l

-39-

"So you're actually going through with it?" Keiichi asked. "You really have a date with Lind this Saturday?"

Team 12 was drilling with combat knives that day. Keiichi was paired with Jackson while Sanchez worked with Braxton on his form. The four were armed with rubber knives, their blouses off and folded near their boots and personal belongings off the blue foam mats they trained on. The room was stuffy and humid despite the heavy industrial fans pumping air into the building and the open windows and doors. Norfolk had turned off the heat to the base the past week and was in the transition period of moving to air conditioning, and as such everyone on base was suffering the aftereffects. The gym sparring room that Team 12, along with other Navy Seal Teams stationed in Norfolk and additional specialized units used for training, smelled rank with sweat, mildew, and Virginia's humidity.

Moisture beaded on Jackson's brow. Like Keiichi, the man's shirt was dark with sweat. Yet whereas Keiichi was close to panting with exertion just trying to keep up with the taller man in the stuffy room, Jackson looked none the worse for wear. If anything, he appeared to be enjoying himself, though it was difficult to tell if that was because Keiichi was at a disadvantage with his shorter stature or if he was daydreaming about his upcoming date.

Given the dreamy look on the man's face, Keiichi was betting on the latter.

"Damn straight, Son!" he crowed, and his smile on was large and brilliant against his dark face. He fended off a combination of strikes from Keiichi before reversing into the counter that followed. "You know how long I been waiting for this?"

"Since you met her that one time at my place?" Keiichi grunted as rubber hit skin. "Seriously, I never would have thought Lind of all people? You met her once, Piper."

"Once is enough!" Jackson chirped. "Hey man, don't be judging me on my taste in women. You ain't got no room to talk. I seen how you get all dreamy-eyed whenever Bell pops up in a conversation." He backed up as Keiichi stepped forward, and they moved into another combination of strikes and counters. "How she doing by the way? And Sheila? I ain't seen hide or hair a' her since the barbeque, man!"

"They're doing good," Keiichi replied. "Had a few hiccups a couple weeks ago, but it looks like things are starting to look up again."

"You finally get her to a doc?" Jackson asked. "I know that was bothering you for a while."

"Yeah," Keiichi replied. "We can actually thank Lind for that, I guess." He sent a sly smile towards Jackson, only for it to develop into a grimace as the man struck his wrist hard with his rubber knife. "She ended up calling in a contact of her own to help out. Guy's a bit of an ass in my humble opinion, but he's legit with Bell, and you can tell he's one of those docs that cares about his patients."

If possible, Jackson's smile grew larger. "Fuck'n-A, man. That's good to hear. I knew something was bothering you for a while, was that it?"

"Something like that," Keiichi said vaguely. "She had a bad flashback."

"Bad as in..." Jackson trailed off, an implied request for him to continue. Yet Keiichi shook his head.

"Bad," he said, and catching the hint, Jackson let the matter drop. "But on the plus side, she's doing a lot better. I don't know what that motherfucker did that helped her so much- I ain't a doctor and you know how medical terms confuse me- but I ain't denying the fact they helped."

"Not gonna lie, Jank. That's a fucking relief to hear. Tank was getting edgy," Jackson admitted. "That fucking sixth-sense a' his was working into overdrive, Man." Among his other abilities, such as marksmanship with just about any kind of rifle, both American and not, having a Master's degree in International Relations, a regular volunteer in non-profit events such as Habitat for Humanity, and still maintaining a perfect passing PT score despite his age, McGuinness had an almost eerie sixth sense to him. It was something more myth than reality, but it was something all of Team 12 had taken stock in long ago. That same sixth-sense had saved them from three different ambushes on their past deployments together and in some ways was to be thanked for Keiichi still walking amongst the living now. For reasons Tank couldn't explain, he'd decided to go and personally check up on Keiichi on a Saturday when the officer was heading out to meet with some friends. Keiichi himself was still shady on the details, but he remembered Mac's fingers down his throat sometime after he'd intentionally swallowed an entire bottle of pills from the medicine cabinet. Mac had gotten him to a hospital as soon as he'd finished upchucking everything in his stomach, and hadn't left his side until someone else from Team 12 could come over to relieve him.

It had not been Keiichi's greatest moment. He was grateful to McGuinness none the less, though. Nothing quite woke a man up and made him fight for his life than when that life was about to be winked out, and it hadn't been until the world had gained that strange, fuzzy edge to it that Keiichi had realized he'd completely fucked up and that he did in fact want to live.

Now Keiichi grunted, wiping the sweat from his brow as the two combatants paused for water. "Don't I fucking know it," Keiichi grumbled, shifting over to the defensive counters as Jackson switched roles with him. "I respect the man, but god damn if he ain't the last person I need to come prying into that affair. It'd be like a goddamned bull in a China shop, I swear to god."

"True that. Thank god he's so high on the food chain he gets called away half the day now," Jackson grumbled, "How about Sheila though? Any word from her?"

Here Keiichi was a bit more cautious with his words. Bell was easy to talk about. Bell was closer to the truth. Bell was a comfortable set of shoes he could slip in and out of at any point because Keiichi could be honest in most of his interactions with Bell, as Urd had created a role for her that was easy to slip into. Urd on the other hand... Urd was anything but; an enigma of lies who had inserted herself into Keiichi's life. "She's fine," he said. "From what I can tell, anyway..." He paused as they took another quick water break before moving on to some light sparring without the fake cutlery. "I think she's getting stressed, you know? From... Bell. And the... situation she's in. She doesn't let it show much, but..." They slipped into a series of grapples and take downs, and between falls to the floor Keiichi continued. "I think the reality of her situation is getting to her."

"She ain't getting the help she needs from her organization?" Jackson grunted and slapped the mat as Keiichi brought him down in a quick takedown.

"Something like that." Jackson rolled back to his feet, and Keiichi allowed the man to come at him once more. "She's getting help from Skuld when she can, and Lind is still making regular visits to check in, but..." Again Keiichi trailed off. It was easier to let Jackson fill in the blanks for him.

"Bureaucracy?" The man guessed.

"Yeah." Keiichi nodded. "I guess they aren't really doing her any favors." No shit. Banishing her from her own homeland given everything she'd done to rescue Belldandy...

"I heard a little bit about that. Man, fuck bureaucracy." The roles switched once more, and it was Keiichi's turn to be tossed to the ground. "Tank mentions it every now and then. She likes to vent to him, from what I know of it."

Keiichi looked up at his friend in surprise. "No shit?" he said. "She never said anything to me." The man was surprised to find the revelation stung more than just a little. Why wouldn't Urd come to him for that stuff? "Why go to Mac?"

Jackson pulled him to his feet and shrugged. "Sometimes you just need an outside party to vent to," he said. "We talk about it every now and then when we go out drinking- when you coming back out again, by the way?" He continued without waiting for an answer. "Anyway, Sheila calls Tank up every now and then usually just to vent, but occasionally she asks him for advice, too."

"From McGuinness?" Keiichi asked in disbelief. Jackson nodded. "That just seems so... unlike her."

Jackson shrugged. "Gotta admit, she's kinda hard to read," he said. "I mean, we known her what? Five years? And ain't 'till a few months ago we even knew she was part a' some three-letter organization? You gotta admit, Jank, you can't get to know a person like that. Folks in three-letter organizations keep secrets, you know? They don't show their true character to you 'cause unless you one a' them- not a three letter agency but their three letter agency- they don't trust you. You ain't one a' them."

"Maybe." If anything, Jackson's words hurt even more. Something in his statement had an air of painful truth to it. When that three-letter agency was 'G-O-D' then perhaps there was more truth in Jackson's words than even Piper would realize, and it was a reminder to Keiichi of the vast divide that lay between himself, a mortal, and the Norns, goddesses. Still... Mac? Big Mac the Tank himself? Why go to a mortal who had all the divine expertise of a Catholic School at his back for advice? "Did Tank ever say what she talks about?"

"Not really," Jackson said. "You know he keeps that kind a' stuff to himself, even when his head's in the bottle. Mostly he says she just looking for direction. Maybe an outside opinion, hell, I don't know, Man. Your guess is as good as mine."

"Right, I hear you." It was time to switch gears. If he wanted any more information on that, he'd have to speak with Urd or McGuinness directly, and the chances of either of them saying anything outside of 'fuck off' were slim pickings, from Keiichi's perspective. "So what'cha got planned for your date?"

That large, lovesick smile spread across Jackson's face again. "I owe her a steak," he said. "An' I aim to deliver." Keiichi could almost see the daydream fogging up Jackson's mind, and taking advantage of it, he brought the man down in a quick grapple. Jackson slapped the mat on the way down.

"Steak on a first date?" Keiichi asked. "And you actually cooking for her, on top of that?" He raised an eyebrow. "This ain't just some fling for you, is it?"

"Naw, Man." Jackson rolled back to his feet. "I'm serious 'bout this shit. Lind's different. She's..." The man sighed wistfully. "She's... I can't explain it, Jank. I mean, I ain't ever come across a girl who makes me..." He scowled. "I mean... you ever get that 'butterflies in your stomach' feeling when you look at a girl? Like when you were with Deb or when you looking at Bell? Fuck, I don't know, maybe even Urd?"

"With Deb, no," Keiichi said. "We'd known each other for too long for that real 'lovey-dovey' shit. It was more like I decided to marry my best friend," he admitted. But Belldandy? At once, his mind thought back to that first memory of seeing her, presented to him in a single picture by Urd in a 'squid' bar on a Friday night. Oh, he remembered those butterflies, all right. Only they weren't in his stomach- they'd been his heart, sending it fluttering like a caged bird at the mere sight of Bell's smiling face. He'd thought he could die for her back then if it meant seeing her in person. Walk through Hell itself if it allowed him to touch her hair. He'd fought demons for a chance to speak with her and hell, he had died for her, though the circumstances had been different at that time. While it had sobered him and cooled the flames, he couldn't deny those first lovesick feelings for her. Those feelings that even now, persisted enough to still give the goddess a chance with him, to give him a chance with her, though they were taking things a hell of a lot slower now. "But yeah, I think I know where you're coming from. Gotta be careful, man. You might get burned."

"Why you say that?" Jackson eyed him carefully. "You know something 'bout her I need to?"

You mean aside from the fact that she's some kind of war-goddess who could kill you without effort? "Nah," Keiichi said. "Just don't go breaking her heart, Man. She's a good friend of Sheila's, and I think between the two of 'em you'd be digging your own grave."

"Fuck you," Jackson retorted. "But I need to hit up Sheila anyways. Gotta figure out what I can get Lind for a gift."

"Wow, steak and presents?" Keiichi pinned Jackson's arm behind his back. "Shit, why not go full-out and get her roses and chocolate, man?"

Jackson grunted and tapped his chest with his free hand. Keiichi released him. "Don't think she's that kinda woman," he admitted. "Something 'bout her screams 'no' to flowers and chocolate, and I want to get her something little that she can keep and look at and reminds her a' me."

"Like what?"

"I dunno, Man. Like a stuffed animal or something? A teddy bear? But I'm afraid a' getting her something too stereotypical."

"Get her a stuffed polar bear."

"A what?" Jackson stared at him through narrowed eyes. "A polar bear?"

"Yeah," Keiichi said.

"Lind likes polar bears?"

"No idea," Keiichi replied. "But I had a dream she did. Real fucking weird. Something about Viking ships and Valkyries. I think there were spiders in it too, but fuck those things."

"Man, fuck you!" Jackson exclaimed. "You want me to get her a stuffed polar bear over a fucking dream?! I need something solid here, Jank. Some hard. Fucking. Evidence. You hear me? I ain't going off a' no god damned dream!"

"Just a suggestion." Keiichi shrugged. "If you want though, I'll go interrogate Urd for you."

"Nah, it's fine." Jackson sounded less enthused. "I'll figure something else out. Now enough chit-chat. It's time to get down to business and really kick your ass."

XXX

"Okay..." Urd licked her lips. "Okay... we can fix this. We've got time. We can fix this," she said. Beside her, Belldandy said nothing, continuing to stare down at the miserable woman sitting before the Norns in mute shock. Lind moaned grievously, and Urd ran both her hands through her hair, releasing a large puff of air as her eyes darted from the Valkyrie to the cactus. It was a tiny saguaro cactus, one with a single arm and whose top had the budding crown of a flower on top. The googly eyes had been pinned in a haphazard, lop-sided arrangement towards the top of the trunk with its spines, giving the desert flora the illusion of a face. It stared up at Urd in wonder as though questioning her about the meaning of its existence with its plastic eyes. A date.

Of all the fucked-up flying fuckery in this fucking world- a date? Lind? And with Piper of all people?

Not that Jackson was a bad guy or anything, or Lind for that matter, but... were they serious? Jackson was a good man, but he was a restless soul. The type of man who never wanted to settle down and preferred to tour the world. A fun guy. A party guy. The kind of man who cringed at the thought of marriage and shied away from a steady relationship. Good for a fun date, a fun night, but nothing too serious.

And Lind... well, Urd was responsible for giving the Valkyrie his number, but she'd never expected the goddess to act on it. An innocent prank, perhaps, to get a start out of both of them or perhaps to give Lind the opportunity to go out and have some fun of her own. She hadn't expected Lind to actually take any of it seriously. Perhaps shy away from it as well, perhaps show a lack of interest or even tell Jackson off, but...

A date was unexpected on both sides.

I would have expected Lind to go for another type of man. What type, Urd honestly couldn't say- Lind and she had only just made the jump from acquaintances to friends, and for all Urd knew, the Valkyrie might be more attracted to women than men. It was hard to say. Lind didn't share her likes and dislikes with people. Given how the Valkyrie acted at times, Urd wasn't sure if Lind even knew her likes and dislikes. "Is it serious? Or just a fling?" Urd asked.

"What?!" Lind recoiled from the woman. "I don't fucking know!"

Urd and Belldandy shared a look. Oh this poor girl. "Lind... when's the last time you went on a date?" Belldandy asked.

Lind's face went from its vibrant pink to a rosy red. "Th-there was a boy near the border tribes once..." she stuttered. "Um, we, ah... there was... I mean..." Her face became a deeper red. "It's been a while, all right?!" the warrior snapped. "It's not like Valkyries have any time for shit like this!"

"My mother managed to maintain both a steady relationship and a successful pregnancy with me while she was still a Valkyrie," Belldandy retorted. "I can remember her departing in her uniform when I was four years old and still learning that rocks were inedible."

Urd burst into laughter. "Watch out, everybody! Here comes Belldandy, calling you all out on your bullshit!"

Lind's head collided with the table. Next to her, the cactus trembled in its little brown porcelain pot. "Cut the crap, are you guys going to help me or not?!" she demanded.

"Yes, yes, we'll help you." Urd's laughter faded. "It's only Wednesday, so we've got plenty of time to make this work."

"Oh thank Yggdrasil." Lind sighed.

"First off ditch the cactus," Urd said.

"And do what with it?" Lind asked, "Give it to you?"

Urd flinched. "The fuck am I going to do with a googly-eyed cactus?" she demanded.

"Place it on your dresser and let it watch you sleep," Belldandy replied with a hint of a smile. "Or, Lind, you can keep it for yourself and save it for another time. Who knows? Perhaps Brian likes cacti."

"I have my doubts," Urd muttered. "Anyways, there's other things to worry about now. Have the two of you made any plans for what you'll be doing?"

"I'll be going over to his house for dinner," Lind explained. "Um..."

"Piper... lives on base though," Urd continued. "Are you going to meet him somewhere? It'd be suspicious if you just popped up on his front doorstep."

"I... didn't think about that," Lind said quietly. "I'm so used to having access to the bases back home that-"

"It's fine," Belldandy reassured. "We've identified the problem now, which means you can bring it up to him and work out a solution between the two of you."

"Meet him at a park," Urd advised. "Preferably right around sunset. It'll be romantic. He can pick you up from there and drive you onto base that way, then drop you back off at the same place. You can use the excuse that we're renting a vehicle and that I'm your ride back to the motel." She pursed her lips. "You'll also need to fabricate an ID to get past the front gate..."

"He could ask about the motel," Belldandy pointed out.

"And we could use the excuse that the motel's location can't be shared because of confidentiality." Urd shrugged her shoulders. "In some ways it's true- you can't really share how your home is on another plane of existence, Lind."

"I don't know..." Lind trailed off.

"Think it over," Urd recommended. "Like I said, there's still time. The biggest thing right now is supplying Piper- I guess I should call him Brian, huh?- with a location you can meet him at. Everything after that can come as necessary."

"Right," Lind said.

They continued their conversation for a good two hours after that, going over the finer details of Lind's upcoming date. Both Urd and Belldandy provided advice on standard American clothing. "Do not, I repeat, do not show up in your fucking uniform," Urd said. "I will beat your ass straight to the Daimakaicho's front door if you do."

"What should I wear then?" Lind demanded. "All my civvies are designed for the Arctic Tundra back home! You want me to show up in a fucking goose down parka?"

"Come in a summer dress," Belldandy suggested. "A light blue one, with perhaps some white in it." She looked Lind up and down appraisingly. "It would complement your features quite well, you know."

"No," was Lind's immediate reply. Belldandy looked disappointed.

"Jackson wouldn't go for that anyway," Urd said, taking Lind's side. "Rough and tough SEAL he is, I don't think he's much for the super formal or dressing up bits. You'll want something relatively casual but still nice for a first date. Something to test the waters," she murmured. "Something to show that you're interested but not desperate."

"I'm not desperate, Urd." Lind sent her an annoyed look.

"You're coming to us for advice," Urd retorted, observing the Valkyrie carefully. "Let me think... what kind of clothing are you comfortable in, Lind?"

"What kind of a question is that?!" Lind demanded.

"An honest one," Urd replied. "Believe it or not, Lind, you're a woman, and capable of pulling off just about anything so long as you're comfortable with it. This is the first date you've had in ages, by the sound of it, which means you're already going to be out of your element, so we don't want to suggest anything that will make you more uncomfortable than you already are." The Norn shrugged her shoulders. "Something I learned early on is that there's a difference between something quick and something lasting, and if this is something you want to pursue as an actual relationship, than you're going to want to dress in what you're comfortable in. Dress as yourself, not who you think Piper is looking for."

"This whole conversation is uncomfortable," Lind grumbled, her blush having never left her face.

"It is, but you'll be grateful once it's over," Belldandy agreed. "Urd has a point. As of right now, it appears that you are searching for something a bit more long-term in this date than a simple night out, is that right?"

"I don't know," Lind mumbled. "Maybe? I just- I don't know."

"Then for the moment let us assume that you are," said the almond haired goddess. "If you decide later on that Brian is not the man for you, then so be it, no harm, no foul. Until then, it is okay for you to show some bits and pieces of yourself and your personality to him, and part of that is dressing to your own level of comfort. So, on a date with Brian, how do you see yourself dressed?"

"It better not be your uniform," Urd added.

"Fuck you Urd." Lind's flush grew crimson. "I don't know... jeans? A long sleeved shirt?"

"Would you be comfortable with a blouse?" Belldandy asked.

"No," Lind responded.

"How about a blouse with a lightweight jacket on top?" Urd asked. "Something that still covers your arms and is still stylish, but something you can take off if you get too hot?"

Lind was silent, and seemed to take Urd's words into consideration. "What kind of jacket?" She asked.

"What kind would you like?" Belldandy asked. "This is your date, Lind. You're the one who's going to decide what you want to wear."

Again, Lind was silent, and seeing her struggling, Urd pulled out her phone and pulled up a search browser. Typing a line of text into the search bar, she selected 'images' and hit enter. "Here." She passed the phone over to Lind. "Find something you like."

Lind took the phone with some hesitation, then began to scroll down the long list of images. After a moment she paused on one. "This." She touched the image and placed the phone on the table for the Norns to see.

The two sisters stared at it, then looked up at each other. "That's a leather bomber jacket, Lind."

"That's what it says." Lind nodded in agreement. "I... like it."

"It's summer, Lind," Belldandy replied. "You'll cook." The jacket in question was a heavy, black, sheepskin leather jacket, one whose insides and collar were lined with brown fleece.

"It's looks soft," Lind muttered. "And... warm. I like soft and warm things."

Urd stared, startled at the admission. It was probably one of the few times Lind had ever showed a preference towards anything before. It made her smile. "You sure?" she asked. "It's already going to be pretty warm in Virginia as is."

"I'll manage," Lind said. "If I have this... then... a tank top to go with it. Just a simple white, no, black tank top with the jacket and some... boots. Yes. That'll be fine."

"So long as you are happy with it." Belldandy inclined her head. "Will you show us?"

Lind looked at the goddess, startled by the request, then inclined her head. "I... don't see why not," she said, and glanced at Urd, who nodded encouragement. The Valkyrie took a deep breath, and a soft, gentle glow enveloped her uniform. It was a simple magic, a basic spell that even those weak in such abilities could perform with little practice. A simple rematerialization spell that allowed for a quick change in appearance, and here proved no different. The uniform faded with the glow, and in its place were a simple pair of blue jeans and a pair of black boots. A black leather bomber jacket and a black tank top underneath. The Valkyrie looked at the two Norns warily. "Well?"

Both Urd and Belldandy smiled. "You look good, Lind," Urd announced. "Now, how 'bout some makeup?"

"Don't push your luck," Lind scowled.

It was around that time that Holy Bell and World of Elegance appeared to return to their respective hosts and Urd and Lind got the opportunity to view Holy Bell dressed in her new sweater. The angel beamed at them both, and almost tackled Lind to the ground in her appreciation. Lind, for her part, displayed a legendary amount of tolerance, permitting Holy Bell to embrace her as the blush that had begun to fade returned in full force. "It was nothing," she protested. "Really, you don't have to- please, it's fine, I'm glad you like it, really."

Belldandy tilted her head and closed one eye, as though trying to listen to something in the far off distance. "She says 'thank-you', in case that was not obvious." the goddess said. "I think... I think she's also asking if you'd allow her the chance to speak with your angels, Lind." She looked to Holy Bell for affirmation, who smiled and nodded with enthusiasm.

For a moment Lind tensed at the request, her eyes widening as she grew stiff and edgy, and Urd realized in that instant that Lind had never introduced Belldandy to her angels. The Valkyrie had always kept her angels' interactions minimal and controlled during Nebo's overwatch of Holy Bell, and while Belldandy might have glimpsed one or both of them on occasion, there had never been a formal introduction. Actually... when Urd thought about it, the only people Lind had been comfortable showing her angels to had been Nebo and Urd herself. From what she knew, Belldandy, Skuld, and Peorth had never been introduced; only their angels had ever seen the one-winged twins, and why not? The twins' lone wings were reason enough to be cautious, their nature as twin angels an adjunct. There were other reasons too, Urd was certain. Belldandy's care of Holy Bell over the past decade might have been a big one, especially given World of Elegance's reaction to Belldandy following the revelation of Holy Bell's state of being. The stress displayed by all the angels during that time was enough to make anyone cautious, and while Elegance was aware of both of the angels' handicap, having them on display near Belldandy might be enough to rekindle that stress from before.

As if sharing Urd's line of thought, Lind's eyes darted to World of Elegance, who watched her and Lind placidly. Urd herself could sense no signs of worry or stress from her angel, and instead felt a warm glow of affection through the link. It was a reassuring sensation, coming from the angel, but it worked only so far as to cast aside any anxieties about World of Elegance's reactions to Lind summoning her angels. It would do nothing for the Valkyrie's own insecurities.

Which perhaps was why it came as a surprise to Urd when Lind sucked in a deep breath, released it through her teeth, and inclined her head in acceptance. "I suppose I can allow that," she muttered. "For Holy Bell." Smiling, Holy Bell stepped back to World of Elegance's position, and Lind took a deep, meditative breath. First the left wing, than the right wing began to emerge, and with them the angels who owned them. Spear Mint peered at Belldandy with a stoic face, watching the goddess with eyes the same glacier-blue as Lind's. Her twin, Cool Mint, seemed to be the exact opposite, smiling widely before she darted past Spear Mint and over to World of Elegance and Holy Bell. The angel surprised the Norns, embracing first World of Elegance in a tight hug that was returned with equal enthusiasm, then hugging Holy Bell. Holy Bell laughed as she returned the hug, then released her and held up her arms, hopping as she gleefully put the light blue sweater she was wearing on display.

As Cool Mint moved to inspect the sweater, ensuring it was a proper fit, Spear Mint slowly worked her way around Lind and to World of Elegance's side. Her movement was peculiar; an odd, sidling shuffle that kept her facing the Norns, whom she watched like a hawk. She only relaxed marginally when World of Elegance met her half-way, grasping the black-winged angel by the forearm by manner of a greeting. Like a feral cat and an excited puppy. Urd thought, and smiled. It's amazing how different the twins' personalities are from each other. Stranger still to see how skittish Spear Mint was out in the open near Belldandy. She'd grown used to the calm the older twin brought to help temper Cool Mint's exuberance. To Urd, at least, the angel's behavior was strange.

"They only have..." Belldandy trailed off, and Urd looked at her. Her younger sister bit her lip, her expression one of shock. Lind watched her with critical eyes, and Belldandy flinched. "Ah, forgive me. I had not realized- I... never noticed they..."

Lind eyed her with a frown, then shifted her gaze to the small choir of angels. One without feathers. One with the Black Wing mutation. And two with only one wing each. The ill, the alien, and the wounded. "Fuck, all we need's a devil masquerading as an angel, and we can start a fucking band," she said, and stretched her arms over her head. "We can call ourselves 'Terminal Freaks' and go around screaming death metal with painted faces."

"A what?!" Belldandy stared at the Valkyrie, her jaw hanging open as she stared at the woman.

"And once again, Lind's legendary attempt at humor that falls short strikes again." Urd chuckled, and Lind slapped her shoulder.

"Spear Mint is the one who looks like an insulted cat," Lind continued. "She was my original angel, once upon a time. I ended up..." She pursed her lips, contemplating the right verbiage, then rephrased her statement. "I was wounded in action. It left Spear Mint down one wing. Nebo was recommended to me when I was going through rehabilitation- to try and grow the wing back, right? Like a fucking tail on a lizard- and Cool Mint, little miss 'cuddles' over there," she chucked a thumb off towards the angel in question, "popped out instead." The angel in question smiled gleefully, and living up to Lind's claim floated over to embrace her host from behind, resting her chin on Lind's head as she gazed at the Norns with a large smile.

"She has a rather... contradictory personality to your other angel," Belldandy observed. Spear Mint was still watching the Norn like a hawk; an unnerving stare that never seemed to waver and never seemed to blink. A cat indeed.

"Yep." Lind attempted to shoo her angel away and succeeded only in having Cool Mint change position with the laugh of one deliberately annoying her victim. "The original intent was to replace what I lost in combat, with the information gained through research contributing to the recovery of other Valkyries and Aesir suffering from similar wounds." She sighed, but it was a good-natured sigh. "Now I'm stuck with two idiot angels who like to fight and argue and leave my head spinning because they can't agree on anything. It's enough to make me want to shoot myself."

"Replace what you lost..." Belldandy pursed her lips, and again her gaze traveled to Holy Bell. Her wings were covered in a pair of blue sleeves now, similar to her arms, which did a fine job of masking the extent of their debilitation from curious eyes. "And this procedure of Nebo's... what became of it? Was it deemed successful?"

Urd said nothing.

"It was given approval for further research after seeing how much Cool Mint's manifestation aided in my own recovery," Lind said, and directed her full attention to Belldandy, her face pensive. "Be patient, Belldandy," she advised. "It took decades for Cool Mint to manifest, and then only under great stress while in combat." She never once hinted at whom that combat had been centered around. "You've lost feathers, not a limb. Your tail will grow back. Mine never will."

Belldandy's face flushed with either embarrassment or shame, Urd couldn't tell. "That's not what I- forgive me. It was not my intent to insult."

"Then you'd best drop whatever line of thought is running through your head," Lind warned. "There are other Valkyries who have a greater need for that procedure and may yet never have the opportunity-or luck-that I had."

Scolded, Belldandy looked away, her expression one of guilt, and Urd looked between the two with a raised eyebrow. It was probably the first time Urd could recall Lind getting upset with Belldandy during a conversation. To the elder Norn, it was a sign of a sensitive subject. Lind didn't get angry with other people. With Urd, yes, all the time, but only because Urd had the tendency and habit of getting under people's skins. Belldandy didn't have that habit, and oftentimes went out of her way to ensure she did not insult without cause. For Lind to suddenly grow aggressive over something like an experimental procedure was peculiar, contradictory to the image of Lind that Urd had acquired over the past couple of months.

It made her wonder whom Lind knew who had been so grievously injured.

It made Urd wonder who'd been lost.

Yet that was a question for another time, in another place, perhaps when both of them were good and drunk enough to cry on each other's shoulders without fear of judgment or ridicule and away from the eyes of those who knew them best. Some location where they'd be able to drain the internal wounds, the hidden wounds, of the poison of guilt and their failed duty that would allow their hearts to heal and lighten once more.

But not now.

Now came time for a change of subject before the current situation grew any more tense.

"Okay Lind, let's chill for a moment," Urd announced, bringing the attention away from Belldandy and back towards herself. "I know you're stressed about your date and all, but you don't need to take it out on Bell."

Lind went rigid, and for a moment it looked as though the Valkyrie might argue with the Norn. And then she sucked in a deep breath and released it slowly, massaging her temples as she propped her elbows up on the table. "Right," she grunted. "Sorry. Shouldn't have snapped," she muttered. "You're right. I've never-" She paused and looked down at the cactus. She rubbed her face. "The fuck am I doing with my life?" She whispered.

"Trying to improve it, from what I'm seeing," Urd replied. "Now come on. Let's see what else we can do for you before Keiichi gets home. And who knows? Maybe he might have some advice as well."

"Indeed," Belldandy muttered, but she looked distracted. Her attention was elsewhere, towards the angels, her eyes following the trail of Holy Bell's clothed wings. "Perhaps he will."

XXX

Keiichi, in fact, did have advice, though it was advice that made little sense to the three goddesses. "Comic books," he said. "Piper's a huge fan of Captain America. He loves Marvel, though he's not much for DC unless it's got something to do with the Green Lanterns."

"I understood one in four words of what you just said," Lind replied.

"Then bring him something from your place he can't get here." Keiichi shrugged. "That is, if stuff like that is allowed with you guys..."

"What, like a seal skin?" Lind asked, and stared in confusion as two Norns groaned and one mortal stared at her blankly.

"You mean like an actual seal skin?" Keiichi asked.

"What other kind of seal skin would I mean?" Lind eyed him as though he was soft in the head.

"So... let me get this straight... you want to give a seal skin to a Navy SEAL?" he asked.

"A what?" Lind's confusion seemed to grow. "Morisato, you're using words in a sentence that doesn't make sense. What are you saying?"

"You mean you don't-" Keiichi gaped at her. "You've been coming down here all this time and you never-"

"Lind," Belldandy's voice was the soft, gentle tone of a woman breaking bad news to her companion. "Keiichi is part of a Naval military unit whose acronym is SEAL.

"You're joking."

"Sea, air, and land," Keiichi said. "The best the US Navy has to offer. Piper's part of it, too."

"And now you're thinking of giving him a literal seal skin," Urd teased. "What are you trying to do, turn him into a selkie?"

"Um-"

"Nah, that can't be right," Keiichi reasoned. "Lind's supposed to be a polar bear. She'd just eat him!"

"What-"

"So what you're saying is that Lind should give Piper a polar bear skin instead?" Urd asked, taking Keiichi's strange line of thought and running with it.

"But-"

"It would keep her away from the cactus, at least…" Belldandy reasoned. "Though my own opinion is that an animal hide is a bit too personal a gift for a first date- especially if it's to provide the ability of metamorphosis for the individual in question.

"It's not!" Lind cried. "All of you, stop! I'm not giving Brian an animal hide, all right? He's not a skinwalker!" She pointed to Keiichi. "And you! Who told you about that?! No one outside my family knows about that!"

Keiichi paused and stared at Lind queerly. "You mean there was some truth to that dream?" he asked.

"What dream?" Belldandy asked.

"The dream with the spiders in it," Keiichi replied, then paused and furrowed his brow. "Except there weren't any spiders in it... why do I keep thinking there were spiders in it?" He trailed off, then looked back at Lind. "Wait, then that means you are a polar bear?!"

"No!" Lind snapped. "That's my qila! And I would appreciate it if you'd stop calling me by it!"

"Then what are you?" Keiichi asked, his curiosity getting the better of him. "And what's a qila?

"None of your thrice-cursed business, Tiggak," Lind exclaimed. "Now can we kindly drop this conversation before it expands? I don't know how much more of this I can take."

"You better watch out, Jank." Urd sent Keiichi a sideways glance, her smile teasing. "Things get bad when a god starts throwing insults at you in their native tongue. You better hope Lind didn't just curse you into a thousand incarnations as a seal. They tend not to last long around orcas, polar bears, and great white sharks."

Lind sucked in a deep breath before burying her face in her hands. "Forget it," she moaned. "I'll just give him the fucking cactus." She lifted her head and pointed to Keiichi. "And you," she said. "Should be wary of Dreamweavers." the Valkyrie proclaimed. "They're as liable to trap you in their web as an evening meal as they are to reveal to you secrets, and if you stumbled into one's lair I'd advise you to find the nearest exit and back the fuck out."

"They're not that bad." Urd scowled.

"That's because you've had intimate positive experience with one." Belldandy's voice fell flat. "Keiichi may need a potion to help chase this one off. If he gets lost in a dream spun by a Weaver, he may not wake back up."

"Wow, wait a second, what are you saying?" Keiichi demanded, suddenly alert and concerned. "I could go comatose?!"

"If it is indeed a Dreamweaver that has ensnared you." Belldandy glanced over to Urd. "Have you-"

Yet Urd was already shaking her head. "Nope," she said. "Haven't heard hide or hair of her since before you disappeared, Bell." She sighed and stretched her arms over her head. "Relax Jank, I'll make a potion that ought to scare away any Dreamweavers- if that's indeed the case here- so that you'll wake up in the morning. Pay attention to your dreams for me for the next couple of weeks though. I'm gonna need a journal documenting what you experience to make sure the Weaver takes the hint and packs her web for other nests."

"What, so this thing is just going to go find someone else then?" Keiichi demanded. "You're just going to let someone else be victimized?"

For a long moment there was silence between the three deities around him. "Jank..." Urd began. "How can I explain this... there are certain things we can't get involved in. Dreamweavers serve a very distinct purpose. They're attracted to mortals with a high sensitivity to people such as ourselves, and..." She trailed off, looking to Belldandy and Lind for aid.

Belldandy picked up the slack. "They are a method of... control, you could say," she said. "Mortals are unique in that they can increase their sensitivity to entities such as us through time and experience, and that can be dangerous." She bit her lip, her eyes darting to first Urd, and then Lind before continuing. "Do you remember my nightmares?" she asked. "And what you saw that evening?"

"On some level..." Keiichi narrowed his eyes. "I remember freaking out, but-"

"You lost your shit, Jank," Urd clarified. "If I hadn't made that potion, you'd have ended up a drooling vegetable in a mental ward."

Keiichi stared at her, his face quickly losing its color. "It was that bad?" Even Lind looked perturbed, staring keenly at Keiichi as though seeing him for the first time.

"It was," Belldandy agreed. "Dreamweavers are designed to recognize when an entity of a lesser plane is growing too sensitive to our presence. Their purpose is to prevent mortals from seeking out such entities as ourselves and risking the attention of our Niflheimian counterparts- demons- who would use them for their own purposes."

"They bait people with a high sensitivity in dreams," Urd continued. "Give them snippets of what they could have to draw them further into their trap- like a spider baiting a fly onto a web- and when the person is in too deep, they strike, spinning the fly up in a web and preventing their consciousness from resurfacing again, ending the possible threat before it has the opportunity to warrant more drastic attention."

"But they usually make an exception for people who receive wishes from deities," Lind muttered. "Or so I was told..."

"No, you're correct," Belldandy agreed. "But..."

"I gave my wish to Belldandy," Keiichi mumbled.

"And so to whoever this Weaver is, you probably appear like a big, juicy fly she somehow missed." Urd shrugged. "Like I said, I'll make a potion that will chase her off- something to let her know that there are other deities in the area and that we're all aware of what she's doing and that you're off-limits. No harm, no foul."

"At least not until this thing goes after another person," Keiichi muttered. He looked around, observing the faces of the three women around him with a deep frown. "How can you all be so calm about this?" he demanded. "You act like this is nothing serious, like this thing doesn't have the capability to fucking kill me or some other innocent person who just went to sleep one day expecting to wake up the next morning. I mean, how can you be so, so casual about this fucking thing?"

The faces that met his gaze were somber and silent; an audience that was well-versed with the entity they spoke of and saw no fault in the nature of the creature at hand. These were not a people he'd find sympathy from, and the knowledge that they would not act to stop this Dreamweaver chilled his heart in a manner he couldn't describe. Urd was quiet. Lind was quiet. Even Belldandy, who he'd have expected at least some level of sympathy from, appeared lacking in compassion for those who might next fall victim to this creature.

And for Keiichi Morisato, it was a reminder. A reminder of his own mortality when viewed from the perspective of the divine. A painful reminder, and one he found he didn't want or need when not even a month had passed to distance himself from the memories of his own death. The SEAL's gaze locked with Urd's violet eyes, his eyes pleading. If anyone was likely to see the situation from his perspective, it was Urd. Urd had known him for five years and had stolen him from death's hands herself. Urd had walked amongst mortals and had seen things in both the good light and the bad in a manner that Belldandy had not, and could vouch for the value of a mortal's life.

Yet he was left in bitter disappointment. "It's a kinder alternative to what would await them had the Weaver not found them." Urd's voice was quiet. The quiet of a woman forced to explain a hard and painful truth to a child with no concept of death. "People who become too close to gods- or demons- are doomed to a life of madness. And I've seen it, Jank... it's a vicious madness. The kind that devours a man from the inside out and causes them to commit atrocious acts on the innocents around them. They are the ones who believe they've found god in kool-aid laced with cyanide and convince children that the bomb strapped to their waist will only harm the bad people they were sent to fight against." Keiichi flinched. "Trust me when I say this is the sweeter end."

XXX

One in the morning was too early to be up and lost in thought. Far too early. Yet Belldandy had been up for an hour already, and the buzz she was nursing from her root beer was only just starting to manifest. It had become a sort of nightly ritual for her. One that had started soon after Nebo's departure when she'd found herself tossing and turning without sleep for hours at a time. Guilt, she decided, was what had initially kept her up. Guilt over Holy Bell's appearance, guilt over her own weakness, and guilt over how she'd handled her conversation with Keiichi regarding his decision to let her stay. The buzz provided by the soft drink had allowed her a few hours' relief, slim though it was before Urd came calling, and her numbed mind had been a welcome change to the near-endless hum of thoughts, anger, and depression that had come to so overwhelm her in the late evening.

She'd paid for it in the morning, of course, where she thought Urd might recognize that initial hangover and be a bit sympathetic towards her plight. Yet if Urd ever recognized the symptoms, she'd never spoken about them, instead forcing Belldandy up in those painful morning hours with a throbbing skull and a body screaming for sleep. She'd told herself that it had been a stupid idea, that she'd never do it again, and that a sleepless night was better than the deep pain that circulated within her skull the following morning.

She used to tell herself that while living with Aoshima, too.

Her rescue at the hands of Keiichi and her sisters had snapped her out of it. And it had been Keiichi's death at her hands that had pulled her back in.

And without fail, just as then, so too in the late evening would she find herself meandering downstairs, pulling a root beer from the fridge and sitting down at the dining room table, her only light the one provided by the kitchen as she drank her thoughts to sleep. It was an easy habit to return to. Almost too easy, like a slope whose walls were made of glass in which there were no grips to climb out of. That first night had been reluctance. That second night had been desire. And the nights proceeding it, when the guilt began to fade with the shock of initial memory, became Habit, where Belldandy awoke on the dime at midnight to the siren's call of a can of soda.

In hindsight, perhaps Urd did recognize the symptoms, and thus one of the reasons she forced Belldandy up so early. Early to hydrate, early to fend off the inevitable migraine, early to clean herself up and put herself together before facing morning's dawn with everything it had to offer. There'd been multiple occasions where Urd had been the one to prepare tea, and that tea had always been strong, flavored with honey and ginseng and something Belldandy could never quite place but might have been a potion. For on those days the photosensitivity and pain of a migraine seemed to vanish before the time came to sing, and she'd always been more eager to greet the dawn following that cup of tea. Perhaps she should be grateful for her sister's silent aid. Perhaps she should be upset Urd never thought to address it.

Perhaps it was easier not to dwell on it.

She sloshed the contents of the can in a gentle arc, feeling the liquid within swirl with momentum from one side of the can to the other. The can was half-empty now, and the buzz was getting a bit stronger. It was harder to draw up thought now, easier to simply relax and let the weight and motion of the can do the thinking for her. One night she'd found herself trying to create the little origami stars that Holy Bell loved so much. The Norn had forced herself to stop that habit in that same night for two reasons. One being that the drink made her fingers thick and clumsy, the stars flat and lopsided and displeasing to work with and look at. The other being that some part of herself deep within her-that little bit of Bell that was purely 'Holy Bell'-did not want to associate origami with soft drinks. Origami was helping her heal. Root beer, and this she recognized on a level she refused to acknowledge, would only destroy her. For the origami to act as an accomplice to the drunken state that root beer provided her could only hurt her in the long run, and she didn't want to start craving a soft drink when she calmed herself down with the tiny stars.

She knew that most of the issues now were over Holy Bell's wings. Over the lack of feathers, and how the looming threat of her angel forever disfigured by a lack of feathers weighed so heavily on her conscience. Perhaps it was karma, in a sense. Karma that Belldandy never be granted the wings of freedom for allowing her angel to be imprisoned within herself for so long. Punishment for Holy Bell wasting away inside her breast to the point where there was almost no turning back. Perhaps even retribution for almost severing the link to her angel in her own moment of stupidity in the forest, where it was only the actions of a puma that saved her from losing that special connection to her Other Self entirely.

Perhaps that was the guilt talking again.

She took another sip, then grimaced at the carbonation that chased its way across her tongue and down her throat. The goddess likened the sensation to spikes. Liquid spikes stabbing into the flesh of her tongue and down the lining of her esophagus. She'd have preferred the burn of alcohol, personally. But alcohol was like water to her people, and its effects were near non-existent for her. Had it been mead from Asgard, it might have more of a bite, and would certainly go down smoother due to the sugar of the honey. Her tolerance to sugar was minimal in comparison to alcohol, after all, for surely of all the dangerous recreational drugs in use, sugar was by far the most addictive. And it was a subtle addiction, as well. One no one ever thought about and one no one ever took seriously, but an addiction none the less, easily disguised by sweet drinks and sweeter foods and accepted by any and all who came across it. There's always room for dessert.

Fuck addiction.

And fuck her thoughts and feelings that fed her reliance on that addiction.

I want feathers. She thought wistfully. I want to hear my angel's voice without straining. I want Holy Bell happy and healthy. She didn't want her angel to wear a sweater to help insulate her in place of her wings. She didn't want wing-sleeves that hid weak and withered wing muscles from the view of observers. She didn't want her angel reliant on a thrice-cursed sweater made on the charity of a Valkyrie who beheld the Norn with such pity that a sweater was deemed necessary, when she herself had only one wing per angel.

I never asked for Lind's pity. She thought to herself, and took another sip, angry at her own thoughts. Lind was trying to help, just like Urd was. They were deities whose angels had appearances others would deem as substandard and understood the hardship that came with a 'different' angel. It was a rare display of empathy from Lind, and one that Holy Bell, at least, took great heart in. All the angels appeared to absolutely adore the sweater, Holy Bell most of all, whose behavior immediately took a change for the better. The sweater, silly as it was, had brought some level of confidence to Holy Bell that Belldandy hadn't initially perceived, as it not only masked the deformity of her missing feathers but also hid her anorexic appearance and the scars left behind by crystal growth infections.

So why did the gift upset her? Why did a simple sweater fill her with such utter loathing in these early hours of the morning, where she was forced to chase them away with a can and a buzz? Was it because she saw it as a symbol of her own ineptitude? A representation of her own inability to care for her own angel? Was it that she saw Lind, a Valkyrie with not one but two debilitated angels of her own, as more capable of attending to Holy Bell's needs than herself?

That's stupid. She scolded herself. Stop that. It was a simple gift, that's all. Lind was implying nothing by it and you know it. The can is bringing out the worst in you; the only person at fault here is you yourself, and that is for falling into the habits of weakness and escape that come with a simple carbonated beverage. It has nothing to do with Lind or Urd. Stop with the pity party, dump the rest of this shit down the drain, and go back to bed. Holy Bell will thank you for it in the morning.

Instead she took another drink.

"Hey."

Urd's voice made her choke. The goddess fell into a coughing fit, where dry coughs quickly grew into heavy, throaty whooping coughs that left her throat burning and made it hard to breathe. Urd moved to her aid, pounding on her back until the fit began to subside, and Belldandy shot her older sister a glare. "What are you doing up?" She rasped. Her throat felt raw.

Urd stared down at her with a raised eyebrow. "At close to one thirty in the morning?" She asked, "I could ask you the same thing." Her eyes drifted to the can in front of Belldandy. "although I get the feeling I already know the answer."

Belldandy held her silence.

Urd frowned but didn't pursue the matter, something that left Belldandy both relieved and upset at the same confusing time. "I've been working on the Dreamweaver," she revealed instead. "The potion I gave Keiichi after dinner was designed to make him unappealing to her. Thing is, she was still stuck in his dreams, since that's where she spun her web, and without any nearby prey, she was kind of stuck here on Midgard. I've been up all night drawing her out of Keiichi's dreamscape and into the physical world so that she can go about her business."

"You have?" Belldandy asked, raising an eyebrow in disbelief.

Urd nodded. "Not her fault Weavers prey on mortals within their dreams," she muttered. "It's just their nature. It's not fair to doom a Dreamweaver to starvation just because she mistook Keiichi for dinner."

"So then you succeeded in bringing her into Midgard?" Belldandy asked.

"Yeah." With great care Urd moved the line of hair on the right side of her face, revealing a dark silhouette that rested against her neck. Urd had to angle her head to look at it. "Come on Sweetie. Introduce yourself to Belldandy-she's the one initially responsible for the mortal's wish before he gave it to her."

Belldandy squinted at the creature, trying to make sense of what she was looking at before the Dreamweaver rose and crawled forward, its gait the long and slow amble of a creature secure in its surroundings. Urd slowly sat down at the table with Belldandy, then held her right arm out for the Weaver to crawl down. It revealed itself to be a spider, one of the largest ones Belldandy had ever seen. Its form was that of a pink-toed tarantula, one that had to be close to twenty inches in size; a goliath even amongst the largest of its species. Its body was covered in short, fine hairs, its carapace a dark blue-green that highlighted the bright pink tips of its legs that gave the species its name. It paused and rested in the palm of Urd's hand, scrunching its body up as tight as it could in order to rest atop the Norn's splayed fingertips. One of its forelegs rose and waved, as though greeting the Norn from where is sat safe and secure on top of Urd.

"Hello," Belldandy said. "My, aren't you beautiful? You're the one stumbling around Keiichi's dreams?"

One of the smaller limbs, the left palp near its jaws, twitched as if in consideration, and the foreleg tucked itself back against its thorax. Verdita. A voice, young and high and feminine, rose in her mind, causing Belldandy to start. Say sorry...the voice continued, ...didn...he was...goddess... The words rose and fell in her mind in chunks, much as Holy Bell's voice did. It came as little surprise to Belldandy. Her affinity was more towards the birds and larger mammals of the Northern Plains, not those creatures filled with venom. Those were more Urd's familiars, given their alchemical properties.

"Verdita's new to the trade," Urd explained. "She deeply regrets targeting Keiichi and wanted to ensure there were no grievances on either side of the fence. She's working hard as a Dreamweaver right now, and says that if she's able to survive this year then she'll pass into adulthood and be able to choose a name outside of the one her mother granted to her and her hundred siblings." As she spoke the tarantula worked up the courage to leave Urd's hand, crawling across the table and towards Belldandy. The middle Norn held a finger out to the creature, and a single foreleg came to touch it. With it came an image: A young woman not yet out of her teens, her skin a deep tan and her palms a bright pink, with eyes like black water and hair a deep blue-green like that of the spider's carapace. The hair on the left side of her head was braided in cornrows, the other side left to flow freely down to her earlobe. Tattoos that held the likeness of eyes rested below her eyes, and the sigils on her forehead were two small clusters of dots that might have appeared as eyes from a far enough distance. Her smile was shy, lined with a long pair of fangs that looked somehow hollow in her mind's eye and dressed in a forest green blouse and a deep red skirt.

"Sorry again, Señora." Verdita apologized. "I'm still new to sensing other divinities in the area. It's my fault-I mistook your presence for a demon's because I didn't think any actual divinity that wasn't an animal spirit would be down here." She spoke with the hint of a Spanish accent to her-one that was a little stronger than Sanchez's accent, but not by much. "I rushed in without thinking. It won't happen again-Señora Urd was kind enough to correct me without killing me."

The image vanished as the tarantula removed its leg from Belldandy's finger, and with it Urd scoffed. "My mentor is a Dreamweaver," she told Verdita, who was quick to scuttle back to her hand and up to her shoulder. "Part of the requirements for becoming her acolyte was a pledge not to harm her kin." The tarantula stretched itself out on the length of her shoulder, becoming dormant once more. "Aid thy kin and be aided in turn," she said. "Good ol' fashion 'you scratch my back, I scratch yours'."

"What will you do with her?" Belldandy asked in curiosity.

"I'll take her out to the forest," Urd replied. "There's an old male copperhead living in the swamp that guards a rift between dimensions. We're on good terms with each other, and he's subject to me since serpents are of my mother's bloodline, so I'll have him send her back home."

"I see..." Belldandy murmured. "You know, I met a similar creature in Japan, once upon a time." The goddess propped her elbow on the table, resting her chin in the palm of her hand. "It was...goodness, eight years ago? A meeting of chance in the summertime."

"No kidding?" Urd looked at her in open curiosity, and perhaps even the large spider on her shoulder twitched in interest. It was hard to say; Belldandy was unfamiliar with spider body language and it was difficult to guess with the buzz in her head. "Care to share?"

"I see no reason why not," Belldandy mumbled. "She was an old spider. An orb weaver who'd been around since the Jōmon Period. Very ancient, very powerful." The Norn smiled at the memory. While her interactions with the orb weaver had been few, they'd always been enjoyable. "Her name was Kashikobuchi-hime, the Princess of the Clever Abyss."

"A Jorōgumo?" Urd asked, and Belldandy nodded.

"Indeed," she agreed. "A spider woman." The Norn leaned forward, "Do you know what a Jorōgumo is, Verdita?"

No. came Verdita's voice.

Belldandy smiled. "I believe they are only found in the east, whereas here in North America it is more common to find the Grandmother Spider, isn't that correct?"

"Yeah, sounds about right," Urd answered for the Dreamweaver. "Different continents have spirits, demons, and deities from different territories living in them, which is one reason why there are so many variations across Midgard."

"Yes, that's right." Belldandy nodded. "I suppose you could say that the Jorōgumo was Japan's version of Grandmother Spider here. An ancient spider that lived to be four hundred years old and gained great magical abilities in its age. Kashikobuchi-hime was one such spider, though she was far older then a meager four hundred years. She recognized me while posing as a mistress for one of Aoshima's business partners."

"We recognized each other right away," Belldandy continued. "Her an ancient spirit that had achieved the level of a minor deity, preying on a man with sick tastes who'd been wound under her spell. And me, a goddess ensnared to a man much in the way her late meal was ensnared to her." She shook her head ruefully. "She held off on devouring him after seeing me. She was curious about me. About how I'd fallen into such a situation and why I did nothing to free myself nor call for aid." She paused there and thought for a moment. "You know...it never occurred to me, but... she'd hinted that there was possible demonic influence amongst Aoshima's businesses. I believe it was from her that I got the first thoughts that an opposing force might be involved, though I believe that at the time, I was too depressed to comprehend what she was trying to tell me."

"We worked together for a time. Shared stories, learned of each other..." Belldandy traced the rim of the root beer can with a finger from her free hand. "I dare say we even aided each other. If we were to keep meeting, her current prey needed to live, and so she needed an alternate source of food. And I..." She snorted, "Well, there were some people whom I saw as even more wretched than Aoshima. Those people who took the youngest and newest victims to Aoshima's human trafficking ring and... broke them in, you could say. It worked well. We developed a good working relationship together."

"Except, well..." The goddess sighed. "It didn't last. Given what I know now of the demon involved with Aoshima, it couldn't have lasted long. I remember her coming to me one day. 'You need to leave this place', she told me. 'I can help you.' Do you know what she offered me back then?" The Norn paused to look up at Urd and the Dreamweaver, and was met with a wall of silence on both accounts.

"She offered to devour Aoshima for me. To set me free by ensuring his death," she revealed, and stared back down at her can of soda. "But...it came at a price. She needed an avenue to get close to him. A persona to guise herself as to draw him towards her and away from what she only referred to as 'prying eyes'." The Norn scoffed. "I'd thought she'd meant cameras. She meant demons. Yggdrasil, what a fool I was... She needed to impersonate one of the girls in order to get close to him. One of my girls." Belldandy continued. "She needed a sacrifice; a skin to wear that would allow her to look and act like one of Aoshima's favored maidens; that way she could get him away from the cameras-the demons-and get him to lower his guard to where he could not summon Hagall for aid."

She sighed wistfully. "I oftentimes wonder what would have happened if I'd taken her offer seriously. Had I recognized her warnings for what they were and acted accordingly. Had I been...willing to dispose of one the girls-and it could have been any of the girls as well! One brand new, one who was an old favorite, even one of the broken girls with nothing left in them but holes to fuck. Any one of them would have served Kashi-chan's purpose. Any at all..." She rubbed her eyes, finding them burning and feeling moisture on her fingertips. "Just one sacrifice... and I could have put an end to it. Could have put an end to the girls and boys brought in and sold off and filmed for the sick fucks who enjoyed such things...an end to the years that would have followed, making a deal with a devil like Aoshima-my body for the lives of all the children he brought in and then suffering at his hands for years on end with no hope of rescue..." She snorted, and what she felt in her breast was the bitter resentment that had driven her to drinking initially, that sick loathing that twisted in her stomach like rotgut and tasted of poisoned bile and sweet hate.

"Yet I couldn't do it. My own soft, kind heart refused to allow me to sacrifice any of them to Kashi-chan... Yggdrassil, I'll never forget the look on her face when I refused. Like a betrayed lover, that one... The look of shock and pain on her face..." She took a deep breath and closed her eyes, and for a minute saw the spider woman as she'd last seen her: a beautiful Japanese woman in her early thirties, with skin like snow and hair like silk in a kimono whose color and patterns hinted at her true form. She'd been a quiet woman with a strong personality; the type of person who led from behind the scenes, allowing others to lead in public while she provided direction in private. Their friendship had been strong, though Belldandy was to this day uncertain if that had been out of the Norn's own desperation for a comrade or if Kashi-chan had merely playing her to a tune the goddess was deaf to.

She found she didn't care, regardless.

"She vanished after that." The goddess continued. "I had thought originally that I had scorned her too harshly and that in doing so she had abandoned me. But now, knowing that a demon like Hagall was involved... I cannot help but wonder if fouler play was involved."

"You think..." Urd trailed off.

Belldandy shrugged. "I would not put it past a creature like Hagall," she said. "Kashi-chan was a youkai, not a goddess or a demon bound by the Doublet System. If she was not chased away, then it would not be so large a leap to suspect she'd been murdered." Her eyes drifted to Verdita, still resting on Urd's shoulder. The tarantula appeared to be quivering; a strange sight to see. "I hope not." The goddess said quietly. "With all my heart, I hope not." Her gaze grew distant in reflection, and she was unaware of her sister's movement until Urd was already embracing her in a gentle hug. It startled her, and she grabbed her sister's arm as the slow trickle of tears began to fall in earnest, seeping from a well of grief whose depth she had underestimated since the disappearance of her friend.

She didn't fight the tears; for once, it felt good to cry, felt right to cry, though Belldandy was uncertain if it was her drunken state that made it right or if it was her honest feelings speaking to her, and found it didn't matter either way. There'd never been a good time to mourn the Jorōgumo while with Aoshima, and the reality of what could have happened to her friend had never quite sunk in until Verdita's appearance had brought the spider up. And oh, what a painful reality it was, for it came with the knowledge that had she acted sooner, had she made a different choice on that summer day so long ago, than perhaps she would have saved countless other children for the sacrifice of one. Perhaps it had been a critical mistake on her part. Perhaps she was being too hard on herself. I didn't matter. She wept and let Urd hold her in silence, and when the tears finally stopped falling, only then did she loosen her grip on Urd's arm.

"Thanks." She mumbled, rubbing at her eyes with one arm. "I don't think I ever had the opportunity to mourn her." Her chest felt somehow lighter after telling her story, though Kashi-chan's memory still made her heart ache.

...orry fo... ur...los... Verdita's broken sentence somehow managed to make it to Belldandy's mental ears, and the earnest sincerity in the little Dreamweaver's voice made Belldandy smile.

"Thank you, Verdita," she said. "I apologize. You didn't need to see that."

If Verdita gave any sort of response, Belldandy didn't hear it and Urd didn't speak it. Instead, Urd said, "I think it's time we headed out to the forest so Verdita can get home. Want to join us?" There was a second, unspoken question in the invitation. One that Belldandy recognized even with the buzz that thickened her thoughts but loosened her tongue: "Will you ditch the drink and sober up?"

Coming from a woman who loved her drink like Urd it was almost amusing, or perhaps the proper word was depressing. Moreso, it was sobering in its own right, and Belldandy was uncertain how she felt with the buzz losing the foothold it had on her mind. The goddess stared at her sister, and then pushed her chair back. "Yes... I think that would be a marvelous idea," Belldandy muttered. "Maybe some fresh air will do me some good."

Urd smiled, and Belldandy was unsurprised to see the subtle relief in the elder woman's face. "Good," she said. "Let's get going then."


A/N: Will Belldandy ever mention any of this to Keiichi down the road? Not sure yet. I know what they say about keeping secrets and all, but at the same time this is more 'need to know' in Bell's mind. Will he ever need to know? That's to be determined.


Comments of a Madwoman: A lot of introspective details regarding the characters involved. Finally getting the chance to look a bit more into Belldandy's backstory. Next chapter will be the wrap-up of the interlude, and should end on a lighter note than previous installments.