Disclaimer:  Hm… **lawyer glares at her**  All right!  All right!  I give!  I don't own anything that's in this story that is or relates to Escaflowne, Bandai owns that.  **looks at lawyer, lawyer nods** But I do own my characters that aren't in the Escaflowne story line!

AN:  I've moved the author's notes to the end of the story.

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 5: Nature to Destroy

"This is what you call dinner?" Alex asked.  She looked up at Nicole, who was sitting next to her.  They were surrounded by unforgiving forest, the trees limbs intertwining creating a thick canopy above their heads and dark shadows all around them.  

Nicole shrugged.  "Best I could find.  It's not like there's a BK around here," she replied. 

Alex chuckled.

It had been a week since they had escaped Zaibach, with the loss of Kat.   "I wonder how she's holding up," Alex sighed, looking up at the darkening sky that she could make out through the harsh canopy.

"I'm sure she's fine.  Kat has always been a fighter.  We can find someone to help us rescue her once we get to the town that those travelers told us about," Nicole replied confidently, referring to the travelers that they had managed to catch a ride with a day ago.

Alex nodded.  "Yeah.  You think that this Hitomi will help us?"  She asked.

Nicole shrugged again.  "Who knows until we try?  But if the rumors are true, and she is from Earth, then chances are we can count on her," she said.  Alex looked at her small bowl of soup.  She stirred it around absentmindedly.

"Come on, let's get some sleep," Nicole suggested, trying to comfort her friend.  She knew that Alex was worried about Kat.  She and Alex had always had a special bond between them, even before Nicole had come along. 

Alex nodded and they emptied their dishes in the bushes and laid down a little ways from the fire.

The next day Nicole and Alex started out early.  "How... Much... Longer?" Alex asked, gasping for breath.  She wasn't into walking as Nicole and Kat were.  Physical Education pretty much killed her.  She was more into the threats and action, not the physical act of doing something. 

Nicole laughed as they came to the top of the hill they were climbing.  She pointed out into the distance.  "We're here," she replied.

Alex looked at where Nicole was pointing and saw a huge city tucked into a canyon made by some mountains.  The north side of the city had a huge wall, and it took all of Alex's effort to not gasp at the gold embedded into it. "Pretty," she breathed.

Nicole nodded and started down the hill.  Alex followed her, and within 15 minutes they were inside the city.

"I'll let you handle the formalities," Alex whispered to Nicole as what looked like a soldier approached them.

"Um, excuse me, sir?" Nicole asked, stopping a man in gold armor and wielding a sword. 

Man, she doesn't miss a beat, Alex thought, impressed.

The man looked down at them, a disgusted look on his face.  "Sorry to interrupt you, sir, but my friend and I have just arrived here and we need to see the Queen.  Could you point us in the way to the castle?"  Nicole continued, not seeing the look she was receiving.

The man looked Nicole over carefully, and then nodded.  He pointed down a long, straight street that led up to a huge castle.  "Well, duh!"  Alex said as she and Nicole started down the street, making sure they were out of earshot from the guard.  "I can't believe we missed such an obvious marker." 

They got into the castle easily, considering that the Queen was totally free and that Nicole was doing the talking.  The girl really had a talent for doing talking.  A guard led them into a garden where the Queen was seated on a bench by a fountain in the middle of it.

Alex and Nicole stared at the Queen, a little amazed.  She was pretty with shoulder length light brown hair and emerald green eyes. She was wearing a white gown that just barely touched the ground.  "Hello, can I help you?" She asked, looking at them.

"Uh... Yeah… We're from Earth and we need your help," Alex said, not sure of how to phrase what she and Nicole wanted.  She wasn't as good as turning a phrase as Nicole was. 

The Queen got to her feet and walked over to Nicole and Alex.  "Hitomi Kanzaki Fanel, please, come with me, and we'll see what we can do for you," she said, a hint of excitement showing in her eyes and voice.

She led Nicole and Alex into the castle.  Once inside, Hitomi led them on a fast paced tour, barely letting them gaze as they went up some staircases and down beautifully decorated halls.  She reached a door and opened it, revealing a beautiful room.  The room had a hardwood floor with light blue walls, pictures of various things hanging off of the walls.

There were bookcases on one side of the wall, and some light blue chairs in the middle of the room.  Hitomi sat down in one of the chairs, so Nicole and Alex sat across from her.  "Ok, so tell me... how'd you get here?"  Hitomi asked.

Alex looked at Nicole.  "You better explain it," she said.

Nicole nodded and started to tell Hitomi how they had gotten here.



Kat slowly opened her eyes for what seemed to be the billionth time.  She knew that she was back in her cell, again.  She had tried to escape before, about a billion times it seemed, like some warped out horror fiction movie that keeps replaying the same bad ending; her last attempt at escape had ended up walking right into the Slayer's Recreation Room.  "How stupid was that?"  She muttered to herself as she sat up, remembering the scene.  She had stood there in front of twelve, armed Dragon Slayers and had gotten beat. 

She let her eyes adjust to the dim light before she stood up.  She knew what she was going to do next.  Escape.  She walked over to the door and pressed her ear against the cold metal.   "I can't believe she keeps trying to escape.  I bet she's not smart enough to know that the only way off the Vione is either to become a Dragon Slayer or be killed," a snooty voice said.

Kat bit her lip.  She knew that voice, it belonged to Dilandau's favorite lackey, Miguel.  Miguel had brown hair and blue eyes, sort of tall, and had an attitude to match an elephant's butt.

"She knows.  But what I don't get is that Lord Dilandau said that she and those other 2 girls were Slayers, but why doesn't he let them... or her, come to training?  Why does he keep her in her cell?"  Another voice asked.

Kat frowned.  This voice was new.  She hadn't heard it before.  It had a soft touch to it, so soft and gentle it reminded her of… No, I can't think of him, she thought, wincing at the memory.  Again she tucked it back inside her psyche, hidden deep inside of the dark crevasses of her mind.  She knew that the voice's owner didn't like harassment or trouble and would rather avoid any friction.

"Aw, Chesta, you're such an idiot," Miguel's voice said. 

Chesta, so that's his name.  Next time I escape I'll have to catch a look at him, Kat thought.  Suddenly an idea came to her.  Let's see, Dilandau should be coming any second to check up on them.   Since he usually does every hour, she thought.

As if on cue, she heard a new voice.  "What are you doing?"  Dilandau's voice asked. 

Kat grinned as a ball of energy formed in her hand.  She backed up a little and then threw it like a baseball at the door.  The door popped out of its frame like a can of shaken soda exploding.

Kat stepped out into the hall and grinned evilly at Dilandau, the shavings of the wood frame creating a thick layer of dust, which spiraled all around her as she stood in front of him.  "Escaping," she said. 

She then created another layer of dust by firing a blast at a wall and ran like heck. She had just gotten to the staircase when she was suddenly on the ground, with someone on top of her.  She growled in annoyance and flipped the person onto his back by twisting her body beneath him and trapped him underneath her. 

She gave the person a few good punches in the face and then got to her feet quickly.  Before she began running again she saw that the person who had knocked her down was Miguel.  Heh, pay back, she thought. 

She started to run but then got another idea.  She turned back and while Miguel was still down she grabbed his sword from its sheath and then ran up the stairs.  She ran until she came to the same corridor she, Alex and Nicole had used to escape the first time and began to run down it.  Got to get out of here.  Got to find the hanger, she thought as she turned down another corridor. 

Working from memory she ran straight down it, her heart pounding in her ears.  She quickly checked over her shoulder and found no one behind her.  She smiled and started to turn back when she found that there was something in front of her.   Before she could react, she ran into the thing and fell onto her butt.

Recovering from the collision, she looked up and found that she was staring up at Dilandau.   He glared down at her, his crimson eyes ablaze and sword drawn.   "Damn," she whispered, "my day can't get any worse." 

"Well, well, well, haven't you been a busy kitty?"  He smirked.  He bent down and grabbed her by the upper arm roughly pulling her to her feet.  "I've had enough of you.  Time to go see the vet," he said as he began to pull her down the corridors.

Kat struggled against him the whole time he pulled her but no matter what she tried he had a counter move.  The corridors began to twist and turn more often and the lighting was beginning to go down.  Soon they were practically walking in the blackness of the night with the corridors still twisting about. 

An internal fear leapt up in Kat as she was pulled farther down the corridor.  The darkness seemed to reach out to her, trying to pull her back into its embrace.  That fear pumped through her veins and made her heart leap, her body now shaking with the fear of the dark.  "Let me go!"  She cried as Dilandau dragged her into a room. 

In response, he threw her into a chair that was in the room.  Kat stumbled and tripped, falling back into the chair and causing it to rock back on its hind legs.  Dilandau reached forward and grabbed the arms and yanked it back on all fours, causing Kat to jerk forward and fall back all in one motion.  Recovering and repositioning herself, she sat there glared at Dilandau. 

She knew the room, it was the same room that she and the others had sat in and been told that they were basically prisoners. 

Just then Folken walked into the room.  "Folken, get on with it," Dilandau said as Folken opened his mouth.  Apparently Dilandau wanted to get to the part that was important. 

Folken glared at Dilandau, and then turned to Kat who was still shaking with fear.  In her mind's eye she could see the darkness seeping all around her, trying to bite at her flesh and bring her down into its icy depths.

"I see you have all ready found your powers.  Do you know why you have them?  Or what they relate too?"  Folken asked. 

There was a long pause. 

"I can tell not.  I'm sure you would like the short version, since you and Dilandau have the same patience-or lack there of.  You and your two friends have been chosen to be the protectors of Gaea.

"Alexandra is the Child of the Elements, otherwise known as the Protector. Nicole is the Child of the Mystic Moon, or also known as the Queen of the Planets.  You…you my dear are the Mistress of the Dark Side of the Moon, Child of Darkness, known also as the Destroyer.  You control the most destructive power in the whole world, probably in the whole galaxy."

Kat stared, not really seeing him, as she processed what he had said.  She didn't dare say anything for fear that her voice would betray her.  Me? The Destroyer?  How.... That can't be right, she thought.

 But it is, said the darkness.  You know it is.  Trust in his words as you do your so-called friends.  They abandoned you and here is Folken, explaining your destiny to you.  He won't abandon you. 

"I think you have the wrong person.  I can't be this so called Destroyer," she said quietly, mostly to the darkness then to Dilandau or Folken.  "For one, I don't destroy things.  I'm not some delinquent out for revenge.  Second, hello, do I look the dark and evil type?"

"Yes."  Dilandau answered, a bit of a venomous tone in his voice.

Kat glared at him.  "Wrong.  Third, you're evil.  I don't-won't-go around blowing things up just because you tell me to.  I don't work like that.  Fourth, who in their right mind would put darkness with elements and energy?  No one I know of.  It's just not done." 

"No?  Then how come you have the power in which you can create balls of energy that can destroy things?"  Folken asked.  "When you think about it, don't Nicole and Alexandra have powers that are alike?  Nicole draws her power from the Mystic Moon's energy-the very core of the mystic planet, and Alexandra draws her powers from the elements that come from the same mystic planet.  You, on the other hand, you draw your power from the shadows and darkness.  Now, does that come from the mystic planet?  No, it only exists in the heart of Gaea because Gaea was created out of the dark thoughts of the people of the Mystic Moon."

"Still has no purpose.  Darkness and Good don't go together."

"Katrina, think about the balance of the universe.  Can Good exist without Evil to balance it?  Can cold still survive without heat?  Can man live without woman?"

"Well, if you want the technical details-"

"The answer is that they cannot.  Every planet has a balance of good and evil.  On Gaea, darkness is not necessarily Evil-it is a symbol of the things we have not discovered, of life that is hidden in the mists of the past and future.  Darkness is as good as you want it to be."

Kat bit her lip.  He was right and she knew it and there was no arguing on that case.  Hadn't she always been told there was no defining Evil, only how you looked at it?  "So... What do you want with me?"  She asked.

This was the question that would determine what would happen to her-her fate.  She knew that she could never get off this place without the help of the outside and hopefully Alex and Nicole were trying to get that help but she wasn't going to give up.  Just because you knew something was hopeless doesn't mean you fall over and play dead.

Folken cleared his throat and looked her straight in the eye.  "The reason I have kept you and your-well, previously placed friends-in your cells was because I wanted your powers to develop.  To study how you developed them and what the outcomes were. 

"Since Alexandra and Nicole have escaped all I have left is you.  You are a Dragon Slayer by right of test so you will begin training with them.  The only reason why you were confined to your cell was because of your powers.   However, if you ever show any signs of betrayal, we will hunt you down and kill you," he replied.

Dilandau snorted from his spot against the wall where he had taken refuge.  "You think you can scare her by threatening her life, Folken?" He asked, looking at Folken.

Folken stared back with an odd look on his face. 

"I've seen her.  I've seen how she doesn't scare and how good of a fighter she is.  She won't take your threat seriously.  We don't have anything we can use against her.  So, if she escapes we just go and bring her back," Dilandau pointed out.

Folken sighed.

Kat blinked and looked at both men.  Usually Dilandau is all for threatening my life. But why is he suddenly so.... so protective? She wondered.

"Then we go after her friends." 

That was short lived, she thought.  I knew he couldn't be a nice guy.  Suddenly she became very cold.  She started to shiver, so she wrapped her arms around herself.  "Why's it so cold suddenly?"  She asked through suddenly chattering teeth.  Then, suddenly her vision faded into blackness.

She was standing in the middle of a burning village.  The smoke and ash swirled around her in frenzy as if they were trying to escape.  The heat seared her skin but she didn't noticed.  Taking in a deep breath she smiled, as she smelled burning word and flesh.  This was heaven.

She was in her black clothes and had a sword in her hand.  The sword was dripping with blood.  She looked at the sword and smiled.  A sign of destruction fit for the Destroyer.  "See? I told you were different then the others," a voice whispered in her ear.

She turned around and saw Dilandau behind her and smiled sweetly at him.  "You were right. I'm not like them," she agreed.

Dilandau gave her a smile and wrapped an arm around her waist, pulling her closer to him.  "So, what's next?" She asked, looking into Dilandau's deep red eyes.

"This," he replied, and the kissed her.

Kat's eyes flew open and she sat up.  Obviously she had been slouched over since she had to actually sit up.  She looked around and saw she was still in the room with Folken and Dilandau with not much time seeming to have passed.  At the sight of Dilandau her blood went cold and she froze.  The image of him kissing her was still imprinted in her mind.

Ugh gross!  She thought.  Why did I ever fantasize about that?  "What happened?"  She demanded, standing up.

"You fainted," Dilandau snickered as if it was the funniest thing in the world.

"I did not!  How could I have fainted if I had a dream?"

"A dream?"  Folken asked, looking interested.

Uh oh, should've kept my mouth shut.  "Yeah, a dream."

"If you faint you do not dream.  You could have gone into a trance.  Do you remember what you saw?"

"I do."

"Tell us."

Kat laughed and put a hand on her hip.  "Like I'd ever tell you.  I'm only cooperating with you because I don't want Alex and Nicole hurt.  So don't expect me to be sharing anything anytime.  Now, can I go back to my cell since this little chat has ended."

Folken nodded.  Dilandau walked up and took Kat's upper arm and led her out the door and back to her cell.  She noticed that he was definitely not being gentle with her.  "So you've noticed I'm not a china doll.  You know I can take whatever you deal out," she said to him after he pushed her into her cell.

Dilandau smiled evilly at her.  "I know, and that's what will make you a good Slayer," he replied, and then the door slid shut.

AN:  All righty!  What do you think?  What's this about Kat's having visions?  Nicole and Alex are on Fanellia's side?  Kat is kissing Dilandau?!  Confusing isn't it?  He he he, and why is Kat going over to the dark side as her nature wants?  Giving in to temptation of maybe a silver headed boy is responcible…  R+R!  Thanks!

~ShadowKat