The Eagles formed up again in the audience hall of the Temple of Creation, facing the Caretaker. It was a small audience this time: them and her. "Now that I have you here in the Gate of Time with me, I have a special job for you," Purrcy said.

She was very sober and her own post-battle grief was becoming surface now that she'd reached the point that she could think of things beyond the immediate recovery. The courage of the Eagles through all of what they'd been through even now sustained her, and she smiled gratefully at them.

"Such calm strength is needed by one whom you call friend and also consider a brother. Now that you have seen the ending, you can give him both the strength and the encouraging promises he needs to hear at his beginning." She glanced at Michael, wishing for her own strength, then looked at Reed.

"Divide the Eagles into pairs. I'll take each pair back to when Shiroe first learned about the evils that were done. He needs the strengthening in order to learn it without breaking before we even begin. I'll trust you to keep silent when you should, and offer encouragement without giving away the secrets of time. He needs you, and as always we need him. Please, be my Ministering Angels."

Purrcy's attention went to Brenner. "I'll send you last, for he will need the healing you can provide so that he can move forward."

Her attention went back to Michael. "I'll send you when he asks for you. We can't afford to lose this battle." Michael tipped his head in acknowledgement.

Purrcy waited patiently while Reed passed out quiet orders. When they were ordered in their pairs, she called for Compliance and Aviation Safety first. She reached out her hands for theirs. When they had taken her hands, she squeezed their hands tightly, which they returned with firm clasps, again giving her their strength. She returned it to them as a blessing of Fortitude, then they were stepping through time and space.

At the edge of the spirit realm, she said to them quietly. "He has just prayed to me in anguish, having seen his first lessons on the deities as taught in the Gate of Time university. He's asked to be told that it isn't true - that such awful flavor text can't have become a reality. I've already sent him my own love and strength, but he must continue forward and learn all the darkness that exists. Please help him begin the walk again."

Shiroe was asleep on his couch. The memory cube was paused and resting on the low table in front of the couch. "Tell him he must set the permissions on the room so that no one can enter. Feed him and heal him when he needs to pause. He won't leave this room until he's learned everything he needs to learn and been encouraged and lifted again enough to continue forward on his own with his supports here in Akiba."

Her grip on their hands was still very tight and they could feel her trembling, although she was trying hard. Compliance turned to her and wrapped his free arm around her shoulders and held her. "We'll help him, Hahaue," he said softly. He released her and Aviation Safety took his turn to give her a hug as well. They understood that it had also been very hard for her who was tender-hearted towards all creatures, and even more for this son of hers.

She released their hands so that they both appeared in the base realm. She gave them kisses on the cheek, adding Peace and a little Strength to the Fortitude, then she fled. She hadn't the courage to make Shiroe face what yet needed to be faced by him, not even now that it was over in her own timeline.

When she returned, she went to Michael first and made him hold her as she shivered, crying for the pain of Shiroe and for her own pain, held deep within her that she'd been prevented from acting on for so long. She'd had to show a conciliatory face to the dark deities for years in the Gate of Time, hiding her hatred, that she'd been horribly appalled, and her pain and grief that Adventurers had been willing to participate in the horrors that had gone on.

Michael pet her gently. Once she was calming down, he asked, "Nyanta-san won't kill me will he?"

She shook her head. She looked up into his face. "Nyanta understands that this is a strength you have that he doesn't, although he does try to comfort me. He's allowed it for this time, because it's a healing I need."

Michael studied her face soberly. He let go of her, but put his hands on her shoulders to steady her. "Purrcy, you are doing what you need to do. Shiroe will survive it. You're giving him what you can. We all know the strength that comes from having companions to help us walk through difficult things. We'll help him, and it will be enough. Keep going. I'll still be here."

He held her eyes until she'd taken enough deep breaths to settle and finally give a nod. He turned her around and the next two Eagles stepped forward and held out their hands. She swallowed, then took their hands. Again she was strengthened and she blessed them with Fortitude. Again, when she dropped them off, they gave her hugs and she gave them kisses of Strength and Peace.

She took the hands of Compliance and Aviation Safety and walked with them back to the Gate of Time. When they were in front of Reed again, he mildly ordered for them to report. They properly reported which deities had been taught, how Shiroe had reacted, and what they'd done to support him. Michael's sturdy hand on Purrcy's shoulder helped her get through the report, but by the end of it, she felt a little encouraged herself, knowing that they'd helped Shiroe in his walk.

When Reed acknowledged the report and released Compliance and Aviation Safety to return to the ranks of Eagles, the next two Eagles stepped forward for their turn. Again, Purrcy took a deep breath and they repeated the sequence. Those two she instructed to make Shiroe sleep at his rest time, but to stay and keep watch over him until she returned. For another eight rounds the sequence repeated.

She never tired because they were giving her their own strength, but it still wasn't easy. It was possible to do because they were there to help her make sure it was done. Knowing they were watching over Shiroe through hearing their reports helped her as well.

When only Brenner and Michael hadn't gone, and Reed and Secretary were with Shiroe, Michael firmly instructed Purrcy, "It is right and proper for you to wait to take Chappie only after Shiroe asks for him. Let him have the time to assimilate what he's learned, and decide for himself he's ready for his healing. Go fetch the last two and bring them back. We'll be with you here until then."

Purrcy cowered just a little, but Michael wasn't wrong. She needed to hold to the pattern, and Shiroe would need time alone to learn he could also have the strength to walk on his own. She gave a nod and walked alone.

She looked at Shiroe at the end of the walk through the lessons. He was a little shell-shocked, but more resigned now, and harder but not hardened which was good. She took a deep breath, kissed him on the top of his head, then reached for Reed and Secretary's hands. With a prayer for Shiroe in her own heart, she pulled the two Eagles into the spirit realm.

Shiroe startled to have them gone, just a little. When no one else appeared, his look went sad, but he'd been counting as well she knew. He closed his eyes and whispered, "Thank you, Hahaue." She sent him a code hug, then fled with Reed and Secretary holding on to her tightly.

They deposited her gently with Michael who held her again until her shivers could calm down from severe to tremors. Michael brushed a hand down her head and made her look up at him again. Gently he said, "Caretaker, you have already walked the time you're returning us to. Remember what happened next. What did he do?"

Purrcy shivered, but answered quietly around the pain in her heart and the lump in her throat. "He prayed for me." She stopped, having to overcome the emotions she'd felt then, too, as they made even more of an impact again this time.

"He hurt for me and my pain, and told me he understood why I'd made him watch it all, and thanked me for giving him your strength to help him through it. He said he'd wished he could have sent that same sort of strength to me and to Nyanta when he'd made us walk through the hardest times, too." She was back to shivering again. "But he did. We had Tetorō and Brenner then, and you, too."

"And did that prayer of his help you then?" Michael asked. She nodded. "Then let it help you now, too. Let his understanding of how hard it is to ask people to do hard but necessary things fill you with the comfort and strength you need now." She could feel Michael's simultaneous support and she blinked at him.

He smiled a sad sort of smile at her. "I also am grateful for the times you and Nyanta came to support me when I had to step into that same role," he explained to her. "Thank you." Purrcy closed her eyes and just rested in that support.

She was a little surprised when she felt it from Reed, then MasterChiefS7, and then became rather overwhelmed as each Eagle sent to her their own gratitude for the times she'd come to strengthen them, or her example had strengthened them.

Her own heart filled to overflowing with gratitude for them and their support of her and those who had helped her. With that strength of Gratitude, she was finally able to recover and become calm again, finding healing finally for the many years of tiring grief and anger.

She hugged Michael. "Thank you, Michael," she said quietly.

He patted her on the head. "I'm glad you're feeling better now," he said kindly.

She stepped back to her place again, then on a bit of a whim, bowed to the Eagles a brief bow. "Thank you. Please...continue to take care of me."

"Ma'am, yes Ma'am," was her answer and she had to smile.

-:-:-:-:-

Michael made Purrcy let him time walk to take Brenner to visit with Shiroe when he'd finally broken down and asked for his own healing so he could move forward properly. Michael required it so that she could stay strong in the future. Purrcy hadn't refused Michael and when he arrived he understood. She'd not been able to stay away at that time herself either. He comforted her past self, making her listen to Brenner's healing words to Shiroe so that she could heal some then, too.

Then Brenner waited for Michael in the spirit realm while he spoke with Shiroe when Shiroe asked if he could speak with him. Shiroe said quietly, "Michael...learning these things has made me angry and pains me." The sharp eyes he turned on Michael were full of the fire of the Adventurer who is ready to fight. "I want to help Purrcy in this battle and I want us to win it the whole world over. I want to be one of the Caretaker's High Priests...but I already carry the junior kami. I don't know if I can do both."

Michael hesitated. "You'll have to decide that yourself, based on all of the knowledge you already have. I've never been able to see as much as you can to know if that would be a good thing or detrimental to what you're trying to achieve with that kami. However, it's a different sort of thing in the case of the Caretaker.

"If your intent is to take up her battle and her banner, to champion her cause, then that intent and your actions on it are and should be sufficient, even if you never specifically declare what level you'll take on as far as clergy of Theldesia go."

Michael leaned back in his chair a bit, folding his arms and looking up into the distance of his thoughts. "She isn't an object of worship that this world has known until now, not being part of the programming. We've chosen to treat it however we want to.

"She'd kill us if we tried to 'appease' her, she'll throw a fit if she ever thinks we're worshiping an Adventurer." Michael shrugged. "In the end it's whatever you decide works best in your plan. So far you've been doing just fine, by what little I can see." He smiled at Shiroe. Shiroe gave a thoughtful nod and went back to thinking again.

Slowly Shiroe asked, "Michael...how widespread is this form of worship on Theldesia, outside the Gate of Time?"

Michael went sober and leaned forward to clasp his hands together. "You watched the lessons from the university." Shiroe gave a small nod of confirmation. "What was taught were the 'new' lessons after Izanagi changed things in the Gate of Time once the flavor texts were broken. But they weren't always what was followed at the times of high feasts in the Gate of Time. What the followers and worshipers in the base realm knew and had been taught before are what they still want to hold on to, and many of the deities don't disabuse them of it.

"What was programmed in were often the less flattering aspects of the deities as far as worship went, so that the Adventurers would have something to push against; or was kinder than the original so there was a reason to fight in their favor for a given quest. Sometimes it's hard to know just what you'll find until you arrive.

"Certainly if we go back to the game FAQ and database to research regional quests a good portion of that data can be ferreted out. However, in the main, the worst ones you've already heard about are sufficient. The game storywriters didn't take what we would consider wicked deities and make them suddenly good ones, nor the reverse. That would have confused too many players and likely cost them too much in production dollars.

"And...for all Izanagi would like to change the flavor text for all of them to fix the world the way he wants to...he's still held bound by the rules of the programming. Just like he tried to get Li Shou to break her own programming through the rules of Adventurer Quest Request and Change and couldn't, he isn't able to change the programming of any of the deities using that method. It irks him to be limited that way, I'm sure you can understand."

Shiroe nodded, quite understanding. He tapped his foot in the air a bit, then said, "So...we're trying it Izanami's way, then? To see if the rules of game play can do it instead?"

"Even so," Michael agreed quietly.

"Ah...that's why even she needed to be able to work outside her boundaries, then. This needs to affect the world, not just as a game element or temporarily. They want this to be a fix to the world itself," Shiroe said.

Michael gave him the point with a grim smile, but he wouldn't answer with words to it. It wasn't necessary anyway.

-:-:-:-:-

When Michael and Brenner stepped out of the audience hall of the Temple of Creation, Purrcy turned away from the Eagles and walked off to stand by herself. She took a deep breath, then stood with her head bowed. Around the Eagles, the room changed to one that was empty, still roomy enough to fit them all, and had the ubiquitous ambient white lit walls, ceiling, and floor of the lesser rooms of the temple. They looked at each other, not knowing what was next.

When Purrcy didn't move, Reed made a motion and they all settled to sit relaxed for now. He made eye contact and crooked a finger. Gareth rose back to his feet and walked up to him. Quietly Reed said, "Because you're her priest, ask the Caretaker what she'd like for us to do next."

Gareth gave him a somewhat odd look, but saluted and walked to stand near Purrcy. He politely interrupted her, spoke briefly, then returned. Behind him Purrcy disappeared. "She says we may rest for now. She wants us to stay here because there's more for us to do."

His brow furrowed in concern. "She also said that since Michael walked himself out of the Gate of Time, he can't get back in. She'll have to fetch him from the time he's walked himself and Brenner to, but she's been summoned by Nyanta-san first." Purrcy had called the Eagles into the audience hall in the afternoon. They'd been helping Shiroe for most of that same afternoon.

As Gareth settled back down, Clocktower looked at the Intelligence detail. They quietly gave their report. They were in a room of the temple, but it had been locked into a separate time-space. None of them were getting out until Purrcy - or Izanami - was ready to let them out. They didn't really like being trapped, but it was a good sign that whatever they'd been kept reserved for was nearly upon them, and helping Shiroe hadn't been all that was.

Reed considered that, then shrugged a little. "To have the General gone from here even overnight won't hurt anything. It won't likely be any different timing for him." he said. "While sleeping on beds for the last days has been nice, I think we're back to lots of unknowns again."

He gave a bit of a wry smile. "I doubt we need to worry about setting up much of a guard while we're here. May as well get back into the usual patterns otherwise." They all agreed with that. Food and rest would be next, then.

The room actually felt a bit like one of the large cavernous rooms in the Mazes of Eternity, and this was feeling a bit like the break time between overwhelming rooms of the fourth level. The only difference was that the room was brightly lit and a temple room, not an underground dirt dungeon room. The light in the room was slowly dimming though, as if the sun was setting. They'd become accustomed to that signal and settled in.

As the men were eating from the pre-prepared food in their lists (Purrcy had warned them to make sure they were stocked up two days before), one commented to his smaller sub-group around him, "I wonder if we die while out on the next assignment if we'll resurrect in here?"

"You mean, is this the campaign resurrection point?" another asked back. The first nodded.

The sub-group looked around the room. "Well, that wouldn't be all bad," one said.

"Except how do we get back to the battle to keep helping? Would Purrcy have to keep dragging us back there?" another asked.

Another scowled. "Why do you think we're going to be fighting that way? We didn't just now." Some thought that was a good point, while others looked at the first questioner wondering it, too.

He shrugged. "Because that's what we usually do," he pointed out. "Given what we heard while standing there with the President, I'm inclined to believe that she's going to send us back in time into more battles again. Those were world-wide deities, not just South Amerkan ones." He got back thoughtful silence on that point.

In another group, they were discussing what they'd heard while watching over Shiroe. "I think in our time there, three-fifths were dark gods, and all of the rest had dark aspects to some level or other. Did any of you hear of ones that were just positive?" He got a lot of shakes of the head.

Eyes of a few went to an empty place in the room - a spot where one of them should have been sitting. "It makes one wish Christianity wasn't considered a taboo topic. Heck, I'd even take Judaism as one of the ones talked about. Even though God punished the Israelites it was usually for disobeying the commandments...and those were all about right-living in society." He got a few nods and faces looked a bit like stomachs weren't happy.

Reed looked around the room. Honestly, he was feeling it, too. For all they hadn't been attacking anything today, having to hear about it had brought it all up again - the horrors of the Sect war. The after-battle come-down was the time they all had to face the reality of what the purpose of the battle had been, the reality of the deaths seen and caused.

It was one of the unspoken reasons Adventurers stopped fighting and went to straight crafting, or why they farmed the zones but didn't fight the harder dungeons. It was also one of the reasons those who did keep fighting became hardened. Dealing death, even to monsters, brought the memories of doing it back again and again after the fact, when one was just washing their hands in the sink, drinking at the tavern, trying to fall asleep.

Soldiers of any form had to become hardened to those memories. If they went back into it again and again, they had a lot of memories built up to overcome. Silver Sword wasn't teased or thought badly of for stepping out and focusing on wine-making. Those who lived this kind of life understood.

Silver Sword's capacity to stay hardened against the memories of their past on Earth plus stay hardened against the memories of what their own hands had done had reached its maximum. They would still step in if they had to, to defend Susukino or Ezzo, but it was time for them to rest and do other things to remember that life included good things, too. To have the time to make the good memories start to outweigh the numbers of hard memories.

Reed sighed out a breath. Likely Michael would step out and take the desk job after this for that very reason. He sat with his head bowed, letting the soft comments of the men swirl around him until he was wishing to hear the soft voice of Brenner, or to feel the warm hand of Michael on his shoulder. It took a while for him to understand that tonight, that was his job. Neither of them was here. He took a deep breath and sighed it out, trying to reach for what would help everyone substitute the down they were all feeling.

He could feel the empty spaces, the missing words and voices. Rising to his feet, he followed those feelings, reaching out to put a hand lightly on top of a bowed airman's head, leaving it there until the airman was able to sigh and relax. He crouched down next to another one and let him complain at him quietly, nodding his understanding, then put a hand on his shoulder and said the words he knew Michael would have said.

Listening to those empty spaces, he followed them and filled them to the best of his ability. He felt unequal to the task. He wasn't Brenner to have the faith of God, and he wasn't Michael, but the men needed it, and the empty space in his own soul demanded it, called him to fill the empty spaces in theirs. When he finally sank back down into his own place again, the empty places in the room felt filled in again. The men were settling down, some already asleep.

He was a little surprised to realize he was missing one more thing. There was one more empty space. He wasn't sure what it was, then a different voice sounded than he expected to fill it.

It was one of the other more devout Christians filling that space that they must all have been feeling, like they'd all been missing Michael and Brenner until he'd done the filling in. It was a quiet prayer, said out loud, personal, but covering them all with the warm blanket that said the day was done and they could rest peacefully for now.

Reed lay there with his hands behind his head, his ears still open, still listening, his own heart still missing its own full comfort that would have filled it. He thought about patterns and habits. Their end of battle routines, their end of day patterns...they were ways to hold on to sanity, ways to make sure that life moved according to plans.

Tonight he finally understood that they'd begun because they were what was required to get each man back up to moving again, even if that moving was the ability to lie down and sleep. Everyone was further strengthened when they knew their comrades were being strengthened, too. As a team, they could move forward then.

Reed slumped a bit. That was a lot to carry on one man's shoulders. He closed his eyes. He was grateful that Michael understood and carried that for them. Every time he was given a new command, a new set of recruits - as it were - he would have had to learn the new pattern. Each new man was a learning experience to learn what he needed to keep going. Reed remembered that, how the first few months had been difficult. He fell asleep trying to remember how Michael had spent that early time learning how to tell what each man was like and what they would need.

His lip twitched up when he remembered the day he was super frustrated and Michael's hand had landed on his back and stayed there until he'd taken a deep breath, closed his eyes, and let it out, counted to ten, then nodded and been able to do what needed to be done properly. Just the warm touch had been enough to bring him back to a sense of companionship and reality as it were. Enough to drag him out of the almost overwhelming emotion to rationality. Remembering that now helped him finally relax and he was asleep without really knowing it.

Having fallen asleep with his magical ears going, he was awakened later that night (the room never got fully dark, more like a level of half-moon-light or a perfect nightlight) to someone crying. Again he waited for Michael to shift and rise to his feet, then belatedly realized that was him tonight. He sighed to himself, but rose and walked to the sound. He sat down close and put his hand on the head of the airman. A hand came up quickly to grab his hand and pull it down to the ground. The airman held on tightly until he was able to recover.

It happened more times than Reed had remembered, for some reason. Some men needed verbal comfort, some the hand holding or a hand on their head or shoulder. Some slept hard and didn't need help at all during the night, but Reed knew they were the ones who Michael would walk around to the next morning and talk to, mostly to make sure they didn't hit extra hard that day, or take it out verbally on the rest of the men they had to work with.

Night was like that. The subconscious worked overtime while the body slept. It reviewed everything that had been ignored or shoved under the hardness. Everything still had an effect, in the end. And everyone needed it to be addressed so they could move on properly. To let it build up too long meant fracture in the group itself, of the kind MasterChiefS7, and now Clocktower, had to take care of. It was better to not let it get that far if at all possible.

Reed knew that some Commanders did let it get that far. Perhaps now he understood why. It wasn't really in his own genes to do what Michael did. After watching him now for these years, though, and considering it again tonight as he sat with yet another airman, Reed decided that perhaps he would rather do it Michael's way.

It was more work every night, but the unity and solidarity it created, as well as the supreme trust in Michael they all had, was making all the difference in this harsh place they'd been brought into. He knew at least half of these airmen would never make it home without this trust they had in Michael, that he would help them walk the harsh path to get there.

At that thought, Reed dropped his head and in his heart said, "Mike, I know you're going to hate me, but really, these guys are going to make it happen all on their own. Please, help me lead these men while you're not here. I appreciate your spirit guiding me tonight, reminding me that I have a duty to them, too. Help me keep them walking until you're back."

He knew full well that to pray like that here, and to act on it, would really turn Michael into a deity of Theldesia like Michael had turned Purrcy into one. He couldn't regret it. It was as inevitable and as necessary. The hand he was holding finally relaxed in sleep and he gently extricated his own hand and walked back quietly to his place.

Movement caught his attention as he settled back down. He stayed sitting up as he watched MasterChiefS7 walk over to sit with him. "Do you want me to take the early morning chats?" MasterChiefS7 asked.

Reed considered that briefly, then shook his head. "I don't want them to think it's discipline. The Commander does it to let them vent. It's trust. I don't think they'd talk to you, actually, not the same way."

MasterChiefS7 looked away, then gave a nod. "Probably about right." He looked down and Reed waited. "I've actually been concerned about this very thing. ...Thanks for filling in right. ...I won't worry quite so much anymore."

Reed couldn't help the smile, although he hid it again before MasterChiefS7 looked up again since he was being serious and it was a rather serious topic. "The silent ghosts of the two of them staring me down with scolding looks made it rather hard to not fill in," Reed admitted. "He's a good Commander and I'm grateful I've gotten to learn from him this long. If I get in a bit of practicing what he preaches, then I suppose it's only good for me."

MasterChiefS7 gave him a sober nod. "You can sleep now. I always took this shift now anyway. They've got to see that someone was watching over them, even and maybe especially when we've been protected enough to not set up watches."

Reed blinked, then a wry lip lifted. "Yeah, I get that. I'm one of those, as I recall. A bit jumpy on wake-up unless eyes on watch are already awake and alert."

MasterChiefS7 gave him a knowing nod. "Yes, you are. But filling in for the Commander means you've not had more than a few hours. Sleep as long as you want, but your own sense of duty will have you up before the rest of us would."

Reed sighed a bit. "Most likely. Thanks."

MasterChiefS7 gave Reed the last thing he needed - the warm hand on the shoulder. "My pleasure ...and duty." Reed took the hand as long as he needed, then gave a nod. MasterChiefS7 rose and walked back to his place but stayed sitting up. Reed lay down, pulled up his blanket and slipped into sleep, turning off his magic ears. The noise of everyone waking up would get him up anyway.

-:-:-:-:-

Reed looked at the felinoid woman standing in front of him, rather in disbelief. "What?"

"Hold me," she required again. When he refused to move, her hands balled into fists, and her arms crossed in front of her chest. Then she stepped forward to stand slightly shivering against him. "Hold me," she said quietly, but insistently.

"Why?" he asked her.

"Because that's your job," she answered.

"My - job?" he blinked "Since when is that written into the agreement of a priest for a High Priestess?"

She shook her head at him, her soft fur brushing in a tickly way against his cheek and jaw. He wasn't sure he liked that and his brow furrowed in both irritation and a little uncertainty. He knew Michael had on occasion, but really, Reed wasn't the touchy-feel kind. It wasn't his way. Nor did he need any additional complications to his life. "Until Michael is back, you are the stand-in. We can trust you, if you will do your part properly," she said quietly.

He wasn't sure how to take that, particularly since it sounded both like a lecture and a scold. Suddenly he felt something similar to a hand reaching into his mind to turn a switch. He went to jerk back from her but his eyes and mind were caught by video - memory replays, visions, whatever one wanted to call them he supposed.

He watched as Michael wrapped an arm around Gareth's shoulders until Gareth could stand on his own again. He watched as Michael pulled Tetorō down into a bed and held him until his sobs calmed into sleep. He watched as Michael paused while passing two airmen to speak softly but firmly to one, and that one apologize to the other. He watched scene after scene of what Michael did during the day and knew they were moments like the past night he'd filled in for Michael and Brenner.

They were the times Michael gave the strengthening hand to the men he had to get back home when they needed it during the day. Michael always seemed to be off in his head, thinking his own thoughts, leaving the heavy work to Reed or MasterChiefS7 or any of the others who had leadership roles. But really, Michael was the glue, the one who kept them all moving forward properly...and he was quite busy doing it. If the rest of them weren't doing their jobs, he wouldn't have the time to be that strength and push they all needed.

Reed relented and raised his arms to hold Purrcy, finally understanding that Michael held her because that was what Purrcy needed to return to standing strong. Sometimes it wasn't that, but sometimes it was. Purrcy understood herself to know full well what strengthening she needed, and unlike a lot who didn't know, she knew to ask for it so she could get back on the job.

He could only figure they trusted him to do it right because they all already knew he wasn't going to let it turn into anything other than that. He was as committed to Betty as Michael was to Maryann, and he disliked the High Priestess more than Michael and Tetorō.

As Reed held Purrcy, an odd feeling crept over him. Since he was already in the frame of mind of trying to learn the nuances that Michael understood about being a commander, he looked at it rather puzzled and tried to figure it out. He didn't have anything better to do in this particular situation anyway.

When he realized it was the feeling of compassion, he just stared at it in wonder. He'd always believed compassion was given to the weak because of their weakness. This had come in response to him acting to strengthen someone else, not to pander to their weakness. He fully expected the outcome of what he was doing to put Purrcy back up on her feet so she could take the required next steps she had to face. Why would compassion come from strength, and after he'd acted?

He pondered on that, then realized something he'd never considered before. Perhaps compassion was not a gift given to others, but a gift received when one acted to strengthen others who needed that strengthening. The compassion he was feeling was oddly enough helping him to have the patience to continue to hold Purrcy longer than he normally would have been comfortable with. Not that he was comfortable from the beginning.

His mind flashed back to the time he'd gone after Michael, lost up in the mountain yet again because he didn't have the strength to keep moving forward carrying everyone on his back. Reed had pointed out the proper path to be on. Then Michael had required that he stay and give Michael the kind of support Michael needed to even move over to that proper path of healing.

Reed had been able to stay put and be patient, partially because he was as desperate as the rest of the men to see their anchor stayed put, but also, he'd felt this then, too. A compassion and understanding that it was hard - life, this journey, finding one's footing - that gave him the patience to wait quietly until Michael had found his way onto that path and grounded in it.

Reed thought back to Michael's examples, and the example he'd had that night of standing in Michael's shoes for everyone else. Michael's actions made them all see he had compassion, but Reed finally understood what he'd not been able to understand for a long time. The compassion came from Michael's actions, not the other way around. He acted to do what was necessary to see everyone stayed strong, and his gift for doing it was compassion that gave him patience to walk that path of duty.

And then Reed remembered the one example he had of a complete lack of compassion from Michael and his heart constricted. He bent his head. "Michael must have found it excruciating to not be able to strengthen you properly while we were on the Oki Watarimono, to have had his compassion removed from him."

Purrcy's ear flicked in a burst of surprise, then she shivered once. "I was grateful that the rest of you were allowed to feel at least that one to some small measure," she admitted. "The aftermath of that once he could feel again is still probably one of his hardest memories and guilts to overcome. It's why he hid more then, too. He already knew by then it would be."

Reed nodded. He could see that. Even the having to hide away would have put Michael though guilt trips now. "How helpless he must have felt."

"Even I felt that at the time," Purrcy agreed. "I would have comforted him then if I could have. When the rest of you finally figured it out and filled that place for him, he was finally comforted."

Reed groaned a bit. "I'm sorry it took that long."

She paused, then said, "Say that to him."

"Yeah, I suppose I will," he agreed. He paused to check on her. She didn't seem to be in a hurry to leave the position she was in. "So...what do you want us to do for you today, that's so hard you have to seek comfort and strength from a Navy man to even tell us?"

Purrcy closed her eyes, and her ears fell a bit. Finally she said, "Call Gareth over. He'll need to know now, too, but you'll need to decide the plan and the orders."

"You're not going to get Michael first?" Reed asked in surprise.

Purrcy turned her head from resting on his shoulder to looking him in the eye. "It's your final."

Reed wanted to drop, and drop her, at that rather sudden declaration. "Seriously?" he almost fumed it except he wasn't sure he was angry. She just blinked back at him. Reed took a deep breath. "God, help this poor airman who keeps being dropped into live-fire lessons and exams." He took two deep breaths and let them out. Only after the last one did he realized he'd held on to her even tighter.

He blushed a bit, wondering if that had been a reaction to his sudden burst of emotions or if it had been a subconscious holding onto a life preserver in the middle of a sudden storm. She was that for a lot of people, too. He lessened up his hold back to a comforting one for her and breathed a few more breaths to calm down enough to call Gareth.

Gareth came and stood near them, putting his hand on Purrcy's head to pet her a little, while looking into her face with some concern. "Actually, you should probably be petting Reed," she said.

Reed rolled his eyes at Gareth's surprised look that turned on him. "So, tell us the horrible things you want us to do today, that you don't want us to have to do," Reed said. By the time he reached the end of the sentence, he was feeling that compassion again and sighing at himself again. "Right. I forgot. You don't like to send us into live-fire exams, even though you have to and it's our job." She nodded.

"And it's worse this time because it's back into the horrible mess with the dark gods," Gareth said sympathetically, patting her on the head. Purrcy nodded again and swallowed. Reed could feel her shiver again in his arms.

Reed considered that, then said, "You know, we'd rather go fight it and remove it than not. That's why we do what we do. Even if it's hard to face it then and after. We have our integrity to remind us that what we did was for the right reason."

Purrcy was able to take a deeper breath and relax better after that. Enough she could stand on her own feet, although she still wanted to hold each of their hands in hers to have just enough courage to get the orders out. "I need to send you to the Central Amerkan battle." Her sad and anxious eyes looked into Reed's. "Not to help the Adventurers. They can do what needs to be done. I need you to see that as many People of the Land survive as possible. It will be twice minimum. Do you remember the reports from the spies?"

Reed and Gareth nodded, Gareth's eyes slowly going wide. "I need you to protect the People of the Land gathered with the Adventurers to be the sacrifices, and I need you to protect the People of the Land herds underground so they can become the people they were supposed to be above ground. Both sets will be devoured in Ccoa's attempt to live when it's proven to him that the Adventurers cannot keep him alive, nor will they."

Reed bowed his head in understanding. "Will you then call on us to do that world-wide? To go in battle after battle against the dark gods of the world?"

Purrcy began shivering again and she couldn't answer. Reed's brow furrowed, although mostly in thought. "Purrcy, let us work it out. I'll tell them that much, but maybe there's a way in one battle to make it affect all the other gods. We've been able to break flavor text that way - one example is sufficient for all cases. Maybe that can be used in this case. We also don't want to have to be worn down in that many battles." He looked back up at her. "It might take a rather massive miracle or set of them again, though."

Purrcy blinked at him, then gave a nod. "They all want it, too."

"Alright," he said soothingly. "We'll see if we can work something out." He glanced at his men, still waiting on them. "Can you bring the Twin Falls boys in? Likely we'll need their help as well. They're our shields when we all need to be acting."

Purrcy considered that, then nodded. "Have Gareth ask it at the right time so the door can be opened properly."

Reed nodded and so did Gareth. They could do that. Gareth gave Purrcy a quick hug for one more moment of comfort, then she was gone. They understood. She understood they preferred to do the battle planning on their own. She was rather an excellent deity for Adventures by now. Besides, it was proper for Nyanta to do the rest of the comforting and strengthening she needed.