Notes: Shocked I didn't get any comments about Teela or Yamagi, but maybe that's a good sign. Maybe.

But you should take into account that Teela's focus on Yamagi means something.

Odd Fact: This chapter written mostly under the influence of Brandy's "Angel in Disguise," but I can't figure out what it has to do with the story, only that it's connected to the Goddesses. Let me know if you figure it out, I'm so lost…

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Chapter 15

"Garu, MOVE IT!" Leena shouted as she burst into her Pilot's room.

Despite being in the midst of a somewhat pleasant dream, Gareas sat up more or less automatically. There was a time when he would've wondered if his body had instinctively responded first to Leena's voice or the urgency in it, but no more. "What'd Hiead do now?" he grunted as he pulled on his uniform.

Leena stared at him as if he'd grown a second head. "How did you know…?"

"You don't want to know," Gareas replied firmly, shooting her a look.

"Um…well, the official word is that we're supposed to intercept an incoming swarm."

"And the unofficial?"

"Omega Kallisto has already intercepted it…alone."

Gareas rolled his eyes. "If he's that cocky, let him handle the damn swarm all by himself!"

Leena frowned. "Garu…that's the thing. From what I've heard, I think he IS handling it…"

"Kazuhi-chan. Anything you want to tell me?"

The tone was lighthearted at best, but Kazuhi thought that he had never sounded more serious.

"Nothing I'm allowed to, Rei-sama," she replied, almost resentfully.

"Ah. So if I were to ask you exactly how long Hiead's been gone…?"

"I would have to say that is classified information."

Zero couldn't help smirking. He was the Top, after all. If there was anything classified about any Pilot, chances were, he would know it. "Well, let's see if we can get an answer without getting you in trouble. When Hiead gets back, what would you guess he would brag about?"

"Annihilating the entire swarm by himself," Kazuhi replied without missing a beat. "Most likely not taking any damage in the process, either."

"So you're not worried about him getting hurt?"

She stared at him for a long moment. "I'm not worried about the Victim hurting him, if that's what you mean."

"It isn't," Zero replied flatly.

"Rei-sama, Hiead-san knew all the risks, and he doesn't care about any of them. I could hardly stop him, even if I wanted to."

"Good point. But why don't you want to stop him?"

Kazuhi turned away from him. "In the end, he is doing exactly what he was brought here to do…if only at the cost of himself."

In all honestly, there had been no need for the rest of the Ingrids to leave GIS. It was procedure to face any amount of the Victim as a unified force, but rules were one of the many things Hiead failed to respect. But whether the Pilots were angry with him for deserting them or not, none of them said a word when they finally reached Omega Kallisto.

The swarm was nothing more than a memory, and the dark Ingrid stood alone: proud, defiant, and lethal. There was actually nothing wrong with that, save that her pride was blinding, she had defied orders, and that not even other Pilots were safe from her. It was difficult to believe that this had once been the same Ingrid that Yu Hikura flew into battle. Clearly, it was something far different now.

None of the Pilots made any attempt to contact Hiead, but none save Zero and Erts knew it would've been pointless, anyway. For deep within his Ingrid, Hiead could not hear or see anything at the moment. His eyes were wide, bloodshot, and ultimately unseeing. Even if a sound had reached his ears, the sensation never would've registered in his brain.

Draped loosely over his shoulders was a girl entirely composed of red skin, raven hair, and an unmoving mask. Unlike her Pilot, the Goddess was painfully aware of nearly everything just then. She could feel the wetness tricking down her back, but she could not be sure if it was sweat or blood at this point. She could see the other Ingrids heading back to GIS, after realizing there was no work for them. Yet, she could also hear Rei's voice reaching out to her.

You are Dying.

It was all he said, and it was enough that she knew exactly what he was saying to her. Her response, though, was equally short and just as loaded with meaning.

Yes. And I will take them all with me.

A moment later, she wondered if she'd meant the Victim or the other Goddesses, and if the difference even mattered to her any longer…

Tune was nowhere near asleep when there came a loud thump against her door. In fact, she'd been lying there, wondering if Hiead's newly customized Omega Kallisto would soon make all other Ingrids obsolete. The thought of Reneighd Klein being useless was frightening enough, but not so much as that of Ernn Laties being useless.

As Tune got up and walked to the door, she didn't stop to consider who it might be so late. Her number one suspect was Erts, but he was usually more polite in the way he knocked. This had sounded more like someone bumping into the door.

There was another thump before she got the door open, and Tune was greatly surprised to find Gareas staring back at her. She was even more surprised to find that he was naked from the waist up and drenched in what could only be called terror-sweat.

"You'd tell me if I was crazy, right, Tune?" he asked at once, in a tone edged with nervous laughter.

This was obviously not an easy question to answer. Tune tried to stay calm as she asked, "What's wrong, Garu?"

"I…I think I'm losing my mind. But I have to be sure before I do something…well…drastic."

Against her better judgment, Tune took him by the arm and led him into her room, where she made him sit on the bed. She decided to remain standing. "Now, tell me what happened."

"It was right after we got back from Hiead's one-man show. I was getting out of Eeva Leena…at least, I thought I was. But then everything just…stopped."

"Stopped, how?"

"She wouldn't let me out. She didn't want me to leave. She…grabbed my arm."

"She, Garu?" Tune asked uncertainly.

He gave her a look that could've frozen fire. "I am NOT crazy. It happened! She's alive, she can talk, and she can damn well grab people when she wants to!" He leaned forward. "And I KNOW you know! She told me Erts and Zero have been talking to her!"

Tune was really getting frightened now. She had, of course, heard Erts mention "Emily" more than once, but she always thought it was his way of projecting his imagination onto the Goddess, in order to make her seem more like a friend. And she understood, somewhat, that Pilots and Goddesses talked on one level or another. But she had thought this conversing was limited to battle, and that anyone who said different was pretty much a lunatic (save Teela, but she was always the exception).

And here was Gareas, saying his Goddess had touched and talked to him outside of battle. "Lunatic" was definitely a word Tune would've used to describe him at the moment, based on appearance alone. Just not to his face.

"Please try to calm down, Garu," Tune pleaded, laying a reassuring hand on his shoulder.

He sighed and hung his head, apparently trying to do as she asked. "You don't understand, Tune. She…told me…"

"She told you what?"

"A lot of things. But the last thing she said…I can't get it out of my head."

Nonsense or not, Tune sensed that this part was why Gareas had really come to her. "What, Garu?"

"She told me not to cry over Ernest anymore," Garu whispered, "because I'd be with him sooner than I thought."

Erts had no idea what time it was, but it didn't matter. Emily seemed to have a built-in alert system that warned him whenever he was needed for something. It was easy to forget that, though, as he watched her sleep, her hand resting lightly on his knee. In moments like these, she seemed more like a mere girl than what she actually, truly was. And Erts knew it would not have mattered whether it was her hand on his knee or her head in his lap: there was nothing but trust between them now, and both knew it.

Though there were things about her beyond the capability of human thought, Erts decided that he knew enough to trust her for the rest of his life, however long it was. It was really so much simpler than any other relationship he'd had with a girl. She would not betray, hurt, or leave him. He did not have to worry about sending the wrong signals, or making her happy for no reason, or reading her mind to know what she really wanted. In the end, she was always his Emily, and she would never change.

Erts felt a light prickle on the edge of his senses, and realized that it was only someone thinking a bit loudly nearby. A quick scan confirmed it was only Roose, wanting something to drink rather badly.

Emily's eyes snapped open without warning. Pretty?

"Sorry, I didn't mean to wake you," Erts sent, but she was already sitting up and glancing around in an odd sort of way.

You did not, she sent almost absently as she continued to scan with her eyes, as if searching for something in the air.

"What is it?" Erts asked, but she pressed a finger to his lips, and in the next moment, she'd sprouted at least twenty more ears, each stretching away from her head to listen. It was admittedly an odd sight, but nothing Erts hadn't seen before. Still, he wished she would at least warn him beforehand.

At last, the ears vanished, and her finger fell away from his lips. Pretty. Your dream had only Silence and Sibling and Sister?

Erts gaped at her. "Yes. Why?"

Certain?

"Yes! Why?!"

It didn't seem like she would answer at first. Finally, Emily pressed her finger to his lips again, then grabbed his hand and gave a great tug.

Erts felt himself being dragged upward, up into the main part of the cockpit. As usual, Emily had vanished somewhere along the line, as she never ventured this far up unless they were in battle. However, Erts could still feel her lingering in the back of his mind, and knew she would be seeing what he saw.

Look, she instructed, and one her usual window displays popped up.

Erts half-expected to see readouts on a battle in progress. Instead, he found himself looking at what had to be a camera shot of the entire docking bay. The view shifted to a close-up of the main door.

"How did you-" Erts began to ask, but Emily shushed him with unusual force and moved his eyes back to the display. He was shocked to see what looked like an exact copy of Emily drift through the doorway, except that she was a brilliant forest green color. Her head snapped at once in Erts's direction, her hair whipping wildly behind her, and he could almost see it turning into numerous snakes, their fangs dripping with venom as they closed in to-

Pretty, Emily sent, breaking through the hallucination. You must see. A hand passed briefly over his face, as if wiping sweat away, and then the display angle shifted again, to watch the green girl float over to Megami Senshi's ramp.

As accustomed to seeing with both his eyes and head as Erts was, he felt something tugging at his heart as he watched the girl. It was an odd sensation, and for the first time in a long time, he was tempted to see without the aid of his EX ability.

"Emily," Erts whispered. "What would I see if I looked at her with my own eyes, instead of yours?"

There was a long pause, and then: Not certain. Sister veils her intent.

And it was as if a veil was drawn away from Erts's eyes. As Emily's presence retreated, the world seemed to dull and lose much of its color, but the most drastic change was in the girl herself. For without Emily's eyes to see the Goddess, Erts became aware of exactly what was going on.

The girl became little more than ghostly green vapor, and within her gaseous form, the limp body of a Pilot was revealed.

"Roose!" Erts cried in shock. "Roose! Can you hear me?!"

But the blank look in the unresponsive boy's eyes told Erts all he needed to know. Roose was completely under his Goddess's control. She had possessed him, and he was little more than her puppet now. Suddenly, Ert's impossible dream didn't seem so far-fetched anymore.

Roose lurched his way up the ramp and all but tossed himself headfirst into Megami Senshi's cockpit. Seconds later, the Ingrid's eyes flashed briefly but brightly, and then all was still.

"Emily! What is she doing to him?!" He rarely found reason to raise his voice to her, but he raised it now, fearing that she might not answer, in an attempt to protect the other Goddess.

Do not fear, Pretty. Sister would never harm her Pilot. You must trust her, as I trust you.

Erts sensed a bit of regret in her reply, as if she could sense that if only for a moment, he had doubted her.

"I…I'm sorry, Emily. It's just…why does she have to take away his free will? Why couldn't she just ask him?"

There may be no time for manners, Pretty. I do not think Sister takes pleasure in this. I would not.

Yamagi was not in the habit of suffering from his nightmares. Most times, he either forgot them immediately, or used them as worst-case scenarios to inspire better performance. He was not a person who had recurring dreams, or even dreams that required much thinking about. Anyone who went around telling others about their dreams was just out for some attention.

He had certainly never dreamed of another boy, not in any sort of way. So when Gareas began to appear in his dreams, Yamagi was a little worried. He was not at all comforted when the Pilot eventually appeared in various poses of death, his mouth open in shock and blood splattered all over his face. Even that might have been gotten over gradually, if Teela hadn't been left standing over the body with blood on her hands.

Each and every time Yamagi had such a dream, he woke up to find Teela in his room. She was either at the window, the foot of his bed, or seated on the floor next to the bed. While the images were still fresh in his mind, for some reason, his mind never processed the fact that Teela might be dangerous. In fact, more often than not, he woke up feeling exceptionally angry at Zero. He could not explain why this was, any more than he could explain why he allowed a killer to enter his room whenever she wished.

Once, and only once, in desperation to escape both the dream and Teela, he'd slept in Tukasa's room. In the end, he'd still had the dream, only he'd woken up to find his Repairer's arms wound tightly around his neck. And Teela standing in the corner, of course.

A Note on Goddess Colors:

Do NOT send me corrections on what color the green girl should've been. You must realize that I take into account two things when I assigned colors to the various Goddesses:

1) I began this story under the influence of the anime (largely a mistake, but not totally), and so seeing an orange girl embracing Ernest inside Luhma Klein has stuck with me. This doesn't mean that I think Reneighd Klein is orange, only that the human representation of the spirit inside her can appear that way. (Kudos to you if you even slightly understood that) For all I know, she might be a different color to every single person is privileged to see her.

2) Megami Senshi isn't just different from Agui Keimeia in name, they are essentially two different entities. I don't know about you, but it's my opinion that going through so many different Pilots, even Goddesses would find themselves changing and adapting just a wee bit. I mean, I dare you to tell me YOU wouldn't have to adjust, first working with Yu and then Hiead. So if personalities can change, so can color.

For all we know, Goddesses don't even see themselves in terms of colors. It's being human that make us do silly things like name everything and slap a color on it. So instead of getting mad, think about this: before you tell me what I should be doing, go out and find any goddess, and just try to tell her what color SHE should be. If you survive the experience, I don't want to hear about it.