Escaflowne
The large beam of light engulfs the Crusade, the Enterprise, and the Hyperion, sending them into the skies above. Naria and Eriya land outside of the light, onto the snowy ground.
"Sis, what should we do?" Eriya asks
"Stay there, both of you" Folken's voice said
"But Lord Folken!" the both said at once
The Vione flies near them. Folken, inside talks to them.
"It is too dangerous for both you you to go in blind. We don't know anything about this. Stay put for now."
The two cats and their unit didn't have any other bright ideas, so they stood their ground.
At the Edge of the World
The Crusade and it's escort ships were tossed around in some kind of vortex. Neither ships were able to stablize their flight path.
"The rudders aren't working!" a crewman shouted on the Crusade
"The lift gauge is maxed out!" another shouted
The ships continues to shake as the pillar of light, coming out of a large ring in the sky deposits them in a new area.
"Our condition has been stablized." a crewman on the Enterprise said, "We've cleared the portal."
Back on the Crusade.
"That's..." Van started to say
"The Mystic Valley..." Allen finished
"Yes, it's the lost capital of Atlantis."
The ships were flying over an area that looked exactly like the one that Hitomi and Van visited in their minds. Hitomi clutches her pendent.
"So that's the Mystic Valley..." Hitomi said to herself, and then her pendant glows and Hitomi suddenly dissapears in a pink light.
"Hitomi!" Allen shouted as he grabbed air, but then vanishes with her.
"Allen!" Van shouted, but he disappears too.
"Where did they go?!" Milerna asked
"There! Hitomi's down there!" Gadess shouted as he pointed to her.
On the Enterprise.
"Sir, our spotters reported that King Van, Sir Allen, and the girl Hitomi, disappeared from the Crusade bridge," a crewmen said to Jayson.
"What happened?" Jayson asked
"We don't know, sir. But Hitomi had just reappeared on the ground."
"Ready a landing party to recover her. We don't know what's down there. She might be in danger."
On the ground, Hitomi sort of wanders a bit.
"I've seen this before. It's the same as the vision when Van was near death." she then clutches her sword, knowing that she recieved it here. She looks over the horizon at the city.
Somewhere else, Van was standing in the ruins of Fanelia. A broken statue lies at his feet.
"I can't be here..." Van said, and then a feather drops to the ground next to him. Van turns around, noticing many of them. He finally believed where he was, "This is Fanelia..."
"Van." a voice from behind him spoke out softly to him.
Van turns and was greeted by his mother.
"Mother?!"
Meanwhile, Allen was standing on a windy field. He turns around and sees his sister. She smiles at him then runs away, quickly vanishing.
"Serena!" Allen shouted as he tried to chase after her, but he then switched to a different scene and was standing before his home.
Back outside in relaity, Hitomi walks up to a momument and recognizes it.
"This is..." but a voice behind her intrudes her thoughts
"Hitomi!" Jayson shouted as he approaches closer. He was accompany by his team and the others from the Crusade.
"Hitomi..." Merle started, "...where's Lord Van? Where?"
"Thats a monument with the characters of Atlantis..." Dryden said, "I'm sure...this is the Mystic Valley, the ruins of Atlantis."
"Can you understand that writing?" Milerna asked Dryden, but Hitomi answers it
" 'Thirteenth month of the New Nebular Era...' " Hitomi started to read as if it she knew it from the bottom of her heart.
"You can read this?" Dryden asks
Hitomi steps up closer to the monument and puts her hand on it. Suddenly, she has a vision of travelling through the Monument. She opens her eyes and is in Atlantis. Atlantis as it was 5000 years ago. She continues to recite the passage on the monument.
" 'We are the Dragon Clan, called Draconians, the descendants of Atlantis...who were born in the capital of Atlantis on the world called Earth, which is called here, the Mystic Moon.' "
"The...Mystic Moon?" Dryden said dumbfounded, "The Atlanteans are people from the Mystic Moon..."
Hitomi continues,
" 'Atlantis... They had a massive power and build an evil machine to surpass the gods.' " Hitomi sees a large black, cone shape machine. " 'That machine converted people's wishes into power and made anything possible.' "
Images of Atlanteans stand around a large tower with a glowing energist on the top,
" 'And they created wings on their backs, and even changed their appearance.' " She now sees various winged Atlanteans. Now Hitomi stands on a staircase in her vision. " 'However.' "
The tower blows up, causing a large explosion that engulfs the land. Fire causes the structures to collapse. A large group of Atlanteans holding up pendants, just like hers, stand in a large group. Light from their pendants causes a huge amount of energy to go through the atmosphere into space, forming a planet.
" 'Their strong wishes created a new planet, Giaea, in the sky. It was from the strong wishes of the Atlanteans...to prevent repeating their foolish mistakes. Giaea is a beautiful planet, which is held by the sky, loved by water, and grown by land.' "
"The power of wishes created Gaea...?" Dryden said, "A machine that convert wishes into reality? Thats the secret of Atlantis?!"
Hitomi stares at her own pendent,
"How is this..." Hitomi said but she heard someone's voice behind her.
"I entrusted it to her." the voice said
Hitomi turned around, and right away, the area surrounding her changed into a snowy landscape. Leon stands there.
"Who?" But then she heard Allen's voice
"Father..." he said
Allen stands next to Hitomi.
Elsewhere, Van stands in Fanelia, seeing energy go out from the castle.
"This is a memory from earlier in my life...?"
"Yes. It's a bloody memory of the Dragon Clan." Balgas said as he appears next to Van "...the memory in your blood, Lord Van."
"Balgas?"
"Lord Van, you shouldn't turn your eyes away from your fate. The Dragon Clan is descended from Atlantis. To prevent Gaea from following Atlantis' path...you are fated to face it, and fight. You have to fight with Escaflowne."
"No, I don't want to fight anymore! I don't want to fight!"
Hitomi opens her eyes back into reality.
"They're...here...Van and Allen are in here." Hitomi said as she walked closer to it.
Back inside the vision world, Allen stands at his mother's grave.
"Why am I here?" Allen asked himself, then he heard a voice behind him.
"Allen." Allen turned around to see his father.
"Father."
"Allen, I'm glad you're here. I guess my wish has come true."
Hitomi watches as the two of them talk in Allen's home.
"Well, what should I start with?" Leon said
"What can you tell me at this time?"
"You became a Knight of Heaven, didn't you? Your mother must be proud. Your mother...how's Encia doing?"
"She...died while you were on your journey."
"I see..." Leon takes off his glasses and tears fall from his eyes.
"Why...why do you weep?"
"Anyone sheds tears if someone they love dies."
"No, you didn't love my mother!"
"Allen." Hitomi said in concern, but she was a ghost to them.
Back to Van,
"Yes, you hate it." Balas said
Ghosts appears around Van, who slashes away with his sword and screams.
"No! Stay away! Don't!"
Escaflowne appears behind him. At the monument, Hitomi senses what's happening.
"No, Van." Hitomi walks closer
"Are you alright, Hitomi?"
"Bring them back." Hitomi said to her pendent, "Please bring them back."
But then, another voice intrudes her vision. She opens her eyes and sees Van's mother.
"Don't...You shouldn't use the power of wishes. Your wish comes from your anxiety. That wish realizes your anxiety. "
"My wishes?"
"You're the one who is making Van and the others suffer."
"I am..."
"Your fortune telling...You think you're reading the future, but that is not so."
Hitomi remembers Balgas's death, Allen getting injured and Van laying wounded on a table. She hadn't foretold the future. She was making the future through her powers.
"I-"
"Youre anxiety, amplified by your fortune telling... has chosen a sad result out of many possible futures. Even now, your heart is full of anxiety."
The pendant swings, showing Van and Allen. Hitomi stands in a snowy field.
"I...I've drawn a sad future into reality? My wishes did?" Hitomi falls to her knees, "This is...It's my fault."
"Don't stop believing Hitomi...." Hitomi looks up and sees a mysterious figure before. He had the fetures of Van, and Jayson, slightly, but he was someone different. He wore a dark black cloak, but his fice was uncovered. Another figure appears behind him.
"When times are harsh to you, call upon us." It was someone else that was behind Hitomi's grandmother, "The strength, courage, and wisdom of your family will always guide you toward the right path."
The new figure had red hair, but he was japanese. He was wearing a maroon colored kimono. On his left cheek was a scar in the shape of a cross.
"Hitomi...believe..." Hitomi turns around to meet the face of her grandmother, as she was when she was her age.
"Grandma,"
"...believe in someone you love...never lose hope if you believe."
Allen stands in the snowy field as well with her.
"Is this place?"
A wounded Leon holds his injured arm as he walks. A large vehicle pulls up in front of him.
"Those are Zaibach soldiers!"
"They've been chasing me," Leon explained to Allen "...ever since I left the Mystic Valley. They're after the secret of Atlantis."
"Atlantis?"
Zaibach soldiers surround Leon and attack him. Leon, now mortally wounded, falls to the ground. Inside the vehicle, Dornkirk sits. A soldier brings him Leon's diary. Dornkirk looks at the book and sees the ripped page on it.
"Damn you..." Dornkirk said, "You've sacrificed your family and life... ...and you still don't want to give me the secret of the Mystic Valley."
The book is dropped next to his body and the vehicle drives away. Leon holds his pendant in his hand and utters.
"The power of Atlantis...the power of wishes...Just one more time...just once...that girl..." He opens his eyes. The pillar of light brings the girl in front of him. "You're... why...why do you look the same as that moment...?"
She kneels down in front of him.
"I see. The secret of Atlantis...this is the power of wishes. My wish at that moment was right." He gives her the pendent, "You keep this...I want you to keep this. Wishes will come true no matter how far apart we are...beyond time and dimension."
He puts it in her hands. The pendant glows and she is sent back to earth.
"Forgive me, Encia..."
He falls over dead, as his hand touches the book. It glows and vanishes. Allen watches from afar. Allen's house appears in front of him. Inside, his mother turns around as the diary appears on a desk. She picks it up.
"Oh Leon."
"Mother..." Allen said "Mother loved father till the end. And father felt the same for her..."
"I loved her."
"Then, why?"
"I got married because of family, and had children. I tried to live by denying my true self. But people want to break away from the thread of fate."
Encia and Hitomi's grandmother appear beside him.
"When I met that girl again, I realized that...I loved Encia...and you, Allen..."
"Father..."
"People can be so foolish...What's the power of Atlantis, and the wishes of people? I didn't notice my own wishes, or Encia's either. Allen, be true to yourself, and nourish your wishes."
Leon starts to disappear in the horizon, but Allen tries to chase after him.
"Wait! Father! Come back!" Allen was not able to reach him, "I have too many unanswered questions for you!"
"You have to find your own answers."
But Allen continues to reach out for a hand, but Hitomi's hand came out of the light Leon was going in.
"Allen!" she grabs a hold of him and the both of them disappear back into reality.
Hitomi wakes up and Allen appears somewhere not too far from everyone.
"Was this Hitomi's doing?" Dryden said
"Thank goodness you've made it back." Milerna said as she reaches Allen.
Hitomi still was standing on the monument.
On the other side of the portal, Naria and Eryia were waiting impatiently.
"This looks bad," Eriya said.
"You're right, but we must try."
The two jumps up and flies toward the portal. Folken tries to stop the two,
"It's too dangerous! Stop, both of you!"
"Don't worry. We have good fortune." Naria said
"We'll bring your brother back."Eriya said
On the otherside, everyone sees that the portal was reacting with the two coming through it.
"Something's breaking through the portal." Jayson said
Back inside the vision world, Van was on his knees, his sword stuck through the ground. Balgas was behind him.
"I can hear it...the sounds of war." Balgas said
"I...I hear it too...so much more pain, suffering...death...has yet to come. I don't want to fight anymore. I don't want to kill. To take more lives."
"Then you are doomed." Jayson's image appears in front of him "Van, you must fight!"
The entrance to the Mystic Valley glows and the two Teiring appears under it.
"We did it!" Naria shouted
"We are so lucky!"
Inside the Crusade, Escaflowne glows and then vanishes from the hanger. Then, Escaflowne appears behind the Teirings. Van was inside already.
"Escaflowne?" Allen said
"So...I am brought back to face battle...once again." Van said as he looks up at the Teirings.
"We won't let you get away this time," Naria said
"No help from that cat this time." Eriya said
Van hears Balgas in his head.
"Fight! Break away from the sadness of war with your bloody hands. Lord Van!"
"Fight Van!" Jayson shouted in his head, "The King of our country never runs from his enemies! Fight! Fight them Van! Fight!"
Van stands in the darkness with his sword drawn. Hitomi tries to call out to him.
"Believe in him." Hitomi's grandmother said
"Grandma?"
"If your anxiety brought bad incidents, the opposite should be possible. Hitomi, believe in him."
Escaflwone stood still.
"Escaflowne's pain is my pain...the pain of war." Van takes out Escaflowne's sword, "If war is truly unavoidable...I'll accept the karma of war...along with the sadness of the dead!"
Van points his sword up and everything shakes. The Entrance to the Mystic Valley explodes. Naria and Eriya are swept out of the Mystic Valley.
"Incoming shockwave!" a Zaibach soldier shouted
"Van." Folken said as the fortress was swept away along with the other guymelefs it sent out, including Naria's and Eriya's.
The Enterprise, Hyperion and theThe Crusade, along with its passengers and Escaflowne stand where the Mystic Valley used to be.
"The Mystic Valley has disappeared." Allen said
Escaflowne's cockpit opens. Van steps out. His mother appears in front of him.
"Mother..."
"Van. Your wishes will determine the future of Gaea. " she starts to disappear in the distant.
"Mother!"
"Don't forget Van."
Vari flies away, but drops an energist into Van's hands.
"This is...an energist."
Then Escaflowne's energist reacts to it and so does Hitomi's pendent and Jayson's guymelef.
"What's going on?" Jayson asked,
Hitomi's pendent starts to glow, and so does Escaflowne's energist glows strangely. The one in Van's hand does as well.
"Escaflowne is..." Jayson started to say.
Hitomi and Jayson disappears in a blinding white light.
"Hitomi! Jayson!" Allen runs toward the light but starts to disappear before he moved. Escaflowne and Excalibur both disappears.
"They're gone." Milerna said.
Later, the blinding pillar of light landed in a strange city, covered by machina. It was a place that was almost like it was from Earth, but so different from a modernized world on Earth.
In a room at the citidel's center, Van, Allen, and Hitomi, were transported into a large room. It was the same room where Dornkirk lies. Escaflowne appears behind them.
"Van!" Hitomi shouted as she walked to Van.
"Where are we?" Allen asks
"This place..." Hitomi recognizes it from somewhere in her heart. "We are in Zaibach."
"We are where?" Allen asked, but something happens. The floor began to shake as they realized that they are on a moving platform.
A omnious voice spoke out in the darkness.
"Welcome...those, who are tied to the fate of the Dragon. " The voice was Dornkirk.
They reach the same level as the rest of the room, and the giant machine Dornkirk's on comes into the light.
"Did you bring us here?!" Van demanded
"Yes...Everything is following fate. "
"Fate?" Van said back
"I'll guide Gaea into the future. I'm the leader of the Zaibach Empire. My name is Dornkirk."
"So we are at the center of Zaibach.
"That's the leader of Zaibach...Because of him, my brother is-" Van draws his sword and points it at Dornkirk.
"If I kill you, the tragedies in Gaea'll end!"
"Is that so? War breaks out at anytime, anywhere. War is an unavoidable fate of humanity. It is an 'endless waltz'...war...peace...revolution...continues on forever."
"What do you know about the fate of others?" Van said "You think you are a god? Even a god can't predict the future!"
"I am blessed with ability to predict fate like the people of Atlantis did."
"Atlantis?" Hitomi thought about it and it hit her, "You are Issac!"
"Heh...I haven't heard from that name is quite a while...since my time on Earth."
"So you are the man called Issac that my father met!" Allen said
"So you are Leon's son, are you not? I thought I saw him in your eyes. How miserable of him. If he had given us the secret of Atlantis..."
"You..." Allen was getting anger and readies to draw his ow sword with Van.
"But I discovered the secret of Atlantis myself. I'll complete the Atlantis machine."
"You... why did you come to Giaea? If you hadn't come, everyone would have been happy! "
"That is not true...Even Giaea's been flooded by blood... ...the blood of war before I came here just like Earth. Yes, one day on Earth, I was taken hold of by a question. Everything shares a common principle. There's a drawing force that acts between objects. That's gravity. I wondered why that invisible force exists in the world. People love each other, but kill each other also. That's the nature of the world. Death repeats again and again, and there're so many "orders" in the world. But what could the "origin" of the orders be? That's fate... the fundamental power to sustain the universe."
"Fate?" Hitomi was confused,
"What is fate and its definition? Is there any principles? I devoted everything I had to study and experimentation to solve the mystery. However, I couldn't deduce the answer" Dornkirk remembers his time on Earth and his death. "My wish never weakened, even at the time of death. Rather, it increased. I want to know...I want to know the principle of fate."
Dornkirk remembers being on Giaea for the first time.
"When I awoke, I was in an unfamiliar place. It had barren soil, severe weather, and people who lived by depending on a very limited harvest... They were scared, and suffered from routine invasions. What a severe fate... I realized that I came here to save these people....I gave everything I had, and the wisdom called science. I told them to overcome nature. The science I knew was for the sake of people. I told them to defeat the enemy, and not to follow fate, but to create their own fate. People followed my wishes...and an absolutely idealistic country, the Zaibach Empire, was established. Then, I came to know the legend of Atlantis, which involved the creation of Gaea. That was very important to me. It was the ability of Atlantis to create one's fate. Since then, I've devoted all my knowledge to discover the principle...and finally, I built a device to create fate!"
It was he who create Zaibach, he brought the concept of science to Zaibach before it was its time to awaken that kind of knowledge. He created a modern era here and sent Giaea to his ideal future.
"They say that Atlanteans converted people's wishes into power, and controlled their fate. Yes, Gaea is a creation of Atlantis also."
"Giaea is Atlantis's..."
"To activate the device that can create such a wonderful power...I had to find the power of Atlantis. It was the Power Spot left on Gaea. It was realized by conquering Freid. And the last key, the Dragon called Escaflowne, has come to me, following fate."
"Escaflowne is..."
"And what I've dreamt of... ...the legendary Atlantis Machine, the "Fate Redirector." has been completed."
" Fate redirector?" Van said
"That's wrong!" Hitomi shouted, "To change fate using a machine. You've made so many people suffer to complete this."
Hitomi remembers Fanelia burnt to the ground, Balgas dead, the ruins of Freid, and Duke Freid dying.
"You are wrong in doing this!"
"Sacrifice is a necessary factor in creating a new fate. Small misfortune is a foundation for bigger happiness. If I can create an absolute fortune, everyone will be perfectly happy."
"No...that is wrong! We can't just change our destiny with a machine! It'll destroy us! Just like Atlantis!"
Hitomi was standing on the Moon and she as she stood there was it was cracked into many pieces. It had a large chunk and then a third of it blown away. She saw Giaea and Earth in one place in Space. And another war erupts around her. A fleet spaceships with the banner of Fanelia on the hull as it approaches Earth. Explosions were all around her. Hitomi comes out of the vision, and passes out.
"Hitomi!" Van shouted as he holds her.
"Observe with me...the new fate I am creating..." behind the three, were several guards with firearms. The one in the center was the elf that was on the Vione a while ago. Hitomi was partially awake and sees the elf in dark green armor.
"You are..." but Hitomi passes out again.
On the Crusade, Milerna was standing near Scherazade, looking out at the sky.
"Nothing'll happen even if you keep watching." Dryden said as he approaches her. "We have no idea where they've been taken. It's a waste of time to wander around in the ship, like this."
"Waste time? How can you say that! Your such a-"
"-Yes, I am a merchant. Zaibach is definately going to destroy Gaea. I'll stop it in my own way. I'm sure they will return."
"Dryden..."
"I believe that people's fates are tied together...I believe that my wish'll come true someday."
Back in Zaibach, Escaflowne was being examined by the sorcerors.
"This is the last key to the Fate Redirector. Ispano's Guymelef has such power? We have to find its secret ourselves, no matter what. We can't fall any further behind Folken."
Elsewhere, in a hallway, Jayson appears in his Guymelef.
"Where...where am I?" Jayson turns on his suit's hovering system and flies around a bit. "From the looks of the interior, this looks like...Zaibach!"
Jayson then ends up in a large hallway, where a squad of Zaiback melefs stood guard.
"Yup, I'm in Zaibach country alright." the Zaibach melefs charge at him, bring out weapons. "Great. My luck seems to take to everywhere."
Jayson drew his sword and charges the ground, plowing through them. More came behind him.
"Damn it. It's never ending." Jayson fires his claws at them, and then burns them all with his flame-throwers. "That should cover my trail."
Jayson flies off and then his melef acted weird and came to a stop.
"What the hell is this?" the energist started to glow. "My energist...is reacting to something."
He turns and faced a large door,
"In here?" Jayson opens the doors and jumps in with his sword at the ready.
The room was dark and nothing was in it, say for some columns in the middle of the room. Then all of a sudden, Jaysone felt something in his head and holds his head in pain.
"What is it..." The pain stopped, but he still flet a presence in the room "Who's goes there?! Show yourself!"
Out of the darkness, a black melef with red tirm appeared from invisablity. It was holding a long broad sword backhanded and folds its arms as it spreads demonic looking skeletal bird wings which unfolds.
"You don't belong here..." a dark voice said from the speakers outside of the dark melef. Then, the melef disappears in a blink of an eye and reappears behind Jayson, who jumps out of the way, just narrowly escaping an attack that came from no where.
"What the hell?" Jayson said to himself in shock. No one was ever able to get behind him in a straight one on one battle like that.
The dark melef reapears to his left, and Jayson attacks, but he faded into air before the attack reached him.
"Identify yourself!" the dark melef shouted as he attacked Jayson again from his left with his large sword. Jayson blocks and spreads his wings as he jumps backward. Then, Jayson jumps forward and rams into the mysterious melef and knocks away his sword and then kicks him in the gut. The dark melef fell backward and Jayson points his sword at his throat. "Well, not bad."
The dark melef shoots a pair of liquid metal claw from under his arms at his wrists at Jayson, who jumps back.
"This guy's good," Jayson admitted to himself. "Who are you?!"
"I asked first." the dark melef stood up and from his back he drew two short swords and twirls them around, "If you won't answer me...have at you."
The dark melef dashes forward and crosses blades. Jayson knocks away the blades and it left the dark melef opened so he punches his chest with his left arm and then spun aroun, bringing the full force of his sword at the guy's side as he hits him with the blunt side of the sword, sending him flying.
"Impossible," the dark one said to himself. He was the strongest of them all. A lot more than any of the dragonslayers, or Dilandou. For the first time, this pilot which was the elf that was with Folken that time, was surprised, "Who are you!"
Jayson jumps up and brings his blade onto him, but he missed as the dark melef disappeared and reappeared behind him. He grabs him in the face, but Jayson kicks him in the stomach again and he brought his sword around to strike, but he was blocked. At that moment, the two saw each other's face. Though they were physically blocked with their masks on, they saw each other's face.
"...Jayson..."
"...Link!"
The two seperated and stood apart, swords at the ready.
"So we meet again, old friend." Link said, "I've been expecting this meeting for some time."
Jayson was in rage and attacks him in full force,
"Bastard!" Jayson attacks, but was blocked again, "Traitor!"
Jayson pushes Link back.
"You've betrayed us..." Jayson said, "Why!!"
Jayson jumps at him again and the two clashed again.
"Why are you doing this!?" Jayson pushes him back. Every attack he makes was an attack to kill him, even if he didn't get his question answered. Every attempted strike was meant to kill him. "Answer me Link!"
Link ducks down from an attack and does an up slash at Jayson, slashing the left side of his torso. Jayson falls backward. Link fires his claws at Jayson, and ties them around him.
"Yes, I did change sides...maybe because I saw the future. Perhaps that this was suppose to happen."
"What are you talking about?"
"Destiny changes at a whim on my command, on your command either of us can change the future and mold it to our liking. The destiny where this will lead to...is stained with the blood of our kind."
"I...I don't understand!"
"Don't you see the future? Haven't you seen what lies ahead in the future to come. What I saw was destruction."
Jayson looks at Link's red eyes and sees what he sees.
In this vision Jayson was not in Zaibach. He was standing on Earth or what appeared to be Earth.
"Where am I?" Jayson asked, but there was no answer. Then, the ground shook and there were explosions everywhere. He saw giant mechs walking around the place.
The large dark blue colored mechs had one large yellow colored, eye in the shape of a square. They were firing at something. In the distant, the thing they were firing at...what the Excalibur?
"That is..." Jayson then changes scene and was floating in space.
He saw a huge battle erupt on Earth. He can tell because form Space, large explosions were occuring all over Earth. Some much so that you can even see them in Space. He floated pass by large spaceships with arrays of weapons on their hull.
"This is the future." Link's voice said through the vision. This is what will happen.
Then, the scene was dark and he saw two figures in the distant. It was a couple, and they were in each other's arm. He apparently wasn't noticed by them. The guy to his left looked alot like himself and he saw that he was carrying Van's sword at his side. The look alike lean close to the girl he was holding. The girl looked younger than he was. maybe 16 or so. She had long brown/blonde like hair, with some parts of her hair braided and tied behind her head. and blue eyes.
"She looks like...Zelda." Jayson said
"This is where the path of destiny will go."
Something was bothering Jayson. He felt something wrong about this picture.
"No..." Jayson said to Link
"What?"
"This...this is not right...this is not the future...your vision is clouded."
"What are you talking about. I see the future."
"That is as long as I still live..." Jayson said to himself
"What did you say?!"
The image changed, the same girl was now being held by a different guy. The guy had short cropped brown hair and dark blue eyes.
"Is that suppose to be me?" Link asked
"...no...that isn't you...and the one he's holding isn't Zelda." The scene changed and everything went dark. "The future is what we make of it. We can't just predict it."
Then, someone else interrupts the two. a dark figure appears before them.
"What is this trick?" Link ask, "Who did you bring into this vision?"
"I didin't do anything..."
"The future...is set." the dark figure said
"What?" Link said
"What will happen will happen. The future is forever change because of your decision Jayson."
"My choice?"
"Yes...the choice of life and death...for that choice, the future will be altered."
"Is that why you are here?" Jayson asked "Who are you?"
"I am someone...that doesn't exist...not yet anyway."
"So what? Are you saying you are a being that is not born yet, but then how are you able to exist in this dream vision if you do not exist."
"Oh, I exists alright...just not yet."
Jayson hears something behind him, a chant of some sort. He turns around and appears on a balcony looking over an army of soldiers. Behind the army was a large army of large mechs that he was unfamiliar with. He heard the army chant at him, but he looked besides him and saw Van again. But this was not Van.
"Long live the Duke!" one of the soldiers shouted, "Long live Duke Van Fanel!"
Jayson was shocked to know that this man he stod next to was named Van and he was a Fanel.
"Long live the fighters of the Duke Fanel!" another one shouted
"Hail to the Duke!"
"Hail to the Duke!"
The entire army shouted in praise for this man Jayson stood next to. Then, the Van Fanel he stood next to, turned to face him.
"Jayson...you are not suppose to see this..." Van said
Jayson was back inside the dark room with the cloaked figure and realized something.
"You live outside of time! You exist, but yet you don't exist. You re something that shouldn't exist, but does. This is something beyond scientific explaination..."
"Always the practical one, Jayson." the cloaked one said, "Don't you ever believe in God? That our lives are intertwined in fate."
"There is no such thing as that. It is just something so that the people can have something to live by."
"Yes...but isn't that what God wants us to do. He wants us to have the freedom to believe in what we want...Destiny will call us to do the right thing so that the future can be preserved so that our kind will live on."
"Will I die soon?"
"That I cannot tell you...one day you will be forced to make a decision that will decide the future. We all are fated to change the world."
"So what are you trying to say?" Link asked
The cloaked figure turned to him,
"Destiny will lead the both of you and your families to decide the fate of our race. Fate will lead our families to lead our worlds to the future. We are cursed with this fate."
"A curse?"
"I'm sorry...but that is all the time I have..." the figure began to disappear,
"Wait!" Jayson shouted, but he was gone,
"Make your own choices and that will decide the future."
The vision ended and when Link awoke, Jayson was gone and his claws were untangled,
"What the?"
Jayson slipped out when Link was still out of it.
"The future...is what we decide it will be?"
Jayson saw it again and he saw his death. The sword that was meant to be, struck at him unto death.He can still hear the cloaked one's voice in his head.
"Fate will guide you to change history and mark your blood line with the line of history. Use this power blessed on you and Van to make your mark on history. To forge your path. Dornkirk's path will fall...yours and Link's paths will forge the future."
Jayson activated his cloak and disappears.
"I need to find them."
Back to the others, Van was was in his cage and then he felt something in his chest. Van fell to his knees and held his chest in pain. There was a great pain from his heart, like something was pulling it apart.
"Van!" Hitomi shouted
"They must be trying to dismantle Escaflowne," Allen said
"No, he'll die!" Hitomi tired to reach Van's hand and tries to grab it, but as she did, she felt something and saw as Van struggled on the floor of his cage, Van's hand twitched and so did Escaflowne's hand. "That's right. Van, if you feel Escaflowne's pain, it must work the other way, too. If your wish reaches it, you should be able to control Escaflowne even if you're away from it."
"What?"
"I'll help you. Together we should be able to do it." Hitomi reached out again
"It's too dangerous! You might feel the same pain he is!"
"He's right. You shouldn't feel the pain."
"What're you talking about? You might die at this rate! Hurry, give your hand!"
Hitomi and Van's hands touch and they held each other.
Meanwhile, Dornkirk watches in his Fate Redirector while they hold hands.
"What are they doing?" Dornkirk asked, but then he lost the image, "What? It's gone. I can't see it anymore!"
"I'm alright. Van, imagine Escaflowne. Imagine it strongly! Respond, please."
Escaflowne started to move a bit
"We must focus!" Hitomi said, "Move...it must move..."
Then, Escaflowne awakens and it's energist glows like a light in the darkness. Escaflowne then takes flight and the pain stopped.
"Is this because of that girl's ability?" Dornkirk asked, "Is she doing this?"
Escaflowne breaks through the ceiling and arrives at their cages.
"Escaflowne!" Van shouted
"We did it!" Hitomi shook Van's hand in delight.
The three flew out.
"Van, we should get out of this place first!" Allen shouted
Then, they came across an enemy.
"Allen, hold onto Hitomi!" Van changed Escaflowne into mech mode and attacks, "Go! I'll meet up with you on the roof!"
"Van..." Hitomi looks for a moment, "Take care. Allen, let's go to the roof."
The two ran as Van fights his way out. Dornkirk's vision was clear again,
"I can see them this time, but why?"
Allen runs into a few guards, but he was able to take them out. It was funny that they would throw them into those cages back there and still have their weapons. A guard tries to attack Hitomi, but Allen blocks the attack with his sword. A soldier came behind Allen and attacks.
"Look out Allen!" Hitomi drew her sword and attacks, killing the soldier, "You alright Allen?"
"Yeah...I'm fine,"
"This way," Hitomi points to another direction and ran ahead.
Back with Van, who was fighting the enemy melefs. He was about to be overrun, but a stream of chrima claws flew at them and shreads them into pieces. Van turns arouund and sees Jayson.
"Jayson!?"
"Hey, fancy meeting you in such a place!"
"Yeah, fancy that." Van turns his attention back to his enemies and knocks another melef down,
"We have to get out of here!"
"Hitomi, and Allen are on the roof!"
Hitomi and Allen managed to get to the roof. They stopped at a balcony overlooking the city.
"I wonder if Van's safe." Allen said
"I think he's alright, since it's Van...if anyone can do it, he can"
"..."
"This city looks sad for some reason. I wonder if the people of Zaibach are really happy."
A group of soldiers comes out of the entrance. Allen turns to face them, drawing his sword.
"Here they come. I won't let you have Hitomi, even if it means my life."
"I find comfort in that, but," Hitomi drew her own sword and stood next to Allen, "I am not a weak girl that waits for a knight to save me. Don't leave me out of this."
The two stood together, side by side, and readies to fight. Then, Escaflowne and Excalibur appears behind the two.
"Come on! Let's go!" Van shouted.
"Van!" Hitomi shouted,
"Let's go!"
Allen picks up Hitomi in his arms and gets on Escaflowne.
"Go, go!" Allen shouted.
"Watch out!" Jayson shouted as he flies behind them and shoots at an incoming melef. "Go Van! GO!"
The two melefs soar as they flew higher, but they were being persuide.
"They're gaining on us!" Allen shouted, "We must go faster!"
"This is as fast as we can go!" Van shouted, "This isn't Jayson's melef!"
Jayson flies next to Allen.
"You have to believe in your melef!" Jayson said to Van in his head, "Believe and it will happen!"
Van closed his eyes and concentrates.
"Must go faster...Escaflowne!" Van can feel something from Escaflowne, "Escaflowne!"
Then, Dornkirk lost his vision again and was blind again.
Outside, Escaflowne's wings closed up and out from its sides were some kind of booster pack and Escaflowne blasted off. Jayson was then able to activate his full power and jets off to catch up.
"When the Dragon and the girl get close, the vision of the future blurs. The girl from Earth is the key to solving everything."
As Escaflowne flies faster and faster, it passed the Vione, and Folken saw Van. For a moment in time and space, it all stopped for a moment. Van and Folken looked at each other and saw each other's eyes. Then, time resumed and Escaflowne flies pass the fortress, followed by Jayson.
Once Escaflowne reaches a safe distance, it revert's to it's normal mode. Jayson was finally able to catch up and flies next to it. Allen was holding onto Hitomi very tightly.
"Uh, Allen...that hurts."
"Sorry." Allen lets go."
Hitomi looks out in space and thinks to herself.
"The leader of the Zaibach Empire, Dornkirk...a man from the Mystic Moon. Is this the thread of our fate?"
Jayson looks at the two and sees the future again. He saw what was to come...and that future was going to be harsh.
"From now on until the future, our paths will be hard. We must decide for ourselves...our future."
To be contunued...
The large beam of light engulfs the Crusade, the Enterprise, and the Hyperion, sending them into the skies above. Naria and Eriya land outside of the light, onto the snowy ground.
"Sis, what should we do?" Eriya asks
"Stay there, both of you" Folken's voice said
"But Lord Folken!" the both said at once
The Vione flies near them. Folken, inside talks to them.
"It is too dangerous for both you you to go in blind. We don't know anything about this. Stay put for now."
The two cats and their unit didn't have any other bright ideas, so they stood their ground.
At the Edge of the World
The Crusade and it's escort ships were tossed around in some kind of vortex. Neither ships were able to stablize their flight path.
"The rudders aren't working!" a crewman shouted on the Crusade
"The lift gauge is maxed out!" another shouted
The ships continues to shake as the pillar of light, coming out of a large ring in the sky deposits them in a new area.
"Our condition has been stablized." a crewman on the Enterprise said, "We've cleared the portal."
Back on the Crusade.
"That's..." Van started to say
"The Mystic Valley..." Allen finished
"Yes, it's the lost capital of Atlantis."
The ships were flying over an area that looked exactly like the one that Hitomi and Van visited in their minds. Hitomi clutches her pendent.
"So that's the Mystic Valley..." Hitomi said to herself, and then her pendant glows and Hitomi suddenly dissapears in a pink light.
"Hitomi!" Allen shouted as he grabbed air, but then vanishes with her.
"Allen!" Van shouted, but he disappears too.
"Where did they go?!" Milerna asked
"There! Hitomi's down there!" Gadess shouted as he pointed to her.
On the Enterprise.
"Sir, our spotters reported that King Van, Sir Allen, and the girl Hitomi, disappeared from the Crusade bridge," a crewmen said to Jayson.
"What happened?" Jayson asked
"We don't know, sir. But Hitomi had just reappeared on the ground."
"Ready a landing party to recover her. We don't know what's down there. She might be in danger."
On the ground, Hitomi sort of wanders a bit.
"I've seen this before. It's the same as the vision when Van was near death." she then clutches her sword, knowing that she recieved it here. She looks over the horizon at the city.
Somewhere else, Van was standing in the ruins of Fanelia. A broken statue lies at his feet.
"I can't be here..." Van said, and then a feather drops to the ground next to him. Van turns around, noticing many of them. He finally believed where he was, "This is Fanelia..."
"Van." a voice from behind him spoke out softly to him.
Van turns and was greeted by his mother.
"Mother?!"
Meanwhile, Allen was standing on a windy field. He turns around and sees his sister. She smiles at him then runs away, quickly vanishing.
"Serena!" Allen shouted as he tried to chase after her, but he then switched to a different scene and was standing before his home.
Back outside in relaity, Hitomi walks up to a momument and recognizes it.
"This is..." but a voice behind her intrudes her thoughts
"Hitomi!" Jayson shouted as he approaches closer. He was accompany by his team and the others from the Crusade.
"Hitomi..." Merle started, "...where's Lord Van? Where?"
"Thats a monument with the characters of Atlantis..." Dryden said, "I'm sure...this is the Mystic Valley, the ruins of Atlantis."
"Can you understand that writing?" Milerna asked Dryden, but Hitomi answers it
" 'Thirteenth month of the New Nebular Era...' " Hitomi started to read as if it she knew it from the bottom of her heart.
"You can read this?" Dryden asks
Hitomi steps up closer to the monument and puts her hand on it. Suddenly, she has a vision of travelling through the Monument. She opens her eyes and is in Atlantis. Atlantis as it was 5000 years ago. She continues to recite the passage on the monument.
" 'We are the Dragon Clan, called Draconians, the descendants of Atlantis...who were born in the capital of Atlantis on the world called Earth, which is called here, the Mystic Moon.' "
"The...Mystic Moon?" Dryden said dumbfounded, "The Atlanteans are people from the Mystic Moon..."
Hitomi continues,
" 'Atlantis... They had a massive power and build an evil machine to surpass the gods.' " Hitomi sees a large black, cone shape machine. " 'That machine converted people's wishes into power and made anything possible.' "
Images of Atlanteans stand around a large tower with a glowing energist on the top,
" 'And they created wings on their backs, and even changed their appearance.' " She now sees various winged Atlanteans. Now Hitomi stands on a staircase in her vision. " 'However.' "
The tower blows up, causing a large explosion that engulfs the land. Fire causes the structures to collapse. A large group of Atlanteans holding up pendants, just like hers, stand in a large group. Light from their pendants causes a huge amount of energy to go through the atmosphere into space, forming a planet.
" 'Their strong wishes created a new planet, Giaea, in the sky. It was from the strong wishes of the Atlanteans...to prevent repeating their foolish mistakes. Giaea is a beautiful planet, which is held by the sky, loved by water, and grown by land.' "
"The power of wishes created Gaea...?" Dryden said, "A machine that convert wishes into reality? Thats the secret of Atlantis?!"
Hitomi stares at her own pendent,
"How is this..." Hitomi said but she heard someone's voice behind her.
"I entrusted it to her." the voice said
Hitomi turned around, and right away, the area surrounding her changed into a snowy landscape. Leon stands there.
"Who?" But then she heard Allen's voice
"Father..." he said
Allen stands next to Hitomi.
Elsewhere, Van stands in Fanelia, seeing energy go out from the castle.
"This is a memory from earlier in my life...?"
"Yes. It's a bloody memory of the Dragon Clan." Balgas said as he appears next to Van "...the memory in your blood, Lord Van."
"Balgas?"
"Lord Van, you shouldn't turn your eyes away from your fate. The Dragon Clan is descended from Atlantis. To prevent Gaea from following Atlantis' path...you are fated to face it, and fight. You have to fight with Escaflowne."
"No, I don't want to fight anymore! I don't want to fight!"
Hitomi opens her eyes back into reality.
"They're...here...Van and Allen are in here." Hitomi said as she walked closer to it.
Back inside the vision world, Allen stands at his mother's grave.
"Why am I here?" Allen asked himself, then he heard a voice behind him.
"Allen." Allen turned around to see his father.
"Father."
"Allen, I'm glad you're here. I guess my wish has come true."
Hitomi watches as the two of them talk in Allen's home.
"Well, what should I start with?" Leon said
"What can you tell me at this time?"
"You became a Knight of Heaven, didn't you? Your mother must be proud. Your mother...how's Encia doing?"
"She...died while you were on your journey."
"I see..." Leon takes off his glasses and tears fall from his eyes.
"Why...why do you weep?"
"Anyone sheds tears if someone they love dies."
"No, you didn't love my mother!"
"Allen." Hitomi said in concern, but she was a ghost to them.
Back to Van,
"Yes, you hate it." Balas said
Ghosts appears around Van, who slashes away with his sword and screams.
"No! Stay away! Don't!"
Escaflowne appears behind him. At the monument, Hitomi senses what's happening.
"No, Van." Hitomi walks closer
"Are you alright, Hitomi?"
"Bring them back." Hitomi said to her pendent, "Please bring them back."
But then, another voice intrudes her vision. She opens her eyes and sees Van's mother.
"Don't...You shouldn't use the power of wishes. Your wish comes from your anxiety. That wish realizes your anxiety. "
"My wishes?"
"You're the one who is making Van and the others suffer."
"I am..."
"Your fortune telling...You think you're reading the future, but that is not so."
Hitomi remembers Balgas's death, Allen getting injured and Van laying wounded on a table. She hadn't foretold the future. She was making the future through her powers.
"I-"
"Youre anxiety, amplified by your fortune telling... has chosen a sad result out of many possible futures. Even now, your heart is full of anxiety."
The pendant swings, showing Van and Allen. Hitomi stands in a snowy field.
"I...I've drawn a sad future into reality? My wishes did?" Hitomi falls to her knees, "This is...It's my fault."
"Don't stop believing Hitomi...." Hitomi looks up and sees a mysterious figure before. He had the fetures of Van, and Jayson, slightly, but he was someone different. He wore a dark black cloak, but his fice was uncovered. Another figure appears behind him.
"When times are harsh to you, call upon us." It was someone else that was behind Hitomi's grandmother, "The strength, courage, and wisdom of your family will always guide you toward the right path."
The new figure had red hair, but he was japanese. He was wearing a maroon colored kimono. On his left cheek was a scar in the shape of a cross.
"Hitomi...believe..." Hitomi turns around to meet the face of her grandmother, as she was when she was her age.
"Grandma,"
"...believe in someone you love...never lose hope if you believe."
Allen stands in the snowy field as well with her.
"Is this place?"
A wounded Leon holds his injured arm as he walks. A large vehicle pulls up in front of him.
"Those are Zaibach soldiers!"
"They've been chasing me," Leon explained to Allen "...ever since I left the Mystic Valley. They're after the secret of Atlantis."
"Atlantis?"
Zaibach soldiers surround Leon and attack him. Leon, now mortally wounded, falls to the ground. Inside the vehicle, Dornkirk sits. A soldier brings him Leon's diary. Dornkirk looks at the book and sees the ripped page on it.
"Damn you..." Dornkirk said, "You've sacrificed your family and life... ...and you still don't want to give me the secret of the Mystic Valley."
The book is dropped next to his body and the vehicle drives away. Leon holds his pendant in his hand and utters.
"The power of Atlantis...the power of wishes...Just one more time...just once...that girl..." He opens his eyes. The pillar of light brings the girl in front of him. "You're... why...why do you look the same as that moment...?"
She kneels down in front of him.
"I see. The secret of Atlantis...this is the power of wishes. My wish at that moment was right." He gives her the pendent, "You keep this...I want you to keep this. Wishes will come true no matter how far apart we are...beyond time and dimension."
He puts it in her hands. The pendant glows and she is sent back to earth.
"Forgive me, Encia..."
He falls over dead, as his hand touches the book. It glows and vanishes. Allen watches from afar. Allen's house appears in front of him. Inside, his mother turns around as the diary appears on a desk. She picks it up.
"Oh Leon."
"Mother..." Allen said "Mother loved father till the end. And father felt the same for her..."
"I loved her."
"Then, why?"
"I got married because of family, and had children. I tried to live by denying my true self. But people want to break away from the thread of fate."
Encia and Hitomi's grandmother appear beside him.
"When I met that girl again, I realized that...I loved Encia...and you, Allen..."
"Father..."
"People can be so foolish...What's the power of Atlantis, and the wishes of people? I didn't notice my own wishes, or Encia's either. Allen, be true to yourself, and nourish your wishes."
Leon starts to disappear in the horizon, but Allen tries to chase after him.
"Wait! Father! Come back!" Allen was not able to reach him, "I have too many unanswered questions for you!"
"You have to find your own answers."
But Allen continues to reach out for a hand, but Hitomi's hand came out of the light Leon was going in.
"Allen!" she grabs a hold of him and the both of them disappear back into reality.
Hitomi wakes up and Allen appears somewhere not too far from everyone.
"Was this Hitomi's doing?" Dryden said
"Thank goodness you've made it back." Milerna said as she reaches Allen.
Hitomi still was standing on the monument.
On the other side of the portal, Naria and Eryia were waiting impatiently.
"This looks bad," Eriya said.
"You're right, but we must try."
The two jumps up and flies toward the portal. Folken tries to stop the two,
"It's too dangerous! Stop, both of you!"
"Don't worry. We have good fortune." Naria said
"We'll bring your brother back."Eriya said
On the otherside, everyone sees that the portal was reacting with the two coming through it.
"Something's breaking through the portal." Jayson said
Back inside the vision world, Van was on his knees, his sword stuck through the ground. Balgas was behind him.
"I can hear it...the sounds of war." Balgas said
"I...I hear it too...so much more pain, suffering...death...has yet to come. I don't want to fight anymore. I don't want to kill. To take more lives."
"Then you are doomed." Jayson's image appears in front of him "Van, you must fight!"
The entrance to the Mystic Valley glows and the two Teiring appears under it.
"We did it!" Naria shouted
"We are so lucky!"
Inside the Crusade, Escaflowne glows and then vanishes from the hanger. Then, Escaflowne appears behind the Teirings. Van was inside already.
"Escaflowne?" Allen said
"So...I am brought back to face battle...once again." Van said as he looks up at the Teirings.
"We won't let you get away this time," Naria said
"No help from that cat this time." Eriya said
Van hears Balgas in his head.
"Fight! Break away from the sadness of war with your bloody hands. Lord Van!"
"Fight Van!" Jayson shouted in his head, "The King of our country never runs from his enemies! Fight! Fight them Van! Fight!"
Van stands in the darkness with his sword drawn. Hitomi tries to call out to him.
"Believe in him." Hitomi's grandmother said
"Grandma?"
"If your anxiety brought bad incidents, the opposite should be possible. Hitomi, believe in him."
Escaflwone stood still.
"Escaflowne's pain is my pain...the pain of war." Van takes out Escaflowne's sword, "If war is truly unavoidable...I'll accept the karma of war...along with the sadness of the dead!"
Van points his sword up and everything shakes. The Entrance to the Mystic Valley explodes. Naria and Eriya are swept out of the Mystic Valley.
"Incoming shockwave!" a Zaibach soldier shouted
"Van." Folken said as the fortress was swept away along with the other guymelefs it sent out, including Naria's and Eriya's.
The Enterprise, Hyperion and theThe Crusade, along with its passengers and Escaflowne stand where the Mystic Valley used to be.
"The Mystic Valley has disappeared." Allen said
Escaflowne's cockpit opens. Van steps out. His mother appears in front of him.
"Mother..."
"Van. Your wishes will determine the future of Gaea. " she starts to disappear in the distant.
"Mother!"
"Don't forget Van."
Vari flies away, but drops an energist into Van's hands.
"This is...an energist."
Then Escaflowne's energist reacts to it and so does Hitomi's pendent and Jayson's guymelef.
"What's going on?" Jayson asked,
Hitomi's pendent starts to glow, and so does Escaflowne's energist glows strangely. The one in Van's hand does as well.
"Escaflowne is..." Jayson started to say.
Hitomi and Jayson disappears in a blinding white light.
"Hitomi! Jayson!" Allen runs toward the light but starts to disappear before he moved. Escaflowne and Excalibur both disappears.
"They're gone." Milerna said.
Later, the blinding pillar of light landed in a strange city, covered by machina. It was a place that was almost like it was from Earth, but so different from a modernized world on Earth.
In a room at the citidel's center, Van, Allen, and Hitomi, were transported into a large room. It was the same room where Dornkirk lies. Escaflowne appears behind them.
"Van!" Hitomi shouted as she walked to Van.
"Where are we?" Allen asks
"This place..." Hitomi recognizes it from somewhere in her heart. "We are in Zaibach."
"We are where?" Allen asked, but something happens. The floor began to shake as they realized that they are on a moving platform.
A omnious voice spoke out in the darkness.
"Welcome...those, who are tied to the fate of the Dragon. " The voice was Dornkirk.
They reach the same level as the rest of the room, and the giant machine Dornkirk's on comes into the light.
"Did you bring us here?!" Van demanded
"Yes...Everything is following fate. "
"Fate?" Van said back
"I'll guide Gaea into the future. I'm the leader of the Zaibach Empire. My name is Dornkirk."
"So we are at the center of Zaibach.
"That's the leader of Zaibach...Because of him, my brother is-" Van draws his sword and points it at Dornkirk.
"If I kill you, the tragedies in Gaea'll end!"
"Is that so? War breaks out at anytime, anywhere. War is an unavoidable fate of humanity. It is an 'endless waltz'...war...peace...revolution...continues on forever."
"What do you know about the fate of others?" Van said "You think you are a god? Even a god can't predict the future!"
"I am blessed with ability to predict fate like the people of Atlantis did."
"Atlantis?" Hitomi thought about it and it hit her, "You are Issac!"
"Heh...I haven't heard from that name is quite a while...since my time on Earth."
"So you are the man called Issac that my father met!" Allen said
"So you are Leon's son, are you not? I thought I saw him in your eyes. How miserable of him. If he had given us the secret of Atlantis..."
"You..." Allen was getting anger and readies to draw his ow sword with Van.
"But I discovered the secret of Atlantis myself. I'll complete the Atlantis machine."
"You... why did you come to Giaea? If you hadn't come, everyone would have been happy! "
"That is not true...Even Giaea's been flooded by blood... ...the blood of war before I came here just like Earth. Yes, one day on Earth, I was taken hold of by a question. Everything shares a common principle. There's a drawing force that acts between objects. That's gravity. I wondered why that invisible force exists in the world. People love each other, but kill each other also. That's the nature of the world. Death repeats again and again, and there're so many "orders" in the world. But what could the "origin" of the orders be? That's fate... the fundamental power to sustain the universe."
"Fate?" Hitomi was confused,
"What is fate and its definition? Is there any principles? I devoted everything I had to study and experimentation to solve the mystery. However, I couldn't deduce the answer" Dornkirk remembers his time on Earth and his death. "My wish never weakened, even at the time of death. Rather, it increased. I want to know...I want to know the principle of fate."
Dornkirk remembers being on Giaea for the first time.
"When I awoke, I was in an unfamiliar place. It had barren soil, severe weather, and people who lived by depending on a very limited harvest... They were scared, and suffered from routine invasions. What a severe fate... I realized that I came here to save these people....I gave everything I had, and the wisdom called science. I told them to overcome nature. The science I knew was for the sake of people. I told them to defeat the enemy, and not to follow fate, but to create their own fate. People followed my wishes...and an absolutely idealistic country, the Zaibach Empire, was established. Then, I came to know the legend of Atlantis, which involved the creation of Gaea. That was very important to me. It was the ability of Atlantis to create one's fate. Since then, I've devoted all my knowledge to discover the principle...and finally, I built a device to create fate!"
It was he who create Zaibach, he brought the concept of science to Zaibach before it was its time to awaken that kind of knowledge. He created a modern era here and sent Giaea to his ideal future.
"They say that Atlanteans converted people's wishes into power, and controlled their fate. Yes, Gaea is a creation of Atlantis also."
"Giaea is Atlantis's..."
"To activate the device that can create such a wonderful power...I had to find the power of Atlantis. It was the Power Spot left on Gaea. It was realized by conquering Freid. And the last key, the Dragon called Escaflowne, has come to me, following fate."
"Escaflowne is..."
"And what I've dreamt of... ...the legendary Atlantis Machine, the "Fate Redirector." has been completed."
" Fate redirector?" Van said
"That's wrong!" Hitomi shouted, "To change fate using a machine. You've made so many people suffer to complete this."
Hitomi remembers Fanelia burnt to the ground, Balgas dead, the ruins of Freid, and Duke Freid dying.
"You are wrong in doing this!"
"Sacrifice is a necessary factor in creating a new fate. Small misfortune is a foundation for bigger happiness. If I can create an absolute fortune, everyone will be perfectly happy."
"No...that is wrong! We can't just change our destiny with a machine! It'll destroy us! Just like Atlantis!"
Hitomi was standing on the Moon and she as she stood there was it was cracked into many pieces. It had a large chunk and then a third of it blown away. She saw Giaea and Earth in one place in Space. And another war erupts around her. A fleet spaceships with the banner of Fanelia on the hull as it approaches Earth. Explosions were all around her. Hitomi comes out of the vision, and passes out.
"Hitomi!" Van shouted as he holds her.
"Observe with me...the new fate I am creating..." behind the three, were several guards with firearms. The one in the center was the elf that was on the Vione a while ago. Hitomi was partially awake and sees the elf in dark green armor.
"You are..." but Hitomi passes out again.
On the Crusade, Milerna was standing near Scherazade, looking out at the sky.
"Nothing'll happen even if you keep watching." Dryden said as he approaches her. "We have no idea where they've been taken. It's a waste of time to wander around in the ship, like this."
"Waste time? How can you say that! Your such a-"
"-Yes, I am a merchant. Zaibach is definately going to destroy Gaea. I'll stop it in my own way. I'm sure they will return."
"Dryden..."
"I believe that people's fates are tied together...I believe that my wish'll come true someday."
Back in Zaibach, Escaflowne was being examined by the sorcerors.
"This is the last key to the Fate Redirector. Ispano's Guymelef has such power? We have to find its secret ourselves, no matter what. We can't fall any further behind Folken."
Elsewhere, in a hallway, Jayson appears in his Guymelef.
"Where...where am I?" Jayson turns on his suit's hovering system and flies around a bit. "From the looks of the interior, this looks like...Zaibach!"
Jayson then ends up in a large hallway, where a squad of Zaiback melefs stood guard.
"Yup, I'm in Zaibach country alright." the Zaibach melefs charge at him, bring out weapons. "Great. My luck seems to take to everywhere."
Jayson drew his sword and charges the ground, plowing through them. More came behind him.
"Damn it. It's never ending." Jayson fires his claws at them, and then burns them all with his flame-throwers. "That should cover my trail."
Jayson flies off and then his melef acted weird and came to a stop.
"What the hell is this?" the energist started to glow. "My energist...is reacting to something."
He turns and faced a large door,
"In here?" Jayson opens the doors and jumps in with his sword at the ready.
The room was dark and nothing was in it, say for some columns in the middle of the room. Then all of a sudden, Jaysone felt something in his head and holds his head in pain.
"What is it..." The pain stopped, but he still flet a presence in the room "Who's goes there?! Show yourself!"
Out of the darkness, a black melef with red tirm appeared from invisablity. It was holding a long broad sword backhanded and folds its arms as it spreads demonic looking skeletal bird wings which unfolds.
"You don't belong here..." a dark voice said from the speakers outside of the dark melef. Then, the melef disappears in a blink of an eye and reappears behind Jayson, who jumps out of the way, just narrowly escaping an attack that came from no where.
"What the hell?" Jayson said to himself in shock. No one was ever able to get behind him in a straight one on one battle like that.
The dark melef reapears to his left, and Jayson attacks, but he faded into air before the attack reached him.
"Identify yourself!" the dark melef shouted as he attacked Jayson again from his left with his large sword. Jayson blocks and spreads his wings as he jumps backward. Then, Jayson jumps forward and rams into the mysterious melef and knocks away his sword and then kicks him in the gut. The dark melef fell backward and Jayson points his sword at his throat. "Well, not bad."
The dark melef shoots a pair of liquid metal claw from under his arms at his wrists at Jayson, who jumps back.
"This guy's good," Jayson admitted to himself. "Who are you?!"
"I asked first." the dark melef stood up and from his back he drew two short swords and twirls them around, "If you won't answer me...have at you."
The dark melef dashes forward and crosses blades. Jayson knocks away the blades and it left the dark melef opened so he punches his chest with his left arm and then spun aroun, bringing the full force of his sword at the guy's side as he hits him with the blunt side of the sword, sending him flying.
"Impossible," the dark one said to himself. He was the strongest of them all. A lot more than any of the dragonslayers, or Dilandou. For the first time, this pilot which was the elf that was with Folken that time, was surprised, "Who are you!"
Jayson jumps up and brings his blade onto him, but he missed as the dark melef disappeared and reappeared behind him. He grabs him in the face, but Jayson kicks him in the stomach again and he brought his sword around to strike, but he was blocked. At that moment, the two saw each other's face. Though they were physically blocked with their masks on, they saw each other's face.
"...Jayson..."
"...Link!"
The two seperated and stood apart, swords at the ready.
"So we meet again, old friend." Link said, "I've been expecting this meeting for some time."
Jayson was in rage and attacks him in full force,
"Bastard!" Jayson attacks, but was blocked again, "Traitor!"
Jayson pushes Link back.
"You've betrayed us..." Jayson said, "Why!!"
Jayson jumps at him again and the two clashed again.
"Why are you doing this!?" Jayson pushes him back. Every attack he makes was an attack to kill him, even if he didn't get his question answered. Every attempted strike was meant to kill him. "Answer me Link!"
Link ducks down from an attack and does an up slash at Jayson, slashing the left side of his torso. Jayson falls backward. Link fires his claws at Jayson, and ties them around him.
"Yes, I did change sides...maybe because I saw the future. Perhaps that this was suppose to happen."
"What are you talking about?"
"Destiny changes at a whim on my command, on your command either of us can change the future and mold it to our liking. The destiny where this will lead to...is stained with the blood of our kind."
"I...I don't understand!"
"Don't you see the future? Haven't you seen what lies ahead in the future to come. What I saw was destruction."
Jayson looks at Link's red eyes and sees what he sees.
In this vision Jayson was not in Zaibach. He was standing on Earth or what appeared to be Earth.
"Where am I?" Jayson asked, but there was no answer. Then, the ground shook and there were explosions everywhere. He saw giant mechs walking around the place.
The large dark blue colored mechs had one large yellow colored, eye in the shape of a square. They were firing at something. In the distant, the thing they were firing at...what the Excalibur?
"That is..." Jayson then changes scene and was floating in space.
He saw a huge battle erupt on Earth. He can tell because form Space, large explosions were occuring all over Earth. Some much so that you can even see them in Space. He floated pass by large spaceships with arrays of weapons on their hull.
"This is the future." Link's voice said through the vision. This is what will happen.
Then, the scene was dark and he saw two figures in the distant. It was a couple, and they were in each other's arm. He apparently wasn't noticed by them. The guy to his left looked alot like himself and he saw that he was carrying Van's sword at his side. The look alike lean close to the girl he was holding. The girl looked younger than he was. maybe 16 or so. She had long brown/blonde like hair, with some parts of her hair braided and tied behind her head. and blue eyes.
"She looks like...Zelda." Jayson said
"This is where the path of destiny will go."
Something was bothering Jayson. He felt something wrong about this picture.
"No..." Jayson said to Link
"What?"
"This...this is not right...this is not the future...your vision is clouded."
"What are you talking about. I see the future."
"That is as long as I still live..." Jayson said to himself
"What did you say?!"
The image changed, the same girl was now being held by a different guy. The guy had short cropped brown hair and dark blue eyes.
"Is that suppose to be me?" Link asked
"...no...that isn't you...and the one he's holding isn't Zelda." The scene changed and everything went dark. "The future is what we make of it. We can't just predict it."
Then, someone else interrupts the two. a dark figure appears before them.
"What is this trick?" Link ask, "Who did you bring into this vision?"
"I didin't do anything..."
"The future...is set." the dark figure said
"What?" Link said
"What will happen will happen. The future is forever change because of your decision Jayson."
"My choice?"
"Yes...the choice of life and death...for that choice, the future will be altered."
"Is that why you are here?" Jayson asked "Who are you?"
"I am someone...that doesn't exist...not yet anyway."
"So what? Are you saying you are a being that is not born yet, but then how are you able to exist in this dream vision if you do not exist."
"Oh, I exists alright...just not yet."
Jayson hears something behind him, a chant of some sort. He turns around and appears on a balcony looking over an army of soldiers. Behind the army was a large army of large mechs that he was unfamiliar with. He heard the army chant at him, but he looked besides him and saw Van again. But this was not Van.
"Long live the Duke!" one of the soldiers shouted, "Long live Duke Van Fanel!"
Jayson was shocked to know that this man he stod next to was named Van and he was a Fanel.
"Long live the fighters of the Duke Fanel!" another one shouted
"Hail to the Duke!"
"Hail to the Duke!"
The entire army shouted in praise for this man Jayson stood next to. Then, the Van Fanel he stood next to, turned to face him.
"Jayson...you are not suppose to see this..." Van said
Jayson was back inside the dark room with the cloaked figure and realized something.
"You live outside of time! You exist, but yet you don't exist. You re something that shouldn't exist, but does. This is something beyond scientific explaination..."
"Always the practical one, Jayson." the cloaked one said, "Don't you ever believe in God? That our lives are intertwined in fate."
"There is no such thing as that. It is just something so that the people can have something to live by."
"Yes...but isn't that what God wants us to do. He wants us to have the freedom to believe in what we want...Destiny will call us to do the right thing so that the future can be preserved so that our kind will live on."
"Will I die soon?"
"That I cannot tell you...one day you will be forced to make a decision that will decide the future. We all are fated to change the world."
"So what are you trying to say?" Link asked
The cloaked figure turned to him,
"Destiny will lead the both of you and your families to decide the fate of our race. Fate will lead our families to lead our worlds to the future. We are cursed with this fate."
"A curse?"
"I'm sorry...but that is all the time I have..." the figure began to disappear,
"Wait!" Jayson shouted, but he was gone,
"Make your own choices and that will decide the future."
The vision ended and when Link awoke, Jayson was gone and his claws were untangled,
"What the?"
Jayson slipped out when Link was still out of it.
"The future...is what we decide it will be?"
Jayson saw it again and he saw his death. The sword that was meant to be, struck at him unto death.He can still hear the cloaked one's voice in his head.
"Fate will guide you to change history and mark your blood line with the line of history. Use this power blessed on you and Van to make your mark on history. To forge your path. Dornkirk's path will fall...yours and Link's paths will forge the future."
Jayson activated his cloak and disappears.
"I need to find them."
Back to the others, Van was was in his cage and then he felt something in his chest. Van fell to his knees and held his chest in pain. There was a great pain from his heart, like something was pulling it apart.
"Van!" Hitomi shouted
"They must be trying to dismantle Escaflowne," Allen said
"No, he'll die!" Hitomi tired to reach Van's hand and tries to grab it, but as she did, she felt something and saw as Van struggled on the floor of his cage, Van's hand twitched and so did Escaflowne's hand. "That's right. Van, if you feel Escaflowne's pain, it must work the other way, too. If your wish reaches it, you should be able to control Escaflowne even if you're away from it."
"What?"
"I'll help you. Together we should be able to do it." Hitomi reached out again
"It's too dangerous! You might feel the same pain he is!"
"He's right. You shouldn't feel the pain."
"What're you talking about? You might die at this rate! Hurry, give your hand!"
Hitomi and Van's hands touch and they held each other.
Meanwhile, Dornkirk watches in his Fate Redirector while they hold hands.
"What are they doing?" Dornkirk asked, but then he lost the image, "What? It's gone. I can't see it anymore!"
"I'm alright. Van, imagine Escaflowne. Imagine it strongly! Respond, please."
Escaflowne started to move a bit
"We must focus!" Hitomi said, "Move...it must move..."
Then, Escaflowne awakens and it's energist glows like a light in the darkness. Escaflowne then takes flight and the pain stopped.
"Is this because of that girl's ability?" Dornkirk asked, "Is she doing this?"
Escaflowne breaks through the ceiling and arrives at their cages.
"Escaflowne!" Van shouted
"We did it!" Hitomi shook Van's hand in delight.
The three flew out.
"Van, we should get out of this place first!" Allen shouted
Then, they came across an enemy.
"Allen, hold onto Hitomi!" Van changed Escaflowne into mech mode and attacks, "Go! I'll meet up with you on the roof!"
"Van..." Hitomi looks for a moment, "Take care. Allen, let's go to the roof."
The two ran as Van fights his way out. Dornkirk's vision was clear again,
"I can see them this time, but why?"
Allen runs into a few guards, but he was able to take them out. It was funny that they would throw them into those cages back there and still have their weapons. A guard tries to attack Hitomi, but Allen blocks the attack with his sword. A soldier came behind Allen and attacks.
"Look out Allen!" Hitomi drew her sword and attacks, killing the soldier, "You alright Allen?"
"Yeah...I'm fine,"
"This way," Hitomi points to another direction and ran ahead.
Back with Van, who was fighting the enemy melefs. He was about to be overrun, but a stream of chrima claws flew at them and shreads them into pieces. Van turns arouund and sees Jayson.
"Jayson!?"
"Hey, fancy meeting you in such a place!"
"Yeah, fancy that." Van turns his attention back to his enemies and knocks another melef down,
"We have to get out of here!"
"Hitomi, and Allen are on the roof!"
Hitomi and Allen managed to get to the roof. They stopped at a balcony overlooking the city.
"I wonder if Van's safe." Allen said
"I think he's alright, since it's Van...if anyone can do it, he can"
"..."
"This city looks sad for some reason. I wonder if the people of Zaibach are really happy."
A group of soldiers comes out of the entrance. Allen turns to face them, drawing his sword.
"Here they come. I won't let you have Hitomi, even if it means my life."
"I find comfort in that, but," Hitomi drew her own sword and stood next to Allen, "I am not a weak girl that waits for a knight to save me. Don't leave me out of this."
The two stood together, side by side, and readies to fight. Then, Escaflowne and Excalibur appears behind the two.
"Come on! Let's go!" Van shouted.
"Van!" Hitomi shouted,
"Let's go!"
Allen picks up Hitomi in his arms and gets on Escaflowne.
"Go, go!" Allen shouted.
"Watch out!" Jayson shouted as he flies behind them and shoots at an incoming melef. "Go Van! GO!"
The two melefs soar as they flew higher, but they were being persuide.
"They're gaining on us!" Allen shouted, "We must go faster!"
"This is as fast as we can go!" Van shouted, "This isn't Jayson's melef!"
Jayson flies next to Allen.
"You have to believe in your melef!" Jayson said to Van in his head, "Believe and it will happen!"
Van closed his eyes and concentrates.
"Must go faster...Escaflowne!" Van can feel something from Escaflowne, "Escaflowne!"
Then, Dornkirk lost his vision again and was blind again.
Outside, Escaflowne's wings closed up and out from its sides were some kind of booster pack and Escaflowne blasted off. Jayson was then able to activate his full power and jets off to catch up.
"When the Dragon and the girl get close, the vision of the future blurs. The girl from Earth is the key to solving everything."
As Escaflowne flies faster and faster, it passed the Vione, and Folken saw Van. For a moment in time and space, it all stopped for a moment. Van and Folken looked at each other and saw each other's eyes. Then, time resumed and Escaflowne flies pass the fortress, followed by Jayson.
Once Escaflowne reaches a safe distance, it revert's to it's normal mode. Jayson was finally able to catch up and flies next to it. Allen was holding onto Hitomi very tightly.
"Uh, Allen...that hurts."
"Sorry." Allen lets go."
Hitomi looks out in space and thinks to herself.
"The leader of the Zaibach Empire, Dornkirk...a man from the Mystic Moon. Is this the thread of our fate?"
Jayson looks at the two and sees the future again. He saw what was to come...and that future was going to be harsh.
"From now on until the future, our paths will be hard. We must decide for ourselves...our future."
To be contunued...