Disclaimer: The wonderful anime "Vision of Escaflowne" and all of its cast members are created and owned by Shouji Kawamori and Sunrise, Inc. If only use names and characters in the most illegal sense possible; this is, after all, a fanfic. Please don't sue me - I have no money to give you anyway! ************* "Feuerfest" by Kotetsu Truly Final Chapter: Wish Upon a Star ************* Serena Schezar laid awake in her bed that night, watching the moonlight paint ghostly landscapes across the ceiling of her bedroom, listening to the crickets chirping outside her window, thinking. She hadn’t slept for hours, and she didn’t intend to do so. If anything, the events of the day had left her with the uneasy feeling that she ought to take some course of action. Serena felt restless and helpless at the same time, and she resented that feeling. “Sure. That would be nice,” Serena chided her tired brain. “Believe me, if I could do that, I would. Wish upon a star, and all your dreams will come true . . .” “Hey . . . You know what?” “Two souls weren’t meant to exist in one body, right? So that makes me an abnormality. A freak of nature. There has to be a way to solve that problem, right? If the normal rules of nature and physics don’t apply to me in the first place, then I bend them just a little bit more, can’t I?” “I’m going to *wish* him out. To wish him right out of my head.” “Wrong. I can’t destroy another soul, remember? But I need your cooperation, brain. I need you to concentrate with me.” A falling star twinkled across the night sky. Serena turned her thoughts inward, her emotions and feelings and soul inward, and closed her eyes. She addressed the slumbering boy in the back of her brain. Serena Schezar was so busy wishing upon a falling star that she didn’t even realize it when she fell asleep. When Allen Schezar softly padded into his sister’s room the next morning and tickled her nose to wake her up, he was greeted with a luxurious yawn and a contented smile. “You look much better this morning,” Allen commented as he sat on the edge of her bed. “I feel better,” Serena answered as she sat up. “Allen, Dilandau is gone.” Allen’s eyes widened. “What? How?!” “I separated us, once and for all. I wished for it, and it just . . . kind of . . . happened.” Allen reached out to grasp her hand. “But where is he now?!” “Don’t be scared. He’s not a problem anymore. Don’t be scared, Allen.” In that moment, Serena appeared eerily wise and all-knowing as she slid toward her older brother and hugged him around his shoulders. “Allen . . . Be happy. Be happy for me.” And, believe it or not, he was. * * * Orinda’s cabin nestled deep within the forested outskirts of Freid was not too terribly different from the one that she had left behind in Zaibach’s bluewood forest - comfortable, quiet, and isolated. Her companionship was provided by Howie and her chickens, she lived off the land, and she wanted for nothing. Orinda took pains to make certain that her residence always remained a secret, and made a habit of threatening and scaring off any trespassers or hunters that occasionally stumbled across her property. Which is why she was more than slightly enraged when, upon returning home to her cabin, she noticed a thin trail of smoke spiraling upwards from her chimney. Somebody had invaded HER cabin, and was building a fire in HER fireplace! Orinda unshouldered her axe, and prepared to kick down the door. She paused for a moment, listening for a sound, any sound. There was none. So Orinda drew her booted foot back, and with a grunt, kicked down her own door. “Well, I certainly didn’t expect an entrance like *that*,” a mildly annoyed voice greeted her. Orinda dropped the axe from her shaking hands. The strength ran out of her legs, and she felt herself sinking to the ground. She slumped to her knees, and clasped her hands to her mouth. Dilandau Albatou finished attending to the fireplace and turned to smile at her. “Welcome back,” he said. It was Dilandau, there was no doubt about it. He appeared to be a year or two older than Orinda remembered him, which fit perfectly with the amount of time that had passed since they had last seen each other. He was a bit taller, too. There was a scar on his right cheek, and a melancholy sadness in his eyes. Orinda slowly shook her head. “This is a dream.” “It’s no dream.” Dilandau sat on the floor beside Orinda. “Serena and I finally managed to separate ourselves, the night after you left the Schezar household. I woke up the next morning and found myself here.” “I’m dreaming,” Orinda stubbornly insisted. Dilandau pinched her left arm. Hard. “OW!” Orinda bonked him on the head with her fist. “What’d you do that for?!” “To prove that you aren’t dreaming.” Slowly, Orinda stretched out her arm and smoothed her hand through Dilandau’s hair. She trailed her fingers down his right temple, tracing the scar on his cheek, rolling the ball of her thumb across his lips. She pulled back her hand. “You feel solid enough,” she began hesitantly. “Thank you for noticing.” The first tears pricked at the corners of Orinda’s eyes. “I didn’t think . . . that I would ever see you again . . .” Dilandau wrapped his arms around Orinda and pulled her tight into his chest, embracing her with a warmth and strength that startled her. “I’m so glad to see you again,” he murmured softly. Orinda closed her eyes. She snuggled into Dilandau’s chest, listening to the pleasant rhythm of his heart beating, letting the tears spill quietly over her cheeks, allowing him to comfort her and love her. But something still felt wrong. She could tell that something was different about him. It was something in his eyes, something in the posture of his shoulders, something in the tenseness of his muscles. Orinda drew slightly back from his chest, but did not break the embrace. “How much do you remember?” she asked him bluntly. “I remember everything.” He sounded so horribly sad. “Every memory that they ever tried to repress . . . It’s all back. The worst was when my men died. All of them. That’s one memory that I could have done without. And even last year . . . I remember the last year as Serena. Isn’t that odd? No, I suppose that it isn’t. I suppose that she’ll always have a few of my memories, too.” Once again, Orinda rested her hand on his cheek. “It’s okay. It’ll get better with time. I’m here with you, so you won’t be alone.” “I know.” “Although we are awfully isolated, out here in the wilderness.” Orinda twirled one of his longer bangs around her finger. “Then nobody will ever find us.” They kissed, brief and warm and sweet. “Hey, Dilandau . . .” Orinda whispered as she wiped the last tear from her cheek, “do believe that people like us ever get happy endings?” “How do you mean?” “This feels too good to be true.” Dilandau blinked. “Don’t do that. Don’t talk like that. You’ll curse yourself. I know; I saw it happening to Folken, before we parted ways. Don’t ever think that you don’t deserve peace and love and happiness. Orinda, if anybody - anybody on Gaea deserves a happy ending, it’s you. You’ve suffered too much.” Orinda felt the tears threatening again. It was an absurd statement, coming from Dilandau Albatou. And yet, he said it with such passion and naked sincerity, that Orinda dared to let herself believe that he could be right. So they kissed again. And when that kiss, a bit longer than the previous one, was finally finished, Dilandau drew his lips away from Orinda’s and whispered into her ear. “I love you, Orinda Muirne de Eowyn.” In the end, it was the happy ending that she had been waiting for. -- Das Ende --