Nature, nurture, Heaven and home...
Sum of all, and by them driven...
The larger, male figure raised his sword quickly and just barely caught the edge of the battle-axe she had appropriated on the flat of the blade. Energy crackled between the two weapons as they made contact. The man (god? demon?) grit his teeth as he pushed back against her, but she would not cease.
To conquer every mountain shown...
But I've never crossed the river...
She saw the muscles of her arms strain beneath the strips of white cloth that encased her entire body, head to toe, and pushed harder. For whatever reason, they had opened her seal, suspended her torment, and she would seize this opportunity. To escape. To be free.
To kill them.
Braved the forests, braved the stone...
Braved the icy winds and fire...
The other warrior's sword cracked, and she saw his eyes go wide in the millisecond before the energy-reinforced bladed splintered beneath the axe she had taken from his companion. The axe head plunged forward. The warrior had good reflexes, for he managed to twist his torso at the last second and instead of chopping him in half, it only cut him down the right side of his chest. He cried out and fell backward.
Braved and beat them on my own...
Yet I'm helpless by the river.
Before she could follow up with a finishing blow, the pain and fatigue from her torture struck her, and she doubled over, her breath rasping through the mummy-like strips of wet cloth that wrapped across her face. She fell to one knee, trying to catch her breath as the warrior scooted away, kicking his feet against the ground for purchase. As he approached the cavernous hallway's far exit, he stopped, his back coming into contact with the legs of another figure.
Angel, angel, what have I done?
I've faced the quakes, the wind, the fire...
She looked up and found this new figure circling the other warrior, her eyes locked onto her just as she kept her gaze on this new threat. The midnight-haired woman seemed familiar to her, but could not place how she knew her. It didn't matter. She had seen others she knew, people she had known as friends, stand across from her as enemies, as torturers.
I've conquered country, crown and throne...
Why can't I cross this river?
As if to bring that point home, the dark-haired woman extended her right hand straight out to her side. A long-shafted war hammer coalesced in the air, and her fingers wrapped around it. The stranger swung the hammer up and adopted a high-guard stance, her furious blue eyes never leaving her.
She looked down and banished the pain in her head and limbs. She nodded to herself and climbed to her feet, raising the axe into a similar guard.
Angel, angel what have I done?
I've faced the quakes, the wind, the fire...
I've conquered country, crown and throne...
Why can't I cross this river?
She darted forward, thrusting the axe head toward her new target's face. Her opponent spun away, the head of the war hammer swinging out, but she managed to snap her head back as it whistled past her, the air from its passage blowing against her face. She spun herself and took a swing at the woman, but the woman leapt back, surprisingly nimble for a woman with such a large, unwieldy weapon.
Pay no mind to the battles you've won...
It'll take a lot more than rage and muscle...
Open your heart and hands, my son...
Or you'll never make it o'er the river.
She pressed her attack, leaping after the woman and doing her best to ignore the pain that racked her body and soul. Bringing the axe down on the spot the woman was standing and expecting a block. Instead, her opponent spun away again, the head of her hammer slamming into a concrete pillar nearby. It was no accident, for the stone rubble from the strike flew right toward her face.
It'll take a lot more than words and guns...
A whole lot more than riches and muscle...
She spun the axe and brought the blade up in front of her face, blocking the stone missiles which bounced off the steel with sharp clangs... but also blocked her sight for a crucial moment. When she lowered the axe a hair, she saw her opponent leaping toward her, her hammer raised for a killing blow.
The hands of the many must join as one...
And together we'll cross the river.
In the half-second she had to respond, she leapt forward and rolled as the hammer crashed into the ground behind her where she had stood a moment before. She spun as her enemy did, and the two weapons met, crackling together as the spiritual reality that made them real warped around one another.
Nature, nurture, Heaven and home...
It'll take a lot more than words and guns...
Sum of all and by them driven...
A whole lot more than riches and muscle...
As before, she pushed, and the dark-haired woman pushed back.
To conquer every mountain shown...
The hands of the many must join as one...
And together we'll cross the river.
She refused to yield, even as the torments she had endured and the pain associated with them threatened to overtake her again. She would not yield. She would leave this place or she would die.
She would die rather than go back to that.
Braved the forests, braved the stone...
It'll take a lot more than words and guns...
Braved the icy winds and fire...
A whole lot more than riches and muscle...
Braved and beat them on my own...
The hands of the many must join as one...
And together we'll cross the river.
She began to gasp in effort, her eyes widening a hair as she saw the first crack form in the haft of her axe. With only a split second to act, she decided to spin back to her right again, but it was too late. The moment she began to shift her weight, the haft splintered and broke in two. Her foot slipped and rather than spin around for a counter swing, she fell onto her side. Her eyes whipped up to find her opponent raise her hammer for a final blow.
And together we'll cross the river...
Her eyes caught movement behind the raven-haired woman, and a familiar voice cried out.
"Skuld! Stop!"
Her opponent froze, but she was too well-disciplined to look away from her. She looked past her at a goddess she knew and knew well.
Belldandy, her eyes wide, reached toward her sister. "It's Lind, Skuld!"
She looked up at her enemy in surprise just as the dark-haired woman looked back in equal in shock.
And together we'll cross the river...
Blessings: Shattered Sky
Chapter 1
And Together We'll Cross the River
Two weeks earlier...
Keiichi Morisato grabbed his keys off a hook in the kitchen and rushed toward the front door. He hadn't been able to find his books, but at this point he had no choice but to leave without them. He could have sworn he had left them in the kitchen, but they weren't there or in the living room or his bedroom or anywhere else in the temple, it seemed. He hoped he could get through his German class without it. It was better to show up without the book than show up late, that was for sure.
He hoped his helmet was in the sidecar. He couldn't find that either. What the Hell was wrong with him today? He'd probably lose his head if it wasn't attached.
Throwing open the front door, he stopped short at the sight of the elderly woman who blocked his path. He wasn't sure, however, that "elderly" was the right word. Her hair was gray, but it was still full and vibrant, though pinned up in an elaborate style. She wore glasses, but seemed to look past them rather than through them. And although she had wrinkles, they were so few and far between it was if they were only there because a woman her age had to have wrinkles so they gave her the minimum.
Even so, she seemed familiar, something around the eyes.
"Keiichi san," the woman began in a soothing but stern voice. "Where are you going?"
"Belldandy?" Keiichi sputtered incredulously. "Why do you look like that?"
The goddess smiled, but didn't answer. Closing her eyes, her body glowed a soft blue for a moment, and before he knew it, the young woman he knew was standing before him again.
"I'm sorry," she said. "Is that better?"
Keiichi paused for a moment, his brain trying to work things out for itself. "Yeah," he said. "Just... Nevermind," he finished. "I'm going to be late for school, and I can't find my books..."
"But Keiichi san," Belldandy said gently. "You don't have school today."
The statement brought Keiichi up short. "I don't?"
"No," she replied with a shake of her head. "It's Saturday."
"It is?" he asked, confused. "Are you sure?"
Belldandy smiled and reached out, taking his hand in hers, careful not to squeeze too hard lest the arthritis in his fingers bring him pain."Of course. Why don't you go back inside, and I'll fix you some lunch?"
He reached up to run his fingers through his hair, a nervous gesture she hadn't seen him do since his hair had become thin. Finding no hair at the top of his head, he blinked in puzzlement for a moment before taking a sharp breath.
Keiichi swallowed back embarrassment. "I'm sorry," he said, the echo of who he was sixty years ago gone now and replaced with the confidence of that man he had become since. "I did it again, didn't I?"
Belldandy smiled and caressed his face. "It's all right, Keiichi san. That's why I'm here."
He bit his lip and, desperate to change the subject, took another look at her. "It's been a long time since I saw you like this," he said. "I kinda missed it."
"Would you like me to stay in this form?" she asked. "I can do that." Altering her appearance as Keiichi aged to keep others not in the know from discovering her true nature had been something she was happy to do, even if "growing old with him" had been nothing more than an illusion. But she could drop the charade if he wanted her to. They didn't get many visitors, didn't go out much anymore... and it wasn't as if it would be for much longer anyway.
He nodded. "Yeah," he said. "It reminds me of when we met."
She leaned forward and gave him a soft kiss.
"I'll never forget that," he promised her. "I won't. I won't let myself."
She smiled and squeezed his hand but said nothing. He had, in fact, forgotten who she was on three occasions, but she wouldn't remind him. It would only hurt him, and there was no point in reminding him now anyway. A few days, a week at the most, and the last seven years would all seem like an odd dream as they discussed it over tea at her family's home in Heaven. Until then, she had resolved to make him happy and comfortable while the clock approached midnight in its own time.
"How about some soup?" she offered.
"Soup sounds wonderful," he replied. He turned and started back inside, and Belldandy stood on the porch, watching him walk away.
She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. It was hard seeing him like this. She knew it was harder for mortals who had to watch the same thing with their loved ones without the promise of it being better in the next world.
As the goddess was about to take her first step into the house, the sound of a familiar voice stopped her.
"Oneesama!"
Her head whipped around, and the first genuinely happy smile she'd had in a year blossomed across her face. "Skuld!"
Keiichi wasn't the only member of her family to change with time. Her little sister now stood an inch taller than her, though her hair was shorter, falling to just behind her shoulders. Although she was dressed in an Earth-friendly blouse and pair of khaki slacks, she still stood as if she was wearing a uniform, carrying herself not as the rambunctious girl Belldandy had watched grow up, but a renowned military leader.
None of which Belldandy cared about as she bounded down the porch steps and embraced her sister.
"Welcome home!" Belldandy cried.
"It's good to be back," Skuld told her. "Sorry I haven't been able to come down more often..."
"You have a very important job," Belldandy told her, waving her sister's regret away. "And it is unfortunate that 'business' has been so good lately."
"Yeah, and time dilation's a bitch," Skuld agreed. "It's been five years for me, for you..."
"Fifteen," Belldandy informed her.
"Sorry," Skuld said again with a wince. "You can blame Hild if you want."
"Which one?" Belldandy asked as she led her sister up the stairs.
"The HIld who won," Skuld told her. "The one who lost doesn't much care anymore. Where's Keiichi?"
"Inside," Belldandy told her. "He's..."
"I know," Skuld said quickly. "I got your last letter." Her face fell. "I'm sorry."
Belldandy smiled. "Don't be," she said. "When... it's done..." she began carefully but regaining steam as she went, "... he will ascend to Heaven, and we'll have the rest of eternity to spend together."
The Valkyrie smiled comfortingly. "Well, things have finally quieted down enough for me to take some leave, so I'm here to help until... you know."
Belldandy smiled and hugged her sister. "Thank you."
Skuld gave her sister a once-over. "But just so you know, I'm not changing my form to look like I did back then. I like having breasts, thank you very much."
The goddess giggled and continued into the house. Having Skuld home made the temple seem like the home to a family again.
"So..." Skuld began, lowering her voice in case Keiichi was in earshot. "How is this going to work?"
"Simply," Belldandy told her. "Once it happens, I'll leave through the mirror and meet him in Heaven."
"That's it?" Skuld asked. "No moving sale, no divvying up the furniture?"
"There's little point in staying," Belldandy said as she entered the kitchen and recovered a soup pot from the cabinet.
Skuld stopped short. To anyone else who might hear that statement, there would have been no indication of anything wrong, but Skuld knew. She could hear it. The one note of bitterness in her sister's voice that made itself known for only a fraction of a second.
She had never broached this topic with Belldandy. As busy as she had been, she didn't feel right swooping in and stirring things up, hurting her sister and then having to rush off again to make sure Hild's civil war didn't spill over into Heaven. She was also ashamed, ashamed of not having been there for her during what she was sure must have been a sad time.
"It's not fair," Skuld said simply, the three words that had echoed in her head every time her thoughts had drifted to her sister and brother-in-law. "After everything the two of you went through, it's not fair."
Belldandy stiffened for a moment, but then continued cooking. "The Almighty One does what he does for a reason," she said quietly, and Skuld knew she didn't believe it. That was almost the saddest thing about the whole conversation.
"I'm sorry," Skuld said with a shake of her head. "But it's almost like it's spite. I don't know what reason he could possibly have, but it would have to be a pretty good one to do that to you. Almighty best and greatest, you're a fertility goddess! It's practically impossible to not..."
"Skuld, I don't wish to talk about this," Belldandy broke in suddenly. "It's in the past, and I've made what peace with it I can." She turned to her sister. "Can't we talk about you instead?" she asked with a forced smile. "All that research I did for my book, and it seems like I don't know anything about what's happened in your life."
The Valkyrie officer let out a breath and decided not to push further. She had come, after all, to make things easier for Belldandy, not harder.
"Well, you know, the usual stuff," Skuld said. "Training and teaching, good times and bad times... and the occasional war. I still tinker with new technologies here and there, but mostly I keep busy."
"Do you have a boyfriend?" Belldandy asked with a smile.
The faintest glimmer of something painful passed over Skuld's face before a smile squashed it. "I don't have time for friends let alone a boyfriend," Skuld said with a wry grin. "Besides," she continued, "In my business, it... complicates things."
"You should make time," Belldandy told her. "Service to Heaven should not mean you have to give up happiness for yourself."
"If I really want a boyfriend, I'll build one," Skuld told her. She gave the idea some thought before quipping, "Probably won't give him intelligence, though. Just program him to buy me flowers and cook dinner for me. Past that, what do I need?"
Belldandy tried her best to give her sister a look of disapproval, but it collapsed under the assault of Skuld's grin.
888
She had spent the rest of the afternoon catching up with her sister and brother-in-law, sitting around the table and talking about old times. Keiichi was happy to see her, and remained lucid the rest of the day, for which she was grateful. She was certain it would break her heart to see him like that and wanted to forestall it as much as possible. It was amazing that there was a time in her life when she was willing to experiment on him, blow him up or generally make his life Hell on sheer principle.
Now she couldn't imagine a world without him. She tried to remember a time when he wasn't around and couldn't make it happen. She felt bad for Earth, losing a man like him, and good for Heaven for gaining him.
But Keiichi and Belldandy weren't the only relative she had come to see.
She hadn't stood before the large stone marker in five years, and a lot had changed since then. The last time she had set eyes on them, she was a child and Combat Division initiate. Now, she was a woman and the Division commander. If she could speak to them again, she would be speaking to them as their equals, but it was still hard to imagine such a thing.
Skuld knelt next to the marker and reached up to her collar, unpinning the rank insignia, the crossed lightning bolts and wings, affixed there. Gently, she placed them on the ground near the marker.
"These aren't mine," she whispered to him. "They're yours. They've always been yours." She smiled. "And as for you, you baka... look after him..."
She stood up just as a quiet pinging in her ear interrupted the moment. Reaching up, she squeezed the pearl stud in her ear.
"Skuld," she announced, silently bracing herself. Her first leave in years, and it only took a few hours before getting interrupted. With any luck this will be quick and...
"Ma'am, this is Lieutenant Tryss in the TOC," one of her Valkyries announced. "Ma'am, we have a situation here that you really should be involved in."
"Are we at war?" Skuld asked pointedly.
"No, Ma'am, it's just... weird."
"Look, Lieutenant, if..."
"Skuld, it's Shara." The announcement brought Skuld up short. She had known Shara since the first day of initiate training, and there was no Valkyrie she trusted more. "I know you're on leave, but believe me, you need to see this."
She paused. If Shara was telling her something was wrong, something was wrong.
"All right," she said. "I'll be up in a few minutes."
She heard the soft click that told her the relay had disconnected and sighed. She had no right to complain. A life of service is what she asked for, and a life of service is what she got.
As Skuld started toward the temple, she tried to find the right words to say to Belldandy. She needn't have bothered. She found the elder Norn standing at the top of the steps as if she had been waiting for her.
"You have to leave," Belldandy stated simply. At Skuld's questioning look, she smiled. "I saw you talking to yourself. Is everything all right?"
Skuld smiled reassuringly. "It's probably nothing," she said. "But you know how it is. A goddess's work is never done."
"No, I suppose not," Belldandy replied. "Will you come back?"
"As soon as I can," Skuld told her seriously. She reached forward and took her sister's hands in her own. "I swear, as soon as I can, I'll come back."
"Good," the other goddess told her. "I miss you."
"I miss you too." She took a breath. "Well, the sooner I go, the sooner I can get back."
"I ran Keiichi san a bath," Belldandy offered. "If you hurry, you might be able to get there before he does."
Skuld smiled and gave her a wave before entering the temple and heading toward the bathroom. She arrived at the door just as Keiichi did, a white bathrobe hanging from his bony shoulders.
"'Scuse me, old man," Skuld began. "I need to borrow your ride."
Keiichi paused. "Leaving already?"
"Yeah," Skuld told him. "Problem back home. I should be back soon, though."
He grinned. "Well, if you come back in the next half hour or so, I'd find another way in. Otherwise, you're going to get an eyeful of something you want no part of."
"And me without my eye-bleach," she mocked good-naturedly.
"Your sister never complained," Keiichi pointed out.
"I stopped trying to figure out my sister long ago," Skuld told him. "But don't worry, I won't pop into the middle of your private time with your rubber ducky."
He huffed out a chuckle, and Skuld smiled. "Take care, Keiichi," she said. "I'll be back soon."
"You better be," he said. "I'm not getting any younger here."
888
If it was an emergency, you wouldn't know by walking into the TOC. The assorted Valkyries on duty in the command center scurried to and fro in their usual business-like manor. The three-dimensional screen floating in the center of the room in the shape of a glowing cube, showed operations going on throughout Creation, just as it always had.
The only exception to the normalcy that Skuld could see were the three Valkyries standing together over a terminal at the far end. Skuld knew that terminal to be the interface with Yggdrasil, allowing the Combat Division access to the millions of strings of data Yggdrasil collected every moment. Skuld recognized her friend as one of the three and made her way toward them.
As commander of the 507th Winged Infantry Regiment, Col. Shara was required to pull duty as the TOC commander at various parts of the week, so it was no mystery why she was there. As she straightened to her full six-foot height, the blonde war goddess noticed Skuld and nodded to her in greeting.
"Commander," she began. "Sorry to pull you away from your family."
"It's okay, Shara," Skuld said. "I know you wouldn't pull me away for just anything." There was only the barest hint of friendly warning in her voice.
Shara decided to get right to the point. "Realm 703 is gone."
Skuld arched an eyebrow and eyed her friend warily, waiting for a trap to spring. "The Outback?" she asked. "What do you mean, 'gone?'"
"A couple of weeks ago, one of the Great Ships, the Meriadoc, passed through The Outback and picked up some strange readings," Shara explained. "The captain thought it might be a hazard to navigation, so when they returned to port, they filed the information with us. We were following up on it, and now..." She shrugged her shoulders. "Yggdrasil can't find it."
"Are you looking in the right place?" Skuld ask, leaning over the monitor to see for herself. "Did you try inputting the dimensional coordinates manually and..."
"Skuld, Yggdrasil can confirm the location of Realm 703," Shara told her. "What it can't confirm is the existence of Realm 703."
Skuld digested this as she checked the readings herself. Yggdrasil was pointing its senses and eyes right in the spot of ether that Realm 703 was supposed to be in, and finding exactly nothing.
She studied the readings, her mind working overtime trying to sort it all out. Realm 703 was the youngest realm in Creation, only a few million years old. It had no intelligent life yet and was wild and overgrown. The Demons didn't care for it, and it was so out of the way that the Division hadn't even bothered to station anyone there.
"Shara, get the D2 up here," Skuld ordered quietly. "I want to know everything that's been happening in that part of Creation for the last month."
As her friend rushed off to find the Division's intelligence officer, Skuld straightened and issued another order. "And get Michael's office on the line. I need to speak to the Chief of Staff."
888
For all the mental preparation she had done, for all the assurance that it wouldn't be the end but a new beginning, the realization that the end had finally come blindsided Belldandy and struck her like a kick to the stomach.
It wasn't as if there was a grand announcement or anything. Everything seemed fine the day before when Skuld had left to return to Heaven. They had spent the evening together, eating the dinner Belldandy had made and talking about old friends long gone, some of whom Belldandy had to remind Keiichi were no longer with them.
They had set up their futon for bed, kissed each other good night and gone to sleep. The next morning, Keiichi couldn't get out of bed.
"Just not feeling well this morning," Keiichi had told her, and Belldandy believed it. But as the morning went on, she found that he was having a harder time breathing, a harder time staying awake. It had snuck up on her...
And she found she wasn't ready.
And so here it was, just past noon, that found Belldandy kneeling next to her husband and waiting for the inevitable with him. She held his hand, knowing there was nothing else to do. She had spent a lifetime with him, and while, yes, they would continue to be together in Heaven, the fact that this life was ending for them both hurt her heart. She had loved this life with him, and now it was ending with him.
"Bell," he croaked weakly.
Belldandy smiled weakly and caressed his face with the back of her fingers. "Hai, my love?"
"I'm not ready for this," he whispered.
"I know," she whispered back. "But it's all right. For a moment, you'll feel like you're in that space between falling asleep and dreaming. And then you'll arrive in Heaven just like stepping through a door, just like that. And I'll be there to meet you." She reached up with her other hand and wiped a tear from her eye.
"Promise me," he breathed. "I don't want to spend my first day there alone."
"You won't," Belldandy assured him. "I'll be waiting for you there. I'll pick you up at the arrival gate and take you straight to Moder's house." She smiled. "You know she's probably been planning a welcome party for you for the better part of three decades."
Keiichi 's lips curled up in a smile.
"Then we'll call Skuld and Peorth and have them come over and it'll be just like old times," she said. "You welcomed me to your world, and I'll welcome you to mine."
"Am I going to still be old?" he asked. Belldandy blinked at the question. "I'd kinda like my hair back... you know?"
Belldandy giggled, her hand going to her mouth in an effort to silence them. "Of course! You'll..." The sentence died on her lips. Just like that, he had gone.
Her mouth opened and closed twice before she was finally able to speak again, noting the moment with a quiet, "Oh." She cleared her throat as tears erupted into her eyes. Leaning down, she brushed her lips against his. "See you soon," she promised.
The goddess stood up and went to the phone, dialing the local hospital to report her husband's death. The nurse on the other end offered her sympathies and promised to send an ambulance out right away. Belldandy thanked her and made sure the front door was open.
She then went to the closet and pulled out a small bag, packing a few of the precious mementos they had collected over the course of their marriage: wedding photos, gifts, and reminders of Urd. With this done, she stopped in the bathroom door and paused, giving her home one final look before reaching out and turning off the lights.
Belldandy could make out the silhouette of her husband's body lying in the bedroom down the hall. She swallowed and turned, stepping into the bathroom and reaching out, touching the mirror.
The mirror glowed a soft blue as her travel medium opened. And without another look, Belldandy floated through it, leaving Earth forever.
888
"Ma'am! Commander!"
Skuld didn't look up from the intelligence reports she was studying from the commander's station in the TOC, but that doesn't mean she was ignoring the young officer trying to get her attention. "What is it, Tryss?"
"Ma'am," the young Valkyrie began, "The readings the Meriadoc took... we found them again."
That statement brought Skuld's head right up. "Where?" she demanded.
"Realm 702," Tryss told her.
Skuld stood up, and every eye turned toward her. Eight hours had passed, and they had no clue what had happened to The Outback. Yggdrasil couldn't find it, and every attempt to physically send someone there had failed.
It's like The Roundtable, Skuld had thought to herself. Could someone have blown up The Outback the same way they... she... had blown up The Roundtable?
"I want all eyes on 702," she ordered. "Where's that Double A we were going to send to The Outback?" she demanded. "Get him out the door! I want to know what's happening out there now!"
"Now this is damn weird," Shara remarked, staring at the readings Yggdrasil was feeding to them.
"What have you got?" Skuld asked, making her way to the terminal.
"No real definition on what it is," Shara began, "but take a look at the dimensional mass." She looked up at her commander in total bewilderment. "It's lower that what it was a week ago."
Skuld looked over the readings herself. It wasn't just dimensional mass. Physical mass was lower too. There was actually less universe there than there was before.
"Where's that Double A?" she asked.
"He just arrived through Hardline 16 Delta," one of the other Valkyries informed her. "Nearest that we could get to the... the... whatever-it-is."
"Keep a close eye on him," Skuld ordered, looking up at the floating monitor. "And get us a visual feed."
The view on the monitor switched from several different places to one. Skuld looked at the visual feed coming from the Avenging Angel's tactical optics. Everything he was seeing, they were seeing.
Only Skuld couldn't really tell what they were seeing. The sky was grey, and she could make out a thick forest below as the Valkyrie flew over it. Dead ahead was a wall of grey-black clouds that roiled in an angry miasma that stretched from the ground to the top of the sky.
"TOC, Falcon Six-Two," they heard the Valkyrie call to them. "Are you getting this? It's unreal."
"It's grainy, Six-Two," Shara informed him. "What do you make of it?"
"It goes on forever," the Avenging Angel told her. "It's more like a wall than a storm. My instruments can't make out anything past the edge."
"What's the wind speed?" Shara asked.
"Manageable," he replied. "I'm going to move closer."
Skuld watched and laced her fingers in front of her chin as she watched. The storm grew larger in the screen in front of her. That Avenging Angel had balls of solid brass. She intended to tell him so as soon as he got back.
"I'm near the edge," she heard him shout to them, the wind in the background made it harder for them to make him out. The screen was completely grey at this point, and though Skuld tried, she couldn't peer past the outer wisp of cloud. "I'm still getting nothing past the edge of the storm."
Shara turned to her. "You want him to try move inside?" she asked quietly.
Skuld shook her head. She didn't like this one bit. "Have him stand off five miles and keep his distance."
"Falcon Six-Two, TOC," Shara began. "Pull back to five miles and hold position..."
As Shara gave him orders, Skuld watched the screen and jumped as the clouds in front of her suddenly roiled toward them, enveloping the Avenging Angel.
The screen went dark.
Standing next to her, Shara blinked in shock. "Falcon Six-Two?" she called. "Falcon Six-Two, respond."
There was complete silence in the TOC. Skuld turned to the Yggdrasil uplink terminal. "Have Yggdrasil locate him," she ordered. "And give us his status."
"Falcon Six-Two, do you read?" Shara continued to try.
Skuld took a deep breath and let it out as the Valkyrie at the Yggdrasil terminal called out to her. "Ma'am, he's gone."
"Dead," Skuld concluded.
"Ma'am," the Valkyrie continued. "I mean gone. Yggdrasil can't even pick up the sublimation of his essence."
"What are you saying?" Shara demanded.
"Ma'am, I'm saying that if I didn't know for certain already, I couldn't tell you that Falcon Six-Two ever existed at all!"
888
Belldandy emerged in Heaven in the hardline nexus closest to the Arrival and Orientation Center where mortals passed through The Almighty's realm on their way to their next lives. Despite what the numerous cultures on Earth had thought, "Heaven" was a concept much more simple and yet complicated than they thought. To wit, they were all right... and all wrong... at the same time.
While many souls found their way to much more pleasant realms, very few actually entered Heaven as Heaven actually was, the center of the universe. It was less eternal bliss than it was an administrative area.
Still, some mortals were permitted to live there, and those who had received Heaven's Grace were on that particular list. Belldandy had made preparations, making sure that the AOC knew he was to routed here, just in case.
She walked through the main portal of the AOC, the walls lined with gold and shimmered in the sunlight. Checking a diagram at the center of the lobby, she found where arrivals from Earth were routed and started walking, setting a brisk pace. She didn't want to risk arriving late to meet him.
After only a minimal amount of searching, she found the right gate and saw no activity save for a young goddess working at the information terminal nearby. She sighed in relief. She had made it. When Keiichi arrived in Heaven, she would be the first thing he saw.
On that note, she quickly pulled a compact from her pocket and checked her hair. She wasn't a particularly vain person, but she wanted his first view of Heaven to be perfect.
Closing the compact, she took a breath and waited.
It was ten minutes before she began to actually feel anxious and the possibility that she hadn't arrived in time began to gnaw at her. What if he arrived before she did and, with no one to meet him, was wandering throughout the terminal?
It was a slim chance, she knew, but she wouldn't tolerate it. She stepped over to the information kiosk, and the maroon-haired goddess there looked up, smiling at her.
"Good afternoon, Ma'am," she said. "Are you lost?"
"No," Belldandy replied. "I'm waiting for an arrival. Has anyone from Earth come through today?"
"No, Ma'am," the goddess twittered.
Belldandy sighed in relief. "Then I'm not too late."
The other goddess arched an eyebrow. "Ma'am... I noticed you've been standing there awhile. When do you expect your mortal friend to arrive?"
"He shed his mortal life about... say... twenty minutes ago," Belldandy told her. "So he should arrive any moment, right?"
The information goddess tapped the top of her desk. "That's a bit odd," she said. "It shouldn't take that long." She opened up a light screen and tapped in her password. "What is his name?"
"Keiichi Morisato," Belldandy told her, becoming a touch worried by the woman's demeanor.
The woman typed it in and paused. "Drat. Can you spell that for me?"
Belldandy spelled her husband's name and waited as the goddess typed it in.
"How do you spell it in his native script?" she asked.
The Norn blinked and spelled it in Japanese. She watched the other goddess's face as she typed it in and bit her lip.
"Ma'am, he's not here."
"What?" Belldandy cried. "But he received a wish! He was supposed to be forwarded here!" She couldn't believe it. "He must have gone straight to Elysium or one of the..."
"Ma'am... I don't mean he's not in Heaven," the goddess went on. "I mean he's not in the system."
Belldandy actually smiled. "Of course he is," she corrected gently. The other goddess was young, probably inexperienced. "I was an Yggdrasil systems operator. Would you mind if I took a quick look?"
The maroon-haired girl ceded the console to her, and Belldandy took the seat, accessing the AOC's system computer. She typed in the information, including Keiichi's unique entity identification code and waited while the computer searched.
FILE NOT FOUND
Belldandy frowned. She re-entered the information and repeated the search.
FILE NOT FOUND
Her fingers nimbly flew over the keyboard, bringing up a search menu that would check each of the paradise realms individually.
FILE NOT FOUND
She logged into the Yggdrasil server and typed in her password. For whatever reason, the AOC's computer couldn't find him, but Yggdrasil knew and saw all. Even if, by hook or crook, Keiichi had ended up in the Demon Realm, Yggdrasil would find him there. She wouldn't put such a thing past Hild, but Hild hadn't bothered with them in decades. It seemed odd she would pick up her old hobby now.
The goddess entered his information and ordered a search throughout every realm.
She waited as Yggdrasil conducted its search, and when completed, her heart plunged into her stomach. What she saw wasn't possible.
FILE NOT FOUND
To be continued...
Author's Notes:
"The Humbling River" belongs to Puscifer.