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Red Destiny: The Zaibach crush resistance in the Freid capital. Boris is mortally wounded but hits a carved trigger device which brings the whole palace crashing down. Dilandau, momentarily terrified, watches in satisfaction as the palace is demolished without any further effort on his part. The members of the Court, with Hitomi & Van etc, escape by airship. It seems they are still in visual contact with the destruction on the ground. Prince Chid is crying because Boris and everybody left behind is dead. In a flashback, Boris says goodbye to Van and wishes him well. The Freid King angrily tells his son not to cry and to behave like a prince of Freid. Millerna thinks about Marlene and wonders why Allen is looking at the Prince so sadly. The scene shifts to a massive stone building with high pillars. In this place of refuge, the Freid King addresses ranks of monk-warriors, and one of them presents the King with a ceremonial sword. He calls his son, and then invites the King of Fanelia, Allen and the others to accompany him to be shown something. They enter a dimly lit chamber and the doors shut behind them. "Bad feeling" says Merle. The Freid King inserts the sword into a slot. At once the figure of an angel appears, but seemingly this is only visible to Hitomi. From an energiste-like jewel, a beam is projected on the wall. Apparently everybody can see this, and the King explains that what they see is an image of Atlantis. Hitomi vividly sees beautiful buildings and winged people. "But" the king says, and the images change instantly to scenes of destruction. After watching this for some moments, Hitomi faints. Seemingly it is Chid's turn to be shown this record of the destruction of Atlantis, entrusted to the Freid rulers. King Freid explains about the legendary Power Spot of Atlantis. Later, while Allen is occupied elsewhere, Hitomi finds Van seated next to Escaflowne and communing with the mecha's inner mechanisms. She asks what he is doing, and Van confides that he is employing some of her techniques to link himself more closely to the guymelef. Rather than being pleased, Hitomi finds this rather disturbing. Van is about to say something more to her, but stops and hurries off. Alone, Hitomi sees the jewel on the guymelef's breast pulse, and then has a horrid vision of a bloodstained and dying Freid King sinking into a lake of blood. Drops fall on her hands. "Red rain!" she exclaims. Prince Chid passes Allen, pointedly not speaking to him. Zaibach forces mass near the site, at the top of a slope. They receive the order to descend. At this moment Hitomi, indoors, exclaims, "It has begun!" The crew of the Crusade and others run about shouting orders. A rapid cut to the battlefield, with all the principal warrior characters in guymelefs. "The Freid King" Dilandau exclaims, with pleasure. He proceeds to outfight the king, repeatedly chopping and stabbing at his mecha and finally ripping away the front armour. Allen intervenes. While Allen and Dilandau fight, the King, who has dismounted, makes a rather fatalistic-sounding speech, referring to the future, and ending by calling out that the King of Fried is here. He is pierced by arrows. As he dies, he has a vision of Marlene saying that now they will be together. Van intervenes in the fight between Allen and Dilandau. Allen dismounts, and is distressed to see that the Freid King has fallen. He has to be held back by one of the soldiers. Van attacks, running his sword through another mecha, and causing Dilandau to wonder if this fellow is a demon. Folken tells Dilandau to withdraw, saying that the Freid King is now dead. Next we see Prince Chid in an audience room, smiling bravely and accepting the condolences of Hitomi and the company of friends. Chid appears before Folken and a mass of Zaibach troops; evidently Folken intends to accept the surrender of the remaining Freid forces. Prince Chid, realising that further resistance only means more destruction, accepts Folken's terms. The Fried are guarding the secret of Atlantis' power, to prevent its destructive use by mankind. Just before dying in battle, King Freid changes his mind, and tells his son to habd the secrets over to the Zaibach empire. His son, Chid, hands the Sealing Sword to Folken. One of the Crusade's crew runs in to tell them that something strange is happening with Escaflowne. On hurrying through to where the guymelef stands, they see blood running out of the ends of the arm mechanisms and pooling on the floor. On the military front, one can't help thinking that the Zaibach clearly have some deficiency in air-to-air attack capability, otherwise our heroes would not be able to escape by airship so easily! Dangerous Wounds: Hitomi & co. run in to find Van still inside Escaflowne, from which blood is dripping. When they get him out, he appears to be wounded in various places. Millerna is called to give him medical attention. However, Van sprouts his wings, to general astonishment. Van is in pain. He has been bandaged up, but Millerna suggests that the problem may be to do with Escaflowne itself. Hitomi goes to have another look at the mecha, and while looking at it explains that she thinks that Van and Escaflowne are too closely linked in some way. A lookout calls that Astorian air forces are in sight. Dryden is lounging in what seems to be an underwater palace and chatting up a mermaid. Dryden gives the mermaid her freedom, despite his accountant's protests. Dryden's rat-like servant calls him. Dryden recognises the airship tethered outside as the Crusade. A visitor is announced, and she says, "That's Dryden, isn't it?" while being introduced. Meanwhile Allen & Hitomi wonder what's keeping Millerna. Dryden entertains Millerna in his library, and presents his good points as a prospective husband. Dryden looks at the guymelef and explains his view of the problem. Repairs are put in hand, and a gang of short cyborgs set about the work. Unfortunately Van is in agony as the cyborgs set about Escaflowne with power grinders. Prince Chid ceremonially disposes of the notched sword seen earlier, aided by Folken, and green rays spring up from the crater from which it is dropped and from Domkirk's base. Van has now completely recovered, and the Escaflowne is repaired, but it seems the cyborgs could not fix the root of the problem, which was that Van dripped his blood over the energist before inserting it into Escaflowne. Hitomi is still worried, though Van insists that he'll be OK. Dryden has underwritten the whole enormous cost charged by the Ispano tribe for having the Ispano Guymelef repaired. We also learn that an Ispano Guymelef assimilates its master unto death, and can act independently. Dryden's ship vanishes through some sort of interface in the sky. Hitomi tries to prevent Van getting into Escaflowne. In the end he thrusts Hitomi and Merle aside, enters the mecha, and leaps out of a loading door into flight mode. As Escaflowne descends, a pair of animals wearing coats scurry for cover. Escaflowne lands, and is surrounded by Dilandau's troop of Zaibach mecha. Van goes on the attack, and even when the Zaibach turn on the invisibility system it doesn't save them. Dilandau watches in terror. Hitomi and Merle watch from an external railing on the Crusade. Merle is excited, but Hitomi is worried and says that Escaflowne is weird. Van is about to advance on Dilandau and finish him off when he hears a voice saying he should stop. Escaflowne locks up, goes dark and falls over. |
