"It Takes Two" would be one episode. However, I work in
Corel, and each Chapter/Episode turns out to be roughly 5 pages.
Together, A Change of Heart was about 10!
So I split it up.
Disclaimer: Haven't
you figured it out already??? I don't own Escaflowne!!!!
Episode 2: A Change of Heart
"You failed me, Linaddua."
said Wiseman grimly. "I am not pleased." The young
woman was on her knees, bowing, asking
for forgiveness.
"Please, my Lord, let
me explain!" Wiseman debated the notion in his mind for a
moment.
"Very well. Proceed."
Relief washed over Linaddua's face and she stood.
"I didn't say you could
stand!" barked the old man. Immediately, the girl dropped
to her knees again. "You may stand." Wiseman
said firmly. So Linaddua, not
inquiring the aging man's fuzzy logic,
rose to her feet.
"There was a girl with
mysterious power," she began. "She managed to defeat my
minion, and all the heart crystals were
restored! She called herself 'Sailor Mystic
Moon'."
"A girl with mysterious
power, you say?" mused Wiseman. "From the Mystic
Moon?" Linaddua nodded slightly. The Wiseman
continued. "My brother once
spoke of a girl with mysterious powers
from the Mystic Moon. Somehow, she
arrived on Gaia. He mentioned something
about a 'Stone of Tears' that the girl
wore around her neck. Did you notice anything
about this female warrior,
Linaddua?"
"No, your Majesty.
But I did notice a lovely brooch that she wore." Wiseman rolled
his eyes at the fashion statement.
"Legend has it that
thousands of years ago, female warriors called the Sailor
Senshi fought the forces of the NegaWorld
to protect Gaia, and other planets in
the universe. They must have been reborn
into today's society! This discovery
could prove to be quite useful to me.
But I've not forgotten about your failure,
Linaddua," he said dryly. "And to make
matters worse, I have just learned from
the Council of Evil Empires that gaining
heart crystals is pointless. It's human
energy that we need. You must gather it
so that I may rule the universe!"
"My Lord, I have the
perfect plan," Linaddua stated, trying to make ammends.
"I would like to hear
this one before I allow you to continue, as the last one
proved to be a disaster."
"Well, my Lord, humans
down on the Mystic Moon spend a lot of energy on what
they call 'friendship'."
"'Friendship'?"
"Yes, 'friendship'.
It's some sort of strong alliance that humans share with each
other, but it's a very powerful bond.
I will turn these 'friends' against each other,
causing more energy for arise, and more
for us to take and use in your universal
domination!"
Wiseman liked the sound
of this, so he pressed a button and out from behind
him, another tarot card came out and landed
in Linaddua's hands.
"Take this," he said.
"It's more powerful than the last one. Use it to defeat that
Sailor girl, the only one who stands in
our way."
"Of course, My Lord."
Linaddua bowed and faded into the darkness.
"Well, Ms. Kanzaki, it's nice to see you've joined us in the world of reality."
Mr. Takanashi smiled sarcastically as
he laid the marked test face-down on
Hitomi's desk. "Good job." Slowly, Hitomi's
hands reached out, gently turning the
paper to reveal the results of her math
quiz. The inhaled sharply, pride engulfing
her. In big red lettering at the top,
it read: 93% Well done.
This mark was most unusual for Hitomi. In the past year, she had been
letting her grades slip lower and lower.
She had actually reached the point where
the school had begun to phone her mother
in concern. The reasoning behind
these low marks was clear to her and her
alone: She missed Gaia. She missed
him mostly, and letting her mind wander
off into the depths of space had proved
to be quite hazardous to her grades. But
after that confrontation with Glimue, the
learning that her destiny had a far greater
importance than she ever would have
imagined, and the reunion with Naria had
really boosted her spirits. It had been 6
days since she had defended the universe,
and she had already begun to show
signs that she was returning to the usual
Hitomi Kanzaki that everyone had
known before her mysterious disappearance.
Her report card showed significant
signs of change, and she even once considered
rejoining the track team.
But that idea had soon been forgotten, thrown away. Despite the
improvements she had begun to make, she
doubted ever returning to the
running. Because it made her think of
him.
She had not forgotten him. Thoughts of Van came to her every night, and
sometimes she would cry as she wondered
why their connection had been
broken. Was it because it hurt him too
much, the fact that she had left? She didn't
believe that. There had to be something
else, something more...
*tap tap tap* "Hitomi?" *tap tap tap* "Hitomeeeee!" Surrounded by her
thoughts, Hitomi hadn't realized that
Yukari had been trying to get her attention
for the past 3 minutes.
The bell had rung, indicating that school was over.
The Council entered into an argument amongst themselves as the young
king watched in slight amusement. He didn't
even know what they were battling
about, but it didn't matter to him. His
thoughts turned to the globe in the sky,
wondering why he had been forced to stay
away from Hitomi.
"Wouldn't you agree,
M'Lord?" asked Yamali, one of the council members. His
words broke the silent world that Van
had drifted off into.
"I... uh...." Van looked
at the 12 expectant faces of the men at the table. He
prayed for some saviour to help him get
out of this one.
There was a light rap at the door,
and Van quickly stood to answer it. A
messenger was there with... you guessed
it... a message! He whispered a few
words into Van's ears, nodded to the other
men in the room, and left. A faint smile
crossed Van's face, and he apologized
to the Council.
"My good men," he began,
with a tone of authority. "Urgent news has come up
that I must tend to. I'll consider your
offer."
And with that,
he left the room.
Van sat on his
throne, waiting impatiently for his guest to arrive. At last,
the heavy doors creaked open and a tall
blond man stepped up to the throne,
kneeling when he arrived.
"Your Majesty," said
the man, almost mockingly. A wide grin spread across the
young king's face. He rose.
"Allen Schezar," Van
said in an authorative manner. "You may rise." Allen
smirked, and stood. He noticed that the
young king had not changed much since
he last saw him. His hair was still messy,
and he still sported that loose red shirt
and those beige pants.
"It's good to see you
again, Van."
"As it is to see you.
It's been over a year, has it not? Come, join me on a tour of
the castle," offered Van.
"Yes, I can see that
you and your citizens have been hard at work on this place,"
"Indeed."
The pair walked
down the large corridors. Every now and then, Van would
point out a special room, but otherwise,
there was silence.
They reached
the large balcony, and Allen was able to look out onto
Fanelia. Many changes had been made in
order to reconstruct Fanelia, but it was
still not finished. Although, he could
not really compare. He had never seen the
Fanelia that Dilandau had burned up.
Dilandau...
As if reading
his thoughts, Van spoke.
"How is your sister?"
A flicker of knowing passed through Allen's eyes. Van was
among the very few who knew the truth.
"She's doing wonderfully,
she's staying with Princess Eries until I return." Van
paused for a moment, as if letting that
tidbit of information sink in. He turned to
look out on his kingdom.
"Why are you here,
Allen?" Van asked, never letting his gaze slip from the
horizon. Allen's forehead wrinkled.
"Am I not allowed to
visit a neighbouring country to see its progress?"
"There's more than
that, isn't there." Allen didn't answer the question, but rather,
turned his attention to a small patch
of flowers growing near the porch. They were
violet-blue with tiny yellow buds in the
middle.
"I didn't know you
liked Pelorias, Van."
"I heard once that
Pelorias represented the depths of one's heart. I decided to
plant them here, so that whenever I saw
them I would be reminded of..."
"Hitomi." Allen finished,
looking up. Van didn't answer, but Allen saw him stiffen
slightly.
"Why are you here?"
Van repeated.
"The truth is, I'm
worried about you, Van. We both know that it's been over a year
since..." he let his voice trail off.
Van turned to face his friend, instinctively
clutching the pendant that had been hidden
beneath his shirt.
Allen's eyes
widened a little. He hadn't seen Van since their vicious battle
that was interrupted by Celena's return,
and Hitomi's words that told Van what he
had longed to hear. After that, he had
seen the blue light which carried Hitomi
home, but he had no idea what she had
given Van as a parting gift.
"Hitomi's pendant,"
Allen breathed, recognizing immediately the tiny pink globe.
Van nodded a little, and Allen could see
that his eyes were filled with loss and
pain. "Why don't you visit her, Van?"
Allen suggested gently.
"I... I can't." Van
stammered. Allen looked at Van quizzically.
"You have her pendant
in your possession. With it, you have the power to go to
the Mystic Moon."
"That's not it."
"Then what is it?!"
For some reason, Allen found himself growing angry. "Damn it
Van, don't you love her anymore?!"
"If I go to her, she'll
die!!!" Van raised his voice to meet Allen's. The Knight's face
softened a little. Van decided to explain
his dream, he was so sick of keeping it to
himself.
Fifteen minutes
later, Allen stood calmly, trying to take in the dream all at
once. He wondered who this cloaked figure
was and why he was trying to
separate Van and Hitomi.
"It just doesn't make
any sense," he growled softly. Van sighed.
"No," he agreed. "And
I can't even warn her."
"The only way we can
overcome this obstacle is to destroy this monster who
invades your dream, Van."
"Yes, I realized that
already... but how?"
Hitomi entered
her room, tossing her bag onto the floor before collapsing
on her bed with a bright smile on her
face.
"Your spirits have
certainly lifted, Hitomi," commented Naria, who strode over to
welcome her owner home.
"They have, haven't
they?" agreed Hitomi. "I got 93% on a math test today."
"Math?" asked Naria,
as if trying out the sound of it. A sweatdrop appeared on
Hitomi's forehead. She forgot that Naria
didn't know much–or anything, for that
matter– on math.
"It's a subject that
we're taught in school," explained Hitomi hastily. She pulled
the transformation brooch from her pocket
and examined it.
"Hey Naria?"
she began.
"Yes?"
"When you first told
me about who I was, what my destiny was, you mentioned
other Sailor Senshi... who are they?"
Naria paused for a moment to recall. After a
few moments, she answered.
"There's Sailor Mystic
Moon, Sailor Jupiter, Sailor Venus, Sailor Mars, and Sailor
Mercury."
"Oh.... and who are
they in real life?" Naria looked down.
"I really don't know,"
she admitted. "But I'm certain they will appear soon."
It was lunchtime
in Tokyo, and the sun shone brilliantly over many of its
inhabitants.
"Disgusting," Linaddua
muttered, commenting on the warm rays. She walked in
the park where she had had her first encounter
with one of the legendary senshi.
A weak smile crossed her lips. "No matter,"
she chuckled softly. "Once we have
enough human energy, this world will be
swallowed by darkness."
She glanced around
and saw many people, laughing and running and
playing with companions.
I won't fail you this time, Lord Wiseman.
She threw the tarot card to the ground.
"Steach! Come forth!"
the tarot card made a hissing noise as the monster teach
immerged.
"Steach here!" It shrieked,
and bowed.
"Steach, go and steal
these humans' friendship energy!" commanded Linaddua.
"Yess, my queen." the
creature bounded away.
It won't be long now, Linaddua
thought to herself. I won't let that Sailor girl ruin
my plans again.
"Hitomi?" Yukari poked her best friend.
"Mm-hmm?" asked Hitomi, her mouth full of food.
"Have you noticed anything strange going on around here?" Hitomi nearly choked
on her lunch. Was there another evil tarot card monster on the loose? Probably
not, decided Hitomi.
"What do you mean, Yukari?" she asked innocently. Yukari pointed to two girls
over in the schoolyard. They were swearing violently at eachother.
"So?"
"'So'?? 'SO'?!? Hitomi, do you know who they are?"
"....."
"That's Yoko Sasaki and Masashi Yuki."
"What???" Hitomi couldn't believe her ears–or her eyes, for that matter–Yoko and
Masashi had been best friends since they were young children. And now, they
were fighting.
Hitomi looked back at them. Suddenly, Masashi delivered a hearty slap
and Yoko eagerly responded by kicking the latter in the shin. A battle began.
Yukari rushed over to the fight, Hitomi at her heels.
"Stop fighting, you two!" ordered the brunette, and grabbed Yoko by the
shoulders. Hitomi pulled Masashi from her once-best friend.
"What's gotten into you?" she demanded angrily, facing Masashi. Then she
gasped. Masashi's eyes were completely lifeless, as were Yoko's.
Something strange is definitely going on around here. Hitomi decided.
Hitomi and Yukari walked home from school that day, still puzzled over
what had happened. Hitomi thought that the NegaWorld must have been behind
this mayhem, but she didn't say so aloud. Yukari had no idea about her secret
identity. Actually, ever since Hitomi's disappearance a year ago, she seemed to
confide less and less in her best friend. She hated it, but she felt as though they
were slowly drifting apart.
"Penny for your thoughts," said Yukari.
"Huh? Oh, sorry Yukari. Just thinking about what happened today." Yukari looked
grim. She decided to change the subject, she really didn't like the topic of best
friends being torn apart.
"I found the most interesting thing on the track and field yard today," began
Yukari, looking excited. She paused and reached into her sportsbag.
"This!" she exclaimed, finding the object. Hitomi froze.
The object was long and white, so pure that it seemed to sparkle with the
fading sun's rays. It was a feather, no doubt. A very large feather, too big to be
from an ordinary bird.
Instinctively, Hitomi reached out to touch it. A sudden vision came to her,
of a man in a cloak laughing maniacally as he watched Van suffer. Suffer from
what? She couldn't tell. All she could see was the cloaked figure, and Van's face
completely distorted with overwhelming pain.
"VAN!" she cried loudly, tears welling in her eyes.
"Hit-omi?" Yukari looked at her, bewildered. Hitomi fell to her knees, sobbing
"Van!". Her best friend knelt down beside her, putting a comforting arm around
her.
For a good 5 minutes, neither of them spoke, just sat there: Hitomi crying
and Yukari trying to soothe her. At last, Hitomi spoke.
"Yukari," she whispered between choked sobs, "I'm ready to tell you."
"Tell me what?" Yukari asked gently.
"Tell you what really happened when I disappeared last year."