(Hello! I'm back! I bet you thought I would never update again huh? Well, I'm sorry to disappoint! I know it's been forever and you hate me and all, but I have been really busy. I graduated since the last update and have been away on many trips. I won't bore you with the details but I finally updated. I only did honestly because I got a new review! Thanks. I guess people do care... I know this chapter can't make up for the long silence but I hope you like it! I'll try to shorten the time between updates to less than... how long has it been? Anyway, enjoy!)

Disclaimer: I own nothing but the plot and some new characters, that aren't as good as the originals. Please don't sue.)

What a Beautiful dream! She couldn't remember the last time she had enjoyed a dream, but this one was so lovely, she couldn't help but blush at the thought.

She had crawled into Van's bed late at night, and asked him if she could stay. They had fallen asleep soon after she pulled the covers up, and she could feel his arms entwined around her middle, a pleasant warmth that spread the length of her body. They hadn't done anything, but the thought of his closeness had been a blessing.

She smiled deliriously and long, willing herself to stay in bed and her eyes to remain closed.

The warmth she felt in her sleep suddenly left her. She was alone. Alone in the darkness, cold unfeeling laughter filling her ears, surrounding her, coming from all directions, as if the darkness itself was laughing, the chill of sound penetrating to her core, and a voice, echoing in the blinding black fog, more frightening than the void...

I know what I have to do. As soon as they're out of the way, I can take this country. That whore dies, and everything will be on track again.

Surely she must have screamed, but she could hear nothing except the voice and the laughter, feel nothing but piercing cold and her own suffocation in the blinding dark fog... She couldn't breathe, she couldn't feel Van's presence.

She was alone, and it was as if the voice and the darkness had wrapped itself around her, around her neck, choking her, blinding her...

A voice... above her? Calming, soothing, calling her name... A woman...

"Hitomi? Please... Wake up... You need to wake up..."

A piercing at my side... A finger? Who is doing this?

She opened her eyes.

She searched above her, willing herself to forget the ending of her dream, focusing her waking mind to the girl above her. A woman gazing into her face, her dark eyes and long hair shielding her face from some of the morning light.

"Yukari?"

At first she forgot the end of the dream and recalled it's beginning. She had been alone with Van in his bed. For a moment she felt blind panic at seeing her friend. Was she still in bed with him? No... She couldn't be, or Yukari wouldn't be here at all. She'd be comfortably still asleep, his presence felt beside her, but she could tell she was alone in the covers. Only Yukari was beside her, looking down on her with a slightly agitated and concerned countenance, asking if she was alright.

"I'm fine." Hitomi replied groggily, wiping the sleep from her eyes.

"You were having a bad dream," Yukari was saying, placing her hand on Hitomi's head, pushing her frayed hair from the top of her forehead. Her hand was a pleasant warmth after the cold she had just felt. "You were thrashing... You wrapped the covers around yourself."

Normally Hitomi would have blushed at being discovered in the middle of a frightening dream, but instead she was happy that Yukari had woken her. She was certain if she hadn't, she might have been found later, and she had a morbid suspicion she would have choked or suffocated herself by then. The dream had felt so real, and she could feel the covers around her neck even now.

What was happening to her? Was the dream so horribly real that my body was making it real by using the world around me? She tried to push the thought from her mind. She didn't know if she would be safe again in sleep. At least not with covers anyway.

But what if I suffocate myself with my pillow? Or sleepwalk off the balcony? Or someone comes to kill me in my sleep... Or awake? Will I ever be safe again...?

Then she remembered that she had been fine with Van with her. She hadn't imagined that. She had surely felt his strong arms around her, the warmth of his broad chest against her back, the dull pacing of his sleeping heart against her shoulder blades...

That feeling wasn't a dream.

"Yukari," Hitomi spoke, a slight trimmer shaking not only her voice but her whole body in the process, "where is Van?"

Yukari expression flickered to surprise, viewing Hitomi with apprehension.

"I don't know."

Hitomi sat up in bed, magically untangling herself as she went. She shot out of bed a second later, and she felt thankful she was fully clothed

"I have to find Van."

She ran to the door before Yukari could stand, but was surprised when she couldn't turn the door knob.

She pounded on the door with her fist, yelling, "Hey! Let us out! I have to find Van!"

She heard no response. She kicked the door with her foot hard, forgetting that she didn't have shoes.

She cried out in pain as Yukari joined her, grabbing her shoulders as Hitomi crouched to hold her now throbbing foot.

"Are you alright in there, Misses? Do you require assistance?" A voice called from in front of the door that had offended Hitomi. "I need you to open the door and let us out!" Hitomi yelled from the floor, her anger coursing through her along with the pain in her foot.

"We cannot release you from this room under His Majesty's orders." The voice yelled again. "Not until His Majesty has located the fugitive."

"Just great."

Hitomi got up and limped back to the bed, smarting like her foot, but with anger instead of pain now.

She laid down and turned away from the door. She didn't bother with the murderous covers.

"What's going on?" Yukari asked her, joining her on the bed but not laying down.

Hitomi closed her eyes.

"Why are we stuck in here?" Yukari asked her closed eyes.

"To protect us. From him."

Hitomi could hear the confusion in her friend's voice as she replied, "Who? Is he this traitor they keep going on about?"

Hitomi ignored her. She could feel a headache coming on, and God help her, she was still tired.

Yukari shook her arm. "Tell me!"

"Grr... Yes! The traitor is why we're stuck in here! Stop shaking me! I can't help it, but this is my fault. I can't stand it! Leave me alone for a second damn it! Just leave me alone!"

Shocked into silence by Hiotmi's outburst, there was a thick stillness in the room, almost as suffocating as the covers were earlier.

Yukari got up. Hitomi heard the soft patter of feet leaving the side of the bed, and thought she must be trying to leave again, or at least get away from her.

I'm pathetic. I'm so scared for Van, I'm not even thinking about Yukari... She must hate me for bringing her here.

"We'll just have to wait here until Van gets back," Hitomi said apologetically to Yukari's back.

After a short silence, Yukari asked, "Why does he need to protect us?"

Hitomi laid down onto her pillow. The ceiling was streaked with the morning light.

"He wants to kill us. I heard him last night.."

Yukari softly gasped at these words, but Hitomi didn't see her expression. She could hear a bird song somewhere outside in the sun.

"Is that why you aren't in your room now? You were here last night..."

Despite herself she could feel the uncomfortable heat of her blush.

"Yes."

Silence. The bird's call came closer.

"You... you just slept right?"

Hitomi grew exasperated. Does she have to ask that question? Does she have to have her mind in the gutter?

"Of Course Yukari! Do really have to ask that question!"

Hitomi laughed when Yukari turned and looked back at her with a "Do I?" Expression across her brow.

Good old Yukari.

XX

"Father, I told you! I'm sorry. She was gone. I looked, but I couldn't find her! I-" she was cut off by the hand across her cheek. Instead of her eyes watering up, they remained impassive. She knew she deserved it.

"DO YOU SEE WHERE THIS IS HEADED! THERE IS ONLY AMOUNT OF TIME BEFORE THEY DISCOVER THE TRUTH! My plans..."

Her father stepped away from her and lowered his hand.

There was silence for a moment. Kellia spoke up.

"I do not see how they could know it was us. I do not even believe that anyone knows anything happened last night. Father, let's not be rash. We still have time. She could have just slept in a different room, or left entirely. I do not see why we need to kill her if she is gone."

He did not respond. He had even turned away from her.

"This does not interfere with your plan as you believe."

He wasn't buying it. His back was still turned from her, but he responded calmly, as if he had never raised his voice in his life.

"Do not think you know me, child. I have more planned than you know. Do you think her death would be insignificant? Do you think I planned all of this after her arrival? It is not that easy. And, don't presume to know Lord Van and the girl from the mystic moon. Van is not an idiot, and Lady Hitomi is not blind. She has the power to see the unseen. He has great power. Together they could crush us both. They are only gullible. That is why I called you here. You could have blinded him by killing her, but you couldn't do that. You think they don't suspect? Don't be a fool!"

He had grabbed her arm as he yelled the last line, catching her in a familiar hold. The area had long since learned to block the pain.

"You mean you know more than me, father? What is it?"

His grip tightened.

"Can you not hear the sounds around the castle? The guards move like cattle! And it is long past the time for advisory, and no one has come to call on me. IT IS OBVIOUS WHAT IS ABOUT TO HAPPEN! ALL BECAUSE YOU COULDN"T DO AS YOU WERE TOLD!"

His other hand had balled into a fist and she could numbly feel the sting of it on her other arm. She did not recoil.

"WHO SAW YOU!"

"It was-"

Again she was cut off by the sound of beating against the door.

Her father released her as soon as they heard the sound of someone yelling at the door, "GOTHEL! TRAITOR! COME AND FACE YOUR FATE! YOU WILL PAY FOR YOUR CRIMES WITH MY SWORD!"

"Van..." For just the second time in Kellia's life, she saw fear flash in her father's cold eyes.

Why did she feel pity?

They were silent. The room lay still for a moment before the crashing sounds against the door began again. Her father recoiled.

"Father."

He had turned from her.

"Leave Father. I will stay. They cannot kill what they cannot find."

He turned back to her. Another emotion she could not discern had crossed his face. His eyes seemed less cold.

"Thank you."

He stepped away behind her to crouch on the floor by his bed. She didn't see him as he slipped through the trap and disappeared, but she did her duty and covered the place with the rug when he was gone. She walked back to the middle of the room as she heard the door leading to the corridor resigning itself to destruction. Her face remained impassive.

The King had already stepped inside. He did a once over with his eyes of the room while a sea of guards flowed beyond the gap where the door had been inside.

"Where is he?" He yelled at her.

Why lie?

"He is gone."

"Where?"

"It would be against my honor as his daughter to tell you."

"Honor to that man means nothing! There is no honor for a traitor."

"That is why I cannot tell you."

Silence filled the room. Lord Van eyed her with disdain, but for a moment he was quiet.

"I see you have more sense of honor than your father, but that doesn't guarantee you will not suffer a similar fate as him. You have been charged with conspiracy to kill a member of the royal family and a noble."

He had come to her and caught her arm in the same spot her father had, but his grip wasn't tight.

"You will go with the guards to the dungeon. Maybe a few days there will make you talk."

He handed her off to one of them and lead the way from the room as a few guards remained behind to search her father's room.

(AND THAT'S THE END OF THAT CHAPTER! I hope you liked it. I got a tickle writing it. I hope I update soon so y'all can find out what happens next! Review and I'll update. That's the power of the review, people. "You have the power!")