AN: I got reviews! ::wiggles with happiness::  Special thanks to Serena B, Al, Rai Dorian, and Faraday for reviewing the last chapter almost as soon as it was up. (It really helped with my lazy-ass motivational problems. ^_~) I would also like to thank Rae, for being there to bounce ideas off of, and Cutter, who has been a source of inspiration. 

I still don't own anything.

______________________________________________________________________________

Celena stared at Van.  There was something…..compelling about him. She had to look.

Not to mention that he was handsome, and kind.  It was a different sort of kindness than her brother's, but she could still see it, and liked it.  She had first noticed it during the opening ceremony and celebration feast, but this was the first time she had seen him up close.

They were standing on the balcony of the Fanelian palace.   The day looked to be stormy, with clouds amassing overhead and all around.  The midmorning light shone from behind them, lighting the city-state in a shadowless glow.

She hadn't expected to see him there.  She had just been looking for a way to get outside. For all her begging Allen to go to the celebration, once the novelty wore off she was sorely homesick. All the buildings were different, the people were different, even her brother was different here, more distant and polished. But the sky remained the same as in Asturia, and so every day Celena would look for a new place to be outside for a little while.

Van hadn't seen her yet. She wondered if she should hail him, or curtsy and wait for him to pass, or something else entirely. One of her regrets from the visit was that she was not practiced in court etiquette.  Biting her lip, she fretted about what to do, until Van shifted his weight a little, glanced to the side, and saw her.

The startled boy-king was instantly on his guard. His hand immediately went to the hilt of his sword while he crouched in a fighter's stance. Celena's eyes widened, and she felt her heart beat faster and her stomach clench. What's happening? I feel sick…

She felt extremely light-headed, and had to grab the railing to keep herself from falling, but managed to remain upright.  Van waited a few more moments, but when nothing happened, he withdrew his hand and stood up. He looked wary and confused.

"Celena Schezar, isn't it?" he asked her.

Celena nodded. "Y…Yes, Your Majesty." She might have curtseyed if she didn't think she was going to fall over.

"Ah."  It was little more than a grunt. Wow. Allen wasn't exaggerating when he said Van was gruff.

A long, awkward silence began to stretch between the two.  Celena would have tried to break it, but she didn't feel it was her place to speak before the king.

Or maybe I'm supposed to, if he wants me to? How would I know if he wants me to talk? Gods, this is tense… On top of it all, she still felt like she might faint, or throw up, or collapse in shivers.

She was just about to excuse herself when everything happened at once. Van's eyes widened, and he threw himself forward while drawing his sword. Celena screamed and drew herself closer to the railing, half-crouching, half ducking, and shuddering as her heart raced and her head swam.  It felt like something inside her was breaking, a thick wall she hadn't even known existed—a wall built somehow behind her perception. The shock of being attacked by Van, the sickness, it all battered this wall.  Every piece of it that fell to rubble hurt her.  She cried and clutched her painfully tight chest.

Then, when she thought it couldn't get worse, she felt a darkness rush through the broken wall from her deepest core, wash over her body, and claw its way to her mind. In one, strong burst, it had claimed her, completely. 

With renunciation of control came total silence of perception.   There was no movement, where Celena was, and no more pain. She felt like she was dreaming. In her dream, she saw things from outside her body, and heard things without being there to experience sound.  The things she saw and heard, she experienced dispassionately, from a distance. None of it affected her at all.

Van was not attacking her, it turned out. Behind her body, there were ripples in the air, as a Doppelganger moved. Something glinted, Van dodged, and a throwing knife embedded itself in the floor of the balcony nearby.  In one clean stroke, the king killed the shape-shifter.  His sword came away bloody, and the attacker became visible as it fell to the floor with an audible thud. Van stood with his back to Celena, shoulders heaving, breathing heavily.

Celena saw herself get up.   She saw herself rise with the help of the railing, turn around, and stride towards Van.  She came right up behind him, and leaned in to say something in his ear. The voice was hers but the tone was not.

"Hello, Van.  I've been waiting." 

The king spun around, his features incredulous.  Stepping back, he glared at the person before him. 

"Allen was right....."  he said in astonishment.

"Prepare to die, Van." 

It disturbed Celena how like and also very unlike her voice it sounded. She watched in detached horror as her body smiled a jackal smile, blue eyes burning, and threw itself at the king.

A primal scream tore from her throat that belonged entirely to the darkness now controlling her movements.

Van was fast, but not fast enough. Not-Celena feinted a grab for Van's throat and at the last instant changed into a low kick to sweep his feet out from under him.  He fell hard, stunned for a moment, and the girl grabbed his sword.  She cackled triumphantly.  Celena's body was weaker than Van's was, however, and the king was able to wrench the weapon away.  Kicking his attacker away to get some space, Van righted himself and at the same time forced Not-Celena up against the wall of the palace.  She screamed in rage and thrashed violently, landing a blow to the boy's kidneys.  All Van did was grunt.  Lunging in close, he successfully pinned her, and held his sword to her throat so that she couldn't move.

"GUARDS! ALLEN!" Van bellowed.

His eyes burned so fiercely that Celena felt it in her dream-state. His anger and hatred burned a path through the haze to seize her, and she could not look away.  Oh gods….. A sick sense of realization swept through her. It was not a dream anymore. Not even a nightmare. It was too real, even though she had no control and existed in a swath of sensory depravation.  She cowered in her mind before the harsh violence of what was happening, transfixed by Van's pain even as the darkness sneered with her face and spoke with her mouth.

"This is far from over. I will kill you."

The sword at Celena's throat pressed a little harder. From a distance, she could feel it getting harder to breathe.

"If you weren't Allen's sister, I would kill you."

.He's in so much pain…What's going on?!

All the darkness did was smirk.  Celena thought it might start to say something else, but guards rushed in, along with Allen.

"Van! What is the meaning of this?!"  Allen was angry.

Still glaring for all he was worth, the king answered with one word.

"Dilandau."

Allen inhaled sharply, and his features changed from angry to still stone, and spoke to the guards. "Seize the girl, make sure she can't move, but DO NOT hurt her in any way."

If surprised, the guards didn't show it. After a nod from Van, two of them moved forward, each grabbing an arm.  Van didn't completely move his sword until Celena was securely in the grasp of the two burly men, arms pinned behind her back.  The thing inside her chose that moment to struggle, violently.  Celena winced internally as her body lashed out at the guards and her voice yelled wordlessly in angry frustration.  The mental cloak was thinner now, she could feel the edges of sensation leaking through to where she was…..or was she closer to the outside? Still, she didn't have control yet, and the darkness used her only free limbs to kick one of the other guards in the groin. The man fell to his knees, and two more guards rushed in, this time wrapping strong arms around the girl's legs. Despite the ferocity of her struggles, she could not get free. 

The thing inside her screamed.

Van, Allen and the rest of the guards had stepped back a little. The king glanced at Allen.  "The cells?"

Allen didn't even pause before nodding. "Make it as comfortable as possible without compromising security."

At a gesture from Van, the guards carried the girl inside. He and Allen followed silently, and the other guards were dismissed.

As they made their way through the newly rebuilt Fanelian palace, Celena stared numbly at the ceiling. She watched it pass by, change every now and then, and heard the sounds of the guards' footsteps underneath her. The firm grips they had on her legs, arms, shoulders and waist faded into the all the other sensory noise in her head. There was plenty of it, generated by the dark energy that claimed her mind. Celena floated in a sea of someone else's frustration and blind rage.  It washed over her, insulation from the world.  She was not thinking about anything.

She floated in her mind as they carried her down the corridors. She noted a brief, sharp prick in her neck after a while, and did not care.  The ceiling was white plaster. The soldiers continued moving her, and the last thing she saw was a gray stone ceiling, and her brother leaning over her. He might have been covering her with a blanket.

Everything let go, and she slept.

***