Disclaimer: Ah! My Goddess and all its associated characters are owned by their creator, Kosuki Fujishima ( © 1988 – 2007 ) Any other characters specifically created for this fictional work are fictitious. Any similarity to any persons, living or dead is purely coincidental.
My personal gratitude goes to Mr. Kosuki Fujishima for creating the wonderful Manga, characters, settings, and plots that this fiction is based on.
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It was a beautiful spring day. The sun was shining brightly, not a cloud in the sky. It was warm enough to just start tempting the ocean for a swim. Birds chirped all around. Belldandy was in the kitchen cooking some majestic breakfast, while Urd was in her room watching her favorite television program. Keiichi was outside attempting to get the lawn mower to work.
"Well, let's see……the spark plug looks good. Hmmm, how about the air filter?..." Keiichi mumbled to himself. He was on the patio with the lawn mower flipped up on its side.
"Keiichi, what wrong with the lawn mower?" Skuld asked from behind, nearly scaring the bajezzus out of Keiichi.
"YAYAA!!" Keiichi screamed, "Oh, it's only you, Skuld.", he finished flatly.
"Only…..me….?" Skuld's eyes glared at Keiichi.
Keiichi backed away from Skuld, falling over backwards as he tripped over the lawn mower. Skuld calmed down and helped Keiichi up. "So, what's wrong with the lawn mower?" she asked again.
"I don't know. For some reason it won't start. It worked fine yesterday." he said recapping the prior day's events
"Okay, well, why don't I take a look at it? It is fairly inefficient anyway….I mean come on…..you have to refuel this thing every hour it seems like…" Skuld said as she started to dismantle the lawn mower. Within a few minutes, it was scattered all over the patio.
"I really don't think all this is necessary, Skuld….." Keiichi started, but was cut off by Belldandy's call for breakfast.
"You go on ahead and eat….I'll come in when I'm finished!" Skuld said, not turning from her work.
As Keiichi was on his way to the dining room, he walked right past Urd's room. He was about to knock, when a very loud explosion blew him across the hall.
"NOOOOOOO!" Urd screamed, in a violent anger filled rage.
Belldandy came running from the kitchen and helped Keiichi up; both of them peered into the room, to find Urd staring at an "Important News Bulletin"
"Oh, it's just a news story…." Keiichi started, but was furiously cut off by Urd's outburst.
"Just….a news…..story! They interrupted my favorite TV program for this!" Urd said pointing at the news reporter.
"Oh my!" Belldandy exclaimed
"…..and China are not accepting any diplomatic negations at this time. Once again. Russia and China have declared war against Thailand for their further development of nuclear weapons and testing of those weapons so close to their national border…."
"That's can't be good", Keiichi said plainly.
"Something is very wrong….this should not be happening!" Belldandy insisted, and then yelled for Skuld, "Skuuuullllddd! ... Skuullld?!"
"I'll go get her….she's outside fixing the lawn mower." Keiichi volunteered.
Keiichi walked outside to where Skuld was hammering away. Her new lawn mower modifications were almost complete.
"Skuld?" Keiichi started.
"Excuse me?" a woman in her early 20's asked as she approached the Keiichi and Skuld.
"Yes? How may we help you?" Keiichi responded, as he looked onto the slender woman. Her blonde hair blew in the breeze.
"I am looking for the Goddess Second Class, Skuld" she said outright.
Skuld dropped her hammer and turned around to see the woman; Keiichi just looked deadpanned, in a state of shock.
"I was told that she was here—right now……" she paused for a moment, and then continued, "By the Almighty One.", she said smiling.
Skuld stood up and approached the woman.
"The ….. Almighty….One…?" Skuld said in disbelief.
"Oh, yes! Skuld, there you are! Thank goodness! Quickly, there is no time to lose! You must go back to Heaven and fix Yggdrasil--You're the only one who can fix it!" she said with a deep urgency and concern.
"But…..I…..I can't! Not yet! No WAY!" Skuld prominently refused.
"Yes, you must, sister." Belldandy said placing her arm on her shoulder from behind.
"But I want to stay with you--", Skuld said as she began to weep.
"I will be fine here. I have Mr. Keiichi and Urd to look after me. I know that there must be a very good reason the Almighty One has called upon you for this task, Skuld.", Belldandy said smiling at her sister.
"But…" Skuld started again, and was cut off by the blonde goddess, "I am sorry, I must leave now, I have another assignment I must attend to right now. Please, Skuld, you must leave right now! I cannot depart for my mission until I have confirmed you have left for Heaven."
"Oh, very well…." Skuld started. "I will miss you, Belldandy, and even you too, Urd. But I promise to be back as soon as I can! After all, I can't let you have all the time with my sister!" Skuld glared at Keiichi, and without a moment longer, Skuld jumped into bird bath, vanishing from sight. The others turned to the other goddess, but she was nowhere to be found.
"Well, that was brief", Urd said monotonously.
"Oh do be careful, Skuld." Belldandy thought to herself, still staring at the bird bath.
Skuld arrived back in heaven, and was expecting to see a catastrophe; however, she was greeted with silence and emptiness. She found Yggdrasil, it had been powered off and was waiting in a "Stand By" mode. She went to go find the Almighty One, but he had beat her to it. He stood there behind her and started to explain.
"After you had left, things had gotten much more worse. The system tried to counteract the forces that were at conflicting with the goal of the program, but it was overrun by bugs…far too many bugs. The system ultimately crashed, and we were unable to reboot the server. Now, I have had to send everyone out on special missions to clean up the bugs on Earth, before it's too late. I myself must go on a special mission. I am sorry to inconvenience you, Skuld, however, you are the only one in Heaven that could possibly fix the server, and prevent it from crashing again." The Almighty One said from behind Skuld.
"Do you mean that I will be …..completely…..alone….here?", Skuld stammered, tears welling up in her eyes. But she received no reply. She turned around and there was nothing, just the door she entered into the control room by.
"I ….don't want to be ….. alone!", Skuld cried, as she collapsed onto the floor, balling her eyes out. The echo of her tears hitting the floor was even more of a reminder that she was indeed, completely alone.
After a few minutes of sobbing until she could no longer cry, she sat there, glaring at Yggdrasil.
A few more minutes passed by. She finally stood up, and walked over to the control panel. Accessing the main switch, she booted the server, only to be greeted by lots, and lots of error messages and codes. In only about half a minute, the server shut back down again.
"Awww, man! This sucks!" Skuld said frustratingly. "Fine, then I'll have to fix you up….no I'll make you better! And then……big sister contract will be…fixed! And she'll be able to come to visit me whenever she'd like!" a giant smile grew on the young girls face. She went over to the main access panel, and started to take Yggdrasil apart, one piece at a time.
Meanwhile, in a refurbished missile silo, a group of elite research scientists under the commission of General Yatoga were conducting experiments to create electrical power….
"Sir, I know that it hasn't worked in the past, but Cold Fusion will be a success! Think of the implications……a clean, efficient, reusable power source with unlimited power potential! All the while, sitting right under our noses!" Lead Scientist Adam Williams exclaimed as he held up a glass of water.
"I don't really don't care!" General Yatoga stated plainly. "You've had over three years to get this project working, and all I've seen is failure after failure! Get this through that head of yours: If you don't have a success with this next test, consider the project closed—End of story." Yatoga cautioned.
"But--", Williams started.
"End ….of …..story….", Yatoga reiterated, holding his finger upright.
"Okay, sir. We'll make sure we get it to work this time. I feel pretty confident about our equations this time around." Williams said with confidence.
"Very well. When is your next test?" the general asked in an upward tone.
"As a matter of fact, it's scheduled for fifteen-hundred, this afternoon." Williams responded.
"Okay. I'll be looking forward to reading your report. I…..will be unable to attend this test personally. I've been recalled to the States to meet with the Secretary of Defense. This whole China/Russian thing is really wrecking havoc with the nations of the world…"
"You won't be disappointed, sir!"
After a while, back in Heaven, Skuld was just finishing putting Yggdrasil back together. She had made significant modifications to the core of the system, and even included a new balancing circuit and interface to help ward off unwanted bugs. Skuld backed up to admire her work. A large smile crept on her face, as she clasped her hands under her chin. Her eyes grew wide and almost jumped up and down with joy.
"Finally, it's finished! And with this new balancing circuit, those bugs should be a thing of the past! Soon, I'll be back on Earth, with Belldandy at my side again! Okay…it's time to boot Yggdrasil back up. I really hope this works!" Skuld said with anticipation in her voice.
She reached over to the main switch, and flipped it upwards. A gentile humming sound filled the room, and various lights and indicators came online.
"COOL! It's all green!" Skuld squealed as she bounced from one foot to the other. "Looks like it's time to start the balancing circuit…"
Skuld reached over and turned a dial-handle counter-clockwise a quarter of a turn, then pushed it inwards until she heard a click, indicating that the circuit was "primed".
"One last check…Okay, Yggdrasil appears to be working within normal parameters! Balancing circuit is almost at full power…."
The new addition that Skuld built started spraying water in a gentle fountain like ambiance. The basin at the bottom began to fill with warm water. There was a light in the middle that caused the streams of water to glitter various colors of the spectrum. When the system came to full power, the light turned a brilliant white color, and Skuld could hear the engine in the background winding upwards.
"Awesome! It's working!...Of course…I'm a genius! I shouldn't have been too concerned….after all The Almighty One selected me for this task….and nobody else!" Skuld said to herself, and then giggled hysterically.
At the same time, back on Earth, Adam Williams had begun the initiation of his masterpiece. Various voices could be heard shouting one status after another…
"Main tank is sixty-five percent full!"
"Primary Capacitor Array is charged to one-hundred percent!"
"Alright, everybody, look sharp….it's this time…..or no time!"
"Main tank is at ninety-six percent capacity!"
"All sensors are GREEN! Proceed with countdown!"
"System start in T- minus sixty seconds…" a voice was overheard the P.A. system
"Are you absolutely positive, this water is one-hundred percent pure….of anything?" Adam said to his assistant.
"Positive…I ran the test five times, myself."
"Alright, close the blast doors….evacuate the research lab…." Adam commanded
"T- minus twenty seconds…" the P.A. voice dictated again.
"Stand by to inject the radioactive particles into the isotope accelerator!" Adam commanded again.
"T- minus ten seconds…" the announcement came again from above.
What Skuld didn't realize is that there was a small blue electrical arcing coming between Yggdrasil and her Balancing circuit, that was quickly building in intensity. Then she heard a large POP.
"Huh?!" Skuld looked over to her new circuit to see a puff of smoke and lots more little sparkles of electric current arcing between the two machines.
"Oh noooooooooo!" Skuld said, racing to the master switch of her Balancer. She stepped into the warm water of the basin and reached for the switch, however, she was too late. Another loud POP sound erupted from the console and engulfed her in an electro-magnetic current. Skuld was ripped out of the control room by a teleportation accident and ended up only God-Knows-Where.
T – minus three …..two….one…..zero….Initiating Super Conductivity now…", the voice echoed.
The tank full of crystal clear water froze very rapidly. At the same time, a bright radiance of light was emitted from the tank.
"Critical Warning! System Hull Breach in Master Coolant Chamber! Unable to abort freezing process!" a distressed alarm announced.
"Oh crap!" Not…now! Everybody brace for--
A huge explosion rocked the complex.
Adam sighed deeply. "What's the damage." he said in an extremely disappointed voice.
"Let's just say that I'm glad I'm not the one who's going to inform the General about this….." Adam's assistance said with a little look of relief on his face.
"Just tell me, please." Adam almost begged.
"It looks to be a complete loss. There is absolutely no way anybody can go in that lab….at least not for another…." his assistant does some calculations in his head, "….oh, not in this lifetime."
"Well, that's just great. Alright." Adam said, reluctance in his voice, "Everybody grab what you can….we're evacuating."
"But what about the project….our research…..the equipment…." somebody said in a panic.
"Don't concern yourself with any of that. The project has been terminated….and all this stuff is probably going to end up on the other side of a nuclear explosion test in a few months." Adam said.