going to take the Genobreaker over and down into the large hole, Reese stopped him again and he looked at her questioningly.
"We should grab Fiona and Zeke first, the ground beneath them could collapse at any second."
"You're right, but they would never fit in here, it's already a little tight in here, no offense," Raven added as Reese started to get mad, taking his comment the wrong way, but to no avail. "I mean this cockpit was made for one person, the fact that you can fit in here with me is a testament to how lithe you are," Raven yammered hoping not to upset Reese any further. Reese relented and turned away with a little grin on her face struggling to keep from laughing.
"I suppose if you flew slowly we could let them ride on top," Reese thought out loud.
"But, uh… oh… ah whatever, how are we going to get them up top when we can't set down?"
"Are you always this dense Raven, Zeke is a very capable organoid he can fly them both up there and make sure they stay." Raven hovered the Genobreaker over near Zeke and Fiona's position, the roar of the thrusters waking Fiona up.
Reese opened the hatch, stood up, leaned out, and yelled to the two on the ground, "Zeke, grab Fiona and rocket up to ride on top of the Genobreaker, we're not sure how much longer the ground will hold up!" Zeke and Fiona nodded assent and Zeke opened up, allowing Fiona to step in and then he turned on his boosters and flew up on top of the Genobreaker.
Reese closed the cockpit hatch and sat back down on Raven's lap, unbeknownst to her Raven was blushing from the view he had for the last few seconds. "They're on," Reese said.
"Right," was the only reply she got as Raven pulled the Genobreaker's controls so that the zoid turned around towards the large hole in the ground. Raven gently let the Genobreaker down the hole to the bottom several hundred meters below where the wreck of the Blade Liger lay. "Oh man, that's worse off than when I hit the Shield Liger with the Genosaurer's charged particle gun." Raven set the Genobreaker down, figuring that if the Blade Liger hit it from falling and the ground hadn't collapsed it would support the weight of the Genobreaker easily. Raven opened the hatch and he and Reese jumped out to look at the damage to see Fiona and Zeke had already jumped off, separated, and were now looking at the wrecked Blade Liger with looks of those who had just lost everything.
"Van!" Raven called out in vain hopes that he might get some sort of response, although they had been enemies for the entire Deathsaurer conflict the annoying guy had started to grow on him, though he would never admit that to anyone. Shadow defused and Specula landed and the six of them began to walk up to the charred remains of the Blade Liger. The entire zoid was charred black, even the normally brilliant yellow blades were darkened, well what was left of the blades anyway. Both had snapped off, the left one was missing and the right one had struck a large rocky jut in such a way that it had flipped up and then come back down piercing through the lower jaw of the Blade Liger and exiting into the cockpit. The zoid core had detonated on impact, ripping open the body of the Blade Liger, Raven imagined it made a huge explosion seeing as the left rear leg was imbedded a good meter into the solid rock wall.
That last fact was what had Raven worried and confused most of all, for the Blade Liger to have fallen through the ground and come this far down he had expected to see a whole stratified set of catacombs down here, but it was just one very, very long hole. Beside the fact that the nature of the hole was odd in and of itself, the chances that Flyheight, whom Raven had deemed the luckiest man on Zi among other things, would have hit this one patch of ground out of the entire wasteland were astronomical.
While Raven had been standing there contemplating the oddities of the situation Reese had gotten back into the Genobreaker and lifted the head of the Blade Liger about two meters off the ground straight up using the breaker claws so that they could get at the cockpit. Fiona immediately scrambled underneath the Blade Liger's head and looked up, tears brimming in her eyes, somewhat hoping she would find Van, and somewhat hoping she wouldn't find him meaning that he had somehow miraculously escaped or had been vaporized instantly so that he didn't suffer. There wasn't much left of the cockpit, the canopy had shattered on impact and the insides were all charred and half melted, but there was no way of telling what of it was Van's. Fiona collapsed on the ground and began sobbing. (:I can't feel him anymore. He's gone. Gone.:)
Zeke walked up beside her, not breaking down in his own sorrow only in an attempt to support the young woman he had known for his whole life. Something caught his eye, hooked around the only remaining control rod was the knife that Van always carried around with him. Zeke stepped up to inspect it, the leather case, handle wrap, and tether had been incinerated and the metal was singed, but overall it was in fairly good condition. He grabbed the knife handle and lifted it off the control rod gingerly, then turned to Fiona. Her eyes full of tears she turned her face to Zeke when he approached. "Huh Zeke? What's that?"
She still couldn't see clearly, her tears blurring her vision. She wiped her arm across her eyes with her arm and looked again. Fiona's eyes lit up when she recognized Van's knife; she reached for it and Zeke laid the precious object in her hands. As she cradled the knife to her chest she recalled in her mind the first time she had seen it. (:It was right after the cargo transport Dr. D and I were in was ambushed. Van found us and took us to the Wind Colony. I remember seeing this knife hanging on the wall. He said it was his dad's.:)
Reese, meanwhile, had hopped out of the Genobreaker, letting it sit as a support to the Liger head, and walked over to Specula. "I don't understand," Reese said to Specula, "why after all the pain, and hardship, and other obstacles he's overcome, why was he fated to die like this. And more importantly," Reese turned to look at Raven who was climbing into the Genobreaker himself now, " why does it have Raven so upset. Shouldn't he be happy Flyheight's dead, they were rivals."
Specula chided her and growled an answer.
"Oh, of course you're right Specula. It's because Raven wasn't the one who killed him."
Specula growled again, "quit thinking about these things master, it's not your strong point and that makes you upset. Sure you're brilliant in tactics and mind manipulations, but when it comes to the human heart you have no idea what you are getting into."
Reese looked slightly shocked and annoyed at her organoid companion. "Perhaps," Reese allowed and calmed herself.
Raven leaped into the cockpit control chair for the Genobreaker. (:The breaker claws are slipping, Reese forgot to set the hydraulic locks. Much as I'd love to erase all memory of Flyheight's existence from the face of Zi this wouldn't be right. Thoughts along those lines belong to another person, someone who died when Shadow was turned to stone.:)
Zeke noticed the Liger head start to drop and quickly grabbed Fiona and dashed out from underneath it. Raven attempted to work the controls, but they wouldn't respond.
"Shadow! Get your metal rear over here, the controls aren't responding," Raven shouted as the breaker claws released completely and the liger head dropped back to the ground. Shadow jetted up and back down to fuse with the Genobreaker.
Light flared from the fusion process, but it didn't recede when it was finished. A Pillar of Light had shot down from the heavens and enveloped the Genobreaker. Suddenly it grew, it grew to the size of the entire hole, pulsing around everything inside. And when the light abated the only thing left was the hole. No Genobreaker, no Raven, no Shadow, no Reese, no Specula, no Fiona, no Zeke, no Blade Liger parts, nothing.