Chapter 6: Waking the Dragon
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Just a little foreword people, thank you for all the great reviews, I can't tell you how much it makes me want to keep going with this, especially from magicman and Sailor Hope. ^-^ Just hope it doesn't get too bland in spots hehe. ^-^; Anyways, please enjoy! Next weekend I should have the next chapter(s) up!! Luv you all! :D
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It was later evening when Van and Allen had begun talking again as they waited in the hall outside Hitomi's room for the doctor to finish up. They both turned their heads as they heard Merle scampering up. "How is she?" she asked as she skidded to a stop again, trying her best not to jump Van while he wore the royal robes. She grinned up at the Knight of Austuria. "Hey Allen. When did you get here?"
"The doctor's in there stitching her cut now," Van answered, "and Allen came in accompaniment with Belle. Where is she now?"
"She's asleep in her room," Merle replied. "Cute kid. Really tired from the ride though, so I left her alone."
"Have you seen Akiko, Merle?" Van asked, thinking it suspicious for her to have gone missing.
"Not since early this morning since before she went to bed," she hissed. "Why?"
"I find it really odd that we haven't seen her around Hitomi's room all day," Van said, scratching the back of his head. "What's more is that she doesn't even know her way around the rest of the palace."
Merle shrugged. "Maybe she got some directions from one of the maids or something," she supplied. Just as she said this, the doctor came out of the door. All three of them stared at him, waiting for a reply.
He stared back for a moment, before he replied. "If you're wondering about her status, the bleeding has stopped, but she just may remain unconscious…" He frowned as everyone's faces fell. "But we're pretty confident she'll make progress!" Merle, Van and Allen all sighed relief in unison. The doctor smiled, bowed to Van and continued off on his way.
"I'd much rather go in myself," Van told Allen and Merle. He smiled sheepishly. "If you don't mind."
"Of course we don't," Merle replied, jumping onto Allen's back. "C'mon Allen, let's go wake up the Duchess! I'm in the mood to play!"
Allen chuckled, Merle clinging to him. "See you later, Van." He walked off, Merle waving as she hitched a ride to Belle's room.
Van grinned to himself. Maybe things were going to work out right in the end after all. Turning the knob of the door, he let out a breath, and stepped inside.
Hitomi was still out like a light, though she wasn't nearly as pale as earlier. The stitches on her forehead stood out like a sore thumb, but Van was glad that she no longer needed bandages. He sat down beside her, and stroked her cheek. She'd snap out of this, he knew it. She was Hitomi, the Girl From the Mystic Moon. She could get through anything. Van stretched out beside her. He'd stay here all night. He didn't care what anyone else thought. He'd stay by her side until she was well again.
He had just snuggled into the pillow beside her when the door opened again. "I thought you said you didn't mind…" he began. But looking up, he saw it was Akiko who stood in the doorway, groomed and wearing her green dress. "Oh, hello Akiko." He said.
But Akiko didn't reply. She came around to the side of the bed and sat down next to him. Her eyes were empty and held no glint to them. Van sat up straight. She didn't seem like herself. "Akiko, are you all right?" he asked.
Her response to him was a passionate kiss. She ran her fingers through his dark, wild hair, moving closer to him. Van pushed her aside and leapt to his feet. "Akiko, what are you doing?!" he shouted at her.
Akiko grinned evilly at him. "I know you want me, Van," she said, her voice dark and mysterious. "I want you too. I've wanted you since the first time we met."
"But that kiss on the hand meant nothing!!" Van cried. "It was just a greeting!! Nothing more!!"
"It definitely was more than that Van, I can tell," she crooned, sitting cross-legged on the bed. "I think that if Hitomi wasn't there you would've done something more about it."
"No, it most certainly was not, and if you don't mind, I'd like to spend time with Hitomi…alone," he replied harshly.
"You don't love her, Van," Akiko said as she stood up and walked over to him slowly. "If you love Hitomi so much, then why didn't you call off the wedding for her?" She placed her hands on his shoulders. "Let a real woman love you, Van." Van caught her hands in his own and held her wrists.
"Listen to me," he said to her, staring into those blank eyes. "I love Hitomi. The wedding to the Duchess is called off and as soon as Hitomi snaps out of this, I'm going to ask her to marry me. Nothing is going to stop me from doing this. Nothing, you hear me?"
Akiko growled. She snatched her wrists out of his grasp, gathered her skirts about her and hissed, "You'll be mine, Van Fanel, you wait and see." She dashed out the door, nearly knocking Allen over as she did.
Allen took one look at Van's frightened face and asked, "Do you want me to go after her?"
But Van didn't know what to do about her. Akiko didn't seem like the sweet, innocent girl he had met the other day at all. What was going on? "No, let her be," Van replied, sitting back down on the bed, his back to Allen. "Please leave me alone."
Allen closed the door and left Van in the dark room with Hitomi.
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Hitomi was wandering through the forest again. 'What did Varie mean, "a snake in the grass"?' she thought. She had figured out so far that she was practically in a coma and her body was in the palace, and she was trying to get there. But she didn't have a sweet clue as to where she was going.
She smacked herself in the forehead, something dawning on her. "If I'm not in my body, then why don't I just fly there?" she asked. She rubbed the sore spot where she had hit herself. It had stopped bleeding, and seemed to have stitched itself up somehow. She concentrated for a moment, trying to make her astral self float above the trees. 'Please work,' she prayed. When she opened her eyes again, she was elevated about the treetops, and she could see the palace in the distance.
"I'm really high up," she said aloud, smiling. "Makes me wish I had wings like Van." She set her sights on the palace, and glided through the air. It was much slower than horseback, but still faster than walking and stumbling around in the dark.
"Hold on Van," she whispered. "I'm coming."
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Van jumped. He had heard something, but there was no one else in the room, save for Hitomi. He looked at her in a sense of wonderment. 'Are you trying to tell me something?' he thought. He stretched out beside her again as he had been before Akiko came in. Van shivered. Something was definitely wrong with her. There was a familiar coldness to her eyes that he just couldn't place…
Just then, Allen burst into the room with Merle close on his heels. "Van! Damien disappeared, and he took Akiko with him!!" he cried.
Van bounded to his feet. "What?! Where is he going?? Do you know???"
Allen shook his head. "I have no idea! One of the soldiers told me that he was heading due north from here!"
"You can be sure he's up to no good!!" Merle chimed in.
"If we leave now I'm sure we could catch up to them on horseback by nightfall!" Allen replied.
"No," Van said calmly. "I have a much better idea." He gently pulled the pendant over his head, placed it in Hitomi's palm and closed her hand over it. Allen watched, confused by both Van's words and his actions.
"I'll be back soon, Hitomi. Don't worry about me when you wake up, I'll be just fine." He kissed her forehead softly, then turned to Allen. "Let's go."
"Oh, be careful, Lord Van!!" Merle cried, wrapping her arms around his waist. Van smiled down at Merle and patted her head.
"You just take care of Hitomi for me, ok Merle?" he said. She nodded, swallowing a lump in her throat. She let go of him and perched herself on the edge of the bed.
Both Allen and Van bolted out the door, but Van made a detour down to his room. "Van, what on Gaea are you doing?! We have to get going!!" Allen yelled.
But Van didn't reply as he took a small wooden chest from a compartment in the floor under his bed. He laid the box on the smooth covers and opened it. Gleaming pink in the sunlight, encased in velvet was the drag-energist.
Allen's jaw dropped. "Van, you can't seriously be thinking –" he started.
"I am," Van cut in. "Something tells me we're going to need it." He grabbed it out of its box and took off out the door again, Allen straggling behind to keep up, protesting all the way.
"Van!! You don't possibly think that Escaflowne will be needed! Damien couldn't be up to something so drastic, could he??!" he shouted as they both raced along.
"Something's not right, Allen!" Van cried back. "There's an emptiness in Akiko's eyes that I just couldn't understand!! She's not the same woman I met the other day, and I think Damien is somehow behind it!!" As he yelled these words, the energist in Van's fist started to glow brightly.
They dashed past many confused servants, and finally made it to the shrine. Allen tried one last time to convince Van otherwise. "Van, you remember what happened 7 years ago with the war?? You could get yourself killed!!" Allen screamed at him as they ran through the huge door.
But Van wasn't listening. He stood in the middle of the shrine, holding the energist in the air. He didn't need to utter a sound before Escaflowne was lowered from the rock in the ceiling, magnificent as the day it had been put to rest. As it hit the floor with a loud "BOOM" Van leapt up onto the huge gymeloth and held the energist in front of the corresponding jewel- like compartment where Escaflowne's heartbeat would soon be. The front of it seemed to liquefy as Van pushed his hand with the energist through, glowing the whole while. Van grinned almost like a madman.
"Van!!!" Allen cried. But it was too late. The legendary dragon armor Escaflowne was already disturbed from its sleep and ready for action. Van retrieved his hand and sprung into the cockpit.
Sinking into it like it was a second skin, Van managed the controls, and maneuvered Escaflowne over towards Allen. It held out a hand for him to step on. "Van, I hope you know what you're getting us into!!" Allen yelled, and jumped onto the large hand.
Escaflowne strode outside into the twilight. With Allen in hand, the gymeloth twisted and turned to transform into the mighty dragon, with Van at the controls. "Hold on tight, Allen!!" he shouted. Allen grasped onto Escaflowne and with a tug and a grind of machinery, the dragon was airborne.
Allen smirked as they took off to the north. "If I had known there was going to be a fight today I would've brought mine!!"
Van smiled. "Nice to know you're behind me, Allen!!" he replied.
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Hitomi sat straight up in her bed. Merle screeched and stumbled off her perch. "HITOMI!!!" Merle cried happily, leaping off the floor and wrapping her arms around her. "We thought for sure we were gonna lose you!!!"
Hitomi held her head in pain. "Ow…Merle, could you not yell so loud please?" she pleaded.
"Oh, sorry," Merle whispered. "How is your head, anyway? Do you remember what happened?"
Hitomi shook her head gently. "I…I don't remember hitting my head on anything…" she replied. "And I'm sure I'll be fine in a few days." She looked around the room. "Where's Van? And Akiko??"
Merle frowned. "I hate having to be the one to tell you this Hitomi, but Damien took off with your friend," she said. She would normally be grinning to say it, but this was certainly no laughing matter. "Lord Van's gone after him. He seemed determined to try and save her."
Hitomi winced. But something inside her head reassured her. 'Just know that my son Van cares deeply for you. He always has. He always will….' Hitomi clenched her fists lightly, when she realized something was in her left. She opened her hand to reveal the pendant glimmering at her from her palm.
Hitomi fought back tears as she drew the chain over her head. She pulled the covers off of her and sat on the edge of the bed.
"Hitomi?" Merle asked, a realization dawning on her. "You couldn't possibly be thinking…"
Hitomi stood up, hugging the pendant to her chest in her fist. "I need a new dress, Merle. Can you fetch the handmaidens for me please?"
"Hitomi, you can't go after him!!" Merle cried. "You're not well!!"
"Merle," Hitomi said quietly, "it's irrelevant whether I want to go or not, but as long as Van is operating Escaflowne, the energist and the pendant are going to react and bring us together no matter what the situation. Don't you see?"
Merle bit her bottom lip. "I'll be right back, Hitomi!!" She scampered out the door.
Hitomi sauntered over to the window. "I'm not going to lose him again," she told the pink horizon, watching as the sun slowly dipped lower and lower behind the hills. "I just can't."
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Just a little foreword people, thank you for all the great reviews, I can't tell you how much it makes me want to keep going with this, especially from magicman and Sailor Hope. ^-^ Just hope it doesn't get too bland in spots hehe. ^-^; Anyways, please enjoy! Next weekend I should have the next chapter(s) up!! Luv you all! :D
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It was later evening when Van and Allen had begun talking again as they waited in the hall outside Hitomi's room for the doctor to finish up. They both turned their heads as they heard Merle scampering up. "How is she?" she asked as she skidded to a stop again, trying her best not to jump Van while he wore the royal robes. She grinned up at the Knight of Austuria. "Hey Allen. When did you get here?"
"The doctor's in there stitching her cut now," Van answered, "and Allen came in accompaniment with Belle. Where is she now?"
"She's asleep in her room," Merle replied. "Cute kid. Really tired from the ride though, so I left her alone."
"Have you seen Akiko, Merle?" Van asked, thinking it suspicious for her to have gone missing.
"Not since early this morning since before she went to bed," she hissed. "Why?"
"I find it really odd that we haven't seen her around Hitomi's room all day," Van said, scratching the back of his head. "What's more is that she doesn't even know her way around the rest of the palace."
Merle shrugged. "Maybe she got some directions from one of the maids or something," she supplied. Just as she said this, the doctor came out of the door. All three of them stared at him, waiting for a reply.
He stared back for a moment, before he replied. "If you're wondering about her status, the bleeding has stopped, but she just may remain unconscious…" He frowned as everyone's faces fell. "But we're pretty confident she'll make progress!" Merle, Van and Allen all sighed relief in unison. The doctor smiled, bowed to Van and continued off on his way.
"I'd much rather go in myself," Van told Allen and Merle. He smiled sheepishly. "If you don't mind."
"Of course we don't," Merle replied, jumping onto Allen's back. "C'mon Allen, let's go wake up the Duchess! I'm in the mood to play!"
Allen chuckled, Merle clinging to him. "See you later, Van." He walked off, Merle waving as she hitched a ride to Belle's room.
Van grinned to himself. Maybe things were going to work out right in the end after all. Turning the knob of the door, he let out a breath, and stepped inside.
Hitomi was still out like a light, though she wasn't nearly as pale as earlier. The stitches on her forehead stood out like a sore thumb, but Van was glad that she no longer needed bandages. He sat down beside her, and stroked her cheek. She'd snap out of this, he knew it. She was Hitomi, the Girl From the Mystic Moon. She could get through anything. Van stretched out beside her. He'd stay here all night. He didn't care what anyone else thought. He'd stay by her side until she was well again.
He had just snuggled into the pillow beside her when the door opened again. "I thought you said you didn't mind…" he began. But looking up, he saw it was Akiko who stood in the doorway, groomed and wearing her green dress. "Oh, hello Akiko." He said.
But Akiko didn't reply. She came around to the side of the bed and sat down next to him. Her eyes were empty and held no glint to them. Van sat up straight. She didn't seem like herself. "Akiko, are you all right?" he asked.
Her response to him was a passionate kiss. She ran her fingers through his dark, wild hair, moving closer to him. Van pushed her aside and leapt to his feet. "Akiko, what are you doing?!" he shouted at her.
Akiko grinned evilly at him. "I know you want me, Van," she said, her voice dark and mysterious. "I want you too. I've wanted you since the first time we met."
"But that kiss on the hand meant nothing!!" Van cried. "It was just a greeting!! Nothing more!!"
"It definitely was more than that Van, I can tell," she crooned, sitting cross-legged on the bed. "I think that if Hitomi wasn't there you would've done something more about it."
"No, it most certainly was not, and if you don't mind, I'd like to spend time with Hitomi…alone," he replied harshly.
"You don't love her, Van," Akiko said as she stood up and walked over to him slowly. "If you love Hitomi so much, then why didn't you call off the wedding for her?" She placed her hands on his shoulders. "Let a real woman love you, Van." Van caught her hands in his own and held her wrists.
"Listen to me," he said to her, staring into those blank eyes. "I love Hitomi. The wedding to the Duchess is called off and as soon as Hitomi snaps out of this, I'm going to ask her to marry me. Nothing is going to stop me from doing this. Nothing, you hear me?"
Akiko growled. She snatched her wrists out of his grasp, gathered her skirts about her and hissed, "You'll be mine, Van Fanel, you wait and see." She dashed out the door, nearly knocking Allen over as she did.
Allen took one look at Van's frightened face and asked, "Do you want me to go after her?"
But Van didn't know what to do about her. Akiko didn't seem like the sweet, innocent girl he had met the other day at all. What was going on? "No, let her be," Van replied, sitting back down on the bed, his back to Allen. "Please leave me alone."
Allen closed the door and left Van in the dark room with Hitomi.
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Hitomi was wandering through the forest again. 'What did Varie mean, "a snake in the grass"?' she thought. She had figured out so far that she was practically in a coma and her body was in the palace, and she was trying to get there. But she didn't have a sweet clue as to where she was going.
She smacked herself in the forehead, something dawning on her. "If I'm not in my body, then why don't I just fly there?" she asked. She rubbed the sore spot where she had hit herself. It had stopped bleeding, and seemed to have stitched itself up somehow. She concentrated for a moment, trying to make her astral self float above the trees. 'Please work,' she prayed. When she opened her eyes again, she was elevated about the treetops, and she could see the palace in the distance.
"I'm really high up," she said aloud, smiling. "Makes me wish I had wings like Van." She set her sights on the palace, and glided through the air. It was much slower than horseback, but still faster than walking and stumbling around in the dark.
"Hold on Van," she whispered. "I'm coming."
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Van jumped. He had heard something, but there was no one else in the room, save for Hitomi. He looked at her in a sense of wonderment. 'Are you trying to tell me something?' he thought. He stretched out beside her again as he had been before Akiko came in. Van shivered. Something was definitely wrong with her. There was a familiar coldness to her eyes that he just couldn't place…
Just then, Allen burst into the room with Merle close on his heels. "Van! Damien disappeared, and he took Akiko with him!!" he cried.
Van bounded to his feet. "What?! Where is he going?? Do you know???"
Allen shook his head. "I have no idea! One of the soldiers told me that he was heading due north from here!"
"You can be sure he's up to no good!!" Merle chimed in.
"If we leave now I'm sure we could catch up to them on horseback by nightfall!" Allen replied.
"No," Van said calmly. "I have a much better idea." He gently pulled the pendant over his head, placed it in Hitomi's palm and closed her hand over it. Allen watched, confused by both Van's words and his actions.
"I'll be back soon, Hitomi. Don't worry about me when you wake up, I'll be just fine." He kissed her forehead softly, then turned to Allen. "Let's go."
"Oh, be careful, Lord Van!!" Merle cried, wrapping her arms around his waist. Van smiled down at Merle and patted her head.
"You just take care of Hitomi for me, ok Merle?" he said. She nodded, swallowing a lump in her throat. She let go of him and perched herself on the edge of the bed.
Both Allen and Van bolted out the door, but Van made a detour down to his room. "Van, what on Gaea are you doing?! We have to get going!!" Allen yelled.
But Van didn't reply as he took a small wooden chest from a compartment in the floor under his bed. He laid the box on the smooth covers and opened it. Gleaming pink in the sunlight, encased in velvet was the drag-energist.
Allen's jaw dropped. "Van, you can't seriously be thinking –" he started.
"I am," Van cut in. "Something tells me we're going to need it." He grabbed it out of its box and took off out the door again, Allen straggling behind to keep up, protesting all the way.
"Van!! You don't possibly think that Escaflowne will be needed! Damien couldn't be up to something so drastic, could he??!" he shouted as they both raced along.
"Something's not right, Allen!" Van cried back. "There's an emptiness in Akiko's eyes that I just couldn't understand!! She's not the same woman I met the other day, and I think Damien is somehow behind it!!" As he yelled these words, the energist in Van's fist started to glow brightly.
They dashed past many confused servants, and finally made it to the shrine. Allen tried one last time to convince Van otherwise. "Van, you remember what happened 7 years ago with the war?? You could get yourself killed!!" Allen screamed at him as they ran through the huge door.
But Van wasn't listening. He stood in the middle of the shrine, holding the energist in the air. He didn't need to utter a sound before Escaflowne was lowered from the rock in the ceiling, magnificent as the day it had been put to rest. As it hit the floor with a loud "BOOM" Van leapt up onto the huge gymeloth and held the energist in front of the corresponding jewel- like compartment where Escaflowne's heartbeat would soon be. The front of it seemed to liquefy as Van pushed his hand with the energist through, glowing the whole while. Van grinned almost like a madman.
"Van!!!" Allen cried. But it was too late. The legendary dragon armor Escaflowne was already disturbed from its sleep and ready for action. Van retrieved his hand and sprung into the cockpit.
Sinking into it like it was a second skin, Van managed the controls, and maneuvered Escaflowne over towards Allen. It held out a hand for him to step on. "Van, I hope you know what you're getting us into!!" Allen yelled, and jumped onto the large hand.
Escaflowne strode outside into the twilight. With Allen in hand, the gymeloth twisted and turned to transform into the mighty dragon, with Van at the controls. "Hold on tight, Allen!!" he shouted. Allen grasped onto Escaflowne and with a tug and a grind of machinery, the dragon was airborne.
Allen smirked as they took off to the north. "If I had known there was going to be a fight today I would've brought mine!!"
Van smiled. "Nice to know you're behind me, Allen!!" he replied.
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Hitomi sat straight up in her bed. Merle screeched and stumbled off her perch. "HITOMI!!!" Merle cried happily, leaping off the floor and wrapping her arms around her. "We thought for sure we were gonna lose you!!!"
Hitomi held her head in pain. "Ow…Merle, could you not yell so loud please?" she pleaded.
"Oh, sorry," Merle whispered. "How is your head, anyway? Do you remember what happened?"
Hitomi shook her head gently. "I…I don't remember hitting my head on anything…" she replied. "And I'm sure I'll be fine in a few days." She looked around the room. "Where's Van? And Akiko??"
Merle frowned. "I hate having to be the one to tell you this Hitomi, but Damien took off with your friend," she said. She would normally be grinning to say it, but this was certainly no laughing matter. "Lord Van's gone after him. He seemed determined to try and save her."
Hitomi winced. But something inside her head reassured her. 'Just know that my son Van cares deeply for you. He always has. He always will….' Hitomi clenched her fists lightly, when she realized something was in her left. She opened her hand to reveal the pendant glimmering at her from her palm.
Hitomi fought back tears as she drew the chain over her head. She pulled the covers off of her and sat on the edge of the bed.
"Hitomi?" Merle asked, a realization dawning on her. "You couldn't possibly be thinking…"
Hitomi stood up, hugging the pendant to her chest in her fist. "I need a new dress, Merle. Can you fetch the handmaidens for me please?"
"Hitomi, you can't go after him!!" Merle cried. "You're not well!!"
"Merle," Hitomi said quietly, "it's irrelevant whether I want to go or not, but as long as Van is operating Escaflowne, the energist and the pendant are going to react and bring us together no matter what the situation. Don't you see?"
Merle bit her bottom lip. "I'll be right back, Hitomi!!" She scampered out the door.
Hitomi sauntered over to the window. "I'm not going to lose him again," she told the pink horizon, watching as the sun slowly dipped lower and lower behind the hills. "I just can't."