-51-

Interlude: Hotel California

"You can check out any time you like,
But you can never leave!"

The Eagles

XXX

Mara stared down at the body before her with wild, pinprick eyes that glinted in the evening light. Before her, Edakua wiped his hands on a handkerchief and straightened, careful not to soil his boots on the blood-soaked ground around him. "Anything?" Mara demanded.

The man looked at her and shook his head solemnly. "Nothing," he said. "The body's too old. If it'd been fresh maybe, but this old..." Again, he shook his head. "Once the body cools the spell doesn't work." He hesitated, then met Mara's eyes. "Say sorry, Sizkur'mash."

"Don't apologize for what's beyond your control," Mara advised, and around her the demon sensed the rest of her Wilder-ken fall in around her, waiting for her next order. She pursed her lips, her gaze once more drawn back to the body before her, her hands clenched into such tight fists that the knuckles were white. Rage surged through her veins and painted the world through a red sheen, and she knew that by now her eyes would be starting to glow in the fading light. Her men were on guard now, as was typical of any demon around someone fighting to control their bloodrage, but Mara's time around the Damkianna and her kin had taught her nothing if not anger management. She sucked in a long, deep breath through her nose, relaxing the tension along her shoulder and back muscles and releasing the tight fists her hands had curled into. She let her lower jaw drop as she breathed out, focusing on what to do with the new information presented by the body- bodies, there were two of them- before them.

"The Damkianna will need to be informed of this." She spoke her words slowly and carefully to avoid the tremor that wanted to take over her voice. Not of fear, but of anger. "Durah, grab three people and start documenting everything you see. I want earth samples, blood samples, air samples, the works. Am Rimu, grab the rest and get images of this area. I want a tenth-dimensional image of this entire area for further analysis back in the lab. Report to Kili when both parties are done and then burn the rest. Leave nothing behind that can be used to link this back to Niflheim, understand? Nothing."

"Aye, Sizkur'mash," Kili murmured.

Mara turned and walked away, still fighting to maintain a level of calm. "I need to report back to the Damkianna."

XXX

Keiichi and the others didn't return to the hotel until late that evening.

With Debra's prodding, he managed to call Megumi and inform her that they'd found Aiko, and that due to a combination of distance and traffic, it would be a couple of hours before they returned to the hotel. For the most part, it was a lie- Aiko had been found about a ninety-minute drive north from Treasure Island, in a small chunk of land called Skagg's Island in Sonoma County. Even with traffic, it wouldn't have taken long to return, however Keiichi and Debra needed time. Time to ensure Aiko was okay, time to allow Belldandy to wake up, and most of all, time to get their stories straight.

They took it for themselves, and at Debra's prompting pulled into a Walmart just outside San Francisco's city limits. Keiichi waited in the car with the resting Belldandy and Aiko while Debra ran inside. It was around that same time that Aiko awoke, haunted by nightmares of monsters, pumas, and most disturbing of all to Keiichi, Stuart Holzkopf. It took him time to calm her down, and by the time Debra returned with a cart full of shopping bags, Aiko had moved to occupy the passenger seat, clinging to Keiichi with a ferocity she'd not displayed since her childhood.

Keiichi held her just as tightly, the SEAL's face a grimace of such raw emotion that for a moment Debra couldn't bear to look at it. She looked away, feeling as though she was intruding, and debated about taking a leisurely stroll around the parking lot to give the two a bit of privacy. Yet the opportunity was lost, for just as the detective was about to turn away Keiichi caught her eye. He looked up at her through the passenger's side window, and his eyes dropped to the bags on her arms. He squeezed Aiko, kissed her brow, then tousled her hair before releasing her. Aiko looked up at him, then looked over her shoulder at Debra, who felt her heart wrench when their eyes met. Something's aged her. She'd seen a similar look on only one other person in her entire career, that being from a young, ten-year old boy who'd stolen his father's shotgun, loaded it with two shells of birdshot, and had then used it to spray his uncle's guts across the far side of his house before calling the cops. The boy had explained to her and her partner at that time that his uncle used to beat him and his younger brother, sometimes so severely that neither of the boys could move, and that the last 'lesson' as he'd called it had almost killed his brother. The look of a person who's made a decision too far out of their league and is perfectly willing to accept the consequences, Debra thought, and then remembered the puma.

She'd seen nothing but a mountain lion at first when she'd signaled Keiichi to stop the car. Even with Keiichi's claims that the creature on the embankment was Aiko, Debra hadn't seen it. In fact, she hadn't seen Aiko Morisato until Belldandy had stumbled out of the car and literally punched the cougar right out of Aiko, and what a sight that had been: A mist, shimmering like diamonds that seemed to shatter the image of a puma, perhaps even shattered reality itself for that moment, before reforming into a strange white miasma that vaguely looked like a puma. Debra had thought she'd seen something else in that miasma too, something that was vaguely human in shape, but the puma had overshadowed it, and Debra had tentatively dismissed it as a trick of the eyes.

Still... what had it been? What had possessed Aiko in those few hours she'd been gone, and what had she gone through? There'd been a fire a couple of miles away, and Debra could remember the scream of the emergency responders' sirens but...

A smile broke out on Aiko's face, breaking Debra's train of thought, and the college student opened the passenger door, leapt out, and almost tackled the detective to the ground. Debra promptly forgot about the puma, and as Aiko embraced her she hugged her back, her own feelings of relief that the older woman had fought so hard to ignore engulfing her as the two gripped each other. "Thank god you're okay," she murmured, and felt Aiko squeeze her a little tighter.

"Sorry, Deb." Aiko's voice wavered. "Oh god, I'm so sorry. I thought I'd never see you again, god, I shouldn't even be alive right now. I'm so sorry."

"Don't apologize. Nobody plans on getting kidnapped." She held the younger woman at arm's length, looking her up and down. Aiko sniffed, and for a moment she looked like the same scared, vulnerable little girl Debra had grown up with. "Come on. Let's get everyone cleaned up."

Debra had returned laden with close to one hundred dollars worth of clothing, medical supplies, baby wipes, and food and water. In some ways it was the highpoint of the day, minus recovering Aiko: nobody had consumed anything since the initial kidnapping, and everybody, to include the sleeping goddess in the back seat, was filthy. Between the three of them alone they went through two packs of baby wipes, removing everything from generic filth to blood and ash from Keiichi and Aiko. They exchanged stories as they cleaned each other up, Aiko starting with her waking up in the shipping container surrounded by bugs before Keiichi and Debra shared their story together. The car was parked far enough away from the Walmart's entrance that the group was gifted with a small bit of privacy while they worked. In reflection it was like a pair of legends from a story book: a young woman possessed by not only a god but the fierce spirit of a puma as well, going to war against a cursed man sentenced to destroy humanity. Two regular humans guided by a goddess infiltrating a nest of demons and defeating them one-by-one, aided only in the last minute by a demon sent to retrieve the last one they'd fought against for some sort of punishment.

Aiko eyed Keiichi keenly, "And you still have that gift?"

"What gift?" Keiichi was in the middle of pulling off his soiled shirt, replacing it with a slightly larger, cleaner, bloodless green tee. The sleeves strained around his biceps, indicating that the shirt Debra bought was a size too small. It had been a while since she had seen him, after all.

"You don't... that gift Mara gave you," Debra reminded.

"I wasn't given any kind of gift." Keiichi stared at them blankly. "That crazy bitch just growled at me and let me go, see?" His hands went to the pockets of his soiled shorts, which he'd yet to change out of, and he pulled them inside-out. Nothing outside of his cellphone and wallet came from it, but the left pocket liner was dark and chunky with blood.

"Then what's in your right hand, Keiichi?" Aiko looked at the man in confusion, watching as he set his phone and wallet on the car's dashboard with his left hand, while his right clutched something else tightly.

Keiichi stared at her in confusion, then stared at his hand, transferred whatever the object was to his left hand, then opened his right, revealing nothing. The man said as much. "I don't have anything in my right hand."

Aiko and Debra shared a look.

"Open both of your hands, Kei." Debra requested.

Keiichi stuck his left hand in his emptied pocket, then pulled it out and opened both hands for the women to view. "Guys, what are you looking for?"

"You realize you suck at sleight-of-hand, right Keiichi?" Debra asked.

"I don't do parlor tricks," Keiichi growled. "What's this all about, guys?"

"Damn." Aiko looked between Keiichi and Debra. "Kei got hypnotized like a little bitch."

"Hey!" Keiichi exclaimed, sending a hurt look to Aiko. "I did not!"

"Leave it alone, Aiko," Debra advised. "Whatever it is, it's for Belldandy, not us." She looked back at the car's backseat, where the goddess rested curled up under a small fleece travel blanket that had been part of Debra's purchases. "She's still not up..."

"She expended all her energy," Aiko said suddenly. "Both in the battles against those demons and on me with the god and the deity. She could be out for just a couple of hours, or as long as a week."

Both Keiichi and Debra sent her a peculiar look, and the college student fidgeted beneath their gaze. "What?"

"How do you know that?" Keiichi asked.

"Um..." Aiko paused, and the look of discomfort grew. "I don't... know?" she said. "It just kind of... came to me?"

Debra sucked in a long breath. "You know what? Screw hanging around gods. This shit makes people weird."

"Try being possessed by one," Aiko muttered, hugging herself tightly as she stared at Belldandy for a long, thoughtful moment. "I saw Urd fall," she said after a moment. "Urd and Lind both. The god showed me. I don't think it was intentional, though."

"So she really is..." Keiichi lapsed into silence, and the atmosphere grew solemn.

Aiko hesitated, seeming to gather her will. "What do we do?" she asked. "I mean... Urd and Lind... they're both... their bodies are..." She bit her lip, and in a lower voice, whispered, "We can't just leave them there."

Keiichi and Debra shared a look. Aiko had brought up a good, if not grim, point. They'd lost two of their own, yes, but they'd died fighting a monster in California. Not some small war-torn country. Not even in some gang-ridden city where murder left the local cops jaded. San Francisco, in broad daylight, too. Where anyone could stumble upon them and the remnants of whatever they'd been fighting and...

"We can't just... go back for them though," Debra announced. "I mean... Keiichi... we have a bag stuffed with a bunch of bloody clothes and a missing person who started a supernatural fire with us. We can't just..." She made a face, disliking what she was saying, and her voice dropped, as if attempting to avoid the ears of any gods listening. "We can't just go back and, and put a pair of cadavers in the car with us."

Keiichi sucked in a deep breath, running his fingers through his hair. "So what do we do?" he demanded. "Tip off the police and then file a missing persons report that matches them? Wait for them to call us in and identify the bodies?" It seemed disrespectful. Abhorrent, even. They were... they were responsible for Urd and Lind.

"Unless you know of some kind of god-police that a bunch of lowly humans like us can reach out to, yes." Debra replied. "I don't... I don't like it either, Keiichi, but this is something out of our control. We have to play by our rules now. This isn't a battlefield. This isn't a warzone. This is California, Keiichi. And for lack of any other evidence... what happened to Urd and her friend is going to look like a murder." Keiichi and Aiko both winced. "I'm sorry guys, but it's true. Unless something... different happens to gods when they die, it's going to look like two women murdered at the scene of the crime, with forensics scratching their heads over the finer details."

"Does Skuld know?" Aiko suddenly spoke up.

"Oh Christ," Keiichi recoiled, burying his face in one hand and shaking his head. "No, I don't think she... oh fuck. I can't believe I never thought about... god damn it."

"Who..." Debra looked between the two warily.

"Belldandy and Urd's younger sister," Aiko supplied. "I... she and Urd were close. Like... me and Kei close."

"Can you contact her?" the detective asked.

Aiko shook her head. "She's a god like the others so... no. Um... Belldandy can though." She looked back and the Norn in question. "Whenever she wakes up."

Keiichi massaged his brows with both his hands. "I need to tell her," he grumbled. "She needs to know." He sucked in a deep breath, his face strained with deep lines of weariness, and both Debra and Aiko were struck with a sudden insight about Keiichi: while this was not the first battle he'd lost both an ally and a friend, neither was this the first time he'd reached out to next of kin to inform them of their passing.

It was a tragic realization, and it made Keiichi look old. Old and tired and even a little defeated. Aiko reached out and hugged him. After getting past her initial hesitation, Debra did as well. Keiichi did not fight either of them off but in fact drew them both close, wrapping his arms around both of them as his face was painted in a grimace of mournful pain. There, together, in the wake of a battle that involved gods and demons, monsters and spirits, the three mortals drew comfort from each other.

Comfort taken in the shadow of dead gods and the bleak responsibility that came with it.

XXX

Dinner that evening consisted of power bars, trail mix, and Gatorade. Nobody had much of an appetite, but Keiichi coaxed everyone into eating anyways. The food was bland and unappealing, yet after the first granola bar had awakened hunger pangs, the three of them polished off two boxes with little effort. The battles of the day, battles physical, psychological, and magical in nature, had taken their toll on everyone in more ways than one. Keiichi had to set the last box of energy bars aside for Belldandy, lest she awaken as ravenous as the rest of them with nothing to ease the hunger. Aiko's thirst in particular was almost as great as her hunger, and the woman downed two large bottles of Gatorade as blue as her hair before Keiichi or Debra could stop her.

She finished the second one with a gasp. "Fuck possession," she rasped. "And fuck fires too."

Keiichi stood on watch while Aiko and Debra changed behind the car, then switched to allow Keiichi a chance to change. When he was changed, Debra took the soiled clothes and stuffed them in one of the remaining plastic bags. "What will you do with them?" Aiko asked. "You can't throw them away, they're all covered in blood."

Debra shrugged. "I know a thing or two about analyzing DNA samples from blood stains," she admitted. "I'll ruin them enough that nothing can be collected, then toss them in a garbage bin, no harm no foul."

"Until some hobo finds them?" Keiichi asked.

"Won't matter," Debra said. "If someone finds them, someone finds them. Police won't be able to use anything off of it and so can really only make small guesses." She frowned, and her face darkened. "The amount of crime this state has is pretty bad for the cops living here. They can only do so much with what they have."

They left the parking lot after that, Keiichi and Debra up front after Aiko volunteered to cram in back with the resting goddess. Conversation, bleak as it was, detailed how to explain Aiko's disappearance to police investigators, as Megumi had sent word to Keiichi that they'd filed a missing persons report. While the two up front went back and forth over what to do, Aiko kept quiet in the back, using baby wipes to clean the blood off of Belldandy's exposed skin.

They hit heavy traffic coming back into San Francisco. A cloud of thick, black smoke was billowing from the east, and screaming sirens could be heard wailing in the distance. All three of the mortals in the car stared off in the direction of the smoke.

"I didn't do it." Aiko's weak attempt at a joke was met with silence.

Debra pulled out her phone and unlocked it. After a few minutes, a news broadcast permeated the silence of the car.

"...local firefighters from all across the Bay Area are pressed thin in an attempt to combat not one, but two fires that have broken out within hours of each other." A male reporter's voice rose from Debra's phone. "Police are working with firefighters to investigate the cause of these incidents, as so far there have been no reports of possible explosions in the area that might highlight a possible terrorist attack. Locals are encouraged to work with police in reporting any suspicious individuals seen in the area of the fires, the first being a shipping yard in Skagg's Island, with the second one occurring an hour later at a storage unit in San Francisco. It is uncertain at this time if these two events are coincidental or possibly linked..."

Debra looked over at Keiichi, who listened in stony silence, his lips pressed in a thin line. "That was where we left Urd and her friend," she said, her voice soft. "...What now?"

"We go back to the hotel," Keiichi replied with a heavy heart. "There's nothing else we can do."

XXX

At the end of the day nobody made their flights back home.

Instead Takano, through a strange combination of Morisato magic, urgency, and pleading, managed to pin on an additional day to their original lodging in the hotel, explaining to the hotel manager that there had been a sudden family emergency that required those who'd been about to check out to stay. The staff had been sympathetic, Keiichi learned, and for that he'd been grateful. They'd required them all to juggle rooms because of past reservations, of course, but otherwise the hotel staff had worked hard with the last-minute request to fulfill the Morisato family's needs. Those who'd remained behind in Aiko's absence had cooperated willfully with both the hotel staff and the police who'd been called to fill out a missing person report. They had been placed hodgepodge in available rooms scattered across the hotel for reasons the staff couldn't help, and Megumi had requested a two-bed room she could share with Debra to help put some ease on the manager when he confessed there were no single bed rooms left. There was a bit of difficulty with Keiichi, but Keima and Takano made it clear their son could sleep in the same room as them if they got a two-bed suite.

They only found out later that night, with the return of Aiko, Keiichi, and the others minus one that they didn't need to bother.

And in the relief of Aiko's return, no one thought to question what had become of that missing person.

Keiichi carried Belldandy to the new hotel room, the blanket hiding her battle suit as well as the blood stains that covered it. With the goddess safely tucked away, he returned to his family and joined Debra and Aiko for the bombardment of questions from his family. Debra surprised him in taking the lead on it, maintaining a level of composure and displaying a level of patience that left Keiichi in awe and reminding him of Debra's history dealing with similar- though never personal- interrogations by other families. Both he and Aiko allowed her, listening in silence as Debra explained how Aiko had been abducted by an unidentified woman (She was sick," Aiko said. "That's all I really remember.") and finding out she'd been in league with Stuart Holzkopf ("It looked like him, anyways," Aiko continued, shamefaced. "I don't want to say for sure, though.")

About how Keiichi and the others had all tracked down Aiko through the tracking app on Keiichi's phone, and how they'd come across a woman matching Aiko's description of the sick woman on Treasure Island. How Urd had confronted her, and how the woman had run off with Urd on her heels, both of them up and over a fence labeled with nuclear hazard warning signs. ("We don't know what happened to her after that, and... we couldn't waste time searching for her." Keiichi refused to meet anyone's eyes as he spoke, and it appeared as if the decision weighed heavily on him.) How Aiko had awakened in a shed on a pier and had managed to escape through a loose board in the floor, slipping out and swimming to shore, and how she'd almost drowned because she'd needed to stay a good distance from shore to avoid being seen. ("Is that why you're trembling, Aiko?" Morgan asked, holding her girlfriend tight. If she noticed that Aiko smelled of smoke and fire rather than sea and salt, she said nothing. For that, Aiko fell in love with Morgan all over again, though she knew that there would be words in private.) How Belldandy had spotted her in the distance, how Keiichi had swum out to rescue her, Navy SEAL that he was, and how both Belldandy and Debra had met them as they returned to drag them back to shore before fleeing.

How there had still been no sign of Urd, despite their searching, and how Belldandy had risked it all to hop into the restricted area only to return later in grief; the area beyond the fence was too large, she'd said, and despite her best efforts, she could not track down either her sister or the sick woman. "She's fearing the worst right now," Debra wrapped up. "After we got Aiko, we went to the police to let them know what happened. We filled out another missing person report for Urd and there's a BOLO alert out right now for Stuart Holzkopf and that sick woman." A half-lie. During Keiichi's initial contact with Megumi after finding Aiko, his older sister had come across a report from a local news agency that was advising people who lived in the vicinity of San Quentin to lock their doors because a rapist had escaped. That rapist had been Stuart, whom police were still searching for. They would never find him, of course. Not after Aiko's puma.

It was a horrible thing to say to the family, as it brought no closure to anyone outside of Keiichi's little group. Words said knowing that no one in the family, not Keima, not Takano, not Megumi, not even Morgan, would be able to find closure knowing the fate of Stuart Holzkopf. For them, he would always be out there, creeping behind bushes, peering through windows, and preying on children. His face would be the first to always pop up into their minds whenever word came of a child who had vanished, a sexual predator touching the evening news, or a local warning advising people to escort children for fear of some new deviant out preying on the young. And the police would be ever searching, ever seeking, and never finding any additional evidence that might point investigators in the direction of where Stuart Holzkopf had vanished to.

Keiichi and Debra had gone back and forth on the topic for close to an hour while stuck in traffic. Yet there was no other way that would allow them to explain their cover story. For the remaining family members in this room, Stuart Holzkopf would live forever as a shadow in their hearts.

And as a family was reunified, a goddess dreamt on...

And on...

And on...

And she was back in the storage yard behind a line of yellow warning tape. She sees Lind on the ground, writhing in pain as blood pools around her, staining her pristine white uniform a somber red. Her eyes are drawn to the wretched movement, and a dull horror pulses in her chest, rich with tension yet dull with shock, and part of her fancies, as she watches the thrashing slow, that perhaps she is dreaming.

She looks past Lind and sees Urd, unwounded but gripped by seizures that are painful to behold, and as she turns away from the two her eyes are instead drawn to their angels, mere feet away. She sees the twins huddled around a distorted, jerking form, and realizes that the seizures her sister suffers are brought on by her injured angel and not a physical manifestation.

One of the twins, Cool Mint as identified by her right wing and red eyes, grips World of Elegance, her face cast in mindless panic as she looks down at the wounded angel, then over her shoulder at her host. The expression is clear: What do I do? I don't know what to do! Yet her twin does, and as Cool Mint stands frozen by indecision Spear Mint acts. She shouts something that Belldandy cannot hear, even in this realm of dreams, and the Norn watches as two white pouches materialize in thin air. They match Lind's white, now red uniform, and hold unique sigils on the front that identifies them as EMKITs, emergency medical kits, which Belldandy recognizes from her mother's time in service. But there should only be one, Belldandy thinks to herself. Valkyries only deploy with one EMKIT at a strictly for the Valkyrie, containing everything necessary to aid both the injured warrior and the injured angel. Yet Lind has two, one for each angel, that are labeled with patches on the side; one a spear, the other an ice cream cone. For some reason, with everything that is happening in that moment, that is what will stick with Belldandy more than anything else upon waking: in the midst of the tragedy that surrounds her, here is a spark of innocence not often portrayed by a simple patch by which to label her newer angel.

Spear Mint grabs both pouches. Keeping her own, she tosses Cool Mint's ice cream patch EMKIT to her. She points to World of Elegance, then sprints off towards Lind, and as Cool Mint, now with direction, rips open the pouch to aid the wounded angel. Belldandy realizes that if not for her strange deformity that had led to two angels, the Valkyrie would only have a need for one EMKIT. One EMKIT which would go straight to Lind, as per Valkyrie code, leaving World of Elegance to fade in silence. Yet because of her two angels- EMKITS could only support one angel and one Valkyrie at a time, wasn't that right?- she has two EMKITS capable of supporting two deities. By some miracle the planets had aligned just enough in favor of those who lay injured before her.

She thought she could love Lind for that. Perhaps even kiss her for it, if only for the sheer fact that all angels partnered with their Valkyrie hosts underwent the same medical field training as their hosts- all of them, even those fresh to the scene like Cool Mint- and she watched with feelings she could not put to name as both angels treated the injured.

Spear Mint tears open the back of Lind's shirt, where the injury is deepest. She removes a slim packet that reads KWIKLOT in big, bold Asgardian script, and tears it open, dumping a white powder into the puncture wound. She tosses it aside without much thought and then grabs another, slightly larger packet, tears it open, and removes a field dressing. The angel presses it hard against her host's back, and for a moment she appeared to stumble as if her hand has accidently slipped straight into the wound, and Belldandy recognizes with fresh horror that Spear Mint is dematerializing, the connection between Lind and her angels weakening as the Valkyrie begins to fade closer to death.

She sees a rare moment of startled panic slip across Spear Mint's face, sees it vanish in place of steel-eyed determination, and watches the angel cease her actions and instead withdraw two syringes. One holds a pair of wings- angel wings- imprinted on the side, and the other is embellished with a pair of crossed axes that are the standard sigil for Valkyries everywhere. She shouts something to her sister-possibly instructions to do the same, and then holds the syringe up before her. She is hesitant, and Belldandy is startled by the look of honest, open fear that seeps into the stoic angel's eyes as she observes the syringe, then watches her remove the cap from the needle, and brings it to her inner elbow. She closes her eyes and grits her teeth as she injects it, a snarl of defiance that Belldandy did not understand upon her face, then tosses it aside and grabs the second syringe. She rolls Lind onto her back (revealing another large hole in her chest, Belldandy notes), tears open the front of Lind's blouse with fresh ferocity, and slams the device down onto the Valkyrie's chest, plunging the needle into Lind's heart.

Lind's eyes fly open. Her back arches upwards with such painful intensity Belldandy has to look away. The Valkyrie sucks in a loose, watery breath that she chokes on. She coughs next, and the sound is gargled and sodden like a person drowning. The Norn finds herself looking back despite this, as is the manner of dreams, and sees Spear Mint's face now speckled with blood, Lind clutching her chest as she stares up into the eyes of her angel with bulging, unfocused eyes. Her arms begin to flail wildly, and as they do Lind coughs again, and the spittle on her lips is pink and frothy. Belldandy grows keenly aware of a new sound then, unique only in its quality and pitch that makes it stand out from the other sounds in the area. It is an odd, quiet sucking sound, one out of tune with Lind's gasps and coughs and made all the worse as Belldandy's eyes drift to the hole in her chest.

She looks away as Spear Mint fights past her host's flailing limbs to treat the other half of the injury, and her eyes are drawn instead to Cool Mint and World of Elegance. Cool Mint looks scared and inexperienced next to the injured Elegance, and for a brief moment Belldandy sees not the angel but instead a child, one handed a medical kit in the midst of chaos and instructed to sink or swim. It is there and gone in an instant, but its lingering effects are enough to touch Belldandy, awakening memories of the children in Japan, the children she'd aided, from those old and jaded souls to the new ones who'd looked so much like Cool Mint in that brief moment. She finds herself walking towards the two angels without realizing it, and has to force herself to stop, for in this realm of dreams, regardless of its proximity to reality, she cannot interfere. She is an observer here. Nothing more, nothing less, and would be unable to interact with the two of them even if she breaks that unspoken rule.

Cool Mint kneels down at World of Elegance's side and stares at the writhing angel, her eyes large and frightened, captured by the sizeable hole in the elder angel's back. She jerks back when one of Elegance's wings smacks her, and shakes her head before looking back over her shoulder at (Belldandy) Spear Mint. Yet Spear Mint is too preoccupied saving their shared host to notice her sibling's deer in the headlights gaze, and so Cool Mint looks back to World of Elegance. She fumbles with her pouch, finds the pull tab, and yanks it open with enough force to send the contents flying. She stares at the disorganized mess in growing distress, looks at World of Elegance, and then rummages through the parcels around her. Even without a connection to the angel, Belldandy can tell Cool Mint doesn't know what to do. All her training has abandoned her with the rise of panic, and the angel looks close to weeping in despair and defeat as she picks up a pack, looks at its label, then tosses it aside before reaching for the next. She does this with six different items, and each one she tosses away with a bit more force every time.

Belldandy clutches herself, watching this scene play out with grievous anticipation. She feels nauseous, her stomach twisted into knots, and she feels she may scream if this continues. Find something, she urges. By the life of your host, find something! Don't let Urd's angel die. Please!

And as if hearing her plea, Cool Mint picks up her next package and glances at it, then readies to toss it. Yet she pauses mid-swing, and instead brings it back in front of her face for a second read. In that instant everything seems to click for Cool Mint, and the worry on her face begins to melt away in place of confidence as she springs into action. She tears the package open and brings it to the injury on World of Elegance's back, yet is dismayed to find she is already too late. Something is happening to World of Elegance, something is happening to Nimiàiaq (Belldandy does not know where this name comes from nor what it means) and it is something that sends Cool Mint stumbling away from the gudan in fear of her own safety.

It is enough to spur Belldandy to move, yet she only has time to notice something strange sprout form the angel's back- a tumorous growth, a cluster of hard, jagged flesh almost reptilian in nature- before World of Elegance begins to writhe in earnest. Whereas before the angel had merely squirmed in pain, now she began to thrash, and an odd thought flashes through Belldandy's mind in the middle of it all. She's mutating. As a way to protect herself... she's mutating to protect her injuries. And oh, what an alien thought it is, and oh, what a terrible thought it is, yet she cannot shake the thought from her head from where it plants itself, repeating over and over and over in her mind; The Black Wings are mutating, that's why they're so different. They're closer to the Ssaratu from which they emerge, and their form is unstable, and so they mutate like the Ssaratu, mutate like the Ancient Ones, mutate like the Chaotic Flame that is the Ssaratu's very nature, and can't you see? Can't you see? Look, her arms are beginning to scale, and look, there are fangs against her lips, and look, look look!

It is Nimiàiaq, a voice whispers in her ear, and Belldandy discovers that Holy Bell has followed her into this dream, this nightmare, and that the angel is shuddering from within her breast. It is Nimiàiaq, the angel repeats, awakened by necessity, born of instability like that of her host, of two worlds not one. And then, words that touch Belldandy's heart and leave her filled with dread. She will be hunted for this.

What do you mean? Belldandy calls, yet her angel goes silent as before her the scene continues to play out. World of Elegance arches her back, her mouth open in a scream of such intensity that it almost appears as if her jaw has unhinged. Yet the scream she hears is from Urd, and it is a sound that will haunt Belldandy for the rest of her life, a sound like the scream of a mountain lion, the scream of a banshee, the scream of a woman not only being murdered, but having her soul ripped to pieces while she is still alive. The sound is almost enough to send her retreating back into the waking world, for suddenly she can hear voices- Keiichi's voice, Debra's voice, perhaps even Aiko's voice- yet she pushes them aside, banishes them back into the depths of some other piece of her, and feels the waking tide ebb and fade.

She looks to Urd, unable to stand to watch the mutation as it plays havoc on World of Elegance's body, and finds now that Spear Mint is holding onto Lind, compressing the Valkyrie's chest while she sets a bandage that is a quick fix, a temporary fix, but will not heal the hole in her body. She sees Lind, awake and alert, though ashen and shaking, watching Urd with bright, fevered eyes that glint with gold, and needs to do a double-take, for in that moment Lind looks so much like a white northern bear that it is terrifying and unnatural. She'll kill her. Belldandy thinks to herself, and her heart leaps into her throat as she runs forward, no longer caring about what she can and cannot interfere with. The Valkyrie isn't in her right mind, she'll kill her!

And as she predicts, the Valkyrie lunges for Urd, and Spear Mint does little to stop her (why would she? They are united, one heart, one mind) as the Valkyrie half-tackles, half falls on top of the howling Norn. For a moment Lind's eyes roll up in her skull as her body slackens, and then the flash faint passes as the warrior regains consciousness once more. "Gri...grindhiminn ór Ne-Neboheim..." She grinds out, and as a light begins to consolidate around them Lind passes out once more, leaving her body limp atop of Urd's.

Belldandy recognizes an emergency gate extraction when she sees one, having borne witness and even accessed them herself in the past in times where she's run afoul of demons between contracts. She watches Spear Mint move to grab her host, and is startled to see her grab Urd by the shirt as well, though she is careful to mind her distance. A glance at Cool Mint reveals much of the same, and it appears that neither Urd nor World of Elegance are aware of the angels or lone Valkyrie around them, nor the light of a gate that is about to take them back to the heavens, back to Asgard, back to the very place they have been banished from; they are both blind to the light, blind to the people, aware only of the pain that wracks them both as the mutation continues its slow spread across World of Elegance's body. Feathers are falling from her wings now in clumps, and the sight makes Holy Bell recoil in abject horror.

They all vanish in two separate groups, leaving nothing but fading feathers, blood, and the corpses of their enemies to show their passing.

No... Belldandy thinks to herself, staring down at the blood stains on the ground and the feathers slowly dissolving into dust. No, take me with them, I need to go with them! She screams, and for a moment nothing happens, for a moment she hears voices once more speaking around her and calling her back, and as the scene around her begins to waver and warp she kicks and she screams and she flails with an intensity borne of desperation. I can't go back yet! She tells herself. I need to follow Urd! I need to know what happens!

You will regret this action. A voice comes from deep within her mind. Not Holy Bell but her own voice, her subconscious, warning her of the upcoming consequences. This will have lasting, unpleasant affects. Are you sure you want to continue? Absolutely certain? Because once the decision is made there is no going back; you will have to live with your actions.

I am certain, Belldandy tells it. Now take me to Urd.

The world around her begins to waver, but the voices fade as a vibrant, dangerous pain wracks through her brain, sharp and staggering like an icepick being driven through the center of her skull. It is enough to be dizzying, to almost knock her past the realms of dreams and into the black darkness of unconsciousness, and in the waking world Belldandy's nose begins to bleed. When she awakens in some future time she will find a rusty crust on her pillow but think nothing of it. The results of this action will not fully reveal themselves until later, much, much later when she returns back to Virginia and can see the damage done to herself in its entirety.

Yet the world around her changes to her will, and next she finds herself in surroundings she does not recognize, staring not at one, but two familiar faces. It is not Urd nor Lind she sees but her grandfather, Odin of One-Eye, sitting and holding a discussion with Nebo in a room that reminds Belldandy of a doctor's office. Their conversation is jovial, the atmosphere relaxed, like a pair of old friends visiting each other. And with a start, Belldandy realizes that is exactly what it is: Odin is talking about his life, his family, and more importantly his grandchildren, whom he speaks fondly of. It is not of the Norns specifically that he speaks of, but then the Norns are not his only grandchildren. The conversation drifts to angels, and Nebo requests to see Odin's, revealing the true reason behind the visit. Odin agrees, and the angel that emerges comes not from his back but from his hand, its shape alien and strange to Belldandy's eyes.

She has heard the tales of her grandfather's beloved spear, Gungir, yet she has never seen it personally, nor ever been aware that it also serves as his angel. It materializes in the form of a majestic spear, one that glows with pure, bright light and with the Elder Furthark, the magical language crafted by Odin himself, inscribed in bright blue runes along its staff. Four pairs of diminutive wings flutter restlessly along the staff: one larger pair near the spearhead, a second, smaller pair a hand's length behind it, and further down to the lance butt with a second set of equal size. She sees eyes within the wings, multiple eyes, all looking everywhere at once, and for a moment it even seems that one of the many eyes on the wings stares directly at Belldandy herself, which unnerves her.

Odin hands Gungir over to Nebo, who takes the spear, the angel, the living weapon, with gentle hands. He is careful of the wings, and holds the entity with careful consideration, like handling a fragile item made of glass. Belldandy knows better, however, having been regaled with stories of her grandfather's prowess with Gungir since early childhood. Though it is beautiful, there is not a feather or eye on that spear which is delicate and has not been doused in blood.

It is not Gungir's fault, Holy Bell whispers in her mind. Gungir was fused with the spear crafted for Odin by the dwarves. He had no use for an angel in a form like ours. He fused Gungir with the spear without Nebo's knowledge and without Mother's consent, and Nebo almost attacked Odin in his anger when he later found out. This was a long time ago though, when Odin was still young and had not yet sacrificed his eye for wisdom. We were new too, back then. Gungir was one of the angels who had just made it past the prototype stage, and the gods were still uncertain on what we could and could not do. It was a difficult time for angels.

How do you know all this? Belldandy asks.

We share our knowledge and experience with each other when we sleep, Holy Bell reveals. There is hesitation in her voice, and then the angel continues. We know many things about many gods. That is why we are both angel and nemesis and Ssaratu.

This revelation brings questions to Belldandy's mind. Questions she cannot entertain, for even as the questions rise to her lips, the scene before her continues. As Nebo is observing Gungir the air around their head begins to warp and waver, and Belldandy realizes what is happening even before Lind and Urd and all their angels manifest.

A single thought, so quiet that she cannot tell whether it emerges from herself or her angel rings though her mind; This is bad.

And indeed it is, for as the two injured deities materialize overhead, they come crashing down into the room, crashing down on top of Nebo, on top of Odin, on top of Gungir, whose eyes at once focus on World of Elegance. This is bad. The pupils of the many eyes, and by the heavens, there were so many eyes, dilate upon seeing the mutating angel, on the mutating angel's black wing, and it makes Belldandy's hair stand on end. Yet in the arising clamor its focus goes unnoticed, for Urd is still screaming and Lind is still bleeding and the twins flock to Nebo for aid, throwing hand gestures that spin too fast for him to follow as he tries to escape from beneath the two deities.

His focus finds Lind first, and the color leaves his tan face as he sees the blood soaking her uniform. He cries for his Ssaratu but doesn't need to, for Luna Spirit has already manifested within the room, moving to World of Elegance's aid in a terrible visage of a monster moving in for the slaughter. Yet the massive talons that look capable of shredding World of Elegance are gentle as they move her, and as the Ssaratu tends to the mutating angel Nebo is freed to treat Lind. He calls to Odin for assistance, who is familiar in the ways of battle, magic, and medicine from his many years of service as a war god before retiring as Daitenkaicho. Yet Odin is distracted and does not appear to hear Nebo's voice, and Nebo is too focused on Lind's grievous injuries to bother with a second call, nor even wonder as to why the ex-Daitenkaicho is ignoring him.

He picks Lind up, and though they are almost of the same size Lind appears small and delicate in his arms, and moves her to the long medical chair in the center of the room. He adjusts it to lay the woman flat, and with a speed that belies his frame rushes to collect medical supplies from around the room, yelling to Lind to hold on Kyz, just hold on a little longer! He shouts to Odin to tend to Urd, who is his granddaughter and whose injuries are not as apparent to Nebo, but then Nebo is a TIC of angels, not of gods.

Still though, Odin does not move, and Belldandy can feel the ball of dread in her gut fester into something worse as she sees the expression on his face. His attention, like Gungir's, is on World of Elegance, is on World of Elegance's black wing, and it reminds her of a wolf that has stumbled upon an injured and bleating sheep. She remembers now the stories of her grandfather. The good stories and the bad stories and the scary stories- above all the scary stories- of Odin in his prime. She remembers the rumors of angels with black in their wings and the rumors of the madness contained within them. She remembers how those rumors used to circulate, to transform, to evolve, to mutate into rumors of how they became dangerous, of how their hosts became dangerous, and how they were hunted, hunted, hunted in the Wild Hunt by Odin and his hounds. And here is one now, one with not just a little black in her wing but a lot of black, a full black wing that is injured, and is making her host scream like mad, and who is mutating, who is evolving into something never before seen.

He doesn't see Urd, Belldandy realizes, and it hits her like a sack of bricks, forcing the air from her lungs and leaving her lightheaded. He doesn't see Urd, all he sees is World of Elegance's black wing and-

Gungir is thirsty, Holy Bell whimpers. Gungir is thirsty and I can hear his voice. It sounds like a howl. Like the howl of Odin's hunting dogs. Her fear trickles through their link to Belldandy, and the goddess is left trembling, her heart fluttering weakly in her chest. Urd, get up. Get up for the sake of your angel, Gungir is coming for her! Get up Urd!

Belldandy joins her voice with Holy Bell's, and for a moment the two are unified. Get up Urd. You need to protect World of Elegance. Urd, please, your angel is in danger. Your soul is in danger. You need to get up, please! Odin is grabbing Gungir, get up Urd. Odin is moving towards World of Elegance, move Urd, you need to move! They'll call the hounds and then they'll slay Mooney for getting in their way, and then they'll slay World of Elegance and hang her wing by a weapons mount and for the love of your angel stop him Urd!

Odin looms closer as Nebo is distracted, the One-Eyed Death, and then the twins are before him, barreling into his large frame with enough force to knock him off his feet. They know, like Holy Bell, what is about to happen and both refuse to let it transpire, and though Odin is a prior Daitenkaicho, though Odin is a founder of the Valkyrie military unit that Lind now serves on, though what they are doing could be perceived as borderline traitorous to stand between the ex-Daitenkaicho and the black-winged angel, still they stand in defiance before the elder god.

Nebo looks up as Odin falls and sees this latest bit of madness about to occur yet is too late to stop Odin's anger from manifesting. Magic, ancient and powerful, crackles and sparks around Odin in great blue bolts of lightning, and it is all Nebo can do to raise a barrier around himself and the injured Lind to prevent the sporadic bolts from causing further harm. The magic is dangerous, and wild, and several stray spears strike shelves cluttered with vials and potions and sensitive lab equipment designed specifically for angels. Several of the bolts come close to Urd, and though she is not their host both of the twins attempt to shield her, for she is defenseless and suffers just as her angel does. More come near Luna Spirit and World of Elegance, and Mooney shrieks when one spectacular bolt of blue energy strikes her flayed back; a bolt meant for Elegance and not the Ssaratu that is protecting her.

It angers Luna Spirit, and the shriek is quick to become a mental howl of a magnitude even worse than its screams back in Virginia, and Nebo looks on in terror as the Ssaratu falls into a frenzy. He fears for Lind, he fears for Urd, but above all he fears for the angels that are within this room, which has gone from a house of healing to a mocking battleground, which he will not stand for. Though he dislikes striking his friends and allies, Nebo recognizes the danger presented by everyone within the room, and concludes that one must go in order to save the others.

A spell comes to his lips, and Belldandy fears for the worst, certain he is about to strike Urd or World of Elegance. Yet her fears are misplaced, for as the spell reaches completion, as long tendrils of black magic emerge from the shadows to envelop Odin, she remembers that, above all, Nebo is as much a healer as Odin is a warrior, and the women who've literally fallen into his office are of the ilk desperate for help, not the sort to seek battle.

The tendrils of shade consolidate into inky tentacles that grab Odin. Not to harm- never to harm- but to bind in an attempt to stop any further onslaught. Yet just as Nebo is a healer, Gungir is a weapon, and one that will not be bound by a god not his own- even if Nebo could be called his sire. The weapon glows a blinding blue, and the black magic dissolves, freeing not only Gungir but Odin as well. Odin, angry and irrational in the presence of a black-winged angel, lets loose a turret of blue-white energy at Nebo, who screams and throws everything he has into his barrier. It holds, but barely, and Luna Spirit barrels to his aid, abandoning World of Elegance in a suicidal affront towards the ex-Daitenkaicho.

Belldandy feels a scream crawl its way out of her throat, and she cannot say for certain for whom she fears: Holy Bell fears for her mother, Belldandy fears for her grandfather, and the combination is enough to leave the Norn rattled and shrieking. Odin stares up at the Ssaratu with his one good eye, and hesitates, as if uncertain of what he is beholding. The hesitation is all Luna Spirit needs, and a massive paw as large as Odin himself collides with the man's body, knocking him through two walls and out into Sana District's light.

Startled and dismayed screams permeate the area as those native to Sana witness the casual destruction. Many freeze, trying to discover the source of the explosion while others flee for safety. More run towards it, and from the debris Odin rises with a roar, and in the far-off distance rises the pealing howls of hunting dogs. It is then that Belldandy discovers that she has not walked into a dream, but a nightmare, a perfect tragedy that is about to befall one of the largest healing districts in Asgard.

For Odin senses a threat in the angel with the black wing. Has always sensed a threat in those angels with black and those hosts connected to them, and he has created specialized units to hunt down those select individuals and others like them. He's bred hounds to track them down, has led the charge in manhunts himself, and has been among the first to strike down if not those angels, then those deities who house them. One more in his twilight years will not stop him now, not with the baying 'Godhunters' that look more like wiry-haired wolves than actual hounds approaching in the distance.

Now, he gets to his feet, Gungir pulsing in his hands, and throws himself back towards Nebo's clinic. Luna Spirit is at the threshold of the hole she's made with his body, and Gungir, unlike his younger sisters, holds no qualms with injuring his mother. Gungir tears through Mooney like a spear of light through the darkness, and the resulting shriek sends up a choir of screams as those deities within range are caught in the feedback of Mooney's mental agony. Yet Odin doesn't care, and he pushes past the Ssaratu as Luna Spirit collapses.

Inside Nebo has collapsed as well, and Lind, filled with whatever adrenaline-like drug Spear Mint has stabbed her with, struggles to rise to the angels' aid. Her eyes glow with a distinct golden hue, that special Golden Eye technique discovered with her angel's life at risk a long, long time ago. Her angels flock to her, sensing the danger presented to their host in the form of Odin and all too aware that Lind is hanging to her life by a thread. For her to sustain any additional injury now, be it wounds re-opening, shock, or even a wild, misplaced blow, then not only will she be dead, but the twins will be gone too. They cannot afford to lend any more strength to Urd, who is past the point of screaming and now lies panting, motionless, on the floor. They cannot spare a hand to World Elegance, who, even with a hole in her back, senses the danger to her life and is attempting to creep away. They cannot afford any aid to Luna Spirit, who does little but groan in pain. All they can do is cluster around Lind and pray that they do not catch Odin's eye, for in his eye is not wisdom now but the destructive madness of a War God in battle.

The sound of hounds grows louder from outside, and Odin enters, his one eye glinting with malicious intent. It falls once more on World of Elegance, and the man hefts Gungir in his right hand, readying to throw it at the angel. A death sentence if ever there was one, for Gungir is a spear that never misses, for its eyes see all and even with a bad throw, so long as he is airborne Gungir can guide himself to his target. The prior-Daitenkaicho's focus is so great that he misses Urd, who is slowly dragging herself towards him, creeping along inch by inch in such a slow, methodical manner that she seems to float across the porcelain. Odin's arm pulls back, and the muscles in his arms and shoulders bundle up with coiled power. It is now that Urd strikes, curling around him like a viper in the bush, and just like the serpent she bites him, bites him hard with all her might in his right calf.

The Norn draws blood, which flows in twin red trails down the back of his leg, and Odin howls a scream so savage that Belldandy wonders if Urd hasn't destroyed an artery. Yet it succeeds in preventing Odin from attacking World of Elegance, and perhaps, in that moment, Urd's eyes have a little bit of gold in them too.

The plan backfires, however, as rather than attack the angel that cannot fight back, Odin instead targets his aggression on the source of his pain. The spear meant for World of Elegance instead comes down on Urd, and it is here, in the midst of watching her grandfather murder her sister, that Belldandy cries for release. No, no, no! Wake me up. She pleads. I cannot watch any more of this, I beg you, let me awaken! Yet the voices of the mortals she has surrounded her waking self with do not arise, and to her ongoing despair Belldandy realizes she can do nothing but watch this upcoming act of filicide; a prisoner, sentenced to observe but not to interact, and some horrible little voice from the deepest recesses or her soul whispers, This is punishment for abandoning Urd. Bear witness, Norn of the Present, and despair.

And she does bear witness, as Gungir splits open Urd's brow, and she does despair as an expression of the utmost shock befalls first Urd, and then Odin as he sees who he's brought his weapon down upon. The man gapes in open horror as he stares down as his grandchild, and the bloodlust is broken as he speaks a name with tender hesitation: "Urd?"

Yet Urd does not respond; cannot respond with how Gungir has split open her brow, and her pupils contract and dilate as they weave in and out of focus, and her irises appear to drift between three different colors: violet to gold, gold to red, red back to violet, and the pattern repeats itself. The irises drift between the three colors at a continuously more rapid pace, becoming a frantic blur of color and motion that is hypnotizing to behold. It is in this moment that the unthinkable happens, as Urd's head explodes with violet light.

There is power with the light, and in the brilliance that follows comes a screech that is not human. Belldandy thinks she can see things within the light; monstrous things of fangs and claws and heated violet eyes, but cannot be certain. If anything, she wants to dismiss them, for to admit they exist would mean to claim that they emerged from Urd's head, that they were born of Urd's injury, and for a creature like Urd, both of the Heavens and the Hells, such beings are a frightening prospect to consider.

Odin is thrown back by the light, lending probability to Belldandy's beliefs that it holds a physical presence, and Gungir is thrown back with him, the spear head and feathers coated in blood. As the brilliance fades Belldandy sees a shape form at its center, yet it is not Urd as she had been but something else, something worse.

A great, luminous feathered serpent.

It looks almost like a serpentine dragon in its majesty, with scales of a deep, shiny black that show rainbows and brilliant white feathers that contrast greatly against its hide. Its talons are long and hold a wicked curve, and upon its brow rests a broken crown of jagged horns. The jagged horns trail down the Tendee's back in twin trails, with smaller lines of horns emerging in similar trails beneath the feathers around it. And from its shoulder blades emerge perhaps the most frightening aspect of it: a pair of large, curved, bony plates sprout like wings, their edges like the broad edge of an axe head. The crown bears the broken likeness of an injury, with bright, blinding violet light emerging from cracks within the many horns that pulses intensely. By luck it is this that is broken instead of Urd's head, and though the Tendee entity thrashes and screeches in a frenzy, it-she-is very much alive.

Alive and berserk, blinded by the pain that has engulfed her crown. Light seeps from her jagged horns like brilliant blood, and as the Tendee writhes she leaves a trail of destruction in her path. Everything in her proximity is destroyed by the sheer power leaking from her brow, surrounding her like an aura of destruction. Vials shatter around her, equipment explodes, the tiles beneath her crack and chip and it all comes to hover around her, orbiting around her like an asteroid belt.

The pain drives her to anger, and she lashes out at whatever is near her, a deity in her chaos-nature whose purpose has ceased to be creativity and has drifted into its negative Destruction-aspect. There is danger in this form, and as the devices around her short-circuit so too do the walls begin to crack and crumble, the rubble and debris joining the orbit of destruction that surrounds Urd. The roof begins to break and collapse, and the baying hounds grow louder still as sunlight strikes the insides of the room.

Urd, in her destruction-aspect, appears to hesitate for a single moment at the cry of hounds, and then dives through one of the holes in the wall, ignoring all else in her flight. Belldandy cannot tell if she is running towards the hounds or away from their call. Shrieks hail Urd's revelation in Sana, and the large gathering that had been clustering around the hole in Nebo's clinic now run fleeing, for a Destruction-aspect Tendee is a dangerous creature to approach, and in a place filled with healing there can only be tragedy.

Odin seems to know this and chases after Urd, leaving behind the unconscious Nebo, the wounded Ssaratu, and oblivious to the black-winged angel that had previously stolen his attention. He ignores Lind, who is supported by her angels and dragging herself-almost crawling if not for the twins supporting her-towards the same wall he is fleeing through. Belldandy notices the woman yet pays the Valkyrie no mind, as she chases after first her sister, then her grandfather.

Valkyries are present now. Valkyries from Lind's home base of Camp Uruku, drawn to the panic of the masses around them. They locate the source easily enough, and see not a wounded goddess but a threat to those in Sana in the form of a destructive Tendee. Right now there are only three, but soon there will be more, summoned by calls for aid and cries for help amidst the devastation that is about to propagate.

They are quick to see what they believe as the source of the mayhem, and swoop towards the Tendee without hesitation, as a deity that chooses to utilize their Tendee in such a populated area is committing a criminal offense regardless of the circumstances. Behind them the baying hounds grow ever louder, and off against the horizon Belldandy sees a rising dust cloud as Odin's hounds grow closer.

Odin bellows for the Tendee's attention outside the clinic, and Urd turns towards it with a snarl so twisted and filled with rage that it lacks all reason. She lunges for him, and he skips out of range with the subtle grace of an experienced warrior. Behind Urd, the Valkyries, hovering with the sun to their backs to mask their approach, plummet towards the deity while she is distracted. One Valkyrie's spear is thrown towards Urd's back, but a last-minute move sends it bouncing off the cruel blades that emerge from her shoulders. Another Valkyrie has more luck, and the sword she wields cleaves deep into the serpent's haunches. The Tendee shrieks, and a gout of blood stains the feathers around its hind right leg. It wheels on the Valkyrie, jaws snapping, and pays for it as an arrow from the third almost steals her left eye. It hits her upper eyeridge instead, and there it protrudes like a silver splinter. Urd releases a bellow of equal parts pain and rage, and the howl is of a magnitude so powerful that it stuns not only the Valkyries but those within proximity as well. Patients, doctors, and residents around her fall to their knees as they clutch their ears, and only Odin withstands the affront. He shouts Urd's name, pleads with her now, begs her, apologizes, yet she is too far gone into her destructive-aspect; Reason cannot find her here, and relief will only come after her rage has been spent and the destruction has been wrought.

Instead, Odin's cries do nothing but draw Urd's attention, where he becomes the focus of her rage. Perhaps that is his intent, for he takes off in a run when Urd bares her fangs at him, and leads the Tendee away from not only the Valkyries attacking her, but those bystanders in Sana as well. He instead leads her down tight corridors between closely packed buildings and through a maze of intersections where the Valkyries lose track of them; the women are no Manhunters, for such a unit is not stationed at Camp Uruku. Yet though the Valkyries are quick to be lost in Sana's darker and more decrepit section of town, the baying hounds tell a different story: they let loose a chorus of howls, and it is a call that makes the hair on Belldandy's arms stand straight and for Urd, even lost to her rage as she is, to stop and look back towards the source. The feathers that coat her body bristle, making her look twice as large and imposing as before, and it is only then Belldandy learns that Urd fears the hounds.

And why wouldn't she? Why shouldn't she? Has she not grown up side-by-side with Belldandy, listening with rapt attention (and fear, Holy Bell whispers) as their relatives told them stories of the Wild Hunts Odin has gone on? Those hunts for men, those hunts for gods with black in their angels, black in their souls, and brought them down in an act of imposed mercy? Was it not because of Belldandy's endless prodding that Urd approached Odin asking for the truth in his stories (they're just fairytales, Urd. The vocie of childhood calls, Grandpa never really killed anyone.) Did Odin himself not warn his grandchildren away from the hounds he bred, he reared, he trained to hunt other deities for that express purpose? Is that not what they are doing now?

There are snarls and barks now amongst the baying, and as Urd looks behind her the shadows beckon in a jumbled, inhuman mass. There are many legs in the shadows. Many legs and many heads, and many, many teeth within those heads. Urd hisses and bolts, and this time not even Odin's cries hold her attention. The hounds have her scent now, and no matter where she runs to-be it Midgard, Niflheim, or some realm in between-the hounds will hunt her; will chase her until the very ends of the universe, as they were bred to do, for once they happen upon a trail not even Odin can stay their instincts. They have been crafted from Fenrir's fur and blood, stolen from the great wolf when the beast was tricked into binding itself with Gleipnir, Tyr's angel, that had been fused like Gungir to dwarvencraft in an attempt to halt one of the original Ultimate Destruction Programs. Tyr had suffered greatly on that day, having lost both his right hand and severed the link to his angel in that same day, but the binding of the UDP had made it a worthy sacrifice.

The Godhunters, crafted from the UDP's DNA and intermingled with tamer, gentler dogs that Odin's kin bred, held their sire's ferocity when it came to the hunt, however, and though they are good at what they have been bred for-a secondary line of defense against those Wild Gods who fall to their Destructive-Aspects in times of peace-they are not known for their restraint. One of the hounds appears around a corner of a building, and it is a wretched beast; all black and curly hair that is tough and spiny, with jaws long enough to bite off the length of a grown man's arm in a single bite. Lupine yellow eyes glare madly at the world from within a wedged-shaped head, all framed upon a muscular neck and a wiry body that ripples with power. Its tail is raised in aggression, and a deep, ominous growl rumbles from within its chest as it sets its eyes on Urd. Its lips pull back in a snarl, and with a bellow that is unearthly it charges at the Tendee.

Odin attempts to intervene but fails; he's bred the Godhunters too well, and they are as nimble as they are powerful, and this one avoids each blast of magic, each thrust of Gungir, despite Odin's best attempts. He is lucky; it is only through intelligent design that the creature does not attack the elder god, recognizing Odin as its master but in the heat of the hunt forgetting that he is also its alpha. It lunges at Urd, and the Tendee slips out of its range, hooking her curled talons into the side of a building and climbing for safety. Yet as more hounds appear it proves a futile feat, for the creatures hold a cruel intellect when hunting and find ways yet to pursue her: one leaps upon a dumpster and uses its gathered momentum to leap from a wall onto the adjoining roof, another, with paws almost like hands, climbs a drainage pipe with ape-like agility, and two more run straight up the wall and onto the roof.

The black hound leading the hunt begins to nip at Urd's heels, and it avoids the long, muscular tail with the same grace it used against Odin. It leaps, and Odin reaches the rooftop just in time to see it bite down hard on the Tendee's left flank, inciting a scream of impotent rage as Urd wheels and sinks her fangs into the hound's haunches. Both creatures draw blood, but Urd's bite holds poison; the dog will be dead within minutes. Yet its death will be a hindrance to Urd, for now that the beast is ahold of her it will not let her go, even in death, and its added weight will slow her down for the others to attack.

Yet not all hope is lost. A gust of heated wind, peppered with sand, strikes the hounds as Urd flees, and the tiny grains get in their eyes, blinding them as they bellow in anger. A voice, agonizingly familiar, calls to Urd, and the Tendee, still primed and ready for destruction averts it course towards it. Skuld is calling to her sister, gaining her attention as she hops and waves at Urd from a rooftop farther off, and standing next to the young woman is, against all odds, Tyr. The man brings his left hand to his lips and lets loose a sharp whistle, and the pitch is of an intensity that sends the hounds into a fresh clamor and sends Urd charging towards them. The whistle ignites the hot, sandy air into bright blue flames-Tyr's signature magic- and it is enough to send the hounds on a temporary retreat as the Tendee draws near.

Yet there is still violence and anger within the Tendee's eyes, and though Skuld doesn't see it Tyr does. He grabs his youngest with his left hand and pitches her onto the next rooftop over as Urd lunges, and brings up his right hand to protect himself as the great serpent lashes out. She pounces on the man with enough force to send them both falling off the rooftop, and Skuld screams and she scurries to the edge to watch them fall. Yet Tyr is every ounce the warrior that his father is, and with Urd's fangs imbedded into the metal of his false right hand he twists in the air. Urd curls around him, less by choice and more by force as he jerks his hand, and though they hit the ground with Urd's back first, both are unharmed.

Tyr attempts to grapple the creature now that they are on ground level, and on the rooftops Odin recruits Skuld into fending off the remaining hounds. Though she looks scared, it appears more fear for Urd than herself, and with dogged determination she utilizes every technique she has against the beasts. The Anzu Kibaltu work well against them, for there are too many tiny beads for the hounds to track at once, and it instills wariness within the creatures after Skuld fills one of the beasts with holes and kills it.

There are two left now, one for Odin and one for Skuld, and while they keep the hounds at bay Tyr is unable to subdue Urd. But then, Tyr was never a grappler, and some deep-rooted instinct in Urd is still calling into practice the techniques she learned from Team 12, even with as inhuman a form as her Tendee Destruction-Aspect. She ducks and weaves and slips free of his grip multiple times, and it is only the fact that one fang is still buried within Tyr's glove that he manages to keep his hold on her.

At some point his left hand grasps one of the broken horns comprising the crown on Urd's head, and both Tyr and Urd scream from the pain it produces; Urd from the fresh injury, still raw and untreated, but Tyr from the injury itself, which radiates a vicious, aggressive aura that mauls his good hand. It sends Urd off into a run once more- but Tyr, like all his daughters, is a stubborn and tenacious man, and though he is in pain, though he watches as sections of his hand rupture in blood and bone, he holds on. To release now would be to not only lose his hold on Urd, but to potentially be dragged behind her like the corpse glued to her flank, or, worse yet, to rip out the fang still buried in his glove and lose her completely amongst the buildings.

Urd is racing back towards Nebo's clinic now, screaming and kicking and thrashing as she tries to dislodge Tyr. Tyr grows anxious as they draw near, for this is where the civilians are, this is where the Valkyries are, and he does not wish to see his daughter slaughter and be slaughtered in turn. He bellows warnings to the setting sun, and his voice, that of the Daitenkaicho, reaches the ears of everyone in proximity. Deities begin to retreat from the area per his instruction, even as the sound of one final hound begins to arise from behind Urd once more. The last hound, a gray beast with a unique, striped coat, has made its way past Skuld and Odin despite their best efforts, and is gaining ground fast with Urd distracted. With both his hands tied, Tyr cannot summon his magic, and his angel has long since gone to Fenrir's binding, leaving Tyr a prisoner along for the ride.

But that is fine. So long as he can wear his eldest daughter out, so long as he can outlast her and bring her to heel, so long as he can save her-

They come across Nebo's clinic and there is a woman there. A woman Tyr only vaguely recognizes and he shouts at her to leave. Yet she shows signs of injury, teetering back and forth on unstable legs as she moves into the path of the oncoming Tendee, and as Tyr sees the blood seeping through her uniform he recognizes her as Lind.

You're the one who was supposed to kill her. He thinks to himself, but the thought is privy to Belldandy as well, who hears it and shudders. Lind stands tall and prominent before the Tendee, and looks at it with the cloudy eyes of a person on Death's doorstep. She does not appear to notice Tyr, though he calls out to her and demands that she move, and indeed the Daitenkaicho wonders if she sees anything beyond Urd herself.

The Tendee's eyes burn bright with chaos as she draws near, and Urd rears her head back as if to strike. If she does, Tyr thinks to himself, then the force may be enough to loose his grip on the Tendee. Yet Lind still does not move, still does not flee, still seems blind to the inevitable danger set before her, for Urd's bite holds a deadly cocktail of all the venoms from all the snakes of all the lands, and all it will take will be a single drop of the venom to bring Lind down.

Yet Lind does little but hold up her left hand, as if asking the beast to stop, and in the fading light small rays glint off the tiny shells of the bracelet that dangles from her wrist. The other hand is glued to her chest, compressing the wound tightly.

Urd comes to an immediate halt as the light glints into her eyes, and Tyr is left baffled, but relieved. The sound of the lone hound grows louder, however, and an animalistic snarl jumps to his ears that makes him turn. He sees the Godhunter is closer than he thought, close enough to attack, and now it races past Urd's tail, ignoring its dead brethren, and instead bites into Urd's softer, exposed underbelly.

This time the scream that arises from Urd is one of pure pain, and something in its tone frightens Tyr into action. He releases his hold on Urd's crown, half-falls, half-slides off of Urd's back, and unlatches the right gauntlet from his arm via a lever with his teeth.

He swings towards the hound with a roar of unimaginable fury, and embraces the beast with both arms while it tears into the Tendee's form. He speaks one word: "Die." And the beast explodes in a hail of blood and bone.

Urd is still screaming, and the Tendee's cries sound almost human in that moment; like a woman's scream. Like a cougar's scream, Belldandy's mind whispers, and Tyr turns his attention to the wound. Thick gouts of blood are seeping through the holes in Urd's side, and calling upon his magic, he presses his injured left hand to the wounds. Blue flames, hot and agonizing, sear and cauterize the wound, and Urd screams with fresh pain that brings misery-not in the physical sense but the misery of a father forced to hurt his child to save her-to Tyr's face. Yet he wastes no time, for time is not on his side, and with the scent of burning flesh and blood following him, he races to Lind.

He grabs the woman by one shoulder, rests the stump of his right hand on her other, and looks deep into the woman's eyes, searching for any conscious sign of the Valkyrie assigned to watch his daughter through these past ten years. "You need to live a little longer." He tells her. "Just long enough to tell me where you want to die."

The Valkyrie, bless the poor child for her servitude, looks at him, and he sees what might have been a small glimmer in her eyes. "Home," she croaks.

"Where is home for you?" He asks her. "Tell me where home is for you and I will take you there, and I will take Urd there, and I will return you to your family. This is my promise to you as the Daitenkaicho." Yet he can see she is already starting to fade again, and so grips her tight, sending a breath of his own life into her. "You must live! Just a moment more!" He cries. "Tell me the name of your home, this is your final order as a Valkyrie. Tell me the name of your home and you can rest!"

Lind speaks a single word, "Chu...gach..." before the light goes out in her eyes, the breath lent to her is released, and the Valkyrie begins to fall. Tyr catches her with his right arm and hoists her over his right shoulder, where he feels moisture begin to seep into his robe.

He turns back to Urd, who watches him with frenzied eyes that lack energy, for the fight has left her in place of pain. Her hind legs buckle, and the Tendee collapses before him. He rests his ruined hand on her forehead, well away from the broken crown. "I won't let you die," he tells her, "visions be damned." And then they are gone; Daitenkaicho and Tendee, Valkyrie and dead dog, all in a burst of light.

It is here that Belldandy's dream nears its end, as Skuld comes to stop, panting at her side. "Too late." Skuld mutters, and there are tears in her eyes. "I was too late this time..." She looks to where Belldandy is standing, and to Belldandy's shock the woman's eyes settle not through her but on her. "I called you but you never picked up. Why didn't you pick up the phone, Belldandy?"

And as a choir of angels consisting of the twins and something that might have been World of Elegance cluster around the Ssaratu that is their broken mother, Belldandy awakens.

XXX

Belldandy awoke to tears sliding down her cheeks and soft sobs slipping past her lips as she was finally released from her dream. She blinked through the watery gaze, and pulled the soft fleece blanket that was wrapped around her a little more securely. Now that she was awake, the sobbing came in earnest, and try though she might Belldandy could not quell them. Urd. Oh Yggdrasil, Urd... She screwed her eyes shut, but it did nothing against the soft whimper in her throat, and against the blackness of her eyelids Urd's face came back to her once more. She sucked in a trembling breath, and against her will Skuld's parting words returned to her. "I called you but you never picked up."

Had she really...?

The Norn grimaced, curling into a tighter ball on the bed. Let that part be imagined. She begged herself. Please...Skuld never called me. I would have heard it. The phone was on me the entire time. She never called me.

Yet the possibility that Skuld might have... that Belldandy could have played some part in preventing the injuries inflicted on Urd... even though nothing said it could have happened, the grim possibility that she could have brought fresh anguish to her, and Belldandy began to weep in earnest, unable to stop the tears any longer.

The room she was in was dark, for the most part, though there was a gentle glow from a light somewhere behind her. It's not Urd. She thought to herself, and whimpered. She felt the bed bow beneath her slightly as something came to sit beside her, and then felt a hand run along the blanket she was bundled up in.

"I'm sorry Bell." A voice mumbled, and it took her a long, long time to recognize it as Keiichi's. "I'm so sorry, Belldandy." The admission, though Keiichi was not to blame, brought with it a fresh wave of grief, and it left her feeling sick, left her feeling as though her insides were rotting, left her guilty and angry and above all else sad, for the reality of the situation was that Belldandy had failed Urd, had failed Urd in a big way, and it had left her sister suffering injuries and trauma that Urd didn't deserve.

She turned into the pillow and buried her face into it, screaming into it with all her might. Keiichi stayed by her side, continuing to stroke her back, and though it was marginal, his touch brought comfort. The scream died to a moan as she released the air in her lungs, and then even that faded into silence. Keiichi continued to rub her back, and after some time Belldandy raised her head enough to look at the SEAL.

There were bags under Keiichi's eyes, as if he hadn't slept in days. His eyes looked red and irritated, and when her own eyes met his he held her gaze. There was sadness in them. Guilt too. Like her guilt reflected back at her, and Belldandy was uncertain if she felt better or not for the exposed emotion within them. She tugged the blanket close, and Keiichi scooted closer, wrapping an arm around her shoulders and drawing her close.

The Norn fell into his grip, and felt her lip tremble with unspent emotion. "I failed her," she choked out, and swallowed once more, her throat making an audible clicking sound that seemed loud in her ears. "I –we-we never sh-should ha-ha-have left her." She stuttered, and hated herself for the weakness.

"We all failed her, Belldandy," Keiichi mumbled, and drew her into a tight hug, rocking her gently in a manner that was so much like her sister (did he even realize it? Or was it something inherent in all older siblings?) that she broke into fresh tears again.

"It's-it's all ma-ma-my fault!" she wailed, and buried her face in his shirt. At some point Keiichi had taken a shower, and he smelled like Head and Shoulders and Old Spice. Keiichi's scents. Comforting scents. She breathed deep and searched for that comfort now, and found some small trace of it that she latched onto like a woman at sea to a lifesaver.

"It's not your fault," Keiichi reassured her. "Words got said. Mistakes got made. But it's not your fault, Belldandy. We're all to blame. Even Urd, even Hagall." He paused for a moment. "Maybe especially Hagall." She felt lips brush her brow, and felt Keiichi hug her a little tighter, as if in doing so he could shield her from all the blame in the world, and Belldandy found that it was a comfort, though deep down in her heart of hearts she still knew that the blame rested with her and her alone.

But still...

She closed her eyes and rested her head against Keiichi's chest, listening to the beat of his heart and hoping its rhythm might guide her to peace.

They stayed like that for the rest of the night, sitting on a lone hotel bed and holding each other, and well into the following morning, which would bring with it its own fresh trials.

A demon's message not yet passed.

A phone left untouched yet filled with divine messages.

Trials that they would both be forced to face, be it together or apart, in the midst of a rising sun.


A/N: Happy New Year!


Comments of a Madwoman: A surprisingly heavy chapter to write, with an introduction of some new characters who chose to write themselves rather than let them be written by the author. Let it never be said family doesn't care for each other. Even with a black sheep like Urd.