Title: Promise Me Anyway
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: Escaflowne is NOT my property. I wish I could come up with something this cool! Nay, it is not mine at all….
Summary: Future fic, multi-part WIP. Hitomi is a student of international politics, determined to bring peace to Earth too, and already making a difference. Van is king of a happy, prosperous, peaceful rebuilt Gaea. They're still in love and still in touch. So what's the problem?
Dedication: (re-dedication?) To Sarah, who is at times more into this story than I am. Also to Kyle, who years ago cried while watching the parts about the tragic Fanel family. Hehe.
A/N: Allen is not in this chapter. But! He's in the next chapter. And before you ride on me about the "coma" thing being cliché, just keep reading. Exposition will be sprinkled throughout the story, not all dumped into one chapter. If you think I am your typical 12-year-old fanfic author who doesn't know how to proofread or even use spellcheck, just give me a katana and a cup of sake and I'll perform seppuku for you. Or, more practically speaking, point out any errors I may have missed and allow me to correct them. Either way, please enjoy the drama. Fluff. Angst. Flangst. Whatever.
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Chapter Three
For the memory of love is sweet, though the love itself were in vain.
And what I have lost of pleasure, assuage what I find of pain.
--Lyster
Hitomi awoke in the darkness of her dorm room, tears already soaking into her pillow. Van… her head swam with the image of his face, wounded by her decision. She'd hurt him, she knew. But it was better this way, he could move on now. He could find someone who could be at his side in the daylight. He was free of the dream world they'd woven together.
But Hitomi wasn't. Muffling her whimpering sobs with her blanket, she prayed to the silent air. Please let me forget, she thought desperately. Please let me stop wishing for something I can't have. Please…
Long into the night, Hitomi silently wept. She prayed in vain for the images of Van, of Fanelia and her friends there to leave her. It seemed the more she tried to escape her memories, the more vivid they became, until she was feverish with emotion. Then finally, as dawn shook its golden tresses over the land outside her room, Hitomi drifted off into an exhausted slumber.
...
It was a long moment that Van stood alone on the now cold, barren hilltop. He stared out past the horizon towards the Mystic Moon, half-draped in shadow and hanging in the sky like a painting on a wall. Although he knew he was asleep, and dreaming, he had no desire to wake up.
"Hitomi," he whispered, wondering why. There had been no warning, nothing. Suddenly something had snapped inside of her, he'd heard it in her voice, and Van realized then how much he'd hurt her. By not letting go, by keeping her tied to a world that was not her own. He only wished she'd told him sooner. He'd have left her then and spared her that suffering which had been so evident in her pure voice moments before. He'd have done that for her, because above all he desired happiness for Hitomi at any cost. His loss meant Hitomi's freedom.
Emptiness now permeated his whole being. Where there had been a warm touch, now was numbness. Van knew now that she'd been with him every minute of these past few years, until this moment. Her absence was dizzying, as accustomed to her as he'd become.
The King of Fanelia would be strong. He had duties to perform. He had a country still in the latter stages of rebuilding, and friends to look out for. He'd been alone before, and he could do it again. He'd move on - whether he wanted to or not.
...
"Hitomi?" a quiet voice called her from sleep. "Hitomi, it's three in the afternoon. Are you sick?"
She blinked in the daylight that had snuck its way through her blinds, and turned around. "Aimi," she murmured. "is it really that late?"
Her roommate nodded. "I got in pretty late so I slept in till noon, but you just didn't get up," she said. "Are you okay?"
"I'm… feeling a little under the weather," Hitomi explained. "But thanks for waking me up. At least I can get started on my paper…"
"Good thing it's Saturday," Aimi replied. "Anyway I'm going shopping. Want anything?"
"No thanks," Hitomi murmured. "I'll be fine."
Aimi frowned. "Okay, Hitomi-chan," she said gently, offering a smile. "I'll see you later."
With her roommate gone, Hitomi collapsed back down onto her bed and sighed at the grayness of her surroundings. She did not want to get up; however, staying in bed for the rest of her college career didn't seem like a very productive plan. She got up and gathered some clothes together, prepared to take a shower. Her chest felt as if someone had ripped out its vital organs and replaced them with rocks. Every action she performed was automatic, her willpower focused on not going back to bed. If she caved now, she would probably spend the rest of the weekend there, and that… well, some part of her knew that was a bad idea, although most of her didn't care.
Standing motionless in the shower, Hitomi let the hot water wrap her in some semblance of comfort. Tears dripped down unnoticed from her eyes, falling down to circle the drain and travel along with discarded soapsuds.
...
"Van Fanel." A deep voice intruded upon the young king's morose thoughts, and he turned his head in surprise. A tall man with a long, dark beard stood wrapped in a blood red cloak. He held a scepter like a walking stick, and stood in the commanding pose of one who was used to being in authority.
But Van was still dreaming…so what was this man doing here?
"You wonder who I am, and how I got here," the man rumbled as if in reply to Van's thoughts. "Allow me to introduce myself. I am Barnabus Razel of the Strategos, and I am here to collect a debt."
Van's hand reflexively grasped the handle of the sword which hung at his hip. "Explain yourself, Barnabus Razel," he said evenly.
Dark eyes narrowed within the depths of the cloak. "It is you who must provide an explanation, young one," he said coldly in that thunderstorm voice. "Destroyer of the Zaibach Empire."
The high-pitched ring of metal sounded as Van's sword was drawn. He positioned himself in a warrior pose. "The Zaibach Empire destroyed my city, and I made them pay for it. Are you one of the survivors? Are you here for revenge?"
"The Strategos call for nothing so base as revenge. Justice is what we require, and nothing more."
"Justice has already been served," Van replied, his voice steady. "Peace now reigns in Gaea."
"Not for us!" Barnabus roared. A green jewel in the eye of his scepter began to glow, and Van stepped back in alarm. He held his sword up defensively before him, but the beam that shot out from Barnabus' scepter was too strong. Hitting upon the sword's well-shined surface, its force knocked Van to the ground.
Barnabus advanced upon Van before the king could regain his feet, and jammed the butt of the scepter into Van's chest, causing him to cry out in pain. Van felt and heard one of his ribs break. Green energy crackled around the staff, writhing like mad snakes.
"Since the murder of our leader, the destruction of our home, we have had nowhere to go. Turned out of every town we come to as former supporters of the Zaibach merely because we lived within its boundaries. Because we served as experts within its realm. Tell me, King of Fanelia, where else a true scientist would reside in this world? Nowhere but at the center of knowledge and enlightenment. And now you have taken that realm away."
Grasping the scepter and attempting to lessen its pressure on his chest, Van met the eyes of the man towering above him. "You served Dornkirk," he said, condemningly.
"No. We served the Dragon," Barnabus quietly replied. He punctuated the sentence with another blast of crackling light, this time much stronger and connecting directly with the center of Van's chest. The king spasmed once in agony, and his eyes rolled back.
In the split second before Van lost consciousness, he chose to think about Hitomi. Her image drove the pain away for that instant until Van could feel no more.