The Dragon Priestess

AvalonReeseFanFics

A/N: Happy Monday my wonderful readers! I'm sorry this update is late. The drive back was four hours and I was too tired to update when I got home. But here it is. Are you excited to see how this plays out? We've got a lot of interesting things happening in this chapter. I might have another late chapter next week, hopefully not, but I'm struggling to find the time to write now that I'm back to work. I'll try to get the next chapter done but I can't make any promises other then, if I do miss an update it will only be the one week. As always don't forget to leave a review and I'll see you guys next week! (Hopefully)

Chapter 15: Seal of the Brothers pt. 3

Dilandau had walked back down the aisle of guymelefs to where the so-called great dragon was being housed. He had a lot of reservations about this, and he had wanted to talk to Kaydence about how unbelievable it was that that punk kid was the pilot and not someone more formidable. But Folken was bogarting all of Kaydence's time, probably out of spite.

So, he found himself standing in front of the great guymelef wondering what all the fuss was about.

"So, this is the threat to the future of the Zaibach Empire, huh?" he asked himself. He did that a lot. Talked to himself. No one really commented on it now, but back before they knew he was ruthless a lot of comments about his propensity to talk to himself were made. A couple of hard smacks and one death and now no one said a thing if he were to talk to himself.

Well, Kaydence teased him about it, but he didn't take it negatively from her. He wasn't sure why but he just didn't.

He gave the guymelef in front of him another once over before scoffing. "It's just a stupid antique."

And that was true. Yes it was Yspano design, but the thing was old. He was surprised it wasn't covered in dust or rusting… or falling apart.

"Not much of a threat if you ask me."

Except no one was asking him because he was all alone. Again, he could have been with Kaydence, but someone needed her presence and she never said no to him. Even when she really, really should. It would teach Folken a lesson to lose all of Kaydence's favour and grace, he'd probably find himself floundering without it and Dilandau would have found that funny. But she was too head over heels for him to do that. God he wished he could spend more time with her, give her some of his courage and backbone.

But as his thoughts moved back to Folken his eyes returned to the energist chamber and he found he had a question.

"How did Folken know how to work this thing?"

It seemed standard, put a hand up to it, because that was how Folken had got it to open the chamber door. But it must have sensed that Folken wasn't the right person, because the energist began to glow a different color, a wrong color. Dilandau wasn't sure how he knew that it was wrong, just that he did.

Hesitantly he put a hand up to the energist. Well… if Folken could do it… so could he…. Right?

Already the stone was a glowing, and not in a good way, still Dilandau put a hand to the crystal, just to see what would happen.

The stone began to glow white, and get hot under his fingertips, he tried to pull away but he suddenly couldn't move. The heat continued grow, to the point where he thought he might have been cooking in his suit. The glow began to blind him, so he closed his and eyes and tried not to scream though he knew that he was, that he couldn't help it.

And then there was an explosion, one that threw Dilandau back. One that masked a smaller ship colliding with the fortress.

Van woke up from whatever his brother had slipped him when the fortress began to shake. He was drowsy at first but as the din of growing chaos became louder in his ears, he steadfast became more awake.

He got up, put his boots back on and then went to the door. Locked. Great. Just great. He pressed his ear to it and listened.

"What the heck is going on out there?" he wondered to himself as chaos continued outside his door.

He didn't get an answer for a good long minute or so. To his shock he found himself wishing for Brooke again. Even if that ghostly version of her couldn't hear him it would be nice to see her, to hear her again.

He had a feeling, if he was stuck here in the castle with Zaibach forever then she'd probably end up with Allen, and for some reason that made him feel… slimy. He wasn't sure why. It just did.

Then there came the sound of a key in the lock and Van found himself moving away from the door. He wasn't sure who was coming in, he looked around for a weapon and found that his blade had been taken away.

Great. Great thing to have stolen from him a sword handed down from king to king, father to son. The only little bit of his father he had left other than the Escaflowne. God, if he saw Folken again he'd throttle him.

The door opened and a boy with a blonde bowl cut was standing there, a grimace of anger on his face. He wore the same blue armour as the men in Dilandau's battalion, so no doubt this was one of the guys who had attacked both Allen's Outpost and Fanelia. Was he here to finish the job off?

The two glared at each other for a good couple seconds before something collided with the back of the boy's head and he went down in a heap.

Allen appeared in the doorway, a smirk on his face. "So you're still in one piece."

Dang, and here Van was thinking that he'd never be happy to see Allen.

"You… you came to rescue me?" he found himself asking because honestly, he was completely surprised that he would chance this. Just for Van. Van, who had been a colossal pain in his ass the whole time he was in Allen's care.

"There isn't much time, let's go," he said and together the two ran away and down the corridor.

He didn't want to admit it but he was happy. Happy that Allen had come to get him. Happy that he was going to get out of this situation and not be killed for his guymelef by his own brother, or worse end up a Zaibach slave. And happy… happy he was going to see Brooke again after all.

Brooke had to climb over a few things to get into that room, bars of sorts. She wasn't entirely sure what she was climbing to be honest, she wasn't really looking. She just knew she had to lift her legs and duck things. She had to hold her breath, even though she was certain she wasn't underwater, she just instinctively knew she couldn't breathe while walking in between these two rooms.

When she got out on the other side she found herself surrounded by shattered mirrors. She turned back to tell Merle she was alright, to tell her how to cross, or to stay there until Brooke found Van again. But when she turned she watched the image of the other side, of Merle's panicked face fade and then Brooke was looking at her face reflected back at her through a broken mirror.

Right… so… okay… what had just happened?!

She looked around again. At all the broken mirrors. At the table with the shattered glass top. She didn't know what had happened, she couldn't explain it. She couldn't stay in here either. Van clearly wasn't in there with her and the whole point of coming here had been to find him before he got a sword in his back.

She didn't even have time to consider what was happening to her either, or how she had managed to walk through a mirror into this room.

She could worry about all of that after she had saved Van.

Brooke opened up the door, took one step outside and ran into someone.

Someone who looked just like her.

Brooke staggered back her eyes wide staring at the doppelganger in front of her. Other than the clothes and the haircut they could have been twins. Which was ridiculous because her twin was dead.

"What in the fresh hell is this?" Brooke hissed to herself. "They cloned me?"

The clone's eyes crinkled in surprise. She huffed and crossed her arms over her chest. "Obviously not."

"Well I don't see how else there would be two of me," Brooke said. "Unless I'm doing that thing where I end up somewhere else..." She stretched out a single finger to poke the person across from her and came in contact with the warm skin of her hand. "Nope, you're real."

"It's called astral projecting, and just because you're good at it doesn't mean you're going to beat me."

The clone was glaring at her now and Brooke had no idea why. Beat her in what? She didn't even know what astral projecting was until she did it.

"Okay… I don't know what's happening or who you are but…"

"You don't know who I am?" she asked then had the nerve to laugh at her. "Come on, drop the act, we both know you know what's happening and we both know you know why you're here, Booboo."

Brooke's eyes went wide. It was a very long time since anyone had called her that pet name.

Only her family called her that.

A few nervous chuckles escaped Brooke. "No… no… no… see… my family's dead. So you can't be Kaydence… because you're dead. You died. There is no way that you stayed here, on this planet and left me up there, alone. You wouldn't do that to me."

"Dead? Our family isn't dead don't be silly," Kaydence said though a strange sort of nervousness passed over her features as she said that.

"Excuse me? You don't remember the car crash? Yeah? The crash? The one that killed everyone but me… and now apparently you."

Kaydence's eyes narrowed, her nostrils flared. "No, you're lying."

"Why would I lie about that?" Brooke cried but Kaydence was shaking her head.

"No, you're just trying to trick me. I know you're here to usurp my divine destine, why else would you marry a Fanel?"

God Van's lie seemed to be causing all sorts of problems now. But Brooke had no idea what she was talking about. Divine destiny? What did that mean?

"WHAT?" Brooke shouted and then she stopped. "Okay, you know what, I don't have time for this."

Brooke turned away, heard her sister shout: no at her and when she turned she saw a burst of flame coming at her.

For a second the world stilled, Brooke lifted her arm, wanting to protect herself and a shield of ice manifested just above her arm absorbing the blow of the fire.

Brooke lowered her arm and just stared at her sister, who seemed surprised by this turn of events. Brooke felt something come over her, a sort of pressure behind her rib cage, suddenly angry. Angry that her sister left her as an orphan, angry that she had attacked her, angry that she wasn't happy to see her.

And when that pressure hit its boiling point Brooke pushed. She wasn't certain what she was pushing, but she made the motion and that wall of ice appeared again and slammed into her sister, taking her straight off her feet and down.

Brooke stood there, chest heaving, the anger draining out of her, realizing just what she had done. She looked down to her hands, Van had said she had called ice before but she had done it this time without water that wasn't… that wasn't normal. None of this was normal.

Another flash of red-coated intuition burned her eyes and she faltered. On the one hand she wanted to check if her sister was okay, but the other hand she had a feeling that Van was going to die and… well… she couldn't let that happen.

She didn't have time for this. She turned her back on her sister, the way her sister had done to her all those years ago, and then took off running hoping that her intuition was leading her to Van.

Van and Allen parted ways with a: "Escaflowne's down that way, I'll take care of business here." And then Van was flying down the hallway towards his guymelef, and Allen was taking on a group of Zaibach soldiers by himself.

Van wasn't even worried about him. Allen had been taking down soldiers all over this floating fortress. No one had bested him then and no one would best him now.

He got to Escaflowne and heard someone call his name. Not someone. Folken.

Van turned immediately, though really, he should have been more concerned with escaping but the anger was taking over again.

He stopped, looked up at the man who was standing above him on a high walkway and shouted: "Brother!" at him. He hoped those words hurt him, to remember that he had turned his back on his family, his people, on Van, for this.

But Folken showed no signs remorse, he showed no emotion at all. All he did was show him the sword he had taken from Van and then he tossed down to him. Van caught it, confused as to why Folken would give this back. Maybe because he knew Van was leaving and this sword, a Fanelian sword passed down from king to king, held more than sentimental value.

But if he cared about that sort of stuff, why hadn't he ever come home?!

"Come back!" he shouted but Folken walked away disappearing into the smoke clouds.

He glared at him, even when he couldn't see him anymore. He glared hoping that his brother could feel the angry and disappointed heat from his gaze and then heard a shout of: Van! Behind you!" in Brooke's distinctive timber.

He turned to find Dilandau, sword out and ready charging him. But before Dilandau could get to him, before Van could bring his sword up to block, there was a whoosh and a block of ice flew past Van and collided head on with Dilandau. Dilandau went flying and Van turned to where the ice had come from and found a wide eye Brooke who had turned her wide-eyed gaze to her own hands.

"What the hell is happening?!"

Van looked to where a heap or red armour was groaning and turned back to her. "Uh… since when can you… you have powers?" he asked her. "Why isn't this something you told me about… I mean… if you didn't trust me I get it but I think maybe you should have mentioned…"

"I don't have powers!"

Van turned back to Dilandau, who was stunned and clearly down for the count while also slightly damp from the melted sheet of ice, and then back to her. He cocked an eyebrow. If she didn't have powers, what the hell did she call that?

"I don't know how I did that!" she wailed. "I was normal. I was just a regular girl and now I'm wondering if I got bit by a radioactive spider or some magic spider."

She turned weepy eyes up to him and he realized that she was freaking out. "I don't know what's happening I… what's wrong with me?"

Van put out a hand to her. "I… I don't know, but we're going to… we're going to figure it out."

For a moment she smiled at him, like those words alone and brightened up her very day and then her eyes narrowed, and then very, very rapidly got extremely wide.

"VAN!" she cried pointing and once again he turned this time just in time to block Dilandau's sword.

For a second they were locked in the position, Van really should have taken his sword out but Brooke had distracted him.

Speaking of Brooke…

"What the hell is your damage? You tin can wearing weirdo!" she shouted right into Dilandau's face from over Van's shoulder. Van watched Dilandau's eyes flit over to her, he could literally see the boy wondering if he could get out of this position to grab Brooke and used her against Van. But he couldn't cause if he tried Van would get the upper hand and run him through before he could get a hand on Brooke.

Without a second of hesitation.

Didn't mean he actually wanted Dilandau to try and grab Brooke though.

"Brooke…" he growled and she seemed to realize what she was doing.

"Kay, I'm going to go stand over there, by your suit, and let you two duke this out," she said. But as she walked away, she pointed at Dilandau and said: "You're weird! WEIRD!"

"Girl has magic powers but I'm weird," Van hissed.

"I should have killed you when I had the chance!" Dilandau shouted at him. It was too loud too, they were literally one foot away from each other. Van could hear him, he didn't need to shout.

Van managed to get his sword out of the sheath. He threw Dilandau back and then immediately had to block another blow.

"You're going to die!"

Van blocked another one. By the gods this boy was crazy!

"I hate you!"

Brooke was right. What the hell was this guy's problem? What the hell had Van done to him to cause him this much anger and hatred? They had literally just met and Brooke has been the one sassing him. Seriously. What the hell?

Van blocked one last blow and then pushed back, and swiped up. He managed to nick Dilandau, slashing right across the right of his face. He missed his eye, his nose, anything of importance, but he had left a terrible gash running from his hairline down to his jaw.

Dilandau backed away, eyes wide. He made no move to attack Van again, but his free hand went to his face.

"My… my… Face!" he cried collapsing to his knees.

Really? That's all Van had to do? Well he wasn't going to kick a dog when he was down. That would be cruel.

"Ohh! I'd say burn but you got sliced!"

Too bad Brooke didn't feel the same way. Van jogged away from Dilandau's quivering, collapsed form and over to Brooke's side.

"Brooke… do you think... do you think maybe we should you know, escape?"

"Yeah," she said with a flippant shrug but he could tell, she was still freaking out. He got to his guymelef, picked Brooke up and then went to get Allen. It was time to leave this hellhole.

Brooke was so damn tired.

But Van was back and their airship was steadily climbing and leaving that icky floating fortress behind. The stress of the situation was finally leaving her and all that adrenaline was leaving her body. She was exhausted. She wanted to lie down and sleep, though, truthfully, she was afraid of what would happen when she closed her eyes.

They were all on the bridge, the sun was rising above the clouds and they had this wonderful view. They were all celebrating. Brooke hadn't gotten a chance to hug Van yet, between rescuing him from Dilandau and him getting in his guymelef and back onto the Crusade, there hadn't been a chance to hug him.

And now that they were on the bridge, Merle had grabbed onto his arm and refused to let go. He just let it happen, and also let her go about licking his face so Brooke was going to have to wait her turn.

But he hugged Merle and wouldn't let go. With Merle still in his arms Van turned to all the smiling faces of all the people who had come to rescue him.

"I was trying to save you guys, but you ended up saving me again."

Allen nodded, and ever gracefully said: "We have Brooke to thank for that."

Van should have known that it was all her. She fucking astral planed to find him, but still he looked at her as if he were surprised and then turned away with a stiff: "I see."

"Wow… really? A thank you would have been appropriate there, Van."

Van just rolled his eyes at her while the small crew of men around them snorted.

"Here comes a marital spat," Gaddes sighed. "They really are a terrible couple."

"Couple?" Merle echoed. "They're not together."

At that everyone turned to Van, but Allen's eyes first went to Brooke who sort of blushed. This was all Van's idea, she had just gone along with it.

"Merle…"

"Wait? They're not married? But they argue like a married couple!"

"Married?!" Merle wailed. "Lord Van! You married her? WHEN?!"

Van clearly sighed aggressively, their secret out in the open. "I didn't know who you were or what your intentions were, I told you that to protect her from you," he admitted and then made a big show of turning away from Brooke. "Well, I'm glad it's out in the open. Now I don't have to pretend that I'm married to some as embarrassingly uncouth as her."

Brooke frowned, what… why did he have to say it like that? After everything she had done. She might have cried if she wasn't so goddamn angry with him.

"Remember when I first met you and you said mean things to me?" Brooke found herself growling and Van turned back to her, a slight tinge of worry coloring his cheeks. "Yeah, going the right way to get slapped again Van."

"Alright now," Allen said stepping in between them. "It's been a long day. We all better turn in for some rest. Especially you, I'm worried you're running yourself ragged."

But Brooke didn't want to rest. Because she knew, the second she did her mind would be whirling. All around why she suddenly had magic powers and a twin again. And maybe a little bit about why Van was suddenly being so mean to her.