Untitled Power of Emotions
by: Cathy-chan

Chapter 4: Darkness

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Part I: Fanelia, Gaia
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The sun was setting when Van, Hitomi and Yukari arrived in Gaia. The skies appeared darker than usual. What normally was an orange hue during sunset was replaced by a dark blue -almost black- colour.
Yukari wrapped her arms in front of her nervously as loud cries from creatures and dragons could be heard afar. "...What's going on in this place?" she asked.
"The animals have been acting like that ever since the sky turned black. Strange things have been happening lately," Van stated to the two. Van settled Escaflowne at the center grounds of the castle. Van could already see Mr. Avean's worried face as he came forward.
"Lord Van!!!" he bellowed out in sheer joy and relief. "We were so worried we lost you, milord!" He paused to look at the two, strangely dressed young women. "Who're they?"
Yukari and Hitomi climbed out from the guymelef to the ground. Yukari speechlessly gaped at castle and the blue planet with its moon on the sky.
"This is Hitomi Kanzaki from the Mystic Moon," Van replied.
"THE MYSTIC MOON!?!" Mr. Avean screamed.
Hitomi was not familiar with Fanelia's new advisor. He was obviously a very nervous man with a very loud voice. She approached him, then gestured to the other girl. "She's Yukari Uchida. She's also from the Mystic Moon."
"Ah...t-t-that would explain the...s-strange clothing you h-have..." he stuttered between strong gasps of air. "T-Tell me, milord, what brings them to Fanelia?"
Van stood beside his advisor and said to him in a serious voice, "Tell all of the samurai and soldiers to be on alert for an attack."
"An attack!? They're going to attack us again!?"
"It's possible. We must warn other countries about the enemy as well."
"Oh...no...!" He slapped his cheeks with both hands and shook his head nervously. He stared at Yukari and Hitomi, then walked back and forth while trying to contain his panic.
"Who is he?" Hitomi whispered to Van.
"He's Fanelia's advisor. He's also one of the four samurai."
Hitomi stared at Mr. Avean in amazement. "He is?"
Van nodded.
"He sure doesn't seem like someone who can be a samurai."
"I know, but we can trust him."
"It's nice to see you again, Hitomi," a tall man with long, blond hair spoke up. There was a kind smile on his handsome, brave face.
"Allen, it's nice to see you too," Hitomi said with a smile.
Allen saw another girl beside her wearing foreign clothes. "I see you've brought someone along with you."
"I had no choice. She insisted," she said humorously. "Allen, this is Yukari."
"Hi, Allen..." Yukari shyly bowed to him.
Allen came up to her and bowed. "I'm Allen Schezar. Nice to meet you."
"Brother, who're these people?" A young woman with a gentle voice said. The young woman had short and curly, blond hair. She appeared to be the same age as Hitomi. She politely greeted them with a smile.
"Celena, this is Yukari and Hitomi," Allen introduced them to her.
"Hitomi? Where have I heard that name before. Have we met, Hitomi?"
"Uh...I don't think so..." She looked familiar to her somehow. Her face reminded her of a demented man she had met two years ago, but she was certain that cannot be.
"We have much to talk about. For one thing, I'd like to know about this enemy. Perhaps gaining knowledge of the enemy will help us deal with the black sky," Allen said to all of them.
"So do I. It's best to know what we're dealing against," Van said.

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Part II: Japan, Earth
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"Mom! Come quick!" Shiro yelled from the upstairs level.
Shiro's parents came running up the stairs to Hitomi's bedroom. They found Shiro in their daughter's room. He was holding a note on his hand.
"What is it, Shiro? Where's your sister?" his mother asked worriedly.
He didn't answer, he looked straight into her eyes, and gave her a small sheet of paper he found above Hitomi's desk.
His mother read the words slowly. "Hitomi..." Her face was as pale as her apron when she handed the note to her husband.
He had the same response after reading it. "Where had she gone off to?"
"You don't suppose Hitomi ran off with that guy! Maybe she eloped or something," Shiro suggested to them.
"You mean that young man from Philippines? You mean to tell me they ran off to that country? We have to get her right away! What was she thinking? This doesn't seem like something she'd do..." Hitomi's father asked more unanswered questions to them nervously without stopping to breath.
His wife gently touched him on the arm. She shook her head. "She's not there."
"...Then where?"
She held the note on her hands and looked up to the sky. The moon's bright light shone with the stars as it hid a far away planet not seen with Earth's eyes. A feeling in her heart told her to believe in Hitomi's courage. "Come back safely, Hitomi..." she whispered.

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Part III: Fanelia, Gaia
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It was during late evening just after Hitomi had fully explained the situation. Both Allen and Mr. Avean were both stunned to realize that the enemy had the ability to transport himself to the Mystic Moon. They were even more shocked when Hitomi told all of them that she had doubts of Blayde being a dangerous foe.
Fanelia's advisor sat ridged on his seat when he said, "What else can he be?...He tried destroying Fanelia and other countries."
"I know that, but..." Hitomi couldn't explain. She, herself, didn't have a rationale for her thinking. Only a small hint of sorrow in Blayde's eyes told her of something no one, but her could see.
"Unless you find a reason why he's not the enemy, we're still going to regard him as a big threat. We have to make sure he doesn't get his hands on any more countries. I've already dispatched a message to Asturia. King Aston said he'll inform other ally countries right away." Allen stood up to stretch his tired legs. "I think all of us can use a little rest right about now."
Yukari yawned and said, "Yeah, you're right. Are you coming, Hitomi?"
Without looking back, Hitomi said, "No, go on ahead. I don't feel like sleeping." She watched while Mr. Avean led Yukari and Allen to the guest bedchambers along the hall. Hitomi was about to walk away when she realized that Van didn't follow the rest of them. He was on the balcony adjoining the room.
"Don't you want to take a rest, Van?" she asked as she approached him.
He didn't react to her question. His arms were leaning on the railing as he looked at the sword on his hands. As if in a trance, he stared at the triangular symbol of Fanelia on the sword. While the moonlight cast reflections on the metallic symbol, his memory drifted back to his childhood. A time when his mother and bother were still alive. He remembered them laughing and talking to him. The memories were joyous, but in them were feelings of sadness for something irredeemable.
Van looked up when he finally heard Hitomi's voice.
"Are you all right?" she asked him softly.
"I'm fine. It's nothing," he said, trying to sound convincing. "You should go to bed now. It's late."
Hitomi's gaze drifted to the blue planet on the sky. "I can't sleep. If I sleep, I'm afraid I might see those visions in my dreams again...," she added sardonically, "It's just like old times, huh?"
He could see her green eyes looking down at her hands. She closed her eyes, trying her best to stop the visions of the future to resurface in her mind.
A false, soft laugh escaped her mouth. It took her an effort to look back at Van with a reassuring smile. "I'm fine. I just feel kind of stupid right now. Aren't I stupid? To think...I actually want to help someone who wants to kill me and anyone else in his way....To think I haven't told my parents about this place...and wishing that I did. It's ridiculous to wish that Mom and Dad would be here right now to comfort me. It's absurd to think that I wish my grandmother is still alive to help me out. I'm so--"
Van pulled her close and embraced her gently.
"...stupid..." she finished.
"You're not stupid. Everything will be fine, Hitomi. I promise it'll get better."
"How!? I'm so confused, Van! All of it is so confusing right now. I want to help someone, but I bet it's impossible. I miss my parents, but it was my choice in the first place to leave. I see horrible visions, but I don't know what to make of them."
"I understand how you feel," he said while running his hands through her hair. "I don't know what to make of things either. Everyone's relying on me to be the best king, and decide what's best for an entire kingdom. There used to be a time when I thought my mother and brother will always be there with me to help me out. Now that they're gone, I feel like I'm screwing up somehow. Sometimes, I feel like every choice I made is wrong."
"No! You're a great king, Van! I know you've done the best for this kingdom. I know how much hardship you had to go through to fight for it and rebuild it. It's not your fault it's this way." Hitomi looked up to him. "You've always known what to do..." she laughed tenderly. "...even if it gets you into a lot of trouble."
"Maybe...if you were here with me...it'd be different..." he said thoughtfully.
"Van...!" She wasn't sure why his words startled her. Maybe it was the way he said it, or the emotions in his eyes that implied something else in what he said.
Van hesitated when he was about to say something. He took a few steps back and said, "..It's best that you get some rest." He was about to walk away when he felt Hitomi's hand brush away his long, black bangs to reveal his left eye.
For a long moment, they stood in front of each other without any words spoken. Hitomi's hands lightly touched his lips. "Can we stay close together...And be here with me?" Hitomi's simple question startled him.
Van smiled back as he leaned closer to her. With a gentle embrace, their lips touched for the first time. It was a kiss left untouched for three years when they were apart. A kiss that, without words, proved that they kept their promise. A promise that they would always be together.
Even through a hardship they were about to face.

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Deep in the darkness of Hitomi's slumber came another ominous vision. Total blackness surrounded her. There was nothing in sight, but in the distant shadows, she could hear faint whispers calling out echoing words.
"Who's there?" she glanced at every direction. No one was there.
The Sacrifice...
The One...
The Key...
The three words kept repeating simultaneously. Each one louder than the last.
"I...don't understand!" she screamed out. She asked the voices questions. Even if they did know what they meant by The Sacrifice, The One and The Key, they didn't give any answers.
They only repeated the same words over and over while she saw more images of Fanelia's demise, its king's death and Gaia's nations falling into chaos. The images and words swarmed the dark space around her, until everything abruptly stopped.
Hitomi awoke with cold sweat running down her trembling face. She felt as if the reoccuring words and images in her vision somehow connected into one thought. What does it all mean? I have figure this out before it's too late.
Just then she heard loud knocking coming from the bedchamber's door. "Hey, Hitomi! You in there? Come outside. Quickly!" Yukari shouted.
"Oh, okay. I'm coming," Hitomi answered back. She changed into her casual clothes, then she located her friends outside at the castle's main courtyard. All of the people turned to look at Hitomi as she walked towards the center where Van, Allen and the four samurai gathered in a tight circle. What's going on? Hitomi wondered.
"T-There she is!!" a man shouted hysterically as he came out from the circle of people. The woman behind him seemed to be the wife of the man. She held a fragile, infant girl tightly in her arms. The two of them stared at Hitomi with fear, anger and disgust in their eyes.
"She's the one! She's going to destroy us! It's what she came here to do!" the man spoke. One of the samurai stopped him before he could strike Hitomi. "The one from the Mystic Moon. Death surrounds her...! Death surrounds her...!" he yelled angrily as the samurai pushed him away.
"My wife and I know 'tis true, milord," the man's wife said to Van. "Since she came, the clouds have warped into an eerie colour; the animals outside started howling and crying out louder than usual...And my daughter has fallen ill! Why do you think there has been disasters in other countries!?" Murmuring could be heard in the huddled crowd after she spoke. It was obvious that the woman was telling the truth for the infant girl in her arms was frightenningly white. Her breath was unsteady and rough.
"Surely there is no proof that Ms. Kanzaki could be causing all of this," Mr. Avean interjected. "The attacks on the other countries began before she came to Gaia."
The man came forward and said, "Haven't you forgotten about The Curse!? I heard the queen was a Draconian. According to the old scrolls, their clan was cursed! King Goau died, Lord Folken disappeared, Fanelia got destroyed, and now the strange omens! This is a sign! We must protect Fanelia from any harm."
"Those are superstitions! The Draconians have disappeared into history. I don't see what all of that have to do with Hitomi," Allen argued.
"My father...was a scholar and researcher of the old scrolls," the wife said. "Lord Van, I believe you've met him. He wanted to warn you about his discoveries."
Van recalled the wounded old man he met before Blayde's attack. "He told me about something called The Key. And about Blood Skies..."
"Yes, that's him," she bowed her head sadly. "Everyone thought he was crazy because of his complete divotion to archeological studies, but throughout his entire life he had studied the entire history of this planet. He told me, before he went to you, about a prophecy he found during his research. Everything that has happen so far seem to fit the exact descriptions written in the scripture."
"What do you mean? The strange sky, the appearance of the enemy and Hitomi?" Allen asked.
She nodded. She took out an old piece of paper in her pocket and read it aloud.


"'A Red Vision will appear,
And from the Blue Planet
The One will come.
With her, a second.
From The One,
Darkness will overcome Gaia,
The Sacrifice will follow.
With The One,
Fate's Death will conquer all...'"


Silence swept through the citizens of Fanelia afterwards. It was as if the silence around them was proof that everyone believed the prophecy to be true. All had come true according from the sequence of the scripture.
Hitomi's hands were shaking violently as she remembered her latest vision in her sleep. One by one, pieces of the enigma were revealing themselves. But with the answers came consequences greater than Hitomi, or anyone else in Gaia, ever wanted to receive.

To be continued...

Author's Note: Man, that took me some time to finish, ne? Sorry if it took so long for me to post this up. Like the short poem in the end? I notice some novels (especially fantasy ones) have poems somewhere in the story to highlight some kind of main conflict (Notice parts of the poem have almost all of the chapters' titles in it. Gee, I wonder what's going to be the title of the next one? ^.^) I was kind of improvising as I went along with this, and I wanted to make sure the plotline links together. Hehehe, I always seem to have some kind of cliffhanger in the end of my chapters. You're just going to have to see how this works out and how I'll end it. Personally, I don't know myself. Anyway, constructive criticism, comments and any other nifty stuff are much appreciated! Thank you very much again for reading this!