Silent Storm Chapter 1: You Never Know, an escaflowne fanfic

Call it boredom if you must, but once I thought the vague idea for this story, I realized… there were so many fun possibilities in store! So, in an attempt to be original, here I go…

What ever happens to Gaddes, the much-loved but easily-forgotten leader of Allen's crew of raucous sailors, at the end of the series? An in-depth examination of the future of a character who never seems to get the attention he deserves…

Silent Storm

Chapter 1: You Never Know

The pillar of light was visible from almost everywhere in Fanelia, catching the attention of nearly all the people. Some waved, some called goodbye, and others just solemnly watched the lone figure of a young girl ascend into the heavens. She winked out just as the light faded abruptly, and the skies were as they had once been.

Most still stood transfixed by the resounding image of Gaea's savior rising in the sky, including the members of the Crusade. Several moments passed, until the silence was brutally shattered by a loud voice:

"Stop staring, you slime bags, and start the ship already!"

The whole crew immediately scurried to their own tasks, some of the younger ones showing their chagrin on their faces. Gaddes stood with his hands on his hips, watching the movements of his crew with an approving look on his face. By the time Allen came back from his sojourn to his mother's grave with his long-lost sister, the ship would be prepped and ready to go to wherever their captain wished to go next. All the repairs had been made with the typical efficiency of the crew, and the Crusade should run like it was brand new.

He scratched his bristly chin idly and wondered where they would be going. So far he hadn't been able to guess his boss's intentions. Perhaps to Freid, to check on the young ruler, King Chid. Or maybe to the ruins that were now Zaibach.

Wherever they were going, it was surely going to be nowhere near the grand palace of Asturia.

Movement flickered beyond his vision, and he turned to see who it was. Nodding to the just-arrived Allen, he said, "Ship's ready, Captain."

Allen smiled faintly, his eyes shadowed by his sadness at the girl's departure. "I'm going to miss Hitomi."

Gaddes shrugged nonchalantly. "Yeah, we all will, I guess," he said honestly.

Allen brushed back his blonde hair from his face. "We need to head to the Palas in Asturia first," he stated.

After giving the order to the men with explicit directions not to slack off, Gaddes returned to his captain's side, trying to conceal his surprise. What was the boss trying to do, make himself suffer more? "What for?"

"Celena needs some help in… in growing up. She doesn't remember anything of her time as Dilandau. She, in essence, has a five-year-old mind in a sixteen-year-old body. I can't teach her everything she needs to be a lady. At the palace in Asturia she will receive the best training."

"I haven't seen her today. She's on the ship, right?"

"Yes, in the room across from mine. She's been having nightmares lately, so she's resting for now." Allen paused for a minute. "I wonder how she will handle all the men around her…"

Gaddes' mouth twisted in a wry grin. "Considering she was one for a while, I'm sure she'll fit in just fine." At the look on Allen's face, his grin quickly disappeared. "I mean, I'll make sure the men don't do anything to scare her," he recovered.

Allen nodded slightly, and then looked out the view port once more, deep in thought.

Gaddes ventured a question that he wasn't certain the boss would take well. "Are you sure it's a good idea to go to Asturia?"

Blue eyes slanted back towards Gaddes. "Why not?"

"Well, with the princess and all…" He sensed he had trod on forbidden ground, but he figured since he had already started, he might as well finish the thought. "Won't it be awkward being around her since she's married now?"

"That's no reason for relations to be severed, now is it?"

Gaddes propped his shoulder against a bulkhead and crossed his arms. "C'mon, Boss, don't pull that vague bullcrap on me. I know what was going on, and I'm just wondering if you'll be okay with seeing her married."

"Well, it's not like I really have a choice," Allen stated bluntly. "I'll have to be okay."

"There's nowhere else to send her that won't cause problems for you?"

"Eries is beginning a diplomatic mission to set up a new government in Zaibach, which will hopefully prevent another wide-spread war. But I trust Millerna explicitly with Celena's tutoring. She'll know how to make Celena into a proper lady. My personal problems don't concern my sister's well-being."

Gaddes raised an eyebrow skeptically, but then shrugged. "Alright, then. If you say so."

Allen glanced at his second-in-command tiredly. "You are extremely fortunate that you don't have these problems, Gaddes. You have no idea…"

The dark-haired man grinned sardonically. "Watching you gives me all the idea I'll ever need, Boss."

Gaddes found Allen on the deck of the ship, the wind blowing his long blonde hair back away from his face. He hesitated for a moment, not wishing to intrude upon the knight's solitude. Watching his boss sympathetically, he silently thanked whatever God was above that he was spared the numerous problems Allen perpetually dealt with in the aspect of women. First he falls for a princess who's betrothed to another, and then he falls for her younger sister, who likewise is soon after betrothed as well. Then he goes after a Seeres who ends up falling in love with the young king of Fanelia. Gaddes didn't know what his boss was doing to get in such messes, he was only glad he wasn't performing the same mistakes. Gaddes' relationships with women had been pretty simple… he hadn't misled them in the least. If there was ever a misunderstanding, it would be on their side, not from something he had done.

Sure, some said it was a shallow way to live, but it's not as if he went about from town to town womanizing whatever female happened to be susceptible. If one caught his fancy for a while, well then, he wasn't above a little fling every now and then. But never more.

Not that he didn't occasionally want more, of course. But his lifestyle didn't much allow for any lasting contact with a female. Besides, he had never met one that had really made him want to settle down.

That was the plain truth of it, if he would ever admit it. He just hadn't found the right girl. And he suspected he never would. Mainly because he had met most of the different kinds of girls that there are in Gaea everywhere he had traveled, and none of them had sparked his interest for any lasting amount of time. But some people were doomed to lead their lives alone, and Gaddes suspected that that was his lot in life.

Enough with the philosophical thinking. It was enough to make a man go crazy.

"Hey, Boss!"

Allen turned toward his voice, eyebrows uplifted in question and face carefully guarded.

"Supper's ready, if you'd like to know."

He nodded, not moving from his spot.

Gaddes raised a curious eyebrow. "What's wrong?"

"It's just… Celena." Allen shrugged slightly. "I can't seem to communicate with her very well. I can speak with her, and I know she loves me, and she knows I love her, but beyond that… I just can't understand her."

"Well, she is a woman, even if she has the mind of a five-year-old," Gaddes quipped.

Allen glared at him briefly. "I meant I can't understand her, as in, she won't talk to me. In fact, she barely talks at all. And I want to help her, but I can't find a way to do it."

"Why won't she talk to you?"

"I wish I knew." Pulling back the bangs from his forehead – It almost annoys me to watch him doing that all the time. I can't imagine actually having hair that long... – he said, "Could you bring her to the dining hall for me? I'll have a table for us; you can reassure her of that."

Nodding in acquiescence, he said, "Aye, Boss." To himself he said, Of course. I'm the babysitter.

With certainty he strode through the many halls towards Allen's room, knowing his way around the ship as if he had been born in the thing. He grumbled half of the way, and then decided that complaining wasn't worth his time, and he might as well get used to this new role he'd have to play on the ship. Wonderful.

Knocking on her door lightly, he said, "Celena? It's Gaddes."

The door opened slightly after a moment, and a fair head poked out questioningly.

"Your brother wants you to come to supper."

She nodded easily, and stepped out of the room, looking to Gaddes to lead the way.

As she walked beside him, he couldn't help but note that she was wearing a man's white button-up shirt – probably one of Allen's – and trousers. In fact, he couldn't remember having seen her in a dress ever. Not that he'd seen her all that often since she'd become a girl, anyway. But her choice of attire confused him somewhat. She wasn't Dilandau anymore, right? So why would she want to revisit that time in her life, even in a way that was so insignificant?

"You don't like dresses?"

She shook her head in negative, effectively answering his question and halting the conversation.

After waiting a bit for a verbal response which never came, Gaddes said, "So, you like it here on the ship?"

She shrugged with a faint smile tugging on her lips.

He tilted his head to look down on her. "You haven't gotten lost here yet, have you?"

Celena shook her head again.

Gaddes walked along for several long, silent moments until he stated dryly, "Make sure you're not this talkative with the men, or they might try to lock you in your room."

Her smile blossomed fully on her face as she looked up at him, and he couldn't help but smile lopsidedly back at her.

"You make sure you eat enough, okay?" he said as they neared the dining area. "Being sick on the ship, especially from malnutrition, ain't that pleasant of an experience, I can tell you that."

She just nodded to him.

"And be nice to Allen," he added as they entered the room. "He's had a tough time lately."

She raised her eyebrow as if to say, "Don't worry about it," before heading across the room to sit with her brother.

Gaddes scratched his head as he watched Allen greet Celena with a peck on the cheek and pull out her chair for her in a very gallant, very 'Allen' manner. Gaddes figured Allen had a point when he said Celena was hard to communicate with. He mentally wished his boss the best in figuring out his estranged sister. God knew he'd need it with a girl like her.

After casual conversation wherein he had done most of the talking, Allen finally gave in to the irritant that had been plaguing his mind the whole dinner. "Celena, what is the matter? Couldn't you at least try wearing a dress for a while?"

She silently shook her head, staring down at her half-eaten meal as soon as the topic surfaced.

"What kind of a lady will you be if you persist in dressing in trousers all the time?"

She didn't respond at all to that question, merely placed her fork on the table.

In the silence Allen heard some bawdy snickering from a table across the room, where several of his men sat staring in Celena's general direction. Were they ogling his sister like she was some piece of meat in a store window? Allen could feel his anger heat as his suspicion grew. They certainly wouldn't be looking at anything else in that manner, would they? Certainly not in this direction. Then his suspicion must be true. And that conclusion was the last straw for Allen in a day that continued to get worse.

"Gaddes!"

His second-in-command – who happened to be sitting at the next table over – started slightly, but dutifully responded, "Yeah, Boss?"

"Take Celena back to her room," Allen muttered coldly as he started towards the group of men at the table.

Allen's parade-marching form did not go unnoticed by the men at the table, who visibly paled as they grew as silent as his sister. "We weren't doin' nothin', Cap'n," Rio said hastily when no one else volunteered to speak. He stood up from the table, his hands making nervous gestures in the air. "We was just wonderin' why a pretty thing like that would be dressing in men's breeches and such, is all."

Allen leveled a condemning glare on each man at the table, and one by one they withered as the cerulean gaze passed over them. The knight measured each frost-bitten word carefully and concisely. "If anyone of you ever looks in Celena's direction like that again…"

Gaddes exited the room with his charge before he was able to hear the ultimatum Allen was about to give the men. Sheesh. Talk about a protective older brother. Although, knowing the entirely-male crew of the Crusade like he did, Gaddes supposed the blonde's paranoia wasn't entirely unfounded.

Even though her face was completely shuttered, the dark-haired man could tell by her stiff body and brisk gait that Celena was upset over something. He lengthened his stride to keep up with her, and as if noticing him for the first time, she glanced to the side and said, "I can go alone."

Her soft, light voice startled him for a moment, and she took advantage of his distraction by increasing her speed.

"Hold on," he said dumbly, still faintly surprised by her voice. It was by far the most feminine thing about her. "No," he said after processing the actual words that she had spoken. He had already caught up to her. "No," he repeated as he gently took her arm, "you're not going anywhere alone. If you were my sister, I wouldn't want you walking around this ship alone with all those men around, either."

As they neared her room, she eyed him speculatively, as if trying to gauge his own trustworthiness.

He chuckled a little at her expression as he opened the door for her without ceremony. "Don't worry, you have nothing to fear from me, little one. I respect your brother too much to hurt someone he loves, and I most definitely do not get myself into problem situations like he does, either."

He saw a small smile finally curve the corners of her lips as he closed the door. Before it clicked shut, he could've sworn he heard "You never know" in that sweet, angelic voice.

Had she just spoken again?

He stared at the door for a good long moment.

Nah.

Turning, he strode down the hall in the direction of the helm.

Hope this was somewhat interesting. The story will become more exciting, I promise you. Oh, the plans I have…
Reviews give me an idea whether this story will be worth it, so if you feel led to let me know… drop me a line, would ya?
-wink

EDITED Thanks to Ron and his Sakura for giving me those little facts… I haven't actually seen the series in a while, and so the thoughts didn't even occur to me… little things, but I hate even messing those up. So thanks to them!!