Kim shook her head as thoughts of this episode reached her mind. She shuddered, and suddenly this wasn't just an awesome show with foxy bishounen, one of whom she was sitting across from. This was reality.
Those were really Allen's men dying down there, not just frames of drawings. The enormity of the situation reached her and a tear rolled down her cheek. Her temper flared.
"Why?" She asked, staring Folken in the eye.
"Why what?" he asked coldly in response. He was taken aback by the sudden fire in her eyes but he didn't pursue it.
"Why do you kill without conscience just to..." die... "Lose in the end?" she asked angrily.
"This is a holy war, for the betterment of Gaea. We have the gods on our side, we can not lose!" Folken said, punctuating his phrase by pounding the table with his fist.
"Bull *($^!" *CENSORED! She swore (true to Van.) "You can not make a place better by destroying it! You must talk, not kill innocents! War does not bring peace, it brings heartache!" she sprang from her chair, knocking it over in the process. "Just you wait, Folken Lacour de Fanel! You'll see how wrong all this is. How far off latitude this twisted plot of his is!" she said, gesturing wildly.
Folken's garnet eyes now glowed a wild red, like the fire below that Dilandau was creating. She saw this and shivered. He only got this mad at Dilandau. Maybe I crossed a line I shouldn't have? she pondered. Well da&(&^! He needs this. He's not going to wait until like the twentieth episode to se what a jerk he's being! Especially to Van!
Folken's feathers were definitely ruffled, but he decided he could not win an argument with this stubborn, hotheaded woman. He reached beside him and placed a large bag on the table.
Kim quickly forgot her anger when she saw what he had to offer.
"My bag! How...where did you find it?" she asked excitedly.
"I was under my lab table, where I found you," he said, smiling inwardly at her childish excitement.
She opened it to find her chemistry notes, calculator, and her latest civil war novel. Checking the batteries in the calculator, she piqued Folken's interest.
"I keep forgetting that you are further behind in technology than the Mystic Moon." Kim smiled. "This is a calculator," she said, formerly introducing him to the device.
Quickly, the tension created by their earlier argument dispersed as she showed him her chemistry notes. He became enthralled as she showed him how to make hydrogen in his lab and blow the gas up. It was now her turn to smile at him as he looked like a rich kid in a candy store. Kim sighed, already feeling homesick, and with a strange feeling that she would never return to Earth...and that she would die here on Gaea.
Hey, it's only an act, right? I can't really tell the future? I'm sure of it, she thought, sitting down in one of the lab chairs.
*****
And now, we flee to Palais.
Oh, no...Milerna. Holly tried not to gag.
Merle isn't here, so maybe Milerna won't be...Then again, maybe it would be a good things, so Allen would stop staring at me like that...
Van I don't mind, but he seems a bit preoccupied.
"Van, are you okay?" Holly asked, settling herself beside him.
"I should have been able to stop them," he said sadly.
"You're only human. There's only so much you can do," Holly said. She took a chance, and leaned against him. He stiffened momentarily, then he relaxed and put his arm around her.
This is the way, Van...
"Blast!" Allen exclaimed. "Zaibach guymelefs are approaching! And they can fly..."
Van stood abruptly and Holly sighed.
"They are after me," Van said. "So maybe..."
"Come out!" Dilandau screamed. "Allen Schezar!"
Allen went out to fight. Holly watched through the window.
It's so hard...I have always loved Dilandau for his craziness but now that craziness and real and he is so evil...Where is Van?
Allen and Dilandau fought fiercely, and Holly realized she must be bloodthirsty because she actually enjoyed watching them fight...
And then Van came out in the Escaflowne, and changed it into a dragon.
"Escaflowne has turned into a dragon!"
"Yes, Allen, we know," Holly mumbled.
"So this is the dragon Emperor Dornkirk was talking about! Gatty, Chesta, Miguel! Let's go!" They chased after Van, leaving Allen shouting after them.
"Vaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan!" Holly screeched. She realized she was actually sitting next to Gaddes, and at that particular moment she was screaming in his ear and pulling out his hair. He yelped. Holly apologized. "Somebody save Van!"
*****
Van flew as fast as he could but Dilandau still caught him.
They fought...but Dilandau was stronger.
"I beat him this easily?"
Dilandau was shocked.
"Dilandau! He is supposed to be taken alive!"
"Yes, Folken...I was just having a little fun," Dilandau crowed.
*****
Kim was wandering aimlessly later that day. She seemed to be doing a lot of that lately.
"Do I even have a purpose?" she wondered aloud, but stopped when she thought she heard Van's voice.
"Brother?" he asked timidly.
Wait...I must talk to him, Kim thought. I've got to go stop Folken before he knocks Van out!
She needed no scheme to stop him, for he saw her standing in the doorway. He stopped seconds before he pierced Van's neck and walked sweetly away, leaving a confused Van behind.
"Who are you?!? How dare you interrupt!" he yelled.
"Van, sir, calm yourself!" Kim barked. "I need to ask you a question!"
"How do you...you called me sir," Van said randomly.
"Holly, she travels with you, yes?"
"You know Holly?" Van asked, his eyes softening.
"Yes, we both come from the Mystic Moon."
"So many people coming from there...Why are you on their side? Why do you choose such an evil?" Van demanded, getting all haughty again.
Kim shook her head and walked out of the room, to almost run into Folken.
"You may poison him now," she said quietly, and ran off to her room.
I am here to make Folken realize...
*****
Holly had her hands tangled in Allen's hair and she was dragging him around the Crusade.
"Van could DIE so we have to go and save him RIGHT NOW ALL RIGHT?"
Allen was whimpering in pain. "Yes...I was going to go after him anyway..."
Holly released him. "I'm sorry," she said. "I'm a little worried right now."
"I understand."
Holly handed Allen the clump of hair she had ripped from his head as a form of truce. He laughed.
Maybe Allen's not so bad after all...Holly, don't even go there, girl!
"We have to find out where he is first," Allen said.
"The place where the wandering earth collects," Holly replied automatically.
Allen gaped. "But...how..."
"I'm psychic," Holly said, giggling nervously. She wasn't, not really, but how else could she explain?
Allen ordered the Crusade to be taken to that place.
Holly was (quite unfortunately) touched by his trust.
They arrived at the Zaibach floating fortress and Allen and his men boarded it.
I'm not an athlete, I can't wait and then jump across a chasm that will be eight or nine feet across...I would fall to my death! So Holly followed right behind the men, as quickly and silently as she could manage.
She saw Folken; sexy Folken, toss Van his sword. Oh man it's really Folken...Don't lose it Holly don't jump him like Dilandau you can't...
"Brother!" Van exclaimed angrily. Oh Van...Folken, your brother who secretly cares about you but can't let you know it because he thinks he is doing the right thing and creating a better world...I hurt for both of you... Holly was so sad. She was about to go to Van, when she collided with someone familiar. "KIM!"
*****
"Holly!!!!!????" She screeched. "This is too cool, but way too scary and ... how?? This isn't happening correctly on the time line. where's merle? Why aren't you trying to save Van by jumping across the chasm? That thing sure was scary last time I looked."
Folken stared at the two nutty girls jumping up and down below him. Such happiness. 'I used to be happy when I was as old as them...' he sighed softly, casting one last regretful look at his brother, who could not see how wonderful the future under Zaibach could be, and drifted silently back to his lab.
*****
Holly squealed with delight upon seeing Kim...then she ran for Van.
"Van, watch out!"
Van turned just in time to see Dilandau attacking him...He sliced Dilandau's cheek.
"Owie!" Holly yelled. She was torn between the two of them...she loved both when watching the show, but now that it was real? Who did she love? She knew she felt something deep within...
"Van the Escaflowne is that way!" she said. "I'll be there soon...I promise!"
Van trusted her so completely...
"Kim! What are you doing with Zaibach?" Holly demanded. "Were you...were you responsible for the death of...so many people...and Fanelia..." Holly felt weak. How could Kim do that? "And...Oh MY GOODNESS YOU DID IT DIDN'T YOU? YOU FELL IN LOVE WITH THE GUY WHO IS DESTINED TO DIE! STUPID YOU!" Holly shrieked.
*****
Kim turned bright red as Holly accused her of falling in love with Folken. "You just have no idea how tortured he is. Seeing him makes me want to cry. I didn't chose to come here anyways. I've bi&*(ed both Dilandau and Folken out for what they've done. I've got the bruises to prove it." she said, pointing to the bruises on her face, and arms. "It's just so hard to tell someone what they believe is wrong. I...I can't not reveal that there is a show. I'm 'psychic'. Hey, speaking of that, do you think that Hitomi's still waiting in Japan, looking for her true draconian love?" Kim giggled, despite the blood and terror surrounding them.
*****
Holly laughed evilly at that remark. She felt a bit better that Kim wasn't evil..."I love Folken too," she said, "but my job here is to make Van a softer guy...at least I hope that's my job. I think that I..." Holly turned red. "Anyway. Will you come with me, come with the good guys?"
*****
"I can't leave him" Kim said sadly shaking her head. "He doesn't have Nariya, and Ariya to show how wrong he is. Until Asturia?" She asked, hold out her hand.
*****
Holly shook her hand so hard that Kim's arm almost dislocated. "In Asturia...Wish me luck with Milerna!" she made a face...and she ran after Van.
I hope Kim will be all right...and I hope that Folken doesn't hurt her...
******
Kim watched sadly as Holly ran off, her arm tingling from her fierce shaking. she heard Dilandau screaming violently about his beautiful face, and decided that she ought to hide. He seemed to have taken a particular liking to hitting her, even more than his dragon slayers. She walked slowly but could hear Dilandau's screams increase in volume behind her, and broke into a full fledged run. Her scabbard tripped her and she went sliding into Folken's lab, seeing him staring silently at her textbook. He pretended to be reading but she knew that he was not.
'The dragon. The dragon that stole his happiness.' She remembered. 'That's what he's thinking about. Should I go and preen his hair like the cat chicks did?' she asked herself, suppressing a giggle.
He seemed to be aware of his presence now, and turned to face her. She was looking upwards, and the expansive ceiling. He watched intently, his eyes glistening. She knew he needed to let it go.
"It's ok to cry." She said quietly.
*****
Van, Allen, Holly and the others returned to the crusade. Van thanked Holly for saving him...
He seems a lot nicer already...He's really becoming a sweetheart, and so early in the series!
No matter how real it felt, Holly still could not stop thinking of this as a television series. If she did that, she was not so scared.
"It was really no trouble," Holly said, blushing. She loved it when he looked at her like that...Van...She had always dreamed of meeting someone like Van, but she had figured she never had a chance. Guys just didn't seem to like her...
I hope that he cares about me...I don't think I could stand it if he didn't...
"We are now in Asturia," Allen announced. "We are going to land."
Well, here it comes...Milerna. She and I are NOT going to get along at all. Holly braced herself...
*****
Kim walked over to him and put her hands on his shoulders. This seemed to make him feel more at ease because he began to talk.
"I've betrayed my country, my mother is dead because of me, and I'm a failure." He said softly. He wanted to cry. Oh how he wanted to cry. but the tears wouldn't come. He had been this way for years, not shedding a single tear, aside from the tattoo. Folken had been cold for far too long, and he had forgotten what it was like to feel.
"Folken, they used you. They saw you lying there on the ground, and they thought 'look a capable young man to meld and black mail into our use'. You do not have to be here. Van loves you. He's just stubborn. He'll come around." Kim sighed. When it's too late....
He leaned his head back and saw there were now tears in her eyes. "Why do you waste your tears on a traitor?" He asked, feeling worthless.
"Because he has the heart of a true hero, like no other man I know." She said, the tears spilling over onto her cheeks. Curses Holly's right. Why did I have to fall in love with the one that's gonna die??
Folken pulled her down into his lap and she pressed her head into his soft warm chest. 'He smells like home.' She breathed deeply. his heart beat was soothing and it calmed her tears. She finally raised her head and looked deep into his eyes. She could see the regret there, but something else was also present.
Could it be? No, of course not. Folken doesn't fall in love. He's lost his heart to... But maybe he could find it with me? she thought.
*****
Holly tapped her foot impatiently as she waited for Milerna to arrive.
"Princess Milerna," Allen said.
Milerna giggled and flirted. She told Allen to use her horse and go back to the palace to talk with her father.
"Girl...Get Allen's bags, will you?"
Holly had been expecting this.
"No."
"What?"
"I'm not a handmaiden."
"Oh...I'm sorry, I just saw those odd clothes and assumed..."
"You shouldn't frown upon anything that is different!" Holly shouted. "Just because I look and act different than you doesn't mean I am any less of a human being! I am a person too and I just wish that people would accept that!" she began to cry, and she was enjoying herself immensely.
Milerna had a stunned look on her face. "I'm sorry..."
"She's with me," Van said, and there was no Merle to deny it...Holly smiled gratefully at him, and leaned on him a bit... I think...I think...Could it be? I always thought of him as a fictional character and I loved him to pieces but could I really...?
"I'll lead you all to the castle," Milerna said.
Holly stifled a cackle, and let Van help her walk.
*****
Kim sighed and walked from the room.
Folken needed to speak with Dornkirk about the escape of the white dragon.
Wait a minute.... Dilandau never touched the energist... what the hell is going on? she thought angrily. A sudden wave of dizziness caught her off guard and she grabbed the wall for support. She was falling backwards.
"A vision!!!" She whispered. "This is getting too real!!!"
She screamed, and fell within her mind.
**She was fighting, with Miguel, with swords.
"I don't know how to do that, what's going on???"
~~unsheathe your sword~~~ a voice called to her.
Suddenly she wasn't watching herself fight Miguel, she was actually fighting him. And not loosing. She swiped his sword away.
"Very very good. Master Folken will be pleased." He said, and the vision abruptly ended. **
She was standing in the empty hallway, holding out her sword. 'Do I fight now?' she wondered. She practiced a few strokes and was amazed at her ability to handle the weapon.
"I can sword fight!" She exclaimed happily, he voice echoing throughout the corridors.
"Oops," she whispered, and ducked into her room, before anyone found her.
*****
Milerna gave Holly a dress to try on but it was too small around the middle.
Curse those candy bars. She handed it back, embarrassed. Milerna ordered the servants to let it out a little..which only embarrassed Holly further.
She seethed as they took her measurements. Why do I have to be...pudgy? UNFAIRNESS! She snarled at the pile of her clothes in the corner...and they caught on fire.
"Whoa!" she exclaimed. "Water! Someone, water!"
The fire was put out and she sobbed at the gaping hole in her favorite shirt.
Blast my luck anyway. What just happened, there? No one on Gaea has weird powers like that...She shook her head. This was getting weirder and weirder all the time.
Flaming heck. Literally.
She began to giggle uncontrollably.
The dress was fitted to her and she went out to where Van was sitting...and he stared at her with that particular expression in his eyes that she loved so much.
"Do you like it?" she asked, turning on the charm. She'd never been very good at flirting, but she was darn well going to give it her best!
"I do," he said quietly. She blushed.
"I just got a message from Allen. He says to go to the market without him...Men," Milerna whined.
Holly snorted. "So let's go!"
The market was absolutely amazing. She got stopped at one booth, by the guy with the CD. Unlike Hitomi, she actually demonstrated its use to the guy...and he gave her a fair bit of cash for her magical CD player, and she bought a crapload of clothes and other exotic stuff.
This is the life! She thought, suppressing an evil cackle. That CD player was almost done for anyway...mwahahahahhhahahahha! I am soooo bad.
Van saw something and went running after it. Folken...Holly thought. He saw Folken. Oh no, I have to go...Dilandau is going to try and kill him! NO!
******
Dilandau put all the power he could into one crima claw. "BYE BYE VAN!"
*****
"Watch out!" Holly screamed, and she knocked Van to the side, interrupting his talk with Folken. The claw whizzed past him.
Folken shook his head, and left, vowing to yell at Dilandau when he got back...
"You saved me," Van said. "Why?"
Holly tried not to show how much she was enjoying lying on him. "Because I didn't want you to get hurt...I would never want you to be hurt...Van, I..."
"Holly..."
"The King requires your presence," said a bunch of guys in crappy uniforms.
Blast that King Aston. He is interrupting a very important moment in the series! But of course, they had to go...
*****
Kim watched from the carriage as Holly jumped Van.
Hehehe she can't hide that from me. She's soooo in love with him. she sighed. Da*(*t why do I always fall for the ones who I know I can't have? Is Liu right when she says I do it because they can't hurt me? Well I'm sure as heck not going to walk away from this one unscathed, she thought. She began to bang her head against the side of the carriage, and continued even after Folken stepped into it.
He reached his hand between her head and the carriage and caressed her cheek.
"Self-punishment is not the answer. Now tell me why you are being masochistic?" he smiled.
"Stupid boys. Always so stupidly unreachable." she muttered.
To her amazement he had actually heard her and laughed. "That's why you need a man." He said turning her face to look at his. He had a soft smile on his face, and was slowly leaning closer towards her lips.
No you cannot, Folken, you cannot hurt this poor innocent. She does not deserve the trouble and turmoil which follows you...
He leaned upwards and kissed her forehead. "You will find him... And he will treat as the GODDESS you are."
"I think I already have..." she sighed tears filling her eyes as the sweetness of his gesture.
*****
Holly watched as Van fought in a three on one battle. He won, of course; Holly had known he would, but she was still angry that King Aston could be such a stupid jerk!
She started to protest, but Allen stepped out in front of her, much as he had Hitomi. Holly was not going to let that happen. She wanted her voice to be heard. She climbed Allen's curtain of hair, and perched atop his shoulders.
"King Aston, that was unfair!" she exclaimed. He gave her a dirty look.
"It's all right," Van said. "Odds like that happen on the real battlefield."
Holly smiled sweetly at him. She went to him...at least that's what she meant to do. What happened was that she fell from Allen's shoulders onto the ground. He moved as if to help her...but she scrambled to her feet.
"Join me for dinner," King Aston said to all of them. It was not a request.
Oh wait, now is the part where I get to go and get drunk! SWEET! Only I hope that it can be Van who carries me to my bed, not Allen...
******
Kim stumbled in on Dilandau prick pricking, cheek cheeking. She giggled, but her blood turned cold when she realized how frightening his voice was.
"Chiku, chiku." she said, in her best Japanese impression.
Dilandau looked at her, his eyes blazing.
"Master Dilandau, you are even more beautiful with the scar." she winked, and exited quickly, leaving a confused dilly sama on his throne.
She walked to Folken's lab, and waited quietly, not wanting to interrupt his work. She picked up her book and began to write in her red duotang.
The latest work was one of love between friends.
Always the love theme, she sighed. Always a romance author, never romanced.
She began writing furiously, coming to the part of their first kiss, not noticing how Folken was standing behind her, reading over her shoulder. She stopped when she felt someone watching. He took this opportunity to snatch
the book from her.
"Hey give that back!!" she screeched trying to grab it from her hands, but her 5'6" frame was no match for his 6'4". He read the entire story, while Kim stood there blushing harder every moment.
"This is very good. Have you ever been in love? Because you describe it so well." his eyes were burning into hers.
Just when you think that you can't blush harder..
"Well, I've always liked guys who I have no chance of ever having a relationship with, so I've been in angst.." she managed to get out.
He nodded."I know exactly what you mean.." he said quietly.
Dilandau burst in and interrupted the moment
"I'm going to capture Van." He said angrily.
"No you can't burn Asturia, they're innocent. You can't!!!" Kim said walking directly into the path of Dilandau.
"Foolish girl!!!" he said preparing to slap her.
But she was quick and drew her sword.
"Let's dance, you and I," she said darkly, challenging him.
He also drew and was the first to thrust, cackling wildly the entire time.
Until she began to gain his ground.
"Wha... I'm being beaten by a woman!!!" He screeched.
She finally knocked his weapon from his hands, and held the sword to his
throat.
"You will not go and burn anything. You will just try to capture 'the dragon', you will not hurt civilians." she said through clenched teeth.
He shook his head wildly as though to defy her, but she pierced his neck with the sword, and he backed off.
She stood shaking after he had gone.
"Who am I?" she asked herself. "This is not like me at all...."
******
*****
Holly sat at the dinner table and downed glass after glass of the sickly sweet liquid, and she still wasn't drunk yet.
Drat. I hate liquor...Who would ever have thought that I had such a high tolerance? Gah.
"Milerna is engaged to be married to Dryden," Milerna's sister announced.
"WaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahHOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" Holly exclaimed. "You can't! Then Allen will stay single..." She giggled hysterically.
Oh I think the drink is working now...
"Anyone wanna see me touch my toes?" she demanded. "One two three four...Touch the floor! MWAHAHAHAHA!" Then she proceeded to pass out (yet again).
"Umm..." They all stared at her form on the floor.
"I will carry her," Allen said. Van was about to protest...but he didn't.
Allen gently placed Holly in her bed and noticed how pretty she was...She was insane, yes, but quite charming, really...
She stirred. "You carried me, didn't you?" she sighed. "I never get the guy I really want..." She fell asleep again.
I wonder what she meant by that?
Eries walked into the room.
"Allen...you can't keep leading Milerna on like this!"
Allen pulled the blankets up around Holly's face to be sure she would not get cold.
"I don't know what you're talking about."
"You see Marlene in her, and you miss Marlene so much..." Eries shook her head. "Let Milerna have her own life!"
"I will never fall in love again."
Eries laughed sarcastically. "Of course not, Allen Schezar." She turned and fled.
*****