I do not own the Ah! Megami sama / Oh! My Goddess series

Tariki Hongan temple, Nekomi, Japan

Serving everyone a cup of tea, Belldandy found it very difficult to ignore the sheer level of awkwardness of the entire situation. Not only they had Sayoko drop by unannounced, but she had apparently gotten a nice idea that aside from Keiichi, the rest of them weren't actually humans. It was something she personally never wanted to keep a secret, although her husband wished otherwise, fearing that should such thing became public knowledge, it would greatly impact their everyday lives. And for the most part, Belldandy was more than certain that he was right.

It was also true that the rich woman had actually seen her and Urd use their powers a few years ago while she was under an Anki's influence and to release her from its grasp, the Norn of the present had to reveal her true nature and status as a goddess. Still, after that incident was over, Sayoko was left with the impression that she was a witch instead, and as neither of them brought that event up again, it was uncertain what the rich woman thought about her. According to her lessons as a wish granter trainee, it wasn't impossible for humans to reject certain memories or even try to block them if they contradicted some well established truths. Anything out of the ordinary could be dismissed as a fantasy or delusion and given the fact that, Sayoko was under the influence of the Anki, it was fairly certain that she may have even considered everything that took place during that day as part of a dream. This was a different case, though and for a while, both she and her husband had to reassure Sayoko that she was indeed awake and not going crazy either.

Still, the situation was far more complicated and not just by the mortal woman's presence in the room. After having a short yet private conversation with her grandmother, the brooding ruler of Muspelheim returned back to the living room where he and Thor continued to stare each other. And to make everything into an even more surreal experience than it already was, both of them were engaged in a tabletop role playing game, with Magni and Skuld watching at this ancient form of entertainment with great interest. It was rather rare for celestials of this time and age to know much about anything that wasn't a video game, at least as far as RPGs were concerned and if it was under different conditions, Belldandy would've found it really cute.

"Let me get it straight! Everyone here is an immortal being with powers beyond my imagination?"

Shooting the brunette mortal an annoyed look, while she still tried to accept reality, Surt wished to know what possessed her to interrupt his game. "Yes. How many times do I have to say it, before your brain absorbs that information? Come to think why are you asking me? There are others who could provide a much better explanation…"

"They seem busy for one reason or another… The one called Frigg is talking with Sif and Urd, Mara is avoiding me, while Lind and Peorth are talking with Excalibur." Pausing as she looked around and tried to make sure that she got their names right, Sayoko attempted to make sense of how those immortals appeared so indifferent at the rest of the things she happened to hear about. 'Spaceships in orbit?... Armies of gods and demons?... What is this? A sci-fi movie? Although… magic isn't supposed to be part of that; it's supposed to be something for fantasy settings. Wait… what am I even thinking? Am I going crazy, already?'

"Hey, are you going to move that ship or what?" asked Thor calmly, as he observed the playfield in front of him.

"I will! Give a me a moment to think, while I'm not answering questions!" shot Surt, back at the god as he studied his enemy's army positions. "Hm…"

Shaking her head, Sayoko wondered what was stranger; the fact that two beings of unimaginable power were playing a tabletop game, or that the said beings nearly ripped each other to shreds just minutes ago. Sure, it was Urd and eventually Belldandy's attempts that made them stop from bringing an apocalyptic end to the world, which somehow ended up in this kind of… confrontation.

It was a rather bizarre experience, considering the expectations one might've from beings that classified themselves as gods and demons. While there were a lot of different views amongst humans on what divinity was supposed to be, this was totally unexpected for the Mishima heiress. Those individuals acted almost like humans, even if there was a certain level of antagonism between those two factions; not unlike the two superpowers during the Cold War.

And Keiichi had apparently married a goddess of all things, making Sayoko wonder just how such a thing was even possible. He was all but a normal human and yet, one who might've been described as the perfect girl had decided to have a relationship with him. However, while her nature explained Belldandy's mannerisms, the sheer fact that she was technically an ageless immortal hasn't gone unnoticed by her. 'Is she really serious about this? She's most likely going to stay young while he'll keep growing older and weaker. How can such a couple work over the decades? Actually, how is she going to stay here after so many years? Everyone's gonna notice her unchanging appearance.'

There was always the possibility that the goddess was actually looking for a temporary boyfriend, one she could easily discard after a few years, citing all sorts of reasons for her to dissolve their marriage. Even returning home could work like that, as long distance relationships often failed due to the lack of interaction, and if this turned out to be the case then after so many years she could finally get a major victory over the brunette… goddess by revealing her scheme.

However, her thoughts came to a screeching halt as the woman caught herself before she went too far. 'Why do I even care anymore? She's a goddess for crying out loud! Sure, I was kind of pissed off that she came out of nowhere and stole my popularity, but… Now that I think about it... Well… it makes perfect sense to me. I was never competing with a human to begin with and based on what I've gotten from them, she's even considered to be a role model amongst her people. Not to mention that I don't want to end up like that Toshiyuki. Ha! Trying to get into her panties… what a joke! Why would someone like her even care about his money?'

Taking a sip from her tea, Sayoko decided to try and get closer to Urd and the rest of them in hopes to listen into their conversation. Even if she no longer cared much about besting a seemingly perfect goddess, her natural curiosity couldn't be denied. She walked into a huge secret, one that not many mortals knew about and as such, she wanted to learn more.

It was at that very moment, when a newcomer decided to appear out of thin air and much to Sayoko's surprise, it was a young girl which looked remarkably like Urd. Actually, if she didn't know any better, the rich woman could've easily mistaken her for the Norn's child, although, nobody ever mentioned about her having one.

"Hild! What a surprise!" said Belldandy with a smile. "Please come in and have a seat! This is quite the gathering!"

"Uh… technically, I'm already inside the house, Bell-chan," said the little version of the Daimakaicho who more or less transferred directly into their living room. "And I'm here for him!" Pointing at her regional commander, Hild was clearly unhappy about something, although, Surt seemed to pay little attention to her and continued to focus on his mini campaign against the imaginary troops of his opponent.

"What have I done now?! I'm just trying to retake that stupid planet… You… stupid son a dice… just give me something above 50!…" grumbled Surt as he tried his not so great luck at taking out the planetary defenses of Thor's outpost planet.

"Ha! That was a 49! Bad luck, I guess!" said Thor with a grin as he watched the seething demon, while Hild stared between the two of them.

"Don't give me that, Surt! I know that you're up to something!" insisted the little Daimakaicho as she glared at her subordinate. "Don't tell me that you came all the way here to play a game with your old pal!"

"Who's my pal? I'm just doing this because we couldn't settle the matter in a much better manner," shot Sur back, before he pointed towards Urd. "I simply thought that she needed some cheering up!"

"Really? Are you trying to convince me that you're here just for Urd-chan's sake? You know… that might ruin your reputation," teased Hild hoping for a reaction out of him, only to get a rather indifferent shrug. 'Come on, there's got to be more to it than that…'

"Uh… I thought you wanted to talk to Frigg as well?..." started Keiichi, but stopped all of a sudden, trying to avoid a dice that was heading for his head. "Whoa!"

"Serves you right for poking your nose into other people's business!" said Surt with a snarl, only to go and retrieve the dice, since it was his turn again.

Ignoring him, as she personally doubted that she'd get a real answer from her subordinate, Hild floated towards the elder goddess who was also enjoying a warm cup of tea her granddaughter had prepared. "May I inquire what my former student wanted to talk about with you, Frigg?"

"Oh, nothing too much. Just a few questions, that's all," replied the brunette goddess dismissively. "Why don't you join us for a nice cup of tea? I'm pretty sure that Urd would appreciate it as well."

'She's avoiding the subject, as well. Why do I have the feeling that there's something profoundly wrong here?' Knowing all too well that the elder goddess was far more obstinate than any of them whenever she wanted, the Daimakaicho was all but certain that she wouldn't get a straight answer from her either. Letting a sigh, she decided to play along and at least spend some time with her daughter, hoping that this would've cheered her up. After a long and tiresome round of negotiations with Tyr about the whole situation, and now dealing with her subordinate who wanted to keep secrets from her, Hild wished something to make her feel better. "Tea would be nice and… Uh.. Can I do anything for you?..."

"No, umm.. I was just wondering if you're related to Urd. That's all!" said Sayoko, backing off slightly as she realized that she was probably getting too curious for her own good.

"Urd-chan? Sure, she's my daughter!" answered the little version of Hild with a big grin. "Why?'

"Eh?! Daughter?!" The physical impossibility of the previous statement was so significant that it was too much for Sayoko to accept it; regardless of whether Hild was an immortal or not.

"Why? Do I look too young?" asked Hild with a giggle, despite the fact that she was fully aware what the problem really was. Her current form was merely a one thousandth version of her actual body, but without the mortal knowing that, or that such a thing was even possible for them to begin with, there was no doubt that a 'child' like her was impossible to be Urd's mother. "You shouldn't judge us based on our appearances. I'm not a little girl, but, one of the most powerful demonesses alive, actually. And before you even ask… No, we don't have horns sticking out of our heads. That's merely a poor interpretation of the communication antennae our troops have on their helmets, and an unfortunate mistranslation of my description that was given to some ancient mortals. They mistook the word horny for horned. Heh… It could've been worse, I guess."

Blinking as she stared at the girl she would've otherwise taken for a preschooler, Sayoko tried very hard to understand what she was just being told and regardless of the fact that she heard her perfectly, her mind still refused to accept all that. It was still way too early for her to believe that most of what she took for granted didn't necessarily apply for immortals and as such, Hild was immensely amused by her baffled expression.

"Oh, well… You'll eventually come to understand what's going on here. In the meantime…" Turning to her daughter, Hild was rather interested to see how she was going to act around her right now. It was only a few days since Urd called her, and that was a very encouraging sign. If nothing else, the Daimakaicho's hope was to redefine her relationship with her daughter and hopefully act as a family once again. "Hi, Urd-chan!"

"Hello, mother. I see you've decided to show up." Old habits died hard and for the hybrid to suddenly act in a vastly different manner would've been rather unlikely. Still, even this seemingly subtle change in the way she addressed her mother was a monumental change for anyone who knew the Norn of the past. Not only she openly admitted her relationship to her, but, she also did that with far less annoyance present in her voice.

"Well, someone needs to keep an eye on the kids," said Hild, giving Surt a rather pointed look, even if he tried his best to ignore it. "You know how it is… They start getting funny ideas the moment they think that they're running the place."

"I'm not listening," grumbled the Eldjotunn, either due to her comment or the fact that he was currently losing the match with Thor.

"Your statement says otherwise," came the Daimakaicho's dry response.

"Actually, you two sound like an old couple." It was that simple sentence, as brief as it was, that made most of the senior goddesses in their group to choke on their tea and in Sif's case, her crackers. Feeling that she may had actually brought up a bad subject, Urd mentally kicked herself for letting her demonic side try to cause too much trouble. The situation was already pretty volatile and adding more fuel to what could easily turn into a wildfire was ill advised; even if she realized that it was too late to do anything about it, now.

"An old couple is a bit of a stretch, but, I bet that a certain someone would've loved that," said Hild with a giggle, despite her initial surprise. It's been ages since some of her peers used to tease her about Surt, who apparently was a lot closer to her than most other demonic students compared to their caretakers. Even though she also tried to pay an equal amount of attention to Sinmara and Sindr, the sleeping arrangements had inevitably caused her to spend more time with Surt, than the two siblings. Some of the more brave amongst her fellow demonesses even went as far as to claim that she was raising her future husband; something that she later found extremely amusing considering how wrong they were.

"I'm still not listening." Attempting to formulate a viable strategy to turn the game around, the leader of Muspelheim was far too busy to notice the little demoness who decided that some revenge was necessary for withholding information from her.

Using her power to reform her body, Hild assumed a much more grown up appearance, despite the fact that she was still a mere thousandth of her true body. And while she was far from becoming exactly the way she normally appeared to be, this avatar was now clearly an adult one; much to Sayoko's amazement. "Oh? Is that game so engaging, or are you losing so badly? Let me take a look."

Feeling puzzled as to why she suddenly wished to be so helpful, Surt was about to turn around when a pair of soft orbs pressed firmly against his back, followed by an amused giggle. It was bad enough to have her treat him like a kid once again, but to add this to the mix was more than the demon wished to deal with; even though there was no easy way out of his current predicament. If nothing else, Hild was known for being stubborn and she wouldn't stop until she taught him a lesson, and the more he resisted the further she would go. Which was exactly what the Eldjotunn wished to avoid right in front of all those celestials; especially Thor. "Even if you look, that's not going to change anything at all. It's not like I don't know how to play this game, it's the fact that I'm not having any luck right now."

"Oh! Why didn't you say so?" Without missing a beat, Hild turned to Belldandy who was observing the whole scene along with her sisters. "Hey, Bell-chan… Can you do us a favor and roll the dice for us?"

"Uh… Sure… I don't see why not," said the reluctant Norn of the present and did as she was told, much to her uncle's horror. Which was to be expected, since the goddess' incredible luck had managed to get the best possible roll; a solid 100.

"Hey, wait a moment! That's cheating!" protested the god of thunder, narrowing his eyes at Hild.

"How exactly is that considered as cheating? I don't recall any rule that dictates who has to be the one who rolls the dice. The only restriction is that no magic is allowed in order to alter the result in any way," said Hild with a content smirk. "Are you implying that your nice used her powers to help us?"

"No..."

"Then stop complaining. Oh, and it's your turn! After we successfully crippled your battleship!" Giggling as she enjoyed the sullen look on Thor's face, Hild glanced over at her daughter who shook her head.

'This was very different compared to what I had in mind,' thought Urd as she watched at the scene in front of her. 'On the other hand, it could've been worse…Hm… Wait a moment… Where's Sayoko?'

XXX

CMV Skidbladnir, unknown location

Sulking in one of the numerous cargo holds on board the stolen war vessel, Fenrir was staring at the featureless grey wall opposite of the crate he was currently sitting on. His greatest accomplishment had been significantly downplayed and even considered a 'reckless display of wanton destruction' and as a result, he was stripped of his rank as the captain of this mighty battleship.

'Stupid Odal, putting that goody-goody Vidarr in charge of the ship...Gods… what do they even know about fights?'

The canine's bitterness was more than evident as he refused to talk to any of the other members of the crew or whatever they wished to call this mismatched group of renegades. It was only when he heard the heavy steps of Odal's robots that he turned around to see what those synthetics wanted.

"What is it? I'm not in the mood for chitchat. So, scram!"

"Greetings, most esteemed and terrible wolf. We are the members of the third tactical squadron, and we seek to acquire your wisdom."

Raising his ears as he stared the dozen or so robots, Fenrir was both intrigued and troubled at the same time. "Uh… Have you guys glitched out?"

"Negative. We are currently performing within acceptable parameters. It is merely the decision of our collective to acquire a viable doctrine that we should follow in order to improve ourselves in combat. While we have the memories of unit 2251-4547-7784-00 or Gunnar as it was renamed by maker himself, we feel that more is required in order to gain the means to reach a level of even greater accomplishment and honor."

"I'll be damned if I got any of that," said the baffled Fenrir. "You want… what?... Use some words that make sense!"

Pausing as the robots had a brief deliberation to find an alternative wording for their request, they allowed their spokesperson to go on. "We want you to show us how to be badasses like you."

"Really?" Blinking as he stared the mechanical goliaths, Fenrir was immediately starting to suspect that something was wrong here. "Did Odal ask you to cheer me up, or something like that?"

"Negative. This is a valid request, indeed."

"Great! I'll teach you then!" Swelling with pride, the little puppy wagged his tail happily, almost forgetting everything about being the former captain of Skidbladnir. 'Heh… who cares about that stuff! I'll get the chance to lead troops into battle!'

"Thank you. Your contributions to our great cause are most appreciated."

"Wait! Stop right there!" said Fenrir with a frown. "What the Hell was that? You sound so polite, it reminds me those salesmen whenever they try to convince you to buy something. That's not how a warrior should sound, you pups!"

"Pups? We cannot understand…"

"You're now my wolf pack and as such, you're a bunch of fledgeling pups under my supervision and command!" barked the canine with great ferocity, despite his minute size. "Now, you'll have to learn how to speak with more confidence, gusto and above all, the right attitude! And I'm your Pack Leader! So, address me properly, pups!"

"Yes, sir!"

"That's… an improvement, I guess," said the dreaded wolf as he nodded his head. "We can work on it later. Our first priority is to see what kind of offensive options we have! For example, what kind of melee weapons you've got in your disposal?"

"Um… we don't have anything other than ranged weapons at the moment. Only Gunnar has that axe and that's because it's considered as an oversized one by celestial standards. The battleaxes here are a bit too short for our larger bodies to use efficiently in combat."

"What kind of excuse is this?! You want to become badasses, by shooting things from afar?! Hiding behind a freaking boulder while making 'pew, pew ' sounds like a bunch of cowards?" Giving the assorted group of robots a stern glare, the canine growled with a much deeper tone than it should've been possible for a puppy his size. "You're going to learn how to engage others in glorious combat, and do that with gusto, too! Got me?"

"But… there are no available options at the time being…"

"Then we'll make them! I won't have no for an answer, so, go and grab all the resources you can and even get a few ranged weapons to improve as well," said Fenrir with a huff. "It's not like I won't use them at all. I merely want a full range of manly weapons and you're going to make them. That'll be your first assignment as my wolf pack!"

"But, Pack Leader!... Our creator had strictly prohibited us to waste any of our precious resources!"

"Improving your offensive options isn't a waste, it's an investment!" countered the wolf pup with a shake of his head. "What kind of help can you be when you're not even properly equipped? Odal will surely be very happy with such display of foresight and resourcefulness. Besides, you're more than just a bunch of buckets! You're an intelligent and self determining species and ingenuity is to expected, especially from those who aspire to become my pupils!"

Remaining quiet for several moments as the members of the third tactical squad conversed amongst themselves in their native binary language, trying to reach a conclusion as to what their course of action should be. After some deliberation and a lot of arguments, the assorted robots turned back to their new wolf commander. "Agreed. We're going to gather whatever is necessary to improve ourselves and even expand our fighting capabilities beyond the scope of what's currently possible."

"That's it! Now, try saying a bit more… enthusiastically? You know, put some umph behind it; not sound like a super polite and utterly boring news announcer!" said Fenrir, as he struggled to come up with the right words. 'I really need to do some research on my own to learn some fancy quotes. After all… a pack leader shouldn't sound like a moron.'

"Yes sir! We're gonna go to the vault room and grab everything that's not bolted down and bring it here, sir!"

"Yes! That's what I'm talking about! That's the spirit!" said the overjoyed canine. "Actually, just the fact that you sound like you have a spirit is proof that you're already doing a good job! Now go and get everything here! Let me see you move; on the double! One, two!..."

The sound from the resulting stampede as the robots rushed out of the room and towards their destination, only attracted the attention of Gunnar who curiously turned around to see what his fellow synthetics were up to; a rather peculiar fact, given that they were supposed to be a networked species. Dismissing the event as a mere anomaly, the proud battlemaster continued his patrol, unaware of the ramifications of what took place mere seconds ago. The formation of a pact between a subset of his newly formed species and one of the most dreaded living weapon of mass destruction.

In the meantime, Fenrir was happy beyond words for once and given the monumental achievement of gaining his own pack, he decided to celebrate in the best way he knew; doing barrel rolls.

'I knew that learning a few things from Loki would've done me some good! I got my own wolves! Well… they're not really wolves, but... hey! Beggars can't be choosers!'

XXX

Nekomi, Japan

"Is there anything wrong Sayoko? Or are you out here to some fresh air?"

Approaching the rich woman who was sitting alone in the front porch, Keiichi tried to avoid sounding too worried. In reality he had a very good idea what was wrong, but, hoped to talk to her and resolve the problem without having to ask the others to erase her memories. After all, the last time they tried to do that for his sister, it…kind of turned into a huge fiasco.

"Do you even have to ask?" shot the brunette back at him with a raised eyebrow. "We have a few immortals back in the living room… playing some tabletop game. Not to mention that they exist to begin with! And you're married to a goddess on top of all that! Of course, it's wrong! It makes no sense on so many leve-..."

Stopping as she saw a tiny entity fly past her head and towards Keiichi who was now sitting next to her, Sayoko had to blink as she finally managed to get a better view at the little winged man who was apparently having a silent conversation with the only one she considered to be normal around her. 'I'm all alone. Everyone here is either some deity, something that looks like a small angel or someone who talks with one of them… Or… I've just gone mad and a white rabbit with a clock will show up any time soon.'

'Help! She's out for me!'

"Terrestrial Spark! This isn't the time to do that! Sayoko's staring at you!" said the frustrated Keiichi, who tried to make things better and ended up having his own angel undermine his efforts by showing up unexpectedly.

'She's staring at me too!' said the terrified angel as he duck for cover in his master's chest, while a pair of feminine arms wrapped around the unsuspecting Keiichi.

'How cold… I merely wanted to say… hi…' purred World of Elegance as she leaned forward to gently blow some air against Keiichi's right ear in a manner that would've certainly caused a serious incident should his wife got a glimpse of that. Or the fact that the angel was currently rubbing her chest against his back, much to his horror.

"World of Elegance?! What are… What are you doing?!" It wasn't even a necessary question, although, Keiichi couldn't help but utter those very words as his mind stopped working properly and feared that any moment now, Belldandy would open the door panel and take a nice look at how her sister's angel was wrapped around him. Of course, it was true that the dichromatic angel was now hosted by a demoness, or rather, Urd had changed her primary configuration as one and it was entirely possible that such an act had affected her symbiont's personality as well, making her far too aggressive in her teasing.

"Uh…"

Before the mischievous angel offered him an answer, she turned towards the woman sitting next to them and smirked as she recognized her from her mistress' memories. 'Well, well… Hello there little princess!...'

Having no idea what the angel was telling her, or even the fact that she was talking at all, Sayoko was really nervous as the winged woman approached her, bathed in that otherworldly glow. She suspected that this was an angel of sorts or at the very least a creature that matched the description of one, but, the brunette didn't know how to react in a situation like that. Especially with the mischievous way that entity was staring at her. "H-Hello?"

"Actually, you cannot hear their voices, Sayoko," said Keiichi, trying to explain one of the most basic issues when a mortal attempted to converse with an angel.

"But… you seemed to understand that little one," said the Mishima heiress as she pointed to Terrestrial Spark.

'She called you little,' said World of Elegance as she smiled at Keiichi's angel.

'I've... heard that…'

Ignoring the angels' chatter, Keiichi thought about it for a moment and with some hesitation, decided to simply tell her the truth, given that creating a cover story at that point would've been useless. "That's because he's mine. Which explains the whole size matter, too. As a human, I cannot provide him with enough energy to… Um… is everything alright?"

"Yours?! H-How?!" Accepting that almost everyone around her were metaphysical, supernatural, or whatever those beings actually considered themselves was one thing; having to do the same for someone who was supposedly a normal human was a whole different story. "You're one of them, too?!"

"No, I'm like you… I mean… look I don't really know how to properly explain this, but, we discovered that I could host an angel. Although, Terrestrial Spark is also a special kind of an angel designed to have very small energy requirements and… I'm not really making any sense do I?" Looking at how lost the rich woman seemed to be, Keiichi was actually eternally grateful at how well Megumi had taken all that info. Sayoko was much closer to what he would've expected from an average human who suddenly realized that all sorts of crazy and unbelievable things were actually possible and even more; they were actually happening in a relatively quiet corner or Japan.

"None whatsoever," was the woman's reply, who was staring at him as if he was some kind of alien.

"I thought so…" Letting a sigh, Keiichi's head slumped, knowing that an even lengthier explanation was necessary and given how much time that would normally require, he turned to World of Elegance. "Can you please tell Belldandy to make some tea for us?"

'You're not asking that to get me out of here, do you?' asked the dichromatic angel with a smirk as she leaned forward while hovering, allowing both mortals to get a nice view of her cleavage.

"No! Where did you get that idea from?" Despite his best attempt to sound as if nothing was wrong, Keiichi was fully aware that he wouldn't really convince anyone. Thankfully for him, though, the angel seemed to have accepted his request and hovered towards the living room.

'Alright… But only since you asked so nicely.'

"So, she's someone's angel too?" asked Sayoko as soon as World of Elegance was out of earshot.

"Yes, she's Urd's," said Keiichi with a nod. He stopped there, of course, not wanting to get into too many details about the hybrid's nature, feeling that it wasn't his place to tell her about all that. If Urd wanted to share her personal history with Sayoko, that was her decision; but not his and as such he tried to only answer whatever he could, as laconic as possible.

"That actually makes sense for a change," admitted the brunette before she paused and realized something rather important. "Hm… Belldandy has an angel too, right?"

"Of course. She's called Holy Bell, actually," offered Keiichi with a nod.

"Wait! I… I think I remember something! I… was under the impression that it was some weird, stupid dream, but, I recognize that name, now!"

"Yeah… It was back when some weird critter had attached to you and started to sap your ability to believe in anything. That's why Belldandy tried to convince you she was a goddess as a way to make that thing detach from you and it actually worked in the end," explained Keiichi as he recalled that incident from a few years ago.

"I had always thought that it was some strange dream or something. At first I had a lot of problems coming to accept it, and then my memories seemed to get really fuzzy, so… I thought it was just a vivid dream." Pausing, Sayoko noticed a blonde woman form out of the pond's water, although she had already reached the point where such a bizarre incident was no longer enough to make her freak out. Instead, she raised a curious eyebrow and turned towards Keiichi hoping for an explanation.

"She's Laguz, also known as the Goddess of the Lake," said the dark haired man as the goddess approached them.

"Good morning, Keiichi! I was having a nap and I've noticed that there were several new signatures around here…" started the blonde when she noticed the woman next to him. "Oh no! Did I do something wrong?"

"Been there done that, Laguz!" laughed Keiichi as he shook his head. "She already saw a few of our other guests…"

"Um, nice to meet you, then," said the blonde goddess, offering the mortal woman a polite bow. "My name is Laguz."

"Pleased to meet you. I'm Mishima Sayoko, but you can call me by my name," said the brunette as she studied the goddess and was slightly intrigued by the fact that she had no facial markings; unlike all the rest of the immortals she had seen so far.

"The pleasure is all mine." As the goddess took a seat next to her, and World of Elegance returned with the requested cups of tea, Keiichi remembered that there was something he wanted to figure out and had almost forgotten about it in the middle of all this chaos.

"Well… If you'll excuse me, I've got something to do. I'll be right back in a couple of minutes."

XXX

Entering the room, Keiichi noticed that the atmosphere was a bit more… relaxed than before. The tabletop game between Thor and Surt had apparently come to an end, although, it was replaced by two new matches. One between Hild and her former student and another between Thor and his son, Magni; who was apparently interested to find out more about this old fashioned form of entertainment with his father becoming his teacher.

Next to them was Skuld who was also intrigued by the looks of it, given that she was reading something that was most likely a rulebook, at least based on its label. It was then when Keiichi suddenly paused and realized that he had actually read something written in that runic script used by the celestians. 'How did?... That's not Japanese for sure. Then…'

'It's me, actually,' replied Terrestrial Spark from within the mortal's mind where he retreated to relax for a moment. Although… someone could've also consider it an attempt to avoid World of Elegance who apparently wanted to smother him. 'I can read that and translate it for you.'

'Huh? I didn't knew that you could do that, before,' said Keiichi, scratching his head as he tried to recall any similar incident since he got his angel.

'To save you some trouble, we couldn't do that. Or… Well, I could technically read the text, but, I'd have to interpret that to you word by word, which is way too slow. Instead, now we can share thoughts in a much more efficient manner and this allows me to send its meaning straight to your mind,' explained Terrestrial Spark. 'And that's not even restricted to celestial text, I can actually translate any known tongue; including all the mortal languages!'

'Wow! That's really really handy' replied the impressed Keiichi, who could hardly believe that he had somehow acquired one of the most ubiquitous items in all science fiction shows; the universal translator. 'Still… you said that we couldn't do it before. Why?'

'Oh... I forgot to mention that, didn't I? Well, the more you learn about me, the better I can communicate with you and our performance as a team significantly increases!' offered the angel with a cheerful tone.

'That's great! Uh.. although, does that mean… that you can read my thoughts?' It was something that in all honesty, Keiichi had actually forgotten about; despite all the things he knew about the angels.

'Uh… I could already do that. Although, it's not like I'm reading everything stored here. I mean, some things are better left alone and never brought out of the dark corners of your psyche,' said Terrestrial Spark with a sigh. 'I still find it hard to believe how many mental images of Belldandy in tight, shiny leather I run into last time I tried to look around… Shame on you!...'

"NO!"

His shocked, almost panicked reaction instantly got everyone's attention, since the mortal was sitting all by himself and totally quiet up until moments ago. Realizing that the others were staring at him, Keiichi started to blush and tried to move towards one of the living room's corners, hoping in vain that they'd eventually come to ignore him and go back to their business.

"Darling, is everything alright?" asked the concerned Belldandy as she got closer to her husband who was emitting a bright pink aura for no apparent reason. 'Why is he so embarrassed? Did anything happen while I wasn't looking?'

"Yes! Everything's fine! I was… just having a conversation with Terrestrial Spark! That's all!" said the panicked mortal, scratching the back of his head.

"If you say so. Then, how about I get you a nice cup of tea?" offered the brunette, hoping that whatever that troubled her husband wasn't anything actually serious.

"Oh, I'd love that, Belldandy!" Smiling as his wife headed towards the kitchen, the dark haired mortal let a sigh of relief, since he wasn't looking forward to explain what the whole fuss was all about. And given that everyone else had apparently returned to their own business, Keiichi decided to do what he originally came here for. 'I just hope I'm not poking my nose into something I shouldn't…'

Approaching Skuld who was still reading that rule book, he attempted to look as calm as he could, trying to recover from the previous incident. "Uh… Hey there, Skuld."

"Hm? Oh... Hi, Keiichi. You want something? I was just checking this game," said the Norn of the future. "It's kind of funny, but, this is the first time I've seen anything like this. I've played a lot of video games, but, most of them look very simplified compared to this."

"That sounds like fun," replied her brother-in-law, checking to make sure that the others weren't listening in to their conversation. "I was just wondering… Well, when Thor and his family arrived earlier, you didn't seem too happy and I…"

"Wanted to poke your nose into this? I guess, Urd has a been a bad influence for you," said Skuld with a giggle. "It's nothing too serious. I just wasn't excited to find out how much better Magni had gotten since the last time I saw him. He may be my first cousin and roughly as old as I am, but, he's way ahead of me in terms of magic."

"Really?"

"You have no idea. He could already cast a few spells while most other celestials could hardly levitate tiny objects. Not to mention the fact that he got an angel sooner, and without any ill effects too!" said Skuld with a frustrated sigh. "I think it's not necessary to mention that I could do none of the above… And I don't want to figure out just ahead of me he really is, now."

"Oh… I see… He must be really popular then," said Keiichi without too much thought, something that he immediately came to regret as the younger goddess glared at him; before she calmed down and glanced over at Magni.

"Not really. You might think that, but, the truth is a bit different. A lot of the other kids were kind of frustrated as well, and a few were even jealous, however... that was far from a real problem. The worst thing about him is that… How should I say it?" Pausing for a few seconds, Skuld tried her best to phrase the next bit in a way that wouldn't sound offensive. "Well, he's not following the latest trends for becoming popular. In many ways, Magni prefers to tell the truth, instead of trying to sound like an overly polite god and this… sometimes makes others unhappy. You see… he's kind of blunt and get straight to the point, even if most would've avoided that."

"That kind of sounds like me in a way," said Keiichi with a chuckle. "Aside the whole magic thing…"

"I said he's blunt, not hopeless," was the sarcastic reply.

"Gee, thanks for the confidence, Skuld."

"My pleasure, Keiichi!"

"Here's the tea!" Stepping next to them with a big smile on her face, the Norn of the present offered each of them a cup and briefly glanced at the book Skuld was reading. "Oh, that's so nostalgic! I remember uncle Loki trying to to teach us how to play that! Unfortunately, neesan wasn't all too fond of playing that game with me."

Before either of them had the chance to reply, Urd floated behind her middle sister and decided to present her side of that particular story. "In my defense, playing any game that involves luck with you is a losing battle. So, I've spared myself the embarrassment to get my backside kicked so hard; figuratively speaking of course."

While the three sisters giggled, Keiichi tried to take a look at the book that was left open in Skuld's lap, something that piqued the others' curiosity as it normally should've made no sense to him, being written in the language of the celestials.

"What's up, Keiichi? looking at the pretty pictures? It's mostly text, though," said Skuld trying not to laugh.

"No, I can read it… Terrestrial Spark can translate it for me now," was the simple yet honest reply; one that triggered an immediate reaction from the Norns.

"Really? Oh, that's so wonderful, Keiichi!" said Belldandy with a bright smile. "I can now give you a few beginners books about magic that you'll most certainly find really useful!"

"T-Thank you, Bell!" As much as he tried, Keiichi's expression betrayed that he was far from excited and both Urd and Skuld quickly caught up on that and decided to tease him.

"Nice job shooting yourself on the foot, Keiichi!" said the youngest of the Norns. "It's back to school for you!"

"Yeah… And those will most likely be books for little kids too. Ah… the cute, pastel colored pictures explaining magic for you!... How much I miss them," said Urd as she pat the mortal's head; much to his chagrin.

'I should've stayed out with Sayoko and Laguz…That's what happens to those who get too curious, I guess… Great, just great...'

XXX

On board CMV Skidbladnir, Unknown location

'Container integrity compromised. Initiating final stage of seal removal.'

As the synthesized voice of the lab's computer announced the end of the long procedure that had already taken several hours, Odal, Gram and even Vidarr were present to witness the release of the other inmate they had successfully liberated from the Lunar Prison.

Cracking open the final seal, the cylindrical container started to glow for a moment, as several glyphs appeared across its surface, before they dissipated and replaced by a far more intense column of light. Slowly, a feminine form could be seen floating above the container and as the light died out, her features became even more clear.

Long green hair framed her fair skin, while a white and gold set of robes completed the angelic appearance that didn't seem to fit the role of a criminal. Hovering down to the floor, the goddess opened her eyes for the first time after several millennia and observed her surroundings in a mixture of confusion and wonder; her lethargic green orbs trying to focus and make sense of what she was seeing.

"Are you feeling alright? You're experiencing some post release symptoms, but… other than that, are you in any pain?" asked Odal, stepping forward to make sure that the goddess wouldn't go into a shock. Normally, taking someone out of stasis wasn't that dangerous, however in this case, they've forcefully broken the seal instead of removing it in the recommended manner and there were always a few risks involved with such procedures.

"Ah… Uh…" Struggling to come up with anything that resembled speech, the green haired shook her head, almost as if she had trouble to focus and stared back at odal who was getting slightly worried.

"Um… are you alright, Ilmr-san?" asked the rogue god with a concerned frown. While he had anticipated some confusion, this was a bit more than the initial estimates and he feared that they may have done some terrible here. "Do you even understand me?"

"Ilmr?..."

The wonder behind the goddess' voice denied any form of recognition or even acknowledgment and slowly Odal began to realize that not only they may had a problem on their hands; it was a pretty huge one as well. "T-That's your name!"

"My… name?.." Tilting her head, the goddess scratched her chin in wonder, and while she regained some clarity and focused better, Ilmr seemed to be no less confused about her situation. "Is that my name?"

Turning to his synthetic comrade, Odal was almost panicking at this point. This was never supposed to happen, at least not as far as he was concerned and the repercussions of this failure would be great indeed. "Gram! What's going on here?!"

"Well, as I've stated before we even started this procedure, the success rate was about 99.9%" said the sentient sword at the rogue god. "This… is the 0.1% of what could've happened."

"Really?... You don't say!..." was the sarcastic, yet frustrated remark. "What are we supposed to do now!"

"I'm afraid that I'm not a celestial physician…" said Gram, turning to Vidarr.

"Don't look at me! I know some healing spells, but that's only basic stuff. Nothing about amnesia, or whatever she has," said the god with a frown.

"Celestine! He might know something useful!" said Odal, as he tried to come up with a solution for their problem.

"I do not want to sound too sarcastic, but, he's probably too busy trying to learn how to walk at the moment, to be of any use," said Gram with a shake of his head. "And even if he does know, information alone may not be enough for her. If any spells are involved, we're probably out of luck as he might need to teach either of you how to do that."

"Which is terrible idea, when it comes to things like that," continued Vidarr, much to Odal's disappointment. "Healers need decades of experience before they're allowed to mess around with someone's mind. While the body is easier to mend, the mind is a totally different case. Even a single mistake could make matters worse instead of improving one's condition. I don't think that I possess the required knowledge or the skill to perform such a complex restoration procedure on her."

"Hello… are we friends?" asked Ilmr to Vidarr who suddenly turned to her with a startled expression on his face.

"Um… well…"

Meanwhile, Odal was rubbing his temples as he could feel the migraine that was most likely a result of this fiasco. What should've been a straightforward release procedure turned out to become one huge mess, with a now amnesiac first class goddess being absolutely useless to them. Still, he couldn't ignore the fact that it was due to his actions that, Ilmr was in that kind of state and abandoning her was absolutely out of question. 'Great… I must find a way to fix her, somehow. At the very least, I cannot leave her like that or allow her to get even worse if such a thing is even possible. So much for getting some extra help... What else can go wrong?'

"It's a disaster! The vault room was raided! We've been looted! They robbed us blind, I say!" Slithering as fast as he could towards them, the panicked Jormungandr tried to get the assorted immortals' attention. "Almost a third of the resource crates are missing!"

"What?! How?! Who did that?!" The god's frustration had reached a totally new level, which in a totally ironic way matched that of his opponents several hours ago when they saw their Lunar Prison blown up in such a spectacular manner.

"I don't know! I just went there after one of the guards reported that there was something profoundly wrong," was the serpent's reply as he shook his head, given that he possessed no shoulders to shrug.

"Don't look at me..." added Vidarr who was still struggling to figure out what to do with the green haired goddess who was standing next to him with a big smile on her face.

"There is one individual on this ship who might've been behind this; Fenrir..." started Gram as he calmly analyzed the situation.

"You think so?"

"Yes, I'm fairly confident," replied the synthetic to his comrade. "Plus, I've checked the security footage and we might've a bunch of your robots collaborating with him for reasons beyond mine, or any intelligent individual's ability to understand."

"Gr… the nerve of that wolf!... I'll have to go and check what the heck's going on there! What a mess!"

AN: I would like to thank everyone that has offered their feedback and support both here and on the Goddess Relief site.

There are a few things that I'd like to note for this chapter.

The incident with the Anki was never mentioned again in the manga, despite the fact that Sayoko had clearly seen Belldandy use her abilities. And while she thought that the goddess was a witch, nothing really came out of that, or at least, it never influenced the story from that point on. Here, I simply assumed that some of those memories were eventually blocked by her and for the most part, she assumed that it was all a weird dream, since there is no canon explanation as to why she never brought that up again in the series.

An interesting point about Odal's robots is that they work on two different levels. One is their conscious part, which is that of an individual, and the other is the underlying subconscious layer that's actually networked and closer to a collective intelligence. As a result, they're a strange mix of individuals who also have a unified identity as a species, contrary to humans who only think for themselves. In certain ways, they are like the Gate network, by polling resources and knowledge in order to improve themselves both as individuals and as a species.

Keiichi and his angel are a special case and shouldn't be considered the same as any other host and their angel. As such, some of the latent abilities of his symbiont are not immediately accessible by Keiichi, although the closer they get the more he can do. In this case, Terrestrial Spark's ability to read all sorts of text manifests in Keiichi as well. That's what enables him to read that book, even if it's written in a language he cannot understand.

The attempt to break Ilmr's seal obviously went horribly wrong. It's a nod to most science fiction series that depict the side effects of reviving a person after remaining in stasis for a prolonged period of time. To be fair, that's not a typical example of what happens in this universe, just what happened due to the fact that they forcefully broke the seal instead of unlocking it in the normal way. Of course, that happened since they didn't possess the necessary key to do so and the improvised method had some undesirable side effects.