CHAPTER VI: "Revelations I"

Darkness.

Seiki felt like she was in a big, black pit. All her senses were numb and she couldn't feel anything except the odd sensation of being dragged into a large tar pit. It was a little like swimming though a tub full of Jello[TM]...wait... she REALLY didn't want to go there.

Did people always think such stupid thoughts in situations like this?

She moved her head to look around. A bunch of nothingness. She knew this place, Grandma told her about it once, but how did she get here?

The message! The key was the reason why, but Seiki was worried about why she was here. The message was suppose to be for Van, Allen and Merle. When the heck was it decided that she was in the equation too?

Seiki sighed heavily. A classic case of shooting the messenger for the message. Well, that was what Van looked like he wanted to do before she went after the pendant. And was all that hokey stuff she was spouting about everything in her mind? How embarrassing. Go figure just when she needed her wits about her she babbles on about stupid mind reading crap. Must of heard too many of Sailor Moon's corny messages.

A small pinpoint of light appeared in front of her. It grew bigger until it blinded her. Blinking furiously, Seiki tried to adjust her sight. She squinted and blurry colours in front of her resolved into trees and blue sky.

*Seiki?*

Seiki stiffened in shock.

A slender, older woman with short, greying blonde hair, stood in front of Seiki. Gentle laugh lines crinkled at the ends of Hitomi's green eyes.

"Mom?"

"Hitomi? Hitomi? Is that really you?" Merle squealed and ran to her friend.

"Merle, please," Hitomi wheezed. "You're squeezing me a little too hard.

"Oooh, sorry!" Merle hastily let go. "Hitomi, you look..." Merle paused taking in Hitomi's youthful appearance. "You look exactly the same as when I last saw you...6 years ago. You're still 15? You even have that same ridiculous outfit the last time you were here!"

Merle looked around her in alarm, taking in the small garden, the blue skies, the birds singing in the trees. She could see the bright sun and the faint sliver of a single Moon.

"Where are we?"

"Merle, please calm down. This is my house, where I once lived."

"Ah, I see..." Merle gasped. "Lived?"

Hitomi smiled sadly and sat down on the back porch step. She patted the space next to her. "Come sit with me."

Merle sidled over. "Well, okay, as long as you don't suck my blood or walk through me or something."

Hitomi reached over and pinched Merle's cheeks, pulling them to make a painful macabre grin appear on Merle's face.

"Solid enough for you? I'm not going to walk though you," Hitomi huffed, "And you should remember I hated the sight of blood."

Merle pulled away from Hitomi's grip and rubbed her sore face. Waving her hands in a mock warding gesture, Merle said in her best spooky voice, "Suuuure. I bet you're really vampire waiting to drink my blood! Doesn't matter if you like seeing blood if you're a vampire! You just have to close your eyes and suck. How creepy!"

Hitomi rolled her eyes and said dryly, "Why would I want YOUR blood? Probably taste all gross and sour coming from you."

Merle shrieked in dismay at the insult and then stopped eyeing Hitomi suspiciously.

"Well if you're not a vampire you're a ghost sent here to haunt me, aren't you?"

Hitomi smacked Merle upside the head.

"Damn right!"

"Don't hit your elders!" Merle joked as she finally settled down beside Hitomi who snickered behind her hand.

Merle sighed and leaned back on her arms. As they sat in comfortable silence Merle looked up at the sky feeling breeze on her face.

"Ne, Hitomi..."

"Hmmm?"

"This isn't real is it?"

"No."

"Where are we?"

"In your mind."

Merle laughed, "I see, so Seiki wasn't completely mad then. In my mind, huh? Why doesn't that surprise me? I remember when Van would be standing around with a blank look on his face and the stupidest smile. I always wondered what sweet nothings you would be saying to him."

Hitomi blushed.

"Where are the others by the way?" Merle looked around suspiciously, expecting Van or Allen to jump out laughing. "I don't see them here though they got swallowed up by that light thingamajiggy too."

Hitomi rubbed the back of her head. "Well it's kinda easier to talk to each of you one to one."

"But why all of this?" She waved her hand out to the beautiful garden. "Wouldn't it have been better if you just came to Gaea yourself?"

"No."

"Why not? Don't tell me..."

"Merle." Hitomi winced. "I was very ill when I gave my message to Seiki. It took everything I had left to send her here."

"Everything?" Merle frowned, concern creeping into the tone of her voice.

"Yes." Hitomi smiled wistfully. "I passed away right after Seiki left for Gaea." Hitomi's brow wrinkled slightly. "Poor Seiki, she's having a hard time with this."

"Is she a lost sister or something?" Merle fiddled with her ear. "A relative maybe? She has your eyes..."

"She's my daughter."

"Your da-daughter?" Allen stammered in surprise. "I can understand maybe a sister or cousin, but Seiki's your child?"

Allen turned to stare in Hitomi's green eyes. "How is it possible? It's only been six years since you've left us, yet your daughter is fully grown, only a few years younger than Van himself."

He took in the youthful appearance of his former love. "You look as young as the day you left, but Seiki's existence tells me more. Just how much time has passed on the Mystic Moon?"

Hitomi smiled and gently patted Allen's hand. "It's hard to explain. There doesn't seem to be much logic to time when we travel between the worlds but from what I can figure it seems about twenty-four years have passed by."

"Twenty-four?" Allen's jaw gaped. "But, but how is that possible?"

She looked up at the sky. "Remember that girl from the Mystic Moon that your father searched for?"

Allen stiffened at the mention of the old wound but then forced himself to relax. "Yes."

Hitomi nodded sensing his discomfort. "I saw it as well, your vision when we were in Asgard."

Allen shifted his weight. "I remember feeling your presence when I confronted my father."

"The young girl he saw was my grandmother. My mother told me about my grandmother's story. It happened during the summer festival when she was walking home, twice in the same night.

"So how is it possible that when your father saw my grandmother, she wasn't much older than you at the time; or that hardly any time passed at all on the Mystic Moon when she was sent to see your father both times over a span of years on Gaea?"

Allen heaved a sigh and rubbed his head. "There doesn't seem to be any pattern does there?"

Hitomi smiled. "Only the Fates can see it if there is one."

Allen frowned a little, "But if twenty-four years have passed by on the Mystic Moon, why do you appear so young?"

"Because it's easier for you to see me as I was." Hitomi pointed out. "Do you it would have been better if I appeared as a middle-aged woman? The way my daughter sees me?"

"I suppose not." Allen sighed heavily. "It's all pretty hard to swallow in any form, but I guess seeing you as you were makes it a little easier at first."

He looked around appreciating the garden and serene atmosphere.

"This was your home?" Hitomi nodded. "It's beautiful." Allen looked at Hitomi sadly. "I still can't believe that you're...gone. Does...does Van know?"

Hitomi looked down. "He will."

Allen reached over and tugged a short lock of Hitomi's hair. "Do you want to tell me why I'm so calm about all of this?" He hesitated, fumbling for the right words. "I mean you would think that I would be a bit more upset about you, don't you think? But here, everything here feels so calm."

Hitomi nodded. "Because you know..."

Allen cocked his head.

"You know I'm at peace. This place in your mind reflects the state of my spirit. This message...it's the last thing I can do for my children."

Allen blinked slowly. "Children? You mean you have more children?"

"A son. Seiji is his name. He is the only reason that Seiki agreed to leave me, to search for her brother." Hitomi paused. "He disappeared a year ago from the Mystic Moon and my dreams told me he'd be here.

There's no way for us to tell how long he's been on Gaea though. He could've appeared right after the Great War for all we know. Like I said before, it seems that the Fates send us where it wills us."

"Through your dreams, Hitomi?" Allen frowned. "How did Seiji manage to come to Gaea?"

Hitomi shook her head. "I don't know."

"I see." Allen sighed. He paused and shifted his body a little. Sitting on a porch step wasn't exactly comfortable.

"So...who's 'us'?"

Hitomi raised an eyebrow. "Geez," she laughed, "aren't we reaching a little bit? Do I really need to say?"

"Spell it out for me, Hitomi." Allen gave her a lopsided grin. "Besides it would be nice to know who's been a part of your life. A chance to catch up before you leave me again...for good."

Hitomi sighed. "We don't have too much time left. Alright...what do you want to know about my husband?"

Van frowned and looked at his hands. They were shaking. Everything...seemed like a dream. Seeing Hitomi again after all these years of not being able to was a shock to his system. He was still trying to figure out if it was a pleasant feeling or not, if one imagined getting hit by lightning as pleasant that is.

"What was your husband like?"

Hitomi shifted slightly. "He was a good man, Van. We met when I started my first year in University." She looked at Van sadly. "I never thought there would be another, Van. I really didn't."

She tucked her arms under her knees. "When I found Seijuro I realized that my heart had room for more than one love." She turned her head to look at Van and gently touched his cheek. "I've always loved you Van. You were a mirror to my soul, but I was still missing the other half of ME."

Hitomi sat back and touched her heart. "I had the spiritual contentment with you, but in everything else I felt so alone."

Van grimaced and reached out to touch her hand. "Was it because I wasn't with you often enough? I tried, but after a while I couldn't even see you anymore."

Hitomi looked startled at Van's comment and her eyes widened in understanding. She sighed. "Oh Van, it wasn't you." She turned her palm up allowing Van's fingertips to rest there. "I just needed more in my life. I needed a real person who could hold me, and be with me. Someone I could raise a family with, who would play with my children and...I guess, become my other half."

"It wasn't like I could call you up to go for some ice cream, Van."

"Was he? Everything you wanted I mean." Van asked quietly. Did he want to hear this?

"Yes," Hitomi nodded. "And so much more. He was my light, my strength."

"I'm glad." He was. He was surprised to feel it.

Hitomi looked at Van, uncertain. He smiled and nudged her gently. "I am. I'm glad he made you happy."

"I just never thought it would be someone else," he thought to himself.

Hitomi pulled her hand back and propped her chin up on her knees. "When Seijuro died and my son disappeared, I grew tired of being strong." She laughed a little bitterly. "So here I am, dead and all, and my only daughter is left to take a stab at Gaea all by herself."

"Seiki..." Van hesitated, "Your daughter seems...well...different from you."

Hitomi snickered. "Ahhh, Seiki. Yes, she's very much like her father. Independent, strong, intelligent and socially inept." She chuckled again at Van's curious expression.

"Of my two children, Seiji has always been the social one. The leader. He WANTS to be needed, thrives in the spotlight. Ah, my son was a popular one. Did all the sports, excelled in his grades, and the girls loved him."

Hitomi smiled wistfully, "Maybe that's why I spoiled him rotten, feeding that big ego of his."

"And Seiki wasn't the same?"

"You mean popular with the girls?" Van frowned for a minute and then blushed when he understood.

"No...no that wasn't what I meant...I mean..."

Hitomi smiled mischievously, "Van, I'm only teasing you."

Van sighed, exasperated. "Sorry, I'm feeling a little...I dunno...stiff. Raden must be rubbing off on me."

Hitomi squeezed Van's arm sympathetically. "Never much of a talker were you?"

Van smiled. "Never had to, especially back then. Wasn't much to say except to yell out some war cries."

Hitomi gazed up at the sky. "My daughter is night to Seiji's day. The hour she was born she was independent. Didn't seek praise or the spotlight, content to sit in the shadows and watch her brother do both. Perhaps that was why it was so easy to neglect her. She never made any demands. She'd be in the garden for hours, and she told me once that she was happy to 'just listen to the music in the breeze.'"

Van sat back in surprise. "You make her seem rather quiet and shy." He laughed self-consciously. "The Seiki I met seems extremely confident in herself."

Hitomi smiled knowingly. "Just wait 'till you see her at a party." She tucked her arms around her legs.

"Seiki is wonderful when she only has to deal with a couple people at a time. Not so many personalities to appease then." Hitomi shrugged. "Seiki needs to be needed. She needs reason, a purpose in her life in order to grow. She thrives when adversity rules. When I gave up my reason to live, Seiki took care of me, of the house, of the bills...everything. Because I NEEDED her.

"She's in Gaea because I needed her to find Seiji...and deliver my message to you."

Hitomi stopped and frowned. "Van...do you remember having a dream, a really strange one about war?"

Van let out a surprised laugh at the quick change in subject. "Which one? I've had so many nightmares about war I can't keep track of them. Even now the Great War still haunts me."

"Well the thing about THIS dream are the words. If you remember the dream at all the words will jump out at you.

"The Twinned shall fall from the Sky..."

Van stiffened. He remembered...something.

"A Broken Land shall rise again;"

A flash of images...

"Vengeance and Hunger as Guidance."

Hitomi paused. "Do you remember, Van?" she asked softly.

Van swallowed hard and nodded. "I think so...what was it?"

"The Wheel of Fortune turns.
Feathers tipped in Blood;
The Dragon's Sword forged in heated Battle.
Thy Kingdom's Heart it shall possess."

Hitomi shivered. "It was something that came to me...like a dream." She shook her head in sudden denial. "No, not a dream. I was wide awake."

"My mother-in-law told me once that it was a Prophecy. A foretelling of my children's future."

Van felt his breathe stop, caught in his throat. "Wasn't that...what you used to do before? With those cards?"

"Yes, but...but I stopped that a long time ago. I stopped reading the tarot cards when I returned home from Gaea!" Hitomi slapped her hand down on the step in emphasis. "I swore to myself I would never try to see the future again. Never again!"

She trembled and her hand clenched into a fist. "But the Fates have given my children a destiny."

"And they wanted us to know it."

Hitomi looked into Van's eyes, fear in her wide, green eyes. "War is coming Van. It's coming again, I can see it. And it will be even greater than the Great War..." Van gently reached out and took her hand.

"And my children will be in the middle of everything."

Allen murmured softly, "Seiki will be fine, Hitomi. She'a your daughter after all, and I'm sure she'll find her brother."

Hitomi shook her head. "No, you don't understand. Seiki will stop at nothing to find her brother. She'll forget everything to accomplish her goal. With the war coming, she'll forget to protect herself and give up everything...do you understand?"

A tear slid down her face. "I want Seiki to find Seiji, but not at the cost of her life."

Merle hugged Hitomi, wanting her friend to stop crying. "Oh Hitomi, surely Seiki will have enough sense? We can find a way to find Seiji without risking her, right? Right?"

Hitomi wiped away her tears. "Merle? Promise me you'll help protect her? Keep her from going too far to find her brother. Remind her that she's only human? Please...remind her...that her life is precious too."

Merle nodded solemnly. "I promise."

Allen ruffled Hitomi's hair. "I promise."

Van held Hitomi for the last time. "I promise."

"Mom," Seiki looked up from her mother's arms. "Do you really have to go? I don't understand what's going on anymore. I miss you so much."

Hitomi smiled and gently stroked her daughter's hair. "I'm sorry love. I'm afraid the spell's over. My message has been delivered." She tugged lightly on a strand of silver hair. "My poor daughter, I haven't been much of a mother to you have I?"

Seiki bolted straight up and glared at her mom. "What kind of stupid question is that, Mom?" She sighed and leaned back into her mother's embrace. "You're the best, even when you're a ghost."

Hitomi chuckled, "Shhhhh, don't tell Merle I'm a ghost. I'm sure it would freak her right out."

Seiki smiled wanly and swallowed the lump in her throat. She would not cry. She would not...cry. She shut her eyes and felt hot tears trickle out from under her eyelids.

"Seiki...oh Seiki don't cry love. You know I love you. Don't you?" Hitomi gently rocked her child in her arms. "Remember that...remember your life is precious to me."

"Please be careful."

Seiki sobbed and everything went black once again.