I'll keep this short and sweet as it's been a long time since I've posted a story so figured I'd start with one I've been working on for several years for one of the first anime's I ever watched and never had the courage to post. It is a long story so please be patient and apologies for the poor summary. Once we're a few chapters in, if anyone can come up with a better summary, I'll be more than happy to use this.

Hope you enjoy and please let me know what you think x

PS: I've used the first dubbed version of Cerene's name as this was the version I watched many years ago (don't ask how many :P)

Chapter 1

He looked out over the view in front of him with a smile on his face. From the roof of the castle, the sounds of celebration reached him and the glow from the lanterns on the streets created a heat even he could fell. The glow itself made him wonder how far away it could be seen from. However, whilst the people celebrated with joy, the day was still marred by sadness.

Yes, it was the anniversary of Fanelia's rebirth but it was also the day he'd said goodbye to Hitomi. Now you wouldn't even realise that Fanelia had once been burned to the ground. 4 years ago almost. 3 years since the beginning of the rebuild, his kingdom was back to it's former glory and stronger than ever. Truthfully, the citizens had worked effortlessly to restore it & the rebuild had been completed after only a year. But the scattered citizens were still returning and with no building to do, the fears & scars of the war surfaced from the back of their minds. The main fear being that a repeat would happen. There was no army, no defences, no council. Whilst he'd been hands on in the rebuild and spent everyday as one of the people, he had developed a closeness to them but managing it all & to start acting as the King they needed was another matter entirely.

None of the original council could take on their former roles. They were all older men who were either dead or scarred from the siege. Some were scarred or changed from the fight to survive after. The nobles of Fanelia who had run with nothing to their name had survived with the rest of the citizens but had spread out too. Some had taken lessons from where they had settled and were now keen to change the Fanelian Laws to match where they had settled whilst others wanted them to stay exactly the same, teaching them to the children and citizens in the desperation to preserve the laws when they thought they would die.

In the end, he couldn't have been more glad for Millerna and Allen's support on creating his new council and army. They could blend with the people and listened to their opinions, working to preserve the laws they had as well as adapt and create new laws to strengthen them. But they also couldn't ignore the customs for the Royal Family that had been in place and the people wouldn't ignore them. Hence he had hidden on the roof to escape everyone to think of what this day meant to him.

3 Year ago, when he'd said goodbye to Hitomi, he'd let her go with high hopes. Hopes that included constant communications, occasional visits to each other and eventually her possible return to his side. Their almost daily conversations after her return to the Mystic Moon had helped get him through his toughest moments at first until Celena began to visit with Allen. As their friendship grew, his connection to Hitomi faltered. Celena became his support more and more as that connection waned until it diminished completely a month before the first year anniversary. He lost count quickly of how many times he wondered how she was doing in the first months alone and he'd have wondered if she was still alive if her pendant didn't give him a sense that she was.

He'd continued to stay true to Hitomi, which his people and advisors were proud of. They respected his decision but they all knew he needed an heir. He knew it too but he was grateful no one mentioned it until 4 months ago. He had already started doubting his own feelings by then though and anytime they mentioned him taking a wife, the image that appeared in his mind left him feeling conflicted. He'd been stuck going over it all day in his peace and quiet.

With a deep sigh he stood & let his wings loose before flying down to the family grave and Escaflowne in the garden. He sat cross legged on the very spot he'd said goodbye to Hitomi but it wasn't long before someone joined him, sitting next to him on the floor.

"I thought I might find you here," they said.

"I didn't realise you'd arrived Allen," Van answered gently.

"Well I did decide to wander first. Your council are still incredibly understanding. They wouldn't even give me any hints of where you were," Allen stated.

"Probably because I had Merle run interference. I've been on the roof all day."

"Thinking of Hitomi again?" he asked, glancing at the king.

He had grown from the young boy he'd first meet in the forest. Now he was a man, impressively built but still slender. A perfect balance as the women would say. The King was now more sought after than he himself had ever been.

"It's hard not to today. Though I'm not as bad as I use to be," Van answered sadly.

"Sounds like you've lost hope that she'll return one day," Allen pointed out.

"She would have already if she was going to," he stated, "It's just… I can't help thinking something interfered. Our love saved Gaea. If it wasn't meant to last then how could it do that?"

Allen could only smile sadly. Yes, the man in front of him had grown a lot since they'd first meet but right now, the blonde could only see the young man again.

"Who said it wouldn't last? First loves don't fade and they're not forgotten," Allen stated.

"Sounds like something Millerna would say," Van tried to joke.

"Only because she got it from me. I still love Marlene but that didn't mean I wouldn't love again. Maybe this is a sign," Allen said looking up at the stars.

Van side-glanced at the blonde with uncertainty. It wasn't often he spoke of Marlene due to how it saddened him but he realised he was using himself as an example to help perk him up.

"You'll always love Hitomi but now you need to listen to your head and heart. Until you figure that out, you can't let go," Allen added.

Van heaved another heavy sigh. He didn't need to do that when both were saying to let it go & stop being stubborn but something kept stopping him.

"You didn't come all this way just to give me a pep talk did you?" he joked.

"No but somethings been eating at you for a while. I figured you'd need a friend to take your mind off it & decided to get it in there quickly," Allen stated.

"That was more like fatherly advice. You're becoming an old man."

"Not yet I'm not. You're too old to be my kid anyway," Allen retorted.

"But on that note, I can put Celena forward as a candidate since you're both so close."

"I'll think about it. Let's change the subject before you start scolding me."

As the two joked and began to reminisce, they were unaware of the figure watching them, hidden by the tree's in the distance. They smiled as they walked away back to thecastle.

'Ever heard the phrase be careful what you wish for?'

She sighed. Of course he would have something to say about this.

She may have got her body and life back but her happiness of it didn't last long when he came back as a voice in her head. Granted, he sometimes made things more interesting but he'd only come back after she first meet Van properly on a week long visit. The way he spoke of Hitomi had her wishing it was turned in her direction and thus Dilandau had returned to her. She was only trying to be a friend to Van then. She hadn't expected to fall in love with him herself.

'Do we need to do this now?' she asked back in annoyance as she sat on the bench in the courtyard and looked up at the stars.

'You've fallen for a man who loves another woman. A woman who came from the Mystic Moon. You think he'll ever love you like you want him to?'

'I've never expected him to. Why can't you be supportive?'

'Why should I? He's my enemy and you want me to be happy about your pursuit?' He growled as she pictured him standing with balled fists, 'If you succeed, I'll have to look at his face every day.'

'Just let it go. There's no war, we're at peace.'

'He'll always be my enemy. No miracle will change that.'

'Dilandau, you've got no reason to hate him now.'

'I'll put up with it for now,' he sighed, 'All bets are off if you marry the backwater King. He's not good enough for you.'

'If anyone else could hear you, they'd think you've gone soft,' she teased.

'Shut up. We're done talking unless you know how to separate us.'

He retreated to a deeper part of her mind until she felt him disappear. He may have been violently psychotic before but he seemed to have simmered down. But that may be more with him accepting his situation for what it was. Especially after hearing Van no longer had a connection to Hitomi. She felt guilty about the whole thing but her ambition outweighed it. She needed all the help she could get to keep Van's attention.

Upon hearing a noise nearby, she looked around to see Allen helping a pained-looking Van to walk back. She rushed over to Van's other side to help instantly.

"What happened?" she asked.

"I'm not sure. We were starting to walk back when he crumpled to the ground," Allen answered.

"It's Hitomi… Someth…Something's wrong," he gasped out, "I can't… I can't tell… if sh… she's alive now."

She glanced over at her brother who looked as worried as she felt but when she looked down at Van's pendant, it was no longer pink. It was dark red, like a pot of blood.

Dilandau sensed something different about his surroundings but when he tried to use Celena's eyes, like he usually would, nothing happened. It was then that he realised he was breathing on his own. His eyes opened slowly as he gazed down, looking at his hands in amazement. He clenched them tightly into fists and smiled feeling the sensation & strength in them. He looked further down himself to see he was dressed in the leather pants he wore during his time at Zaibach & his usual vest top but he was taller than he remembered. He took note that he was still slender but his muscles were bigger. His body displayed the strength that he always knew he held but not obnoxiously as others.

It was then he decided to look at his surroundings. There was nothing at all. It looked like darkness but if anything it was just black, devoid of anything. A void.

"How does it feel to have your own body back?"

He whirled round to see a man, dressed in a cloak with a white mask to cover his face. Eyeing the man sceptically, he took a step back to get a sense of who the man could be.

"Where am I?" he asked forcing himself to stay calm.

"I've come to call this place the void for obvious reasons. It's almost like purgatory. The inbetween," the man answered with a hint of amusement.

"And why am I here?"

"I brought you here. Surely you don't want to be stuck in Celena's mind until she dies. Besides I had to wait for the last bit of Van and Hitomi's connection to be severed to call you here. If he hadn't been trying so desperately to hold on, this would have happened sooner," the man explained, "Take a seat."

A sofa appeared beside them out of nowhere and Dilandau lowered his guard to take a seat and put his feet up across the other seats.

"What else do you know?" he asked treating this as a dream.

"I know that fate hates wishes like Celena's. It's a harsh game it plays, even if she was playing into it's hands somewhat," the man explained before laughing at Dilandau's confused expression, "Confused? Well Celena and Van would have got there eventually but her wish basically rushed it along. Her wish came from negative emotions so a negative course was chosen. Someone else's wish with negative emotions piggy-backed her wish and boosted the strength of it."

"You make it sound like someone else controls fate," Dilandau stated as the man paced slowly.

"In a way," he answered off-handedly.

"So why do you need me? If you were waiting for this opportunity then you must need me for something," he stated with a smirk.

"Perceptive. I knew you'd figure it out."

"Yeah well clearly you don't know everything. Celena hasn't suffered for her wish. She hasn't had anything 'negative' happen."

"No but I never said she did," the man stated and sounded like he was smiling, "The other wish helped her in that respect. Someone else paid the price in her place."

"Who?"

"Hitomi. The girl you once tried to kill. She paid a very heavy price."

"How?"

"Ah… now that's something I'm not showing you until we have an agreement in place."

Dilandau growled and sat up properly to look at the man with a glare.

"What is it you offer me in return for my help?"

"A new life. Your own body for good."

"Why?"

The man stopped his pacing and looked at Dilandau head on.

"Why what?"

"Why are you doing this?"

"A new war is coming to Gaea. One that will correct everything to it's original path before Dornkirk interfered if we succeed," the man stated seriously.

"Oh yeah and why do you want that?" Dilandau asked sceptically.

"To resurrect my families kingdom. One you should have been a part of. One you'd have controlled an army for."

Dilandau looked down at his hands, thinking it over. He'd already made a decision but to go into this without knowing exactly what he was doing was risky.

"Fuck it," he said standing up, "I'm in."

"Without knowing what I want you to do?" the man asked failing to hide some of his surprise.

"Got a problem with that? Either way if a war's coming, I bet you'll need all the help you can get."

"That I do."

"So tell me… What will I be doing and most importantly… what price did Hitomi pay?"

That's it for this chapter. I'll be posting the next chapter in about 3 weeks time and again, please do let me know what you think so far