AN: Another episode rewrite. sigh. Unfortunately this one and the next aren't in the manga at all, so I can't just skip them. I did get to add a few short scenes of my own, however. Oh well, the fourth chapter should be entirely my own.

As before, reviews are welcomed with open arms, even nasty ones.

Star.

Urd sighed as yet another minor spell went awry. It hadn't taken long for her to realise why Hild had agreed to giving her an extra three months so easily. The Daimakaicho was taking advantage of the extra time to increase her Nidhegg linkage gradually instead of all at once.

It was an approach that had its advantages. Since she didn't face a sudden influx of large amounts of demonic energy she didn't run the risk of going berserk as she nearly had when Marller split her into her divine and demonic halves.

There was also one major downside. The constantly changing ratio of demonic to divine power meant that her control was shot to hell. Her usually careless use of magic was out of the question, she had to be careful when casting each and every spell, even those as simple and often used as her spell to convert potions to pill form. She has ruined more than one potion recently by messing that one up.

To make things worse the last two months had been rather hectic. Her mother had seemingly decided that Belldandy and Keiichi were her new pet project as although there had been no sign of her since she had 'left' there was a lingering trace of her energy that should have faded but hadn't. And some of Marller's schemes had been unusually effective recently.

The cursed teapot, for example. The trap itself was Marller's style but the 'irresistibly cute' spell had Hild's fingerprints all over it. Marller just wasn't that subtle.

Her mother's power had become background noise, an itch that grew more prominent as time passed and she became more attuned to demonic energy.

Marller's interference with Belldandy's licence was received with far less surprise than it might have been.

"Listen to me," she warned Belldandy. "If you act like a goddess then you will face misfortune."

"What should we do then?" Keiichi asked.

"Do some bad deeds," she explained. "Don't recycle the garbage, make some children cry."

"Belldandy can't do that!" Keiichi protested.

"I know. I was just joking." Urd hadn't been really, that was the best way to avert trouble, but she also knew that her sister couldn't act that way.

"Why does it take so long?" Skuld demanded.

"What did they say?" Keiichi asked as Skuld put the phone down.

"They say it'll take at least a month to fix things," Skuld replied.

"That long?"

"Government offices are always like that," Urd informed him. "They took their own sweet time when I had my licence suspended too."

"And they say I'm not qualified," Skuld added.

"Qualified for what?"

"They said that a proxy recipient must be eighteen years or older. So Urd, you have to come with me."

"Then we'd better hope I'm acceptable," Urd pointed out. "I have to turn in my own licence in less than a month."

Belldandy looked up then. "This happened because of my carelessness. I should go."

"You can't even get through the gate," Urd reminded her.

"Onee-sama, it's all right. Leave it to me," Skuld declared, taking Belldandy's hands. She flinched back as electricity flashed between them.

"The symptoms are getting worse," Urd stated. "Try and stay calm." She took Belldandy's hands in her own. Unlike with Skuld no power flashed, her own control of pishogue great enough that it didn't interact with the barely contained energy within her sister.

Belldandy smiled tremulously, attempting to do as instructed.

"Onee-sama, I will fix this," Skuld vowed.

Urd nodded in agreement, privately hoping that she had less trouble with the transport than Belldandy did. They would really be in trouble then.

"Make sure that you take care of her so that she doesn't have to do magic," Urd instructed Keiichi as she and Skuld prepared to open the Gate. She looked at her sister. "I mean it, Belldandy. Demonic magic works slightly differently than you're used to. You won't be able to control it properly."

"Okay," Keiichi replied.

"I won't forgive you if something happens to Onee-sama!" Skuld added.

"Okay."

-x-x-x-

Keiichi and Belldandy had moved to the tea room after the other two left. They were currently sitting around the table, Keiichi watching Belldandy, who was looking down at the tabletop.

"I'm sorry," Belldandy said softly. "Just because I wanted my licence back so badly… It was careless of me not to check that it was correct."

"You couldn't have expected Marller to be there," Keiichi pointed out. "She's not even supposed to be able to get into Asgard. As long as we don't get into situations where you have to use magic we should be fine. Urd and Skuld will complete the procedures to correct this."

Belldandy smiled slightly, bringing an answering smile from Keiichi.

"It'll be fine," he repeated.

"Hai!"

The sound of a vehicle pulling up with brakes squealing, followed by running footsteps, caused the two to look away from each other and towards the door. Moments later the door was flung open. It was the monk who owned the temple.

"I've finished my training," the monk announced.

"Monk!" Keiichi exclaimed.

"Welcome home," Belldandy said happily.

"Belldandy-dono, it has been some time," the monk replied, sitting down at the side of the table nearest the door. "I wanted you to see the dharmic powers I've acquired from one ascetic after another so I've returned to show them to you."

He paused suddenly, rising to his knees and leaning forward to look more closely at Belldandy. "You!" he demanded as Belldandy gasped. "Who are you? You have an evil power! Do you think you can deceive me, evil spirit?! What did you do with the real Belldandy-dono?!

Within moments the two found themselves thrown out of the temple, Keiichi knocked to the ground by the books the monk had thrown at them.

"The demon's Ultimate Force may be at work," Belldandy said worriedly as they sped along the road in Keiichi's motorcycle. "Have I truly become a demon? If I can't become a goddess again I may not be able to stay with you, Keiichi-san."

"It's just until Urd completes the procedures," Keiichi assured her. "You can depend on me to help you at times like this, Belldandy. I won't abandon you."

"You're right," Belldandy replied, looking up at him.

BANG!

Keiichi cried out in shock as the front tire on his bike burst and he wrestled to bring it safely to a stop.

-x-x-x-

"I'm sorry," Belldandy said as Keiichi changed the tire. "This is probably my fault too."

"Changing tires is easy," Keiichi replied, standing up to look at her. "You don't have to be so hard on yourself." He grinned and gave her a thumbs up.

"Hai."

Unfortunately their luck didn't seem to get any better, as one person after another was unable to put them up for the night. Oddly, most of them seemed to have girls over. Even Megumi wasn't able to help.

"We're out of luck here too," Keiichi said as they walked away from his sister's apartment.

The demon's Ultimate Force, Belldandy thought sadly.

"It's begun," Marller said gleefully as she watched them from her position on top of a nearby roof. "Once you take that licence your misfortune will continue forever unless you vow to live as a demon!"

"Yes," Hild said, as she appeared out of nowhere. The child form of the Daimakaicho, containing a mere 1/1000th of her power, had been at Marller's side almost constantly since the goddesses had summoned her, having taken an interest in what was going on. Or maybe she was just keeping an eye on Urd. Marller wasn't about to question her boss on her motives.

"Hild-sama." Marller said respectfully, moving away from the younger looking demon.

"It's a fairly good plan for you, Ma-chan," Hild admitted, looking pleased.

"Why, of course!" Marller boasted. "I worked hard to please you this time, Hild-sama. It's too much of an honour. I'll show you a special show."

Hild paid little attention to her subordinates boasting. Instead she smiled sinisterly as she looked down on Belldandy and Keiichi. Belldandy, how much will you amuse me this time?

Meanwhile, in Asgard...

"Hey!" Skuld protested. "How long are you going to make us wait?!"

"I told you it's an emergency regarding a Goddess First Class, Second Category Unlimited licence," Urd added, glaring at the receptionist.

"Geez, what are you going to do if something happens to Onee-sama while we're here doing nothing?"

Peorth paused as she saw Urd and Skuld in the reception area.

"The Goddess Assistance Agency, which has 'service' as its motto… What a joke!" Urd said scornfully.

"I wonder what they're doing?" Peorth asked herself.

Their luck really did seem to be awful right now. After being turned down by all their friends they had tried to stay at the Motor Club's clubhouse, only to be chased out by Keiichi's Sempai. They hadn't even been able to buy anything to eat, as his wallet had gone missing. Even the bun he had in his pocket was expired and the weather had soon taken a turn for the worse.

They trudged through the pouring rain, Keiichi pushing his motorbike, which had broken down a few minutes ago.

"Belldandy," Keiichi called out, turning towards his girlfriend who was following behind him. "Seek shelter from the rain under the bridge up ahead."

"I can help."

"Belldandy, please."

"This motorcycle has been a good friend to us. I won't just abandon it."

Keiichi watched in horror as power gathered between her hands, remembering Urd's warning. "Stop! Remember, you can't use magic right now!"

Unsurprisingly all that happened was a minor explosion. Belldandy's eyes were wide with shock as smoke rose from the engine. She fell to her knees, crying. "I'm sorry! I'm sorry!"

Keiichi placed a hand on her shoulder, ignoring his growing cold and exhaustion. "Don't cry Belldandy."

"But…but it's my fault!"

"No, it's not. You just can't control your powers right now. Do you think I haven't noticed how many problems Urd has been having recently? The drastic decrease in the amount of spells flying around was pretty obvious. And she's half-demon to start with."

He smiled at her. "They'll get things back to normal. It's stopped raining. For now, let's move."

"Hai!" Belldandy replied, smiling tremulously.

Keiichi smiled back at her and walked towards the front of the bike. Before he could take more than a single step, however, a wave of weakness sent him falling to the ground. The last thing he heard before everything went black was Belldandy's voice.

"Keiichi-san? Keiichi-san!"

Urd forced herself to calm before she did something drastic to the receptionist. She hated government offices. "Give me the forms," she said eventually once she had calmed down enough that she trusted herself not to cast a spell on the infuriating woman. However satisfying that might be she needed to get this sorted quickly, before something bad happened to Bell and Keiichi.

A pile of paperwork nearly four inches high, covered in tiny letters, was dumped on the counter in front of her. "Please read these and sign in the appropriate places."

"Come on," Urd told her sister. "Let's go to the desk over there."

She had to get away from that woman, or her remaining time as a goddess would be a lot shorter than expected. While blasting the officious pest with pure pishogue might be satisfying it would almost certainly get her not only banned from Asgard again but sent straight to Nifelheim, and then who would help her sister?

Unfortunately this was just the first step of the process – getting herself registered as Belldandy's proxy.

"You're troubled, aren't you Belldandy?"

Belldandy looked up from Keiichi to see Marller hovering beside the bridge they were sheltering under. "Marller! Why did you do something this awful?"

Marller smirked. "Because I'm a demon of course."

"Keiichi-san has nothing to do with our quarrel!"

"What do you mean? This is your fault. He's like this because you tried to do good deeds."

"I just wanted to help him."

"Then all you have to do…is join us."

"Are you telling me to help a demon?"

"Of course. If you associate yourself with evil and vice you'll be able to make Keiichi happy with your powers. I'm sure Urd would tell you the same if she were here."

Belldandy looked away, remembering her sister's words before she left. "Keiichi-san."

"If you do bad deeds it will return as happiness for Keiichi. Not a bad deal, right?"

"I understand," Belldandy replied. "I'll do it." For Keiichi-san, I would do anything.

"Good."

"Very well," the receptionist said. "Now, what exactly is the problem?"

"My sister was issued the wrong licence."

"Licensing office, third floor."

Urd and Skuld groaned in unison.

Marller was sitting beside the unconscious Keiichi, who was hooked up to a device monitoring his condition. Belldandy had left to do bad deeds.

She watched excitedly as Keiichi's temperature continued to fall, convinced that Belldandy was already managing to do some really nasty things. She would have been a lot less excited if she had realised that Belldandy's idea of 'really bad' consisted of crossing the road when the crossing light was red, reading books without paying for them, writing graffiti and getting drunk on soda.

"The system clearly shows that Belldandy, Goddess of the Present, completed retraining and was issued a First Class, Category 2 Unlimited licence," the operator informed them.

Urd looked over her shoulder at the screen. "Well, what she got was a demonic licence."

"You're not serious?"

"I am. As far as we can tell from her memories the two were switched while still in the office by the Demoness Marller."

"That's impossible! Leaving aside the fact that no demon should be able to enter Asgard the licence is just a symbol. The real data is stored in Yggdrasil."

"You're right," Urd admitted. "But Belldandy can still only access demonic magic. Something, I might add, she's never been able to do before."

"Let me look."

"Huh? Belldandy?" Keiichi asked as he woke in the morning.

"You're finally awake."

"Marller."

"Be happy. She agreed to live with her new status."

"This happened because you tampered with it in the first place!" he said angrily, standing up to walk over to her. "Give Belldandy her goddess licence back!"

Marller smirked. "I shredded it to pieces long ago."

"How could you? Belldandy's suffering because of it."

"How rude," Marller told him. "I made it so that the more bad deeds she commits, the happier you people you become. Aren't you happy?"

"There's no way I'd be happy that way!"

"But it's thanks to her bad deeds that you've recovered," Marller argued, not really understanding his point. "She easily had a change of heart when I told her that your fever would go down if she did bad deeds."

"Is that how you persuaded her?"

"This is how demons do things. I'd do anything to expand our share." She realised that Keiichi was leaving. "Hey! Where are you going?"

"I'm going to stop Belldandy."

"How that benefit you? You'll be unfortunate again."

"Getting sick and losing a place to live, I'm fine with that! Making Belldandy suffer makes me even unhappier."

Marller watched him go. What was the problem with doing whatever you had to do in order to benefit yourself? It was how things worked, wasn't it? Why would he choose to suffer, when causing problems for others could ease your own? Was it really hurting Belldandy that much?

"There!" Skuld pointed out, having joined Urd and the operator in searching.

Urd frowned. "It's definitely a virus," she admitted. "But this is way beyond Marller's usual abilities. Damn."

She ignored the disapproving looks about her language. "We knew she had to have helped getting here but it seems that Hild had a hand in the code too."

"H…Hild?" the operator squeaked.

Meanwhile Belldandy was sitting on the swings, contemplating the fact that it hurt so much to do bad things to others.

"Poor demon," Hild said from her perch on a nearby roof.

"Um, I feel rather guilty," Marller admitted as she landed beside her.

"You're a demon. What are you talking about?" Guilt was an emotion Hild didn't understand.

"Hild-sama, you just said 'Poor demon,'" Marller pointed out.

"That's right, poor demon. I'll save her when she reaches her limit, of course. When she does we'll specially welcome her as Demon Belldandy," Hild explained. Belldandy's suffering was a necessary part of the plan.

Marller wondered if they were even on the same page.

"It's no use," Urd sighed, straightening briefly. "The virus keeps rewriting itself. We need to overwrite the damaged code completely."

By now they had drawn the attention of most of the people in the room, as well as several operators in the main control room. This level of infiltration was nothing to be scoffed at.

From a nearby terminal Skuld scowled. "Can't we just bypass it? Resend the information?"

"Theoretically, yes. But I don't know how. It would need to come from Bell's end, and she can't even link to Yggdrasil at the moment. And to restore her link we'd need to bypass the virus."

"Double bind," the operator said glumly.

Keiichi meanwhile had checked all of the places Belldandy would normally be found, to no avail. All he gained was teasing from his sempai and a lecture from a teacher on attendance.

Eventually he found himself settling down beside a pay phone, too tired to walk any more and out of ideas as to where to look.

"Belldandy, where are you?"

Having discovered what had happened Peorth was determined to help. To that end she was down on Earth, hassling people about buying phones. She frowned as Belldandy walked past without even noticing her. "Hey you!"

"It's horrible that you would ignore me," she told Belldandy once they were somewhere private, the alley beside the store.

"What are you wearing?" Belldandy countered.

"Since I came down without permission I'm in disguise so my bosses won't find me."

"Without permission?"

"That's right. For you. I can't allow you, the best goddess in the Goddess Assistance Agency, to scatter misfortune for a cheap reason like this."

"I…"

"Here." She handed Belldandy one of the phones. "You can forget about subscribing, so call."

"Call?"

"The number doesn't matter. Dial, with love, someone you love right now. Then your feelings will definitely get through."

Keiichi looked up as the phone rang. "Umm, hello?"

"Umm…"

"Belldandy." He could never forget that voice, it had been engraved in his memory since the first time he heard it, when she had told him that she was here to grant him a wish.

"Did you forget this time?" he asked half teasing, half serious as he referred the incident after their encounter with the Lord of Terror. "My wish hasn't changed."

Belldandy's hand trembled. "But I have lost all my goddess powers and will cause nothing but trouble."

"Whatever happens we'll be alright if we're together. And I said that you could depend on me a little more, right?"

"Keiichi-san."

"Don't go away anymore. I want a goddess like you to stay with me forever."

"Keiichi-san."

Belldandy and Peorth gasped as Belldandy began to glow, connecting with Yggdrasil as files updated.

"Skuld, come here for a sec," Urd said excitedly, from her position watching one of the systems operators.

Running over Skuld gasped in delight. "Onee-sama's licence has changed back to normal!"

"You wish has been accepted," Peorth told Belldandy. "The bug from the demons' tampering has been fixed. A demons' licence has never been…"

"Peorth!" Belldandy exclaimed, hugging her.

"I'll put this on loan," Peorth said, as Belldandy began to cry with joy.

"So the rumours are true then," Peorth stated, when Urd and Skuld returned to Midgard. The demonic energy gathering in the Goddess of the Past was obvious; she didn't even try to hide it. "You really are changing sides."

Urd nodded.

"Why didn't you ask Kami-sama for help, instead of Her?"

"Can you honestly say that he wouldn't have used the opportunity to make me a pure goddess?"

"Don't you want that?"

Urd shook her head. "Maybe once," she admitted. "But if I was, I wouldn't be me. I'd rather be half and half than a goddess pure, even if the price is to become a demon."

"I…I can't understand that."

"I know. Thank you though, for helping Belldandy. If the contract hadn't been triggered we might never have solved the problem."

Peorth smiled and nodded. There wasn't much else to say, really.

Morisato Keiichi, Hild thought as she watched from a tree outside the temple, once again ignoring Marller's apologetic babbling. I thought he was a boring child, but he's really quite good.

She smirked slightly, an idea forming.

-x-x-x-

Thing were soon back to normal at the Temple, well for a short time, anyway.

"Keiichi-san, its morning!" Belldandy called out happily the next day, as she opened his door. "It's a nice day today."

She stopped in shock when she saw Hild lying beside him, staring up at her.

"Oh, good morning," Hild said politely.