Disclaimer & Claimer: I own the idea (to the best of my knowledge), but I
do not own any of the characters except RaiFen. I will be posting more soon
(hopefully), but life happens and it usually sucks. On with the story.
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They were bowing before young prince Chid. Van blushed as he was mistaken for Allen Schezar by the highness even younger than himself. Partly with embarrasment for Chid and partly with anger.
"This is Van Fanel, King of Fanelia, nephew," Millerna said with a slight smile.
"Oh, I'm terribly sorry Van. Forgive my ignorance." Chid said in his small and royal way. "I have heard about the fate of your country, and I do hope that you will be able to return and rebuild it someday king Van." He told Van as he closed his eyes and bowed his head in mourning for those Fanelians who were killed.
"Thank you for your sympathy your highness," Van answered Chid, staying bowed. "I hope that I'm able to rebuild Fanelia someday as well."
"Well, until my Father returns, you are my guests and shall have whatever you require. You and your friends are welcome to have rooms within the palace. Voris will lead you to your rooms, and he will send a lesser servant out to the rest of your assembly. Aunt Millerna, you already know where your room is."
"Thank you, Chid."
"You're welcome, Aunt Millerna. May I see sir Allen soon?"
"As soon as he is rested. He sustained a great injury, and it will be several days before he's recovered enough to speak." Millerna told her young nephew with a slight smile.
"Thank you for your kindness, your majesty," Van said, standing after prince Chid.
"Prince Chid," Van asked as he too rose. "Might you have someone in your realms with a second sight or something like that? I've lost someone very important to me, and I don't know how else I could find her."
"I'll see if any of the current Priests are locators." Chid answered with a calm nod. "Good day to you all," he said, bowing slightly to them and walking out of the room.
The large bearded man who had been behind Chid's shoulder walked up to Van. "Your higness," he said in a deep voice as he bowed. "I am Voris. Please come with me to your room. I have sent Drek to bring the others on your ship to other guest rooms." He was walking down hallways, leading Van to a beatiful room.
He looked in awe at the high-ceilinged room with short tables and cushions around them, and a large, shallow pit in the floor with more cushions and blankets than even he had owned. There were tall windows facing east, letting the late morning sun stream in and making the gold trim around the room sparkle.
"Thank you very much, Voris. This is a very nice room." Van stated, still awed at the extravagance.
"There is no need to thank me, highness. All royalty is treated to such rooms here, even prisoners," he added with a mischievious chuckle.
"Would you, if it isn't any trouble, let the little pink-haired catgirl know what room I'm in? She's sort of family, and she'll make quite a scene if she can't find me," he asked, a bit embarassed, as he rubbed the back of his head.
"No trouble at all, highness. I'll go welcome the others as they come in, and tell the little pink-haired catgirl where to find you." He smiled at the idea of a catgirl, bowed, and walked out of the room.
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"WHAT!?" was the cry that could be heard through half the ship, coming from the Ryuugekitai's training hall.
"Calm down, all of you!" Dilandau snapped as he paced the room for a minute before walking out of the training hall and into his throne room. The Ryuu' followed thier leader into the large room, and all 15 of them got on thier knees in front of his throne, grumbling. "Just because the moon- bitch is here doesn't mean that she's staying . . ." he said with a smirk.
"Dilandau-sama . . .?" a short, slender, young Ryuu' asked. Large blue eyes looked up at him, framed by purple hair and pale, almost too thin cheeks.
"What is it now, RaiFen?" He stroked his scarred cheek and looked down, mildly annoyed.
"I was just wondering . . . will we kill her . . . or just make her wish she were dead?" The youngest of the Ryuugekitai smirked, an evil smirk reminiscent of Dilandau's own, and a slight fire burned within those aqua eyes.
Dilandau smiled down at her, a similar evil in his mouth and eyes. "Dear little sister, you took the question straight from my mind." He threw his head back and laughed, motioning for her to come up to the dias where his throne sat.
She stood and walked up to his throne, siting at his left side and leaning her head against his leg. She smiled happily and closed her eyes as her "brother" ran his fingers through her long hair. "It would be fun to just kill her outright," RaiFen told her brother quietly, "but I doubt it would be wise . . . you can hardly rule Zaibach if they throw you out of the Army."
"A very good point, Rai," he answered her quietly. "So," he said to the room in general, "we will make the moon-bitch wish she were dead, or at leaast make her leave our forces. Perhaps if we're lucky, we can make her commit suicide." He smirked lightly, raising his right hand to stroke his scar, his left hand still in RaiFen's hair. "We'll make her pay for my face . . . in fact, we can use her to make the boy-king suffer," he said with a smirk of realization.
The other Ryuugekitai bowed thier heads in agreement. However, most of them weren't sure that it was a good idea to try and do anything to Hitomi . . . she was powerful without trying to be, and that frightened them. Only Viole, Rune, Alek, and Rori seemed to have the same enthusiam for torture as Dilandau and RaiFen. They were thus a bit outcast from the other 10 slayers. It didn't dampen thier spirits, and as long as RaiFen had her brother, Migel, and Gatty, she could care less what anyone else thought of her.
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Hitomi was in a room on the Vionne, looking at the blank walls and mid-sized bed, table, bookshelf with dusty old tomes, and a light in the ceiling that reminded her of the fluorescent lights on Earth. She touched a wall and got flashes of the meeting of the Ryuugekitai in Dilandau's throne room on the other side of the ship.
~I wonder who that girl with Dilandau is?~ she thought to herself. ~I'll probably have to avoid her too. Great, just great. I started on the other "side" and now I've got a slew of enemies within arms reach.~ She sat on the bed and put her necklace back on and held the jewel in her palm.
She saw Van in a room with a man in orange robes, looking like a Tibetan monk of Earth. They were scrying over a map, with incense and candles burning around them. Van's eyes were tightly closed, and he was focusing on . . . ~Me? He wants to find me now, huh?~ She blocked out her thoughts to him and made herself as invisible as she could.
Folken came into view, walking around his quarters a few halls down from her. ~He looks so sad and alone,~ she thought as she looked at him carefully. The picture flashed, and he was dying with the tip of a sword in his chest. There was a look of shock on his face as he fell, his majestic black wings losing feathers quickly and he hit the tiled ground with a thud.
Hitomi shrieked as she watched him dying, and saw herself running to his side, screaming and crying. She could tell that he had sacrificed himself to win the war, but the victory didn't matter because Folken had died. She watched herself kiss him softly just before the life left his eyes. She fainted, the power of the onslaught of visions knocking her out.
She woke sometime later, Folken hovering above her. "How long ago did I go under?" she asked as she sat up, rubbing her head.
"You might not want to do that just yet," he said in a compassionate and doctoring way. he reached out with his good hand and pushed the hair back from her forehead, looking into her eyes. "Follow my claw," he said with a wry smile as he pulled back his good hand and moved his claw around her field of vision.
"Why are you doing all this," she asked him curiously. Her head ached, but she didn't think it was anything serious. She wondered at why she felt so calm with him, like he could protect her from everything.
He smiled at her lightly, warmly, only the corners of his mouth moving. "I heard you scream, and considering I brought you here, I feel it's up to me to take care of you while you get settled. Besides, I wouldn't trust you with the medical staff on this ship." He gathered his cloak in front of his hips and sat on her bed. "May I ask what made you faint?"
She blushed a bit. "I had a lot of visions . . . four in a row. I don't think that's ever happened before, and it was a bit too much for me to deal with. You didn't answer my first question though. How long have I been unconcious?"
"Sorry, you've been asleep for an hour and a half. What were the four visions you had? Anything useful?" He looked at her, tilting his head ever so slightly, his eyes barely questioning.
"The first one waas Dilandau and his Ryuugekitai . . . they were plotting something, maybe about me. That'd be why I saw it, I guess. Then I saw Van with a priest in orange robes scrying for me, and last I saw . . . you. First here, walking through your room, then somewhere else . . . a big room, with scaffolding and machinery." She looked into her lap and clutched the hem of skirt. "I saw you die . . ."
He watched, and ever so slightly quirked a brow as she trailed off. "That is very useful, at least to me. If you can talk about it, how did I die? Do you know when it was? Where it was?" He turned and put his good hand barely on her shoulder as he looked at her.
"I don't know when it was, but it was in the future, and some room in Zaibach. I think you won the war, but I know I felt like that didn't matter. You killed someone, it might've only removed him from the equation of the war . . . I think we won, but it wasn't very detailed . . . ." she blushed harder. ~The only thing that was really detailed about that one was the fact that I . . . . loved Folken-sama. I kissed him, and I didn't want him to die.~
"Is that all?" he asked quietly.
"No. You died because a piece of sword broke from something, and flew back into your chest, very . . ." she paused and sighed, "very close to your heart. You were high in the air, and your wings were out, black, and you fell backwards shortly after the blade hit you."
Surprise flooded his face for a micro-second before going back to its usual calm. "If you see more about that, let me know. I might like to avoid my death at some point." He stood again and lingered by her bed. "Don't tell anyone else on the ship about my wings," he asked with embarassed quiet. "As I'm sure Van has failed to tell you, our people, the Draconians, are not welcomed amongst the Gaeans."
"Don't worry, Folken-sama, I will keep your secret. I'll be fine on my own, for a while at least, and I'm sure you have things to do." She looked up at him. "Be careful," she too pleaded quietly. "I don't think I'd be safe on the Vionne without you here to keep Dilandau in check."
He smirked slightly again. "I don't think your vision will fulfill itself anytime soon, and I'll be sure to give you fair warning before I leave the Vionne." He bowed his head to her and closed his eyes before turning to walk out of the room.
Hitomi lay back on the bed, staring at the ceiling. ~What *have* I gotten myself into?! What's going on with me, on top of things? I used to think I felt this way about Amano, then Allen, then Van, and now Folken. Well, I know I still love Amano, I always will, but Allen and Van . . . they're so strange. Folken's strange too, but . . . oh, I don't even know what I mean any more!~
She rolled over and got herself comfortble in he bed. ~Maybe sleep'll help. It'll at least shut my brain up for a while . . .~ She closed her eyes and dozed off, pleasantly unaware of what was sneaking into her room.
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They were bowing before young prince Chid. Van blushed as he was mistaken for Allen Schezar by the highness even younger than himself. Partly with embarrasment for Chid and partly with anger.
"This is Van Fanel, King of Fanelia, nephew," Millerna said with a slight smile.
"Oh, I'm terribly sorry Van. Forgive my ignorance." Chid said in his small and royal way. "I have heard about the fate of your country, and I do hope that you will be able to return and rebuild it someday king Van." He told Van as he closed his eyes and bowed his head in mourning for those Fanelians who were killed.
"Thank you for your sympathy your highness," Van answered Chid, staying bowed. "I hope that I'm able to rebuild Fanelia someday as well."
"Well, until my Father returns, you are my guests and shall have whatever you require. You and your friends are welcome to have rooms within the palace. Voris will lead you to your rooms, and he will send a lesser servant out to the rest of your assembly. Aunt Millerna, you already know where your room is."
"Thank you, Chid."
"You're welcome, Aunt Millerna. May I see sir Allen soon?"
"As soon as he is rested. He sustained a great injury, and it will be several days before he's recovered enough to speak." Millerna told her young nephew with a slight smile.
"Thank you for your kindness, your majesty," Van said, standing after prince Chid.
"Prince Chid," Van asked as he too rose. "Might you have someone in your realms with a second sight or something like that? I've lost someone very important to me, and I don't know how else I could find her."
"I'll see if any of the current Priests are locators." Chid answered with a calm nod. "Good day to you all," he said, bowing slightly to them and walking out of the room.
The large bearded man who had been behind Chid's shoulder walked up to Van. "Your higness," he said in a deep voice as he bowed. "I am Voris. Please come with me to your room. I have sent Drek to bring the others on your ship to other guest rooms." He was walking down hallways, leading Van to a beatiful room.
He looked in awe at the high-ceilinged room with short tables and cushions around them, and a large, shallow pit in the floor with more cushions and blankets than even he had owned. There were tall windows facing east, letting the late morning sun stream in and making the gold trim around the room sparkle.
"Thank you very much, Voris. This is a very nice room." Van stated, still awed at the extravagance.
"There is no need to thank me, highness. All royalty is treated to such rooms here, even prisoners," he added with a mischievious chuckle.
"Would you, if it isn't any trouble, let the little pink-haired catgirl know what room I'm in? She's sort of family, and she'll make quite a scene if she can't find me," he asked, a bit embarassed, as he rubbed the back of his head.
"No trouble at all, highness. I'll go welcome the others as they come in, and tell the little pink-haired catgirl where to find you." He smiled at the idea of a catgirl, bowed, and walked out of the room.
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"WHAT!?" was the cry that could be heard through half the ship, coming from the Ryuugekitai's training hall.
"Calm down, all of you!" Dilandau snapped as he paced the room for a minute before walking out of the training hall and into his throne room. The Ryuu' followed thier leader into the large room, and all 15 of them got on thier knees in front of his throne, grumbling. "Just because the moon- bitch is here doesn't mean that she's staying . . ." he said with a smirk.
"Dilandau-sama . . .?" a short, slender, young Ryuu' asked. Large blue eyes looked up at him, framed by purple hair and pale, almost too thin cheeks.
"What is it now, RaiFen?" He stroked his scarred cheek and looked down, mildly annoyed.
"I was just wondering . . . will we kill her . . . or just make her wish she were dead?" The youngest of the Ryuugekitai smirked, an evil smirk reminiscent of Dilandau's own, and a slight fire burned within those aqua eyes.
Dilandau smiled down at her, a similar evil in his mouth and eyes. "Dear little sister, you took the question straight from my mind." He threw his head back and laughed, motioning for her to come up to the dias where his throne sat.
She stood and walked up to his throne, siting at his left side and leaning her head against his leg. She smiled happily and closed her eyes as her "brother" ran his fingers through her long hair. "It would be fun to just kill her outright," RaiFen told her brother quietly, "but I doubt it would be wise . . . you can hardly rule Zaibach if they throw you out of the Army."
"A very good point, Rai," he answered her quietly. "So," he said to the room in general, "we will make the moon-bitch wish she were dead, or at leaast make her leave our forces. Perhaps if we're lucky, we can make her commit suicide." He smirked lightly, raising his right hand to stroke his scar, his left hand still in RaiFen's hair. "We'll make her pay for my face . . . in fact, we can use her to make the boy-king suffer," he said with a smirk of realization.
The other Ryuugekitai bowed thier heads in agreement. However, most of them weren't sure that it was a good idea to try and do anything to Hitomi . . . she was powerful without trying to be, and that frightened them. Only Viole, Rune, Alek, and Rori seemed to have the same enthusiam for torture as Dilandau and RaiFen. They were thus a bit outcast from the other 10 slayers. It didn't dampen thier spirits, and as long as RaiFen had her brother, Migel, and Gatty, she could care less what anyone else thought of her.
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Hitomi was in a room on the Vionne, looking at the blank walls and mid-sized bed, table, bookshelf with dusty old tomes, and a light in the ceiling that reminded her of the fluorescent lights on Earth. She touched a wall and got flashes of the meeting of the Ryuugekitai in Dilandau's throne room on the other side of the ship.
~I wonder who that girl with Dilandau is?~ she thought to herself. ~I'll probably have to avoid her too. Great, just great. I started on the other "side" and now I've got a slew of enemies within arms reach.~ She sat on the bed and put her necklace back on and held the jewel in her palm.
She saw Van in a room with a man in orange robes, looking like a Tibetan monk of Earth. They were scrying over a map, with incense and candles burning around them. Van's eyes were tightly closed, and he was focusing on . . . ~Me? He wants to find me now, huh?~ She blocked out her thoughts to him and made herself as invisible as she could.
Folken came into view, walking around his quarters a few halls down from her. ~He looks so sad and alone,~ she thought as she looked at him carefully. The picture flashed, and he was dying with the tip of a sword in his chest. There was a look of shock on his face as he fell, his majestic black wings losing feathers quickly and he hit the tiled ground with a thud.
Hitomi shrieked as she watched him dying, and saw herself running to his side, screaming and crying. She could tell that he had sacrificed himself to win the war, but the victory didn't matter because Folken had died. She watched herself kiss him softly just before the life left his eyes. She fainted, the power of the onslaught of visions knocking her out.
She woke sometime later, Folken hovering above her. "How long ago did I go under?" she asked as she sat up, rubbing her head.
"You might not want to do that just yet," he said in a compassionate and doctoring way. he reached out with his good hand and pushed the hair back from her forehead, looking into her eyes. "Follow my claw," he said with a wry smile as he pulled back his good hand and moved his claw around her field of vision.
"Why are you doing all this," she asked him curiously. Her head ached, but she didn't think it was anything serious. She wondered at why she felt so calm with him, like he could protect her from everything.
He smiled at her lightly, warmly, only the corners of his mouth moving. "I heard you scream, and considering I brought you here, I feel it's up to me to take care of you while you get settled. Besides, I wouldn't trust you with the medical staff on this ship." He gathered his cloak in front of his hips and sat on her bed. "May I ask what made you faint?"
She blushed a bit. "I had a lot of visions . . . four in a row. I don't think that's ever happened before, and it was a bit too much for me to deal with. You didn't answer my first question though. How long have I been unconcious?"
"Sorry, you've been asleep for an hour and a half. What were the four visions you had? Anything useful?" He looked at her, tilting his head ever so slightly, his eyes barely questioning.
"The first one waas Dilandau and his Ryuugekitai . . . they were plotting something, maybe about me. That'd be why I saw it, I guess. Then I saw Van with a priest in orange robes scrying for me, and last I saw . . . you. First here, walking through your room, then somewhere else . . . a big room, with scaffolding and machinery." She looked into her lap and clutched the hem of skirt. "I saw you die . . ."
He watched, and ever so slightly quirked a brow as she trailed off. "That is very useful, at least to me. If you can talk about it, how did I die? Do you know when it was? Where it was?" He turned and put his good hand barely on her shoulder as he looked at her.
"I don't know when it was, but it was in the future, and some room in Zaibach. I think you won the war, but I know I felt like that didn't matter. You killed someone, it might've only removed him from the equation of the war . . . I think we won, but it wasn't very detailed . . . ." she blushed harder. ~The only thing that was really detailed about that one was the fact that I . . . . loved Folken-sama. I kissed him, and I didn't want him to die.~
"Is that all?" he asked quietly.
"No. You died because a piece of sword broke from something, and flew back into your chest, very . . ." she paused and sighed, "very close to your heart. You were high in the air, and your wings were out, black, and you fell backwards shortly after the blade hit you."
Surprise flooded his face for a micro-second before going back to its usual calm. "If you see more about that, let me know. I might like to avoid my death at some point." He stood again and lingered by her bed. "Don't tell anyone else on the ship about my wings," he asked with embarassed quiet. "As I'm sure Van has failed to tell you, our people, the Draconians, are not welcomed amongst the Gaeans."
"Don't worry, Folken-sama, I will keep your secret. I'll be fine on my own, for a while at least, and I'm sure you have things to do." She looked up at him. "Be careful," she too pleaded quietly. "I don't think I'd be safe on the Vionne without you here to keep Dilandau in check."
He smirked slightly again. "I don't think your vision will fulfill itself anytime soon, and I'll be sure to give you fair warning before I leave the Vionne." He bowed his head to her and closed his eyes before turning to walk out of the room.
Hitomi lay back on the bed, staring at the ceiling. ~What *have* I gotten myself into?! What's going on with me, on top of things? I used to think I felt this way about Amano, then Allen, then Van, and now Folken. Well, I know I still love Amano, I always will, but Allen and Van . . . they're so strange. Folken's strange too, but . . . oh, I don't even know what I mean any more!~
She rolled over and got herself comfortble in he bed. ~Maybe sleep'll help. It'll at least shut my brain up for a while . . .~ She closed her eyes and dozed off, pleasantly unaware of what was sneaking into her room.