Picking up right where we were previously, the Crusade is once again shown bathed in light and is lifted into a hole in the sky.  The Leopard sisters are thrown away from the pillar of light
Eriya: "Sister!"
Naria: "What should we do?"
Folken: "Stand guard there, you two."
Naria: "Lord Folken!"
Folken: "There is no entrance to the Mystic Valley.  No such entrance exists."

Crusade descends through the light.  It's a shaky ride
Reeden: "The helm's not responding!  The lift indicator's off the scale!"
Hitomi looks outside, and they have descended through a large, circular metal gate in the sky.
Van: "That's..."
Allen: "The Mystic Valley..."
Dryden: "Right.  The lost capital of Atlantis."
The setting looks green and Greek, much like what Hitomi saw in death in episode 15
Hitomi: "This is the Mystic Valley?"
Suddenly, Hitomi just kinda disappears
Allen: "Hitomi!"
And... he disappears too
Van: "Allen!"
And guess what?  He disappears too!  Any other takers?
Merle: "Lord Van!"
... .... You're in for a long wait.  Merle doesn't disappear :P
Kio: "Commander!"
Merle: "Lord Van's disappeared!"
Gaddess: "What's going on?"
Reeden: "There she is!  I see Hitomi down there!"
Dryden: "What the hell?  What's going on around here?"

Down below, Hitomi is standing in a courtyard, surveying her surroundings
Hitomi: "I've seen this place before.  Right... This is the place I saw in the vision I had when Van almost died."

Elsewhere, Van appears to be in a ruined city.  It isn't nearly as cheery and green as Hitomi's surroundings
Van: "Where am I?"
A white feather falls past him.  He looks up, and it is basically snowing feathers.  He goes to the top of a familiar-looking castle and looks down over the city
Van: "Fanelia!"
Voice: "Van..."
Van turns around and sees mommy!  She must be the one with the molting problem...
Van: "Mother!"

In yet another place, Allen is standing in the middle of a field.  He turns around and sees his little sister smile at him and run off
Allen: "Celena!  Celena, no!"
He attempts to run after her, but his house is suddenly in front of him

Back in Greece (:P), Hitomi walks up to something
Hitomi: "That's..."
Merle: "Hitomi!"
Everyone else has gotten off the ship to go find her, and is running towards her
Merle: "Where's Lord Van?!  Where'd he go?!"
Dryden looks up at the "thingy"
Dryden: "It's a monument with Atlantean writing on it!  These are the ruins of Atlantis, all right.  This is the Mystic Valley."
Millerna: "Can you read what's on it?"
Hitomi: "New Galactic Era, 13th moon."
Dryden: "You can read this?"
Hitomi reaches out and touches the stone.  She sees the writing fly around her.  She is now seeing some other part of the city
Hitomi: "We, the descendants of Atlantis, the people known as the Draconians, were born in the capital of Atlantis, which lay on the Mystic Moon."
Dryden: "The Mystic Moon?  The Atlanteans were people from the Mystic Moon?"
Hitomi: "Atlantis... That her power had become great and her people fit to surpass the gods was not enough.  The constructed a horrible machine.  Transforming human thought into energy, it made them omniscient and omnipotent.  They sprouted wings upon their backs, and even changed their shape.  However..."
The fall of Atlantis, fire, yadda yadda, is seen again.  The Atlanteans gather, each with a pendant like Hitomi's.
Hitomi: "That pendant!"
The Atlanteans use the power of all their pendants combined to create a new planet beyond the moon
Hitomi: "Their powerful will brought forth a new world in the heavens.  Gaea.  This was the wish of Atlantis: 'We wish to our everlasting regret that our foolish mistakes may never again be repeated.'  Gaea, a beautiful world embraced by the heavens, loved by the water, and cradled by the land."
Dryden: "The power of their will created Gaea?  A machine that can transform thought into energy?  That's the mystery of Atlantis?"
Hitomi looks at her pendant
Hitomi: "So how did this...?"
Leon: "I entrusted it to her."
Hitomi suddenly finds herself in a snowy wasteland, and sees Allen's father
Hitomi: "Who are you?"
Allen: "Father!"
Oh yeah.  Allen's there, but no one noticed him :P

Van continues to hang around Fanelia with feathers floating over his head
Van: "Is this a memory from a past life?"
Voice: "Yes.  A memory of the blood-stained Draconians.  A memory from the blood that flows in your veins, Lord Van."
Van: "Balgus!"
Jeez, for a guy that was only really alive for one episode, he sure makes his rounds...
Balgus: "Lord Van, you mustn't shy away from your destiny.  The Draconians are the descendants of Atlantis.  You must fight to prevent Gaea from meeting that same fate.  That is your destiny, Lord Van.  Fight with Escaflowne."
Van: "No... I don't want to fight anymore!  I'm sick of fighting!"

Somehow, Hitomi seems to be able to heard all of this as well
Millerna: "Hitomi?"
Hitomi: "Van and Allen are in there."
Referring to the monument that they're still standing in front of
Millerna: "What are you seeing?"

What's she seeing?  She's seeing Allen standing in front of a grave
Allen: "Mother..."
Allen looks up and sees a younger version of himself standing at his mother's grave
Allen: "Why am I...?"
Leon: "Allen."
Allen: "Father?"
Leon: "Allen, I'm glad you've come.  I see you've followed my wishes.  Where should we begin?"
Allen: "What could we possibly have to talk about?"
Leon: "So you've become a Knight Caeli.  Your mother must be proud.  How is your mother?  How is Encia?"
Allen: "Mother died while you were away."
Leon: "I see.  So Encia's..."
Allen: "Why are you crying?"
Leon: "Anyone who has lost a loved one will shed tears."
Allen: "Liar!  You never loved Mother!"
Hitomi: "Allen..."
Balgus: "Yes.  You've always hated it."

Scene switch again.  Van draws his sword in fear
Van: "No... please stop!"
A bunch of spirit-looking people start floating towards van, freaking him out.  He waves his sword randomly at them, trying to ward them off
Van: "Stay away!"
Swish swish swish
Van: "Stop!"

Hitomi: "Van!"
Millerna: "Are you all right, Hitomi?"
Merle: "Hitomi?"
Dryden looks up at the gate in the sky.  Its energy is fluctuating
Dryden: "Damn... I don't like the looks of that."
Gaddess: "Do you think we'll be stuck here if we stay much longer?"
Dryden: "This place is of Gaea, but not part of Gaea.  It's out of our hands."
Merle: "Hitomi?  Can't you do something?"
Hitomi holds out her pendant
Hitomi: "Please... Send Van back, and Allen, and the rest of us, too."
Voice: "Don't..."
More mysterious offscreen voices!  It's Van's mom this time
Varie: "You mustn't use the power of your wishes.  Your wishes are rooted in anxiety.  Such wishes only make real those anxieties."
Hitomi: "My wishes do that?"

Hitomi: "I'm the one who--"
Varie: "Yes.  You're the one who is making Van and the others suffer."
There's a self-esteem booster...
Hitomi: "What?  But I was just--"
Varie: "Fortune-telling?  You may intend to merely predict the future, but that's not what happens."
Hitomi flashes back to Balgus dying, and Van and Allen getting seriously hurt
Hitomi: "I did that?"
Varie: "Your troubled heart, amplified by your fortune-telling, chooses an unhappy outcome out of countless possible futures.  Yes.  Even now, your heart is full of uncertainty."
Referring to which guy she likes -_-
Hitomi: "It's my fault!  I... I keep pulling unhappy futures into place?  My wishes did that?  It's my fault.... Mine..."
Here comes the pinwheel thingy.  Another offscreen voice, but the pinwheel windcatcher thing lets us know that it's Hitomi's grandma
Grandma: "Hitomi, believe in them.  Believe in the people you love."
Hitomi: "Grandma?"

Somewhere else, Allen is in the middle of a snow field
Allen: "What is this place?"
Ooh, there's blood.  Leon is holding his injured arm, trying to get away from the snowmobile brigade.  The big snowmobile thing stops in front of him, and a bunch of soldiers come out
Allen: "Zaibach soldiers!"
Leon: "They chased after me once I left the Mystic Valley.  They're after the mystery of Atlantis."
Allen: "Atlantis?"
The soldiers charge Leon, and there is flying of blood.  Leon falls.  Inside the snowmobile, a guy that bears a heck of a resemblance to that Isaac guy is hooked up to a machine
Soldier: "Lord Dornkirk, we have the item."
The "item" is Leon's journal.  Dornkirk/Isaac takes it
Dornkirk: "Oh, the trouble you've caused me..."
Dornkirk flips through the journal, but finds a couple of pages have been ripped out
Dornkirk: "Damn you!  So, you won't tell the the secret of the Mystic Valley, even at the cost of your family?  Your life?"
A soldier leaves the journal with the dying Leon, and the snowmobile heads off.  Leon is holding a very familiar pendant
Leon: "Power of Atlantis... Power of my wishes... Just one more time... I want to see that girl..."
There is a light, and conveniently, there's Hitomi's grandma once again.  The song "Perfect World" starts playing in the background
Leon: "You're... But why?  Why do you look the same as you did when I last saw you?  I see...  So the mystery of Atlantis is the power of the heart...  My hunch back then wasn't wrong."
See?  Quasimodo told him so!  Er, nevermind ^_^*  Leon holds out the pendant
Leon: "I want... you to have this.  Wishes come true.  No matter how far apart you are, they transcend time and space."
She takes the pendant, and takes the pillar of light ride once again
Leon: "I'm sorry, Encia..."
He touches his journal, and it is somehow magically transported back to his desk in his house.  Encia sees it and holds it
Encia: "Leon..."
Allen: "Mother... Mother loved Father to the very end.  And Father felt the same about her."
Leon: "I loved her."
Allen: "Then why did you leave us?!"
Leon: "I married and fathered children out of duty to my family.  I had tried to live by denying myself.  But people eventually want to break free of the thread of their fate.  When I saw that girl for the second time, I understood.  I loved Encia.  And you, Allen."
Allen: "Father..."
Leon: "People are such fools.  What does it matter if the power of Atlantis is the power of your wishes?  I didn't even know what it was that I wanted.  Encia.  Allen, be true to yourself.  And to your heart."
Leon beings to fade away
Allen: "Father!  Father!!"
Suddenly, Hitomi appears in front of him, holding out her hand
Hitomi: "Allen!"
He grabs her hand, and is pulled back into the real world
Allen: "Father..."
Gaddess: "Commander!  Good to see you safe, sir."
Millerna: "Thank goodness you made it back!"
Allen: "Was it Hitomi?"
Dryden: "Yes."
Still standing at the monument, Hitomi is trying to locate Van
Merle: "Hitomi?"

Back on the other side of the gate, the Leopard sisters debate over their options
Eriya: "That thing looks kinda dangerous."
Naria: "I suppose so.  Want to give it a try?"
They both blast off towards the gate
Soldier: "Naria and Eriya's Teirings are climbing, heading into the Gate of Atlantis!"
Folken: "It's too dangerous!  Stop, both of you!"
Naria: "Don't worry.  We're lucky."
Eriya: "We'll bring your brother back to you."
The two reach the edge of the gate
Naria: "Just a little more..."
Eriya: "Watch the power of our luck!"

In the Mystic Valley, there's some vibrating going on
Merle: "What's that?"

And back in Fanelia, Van is being depressed with his sword
Balgus: "I hear the sounds of war."
Van: "I... I don't want to fight anymore!  I don't want to fight!"

Outside, the gate reopens, and the Leopard sisters pop out
Allen: "Guymelefs!"
Naria: "We made it!"
Eriya: "We really are lucky!"
Suddenly, Escaflowne just kinda dematerializes from Crusade, and reappears on the ground behind the Leopard sisters
Allen: "Escaflowne...."
Merle: "Lord Van!"
Yes, for some reason, Van is inside Escaflowne, piloting it
Van: "You're the ones who called me back?"
Eriya: "We won't let you go this time."
Naria: "No hiding behind the kitten this time!"
Balgus: "Fight!  Use your bloodstained hands to cut free from the sorrow of war!  Lord Van!"
Van's got his sword, and he's already to kick some kitty butt, I think
Hitomi: "Van!"
Grandma: "Believe in him."
Hitomi: "Grandma?"
Grandma: "If your anxiety makes bad things happen, then the opposite should be true, right?  Hitomi, believe in him."
Hitomi: "Grandma..."
Back in the conscious world, Van's standing firm
Naria: "What's with him?"
Eriya: "I'm not getting the same feel from him as last time."
Van: "Escaflowne's pain is my pain.  The pain of war."
He takes a menacing step forward
Van: "If this war won't was us by, then I'll shoulder the burden.  I'll shoulder the karma of war along with the sorrow of the dead!"
He lifts his sword, and a pillar of light falls from the gate onto him and the Leopard sisters
Hitomi: "Van!"

Folken: "What's happening?"
The gate begins to crack
Folken: "That's..."
And... it blows up
Soldier: "Incoming chock wave!"
Folken: "Van!"
The floating fortress, and the Leopard sisters, go careening off, yelling "Looks like Team Zaibach's blasting off agaaaaaaaain!!"  Okay, so I made that last part up :P  However, all the good guys are hanging out in the snow, back in the normal world
Allen: "The Mystic Valley... It's vanished!"
Merle: "Lord Van!"
In a rare moment, Van just casually walks out of Escaflowne instead of getting chucked out.  Then, his mother appears in front of him
Varie: "The power of Atlantis mustn't be reawakened."
Hitomi: "Van's mother!"
Merle: "Where?"
Varie: "Don't forget, Van.  It's your will that determines Gaea's future."
Van: "Mother!"
Varie spreads her wings and disappears
Varie: "Don't forget, Van."
A little ball of light floats down to Van.  He holds it, and it becomes a green, translucent, um, big marble
Van: "An energist..."
Escaflowne's own energist begins to glow
Hitomi: "Escaflowne!  It's..."
It's what?  Er, I dunno.  That's the end of the episode.  And what's the other energist for?  I don't know that, either!  We never see it again!  He doesn't put it in Escaflowne.  Er, anyway, to be continued!