Please forgive the mistakes in chapter 5. I really wasn't in a writing mood when I did it, so it didn't turn out quite as I had hoped, especially because I didn't have time to edit it anytime soon. And half the time I forgot about Hitomi! Well, I'm in a writing mood now, so I'll do my best. Enjoy!
Oh, yeah, this is a really important chapter. We go into Dilandau's dream sequence, two (sort of three) new characters make their little debuts, the crew meets someone new, and… WHAT THE HELL? STUPID, STUPID, STUPID HITOMI! DON'T YOU EVER LEARN? Yeah, Hitomi's an idiot (sort of) in this one. Enjoy my pathetic attempt at humor. I'm really bad at it since my own sense of humor is really weird, but… Enjoy anyway!
PS. This chapter contains something that you've all been waiting for… DxH relationship furthering! (For all of you that don't want to translate my junk into English, it means that Dilandau and Hitomi are going to get closer this chapter! I got off my lazy butt and worked on the intended focal point of the story! FINALLY!) I'll shut up now! ---- ( By the way, although the reviewers already know this from my review replies, this is my face. Yup yup!)
Disclaimer: I don't own Escaflowne. Damn guards foiled me again…! However, I do own this fic's storyline and Elis. And the new characters that appear this chapter. Those are mine. All mine. (… Maybe.) BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
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Last time: The albino experienced a sickening moment of internal vertigo, but it passed quickly. Regardless of what it was, he wanted to know. For his sake and Hitomi's, he had to. "Yes." The words flowed so easily from his mouth, but what revelation would the answer bring?
"You of all people should know. You're one of them."
Dilandau gasped, expressive ruby eyes widening. He felt the tidal wave of a vision crash against his mind, but was too late to hold it at bay. Something told him that this wouldn't be like the earlier, quickly-forgotten flashbacks. Distantly, he heard his sword clatter to the ground and quickly followed it, blackness edging his fading vision. Then, it was gone entirely and his world was left in darkness.
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It began with a slow drip, like a water droplet from one of Zaibach's new faucets.
Chapter 6: Metal Eden
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Drip.
A wicked smile grew on the shadowed figure's sinfully red lips.
"So…" A pale, thin hand rose to caress the cool tube with the soft clink of nails on glass, seemingly reaching out to the still form held within the cylinder. "It has begun. Soon the Sword will remember where his obligations lie… And we shall never part again, my love."
Drip.
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"Dilandau!" Despite her fatigue, Hitomi's pelting feet tore away at the meters between herself and her companion. She had to know what had happened to him!
In a matter of seconds, the seer was kneeling at Dilandau's side, tall grass brushing her knees. Without thinking, she reached out to shake him back into consciousness. Her lightly tanned hand met his porcelain arm and Hitomi's vision dimmed to black and was lost. The last thing she saw was the ghostly specter of a black-robed madoushi floating somewhere in the lightening sky.
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Drip.
Hitomi opened her eyes to a room with undefined, shadowed borders, illuminated by a single bare bulb in the center of the chamber. Where am I…?
"Jichia…" A hoarse, barely audible whisper drifted to her ears from somewhere to her left. Turning to meet it, she found its source to be one Dilandau Albatou.
Looking completely cut off from the rest of the world, he kneeled, entire frame slumped, defeated, breath coming in quick, silent gasps, crimson eyes staring emptily into the cold, smooth floor. Simply staring with unnaturally large, glazed eyes that looked disturbingly similar to the rubies they resembled. Deeply concerned, Hitomi softly crouched beside him and laid a comforting hand on his shoulder. He blinked owlishly once, but didn't look up.
He didn't talk, didn't respond, didn't move, didn't stay in the trance… Didn't even cry. Instead, he did the one thing that scared Hitomi the most. He shook. Just knelt there, long bangs covering his face, and shook, from terror, horror, exhaustion… Hitomi didn't know. Hitomi didn't know anything. All she could do was try to comfort him as best she could.
Wordlessly, she let her hovering knees touch the floor and moved her free arm around his shoulders.
"Dilandau…?" The seer's voice quavered a bit, as if she were afraid to break the silence of the tainted shrine. "What's wrong?"
As she quieted, silence reclaimed the musty room. After what seemed an eternity, the shaking slowed to a stop and his breathing softened into a normal rhythm. With painstaking effort, the albino lifted his gaze from the ground and turned his head ever-so-slightly towards Hitomi.
"I don't believe it…" The whispered phrase echoed near-inaudibly through the chill chamber, bouncing off walls hiding somewhere in the darkness.
The Mystic Moon girl didn't reply, merely waited for him to continue.
"The things they've done in this room…" Dilandau's quavering voice broke the chamber's stillness yet again, slightly stronger this time. "I saw it… All of it… The little girl, the young boy, the teenage siblings, the grown men and their wives, the corpses, the old women waiting to die, the insane, retarded, the convicts, the twins, the newborns, the animals… All of them. Even… Even me."
"The present me… And the past me."
Hitomi stifled a gasp and her arm tensed slightly around his shoulders.
"The drips… I know you've heard them. They are the sound of the madoushi flagship's unique engines. I can't remember exactly what caused the drips, but I do remember that they were always how I knew when they'd caught me again…" The teen turned to face his companion more fully, haunted eyes seeming to bore into her soul with their intensity. "I can't remember much else, but I do remember these labs. Listening to the screams day and night… And the time I spent in the labs myself. Hitomi, listen to me." His gaze slipped up to the lightbulb as he spoke the last few words. "I don't know where we are now or how you got here, but in the real world, there's a large metal table in the middle of this room, right under the lightbulb. On that table there are leather straps designed to hold people down so that they don't escape or hurt themselves if an experiment goes wrong." Something about his tone told Hitomi that experiments 'going wrong' was not an uncommon event. "The madoushi's 'tools' are on a side table near the platform for easy access." His eyes, looking for all the world like small puddles of blood, flicked up to meet Hitomi's emerald green ones. "What I'm getting at is… Don't get caught, Hitomi. Ever. If you have to, take your own life, but… Just don't let them catch you. Do you understand? Please, promise me now that you'll never let them catch you… Or me. That you'll take both our lives if you have to. Please. Promise me…" His voice trailed off into a desperate whisper.
"D… Dilandau, I…" The seer nibbled lightly at the inside of her lip, nervous. Should she agree? It would mean taking a life, something that she was entirely unwilling to do, but… "I promise. I promise that if I have to, I will take both our lives to evade capture by the madoushi. Can… Can you promise me the same?"
He smiled back firmly.
"I promise."
And with that, the room fell away into darkness.
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Dilandau awoke to something extremely heavy draped across his torso. Opting for the most obvious course of action, he twisted onto his back a bit more and proceeded to attempt pushing the weight off… And his hand met with something warm and squishy. A deep crimson tint spread across his pale features and he removed the offending hand at a speed that he wouldn't have thought possible. His gaze slipped to the side in embarrassment. There was absolutely no way he was going to look Hitomi in the eye and try to explain this one.
A small squeak of surprise sounded above him and drew his attention very, very slowly, as if he were turning to look at something he really didn't want to look at. Which was true. Chances were, if he turned, he'd end up looking down Hitomi's front. Which would be bad. Which, unfortunately, was what happened. The albino found himself staring, at once morbidly fascinated and thoroughly enjoying himself, down a loose tan blouse at two very round… Breasts, for lack of a better term. Oops. I'm an idiot. Understatement of the cycle. Dilandau's face grew another five shades darker and he looked away very, very quickly.
"Oops." What else was he supposed to say?
The Hitomi-weight practically flew off of him and skittered several feet away to give him room to stand.
He did so rather uncomfortably. Morning dew drenched his entire left side, freezing him into a human glacier with each chill breeze. His shoulder was a dull ache from the fall and the time spent laying on it. His left hip was barely functional from pressing into the hard scabbard strapped to his waist. Damn, I have the worst luck. He didn't, yet again, know where that had come from, but guessed that it was a fair assumption. After all, he had lost his memory, been used as a lab rat, gotten caught under Hitomi, passed out while interrogating a prisoner… Wait. Where was the prisoner?
Dilandau darted to snatch up his sword and whipped around to face the 'woodsman's' previous spot.
It was just as he had feared. Elis was gone.
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Elis' breath came in short, heaving gasps. Gnarled branches tore at his clothes like reaching claws even as their leaves ensnared themselves in his hair and fell into his eyes.
Somewhere in the back of his mind, he felt a little bad about leaving Dilandau and the Mystic Moon girl alone like that, but he had to run. Even had he brought Dilandau to the Sorcerers as his mission had dictated, the boy had learned too much. Elis had to save himself while he still had the chance.
After pausing a moment to catch his breath, the bearded man pressed on, the only sounds the chirping of the birds and the occasional rustle of branches snagging on his clothes. He didn't get very far before feeling the deathly cold point slip through his cloak to draw a single droplet of blood from his battered back.
"You found me." It wasn't a question. His voice was level and still. He had known his fate since the first word had escaped his lips during his interrogation. At least death would be a far more merciful end than the alternative.
No reply.
"Go ahead. Do your job."
The blade erupted from Elis' chest in a spray of crimson. Elis Payne, Shadow Snake and operative of the madoushi, died with barely a yelp. His only memorial service was a small snicker and the shing of a bloodstained blade being cleaned on his desecrated cloak. The assassin had done his work.
Next.
The madoushi got what the madoushi wanted. Always.
And Kearce wasn't about to fail them.
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Drip.
"Hmmm… So the Sword did not remember. All in due time, I suppose. Fate will do as Fate will. It appears that we shall have to wait a while longer, my love. But that's perfectly fine. We can have all the time we need."
Drip.
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"Finally!" Miguel cried, exasperated, as he pushed aside the final branch, "Home!" A wide grin spread across his face as the warm sunlight caressed his tanned features.
Two pairs of red and green eyes stared at him in surprise. Red eyes… The brown-headed boy instinctively fell to one knee, nearly forgetting to breathe.
"L… Lord Dilandau…!"
End Chapter
I hope you liked it! I finally killed someone! -Does a little jig of joy- YAY! And I hoped you liked my Dilandau x Hitomi moment!
I've revised and uploaded all of the previous chapters except for chapter one. Hitomi is back in character (at least to a certain degree) and I got everyone's emotions lined out a little better. Enjoy!
Oh, one thing. This is VERY IMPORTANT. Should I have Miguel call Dilandau 'Dilandau-sama' or 'Lord Dilandau'? Thus far I have tried to stick to using only English, but I really need others' opinions on this one. Please tell me what you think! Bye!
Aurah
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