Disclaimer: Brought to you by...Legolas Greenleaf from Lord of the Rings! (Notice almost every single one has white hair...weird...but not surprising, knowing me!)
ACG: ^_^ "Can I call you...Leggie?"
Legolas: -_- "I hate that name..."
ACG: "Sorry, Leggie..."
Legolas: .
ACG: "Anyways, do I own Escaflowne?"
Legolas: -_- "I shall not speak with you, mortal."
ACG: "Hey! Don't get all high-and-mighty on me!" ;_;
Legolas: *looks sorry* "Escaflowne and Lord of the Rings do not belong to the Other Cat Girl." *points over at her*
ACG: "Good Leggie!" ^_^ *pats his head*
Legolas: ;_; "Why...?"
Second Destiny By Anther Cat Girl
Chapter 9:
"What! What do you mean 'it didn't work'? How dare you come here and tell me that!?" Allen yelled. His eyes were bloodshot from lack of sleep.
"The ring works, but only when Celena keeps it on her finger. She takes it off often enough for it not to work well, your majesty." Jajuka bowed as he used to have to for the officials of Zaibach and stared at the floor submissively.
Allen stared at the far wall of his chambers in deep thought. "I need more time. I can't worry about her now. The situation with Zaibach might blow up into war any day."
Jajuka blinked. He had heard that Asturia was threatening war...perhaps he should contact Emperor Folken again. "War?"
"Yes, you idiot," Allen said absently. He cupped his chin in his fingers. "I need to have you take care of Celena for a while. Keep a close eye on her. Make sure she doesn't get angry."
Jajuka nodded almost impatiently. Allen always told him to do things he was already trying his hardest to do. "And what are you planning for her?"
Allen smiled viciously at the idea of trusting the beast-man with his plans. "I suppose you will just have to wait and see. I think that all of this will come to a boil fairly soon."
Allen's expression changed as Jajuka left the room. As the door closed he whispered, "If only it was just Celena...my little...Celena again. Then I wouldn't have to..." He shivered and huddled in fetal position in his chair for a reason not related to the weather.
*~*~*~*~*
Hitomi roused with a small headache. She looked around and saw Yukari and Amano's frightened faces.
"Hey...how long was I out?" she mumbled almost incoherently. She still remembered her visions in vivid detail. ~I'll have to sort them out later for meaning...too bad I can't just go to Gaia again and ask what's going on over there...~
"You were out for a whole ten minutes, Hitomi," Yukari looked worried. "You never faint for that long."
"Are you sure you're not anemic, Hitomi?" Amano cracked a smile at the small joke. Hitomi always disliked the notion, and hit him every time he mentioned it.
"Be quiet, Amano," Yukari said crossly. She stared at Hitomi. "We have to get you home, then."
"Oh, no, it's alright. I want to stay." Hitomi never liked to be a burden; even if she really did want to go home, she didn't like anyone being inconvenienced because of her.
"Nonsense, Hitomi! You're going home. And anyway, we came to get the CD, and we got it." Hitomi noticed that Yukari somehow got a hold of the CD player while Hitomi was 'indisposed', but Hitomi didn't comment on it. She had listened to that disk as much as she cared to, and yet...had it really been Folken?
*~*~*~*~*
Van Fanel, King of all Fanalia, had his hands full. He was in one of the finished rooms in the castle looking over a pile of paperwork that always seemed to get higher and higher the more he worked on them. Van sighed and stretched, rubbing his dark, spiky hair down. His maroon eyes softened as he relaxed, thinking of the past few months.
*~*~*~*~* (It's a…Van memory thingie…I just was tired of typing, "He HAD gone…" etc. so I made it a flashback.)
After the end of the Destiny War, Van returned to his homeland with Hitomi and Merle to try to salvage something out of the dragon-infested rubble. They landed in Escaflowne on the top of a desolate ridge with a good view of the capital. A lonely wind ripped around them, and they heard nothing but the distant cry of a dragon.
"This is it, I guess," the young king said sadly, looking across his childhood home in defeat.
"We should go see the castle, Lord Van! I want to see if there is anything there!" Merle said in her usual, cheerful way.
Hitomi just clutched her duffel bag to her like a lifeline, looking at Van with wide eyes and saying nothing.
Van smiled in a depressed sort of way and mounted Escaflowne with his two friends. They slowly flew the way to the castle and they saw something that they hadn't expected to see.
Most of Fanalia's refugees were residing around and in a section of the castle that had been stayed erect during the Dragonslayers' attack. Some women were handing out food and men and women stood around with tools eating out of one hand. They looked up in surprise and alarm at the white dragon hovering by the food lines. Some dropped their food and grabbed their weapons then one man shouted in recognition when he spotted Van and the girls on the 'dragon' and motioned for the others to put down their swords.
"Van! Glad to see you're back!" the beast man who spotted him said happily. The other citizens of fallen Fanalia looked relieved and started to call to their king.
"Hey, your majesty! How are you?"
"I see that you've come back to help with some of the work, eh, Lord Van?"
"Glad to see you back, King Van!"
"We need some help down here! Get off that confounded gadget and start passing out food, boy!"
The last came from an elderly lady who knew Van ever since he was small. It had never entered her mind to call him 'Majesty' and Van never minded; he was always glad to see the old coot and it wouldn't seem right for her to call him anything else.
Van smiled with relief; he hadn't wanted to find where the people of Fanalia had gone after its destruction and he was a little surprised with their fierce loyalty.
The king landed the Escaflowne and jumped off quickly to greet his subjects. Along with Hitomi and Merle, he helped to pass out food and talked to everyone. He never wanted to be away from Fanalia again.
(A.N. If you have "The Story of Escaflowne" then listen to it for the next part...;_; *sniff* It's the one with Hitomi saying, "I'll be fine." in Japanese at the end.)
After a few hours, he visited the royal graveyard, which was totally untouched by the devastation that had affected the rest of the city. He knelt peacefully at his parent's graves for a moment as Hitomi watched.
He opened his eyes to glance at the girl from the Mystic Moon. She was staring at him somberly. He wondered, it seemed for the hundredth time as he gazed into her huge green thoughtful eyes, whether she liked him or not. He had saved her from Zaibach a few days before, but she still didn't seem to return his feelings. He could easily explain her joy at the sight of him to be just relief at a friend there to save her. And he'd seen her with Allen...
He sighed inwardly. There was no hope in that train of thought, no matter how often or well he'd traveled it the past couple of days. No answer was forthcoming from the girl, and he wasn't about to ask her and make a fool of himself if he was wrong.
Van stood up and climbed up onto the Escaflowne. He reached in and retrieved the energist he had placed there...so long ago. ~How long has it been? A couple of weeks? Months? ~ He felt a tug at his mind, and all the connection with Escaflowne disappeared as the energist's pink light faded.
At the memory of his bonding with the ancient dragon machine, he glanced at Hitomi again. "Escaflowne can sleep. It isn't necessary anymore."
Hitomi nodded and then tears filled her eyes as he stepped down toward her. "I guess I should go back to earth, then."
Van looked startled. "Hitomi..." He stopped, suddenly shy and looking down. "It would...it would be more than alright with me if you stayed here in Fanalia with me."
Hitomi started to cry. "Oh, Van. I wish I could stay, but I can't. I have to go back to my own world."
Van nodded slowly, his own eyes sad. On sudden impulse, Hitomi unclasped her pendant and handed it to him. He looked at her in shock and almost dropped it.
"I promise I will never forget you, even when I'm old!" she looked at him wistfully as tears began to fall down her cheeks.
"I will never forget about you, Hitomi." He embraced her, wishing with all his heart that she could stay with him. ~It isn't fair! It shouldn't be this way! ~ He felt tears fill his eyes as he gazed down at Hitomi. Van closed his eyes tightly and wished for her safe journey to the Mystic Moon.
Van felt a strange surge of energy. A pillar of light slowly engulfed them and Hitomi began to float up in the sky. Van looked up at her and smiled bitter sweetly. The girl smiled back and clasped her arms to her chest.
"Goodbye, Van! I will miss you!" Tears fell from her beautiful green eyes.
~Words can't express, so farewell...~
"Farewell, Hitomi!"
The pillar of light disappeared. And with it, the girl from the Mystic Moon.
*~*~*~*~*
Van shook his head. There was no use remembering her like that. He had visited her only a few times, and all of the visits were cut short. Van sighed. And he had to get married soon, so he should forget about her.
~And she liked Allen, anyway. ~ Van thought stubbornly, overriding the thought that Allen was married to Millerna.
~I have to get married, soon. And not to Hitomi. I'm not going to visit her anymore, to save us both from living in the past. ~
"I'll never forget you, Hitomi." He glanced down at the pendant he wore around his neck, took it off, put it in a small blue box and locked it.
~But it's too painful~
He turned back to his papers.
Beloved Reviewers:
Nihongo: -_- I might do nothing all day, but…I…I…eh, never mind, I don't have a witty retort. I have a mental image instead of a quote for this chapter's Elusive Allen Schezar.
*The Elusive Allen runs through a pretty green field in the sun and flowers with a rose in his mouth and a smile on his face. He stops when he sees Nihongo; his eyes get all big and he starts singing and dancing,
"Ay ay ay ay, I'm your little Samurai! /
Green, black and blue making colors in the sky/
…Ay ay ay ay ay! Ay ay ay ay ay! /
Ay ay ay ay ay! You're my butterfly!"*
*Nihongo shudders in disgust and impales him nonchalantly with her wooden bokken*
BlackDragon7: 'sup, brown girl!
*ACG starts singing *ACG and BD7 take bows, people boo, and Seph yells, "Go rent a karaoke room and leave me in peace!!!"*
Anyways, thanks for singing that with me, friend. It doesn't look right with a redhead doing it. Needs a brown friend in there, too. ^_^
Mel88: Hmmm, I'm not splittin'' those crazy kids up quite yet…lots of stuff has to happen first…but you're on the right track! I'm so happy!
Jamie Lynn Thayer: Actually, I don't think I put ANY of the 'slayers in, yet. I was just wondering which ones were people's favorites! And it was a vain effort to have people tell me about the Dragonslayers' personalities…it didn't work, so I have to look it up myself… ;_; I hate work…
Feye Morgan: Shhhh! Don't tell people that the ring's a secret!!! Oh, and I put in Legolas because your review reminded me of LOTR…good times…good times…^_^
A.N. Hey! People! I'm entertaining, aren't I? Just a little, maybe? Come on and review and tell me! Please!? I've been getting so few reviews…so few…*a violin starts playing sad music and snow starts to fall* *sniff* ;_; Make me happy again? Please? Just press the button…right there...you know you want to...