25-Jan-2002

Twisted Fortune - An Escaflowne Fanfiction
By Bonnejeanne and Nixers
Contact: bonnejeanne@yahoo.com and nixerchan@aol.com
Warnings: Spoilers
Notes: Set a little over one year after Vision of Escaflowne's end.

Chapter Twelve - Inversion (cont)

Part 26

*****
There was a kind of trembling sensation that contact caused. It was a shiver that wasn't easily named either hot or cold, just uncomfortable. It held an edge of unnaturalness to it. Which, he realized, could only be expected. There was nothing natural about them. For the third time, he stared at the distorted mirror image of himself.

Whether it was the subtle warming of the air that heralded the dawn or the persistent feeling that something immediate was different, Van was pulled out of the rejuvenating slumber by some internal pang.

It wasn't quite an alarm, nothing that stirred the warriors instinct coiled within. Which is why it took a moment for sleep-laden eyes to realize that the hair of the sleeping figure he stared down at was no longer a straight silvery-white, but the gentle sandy waves of another.

Van stared down at the person in his arms, trying to determine his own state, whether wakeful or dreaming. A tight constriction in his throat forced a reflexive swallow, and then he could not stop his arms from tightening. Considerations of waking or not waking the sleeper were lost in emotions too raw and powerful to control, to do more than mute a little with tremendous effort. Clutching her tightly, holding down the impulses that threatened to force him to his feet, he tried to bury his face against that sandy hair, everything distilling down into tears of liquid emotion that fell like rain.

The source of his turmoil stirred slightly, lifting her head. The eyes that opened were wider than Dilandau's and the hue of them were not quite the same crystal blue he remembered, they were tinted with a soft, almost unnoticeable hints of violet. They were at once a little sleepy, disoriented, relieved and other things he couldn't identify immediately.

A slender hand at worked free of his grip and brushed at one of his bangs, tracing along the path of dampness on his face. The solemn look on her face transformed into a small familiar grin.

"I need to breathe too," she said.

Van smiled, like a peek of sun through clouds and nodded, though clear liquid still ran slowly down his cheeks. His arms loosened - a very tiny bit.

It seemed to be enough for her. She took the slight space to curl more securely against him. Her eyes took in the surroundings briefly from the blanket and hides to the Guardian slumping barely within the entranceway. She shivered, looking at it, and turned back to Van. Her hand again brushing his face, as if trying to soothe away the tears. When her hand had pulled back, a drop of that moisture collected pendulously at her fingertip. She glanced up at Van, worry lining her face. "Why?"

The young king blinked, clearing his blurred vision and trying to collect himself enough to understand what he was being asked. "Why what?" he asked finally, giving it up. His hand reached up and traced the contours of her face ever so gently, like the brief touch of a feather.

She closed her eyes, accepting the gesture with a smile before catching the hand and giving a small kiss in the hallow of his palm. Looking up over his fingers she asked again, "Why are you crying?" she ask, tones of apprehension mixing with concern.

He smoothed the slight line between her brows, then wiped his face absently and impatiently. "Nothing. I... didn't know if... I'd be allowed to see you again."

She looked away for a moment. She wasn't sure how sane it was, if it was just a strange dream. ".... He...." she started slowly, watching Van's face now, sharply for signs of doubt or understanding. She was slow to continue, as if picking her words with the utmost of care. ".... Hides it.... but he can be reasonable."

Cinnamon eyes watched her with an expression that could be described as nothing other than loving, showing neither disbelief nor incomprehension. "I know," he said with conviction. "When I said allowed, I wasn't thinking of... him. It doesn't make sense, don't worry about it."

A tension seemed to melt out of the form he held as she smiled, relief etched plainly onto her face. "So I'm not crazy. He was real." The words were almost inaudible, even in their proximity.

He shook his head emphatically, the arm around her tightening again. "No. Not crazy." He mouth pulled to one side in an odd smile. "Even he isn't crazy. The ones who did this... that's where the madness is." He ran gentle fingers through her hair, as if taking the time for it while he could.

Serena paused, pushing away just slightly as some realization dawned. Her eyes tracked the scar on his cheek, a remainder from a burn, and the cut across his chest shallow but apparently fresh. Her eyes narrowed, a quick and sudden anger in them. "Who hurt you?" Her voice was filled with an indignant sort of rage, more reminiscent of her brother than of her other side.

Van's eyes shuttered for a moment as he tried to think of a way to answer truthfully. He looked up at her again, and then glanced ever so briefly at the white metal giant that shared the space with them. A raft of possible responses went quickly through his mind and he settled on the one that seemed to carry the most truth with the fewest words. "Those aren't my hurts," he said simply.

She stared at him with clear confusion for a moment, before she tracked his previous gaze. The guymelef unsettled her more now that she saw it than the simple name of the machine. For a span of time, she just watched it, coming to terms with the feelings it invoked, then her wandering gaze latched onto a similar gouge in the armor plating of the guardian.

After a moment, he gently turned her face back to his. His steadfast look remained on her eyes. "We both have complicated fates," he said softly.

By all appearances she looked like she wanted to argue, but couldn't find the words or the logic to match it. After a few false starts she nodded, reluctantly.

Instead, she looked away, again glancing around the unfamiliar setting. "So where are we?" she asked, a ghost of a grin returning.

He answered with a slight smile of his own. "In Fanelia. In the caves I told you about, where we spent the winter before much of the rebuilding was complete. No one comes up here any more, except perhaps the hardiest of courting couples," he added, his mouth pulling a little to one side, almost embarrassed at the slight joke he was making.

Her eyes lit up with a mischievous humor, pushing at Van playfully. "If I didn't know better," she teased. "I would swear you enjoyed stirring rumors."

She was answered with a slight flush of tanned cheeks. "If I didn't know better," he answered with only a little bit of a stumble, "I'd say you were right."

Then he bent down and touched her lips with his. What began as tender and almost reverent quickly became heated and powerful as he expressed the feelings even the tears couldn't.

She returned the passion with a welcoming tenderness. One of her hands slid down his back and the other tangled in his hair. With every sign of reluctance, she pulled back slightly, a small flash evident on her cheeks. "It's a good thing then, that we don't know any better," she said a little breathlessly and with lidded eyes.

He leaned his forehead against hers. Something was sliding around and among his thoughts, defying his determination to stay in this moment with a desperate need to have all of it that would be possible. He relied on the contact when he found he could not meet her eyes. One of his hands wandered restlessly along her back and side, relearning never-forgotten contours that had been sealed into his body's memory.

He swallowed, wanted to put the thought into words, to banish it with confession but it tangled in his throat and his silence lengthened.

She seemed to be in a struggle of her own, though her fingers found and laced with Van's. She hesitated again, noticing Van's discomfort and assuming that he was thinking along the same lines. Serena cleared her throat nervously. "I want.... to stay in Fanelia..... but I have a promise ... to him.... Just north long enough to finish whatever he started."

Van looked up, surprised, but nodded immediately. "Of course," he said. He tilted his head slightly. "I did think of leaving you in Fanelia but I'd intended to return to Zaibach myself to finish it. But if you need to do it, then that is what we'll do."

She nodded, expressing pleasant surprise at how easy it had been. She grinned again. "After that, we can see how much of oniisan's hair hasn't been pulled out."

He smiled tentatively at that, secretly hoping that there would be some way he could mend the rift with Allen. He nodded, and his eyes searched hers for a moment before he began to try and put his own troubling out of the way. He felt he was being called to action and it was a call he was too long schooled to obey to hesitate for the needs of his heart.

She returned the watchful look with one of her own. With the faintest quirk of her lips she asked as much as stated, "You're brooding again."

He blinked, a sudden smile returning as he acknowledged her ability to catch him at it. The smile relaxed from his face and he tried to summon the courage to face the feelings he'd started to put aside.

Taking a breath, his fingers twined with hers moved restless as he started slowly to speak. "A lot happened," he began. "I'll tell you whatever you want to know. Do you... do you know it already?" he asked with sudden uncertainty.

She stopped, concentrating a moment, her bluish eyes taking on an unfocused look. "I'm not sure," she said slowly, her eyes sharpening, taking in the set of the features of the king. It stirred a sense of unease in her. "There are some things.... I'm discovering... that are too intense, and it kind of bleeds through. We've been closer since recently.... I know..." she looked up at him again alarmed. "I... he... didn't hurt you did he?"

Van's eyes widened and he shook his head emphatically. "No, Serena, no. He saved me. Helped me. Acting every moment as if it was the last thing he wanted to do, but when I was... weakest, he was there. I'd likely not have made it if not for him. I..." after meeting hers completely for most of it, his eyes suddenly slid away, then back. Forcing words past the lump in his throat, which gave his tone a rougher edge, he said, "I promised not to... let you wake but I... failed, Serena. You were taken from me. I failed you."

She was silent a long moment, no animation to her face. "I don't blame you.... when I asked..... I was worried for you, not for me," she glanced up at him. "I'd never really had a happy dream, and the way everyone acted when they thought.... I assumed whatever I was, was terrible."

Van reached up, cupping his hand along her cheek. "I told you once you were no more a monster than I. It's not quite the reassurance it might have sounded but it's true in every sense, in every part of... you."

Doubt was hidden in another flash of moods as she suddenly smiled widely at him, leaning forward to steal another kiss. "So we both got worked up over nothings," she declared as they parted again.

His eyes were troubled. "Perhaps."

She was distracted by an errant thought. "Clothes!" she said. She gave him a lopsided look. "They are intact this time right? The last time I woke up in this, mind you wonderful, position..."

He nodded. "Intact," he agreed, waiting for her to think of the fact that she *had* woken up in *this* position and what it meant.

It was almost as if his own thoughts were the trigger for hers. He could make out the dawning revelation as it slowly slid into an almost comical look of puzzlement. "Oh," she said, then looked at Van, blinking. "With... oh," she said again, the puzzlement growing as her eyes widened, a touch of curiosity blending into the expression. "Is that even possible?"

Her last words triggered a hard flush that darkened his tanned skin. His eyes were now as unable to look away from hers as they had been reluctant before. Unable to say a single word, he simply looked at her, mutely waiting for disgust, betrayal, condemnation... something, anything, that would take the last piece of his heart and turn it to dust.

None of those seemed to surface either in her eyes or face. She seemed more concerned with whatever pathways her mind was wandering down, punctuated by the scattered "Oh"..."And that explains..." Finally the confusion seemed to recede, and she looked at the other a moment, her face a strange mix of earnestness and curiosity. "So..." she said slowly, "Was it any good?"

His eyes widened and then his face dropped into the crook of one arm, hiding behind that arm and the strands of dark hair. His body shook slightly, and some muffled sound emerged, unidentifiable. After a moment or two a slightly clearer, but still muffled response emerged. "...I think so..."

Serena looked at him strangely a moment before letting out a somewhat hysterical giggle. "You know, my life, as much as I remember of it, has been a pretty long string of weird. This one has top honors though."

He shook again, face still buried. Another muffled response. It sounded like, "...Try mine...."

She snorted at that, an indelicate sound. "Two is enough for me, thank you."

He lifted his head finally, wiping his face. "Don't get smug. You at least get time off... both of you... I have to deal with it all..."

She quirked something more of a real grin again. "Yeah but you don't have to get out torture devices to find out exactly what you have to deal with."

He blinked, simply not comprehending her words. Tilting his head, with a note almost of triumph, he said softly, "I don't get you."

Serena smiled, curling back up against him. Her response was muffled but too familiar to be mistake. "It's all right. I don't get you either."

He tilted her chin up and looked down into her eyes. "Yes, you do. You have. You did. You are. All of you. All of me."

Her response came on the heels of a moment spent, studying cinnamon eyes. "Then stop worrying that somehow I'll love you less," she said bluntly.

He looked back, nodding slowly.

Serena smiled quietly. "Another more honest look. Anyone ever tell you enough that you are cute like that?"

His mouth quirked slightly. He shook his head. "But someone once said you had good taste. Surprised the piss out of me," he said, using somewhat cruder language than he had in her presence.

She blinked then effected a mock haughty look, reminiscent of the highborn ladies of Pallas. "I'll have you know that I have most exceptional taste, young lad. I just needed the opportunity to use it." She grinned again at the last, more pointed addenda.

He smiled, hugging her against him in an excess of sudden relief and deep joy. Kissing the top of her head, he said, "I suppose I must let you go soon. Sucks."

"Mmm," she agreed, then flashed him a wicked look. "I bite when I get grumpy," she informed him.

He tilted her head up and kissed her lips, pulling away before she could make good on the implication. "You need better threats. I might like that."

She grinned baring her teeth for a moment. "Is that an offer?"

He grinned back. "As you wish," he said, his eyes roaming over her face as if the picture was one that he could not get enough to satisfy.

"Mmm, my wishes sound dangerous," she said. She met his lips softly, lingering there for a long moment. "Clothes first. Van gnawing later."

He laughed, and sat up obediently, reaching around them to collect the discarded items from the night before, sorting them into piles, one for him, one for her. He rubbed absently at the scratch on his chest, which had scabbed but upon being disturbed, the dried line of blood flaked away, leaving an unhealed scratch starting slowly to bead fresh droplets. When he began pulling on items of clothing, she noticed a similar score along one calf.

Her eyes darkened slightly and for a moment, unfocused anger made her snatch the garments haphazardly from the pile in front of her. She had an odd, irrational urge to kick the hunched guymelef, but just as eccentrically wondered if Van would feel it.

She pushed aside the thoughts with one last glare in the machine's direction and set about dealing with more immediate, if smaller problems. For one, the pants, she found were a few inches too long, but cuffing them made the boots fit poorly. And though she liked the style of the overcoat, it looked too stuffy, she settled instead on the undershirt, and put up again with uncomfortable footwear.

She looked up to find Van watching her with a slight smile. He shook his head and retrieved the jar of water he'd recovered the night before and set it beside her. Walking over to the cave mouth he looked out and down, his gaze taking in the sight of Fanelia below as if taking a needed moment with a precious touchstone.

Inside Serena had finished preening, deciding to wear the circlet if just to keep the hair out of her eyes. She took a few gulps of the water from the jar, then folding the overcoat across her arm she walked out behind Van, pausing a few steps behind him to see what had caught his attention so fully. "It's pretty from above," she commented, her voice just audible above the dragonwinds that ran through the mountains. "Half new, half wild."

He nodded. Glancing back, he frowned slightly. "If I could only learn why a wizard would covet it," he said softly. "I'm afraid I can't protect her."

She shook her head not having any answers to that. What memories she had of wizards were in formal studies and vague fragments of dreams, neither could help. "Probably not the scenery." She shrugged. "Their loss. Anyway, if we are going to Zaibach..... couldn't you ask one?"

A flash of fear/anger/rage flickered through his eyes and then was quickly buried. "They're better at asking questions than answering them, I think, if my limited exposure means anything."

Another puzzled look crossed her face, similar to the one earlier, though it managed to resolve itself more quickly, or at least turn towards other thoughts as she recalled what she could of her last memories, a haze of compulsion and overwhelming needs. "I can imagine... if you were with me when..." Her eyes suddenly flashed a look of pain wrinkling her features. "Jajuka...he.... how COULD he!" she said, her frustration turning into a near scream.

Van watched the passage of thoughts and reactions. He shook his head, knowing the question wasn't for him to answer, but said, tentatively, "I don't know... but I know he is devoted to you in some way."

"I know... No!" She shook her head, traces of angry tears gathered in her eyes. "I trusted him. I even ask him not to..." Her fists were clenched at her side. She made a noise, but what it was originally was lost over the winds.

As the silence stretched out she sighed, losing the sudden storm of emotion inch by inch as she realized she was yelling at the wrong person. "I'm sorry," she said, turning and raising her voice to be heard. "We'd better get going... where are we headed first?"

Van took a moment, and pulled her against him, releasing her before she could feel restrained. "I'm thinking about that," he said. He glanced back, a brief flash of longing for the woods and the small city far below. "I'd like to stop, if only for a moment, and make sure everything's all right. But I don't know if it's a good idea. The Crusade is down there."

She peered down, trying to spot the airship below. "How...how long had it been?" she glanced at Van uncertainly. "Since we left Fanelia... one way or another."

Van paused, counting it up in his head - the time had been so filled with strange events, skewed perceptions and confused emotion that it seemed like a great deal of time had passed. "Five... five nights," he said finally. "And a message was sent... yesterday." He glanced at Serena again. "It seems like longer in some ways, less in others."

She nodded slowly, nibbling on her fingernail. "Not really enough time for it to be 'safe' persay." She grinned suddenly at Van, a bit on the hesitant side. "My brother can seem cooled off, but he can hold a grudge forever. He just waits."

Van shrugged. "I owe it to him to be straightforward. Are you still worried that he might detain you? That won't happen," he said with rockbed certainty.

"No. He can't force me," she said. Serena shook her head and tried to regain a bit of her good humor. "But you wouldn't believe the puppy look he can pull off with those blue eyes of his."

Van quirked an eyebrow, than something distant shadowed and just as quickly disappeared. "I might. You'd rather not stop, then."

She hesitated, struggling with something. "No, I should stop, if we have the option. I should let him know that I'm all right. I know I make light of it, but he must be worrying himself into fits."

The last was spoken with a guilty, stolen glance below.

Van was stealing a similar glance at the mecha. Part of him wanted to leave her here, but getting back up would take more time than getting down, even flying, the headwinds up the mountainside were fierce. And he had to have her for the trip to Zaibach.

Making a decision, he reached out and took Serena's hand in his. "We go. Briefly. The smiths can take care of her while we deal with the humans," he said with a slight touch of humor. "We leave before nightfall at the latest. Sooner if possible. Does that suit?"

She was nodding, her lip curled faintly into a smile at the easy, if strange humor between them. She glanced up at him, a wary look. "The smiths? Isn't that going.... to well.... hurt like a bitch?"

He glanced again at the white guymelef. "Honestly, I don't know. The last time," he shrugged. "The last time the repairs were much more extensive. The Ispano were called. This is simple armor work. It might, but I imagine I can handle it. I've been through a lot worse and survived it."

She didn't respond, just marked up her dislike for the machine another notch. Besides that she couldn't help but get the feeling it was watching her, and worse that it wasn't friendly. She frowned slightly but said. "All right then. Let's go."

He squeezed her hand reassuringly. "It has to be done, or I'll be staining shirts for a while," he said, trying to make it a joke. "The last few days have been hard on clothes..."

She gave him a small smile, bother relieved for the change in subject and falling back easily into their banter. "Aw, and here I thought you wore red to impress me," she demurred, feigning disappointment.

He grinned. "Did it work?"

She leaned forward and dusted a kiss across the tip of his nose. "I don't see how it could have failed."

His return smile was delighted, even a hint shy, and he pulled her to him for a brief, but warm kiss on the lips. Then he dropped her hand and moved to the guymelef. "Stand to the edge of the cave mouth, I have to get her airborne before I can take you."

Serena nodded, already moving before Van had finished his explanation. She watched the king at the guymelef with a keen interest.

He opened the cockpit by touching the red energist, and jumped in easily, closing it up. There wasn't room even in the wide cave mouth for Escaflowne's full wingspan, so the method he employed to get the conversion into play would have given a fainter heart some issues. Escaflowne stood, balanced on the edge of the ledge, and then stepped off, falling immediately like the heavy object she was. Some hundred feet and the guymelef transformed to its dragon mode, and wide metal wings beat hard to counter the momentum of the descent, then make it up and rise back to the edge of the cave mouth.

Standing above the shallow sunken seat between the dragon's shoulder blades, he gathered the controls in one hand and reached out with the other, guiding the airborne mecha as close to the ledge as it could come.

Serena was standing a bit numb, one hand clenched over her heart, and an expression of shocked outrage/fear that seemed more at home on Dilandau's face. When he came back into sight, she relaxed a bit, but eyed the gap between them carefully. With a glance at Van, she backed up a bit, and took it at a running leap, one hand still clenched around the overcoat, and the other catching Van's outstretched arm, a split second before the dragon bobbed in the air and her boot missed the toehold she was aimed for. She fell, suspended by one arm, against the body of the white dragon. As the dull shock of the impact went through her, she scrambled upwards, unable to shake a paranoid suspicion that the dragon had risen with a thermal at the last second. It had worked out so much smoother in her head.

Van's grip was firm and he pulled her up and against him, holding her for a moment before lifting her down into the seat below. There was an unfastened leather harness in the seat which she could pull on if desired.

Instead, she wrapped one of the leather straps securely around her wrist, not wanting to bind herself down more than she felt totally needed. As she calmed down her thudding heart, she gave the small rise in the metal, the shoulderblades of the dragon a good solid punch. She winced and held her bruised knuckles before glancing up at Van. "Sorry!" she yelled to be heard. "It had to be done!"

Van tilted his head quizzically but shrugged, a slight smile tugging at his lips. "Hold on!" he called back. Then his eyes flashed with what could only be described as a primal joy of flight, as the white dragon wheeled and began peeling out of the mountainside currents and in a wide circle over the deep green forest below. He seemed to be less controlling the melef than riding her, the controls like reins, and unneeded ones at that.

Serena seemed to hold no fear for a first flight of that nature. She simply watched, though her other hand, below the uniform she carried, had found and clutched another leather strap. The scenery became closer with each pass, but each held a fascinating new perspective to her. Below, the capitol city of Fanelia was quickly coming into sight, and their arrival, it seemed even from their height, was not unnoticed.

THE END OF PART 26!

Twisted Fortune - Part 27

Twisted Fortune - Index