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Hitomi blinked a few times, trying to figure out where the pain was coming from. Was she dying?The sky above her was red as the sun began to set and she prayed it wouldn't be the last thing she saw.
Van's paniced voice broke into her thoughts and suddenly the pain lifted and Hitomi realized she was on the steps and Christopher had been laying over her as a human shield.
Van pulled the knight to the side and a sob escaped Hitomi's throat as she saw the dagger in his side.
Hitomi held her hand out to Van who quickly squeezed it and then returned to attending his injured friend. Hitomi couldn't take her eyes off of Christopher's blue gaze. He looked so calm as he apologized to Van for getting injured.
"You saved my wife." Van choked out, "I owe you my kingdom and so much more. Hold on, my friend. I will get you help."
"It won't work." a small voice brought Hitomi's attention back to the three blondes.
"Why not?" Hitomi asked Dilandau as he stepped forward. He looked as though he wanted to help her to her feet.
"It was poisoned." he stopped moving suddenly when his eyes fell on Hitomi's stomack. Her cloak had fallen away and her belly was easily seen.
"It was ment for you!" Selena yelled pointing at Hitomi, "You and the demon you carry inside your womb!"
Hitomi's eyes went fuzzy as she tried to stand and suddenly she could see white streaks in the red sky. Focusing slowly Hitomi squinted and followed the streaks downward with her eyes. Four or five of them met above Allen's head.
Hitomi walked unsteadily down the stairs, still staring at the streaks, afraid she would loose them if she blinked.
"What are you doing?" Selena took a step back before realizing what she was doing and then stood her ground, "You have no weapons."
"I have a few." Hitomi answered slowly before reaching her hand out to Allen. He looked so sad and lost, "I'll help you if I can." she whispered and his eyes flickered to her face.
So even now he was trying to fight it.
Her hand stopped just above his arm. There was resistance- the streaks were realy strings, just as in her dream. Magic of some sort.
"Attack her!" Selena yelled at her older brother, "Kill her."
Allen's eyes once again fell to Hitomi's but this time there was no friend looking at her asking for help. His eyes had gone blank and glassy.
Without knowing if it was going to work Hitomi grabbed the string nearest her and sent a jolt of power into her fist.
It snapped.
Hitomi pulled her hand back in pain and watched as the rest of the strings loosened and the disappeared around the blonde knight.
Selena swung her head around to look at the soldiers on the edge of the forest. They were too far away to see clearly but Hitomi could see the strings attached to a good many of them like spotlights pointing them out in the crowd.
Hitomi closed her eyes and rached out, trying to feel the distant strings and the lives they were controlling. With her eyes closed she felt Selena reach for something but freeze as Allen stepped between the Queen and the Zaibach soldier.
"If I were you I wouldn't do that." Allen's voice was hoarse from disuse but the threat was still there.
Hitomi almost smiled but felt her hand hit something very solid in the air. Without much thought Hitomi sent her power reaching and pulling untill the strings began to snap. The strings didn't seem to want to break and they stung against Hitomi's powers, even from so far away, as she reached for more of them.
"Hitomi, we have to get Chris out of here." Van touched Hitomi's arm gently.
Feeling the last of the strings break Hitomi opened her eyes, "Allen will look after the others here." Allen nodded, his sword still pointed at Selena's throat.
"We wil come for your child. You haven't won. Again and again you will have to fight to save the life of the demon you carry." Selena snarled but couldn't do anything else without impailing herself on her brother's sword.
"And you will fail and fail again." Van snarled right back.
"Hitomi?" Dilandau kept his eyes on the ground, "Can you take me with you?"
Selena gasped then growled, "You traitor. I knew you would turn on me!"
"We're fading, Selena. I know you can feel it. I don't want to die just so others will understand what happens to people like us. You know that's why we're still here. No one knows what will happen when we fade completely but I'm damn sure nothing will be done to stop it. Die at the feet of Zaibach's new Master if that's what you want. I want something different." Dilandau turned away from her to look at Hitomi, "Do what you will just don't send me back to Zaibach."
Van stood there looking the albino over, "You're willing to vow your life in protecting Fanelia by telling us everything you know about Zaibach?"
"Everything." Dilandau vowed.
"Then come with us." Van turned and helped Hitomi up the stairs to where Christopher lay gasping for air.
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Dilandau wanted to fidget under Hitomi's serious gaze but knew better. He'd sworn his life to their will and at the moment the Queen was looking at him intently. He felt as though she was looking though him. He was scared and sure anyone who even glanced at him could see it on his face.
They'd been in Mr. Kanzaki's office most of the morning. Hitomi seemed to be avoiding everyone but him and Van. A hard feat considering most of Fanelia was living on the Kanzaki's family land. Hitomi had explained to him that the land and building had been her grandmother's. When her grandmother died the place was passed to Uchida. They'd only ever used it in the summers as a get away.
He'd never been to the Mystic Moon. He'd also never been face to face with the Queen's angry father.
They'd been on 'Earth' for 7 days and Dilandau was watched every minute of every day. He understood why but it was the random outbursts around him that bothered him. People wanted to go home. They wanted to get back to their lives. As it was they weren't allowd outside of the boundries of the Kanzaki property. It was large and out a ways from town but it small once you carmmed 400 or so people onto the land. Some had returned 3 days ago to Fanelia while others stayed behind untill the Quenn decided it was time for them to go back.
Some were angry that they had to wait while their family memebrs had gone back into a potenialy dangerous situation.
Van had explained that someone had to go through and salvage what they could.
Dilandau wondered why he wasn't having any outbursts. He use to be a very rash person with no patients at all. Now he found himself sitting back, on the Mystic Moon, under guard 24/7 and all he was afraid of was what would happen if Mr. Kanzaki found out about what he had done to Van and Hitomi four years ago.
He wasn't the same person he was four years ago. In fact, the way he looked at it, he was half of what he was four years ago. He'd thought long and hard about it over the past 2 months and believed his seperation from Selena hadn't gone as planned. Selena had come out with more of Dilandau's personality than he had. She was battle thirsty while he was better at taking a step back and seeing the whole picture before acting.
It made him sick sometimes to think about how Selena must have had been before Zaibach had taken her all those years ago.
Hitomi shifted and Dilandau remembered she was in the room. With a hand on her belly she stood, "Van will be in to ask you about Zaibach's allies. I'm going to lay down."
Dilandau managed a smile before Hitomi left the office room and then it hit him.
He was alone for the first time in a long time.
He stretched slowly. There was never enough room to stretch and whenever Mr. Kanzaki was around he tried not to make any sudden movements. The man seemed on edge all of the time.
Slowly, very slowly his muscles realized they could relax.
It felt nice to relax.
Rolling his shoulders slowly while bringing his arms straight out, Dilandau turned to look out the window and found Van smirking at him.
"What?" the blonde asked, dropping his arms at once.
"Hitomi told me to leave you alone but I thought you'd be trying to escape and so I rushed, very quietly so Hitomi wouldn't hear me, to make sure you were still here."
"I'm still here." Dilandau stood still, trying to figure out if Van was making fun of him or actauly talking to him, person to person.
"Yea, I came around the corner in time to see you stand up." Van walked over and sat down behind the desk, "I actualy thought you might be trying to run away. Then I saw your face."
"What about it?" Dilandau remained standing, unsure of where this was going.
"You look almost happy. I think free is a better word to use." Van smiled down at his wedding band, "I promised Hitomi I'd be nice to you but now it won't be so hard. I know you want to be here and I know you owe Hitomi your life for agreeing to trust you."
"But you were the one who said I could come." Dilandau felt as though his world was tipping more and more off center. First he found himself on the Mystic Moon and now Van was saying he (sorta) trusted him?
"I saw what Hitomi was thinking. Her eyes say alot even when she's trying to keep a secret. She was hoping we would have the chance to help you get away from Zaibach. She was just afraid you wouldn't want to leave."
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"I tried." Van said quietly as he curled up to his wife in bed, "I treid to stay relaxed but I couldn't. My back muscles feel like rocks."
"You were doing so well. You even seemed to like talking to Dilandau." Hitomi rolled over to look at her husband.
"I thought you were taking a nap when I talked to our new friend?" Van smirked as Hitomi blushed. He could see it even in the dim light.
"I was just checking to make sure you weren't going to act like men!" Hitomi crossed her arms over her chest and looked at the ceiling.
"What do you mean by that?" Van asked, almost laughing. He held back the laugh deciding Hitomi might take offense, and the last thing he wanted to do was piss off his pregnant wife.
"I mean, I was worried you two would start arguing about the past or old grudges and all the pointless stuff." Hitomi glanced at Van, "But I left when I saw that you two were acting like adults and playing nice."
Van did laugh this time.
"What did you find out about Zaibach?" Hitomi asked.
"Well, Karth is involved just as we thought. Kaitlyn is even living on the Zaibach land like a Queen come home." Van sneered, all his good humor gone and all his tension returned.
"I was wondering why they hadn't shown up at our door with more trouble. Now they're just helping others to bring woe." Hitomi sighed, "What are we suppose to do?"
"I'm not sure. It seems Karth had more money hidden away than even Kaitlyn knew. He's been funding everything right down to the kidnapping and brain washing of Zaibach's puppets. It seems that even with all thier magics they couldn't fully control the strong willed." Van snuggled closer, feeling like as if he could sleep for days if his mind would only shut off. He kept seeing Kaitlyn sitting back like royalty laughing at the latest bunch of prisoners as they begged to return to their families.
"She's such a horrible creature. I never should have let her get away with attacking me. She should have been brought to trial and killed just as any other being would have been."
"It's not your fault she is the way she is. Even if she had died her father would have found a way of asisting Zaibach." Van ran his fingers gently through Hitomi's hair untill she fell asleep.
It was still evening but she needed all the rest she could get. Come morning they would be returning to Fanelia with the rest of their poeple to start rebuilding what they could.
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Tina blinked. It felt like her eyes were full of sand. It hurt to close them, hurt to leave them open and no matter what she tried they kept burning.
"You haven't slept for days." came a gentle voice and through blurred eyes Tina could see Hitomi standing in the doorway.
Tina had been one of the first to return to Fanelia. When it turned out that the doctors on the Mystic Moon didn't know how to help Christopher Hitomi had taken him out of the hospitol and back to Fanelia where he would be cared for by herself and Tina. Every morning Hitomi would arrive to draw more of the poison from Christopher's wound. It was a slow process and so far Christopher hadn't awoken for any of it.
He'd been unconcious for 8 days. And Tina hadn't left his side for more than a few moments. She sat at his side telling him all the stories she had loved when she was little and she even sang to him at night when she couldn't sleep.
"I don't want him to be alone." Tina ran her hands gently over the blankets smoothing wrinkles that weren't realy there.
"I doubt he would want you to whither away. I've set up a bed for you in the next room. I'll sit with him while you sleep." Hitomi handed Tina a mug of tea and led her to the small room next to Christopher's.
The Queen watched closely as the young woman sipped the tea as she sat on the edge of the bed. Tina opened her mouth to explain that she wasn't in the least bit tired when she tipped over onto the pillow. Hitomi caught the mug and pulled the covers over the poor girl's thin frame.
Hitomi felt bad about tricking her with the tea but she knew it was only way to get the girl to rest. Tina's thin frame and hallow looking eyes scared her. As Tina sat by Christopher's bedside trying to help him get better she had been neglecting her own health.
Van was sitting next to the knight's bed when Hitomi returned to the room.
"Are you sure he'll get better?" Van asked, looking down at his friend.
"He won't be as he was." Hitomi stepped up next to the bed and pointed at the spot where the dagger had sunk into him, "I had to pull the poison to one spot to keep it from reaching his heart and his brain. I tried to get it all as close to the wound as I could but it seems some of it made it's way into his right leg, just below the wound. Most of the poison is gone but his leg won't be right. He'll need to learn how to walk again and then he'll still need a crutch."
"But he is alive." Van squeezed Hitomi's arm, "Thanks to you."
"Thanks to your mother." Hitomi frowned, "I was always good at knowing where people were but my power went further after the Draconian blood. Now, It's like I can find anything I need to inside the human body. Thoughts, poisons, blood cells... sometimes it scarey."
Van stood silent next to his wife. She'd never willingly started talking about her powers before and here she was clueing him into a huge part of what it was she could do. He'd never asked knowing that he trusted her and her powers. So, in his mind there was no real need to know the details.
"You can move things too." he said after awhile.
"But I could do that not long after I went back to Earth when the war ended." Hitomi sighed, "I don't even know all the things I'm capable of." she whispered.
"And now you're saving lives." Van kissed Hitomi's temple before looking down at his friend. By Hitomi's calculations Christopher would be waking up in the morning. Van wanted to be there to tell his friend about the rebuilding and the reports coming in about how quickly Zaibach had retreated after Hitomi had freed their puppets.
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A/N: Yay, it's done. I got stuck about half way through. I hope you all liked it.
REVIEW! (please)