Destroyers of Atlantis
Part 5
By Stargurl117

Would it be skill that saved his life this time? Or would it be luck again? Or would he die here and sink to the cold hard metal floor of the storage room in a pool of his own blood while Escaflowne towered over him? Would he ever see Hitomi's beautiful green eyes after this fight? Or feel Merle's suffocating grip around his neck and her sandpaper tongue as she licked his face? All these thoughts seem to race through Van's mind

Merle sat in horror as she watched Van and Dilandau fight blade to blade. Their swords reflected the dim light in the room and seemed to dance as if no human hand was controlling them at all. Merle ignored all the hateful things Dilandau said to Van, because the words seemed to blur as they reached her ears. All she could do was watch and prayed. No more... Please... No more fighting...No more hate...it's destroyed enough...Please Kami-sama...No more...

***

Hitomi continued to fall into the black abyss of her dream. At first when Van didn't catch her, she got angry and impatient. Now she was scared terrified that this is where it would end, that she would reach the bottom of this endless darkness and die. A whirlwind of white and black feathers rained down on her. "Van?!? Van?!?" she yelled, but there was no answer. Tears made her eyes sting and blurred her vision. Then she hit the bottom of the blackness and her whole body stung and burned she hit a bed of a thousand knives. They dug into her skin as her body sank into them and they feathers continued to rain down on her.

Hitomi awoke covered in sweat. That dream felt so real... The scariest part was that her dreams were never just dreams anymore they always came true. Why am I always told to wait in the most obvious of places when something bad is about to happen? Hitomi couldn't help but wonder.

***

Out of the corner of his eye Van saw Merle cowering in fear on the floor as he fought Dilandau. I can't die here, Merle and Hitomi need me, and we need to get out of here now before anything else happens, he added glancing at the look of worry in Merle's eyes.

While the cat girl had Van's attention, his left side was highly vulnerable, Dilandau yelled a battle cry that echoed throughout the empty room as he lunged, trying to slice Van in half. He came at Van from a bad angle with horrible timing, thanks to a sudden outburst of emotion, taking only a small piece of flesh from Van's arm.

Van flinched in pain, he fought the pain and raised his sword and slammed the handle on the back of Dilandau's head, knocking him out cold. Van gripped his bleeding arm. I could kill him right now he thought.

"No! Van-sama! Don't! Not now!" Merle said, reading his mind. She ran to his side and hugged him.

Van gave Dilandau a look of disgust and staggered toward Escaflowne, Merle hopped up on Escaflowne's shoulder, her usual spot. Van got in Escaflowne and took of running toward what he thought was the Vione.

*****

"Where IS he?" Hitomi muttered. "Geez that idiot sure is taking his sweet time meanwhile I'm stuck here!"

BAM! Escaflowne burst through the metal Vione door. Literally. Van sure knew how to make an entrance. Escaflowne's huge hand scooped up Hitomi and jumped out of the fortress.

"Oh Crap not again!" Hitomi yelled, but she didn't scream because she knew Van would turn Escaflowne into a dragon and fly. Any second now....but he didn't.

"Van-sama! Are you crazy?!?!?" Merle shrieked "You've been hanging around HER to long!"

"They're expecting us to fly Merle! And now we'll have the trees to cover us!"

BOOM! Escaflowne hit the ground. Merle tried to dig her claws into Escaflowne, but failed and flew off its shoulder and into the grass.

"Sorry Merle!" Van yelled as Merle tried to shake her dizziness of from the landing. He scooped Merle up and ran under the canopy of large green trees. ****

Folken looked out the window of the flying fortress and saw Escaflowne run under the trees in the distance. He turned and took one final distance where his brother fled. He's starting to know his limits, and he's getting stronger every time I see him. Maybe he won't get himself killed out there after all. Perhaps he doesn't need me looking out for him, he mused as he walked through the long curving halls of the fortress.

He opened the storage room and eyed the unconscious Dilandau lying on the floor. Dilandau stirred suddenly and snapped himself upright.

He eyed Folken coldly. "Where is he?" he growled.

"He got away, something that wouldn't have happened if you hadn't gotten careless."

Dilandau massaged his sore neck. "Which way did they go? He snapped.

"Southwest."

"All right..." Dilandau took of running toward the door but stopped to clutch his head in pain. "You should rest you had a serious blow to the head." Dilandau flashed Folken a look of hatred. "You don't think I'm capable of it do you? You don't think I can kill him."

"Not if you kill yourself first." Dilandau watched Folken's cape trail behind him as he left the room, leaving Dilandau alone in the dark silence. That was fine with him. He liked the dark he liked being alone. It was the quiet that bothered him.

****

The sun touched the horizon as the bright golden sky of daylight faded to the dark purple of dusk. Van, Hitomi and Merle sat around the campfire in silence, picking at their bits of foraged food.

"I'm going to sleep! Merle finally exclaimed as she curled up in a ball near the fire.

"Guess it's best if we all get some sleep," Van muttered.

"I don't want to sleep...." Hitomi spat. "But I don't want to stay awake either."

Van stood up and looked down at Hitomi as anger flashed in his eyes. "What is your problem Hitomi? I know you're homesick, and you don't wanna be here, but you know what neither do I!"

Hitomi stood up and glared at him straight in the eye. If he wanted to fight, she'd fight, after all it did keep her from sleeping which kept her away from her visions and it kept her from truly thinking about her problems. "You're not worlds away from your home! You don't know how I feel!"

"At least you're home still exists! At least you weren't born into a royal family, who no longer exists, and thrust on a throne you don't want. Now I'm expected to save the world with a legendary Guymelef that I can't handle, and THEN rebuild my home and reunite a nation!"

Merle grabbed her ears and tried to block out the sound of their bickering. "Oh Yeah well I didn't ask to be stuck WITH YOU!" Hitomi retorted.

"STOP IT BOTH OF YOU!!!!" Merle cried, racing toward them, where she slapped Hitomi across the face with the back of her hand.

"MERLE!!!" Van exclaimed. Then she slapped him too, so hard it left a big red mark of his pale face.

"HASN'T IT OCCURRED TO YOU THAT FIGHTING IS STUPID?!??! So quit acting like babies and face your problems instead of being at each others' throats all the time! We've all got problems OK? So get over it!" She turned away from them and ran into the dark forest.

"Merle..." Van murmured as he began to go after her.

Hitomi grabbed his arm "Don't....I think she needs time alone..." He flinched as if he hated the idea, but then Hitomi realized he was flinching from pain as she drew her hand back, covered in blood. "Van... you're hurt..."

"It's not that bad, the bleeding stopped a while ago."

"You KNEW? And you didn't tell me?"

"There wasn't a reason to make you worry." He replied looking away from her eyes.

"When did this happen...?"

"This morning..." he still avoided her gaze.

This morning...? Was I really so lost in my problems that I didn't notice a piece of his arm was missing...? Oh God I must be a horrible person...No wonder he doesn't like me... she ran to her duffel bag next to the fire and got out her gym shirt. "Sit." She commanded. Van looked at her for a moment and the obeyed. She sat on her knees next to him and tore her shirt.

"What are you doing?!??" Van gasped.

"Making bandages stupid. We're going to need them as often as you get injured. Now hold still." She said as she wrapped part of her shirt around Van's arm. "Damn it Van I said hold still! I'm not gonna bite you! You really are a baby!" She blushed slightly, "I'm sorry...Merle's right we should stop fighting, there's plenty of fighting going on as it is." She tightened the bandage and Van winced. She put out her hand. "Truce?"

Van looked at her hand hesitantly then grasped lightly. "Truce." He agreed.

Hitomi flopped back into the grass. "I still can't believe I got bitch-slapped by a cat," she chuckled.

"Got what slapped?"

She laughed again. "Never mind."

"Anyway I think I know what you mean...It sometimes scares me how smart she is."

Hitomi sighed. "It must be why you love her so much..."

"Yeah I guess...Wait...You don't think I love LOVE her do you?" Hitomi stayed silent and Van turned a horrible shade of red. "You honestly THINK that?!!"

Hitomi started to turn red, "Well not anymore...." There was a long silence, all that was heard was the wind running through the grass and crickets singing their nighttime song in the distance. "....I'm sorry Van, you're right I'm not the only one with problems...and thank you for trying to be understanding."

"Hitomi....I'll send you home...I promise you that-"

"I know you do, but don't worry about it..."

"And what does it matter if they kill us now or later I'll die here just the same?" Van quoted so softly that it took Hitomi a minute to figure out what he had said.

"Oh my God...Did I actually say that? Oh geez I didn't mean it Van I was hysterical."

"Forget it, let's just get some sleep."

Hitomi didn't think Van would 'forget it' but she let it go and curled up to go to sleep. The same dream haunted her in her sleep. The sequence was growing redundant. White space. The laugh. The ground turning into a mirror and cracking. The explosion of the ground. Falling downwards into the black nothingness while feathers rained down on her. And then finally landing on the bed of knives. Again and again never ending until she finally woke up in a sweat. Hitomi sat up and felt her forehead, it felt so real she thought as she flopped back down on the ground and tried to forget it. She gave up and walked off.

Hitomi leaned up against a tree and tried to make since of her dream. "Why do I have to have visions?" she whined.

"Are you OK Hitomi?" A voice loomed in the dark.

Hitomi jerked at the noise. "Oh...Van you scared me..."

"Are you OK? You don't look so good."

Hitomi shook her head. "It's nothing forget it."

"You don't have to lie to me Hitomi I saw that look on your face." Van had a troubled look on his face.

"Hey Van you don't look so good either...."

"I've just been thinking a lot that's all." Van spat. The silence that followed ate at Hitomi's stomach, making her nauseous. Van looked up at Hitomi with his brown eyes, for a moment Hitomi's stomach settled down and then out of nowhere "Hitomi you prabably have the power to send yourself home so why don't you do it? There's nothing holding you here, so go..."

"-But Van...-"

"I mean it! Look Hitomi GO HOME!"

"You don't want me here?" Hitomi asked like a timid little girl.

Van looked away from her "No Hitomi I don't..."

Hitomi felt her world shatter like the mirror in her dream. It broke into a million pieces and ripped at her heart. She felt burning tears beginning to build up in her eyes. She saw blue-white light wrap itself around her and all its warmth. Hitomi stared at her glowing pendant with wide eyes. "VAN!" She cried.

He turned to face her then, faint traces of tears in his eyes, "it's better this way..." he said.

She stared upward to the purple sky full of diamond stars and a strange blue moon that caught her interest. Why fight it? He's right there's nothing holding me here... She let the blue-white light gently lift her off the grass and into the sky.

*****

A/N Yay another part! Almost over can you believe it? Thanks for reading Please Reveiw!

Kami-samaGod in Japanese....I think the Japanese Merle is cuter so I used "Kami-sama" instead of God. (Though English Merle does a good job...)