Vision Of Escaflowne Fan Fiction ❯ Paths of Destiny ❯ Stirrings of Divinity ( Chapter 4 )

Amano hugged himself slightly, trying to keep himself warm. He was still wearing his athletics shorts and shirt from the previous day (all attempts to communicate the desire for clothing the previous day with the maid who showed him his room had been unsurprisingly fruitless), and although the sun was shining, the atmosphere in the council chamber was as cold as ice.

Hitomi had managed to regain some semblance of composure and was sitting in one of the chairs again, with Yukari beside her. Hitomi seemed but a shadow of the cheerful, dryly humorous girl who had a crush on Amano only a few months ago, as she sat, pale and withdrawn, snivelling faintly pathetically. Asano was standing near the door in an attempt to keep watch for any intruders, though he glanced worriedly at Amano frequently as if asking questions Amano had no idea how to answer.

Yukari, however, was feeling particularly sympathetic, and was making it perfectly clear to Hitomi just how uncompassionate she was feeling.

"Stop that pathetic noise RIGHT NOW!" she shouted, colour rising to her cheeks as Yukari clenched her fists at her sides, a picture of fury. "You've not told us everything, have you? There's something REALLY going on with you and that guy - not that he's not good looking, but - WHAT'S THE PROBLEM!"

Hitomi took a few deep breaths, trying to calm her nerves. She spoke falteringly, staring at her feet frequently and darely baring to look Yukari in the eye.

"I told you that Van destroyed the Atlantis Machine, didn't I?"

"Yeah? He flew into it and disrupted that Zone of… something or other. What's that got to do with now?"

"I didn't tell you why he did it, did I?"

"Well, to end the war with Zaibach, right?" Yukari looked puzzled.

Hitomi began to blush slightly, although her eyes were still red from crying. She opened her mouth to speak, but stopped, biting her lip instead. After a moment, she almost whispered "He did it because I said I loved him."

The Atlantean moved closer towards Celena, whipping her knife through the air and laughing. "There is no escape, girl!" she threatened, pointing the weapon at Celena's throat. "The path of your destiny is at an end! I already foresee it!"

Celena began to back towards the pillar, all attempts at bravery forgotten in the face of death. She sank down with her back pressed to the intricate stonework, her face locked with the piercing blue eyes of her assailant bearing down on her.

"No!" she thought to herself, an inner conflict taking control of her mind as she shut off from the certain doom awaiting herself. "You can't!"

"Things change, Celena. You're not who you were - I'm not who I was. I am still here, however, and I can help you."

"How can I trust you? After what you've done - what we've done…" The Atlantean raised the knife high, triumph shining on her face as Celena stared uncomprehendingly into destruction.

"No time now. Let me out…"

The Atlantean plunged her weapon down towards her victim's chest, the taste of victory on her lips. "YOU ARE MINE!" she cried maniacally.

She hardly had time to comprehend what had happened before Dilandau grabbed the Atlantean's arms, twisted the knife and thrust it straight into her chest.

Van's sword whistled though the air towards the unmoving woman, almost singing as it sliced the atmosphere towards its target.

The Atlantean finally spoke. "My wish is too strong," she said placidly, faith glowing in her expression, "and although you are winged, your fate is unswerving. I shall not be harmed - forget this foolish assault, and deliver the Wing Goddess unto us."

Van paid no heed to the woman's words, and stabbed at her. His confidence turned to amazement as each blow missed her by inches, slashing through empty air as though Van could barely control his weapon.

The Atlantean looked almost pityingly at Van as he continued to attempt to attack her, before striking him with her own dagger. Although the blow was only shallow, Van's surprise knocked him back and he fell to the floor, feathers streaming upwards above him as his wings dissolved into nothingness. Just before he hit his head on the floor and blacked out, the last thing Van seemed to see was Celena, surrounded by the prone forms of winged women, grasping a knife dripping with blood in her right hand and gasping deeply.

Amano was slightly taken aback. He could cope with the fact that Hitomi no longer had a crush on him - it had smoothed the path between him and Yukari, that was certain - but that she had transferred her attentions onto someone younger, shorter and (to Amano at least) completely alien was slightly galling. Asano, seeing slight jealousy cross the elder boy's face, stifled a chuckle in the face of the explosions which seemed to be coming from all around them.

"Then, one day, I was waiting at the train station," Hitomi continued, seeming to gain confidence with each sentence after she had revealed her secret, "and I saw him above the waters. He was wearing my grandmother's pendant, and he was just…watching me, I don't know. So I told him that I was doing just fine - and I was, I'd been coping. But the vision I had, and now… I've gone back on my word. I didn't need anything like a promise of eternal love - we were supposed to go on with our lives, never forgetting each other but never obsessing. How can I do that now? I'm back in a land I thought I'd never see again, with the person I thought I could never be truly in love with once more, and it's making me so unhappy! My being here will mean that something terrible will happen to Gaia once again - and I don't want that!"

"Oh, Hitomi…" Yukari's eyes softened and she hugged her best friend quietly. "I'm so sorry. I don't really understand how you feel, but now I see why this is so hard on you. Why can't you just let go of that though, and just feel grateful that Van's here?"

"It doesn't work like that! There's too much at stake rather than just me - the last time I was so selfish, I ruined the lives of those closest to me, nearly killing them in the process!"

Hitomi suddenly stopped and gasped. She seemed to hear some kind of chime in her mind, as the room dissolved away around her to reveal red feathers raining down around her. Turning in terror, she raised her arms in front of her in self defense as a woman with red wings ran towards her, a maniacal gleam in her eyes. As the woman drew close, Hitomi could see that one side of her face was pale white, with an eye that seemed lifeless yet innocent at once, while the other was burned away, a coal black eye blazing with hatred…

Hitomi snapped out of her reverie almost as soon as she had entered it. Gasping for breath, she rose quickly from her seat, and shouted to her friends - "There's something coming! Hide! Run! Just GET AWAY!"

Blinding light washed through the council room as the great glass window shattered violently, thrown outwards in a massive explosion that knocked everyone to the floor. As the light cleared, Hitomi looked up to see a band of women such as the ones she had seen in her vision floating above her, wearing white robes and shimmering blue necklaces. Most of them hung back, but one, wearing a leather bracelet on her right wrist, descended slowly to the floor, her feathers melting away in the sunlight and dripping a red liquid onto the floor as she landed.

Hitomi crawled quickly under the great stone table, which had survived the blast, to attempt to hide from the attackers. Yukari and Amano lay unmoving on the floor, while Asano, a gash to his forehead bleeding slightly, was attempting to stand up by the doorway, propping himself against the wall.

As Hitomi moved closer to the centre of the table, her hand rested on something cold and hard. Taking it, she saw that Van had dropped her grandmother's pendant in his rush to leave and confront the invaders. She gasped loudly in recognition, remembering too late that she was avoiding detection.

The winged woman turned towards the table. "Wing Goddess! You must come with us, to Venal. Do not try to resist - you should not wish to. You shall realise your true destiny if you come to Venal. I am Leah, Queen of the Atlanteans, Messenger of Venal. Come to me!"

"NO!" Asano shouted across the room, seeming slightly unsteady on his feet as he stood against the wall, staring at the winged woman. "Whatever it is you want you can't have it! How can you just attack like this? What do you want?"

"Asano! Don't!" cried Hitomi from beneath the table. Unbeknownst to her, the pendant began to glow softly in her hand.

Leah looked across the room at Asano, his hand clutched at his head to stop the bleeding. She raised her hand to chest height, her palm facing outwards. The necklace she wore began to throb with blue light, and lightning began to crackle around her fingertips, dancing around her hand like fireflies around a lantern. Asano looked resolutely at the Atlantean, his eyes defiant in the face of danger.

The winged woman smiled grimly. "I hear the defiance of fate coursing through your voice. The tongue does not matter - merely the emotion shows you wish to alter an unchangeable course. The Wing Goddess has not yet awakened - the flow of destiny shall not be altered for you. The course of your fate has ended. I am sorry for you, strange one, but no-one shall stop us." Leah moved her hand back slightly, and then , with an almost graceful movement, threw the lightning towards Asano.

Hitomi cried out from beneath the table in horror. "NO! ASANO!"

Again, a strange chime seemed to resound from deep within Hitomi's soul, as her pendant burst into dazzling light that spread out in waves from her, flooding the room around her. Leah screamed in agony as the light hit her, the lightning dissipating from the air before her.

Hitomi's eyes began to clear slightly, to find that she was floating in a totally white space, stretching off for infinity. Opposite her, she saw Asano, his face smeared with drying blood, standing astonished some distance away from her.

"Hitomi? Where are we? What happened to those winged women? What did they want?"

Hitomi opened her mouth to retort that she had no idea what was going on, but found herself speaking in an eerily familiar voice - that of the woman who had prophesied to her so recently.

"All your questions shall be answered in time. Venal shall not succeed without some resistance from me. Although I can do little now, I can at least awaken the sleeping Dragon within you, Caster."

"Hitomi, is there something wrong? You sound…weird."

"There is no time for this. Hudor is within you now. The others will co-operate if Venal does not reach them first. You have your part to play, Caster - do so."

Asano gazed in wonder as a faint image seemed to appear behind Hitomi.

"Wings…" he breathed, enraptured by their beauty as they unfolded, seeming to shine incandescently.

A screech filled the air around the two teenagers as the white space dissolved away. Hitomi found herself beneath the table, still clutching the pendant which was humming gently with white light.

Leah staggered around the table, clutching her face with her hands. "My eyes! I can't see!" she screamed in horror, as the Atlanteans above her tried to regain some sort of composure at the strange turn of events.

Asano felt his head gingerly. His wound seemed to have cleared away miraculously, though traces of dried blood still matted his hair. Looking towards Leah, he remembered the danger he was in.

"What was Hitomi talking about? And what was that whole Caster thing…" he thought quickly to himself.

"Never mind now. Open yourself to me." A strange, deep rumbling voice echoed through the vaults of Asano's mind. Unthinkingly, he seemed to comply.

Asano's eyes widened, turning from their usual green colour to a deep, aquamarine blue. His posture shifted, standing up straighter and more imposingly from his usual enclosed look. Small droplets of water began to rise from the floor beneath him, flowing faster and faster around him in an aura of waves. Leah turned towards the sound of the torrent, uncovering one eye while still clutching at her face in agony.

"What is this!" she cried, stepping backwards as her wings falteringly formed around her back. "Your fate, the path has diverged! This cannot be!"

Water spun around Asano, an intense concentration evident upon his fate. Amano and Yukari, regaining consciousness slowly, lay transfixed by fear at what was happening.

Asano spoke in a booming voice. "You have left us no choice," he uttered, raising his eyes to lock with Leah's ruined face. "Now you must leave."

The water exploded forth from around Asano in a crushing torrent, which blasted straight into Leah as she attempted to fly from the ground. Screaming in fear, the waves pummelled her back through the window and high into the sky, before leaving her to plummet to almost certain death, her ruined wings streaming blood-red feathers above her in a plaintive cavalcade, her fellow Atlanteans flying rapidly after her falling body and crying out in terror.

Asano's eyes regained their green colour as he slumped to the ground, exhausted. Hitomi crawled out from under the table and stood wearily at the scene of destruction around her.

Yukari got slowly to her feet, helping Amano up as he winced slightly. "Well, that was interesting," she remarked dryly, brushing her skirt off. "Anything else you want to try explaining to us, Hitomi?"

"Stop it! Stop relying on me!" Hitomi rounded on her friend. "I don't know what's happening, okay! This is….so terrifying…"

Merle burst into the room on all fours, panting hurriedly, her eyes wild with fear. "Celena said to warn…you…." Merle stopped, and gazed at the devastated room. "I guess you already know, then."

"Where's Van?" Hitomi asked.

"He's in trouble! They surrounded him…"

"Let's go!" Asano tried to get up, but the effort had tired him too much, and he slumped back down to the ground.

"Yukari, Amano, stay with Asano!" Hitomi ran rapidly out the door, shouting behind her. "I'll be back!"

Merle and Hitomi raced down the intricate corridors of the palace until they reached the throne room.

The Atlanteans had vanished, probably as a result of the defeat of their leader. Celena stood at the head of the dead body of one Atlantean, holding the dead woman's knife encrusted with dried blood. She turned to the girls in horror, stuttering as she spoke. "I….I…"

Merle ran over to hug Celena, while Hitomi looked round in panic for any sign of Van.

He was lying unconscious on the floor, white feathers strewn around him. Hitomi ran over to him, picking him up in her arms.

"Van…I'm so sorry, this is my fault!" Hitomi began crying, clutching Van in sorrow.

He began to stir slightly, murmuring Hitomi's name as she sobbed. She looked at his face tenderly, wiping the tears from her eyes so that he wouldn't see her sorrow.

"Hitomi?" Van looked up into the teary eyes of the Girl from the Mystic Moon.

"I'm sorry I've been so horrible. I tried to live on without you - how can I do that now? I went back home - to Earth - because it was the right thing to do, how can I just go back on that?" Hitomi's voice was wracked with choked sobs.

"Does it matter? While you're here, we have each other. Can't that be enough?" Van raised his arms up, and pulled Hitomi to him, embracing her in their first, and most passionate, kiss.

Leah's necklace glowed bright blue as she plummeted down towards the stony streets of Fanelia. She began to slow, and eventually floated in mid-air, her robes soaked through with water as she clutched at her face.

"Forgive me, Venal!" she cried. "I am still capable! Let me try once more! The Wing Goddess is still not awakened; I can avert the path opposing ours!"

A voice rang out in the air, yet unheard by those below. "Pitiful creature! However, elements remain…inexplicable. I will let you continue. However, do not expect such salvation whenever you fail. Gods cannot always provide what is sought…"