Vision Of Escaflowne Fan Fiction ❯ When Escaflowne Rescued Trilladen ❯ The Harder They Fall ( Chapter 20 )

*******************Chapter 20********************

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The harder they fall

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The wreckage of the crusade was devastating that covered a vast area of the side of the mountain range. The two levitation rocks had wrested free of their harness and started their slow hovering journey back to their crater home miles away. Huge chunks of mangled metal wrapped around trees like shriveled bacon. Some hunks of the hull dangled precariously from cliffs higher up and threatened to come crashing down on the passengers who were still alive.

Princess Edwina was lying face down on a mattress of blood and tissue that was once General Shinyo. Van's arms were wrapped around her in a protective embrace. Just before the Crusade impacted on the side of the mountain the three brave Samurai surrounded their King and the Princess, locking arms to shoulders and braced themselves to bare the brunt of the impact, offering their own bodies as a buffer against it.

She was the first to regain consciousness. Her head felt like it had a hot branding iron searing in painful heat at the back of her head. With supreme effort she lifted her head, when she tried to open her eyes, she found that they were caked shut. Without realizing it she moved her hand up to her eyes to wipe the General Shinyo's brains from her eyelids. She only knew that a sticky substance was blocking her vision.

She tried to call out, but was pinned down to heavily by Van's arm. As she shifted her weight she was able to turn on her side and saw the wreckage and marveled at being alive. She reached over to touch Van's neck and check for a pulse. His heartbeat was steady and strong, but she could not rouse him. She crawled out from underneath him to find Allen. She saw Amano a short distance away and knew that he was either dead or dying. She painfully limped over to him to check for a pulse and found a week one. She bent her head down and said a prayer.

Her gaze scanned the mountainside looking for Allen and finding no sign of him began to panic. She shouted his name. "ALLEN!" Tears of terror sprang to her eyes. "ALLEN!"

Van stirred and lifted his head up to see himself covered in blood. Underneath him were the bodies of General Jarvis and Pauk. His heart was filled with regret at seeing his best warriors were dead. He knew that they had sacrificed themselves to save him and Edwina. He raised himself up like an arthritic old man and looked over at Princess Edwina who was crying frantically for Allen. He walked over to her and saw Amano lying at her feet and began to look for Allen and Gaddes. Neither one were to be found.

The creaking and moaning of the hull dangling above them got his attention. He knew he had they had to get free of its path should it fall. He lifted Amano in his arms and gruffly told her to follow him as he precariously made his way clear of the danger.

"We can't leave! We've got to find Allen!" She protested.

"If we don't leave we could be crushed from the hull once it topples down the mountain side! We'll look for Allen and Gaddes as soon as we are clear of the hull above."

Princess Edwina was in a rage as tears streamed down her face unchecked. "Why would his own country men shoot him down?"

"I don't know. I don't think Allen knows either. We have a lot of unanswered questions to figure out." Van responded.

Just as they cleared the path the hull came tumbling down as if one cue. It toppled and rolled like an exploding bomb with a series of loud booms leaving debris in its wake. It was too close of a call.

Van set Amano down. "You stay here with him, I have to scour the side of the mountain and find Allen." He ordered as he took his shirt off. His angelic white wings unfurled and he flew off to find Allen and Gaddes.

The princess was too stunned from the crash to realize that she had just seen one of the last of the dragon race upon Gaea. She was just grateful that he still had his wits about him.

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Folken stormed around the launch deck of the fortress making frantic preparations to take off in the streamline airship that he had purchased just for this trip. It was the new technology out of Asturia's capital under the auspices of Chid of Freid who proved to be an innovative ruler. He was putting medical supplies in his cockpit when a churlish old familiar voice started yelping up at him like a dying old basset hound.

"Where do you think you're going without me? Is it a wonder I get so exasperated with you when you don't use your head? I can't, for the life of me, figure out why you won't use your head! Here you are going off half cocked like some young hot bull when that soul of yours is old like mine! You know they're hurt and dying and but do you think to leave with a healer? Sheer stupidity, and from YOU! I thought I did better by you, you ungrateful brat!"

"Helliese I don't have time for this. We can discuss this on my return. Van is hurt and I've got to get him back here." Folken replied with a feigned calm. I forgot how aggravating that old witch could be sometimes.

"I wonder what you will do when it comes to saving Gaddes or Amano. They're important too, you know. It's like the little queen said. You've all got to stick together to defeat Mugwa. As long as you are all flying about on your own paths instead in formation as one family he'll be too strong to defeat. It's love he doesn't understand.

"If you're going just to save Van and sacrifice any of the others we're all lost. Hasn't any of the disgrace you've brought on yourself taught you anything about loyalty? Van wouldn't leave anyone behind or sacrifice anyone if he could find another way. I need to go with you or the young man from the Mystic Moon will die and the balance will be tipped in Mugwa's favor."

"I do believe, old woman, that everyone but the king is expendable, including myself. Everyone who has embarked on this mission knew of the risk before hand."

"And so did Merle and Hitomi who's pregnant! Are they expendable because they are not your brother? Is Allen expendable when he shares the same life force as the Princess, and she the one who is trying to save us all? What about Gaddes? He's as idiotic as they come when it comes to letting his true feelings out, but he's jumped into this whole thing when he didn't have to, except that he loves Yukari. He's just too stupid to know what to do with love. Are you going to take away his chance to learn how to love?

"How about you. Now that you love, really love, shall Merle be expendable too. How precious is just one life, Folken? You've sacrificed so many for supposed political ideals, so you tell me!" She was enraged and her voice cracked with the fury seething inside her old body.

Folken knew he had gone too far and remembered to be respectful to his elder. He got down out of the cockpit and looked her square in the eyes. "What if I am attacked and you get killed? I am expendable. You are not. And neither is Merle, and you know that!" He grumbled back like a wounded old goat.

"Have faith, you sod! I've a few tricks up my sleeve! I am not going to die! And neither are you! Because whether you choose to admit it or not, you are not expendable, otherwise you'd still be dead!" She shouted at him. " Now pick me up and put me in that evil contraption! And be gentle! It's my first time! Oh, ho ho, he he. No, not that kind of first time! I still got it!" She startled chuckling to herself and defused herself unwittingly from her own anger.

Folken rolled his eyes up to heaven as if praying for patience and lifted her up like a sack of potatoes and threw her in the cockpit.

"I said be gentle, you cad! Imagine an old woman like me, with arthritic joints and rheumatism and you plop me down here with such force! You need your clock cleaned out, you do! I will put a hex on you to make you stink with fowl mouth every time you pucker those lips up to kiss your sweetie! Is this your idea of gentle? My condolences to the young kitty! Throwing me around like you were some kind of inarticulate clod! You're a ruler trained in diplomatic..."

Folken shut the cockpit and left her to her ranting so he could see the captain of the guard and change his orders. Damn I hate it when I'm wrong! That old woman is the bane of my existence!

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"Have you found him? Van, did you find Allen?" Princess Edwina cried out as he landed next to her.

"Yes, he's badly injured, but he'll live if we can get him medical attention. He must have rolled down the mountain. He looks like he was thrown from clear of the crusade during descent, but he must've slammed sideways into the rock. His whole left side looks broken. I didn't move him in case his back or neck is injured. I didn't see Gaddes anywhere. I don't know if he even survived." Van told her.

Just then they heard a loud piercing scream of a jet engine. They saw that it was another Asturian fighter and panicked. Van tried to block the princess from view, but became puzzled when the aircraft buzzed into place just above them.

"Van! Are you all right?"

"It's Folken! He's here to rescue us!" Van yelled incredulously. He waved his arms and unfurled his wings and took flight to meet his brother in mid air. In the cockpit he saw Helliese, and she looked violently ill.

With a whoosh the cockpit opened up. "Take this old girl off my hands before I wish I was dead again!" Folken yelled.

"Huh? What are you talking about?" Van looked at his brother as if he had gone quite mad.

"Forget about it, inside joke. Just take her and end my suffering."

"I think I hate you, Folken." Helliese said weakly. She slowly stood up then puked all over Folken's lap.

"Oh, did you have to go and do that? It's not like I can just abandon ship! Ock, this is disgusting." Folken complained miserably.

"But I feel so much better now." Helliese offered, fighting a grin. She really did feel sorry for him.

Van was reluctant to lift the old witch out of the cockpit, but she gave him a warning look so he lifted her up and gently glided down with her to Amano. She wiped her mouth on her sleeve and then looked at the dying young man. Sympathy and concern washed over her ugly old face. Both her blind white eye and her one good red eye had unshed tears in them.

"Do you think you can help him?" Princess Edwina asked softly.

"Yes, child, I can help him, but you must keep Van away from here so that I can have some privacy, just as you needed privacy when you saved Allen." Helliese gave the princess a knowing look. Princess Edwina's eyes went wide.

"But only Atlanteans..."

"Yes child, only Atlanteans. Now go do as I bid."

Princess Edwina scrambled to her feet, shaking her head, feeling utterly confused. "Van, I need you to fly me down to Allen right now." The princess ordered.

He looked at her inquisitively and nodded his head. Lifting her in his strong muscular arms he jumped up into the air with his wings outstretched gloriously as they glided down the mountainside to Allen. When he spied Allen's still form he landed gently beside him and released the princess from his careful embrace.

"Now leave us alone for awhile. When you come back, we'll both be sleeping again. I won't look so good, but don't worry I will be okay once I've rested. I won't be able to wake up so you'll have to get me to safety." She instructed.

Van's eyes were wide with intense curiosity. Somehow he knew she was going to perform another miracle to help Allen and he would just do as she said. He leaped upward and flew like an angel back to Amano and Helliese only to find them both sitting on the ground having a quaint chat. From one miraculous scene to the next, I fly!

"If you love the girl, you don't have much time. There's others can fill a girl's heart once it's broken. Oh, you're back. Where's the princess?" Helliese asked.

"She needed to be alone with Allen to heal him. How did you..." Van was about to ask how she brought Amano back from the brink of death, but sharply interrupted.

"Oh, no she can't do that again. It could kill her! She's not an immortal and has only so much she can give! Allen will have to heal the hard way! Take me to her now!" Helliese barked.

When they reached the couple down the mountainside it was too late. Princess Edwina looked frail, with gray streaks of her once jet black hair jutting from her temples. She was in a coma and looked as if she had been the one thrown from the Crusade and slammed sideways into the mountain, for her collarbone was crushed and her shoulder was slumped forward in an unnatural position.

Allen was sleeping peacefully beside her, unaware of her sacrifice. Helliese panicked and ran to the girl.

"She's an empath! I never would have suspected! No, you foolish girl. You can't do this! What if his injuries are too hard for your body to sustain? He's a warrior, you aren't. " Helliese bent down over the princess, hovering over her like a worried new mother over her baby. She listened for breathing and pulse. Both were weak.

"Van, she could die! We need her to live. Our world is depending on her to lead us into battle against him.

"But you just said she was no warrior!" Van said.

"There are many ways to fight! Hers is the way to win this battle! Mugwa will not understand her tactics and there is our advantage. But she took on Allen's injuries and she's dying! We need to get her back to the fortress. Where's Folken? Get him, I need him now!" Helliese ordered.

Van took off in search of his brother.

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"Horrible old witch! I just know she did this on purpose!" Folken was grumbling as he was wiping down the seat and floor of the cockpit. The smell made his stomach turn.

"Folken, Helliese needs you! You've got to fly down the mountain to her right away!" Van yelled as he approached his brother's grounded fighter.

"Good, she needs me! Wonderful! She stinks up my favorite airship in all the universe, and now she needs me." He grumbled quietly.

"Folken really! You must go!" Van urged.

"Then you clean up this slop, your majesty." Folken threw the towel down at Van's feet in disgust. Wiping his hands off on his vest in front him, he then took it off and released his jet-black shiny wings into the air and went off in search of the most horrible woman in the whole universe.

What he saw when he landed was a frail old woman crying over a sickly looking princess that had been through far too much. The princess had aged in the span of twenty minutes. Her hair was graying at the temples and she had dark circles under her eyes. She was frighteningly pale and her body was broken all on one side.

"What happened to her? When I saw her she was fine!" Folken rushed over to them and knelt down by the princess.

"She's an empath and she's taken on Allen's injuries. I fear she's not strong enough to heal herself." Helliese was crying. "I didn't suspect it! I never even considered her gifts. We have to get her back to the fortress and make her as warm and comfortable as possible. Only time will tell if she'll survive this. I can do nothing for her. You must take her back. Van is tired and weak from the crash, and he'll never admit it, being the dolt he is, so I must ask you to beat him to it. He's gone up and down this mountain too much and needs to recuperate himself." Helliese quietly chanted a binding spell to hold the young princess in place, stiff like a twig, and light as a feather. She nodded to Folken to take her and he did just that.

Before he took off with his precious cargo he leaned in and kissed the old woman on top of the head. "She'll be okay. I can have faith in her, just as I have faith in you, old witch." Folken left.

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It took him hours before he was able to reach the floating fortress. Seeing it from this angle made him cringe. His crew disguised it to perfection. It looked awful, and not at all threatening: just dilapidated and old, just as a cargo ship should look like. Cargo ship? More like a garbage scow!

He soared closely to the landing deck, flexed his wings into a frontal display to slow his pace and landed with ease onto his fortress. The guard standing duty, the same poor soul that had seen the women appear out of nowhere, now saw his ruler fly with wings. He shook his head, had the same stupid look on his face and walked up to Folken as if he wasn't really sure his ruler was there.

"Don't gawk man, we need to get the princess to sick bay. Sound the siren for the medical team and go fetch me a blanket! She's cold!" Folken ordered, almost exasperated.

In seconds the sirens screamed through the corridors of the giant ship, sending many scurrying to their feet. The guard fell over himself trying to move quicker than he could to obey Folken. Soon a medical team was racing down to the landing dock with a stretcher with wheels and saw to their patient immediately.

Folken turned around as if to fly back, but was stopped by Merle. She grabbed his shoulder and turned him to face her. "So now that you are back, are you still mad at me for not telling you of my plans?"

"You mean the plans to play me for a fool so you could stow away on my ship as you please?" He responded. His voice held nothing of the affection he felt for her, only disdain.

Merle backed away from him as if she had been slapped on the face. Tears sprang to her eyes. "You were never anyone's fool, Folken."

"Sure I was. First I played the fool to Dornkirk. Now I'm your fool. What would you like me to do now? Bow to you? Kneel at your feet? Beg you to really love me? Don't hold your breath." His words bit into her heart painfully, but his eyes looked wounded.

"I love you. I had to come to protect you." She explained weakly. Her tears fell unchecked.

"Really? Care to prove that?" He asked.

He was in a dangerous mood. But she didn't care. She couldn't let him believe that this had been some kind of cruel ploy she used against him. "I will prove it anyway I can, for as long as it takes." She said calmly.

In a rage he closed the distance between them, swooped her off her feet and headed for his private quarters. I think Ill take her up on her offer! She deserves to be taught a lesson. Don't play with fire, my dear!

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Helliese had supervised Van as he steered the fighter upward. The jet engine was revved and humming loudly. The levitation rocks underneath the fuselage were cooled to their maximum chill temperature to urge the properties within them to ascend higher to the heavens. A heavy towline from the jet fighter was pulled taut as the piece of hull that had Gaddes trapped gave way to the force of the towline. With a groaning and scraping noise the hull first budged slightly. Then after a moment flew off of the ground revealing Gaddes lying on the ground.

Amano scrambled down to him and checked his pulse. Steady. Strong. No broken bones. No fever. He'll live. He shook Gaddes awake. Gaddes opened his eyes and the first thing out of his mouth was where's the boss? Yep. He'll live.

No sooner had Gaddes been freed from his prison, the floating fortress made it's way to them. The fighter grounded again as Van heated up the rocks and released the towline away from doing any damage the people on the ground. Then cooling the rocks again, he flew up to the floating fortress to land the smelly fighter gratefully. He didn't know Hitomi was waiting for him anxiously.