Chapter 34: Power

"Hitomi? Hitomi? Wake up." The voice that had been yelling before was now whispering. The blinding light was back again... and then the room went strangely black. She felt very light headed. Blinking, Hitomi tried to sit up, but someone's arms were wrapped tightly around her, preventing her from moving. "Hitomi, don't get up yet. We have to be very quiet and you've been out for quite some time, just rest a bit first." She knew that voice.

"Folken...?" Her head was clearing now and she could see Folken sitting beside her, holding her tightly, but... where were they? She had been in the training center inside the castle when she had had her vision of... "Van!" She exclaimed, bolting upright and startling Folken. Tears were in her eyes before she even felt the hot sting of the memories.

"Hitomi! Calm down, calm down...sshhhhh..." Folken whispered, hugging her tightly to his chest to muffle her cries. "Be still, or we might not be able to change that vision you had."

"But Van.. he was.. he..." She sobbed.

"They're getting worse, aren't they?" Folken looked down at her with cool eyes. "You can't control your visions anymore, they have become too powerful. That is why you keep blacking out." He looked over his shoulder and around the corner he was sitting against. It was a ruined pillar. As she looked around, Hitomi somehow knew where they were.

"This is... Freid." She turned in his arms to look at more of the room. "But where are we?"

"We are in Fortuna Temple." He answered, turning back to her. "This is the temple the Dutchy of Freid has been holding the Power of Atlantis in for over a thousand years. I believe..."

"That that power is what called us here?" She offered.

"No, it called you here. I was only taken by accident." Folken stated, glancing around the pillar again.

"Nothing happens by accident." Hitomi said as she absent-mindedly reached for her grandmother's pendant. Hitomi let out a yelp. "My pendant, it's gone!"

Van's head rested against his chest as he did his best to catch what little sleep he could before the upcoming battle. He was leaning against Escaflowne's massive shoulder, having forgone his royal quarters to stay with his melef. The Asturian army, along with their allies, had managed to work its way deep into Zaibach. In only a few days they had surrounded the capital, but the young King knew that it had been far too easy. The enemy was setting them up for a trap. The city they had surrounded was vast and could easily hide masses of troops and guymelefs, not to mention any other Zaibach weapons.

A soft glow woke him. 'Huh...? Hitomi's pendant. How did I get this? Why is it glowing...?'

"Your Majesty!" Van looked down at the officer below, quickly covering the glowing stone with a gloved fist. "Zaibach forces are advancing!" The soldier cried out before leaving to tell the other men. So the final battle was starting.

'Don't worry Hitomi, I'll make it back to you.'

"Shhhh!" Again Folken tried to quiet Hitomi. "If we are not quiet the guards will hear us."

She hushed, giving Folken an apologetic look as she stood to peer around the pillar. Hitomi blinked. The room was empty.

The white guymelef slashed through the enemy troops with ease, bringing down it's foes with mighty sword strokes.

"AAHHHHHH!" The warrior King cried out. Each swing of his sword felled more enemies, but each melef he cut down was replaced with two more, ensuring that the battle was never one on one.

Zaibach was ruthless. Their melefs walked on everything and everyone. They crushed many of their own men right along with their enemies. As long as the enemy was crushed and they came out victorious, they didn't care who died.

"They will use and kill anyone... just to get what they want." Folken's strong voice filled his head. "They don't care about the cost of life, it means nothing to them." Van growled at the thought. Even now the cries of helpless men dying out on the barren battle ground fueled his anger. Many men lay crushed by fallen or passing Guymelefs; leaving them helpless, doomed to lay on the battle field, waiting for the next passing soldier or melef to put them out of their living hell. These men had families... didn't Zaibach even care!

Turning, Van's sword disarmed a charging enemy's black guymelef. Van moved on, leaving it fall to the ruined red earth below.

Folken's voice called out to Hitomi as she walked around the pillar and started to move toward the center of the room, but she didn't stop to listen. There were no guards, and she just knew that none were going to come. This place had been waiting for her.

As she walked deeper into the room, her eyes locked onto the lion statue sitting in the center of the floor. In its mouth it held a sword.

"The Key to the power of Atlantis..." she whispered. The blue haired man moved back as he watched. He knew that she held the key to that power... but what would happen when it was released? He was torn between trying to stop her before she possibly ended all life on Gaia, and cheering her on so that she would use her power to set things right. But she had been brought here for a reason. Whatever that may be.

As she walked on Hitomi no longer saw the ruined stone room around her, or felt Folken's eyes on her back. All she could see and feel was the warm white light that shot up from the statue, through the proud lion's eyes and into her own.

Again the pendant flared to life, brighter than ever before. Escaflowne stumbled back and Van's opponent did the same as the white light shone through the gaps in Escaflowne's visor.

"What the hell is going on?" Van yelled, cursing the light. He was open to attack if he couldn't see. Throaty laughter turned his attention as the light started to fade.

"What's the matter, you demon, can't take the heat?" The cold voice laughed again and Van could hear the unmistakable sound of a melef's sword being drawn.

Van cried out in shared pain as the sword was sliced down the Ispano guymelef's chest, feeling the burning pain in his own. The laugh rang out again.

As Van stumbled back his vision finally cleared. It was Scherazade. "Allen..."

All she could see around her was light, white and warm. A warm breeze caressed her face and seemed to wrap itself around her body. It felt so comforting. There were voices too. They were telling her that everything would be alright. That she was safe, and that they would guide and protect her.

"Who...are you?" Hitomi's voice echoed.

We are the powers that be.

A single white feather fell from above, coming to a stop in the air before her. The long white feather spun in slow, lazy circles. It was close enough that she could have reached out and touched it, she already knew that it would feel as soft as down, but she didn't. Hitomi kept her hands at her sides.

"But who are you?" She asked again.

We were once the people of a place long forgotten and cursed.

"Atlantis..." She whispered.

Yes.

"But..."

Listen, our child, for you have much to ask and little of your own time.

"What do you mean?"

The feather before her stopped, a single drop of red staining its perfect purity before it started to turn again.

Time is running short for a soul you hold dear. There is much that needs to be finished before that soul ends.

"Van!" Hitomi cupped her hands over her mouth to muffle her cry. She had seen it in her vision. Van was going to die.

Yes, child... Many, many years ago, long before your time, we all lived happily. We, the winged people of the skies, watched over our home world. But then that young world no longer needed us. They no longer needed our guidance or wanted our help. There was no need for us to stay there. So the elders gathered and decided that we needed a new home, a new world to call our own. So we created Gaia.

"So.. you did live back on earth."

Yes, once we did.

"But what happened? I thought that your home on earth was destroyed."

It was... but not in the way that many believe. You see, to make a world, souls are needed. That is how we create all new worlds, with our very souls. Yes, child, we originally created your world as well.

Hitomi listened. She did not want to interrupt.

But there were some, young ones, that did not want to leave their home or give their lives. They wished to stop the elders.

"Then the fire...?" The vision was faint now, and seemed so long ago but she had once saved Van from the ruins of Atlantis in a dream. The city had been burning.

The youths brought together their forces and tried to appeal to the elders, but the decision had already been made. In the panic that followed, the oil that fueled the sacred temple fires was spilled into the river that ran through the city, causing it to burn. Civil war erupted.

The voice paused as another drop of crimson stained the white feather.

Many died. Their souls left that plane of existence, and they were sent into the heavens by the elders. The hearts of many of our peaceful people grew heavy, and their confusion caused the planet to become unstable. This brought upon the eruption of the volcano, which had always remained silent before. We... did what we could. Those that did not survive were sent to help bring life to this world. Those who lived did their best to recover their strength in order to journey to their new home.

"You are the souls that were sent to give life to this world..."

Yes child, we are those that did not live. Now we strive within this world, to give it life and ensure its continued existence.

He was able to recover, the anger helped. Escaflowne stood tall and mighty before the rogue knight's guymelef. The dragon armor's red lined cape blew back in the hot wind that whipped across the killing plains.

"I have been waiting for this day to come. The day when I would rid this world of the last of your kind." Allen's voice was filled with rage. So unlike the knight he once knew.

"What are you doing, Allen? Why are you with Zaibach?" Van swung his sword before him, it arched into the air, stopped, and waited for the next attack.

"What? You think I would side with a cursed Demon King? Ah!" He charge, his sword forward to impale the young King.

Escaflowne side stepped the attack, bringing its sword down into Scherazade's shoulder as it passed. "That all you got?" Van smirked, turning back around for the next attack. He the knight wanted to play, he was game.

Allen flew at him with a fury of slices, strikes and blows.

"Why have you called me here?" She asked, watching with growing concern as two more drops of blood fell onto the white feather. It was spinning even more slowly now, almost not at all.

You were born with one of our stray souls, child. As such, you are the only living being on either world that is pure Atlantian, thus, all of our power belongs to you.

The image of the feather before her faded as the brightness grew and blinded her. A scorching wind blew back her hair and tore the clothes from her slim form. It felt as if her very skin was being burnt off. Hitomi screamed.

Escaflowne's left arm hung useless at its side, but oddly enough, Van didn't feel the pain in his own arm. The dragon's energist started to glow as Van leaped at Allen again, their swords locking as they both snarled at one an other.

"When I have finally rid this world of you, I plan to kill your mother as well, and that wretched traitor you call a brother. I will personally kill all of your kind. Then Hitomi... she will be mine." His voice turned husky with desire at the thought of Hitomi.

"You will never have Hitomi! I will never let you have her! AAHHH!" Van leaned his full weight onto his sword, breaking the stalemate. Allen spun around, and their swords locked again.

"You won't be around to stop me." The blond knight laughed as his sword melted around the young King's.

"What the-"

"Oh... I forgot to mention... I got a bit of a... oh lets call it a tune-up." Allen said as he snapped the dragon's sword.

She felt her feet land softly back on solid ground. Her body felt hot but wonderful. When Hitomi opened her eyes, she found herself back in the ruins of Fortuna Temple. Folken stood at her side now. His eyes wide with shock, his mouth hanging slightly open.

She held out her hand and looked at it. Her pale skin now emitted a soft white glow of power. Her clothes had changed as well. A white dress, low cut in both front and back, hugged her maturing form. Slits ran up both sides of the skirt to about mid thigh to allow freedom of movement. And Van's gift, the dagger, was tucked into a golden belt draped around her waist. She looked over her right shoulder to see her bow and arrows crossed over her back. She blinked at the flow of white light coming from her back. She had wings. It saddened Hitomi that she had only the spirit of her own wings. They would no longer let her soar on the winds or twine with the clouds, but they were there, a faint translucent glow of power showing where her wings had once been.

Her mind was strangely calm. She knew what she had to do next.

Raising her right hand, she called forth a beam of light.

To be continued