Skuld slowly stretched out on her bed as her alarm continued to ring out to her. Finally she got up and went over to her table and turned off the alarm and turned on the lights within her room. "Great…another day in Heaven working on the System," groaned Skuld as she allowed a great yawn to pass through her mouth. As the realization of where she was exactly settled in on her mind she stopped in mid yawn to look around the room once again.
The walls were bare and white with only a few miscellaneous items strewed across her bedroom. Her bed was set up in the farthest back wall on the right with a little table next to it with a lamp and alarm clock on it. On the other side of the wall there was a long work bench with tools and parts scattered around that she had been using the day before she left to Earth and try and rescue Belldandy from Keiichi. As she ran from her bedroom and through the front door she slammed into the last person that she had expected to see here in Heaven in her room.
"BELLDANDY! WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE!?"
Belldandy helped Skuld get back to her feet with a look of surprise on her face. "What do you mean what am I doing here? Didn't you ask me to meet you so that we could go to the meadow together and spend the day together? Or was that supposed to be tomorrow?"
Skuld stared back and Belldandy who was wearing her First Class Goddess uniform with her power inhibitor on her left ear lobe. She was the exact same Belldandy that she had seen before she left for Heaven to start her new life with Keiichi. Yet there was something wrong with the picture. "Belldandy…where's Keiichi?"
"Keiichi? Who is this Keiichi you're talking about? OH! Is he a new friend that you've made? Can he come with us today to the meadow and enjoy the day with us before work?"
"No, Belldandy. I mean Keiichi Morisato. Your…boyfriend." Skuld was barely able to get the last word out of her mouth without there being some kind of venom within her tone. She didn't want Belldandy to realize that she had tired to kill Keiichi or that she was going to kill Keiichi a few years later if this was just time repeating itself.
"I do not have a boyfriend. There is no greater love in my life than that I feel for my family, Skuld. Besides I promised that I would spend the day with only you and I intend to keep that promise."
"Oh Belldandy." Skuld ran straight into Belldandy and wrapped her arms tight around her big sister. It really wasn't a dream. Belldandy had been standing in Skulds door telling her that there was no Keiichi and that they were in Heaven together with no cares in the world.
As they made their way down the halls and out to the meadows and forest line, Skuld couldn't help but smile and skip holding her big sisters hand. She had everything that she would ever need with her right now and that was all that mattered to her. Onee-san wasn't going to leave her side again as long as she was able to keep her from going to Earth.
Once in the meadow they began to run back and forth from each other playing tag, then they decided on a Goddesses version of Hide-And-Seek in which Belldandy was the best at playing. Finally they settled down onto the grass and stared up at the clouds overhead making shapes and figures out of them all. The afternoon had been so magical to both of them, but still one of them felt that one question nagging at the back of her head the entire time.
"Skuld, who is Keiichi Morisato?"
Skuld knew that the question was going to come up sooner or later. 'I guess I can't dodge this bullet forever. She was going to get curious about him sooner or later and that would leave only me with the answer to the question that she wanted answered.'
"I guess you forgot all about it or this is just some kind of dream I'm having. Either way I'm sure that you're going to remember about him sooner or later. The thing about him is that…" Skuld took a deep gulp of air before she continued on.
"Keiichi was a client of yours on Earth that you had responded to years ago. His one and only wish was for a Goddess like you to stay with him forever. Nobody thought that that wish would be granted here in Heaven, but we were all surprised when the All Mighty agreed to allow the wish to be granted. He said that there were plans that were being laid out by the Fates in regard to this one wish and that there was nothing that would be able to stop it from being granted either on Earth or in Heaven. Things had been going good between you and him for quite some time, until the bugs began infecting the system.
"Urd had left me in charge of fixing the problem because we noticed that the problem had originated from your unstable heart. We thought that he was doing things to you that no human should ever do to a Goddess, but we were both wrong. The entire time that he had been with you he had not even kissed you, but he had been showing you what 'true love' really is. He poured out his heart to you and in return you began to fall in love with him. Urd tried to push things forward, but she only made it worse." Skuld stopped here and turned to look at Belldandy who was now lying on her side watching Skuld tell her story. There was something in Belldandy's eyes that told Skuld that the idea of being that much in love was something she longed for but had not told anyone. Yet telling Belldandy about everything that was happening, will happen, or had happened only made her feel better about herself rather than worse. 'I guess you really can't stop true love, but I still think that Keiichi is wrong for Belldandy.'
"In the end I had no choice but to travel to Earth and do my best to convince you to return to Heaven so that we could fix the problem. The problem was that the only problem I was trying to fix was my own unstable heart. It wasn't the same without you here and I began to miss you more and more. In the end you decided to stay with Keiichi and we found another way to get rid of all the bugs that had found their way into the system and onto Earth. It all worked out in the end for everyone but me. I was still sad to see that you wanted to stay with some human instead of returning back to Heaven. That was when I decided to put in for my Earth training license and was granted the opportunity to stay on Earth with you, Urd, Keiichi, and his sister Megumi.
"It was hard at first, but we all seemed to manage in our own unique ways. Urd continued to press the issue about you and Keiichi moving quickly into your 'relationship.' I, on the other hand, bombed him on a daily basis to ensure that he realized that he was not going to be allowed the opportunity to kiss you and make you fall in love further with him. You kept doing your best to fulfill your contract with him while fulfilling your desire to be the only love in his life. You changed everything about you and the way that you lived to be with him. In turn Keiichi, Urd, and even I changed the way that we lived so that you would be happy. Do you remember any of this Belldandy?"
When Skuld turned to look at Belldandy she saw that her older sister was now just watching the grass saw in the wind. From her facial expression, Skuld knew that her sister did not remember any of this, but yearned to remember it all. "I wish that I remembered what that felt like. The way that it felt to get up in the morning and know that there was somebody waiting for you in the kitchen to help you make breakfast. Walking downtown holding hands with that person who made you feel warm and giddy inside no matter how many times you walked the same street past the same shops. Just having somebody listen to you talk about your day and listening to them talk about their day. Just to have someone love you the way that you loved them. Yet I just don't remember any of it at all. Was it every real, Skuld or was it just some dream that came and went?"
Skuld laid down flat on the ground to stare up at the clouds once again. "I don't know, Onee-san. I thought that I would be happy that you and I are back in Heaven again with no Keiichi, but I can tell that you are just not as happy as I am. I always did my best to stop Keiichi from being with you because I was so selfish and I just didn't realize how you truly felt about him would also affect the way that I felt about him. In the end I love him as much as you love him because he makes you happier than I could ever make you. I just want you to be happy and still want me around. Onee-san…?"
Skuld got to her feet and looked around the meadow in front of her. Belldandy was not lying on the ground next to her and was not anywhere in the meadow that she could see. 'Perhaps she went back inside to be away from me. I just wanted her to play with me and be happy. I guess in the end Keiichi will affect our lives whether he's here or not. Damn Keiichi.'
As Skuld turned with a heavy heart to head back to the other Goddesses and get ready for work she heard a heavy crash from behind her. As she turned to look through the cloud of dirt that had risen before her, she felt her blood turn to ice within her veins as she saw what had crashed to the ground.
Belldandy laid within the crater with blood trickling down her cheek from her mouth. Her uniform was shredded in the front from what looked like claw marks that left deep bloody grooves within her bosom and stomach. The worst part was the look of pain on her face as she tried to twist her body out of the awkward position that she was in. Skuld began to run towards her big sister before she was beaten back by the swift beating of a large wing.
As Skuld looked up from the ground where she fell her worrying for Belldandy turned into fear as she looked into those blood red eyes that stared back at her at where she had fallen.
His body had completely healed itself and he had seemed to have gotten larger or perhaps it was because Skuld was not being lifted from the ground by him to stare directly into his eyes. His dark skin rippled over the muscles of his exposed upper body. There didn't appear to be a single weak spot on his body that Skuld could see as he folded wings in on themselves to tower over Belldandy where she laid. His skin was a dark tan with a strange symbols etched onto his back. It was an eight spoke wheel with a strange Sanskrit symbol in the center. What really caught her attention about him were the symbols that were visible on his face. The markings on his face were different than she had ever seen, but Skuld could tell by his posture that he had violent intentions for Belldandy unless Skuld stopped him.
"I'm glad to see that you are making some progress, Skuld," cooed the soft velvety voice of the "demon". "This whole predicament is intended to make you stronger in the end and force you to realize that Belldandy will only be happy with Keiichi. If you find a way to stop her from going to Keiichi, then you have found a way to stop the sun from rising over the horizon. Perhaps this will be the trigger needed to set you on the right path and drive the demon from out of your heart."
Skuld was going to ask what he meant by that but he had already raised his hand as if to tell her not to speak. When the white light began to develop around his hand Skuld realized that he had intended that she was going to die. 'I have to protect Big Sis from this monster before he kills us both.'
As Skuld took a step forward to do whatever it was that she could to stop him, the pure white light surrounded her. She knew where it was coming from, but she could feel the call of another place and time calling out to her. Begging her to come to them and forget about Belldandy lying there in the ground about to die. Skuld did her best to resist the call, but in the end she felt herself being dragged towards something that required her attention more than she realized.
'The future is mischievous, Skuld. As the Goddess of Future Time you should know all about this. This is just one future that is held before you, but you must decide if this demon will become one of the greatest to have existed or will Belldandy stop all of this from happening…'