Les Guardiens de la Puissance

by

Kris Black

DISCLAIMER: Escaflowne is the sole property of its creator and distributors. I do not own Escaflowne or any of the characters in the story that you recognize. The characters that you do not recognize, however, are my own; please do not use them without permission. This disclaimer applies to this chapter and this story in a whole.

AN: So, here is the new chapter – early then I had planned. I hope you enjoy it. This shows quite a few flashbacks, but I don't give you guys nearly everything that happened. Just so I can be mysterious – everything will be revealed in time. XD

"Your majesty, how on Gaea did this happen?"

Van and Hitomi lay in long, green grass in the middle of a field, staring up at the velvet sky. The stars winked at them playfully while they lay in comfortable silence, staring up at Hitomi's home – the Mystic Moon. With a long, almost mournful sigh, Hitomi reached over and placed her small hand in Van's tanned, calloused one.

"Van," she whispered as she stared into the heavens, "I don't think that I want to leave you. I couldn't bear not seeing you ever again."

Van replied by squeezing her hand in a reassuring way; he couldn't think of another way to answer her. He didn't want her to go, he never wanted to let go of her. However, if she stayed with him he would be breaking his vow – his vow to send her back home, home to her friends and family. He squeezed her hand a little harder.

"Van," Hitomi smiled sadly as she turned on her side to face him, "I know what you are thinking."

"Oh really," he mused as he turned to his side also, letting go of her hand and grabbing the opposite one, "And what is that, oh powerful Seeress?"

"I don't need to go into your mind to know what you're thinking," Hitomi replied as she stared into his eyes, "I know you well enough to know exactly what you are thinking."

"Oh, and what was I thinking?"

"You are thinking that it is your duty to send me home," Hitomi replied quietly, "that you are bound to the promise that you made to me all those months ago."

"Aren't I?" Van retorted, "I swore, as King of Fanelia, that I would see you home and that's what I have to do. I have to send you back to your family, to your mother and father, to your brother…"

"Oh Van," Hitomi cried out put her head into his chest, obviously distraught, "You just don't get it do you?"

"I don't get what Hitomi?" Van asked sadly as he rubbed her hair soothingly as she cried into his chest.

"You are my home," she replied as she pulled back from him and looked him in the eyes with hers blood-shot and full of tears, "You are my family too, I love you."

Van was torn up by this statement. He was her home, he was her family… she was his family. He knew this in his heart; he could feel it in every cell in his body – he and Hitomi were meant to be together. Fate had brought them together and now it was going to tear them apart. He hated that word – fate. He had heard and learned enough of it over the past few months… but wasn't that what had brought Hitomi to him?

"I love you too, Hitomi," Van said and pulled her into a hug, hugging her with all that he had, "but I swore to you, Hitomi. I could never forgive myself if I kept you and you ended up regretting it and hating me."

"I could never hate you Van," Hitomi cried into his chest, "never."

Van held Hitomi as she cried all of her pain away; everything she had seen in the past few months, all the death she had witnessed, and the fact that tomorrow – tomorrow – she would lose him too. Van wanted nothing more than to let the tears in his eyes flow freely as well, to hold her tightly and tell her that she didn't have to go, that she could stay with him, like this, forever. However, he couldn't. He couldn't break down in front of her when he had to stay strong for her, he was the one who was making her go and he knew that he'd regret it the moment it happened. Hell, he was regretting it now. But, he didn't want her to regret staying with him, so he had to endure.

"Van," Hitomi said quietly after she had calmed down, "Will this be the last time that we are together, just the two of us? Is this the last time that you will get to hold me like this, like I'm the only thing that matters?"

"I hope not Hitomi," Van whispered, "I don't want to be without you forever."

"Then don't send me back, Van, please," she pleaded.

Van couldn't look her in the eyes, because he knew that he would give in to her. He would give anything just to see her happy… but that was why he was doing this in the first place.

"It's better this way, Hitomi."

"No it's not!" She cried out at him, "It's not! You're killing us both Van, by doing this!"

A pain stricken look crossed Van's face at the phrase she had used. Killing. That's what he had been doing since Fanelia had burned – is that what he was doing to Hitomi?

"Van," Hitomi whispered once more as she placed a gentle hand on his arm, "I didn't mean it like that. It's just, look at us – we are both complete wrecks just thinking about being apart; imagine what it will be like when we are actually apart."

"I can't imagine it," Van whispered back and closed his eyes, "it hurts too much."

"Then don't separate us like this."

"I can't," Van replied firmly, his head bowed.

Hitomi couldn't stand to look at him like this, bowing his head in shame. She had caused this – she was just making them hurt more and leaving them both with memories that would haunt them in the future because of this argument.

"Van," Hitomi said resolutely as she walked in front of him and pulled his head up gently to look her in the face, "I'll accept that this may be our last night together."

Van nodded slowly and pulled her into another hug, he wasn't sure that he would be able to let her go when the time came. He stiffened slightly when she pulled away from him slightly.

"And," she continued, "If this is our last night together then I want it to be full of good memories. Not ones that will make us regret what we said to each other."

She leaned in slowly towards Van's face, both of them closing their eyes in the process. When their lips touched an overwhelming sense of what they were both about to lose engulfed their bodies. There, in that grassy field beneath the stars, Hitomi and Van were linked together eternally.

"That is really none of your business," Van grunted as he was rendered almost completely at a loss because of the memory.

"Sire really," a councilman spoke up, "we cannot announce that the heir was born from wedlock – the people would be outraged. Not to mention what other countries may think…"

"I don't care what the other countries think!" Van snapped.

"But think of your people, Van-sama," another man spoke up, "Not only will they not accept the heir, but they will think of you as a king who gives into his temptations…"

"What can I do about it?" Van yelled, slamming his fist on the table, startling the others in the room. His mere presence was terrifying, only he could demand so much respect with a single action – a remarkable feat considering he was still a teenage boy.

"I will not ignore the fact that I have a son," he said lowly and threateningly, "I will not deny him, or his mother."

"We are not saying that Van-sama," one of the younger councillors spoke up, one that Van was quite fond of and regarded as a friend.

Darius wasn't as young as Van, but he was quite young for a councilman. He looked like he was about in his mid-twenties with blonde hair and blue eyes – he sort of reminded Van of Allen, except that his blonde hair was cut short and he wasn't trying to take Hitomi away from him. Van looked up at him and signalled for him to continue.

"We could tell the people that you have been married for a while," he suggested, "that you had a small ceremony to please her. We could announce that when Kanzaki-sama found that she was with child that she wanted to go to her home planet to wait out her pregnancy with her family; she returned to give birth to the heir…"

"His name is Ryu," Van interrupted, glaring at the rest of the council, "and I would appreciate it if you called him by that."

"She returned to give birth to Ryu-sama," Darius continued, "and in light of that fact you would like to have a public wedding ceremony – sort of to renew your vows – and then the coronation of the Queen and Prince for the public – together."

"It's so crazy that it just may work," another council member spoke up.

"Fine, let's take a vote," the head magistrate called out to the room, "All those in favour of young Darius' plan say 'Aye'."

A resounding 'aye' was heard throughout the hall, echoing off of its stone walls. A unanimous vote had been decided – they were going to pass Hitomi off as the queen that they had always had and kept quiet about. They were going to pretend as if the real wedding ceremony was a repeat of one that had supposedly happened months ago; however Van had found a flaw in the plan in an instant.

"However the council may have voted," Van said loudly, making sure that everyone could hear him, "it is still to be decided. Hitomi may not want to marry me."

Another sound resounded off of the hall's walls this time, except it was the echoing of roaring laughter. Apparently, the council had found this statement quite funny.

"Have your fun," Van muttered under his breath as he stormed out of the room of laughing councillors, "Is it really necessary to mock the king?"

Shaking his head in disapproval he walked towards Hitomi's room, trying to figure out how to propose the idea that Darius had created without insulting Hitomi. He knew that she had quite the ego and a limitless amount of pride, and if he worded this wrong, even to the slightest detail, that she would never speak to him again.

Hitomi had just laid Ryu down for his nap, staring into his cradle she smiled as she heard him snoring lightly. He was a little angel; her little angel. Now Hitomi not only had a guardian angel to protect her, but one that she was responsible to protect as well. She pulled his blanket over him, tucking him in gently and kissing his forehead. She was broken out of her reveries by a gentle rapping on her door. Tip-toeing over so that the squeaky floor-boards didn't wake up Ryu, she opened the door to see Van standing there.

"Van," she beamed as she whispered quietly, "I'm sorry, Ryu just went to sleep…"

"Can I come in?"

"Of course," she said and moved over so that he could come in. She gently shut the door behind him and watched as he made his way over to Ryu's crib.

He looked down at his beautiful son, sleeping peacefully as he sucked on his thumb. He reminded Van of one of those angels that Hitomi had told him about before she had left; he was perfection in its fullest.

"I still can't believe that he is here," Van whispered as wiped a bit of dirt gently off of Ryu's cheek, "I can't believe that you are here."

"I never wanted to leave, Van," Hitomi replied quietly from behind him.

Van looked away from her instantly, he couldn't bear to think that he had sent her away; especially not now that he knew that she had gotten pregnant.

"It's okay Van," Hitomi smiled as she placed a comforting hand on her arm as she had done the night that Ryu had been conceived, "I understand why you did it."

Van turned towards Hitomi and pulled her into a hug, the first real one that he had given her since her return. He had been so busy trying to sort things out with the council that he hadn't truly shown his affection for her – his love that would last for eternity. He had missed her so much, missed her laugh, her eyes, her smile, her touch.

"I missed you Hitomi," He whispered into her hair, "there wasn't a second that went by that I didn't think of you and miss you. I am sorry for sending you back to the Mystic Moon."

"Van, I…"

"I know you must have gone through a lot after you found out that you were pregnant," Van said as he pulled back, "When you were brought to the palace you were frigid and unconscious… and pregnant. I thought… I thought that you were dead at first."

Hitomi's eyes watered as she looked at him, she remembered what she had gone through when she had been pregnant. She couldn't believe how short of a time had passed since then…

"When you woke up you were hysterical," Van continued, "I didn't know what to do…"

"Van, it was horrible. The Mystic Moon…" She began, but stopped mid-sentence.

"Could you tell me, please?" He pleaded, "I want to know what happened to you."

Hitomi took a deep breath and nodded her head slowly. Closing her eyes, she recalled the memories that she had tried to repress since her return – but Van needed to know. She made her way over to her bed and sat down, Van following and taking a place beside her.

"I found out that I was pregnant about a month after I returned to the Mystic Moon…"

Hitomi leaned back from the toilet and pulled some toilet paper off of the roll to gentle wipe the residue from her mouth. Her mother, who had been rubbing her back gently the whole time, flushed the toilet. When the sound of the swirling, gargling toilet stopped they sat in an eerie silence before her mother spoke up.

"Hitomi, I think that you should go see a doctor."

Hitomi looked away from her mother, throwing the used tissue in the trash. She knew that if she went to the doctor that they would find something abnormal if her illness was what she thought it was. Sensing her distress, her mother continued,

"Hitomi, you've been like this since you returned from wherever you were," her mother said with distress, she still didn't know of the circumstances in which her daughter went missing for months, "You've been throwing up every morning and sometimes during the days. You might be… might be…"

"Pregnant," Hitomi filled in for her distraught mother, who proceeded to break down in front of her.

Witnessing your mother crying – a woman who you had looked up to as perfect and incredibly strong all of your life – was emotionally draining. Hitomi couldn't believe that her mother was sitting on the bathroom floor beside her, crying because of her. It was because of that that Hitomi had agreed to see a doctor.

"…if I had known what that one doctors appointment would do to my life, I don't think I would have gone through with it, Van; even with my mother's hysterical state in the bathroom that morning…"

"Kanzaki-san," the doctor said after looking over her chart, "you are indeed pregnant."

Hitomi's mother broke down crying once more and Hitomi looked wide-eyed at the doctor, placing a hand gently on her abdomen; she was going to be a mother and… Van was going to be a father. This baby, she realized, was far more important than anything she had been entrusted with so far in her young life…

"However, Kanzaki-san," the doctor continued, "we found an abnormality in your blood…"

"What?" her mother asked, looking worried.

"We believe that the baby is causing it and would like to draw some more for analysis…"

The Draconian blood that ran through her baby's veins was affecting her body; Hitomi realized in that second that the doctors would find out that the baby isn't completely human if they ran more tests…

"No," Hitomi said bluntly and resolutely.

"Unfortunately," Hitomi said to Van, "I am under-age where I live and don't really have a say in whether or not to run tests; it's all up to my mother. I didn't tell her about Gaea, or you, because I knew that she wouldn't believe me. I don't blame her; if it were my daughter I would have done the same thing, she didn't understand…"

"She ordered the tests?" Van stated, rather than asked.

Hitomi nodded, "despite my pleadings with her, she ordered the blood tests."

Hitomi knew that she needed to get out of the hospital fast. If the doctors came to a conclusive identification that the blood was, indeed, inhuman then her and her baby may not have another chance to escape the hospital – or the government. She knew the kinds of tests that they ran on anything out of the ordinary; with her baby's wings and extraordinary blood she knew that the tests they would run on both of them would ultimately kill them both.

"Mom," Hitomi spoke up, "I'm feeling sick, I should probably go to the bathroom…"

"Do you need me to go with you?"

"No, I'll be fine," Hitomi replied with a smile, exiting the room.

"After that, I ran out of the hospital," said Hitomi, "I ran the whole way home. When I got there I packed my stuff and wrote a letter to my mother and brother telling them that I had run away or something of the sort. Looking back on that part now, I'm not really sure what I wrote exactly."

"You were only a month pregnant," Van noted, "You didn't come here until a day before you gave birth…"

"Not because of lack of trying," Hitomi said lowly.

"Come on!" Hitomi screamed into the air with her arms opened wide, staring up at the planet behind the Moon, "Let me go back! I need to go back!"

She collapsed on the track of her old high school and cried. She didn't have anywhere to go or anyone to trust now…

Ryu's crying broke Hitomi out of her story mode and she rubbed a hand over her tired eyes.

"He just went to sleep," she commented, "He should still be tired…"

She made to get up, but Van stopped her by raising his hand,

"Don't, I'll do it."

Hitomi smiled as she watched Van walked over and cover their son back up. He let him suck on his finger for a few moments before Ryu drifted back to sleep.

"You're amazing," Hitomi said as she watched Van tend to Ryu, "It looks like you've been doing this for years."

Van's ears, neck, and face turned red with a blush as he turned around to face her, walking back to the bed.

"You're tired," he noted, "Get some sleep tonight; I'll stay here and tend to Ryu if he needs it."

"You'll really do that for me?"

"Of course," Van smiled, "You're tired; Plus Ryu is my responsibility too – it's only right that I stay here and help. Now, get some sleep."

"Thank you," she said, lying down. She scooted over to the other side of the bed and motioned for Van to lie beside her, "You may as well get some sleep too; you'll need it."

Nodding, Van rested his head on the pillow beside Hitomi. He turned to face her, staring into her green eyes.

"Can you ever forgive me for sending you away?"

"I already have," Hitomi smiled, "It's all in the past now. Plus, we have Ryu - our beautiful son."

"He is perfect, Hitomi," Van stated.

Hitomi smiled wider and curled into Van's warm body, his arms going around her little body automatically. She sighed and closed her eyes, breathing in her scent.

"Hitomi?" He asked quietly.

"Mmhm?" she said tiredly into his chest, drifting off to sleep.

"Will you marry me?"

"Of course," she replied in the same tired voice and fell asleep in his warm arms.

AN: That's it. Hope you liked it. Don't forget to review! The next chapter will be out sometime around next week. Ja!