A/N: The chapter is the last one for this year…(2014) I will be stepping away from this fiction until middle to late February for two reasons. The first and far more pressing of the two is simply burn out from this fiction….I've been on a mass writing-a-thon with it this year, and now it's sitting at over 50 chapters…the second reason is quality control. Anyone who writes in mass, for any length of time, knows that plot bunnies tend to breed, and then run rampant. By taking a month away, I can then come back and reflect on chapters 37+ with no real pressure and make sure that the direction I went with it, is truly the direction I want to go.

See you in 2015...

Chapter 36

It would be easy...so very, very easy...she was an immortal who protected the past, and as such, she had a bit of power at her command. Power that could change the very fabric of time and space, she could bend it. Shape it to her will. All it would take, was a passing thought, one etched within her very soul...a passing dream dripping with venom so deep, it could poison not only the time that passed, but the time that had yet to come.

She could do it...do it...and be done with it...but what would that afford her? She pondered the question relentlessly, and came up with nothing.

Urd floated over the dusky colored sky of the earth, studying the cloud cover with a bored expression. It bothered her, gnawing at the back of her mind in ways she wanted to cast aside. Instead, she looked to the few stars that were near her. Balls of gases and debris, little more. Even so, they held meaning for her. An importance that left her swallowing hard.

This planet was still subject to drastic, violent changes.

Besides the otherwise obvious idea that it was a new land, there was also the little matter of evolution. Urd knew single celled organisms littered the biomes, and that one day, those fragile cells would make up complex creatures. The demon in her called to her, and she nipped at her lip as she held a sphere of magic in the palm of her hand. She squinted at it. Tempted, but also fearful of the call.

Powers left to only her devices.

She could quite literally pull data from the past and reload it into the system force. Her abilities as an administrator gave her all of the knowhow she needed. Her magical prowess gave her the ability to look back and recall precisely what she needed to, exactly when she needed to do it. It was a skill of her bloodline, however, unlike her mother, who merely chose to look back, Urd could pluck things from those past memories.

She craved those shares from mortal men.

Those little magical essences that allowed all of creation to function. She desired them like an addict who needed a fix. She knew of course, that to toy with fate was a dangerous thing indeed, because the past was not without paradox, and if she were to tamper with the timeline, she could very easily poison creation...even one little taste of the past could set the world tree, young as it was, trembling with confusion.

Urd sighed as with shaky hands she forced closed the portal she created…there was nothing for her in those distant days, and even if she were give into her most basic urge, she knew that at the end of the day, her position would remain the same.

She cursed to herself, she had other places she needed to be, other people who needed her. She'd be damned to forget that, and thusly, to forget herself.

…

"What the crap!" Megumi growled as she tried to yank off the limiter affixed to neck. "Dad, come on, I don't really need this piece of trash, do I?"

"We all need this piece of trash." He said as he began fastening a necklace on Saria as well. "We're too strong, Meg, if we don't keep our powers in check, we're going to harm that rock we call a planet."

"I don't see her in any new limiters." Megumi spat, pointing to Urd.

"That's because I already have one." The eldest among them said as she prepared the last of their bags to be taken with them. "Any immortal that's been around as long as I have, will have enough limiters. Besides, I know how to keep my powers from running rampant." Satisfied with the packing, she took a ring that she'd saved from several years ago, and passed it to Megumi. "You however, are starting to outgrown your old ones. We can't be too careful."

"Belldandy has the ones for Hikari and Daichi, right?" Keiichi asked then as he let the little girl down from his lap, patting the often dull and expressionless girl on the head.

"Hikari will have been outfitted with combat seals by now. Those limiters are powerful." Urd said with grim certainty. "Daichi is still too young yet."

Keiichi grit his teeth. "Shit."

He felt a soft tugging at his cloak, wide analytical eyes boring into him as little fangs protruded from beyond closed lips. "Goddesses…" Saria averted her gaze at that, her voice gentle, much like her mother's. "I do don't like them." She said, a soft squint of confusion enough to tell him that she was very troubled to have to come into contact with them once again.

"You'll like these ones." Urd said then. "You probably don't remember mommy very well, do you?"

"No." In fact, the thought was an unfavorable one. "Don't want too, either." Saria shook her head and without thinking to heavily about it, took her usual place behind Megumi.

"Do you still want to do this?" Urd asked as she helped Keiichi change the limiter around his head.

"Without a doubt." He asked as he felt something stronger take hold of him. "We will be a family again, because I've demanded it." Inwardly, his devil growled, fussing about like a kitten who had just been dunked in icy cold water. He looked to his daughters, and with no small amount of agitation, he nodded to himself. "Belldandy wishes it too. I don't care if you two like it or not, you will mind your mother."

"Like hell I will." Megumi muttered under her breath.

"You could stand to learn a thing or two from her." Keiichi told Megumi sternly. "She has a view of creation that outshines many others. The same could be said for Skuld. Valkyries are powerful warriors, and it would behoove you to have a strong fundamental understanding of just how they think."

"What about Xic?" Megumi asked then. "What's he going to do?"

"Stay here, where he belongs." Keiichi said as he crossed his arms, checking the restraints on the new limiter as he forced his magic to center around him. Satisfied it would break on him, he relaxed his stance. "I can't allow my presence to be forgotten, and Xic, is loyal to the family. He will make sure that everything continues according to plan." Assured that his appearance was everything he expected of himself to be, he turned. "Meg, come with me to oversee the final preparations. You should learn the details thoroughly."

…

Hikari was a Valkyrie, trained to be a killer when the right time came for such a thing. Even as a goddess, the merciless truth of the matter would force her hand, and call to her a much stronger, demanding urge to fight and be fought. To defeat and stake her claim. The thought amused Keiichi, and even if he wouldn't otherwise admit it to Belldandy, he desired for Hikari to bathe in battle and blood.

He knew it was his darker nature calling to him, and yet even still, he let the petty thoughts drift into his mind on occasion. It helped that Hikari was a safe bet. He knew that dreaming such a dream with her would not cause undue harm. Hikari would not actually ruthlessly kill for the sake of killing, she was mild mannered and quiet tempered. He was safely assured any life she took would be with careful consideration and cold calculation…that there would be no other choice in the matter.

That was the life of a Valkyrie, and the mindset of Lind, who was highly regarded in Keiichi's personal opinion.

He considered this as he watched from afar as Megumi and Hikari met for the first time eye to eye in this shared space. Their new home. They were quiet, and he could not make out their words, but he could tell from Megumi's stance that she was displeased, and that a fight could transpire.

"I don't like this." Belldandy murmured to him, but he'd already turned his back on the exchange.

"Don't give it the time of day." He told her, taking her hand in his. He gave it a gentle squeeze. "They have to fight their own battles, and like it or not, those two hold birthrights that exceed their own bad tempers."

"That may be so, but they are still so young." Belldandy told him with a shake of her head, denying her husband the simple logic. "You can't expect them to see creation in the selfsame way that you do."

"Youth doesn't afford them more time or luxury." He told her, unwilling to be defied on the topic at hand. "It simply tells of how little they do understand, and how quickly that needs to be amended."

"You expect me to watch?" Something in her stirred when he said that, as if he wanted their daughters to fight.

"No…" He said quietly, trying to ease his tone of voice. "I wish for you to walk with me." He was sure that one or both of his daughters would come out of any fistfight worse for wear, but their limiters prevented magical discord from damaging the planet, and that's all he cared about. He put his arm around Belldandy's shoulder. "I made a few alterations to the house." He explained, though he could tell by her gaze she was more than a little shocked.

"This is not the shrine I remember, Keiichi." She told him, in fact, it was a castle. Small by heavenly standard, but far above the standard for mortals. "We had a meager existence, don't you recall?"

"An existence that can no longer be fully what it was." He quietly closed the door. "Each room had to be properly voided and sealed." He explained as he took her to the bedroom. "The walls had to be made thick and of barrier stone because of that. Lind requested it, I saw fit to amuse her." He grew quiet then, as he pulled off his crown and unfastened his cape, placing them on a stand. He then plopped down tiredly on the futon. "I am too strong, Belldandy, too powerful a demon…and that is ultimately what I am now." He admitted quietly. "I crave too much…without the magic in place, there is no telling what I could do."

Belldandy fell to his side, seeing his guilt, feeling it within him so deeply. She recalled her conversation with Urd, seeing it exemplified in his eyes, and she felt drawn to those brown orbs once more. "What is it that you crave?"

Keiichi's devil lifted from his back, a hungry gleam in his eyes. That same hunger reflected in Keiichi's own. "Too much." He said quietly. "Far, far too much." Still as he said this, he vaporized the cloth that donned Belldandy's form, leaving her completely exposed to his eyes, as Holybell came forth to answer Koiji's demanding call. "However, I will settle with this…I will make due." He told her resolutely as he loomed over her, kissing her on the lips as tenderly as he could. "It will be enough." He murmured as she wrapped her arms around him, submitting to the power that called to her. "It's gotta be enough Bell." He murmured to her again as he kissed the nape of her neck, as his fingers drifted downwards to play with folds slickening with her arousal. "It's gotta be." He would not wait any longer to have her, to demand to know that she was his.

He parted her legs, and thrust deeply into her.

Her eyes screwed shut. She gasped painfully when he claimed her forcefully. She was not yet aroused enough to take his full length into her, and yet she wrapped her legs around him anyway, feeling his heart ache for her. She wished she could pinpoint when he had fallen so far from grace, when he, as a demon lost himself so fully to his whimsical desires.

He fought for control within himself, his breathing shallow and irregular as he kissed her again, murmurs drifting from within his very heart that he had no idea how to quell.

How could he tell her of his mind, how it had changed, and what he saw?

He knew deep down that he could not...that his voice would never have the words for his vices, worldly and otherwise. He could feel her fingers tangle into his short, messy tresses, grasping at him, taking from him everything he gave. The truth came to him in that. A warmth that eased him only slightly. Yet it was enough to gentle his motions, and ease the sweltering burn in his soul.

She knew exactly what he was, and just what he had become, choosing to love him in spite of it...or, perhaps because of it.