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.

12. To Hell & Back Again A Haibane's Journey

2011 REVISION

HAIBANE-RENMEI: CORPORATION

Chapter 12

To Hell and Back Again – A Haibane's Journey

By R. A. Stott

Strom sat on the back bench along side his predecessor, Gather Damon, as the representative to The Corporation, Dante and his assistants conferred in the center of the amphitheater they were in. On one side was the representatives from the attic - to the other were the basement. On the high bench was Amethyst, representing The Phoenix Guild. Strom stewed over the Celestial being there.

"If this is so important to them, why isn't the Phoenix sitting there instead of its flunky?" he groused.

Amethyst smacked a gavel on his desk. "The chair notes the attendance of two of the illustrious Denivan Council with us today," he snidely said to those assembled. "And not only the current leader, but the future one as well. Now why is that?"

Gather Damon stood up, glancing over at Strom. "This universe is quite unpredictable, sir," he said. "The fact that my colleague is with us today is proof of that."

"Indeed," Amethyst said as he leaned on the mallet. "I'm not sure how I would handle being able to meet my replacement so far from the fact... And why are we graced by your presence, Captain Strom? Are you not – how do they say it – crossing a time-line by being here?"

He stood up and pulled on his uniform. "We have been requested as mediators," he said stiffly. "Granted, the lead shall be with Gather Damon here as current leader of the Denivan at this moment in time – But I am also as an Observer, which is the mission that my ship and crew serves. Chronology wise, we may cross paths with our past and our futures. It usually does not hinder our work."

"Yes, mediators... but what about intervention?" Amethyst interjected. "Was it not your own ship that used its shields to prevent the Seventh Realm and the Twelfth Dragoon from coming to blows, but unfortunately resulted in the demise of the archangel Striker Aries?"

Strom adjusted his footing. "Unfortunately, yes, but as a final act to prevent war from breaking out in a Holy Site, which must be prevented at any costs, as you know, SIR."

"Umm," Dante attempted to add, "plus it was at the request of a Corporation representative..." but was ignored.

Amethyst smiled. "Surely, that responsibility falls to the Phoenix Guild, does it not, Captain Strom? I mean that is how I see it written in the Treaty of Set, or am I mistaken?"

Strom shuffled his feet to quell the want to scream at this ego seated across from them. "The action taken was within Treaty rules, unless the Phoenix Guild is now saying that it was there to take preventative actions? We certainly did not see any at the time. And you do know you or your master can't hide, since my first officer is a sensitive. He knows wherever you or anyone else with powers like ours is at any given point of time."

Amethyst adjusted his tie. "We chose to – observe – rather than interfere."

"THAT is OUR JOB, not YOURS… YOU should have been THE FIRST ONES THERE!" Strom finally thundered. "Prove to ME that the Phoenix Guild is capable of doing its job!"

Dante looked between the two men. It was quite obvious that there was a level of animosity being tossed back and forth. If the officer on the back bench was to be a moderator, peace was needed in the room where this moderation was going to be made. He cleared his throat.

"Gather Damon, what will your approach be for dealing with this situation?" he asked.

Dante was hoping that the other Denivan representative would have been a bit more settled, but he now was not in the mood to chastise his fellow member for speaking out of turn. Instead, he said, "First thing, if I am to be the mediator, I want THAT THING out of MY CHAIR!" while pointing an accusing finger at Amethyst.

Dante looked at his assistants, two of whom seemed to agree with the upset man. He then bowed towards the Celestial.

"I will have to agree with his point, though not with his wording, sir," Dante said. "As the Denivan is here to moderate, and the Phoenix Guild is here to enforce the Treaty, then the seat should be given to the chief moderator."

Amethyst spun the gavel in his hand. "Do you?" he asked. He glanced over at the now two angry glares he was getting from the back bench. "Umm… if looks could kill… Very well. The chair is yours." He stood up and stepped to one side, bidding Damon to have his seat.

It took a moment to find a way for Gather Damon to leave the back bench area, as there was no direct way to cross the floor to the front bench. Rather than take an unceremonious climb over the fence, he lifted off his feet and floated over it, gently landing on the center floor and walking the rest of the way. During this time, he never took his eyes off the Celestial, as it had been him who had created this venue in the first place. He climbed the step to the high bench and saw the chair that awaited him. It was an over-ostentatious monster that exuded more than it held.

"Remove that," he told Amethyst.

"It felt comfortable to me," the Celestial stated in a mock-hurt way. Damon glared at him as he sneered back at him. He waved his hand at the offending seat sending it slamming into the back of the room. He created a simple high-backed office chair and sat in it.

"A simple 'please' would have sufficed," Amethyst said as he slowly stepped down and walked over to the back bench, where a doorway suddenly appeared and allowed him to climb up into them. He smiled at Strom and sat on one end as the Captain sat down on the other.

"This is getting us nowhere," Dante grumbled. "Gentlemen, if we are finished with the posturing, may we get down to business?"

Damon looked at the gavel that was lying on his desk and shooed it away as well. He then created a stone and slate set. He tapped them with a loud cracking sound.

"We are here today to deal with a dispute between the attic and the basement over equal standings within the Holy Sites," Damon announced as he shuffled through some papers that were handed to him from Dante's group. "I would like to thank the representatives for coming here today."

"That is not all!" a shout from his right was made. Damon looked up at the group from the attic in surprise.

"Excuse me?" he asked.

"What about the baby?" a deity dressed in red and gold called out.

"What about this attempt at drawing souls down to the basement?" another added.

"Do not attempt to put that blame on US!" someone from Damon's left now refuted. "We are still at a loss to what that was all about in the first place!"

Damon struck the gavel stone hard sending a loud bang through the room. "That will be enough!" he yelled. "Mr. Dante, what is the reading The Corporation can give us on what did occur an hour ago?"

Dante straightened his tie and looked over some data Rhea handed him. "Sir, from what we can find, a large downward pull on spirits and souls was made, but unlike the previous attack when the Archangel Striker Aries was… dispersed… a defined attack method was not found. The response though did come from the attic, which was the forceful reinsertion of the souls that had been brought back down to the Holy Sites by the first action."

Damon wrote notes on this description. "Were all souls accounted for?" he asked.

Dante cleared his throat. "Umm… no sir," he said.

"Oh, and they went where then?" Amethyst asked. He saw a look of anger from Strom. "I will have to know if the Phoenix Guild has to intervene, now won't I?"

Dante leaned over to listen to Rhea as she whispered in his ear. She was busy relaying information being downloaded to her via her laptop.

"I am told that since this was a system-wide breach, all Holy Sites were involved, and that only the souls that landed in Glie/Guri zone have completely returned to where they came."

"Why does that not surprise me, what with all that's going on there?" Amethyst snorted and he leaned back against his bench.

"Maybe so," Strom said to his side, "but we still need to know where those souls went in the other zones, and why Glie was the only one that returned theirs."

Amethyst gave him a slothful look. Strom glared back.

The gavel stone was tapped, drawing their attention. Damon was leaning over his desk at Amethyst.

"Perhaps you should be investigating where they all went?" he suggested to him. "After all, is that not your area according to the Treaty?"

Amethyst sighed and leaned over and planted his hands on his knees. "Oh, very well, if you insist!" He vanished.

So did all the furniture in the room, save the chair Gather Damon sat in. Everyone dropped to the ground of the now empty room. Rhea's laptop clattered and sparked as it bounced.

Amethyst stuck his head through a wall. "Oh, did I forget to tell you that since I set up this venue, if I go, it goes with me? 'Sorry about that! Ciao!" He vanished again.

"I really hate that guy," Rhea steamed. She collected her computer and looked to see if it still responded to her. It managed to chirp. She frantically ran over the keyboard as she read the flickering screen.

"We have another situation in Glie," she reported.

---

The green portal was swirling on the floor between the doorway to the balcony and the visitor's room. A bat-like creature had Hikari by her right wing. She was holding the baby away from the clamoring creature as the housemother was swatting it with a broom. Kinza burst through the doorway from the stairwell and charged in with Rakka close behind him. The demon saw him coming and wrapped itself around Hikari's legs and dragged her in.

"Yarrrgh!" Kinza growled as he dove after her, only to find the entry snap shut around him. His legs were dangling on one side while his loud and cursing end was within the nearly-closed Demon's Gate. Rakka grabbed them and attempted to pull him back.

"Don't pull him back! Push him IN!" Gabrella yelled as she came over the balcony's wall. "He'll want to follow them!"

Rakka looked back momentarily at the Demon-Goddess. "What?" she asked as she continued to pull.

"I SAID PUSH!" Gabrella yelled as she shoved Rakka in the back. She was surprised at how easily they slipped through the hole in the floor – both of them.

"Oops," Gabrella said as Katherine stood beside her. The hole was starting to shrink.

"We have to follow," the Goddess said as she took Gabrella's hand.

"What?" she asked. She found herself suddenly shrunk down to a tiny size and then unceremoniously dragged through what was left of the portal.

Kinza flopped onto the mushy surface of the dark and oddly green world he was now in. He was then splattered further as Rakka landed on him.

"Who was pulling me back there Rakka?" he groused.

"I'm sorry," Rakka nearly cried as she rubbed herself where she hit. "Where are we?"

Kinza sat up massaging his sore leg. He looked around them. "Down a pretty nasty rabbit hole, that's for sure. Maybe Philadelphia."

"You're certainly are off the path, that is for certain," they heard from above them. When they looked up though, all they saw were two small doll-like things that looked like a tiny Katherine and Gabrella.

"Belkar's beard, what happened to you two?" Kinza asked as they lighted on Rakka's halo, or at least momentarily. Gabrella found her feet sizzling after a few seconds, so she lifted off and floated over to the Tomassamassa's shoulder. Katherine moved to Rakka's after she discovered the disk spun slowly over the Haibane's head.

"Ask her," the demon growled with a nasty gesture towards the goddess. "I only told this one to shove you in, not for us to follow along a shrinking path!"

Katherine was about to counter her when Hikari's scream for help echoed around them. The dark void made it sound as if the cry had come from all around them.

"Hikari!" Rakka shouted into the black.

"Rakka!" was called back. Kinza twisted his ears about trying to center a possible direction to head, but the echo was too pronounced. But he had little time to explain this, as he now had to contend with a running Haibane who was vanishing into the distance.

"Hey! WAIT!" he shouted as he scrambled to his feet and chased after Rakka.

She splattered along the damp mushy surface. "Hikari!" Rakka shouted again.

"RAKKA!" she heard as if right beside her ear. Both she and the mini Katherine winced. She slid to a stop.

"Hikari?" she asked looking about. All she could see was the approach of the Tomassamassa.

"Rakka?" she heard, again as if Hikari were standing beside her.

A baby cried for a moment.

"KONI?!" they heard Hikari ask. "Where is Koni?"

Rakka spun about. "Hikari, where are you? I can hear you as if you're here! Do you still have Koni?"

"I… I thought I did, but, I don't know now," she heard her reply.

"Something is not right," Katherine stated as she sensed around. "It is as if she has been dispersed."

She looked over at Rakka from her perch on her shoulder, and saw she was not exactly listening to her. The Haibane was looking up at something.

"Rakka!" she then heard. "Rakka, where did you go?"

Katherine followed Rakka's gaze and saw Kinza.

She saw him looming overhead.

"EVERYBODY STOP MOVING, NOW!" the Goddess shouted.

Kinza froze momentarily. He then dropped his right foot down with a wet thud nearby.

"Okay, Katherine, I hear you," he said, "but I don't see you."

"Mr. Kinza, we're down here!" Rakka shouted while waving her hands about. "Between your feet!"

The security officer winced, as did the Demon-Goddess to the volume of Rakka's call.

"EEK!" Rakka jumped as Hikari's scream startled her. She looked up at Kinza.

Then it struck her. If he was now a giant to her… she slowly looked down.

Right next to her left foot was a tiny Hikari. She gasped and held her breath as she gingerly moved her shoe away.

"What sort of madness is this?" Katherine asked at the oddly mis-proportioned situation they were in.

"Beelzebub," Gabrella sighed. "We are in a dimensional trap set up by some minor demon," she explained. "Each of us will have to retrace our movements back to where we started to regain our proper perspectives to one another."

Hikari was sitting on the ground looking up at all of them. She looked down between her legs and found a tiny giggling face staring back at her.

"Koni!" she exclaimed as she gently picked up the palm-sized baby.

"Do you remember which way you came Hikari?" Kinza asked.

"N-no," she replied. "And how am I supposed to fix this? I can't leave Koni here to retrace my steps!"

Kinza huffed. "Are you sure about this?" he asked the already small Demon-Goddess who was sitting on his shoulder. "I mean, they both sound like they are standing beside me, not tiny little things below me."

Gabrella thought a moment. "Reach out with your paw," she suggested.

Kinza looked down and saw Rakka looking up at him. He saw her position relative to him and stretched his arm out. He then closed his eyes and grabbed at something in the air.

Rakka felt a tug on her right shoulder. She looked over and placed her hand on something that she could see was making her shirt wrinkle slightly. She felt a furry hand.

Kinza opened his eyes and glanced at Gabrella. She seemed a bit redder than before.

"Someone is playing me for the fool," she snarled. "This is an illusion of sight, not perspective." She snapped her fingers. Kinza looked back to find his paw now resting on Rakka's shoulder with Rakka attached. They both looked down to see Hikari and the baby, but found her being dragged off to their side into the dark void.

"Help! Help! Help!" she screamed as a pair of green demons had her by the shoulders and were sliding her along. Koni remained snug in her arms.

"Just WHERE do you think you're TAKING HER?!" Gabrella thundered before Kinza could utter the same words. The two demons stopped and shivered. They looked back over their shoulders at her.

"Mistress, why are you so small?" the one on Hikari's right asked.

"We did not see you before mistress," the other one hissed nervously.

Gabrella snapped a glare at her rival on Rakka's shoulder. "That actually is a good question," she quipped. "Why are we still so small?"

Katherine harrumphed and snapped her fingers. When she looked back, the Demon-Goddess was still glaring at her from the top of Kinza's left arm, and she was still on standing of Rakka's.

"I needed to get us through that small portal intact," she now nervously stated as she snapped her fingers a few more times and still got no results. She reached up and touched her multi-clipped chain earring.

"Hey, don't even think of that!" Gabrella shouted. "Especially here!"

"What?" Kinza asked. "What is that?"

"Blasted rookie," Gabrella snarled. She flung her hair back to show her own earring dangling from the left side of her face. "Our limiters," she now growled with disgust. "A by-product of this treaty we live under."

"Ah, yes, I forgot about those," the security chief said. "I find it odd though that you folks could still detonate a good part of this sector with one thought with one of those things on, but still find that still too constraining."

"I could destroy this entire universe!" Gabrella shouted then caught herself.

"That wouldn't leave you much for your father to attempt to rule over, would it?" Kinza noted as he stepped between the two demons with Hikari and wherever they were headed. "So what is the problem Katherine?"

She seemed a bit fidgety. "I… I don't know. My powers seemed strained here – depleted…"

"And just where is here?" Rakka demanded.

Gabrella looked about. "Well, we're not in the Demon's Gate. The green aura is gone."

Kinza sniffed. "And I smell a bit of… I think that's sulfur… in the air."

The twin demons got a face-full of the tiny Gabrella. "We're on the outskirts, aren't we?" she rumbled through them.

They swallowed. "Orders, ma'am… we are just following orders," they whimpered.

Kinza rolled his eyes. "Belkar's beard… Katherine, remove one clip from your limiter."

"WHAT?!" Gabrella screamed. She found one of Kinza's clawed fingers gently tapping her forehead.

"You want to be doll sized forever?" he asked her. "Those limiters, as you put it, are also stabilizers and containment controls for when you're in the other's territory. Since you said we're close to Torval's Lock, then I'll assume that Katherine's containment shield has kicked in, and is preventing her from using power to restore you two."

"But, I would be breaking the rules if I remove any of the restraints," Katherine said with a shaky twitter in her voice.

"Only for the briefest of moments," Kinza explained, "and you'll clip it back into place once you've done what you need to do, right?"

Katherine teased at the earring. "Umm, yes?"

"YES," Kinza added with a bit more emphasis. "Besides, I bet you'll find that your powers will return to you once you're normal size. You're actually using energy to have yourselves so small. It ain't natural!"

Katherine nervously pulled on the one chained strand, which slid a clip off the lobe of her ear. A rumble growled around them. She looked about waiting for something to happen.

"Easy, commander," Kinza said to calm her. "We don't need to drag the Seventh Realm down here by setting off your internal security alarm."

Katherine looked shocked at the security officer. "I didn't… did I?" she stammered. "Oh dear, I think I did… just a moment…" She strained herself as she sent out a telepathic call of restraint. She then let out a sigh of relief.

"Rookie," Gabrella snarled. A moment later, she found herself full sized again on Kinza's shoulder. He was not ready for the suddenly large demon being there. He tipped over and they landed in a heap at Hikari's feet. Koni giggled from her arms.

"I'm sorry," Katherine said as she quickly re-clipped the dangling strand back to her ear.

Kinza waved his paw about as he stood up and assisted Gabrella to her feet. "No problem. I'm sure you've got one hell of a learning curve to deal with right now." He then turned his attention onto the two demons on either side of Hikari. They shrunk back.

"Okay you two, spill it!" he growled. "You said that you were ordered to take Koni – BY WHOM?"

The simple fact that the angry glare was not only coming from the enraged Tomassamassa, but also by the senior Demon-Goddess hanging over his shoulder made them quiver and shrink some more.

"Bottom!" the one on the left squeaked.

"Yea, yea, a bottom!" the other agreed. "A real feeder!"

"Someone at the end of the chain!" the first one added.

Kinza looked at Gabrella with a perplexed expression. "Have you any idea what they are yammering about?"

"Chain? Are you people still using the chain allegory?" Katherine asked her before she could answer Kinza.

Gabrella grunted as she snarled at the two squirming underlings. "It's a reference to the powers that be," she said. "The proverbial tug-of-war, so to say. On one end - the HEAVEN end - would be YOUR father." She added a jabbing poke at her rival. "On the other would be MY father."

"The HELL end," Kinza added for her.

"Yes," Katherine said, "and this chain between them is long. And for every link towards the center is a level of strength, and to where the weakest links dwell. With the most powerful strengths on either end, having the weakest in the middle is a bad analogy, and the reason why we don't use it any longer, as there are plenty of strong souls who are situated there."

"Your captain is an example of one of these," Gabrella continued. "That is why they consider the Denivan a good moderating source. It is their duty to police both ends of the chain. And there are others in this central area."

"Let me guess, the Phoenix Guild? Celestials?" Kinza asked.

"Very good, Mr. Kinza." Katherine complimented. "Did you deduce that?"

Kinza shook his head. "It wasn't hard. I've been hearing him grouse about those two for the last few weeks. As for the chain analogy, I don't think it's too bad a model. I'd like to hear more about it."

Gabrella foisted the two demons by the scruffs of their necks and dragged them away from Hikari. "Well, as these two mentioned, a 'bottom' refers to those who dwell within this area of the chain, which is not the end that our fathers reside, but actually the other end – the one pointing towards the center of the links – the divide that keeps our two sides apart."

"So the Denivan, the Phoenix Guild and Celestials reside in this central 'bottom' area?" Kinza asked.

Gabrella nodded as she plopped the two squirming runts at his feet. "As do all other beings of the worlds of the living."

Rakka felt a shiver run up her spine. "Living? What do you mean by that? Aren't you alive?"

Gabrella looked at her puzzled. "Well now that's an interesting question," she said while tapping her chin with a finger. "I certainly would consider myself alive." She glanced over at Katherine and snorted. "I guess we'd have to say the same for you."

The goddess cleared her throat. "Different levels will perceive life in their own way."

"Different levels?" Hikari asked.

"Different levels of existence," Kinza surmised.

Katherine bowed slightly towards him. "Correct, though deep down, you would still find the beating of a heart." She gave Gabrella a return glance. "Somewhere…"

Kinza scratched his temple. "Maybe, but in the case of you two, it's more like an energy pump."

The Goddess and Demon looked at him with a bit of incredulous shock. "Energy pumps?" they asked in chorus. They saw him tapping his head.

"I see things differently than humans or humanoids," he explained. "And yes, I guess if we were to slice and dice, we'd probably find those hearts you mentioned. But to me, you two, especially in this dark place, have an aura around you of pure energy. Sorry if it makes it sound a bit cold, but that's science for you."

"What about us?" Hikari asked a bit shyly. "What do you see when you look at us?"

Kinza laughed. "Well, you three shocked me at first," he said.

"Shocked?" Rakka asked.

He scratched his cheek. "To me, you looked like normal humans. No extraordinary auras, glows or visuals… at least not at first. I only saw you as humanoids that happen to have wings on their backs. But once I got a better look at you, there was an aura emanating from your heads. It seems to support that doughnut you've got hanging there."

Gabrella twanged Rakka's halo. "That reminds me," she directed at the goddess behind her, "where is your ring of obedience?"

Katherine scowled at her. "It is NOT a ring of OBEDIENCE!" she snapped. "And I have mine right here!" She lifted the golden band up from the top of her head revealing her own ring. But when she attempted to reinsert it within her hair, it stubbornly refused to go.

"Oh, Gabby, I wish you hadn't done that!" Kinza harped. "Now she's going to stick out like a sore thumb!"

Katherine was slightly in a panic. "Why won't it got back in?" she repeatedly yelped as she struggled with her wayward halo.

"I would guess that the answer would be location, location and location," Kinza suggested. "The halo represents a link to the attic. And while you're down here, your internal systems are asking for a stronger signal…"

"So her antenna is stuck in the 'up' position?" Gabrella snickered then burst into hard laughter. Katherine turned scarlet with rage.

"I'm going to take you to Heaven to see if your horns grow!" she flustered.

Rakka, who did not take kindly to the twanging of her own floating ring, stepped between the two women. "Now wait a minute, I need some explaining!" she demanded. "What about this chain thing? How can a 'bottom' that is from the end of this chain be from the middle?"

Kinza cleared his throat. "It's an analogy," he explained. "Both sides have a section of this chain – an attic section, and a basement section. But there is the third section that is between the two outer units, hence the reason why these 'ends' actually point at each other, am I correct?"

Gabrella nodded in agreement. "And to some," she emphasized towards the two demons at his feet, "this area is considered beneath them…"

"Which is another reason why the chain analogy is no longer used," Katherine added. "When people like the Denivan, the Celestials, or even humans reside within this section, who is it to say that they are bottom feeders, when they actually have the strength to defeat us?"

Gabrella seemed on the verge of saying "Us?" when she realized that what had taken most of the attacking angels out back when the sites had been created could have easily done the same to her demons, she quickly withdrew the comment. She cleared her throat instead.

"One way or the other, even the high and sort-of-mighty Corporation still refers to the chain analogy," she noted.

"Seven Jewels! Seven Jewels!" the two demons cheered. They withered back again when she snapped a glare at them.

"Ah," Kinza said as he realized what they meant. "I thought that referred to a necklace."

"Huh?" Hikari asked in confusion. A chime from Kinza's pocket alerted them that they were about to breach some cardinal rule.

Kinza rolled his eyes and sighed as he tapped the com patch. "S.A.M., they all ready know that there are other Holy Sites. The Haibane Sol who is living with them is from Tripoli, and they know that."

The computerized sentinel chirped and remained silent, having had its thunder quashed before it could strike.

"In the chain theory," Katherine continued, "the section between the two outer ones is not just a straight line – there are many links that hang from it. And in the center is a section known as the Seven Jewels. It is described as a fine necklace that dangles from iron links."

"You have Tripoli as its center, as it is the largest of the Holy Sites," Kinza said. "On either side are Lucerne and Glie/Guri, Kanto beside Glie, Reykjavikacross from that, and Delhi and Sydney on the outer section. And these seven places are where you Haibane are dropped into on your way to… well either up or down, whichever way you're headed."

Rakka nearly staggered back a bit. "There are seven places like Glie?" An image of the southern slews gates flashed through her head. "So, you mean that if Koi had passed through the south gates in the cavern, he would have wound up in Sol's home?"

Kinza scratched an ear. "Umm, I don't know about that – Sol came from Tripoli, and she wound up in your town. I would think you'd more likely wind up in Kanto, but from what I remember of the interlinks between the sites I've read, it's a bit more complicated than that. Besides, that's not what's being pointed out here."

"Then what IS being pointed out here?" Rakka demanded.

"If this is a tug-of-war," Kinza stated, "and the necklace of the Seven Jewels is in the middle, then you are the subject of this battle."

"And Koni?" asked Hikari clutching the baby.

"She is a wild card," Gabrella stated. "She is a free soul that either side could claim and have equal rights over. Even her vessel is neutral."

Katherine stepped up and pointed at Koni. "Halo and wings!" she barked.

Gabrella sneered. "Look again, dearie – only wings. That ring of yours isn't there on her. And it wouldn't be too difficult to swap feathers for leather. Besides, even those metal want-to-be halos these two are spinning over their heads can be plucked like loose down. This soul could go either way, because it's free, without a care in this world, and no predetermined place to go. As much as you might dislike it, THAT'S how the Treaty of Set has it set up!"

"Set! Set! Set!" the two demons chanted.

"Don't cheer him!" Gabrella snapped. "If he hadn't been so busy trying to take apart his brother, we wouldn't be stuck with this ridiculous treaty of his!"

"Fine – swell – great!" Hikari nervously stammered. "Mr. Kinza, how do we get out of here? I'm feeling cold, and I'm sure this isn't good for Koni."

Rakka looked about the darkness. She felt the cold as well. But it was not a chill caused by the temperature. It was familiar to her – almost as if she were… exposed…

"SUITS!" she chirped.

Everyone looked at her with a puzzled expression.

"The suits!" she repeated. "We should be in the cloaks I wear down in the catacombs! They are needed to protect us from what might come up and get us!"

Kinza dug into the pocket of his pants and pulled out the pendant he had used on the spirit of Kuu earlier. He slipped it over Hikari and the baby. He then pulled a second one off his own neck and draped it over Rakka.

"Actually," he said as he started setting the power levels on the two Doorknob devices, "those suits block all energy, including that of the attic. Again, per the treaty, when you're down there, you're supposed to go in as a neutral. These will work in the same way."

As he twiddled with the dial on the Doorknob while scanning them with his rod, he noticed odd glares from the goddess and the demon.

"Okay, what's with you two?" he asked while working between the three Haibane.

"Mr. Kinza! I would have never thought of YOU as working for her side!" Katherine snarled.

The Tomassamassa looked bemused. Before he could say anything though…

"MY SIDE?!" Gabrella jumped in. "Hardly! Just look at what he's doing to them! And HERE of all places!"

Rakka looked at Hikari – she could not see anything out of the ordinary, and neither could Hikari see any of her either.

Kinza crossed his arms and snorted. "Okay, what are you seeing?"

Katherine pointed at Rakka with a nearly shaking accusing finger. "I see a demonic red glow!"

"Red?" Gabrella questioned her. "That's not red! That's your accursed holy white light that you spew whenever you start sprouting your wings or some other connecting you do with that place you're from!"

They then noticed the blunt and almost grumpy look that the Tomassamassa was giving them.

"What you are seeing is the Doorknob's energy shield deflecting off the energy that is trying to enter into them from their surroundings," Kinza stated. "And I'm surprised by just how much you can see here, Miss Gabrella, seeing how close to your home we are."

"It's probably being redirected to them by her!" she snarled with a lizard-like hiss.

"It probably was, which is just as well, as that protects you from violating the treaty, now doesn't it?" Kinza pointed out. "Even-Steven, as the humans say. So, now that we've settled that problem, why not solve the other? Let's find a way back to Glie so that we don't violate the treaty further, ea?"

"Don't you want to find out who it was who ordered this kidnapping?" Katherine scolded him.

Kinza glared at her. "My job right now is the safety of these three while they are down here. Yes, I would LOVE to know who that was, but that's a job for the Phoenix Guild, not me!"

"Bottom feeder! Bottom feeder!" the two demons called, causing Gabrella to swat them over their heads to silence them.

"Unless it was one of them…" Kinza noted from the imp's reaction. "Bottom feeders – isn't that what you would call a member of the Phoenix Guild?"

"Members of the Denivan too!" the left demon yelped.

Gabrella snagged the two demons by the scruff of their necks and lifted them to her face.

"Since when do we take orders from outside sources, gentlemen?" she asked them through gritted teeth. "Describe this bottom feeder."

"Well… ah… He… he… heeeeeEEEEEEEEE E!" the left demon squealed. He seemed to shrivel like a raisin. He then crumbled to sand.

"I won't say!" the other demon chirped as bits of its companion bounced off his dangling feet. "We promised we would not say!"

"What happened to it?" Hikari asked as she shielded Koni from the dusty spray.

"It was cursed," Katherine stated as she examined the pile that had formed on the ground.

"See? See? I will not say!" cried the other demon.

"You don't have to son," Kinza told him. "You narrowed it down pretty well."

"Narrowed?" Rakka asked.

Kinza nodded. "The Denivan does not curse. Neither does the Phoenix Guild for that matter. That leaves only Celestials."

Katherine looked at the security officer with concern. "Can a Celestial curse?"

Kinza shrugged. "I don't know," he said. "I've never seen one up close enough to find out. The best I would be able to do is ask an expert." He then turned and looked at Gabrella.

"Oh sure, ask the demon like I'd know!" she complained. "How should I know if a Celestial can curse or not?"

"The fact that it was the basement that suggested to the Phoenix Guild to use Celestials as guards during the negotiations for the Treaty of Set?" Kinza suggested. Gabrella stared at him.

"How the HEAVEN did you know that?" she asked him. "You actually found that out during your prep work?"

Kinza scratched his ear as he looked about. "Amazing just what you have to buck up on for a mission, ain't it? Are we missing something?"

Gabrella looked at her clawed hand – the demon she had been holding by the scruff of its neck had vanished. She snorted some steam as she looked around them to see where it had gone to. She then snapped a glare on the baby in Hikari's arms.

"YOU! GET OUT OF THERE!" she demanded of the infant.

"What?" Hikari asked as she held Koni back from the grasp of the large red woman. "Get out of where? I don't understand!"

Rakka grabbed Koni as Hikari was occupied, starling her fellow Haibane. But when Hikari saw her holding the baby out at arm's length, she examined the infant more clearly.

It had a forked tongue, and red glowing eyes. She hissed, and her tiny wings beat savagely at the girl holding her out.

Kinza was not amused as he snagged the flickering tongue and yanked. Hikari was thinking it might hurt the baby, but was surprised when the Tomassamassa had an imp demon dangling from his paw, and Rakka had a surprised and stunned baby in hers.

"OW! OW! OW!" the imp was screaming.

"Serves you right!" Gabrella snarled. "I don't care if you're cursed or not, I want the name of who sent you to get that baby!"

The imp sighed as it swung from its tongue like soap-on-a-rope. "Name I can not gwive woo… Nevwer sween this Cewestiwal befowre."

"So it wasn't Amethyst? Have you ever seen Amethyst?" Kinza asked.

It shook its head. "Nowt Amafwist. Have sween Amafwist before. Nowt him."

"You know, it might be easier to understand him if he weren't swinging from his tongue," Katherine noted.

"Yea, but this just might be what's saving him from the curse," Kinza replied. "It must be a spoken hex, which sometimes means verbally saying words that are understood BY the spell… otherwise we'd be dealing with demon dust by now."

"HOW do you know about these things?" Gabrella asked again, this time in a more flabbergasted way.

"My captain has a big library," Kinza smirked. "How is she?" he asked Rakka of the baby.

"She seems okay," she answered as she handed her back to Hikari. But as the exchange was being made, the ground under them seemed to vanish. It was strange though – they never felt like they lost their footing. It was the way the others had flown away and how the wind briefly whipped their hair that made them feel like they had dropped.

Kinza tossed the demon at the spot where the girls had been and saw it bounce. There was no hole in the dark ground.

"Parism Gate!" Gabrella snarled. "Someone high up just took them!"

Katherine crossed her arms. "Why would that worry you?" she asked.

The Demon-Goddess glared at her. "Because I AM one of those higher ups, and I don't know what's going on!" she snapped back. "Remember, I am the head of communications between our respective houses."

"Can you follow them?" Kinza asked her.

She pointed at the spot the girls had vanished from. "You mean with another Parism? I could, but it wouldn't help. Parism Gates are non-traceable."

Just then there was a brilliant flash of light behind her.

She looked back over her shoulder a bit bewildered. "Or… we could just follow where that flash of light just came from, because I sense that they just broke that charm somehow…"

Rakka and Hikari found themselves skidding along the smooth ground, their clothes smoldering slightly, as they coughed and wheezed. Hikari was wrapped around Koni while Rakka held onto both of their Haibane halos with her hands.

"Hey!" they heard from the distance. "Are you guys all right?"

Rakka could just barely see Kinza hobbling along towards them on his bum leg. She laid down on her back and gasped for air.

"What… what was that?" she gagged.

Kinza staggered up to her, just as out of breath having force-dragged his injured leg along. "According to our friend Gabby here, you were just taken for a ride through a Parism Gate, whatever the heck that is. How did you break it?"

Rakka tried to reassemble what had happen in her mind. "We fell… sort of… I guess…" she boggled through. "We were being dragged along when I thought I heard Koi's voice."

"Koi?" Katherine asked as she arrived. "What did he say to you?"

Rakka rubbed the back of her neck. "He told me to grab our halos."

Katherine and Kinza looked at one another and nodded. "Smart boy," she said. "He had you activate one of the few self-defense items a Haibane has. The light leaves that make up your halo create a shield against demonic auras. Grabbing them directly causes them to harden that barrier."

"Yea, but you're lucky you didn't twist your heads off doing that!" Kinza noted as the girls were rubbing their necks after nearly wrenching them free of their bodies. Not having a halo yet, Koni seemed oblivious to what had happened to her sisters. She hiccuped.

---

Back in the courtyard of Old Home, Dr. McManus was requesting backup for all the new walking wounded, including the two smoldering Haibane who had just trundled in with what scanned as near whiplash issues.

Ptolemy watched the three remaining Kinzas in scientific curiosity. He found the paradoxes interesting to watch.

"Claudius, give me a hand, would you?" the Kinza who looked like the one who had just vanished down the unauthorized Demon's Gate asked him. "I know you're about to have to return to your office, but we need to figure out the best choice here."

"HALOS!" Koi suddenly shouted from his seat as he awoke from all he had just gone through. He looked at the startled expressions around himself. He felt a bandage on his forehead and a sizable lump underneath.

"Halo to you too," the Kinza nearest him said.

"What is this?" he asked. "What have I done now?"

Rakka bent down and gave him a smoky smile. She then gave him a gentle kiss to the cheek.

"You saved us," she told him. "Thank you."

"Yes, thank you," Hikari added, and kissed his other cheek. They then sat on either side of him on the lounge chair and quickly nodded off to sleep with him thoroughly confused between them.

"You know, they both smell really bad," he whispered. "Where the hell have they been?"

"Exactly," the near Kinza commented, leaving him still confused.

The one in the borrowed shirt whistled. "Okay, let's get to business on this temporal incursion gentlemen!" he announced. "As you know, I am the new 0-0 Breakpoint, and you two are my eeeevil doppelganger alternates. I need reference points, your reports, and your tailors – why do both of you have my uniform? Shouldn't you two be dressed like me?"

The two uniformed officers looked at one another. "We're both from your future," the one on the left told him.

"Yes, one of Dr. McManus' orderlies will bring a new uniform to you in the next day or so," the other one added. The left one nodded in agreement.

"Good!" 0-0 Kinza sighed. "These are okay," he said tugging on his current shirt, "but they're so pedestrian, and the wing holes let in a draft. Okay… relevances?"

"I am from stardate 0708.172," the left one said as he handed 0-0 his paperwork. "You continue with your current operation with only a minor alternate deviation of… well, you'll see…" He gestured to the papers.

"He can't do that!" the right one burst. "The result will be catastrophic!"

"HEY!" 0-0 scolded him. "You know better than that! No arguing with yourself! Now then… relevance!"

The right Kinza snapped-to. "Sorry sir," he excused himself. "I am from stardate 0708.183. You will continue with your mission as stated, but also start working on this." He handed him his paperwork.

0-0 Kinza looked at the two packets of paper handed to him. "I never realized how much I couldn't follow the Observers rules on these encounters," he grumbled to Ptolemy. "Gentlemen, why is it, when the rule is that we be able to present our argument on ONE page, we seem to like to WRITE BOOKS?!"

"Because we never liked the idea that a situation like this could be explained in just one page," the left Kinza said with the right nodding in agreement.

"Yea, that's until you've got to READ them!" 0-0 groused. "I'm surprised that there are only two of you."

"Actually, we started out with about eighty three total," the senior Kinza noted, "but we whittled to down to just us two."

0-0 stared at them. "Wow… that's a pretty big number… and Captain Strom whittled you down?"

"Actually, the Captain is indisposed right now," the other Kinza said. "He's with Gather Damon at the mediation tribunal between the Attic and the Basement."

Ptolemy looked at his watch. "They should be grinding away at it alright," he commented. "I'm sure Dante is enjoying himself right now."

Dante sneezed as a few feathers floated over his head. An irate member of the Attic side had just finished berating the leader of the Basement's delegation, and he seemed to be molting.

"So Mr. Button weeded you out," 0-0 stated. They nodded. "Well, he is a sensitive…"

"If you wish to read through them quicker," the left Kinza advised, "the first twelve pages are the same in each report."

"Except the title page," the right one added.

0-0 sighed and handed one copy to Ptolemy. "Tell me when you get to page twelve."

Kana and Nemu watched the scene around them. 0-0 Kinza had given them the now grown Koni so they could clean her up. She now had shoulder length brown hair and was wrapped in what looked like the remains of Rakka's sweater. Her wings were sooty as was the rest of her.

"Do we have anything that will fit her?" Kana asked as they headed for the dorms.

"We'll ask the housemother," Nemu suggested and headed upstairs to the guest room.

The housemother was seated on the edge of the bed all panicky. "They took her!" she yelped as Kana and Nemu entered. "Those demons took Hikari, Rakka and the baby!"

Kana held Koni up. "And now she's back!" she exclaimed. "Come on, we need to clean her up!"

The housemother pointed at the child. "That… that's Koni? That's not a baby…"

"Nope, now we have a toddler to deal with," Kana said avoiding a few giggling kicks the child was doing. "And since she's seemed to have learned to walk, we're in for one wild bath!"

Koi gave up attempting to rouse the two slumbering girls as they had draped themselves across his body. Rakka was against his left shoulder and Hikari was out like a light across his legs. He was well pinned.

"Where in the world did you two go?" he asked quietly, not expecting any answer. "I seem vaguely to remember seeing you falling…"

"Ummm… you told me to grab our halos," Rakka groggily answered him. "It caused us to break away from whatever it was that had hold of us. It was also the first thing that singed us, thank you very much!" She gave him a playful 'punch' to the side.

"Ow!" he laughed. "Do you mind? You two are getting heavy!"

"I don't wanna," Rakka said as she snuggled in. "You're comfortable!"

Koi plopped his head against the chair's pillow and sighed. "So what happened after that?" he asked her.

---

Kinza helped the two Haibane to their feet, brushing a few stray embers off their clothes.

"Where did these come from?" Rakka complained as she swatted a few that were starting to hurt.

"Exiting that Parism the way you did caused it," Gabrella told her as she assisted. "It forms a tube-like wall around you – kind of like a slow fall down a well. When you grabbed that… halo…" She gritted her teeth and stood back away from the offending ring over Rakka's head. "…It forcibly broke you out. It was a bit explosive."

"That would explain the melted heel on my shoe," Hikari said.

"You owe her a pair of shoes when we get out of here," Kinza told Gabrella as he pulled his patch communicator out of his pocket. "I'm going to see if I can get some help here."

"That won't work down here," Gabrella laughed. "You're well out of range…"

"S.A.M. Systems Relay Services!" the patch responded. Kinza grinned.

"You're never too far from a S.A.M. Systems unit, my dear," he smirked. "Nightwatch, buddy… do you hear me?"

She was about to berate him until she heard who he was calling. "Ooh, well, if you want to call him in, go right ahead! I won't stop you!"

Kinza scowled at her. "You're married!" he barked.

"Mated," she corrected him. "We don't have marriage like you heavenly types!" she shot at the goddess.

"Maybe you should TRY it, and maybe you'll truly believe in the sanctity of the act!" Katherine snapped back at her. "Even if you are only 'mated' to your betrothed, to lust after someone else is a sin!"

"That's me – calendar girl for the sinner's side!" Gabrella sneered. "Get off your holier-than-thou act, lady! You're in MY world now! DEAL WITH IT!"

"Nightwatch here," the patch replied. Kinza was watching the two bickering deities and shaking his head.

"Oh please tell me you can follow this signal here to assist us," he pleaded.

"Just a moment," Nightwatch said through the patch. "Interesting. I would ask what you are doing two leagues from Torval's Lock, but in a place like the Holy Sites, with all these Demon's Gates appearing lately, I should not be surprised."

"We're not here willingly, believe me," Kinza groused. "Any chance of using some of that special knowledge to assist us out of here? HEY YOU TWO!"

The Goddess and Demon stopped sniping at one another and looked at the Tomassamassa.

"There's a time and place – THIS ISN'T IT!" he chastised them. "What was that Nightwatch? I couldn't hear you for a moment…"

Rakka edged towards Katherine. "Nightwatch… isn't he that very tall man who was with us when we lost Striker Aries?" she whispered to her.

"Indeed," she told her. "He is a Chevarian. A very rare, extremely mystical creature. It is a pleasure to have him here with us."

"Is he another one of these 'bottoms'?" Hikari asked.

Katherine blinked and looked at her. So did Gabrella. Then they both broke out in laughter.

"Oh, what he would do if he heard someone call him a 'bottom'!" Gabrella giggled.

"Oh yes!" Katherine agreed. "Oh my, that would be… unwise!"

There was a brief moment as the two ladies pondered just how 'unwise' it was. This was followed by huge laughing fits that Rakka and Hikari could not fathom.

"I guess you just have to know him," Rakka noted to herself and Hikari.

Kinza folded the patch and stuffed it into his pocket as he watched the two ladies laughing. "First they're at each other's throats, and then they're having giggling fits! Scraggin' nuts!"

"So, is Mr. Nightwatch going to help us?" Hikari asked.

Kinza shrugged. "He's going to try – the nearest portal zone he can get to is over near the Lock."

"Lock?" Rakka asked.

Gabrella grinned at her. "The Gates of Hell to you. Mr. Kinza's people call it Torval's Lock."

Kinza straightened his shirt. "So, what's it like at this time of year?" he asked her.

She pondered it a bit. "Hot," she replied. "But then again, it always is."

"Now then, before we head over there," Kinza glared at her more seriously, "what will your true purpose there be? We all know your side wants Koni – so does Katherine's. What are your true motives, ma'am?"

The humor faded from Gabrella's face. "I told you before," she coldly stated. "I think it is best that you keep her neutral in this. As surprising as it might seem, I am truly on your side, Mr. Kinza Farley. What is happening here is unfortunate, but not entirely unexpected. As the communications contact between hell and heaven, I take offence that a plan like this was not sent through me first."

"Would you have condoned it?" Katherine asked bluntly.

"I would have nixed it," Gabrella shot back. "It is not productive, nor do I believe they would know what to do with her. Look at her. She just had a demon inside her. Does she look like it affected her? You, a mere mortal, were able to yank it out without harming her, as if she were just a bottle. Personally, I think she is a danger to us."

Kinza took Koni from Hikari's arms and rubbed his big cat-nose against hers which made her giggle. "Dangerous? You? Only if you poop! How can she be a danger to you?"

Gabrella thought for a moment. She then reached down and took Rakka's hand.

"OH!" the Haibane yelped.

"You felt that, didn't you?" the demon asked her. "You, who have cast off her sins, can feel the difference when I hold your hand, correct?"

Rakka shook her fingers. "It felt all tingly. Like a static shock."

"Are you sure it isn't because of this thing Mr. Kinza hung on us?" Hikari asked as she waved the Doorknob device by its chain.

"It's not set to her frequency," he said. "Otherwise you wouldn't be able to stand near her."

Gabrella smirked. "Now, take your friend's hand."

Hikari looked as if she were about to be electrocuted. She nervously took Rakka's right hand in hers. Gabrella then took Rakka's left.

"HIYEEE!" Hikari shrieked. She opened her eyes to see Rakka staring at her.

"It really isn't that bad," she told her.

"I can't help it," Hikari whimpered. "It startled me."

Gabrella huffed at her. "Now, give her the baby," she told Kinza.

The security officer pondered her a moment.

"Trust me," she assured.

He gently handed Koni back to Hikari.

"Now, make sure you're touching skin," Gabrella told the Haibane. As Hikari placed her hand on Koni's leg, the Demon-Goddess lightly took the baby's hand. "Do you feel anything?" she asked.

Hikari had clenched up expecting a shock. She then realized that nothing had happened and shook her head no.

"You, touch her arm," she told Rakka. She did as she was told.

"Nothing. I feel nothing," she reported.

"Maybe she turned whatever it is off," Hikari nearly accused. Gabrella reached over and grabbed Rakka's other hand again causing both girls to flinch. The baby still seemed unfazed.

Kinza was scanning them while this experiment was going on. "Serves you right," he jokingly admonished Hikari. "That would be impossible for someone with her amount of energy flowing through her. So, what do you think?" he asked Katherine.

"It could be because she hasn't received a halo yet," she speculated.

Kinza thought of that. "Hikari, hold her head up towards your halo, would you?" he asked her. He watched closely as she did. "Interesting… okay, thank you."

"Did you see anything?" Hikari asked him.

He stood in thought. "I saw nothing, which is the point. As I said earlier, I can see the energy between your head and that pseudo-halo you wear. Have you ever noticed that when you get close to one another, you slightly deflect each other's rings?"

Rakka and Hikari stood stumped for a moment. Rakka then leaned her head towards Hikari's halo, and sure enough, the pair angled back slightly.

"I've never noticed that before," she said with a bit of shock.

"It's all about electromagnetic fields and such," Kinza explained. "You can remove your halos, correct?"

"They'd get awfully dirty if we didn't clean them from time to time," Hikari said a bit indignantly.

Kinza smirked at the chiding. "Have you ever tried on someone else's halo?"

"You can't!" Rakka blurted loudly and then realized she had yelled that. "I mean, I accidentally tried Kana's halo once. It tossed me across the room."

"Exactly," the Tomassamassa stated. "When you got your halo, the energy that emanates from your head created the electromagnetic field that supports it. It also gives the metal and light leaves a magnetic charge that makes the halo unique to that individual. But I don't see that energy coming from Koni's head, and I certainly can't scan it."

"Which means?" the two confused Haibane asked him.

"She's a null," Gabrella pointed out in a blunt uncompassionate way.

Katherine nodded. "She's right. That makes her extremely rare. But it also makes her valuable to either side, as an unfettered soul."

"Yuck," Gabrella gagged. "Who wants an un-swaying soul? Besides, as a null, neither side could control her."

Kinza grunted. "Well someone down here thinks they can. Maybe you should drop in on Soltarn and see what your war chief is up to? You do outrank him, don't you?"

She just stood and glared at him. "I've given up trying to figure out how you know about these things," she hissed. "Well, I'll just have to find him to ask him then. He has to be around here somewhere..."

"How about that way?" Hikari asked. Kinza saw she was pointing behind him, but also saw that the slight red tinge that this world had been projecting on all of them was giving way to a glaring orange hue.

"Oh scragg," he mumbled as he glanced over his shoulder. A fireball was arcing over in the sky and was heading for them. He quickly calculated that it would fall short, but with this featureless smooth nothing they were standing in, it would probably skip the rest of the way. He grabbed the girls and leaped, pushing off with his good leg. The burning orb splattered as it struck and indeed scattered fiery chunks in the direction they had been.

"Gabby, get them to stop!" he yelled at the now floating Demon-Goddess as more flaming balls were being tossed at them. A few exploded en route, brought down by a bow and arrow manifested by Katherine. "I've got to get these three to the Lock!"

Gabrella acknowledged him and flew off in the direction the fireballs were coming from, followed by Katherine as she continued to down as many as possible. A few still landed close by as the girls got up and started to scamper in the opposite direction.

"THAT WAY! THAT WAY!" Kinza shouted as he tried his best to guide them. As he did, he suddenly saw them seemingly fly away into the air. It took him a moment to realize that it was actually himself falling, as he could see the fireballs lifting away as well, and that he was now trapped in a Parism Gate. He stopped attempting to run, folded his arms and waited for the end of the unexpected ride.

"Great… They're getting smarter. If you can't get the girls, get their protector!" he muttered to himself as he was swept away from them. "Now I wish I had one of those halos of theirs."

"Where did Mr. Kinza go?!" shouted Hikari. Rakka spun about and saw they were now alone. She also saw that Katherine had missed one of the fireballs, and it was heading right for them.

"Back! BACK! BACK!" she shouted as she snagged Hikari's arm and yanked her a few feet back the way they had come. The fireball planted itself squarely where the three girls had been and spread in the direction they had been heading. They missed being struck by the burning embers, but were still covered with smoky hot ash as they rolled away.

"Koni! Is Koni okay?" Rakka asked as she lifted Hikari up.

Tears were streaming down her face. "She's fine," Hikari wept. "What about Mr. Kinza?"

Rakka shook her head as she kept an eye out for more fireballs. "I don't know. Maybe he fell down one of those wells like we fell down. Right now though, we have to protect this baby! Do you hear me? Hikari?!" She shook her friend until she was wide-eyed and looking directly at her. She nodded.

"Good girl!" Rakka smiled. "Let's get going. Mr. Nightwatch should be that way."

A tall red-skinned satyr resplendent in a military uniform of ropes and epaulets surveyed the bombardment his Twelfth Dragoon was doing. He saw that it had broken up the group and had captured one of the people. But he had not expected two of them to start flying. And the fliers seemed to be heading his way.

"Sir, what are your orders for dealing with these airborne threats?" he asked. "Sir?"

He lowered his spyglass and looked around. He seemed to be talking to himself.

"Now where did he run off to?" he pondered.

"SOLTARRRRRRRN!" he heard. He whirled back and raised his telescope towards the closest flyer.

"M – M'lady?" he squeaked.

The last thing he saw was a fist heading towards his eye.

An area of craggy rocks and a path that lead into them now greeted the girls while they dashed beyond the fireball's range as the ground finally gave way to something less flat.

"Are we there yet?" Hikari gasped as they slid behind a boulder.

"I have no idea," Rakka said through heavy heaves of breath. "What is a league anyway?"

Hikari had no time to answer, as something smashed the ground behind them causing them to be peppered by small rocks and dust.

"Do I want to look back?" Hikari asked through gritted teeth.

Rakka shook pebbles off her head. She slowly peeked over her shoulder. Standing behind them in the settling dust cloud about twenty feet stood a mammoth creature with the head of a bull and the body of a man. It bellowed out a roar that shook every stone around them.

"Oh g-god!" she shivered. She leapt up and grabbed Hikari and spun them around the rock. "M-MINOTAUR!"

"A what?" shrieked Hikari.

"Bull! Man! Mi-mi-MINOTAUR!" Rakka shouted.

Hikari clutched Koni tightly to her chest as she seemed to begin to hyperventilate. "How… how are we supposed to get around that?!" she chirped.

A few stones rattled off the rock they had planted their backs against causing them to hold their breaths and stare back at the burning flats that they had just left behind. They heard heavy footsteps behind themselves. They prayed.

"Excuse me…"

The girls froze to the sounds of their own little squeaks.

"Excuse me!"

Rakka nervously managed to look up at the top of the rock. The head of the Minotaur was there looking down on them.

"I'm sorry, did we scare you two?" it asked.

"Y-YES!" they shouted back.

"Oh, I'm terribly sorry," it said. "My friend and I were just having a friendly game of Head Butt Smash, since the Twelfth Dragoon are using our Labyrinth Field for artillery practice."

"Wot is it Larry?" they then heard.

"Oh, we've got some ladies here that we spooked, Cecil!" he called back behind himself. "I certainly hope we didn't hurt you."

"You nearly scared us to death!" was all Hikari could get out through the shaking she was having.

"Oh, look! Birds!"

Rakka saw a second bull's head next to the first. "Birds? Where?" she asked nervously.

Larry gave his friend a cockeyed look. "He means girls," he explained.

"We don't see birds down 'ere too often, an' certainly not ones with rings over their 'eads like yours!" Cecil exclaimed. "Are they like mine?" He started to flick the nose ring he had protruding from above his lip which made a slight ting sound when he did.

"They're not rings, Cecil!" Larry said. "They're halos! Hey, are you angels? If you are, you've certainly landed in the wrong place!"

"W-we're not angels," Rakka told them. "We're Haibane!"

Larry scratched his ear. "'aibane? Wot da 'eck is a 'aibane? You sure yer not an angel?"

The girls shook their wide-eyed heads.

"Good! We 'hate those!" Cecil said.

"'Sides, look at their wings – look at the quality of the rings that make up their halos," Larry stated. "They'd never be able to fly with those! So, what brings you here to our rocky brain-smashing venue?"

"W-we're trying to g-get to Torval's Lock… I mean…" Rakka stammered.

"Torval's Lock?" Larry bellowed.

"TORVAL'S LOCK?!" Cecil barked as well. Rakka and Hikari winced and expected the worst.

"I haven't heard the Gate called Torval's Lock in centuries, have you Cecil?"

Cecil now scratched the other ear. "Not since that nice Canadian bloke dropped in on us. We ate 'im!"

"Still don't know why some guy from Canada would know about Torval's Lock, being that's a Tomassian word," Larry added.

"Still, 'e tasted better th'n that bloke from Pennsylvania," Cecil reminisced. "And anythin' was better th'n the dude from Daytona Beach! Too much sand…PLAA!"

"True – I'm still getting' the grit out of my teeth," Larry agreed. "So anyway, if you follow this path that way about a league, you'll find the gate. Just look out for the speed demons down there – they were a bit noisy this mornin'."

The girls still could only stare at the two Minotaur for a brief moment. They finally managed to get their legs to agree to stand up.

"You're… you're not going to eat us?" Rakka asked which caused Hikari to wince again expecting the worst.

"Eat you? Why would we want to eat you?" Larry asked.

"You eat men!" she replied since for some reason that little bit of trivia had flashed in her mind from a book she had read in the town's library.

"Pwaa! Of course we eat men! We're Minotaur!" Larry laughed. "But we won't eat you! You're girls!"

Rakka and Hikari just stared. "Not to ask something stupid, but why is that?" Rakka questioned. Hikari elbowed her.

Cecil sniffed. "Me mum's a girl! I wouldn't eat me mum!"

"Aw, now look at what you've done! You've made him cry!" Larry said as he comforted his companion. "You hurry along now. By the way, I certainly hope there's someone waiting for you there."

"We're supposed to meet Mr. Nightwatch there," Hikari said not realizing she had joined Rakka in arbitrarily blurting things out as she was in a state of near panic.

"Ah, good ol' Nightwatch! Now there's a great bloke!" Cecil cheered up. "Oy, tell 'im 'i from Cecil an' Larry, ey?"

The Haibane trio slowly crept down the path away from what they thought was their last moments in this world. But in situations like these, sense sometimes leaves one's mind. Rakka stopped and turned to ask "Excuse me, but Mr. Nightwatch is a man, isn't he? Why don't you eat him?"

Hikari flinched and gritted her teeth.

The two Minotaur burst out laughing. "'im?!" Cecil chortled.

"Why would we want to eat that Chevarian horse-meat?" Larry guffawed. "Besides, we need to beat him at Head Butt Smash!"

"I 'ear its sweet meat though," Cecil pondered. That got him a swat from his partner's forearm.

"NO EATING OUR BUDS!" Larry reminded him as Cecil rubbed his shoulder. "Didn't you learn anything when you felt peckish after you butt smashed that Tyson dude? Sure, you knocked him out, but you didn't need to eat him afterwards! He still owed me 10 credits!"

"Yea, but 'e tasted like chicken!" Cecil complained.

Rakka numbly nodded and returned to walking down the path with Hikari grabbing her by the arm. "Stop TALKING to them!" she hissed as she forcibly quickened their steps.

Just a few yards further down the path, the moment finally caught up with their legs. They stumbled over to a set of rocks with a nice little crevice in it and allowed their knees to collapse. Both girls felt their eyes roll back as they passed out from the near shock they had just gone through.

The baby fidgeted a bit, rousing Hikari finally. She blearily opened her eyes.

"Nano?" a green face asked her at rather close range. It had huge yellow eyes with tiny little black pupils.

It also had gathered Koni up.

It took only a moment for it to register in her mind that this thing was trying to take the baby. Hikari started to scream, but for some reason, it seemed deep and drawn out to her. She attempted to reach for Koni, but either this little demon was extremely fast, or she was moving extremely slow for some reason. To add to the surrealism of it all, it spun and headed away with the child, but instead of running off, it seemed to only walk really fast.

Rakka stirred. Her head was banging from the stress she had just tried to rest off. She managed to look over at Hikari and saw a strange sight.

"Iiiit tooook ththththeeee baaaaabeeeee," Hikari said in a long drawn-out deep voice, and she seemed to be moving extremely slow.

Rakka looked down and saw the imp-like creature calmly walking away with Koni.

"Hey! Stop!" Hikari suddenly heard Rakka squeak next to her and then watched her rapidly jump up and chase after the little thing that was carrying Koni away. They were zipping back and forth across her field of vision like some silly cartoon. Then Rakka came to a halt.

"Where?" she asked in a normal voice to Hikari. "Where did it go?"

Hikari pointed up the path where she could still see the creature rapidly moving away. "That way!" she yelped as she jumped. The girls started to give chase as fast as they could.

---

"Let me get this straight," Gabrella asked the smoldering remains of her mate, "you decided that you'd follow the orders of some Celestial just because it SAID to do something?"

"Honestly," Soltarn said through his bloodied and weeping face, "it felt like the right thing to do! After all, the order was from the Phoenix Guild, right?"

Gabrella sparked. "Any order like that would HAVE COME THROUGH ME!" she blasted. "The Phoenix Guild is NOT in charge of us! If they had asked us to do anything of the sort, it would have brought down the wrath of our counterparts here!"

"Yes, m'lady," Soltarn said as he saw her pointing towards Katherine, who seemed now to be holding what looked like a club or bat. "I was going to ask you why you were with a goddess."

"TO HEAVEN WITH THE GODDESS!" she shrieked at him. "How about - 'HONEY, WHY WERE YOU THE SUBJECT OF MY LINE OF FIRE?' - or something like that?!" She dropped his bent body and surveyed the smoking remains of the Twelfth's artillery brigade. Katherine had made short work of them.

"Way to go, girl!" she complimented her. "So, what do you think? Do we have a rouge Celestial, or a covert operation going on here?"

Katherine spun the club about, changing it into the bow she started out with, then to a staff which she clacked twice on the ground causing it to vanish. "I don't know," she replied. "Seeing how the Phoenix has been acting as of late, I'm beginning to wonder."

Gabrella smiled. "Good to see that you've noticed as well. It seems quite taken by the soul trapped in the Sinner's Rock back in Glie."

Katherine thought about that. "Has it now? I take it you've been there to see this?"

The Demon-Goddess folded her arms as she nodded yes. "Oh, that's right – you can't enter Sinner's Rock like I can."

Katherine shrugged. "With 'Sin' as its name, it kind of explains all, right?"

Gabrella laughed. "Maybe so, but maybe it means you could be checking up on its other loose end."

Katherine pondered what she meant. "How so?" she asked.

Gabrella sauntered up to her and smirked. "I say, while I keep an eye on the Phoenix and its comings and goings in Sinner's Rock, you keep tabs on his flunky Amethyst."

Katherine stood back from her. "Amethyst?" she recoiled. "Why should I do that?"

"Oh, think about it," Gabrella stated. "Personally, I can't be near him."

"Oh, and you think I can either?" Katherine shot back.

"Actually, yes you can," Gabrella pointed out. "There's just something between Celestials and myself – it's like we short each other out when we get close. But there isn't between Celestials and you lot."

Katherine cleared her throat. "Well, that's not – err – completely true…" she said under her breath.

Gabrella watched her reaction for a moment. She then rubbed her hands together. "Oooh, did I maybe touch on something sensitive?" she prodded.

"No!" Katherine peeped. "No, there's nothing like that. It's just, I was warned by my teaching superiors when I was raised to my current level that I should avoid near contact with energy-based beings of Celestial or Supreme level as we tend to… umm… draw on one another."

Gabrella stood back a bit. "Draw? What does 'draw' mean?"

Katherine turned around. "Draw! It means we draw on each other if we get too close." She looked back and saw Gabrella was still expecting more of an explanation. "We TAP into each other's energy reserves."

"Really?" Gabrella asked with a fain of shock. "I always felt repulsed by Celestial energy. Then again, that might explain a few things..." she added with a prod to her Heavenly counterpart.

"I'm told that it can cause a reaction like being drunk," Katherine said. "I was told as an example that Captain Strom himself had a situation when he first became a Supreme where his presence near a Goddess caused her to become infatuated with him."

Gabrella leaned against a broken fireball launcher and thought about that. "I don't think I ever saw Roy drunk," she mused.

"It didn't affect him because of the way he gets his powers," Katherine corrected her. "Granted, it was his first time he had visited up there as the leader of the Denivan, but it still was the goddess who became obsessed. Celestials, Goddesses, even Demons, their powers are within themselves. A member of the Denivan channel their energies from outside, so they aren't affected like... umm... I would be..."

"I always thought I got a tickle whenever I got close to Roy," Gabrella shrugged. "You'll just have to keep a level mind about it if you get too close to Amethyst then."

Katherine sighed. "Agreed then. It is for the best if we both wish to prevent further escalation of this conflict." She looked around at the carnage they had wrought. "If we're finished here though, we should see about the others."

"One last thing," Gabrella said as she reached down to pick up the wreckage of Soltarn by his head. "Honey?" she asked.

"Yes, B-B-Buttercup?" he asked through broken teeth.

"Any idea just who this Celestial was?"

He tried to shake his head no, but since Gabrella had it in her hand by his cranium, it only made his body sway back and forth. "No, he never said his name. But he was human, and he was very powerful… and… something else… he had a hole."

Katherine looked at Gabrella. "A hole?" she asked. "In his body?"

Soltarn swayed again. "No, in his soul."

Gabrella lifted him closer to her face. "What size? Quickly!"

"Quarter-mass," he said. Gabrella looked up and snorted. She then dropped him in a heap.

Katherine watched the writhing pile for a moment. "Is that important?" she asked.

Gabrella shot a small jet of steam out her nose. "Vampires use holes in a soul as a means to control a subject. But only a small hole is required and is usually forcibly created. Any hole that is larger is created by the soul's owner."

"Why would you want a hole in your soul?" Katherine asked in confusion, which brought an irked look from her counterpart.

"You are a newbie, aren't you?" the demon scorned. "It is where a living soul will put things like devotions, loves, hates, and any other sort of emotions. Ever hear the phrase 'A passion growing in your soul'? That's a hole."

Katherine tried to fathom this idea. "But, this Celestial has a hole in his soul that is one quarter it's size? Or has it missing this quarter?"

Gabrella looked down and gave Soltarn a kick. "Hey! Quarter-MASS?" she asked him with inflection.

"Mass, yes… ow…" he replied.

"That means he has a full soul, but has a hole within it that equals one quarter its size. Think of it like oil and water. If you take a cup of water and add a quarter cup of oil, you still see the separation as the oil will float on top." With that she lifted off the ground and started back towards where they left the others.

"But what would make a hole that size in his soul?" Katherine asked as she followed behind.

---

Kinza looked around himself. The Parism had dropped him into a group of lesser demons, and they were all cowering in fear around the cave they had directed him to.

"I believe I misjudged you idiots," he growled. "You were expecting Hikari and the baby again, weren't you?"

There was only a rustling of gibberish from the walls. He turned and found the way out and started for it. The noise rose and he heard them moving towards the opening as well.

"Okay gang," he announced with the unsheathing of his claws, "as scary as you might want to try to be, I'M SCARIER! DON'T TRY ME!"

The chattering became little peeps. There was the sound of little feet pitter-patting back towards the rear of the cave.

He exited the hole in the ground to the sight of Gabrella standing before him. "Oh, hi there," he said.

"Mr. Kinza, what are you doing here in this cave?" he heard Katherine ask from behind the Demon-Goddess.

"There's a bunch of imps in there that had use of another Parism Gate. They dropped me in there," he explained. "I think they were trying to get Hikari by herself this time, since she would have had to keep her arms around Koni preventing her from grabbing her halo."

Gabrella bent over to look down the opening. "Are they still in there?" she asked.

Before Kinza could answer, she had sent an engulfing fireball bouncing down it to the sounds of shrieking critters.

"Yup, I think they are!" she grinned.

Kinza waved smoke away from his nose. "You know, they may have been able to tell us just who was using these Parisms. You did mention it had to be a higher up than imps."

Gabrella huffed at the cloud she had created. "I know everyone down here who can use one of those things, and I'm beginning to think it's not any of them."

Kinza brushed off the cave dust he had acquired. "Oh? Care to elaborate?"

"We found that Soltarn was being given orders by a Celestial," Katherine told him. Kinza glared at her and Gabrella.

"Celestial? What was one of those doing down here? They're rarer than the Captain's group," he grimaced as he rubbed his sore leg. "Anyone we know?"

Gabrella grumbled. "My dear mate was unable to confirm the Bottom's identity," she told him.

Kinza took a step away from the heat emanating from the Demon-Goddess. "Why do I get the feeling that someone will be needing a good medical plan about now?"

"There isn't a bandage big enough right now," she sneered. "Have any ideas where your two ring-heads and that baby are?"

Kinza looked at the rock face that the cave was in. "I'd have to know where I am right now," he told her.

Katherine pointed behind them at the flats. "That was where we left you before."

Kinza scrutinized the area. "That's no good… I need to also know where that bombardment came from."

Gabrella got an evil look in her eyes and smirked. She pointed a finger skywards and sent a bolt of energy away. Kinza watched it arc across the black sky until it landed far in the distance with a sizable explosion.

"Thanks," he said as he drew an imaginary line between the two points and followed it along. "Over there was where we were heading," he stated. He found himself being lifted off the ground by Gabrella as they headed for where he pointed.

"I see footprints in the dust down there," Katherine stated as they swooped down along the directed approach to the rocky terrain just past the flats.

"What are those?" Kinza asked as they neared their landing site.

Gabrella rolled her eyes. "Lucifer's horns… those two," she grumbled as the two Minotaur below them smashed their heads together, sending the slightly smaller of the two flying back into a stone edifice.

"You know them?" Kinza asked. He looked up and saw Gabrella's form changing shape. "Oh, bully," he said as he saw the new bovine face grinning at him.

"Yo, Larry! Cecil!" she called out as she landed on her now cloven feet.

"Gabrella!" Larry roared. "Long time, m'lady! Come to update your championship status?"

"Oy?!" Cecil called from the wall of stone he was in. "Wot's wit da mangy old cat? An' 'ELLO! 'hoo's da bird wit' ya?"

"Ha! That's just…" Gabrella started until she looked back and found a white Minotaur behind her. "…Katherine?"

"Who's a mangy cat?" Kinza snorted. "Oh, hey, nice look there, Katherine."

"I think I'm in love!" Cecil chirped. "You don't see albinos 'bout these parts!"

Larry smacked him up the side of his head. "She's not an albino, horn-fer-brains! Albinos got pink eyes! She's got blue!"

"And ain't they just loverly?" Cecil cooed. He slipped over to the goddess-in-hiding and moseyed up beside her. "Care to bash 'eads and see who's da dominant one?"

Gabrella pinched his ear and dragged him back to the side of his friend. "I'll show you who's dominant here," she half laughed. "We need to know if you've seen anyone around here."

"Oy? Sure…" Cecil started, but was quashed by Larry.

"What's it to ya Gabby?" he sneered. "Willing to fight me for it?"

She blew some curly locks of hair off her bovine nose. "What 'chu got?" she asked with a smirk.

Larry snickered. "You an' me – one on one. If you win, we tell ya what we know. If I win, you and I mate!"

"WHAT?!" Katherine yelped but was hushed by Gabrella holding up her hand. Kinza just shook his head.

"I'm already mated," she snorted.

"Yea, I could hear Soltarn's screams from here," Larry grinned. "Best ears in the underworld! So, what'll it be?"

"This is going to be ugly," Kinza murmured as he stepped back beside Katherine.

"But fun," Gabrella snickered. "You're on big boy! Mr. Kinza, will you give us a countdown?"

He sighed. "Okay… From three… THREE!"

"Oh, you sure be ready for later, m'lady!" Larry chuffed. "I've been practicing for this a long time!"

"TWO!"

"Bring it on, buster! You're bound to break your 0-for sooner or later!" she said while clawing the ground with her hooves.

"ONE! GO!"

Larry was last seen hurtling backwards down the path. He seemed to impact somewhere about a mile or so downrange from them.

"My, that looked like fun!" Katherine exclaimed.

"Not my best," Gabrella noted while cupping her eyes to see where her shot landed. "Hang time was a bit short."

"So what's he 0-for now?" Kinza asked.

Gabrella looked at her fingers. "I can't remember," she giggled. "I lost count at about two-hundred fifty seven."

"Three-'undred thirty five actually," Cecil corrected her. "'e's on a bit of a drought I think. 'ow 'bout you, miss?"

Katherine planted her hands on her hips and smiled. "Domination, ea?" she asked.

"They don't learn quickly, do they?" Kinza asked as Cecil landed a few yards short of Larry much to Katherine's disappointment.

"Nice try for a beginner," Gabrella commented as they approached their lobbing quoits. "So, boys… did you see anyone?"

Larry was still clearing chirping demons from his view. "Two girls and a baby," he gurgled. "They went that way."

"Thank you gentlemen," she told them as she reverted to her Demon-Goddess form and held her hands up to her normal horns in the shape of 'L's.

"A word to the wise, guys," Kinza told them as he strolled by. "You're never going to beat someone who can generate their own deflector shield." He joined up with the two deities at a crest of a hill.

"Oh Lucifer," Gabrella huffed. "There are the ring-heads."

Kinza and Katherine looked down the hill and saw Rakka and Hikari below them slowly running down the path. They were obviously trying hard as their clothes and hair were flaying all over the place from the exertion.

"What in the world," Kinza yelped as he gimped-jogged down to them. He could tell they could see him, as their expressions slowly changed when he stepped in front of them. Gabrella landed beside him and snapped her fingers. The girls suddenly bowled the Tomassamassa over.

"You ran into a speed demon, didn't you?" she asked the two Haibane.

"What?" Hikari asked. "You mean that big-eyed creepy little thing? It grabbed Koni and ran off that way!"

"You mean walked," Gabrella told her. "Speed demons are notoriously slow. They just trap their pursuers in a time bubble and walk away."

"How long ago was that?" Kinza asked.

"Just a minute or so," Rakka said. Gabrella shook her head.

"It's no use asking them," she said. "They wouldn't have a proper sense of time now."

"Well, we did see which way it went," Hikari said as she started down the path. "Come on!"

At a point where the girls had finally lost sight of the imp, the path curved around a rock. As they came to its other side they saw a burning red plane that lead to an extremely wide and rough-looking river. The gate they were heading for was on the opposite shore with a boat landing for it on the near side. The path they were on snaked down and through the fiery wastes to the dock. But where the trail bent towards the river at the bottom of the hill they were standing on, there was a blue glow within the rocks.

"That's not right," Gabrella stated as the lights played over the stones.

"It's not?" Katherine asked.

The demon shook her curly hair. "Blue in Hades? The colors clash. It's like asking hell to freeze over. Come on!"

There was a great deal of commotion as the group approached. A few small big-yellow-eyed imps attempted to stop them but were shooed away with simple gestures made by Gabrella. They squeezed through a hole in the wall of stones. Inside they found an amphitheater sized grotto with a dozen speed demons along the walls. They were all pointing inwards while generating an orb of energy.

"That's one heaven of a time bubble," Gabrella said almost in awe. She waved her hand and shut it off. As the bubble burst, it revealed a small child on a padded table-bed and a faun-like demon in a white lab coat that was wearing glasses and was looking at her in shock. They were standing on a large flat-topped pillar in the center of the room. Around them were strangely out-of-place scientific-looking equipment, which the faun seemed to have been trying to adjust when the field fell.

"Doctor Telos, what a surprise to see YOU here!" she smirked. "Seen any Celestials lately?"

"What? How did you… oh, you meant… umm, no?" he fumbled while still fiddling with the switches to one of the contraptions. "M-Madam Secretary, umm, may I ask what you're doing… h-here?"

"Communicating," she sneered as she floated over the chasm from the grotto's opening to the pillar with Kinza in tow.

"Com… Communicating?" the faun asked as he stepped back.

She nodded with an angry smile. She put the security officer down and placed her face in Telos'. "Communicating; it's my job, after all."

He swallowed. "And… and just what may I ask are you… communicating?"

She landed at point-blank range to his hoofed feet, which made his little goat tail twitch nervously. "Right now, I'm communicating ANGER and RAGE!"

Katherine landed next to the child bearing the two Haibane. They rushed to the little girl's side and stared.

"Is that Koni?" Hikari asked of the sleeping toddler laying in front of them. Kinza was scanning her with his rod and nodded.

"The DNA matches," he said. "But she's got to be nearly a year old by the looks of it."

Rakka took off her singed sweater and wrapped her in it. The child was dirty and a bit worn looking. She scowled at the creature behind them.

"Don't you know the meaning of cleaning anything?" she scolded him.

"What do you mean?!" he yelled back, showing more boldness in defense of himself than he did to the Demon-Goddess. "Humanoids are such disgusting creatures! I've spent the last fourteen months cleaning and feeding that thing!" That did not go over well with Kinza.

Telos found himself on the ground in the grasp of the enraged Tomassamassa, who had a set of claws under his chin, and a set of razor-sharp teeth bearing in front of his nose.

"You will explain just WHAT you were doing with my charge, sir!" he snarled at the shaking and quivering demon.

"What are you? What are you? What are you?" Telos squeaked.

"A very angry kitty I would suspect," his superior Gabrella told him. "You'd best come clean with him, AND US, unless you feel the need to loose a few pieces to those sharp things under your chin!"

"Gabrella," Katherine called out. "You might want to see this."

The Goddess was holding her palms over the child and concentrating. She released herself and took Gabrella aside.

"Look at her soul," she whispered into her ear.

Gabrella looked at the child. She stepped over to her and did the same scan as her counterpart had. She lifted her hand and closed her fingers as she considered what she had just felt. She looked over at the two on the ground. Kinza was watching what she was doing with a twitchy claw. The doctor seemed readying himself for some violence on his body.

She stepped over to them and sat down, crossing her legs to get comfortable. Katherine sat beside her in the same way.

"Mr. Kinza," the Demon-Goddess asked, "please let our host up? We need to ask him some questions."

"Can I keep my claws on him?" he asked.

"Please do so," Gabrella told him. The security officer stood up, reached down and hauled the shivering demon off the ground. He forcibly spun him about and sat him down before the two deities and seated himself directly behind him. He placed the back side of his right paw on his shoulder and popped out one claw at a time to drive his point home what it was there for. He then tapped his shirt's pocket with his free paw.

"S.A.M. record this," he told the folded patch communicator there. There was a chirp and he nodded for them to proceed.

Gabrella crossed her arms and looked down on the small creature before her. "So tell me Telos, you're one of our chief scientists... your reputation for developing new ways of using our powers in more tactical ways is renowned. The Imp Cannon was and is still one of my favorite persuaders..."

The Faun scientist showed a brief moment of embarrassed pride. It was extremely short lived.

She leaned over towards him. "So tell me, just why you were attempting to punch holes in this girl's soul?" she asked.

The paw on his shoulder spun over and was now grasping it with the nails. "You were doing what?" Kinza growled.

"These probe devices above us," Katherine pointed out around them, "are spell enhancers. They direct a casting to a more focused spot than just general casting would. To do what you were doing to her without these would require incredible concentration and stamina. I doubt you have that."

"A Celestial wouldn't need these though," Gabrella stated. "They have those capabilities. So why did he have you do it instead?"

The claws closed in slightly, causing Telos to fidget. "He… he didn't ask me to do that! He didn't!" he yelped.

Katherine and Gabrella looked over at the child and then back at him. "Then why were you punching a hole in her soul?" Gabrella demanded.

"I wasn't!" Telos screamed which caused Hikari to jump. "He only wanted me to find out whether this child was able to be like him! He said this equipment would provide his answers!"

"Come now Doctor," Gabrella steamed. "You're smarter than that! You know what these probes are for - what they enhance!"

Kinza leaned forward. "And just what do you mean by like him? You mean he was seeing if Koni could be a Celestial?"

There was a loud crack heard overhead. They all looked up to see a boulder that made up the center of the ceiling beginning to dislodge itself.

"AH!" Telos yelped. They looked at him and found he was now being held to the ground with stone anchors. Rocks were now showering down around them.

"Now that's a unique curse!" Gabrella said of the manacles.

"Rakka, Hikari!" Kinza called out while batting stones away from the defenseless faun. "Get Koni out of here! Head for the gate! Nightwatch should be waiting for you there! GO!"

Hikari gathered up the sleeping child, who was much larger than before and scampered to the edge of the pillar with her. Katherine quickly deposited them by the grotto's entrance then returned to the pillar.

"What about you?!" Rakka called back to them.

"Don't worry! We'll be there shortly!" Kinza shouted. "GO!"

The girls had little they could do. They squirmed out and started to run for the river.

"Now then son," Kinza told the Faun, "if you want to get out of this alive, you'll tell us everything."

A large stone slammed into the ground just behind Telos' head. He looked up at the Demon-Goddess, who had erected a small force-field over them to deflect the larger stones.

"Oops!" she smiled. "Better get chatty Doc."

Hikari staggered out of the narrow crevasse with the child and looked back. She could hear the rocks starting to crumble back in the grotto.

"We can't just leave them in there!" she yelled.

Rakka grabbed her shoulder and shook her. "I hate to say it, but yes we can," she told her. "Mr. Kinza gave us a mission - keep Koni safe! We've got to get out of here, Hikari!"

She looked back at her fellow Haibane in surprise. She expected to turn and see a stern look of determination on her, but found a face covered in tears.

"We have to trust him. He'll make it through!" Rakka told her. "Let's go!"

The flats between the rocks and the river were incredibly hot. Rakka and Hikari wheezed and panted their way up the path, avoiding potholes filled with lava or steaming water.

"This is nasty," Hikari kept saying. She made sure Koni was protected, but she was wilting fast from the noxious gasses and scalding air. Rakka finally had to assist her along.

"Look!" she called out to Hikari. "I can see Mr. Nightwatch!"

At this point Hikari could barely see the figure Rakka was mentioning. There was something tall and dark ahead, but it seemed impossibly far away. All she could tell right then was she was not going to make it on her own. The image of Rakka's singed shoes were the passing sight she saw last as she fell, curling to protect her cargo in a last effort of consciousness.

She woke up. The heat was gone. The air was not pure, but it certainly smelled better than it did. And Koni was still there in her arms, lying peacefully on the black fur…

…black fur…

"They are not for you oarsman!" a deep voice said loudly, which made her look up quickly. She was shocked to find the head and mane of a black horse there. A quick look down confirmed to her that she was indeed astride its back. "You may continue on your other appointed tasks!" she heard the voice command.

"Styx awaits," a robed thing with a long black gnarled staff was telling them. Hikari looked to the left side and then the right in search of the man this creature was speaking to.

"Styx be damned!" the HORSE said. "These people are still alive, and will be leaving with ME!" With that, two wide black wings appeared on either side of them and thrust them skyward on several beats.

Hikari looked over her shoulder. Rakka was draped over her back and seemed out cold. Behind her she could see the rocks they had escaped from. The blue aura was long gone, replaced by flames and smoke. The top of what had been the enclosed cave had fallen in.

"Mr. Kinza!" she quietly called back to no one but herself. She heaved a sob as the horse banked the view away from her.

"Stay close to my back, child," she heard their ride say to her. "The transition from this world to your own is not for your eyes to see."

Hikari wiped her face and did as she was told the best she could. But it was hard for her to not notice a sizable flash of light. The dark and smoky lands that they had been running through had been replaced by daylight, and the sun felt good on her arms. But there were sounds that made no sense to her. There were noises like horns and people below them. She could not resist a look from under her arm. She saw a huge square building that looked like nothing she had ever seen in Glie. It had starkly white edges and huge mirrored windows, which were reflecting an image of a winged horse flying away from it.

A second flash enveloped them. The almost blinding sun had been replaced. Now it was dusk, and a familiar wall greeted her. She sat up and watched the northwestern falls trail behind them as they turned to head south with the cherry red eastern wall to their left and the lights of Glie starting to appear behind them. She watched back at the receding view of where they had been, and at the adventure that they had just lived through.

Hikari broke down crying.

"Tears child?" the horse asked her. "Why are you crying?"

She sniffed as she squeezed Koni. "Mr. Kinza! We lost Mr. Kinza!"

"Really?" the horse asked. "Then who is that ahead of us?"

The horse dipped its head enough for Hikari to see the partly silhouetted forms of Gabrella and Katherine far ahead of them. They both seemed to be carrying something, though the thing the Demon-Goddess was holding onto seemed a less than willing, and dangling with some weight. As they approached Old Home, she dipped low and dropped it in the path.

Telos and his rocky manacles pummeled the ground near the feet of two burly men who were waiting for him.

"I certainly hope The Corporation's jail can hold a demon," she laughed.

---

"And that's what we did on our class trip," Rakka finished.

Koi stared at the stars that were starting to appear above them. "And you didn't bring home any souvenirs?" he asked them.

"Got a demon scientist," Hikari mumbled.

"Made friends with some Minotaur," Rakka added.

"I've got a stone in my shoe," Hikari stated.

Ptolemy looked at the data that had been presented to him. "A Celestial with a quarter-mass hole in its soul, trying to put a hole into the baby's as well."

"You don't believe his story either?" Kinza asked. The old man shook his head.

"Its unlikely, not from the description of the equipment you said was there." Ptolemy wiped his glasses and thought about what he had been told. He looked at the small screen that Kinza's scanning rod had plugged into, which was showing the faun's lab. "I mean, look at these probes. These are some precision tools here. He was definitely trying to bore a hole through something. But as Gabrella said, you can't just make a hole in a soul - it has to be created by the soul's owner. And to have one as large as described in this Celestial, that is some extreme dedication." He sat back and looked at the two deities across from him.

"You know, its bad enough we have to have this rivalry between your two sides," he told them, "but we certainly don't need a third party mixing it up and making things worse."

"The trouble is," Katherine pondered, "we know that Celestials work for the Phoenix Guild. But could this one be working on its own?"

"Possibly," Ptolemy said. "They certainly are rare to begin with, especially since the purge."

Katherine looked at him startled. "Purge? What purge?" she asked.

"First purge of the Celestials," Gabrella stated. "During the early days of the Treaty of Set, there was a supposed uprising within the Celestial Guards of the Phoenix Guild. The Phoenix ordered all Celestials that did not swear allegiance to the Guild to be eliminated."

"Supposed? You mean there wasn't one?" Katherine asked.

"There was never any proof, or at least overwhelming proof, that there ever was an uprising," Ptolemy explained. "And it did not stop them from doing a second purge about a hundred years later as the number of Celestials grew again."

Katherine pondered for a moment. "That was a bit brutal, wasn't it?"

"When you're talking a person with physical energies such as a Celestial?" Gabrella asked. "Remember, we're talking a force with powers that nearly rival the Supremes in scope of capabilities. If the Phoenix Guild's actions were based on fact, then they were in full compliance with the Treaty. They could deal with the Celestials any way they'd want."

"And if they weren't?" Katherine added. She shook her head. "It almost sounds more like a culling than a purge. Why else keep the Celestials at all, especially if they keep claiming that they were untrustworthy?"

Ptolemy shrugged. "They have been the Phoenix's personal security ever since the Treaty was ratified. Why they continue to follow their lead, even after being nearly decimated by them over the years is anyone's guess."

Kinza rubbed his nose. "Which is more powerful?" he asked. "A Phoenix or a Celestial?"

Ptolemy patted his belly. "That's a good question. A Celestial could easily kill a Phoenix. You or I could easily kill a Phoenix for that matter. But in any case, they don't STAY dead. A Phoenix will always be reborn. So it's a question of which is more powerful – a person with the strength of the universe running through them, or a bird who is practically immortal?"

Katherine shook her head. "It boggles the mind. So could this be a personal vendetta, or could the Phoenix itself be pulling its strings? And why is there such a huge hole in its soul?"

"That's either one big case of devotion, or…" Kinza started. "…Or what?"

Ptolemy sat back. "A hole is meant for one thing only; to hold something. What that something is, is up for grabs right now."

"And personally, with all this equipment," Gabrella noted as she leaned over and pointed at the gadgets the scanning rod was showing on the screen, "there's no knowing just what our little mad scientist would have been able to do with the baby. She is a null after all, soul wise that is."

Ptolemy thought about it for a moment. "You're saying that a stable hole in a soul is possible without it being created by a devotion?"

She stood tall and laughed to the sky. "Crazy is as demons do!" she bellowed. "If that nut-case Telos was left to his ways, I'm sure he would have found a way. He was willing to actually accelerate both of their life cycles to achieve his goal. I get the feeling he was doing that bit of forced time to allow the hole to be larger using the least amount of energy."

"Larger? Large enough for what?" Kinza asked her. "And what would a Celestial want it for?"

Gabrella tapped her nose. "Assuming it was for the Celestial in the first place."

Kinza blew air in exasperation. He lifted the report that had been dumped on him by one of his doppelgangers and flipped through the last few pages and sighed. "What about these two?" he asked the Ptolemy.

The scientist adjusted his glasses and tossed the second copy back to him. "Rubbish. Both of them!" he suggested.

Kinza took the two files and plunked them together and then tossed them to the ground. The two other Tomassamassas looked at him as if he had gone mad.

"I agree," he stated. "Next time, follow the rules."

The two doubles vanished, as did their documentation.

"Well, if that is that, I'm running out of time and must get back," Ptolemy said as he stood up. "I need an extended bit of time out of the Holy Sites, so you might not see me in here any time soon. At least you've given me something to work on back at base."

Kinza grinned. "Have fun grilling Doctor Telos for us!"

Ptolemy gathered up his bags and hat and bid them farewell. He stopped by the lounging Haibane and kissed the girls on their heads.

"You take care of these two, young man!" he told Koi as he walked out the gate.

"Yes sir," he sighed.

"Look at you!" Nemu exclaimed to the cheery little girl in the bath. "Just look at you! Did they never clean you while you were away?"

"Fwah! I don't think so," Kana said as she gingerly tossed Rakka's former sweater into the trash. "I hope that miser at the thrift shop will give us a deal on replacing these clothes."

"I know," Nemu agreed. "Those two down there will probably be in the baths for a week by the look of them."

Kana looked over at the balcony. "You think it's safe to have them lounging all over Koi like that?" she pondered. "I mean, the way he's been acting lately…"

"If you ask me, that boy could use a good smack up side the head," the housemother said. The two Haibane ladies looked at her for a moment before breaking into laughter.

"How are her wings coming?" Nemu asked her as she started in on some heavy scrubbing of Koni's feet.

"They've certainly filled out well," the housemother said as she began to brush the soapy water through them. "Oh, look at this!" she then called.

Nemu looked around the backside of the sink they were using for a bath. Kana joined them peering over the housemother's shoulder.

"There's no gray," she said. "These wings are now white!"

oOo

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References to Ah! My Goddess! ©2010-2011, 18 Kosuke Fujishima/Kadansha

Characters from Haibane-Renmei ©2010-2011, 18 Yoshitoshi ABe

Haibane-Renmei: CORPORATION ©2010-2011, 18 The Golden Halo Project/DMS

Edit & Remastered 1107.04

Edited 1805.05

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