AN: Ok, I'm finally going to get Hitomi and Solaye to Gaia, this chapter will be filled with mushy stuff and other romantic things. You get a hint at the power that Solaye can control, and I bring out more of her timid side here. The only time she acts like herself is when she and Hitimi are alone. There will be more on Solaye and her family troubles later, too.
Disclaimer: I don't own Escaflowne.
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"Uh, nothing's happening."
"Arg! We've been trying for an hour, why won't it work?" Hitomi all but screamed. The sun was starting to set, and it the nights were still cold.
"I'm sorry, I've tried everything, I just can't do it." Solaye was close to tears.
"No, no, I'm sorry, it's not your fault. I shouldn't have snapped at you. I don't know how we are going to get you to visualize Gaia without having ever seen it."
"Are you sure that's what it meant?"
"YES! Maybe. No." Hitomi finished quietly.
"What, exactly, did the cards say?"
"They said to- Oh my God. How could I have been so damn stupid!"
"What? What is it?"
Hitomi calmed down and said, "I did two readings, one on how *I* could get back with the token, and one on what *we* should use as the token to get back."
"I still don't see the problem."
"Well, the first answer was to visualize Van and Gaia with the token, and the second one was that the feather was the token and that you should use it."
"Which means, that what you would have to do to get back would be different than what I would have to do." Solaye said, as the explanation dawned on her.
"Yes, unfortunatly, though, I'm too drained to do another reading tonight. We can do one tomorrow."
Solaye was angry, she had just wasted good time doing nothing, she hated wasting time. She was also cold and hungry. Hitomi was oblivious to the ticking time bomb her roomate was. "Hitomi?" Solaye asked softly, in a menacing voice.
"Yes?" Hitomi was wary.
Solaye's voice gradualy got louder and more angry as she continued, "Do you mean to tell me that I just stood out here for an hour, in the cold, for nothing, because *you* didn't ask the right question?" Hitmoi tried to stop Solaye, whom she had never seen so angry before, but Solaye was on a rampage. "That it took you one hour to actually go over what the cards said and realize that I might be different from you, that I might *not* want to return to Van, so therefore he *wouldn't* be the thing that would pull me to Gaia?"
A blue light had started to emanate from the feather. It started off slowly, but became larger, faster, as Solaye raged on. Hitomi noticed this and called out, "Solaye!"
"No! Don't you Solaye me. I had to stand out here cold and hungry for no damn reason, and now you are telling me that we have to wait! I'm going to sit here all night if I have to, to make this thing work, and you are going to sit here with me! Or, you are going to read your damn cards and tell me how to do this, and save us a lot of trouble."
Solaye finally noticed the blue light engulfing them and suddenly realized what was happening. In a more scared tone, she asked, "Is this the light?"
Hitomi smiled softly and nodded, still shocked and pleased at her friends outburst and its results. It would stand to reason that her timid and shy friends would be able to get them to Gaia only by losing her temper. It was the first time she had ever done it, and Hitomi was going to make sure it wasn't the last. It was good to see her friend have some life in her for a change. Hitomi's thoughts were stifled by the glare in her friends eyes, then again, she thought to herself, maybe it would be better if Solaye's temper wasn't directed at her.
"Told you we would sit here until hell froze over until I got it. I did do it, too. Without any of your help." This last burst of confidence shot the blue light into a pillar and the two girls started floating. The world stretched out beneath them and the stars twinkled above them.
All of her newly gained confidence ebbed from Solaye's body, and she cried out in fear. "What's happening! Oh God, we're going to die, we're going to die."
Hitomi laughed and enjoyed the familiar feeling of floating away. She held onto Solaye's hand in an effort to calm her and said, "Don't worry, we are not going to die, have fun, live a little and enjoy the ride."
"'Have fun' she says, 'live a little', yeah right, if I live any more, I'll die." Solaye pointedly ignored Hitomi's giggle at her comment and closed her eyes, trying, but failing, to not imagine her gruisome death from falling from such a long up. She did that for what seemed like hours, but in reality for no more than thirty seconds, when she heard Hitomi gasp.
Opening her eyes, Solaye saw a green expanse of land beneath her swiflty rising up to meet her. Looking up, she saw Earth and the Moon looking down on her. "How could that be?" she thought, wondering aloud, "We should be facing the other way, I didn't feel us flip over."
"Oh, stop trying to find a feasible explanation for everything, just brace yourself for impact." They thudded to the ground and Hitomi landed expertly on her feet, while Solaye, not being as athletic as Hitomi, landed flat on her behind. They stood up and looked around. They were in a small clearing inside a forest.
"Well, what now?"
"If I remeber correctly, this is the forest to the west of the castle, which means if we go that way," Hitomi pointed away from the almost non-existant light of the sun, "We can reach Fanelia castle."
"You know the way, so you go first." Solaye said quickly. The thought of being in an unfamiliar place, about to meet unfamiliar people that Hitomi knew, ut she didn't, scared her. They weren't able to move from there places when a something crashed through the brush and form barreled into Solaye and threw her on the ground from which she had just gotten up from.
The other form rolled and recovered before staring at the two. Solaye backed away in fear as she realized that this person wasn't human, but was part cat. Looking towards Hitomi's face, she saw confusion quickly be replaced by recognition.
"Merle!" She screamed.
Merle looked closely at her until dawning recognition came to the catwoman. "Hi-Hitomi?"
Hitomi nodded and said, "Miss me?"
Merle pummeled her to the ground and hugged Hitomi fiercly, "You have no idea." She got up and brushed herself off. Helping Hitomi to her feet, she explained, "We have to go, that love of yours is trying to play hero again and is going to get himself killed."
"Van? That idiot." Hitomi cursed and said, "Well? Lets get going."
Merle ran off and Hitomi followed. In the darkness, Solaye sat there confused until she realized that they had forgotten about her and ran to catch up. "Hey!" She yelled. "Wait for me!"
Hitomi stopped suddenly when and remembered, "Solaye!"
"Who?"
"The girl I was with, she's not with us." Whatever else she might of said was cut off as Hitomi clutched her head and gasped. Solaye finally caught up and put her hands on her knees, panting. She wasn't used to running and quickly tired. When Hitomi recovered, her eyes were full of fear. "Oh God." She whispered.
"What is it?" Solaye asked, concerned.
"I had a vision, Van was about to-Oh God, I have to warn him." With that, Hitomi ran off, with Merle in her wake.
As Solaye watched them leave she muttured to herself, "Why me, why me." And she steeled herself, against her body's protests, to run after them.
Van was fighting back to back with Kane. They were strategicaly placed so that only a few guimelefs could attack them at one time. They were tiring out quickly and Van knew he was going to have to retreat soon, but he couldn't get an opening. His back was open for a split second as Kane fought another opponent. Van himself was busy fighting his own battle and was unaware of the danger behind him. An enemy guimelef started charging at his unsuspecting prey and was about to strike, when, through the noise of battle, a voice was heard.
"Van! Look out behind you!"
Van instinctively knew who it was. Hitomi? he thought, What is she doing here? In one swift move, he felled the enemy behind him, and turned and sliced through the other. The battlefield was clear for a moment as the guimelefs seemed more intent on destroying the palace instead of them.
Van looked down and saw Merle and Hitomi running towards them. He didn't have time to question anything, he only knew that she was there. "Kane, get Merle and retreet, I'll follow you." He ordered. Kane's guimelef was partly based off the Zaiboch(AN: I don't know how to spell it, so this could easily be wrong.) models in that it had the ability to fly, so Van was confident that they would be able to escape together.
Through the destruction, he saw Kane bend down and close his fist around Merle, he took a running start and lifted off the ground. Hitomi found herself being lifted by Van and put on his shoulder as he yelled, "Hold on tight."
Solaye broke through the bushes just in time to see what seemed to be a giant robot become an equally large dragon. She paled when she realized that Hitomi was on it and was leaving, with her only chane of escape. She ran out onto the battlefield, hoping she would be noticed, when a large piece of rubble started to fall. Her hands reached up instinctively and clutched her head while she cowered down, and screamed.
The scream broke through Hitomi's dazed thoughts and she hurridly remembered Solaye. Turning to Van, she yelled, "Solaye! I came here with her, we've got to help her." Van also turned in the direction of the scream and saw a girl cowering, trying to shield herself from certain death. He then watched, amazed, as the falling debris exploded in mid air, and became a harmless shower of dust.
Solaye looked up, shocked that she wasn't dead by now. Her wonderment was short lived as she saw a dragon racing towards her, and Hitomi leaning over the edge. As it neared, her friends voice shouted out, "Solaye, grab on!" The rush of wind flew by her and almost knocked her back, but she had the strength to reach out to Hitomi's hands, the touched, barely, before the forse of the wind broke them apart.
Solaye clawed frantically at the dragon as it rushed past. She saw the horror in Hitomi's eyes as another piece of the building behind her start to fall. Solaye ignored the instinct to pull back her bleading hands as her finger struggled to find purchase, anything that she could grab on to, the Dragon flew by, until her arm latched onto something, a leg.
Solaye rejoiced as her other arm automatically came around it, and she was lifted from the ground, just seconds before she would have been pulverized. Her euphoria died quickly as she heard Hitomi scream and her own grip slip. "Help!" she yelled, but the rushing wind aloud her to hear her friend, but not let them hear her. She tried to comfort Hitomi, to tell her she wasn't dead, but soon her mind was on other matters.
She was up in the air, hanging of a dragon's leg, no one knew she was there, and her grip was slipping. "Oh shit." she said softly to herself, "How the hell do I get into these situations."
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The general surveyed the ruins of the capital of Fanelia. She was satisfied, her troups had done their job, but she was still puzzeled as to why she was ordered to let everyone escape. "General Soone!" A soldier yelled.
"Yes?"
"The capital is secure, we are ready to move on whenever we're ready."
"Not yet, take care of our injured first, then we'll move on."
"But, the Czar said-"
"I know what the Czar said, but the Czar doesn't have a battalion of wounded under his command, now does he?"
"As you command."
General Soone was an honorable fighter, and she didn't like the tactics of the Czar, but she was loyal to the rulers of the empire, who her family had served for generations. She would confront him though, to find out his plan, she needed to know, and soon.