Haibane Renmei: C O R P O R A T I O N Chapter 6: The Boy With No Wings, a haibane renmei fanfic

2011 REVISION

HAIBANE-RENMEI: CORPORATION

Chapter Six

The Boy with No Wings

By R. A. Stott

Original FFN #2088681/6

Originally Published 12/25/04

All work had stopped.

Painting inside the newly rebuilt north wings of Old Home ceased, at least for the day. The head foreman/engineer from The Corporation, Virgil, had shown up, and had pulled all his crews to a new emergency project. He had them haul a large pile of spare wood from the reconstruction site down to the wall near the main southwest gate.

"Make it at least three feet wide on either side," Virgil was saying as a makeshift scaffolding was erected around the burgeoning cocoon that was resting on top of the terra cotta tiled structure. Town folk, most of whom would stay away from the home of the Haibane, were meandering about to see a rare event – a cocoon out in the open. The rumor that its contents might be that of their friend Ptolemy was also running rampant.

"Will somebody get this crow out of here?" one of the workers complained.

"Hey! Hurt one feather on that bird's head and I'll give YOU a halo to look at!" Kana barked as she held a plank in position while one of the carpenters drove it home with his nail-gun. Mabel had not moved from her perch on or around the sphere. She would caw down on those below her as if directing the work.

"The idea is that if he breaks out, he'll be caught by the landings we're installing," Director Plato explained to the local news man Haibane as they watched and walked under the work. It had been quite the surprise to see all these Corporation big-wigs there to the inhabitants of the old building, especially since they arrived via a portal that exited through the seldom used northern arch. But having them show up all at once only drove home the fact to the Homers that this was indeed their friend Ptolemy in the cocoon.

"Is it true that this is only the second time you've actually entered Glie director?" Koi asked him as he jotted down what he had been told.

Plato bellowed a thunderous laugh. "I've been here a few more times than that," he told the boy. He looked up at the ball on the wall as the railing was being mounted around it. "Claudius was here many more times than I ever was… which was required by his job, mind you… he certainly was correct about this place though…"

"So how do you intend for the fluid to drain out?" Janice asked as she examined the structure from underneath.

"Ea?" a carpenter replied as he looked down on her from above.

She shook her head. "L-C-L is very viscous when it first is exposed to the atmosphere. It will be extremely slick just after it bursts… if the planks are that way when he comes out of there, he could slip right over the side as well!"

Virgil stood up and looked at the work that had been done. The floor boards had been butted hard against one another, making for a nearly solid flat surface. He picked up a drill and chucked up a large auger bit. He then proceeded to drill drain holes in a semi-circle on each platform surrounding the cocoon.

"Better," Janice said as she brushed off the sawdust that had fallen on her.

Virgil shook his head as he un-chucked the drill and handed back to one of his crew. "Something tells me that no one here has ever built an outdoor deck before," he griped to himself.

From the depressed outlook that the town had been in for the last few days, there was now a festive atmosphere resounding. Even a few small tents had sprung up near the Hill of the Winds where some of the locals were serving refreshments to those gathering for an event few but the Haibane had ever witnessed first hand – the hatching of a cocoon.

"But… will I be a Haibane?" Ptolemy asked himself as he floated in his brew. "There has never been a circumstance of one, save the first residents of these Holy Sites, where a Haibane came from one as old as I was…"

"Nor has there ever been one from the ranks of the Sinners of Man," a voice told him.

Ptolemy looked up. "Ah, I was wondering when I'd hear from you… You have been rather silent about this whole thing as of late."

The voice rumbled and sighed. "The situation is difficult… The basement wishes to attend as well."

"They should be allowed to," the scientist said to the voice. "I'm supposed to be non-biased, remember?"

"But can you be?" the voice asked. "Truly in your heart…"

Ptolemy shook his head. "Of course I am biased – after all, I am human… or at least was…"

"You would rather be in the attic?"

He looked to his side. Gabrella stood there with a tear rolling down her cheek.

"That has yet to be determined," Ptolemy said to her.

"But it would be better than falling to the basement?" Katherine asked from his other side. He looked over at her and smiled.

"You tell me?" he asked her. "I was responsible for the creation of this purgatory… or is it limbo? Right now, it feels more like a fish bowl…"

He watched a grouper swim by.

"God, I hope I'm hallucinating," he mumbled.

"Depends," the fish said. "This could be your cocoon dream…"

He awoke with a start, and a face full of frothy bubbles. He looked about at the shadows that were moving about him in the broth he floated in and shook his head.

"Keep your wits, Claudius," he told himself. He laughed as he looked at his fingers and rubbed them together as he examined their reaction to the L-C-L. "You're a scientist – be objective… How could Gabrella be crying in this stuff?"

A shape moved across the back of the cocoon. He watched it as it meandered about, moving from a fuzzy blobby shape to a sharp relief of a human silhouette.

"Humm… size wise, I'd say I'm still gestating," he told himself. "Either that or I'll be much smaller than I was when I come out… I wonder why it's so bright in here?" He looked below himself and pondered the strange shape the base of the sphere was taking.

"Huh… that looks like a roof tile…"

He moved down to look at it closer and dug into the soft material with his hand. A bit of color did manage to peek through – a rusty reddish brown. He looked up at the bright light.

"That's the sun alright… Great… I'm on the roof of Old Home!" He shook his head.

Then the hatching of the boy in the woods from a few months prior flashed through his mind, especially the reaction of Hikari… because the lad had come out without any clothes on!

"Damn!" he said, gurgling more bubbles out of his mouth.

"Hey! It just went bloop!" he heard.

"They always go bloop Kana!" he shouted, again getting much too much L-C-L down his throat.

Kana blinked. "Shhh! Shhh!" she hissed as she planted her ear against the dusty side of the cocoon. Her head became covered in the ashen flakes from the surface of the sphere.

"Kana, what are you doing?" Hikari asked as she watched her fellow Homer flay her arms about to silence her.

"SHHH! I think I heard him speak my name!" she said in a half snarl to put her point over to be QUIET! "Professor?" she called. "Professor, are you in there?"

She felt a tugging on her pants leg. She angrily glanced down at the person yanking her cuff and found Doc Hipp holding a stethoscope up to her. She quickly snatched them up with a "Thanks!" and stuck them in her ears. She picked up the bell of the device and gingerly placed it on the surface of the cocoon.

She sat back at the sound. A gurgling churning sound bubbled through her head. She moved it about and found other sounds – a high pitched whistle at one point, a deep grumbling at another.

"Professor?" she asked.

He saw the small dark spot that was against the side of the sphere and smiled. He moved beside it. "Hello Kana," he said without having to yell. "I take it Doctor Hypocrites just lent you his stethoscope."

Kana held her breath. She looked back at those below her, a look of shock rolling over her face. Many were holding their own breaths as they watched.

"Where's Mrs. Ptolemy?" she asked finally realizing she was suddenly missing.

Rakka sat at the kitchen table as she poured tea for the woman. Sol sat beside her with a weary look on her face. Rakka stopped what she was doing and listened.

"What's going on?" she asked. "The noise stopped…"

Sol leaned over to see out the opened door. "It looks like Kana is up with the cocoon… listening to it?" she pondered questioningly.

"Listening?" Janice asked. "Listening to what?"

Rakka shrugged. "Maybe… Mr. Ptolemy?"

Janice jumped up, forcing her chair clear back to the far wall as she did. She bolted for the door and looked up at the wall. Kana was gesturing for her to get up there, NOW!

"H-honey? Are you in there?" she asked nearly out of breath from her climb of the ladder and Kana handed her the scope.

There was a brief silence. She heard a gurgling and some air rumbling by. She then heard a tapping.

"Honey?"

"Oh," she then heard. "Sorry, dear… I was trying to think of something monumental to say…"

The phrasing was right, just the voice was… the voice was off a bit.

"I guess I sound odd," he said to her as she was looking back at everyone. "I'm not sure about this voice either – it's been so long since I heard it this… young…"

"Honey," she told the cocoon, "what's it like in there?"

"Ask him why he can remember me!" Kana shouted up to her.

"Ask him if he's had a dream!" Hikari added.

"Ask them to stop shouting!" Ptolemy complained. "It's like being in an amplifier in here!"

"Well that's odd," Janice noted. "The solidity of the L-C-L should actually lessen the sounds from the outside…"

"Not this stuff," Ptolemy said as he cleared out the ringing in his ears.

Janice sat down on the tiles. "Honey, how much do you remember?" she asked him.

Ptolemy contemplated this. "Let's see… I remember… Jester shocking the bejeebies out of me… next thing I know, I'm in a cocoon waiting to be hatched… I seem to be younger than I was… I'm not sure how… and I'm not sure if I'm a true Haibane or not…" He looked at the bottom of the sphere again. "Honey, I'm outdoors, aren't I?"

Janice looked about. "You can tell?" she asked.

Ptolemy laughed. "I can see the sunlight through the cocoon's surface in many spots," he told her, "and I have some tile shapes on the bottom here. I take it I'm on the roof?"

Janice grimaced as she looked at either side of the balancing act being performed by the cocoon. "Well, yes and no," she told her husband. "You're on the roof alright… you're on the wall just over the main gate."

"I'M ON THE WHAT?" Janice winced as she pulled the stethoscope away from the cocoon as it rattled a bit. When she put the bell back against it, she could hear Ptolemy moving about and muttering to himself.

Kana stumbled down the ladder as she watched the theatrics above her on the scaffolding. Rakka steadied her as she looked back at her sister Haibane.

"That… was creepy…" she said. She then grinned. "Cool, but creepy!"

"Was it him?" Rakka asked. "Was it really him?"

Kana sat down in the Adirondack chair and shook some of the cocoon's dust off her head. "It sure was," she exclaimed catching her breath. "Do you realize what this means? This proves that Haibane are from the outside, that we did have lives before the ones we have here!"

"Well of course, silly," Hikari said as she and Midori brought some hot sweet rolls out for the crew's mid-morning snack. "We knew that already…"

"We never had proof!" Kana snapped back. She looked over at the members of the Corporation near the wall and glared at them. "I bet they knew… I bet they knew all along…"

Rakka stood in front of Kana and returned the glare back at her. "So? Do you think it makes their jobs any easier?" she angrily asked her.

Kana sat back taken aback a bit by her admonishment. "Yo! Cool your jets Rakka! I was just saying…"

"The obvious," she finished for her, whether it had been the words she was searching for or not. "I think it hurts them more than helps them. Just seeing us tears at them." She looked up at Janice and noticed that she had been looking at her at that moment. "I know that it hurts her."

Kana sat back. "Maybe so, but I just get this feeling that they're hiding things from us."

"That's because they are," Koi said as he sat on the edge of the small table beside the chair. He flipped his notebook shut and watched The Corporation members as they all were busy with the activities along the wall. "But it's not surprising – they'd have to." He leaned over towards Kana. "What are the rules about talking to the Toga?"

Kana looked at him like he was nuts. "We're not allowed to talk with the Toga, of course."

"And why is that?" he continued. Kana shook her head and shrugged.

"No one knows," Hikari said.

He tapped the side of his nose and winked. "Think about it, they're from the outside… The Corporation folk are from the outside… of course they run the risk of having known any of us out there beyond the walls… And to keep the peace…"

"They have to remain silent," Rakka concluded, now sullen at the thought that her friends from outside were nearly gagged from talking about their world verses the world she knew in Glie.

Midori munched on a roll as she watched the others around the cocoon. "Hyohko told me that when he had first met Mr. Ptolemy he asked him why he never came through the main gates in town… he told him that they weren't allowed the privilege."

Kana coughed on a sweet roll. "Not allowed? Why not?"

Midori shrugged. "He didn't say. But I've talked with people in town and they say they've known Ptolemy for some time now, that he's never aged, and he's always been here when the town's needed him most."

Kana nodded. "I was surprised at when my boss blew out of the clock shop when I told him what I had seen when you were bringing him in to town," she noted gesturing at the cocoon on the wall. "I've never seen him cry before… That was creepy too…"

"Excuse me!" they now heard. "Excuse me! Pardon me! Will you PLEASE let me through?"

"That sounds like Nemu," Rakka said as she stepped over towards the arched entry to the courtyard. Looking through, she found that the exit was crowded with town folk who were trying to get too close a look at the strange ball on the wall.

"Honestly!" the housemother shouted as she thundered through the tunnel. "What are all you doing up here at the main gates?"

The crowd was almost in a frenzy as Nemu was trying to enter the compound. Someone had almost pushed her off the narrow path past the bridge. Now they were clamoring to get a closer look. They all stopped and stared as Director Plato stepped up behind the housemother and scowled at them.

"Under NO circumstances are any town folk not employed here at Old Home allowed PAST THAT BRIDGE!" he bellowed. He stuck out his huge thick arm and pointed for the group to move back beyond the new buffer zone – the creek just outside the walls of the school.

Town Watch members suddenly came around the corners of the outer wall and started a march towards the ornery crowd. They quickly pulled back as they saw their advance leaving Nemu behind to collect herself. When she turned towards the building though, she found what looked like an old woman standing before Plato.

"Does that include me, director?" she asked in a withered voice.

"Setsu…" he said in a hushed tone.

The old woman shook her head. "Bloodeagle now, you old bat," she snorted.

"What are you doing down here from the Scar's Village?" the housemother barked as she grabbed the broom that sat next to the tally boards. She stopped approaching her as Plato held his hand up.

"What are you doing here?" he asked her in a kind low voice.

She looked up at the sphere. "Seeing for myself… I heard news from those helping that Haibane child in the tunnels that Ptolemy wound up on my wall. Looks like they weren't far from the truth…"

"YOUR WALL?" the housemother yelled. Plato grabbed the broom and hushed her.

One of the Town Watch stepped up to Bloodeagle. She looked over her shoulder at him or her - she was never quite sure which it was - with distain.

"You'd best return to your post," Plato told her.

She snorted. She pulled out her mono-eye mask and slipped it on. She looked up at the sphere again and shook her head.

"No wings… he will have no wings," she mumbled as she turned and headed back down the path.

Katherine alighted atop the bell tower and watched the woman leave the others behind. She looked at the sphere and wondered what she meant.

"Quite a quandary we have here, isn't it?"

She looked about. That voice… what was she doing here? And why could she not see her?

"Down here dear," she then heard. She looked over the edge to see Gabrella waving at her from the north window of the clock room.

"What are you doing here?" Katherine demanded.

"That's being bantered about quite a lot lately, isn't it?" the Lady Demon said with a coy wink. "I see you've been given the rank of Goddess… well done my dear!"

Katherine dropped through the roof into the room below. "You know we are not allowed here at the same time!" she angrily stated.

Gabrella laughed. "Who's to know? They're too busy dealing with Claudius the Ball Baby!" She now broke into hysterical laughter.

Katherine stormed up to her and slapped her across the face. "How DARE you! How dare you even say that! He has done more for us…"

"He also was responsible for us being in this situation, remember?" the Demon-Goddess growled as she rubbed her cheek. "And how dare YOU strike me!" She now grinned. "That could be construed as an act of war you know, a Goddess striking a Demon…"

Katherine scowled. "Call it what you like, but I will not leave this time, not with Claudius in a situation like this."

"You didn't leave last time, or at least not right away," Gabrella huffed. "Did you think we wouldn't notice that you went to the hospital here in Glie to see that boy down there?" She pointed out the window at Koi.

Katherine smirked and shook her head. "I was under orders to return his memory that I removed when he was rescued from the tunnels, that is all."

Gabrella leaned against the wall. "That's the trouble with you ethereal types - you have so many secrets you wish to hide. Why do you think we in the bowels of hell have it so easy?"

Katherine laughed at the thought. "Easy? An eternity of damnation? The only ones having it easy down there are the demons! You make souls suffer!"

"How would you know that?" Gabrella half chuckled. "When was the last time you went down there to see? You've been duped by propaganda my dear. How am I to know you don't do the same up there? Or is there a reason your side insisted that the Haibane must get jobs while here in these so called Holy Zones?"

Katherine stepped back. "They what?" she quivered.

Gabrella now laughed. "Oh, that's right… you were a Saint – you missed out on the setting up of these worlds, didn't you? You weren't sentient when they said that the Haibane must toil while waiting the time they could go over these stupid walls!"

Katherine remembered the words Reki had told her the day before… "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…" Now it made sense! But still…

"So what if they work here or there? At least they don't fester and become loathsome beasts of burden for the likes of YOU!"

"Right," Gabrella drolled. "You just have them do it while they're here! Do you see that haggard old heap that blimp Plato was talking to?"

Katherine glanced out the window she was beside. She saw the old sin-bound woman as she was escorted away. "Yes? What about her?"

Gabrella cross her arms and made a sound of disgust. "She came to this world with the most perfect wings here – not a black spot on them! She was the perfect Haibane. But she did the one thing here that would turn them totally black, the sign of your so called sin-bound. She tried to take her own life. And worse, not just once, but TWICE!"

Katherine felt a wince of pain sweep through her at the thought of a Haibane attempting suicide. "But why? Why would she have done that?"

Gabrella stepped up to her. "Haibane can not die - at least not by their own hands. Didn't you know that either? How can you kill a dead soul? Yes they can be injured, nearly killed by accidents and stupid attempts to leave here before their time... but in the mean time, they are judged by their actions while here… their memories of where they had come from removed so that they can start with a clean slate… but their actions speak mountains to what they need to repent about."

"But, I was told that Haibane have died here before…" Katherine said as she remembered her debriefing she had after she had escaped the wall.

Gabrella threw her head back and howled. "There has not been a death of a Haibane outside of a cocoon in ANY of the zones in over two hundred years. It simply would not be allowed! And that retched soul down there is proof of that!"

Katherine looked down at the woman as she crested the hill near the wind generators. She saw that people in the road would give her a wide berth as she walked.

"But why?" she asked. "Why would she attempt something so… sinful?"

"Sinful?" Gabrella shook her head. "She's rather famous here in Glie. One day, two years into being the perfect little Haibane, she climbed the wall of Old Home right where that cocoon is now, and attempted to take flight on her own. She claimed it was because she wanted to test her wings, but the suicide note she left behind spoke for her. It seemed that she was tired of being abused by her human boss at the work she had been given here – it was the first time ever that one of the town folks was arrested for the abuse of a Haibane in such a manner. But his damage had been done. As she recovered even then she knew she had gone too far, and would never fully be the same. Her wings became black as night. Some of the younger Haibane even began calling her Old Crow instead of Setsu." She turned and watched the old lady disappear over the hill from her own window. "Tell me, which was more sinful? What she did, or what was done to her?"

"It's amazing how things happen in threes," she continued in a subdued tone. "The day she left Old Home for the Scar's Village was the day Kuramori arrived and Thido had his day of flight… now there was a unique 'Haibane' - he certainly wasn't exactly what he seemed..." She gave a short little huff of a laugh.

"How do you know all this?" Katherine asked, now a bit more concerned that this person would know information of this sort.

Gabrella looked at her over her shoulder. "It's my job to know, missy." She turned and let her wings dangle out the open window. The breeze made them sway about slightly as she sighed. "While you were playing plaque, I kept up with the locals as much as I dared," she told her. "I care more about these places than you would expect." She stared at her with her large golden yellow eyes. "We are not allowed the proper representation here. We are ridiculed and charged with a bias that is unfair and unjust." She laughed. "Have one little party that gets out of hand and they label you for an eternity!"

She flipped out of the window and launched herself into the sky, vanishing in a wisp of smoke as Katherine watched. She had a feeling that she would be seeing the demon again soon and possibly in a less friendly manner.

Evening came with a spotlight being shown against the cocoon and someone posted on the scaffolding. Most of the Corporation crew had departed for the outside world to keep their time limits fresh. Outside Old Home, the town folk had diminished to a few who insisted on staying and watching, even if it was from the opposite side of the creek. Hikari and Nemu spent the early evening offering warm drinks and Danishes to them, and taking a few one by one up to the main building to use the facilities.

For Ptolemy, it meant he finally had some time to rest. The constant squabbling and pounding outside the cocoon had been surprisingly loud. The few hours he had to talk with his wife about the life of a guppy soothed him as well. But he was tired and needed to sleep.

"Well now, this is awfully wet."

He jerked awake. Across from him sat the old woman. She was removing her mask and looking about the cocoon with the spotlight glaring behind her.

"Bloodeagle? What are you doing here in my cocoon?" Ptolemy asked. It took him a moment to realize just how strange that sounded.

"I knew I should have read The Metamorphosis all the way through," she grumbled as she used her cane to stand up. She poked him with it. "Feel like a cockroach yet?"

"Stop that!" he griped. He then realized that he was still quite naked to this woman and quickly rolled himself into a fetal ball. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN MY COCOON?" he bellowed.

The old lady chuckled. "What are you doing IN a cocoon, Uncle Claudius?" driving her inflections home by poking him more. "Just what do you think you're doing in a cocoon?"

The scientist scowled. "I know what I'm doing here! I've been told what I'm doing here! Janice told me about the Apogee Report. And the Saints told me that my work is not finished."

She chuckled again. "Are you sure? Are you sure that this isn't just retribution? And are you sure of just what you will be when you emerge from this hibernation you're in?"

He rolled back while still in the ball position and looked up at her. "What do you mean?" he asked, hearing the young voice he had now tremble slightly. It annoyed him.

"Be you a Haibane do you suppose? Or are you just that same old man that I knew when I was a young Charcoal?" She turned and showed her scars to him.

"Wings - They're not all that they make them up to be." She huffed. "Charcoal feathers, ha… Charcoal's a fuel you know."

Ptolemy pondered her. "Setsu, why are you so bitter? Was it because no one listened to you when your employer was molesting you?"

She shook. "The town did not listen… my sisters and brothers did not listen… only you and Thido listened… but that did not help. Even after you left and the problem was supposedly solved, no one would listen to me… not even my father…"

Ptolemy unraveled himself. "Father? Oh, yes... your father..."

Bloodeagle turned and smiled. "Yes, my father. You know I know who my father was… saw him today I did… You'd be surprised what you can learn when you visit Sinner's Rock and meditate on it for a day or so… It returns your life to you, as it was… no… correction, it unlocks what was barred… I am there now. That is why I can talk with you."

Ptolemy stared at her. "I know... I tried to keep you from using it so much. Setsu, look at yourself. You're not that old, but the rock had withered you."

"It's Bloodeagle!" she barked. "And better off withered and bent than ignorant. Besides, breaking nearly every bone in your body isn't exactly a healthy thing to do!" She looked up at the top of the sphere and sighed.

"I must leave," she said while looking back at him. Ptolemy was surprised to see that she now looked like the young girl he had known long ago – the small black-haired girl with a pair of delicate oval glasses named Maia, the daughter of Plato. "A final thing though… Uncle Claudius..."

As she said this, a convulsion throbbed through the cocoon making Ptolemy cover his ears in pain. He looked up at her and saw she was fading away.

"Do you remember the last time a Haibane died in Glie?" she asked him. "At least, that you know of…" she added under her breath.

He winced in pain. "G-Girl 194?" he said as another convulsion swept through his world. "She… she drowned!"

Bloodeagle nodded as she reverted to her old form. "Drowned… in her own cocoon…" She looked up then vanished.

"What? Yes, yes I remember!" he spurted, frothy bubbles surrounding him as another burst of pressure squeezed the life out of him. He felt himself grow cold as the spotlight grew dim in his eyes.

"The terra cotta… heh…" he laughed to himself. "The terra cotta… it made the bottom of the cocoon too tough… Have… to… get… to the… top… or I'll drown…"

The young man on the scaffold looked up. The forecast was not for rain that night. Yet still, he was getting pelted by thick drops of water.

"CAW! CAW!"

He looked up as Mabel launched herself off the top of the cocoon. She fluttered and flapped as the rain continued to hit him.

"But the stars are out," he said. Just then he heard some sounds from those across the stream from him.

"What's with that crow?" he heard.

"Look! The cocoon! It's leaking!"

He stepped back from the sphere and looked up. A streamer of fluid was shooting into the air from the top of the ball. He pulled out a rod-like device and waved it over its surface.

"CAW!" shouted Mabel.

"Pressure… pressure's dropping!" he said as he scrambled to activate a communicator. "O-base!" he yelled, waking Koi who was in the Adirondack Chair."O-base! It's cracking open along the top! It's loosing pressure!"

"L-C-L will become normal water when it looses pressure," the unit replied. "You must break the cocoon, or Ptolemy will drown!"

Mabel landed on the top of the sphere again and started pecking hard.

"Hey!" Koi yelled up. "What's wrong? What's going on?"

The man slammed his fist against the side of the cocoon. He brought it back in a grimace of pain. "We've got to break this cocoon open, or he'll drown! Find a hammer or something – anything to break this open!"

Koi jumped up. "What? Are you insane? You can't do that!"

"A Haibane must break free on their own," Nemu yelled from the balcony across from them, having just come out of the guest bedroom.

"It's tradition," Sol added.

The man smacked his hands on the railing of the scaffolding. "And the last Haibane who died in Glie did so by drowning in her own cocoon!" he screamed, making the town folk behind him gasp. "His has cracked along the top! He won't be able to escape it, and if the pressure drops any further, it will be normal water he's in! HE WILL DROWN!"

That made Koi move. He ran up to the work site and looked about in the near darkness. He found a crowbar and ran back to the wall, tossing it up to the man.

"What's going on?" Rakka asked as she rubbed her eyes in time to see the first swing the man made.

The cocoon splattered apart, pouring water across the scaffolding, nearly sending the him over the edge, and dousing Koi in fluid. When they all looked back, a naked boy lay across the wooden planks.

"Has it happened?"

Bloodeagle looked up with her mono-eyed mask from the stone she was sitting on. "Can't you tell Miss G?" she asked.

Gabrella snorted as she looked towards the oddly illuminated shape of Old Home far off in the distance.

Hipp waved a flashlight back and forth over the boy's eyes to get a response. He nodded and drew a thermometer out of a sleeve.

"Say ah," he said as he looked down his throat.

"Ah, yourself," Ptolemy said from under a towel and blanket sent up to the scaffolding. "Aren't you at risk being here?"

Hipp stuck the thermometer under his tongue. "If you mean am I getting close to my thirty hours, possibly… I believe I have at least eight hours left. I'll be here though only long enough to check things out. I'll let the chief surgeon take over shortly."

Ptolemy shook his head. "No, you should let the folks here at Old Home do what they're supposed to do," he said. "It is their duty to care for those in the cocoons, not ours."

Hipp looked down at those gathered below. "Even in this situation?" he asked. "I mean, they never remembered where they came from, who they were before coming here… and they certainly did not know a person before arriving in a cocoon before."

Ptolemy made a small laughing gurgle. "Maybe so, but I'm not one to break their tradition. Have the surgeon come here then, and leave a cell phone with them to contact the control room with if needed."

The doctor pulled the thermometer out and looked at it. "You're one to talk you know," he said. "The way you were brought out was hardly traditional."

Ptolemy rocked his head to one side to look at the shattered cocoon. The hole in its side showed the way it had been fractured from the outside plainly. "I must thank whoever it was that realized the fault in my design here…" He looked back at the doctor and saw an odd expression. "What is it?"

Hipp shrugged. "I don't know, it's probably nothing… but the others, they said that the man on duty up here knew just what was going on… told them that you would drown if they didn't get you out. He even knew that L-C-L reverts back to normal water when the pressure drops."

Ptolemy dropped his head back in exhaustion. "Uhh… wasn't it one of the Haibane up here?"

"No, it was a volunteer from the work crews," Hipp told him as he put his equipment into his bag. "He also seems to have vanished."

Ptolemy gave a slight nod of his head. "Fine… call me in… the morn…" He then dozed off.

"Mr. Tolefson, you were supposed to only observe, not take action," the voice on his communicator said with a slight laugh.

"Honestly sir, I never expected it either," the man said as paraded around his apartment while drying his hair with a towel. "I was only there for the first evening shift. We thought it wouldn't break open until morning at least."

The com laughed again. "Well, good job anyway, though as soon as you can, you should get back there, since vanishing might cause undue wonder where you went."

He was about to acknowledge the order when another voice cut in saying, "Belay that Mr. Tolefson… I just reviewed the incident and the aftermath – we might have to give you a cover story… stand by…"

"Sir?" he asked as he dropped the towel on the crow bar.

"You may have told them too much," the second voice said. "But you still did a fine job for your first field assignment, Mr. Tolefson. Observer Base out."

He tapped on a patch on his uniform that he had laying on his bed to shut off the com unit.

"Yes, I must thank you as well," he heard.

"Just doing my job, ma'am," he said to Katherine. She smiled and nodded to him before vanishing.

Morning broke bright and surly in Ptolemy's eyes, much to his chagrin. He blearily looked down at his feet and found a sleeping Rakka draped there. To the right he saw Sol in a rocking chair with her head back. Kana and Hikari were spread across either side of the table in the center of the room. He heard a slight snicker to the other side and looked over by the doorway to the left to find Nemu and Koi looking in on him.

"It's a mess in here, isn't it?" Nemu noted.

"It looks like a Haibane massacre," Ptolemy said as he plopped his head back down. "I hope I didn't kick someone out of bed here…"

"She insisted," Koi said as he gestured towards the stirring Sol in the rocker.

"How do you feel?" Nemu asked as she came closer.

"Like a drowned rat," he said. He looked up.

Two sharp black eyes looked back.

"CAW!"

"Geeze!" he yelped as he flinched in surprise at Mabel. She was on the headboard over top him flapping her wings.

"WHAT?" Rakka chirped as she was startled. "Oh, you're awake!"

Claudius clutched his chest. "Bird, you're going to give me a heart attack again!"

"Caw!"

A rolled up ball of paper bounced off the wall over the bed. "Crow, I let you stay in here only if you kept QUIET!" Kana growled. She quickly changed her tune when she saw the wad fall on Ptolemy's head. "Oops! Sorry!" she squeaked like a mouse.

"How long has it been since I hatched?" he asked while giving Kana an evil look and tossing the paper back at her.

"It is just after eight now," Nemu noted looking at a small watch on her wrist, "and you were removed from your cocoon just before eleven thirty last night."

He nodded. "Eight and a half hours ago… I wonder how long I'll have then…"

Rakka looked at him confused as she rubbed the sleep from her eyes. "What do you mean? How long it will be until your wings sprout?"

Ptolemy looked at her slightly perplexed himself. "Wings? What do you mean? I'm not a Haibane… At least, I don't think I'm a Haibane…"

"But, the cocoon," Sol said. "You were in a cocoon…"

He looked at his arm and the warm shirt that covered it. "I was also naked if I remember," he grunted.

Koi laughed. "BW loaned it to you since you two seemed to be about the same size."

Rakka shook her head to get them back on the first question. "But what about not being a Haibane? You did come out of the cocoon…"

Ptolemy nodded. "With my memory intact," he added. "When was the last Haibane born like that?"

The others sat quietly at that thought. Rakka looked at him. "Are you sure? Are you sure you don't feel anything at all?"

He rocked his shoulders about. "I don't feel anything in the works there, if that's what you mean. And that might mean I have thirty hours to get back to the Corporation."

"Total?" Hikari asked.

He shrugged. "Possibly – I don't know – we've never had this happen before. How long was I in the cocoon?"

"I found it, or really Mabel found it about three days ago," Koi said rubbing his head.

Ptolemy cocked his head. "Even that's odd," he said. "A normal gestation period is about ten to eleven days…"

Nemu crossed her arms. "Well, if you're insistent on going back to your home, you do know that you might make your wife jealous."

He looked at her puzzled until it struck him what she was referring to. "A mirror, please… quickly!"

Nemu picked up a hand mirror off the small dresser in the guest room and handed it to him. The look on his face made Kana and Hikari almost laugh.

"My god, I've got hair again!" he said as he dragged his fingers through the rusty red locks on his head. "It won't be Janice I'll have to worry about - it's Plato who will be jealous! I must be about twenty again…"

"I'd say a bit younger than that," a woman said from the other end of the room.

Ptolemy looked at her with a shock of surprise. "And you might be?" he asked as she walked over with a large black bag.

"Dr. Abigail McManus," she said. "I'm the new chief surgeon at the Glie Hospital."

He quickly found a thermometer stuck under his tongue and his pulse being taken by this stranger. "I don't remember seeing you being brought up through the ranks here in Glie with the other doctors," he said while holding the glass stick with his teeth.

She smiled and wrote down on a chart her findings. "I was brought in through the eastern gate with the Toga per Hypocrites' orders – the first time ever for Glie. I was trained at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia. I am also sworn to the silence act. I'll be leaving here in about a month when we turn over control to a new local doctor that I'm training in proper human/Haibane etiquette."

"We're just breaking rules left and right these days," Kana snapped. "I thought no one was ever allowed to leave here."

"The Toga leave… the members of the Corporation leave… the BIRDS leave…" Ptolemy noted as the doctor removed the thermometer. "You are from Corporation, correct?" he directed to his doctor.

"Special branch, newly formed," was her response. "We are made up of members that aren't under the sinner's curse."

Rakka looked at the woman in shock. "Sinner's curse? Who has the sinner's curse?" she asked. She looked over at Ptolemy and found him shaking his head and holding his hand up.

"Let's just say that it is the reason why I am not allowed to go through the Eastern Gate," he said. "I'm not allowed to discuss it any further than that." He glowered at his doctor. "And you should know better than to bring it up here."

"Sorry," she said as she wrapped his arm with a blood pressure gauge. She pumped it up and took her readings. "Well, you are showing signs of being a perfectly healthy young adult – I'd say you're about fifteen or sixteen by body shape and size. You were pretty skinny for a kid, weren't you?"

Rakka giggled. Ptolemy blushed then shook his head.

"Hey, just because I have this body doesn't mean an old fart isn't still living inside!" he barked making everyone break into laughter. Mabel lighted on his head causing Rakka to fall back into the bed in a fit.

Ptolemy sighed as the bird looked down at him. Respect? Hardly…

The others slowly left the room to allow Ptolemy to dress. He was surprised to see the remains of the cocoon still on the wall when he stepped out onto the balcony. Normally these large spheres dissolve away soon after they crack, but his still seemed to be hanging about as if telling him it had not completed its mission. He left the room and went down to the courtyard to see it closer.

"Is that him?" he heard when he climbed the ladder to the scaffolding. He looked over the wall and saw that there were still people gathered on the other side of the creek from Old Home. There were still two members of the Community Watch still guarding the bridge as well. He saw Nemu down with the people talking with a lady that he thought he recognized. He rubbed his eyes and tried to see more clearly.

"Damn… I forgot that I wore glasses when I was a boy," he mumbled to himself. "I'll have to have corrective work done again…"

"Look! He's got no wings!" someone with keen observational sight yelled.

"And no halo!" another person added.

"What kind of Haibane is that?"

Claudius planted his fists into his hips and barked back, "And who said I would be a Haibane?" He placed his arm on the cocoon and leaned on it as he looked down and shook his head.

"CAW!"

He looked up and saw Mabel circling over his head.

CRACK!

He looked at the cocoon and saw it shift. He jumped back as it snapped free of the tile and rolled over the edge of the wall. It seemed to Ptolemy to slowly lower itself towards the grassy hill outside the wall, but since it had taken most of the outer scaffold with it, and it splintered into a myriad of pieces as it struck the ground, it must have been only his perception playing tricks on him.

He grabbed the railing behind him. The scaffolding had only been slung over the wall, and with the one side missing, it was now sliding backwards into the courtyard. He quickly shuffled towards the ladder and jumped on just as it tilted back and in, smashing across the area and crushing the Adirondack chair.

"You couldn't wait until the crews took that down?" he heard the doctor call up to him as he opened his eyes.

"Thought I'd help out," he replied back as he slowly lowered himself. He looked down and saw Nemu and Sumika looking up at him from the opening of the gate.

"Are you alright?" they chorused.

"Nothing's broken," he replied. When he looked back, he saw a sour face looking up at him. "What?"

"That was very reckless," Nemu scolded him. "You could have very well injured yourself!"

Ptolemy shot the sour face right back at her. "It's not like I expected it to do that!" he said with a bit of disgust in himself thrown in for good measure. "I might not look like it right now, but I'm still a scientist my dear. And I'm still quite older than you!"

"That's Ptolemy all right," Sumika said with a snicker.

He shook his head. "Nemu, do you have any old cardboard boxes around here?" he asked.

"Huh?" she asked.

The people outside the wall were surprised to see the boy who had made the cocoon fall there with a large box tossing chunks into it.

"Well, at least he cleans up after himself," Ptolemy heard. He snorted and continued to gather pieces.

Lunchtime arrived. Some of the workers from the rehab work had come down to clear the larger chunks of wood from the two sides of the wall. Most of the Haibane had left for their respective jobs in town, and those people outside Old Home had returned to their homes or jobs. Nemu and Sumika had stayed, since they both had the day off from the library, and were making the meal. Rakka was getting ready for her afternoon walk to the Temple for her day's work while Sol tended to Sumika's baby girl.

Rakka entered the guest room to find Ptolemy on the cell phone that had been left by Hipp the night before.

"Yes, yes, it does seem strange," he told the person on the other end. "We've seen what happens to normal cocoons… exactly… right… so why is mine still intact – well mostly… right… I've packed a good chunk of it for retrieval. Yes… I don't know. There's only one way to find out I think. Yes, I'll be there. We already know that I'd feel the effects about an hour before… yes… yes an hour… maybe two… Right. Look, I've got to conserve the power on this thing – Hipp didn't leave the recharger for it. Yea… love you too."

"Say hi to Janice for me," Rakka said as she walked behind him towards the kitchen.

"Rakka says hi," he said with a smile and a wink. He closed the phone and put it on the table next to a chunk of cocoon which he picked up and examined with a magnifying glass.

"Here, try this."

He looked up and found Doctor McManus handing him a smaller magnifier.

"A linen tester," he said as he opened it up. "What are you doing with this?"

The doctor closed her kit. "I find it more useful at times than one of these." She pulled out a rod-like device from her pocket.

"Ah, a scanning rod," he said. "You do know that would be considered a banned device here in Glie."

She laughed. "True, but where would we be without such devices? Besides, we aren't locked into the same rules as you are." She waved it over the chunk of cocoon and looked at the ball end that made up its handle. "Cellular degeneration is negligible. You do make them to last, don't you?"

He huffed as he opened the smaller but more powerful magnifier and looked closely at the cocoon section. "Not intentionally. Cocoons normally dissolve within hours of their breakage, yet mine almost looks like concrete." He glanced up at the doctor and grunted.

"So, what honor do we have to be graced by an Observer?" he asked as he returned to looking closely at the shell chunk.

"You can't tell?" she asked as a reply to his question.

He looked up at her. "Well, you are a doctor, and only the Observers could have planted you into our Corporation without raising alarm bells all over the place…"

She shrugged. "Guilty," she said with a smirk. "I take it my cover story wasn't convincing enough?"

He shook his head as he returned to the chunk. "Oh, I believe you that you trained at Thomas Jefferson… but WHICH Jeff? You see, I've had dealings with your group before. I know enough to know that you observe, but not just this world, but many others, and in many dimensions. How is your Captain anyway?"

She smiled and looked at the section of cocoon as well. "Captain Strom is quite worried about you. Otherwise, he is well."

Ptolemy nodded. "Send him my regards then." He sighed and leaned back in his chair. He turned it towards her. "So tell me, just why are you here?"

She sat on the edge of the table and looked under her coat at something that beeped back at her. "Mediation," she said.

Ptolemy groaned and planted his hand on his forehead. "Oh damn it. Are they squabbling again?"

The doctor nodded. "Dante is having all he can handle to keep the two of them from sending out the Apocalypse. The basement and the attic, as you call them, are becoming quite argumentative lately."

"Let me guess," Ptolemy said, "the Seven Jewels?"

"Bingo," she replied. "The basement wants more representation, while the attic isn't willing to bend. Plus the release of the Saint recently only made things worse."

Ptolemy looked up at the ceiling. "Both sides are stubborn. How bad is it really?"

McManus sighed as she took a chair. "Both sides are building forces. And you remember the last time they did that."

He nodded. "Yes, they do tend to drag everyone in when they do, don't they? Hiroshima and Nagasaki were proofs of that."

He looked over at the curtains to the kitchen. "It's awful quiet in there," he commented.

Rakka, Nemu and Sumika, all of whom were holding a glass as if to silence their screaming, all gasped for air realizing they had just been caught eavesdropping.

"What… what does this all mean?" Rakka asked as she slowly stepped through the flaps of the curtains.

Ptolemy grunted again and dropped the magnifier of the table with a thunk.

"War," he said. "A dirty ugly war that most likely will drag everyone in with it, much like the last skirmish did."

"Does that mean it would come here?" Nemu asked as she hurried to be beside Rakka.

Ptolemy shook his head. "I have no idea. The last time the basement and attic went at it in a serious manner, it wasn't over anything in particular. But if they're fighting over these Holy Sites, then I would say most definitely yes. And it would drag all the other worlds into the fray, first overloading the Sites with new arrivals, and then possibly bringing the fighting here."

"That would be the Armageddon Syndrome we predicted after we moderated the last skirmish," the doctor noted. "There would be no recovery from this. It would bring on the end."

Rakka swallowed. The thought was incredible. Heaven fighting Hell? That was the eternal battle, was it not? Good verses evil? The thought pounded through her mind all the way to her job in the catacombs of the town walls. Her crew was waiting for her as she slowly opened the hatchway.

"Are you okay?" Toki asked her seeing the near blank stare she had on her face.

Rakka remembered the last thing Ptolemy and McManus told her – keep this to herself. Keep this to herself, but also…

"…Keep an eye out," the young old man had told her. "Keep an eye out for the trigger."

"The trigger?" she had asked.

He nodded. "Yes… the trigger that may launch all of this. This sounds like a powder keg waiting to be lit. We do not need it blowing up in our faces."

The door clanked open as the group entered the passage.

"Oh, look!" Cinder called out making Rakka spin about.

The tunnel was lit up like someone was using an arc welder in the area up by the falls where they had been cleaning just the other day. Rakka saw it and gasped. Before any in the party could ask, she was running along the canal's edge towards the light.

A tag… it was a tag shining bright. It was the one she had been working on yesterday!

"A Saint!" Rakka yelped. "A Saint is rising!"

"Anything could set the trigger," Ptolemy warned her. "And anything could set it off."

oOo

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