Small little note before the chapter: I am sorry for the long wait. Many more things happened this month than expected. At least I now have a job to show for it, I guess. Then there's the matter about writing. Writing is a funny thing, you know: you love it, until the point you actually have to organize words in your head and put it down in some form. Then you absolutely loathe it. Douglas Adams, famous for his The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series, mentioned more than once that a writer's least favorite thing to do is actually writing. It is hard to disagree with him. However, I feel incredibly guilty, especially since there are now several new followers to this fanfic, and I have done absolutely nothing to give them any confidence I'll continue. The fandom is not as dead as it seems (though it may be only mostly dead), and to reward the fans for their diligence, and my readers for their patience, I present an extra-long chapter. What sets this chapter apart from the others is that it starts an actual story-arc, whereas previous chapters were just a loose sequence of events. So here it is: hope you enjoy.

"You know, this is all your fault." Said Kennedy to Dido as they both sat crammed underneath a desk in a small office in Guatemala.

Outside, the sounds of gunfire were occasionally heard, as well as other, nastier sounds, like the sound of a thin piece of metal slicing through some unfortunate bloke's arm, or the sound of something gelatinous munching on the bones of yet another poor bastard.

They both tensed up when they heard the sound of running boots outside the office door, but relaxed slightly as they heard them disappear down the corridor.

How the hell did this all happen? Kennedy thought to herself.

Which is actually a decent question: Why were these two witches, last seen in Dido's headquarters in an undisclosed country, hiding for their lives underneath a desk in Guatemala? Why were the sounds of carnage being heard from outside? Just what was the gelatinous-sounding thing doing munching on bones in the first place? And where do our erstwhile heroes, Nadie, Ellis, Lirio and Ricardo fall into all of this?

It all began roughly five days earlier.

Kennedy was unsure of how all of this was going to work out. She was even more unsure as to what exactly Dido was doing with the "Essential Salts" of a person.

Dido had drawn a circle with chalk upon the floor and placed the jar containing the "Salts" within it. She had a look of glee upon her face (well, at least what was visible) and joyfully bounded on over to an area of the floor near the circle to pick up some candles and placed them strategically around the circle and lit them.

She then ordered several demons to haul a large tub of what looked like blood, fat, and other tissues over to where the circle containing the salts was.

"Um, where did you get all of this, er, raw material?"

"Oh, Sr. Becoyo supplied it. Said it was from cadavers from morgues. He used people who wanted their bodies to be used 'for science' and thus was able to procure some decent amounts of material."

Great. Yet another reason not to trust the guy.

"So, what exactly is it for?"

"Good question, dear sister. It is to avoid some trouble later on."

Dido actually thinking things through? That's rare.

Kennedy looked around, and it suddenly struck her that she wanted to ask Dido a question.

"So, where's Maria been?"

"Oh. She has to occasionally go home to Chile. Her cover story is that she's visiting a friend she met a while ago on a cruise. Of course, Maria's never been on a cruise, but her husband doesn't care. He's largely just glad that she's not around."

So why can't I go back to my home in the States and take care of my dog? Poor thing hasn't seen me for two weeks.

Kennedy did some mental math and figured out that there must have been more than just these things that Becoyo delivered, and the more she thought about it, the more it troubled her. She did not like how things were going, and was quite worried that things were about to get much worse.

As it so goes, she was absolutely right.

It was about this time where Ellis, Lirio and Nadie were in their room, getting ready to go out for dinner at a restaurant that Nadie and Ellis had seen on the way to the hotel. Lirio sat upon the bed, eagerly showing Ellis, sitting next to her, her animal picture book. Yet again, she seemed captivated by one critter in particular: a hornbill. She smiled and she giggled, and Eliis smiled and giggled with her. Nadie was busily changing from her blue shorts into longer jeans, and couldn't help but to smile at the scene. She loved it when she saw Ellis happy. She loved it when Ellis smiled. This happened rather infrequently, a smile of true joy, so she made sure that she saw as much as she could while the moment lasted.

Suddenly, she felt that odd feeling from many times before, and tried as she could, she just could not place it. She felt that it was rather important, like somebody was trying to point them in the right direction away from a cliff, but she still did not know what it was (at least consciously). Being lost in this train of thought, she did not realize that she was staring. It was hearing Lirio's giggle that brought to her attention that she and Ellis were staring right back at Nadie, the look on their face saying "You've been staring over here for quite a while, is everything okay?"

"Oh, um, right! Is everyone ready?"

Ellis and Lirio both indicated with a sound and a nod that they were, the three girls disembarked from their room, Lirio bringing along with her the book and, most curiously, her boomerang. This would turn out to be largely prescient on her part, as it would help the girls avoid almost certain doom.

Ricardo stood in an alleyway, leaning against the wall. He glanced at his watch, and let out a sigh. He had spent the past hours walking around the various places his target hanged out at, trying to put together when and where to expect him. According to most of his sources, his target, Juan Luis Bolon, would always at about 6:35 meet up with a drug distributor, where he would pick up highly unusual substances; things so extreme, says the friends of Juan Luis, that not even the cartels will touch them. And if something is extreme enough that even the cartels won't touch it, it usually wasn't anything good.

He hated it when people didn't keep to schedule. It was 6:40, and every minute Ricardo spent standing in one placed, he knew that he was losing in tracking Juan Luis elsewhere. He would wait five more minutes, and then he would move on to where Juan Luis would go after meeting up with his distributer.

Hornbills…

Why was he suddenly thinking about Hornbills? Was it because Lirio seemed to have taken to them recently?

Speaking of Lirio, I hope she's having fun with Nadie and Ellis.

Which, in turn, set him on a different train of thought: just what was up with those two? He felt horrible for thinking about it so much, but it just wouldn't leave his mind. The two seem perfect for each other: Ellis is the thing that keeps Nadie grounded, and Nadie is the one that is raising Ellis up. It was something about their personalities: Nadie, so brash and confident, yet simultaneously so unsure; Ellis, so naïve and innocent, yet so down in her outlook on life. It's as if their meeting wasn't chance, as if some force was at work in ensuring that the two would one day meet. But that, of course, is a ridiculous line of thought: two people aren't destined to meet each other. Reality just did not work that way. But still, given what had happened the year before in the Andes, he had been forced to reconsider his definition of reality: he had seen strange things before (you usually do in his line of work), but when you see a stone create force fields and lift people up, and you see not just one but two people come back from the dead, all in the same day, it kind of ruins your current image of reality.

And then, once again, he was thinking of hornbills. It was in this line of thought that he almost did not notice the sound of approaching footsteps. When he did, he made good to catch up with lost time and ran around the corner, making sure to keep his eyes peeled both in front and behind him. Fortunately enough for him, two people wearing black hoodies, undoubtedly Juan Luis and his distributor, were both coming from the same direction.

They began speaking to each other, but oddly not in Spanish, which he had expected: he heard instead a different language. He couldn't tell what exactly it was, but from his time spent with Zapatista forces in southern Mexico, it sounded like something in the Maya language family; of course, he was basing this off an incomplete knowledge of Tzotzil, but it was a better guess than nothing.

They spoke for a while, perhaps three minutes, and then after a friendly embrace, they split ways, one of the figures coming back the way they came, the other one coming towards where Ricardo was.

Okay, this is going to be a piece of cake: I'll just wait here around the corner, and once I know I can get the drop on him, I will.

Ricardo backed up away from the corner by a few spaces, keeping himself flat against the wall, ready to snatch the man about to turn the corner. After waiting for what seemed like a minute, Ricardo became understandably confused as to why the man had not rounded the corner yet. Ricardo glanced around the corner to reveal… nobody.

I have a feeling…

Ricardo heard a slight noise behind him. His pulse quickened, his breath slowed.

…that things are about to get complicated.

Ricardo spun around, fist ready, to find that he had aimed a little bit too far to the right of the person who was behind him. Despite his hostile reaction, the hooded man just stood there, staring at him. From what Ricardo could see, he had very short hair; he may have been even bald. He seemed to be about his mid-twenties. He had a number of small piercings along the bridge of his nose, and his eyes had a deep darkness to them. Despite that, the overall affect was not one of menace, but of calm amusement.

"Please do not try to hurt me. Your efforts are futile. Anyway, I mean absolutely no harm to you, stranger."

Ricardo gathered himself about him.

Who the hell is this guy?

"Are you Juan Luis Bolon?"

"Why yes, I am."

"I hear that there are some people looking for you. Your gang, perhaps?"

"And you wish to know why? It does not matter, bounty hunter. I shall inform you of everything you wish to know. Just take a small walk with me; I shall surrender myself to you afterwards. Let's just take a walk, and everything will be made clear."

"Look, Amigo, everything is perfectly clear to me already: your gang doesn't want you squealing on them to the authorities, and"

"Ha ha. Gang? Squealing to the authorities? Just where did you get these ideas from, stranger?"

"From a notice. Your gang is offering a job. Pretty decent pay. Now will you please come along with me and"

"I already said, I will most willingly surrender myself to you, but only after I have explained everything to you. So, please, let us go for a walk."

Ricardo did not know what to do: something about the man screamed suspicious, but he was giving such calm and honest air about himself that he had trouble whether or not to go along with his plan.

"So what will it be, stranger?"

"…okay. On one condition…"

"And that would be?"

Ricardo pulled out his gun, and aimed it at the man.

"You pull anything funny, or if I think for a moment that you may be leading me into a trap, and I put a bullet in your head. Comprende, Amigo?"

"Yes, it makes perfect sense, stranger. Now, let us go."

They walked out from where they were, and after a moment they arrived by a train crossing.

"So, stranger, you see, what you refer to as "my gang" is actually something much more than that."

"And that would be?"

"Well, I wouldn't call it a "religion" because it does not exactly match society's definition of what a religion ought to be; however, calling it a cult would be debasing itself, as it is privy, unlike most other such collections of people, to real truth."

"So?"

"Well, the group I belong to is called El Balám. It is a group of, admittedly, rather thuggish individuals, but it's overall aims are anything but. For you see, El Balám is in possession of a rare item from the days of the Classical Maya civilization: a finely carved, 30-centimeters-long jade jaguar statuette. Such a thing would sell for a fortune on the black market, and even more to a museum; but it is El Balám's great treasure, as it is actually a key."

"A key?"

"Yes, a key, stranger. There is a place in Guatemala, a cave, where if you fit the jaguar statuette into a certain carved recess and turned it three times counter-clockwise, you would open a secret passage into a room containing priceless wall carvings. These wall carvings, stranger, tell strange and horrible truths about mankind's history."

"And those are?"

"It is forbidden for outsiders to know."

"Then why bother telling me?"

"Simple: because I want you to spread a message."

Ricardo looked briefly stunned.

"A message? What do you think I am, a bellboy?"

"No. But one does not have to be a bellboy to carry a message."

Juan Luis stared Ricardo square in the eyes.

"Stranger, what I am about to tell you is what I wish, through acting as a holy ambassador from my group, to cause the True Awakening of Mankind."

"True Awakening? Listen, Amigo, if I thought you were a crazy cultist before, now I def"

"Oh, this is not insanity, stranger. As for the cultist remark, if you are referring to my membership in El Balám, you are gravely mistaken: I was never truly part of El Balám. I was simply using them to achieve what I wanted."

"And what did you get out of it?"

"Why, nothing less than the Jaguar Statuette itself."

"Wait, so you're telling me that you stole this jade jaguar thing?"

"Yes. That was my whole point of being with them."

"And let me guess: that's the real reason why they're after you?"

"Yes. You are more observant than you appear, bounty hunter."

"Thanks for the backhanded comment, but to cut to the main point: where is this statue now?"

"Oh? I gave it to Fra Gregorio."

"Fra… Gregorio?"

"Yes. He is a great shaman from my true group, the one that assigned me to steal the Jaguar Statuette."

"Shaman?"

"Yes. A learned and holy man. It was he who has been meeting me here every evening in the 18th hour. We would exchange information, and he would leave me with gifts."

"Gifts? Like drugs?"

"Oh, no non no, stranger. Nothing as banal as that. What he would give me was whatever I needed to make certain procedures work. It is a horribly intricate business, and I shall not bore you here with the details."

After waiting a moment, Ricardo spoke to Juan Luis again.

"Are you done now?"

"No. Just wait; I am almost finished."

"Well, go on, already. I'm waiting, Amigo."

Juan Luis cleared his throat.

"I wish to share with you now what I know about certain things that have transpired in the last three years in the world, for it relates to my true calling, the True Awakening of Mankind. Three groups in the last three years have tried various ways to go about this most noble task: one group in Europe tried to create two goddesses of death to slay the unrighteous and create a world without suffering. The group fractured over this, and the splinter that was attempting to create these death goddesses was utterly destroyed; the other splinters, however, suffered greatly as well, and they are in decline themselves as the Council of 300, those who rule from the shadows, seize up their assets. A second group in Asia attempted to awaken mankind to his true nature: however, the man in charge deluded himself as to what it was, and he planted the seeds of his own undoing. And last of all,"

He paused for a moment, and stared at Ricardo with a sideways glance, heightening the tension that was already thick around them.

"and last of all, there was the business of what happened with those two young ladies you were with earlier."

Ricardo's surprise brought him to higher levels of alert than before, and he tensed himself for what he knew was coming.

"What? Are you talking about Ellis and Nadie?"

"Precisely. The group in question was none other than the allies and contacts that Douglas Rosenberg kept around him. He, of the two groups already mentioned, came closest to awakening mankind; however, he allowed his own banal urges to get the better of him, and he became so lost in his ambitions and feelings that he no longer knew himself what he was aiming for. If he had been of clearer mind, he would of no doubt succeeded that day, in The Place of Eternity. But now he is dead, and the two girls walk free… funny. All three events I have mentioned tend to, for reasons I cannot begin to comprehend, center around two girls. Oh, well."

Ricardo was growing angry with the man's cryptic speaking, and he was edging closer towards violence.

"Listen, you tell me right now, how the hell do you know all of this?!"

Juan Luis gave several sharp "Has!" into the night.

"When one has transcended the mundane, there is no limit to what you may eventually know. Now, stranger, I give you my message: in the days to come, the world will become aware that there have been secret doings under work for centuries. When they do, panic will inevitably set in, and all the world will go aflame. It is absolutely – now, this is the important part, - absolutely necessary that those two girls embrace their destinies. Otherwise, all will be lost."

He grew silent after this, and he wobbled and begin to fall. Ricardo caught him by his shoulder and stood him upright.

"Now, I am in your possession."

"About damn time. Now, let me put these here cuffs on you, and then we will"

"Oh, I forgot to mention something important."

Ricardo's patience was nearing its end.

"What is it this time?"

"Right now, the three girls you care about more than anything else, especially the one you consider like a daughter, are in mortal peril."

The mention of Lirio and the other girls brought Ricardo to new heights of alarm. He swung Juan Luis around and got in his face.

"What the hell do you mean, they're in mortal peril?! What the hell is going on?!" He lifted Juan Luis into the air over the tracks.

"Why, it's simple: dark forces are hunting them. Not to worry, though: I'm sure that"

"Don't you dare tell me not to worry, you piece of shit! You tell me right now what the hell is goin"

Ricardo never got to finish, as a train came screaming down the tracks and tore Juan Luis away from him. Ricardo could only stare in dumb horror; he then recomposed himself, and started running towards the direction where the hotel would ultimately be.

Lirio… Nadie… Ellis… LIRIO!

Up on the hill in the sea of golden fields, the old man from before stood still, his eyes closed in thought. He heard the sounds of footsteps behind him, and knew who it was before he even opened his eyes.

"So, gramps, how's it going?" spoke Becoyo.

"I do not appreciate the fact that you supplied so many ghastly things to Dido. You know that you are overstepping the boundaries that we set for ourselves when we began this little game."

"Aw, don't give me that crap, gramps! Like you haven't stacked the deck in your favor before."

"Yes, but those times were different! They were times when the world was in grave peril, and if I hadn't done what I had done there'd be chaos now!"

"So? Part of our little agreement is that whatever chaos and shit I cause, I have to fix. And when I fix something, isn't it always like it was before?"

The old man gave a deep sigh.

"How long has it been? 18? 20 years?"

"Somewhere along those lines, yeah."

"So that's how long we've been playing this game of ours…"

He looked out over the sea again, and thought that if he knew then what he knows now, he would never have agreed to the game in the first place. But, even divine spirits have trouble changing the past, and looking back on what has happened since then, he does not fully regret it; he would have however, certainly done things a different way.

The three girls walked on the streets of the town, nearing the restaurant with every step. They had been walking for about ten minutes, and Nadie reckoned that it was going to be about five more before they got to the place. They walked mostly in silence, but once in a while Lirio would point to something, and Nadie and Ellis would respond in an appropriate manner.

Lirio pointed to a large dog.

"Looks like a French Mastiff." Spoke Nadie.

Lirio pointed inside a shop window at a painting on display. It showed two girls, one taller than the other. Both wore simple white dresses. The shorter one had blonde hair, and the taller one had hair with a lot of red in it. The taller girl was behind the other girl, and her arms were around her. Both had a happy smile on their face.

"Look, Nadie! Don't they look like us?" said Ellis excitedly.

Nadie just gave a smirk and a chuckle. The painting made her feel that feeling again from before.

Lirio pointed to a man accompanying a woman inside a cheap motel. The woman was, for lack of better terms, rather lacking in clothes.

"…when you're older." Explained Nadie.

Little did the girls know that dark shadows followed a short distance behind them. The demons had split into two groups: one small group of five following from the rooftops behind the girls, and the larger group waiting in a large building under construction near the restaurant. At the signal (the large party had a flare gun), the smaller party was to chase the girls towards the building where they would then be ambushed and killed by the larger group.

In the larger group, one of the purple demons turned to another one and spoke.

"You know… what are the odds of this plan working?"

"What?"

"Haven't you noticed how, no matter how well thought-out a plan is, when it concerns these two girls, it ultimately ends in failure?"

"What are you talking about?"

"It's just, well makes you wonder, doesn't? As if there was some unseen force at work keeping the girls safe?

"…you've been reading Discworld again, haven't you?"

"What?"

"Yeah. Like how the character Rincewind always manages to survive whatever is thrown at him because he's the gods' plaything, you're thinking that some divine or spiritual force is at work keeping these girls safe."

"No, no! I'm not thinking that at all!"

"Then what are you thinking about?"

"Well… you were right in that I was thinking along the lines of Discworld. But what I'm actually thinking about is the Theory of Narrative Causality."

"...come again?"

"Well, to describe it in detail would take too long, but the gist of it is that things happen because the plot says that they will happen."

"Oh, so you think that the whole world is a book, right, or a movie, or a play, or whatever."

"No, not exactly… it's just that… damn, I forgot what I was going to say…"

"Are you done now? Now shut up. We have to be ready for the signal, or else we will screw up."

"Okay…"

Little did the demon know just how right he was, and just how much pain and trouble he and a lot of his colleagues were about to go through because events were about to transpire through a series of coincidences so contrived, even Dickens would have been hesitant to write them.

VVVVVSmall NoteVVVVV

Man, this chapter was a little bit more serious than how I wanted it to turn out. But whatev. Next chapter will just have to be funnier to make up for it. Once again, thanks for sticking in this far in, and I hope that you guys and others will continue on until this story eventually reaches a conclusion (I have no intent of leaving an orphaned series).

Also, much thanks to SapphoSensei for the advice about inserting lines. When I feel up to it, I'll edit the other chapters as well. Probably within 24 hours of this posting.

Cheers.