-03-

In downtown Tokyo, high atop one of the many buildings in the city center, two forms lounge contently. The larger of the two, a tall male with unruly black hair and narrow, cyberpunk sunglasses, runs his fingers through the hair of his smaller companion. His name is Zima. Many refer to him as the King of all Persocoms. The title could not be farther from the truth. As was his nature, it has become a never ending amusement to him. One of his favorite past times lately was to refer to his companion as the "Queen". For some reason, that never ended very well for him, but he persisted anyway.

Absentmindedly, he adjusts his glasses as he simultaneously surfs the internet while serving data. He is believed to be one of the most powerful persocoms ever built, having been built expressly for the task of hosting Japan's national data bank, a vast repository used by the government to store nearly everything it knows. Only two others ever exceeded him in data storage and sheer processing power, but their purpose was much different from his own. His creator built them to serve as children to him and his wife, who could not have children of her own.

He always keeps tabs on the pair. In effect, they were his sisters, after all. He marked the passing of one of them many years ago. If he were capable then, he would have felt sad. At the time, Zima had not evolved enough to be able to understand that emotion. Even now, he wonders if he is capable of expressing it properly.

Feeling nostalgic, he performs a search for the remaining sister. The last time he checked on her, she was in Nekomi while her 'one just for her' attended the local technical college. It was pretty much a no-brainer that she should still be in the same general location. So when he cannot pick up her signal there, he becomes mildly annoyed.

He shifts, causing the smaller, female form that is curled up against him to stir. "You are going to have to move, Dita, love."

With a sigh, the petite persocom slides off of him as he stands and adjusts the belt wrapped over the black cloak he is wearing. "What is it?" she asks as she runs her hand through her short, brown hair.

"An anomaly," replies the taller persocom as he steps over to the rail that wraps around the roof. Grasping the edge, he peers over, into the distance.

Dita appears next to him and looks up. "Hacker?"

Zima smirks and looks down at his smaller companion, noting that she has removed her own pair of sunglasses and is staring at him with a look of concern. "No dear, nothing like that," he replies, then stares off into the distance again. "I seem to have lost track of that girl, which I find quite perplexing."

"Her again?" yells the female persocom as she throws her hands in the air. She turns from him and starts walking away with her shoulders scrunched up in annoyance.

The taller man focuses his attention back to his smaller companion, bemused by her reaction. "Why Dita, if I did not know better, I would say you are jealous."

"Well, you do know better," retorts the girl in a huff, crossing her arms over her chest. "We are persocoms, after all."

"Hmmm, indeed."

Dita looks over her shoulder at him with a glare. "Maybe she is dead."

"You can only hope, eh?" replies Zima with a smirk, stating what the smaller persocom had no doubt left unsaid. He turns back to the city and stares off into the distance again. "I don't think so. This is something different. I would have detected the change in status if that were to happen. No, something else has happened." He glances back to Dita and smiles. "We need to go to Nekomi and have a look." That said, he grabs hold of the rail and vaults over it. Briefly, he freefalls, guiding himself over to the rooftop of the building next to the one he was on. Upon landing, he glances up and smiles as he sees Dita come over the rail to follow.

XXX

Urd feels the girl lean in to her as she starts to lead her into the house. It was a small, two bedroom abode, just big enough for her and her family. As they make their way through the living room, the silver haired woman notices the small girl pause. She looks down just in time to see brown eyes roll into the back of their sockets, and the girl start to slump to the floor, unconscious.

"A little help here," demands Urd reflexively.

"Um, I'm a cat, remember?" chides Welsper.

Biting her lip in frustration, Urd cradles the platinum blonde's head in her hand as she guides her to the floor. Safely down, she wipes a few smudges from the girl's cheeks. "She must have been through something terrible."

"I stopped a man from raping her, if that's what you are referring to," replies the cat as she jumps up on one of the chairs and makes himself comfortable.

"I don't think that's all," replies the silver haired goddess as she rubs her chin, contemplating what to do next. "That magic has Peorth's stink all over it." Urd decides she needs to know more about what is going on before she can help any further. If it weren't for the residual power she detected, this would probably be chocked up to a domestic incident, something nice and tidy where she can call the police and hand the girl off. Urd pushes back a platinum loch that has fallen over the girl's eye. "Sorry honey, I need to look in to your memories to see what's going on." She leans in and touches her forehead to the girl's and chants a spell.

"I am the Goddess Urd. I call upon the memory of this girl to show what these eyes have seen."

A flash in her mind's eye indicates that she has successfully connected to the girl's memories. The first thing she sees is an alleyway and a small black cat running before her. "Rewind," says the goddess, and the scene shifts to a point of view of large man roughly grabbing onto the girl's shoulder and dragging her up off the ground. Urd sighs internally, understanding just how close to a tragedy this had actually become. She begins to detect wisps of the girl's emotional state. Something has driven this flight.

"Rewind", repeats the goddess, causing the scene to shift again to more running. This way and that way around corners, until finally, she detects the girl's emotions overcome her, causing her to be physically ill. The scene nearly breaks Urd's heart. She starts to feel the full brunt of her charge's emotional state. But what caused it?

"Rewind," says the goddess a third time. The scene shifts to a stationary view in a more open forum. The emotions she detected earlier are gone, replaced with something more akin to confusion. Urd watches as the girl looks up at someone who is sitting next to her. A tall man with brown, un-kept hair. He is staring into the distance, as if he were in shock. Something had obviously just happened to them.

As the silver haired goddess watches the playback from the girls point of view, Urd sees her try to embrace the man.

"Hideki, what's wrong?" says the platinum haired girl.

At first, the man, Hideki, does not respond. Then suddenly, his head snaps down to peer at the girl. A look of confusion and shock overtakes his features, and he roughly pushes her away.

"Who are you and what have you done with Chi?!" he screams as her.

As the scene plays out, Urd feels the flood of raw emotions from the girl overtake her, and it's all she can do to maintain the connection. She can feel the shock and betrayal permeate every part of the girl's being. She obviously has strong feelings for him, and the rejection sets her off. The goddess feels something different as well. Unlike most mortals of this girl's apparent age, she detects a lack of control. A feeling of betrayal can manifest in many ways, one of which is anger. She observes the girl's reaction with interest as the rage builds up. Whether it's for the man's reaction or the fact that she is so angry, Urd cannot decide.

The goddess continues to watch as the girl snaps and strikes out at the man, slapping him across the face. Almost instantly, remorse and confusion replaced the rage. The man stares back at her. Urd can now see that there is an understanding of what he did on his face. Yet he does nothing. He just sits there stupidly while confusing and conflicting emotions swirl in the girl's head. She sighs as the girl turns and flees.

Wanting to see what happened prior, Urd rewinds again, and is treated to a scene where an old friend is dressing down the couple. Tamyia does not look half bad for an old man. She watches the couple get carried down the stairs and unceremoniously dropped outside. "Rewind," she says again. At first she sees blackness, then she opens her eyes. The goddess sees that the man from before is holding her. She can almost feel the girl shift in the man's arms and whisper in his ear.

"Chi's wish came true."

Alarm bells go off in Urd's head. That was the explanation for the residual magic she detected. Somehow, this girl was granted a wish. She recalls hearing Belldandy talk about the unintended consequences of some of the wishes she had granted in the past. Not being a wish granter herself, she had never seen it up close like this before. Curious as to what the wish was, Urd rewinds again. At first she sees blackness, then the girl opens her eyes. The goddess sees that the man from before is holding her. She can almost feel the girl shift in the man's arms and whisper in his ear.

"Chi's wish came true."

"What the hell?" exclaims Urd. She tries again and is treated with the exact same scene again. Confused, she breaks the connection and sits up.

Welsper glances at her with a mildly disinterested look. "What's wrong?"

"Her memories only go back a couple of hours. There is nothing before that!"

The cat's ears turn to the side in annoyance. "That can't be right, she's at least eighteen, nineteen at the most."

"Let me double check." The bronze goddess chants the spell again and touches her forehead to the girl's. After a few moments, she raises her head and looks at the cat with a look of desperation on her face. "Nothing!"

The girl stirs, causing the cat and the deity to redirect their attention to her. Chocolate brown eyes open and look up at the goddess. She turns over and lifts herself up to a sitting position on her knees. Her attention shifts back and forth between the other two. "Chi?"

Urd blinks at hearing the non-sequitor. What is a chi? She reaches out and pulls up the torn part of the girl's blouse, using a quick shot of magic to fasten it in place so that she is no longer exposing herself. "What is your name, honey?"

"Chi?" replies the blonde as she tilts her head to the side, giving Urd a look of confusion.

"Is that your name, Chi?" asks the silver haired goddess.

"I think I recall her referring to herself as that when I got her to follow me here," adds in the cat as she shifts in the seat to get into a more comfortable position.

The girl furrows her brows and looks at the black feline. "Chi?" She jumps up and rushes to the chair and snatches up Welsper into a big hug. "Chiiiiiiiiiiii!"

"Ack! Goddess! Help!"

Stifling a laugh, Urd does nothing as the girl squeezes and cat, causing her eyes to bug out a little. As the assault continues, the bronze goddess realizes something. The blonde waif has said nothing but 'chi' since she woke up. Even now, she repeats it over and over.

Wrapping an arm around her charge's shoulders, Urd guides her over to the couch and motions for her to sit down. Sufficiently distracted, Welsper makes her escape, causing the girl to pout slightly. Urd sits down on a coffee table in front of the couch and looks the girl in the eye. "Can you say anything other than 'chi'?"

"Chi!" says the girl as she nods in the affirmative.

Urd watches her expectedly, waiting for something else to come out of her mouth. The girl gazes back with a blank expression. "Chi?" she says finally.

"What did you do to her?" asks the cat incredulously.

Urd's attention immediately snaps to the cat, who was tentatively peeking out of a hiding space she had found under the chair. "Why do you automatically assume I did anything?" she retorts with as much anger as she can muster. It was hollow, though, as she was truly worried as well.

XXX

A little slow on the uptake, Hideki can only stare at the woman in front of him. Kei's mom is a goddess? As he rolls this around in his mind, Belldandy simply stares back, smiling expectedly at him. Why is she looking at me like this? Does she expect me to bow? What about praying? Will she not help me if I don't?! After a few more moments of inner discussion on what he should do, he finally pushes away from the table. Still on his knees, he brings his entire upper body down to the floor in a deep bow, touching his forehead to the ground and folding his hands on top of each other in front. He then raises back up. "Oh wise and powerful goddess…." he says as he repeats the gesture.

"Oh my," says the goddess, clearly embarrassed.

"Dude! You don't have to bow to her!" yells Kei.

Hideki stops mid bow, and looks at the duo in confusion. "Oh my god, I'm so sorry!" he exclaims, worried he may have offended her in some way. He then sits up and closes his eyes while clasping his hands together under his chin. "I pray to the goddess….." He is interrupted by an audible smack. Opening one eye, he sees his friend has slapped his hand to his forehead in frustration.

The blue eyed goddess gives him warm smile. "I'm sorry, Mr. Motosuwa, I am not that kind of goddess."

Hideki stares back with a confused look while his friend snickers beside him. His eyes dart back and forth between the deity and her son, still not comprehending what is going on. "So, what kind of a goddess are you?"

"Well, to be perfectly honest with you, it would be very difficult to explain quickly," says Belldandy. "I would prefer to focus on finding your friend. You can seek your answer afterwards." She shifts her focus to Kei. "Son, would you go get me the city map?"

Kei nods, gets up, and steps out of the room. Belldandy reaches into the pocket of her dress and pulls out a golden chain. On the end of it is a clear crystal. Inside, he sees smaller, cube shaped blue crystals that seem to be suspended in some type of liquid. Hideki blinks and stares, mesmerized by a feint glow that emanates from it.

His attention in broken when Kei returns and spreads a map out over the table. "Now, let us see what we can see," says the goddess. She dangles the crystal over the map and closes her eyes.

Lost in a maze, the Almighty's servant wonders. I pray to the spirits to divine the location of whom we seek such that we can offer them safety and peace.

All at once, the smaller crystals begin to glow more brightly as the larger starts to circle around. Faster and faster it twirls, increasing its arc with each pass. After a few moments, it stops over a section of the map and emits a blue beam, marking a location. The trio leans closer to get a look at it.

"Oh!" says Belldandy.

"Well, that makes things easy," deadpans Kei, rolling his eyes and earning a chastising look from his mother.

"How is it easy?" inquires Hideki, not sure what they are talking about.

Belldandy flashes a smile at him. "It would seem that your friend has found her way to my sister's house."

XXX

The goddess Peorth strolls into the break room of the Earth Assistance Agency as if she owns the place. The room looks like most others in any large company. There are several non-descript refrigerators lining the wall next to a counter. Several single cup drink dispensing machines sit unused on one side of a two basin sink, microwaves on the other. The biggest difference: the tables and chairs that sit around the floor all float about the ground.

Not only had the rose goddess granted what was in her opinion the wish of the century, she had stopped by Tamiya's for a nightcap. Several years after the big man saved her and Keiichi from being crushed by a falling motorcycle, she met him again when she tried to crash Keiichi's bachelor party. It was there that she finally realized how the big man felt about her, so she started a mutually beneficial relationship with him. It will never reach the level that the Norns were able to achieve with their chosen ones, but she did find him a good enough distraction from her routine. Beneath that gruff exterior is actually a very sweet man.

"Its been a good day for moi!" she announces before she realizes that the room is empty. Looking around, she shrugs to herself and sits down at one of the tables in the middle of the room. Someone was sure to be by any minute, and there is plenty of time before she has to man the phone again. As she waits, she conjures up a file and begins to work on her fingernails.

Twenty minutes later, her patience is rewarded as the Goddess Othila strolls in. The brunette is wearing her customary yellow dress and red overcoat with its pointed collar that Peorth always thought made her look like one some sort of witch from a mortal's fairytale. Close behind her, as always, is Jera. The diminutive goddess was always riding Othila's coat tails. Peorth watches as she flicks her short, blue green hair absentmindedly before she realizes who else is in the room, then tugs on the taller goddess' dress to get her attention. When Othila sees the rose goddess, she grins and redirects herself in her direction.

As she approaches, Peorth returns the fake smile with one of her own.

"You would not believe the wish I almost granted today!" exclaims the blonde goddess, clearly exasperated.

"Oh, do tell," replies Peorth, barely hiding the sarcasm in her voice. Othila misses it, as usual, but it does earn a nasty look from Jera.

Othila pulls out a chair across from the black haired goddess and dramatically flops down in it. "This woman wanted me to spend the night with her, can you image that?!"

"Oh, the horror!" exclaims Jera as she sits between them. "What did you do!"

"Well, I refused of course," Othila replies with a smug grin. "I cannot have a lowly human sullying my reputation!"

Peorth rubs her temple and smiles in amusement as Jera chimes in again. "You are so right! That is beneath you. What was that woman thinking!"

"Another fine example of your stellar customer service skills!" teases Peorth, this time not bothering to hide the sarcasm. The tall goddess was almost always complaining about the wishes she had to grant. The rose goddess assumed that Yggdrasil assigned the easy ones to her because she just did not seem to get the idea that the customer is always right.

"Oh shut up," yells Othila as she glares at Peorth.

"Yeah, shut up!" parrots Jera.

The brunette goddess leans in towards the rose goddess with an evil grin. "What did your assignment wish for, some sort of deviant sexual device?" she sneers, exhorting a snicker from her sidekick.

Now it is Peorth's turn to be smug. "No, much better," she says as she slightly bobs her head and shoulders from side to side to side to add emphasis. "I believe the wish from my assignment rivals that of the Morisato wish." She smirks at Othila's skeptical look and Jera's aura of confusion. "I was called out by a persocom."

"Pfft, yeah right, whatever," says Othila derisively, waving her hand as if she were trying to keep someone's cigarette smoke from offending her. "Those things can't call the help line."

"No, really, somehow this one was recognized by Yggdrasil as having a soul," replies Peorth. "I scanned her myself and confirmed it."

Othila can only look back in shock. Jera glares at her for a moment. "Liar!" is all she ends up saying.

The rose goddess smiles at the doubting Thomases. "Look it up if you don't believe me." Seeing no retort coming from either of them, she continues. "And do you know what she wished? She wished to be human!"

"Oh, now I know you are full of it, Peorth", says the brunette goddess as she shakes her head and rolls her eyes. She pauses, trying to figure some way for it to not be true. "Even if one did wish for something like that, you would not know how to fulfill it," she says finally.

"Au contraire, mon ami!" exclaims the rose goddess, sensing victory. "And I shall prove it…"

She is interrupted by the arrival of another goddess. Idis, with her long blonde hair set in a French braided pony tail that flows down the entire length of her back, adjusts the purple tunic that covers her white blouse as she approaches the trio. "Peorth, Urd called for you regarding the wish to make that persocom with a soul human. She's on line one thirty-two."

"Merci!" replies the black haired goddess as she jumps up. It's almost as if I planned it! Her eyes wander back to the duo that she was talking to and notes the looks of absolute surprise and defeat on their faces. "Ladies, I need to take this call, adieu!"

As she watches Peorth leave, Idis's blue eyes meet Othila's green. "Please come to my office in five minutes. You and I need to speak alone regarding your last assignment and your failure to grant the heart's desire of your assignment." That said, she twirls around and strolls out of the room.

Othila and Jera both gulp nervously as they watch the shift supervisor leave.

XXX

Peorth manifests through a camera strategically placed on a table into the living room. Looking around, she immediately sees the former persocom turned girl sitting in a chair stroking Welsper, a blank expression on her face. As she lightly touches down on the floor, she notices Urd sitting on the couch talking into her cell phone. The silver haired goddess waves a hand in acknowledgement and then continues her conversation.

"Her name is Chi? That's not surprising. … Well, it seems she has amnesia or something and that's all she can say now. …. Yes as a matter of fa…. Why do you automatically assume I did anything? ….. Hold on, Peorth is here." Urd sighs, covers the receiver and looks up at the rose goddess. "Can you have a look at her? Something is going on."

Nodding, the black haired goddess turns and strolls over to the girl. Kneeling down next to the chair, she first addresses the cat sitting happily in the platinum blonde's lap.

"Welsper," she greets with as much derision as she can muster. There is no love lost between the two since he had turned back time and turned her into a child, requiring the Daimakaicho to intervene and assist in returning her back to normal.

"Cut-throat bitch," hisses Welsper as he jumps up and runs away.

Shaking her head, Peorth recalls that the blonde's name is Chi Motosuwa. She can tell there is something amiss. The girl's expression is mostly lifeless, not in the sense that no one is home, more like a blank slate that is waiting to be written on. The goddess reaches up and pushes back a stray loch of platinum colored hair. "So, how did you reach this state?"

"Chi?" is the only response she gets.

Feeling a presence behind her, Peorth turns to see Urd leaning over her shoulder. "Is that all she can say?"

"She's been like this since she woke up," replies the silver haired goddess.

"What did you do?"

Urd glares at the rose goddess, who has obviously touched a nerve. Her face turning several shades of red, the silver haired goddess' anger is evident. "All I did was run the basic memory recall spell!" she replies through clenched teeth.

Peorth turns back to Chi. The emptiness in the girl's expression is still there. She reaches up and swipes at the lock of hair she had worked on before. "This is why a second class should not use spells like that."

Urd throws her hands up in the air and stalks off to a chair on the other side of the room. "I did the spell correctly," she insists as she flops down on the cushion.

"We shall see," replies Peorth as she turns and faces Chi. The goddess raises her arms, holds her hands on either side of the girl's head, and begins to chant.

"This soul, locked away where no one can see. The door is shut. I ask the Almighty to provide the key so that his servant may unlock that which is everlasting and show it the light of the universe."

XXX

Peorth opens her eyes and finds herself just inside the entrance to a cave. Smiling to herself, she immediately realizes that she was successful. While there were plenty of spells that could be used to get glimpses of a mortals innermost thoughts and desires, including the one Urd used for playing back memories, there are very few that can actually penetrate into the root of the soul. In fact, including herself, The Almighty, and Belldandy, she can count the number of gods and goddess capable of completing this particular spell successfully on two hands.

Looking around, she found it all rather pedestrian when compared to the other instances she had done this. The scenery of a mortal's soul was always based on a manifestation of that person's inner most thoughts, desires, and experience. People who spend a majority of their lives in the outdoors often had scenes of beautiful valleys and vista's, while someone who spent a lot of time inside would have incredibly elaborate houses with hundreds of rooms to explore.

Her favorites were the ones with repressed desires. She recalled a wish she granted for an extremely shy maid from California in the USA.

After interrogating her for what seemed like an hour, Peorth was getting nowhere fast. So, to expedite things, she requested and was granted access to the wisher's soul. When she entered, she found a jumble of things, from whitewater rafting to dancing to laying out on a yacht. The theme was consistent it seemed, she wanted to be rich. But as the black haired goddess peered in closer, she noted that there was always someone with her during the activities. It was then she realized that the woman was not necessarily wishing for those things, but to experience them with that someone. Unfortunately, she could not make out who it was as his face was always obscured.

Further investigation and exploration revealed a room in the middle of it all. When the rose goddess opened the door, she found the interior was draped with red satin everywhere. In the middle was a heart shaped bed, and on top was a man. Upon seeing him, Peorth instantly understood. He had a physique that would make Atlas jealous and his deep, Germanic accent commanded respect when he spoke. If it weren't for her job, the goddess may have been tempted to seek out the man herself.

She quickly squashed those desires and exited. But the woman was too worried about the repercussions if she wished for the man to fall in love with her and leave his current wife. So she settled for some time with him and a child to always remember their time together. Not exactly what Peorth would have wished for, but mortals were funny like that; too wrapped up in the worries and affairs of others.

Peorth is startled out of her memory by the sound of someone laughing. Curious, she walks out of the cave and is greeted by a beautiful view of a small valley. She can see tall grass everywhere she looks that waves in the gentle breezes that were wafting in from the outside. All around the valley, sheer cliffs rise hundreds of feet in the air, enclosing the area and preventing any escape if one were so inclined. In the middle of the valley was a small grey building without windows. It is there that she spies a small girl in a blue dress, gallivanting around and swinging what appears to be a butterfly net.

The rose goddess frowns a bit as she starts towards the center. She understood that such a young soul was probably not going to have much in the way of wants and desires. However, based on what she knew about the girl before the wish, Peorth was expecting more.

As she approaches, the little girl stops and stares. After a few moments, recognition appears on her face and she runs up to goddess with a huge smile on her face. The girl is no more than ten years old, with platinum blond hair, chocolate brown eyes, and a milky white complexion. Peorth immediately recognizes that she could Chi's internal avatar.

"You are a goddess!" exclaims the little girl as she comes to a halt in from of her. Peorth leans down and gives her a warm smile.

"Yes, I am," replies the rose goddess. "And who might you be?"

"My name is Chi!" exclaims the little blond girl as she bounces up and down and twirls.

Peorth straightens up and purses her lips in worry. In general, someone's avatar should be close to the same age as their mortal self. The only hard exception is when a mortal could not mentally mature past a certain point due to some deficit. What human doctors did not understand yet was that a person's mental age was tied to that of the inner self that resides in the soul. Sometimes it's the mental make-up that is the culprit. Then there are times that there are problems within the soul that causes it. She remembers sensing no such issues with the girl after she cast the spell that converted her from a persocom to a human, so what she was seeing indicated there is something that has gone seriously wrong since.

Looking around, she sees no obvious clues as to what might be causing the issue, although she could swear that the cliff walls were a little closer now than they were a minute ago. She is broken out of her thoughts by someone tugging on her arm. Peorth looks down to see the girl looking pensively at the building in the center. "Are you going to go in there?" asks the younger version of Chi almost in a whisper, not moving her eyes from the grey structure.

Squatting down in front of the now frightened child, Peorth gets her attention and gives her a warm smile to reassure her. "If I must, why do you ask?"

Chi leans in and cups a hand to her mouth as if shielding her words from something. "There is a scary lady in there," she whispers quietly.

Immediately feeling apprehensive, the goddess glances over to the building, then back to the child. She's never heard of anything in the soul being potentially dangerous to the avatar. In fact, none of this was right. She starts to recap: There should be more, much more to the scenery around her. The avatar should be older, at least close to the same age as the girl herself. And dammit! Why does it look like those walls are closer still! She lets out a sigh in frustration and focuses on the building. The answers are probably inside.

As she stands and turns, the goddess feels something pull on her arm. She looks down to see Chi clinging to her desperately. The girl says nothing, but the worried look on her face speaks volumes. "Not to worry, petite fille," says Peorth in an attempt to reassure her. "I am a goddess! Therefore, nothing can harm me!"

As she starts walking towards the building, Peorth notes that the girl was less than impressed. "Can't be helped from a non-believer," she muses to herself as she arrives. The structure appears to be made of concrete. On the side she is on, there is no entrance. She circles around to the other side and finally finds it, a coal black metal door that looks like it would fit in the middle ages. Stepping up to it, she places an ear to the cold metal surface and listens. All she can hear is a light humming sound emanating from within.

She takes the handle and pulls hard. After a moment of struggle, it finally opens, revealing a brightly lit room. Upon entering, the goddess immediately starts to shiver, as the temperature has dropped considerably. Inside, there are row after row of what appear to be metal cabinets. Each one is filled to the top with all manner of electronic gadgets. Small, multi-colored lights abound on each one.

As the rose goddess starts to walk down one of the roes, she cannot help but think of the youngest Norn and how she would love it in here. She stops and looks down when she realizes she is walking on something other than the floor. Strewn about the area are all manner of cables, none of which are attached to anything. It was as if they have been recently removed and discarded in a rush.

"Who are you?"

Peorth feezes when she hears the voice. It sounds vaguely familiar, but has a slightly lower pitch and a much more menacing tone. Glancing around, she sees nothing. "I am the Goddess Peorth, show yourself!"

The black haired goddess' attention is immediately drawn above her as something, no, someone begins to descend from above. Peorth immediately recognizes the person to be female, with the same face and long platinum blonde hair as Chi. For a moment, the goddess thinks that this may be the true avatar. It was the right age. However this thought is fleeting as she notices that still attached to the side of the newcomer's head are the white and pink port covers that the girl no longer needs since the wish. This person is wearing a black dress that goes down to her knees. Accompanying this are black knee high stiletto style boots and matching gloves that cover her arms up to her elbows. She is being held up by the same cabling that the goddess was walking on earlier. Slowly, it lowers the girl to the floor.

The black clad girl narrows her eyes at the goddess. "Are you the one that tried to hack into Chi's memories before?"

"No, I'm not," replies the goddess. Although not very computer literate, Peorth immediately surmises that she is talking about Urd's attempts to play back the former persocom's memories earlier. She is not sure, but she thinks she is beginning to understand the symbolism. The computer room she is in is a representation of Chi's memories, made real by her legacy as a machine. When the silver haired goddess played back those memories, this, whatever it was, quite literally pulled the plug. Peorth looks at the black clad persocom and realizes that it may look like Chi, it most certainly was not. The biggest tell was in the eyes. The little persocom she turned into a human had such beautiful, trusting eyes. This one has eyes that burn with hurt and anger. "Who are you?"

Seemingly from nowhere, computer cables reach up, grab, and entangle the arms of the goddess. "I ask the questions," replies the persocom coldly. "If you are not the one that tried to hack into the system, then you are the one that changed the system."

While she knew that these things were devoid of emotion, one could not help but hear the menace in her voice. Peorth narrows her eyes at the blonde persocom. "It's not wise to anger a goddess."

"You have no power here."

"We shall see," replies the goddess. Peorth jerks her hands inward with all her might, causing the tangle of cables on her arms to break. She then twirls her arms around her and then gestures to her adversary. "ROSE STORM ATTACK!"

All at once, a howling wind picks up and rushes down the row, carrying with it thousands upon thousands of thorny roses towards the black clad persocom. Much to Peorth's chagrin, the attack does not seem to faze it. As the wind dies, the girl nonchalantly brushes some petals off her shoulder, then looks at the goddess with murder in her eyes. "This is all your fault!" she yells. As she takes a menacing step forward, all of the cabling that lay haphazardly across the floor suddenly comes alive. It begins entangling and whipping at Peorth as she begins to struggle against it.

The stranger steps up to the goddess as she is lifted off the ground. Peorth's arms and legs are hopelessly bound as the cables wrap around her like small snakes. "You did this," says the persocom. "My purpose is to protect Chi, when I tried to do so after you changed her, this is the result!" Understanding dawns on the rose goddess. This entity, whatever it is, was present before the wish. When Urd replayed the memories, it reacted as if an attack were happening, and immediately disconnected Chi's memories and personality from the soul. The result was the shell of a girl she found when she arrived at Urd's apartment.

As she finishes with her revelation, Peorth sees Chi's avatar from the outside step in and stand next to the black clad persocom. However, the goddess immediately sees something different. Instead of being ten years old, the child had regressed in age, now appearing to be about six. She looks up at Peorth with sadness in her eyes.

"Now you must go," commands the persocom. Before she can protest, Peorth is carried by the cables and bodily thrown out of the building, the door slamming shut behind.

Sitting up in the grass, the goddess looks around and sees that the cliff walls are closer than they ever were. Understanding and dread permeates her being as she realizes what has happened. Having been unnaturally disconnected from the nourishment of the body, the soul was beginning to shrink. If nothing was done, it would be completely lost and that which is Chi would be gone.

As she stands and prepares to chant the counterspell that would return her to the real world, only one person comes to mind that could possibly make heads or tails of the computer world that resides inside that building:

Skuld.

XXX

As the sun starts to filter in to the guest room of the Tariki Hongan temple, Hideki curses silently. He has not slept a wink. After Belldandy had spoken to her sister and it was revealed that Chi had indeed somehow found her way there, they decided it would be best if he got some sleep. It was the absolute last thing on his mind at the time. He wanted to rush over and see Chi, to apologize and tell her how stupid he was for saying those awful things. But the goddess assured him that she was in good hands, and that it would be best to wait until morning.

Suddenly, a shrill whistle sounds off in the room. Sumomo then appears in front of him. "Its 6:30! Time for the wakey-wakey exercises!" yells the pink and white laptop.

"Sorry, Sumomo, no wakey-wakey exercises today," replies Hideki, groggily. He then turns over and continues to contemplate his problem, totally missing the dejected look of the small persocom. He knows that he needs to say something. What he is unable to think of is exactly what it should be. Once again, he is broken out of his thoughts and worries, this time by the red and white laptop, Kotoko, landing on his chest with a thud.

"Hello! Telephone, I'm ringing! Ring! Ring!" she screetches at him, hitting his nose as if it is a punching bag. "Are you going to pick me up? Ring, Ring!"

Hideki sighs. While he uses Sumomo's cell phone capabilities for general purposes, only his closest friends have Kotoko's number. He is not sure he can face them right now. As the little persocom continues to protest about is lack of action, he finally relents.

"Ok, Kotoko, answer it." Instantly, Kotoko's eyes go blank. White lines cross from side to side as she establishes the connection. "Hello?" he says when he hears the click indicating success. Immediately, he recognizes the frantic and panicky voice of Chitose Hibiya.

"What has happened to my daughter?!"


A/N: And so, now Ms. Hibiya gets in the act, along with everyone's favorite dynamic duo from Chobits! I will admit that this will be more Zima centric, though, as what needs to be done can really only be done by him and Hibiya. Oh, and for your info, Kotoko is reciting, almost word for word, the ringtone on my wife's cell phone. I thought it definitly fit!

And once again, a huge shout out to by Beta, Nena Camadera, who has been keeping me straight on my grammer and the OMG side of the house. I also want to send a special shout out to my new Beta, webidolchiu94, who is keeping me straight on Chobits. The first couple of paragraphs were quite different than they were before she got hold of them. The change is definitly for the better. Anyway, on to CH4, which will probably at least end this arc. I got a little too serious in CH2, so I tried to lighten it up in CH3, and will continue to do so in CH4.