Van woke with a start. There was a sudden silence in the room as the men around the table looked at him, most with compassion, a few with annoyance. He'd fallen asleep in the middle of a war council…again.

He couldn't seem to remember a time when he wasn't constantly listening for the horns that announced an attack, or waking up in the middle of the night to attend an emergency war council to discuss a plan to exploit the latest enemy weakness that they had just discovered. He was one of army's main weapons with his Escaflowne and was usually in the front line fighting. All that work tended to tire you out and he did almost twice as much as anybody else. Still, he bore it all without complaint, almost rebelliously, in fact. It was as if he were trying to prove to the world that he could stand whatever it threw at him.

Folken stopped his explanation of his newest battle strategy for a moment and looked at his younger brother. "Van?" he asked. "Are you okay?" His expression showed his concern but knew that his younger sibling would have none of it, nor would he believe that Folken did not have any ulterior motives up his sleeve.

"Yeah," said Van tersely. "I just have to get some air. Continue on without me."

Folken looked as if he wanted to say something more, but seemed to decide against it. Instead, he nodded and said, "I'll have Allen explain it to you later."

Van nodded and left the room. Even after Folken had proved his loyalty over and over with his brilliantly thought out tactics and inside information from the Zaibach, earning him the respect and trust of all the other generals and leaders of the Fanelian army. Van, however, held back. He saw the need for Folken in their camp, but he still couldn't forgive him for the things that he'd done. Their relationship was purely professional, never any extra words exchanged. Folken sighed and returned to explaining his plan to the others.

Van went into a small side garden used mainly for growing herbs and spices. He sat down on an overturned flowerpot. He rubbed his eyes tiredly and ran a hand through his hair. Bags seemed to have taken up a permanent residence under his eyes and he hadn't shaved for three days. The lines around his eyes and mouth were deeper and his hair had lost its former gloss. He was underweight and malnourished. All in all, he looked like a complete train wreck, but that wasn't what was bothering him at the moment.

He hadn't thought about her for years. Why now? It was just a dream, but he somehow felt that it was something more. She'd definitely grown. Her face had grown longer and a bit slimmer, making her look more mature than innocent, but her eyes were still wide and dreamy, like that of a young child. She seemed well, her noted, but he couldn't help thinking that something about the way she carried herself seemed sad. He shook the thought off. It was just a selfish hope that she would reject her home and return to his side. Besides, something as obscure as that would be impossible to tell from the few dream-moments that he'd seen her for.

He believed it to be real. Something about the quality of the dream was just different. He knew that it had really happened, but that didn't explain why. For three years, he'd consumed himself with winning the war, working himself to exhaustion so that his nights were dreamless and there was never time in a day for frivolous thoughts. It had worked up until just then.

He looked up at the sky as if searching for some sort of answer and seemed to finally notice it for the first time in at least a year. It was a nice day and the small patch of sky that he could see through the high garden walls was clear and blue. As he watched, however, clouds crowded in and obscured his view. They came gradually, in wisps at first. Before he knew it, everything had gotten darker and a small raindrop landed on his nose.

He got up with a sigh and wiped the drop off. Dusting himself off, he gave one last glance at the darkening sky before heading back inside.

&&&

Hitomi woke to a large drop of water in her eye. Groaning, she wiped it away and opened her eyes. The first thing that she did was look around her to get her bearings. She found, with surprise and disappointment, that she was still on the track and it had become pitch black outside.

As the rain began to come down harder, she got up, dusted herself off, and began to make her way home in the pouring rain, puzzling over what had happened. Was it a dream? Or maybe a vision. Maybe she had just imagined it all.

She was so caught up in her thoughts that she didn't notice the police car in front of her house until she was almost upon it. Two officers stepped out as she approached. She couldn't see their features very well through the rain, but she made out a tall, hulking figure with a large mustache. His partner was a mulatto with a much smaller build.

"What's going on here?" she asked when she got close enough.

"Are you Hitomi Kanzaki?" asked the mulatto officer.

Hitomi nodded. "Yes," she answered incase he couldn't see. "Is something wrong?" She was starting to feel uneasy. What could a couple of police officers want with her?

"Perhaps we'd better go inside," the officer said. His partner remained silent and watchful, not quite seeming the talkative type.

This made Hitomi even more nervous and she fumbled with her key as the policemen waited. Stepping inside, she took off her muddy shoes and drenched jacket, hanging it by the door. She offered the officers a seat and asked if they'd like anything.

"Actually, I think you'd better sit down, Miss Kanzaki," the officer said gently.

"O-okay." She took a seat on the couch, watching the two policemen nervously. The same officer that had been speaking so far cleared his throat hesitantly.

"I'm very sorry, but there's been an accident…"

Hitomi recalled little of what happened next. When she thought back on the event, all she'd remember was an overwhelming numbness seeping over her and snippets of the officer's words.

A plane crash…engine malfunction…middle of the ocean…no survivors…very sorry…

Some time later, she realized that she was still sitting on the couch and the sun was just peaking over the horizon. The rain had stopped and a new day was beginning.

Feeling as if she should get up and do something, she went over and locked the door. The policemen had left some time ago, though she couldn't recall actually seeing them go.

She stood there in the doorway and couldn't figure out what she was supposed to do next. She was still overwhelmed by that strange numbness. She knew that she should be crying or screaming. She knew that, in a single second, she'd lost her entire family. She saw it all clearly, in a cruelly logical sense. She had to get a job, quit college perhaps. She would need to move out and getting a smaller apartment.

She knew how she should have been reacting and wondered vaguely why she wasn't. But she couldn't even set about what she thought she had to do. Instead, she turned and headed up the stairs to her room. Flopping down on the bed, she stared at the ceiling with that same feeling of emptiness for a few minutes, thinking of absolutely nothing. Her mind was blank and it seemed like too much of an effort to find something to think about.

Eventually, she drifted off to sleep. Her dreams were troubled, but there was nothing specific. It was more like a jumble of emotions that berated her from all sides. When she woke, it was still with the same nothingness. There was an underlying heaviness in her chest, but she chose to ignore it.

She got up and noted that she'd fallen asleep in her jogging clothes and they were still damp from the rain. Stripping them off, she ran a hot shower for herself.

&&&

It was not until later that day, when she went to get her backpack out of her car to do some more studying that what happened finally hit her. She had opened the door and found a small slip of paper inside that she'd put there earlier as a reminder. On it was the flight number and arrival time of the plane that her family had taken. She was supposed to go pick them up at the airport, but she never would.

Realization hit her like a flying sack of potatoes. It suddenly became hard to breathe. It felt like the air had been sucked from around her. Her head spun and she felt a sob escape from her. With that, the dam inside her broke and the tears flooded out, her sobs uncontrollable. She cried until she had no tears left and then fell asleep, exhausted.

When she woke again, it was dark. She was sore from falling asleep in her car and her face was crusted with dried tears. Her head seemed to clear a bit, though the loss still weighed heavily upon her chest, like a giant weight that got heavier every time she thought about it.

She went inside and washed her face, forcing her thoughts away with an effort. She knew with certainty that she couldn't go on living here. She considered moving to the states with Yukari and Amano, but knew that she would only be a burden to them. There was only one other place that she could go

Turning off the faucet, she dried her face. She hurried into her room and grabbed her old duffel bag, stuffing it with two sets of clothes, her CD player, and some toiletries. She hesitated before putting a framed picture of her family in on top of it all. She then reached under the bed and pulled out a dusty old box. It was a plain wooden box made of mahogany colored wood with a glossy finish underneath the dust. She brushed the top of the box off and opened it slowly. Inside was her pendant. The stone had gone cold and lifeless after that night, but now, it seemed to her to hold a different sort of gleam on its smooth, pink surface. It didn't glow, but there seemed almost to be an expectant air about it. She slipped the silver chain on around her neck and closed the box, returning it to its position under her bed.

She was ready to go. Sitting down at her desk, she wrote a quick letter to Yukari, explaining that she would be going away for a while and telling her not to worry. She folded it quickly and stuffed it in an envelope with Yukari's address on it. Grabbing her bag and taking one last look around the house, she left it and all remnants of her former life behind. There was no turning back for her anymore.

At the end of her driveway, she put the letter into the mailbox and raised the little red flag to indicate that there was mail.

She got into her car and drove to her old middle school, parking outside the hole in the fence. She left the keys in the car and pushed aside the branches that covered the opening. She crawled through first and dragged her bag after her.

When she reached the track, she hesitated somewhat. What was she supposed to do now? The last time, Van had come and taken them back with that energist. Now she was all by herself. She stood there for a moment, perplexed. The pendant, though different, still refused to glow for her. It remained dull despite all her efforts. She was beginning to have second thoughts when she saw a light growing in the sky. It came slowly, at first, as if hesitant, or perhaps rusty, but she recognized it as the same pillar of light that had taken her to Gaea that last time. It touched the ground and she stepped into it like she might an elevator. Smoothly, it lifted her into the air and out of her world.