Hanako tossed and turned in her makeshift bed, clutching at her covers one moment and then kicking them the next. And Hanako dreamed.... She saw cold, hard hands clutching at Hotaru, dragging her down into what seemed to be pure evil - pure, concentrated evil. Hotaru flailed, only hitting air. She screamed. It rang throughout her mind, but no one was there to hear her but Hanako... ###################### Arcana Created by Scott Schimmel Part 21: Dreams of a Chaotic Existence By Insanity ############################### Then the world dissappeared until everything around Hanako was a blur of colors and then it stopped just a suddenly as it had started. She saw Natsu and Joker stepping into a dense, dark jungle, with Natsu's halo the only light. "Natsu's glowing..like she was after Miyuki...." Hanako's eyes widened and she watched the two. Off in the distance they could hear chanting and drums which couldn't adequately muffle out the screams. Natsu recognized the screams, they were familiar to her. Her eyes flashed with recognition, they sounded like Hotaru's screams, the chase was on. Natsu and Joker ran through the underbrush, branches tearing at them, toward a clearing in the jungle. Tall men with long tangled hair in stark loincloths made of some animal's skin danced to the rhythm of large primitive drums, around a small figure tied cruelly to a wooden cross. Natsu looked closer at the small dark figure. It was Hotaru. "Help me!? Someone! PLEASE!?" Hotaru screamed, struggling against the too tight ropes. Then shadowy hands reached out of the ground and grabbed Hotaru, dragging the girl down into the dank, dark earth. "Hotaru-chan!" Natsu yelled, running forward. "No! No! Someone help her! Save Hotaru! Do something!" Hanako shouted and tried to run forward, but she was frozen in place. "You can't do anything, it's only a vision..." a tall woman who looked like a grown up version of Miyuki said. "Who are you?" Hanako asked, staring up at the woman. "I am Fortune and I have come to teach you." The woman explained. "but I'm the Page of Pentacles..Miyuki's Fortune!" Hanako protested. "Poor, poor child, you haven't realized what you've done yet.." Fortune sadly said to herself, "I'll explain eveyrthing to you, but now you should prepare yourself for the next vision.." ##################################### Natsu stepped over the threshhold, into a field carpeted with wild flowers. she gave a start as her aura began to wink out, but then realized it wasn't surprising, given the setting. Her aura was probably still there Natus realized, it just wasn't bright enough to show up in the bright light. "What..." She looked around her then noticed a figure in a white dress bent over and picking flowers. The girl stood up with a bouquet of flowers in her hands. it was Hotaru. "Hotaru-chan!" Natsu ran forward to hug her friend, but as she was about to close her arms around Hotaru, Hotaru caught the taller, heavier girl and threw her back. "Ah!" Natsu cried out as she struck her back on a large rock with a resounding crack. " I love that look, the look in your eyes when you're hurt..." Hotaru said while her friend cried from the pain in her back. "Hotaru..why....?" Natsu tried to move but it made her back hurt even more. "Because, I hate the way you look down on me, and when I thought I had something over you, It turned out you were just as high!" Hotaru spat at Natsu. "I've always hated you! You had admirers and always overshadowed the poor little firefly, protected her because she was weak and helpless!" "Since your glow is so much like a firefly's you can have my name, then you'll be the one to be killed in here.." Hotaru laughed at Natsu. Then Natsu began shrinking, her body twisting as the rock formed a cocoon around her. "What!? Help me! Hotaru!" Natsu yelled helplessly, banging her fists against the rock. "You're supposed to be the big strong one. Save yourself." Hotaru laughed. Then the rock began to spin around and shrink until it was the size of a regular cocoon. It broke open and a firefly flapped its wet wings limply. Slowly the wings dried and became stronger and the firefly flew up and around Hotaru's head. She grabbed at it's small glowing body and caught it. She looked at it in her hand. "Now you have my name, Natsu..or should I say, Hotaru!" Hotaru laughed at the small wriggling figure of a now glowing Natsu. "Now, how should I kill you? By slowly pulling off your wings? A bug light? Fire? Perhaps I should you stick you up with my collection...." she gestured and in the air, an intricately made glass case with runes carved on the cover and sides and back appeared. Tears welled up in Hanako's eyes as she saw Hotaru's cruelty. "No...No...." They flowed down Hanako's face as she continued to stare. Natsu-hotaru stared in horror at the bodies of Ishido, Hanako, Miyuki, Sumire, Tetsuya and many others, impaled over Tarot cards. There was an old man, a tall beautiful woman with long wavy grey hair, that reminded Natsu-hotaru of Miyuki, and there were many others. Then she realized, that they must be the other Arcana. "You..you killed them all..all of them..how....why..." Natsu-hotaru, now full size again, sputtered. "They took away from me, they were always trying to protect me, they looked down on me and hated me, they assumed I was weaker then they were. So I killed them." Hotaru waved her hand and the case disappeared. She waved her hand again and a sword of flame appeared in her hand and a regular sword appeared next to Natsu. "Now, you will die." She charged, sword aimed at Natsu's heart. The sword ran straight through Natsu. Hotaru pulled out the sword and then bent over the body of her former friend and cruelly whispered, "I win..I'm more important than you..." "No...Hotaru would never do that..she and Natsu are friends...no..." Hanako sobbed into her hands. Fortune walked over to Hanako and laid Hanako's head in her lap, stroking her hair. "It's okay..it's not real..it's only a might be...." The woman dried Hanako's tears and lifted her up, "You don't have to look for the next vision, but it's going to happen anyway.." A blank world materialized around them, Joker and Hotaru standing before Fortune and Hanako. "Oh Jooooker. It's time for you to diiiie." Hotaru giggled in singsong, then she lept at Joker, flame spurting from her hands, singeing his hat. "Firefly! Wake up!" He lept at Hotaru, kicking her arm away before she could create any more fire to kill him with. "Who said I was Hotaru?" she giggled, launching a barrage of water at him, "I'm the Warlock." His eyes widened and then he rolled and did a back flip out of the way as another barrage of fire flared up from the ground. "The Warlock..wasn't he the one who went insane..like Harlequin.." He thought, then flipped backward, the barrage of scalding water only hitting his shoes. He pulled out a knife and threw it directly at Warlock-Hotaru's heart. "UyAAAAAAAAAAAH!" Warlock-Hotaru screamed, becoming an it, just a shapeless blob. "But..Ishido...Hotaru..They wouldn't do that.." Hanako whispered, burying her face in Fortune's dress. As more horrifying visions flashed before Hanako, she screamed, a high piercing shriek, and woke up. ######################################## "Hanako! What's wrong?" Natsu rushed down to Hanako and hugged her. "Just a bad dream.." Hanako shivered as she said it. "What happened in it?" Natsu questioned. "It was about you, and Hotaru, and Ishido. There was woman in it too. She was like Miyuki..only nicer... And I don't think she was blind." Hanako told Natsu, "And..and..Hotaru got captured and you and Ishido couldn't save her..then..she killed you and Ishido killled her and she turned into a blob and then..and then..." Hanako started babbling incoherently and began rocking in Natsu's arms. "Shh...shhh..It's okay Hanako..Everyone's safe and I'm alive and so are Hotaru and Ishido." Natsu said, comforting Hanako, "Hotaru would never do something like that...It's okay, it was only a dream." Natsu wiped away Hanako's tears and then kissed her cheek and tucked her back in. Natsu turned to leave but, Hanako grabbed her hand. "Don't leave..I don't wanna go back to sleep..." Hanako said as she drifted back into sleep. Author's Note: I woud Like to thsnk Kate Mslloy and NDebugger for putting up with me through this horrible monster of apart and for pre-reading so wonderfully. I would also like to thank Illyria for putting up with my constant requests for extensions @_@