I'm so very sorry that it's late but I started school right on the week I started this chapter. XP I think I might be getting a cold too but enough of my excuses. ONWARD!

Disclaimer:

LS and Shesta are sitting on a couch both crying.

Shesta: Why are you crying? Sniffle.

LS: I'm crying because I don't own Escaflowne! Why are you crying?

Shesta: I'm crying because I lost my rubber ducky!

LS: ..........

The Blood Stained Mind of a Blackened Heart: Ch 5 A Far Cry

Episode 15

Up in the Vione Dilandau set Kaomi and Shesta down. Kaomi who still had Shesta on her back ran out of the anchorage and to the infirmary. Dilandau climbed out of his alseides and waited for Kaomi's return. Ten minuets past and Kaomi came back into the anchorage. Her head hung low and she was walking slowly.

Dilandau could tell that something was wrong. "What happened?"

"It's Shesta. They say his chances of surviving are minimal."

Dilandau comforted Kaomi. It was the least he could do.

Just then Folken came into the room. "Lord Dornkirk wishes to speak with you."

Dilandau had a feeling that this was not going to be a very pleasant conversation. Both Kaomi and Dilandau followed Folken to a dark room. In the middle of the room was a huge screen with Dornkirk's face on it.

"Kaomi, it is time that I tell you about your past. You were born in a small town called Fanelia. You had two brothers, Folken and your twin brother Van Fanel."

"What?!" Kaomi and Dilandau looked up at the screen horrorstruck.

"Yes you were born into Fanelia's royal family."

"No! That's not true! You're lying!" Kaomi clenched her head as memories of her playing with her brothers flooded into her head. "No!" Kaomi ran out of the room.

"Kaomi!" Dilandau, still in shock instinctively ran after her.

Kaomi stopped running when she came into the anchorage. She walked up to the railing at the edge of the anchorage and looked down.

Finally Dilandau ran into the anchorage but stopped when he saw Kaomi standing on the railing. "Kaomi!"

Kaomi spread her arms and without even glance back at Dilandau she let herself fall off the edge.

"Kaomi!" Dilandau ran over to the railing but when he looked over the edge he didn't see anything. Suddenly a black feather floated down in front of his face. Dilandau looked up to see black feathers falling all around him.

Later that day Dilandau stood at the edge of the anchorage holding a single red rose. "They're all incompetent, Guimel... Dallet... Shesta... Gatti... Viole... where's the glory in dying in a fight like that?" Dilandau tossed his rose over the edge. Suddenly Dilandau had a vision of a little girl crying. He grasped the railing and fell to his knees. "What the..."

The little girl's cries filled his head. "Don't leave me alone!"

"Alone..." Dilandau suddenly felt ill and placed his hand over his mouth before passing out and falling to the ground.

Night fall came. Kaomi sat on top of the Vione and watched as the sun disappeared behind the grassy hills. In her hand she held a wilted violet rose.

"I'm a coward! I can't even kill myself. Who am I kidding? I can't kill myself now! Besides I can't stand the thought of leaving Dilandau alone. Looks like my life is heading in the same direction as this flower." Kaomi took one last look at the dead rose then threw it over the edge.

Episode 16

Kaomi stood in the corner of a dimly lit room. She watched in horror as Dilandau struggled desperately to break free from the straps that held him down to a metal table, surrounded by men in black robes.

"Shesta! Gatti! Dallet! Where are you?! Don't leave me alone!"

One of the men bent over and pulled out a needle. Tears streamed down Kaomi's face. She couldn't stand to watch anymore and left the room. Kaomi walked down the hall and entered the infirmary. She closed the door and sat next to Shesta's bed. Shesta opened his eyes and looked up at her.

"Oh! I'm sorry. Did I wake you?"

"No. The screaming woke me."

Shesta looked up at the teary eyed girl then handed her a handkerchief.

"Thank you Shesta, you're like a brother to me!"

"But I'm not. Van is."

"What? Oh... So you know."

"Yes, and I think Van should know too!"

Kaomi smiled. "Since when have you stood up to soldiers of higher rank?"

"Since I learned that I was going to die."

"Don't say that! If you believe that you'll die than you have no chance!"

Looked up at her and smiled. "I'll remember that."

Meanwhile on the Crusade, everyone sat around and listened to Drydan read from Allen's father's journal.

Suddenly Gadith's voice came from the ships intercom. "Sarge! A Zaibach guymelef is coming towards the ship!"

Van, Hitomi and Allen rushed into the anchorage but it was too late. A black guymelef had already landed inside. Van took a step back and clenched his sword tightly.

Kaomi jumped out of her guymelef and walked up to Van. "I didn't come to fight!"

"How do I know that's true!?"

"I have no weapons!"

Van looked her up and down then loosened his grip on his sword. "If you're not here to fight than what do you want?!"

"It's me, your sister! Kaomi!"

"What!? That's not true! You're lying!"

"I knew you'd say something like that. Here I'll show you that I'm not lying." Kaomi removed her jacket and turned around. Suddenly a pair of huge black wings sprouted from her back.

"Sister... why are your wings black?"

Van, Hitomi and Allen sat down and listened to Kaomi.

"So you've been turned into a shadow demon."

"Yes."

"How?"

"I don't know. I wasn't told that much."

Hitomi looked around at the three as they thought in silence. "What's a Shadow demon?"

"A monster." The three turned and looked at Allen. "Shadow demons resemble humans only they have pitch black skin, claws, fangs and glowing red eyes. Shadow demons are also heartless, solitary creatures that will mercilessly kill anything and everything that gets in its way. Most of the time it was humans that got in there way so shadow demons were slaughtered into extinction eleven years ago.

"I have one more question for you, Kaomi."

Kaomi looked at Van as if to ask him what his question was.

"Why... Why did you join Zaibach?!"

"Up until a few days ago I didn't even know who my parents were!"

"You mean you didn't remember anything about your past?!"

Kaomi nodded her head. "All I remembered was mother's favorite flower..."

Van and Kaomi spoke in unison. "The violet rose."

Once again Gadeth's voice rang through the intercom. "Sarge! We have entered the mystic valley!"

All four of them rushed to the front of the ship.

"This is the mystic valley?"

Everyone looked down at the frozen wasteland below.

"There's nothing down there..."

"What? That's impossible..." Drydan looked down at the journal.

"What's wrong?"

"A page has been torn out!"

"Sarge! It's a Zaibach floating fortress!"

"What?!"

Everyone looked out the window to see the Vione appear in the sky and see Naria and Eriya fly above them.

"Damn! They got above us!"

"Are they trying to force us down?"

Hitomi put her hands together and prayed. "Grandma... show us the mystic valley. Please, show it to us... please, grandma..."

Suddenly a beam of light came down and carried the crusade away, knocking Naria and Eriya away in the process.

Episode 17

The crusade crew soon found that they were now flying over plant life covered ruins of a city.

"That's... the mystic valley."

"Right. The lost capital of Atlantis."

Suddenly Hitomi vanished.

"Hitomi!" Allen stepped forward and disappeared.

"Allen!" Van too stepped forward and was gone.

"Van!" Kaomi took a step forward and like the other vanished.

Hitomi stood amongst the ruins that were once Atlantis. "I've seen this place before. Right... this is the place I saw in the vision I had when Van almost died."

Van opened his eyes and found himself standing in the ruins of a city he once called home. "Where am I? Fanelia!"

A white feather floated down in front of him. Van turned around. "Mother! I want to ask you something... something about Kaomi."

"Van, let me show you something."

Suddenly the ruble around Van began to rebuild itself. Van stood in front of the palace and looked over to see a little girl standing beside him holding a bouquet of Violet roses, waiting anxiously for her brothers to return. Van recognized the girl as Kaomi from eleven years ago.

A red and black butterfly fluttered by Vans face and landed on the Kaomi's bouquet.

"Ooo! Prettyful!"

The butterfly flew off of the bouquet and began to flutter through the streets of Fanelia and Kaomi curiously followed it. She followed the butterfly until she came to the city gates. She looked up at the towering doors and found them to be slightly open. She squeezed through the gates and dropped the bouquet in the process. Kaomi came out the other side of the gate and into a huge field of Violet roses. Kaomi wandered through the field until she noticed that she had dropped her bouquet and began picking a new one. Soon after Kaomi started picking a new bouquet the butterfly she had been following landed on the tip her nose. She smiled.

Suddenly a shadow loomed over the young girl and the butterfly flew away. Kaomi slowly turned around. "Father..."

"But it was not her father who made the shadow. After you and your brother came home and told me that Kaomi was not standing in front of the palace I went to look for her."

Van saw his mother come out of the city gates and into the field. "Kaomi! Kaomi?!"

"The whole city searched for her but all that was found was the bouquet that she was holding and a single shoe found in the field. A few days after your sister disappeared all of the flowers and grass in that field died and haven't grown back since."

Meanwhile present day Kaomi found herself standing in darkness. "Where am I?" Kaomi looked around the darkness and spotted a ghostly figure walking towards her. "Gatti? Gatti!" Several other figures came out of the darkness. "Dallet! Guimel! Viole! Miguel! But you're all..."

"Dead? Yes but we're still here!" Gatti put his hand over Kaomi's heart then held her hand.

One by one the dragon slayers put their hands on hers. "We're here for you!"

"We are all here for you!"

"No matter what!"

A tear rolled down Kaomi's face. "Thank you." Kaomi closed her eyes and felt as if she was falling, she felt the dragon slayers let go of her hand, at that moment her eyes snapped open. She found herself looking up at a blue sky and lying next to a fountain.

"Lady Kaomi!"

"Huh... oh it's you cat girl." Kaomi stood up and a wonderful feeling came over her. She no longer felt alone.

Suddenly a pillar of light came down. Naria and Eriya appeared in the middle of the city.

Escaflowne appeared in front of Naria and Eriya.

"Van!"

Escaflowne stepped forward and raised its sword and at that moment everyone was engulfed in a bright light and carried away.

Kaomi, Van, Hitomi and the crusade crew found themselves back in the barren waist land. Van opened Escaflowne and he was about to climb down when he saw his mother in front of him.

"The power of Atlantis mustn't be reawakened."

Hitomi stared up in aw at the beautiful women. "Van's mother."

Merle looked around curiously. "Where?"

"Don't forget it Van. It's your will that determines Gaea's future. Don't forget it Van." Van's mother gave Van a green energist and disappeared.

Van climbed down from Escaflowne, Ran over to Kaomi and wrapped his arms around her. "I can't even begin to tell you how glad I am that you're alive! After this war is over we can go back and rebuild Fanelia. Your new life starts today."

Kaomi freed herself from Vans grasp. "I can't."

"Why?"

"I have to go back. Master Dilandau needs me."

"You're going back to that horrible place, to that horrible person!?"

"He needs me! I'm all he has left ever since you killed the dragon slayers! If I went with you now he would be left alone." Kaomi went into the crusade and into the anchorage.

"You're crazy if that's the only reason you're going!"

Kaomi climbed up her guymelef and looked down at Van. "Well I guess love makes you do crazy things." Kaomi gave a silent goodbye and began to fly away.

Van ran out of the crusade and climbed Escaflowne but he, Hitomi and Allen were once again picked up by a beam of light before he could even get inside.

LS: So now you know who Kaomi is but don't stop reading because there's more about her past to come! P.s. Prettyful was a word I "borrowed" from my cousin. :p