A/N: Why hello all. Allow me to introduce myself, I'm Osco of GeckoOsco, and welcome to my attempt at a Vision of Escaflowne story! I'm pretty excited about this, although I'm sure the readers of my TT fics are not because this means they'll have to wait longer for updates ! But, no matter, this fic popped into thy head one night, and I'll probably go mad (well, madder) if I don't pen it!

Just to let y'all know, there are going to be original characters in this fic…the canon are still there and this fic is most definitely centered around Van and Hitomi, but expect them because they'll be around. For my storyline, I kinda had to have them, but I'll be sure to not let them get mary-sueish and if they do feel free to let me know. Thanx, and I hope you enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do NOT own Escaflowne, or any of their characters, I do this strictly for recreation purposes. However, I do own any characters not recognized, so please ask permission before using them.

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Prologue: Fall of Fanelia;

He was listening to his advisors go over, for what seemed to be the umpteenth time, the economic stability of Fanelia with the neighboring countries of Asturia, Freid, and other minor sovereigns and the young king felt like driving his brains onto the wall using his sword. He had never known being the leader of a country would be so boring, it had always seemed exciting when he was a child, watching his father argue with the advisors over war issues and what to do about the Zaibach Empire. However, now that no threat existed in Gaea, the arguments Van Fanel could participate in were severely limited to road policies and which princess he would soon have to marry; the other topics put him to sleep before he could think to argue or agree.

So, whilst listening to the council of Fanelia discuss who should be their major partner in trade this season, the young king lounged back in his chair and stared out the small window overlooking his country, thinking of a brown-haired girl he had not seen in two years. The emerald green grass, he mused, resembled her eyes, endless depths where one could lose his or herself in. A small smile tugged at his lips as he imagined what she looked like now, only basing his thoughts on the startling changes two years had incurred in his frame. While his messy raven hair and intense maroon eyes remained untouched by the years, his build and demeanor most certainly did not. He was still lean, suspecting he would never be as large as his father or brother had been, but his shoulders were broader and he had grown quite a few inches. Constant training had kept him fit, and as Merle liked to tease, he had grown to be a very handsome young man despite himself.

Turning his thoughts away from his own changes, he focused instead on the mysterious Hitomi Kanzaki, a girl he had fought with two years prior, but then never seen again after she departed for her world once more. She had annoyed him horribly when he first met her, but the longer she spent by his side, he came to realize just how pure and kind she was, not to mention determined. She had saved his life on more than one occasion, and what's more, she had treated him with awe when she discovered his hidden heritage, a welcome reaction when most society on Gaea regarded Draconians as cursed beings and not to be trusted. He had grown to care for her more than his own life, and had been devastated when she left for her home on the Mystic Moon after the war with Zaibach concluded. If only he could see her face again, he would tell her what had being swimming in his head and heart for two long years, he would tell her…

" King Van! Are you even paying attention to this discussion!"

" Uh-What?" Van asked dazedly, shocked out of his dream world and back into his dull reality. He looked around to see his advisors glaring daggers at him, not one of them amused he had been ignoring their important discussion. Then, a bit sheepishly, he admitted, " I'm sorry, I was not. I must have drifted off, what was the council talking about?"

" To be frank your Majesty," a particular nasty advisor called Pugent sniffed out, highly affronted by his king's flagrant behavior. " We were discussing the troubling dilemma of trying to find you a wife. You seem most adverse to every princess the council fashion to bring by, and you are tiring our resources with your stubbornness."

" I'm not going to marry some girl I've never met before in my life to appease this council," Van said in a dangerous voice, his maroon eyes glowing with an angry fire in their depths. " I've already made that clear. To continue pestering me about it is not going to suddenly change my mind about the issue."

" But your Majesty," another advisor asked in a squeaky voice. " Fanelia can make many enemies this way. It is much wiser to marry for allegiance and forge allies than for love of a girl who may or may not come back."

Van merely gazed stonily back at the councilor, his insides churning in the storm of anger that were his emotions, and said in a commanding voice, " Thank you gentleman, this session is over."

Grumbling amongst them, each advisor rose from their seats, gathered their things, and proceeded to leave the room, bowing to the young man before they left. The last to leave, Pugent, hesitated after he gave Van a terse bow and then murmured, " Think about what is right for Fanelia my King and forget the seeress, for she is not returning anytime in the near future," and then left quickly, leaving an angry Van left in the chamber.

Van paced around the room for a few minutes before he couldn't take the suffocating walls and rushed out of the room and up to the roof of the tallest tower in his castle. Once there, he closed his eyes and let the calming breeze relax the tension out of his taut muscles, only moving to brush a stray lock of his black hair out of his face every now and then. He opened his mahogany orbs and walked over to the edge of the wall and gazed out at his city and citizens, well aware of the light, padded footsteps he heard approaching his still form.

" Do you think they're right Merle?" Van asked his closest friend after they stood beside each other silently for a moment, content to gaze out at the city and its denizens. " What they said about needing to do what's right for Fanelia."

" I don't know Lord Van," Merle said with a sigh as she glanced over at her lovesick friend, her brown eyes fixing on his profile. " I guess those bozos have a small point, but you have to do what's right to you, not them. Do you believe she'll come back is the question."

" I don't know anymore," Van said sadly, locking his eyes on his best friend's. " I was so sure up until today, but now…I just don't know. She promised she would, but it's been two years and she still hasn't come." He looked down at the magenta colored pendant he had clenched unconsciously in his fist, his heart filling to the brim from everything from love to anger. He glanced up at Merle, noting the pity in her eyes, and gave a sad sort of grimace meant to be a smile before looking back over the buildings and country of his kingdom.

Merle tried to regain eye contact, but gave up with an impatient huff when he refused to look at her. She rested her head in her paws on the small hedge-like wall of the tower, the wind, no longer gentle, blowing her pink tresses around like a whip in the air. She looked up, and noted the dramatic change in the sky, the clear and peaceful blue changes to an angry and churning blackish gray. She lifted her head in confusion, not aware of how the weather could change so drastically in a second, and looked back over at Van, seeing the tense look that now dominated his features.

" Lord Van," she said fearfully, grasping his hand with her furry paw to comfort herself. " What's going on? Why is the sky so dark, it's not storm season yet."

" No, it's not," he answered, a frown forming both in between his eyebrows and on his mouth as he continued to gaze out at the horizon, thinking he espied something in the distance. The more he stared, the surer he was that he saw something that was not supposed to be there, and he turned to find one of his soldiers behind him, an alarmed look on his face.

" Your Majesty," he said breathlessly, drawing a gasp from Merle at his disheveled and bloodied look. " Fanelia is under attack! Just outside the city, on the border, they came out of the very night they did, destroying us before we could even launch a counter attack!"

" What is!" Van asked angrily, dislodging himself from Merle and coming within an inch of the hurt soldier. " Never mind, how far are they from the city? Did any others escape?"

" No milord," the soldier said in a sad and desperate tone. " None of them can have. I was the only one who escaped, because the captain sent me back to warn you an hour ago. They aren't far, maybe a half hour or so."

" Damn it!" Van swore under his breath as he glanced behind him, noting the fire dotting the horizon now. " All right, I want all the generals and armies to head out and fight this enemy, give the people a chance to escape. Go and tell them now soldier!"

The young man nodded quickly before rushing down the stairs and heading towards the barracks. Van turned around again to face a terrified looking Merle, one paw clamped over her mouth to keep herself from screaming, tears poring down her face and wetting her fur. His eyes softened and he took his friend's free paw in his own hands and whispered, " Merle, you have to help organize the people for evacuation. I know you don't like to leave me, but you have to do this for me, please help my people Merle."

" B-but," she hiccupped as she lowered her paw from her face. " W-what are you g-going t-to d-do?"

" I have to fight with the men Merle," he said gently, trying to keep the fear and guilt from his voice. " I have to use Escaflowne and help in any way I can. But, I can't do that if I'm worried about you or the people, so I need you to help get them out of here. Please Merle, help me."

Fear still filling her eyes for her Lord Van, she nodded bravely and rushed down the stairs to fulfill the task he set for her. He watched her leave, relieved she didn't put up more of a fight, and then focused his intense maroon eyes back on the fires ravaging his home. He could hear the first shouts of panic and terror emanating from the city, and he could faintly see through the inky darkness figures gliding to engage his doomed soldiers outside of the city walls. He raced back into his room, donned on his armor, strapped his sword around his slender waist, flung open his window and jumped out within a span of three minutes.

He hurtled towards the ground impossibly fast, but right before he hit the ground, his gleaming white wings exploded from behind him and carried him back up into the air and towards the battle, and his own mind decided that he did not have enough time to retrieve Escaflowne. He could sense his people looking up at him and cheering as they rushed to gather their belongings and evacuate the city, their confidence in him bolstering his failing morale. His left hand unconsciously tightened around the pink amulet strung about his neck and he closed his eyes as he drew his sword from its sheath with his right. Snapping his fiery eyes open, he unleashed a cry as he dove on the cloaked beings below, hacking two apart as he flew close to the ground.

He did not stay airborne very long, a blow to his side hurling his body to the ground, but that did not deter him one bit. Van rose up as quickly as he had fallen, not bothering to close his massive wings, and hurtled at a cloaked thing who was killing one of his soldiers. He took no notice that the creature did not bleed when he killed it, already moving on to the next enemy who presented itself. So he continued for what seemed to be an eternity to the young man who vowed to never fight again, not noticing or caring that his forces were not winning, daring to give his people a moment longer to escape the destruction already promised to them by the attackers. Then, as if he had not been trained by the legendary Balgus to detect approaching enemies, he felt a blow to his head and crashed to the ground, his sword kicked to the side by his attacker. Van started to push himself up, but was met with a shock of burning pain that made him cry out and curl into a ball until it subsided.

" Pity," a rasping voice hissed in Van's ear as a strong, but clammy hand grasped his head by the messy black locks and yanked the young king's head up to look out at the carnage of the battlefield. " I had expected more from someone who is such a legend in this land. Instead, I find a little human boy playing a game meant for grown creatures. Little king, look at what my brethren and I have wreaked upon your armies and your people…does it fill you with sadness that under your rule these people have suffered catastrophe twice at your hands? Of course it does halfling child."

Van felt the things clammy and black finger trail down his cheek, and he had to fight to keep from retching. Everything the being was telling him was true, and he knew it as he gazed out at the sight of his broken, bloodied, and dead soldiers, the blackened sky turned a blood red. Cries of women and children drew his attention to the city, these monsters flowing into the fleeing city as bacteria flows into a wound, and he felt a warm tear of despair flow down his cheek as his entire world was destroyed in front of his eyes. The thing chuckled in his ear and flung him down back on the ground, his form sweeping Van's sword into its sticky hands.

" Your kingdom is no more little draconian, perhaps your people truly are cursed…I know not for I never had the pleasure of looking upon Atlantis, our kind banished from its splendors. No matter though, the land of Gaea will suit the Arref just fine. Now halfling, how does that make you feel?"

The creature, a self-proclaimed Arref, tossed the sword of Fanelia to Van, who grabbed it immediately and leapt up with a snarl, any former pains disregarded to the intense hatred he felt filling him for these beings. He launched himself at the Arref, and the two continued in a deadly but beautiful dance of swords, both equally skilled. The Arref noticed that the child was obviously much better at handling a sword than he himself was, but he was not about to lose what he had waited so long for, and with that thought, he unleashed a great stream of dark blue energy that hit Van, doubling him over. The Arref gazed down pitilessly as he watched the young king writhe on the ground in pain, instead beckoning some of his fellows over to do what they had come here to Fanelia to do.

" Yes master?"

" You called for us?"

" Zorbane, I was wondering where you were...enjoying thyself I hope."

" It had better be of import Zorbane, I was enjoying flaying the life out of a child in the city-like hovel."

" It is important De-miraz," the one the others called Zorbane answered in a commanding tone. " Look behind you."

" Is that it Zorbane? That squalling human no more than a child? He is too young," scoffed De'Miraz, a female by the lighter tone in her rasp.

" That boy is not all that he appears," Zorbane said as he took a spot in the circle the five Arrefs were creating around Van. " Do normal human boys have wings? No, they do not…he IS Draconian, and he is what we have come for. I am positive of that."

When met with no resistance, he motioned a strange and foreign gesture in the air, signaling the other Arrefs to chant in an archaic tone that Van could not understand. The pain had stopped when the other monsters arrived, but he could not even move his trembling limbs an inch without feeling a spasm flood through him. Van leaned his head up and was able to catch a glimpse of some survivors on the hill opposite side of the burning city. He hoped Merle was with that group and safe.

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" He's hurt! We have to go back and help him! Those things are going to kill him!"

" Merle," the rumbling voice of Ruhm said in her ear as he dragged the distraught cat-girl away from the grisly display of what once was Fanelia, his own voice threatening to break as he tried to stay strong for his people. After escaping the inferno of the city, Ruhm had ended up leading a good fifty people as the survivors split off into groups so not to be seen as easily. Ruhm, Merle accompanying him with the household of the castle she had gotten out, had climbed up the hill so to see how King Van was faring, and they were met with an awful sight.

He was surrounded by those creatures, and unmoving on the ground, one wing bent at an awkward angle under his lithe body. It was enough to scare what little courage they all had left away, to see their king helpless like that. Ruhm had sent everyone away, not wanting them to witness what he knew was to come. However, Merle had refused to leave, and now he was struggling to keep her from marching back down to the field to help her childhood friend.

" Merle, you cannot do anything to help the king now," Ruhm said as he struggled anew against the stubborn girl. " We must get away now, it's what he would have wanted you to do."

" HE IS NOT DEAD YET!" Merle screamed as she watched the black creatures lift their arms and gather light around their limbs. " We can still help him! Please…VAN!"

What happened next, neither Merle nor Ruhm could have expected.

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He heard them muttering some sort of spell, but for the life of him he could not hear the exact words. Van tried to move his wings, but discovered that one was crushed painfully under his weight and utterly useless to the other free one. Sighing angrily, Van gripped the pink pendant around his neck as if trying to stall the inevitable he knew was coming. He focused his maroon eyes to the Mystic Moon hanging above him, still unhidden from the murkiness enveloping everything else, his mouth forming a small smile as he thought of a girl who lived up there that he would never see again.

His body started to tingle painfully and he looked down at himself to find his body glowing with a white light coming from the outstretched arms of the Arref. Slowly, the pain grew more powerful, eliciting a groan from him as it felt like his soul was being torn from his body. He fought the urge to scream as the light continued to envelope him, he could clearly hear words being uttered by the Arref as they raised in what he could only assume was the end of their spell. This was it, the end, a mixture of sweet relief and bitter regret. His body was completely consumed by the white flames, and with his last coherent thought, he screamed, and Van Slanzar de Fanel was swept away from the world.

" HITOMI!"

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Alone in the dark, Hitomi Kanzaki shot up from her bed, the voice of her dearest friend echoing in her ears in his last moments on Gaea.

" Van…"

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A/N: Well, that's the end of the prologue guys. Good, not good, whatever? Let me know, I love reviews, and welcome constructive criticism, just no meaningless flames that rant just to rant.

I know, a little long for a prologue, well, I can't write a short chapter at all, so I guess you guys sorta win, I lose but whatever. Remember, reviewing is an author's best friend! Until next time!

Osco