"Miss Hitomi, we're going to ask that you go back to the day that Van had disappeared from Gaea to go to the Mystic Moon to "save you" from a fate that his dreams had been showing him." Hitomi nearly bridled at the implication that Van wasn't following a vision that he had in his dreams, but was trying to get her to go to Gaea so he could have a romp with her.
"What is it that you want to ask me?" She replied, the level of control she was exerting over herself evident in her voice.
"Did Van tell you while he was there why he was there, and what he wanted to do about it?"
"Well, no he didn't." She said thoughtfully as her memories of what happened immediately before the accident that got her to Fanelia were still a little fuzzy.
"Let the record show that on the day before Fanelia's king, Van Fanel returned with Hitomi Kanzaki, he had gone of his own free will to the Mystic Moon to retrieve Miss Hitomi on the grounds that he had been having a series of nightmares involving her and a potentially fatal accident." The defense counsel announced for the court to hear and then continued to question Hitomi.
"When Lord Van did speak with you while he was on the Mystic Moon, what did he tell you?" A trap question, one that could be used against her or Van. But unfortunately Hitomi was under oath and her own faith in Van and her friends would not allow her to lie.
"When Van found me we did not get a lot of time to talk until I was excused from school. When we were far enough away from the school that we would not disrupt any classes we spoke briefly. He asked me to come back to Gaea and Fanelia, telling me that he, and others needed me." she paused and smiled as she lived in that memory for a moment before she brought herself back to the court and continued.
"To be honest, I wanted to see Van again. I knew that he cared about me, and I him. BUT," She emphasized. "I almost didn't come back. My life on Earth was starting to settle down again after my last visit to Gaea and I was getting ready to graduate from my school."
"Why didn't you stay on the Mystic Moon?" The question came almost immediately after Hitomi's answer.
"I didn't stay because I could feel Van's need, and through him I could sense my other friends here on Gaea. They all missed me, and to tell the truth, I missed them too. I decided to come back for a visit, but the accident that had me broken in pieces caused that visit to turn into my stay." Hitomi was starting to get a little defensive herself as she could feel the condescension from the defense counsel and it translated into her clenching her hands in her lap and her extreme refusal to look at the man.
Celena, Van and Dryden noticed this and Celena put forward a motion for the court to take a short recess so that Hitomi could have a break since it was clear that she would be up on the stand all day. Chid looked at Hitomi and noticed what those farther away did not. Her jaw was clenched when she wasn't speaking as if she was holding back a rather rude comment that would embarrass the court. Seeing that he nodded and agreed to a 15 minute recess.
When they came back to the court, Hitomi was in a much calmer frame of mind and ready to endure the slings and arrows of whatever was coming from the defense counsel. Places were taken and the court called to order when the defense stood and moved over to Hitomi to continue questioning her.
"Miss Hitomi, surely someone who can see a person's fortune as clearly as you claim to be able to must be very powerful. Perhaps even powerful enough to change the future should she see it far enough in advance to set things in motion?"
Hitomi looked at the defense with a raised eyebrow while reigning in a great deal of surprise and even shock. No one, save for her closest friends knew about her ability to try and change a possible future to something better. Fortunately she didn't have to answer as Celena spoke up from the prosecution. "Objection, leading the witness."
"Objection sustained. Counselor, get to the point." Chid leveled a near glare at the defense counsel that made both of the counselors gulp before recovering their composure.
"The point, is that it has been noted on other occasions that Miss Hitomi has in fact used the power of her pendant and her own wishes to try and change a future to something of her own whim. Who is to say that she didn't contrive this change in Lord Van from her station just before she left Gaea at the end of the war?"
"I could never do that! I love Van too much, I love all of my friends too much to want to hurt them like that! When I did try to change a future, it was because I wanted my friends to be happy, not as you would lead everyone to believe. If you doubt me, ask Millerna and Dryden as it was their future I had tried to make easier for them." Hitomi, stung to the quick, answered quickly and glared openly at the counsel. They were trying to discredit her, she saw that now and she'd be damned if she'd let them.
However the court was buzzing with this information and there was a lot of sympathy that was starting to swing towards the princess on the basis of a supposition. Hitomi glanced at Van and could tell that he was upset, a quick mental conference later and they were both wondering how it was that the counsel had gotten their information.
Hitomi looked at Dryden and Celena helplessly from the stand as the sudden swing in feelings pounded on her senses. However it was Chid that saved her from the court's sudden jerk to life. Slapping his hand on the desk with a resounding boom he instantly had the court's attention.
"Maintain order please or I will follow through and have this turned into a Private Trial." His treble voice may have discredited his position, but the command in his tone assured everyone that he was still very much in charge and that he would do as he said he would regardless of what the ruling lord of Fanelia thought.
Once assured that no one else would start speaking out of line, he turned to the defense counsel and nodded for them to continue.
Nodding in thanks he turned the questioning over to his partner. A woman that seemed to be every bit as sharp as her appearance suggested. "Miss Hitomi, its a pleasure to meet you."
Taken off guard by this suddenly polite and clearly non-hostile greeting Hitomi could only nod back and smile slightly.
"Miss Hitomi, this is going to sound like a revision of the question that my partner just asked a moment ago, but keep in mind the differences and answer to it OK?" She smiled slightly, knowing full well that antagonizing Hitomi would only get Lord Van riled up and would do none of them any good.
"Near the end of the War," She paused here to allow Hitomi to remember everything that happened then and then continued at her nod. "You and Lord Van had an encounter with something called the 'Destiny Machine'. Can you please tell us what it was and what it was supposed to do?"
Hitomi pulled together all of the information that she had gotten from Eisacc, Folken, Dryden, Varie, Allen's Father's journals and her own visions about the machine before answering. "The Destiny Machine is a powerful piece of technology dating back to the times when the Atlantians first created and came to Gaea. Once activated, the machine had the power to generate a field that would allow anyone's wishes and desires to come true."
"I see, and how was it that you came to know about how the Destiny Machine worked?" Was the next question.
"I was on the air ship Crusade when Dryden first read about the possibility to have one's wishes come true by a machine in Allen's father's journals. The next bits of information came from talks with Van's mother, then the visions that showed what happened to the Atlantians while we were all in the Mystic Valley." Thinking on what happened next she continued.
"As the war continued, Folken defected and showed us quite a bit of the technology that had been recreated or developed. I found out more about the Destiny Machine from him, including the plans for it to be used on Gaea."
"Did you used the opportunity to have your wish granted Hitomi?"
"No, because I no longer needed it to be granted. I had learned quite a bit about myself, and knew that given time and effort, peace on Gaea could be achieved with out mystical intervention." Hitomi was starting to stress. She had no idea what this defense counselor was trying to do. On one hand she was being treated with some dignity unlike the previous counselor. On the other, she knew that the whole idea was still to discredit her.
"And what about Van's feelings?"
"While I was watching the final battle in Dornkirk's stronghold, I was only able to reach out to Van to prevent him from killing Allen in a battle over Dilandau. Once he understood my feelings and I understood everyone else's, he left the battlefield and came to rescue me from Dornkirk, who by that time was dead at the hands of his brother Folken."
Hitomi now appealed to the woman's sense of right and wrong and then to her feelings. "Don't you see? I didn't need to wish for Van to love me, because he already did. After the war, Van had nightmares about the bloodshed and the violence that he had encountered. I was there to help him get past the worst of it and help start the rebuilding of Fanelia. But when it was time for me to go, I didn't want to leave. But Van and I both knew that I had to go back to my own world, and it was he that sent me back."
This silenced the court completely when it became abundantly clear that she was not acting. That Hitomi really did feel this way and what she told was the truth. How could it not be, when most of the facts that she had told them were corroborated with the facts that had been told in the War Trials. Something she had not been on Gaea to witness.
The woman took a look at her notes, as much to remind herself as to where she was in the questioning as to give herself a moment to regain her composure. After consulting with her partner for a moment, she looked troubled yet looked at Chid. "The defense has no further questions."
Chid looked at the prosecution, then to Hitomi, and finally at Van before coming to a decision. "In the interests of Lord Van's recovery, court will reconvene tomorrow morning."
Hitomi sat on the stand until the royal court area was cleared before looking over at Chid. "In the interest of Van's recovery indeed Chid." She chuckled. "You just want to keep Millerna from turning on you."
Chid laughed, the stress and worries of the day easing from his face with the much needed release of tension. "True. But I could see that you were stressing as well Hitomi. I don't want to see you go through so much when you have already done more than your share of helping to bring peace to Gaea."
"Hitomi. We'd best go to our quarters for our meal." Hitomi looked at Van, not understanding his sudden change in behavior. There was a change in his attitude that scared her, and she could only nod in agreement and follow him in the hopes of getting an answer.