There and Back again

GA1 Bla... I am tired...

SD: You're tired? Ha...work is exhausting...

GA1: glares I barely have a voice, Marching Band is evil

SD: Shrugs your own fault for screaming your head off... If I remember right, your instructor told you all to take it easy...

GA1: In Band... You yell the responses to commands...Moron...

SD: Right at less I still have a voice: P

GA1: Shut up...

SD: Right, the evilness has started. One of us already having to see the school building a week early, and the other, me, still gets this week freeeeeeee! sings

GA1: Death beseeches you...

SD: Glares Riiiiight sure... Anyways, enjoy yet another long chapter... And please review at the end... I am starting to think GA1 updates this story faster if there are more reviews...so please, let me keep my head, review!

Disclaimer: If you listen closely, you can hear the little crickets' chirping in the back ground saying that we own Escaflowne. Please do not believe them, Spirit Dancer fed them all my poison 0029, and they are hallucinating. Escaflowne belongs to the people who wrote it, and there for paid the billions of bucks for its showing so all us anime freaks could be happy. We do, however, own our respected characters, and also any plot changes.

Spirit Dancer: Aiko, Shiva

Glass Angel1: Ayane, Fira, Merlin, the Providence Children, and any other character that I must creature for the production of this story.

All rights reserved.

Summary:
Not just an ordinary retelling of Escaflowne. Two girl's wish away their lives of family abuse, only to find their wish answered. Destiny plays its hands hard as these two friends find themselves caught up in a war of a world they barely know, only to be torn apart along the way. Will they be able to overcome their trouble pasts, and save this new world for its own destruction? Or will their pasts become its means of destruction?

Category: Action/Adventure/Romance

xVxVxV; Same place, different point of view

xXxXxX; Scene change

Italics; Vision

XoX; Flashback

Chpt. 4 Path of Darkness

He walked down the dark halls of the ship, too deep in thought to notice the soldiers moving about. The small pang of regret tugged on his heart but he ignored it, there was nothing he could do now. Blue strains of hair fell over his brown eyes, as he shook his head trying to ride himself of the annoying laughter that played in the back of his mind. He could still see the young boy's smirk in the back of his mind as they had over looked the city.

"He went to far..." He mumbled to himself.

XoX flashback XoX

"I have no ideal what you're talking about Strategoes..." The silver haired boy just shrugged, innocently from the charge put against him. The boy could barely keep the smirk that tried oh so hard to cross his face. The ruby eyes looked down from the catwalk to ground blow as fire slowly ate away the city.

"The ideal, Dilandau, was to capture the dragon. Not to burn Fanelia to the ground." Dilandau just waved his hand in the air as he looked away from the destruction below and to the Melefs in the hanger. Looking at two particular ones, he frowned slightly before looking back at him with an annoyed look written across his pale face.

"This coming from Fanelia's traitor?" He just smirked at him, before looking at the two Dragonslayers that began to come up the catwalk. "Come now, Strategoes, so what if I burned the country? From how I see it, I saved the people from leaving under a backwards monarchy that could barely rule its own people. Let alone bring it up to be more then anything of a farming country anyway!"

"Dilandau-sama..." One of the Dragonslayers said, not allowing him to respond to the boy's comment. The two of them bowed their heads slightly before continuing. "We were able to capture one of the irregularities." Dilandau seemed slightly happy about this news, only for a second though, as he slapped his first-in-command and second-in-command across the face.

"One! I said I wanted both retrieved!"

"F-Forgive us, we were only able to find the one before the attack began." The taller of the two, Shesta, bowed his head again as the two took a step back. Dilandau just growled angrily as he walked pasted the two, ending his conversation with the man that had been standing behind him.

"Gather the slayers! I want to hear all the reports." The two exchanged looks for a second, thinking that they had gotten out of the worse of their lord's anger. "Now!"

XoX flash back end XoX

He shook his head, blue hair falling slightly over his eyes as he made his way down the corridors. As long as Dilandau was distracted by his men, it gave him the time he needed to speak to this 'irregularity' before the younger boy could get his hands on it. There where two guards that met him at the door were it was being held, neither of the two said anything when he walked pasted them into the room. As the door slide shut, leaving him to bask in the low blue light that fell off from the oil lamps, he stood slightly stunned by what lay on the small bed. By far the young woman was nothing he had ever seen before. Besides the strange clothing she wore and how she looked, something about her 'aura' seemed different. Her curly hair fell down about her face, and on the white pillow, the expressionless look on the sleeping young woman was enough to make anyone look at her twice. One could only think what this serene beauty would look when she smiled. Shaking his head slightly, he looked to the small bag that had been placed on the small table that was in the room.

The room was a spare, used normally when the Vione took on more soldiers. A bed, table, a chair and a small chest were all that this room held, but unlike most of the rooms, this one came with a small bathroom. At lest the two boys were thoughtful enough to put her here, instead of somewhere else like a cell in the lower parts of the Vione. Sitting down in the lone chair, he prepared to wait a while for the girl to wake, no doubt Shesta had used more chloroform then he was suppose to, the girl had been unconscious for four hours. For the moment, he looked over the small black bag that was set before him. It had been opened, no doubtfully again by one of the Dragonslayers, to check for anything that could be used as a weapon. He had no need to go through it; it was an invasion of the poor girl's privacy. Something none of the slayers could probable comprehended. After a few moments of silence, he sighed inwardly wishing he had brought something to read, or maybe he could finish up the reports he had felt to write. Then, there was a rustle of movement from the bed, his maroon eyes looked away from the small bag to the young woman as she sat up slowly on the bed, one hand covering over her eyes.

"Oh, my head..." Her serene, light voice moaned. For a moment she sat like that, hand over her eyes to shield out the light of the room. Her black, blue tipped curls fell around her oval face. Because of both of these he was unable to see her eyes, and was pretty sure she hadn't noticed his presences yet either. He took this time to think of what he was going to say to the young woman. He should have been doing that while he was waiting for her to wake up, but he hadn't. He had let his mind shifted again, to the small dark brown hair child that was no longer a child, but a king. No, he could let his thoughts drift now; there was a manner to attend to here. He watched her as she pulled her hand away from her eyes, and looked at him for a moment puzzled. "Who are you?"

xXxXxXxX

"Two of my guymelefs...damaged?" he narrowed his ruby eyes at the two slayers in front of him, one was a red hair, Miguel and the other was his partner, Viole. The two were knelt down in front of him, behind them, knelt down as well was the rest of his Elite group, and behind them standing at attention was the second and third strings. But, he wasn't looking at them, no, his attention was on the two before him. He paced a bit back and forth as he studied the two before continuing. "Are you TRYING to ruin my reputation!"

"F-forgive us!" The two forced themselves to say through their fear. His anger blazed even more, as he stepped forward and stuck the two of them with the back of his hand, sending them to the floor. Instantly the two of them were on their knees again, bowing, and asking to be forgiven. Angrily, Dilandau began to pace once more as the two moved back with the Elite line. He let his anger scare the lower ranking soldiers for the few moments as he paced. They were not normally present when the Elite were punished for misconduct, but this had been their first battle experience. Dilandau had decided that since they were beginning to take on tasks like the Elites, then they should be present for this. Sitting down on his small throne he looked his slayers closely. There had been no injuries, except for some small cuts and bruise here and there among the lower-rank soldiers who were not use to using the Alseide's models.

"Dismissed, training will begin at nine tomorrow for second and third Strings. Good job on today's attack. As for the Elite, I want you in there bright and early!" He smiled at the tired faces of his Elite group; they had to pull up the slack for the others during the invasion. He knew they where looking forward to having the morning off to rest, but with two melefs damaged it showed Dilandau that there was work yet to be done. As he watched each of them file out, he pour the small red wine that was near him into a small glass. He looked away from them as he studied the red liquid in the glass. Today had gone quite will, except for the fact that the dragon had escaped, but there was nothing to worry about, it was only a manner of time before it was captured. When he looked back before him, the chamber was empty, all except for two of his Elites that had remained knelt before him Dilandau frowned at the two, and studied the blond, and the light brown haired boy before him. It took him a second to remember why his first and second-in-command were still here. "Report...Why was only one of the irregularities retrieved?"

"Sir..." The light brown hair one looked up at him; his blue eyes barely meet his. "The other irregularity had been taken to attend the ceremony. We were only able to retrieve the one, going after the other may have put us at risk at being seen, Dilandau-sama." Sighing Dilandau studied his first-in-command, at least the boy had followed his orders at not being seen. Yet it had cost them one of the irregularities that had interfered with the assassination attempted. He looked at his blond companion, Shesta, his blue-green eyes studying the floor before him, as if the red carpet was the most interesting thing in the world. He could see small cuts along his left cheek, as well as a bruise. It must have put up quite a fight; either that or his second-in-command was distracted by something. Sighing again, inwardly this time, Dilandau took a sip of the wine in the glass.

"Where is it now?"

"On the seventh floor, in the room 67th, Sir. We had two guards posted at the door to keep it from escaping." Gatty replied, smoothly. His lord nodded in approval, they could leave now, but neither of them moved. Frowning, Dilandau studied the young man, as he rested his arm again against the side of the throne he sat upon, the small glass in his hand.

"What's wrong, Gatty?"

"Sir, the girl-" Gatty started to say, but stopped.

"Girl? The irregularity?"

"Yes, sir, we over heard some of the Fanelian soldiers..."

"Sir..." Shesta took up for his partner, who seemed to have a hard time putting words to tell him whatever it was that seemed to be disturbing him. "The girl, she's from the Myst-"

xXxXxXxX

"Do you know who attacked them, Lord Folken?" The girl asked him, from where she sat on the side of the bed. He had twisted things around to make it seem as if he hadn't known who had attacked the country she had been staying in, that the Vione had been passing though on its way to Austria. The girl remembered nothing about her capture; the last thing she had been able to recall was closing the door in the room she had been in. Hopefully the girl won't recall everything else, but just incase he could have to caution Shesta and Gatty about being around her. There seemed to be a kind of struggle, and she may have seen one of them but not remember it quite yet. The girl, Ayane, he corrected himself, didn't doubt him. Though it had been hard to lie to the young woman, Folken recalled once someone had told him it was "Hard to lie to a pretty face." Her cool, gray eyes studied him as she waited for him to reply to her question. Folken had actually be waiting for her to say something of her companion, though he could not bring it up directly. If he indicated that he knew she had one, then she would be able to piece together that he had lied to her.

"No... We arrived after the city had been abandoned. When we searched for survivors, you were found in the palace ruins." She nodded sadly, and then looked back down at her hands that where in her lap. Folken felt his heart tear at the look on her face, the woman had been calm through the whole ordeal and yet she had no clue what was going on. The young woman was wrapped up in the matters that weren't even of the world of her own. Here she was, in a foreign world and now lost without a clue on what to do. It may be better if he didn't inform Emperor Dunkirk of the girl or her companion at all, Folken was not about to let anything else happen to her.

"I hope she's alright..." His head snapped up to look at her again; her eyes were focused on her hands and took no notice of him.

"She?" Folken asked, pursuing the young woman to continue. Learning about her companion may do some good in explain how the Fanelia's king was able to escape. Ayane looked up at him.

"My friend, Aiko, who was with me. Were there any other survivors? I know she was at the ceremony, maybe they saw what happened to her." There was a small plead in her eyes, something Folken could not leave her with. It was confirmed that there had been a woman with the dragon when it had disappeared, no doubtful her friend. Not that he could tell her that, and uncover his lie, but maybe it he went about it another way. Just to ease the poor girl's worry a bit.

"We were able to find a few besides you. Most of the survivors had scattered from the city, I will ask them if they know what happened to you companion." The girl smiled, and Folken found himself grateful for have remain seated in the small chair. If there was any smile that could bring a man to his knees, it was no doubtfully that one. He was probable going to have to keep the girl in the room for the time being and move her later to the upper floors. There were many soldiers who may take advantage the girl, mostly the older ones. On the upper levels, Folken could keep an eye on her, the only people allowed on the upper floors of the Vione where himself, Dilandau and his Dragonslayers. He felt slightly better having her walk around those corridors, then any others. Folken would have to have Dilandau make it clear to his slayers that she was not to be touched. None of the slayers would dare to go against their lord's orders, and besides he couldn't keep the girl locked up, she wasn't a prisoner after all. Folken stood slowly, he had gotten what he needed, and he could not delay reporting to the Emperor any longer. "I am sorry to cut this short, Lady Ayane. I have attended to some things that must be done."

"Oh..." The girl slightly blushed at what he called her. She stood up, allowing him for the first time to see what the dress completely looked like. From where he was standing, it looked like the skirt of the dress weight quite a lot. Before he left her lone in the room, he stopped at the door and looked back at her.

"For your own safety, Lady Ayane, I would have to ask that you stay in this room. It will not be wise for you walk about these levels." The girl smiled again as if she knew what he had not said right out, this one not like the other but still enough to stop someone in their tracks. Then she bowed her head slightly at him in respect before he stepped out of the room, and the door slide shut behind him. Folken stood out side of the room for a few seconds, gathering his bearings before moving again. Sighing he looked to the two soldiers that stood guard at the door. "No one is allowed in the room without my permission is that understood?"

"Yes sir!"

xXxXxXxX

Dilandau walked down the corridors, no caring if anyone saw him down on this level. He'd be damned if he allowed Folken to see the girl first, which he already was. No doubt the blue hair baka had already spoken to the girl while he was seeing to his slayers, and there wasn't any doubt that he also told the guards that no one was to inter the room. Hell, if the girl looked anything like what Shesta and Gatty had described her, not only would he order that, but he'd put to of his Elites to stand guard! He grinned to himself, even though Folken had order that, those two guards would say nothing to him if he had gone in without permission to. Folken may be in command of the Vione and the soldiers aboard it, but he and Dilandau had about the same amount of power. And if the two guards knew what was best for them, they wouldn't say a word. He turned sharply around the corner to see the two of them standing next to the door. Neither of them moved as he walked passed them into the room. The blue-ish gray door slide shut behind him.

Dilandau was welcomed by the low blue lamp lights that lit up the empty room. To his left stood a small table that held a small black bag, some of the things where moved out of it, and laid on the table. His glaze studied the objects for a moment, there was spool of purple ribbon, a part of scissors, and a smaller bag that held want looked to be make-up. Yup, she was defiantly a girl, he snorted as he looked about the rest of the room. His glaze moved about on stopped on the bed. Lying out over the white covers was the most bazaar type of dress he had ever seen, there where so many different layers to it, Dilandau played with the thought of what it looked like on some one. His ruby eyes left it to look over what else was on the bed. Lying on the pillow was a lacey black bra, along with a lacey black pair of short short-like underwear. Next to them where a pair of long black stockings, that had a belt like item attached to them by small little clips. Dilandau walked forward to the bed, studying each item that was on it with interest. He had failed to realize that the girl was not present in the main room, and that someone was moving about in the bathroom.

xVxVxVxV

Looking at her self through the mirror, Ayane smiled slightly. After Folken had left her to the room by herself, she had moved around to explore her small surroundings. When she had ventured into the bathroom, she had been welcomed by the sight of a shower, with cold AND hot running water. So, of course she took the time to have a small shower. She hadn't been able to clean her self off after falling into that fountain the other day, and while she was being interrogated she was pretty sure beneath the dress's weight she had sweated a lot. Pulling out her perfumed shampoo and conditioner, along with some soap from her bag, she had stripped down and laid her clothing on the bed before hopping into the shower. Though, now she sort of regretted cleaning her hair, for now she no longer had any curls, and this place didn't have any electricity so she could plug in her curling iron. Oh well, she sighed, I'll just have to do it the old fashion way...with curlers... Wrapping her hair up in a smaller white towel, she tightened the one that was around her body a bit before walking out of the bathroom. While opening the door, she had managed to bang her big toe against it. Cursing, she hopped into the room, balancing herself against the door frame, she rubbed the bruised thing. It wasn't until after she had placed her foot on the floor and looked up, that she realized that's she wasn't alone in the room.

Ayane stared wide-eyed at the boy that stood next to the bed, staring straight back at her. His silverish/ white hair fell over a gold diadem and down along his pale face. The red armor he worn glistened slightly in the blue light. From what one could tell, he was about her age, maybe slightly older. He seemed to be quite well build, and he was also probable a soldier for he worn a long sword at his side. Though, the only thing odd thing about this boy were his eyes, red as ruby's they were, and both were as wide as a dear caught in headlights. That was when Ayane become quite aware that she was standing in nothing more then a towel.

xVxVxVxV

He froze to the stop he stood at, when he heard the door to the bathroom open, and a female voice let out a curse. When he turned, he shall her leaning slightly against the door, rubbing her injured foot. At first she didn't take notice of him, he should have left or hide, anything but stand there. But, that was all he could do. Her black hair fell out from under the white towel, and lay across her pale shoulders. Hell, Dilandau never thought it was possible, but the girl's skin tone was lighter then his! When she stood upright, he could see from the way the towel clung to her that the girl had as much of figure as the two slayers had described. When her eyes lifted up, and saw him, Dilandau was purely amazed by the shade of gray they were, grey eyes were not something that was quite common to see, let alone that shade. The two of them stood, staring at each other, taking in what they were seeing. If his glaze hadn't moved down to her light pink lips, he wouldn't have realized that she was about to scream, it was then that Dilandau realized what would happen. The girl was going to take the first reaction any woman does when faced with this problem, scream for help. And her help would come, from the two soldiers standing guard. That was the last thing he need, Folken thinking that he was trying to rape the girl or something along those lines. Quickly getting over his shock, he jolted forward covering her mouth before her voice would leave it. The scream was muffled, though, without the ability to scream the instinct to defend herself kicked in, and she began to struggle against his grip. Somehow, during the they had ended up on the bed, he was straddled over her, with one of her arms beneath his knee, and he struggled to grab hold of the other with his free hand while maintaining his other hand over her mouth. She began to struggle even more then! When she got her other hand free, she slammed it against his chest, which unfortunately hit the armored part. That was going to leave a bruise on her pale skin. Momentarily forgetting why he was covering her mouth, he grabbed hold of her arm, along with the other and pushed them down onto the bed. She continued to struggle slightly, as he looked down at her face, he could see the fear gathering in her eyes then. She stopped after a few more moments of useless struggling, and stared up at him breathing harshly. Dilandau had to force himself not to smile; he was actually sort of enjoying watching her.

It was then, that he became aware that her mouth wasn't covered, and it he left go of one of her hands, that she would hit him again, and only end up hurting herself. If she screamed now, he would defiantly not be able to defeat himself from the persecution of rape that Folken was going to give him. The girl, the other hand, took a few more seconds to realize this; Dilandau had to make a split-second decision. In a desperate chance to keep her from scream; he pressed his lips against her. Whatever this was suppose to accomplish, he didn't have a clue at the moment, but maybe the shock would keep her quiet long enough for him to readjust her hands so that only one of his held them, and the other could cover her mouth so that he could reason her into not screaming. Well, it seemed to be working; the girl stopped struggling, hell she was frozen stiff. He should have taken the advantage of that to do what he had planned, but before he could do that, the body beneath him suddenly relaxed. She was no longer struggling against his split-second decision kiss to keep her from screaming, but was returning it!

Now it was Dilandau's turn to be shocked, he wasn't actually planning on her doing THAT. Now, being shocked silence was enough for him to resituate himself, but being lip locked with the girl was not something he was planning on. It wasn't like he hadn't been kissed before. Hell! He wasn't even a virgin for that matter! But, still he wasn't prepared for that reaction. After a few moments, he moved away from her; slowly, unable to bring himself to end the kiss. She kept her eyes closed, as he studied her calm face. Slowly he released her arms and sat up straight, still straddled over her. During the struggle the towel around her hair had been discarded, and it now lay around her as she rested her head on the bed beneath her. He was now able to see the actually color of it, a dark raven black tipped in blue, something else Dilandau could put with the 'weird' things about the girl. She was breathing normally, with her eyes still closed. Dilandau took a moment to try to figure out why, but he couldn't come up with a reasonable explanation and discarded it. Instead he took the time to look her over a bit better, even though he should have taken the chance to get out of the room. He had become memorized by the young woman. With his right gloved hand, he traced the side of her face, down along her high cheek bones. He could see quite well why Folken wouldn't anyone to come into this room, let alone have the girl walking about the Vione. Sure, the Vione had female officers, but none of them looked like this! He really needed to get off the Vione more often, Dilandau groaned inwardly as he continued to study the young woman.

xVxVxVxV

O, lord, I kissed the pervert back! Good grief girl, what the HELL is that matter with you? Ayane screamed in her mind as she tried to keep her expression on her face empty. The boy had long since stopped, and had released her arms from his steel grip. She could still feel that he was straddled over her, his weight on the bed pushed it down. He was trying to keep her from screaming, that was it. So why the hell did I kiss him back? She growled at herself. Ok, mister leave now. I'm not going to scream, but if you don't move I will! She nearly swallowed her tongue when she felt his gloved finger move down along her cheek, and down along her neck. O, lord why did she had to let her Father turn her into this, it was bad enough at school. She was eye candy for all of the men population, not only her bazaar clothing, but just for the way she looked. She may have always been the butt end of some girls' jokes, but that was because most of the time they were jealous of her. Aiko never saw that, Aiko lived in her own little world, with out a care for the real one. Ever since she landed on this planet, someone had found her interesting. With a few good chosen words, in the right sounding expression in her voice she could get the guards back in the country Fanelia to get a few things for her without question. Now, here she was with some weirdo, might be best if she screamed now. His hand went down along her neck, and brushed passed the only piece of her clothing she hadn't removed when she took the shower; the black chocker with the small dark navy blue pendent attached to it. Ayane felt his fingers move over the small pendent as he studied it. Concentrating on keeping her breath even, she waited for his hand to dare to trail any further, except it didn't. She waited for what felt like forever before daring to crack her eyes open a bit to look at his face.

His hand may have stopped at her neck, but his eyes didn't. She could see the color starting to rise up in his face, and the slow realization came to her mind. She could no longer feel the warmth of the white towel she had wrapped around her body before coming out of bathroom completely around herself anymore. Heat began to rise in her own cheeks, as she quickly brought her hands down to grab the towel back around herself, and forced him off the bed. Stunned by her sudden movement, he when falling backwards and landed on the floor. Though unknown to Ayane, his hand had gripped down on her chocker, and snapped it off of her neck. Sitting up on the bed with a towel pulled back around her, she glared at the red-eyed boy.

"Get out, pervert!"

GA1: Dilandau! Hugs headless Dilandau plushy

SD: You really need to get that thing's head on girl ... I swear it looks like a headless chicken...

GA1: Glares Do you have any ideal how hard it is to make this thing?

SD smiles Nope not a clue, only that every time you work on it, you curse every seven minutes!

GA1: Shut up... And he has a head... I just can't figure out how to attach it yet -.-

SD: Sure, if that's what you call that thing!

GA1: continues to hug plushy Mine!

Edited: 11/16/06