Chapter Twenty Nine

Laughter could be heard from the invisible guymelof. "So reinforcements have arrived." The person said to where they could only hear. "Great timing to."

"Damn, you won't get her!" Van shouted angrily as he glared at the two guymelofs as he turned around after they landed.

"Van-Sama, Van-sama, Hitomi-Sama is…"

"Get her? Why would I want to do something like that?" The voice asked.

"Right, didn't I make you promise to protect her Van? You seem to be doing a poor job of that."

………….

"There's one other piece of information you might want to know Millerna." Dryden said. "According to our spies, Prince Mamoru is alive, and has escaped from where they where keeping him."

Millerna's eyes went wide. "How long?"

"He's been alive this whole time, he was just unconscious, however, he escaped about a week ago, with the help of a friend."

…………

"Did you forget who I was already Van?" The voice asked again. "I'll deal with you later then. Amano, got a visual of the guymelof?" It asked the second guymelof.

"Yes sir, I do." Amano answered.

"Ah, never mind, I see it now, I'll deal with it, and no ands, ifs, or buts." The voice said. "THIS IS PAYBACK YOU ZAIBACH SCUM!" The green guymelof's samurai shouted and ran forward, with sword in hand. "DIE!"

As soon as his sword pieced through the metal of the guymelof, screaming could be heard from the soldier inside and the guymelof busted in to flames. "That was for earlier you scum."

"That's the only one that they sent sir." The one who the green guymelof had called Amano earlier said.

"Good, contact Allen and tell him to hurry up and get down here so we can get to Palas as quick as we can. We have someone wounded downhere."

Van was already jumping down from EscaFlowne and was instantly at Hitomi's side. "Hitomi, Hitomi!" Van shouted.

"Sorry Van…" Hitomi apologized weakly. "I didn't sense that one."

"Hitomi, hold on, don't worry."

"I must be dead…" Hitomi whispered. "Oni-Chan, Amano-Sempai…" She said as she removed her hand from Van's face and raised it to her brother. "Oni…chan…"

"HITOMI!"

"Calm down, it isn't fatal, but she needs a good healer." Mamoru's voice suddenly said which brought Van's attention to his brother in law. "You, how…"

"Later, right now we need to get Hitomi taken care of." Mamoru interrupted. "Gods Allen, finally." Mamoru said as Crusade landed. "Get her inside quickly, we'll take care of EscaFlowne."

"You can't pilot it though…" Van protested. "Only…"

"You really are an idiot." Mamoru said annoyedly. "We have other methods of getting a guymelof to move. "We pick it up with cranes, not birds, but oh, there's no point in explaining, it's technology that we have in Tier."

The mention of Tier would have normally sent Van's anger off, but Hitomi was more precious to him at the moment then his pride. "Whatever." He then quickly went to the ship.

…………

"Allen, do you have a healer?" Van asked the blonde.

"I'm glad to see that your safe to Van, and no we don't."

"Damn! Hitomi…"

"Calm down, she's not going to die from a wound like that, she's probably stronger then she looks if she's Mamoru's sister." Allen said trying to calm the king. "All we can do for her now is bandage her up until we get to Palas."

"I'll do that Van-Sama!" Merle offered suddenly.

"Merle, why…"

"I'm the only female on board Van-Sama…" Merle said in a no duh tone of voice. "I'm not going to let one of you peeping toms violate Queen Hitomi."

Van relaxed a little. "Arigato, Merle."

"Don't mention it, just get her somewhere where I can do it."

"Hai…" Van said with out arguing as he looked to Mamoru. "This is your ship isn't it?" He asked.

"Hai, follow me, Amano, have the rest of the crew take care of things."

"Sir!" Amano said instantly and Mamoru started to walk quickly towards the ship.

……………

"When I woke up, I was in a dark room, my mother was trying to tell me that I was insane and that's not really what happened. I have a bad feeling that in addition to this war that's starting with Zaibach, that there is going to be a war with in Tier. Most people think that it's time for mother to step down as queen since she's loosing it a bit, and that I should take over as King, but mother is stubborn. If any one even mentions that in her presence, she kills them on the spot. She has gotten really bad over the past few years, and even worse since I helped Hitomi escape and took her to Fanelia to marry you." Mamoru explained. "Amano, is my captain you might say, underneath me since I was technically captain until I abandoned the country. Mien is the new captain and well he's loyal to mother I'm afraid to say. He's a good guy, he's just as crazy as she is. Amano here had a difficult time finding out that I was still alive and not dead, which I'm surprised that I'm not since I remember dieing…" Mamoru said, his voice breaking for a moment at the memory. "It took him at least a week to figure out that information and a week more to gather up my most trusted men and helped bail me out of there. Good thing they did to because I would have gone crazy…" He shuddered at the thought. "You must have really pissed her off, mother I mean."

"I don't remember doing that but that's possible…" Van said trying to think of when he pissed her off.

"She wouldn't betray an ally like this so easily." Mamoru said. "I don't know what's going on."

It was at that moment that the door opened and Merle came out. "She's all bandaged up, I don't know if I did a good job or not since I didn't really take any nursing classes or anything or go watch them at the healing center, but well from remembering what they did to Van-Sama when he got injured a lot when we where little I think I did an ok job." Merle said and expected Van to glare at her for leaking out that piece of embarrassing information, but he just placed a hand on her shoulder.

"Thanks Merle." Van said quietly and then made his way in to the room.

"I thought you said that he didn't like her…" Amano said curiously and was punched in the head.

"Mind your own business!" Mamoru snapped.

"But she was my friend growing up and…." Amano was punched in the head again. "Hai, hai, understood!"

Merle looked at the two with a confused look on her face. 'Are those two gay or something and this is their way of showing their love?' She thought to herself as she stared at the strange pair.

……………

Van looked down at Hitomi and clenched his fists. If he had been able to see those invisible guymelofs he would have been able to protect her and stop the attack from proceeding. He would have been able to… He then felt a comforting hand on his shoulder. He turned his head to see Mamoru, why was Mamoru being so nice to him? He had failed to keep his promise and protect his sister so why didn't Mamoru punch him or something? He would have felt better then.

"It wasn't your fault Van, you can't exactly see Zaibach's guymelofs."

"You could!" Van snapped. "Hitomi can!"

"She can can she? Well that doesn't surprise me." Mamoru said half thinking out loud. "We also have just developed a technology that can…" Mamoru shut up as soon as he saw Van's fist clenching. 'This boy still has a bad temper…' (He should be one to talk!) Mamoru thought to himself and watched as Van ran past him at that moment and out of the room. Mamoru sighed. "Still troublesome."

"Sir, do you think that she'll be ok?" Amano asked suddenly, who had a very worried look on his face. "Even though Earth is a fast ship, she can only make it there no later then dawn."

"I hope so, even though the wound is fatal, she can still die from the lack of blood."