AN: Last chapter! I hope you all enjoyed the story 

Chapter 13

The sea has gotten a bit rough now, and me, unaccustomed to the constant rocking and vertigo leave my bunkroom for the salt spray air on deck.

I walk along quietly, liking to think myself alone in my movements, ignoring the girl trailing behind me with a thick, rough weaved blanket through over her shoulders, her hair wiping around her in the ocean breeze. She stops moving when I stop, as if to keep her presence behind me hidden and I pretend not to notice.

…Mainly because I don't want to think about her. It's too painful because every time I look at her, I'm reminded of Hitomi.

I'd told Dryden and Allen what Celes had told me. I told them that Hitomi probably wasn't going to meet us. Dryden hadn't said anything while Allen insisted they return and get her properly.

"She's a war hero, they can't just keep her imprisoned there."

But I had ignored him. Gone to my small room to be alone for a while as I often did when upset. I didn't want to talk to anyone.

And I didn't want to be around Celes.

She stops following me at some point near the front of the ship. I watch from the corner of my eye – almost automatically – as she goes to the railing and stands on tiptoe so she might see over the edge of the ship. She can barely do so. All she must see if sky, a little bit dark now.

It was colder out now, but somehow still muggy so the air seemed to wrap around you thickly.

There were refugees up here. Men dressed elegantly, hankered down against the ocean wind with their family, or by themselves next to barrels. One man seemed to repeatedly be getting in the crews way, and was being told off for standing around.

There were woman, hunched over with children or in groups, heads bowed together so they may talk to one another. A great many of them didn't seem to want to talk at all. Had they gone through what Hitomi did? Were they slaves to someone?

A selfish part of me didn't care about them at all. Didn't care that we got them out of there. All I could think about was 'why did we save them and Hitomi is still back there?'

I felt guilty and angry all at the same time.

I was staring hard at a woman in plain clothing hunched over a small baby when someone spoke behind me and I turned to find Dryden there.

Over his shoulder I could see Celes, turning to watch us before moving along down the ship more, her hand running along the railing of the ship.

I'm amazed at how easily I could locate her presence, and how naturally it came to me. I find I'm glaring at her for making me like this.

I haven't spoken to Dryden since I told him about Hitomi, and he looks at me now with a strange look on his face I can't discern.

"You're angry."

I snapped. "Of course I'm angry! Why wouldn't I be?"

Dryden sighed and shook his head. He was dressed back into his regular clothing. The King of Asturia.

"Why so hot-headed with me Van, I'm merely concerned."

I deflated. Just a little bit. Mainly because I was reminded of my former self. The angry person who lays dormant in my mind. Always-there… ready to burst. I thought I could control it now.

"It… isn't fair."

Now I'm embarrassed, because I sound like a child.

"No… it isn't, but you have to deal with the now and I feel you're not doing it right."

I glare. Angrily. Venomously. "You have no idea—"

"No idea what you're going through. I know, but…" and here he motioned to Celes who was kneeling down looking at something further down the docks. For a moment she seemed just like an ordinary girl as she suddenly reached for something quickly, then stood, clapping her hands together, trying to catch something before running to the rails to stand on tip-toe again.

"…But you have this girl to worry about. What are you going to do with her? We were originally thinking orphanage, but don't you think that's changed?"

I shrug, even though it's not something I want to do. "Whoever wants to take her."

He sighed. "You don't mean that. I know you don't."

I stay silent because I know he's right.

"She's Hitomi's isn't she?"

I'm silent, before I nod slowly. It made sense… she had to be. A child with Asha…

"But she told me she didn't know whose child she was. She was telling the truth."

Dryden scratched his chin. "Well… that there is the mystery, but you need to follow your gut on this. If she is indeed Hitomi's daughter, I'm sure you don't want to put her into a nunnery or orphanage."

I shook my head slowly. "No."

"Good." Dryden smiled, an odd smile. "Problem solved then. Either you can raise her, or we can live in our palace and be raised by the women there."

I shake my head, a little bit forceful this time. No… that isn't right.

"I'll take her. To Fanalia. She can live with me."

"Suit yourself." He turns to look at Celes, and I watch his gaze turn from her to me out of the corner of his eye.

I turn away.

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"Bruises all…must have… wound healing quickly though."

What?

I'd woken up several times before this, but never had things come into this clarity. I could never hear voices before, or make out anything in the room, only feel the soft blankets around me and the pain in my side.

My temples were throbbing now, and the pain was still there all over my body, massing somewhere in my side so that with every breath I took it nearly winded me. I smelt something sweetly strong, almost like peppermint, and something horrible coming from my right that smelt like burnt cabbage.

I couldn't place the voice, and I couldn't move my head properly to see who it was, but maybe they'd seen me open my eyes for a second because someone was suddenly hovering over me.

Blonde. Blue eyes.

I knew this person but I couldn't place them.

Where am I?

What happened?

Why can I not voice anything out loud? Why can't I get my mouth to work, and my brain to form proper sentences?

Sleep. Sleep is all I know.

I swallow stuff they give me because I'm too tired to fight it off and can't find the words to protest.

If it was poison I was taking it willingly.

It tasted horrible.

I move my hands along the smooth covers. Something like silk? I was so accustomed to silk since coming back to Gaea.

Gaea.

Was that where I was? Or was I back in the hospital? Had I escaped from my room again and been strapped to the bed? Was that why I couldn't move?

I'd show them something. Just watch. I'll escape again.

I always do.

They seem to know my name, these people. One speaks with a really gentle voice. Quiet. She's blonde too. The other speaks with authority in a louder, more confident voice. I hear them giggle over something in the corner one time and I feel almost like I should be involved in the laughter.

Is it pointed at me? Are they laughing at me?

Poor crazy girl strapped to the bed with buckles and thick canvas.

No… even as I think it I know none of this is true. I'm not there anymore. I'm free from there.

And free from somewhere else aren't I?

Is that why I feel so relieved… but not complete.

Where is Van? The name I've always kept hidden within myself. The never I'll never forget.

There is someone else I'm waiting on as well… who I miss carrying in my arms.

I remember things… but I don't know if they're from a dream or if they actually happened. Memories that are so foggy you worry you've made them up… or suppressed them.

But it seems important now that I remember these things, the things that had been kept deep down inside of me. Things I didn't want to think about and forgotten because of it.

I weep as I remember. I weep because I'd forgotten, and I wonder who I should ever have forgotten it. Something so important… something that would have – should have – given me great joy and love.

I remember running my fingers over soft, new skin and burying my face into the crook of her small neck as someone pulled her from my arms.

More hot liquid down my throat. Someone is drying my face with a tissue. Laurette? No… she is no longer here.

I'm safe from her.

"Shh, shh Hitomi. You're all right now."

It's odd to hear my real name from a woman's lips. It had been a while.

The woman turns to the other one in the room, tucking my tear stained tissue into a bowl filled with what looked like medical supplies.

"How long as she been talking like this?"

"A few days now."

A few days? Talking. I don't see the other girl. She must be by the door, out of my line of sight because it hurts to turn my head like that.

A sigh. I turned my wavering gaze on the woman. I know her.

"Where—"

She turns to me quickly, setting the bowl of supplies down on the counter close to my head before taking a seat on the bed. It dips slightly from her weight, and she reached a hand to brush hair away that had been sticking to my forehead.

"You're in Asturia."

Asturia.

I don't remember closing my eyes, but I slept after that without any dreams.

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I can barely recall the hallway I'm walking down, all I know is my legs are carrying me on at a pace that causes people to step out of the way hastily and stare at me as I thunder past with a little black haired girl at my feet following quietly behind me.

I don't remember telling her to follow me, and I'm sure she was supposed to be in Millerna's care once Dryden explained the situation to her, but as soon as I heard Hitomi was there I didn't much care what was going on around me.

They'd arrived in Asturia and made port that morning at early sunrise, and they hadn't made it back to the palace until everything was straightened out with the refugees. An encampment had been set up for them near the edge of the city on the orders Dryden sent along ahead of us.

The ones going to be on trial for desertion came with us to the palace in two large horse drawn buggies, flanked on both sides by Asturian guards. They were men mostly in the carts, dressed in finery and looking miserable now that they were being brought back to face punishment for leaving when there was a war to fight.

Traitors. The were traitors, and I had glared at them whenever they were within my sight. I didn't care enough to watch their trials because I wanted nothing more to do with them. Some of them were said to even have been passing messages for Zaibach about the movements being made by the allied forces.

But that didn't matter now. Not anymore.

I opened up the door I'd been instructed to without knocking. It wasn't in mind right then to be polite and careful. I couldn't… there was no holding me back now.

She was there. She wasn't dead. I had thought the worse and it was a blow – though a pleasant one – to find her intact.

Or partially…

I find her lying on a large bed in the room, looking pale and withdrawn. Her skin is paler than it was the last time I saw her, the brown glow that the island had given her seemed to have worn away almost completely, and her breath was coming a bit shallow. When I stepped closer I saw that sweat beaded her forehead and she winced ever so often.

"Lord Van."

I turn to the small sound and see Celena standing there, looking at me a bit wearily… or was it pity? I couldn't tell at the moment. She performed a small curtsy and I watched her gaze move curiously to Celes who was inching towards the bed, putting her small hands on the comforter and leaning up to look at her the drained woman lying there.

"What's wrong with her. I heard she was hurt but-"

But he'd taken off before they could tell him.

"She was cut in the side. She's waken up several times now… but she seems a bit delirious. We've been keeping the fever down enough that she's not in any danger."

I nod as relief floods me and I move closer to the bed.

"She… she's been having terrible dreams. She speaks in her sleep and cries out all the time. She's in a lot of pain and we can't do much about it…"

I turn to her, my gaze sharp and she seems to shrink back a moment before holding fast.

"Will she live?"

Celena took a deep breath. "We're not sure yet, Lord Van."

Celes had pulled herself up onto the bed by this point, settling herself near Hitomi's pillow. I watched fascinated as the little girl smoothed Hitomi's hair back to look better at her face, her small fingers tracing the lines on her forehead as she winced in pain again.

"She's hurting."

I nod, not knowing what else to say, and turn away, staring hard at the wall. I want Celena to leave the room. I want Celes to leave the room… but I don't tell them too.

"She'll be ok though."

I turn to the small girl again as she turns her mismatched eyes on me, the eyepatch discarded for good. It's an eerie feeling that touches me whenever Celes looks at me like that. As if she's looking straight through me into my soul.

I don't say anything. Maybe it's too much to want to trust her words so badly.

Hitomi makes a small noise that is unattainable to my mind, and I lean forward as if she's about to wake up but her face only tightens for a moment than is still again.

"How did she get here?"

Celena's face constricted slightly as if the question was a confusing one, then she shook her head. "The pillar of light I suppose. I heard stories about your using them… and I saw her leave Gaea last time with it."

The pillar of light. Of course, I don't know why I didn't think about that before. Possibly because it seemed too easy. Why did Hitomi not mention that previously? Why hadn't she simply used it to come to Asturia earlier? Surely she could have brought Celes with her as well using it?

But then I knew that if Hitomi was able to use the pillar of light, she would have done so already.

So why was she able to use it now.

"The pendent."

I turn towards Celes who is peering up at me through a curtain of dark hair as she leans over Hitomi. She'd holding the red pendent I'd returned to Hitomi in the palm of her small hand. I'm thrown off by the fact Celes seemed to have heard my thoughts, or guessed what I was wondering about, but I don't show it, I only turn my gaze on Hitomi's face once more.

The pendent. Of course. It was made from energists… the only thing that seemed able to call the pillar of light down.

She didn't have the pendent until I returned it to her.

"She needs to rest." Celena comes forward and places a hand on my shoulder after a moment's hesitation. "Lord Van, I'll come find you when she awakes."

I shrug her hand off, and she takes a step back. "I'm going to stay here with her."

"She—"

"I'm going to stay with her."

She's quiet, and Celes is watching me now with a rather blank look on her face before her mismatched eyes turn to Celena.

"Of course… I'll get a cot set up in here for you two."

"Bring Celes one, I don't need it."

I could sleep in the armchair near the bed. Celes didn't seem to have any intent of leaving either, but she spoke up in her quiet, eerie way. "I don't need a cot."

"…Alright." And Celena left the room. I hear the small click the door makes and her feet on the stone and rugs in the hallway.

Hitomi doesn't wake up for a few days after that.

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I'm asleep when she awakens, having fallen asleep hours before staring at Hitomi hoping to see some sign of waking. I didn't realize I'd fallen asleep until I find myself slumped over in the chair, my chin on my chest and a horrible ache in my neck and back as I move to sit upright, feeling terrible that I'd fallen asleep and lost watch.

My gaze automatically goes to the bed, and I feel a momentary shock to find her sitting up slightly, propped up with the pillows with Celes laying along her uninjured side peering at me over Hitomi's body.

I think for a moment that she's still asleep until her eyes open and I find I'm staring into those familiar pools of emerald. A jerk upward as if been shocked and move towards the bed, slowing as I move to take a seat on the edge.

"Hitomi?"

She smiles, a slow, doppy smile and she opens her mouth, possibly to speak, but closes it again. Her lips are fairly dry looking and I reach for the pitcher of water and glass sitting on the bedstand.

"Can you speak?"

She smiles again. "Yes… I haven't forgotten how."

Though her voice sounds scratchy and unused, and she swallows deeply, giving me a thankful look as she takes the water from my hand with trembling hands. I hold the glass for her, but she seems embarrassed by this and glares slightly.

I can't help but smile. She hasn't changed much.

"Thank you." She sets the empty glass back on the bedstand, nearly dropping it a second as she can't lift her arm high enough, but I don't take it from her and she seems thankful for this because she takes my hand in hers a second later.

"At least I got here."

I chuckle, feeling a floor of relief so great flood my body that I feel tears build at the back of my eyes, burning. I don't let them come though. I can't show her how scared I was.

"Yes… at least you got here."

"I'm not that late am I?"

"You beat us here actually."

She smiles and moves her other arm, which is draped over Celes, pulling the little girl closer who snuggles up to Hitomi in a child-like fashion I never expected to see from her.

"Van, thank you."

"You don't need to thank me."

She's quiet for a while, simply looking at me. It seems she's studying my face. Celes presses her face into her mother's side, for I'm sure now that she's her child.

"I was such an idiot."

"For what?"

"Leaving you."

I let out my breath quickly and smile, chuckle a little bit out of relief and bury my face into her shoulder. I feel her fingers lace through my hair at the back of my head as I breathe in the smell of medicine and sickness coming off her.

She will be all right. She will.

She has to be.

Hitomi falls asleep again, her hand resting on mine and I intertwine our fingers together, as she sighs slightly in her sleep, her mouth slightly open, her hair plastered to her face, over her head like a crown.

Celes sits up with her mother's arm still draped over her and looks at me. I no longer see Asha in her at all, and nor does it matter anymore that I can see Hitomi in her either.

She's beautiful and I must take care of her.

She will do great things.

Just like her mother.

"You are happy now?"

"Yes… I am happy."

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AN: Ahhhh so it is done!! I hope you all enjoyed it. I hope the ending wasn't too hasty. Does she live or die?? It's up to you. Doesn't matter to me, but I know most of you will choose for her to live and that's perfectly fine with me. Either way I hope it's a happy ending. :)

Review please! I really want to hear all your input!!