Haibane Renmei: C O R P O R A T I O N Chapter 2: Ptolemy, a haibane renmei fanfic

2011 REVISION

Original FFN Intro:

The history of mankind is a lie. All knowledge, all memories, anything from before 220 years ago is false. And it is because of my work that this is so. My name is Claudius Ptolemy... scientist, philosopher, engineer, dreamer... What a fool I was...

Original FFN #2037299

First published 8/30/2004

HAIBANE-RENMEI: CORPORATION

Chapter Two

PTOLEMY

By R. A. Stott

The history of mankind is a lie.

All knowledge, all memories, anything from before two hundred twenty years ago is false.

And it is because of my work that this is so.

My name is Ptolemy… scientist, philosopher, engineer, dreamer…

One day, I dreamed of capturing God's Power for mankind…

What a fool I was…

He stood on the balcony of his apartment listening to the din being sent up from below as the busy Friday night rush to leave the city was causing the usual backups on the interstate. As his wife joined him there, he laughed to himself at the roar being generated by the motors of hundreds of automobiles and trucks on the highway, and by the jets overhead.

"Was it this noisy before?" he asked her.

She hummed into his ear. "The previous world was noisier honey, remember?"

They turned and entered the apartment. The glass door slid shut behind them sealing out the cacophony and returning them to the solitude they were used to. He picked up a notepad and sat in his favorite chair with a tired thud.

"What's the schedule for tomorrow?" he asked his wife as she sat in a recliner next to him.

She put on a small pair of reading glasses and looked at a remote for the television. "Let's see," she said as she switched the unit on. She held the channel selector down. The screen rapidly switched about the dial.

"LU… CER… NE, TRI… PO… LI, GL… IE TER… MI… NAL LAN… DINGS SCH… ED… ULED…" the television squawked as it rattled about the channels and the many faces and voices spoke the broken words. "GL… IE WILL RE… PORT TWO LAND… INGS… FINAL."

Ptolemy rubbed his eyes. "Four landings… Tomorrow is going to be a busy day," he said as he laid his head back against the chair's rest. "And what with Bakuu getting ready for flight… I need a break!"

"No rest for the weary," his wife jibed at him as she settled the remote on a channel showing a drama about the police.

He closed his eyes and sighed. Maybe a nap would be nice now.

The phone rang – no such luck.

"Ptolemy," he grunted as he answered the ringing menace. "Oh, hello Dante… yes those were the readings… only if you want to get on Beatrice's bad side… yes… no… no… NO! Dante, put those in and the core will shoot out… check the math again… okay… uh huh… that's right… Monday… Yes Monday. Just as long as we don't have a major launch… that's right… bye…"

Janice looked at her husband and covered her face as she hid a snicker. Ptolemy shook his head as he put the phone back in its cradle.

"The look that you get when you talk to him…" she giggled.

He flopped back down in his chair. "We should have never put a poet in charge of communications between the basement and the attic," he snorted. He sat back and dozed off.

A vibration on his belt startled him awake about an hour later. The cell phone on his belt was massaging his hip with its silent ring. He looked over at his wife and noticed she too was being buzzed by her phone. They looked at each other and distinctively flipped their units open simultaneously.

"This is a priority alert – launch in progress… launch in progress…" a computerized voice told them.

"Code alpha two seven nine… Ptolemy," he said to the machine. "Subject launch?"

"Location Glie wall northwest one-fifty-six mark two-five – subject Bakuu…" it replied.

"And you worried about a 4:30 wake up call," Ptolemy smirked to his wife. "Call in the gang… this looks like an all-nighter…"

The control room was much busier than usual. Cramming four people in the small room was tight enough. The two younger people that had joined Ptolemy and his wife were frantically going over readings and monitors while he was busy putting on his jacket and she was loading his bag with equipment.

"Professor, there is a deviation in the landing readings," a girl working at the station his wife would normally be at announced. He leaned over and tapped a dial with a power reading on it. It lowered as he rapped it.

"Remember, these settings and gauges are much older than you, kiddo," he laughed. "They sometimes need a knock up the side of their heads."

"Now Claudius, be nice," Janice scolded him. "My controls are all that keeps you from getting snatched up by the bogeymen in the portals." She looked over at the door waiting his departure. "Oh, I'd love to go with you this time…"

"Actually, that might not be a bad idea," a deep burly voice said from the doorway to the cramp room.

"Director Plato…" Ptolemy smiled. "I didn't think you'd be here…"

He laughed, shaking his huge girth. "And miss an event like this? Surely you jest Claudius. I'm sure even the folks up in the attic are watching as well."

"As are those in the basement," the man seated at the second console chair added. "There's a marked increase in power coming from below. Upper levels have been building for the last hour…"

Ptolemy looked over the readings as he put his hat on. "Looks like there's going to be a tug of war," he said as he zipped his bag shut. He looked back at his wife and saw the expression on her face as she stared at the director.

"Hey," he said as he patted her on the shoulder. "You always said you wanted to go there."

She blinked and looked at him, then back at the door that led through the wall.

"I… I just never thought… I mean… the portal is full of…" she whispered.

"The portal is full, that's for sure," Ptolemy said with a laugh. "It's full of imps, minor demons and the occasional lost soul. And they all will prod you, dig at you, and try to take things off you. But they can't do anything to you, nor will they be able to block our way. Remember, you are human. You are superior to them. Their strength is simply fear. If you don't fear them, even the largest of them can't harm you."

Janice looked at the director. "But why send me in now… I've never gone before…"

Plato laughed again. "We've never had the chance of a release of any of the saints before," he said. "I need a second set of eyes and an on-sight visual report for cross referencing." He handed her another cell phone and a small bag that contained a video camera and other equipment. "Be ready in ten minutes," he added a bit more sternly.

They stepped into a closet to get her a jacket and hood. The creatures of the portal were not dangerous to them, but they still could burn you, so protection was needed. She fumbled through the garments.

"What was it like?" she asked with a nervous stammer in her voice.

Ptolemy examined a knitted hat that he placed on her head. "What was what like?" he asked her as he placed his hand on her cheek and smiled.

"What was it like the first time you went through?" she queried.

Ptolemy gave a slight grunted laugh. "You mean the first time I went, or the first time through this version of the portal?" he asked. "I was inside the wall when this all first settled down."

Janice placed her head on his shoulder and sighed. "That's right… you were here after the over-blast…"

"That time wasn't as nasty as the second time I had to go in and out of one of the walled areas," he sighed. "The dwellers hadn't the time to set up camp in the portals then. The second time, they were waiting. They stole my watch, my wallet, and my underwear…"

He looked down to see her staring up at him with round eyes.

"Your underwear?" she asked blankly.

"BVDs… gone!" He turned away and grinned to himself, leaving her wide-eyed and trying to finish getting dressed.

Ten minutes and one very tight belt later…

"We'll need to enter from a different portal," Ptolemy noted as he leaned over the control panel and tweaked at the settings of the corridor. "Let's see… huh… ah, here we go… hope he doesn't mind the visit…"

"Can't we use the same portal you used the other day?" Janice asked him. He shook his head.

"Normally, with the time between visits, I'd say yes, but this is an exception." He threw a handle which made the floors below them thunk and clank. The doorway out of the room shifted to one side slightly. "There… we're now set for the second portal. That should confuse the critters in there…"

"Yes sir, Professor Ptolemy," the man in the chair closest to him said. "Will you need anything else?"

Ptolemy looked up and tapped the thin wire mesh that made up a cage. The large black bird inside gave a slight squawk.

"Better ready Mabel for launch," he said as he slipped the crow a cracker through a slit in the door. "I don't know what the escape of Bakuu will do to communications."

The door behind the professor and his wife slid open and the green light of the corridor greeted them, bathing them in its eerie glow. Ptolemy shook Janice with a gentle nudge and put her hood up on her overcoat. He picked up their bags and then stepped into the portal with her in tow.

The journey was surprisingly brief. Indeed, the shift of the gate to another exit had brought what Ptolemy had hoped for – a lack of disturbing characters along the route out. There were a few stray naughty things that seemed more worried of two living creatures moving through their world than snatching anything off them. But, as usual, a single figure ran up to the man and tried to snatch his bag by tossing something fiery at him.

Ptolemy swatted the fire ball with his jacket and his hand that was in his pocket. He then held the gym bag with small demon attached up to glare at it. It grinned back.

He sighed. "Jester, you bother me, you know that?" He then flicked the creature off and hurried his wife to the exit.

A few items on the wall surrounding the secret door in the back of the junk shop clattered to the ground as it opened to let the two of them out. Janice bent over and placed her hands on her knees. It felt as if someone had knocked the wind out of her. She glanced over to see her husband leaning against the door in much the same condition.

"Are we having fun yet?" he asked her panting.

She gave a slight laugh. "Does it always feel like this?" she asked wearily.

"Inbound, yes," Ptolemy said as he stood upright and smacked the small ember still stuck to the outside of his jacket. "It's not so bad on the outbound though… oh, hello there…"

Janice looked at where Claudius was staring and saw an elderly man standing there. He was a bit dirty and his expression was not completely inviting.

"Must have been a good reason for you to mess up my back room, ea Ptolemy?" he grumbled.

"Corporate business," Ptolemy replied to him as he opened his cell phone and pressed a button making it chirp. "Landing complete," he reported to the device. "Heading out to station." He then hurriedly walked Janice out of the backroom of the junk shop and into the dark Glie morning. The snow that had fallen the day before crunched under their feet.

"The timing of all this is bad," he said as he lifted his collar and blew a warm steamy blast across his fingers. "The twins should be about to hatch at Old Home, there's two incoming new feathers with one going rogue and planting out near Sadako's Well in the morning, and Bakuu just couldn't wait another day, could she? Hey, are you okay?"

He noticed the odd look on his wife's face. She was staring at the dark buildings around them. The strangeness of it all was hitting her, having just come from a world of cluttered alleyways and ultra-modern designs to this rather quaint setting. The roar of the outdoors was missing – only the soft settling of new-fallen snow filled her ears. She drew in a deep cold breath, bringing in the incredibly clean air into her lungs. It stung, almost hurt. She coughed slightly, as if a smoker who had just been given oxygen.

"This is incredible…" she said as she looked around. "I never dreamt that it would be so beautiful…"

Ptolemy took her hand and gave her a weary smile. "It would be nice to stay, wouldn't it?"

She looked at him squarely in the eyes. "You know that's impossible," she stated.

He laughed. "I know," he replied with a peck to her cheek. "I just wanted to know if you remembered that yourself. The clock is running. We have about thirty hours left."

"Does that include the time you spent here yesterday?" she asked as they headed towards the south road.

"Humm… I don't know," Ptolemy said. "I've never come back in so soon after a visit… I guess we should find out." He flipped his phone open and keyed the side button causing it to make what Janice thought was a totally out of place chirp in this serene town.

"Plato," a deep loud bark came from the phone. Ptolemy shook his head and switched to normal contact.

"Listen, we need to know if my time is limited because I was here yesterday," he requested.

There was a heavy laugh that could be heard even with it muted slightly by the earpiece. "That all depends, old friend," Plato chuckled. "Bakuu is one of the early saints… last thing she probably remembers would be coming after your head!"

"Something tells me I should have brought my hardhat," Ptolemy laughed. "Have Rhea run some tests please. Last thing I need is to find the doors shut to me at the end of this."

"That would disappoint Jester, wouldn't it?" the phone joked back. "I'll have her run the tests." The scientist slapped the phone shut and took Janice by the arm as they strolled through the now quiet town.

"This is lovely," she said. "It wouldn't be so bad to stay here if we could."

Ptolemy snorted. "Only if we wanted to scare the hell out of these people," he said. "Time would snap on us like a hungry lion. All they'd find would be two shriveled husks."

"You've been watching too many Mummy movies," she kidded him as she leaned her head against his shoulder and squeezed his arm. "What do we have to do now then?"

She found her kit bag being held up to her face. "You will find your spectral scanner in here," her husband told her as they walked. "You should go to the Generation Station at the Hill of Winds – group four is there tonight running maintenance – set up and observe the wall at…" - he rummaged through his pocket and brought out a scribbled note he had taken the day before. "…one – five - six mark two five. That's Bakuu's location in the wall."

Janice blinked and looked up at him as she held her bag in her free hand. "A spectral scanner? You want an Apogee Report?"

Ptolemy shrugged. "It may happen – we don't know. Hopefully Bakuu will escape and return to where she came from. But if she doesn't, we'll need to know where she's going, right? And those readings will be best while in here."

Janice sighed and looked down. "I was hoping to be closer than that," she said as she dangled the bag at the end of its strap. "Where will you have to be?"

He stopped and looked down a street that had a clear view of the northwestern wall where the angel was held. "Closer than I should be I'm sure," he remarked. "But first, we must go to Old Home."

"Old Home? The Haibane?" Janice perked up at the thought of meeting her first Charcoal Feather, until she realized she'd probably stop at the windmills, which were before the old school buildings that made up Old Home. "What do you need there?" she asked.

"My guide, of course," Ptolemy laughed as they headed south out of town.

"P-Professor Ptolemy!" the man working on one of the tall masts that made up a generator tower had exclaimed when the two of them had shown up. "What brings you here?"

Ptolemy turned and looked behind them as they reached the top of the hill. "That," he said as he pointed at the wall to the northwest. A section was showing a dull light. It then flashed slightly then returned to the subtle light it had been giving before.

"What is that?" Janice asked as she hurriedly started to assemble the scanner. She stopped when her husband placed his hand on hers and shook his head.

"That's just pre-ignition," he told her. "We still have roughly another day to wait from what I'm seeing here. Saints need a great deal more energy than that slight burst to launch."

"Saint?!" the man yelped which brought the others in his party running to gather around them. "That's a saint there?"

"D'you mean this is almost over?" another man called out.

"A saint? A saint?" a few more were chanting hopefully.

Ptolemy had some difficulty settling the men down who were now clamoring over them for information. "Gentlemen… gentlemen, please! We are just here to watch over the launching of the first saint. It's not an all-out release!"

"But it could be, right?" one in the back yelled at him.

"We don't know that yet," he replied. "This is our first one ever!"

"Didn't they say that if the saints leave, the walls would fall?" another in the back asked.

"Hearsay," Ptolemy barked. "The Haibane are still here and need our help."

"But if the saints leave, wouldn't the Haibane leave too?" the first man asked.

Ptolemy sighed. "I don't know. And I don't know if this will start a chain-reaction. We just need to watch and see. And to that, my wife will be joining you here on station… got that?"

The first man looked at his fellow workers. "We'll be out of here in about another two hours… and our time limit will be up until next month… Group Five gets in here later tonight…"

"Ah, then maybe you can tell us then," Janice broke in. "Why is there a month between visits?"

The first man shook his head. "You're asking me? You're supposed to be the ones in charge…"

Ptolemy smiled. "We don't normally come in here so often – we're not accustomed to this."

"Oh, well then," a man next to the first grunted, "we know about the thirty hour limit, but our union makes us leave at about twenty-four hours total, then gives us a month to recover ourselves… which means I'm back on a PECO pole somewhere…"

"Conectiv!" a man to his right barked.

"Kansai Electric!"

"AEP!"

"FPL!"

"ConED!"

It took Ptolemy a moment to stop the men from chanting out their respective jobs outside the walled town. But it was becoming clearer than even these men did not know if they could do consecutive days inside the walled area either.

The phone call he received from Rhea was pretty much the same.

"The union made us switch them out early then keep them out for a month for so long that we never got an accurate reading on that, Claude," she told him over the phone, which was now showing signs of static. Each time the light would pulse on the wall, the noise in the receiver would be intense. "You were there for how long yesterday?"

A static burst made him pull the phone away from his ear as he and his wife continued on towards Old Home. "About six to eight hours… the readings should be in the final report the computer should be printing out about now," he told her as they turned off the path and over the small footbridge at the bottom of the hill.

"Ah yes, I'm getting those right now… Let me get back to you…" There was another discharge and the phone lost contact. Ptolemy looked back over towards the northwest and saw the wall settling down again.

"Oh, what are these?" he heard Janice ask. He saw her looking at a series of tiles hanging on a rack inside the curved arch entry to the complex. He looked at them and pulled out his watch.

"Those are the markers that tell everyone where the Haibane are," he said as he closed his watch. "It's three in the morning… why are those two out? I thought they had a curfew…"

"Damn, why am I not surprised to see you here, Ptolemy?" they then heard. They looked across the courtyard to see an old woman scowling at them.

"Your troops seem to be spread out thin, aren't they?" he asked the housemother as she poured hot tea for them as they sat at her table in her small kitchen.

She huffed. "Not that you or the Corporation cares," she snorted.

"Oh, is that why I'm here then?" Ptolemy asked as he dropped four cubes of sugar into his cup. "I thought we were just keeping the flow of new 'guests' from landing anywhere they wanted." Janice looked at her husband with a little shock.

"Pretty much blew it on that one out by the wall, didn't you?" the housemother scoffed. "Nemu, Hikari and one of the girls from the Factory are out there waiting for the landing you called for. Kana's upstairs watching over the twins' cocoons by herself, and that wall of yours is keeping the children awake! I had to put up a blanket on their windows to keep that flashing from waking them up! Of all the time I could have used that good-for-nothing…" She trailed off as she sat down.

"Reki was more help than you expected, wasn't she?"

The housemother looked at him. "You never met her… how would you know?"

Janice cleared her throat. "As the Renmei keeps tabs on the Haibane, The Corporation must watch over everyone as well, including the Renmei. We have information on every Haibane that passes through. It is our jobs to see that they have clear sailing on their comings and goings."

"Huh," she snorted. "Do you have a file on me as well?"

Ptolemy sipped his tea. "Where is Rakka? You didn't mention her," was his reply to her question.

The old woman laughed. "Asleep… Old Home has been given special dispensation from the Renmei. No one is needed for their work save her, because of all the new hatchlings you're dropping on us!"

Ptolemy nodded. "Hey, don't look at us… we're just the guides, and the machinery is old and crotchety, just like me!"

A bell rang outside. Then again, and again, and again. It stopped for a moment then resumed.

"Oh that Kana!" the housemother grumbled. "Can't she get that clock to not ring at night?!"

There was a rumbling of footsteps running about that could be traced around the upper floors. This was followed by them running down a stairwell with someone repeatedly saying "Sorry – sorry – sorry!"

Ptolemy leaned on his hand. "Looks like someone is trying to fix old Thi's clock…"

"What?!" Kana screeched to a stop by the doorway out. "You know about that blasted clock?"

"Reverse the gear on the clapper's timing mechanism and set the ratio-pulley to off when you want to run the clock without the bell," he told her over his cup of tea. "Besides, Thido never finished the bell timer properly… he always planned on using the set from the old main clock to fix it, but his day of flight came before he could complete it."

Kana stood agape at Ptolemy. "Damn!" was all she could say. Then she noticed the look she was getting from across the table.

Janice sat and stared at the halo and wings, her cup held off her saucer in mid-sip. Kana looked back at the man who was standing up now and putting his hat on.

"Who the hell are you?" she barked, making Janice sit back a bit – an angel swearing was not what she expected of her first encounter with a Haibane.

Ptolemy took Kana by the arm and guided her out towards the clock tower. "I'm the man that was here with Rakka yesterday, and we'd best get that thing shut off before we wake the dead! Honey, could you watch over the cocoons while we take care of this?"

Janice jumped up. "The what?!" she weakly yelped, but her husband was already out of range.

"Oh, come on," the housekeeper said as she put a shawl on. "Best be safe than sorry," she added as she took Janice up the stairs with a flashlight.

An hour later and the bell finally had been silenced. Kana had suddenly been all over Ptolemy about the book and information on the clock, completely forgetting her duty to watch over the cocoons. It did not matter if this was a total stranger, he knew about THE CLOCK.

He scanned through the book that had been left with the mechanism and smiled. "Have you ever shown this to your boss at the clock-works?"

Kana wiped her forehead as she finished refitting the ratio-pulley. "What, that old thing? Um, no… he'd probably just laugh at it. He knows I'm working on this monster, but I think he's just trying to placate me. He told Rakka that he thought I had potential, but ever since the New Year he's been on my case about everything."

Ptolemy nodded as he flipped to the last written page. "Ever wonder why he works on that clock in town?" he asked her.

"Well duh," she cracked. "His father was a clock repairman. So was his father, like he doesn't remind me about that every chance he can get."

"Did you know that clock repair wasn't his first choice in careers?" Ptolemy pointed at the page he had opened in the book.

Kana looked hard at the scratches someone thought were text. "…sent his son to me," she started to decipher aloud. "…wants to be a… bartender?!"

Ptolemy rubbed his neck. "I remember that – he wanted to sell the business and open a bar. I remember Thido wanting to throttle him."

Kana clasped her hands across her face but could not stop from bursting out laughing. "A Haibane wanting to throttle Master? Oh, I would have given anything to see that… hey, wait a minute…"

Ptolemy cocked his head. "Umm?"

"What's a guy doing here at Old Home?" Kana asked planting her fists into her hips. "We're all girls here!"

Ptolemy grunted. "Only by mere chance, dear. This was a co-ed college once. Just because the current adult occupants are all female is just happenstance. Besides, you have boys in your Young Feathers… Thido just happen to be one of the last adult ones at Old Home. He also still holds the record of being the oldest Haibane to reach his day of flight… He was here forty years… Which was odd in its own right, especially since he seemed never to show it…"

"Damn, you guys at Corporate do know everything!" Kana remarked with a smirk. "Does that mean you know where we came from before coming to Glie?"

His phone chirped a song. He thanked whoever it was that was looking over him so he could avoid that last question. He flipped it open and attempted to answer it.

"You touched a plate!" Rhea screamed into his ear before he could reply. It seemed he found someone that was more hyper than Kana.

"I've touched them before," he answered her yell in a calm tone.

"Yes, but you didn't re-enter the walls the next day!" she yelped back. There was a static outburst as the wall flashed again. But this time, the noise remained. "What you've… HISSSSZK! …ly increased… BUZZP! …time capabil… GUZZZZZITT! …possibly been the trigger for… SASHH! …happening! Ptolemy …PPPPITH! …hear… ZEEK!"

The phone gave one last pop as Ptolemy leaned out a window and looked towards the northwest. The wall was now giving a more constant sheen as the pre-dawn was starting to crawl up from behind it.

"Wow! I've never seen the wall do that before," Kana exclaimed as she stuck her head out the same narrow window Ptolemy was looking out of. "Did you and Rakka start something?"

The scientist wrenched himself free of the small window. He checked his watch and nodded. "No, this was happening before we got there, but I'm sure Rakka may have been the catalyst. I must get her and head up there."

Janice stood in the doorway and stared at the two large oddly wrapped cocoons. One seemed slightly larger than the other, and also seemed to be engulfing the second sphere slightly.

"Can't remember when there ever were twins before," the housemother noted as she sat in an old school chair across from the spheres. Janice stepped up to the pair and lightly touched the soft almost furry surface. She pulled her hand back to see the pile of material that had flaked off on her.

"Oh my," she exclaimed. "This really is charcoal dust!"

"Uh huh," the housemother grunted. "It's more like pumice. And it gets everywhere… these two have been exceptionally busy with it! It does make a good polish, though… and I've found it cleans stubborn pots well when mixed with just a little sand… Ea?"

The housemother sat perplexed. Janice had pulled a device from her bag and was starting to poke around the two cocoons.

"Amazing… This dust is of the same composition as if…"

"…as if they had been through extreme heat," Ptolemy finished for her as he entered the room with Kana. "It's been designated 'reentry dust' by the lab boys."

"And the embryonic fluid inside," she added while showing him her device's readout, "that's L-C-L, isn't it?"

Ptolemy examined the first cocoon. "A close enough representation… It doesn't have a bloody taste to it… probably because of the cleaner saline base to it…" He then took his wife aside.

"Listen, the event seems to have increased in speed," he told her. "We'll need to take our stations a bit sooner than I expected. I've lost communications with com-base due to the static the saint is putting out."

"Isn't this too soon?" she asked then thought better of it. "Of course… how are we supposed to know if it is or not?"

"Bakuu has been hung up in stasis for so long, I think she's getting tired of the wait, don't you think?" he joked. "Kana, I need Rakka… could you get her please?"

"Right," she said as she dashed off towards the far wing of the building where Rakka's room was.

"You'd best be heading for the observation station," Ptolemy told his wife as he kissed her on the forehead. "I wouldn't want both of us to be late. I'll see you as we're heading up there soon."

Janice smiled and was about to say something when her bag chirped.

"It's the inbound to the wall area!" she exclaimed as she pulled out the scanner. "Oh of all the times…"

"Of course," Ptolemy noted. "We were supposed to be up by 4:30 AM, remember? It's now 5:00…"

"Is that it?" the housemother asked as she looked out a small window and traced a streaming shower of sparks across the sky.

"Exactly," the scientist said. "I hope the ladies out there are paying attention."

Hikari was resting against the cold stone of the well, wrapped in two warm blankets. She was supposed to be awake to watch over the area, but the cold night's air had made her drowsy. About an hour before she had been tromping back and forth slapping her face and telling herself not to be a 'Nemu'… much to the namesake's complaints when she stirred enough to hear her.

Midori gasped for air, the way most people react when they wake up thinking they're late. She looked down at her hand, which had been near the ground. Something had touched it. It had been one of Hikari's blankets sloughing off her.

"Hey 'Homer!" she barked at her using the Factory's slang for Old Home. "You're supposed to be on watch!"

"Huh? What?" Hikari jumped up startled. "Oh, I'm sorry! I just sat down for a moment!" She looked about at the early dawn coming over the eastern corner of the sky. "Oh, I hope I didn't miss it! I'm sorry…" She clutched her shawl and blanket and started to cry.

"Oh for Pete's sake!" Midori griped. "Get a hold of yourself! It's not the end of the world!"

"Hey you two," Nemu quietly said from her sleeping blanket, "if you're finished yelling at one another, look up in the sky."

Hikari wiped her eyes and slowly lifted her head. Midori had snapped an angry look at her fellow senior Haibane then glanced upwards where she had been directed. It took her a moment of realization for her to instinctively look back. What she saw made her duck down as if she were expecting something was about to crown her in the head. She lowered her arm and gazed over her shoulder again at the sight.

It looked like a small comet was about to land on them, a streamer of sparks and lights were behind it. A flash of light from the northwest lit the sky momentarily. It caused the streamers from the incoming New Feather to act as if someone had blown them away. They resumed normal trails after the illumination had subsided.

"What was that?" Hikari asked.

"That's amazing," Midori could only say.

Nemu sat up and clamored out of the bag. "Whatever it was moved it," she said as she wrapped herself in a free blanket. "Look, its moving further south - southeast."

"We've got to follow it!" Hikari yelped as she started to head away. She stopped when she saw the dark forest beyond.

"Can't run in there without one of these," she heard and found her flashlight being tossed to her by Midori.

Ptolemy gritted his teeth. "Damn it Bakuu! Look what you're doing!" he snarled as he had watched the shift the burst of light had done to the incoming comet.

Kana ran into the room at that point. "M-Mr. Ptolemy! You'd better see this!"

"I can see it fine right here, dear," he replied as he shook his head at the window.

"Huh?" Kana said as she was caught off guard. "No, no! It's Rakka!"

The old scientist looked at her then the housemother, who was giving him the same strange look.

They entered the hallway to Rakka's room and saw the light coming out of her door.

"It's totally wild!" Kana said almost giddy. "Wait 'til you see this!"

They looked in and saw Rakka asleep… in mid air just dangling there, as if someone was holding on to her halo, or it had been strung from the roof, as she slowly spun. She was bathed in light from the brilliance that the circle over her head was giving off. She then flashed, much like the wall in the northwest was doing.

"Whoa! Look at that!" Kana said as she lowered her hand she had brought up to shield her eyes.

Briefly, just for a slight moment, her small flightless gray wings had been augmented with a large set of white and golden feathers. As the light faded, so did the add-ons.

"Mother have mercy!" the housemother exclaimed under her breath. "They are angels!"

Ptolemy looked at her. "You ever had doubts?" he remarked. "We must wake her… she's needed at the wall."

"Umm…" Kana said as she stepped back. "Is it safe to do that?"

Ptolemy stepped into the room and looked at the halo that was holding Rakka over her bed. It was hot, he could tell. There was another flash of light, and he got a face full of feathers. They were real, not illusions. They quickly faded.

"Impressive," he remarked. "Rakka… Rakka, wake up!" he sternly told the sleeping Haibane.

She opened her eyes. As she did, she was gently lowered to her mattress.

"Mr. Ptolemy," she said with a yawn, "I just had the most wonderful dream… uh…" She looked down then up as she began to see the oddness of this. "Mr. Ptolemy, why are you here, and why am I standing in my bed?"

"And why didn't I bring my camera?" Kana asked aloud.

Ptolemy smirked at her. "Quickly," he said to Rakka, "get dressed. Bakuu's day of flight is here, and I need you with me."

In the woods, branches were breaking and birds were screaming as they were aroused too early for their tastes. The streamer of light was not snapping much, it was the three ladies crashing through the brambles to keep up with the incoming New Feather. Daybreak was not helping much, as the dim light was making it harder to see where the comet was coming down. The flashing that was behind them seemed to be pushing the falling New Feather further out of the Western Woods, and closer to the southern farmer's lands.

"There! There!" Midori yelled as they burst out of the dense trees into a more open section. "OH! Look out! Don't STEP ON IT!"

The streamer of light entered the ground directly in front of the onrushing Hikari, and she planted her foot right on top of it! It had come down between some tall trees only a few yards from the wall in a section void of any snow.

"OH! Do you think I hurt it?!" Hikari shrieked as she leapt off the spot she had stepped on. Nemu, out of breath but still with them, brought her big flashlight lantern up and lit up the footprint left by Hikari's shoe.

"No, there!" she said as a small sprout popped up from the ground in the middle of the toe-print. "This is going to be one tough little Haibane!"

"It had better be," Midori noted. "Just look at where it planted itself…"

The light of the early daylight was just starting to show just how cluttered the area was with brambles. It would need some clearing to allow the cocoon to grow properly.

"Look! Isn't that the Southern Farmer's Road?" Hikari exclaimed as she pointed over at a snow-lined dirt trail a few yards off to one side. The trees also were thinner. They were near the area where the wall curved gently and the forest to the west ended.

Nemu sighed and smiled. "Thank god. That will make it easier to take care of this," she said as she knelt beside the new growth. "We'll need to keep it warm, at least until the cocoon starts to grown."

She laid her scarf around the sprout.

A crow squawked from the top of the gate out of Old Home.

"Yaa! Of all the time for you to be glaring at me you rat with wings!" Kana growled. She grabbed a small stone and reared back to toss it at the black bird. She was surprised to find it missing as she followed through with the pitch.

"Low and inside – Ball one!" Ptolemy said. "No tossing stones at my bird, please."

Kana gaped at him. "YOUR BIRD?!" she shrieked as Ptolemy raised his hand and whistled.

"Mabel! Here girl!" he said. The crow gave a squawk and lighted on his outstretched finger much to Kana's shock. He gave the bird a cracker and removed a small pouch around its neck. He opened it and removed a note as he placed Mabel on his shoulder.

"Professor Ptolemy," the letter from Rhea said, "because you touched the tag yesterday, it was like resetting your personal clock to zero. From what I was able to discern is that your special chronology created by the First Event has allowed you to undergo a Chrono regressive metamorphosis…"

"Can't she ever keep it down to smaller words?" Ptolemy grumbled as he scratched Mabel's feathers. Kana just shook her head.

"Please don't do this again, as we don't know what effect it has on either you or the saints in the long run," the letter scolded him. "As it is, touching the plaque seems to have been much like pulling the pin on Bakuu. At first, she showed only residual contact, as per previous times you did so. But this time, she reacted with a greater upsurge of energy approximately five minutes after initial contact." The vision of watching Rakka's journey the day before flashed through his head. Had having her touch Bakuu's energy while touching his hand brought all this out? Could this be an answer they had been searching for all along, and an answer why the Haibane were there in the first place? He would have to consider all this after Bakuu did her escape. He returned to the note.

"She was showing a build-up of power even before yesterday" it said. "As a matter of fact, it may have been her upsurge of energy that may have put the injectors out of alignment…"

Ptolemy lowered the letter and looked to the northwest. "God, I hope not… that would mean that those other times we had injector errors could have been a sign of a saint ready for flight… Damn!" Plus, now knowing that her power had been building already shot down the idea that having himself and a Haibane touch the plaques would be a quick-fix release for the entrapped saints. He tapped his heel in disgust at that lost chance.

"Professor Ptolemy?" he heard behind himself. He turned to see Rakka standing at the doorway with a surprised look on her face. "I'm ready… umm, what's with the crow?"

"It's a friend of his," Kana snarled, getting a squawk from Mabel.

"Kana, please," Ptolemy said as he wrote a message on the back of the first letter. He stuffed it back into the pouch and reached up to put it over Mabel's neck. But the crow jumped over to Rakka and landed on her left wing. She squawked at him as if she did not want to take it.

"You read it over my shoulder, didn't you?" the old man sniped at the crow. "Naughty bird!"

It squawked again. Rakka looked fearful at the creature as it yelled at the man.

"Mabel, you know as well as I do that there's no way to know what the outcome will be," Ptolemy told the bird as he gently placed his hand on her head and rubbed it. "Now be a good girl and take the message home. They have to be ready."

As he placed the small pouch over her head, Mabel nipped his finger with her beak – not hard, just enough for him to look at her straight on. He smiled and rubbed her head again.

"Get going you old crow," he laughed. "I'll be okay."

Mabel gave a small chirp. She then looked at Rakka. The young Haibane was surprised at how sad the bird looked. She was even more surprised when it rubbed its head against hers just before it spread its wings wide and lifted off.

"We must hurry," Rakka heard Ptolemy say as she watched the black bird fly off towards the east and over the wall.

"How often have you had that bird over here watching over us?" Kana interrupted. "Do you know just how much trouble I have with those crows?!"

"NOW isn't the time, Kana," Ptolemy barked, gathering his self-control. "Rakka and I must get to the temple as soon as possible. May I borrow the Vespa?"

Kana stared at him. "Reki's scooter?" she asked without realizing it.

"It was hers, yes, after Thido… He was the first to use it," Ptolemy explained as he stepped over to the yellow motorbike. "May I?" he asked again holding his hand out waiting for its key.

Kana shrugged and laughed as she dug the keys out of her pocket and tossed them to him. "Hey, no prob. I don't use it during the snow anyway. You sure you can handle it in weather like this?"

Ptolemy smirked. "No sweat."

The crew at the Hill of Winds had been watching the light show along with Janice. They were preparing to depart as their time in Glie was drawing short when they were greeted by the shrieking squeal of Rakka on the back of the scooter as she and Ptolemy crested the hill along the road. She could have sworn that both wheels had left the ground just about then.

"Hi honey!" he said with a grin to his wife as he pulled to a stop.

"The VESPA!" she yelled at him. "Where in hell did you find that old thing?!" Rakka understood the tone of her voice – the Professor was about to get a scolding!

"Well I told you I had found it a proper home!" he smiled.

"You nearly killed yourself with that thing!" she admonished him. She then saw the girl on the back.

"Who is that Mr. Ptolemy?" Rakka asked hiding from the lashing he was taking.

"Oh, don't be afraid," he laughed. "That's my wife Janice. And long ago, even longer than what I told Kana, this used to be my scooter… but she made me get rid of it, so I brought it here for Thido to use."

"This is Rakka?" the woman asked as she stepped up to them. Rakka saw a strange look on her face. "My god, Claudius, tha…"

"Shh!" he hushed her, which caused Rakka to flinch and clutch him tighter. "Rakka is the Haibane in charge of the work inside the walls of this town, and my assistant today. That is all." He scowled at her and added, "It is the reason why she will be here for so long, understood?"

Janice held her hands up to her face and gasped. "Yes dear… I understand now…" she said as she stepped nearer to the Haibane. She smiled at Rakka and placed her hand on her head.

"Such a beautiful child," she said. "Now you take care of this old fool, okay? He means the world to me."

Rakka swallowed. "Um, yes ma'am!" she managed. But she noticed that even saying those few words seemed to affect the woman as she stepped back. Should she know her? Should she know these people?

"We're off," Ptolemy told his wife. "Oh, check your phone… we may still have internal communications…"

Janice pulled her phone and pressed the side button. Instantly, Ptolemy's chirped. He gave a thumb's up and revved the scooter's motor. Before Rakka could consider the situation any further, they tore down the path and turned onto the Old Temple Road, splattering snow and puddles as they went.

Janice sighed and smiled. "Her name is Rakka now," she said to herself. She walked back to set up her equipment.

The town was just starting to stir as they blew up the gravelly road that ran along. Rakka could just see the smoke from the bakery starting to rise from its chimney. The morning café had lifted their shutters for the day she could see through jolts and bounces the road was making the scooter make. She could have used something warm like that right now.

The town of Glie vanished behind them as they continued to climb out of the valley towards the Temple area as she clung hard to her pilot. She had stopped yelling long ago. Somehow, even at the extreme speed he seemed to have gotten the scooter up to, she felt safe with Ptolemy at the wheel… or handle bars. They had made the outskirts of the Temple region in a matter of minutes to her. But she still worried. Something in her heart was telling her that there was something about this man and his wife… mostly his wife… that was telling her they knew more about her – maybe even her life outside the walls of Glie.

A burst of light surrounded her. She wanted to look, but she was now being pressed to Ptolemy's body as he applied the breaks hard and skid the scooter to a stop.

"Damn… I think we might be too late to get any closer."

She pried her head out of his back and looked up at the old man. He was looking off to their right. His face was illuminated as if someone was shining a spotlight on him.

"But we must still get closer," he continued. He looked back. "There's a footbridge back that way, isn't there?"

Rakka looked at where they were – just outside the narrow pathway that led to the Temple of the Renmei. She saw a few of the Community Watch mulling about at the end of the path. They looked confused to her, not knowing what was happening to the wall nearby.

Then she remembered the bridge Ptolemy asked about. The Gideon Span, a rope suspension bridge roughly a mile from the waterfall near the Temple that created the river it spanned. The only people that were supposed to cross it were the Community Watch and those Haibane that failed to have a day of flight! The far landing was the entrance to the Scar's Village! She squeaked as Ptolemy spun the bike about and headed back towards it.

It was not far… maybe a quarter mile back, and it came up fast.

"No side saddling, dear," Ptolemy yelled back at her. He stood up on the scooter. "Swing your leg in!"

"What?!" she yelped as she did as she was told and sat over the seat. He was not going to do what she thought he was about to do… was he?

He sat down with a thud and throttled the bike hard.

"OH!" she shrieked. "IT'S A FOOTBRIDGE! IT'S A FOOTBRIDGE! IT'S A FOOTBRIDGE!" she screamed at the top of her lungs.

He tore into the span, its wooden slats rattling off the tires of the scooter. The center of the bridge was shrouded in mist from the morning's fog. She prayed that there was no one on it – the scooter would not have left any room for them, and god knows how they would stop!

"Reki, watch over me! Reki, watch over me! Reki, watch over me!" she chanted to herself as they entered the mist.

Another flash and the fog seemed to push against them. She felt the bridge sway as if blown by a heavy wind.

"Hold tight to me dear!" Ptolemy yelled. "These boards are slick from the fog!"

"I wish I were still in bed!" she yelled back.

"Sorry," he replied. "If I knew Bakuu was so impatient, I would have come up the north bank of the river rather than the south… Here we go!"

Before she could ask what he meant, there was a hard thump and then the rumbling subsided. They had made it across. He brought the bike to a stop allowing her to look up.

From where this branch of the river flowed in from the west of Glie, its north bank was much closer to the wall than the south, and they were very close to the section that was glowing – more than just glowing, it looked as if a section was crumbling!

"Am I allowed here?" she asked as she hid behind the Professor.

Ptolemy did not answer. Rakka saw he was looking at a woman seated on a bench at the end of the dirt plaza for the bridge. She held a staff and was clothed in a wrap much like that of the Communicator, though her back was exposed, even on such a chilly morning.

"Umph… I was hoping she wasn't going to be here," Rakka heard Ptolemy mumble. He glanced back at Rakka and nodded. "Do not worry, she can not harm you. But she is a fallen Haibane."

Rakka's eyes flew wide and she held her breath. She had never seen a defrocked Haibane. She had fought so hard to prevent Reki from becoming one she was not ready to actually see one. She peeked under Ptolemy's arm at the woman.

"As I expected, the light has brought you, my dear Uncle Claudius," the lady said in a mocking tone as she stood up. Rakka could tell she was old, but not how old. The robes hid her body save the section of her back that was left exposed. The wounds of where her wings once were made her own ache.

"It has been a while, Bloodeagle," Ptolemy grunted. "I hope all is well? I will assume you know that I'm a bit busy right now..."

She held up a mask much like that worn by the Old Communicator. "When I wear this, it tells me all… But you know that," she snickered. She held it up and looked at the glow as if she were using a magnifying glass. "Seeing that the wall is screaming told me that you would soon be here."

"Bloodeagle?" Rakka asked quietly.

Ptolemy looked down at the hunkering girl. "When a Haibane does not have a day of flight, they loose their Haibane name. They must choose a new one for themselves when they come here," he explained to her.

"I took mine from a story I once read as a child," she said as she approached them, circling the bike to get a look at the young Haibane on the back. "Oh my, oh my! What beautiful wings!"

Ptolemy produced his badge and held it up to the old woman. She stepped back much like the Toga had the day before, as if she were being shown something that could harm her. She then shrugged and continued to circle the scooter.

"We haven't the time for this, Bloodeagle," Ptolemy barked at her. "How far is the light section of the wall from the Scar's Village?"

She muttered something incoherent under her breath as she slipped the mask over her face and looked at the wall. "Not far – in fact, directly in the center of the village. The Community Watch is keeping most of us inside today, but I'm allowed to my post because of my – heh – wardrobe."

Ptolemy looked at the wall. The light did seem to be right in the center of the path. He coughed and put his badge away and sat back down on the scooter.

"Very well… There won't be any flights today, Bloodeagle," he told the old woman. "You may return to your home."

"This is my home, Uncle Claudius," she snarled. "The others have ostracized me from my home in the village. I greet the newly damned. Why would they want me to mingle with them?" She then looked at Rakka. "You reek of the smell of Old Home, dear. How is that rundown hovel? I hear its bells from time to time… Is someone trying to finish Thido's work on that clock?"

Rakka clung to Ptolemy a bit tighter as he started the motor again. "Maybe next time, Bloodeagle," he said as they sped off.

Rakka looked about as they ran through a dark forest. This seemed to be Glie at its rawest. There were ruins of buildings and equipment scattered throughout the woods and underbrush. Some were vehicles she had never seen before, huge with strange tracks rather than tires. Somehow she knew what they were, but not what they were for. Long tube-like appendages stuck out of some while others seemed simply to be carriers of some sort.

"I'll be damned… the old Atlantien Defense Base… I thought that had been missed in the re-seeding," she heard Ptolemy say to himself. She would have asked what he meant, but so much was happening that she held her questions in check. They were now entering a village that seemed dark and forbidding to her, even with the light being cast from the wall ahead.

A stone crashed to the ground off the wall. A pillar of dust shot up. Ptolemy brought the scooter to a halt and got off. Rakka slowly followed as he held it upright for her. Her knees felt weak from all the jostling they had gone through.

"Stay close dear," he told her. "I'm sorry I dragged you along for this."

She snapped a look up at him. "Excuse me?" she asked.

He laughed while staring at the wall. "Well, you were needed if we were to enter the path under the wall… not here on the outside."

The wall flashed again, but this time, being so close to it, the wind blasted them with a hard gust, causing the scooter to tumble away. Rakka clung to Ptolemy's arm as her wings nearly lifted her off the ground.

"Windy today, isn't it?" a man leaning against a building nearby said to them.

"Ah, Mr. English… yes it is quite blustery," Ptolemy said to the stranger. "Are your people safe?"

The man nodded. "Any clue on why we're being sandblasted, Mr. Corporation?"

Ptolemy gestured to the wall. "A saint's day of flight," he said.

The man looked at him with a gaping shocked face. "Damn you!" he yelled. "Damn the Community Watch! These people should be watching this then!"

Ptolemy shook his head. "I never said they couldn't! Get them out here!"

"God-dammed idiots!" the man yelled. "Hey you! Hey everyone! Get out! Get out! The Saint is rising! The Saint is rising!"

"Who is that man?" Rakka asked. "He doesn't look like a Haibane…"

"He's not," Ptolemy said. "He's a townsman from Glie. He once made an off-color joke about my 'brother' and the Community Watch brought him here as punishment.

It took Rakka a moment to figure out who Ptolemy was referring to. "Oh, he's the one?" she blurted as she watched the man run about pounding on the doors of the village. Another burst of light blasted them with dust again and she hung on for dear life.

"He's the what?" Ptolemy asked as he tested his phone.

"Is he's the one brought here for yelling 'I am the Communicator'?" she asked as she recovered from the dust storm.

"Ea? Washi is Washi?" he asked as he knocked some dust off his hat and popped open the phone. "He wouldn't be the first foolish teenager to try that prank here… I really must ask the Renmei to be a bit more lenient on these kids..." He pressed the call button and waited.

Another flash, and this time the wind knocked Rakka flat and Ptolemy back. A house closest to the wall fell in on itself.

"Was there anyone inside that one?" Ptolemy shouted over the wind to Mr. English.

"Just my fish," he replied. "Ah well, it was time I moved anyway."

The phone chirped.

"Honey! Honey can you hear me?!" he yelled.

The wind was starting to pick up at the windmills as well, and their generators swung to catch it. Every blade started to spin, and every governor and breaking system started to squeal and yelp as they attempted to slow the props down to keep the torque from over-heating the system. A few started to smoke.

Janice looked back at the nearest unit to make sure it was still safe to be near it. "Yes, yes I hear you dear!" she called back. "Where are you?"

"Ground zero," was the reply. "Any closer, and I'd be inside the wall!"

There was a burst of static as another flash lit the sky, even with the sun now cresting the wall. Behind her, a few of the windmills chirped a warning alarm and started to feather their blades in shut down mode, in an attempt to stop them from snapping their props off their shafts.

"The wind has picked up greatly here," she reported. "It's got to be worse there."

Ptolemy smirked and grinned to Rakka. "That would be putting it mildly, yes," he replied as he helped the young Haibane back to her feet. "I'd say we're within a few minutes of flight… do you have all your recorders running?"

Janice checked over the three units she had pulled from her bag – the spectral scanner, the video camera and a small computer that was taking in information from both units. The tripods that held the two recording devices were having a difficult time keeping the large units up without tipping over in the wind. She had finally collected a set of stones and had nearly buried both to keep them steady.

"Running… please dear, play it safe…" she told him. "If it starts going to pieces, get out of there… especially get… Rakka out of there!"

He looked down at the child. "That's not a bad idea," he said. He closed the phone and took her arm. "I'm going to move you back a bit to keep you safe."

"No," she said, firmly standing her ground. "No, I'm staying here."

"Rakka?" Ptolemy asked. He saw the look on her face – it was not the frightened little girl he had seen earlier. She was glaring at the wall - scowling at it in fact. "Rakka, what is it? What do you feel?"

She blinked then looked up at him. "Fury… Anger and fury… Why should I feel that?" She looked a bit harder at him. "And why should it be aimed at you?"

"Oh child, there are many reasons on why it should be on me," he said as he placed his hand on her head. "I would say that Bakuu isn't just going to have her day of flight, but maybe some retribution…"

Rakka swallowed as she felt the anger swell around her. She refused to think that such hate should be aimed at this man. He was good. She knew he was good!

A fissure cracked in the wall, and a stream of light shot skywards, much like the one she had seen when Kuu and Reki had flown. Only this was much larger, massive and rushing as if in a panic. It was then that a wing erupted from the stream. It was large – bigger than the houses at the base of the wall. It was soon followed by a second wing.

Fear rushed in and engulfed her in a drowning swarm that made her quake to her heels. She grabbed Ptolemy's hand and tugged. She had to get him away from here. Had his wife not ask her to keep and eye on this old fool? Why was he not moving?

"No child," he said quietly as the wind died out momentarily. "I'm ready for this. This is my penance. This is my sin. An eye for an eye…"

"No! No! You must come with me!" Rakka shouted as tears started to steam down her cheeks. "This isn't your fault! This never was your fault!"

Ptolemy stood tall, his chin upright and his eyes closed. The village folk stood around the far end of the plaza that he stood in mumbling his name. Many knew who he was – they had seen him in the past. Corporation – Ptolemy – The man in the hat – The only person who showed them kindness when all else was lost – he stood before them, before the saint… claiming he had sinned…

"Dear, it is my fault," he said quietly. "You are my fault. These people are my fault. This world is my fault. I have sinned against man and god and it is time I repent."

"No!" Rakka whimpered as she tugged on his jacket. "No! You're kind… you're fun to be with! You can't be sin-bound! Not you!"

Ptolemy laughed and he opened his eyes to see the forthcoming saint. "It's funny… You say I'm sin-bound…"

"NO! NO! I DIDN'T SAY YOU WERE SIN-BOUND!" she screamed.

"No, I am sin-bound," he continued. "But for you to be freed of being sin-bound, you need to remember your dream… I can't help but remember my dream… I see it every night… every day… I tried to capture god's power… I made my anti-matter generator, and destroyed this world and the angels sent to stop me… I am a damn fool…"

Ptolemy dropped to his knees and bowed his head as the angel stepped from the light. She had a massive sword in her hand and an angry glare in her eyes.

Rakka screamed.

Janice saw Bakuu on the screen of her computer. She was looking down.

"Oh dear god… she's looking at Claudius!" she whispered to herself.

"That's not good, right?"

She nearly jumped off the ground as Kana leaped back as well and nearly fumbled the pair of binoculars she was using.

"Kana!" Janice cried then started to weep. "Kana, she's about to take my Claudius! I just know it! I just know it!"

"Oh man!" Kana said as she returned to looking into her binoculars. "She doesn't look happy! This is a saint? What's she got against the old man?"

They could not actually see the Professor, but the angel was tall enough to be seen over the trees from a distance and to those in the valley below. And worse, she seemed to be getting larger.

Her hair was long and golden. Her robes were strapped to her in a battle-garb that seemed to wrap her upper body only. Her dress flapped and waved in the renewed wind. It seemed to trail back into the stream of light which still shot heavenward. Her sword showed bright and silver with a large golden hilt which she seemed nervously to hold. She glowered down on the prostrate man and the small girl who was behind him and huffed.

She spun the sword once, making it do a deep whooshing sweep. She then grasped it tight.

The blade flash like lightning as she quickly raised it up with a heavy gust of wind.

"NO!" Kana shouted.

"Please god! Please!" Janice cried.

She held the sword high for what seemed to be an eternity.

Rakka felt herself be pushed away. She looked up from where she had fallen back to see Ptolemy's hand returning to his side.

"You do know I work for your father?" he said to the saint as he continued to stare at the ground awaiting his fate. "He and I are trying to right this wrong… you are just the first to come forth…"

"Sinner, REPENT!" the angle shouted.

"NO!" Rakka screamed and leapt for Ptolemy. "YOU'RE BEING USED!"

It seemed to Kana that the sword sliced the world in two in a slow-motion blur. She never even got a chance to utter a swear or react…

…or figure out why there was a flash of light and the sword spun back through the air and over the wall.

Ptolemy opened his eyes. There was a pair of small shoes scuffing the dirt below his face. He found Rakka draped over him.

"I want to be like you one day!" she shouted to the angel. "How could you do this to this man? Aren't you supposed to be full of forgiveness? Aren't you an angel of god? Aren't we his children? Aren't we to be forgiven?!"

The fire vanished from Bakuu's eyes. A soft pair of blue eyes replaced those of anger a moment before. A look of wonderment swept her face.

"You," she addressed in an ethereal voice to the old man, "you who sinned have been forgiven." She looked at Rakka, who remained over Ptolemy. "How did you know? Why do you know of me?"

"I could feel your torment," Rakka said as she stood up off Ptolemy's back. "You knew that he wasn't fully to be blamed, but your hatred was being fueled by dark forces."

"Blasted basement," Ptolemy grunted as he started to get up, but found Rakka planting her hand on his back keeping him down.

Bakuu knelt down. "Strange… you bear the mark of my father… I feel your energy… But your halo… feathers of gray… Who are you my child?"

She smiled and gave the angel a curtsy. "My name is Rakka. I am a Haibane."

"Haibane?" Bakuu asked as she again looked at the girl's wings. There was a caw in the air that then caught her attention. Rakka was shocked to see a crow land on the angel's shoulder.

"Isn't that your crow Mr. Ptolemy?" she asked in a whisper.

"I can't tell," he snorted. "You aren't letting me up!"

Rakka removed her palm from his back allowing him to sit up. He looked up to see the angel conversing with Mabel. He shook his head.

"Show off," he laughed.

The bird cawed at him. Bakuu looked down with approval to whatever remark the black bird had made.

"Charcoal feather, I understand now," she told Rakka. "It was your compassion for this man that shielded him with my father's power. And I fear that your surmise was also correct, Claudius Ptolemy. I was affected by those of the underworld."

"I do not hold you at fault," Ptolemy smiled. "We have been having this ongoing fight ever since this world came into being. Everyone must pass their trial before their day of flight. You have passed yours."

A realization then struck Rakka and she stamped her foot. She slowly turned towards the old man. "You did that on purpose?!" she yelped.

He shrugged. "Some of it… not all of it…"

"Oup!" was all Rakka could muster as she turned beet-red.

"Should I get my sword back?" Bakuu asked her. Surprisingly to Ptolemy, Rakka turned and waved Bakuu to do so. The angel laughed.

Rakka sighed and blew her bangs up. She looked up at the angel and sighed again. "I don't get it… how could you do that?"

Bakuu looked at her in wonder. "Do what?" she asked.

"Well… you're an angel…" Rakka nervously stated. "You had a sword… why?"

"Rakka, you were always told that angels were the bringers of peace, love and forgiveness, right?" Ptolemy asked her.

She gave an "uh huh," which made her blush as she realized just how childish that had sounded.

"Rakka, angels are also God's soldiers," he explained. "And believe me you don't want to be on the reception end of a garrison of archangels."

"Three garrisons," Bakuu corrected him.

"Please, don't remind me," he said as he stumbled to his feet. "There is still much more work to be done to recover your comrades. With you being the first recovery, we just might be on our way."

"There is always hope," Bakuu smiled. It was odd to Rakka – just a few moments prior she was a fury waiting to strike. Now she was just a woman. She had even shrunk down to a more normal size. "And perhaps you should call your wife to let her know that I did not smite you down?"

"Ah, yes," he said as he fumbled for his phone. "Well, as it is quite obvious, you are free to go… I would assume that there will be some serious debriefing when you arrive."

"Yes… yes I would assume so," she said as she raised her hand above her head. The sword clanged over the wall and returned to her. She turned it to the flat side and reached out. She placed it on Rakka's halo which began to ring like a muted alarm clock. She smiled and slipped the sword into its sheath that was hidden under her robes.

"I thank you, Earth-born angel," she told her, "for your care while I was in stasis. I am humbled to you for the duty you have chosen while here. Please keep my fellow… saints do you call them?"

Mabel clucked a few short chirps, almost as if the crow were laughing to itself.

"Yes," Bakuu continued. "Please keep my fellow saints safe, will you please?"

"Yes! Yes of course!" Rakka said sprightly.

Bakuu then looked at those gathered in the plaza – at the former Haibane that were watching in the background, their eyes drawn and tired yet hopeful. In the center of the crowd stood the Old Communicator. As she walked towards them he got down on one knee and held his staff out to her. She placed her hand on the winged orb at the top and smiled.

"Yes dear, I'm fine," Ptolemy was busy telling his wife over the phone. "Who is that in the background crying? Kana? Why would she be crying? Who's a jerk?"

Bakuu stayed with the villagers for an hour before returning to the shaft of light. She turned to them and held her arms and wings wide.

"I shall be your herald," she told them. "I shall be your words and prayers to my father. After all, are we not capable of forgiveness?" She looked at Ptolemy and smiled.

He tipped his hat to her as Mabel settled on his shoulder. "God speed, Bakuu of the Seventh Realm. Safe journey."

She nodded and slowly stepped back into the light. It split and started to rotate around her. It quickly snatched her up and launched her up and out of Glie.

Janice watched the readings on her screen as the angel passed the normal apogee level and reached escape velocity. There was a slight deviation, as if something were attempting to draw her back, but nothing next to another impact would stop this bird from flying free.

The ride back to Old Home was long and quiet. Ptolemy needed to stop by Abandoned Factory to fill the tank of the scooter with oil and fuel, which meant a trip down a back trail she had never been down before. There were more of the strange pieces of decaying equipment scattered about, as well as dilapidated buildings that seemed to have last been lived or worked in centuries before. They finally entered the town through what she thought had been an unused alleyway beside the old bank near the Main North Gate. As they passed through town, Rakka could hear the people chatting about what they had seen that day out by the western wall. None that she could hear clearly were even close to what actually had happened, though one or two did get the 'angel' part right.

At the Hill of Winds, Ptolemy returned the scooter to Kana, who pounded his chest for being such a fool. His wife though draped herself across him and Rakka just holding them for what seemed like hours.

"Twelve turbines are fried I would say," Ptolemy said to Plato over his phone as he and Janice walked back towards town leaving the two Haibane to themselves. It was time to head home. "Yes, that was some wind she put out. The Service gang is going to have some work to do."

They entered the junk shop and left Glie behind.

Rakka lay in her bed looking at the ceiling. Kana sat backwards in a chair rocking back and forth looking out the window at some crows near the incinerator. She just did not have the will to chase them today.

Hikari sat in another chair as she removed her muddy shoes. She had spent the entire morning clearing the brush around the new seedling out in the southwestern woods with Nemu and Midori. A local farmer had donated the use of his orchard torch, a portable heater used to keep fruit from freezing in frosts, to keep the seedling warm while the growth phase began.

"So, the angel actually tried to slice you in half?" Hikari asked. "You must have been scared out of your wits."

"I know I was," Kana said as she lowered her head. "I mean, I didn't know you were right in front of that blade, but when I saw it fly over the wall… What was that?"

Rakka shook her head. "I don't know," she whispered. "It was like someone told me to protect him. I just felt that she was being manipulated somehow, and that I could stop her… I never expected the reaction my halo gave her sword to do that."

Kana leaned over and flicked her finger off Rakka's halo making it twang. "It still seems to be a normal halo… You didn't put anything special in there when you made it, did you Hikari? No titanium or tungsten?"

"Like I had anything like that to put in there, silly," she laughed. "No, I just put in the light leaf paste that the Haibane-Renmei told me to do and cook it over the stove for an hour."

"Well whatever it was, it was amazing to see that sword sail over the wall," Kana giggled.

Rakka gave a light smile. But much of what had happened that day was still playing back in her mind. Especially…

"My god, Claudius, tha…"

"Shh! Rakka is the Haibane in charge of the work inside the walls of this town, and my assistant today. That is all. It is the reason why she will be here for so long, understood?"

"Yes dear… I understand now…"

"I wish I understood," she told herself.

"OH!" they all heard. Now they heard children screaming. The first yell had been the housemother. The Young Feathers should have been in their dorms at that time of night… and there was the sound of water flowing somewhere.

"THE COCOONS!" the three Haibane shouted together. They flew out of Rakka's room for the hatching wing.

Janice stood on the balcony of their apartment with her back against the railing. Ptolemy saw that she was looking up the side of the building. She closed her eyes and sighed as he placed his hand on her shoulder.

"God, that day is replaying in my mind over and over," she told him. "Seeing her today…"

"I'm sorry, I totally forgot about Rakka," Ptolemy said to her in a whisper. "I should have warned you about her. They aren't supposed to know anything about their lives outside the walls."

"Yes, yes I know," she said. "I just wished… oh I don't know… It would be nice to tell her parents, if they still were up there." She gestured up towards the balcony a few floors above theirs.

Ptolemy looked at his notebook and sighed. "It probably wouldn't matter to them now anyhow… Their divorce after her death was inevitable even if she had lived. It is sad to see such a fine child having to deal with parents that did not care…"

They clung to one another as they left the sounds of the city below and closed the sliding doors to the balcony. It was time to find out what tomorrow's duty would be.

The history of mankind is a lie.

A fiction created to cover the cataclysmic disaster that befell it.

All knowledge, all memories, anything from before two hundred twenty years ago is false. Before this time, a great civilization had grown and came forth.

And it was because of my work that history was rewritten. For I was foolish.

My name is Ptolemy… scientist, philosopher, engineer, dreamer…

One day, I dreamed of capturing God's Power for mankind…

For a brief moment, I did just that.

What a fool I was…

oOo

Play the RPG Sadako's Well on AnimeMangaWorld! - Email for the address

Join the Renmei - Visit the C2 Community and Discussion Forums of Charcoal Feathers of Glie & Surrounding Territories here on FFN!

And a tip of the hat to Jeff Morris for his excellent "Junkman" FanFic

Edit & Remastered 1106.10

Edited 1804.25

Reviews For Haibane Renmei: CORPORATION - Ptolemy prior to setup change on FFN

Lady Shadowcat

2004-09-27

Beautiful! Mysterious, strange, just like the anime...

But.. your fic injects action into the world! *Gasp!* Blasphemy! (Kidding, kidding). Very nice. Most intriguing.

Thanks for referencing my work. And... I love your "Bloodeagle."

Alpha Draconis1

2004-09-01

This story is beautiful. Great and beautiful. I adore how you fit everything into place, from the history, to the mythologies, to the characters, to the cross-over references. And Ptolemy didn't end up stealing the show as most ACCs do. Very well done.

FIND OUR BOOKS ON AMAZON!

"A World of Rusted Dreams"

and

"Malarkey and Belinda"

by S E Nordwall

and

"Mr Gizmo - The Space Cannon"

by R. A. Stott

Available in Paperback and Digital Download!