Chapter 12

Old Friends, Old Enemies and New Feelings

As the airship approached the wasteland the flying fortress was almost immediately visible as they left the forest, it was only a small dot in the distance but it was there. Merle appeared behind Van.

"I don't think we'll be able to defeat what ever is in there, it's too big"

"Well we have to try" replied Van "We can't just leave Mill…" Merle cut him off.

"I don't mean we should leave them, I mean we could use some bigger guns" she said looking hard at him. Van didn't understand at first but he soon realized.

"Escaflowne" he whispered "I should go now…tell everyone where I have gone, I will return shortly. Hitomi…look after yourself." he said to her. She nodded and stood by Merle as Van climbed into Aetherius and leapt from the airship. He hit the ground stood up and began to run toward Fanelia.

The airship drew closer and closer to the fortress and when they got the valley they stared at the destruction beneath them.

"What would have the power to do this" whispered Merle to Hitomi. There were bodies everywhere and Guymeluf's were in pieces all over the floor. They encountered little resistance in the valley but as they approached the fortress it appeared something was stirring. The windows glowed green and almost as if on cue the airship was hit by several bolts of cannon fire that appeared to come from the fortress itself.

Merles sharp eyes soon realized that the fire had actually come from Guymeluf's.

"They're able to use invisibility cloaks in the air" she said frantically as she ran towards the deck followed by Hitomi.

"We need to leave before the ship is blown to pieces" she cried skidding though the door onto the deck. We can't possibly fight something we can't see…"

Dilandau killed any person that approached him as he dragged Kat though corridor after corridor. His grip on her arm seemed to get tighter as they neared their destination. Dilandau finally burst though some doors and they came face to face with a young, dark haired man with almost black eyes giving orders to a soldier that knelt before him.

His face turned from annoyance to shock as he gazed at Dilandau. Dilandau's grip on Kats arm weakened and she yanked it away, examining the red mark from where he had pulled her along.

"Kamlyn!" growled Dilandau. "I should have known" Kat watched the two men with some unease, the solider that had been kneeling before Kamlyn was now standing and had his sword drawn. She moved behind Dilandau and peered our from behind him.

"I thought you were dead" said Kamlyn

"It's going around" replied Dilandau with a smirk on his face.

"How did you get in here?"

"It wasn't that hard you should really think about hiring some decent swordsmen"

"Do I have any men left at all?"

"Only the ones that didn't get in my way"

"Who's the girl?" asked Kamlyn looking at Kat. Dilandau grabbed Kat again and roughly pushed her in front of him. Kat responded with a swift hard kick to Dilandau's shin which made him wince.

"She came from the mystic moon" snarled Dilandau glaring at Kat who looked defiantly back at him and folded her arms in protest.

"Really…well that's interesting" said Kamlyn who got up and walked over to Kat and studied her. Kat turned round and faced Kamlyn.

"So who are you?" she asked studying the man before her. He was well dressed, and sported black and emerald green armor that put Dilandau's red, battle worn, bloodstained attire to shame.

"I am Kamlyn, Captain of this flying fortress and leader of Debiru Rejoinii." He bowed and took Kats hand and kissed it.

"Erm…hi I'm Kat" she replied, slightly embarrassed. "Though it is nice find that gentlemen do exist on this planet" she continued with a disapproving sideways look at Dilandau that he returned with a scowl.

"Come now you must be tired from your journey" Kamlyn began "Let me escort you to a room where you can rest and eat."

"Thank you" Kat replied as she allowed herself to the escorted to a room by Kamlyn.

"I will have food brought up to you, any preferences" Kat shook her head as she knelt down on the bed, suddenly realizing how tired she was.

Kamlyn shut the door gently then turned a key in the lock. He turned and looked at Dilandau's face.

"Do you really think that she would have co-operated had I dragged her to a cell at sword point." He growled.

"And there was me thinking that you had gone soft" Dilandau replied

"It's the one thing I haven't done" he said as he started up the corridor. "Would you like to see what I have procured while you were dead?" he asked Dilandau with an air of superiority.

They walked side by side down to the cell bay, where Kamlyn opened a door and Dilandau stared at Millerna and King Chid.

"That's quite a catch" he said as Kamlyn slammed the door as Chid approached. I'm quite proud of it, though I did have plans to have the other girl from the mystic moon brought here along with Allen Shazar's sister. Dilandau growled at the memory of being trapped within Celena.

"Have you anywhere I can rest?" he asked

"Of course, come."

Dilandau lay on the bed thinking of all that had happened since he had been torn from Celena, indeed it had felt like a part of himself was missing for a time. Then less than a week after it had happened he found himself in the forest and bumped into Kat. It was strange but he felt oddly protective of her. He had never met any girl like her, she still had the shyness and weakness of a woman from Gaia, yet with a fire that made her stand up to anyone or anything, even a massive land dragon, she could have just left. Yet she stayed and saved my life. Dilandau drifted off into a shallow sleep, hand clutched around his sword, he didn't trust Kamlyn one bit.

Van ran, his Guymeluf leaving huge footprints as he sprinted towards Fanelia, towards Escaflowne. He finally reached the gates of his city and stood before the dormant Escaflowne, a dragon energist in his hand. He placed a small cut on his hand before thrusting the energist into the heart of Escaflowne, and then watched as the Guymeluf came alive once again.

He climbed into it and it was like he had never been away from it.

"Come on Escaflowne" he said "Lets so save Millerna and Chid." Escaflowne once again became apart of his thoughts and transformed into its dragon form.

"FASTER" Van yelled and Escaflowne obliged. He had forgotten how good it felt to have the wind in his hair as they flew towards Hitomi.