Haibane Renmei: C O R P O R A T I O N

by ArkNorth

Chapter Sixteen - Circumstances Beyond Their Control - How can a child not want to meet their father they never knew? Puruu seeks to find him. Rakka must deal with someone stuck where they can't seem to get out of. Nemu must face her new reality. Kinza must deal with the results of what he committed to.

5. Jester

2011 REVISION

HAIBANE-RENMEI: CORPORATION

Chapter Five

Jester

By R. A. Stott

Originally Published 11/26/04

Original FFN #2088681

Incident Report 8747E-29A.

"How the hell did he get in there?!" Plato thundered.

"System readings are off the board!" Janice yelped as the small green dot scampered across the map of Tripoli.

The sun burned down on the semi-arid soil as Ptolemy wiped his brow of sweat and some dirt. "Damn if I know… he was here when I arrived," he told his boss over his cell phone. He looked over at the girl who was with him. She was mussed up as well, with her shawl a bit lopsided and her dark hair and skin covered in dust as were her halo and wings. She grunted and shook her head but still managed to smile a bit. She was still trying to right a stand of fabrics that had been toppled on her.

"Are you okay Sol?" the scientist asked. She nodded yes then gave him a panicked look and pointed.

"Look! Look! There he goes!" she shouted.

Ptolemy spun about just as he saw the leaping feet of the imp he knew oh so well from the corridor that joined his world to these Holy Sites. Two Community Watch members saw them as well. They leapt at the fleeing pair only to smash into one another and send another table in the shopping bazaar tumbling.

"JESTER!" the scientist bellowed as merchants and customers ran about trying to either avoid the commotion or become part of it as they would also attempt to catch the wily little demon. Two near misses and a needer-needer later, the small dark green imp had darted down a grill in the sandy cobble-stone street.

Ptolemy quickly rummaged through his jacket that he had over his arm and pulled a large map out. Handing one edge to Sol, he traced where that particular storm grate emptied.

"If this is the Renmei Temple," Sol asked, "what is this down here?"

Ptolemy looked at where she was pointing and keyed his phone again. "Which way is he going honey?" he asked his wife.

"Um… south," she replied.

Ptolemy held his breath and looked at the large brown eyes of Sol.

"The slues gates," he answered the Haibane. "Come on…"

Jester found the dry tunnel an easy escape route. He chattered and giggled to himself as he scurried along toward the sound of running water.

"He's picked up speed," Janice told her husband as they passed the old fort that Sol called home. The rickety old car squeaked and rattled as they left a cloud of dust behind themselves causing the young feathers alongside the dirt road to dive for cover or hack from the flying soot.

"Sorry!" Sol shouted from the passenger window as the old coupe barreled along. "Please Mr. Ptolemy!" she then yelped to the driver as she was bounced about in her seat. "You'll kill us both!" She grasped at her halo and held on tight.

"This Ford Cortina was built as a rally racer – she'll hold up!" the scientist said as he concentrated on the road. "I will NOT let that imp get the best of me!"

"If you say so, Mr. Ptolemy!" his passenger squeaked. "But if you don't slow down, we'll be seeing Allah before HE DOES!"

The car leapt over a hill and landed on two wheels briefly before planting the other two properly a few more yards down the dirt path they were flying over. "He's not looking for the attic," Ptolemy snorted as he continued to floor the accelerator.

The car left the path and started into the dunes of sand that made up the southern most section of Tripoli. Everything there was a bleached yellow-white, including the walls to the Holy Site, which were now looming before them.

"Get ready," he yelled as they approached a small concrete building that seemed stuck deep in one of the dunes. He tore up to the structure, locking the wheels and making the loose sand spread away as if in thick waves. Sol peeled herself off the dash and watched the normally placid man she knew jump out of the car and run up to the metal door. She then heard him curse and swear, another trait she was not used to hearing from him. She saw that he was shaking his hands and looking at the entrance.

"Blasted door is red hot!" he said as he went back to the car for his jacket. He used it as an oven mitt to unlock and slide the door aside. He reached inside the doorway and pulled a handle which popped a hatch on the opposite side of the bunker. Sand poured into the now open hatchway to a service tunnel. It only took a moment for them to both be scrambling down the dark corridor.

"Where is he now?" he asked his wife on his phone as he waited for Sol to don her protective garb at the dressing station.

"Not far," she replied. "As a matter of fact, it almost looks as if he's waiting for you."

"He's doing what?!" was all Sol heard as she slipped the robe over her head. When she looked through the collar, Ptolemy was already heading down the tunnel towards a maintenance hatch.

He slammed the handle to the last door and started sliding it to one side. It stopped half way much to his anger.

There was a giggling chatter from behind the half-opened door, which was just too narrow for him to slip through. When he looked around it, he found the green menace howling at him. Jester was prancing and dancing around, occasionally pointing and laughing at him. Ptolemy gritted his teeth and snarled at the imp as he lunged and snagged his tail. Jester screamed and hollered as if mortally wounded. But it was Ptolemy who took the brunt of the demon's wrath as the tail was barbed and it hooked quite deeply into his hand.

"Blasted little runt!" he spat through the pain. "When I get my hands on you…"

Sol managed to get her head and arm through the door while bending over the prostrate scientist and saw that the door had been blocked by a stick. She managed to yank it out and slide the hatch wide.

Jester saw this and twisted about, causing Ptolemy to roll across Sol's feet. The Haibane lost her balance and fell over him.

Ptolemy heard laughter as he attempted to clear his vision from out of Sol's robe. He looked at his hand and found only the tip of the demon's tail there. It had detached from the rest of it as if he were a lizard. He pounded it in the dusty floor and looked over at the landing at the bouncing creature.

Jester was cackling and doing a silly dance mooning him with the stump that was left of his tail. He stuck his thumb in his mouth and acted as if he were blowing into it. The missing section of his tail replaced itself with a new piece, making a popping sound as it did.

"You just wait until I see your sister again!" Ptolemy growled as he and Sol attempted to untangle themselves.

Jester held his head in mock-concern. He then spun about and skipped down the steps to the edge of the water in the canal.

"That's holy water! You can't touch that!" Claudius yelled much to Sol's surprise. He actually sounded worried. She looked over at the demon and saw that he was down by the bottom step. He was reaching out to stick the tip of his toe into it.

The water sizzled making Jester actually leap up a few steps in pain. He grabbed his foot and jumped up and down a few times until he noticed that Ptolemy was behind him at the top of the stairs.

"I told you," he said to him. "Now get back up here!"

Jester looked about in a panic. The slues gates were across the water from them, roughly twenty feet or so away, but the flow kept him at bay. He looked back and saw the scientist and Haibane as they started coming down towards him.

Three steps back, a quick run up and a leap forwards, and Jester was now clinging to the grills of Slues Gate Number Two.

"Get BACK HERE!" Ptolemy bellowed, which echoed back and forth between the openings of the waterways and the canal. Jester thumbed his nose at him and started to swing back and forth between Gates Two and Three using the little vine streamers that hung from the cavern's ceiling. Before either of the chasers could move, he had swung on a long one and slipped through the grill of Number One Slues.

"Perfect, just perfect," Ptolemy grumbled as he pulled the phone out and keyed up the side buttons. "He's down Slues One on the old Delaware and Thames line."

"Is he heading for Philadelphia or London?" Plato replied as the scientist leaned hard over the edge of the landing to see what he could down the slues. Sol held onto his belt to keep him from falling in.

"I can't tell – the split in the flow is too far down the pipe to see." Ptolemy stood upright again. "Best we can do is post guards at all exits along the lines out this set of slues."

Plato looked at a map of where the water was being sent off through the conduits and sighed. "There's no time," he said. "If he makes it to the Beijing Backwash, he'll be impossible to follow."

Janice threw the scanners to exterior view. The green beacon resumed through a series of lines that were quickly breaking apart into branches and arms, many of whom showed exit points.

What the scanner did not show was that Jester was still swinging over the water on vines that were dangling from the ceiling. The small side tunnels had few of these natural ropes, so the main line was the only escape for him. He followed it for another few yards when he came to a pipe leading up. He grabbed hold of a ladder that was embedded in its wall and quickly climbed up.

"Movement on manhole cover TREN784-BEA," Janice reported. "He's coming up in Trenton!"

---

A boy stood in the middle of the street next to the State Capitol Building. He looked to one side and saw a hot dog vendor. His eyes watered and he began to drool. He jumped off the iron sewer cover he was on and made a bee-line for the polished sliver cart.

He came to a screeching halt when he saw two men wearing odd sunglasses and black suits look around the stand at him. The first one, a short man, had a hot dog in one hand and was tapping on an earpiece with his other. The other man, who was very tall, was opening his jacket. Jester saw the flash of a handle to something and knew this was not your average human scum having a lunch break.

"That was quick," the one tapping his ear said as his partner drew a large chrome-metallic gun.

"Let's bag him," the man with the gun said.

Jester reverted to his normal appearance and darted back for the cover as a beam of energy scattered across the asphalt just ahead of him.

"Carl! Don't discharge your gun in public!" he heard the man with the hot dog yell at his partner. "Use the capture setting!"

Jester spun about and looked back at the men as they closed in on him just as an energy web fell over him. He struggled to remove it, but it seemed to have anchored itself into the street.

He looked down and saw the manhole cover under his feet. He grinned and waved bye-bye to the two men as he poured himself down the lift-hole he had come out of in the first place.

"He's back in the slues system," Janice said as the green spot reappeared on her screen. "He seems confused – he's not moving… or he's circling for some reason…"

The demon swung about on a lone vine. There were few dangling about now, as there was little sunlight to grow them except around the Trenton manhole he just escaped down. A metallic scraping sound up the main tunnel caught his attention, as did clanking from above him as the two men up there were starting to open the cover.

Jester created a small fireball and held it out in the direction the flow was going. He saw that the water split just ahead. Two large tunnels went in either direction dividing the flow evenly. But he also saw something that made him chuckle with glee. The left tunnel had a walkway beside it.

He started to make the vine swing. Harder, further, until he released the strand and he tossed himself towards the tunnel. He unfortunately over-swung and smacked hard against the ceiling of the tube. He managed to claw into the stones and hang on. He shook off the blow and brought his feet up. Planting them against the stones, he targeted the walkway and squirreled up his nerves. With all his strength he launched himself at the brick path.

He woke up as a stinging jolt ran through his body as his left leg was dangling off the walkway allowing his foot to touch the water below. He leapt up and grabbed his foot again. After a few brief demonic swears and a glance back to see small rocks and debris dropping into the water from the manhole opening he had just escaped down, he turned and gimped into the dark passage.

---

Ptolemy had opened the slues gate and found the small service boat that was tied up near the landing. He looked up at Sol, who had helped him lower the boat down into the water and smiled.

"I'm sorry dear," he said to her, "but this is as far as you may go."

She nodded. "I understand," she told him. "Are you going to be all right? You seem to be sweating badly."

He wiped his brow. "Just the combination of being hot, being down here in these cool tunnels and a bit of overexertion," he smirked and patted her on the shoulder. "When I get going, get the Community Watch to close this behind me, okay?"

"Okay," she said as he stepped into the boat while pulling out his phone.

I hit him like a ton of bricks – his vision pitched and his head thumped and pounded. He looked at his hand and saw the gash left by Jester's tail – it was red and raw – It felt as if it were ready to blow up and explode. He tried to look back at Sol but the attempt only made him sway further. His eyes rolled up into his head and he crumpled to the bottom of the boat. The force of his collapse sent the boat away from the landing and into the open slues. His phone was tossed high and shattered against the stony wall over the open gate.

"Mr. Ptolemy!" Sol's cry echoed. She looked about in a panic. She knew she was the only person down there with him. She knew… she was the only person who could help him!

She looked at the water and drew in a deep breath. She then dove in, stroking hard for the boat. She managed to get to it quickly, but now had to figure how to get inside it. The robes she was wearing were not helping much. She looked back at the landing which was quickly moving away and saw two Community Watch members as they entered the canal.

"Help! Help me!" she screamed to them. "Mr. Ptolemy is ill! I need help!"

The watch members stood and stared back at her as she tried to wrench herself on board the boat. She stopped and glared back.

"What are you WAITING FOR?!" she now shouted to them. When she opened her eyes again, she was shocked to see one of the Watchmen pulling on the chains that closed the Slues Gate!

"NO! NO! COME DOWN HERE AND HELP ME! DON'T CLOSE THE GATE! PLEASE HELP US!" she pleaded. But the iron grills continued to slide and grind in their mounts until they seated shut with a resounding thud.

"I don't believe it!" she whispered to herself as she managed to finally swing herself over the edge of the boat without tipping it over. She looked at where she was and where she was going and swallowed.

Out… she was going out… not over the wall, but under… she was going where no Haibane had gone before – at least, not as a Haibane…

"Merciful Allah…" she whispered to herself. She then remembered Ptolemy and bent down to examine him.

He had fallen over and broken one of the wooden seats in the boat. He was out cold and non-responsive. She felt his forehead and found he was running a fever. She looked at his lightly-wrapped hand and checked on the wound. It was red and throbbing as she held it. But as she did, some of the water she was dripping off her robe splattered off the gash and made it sizzle.

"The sacred water, of course," she said to herself. She slipped him as close to the side of the boat as possible and gently placed his hand into the flow. The water bubbled and boiled from the wound, and she saw that it was uncomfortable for the old man. She raised the hand up and found that it was doing it good, so she put it back in and watched.

The tunnel was getting darker, and she could hear something ahead – a commotion she thought.

"He's long gone, Carl! Come on, let's report in!" she heard.

"Hello?" she called out. "Hello, is there someone up there?"

"What the hell was that?" she heard back. She found the boat coming around a bend in the tunnel to a shaft of light from above. She looked around for something to paddle the boat towards it but found that the oars had not been taken aboard when Ptolemy had collapsed. She attempted to drag her hand on the walls, but the brick it had been constructed of seemed designed specifically to not grab things. And the flow of the water was not helping any. She then remembered the broken seat and started to wrench the long piece free. When it finally came loose, she nearly fell backwards out of the boat. She had nearly made it to the light, so she started to paddle hard.

"Carl, would you get the hell up here?" she heard.

"HEY!" she shouted.

"I did hear something," she heard the other voice say. She then heard clinking, as if someone was tapping on metal with a hard surface. As she neared the light, she could see movement.

"Help us!" Sol cried. "Professor Ptolemy is hurt!"

Now the light was flashing as whoever it was now was scrambling to get to her. "Geeze, Ptolemy?!" he yelped. "Call for backup!"

She suddenly saw a shoe lower through the light as the tall man came down the embedded ladder along the wall of the tunnel. But the flow was still keeping her on the other side and she flayed furiously with her makeshift oar.

The man turned and looked at the boat and its occupants. "Oh man, it's one of those winged people from Tripoli!" he exclaimed.

"Help us!" she cried again, this time holding the plank oar out to see if the man could snag it as they passed. He saw what she was trying to do and stretched as far as he could.

There was a nail in the plank, and it caught his hand.

"OW!" he shouted. He fell into the water. The plank went with him.

"Oh, merciful Allah!" Sol chirped as she moved around the prone body in her boat to see where the man had gone.

A gruff hand caught Carl's collar and hauled him back up to the ladder as the boat continued on. His partner had him by the scruff of his neck as he held his wounded hand.

"Damn!" he swore as he looked over the cut. "What the hell are they doing in the slues tunnel? You think they were after that demon?"

His partner shook his head as he hauled his wet comrade to the nearest rung to grab hold of. He lit up a cigarette once he could let go of him safely. "Don't know, but we'd better send word ahead… either of those main tunnels head for a re-blessing station for the water…"

Carl shook his head. "Yea, but remember what's after that on the Glie Aquifer over there? It takes a two hundred foot drop just after the station…"

"Crap, the Temple Waterfall, I forgot!" the short man said tossing the cigarette aside. "Come on, we've got to report in!"

Without a paddle or oar, Sol found she was now only along for the ride. The tunnel was getting too dark to see where she was heading, but she knew that the left tunnel was the one they took, as the splash the man had made when he fell in forced them that way. There was a walkway along side them, but she did not want to leave Ptolemy since there was nothing to stop or hold the boat if she had jumped out.

More light ahead - She checked on the condition of Ptolemy's hand and found it healed. She checked on his temperature – he still was showing signs of a fever. She sat down and sighed. The lights were playing about them as the boat moved on.

They moved into a short dark section where the walkway ended, after which another light from above brought a startling surprise to her – another rider in the boat.

"YOU!" she shouted at the imp. "Just look at what you've done!"

"Me?" he said in a high-pitched yet scratchy voice. "Me just run away… no me know what me do… done… humm?"

"What you did?" Sol now harped at him. "What you DID?! What you did was come to a place you weren't supposed to come to, that's all!"

Jester twisted his head like a confused puppy. "Why?" he asked.

Sol sat back. This demon was acting like he really did not understand. "Jester," she said as she settled down, "you are not supposed to be in Tripoli. It is not a place that you should be."

"Tripoli? We in Tripoli not!" he smiled. "Me Tripoli not in so angry me not you be!"

She held her hands to her face. You could not argue with that logic – they certainly were not in Tripoli any longer. Where exactly they were was a mystery to her as well!

"Look, Jester… you're not supposed to be here either…" she repeated, hoping that if she said it enough that the demon would understand, "wherever here happens to be right now that is…"

"Why not me demon?" he retorted. "Why not demon? Angel allowed in forbidden sites, me why not?"

Sol shook her head. "I'm not an angel, I'm a Haibane!" she pointed out to the imp.

Jester shook his palm at her. "Speak you not I of," he tumbled over his words. "Glie have angel, so Jester in Tripoli do I!" He pounded his chest and snorted.

"Glie?" Sol asked. "This is Tripoli… what's a Glie?"

Jester rubbed his chin. "Ah, Glie… place nice… hear you not of Glie?"

Sol shook her head.

"Oh, sister to Tripoli, Glie is indeed," Jester said as he laid back and rested his feet on Ptolemy's head, to which Sol lifted them off and dropped them to the floor of the boat. "Think you did that Haibane only land in Tripoli?" He rolled about in the bow howling.

Sol sat back. There were other places than Tripoli that had Haibane? She had never heard of such a thing… she had always thought that her home was the lone place of the earthbound angels… But since the wall of her community prevented any news of the outside world to come in, it was highly possible. Sol looked about and drew her shawl in. She shivered at the thought that she was now outside her wall… heading…

"We are heading for this Glie?" she asked the demon.

Jester jumped up and spun about. He leapt up on the bow of the boat and leaned out as far as he could go. He stuck his nose in the air and sniffed like a dog seeking a scent.

"Indeed, indeed," he cheerfully replied. "Glie and all parts west! All aboard! Meet angel we will!"

Sol looked up from her wrapped up position. "Angel… why is there an angel in this Glie place?"

Jester spat. "She's a sss-saint!" he hissed. "A sss-SAINT! FREED! FREED! A SAINT FREEEEED!" He started to jump and bounce in the bow of the boat nearly making it capsize. He acted as if his head were afire, slapping it as if to put it out.

Sol grabbed the sides of the boat to steady it. "STOP THAT!" she shouted, which echoed back and forth through the tunnels. To her surprise, Jester did just that, staring at her with big fearful eyes as if scolded by someone bigger and meaner than he was. She huffed and scowled at him. She glanced down on the man strewn across the floor. "So just what did you do to him?" she asked in an accusing tone.

"Me say before, to him do not," the demon whimpered. "The blood of Jester no kill… the tail of Jester sharp and thorny, but no kill… Old man sick on own he is indeed…"

This confused Sol. "But his hand," she said lifting the now healed appendage. "The holy water healed the scar inflicted in his hand."

"Oh cursed water," Jester growled as he feigned scratching at its surface. "Yes, yes… tail cut on man fixed by cursed water… water dissolves Jester and his marks. But Jester marks no kill old man."

"There's no poison in your tail?" she asked. "No venom?"

Jester shook his head. "Is old man dying?" he then asked.

Sol sat back and swallowed. She did not know. It was a possibility, if Jester's cut was not the cause of Ptolemy's affliction. The strain of the chase may have caused something else – possibly a heart attack or heat stroke, or something… whatever it was, immediate attention was needed. She looked at the demon and found him crying.

"Why are you crying?" she asked.

"Old man can not die…" he whimpered. "Please say old man will not die…"

---

Rakka had finished her four month examination of the canals and had sent along her information to the Renmei. She was now back working on the tags near the Temple. She was an extra few hundred yards further upstream than normal, cleaning some of the tags closer to the falls and the feed coming down from the northern slues opening to the canal she had seen a week before. Now she had seen openings out from either end of Glie. It gave her things to think about while tending to the metal plaques.

"Rakkaaaa! Rakkaaaa!"

She only just heard the yelling over the din of the water as it cascaded into the tunnel from the falls near the Temple above. She looked and saw a man in protective robes far down the pathway that ran alongside it waving to her.

"Who is that?" she wondered as she waved back and collected her light leaf containers. She then headed down to him.

"Mr. English?" she asked. She remembered the face of the man she had met at the Scar's Village when Bakuu had her day of flight, the common man of Glie sent to the village as punishment for saying 'Washi is Washi' to the Old Communicator. "What are you doing down here?"

"Working with you, I guess," he said as he scratched the back of his head. "And please, just call me Tom."

Rakka looked at him confused. "Working with me? Really?"

Tom smirked and looked behind himself. Rakka peered around him and saw four other people there looking at her in awe. "Looks like you've got a crew now," he said.

She noticed that they seemed to be staring at her halo and she grimaced. "Are they all from the Scar's Village?" she asked in a whisper to Tom. "Are they all…"

Tom turned her aside and walked her a few feet away from the others. "…Defrocked Haibane, yes," he quietly told her, "and there are more. The whole village is buzzing about what you do down here. There are quite a few of them who would love to come down here and help out. And when your report to the Haibane-Renmei came out about the conditions in some parts of the canal area were deteriorating, the Communicator gave us permission to assist with the work… under your supervision of course."

Rakka looked at him as if he had just grown a second head. "Really? Why wasn't I told of this?"

Tom shrugged. "The Communicator was going to tell you about it, but he was called away just as we were heading down here just now. He did send those two Community Watch members along to keep an eye on things." He pointed down the canal towards a raft in midstream with a pair of the bandaged and gagged men that roamed Glie and kept the peace.

Assistance was well needed. She had estimated that there was nearly sixty miles of canal walls to cover, so help of any kind was of course going to be accepted. It was just… Scars?

She shook her head and slapped her face. She was being foolish… they were Haibane as well, just wingless ones… and without haloes… and those scars…

"Please Miss Rakka," she heard. She looked back and saw a woman with drawn-in eyes and ratty red hair hanging out from under her hood. "We just want to help the saints… they're our only hope…" A man behind the woman placed his hand on her shoulder and nodded in agreement.

Rakka smiled and stepped up to her. "Of course you may. I can use all the help I can get down here. May I ask your name?"

Rakka noticed the Community Watch. They seemed uneasy that she was talking to the Scars, let alone asking their names. She scowled at them, and found that they actually settled down. The woman looked back as well then at the ground.

"We… we are not supposed to… talk or say our names…" she said.

Rakka removed her gauntlet and placed her hand on the woman's arm and smiled. "Don't be foolish," she told her. "I want to know. What am I suppose to do, say 'HEY YOU!' every time I want to talk to you? Please, tell me - what's your name?"

The woman blushed. She reached up and took hold of the man's hand on her shoulder. "My name is Toki… and this is Chip," she replied quietly.

Rakka grinned then looked at the woman with a little confusion. "Toki? Isn't that your Haibane name?" she asked in a whisper.

The man laughed slightly. "She didn't like the idea of finding a new name," he said as he reached over and pecked her on the cheek much to Rakka's surprise. They did look almost like husband and wife… she wondered if they could do that in the Scar's Village.

"My name is Cinder, Ma'am," the small girl behind them said.

"I'm Joshua," the lanky boy beside her reported. Rakka noticed that all four were carrying buckets and tools. She slipped her glove back on and stepped into the middle of the group.

"Cinder, Joshua, Toki, Chip, Tom, welcome to the Canal of the Saints," she told them with a slight bow to each. "I thank you for coming and helping me with my duties here. Now, let's see what they sent you down here with."

She examined the buckets. Each had some cleaning solution, a small brush for delicate work, a big bristle brush for that heavy contamination, and a few rags. There were no tools for collecting light leaf shards.

"The Communicator said only you were allowed to do that," Tom said. "He said something about you being the only one able to tell when they were ready for removal."

Rakka nodded. "Okay, if that's the case, I'd better also show you all how to clean the tags without ruining the leaves before I can harvest them."

---

Plato sat in his chair just staring out a window. Janice sat across from him in stunned silence. The report from Trenton was a bit odd, if hard to confirm, since the field agents were still attempting to report in from the location they had seen the demon. All that was known was that a boat containing the unconscious body of Professor Ptolemy and a Haibane, which they were assuming was Sol from Tripoli, was seen heading down the Glie Aquifer – the condition of either were unknown.

Agents were beings scrambled by Sun Tzu along the sections they could monitor. There was a part nearing the transition zone to Glie that was not accessible to their scanners. Getting the agents there in time was being a problem as well. The closest were the two in Trenton that reported already, and the Aquifer did not follow a direct path that streets could follow. Plus since it was heading for a major city, it dipped lower to avoid all the subterranean pipes, chutes, cables and subways beneath it, not to mention a sizable river beside it. It had been decided that they would attempt a rescue at the final entrance near West Chester. After that, any further attempt would have to be made in Glie, something they would rather not do, as they had never had a transfer of a Haibane between the Holy Sites before.

Plato looked over at a laptop computer on the corner of his desk. The initial target they were after, Jester the demon, was still reporting on the screen, and still advancing down the slues. They had no idea that he also was with the other two, only that he would probably make it to the next Holy Site because of this new emergency.

"Seven jewels in a necklace," Plato mumbled to himself.

"Huh?" Janice asked awakening from her stupor.

He shook his head. "I'm just remembering how the Holy Sites were described to me the first time. Seven jewels in a necklace - Tripoli as its center - Glie and Lucerne to its sides – Kanto, Reykjavik by and by – Sydney and Delhi bring up the ends – all to heed by mortal men…"

Janice numbly nodded. "It doesn't rhyme," she said in an almost monotone.

Plato wanted to say something, but this had not happened in so long to one of their own that he failed to know what to say. He tapped on an intercom and waited a reply.

"Communications, Dante here," it finally said.

"Dante, get me Gabrella," Plato grumbled. "I want to talk to her about her brother."

---

Jester had been nearly uncontrollable with grief. Sol finally had to gather the small demon up and cuddle him in her shawl just to settle him down.

"Shhh, shhh…" she whispered as she rocked slowly. "He will be all right. As soon as we get to this Glie you mentioned, we will get him help, I'm sure of it."

"But it was Jester…" the demon cried, "dumb, stupid, no think Jester who sick make old man!" He began to hammer his head against the edge of the boat, making Sol have to yank him up to stop him.

"Jester! Stop that!" she scolded him. "You'll hurt yourself!"

"Jester deserve hurt self he does!" the imp said with dizzy eyes. "Me no want hurt old man! Friend of Jester he is!"

Sol snickered at the thought. "You toss fireballs at him as he enters Tripoli," she laughed. "Some friend."

Jester placed his head between his knees. "Is game – play… you see?"

"I guess," she said as she held the demon. He seemed to settle down. "Why do you play these 'games' with him then?"

Jester shrugged. "Show other demons, me afraid of human not… is game… is only game…"

As they continued to drift, and as they passed small side tributaries, odd sounds would drift down them into the catacombs they were now traversing. There were children playing in one, machinery in another, a thumping and banging from yet another, and in one, what sounded like an explosion and cries.

"What are these sounds?" Sol asked herself, cringing when they seemed to get violent.

"The outside," Jester said. "Tunnels go outside many places, many times, different locations… stick to main tunnel… Go to Glie… safe in Glie is it… No get involved in human world. We not go into angry noise. We Glie go…"

"Well, if you insist," Sol said as some of the noises were getting a bit raucous coming from the small side entrances – it was as if they were passing through the tubes of a pipe organ, and someone was holding down the keys.

The main tunnel they were moving through was still without any landings or exits to be seen, and they had not seen any tubes leading up to the surface in some time. Little light was now visible as they continued on.

---

Janice sat down at her control bench, dazed and confused. The green spot she knew as Jester was moving along at a regular pace, still on the main line for Glie. He was now under the river that ran alongside the city that he would traverse next.

"Is that him?" she heard. She looked at the doorway and saw Rhea escorting a woman in. She had deep red skin, long black curly hair and golden cat-slit eyes. On her back were a pair of leathery dark wings, and she had a forked tail that jingled from a banded bracelet that swung from its end. As for what she was wearing, it was hardly office attire.

"Gabrella," Janice blankly noted as the Demon-Goddess stepped in and looked over her shoulder.

"I understand there's an emergency with your husband," Gabrella said as she drew a sharp fingernail over the monitor screen following the green spot through the river. "I'm sorry to hear that. Ptolemy is a good and fair man… for a human that is."

Rhea held her breath as she looked down at Janice. She was staring at the finger pointing at her screen.

Janice sighed. "Well, if it wasn't for your brother…" she started.

Gabrella stood upright and folded her wings over her bare shoulders. "Yes, even we are confused on how he got into Tripoli. It is quite embarrassing. And believe me he wouldn't want to harm your husband. He's quite fond of him."

"Really," Rhea said sarcastically.

Gabrella turned towards her and smirked. "Please, pardon the pun, but don't demonized us just because we are demons… we do have feelings just like you. Besides, he's probably with him right now."

Rhea and Janice looked up at the demon in shocked surprise. "What?" they chorused.

Gabrella pointed at the screen again. "You may want to consult with Virgil, Mrs. Ptolemy," she said with a slight chuckle. "That's a tunnel full of holy water is it not?"

Janice gasped and flew into the console's controls. The schematics of the construction started popping up on the screen. The tunnel was indeed smooth, with no signs of any place to walk alongside the aquifer. The only place the small demon could have been would be on something floating on the water – like a boat!

Janice was about to pick up the phone when she saw the clawed finger point at something in the path of the green spot. "What is this?" Gabrella asked, noting a double red line in the conduit's line.

"The Tacony-Palmyra Fault!" Janice called out as she moved the schematic to that location.

"An earthquake fault on the east coast of the United States?" Rhea asked in confusion.

Janice nodded. "Faults are everywhere, Rhea… and this one is active! About twenty years ago it had a minor tremor, but it was enough to drop one side of the tunnel a few feet."

Gabrella leaned into the screen. "Which side?" she asked.

Janice examined the screen as well. "The Trenton side… why?"

Gabrella stood up again. "You'd better check the water levels there then. If it dropped on the other side, the tunnel would have a small waterfall."

"But if it dropped on the Trenton side?" Rhea asked.

Gabrella grumbled. "Simple physics… water levels to itself… the ceiling of the tunnel would come down close to them. If they get into that section just past the break, the roof would be so low that it may submerge the boat."

---

In the boat, a sound they could hear was getting them a bit anxious. Jester held his palm up and lit a small green fireball lighting their way.

Just as he did, they saw the edge of the ceiling suddenly drop nearly three or four feet ahead. Sol and Jester dove for the bottom of the boat as they rushed by the entrance. The bow of the boat scraped momentarily along the stones as the water pushed them along.

"What was that all about?!" Sol yelped. She had little time to find out as the boat started to bang hard against the roof and sides. The pressure of the water was forcing them further into this part of the tunnel, but the ceiling was continuing to get lower and lower.

Now the boat was sliding against the ceiling and water was getting up closer to the edge of the side rails. Some splattered in causing Jester to dart about to avoid being splashed.

"Get in here!" Sol yelled to him as she opened her robes up. Jester looked at her and the garb she wore for a moment. A splash of water got him running into it as more followed behind. She closed it over him and held the neck shut to keep the water out.

The speed was increasing as the flow pounded against the flat stern of the craft, which scared Sol and the demon as the boat was pressed harder along. Sol felt Jester wrap himself and his tail around her and shiver in fear as they thumped and bounced along the tunnel roof. The boat then slammed to a halt, or at least felt that way, as it caught a stone along the ceiling. She felt water begin to come over the back and in with them.

The tip of the bow gave way, and the boat suddenly shot out of the tunnel. Sol screamed as she suddenly could see that they were in the clear, but also OVER the water – they had been spat out of a tube and into a reservoir area. She rolled onto her back and readied for a hard hit.

The boat smacked the water and skidded along the churning frothy area where the tunnel had emptied them out. She looked up from her position and saw that the cavernous area they were now in was illuminated by a lone light bulb. When she looked about, she found that the ceiling was curved and that it led to a single exit. What caught her attention there was that someone had managed to write in the stones over the tunnel entrance two statements – the first was 'Welcome to Bridesburg - Port Richmond' – the second was 'Kilroy was here' and was accompanied by a strange image of a domed shaped man with a big nose looking over a wall.

---

The green spot continued along on the screen much to the relief of those watching. It had settled in what the map was calling the 'Lardner's Point Relief' and was now heading into the city proper through the exit tube.

"Wow!" Rhea noted. "He really moved there for a minute!"

Gabrella laughed. "Just like a spit-ball out a straw!" she snickered.

"Eew, that's gross!" Rhea grimaced. "Are we sure they made it though?"

"They had to have," the Demon-Goddess said. "Jester's still showing, and knowing him, he's close to whoever he's with in that boat."

---

Sol was trying to see if Ptolemy was still with them – he had slammed into the bottom of the boat again when it landed. But the clinging demon would not let her move easily.

"Jester, allow me to BREATHE!" she exclaimed.

"Over is it?" he whimpered.

"Yes, you may let go of me."

"You soft… me stay right here…"

Sol stood up, which made the boat rock a bit. "Do I have to jump into the water to get you to let go?" she asked. Her robes suddenly came alive as Jester quickly unwrapped himself from her legs and dropped out from under it.

He looked about at the water in the bottom of the boat and cringed. The entire craft was wet.

The entire craft… Now that he thought about it, the inside of her robes were wet as well. He reached down with his toe and stuck it into the pooled water and waited for the pain.

Nothing – not even a sizzle.

He slapped his foot down in the water - Still nothing. He broke into a mad dance in the water, splashing Sol and Ptolemy as he gleefully announced "Water not holy! Water not holy!"

He was then slammed against the tunnel wall as a pipe disgorged itself across the back of the boat. Sol scrambled to the side to see where he had gone and lifted the limp mess back on board.

---

"This will not be an easy section," Virgil noted as he had now joined the ladies in the control center. "The flow has to pass under Philly here then get raised up here."

"So what's down there?" Plato asked as he entered the room and glared at Gabrella.

Virgil pointed at a series of lines that ran along the tube at an angle. "These are the backwash pipes from Tokyo, Seoul and Denver. The added water is used to power the turbines of our generator station down there which run this on the other side of Philly, the lifts system that brings the water back up to normal level on the other side."

"Just before the West Chester service center," Janice finished. "We are sending some of our off-duty PECO people there now to see if they can beat them there. Sun's people won't get there in time, so I scrambled some of them instead."

Plato patted her on the shoulder. "Fine," he told her. "Do what you must." He looked back towards the demon who had been leaning against the back wall but found her missing.

"I guess she didn't want to speak to you," Rhea noted as she too saw the vacancy.

---

"Oooh, headbanger," Jester grumbled as he groggily sat up and shook off the water. "Yuck…"

Sol smiled and sat in the bow of the boat with Ptolemy's head in her lap as she checked him over again. "You're welcome," she told him.

Jester mumbled and fiddled with his fingers. "Err, yes, indeed…" he said. "Me thank Haibane for removing me from water… yuck… safe it might be, but me no like wet…" He then shook like a dog, spraying the back of the boat. Seeing that it failed to remove every drop, he then fired up his internal fire of green flames and flared it over his body.

The boat bounced as the flames subsided. Jester looked at it and grinned.

"Motorboat! Motorboat!" he giggled. He sat down on the back seat and leaned over the rear and fired off his flames out of the palm of his hands, giving the boat some control finally as he moved them side to side.

Sol saw the use of this and nodded – as long as the demon kept it under control it was safe enough if he did that.

A clanking sound behind her caught her attention. She looked back and saw they were heading for a section that was lit by a series of old decrepit lights and went around a corner. She leaned a bit to see if the path was clear and caught sight of nothing… the water vanished, and the lights and ceiling angled down.

"Merciful Allah!" she shrieked as she now could see that the water was flowing over an angled falls.

Jester looked ahead and saw the drop as well. He shot his flames to the left and the boat spun about so that he was now leading the way. He placed both hands over the side and fired off his flames to slow them down but found the flow too great. He held it just enough to see what they were about to drop down into.

The clanking they heard was a blade that would rise out of the flow of the water and drop back down as it rotated – it would appear every few seconds. It was rounded and old, and obviously made of metal.

"Father Beelzebub!" he yelped as they tipped down into the flow. The drop was curved, not straight, so beyond the impeller could not be seen, though the lights continued along the ceiling.

"Look! Steps!" Sol yelled. Jester glanced back to see her pointing at the side of the drop. About six feet above them was a series of stairs leading to a doorway. "A service hatch!"

They were slipping over into the drop as Jester tried to push them towards the side. The blade seemed to not stretch the entire length of the tunnel, so moving to that side was a good idea anyway. He also saw that the stairs had a landing that lead down to the rotating mechanism. He raised his flames and shot a stream to the left.

They slowly bounced along the wall and neared the stairs. But then the blade broke the surface of the water again and sent a back-wave up the flow sending them to the far side of the cavern.

"We've got to get to those stairs!" Sol called out.

"Me trying!" Jester yelled back as he strained to hold their position. The blade rose again, this time bouncing them towards the middle of the flow. He quickly shot a blast to the left to assist the move to the right. The boat smacked the wall nearly sending Sol and Ptolemy overboard. They were on the right side now. All they needed to do was gently make it to the last step on the landing.

The blade came up again. This time, it was Jester who nearly fell out as he attempted to compensate for the back-wave. The boat lurched forwards and hit the stairs. The flow of the water started to pull the bow around and away from it. Sol screamed as she saw that the blade would slice them in two.

Jester fired all he could to get control of the boat again. He brought the aft about and steadied it so that he would face the blade again. He looked at the stairs, now drifting further away, and sighed. There was no way he would be able to get them back up to it. He sent out a blast of flame that nudged them back ever so slightly, but that was as far as he got. The blade rose again, and he allowed the boat to thunk up against it as it spun. It dipped away, and the boat cleared it on its way down the sloping hill.

He shook his stinging fingers and looked at the tunnel ahead. He glanced back at his passengers. Sol still had Ptolemy's head in her lap. But the look on her face caught him. She showed obvious worry, concern for the old man, but no panic. But her expression to him, a lowly demon, was that of someone depending on him to pull them out of all this somehow.

Somehow…

He turned to see that they were now bounding backwards down the slope over more impellers which did not break the surface, but still churned up the water in a froth of foam where the blades came close to the surface. He resumed his thrust of flames to direct them between the heavier ones.

The drop seemed to go on for miles, and probably did seeing how far under the city they were descending. It took nearly an hour of falling before they finally reached another flat reservoir that was dimly lit and dripping.

"Yuck! Holy water this becomes?" he snapped. "Me not scared of stuff more no!" He dunked his hands in and made them sizzle, but this time because they were hot from the exertion.

Sol reached over and gave the demon a hug, much to his surprise. "Thank you," she told him.

He made a simple grin and chuckled to himself then realized what was going on as she let him go and sat back down. "Yuck!" he griped. "Sappy no need! Me demon not lover! Blaa!"

The boat slowly spun about in the water giving the occupants a chance to see where they were. On one end of the cavern was where the water flowed in. On the other were more machines that seemed to be lifting large square buckets of water up out of this reservoir. In the center was a large stone pillar that seemed to be the lone support for the ceiling of this huge room. A catwalk ran around it just off the waterline.

"Let's check that out," Sol said. "Maybe there's a door on it."

Jester fired off a small ball of flame and sent them towards the pillar. A door appeared around the side facing the bucket lifting operation. They came alongside a landing. Jester grabbed the rusty grilled metal plate and Sol climbed up to check the door.

She rattled the handle. She tapped on it and looked through the grimy little window and saw very little.

"It's locked," she said in dejection.

"Locked?!" Jester laughed. "Just who they expect here come? Let me try…"

Sol got back into the boat as Jester looked over the situation. He scampered up the stones and glared in the window. He examined the metal and tapped on it lightly and listened. He then jumped up on the railing of the catwalk and brought to bear his flame as hard as he could bring it.

The door shuddered and groaned. The hinges melted and it swayed. It fell over with a resounding crash. But it smacked the railing sending Jester out into the water.

"Water don't melt no more me!" Jester cheered as he splashed about. "But I melt door, ea?!"

He looked at the boat. It was away from the catwalk a bit as Sol had let go when the door started to fall over. But the look on her face told him something was wrong. He dog-paddled over and saw a skeletal hand on the catwalk followed by the body directly behind it. As he got closer, he could see that there were quite a few more – the doorway seemed packed with them, many in tattered old clothes.

"Ah, American Revolutionary War…" he said as he saw the uniforms. "Many joined us, indeed…"

"They fought between themselves?" Sol asked.

Jester gave her an incredulous look. "These are humans, girl! War natural between them. Same it is always… Man fight or not be man. It was fight by man that Tripoli and Glie were created it was! YEOWP!"

The sudden yell by the demon caught Sol off guard. She looked over where he had been just in time to see his hand vanish under the water.

Below, Jester struggled to get back to the surface. Behind him was a pipe that was taking in water, thus causing a heavy undertow. He flayed and stroked as hard as he could, and managed to break free to the flow towards the tube, but found himself caught in another current.

He broke surface a few yards away from the boat. Sol was looking around and saw where he was now.

"Jester! The buckets!" she yelled.

He looked behind himself and saw the large metal scoops lifting water up a conveyor and gurgled. He had little strength left to avoid it.

Sol reached down and hand-paddled the boat for all she was worth. She grabbed for the demon's hand just as he was about to get pulled under again. She dragged the waterlogged creature aboard and dropped him beside Ptolemy as the boat swung around the side of the bucket machinery. Jester spat, coughed and heaved.

Sol looked back at the pillar. There was no way she was going through those skeletons. She looked at the buckets and figured it was the only other way out. Fortunately, they seemed just large enough for the boat. But a large frothy burst would churn up the water as they would turn over under water and release their pockets of air. She slid the boat next to the mechanism and waited for the next burst.

The water bubbled and she hauled them into the next bucket to rise up. It swayed a bit, sliding the boat backwards as it settled into the scoop. The one above them was giving them quite a shower as it rocked on its way up, but they were at least getting out of there.

---

Virgil sat down with a thud. "How did they manage to do that?" he asked. A folder was dropped before him by his boss.

"I suggest you read this then," Plato noted as he opened the dossier. "If that's Sol with them, then they stand a good chance getting out of there alive. She is one smart Haibane."

"Do not underestimate my brother," Gabrella's voice resonated through the room. Dante shook his head as he continued to work the phones between the attic and the basement.

---

Rakka stood back and watched the crew work on this new section of wall. Tags for yards were gleaming and bright, something even she would never have been able to do in a week's hard work. She filled an extra six light leaf tubes in the short amount of time it had taken with the added assistance of the villagers. It had been Toki who noted that "We may never see our day of flight, but it would honor us if we can do something to help another's attempt."

She saw that even the stoic Community Watchers seemed impressed by the work being done. She had rarely seen them converse between themselves before, even if it was with their hand language she had just began to understand. She nearly giggled as she saw the words 'speed', 'impressive' and 'excellent work' get flung around in a litany of gestures and hand-positions.

But they suddenly stopped. One dropped his cane he had stuck in his armpit to hand-sign. The other fell to his knees and began to pray.

Toki heard the clatter of the rod and looked about. She gasped when she saw someone coming down the path from upstream.

Rakka spun about. The person was in the robes needed to be down in these catacombs so it was hard to discern who it was at first. But why were the two Watchers awestruck so?

The glow coming from the tags caught the stranger, illuminating her face. Rakka smiled and ran up to her.

"Katherine! Katherine! What are you down here for?" she cried as she took the hand offered her by the angel.

"Bakuu," Toki said making the others gasp at the sight of the woman they had witnessed being released from her wall prison nearly six months prior.

Katherine stared at the glowing tag. "So, this is what it looks like," she whispered aloud. "Our powers trapped in these… plates… an eternity caught in these stones… I am humbled by your presence here."

Rakka blushed and smiled. She found herself being embraced by the angel.

"I am here for another reason," Katherine told her as they stood there. "It is good to see that you have help here as we may need them as well."

Toki and Chip stepped up. "What is it, Bakuu? Anything for you…"

Katherine smiled as she released Rakka. She looked at the two Watchers and gestured to them in their hand-words. Rakka blinked as she studied her movements.

"Follow us as well?" she asked Katherine. "Where are we going?"

Katherine looked at the Haibane in surprise. "You've learned the language of the Toga?"

Rakka grinned. "The Communicator has been teaching me," she said with a proud smile. "So, where are we going?"

Katherine took the girl's hand and led her and her group back up the path she had just come down. "We have an emergency that we will need you and your group for. Professor Ptolemy has taken ill…"

Rakka stopped in her tracks and gasped. "Mr. Ptolemy? Where? When?"

Katherine retook the hand she had lost when Rakka had stopped. "Come! Come! I will tell you as we go! We must hurry!"

The group found that the ceiling started to climb higher and higher as they continued up the path. Soon the path itself changed to large flat steps that rose away from the water as they approached where the descending water split between the canal and the river that flowed down towards Old Home. The roar of the main falls began to dominate the cavern. Plants and vines started streaming down the walls covering the few plates and tags along this section of the tunnel.

"What was he doing in a boat upstream from here?" Rakka asked when told that the old man had been on the water feeding the falls.

Katherine hesitated for a moment. She glanced back at the Scars following a few yards back. She continued on with a slightly quicker pace. "He was attempting to apprehend an imp that had escaped into this world," she said.

"Oh, Jester?" Rakka asked in an almost excited voice. Katherine looked down at her with surprise.

"You know of Jester?" she asked.

Rakka nodded. "The Professor talked about him all the time," she noted. "He's always trying to steal something from him."

Katherine huffed. "Well this time, he seems to have been able to sneak in with some work crews." She glanced at the young lady beside her expecting the next question and wondering just how to answer it.

"But what was he doing up there?" Rakka asked. "Just what is up there?" she added as they reached the base of the falls directly beside the Temple of the Renmei. High above them the rope bridge creaked gently from the breeze generated by the flowing water.

The angel sighed. "Outside," she said. "Outside and the beyond." She looked down at the group that had gathered around her. "We only need wait. I will be informed if we are needed, as rescue efforts are currently underway."

Rakka reluctantly stood back not wanting to press her questions on the angel. Her heart, once gleeful over the new help she was receiving below, now sank fearing for her friend's welfare.

Then something struck her – something she remembered saying to her friends less than a year before when they were saving Koi…

"First… we must agree to never tell anyone about these… exits in the wall…" Rakka had told Kana, Midori and herself as they sat before the southern exit slues gates from Glie.

"What?" Kana had barked. "Not tell anyone? Why?"

Midori nodded. "I understand… you don't want another Reki, right?"

Rakka sighed. "It's for the best. I understand why some would want to fly over the walls, but if they knew there was a way under it…"

Kana finally got it and sighed as well. "You've got a point… least the temptation…"

"Right," Rakka agreed.

She glanced back at the five people who had followed her there. If knowledge that there was an exit out under the wall to the south was trouble, what would they do if they knew that there might be one where the water comes in at the Temple?

---

Hipp charged into the room with his medical kit, took a look at the map displayed on the board, traced the location of the boat to where they were going to attempt to intercept it and shook his head.

"Where is the crew that will be going in the West Chester station?" he asked Janice and Virgil.

The engineer looked over the paperwork and data before him. "Umm… here," he said pointing at a line of dots all converging to a point at the end of the route the canal followed.

The doctor grunted and set the travel portal for his special door in Glie's hospital. "They'll never make it," he said. He stopped for a moment and looked back at the map. "Did I hear correctly that there's a Haibane with him in the boat?"

Plato nodded. "Yes, we think Sol from Tripoli is with Ptolemy."

Hypocrites glared at him for a moment. He opened the closet beside his door and pulled out his burn kit.

"What's that for?" Rhea asked then caught herself. "Oh god, the wall!"

He nodded in agreement. "They're going over the wall where the water gets re-blessed. A Haibane will be torched by all that power, even if they're in their robes." He entered the portal and headed for Glie.

"Contact the Glie crew," Plato ordered. "And get our rescue crews to speed up and get to the West Chester sub-station now!"

Hipp adjusted his hat and took a step into the green void. A hand rested on his shoulder.

"Coming with me?" he asked the woman.

"Try and stop me," Gabrella noted with a smirk.

He looked back at the closed portal entrance. He then offered his arm to the Demon-Goddess. "You do know this is against the rules," he said as they started their way through.

"Hardly," she laughed. "The Holy Sites are supposed to be off limits to those you say come from the 'attic' as well, yet I hear there is an angel there right now."

"A released saint," the doctor corrected her.

"That shouldn't matter," she scoffed. "Even those earthbound angels there are supposed to depart when their time is due. Just because they look like angels does not mean they stay that way."

"That is the purpose of the sites," he said. "But we are not supposed to interfere with that either."

Gabrella burst out laughing. "What nonsense! It's supposed to be equal there – neither side is supposed to get involved so that those who are supposed to go to heaven go to heaven, and those who go to hell GO TO HELL… ahem…" She cleared her throat a moment and continued. "But even there we are unequal."

"How so?" Hipp inquired.

"The Scar's Village, the canal of holy water, the guidance of the Haibane-Renmei," she listed off. "They're all set against us in the underworld. Where is our representation?"

The doctor stopped and looked at her. "What do you want us to do, install an Idolatry shrine in the Holy Sites?"

She gave him a disgusted look. "Don't patronize me," she spat. "Things are not equal and you know it… though that would be a start…"

He took her by the arm again and continued to lead her through the zone. "Do me a favor – before we get there, could you change into something less… fearful?"

She looked down on herself. "What?" she asked incredulously at first then winked at the human. "I wouldn't blend in?"

Hipp rolled his eyes. "Hardly," he moaned. When he looked back, he found that she had hidden her leathery wings and the dress that was almost not there with a rather cartoonish looking nurse's outfit. The green atmosphere hid whether she had changed her skin color or eye shade, though she had at least bundled up her black curly locks into a swirl on the back of her head.

"How's this sweetie?" she cooed to him. He shook his head and kept going.

Koi sat on the gurney in the Glie Hospital waiting his follow-up examination by the doctors for his concussion he had suffered when he had arrived. He had felt fine, but they were insistent that he have it checked on every month or so. So there he sat – waiting… and waiting… he had missed a day's worth of work at the local newspaper because of the delay. He sighed.A doorbell chimed. The nurse at the station outside the room that he was sitting in stood up and snapped to attention.

"That's weird," he said to himself. Just then, the handle of a door he had thought was a closet started to jimmy about. The door swung wide and the nurse seemed to stiffen.

"Wait, wait!" he heard. "Let me do this…"

A leg extended out of the doorway - A long - slender – red skinned woman's leg with a brilliant white high-heel shoe at its tip slid out. It planted itself on the tiled floor with a loud clack. The nurse nearly fainted. An orderly suddenly had a severe nose bleed and ran away.

"I didn't think demons were allowed in Glie," Koi said blandly.

Gabrella stuck her head around the corner and glared at him. "Oh, it's just you," she said as she saw the Haibane sitting there. "What has the talk of the Demonic Council sitting here in the hospital in Glie?" she asked him as Hypocrites forced his way around the Demon-Goddess.

"Examination of my concussion," Koi replied seemingly unimpressed by the sultry appearance of the woman.

"Oh really?" she sarcastically asked back. "And they do that by checking your feet?" She had noticed that the boy was sitting there in bare feet.

Hipp was not in the mood to dilly dally. He picked up the boy's foot and ran the rounded point of his rubber hammer up it. "Here, do you feel that?" he asked.

Koi hardly could hold in the chilling shock it had been – that hammer felt as if it had been in an ice box! He grimaced a nod yes.

"Good!" the doctor said. "Put your shoes on and go home!" He then grabbed Gabrella's arm and dragged her along. "We don't have time to waste!" he barked as they left the room.

---

Jester groggily sat up and looked at the Haibane as she cupped water that had spilled in with them over the side as they continued to rise up the lift system. He rubbed the spot where his head had smacked the bottom of the boat and winced.

"Why you save Jester?" he asked as he pushed a large lump back into his skull.

Sol smiled and laughed at him. "You are not what I imagined a jinn to be like," she giggled. She looked at the stones as they passed along. They had been traveling up this lift for nearly an hour by that point and the top still seemed far off.

The water must have leveled off in the bucket above them as the shower it had been giving them had stopped. The beat-up lights that had been following the center of the cavern trundled by, some buzzing and a few were blown out. Jester leaned over the side and looked up to see if he could see where the top was.

"YAA!" he shouted. He saw that the bucket only four or five ahead of them had swung over a dark precipice and vanished. The rumble of the machinery had masked out the dumping sound it should have made, or something else had.

"GRAB SIDES! GRAB SIDES!" he shouted as he hung himself over Ptolemy's legs and grabbed the boat.

Sol looked at him in confusion but did as she had been told. It was then that they finally started to hear the transition and held their breaths for it.

The bucket suddenly lurched and changed directions. The boat rocked back and forth slapping the sides of the trough. They looked out and found that they no longer rising, but were now rolling along on a flat conveyor section. And now they could see the end, as the buckets were dropping away ahead of them. They were obviously dumping their loads, but they still could not hear them doing so.

"This good not," Jester grumbled. "This good not indeed."

It then dawned on them just why they could not hear the water dumping out of the buckets – The release point was nearly ten feet over the water in this upper reservoir, which now appeared through the tunnel's opening. Both huddled low over Ptolemy's body as they were flung out. The boat spun and flipped twice, smacking the water hard, but fortunately still upright.

"They made the West Chester Slues," Virgil noted. "Rescue teams are now entering the complex.

"Can they make it to the aquifer in time?" Plato asked his engineer.

"Uhhh," Sol said as she looked up. She felt dizzy and a bit sick from the flinging. The little demon was still straddling the boat with a death-grip on its sides. He opened one eye and peeked about.

"Survive did we?" he asked. Sol nodded and then leaned over the side.

"Ooh… water not holy no more," Jester kidded her. She glared at him.

This upper reservoir was constructed much like the one they had left earlier – a central pillar ran up and supported the large curved ceiling high above. Jester shook the water off his hands and returned to being their motor. He directed them towards the catwalk that surrounded the bottom of the shaft and found the doorway.

"This dumb… this dumb flat out," he grumbled. The metal door this time had no handle. "Well, me open," he said as he jumped out and readied to blast it with his flame.

Sol had not seen him get out as she was having a case of dry heaves. When she looked up she found she was nearly twenty yards away from the catwalk and rapidly being dragged away.

"Hey! Jester! JESTER!" she shouted. Her voice echoed about the domed cavern.

Jester looked back. "Hey, where you go? What out there you doing?"

"Jester!" she cried. She looked over her shoulder and saw that the boat was heading for the exit tunnel, and the sound coming from it did not sound inviting.

"Me come!" he shouted and ran around the catwalk once to gain speed. He leapt off and fired his flames behind himself to add to his boost.

His ear twitched. What was that sound behind him?

He looked back and saw the door swing open and a man in a hardhat come out.

"Hey! Hey! HEY!" he yelped at the man as his flame played off the stone above him thrusting the demon away. But the distraction also made Jester overcompensate, and he overshot the boat, dunking himself into the water across its bow. Sol felt a thunk, and when she looked over the side, she found that the boat had run Jester over. She reached over and dragged him once again into it.

"Hey! Miss Sol!" the man on the catwalk yelled out to them. "Miss Sol, are you alright?!" A second and third man came out of the doorway.

"Hey!" she yelled back. "Help us! Help!"

"We'd better hurry," the second man said as he unbundled a rope he was carrying. "They're about to hit the barrier."

The third man took the rope handed him and began to twirl it about his head in an attempt to give it some momentum. The catwalk did not give him much room to work, but he still managed to toss it out high and long. The end snapped out, and it looked as if his aim was true and would hit the back of the boat. But as Sol reached up to snag the line, it struck something unseen above her. There was now something between the boat and the men on the platform – a shield of some sort as she watched the rope slide off of it and into the water.

"No! No! NOO!" she cried.

As the men watched helplessly, they could see her wings under her robes flick.

"Oh god," the first man said. "That Haibane is toast!" as the boat was drawn into the exit slues.

Jester groggily sat up and spat out some water. He looked over his shoulder at the bright tunnel they were heading into.

"We go out," he said dizzily. "Glie we come!"

On the map in the control center, the small green spot flickered and vanished as it entered the area marked 'transition zone'.

Sol turned away from their hopeful rescuers and looked ahead of them. The tunnel was indeed bright. It bathed the boat in a pure white that made her hopeful that they were not about to get themselves into more trouble.

"This is Glie?" she asked the demon. He was now upright again, and bouncing a bit in the bow of the boat.

"Glie! Glie! Yes! Yes!" he chortled. "We go Glie now!" He looked back at his boat-mate with a grin, which quickly turned into a look of shock. "Hey, why smoke you?"

Sol held her forehead. She was hot - Hotter than any day in the deserts of Tripoli. Why? Why was she burning up so?

She slumped over, the heat building in her body. Her back ached, and she felt rustling across her feathers.

"Yi yi yi! You burn!" Jester yelped and looked about. He reached down into the water to splash her and found his hand sizzling again.

"Holy water!" he yelped at the pain. "Yi yi yi!"

Sol was smoldering heavily now. The demon looked about in a panic trying to find something that would help her.

"Use the water in the boat," he heard. He looked down at the old man.

Ptolemy's eye only showed open a slit. "The water here in the boat hasn't been fully blessed," he whispered. "Pour it on her Jester. Pour it on her, please!"

The demon looked at the gathered water in the center of the boat and touched it with his fingers. It stung a bit, but it certainly was not as bad as that flowing by the side of them. He cupped his thin bony fingers together and reluctantly immersed them in the pooled fluid.

It hurt. It was not like plunging them directly into the Holy Water, but it stung. He lost the first handful as he shook his throbbing hands. He looked at the girl as he blew on his fingers. He remembered how she looked at him as they were running down that slope before – the look she gave him – of a person trusting in him to pull them through all this… No one had ever trusted a lowly demon like that before…

He scooped up the water and quickly dropped it across her back. It steamed and sizzled much like his hands had when he had dunked them in the Holy Water. He repeated the process as many times as he could, even with his hands getting raw from the exertion.

The water quickly ran out in the boat. He looked overboard at the stuff beside them. His hands were almost numb with what he had been tossing on her already, so he figured that it would not matter now how much it stung now. He reached down and began quickly tossing the Holy Water across her body. "Must save friend! Must save friend!" he repeated to himself as he continued to douse her as his fingers continued to blister.

He was now at a frenzied pace. He was spraying water everywhere as he rapidly attempted quell her heat. He came to an abrupt halt when a hand gently touched his shoulder. He looked at Sol and saw her smiling at him, drenched but no longer steaming.

"You better?" he asked seeing two scorch marks on her back in the form of wings.

She nodded, but never managed to say a word as the boat tipped over the edge of the falls.

"There!" Rakka yelled as she saw the boat come over the drop. Katherine exploded out of her robes, wings and halo springing forth as she ascended the falls.

"OOF!" Rakka heard beside her, and then was blasted by a second gust of wind. She turned and found Doctor Hipp sitting on the ground looking a bit unkempt.

"What is THAT?!" Toki yelped. Rakka looked back up the falls and saw that Katherine had been joined by another winged creature, but this one seemed less than holy.

Jester was first out of the boat as it tumbled. Sol was then ejected. Ptolemy seemed hung up with the descending craft, but finally separated as if a rag doll in a torrent of wind. Katherine caught him, then caught Sol's robe by the collar. She nearly lost her as the robe started to tear, when she seemed to be lifted up by another set of hands

"YOU!" she yelled seeing Gabrella holding an arm of the limp Haibane. Jester was clinging to his sister's neck with what little was left of his hands. She glared at him.

"You've been playing in the Holy Water again, haven't you?" she growled.

Jester sheepishly grinned. "Haibane, me save Haibane," he said.

"That's still to be determined," his sister said as they floated down. Below them were the waiting members of Rakka's crew and the two Town Watch members, who now had their staffs up ready to pounce. Hipp was gesturing for them to step back.

"Oh, where is it?" the doctor grumbled as he patted down his pockets. He finally drew out his wallet and displayed his badge to the two Watchers. They drew back only slightly, but they did heed the symbol of authority.

Rakka scampered about a bit as she tried to find the right spot to assist the two winged women and their burdens. She had not noticed just how close the boat had smashed to the ground nearby - she just wanted to see Ptolemy's condition. She found Chip and Tom standing over her assisting with the nearly dead-weight removal of the scientist from Katherine's shoulder.

"Damn, look at those scorch marks," Hipp said, catching Rakka's attention momentarily. She was surprised that he seemed more worried about the person with Ptolemy than he was with his friend. It was then she finally noticed the halo, and the fact that this person was wearing the same type robes as she and her team was. "Put her down over here, Kat," the doctor told the angel.

"Sol," she heard. She looked over at Ptolemy and saw he was barely looking over at what the doctor was doing. He looked up at her.

"Rakka," he whispered. "Hello dear… Ah, we made it through…"

Rakka knelt down beside the old man and took his hand and smiled. "You're safe, if that's what you mean." She looked at the red woman, and the strange looking green creature hanging from her shoulder that seemed to be pulling fingers out of his hands. The woman had bent down and taken Ptolemy's other hand.

"Hey Gabrella," he smiled, much to Katherine's dismay. "They allowed you in here then?"

The demon smiled. "I kicked my way in with Hipp," she joked.

Ptolemy coughed a laugh. "Jester, you did a wonderful job, even if it was you that put us into that mess."

The imp grinned and scratched the back of his head.

Hipp took out a pair of scissors and cut the robe off the still smoldering Haibane. As the fabric parted along her back, a vapor of steam rose.

"Damn it… damn it… damn it…" the doctor grumbled as he opened the large white burn kit.

"How is she?" Ptolemy coughed. "Hipp, please…"

"Toast," was the cursory reply. "Her wings are toast… I'm attempting to preserve what's left… I'll see if I can regenerate them…"

Ptolemy dropped his hand. "She should have let me go… She should have stayed behind… oh Sol… I'm sorry…"

Rakka looked between the girl and the old man in confusion. "I don't understand… who is she Professor?"

"She is a Haibane," the deep booming voice of the Old Communicator said behind her. "She is a Haibane from the town upstream."

Rakka's eyes flew wide. She looked up at Katherine and then at the woman holding Ptolemy's hand, but found them both looking away as if they did not want to talk about it. The imp on the other hand just shrugged his shoulders and smiled.

The Communicator brought his staff down with a sharp click. "Angel, demon, I must now ask you two to depart," he commanded. The women looked back at the man in shock.

"Old man, are you nuts?" Gabrella smirked. She suddenly found the end of the Communicator's staff pointing close to her nose.

"You know the rules," he said. "Only one side can be here at a time. Even if one had been here before the other, if the other side should appear, both sides must depart. It keeps the balance and the order."

"That is so much bull," the Demon-Goddess spat. "They are here all the time!" she said gesturing towards Katherine. She stood quietly to one side allowing her alternate to vent herself. "Why should we be excluded?!"

"This is not an equal argument," the one-eyed man stated as he brought the end of his staff down again making a stone spark. "There are no demons buried in the walls of this town, so naturally they have the right to be here. And if your side had not attempted to infiltrate those in our care, we would not have had to start a flow of Holy Water to protect our charges."

"It is not an equal argument, Washi," Gabrella snarled. "The demon world is affected by this as well. Where is our representative?"

"You do have your door on the western wall," the Communicator stated, now pointing the head of his staff at her. "That's something that even Heaven does not have."

Gabrella growled and flung her arms and wings wide scattering some near her and making Jester hang on as she tossed him about. "THE SKY IS THEIR DOORWAY!" she shouted. "THEY DON'T NEED ANY SILLY DOOR IN THE WALL!"

The Old Communicator took one step towards her with the staff. Rakka could have sworn she saw it start to glow, though it was smoking slightly.

"I am not at liberty to argue what your own father agreed to, Gabrella of the Order of the Styx," he now rumbled through the mask on his face. "Please do not make me invoke this."

She stepped back. "Human, you do rank me," she cursed. "Very well… you will take care of Claudius, correct?"

Rakka sat back, shocked that the demon seemed worried over him. She also noticed that the doctor seemed busy only with this girl that had come with them.

"I'll get to him soon enough, Gabby," Hipp said, "but you know the rules, a Haibane gets my service first over any of us in the Corporation."

Rakka sat up clutching the hand in hers harder. "What?! No! Isn't there someone else that can help the Professor?"

Gabrella grunted. "I couldn't have brought anyone else what with all that equipment Hipp was carrying."

Rakka felt the hand squeeze hers and she looked down. Ptolemy was shaking his head.

"Penance child," he whispered. "This is our penance… it is our… job… to care for… the Hai…"

"Professor?" Rakka asked him. His hand had gone slack in hers. "Pops? POPS?! POPS!"

Hipp stared at her. He looked at the Communicator, who shot him a look and nodded. He leapt over to his friend's side and pounded on his chest.

"Where did you get that name?" he asked her as he did CPR in Ptolemy's chest.

Rakka was in uncontrollable tears. Toki had to gather her up and pull her away so that the doctor could do his work.

"Claudius?" Sol asked as she saw the commotion beside her. She reached out wanting to take the hand that was extended out towards hers. She found a smaller green hand in hers instead.

Sol rolled slightly and felt two hard plates on her back thunk off her. Her wings felt sore and achy. She looked up at Jester and found him crying.

"Are we in Glie?" she asked him.

"Glie," he whispered. "We in Glie are we…"

She turned his hand over and saw the blisters that were still there behind his new fingers. She started to cry herself. "I'm sorry Jester," she told him. "That must have been painful for you."

He smiled through his wet face. "Demons have hearts too," he told her. "Friends few, when find, we don't loose no like."

Sol smiled and wiped a tear from Jester's face. She then saw over his shoulder a woman in white robes and huge wings looking down at her.

"The angel," she gasped. "Please… don't be here for Mr. Ptolemy… please…"

Katherine shook her head and stepped back.

Jester felt two sharp taps on his shoulder. He looked back and saw Hipp still pounding on the old man's chest. "Hey you," Hipp asked him, "can you discharge electricity?"

Jester perked up. "Batteries we are!" the demon said proudly smacking his chest with his fist and coughing.

"Get over here!" the doctor said as he whipped out his shears and started to cut Ptolemy's shirt. He exposed his chest and pulled out some salve. He smeared some in two spots on the scientist.

"Put your fingers here and get ready to zap him," he told the demon.

Jester grinned and got a nasty look on his face as he began to power up.

"Jester," he heard and looked up at his sister. "Only one-third power."

"Ah… yes," he said and toned it down a bit.

"Okay," Hipp said as he cleared the body. "One – two…"

"WAIT!" Rakka yelled as she leapt over to Sol's side and held her back. She had almost grabbed the old man's hand.

"Hurt you try to get?" Jester scolded her.

Hipp took this moment to ready a needle of stimulant. He injected it into the scientist and stepped back. "Okay, again… All in one shot Jester," he told the demon. "One, two, NOW!"

Jester fired his energy into the man making him flinch. The doctor stepped down over the body again and placed his finger on Ptolemy's neck.

"Good… a pulse again," he said. "We must get him out of here and to the hospital as soon as possible."

"He does have a time limit here," the Communicator said. "How long had he been in Tripoli?"

"About three hours," Sol said. "Would the time in the waterway count as well?"

The Communicator shook his head. "No child. That time would have been in the outside world. You have made a remarkable journey, one we thought would have been impossible for one like you."

She smiled weakly but returned to staring at the man on the ground before them. He was breathing again at least. She looked at the demon that was standing over his head. The look on his face was different – sadness was crossing it. She had always been told that jinns were evil, demonic and always nasty. This one had been an imp at first, but he was a likable sort. She watched as a red woman behind him reached down and picked him up.

A red woman?

"Well, if it's time we should go, then let us do so," Gabrella said to her brother. She looked about and saw no sign of her rival. "Now just where did that angel go?"

The Communicator pointed up. "She is following my edict. Will you?"

Gabrella snorted. "I may return, you never know." She turned towards Hypocrites and blew him a kiss. "Nice date," she said with a wink and then launched herself skywards. Both she and her brother vanished in a teleport move.

Hipp shook his head as he opened up a folding stretcher he had pulled from his kit.

A commotion ran through the center of Glie that day. Four Scars and a banished man were coming to the hospital with Ptolemy and a new Haibane in distress. Joshua, Hipp, Tom and Chip were the stretcher-bearers, while the two Watchers carried Sol with their staffs under her legs and her arms over their shoulders. Cinder, Toki and Rakka carried the doctor's equipment. The procession was trailed by the Communicator. As they had passed the Hill of Winds, the group were joined by Midori and Hyohko, both of whom had been assisting the work crews on the Wind Farm generators with parts brought down from the Factory area.

The town had been alerted by Kana, who had been up in the clock tower working on greasing the gears. She had been taking a break out on the service walk and was using her old pair of binocular to see what was going on that day. When she spied Rakka in her robes heading for town she knew there was trouble – she came out of the tunnels in those only when there was any. Then she saw Ptolemy on the stretcher and she panicked. She ran into the clock works and pulled the manual bell ringer, making it chime repetitively.

"What fool set the bell ringing?!" the clock-master shouted as Kana raced by.

"I did you old crow!" she shouted back. "Rakka and a bunch of people are bringing old man Ptolemy into town on a stretcher!"

She was shocked to see that it was her boss out the door first.

Nemu and Hikari quickly had joined Kana as they all ran for the south of town. It had been lunch time, and they had seen their fellow Old Homer dashing by and out of instinct followed her. Many others soon followed as the exit south was quickly filled with town folk.

Koi straightened his collar as he departed the hospital. People were rushing by and he wondered why. He entered the alley to one side of the building knowing it was a short cut to the south end of town.

A woman stood before him. She had long flowing golden hair and the most incredible blue eyes he had ever seen. She seemed to be praying and showed an aura that made everything else vanish. He stopped and blinked.

"Err… do I know you?" he asked her. Something in his mind told him he should.

"You do, and you will again, Haibane Koi," she said as she stepped up to him. She placed her arms around his shoulders and kissed him.

Koi stood in shock at the sudden contact she had made. His mind felt alive and charged with energy. She broke the kiss and placed her head against his forehead.

"Remember," she said. "Remember all…"

Koi rocked backwards, his world swirling. He felt as if he were falling. He knew he was falling. He knew it would hurt when he landed, but this falling felt… good?

He woke up and the woman was gone. He was leaning against the side of the building in a cold sweat.

"Rakka," the old Communicator said as he stepped beside her on the path, "would you have your sisters and brothers at Old Home care for Sol?"

Rakka looked at him. "Is that her name? Of course sir, we would be happy to take care of her… but where does she come from? I still don't quite understand…"

He placed his hand on her shoulder. "In time, all will come clear to you child. In time."

"Put him down! Put him down!" the doctor called out. "He's going into full arrest again!" As they did, Hipp started in on the CPR again as the towns people began to arrive.

"Oh god, what's he doing?" Kana gasped as she skidded to a halt. Hipp looked over at her.

"Kana, go back to the hospital," he ordered between strokes. "Have them send the portable defibrillator, got that?"

She nearly looked at him cross-eyed. "The what?" she asked.

Hipp had no time for this. "The portable heart-shocker," he bellowed. "HURRY!"

"Umm," a man dressed in a hospital orderly's garb said as he stopped Kana, "I don't think that will work, sir," he said with a quiver in his voice. "It's not charged up…"

Hipp stopped and looked at the man. "It's not what?"

The man looked nervous and squirmed a bit. "Plugging it in caused a shortage of power to parts of the hospital, so the director said that it could be left unplugged…"

"Of all the incredible…" Hypocrites murmured. "Cinder, drop those things you're carrying and come here!" He pointed to where he was. "Put your legs beside Claudius just like that… good… now lock your fingers together and place them on his chest and do the following… one, two, PUSH! One, two PUSH! Got that?"

She started doing it, though not very hard. "Why am I doing this?" she asked.

"You're working for his heart," Hipp said as he nodded to the others to lift the body back up. "Push harder!" he added as they now started down the path in a trot. Kana grabbed the one side of the stretcher to steady it and was then joined by Midori. Hikari and Nemu grabbed the other, and soon others in the crowd were helping keep it from rocking as Cinder pounded away.

Koi staggered out from the alley and saw the onrushing people as they were heading for the hospital. He shook his head to clear the cobwebs and realized he was about to be trampled.

"Open the doors!" Hipp yelled ahead.

Koi swung the one door open as the orderly ran up and opened the second. "Gurney and crash cart STAT!" he yelled as the crowd flowed against the building like a wave. Hipp and the stretcher bearers entered first followed by the two Community Watchers with Sol. Rakka, Toki and Hyohko followed with the doctor's equipment. The Old Communicator was the last in. He turned to those behind him and raised his staff.

"News will be passed along when we have it," he told them. "Please be patient and wait out here." With that the doors swung shut.

---

Incident Report 8747E-29A-B.

Hypocrites' recommendations forthwith shall be invoked. The chairman of the hospital has been removed, and electrical systems are currently being upgraded. A system to deal with emergencies more efficiently are being looked over by the board.

The board recognizes and morns with the family of Claudius Ptolemy for the passing of their loved one. To the question, was he supposed to die, since his contract with the attic stated that he would not leave this world until his work was complete, Lawyers in Justinian's department can only surmise that the release of Bakuu of the Seventh Realm as reason for his departure.

- End.

---

Mabel rustled in her cage. Her usual cracker that she would attack when fed was being ignored. She would rattle her beak against the wires and caw.

"I guess she wants to get out," Plato noted as he saw Janice stand back from the flaying bird. He unlatched the door and opened it up. Mabel jumped onto the door-perch and looked at them with her black beady eyes.

Janice picked up a ribbon and medallion that the crow would wear on missions and placed it over her head. Mabel grabbed it with her beak and tossed the metal over her shoulder so it would be on her back. She jumped down and launched herself out the window in the roof of the room.

"It must be nice to be so free at times," Janice noted as the bird vanished over the edge of the windowsill. Plato only nodded.

"I still think it's strange," Rhea said as she looked over the Incident Report. "I could have sworn that the contract between Claudius and the attic was not until ALL the saints were free that he'd be allowed to… well, you know…"

"It's still in debate," Plato said as he sat down. "Damn lawyers – keeping us here for an eternity!"

Janice leaned against the wall and looked out the window. "I still wonder… I wonder about what Hipp said… about Rakka calling him 'Pops'… how did she remember that?"

"I take it that's what she used to call him when she was a child before she arrived in Glie?" Plato asked. Janice nodded.

"She used to call her grandfather Pop-Pop when she was very young," Janice said as she held back her emotions. "Her mother had to tell her that Claudius wasn't her grandfather when she started to call him that as well, so she would call him 'Mr. Pop' and then only Pops as she grew older. That would be when Claudius would take me up to their apartment to baby-sit of course…"

Dante burst into the room. He looked tired and worn, and his hair was all frazzled. He glanced about as if startled to see anyone was there. "Boss, we've got trouble!" he exclaimed as he breathlessly sat down and dropped his head on the console.

"What is it now?" Plato rumbled in an exacerbated tone. They really did not need more, the week had all ready been bad enough…

"Boss, the attic is all up in arms," Dante said while talking to the floor. "Ptolemy never arrived."

"What?!" the three others in the room yelled. Janice quickly sat down at her position at her controls and began bringing up her monitors.

"I can't believe he would have gone to the basement," Plato grunted. "You checked on that I would assume?"

Dante nodded as he raised his head. "As soon as they informed me that they had lost his signal I checked. The basement said they didn't have him either. It's as if he just… vanished…"

"Oh god…" Janice gasped.

Plato stood up and leaned over her shoulder. "What? What?"

She pointed to a reading some four hours earlier. A line rose out of Glie then stopped.

"Apogee Report, launch at zero, zero, zero, one, nine, two, zero, apogee," the automatic system said. "Return trajectory, zero, zero, zero, four, three, zero, one…"

"My god, he returned," Plato said quietly. "He returned to Glie…"

---

Kana saw the crow land on the wall across from her bedroom window. She did not feel like tossing a rock at it today, she only felt like crying. Hikari had been beside herself ever since the doctors had pronounced the old man deceased. Few at Old Home felt the need to get up the next day. Even the town itself seemed quiet and still as the mayor had decreed a day of mourning.

Rakka had been keeping busy, tending to needs around Old Home and taking care of their injured visitor. Mostly, it was in the form of joint weeping fits, Sol latching onto her Haibane sister and the both of them crying their eyes out repetitively. The foreigner's wings required constant work with the casts on them to help them heal. Rakka needed to open the clamp-like devices to add treatment balm to the burns every hour or so, and Sol was also suffering from the same type of fever that she herself had gone through when she mistakenly touched the wall unprotected. The medication she had used then did not seem to be as effective on their visitor. Nemu figured it was probably because the stock on hand was a bit old and had gone to the pharmacy in town to fetch a fresh prescription.

Sol refused to lay down most of the time, fever or not. She had found a rocking chair and a knitted shawl to wrap herself in. Hypocrites would be unable to see her for a few days since he had nearly gone over his time limit the day before, so she would be under the care of these sisters and brothers she had never known before yesterday. And then there was the little demon who had started this all… could she really blame him? He had tried to help their stricken friend as well. Confusion ran rampant through her mind.

"He found me you know," she told Rakka.

"Huh?" she asked.

Sol rocked back letting the wing clamps clap against each other as they swung between the rungs of the chair. "Mr. Ptolemy… he was the one who found my cocoon in Tripoli…" She swayed back and forth. "He was like a father to me I guess… if Haibane are allowed to have a father that is…"

Rakka sat on the edge of the guest bed. "I guess he was to many of us… I only met him about six months ago, but I felt I knew him all my life." She laid back and examined the ceiling. "Sol? What's Tripoli like?"

Sol looked at her then out the window at the bright spring day that greeted her. "It's nothing like this town," she said. "Tripoli is hot all year… there's little if any green like here. It's sandy and yellow all around, and the south is nothing but dunes. But the date and olive trees near the center of town are plentiful this time of year and the smell is sweet." She sighed.

"You miss it?"

Sol looked over at the girl on her bed. "I miss my friends the most… Nebo, Cicero, Abdullah, the Little Feathers…" She returned to looking out at the trees in the courtyard. "I do hope I see them again…"

---

Jester sat in the green void that he almost called home. He had been through many questions and near torments for information on just how he got out. Even Corporation Agents had visited him – a rare and dangerous situation, as they had the capability of bringing in Armageddon, a strange overseer who could make your day quite unpleasant. With him or her (he was not quite sure which) there, he had little choice but to explain in detail, or in the best his broken English could muster, how he had broken out of the zone. He had hidden in a lunchbox of one of the workers coming in to repair the power system in Tripoli. He was found out when the person found his lunch eaten, and something in his box burping in his face.

"It is unbecoming for a demon to mope," his sister had said, though he knew she was feeling hurt as well. She only visited this area on brief occasions before… and to have her sitting behind him like she had been for hours and contemplate the green like she had was… unusual… to say the least.

He had watched the daily exchange of Corporation humans to the Holy Sites with little want to torment or hassle them. In fact, some had been rather mean in his direction when they would see him as they passed.

The fun had been lost. He left the zone for other places. Maybe that dog-boy he had seen in the past in a lower dimension would be an adventure… at least there would be other demons there.

---

Koi contemplated all that had occurred the day before. The girl, Ptolemy, that GIRL, the new Haibane… THAT GIRL… It swirled in his aching head. What had she meant by 'remember'? Had he forgotten something? And why had she been so… powerful? If he was supposed to remember something, why could he not do so?

He meandered through the building, bouncing off walls and corners as he went. The only sounds he heard in Old Home that day was either the Young Feathers being their usual squealing selves, or crying of the elder residents. It felt odd to see the contrasts. Even the work being done on the building was silent, as the workers for the day shift were off. He wandered into the courtyard and found an Adirondack Chair to flop down in. He sat and listened to the breeze rustle the spring leaves as the morning moved along.

He heard something crack. He looked about. He did not see anything except a crow on the edge of the wall that surrounded the yard. Maybe it had stepped on a loose terracotta tile as it bounced across the ledge.

The bird cawed at him. He looked up at it again and saw a medallion around its neck – that was odd. It cawed again and gestured to its left. That was odd as well.

Then he saw it – a cracked tile that was raised up a little as one end slipped a bit, and something was being backlit by the sunlight from under it. Koi felt his hair on his neck raise. He looked about and saw one of the contractor's ladders lying on the ground. He quickly hauled it up and planted it against the wall and ran up.

"Rakka! RAKKA!" he shouted. Sol and Rakka were seated on the balcony outside the guest room and looked over at the boy on the ladder.

Koi examined the two leaves that had greeted him on the wall. The sprout was rapidly expanding, and the early signs of a cocoon were developing.

---

"Damn, I pranged [1]," he thought. "Uhhh… what a headache… I'm going to have… to… talk… with… Hipp? What the hell?"

He was under water, or at least it felt like water… he could feel the fluid in his lungs and air bubbles were trickling out of his mouth. He laughed to himself, letting a large burst come from his nose.

"This is L-C-L," he told himself. "I'm in a cocoon? How the hell did I wind up in a cocoon?"

He opened his eyes and looked about. The fluid stung his face at first. "So this is what it's like in one of these… I'll have to report it when I get out… I wonder which zone I'm in…"

Then a thought struck him. "Why do I remember everything? Plato, Dante… Janice… My god, for me to have gone this route… I had to have died… fascinating… Interesting, look at my hands… they're so much younger looking than before… I wonder what age I'll come out as… does this mean that not all the Haibane are children from the human side of the walls?" He clenched his fist and released it. "Humm… no more carpal-tunnel… nice."

"You shall return," he heard. Was there someone outside his cocoon? Had someone found him already?

"Who is that?" he called out, frothing the fluid before his face. Speaking with a mouth full felt gross.

"Your job is not complete, Claudius Ptolemy," another said to him. He looked about his world and saw shadows. Forms were gathering around him - many forms and shapes. He swallowed some L-C-L and gagged.

"Ah, then my contract is still invoked?" he replied.

"Of course," another said. "Your work is not complete."

"We trust you to do for us what you have done for our sister," the first voice said. He looked back and found a face looking at him.

"Ah, a saint," he said. "Was it you who saved me then?"

The woman nodded and kissed him on the forehead. "We place our trust in you, valiant knight," she said. "You and your friends are our release."

Ptolemy sighed and placed his hand on the woman's cheek. "You are all my children, my charges… of course I shall find a way to release you. You are my sins that I must bare, and I must right my wrongs that I did to you."

The woman smiled and pulled back. A man reached out beside her and offered his hand to him to shake.

"We trust you, Claudius Ptolemy," he said.

As he shook the man's hand, he suddenly realized something and blushed. "You know, I feel a bit odd…"

"Pardon?" the saint asked.

"Well… it feels odd greeting you all like this… and I don't have a stitch on…"

---

"Mabel!" Rakka cried as she scampered up the ladder. "Mabel, is that you?"

The crow cawed at her and lighted on her shoulder as she made it to the top of the wall. Koi had climbed onto the shingles to allow her up. Sol had followed, but had to sit back down in the chair that Koi had vacated earlier.

"Do you think it's him?" she called up. "Do you think it's Claudius?"

Rakka came to the top rung and stared at the seedling as it twitched and grew before her eyes. "I don't know," she said expectantly. "I've never seen one grow this fast though!"

"At this rate, it'll be the size of a basketball by this afternoon!" Koi said. He saw the bird on Rakka's shoulder and blinked. "Do you know this bird?"

"That's Mr. Ptolemy's pet crow, Mabel," Sol called up. "Mabel, is Claudius in there?"

The bird cawed at her and jumped onto the wall.

"I wouldn't know if that was a yes or a no," Koi said as he scratched his head.

"What are you two doing on the wall?" they heard. Rakka climbed up another rung and saw Nemu looking up at them.

"Nemu! Nemu, come see! Pops is back!" she called.

"Pops?" she replied.

Rakka tried to unscramble her head. "The Professor! Mr. Ptolemy!"

Nemu stepped back. "What are you saying? That's impossible! He died, Rakka."

The crow cawed at her.

"Nemu, look!" Rakka called down. "It's Mabel! She found a cocoon! It HAS to be Mr. Ptolemy!"

"And you're saying that in a place like this, where angels walk the Earth, that it is impossible?" Koi added.

Nemu gasped as she now saw the top of the sprout. "My god! Look at that!"

Kana burst out of the dorms with Hikari in tow. "What did you say?!" she shouted.

---

Katherine bowed before her elder as a sword tapped her shoulders. Her robes changed and swirled and colorful garments emerged and wrapped her body. Her hair was tied and bundled and marks now adorned her face along her cheeks and forehead. She felt an energy swell within her as she renewed her vows before the grand council.

"You have made us proud, Katherine of the Seventh Realm," the elder told her and the room. "Arise, Katherine, Goddess Second Class."

She stood and extended her wings. Her halo settled into her hair as her feathers were tinged in gold. She bowed again before her elder then turned to face her fellow members of the Seventh as their new commandant.

Banners on staffs were stamped on the floor seven times and somewhere lightning burst to each strike. Those behind the bearers began to chant.

We are the Seventh!

To protect and defend!

We are the Seventh!

To our God and our land!

We are the Seventh!

Every woman every man!

We are the Seventh!

First to battle first to stand!

HOOYAA!

Katherine folded her wings and bowed to her league. She looked up at them and raised her hand.

"Who are WE?!" she called.

"THE SEVENTH!" was their reply in unison.

"LOUDER!" she shouted back.

"THE SEVENTH!" they thundered in return.

Outside, Katherine smiled to her comrades. Inside, she ached. She had not wanted this position, but had it thrust upon her by her seniors. The first released by the walls of the Holy Sites - that was all they cared about. And with her successful intervention with the Haibane Koi and the rescue of Haibane Sol, she was seen as an angel that could be depended upon.

But the loss of Ptolemy had not been expected, nor was the fact that he was now in a cocoon according to the report given to her prior to the ceremony. It troubled her that they had not foreseen that, much as they had failed to foresee just what would happen when Man attempted to capture God's Power.

The position of Goddess as well… rarely given out to lowly angels… normally, the Goddesses were born into this stature, and angels were their servants, their grunts some had said. She was happy to now be one of the elite, but she knew she had been given as high a position that would be possible for her. The best she would now be ever to do would be to receive a higher license on her powers. She also now had to wear a regulator to prevent overpowering herself – it felt uncomfortable as it dangled on her ear.

And she also now had to deal with another new situation – a proto-angel would be assigned to her, and as custom to her new rank, paced inside her as her assisting force when called upon. She hated having to subject an angel to that, as it deprived that soul of any freedom of will – it would almost be as bad as being back in the wall.

She left the hall of the Seventh to visit the care center for these angels. She entered the white room and found a maelstrom.

"SETTLE DOWN!" a woman shouted from a desk. "SETTLE DOWN OR I'LL GIVE YOU SOMETHING TO WORRY ABOUT!" She sat down with a thud and cursed.

"Damn, I could use a cigarette," she snorted.

"The little feathers being a nuisance?" Katherine asked her.

Reki smiled. "Naa, just the usual. Just what I would expect though. I just get this feeling that they had me in training back in Glie for this position, taking care of the Young Feathers there and all…"

Katherine laughed. "I know what you mean."

Reki leaned back and put her hands behind her head. "So, I take it that with these fancy new duds that the ceremony is complete?"

Katherine looked at her clothes. "I guess…" She sighed. "I never really wanted to become a Goddess… at least not this way…"

Reki laughed. "There's another way?"

Katherine nodded. "Just ask your angels here, they will tell you."

Reki snorted. "Well, personally, I never thought as heaven having military service either. Goddess is a rank - interesting…"

"Exactly," Katherine stated. "Goddess can be both a rank and a being, but they can't be both. I might now be one in power and strength, but I will never truly be one. I can always be busted down to angel again… you can't do that to a true Goddess."

"Well that stinks," Reki commented. "Maybe I'll put that in my next painting – The Fall of a Goddess… Then again, maybe not… they weren't too happy with my last one, were they?"

"I thought it was good," Katherine defended her. "Just because you spoke your mind with your paints means nothing… Kuu wasn't too happy though…"

"I needed a model, sue me!" Reki laughed. "Besides, she's so different than when we were in Glie… All grown up like she is… less of a stumble-bum."

Katherine smiled at the though of her new friends from the place she had been trapped in. She missed Glie, even though she had only been there a day or two before. In some cases, it was more restful than here.

"So, who have I been assigned?" she asked.

Reki got a nasty look on her face. "Oooh, you've been given a prime one," she said with a smirk. "She's called Serendipity and Faith."

"Serendipity and Faith," Katherine repeated. "Well, at least I can just call her Serendipity…"

They both burst out laughing.

Reki looked up at the massive cloud of proto-angels above her and tapped a bell on her desk. "NUMBER FORTY-TWO! NOW SERVING NUMBER FORTY-TWO!"

A streamer of white swirled down off the ceiling to the desktop and formed a tiny egg-shaped object. Reki picked it up and held it out to Katherine.

"Now remember," she told her, "you have to break these in just like a horse. She'll be a bit rough at first, but with a little training, she'll be a fine companion for you, okay?"

Katherine smiled. "Thanks Reki," she said. "Are you up for lunch today?"

She shook her head. "Can't," was her reply. "I promised Rem I'd go with her and her husband to the Celestial College to discuss human nature again with her class." She winked and held her hand up to her cheek. "I think it's because she thinks I look like her sister and she wants to confuse them."

Katherine giggled. She looked at the tiny egg in her hand and contemplated it.

She held her breath.

She then tossed it into her mouth and swallowed it.

She gagged and coughed.

A glass was handed her.

"You'd probably best try to down that with some water," Reki noted to her.

---

Jester sat on the side of a road in Feudal Japan waiting for something to happen.

He sighed.

"Boring is this," he said to himself.

"Hey, you're telling me," the little fox-demon said beside him. "When those two are at it, nothing gets done around here!"

They both sighed.

"SIT BOY!"

oOo

[1] prang (prang) v. Term used in rocketry (hobby). To prang refers to when a rocket lands without a proper recovery system release – to impinge on the ground nose first. If done so without the rocket's nose section attached, see core sample.

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Characters from "Sadako's Well" - Chip and Toki created by R.A. Stott ©2004-2011, 18 S.E. Nordwall & R.A. Stott – Used with Permission

Gabrella from "Team Rocket's Haunted Hayride – The RPG" ©2004-2011, 18 The Lugia Project/Denivan Media Services – Used with Permission

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References to "InuYasha" ©2004-2011. 18 Rumiko Takahashi/Shogakukan/VIZ Entertainment

Goddess system from "Ah! My Goddess" ©2004-2011, 18 Kosuke Fujishima

Rem from "TRIGUN" ©2004-2011, 18 Yasuhiro Nightow

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Men in Black characters used from "Serial Experiments Lain" ©2004-2011, 18 Yoshitoshi ABe

Characters from "Haibane-Renmei" ©2004-2011, 18 Yoshitoshi ABe

©2004-2011, 18 The Golden Halo Project/DMS

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