A/N: This is a fanfic I had started before I had the idea of founding WhiteMagick Studios. I don't mean to sound immodest, but it was my idea. I was just lucky Van and Sorakh agreed.

Disclaimer: I do not own Escaflowne, Van or any other other characters related to the story except the new ones mentioned here. I am not getting rich off of this, so don't sue me.

A girl with a blue knee-high skirt and black strap top stood on the bleachers. She also had a transparent blue shirt with only one button that fastened at the area of her collarbone. Her brown hair stopped just below her ears. Her name was Christina, and the bleacher she was on was facing a soccer field. Christina watched the runners on the soccer field. She missed being on the team, though she wouldn't admit it. She just wanted to fade away. She couldn't see any reason for being. What did she have to live for, even if she hadn't dropped out? No boyfriend, no career choice, nothing. The most she had was her friend, Mélanie. She plopped down on the bleachers and sat facing away from the field, so that she was facing the length of the board she was on. She took out her Tarot cards, and dealt them out in Celtic cross fashion. This was her favourite draw, and the most precise, since it required many cards to be drawn. When she was done, it looked something like this:

-3
-1-10
5 2 6-9
-1-8
-4-7

in the current situation
2.(lain horizontally on no.1)Positive forces helping or
obstacles blocking
from her higher self
of her subconscious
events influencing the now
of relationship with others
state
forces influencing situation
and/or fears
of the matter

The Magician reversed: Deception, loss of direction, dampened senses. That sounds like me, all right.

Not really in the mood to find out more bad news, Christina put her cards back in their box and put the box in her book bag. She looked up at the sky, and saw the full moon. A rare sight for mid-afternoon. Then, she thought she saw something else near the moon. It looked like a replica of earth. But as suddenly as it had come, it disappeared. Strange.
"Hey, Chris!"
She turned, and saw Mélanie running towards her.
"Hey, Mel."
"Why are you always being so glum? Cheer up, will ya?"
Christina looked at her friend. Always so positive, so optimistic. She then looked down her own front to look at the heart-shaped locket she had. She had had it since she was little, but she couldn't remember where she got it. Her parents and any other relatives she asked swore they hadn't given it to her. She couldn't even open it. Sometimes, late at night, she had visions of herself as a little kid, along with a boy her age. The boy had messy dark hair, and was wearing a red tank top with off-white shorts. There was another one, but older, with blue-grey hair. He looked about the age she was now. Sometimes, random thoughts accompanied these visions. When she would see the two boys together, the word brother came to mind. There was also a beautiful woman whom she assumed to be the boys' mother. Long blonde hair, with an angelic air of grace and gentleness. Once, she saw herself with a needle in her arm, and a red fluid flowing through a tube connected to the needle. And there was one where she was in a bed with the pretty woman sitting on the side of the bed, and Christina had the distinct feeling of pain. Her back ached horribly; there was wetness on her face. She was crying. Then suddenly, the pain was gone, and the pretty woman's face was full of shock. Nothing after that. The only other thing she remembered was a song. A sweet, enchanting song that the pretty woman would sing to help her fall asleep. A song in a strange language she couldn't understand.
"Hey, Chris! Stop wool gathering, will ya? I said I have something to tell you."
"Huh? Oh, sorry, Mel. I was just thinking."
"What about? How you miss being on the soccer team but won't admit it?"
"That's not true." She did miss it, but she wouldn't tell anyone. Not even Mel.
"What did you want to tell me?"
"Something I saw on the Internet. There was a new planet discovered."
"I thought I had already told you that."
"No, not on the other end of the solar system near Pluto. It's between Earth and Mars. And it's inhabited, too. They're trying to design a new spacecraft so that they can go meet the inhabitants. They decided to call it Gaea, since it looks a lot like earth, but not the same geographical formations. You did know that Gaea is another name for Earth, right?"
"Whatever. If they find little green men like what people thought was on Mars, the press are gonna have a field day. Who's working on it?"
"Well, Canada, Japan, China, Russia and France are working together to make one that should be ready to have a crew complement of 5, one person from each country, in two years. But the U.S. and England are trying to get one done for next year."
"Wow. Just like with the attack on Iraq. U.S. and England hand in hand, and the rest say bad idea. Except this time it's a race."
"Yeah, something like that. Wanna go for a milkshake or something?"
"Yeah, okay. How about we go walk in the woods after? I feel like getting away from traffic for a bit."
"Sure."
A little later, a vanilla milkshake in Christina's hands and a chocolate in Mélanie's, the two girls were walking in the woods that separated their school's area from the maintenance yard where school buses were brought for repairs and check-ups. The woods were peaceful, and there was a certain clearing where there was a kind of carpet of soft green moss covering the entire area of the clearing. They sat down on the carpet, sipping their milkshakes.
"Christina, what were you thinking of awhile ago?"
"Something that happened when I was little, but can't really remember completely."
"A traumatising thing?"
"No. Not really, anyway. There were two boys. One my age, and the other one who was as old as I am now. And a woman. A woman who looked like a goddess. I think she was their mother. And she would sing a song to help me fall asleep."
"How much of the song can you remember?"
"Not much. Which makes sense since it was a long time ago, and it's in a strange language. It doesn't matter, anyway."
"Chris, you're always being so distant."
"Yep."
"Chris!"
"What?"
"Your locket!"
Christina looked down. The tiny pink stone in the middle was glowing brightly. Then, a bright cylinder of white light surrounded the clearing, enveloping her and Mélanie. The clearing disappeared from sight, and then Christina saw images flash in her mind. A girl with shorter hair than her own, in a kind of school uniform. The girl disappeared. She then saw a bright light, pure energy, it seemed, split in two, and entered two separate babies. Then the two babies changed: one was herself, the other was the girl in uniform. Then she saw the girl crossing a street, a car skid out of control. The girl was hit. The light came out of her, then, and she saw herself again. The light entered her body. It was like one soul split and then came back together when the other girl died. Christina saw the boy with black hair, but he was older. He was hugging the schoolgirl, who was alive in this vision. He had the same kind of shirt, but long pants instead of shorts. Then he was in the air. He was wearing no shirt, but had white wings out and was carrying the other girl's body. He was crying, hard. She saw his brother, also with no shirt but with black wings and a metal arm. His hair was now totally grey. He slashed an old man, struck again, but hit something other than the man. Something hard that broke the sword and sent a piece in his direction. He was wounded. She saw him lying on the floor, a pool of blood around him. Then she knew sweet nothingness.

Van Fanel sat on the grass at the edge of a lake. The reconstruction of Fanelia was almost finished. As he watched the sun's reflection on the lake, something brighter appeared. A cylinder of light. He jumped up, hopefully.
Hitomi! He thought, No, Hitomi's dead. But, who could this be?
Suddenly childhood images flashed through his mind. His brother and himself playing with a girl his age. A girl with shoulder-length, chestnut hair. A girl landed in the water in front of him, and once she realised she was in water, she swam for shore. Another girl appeared in the middle of the lake, but she didn't seem to realise where she was. She simply sank.
"Christina!" the first girl yelled.
Van swam out to where the girl had disappeared. He took a deep breath, and dove. There was ample light under water, but he couldn't see the girl. How far had she sunk? Then, he saw her figure struggling futily to get to the surface, but she didn't have enough air to do so. He swam to her, grabbed her arm, and pulled her to the surface. They both took a deep breath when they broke the water's surface, but the girl was so weak she very nearly fell under again. Van managed to keep her head afloat, and brought her to shore. The girl lay down on the grass and started taking deep, heavy breaths.
"Mel... bag... inhaler..."
The first girl looked around, and stopped her gaze on a black bag. She ran towards it, and brought it to the half-drowned girl, who started digging through its pockets to pull out a thick turquoise disc-type thing. She put her thumb in a curve which interrupted the circle of it, and pushed it around till a kind of mouthpiece emerged. There was a small click, and the girl put the mouthpiece in her mouth. She pulled back a trigger, and took a deep breath from the little object. A few minutes later, she was breathing better. Van was confused, but the girl looked almost exactly like the small child in the mini-vision he had had.
"Would you two please tell me who you are?"