Disclaimer: Escaflowne does not belong to me. All characters not in the series were original ones created by myself.

Descendants of Escaflowne

"Harumi." The girl felt more than heard her name whispered, as the lips of the person speaking were currently occupied, pressed against her own. She pushed away a curl out of her eyes and sighed happily (or tried to anyway, though she ended up doing something completely different [but not unpleasant]).

Any passerby would have taken them for just an ordinary pair of lovers, who had left the festivities to steal a kiss in the courtyard (well, technically to make out in the courtyard, but that doesn't sound quite as romantic). No one would expect that one was foreign royalty and the other was from the Mystic Moon. That in truth it was like something right out of a fairy tale. Or a romance novel anyway.

Taking the initiative (Chid was still quite new at this type of human interaction), she moved closer, threading her fingers through his hair and breathing in his sweet sense. She was very fortunate that the people of Freid believed in daily ritual cleansing. Her cousin did not seem to have fared as well (Although Hitomi had gotten used to that a long time ago). She closed her eyes and whispered his name. "Chid."

"Celena!" He got up, knocking Harumi to the ground, just in time to see his aunt scurrying into the forest as if her life depended on it. "Where the heck is she going?"
Harumi frowned, irritated that so romantic a moment was ruined, and then shrugged. "Don't know, but if I were her, I wouldn't be running into the forest right now. All those trees, and it looks like it's going to rain any minute. If there's a storm…" She glanced up at the sky. There wasn't a single rain cloud; yet it was so dark it looked as if it were night. She knew she couldn't have lost track of that much time. "Is there an eclipse today?" she wondered aloud, searching the heavens for any sign of the sun (even though, if it were an eclipse, that would've been the worst thing to do). "What the-?"
Chid looked up and moaned. "Oh shit."

"Aahhhh!" The quiet chatter of the room was broken by an earth-shaking scream, courtesy of guess who.

"Oh, what's that old bat griping about now?" Hitomi complained, glaring over at the Lady Avalea. If she was scary looking before, she was even more horrific now. The noble's white hair almost stood completely on end. Her already pasty white complexion was the color of a brand new sheet of paper; her big mouth was opened wider than seemed possible. She pointed out the window with a wrinkled old finger.

Mildly curious, all in the room turned their attention to her, figuring they could at least get a laugh at her expense. No such luck, as all they saw was darkness outside, and nothing at all funny.

"There there dear. It's just getting late, that's all. No need to fuss about it." Her husband comforted her, embarrassed by his wife's display (though he really ought to have been used to her insanity by now). As he said this, Hitomi automatically glanced at her watch, Harumi's watch actually. It was gold and fancy, and that was enough justification for wearing it with her wedding gown. She liked to have at least something from Earth on her at all times, whether it was a watch or a pager, or anything for that matter that had to do with modern technology. Now, as best as she could, she had tried to coordinate it to Gaean time. At that moment, it read 5 o'clock. On a summer evening, like that one, darkness wasn't the norm. But she still dismissed it, not wanting to think about anything bad. "It's probably just a storm," she said confidently. "Nothing to worry about." But the Fanelians didn't seem very reassured.

"It could be an eclipse. That's a bad omen. Could mean that the wedding is doomed," said one of the royal advisors, a conservative who did not like Hitomi at all.

"No, it's the curse of the Mystic Moon!" Another crowed, causing a hush to fall on the room before-

"Poppycock! That's just a myth." Allen rolled his eyes, and taking his knight in shining armor roll, went to check it out to appease the "damsel" in distress. He stuck his head out the window.

"Well, what do you see?" Dryden asked impatiently.

Allen turned around slowly, his face the color of white marble. "The gods help us all."

"Is it just me, or is anyone else having a sense of déjà vu?" Dryden joked, producing scowls on all of his friends' faces.

"Hm, I wonder." Millerna frowned, grabbing her husband by the collar roughly to make sure he didn't attempt anything stupid like the last time. "If you hurt yourself, I'm not sewing you up," she hissed softly in his ear.

"Someone didn't have enough to drink today," he muttered. Millerna let go for one second and smacked him on the back of his head.

Allen normally would have laughed at that (though they were friends, Dryden still got on his nerves a little bit after all these years), but today he felt like being the peacemaker. "Come on you two, this is no time to be arguing, if this is really what we think it is."

"You're not really sure it's that?" Hitomi asked fearfully, afraid to say the word aloud, lest it be true. "Maybe it really is an eclipse this time. Or maybe it's going to rain."

Her new husband shook his head, bursting her bubble. "No, thanks to all the new Zaibach technology we got, we're pretty good at predicting those kinds of things. But I suppose they could have made a mistake, so we should go outside and check it out, just in case. After you," Van kidded. He handed Dryden his sword- as if that alone would do much good.

The merchant's face suddenly became five shades paler. As Millerna was safe for the moment, he was not in the mood for heroics. The weapon would serve him even less than it would the others- he was an awful swordsman. He'd be more likely to get hurt himself than the other way around. You could see why his wife was worried.

Allen shook his head at Van. "This is a really bad time for you to get a sense of humor," he said to the king solemnly.

Hitomi made a face at all three of them, exasperated that they were still standing around talking and not doing anything. "Oh, I'll go!" she huffed. "You boys can take care of the kids." As soon as she said the words, she automatically stopped in her tracks, though she hadn't taken a single step. "Oh no! The kids!"

"What the fk is that?" Harumi exclaimed, staring at the giant fortress that loomed over them in the sky.

Although Chid wasn't sure of the meaning of that particular expletive, he understood the sentiment. "It's a Zaibach floating fortress," he explained, remembering the device all too well. Needless to say, it was not a pleasant memory. "But Zaibach doesn't have any more of those. Or it shouldn't at least. But we've had a treaty for 15 years, why attack us now?"

Harumi shrugged. "How am I supposed to know?" she asked, trying to sound casual. In truth, Chid's words worried her. "In any case," she added, as something had just occurred to her, "the one person who might know is Celena."

The duke shook his head, frowning. It bothered him that Harumi suspected his aunt, though of course it made sense. If anyone in Fanelia would have any idea, Celena would, involved or not. Still… "No," he said finally. "She looked pretty shocked when we saw her. And no one can pretend to be that upset. No, she-"

"Damnit, why is that thing just standing there?" Harumi interrupted, not caring that she was being rude to royalty- it was a time of crisis, and sometimes she let her mouth get the best of her. "Why won't it attack? Or make demands? Something instead of just- hovering- like that." She shuddered.

Chid took note of this and slipped his arm around her shoulders. "They're probably trying to scare us. They're just playing with us." His voice was filled with disgust, but mixed with sadness. It didn't take a genius to know that he was thinking about what they had done to the previous duke. Harumi snuggled against him, comforting him the only way she knew how, though it in no way could make the pain of his beloved stepfather's death go away. He squeezed her briefly before releasing her, his face determined.

"Come on," he said, taking her by the hand and leading her back toward the castle. "Let's find out what the hell is going on."

Celena ran through the forest faster than she ever had, as a man or a woman. Her heart pounded in her chest, feeling as if it might explode with fear. She should've known something was coming; her dream must've been a warning. Some good that did her- she could've been prepared for this. Her friends needed her; she had failed the Dragon Slayers, she refused to fail these good people too. But no- she had been stupid and ignored the dream, though she'd had precognitive dreams before. It was one of the beneficial after effects of the work of the sorcerers, who knew why. She wasn't nearly as adept as Hitomi, of course, but it had gotten her out of scrapes before.

Soon, exhaustion made her slow to a walk, and she was able to think clearer. The dreams hadn't shown her anything that hadn't already happened, that hadn't haunted her for years before. And why would the Dragon Slayers appear in a vision of the future? They were dead, every single one of them. There was no way she would ever see them again, so why? She would soon find out.

Her intentions had been to sneak onto the Vione somehow and kill whoever it was before they could hurt her friends. She had no scruples about murder- heaven knew she had done worse and for less noble reasons. All she had as a weapon was a little knife; but she could steal a sword, which she still knew how to use. Everything else depended pretty much on luck. It wasn't as if she had taken the time to plan this beforehand; it had only appeared a half an hour ago at most. But she would kill them, that fact was certain. And then the enemy came to her.

"What are you looking at?" Mia asked curiously, trotting over to Nikki when she didn't return right away. Tatiana followed, literally on the cat-girl's tail.

"Up there," the little girl pointed. "It's a floating castle! Just like the one Aunt Hitomi talked about in the stories." It took a second for the enormity of what she had just said to sink in. "Uh oh," she added, in a way that might have been cute, had she spilled a glass of milk, instead of seeing something that could mean the death of them all. The other girls stared at her, not needing to know what she meant. They had heard the story from their parents too. It took only another minute for them to scream and run, confusion making them head for the forest, toward the floating fortress.

They didn't go very far; instead they ran smack into two pairs of legs. "Oomph." Nikki's scream caught in her throat when she heard her cousin's voice.

"Nikki!" Harumi picked the child up and squeezed her tightly. "Are you okay?"
"Uh huh," she whimpered in the girl's shoulder. Tatiana and Mia clung to Chid, who patted their backs simultaneously.

"We'd better warn Van and the others," he said, once the children were calmer. But before they could take a single step, the floating fortress finally reacted and they froze in horror. From within the Vione, one of Dornkirk's never used weapons- a laser like machine powered by energists- was being controlled by someone, or something that they couldn't see. But they could hear the device charging up, even from where they were standing. And then it fired, right at the castle, at the royal banquet hall, where all their friends and family were celebrating, oblivious to the danger that was about to befall them.