Disclaimer: I don't own Escaflowne. There. I want to, I wish I did. But I don't. That doesn't mean though, that I can't play God and fool around with the lives of the Escaflowne people seeing as how I'm doing this only because the ending is too depressing, and I'm not making money off this. If I did, I'd quit school and write fan fics for the rest of my life. But I don't, so I'm in school.

The point is: I don't own Escaflowne, but if I did, my life would a helluva lot better.

Hitomi Kanzaki stared up at the night sky. She was lying upside down on her window seat, in her shared bedroom with her best friend Yukari on their college campus. Somewhere, up there, was Gaea. "But where is it?" Hitomi asked herself out loud again, as she had almost every night since she'd returned from Gaea.

"Where's what?" someone asked, making Hotomi jump.

"Oh... Hi Yukari. I was just thinking about Gaea again..." her voice trailed off as she went back to looking up at the stars. "You know, I never noticed the stars before I was on Gaea. Now I can't keep myself away from them.

Yukari sighed. "Hitomi, are you still carrying on about that? I wish that one day you would tell me what really happened to you when you went missing so many years ago."

"But I have told, Yukari! I've told you and Amano so many times you two quote me back!"

"And let me also say that you did a wonderful job turning it into a children's book." Yukari said, not really listening to what Hitomi was saying. "My best friend: a published author before the age of eighteen! Of course, then you had to go and give all the money you made to charity. What charity was it again?"

"It was a war relief fund. And I paid off my tuition first." Hitomi pointed out. "But I didn't want that money. I don't need it. I don't see what the big deal about money is anyway."

"Let me point out you didn't really need to do that anyway. You did have that Track scholarship." Yukari shook her slowly, speaking quietly. "People think money makes them happy."

"People don't know what makes them happy!" Hitomi heatedly pointed out. "No matter what they have, they won't be happy."

Yukari sighed, knowing this was going to get her into another debate. "What does make them happy?"

"Losing what they had, and then gaining it back." Hitomi's voice was suddenly sad and melancholy.

"Oh, see this is about that Fahn guy, hm?"

"For Pete's sake, Yukari, his name is Van! Van Fanel..."

"Look Hitomi, if you liked the guy so much, why didn't you stay there?" Yukari asked, sitting on the window seat beside the dark-haired, green eyed girl. "It may have been much more easier staying there then having to come back here and trying to convince us he's real all these years."

Hitomi didn't say anything. She shifted, and leaned her head against Yukari's leg, letting the red haired girl stroke back her hair. 'Merle must love being a cat if she gets this type of attention...' She looked towards the sky again, feeling a pain deep within her chest. "I don't know... I suppose that, being in Gaea wasn't the life I was supposed to lead..."

Yukari stopped stroking Hitomi's hair. "Huh? I thought you stopped believing in fate, Hitomi? Isn't that why you stopped doing Tarot card readings? Because you believe that fate is up to the individual?"

"I do..." Hitomi said, searching for better words. "I suppose that it's just a lame excuse. But, I couldn't leave here, Yukari! I couldn't leave you and Amano and my mother!"

"One day..." Yukari started, but Hitomi interrupted. "I know. One day I'll have to leave you. That's the way of life."

She smiled down at Hitomi. "Precisely. Now, if you don't mind, tell me about Gaea again. I actually like that, especially that Allen Schezar fellow."

"Well..." Hitomi smiled. "It all started when I was enveloped in this strange white light..."

Van stared up at the Mystic Moon, deep in his thoughts of Hitomi. He wondered what she was doing now... "What goes on over there on the Mystic Moon anyway?" he wondered for what had to be the hundredth time that week alone. He knew that if he had the chance, he'd go back and do some many things differently, if he only saw Hitomi again.

"Lord Van!" Van was suddenly glomped by Merle, the now teenage cat-girl. She still acted so kitteny when it was just the two of them. Last night, they'd been up talking late into the evening, and Merle had ended up falling asleep half on Van's lap as they lay down together in front of the fire. He knew that Merle had no romantic feelings for him since long ago now, and that had just brought them even closer together. Merle was his sister now.

"Hi Merle." he greeted her, rustling up her vibrant pink hair.

"Still thinking about Hitomi, Lord Van?" she asked him, trying to put her hair back in place. "I wish that I could help, but unfortunately, the Council wants you. It's time for your meeting, Van."

"Thanks, Merle." he sat up at dusted off his red shirt. "I wish I could stay out here a little longer though. The Mystic Moon is so pretty..."

"I wish I could go there." Merle said softly. "I wonder what it looks like. Hitomi told me once it looks a bit like Gaea, but also completely different."

"Maybe you will someday Merle." Van stood up and buckled up his sword belt. "I really don't want to go in there..." he muttered referring to the Council meeting. "Wanna ride down?" he asked Merle, spreading his wings, offering to give her a lift down from the roof.

"Good." the treasure stacked the paper neatly, before turning back to the King and the other advisors and heads of state. "Now that all the official business is taken care of, it's time for some of the unofficial business."

Van groaned and wished he could disappear. "For the last time, I'm not going to start courting. When, and if, the time is right, I'll marry."

"But... King Van! You're over 20! A man of your age should already have produced an heir to the throne and sure the Fanel line" somebody protested.

"Let us not forget that my Father was also past 20 by the time he married, and that he met my Mother on an excursion through the woods. He did not court her, he was not betrothed, he fell in love, and was loved back, and..." Van's eyes narrowed as he tried to emphasize this point. "He succeeded in having two male heirs to the throne. You also all know fully well that should I die without getting married, Fanelia has been promised to Allen Schezar. He is, after all, a worthy knight, and my good friend. He's smart, an excellent fighter, taught under Valgis the same man who taught me, and I believe that he can rule this country as well as I can."

He stood up, hoping that they would leave him alone finally. "Gentlemen, good day." With that, he left, leaving Merle to calm them all down. She could get quite a tongue on her, and they'd be quiet for days after she was through with them.

"Hitomi?" She looked up to Yukari. "Hitomi... what do you plan on doing with your life after we graduate? It's only a week from now?"

The two friends were sitting in a café, their books spread out on the table as they studied, nursing their drinks. Hitomi gently swirled her green tea, thinking about Yukari's question from the blue. "I suppose... No, I don't suppose. I don't know what I want to do, Yukari."

"Well, look at what courses you've been taking! I swear Hitomi, you would know how to run England if you had the chance!" Yukari indicated the books Hitomi was studying with. "Advanced Mathematics, Theology, Psychology, Politics, English: Debating, and, of course, Morality. You're trying to major in them all!"

"I know."

"You do? Good! Then try to explain why to me!"

Hitomi shrugged lightly, taking a sip from her drink. "I like them."

"Advanced Mathematics, and you like it?" Yukari stared, mouth wide. She knew that her best friend was odd, but this...

"That course? Not really, but I won't let numbers beat me! During High School, I was teased way too much about being a dumb jock. They used to say I was a sprinter, and that's all I would be." Hitomi smiled, going back to her books. "And now look at me."

Yukari sighed and turned back to her own book on Advanced Molecular Biology. 'No one could say that about you now, Hitomi, that's for sure..."

"Lord Van!" Merle ran up to catch up with her friend. "Don't worry! They won't bug you for awhile about getting married!" she announced proudly.

"Thank you kindly, Merle." Van stopped to look outside, down towards the village below him. "They should have a Queen, shouldn't they?"

Merle placed a calm hand on his shoulder. "You're still waiting for Hitomi to come to you, aren't you?" she asked. Van nodded slowly. "You're right, van. She would make an excellent Queen. At least, the Hitomi I remember would. However..." Merle reached over and grabbed the vase that was standing on the stand next to Van. She smashed it over his head as hard as she could.

"What the hell was the for?" he yelled, spinning around angrily. Van rubbed his head. "Merle!..."

"Sorry, Lord Van, but..." she took a deep breath of air in, and van saw her tail poof out. He was in for it now. "You can be so dumb, you know that! I thought that future heirs to a throne were supposed to be smart, but you take the cake!"

"What? What did I do!"

Merle reached out and grabbed the chain van was wearing around his neck. "What the hell do you think this is?"

"It's... It's Hitomi's pendant..."

"Very good, dumb ass!" she complimented, smacking him lightly upside the head. "Now, how the hell do you think Hitomi got here before?"

"With the pendant!" he answered happily, before suddenly realizing what this meant. "Oh... My bad..."

"BINGO!" Merle smacked him again.

"Will you quit doing that!" Van yelled, suddenly very pissed off.

"You waited all this time to see Hitomi come back. And all this time, she more then likely couldn't, because you had her pendant that had helped her get into Gaea in the first place. The other thing that helped bring her here was you going there. You had the two things to bring her here, and you never even realized it."

"Shit..." Van walked away, depression clouding around him.

Merle watched him go, before turning to the window herself. "And stupid me was too stupid to realize that Van was waiting for Hitomi."

"Hitomi Kanzaki." the Dean read. "Graduated with honours, making the Dean's list. As well as causing several bits of trouble between arguing with her teachers. That fact was not helped with her joining of the debate team, where she became Captain. This is the second time she made team Captain, as she already was the Captain of the Track team..."

The Dean stopped talking as Amano yelled out, making Hitomi blush, and Yukari send death looks his way. "Only because I switched schools, the little Over-Achiever!"

"Your majesty..." The Council member followed Van right up to the roof tops. "Your majesty, what do you mean you'll be back soon? I don't understand."

Van turned to glare at him. "No. Of course you wouldn't. You're not in love."

"Sir! If you wish to travel somewhere, let us first make the necessary arrangements! Surely you can wait a week or two for all the legal..."

"No!" Van yelled. "I'm going to the Mystic Moon." the Council member shuddered, and stuttered about how that was impossible. "Impossible, you say?" Van shrugged, causing his wings to fan out behind him. White feather drifted down below. "I've done it before, I will do it again."

With a push from his legs, and a slow flap of his large, white, wings, Van was off. He started flapping his wings harder, flying towards the Mystic Moon that hung far away in the sky.

"Hitomi! Hitomi, I'm coming!" he cried, wings moving faster.