Keiichi's Faith Chapter 5, an oh my goddess! fanfic

Keiichi's faith

Rel1.2

By Pizzigri

Fifth chapter up. It took a long time, and I apologize. I'm head over heels in a full time freelance (and underpaid) job that, coupled with two hyperactive kids and a hyper bossy wife, really manage to annihilate any free time I may have to write this…

I appreciate your support and… reviews, please let me know what you think of my story, comments, suggestions, anything. Some OOCness may ensue.

OC, functional to the story, are mine and, actually also © 1220 A.D. by Snorri Sturluson. No copyright infringement intended!

…

Emerging from the mists of interdimensional transfer, Vali expected to find himself in Nifelheim; surely, to be arrested, punished and/or tortured, maybe declassed and possibly sealed in a limbo for a few centuries if not millennia.

His surprise is absolute as the Demon tries to adapt to the sudden harshness of the unknown and lifeless environment in which they materialize: a barren and bone dry land littered with sharp and twisted rocks and reddish sand, an angry purple sky shading into dirty brownish red without a sun, but somehow fiercely illuminated, not a cloud in sight and totally devoid of wind or movement. The silence is almost deafening, in this sterile and dead world.

Confused, the Demon turns to face his Queen.

"Ops… It seems I've taken the wrong turn at the last dimensional intersection. Oh, well. Since we're here, all alone and by ourselves…", Hild sweetly recites, a mocking and taunting tone in her sexy voice, her hand shyly in front of her smirking mouth.

She crosses Her arms to reach over her shoulders to unfasten the main latches of her dress, which falls to the ground sliding over her bare, dark skin as if it was made of liquid lead, pooling as a gleaming puddle of black liquid at her feet.

Vali doesn't believe his own senses: the Queen of Nifelheim is totally naked before him!

The initial excitement dies instantly, though, as the wrongness of the situation hits him.

His eyes are attracted to the Seax that magically materializes in Hild's hand.

Hild giggles, noting Vali's uneasiness.

"Is this what you're worrying about?"

She holds the Seax in front of Her, and vaporizes it in an instant, sparks flying around her body.

"There. All better, right?"

Hild opens her arms to Vali, exposing herself completely, inviting him to embrace her.

The Demon steps back, fear flooding his very being, slowly shaking his head, finally understanding.

The Queen of Nifelheim cutely pouts, crossing her arms under her bare breast.

"You're no fun. At least, your very last moments could have been in the arms of the most beautiful woman in Nifelheim… lesser Demons have died for this honor…"

Vali feels trapped and desperately tries to find an escape route, but teleporting seems inhibited; the Demon turns around, running a couple of steps, then spins aimlessly on himself, terrorized, his eyes darting in every direction and finally resting again towards Hild, but unable to endure Her glare. Visibly shaking, he manages to speak.

"My Queen, W… why? You defended me on Midgard… You accepted my claim for Rightful Vengeance! I… I thought…"

Hild casually waves her fingers, and Vali freezes on the spot, becoming a living statue.

She walks up to him, and stares right in his eyes.

"Yes indeed, I did. I surely am not cross with you for what you've done to the little Goddess… that's to be commended, actually", she purrs, an incredibly white fang appearing between her sensuously parted lips.

Hild closes in, invading Vali's personal space, and, hovering a couple of feet above the ground, slightly bows her head to sniff his auburn hair, closing for an instant her eyes in glee, allowing her impressive breasts to wave in front of his face. Her hand reaches behind his neck, gently petting his red mane.

"Oh, no. I'm a bit… displeased because you've acted disrespectfully and recklessly to my blood. By attacking Sinthgunt, it is as if you've knowingly and directly attacked my own beloved Daughter Urd. "

Hild then gently caresses his normally handsome face, now locked in a twisted mask of pain.

"Oh, my. Sorry, I forgot you cannot reply."

She lightly passes a finger over his lips.

"There, that better?"

"Unbinded D-Doublet… U-Urd was… never in danger… I…" his voice comes out choked and with great effort.

"Mmh? Sure, the SysAdmin did tell me a couple millennia after my baby became a Goddess, that Sinthgunt and Urd's Doublet link shattered… Wonder how did that happen", her lips curl up as her right index finger taps her lips, and she lets out an almost mischievous but incredibly innocent sounding giggle, "…but that's really secondary. Let me ask you this, Vali: what is keeping Ragnarok from happening? How are we, Demons and Gods, former brothers and sisters and now ultimate enemies, able to refrain from destroying each other in reckless abandon in the Final War before Rebirth?"

"The… Doublet Hostage System?"

Hild smiles and waves her hand. Vali mutely screams and shivers as every single cell of his material body feels mercilessly crushed, and black blood start running from his nose, ears and mouth, falling over his white robes, sullying the cloth with long tarry streaks.

The Ruler of Nifelheim arches her back, almost as if jolted by a spark of electricity, in ecstasy with her hands on her breast and loin, reveling and savoring the delicious tastes of Vali's exquisite pain, agony and fear. Then, she violently rips his tunic away, fully exposing his well toned and unquestionably beautiful body. Closing in, Hild bends on her knees and, tilting her head slightly, licks some of the dark fluid off his lips, then whispers to his ear.

"Allow me to tell you a secret."

Hild's skin visibly darkens weaving swirling patterns, from bronze progressively turning an ebony black, the contrast between the blindingly white of her hair and teeth to her skin now dramatic.

"There's less than five percent of all Gods and Demons really binded in a Doublet… Sure, it's the top five percent, with all the first and second class beings and a few more, but the truth is… Doublet doesn't really work."

Despite the terrifying pain every fiber of his essence is experiencing, Vali's eyes turn wide comprehending the meaning of the revelation.

"At the beginning, every Demon and God was linked. But, when we designed the system, we made a mistake… an original sin, if you pardon my pun. We linked the power to enforce the doublet to the link itself; apparently an elegant solution, to use the power of the surviving doublet being against itself to terminate it, without any external intervention: essentially a suicide. Automatic, immediate, painless and impossible to counter, self inflicted death. Except, it was found out that a minimum power level is needed to enforce the link; meaning that any lesser Demon or Deity below second class simply will not die when his doublet is murdered by a being of the opposite side… because they cannot provide enough power to the mechanism."

Hild circles the Demon slowly, taking in his sculpted forms, her hand sensually gliding along his neck, chest and back.

"You, of course, understand why both me and… Him, wouldn't like this knowledge to be broadcast."

She bites his ear from behind his neck, licking the blood now dripping on his shoulder, then, whispering to his mauled ear. "Of course, because of this flaw Ragnarok will unavoidably and regretfully happen, since Doublet is bound to fall. I am working with the Almighty to delay it as much as possible… and your little stunt with Sinthgunt seriously embarrassed me. See… in Nifelheim… many are already wondering why, in retaliation to that little bitches death, no Demon was reported dying –yet."

"Y-You… Hagall was right… You've turned soft, and…" Vali manages to wheeze out before Hild's hand gently squeezes his throat, digging Her fingernails in his windpipe.

"You've misunderstood… my destiny, as is the Almighty's, is to fall in that battle. Sure, I have no hurry to meet my fate. Although, I admit it pleases me to know that my baby Urdie… WILL survive Ragnarok… to become the tip of the scale, balancing Heaven and Hell and all that, but more important TO ME… ultimately ensuring my blood will not die with me. Oops!"

Hild is again in front of the Demon, and gazes amusingly in his glassy eyes.

"You naughty boy, you! You've managed to cleverly pry out of me all this super-classified information!"

Shaking her head in overly faked sorrow, Hild cups his chin.

"Oh my… Even if I had a doubt before… Now, I really can't let you go knowing all this. See what you've done, now? I mean, if you haven't been so insistent…"

Pulling back to once again look at him in his eyes, she smiles wickedly.

The Ruler of Nifelheim starts to gleam and shine, light glinting off her shoulders and her every curve with a soaked look. A glossy black oily fluid, covering every inch of Hild's naked body gradually flows over her skin, small drops running along her face, neck, over her chest, flanks, hips, down her legs and finally dripping off her hovering feet to fall on the dusty ground, instantly liquefying it, turning the ground to the same tainted and foul liquid, spreading corruption and decay over the planet with a unstoppable ripple, swallowing rocks, boulders and mountains in a black sea in every direction.

"Oohh… you sure know how to turn on a woman, see how you managed to make me… wet myself?"

Only Vali emerges as a living statue in the middle of the flattened and liquefied surface of the planet. A low rumbling, with a subtle vibration fills the harsh atmosphere. This world, unable to withstand Hild's corruption, is collapsing.

She pays no heed to it, and playfully traces her finger on the Demon's bare chest, her fluid corroding and smoldering his skin and leaving a deep wound on his flesh from which pus and dark ichor runs copiously.

"This will hurt me more than it will you… metaphorically, of course. I hope you'll enjoy it, as much as I will - pain is pleasure, after all. But, before I start, I want you to know that I irreversibly tied your essence to this dimension's physical and very mortal manifestation of yourself. So… once this body dies…"

Hild's eyelids flutter in almost uncontrolled lust, licking again her lips in depraved anticipation, unholy fire shimmering in her violet eyes, as all around the two beings darkness falls like a heavy and sinful blanket. The following words are whispered more to herself than for Vali's ears.

"Well, you die."

Giggling, she embraces the frozen Demon, locking her lips to his in a wicked kiss, pressing her bare body against his, grinding her hips against him, her fingernails turning into translucent purple talons, sinking into his flesh… wrapping her legs around Vali's body, in an obscene parody of lovemaking, corroding, plaguing and burning it, as immeasurable, paroxysmal pain consumes his flesh and his mind.

…

Basking in the Radiance of the Light of Creation

Peorth joyfully sings, free in Her unrestrained True Form, her voice harmonically resonating across all dimensions, her essence an ocean of light, of energy, reaching with her cupped hands a tiny blue sphere –Earth- floating before Her in space.

Being nowhere and everywhere simultaneously, She flows across the lands and waters blowing as a raging holy wind, intimately rebuilding the affected portions of this world, molecule by molecule, atom by atom… assembling Divine basecode, knitting together reality… Using the Light of Creation, She reshapes matter and teleports it back into place, restoring buildings, vehicles, vegetation, and above all, Life, returning souls to mortal flesh, reawakening women, men and children wrongfully torn away from their life, and healing everyone in Nekomi touched by Sinthgunt's farewell, rewriting human memories, modifying recordings and data all over the world, in a magnificent symphony of overwhelming Power.

In this state, She can also sense every Celestial being on Earth, Peorth feels the protective cocoons of the Dimensional displacement fields of the Norns, of Mara, Welsper and Hild's fragment, of Lind and of every other high level Deity or Demon maintaining a physical manifestation of themselves on this plane of existence.

In her Ecstasy, she notes there's still something that's missing… a little 'something' modestly affecting the Perfection of her Divine Intervention. Something nagging the small, barely pentadimensional portion of her mind still influenced by… emotion. As she approaches Completion, in a trillionth of a second she discovers the source of the imbalance: a single soul, that she surprisingly finds to be above her reach, beyond her power, outside of Yggdrasil's pipeline, and thus, cannot be restored.

The Deity knows that it was predicted and expected, as Yggdrasil's immediate initial damage assessment did report exactly one soul missing; in the greater scheme of things, one human soul would be totally insignificant. A glitch in the system that can be easily compensated for.

In Her wholehearted Perfection, and following Her premonition, Peorth checks the missing soul's signature.

Suddenly, something that a God in its True Form should not be able to feel, as such Deity should be above emotions and unbound to anything except loyalty to The Almighty, creeps into Peorth's decadimensional mind: panic.

The Deity instantaneously reroutes her power to Awareness, tapping into Omniscience and probing the Infinite for the missing soul.

It should be noted that almost nothing is impossible for the Hand of the Almighty.

But, Peorth finds that the missing soul is indeed beyond Her powers… since access to it has been denied by The Almighty Himself, erecting an impenetrable Wall of Light. Immersed in the infinite Radiance, and infused with Knowledge, Peorth understands and fully comprehends, but as soon as the Dogma is Hers, it fades, leaving the Deity only the awareness that the soul She seeks has irreversibly crossed the Threshold.

It is with supreme pain and desolation that Peorth's last act as His Hand is to force herself to stop the heart of a restored, again fully functioning and clinically "living" body, until now only awaiting the spark of its soul to resurrect, a spark that will never come back.

Her job complete, and knowing she fulfilled His Will, Peorth hesitates. She decides she has one more obligation to accomplish before ascending to Heaven.

An obligation arising from ultimately failing one mortal, that she came to care for as a true friend, and a Goddess, once acknowledged as a rival, and thanks to said mortal, now considered as her kin.

Her heart heavy with sorrow, she streams below towards Earth's surface.

…

Inside a darkened room in the Tariki hongan Temple, Belldandy's eyes snap open. The faint blue halo around herself, her sisters and a small black cat disappear, and she stands slowly up, purposefully, taking a deep breath. The Goddess has a thousand mile stare and wears a neutral expression on her face.

"I believe I felt dear Keiichi's heartbeat…"

Urd and Skuld visibly relax, to tense again as soon as the Norn of the Present finishes the almost whispered sentence, "…but now, his heart stopped beating. I think that… that maybe my Keiichi has passed on. I…"

The Goddess brings her hand to her breast, paling visibly, while her voice breaks.

"…I…"

The Norn of the Present, in a very human display of emotion, sways and brings her hand to her forehead.

"Belldandy!"

Instantly, Urd is up at her side, an arm around her waist, and the other circling her shoulders, drawing the younger Goddess in a comforting embrace, whispering soothing words to her ear.

Urd looks back to Skuld, finding the youngest Norn frozen in midstep.

"Skuld! Hey, come help me!"

Abruptly, the Norn of the Future jumps back in shock, her back against the wall, both hands covering her mouth, staring at her sisters in horror. She suddenly cries, "No! No! A major branch out, a chrono criticality event changed the timeline's worldline loop mechanics, opening it up! C-causality…"

"What? Snap out of it, runt, I've got a situation here!"

Before Skuld can reply, a blinding flash flares above the temple, and a low thunder gently shakes the ground for miles. Welsper jumps away, his fur raised, hissing.

They all turn towards the windows, to the heavenly light shining through, while an invisible wind surrounding the Temple's grounds whirls a flurry of fragrant rose petals.

"Isn't it convenient, for her", Urd exclaims, gritting her teeth, "to show up in her full powered form… now."

The Bronze Goddess momentarily releases her dazed younger sister, and manages to cover a couple of steps before a stream of blindingly bright glowing mist, flowing like a river on every surface, rushes inside to rise and gradually solidify into the ethereal shape of a Being of Light.

A seraphic Goddess appears before them, wearing only a plain Hangaroc of the purest white soft linen over her naked forms, with no jewels or accessories, her bare feet hovering over the tatami floor.

As the Goddess touches the ground and becomes physically tangible, breathing once again, details of her features appear that were invisible before, like the blue diamond sigils on her face, now including a dot in the middle to denote Her status as Unsealed, or the sparkling of her chestnut eyes.

"Yo, Peorth. Nice of you to drop by…", Urd sarcastically starts teasing.

Belldandy gently squeezes Urd's hand, silently stopping her, and takes a step forward.

Peorth steels herself, her lips a tight line with no color, jaw set tight grinding teeth, and bracing, unsure as to what to say, how to address Belldandy, feeling all the Norn's attention focused on herself.

The Goddess bows low to Peorth, her voice wavering, begging.

"Welcome among us, Lady Peorth. Please, tell me that my Keiichi is safe."

"B-Belldandy, ma chère… I… Did what I could, but…"

The obvious implication of Peorth's reply chills Belldandy.

White as a sheet, her eyes shimmering and almost unable to speak, Belldandy feels her chest tighten in a vise of ice, while Urd steadies her, placing her hands on the younger Goddess' shoulders.

"Where… where is he?" The Norn of the Present manages to whisper.

"I… deeply apologize, I am not allowed to reveal that to you, Belldandy. I can only say that he was beyond my reach."

Belldandy politely and very formally bows again to Peorth.

"I understand. Thank you, Lady Peorth."

After a minute of painful and uncomfortable silence, Peorth speaks again, embarrassed by Belldandy's overly formal behavior, the Norn of the Present never again to rise her eyes to face the other Goddess.

"I am sorry, I am not allowed to stay any longer on Earth with no limiters and channeling the Full Power of Creation. I… feel for you, and Keiichi, uh…"

"…"

"But… well. Just hold on, chère… Once you're back, I'll be there for you, in Heaven. And, please don't lose hope."

With that, Peorth becomes incorporeal and flows away as a stream of liquid light, an ocean wave crashing against the room's furniture, washing through the walls and ceiling, seeping up and away to build a crackling and insanely brilliant sphere of energy above the Temple, and finally darting skywards with an immense thunder again echoing for miles, disappearing in the Main Gate to Bilrost.

Urd murmurs to herself, in a voice inaudible by her sisters, "Yeah, hope. That's all we've got."

As soon as Peorth is gone, her face an unreadable mask, Belldandy straightens up, resolutely spins on her heels and, completely ignoring her sisters, walks out of the room and into the corridor, stopping in front of the temple's old fashioned black bakelite telephone.

"I need to speak to Him", she says, in an almost apologizing tone, wiping her eyes with a small napkin.

Both Skuld and Urd nervously look at each other in silence, then quietly follow Belldandy and watch her pick up the receiver, dial an impossibly long number, and woodenly wait for an answer facing the wall.

"H-hello? I… I'm… Yes. I-I apologize. Milady, if only I could talk… No, Milady, I do understand, but… Ah… Yes. T-thank you, Milady."

After a moment that seems an eternity, Belldandy very slowly and deliberately hangs up the receiver, bowing her head.

"Come on, Bell, don't keep us wondering!""

"yeah, Big Sis, what…"

"The Almighty is unreachable. Lady Freyja answered… She told me that He will release His Word to us as soon as He deems appropriate."

Before her stunned sisters, Belldandy slowly covers her face with her hands and finally breaks apart, softly weeping. A very thin drizzle starts pouring outside, and dark clouds rapidly hide the stars.

"Oh. Oh, Keiichi…"

Skuld runs to hug the desperate Goddess, while Urd's mood instantly turns from astonishment to worried concern. She states, matter-of-factly.

"It's logical, considering what happened. The only thing that probably keeps a war between Heaven and Nifelheim from happening is that, somewhere, a Demon must have died from Doublet's enforcement."

Urd's voice changes slightly, a hint of bitterness in her tone, "Bell, even knowing what Kei means to you… hell, what he means to all of us, to everyone else, back home, he was only a mortal human after all. While… Sinthgunt, on the other hand…"

A new, and even deeper, expression of guilt and despair upsets Belldandy's expression, blinking tears out of her cloudy blue eyes.

"For the Love of our Lord, Sinthgunt! How can I possibly be so callous to forget… No! I am nothing but a miserable creature! An evil…"

A mighty slap echoes in the room, and almost immediately, a flash of lightning illuminates the windows, with a low thunderclap following shortly.

Urd looks down to her sister, down on her knees, a hand pressed on her reddened cheek, an astounded look on Belldandy's and Skuld's faces.

"Don't! Don't you dare say it! You… you are… you define what goodness, virtue and honesty are! No, I know about evil, Belldandy. And what I do know about it, is more than enough for all of us. But…"

Clenching her fists, the Norn of the Past growls, "…I'm confused, Belldandy. Your reaction, now and… This… all this grief… my double heritage tells me that family and friends come first! But, it comes from my Demon side, my… evil side, do you understand! While, my Divine side… tells me that I should disregard my feelings for Kei, for you… and rather mourn the passing of a Goddess I barely knew… Damn! This is insane! The Almighty… allows all this! Allows you and Kei to be separated… to suffer…"

The area immediately surrounding Urd darkens visibly, dim sparks arching across her skin, the sigil on her forehead glowing a deep purple. Her following words are laced with ice. "Maybe it's time I pay Him a visit."

"No!"

Startling Skuld, which falls on her butt, Belldandy jumps up and throws herself at her older sister's feet.

"Please, Beloved sister, don't! Maybe… maybe He wants to test me. A-after the Gate of Judgment… I felt… knew it in my heart that He did not fully approve of my decision… so, maybe…"

Urd, positively fuming, retorts, "Come on, Bell, how can you honestly believe this? You've more than enough proved yourselves, Kei more than any other Mortal in human history-"

"Urd, you don't understand! It's my fault!" Belldandy wails, "It's all my fault, because I changed his wish in Nifelheim!"

Urd stares down to her younger sister, kneeling before her, flabbergasted, her anger forgotten.

"W-wha? What are you talking about!"

"I… cancelled his first wish and made him agree on a different one. That is the decision I made I feel Our Lord does not approve of."

The white maned Goddess turns slowly to Skuld, still slumped on the floor, leaning with her back against the telephone table, her knees pulled to her chest.

The youngest Norn shakes her head in reply, and Urd again gazes on Belldandy.

"…It happened when Hagall drained me of almost all my Divine powers and severed Holy Bell's connection with me… I was in shock, had to act to save both of us… I…"

Urd kneels down to hug her younger sister, and with both her hands on Belldandy's shoulders, gently asks her: "Sshh… it's all right, Bell. But, please, tell me. What did you make him wish for?"

"I asked him to unite with me, with the condition that he vowed to face any and all trials with me; and that should this condition not be fulfilled… any contact with me shall be forever prohibited!"

Tears streak the Goddess' cheeks.

"And… and… so, I failed him, leaving him alone, to face my challenge and trial, to face the end of his human life all by himself!… and now… he's…"

"Belldandy, calm down, you can't blame yourself for something like this. Listen to me. The way I interpret your contract, it's the other way round; had Kei refused to face his ordeal, then, he'd be outcast."

Turning away her eyes from Urd, Belldandy stammers, "But… but, he's passed, Urd! He's no more, gone! How…"

"No, Bell! Look at me! Keiichi would've passed on, in any case! In a mere seventy years from today, at best, maybe even sooner, you would have seen him wither away and die! We've just got to do now, what we would have had to do anyway in a near future. New contract or not!"

Belldandy buries her face in Urd's breast, desperately squeezing the older Goddess' waist, muffling her pained screams, her body shaking.

"I'll look for him. His Immortal soul cannot disappear; not like that. Hell, I'll shake loose Heaven and Nifelheim upside down until I find him!"

Both Goddesses find themselves on the floor. Urd gently rocks her younger sister back and forth in her arms, cuddling her, Skuld at her side, reddened and puffy eyes on her young face as well.

Lord the Almighty, she seems so small and fragile. So light and vulnerable, now.

"You know… I… wanted to live by his side… as a woman, Urd! Share his mortal life… walk at his side along his journey, and when his time came, be there, oh, for the love of Our Lord, Urd! I… "

"Sshh, Belldandy… Everything's going to be all right. We'll restore him, in a new physical body. Do you believe in me? Have I ever let you down - when it really counted?"

Despite the moment, all the emotion and her own grief, Skuld actually manages to roll her eyes and huff in disbelief to Urd's words.

Both sisters look at each other, and Urd moves away a disheveled strand of light chestnut hair in front of Belldandy's shimmering and puffy blue eyes.

"Tomorrow morning, as soon as Bilrost reauthorizes the Gates, I'll return to Heaven and I promise you… I swear that I'll fix it. Look, it's late. How about we rest. It's been a hard and rotten day, the worst in at least my last couple hundred years."

She then squeezes her sister and kisses her on her forehead.

"Are you going to be allright?"

Belldandy nods to her older sister, but buries her face again in her bosom.

"Come on Belldandy, let's purify and soak a bit in the Furo."

Urd stands up, gently helping Belldandy up, and motions to a teary Skuld to come closer.

"Hey, Squirt, would you be able to fix up a round of tea for all of us?"

Pushing Belldandy towards the bathroom, Urd turns silently mouthing the words 'be sure to never leave Bell alone' to Skuld, that nods and dries up her eyes, still sniffing.

…

Later in the evening, a much calmer but still lost and immensely sad Belldandy sips her tea together with her sisters sitting around a Chabudai in the Temple's dining room.

For years, since Keiichi and Belldandy came to live here, followed shortly by Urd and Skuld, every evening the dining room would be alive and bustling with laughter, crammed with friends, guests and family, the occasional fight… and happiness.

Not so tonight.

Heavy silence weighs over everyone.

Urd watches Belldandy stare in her half empty cup of tea, a distant expression in her eyes.

Welsper sits, an annoyed frown on his feline face, on top of the couch. The Demon turned cat kept an extremely low profile since Sinthgunt's death, speaking in monosyllables and generally just staying out of the way.

Feeling that the silence can only increase the depression hanging in the room, Urd tries to console her younger sister.

"Belldandy… we will find him. He'll be back, and everything will be as it was. We will have a good time all over again, and have fun…"

Skuld, for once, takes the hint, and follows up some conversation.

"Yes, big sis, we will restore his body and we'll have lots of fun. I can't believe how many things have happened since I came on Earth."

"Hey, do you remember when Keiichi turned into a girl, messing with my potions, because he believed Belldandy was sick… that time, he managed to call Heaven all by himself, too."

"Goodness that was fun!"

"Yeah, Skuld! Hell, Kei was amazing as a girl –well half girl actually -, he had a quite a rack that time! I've actually rolled on the floor when you 'girls' all played dress up…"

"Had to think about that, always a pervert, eh, Urd… Hey, it was about the time that asshole of your boyfriend happened by."

"Troubadour's no boyfriend of mine! The dork completely lost every last ounce of respect I had for him, way before he showed up here…"

"Oh, sure. You even cried for him."

"Hey. I was only moved by his song. Not by him! There's a BIG difference!"

"Sure, if you say so."

Urd ignores Skuld's teasing and turns again to Belldandy.

"Bell, do you remember Keiichi helping a Shinnentai reach heaven? It was when we went in vacation with the Auto Club at the Honda Lodge… what was her name? Chieko…"

The Norn of the present finally raises her eyes and a pale smile graces her features.

"I remember, Urd. Keiichi had been so generous…"

"Yeah, and how about when you tricked Keiichi and Belldandy into promising undying love for each other under the moon on top of the -jeez!– 'three sisters rock?' My, what a lame name… and it was all bull too! Anyone could see that!"

"Ha, squirt! And who jumped right between them when Kei proposed? Who believed every word? Who actually had a crush for Kei afterwards? Ha? Ha? HA!"

"It's not funny. I was just growing into my powers! And emotionally unstable!"

"Sure. Just like when Peorth put one of my love pills in his drink, and everyone that he stared in their eyes just fell in love with him. Megumi, YOU again, Squirt…"

"You fell in your own trap too, you mature bimbo!"

"Nowwaitamminnute…"

Carefully resting the cup on the table, the Norn of the Present intensely stares at her playfully bickering sisters, and in a very quiet voice, says: "Dearest sisters, I love both of you. I don't know what would be of me without you… thank you."

Belldandy's heartfelt words bring tears to the other Goddesses.

Beaming, Skuld answers, "We will always be here for you, Belldandy! Right, Urd?", and proceeds to nudge hard Urd in the ribs with her elbow, spilling a bit of Sake from the oldest Norn's tea cup.

"Ah… of course, Squi- Hey! That's my line!"

Urd manages to kick Skuld under the Chabudai, a feat all in itself.

"Ouch! Whatchayadiddatfor!"

"Just to be even, Squirt!"

"Stop calling me that, old hag!"

Belldandy watches her sisters exchange names and giggles, although the smile doesn't quite reach her eyes.

…

By midnight, Belldandy sleeps in her room, slowly recharging her energies. It would not be necessary with her fully intact Yggdrasil Permalink, but it allows her to meditate.

Skuld and Urd both are engaged in their preferred activities, that is, Skuld eating pounds upon pounds of ice cream and building a Soul tracking Device, which her older sister undoubtedly thinks will be absolutely useless, while said sister vegetates, sprawled half naked on the couch in front of a black-and-white Mexican soap opera dubbed - out of sync - in Croatian with Finnish subs on some obscure satellite TV channel, sipping gallons of cheap Sake.

Urd suddenly asks Skuld a question that has been bugging her.

"Hey, kid. What were you blabbering about, when Peorth visited? Something along the lines of a chrono criticality which changed the timestream."

"Uh-hu. Well, I was… confused. When Peorth materialized, I felt a shockwave disrupt the timeline, and that surprised and scared me, but now I can't pinpoint the problem any longer. The future is everflowing and always changing, but its main stream has a definite direction. All of a sudden, the direction changed. Something is controlling events, and it is messing with my temporal sense… since yesterday, I feel oddly dizzy at times. I'm really, really worried."

"Hmm, and what about your premonitory dream of Kei's life's end on this plane? The one you told me about before all this mess started."

"I-I cannot remember the dream. I remember having it, I can remember even telling you that I could not disclose the dream to you… but I can remember absolutely nothing about it, as if it never happened, or…"

"…if someone tampered with your memories?"

"No. As I said, I actually feel as if the timestream arbitrarily changed course, and any premonitory information I may have had disappeared because the future just changed for this reality. I see the future. What I saw simply isn't the future any longer."

"Uh-hu."

"That's exactly what it is."

Welsper jumps on the table and sits comfortably in front of the two Goddesses.

"I can feel the chrono altering influence, although I cannot pinpoint the manipulating source; it does not seem to be Demonic in origin, though."

"Are you implying that Heaven, Yggdrasil or even Father may be responsible?"

"No Urd, I am only confirming what Skuld said. I retain much of my temporal sense too, and I can feel it's effects. And I would know whether Nidhogg would be exerting power on this plane, don't you think? I'm still classified as a Demon!"

"So what do you suggest?"

"From what you gals said, and what I felt, something indeed changed the timestream. Now, very few Celestial Beings have the power to pull something like this off, that including Lady Hild, The Almighty, and you acting as full powered Norns – and of course, both Nidhogg and Yggdrasil supercomputers. I can rule out Lady Hild, anyone from Nifelheim and Nidhogg, as I already said."

"The cat is afraid to say that someone in Heaven is doing this," Skuld scoffs.

"No! That's not- I mean… hey, it could be someone else! Someone not tied to the Divine or Demonic realms!"

"Welsper, that is impossible, and you know it."

"Uh…"

"The point is not who did it, but why. It seems that something much bigger than Keiichi's death is going on."

"Urd, you nitwit, a Goddess has died! Murdered, a friggin' full blown, first class GODDESS! Is there something bigger than that? It hasn't happened since the Great War!"

"Skuld, Sinthgunt's flare and Keiichi's passing are obviously related, but there's still something we're missing; otherwise, he would have been restored in Peorth's Divine Intervention."

"Maybe someone fucked up. I mean, the guys up there… you know…" Welsper helpfully suggests.

"Welsper, Gods don't 'fuck up'. That's something the guys down there would do."

"Interesting… Skuld, Welsper's got a point, there… maybe it is that simple. It wouldn't be the first time some accountant made a mistake. One more reason to go investigate tomorrow morning. Listen, guys, I'm quite tired, and I need a bit of trash TV to recharge."

"Yeah, sure, and lots of el cheapo sake to wash it down, hmm?"

"Don't you have a totally useless machine to attend to?"

"Harrumph."

Returning to their activities, both Goddesses silently wait for the rest of the night to pass, none really needing sleep, the illusion only kept up for Keiichi's sake –except for Belldandy's peculiar power recharge method.

…

As the day breaks, Belldandy bustles in the kitchen, mechanically performing her morning routine and cooking a traditional breakfast for everyone. She moves slowly and silently, replaying the last twenty-four hours events over and over in her mind.

Urd and Skuld again find themselves around the Chabudai, with Belldandy kneeling in a seiza with the breakfast's tray, resting it on the table. Belldandy greets Urd in a very formal way.

"Good morning, Older sister. May I ask you if you intend to leave immediately after breakfast?"

"Morning, Bell… yes, I've asked Peorth to grant me an access through the Gate in about thirty minutes, I'm waiting for her authorization. Wouldn't want to sneak in again, besides, we haven't managed to talk about it, but… hmm, well, I've used forbidden magic to be able to bypass Bilrost, and I'm sure that the Combat Division shut down any dimensional shortcut… so I wouldn't be able to sneak in anyway."

"Oh my! Dearest sister, you shouldn't do things like that."

"I was sure you'd do something stupid, you old hag… you could get sealed for something like that, you know", Skuld miffs.

"Hey! Some respect here, kiddo!"

"Hrumph! As if you'd actually deserve it. Every time you do something that makes me believe you've grown up to be mature and responsible as Belldandy, like you did in Nifelheim, you then go out of your way to prove me wrong!"

The white maned Goddess turns to glare her younger sister, her purple eyes actually glowing.

Scowling, Skuld returns the glare, almost headbutting her older sister.

"Urd, Skuld. Please, don't argue", Belldandy quietly interjects.

Huffing, Urd jumps on the couch and switches on the TV.

"Well, still got half an hour to kill…"

The small screen of the TV set comes alive with the image of an anchorman in a news studio.

"…and now, the local news: a live report from Nekomi city, where an impressive blackout caused by a primary power station failure lasting until three AM this morning caused significant property damage, several car accidents and, sadly, loss of human life."

The image switches to a young brunette with a microphone in her left hand and a headset pressed to her right ear, standing in the middle of a road. There's a smoldering black mass behind her, fenced with yellow tape, and with firefighters, police and paramedics busy in the background, while blue, red and yellow lights flashes reflects on the puddles on the ground.

"Yes, Naoto-san, thank you. Yamauchi Akiko here, from the scene of a devastating fire that destroyed completely a whole residential building, killing two young men and lightly wounding six. The fire started approximately at seven PM, an hour after the blackout began, and firefighters ultimately managed to completely douse the flames two AM this morning. The victim's bodies are charred beyond identification, but Chiba Prefectural Police's Coroner has released earlier this morning a statement confirming that the two victims are in fact twin brothers, identified thru a dental records check, as Mr. Takeda Shin and Mr. Takeda Hayato, age 19. Their parents died five years ago in a highway car accident, and both Takeda siblings had moved from Tokio to Nekomi to live under their grandparents legal guardianship since. At the time of the accident, both victims were alone in the house; the cause of the house fire has been still not determined, but investigation is under way, and arson has been not ruled out due to the criminal background of Mr. Takeda Shin."

The severe bust of a plain clothes Police officer appears on the screen, talking in front of waving microphones; kanji subtitles identifying the officer as Hiroshi Toyotomo, Chiba Prefectural Police Inspector.

"We want to believe to a genuine accident due to the blackout; as a matter of fact, an hypothesis citing open flame candles is being credited as the most likely cause. But Mr. Takeda Shin's background cannot be ignored, and a possible Boryokudan involvement is also being currently investigated by the Fourth Criminal Investigation Division."

The image on the screen cuts back to the broadcast's studio.

"Another young man died, probably of heart attack, tonight; Mr. Morisato Keiichi, age 24, has been found by a bus driver this morning, lying next to his parked motorcycle, along a byway of Nekomi's Panoramic Touge, connecting Narashino-shi to Nekomi City."

A mug shot of Keiichi appears on the screen, obviously taken from his driving license.

"Authorities have ruled the passing of Mr. Morisato as totally natural, although a confirmation will be officially released this afternoon after the autopsy. In any case, Mr. Morisato had the time to pull his vehicle off the main road, turn off the engine and dismount before losing consciousness; this may have prevented a possible major accident that could have claimed many more lives, as all public lighting failed in the wake of the blackout, and other cars traveling along the-"

Click.

The old TV set turns off with a small dot of light slowly dying in the center of the CRT. Skuld and Urd turn to Belldandy, her hand still raised with the remote towards the now blank screen.

The Norn of the Present has tears pricking the corner of her sapphire eyes.

"I… I apologize, but… I just realized! How Keiichi's parents, Megumi may be feeling right now. What his friends are feeling! Goodness… If they were watching the morning news… We have to do something about it!"

"Belldandy, we cannot reveal ourselves as Deities."

"But… Urd, their pain, and desperation! We have to do something. I owe them, Urd!"

"Yes. YES! I understand, you are right! But, but we cannot just appear before them, tell them Kei's dead. We cannot appear to know, Bell! Officially, he died of heart attack, on the way back from Whirlwind. Everyone MUST believe it was a natural death. Besides, once we manage to restore him, we need to have some very credible explanation, since we are not going to be able to pull off anything even close to a DI, and…"

A strange electricity seems to permeate the air, and an eerie silence falls over the Temple's grounds. Crickets and birds stop singing, and even the wind totally dies.

"Shucks. I should have known this would happen", Urd exclaims, pinching the bridge of her nose.

As on cue, a lightning bolt falls in the middle of the garden, burning a Divine message on the ground. The three Goddesses scramble outside, and Skuld reads out loud the Almighty's orders.

"My children, you are all to return to Heaven immediately. All and every trace of your existence on the mortal plane must be removed and permanently erased. All and every contract binding you to the mortal plane is forever annulled and void. Such is My Word."

The three Goddesses exchange astounded glances. Round the building's corner, a pair of green feline eyes, spying on the three goddesses, also widen in shock. An instant later, Welsper jumps high in the air, somersaults and disappears in a magic circle.

Skuld starts shivering.

"S-so this is it. We're recalled. We have to erase… oh, no! Sigil and Banpei! I have to… To… E-e-erase them…? And Sentaro… My Sentaro…"

As Skuld falls to her knees, Urd silently clenches her fists so tight her knuckles turn white, astonished at the ruthlessness of the message.

The biggest surprise is Belldandy. The Goddess visibly relax, attempting even a faint smile. Then, determination hardens her features, and steel laces her eyes.

Turning towards her sisters, Belldandy resolutely speaks with the True voice of a Goddess.

"I have chosen my path. Beginning now, I take this matter in my own hands, and will pursue my mission to the fullest extent of my powers. But, dearest sisters, I cannot do it alone. Are you with me?"

Her hand reaches her left earring, and starts unclasping it.

…

A/N

Wow, this is LONG. I didn't mean to make this long, but it could not be helped, as I wanted it to end like this; but, many things happen in between…

I believe it is common knowledge that if a Demon kills a Demon, his Divine doublet does not die, and vice versa. The Doublet is only enforced when a God kills a Demon or vice versa. In Canon, this is not clear, since Welsper actually tries to stop time since he may die- taking Belldandy with him. For the purpose of this FF, I assume it is as previously stated.

I hope my depiction of Hild isn't too disturbing. Although I like her character a LOT, I still feel that to be the Queen of Hell, uhm… you've gotta be evil, somewhat…