Arc II: Chapter 08

Shadows

"What?" Keiichi couldn't believe what he had just heard.

Marler's mouth twisted into a more intense frown. "I said that Sephiroth was arrested as a traitor to Heaven."

"You can't be serious." The Demon's silence answered him as well as anything she could have said. His mind reeled at the very idea. Sephiroth, the God whose life he had helped to save, was the traitor who started all this? "Are they sure? I mean, they're sure it's him?"

"I assume that they're pretty damn sure." Crossing her arms, she leaned against the wall of the tea room. "They wouldn't have arrested him if they didn't have the evidence to back it up."

Keiichi set his tea down, completely forgetting that he had made it. "I can't believe this. He's one of the most powerful Gods in Heaven, right? We all trusted him so much." Turning his head, he asked the Demon directly, "How could he betray everyone like this?"

"Who knows?" She shrugged her shoulders, idly looking at the far wall. "I think it took everyone by surprise. Urd sure as hell didn't see it coming."

He winced at the mention of Urd's name. He wasn't sure what the white haired Goddess really thought of Sephiroth, but he was pretty sure that she at least thought of him as a friend. Well, maybe friend isn't the right word, but something like that.

"Have you told her?"

"I wish I hadn't," she replied. "She…well, she didn't take it very well."

The human nodded slowly. "I can imagine. I'm surprised the temple's still here."

"You don't know the half of it," Marler sighed. "She called Heaven as soon as I told her. Nobody would give her any information about what had happened. All they would say is that he was being tried for treason and murder."

"Murder?" He looked at the blond in surprise. "What murder?"

"I didn't tell you?" Keiichi shook his head negative. "They say he murdered a Goddess inside Yggdrasil, one of Urd's friends from when she was the system administrator, no less."

"Oh my God." Keiichi's unintended pun was lost on both of them. "How is she now?"

"Well, she went nuts after that," Marler winced at the memory. "Keos distracted her while I knocked her out with polka music. I'm just glad that she didn't have Masamune with her, or else we might never have stopped her."

"So that's what happened to the entryway," he said, scratching the back of his head uneasily. "I guess it's a good thing Megumi and I were working with Chihiro when all this happened."

She nodded, and the two sat there in silence for several minutes. Keiichi found himself fighting off a feeling of depression as he thought of this latest turn in events. Urd, the leader of the Celestials in Nekomi, was going to be out of the action for who knew how long. Sephiroth, someone he would hardly have suspected, had been allied with the Cruel Angel from the beginning. Who knew how that would affect the Templars?

As if that wasn't bad enough, it was beginning to look as though the enemy was starting to use normal humans to attack them from within. Either that, or there was a group of humans out there somewhere who simply wanted to attack Nekomi for whatever reason. He wasn't sure which was worse.

Things just didn't seem to be looking very bright.

Ergaddas ran his hand over his face before looking up at his friend again. "So what now?"

The pair was atop the most recently constructed windmill, high above the city. Keos had brought his fellow Templar there to be away from the other Celestials. As he sat atop the railing around the catwalk, his eyes wandered to the large revolving blades as they swooped in and out of view.

"I don't know," Keos answered truthfully. "This is going to be rough, however we handle it. I can't put any more strain on Lady Urd than she's already under, so whatever we do, we can't bother her with it. I was hoping maybe you'd have some ideas."

Leaning against the opposite rail, Ergaddas sighed as he shook his head. "I wouldn't even know where to start. This is going to hit a lot of the men pretty hard. Maybe we can come up with something to take their minds off things?"

He nodded in assent. "Yeah, but we can't just ignore this. We've got to address Sephiroth's arrest or everyone's going to start coming up with their own ideas. What are we going to tell them when we don't really know what happened? How do we keep them from loosing morale?"

Both men scowled in thought, the only sound was the whirr of the electrical generator beside them. Keos turned the problem over in his mind, struggling to figure out a solution, but nothing came to mind.

"Maybe we're looking at this the wrong way," Ergaddas spoke up suddenly. "What if there's no real way to spin this to our advantage? What are we left with?"

Keos considered this for a moment. "Well, all we'd have then is a bunch of Templars who are going to wonder if their trust in their leaders is misplaced. A large chunk of our best warriors have been taken out of the picture. Their heroes are either dead or disgraced."

The other Templar flashed an eager grin. "So why don't we make new heroes?"

He looked at the man like he was crazy. How the hell do you make a hero? Then it hit him, and the genius of the idea became clear. "Yeah. Yeah, that's brilliant, Erg!" Hopping off the rail, he moved quickly to his friend, grasping his shoulders. "What would I ever do without you?"

Ergaddas shrugged, "Well, you'd probably make an idiot out of yourself, fearless leader." Keos chuckled briefly as he began to pace around the platform, the gears of his mind turning furiously. "So how exactly are we going to do this?"

Keos continued his pacing for a few more seconds, looking quite excited. Suddenly he stopped, turning to his friend. "Simple. We hit the Cruel Angel back. Pay him in kind for all the hell we've been through, and give the men their chance at glory."

"But we've been forbidden to mount any serious offensives by the High Council," Erg stated, shaking his head. "How're we gonna do it without getting reprimanded?"

"We won't be making any big offensives," the Templar leader grinned slyly. "We'll reduce the size of the patrols, and set up some skirmisher teams. Maybe three or four Templars per unit, they go out for a day or two at a time."

Erg nodded. "They have more time, so they can go deeper into enemy territory. Hit and run tactics, ambushes, thin out and harass the enemy before they get anywhere near us."

"Right." Keos clapped the other God on the shoulder. "Rather than waiting to defend against the raiders, we take the fight to them and become raiders ourselves. Templar tactics are, after all, offensive by nature."

Odin sighed tiredly as he poured two drinks. The first was a stiff shot of an old, woody-flavored whiskey. The second was a carefully prepared glass of warm milk with honey.

"I don't understand," Belldandy lamented as the old Templar approached the table by the fire. "He didn't seem like a bad person at all."

Sitting down with a grunt, he slid her glass over, receiving a forced smile in return. He stared at his own drink for a moment, but wasn't really looking at it. "Lass, I understand how ye feel. I looked at 'is record, and tha lad was an extraordinary Templar. No one expected tha traitor ta be someone like 'im."

"Uncle Odin," her voice was quiet as she swirled the milk around in its glass, "what do you think? Do you believe Sephiroth really did all those things?"

"I really canna say, lass," he replied, glancing at the burning logs in the fireplace. "I jus dunna know. I do know one thin', though, and that's that somebody in Heaven's a traitor, an' all tha signs are pointin' at 'im."

Bell set the glass back down, folding her hands on her lap. "I just can't bring myself to believe that he could be the one."

"Belldandy, I talked ta Daedalus a couple hours ago. He said Sephiroth was a lone wolf, tha' nobody really knew 'im. Someone like 'im coulda been plannin' this fer years and no one wouldah been tha wiser."

"No." Her voice shook with emotion as she leaned forward, hands on the table. Odin was a bit surprised at such an aggressive posture being taken by the Goddess. "I won't believe he's capable of such atrocities! I talked with him!" He could see the conflict in her eyes. She wanted so badly to believe in the goodness of this God, but reality was showing her something that she couldn't ignore. Her gaze lowered to the table as her voice softened. "I talked with him just an hour before Ex passed. It can't be what it seems. It can't."

Odin reached across the table, his hands easily covering hers. "Belldandy, it was ne up ta you ta see what woulda happened. Tha' young lass' death has nothing more ta do with you than tha fact tha ye were there ta see 'er off." He gave her a reassuring smile when she looked up at him. "There's no reason fer ye ta feel responsible, lass, and there's no reason ta waste yer time worryin' about Sephiroth. He'll get ah fair trial, and if he's innocent, then he'll go free."

They sat in silence for a few seconds before she spoke. "But if they find him guilty, they may actually execute him." He had nothing to respond with. The High Council was going to decide the punishment before the trial even began. He knew that most citizens of Heaven had already decided what the outcome would be, so he wondered if the trial really would be fair. Obviously Belldandy was worried about the same thing.

He felt her squeeze his hands gently as she gave a half hearted smile. "Thank you, Uncle Odin. I'm a little tired, so I think I'll go home and rest now." She stood and gave him a hug before she turned and quietly left the pub.

He sat there for several minutes, listening idly to the soft crackling of the fire. Looking down, the grey bearded God noticed his forgotten glass of whiskey. He had intended to savor it, hoping that it would calm his restless spirit, but he downed it quickly in a few gulps instead. Taking a deep breath afterward, he leaned back in the wooden chair.

I canna do anythin' like this. This is hurtin everyone, and all I can do is sit here an' tend an empty bar. Thinking about Sephiroth, and how much his arrest had affected the Goddess who had just left, his thoughts turned to Urd and all the Templars back on Earth. He wondered just how well they were taking this news. "Prolly no better than Bell is."

Looking again at his empty glass, he slowly got up and moved over to the bar. Setting the empty vessel on the counter, his eyes wandered up to a shelf above all the bottles on the back wall. A large helmet sat proudly, though a bit tarnished. A pair of antlers protruded from both sides, spanning almost half a meter from tip to tip. He stared at the ancient piece of armor that he once wore into battle for a few moments before a heavy sigh escaped his lips.

"I suppose there's no way aroun' it. Looks like this ol' God's gonna hafta come outta retirement."

She heard the door slide quietly. Her eyes moved to see Keiichi peering in warily, offering her a troubled smile as he entered. She wasn't sure if she was in the mood to talk to anyone, but she didn't move to shoo him away. The Goddess merely sat there, as she had for several hours, quietly hugging her knees.

He drew up a few paces short of her. "Would you mind a little company?"

Urd didn't say anything, nor did she look at him. Even so, the human sat cross-legged against the wall beside her. He was silent for a few moments, apparently trying to decide what to say. "If…well, if you feel like talking about it, I'll be here. Just think of me like a brother."

Normally she would have made a remark like 'Don't you mean brother-in-law?', but the thought didn't even occur to her. Instead she just looked at him, expressionless, her voice dull and pained. "How could this happen, Kei? I trusted him. I healed him again and again. I thought…I thought maybe I was getting through."

Keiichi turned from her gaze. "No one saw this coming, Urd. He fooled us all, even the Templars who've served with him for who knows how long. There was no reason for you to suspect him."

"You don't understand," it was almost a whisper as she shook her head. "I would have just as soon suspected Peorth or Keos was the traitor. It's just not possible."

"Well, at least it wasn't me, right?" Urd couldn't help but let out a small laugh at his stupid joke. She saw the faint color in his cheeks as he grinned at her response.

Leaning her head back against the wall, the small smile lingered on her lips. "Keiichi, I don't know what I should do." He seemed surprised by her words, staring blankly at her. "If someone that I trusted, that I believed in, could betray us…"

"It's got nothing to do with you!" The sudden conviction in his voice startled her a little. "It's not your fault for trusting Sephiroth, it's his fault for throwing that trust away! You shouldn't let his actions affect your belief in others." His eyes were intense, clear of any doubt. He knew he was right, and deep down, she knew he was right, too.

Reaching over, she grasped his hand in hers and squeezed. "Thanks, Kei." She let it go when his cheeks went red.

"So, uh, what's going to happen to him?"

"Keos said that the Council might order his execution," she replied grimly. "It'd be the first time that they've handed such a punishment down, as far as I know. It's not like there's a precedent for this. No one's ever caused so much death and destruction before. As soon as the trial is over, they'll kill him."

There was another uncomfortable silence between them. "It's been a pretty long day, hasn't it? I can bring you some sake if you want."

Urd looked at the dark haired young man beside her with an odd smile. Keiichi's actually offering me alcohol? Do I really have him that worried? "It's alright, sweetie pie." She leaned over, wrapping her arms around his neck. She could feel his body tense as she pulled him close. As her lips brushed lightly against his ear, she whispered in her most seductive tone, "It's nice to know that you care so much about me."

Giggling playfully, she floated across the room, leaving him on the floor in total shock. Moving into the hallway, she blew him a kiss before sliding the door shut and letting the façade disappear. She sighed, letting her head rest against the door. I don't think I can keep this sort of thing up for very long.

Straightening upright, she squared her shoulders and clenched her fist before her. No, people are depending on me. I have to keep it up as long as it takes. I have to be strong. Steeling herself, she marched down the hall, through the tea room, and outside.

Taking a deep breath of the cold air, she felt a little energized. Smiling a little at the broken clouds, she looked at the rays of sunlight shining down on Nekomi. You have to put this out of your mind. If he really is the traitor, then he'll get what he deserves.

The wind picked up rather sharply, whipping her dark purple outfit around her legs, which was the only place that her clothes had enough slack to do so. Bringing a hand up just to keep the white hair out of her eyes, she felt something in the currents that were wreaking havoc with her appearance. Looking up, she saw a small bead of blue light above the temple grounds. The next gate wasn't supposed to be until later tonight. What the hell are they doing?

Some of the Templars were making their way over as the gate took shape, wondering why it was so early. Marler and Keiichi came out of the temple, too, drawn by the commotion. The annoyed Demon had to speak up to be heard over the near gale. "What's going on, Urd? Why the hell is such a big gate opening so close to the surface?"

Urd was about to answer that she didn't have a clue when she saw a large form emerge from the portal. Everyone stared in wonder as the form made its slow descent. The winds finally died down and the gate vanished as it touched down, facing away from her.

It was a God, a large one. He was dressed in old plate mail armor that had been buffed to a shine. Across his broad shoulders was strapped a huge, thick scimitar. Two great antlers protruded from either side of the shined helmet. As he turned, she could see his grey beard and wrinkled face. A large grin coming over his face, he covered the distance between Urd and himself in just a few massive steps.

The Goddess couldn't decide if she was seeing things or not. She could only stare at the bear of a God as he stopped in front of her, towering over her by nearly half a meter. Could it really be him? "Uh…Uncle Odin?"

His smile grew larger, causing still more wrinkles to appear on his worn face. "I'm happy tha' ye still remember me, lass."

Feeling genuinely happy for the first time all day, she hugged the old Templar tightly, which he returned with gusto. She felt several vertebrae pop before they finally pulled apart. Looking at the face of the God who covered for her mischief more than once when she was younger, the obvious finally occurred to her. "Uncle Odin, what are you doing here? I'm glad to see you and all, but you've been retired since before I knew you."

The smile faded quickly. "I'm ere ta take over command o' tha forces ere in Nekomi."

"What?" Her voice echoed like a shotgun blast. Urd had to take a couple of seconds to compose herself as she tried to keep her temper in front of the elder God. "I haven't done anything wrong! This town is as secure as it ever was! How can they just take me out like this?"

Odin placed a large hand on her shoulder, speaking to her calmly. "It's jus for a little while, lass. Ye've been doin a great job, and nobody's gonna say otherwise where I can hear. But ye've had a lot on yer plate for a long time. Jus take some time to yerself. Relax a while and let ol' Uncle Odin take care o' things."

Urd hated it, but she knew he was right. She had felt the pressures taking their toll on her for a while. Besides, he was doing this for her sake. She didn't want to disappoint him. "Alright," she relented with a small smile. "You have command." She pointed a finger at him, suddenly looking very stern. "But just for a little while! I want my town back in a week!"

His surprise at her finger turned into a huge guffaw. "Alrigh, lassie! Evrythin'll be as good as ya left it."

"Deal!" She smiled at him, pulling on his hand and leading the old God into the temple. "Let me show you around. You'll be living here for a while, so you might as well get to know where everything is."

As the two entered the main house, everyone in the yard watched with slack jaws. The Templars were taken aback by the fact that Lord Odin, the First Templar himself, was going to be their commander. Marler was dazed that the legendary warrior was still alive and well so many years after he was last seen by the Demons.

Keiichi found it odd that such a huge God could possibly be related to Belldandy and her sisters.

The sun shone through the dark clouds sporadically, light shining down like beams from Heaven, illuminating patches of the ravaged Earth below and giving a bit of a reddish-orange shade to the land. Looking at it, most would think it a portrait of Hell. The ruined steel skeletons of buildings reached out of the rubble, refusing to admit that their time had passed. Crushed cars poked out of the debris here and there. Once loved toys lay scattered and broken on bits of concrete, a sad testament of the young ones who died on these lands.

In the midst of all this destruction a single thing stood, casting a shadow over half of the city's remains. Some of the humans that occupied this landlocked vessel stood watch on what had once been the flight deck. They scanned the rubble around them with binoculars and the naked eye, standing ready to defend their new home at a moment's notice.

On the right side of the flight deck stood a large tower, several stories higher than the rest of the ship. The numbers 65 were painted in large, white block lettering on the side, designating this ship as the USS Enterprise. Atop this tower the American flag still flew proudly from a broken radio antennae.

Gil silently watched the scenery from an observation deck just below the flapping ensign, trying in vain to keep his cloak from doing the same. He eventually gave up trying to control his outer garment, accepting icy wind as it chilled him through his tunic. His long hair tried to follow it, but thankfully it at least remained clear of his eyes.

"Penny for your thoughts?" Gilgamesh looked across the metal walkway to his right. Admiral Garland, dressed in a thick coat, was puffing on an old wooden pipe as he slowly strode over to the rail beside the God. He, too, looked out at the horizon.

"Where is Skuld?" The Templar spoke curtly to the old man. "She was supposed to be with you."

"She wouldn't leave the engineering area," he replied with an amused grin. "When she found out our remaining reactors weren't operating at normal levels, she made it her business to fix the problem. Our engineers have been working on the problem since the ship settled here, and she told us that she'd have it done by morning."

The Celestial nodded to himself. Yeah, that definitely sounds like Skuld. I guess I should go down later to see if I can help any. It'd be nice if we could get at least a little sleep before we head back tomorrow.

"So what were you thinking about, Mr. Gilgamesh?"

He studied the old man for several seconds before responding. "I was thinking about my friend, Xander. He was killed about a month ago, when the Templars made an unsuccessful attack on the Cruel Angel."

"What was he like, if you don't mind me asking?" He created another puff of smoke as he spoke.

Gil, who was still aggravated from the incident hours earlier, let a little more of his irritation show than he meant to. "Why do you want to know?"

Garland took the pipe from his mouth, letting another stream of white escape his lips. "I have lost friends over the years, in war and in peace. It may not mean much, but I think this old sea dog can empathize with you."

The Templar turned his gaze to the broken sunlight streaking across the sky. "I knew him since we were kids. He was two years older than me, but we still played together. I'm an only child, so I thought of him like an older brother. He taught me most of what I know." He cracked a small smile. "Most of it he showed me before I was supposed to know it." It's odd. It hasn't been that long since he died, but it doesn't hurt so bad anymore when I think about him.

"He was trying to teach me a program once." The God chuckled in spite of himself. "He hadn't even learned how to do it properly himself yet, and he was trying to show me. I can't remember what it was supposed to be anymore, but we screwed it up, whatever it was. While he was 'demonstrating the proper form of the program,' he made a mistake. He accidentally activated a transfiguration program," Gil was laughing outright now, "and turned himself into a chicken."

Garland watched the God with heartily amused smile. "A chicken, hmm?" As he began to puff once more on his pipe, the Admiral shook his head. All this would have been a children's story to him when he awoke that morning. "So what happened? Did you figure out how to change him back, or did you have to take him to your teachers?"

Gil slowed his laughter with difficulty. "Well, I remembered that a chicken was the easiest thing to transfigure, so I thought I could do it myself."

"Why would a chicken be the easiest?"

The young warrior took the interruption in stride. "You know how chicken tastes like almost everything?" The human didn't seem to know how to take that statement, but nodded all the same. "It has something to do with that. I don't know that I could really explain it since we Templars don't get much training in things like that. It doesn't help our fighting prowess much. Needless to say, I knew even less about transfiguration back then."

Another cloud of smoke was quickly dispersed by the wind. "Didn't work out as planned, eh?"

"Yeah, well," the God shook his head, still smiling. "Like I said, Templars tend to focus on fighting. When I tried to change him back to normal, I accidentally reverted back to an attack program." Gilgamesh started to laugh again, doing his best to continue. "Feathers went everywhere. Xander went soaring out of the classroom, beating his wings and clucking like mad." Unable to contain himself any more, Gil leaned forward on the rail to support himself as he cracked up. The laughter proved contagious, as the Admiral had to remove his pipe for fear of it falling to the deck.

The two men continued for almost a full minute. The young God and old human stood in the dying sun, holding their sides as they caught their breath. "When Xander flew out the door," Gil continued as he wiped the tears from his eyes, "he ran straight into a young Goddess in training. Scared the heck out of her, coming out of nowhere like that.

"Since their not warriors by trade, they had a much broader range of less martial skills. When I told her what was going on, she agreed to change him back." His smile slowly turned bittersweet, his voice growing quieter as he spoke. "We were lucky she did, cause there was no telling what would have happened to us if our teachers had found out."

Those moments replayed in his mind again, then again. That was how we met Ex. She thought it was so funny that Xander had made himself a chicken. She started to hang out with us just to see what other kind of trouble we'd get ourselves into. Who would've guessed she'd fall for a guy she met as a fowl?

His eyes refocused on the horizon as twilight began to settle. He thought of Ex, wondering how she was doing.

Atop the broken antennae, standing silently above the waving Stars and Stripes, was a figure dressed in black. His dark hooded cloak concealed all but an unsettling smirk as he watched the human and God.

Their conversation had been too easy to overhear. The figure waited patiently, listening to all that was said, though the only thing he had really been interested in was said near the beginning. He quietly watched as, after some time had passed, the two men went back inside the ship.

Floating like a feather, he touched down gracefully on the deck, seeming to look toward the closed hatch where Gilgamesh and the human had gone inside. "So, young Skuld is on this ship. I hadn't expected her to fall into my hands so quickly. This works out well for us. Master will be pleased, and my own plans will be accelerated." The black folds of the hood turned up to the sky. "Belldandy, I'll see you again soon."

The cloak whipped around furiously as the wind gusted, and with that, the figure disappeared.

A/N:

I have to admit, I didn't like this chapter. I don't know why, I just don't. I made some changes and all, but it still didn't feel quite the way I wanted. Maybe you guys can figure it out, cause I can't.

I did, I think, manage to reduce the angst-factor for Gilgamesh. I'm pleased with that, at least.

(): The part with Chihiro was new. Glad to hear you liked it.

Alpha197: Happy to hear from someone new, especially from a fellow armed forces member. I'm a Marine myself, hence their part in the story. With all the damages to infrastructure throughout the world, I'm not sure any Air Force guys will be swooping in out of the sky, but I may be able to work them in eventually. You'll have to be patient for that, though. It'll be a wile before I get that chance.

To LunaticPandora, Mangaka, and Avielus, I should have already responded to you guys. Thanks for continuing to send me reviews. I am most grateful.

That's all I've got for now. Hope you liked it!

Katamari Damacy