Chapter 4

A knight, a cat girl, a lady, soldiers and servants, where on earth was he?

And the girl with the green eyes, looking at him as if he was supposed to know her. The nagging sensation at the back of his head told him she was right. He hated being disorientated. That was a mild way of putting it, he was known for his extreme moods.

Which explained the irritation in his tone as he demanded, "Who are you?" He found his hand going to his sword. He paused.

Hand. Sword.

Trembling, he brought his hands in front of him and turned them over, inspecting them. Flesh, traced with the scars of war, pulsing with human blood. He glanced over his body, ignoring the insistent questions of these annoying people surrounding him.

This was some kind of a sick joke.

It almost made him doubt who he was.

Eyes flashing, lips thinning into a visible threat, he drew the sword, an unfamiliar weapon but a weapon nonetheless. "Which of you did this?" He shouted angrily, causing them to shrink back. Cowards. Humans, you left them for a few centuries and they still stayed the same.

He heard the knight whisper to the lady, "What's he saying?" but she was too frightened to speak and merely shook her head in ignorance. Amazing, they no longer understood the language of his race.

That would be convenient.

"Van?"

Was that his name? He turned his attention back to the speaker. Her voice had that effect. It called you, spoke to your heart, made you feel … at home.

"Van? What's… What's happened to you? You don't recognise us?" She was coming closer and he was drawn to those eyes… familiar yet different. He gasped. It couldn't be.

No. Whoever you think she is. That's not her. The nagging sensation that he had experienced earlier materialised into a voice. It sounded like a human, perhaps he was the owner for this body.

Yes. I am Van. Who are you?

He broke off communicating with this Van person as he suddenly realised that the girl had come too close for comfort.

"Stay back!" the sword edge easily poised near her throat. He smiled as he tasted her fear in the air but she remained where she was. Interesting, whoever she was, she certainly reminded him of someone in terms of her bravery.

His smile froze as he sensed himself being forced into the back of his mind.

Don't hurt Hitomi!

There was determination and authority in the voice. Impressive. As he rewarded him by giving way and receding back into the mind, he reflected on her name. Hitomi. He let out a low laugh. It had a pleasant ring to it.

Hitomi sank to her knees in relief as she saw the familiar light flicker back in Van's eyes. He ran forward and hugged her fiercely in his arms, whispering apologies for not getting back into control earlier. An unconscious smile tugged at her lips, this was definitely her Van, taking too much upon himself as usual. Yes, her Van. She wrapped her arms tightly around him in return.

"… So, to sum up. It seems that two spirits or souls, that might not necessarily be human, have entered the bodies of the two of you. So far, we only know that one is called La'liet and that they have some kind of connection with the dragons and are from an ancient time, most probably… dating all the way back to Atlantis again!" Allen finished by burying his head in his arms. "I thought we no longer had to bother with that ancient crap when the war ended," came his muffled complaint.

"Yes, judging from Hitomi's vision before she returned to Gaea, it seems that Atlantis might have some connection with all of this," Celena assessed as she patted her brother on the back. 

            "We should contact Dryden and ask for his opinion," suggested Merle. Celena nodded.

"Also…" Van spoke softly, pausing in mid-sentence, he drew himself up from his hunched form to his characteristically ramrod straight posture. It was high time he started playing King again. His personal insecurities and fears could wait. He brought forth another important issue professionally, "…we need to find out what they want with Escaflowne and what are we going to do, now that it has …disappeared."

There was a mirror at the end of the room but it ill served its original purpose at the moment. Moonlight captured the surface. The glow was enough to make Van blink as he spoke. He was the only one facing it, the rest looking intently at him for kingly guidance but all he could do was stare. He thought Hitomi had…

"I'm sorry to intrude like this."

In a moment, attention was drawn to Hitomi. Hitomi? Van immediately recognised who it was.

"When I was sinking into Escalfowne! You came and used your powers to save me but…" his eyebrows creased and it was only the maturing effect of the years that arrested his instinctive response to draw out his sword, "… who are you? And where is she?"

She looked quizzically at him. "I am her. She was me." Before he could draw his next breath, she was directly in front of him, staring straight into his soul and beyond. "Oh La'liet, you recognized me today didn't you?" She asked with a wistful note of melancholy. Van pushed La'liet back into the recesses of his mind with considerable mental strength and leaped back from the girl.

"Please, who are you?" asked Celena, being one of the early few to recover from the fact that Hitomi's body was once again being controlled by someone or something else.

"I am afraid I cannot answer that," she replied apologetically, "It is forbidden." She turned round to face them fully. "My purpose in coming here is to warn all of you that the only way you can win this war is by preventing them from getting what they want."

"Why should we trust you?" Allen asked carefully from his corner of the room.

"The sad truth is, you'll don't really have a choice, do you?" She replied, matching his question with her own. The accurate observation of their current state of affairs added to the grim atmosphere. Van looked out of his window. Even in the wan light of the pale crescent, he could make out his city… or what remained of it. A quarter of it had been reduced to rubble and ashes and many had lost their lives today. Many had lost their lives since the attacks began. It was painfully ironic that his attempts to lighten up the spirits of the civilians by that celebration yesterday night had been nullified so easily by another attack today. Physically, they could not keep up the war as it was. Emotionally, they were beginning to despair.

"What do they want?" he asked her, sadly.

She remained quiet for a few moments, the unspoken words frozen as she stared at him, Van – his tone, his defeated posture, his love for mankind. He reminded her of La'liet, well at least before everything changed. Maybe, maybe in this life, he would have a chance to remain this way forever. She had to warn him to prevent history from repeating itself. "They want…"

"-me," Van cut in, visibly exercising control over his voice. "It's me."

"Van…" Merle started but remained silent when he held out his hand.

"Yes," he continued. "It's clear to me now. That's why the dragons left so easily today. They said something about accomplishing what they came for and afterwards I lost control of my body." He paused and smiled grimly," I guess I can't blame all that on coincidence."

"You can't blame all that on yourself either," Allen reminded but Celena felt that was a bit too harsh.

"Can't I?" Van asked raising his head to look straight across the room at Allen and Allen saw that he did. "During the Zaibach war, they burned Fanelia and hurt Asturia because of Escaflowne. Now, it's even more personal. It's me." There was a brief silence that was left unfilled because no one knew what to say. "It's always me."

A hand touched his.

It was small and white. As he looked up towards the owner's eyes, he saw it belonged to Hitomi, not that spirit that took over her body. It was Hitomi. 

"No Van," she said firmly and gently at the same time, it was incredible how good she was always able to balance the two, most people got it all wrong. "The painful truth is, it's always me and you but… that's" her voice broke, "that's better than going it alone right?"

He hugged her in response.

Until she stepped away and he saw that she was not Hitomi anymore. "No, it's always been because of the connection that you shared with me and La'liet. I can't tell you all much more without breaking the rules but when both of you start to remember, many mysteries will be solved such as Hitomi's ability to see into the future and Escaflowne's almost demonic powers." She paused and spoke more slowly to everyone now. "Do you'll want to stop the dragons and save Gaea from turning into another Atlantis?"

"Of course," the people in the room chorused.

"They are searching for you Van, so you must leave with Hitomi and a chosen few. You must go to Freid."

"Freid?" asked Chid, "How does Fried have the power to stop dragons?" 

"No…" She said slowly, "that power… that demon cannot be used by anyone. It is evil and it is manipulating the dragons to resurrect it again." She sighed before whispering, "It is amazing how the dragons cling on to that twisted prophecy … even though so many eons have passed…"

Celena's eyebrows creased in confusion. "Erm, excuse me, but I thought the Power Spot in Freid was the 'Hidden Power of Atlantis'?"

The one controlling Hitomi's body smiled wryly. "The power of Atlantis is the power of wishes. Such energy cannot be preserved, the power you witnessed five years ago during the Zaibach war was a mere glimpse of the power of that demon that sleeps in the bowels of Freid. It must be destroyed."

Allen spoke up first, "and this is supposed to be easier than storming into the stronghold of the Dragon army and fighting them one on one?"

"To put it more accurately," she said wryly, "it's the only course of action that could guarantee that you'll have any chance of winning at all."

Author's Note: I really really really sincerely apologise for the long delay in writing Chapter 4. It has been a really busy and important year for me, having to juggle both my A level exams and Choir stuff. But I'm now completely free for the next 7 months! And you can bet that I'll be working on my darling ficcie! I hope that there are still a few out there who are still taking interest in this fic. I promise that I'll complete this but I really get a lot of motivation from reviews. So if you have the time, please leave a review!!!!!!!!!

So, how's the story so far? Is it too confusing? It is remotely exciting? Tell me! Tell me what you guys think!