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


She watched through the living room window as Takato stood outside, staring at the dark woods that surrounded his grandfather's home. With his body approaching the age that Hitomi had met his father at, the boy resembled the young king now more than ever. His stance was just as stoic, his broad shoulders just as strained with duty and knowledge. His breathing just as tense.

He'd been quiet through the whole discussion, listening to every word intently as Hitomi explained exactly what he hadn't known about himself. And, as she'd anticipated, his true origins left him filled with all sorts of new identity dilemmas.

"I'm not human?" he'd asked her, his draconian red eyes wide in shock. They seemed to well with tears as she shook her head.

"The way your uncle had explained it to me," she'd told him, her voice quivering with agony as she conveyed the truth, "No. One drop of draconian blood taints the whole body. Though your parentage dictates you are a hybrid, if your body shows the signs of being a draconian, you are all draconian."

"What does it mean? Being a draconian?"

He didn't like that answer, though he admitted that it explained a lot of things about himself. His fascination with dragons, for instance, and his fearlessness when it came to flying. His uncle had taken him out in a small hobby plane of his just this past week, and the boy was about ready to jump out the window, he'd loved the freedom so much.

As a tear fell down her cheek, she watched her son shift on his feet, sighing with uncertainty as he deliberated all that he'd learned. She even saw his eyes find the new moon in the sky, searching for his supposed home-world. The world he'd been conceived upon. The world he'd never known. And hopefully never will, Hitomi thought to herself.

What if I want to know this world? Takato thought back, intruding upon her thoughts like he'd owned them, What if I want to know this man who is my father? This draconian king?

Sensing his brooding, Hitomi stepped outside from the living room and walked the classical style Tatami house with little to no confidence in her steps.

"You don't want to know his world." She told him matter-of-factly, "All it knows is the sting of death and the karma of war. Your father may have once been a gentle soul, but it corrupted him too. And I don't want to see you suffer that same fate."

Takato suddenly hissed at her, "Then why did you love him? Huh? Why was I born if he was such a monster?" His fit left him launching questions out faster than she could answer them, "And why did you leave? Because he was so damn corrupted? What makes me so fucking pure?!" Overwhelmed with his questions, Hitomi couldn't help her reflex. She barked at her son, silencing him.

"I don't care how tender the topic is!" Her voice cut through his like a heated knife through butter, "I am your mother and you will respect me!"

That left the two of them silent as they both caught their breaths from the shouting.

After a time, Hitomi was ready to answer his questions. "I didn't leave him because he was so corrupted. I was forced to go." Takato shrank back, sitting himself down on the stoop that served as a porch for the old house. His ruby eyes practically glowed with anger and interest, "Shortly after I found out you were on the way, the countries of Gaea made a treaty called the Sorte Pact. They named it after-"

"-After the Sorte Wars, I got that." Takato interrupted, his irritance glowing brightly in his eyes.

Taken aback for the moment, Hitomi shrank back into her seat, turning her gaze on her father-in-law's vibrant garden before her. This news clearly had been too much for him, as Takato was acting abnormally. He usually was well adjusted and kind-hearted. Not the type to shout or swear.

But the information was out and he needed the whole story. "The treaty dictated new borders, as some countries had lost out on a lot of land since the formation of Zaibach, Fanelia being one of them. It also stipulated one condition: Fanelia would receive all the aid it required, provided the seeress of the Mystic Moon be returned to her home."

She paused, allowing Takato to process that, watching as his eyes dilated throughout the story to show him vision after vision of the past. It surprised her how far along his abilities had gotten since he'd unlocked them at age eleven. One vision of him floating above the city and here we are now, she recalled, Though I shouldn't be too surprised. She chuckled to herself, Van mastered dowsing within two weeks of learning the technique, it stands to reason that his son would be as adept at it as he is. Then there's my raw power…

"You see what I mean?" she questioned, reaching out to touch her son and join in his vision.

They were standing inside the domed hall of the allied powers, standing behind the king of Fanelia as he discussed war reparations with the remaining three generals of Zaibach. Basram had been the one to require Hitomi's immediate departure.

"So long as she's in Fanelia," the old, graying man with a trimmed goatee framing his scowl decreed, "You have power significant enough to start a war with us and win."

Van sat back in his seat, his brow furrowed in contemplation. Hitomi meandered around the table in the vision, angling herself just right to see both her son and former lover at the same time. And she stood there flabbergasted.

From every angle, and in every way, all Takato's features, save for his smile, screamed Van.

"With all due respect," Van sighed, his irritancy very plain in his ruby eyes, "I've had my fill of war for quite a while."

"He's only my age." Takato noted from his placement in the vision. His mother nodded.

"He was a bit older by this point. The war had lasted only about five months, but our struggles had us locked in battles throughout the year prior." She admitted, her eyes falling fondly on the young man before he faded away, the whole scene melting into a new setting.

In the place of grand columns, a small garden with shrubs and overgrown trees shown appeared. The young couple walking arm in arm stood alone in the moons' light, smiles wide on their enamored faces. But the man with the shaggy black hair had red eyes filled with pain. And these eyes did not go unnoticed by his short, dishwater blond haired companion. Her jade colored eyes watched his very keenly.

"What's wrong Van?" Hitomi heard her younger self call to him.

"N-nothing." She could sense the lie, but let it go as she glanced away. Van, however, sensed her own hesitancy, "I should ask what's the matter with you. You've practically been avoiding me this whole night." Hitomi watched her own self sigh, recalling her fears from so long ago.

"Was there something wrong?" The young form of Takato asked from beside her astral form. She nodded, knowing full well what night this was. This night practically destroyed her years ago.

"I was going to tell him." She admitted, hoping her son would sense her meaning. He turned to her, perplexity in his red eyes, "I was going to tell him we were expecting, but I chickened out and asked him to share his news first."

"How did the meeting go?" Young Hitomi inquired as she sat down on a small stone bench that sat along the wall of red roses behind her, "You've been tense ever sense you got out of there."

They all watched as Van sighed, his broad shoulders slumping with the weight of what he was going to say next, "They've offered me full reparations."

Young Hitomi sprang up and embraced the young man, not caring that her skirt was wrinkling a bit in the back. He held her closely, clearly savoring the moment the way his eyes were closed and his body was swaying her. Young Hitomi stood back, her jade eyes glowing in excitement. But that light soon faded as she saw that he'd only shared half of the news.

"What else did they say?"

Again he sighed, his eyes turning towards the burbling stream beside them. He couldn't even look her in the eye as he shared this, "Their terms for full reparations are that I send you back home. You can… you can never come back to Gaea."

Young Hitomi spun around, her eyes now a forest green as they darkened with tears. But even as they dared to fall, her pupils retracted and her eyes began to glow just a little, bringing them to that jade color once more.

A vision.

"What did you see?" Takato asked, noticing this change. He spoke flatly, but it was clear that the scene before him was touching his heart. The boy had always been a bit sensitive. Hitomi cherished this about him, despite the fact that many of his male peers teased him for it.

She turned her jade eyes on her son, a wide, proud smile etched into her thirty-one-year-old face. "I saw all the amazing things that made the man I see before me now."

His mahogany eyes widened as a realization dawned on him, "You knew! You knew about the D-Reaper!"

"I think you should adhere to their terms." Young Hitomi decided, clearly crushing the man behind her, "You are a king, and your people cannot afford that we be selfish." She stood up and faced away, trying to hide her tears.

There was a long pause before Young Van replied, "You're sure about this?" His voice was not flat, pained, or betrayed even. It was level and calculating, with a hint of gentleness. But that was the tone he kept with me until the very end, Hitomi recalled fondly.

Young Hitomi spun around, her face tranquil and her smile as earnest as she could fake it. "Of course."

Takato blinked slightly, as did his mother beside him. Visions always left their eyes dry.

His thoughts were racing with the information his mother had provided for him. His whole life, he'd suspected that Matsuda Takehiro was not his biological father, but he'd never supposed that the truth would be so bizarre. But we're talking about my mother here, he reminded himself, So if he wasn't an alien angel, he'd likely be a fairy or merman or something ridiculous like that.

He heard his mother sigh, so he turned his attention back to her. "What are you going to do now, then?"

She waited a moment before turning and smiling his way with her gentle smile that had melted the hearts of many an extra-terrestrial, "I have to answer his call. If he's reaching out to you, I need to lay down the law, no matter how much it hurts him." She paused once more as she watched yet another pearly feather fall from the sky between them, "I won't have your pure heart corrupted by his world."


Author's note: I hope you all enjoyed my rendition of why Hitomi went back home. It seemed appropriate to assume that there was more to it than she just wanted to go back. Yeah, she had her family and friends to worry about, and Gaea wasn't her home, but her departure just didn't seem to fit the end of the story in either versions to me (especially the movie). I mean, what was the point of the story if they didn't get their happily ever after, right? Why not make it that her whole purpose on Gaea was to make the individual that would later save her world?

Please read and review!