Disclaimer: I do not own Escaflowne or any of its characters . . . DARN!
- - - Overture - - -
Blue light surrounded her; it was warm. She was gently put down on the ground, blue flames rising as she touched it. She found herself in the backyard of her house.
As she walked in, she saw her mother putting away some newly-washed dishes. Her brother, having seen her walk in, dropped the spoon he was about to put in his mouth, making her mother turn around and see her.
"Hitomi?"
"Okasa!"
She went back to school two days later and Yukari was more than happy to see her. Yukari and Amano remembered it all - the light, the boy, the dragon, but most of all, how she was taken away.
"What happened Hitomi?" Yukari asked her that day as they were walking toward the train station after school.
"Uh?" She hadn't been paying attention.
"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have asked"
"No, it's ok. You're one of the few people who would believe me"
Hitomi told Yukari everything that afternoon, she didn't leave out a single detail, not even the fact that she knew Yukari loved Amano. Yukari had blushed at that.
The next day, after Amano had asked, she told him everything too.
Yukari expressed her feelings toward him, and he, in turn, expressed his towards her. However, a week after Hitomi returned, Amano left to study abroad as he was meant to.
Hitomi remembered all this while starring out the window of her classroom.
"Kanzaki!"
"Hai! Sorry."
"Pay attention!"
· ´ ¨* ·. ¸ ¸.**. ¸ ¸. ·* ¨` ·
"Ehhhh! The sensei didn't have to give me detention. I mean, you have to admit it hasn't been happening as often as before. . ." Hitomi continued complaining. Yukari was awfully quite today. Something had obviously been bothering her all day. Hitomi pretended not to notice, figuring that when Yukari wanted to tell her she would.
"Hitomi?"
"Hai?"
"Do you miss him?" Yukari asked; they were almost at the train station. "I just want to know... I've been thinking about breaking up with Amano because of the distance between us... but everything's been going so well, and it would be selfish of me to do so if... if you can still have feelings for Van when..."
"Yukari... Van and I... It's been about two years since I've returned, but we haven't been in contact for over a year now." She was half between tears while saying that. "If you still love Amano and things are going well, I see no reason why you should dump him."
· ´` ·.(* ·. ¸(` ·. ¸ ¸. · ´) ¸. ·*). · ´` ·
· ´ ¨* ·. ¸ ¸.*Change is Inevitable*. ¸ ¸. ·* ¨` ·
· ´` ·.( ¸. · ´( ¸. ·* * ·. ¸)` ·. ¸). · ´` ·
"Physics," she said, "Arghhh... just what I needed." She let out a long sigh and closed the book, deciding not to do the homework.
She looked around in her room. Everything was so empty, so still. She got up from her bed and went to her window. She looked out at the stars.
"Where could you be?" she asked as if playing a game of Where's Waldo. "I miss you, Van."
· ´ ¨* ·. ¸ ¸.**. ¸ ¸. ·* ¨` ·
He overlooked the buildings while flying high above them. Some of the people were still uncomfortable with this, but he didn't care. It was only the only way to really be able to watch his country's progression.
After helping some of the townsfolk he returned to Fanelia Castle.
"Master Van!" Merle yelled out. "You're late! Kioyi and the rest of the high council are literally leaving themselves bald from pulling their hair out..." Merle kept yapping on and on as she was pushing Van out of the room while he was trying to put a clean shirt on "...Well, Kioyi already has no hair, but he's gonna blow up if you don't show up soon!" They had reached the high-council chamber door and Merle stopped and looked at Van. His eyes only confirmed everything she already knew.
"I know you don't want to go in there, Master Van, and you don't have to if you don't want to."
"I have to, it's not a question of will"
"Baka." she said under her breath.
"What?"
"Uy!" she realized he had heard her. "Nothing... If you say so!" She gave Van a hug and ran off.
"She scares me sometimes." Van muttered to himself. He sighed, then he turned around and sighed once more before pushing the door open.
"I don't know why you don't understand, Lord Van!" Kioyi said "We only want what's best for you and Fanelia."
"I know that, thank you." the meeting, which was meant to be a short one, had been going on for more than three hours now.
"Then why do you continue to put down meeting, dinners, dances, etc. with your could-be wives?!" Leo demanded. He was obviously at the peek of a nervous breakdown.
"Lord Van," a chubby member of the council said, he appeared to be the only calm one, "we have arranged a meeting with Princess Aliz of Egzardia..."
"And it wasn't easy to do... FOR THE FIFTH TIME." Kioyi was all of a sudden out of breath. Now Van didn't know if it was Kioyi or Leo who would have the breakdown.
"I'll think about it." He replied calmly. This conversation was obviously not affecting him. Van got up from his seat, opened the door to head out and began to walk out.
"Wha... wha..."
He closed the door, leaving Leo half-worded. He leaned against the door for a while and sighed with relief.
"If Vargas was here, he would have made my point clear to them a long time ago," Van said softly to himself.
The breeze went in through one of the windows down the wooden hallway, messing up a bit of Van's hair.
"The only thing I don't need to worry about is a war with Zaibach," he said, making himself laugh.
· ´ ¨* ·. ¸ ¸.**. ¸ ¸. ·* ¨` ·
Zaibach, the perfect example of a country completely destroyed by war because of its insatiable thirst for power. However, not all things are destroyed, and sometimes, for some reason, the things that should have been are overlooked.
"The mistakes of the past, will not be repeated," a deep voice said, putting down a glass of vino.
"The machines are ready for inspection, Lord Paruchi."
"Thank you. You may leave."
They waited until the young sorcerer left the room to continue their discussion. Paruchi looked at his partner for a while, "Do you think it'll work this time, Kuaru?"
"If we get rid of the unwanted elements, yes"
Paruchi smiled serenely, "All in due time, we'll have to inspect these new machines first." They got up and walked out of the room toward the fate alteration chamber to inspect the new machines... and to test the old ones.
· ´ ¨* ·. ¸ ¸.**. ¸ ¸. ·* ¨` ·
Hitomi yawned, she was tired and had decided to do the physics homework after all. She walked sleepily towards her bed and crashed on it. I better get an A+, she thought to herself, eyes still open. Then she began to close them slowly until she was in a deep sleep. . .
She found herself knelt down on a piece of land with bits of grass on it. Her hands were made fists on her lap. She had something in her right hand. Hitomi turned her fist upwards and opened it, revealing her pink pendant which she had given to Van.
"Why do I have this?"
The pendant began to glow, pulsating light with every second. Somehow she found herself looking at herself knelt down on the ground, the pendant in hand, and Van standing behind her with his hands on her shoulders. She wasn't surprised. The pendant had the power to do these kinds of things. He was looking down at her, not saying a word.
"Van!", Hitomi yelled out. She was ecstatic to have had a link between them again. But he couldn't hear her, and she could still see herself sitting motionlessly, one armed raised with the pendant in front of her.
"I'm sorry Hitomi," he said softly, "I didn't mean to make you cry." Van turned around and started to walk away from her.
No, she thought, don't leave me, Van.
Having said that, she now found herself starring at the pendant in her hand again. She stood up quickly to run after him, "Van! Don't go. . .," he wasn't there anymore. The fields around her showed no trace of him... it was like as if he had never really been there.
A single tear began to form in her eye. When it began to fall, she was, all of a sudden, outside of her body again, watching in slow motion how the tear fell from her motionless cheek and fall in mid air. It kept falling, and it with every inch that it was closer to ground, the more away from Van Hitomi felt. The tear finally reached something, but it wasn't the ground. The tear slowly became one with a body of water, making ripples as it landed. Hitomi saw the tear land one time, then she saw it land again, and again, and again until the process stopped and she her body floating over the water. Her feet were only a few centimeters away from it. Hitomi's body began to sink in, motionless, and she saw herself being dragged into the darkness of the bottom of this water. Then, she saw the tear fall into the water again and she woke up.
She gasped for air. "It was only a dream," she said to herself. "Only a very bad dream." She was still gasping.
The light breeze came inside her room, caressing her hair. It felt like Van trying to comfort her, but she knew it wasn't.
She hid her face in her knees and began to cry, she should have done that a long time ago. She didn't understand why Van would leave her, but she settled with the thought that he didn't feel the way she felt about him anymore. So she went back to sleep, some tears still falling from her eyes, but determined to get over him the way he appeared to be over her in the dream.
· ´ ¨* ·. ¸ ¸.**. ¸ ¸. ·* ¨` ·
After many, many observations, Kuaru and Paruchi went over all the necessary precautions (if any) with their head-of-construction, Gout, for the new machines.
"Using the designs you've given us, we were able to reconstruct the fate-alteration engine and it's components."
"And the new components?"
"They are ready for testing, Lord Kuaru."
"Ahhh," sighed Paruchi, "the testings. Have anything in mind, Kuaru?"
Kuaru was silent for a while, looking at their wonderful new, and old, creations. They were both proud men, and pride was a dangerous thing in the hands of men like them. He laughed inwardly, remembering how some people would talk about Dornkirk's sorcerers after the war had ended.
Imbeciles, he remembered a man at a market call the sorcerers. The only reason Garuto, Paruchi, Foruma, and him hadn't been captured or recognized was because they had to 'have a taste of their own chocolate' and alter their own fates by using the same experiments they had used on all those children. They changed their faces only, to prevent any side effects. However, this effect was only temporary and the luck ran out for Foruma one cold afternoon.
A sorcerer! He remembered a woman yell. He could still hear Foruma's cries as they cut him, repeatedly. They never stabbed him though, they only scared his body with small knife cuts; they wanted him to live through pain and humiliation. Paruchi, Kuaru, and Garuto could only stand behind the crowd and watch as their friend, one of them, was humiliated, undressed, and paraded throughout the town square. They threw rotten food at him, the fertilizer a farmer was carrying to sell at his post. Foruma kept his eyes on the three of them when he was tied up to a poste, with dry wood all around him. The fires they lit began to burn and the scent of burning flesh reached Kuaru and the rest of them.
Die! They all yelled. Die like the beast you are.
Kuaru's cries grew louder as the stench got thicker. Pain most evidently shown in his face.
"Kuaru?" Paruchi asked again, bringing him back to reality. "Do you have anything in mind?"
Kuaru smiled, "As a matter of fact... I do."
Paruchi had not been looking at Kuaru when he asked the second time; he himself was marveling at their creations. But the way Kuaru said that made his skin shiver. He looked back at Kuaru, as if trying to find in his face the feeling from which his hate came from. He turned away, agreeing with a small (yet senile) smile with whatever Kuaru had in mind.
· ´ ¨* ·. ¸ ¸.**. ¸ ¸. ·* ¨` ·
Tall, thin, pale looking, but happy. Allen looked at her in the gardens. He no longer pondered about the horrible nights she must have spent crying, or the pain she went through while they touched her; putting needles inside her, taking out blood, putting blood back in, reviving her when the experiments went wrong, and finally, when she was finally transformed and they were satisfied with the outcome.
She looked over at Allen, who was now walking towards her. She smiled, a bundle of flowers in one hand while she pushed on the ground to stand up with the other.
"You'll have to get into a dress soon. We're heading into the market in a short while. I have to pick up some equipment."
"If you agree to take me to the graves, I'll agree to put on a dress. If not, you'll have to walk in shame down the streets of Asturia with me in pants."
"Allright, agreed." He put his arm around her shoulders and they began to walk towards the house.
"Serena?"
"Yes?"
"I got the better end of the deal."
"And why is that?"
"Because you'd never bring me shame."
Allen had taken her to the graves before going to the market. The shop that supplied his weapons was about to close when they got there, but he didn't mind.
They got back home from the markets quite late and she was tired. She couldn't wait to get out of her dress either.
· ´ ¨* ·. ¸ ¸.**. ¸ ¸. ·* ¨` ·
"Destiny Accelerator?!" A voice yelled out.
"Check!"
"Casualty Rate Detector?!"
"Check!" Another voice responded.
"Destiny Particle?!"
"Check!" The voices continued
"This is a great day for Zaibach, Paruchi." said Kurua.
"Hai..." he said thoughtfully, "If it works."
Kurua's evil smile returned to his face, "That's why we do testings first.
Destiny Vibrator?! Yelled a voice in the backround
Paruchi returned Kurua's smile with a bit more evil in it, "Dornkirk might have liked this."
Check! The voice responded in the bakcround.
"He... will be missed."
Paruchi laughed in his throat, supporting the sarcasm in Kurua's comment.
Fate Alteration Engine?!
Check!
She changed into her sleeping clothes, said good night to her brother and had laid down on her bed starring at her roof for a long time, until her eyes began to feel heavy. She'd never been this tired before. Her eyes began to fight to stay open, but she finally gave in and they began to close slowly. . .
She was in a closed space, silver liquid surrounding her.
Rage. Rage she had never felt before was festively dancing within her. There were screams of pain and hate all around her.
Where am I? She thought. She looked out of the place she was in from the opening it had. She realized she was in a field tinted with blood; men all around her were dead or dying.
"Die!" she heard someone yell from within the compartment she was in, but she couldn't see who it was. It was impossible for someone else to be in there with her, the place was too small.
**crash** She had penetrated something hard and something appeared in front of the opening. She could see a man's face behind the all the metal he was hiding under. He was bleeding out of his eyes and mouth and cursed something at her.
Whatever she was holding began to come out of the man and she realized it was sword. Her arm began to rise and it stopped for a while.
"What am I doing?" she had tried to say out loud, but the words resonated in her thoughts.
The rage began to dance inside her again; it felt right for some reason. The sword in her hands began to come down with a strength she didn't know she had, becoming stronger and stronger as it went down.
"No." She yelled, terrified. "What am I doing?"
"Die!" the voice yelled out again.
"No! Stop!" She closed her eyes as tightly as she could and all the screams started to fade away, until she heard nothing. She was too afraid to open her eyes again so she kept them closed, wondering when (and if) it would be safe to open them again.
"DIIIIIIIIIEEEE!!" the scream came back louder than ever before.
Her hands went up to her ears and she sunk her face in her chest. The voice began to fade away like the screams and shouts had too, but it echoed and she had to wait for the echoes to go away.
She heard a noise, kind of like when a switch is turned on. She opened her eyes and looked up.
"Where am I?" She asked out loud. Besides the light that illuminated her there was nothing, it was pitch black all round her.
A sound came straight ahead from her in a pattern. She decided it was the sounds of someone walking in a puddle... and waking towards her.
As the steps continued to get louder, signifying it's closeness to her, she could see the ripples form in the water.
She kept on starring as the steps got louder and louder. An image had begun to form, but she couldn't really see what it was; there's was no other light besides the one that illuminated her.
Whoever had been walking towards her stopped about two meters away from her. She could tell it was a man by what she could make out from the darkness. They stared at each other for a while, both of them not moving an inch. Her in the light, and him in the darkness of her surroundings.
There was another sound and a light illuminated him now. He was a bout her size, thin, obviously a soldier by the garments he was wearing, handsome, too pale though, and a mystifying scar on his right cheek. . .
If Allen had heard Kuaru's laughter in the distance while they were leaving the gardens that afternoon; if he had heard the evil in it, he would have protected Serena this time....
---- End of Chapter----
Authors note: PLZ R/R, they really do help!! Nice flames help too... ^_^
- - - Overture - - -
Blue light surrounded her; it was warm. She was gently put down on the ground, blue flames rising as she touched it. She found herself in the backyard of her house.
As she walked in, she saw her mother putting away some newly-washed dishes. Her brother, having seen her walk in, dropped the spoon he was about to put in his mouth, making her mother turn around and see her.
"Hitomi?"
"Okasa!"
She went back to school two days later and Yukari was more than happy to see her. Yukari and Amano remembered it all - the light, the boy, the dragon, but most of all, how she was taken away.
"What happened Hitomi?" Yukari asked her that day as they were walking toward the train station after school.
"Uh?" She hadn't been paying attention.
"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have asked"
"No, it's ok. You're one of the few people who would believe me"
Hitomi told Yukari everything that afternoon, she didn't leave out a single detail, not even the fact that she knew Yukari loved Amano. Yukari had blushed at that.
The next day, after Amano had asked, she told him everything too.
Yukari expressed her feelings toward him, and he, in turn, expressed his towards her. However, a week after Hitomi returned, Amano left to study abroad as he was meant to.
Hitomi remembered all this while starring out the window of her classroom.
"Kanzaki!"
"Hai! Sorry."
"Pay attention!"
· ´ ¨* ·. ¸ ¸.**. ¸ ¸. ·* ¨` ·
"Ehhhh! The sensei didn't have to give me detention. I mean, you have to admit it hasn't been happening as often as before. . ." Hitomi continued complaining. Yukari was awfully quite today. Something had obviously been bothering her all day. Hitomi pretended not to notice, figuring that when Yukari wanted to tell her she would.
"Hitomi?"
"Hai?"
"Do you miss him?" Yukari asked; they were almost at the train station. "I just want to know... I've been thinking about breaking up with Amano because of the distance between us... but everything's been going so well, and it would be selfish of me to do so if... if you can still have feelings for Van when..."
"Yukari... Van and I... It's been about two years since I've returned, but we haven't been in contact for over a year now." She was half between tears while saying that. "If you still love Amano and things are going well, I see no reason why you should dump him."
· ´` ·.(* ·. ¸(` ·. ¸ ¸. · ´) ¸. ·*). · ´` ·
· ´ ¨* ·. ¸ ¸.*Change is Inevitable*. ¸ ¸. ·* ¨` ·
· ´` ·.( ¸. · ´( ¸. ·* * ·. ¸)` ·. ¸). · ´` ·
"Physics," she said, "Arghhh... just what I needed." She let out a long sigh and closed the book, deciding not to do the homework.
She looked around in her room. Everything was so empty, so still. She got up from her bed and went to her window. She looked out at the stars.
"Where could you be?" she asked as if playing a game of Where's Waldo. "I miss you, Van."
· ´ ¨* ·. ¸ ¸.**. ¸ ¸. ·* ¨` ·
He overlooked the buildings while flying high above them. Some of the people were still uncomfortable with this, but he didn't care. It was only the only way to really be able to watch his country's progression.
After helping some of the townsfolk he returned to Fanelia Castle.
"Master Van!" Merle yelled out. "You're late! Kioyi and the rest of the high council are literally leaving themselves bald from pulling their hair out..." Merle kept yapping on and on as she was pushing Van out of the room while he was trying to put a clean shirt on "...Well, Kioyi already has no hair, but he's gonna blow up if you don't show up soon!" They had reached the high-council chamber door and Merle stopped and looked at Van. His eyes only confirmed everything she already knew.
"I know you don't want to go in there, Master Van, and you don't have to if you don't want to."
"I have to, it's not a question of will"
"Baka." she said under her breath.
"What?"
"Uy!" she realized he had heard her. "Nothing... If you say so!" She gave Van a hug and ran off.
"She scares me sometimes." Van muttered to himself. He sighed, then he turned around and sighed once more before pushing the door open.
"I don't know why you don't understand, Lord Van!" Kioyi said "We only want what's best for you and Fanelia."
"I know that, thank you." the meeting, which was meant to be a short one, had been going on for more than three hours now.
"Then why do you continue to put down meeting, dinners, dances, etc. with your could-be wives?!" Leo demanded. He was obviously at the peek of a nervous breakdown.
"Lord Van," a chubby member of the council said, he appeared to be the only calm one, "we have arranged a meeting with Princess Aliz of Egzardia..."
"And it wasn't easy to do... FOR THE FIFTH TIME." Kioyi was all of a sudden out of breath. Now Van didn't know if it was Kioyi or Leo who would have the breakdown.
"I'll think about it." He replied calmly. This conversation was obviously not affecting him. Van got up from his seat, opened the door to head out and began to walk out.
"Wha... wha..."
He closed the door, leaving Leo half-worded. He leaned against the door for a while and sighed with relief.
"If Vargas was here, he would have made my point clear to them a long time ago," Van said softly to himself.
The breeze went in through one of the windows down the wooden hallway, messing up a bit of Van's hair.
"The only thing I don't need to worry about is a war with Zaibach," he said, making himself laugh.
· ´ ¨* ·. ¸ ¸.**. ¸ ¸. ·* ¨` ·
Zaibach, the perfect example of a country completely destroyed by war because of its insatiable thirst for power. However, not all things are destroyed, and sometimes, for some reason, the things that should have been are overlooked.
"The mistakes of the past, will not be repeated," a deep voice said, putting down a glass of vino.
"The machines are ready for inspection, Lord Paruchi."
"Thank you. You may leave."
They waited until the young sorcerer left the room to continue their discussion. Paruchi looked at his partner for a while, "Do you think it'll work this time, Kuaru?"
"If we get rid of the unwanted elements, yes"
Paruchi smiled serenely, "All in due time, we'll have to inspect these new machines first." They got up and walked out of the room toward the fate alteration chamber to inspect the new machines... and to test the old ones.
· ´ ¨* ·. ¸ ¸.**. ¸ ¸. ·* ¨` ·
Hitomi yawned, she was tired and had decided to do the physics homework after all. She walked sleepily towards her bed and crashed on it. I better get an A+, she thought to herself, eyes still open. Then she began to close them slowly until she was in a deep sleep. . .
She found herself knelt down on a piece of land with bits of grass on it. Her hands were made fists on her lap. She had something in her right hand. Hitomi turned her fist upwards and opened it, revealing her pink pendant which she had given to Van.
"Why do I have this?"
The pendant began to glow, pulsating light with every second. Somehow she found herself looking at herself knelt down on the ground, the pendant in hand, and Van standing behind her with his hands on her shoulders. She wasn't surprised. The pendant had the power to do these kinds of things. He was looking down at her, not saying a word.
"Van!", Hitomi yelled out. She was ecstatic to have had a link between them again. But he couldn't hear her, and she could still see herself sitting motionlessly, one armed raised with the pendant in front of her.
"I'm sorry Hitomi," he said softly, "I didn't mean to make you cry." Van turned around and started to walk away from her.
No, she thought, don't leave me, Van.
Having said that, she now found herself starring at the pendant in her hand again. She stood up quickly to run after him, "Van! Don't go. . .," he wasn't there anymore. The fields around her showed no trace of him... it was like as if he had never really been there.
A single tear began to form in her eye. When it began to fall, she was, all of a sudden, outside of her body again, watching in slow motion how the tear fell from her motionless cheek and fall in mid air. It kept falling, and it with every inch that it was closer to ground, the more away from Van Hitomi felt. The tear finally reached something, but it wasn't the ground. The tear slowly became one with a body of water, making ripples as it landed. Hitomi saw the tear land one time, then she saw it land again, and again, and again until the process stopped and she her body floating over the water. Her feet were only a few centimeters away from it. Hitomi's body began to sink in, motionless, and she saw herself being dragged into the darkness of the bottom of this water. Then, she saw the tear fall into the water again and she woke up.
She gasped for air. "It was only a dream," she said to herself. "Only a very bad dream." She was still gasping.
The light breeze came inside her room, caressing her hair. It felt like Van trying to comfort her, but she knew it wasn't.
She hid her face in her knees and began to cry, she should have done that a long time ago. She didn't understand why Van would leave her, but she settled with the thought that he didn't feel the way she felt about him anymore. So she went back to sleep, some tears still falling from her eyes, but determined to get over him the way he appeared to be over her in the dream.
· ´ ¨* ·. ¸ ¸.**. ¸ ¸. ·* ¨` ·
After many, many observations, Kuaru and Paruchi went over all the necessary precautions (if any) with their head-of-construction, Gout, for the new machines.
"Using the designs you've given us, we were able to reconstruct the fate-alteration engine and it's components."
"And the new components?"
"They are ready for testing, Lord Kuaru."
"Ahhh," sighed Paruchi, "the testings. Have anything in mind, Kuaru?"
Kuaru was silent for a while, looking at their wonderful new, and old, creations. They were both proud men, and pride was a dangerous thing in the hands of men like them. He laughed inwardly, remembering how some people would talk about Dornkirk's sorcerers after the war had ended.
Imbeciles, he remembered a man at a market call the sorcerers. The only reason Garuto, Paruchi, Foruma, and him hadn't been captured or recognized was because they had to 'have a taste of their own chocolate' and alter their own fates by using the same experiments they had used on all those children. They changed their faces only, to prevent any side effects. However, this effect was only temporary and the luck ran out for Foruma one cold afternoon.
A sorcerer! He remembered a woman yell. He could still hear Foruma's cries as they cut him, repeatedly. They never stabbed him though, they only scared his body with small knife cuts; they wanted him to live through pain and humiliation. Paruchi, Kuaru, and Garuto could only stand behind the crowd and watch as their friend, one of them, was humiliated, undressed, and paraded throughout the town square. They threw rotten food at him, the fertilizer a farmer was carrying to sell at his post. Foruma kept his eyes on the three of them when he was tied up to a poste, with dry wood all around him. The fires they lit began to burn and the scent of burning flesh reached Kuaru and the rest of them.
Die! They all yelled. Die like the beast you are.
Kuaru's cries grew louder as the stench got thicker. Pain most evidently shown in his face.
"Kuaru?" Paruchi asked again, bringing him back to reality. "Do you have anything in mind?"
Kuaru smiled, "As a matter of fact... I do."
Paruchi had not been looking at Kuaru when he asked the second time; he himself was marveling at their creations. But the way Kuaru said that made his skin shiver. He looked back at Kuaru, as if trying to find in his face the feeling from which his hate came from. He turned away, agreeing with a small (yet senile) smile with whatever Kuaru had in mind.
· ´ ¨* ·. ¸ ¸.**. ¸ ¸. ·* ¨` ·
Tall, thin, pale looking, but happy. Allen looked at her in the gardens. He no longer pondered about the horrible nights she must have spent crying, or the pain she went through while they touched her; putting needles inside her, taking out blood, putting blood back in, reviving her when the experiments went wrong, and finally, when she was finally transformed and they were satisfied with the outcome.
She looked over at Allen, who was now walking towards her. She smiled, a bundle of flowers in one hand while she pushed on the ground to stand up with the other.
"You'll have to get into a dress soon. We're heading into the market in a short while. I have to pick up some equipment."
"If you agree to take me to the graves, I'll agree to put on a dress. If not, you'll have to walk in shame down the streets of Asturia with me in pants."
"Allright, agreed." He put his arm around her shoulders and they began to walk towards the house.
"Serena?"
"Yes?"
"I got the better end of the deal."
"And why is that?"
"Because you'd never bring me shame."
Allen had taken her to the graves before going to the market. The shop that supplied his weapons was about to close when they got there, but he didn't mind.
They got back home from the markets quite late and she was tired. She couldn't wait to get out of her dress either.
· ´ ¨* ·. ¸ ¸.**. ¸ ¸. ·* ¨` ·
"Destiny Accelerator?!" A voice yelled out.
"Check!"
"Casualty Rate Detector?!"
"Check!" Another voice responded.
"Destiny Particle?!"
"Check!" The voices continued
"This is a great day for Zaibach, Paruchi." said Kurua.
"Hai..." he said thoughtfully, "If it works."
Kurua's evil smile returned to his face, "That's why we do testings first.
Destiny Vibrator?! Yelled a voice in the backround
Paruchi returned Kurua's smile with a bit more evil in it, "Dornkirk might have liked this."
Check! The voice responded in the bakcround.
"He... will be missed."
Paruchi laughed in his throat, supporting the sarcasm in Kurua's comment.
Fate Alteration Engine?!
Check!
She changed into her sleeping clothes, said good night to her brother and had laid down on her bed starring at her roof for a long time, until her eyes began to feel heavy. She'd never been this tired before. Her eyes began to fight to stay open, but she finally gave in and they began to close slowly. . .
She was in a closed space, silver liquid surrounding her.
Rage. Rage she had never felt before was festively dancing within her. There were screams of pain and hate all around her.
Where am I? She thought. She looked out of the place she was in from the opening it had. She realized she was in a field tinted with blood; men all around her were dead or dying.
"Die!" she heard someone yell from within the compartment she was in, but she couldn't see who it was. It was impossible for someone else to be in there with her, the place was too small.
**crash** She had penetrated something hard and something appeared in front of the opening. She could see a man's face behind the all the metal he was hiding under. He was bleeding out of his eyes and mouth and cursed something at her.
Whatever she was holding began to come out of the man and she realized it was sword. Her arm began to rise and it stopped for a while.
"What am I doing?" she had tried to say out loud, but the words resonated in her thoughts.
The rage began to dance inside her again; it felt right for some reason. The sword in her hands began to come down with a strength she didn't know she had, becoming stronger and stronger as it went down.
"No." She yelled, terrified. "What am I doing?"
"Die!" the voice yelled out again.
"No! Stop!" She closed her eyes as tightly as she could and all the screams started to fade away, until she heard nothing. She was too afraid to open her eyes again so she kept them closed, wondering when (and if) it would be safe to open them again.
"DIIIIIIIIIEEEE!!" the scream came back louder than ever before.
Her hands went up to her ears and she sunk her face in her chest. The voice began to fade away like the screams and shouts had too, but it echoed and she had to wait for the echoes to go away.
She heard a noise, kind of like when a switch is turned on. She opened her eyes and looked up.
"Where am I?" She asked out loud. Besides the light that illuminated her there was nothing, it was pitch black all round her.
A sound came straight ahead from her in a pattern. She decided it was the sounds of someone walking in a puddle... and waking towards her.
As the steps continued to get louder, signifying it's closeness to her, she could see the ripples form in the water.
She kept on starring as the steps got louder and louder. An image had begun to form, but she couldn't really see what it was; there's was no other light besides the one that illuminated her.
Whoever had been walking towards her stopped about two meters away from her. She could tell it was a man by what she could make out from the darkness. They stared at each other for a while, both of them not moving an inch. Her in the light, and him in the darkness of her surroundings.
There was another sound and a light illuminated him now. He was a bout her size, thin, obviously a soldier by the garments he was wearing, handsome, too pale though, and a mystifying scar on his right cheek. . .
If Allen had heard Kuaru's laughter in the distance while they were leaving the gardens that afternoon; if he had heard the evil in it, he would have protected Serena this time....
---- End of Chapter----
Authors note: PLZ R/R, they really do help!! Nice flames help too... ^_^