There are Escaflowne spoilers in here.   Beware.   
(cue that wonderfully dark Escaflowne music)

Rain.   Smells of grease, blood, metal.   
Dark sky.  
Giant machines fighting among men and beasts clad in metal.   Chaos.   Mud.   
	The ranks are broken.   Knights fight lowly footmen, knots of archers
huddle together for protection.   
	But only the machines can fight the machines; they fight their own battle
among, detached, from the rest.   
	A faster machine, smooth in movement, weapon flowing from nozzles into
shapes as needed.  Now a sword on the red behemoth's arm, coming around in a
desperate strike.  Too easily blocked.   Driven back by the white machine's
counter-assault.  Stumbles and falls.  If it was smaller, it would have
appeared almost as a man overcome by the weight of the opponent's blow, his
own armor,and fatigue.   
	Ever-faithful Jajuka had tried to help him, but was lost in the chaos of
battle, scarce meters away.   The pilot of the red machine, probably the
youngest man on the battlefield, has already lost his mind to that chaos.
All he sees through the viewing slits is fear and the enemy.   Defense is
forgotten, liquid metal flowing back into the forearm housing.   And he
screams.   
****
	"That again!"   Knight Allen Shezaer squinted his eyes against the column
of light that came down.  He got his mind back to threat, a smaller machine
than his own charging in on his flank.   But as he continued, he couldn't
help but wonder where the light had taken the red one.    
****
	After the battle, the girl Hitomi, for whom it was fought, saw what waste
it had caused.   Armed with the stress, refusing to be the root of further
conflict, finally was able to summon her own column of light to return home.
The Shadow Moon, the moon behind, the second moon.   
	Which she called Earth.   And sometimes Japan.   
********
To the Shadow Moon, 
        A Vison of Escaflowne fic.  
	       by Yarrow 
********


        In the TV series, Serena arrives close to the battlefield later that
night.  
	Now you can just guess where I've dumped Dilandeu/Serena instead.   
        I would have 'them':) arrive either in the woods near Hitomi's house
or near the shrine where Van killed the dragon.   Of course, that hasn't
happened yet.   Which is still confusing me but that is beside the point.   
        If Serena were the one awake, she would be her usual benign,
disoriented self and either run in to Hitomi or earn someone's concern and
be taken in as a lost child.   If she ran into trouble, Dilandeu would
manifest and start ripping assailants up with his katana.   
        In any case she would meet Hitomi, who may/may not notice her
resemblence to the psychotic Dilandeu.   Wondering just who this autisticly
withdrawn person was, she would have to do a tarot reading.   Which would
really make her wonder.  When Dilandeu (inevitably) comes out to play, the
plot would shift to how Hitomi would deal with him.  (ie. escape to Gaia,
somehow send him back to Gaia, etc.)   

        If Dilandeu was the one awake when the column touched down, it would
introduce more of a plot.   Because of how he would get along so well with
strangers when in a bizzare situation,(if the body count gets high enough
I'd have them call in a special task force) and how he's much more lively
and difficult to deal with.   
        I'd want him to find Hitomi, not just wander around in a world he
can't understand.   How that would work, and how thier meeting would work
out I don't know.   I would still want a tarot reading scene.   
	It would be easier if he was disoriented as not to be his usual homicidal
self, and perhaps needing some care.   This would introduce some measure of
sympathy for his character, and perhaps change him.   

        The point of the fic, in any case, would be the interaction between
Hitomi and Dilandeau.  

Suggestions on the way this would work best are welcome.