This story is a little thing that stemmed off my love and hate of escaflowne. On one hand, I loved the whole premise of the story and the series because it was so interesting; it had something for everyone and I really liked how absolutely insane Dilandau was. But I hated how Hitomi fell in love with Van and then just 'poof' left just like that. Who would leave the man they fell in love with, in a wonderful mystical land with dragons and knights, to return home to earth. The movie for Escaflowne, on the other hand, I liked because some of the dragon slayers survived and Dilandau, though considerably less crazy, did not turn into a girl. So this story became a combination of both the series and the movie with an OC girl who saw things from the Zaibach side. Because, lets face it: not everyone is bad by choice. I really like looking at the behind the scenes on the 'other side' as some would call it.

Chapter 1 ~~~~~

'Goon. Goon. Goon. Goon.' She thought, pin pointing each of the strangely dressed soldiers as they went about on what she could only presume was their daily routine. Being unfamiliar, though, with where she was that was about all she could guess. Staying to the shadows, she crept around the machines and through the copious amounts of steam.

There was nothing like being unsure of where she was and how she got there to keep one wary of running up to strangers dressed in armor.

She found a somewhat dark corridor to follow down, noticing that no soldiers had come from that way. Hopefully, that meant it was abandoned and she could gather her bearings.

At a crossways, she glanced down the right hall and saw a steel door with bars over the windows.

It reminded her of a history channel special she had seen on prisons. She shivered, afraid to even approach the door. The left hallway brought her sounds of someone approaching so she darted across the hall.

Barefoot, her silent feet raced down the hall, seeking some kind of darkened nook she could hide in incase the approaching someone took the hallway.

It was too late to avoid the next obstacle as she came to another cross-halls. To the left, two young men had stopped talking upon seeing her, their hands hovering over the pommels of their swords.

"Uh." Her eyes flicked side to side before they settled back on the pair. "You guys should pretend you never saw me. Or…" She frowned, finally realizing that swords was quite literal. She gestured to their belts. "Uh…you have swords." Awkward pause. "That's…not really a good sign, is it?" She gulped, her fists clenching experimentally. Her options were fight, run, or surrender and hope for the best. Looking at their frowns she made a decision.

"Uh…see ya." And she took off, going straight down. She heard both of their shouts and then the clank, clank'ing of their footsteps as they rounded the corner to follow on her heels.

'oh my god. Oh my god. Oh my god!' she thought, panting down the hall she darted to the right and down another corridor, hoping that it would be free of more pursuers. Ahead, a door was slightly ajar. She dove through it hoping her followers wouldn't notice berely able to keep on her feet at she crashed through the door.

Unfortunately, what lay beyond that door dropped her heart down into her toes with dread. Thirteen similarly dressed men in blue armor turned to her in rows. Apparently they had not been anticipating her by the looks on their faces.

And then she was distracted from them as she was thrust to the ground roughly.

Dilandau looked with bemused annoyance as two of his soldiers burst through the door late. But rather than Miguel and Chesta, a shocked young woman skidded to a stop, dressed in strange pants, no shoes, and a really short somewhat skimpy tunic, gaping at all of them.

Before she could react, Migel tackled her to the ground from behind. She cursed several times, using words he had never heard a woman utter. Something about mother fuckers and cock suckers. He grinned, watching Migel—all 6"1' of him struggle against the little cursing, dark haired female. Chesta, who had followed on Migels heels, colored a surprising shade of red at the woman's words.

They all watched the struggle for a few minutes.

Finally, as if having heard enough and growing tired of the struggle, Migel wound up and struck the woman, her head cracking against the floor with a thud. He had given up on peaceably taking her.

She yelped once and then lay still on her stomach, breathing heavily. Migel pulled both her wrists behind her back and held them there before grinning up at the rest of the Dragon Slayers.

"I apologize, Lord Dilandau, Lord Folken, for our being late. We were surprised by a stow away wandering the halls."

A shadow moved to stand next to where Dilandau was seated on the dais. "We can see that." Answered a low voice. Lord Folken stared down at the girl blinking up at everyone. Though quiet, she was still analyzing the contents of the room, probably planning her next move.

Surprisingly, she spoke.

"I'm not a stow away."

Migel thrust her face back against the floor, holding it there. "Shut up! Do not speak to Lord Folken or Lord Dilandau."

Folken raised his eyebrows. "Please Migel. I'm interested to hear how exactly she managed to arrive on our ship."

The woman snorted, the sound muffled against the floor, and then 'hmmm'ed. "So, I'm on a ship. I guess that makes sense." She murmured.

"Sir?" Chesta asked, glancing nervously between Folken and Dilandau and Migel and then to the captive. Dilandau waved a bored hand.

"Let her up. Lord Folkennnn…" Dilandau drawled, "is interested. And thus so must I." He let his hand fall to the arm of the chair and he repositioned himself so that his legs dangled over the other arm of the chair. His expression apathetic and bored.

She was hoisted up rather roughly. She glared up at 'Migel', her tackler and stuck her tongue out, rubbing her wrists. Folken gestured for her to come forward. The soldiers parted, all young men, most of them handsome enough to make her, a young hormonal 19 year old, embarrassed to walk through with all eyes on her. She strode through, her eyes darting nervously to the sides before stopping at the edge of the dias.

Folken and Dilandau now had a good look at their supposed stow away. She wasn't very tall, probably only 5'2" or so, but she was solid. Hourglass in shape she was muscled, not the wisp of a girl that Folken had originally thought her to be. Her hair was black as the armor he wore and her eyes were a grey-violet color. "Explain yourself."

She stared at him, unsure before it clicked. "Oh. Name. It's Zoey." She gave an awkward smile, the one you give when you really don't want to be in a certain situation. "And before Mr. Slap Happy," She glared over her shoulder at Migel, who had joined the ranks of the other young men, "shoved my face into the floor like he wanted me to become a pancake, I was saying that I'm not a stow away. I just kinda woke up here. I don't even know where here is or who any of you are." She waved her hands. " The only names I know are Folken and Dilandau. Oh and I guess Mr. Handsy over there's name is Migel." She glared again.

Folken absorbed the knowledge with little reaction. "You woke up here?"

Zoey faltered, searching for words. "Yea. I was wedged between a boiler and a wall when I woke up. Quite hot and uncomfortable. Lots of steam. The last thing I remember…" She trailed off in her memory. "My car rolled and I kinda lost consciousness. And then I woke up here…" again she trailed off, looking around her at all the foreign faces. She dropped her hands from where they were making a driving motion and sighed. "So, uh, what do you plan to do with me?" She hoped she was giving puppy eyes, because that was totally what she was going for right now. Zoey was feeling rather shaken looking at all the stern, armored young men-all of which she noted were equipped with sharp pointy swords.

"We could throw you in the holding cells, chained to the wall until it pleased me to let you free." Dilandau grinned. Zoey gulped.

"How about not? I can scrub floors or something." She grinned hopefully, nodding encouragingly.

Dilandau frowned. It wasn't often he was contradicted and he disliked it. Greatly. Before he should bark something angrily back at the woman, Folken stepped forward with an amused twitch of his lips.

Folken on the other hand liked Zoeys retort to the angry little lord who was twitching with annoyance in the seat. It was amusing.

"We don't often get young, attractive," she blushed, "women here on the ship. You could service all the dragon slayers here to pay for your stay aboard. Pleasurably." Then she colored for another reason. Disgruntlement.

She sputtered, looking back at all of the young men, some of which sported very surprised looks while a select few, cough cough Migel cough, grinned quite evily. "All of them!" Her voice rose a few octaves, one hand swigging out to gesture grandly at all 15 of them. She coughed. "I, uh, like my plan better. You know. The one where I scrub floors. Or…or I can cook! I make a mean grilled cheese." She nodded furiously, her eyes wide.

Upon receiving no answer she sighed. "Alright, maybe like one. But I get to pick." She snorted and crossing her arms. Peaking over her shoulder she glared at Migel. "That means your shit out of luck, Mr. Handsy. You're too rough." And she blew a raspberry at him.

Folken snorted, containing his laugh. She went from all to one. He wondered where she was from that she even considered one an option with such nonchalance. "If you do one, then it has to be this one." Folken gestured to Dilandau. Dilandau jumped to his feet, ready to retort angrily.

It was her words that silenced him.

With one raised eyebrow she stared at Dilandau. "What's wrong with this one then. You went from 15 to 1. I thought 15 was bad so this guy must have something wrong with him." She heard 15 matching sharp intakes of breath behind her. "what?" She turned staring at their horrified faces. She directed her eyes back to the '1' in question. His face had turned a surprising shade of red. "Oooh. Anger issues. I see." She understood. "I guess I should have kept my mouth shut, huh?"

Folken though very amused was now slightly concerned for her health. A slight smile turned the corners of his lips. "Indeed. That would have been wise." He was probably more surprise that Dilandau hadn't exploded yet.

Oh there he went.

"You bitch! There is nothing wrong with me. I'll teach you to respect…" Dilandau sputtered.

She cut him off, "…ma authorita! Oh shit…" She clapped a hand over her mouth, wincing. Zoey couldn't seem to remember that she wasn't sitting at some cafeteria table with her friends quoting movies and shows at opportune times of their conversation. They only response that would have been more inappropriate would have been a your mama joke. She didn't think they would find it as funny as one of her friends.

She jumped at the sound of wood cracking. Dilandau had picked up his chair and thrown it off the dais in her very direction. It was a miracle that in her distraction it hadn't managed to hit her. Now he was cursing, loudly.

Zoey took a step back. She was beginning to suspect that Mr. Handsy's rough behavior may have been a learned behavior from the fuming, silver haired 'Lord' currently stalking towards her.

"Dilandau." Folken said firmly. Dilandau stopped in front of the girl, who seemed to just now realize the extent of Dilandau's 'anger issues'. Her gray-violet eyes were round with fear and she brought her arms up in front of her chest, a defensive stance. "Dilandau. Control yourself." Folken snapped.

Fuming, but not quite ready to let it go, Dilandau pulled back his fist and back handed her soundly.

Again, with a yelp she crumpled to the ground. Somewhat satisfied, Dilandau turned his back and stormed back up onto the dias and then disappeared behind the curtain in the back with an angry flick of the wrist. "You can find me when find me when you're done with that infuriating creature." He growled before he disappeared.

Shocked, Zoey held her face. It pulsed painfully. No one had ever hit her, ever. And in a single hour she had been tackled, man handled, shoved, and back handed with such force she knew she'd be sporting a hefty bruise tomorrow. She was fairly sure that she would cry if it weren't for the shock of it all.

Folken cleared his throat. "I hope you realize how lucky you are. While I may find your attitude amusing, Dilandau does not find your odd humor quite as funny. Most people who are that disrespectful towards Dilandau suffer much worse fates than yours. " He sighed.

Stepping off the dias he extended his one good arm down, surprised that the girl hadn't begun to cry, as most females would have. Tentatively, she took his hand and struggled to her feet—-obviously stunned by Dilandaus anger. "You should learn from this to hold your tongue when around him."

Zoey nodded mutely.

"Chesta."

The blond who had chased her with Migel stepped forward and bowed. "Yes, Lord Folken?"

"Take her to the slayers quarters- one of the rooms had a spare bed in it, correct?" Chesta colored. He started to stutter something but Folken's hard stare silenced him. "Show her the utilities and then bring her back to me. We'll have to find a job for our stow-away, Lady Zoey." Folken motioned for them to be dismissed.

She stood there in a momentary shocked silence before…

"Wait, uh. You were kidding about the whole pleasurable acts to pay for my stay right?" She blurted out, suddenly feeling just a tad nervous.

Folken, who had been walking towards the curtains Dilandau had stormed through at the back of the room, paused. Looking over his shoulder he gave a slow smile. "I won't discourage you, for I'm sure they would not, but it isn't necessary. We'll find something for you to do." With that he disappeared behind the curtain.

She breathed a huge sigh of relief.

Not necessary. That's all she wanted to know before they became 'roomies'. Feeling more confident she turned towards them, 15 pairs of eyes peered at her, most of them analyzing her, distrustful. A few were nervous. One in particular was flabbergasted; the young man named Chesta that had been ordered to show her a room.

When he looked over at her and their eyes met he blushed amusingly. "What's with you?" Zoey pressed, tilting her head curiously before wincing as her face pulsed again.

From the crowd of males one voice answered, "Chesta gets to room with the girl!"

Ah.

She gave a slow, mischievous smile. Upon seeing said smile he gulped.

With two skips she was in front of him, staring up into his wide, nervous, blue-green eyes. And then she grinned. "You're nervousness is so cute. I'll be gentle." She gave his arm a teasing pat-pat and then proceeded to give him a big hug, though she learned then how difficult it is to hug someone wearing armor without looking like an idiot.

There was an explosion of male voices- jeers, hoots, and laughs.

She detangled from the hug and linked arms with the frozen teen. "Lead the way…roomie." She drawled. He gaped like a fish, his mouth moving without words coming forth before he seemed to realize how the other guys were leering. He steeled his face and the other 14 soldiers parted like a biblical sea with huge smiles as she tugged Chesta into action.

All the armor on the ship wouldn't protect the poor boy.