-5-
Skuld brought her hands up, her fingers spread and chin tucked as she observed the two women across from her with heated eyes. The Anzu Kibaltu, a weapon of her own invention, rested in the 'cover' position between each finger, creating a glow like a pair of heated boxing gloves. Too bad I ain't a boxer. Skuld thought. She grinned, watching from the corner of one eyes as the unarmed brown-haired Valkyrie, Chrono, edged into her blind spot. That was fine. Let her go. Right now she wanted nothing more than to pound this green-haired bitch into the ground, and Skuld was confident she could at least defend against the other's attack until the main source of her anger was out of the picture.
Across from her Kara grinned as well. It appeared strained and nervous. "What's with that stance?" she taunted, "How do you expect to fight like that? You look like you want to run away."
Skuld said nothing, and the Kibaltu pulsed against her fingers. "Adapu," she uttered, and refused to flinch as a fist entered her peripheral vision. The Kibaltu on her right hand fled to block the attack, and just as quickly Chrono retreated, hissing in pain. "Belu!" she instructed, and pushed her left hand out once more, sending the remaining pearls flying. Kara surprised her, however, by ducking under the weapon as it whipped out in a chain, countering with an uppercut as she moved into the Norn's guard.
Oh ho, bitch, I've been waiting for this. The smile never left her face, and the woman angled her head to one side, taking a glancing blow from the strike as she twisted, brought her right elbow up at an angle, and then brought it down with increased momentum.
It was a strike meant for the eyes, but Kara shifted just enough to nail the Valkyrie in the front of her head. Both woman fell back, and with a shout of Adapu Skuld brought her weapons back into the shield position. Her elbow was thrumming in pain, and though Kara was bleeding from where she'd been struck, she smiled with fresh vigor. "Lind throws Valkyries harder than you throw elbows," he taunted. "If that's the extent of your abilities, we'll whittle you down in no time."
An attack came at Skuld's back as Chrono once more tested her defense, and again half the Kibaltu reacted, surging behind her to ward off the blow before Skuld could defend herself. As soon as the weapon broke in half Kara was on the move again, this time with a right hook of such speed that Skuld flinched. The Kibaltu reacted once more, yet this time it seemed neither Kara nor Chrono were through with her. As soon as the weapons reacted, both Valkyries moved in for a secondary counter, using the momentum generated upon deflection to evade the weapon's second shielding attempt. Kara came at Skuld from the front with a secondary left hook, and behind her Chrono lashed out with a high kick.
The Norn blocked the punch, bringing her right elbow up to cover her head, yet the kick caught her by surprise, sending her down as Chrono's heel struck her in the back. The Norn cried out in pain, and Kara came forward with a kick of her own, her knee planting itself squarely in Skuld's gut. The goddess heaved in pain, and smiling, the blood leaking down her face giving her a malevolent appearance, Kara grabbed Skuld's head and smashed the opposing knee into it.
Skuld saw stars, and for a moment everything darkened as unconsciousness threatened to overtake her. The Norn dropped like a sack of bricks, yet with a growl the goddess roused herself, twisting in the sky to look up at Kara as she fell. "Belu!" She snarled, bending the Kibaltu to her will with all her might as she extended her magic upwards. The weapon followed her magic's path, and a chain of beads wrapped themselves around Kara's ankle. With a roar that was equal parts rage and determination, Skuld spun in the air, allowing the chain to wrap around her person as Kara was torn from the sky. She felt her magic close in around her in a tight coil, and the Kibaltu followed, sending the green haired Valkyrie into a dangerous corkscrew before finally releasing the woman at terminal velocity.
The warrior was launched with such force it was staggering, the resulting impact with the ground narrowly avoiding a large tower which still glowed with internal busy bodies. The earth shook from the resulting shockwave generated by the impact, and nearby car alarms began to screech as the locals cried out in confusion. Kara did not get up from where she crashed.
Skuld spat in the Valkyrie's general direction. And stay down, you sodden excuse for a Valkyrie. The Norn felt sick. Her back hurt from where Chrono had kicked her and her face felt like someone had smashed a mallet into it. She looked up and her neck cracked in pain. Still one more to go. She could feel her face starting to swell. Oh...if Urd didn't have Belldandy dangling from her arms as she ran from the pits of hell itself after Skuld was finished, she was going to personally blast her older sister with the Mini Nuke Launcher that was still in R &D. Dear sister of mine, you owe me more than your weight in ice cream when this is over.
"Adahu." Crap, her face was swelling so much she couldn't annunciate properly. The Anzu Kibaltu glowed for a brief moment around her, and then fell dormant once more,perhaps recognizing her voice but unable to distinguish her commands. "Shi." She tried to curse and failed at even that. Her body throbbing with pain, the Norn rose up into the sky once more.
Chrono was waiting for her. "You're hardier than you look." She confessed, looking the Norn up and down with a soft frown.
"The both of you fight like honorless bitches." Skuld retorted. The words came out slurred.
The Valkyrie raised an eyebrow. "We fight like Valkyries." She corrected. "Demons have no honor, and thus we can spare none for our opponents." Chrono looked uncomfortable. "I don't want to fight you, Norn. We're a military unit, not a police force."
"Well you could have fooled me!" Skuld snarked. "Why else would the higher up send a Yggdrasil-blessed Fighting Wing after a pair of Norns?! All we want to do is get our sister back, in case that wasn't clear!"
Chrono at least had the decency to flinch. "We're under orders to bring you back," she said. The words sounded like an excuse when voiced aloud, and the Valkyrie grimaced. "Listen, I don't know why we were sent to bring you in. I may never know why we were sent to retrieve you," she reasoned. "Yet whoever is calling the shots on this is well above our paygrade, and if there's one thing I've come to learn it's to trust those higher ups." She settled once more into the fighting stance so infamous to all Valkyries, and Skuld tensed, falling into her own stance as well, that open-handed stance that Urd had started drilling into her head almost five years ago. "As such, I will give you one last chance, Norn Skuld. Surrender now."
And Skuld, youngest of the Norns and perhaps the most vicious, smiled and jutted her chin out. "Come get some."
XXX
Draw her away. The goddess used the reflective sheens of the various skyscrapers they passed to watch Lind. Her heart felt like a caged animal beating against the walls of her ribs. This isn't a fight you can win, so draw her away. Was that her angel or her own voice she was hearing? There was reason to it; moreso than she'd had at the initial start of her fight, where anger had clouded her judgment. That spoke more for World of Elegance than herself. Whereas she tended to go the way of emotion, her Other Half balanced her out through logic, and now, as a new strategy began to manifest within the Norn's mind, Urd paid close attention to what it was the angel was trying to communicate to her.
If you can get her to the hilltop...if you can expose this Aoshima guy for the bastard he is...maybe, just maybe you can get Lind over to your side. A vain thought, but the alternative was much worse. Lind had too much experience for Urd to match when it came to fighting. And while Urd had learned a couple new tricks in the time since her rescue by Team 12, they did not place her anywhere near on the same level as Lind. Doesn't matter, go for Plan B. Find out what Aoshima is hiding and reveal it. Justify your reasoning in such a manner that even Lind would be forced to buckle down and agree that something is wrong.
The alternative, such as fighting Lind in a one on one fight, was worse. Actions that forced Valkyrie interference were frowned upon in Asgard, and for them to send a Fighting Wing like Lind was a bad sign for Urd. It's either this or Skuld and I get sealed for half a century for relinquished obstruction of a wish. The thought chilled her to the bone. While the threat of her own sealment was something Urd would scoff at, the knowledge that Skuld could be punished as an accomplice was not a thought she cherished. Add to that the fact that Belldandy would be forced to spend even more years with Aoshima, and...
The woman grit her teeth, catching a warm draft of wind that pushed her into a vertical climb. Lind followed a moment later. Lind only has that one wing on her...Elegance has a much broader wingspan as well... I should be able to stay ahead of her so long she doesn't pull some trick of her own.
Just don't force me into a dogfight. Elegance whispered in her ear. I'm not some small kestrel or falcon that can maneuver on a dime. I can soar all night long because I was built for it, but if that Valkyrie gets the drop on us, I'll be useless to you.
Urd grunted in agreement, a part of her certain that Lind was plotting for just such a scenario. It seemed like something the Valkyrie would do, and if it meant bringing Urd into the range of her fists, than the blue-haired woman would be all for it. She'll wait until we're out of the city first. Where there's a smaller risk of collateral damage and where there's no reflective surface I can use to track her. Urd judged, watching the mirrored glass windows of skyscrapers reflect the Valkyrie on her tail. But it will need to be soon. She'll have to act before I get too close to Belldandy, otherwise we both risk interrupting whatever 'wish' was given to Aoshima, and that's not something Lind will tolerate. The goddess pursed her lips, eyes thoughtful. It'll have to be right outside the city. Some place near the base of the hill Aoshima's mansion is located on. Okay. That was fine. That was good. But then how to counter it? Not a dogfight, for certain; World of Elegance had already spoken against that, and it'd be unwise to ignore the request of her Other Half.
Yet wouldn't that be what Lind wanted? A dogfight where she could outmaneuver Urd and overwhelm the Norn into submission? So keep her on the ground...you've practiced with Keiichi enough to know how to work the moves, you might as well put them into play, right? Lock up her joints, send her down, and then get the soaring advantage until you get to the mansion.
It was a poor plan with a high chance of failure. Yet Urd still had a few tricks up her sleeve that she was confident Lind would find hard to counter. Valkyries weren't taught mortal defense techniques unless it was as a hobby for the goddess in question, and Lind seemed the type dedicated to her own craft over learning something most deities would consider an inferior art. But if she could use it where Lind least expected it, attack her, pin her in such a way that the Valkyrie couldn't fight back without external aid...
Yes, yes it might work. She' have to be fast and she'd need to be perfect, but there was a chance it could work against the woman. You better be certain, a part of her warned, you're already at the city's outskirts. And indeed, now that she paused to look around her, she was. The last skyscraper had been over a mile behind them, and that one small in comparison to the great business obelisks that so punctured the evening sky like terrible fangs.
Instead they'd entered the sparser residential district, the suburban areas of the many families that worked in the city. Here most of the buildings were two stories tall, with larger apartments spreading both out and up for several more stories in almost random locations. The roads narrowed and the sidewalks were almost nonexistent here, with sparse, random fields holding everything from gardens of flowers to home gardens of a seasonal harvest. The smog of the city had dissipated and most of the streets were empty of residents; most either at home for the night, at a night school, or in the first stages of closing shop for the evening before taking the trains back home. Most of the houses were still bright with activity, and the artificial light created a gentle yellow glow that hid the stars in the night sky.
The woman glanced behind her, unsurprised to find Lind still on her tail, neither gaining nor losing ground. The Valkyrie seemed content to pursue her for the moment, lending truth to Urd's initial assumption that Lind wanted to minimize collateral damage. But this is Japan. She reminded herself, it can go from a goddamned city to forest in a matter of minutes. Which was the case with Nekomi, in particular around the more mountainous regions.
Speaking of...
The hill Aoshima's mansion on was in sight now, and at it's peak was a yellow glow that spoke of life. A thermal draft sent her high into the sky, and she road it as high as it would take her. Beneath her the suburban landscape faded away, and in its place came dense forest and sheer cliffs, a road curving along hill's outskirts that rested abandoned by any wayside travelers. Clouds, cool and pregnant with the rain they bore, buffeted her body, dampening her clothes and skin just to the point of being notable and unpleasant.
Here. Elegance's wings curved back, and Urd leaned back with them, flipping into a dive that left her meeting Lind's surprised eyes just as the Norn's wings folded against her body, descending like a great roc that had spied its prey below it. Lind's own wing snapped back, and the Valkyrie just avoided a head-on collision with the Norn. Urd lashed out with a kick in passing, the foot dancing with electricity, and at that same moment Lind likewise threw a punch towards her torso. Urd twisted to avoid it, yet still felt something connect, while Lind folded a leg of her own against her torso to block the oncoming strike. The blow struck her mid-thigh, and the resulting electrical discharge raced up the Valkyrie's own damp outfit to deal a more destructive blow.
Lind recoiled, and Urd dropped down to the mansion below. The Norn's chest burned as though she'd been cut with a knife, and that from a glancing blow from one of Lind's punches. She clutched the area with a grimace, did her best to ignore the pain, and focused on the looming landscape below her. She could see the mansion now in all it's glory, see the multi-storied tiled rooftops, each floor holding a longer ceiling than the one above it, and angled herself towards the third floor. The woman sensed a presence come up behind her as some tiny piece of her began to scream, and then Lind crashed into her with a roar that was nerve-rattling.
A mass of flailing limbs and fluttering wings, Valkyrie and Norn collided through the third story roof and onto a bed. The bed sagged, groaned, and broke, and Lind tore herself free only to deliver a secondary blow, diving at Urd with such force that the wooden floor cracked, splintered, and then collapsed, sending a Norn, a Valkyrie, and a destroyed bed tumbling into the room beneath. This time there was nothing to soften the fall, nor enough force to destroy the floor even more. Instead, Urd, with a snarl on her face that was at once both desperate and vicious, fought against Lind's grip. She writhed and squirmed beneath the stronger woman, tucking into a ball to protect her groin and stomach as various blows rained down upon her form.
Shielding her face as best she could, Urd brought her legs up, hooking Lind's leading leg with her own and planting her other firmly against the woman's thigh. Leaning forward, she wrapped a hand around the back of the warrior's knee, pulling first forward with the hooked leg and then shoving forward with the opposing foot. In a manner faster than the Valkyrie could follow she found her balance lost and herself on her back. Urd followed her down, and before Lind could so much as think about what was happening Urd was on top of her, knees digging into the Valkyries sides as she sank her weight on the Valkyrie's pelvis. The Norn crossed her arms and leaned forward, and Lind felt fingers slip past her neck and into her collar, reaching all the way behind her where they formed a fist. It's sibling moved to the opposite shoulder and then Lind watched as Urd leaned down into her.
There was an arm against her throat, cutting off her air, and Lind thrashed, bucking her hips and throwing a hook at Urd's head. Yet the goddess had her pinned with such efficiency it was scary: she rolled with the buck but was not unbalanced, and the blows came weak from the angle Urd was leaning into her at. Spots began to blossom within her vision, and the next blow came weaker, not so much a strike so much as it was grasping for freedom, clawing at the arms and hands and fingers that so cut off her air and finding instead an iron clamp with no give.
What in the nine worlds is this?! Her mind screamed, or perhaps that was Spear Mint, confused and perhaps even a little afraid by this strange turn of events. What devilry had the Norn learned in the past ten years that allowed her to produce such an action? And on the ground?
Valkyries were warriors, yes, but more importantly they were warriors of the sky. Their arts and magics were all based around the concept of air combat, where they could dodge and outmaneuver their opponents. To be forced to the ground was something allowed only under dire circumstances, and that was where the use of a physical weapon became imperative to survival. Yet to fall to the ground like some lowly beast, to roll around on the ground like a pig in a mud patch was just. Not. Done. Not even demons lowered themselves to such filthy standards, and yet here was a goddess who'd not only brought her down, but had pinned her and was choking her out!
She could hear her pulse thumping in her ears now, drowning out the world around her. Her vision began to darken and her strength fled her limbs, and with effort Lind fought to stay conscious. There was no way in all the Worlds that she'd allow herself to fall to a Norn of all things. Won't matter if she halts the blood flow to your brain, Spear Mint reasoned.
And that was when Urd froze and looked up.
Teetering on the edge of unconscious, Lind watched with growing confusion as something caught the woman's eye. She watched the Norn's eyes widen and the pupils dilate, and all at once Urd straightened, Lind forgotten as whatever she saw captured Urd's attention in its entirety. The hands loosened their grip on Lind's shoulder and collar, and the woman on top of her leaned back, shoulders slack as a look of dawning horror emerged on her face. Her eyes roamed up and down, to the left and to the right, and as Lind sucked in a ragged breath she began to wonder what such eldritch horror rested behind her.
Whatever it was didn't seem to be a physical threat to her, and thus Lind categorized it as secondary to the woman on top of her. With a grimace, the Valkyrie lurched forward, grabbed the hem of Urd's collar, and heaved with all her might to the right. Urd didn't even offer a challenge, wasn't even aware of what Lind was doing. With her eyes still glued to whatever was behind Lind, Urd was tossed off the Valkyrie's body. She landed in a sprawl beside the woman in white, yet again did nothing beyond orienting herself in a position where she could view whatever had so mystified her.
Something is wrong...Again, a voice that sounded just a bit different from Spear Mint whispered in her mind, causing Lind to pause from where she'd been about to roll to her feet. Don't you hear it? Someone's screaming...
And indeed, now that it had been brought to her attention, someone was screaming. Many someones, in fact. Crying too, and they were all coming from behind her. The Valkyrie shivered and felt a lump form in her throat, and again that strange Not-Spear Mint spoke again. They sound like... children.
Don't do it Lind. Spear Mint warned. We have a mission to complete. Subdue the Norn first and then you'll have all the time in the world to see whatever atrocities these barbarians are doing down here. Focus, Lind. The warrior looked down at Urd. The goddess was pale, her face slack with shock. She reached for the woman, ignoring the strange, almost-angel's words telling her to look up, see what Urd was staring at, to stop, Stop, STOP!
A hand grabbed Urd by the arm, and Lind hoisted the goddess to her feet, only to stumble when the Norn showed no inclination towards supporting her own weight. Lind grit her teeth, and with a growl hoisted the goddess up forcefully. Urd whimpered, and with it came a word, a name, that gave Lind pause.
"Belldandy..."
Lind stared at the goddess in bemusement, and in the back of her mind Spear Mint and the Not-Angel began screaming with renewed ferocity, arguing with each other like a pair of siblings until she could make no rhyme or reason of her own thoughts. And then one voice, that stranger in her head, that voice who was not Spear Mint but held a eerie semblance to it, rose up in a roar. Look! Turn around damn you! For the sake of those you lost LOOK!
And so Lind Looked. Lind Looked for the sake of those who'd been lost, as directed. Lind Looked and Lind Saw, and what Lind Saw made her eyes widen, made her lose her breath, and, perhaps most important of all, left her in shock. All at once she Saw why Urd had fought for ten years to find her sister. She Saw, and she Understood, and the shock, the horror, the indomitable rage she felt was made all the worse by a new kindling of emotions; ones she'd not felt in ages and ones that hurt her enough to almost be a physical blow. Shame. Guilt.
The Valkyrie ran both her hands through her hair. She felt hot and clammy, horrified and disgusted. "She was right." Lind heard herself whisper. She couldn't take her eyes off the screens...the many, many screens. "She's-" Oh Yggdrasil, were they all Belldandy? All those girls? She swallowed and tasted bile, or perhaps it was copper, and shook her head slowly. "This isn't-how could anyone-" Why? Why in Yggdrasil's roots would she allow herself to fall to such a state? How could a man-a mortal-treat her so...so...
A high keen rose to her right, and with effort Lind tore her eyes from the screen, looking down at the goddess at her side. The expression on Urd's face was one Lind had seen before; one she'd worn before in another place, in another time: one of such complete and utter despair that it bordered on the edge of destructive. Destroy the screens. The two voices in her head- Spear Mint and The Stranger- spoke in unison. Don't force her to watch anymore. Destroy it. Destroy it all and end it now. We shouldn't be seeing this. Not us. Not Urd..
She almost didn't feel her body move in response, almost didn't see the golden sheen that came across her vision. One moment she was staring at Urd and the next she was destroying the screens, howling her own rage, her own grief, her own shame that she'd not taken the time to listen to the Norn, to question her orders, to be forced to come down to this miserable shithole and stumble upon this! A fist slammed into one monitor. A kick took out three more. She let her emotions (Yggdrasil be blessed, she'd not felt like this in eons, was this what true emotion felt like?) fuel her magic and fired blast upon blast of non-elemental bursts without cause, destroying not only the video screen monitors but the surrounding wall as well, leaving nothing but a smoldering pile of circuits in its wake. She destroyed the speakers, destroyed the consoles, destroyed any and every scrap of technology she could find until only shredded metal and torn wires remained, and those all less than an inch in length.
Lind stood trembling in the aftermath, panting to the point where her throat ached, and the Valkyrie looked back at Urd. The woman hadn't moved from her spot, and at this point Lind would have been more surprised if she had. Taking a deep breath through her nose, the Valkyrie walked over to Urd and kneeled down beside the Norn. "Let's get you out of here." She muttered, not without kindness as she draped Urd's arm around her shoulder. The Valkyrie rose slowly, ensuring the Norn had her feet beneath her, before heading towards the exit.
Urd buried her face in her free hand. It was shaking. "Ten years." She sounded dazed. "I can't—how will she forgive me?"
Lind said nothing. Her words would hold little weight now. She sighed, and almost, almost missed the soft, painful groan that arose behind the two of them. Almost.
The Valkyrie paused, and Urd leaned into her, her complexion pallid and distressed. Looking over her shoulder, the blue-haired goddess looked back towards the ruined wall. Her brows rose in surprise as one of the men in the room rolled onto his side. After seeing one corpse that looked like it'd been gutted, she'd assumed the other one dead as well, and hadn't given him much attention. Not with the blood that had already been on his white outfit.
Now however the Valkyrie turned to better observe him, and Urd stumbled along beside her, grunting but putting up no word of protest. The man in white had somehow escaped most of the damage done to the room, either by the fight between Norn and Valkyrie or by the resulting destruction of the video studio wall. He rolled onto his knees, clutching his stomach with a grimace and coughing wetly. The man spat, then looked around with a dark, wary glower. When his eyes fell upon the two woman, he groaned again, and his head hit the wooden floor with a gentle thunk.
"There's more of you?!" His voice was a shrill shriek, and Lind flinched at the undue hostility in his voice. "And who are you two? The black fucker's entourage of whores?" He hissed in a breath, then leaned back on his legs into a kneeling position. "Mulberries, you freaks are crawling out of the woodworks, aren't you?"
Urd let her hand drop at the sound of his voice, and her head rose as she too came to observe the stranger. The man in white paused, looking between the two women and the rest of the room. "You." Urd breathed. "You're the cause of all this..."
The man didn't hear her, and Lind looked down at the goddess in renewed concern. The tone Urd spoke with was one the Valkyrie had never heard before, and after close to seven years of watching and harassing the woman for reaching out to Belldandy, Lind had long ago grown familiar with the great many personas that made up Urd.
"Mullberries." The Man in White repeated, looking around once more before throwing his hands up in frustration. "I said 'Mulberries'!" He cried, and when still nothing happened the man cursed and stumbled to his feet. "Can't find any good help these days," he grumbled. "Stupid bitch is slacking on the job."
Urd tore herself from Lind's grip. The Valkyrie offered little resistance. "Aoshima..." she growled, and then in a louder voice, "And this stupid bitch wouldn't happen to be my sister, would it?"
Aoshima started, then made a show of brushing off his sleeves as though he was attempting to hide behind the 'swab and debonare' mask of success. "I wasn't aware that Hagall had a sister!" he announced, and Urd paused, her eyes narrowing. "...Or perhaps you're Belldandy's sister?" he asked, looking the woman up and down appraisingly. "The both of you? You've got the blue tats like her."
"Who is Ha-" Lind stopped mid-question as Urd strode towards him, no longer shocked but livid, her gaze bright with fury. A strange aura engulfed her, and as Lind watched a strange, horrible sense of (fear) unease overtook her. That's not an aura, Spear Mint was distressed. That's the absence of an aura. That's a void engulfing her. And indeed, it was a thing without color or definition, a presence, a concept, that appeared to devour everything within its immediate vicinity. What is she—oh Yggdrasil, no.
All at once she realized what Urd was doing, and she raced forward, spurned on by Spear Mint's warnings; No! She can't! She'll level this whole building! "Urd!" Yet already she could see the negative aura, the void, devour Urd's form, consuming bit-by-bit the vassal that so housed the true being within. Oh no, oh heavens, oh Yggdrasil this is bad. They weren't allowed to reveal their True Selves on a lesser dimensional plane. It went at odds with the dimensional rules of that plane and created paradoxes because the Rules that created the Law of the Land were broken and impossibilities that the lower dimension could not fathom were brought to reality.
Yet there it was, more and more coming into existence: a eldritch beast, a creature of such unfathomable complexity that Aoshima screamed as his eyes met its gaze and his mind tried to make sense of what he saw. For what he saw was a creature beyond his scope of imagination, an entity of such unnatural complexity that his eyes bulged in their sockets. Blood trickled down from his nose, and the man brought his hands to his head, pulling out fistfulls of matted, black hair by the roots. He did not so much step back as he did collapse before the being, and then Lind was in front of him, grabbing the man by the collar and knocking him out before his brain could devolve into further mush.
She tossed him to the far side of the room, standing before the eldritch creature and barring it from further advancement. "Urd, don't do this!" She roared. "Change back, for the love of your Kin, change back!" Yet instead a presence engulfed her form, a being seen not with the physical eyes of her third-dimensional form but of her True Eyes; something she sensed more than saw, and what she sensed was anger. Anger in the purest sense of the word, and oh, what a terrible, heated feeling it was, like the hot plasma of a sun, scalding everything it came across. It closed around her, threatened to engulf her, and it was enough to scare Lind, for as she was now surely it'd be enough to destroy her. "Spear Mint!" She roared, and her angel was quick to respond, emerging from her like an ethereal ghost.
She felt a presence wrap around her, felt (fangs and talons and claws) it lift her, and then she was sent flying, colliding through the wall and into the adjoining hallway. The Valkyrie grunted, coughed, and rolled to her feet, her heart racing with adrenaline. Urd had already forgotten her, was once more making her way towards Aoshima, and without thought Lind raced back into the room, propelled forward with the aid of her angel. "Urd!" She screamed, and her vision danced with flecks of gold. "This is your last chance! Stop now!"
Yet Urd was beyond her words, her world narrowed to one thing and one thing only and that was Aoshima, collapsed and unconscious and ignorant of whatever fate awaited him at Urd's (claws fangs talons) hands. Lind collided with the deity, felt eyes (so many eyes, all around, all staring, glaring, piercing the veil and looking into her core) bore into her, and lashed out with a punch, a kick, a strike that might cause harm. Yet Urd's new state of being was one which both existed and did not, and limited to her own third dimensional body Linds assault did nothing; would do nothing unless she too cast aside her current form for that of her higher self, and the Law of the Land was already bending towards the point of breaking just adapting to Urd's presence. It would collapse if she abandoned her current body, she knew, and this world, this universe, threatened to splinter with any further prodding.
But what could she do?
Something whipped into her back and knocked her to the ground, and then the pressure was on top of her, digging her into the floor until the wood began to splinter around her. She released a shout, and Spear Mint lashed out, perhaps the closest thing Lind had at that moment to her higher-dimensional self. The one-winged angel lashed out, and through the additional sense granted by her angel Lind sensed her strike a pair of eyes (one of many, many others), heard the resulting snarl of pain, and felt the pressure abate a bit. The Valkyrie tried to rise to her feet, sensed jaws snapping at Spear Mint and something that might have been a foot dig its talons into Lind's body.
She cried out, more in concern for her angel than herself, and then the stranger in her head rose up: Call me! It screamed. I can help! I can fight, but you need to let me out! She winced at the mental barrage. Please! She'll destroy everything if we don't calm her down! There's another way and I know how but you have to let me out! Summon me!
And just who are you?! Lind screamed back, yet even as the demand formed in her head the answer arose in her mind. Oh...she knew exactly who this was.
Please, hurry! And with a new roar Lind's back arched. A name came to her mind and exited her throat.
"Cool Mint! Come forth!"
Her heart racing she turned to watch with anticipation, with terror, with exhilaration as The Stranger who she'd always known, the Twin Within Her Soul, emerged in an onslaught of feathers.
Cool Mint collided with the presence on Lind's back with enough force to off-balance it, and the Valkyrie was quick to escape, scrambling from beneath Urd's grip like a mouse from a cat. She sensed rather than heard Urd's confusion—the deity was beyond physical words now—and moved to distract the entity. The eyes she sensed-by Yggdrasil there were so many eyes-darted around the room, looking at Spear Mint, staring at Cool Mint, glancing at Lind and demanding why why WHY!?
Words came to her mind-Cool Mint's words, not Spear Mint's, not her own thoughts, and her eyes burning like golden suns Lind stood tall and rigid; a white Sentinel before an otherworldly entity within a palace created at the whims of a man more fitting a demon's contract than a goddess's blessing. "Now's the time Urd!" She bellowed, and the walls trembled with her roar. "Now you decide: Are you a goddess or a demon?"
She felt the presence recoil, felt it twist and writhe in anger, yet as Cool Mint had predicted Urd was hesitant to attack. "You have unleashed your True Self, Urd. Despite the Law of the Land laid forth by the Elder Gods, you have disrupted the interdimensional rules, and all over a mortal!" she snarled. "Are you so willing to lower yourself to such base emotions like a demon?" She forced a sharp bark of laughter from her throat and felt the air vibrate in a deep growl. "And to think, I was starting to respect you as a goddess... it seems the rumors are true. You're nothing but a wolf in a goat's pelt."
You need to appeal to her angel. Her angel is the only thing that can stop her at this point. Again, Cool Mint's words, not hers. At this point, even with the ethereal golden aura granted by the Golden Eye state, Lind was no match for Urd in her current form; would never be unless her current body was cast aside, but Urd didn't know that. At least Lind hoped not. If she did, than the Valkyrie was a very dead goddess. Is insulting her even a good idea? Her mind screamed. Does reverse psychology even work on deities like Urd?!
Well, she was about to find out one way or another.
A roar reverberated throughout Lind's third dimensional body and all the way into her True Self, and the essence that made up Urd surrounded her in its entirety. She felt a thrill of fear (a thrill, an honest-to-Yggdrassil thrill! Was this what true terror felt like?!) and Lind swallowed. "Looks like I'm at your mercy now." She hissed, looking around and meeting the non-eyes that watched her with such imploring rage. "So what the fuck are you, Urd?"
A growl, a hiss, the sensation of hot, moist breath upon her body.
And Urd provided her answer.
XXX
An inky blackness surrounding him, Keiichi felt himself falling more than he saw.
Falling…
Falling…
Falling…
And then even that was gone. It had been said that gravity never kills, only the sudden stop at the end. Yet the sensation he was experiencing, a familiar one he had felt so many times after committing the ultimate unnatural act of jumping out of a perfectly good airplane, was simply not there anymore.
Yet he still could not see.
Was he standing up? Was he upside down? There was no way to tell. The feeling was disconcerting, and might have sent a lesser man into hysterics. Yet he drew upon his experience to keep his wits about him. Years of training in water had prepared him for what to do in a situation like this.
And then there was a light. A small pinprick of light that appeared to be far off, although that may have been more of a trick on his mind since there was no reference for him to say how far it was. The light gathered and stretched, growing from a pin and into a ball, from a ball into a blimp and further still; growing and gathering until it illuminated the area around him. Just as he made notice of the floor below, his feet touched down.
Keiichi stood and looked around him. He began to recognize that he was in some sort of room, although he still could not tell where. Somehow, though, it looked familiar. A memory long past, a house long forgotten maybe? The sights, the smells dredged up feelings of youth, of childhood, of trips overseas and the outlandish people with their many shapes and sizes and colors. He noted the bed and the dresser first; a corner of the dresser is missing from where it was carved smooth with a knife. He looked at the back corner of the dresser and found he was right. A closet was on the wall opposite the dresser-mothballs, he thought-and finally the door that exited the room. Large, heavy wood. Like the front door substituted a bedroom door. He glanced around, trying to spurn his memory but in the end failed. No memory approached him, yet neither could he shake the feeling of déjà vu.
A noise outside the room caused his instincts to kick in. Quickly and silently, he darted towards the door and pressed himself against the wall just outside the frame. The door was closed, yet he still caught movement coming from the light emanating from underneath. Whoever or whatever it was passed on down the way. He heard another door open, and then close.
He looked around again. The familiarity of the house was getting to him a little. He wracked his brain as he tried to remember, yet still it remained just out of his reach. Curiosity getting the better of him, Keiichi reached out, grasped the door handle and turned it. The door opened with ease and, much to his surprise, was silent. The hallway outside was brightly illuminated, and framed pictures lined the walls.
One in particular caught his attention. He crept out into the hallway to get a better look. What he saw nearly made his heart stop. It was a family portrait: a Japanese man along with his wife and two kids. He Immediately recognized the slim, stern face of his father Keima. Next to him was Takano, large and heavy with the final term of pregnancy. His younger sister Megumi and Keiichi himself, the both of them still children, stood in front with large, beaming smiles on their faces. Yet it was not his family that caused his heart to seize, no. Not the children, not his mother nor his father... It was the man flanking his mother on the other side.
That most hated man. The man that ruined his sister's life.
A door opened and that man stepped out, the sound of a toilet flushing behind him. He was wearing just boxers and a T-shirt. Keiichi froze, yet the man paid him no heed as he turned and walked away from him. Hatred welled up within the Navy SEAL, yet he was fixed in place over the shocking revelation of where he was. That most hated of men was once a close family friend of the Morisatos. When Keiichi was young, he and Megumi had stayed over many times when the families got together and Keima had had a little too much drink to drive home. Megumi had told him many times that there was something a little off about that man. Something that made her nervous, or uncomfortable, or even down-right scared. She would never sleep alone in this house, preferring to bed either with Keiichi and later, their mother.
Her instincts had probably saved her.
Keiichi watched as the man stopped towards another door and began to open it. "Aiko, are you awake?" he asked, and Keiichi tensed up when he heard an affirmative response from the room's occupant.
Send him away! he thought to himself. He tried to speak but found himself mute. He tried to shout, to scream, to even open his mouth, yet his throat, his mouth, refused to respond to his demands. A desperate urgency welling inside him, Keiichi tried to move, to interrupt what was about to happen, but it was as if his feet were glued in place, as though someone had driven needles into his pressure points and was holding him up by chains. He couldn't speak, he couldn't move; he could only watch.
"Can I come in for a moment?" asked the man. "I need to talk to you about something."
Again came the affirmative, and the man pushed his way into the room. As he closed the door behind him, he looked down the hallway as if to ensure the coast was clear. When he did this, he finally made eye contact with Keiichi. A sinister smile formed on his face, then he closed the door.
"No!" yelled Keiichi. He jerked forward, and this time his feet moved, which caused him to stumble and almost fall in his mad dash to get to the room Aiko was in. When he reached the entrance, he turned the knob and nearly wrenched the door off its hinges as he threw it open. There, sitting on the edge of the bed Aiko was in, the man sat. Keiichi yelled again, this time for the man to stop.
He knew that the sound had most likely reached its intended audience, he heard it himself this time. But the man did not even flinch, did not even register that he had heard it. He tried again, this time appealing to his small sister, who was sitting up now on the bed next to that most hated of men. She also did not register his presence.
Frustrated, Keiichi started to step towards them. If he could not get through to them with his voice, he could certainly stop it physically. He took one, and then two steps. When his foot touched the ground, something bit into the back of his left ankle. Undaunted, he took another step, only for the same thing to happen, this time causing the Navy SEAL to fall on the floor.
Keiichi looked back and saw what had happened. Two metal hooks attached to chains were piercing his flesh through the meat of his ankle above his heel and behind the Achilles tendon. He eyed it in horror as the pain grew more potent, and then with renewed ferocity he returned his gaze to the bed and lurched forward. The pain was crippling, yet he ignored it; had to ignore it, for Aiko was right there, Aiko needed him, and ankles be damned he was going to fucking save her, was going to rip Him a new one, was going to make sure his sister was safe and secure at whatever cost to his own body.
Ignoring the pain it was causing him, the Navy SEAL tried to pull himself free in spite of the damage it would cause him to do so. Muscle tore, sinews ripped through the weak flesh near the ankle and the top of his foot. Nerves tore, tendons gave, and blood pooled around the chains that held him in place. He might not be able to walk after this, but he knew how to incapacitate anyone with his hands alone, had been trained to handle all but the most skilled in self-defense techniques, and this man was no different; He'd have a hard time with Keiichi as well.
Yet his bindings did not budge in spite of his efforts. Looking up, he could see that the man was now caressing Aiko's back. "NO! DON'T TOUCH HER, DON'T YOU FUCKING TOUCH HER YOU BASTARD!" he roared, but again, no acknowledgement was made, nobody heard him, and his threat fell on deaf ears.
Putting even greater effort into freeing himself, Keiichi felt a satisfying rip as first his left, and then the right Achilles tendons gave way, freeing himself from his bonds. The pain was incredible, like two balls of white lightning that seared him from his feet and up into the back of his eyes. But he'd experienced worse in the past, and Aiko needed him, so he pushed it to the side and began to crawl on his hands and knees towards the bed. In just a few strides he was nearly on them, ready to kill the man if it meant getting him away from his sister.
As he came up to his knees, he cocked his hand back to take a swing when he felt something reach out and grab it. Pain shot down his arm and he called out. Another hook had pierced through his arm, just below the wrist and between the radius and ulna. Before he could react, the same thing happened on the other hand.
Immediately, he was jerked back and away from the bed, and he screamed. Screamed long and screamed loud. Screamed until his throat was raw and then screamed harder still. He was dragged back against the wall near the door and then pulled up off the ground and suspended there. He howled in pain, and red flooded his vision. When he was finally able to observe what was going on, he immediately regretted it. The man had gotten Aiko out of her pajamas, and had laid her down. He was holding himself above her now, naked, his manhood throbbing in anticipation.
It was then that the man paused and looked at Keiichi. Blue eyes flickered in the light, and Keiichi recognized them. They were Hagall's eyes, for the man he knew did not have blue eyes. "No!" he yelled.
(Is this how it really happened? Or is this how you imagine it went?)
The voice in his head was mockingly condescending. "NO!" Keiichi yelled again. "This isn't real!"
(It's real enough for you!)
The man turned his attention back to Aiko. As Keiichi yelled and fought against the imagery invading his mind, his screams were drowned out by those of his sister.
XXX
Belldandy watched the light fade in his eyes and knew he was gone even before he fell forward. A spark of alarm traveled through her, and with a small gasp she darted forward, catching Him, The Man She'd Waited For, Keiichi Morisato, before he fell to the ground. The thin sheet that was wrapped around her body slid from her form, yet if she noticed she cared not. The Man, this horrible, wonderful man who'd made her wait, who she should have met over ten years ago, was more important.
She caught him with ease, felt his hot breath on her bare breasts and felt her skin break into goosebumps. He's real. A piece of her mind whispered. This is no dream. He's real. He came. Somehow, through the will of my sisters or by the Ultimate Force itself, we have finally met. His body was limp in her arms, and she kneeled, hoping to ease the burden on his person. Already his eyes were rolling back in their sockets, and she watched as a nightmare played out across his face, one that contorted his expression to one of rage, one of hate, and overall one of despair.
A red shade was seeping into his own personal aura, and she recognized it at once to be demonic in nature. Oh you poor man. You poor fool. She mourned. The man began to stir in her grip, then began to writhe, began to scream, began to howl with such gut-wrenching horror that she flinched. A demon's aura...a demon...she'd had suspicions, yes, but had never been confronted by it. Had never discovered evidence illuding towards its presence. Not until now. Carefully she laid him down to rest beside Akishima, the guard he'd knocked out earlier, and rose to her feet. I must find the demon who's captured him in a glamour if I'm to save him. She turned to observe her surroundings, finding herself alone aside from the two men at her feet.
She straightened, uncaring of her nudity, and addressed the hallway. "You've revealed yourself with the magic you've used against this man, Demon," Belldandy announced, and her voice thundered throughout the floor, echoing in every shape and every shadow and every object. "You'd do well to reveal yourself now before I'm forced to hunt you down myself."
It was a challenge; direct and to the point, and one that would force the demon to respond. For she'd disseminated the challenge to all things upon the floor, and if the demon did not display itself willingly than the spirits she'd befriended in the past ten years would do it for her: every grain of wood, every mote of dust, every chair, every window, every bed and blanket and plank that built this forsaken palace, this accursed prison, would direct her towards the creature instead. She'd called upon the light. she'd called upon the shadows. She'd called upon the very color that made the world what it was and now she waited.
She did not wait long.
"My, my, it seems the Master hasn't kicked all the teeth out of his beaten dog yet." The voice came from behind her, and Belldandy turned towards its source, unsurprised by the woman who stood behind her. "To think that there's still some bark in the old bitch still."
Belldandy said nothing, instead observing the woman with cool blue eyes. "I suppose this validates my suspicions then," the goddess murmured. "There was a demonic element involved."
The woman's gold brows shot up in mock surprise. "And her brains haven't turned to mush!" the demon exclaimed. "Imagine that! Do wonders never cease? I suppose next you'll show a hint of whatever fang was not kicked from your ugly snout?"
The Norn did not respond to the taunts and jabs. She'd grown jaded to words long ago. Instead she held her silence, staring at the woman with a stoic expression. Then I'd been right to warn the others away. She'd come to the conclusion well enough on her own. Ten years was a long time to think, observe, and reflect. This demon managed to hide herself from me for ten years. If Urd or Skuld had somehow attempted to breach the facility, then the risk of them being ambushed was indeed a real threat. And with her a prisoner to Aoshima's whims, it was doubtful she'd have been able to do anything to aid them had they indeed been caught in some sort of trap or seal. That does not explain why she bothered to hide herself for so long though... Belldandy tried to reason. What would be the purpose to it? What did she have to gain by keeping herself hidden?
It didn't matter now. Nothing mattered right now other than saving Keiichi from whatever glamour this demon had caught him in. "Release the mortal."
The demon eyed her, a long, leisurely smile spreading across her face. "Now why would I go and do such a silly thing like that?" She purred. "It's so much more fun watching his squirm. Would you like to know what he's seeing? His mind is surprisingly dark for a man who somehow managed to weasel into Heaven's 'Make a Wish' foundation." She scoffed, blue eyes narrowing. "Why, he even murdered a man not fifteen minutes ago! Can you believe it? A murderer... aren't those banned from consideration in your little charity organization? 'Harm not thy neighbor' or some other such nonsense?"
Belldandy's eyes darted to the men on the ground, then to the woman before her. "Some of the better company I've kept in the past ten years has been amongst murderers and thieves." She admitted. "For this man, I would be willing to make an exception. Now I won't ask you again: Release the mortal, Demon, and I might overlook your presence here."
"And I suppose next you'll tell me what a generous god you are?" The woman purred. "Let's just say I was to ignore your little...let us say, 'request'. What then? Do you honestly believe you can fight me? You, who is bound to the mortal coils by a simple man?" The smile on her face widened, "A mortal that you cannot even defend yourself against? Tell me, shall I call him now? Call your master and have him... shall we say, 'discipline' you as he's so fond of doing?"
Belldandy frowned. "I warn you demon, my threats are never idle." Her voice was quiet, a mote above a whisper. "If you do not release him from your power than I shall do it by force." It was the last word Belldandy spoke before charging forwards without warning. The demon chuckled as Belldandy met and held the blonde woman's gaze.
"We shall see." The woman murmured as her eyes, cruel and malignant, began glowing with an unearthly light. "We shall see."
A/N: Another step closer. We had every intention of ending the arc in this chapter, but that just didn't happen. When we hit 12K words, I was like "Yeah, we need to step back and start another." So here you go with the dreaded QUAD Cliffhanger! Skuld v. Chrono, Lind v. Urd's true self, Keiichi and his vision, and finally, Belldandy v. Hagall. We are just evil like that, you know?
We are hoping to get the final chapter of this arc done before the end of the week. Nena will be heading away for 2 weeks, and she has doubts on what her internet access is going to look like. Hopefully the next chapter does not seem rushed as a result. We are trying to avoid that. Once we get the last chapter of this arc completed, we will also probably settle into a more leisurely update pace with the rest of the story. We have 5 story arcs planned so far, most of which will be single chapter oneshot/slice of life stories like the manga. There are more to come after that as well.
And I apologize if the warnings seem superfluous. Its my paranoia talking there.
As for the code, 09 22 1988, as you may have surmised, it is the first date of publication for the Oh! My Goddess manga. We also used it in Ah! My Star Trek. As for what it means in this story, I won't say just yet.
