-47-

"And now,' said the unknown, 'farewell kindness, humanity, and gratitude! Farewell to all the feelings that expand the heart! I have been heaven's substitute to recompense the good - now the god of vengeance yields to me his power to punish the wicked!"-The Count of Monte Cristo

XXX

Mara stared down at her phone, and then off to the demons gathered in a loose cluster before her. They'd all come from different tribes. All of them. Different Wilder tribes that the Damkianna had run through with a fine-toothed comb. All of them were chieftain's sons surrendered as a war prize after she had conquered them single-handedly. Had it not been for the Damkianna, they'd have grown up slaughtering and devouring each other and stealing the sons and daughters of other tribal leaders to signify their victory. And those children, no matter how young or how old, would have been slaughtered and devoured in turn; a victory feast to instill fear and submission in the defeated tribe.

Yet the Damkianna had changed that.

The spoils of war, they'd all expected to die at her hands. None of them had expected to live.

None of them had expected to learn.

The Damkianna had taken them from a land of savages and made them civilized.

And her daughter, in that strange Highkin philosophy called 'friendship', had united them. For the Kalbisharur zi Agu'Rimanis, The Damkianna's pet Wilder, that meant loyalty. Loyalty to the one who owned their lives and loyalty to the one who brought them together as children before vanishing to realms untouched by filthy Wilder.

"Am Rimu, you get that?" Mara asked, pocketing her phone and looking at a man older than her by ten decades. Of all of them, he'd been the oldest surrendered to the Damkianna, and perhaps because of that, the most set in the ways of the old.

The man was handling a magi-electronic device, one of those arcane designs that was too complicated for Mara to understand. She'd never been good with anything that mixed magic with technology, but the Wild Bull, as the others liked to call him, excelled at it. "I've got it recorded, Daku." It was the only name he called her. It was the only name he called any of them. Mara had stopped caring. It had ceased being an insult long ago, and instead had become something akin to a term of endearment. "The Damkianna will be pleased."

"What are your orders, Sizkur'mash?" There was a hungry gleam in Akal's eyes, and the smile on his face was wild and ravenous, like a starving dog chained just out of reach of a meal. They all had that gleam in their eye, Mara noted. Perhaps even she herself had it.

She smiled at that. "We have all the evidence we need now," she said, and her voice, despite its rough and grinding quality, projected to everyone within the vicinity of the roof. "The Damkianna said the hunt was ours so long as we had sufficient evidence, and Hagall has fucked herself thoroughly this day." Midnum was stomping his right foot now, and Tidnum, a man who would have slain or been slain by Midnum had they still been Wilder, joined him. "We will have our hunt this day, Shes." Red eyes roamed the rooftop they stood upon, watching as Akal added his beat to the heavy drumming of Tidnum and Midum, and then Am Rimu, followed closely by Alad, the youngest of their lot but still old by mortal terms. Durah, still proud of his heritage, joined next, followed by Edakua, whose name was a curse by Niflheimian standards. "Emesh, remove our cloak, it's time we Kalbisharur zi Agu'Rimanis made ourselves known to this world." The pounding tempo grew harder, faster, wilder as Emesh, handsome despite the deep facial scars, ended the spell that had hidden their presence on Midgard for the past month. Then he too joined the beat, frantic now like the racing heart of a hunted animal-or an animal on the hunt. One of them, Mara didn't catch who, laughed, and it was mad and excited as finally Kili, who acted as Mara's second, and then Mara herself joined the cadence.

"Today is our day!" Mara roared over the pulse, and the gutteral howl of nine raving demons met her call. "Today we are released! Today we hunt, and let every demon who treads upon our path be consumed by fear!" An aura, red and ominous, began to pool around their feet, like dust stirred up by the devils' dance. "Let those who stand by Hagall's side tremble in fear, for they face Wilder now!" Her voice rose in a shrill scream like that of a hawk, and around her nine bellows like those of angry bulls joined her cry. She laughed, and the aura gathered around them and above their heads before erupting in a red miasma.

When the miasma faded, there was nothing to indicate their presence. Just the remnants of an ungodly aura set loose across the plains of Midgard.

XXX

And less than a quarter mile away, the goddess Belldandy froze as an unearthly magical signature, one made of either several small ones or one large one, swept through her seventh sense. Cold, she reached forward and grabbed the seat in front of her, uttering a single sentence:

"Stop the car."

In front of her, Keiichi looked in the rearview mirror at her, and Debra turned to look back at her as well, having maintained her claim to the passenger seat. "What is it, Bell?" the SEAL asked. His voice was strained, thick with worry for Aiko, and perhaps Urd as well. They'd left her and Lind in a rush after Belldandy had stormed off, and now Belldandy herself was beginning to question her actions. If her senses were correct, Belldandy feared there would be much more to worry about than one demon and one missing person. Perhaps she'd been wrong to leave her sister and a full-fledged Valkyrie behind, rushing off with only two mortals to guard her back.

Perhaps she'd been very wrong indeed.

"Keiichi… " the Norn lapsed into silence, unsure of how to proceed. Had this been what Urd had been warning her about in the court house? This… presence, this sense of dread that had manifested without warning, this… these demons. Did Hagall have so many allies?

Beside her Debra shivered and rubbed her arms. Belldandy thought she heard her mutter something about masks, but couldn't be certain. Keiichi, at the next opportunity, pulled into a gas station and parked the car before turning in his seat to observe her. "Bell, what is it?" he demanded. Fear made him snap, she knew. Fear and urgency for Aiko, because Belldandy had pressed the need for urgency on him, because Aiko was in danger, but now...

She bit her lip. They'd been following her directions, pursuing Hagall. Now that the demon had been confronted once, Hagall had made it apparent that she wanted to be followed. That this was some game to her, and in the wake of this new presence…

She's following a Line, Belldandy, Holy Bell whispered. We need to be careful. She's following a Ley Line, Carrie, and you know that the dimensional rules don't apply the way they should. Like the Veils where Verdita made your dreamcatcher. She doesn't have to follow the rules of this plane on a Ley Line, and that makes her dangerous. Not just to you, but to Keiichi and Debra as well.

"Keiichi, we may be in over our heads."

That storage facility was part of the Ley Line, Belldandy.

Stop Holy Bell.

I'm worried about Urd and Lind, Belldandy.

Holy Bell, please be quiet.

We left them with that...thing. That-that thing, Bell. It wasn't a demon. I don't know what it was, but it wasn't a demon. I'm certain of that now.

Holy Bell-

"What do you mean?" Keiichi interrupted her, and his voice was worried and afraid. She saw similar emotions splayed across Debra's face.

Belldandy didn't blame him. If anything, she felt the same. Whatever owned that new aura was large and dangerous, but to go further and risk interception was suicide, even for one such as her. "We need weapons," she said. "There is… just now, I sensed a powerful aura, and it is demonic in nature."

"Hagall?" Keiichi asked.

"No," said Belldandy. "Bigger than Hagall. Much bigger. Possibly several demons clustered together, but I cannot say for certain."

Debra's face was ashen. "You mean there's-" she stopped herself at the last minute, then whispered, "they're wearing masks… oh god, they were wearing masks!" Her voice rose in panicked realization. "They were wearing masks!" The woman turned back forward in her seat, then leaned forward and swore, leaving Belldandy and Keiichi to stare at her in bemusement.

"Who're wearing masks?" Belldandy asked.

"The Suits!" Debra ran her hands through her hair with exasperation. "I can't believe they- it all makes so much sense! Those were- they were demons!" She sucked in a shuddering breath. "Oh my... fuck! She just... this whole time, but-why would she-"

A cellphone rang. Hey Jude began to lament from Keiichi's pocket, and swearing the man put the rental into park and dug it out, grimacing as he looked at the name. Belldandy wondered why he bothered. She recognized that song as the same one that always played when McGuinness called him. The man stared down at the device, his expression pained as a variety of emotions went to war on his face. Then, sucking in a deep breath, Keiichi slid his finger over on the screen and answered the phone. "Hey Sir, what's up?" A strange, almost alien level of calm overcame his voice; a level of calm that was absent from the face Belldandy saw looking back at her in the rearview mirror.

Deb watched him with the silent concern of a woman preparing herself for more bad news. Keiichi listened to the man on the other end in silence, drumming the fingers of his right hand along the rim of the steering wheel. His lips were pressed in a thin line, and as McGuiness spoke longer, that line grew thinner, tighter, the surrounding lips growing so light as to be white. At once Keiichi stopped his tapping, and the fingers of his right hand instead wrapped around the steering wheel, gripping it in a white-knuckled vice. "Sir I-" Whatever else he was about to say died in his throat, and for a long moment Keiichi sat there, in the front seat of the rental car, his mouth hanging open as his eyes grew large.

When he spoke again, it was a harsh whisper. "Are you sure?" The color was draining from his face, leaving him pale, leaving him white like a ghost, and when next Keiichi looked back in the mirror at Belldandy, for an instant that was what she thought: that Keiichi had died in that exact moment, that his soul had fled his body, and that what stared back at her in that tiny mirror was nothing but the remaining corpse.

His eyes just died. A voice murmured; a passing thought, like a fish in the broad ocean of her mind. It was gone before it could fully settle, but its departure paved the way for another voice. Holy Bell's voice.

Something happened to Urd.

The level of certainty in Holy Bell's voice was scary. Perhaps more so than the look on Keiichi's face as the man looked back at her with his white face and dead eyes.

Nothing happened to Urd. Belldandy retorted. Denied. There was a sudden need to deny that voice, those words, as a wave of foreboding washed over the Norn. Nothing happened to Urd, because Hagall abandoned her.

You abandoned her. Another fish-thought. Larger than the last but still slippery, sliding through the net before she could reel it in.

"Sir, I just spoke with her." There was almost a tremor in Keiichi's voice. Almost. His eyes never left Belldandy. "...what do you mean, 'When'?" the man rumbled. "I swear I just-" Belldandy could almost physically see the man stop himself from saying anything more, for it would give indication to the situation they were in now. He leaned forward in his seat, squeezed the steering wheel, and breathed deeply. Still watching Belldandy.

It was enough to give the goddess goosebumps. "No Sir, she was fine when I spoke with her. Yes Sir, I swear. Right as rain."

"Keiichi?" Debra's voice was kind. Gentle. Scared. "Kei? Hon?" A nickname said without thought, falling back on past experiences in a time of shared tension. "What happened?" Belldandy didn't even hear the pet name. Her attention was locked on Keiichi.

"I'll... give her a call," Keiichi continued, his words slow and methodical. It made him sound cool. Calm. Collected. In control, and for that Belldandy admired him; admired the way he spun an illusion of tranquility around himself, despite the fear so rampant on his face. Admired the way he sounded confident in his words, though he did little but slow the pace of his speech. But most of all, she was afraid.

That calm wasn't for McGuinness. She knew that with absolute certainty, the same way she knew plain as day that (something happened to Urd) the sky was blue. That calm was for her.

Keiichi ended the call. He broke eye contact with Belldandy and stared straight ahead, sucking in a long, deep breath. He released it slowly, then pocketed the device once more. He closed his eyes, and Belldandy began to count the seconds his eyes were shut. One, two, three, four... He opened them when she reached ten, as she'd expected, and then looked back at the rearview mirror to Belldandy.

Had it been Debra he'd looked at instead of Belldandy, she would have seen something in his face. A familiar look, a familiar pain, a familiar war as Keiichi battled wits with the SEAL inside his skull. The Man and the Warrior dueled side by side on his face in an internal struggle Debra had come to know well in the months leading up to their divorce. Those times had always incited arguments with the detective; fights over outbursts that meant nothing and led to heartache and heartbreak when the Warrior won, fights that devolved into forgiveness and comfort on both sides when the Man won, and more often than not, it was the Warrior, the SEAL, that took over in those moments.

A strange look passed through his eyes, then settled as Keiichi- not SO1 Morisato- won out.

"...Let's take a breather," Keiichi said.

The man opened the door to the car and stepped outside. He didn't bother to shut the door behind him. Debra shot a look to Belldandy, her face alarmed, her eyes wide and worried, then followed the man out as well. Belldandy watched her go, then looked out her window at Keiichi. The man had his phone out and to his ear again. Debra walked around the car to join him, and steeling herself, Belldandy left the car as well.

"I can't reach her," Keiichi mumbled, and then looked at Belldandy. "Bell... that was Mac on the phone.

"I know," Belldandy said, perhaps a little too sharply.

"He was calling about Urd." The man paused, looking like he wanted to say more.

Out with it. Some impatient piece of her said. Just hurry up and be out with it! I know already what it is! She banished the voice to the back of her mind. "Why was he calling about Urd?"

The man frowned. Hesitated. "Bell... can you contact Urd?" he asked. "Mac thinks something bad happened to her."

The goddess felt cold and hot at once, and tried to ignore the rising voices that began screaming in her mind. I knew it, I knew it! they shrieked. You thought you could drown me out?! Look at what happens! What were Hagall's final words, you dunga, you fifl, you cur? Did she not speak of death? Of pain? She pushed them out of her mind. "Why would you be alarmed by that?" Belldandy asked. "He's a man. There is nothing special about him, nothing supernatural about him. Why has his call left you so spun up?"

Keiichi frowned. Worse yet, Debra frowned. "Nothing..." Keiichi began, again in that slow, calm, even tone. "But Mac sounded worried. He seemed convinced something bad had happened to Urd, and..." Again that hesitation. Again that reluctance. "The last time he sounded that scared was when I tried to kill myself."

"Kei-" Debra began. Keiichi silenced her with a simple hand raise.

"He said it over the phone, guys. 'Morisato, the last time I felt this scared I stormed your house and you were collapsed in the bathroom with an empty bottle of pills at your foot.' That's what he said. He said, 'I can't storm over to California, so I need to know, when's the last time you heard from Sheila? Is she okay? Because I don't think she is.'" The man fell silent, and his gaze was nervous. Imploring. "And... I don't think she is either." His voice dropped. "We left her, Bell. We left Urd and Lind alone with that... she called it a bioweapon, Bell." He shook his head, still soft, still calm, but his eyes were worried and terrified and perhaps even a bit angry. "She told me it could destroy California, Bell. That it was some kind of... destruction program. That it couldn't be stopped unless it was destroyed, and Bell, I don't think I've ever seen Urd look so scared before."

He raised his cellphone, gripping it tight as if it was a stone he was about to throw. "I told Mac I'd call her. She's not answering her phone though."

That doesn't mean anything, part of her whispered. It means everything, another piece retorted. He's a mortal! A man! You've seen him and there was nothing strange about him! There is no foundation to build his 'premonition' as real, reason whispered in her ear, rising above doubt and joining with reassurance. There was no magic inside Christian McGuinness nor any strange waver in his aura that would denote a magical heritage. Just a man. Just a man who sensed Keiichi was dying and abandoned everything he was doing at the time on a moment of weak intuition. Doubt again reared its head. What if... Again, that simultaneous feeling of being both hot and cold. This time accompanied with a restless stirring in her chest, her breast, her soul as Holy Bell writhed. She could feel her angel all at once then-another presence, almost alien in nature, fighting to escape, to burst from her chest and be set free, and to run, run run back to that damned storage facility where she'd left Urd and Lind.

They need our help. Holy Bell's voice rose above all others. We never should have left them, they need our help!

Debra was looking at her now. It looked like she wanted to say something, but was afraid. "What?" Belldandy snapped. She didn't mean to. Not this time. She was scared because Holy Bell was scared, and she didn't want to make anyone else scared. Not with Aiko missing already.

She felt guilty when the woman flinched. "You said... you said you could sense those, those demons, right?" she asked, but didn't wait for Belldandy to respond. "Then... could you sense Urd? Urd and her friend?"

No, because they're gone. The voice of panic, pure and laughing and screaming, rose in her head, almost drowning out all other thought. They're gone because we left them, we abandoned them, and now you'll never see them again!

She banished the voice to the depths of her mind. Nobody knew that for certain. "I can try," she said, and in truth she could if she wanted to. Urd was a familiar aura to her. One as familiar as the scent that always followed her elder sister around, that soothing scent of Lavender and Jasmine that always brought to mind potions and sake, songs and laughter, silly arguments and comforting hugs and irritation and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and-

And she couldn't sense Urd.

She'd always tuned Urd's aura out. Ever since coming to North America, Belldandy had started tuning Urd out, dismissing her aura because it was a constant presence. A constant presence. There wasn't a day that passed where that presence wasn't near, wasn't enveloping her like the coils of a snake, wasn't hanging over her head like a cloud blocking out the heat of the sun. She'd grown so used to it that she'd forgotten it, the way one forgets the nose in front of their face until they remember it's there or the warmth of a house until they come in from the cold outdoors.

You wanted her to 'stay the fuck away from you'. Isn't that what you said? That sweet voice of panic, like a long-time friend, came rolling back from the depths of her mind once more. Stay the fuck away from me, and wasn't that what you wanted? In that exact moment, didn't you want her to disappear? To vanish? To 'go away', because it was her fault you'd suffered ten years of hell? Well con-grad-u-fucking-lations, Belldandy me girl, you got your wish, just like how you wished to stay with Keiichi forever. Only this time, no takesie-backsies.

She felt the color drain from her face. What about Lind? Holy Bell exclaimed. Carrie, what about Lind? What about Spear Mint and Cool Mint? Maybe it's- maybe it's something else. Surely if we can't sense World of Elegance and Urd, we can sense the twins and Lind, right? Belldandy didn't like the panic rising in her angel's voice. Holy Bell's panic fed her own panic, and right now she needed calm.

The Norn did her best to ignore her angel and spread her senses out, back in the direction they'd come from. Urd's aura had always been easy to identify because it was sharp. It left in the mind the sense of edges and corners and spines and chaotic twisting and turning. It held the clear scent of rain and the sharp scent of electricity. But Lind's was different. Lind's was cool. An icy calm that could be sharp at times or soft at times depending on the mood of the goddess at hand. It always felt somehow hard in her mind; like the earth beneath her feet or an iceberg adrift in the ocean, but always cool. Clean. Still.

Yet this time Belldandy neither found the chaotic sharpness of Urd nor the cool stillness of Lind. Only the residue of where last they'd stood, fading into whispers dissolving once more into nothingness.

I can't sense World of Elegance. Holy Bell sounded scared. Belldandy, I can't sense World of Elegance anymore! A shout this time, one that interrupted any further investigation and left Belldandy wincing as though her angel had screamed in her ears. The twins are missing too! I can't sense Spear Mint or Cool Mint or, or anyone! The goddess felt something constrict in her chest, felt something claw its way up her throat, and then, to her horror, felt Holy Bell attempt to rise from her soul. I need to go to them! Holy Bell screamed. I need to help my sisters! The angel began to emerge from her back, unsummoned...

And then Debra gasped.

Something snapped in Belldandy in that moment, and at once Holy Bell was pulled back into her soul. Perhaps, had the woman not been there, or indeed even if she'd missed the beginning of Holy Bell's rising, perhaps things would have gone differently. Perhaps Holy Bell would have forced herself into being, racing back from whence they came, dragging Belldandy with her. Perhaps, if not for a single woman, a single mortal, things would have turned out differently: Belldandy and Holy Bell would have returned to discover her fallen sister, or perhaps even fallen victim to the rabishu like those that had brought it down. Maybe she, too, would have suffered a grave wound in that battle, or perhaps she would have instead merely come across the bloody scene of her fallen companions, her fallen family, and been left in such a state of shock she'd be unable to act. Perhaps, in seeing that she had lost a sister searching for a sister, she would be unable to continue her search for Aiko.

Regardless, the fact remained that Debra Johansson, in a single action, had led Belldandy to reassert her self-control by the simple act of making herself known, and it was enough to rouse the goddess from her shock. The Norn looked at the detective, who took a step away from her when their eyes met. "What did you see?" Cold terror seized her heart for a moment. Not the hot, numbing fear of her sister but instead the icy chill of a mortal witnessing something she never should. Witnessing the debilitation of Belldandy's own soul, which still fought and struggled and cried for release, for freedom, for her sisters, in her heart.

"N- nothing, I-" The woman took another step away from the Norn, her expression showing open fear of the woman before her. Belldandy took a step towards her, and Debra took another step back, maintaining the distance between them.

"Don't lie."

The woman's face paled as Belldandy advanced. Almost white. A sickly white. A scared white. "I-I don't know what I saw." she stammered. "It- I don't know! They- they looked like wings, but-"

"But what?!" Belldandy demanded.

"Bell-" Keiichi began, and was ignored.

"What did you see Debra?" Belldandy pressed, and for a moment a look of such terror befell the mortal woman that she looked ready to either run screaming or attack; that ol' 'fight or flight' mechanism that had been with Man since the dawn of time.

"I don't know what I saw!" Debra exclaimed. "I don't know… wings, maybe?! Like, boney, naked wings or something? Fuck I don't know, okay? I only saw them for a second!"

Fuck the wings, Belldandy! Holy Bell's voice made Belldandy freeze. She'd never heard her angel swear before. Fuck the wings, World of Elegance is gone! Urd is gone! Her angel mourned, and a wave of grief swept through Belldandy with such force it left her reeling. Spear Mint is gone. Cool Mint too. They helped, Belldandy. They had Lind make a sweater to keep me warm without my feathers! And we left them! We abandoned all of them-World of Elegance and Urd and Spear Mint and Cool Mint and Lind-just...gone! Like that! the angel raved. Hagall said she wanted Urd dead, and damn it, damn her, she did it! We let her win, Belldandy!

For a moment the world fell away. Debra melted from sight and Keiichi faded like a dream from time. The gas station they were parked at faded into obscurity and the roar of traffic faded into a distant memory. In its place was Holy Bell, and the look on her face was one of heart-felt tragedy. She wanted one thing, the angel said, Urd's death. She was willing to commit whatever atrocities necessary to achieve that goal. And she succeeded, Belldandy. She succeeded because we abandoned Urd. We betrayed her. We left her to die, Belldandy, and now she and World of Elegance and Lind and the Twins are gone.

"Bell?" A hand came to rest on her shoulder, and Holy Bell vanished. Keiichi replaced her. He looked concerned. "Belldandy, what is it? What happened?"

She stared at him as though seeing him for the first time, and Keiichi moved to rest both his hands on her shoulders. "You're crying," he murmured. "What is it? What did you sense?"

The goddess stared at him, aghast, and touched her face with a hand that trembled. Her cheeks were damp, and now that it had been brought to her attention Belldandy grew keenly aware of the tears sliding down her face. She stared at Keiichi, opened her mouth, Urd is gone, and no sound came out. My sister is gone. The words traveled through her mind, echoed from the very depths of darkness and came racing to the forefront of her mind like a bullet. Urd is... She tried to speak, tried to pass on this information, yet she found her grief to overwhelming, and only a small, pitiful word came from her throat: "Urd..."

Though she was unable to speak her despair, the grief on her face must have communicated what she'd sensed to Keiichi. Without a word, he pulled her into a hug, and it was there, in that moment, that the truth of Urd's fate settled itself into Belldandy's mind like a bird to a nest. A wail, long and broken, arose from deep within her chest, and the Norn embraced the man tight, clinging to him like a lost child.

Urd is gone.

Yggdrasil, Urd is gone. If I hadn't... If Hagall hadn't...

Hagall. Hagall wanted Urd dead.

Hagall.

This is Hagall's fault. Not just mine but Hagall as well.

Hagall was the one responsible for Aoshima.

Hagall is the one responsible for Urd's death.

Hagall.

Hagall.

I'm going to kill Hagall.

The final thought came to her in a moment of stillness within her mind, a voice spoken aloud in silence, and which came across almost like a scream. It struck her, filled Belldandy with a cold sense of resolve, and in an instant the grief that so filled her was gone. In its place was something else, something new, and it settled in her mind and filled her body like a glass of icy water. Hate. Pure, frozen, hate.

It was different from the hate she'd developed for Aoshima. That one was kindred with anger- hot and smoldering, furious and righteous. But this... this was something she'd never felt before. The Norn opened her eyes, and to her it seemed almost as if the world had cleared. As if a filter (Urd) had been removed, and everything- from the scent of the man holding her to the noise of traffic beside them to the sadness and pity on Debra's face- seemed sharper, clearer, in a way she hadn't noticed before.

I'm going to kill Hagall.

She repeated the thought to herself with the curious confoundment of a scholar coming to higher understanding of the world around her, and waited for Holy Bell to challenge it.

Yet her angel was silent. As silent as Urd, and Belldandy recognized in that moment that her thoughts and desires were united in mind, body, and soul. A demon was going to die today, Doublet System be damned. Urd would be avenged.

She sucked in a deep breath and drew away from Keiichi. Her cheeks were dry, the tears spent. All that was left was resolve. Resolve and vengeance. Keiichi met her eyes as they parted, and on his face she saw a plethora of emotions dance across. Concern for her, but grief as well for the person they'd both lost. Grief and guilt, though he was not responsible for Urd's fall. And then worry. Worry coupled with anxiety and even a small bit of impatience.

Don't forget Aiko. A voice, so soft as to be called a whisper, another fish-thought, swam through her mind, flashing its scales at her before vanishing into the depths of her consciousness again. I won't. She told that same thought. I will not lose two sisters this day. "Let's continue." She was amazed at how steady her voice sounded to her ears. "We must find Hagall."

Debra approached, and for once Belldandy found no distaste in the woman's presence. It was spent, or else repurposed. All of that would be for Hagall now. "I'm sorry," the detective mumbled, and Belldandy was taken off guard. "For Urd," she clarified, and met the goddess's startled blue eyes with dismayed brown. "I don't know what happened, but... for what it's worth, you have my condolences." Debra looked away, her lips pressed in a pensive frown. "Are you sure you want to continue this?" she asked. "When..." she trailed off, unable to voice her thoughts into words.

Belldandy understood the message clearly enough. "I am certain," she said firmly. "If I do not continue with you, then Aiko will not be retrieved. You will not stand against Hagall." She paused, remembering her earlier words and the new, large presence she'd felt before the discovery of Urd's fall had reached her. "Not without proper equipment. But let us continue. You will be armed when the battle approaches, and together we will bring Hagall and all her allies down."

She passed the woman and walked around the car to the front passenger seat, crawling in without another word. Keiichi and Debra shared a look. "Aiko needs us," Keiichi said in answer to Debra's inquiring look. "I don't know if what Mac said about Urd is true or not but... we can't dwell on it right now." The SEAL was starting to encroach on Keiichi again, trying to slip past the Man and take over the reins like it did in any combat or hostage situation. "We can't afford to waste any more time. Let's go." There was sadness in his voice. A deep melancholy that scared Debra, as it was of the same sort that had followed him back from Iraq, from Fida, and had left him with wounds she couldn't see and couldn't treat.

The man climbed back into the driver's seat, and for a moment, Debra debated on the wisdom of following them into the car. She'd seen fellow officers pulled from cases that were close to them on an emotional level, and had heard similar stories of service members being pulled from active rosters as well. Emotions didn't mix well with weapons. Anger mixed with guns about as well as alcohol mixed with vehicles. It made people stupid.

It made people dangerous.

And here were two people who'd just suffered a loss. Here we have Suspect Number One: Female, unknown age, wielding power unknown/infinite and who had just recently suffered the loss of a close relative and was going after the suspect who may or may not have been guilty of that death. Surely played a part in it, possibly indirectly.

Next to her was Suspect Number Two: Male, late twenties to early thirties, military background, trained in hand-to-hand combat and to a level where his hands could be considered deadly weapons in their own right. One close relative kidnapped and an a close friend murdered by that same suspect. Currently searching for the individual responsible right alongside Suspect Number One.

Will you be Suspect Number Three? The Detective in her piped up. Female, late twenties, law enforcement background and possible accessory to a crime? Because these two look like they want to meet up with that demon-woman, and something tells me they aren't about to have a friendly chat over tea and crumpets. You saw that look on Belldandy's face. There's only one thought on her mind, and that thought is murder.

If ever there was a time to turn and walk away, it was now.

Just turn and walk away. She could call a cab and return to the hotel and whatever happened from this point on, happened.

Just walk away, Debra Johansson. This was business suited for gods and demons and those people associated with them. Not for law-enforcement where the laws of men need not apply. Not for a mortal like yourself.

Just walk away.

Her eyes drifted to Keiichi, lingered there as the engine to the car started up, and the man looked out the window at her, his gaze questioning and impatient. You coming or not?

Was she really going to abandon Keiichi with all this insanity of gods and demons happening around them? To abandon Aiko, the baby sister she never had?

Just. Walk. Away.

Don't do it, Deb, The Detective in her whispered. Get the proper authorities involved. This is way over your head.

Aiko could die, she told that voice. Keiichi could die. I'm not about to abandon my family.

You could die as well, the voice reasoned.

I'll take that risk for Aiko and Keiichi, she decided.

Debra opened the door to the rear passenger seat and climbed inside, slamming the door shut behind her. She buckled her seat belt and sucked in a deep breath as Keiichi pulled out of the gas station and back into San Francisco traffic.

You're in this all the way then? The detective, Reason, asked in her head. Then you'll have no one but yourself to blame for whatever comes to pass.

And trust me, Deb, it will come to pass, whether you like it or not.

XXX

The trail led them northeast through San Francisco, onto Interstate Eighty and over the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, where the water gleamed a murky green-blue far beneath them as boats ranging from small tugboats to large fishing vessels went about their business. The day was ripening to a high of ninety-eight degrees outside when they came onto the man-made Treasure Island, and with Belldandy's guidance they changed their course northwest, driving up Treasure Island Road and past the Blue Park, where their journey ended at a small café marked, The Glowing Tea.

From there they continued their trek on foot, walking past the vendors selling wine and small markets housing electronics and into a more residential district that looked to have fallen into disrepair. Here, the flora introduced to the island to prevent soil erosion was scarce. Instead, a long line of fences surrounded the area. Belldandy looked tempted to hop over the fence, eyeing it with the same intensity of a cat about to pounce, but Keiichi convinced her otherwise. "There's barbed wire on the fence, see?" He pointed to the top, where a long, looping spool of barbed wire circled the top of the nine-foot fence. "You might be able to leap over, but we'd get shredded. Let's find a gate instead."

"I could bring it down," Belldandy suggested.

"Let's not draw too much attention to ourselves," Debra replied, watching as a dark blue Toyota truck passed them on the neighboring road.

"She's got a point Bell."

"Fine."

They followed the fence line north and then west, away from the main road. They found a gate tucked away behind a small line of trees that looked to have been recently planted, and at Belldandy's touch the thick, heavy chains that locked it fell away with a hearty rattle. The circular handle to the gate proved to either be unlocked or merely gave way at the strength of the goddess gripping it, and seeing the combination pad beneath the doorknob left Keiichi inclined to believe the latter. The Norn stepped inside, and taking a deep breath Debra followed after her.

Keiichi grabbed her arm. "Wait," he cautioned.

Both women paused, looking at him in confusion. "What is it?" Debra asked.

"This place is dangerous."

Debra stared at him blankly. "No shit, Sherlock," she said. "We're tracking down legitimate demons, Keiichi."

The SEAL frowned. "No, I mean this place is dangerous. To us." He gestured to Debra and himself, then looked at Belldandy, his face worried. "Bell, this place has nuclear hazard signs posted on it."

"It has what?" Belldandy stared at him blankly.

"It has what!?" Debra jumped away from the gate like she'd stumbled across a rattlesnake that had started to shake its tail. "Kei, are you serious?"

Keiichi nodded. "I noticed those as we were approaching the gate." He pointed to a rectangular, laminated sign that been tied to the grid of the fence line. The sign was yellow, with a black nuclear hazard symbol centered on it. Above it were the words RESTRICTED AREA in big, blocky text, followed by a line beneath the symbol that read Authorized Personnel Only. Next to it was a second, white sign of a similar lamination. NOTICE, it read, CONTROLLED AREA. Authorized Personnel Only.

In nineteen thirty-nine, Treasure Island had been created for one purpose: The World Fair that was held in that same year. Following that, the island was left as it was, with all its architecture and flora, until the US Navy came into possession of it and turned it into a naval base. In the nineteen forties, it was repurposed for use as a dumping ground for the Navy's nuclear waste, acting as a location to clean ships and get rid of hazardous materials used in the creation of atomic bombs. Though the Navy had gone through efforts to correct the erroneous act, many of the buildings were still considered radioactive as a result, despite the large residential district that had sprung up on the island in the past twenty years. Those areas were still held under possession by the Navy as a preventative measure for those new residents, and it seemed that now, such places also made alluring dens for demons.

"Bell, we can't go in there," Keiichi continued. "If that place is off limits with a big hazard sign, then that means the place still has a dangerous level of radioactivity for humans. I'm not going in there on the risk that I'll turn into some ghoul from Keigo's videogames sixty years down the road."

"Of all the goddamned... these motherfuckers would..." Beside him, Debra muttered oaths under her breath, eyeing the signs she'd failed to notice with wary eyes.

Belldandy looked at them both in surprise, confounded by their reluctance to breech the gate's perimeter. "Aiko may be in there," she said.

"And might be suffering from radiation poisoning," Keiichi continued. "Bell, don't misunderstand me, I want to save Aiko too, but if that," he pointed past her to the territory behind her, "is radioactive, then unless I know I'm protected, I cannot take another step inside, and I'm not allowing Deb in there either."

"You don't have to tell me twice." Debra muttered. She looked pale, ashen, almost, spooked by the danger she'd almost walked into without a second thought. "I don't fuck around with nuclear hazards."

Belldandy looked between the two mortals, flabbergasted. "You would stop here?" she demanded, "At the gates of the demon's den, this is where you balk?"

"It's radioactive, Belldandy." Debra emphasized the word 'radioactive', speaking slowly and drawing the word out in a long breath as though speaking to a slow child. "If we go in there without protection, we could die. Do you understand that? We don't know what the half-life on this place is or what kind of rads this area is pumping out, and unless you want us both to start vomiting blood while you have a go at Hagall, we need to either draw her out or find some suits to protect ourselves."

"Vomit-" Belldandy looked at the woman in alarm. "This is such a hazard to you?"

"There's a reason why there are warning signs telling people to keep out." Debra snipped.

"Deb, don't start," Keiichi warned. "Bell, she's right. I don't know if you have something comparable but... unless you know how to wipe out radiation or have some spell up your sleeve that can shield us from radiation, we can't go in there.

The Norn fell silent, observing the two of them with mixed emotions. "This... scares you, doesn't it," she said, and watched as Keiichi and Debra nodded with no small amount of enthusiasm.

"Radiation will fuck a man up," Keiichi emphasized. "We do drills for this kind of shit in the military-leave no body part exposed, wear a gas mask with filters, the works. We don't have protection? We burn up from the inside out. The radiation exposure will start destroying our cells and our organs until there's nothing left but cancer." He shook his head. "I want to rescue Aiko, but I want to rescue Aiko intelligently. We don't go into combat without IPE. We don't go into radiation without MOPP." He looked at Belldandy, his expression leaving no room for argument. "We don't run naked into the line of fire."

"I see," the goddess murmured. There was logic in Keiichi's words. Logic Belldandy hadn't considered in her fear for Aiko's safety and her anger over Hagall's reappearance (Urd's dead because of her, lest we forget!) as well as a reminder that once again, the members of Belldandy's party were mortal, they were fragile, and they could be wounded very easily without the proper protection.

The goddess pursed her lips, looking back over her shoulder into the fenced off perimeter behind them. An area of radiation. Yes, now that she concentrated on it, she could indeed sense something... different about the area behind her. Off. Unstable, almost. As if the very atoms of the territory itself were struggling to stabilize themselves, like a series of miniscule bombs that might go off at the slightest disturbance.

She turned more fully to the land beyond the gate, her eyes narrowing. It would be simple enough to protect the mortals at her back from the release of energy that unstable matter was emitting, yet that would be a prolonged spell that would require constant vigilance, and in the midst of a battle that would be a dangerous thing to lose track of. While it would take more of her energy at first, it would be easier instead to merely stabilize those atoms and prevent the release of energy as a whole, rather than have a slow drain on her energy and mind that would be caused by a protective shield around the two people behind her.

The goddess nodded to herself. "Back away from me, please," she requested. "Go towards the road. What I'm about to do will affect the surrounding land on an atomic level, and I don't want to risk the two of you with some side effect I did not take into consideration."

"What are you going to do?" Debra asked.

"Cleanse the land," Belldandy replied, and then walked through the gate and into the restricted zone. She took several steps inside the perimeter, and only stopped when her seventh sense told her that the air around her was starting to hum, stirred in part by her movement onto the land. She allowed her consciousness to spread out from there, expanding into the air and into the ground, spreading to encompass those atoms so unstable and stopping only when she came to atoms that were stable again. It encompassed a long expanse of land; one that went well past the fence like that quarantined the area and deep into the earth itself, where the soil still leeched poison and the roots of surrounding flora were weak with mutation. She even sensed it in the animals that inhabited the land; insects with wings too thick to fly or additional legs that left them vulnerable to predators. Birds with cancer in their breasts, deteriorated muscle and wings (Holy Bell shuddered) too weak to fly. Lizards and snakes (World of Elegance, Holy Bell mourned) born with thin skin or blind, with patches of flesh without scales or with limbs without enough or too many toes.

It made her physical body shudder, left her gut churning (where is Aiko in all of this? Where is Hagall? Her allies?) with nausea to know that something as simple as unstable atoms could wreak so much havoc on the land and its creatures. Enough of this, she thought, and with a mental hand reached out and grabbed the atoms. She willed them to be still, to be stable, and felt the nervous energy they produced grow calm at her touch. Be calm, she instructed, and to her it seemed as though the land itself sighed and relaxed, releasing a tension that had until that time been unknown and unseen.

She released a meditative sigh with the release, and for a moment felt a small bit of tranquility flow through her. A thought came to her, not hers but something else's: thank you. It came and went with the passing peace, yet by the time Belldandy realized it was the spirt of the island itself, the owner of the voice had already moved on. With it came a new and sudden revelation: Belldandy did not like California. There had been nothing but stress and anger, heartbreak and depression, hurt and hate since arriving in this state. This is no land for gods, she thought to herself, turning back to the front gate and returning to Keiichi and Debra. This is a thieving land. It robs you of your joy, it robs you of your happiness, and it pits family against one another before stealing them away.

I miss Virginia. I miss my forests and swamps and cooking my own food and singing with the rising and setting sun and my quiet evenings with my family and silly weekends with Team Twelve and strange opossums that live in tree trunks and cougar spirits that roam my woods and rifts that are guarded by old copperheads. I want to go home.

We need to take care of our business here first. Holy Bell reminded. Let's hurry up and finish Hagall and rescue Aiko, and then we can see for ourselves what happened to Urd and World of Elegance. Brave words from her angel. Painful ones, as well. A reminder.

Don't forget about the mortals behind you. They will be useless if they cannot protect themselves. She didn't bother to differentiate whether those words came from herself or Holy Bell. By now, it seemed like a moot point.

"It's safe now," the Norn said, letting those thoughts fade into the background of her mind as she approached Keiichi and Debra. "The radiation is gone. You may enter without fear of damage."

Keiichi and Debra shared an uncertain look, and then Keiichi walked firmly inside the fence perimeter. He looked nervous and uncertain, as though worried that at any moment he might burst into flames. Debra's expression, following his path, looked to be of a similar mindset. When nothing happened, however, Debra followed after, perhaps a tad more open in her fear. "Is it really safe?" she asked.

"It is," Belldandy said. "The plants and the animals are still weak and ill from the poison of the land, but the poison is gone now. It will not harm you nor anyone else who comes to stand on this ground." She looked to Keiichi, and missed the look of open awe and fear that fell across Debra's face. "Keiichi," she began, "before we continue, I need to ensure you will be able to protect yourself from Hagall and any demons that might be allied with her.

"Like Skuld?" Keiichi asked, and got a strange look from Debra.

"Yes," Belldandy replied. "Though I am not my sister, I can still provide you both a means of protection." She pursed her lips, her eyes hard. "Keiichi, I need you to focus for me." She hesitated, and then looked at Debra. "You too. Your sensitivity will make it easier to draw out."

"What do you want us to focus on?"

"Your weapons."

"My-" Keiichi stopped himself, his jaw falling open in shock. "What do you mean, my weapons?"

"Your weapons," Belldandy repeated. "The two guns I've seen you take out on the weekends when you leave for target practice with Team Twelve. The small hand gun and the larger..."

"The AR-15?" Keiichi supplied. "The Colt and the AR-15? Why would you want us to focus on those?"

"Because we are only on the bordering edge of a ley line," Belldandy explained. "The rules of this world can only be bent so much before they are broken, and while this ley line allows me the opportunity to manifest these weapons, it requires outside assistance." She shook her head. "I must still, to an extent, follow Midgard's rules of existence, however if I have your aid- both of you, not just you Keiichi- I might bend them just short of breaking them."

"Kei..." Debra sounded wary and uncertain, and Keiichi looked at Belldandy with dismay.

"Bell, I used a gun against a demon," he said. "When I pulled the trigger the bullets didn't do anything to him."

"They wouldn't," Belldandy agreed. "But that is the least of our concerns at this moment. I will take care of that once we have brought the weapons here. Now think of guns."

Humanity was a strange race.

By the standards of all the races of the Nine Worlds connected by Yggdrasil, they were oftentimes seen as the weakest of creatures. They were tiny where Jotun were large. Stupid in light of the wisdom of the elves. Talentless when compared to the craftsmanship of the Dwarves. Idiots when pitted against the Vanir and weak from an Aesir's point of view. They could not reincarnate like the Demons and were sentenced to live lifetimes amongst Helr's legions of the dead. And their capability with manipulating spiritual energy-be it their own or that of the world around them - was dead and nonexistent in the grand scheme of all the races. In truth, they were perhaps the most pathetic of the races of the ten great dimensions in all the Nine Worlds, outclassed in almost every way by those who would be their peers. They were fragile. They were ignorant. They were stupid, violent, and as spiritually dead as they were creatively dead. It was a small wonder they had not wiped themselves out in the years since they'd forgotten the gods, and indeed had not destroyed their very world with their recklessness.

Yet there was one thing that Humanity had that was unique to the mortal that was Man, and that was Will. They had a strength of will like none other, one said to surpass even the gods themselves when given the right motivation. Their will, as a whole, could dream impossibilities into reality: It gave Man control over Fire, allowed him to fly with metal wings and populate a world that would have torn his soft and fragile body apart. It allowed great warriors of old to stand on their feet like Cu Chullain after they had fallen days before. It rallied troops who before had been too afraid of their imminent death to face their enemy with laughter and taunts. It allowed Humanity to advance to the realms of space while they were still in their infancy, and all with a strange stubborn tenacity that could not be mimicked even by those frightening demons of illusion.

And now, with the aid of a goddess, that same stubborn Will of Man would bring a pair of guns all the way from Suffok, Virginia to Treasure Island, California, through a process which Man could only deem as magic.

The two children of Man stood in front of each other, their eyes closed as the Aesir Norn stood with her palms out before her. A look of deep concentration lined the brows of their faces, and the land was silent and still around them, as though fearing to interrupt the strange ceremony conducted by those gathered. Keiichi closed his eyes and thought of the gun range, of fire fights and practice rounds, of smoking brass cases that sometimes found their way down his blouse and left burns and the sharp, metallic scent of gunpowder that covered everything. Debra closed her eyes and thought of her youth, of trips into the woods with her father and shooting glass bottles with the heavy M1 Garand-back then taller than her-with her father standing behind her. Of qualifications with an M9 in the Academy and the wicked exhilaration of watching a wooden target shaped like a man disintegrate with two blasts from a shotgun.

The scent of steel and gunpowder filled the air. A pulse gathered in a goddess's hands, near and far at once as the world warped to her desires, to the impossible will of her two mortal companions.

They both closed their eyes and recalled the cool metal of the weapon against their fingers, the safety levers and buttons and the sharp curve of the trigger. Recalled being drilled over and over and over again to always keep that booger hook off the bang switch and to never aim at something you didn't intend to shoot. Of idiots armed with M-4's discharging their weapons into the fire barrels on accident, where Keiichi got his first bout of Tinnitus. Of arriving on-scene to Debra's first case, a messy accident where children had gotten ahold of their parents' weapons, never realizing the dangers they held. Of centering all the rounds in the magazine at a target and seeing a nice, tiny cluster of holes when that sheet was brought close. Of recoil that could kick like a mule or give a light tap on the shoulder, of cleaning barrels after use and disassembling semi-automatic weapons in less than fifteen seconds.

"Open your eyes."

Together, the two mortals did as they were told, blinking owlishly at each other as between them, the air appeared to warp and bend and dance, bending the light and deforming its surroundings as though they looked through an irregular pane of glass. It was a disturbing effect to look at, one that induced nausea in the two humans present and made their eyes water. A headache broke out in Keiichi's head at the appearance, and Debra, more sensitive, recoiled as a severe migraine struck her all at once. Then it seemed as though the air settled, and the strange, disturbing effect phased into nonexistence. The pain of staring at the unnatural disturbance began to fade, but not before Debra stumbled away to a nearby tree where she lost her breakfast.

Both Keiichi and Belldandy averted their eyes, giving the woman her privacy. She finished and stumbled back, rubbing her brow with a grimace. Keiichi looked at her with fresh concern. "You okay?"

"I will be when this is over." The detective hocked and spat into some nearby bushes. "Fuck demons. Fuck this magic stuff too." She spat again. "I'll stick to the human magic of Science and Technology. This shit's for the birds."

"When all this is over I shall treat any damage that has been done to you," Belldandy said. "You have stayed with us despite the dangers presented to you, though this is not your battle. For that you have my respect."

Debra waved her off. "You can thank me if we survive this shit and save Aiko," she grumbled, and for a final time hocked and spat on the ground again. If anyone noticed the red mingled with the phlegm, they held their tongue.

Belldandy nodded. "Then I will leave it for you both to decide who should wield which weapon." The Norn clumsily held a semi-automatic rifle and a smaller hand gun in her arms. Keiichi's AR-15 and the Colt forty-five Debra had gifted him for this twenty-seventh birthday. The mortals knew this because both recognized the Colt's custom coffee bag burlap-scales.

Without a word Keiichi took both weapons from the goddess, who appeared more relieved to be rid of the devices. He offered Debra the revolver grip-first, the barrel pointed to the ground, and took the AR-15 for himself, checking the chamber and clearing it with a smooth, practiced motion before looking at Belldandy. "I don't keep the ammo or magazines with the weapons," he said.

"I know." Belldandy nodded, and from her pockets as if by magic (indeed, perhaps that was all it was-magic) withdrew three semi-automatic magazines and a box labeled 'WINCHESTER SUPERX 45 Colt, 250 GRAIN COWBOY ACTION LEAD FLAT NOSE'. She passed the magazines to Keiichi, who took all three, looked inside the first one, and then popped it into the rifle. He stuffed the spares into the pockets on his right side, one in the front pocket and the other in the rear pocket, and then looked back at Belldandy, his face grim.

Debra, likewise, grabbed the box full of ammunition and hand loaded six cartridges into the revolver, spinning the six-shooter and listening to it whiz before pouring a handful of spares into various pockets on her person. "I take it this is special ammunition?" she asked. "And not just what the box says?"

"They've been enchanted," Belldandy replied. "There is a... spell that certain Aesir are taught for such times as this. When we are on another plane not our own and do not have our standard weapons available to us."

"Similar to how you tracked Cholo-Pennywise to the storage yard?" Debra asked.

"Cholo..." Belldandy stared at Debra, then shook her head, as if to rid herself over the mortal's odd term for Hagall. "Yes, I suppose. In a sense." She hesitated. "It is a Valkyrie spell. I learned it in my youth from a previous mentor, once upon a time. It is a spell that changes the composition of the weapon itself. It... brings the weapon to the 'tenth dimension', in a sense, where it might pierce the flesh of demons and gods alike, rather than never touch them as your weapons would here In the third dimension."

"That sounds entirely too complicated for me to follow," Keiichi muttered. "In layman's terms, this will allow us to shoot Hagall, right?"

"Yes," agreed Belldandy."

"Then that's all I need to know." The man sucked in a deep breath. "Let's go. We've wasted enough time. Hagall and Aiko are waiting for us."

XXX

The once-irradiated land beyond the wired fence was once a series of office buildings and housing structures. The majority of them were single story, multi-room buildings whose windows had been punched out and vandalized by vagrants over the ages. The insides of some of the buildings held a sixties-era lime-green coat of paint that hurt to look at with modern eyes. The desks inside were hardwood and thick steel that was now bent and rusted with time's progress. Further past these, off to the west near the coastline, were a series of smaller buildings that at one point may have been vacation homes leased out by a hotel. Barnacles clung to ancient wood, the white paint that once protected them long gone, with a single dock that had collapsed and been cordoned off by yellow warning tape screaming at the dangers of the local area.

Further inland, away from the beach and closer to the fence perimeter, a large, multistory complex stood, its innards gutted long ago by possible sailors or possible vandals. This late in its life, it was difficult to tell. It was towards this that the trio made their way, trekking through underbrush that was in the process of reclaiming the land and splashing through creek water that was surprisingly clear.

Belldandy led the way, and together they walked through what was left of the old, decrepit neighborhood that had at some point been abandoned and left to rot. It was creepy: some areas still had rusted remains of cars from the fifties in their driveways, and others held the rusted skeletons of steel bikes, so red and ancient that it seemed the slightest touch might cause the entire structure to collapse. Old cribs and older bed frames rested naked and barren near broken windows, and the remains of green glasses and broken ceramic plates lay scattered upon ancient tiled shelves in various kitchens. To Keiichi it reminded him of stories about Chernobyl and how the residents had abandoned everything in their haste to escape. Of Fukushima with its nuclear power plant and how the residents in the city had been forced to evacuate without any time to prepare, and how quiet and alone the three of them were, like survivors in a post-apocalyptic world as they marched towards the facility that supposedly held demons and Aiko.

"This is where Aiko is?" Keiichi's voice was low as they stood in front of the building's entrance.

"No," Belldandy replied. "I haven't been tracking Aiko's aura. I don't have the skills necessary to track her down, as her aura is of the Third and is too faint for me to follow. This is where the thickest mix of demonic aura has led us."

"Wait, seriously?" Debra hissed in dismay.

"Yes," Belldandy replied, ignoring the mortal's distress. "If we find Hagall, then reason stands that we shall find Aiko as well. Let's continue."

Keiichi flipped up the safety, moving the tiny lever to BURST on his rifle. "Let's go then."

The building at one point looked like it had been some kind of government facility. Large WARNING signs, the paint peeling and the letters worn off, still adorned some of the heavy metal doors on the first floor. Where dirt had not come to cover the ground, there were indentations in the floor and light spaces that once might have been areas where desks, tables and cabinets had sat, as well as a variety of doors rusted shut so tightly that Keiichi could not force them open. On the northwest corner was a tiled stairwell whose insides were black other than a pinprick of light that spoke of the next floor. Keiichi found an elevator shaft with no elevator on the west hallway. On the opposite end of that same hallway was a large door with the words FIRE DOOR stenciled in red, and it was here that Belldandy stopped. "The aura goes through here," she announced, and touched the door.

It fell forward at her touch, crashing to the ground with a solid metal screech that left Keiichi's ears ringing. Debra yelped, startled by the sound, and the two mortals stared at the Norn in shock. Belldandy paid neither of them any mind, sticking her head into the darkness of the hidden stairwell within and looking around. "The aura goes down," she announced, her voice echoing against the tile walls.

"Of course it does," Debra griped. "It wouldn't be an evil demonic plot from hell if it was up in the sunlight."

"You'd rather be discharging a weapon out in the open on an unstable platform that's who knows how far above ground?" Keiichi countered. "The third floor of this place looked ready to collapse from the outside. I'll take my chances underground."

"Do we even have a flashlight?"

"We've got Belldandy."

"So a goddess Swiss army knife then," Debra muttered, and as if to prove her point a bright orb of light burst into existence in Belldandy's left hand.

"Let's go," Belldandy called impatiently. She tossed the orb of light into the stairwell, where it hung suspended seven feet in the air, illuminating the row of stairs as easily as if the lights were still on inside.

Keiichi shot Debra a smug look.

Debra stared back, baffled. "What?"

"Let's go!" Belldandy called again, and disappeared inside the stairwell. The globe of light followed her obediently.

"When all this is over," said Debra as she fell in line behind Keiichi. "I think I'm going to make a request to forget I ever did this. Otherwise, this shit is going to haunt me for the rest of my life."

Keiichi held his silence.

The two of them followed after Belldandy, carefully picking their way down steps littered with broken tile and more broken glass. The air smelled stale and old when they reached the bottom. Large flocks of dust specks danced in the light of Belldandy's magic orb, where Keiichi sneezed once, twice, three times in huge roars, the sound echoing in the room.

"Well, if they didn't know we were here before, they sure do now," Debra muttered, looking past Keiichi and to the door that led to the basement floor. Like the other fire doors, this one was another heavy, full-steel beast, only this one had at some point been locked shut; a large steel lock at least an inch thick ran through a deadbolt located just above the handle. Rust had devoured the chrome from the steel, yet it still looked thick enough to withstand any kind of mortal abuse.

Belldandy touched it, and the deadbolt and all the steel attached to it fell clattering to the floor.

The Norn swung the door open, and the trio walked inside the basement floor of the abandoned facility.

And it was then, of course, as the group of three spread out and attempted to gain their bearings in this underground floor with its dirty tile and moldy walls that of course, the light went out.

It shouldn't have mattered.

Not for the group present, secure in their position as they were with a goddess on their side.

At least not until Belldandy uttered one. Single. Word.

One single word that gripped the hearts of those present.

A familiar word, known throughout the English language and whose meaning spanned innumerable definitions.

"Fuck."

And Keiichi and Debra became afraid.


A/N: Next chapter we get nasty.


Comments of a Madwoman: In typical Camadera fashion, I went into the weeds and never made it to the anticipated action I was gunning for. We'll make up for it in the next chapter.