AN: Muahaha, finally got in the mood to write! Thanks for all the review! *wipes tears* I hope this chapter is good enough for you guys... =P

"Why are you doing this?" Hitomi cried. Pale white fog swirled around her, the air humid yet cold.
"The world will be ruled by one. Only one," the man cackled, flipping the jeweled dagger in his hand casually. Taking a few steps towards the young heroine, he took the flat side of the blade and tilted her chin up. "No one cares about you. Don't you see? No one is helping you," the man taunted, sweeping his arm to reveal everyone in the cathedral just looking in Hitomi's direction nonchalantly.
Van's hands still held Aurelia's.
"You're lying," Hitomi screamed as she spat in the man's face.
"So I am," the man agreed, a cruel smile on his face, and Hitomi's mouth dropped slightly, not expecting that answer. "But do you wonder, child, how I can keep a hold over everyone in this room?".
A part of Hitomi didn't want to know, but she found herself asking why.
"Because, child, of this pendant," the man informed her, relishing as the look of horror on her face grew like a crescendo.
"Where did you get that?" Hitomi demanded, a cold hand gripping her heart.
"Oh, from the market.... Emperor Garnaut was so fortunate to realize it's potential," the man snickered, allowing the faint light to catch on the pendant, "It was sold to a merchant.... Not stolen, if you have that notion in your head," the man laughed, as Hitomi sank to the floor.
"Stop it," Hitomi whispered, as the man approached her.
"Your blood.... Will make the world his," the man hissed, "Everything you fought for... Will be his. Everything you have left.... Will be his...." he continued, as he floated the bottle in the palm of his hand, as it disappeared in a cloud of black.

"NO!" Hitomi screamed, grabbing the pendant from the man's grasp and taking hold of his arm she drove his own dagger into his chest. He smiled as the artificial life drained away from him.

"Only one," were the man's last words.

Everyone in the cathedral snapped out of their daze, they focused their gazes on Hitomi, slashed on the collar bone, dagger in hand, a foreign dead soldier on the ground.

"...Hitomi?"

Van was the first to speak. Aurelia looked at Hitomi in horror. Hitomi opened her mouth to reply when suddenly loud crashes shook the cathedral.

"Guymelefs!" somebody cried, and pandemonium erupted. Nobles scattered everywhere, fleeing for their precious lives. Van clasped Aurelia's hand with his own and began to make his way out of the cathedral.

So... Dizzy.... Hitomi thought faintly, as she gingerly touched her wound. Her fingers were sticky with blood, the dagger she was holding clean. Her face was pale, and she needed medical attention. Treated soon, she would be alright. Not so.... Then....

"WATCH OUT!" someone screamed. There was a loud boom and one part of the cathedral set on fire. Hitomi desperately caught her senses and began to run like everyone else, after slipping on her necklace.

"Hitomi!" came a familiar voice.

"Millerna!" she replied, tears of hysteria trailing down her face.

"We're going on one of Van's levistone ships! Hurry up!" she cried as she continued to run towards where Hitomi assumed to be the docking bay.

Hitomi turned, and noticed Darien holding Merle protectively as he fought his way past soldiers. Normally, well trained soldiers of Darien's rank could take out four rookies at a time.

It didn't look so good for Darien right now.

Picking up a sword from a dead soldier, Hitomi made her way over to join Merle and Darien.

"They're really advanced!" Darien called out as he blocked a hit from one of the soldiers.

"But their uniforms are for rookies!" Hitomi replied, as she too blocked hits from two soldiers. Darien cursed, as he swung Merle around, a soldier's sword narrowly missing her head.

"They're good enough to compete against Van..." Merle whispered, her blue eyes large and afraid.

"AHH!" Hitomi cried as she drove her sword through one of the soldiers hearts.

"Come on!" Darien commanded, "Merle! Head to the docking bay!". Reaching down quickly, Darien produced a small dagger from his boot, and handed it to Merle, "Just in case," he whispered as he kissed her softly on the crown of her head, "Now go!"

Tears welling in her eyes, Merle nodded and ran as fast as her legs would carry her.

"Stay back to back," Darien ordered, and Hitomi nodded. Hitomi fingered her pendant, feeling the familiar hope flood her.

"Nothing can save you," came a chorus of voices.

They were surrounded.

***

"Aurelia! Where are you?" Van shouted, as rubble and fire enveloped his sight. He had managed to lose her as a crowd of people had rushed past them, desperate to find safety. He saw her. Alone, among a few pieces of broken stained glass. Her normally creamy face was covered in soot, and her dress and hair was in a gruesome state. Van took a step towards his fiancée's direction when something stopped him. Looking to his left, he noticed Darien and Hitomi surrounded by soldiers.

Where to go... his mind questioned. Something deep, deep, down inside him, the thing that made him look in their direction in the first place told him to save Hitomi and Darien.

But the upper hand of his mind told him that Darien was a fine soldier and that he could hold the soldiers off.

Something ate away at Van, something he couldn't understand. His supposed love was all alone, stranded, and danger at any time could strike her. He winced at the image of her heavenly white gown splattered with blood. And visions of Darien blocking blows and making his way to the ship unharmed with Hitomi engulfed his mind.

...He ran towards Aurelia, and she looked up at him with eyes of pure joy.

***

Darien and Hitomi grunted as they tried their best to just hold off the soldiers. They were skilled, and it didn't even look like they were trying.

"They're toying with us," Hitomi said urgently to Darien.

"I know," Darien replied, the sound of steel scraping against his sword sending shivers up Hitomi's spine.

"Darien, we have to escape!" Hitomi yelled, and one of the soldiers laughed.

"You can never escape us, the darkness becomes us," they hissed, and one of the soldiers raised his sword in the air.

Everything was black and white... Tinges of red, however, dotted along the horizon. A dead corpse lay on the ground, and Hitomi tentatively turned the body over.

Darien.

"NO!" Hitomi shouted just as a sword skewered Darien, like a knife through room temperature butter. Hysteria began to take it's toll on Hitomi. She was alone, and she too, would die. Visions of her angel floated lightly in her mind, but then her angel left her...

"You....Will.....Make....His.... Success...." the soldiers chorused as they raised their swords in unison, their cold gazes on Hitomi. Fear flashed in Hitomi's green eyes.

"Oh we won't kill you now," one soldier snickered, "We'll just bring you home and let's see... Play with you," he added with a grin. Hitomi felt her arms weaken, and her sword suddenly became oh so heavy.

"You've been a bad boy and you're not playing with anyone until you learn to play nice," came a voice. All soldiers looked up, and Hitomi's gaze met a beautiful woman in minimal armor, her hair like midnight, her eyes large and brown, her lips garnet red. Her face was barely tanned, lighter than Van's skin, but darker then Hitomi's. Hitomi could see part of the moon goddess, a famous Gaean legend, on the woman's leg, and something else written on her left forearm.

"More toys," the soldier sneered, and he brought his sword down to injure the woman. Unsheathing her sword quickly, the woman blocked the soldier's blow then with a kick knocked him to the ground and pierced his heart.

"What the--" the other soldiers chorused. They raised their swords, and began to attack the woman, while Hitomi crawled over to Darien. He was dead. She wasn't even granted one of those Hollywood deaths where he would sputter out his regrets, and other emotional crap. Gently shutting his open russet brown eyes with her hand, Hitomi gently kissed Darien's right temple and squeezed him lightly.

"I'm sorry," she whispered to him, horror and dizziness fighting for control of her mind.

Turning her attention back to the battle around her, she noticed all the woman had left to face were three soldiers. Slightly taken a back by the woman's mad skill, Hitomi remained kneeling on the ground, her hand clasping the hilt of her sword idly.

"Cros chanos il y no thaxos," one soldier hissed, and the other one cried out in alarm.

"Dos lanios y renez!"

Hitomi noticed the woman's eyes flicker slightly, and one of the soldiers grabbed at her wrist and tore something off that Hitomi hadn't noticed before. A thin gold bracelet.

"Isifile ani treckanos," the third soldier smirked as he ground the bracelet into the ground with the heel of his boot. The woman cursed under her breath.

The three soldiers positioned themselves to attack the woman, and charged at her. Creasing her brow in concentration, the woman span to her right, and blocked off the first soldier's attack, throwing his sword away from him. She turned around sharply, and yelled at Hitomi.

"RUN!"

Hitomi didn't need any more incentive. Leaping up, she followed the woman, towards the direction Merle and Millerna had headed to.

The ship was getting ready to leave, Hitomi could tell by the way the sails were shifting slightly. Betrayal rang through her. Were they really planning to leave with out her? Swallowing the sticky dryness in her throat slightly, Hitomi sprinted faster as she and the woman leaped onto the docking anchors, and rolled into the ship.

The ship shook slightly as they lifted up away from the chaos.

***

Hitomi winced as she rubbed her arm slightly. The friction of the metal floor against her skin as she slid wasn't pleasant.

"Well that was fun," the woman spoke with a lop sided smile.

"....Who are you?" Hitomi asked, her voice a little more rude then she intended. The woman laughed slightly.

"My name is Jade," she replied, brushing the few wisps of hair that had strayed from her ponytail, "And you must be Lady Hitomi".

"Just Hitomi, actually," Hitomi corrected, slightly confused by the woman's presence.

"Let's go and meet the others," she suggested, and Hitomi followed the woman doggedly. How did the woman know her name? How could she act like she had been on this ship, around everyone all her life?

Hitomi's mouth opened slightly as she saw Merle holding Van against the wall, venom in her blue eyes. She looked like she was about to scratch his face, when Jade cleared her throat and Merle released her grip.

"Hitomi!" she cried, tackling the heroine to the floor, "Where is he?" Merle began when Aurelia interrupted.

"Who are you?" she asked, looking Jade up and down.

"I'm Jade," she replied coolly, her stance suddenly different, Hitomi noted. Aurelia's brow furrowed, as she boldly continued to study Jade. Her eyes flickered on the moon goddess tattoo on her leg, trailed up her detailed armor, landing on the writing on Jade's left forearm.

"Carpe Nocturm..." Aurelia read aloud, gasping slightly, "Seize the night??"

"Has a nice ring, doesn't it?" Jade replied sarcastically. Aurelia defensively clung to Van, her lips in a pout.

"Why are you here?" she demanded, unnerved by a stranger's presence.

"To help save the world," Jade answered, a wry expression on her face.

"The world doesn't need saving!" Aurelia replied, her voice slightly hysterical, "What are you talking about?"

"All the pandemonium back there, you think that's nothing?" Jade said, her voice slightly controlled.

"That was just some... Some chaos, some trouble makers--" Aurelia started hotly.

Jade frowned, and interrupted. Who was this princess? "Those were soldiers from the Dantele Empire. Those were no trouble makers. Garnaut has been planning some sort of crap for some time, and he's getting pretty damn far. We need to act now". Aurelia's face twisted slightly.

"Van," Aurelia turned to her fiancé, her expression slightly desperate, "She's trying to make this sound like some sort of war," she pleaded, "She's trying to ruin the peace!"

"This peace was the result of war," Jade spoke, her voice glinting with ice.

"Stop it," Aurelia said through clenched teeth, "Just stop it".

"Stop what?"

"All we need to do is talk to Emperor Garnaut... I'm sure--"

"If we set foot in the Dantele Empire without a plan we'll be killed by those Hybrids," Jade snapped. Van looked up, his interest caught.

"Hybrids?" he questioned.

"Did you notice how skilled those rookie soldiers were? How when you killed them no blood was shed?" she inquired. Van nodded, but an evil voice spoke in his head.

You don't know. You didn't do anything. You ran like a coward, saved your princess and fled. You have no idea what she's talking about.

Van shook his head, and kept his expression clear.

"They aren't human. They were engineered by Garnaut and his sorcerers, they're very advanced soldiers," Jade continued, her expression serious and grim.

"But you took them out easily," Hitomi pointed out.

"I had my bracelet," Jade replied, and for the first time her voice softened slightly, "That bracelet was from my mother. The bracelet of light. It gave me the strength to fight those monsters. They caught on. Again, they're advanced, they knew there had to be a reason I was so good. It's gone now, so that's why we ran, Hitomi," Jade added quietly, "It's why they killed that soldier so easily. If I wasn't mistaken, he was pretty highly ranked".

Merle's head suddenly filled up with a dreadful thudding feeling. A pretty highly ranked soldier... The words rang in the cat girl's ears. Shutting her eyes briefly, she stifled a sob, and choked out, "Hitomi, was it Darien?"

Hitomi's face paled, and she opened her mouth to speak. Her lips shook slightly, but judging from Hitomi's expression Merle didn't need an answer anymore.

"IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT!" Merle screamed at Van, slamming him against the wall. Tears flowed down her face uncontrollably, and hate laced her every word.

"Merle--" Van began, slightly alarmed. However, guilt was chewing him up hungrily like piranhas and their victim.

"YOU SAW THEM! YOU SAW HITOMI AND DARIEN SURROUNDED! And you had to go save your PRINCESS who was in no immediate danger!" she bawled, slamming her fist against Van's chest and sobbing, "HITOMI COULD HAVE DIED! DARIEN -DID- DIE!"

"Merle, it wasn't Van's fault," Aurelia interrupted, trying to soothe the enraged cat girl, "Really--" Aurelia continued, using her training as a lady to her best ability.

"You shut the hell up!" Merle shouted, and Aurelia gasped in shock. "You broke up destiny! You broke up fate! Hitomi and Van were meant to be! It was their love, Princess Aurelia, that saved Gaea in the Great War! Not yours! It was your existence that killed my love"

After retaliating from Merle's comments, the cat girl's words began to sink in. Van and Hitomi? the princess wondered. She threw a discreet glance at the girl from the Mystic Moon.

"You're out of line," Aurelia snapped, refusing to believe the cat girl. Merle raised her hand and slapped Aurelia sharply across the face and stomped out of the room, her eyes red and puffy, her entire being defeated.

"Who do you think you are? Look what you're doing to us, you're wrecking everything!" Aurelia hollered at Jade, who before was looking with remorse at where Merle was standing, but now with ice at Aurelia.

"I'm not wrecking anything," Jade replied calmly, and pink rose in Aurelia's face.

"I know where you're from! Basram!" Aurelia spat, regarding Aurelia's uniform, "You're just the bringer of death!"

"Aurelia," Hitomi warned, but Aurelia merely cried out more.

"Hitomi! She has Carpe Nocturm on her arm! What more do you need to know??"

"Nothing in the world is the way it ought to be. It's harsh and cruel," Jade interrupted, her eyes stone cold, "That's why there's us. Fighters for good. It doesn't matter where we come from, what we've done or suffered, or even if we make a difference. We live as though the world were as it should be, to show it what it can be. You're not a part of that yet. I hope you will be," she added sadly, and with that she left towards the dormitories of the ship.

"Van--" Aurelia began, feeling like a small child, desperate. Why was no one supporting her?

"Not now," he interrupted, leaving her grasp, "You need rest," he said quietly, "Why don't I see you to your room?" he added. Aurelia's blue eyes widened in alarm, and a tear trailed down her smooth cheek. Van kissed her softly on the forehead, squashing any doubts she had down. "This is a shock to us all, we need sleep," he whispered, gently brushing the small of her back.

"You're right," Aurelia nodded, her spirits raised considerably since Jade left the room. They left together, Van comforting his fiancée tenderly.

Hitomi was alone in the room, and she noticed that her wound was still bleeding. Not nearly as much as before, but slightly. He hadn't said good night to her, hadn't looked at her. Had sold her pendant. That hurt. That hurt a lot.

I woke up in a dream today
To the cold of the static and put my cold feet on the floor
Forgot all about yesterday
Remembering I'm pretending to be where I'm not anymore
A little taste of hypocrisy
And I'm left in the wake of the mistake, slow to react
Even though you're so close to me
You're still so distant
And I can't bring you back

AN: Gyah! Done! *clonks head on table* Please review, or I get discouraged!

Van: She actually does, sadly. AND WILL YOU STOP MAKING ME SUCH A JERK!

CxV: You shush *grins* Well, review! Or chapters will never come! Hope you guys like Jade.... Sorry for the major doses of sadness, but as the story goes on there will be happier moments! And again, AIEE! *cowers* Okay, I know what I'm doing for making Aurelia a fool, but I actually have to wait till they do their next confrontation with the Hybrids... Sorry ^^;; Although I made her a bit pissy in this chapter! ^_~ Hehe, ta ta for now!