Whims of Fate By: Azure

A/N: This is my first Esca-fic, please take into consideration my ability to write is level Zero. Don't forget to review- constructive criticism, flames, whatever. Also, the beginning is a little different than it is in the series, just because I'm lazy an don't feel like going through all the trouble to watch it over and copy it line for line, tee hee!!! Also, everyone's slightly out of character, though I tried to adapt Van the best I could since he's the only one we can keep. relatively normal. Ah! Enough of my mindless rambling. Enjoy my tale of insanity.

Disclaimer: I own Escaflowne. I own the world. I wish.

Summary: Meet Hitomi: Fifteen year old war-princess from Fanelia. What things would be like if Hitomi and Van's lives were switched. V/H, R&R! Rated PG-13 for language and room to grow ;o)

ONE

A girl of fifteen stood, studying the swords mounted precariously on the wall in front of her. Her long, dirty blond hair, which hung past her shoulder blades, was braided elegantly over her right shoulder. Her emerald green eyes burned alight with a fire of war, and a tall, heavyset man walked up to her as she inspected the many blades in front of her.

"Highness," he said. The girl- or princess, as was identifiable by her gold, jewel studded tiara that circled her head, smiled up at the samurai.

"Balgus," she greeted him back. Balgus, the samurai, handed the princess a large sword, which she buckled gratefully around her waist.

"Do not fail. Do not forget what happened to your brother, Princess Hitomi," said Balgus in a warning tone.

"I will not run away," said Hitomi, visibly stiffening. "I will succeed where he failed." The princess fingered the sword hanging at her hip. "I will become the queen."

"Excellent," said Balgus, ushering Hitomi towards a suit of neatly polished armor that leant against one of the walls. "We must prepare you for battle."

.:*:.~.:*:.~.:*:.

Van reclined on his bed with his arms behind his head, staring up at his ceiling, dotted with sports poster. He was wearing his favorite pair of old, worn out blue jeans, a ret tee shirt, and a "Yankees" baseball cap, which was also faded.

"Dammit, I'm bored," he muttered, Idly picking up a rubber ball from his bedside table and bouncing it off the wall repeatedly. One, two, three.

"Van Fanel!" shrieked his mother from downstairs. "Stop that this instant!"

. ten, eleven, twelve.

"Van! If I have to tell you again you're grounded until you're eighty! Did you hear me, young man?"

.twenty, twenty one.

"Fine, mom," called Van, putting the ball down on his bedside table. Grumpily, he stood up and grabbed his track bag, yanking his baseball cap over his eyes. He walked downstairs and past his mother, who was in the kitchen.

"Where the hell are you going?" she demanded, shaking a spatula* at him.

"Track practice," grunted Van.

"I'm serving dinner in twenty minutes. You'd better be back by then, or I'm sure as hell not feeding you again tonight."

"Right. Twenty minutes. I'll be back," said Van as he grabbed his coat and slammed out the front door, his mother's shrieks following him up the path.

"Bitch," he muttered, pulling on his coat and turning the corner. He walked to his school, hands in his pockets, trying to think of new ways to blow something up. It was Van's hobby to blow things up with his friend, Yukari. Even though Yukari was a girl, she was ever willing to play the goriest new video games or blow something up in the school science lab. Though other guys teased Van and asked if he ever got lucky with Yukari, they knew that there was nothing there. And, whenever Yukari was present, she would usually punch the lights out of the querent. Ah, good old Yukari.

After forever and yet no time at all of walking, Van reached his school. In the light of the setting sun it looked more like a foreboding facility of torture than anything else- though that was possibly because it WAS a facility of torture. Once, in History, when Van and Yukari had been learning about cruel and unusual punishment, they had pointed out that they had to come to school every day and have their brains filled with crap and washed repeatedly. The teachers never thought their jokes were funny. Oddly enough, neither did the principal.

"Van!" Yukari called from the bleachers by the track. "Over here!" Van slouched over to where his friend was sitting, watching his peers and fellow teammates run.

"Oh, isn't captain Amono the greatest?" she sighed dreamily, her eyes glazing over as she gazed at the captain of the team.

"Seems full of bull to me," said Van, leaning against the seat above him and watching his captain run.

"That's only because you're a guy," said Yukari, administering a smack to the back of Van's head.

"So? You eye him like a piece of meat," said Van, glaring at Yukari, who was watching Amono run with one of the most disgusting, dreamy expressions Van had ever seen.

"Shut up," snapped Yukari. "Besides, you're running up next. Hurry up and get out there," she said, pushing him off the bleachers and towards the locker room.

"Fine," grumbled Van. "The things I do for you, Yukari. You're the one who convinced me to join this stupid team in the first place."

.:*:.~.:*:.~.:*:.

Hitomi drew her sword, stealthily creeping to the lair of the dragon. The crest of Fanelia flashed out in the light of the setting sun, and the two moons visible overhead provided small illumination. Hitomi knelt behind a tree, adjusting her gauntlet and armor, looking at her prey.

"Now or never," she mumbled, glaring at the sleeping dragon in front of her. With a great battle cry, she ran forward, thrusting her sword into the Dragon and causing it to awaken.

.:*:.~.:*:.~.:*:.

Van saw Hitomi quite suddenly appear out of nowhere in the track in front of him. He tried to stop running, but his momentum kept him going. He crashed right into her- and went through her. Her image ripped apart in his wake, scattering.

"Fuck!" Yelled Van, screeching to a halt.

"Van? What's wrong?" asked Yukari from the stands.

"This is freaky. Like something off the Sci-fi channel or something," he murmured, putting one hand to his forehead and sinking to a crouch on the ground.

"Van? What's wrong?" Asked Yukari for the second time, running over to him, along with Amono the pompous jerk.

"I'm just a little dehydrated," he said, hearing how lame his excuse was. "I'm gonna get some water, and then we can do the run again," he said. Yukari and Amono both gave him a strange look, but he ignored them and made his way over to a water fountain on one end of the bleachers. He splashed his face with water, and shook off the tiny droplets, sending them flying through the air in a watery sheen.

"Okay! Let's try that again," called Amono. Van took in a deep whoosh of air and walked over to the starting blocks. He crouched low and pulled back, his muscles acting like a tightened spring.

"Ready. Go!" Van flew off the starting block and dashed down the track, counting the seconds in his head. Suddenly, a pillar of blue-white light shot down from the heavens in front of Van. He saw the girl again, but knew it was just an illusion this time. He kept running until.

WHAM! He collided right with the girl, who seemed very pissed at this,

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" she yelled hoarsely at Van, the pillar of light disappearing. "There's a land dragon coming!"

"Land dragon? Listen, Lady, there isn't such thing as a dragon," said Van, struggling to his feet with the help of Yukari and Amono, both of whom were gawking at the mysterious girl.

"Get out of here! Get." she stopped and listened for a moment. "Go! Run. It's coming," she said, drawing her sword and gripping it tightly in both hands. Van gawked.

"What kind of idiot are you? Run! All of you!" she said. And suddenly, a hole opened in the air and the most hideous, disgusting thing that Van had ever seen came out- with wide, crazed eyes and saliva dripping from its open jaws.

"Go!" yelled the girl one more time, giving Van a push. She then turned to the Dragon, which had set it's sights on Van, Yukari, and Amono.

"Hey! I'm over here!" she yelled at it, slashing at it with her sword. The dragon ignored her, and instead made a lunge for Yukari- who let out a scream. Suddenly, the trance was broken. Van grabbed Yukari by the wrist, Amono grabbed her other wrist, and they dashed away from the track and up a nearby hill, towards an ancient shrine. They ran up the steps, legs pumping with adrenaline, until they finally stopped at the top of the hill.

"We. should. be.. Safe. here." panted Amono, doubling over. Yukari was still in shock.

"What was that thing?" she asked.

"I don't know," replied Van, clutching his track bag which he had magically been able to grab. "I think she said it was a- DRAGON!" he yelled as the hideous beast came soaring up the hillside, stalking it's prey. And there was the girl running after it and yelling at it. Without another thought, Amono, Yukari, and Van hid in the nearby trees. The dragon landed, looking around for its prey. Quite suddenly, the girl lunged at the dragon and embedded her sword in its side. The dragon gave an angry yell, lunging at the girl- who was most obviously a warrior, and tried to bite. The girl deftly dodged it, and dealt the dragon another blow- this time through one of the filmy membranes on its chest. It let out a roar and reared up into the air. The warrior girl took her chance and split the dragon from head to toe. Nasty blue green blood spurted erratically from every wound, and the dragon gave yet another yell before it collapsed on the ground in front of the girl. The warrior seemed relieved, and the dragon was apparently dead. But Van saw the tail lunge into the air, and the jagged end embedded in the girl's body.

"Watch out for the tail!" he yelled suddenly. The girl looked, up, alarmed, as the dragon's tail came flying through the air. She quickly dodged it and split the tail as well. The beast gave a piteous, final moan, and died. The girl wiped off her brow and dropped her sword at her feet. She walked over to the hole she had split in the filmy membrane pouch of the dragon's chest and thrust her arm in. Next to him, Van could feel Yukari give a shudder of disgust. The warrior girl dug through the membrane, and then finally emerged with her hand around a round sphere, her arm covered in blue green blood up to her elbow. The dragon began to fade, and the blood covering the girl and the ground disappeared.

"I have completed the rite of dragonslaying," Van heard the girl mutter to herself, smiling at the little round ball in her hand. Van thought it was quite disgusting (for the thing was most obviously the Dragon's heart), but said only, "Who are you?"

"Princess Hitomi of Fanelia, of course," she said, giving Van an icy emerald look. "Where am I?"

"Earth," said Yukari, obviously puzzled at the girl's behavior. Indeed, she was a strange girl. She was wearing black leather pants and an emerald tunic. A black corset circled the middle of the tunic, laced and belted to expose the girl's amazing figure. The top of the tunic was lazily unlaced, exposing a pink stone pendant.

"Earth? I've never head of Earth before. Is it a new country?" asked Hitomi, looking curiously at Yukari. "Foolish peasant. Must be confused." Van angrily stepped forward, clutching his bag.

"Look. There's no such place as Fanelia. And I don't know who you think you are, but." Van quickly went quiet as the girl picked up the sword at her feet.

"Tell me, peasant," she said in a dangerously low growl. "Look at this sword- but do not touch, or I will be forced to kill you. How old does this sword look to you?" Van inspected the blade- perfect and polished, but obviously old.

"Hundreds of years," he gulped. Hitomi's eyes flashed dangerously.

"Thousands. And do you see this insignia? It is the symbol of the country of Fanelia, peasant." Sure enough, there was crest that was unmistakably royal on the hilt of the sword. Van gulped again as the princess glared at him.

"I suppose you want a reward for saving me?" She asked lazily, sheathing her sword. "You may come back to my castle with me if you wish, but I'll not do more than that for you." She lazily stretched.

"What the hell?" Asked Van in alarm as a shaft of Blue white light appeared from the heavens.

"Van!" Yelled Yukari, running forwards, as Van was pulled upwards by the shaft of light. "What's happening?" She ran into the center of the shaft, looking upwards, until the light disappeared, Van and Hitomi with it.

.:*:.~.:*:.~.:*:.

"What the hell?!" exclaimed Van again as he landed in the middle of a grassy meadow. He stared up at the sky, where the earth and moon were plainly visible.

"Where the hell am I?" he gulped nervously, now clinging to his track bag. The princess looked around lazily, without the slightest bit of alarm.

"You're on Gaia."

.:*:.~.:*:.~.:*:.~.:*:.~.:*:.~.:*:.~.:*:.~.:*:.~.:*:.~.:*:.~.:*:.~.:*:.~.:*: .~.:*:.~.:*:.~.:*:.~.:*:.

A/N: Well? Whaddaya think? The more you review and make me happy, the faster I'll work. No reviews means no updates. And we all love this story. don't we? Oh well. Go ahead and click the button and review. Joy!

Completed 1/4/03- 21:40 hours (9:40 P.M.)