Vision Of Escaflowne Fan Fiction ❯ Sides of the Same Coin ❯ Prologue ( Prologue )

Author's Notes:

First off: SPOILERS for the end of the Escaflowne TV series. Huge, massive, integral-to-plot spoilers. In addition to spoiling yourself, it would be hard to understand what's going on in this fic without first seeing the series. So, you have been warned.

Escaflowne and all its characters belong to their respective owners, who are not me. This is a fanfiction for fun not profit, alright yo?

There are no pairings. There is war-type violence, child abuse, and a little self-injury (though for different reasons than most of the instances we're familiar with). Also, I would like to announce that in the course of writing this fic, I've made peace with Allen (whose guts I previously hated), mainly because without him, Celena would be screwed.

I wrote this story because nobody else has written it (as far as I know) and it needs to be. Every story I've seen that deals with Celena after the series ends is about either separation or conflict. This story deals with both of those things, but is about something else. This story grew from only one scene in my mind, and even that scene changed as it came out. I wish I was a more prolific writer and could attack this topic once I had become better at storycraft, but this will have to do.

Reviews are highly appreciated, criticism no less than praise.

//thoughtmeats//

[events from another time]

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Sides of the Same Coin

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Prologue

The girl's origins were of no consequence. It didn't matter whose family she had come from. What was important was that she was young and female. The first quality was essential to the technological aspect of the project, as the body could only accept alterations up to a certain age. The second was a practical consideration, as a male ward of the state would be less troublesome, especially in the all-male company the child would be expected to keep once the experiments were finished.

The emperor's expectations, though strange, had been made very clear. After bringing the wonders of Science to Zaibach, he had proceeded to make startling new discoveries in destiny, luck and prognostication technologies. Now, the capacities of the empire would be exercised in the most ambitious undertaking to date. They would attempt to change a person so completely that any future that would have been possible for them would be impossible. In other words, complete destiny alteration. But not only would the destinies be different, they would be opposite, to fully extend the technology's capabilities.

The lead Sorcerer had his doubts. Not that it could be done; he'd seen enough in the past year alone to convince him of the physical possibility. However, he didn't believe that the emperor had taken every aspect of a person into account. Would their personality be completely altered as well? All theory and evidence suggested that it would. What, then, would become of the sweet little girl? Much good it would do Dornkirk if, as a result of the experiment, she became cruel and unmanageable. On the other hand, a lack of sensitivity would be an asset in a soldier. These questions needed to be addressed, the Sorcerer thought.

But it was not his place to doubt the emperor.