Blah blah blah, technicalities and crap.

Fujishima Kosuke owns AMG and its characters. I own Xerangref (previous statements about using him stand).

A/N: Certain events and plots are hinted and somewhat revealed in this work. If you haven't read at least up to or past volume 19, you may be confused at some points.

I honestly have no idea how long this fic will be, it depends on whether or not I believe it's finished.

I'm trying to figure out the best way to continue this. I have many many ideas in mind, but only one can be used.

Happiness' End

End of Chapter 22:

For the first time in almost a week, Keiichi looked straight at Urd. She could see that things had obviously gone far better than hoped in his stage of 'Awakening.' His eyes were clear of any fog and completely focused on her with a look of determination.

"Urd, what's wrong? You look like you've seen a ghost."

Urd broke down and started to shed a few tears of happiness as she saw Keiichi back to the way he was. That, however, soon stopped with one simple question.

"Urd, where's Belldandy? I need to talk to her."

That simple line brought Urd back to reality. She was going to have to explain everything to the young man. And that meant even more pain.

He deserved to know, though. He needed to know. After all, his love was at risk.

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Chapter 23: Meeting Adjourned!

Keiichi sat in the kitchen and stared blankly at Urd.

Over the past couple of hours, she had explained everything that had happened between the day they caught Belldandy with Aoshima up until the point he awakened.

"So…Belldandy is on trial?" Urd nodded. "What for? What she did?" Urd nodded again. "And they cancelled our contract and she is now prohibited from coming to Earth?" Again, a nod.

"This is insane! I just want to see her and talk to her! We have a great deal to discuss, and this isn't helping at all!"

"Look Keiichi, I can understand how you feel…Belldandy was heartbroken when all of this happened. For all I know, she's still in session with the council and Kami-sama right now," Urd replied with a sigh.

Keiichi blinked, "At midnight! Are you serious?"

Urd looked at Keiichi, "Unlike here, when there's a problem up there, they don't 'take ten' to relax. The matter is resolved as quickly as possible, no matter how long it takes. Belldandy could be in session with them for a very long time, or maybe a couple days, no one ever knows."

"Is there any way you could go up there and stop them? Or maybe break them out so I can at least talk to Belldandy?"

Urd shook her head, "No can do. The order from Kami-sama told both Skuld and me to watch over you; with her gone I can't abandon you. I could get in contact with the twerp and ask her for you."

Keiichi shook his head, "I doubt she would, she's wanted Belldandy up there all along, remember?"

"You seriously don't get it do you?"

"Get what?" Keiichi asked with a questioning look.

"Look, the kid might not really like you, but she's learning to accept you. And she wanted Belldandy to go back with her on her own free will, not dragged like this. Skuld knows Belldandy is depressed and she wants to stop it," Urd explained while crossing her arms. "I may not like that you two are slower than hell, but I agree with her. Belldandy deserves someone nice for a change instead of someone looking to use her to boost their own self image."

Keiichi looked thoughtful for a few moments, and was about to respond when someone else interrupted.

"Oh please, what a load of crap that is! A goddess deserves better than a shit-for-brains mortal like Keiichi here." Keiichi felt a couple of pats on his head. He turned with an ire look to who insulted him. Who he saw frightened him.

"Mara…"

"How the hell did you get in here! I would've sensed it! Damnit!" Urd was on the verge of starting a fight when another figure appeared behind Mara. This one cloaked in a heavy black and red robe that hid his face.

Urd immediately froze in her tracks. The power this other figure was emitting was strong. Extremely strong.

"Oh shit…this isn't good…not good at all."

The tall and dark figure started to growl, but Urd realized that it was laughter that sounded like growling. Without Belldandy, Urd doubted she could take Mara alone. But Mara wasn't alone…she had a comrade with her that was far more powerful than both she and Mara combined.

"Keiichi…RUN!"

Keiichi tried to get up, but in an instant everything was over.

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After pulling an all-nighter, Skuld still hadn't found anything that was worthy as a breakthrough to help Belldandy.

Peorth had come to check on her a couple times over the past few hours and to give her a progress report on the trial. Of course, it was in a miniature clone copy of Peorth, since she was unable to fully leave the Great Hall.

From what Peorth had told her, many of onee-sama's co-workers and friends were trying to help her side with explanations and different scenarios. It was a normal tactic used to stall and try to give character to the person on trial, but Skuld doubted that it would work in this case.

Also, there were others that were trying to condemn her for falling in love with a mortal, and her contract assignee at that.

Skuld was running out of time. Stalling wouldn't last forever, so she decided to check over a few more things in lengthy detail before actually giving up. Maybe she overlooked something minor.

She pulled up various charts that registered Belldandy's body wavelengths, neural patterns and brain waves on the day that things had happened.

After a full day and a half of searching for a breakthrough, she found something. Something extremely small and almost insignificant, it was easy to see why it was overlooked.

Now she had her proof.

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"Are there any more accounts that would be spoken to help the Goddess First Class Belldandy?"

Silence reigned among the crowd of hundreds of gods and goddesses.

"Very well, before sentencing the goddess brought up on charges, I give the chance for the goddess under charges to plead her case. Then judgment shall be rendered."

Every set of eyes turned to Belldandy in the middle of the vast room. Her head was bowed and she was obviously in the midst of an emotional breakdown.

Her pleas were but whispered words, "Please…please someone help me…I didn't do any of this of my own free will!"

Suddenly the doors burst open and an irate Skuld walked in.

"Geez! I tell them I have evidence to help out onee-sama and they try to restrain me! What jerks!" Skuld looked around and lost her look of anger. She was surprised to see this many deities in one spot. The last time this had happened was when…

"Skuld! Do you dare to interrupt this hearing that only certain personnel are allowed to enter! Speak now to explain yourself or be punished!"

Skuldsuddenly became very worried. Kami-sama sounded extremely irritated.

"Ah…yes, lord! I've found certain evidence that can prove my onee-sama was under control of her actions, but was being manipulated!"

A sudden round of whispering passed through the large hall as everyone in it began to wonder what it was that Skuld had under covered.

"Speak, and show this so called 'evidence' you claim to have found."

Skuld pulled out a mini-terminal that she had created a long time ago and began to type furiously on it. A small screen appeared, but then expanded to be fairly large in size.

"As everyone knows, Yggdrasil keeps close tabs on every god or goddess at all times. It records everything from thoughts to feelings to brain waves to physical condition, and a whole lot more!"

"We know this already, just get to the point!" A random god yelled out at Skuld. Her eyebrow twitched as she looked in the general direction.

"All right, all right! Geez…anyway…I went through all records and anything else I could find the day onee-sama was caught with that other human man." She tapped a few keys and two split screens appeared on the projection. "This," she said pointing to the left one, "is the record of normal neural lapses and waves that onee-sama have, as well as a few of her brain waves. This," she pointed to the figure on the right, "is the chart on the incident. It you look carefully, you can see a difference in a few areas."

Skuld enlarged three specific points on both charts and highlighted them.

"As you can see from these charts, her normal patterns are far less jagged or straight while the day that the incident occurred shows several changes to her pattern waves. Here, we see a small adjustment in her neural patterns. I went back and looked over that specific pattern and found it was the warning system onee-sama and Big sister Urd set up for all of us that would warn us if a figure with heavenly or demonic powers came within the temple grounds."

More whispering and objections could be heard, but Skuld ignored it and continued anyway.

"Unless one of you here, a Class 0 God or one of the council went down to Earth and manipulated my onee-sama, it would be safe to assume that it was the work of a demon who has done this." More murmuring. "And if you look at these other two adjustments, you can clearly see that they alter sight perception areas and the perception of sound that onee-sama saw and heard. If you think about it, her claims about being with Keiichi are true. She saw and heard Keiichi in her mind, but it was actually that jerk Aoshima. Further more—"

"Enough. From the evidence and explanation of the Goddess of the Future, this hearing and charges are here by dismissed and dropped. The contract that Goddess First Class Belldandy previously held will be temporarily reinstated so she may visit the mortal to whom she was contracted with. If he wishes that the contract is to be continued, then it shall be. So I speak."

Several cheers let loose throughout the hall and Skuld ran and hugged Belldandy. Both were crying happily.

A voice suddenly rang above the loud chatter that was going around.

"Oi! What about the demon that had the influencing effect on Belldandy! What are we going to do! A demon with the power to manipulate the mind is bound to be dangerous!"

"Yes, this is most problematic. I will need to discuss with the council about how to deal with this matter. If it is seen fit, then several guardians will be sent to capture and banish the demon back to Nidhegg. That is all, everyone may leave."

Belldandy was still clinging to Skuld and thanking her profusely when she suddenly stopped.

Something was terribly wrong, and she could feel it. Something was telling her that something terrible was about to happen to…

"KEIICHI!"

Skuld looked at her sister in confusion as Belldandy suddenly flew from the Great Hall in search of anything that could transport her back home immediately. She knew Keiichi was in trouble. She could sense his fear and pain.

She could almost hear his voice calling out for her desperately, looking for help and comfort.

Belldandy disappeared quickly into a mirror that was in the Hall of Transportation. She had flown there as fast as she possibly could without teleporting there.

Her final thought before passing through was, "Hang on Keiichi! I'm coming!"

A/N: Interesting no? Things will continue on in the next couple of chapters. Thanks for the reviews for those of you that have been reviewing and thanks to those of you that read. It helps me out to see that I at least have some sort of base 'fandom' going on.