Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters or the plot line of
Escaflowne. I do own Kat, Jewel, Narisia, Blue, Rika, and the new DS. If
you wish to use them, please ask me first.
Chapter Nineteen: Past Lives
All of the Dragon Slayers sat together at a table in the mess hall, eating a quiet dinner. Their second in command, Kat, had given them the rest of the day off and half of tomorrow too. They were still in shock of that change, since Dilandau had just told them that they were to work hard tomorrow. Finally Sara cracked under the silence. "Well, can we at least strike up a simple conversation?" She asked, aspirated.
Rei looked at her. "No."
"Come on! Doesn't anyone have something to share? Their past, life or something?!"
Nebula sighed. "Let's do this, everyone tell your past when we get to you. And you have to tell, because you can't pass. Anything said doesn't go out of this room, understood? Okay, let's start with Sara."
Sara grumbled unhappily. "Fine. I grew up in a tavern, I was an only child. So when my parents died, I took over the bar. I've been a bar person for a couple of years, I was 13 when I took over, so I've been there for 5 years."
Sara looked at Cameron, who was happily chewing away at her meal. "Um, I was raised in Zaibach, and I was an only child. I was taught how to fight and do magic at an early age, so I used to go around our small village challenging all the boys; I won all fights. Then when I was 16 I decided I wanted to be a Dragon Slayer, so I came here. Um, that was a year ago."
Rei was next. "I lived in Austria until I was 14. That's when my parents split, and I didn't really understand and I was angry at them, so I came here. Of course I'm 17 now."
Lacy looked up from her past time, swirling around the liquid in her cup. "My turn? Alright, I grew up in a village of witches. I happily took on their teachings and learned their magic. But when I was 10, my own powers began to evolve and the witches in my village couldn't teach me anything else, so I left to help develop my powers. Now I'm here, at the age of 16."
Heather looked at the table. "I'm from the Mystic Moon. I lived with my parents until I was 6, then they split up. I lived with my mom, but it wasn't easy. I hated living without dad, and I couldn't visit him. So when I turned 15 I wishes that I could escape somewhere. And I was brought here. I stayed with a nice family in Zaibach for two years, then came here."
Heather looked to her side at Kendall. "Well, I'm from the Mystic Moon also. I hated my family; they were terrible. My parents never paid attention to me and my two older brothers were constantly ganging up on me. But in school I had really good grades, I could never figure out how that worked, I didn't even put any effort into studying.
"But then, it was a rainy day and everything came crashing down on me. I had finally had enough of my family, so I ran away. While I was running through the rain, a pillar of light came down and took me here. I've been in Zaibach for a while, I think about a year."
Everyone nodded; they sympathized Kendall. She had had a tough life. Nebula suddenly snapped out of her musings. "Right, my turn. Um, well I too came from Earth. I lived in one place my whole life, and I was basically just jumping around from here to there, doing various things. I really don't want to list all of them, it'll take too long." She chuckled. "But I too was taken here a few months ago. I came here and here I am."
Zai looked up form her water. "Well, I came from a Noble family in Zaibach. When I was 9 my father found out about my magical powers, and he began to beat me, saying that I was a disgrace to our family and all of Zaibach. He even tried to kill me once.
"Finally my mother took me to a secretive monastery, away from my father. Years later my father killed the rest of my father. I vowed revenge against him and anyone who was related to him. I'm going to get my revenge."
"Wow, tough life. I'm sorry," Nebula said. Zai smiled and nodded her thanks.
Now everyone was focused on Xenon. He was strangely quiet, and his face was hidden. "Come on, Xenon. Tell us about your past, it can't be that bad," Sara said.
Xenon slowly raised his head. "I grew up in a family with four sisters. They were constantly being annoying, worrying about boys or make- up or their clothes or hair. I came to hate femaleness, I still do. I had a good childhood, ignoring my sisters and all, I used to go out to our stable and ride our horse, Ryder.
"But then one day while I was on Ryder, my oldest sister came out and screamed because I was riding a muddy Ryder. Ryder got scared and threw me. While I was recovering from the fall, Ryder came galloping past me and stepped on my arm, breaking it. Ever since then I've had a fear of horses.
"When I was 16, I was betrothed to a money oriented man, whom I hated. So, since I didn't want to be married to him, I turned and ran to Zaibach. I've hidden my identity and I've become a Dragon Slayer."
Everyone stared at Xenon. They all were shocked speechless. This was certainly… New. Some of them had suspected that Xenon was just weird because he had freaked out when they had started talking about clothes or make-up. But now they saw why.
"Well, that's certainly… New." Nebula managed to say.
Everyone nodded.
"Um, so, some of us have mentioned powers. Anyone want to offer theirs?" Sara said quickly, trying to smooth over the awkward touch.
Rei was the first to speak up. "Well I can do a few spells and junk. But mostly I can change my form, into black dragon with red spikes down my back."
This shocked even more people. Zai took the time to speak up. "Really?! I can change into a giant phoenix! And I'm a powerful wizard; at least that's what I'm told. My powers mainly involve the elements, thought. But I also can talk with any creature and sooth them with my voice or flute. But I'm better with talking to dragons."
At this most people fell out of their chairs of shock. Rei grinned evilly. "Too many Metamorphs here!"
It took a few minutes before the next person spoke up, which was Cameron. "I can USE BLACK MAGIC!" She screeched. Everyone just sorta rolled their eyes at her sudden outburst; they were used to it by now.
"Well, I have dreams and then they happen. Kind of like that Hitomi girl's powers, only I have them in my sleep. And I can also control ice, anything with ice I can control." Nebula said.
"I have a few magical powers. I can create any kind of weapon I want, and I can transform things into other things, no matter how small or big. Even people." Heather added.
"I don't have any powers." Sara said, a little glad and a little jealous of the others.
"Yeah, me neither." Xenon and Kendall said together.
Lacey was the last to speak up. "I can manipulate the elements, rise the dead and summon demons, though I'm not that good at controlling them."
Everyone turned and looked at her oddly. "But I didn't bring back Fanel," she added quickly, catching onto the others. They all knew about the past king coming back from life. It was one of the mysterious most of them were trying to solve.
Everyone was quiet for a few minutes. Finally Kendall stood and stretched. "Well, I'm tired. I'm going to turn in. See ya," she said. And with that she left the mess hall. After her departure, the others broke off in groups, all doing different things. Finally the mess hall was empty.
****
"I can't believe you gave them the day off! They needed to work, their skills have become terrible and their focus isn't on their work! They are lacking off and need to get with the program!" Dilandau yelled angrily.
Kat simply rolled her eyes. Dilandau was going to yell himself hoarse over some stupid thing. She got up out of her chair and walked over to him and put her finger against him lips, shushing him. "I talked with Fanel last night. And he told me something… This might affect everyone."
Dilandau looked shocked. "What?"
"He told me everything. He's a Guardian of Time, Dilandau. He has come here because Jewel is the Choice, and she will kill Gaea and Earth. He told me, he wants me to stop Jewel. He wants me to kill her."
"And why do you believe him?"
"I believe him because I am a Protector, I am suppose to protect Gaea from demise. And I just have this feeling… We have to trust him and help him."
"You're going to trust Fanel just because you have a feeling? And because he told you Gaea was going to be destroyed? Why do such a… Such a stupid thing?"
Kat put a hand on his cheek and looked deep into his eyes. "Because this feeling that I have tells me that it will happen. Fanel didn't just come back from the dead to cause us trouble. He came back to warn us."
Dilandau put his hand on top of hers and gave it a slight squeeze. "If this requires that you die one more time, I am going to have to kill Fanel myself."
Kat grinned. "I don't think I'll have to die. But I need you to help me with this. Jewel is the Choice, that means that you need to help me figure out a way to not kill her but return her to her regular self."
"Alright."
****
"Why did she call us here in the middle of the night?" Sara asked sleepily, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes. Kat had called all of the new Dragon Slayers together in the training room just fifteen minutes ago, waking them up at two in the morning.
"Maybe because she's disappointed in our work lately and wants to kill us off?" Rei suggested sarcastically.
Nebula rolled her eyes. "Whatever, Rei. Nice pajamas by the way."
Rei grinned evilly. She was wearing red shorts with flames at the bottom and a black tank top with, of course, the single flame on it. "Thanks. I want to sleep in what I like, so that way my dreams have different ways of killing my victims with my favorite thing."
Heather shook her head. Just then Kat walked in, along with a girl that all had seen but never talked too. "Everyone, I'm glad you could make it on such a short notice. This is Jewel. She's also a Dragon Slayer but she is only used for important missions," Kat said motioning to Jewel. Everyone remained silent.
"The reason why I called you here is because I know you all have powers; and I know that you don't really know how to harness them and use them to your advantage. Although you believe you have mastered them, you really haven't. So, since in the next few days you are going to go on your first mission-and since most new recruits don't make it back-I want to be sure that you all will and that you are in full control of your powers so you can use them in battle. You never know when they'll come in handy."
This shocked a couple of people, how could Kat know this? "I know because I too have powers. I'm sure you all have heard of the Protectors of Gaea. Well, I'm one of them, and I have the powers over the Dark Moon, meaning that I can control the dark side of the moon's powers, phase through walls, and I can even use telepathy.
"I'm here because in the future, you'll need to rely on not only your powers, but your teammates. Since the other Slayers are a team and know each other well and each other's strengths and weaknesses, I thought that if I trained you together, worked on your powers with you, that you would become an even better team then the Slayers. Can you do that, can you try?"
"Yes ma'am," they all said.
"Alright, let's get started. Jewel you'll take Sara, Xenon, Heather, Rei, and Zaiyane. I'll take Lacey, Nebula, Cameron, and Kendall."
Everyone separated and went to their respected trainer. Once everyone was organized, the training began. Kat sat Nebula and Cameron down, and Lacy and Kendall. She ran between the two pairs, supervising their actions, giving tips, showing different tactics, and helping them. Jewel had Rei and Zaiyane get together; Sara, Xenon and Heather were also together. Jewel, who had no idea how to teach people with powers, somehow was able to teach the others, doing the same thing as Kat.
Finally, five hours later, Kat released the Slayers. They had done well, already they were farther ahead then they had been when she had first met them. "Jewel, I'm impressed. I didn't know you knew how to teach magic," Kat said as she and Jewel were exiting the training room. Once out the door, Kat turned and started heading towards her room. Jewel was walking away when she replied, "Neither did I. It's like it just came to me…"
*~~*
TBC….
Author's Note: Hi everyone! Yes, I know, I didn't include any new characters in this chapter, but don't worry! There will be more new characters, I just didn't think that it would be best to put them in this chapter. The characters will appear in the next chapter, chapter 20! Wow, this is the longest progressing story I have yet! Thanks to everyone who has supported this story by reviewing! It really means a lot to me! Alright, review, tell me what you think. Until the next chapter, ja!
-ShadowKat
Chapter Nineteen: Past Lives
All of the Dragon Slayers sat together at a table in the mess hall, eating a quiet dinner. Their second in command, Kat, had given them the rest of the day off and half of tomorrow too. They were still in shock of that change, since Dilandau had just told them that they were to work hard tomorrow. Finally Sara cracked under the silence. "Well, can we at least strike up a simple conversation?" She asked, aspirated.
Rei looked at her. "No."
"Come on! Doesn't anyone have something to share? Their past, life or something?!"
Nebula sighed. "Let's do this, everyone tell your past when we get to you. And you have to tell, because you can't pass. Anything said doesn't go out of this room, understood? Okay, let's start with Sara."
Sara grumbled unhappily. "Fine. I grew up in a tavern, I was an only child. So when my parents died, I took over the bar. I've been a bar person for a couple of years, I was 13 when I took over, so I've been there for 5 years."
Sara looked at Cameron, who was happily chewing away at her meal. "Um, I was raised in Zaibach, and I was an only child. I was taught how to fight and do magic at an early age, so I used to go around our small village challenging all the boys; I won all fights. Then when I was 16 I decided I wanted to be a Dragon Slayer, so I came here. Um, that was a year ago."
Rei was next. "I lived in Austria until I was 14. That's when my parents split, and I didn't really understand and I was angry at them, so I came here. Of course I'm 17 now."
Lacy looked up from her past time, swirling around the liquid in her cup. "My turn? Alright, I grew up in a village of witches. I happily took on their teachings and learned their magic. But when I was 10, my own powers began to evolve and the witches in my village couldn't teach me anything else, so I left to help develop my powers. Now I'm here, at the age of 16."
Heather looked at the table. "I'm from the Mystic Moon. I lived with my parents until I was 6, then they split up. I lived with my mom, but it wasn't easy. I hated living without dad, and I couldn't visit him. So when I turned 15 I wishes that I could escape somewhere. And I was brought here. I stayed with a nice family in Zaibach for two years, then came here."
Heather looked to her side at Kendall. "Well, I'm from the Mystic Moon also. I hated my family; they were terrible. My parents never paid attention to me and my two older brothers were constantly ganging up on me. But in school I had really good grades, I could never figure out how that worked, I didn't even put any effort into studying.
"But then, it was a rainy day and everything came crashing down on me. I had finally had enough of my family, so I ran away. While I was running through the rain, a pillar of light came down and took me here. I've been in Zaibach for a while, I think about a year."
Everyone nodded; they sympathized Kendall. She had had a tough life. Nebula suddenly snapped out of her musings. "Right, my turn. Um, well I too came from Earth. I lived in one place my whole life, and I was basically just jumping around from here to there, doing various things. I really don't want to list all of them, it'll take too long." She chuckled. "But I too was taken here a few months ago. I came here and here I am."
Zai looked up form her water. "Well, I came from a Noble family in Zaibach. When I was 9 my father found out about my magical powers, and he began to beat me, saying that I was a disgrace to our family and all of Zaibach. He even tried to kill me once.
"Finally my mother took me to a secretive monastery, away from my father. Years later my father killed the rest of my father. I vowed revenge against him and anyone who was related to him. I'm going to get my revenge."
"Wow, tough life. I'm sorry," Nebula said. Zai smiled and nodded her thanks.
Now everyone was focused on Xenon. He was strangely quiet, and his face was hidden. "Come on, Xenon. Tell us about your past, it can't be that bad," Sara said.
Xenon slowly raised his head. "I grew up in a family with four sisters. They were constantly being annoying, worrying about boys or make- up or their clothes or hair. I came to hate femaleness, I still do. I had a good childhood, ignoring my sisters and all, I used to go out to our stable and ride our horse, Ryder.
"But then one day while I was on Ryder, my oldest sister came out and screamed because I was riding a muddy Ryder. Ryder got scared and threw me. While I was recovering from the fall, Ryder came galloping past me and stepped on my arm, breaking it. Ever since then I've had a fear of horses.
"When I was 16, I was betrothed to a money oriented man, whom I hated. So, since I didn't want to be married to him, I turned and ran to Zaibach. I've hidden my identity and I've become a Dragon Slayer."
Everyone stared at Xenon. They all were shocked speechless. This was certainly… New. Some of them had suspected that Xenon was just weird because he had freaked out when they had started talking about clothes or make-up. But now they saw why.
"Well, that's certainly… New." Nebula managed to say.
Everyone nodded.
"Um, so, some of us have mentioned powers. Anyone want to offer theirs?" Sara said quickly, trying to smooth over the awkward touch.
Rei was the first to speak up. "Well I can do a few spells and junk. But mostly I can change my form, into black dragon with red spikes down my back."
This shocked even more people. Zai took the time to speak up. "Really?! I can change into a giant phoenix! And I'm a powerful wizard; at least that's what I'm told. My powers mainly involve the elements, thought. But I also can talk with any creature and sooth them with my voice or flute. But I'm better with talking to dragons."
At this most people fell out of their chairs of shock. Rei grinned evilly. "Too many Metamorphs here!"
It took a few minutes before the next person spoke up, which was Cameron. "I can USE BLACK MAGIC!" She screeched. Everyone just sorta rolled their eyes at her sudden outburst; they were used to it by now.
"Well, I have dreams and then they happen. Kind of like that Hitomi girl's powers, only I have them in my sleep. And I can also control ice, anything with ice I can control." Nebula said.
"I have a few magical powers. I can create any kind of weapon I want, and I can transform things into other things, no matter how small or big. Even people." Heather added.
"I don't have any powers." Sara said, a little glad and a little jealous of the others.
"Yeah, me neither." Xenon and Kendall said together.
Lacey was the last to speak up. "I can manipulate the elements, rise the dead and summon demons, though I'm not that good at controlling them."
Everyone turned and looked at her oddly. "But I didn't bring back Fanel," she added quickly, catching onto the others. They all knew about the past king coming back from life. It was one of the mysterious most of them were trying to solve.
Everyone was quiet for a few minutes. Finally Kendall stood and stretched. "Well, I'm tired. I'm going to turn in. See ya," she said. And with that she left the mess hall. After her departure, the others broke off in groups, all doing different things. Finally the mess hall was empty.
****
"I can't believe you gave them the day off! They needed to work, their skills have become terrible and their focus isn't on their work! They are lacking off and need to get with the program!" Dilandau yelled angrily.
Kat simply rolled her eyes. Dilandau was going to yell himself hoarse over some stupid thing. She got up out of her chair and walked over to him and put her finger against him lips, shushing him. "I talked with Fanel last night. And he told me something… This might affect everyone."
Dilandau looked shocked. "What?"
"He told me everything. He's a Guardian of Time, Dilandau. He has come here because Jewel is the Choice, and she will kill Gaea and Earth. He told me, he wants me to stop Jewel. He wants me to kill her."
"And why do you believe him?"
"I believe him because I am a Protector, I am suppose to protect Gaea from demise. And I just have this feeling… We have to trust him and help him."
"You're going to trust Fanel just because you have a feeling? And because he told you Gaea was going to be destroyed? Why do such a… Such a stupid thing?"
Kat put a hand on his cheek and looked deep into his eyes. "Because this feeling that I have tells me that it will happen. Fanel didn't just come back from the dead to cause us trouble. He came back to warn us."
Dilandau put his hand on top of hers and gave it a slight squeeze. "If this requires that you die one more time, I am going to have to kill Fanel myself."
Kat grinned. "I don't think I'll have to die. But I need you to help me with this. Jewel is the Choice, that means that you need to help me figure out a way to not kill her but return her to her regular self."
"Alright."
****
"Why did she call us here in the middle of the night?" Sara asked sleepily, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes. Kat had called all of the new Dragon Slayers together in the training room just fifteen minutes ago, waking them up at two in the morning.
"Maybe because she's disappointed in our work lately and wants to kill us off?" Rei suggested sarcastically.
Nebula rolled her eyes. "Whatever, Rei. Nice pajamas by the way."
Rei grinned evilly. She was wearing red shorts with flames at the bottom and a black tank top with, of course, the single flame on it. "Thanks. I want to sleep in what I like, so that way my dreams have different ways of killing my victims with my favorite thing."
Heather shook her head. Just then Kat walked in, along with a girl that all had seen but never talked too. "Everyone, I'm glad you could make it on such a short notice. This is Jewel. She's also a Dragon Slayer but she is only used for important missions," Kat said motioning to Jewel. Everyone remained silent.
"The reason why I called you here is because I know you all have powers; and I know that you don't really know how to harness them and use them to your advantage. Although you believe you have mastered them, you really haven't. So, since in the next few days you are going to go on your first mission-and since most new recruits don't make it back-I want to be sure that you all will and that you are in full control of your powers so you can use them in battle. You never know when they'll come in handy."
This shocked a couple of people, how could Kat know this? "I know because I too have powers. I'm sure you all have heard of the Protectors of Gaea. Well, I'm one of them, and I have the powers over the Dark Moon, meaning that I can control the dark side of the moon's powers, phase through walls, and I can even use telepathy.
"I'm here because in the future, you'll need to rely on not only your powers, but your teammates. Since the other Slayers are a team and know each other well and each other's strengths and weaknesses, I thought that if I trained you together, worked on your powers with you, that you would become an even better team then the Slayers. Can you do that, can you try?"
"Yes ma'am," they all said.
"Alright, let's get started. Jewel you'll take Sara, Xenon, Heather, Rei, and Zaiyane. I'll take Lacey, Nebula, Cameron, and Kendall."
Everyone separated and went to their respected trainer. Once everyone was organized, the training began. Kat sat Nebula and Cameron down, and Lacy and Kendall. She ran between the two pairs, supervising their actions, giving tips, showing different tactics, and helping them. Jewel had Rei and Zaiyane get together; Sara, Xenon and Heather were also together. Jewel, who had no idea how to teach people with powers, somehow was able to teach the others, doing the same thing as Kat.
Finally, five hours later, Kat released the Slayers. They had done well, already they were farther ahead then they had been when she had first met them. "Jewel, I'm impressed. I didn't know you knew how to teach magic," Kat said as she and Jewel were exiting the training room. Once out the door, Kat turned and started heading towards her room. Jewel was walking away when she replied, "Neither did I. It's like it just came to me…"
*~~*
TBC….
Author's Note: Hi everyone! Yes, I know, I didn't include any new characters in this chapter, but don't worry! There will be more new characters, I just didn't think that it would be best to put them in this chapter. The characters will appear in the next chapter, chapter 20! Wow, this is the longest progressing story I have yet! Thanks to everyone who has supported this story by reviewing! It really means a lot to me! Alright, review, tell me what you think. Until the next chapter, ja!
-ShadowKat