Woo, sorry for the long wait. ^_^;;  It's this annoying thing that happens with the way I write, I get out the scenes I like first, then I have to write the other stuff, that holds the plot together and develops characters subtly. Damn subtlety.  ^_~

But I finished this part, and I even enjoyed the second half, probably because I was just struck upside the head by the inspiration fairy.  I hope you enjoy, and constructive criticism is always appreciated, as is glowing praise.

So, story:

***

Surrounded by flames, Celena was at the center of a war. The violence rushed around her, roaring in her ears and sweeping everything in its path into chaos. There was an objective: destroy the enemy. She knew this and moved her body accordingly.

It was night. The firelight added to the confusion, and the red tint on everything. There was heat.

Celena turned her melef to skewer another enemy with liquid metal. Once she had the other melef pinned, she incinerated it with her flame thrower. She felt a smile curve her lips. The more she burned, the more the flames licked away at the darkness.  She could feel it all around her, pressing in and trying to crush her.  She spun in a half-circle, immolating enemies and innocent bystanders alike, and putting a wall of fire between herself and the void. She could feel herself laughing—they'd never get her!

Burning things made it impossible for her to think about anything. People were nothing, and she did not care whose side she was on. The darkness would follow her everywhere, and everyone was a destroyer—what did it matter where the fire was?  It was a harsh world, one where she fed her soul to the void to escape it.

But right now, things were on fire, and life was good.

***

One moment, she was asleep, and the next, Celena was awake. She opened her eyes and sat up, to see her brother standing against the wall across from her. There was a wall of iron bars between them, and Allen quickly made his way to stand as close to Celena as he could, going so far as to hold the bars in front of him.

"How do you feel?"  He inquired, looking a bit worse for the wear. That fact made Celena even more worried than she had been at waking up in a cell.

"I'm alright…I feel sort of...fuzzy…Allen, what's going on?"  As she answered, she sidled across the bed to the end that was against the wall of bars and took her brother's hand.

Allen sighed.

"What do you remember last?" he asked softly.

Celena frowned, nothing coming to mind at first.  A fragment of a dream passed her by, but she dismissed it as what it was. Then, she remembered seeing Van on the balcony, watching the stormy sky with him, worrying about what she should say. Then the horrible sick feeling, and then…

Oh gods…

Reflexively, Celena looked away, trying to hide from the bad memory. Just as quickly she looked back at her brother, a stricken look on her face.

"Is Van alright?!"

"Yes, he's fine…a little upset, but he's fine." 

Celena thought of something else.

"Am I in trouble? I mean, there has to be a severe penalty for attacking the king…I don't know what happened, but I never intended to hurt him! It's like I was in a dream…"

"You're not in trouble, not yet. Nobody else knows for sure what's going on, but we have an idea, and we know that you didn't attack Van."

"What do you mean? If it wasn't me….Allen, what happened?"

Allen looked at his sister for a long while, considering.  His face set, and he nodded to himself. Letting out the breath he had been holding, he looked his sister solemnly in the eyes.

"We might be here for a while. Make yourself comfortable."

Allen stepped back to retrieve a chair from further down the corridor, and he positioned himself on it in front of her bed.  Resting his head in his left hand, he stared at the bricks of the cell wall behind Celena's head.

"I didn't want to tell you before, because I thought it might upset you, or cause an episode like what happened today." Allen sighed. "You're a girl, you shouldn't have to deal with things like this….I wanted to protect you." 

He paused, thinking of what to say next. Celena waited patiently.

"I told you a little about the war….I fought in it, and so did Van.  He and I were on the same side, and even though we had…differences, we still became friends.

"On the other side of the war was Zaibach. They were using their technology to invade and conquer the neighboring territories, and they were moving in on Asturia, Freid, and Fanelia. They had very strong forces, thousands of soldiers, airships, advanced melefs, flamethrowers….There was a certain group of soldiers that Van and I fought with the most. There were about fifteen of them, and they all had state-of-the-art guymelefs, and they were all elite fighters. They were the ones that burned Fanelia. 

"The leader of this group, Dilandau, was the best of them, and a very key part of the Zaibach army. He was ruthless, bloodthirsty…

"When you were six years old, you disappeared from the field near our house. Our parents and I searched everywhere, for days, but we couldn't find you. Later, much later, during the war, you wandered back into our house…do you remember?"

Celena was wide-eyed, taking in so much information at once. She shook her head.

"I didn't think you did….anyway, you had come back, and after a while, I discovered that…."

Allen ran a tired hand through his hair, sighing.

"Part of Zaibach's advantage was from technology, I told you. They were very advanced in science and medical areas as well as militarily. They performed experiments on people, probably a lot more than we know about…one of these experiments is what produced Dilandau.

"The person who they experimented on to get Dilandau….was you."

Celena stared. She couldn't understand what her brother had just told her, though she was trying. She had a million questions, but above all that was the certainty that such a thing was impossible. She said as much.

"How do you know that I used to be him? And you said he was a boy…how is that even possible?"

"I don't know how they did it, Celena, I just know that they did, because I saw you turn into Dilandau in the cemetery."  He took hold of her shoulders and forced her to look at him. "If nothing else, I hope my word is enough to convince you of this."

He's serious. He really means this. Could he be wrong? He's an honest man, he's not lying to me, but he could be wrong.  He said he saw me turn into Dilandau, at a graveyard…

***

Flashes of light, blue with clouds, sunlight slanting from behind. A breeze, white stones standing in the ground. Allen's solid presence behind and to the right.   Movement, fluttering, white wings…pretty. Flutter flutter flutter. Up and down and flutter and up and catch!

Gotcha.

Smile. I have the pretty.

Now, something rising up, like bile, something bursting out from inside. Scary, afraid, strong black thing too strong going to get me going to do something going to—

Free.

***

For the second time, Celena woke up in a cell.  This time, no one was around. The little window high in the wall had no light.

She felt horrible, and didn't know why. It took nearly a full minute to remember.

Oh, right. I attacked the king of Fanelia, because there's a monster inside me.  Silly me, how could I forget?

She stood up and paced around the cell a bit. It felt good to stretch her legs.

Celena had walked from the bed, to the far wall, to the bars, to the window, and back to the bed five times when she suddenly felt like she was suffocating. 

These damned skirts!

Reaching behind herself, she managed to unbutton her dress, though not without effort.  Why do they have so blasted many?  She practically tore the offending garment off, and threw it in a pile on the floor.  Now all that was left was her underlinens, consisting of pantaloons and a sleeveless shirt.

Much better.

Heh. If Allen could see her now.

With that thought, Celena deflated.  Sinking to the bed, she sat against the wall with her legs pulled up under her and her head in her hands.

Everything is wrong.  I wish Allen would come back.

She started crying, so she didn't hear Allen until he was in front of her cell.

"Celena! Oh, you look terrible, I knew I shouldn't  have left…"

The girl turned her puffy, tear-streaked face towards her brother. When he enveloped her in his arms, she clung to him and wept all the harder.

"I'm—so—scared. I remember, Allen, I remember the butterfly, in the graveyard, and I—c-could feel him—inside, coming out—"

"Shh, shh, we're going to figure this out, we'll get you a doctor, a scientist, someone who can make him go away."

"You think we can?" Celena sniffled.

"I'll do whatever it takes to get you back to normal."

Allen stood, and lifted Celena upright with him. "Put your dress on. We're leaving."

Thank the gods. She dressed quickly, and followed her brother out of the cell. He paused at the doorway to the rest of the palace, putting the keys back on their wall peg.  Up the stairs, she watched the shadows on Allen's back move as he walked by torches set in the stone walls. As they emerged out into the palace proper, the building changed to wood supports and whitewashed walls. Things were more open aboveground, more peaceful. Shadows were a soft blue.

Celena waited as Allen woke the horsemen, trailing along behind him as he organized their party to return to Asturia and the Schezar estate. It all took less than an hour, but it felt very long and tedious.

I just want out of here.

Finally, the carriage was ready, all their things were packed, and the groggy servants were at their posts. Celena felt like she should be tired too, but her mind kept her wide awake.

No thoughts, just noise.  ….gray, buzzing, fearful…

Could they fix this? It seemed impossible. It felt like there was something gripping her torso, a constant pressure: anxiety. Only one step away from despair, and that step was hope.

"We need to look at the books."

Allen started at Celena's statement. "Books?"

"Father's. You locked the study when I started reading about Zaibach, so I never really found out anything about them, but maybe there's something in those books that will help."

Damn. She had known.  Not that Allen should be surprised, with her mind. He nodded.

"You're right. Once we get back I—we—can start looking through them."

Celena smiled through her worry.  "Thank you, brother."

Allen hugged the girl with one arm, both of them rocking with the movement of the carriage.  She was all he had left, and damned if he was going to lose her again.

***