AN:  So are we having troubles now with this story?  Kat is hiding secrets from Nicole and Alex and Folken is holding out on them… what could it mean?  What's going on with everyone?  I know the last chapter was short so this one should make up for that.  Who knows maybe something will happen… With who you ask?  I'm not telling!  R+R please!

Disclaimer:  **sniffles as CrimsonFire hands her a tissue** 

This is so sad! 

**blows nose** 

**realizes that the "tissue" was the deed to Escaflowne** 

NO! 

**CrimsonFire points to the crumpled piece of paper next to ShadowKat's feet** 

Oh…

**picks it up** 

My deed to my characters!  Yay!  I DO own something in this story!  Don't use them without my permission!

Three Girls

This story is dedicated to the only person I know who has a heart of gold and a talent for the art of story telling.  CrimsonFire my friend, you've been there for me when I've needed you and you're always willing to help me out no matter what situation I'm in.  So this one is done for you!

Chapter 4: Escape into the Night

The dream came to her again.  It was a twisted dream, one that she could not get out of her head or ignore.  It was one she could not examine, pull apart and test each part.  This was a dream that came from the core of her psyche, the thing that no one ever understood. 

She would toss and turn, aware of every movement her body made, but at the same time, she was submerged in a darkness so thick it was like she was swimming in water.  There was no escaping it.  It only pushed in on her, harder and harder until she wanted to scream.  But if she did, then she would surely perish. 

Something told her that the darkness was only there to press in on her, to try and release something.  If she would only give into it everything would be all right.  If she would only trust it… No, no she couldn't.  She told herself that every day.

Everywhere she looked she saw trust.  It broke her heart, watching as everyone put their lives in the hands of someone who probably wouldn't even care if they were mortally wounded.  Trust had been something she had to learn, but his leaving broke that.  Every night when she closed her eyes she could see him walking away.

Yet here she was, trusting.  Was it irony that mocked her or just her own stupidity?  She couldn't tell.  She had spent the last ten years of her life saying that trust was something you could live without, yet here she was, living a life where trust was the most important thing to her.  Irony?  No, it was more along the lines of mockery.

The water asked her to trust; she refused.  The dream asked her to trust; she refused.  But when they asked her to trust, she accepted.  Why?  Why was it that they were always there, asking her to trust, but when something else asked her to trust she wouldn't. 

Because you know they care about you, something told her.  Yes, it was something from the inside.  Something she had always trusted even though she thought it was leading her astray.  Her heart told her that when she loved she would trust.  Whoever didn't accept that was a moron.  However, the dream came hurtling back, tearing at her, begging her to trust it.

A message from her psyche, a message from her very core.  How could she not trust it?  Wasn't it a part of her too?  Wasn't her heart and her core the very same?  Maybe it was… And she just wasn't seeing it.

"I am so bored!"  Alex groaned as she flopped onto her cot.  She moaned, forgetting that there was only hay under her.  "Stupid." 

They had been locked up in their cells for over three days now.  Their promised adjoining rooms now a joke.  They should've known that someone who they had never met before would cheat them.  That was something a kid would've known.

Staring up at the ceiling, she wondered how Nicole and Kat were doing.   She hadn't spoken to them in three days, except for when she could hear them when her guard was delivering her meal.  I have to tell the cook that he can sure prepare a .5 star meal, she thought sarcastically, remembering the slush that they were served three times a day.

She raised her hand and snapped her fingers.  A small flame appeared, floating barely a millimeter from her finger.  Strangely, she didn't feel the heat of its flame or was burned by it.  Making it dance, she watched at the colors of the flame seemed to mix together and separate.  After they had spent most of the time locked in their cells, with nothing to do but think and stare at the wall, anything was better then being homesick and miserable. 

Alex wondered when she had been able to do this little fire trick.  It seemed like years and years ago when in reality, it was only two days ago.  She had just woken up and was stretching when she had looked down to see her hand on fire.  Screaming, she tried to put it out but it wouldn't go out.  That's when she realized that she couldn't feel it burning her.

Confused, she had reached out with her other hand and touched the flame.  It didn't burn.  She continued to stare at it, completely amazed, until a single thought crossed her mind: blow it out.  With that, the flame had gone out without a trace.  She was sort of disappointed, wondering where it had gone.

That's when she began to think.  Why would her hand mysteriously catch fire?  Why couldn't she feel the flame?  Those made her think and think, and think some more.  She thought until finally she decided to try again.  Focusing on her fingers, she began to wish hard for a flame.

At first the flame came slowly, beginning as just barely a spark but then growing.  Soon she could make it as tall as she was.  With jut the tiniest thought, she could make multiple flames appear. 

I wonder how Nicole and Kat will react when they find out about this?   She thought as she stared at her hand.  Nicole will probably want to dissect me and Kat will probably be all hysterical, saying why couldn't she do that.  Oh, I wish I could see them.

But what she didn't know was that the same exact thought was going through Nicole's head.  She, too, had woken up with a strange ability.  Nicole had rolled out of bed late, an unusual occurrence for her.  She was usually the early riser. 

Moaning as her feet hit the ground, she reached up to rub her face when she discovered that a ribbon was around her hand.  She gasped, staring at it, dumbfounded.  It wasn't like she could just shake it off.  It was actually attached to her hand.  It seemed to come straight from her nails.  She stared at it before becoming scared.

"Oh my… Oh my…" she whispered as she began to pace around the room, staring at her hand as if it was some sort of monster.  "What's wrong with me?"  She paced and paced for hours, careful not to move her hand.  Who knew what this ribbon thing could do? 

After hours of pacing, she began to get short-tempered.  "Stupid thing, come off!"  She cried, swinging her hand in a random direction.  She watched as the ribbon went flying out and snapped at a wall, taking out a chunk of it.  Shocked, she had stared at it.

"Wow," was the only word that came to her mind.  She had sat there and stared at the damage she had done.  She stared at it until finally a determination came over her.  This was a test of some sort, and she would ace it.  That's when the practice began.  Within hours she had figured out how to manipulate the ribbons, seemingly to be made of some sort of light, into whatever she wanted using thought.

"How cool?"  She said, making the ribbons disappear.  "But why do I have this?  What about Alex and Kat?  Do they have the same ribbon effect?"  She turned and stared at the wall that Kat's cell shared.  "How are they doing?"

On the other side of the wall, Kat was no holding up well.  There were many holes in the wall, all of which she had done.  She had figured out that if she got really angry then she could create a dark colored transparent ball of something, that surged with black electricity, around her fist and that it could do some major damage.  Now she was trying to figure out how to make that same effect happen when she wasn't angry.

"Stupid walls.  Why can't you just crumble away?"  She asked, sitting across the room and glaring at the opposite wall.  She was going stir crazy in the small cell and she wanted out.  "Stupid black thing, why can't you blast it away?"  She said, glaring at her hands.  Slouching back, she sighed and suddenly felt really stupid.

This is probably not going to work, but hey, no one is looking… She glanced around, confirming her thought.  "Okay, here it goes," she said, and stuck her hand out.  Nothing happened.  Now I feel really stupid, she thought, dropping her hand.  I've gotten control of the whole anger equals black thing, but why won't it work without anger?

She glanced at the wall and waved her hand at it.  "Go away, you're annoying me," she told it.  Suddenly a black thing shot out of her hand and blew away the wall.  "Whoa.  Okay, I wish for a million dollars," she said after the shock of what had happened disappeared.  She waited but nothing happened. 

"Okay fine, only work with the black thing."  She stood and ran over to the hole, gently stepping through it and into the next cell.  "Kat!"  Nicole cried, running up and hugging her.  "Was that you?"  She asked, stepping back.

"Uh, yeah?"

"Oh, that was so cool!  The wall just blew away!"

"Yeah, enough talk.  Let's get Alex and high jack it out of here!"  She pointed at the other wall and another beam shot out and blew away the wall.  Together she and Nicole ran through the wall and came across Alex, her hand on fire. 

"Oh my God, Alex, your hand!"  Nicole cried, pointing. 

"Uh, it's normal?"  Alex offered, shrugging helplessly. 

"Really?  Talk later, let's go!"  Kat said, blowing away the door.    

"I take it you've done this before," Alex said as she jumped out of her room and into the hall.  Nicole and Kat followed.

Outside, the trio looked around the hall.  It was empty, the seats of the guards had been taken away and there wasn't a soul in sight.  The corridor was completely empty and dark.   "Um, is this a good sign?"  Alex asked, getting nervous.  She didn't like the feeling she was getting.  It was like they were almost expecting them to do something like this.

"No, it's not.  But who knows?  It could be a blessing in disguise," Nicole agreed as she started down the hall. 

"Always the optimistic one," Kat said, following her, trailed by Alex. 

As they walked, they tried to retrace their steps that they had taken the day they had met Folken.  Unfortunately all that happened was a lot of disagreement and guesswork.  "I don't think this is right," Alex said as they walked down a corridor, their footsteps echoing eerily.  It didn't feel right to her at all. 

"It has to be.  Look, there's a stairwell just up ahead.  If we take it, it might lead us somewhere!"  Kat said, pointing up ahead. 

True to her word, there was a stairwell just ahead of them, darkened by the shadows that covered the steps but seemingly harmless.  They approached the staircase, not know that it lead up to the normal levels, and started to climb it. 

Their footsteps were silent and precise as they climbed the stairs.  Years of experience of climbing Alex's creaky stairs in her house had made them experts at sneaking up or down stairs.  Every couple of feet they checked for any sign of guards that might be hanging around. So far, there was none.

They didn't know where everyone was but they were still being careful.  There was no need to get caught so easily.  Finally the stairs flattened out to a plateau for a few feet but then continued upwards.  Kat slipped over to the corner of the open doorway and peeked her head out.  There was no one around.  Motioning that it was safe for them to come out, together they sneaked into the hall and took refuge in the shadows. 

The halls weren't different from the prison's they found out.  They were still the same cold, dull metal.  As they made their way down the hall, they realized that every hall was the same.  "Oh great, just what we need.  A designer who likes to confuse possible escapees," Alex muttered as they walked in the shadows.

They walked for a while, the halls desolate and quite depressing, until they saw a door at the end of the wall.  After a quick look around to make sure they were alone they hurried over to the door and opened it, entering the room.  The site that met them made their mouths drop open.

They were in a huge room made of the same metal that the halls were, but lighted with powerful florescent lights.  It was fairly empty except for the 13 huge machines standing in a row, all of them blue and black-except for one, which was red and black.  There were carts and what looked like spare parts for the giant machines littered around the room, but the actually path to the machines were clear of any items.  "Wow," Alex breathed.

"Yeah," Nicole agreed.

"Big," Kat said.  They continued to stare at the huge machines before Nicole snapped to.  "Ok, so now what?"  She asked, bringing the other 2 out from their trances.

"Besides the huge things that look like Gundams, I say we escape, find a nice town and ask how to get back to Earth," Alex suggested.

"Yeah," Kat agreed.

Nicole looked at her friend for a second, trying to read what she was feeling, and failing, before nodding her agreement.

"Ok, so let's go!"  Alex said as she started to run towards the huge open hanger doors at the end of the room.  It was too convenient, thought Nicole as she and Kat followed Alex, slightly behind.  What is going on?

They had just gotten through the line of huge, majestic machines-which were placed in the center of the room-when they heard a voice.  "WHAT ARE THEY DOING OUT OF THEIR CELLS?!  GET THEM!"  It roared with unbelievable anger.

Kat was the first to recognize the voice.  She didn't even have to look back before she got a mental image of the voice's owner's face.  "It's Dilandau! Hurry up!"  She called over to Alex.  "Nicole, you can sprint.  Go up and run with Alex.  I'll try to hold them off.  Go!" 

She slowed down a little.

"But-" Nicole started. 

Kat pushed her, urging her to go. 

Nicole sped up and was soon next to Alex, running.  As Kat ran, she noticed that the doors to the outside were starting to close.  "Hurry! Run!"  She cried to the others.

Luckily her cry alerted Nicole and Alex to what was happening, ever so fast, and they sprinted towards the door like they were competing in a marathon and it was the last leg of the trip.  They were only a couple feet away from it when suddenly Kat went flying and landed hard on the floor.  She rolled onto her side as a sword came crashing down where she would've been.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Nicole stop just as she reached the door, which was now almost totally closed.  She saw Alex dive under the closing door and disappeared.  "GO! GO!" Kat cried at Nicole.

Nicole took one last look at her friend before she dived under the door. J ust as she did, the door closed, securing their safety.  Kat got up to her feet and turned to meet her opponent.  She was surprised to see that her former attacker was on the floor with a red mark on his face, in the shape of a hand. 

That could only mean one thing, she thought, seeing Dilandau standing in front of her.  She didn't have time to do anything before the flat of his sword came in and hit her in the temple, causing her to black out.  As Kat's body went limp and started to fall to the ground, Dilandau reached out and caught her.

He quickly sheathed his sword and then picked her up, throwing her over his shoulder like she was dead weight.  He turned around and glared at the boy on the floor, and then walked towards the door and left the room.