A/n: well I promised a longer chapter so hear you go. It's that time of the
year when exams are on. Oh well, school will only finish on July 21sy.
Only. Don't worry, I haven't forgotten about old Allen dear.
Chapter Nine
Nearly Gone
Van didn't like the smell of flowers that much- they made his nose itch. But this smell was different, a deliciously fragrant smell of roses that warmed his senses. His mind buzzed as he inhaled the sweet smell.
"Van?"
The voice was light and musical, slightly teasing. The prince looked up to see a lady standing in front of him, extremely beautiful. Her long red hair glistened lusciously in the...green light?
Van looked around in confusion, and then turned back to the lady. "Who are you?" he asked, dazed, still taking in her beauty, and after a long pause remembered to ask, "Where am I?"
The lady smiled and Van's heart leapt, although he had the strange, lurking feeling that he knew this woman.
"I'm a healer, and I've come to help you because you're very, very sick. A witch from the Mystic Moon has placed a curse on you," she told him gently, stroking his cheek.
I know someone from the Mystic Moon, Van thought.
"Will you come with me?" Morgana asked sweetly, holding out her hand.
Van nodded, slowly, dumbly, reaching out his hand, but not before a cold, icy feeling washed over him, snapping back to alertness. Shocked, he turned to Morgana who looked simply furious.
"No!" she hissed venomously.
The green light turned to mist, swirling and swirling around him. Regaining consciousness, the prince opened his eyes, to see a scowling young woman towering above him, holding an empty bucket in her hands.
"H- Hitomi?" Van asked in confusion.
The girl looked at him, relieved. "About time you came around."
So they split up. Guimel, Miguel and Chesta went to save their friends Naria and Eyria before they suffered at the hands of some bad fate. Dilandau had given the honour of Allen look out to Gatti, Dallet and Viole. Dilandau himself would go with Celena to look for Van. Celena had given instructions to the three watching Allen to make use of her library and gadgets, she told them she would punish them if not. Now they were just itching for her to go so they could use them.
Before they split up, Dilandau gave something small and round to the Allen looker- outers. It was a small, round metallic ball, that suddenly without warning shot out blue, electric currents.
"What is it?" Celena asked curiously as they travelled in their Guymelefs, towards were their sources told them Van was.
"A laser ball," Dilandau's voice said through the intercom radio. "I got Gatti to fix it up so that it shoots only Allen."
"Huh? How did you manage that?" Celena said in awe.
"With some simple technology of course," Dilandau answered. "We adapted what we knew about the cameras Emperor Donkirk gave us and managed to create a smaller one. Now we can see what Allen is doing 24/7! We can also control the ball, it has some sort of machine, and a computer I think it's called."
"Ooh...wait, what if you find Allen in an uncompromising situation?"
"I hadn't thought about that," Dilandau said thoughtfully. "Ah well, that's not our problem. It's Gatti, Dallet and Viole's problem. Where do you think Van is now?"
"He probably managed to get quite far from Doonsday before Morgana got to Zaibach. She's probably done something to him though, so he might not be going anywhere at the moment. I'd say they would be about a third of the way to the Plains of Asgard. We'll probably catch up with them by nightfall, if they remain station."
"Great," Dilandau commented lightly. "You know, I never thought I would actually be helping to save Gaea in some way. I'd always pictured myself tormenting Allen till the day I die...or at least till my gang dies."
Celena wiped her forehead with her sleeve, the sun was shining brightly and it was a scorching day. "Yeah well, fate does a hell of a lot to your life. Makes it interesting though."
"I guess so," Dilandau replied, drifting off into thought.
"We're almost there!" Millerna squealed excitedly, watching as the Duchy of Fried came into view.
"Great, then I can go find Hitomi!" Allen exclaimed.
"What?" Millerna asked, baffled. "Oh, oh yeah, find Hitomi. Of course." The princess laughed to herself. If only he had any idea..."Right after you come with me and Eries to pay respect to Marlene's grave," she added slyly.
Allen cringed visibly. "Yes, Marlene..."
"You know, I wonder what she would be doing if she were alive," Millerna said wistfully.
"Um..."
"I bet her spirit is watching over all of us all the time," Millerna chimed happily.
"Yes, well, I'll just be going back to my room and sort my hair, I mean myself out. Goodbye princess," Allen said, scuttling off as quickly as possible.
He slammed his door shut and made for his vanity table like lightning. Just as he was about to brush his hair he caught sight of something he hadn't noticed before: a silver ball.
"Why would I have something useless like that on my vanity table?" he asked himself, chucking the ball over his shoulder. It landed with a loud CLUNK on the floor. He turned back to all the brushes and tubes in front of him and set to work, too busy to see the blue ray coming at him.
"YEAOW!!!!"
Back in the main deck, everyone stopped as they heard his yelling.
"Shall we go and investigate?" Gaddes suggested.
"Obviously he's in pain," Kio told him. "So of course not."
Van turned to look at Hitomi a little guiltily.
"She almost had me then," he admitted, the weight of it bearing down on him.
"It's not your fault Van," Hitomi said. "She's powerful...and she wants you. But she won't get you, she privately added.
"No, I have to be stronger next time, focus, keep my concentration up. Maybe it is a good idea if you use your magic after all..." he trailed off, uncertain at what he had suggested.
"Yeah, let's see how she does against the one sent to save this world," Hitomi said stiffly.
"You knew right from the start that she was up to something," Van said with a smile.
Hitomi smiled back at him. "I sure did. I mean just look at her- she thinks she's so great but she's not."
Van laughed loudly and she gave him a look. "What? Why are you laughing?"
The prince looked at her teasingly. "I think someone's jealous," he said.
"Ha, ha, yeah, jealous. Who, me? Yeah right!" Hitomi laughed, but not convincingly enough. Van's smile only widened even more. "Stop laughing at me!" Hitomi cried out indignantly.
Van tackled her to the ground and she shrieked, hitting him pathetically.
"Van-OW! Stop, hey you're tickling me!" she howled. "VAN! This is not princely behaviour!"
"You are jealous," he announced, letting her go at last.
Hitomi gave a "HMPH!" and straightened her and clothes, casting Van an indignant look. "I am NOT jealous, no way, no sir- ry not me," she told him in a matter of fact voice. "Just concerned about you." The moment the words came out of her mouth, Hitomi wondered if that were true. Yes it was, Van was just a friend to her, wasn't he?
"I know, I know," Van said hastily, although if Hitomi looked into his eyes, she would of seen disappointment lingering there. "I was just kidding..."
Hitomi lay back down on the grass, staring wistfully up at the sky. "It's not funny Van," she whispered. "She's after you, she's going to do all it takes to get to you. It really isn't funny."
Prince Chid stood beside the Duke of Freid, barely able to contain his excitement. The Crusade had just docked and any minute now the crew would be descending from the ship. He would see his Auntie Eries and Aunt Millerna again, but best of all he would get to see The Allen Schazaer! Mother had always told him such great things about him, about how strong and brave he was.
The hatch door of The Crusade opened and out walked the crew, headed by two tall, elegant ladies. The corner of their mouths twitched slightly on their normally serene composure. Prince Chid and those around him noticed a strange burning smell drifting in the air...was it coming from The Crusade? But the crew didn't seem affected at all; in fact, they seemed to be acting normally, too normally.
Prince Chid craned his neck impatiently. Where was Allen? He froze. What was THAT? He stood rooted to the spot in terror as the crew of The Crusade parted and there came forth a monster in the Caeli uniform. It had horrible pink hair and red streaks on its face, not to mention the streams of smoke coming from its clothes. It's big blue eyes made the young prince lurch in terror.
"AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
Gatti, Dallet and Viole had spent the first two hours laughing none stop. The Royal Militia of Freid had pounced on Allen, unfortunately the crew hadn't noticed and walked on into the palace, leaving Allen to fend for himself whilst he feebly explained who he was. He had been beaten quite a bit before the soldiers decided that he actually was telling the truth. Ah, it was entertaining for some but not for others.
"What's the situation Viole?" Gatti asked, not bothering to lift his head from The Book of Evil III by Celena Schazaer.
"He's gone into his room," Viole replied, rather disappointed. "They've given him a really small one though..."
"Good, good," Dallet replied, fiddling with the laser switch impatiently. "More subtle torture?"..."Viole? Viole? Hey, are you even listening to me?"
Gatti looked up from his book in interest. "Problemo?"
"Yeah, Viole isn't responding."
Gatti sighed, shutting his book. "What is it Viole, what's wrong?" he asked gently. "You can tell us, don't worry, everything will be alright."
Viole turned slowly towards them, and they saw that his face was pale as a sheet. Mystified, they watched as Viole slowly pointed towards the computer screen, before he leapt up suddenly and rushed off. Unpleasant sounds followed his departure.
Feeling slightly disturbed, Dallet and Gatti peeked at the screen.
"ARGHHHH!"
Allen decided to have a bath, which was quite unlucky for the poor guys monitoring him. Gatti and Dallet had taken just one look at the screen before rushing off to join Viole. That would be one sight that they would not be forgetting for a while. However, they didn't need to be monitoring Allen to torture him. The laser ball crept into the bathing area, gaining a mind of it's own. According to Donkirk, electricity was even more deadly coupled with water.
Folken knocked gently on Morgana's door.
"Come in," a musical voice chimed out. He opened the door silently and swept into the room. She looked up, smiling graciously.
"Strategos, fancy seeing you at a time like this!" she said teasingly. "Has something gone amiss with my plans?" There was a slight edge to her voice, a dangerous warning that Folken noted with curiosity. It was obvious to him that one of her spells had gone wrong.
"I just wanted to ask you, have you seen the twins anywhere?" he asked truthfully. "They missed their training practice and nobody has seen them anywhere."
Morgana pouted, looking at him with her large spell- binding eyes. "Of course not Folken," she murmured silkily. "After all, you don't really need them, do you?"
"H- Hm? Excuse me?" Folken was mesmerized by her eyes but at her words he broke away. His eyes narrowed suspiciously. "Morgana, did you do something to them?"
She didn't even bother to cover up for herself. Instead she turned her head to her window, where outside it was an inky black night.
"Of course not, don't be silly," Morgana tittered. "They just went out for a nice, long trip."
Chapter Nine
Nearly Gone
Van didn't like the smell of flowers that much- they made his nose itch. But this smell was different, a deliciously fragrant smell of roses that warmed his senses. His mind buzzed as he inhaled the sweet smell.
"Van?"
The voice was light and musical, slightly teasing. The prince looked up to see a lady standing in front of him, extremely beautiful. Her long red hair glistened lusciously in the...green light?
Van looked around in confusion, and then turned back to the lady. "Who are you?" he asked, dazed, still taking in her beauty, and after a long pause remembered to ask, "Where am I?"
The lady smiled and Van's heart leapt, although he had the strange, lurking feeling that he knew this woman.
"I'm a healer, and I've come to help you because you're very, very sick. A witch from the Mystic Moon has placed a curse on you," she told him gently, stroking his cheek.
I know someone from the Mystic Moon, Van thought.
"Will you come with me?" Morgana asked sweetly, holding out her hand.
Van nodded, slowly, dumbly, reaching out his hand, but not before a cold, icy feeling washed over him, snapping back to alertness. Shocked, he turned to Morgana who looked simply furious.
"No!" she hissed venomously.
The green light turned to mist, swirling and swirling around him. Regaining consciousness, the prince opened his eyes, to see a scowling young woman towering above him, holding an empty bucket in her hands.
"H- Hitomi?" Van asked in confusion.
The girl looked at him, relieved. "About time you came around."
So they split up. Guimel, Miguel and Chesta went to save their friends Naria and Eyria before they suffered at the hands of some bad fate. Dilandau had given the honour of Allen look out to Gatti, Dallet and Viole. Dilandau himself would go with Celena to look for Van. Celena had given instructions to the three watching Allen to make use of her library and gadgets, she told them she would punish them if not. Now they were just itching for her to go so they could use them.
Before they split up, Dilandau gave something small and round to the Allen looker- outers. It was a small, round metallic ball, that suddenly without warning shot out blue, electric currents.
"What is it?" Celena asked curiously as they travelled in their Guymelefs, towards were their sources told them Van was.
"A laser ball," Dilandau's voice said through the intercom radio. "I got Gatti to fix it up so that it shoots only Allen."
"Huh? How did you manage that?" Celena said in awe.
"With some simple technology of course," Dilandau answered. "We adapted what we knew about the cameras Emperor Donkirk gave us and managed to create a smaller one. Now we can see what Allen is doing 24/7! We can also control the ball, it has some sort of machine, and a computer I think it's called."
"Ooh...wait, what if you find Allen in an uncompromising situation?"
"I hadn't thought about that," Dilandau said thoughtfully. "Ah well, that's not our problem. It's Gatti, Dallet and Viole's problem. Where do you think Van is now?"
"He probably managed to get quite far from Doonsday before Morgana got to Zaibach. She's probably done something to him though, so he might not be going anywhere at the moment. I'd say they would be about a third of the way to the Plains of Asgard. We'll probably catch up with them by nightfall, if they remain station."
"Great," Dilandau commented lightly. "You know, I never thought I would actually be helping to save Gaea in some way. I'd always pictured myself tormenting Allen till the day I die...or at least till my gang dies."
Celena wiped her forehead with her sleeve, the sun was shining brightly and it was a scorching day. "Yeah well, fate does a hell of a lot to your life. Makes it interesting though."
"I guess so," Dilandau replied, drifting off into thought.
"We're almost there!" Millerna squealed excitedly, watching as the Duchy of Fried came into view.
"Great, then I can go find Hitomi!" Allen exclaimed.
"What?" Millerna asked, baffled. "Oh, oh yeah, find Hitomi. Of course." The princess laughed to herself. If only he had any idea..."Right after you come with me and Eries to pay respect to Marlene's grave," she added slyly.
Allen cringed visibly. "Yes, Marlene..."
"You know, I wonder what she would be doing if she were alive," Millerna said wistfully.
"Um..."
"I bet her spirit is watching over all of us all the time," Millerna chimed happily.
"Yes, well, I'll just be going back to my room and sort my hair, I mean myself out. Goodbye princess," Allen said, scuttling off as quickly as possible.
He slammed his door shut and made for his vanity table like lightning. Just as he was about to brush his hair he caught sight of something he hadn't noticed before: a silver ball.
"Why would I have something useless like that on my vanity table?" he asked himself, chucking the ball over his shoulder. It landed with a loud CLUNK on the floor. He turned back to all the brushes and tubes in front of him and set to work, too busy to see the blue ray coming at him.
"YEAOW!!!!"
Back in the main deck, everyone stopped as they heard his yelling.
"Shall we go and investigate?" Gaddes suggested.
"Obviously he's in pain," Kio told him. "So of course not."
Van turned to look at Hitomi a little guiltily.
"She almost had me then," he admitted, the weight of it bearing down on him.
"It's not your fault Van," Hitomi said. "She's powerful...and she wants you. But she won't get you, she privately added.
"No, I have to be stronger next time, focus, keep my concentration up. Maybe it is a good idea if you use your magic after all..." he trailed off, uncertain at what he had suggested.
"Yeah, let's see how she does against the one sent to save this world," Hitomi said stiffly.
"You knew right from the start that she was up to something," Van said with a smile.
Hitomi smiled back at him. "I sure did. I mean just look at her- she thinks she's so great but she's not."
Van laughed loudly and she gave him a look. "What? Why are you laughing?"
The prince looked at her teasingly. "I think someone's jealous," he said.
"Ha, ha, yeah, jealous. Who, me? Yeah right!" Hitomi laughed, but not convincingly enough. Van's smile only widened even more. "Stop laughing at me!" Hitomi cried out indignantly.
Van tackled her to the ground and she shrieked, hitting him pathetically.
"Van-OW! Stop, hey you're tickling me!" she howled. "VAN! This is not princely behaviour!"
"You are jealous," he announced, letting her go at last.
Hitomi gave a "HMPH!" and straightened her and clothes, casting Van an indignant look. "I am NOT jealous, no way, no sir- ry not me," she told him in a matter of fact voice. "Just concerned about you." The moment the words came out of her mouth, Hitomi wondered if that were true. Yes it was, Van was just a friend to her, wasn't he?
"I know, I know," Van said hastily, although if Hitomi looked into his eyes, she would of seen disappointment lingering there. "I was just kidding..."
Hitomi lay back down on the grass, staring wistfully up at the sky. "It's not funny Van," she whispered. "She's after you, she's going to do all it takes to get to you. It really isn't funny."
Prince Chid stood beside the Duke of Freid, barely able to contain his excitement. The Crusade had just docked and any minute now the crew would be descending from the ship. He would see his Auntie Eries and Aunt Millerna again, but best of all he would get to see The Allen Schazaer! Mother had always told him such great things about him, about how strong and brave he was.
The hatch door of The Crusade opened and out walked the crew, headed by two tall, elegant ladies. The corner of their mouths twitched slightly on their normally serene composure. Prince Chid and those around him noticed a strange burning smell drifting in the air...was it coming from The Crusade? But the crew didn't seem affected at all; in fact, they seemed to be acting normally, too normally.
Prince Chid craned his neck impatiently. Where was Allen? He froze. What was THAT? He stood rooted to the spot in terror as the crew of The Crusade parted and there came forth a monster in the Caeli uniform. It had horrible pink hair and red streaks on its face, not to mention the streams of smoke coming from its clothes. It's big blue eyes made the young prince lurch in terror.
"AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
Gatti, Dallet and Viole had spent the first two hours laughing none stop. The Royal Militia of Freid had pounced on Allen, unfortunately the crew hadn't noticed and walked on into the palace, leaving Allen to fend for himself whilst he feebly explained who he was. He had been beaten quite a bit before the soldiers decided that he actually was telling the truth. Ah, it was entertaining for some but not for others.
"What's the situation Viole?" Gatti asked, not bothering to lift his head from The Book of Evil III by Celena Schazaer.
"He's gone into his room," Viole replied, rather disappointed. "They've given him a really small one though..."
"Good, good," Dallet replied, fiddling with the laser switch impatiently. "More subtle torture?"..."Viole? Viole? Hey, are you even listening to me?"
Gatti looked up from his book in interest. "Problemo?"
"Yeah, Viole isn't responding."
Gatti sighed, shutting his book. "What is it Viole, what's wrong?" he asked gently. "You can tell us, don't worry, everything will be alright."
Viole turned slowly towards them, and they saw that his face was pale as a sheet. Mystified, they watched as Viole slowly pointed towards the computer screen, before he leapt up suddenly and rushed off. Unpleasant sounds followed his departure.
Feeling slightly disturbed, Dallet and Gatti peeked at the screen.
"ARGHHHH!"
Allen decided to have a bath, which was quite unlucky for the poor guys monitoring him. Gatti and Dallet had taken just one look at the screen before rushing off to join Viole. That would be one sight that they would not be forgetting for a while. However, they didn't need to be monitoring Allen to torture him. The laser ball crept into the bathing area, gaining a mind of it's own. According to Donkirk, electricity was even more deadly coupled with water.
Folken knocked gently on Morgana's door.
"Come in," a musical voice chimed out. He opened the door silently and swept into the room. She looked up, smiling graciously.
"Strategos, fancy seeing you at a time like this!" she said teasingly. "Has something gone amiss with my plans?" There was a slight edge to her voice, a dangerous warning that Folken noted with curiosity. It was obvious to him that one of her spells had gone wrong.
"I just wanted to ask you, have you seen the twins anywhere?" he asked truthfully. "They missed their training practice and nobody has seen them anywhere."
Morgana pouted, looking at him with her large spell- binding eyes. "Of course not Folken," she murmured silkily. "After all, you don't really need them, do you?"
"H- Hm? Excuse me?" Folken was mesmerized by her eyes but at her words he broke away. His eyes narrowed suspiciously. "Morgana, did you do something to them?"
She didn't even bother to cover up for herself. Instead she turned her head to her window, where outside it was an inky black night.
"Of course not, don't be silly," Morgana tittered. "They just went out for a nice, long trip."