AN: Look! It LIVES! Lol. Sorry this took so long, but I actually wrote three versions of this chapter, one for each child. I will confess that in Gaia's version Hitomi died, howknowever the second I read it f. For phrasing errors, I was in tears didn't want to be responsible for the depression maturityountless readers. It also took me forever to choose which of the other two I wanted to use, but this one seemed the most right, so you get Fanelia's version. I hope you all like it. As always, let me know what you think, and I hope you all enjoy! Happy 4th ya'll!

AN2: This isn't a new chapter, I just noticed a few mistakes in rereading this and corrected them.

Fanelia Vari Fanel à Fanelia sat on the hard stone bench, listening to the gentle plinking notes of the music box in her grandmother's hands. Nearby her brothers sat on the grassy ground with their grandfather playing a complex puzzle game that the boys loved. "Grandmother?" She asked softly.

"Yes, Fanelia?" The older woman smiled, closing her daughter's small wooden music box.

"Is my father really a prince?" She asked quietly.

Her brothers looked up from the small wooden triangle with its brightly colored plastic pegs, waiting for the older woman's answer. "Your mother told me once that he is the ruler of Fanelia and she named each of you so that he would be proud of you." She answered calmly.

"That's what Mama says." Folken, the oldest, frowned. "But how do we know it's the truth?"

Kiosato Kanzaki smiled at his wife, winked, and then turned back to the skeptical four-year-old. "Why don't you ask him?" The old man suggested solemnly.

"Because I've never met him." Folken said in confusion.

"Well, then you're in luck." Kiosato laughed. "Because before you were born he promised to meet your mother right here today."

"For real?" The normally quiet Gaia gasped. "Our father is coming today?"

"He said he would, and he's never broken a promise." The three children rose with squeals of delight as their mother arrived. Hitomi seemed to glow with happiness as she was buried in a pile of giggling children. When she finally stood, Folken was in her arms, Gaia and Fanelia each clinging to a leg. She smiled at her parents. "I guess Van isn't here yet?"

"No great beams of light." Her father answered cheerfully. "How was your last day of work?"

The young mother rolled her eyes. "Honda-san was furious when I told him I wouldn't be in tomorrow. I don't know why, he's known for months. He even threatened to keep my paycheck."

"What did you tell him?" Chiaki Kanzaki asked, ignoring her husbands muffled chortles.

"I told him to keep it." Their daughter answered dryly to her father's laughter. "It's not like I'm going to be by next week to pick it up."

"I hope you weren't rude about it." Her mother frowned.

"I wasn't." The sandy-haired girl sighed. "I wanted to be, but I wasn't."

Chiaki smiled at her daughter, holding her arms out for the little boy. "Will Van be here soon?" She asked, taking the child.

"I hope so." Hitomi sighed. "Last time it was later in the afternoon though, so I brought plenty of things for the kids to do." She said, gesturing to the full duffel bag slung over one shoulder.

"Will you wait at the shrine all day?"

The young mother shrugged. "Van's been patient for five years. I can be patient for a few hours."

"Mama?" Gaia tugged the skirt of his mother's uniform.

"Yes, love?"

"I gotta go!" He hissed, shifting anxiously.

Hitomi sighed. "Okay. Folken, Fanelia, what about you two?" Folken shook his head as his sister nodded. "Are you sure Folken?" She frowned.

"Yes, Mama."

"I'll take them." Chiaki offered. "You sit down and rest for a bit."

The younger woman nodded. "Folken, why don't you go too, just in case." She suggested. The oldest child huffed in irritation that he wouldn't be permitted to wait with his mother, but he nodded in agreement knowing it was a lost cause to argue. "Thanks, Mom." She smiled as Chiaki set Folken down to walk and lifted the pale Fanelia.

"No problem." She said as she took Folken's hand and her husband took Gaia's.

Hitomi watched her parents lead her triplets down the steps to the bottom of the shrine. Smiling, she glanced around the small area, taking in the forgotten puzzle and the now quiet music box. Shaking her head with a soft smile she began gathering up the triangle and its scattered pegs. Carefully she set them in the music box, then un-slung the duffel bag and laying it on the bench stuffed them inside.

She herself had just sat when a radiant azure glow lit the small shrine. She sat, waiting patiently as the lean form of the young man took shape in the midst of the luminescent column. As the light faded warm brown eyes blinked open hopefully and the young king of Fanelia smiled when he caught sight of her. "Hitomi?" He asked nervously.

"Yes, it's me, Van." She assured him. "I've been waiting for you."

"So, then… You're coming back to Gaia with me?"

"If you still want me to." She nodded, standing. "I think it's time for me to return. And I'd like to stay there with you, if that's what you want."

"It is, Hitomi, but there's something you need to know." He said slowly.

She smiled as he came closer, spreading his deep burgundy cloak on the stone for her to sit on. "I think I already know, Van." Closing her eyes she took a deep breath. "You must have been so confused when the Oracles named Allen your heir."

"How did you know?" He frowned. "Not even Allen knows."

"Because I have something to tell you too, Van." She answered, slightly tense.

"What is it, Hitomi?"

She let out a deep sigh before opening her eyes to look at him. "Allen is the name of your son. Folken Allen Fanel. I was pregnant when I left Gaia."

For a long, heartbreaking moment, Van was still and quiet, his face carefully blank. "Did you know?" He finally asked softly. "Did you know when you left me that you were carrying my child?"

"No." She answered, grabbing his face in her small hands so he would be forced to either look in her eyes or hurt her. "If I had known, I would have stayed on Gaia and I would have died."

His eyes widened and she watched his pupils dilate in shock. "What do you mean?" He whispered.

"There was a complication with the pregnancy." She confessed softly, letting her hands fall to her lap. "Folken isn't your only child. I… I had triplets. Two boys and a girl."

"Three children?" He gasped. "Where are they? Are they here?" He smiled when she nodded, blushing.

"My Mom and Dad took them to the playground at the base of the shrine." Hitomi smiled. I'm a bit glad they aren't back yet."

"Did you ask them to leave?" The young king asked with a surprisingly calm curiosity.

"No, but they probably won't be back for a while." She told him with a gentle laugh. "Your daughter is even more sensitive than I am. She probably already knows you're here. She'll find a way to stay there until the timing is right."

"What's her name?" He asked, wearing a strange smile of his own.

"Fanelia." Hitomi answered. "Fanelia Vari Fanel."

Van flushed with pride. "It's a beautiful name, my mother's name. What does she look like?" He frowned when Hitomi's smile faltered.

"Van, do you know what an albino is?" She asked slowly.

He shook his head. "I've never heard of it."

The young mother sighed. I wasn't sure if you had albinos on Gaia. It's very rare, even here on Earth." She confessed. "Lady Celene was the closest I'd ever seen until Fanelia was born."

"What does Lady Celene have to do with this?" He frowned in confusion.

Hitomi bit her lip, then sighed. "Fanelia is an albino. It means she has no color. Her skin and hair are white like Celene's, even her eyes."

"Her eyes?"

"Yes." Hitomi informed him. "She has no pigmentation in her body. Not even in her eyes so it gives her a reddish blue tint to her eyes… It also makes her blind. Van, Fanelia can only see vague shapes. By the time she is ten she won't even see that. Her sight gets worse every year and soon she will be completely blind."

"This albino," Van asked slowly, "does it hurt her?"

"Not if we're careful." Hitomi answered. "It means that the sun burns her skin more easily than most people, and bright lights hurt her eyes."

"Then if she comes back with us the light-"

"It's not really a problem." Hitomi shrugged. "I can tie a cloth around her eyes if she needs to be in bright light. It doesn't make much difference since she sees so poorly. She's only wearing sunglasses today because it's so cloudy."

Van was still for a few minutes. "What about the other child." He finally spoke again. "You said there were two boys."

"Gaia." She answered. "Gaia Balgus. He's the perfect twin of his brother."

"Can I meet them" He asked with shy anxiety.

"Of course." Their mother laughed. "They're pretty excited to meet you too. But, Van, there's one more thing you should know."

"What is it?"

"I told you that there were complications. I… I can't have anymore children. It should have killed me to have the triplets. I was damaged inside when they were born."

The young king frowned. "Do you think I only wanted you to give me heirs?" He asked, the first hints of anger creeping into his voice. "That's not fair of you."

"It's not what I think!" Hitomi flushed. "It's just a fact that you need to know about. Folken, Gaia, and Fanelia are the only children I can ever give you."

"And you think three potential heirs to my throne aren't enough?" He sighed. "How many children do you think we need?" Suddenly he winced. "I have three young children and the royal nursery hasn't been rebuilt yet."

Hitomi laughed weakly with relief. "Don't worry. They may only be four, but they're very mature for their age. They have to be."

"Why?"

"Do you remember I told you that people here don't have wings?"

Van paled slightly. "They have wings?"

She nodded. "Their father is a Draconian after all." She answered him. "My parents don't mind, but people who don't know about Gaia tend to get a bit nervous when the feathers come out." She explained sadly. "They're having to grow up very quickly."

"I want to see them." Van insisted.

This time she nodded. "And they want to see you. Follow me."

Clouds still filled the sky what Hitomi and Van reached the bottom of the shrine. "Wait here." She told him "I'll go round them up."

He nodded, watching as she approached an older couple who had to be her parents. His eyes strayed to the children gallivanting about on the play sets. None of them were pale like Celene, as she had said his daughter was, but perhaps two of these children were his sons.

That was when he noticed the small park bench with the lonely little girl. Her hair was the exact color of the white buttercups that filled the palace gardens. Her pale skin was impossibly could white and her eyes, though covered with dark glasses, stared blankly ahead as her small fingers wove a tiny flower chain in her lap by feel alone. Looking back to see Hitomi still talking to her parents, he nervously approached her. As he got closer, she turned her head until her blind eyes were staring at him from behind the darkened lenses. "You can sit down if you like." She said in the high sweet voice of a child.

He paused for a moment before walking over and sitting next to her. "Thank you very much." He said gently. She smiled brightly as her fingers continued their deft work. "What are you making?" He asked, surprised to hear how thick his voice had become.

"A crown." She answered. "Mommy says I'm a princess, and a princess needs a crown." She frowned, her adorable pale lips turning down in a pout. "My brothers need crowns too, but they won't wear the ones that I make them."

The young king laughed in spite of himself. "Can you tell me your name, Princess?" He asked nervously.

"Fanelia." She answered as she worked. "But I'm going to have to change it soon."

This was her. This was his daughter. "Why?" He heard himself asking over the pounding of his heart.

"Because when you take us to live with the dragons there will be two Fanelias. Isn't that silly? Two Fanelias?"

"Did your mother tell you that?" He asked her flabbergasted.

"No." The little girl said, returning her empty eyes to the playground. "I saw it inside." She told him, weaving the two ends of the chain together. "Gaia will change his name too. I guess that's why Mommy gave us two names, huh?"

He blinked, trying to compose his thoughts. "Do you know who I am?" He finally asked slowly.

She giggled, a light precious sound. "Of course! You're my Papa!" She answered as she placed her daisy crown on her head.

AN: I conclusion, I have proofed this, but it is 3am so I blame any remaining errors on sleep deprivation. Let me know where they are and I'll strive to fix them! Thanx! BTW, I know the kids sound very mature for their age, but I made them sound a bit older than they are to show the premature maturity, and because I'm rubbish at children's phrasing.