~*~*~*~*~*~*8 years later-Heaven~*~*~*~*~
"Nancy, I need blocks 2500F to 2550F and block 2560F to 2600F turned down and prepared. I have a lot of people coming in." Make that 2500- 2700F turned down. This war is going to wear us down. I'm only barely keeping up with the deaths. They just keep coming." Ria said leveling a glare at the bronze-haired angel named Nancy.
"I know, you're just starting to get the hang of it cause it took you eight years to get the hang of it." Nancy replied, checking off all of the rooms to be turned down so that when the killed soldiers came they would have a place to stay. Her sarcasm was well-noted with a glare from the dark-haired woman next to her. "Lord only knows how many we'll lose to Devlon. Lord Darien is up to his eyeballs in deaths."
"Nancy! It's me that has to actually bring in the deaths. Plus, I know when and where those deaths are going to take place. It's a never-ending cycle. Plus, I have help. You know that Warrior Woman, Vicky, is one heck of a woman to be able to deal with what she has."
"I know, I know! Hold on a sec." Nancy started walking down the hall with Ria in tow. Ria's dress was long, billowy, and a sort of shimmering silvery blue with her dark hair down and waving around her shoulders and her shoulder blades. She had grown quite a bit and thanks to the choir practices with the choir in Angel City Roman Catholic Church, she now could sing like an angel too. Life in Heaven was great, but there was always something missing. She watched Nancy pull out a phone hanging by the wall and yell into it, "Maiden angels. I need maiden angels to turn down rooms 2500- 2700F. We have another mess-load of soldiers coming in."
The walkie-talkie hanging on the sash of Nancy's belt all of a sudden pfzzed to life and replied, "right away HA. We're on it." Almost immediately about forty angels ran by holding cleaning items and cans of Febreeze, along with Pledge, and GLAD garbage bags. Ria watched the angels go by, amazed that after eight years of this life, she was still speechless as to how heavenly angels used Earth-made products.*****
As she stood musing about the past, a tall figure with Auburn blonde hair and a Metallic silvery gold gown came speed walking down the hall. She had blue eyes and long legs with a determined look on her face. She was an awe-inspiring figure on The God's Ledge. Someone on earth would think that God ran heaven, but Oh No! It wasn't god. It was this woman right here. The head Goddess of Heaven, the strongest person/ woman in the entire universe/solar system/ space time- continuum. Victoria LeeAnne Maquoy. Currently had an expression on her face that could freeze ice. She came to stand by the two angels, huffing and running her hand through her hair, dislodging a few more stray strands.
"Have you seen Darien? That oaf has me running circles around here trying to find him. Ria, I don't know how you do it. Running heaven while I'm not around. You're second in command here because you deal with the people who come in and go out. You deal with Rooms, Food, Cafeteria crap, office crap and you still have a life in Angel City. Tell me how you do it. I've been here for six months, and already I'm ready to throttle that idiot. Making me run around in circles like a moron. And he calls himself God. If it wasn't for the two of us, he'd fall flat on his flat ass." She hmphed and just stood there looking even more like she was ready to squash the next person who spoke to her.
But it was true. Ria was second in command of heaven only to Vicky herself, and if Darien ever lost either of them, heaven would fall so fast in the standards that her imparted upon them. He wouldn't know where to turn because between the two of them, they handled all the jobs. Like a welcoming committee, he welcomed people into Heaven and walked around making sure everything was clean. It was true though, behind every great man, there is a woman kicking his ass to get stuff done. In this case, there were two women kicking the ass of God around. Sadly to say, the next person to talk to Vicky just happened to be one of the maiden angels.
"Vicky?" Marissa said, coming up to Vicky and standing next to her.
"What?" Vicky snapped, turning a blue eye upon the shorter woman. She turned to Marissa, giving her the worst glare, which was, thanks to one of her new friends, Heero Yuy, pretty damn powerful seeing as she had a similar mindset to the pilot. The two had met six months before when she had followed a much, much stronger brainwave pattern than any that she had seen thus far. It took a bullet, a few death threats on Heero's part, and a bit of a power display on Vicky's for him to begin to trust her. Since that day, she had become a staple among the small group of pilots that Heero found himself running with. The other pilots were a shade more welcoming despite their not trusting her completely since Heero had begun to trust her. She was possibly even worse than them. Since she was the strongest person in the universe, a woman, and a girl who was pretty much brought up in a similar way to Heero, she had been trained in all manners, but mainly in the way of hopping between worlds. Recently, she had spent an enormous amount of time on a world where Thread fell from the sky and dragon-riders on fire-breathing dragons burned the scourge in the air before it fell to the ground.
Vicky's history, though, was every bit as hairy as the boys' history. Her father had been a high-ranking scientist working out of a home office located in England. He had been assassinated while giving a speech to a group of military officials on a mobile suit that he had created as he was holding her when she was two. Her mother quickly remarried into a family of six boys and what Vicky would find out to be was an abusive step-father. She had lived there for five years before her mother was hit by a truck and killed right in front of her eyes. Shortly afterwards, she lost her mind, and beat the living shit out of her step-brothers and her step-father on a day before running away. At the age of eight, after living alone and orphaned on the streets, she was brought to an orphanage where she lived until the age of nine when her long-lost-psychopathic scientist grandfather came to get her and adopted her. He then trained her to become a Warrior Woman, to fight with pride, and be strong, learning to use her power for both good and evil while still controlling it. He taught her also how to pilot mobile suits, how to hack, and be silent in the shadows. When she was fourteen, he was shot and killed by a mob of people in the super market. She had only just barely made it out alive. Afterwards, she had taken his blue-prints and begun the creation of the Epyon that she had seen him working on. Her grandfather had been conversing with a group of older grandpa-ish kind of men, the white jacket types, and there was no way that his designs would be used for their purposes. Shortly after he passed away, his designs had disappeared from her database, and when she traced the file line, she had ended up an the Oz database in Treize Kushrenada's locked files. Her file had been pulled, printed, purged, and she ended up losing the plans completely. She didn't even have the full blue prints for the Mobile suit since her crazy grandfather had burned them. She knew she would get the designs back at some point, but for the time being she was pushing forward with her world-hopping. Three years passed and here she stood.
"I just wanted to ask how the war was going…" Marissa said, wondering what happened to her mistress lady warrior woman.
"It's fine," Vicky once again snapped, turning back to Ria for her answer.
Ria, seeing the look on Vicky's face, just started laughing earning her another icy glare from Vicky. She said, "Vicky, you have been here for six months. I have been here for eight years. Trust me, you get used to the hustle and bustle here. You're the head honcho, Vicky. You gotta toughen up. You can't let things like this get you down. He's gonna send you in a lot of circles, crazy eights, round-the-towners, here, there, and….everywhere. Just tough it out and do what you gotta do."
Apparently, what Ria said got to Vicky, cause she began smiling. She replied, "Ria, you're the Goddess of Death, correct?" At a nod and a mm-hmm from Ria she continued, "Well, I think it's time you went down among the people down on earth. Goddesses need to get out once in a while. Especially you, Ria . There are some people down there that I think you'll really like."
Flat out, Ria said, "I'm not dating anyone!"
"Relax. No one said anything about dating although I wouldn't be against it if I were you, because they've actually got some interesting personalities. They are terrorists, assassins, and killers, and one can't be a person such as that without a certain type of mindset and personality." Vicky winked at the dark-haired goddess, turning her back to start walking in the direction she had come initially.
"Oh my. Where do you actually find these people? I should stay up here. I was just saying to Marissa how busy we are with the war that you seem to be raving about."
"Cut the crap, Ria," The Warrior Woman called over her shoulder, "Go grab a bag of clothes. You're coming down with me. Something keeps telling me that you need to go with me to meet up with them. I'm gonna be off doing things around the galaxy and I'll be back to check on you every once in a while. For now, think of it like a vacation."
At hearing this, Ria ran off down the hall after the auburn-haired woman yelling, "I'M GOING DOWN TO EARTH! YIPPEEEE!" She jumped up and clicked her heels together sending Vicky into such a laughing fit at this psychotic lil demonic angel that she had problems breathing and just settled for a hacking cough on one knee.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*Later on~*~*~*~*~*
"Ria, trust me. You'll love these guys. They're great. Great bodies, free, strong, intelligent, tough. They are the ideal guys ."
"Except, they are assassins, terrorists, killers, etc., and for the last time, Vicky, I-AM-NOT- DATING!"
"Okay, just wait here. This is where you'll meet them. I believe Duo is going to meet you here. They're so great. They won the first battle; they're going to win the second battle. They're just great. You're gonna love them. Just stay here."
"Vicky! I know when you're scheming and trying to set-" Ria stopped short; she was speaking to air now. "Brat," she said under her breathe. Suddenly, she dematerialized right on the spot into the surrounding shadows of the building behind her to hid. There was a familiar presence nearby, and her mind began to hum. Vicky had left already so it was only her and this presence. The presence didn't know where she was, but she knew where it was. Zeroing in on the alleyway running next to the woods, she watched the leaves twitch in the steady breeze. She didn't know who it was, but if it could surprise her, it must be powerful. In a low, seductive, telepathic voice, she called out to the person.
"Come out, Come out, where ever you are…"
A surprised voice came out of the shadows. A male voice, deep, with a lilt in the tone. "Who's there? Vicky? Is that you? Where are you? I can't see you. You know what I've told you about sneaking up on me. People generally end up dead when they do."
"You know Vicky? How do you know her? And who are you?"
"I should be asking you the same questions. Show yourself; I am supposed to meet one of Vicky's friends here. She wished to be known simply as Goddess. Are you Goddess?"
"Maybe. Maybe not. You show yourself, and I will do the same. All's fair…correct?"
Ria watched as a shadow moved away from the wall. A five-foot-tall boy stood down on the pavement below just outside of the ring of darkness by the street light. He had long brown hair in a braid trailing down his slim back and a black priest-like outfit on. But what stood out most was the color of his eyes. They were a startling and mesmerizing amethyst color. He stood with his hands on his hips, one foot in front of the other, preparing himself to either push off with one foot to run, or to swing out with the other foot to fight.
"Now, show yourself, Goddess." He said, looking around for a female that wasn't even on the ground. As she disengaged from the shadows, her cloak barely moving, she kept an eye on him. He watched calmly as the shadow stepped to the ledge of the roof and dropped down to the sidewalk.
"That all depends on whether or not you are the one called Duo. You know my name, but I do not know yours. What is your name, handsome?"
"My name is Duo Maxwell. It's getting late. Are we really going to continue playing these games? Are we leaving, or am I going home by myself to express my apologies to Vicky for not being able to coerce her friend into coming with me?"
"If you left without me, Duo, I would follow you home. Now turn around and look upon me fully."
He slowly turned around to find out he was mere inches away from one of the most beautiful people he had even seen. Her cloak blended in with the shadows behind her, framing her face, dropping her face in darkness. He had never really seen a woman's hair that had quite the color that this girl's hair had. She had midnight blue hair, which, in the streetlight, looked black. Her hair was done up in an intricate bun held by clips that looked like they were plucked from the very heavens themselves being dark blue with white diamonds. She had midnight blue eyes, and she was as tall as he was. Slim, muscular, had a high forehead, a narrow chin, a delicately shaped nose and a small pout to her lips. She looked at him as he looked at her and he could honestly say that in all of his years on the streets and beyond, he'd never quite met a woman with the same look that she had. The depths in her eyes spoke volumes; there was a knowledge there, and somehow he knew that time had ceased to exist for her in the way that he and everyone else knew time to be. She could blink, and one-hundred years could pass like nothing for her.
In the most beautiful lilting voice he had ever heard she said, "Are we just going to stand here, or do I have to search your mind for the way home?" He blushed and as motioned for her to follow him. This is going to be a very long week, he thought, and this girl is going to be something in my life.