Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Escaflowne characters nor the story. It belongs to Bandai Entertainment. The only things I own in this story are my characters!
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 11: Is It True? Can It Really Be You?
"I don't believe it!" Alex moaned as she slowly woke up.
Nicole, who lay wide-awake on the other side of the room, agreed. "Only a week ago she helped us save Fanellia. Now she's shooting at us! Something is definitely wrong here. When I looked into Kat's eyes, I saw that they were cold and held no emotion like she had been taken over by something else. I mean, she didn't even recognize us."
Alex sat up and looked at Nicole. "You know, she acted a whole lot like Dilandau when we saw her. It was like she was a totally changed person. "You'll pay for making up false things about me"? I mean, where'd that come from? Doesn't sound like anything Kat would say to us," she said.
Nicole nodded in agreement. "Van did say he had some info for us and that he wanted to see us after we tried to link with Kat, maybe it's about what happened to her," she suggested.
"So let's go and see him," Alex said, jumping out of bed.
She and Nicole walked out of their room that they shared and walked down the stairs. They were currently staying in a small house with the cat-woman known as Merle. She had grown up with Van and was certainly excited about them staying with her even though it was in the midst of a serious war. The tall, slim built, tan cat-woman with bright pink hair with dark stripes her bare skin was a great host and had even given up her room for the two girls.
Luckily they found Van and Hitomi in the kitchen without having to drift from room to room. The house may have been small but the rooms seemed as vast as the Fanellian castle was wide. "You wanted to see us after we connected with Kat… so what's this info you have for us?" Alex asked, sitting down across from Van, who was sitting at the table. Nicole sat down next to Alex and began to stare at Van with pleading in her eyes.
"Well.... I'm not sure how to phrase this," he began shifting uneasily in his seat.
"Just give it to us straight," Nicole said.
Van nodded and took a deep breath. "Through a lot of hard work I was able to get some information about Kat. Now, none of this is true, at least that I know of, but it sounds reasonable. Zaibach was doing some experiments on the mind previously and after the battle… well, word got out that Kat was a spy so they turned the experiments on Kat. They say that Zaibach messed with Kat's memory.
"Supposedly they were only to take out a few memories of hers, from the past, but ended up messing up all of her memories-of the past and even some present ones. So to prevent losing her, they reconstructed them to where she never met you, came to Gaea alone and has been with Zaibach ever since. Also they say that they are making her think that everything they do is right. From what I can tell they didn't piece together anything else besides what I mentioned so Kat is lost about the past," He explained.
Alex and Nicole stared at Van for a second. "Well, it does make sense. We just contacted her and she acted as if she had never seen us before. She even attacked us, which was totally strange," Alex said slowly, as if putting two and two together.
"When she attacked she was a whole lot like Dilandau. Her eyes held the same kind of emotionless state in them that Dilandau's have when he attacks. What concerns me is that her powers have increased; if she attacks us I don't think we would even be able to protect ourselves," Nicole added. She was always the one to add in technical details.
There was an unspoken understanding around the table just then. Everyone knew that if Nicole and Alex couldn't reach Kat somehow, make her change sides or remember them, and then everything they had worked for was lost to Zaibach. "How.... if we can't reach her how can we stop her?" Nicole asked hesitantly.
Van bit his lip. He had hoped it wouldn't come down to this. "She still has another three weeks to remember. Keep dream walking with her; see if you can get her to remember something about you, or the past. But if she doesn't remember anything by the end of the three weeks, we attack Zaibach and we take no prisoners," he replied solemnly.
Nicole gasped.
Alex stared at Van with wide eyes.
Hitomi almost dropped the dish she was cleaning, her mouth hanging wide.
"It's the only way," Van said, defeated.
"But.... but we could capture her and help her remember! That way we'd have more time! We'd have help!" Nicole pointed out desperately.
"She could escape and go back to Zaibach," Van countered.
"We could keep her under constant observation," Hitomi suggested.
"She's gotten even more powerful then Nicole and Alex. If they don't think they could keep her at bay then how could we?" Van questioned.
"We could take her and then go back to the Mystic Moon, get her help there! Then she wouldn't be able to restart Zaibach and we'd be home!" Alex cried out.
"There is no way back, at least not one that I know of," Van replied, getting angry.
"But...." Hitomi started.
"There's nothing we can do!" Van yelled.
Hitomi, Nicole and Alex all lowered their heads, silently admitting defeat. Nicole began to cry, knowing that her friend's fate wasn't going to be pretty. Alex hugged Nicole trying to comfort her. Nicole knew things that others didn't see right away and right now Alex knew that her friend knew what was going to happen to Kat. Hitomi went back to washing dishes silently as she tried to come up with some sort of plan to help Alex and Nicole.
She had been back home and come back to Van. If you believed in the power of your wishes then you would be able to go back. Then again, the power of wishes did almost destroy the world, she thought as she scrubbed a pot clean. Wishes almost destroyed Gaea… if someone wishes hard enough would they be able to get their wish granted without destroying Gaea?
Van stood up and silently walked towards Merle's tree outside. He knew she'd be there and he needed his best friend right then; someone to talk to. "Don't worry, we'll find a way to get her out," Hitomi whispered when he was gone, looking at Nicole and Alex. They nodded hopefully. Hang in there, Kat, Nicole thought.
"Kat.... Kat," someone said over and over again in her ear. Kat swiped by her ear and the voice stopped. She snuggled into her pillow and tried to go back to sleep. The voice was silent and she was almost asleep again when the poking started. At first it was very gentle but steadily grew getting more violent by the second.
Finally Kat had had enough and opened her eyes. The poking stopped as she swiped her arm through the air and then rolled onto her back. She saw Dalet looking very pleased above her. "Ugh, what a "good morning" sight," she muttered.
Dalet stuck his tongue out at her and poked her in the arm again for good measure. "You're going to be late for that meeting that Lord Dilandau called. Plus you all ready missed breakfast," he said tauntingly.
"What meeting?" Kat asked groggily. She never was a morning person.
"The meeting Lord Dilandau called this morning at breakfast don't you-oh wait, you weren't there. It's in about fifteen minutes," Dalet replied, and then started out the door. "Oh, uniforms are required and it's in Lord Dilandau's Throne Room," he added before the door closed.
Kat lay there for a minute letting the information stink into her head. Once it set in she leapt out of bed and ran over to her dresser. "Damn it! Dilandau is going to kill me if I'm late!" She groaned as she yanked open her drawer, getting it lodged shut in her haste, groaned and stuffed her arm down into the drawer, searching for a clean uniform.
She stopped for a second. "I don't have a Slayer uniform, so how am I supposed to wear my uniform if I don't have one?" She wondered out loud.
Shrugging she grabbed some clean pants. "Can't hurt to try," she said to herself as she grabbed a top and quickly got changed. She quickly brushed her hair and put it into a high ponytail. Then she grabbed her boots and sword and ran out of her room, making a quick stop to the Dining Hall and grabbed a banana.
Holding it in her mouth as she finished pulling on her boots, she then started running from the Dining Hall and towards Dilandau's Throne Room, which was about four miles away along with two deck changes. She was able to get her sword around her waist and start to eat her banana.
Barely making it into the room and into formation she was seriously lucky because that was exactly when Dilandau walked in. Gatti whispered, "Peel," warning her of the banana peel still in her hand. She looked down at her hand and saw the remainder of her breakfast and quickly evaporated it. Letting out a small sigh as Dilandau sat on his throne and looked at them, seeming not to notice the breathless look on Kat's flushed face.
"I actually made it," she whispered without moving her mouth to Gatti. Her heart was still beating wildly inside her chest.
"We had bets going on to see if you would actually make it. I just won twenty silver coins," he replied proudly with the same mouth less action.
Kat stifled a giggle and returned to looking straight ahead. She felt Dilandau's eyes sweep over her and she smiled inwardly. He and she had a "relationship" if that's what you could call it. She knew he liked her, and she liked him but she'd never really told him. So far she's just been driving him crazy, flirting with him for a month, which was fun.
Ah, I'll give the poor bloke a rest and tell him how I feel. He'll be happy about that, she thought. She had to admit she was getting bored with the game of cat and mouse.
"Kat, step forward," Dilandau ordered.
She did as she was told and could feel all the Slayers giving her pitying looks. Honestly, they think he's going to beat me? I've been so loyal to him. In fact, I bet I'm more loyal then all of the Slayers put together! She thought jokingly. She knew it was the exact opposite-she had been trouble and a nuisance ever since she arrived.
"Tell me, do you sense anyone else in this room?" He asked in a challenging tone.
Kat's face lit up and she smiled like someone had just told her she had won the lottery. "Yes, I do. He's over here," she said.
With that she clapped her hands. There were some muffled cries and after a few seconds a man wearing black boots, pants and a black button down leather shirt came out of the shadows-the thing was, he wasn't walking. The man had a wrinkled face worn by the sun and dark brown hair with graying roots. His green eyes were wide as he was floated towards Dilandau, not being able to control his body.
Kat set the man down at the base of Dilandau's throne, grinning like crazy. She could tell the other Slayers were surprised by her ability of telekinesis-it was new to them. Really, it was all a matter of warping the dark energy around the man so it solidified and created an invisible handle-like mass of energy so then she could use her energy to simply pick it up and move it (AN: did anyone understand that? @_@). The paralysis was easy also, just enter into the man's head and use his inner most fear to subconsciously paralyze him.
"Now, show the General how much you like to throw things," Dilandau ordered again.
Kat's smile got wider as the wine bottle sitting upon Dilandau's stand was picked up and thrown through the air, aiming at the wall. Before hitting the wall she made it flip through the air performing loads of little gymnastic tricks. Then she had it fly back towards the General exploding just in front of his face.
Fortunately, the liquid or shards didn't hit the General because she deflected them. Too clean up her mess she simply evaporated it. The General stared at Kat for a second and then turned to Dilandau.
"Folken and your reports were right. She is ready for this. You have my permission to go ahead with the mission," he said in an uptight voice. Kat had a hell of a time hiding her laughter. It sounded as if the dear General had just had his pride damaged by a mere girl.
The General turned on his heels and quickly left the room. Dilandau made a face at the General's back just before he disappeared beyond the door. Once the door had fully closed, Kat turned to Dilandau. "Mission?" She asked, serious.
"We have the position of the Dragon and the King of Fanellia," Dilandau spat as if the words were venom. "We are to be sent to capture it. Kat, you have your separate orders-I assume you know them. I want the whole place burned. We attack at the end of two weeks. Any questions?"
No one spoke.
"Dismissed!" He ordered.
All the Slayers turned and quickly left the room, all except one-Kat. "Um, Dilandau?" She asked cautiously.
Dilandau looked straight at her, showing she had his attention.
Kat carefully climbed the stairs to his throne and kneeled in front of him. Dilandau leaned forward so they were now face-to-face and incredibly close. "I know you can't wait two weeks to attack so I'm assuming those are strict orders that you have to follow. So… I'm thinking maybe I can help you find something to bide the time with," she whispered, and quickly darted forward, her lips grazing his cheek.
Then she got up and left the room without another word moving fast but not fast enough to seem like she was running. She could feel his eyes on her until the door slid shut behind her. Once the door to his Throne Room closed, Kat smiled to herself. This is a fun game playing with Dilandau. But it's getting way too old-I better tell him how I feel damn soon, or else I think the feeling will eat me inside out! She thought as she began to walk towards the Training Room.
AN: Yay! We're getting close to the end here people… da da duh! Anyways, what's up with this cat and mouse game that Kat is playing with Dilandau? Are these feelings for him just an illusion like her past "memories"? Agh, the torment of love and angst! Heh, fun huh? Will Nicole and Alex get Kat back? Or will she forever be a servant of Dilandau? **gets cool idea for picture** Oooh, I like that idea! I'm off to draw it out now! Until the next chapter! R+R!
~ShadowKat
