Skuld allowed the dagger to slip from her hands as her tears began to form in her eyes. Everything that was to be had just been lost in the single blink of an eye. Because of one mistake, she had destroyed an entire life. The child of Belldandy's had been lost to the world as Keiichi fell backwards with his life blood designing his shirt and continuing to grow.

"Belldandy…what have I done? How could I let this happened? What am I supposed to do now?"

Skuld knew that no matter how many ways she formed the question, she would never get an answer from her sister, the Gods and Goddesses of Heaven and Hell, or even from herself. The future was dead and soon she would be too. As Skuld closed her eyes she flashed back to the moment when she fully realized her Goddess powers and was going to help create a beautiful future for Keiichi and Belldandy.

Forty Minutes Earlier…

As she watched the ground beneath her being engulfed by the darkness of Ren's shadow, she slowly closed her eyes and waited for the final blow. How did she allow herself to be caught in such a situation? Where did everything go wrong for her? As her mind retraced its final steps she allowed the buzzing within her ears to be taken over by a more powerful sound, the sound of death attacking.

Skuld plummeted to the earth striking at the spot where Ren was lying a second ago. As she turned as quickly as possible to search for him in that meadow, she suddenly found herself being wrapped from feet to head in ropes. Wait…not ropes but the roots of Heavens trees coming out from the ground to "root" her in the spot that she was standing in.

"It seems that the games are now over Skuld," stated a weak and weary voice from deep within the ground twenty feet in front of Skuld. "I now have you where I want you and this gives me the opportunity to do what I have set out to do now that your powers have been awakened."

Ren took the opportunity to rise slowly from within the earth and float above it. Skuld could tell that her last attack did have some effects on him. His body was weaker than before with cuts and bruises everywhere that she could see and the way that he held himself told Skuld that there was some internal damage as well. Why didn't his body heal itself like it had earlier? Or did she push him past his capable limit of pain?

As Ren stopped to think, Noble Scarlet decided to use his moment of hesitation to shatter the ground beneath him and begin to drag him downwards. Noble Scarlet had created a large trench underneath Ren and was pulling him downwards into it so that she could seal it before he had a chance to escape. However, Noble Scarlet was not expecting interference from Ren's angel, Yuri.

The blast that was delivered to Noble Scarlet's back had set the tips of her wings on fire and caused angry sores to begin to form on the perfect skin on her back. She had no choice but to let go of Ren and escape the trench as quickly as he did. Both of them turning from each other to escape in different directions both in the same condition: broken, bleeding, and knowing that the fight was beginning to reach a violent climax. As they both fell to the ground there was someone there running to their sides to see to their wounds with the same care and love as the other person.

"I have allowed you all to run belligerently through Heaven with my permission. The destruction that you have inflicted upon these holy grounds will be weighed upon my head by the Holy Court. As the Gate, I have the power to allow you into Heaven and ban you from Heaven, Keiichi Morisato."

The Gate had appeared before everyone within the field in her human form wielding the Key of Entrance before her. Her face was contorted in a scowl of anger towards Ren and Yuri. Yet it seemed she was just talking to Ren as though he was Keiichi.

"The Gate believes me to be Keiichi Morisato because he is one of the only few humans who is able to enter into this area of Heaven because of the purity of his heart. With the right strand of DNA and the correct words, I have half of Heaven believing that I am truly Keiichi Morisato," explained Ren as he lumbered to his feet with the help of Yuri.

"That is not Keiichi Morisato. Keiichi is an innocent human with love only known to the Goddess Belldandy. The man that stands before you is named Ren, a human infused with an angel and demon within him." As Skuld continued to explain to the Gate, she had already began to twirl the Key above her head opening the portal back to Earth. It was too late to stop the sequence and Skuld had to get one last shot at Ren before her powers were lost as she was pulled through the gate back to Earth.

"Ren, this is my last chance to save you from your Demon. I do not know why the Gate believes you to be Keiichi when she has already met him, but I will stop you before you are given the opportunity to disappear on Earth. Forgive me, Ren, you were a good man, but as a Goddess I must stop your Demon from destroying the Earth." Skuld threw herself across the meadow with Noble Scarlet helping to speed her across the flat ground towards the Demon/Angel. Skuld held the dagger straight ahead of her as the scene began to fluctuate between the meadow and the yard of the temple.

"There is still apart of me that wishes you were Keiichi, Ren. Then I would be able to satisfy the hatred that I have for him." As Skuld finished her thought a bright light flashed in front of them all and Skuld felt her Goddess powers retreating deep within her to return her back to her original form. The strong force of Heaven had allowed her to use her advanced powers, but the Earth and reality created a barrier for her she could not break.

As the sequence finally settled Skuld was able to stop herself, but tripped over a rock as she did her best to gain control of her balance. She allowed her left hand to reach out to grasp the warm muscular shoulder of a man to balance herself, but felt the knife plunge deep within his chest to stop her from moving forward anymore. As Skuld blinked her eyes she began to look at her surroundings and those who were around. It seemed that the Gate had sent them all back to the backyard of the temple near the pond. All four of them: Skuld, Noble Scarlet, Yuri, and Keiichi…

Yuri caught Keiichi in her arms as he fell backwards with the dagger protruding out from his chest, the blood soaking his grey shirt into a large dark blot that continued to expand. His breath began to come out in ragged gasp as he began to frantically try and pull the dagger out of his chest. Yuri did her best to hold his hands down so that she could help him.

"Skuld help me hold him down," screamed Yuri as she ripped the cloth from her dress from the hem upwards to her waist. Skuld did her best to hold him down as she fought down the tears and did her best not to look him in the eye. Keiichi was dying there in her arms and the only thing she could think of was what Belldandy was going to say when she saw what was going on.

"Skuld…I'm…so…proud of…you," whispered Keiichi as the light began to fade from his light green eyes. Skuld reached down to wipe the bloody tears from Keiichi's face as tears began to form in her own eyes. She had seen the life force of many people and creatures of different dimensions expire, but having to watch it with her very own eyes made her realize how special a life was. As her tears began to spill over she witnessed through his eyes his soul departing from his earthly body. Keiichi Morisato had died by Skulds blood stained hands.

"Um…Yuri? I think we have a problem."

Both women turned to look at Ren standing ten feet away from them with a confused look in his brown eyes. As Skuld wiped her eyes with the edge of her cloak she looked from Ren to Keiichi and then back to Ren. They had swapped their colored eyes for the other one. Skuld took a gulp of air before she asked a question she knew could not have been true without the help of a Goddess or Demon. "Kei...Keii…Keiichi? Is that you, Keiichi?"

Keiichi hung his (Ren's) head low and finally nodded to both women as they kept their eyes on him. "It seems that Ren and I have switched bodies somehow. I don't know what's going on but for some reason I feel really calm about this. It's like there's an angel within me calming my soul and warning me of some terrible tragedy that took place. Oh well, it's not like Skuld finally killed my body or anything, right?"

As Ren began to laugh he allowed himself to look between the Goddess and strange woman to see what they were working on when he showed up. Keiichi stared down at his own body lying there on the ground with its eyes open watching everything and nothing at the same time. The wound within his chest had stopped bleeding, only because there was no blood left in the body as it had soaked into the shirt he was wearing and the ground below him. Keiichi fell to his knees begging and pleading that this was only a dream and that he would wake up to Belldandy calling his name.

Yet he never heard his name being called by Belldandy as he did his best to wrap his mind around the situation that before him. He had switched his normal human body with another who was infected with a Demon and an Angel at the same time and his real body now lay dead before him on the ground. As Keiichi allowed his body to take control of his mind he felt his head rearing backwards to let out an inhuman howl that seemed to echo his sorrow and pain from the top of Heaven to the bottom of Hell. Keiichi wanted the world to hear his pain and sorrow and prayed that Ren would hear him wherever he was and find a way to fix this situation and Keiichi would go back to his real body…alive.