by: Cathy-chan
A terrifyingly ominous, but familiar, feeling came into Hitomi as her special powers told her of fate's darkness crawling its way into the building surrounding her. In a split second her mind's eye caught sight of a battle between two young men in the midst of a dark, spacious room. Dimly, a metal emblem on the wall could be seen behind the warring men. The future, which she saw and dreaded, was revealing itself. She hesitated to leave the room for it seemed, in her recent vision, that she was the cause of Van's death. Turning her eyes to the window, she saw no comforting scene. Up above the dark, cloudy sky was a mass of black dots, like insects, gradually getting larger to appear as black giants. Quickly, she turned to pry her eyes away from the red shroud of fire covering the kingdom.
"...They're all coming true...!" Hitomi whispered hoarsely. "...What am I suppose to do?!" With one hand, she clutched the fabric around her chest, as if trying to ask her fast beating heart. "...Tell me!"
Hitomi lifted her eyes to the saddened face of her grandmother. Her attire was dull and gray; remorse could be seen in her pale, transparent green eyes.
"So...there's nothing I can do!?"
"Grandmother...I don't want to harm Blayde. But I'm worried about Van. I don't want him to get hurt."
To Hitomi, it looked as if her grandmother's dull appearance became brighter; a very small, yet apparent, smile could be seen on her face.
Hitomi closed her eyes and nodded. "With all of my heart!"
"Wait! I want to know what The Key is! I'm still--" Her hands only touched the thin air as she finished her cry to the spirit. "--lost...!"
Without warning, one of the black guymelefs had crashed onto the windows overlooking the kingdom. She crouched on the ground to protected her body from shards of sharp glass. More of the fire had spread its way to rooftops. It was getting closer to the castle walls every moment one of the dark, floating ships spout fire out of their weapons.
Outside, she could see Sherazade's flowing, blue cape as it took down numerous black guymelefs. While her terrified eyes stayed focused on the battle below, a young girl wearing a school uniform opened the bedchamber door.
"Hitomi! The castle's going to get burned. We have to leave!" Yukari hurriedly grab Hitomi's stiff body away from the window. "Didn't you hear what I just said?" she asked her best friend's motionless form. It didn't seem as if Hitomi noticed Yukari's hand waving before her. Yukari wondered if the sight of seeing the cataclysm outside had stiffened her friend from fear.
However Hitomi wasn't paralyzed from fear at all; her green eyes were mindlessly focused on the ground while she was deep in distant thought. Hitomi knew of Yukari shaking and tugging her arm, yet her thoughts were elsewhere. Seeing her grandmother's spirit briefly left her with no answer, and two perilous paths with regretful outcomes. Will she do as her heart told her, and be at Van's side...or heed her recent vision, and let Van kill Blayde? Just when her hopes were diminishing, she remembered the brightness of her grandmother's eyes when she admitted to herself that she loved Van with all of her heart. Not only that, she knew of an entity so powerful that it could surpass all hurdles: "...The power of emotions..." she repeated to herself slowly.
Yukari became silent from puzzlement. "...Huh?" She then began pondering if Hitomi had gone insane for her best friend still had her eyes wide open, but in it was a sudden look of fear replaced by determination and vivacity.
"I'm going to try!" Hitomi said loudly.
"What? What is going on with you, Hitomi? There's a big war outside. Allen said we should run away from the battle as far as we can like everyone else in Fanelia."
There was a reassuring smile on Hitomi's face as she shook her head. "No, I can't leave. I have to go to Van. Yukari, make sure to get out of the castle."
"I do know where he is. Or rather where he and Blayde are. I recognize where they are in the castle." Immediately, she went off into a sprint to the halls of the castle.
"Hitomi! Wait!" Yukari shouted after her.
"Tell Allen that I'll be fine. Take care of yourself out there, Yukari!" Hitomi yelled back while she ran off to the distance.
"You can't just run off. Hitomi!" Her friend was already too far away for her to hear. Yukari stood in silence for a moment as she tried to make sense of her friend's sudden actions. As she stood there, smoke was drifting through the castle walls. Because of the suffocating smoke, Yukari took Hitomi's advice and departed from the building. As she ran, her worries grew.
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Meanwhile, Van was using all of his strength and skill to overcome Blayde's mighty swords and stronger physique. Blayde's sharp reaction, and quick counterattacks told Van that he was dealing with no amateur. Because of his enemy's double sword advantage, he had been fighting back with a cut on the leg and hand, and bruised arms. Even so, his sense of honour and duty to protect gave him strength and conviction to keep his feet planted on the ground.
Blayde saw the boldness in Van's eyes, and glanced at him with no emotion. "Do you expect to defend yourself with that frail samurai sword, King of Fanelia?"
Breathing heavily from exhaustion, Van clutched his sword with both hands while saying, "I'll do more than that! I swear to you upon my sword that I will defeat you!" With a strong cry, he lunged forward with every ounce of strength left in his body.
At first Blayde blocked his sword with ease, but by each slash of Van's long sword, he was amazed to see the young king become quicker and stronger. At last, Van's sword had cut into Blayde's left forehand. The dark warrior dropped the sword in his hand, and fell heavily on one knee. Without even just a hint of skepticism, Van pointed his sword at his opponents neck; leaving Blayde with no chance to regain control of the battle.
"You are stronger than I had perceived you, King." A demonic smile crept into Blayde's face. "Will you kill me now? Even if you do succeed in ending my life, you will not be able to stop the black guymelefs or the ships invading your kingdom. They are no longer under my control. Soon, they will devour Fanelia with fire and blood until nothing is left."
To Van's surprise, his enemy's tone of voice didn't sound threatening or filled with anger. Instead, a tone of resignation and despair rose from each word. While willingly surrendering himself to the sword's blade, he dropped the last sword.
Van was confused, but still angry as he asked, "So that's it? Why are you giving up so easily?"
Blayde smirked and said softly, "As the decades, then eons passed by and grew longer, I have realized that my immortality made by sorcery has been nothing but a means to try and stop the inevitable...It was also a curse. Because of our-- my mistake, Atlanteans are destined to die. I have been seeking a means to destroy The Key, to find some kind of vengeance for the death of my people. But in reality, you cannot destroy something so strong and vast, yet so unstable." Without any sign of fear, he stared straight into Van's eyes. "End it now, King. Do it or I will retaliate then you will be killed instead."
Despite the great hatred he felt earlier, he couldn't bring his sword to go forward. He was never taught to kill without remorse, and truthfully, Blayde's sudden submission had left him to waver in regards to killing the dark, red-eyed enemy. Van's hands slightly shook while the tip of the sword hovered deathly close to Blayde's neck.
Just as the sword touched Blayde's skin, the large door at the front of the throne room flew open. The two men saw Hitomi running towards them. She stopped beside Van. A feeling of hesitation came to her, but eventually she approached Blayde saying, "It doesn't have to be this way. Just stop being our enemy, and you can live."
Blayde paused to thoughtfully stare at her, then said, "You're wrong. I cannot easily do that. As long as you or the Fanelian King hold The Key, I cannot let you live."
Hitomi paused to look at Van for a moment. "We....hold the key?"
"What do you mean by that?" Van asked.
Slowly, but with very smooth movement, he took out the white stone. He held it up towards Van and Hitomi. Instantaneously, the stone began to glow brightly. So bright that it illuminated all the shadowed corners of the room. It only started getting dimmer once Blayde moved it away.
"I see that The Key only exists as two entities formed into one," Blayde said as he clasped the white stone tightly in his palm.
With a saddened expression, Hitomi walked closer to him. "You must feel really responsible for what happened to Atlantis. In order to hate this Key so badly."
"It is not a question of hate. Something so strong should not exist in Gaia. I am preventing a crisis that happened in my land from repeating itself."
"You don't have to do this."
"No, I understand that I am fated to end my life this way. What I do not understand is you. You had the choice to not get involved in Gaia's turmoil. You could have stayed in the Mystic Moon, never to be bothered or harmed again."
Hitomi nodded. "You're right. I could've done that and saved myself a lot of trouble." With a smile upon her lips she continued. "But I can't abandon the people I know and love in this world...." A small hint of red came to Hitomi's cheeks. "...And most of all, I can't just abadon Van either. I want to protect him most of all, somehow."
It was obvious that Blayde, and especially Van, found Hitomi's last comment to be very surprising. Anyone could see Van's attention solely focused on her as he tried to hide his face. For he, also, had small hint of red on his cheeks.
Unexpectedly, Blayde appeared to be curious and mindful as he said, "So you would go to a dangerous world such as Gaia...for him?"
"Yes," she said in a calm voice. She turned to find Van staring back at her. His reddish-brown eyes were hard to see underneath a veil of shadows, but she could see a familiar emotion in them. It was the same emotion she saw three years ago when they finally broke free of the misunderstandings. An emotion that needed no promises or words to say he felt the same for her. "...I would go anywhere or do anything for him."
While the couple's attention were on each other, Blayde noticed Van's grip on his sword was loose. Blayde knew how easy it would be to snatch back his one of the swords, and end his eternal vengeance on The Key.
Hitomi's shoulder ached as it slammed on the ground. Feeling a sense of horrible dread and pain, she screamed as she watched Blayde's mighty sword turn into a diagonal blur. The high pitched sound from his sword cutting through the air echoed in the dark room. Immediately after was the sound of a piece of Van's sword falling noisily on the floor. Only the hilt and part of the blade was left in Van's hands. The jagged sword was too fast for Van to defend himself. Hitomi watched in dismay as the sharp metal came in contact with his chest. Faster than the eye, a line was ripped through his shirt, then a red so dark and thick flowed out from the line. Hitomi saw the metal dripping with red, while Van's body fell silently on the floor. Once again she screamed in agony; the pain in her heart felt as if it, too, had a deep cut. The real hot tears streaming down from her green eyes, the real precious blood stained on the floor and on her love's chest,....and the real destiny that was forced to them by fate. It wasn't a dream or an illusion. It was reality.
Author's Note: *phew* Talk about some vivid descriptions in the end. And see? It says 'to be continued' and not 'the end.' You think I'd end it like that? No way! You'll see what I have in the store for Chapter 7. Which will be the last chapter, and the epilogue. Again, it took a long while to finish. Please excuse me for taking so long. I wanted to make sure it's not too boring, and had some twists. Ah, the usual suspenseful cliffhanger. ^.^ Anyway, don't forget to tell me what you think about it, okie!? I always appreciate some feedback. Thank you!
