Haibane Renmei: C O R P O R A T I O N Chapter 4: N D E, a haibane renmei fanfic

2011 REVISION

HAIBANE-RENMEI: COPRORATION

Chapter Four

N D E

By R. A. Stott

FFN #2088681

First Published 10/9/2004

It had been raining most of that day, so normally standing outside on the balcony of their apartment would not be for the best seeing that the ones above hers would drip down on theirs. But Janice had been having trouble sleeping as of late. Ever since seeing that child while in Glie - Ever since working beside her and being with her again – The nightmare of that day a year and a half ago kept playing back in her sleep, torturing her soul and making her miserable. The rain was actually soothing to a point.

Lightning flashed, illuminating the other buildings. She closed her eyes and allowed the water to flow over her face.

She saw the child. She was standing on the railing with her arms outstretched as birds called to her. She remembered standing in shock seeing who it was, her voice silenced for a brief moment as she beheld the sight above her. The child teetered and swayed as the breeze caught her dress.

"NO!" she yelled finally. "DON'T…"

It had already been too late by the time she had called out. The girl had leaned too far forwards and momentum had taken over. She saw her sleeves ruffle as she became one with the wind, her hair swaying wildly and her dress snapped and popped. She had closed her eyes as she descended, though she briefly glanced at Janice as she plunged.

Rakka sat up. She looked to her left, just as she had in her dream. There she saw Kuu's frogs. They all seemed to be looking back at her.

"I saw… I saw a woman," she whispered to herself as she clung to her bed sheets.

Janice entered her apartment and found a towel being handed to her by her husband.

"I'm sorry to do this to you, but we have a situation," he told her. She noticed he was holding his cell phone. She nodded and took the towel.

Plato sat back in his chair and huffed. "Normally, we don't take too much about these situations, but this one hits way too close to the mark to be ignored... Dante?"

He cleared his throat and straightened his collar of his dress shirt. "I know this will sound odd," Dante started at the hastily called board meeting, "but have any of you seen the TV program 'Tales of Mystery and Imagination' on cable?"

Those present numbly shook their heads. "It is not my standard faire, no," Ptolemy interjected as he placed a steaming cup of coffee under his wife's nose.

"Well maybe it should be," Plato grumbled. Ptolemy gave him a slightly confused look as he sat down.

"Yes," Dante sheepishly replied as if even he was unsure if he wanted to subject himself to such a show on a regular basis. "We are up at this ungodly hour because of today's segment which will be repeated in less than fifteen minutes."

"You couldn't have just set your VCR to record it?" a half-asleep Hipp snorted as he clung to his java like it was the only thing keeping him alive.

Dante shook his head. "I'm sorry… I know that we could have taken this in the morning, but because of some information I found yesterday which was then corroborated by this show, we felt the need for urgent action to be taken."

"So just what has happened?" Janice asked as she sipped the brown fluid. "You're acting as if someone breached the walls of one of the holy sites."

"In a way, someone has," Plato said as he pulled out a newspaper from under the table – worst yet, a supermarket tabloid – which he plopped down in the middle for all to see.

"IS THIS HEAVEN?" the large sensationalized letters read in a garish red. "ANGELS LIVE AMONG US?" another boldly asked. Behind the text was a computer-generated image of a girl standing before a beat-up Spanish villa. She had a halo over her head and the worst looking pair of drawn wings on her back. Below her in extremely small type read "Artist rendering of an eyewitness account of this strange land."

"Humm… Brittany Spears to have child with six eyes… fascinating," Hipp cracked as he read the smaller boxes that edged the cover of the tabloid.

Ptolemy looked at the girl on the cover though. Janice saw her as well.

The girl was Rakka. But Janice had seen that picture before. It was of the child Rakka had come from – the one who had fallen from the balcony. Somehow this paper had found her image and used it as the body of the angel.

"Where did they get this photo?" her husband asked before she could. The stern look on his face told her that he was just as upset as she felt at the misuse of her image in such a manner.

"We are checking on it," Plato said. "I have Sun Tzu sending out some of his spies to see where they got that picture. That is her, isn't it?"

"That is a school photo," Janice whispered. "It sat in a picture frame as you entered their apartment." She noticed the look on Plato's face – he had expected her husband to answer, not her. "I used to baby sit her," she explained.

"I'm sorry," the director said. "I did not know you knew her before she arrived in Glie sector."

Ptolemy folded the paper. "We knew the risks," he said. "We knew that we may someday see someone we knew inside the zones. I've personally known four of them so far. It's never easy to deal with. But with proper guidance, I know they will be going to a better place."

"Yes, but why is it that this one Haibane seems to be drawing such attention?" Dante asked as he turned on the television and started a VCR recording.

Ptolemy sat back. "We know that Rakka is special, just like Sol is in Tripoli and Fawn is in Lucerne. We've been told so by your own reports from the attic. We also know she may stay in Glie for possibly the longest time any Haibane has ever done in ANY of the zones… So why is she drawing such attention on the outside?"

Dante unfolded the paper and turned it towards himself. "The reasons may have been only a fluke," he said. "The reason for the article wasn't because of this girl, but because of a rash of stories filtering out to the media. This article is centered on an Irene Dunbar, a woman who had an NDE… a near death experience. I had brought this up to the director's attention yesterday when I saw this tabloid in the supermarket. We were planning to discuss this at this morning's meeting, but when I was clicking around the dial last night, this show came on…"

The television was busy showing images of angels flying about over a town in a hokey outlandish style of the average over-sensationalized broadcast. The announcer was the typical deep voiced talent that these shows have. Janice almost burst out laughing until they started to hear his comments.

"In years past, the stories of near death experiences have come and gone and usually dealt with people seeing a light at the end of a tunnel – seeing family and friends long missing – seeing heaven and angels before being drawn back to their Earthly bodies. But recently a new story has been emerging – a story of a land where angels and humans live together – not in heaven, not in hell… but in between…"

Claudius and Janice stared at the television.

"The first known descriptions of this 'between world' started to be heard around ten years ago, but were dismissed as the dilutions of a mind on the verge of death. But recently, the author Thomas Geotten published his controversial book 'Earthbound Angels' where he takes his years of research and compares them…"

An image of the author replaced the pictures of ghostly images wandering down a school hallway. "I too would have been skeptical about this, if I had not read so many reports of these situations people were finding themselves in. Not here, but not there either… a world of the sin bound… but not purgatory as we have been taught or envisioned…"

"Did he just say sin bound?" Ptolemy asked.

"Descriptions have been of a world of repentance to a world of blissful solitude," the author continued. "The most recent case of Miss Irene Dunbar seems only to confirm my theory of this strange mid-world of angels and humans."

"It looks like it is this Miss Dunbar that started this story rolling," Plato interjected. "Sun Tzu reported to me that the book Mr. Geotten published has been out now for two years, but did not do much until this happened."

The author was replaced by a woman in her late 30s. She had a round face and a pair of the worst looking glasses humanly possible to wear.

"Yes, that's an Irene Dunbar," Hipp commented.

"Why do they always look that way?" Dante pondered.

"Gentlemen," Ptolemy grunted. "Hold yourselves."

"Ah had been in an auto accident," she spoke in a heavy southern American accent. "When Ah thought Ah had woken up from it, Ah was in this strange place… it looked to me like a school… Ah remember seeing a girl. Ah did not recognize her… but she had on old clothes, and she had a halo and these tiny wings…"

Janice winced. "Whoa, this is hitting way too close to home…"

Ptolemy perched his head on his thumbs. "Not completely… let's just see…"

"Ah could not speak to this person, though she seemed quite pleasant," Irene continued. Ah followed her around as she moved about this school. It was dark, and the building seemed very old."

"Were you walking with her?" an off screen interviewer asked.

"Ah could have sworn Ah was, but other times Ah could have sworn Ah was floating," Irene said.

"Ah," Ptolemy said and scribbled notes down.

"Did you go anywhere else with this girl?" the interviewer asked Irene.

"Yes, yes we did…" she droned. "She left the convent or school or whatever it was and we went to a town nearby… that was when Ah saw the others… the humans. They seemed aware of the girl and of other angels walking among them… they even worked with each other…"

"Worked?" the interviewer repeated.

"Just how long was this lady there?" Janice asked.

"Yes, they did seem to be doing chores and stuff," Irene surmised.

The interviewer coughed and cleared his throat. "Could you hear anything they were saying?"

Irene scratched her head and thought about that a moment while those watching held their breaths. "Not really," she replied. "It was more like if Ah was listening to them as if Ah were under water… it all came out muddled." There was a collective sigh of relief from those around the table. That was there was relief until…

"Miss Dunbar then allowed us to bring in a hypnotist," the deep throated voice returned, "to see if we could unlock any further clues to where she may have been."

"This should be ugly…" Dante said through gritted teeth.

"Irene," the hypnotist started in a hushed tone of voice, "when you were in this world of angels and humans, do you remember any names mentioned of those who were around you?"

Dunbar was not shown on the television at this point, only a still image of her with a superimposed image of a cassette playing back her responses. "R-r-ray… Rachel… the first angel Ah met was Rachel…" she stammered in a drowsy voice. There was a Norma Ah think… Karen…"

Dante sighed. "At least she didn't get those right…"

Ptolemy shot him a glaring look. "What do you mean? She nearly hit them on the nose! She just proved to me she really was there!"

Dante scratched his head and looked puzzled. "Huh?" Ptolemy snorted.

"You're the poet, Dante, not me! Use your phonic skills." Ptolemy flipped his pad's page and wrote it out for him to see. "Rachel – Rakka… Norma – Nemu… Karen – Kana… We are just fortunate that even if she did get the names correctly, no one on this side of the walls would recognize them!"

"It might have been better if she had said them," Plato noted. "Since she used recognizable names, there will surely be those who will insist that they know the person she was referring to."

Rakka sneezed.

"Bless you!" Hikari said.

"My ears are tickling me," she added as she rubbed them.

"Someone must be talking about you," Kana kidded her as she dunked her cookie in her tea. "Where's Koi? Isn't he with you?"

Rakka snapped a look at Kana. "Why would you say that?" she nearly yelped.

"Oh, the way you two seem to be around each other lately," Kana ribbed her. "He obviously likes you."

"Kana!" Rakka whined. "It's not like that! We're just friends! He simply is in need of learning to be a Haibane!"

Kana leaned forwards and laughed. "I was only kidding, Rakka… lighten up!"

She stomped her foot at her uncouth friend. "You can be so mean!" she snorted and tromped out of the room. She left the main building and stopped in the arched exit out of the compound and sighed. The morning air was sweet with the smells of spring flowers growing in the field beyond the wall of Old Home.

She was about to take a step forwards when she noticed a new message on the sign-in board. She read it once… then again…

"Oh no!" she gasped and yanked it off the wall and ran back into the compound. "KOI! KOI!" she shouted as she looked at all the vacant windows looking back at her. Kana and Hikari stepped out onto the balcony of the guest room and peered down at her.

"See?" Kana joked. "She can't get enough of him!"

"Kana, please!" Hikari scolded her as she saw Rakka waiving the message about. "What is that Rakka?" she called down.

"It's a message from the Haibane-Renmei for Koi!" Rakka called back. "They want him to move to Abandoned Factory while the renovations to the north wings are done!"

Kana snorted. "Well that does kind of make sense, doesn't it?" she said. "I mean, if they intend on making those the boy's wings, he couldn't very well sleep there while they're rebuilding them, now can he?"

"But there's plenty of rooms here," Hikari noted. "Why move him there if all he needs to do is move to one here?"

"Speaking of which," Kana said as she craned her neck and listened to the wind, "why isn't there any noise coming from that end of the building? Normally lately, you can't hear yourself with all the clatter they've been making…"

Rakka looked towards that area of Old Home. Indeed, the silence was odd, especially at that time of day. Even the Young Feathers were quiet for once. The girls went to check it out.

The rehab work was starting with a clean-out of the ruined rooms that lined the outer perimeter of the north wings of the building. The roof and upper floors of the northwestern unit had caved in long ago, and was being refit and secured to the new code The Corporation was enacting. But the workmen were all looking down at a foreman who was hushing them as the girls came around the corner.

"Hey, what's going…" Kana started to say, but found a hand being placed on her mouth to silence her.

"Shhh!" the foreman whispered. He then gestured to a sizable hole in the wall. It had originally been made when the roof had fallen and brought the other floors down with it. But now it had been enlarged to assist in the clean-out. Koi was standing in the middle of it. He seemed deep in thought with his hand held up to his face and sweat rolling down his brow. He then turned into the building then towards the outside. He then turned back.

"There!" he said as a burst of wind blew around him.

"Roger that," one of the workers reported from behind the gathered Haibane. "The spectral scanner just leapt… we have a visitor!"

"A visitor?!" Rakka yelped. "Up here?"

"What do you mean up here?" Kana asked. "Are you saying you have these things down in the tunnels?"

Rakka spun about as a gust of wind swung around them. "It's why I wear that robe when I'm down there, remember? I told you when we went down before!"

Kana found herself being grabbed by Hikari as the wind whipped her dress about their legs. "Well would you kindly tell your ghostly friend to get back down there?!" she barked.

"I can't! I've never met one before!" Rakka squealed as the wind zipped by them again and back into the building.

"This is not a demon," Koi said as he continued to watch the movement as he acted like a weather vane, twisting his body to where the apparition was and pointing with his outstretched arm. "This is something else… its confused and bewildered…"

"What is it?" Hikari asked as Kana wrenched her death grip from her arm.

"I'll find out," the foreman said as he pulled out a cell phone and started punching numbers.

"Koi," Rakka asked as she stepped up to him, "you can see it?"

He glanced at her and smirked. "I guess I can… can't you?" He turned away again following the spirit.

"No… no I can't… OH!" she replied as the wind blasted her then stopped. She looked up and saw Koi's hand pointing directly in front of her.

"You seem to have her attention," he said.

"H-her?" she asked. "It's a girl?"

"Why don't you ask her?" Koi smiled. "She's looking right at you."

"Where?" Rakka asked nervously as she looked about. She reached out with her arm and felt…

There was someone… or something… present before her. But what? Her fingers felt the tingle of skin touching skin – and hair… long straight hair slipped across the back of her hand.

And a tear… her hand suddenly felt wet. It was then that she felt something caress against her own cheek. When she glanced at Koi, he seemed bemused by the spirit's action.

The meeting adjourned unexpectedly when an intern broke in with the news that a situation in Glie was occurring dealing with the subject at hand – a spirit of unknown origin was causing trouble at Old Home.

Janice sat down in her workstation's chair and screened the readouts. "I don't see any… wait a minute…"

The spectral scanner showed an arc streaming downwards from the upper shield. She calculated the degree of approach from apogee and studied where it had come from.

"Just as I thought… You've never seen this before?" Ptolemy asked.

Janice never took her eyes off the screens. "Actually, yes I have, but we always thought they were natural occurrences… we get readings like this a few days after we'd have a planting… we call it an after-trail… This is the after-trail from those two New Feathers that landed in Tripoli yesterday."

"Does it keep that arc before it reaches the shield?" the scientist asked as he started working over her shoulder on another set of screens.

"It should," she said as she saw him bring up a drift chart. "Here… this is where yesterday's launch took place and here is the drift of the after-trail…"

Ptolemy grunted. "It's now a conduit… this is why they can see the Holy Sites. There wouldn't be an Apogee Report since they are actually using a prior landing's after-trail to take them there. I'm sure if we were to find out just when Miss Dunbar had her experience we could find out just which after-trail she had taken to get there. As it is, someone is having an NDE in… Nashville…"

"Do we have an address?" Plato asked.

Ptolemy shook his head. "Not yet… this system wasn't designed for outer readings, only inner ones… Janice, see if you can integrate the programming of the Earth Mapping Department into this system."

"Upgrading," she said as she flew over the board. "Adding mapping grid to launching map… Just to let you know honey, we are now in violation of Article 2 of the Anti-Contamination Proxy…"

Ptolemy looked back at his superior. Plato just waived it off.

"All in favor of dismissing Article 2 for this situation say aye!" he swaggered. There was a quick reply from all the board members present. "Motion passes – proceed…"

"We'll have to bring this up at our next scheduled meeting," Ptolemy half-laughed as he returned to the controls.

"The field agents never liked it anyway," Plato noted. "Speaking of which, do we have anyone close by our launch site?"

"Nearest field agents are… two hundred miles from Nashville," Janice said as the map deployed a series of spots across its surface. "We'll have to use the portal to get to whoever this is."

Dante looked at the sealed doorway beside them. "The portal? Can it be used outside the walled Holy Sites?"

"The portal can be aimed anywhere we please," Ptolemy said as he set the coordinates and reached for a handle below the controls. He looked back at the others in the entrance behind them. "You might want to step in here though, as that will be closing in a moment."

He lifted the handle and walked around to the opposite side of the monitors as the others stepped into the room. When Ptolemy released it, a clanking ratchet-like sound permeated the area. The floor shook and the door to the entrance slid shut as the room started to rotate on its axis. A few minutes later the door slid open again behind Ptolemy with Rhea waiting for clearance to enter.

"Took you long enough!" she snorted as she thundered through to Janice's side. "And what is the idea of acquisitioning the mapping system without consent?!"

"Don't you ever sleep?" Ptolemy broke in. That just caused the woman to glare at him and point an accusing finger in his direction.

"It was you, wasn't it?" she snorted.

"Per permission of the council," Plato grumbled at her. She turned and looked up at him.

"Oh, so you just tossed Article 2 out the window did you?" she grumbled back.

"In this situation, yes!" he barked in return.

"FOR WHAT REASON, SIR!" she yelled this time. "Do you REALIZE just how much PAPERWORK THERE'S GOING TO BE?!"

"Location found," Janice said, cutting off the yelling fit. An image of a building appeared. It was a hotel near the center of town. "Twentieth floor, room 2026, a Miss Charlotte Bovey…"

"CHARLOTTE BOVEY?!" Rhea yelped. "What's with Charley B?"

Ptolemy crossed his arms and looked at her with puzzlement across his face. "Charley B? What's a Charley B?"

Rhea looked at him shocked. "You don't know who Charley B is?"

"Should we?" Hypocrites asked.

Rhea harrumphed and shook her head. "Why she's only one of the hottest country singers around. She's been on the Billboard and CMT charts for years now…"

"Oh, is that what I've been hearing coming out of your office then?" Plato said as he placed his hands over his ears. Rhea glared at him.

"Come to think of it though," she continued, "she's been out of it recently… I can't remember the last time I heard anything new out of her, ever since she was caught in that drug bust…"

Janice looked back at her then at Hipp. "That might explain what's going on then," she said.

"Great… an overly depressed singer… I'll get my bag," the doctor said as he left the room and Ptolemy entered the closet to get his jacket. Rhea stood simply blinking.

"Why? What? What's going on?" she asked.

Rakka stared at Koi with wonder as the hand remained on her cheek. Why could he see this… ghost?

Kana and Hikari clung to each other as they watched. They nearly leapt as they watched Rakka's hair move by the invisible hand that shifted it.

"I wish Nemu was here!" Hikari squeaked.

"Oh, like she'd know what was going on?" Kana replied.

Koi watched the apparition as she cried and held Rakka. He held out his hand as she looked over at him. Rakka felt the one hand on her left cheek leave her and Koi grasp something in his. The look on his face was kind and caring for this tormented spirit.

"Huh!"

She saw it rather quickly, the shift in color catching her attention. As Koi had 'grasped' the hand on the spirit, black markings scattered across his wings. She looked back at her own. What little she could see were also spotted.

"Sin bound!" Rakka whispered aloud.

"Transference is occurring!" Janice reported. "Her sins are transferring!"

Ptolemy stared at the readings. "That's… impossible!"

"Not for Charley B," Rhea noted. "She's one bad girl!"

"Alert Com-One and the Community Watch," Plato ordered. "You two, get going!"

"Coordinates set," Janice told them. "Good luck honey!"

Ptolemy and Hypocrites tugged on their hats and entered the green void.

Kana and Hikari saw the markings as well. Kana broke away from the grip of her fellow Haibane and picked up a nearby broom. "Get away from them!" she yelled as she swung it about.

Koi looked at her with surprise. "What?" he asked.

"Kana stop!" Rakka commanded in a voice that surprised her friend. "I know what is happening."

"But Rakka!" Kana grimaced. "Look at what it's doing to you!"

Rakka drew in a deep breath. "It doesn't matter… it doesn't matter at all. I understand. You see I was once Sin Bound."

Hikari and Kana gasped. "Y-you?" they both said.

"When?!" Kana barked in almost an angry tone. "I never saw you with the black feathers!"

Rakka smiled and shook her head. "Reki helped me through it… she knew of a medicine to clean my wings of the marks… and then I finally was cured when I remembered my dream… So I am not afraid of this, the sins of another… I shall share them and help her, for I know that sins can be forgiven. I know that I will not be harmed for they are not my sins." She returned her hand to the 'face' of the unseen person.

"And I will guide you," she told the spirit.

A closet door swung open in the hotel room. "If she was awake, she'd think we were monsters," Ptolemy joked as he and Hipp stepped out. It was a sizable suite. There was a separate bedroom adjoining it to one side.

"Looks like that would be the place to check," the doctor said as he started for the room but was held back by Ptolemy.

"Hang on a moment," the scientist said as he took out his badge. "There's someone else here."

Hipp looked about. "There is?" he asked. "Not someone from the portal, ea?"

Ptolemy looked back at the closet. "No, but it might be a cousin…"

He stepped slowly towards the room and placed his foot firmly against the partly open door. He jumped in and held the badge out.

A woman was sprawled across the bed, her hair tangled about and a spilled glass of scotch in her hand. A pill bottle was also scattered over the mattress. Looming over her though were two dark figures, only slightly humanoid in shape, their arms slid along the ground and they had what looked like one lone red eye in the middle of their 'heads'.

"Angels of Adam," Ptolemy grunted, the badge in his hand flashing off them. They shuddered and stepped back. "See what you can do for her, Hipp."

The doctor looked at the two creatures Ptolemy was holding back and shook his head. "Those things always unnerve me… Ghastly things…"

"Hey, when the Grim Reaper can't be there, she sends her assistants," Ptolemy said as he took a position between the two phantoms and the bed. "Besides, they're necessary. They initiate the launching of the soul."

"You do know this could be the worst thing to do," the doctor said as he started to work on the woman. "She's a celebrity you know…"

Ptolemy glanced at the young woman. "I know Dante would say it didn't matter which way she'd go, and in her current situation, I would say she was heading straight for the basement…" He held his badge out further sending the two shadows back. "Personally, celebrity or not, if I can get someone to the attic, I'd rather do that, wouldn't you?"

Hipp smiled and shook his head. "The basement is not going to like this!"

"Bully for the basement!" Ptolemy snorted.

Koi saw the woman smile as she began to lift away from them. Rakka felt the hand swing away from her and the 'face' left the touch of her hand.

"Bye," she said as she watched the sky for any movement. "Safe journey!"

Kana brought her attention from the vacant sky back to her friend's wings. The black spots fluttered about for a moment then vanished. She breathed a sigh of relief.

The two apparitions in the room with Ptolemy and Hipp saw that this one was lost and vanished. The scientist returned his badge to his pocket and pulled out a handkerchief to pick up the room's phone.

"Front desk?" he said in an odd voice created by a small box he put over the covered mouthpiece. "Medical emergency in room 2026 – Medical emergency in room 2026… send the doctor here now." He then hung up and tapped Hipp on the shoulder.

"We're done here," he said. They left the moaning woman to be cared for by local physicians. After opening the apartment's door a little for easier access by those coming to her aid, they departed via the closet portal.

Janice stepped out of the portal and gasped for air. She looked for a place to lean against as she heaved. She looked at the section of Abandoned Factory she had come out of and shook her head. Why was it that they sent Haibane there? It looked dangerous!

She fumbled with the keys her husband had loaned her to open the main gate. A shadow moved over them. She looked up and saw a familiar face looking down at her from the top of the steps.

"Katherine, what are you doing here?" she asked.

"Probably the same thing that you're here for, Janice," the angel replied. "I'm here to investigate the resent event with the near death experience of Charlotte Bovey. But why are you here and not your husband?"

Janice smacked a spot where Jester had splattered a minor fireball on her. "As Director of the Travel and Targeting Systems, it is my duty to see that visits like hers are limited as much as possible… to that, it means I must get a residual reading on what brought her spirit here in the first place."

Katherine nodded then smiled. "Are you sure that's all, and it's not just that you wish to speak to Rakka again?"

Janice smiled and adjusted her bag over her shoulder. "That too," she admitted. "That too indeed."

The two women started out towards the gate.

"What did you do to Charley B?!"

Ptolemy looked up from his desk at the Information Chief. "Charley B?"

"You know," Rhea barked at the old man, "Charley B! The country singer who had that Near Death thingy about six months ago! She just released her latest CD… She's found religion!"

"Has she now?" Plato asked as he looked around the corner from his own office. "Heavily?"

Rhea blew a snort of air and tossed a CD case at him. He fumbled with it and looked closely at the cover.

"Charlotte Bovey – Twenty-Five Gospel Classics – featuring her new smash hits 'Saved by an Angel' and 'I Will Guide You'…" Plato said. "This is bad?"

Rhea gritted her teeth. "Charley B was a country BAD girl, not a goody-goody!"

"Well, after what she went through, don't you think that this is for the good of her soul?" Ptolemy asked. He got a face full of Rhea for that remark.

"Look mister," she steamed, "I work close enough to that guy in the attic on a DAILY basis… I don't need to hear one of my favorite singers SING about him all day as well!" She stormed into Plato's office, snatched the CD and thundered back down the hall to her office, slamming the door behind her.

"Me thinks the Information Officer needs a vacation," Plato noted as he stood in the hallway between the offices. "Did you hear that Sun Tzu reported in on where that tabloid found that picture they ran?"

Ptolemy looked at him. "No, I haven't. Where did they find it?"

Plato snorted. "They 'acquired' the photo from a web site of school photos of dead children."

"That sounds about right," Ptolemy said with a touch of disgust in his voice. "And it just so happen to be Rakka's predecessor, right?"

Plato held his hand up. "Oh, it gets better," he said. "The editor was told of this web site and THAT photo by a possessed employee."

Ptolemy sat up. "Possessed? By a demon?"

Plato nodded. "And the web site…"

Ptolemy sat back again. "Let me guess… owned by Gabrella, right?"

Plato snapped his fingers. "Bingo, the lady demon herself, Chief of Communications for the Council of Demons. Boy, you're good!"

"Just have to know my demons…" he said as he placed his hands behind his head and leaned back in his chair. "Next time I'm in the portal I'll have to tell her how much I enjoyed the photo."

"You do that," his boss said as he dropped a folder on his desk. "We need you to go to Tripoli and get readings on the injectors there now."

Ptolemy dropped his head on his desk.

Koi sat back and examined the documents that forced him to come to Abandoned Factory nearly a half a year ago. He did not like it there – the boys seemed too rough for his liking even with his athletic build, and the girls would squeal over him since they seemed to have deemed him cute… girls!

At least he could talk with Midori – she was one of those who had saved him in the tunnel. And her boyfriend Hyohko seemed a decent lot… though he was sure he saw some resentment when he'd be chatting with Midori alone.

Still, there was only a few more days left before he could return. He was there with the other new guy from Old Home who was not a fan of his given name since it meant Abandoned Well. He simply went by the nickname BW.

He missed the girls. Kana, Hikari, Nemu, even the twins, if you could call them that since one was a Little Feather and the other was a near-teen New Feather. They had been kept in seclusion for the most part, so he had not become accustomed to their presence as much, but still. Kana would show up from time to time to get petrol and oil for her scooter and rib them for becoming 'outsiders' – another name for those at Abandoned Factory, since there were so few enclosed areas there.

Rakka would stop by on her way to her job. She had taken it upon herself to examine some of the other sections of the canal under the walls around Glie, having seen the condition of the section between the western falls and the southern slues. With the permission of the Old Communicator, she was giving the Renmei detailed reports of any structural work needed as the cleaning process on the saint's tags continued. He was glad to see her – she was the one he missed the most. He could not get out of his mind how she had dealt with the wayward spirit, the kindness she invoked, and the strength of her presence when she was nearby.

He would speak to her when he would return, he was sure of it. He wanted nothing more than long, thoughtful discussions with this exceptional person.

Katherine stood on the top branch of a tree having lighted there a few hours prior. She looked at the boy who mournfully waited the day that he could return to his 'home' and sighed. Her duty was to replace the memory to this Haibane she had removed when he had been rescued from the tunnels. But she had to wait, much as he did, for his complete recovery from the concussion he had suffered. Extracting the memory had actually helped in the healing, but putting it back while still recovering would have been dangerous if done too early. She pondered the orders she had been given those months prior.

"Then I suggest that you return that memory to him," her superior had told her. "It would seem he might be just what we were looking for. Do you not agree?"

"Possibly," she told herself. "He is indeed strong… and he did shake-off the sin bonding as Rakka did… he was able to see the spirit when no one else could… but will he be able to see a demon if one arises here in Glie?"

She spread her wings and launched into the bright sky.

oOo

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A tip of the hat to the story "Falling" by Black Waltz 0

Edit and Remastered 1106.11

Edited 1804.25

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