Disclaimer: I don't own Escaflowne. Since there's a big Sephiroth reference, I'd better add in that I don't own him either.

Author Note: Well, thanks to those of you have read what I posted so far. You'll have to forgive any mistakes I've made since this was written pretty late at night. This is my first Escaflowne fic so I hope you're all enjoying J

* * *

"Who's body?"

"Allen Schezar's."

Hitome wasn't aware she had dropped her glass until it shattered on the stone floor beneath her. "That's who…"

Van raised his eyebrows, "Hitome?"

"That's who he looks like. but he's changed so much."

"What are you talking about Hitome?"

"His face, it's hard to recognize, it's become perfect, like an angel. But he only has one wing."

Van shook his head, "I don't understand what you're saying Hitome."

"I've seen it in my dreams. Every night for the past four years I've dreamt of a man walking across a battlefield with one wing stretched behind him. And his eyes…"

Van spoke quietly, "They say that madness is the only fate for those who see the eyes of Allen Schezar."

"What has he done so far?"

"A three sided civil war broke out in Austuria. The entire kingdom was decimated. Dryden, Melerna, Celina, and Marlene are all dead, either by his hands or at the hands of rioters. Then he moved towards Fraid. We've agreed to help reinforce Chid's forces, and armies are mobilizing from Alania and Zaibach as well. It will go on like this until he's destroyed every nation of this world."

Hitome's eyes widened with a sudden realization. "You said all the drag-energists had disappeared?"

"Yes, about a year ago."

"But you still have my pendant."

Van reached into his tunic and pulled forth the slender gold chain. "Of course I still have…" Realization hit like a thunder bolt. "Your pendant!" He cried. "It must be the last energist in all of Gaea."

"Van, you mustn't let Allen have it. He needs it, I could see it in my dream. He needs it to go to Earth. Maybe he won't destroy Gaea until he finds it."

"Very well, I'll leave it here with you."

"Leave it here with- Van! You're not going are you?"

Merle sighed. "It's no use, I've already begged him not to go. He just won't listen."

Van set his face. "To save Gaea, some one must kill Allen. It should be one of his friends."

"But why is anyone fighting at all? It's just giving him what he needs."

"Because of the conflicting desires."

Hitome blinked, "Huh?"

Van stared up towards the mountain's distant summit. "If I refused to send an Army to battle in Fraid, Someone would kill me and take over. Then their supporters and mine would battle, destroying Fenelia and furthering Allen's goals. This power must be destroyed at its source. We must kill Allen Schezar."

"When is your army leaving?"

"We march at dawn tomorrow." He pulled the pendant over his head. "Here, you might as well take this now." He dropped it into her outstretched hand. Her hand pulled back to clasp it against her heart.

Hitome's eyes met Van's for a few more moments but neither could think of anything to say. They dropped their gazes and breakfast was finished in silence.

* * *

Hitome awoke yet again that night crying Van's name into the dark. "No, Van! Why? I've come all this way after so long only to lose you again!" The eastern sky waxed gray outside her window. Hitome rose to her feet and puled on a robe against the chill.

As she walked towards it, her door opened silently. Van Fanel stood, full armor gleaming dully in the gray pre-dawn light. "I didn't think you'd be awake."

Hitome shook her head, "How could I sleep?"

Van stepped forward and gathered her into his arms, careful of his armor. "Oh please Van," she whispered, "don't go."

"I must, I have to save Gaea."

"But if you go know, I just know I'll never see you again."

"If I don't go, there won't be a world left for you to see me in."

Hitome closed her eyes and listened to his heart beat through his steel chest plate. "Why couldn't we just be ordinary?"

"What?"

"Why couldn't we just be ordinary. I could just be a normal girl who couldn't see the future, and you could be a normal boy, not the King of a nation that's about to burn to the ground."

"Hitome, you told me a long time ago that wishes come true, I still believe they do. And I believe that our love will pull us through, I believe my love for you and my wish to come back to you will save this world."

She kissed him then. Deeply, passionately, desperate and frightened. It was over far too soon and she sunk back onto her bed while he silently left her room.

* * *

An hour later she stood with Merle and watched as column after column of troops marched out through the city gates. "Why aren't there any Melufs?"

"No way to power them with all the energists gone. I've heard that Zaibach has fixed some to work by burning a lot of oil, but it was too late to convert any of our own."

"How long will it take them to reach Fraid?"

"Two weeks, they have to go the whole way on foot, no airships have worked since the levi-stones failed."

"Do you think we'll ever see him again?"

Merle was quiet for a moment, then she turned her head away and whispered, "No."

* * *

Two weeks passed in a haze of dreading days and sleepless nights. Finally, merchants arrived with word that the battle had moved west again and Fenelia's forces had joined it three days earlier than expected.

Hitome was standing up on the roof when, for the first time, she had her dream during the day. Merle caught her collapsing body and fretted while Hitome stared unseeingly into the sky. Finally, her eyes regained their color and she whispered, "It's happening now. They're all dying."

"Don't say that!" Merle scolded with a terrified look on her face. Tears matted the fur on her cheeks. "Please don't say that."

"But I saw Allen. I saw him walking through a field with fire spreading from his feet. And everyone he looked at fell down dead!"

Merle crouched down and covered her ears. "I don't want to hear this," she hissed.

"But Van's going to die!"

Merle banged her hand against the floor, "Stop saying that, we can't do anything."

"I have to go to him."

Merle glared at her fiercely. "Oh yeah? How're you gonna do that?"

Hitome held her pendant out so that it dangled in front of the cat-woman's nose. "With this."

Hitome shot to her feet and ran down the many flights of stairs leading to the gardens. She bolted through the tree lined paths, vaulting over some of the smaller hedgerows. Finally she skidded to a halt in a clearing by the mountain side. The gigantic suit of armor crouched there lifeless and unused for years. Hitome approached it slowly to stare into the dark stone on its chest. Then, tentatively, she pulled forth her pendant and pushed it in. The stone swallowed the pendant and blazed to life. It's hatch hissed open and she slowly climbed inside.

"Hitome wait!" Merle burst into the clearing. "Even if you fly, it'll still be too late!"

"Goodbye Merle."

"Hitome, don't go!"

The cockpit hissed shut and Hitome inserted her arms and legs into the control manipulators.

"Escaflowne. Take me to Van!"

A blue-white light lanced down from above and the white Guymeluf disappeared into the heavens.

* * *

Just like my dream, It's exactly the same!

Smoke billowed up from the scorched soil, choking the sky in a black haze. Red rays of sunlight lanced weakly through the shifting clouds of ash. Gigantic bits of wreckage loomed here and there in the dim light, discernible only as broken armored hulks. Broken swords and broken bodies littered across the blasted ground and fires still guttered fitfully in hollows.

But this time it is real! I can feel the flames and smell the smoke.

And there, directly before her were Van Fanel and Allen Schezar. Van leapt into the air and scythed his sword downward, Allan dodged to the side with inhuman grace and speed. It's as if his feet don't even touch the ground!

Van swung towards him and again, Allen drifted out of reach with ease. It was then that Hitome noticed the thick black cloth tied across his eyes. He's blind folded, covering his eyes so Allen can't kill him as quickly! He must be sensing him the way I taught him.

Allen drifted forward then and pressed his hand against Van's chest. Van screamed in pain and was thrown back across the scorched ground. Allen reached down to pull off the blind fold when Hitome screamed. "Van! No!"

Allen straightened then and turned his gaze on the Escaflowne. His eyes met hers and Hitome felt her heart freeze in her chest. Her vision tunneled and a panicked though lanced through her strangling brain. I'm dying.

Then, though nothing had changed, Hitome felt her heart beating again and felt her lungs starting to pump once more. Allen frowned and began to glide towards her.

"My Energist has arrived," He said simply.

Hitome opened the cockpit then and leapt to the ground. "Stop right there." She said forcefully.

With a supremely puzzled look on his face, Allen drifted to a halt.

"You're not going to kill anyone else, you won't destroy this world!"

Allen stared at her blankly and allowed his feet to touch the ground. His single wing unfurled from his back and stretched behind him, glowing brightly. "I am not destroying this world. It is all of you who are destroying it. Too many wishes are conflicting for any of them to come true. Things must be unmade so that wishes can come true."

"You're wrong! I love Van, and my wish to be with him is the same as his to be with me. Our wishing together is stronger than the separate wishes that give you power."

"It is just one wish. One more wish to conflict with the others."

"But every person on this planet has the same wish. To live on and to save this world. That's why they're here, fighting you. That wish together is also stronger than the your wishes apart."

Allen was silent and the fire in his eyes dulled just a bit.

"This world wishes to live on. These people wish to have a place to live. And I wish to be with Van. We wish these things with all our hearts. Wish them more than we wish anything else. There is no conflict. This is already a world where wishes can come true."

The fire blazed back into Allen's eyes and he stumbled forward, no longer floating, with his hand outstretched. "Give me the Energist! I must go home. I wish to go home."

"We wish for our home." Hitome said firmly as Allen collapsed heaving at her feet. "We are stronger than you, your energy is nothing without our conflict. We will end our conflict by wishing together with one heart. We wish to save Gaea."

Van rose to his feet, pulled off his blind fold and joined Hitome. "We wish to save Gaea."

A nearby wounded soldier sat up slowly and coughed out. "We wish to save Gaea."

And so the word spread across the wasted fields. Soldiers from every country and every land each adding to the solemn proclamation. "We wish to save Gaea."

A hand, grasping and claw-like rose towards Hitome from the shuddering figure on the ground. "You m-must… give me… give me…"

A horrendous scream rent the battlefield as Allen's wing burst into flame. He rocked backwards and screamed towards the smoke choked sky. The fire in his eyes was out of control, no longer cold, but blazing hot. Twin orbs of flame began to glow inside his head, growing brighter and more violent until they raged forth to consume his body. With one last scream that such scorched remains could not possibly have produced, the fires melded together and lanced upwards in a stream of red-white light. The clouds of smoke were blasted in every direction, clearing the sky above. All of the remaining fires blew out in a violent gust of wind and one by one, survivors pulled to their feet.

Van turned and smiled down on her with love shining in his eyes. "You came."

Hitome nodded. "I came, and I'm never leaving again."

Van's wings burst forth to encircle them as he embraced her.

Far across the fields, a single tree was still standing. With a clear call, a pure white bird flew into the noon sky.

A.N.: Yawn! Well, that's the end of that. Anyway, if anyone wants to see an epilogue to this, (which would be pure H/V fluff I can tell you right now) just say so in your reviews. Speaking of reviews, I appreciate them greatly, I even accept flamers from all of you Literary Dilandaus out there.