The Past Revisited

Chapter 1

2563

"SENTARO!"

Kensuke sat up abruptly at the shout and looked around. He was sitting on the porch that was attached to his home in the back. The sun was high up in the sky, so it was probably noon. Overall, it had been a rather pleasant weekend……..

"SENTARO! GET BACK HERE!"

…………if only the kids were away at school.

Of course, it wasn't his oldest that caused the problems. She'd stopped the troublemaking long ago. No…... it was the current reigning champion of Troublemaking, Sentaro, causing the fuss now. The back door to the house suddenly crashed open, as Sentaro raced from the house.

"Hi, Dad!" he shouted as he ran past. "Bye, Dad!"

Kensuke watched as his son ran just another 20 yards before vanishing. Kensuke sighed as he heard his son's shout of surprise in the house, just before a loud crash. He then heard his wife scolding him.

'I don't know why he even tries to run anymore,' Kensuke thought. 'Every time he runs, Sayoko just teleports him home. Of course, pointing him at the wall is a new thing, but maybe it will get him to stop.'

The back door of the house opened again, this time letting out Sayoko. She walked over beside Kensuke, then sat down in his lap, leaning her head back on his shoulder. She then let out a content sigh as he wrapped his arms around her.

"What did he do now?" Kensuke asked, looking basically at the top and back of her head.

"He somehow got a box of Aunt Skuld's things off a high shelf in the basement and into his room without anyone knowing," Sayoko said with a sigh. 'Kensuke is really comfortable today.'

Kensuke studied his wife's hair as he spoke. "What's so bad about Skuld's stuff?"

Sayoko snuggled into Kensuke more. "Most of them have self destruct devices in them."

Kensuke froze. "WHAT!"

"Don't worry," she said, grabbing his hand. "Most of them never worked. But still…….. I told him there was a reason they were put out of reach, and not to touch them."

Kensuke relaxed, then felt Sayoko snuggle into him a bit more. As she did, some of her hair moved. Kensuke's eyes widened.

"Hey, Yoko?"

"Hmmm?" she hummed, contently.

"You know how you told me to be honest and inform you about certain things?"

"Mmm hmm."

"Well…. Uhh…… You see….." Kensuke sighed, he'd always hated to tell her this. "You have a rather large patch of grey in your hair."

He felt Sayoko tense up, and immediately began the count down.

'5……… 4………. 3………. 2………. 1……..'

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

Celes perked up slightly at the table she was at. She then glanced over at Mana, who was sitting opposite her at the restaurant, reading quietly.

"Did you…?" Celes began.

Mana nodded, her eye still on her book. "Yep, I heard the Grey hair scream too."

"Oh, good. I always get that confused with the demon attacking scream."

"There's a slight difference in pitch."

Keima suddenly ran out from the kitchen of the restaurant.

"Did you…..?"

"Grey hairs," Celes called out.

"Dammit," Keima cursed. "I keep getting her screams confused."

"See?" Celes said with a smirk. "I'm not the only one."

"Yeah, yeah," Mana muttered, turning a page. "You know what this means, though?"

"Oh, damn," Celes muttered. "She won't try that again. Will she?"

"Try what?" Keima asked.

Mana finally looked up from her book. "Your sister tried the old tried and proven method that woman have used for hundreds of years to hide their age."

"And that is?"

"She dyed it."

Keima shrugged. "So? Lorelei does that and it looks fine."

"Lorelei isn't a goddess, though," Mana said. "Sayoko, even though she is half-mortal, has enough goddess in her that when she tried to dye her hair…… it…. well…….."

"It was a huge mess," Celes stated. "First off, you know how much hair she has…….."

"Yeah," Keima said.

"Well," Mana said, "initially, the dye worked. Then Sentaro or Kris……. did something."

"Usually Sentaro," Celes added.

"Afterward, several of her hairs would be grey." Mana shrugged. "Apparently it's something unique to goddesses, or at least Sayoko."

Keima scratched his head. "But can't she just change her hair color like Rei?"

Mana shook her head. "Nope. That trick only seems to work for the Guardians."

"Great," Keima muttered. "So I get to look forward to having grey hair."

"Well, your mother doesn't have much," Celes pointed out.

"And she has more stress then Sayoko, being the on the Council and all," Mana added.

"She's also a happy person no matter what," Keima added.

"I wouldn't worry about your kid Keima," Mana said with a smile. "Sentaro and Kristine are rather ……… unique. Take my Dawnie. She's never done a thing to give me a grey hair."

Up in his room, Sentaro sulked. His Mother had taken away all of his Great Aunt Skuld's machines that he had discovered in the basement, saying they were dangerous. Of the machines he had seen, how could they be dangerous? One went in circles, another just jumped. Another one recharged its own batteries, only to drain them before charging again. All in all, the majority had been useless machines. Sentaro couldn't understand why Great Aunt Skuld had made them.

It didn't matter anymore. Now the machines were all hidden off somewhere by his mother, and he doubted he could find them. Sentaro then smiled.

Of course, he knew he could find one.

He reached under his bed and pulled out what looked like a rice cooker. It had been heavily modified and many of its parts and wires were loose. But he could fix that. He was rather smart for his age.

And he really wanted to see what this machine did.

"My kids are intentionally driving me bananas."

Kensuke sighed and held Sayoko a bit tighter. "They are not."

"Are too."

Kensuke rolled his eyes. "I'm not getting into this argument with you. You know when I'm telling the truth. I say again, they are not intentionally doing anything to you." Kensuke gently turned Sayoko's face toward his. "Look, Kristine has turned out to be a wonderful goddess, and Sentaro has calmed down quite a bit since Kristine is spending more and more time at the University or in Heaven."

Sayoko sighed and closed her eyes.

"You're right," she agreed. "They are growing up." Suddenly Sayoko tensed.

"What is it?"

"My Babies are growing up!" Sayoko cried out. "I'm getting old!"

"Yoko dear, considering where I was for 500 years……"

"Don't you dare say you're younger then me."

Kensuke opened his mouth a few times, trying to come up with something supportive. Finally he let out a sigh.

"You still have many more years for Sentaro to give you more grey hairs."

"Very supportive. Thanks so much." Sayoko let out a sigh and looked up at the sky. "Mana never had this problem. Dawnie never did anything to stress her out."

"YOU'RE WHAT?"

Dawn cringed at her adoptive mother's cry.

"I'm going to become a Valkyrie."

"WHY!"

"Why not?" Dawn asked.

"BECAUSE………." Mana's mouth hung open for several moments. "There's…….. You…………. You were mortal!"

"So what?" Dawn replied. "So were several of the other Valkyries."

"You're not Norwegian!"

"They dropped that requirement a long time ago."

"You……" Mana finally shut her mouth and rubbed her face. "I can't talk you out of this, can I?"

Dawn shook her head. "I talked to Mrs. Morisato. She said as the Norse Council member she could help me. She said I have a very good chance to get in because I died a virgin."

Mana stared at Dawn, her left eyebrow twitching.

"Sorry Mana-mama, I know. TMI."

"You think?"

"Don't be mad, Mana," Dawn said. "Think of it like this: If I'm a Valkyrie, I could work with you."

"Yes, you could," Mana replied softly. "But then at the End of Time, we would have to fight each other."

Dawn shook her head. "I would never fight you. Besides, Demons and Gods have never gotten along better. There may not be battles anymore."

"Maybe," Mana replied. "Maybe."

Kensuke remained out on the porch, looking up and watching the stars shoot across the sky. The kids had long since been sent to bed. Well, Kristine at least had been sent. Sentaro had been in his room ever since Sayoko discovered him with Skuld's stuff. The last time either of them had seen him, Sentaro had been sulking on his bed.

"Sayoko around?"

Kensuke jumped slightly. He then turned and glared at Mana.

"Don't do that!"

"Do what?"

"Sneak up on me," Kensuke replied.

Mana crossed her arms. "I 'sneaked' about as quietly as an elephant in a china shop. That and given the bang from my teleport…….."

"Alright, alright," Kensuke said. "No, Sayoko isn't here right at the moment…."

"Damn," Mana muttered.

Kensuke noticed the look on her face. "What's wrong?"

Mana was quiet a moment.

"How did you react when you found out Kristine was going to be a Goddess?"

Kensuke turned and looked back up at the stars.

"Well, of course I was happy," he replied. "She was going to be just like her Mother and Grandmother. Then, after awhile, I started to worry for her. I mean, I know how it affected Sayoko to watch her father grow old and be unable to do anything to help. And then when he finally passed away…….." Kensuke saw Mana nod in understanding. "Then, of course, there's my perspective. Being a Goddess is not exactly the safest thing to be. Look what happened to Sayoko back when Loki went nuts. She almost died." Kensuke paused for a moment. "I know that Kristine is happy being a Goddess, and no matter what, I'll support her." He then glanced back at Mana. "What brought that question on?"

Mana didn't look at him. "Suppose that Sentaro decided to be a criminal?"

"Ouch." Kensuke winced. "He is on his way to that, isn't he? If he did, besides the fact I'd ground him for life, I'd probably get extremely frustrated that I let him get that far, and go break something. Now, why the questions?"

"Dawnie is joining the Valkyries," Mana said, looking straight at Kensuke.

"Oh," Kensuke replied, understanding Mana's current turmoil. "What did you tell her?"

"I tried to talk her out of it," Mana said, "but in the end, it is her choice. I can't choose it for her." Mana then sighed. "Still……"

"You're frustrated," Kensuke said, "and you want to pound something."

"Yes," Mana replied.

"So did Sayoko." Kensuke pointed up towards the stars. Mana watched the stars shooting across, before she realized…..

"What the hell is she doing?" Mana shouted.

"Relieving stress," Kensuke replied.

Sayoko floated in her goddess outfit in the blackness of space. Terra 2 was just a large beach ball floating in the distance. In front of her was the system's asteroid belt. She looked carefully along belt, till she found nice-sized asteroid. Then, with a cry, she sent a force bolt ripping through space toward the asteroid. The bolt slammed into the asteroid, engulfing one side in flame and hurtling it toward the sun. Sayoko watched her newest shooting star with a smirk.

"Nice. But what did that rock ever do to you?"

Sayoko turned about to see Mana just behind her.

"Just relieving stress," Sayoko replied. "I get less grey hair afterwards. Why are you here?"

"I may be on the road to grey hair and want to head it off," Mana replied.

"Oh, really? What kind of stress?"

"Dawnie as a Valkyrie."

"Pull up a rock."

Back on Terra 2, Kensuke watched as the number of shooting stars increased. Then there was nothing. Then he spotted another shooting star. It hurtled across space, then seemed to hit something and bounce back the way it came. The shooting star then hit something else and went off in another direction. Something about this movement seemed very familiar to Kensuke as he watched this strange bouncing movement continue.

Then it dawned on him.

Sayoko and Mana were playing a cosmic-sized game of pong.

"They're really have too much fun," Kensuke muttered.

Upstairs, Sentaro had finished his repairs to the rice cooker.

At least he thought he'd fixed it.

The only way to be sure was to turn it on. So he did.

The lid of the rice cooker opened and the inside glowed a bright white. A vortex soon appeared, seeming to suck in everything in sight.

Only Sentaro couldn't feel a thing. Neither did anything in his room, apparently.

Across the hall, Kristine awoke to a strange tugging on her. The tug grew stronger, pulling her out of her bed.

"GAH!" she cried out as she fell from her bed, only she never hit the floor. She zipped across her room and into her door with a heavy thud. Kristine stayed there a moment, dazed and stuck to her door. She could only slide her arms and legs along the door, she wasn't strong enough to overcome whatever had her pinned to the door. Unable to free herself, she called out to the only one on earth who could help her, second to her mother.

"DADDY!"

Kensuke fell over backwards in his chair at his daughter's cry. He immediately did the thing that all fathers everywhere did when their child called out to them. He raced up the stairs and opened her door. The question 'What's wrong?' never came out of his mouth. Instead he was hit full-on by his daughter's body. Just as quickly, she flew across the hall and slammed into her brother's door, causing it to crash open.

Sentaro looked up as his door flew open and watched as his sister flew screaming toward the rice cooker. She stopped just short of it. Sentaro looked back and spotted his father holding on to the doorframe with one arm, and Kristine's leg with the other.

"SENTARO!" Kensuke shouted. "SHUT IT OFF!"

Not one to argue with his parents, Sentaro reached down and hit the button on the rice cooker. The cooker's glow diminished slightly. As it diminished, Kensuke fell back from the room, pulling Kristine with him. Just as quickly, the glow intensified more then before. Kristine started back towards the cooker. Kensuke planted his feet on either side of Sentaro's door and pulled Kristine as tightly as he could to his body. This lead to a slightly awkward position between the two, but neither cared at the moment.

"SENTARO!" they both cried. "SHUT IT OFF!"

"I CAN'T!" Sentaro shouted back, his hand still hitting the button.

Sayoko and Mana appeared just a little ways from the house. They then walked up towards the house.

"Well, that was fun," Mana said.

"Yep," Sayoko replied. "We'll have to do that ag…."

"SENTARO! SHUT IT OFF!"

Sayoko and Mana glanced at each other. Then ran the rest of the way to the house. They opened the front door and took one step inside. Immediately they found themselves swept off their feet and being pulled upstairs.

"WHAT THE HELL!" Mana shouted.

Sentaro continued to hit buttons, any button, trying to get the machine to turn off. Kristine was still screaming, clinging desperately to her father, trying to prevent herself from being sucked in.

A loud shout came from the stairs. Mana soon flew into the room. The Demoness grabbed at the ceiling light, clutching it tightly.

"MOMMA!" Kristine suddenly shouted.

Sentaro turned from the Demoness clinging to his ceiling light to see his sister now reaching out and clutching at their mother's hands, keeping their mother from being sucked in.

"SENTARO!" Kensuke shouted, heavy stress in his voice from holding on to his wife and child from the rice cooker. "SMASH IT!"

Sentaro turned and dove into his closet, looking for something to break the cooker. As he did so, a loud creaking could be heard just over the roar of the cooker. Mana looked up to see cracks forming around the light she was clinging to.

"Oh, shit," Mana mumbled, just before the light gave way. With a cry of shock, Mana vanished into the cooker.

Kristine held onto her mother's hands as tight as she could. But her mother was in full goddess dress, meaning she also wore the usual half gloves. These silken gloves didn't give Kristine enough grip to hold on to her mother.

"Momma!" Kristine cried. "You're slipping!"

"SAYOKO!" Kensuke cried, having heard his daughter, but unable to see anything due to Kristine's nightgown.

A calm look came over Sayoko's face as she looked back at Kristine.

"Take care of your father," she said softly.

"No, Momma!" Kristine cried. "Don't……." But it was too late.

Sayoko slipped the half gloves off, leaving them in Kristine's hands. She flew feet first into the rice cooker and vanished. Kristine stared blankly at the cooker, wondering if she'd join her mother next when the cooker gave one final gasp, and shut down completely.

Kensuke fell on his back, his daughter on top of him. No one in the room moved. Sentaro remained hidden back in his closet, staring at the now silent rice cooker. Slowly he turned his head until his eyes met those of his sibling. Kristine's eyes were full of tears.

"You vaporized Mom!" she cried out.

Yggdrasil Control

Heaven

Urd let out a sigh and stared at the young goddess standing before her at the SysOp chair.

"Could you explain this to me again?" Urd asked.

The young goddess, looked like every other goddess, other than that she was now sporting cat ears and a tail, looked down at her feet before replying.

"I was uhh… trying to….. uhh….. you know…. I…" the goddess began before she was interrupted by the phone. Urd sighed and picked it up.

"Operator. How may I…."

"URD!" Urd pulled from phone from her ear, the shout echoing around the control room.

Urd waited a moment, then put the phone back to her ear. "Kristine, you don't need to shout! I can hear perfectly fine."

"Sentaro vaporized Mom!"

"WHAT!" Now Urd was on her feet. "HE WHAT!"

"Sentaro had one of Great Auntie Skuld's machines and now Mom's been vaporized!"

Urd reached over and jammed her finger on the intercom button. "SKULD!" she screamed. "GET THE HELL IN HERE!" She then turned back to the phone. "Are you sure she's vaporized?"

"She's not here!"

Urd looked down at the very confused Operators. "Chrono! Ex! Erie! FIND SAYOKO NOW!"

"Oh," Kristine added, "did I mention he vaporized Mana, too?"

"HE DID WHAT!"

"Who did what?" Skuld asked, walking into the room with Asuka behind her. "And why are you screaming at me halfway across Yggdrasil?"

Urd turned towards Skuld. "Sentaro vaporized Sayoko and Mana with one of your machines."

The entire room gasped.

"HE WHAT!" Skuld now shouted.

Terra 2

Ten minutes later

Sentaro stared silently from where he still remained in his closet, watching as Great Auntie Skuld looked over the rice cooker, as well as glancing at a scanner she had brought with. Belldandy stood silently watching beside Kensuke. Kristine had been reluctantly taken back to bed by Asuka and the recently arrived Celes. Urd remained in heaven, searching all over Yggdrasil for some sign of Sayoko. Finally, Skuld stood up. She gave a glance into the closet at Sentaro, then turned and looked at Belldandy and Kensuke.

"No one was vaporized," she stated.

"Then where are they?" Belldandy asked. Asuka and Celes now reentered the room.

"Near as I can tell, Sentaro (everyone glanced at the closet. Sentaro moved back into the furthest corner from them.) some how rewired the bug catcher so that it would only pull in deities. But instead of sending them off where all the bugs went, they got sent elsewhere."

"WHERE?" Belldandy and Kensuke asked.

"Actually….. 'where' isn't the proper term," Skuld said. "More like 'when'."

"Oh, no," Asuka muttered. "Not again."

"Again?" Celes and Belldandy repeated.

"Again," Skuld replied. "About 500 years ago, before they left High School, Asuka and Sayoko got zapped to an alternate universe in the past. One where they ran into us just after that first Christmas."

Belldandy gave a slight shudder at the memory of that Christmas.

"We were there for several days until Skuld came to get us," Asuka added. She then looked at Skuld. "So is she back there again?"

Skuld shrugged. "I don't know. I have to go over the readings I have, and I have to look over this cooker again before I can determine anything. All I do know is that Sayoko is cut off from Yggdrasil, which means……."

"….Which means she's going to have to use her backup energy source," Belldandy finished.

Skuld nodded. "She is."

"She does have Mana though, right?" Kensuke said. The two goddesses just looked at him. "Well, doesn't she?"

"She might be with her," Skuld said. "She might not be. They could both be separated across time, or in different realities. Also, I don't know if Mana has access to her powers or not. Mara might know. Right now, I have to figure this all out." Skuld then turned and left the room, carrying the cooker.

Kensuke stared at a spot in the floor, and then glanced over at Sentaro, still hidden in the closet. Belldandy saw this, then looked over at Asuka and Celes.

"Come on, Kensuke," Celes said. "Let's go get a drink, eh?"

"Yeah, a drink sounds great about now," Asuka added.

The two pulled Kensuke out, leaving Belldandy alone with her grandson.

Belldandy sat down on the bed, then looked into the closet.

"Sentaro," she said. Her voice was very calm, but her face, her face held a very serious look. Sentaro knew he was in deep trouble. "We need to talk."