Vision Of Escaflowne Fan Fiction ❯ Heart of the Dragon ❯ The Power of Love ( Chapter 28 )

Chapter Twenty Eight: The Power of Love

 

Seibu screamed, her body pulsing with power beyond what she thought was imaginable. She was hurled higher up into the sky, into the clouds, where her husband was only a tiny visible speck. She started laughing, lightly at first and then harder as she watched the destruction happening around her.

 

Dilandau held onto the thick tree, but he had a smile on his face as he observed his wife from afar. The wind was howling, whipping his hair in his face and causing it to sting. He saw a tree next to him be uprooted, and laughed when he saw it swept away into nothingness.

 

His fingers were slipping, he couldn't hold on much longer. He squeezed harder, hoping Seibu would just get done with it. This had been going on for more than an hour. The sky had turned from the cheerful light blue to a blood red, hurricane force winds drove its way across the land, the oceans and lakes were overflowing, causing towns and cities to be swept away in enormous tidal waves. Tornadoes were a new prize that was just starting to show up, wiping out whole forests, not to mention everything in between.

 

Dilandau felt the ground beneath him start to shake. He glanced up, shading his eyes from the flying debris. He had never thought to see a man without wings fly, but he did now. He growled, looking back up. Seibu's bright red aurora was growing, as was the lightning flashing around them. The sky was turning more a black now, the wind was getting stronger, more tornadoes became visible, the ground shook harder.

 

Dilandau found himself flung away from the tree as something hard and metal slammed into his back. His hands grappled from something to hold on to, and found a corner of the castle as he was pulled along the ground, closer to the raging cyclones that were dancing in the middle of the training field. Seibu was in the middle, floating about a mile high in the air. He choked back a cry of alarm when he saw a bolt of lightning strike her.

 

Seibu screamed.

 

 

 ******************

 

 

Hitomi bolted upright in bed, screaming. She felt the blankets around her start to catch on fire, and she immediately jumped out of the enormous bed, and ran across the carpet that was now steaming with her footprints. She ripped open the balcony windows, and jumped right off.

 

Van was already awake, for he had been watching Hitomi thrash about in bed trying to get comfortable. But now that he saw the bed smoking and small flames growing, along with the steaming carpet, he jumped up, running over to the balcony where some buckets of water sat. He grabbed two and threw them on the bed, dousing the flames. He just stomped on the carpet, for he didn't want to get that wet.

 

He swiped his brow and walked back out of the room and onto the balcony to hear his wife's pain filled screams of agony. What he saw made the hair on the back of his neck stand on end.

 

She was on fire. Her whole body was engulfed in flames, yet they weren't yellow. They were silver. It was the scariest thing he had ever seen. She had her wings extended, her body was on fire, yet not with normal fire, but with silver fire. She was screaming, but it didn't seem painful. Her skin wasn't falling off in charred pieces, it didn't even look like she was really on fire, it just looked like it was roaming over her body in a sinister dace.

 

His hand went to his throat as he saw the fire grow bigger, and then diminish altogether. She was suspended in air for a few moments, and then started to plummet full speed to the ground a mile below.

 

He ripped off his shirt and jumped into the sky. The pain of his wings bursting from his back was nothing to the pain he felt when he touched his wife. He yelled, almost dropping her. He didn't know how he did it, but he landed, and then dropped to the dirt ground, unconscious at the horrid pain.

 

Hitomi lay on the ground, trembling. She had never known such pain could exist...nor the feeling of so much power. Her eyes were wide and staring, her arms wrapped around her body as she watched her unconscious husband a few feet away from her. She saw the awful dark red and blood covered burns covering his chest and arms. She felt tears gather in her eyes. When they slipped out, they evaporated. If anyone had ever asked what this had felt like, she wouldn't have been able to describe it. It was too much for her too abide. She blacked out.

 

 

 ******************

 

 

Dilandau caught his wife as she fell from the sky, two hours later. The natural disasters happening around him calmed, but the ground still shook with a powerful force.

 

He smiled to himself. Ever since Seibu had been training him with his growing power, he had been able to touch her. A good thing, for she would have been possibly killed if he hadn't caught her. He wondered what was going to happen. Seibu had said that with the words she chanted, the ancient power of Atlantis would awaken. But he didn't see anything happening, except the sky turn back to a normal night black.

 

No sooner had he thought it, everything seemed to stop. He felt his eyes being drawn up to the sky. He clutched his wife closer in his arms as he watched the phenomenon before him.

 

The sky flashed brilliant colors, almost like the Aurora Borealis except more blazing. The stars seemed to flicker with a mind of their own, growing brighter.

 

He saw something rising out of the mountains in the east, something bigger than he had ever saw in his life. A rock the size of Texas rose out of the ground, the most pure white city perched on top of it. Architectural monuments reached beyond the sky, with amazing transparent crystal globes on top, which seemed to have their own small cites inside. He could see the tiny statues...statues of people with wings. His lips curled into an evil smile.

 

All of Gaea watched this miracle. People wondered if the end of the world would be coming soon, others wondered if it was a new power like Zaibach. The ground shook harder, splitting open and gushing forth more lava, for the volcanoes were still erupting. Whole towns were destroyed just from the earthquake, not to mention the lava and earth splitting open to gobble them up whole. Asturia found her oceans overflowing onto the houses and market places, meanwhile Godisham found a crack seven feet wide suddenly appear right down her center. Fanelia's subjects were awoken from a deep sleep at the cry of dragons in the air.

 

Hitomi felt her blood cool, and gingerly touched her husband, making sure she wouldn't hurt him. His eyes slowly opened, for his own mind had been jerked awake at the cry of dragons. He sat up, giving the city a quick glance before he looked up. His eyes widened, for he had never seen so many flying dragons all at once. There had to be at least five, but he could hear more. He didn't give a second thought of his pain, his wife was more important than anything, including himself. He lifted her up, ordering her to Escaflowne's shrine, telling her he would get their children, along with Merle and Allen. She gave him a worried glance, almost as if she was thinking she would never see him again. He gave her a quick kiss, blinking when he felt how freezing her lips were. When he started running away, he touched his fingers to his lips, feeling the small layer of ice. He wiped it off, wondering why it was ice now, not fire. What is up with her? he wondered.

 

Hitomi walked past the running and screaming people, people she noticed that were going to Escaflowne's shrine for safety. They saw her, tried to stop their queen so she would be safe, but she just shrugged them off easily when they took their hands away, gasping from the freezing cold. Hitomi felt an increasing frostbitten feeling to her body, but ignored it as she walked to the Town Square. The dragons were starting to get a little rowdy, and one of them threw a giant fireball right at a house. Her anger made her unaccustomed power raise to unparalleled heights, making her tingle with the new feeling, the new excitement of exploring whatever her new power was. She curled her fingers, and flexed them.

 

Another fireball sent down into her city. She felt rage boiling inside her, but she just got colder. She heard shouting behind her, but ignored it. She was too caught up in herself. She smirked; almost wishing the dragons weren't here and wouldn't have to go through what she was going to do to them. My city, my power, your destruction. You're not too smart are you, you stupid dragons? Almost as an after thought, she thought about Rain, her own dragon. She blinked, stopping in her tracks. What if Rain was with those rampaging dragons? What if I hurt her if she is one of them?

 

She shook it off. Fanelia and its people are more important than Rain, a simple dragon. She was entitled to give her life for her people if it meant it would save theirs. She had to keep her people safe. Now I'm starting to sound like Van, she thought with a smile.

 

She had her hands down at her sides, and she felt a distinct almost painful prickling in her fingers. She looked down, her eyes widening when she saw small streams of ice reaching down her bare arm and spiraling down to her fingers, where a barely visible ball of light blue was gathering power. She was jerked around suddenly, and then she heard a pained yell. She didn't look back and see it was Van, holding his now completely frozen hand. He was gripping his wrist, his eyes watering from the freezing pain. His whole hand was frozen solid, he couldn't feel it. Allen ran up to him, asking what was wrong. Merle screamed at Hitomi when she saw his hand, and then she took hold of him, trying to rush him back to the palace, anywhere she could find a healer.

 

"No, I need to stop her. She's going to kill herself!! Didn't you see her hand?!" Van yelled, and shoved Merle and Allen away with his good hand. He forgot about his other one, trying to get to Hitomi.

 

She was already in the Town Square. He could see her concentration on her face as her wings burst from her back, a spectacular display that he knew would always take his breath away. He was momentarily stunned when he saw the growing silver glow around her as her feet lifted from the ground. The ball in her hand was growing, meanwhile she was flying up higher to get a better vantage point with the dragons and her aim. She didn't know how good it was, considering she hadn't really every played anything involving throwing things that would kill it.

 

Van watched her take the blue ball in both her hands, spreading them wider, the ball growing along with it. He saw the electricity gathering around her, and the noticeably colder wind. And it was summer.

 

He swallowed when she opened her closed eyes. He had seen the glow even underneath her lids, but when he saw her bright silvery white eyes, no pupils at all, he stared. Even though he didn't even have power even close to Hitomi's visibly growing one, he could tell that if she wanted to, she could blow Fanelia off the face of Gaea. He was getting terrified to know that his wife could do this with just a thought, and know that he thought about it, she could rule all of Gaea with an iron fist. Just like Zaibach almost did. Except no one would stand in her way. But he knew better. Even with the relatively evil look on her face, the smirk, the lustrously gleaming silver eyes, he knew that no matter what...she was good. She would protect Fanelia, Gaea, with everything she had.

 

The air felt charged, he could see it charged. Even the hair on his arms was standing on end, not to mention his hair was sticking up at odd angles. He watched his wife throw her arms back above her head, lifting the ball the size of a car above her head, straight at a dragon that was blowing fire at cottage in the nicer section by the palace. He heard a horse yell, and he could only imagine it came from her, for it came from above him. His eyes followed the amazingly fast ball; he barely had seen it fly from her fingers. His eyes grew large at the sight of the dragon slowly crystallizing, from the tip of its tail all the way to the immerging fireball from its throat. He heard cheering from behind him as the dragon's frozen body fell from the sky and hit the solid ground, shattering into a million pieces.

 

He had been so absorbed watching the dragon's death that he hadn't even seen Hitomi fling several more at the rest of the pissed off dragons. They fell from the sky like meteors, and crashed just as hard. He watched her float down from her perch high in the sky, to the ground somewhat away from him. He ran up to her, but she shot him a warning glance and walked away, back towards the palace. He saw the ground freeze and form into ice as her feet touched the dirt.

 

It was then that he remembered his hand. "Shit, Hitomi, wait! My hand!!"

 

She turned around, and he felt himself get startled at the once again bright silver glow in her eyes. "Give me your hand," she said slowly, almost eerily. If his frozen hand could have shook, it would have been trembling away. He reached it out, expecting it to break off into a thousand pieces from her touching it with her icy fingertips.

 

Instead, he felt warmth. He sighed, the numb feeling drifting away. She let go of his hand almost as soon as she touched it. He could tell she was afraid of burning him, like she had just a little while before, not including the countless weeks this had been going on.

 

She walked away, and it was then that he looked back up to the sky again, the hushed whispers of the people around them telling him that something was still wrong. He saw the same thing Dilandau was seeing, the floating white city perched atop a rock the size of Texas. "Hitomi!!"

 

She turned around, and he pointed up to the sky, wondering how her eyes had gotten back to normal so quick, when it normally took an hour. Maybe she is learning how to control this thing, whatever it is, he thought.

 

Hitomi felt something lurch inside her, making her stomach jump up into her throat, her heart nearly stop, her pulse to pounded wildly in her temple, her head go light. She felt her world go pure white, and she had the sensation she was flying. This she remembered, the people running past her, screaming for their lives, wings floating behind them. She saw someone in front of her, she could feel the incredible power radiating from the person. It scared her. She looked down when she started hearing chants.

 

Silver Atlantian...silver Atlantian...save us!!!

 

Van caught her before she hit the ground. He felt her trembling, and he had the feeling he should lay her back down, just in case her special powers started kicking in.

 

Just as he set her down, it happened. He was grateful he didn't get more than a hot feel to his hands and arms, for he was so burnt he didn't even remember what having normal skin felt like.

 

Allen walked up to Van, Merle ran up to Van. Both men couldn't help but smile. Merle seized Van's hands to see if he was alright. After her close inspection, she deemed him well enough to go to bed right then. There was no use for him to argue with her, for she would have won no matter what he did. Some king I am, he thought and walked back into the palace. He gave orders to Allen or someone to bring Hitomi up when she was done frying the ground for a barbecue. Allen smiled and promised him that he would see it done personally.

 

 

 ******************

 

 

Seibu laughed at her husband. "Oh, Dilandau, you have no idea how wonderful this is!!"

 

Dilandau followed his beautiful wife down the stairs, her skipping down about every ten, while him, he stepped on every single one. He felt his blood boil that she would exploit him, and his lack of the forceful power she had. Sure, his limited powers grew everyday, and with the most intense training he had ever had, but he still wanted more.

 

Seibu knew exactly what he was thinking. "Come on, Dilandau, lets have a...fight or something."

 

He snorted. "Yeah, so you can kill me."

 

She looked hurt. He saw her swallow, and he wondered if she was trying not to cry. He gave her a worried look, and she jumped up the ten stairs that were separating them and into his arms. He staggered backwards, but held himself and his wife upright just in time. She started crying on his shoulder, and he ended up carrying her down the rest of the stairs. He scowled at his men when they initiated giving him knowing looks, just like they always did when they caught their lord carrying their mistress.

 

Seibu sniffed and held on tighter, for he was going outside, where the wind was still blowing hard. He glanced upwards, squinting his eyes to see the giant white city so high up in the clouds. When he felt a rain drop on his nose, he set his wife down. She loved storms, so it should cheer her up. It started pouring down in sheets, hail came down in torrents. Yet his wife wasn't touched by any of it. Her familiar red glow was growing rapidly, and it completely melted the hail, and evaporated the rain. She gave him a questioning look before her eyes turned red themselves. He sighed, and decided it was worth it. If he ever wanted his weak power to develop, he had to work for it, just like Seibu did for at least five hours everyday.

 

He closed his eyes and fisted his hands at his sides. He concentrated on gathering his energy inside him and then bringing it out. It was a hard and difficult thing to do, but he was quickly mastering it, just like Seibu had a year ago to this day. He couldn't fly yet, and Seibu was just getting used to it. It surprised him that as all her life as a sorceress she hadn't even tried to fly once. She hadn't even thought of it until their fast developing son had wondered off somewhere. When they caught him up in a tree, his tiny little fists reaching for a baby squirrel, Seibu had flipped out on herself, wondering why she hadn't ever thought of flying, and their son already could. And how old was he? Dilandau wondered. Two months, almost three? He knew all about Van, and his precious little twins, but he didn't know how old they were. Maybe a month older or something. Van had played with Hitomi long before he had actually known his own wife.

 

He started bringing out his concentrated energy and felt his body radiate with black light. Seibu was red, he was black. He had always thought that was funny, considering how he would rather have red, and Seibu black.

 

He un-fisted his hands, and focused on drawing out more energy and keeping it that way. His wife was just lifting off the ground, her strange red glow looking ethereal against the flashes of white lightning and the dark black sky.

 

The lightning and thunder around him gave him a new sense of feeling, and feeling that he could increase his power to levels unimagined. He liked that thought. Seibu seemed to feel it too, for she was getting an even bigger red aurora around her.

 

"Hey, Seibu! How about you teach me how to fly today? Maybe we could pay a little visit to a certain someone...."

 

 

 ******************

 

 

When Hitomi's temperature went down and she looked like she was touchable, Allen picked her up and carried her to the infirmary. He was sick of what was going on with her, he didn't want to see Van hurt anymore by this. It wasn't just the physical pain, it was the emotional pain. Van couldn't even touch her without fearing for his hands, let alone anything else. He had caught Van looking so longingly at Hitomi that he had wondered if he was a starving man. Poor Van, he thought. Can't even touch his own wife. How long had he been celibate? Three months? More than three months? He shuddered. The one month it had took for Merle to heal had been more than enough for him. Including her, he thought with a grin.

 

He set her on a cot and waited for Nara, who was examining a patient that had been hurt from a fire blast from the dragons. He looked to be fine, so he had no doubt Nara would be over in a few moments.

 

When she came over, she sighed, seeing the worried look on Allen's face. "Alright, so I guess you want me to fix her highness. Sorry."

 

Allen jerked his head up. "What? What do you mean?"

 

"Don't you think his majesty hadn't already tried this? He comes down here everyday, waiting for me to come up with some cure for her highness. And I know you're upset, I am too. I know that you too have seen the looks that he gives her."

 

He sighed. "Yeah. So I guess there isn't anything you could do for her? Not even try to make her power levels decrease?"

 

Nara sat down on the cot next to the sleeping Hitomi. "Let me explain something. Us humans—"

 

"What?! Are you saying Hitomi isn't human?!!"

 

Nara glared at him. "I didn't say that. Now let me talk."

 

Allen raised his brows and waited for her to start.

 

"Alright. Us humans have a power level of about...ten. Now ever since whatever has been happening to her, her power levels have been sky rocketing. It is clearly inhuman. There is no other explanation."

 

"So...for me to get a better idea of how...powerful she is, how high is her power level? What's her power level right now? Is it like ours?"

 

Nara looked down at Hitomi and pushed some tendrils of her now mid-back length hair behind her ear. "Right now, I think she is about forty. But when she was outside today, and she reached those high planes of power, she was about six hundred."

 

Allen stared at her as if he hadn't heard. When he got over his shock, he asked, "So what does that mean?"

 

Nara didn't say anything. He gave her a questioning look, wondering if she was alright. She took a deep breath. "It means that if she felt like it, she could destroy Gaea."

 

 

*******************

 

 

Van was jerked out of a peaceful sleep by a yelling Allen. The blankets were thrown off him.

 

"Get up!!"

 

Allen started pacing back and forth in front of Van, trying to calm himself. Van sat up, yawning and rubbing his eyes. "What do you want?" he groaned, grabbing the blankets again and throwing them over his head. Allen decided that he couldn't pace anymore and sat down on the edge of the bed.

 

"Hitomi can end the world."

 

Van stopped in mid-move to his stomach. He pulled the covers back away from his head and glared at Allen with narrowed eyes. "Are you suggesting that she is going to kill us all?"

 

"Van, I am serious. Hitomi is so beyond powerful, that she can kill everyone, even destroy Gaea."

 

Van sat up and continued to stare at Allen, but he wasn't shocked. "I already know this."

 

Allen blinked a few times before he comprehended what Van just said. Van sighed, and decided to explain it to him. "I already know. And no one even had to tell me, Allen. You should see the creepy things that happen at night when she is sleeping. I don't even go to bed myself until morning, so I don't have to worry about being killed."

 

Allen watched him carefully, seeing how difficult this was for Van to talk about. He wondered why it was so hard.

 

"I don't even sleep in the same bed as her anymore. I sleep in a chair that I pull over to her side. It's starting to hurt me, Allen. I don't mean my body, but my heart. I see the tears in her eyes when she looks at me. It's getting too hard for me to take it much longer."

 

Allen had had no idea the extent of what Van was actually going through. "I didn't know, Van. I just thought that see was having some weird problems."

 

Van snorted. "Allen, you have no idea how serious this is. She almost burnt down the palace a few nights ago!! I have to keep buckets of water outside so she doesn't burn the bed in the middle of the night!!"

 

He lowered his head into his hands. "This isn't fair. No matter what I do, nothing good ever happens."

 

"Van, that's wrong. You have Ryu and Malaika, don't you? You have Hitomi, you have life! That's a lot more than other people have! And you're a king for heaven sakes!"

 

Van lifted his face out of his hands. "I complain too much," he said with a smile. "Look at how much more worse other people have it, and here I am complaining about being burnt to death."

 

Allen grinned. "Well, I would be worried about certain things being burnt off."

 

Van laughed. "Yeah! I've had a few close calls. Good thing she said I could drop her!"

 

Allen chuckled along with him. "Then you would have something to complain about, wouldn't you?"

 

Van crawled out of his bed and stretched, scratching his flat stomach. "I guess I would, wouldn't I? I bet your glad you don't have to go through worrying about getting certain parts fried off by your wife."

 

"I don't necessarily have to worry about being burned, but being scratched, or ripped off...." he shuddered. "I don't know what's worse."

 

Van couldn't help but laugh as he pulled his black shirt over his head. "Don't we have some odd wives?"

 

They started having a humorous talk about their wives and what they go through with them when they walked out of Van's room. They ended up outside, laughing so hard at some things that people had to give them weird looks.

 

"I can't believe we love our wives so much," Allen said, working his way through the bustling crowds of Fanelia. Amazing how the people been screaming and running for their lives just a few hours ago, and now were resuming them like nothing had happened.

 

They were planning on getting some presents for their wives for a surprise. They decided with what they go through with them that they deserved something. They both smiled at that.

 

Van stepped into his favorite gift shop store, Allen following close behind. They didn't see anyone, which Van thought was odd. Allen wandered off into the jewelry section, and Van went around searching for something perfect. But he couldn't find anything. When Allen came up to him with his purchase, a necklace with a small diamond, Van told him he couldn't find anything. Allen, in all his mastery with women, suggested flowers. Van thought about it, and decided that that would be perfect. He knew that Hitomi hated him spending a lot of money on her, so getting her a gift of flowers wouldn't be too bad.

 

Van went back outside and searched for a flower stand in the market place. When he found one, Allen started naming the meanings of what every kind of flower meant. Van laughed at one in particular. Roses meant—at least to Allen—I want you. He wondered if that was a little too much, but Allen said Hitomi would love it. And then he nudged him in the side, saying that she would more than love it. Van got his patented wicked look on his face and bought one single rose at Allen's advice.

 

"In my experience, women seem to think a single red rose to be more...nice I guess," Allen said, smiling as they walked back to the palace. They separated to find their wives, promising to tell each other what happened. Van joked around saying that his wife would probably catch the thing on fire and then burn him. Allen just shook his head and walked away, trying not to laugh.

 

Van found his beautiful wife standing on the balcony in their room that overlooked their city. He smiled and crept up behind her.

 

Hitomi felt something flutter against her cheek and she jerked her head in the direction she had felt it. When she didn't see anything, she sighed and went back to watching Fanelia. She felt it again, except on the other cheek. She looked over her shoulder, but no one was there. She sighed in frustration, wondering what was going on.

 

When she turned back, she smiled. Van was leaning against the rail, watching her. "Van," she breathed.

 

He let his eyes drift slowly over her, making her feel light headed and her heart pound. He leaned closer over to her, his lips only a hair away. Her breath caught in her throat as he gave her a slow kiss, luxuriating at the feel of her mouth, and then pulling away. She watched as he brought forth a single rose, its dark red petals just ready to bloom. She took it from his long fingers and rubbed the softness against her cheek, looking at him through her lush lashes, a small smile on her face.

 

"Thank you," she murmured, tilting towards him to kiss his cheek. He loved her seemingly innocent kisses, like what she just did. It drove him wild. I bet she knows it too, he thought, letting the side of his face graze the silkiness of her hair. He was afraid that this moment would be ruined by something that might suddenly happen to Hitomi, but she seemed perfectly fine. He took a wary deep breath, and then covered her mouth with his.

 

She nearly jumped out of her skin at the passionate kiss he was giving her. She could feel how much he needed her by just this simple kiss. She opened her mouth wider to his demanding tongue and wrapped her arms around his neck when he moaned into her mouth. He had her pushed up against the wall of the palace, his hand was straying from the curve of her neck to her breast. His other hand was deftly undoing the buttons on the back of her gown.

 

"Van, shouldn't we go inside?"

 

She pushed him away gently, letting him know that she wasn't upset so he wouldn't get mad at her. He let her go with some difficulty. She got a quick glance at his eyes, and noted how wild they were looking. She wondered if it was just because he wanted her that badly, or that he couldn't control himself.

 

Her worries were dashed away when Van tenderly picked her up and brought her into the room, closing the door quietly behind him. She watched him go around the room and lock all the doors, so their privacy wouldn't be disturbed. When he came back over to her side, his arms went immediately around her, taking her mouth in a hard kiss that made her gasp. His fingers started on the back of her gown again, and soon it was at her feet. Her own hands were busy on his as she silently prayed that her new powers wouldn't kick in while this was going on. She only had one brief fleeting thought of getting pregnant again, and the possibility that she could almost die, or die altogether. But when she felt him cup her bare breasts in his hands, she completely forgot what thinking even was.

 

Van felt her falling apart more than willingly in his arms and thanked God that she was his. He tore the rest of his clothes off for she wasn't getting it done fast enough for him, and then pushed her back onto the bed. He gave her a long kiss on her bruised looking lips before he let his mouth drift down to the hollow of her throat and then lower. She moaned when he took her nipple into his mouth and gently sucked while his long fingers roamed downwards. She lifted her hips, telling him to hurry up and stop torturing her. He chuckled and touched her intimately, his clever fingers gaining a rhythm that she more than enjoyed. She whimpered and bucked her hips against his fingers for more, causing him to deepen the tantalizing caress.

 

There was a knock on the door. Van snapped his head in the direction of the noise, and then looked down at Hitomi. Her eyes were wide on his face, her body was trembling uncontrollably. He swallowed hard, then cleared his throat, making sure he would be able to talk. "Yes?"

 

"Your highness, we have gotten a report from Freid. We were wondering if you would like to read it."

 

Van had the intense urge to roll his eyes, but he could see how hard it was getting for Hitomi not to moan. He smiled at her pleading eyes and lifted his fingers. She cried out at the loss, and his other hand immediately covered her mouth.

 

"Your highness? Is everything alright?"

 

Van growled, trying to keep his temper down. "Yes. We are fine. Now please, leave!"

 

He heard some movement outside the door before the normal sound of retreating footsteps was noticeable.

 

Hitomi concentrated on controlling the quivering her body was going through. She smiled good-naturedly at Van when he looked back down at her, his snarl gone for the moment. She could tell he was surprised to see her smiling, but he grinned right back at her. He didn't remember taking his hand away from her mouth, so he just ignored it and returned to his pleasurable task with zeal.

 

But Hitomi had already started long before his mind had registered that he should start again. He felt her hand trail down his chest, swirling her fingers here, pressing there, until he felt her hand curl around him.

 

She gave him a lop-sided smile when she saw his eyes grow large. Not a moment later he groaned and covered her hand with his, causing her to tighten her hold. She took note of all the amazing changes in his body as her hand ran up his hard length. His breathing was strained, his eyes were closed tight, and he was trying not to shake from the mounting pleasure her hand was giving him.

 

She flipped him over onto his back and he put his hand on her head, not hard but with an urgency. She traveled down his body and she let herself touch him gently again, using the pads of her fingers to explore. His hands clenched in her hair almost painfully at her ministrations.

 

Smiling, she took him into her mouth and closed her eyes, learning his taste. She drew on him lightly, still nervous, and his body stiffened.

 

"Oh, God," he groaned.

 

She took him harder and faster, using her mouth and fingers to stroke him. She could feel his need rolling through her whole body. She adored his body, reveled in what she was doing to him, gloried in the moment she knew the briefest flickering caress would plunge him over the edge...gloried in the moment when it happened and his cry filled the room. His fingers were twined in her hair as if he would die if he let go. His grip finally loosened and she slid back up his body and took his mouth. He wrapped his arms around her as if he would never let her go.

 

 

 ******************

 

 

About two hours later, Van collapsed on his side, trying to live to the next moment by actually breathing right. He took a big gulp of air and held it for about five seconds before his body demanded more oxygen. It took about ten minutes for him to gain a semblance of normality, or at least look like he was going to live. Hitomi was looking half dead at his side, but she had a smile on her face.

 

"I can't believe I am alive."

 

Hitomi laughed and rolled over to his side. "More?"

 

Van looked at her as if she was insane. It just made her laugh more. "I need to get up and feed the twins."

 

Van pulled her closer and buried his face in her hair. "Do you have to?"

 

She nodded against his shoulder. He sighed and let her go reluctantly.

 

Now that their children's feeding time was a schedule that couldn't be broken—unless they wanted the whole palace screamed down—Hitomi had to be on time every hour on the hour. She couldn't imagine what Vera was going through to keep them calm, for they had to be very upset.

 

She dragged herself out of the bed and pulled on her clothes, not bothering with stockings or slippers. She unlocked the bathing room door and took a deep breath of the moist warm air. She was about to close the door, but Van told her to keep it open and that he would be over in a minute.

 

Van got out of the warm bed and got dressed quickly, following his wife into the nursery. He was almost always with her when she fed the twins, for they seemed to get upset when he wasn't there. As soon as he got into the room, Ryu was plopped into his arms. He cocked an eyebrow at Hitomi and she answered, "My arms are too weak to hold both of them at the same time. Why don't you feed him?"

 

Van gave her a smile that told her she was just plain weird and sat down in a soft chair with Ryu on his lap. The child started tugging on his black shirt, for he didn't have anything else to play with. "Can you believe these two little things are already three months old?" Van asked her, letting his son grab hold of his finger.

 

Hitomi sat next to her husband in the other chair with Malaika at her breast. "No, I can't believe it. Just wait until another three months and they are teething."

 

"Why?"

 

Hitomi smoothed back the softly curling black hair at her daughter's forehead and cooed soft words to her as she ate greedily. "It hurts them. They will probably cry and cry and cry until we go crazy and run away."

 

He grinned. "I look forward to it."

 

About ten minutes later when Malaika seemed to have had enough, she took Ryu and Van placed his daughter on his lap to replace his son. Van had gotten a small blanket for it was starting to get cold, and wrapped it around the sleeping child in his arms. He had been in his own imaginary world staring at his daughter when he felt the ground start to shake. He wanted to jump up, but he didn't want to disturb his daughter.

 

He stood up quickly and placed her in her bassinet, and then walked over to the balcony windows.

 

Hitomi saw him grip the doorknob so hard that his fingers turned white and it cleanly broke off. He stared at it as if he didn't know how that had happened, and then threw it away from him and opened the door. Hitomi gave him a puzzled look, but he didn't see it.

 

Van stepped onto the balcony and dug his nails into the wooden rail. "Damn it!"

 

Hitomi knew something had to be wrong, for he never swore in front of his children. She knew that they couldn't really understand him, but he still tried not to.

 

She stood up and adjusted Ryu in her arms into a more comfortable position for both of them. When she got to the doors, Van ran past her, and out of the room, slamming the door behind him. Right before it shut, he yelled, "Don't go outside!!"

 

She frowned at the door that just closed, for it had made her baby jump in her arms. She took a quick peak outside to see what was so wrong.

 

Two small objects in the distance were flying through the air, and they weren't guymelefs, nor did they have wings. She gasped when she saw an enormous ball of red grow from one of the things flying in the air and then spiral downwards at the city. She immediately looked away, knowing that it would make her mad, and she didn't want her powers to start acting up with the baby in her arms. Just as a precaution, she hurried up and finished feeding him and laid him next to his sister, not even caring he had his own crib to be in.

 

She was still buttoning her gown when she ran out of the room, her feet completely bare. She ignored it and searched for someone to lead her to her husband, or so she could actually do something herself. She ran smack into General Dunwe, who just ignored her and sped off in the other direction. She growled at him, something she realized she got from Van, and then stopped for she knew that getting mad would trigger her powers.

 

She took off again to the palace front doors, hoping to find Van there, or someone that could bring her to him. She had no doubt that he would use Escaflowne, but wait. He still had the guymelef deactivated from the Great War, and still hadn't awakened it yet. She knew that he feared doing it for obvious reasons, but he still should have done it by now. She grimaced slightly when her feet slammed into the ground from running, and rocks dug into them. She saw people running and screaming again for the second time that day. Someone tried to stop her, but they remembered this morning and forgot about it, only caring about themselves.

 

When she got to Escaflowne's shrine, she saw Van standing and giving orders to various men and women who were standing nearby. She ran to his side, asking who and what it was in the sky.

 

"Dilandau and Seibu. I have no doubt."

 

The simple answer was enough to make her blood boil. Van looked down at her when he felt her fingers wrapped around his arm start to heat. Her eyes were growing lighter. "No, Hitomi! Don't do this! We can handle it!!"

 

He watched her close her eyes and bite her lip, trying to fight it. "I can't stop it, Van. Please make it stop."

 

He pried her fingers off his arm before they burned him, and then ushered her into Escaflowne's shrine, which was empty for some reason. "Don't ask why no one is in here. It will take too long to explain. Just stay in here and try to think about something happy or calm. Don't get mad or upset. There now, sit down and close your eyes. I can take care of it."

 

Hitomi sighed gratefully and leaned against the cool wall, keeping her eyes closed and concentrating on something happy. She smiled when she remembered them getting married.

 

Van left her side, thinking that the smile on her face meant she was alright, at least temporarily. He felt the ground shake as another ball of red smashed into the countless homes of the city. He wished suddenly that he had Hitomi's powers so he could kill them, and do it so slow they would beg for death.

 

His eyes narrowed when he heard Dilandau's maniacal laughter float through the air. He unsheathed his sword at his side when he saw the man in question fly above him and then touch down gracefully on the ground.

 

"Well, well, well. Look who we have here. Does it look like...Van?" Dilandau asked, smiling at his sweet talk. He let his black aurora glow brighter for a moment before he let it diminish slightly. He saw Van glaring at him with pure hatred in his brown-red eyes, which made him laugh even more. "Poor Van. Can't you protect your country? Or don't you know how to? I seem to remember this, don't you?"

 

Van growled at him before Dilandau charged him with his sword. Van felt the hard impact vibrate up his arm and make it go numb. He was disoriented for a moment, for he had never felt something like this before.

 

Dilandau smirked. "Can't take much, can you Van? Did you grow weak on me?"

 

Van yelled at him and slashed at his neck, but his foe blocked it all too easily. "Don't think such a pathetic move will kill me, Van. Maybe you need a little more practice!!!"

 

He jumped on Van, causing them to both fall to the ground, their swords slithering away. Van reached desperately for his, but it was too far away. Dilandau was sitting on his chest, pressing him into the ground with his weight so it was hard for him to move. He saw him raise his fist high into the air and then fly out of nowhere. Van felt his ears ring and his cheek throb from the force of the other man's punch. He felt himself losing consciousness. No, this can't be happening. How did he get so strong? I can't even take one single punch to the face without—

 

He blacked out. The last thing he heard was Dilandau's crazy laughter flowing through the air.

 

Hitomi stood in the doorway and watched as Van fell unconscious. She saw the enormous bruise forming on his cheek, and she wondered if Dilandau had hit him that hard. It didn't really bother her until she saw blood seep out of his ear, and then stream into his hair. She blinked a few times when she saw more come out of his nose, and fall down his cheek. Oh, my God. Dilandau...he killed him, didn't he? No, Van is still alive, he has to be, she thought to herself.

 

When she felt her fingers starting to tingle, she moaned to herself, wishing she could just pass out herself instead of having to go through this.

 

Dilandau sneered at the half dead form of Van and stood above him, kicking him in the ribs. He didn't stop hitting Van's unconscious body until he felt something grow hot behind him. He turned around quickly, expecting to block a burning arrow that was flying towards him, but instead he saw a glowing white form of a woman. He shielded his eyes from the bright light, for it hurt his eyes. The wind started blowing hard, it made his hair whip into his eyes and sting painfully. He moved his hand away so he could see better, but all he saw was a sudden flash of white wings burst from the woman's back. Ah, must be Hitomi, he mused with a grin.

 

He dug his feet into the ground, working his way with some difficulty towards Hitomi. The wind was what was making it so hard, and he just ended up shielding his eyes from the flying matter in the air. He briefly registered the ground quake again as Seibu shot another powerball at the city. He got closer to Hitomi, he was almost fifteen feet away from her. He was almost drooling from the thought of killing her and making Van suffer even more. And then I will get his children, he thought as he got ten feet away from her.

 

He watched dumbly as she raised her hand. He blinked a few times at the blinding light and held his blowing hair out of his face with his other hand so he could see better. He laughed when he saw a light blue glowing ball form at her fingers and then grow larger. "Oh, yes. You think your pathetic power can ever beat me?!"

 

The wind blew harder. He didn't know if it was the wind or the powerball that knocked him off his feet and made him fly twenty yards and then smack right into the side of a stone building, but it hurt. He felt his bones snap and crunch at the impact, but he ignored it as he dropped noisily into the cobble stone street.

 

Hitomi grinned triumphantly. "Want more?" she asked.

 

Dilandau's eyes widened at the haunting sound of her voice. It seemed to float through the air, and then expand into nothingness, drifting away as if the ethereal words had never been there. He stood clumsily to his feet, hoping that he would actually be able to stand without his leg bones snapping in half. He felt his body burning in pain. He smiled.

 

"So, this is your power, huh? I still think it's weak. I could beat you if I wanted to."

 

His smile fell of his face when she opened her eyes. He had thought her glow was bright, but now he couldn't even see. He closed his eyes as tight as he could, but it still seemed to get through. It stung his eyes and made his brain ache. He couldn't bear to look at her. He felt his feet lift off the ground and he took off to find Seibu, so they could get out of there.

 

Hitomi felt her weightless body touch to the ground, for she had been hovering in the air, and without even using her wings. Her hair and clothes that had been wafting in the air from the soft wind fell back down. She smiled when her glow went away. She thought it odd how her own wind around her felt so light and soft, yet everything else around her that wasn't planted firmly in the ground was flung away from the hurricane force winds.

 

Hitomi smoothed down her clothes before she went over to Van's side, picking his head up gently and placing it in her lap. "Van, please be alright," she whispered, leaning down and brushing a soft kiss to his smooth forehead. His eyes fluttered open, and then closed again as he moaned.

 

"Aw, my head hurts. I can't feel my face. Is it still there?"

 

Hitomi laughed softly. "Yes, its still there. Are you alright? Are you going to die?"

 

Van smiled, but then wiped it off his non-feelable face, for it hurt too much for him to bear. Leave it to his wife to immediately ask if he was going to live, he thought. "I don't think so."

 

She gasped, and then pinched his arm hard for doing that to her and making her worry. She ripped a piece of her gown off and started to dab gently at the drying blood on his face.

 

"I'm sorry I couldn't...couldn't protect you, Hitomi," Van said weakly, trying to reach for her hand. She let him take hold of it, and she gave it a reassuring squeeze.

 

"It's alright, Van. You're alive, that's all that matters. Don't worry." She paused and kissed his forehead again. "Close your eyes and relax. I'll wait for some help. I won't leave you."

 

He would have smiled along with her, but it hurt too much. He felt his mind going blank, and he fought the blackness creeping over him.

 

"It's alright, Van. I'm here. Just let it take you. You won't feel anymore pain...."

 

His eyes drifted closed and his body went limp. She felt tears gather in her eyes, fought them just like Van had fought to stay conscious, but gave up. They overflowed and fell, pelting Van's face cradled in her lap. Van, I don't know what I would do if I lost you....