The Dragon Priestess

AvalonReeseFanFics

A/N: Happy Sunday my wonderful readers! So here we are, the last part of this episode. It's got a lot of very interesting points and some fun battle moments. I suck at battle descriptions so I did my best to make it not too wordy but not too little at the same time. Hopefully it worked. As always don't forget to review and I'll see you guys next week!

Chapter 12: The Diabolical Adonis pt. 3

The very first thing Van did was ensure that Brooke and Merle went somewhere safe. Once he was certain that they were going to be somewhere where he wouldn't have to worry about them, he charged into the burning battlefield looking for Allen.

He found the guymelefs just standing in the fire as if surveying the damage. Van ran towards him calling his name.

Once the guymelef had swung his head in Van's direction he asked the important question on his mind: "Where the Escaflowne?"

"Don't worry, it's been loaded onto the Crusade."

Wasn't that where he had sent Merle and Brooke off to? The ship that was going to be retreating?

"The castle has fallen. We must withdraw."

"What? You're running?" Van cried because he couldn't believe it. This man was supposed to be better than him. But he was just a coward. "After what they've done to your men?"

"I mustn't allow any further loss of life."

Van's sword was out in a heartbeat pointed directly at Allen.

"And you call yourself a samurai? I won't run. I'll never tun my back on an enemy and run away! To make them pay for what they did to the people of Fanelia, I will fight to the death!"

"There is nothing brave about rashly choosing to die!" Allen shouted back and Van fell still. "Van, you are Fanelia's king. As long as she has a king and a people, Fanelia has a future. Bearing indignities such as this is the mark of true courage. A samurai's life is meant to save others. Don't forget that."

God he was just like Balgus. Spouting motivational nonsense and making Van feel utterly stupid. But he was right and Van at the very least could admit that.

He lowered his sword just as Allen lowered the hand to his guymelef so Van could climb up into it's palm.

Once his sword was put away and Allen had straightened Allen told him: "I will never hand over you or the Escaflowne to Zaibach, you have the word of Allen Schezar."

Then they were rushing off the battlefield, no doubt to meet the Crusade.

Brooke and Merle had been herded through caves below the castle all the way to this little ship. They were told to board but Brooke hadn't wanted to and neither did Merle.

"Where's Allen? We're not leaving with out him, are we?"

"And where's Lord Van? Isn't he here?"

Gaddes had turned at that point and Brooke flushed. "Yeah and Van, where is he?" she added because she really needed to stop forgetting to mention her fake husband.

"Don't worry, they'll be meeting up with us very soon," he said and then ushered them up the gangplank and onto the ship.

He brought them to the control center which was a room made of mostly glass with a Steering wheel in the middle. They were heading out and towards the mouth of the cave where she could sheets of water coming down.

They were behind a waterfall!

Still she couldn't see Allen and she couldn't see Van and she was starting to get nervous. She had a bad feeling, like something bad was looming just on the horizon, and she didn't mean the attack on Allen's outpost. She felt like something else was going to happen… something worse.

Though what could be worse than this, she had no idea.

They were out from behind that waterfall for all of thirty seconds before the ship pitched to the side throwing Brooke and Merle up against the window. Once there they could see, very clearly that the reason they were tilted was because Allen's guymelef had landed on one of the rocks attached to the ship.

"Oh, hey look, it's Allen!" Brooke had cried her eyes narrowing in on what he had in his hands.

But before she could say that she had seen Van too, Merle cried: "Oh! Lord Van."

"I was getting to that," Brooke hissed.

Allen's guymelefs moved, heading towards the actual ship, which leveled out as he did so.

Brooke turned. "Where are they going?"

"Probably to the guymelefs hanger."

"Right," Brooke breathed out. What a stupid question. "And there's like… signs, right?"

The men in that little room just glared at her and she figured that she'd find her way around. It was a small ship after all it wasn't like she could really get all that lost, right?

For some reason, Brooke didn't know why, Merle followed her. And the both got lost. Like immediately. In fact, they ended up outside on the top of the ship.

"Well this can't be right!" Brooke cried.

"No! You sure? This could totally be the hangar you were looking for!"

Brooke turned a dark glare onto Merle. "Your sarcasm is not helpful."

The cat girl just stuck her tongue out at her. Yeah that didn't help either.

Allen's guymelef lumbered onto where they were, and Van hopped down. Brooke almost excitedly jumped at him, but Merle beat her to it only to have him brush them off.

He was staring at something, but Brooke didn't know what until they were surrounded by flying guymelefs.

"THEY CAN FLY?!" Brooke shouted as they surrounded them. Well at least they weren't invisible too!

The flying guymelefs surrounded their little ship, jostling them, to the point where Brooke and Merle lost their footing and tumbled to the ground. In fact, they had broken one of the sails which meant the ship was now flying slower. The damn dirty cheats.

One of them, the red one, dropped out of the sky and landed only a few feet away from where the two girls were trying to get up. Brooke had gotten half up, had Merle's arm to help her up, but that quake from that guymelef landing right by them sent them right back to the ground. Brooke was getting frustrated, she popped right back up to glare at oncoming guymelefs.

"This isn't fair. They can fly, they go invisible, this is absolute NONSENSE!" she shouted out at the night sky. "Fight fair you, you, COWARDS!"

The Red one stepped a little too closely to where Brooke had been up on her knees, possibly on purpose, as Allen's guymelef went to meet the red one in battle. Had Merle not grabbed her and toppled her backwards she might have been flattened.

A second guymelef dropped out of the sky, going for Allen as well. It might have flattened her too had Allen not deflected it and sent it flying off of the ship. It recovered quickly though, starting to fly once more.

Brooke blinked here eyes. "Uh… I don't think we should be out here."

"Yep we should run," Merle conferred and then both girls darted for the door.

Van had been separated from the two girls during the fight. But watching what was happening, watching these flying guymelefs surround the ship, destroying bits of it to cripple it, he knew that they wouldn't be able to escape. And Allen couldn't fight all of them alone either.

Everyone was in trouble and it was all because of Escaflowne! What had Allen just told him? That a Samurai's life was meant to save others? Yeah, that's what he had to do. He had to save his friends.

Van rushed through the fight, jumping between the feet as Allen struggled to hold his ground. He got to the door were Brooke and Merle were struggling with each other to try and get the door opened.

"What the hell are you two doing out here?"

"We can't get the door open, it's stuck!" Merle cried. Van swept them both aside and tugged it open with one big pull and then turned to look at the two surprised confused faces.

Brooke recovered first.

"I loosened it for you."

Van shook his head and took off, ignoring the two girls that were calling after him. He descended the correct stairs down to the guymelef hanger where he got into his guymelef even though the two of them were shouting at him to stop. Or to explain what he was doing.

He didn't answer them.

Once he was in the Escaflowne, he opened the hangar door.

"Van what are you doing?! Your guymelef can't fly!" he heard Brooke shriek as it became clear just what he was doing.

And that was where she was wrong.

Escaflowne dropped out of the little ship and Van pulled the correct lever to change its mode. With in moments it had turned into a great metal dragon for him to control. He circled the little ship once, got all of the enemy guymelef's attention and then purposely went in the opposite direction of where the ship was headed.

Allen had told them they were heading to the Capital of Asturia, so he figured, he'd lose these idiots and then double back.

Brooke watched him go the panic subsiding for all of two seconds before it returned again as she watched Escaflowne disappear over the cliffs.

"Well you could have told me it does THAT!" she hollered out after the retreating guymelef. She didn't know if Van could hear her but it made her feel a little better, as he disappeared out of sight with all those guymelefs chasing him.

"No! He's leaving!" Merle whined.

She didn't get it. But Brooke did.

"He's trying to help us escape by leading them away," Brooke told her. For a moment she was silent and then she felt a stabbing sort of pain in her head again, accompanied by a flash of the death card she had pulled earlier that evening. That was when the feeling settled in her chest. This terrible welling feeling that something terrible was looming, just beyond the horizon. Coincidently in the same direction that Van had gone.