(Hey... I know it's been like, forever, but oops! Don't hate me please! I know I left on a really bad spot, and said I'd end the suspense soon, but things got a little... busy. SORRY. I'm just finishing up my first year at college and other things distracted me( Harry Potter ). It's a stupid excuse, especially since I haven't updated since December, but it's all I have. Again, SORRY. I hope all of you fans can still tolerate me and my sorry little fanfic. For anyone who wants to know, I think I might rewrite some of the earlier chapters, especially the second, because looking at it now... I'm sorry for my laziness.

P.S. I'm 19 now, hence the change in name. 20 in November!

Disclaimer: I own nothing but the creations of my own demented thoughts. Don't sue, please.)

XX

They were gone.

Standing in the grass outside the castle, Yukari could only stare at the spot where Van and Hitomi were lifted into the air a second ago. She couldn't even feel terror at the fact that she was left alone on a strange planet on the brink of war. All she could feel was shock. They were gone. She was left behind.

She could hear the sounds of people running behind her. What could she say to them? Would they accuse her of forcing them to leave? Would they be angry that a useless third wheel had been left behind?

The person closest to her was talking. She didn't look.

"What happened? Where are they?!" It was Merle. She felt her hand on her arm. The grip was tight and she sounded scared. Either scared for Hitomi or for Van, Yukari didn't know.

"Did BOTH of the them leave?"

All she could do was nod.

"Crap! Now what do we do? Who is going to go to go to Basram?!" " It was the cat Donte who spoke now. He must have followed them outside. He sounded more agitated than scared.

"Who is going to interrogate the prisoner? The man she met the other night was talking now... What was his name? Allen. Unwittingly, she felt strongly reminded of Amano. Why she thought it now she couldn't focus on at the moment.

"Why is Van gone?"

They all looked upward. If Yukari was thinking at all, she would have thought it strange that they all looked very upset that Van was gone but didn't seem to care that Hitomi was gone too, not to mention the fact that she was still standing here.

"What happened?" Spark had arrived. Yukari could hear the rumbling of the men that had followed Spark outside. They didn't sound happy.

She felt a strange pull in Spark's direction but ignored it. She didn't have time to dwell on their budding relationship. She could only acknowledge her shock at being left behind. And relief.

"What happened Yukari?" At least someone had noticed her standing there. It was Merle again.

"They're gone. Both of them. Gone home."

There was an appalled silence that followed these words.

Allen spoke first. "Why did Van leave with her?"

Yukari turned to him. In light of the outside she couldn't help thinking again how much he looked like Amano. Was it the eyes? The face? The voice? Or was it the illusion of the overall feelings he reminded her of? The feeling passed. She didn't even know this man.

He repeated his question. "Why did Van leave?"

Why did it make her want to cry, this question that had been nagging at her for the last moments after Van and Hitomi were lifted skyward? Why did they leave, while I'm here alone? Why do I feel relief, when I should be feeling scared?

Looking into the face of the stranger before her, the stranger whose profile seemed etched into her memory, she knew.

She didn't want to go back. Not when all she could feel when she thought of the that place was pain. Pain inflicted by a man she loved. It was then, when Van reached for Hitomi's outstretched hand, that she knew she had had that kind of love. thought she had it, but not anymore. Now she was totally alone.

She could feel the tears welling up inside her. The answer to all their questions was so obvious! Can't they see why he went with her? She answered slowly, as if saying it so would help the gathered crowd understand it better.

" He wanted to be with her. She needed him to be with her. They're together because they wanted to be."

She didn't care if she saw their anger. She didn't care if her words had stung. They didn't understand. She couldn't even explain it to them even if she wanted to. She couldn't explain why she knew herself.

She had felt the need from them both. Not just by seeing the pain on Van's face as the light illuminated them. Not just from hearing the pleading call from Hitomi when she begged Van to not let her be alone again.

she could feel it.

She knew then she could never have anyone feel that way for her. It was as if the light from above had swept away all her gullible fantasies and left only the darkness of oblivion in its wake.

She began to cry as the men around her asked their fruitless questions and Merle became a silent spectator at her side.

The feeling of panic slowly began to envelop her. She couldn't know it wasn't her own, because she suddenly thought something. They were together. I am alone. I always will be.

Did she really want to be with a couple so dependent on each other that they would cross space to be together? No. That would only depress her more. She would rather be stuck on this war torn land. It could remind her that her problems weren't that big in comparison.

It was a relief.

XX

Van looked up. The sky seemed gray with a strange yellow tinge. Unnatural. There was strange noises surrounding him. Strange whistles, dogs barking, the sounds of a large city that never sleeps. He looked around. Hitomi was beside him. He still had his hand entwined with hers. She looked apprehensive, but there was a wane smile playing her lips. Almost apologetic.

It seemed stupid to ask, "Where are we?" He just couldn't help it.

"We're by Kitakamakura station, in Kamakura, Japan."

Van drew a blank.

What little smile Hitomi had on her face left it. She gripped his hand tightly. "We're on the mystic moon."

Van looked around, releasing Hitomi's hand.

They were on a deserted street by what appeared to be a platform of some kind, with tracks leading to an unknown location. They were bathed in a strange orange glow that seemed to come from above, but when he looked up he saw the light came from orbs on long metal posts; these made him think of the candle and oil lamps of home, but he could not see the flame from here. The strange lights dulled the sky, blocking all but the brightest stars.

He scanned the heavens, searching for what he knew couldn't be there if he was where she said they were. He recoiled when he spotted the moon, a crescent of light that seemed to mock him like a malicious grin across the void above. There was no companion to the smile.

He looked back to Hitomi.

"Why are we here?"

She shook her head. For some reason it incensed him.

"How can you not know? I tried to send you back, and now we're both here, on the Mystic moon, near a place you must know, and I'm supposed to believe you don't know how we got here?"

Hitomi took a step back. Her face was half covered in shadow now. He couldn't see her expression. This didn't help his mood.

"Why am I here? Only you were supposed to come here."

Hitomi remained silent. Van took this as a sign to continue his pondering aloud.

"I brought you outside... you were asking me not to send you away..." He started pacing. "I felt the pendant burn..." He remembered the pain of it against his chest. It felt as if it seared his skin.

He stopped pacing but didn't look at Hitomi. He looked at his feet. "It was you... You made me come."

He looked up at her shadowed face. She was still silent.

She didn't understand. He had responsibilities to his home and people. To his world. He had to send her to hers. They couldn't be together. Why didn't she understand that? Why did she want to prolong this torture? This need that they shared that couldn't be consummated; that had to end before it began?

"WHY DID YOU MAKE ME COME HERE?!"

She strode forward suddenly, not stopping until she was at eye level with him and they were only inches apart. He saw the tears threatening to spill from her evergreen eyes onto her light eyelashes. He also saw the steely determination etched across her brow. He felt his anger ebbing.

She slapped him hard across his face, in the same spot she had struck on the very first night they had met so long ago. His face whipped to one side.

Before he had time to recover, she turned around and walked purposely away toward the platform.

He touched his stinging face, shocked by what she had done. How could she be mad at him? It was he who should be mad! She had dragged him away from his home on the brink of a new war, the leader of a newly rebuilt kingdom that could fall at any moment, and she was mad at him ?

He hesitated, his hand still against his throbbing cheek, thinking. I still have the pendant, I could just wish to go home again. Another voice chimed in, soft but distinct. Do you really want to? Do you really want to go home? Yes! Of course I do! I have to go, to protect her... to protect my country!

The other voice spoke again, Do you really want to protect her, or protect your own feelings?

I want to save her! I want to save her from all the suffering that I caused her... from the suffering that she will endure if she stays with me on Gaea!

The second voice answered quietly, Does she still suffer?

He thought of the face that had been across from him moments ago, staring into his.

The second voice said its last; You're not on Gaea. Do you want to see her suffer here as well?

No.

He ran after her, running across the deserted street to the platform ahead, stepping beside her silent figure as he heard the rumble of something moving up the track toward them.

I'll just have to stay here until I figure out a way home, he told himself, knowing full well how he could get back to Gaea.

He grabbed her hand.

It wasn't her that made me come here.

She looked away, but not before he saw the tear stains on her face. She didn't reclaim her hand.

It was me.

XX

(Well, that's the end of that chapter! I hope you all liked it, and again, I'm very sorry you guys had to wait sooooooooo long between updates.

If anyone wants to know, I got the name of the station from an online map of Kamakura, Japan, the name of the town that I think Hitomi is from in the series(I got that info from the Escaflowne Compendium). It's a town to the south of Tokyo.

If I am incorrect about anything, please review. I always love to hear what you all have to say, and I would appreciate any help. A special thank you to lucybye, who reviewed last. I haven't seen a new review in a while and it was yours that finally got me around to putting up this new chapter. Thank you to all who read this; I know it can be annoying to have a fanfic writer go for months without updating. It sucks. SORRY. No flames please.)