Vision Of Escaflowne Fan Fiction ❯ To Mend the Rose ❯ Shattered Reflection ( Chapter 1 )
[ P - Pre-Teen ]
By: Feye Morgan 
Dilandau makes his choice.
Anime/Manga: Vision Of Escaflowne Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Angst / Drama | Type: Other | Uploaded On: 07.10.2003 | Pages: 2 | Words: 1.0K | Visits: 288 | Status: Work In Progress
Dilandau makes his choice.
Anime/Manga: Vision Of Escaflowne Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Angst / Drama | Type: Other | Uploaded On: 07.10.2003 | Pages: 2 | Words: 1.0K | Visits: 288 | Status: Work In Progress
Disclaimer: I do not own Tenku no Escaflowne. However, if you'd be willing to sell me the rights for really, really cheap, I wouldn't complain. Vive Dilandau-sama!!!
ONWARD!
TO MEND THE ROSE: SHATTERED REFLECTION by Feye Morgan
The wind bit through the encampment, whipping the tents into disarray. The morning was cold and grey, slightly damp like the air before a storm. One tent, taller than the others and staked more firmly into the unwilling ground, harbored the greatest fear of many nations. But fear is an illusion when its reflection is broken.
Dilandau Albatou, Captain of the elite Dragonslayers, was slumped in a chair inside the tent, legs askew, arms dangling over the sides of the armrests. His normally sharp, piercing crimson eyes were glazed and dead beneath a curtain of silvery unkempt hair.
~Why?~
His title was a mere formality. The Dragonslayers were dead. Gone. Forever. Killed by that baka Van Fanel. Jajuka's words kept tracing his mind: "I am a soldier under your command. You have but one."
Hitori.
Alone.
Dilandau shuddered. Never again would he hear the voices of his men. He had trained them so hard. He had thought at first that his motive had been, purely and simply, to excel at what he had been promoted for. Now it was different. Perhaps the real reason had been that he was scared. That he had been terrified of losing them. Dilandau had seen their blood pool in his mind's eye with every slip they made. And, despite all his efforts, their lives had still been spilt on the ground.
Van had broken him. Dilandau had thought that maybe the memorial rose could set their memories to rest, and that he could go on without them. But crimson followed crimson down to a speck in the clouds, and he knew that he was lost.
Tears reek of insanity.
'Unstable'. That was what They had always called him. He was a failure even in Their designs. He knew it even before They took him back and attempted to patch the physical and emotional wounds. Attempted once again to perfect him.
And failed.
Unstable.
~I killed them~ Dilandau thought with misery. He just had to go after van and get scarred. He just had to go against Folken's orders and corner Fanel on the thirsty earth. The ground fed well that day.
Unstable.
Hitori.
Broken.
~I killed them~
Dilandau's musings died to a murmur when he heard footsteps approaching from beyond the world. The tent flap opened to admit a well-known figure.
"Master Dilandau. We're ordered to move to the Galfe with the 32nd brigade." Jajuka's voice was loud, clear, and respectful. His face was calm and stoic. The albino sought out Jajuka's eyes, looking for some hint of emotion.
Devotion.
~He will die for me, just like they did. I can see it, as clearly as love is blind~
Another battle. He was so tired of battles.
"Tanoshimi da ne?" Dilandau said, rising from his awkward seat and shrugging his armor properly onto his shoulders. He began to button at his throat, and sent Jajuka a sharp look. The soldier bowed and faded from the tent.
"Battle is good. The Red Haze cloaks out everything save the face of the enemy," Dilandau chanted over and over as he did his pre-battle exercises. He pictured his archenemy in his mind, Van Fanel. Always before this one face had been able to bury all despair and pain beneath a blanket of blind hate.
~I killed them. Shesta. Gatti. Viole. Dalet. Hitori.~ Dilandau froze in the middle of a stance. As much as he tried, his sense of failure and depression would not leave him. His goal of killing Van would not banish his own misery.
As if in a trace, Dilandau walked out of the tent. The bustle of war preparations was all around him. The smell of sweat and metal invaded his nostrils. But Dilandau didn't see it. Dilandau didn't hear it. Dilandau didn't smell it.
The albino frowned at a small pain in his hand. His fists were clenched tightly over two separate objects, one of them sharp and cold. He opened his stinging hand.
~My dog tag?~ Dilandau looked at the characters stamped crudely into the plain unadorned metal.
"DEIRANDOU ARUBATAU," he read softly out loud. He had looked at the small rectangle so many times before.
~What is this?~ Dilandau frowned. There was more writing, in very small font down the left side of the back.
"TEST 009." Test. Experiment. That was his true name. He was not a person. He was a failed theory in action. They had meant for him to be the perfect soldier. In physical prowess, they had succeeded. In cold determination, they had succeeded. In humanity, they had failed. Pain. He could still feel pain.
Dilandau opened his other hand.
~A petal? Where did this come from?~ the boy thought confusedly. Then he remembered. The rose. He had taken a petal off and kept it, although how it wound up in his hand was beyond him.
Dilandau closed his tired ruby eyes and held the two objects in his hands. In one lay servitude, darkness, despair, death. The madoushi. In the other lay...he did not know what. Another world? Another life? It held the unknown.
What about his loyalty?
~Am I willing to lead Jajuka to death, like I did his predecessors?~
The madoushi had tried to heal his wounds.
The scars were still there.
Broken. But sometimes, a shattered reflection can be mended.
Slowly, as if a huge weight was holding his wrist back, Dilandau tilted his palm. The dog tag shimmered once, and then slithered off to fall into the yellowing grass.
Unnoticed by the rest of the camp, Dilandau Albatou walked. Those who did look quickly glanced away. But had they thought to scrutinize his face more carefully, they would have noticed that, as he reached the trees and disappeared, he wore the first hints of a true smile.
~*~*~*~*~*~
ONWARD!
TO MEND THE ROSE: SHATTERED REFLECTION by Feye Morgan
The wind bit through the encampment, whipping the tents into disarray. The morning was cold and grey, slightly damp like the air before a storm. One tent, taller than the others and staked more firmly into the unwilling ground, harbored the greatest fear of many nations. But fear is an illusion when its reflection is broken.
Dilandau Albatou, Captain of the elite Dragonslayers, was slumped in a chair inside the tent, legs askew, arms dangling over the sides of the armrests. His normally sharp, piercing crimson eyes were glazed and dead beneath a curtain of silvery unkempt hair.
~Why?~
His title was a mere formality. The Dragonslayers were dead. Gone. Forever. Killed by that baka Van Fanel. Jajuka's words kept tracing his mind: "I am a soldier under your command. You have but one."
Hitori.
Alone.
Dilandau shuddered. Never again would he hear the voices of his men. He had trained them so hard. He had thought at first that his motive had been, purely and simply, to excel at what he had been promoted for. Now it was different. Perhaps the real reason had been that he was scared. That he had been terrified of losing them. Dilandau had seen their blood pool in his mind's eye with every slip they made. And, despite all his efforts, their lives had still been spilt on the ground.
Van had broken him. Dilandau had thought that maybe the memorial rose could set their memories to rest, and that he could go on without them. But crimson followed crimson down to a speck in the clouds, and he knew that he was lost.
Tears reek of insanity.
'Unstable'. That was what They had always called him. He was a failure even in Their designs. He knew it even before They took him back and attempted to patch the physical and emotional wounds. Attempted once again to perfect him.
And failed.
Unstable.
~I killed them~ Dilandau thought with misery. He just had to go after van and get scarred. He just had to go against Folken's orders and corner Fanel on the thirsty earth. The ground fed well that day.
Unstable.
Hitori.
Broken.
~I killed them~
Dilandau's musings died to a murmur when he heard footsteps approaching from beyond the world. The tent flap opened to admit a well-known figure.
"Master Dilandau. We're ordered to move to the Galfe with the 32nd brigade." Jajuka's voice was loud, clear, and respectful. His face was calm and stoic. The albino sought out Jajuka's eyes, looking for some hint of emotion.
Devotion.
~He will die for me, just like they did. I can see it, as clearly as love is blind~
Another battle. He was so tired of battles.
"Tanoshimi da ne?" Dilandau said, rising from his awkward seat and shrugging his armor properly onto his shoulders. He began to button at his throat, and sent Jajuka a sharp look. The soldier bowed and faded from the tent.
"Battle is good. The Red Haze cloaks out everything save the face of the enemy," Dilandau chanted over and over as he did his pre-battle exercises. He pictured his archenemy in his mind, Van Fanel. Always before this one face had been able to bury all despair and pain beneath a blanket of blind hate.
~I killed them. Shesta. Gatti. Viole. Dalet. Hitori.~ Dilandau froze in the middle of a stance. As much as he tried, his sense of failure and depression would not leave him. His goal of killing Van would not banish his own misery.
As if in a trace, Dilandau walked out of the tent. The bustle of war preparations was all around him. The smell of sweat and metal invaded his nostrils. But Dilandau didn't see it. Dilandau didn't hear it. Dilandau didn't smell it.
The albino frowned at a small pain in his hand. His fists were clenched tightly over two separate objects, one of them sharp and cold. He opened his stinging hand.
~My dog tag?~ Dilandau looked at the characters stamped crudely into the plain unadorned metal.
"DEIRANDOU ARUBATAU," he read softly out loud. He had looked at the small rectangle so many times before.
~What is this?~ Dilandau frowned. There was more writing, in very small font down the left side of the back.
"TEST 009." Test. Experiment. That was his true name. He was not a person. He was a failed theory in action. They had meant for him to be the perfect soldier. In physical prowess, they had succeeded. In cold determination, they had succeeded. In humanity, they had failed. Pain. He could still feel pain.
Dilandau opened his other hand.
~A petal? Where did this come from?~ the boy thought confusedly. Then he remembered. The rose. He had taken a petal off and kept it, although how it wound up in his hand was beyond him.
Dilandau closed his tired ruby eyes and held the two objects in his hands. In one lay servitude, darkness, despair, death. The madoushi. In the other lay...he did not know what. Another world? Another life? It held the unknown.
What about his loyalty?
~Am I willing to lead Jajuka to death, like I did his predecessors?~
The madoushi had tried to heal his wounds.
The scars were still there.
Broken. But sometimes, a shattered reflection can be mended.
Slowly, as if a huge weight was holding his wrist back, Dilandau tilted his palm. The dog tag shimmered once, and then slithered off to fall into the yellowing grass.
Unnoticed by the rest of the camp, Dilandau Albatou walked. Those who did look quickly glanced away. But had they thought to scrutinize his face more carefully, they would have noticed that, as he reached the trees and disappeared, he wore the first hints of a true smile.
~*~*~*~*~*~