A small warning to all those who like their Ah! Megamisama fanfics 
cute & fluffy.
You may not like the end of this chapter... :) :)

Dave Row



Chapter 8

As I looked around, I saw signs of preparation but no food. My stomach 
grumbled slightly, a mundane reaction reminding me that it was a long 
time since I'd eaten.

"What are we doing about eating, Urd?"

"Belldandy said she'd be bringing some takeaway with them, she didn't 
want to waste time cooking when she got home."

I nodded, thankful that at least Belldandy hadn't asked Urd to cook. 
While her culinary skills weren't quite in the major Chemical Warfare 
area as Akane's, I recalled they were still nothing to try without 
health insurance. And I didn't know if Skuld could cook anything but 
icecream...

Hearing the sound of a motorcycle, I looked out the window. I could only 
just make it out, it was pretty dark out, and rain was coming down 
steadily, whipped about by a wind that was obviously freshening. A dark 
and stormy night indeed. How appropriate... I didn't envy them having to 
drive home in this, it looked foul and getting worse all the time.

Skuld must have heard the noise too, because as the noise of the machine 
died away she wandered in from her room, hands full of printout which 
she sat down with, making notes in the margins.  

I waited as the front door slid open. I hoped my presence here wouldn't
upset Keiichi, after all this was his home, and I was hardly an uninvited
guest. While the goddesses were being far friendlier to me now, he might
not feel the same way.

I stood up as Keiichi and Belldandy entered. Urd looked up from her seat 
by the TV, half waving, while Skuld just looked up long enough to smile 
at Belldandy and scowl at Keiichi before burying herself in her work 
again. Keiichi just looked slightly amused at the look she gave me, I 
guess he was used to it by now.

Belldandy spoke first.
"Good evening everyone. I hope you are all hungry, we have food with 
us."

I smiled, and nodded assent, still looking at Keiichi. Despite the 
manga, I was still surprised to see how short he was. The goddesses 
weren't that tall, but the sense of _presence_ they gave out made their 
physical size irrelevant; you just didn't think about it. And I'm a 
couple of inches taller than the average Japanese, it made the 
comparison quite noticeable.

He looked like a nice enough kid. I had difficulty believing him old 
enough to be in University, but I guess that was partly his size again. 
He grinned wryly as he looked up at me, almost as if to say 'gee, 
another visitor who's bigger than me...!', but bowed politely to me, 
then offered me his hand.

"Ah, you must be David? Belldandy told me about what hapenned on the way 
here"

I smiled in relief; I didn't want to have to go through my story again 
so soon.

"Thanks. I'm sorry to intrude in your home, but... I didn't have much 
choice in the matter!"

He grinned, and looked first at Urd, then at Skuld, not saying anything, 
then at me..
"Don't worry, I'm used to that! And it makes a nice change to have 
another man to talk to..."
He was at least polite enough not to mention how my recently-aquired 
Japanese probably sounded to him.

I grinned, ignoring the half-amused look Urd gave his statement, and the 
fact that Skuld was sticking her tongue out at him where her elder 
sister couldn't see her.

Belldandy coughed, still smiling, as she put down the bag she was 
carrying.

"Please, everyone, sit down while I put out the food, then we can talk 
about what has been hapenning while we eat".

I couldn't help noticing the side look Keiichi gave her after she'd said 
that. It made me wonder if she usually insisted on quiet meals, and if I 
was right it reinforced how serious things wore. The relatively quite 
afternoon had lulled me a little, despite the strange surroundings. Or 
maybe I was still having difficulty taking this all as real.

Anyway, we eventually got things put down and started to eat, Belldandy 
quietly bringing us up to date with events at the Tech.

"So, it's been one thing after another. Poor Keiichi seems to be 
accident-prone this afternoon, first some scaffolding nearly fell on 
him, then a car skidded and nearly hit him. If I hadn't been there... 
well, in the end I just had to stay with him and come home with him, I 
didn't feel I could leave him..."

Keiichi looked a bit uncomfortable as she described saving him, I 
suppose he didn't really like her looking after him that closely, since 
nothing had actually happened to him, but he took it in pretty good 
part, especially for a Japanese male. I looked thoughtful. There was 
something here that I couldn't quite put my finger on, but I had a 
slowly growing suspicion about events. I didn't want to say anything 
yet, though, I'd probably just make myself look foolish in front of 
these people. I wish now I'd spoken up...

Urd and Skuld had been surprisingly quiet while belldandy was talking. I 
don't think it was the meal, something in their expressions said 
otherwise. Urd kept looking thoughtful, her finger tapping slowly 
against the edge of the table until she noticed she was doing so and 
stopped. Skuld alternated between giving Keiichi dirty looks, her notes 
and attending to what Belldandy was saying.

"Anyway, sisters, what progress have you made while I was away?"

Urd and Skuld both looked a bit guilty.

"Well, actually, not much. We really needed you."

Skuld nodded.
"I got a lot of information off the system, but... it's confused. Look, 
it doesn't indicate ANYTHING about Dave's appearance here, and it should 
do!! And I didn't get anything useful from the help desk, as usual!

Belldandy frowned, her glance flicking for a moment at Keiichi, who was 
sitting there looking interested, and then obviously deciding that she 
couldn't keep hiding everything from him, especially with me sitting 
there opposite him.

"That's very odd. There should be something about it! Maybe if I tried?"

Skuld nodded, and Urd just shrugged. I dragged my thoughts back from 
that momentary destraction, as Belldandy walked over to the phone, 
dialing what seemed to me to be a ridiculously long series of numbers.
Finally finishing, she put the receiver to her ear, the looked puzzled.

"I can't get through...??"

her sisters looked at her, their faces equally puzzled.
Frowning, she put the phone down and tried again, with the same result. 
This time she looked really upset, and her sisters didn't look any 
happier. I looked at Keiichi, who looked back, shrugging slightly. He 
obviously didn't understand any more than I what was giving them so much 
concern

"But... its the direct number, it CAN'T be blocked!!"

Something made me jerk abruptly. I looked around, but I couldn't see 
anything. I thought it was just one of those sudden muscle jerks you get 
occasionally, but then I started to hear an odd humming. It seemed to be 
in my ear, like that ringing noise that doesn't appear to come from 
anywhere, but it definitely wasn't that. I looked around, not really 
worried, just confused, but no-one else seemed to be hearing anything.

I tapped my ear, but the ringing, whining noise continued, getting 
louder as it developed a grating edge to it. I looked up, feeling 
suddenly dizzy as I moved my head, the sound getting louder, and a faint 
spray of coloured pinpoints of light spraying across my vision, leaving 
me feeling sick and weak. Even as I opened my mouth to say something, I 
was interrupted by a scream from Belldandy!

Involuntarily, I turned to look at her, as did the others - all except 
Keiichi. She was pointing at him, or more accurately at his feet. He 
looked down, looking completely confused, and seemed as startled at the 
rest of us as a rippling black pool of light spread from under his feet, 
until it was about a metre across. 

He only yelled in surprised as the shadow suddenly seemed to act like 
the inky pool it looked like, as he slowly slid down into it like 
someone sinking into soft treacle, his passage not raising a ripple on 
the surface.

Belldandy screamed again, running for him, her arm reached out to grab 
his, but too late. The tips of her fingers just touched his as with a 
despairing look on his face he vanished, the pool spiraling inward and 
vanishing with him as soon as he had been, well, consumed by it. Skuld 
and Urd seemed as surprised as Belldandy, both just staring at the floor 
where Keiichi had been. 
The most frightening thing about it, though, had been the way Keiichi 
had looked down as his legs vanished, and the terrified expression of 
horror that had crossed his face then, as if he was seeing something 
through the blackness that the rest of us couldn't witness.

I started to leap to my feet, my nausea forgotten in the sheer surprise 
of the event, but as I did so I felt my body start to tilt sideways, not 
under my control as the humming in my head got much louder and my vision 
blacked out for a moment...

I started thinking again as I felt myself being helped into a chair by 
Urd, her arm supporting me. I clutched it as I sat down hard, a moment 
of disorientation making my head swim as I recovered my faculties.

"You fainted."

I looked up at Urd, focusing on her after a little difficulty.

"That's crazy, why on earth should I faint?"

She looked at me, frowning. Behind her, Belldandy was looking more 
upset, Skuld holding her hands as she tried to comfort her.

"I don't know. Do you make a habit of it?"

I shook my head.

She bit her lip slightly, still staring at me, the gestured at me to be 
still, as she started making a slow series of gestures in front of me. A 
gentle glow grew in the air about us, then finally a very faint, 
flickering line of fuzzy light came into view, leaving me and vanishing 
downward through the floor.

Urd nodded, almost abruptly, as though satisfied but wishing she wasn't, 
and folded her arms, starting at me. I began to hope I wasn't guilty of 
anything, she didn't look happy and I was suddenly absolutely certain 
that she wasn't playing around any more.

"There was no physical reason why you fainted."

I looked back.
"Then if it wasn't physical...?"

"Someone drained you, used your power. It was the strain of being 
drained that made you faint, it overloaded your system, rather as if 
you'd overexerted yourself physically. Your body reacted by fainting in 
an attempt to stop you doing more damage by continuing the drain. The 
problem with you is unusual, you see; normally you can't use too much 
power, because your pool runs out and you collapse before you 
permanently hurt yourself, but your pool is so big trying to use too 
much will burn out your system."

I gulped, something making me shiver suddenly, thankful that at least 
she'd put it in terms I could understand. Great, one more thing to worry 
about, turning into a human candle if too much of that damned power was 
used too fast...

"Then... was this why I was brought here? To have my power stolen like 
this?"

She nodded.
"It seems reasonable. There are some things that can be done with a 
mortals power that are difficult or inconvenient even for gods..."

I blinked at that!
"But... surely gods have far more power than we do? They're GODS, after 
all!!

"Yes, of course we do. But a god's powers suffer from certain... 
restrictions... and constraints. A mortal's doesn't, so... it looks like 
whatever the entity behind this is, he doesn't want us to find out who 
he is. By using your power, he not only gets around any restrictions on 
him, but he doesn't leave a power signature we can trace and analyse. Of 
course, we still don't know if it's a god or demon, or even a human. But 
I think we'd better assume the worst."

I considered for a moment asking her just what WAS the worst assumption 
we were supposed to make, as if what had happened so far wasn't bad 
enough, but decided not to. I was feeling bad enough already, even the 
fascinating insight from Urd that mortals could apparently do some 
things the Gods found difficult failing to lift my depression.

"Urd, Skuld"
Belldandy's voice was as cold as ice, and when I looked at her I 
shivered at the frozen calm of her face.

"I need to know where Keiichi is. And why whatever took him did so with 
no warning, so that I can't tell where he's been taken to. I intend to 
find out now. Follow me"

She headed out to Skulds room. Such was her tone that I followed along, 
her voice had given no alternative to doing so, even if I hadn't been 
curious; the brief, stacatto phrases, so different from her normal speech
pattern making me feel she was taking this far worse than her calm
exterior suggested.

She stopped in from of Skulds terminal, flicking it on. Without looking 
around, she rapidly typed in something, then spoke. Although I was 
standing only a few feet away, and she didn't seem to be whispering, I 
couldn't hear a word. But the screen cleared with something about 
'Access level requires confirmation'. I guess no-one was foolish enough 
not to put security on a machine linked into Yggdrasil... And it seemed 
that whatever was blocking their telephone line either hadn't thought of 
this one, or couldn't block it as well.

Still not looking around, she spoke in that same flat, icy, commanding 
voice.

"Urd, Skuld. Input your authorisation passwords."

The two looked at one another, then Urd shrugged very slightly, and they 
both repeated her actions. Finally the screen did some impressive 
warning displays, then settled down.

"Oneesama? Would you like me to help, I think I can get at the files 
fastest?"

It looked like Skuld didn't want her sister at the computer, and in view 
of the way she was acting I agreed wholeheartedly, not that anyone was 
asking my opinion about things right now. Belldandy clenched her fist, 
the reluctantly gave way to Skuld, who immediately scooted into the 
chair and began to type. Looking at Belldandy, I realised she really did 
feel about Keiichi as strongly as my 'foreknowledge' from the manga 
implied. 

 
We all clustered around Skuld, looking at what she was doing with the 
computer. Bits and pieces of code and images flashed across the screen 
as she typed furiously, then finally stabilised into some sort of debug 
window. Skuld drew in her breath in a sharp hiss, and out of the corner 
of my eye I saw Urd's knuckles whiten as she held the top of Skuld's 
chair. Not good news, obviously.

"Oneesama?"

Belldandy started slightly. Even during all this activity, I guessed her 
thoughts had still been with Keiichi, and what might be happening to 
him.

"I... I'm sorry, Skuld.. what is it?"

Skuld pointed at a section of code, her fingernail tapping the glass, 
her expression a mix of admiration and disgust.

"There! Someone's got a virus into Yggdrasil...!! That's why we haven't 
been getting sensible answers, its in there deliberately to stop us 
finding out what's been going on!"

Belldandy looked shocked. I'd have been more worried if I'd had time to 
think through the implications, this was after all the universes 
operating system someone had been messing about with. 

"But how...??"

Skuld scowled, looking as if she really wanted a few minutes with the 
person responsible, for her and her hammer to 'discuss' the matter with 
them.

"You remember that recent 'upgrade' Kami-sama authorised? The Ygg-NT 4.0 
one, to improve the systems interface? The distribution media was 
deliberately corrupted, so when they loaded it in it had this code 
underneath it. And the upgrade problems helped hide the fact it was 
there and working until too late"

Urd looked across at her sisters, clearly worried by Belldandy's unusual 
disability to confront the current problem.

"Belldandy? We must find out what has been done. If nothing else, it 
will help us to find what happened to Keiichi, this is bound to be 
connected."

I was impressed by the quick thinking. Even if Keiichi's disappearing 
had nothing to do with this, her connection of the two together probably 
meant we'd have Belldandy fully committed to helping sort out the 
problem. 

Belldandy nodded, her lips compressed to a thin line. I didn't envy the 
people who'd taken Keiichi when she caught up with them.

Urd tapped Skuld on the shoulder.
"Let Belldandy at the machine, Skuld. I think she'd be the best one to 
start investigating."

Skuld looked up, by her expression she was obviously about to disagree 
violently with Urd at the idea of giving up that job, even to Belldandy, 
but as soon as she saw Urd's face she bit her lip, and got up without 
further commentary, offering Belldandy her seat. Belldandy gave a quick, 
almost rude nod of acknowledgment, and sat down, starting to work 
straight away. She seemed to be transferring all her worry about Keiichi 
into her attempts to make sense out of what had been done, staring at 
the screen with a fierce concentration that bordered on a glare as she 
typed rapidly.

I looked at Urd in question, as did Skuld. With a silent jerk of her 
head she motioned us away from Belldandy, over to the corner. Skuld 
still wasn't looking too happy about being dragged away from the 
computer, and kept giving little glances over her shoulder at her sister 
even as she joined us.

"Well, Urd?"

Urd wasn't looking at all happy. She looked over at Belldandy for a 
moment, her eyes sad as she looked at the activity, then turned to us.

"I don't think she's going to find Keiichi that way. Not in time, 
anyway."

"Not in time? You think something's happened to him, Urd?"

Urd nodded slowly.
"I'm certain of it. I think there's a link between it and David here 
fainting earlier. Someone used his power, then, and I'm sure that it's 
the same somebody who took Keiichi. And I AM certain that power was put 
to no good use. Skuld, I know you don't like Keiichi, but I may need 
your help. Belldandy isn't thinking straight right now, and with her 
link to him probably all screwed up by that virus, I think it's best for 
us to look for him."

Skuld screwed up her face.
"It isn't that I don't like him, Urd. It's just that he takes so much 
from oneesama."

She looked back over her shoulder at Belldandy, who was still working 
with an almost fanatical concentration. We were all talking in whispers, 
I don't know why, since I suspected we could have hit Belldandy with 
Skuld's hammer right now without disturbing her, but habits are hard to 
break.

"I'd much rather oneesama left him and came back to heaven with us. 
But...he's OK, for a mortal. I wouldn't want anything to happen to 
him..."

Urd smiled a little, patting her youngest sister on the shoulder.

"OK, then here's my plan...
We are going to trace David's power. It must be around here somewhere, 
and the nearer it was the easier it would have been for them, so we'll 
search around till we find some traces, then track it. When we find who 
did it, then we can call Belldandy in to help."

She turned to me.
"David, you stay here with Belldandy, OK? You should be safe here..."

I looked at her, brows furrowed..
"Uhh, Urd? Why do you need to look for where the energy went when your 
spell showed a trail leading from me? Can't you follow that?"

I didn't realise what a bombshell I'd dropped till I looked at their 
faces.

"You mean you can see it!! What did you see!!"
Urd grabbed my shoulders, almost shaking me as she whispered fiercely at 
me.

"Hey, take it easy! When you cast that spell, I saw a faint line of 
light leading away from me. Would that be the energy that was stolen?" 

Urd nodded grimly.
"I don't see how it can have been anything else. Can you still see it?"

I looked at her, then tried to recall what the thing had looked like. I 
couldn't SEE anything, but..

"I can't see anything, Urd...but... I can, well, feel a sort of pull? 
Well, not exactly that, but its sort of like that."

She nodded. I was glad my explanation seemed to make more sense to her 
that it did to me!

Skuld almost bounced with excitement.
"Hey, if he can follow it we can find them right now! Let's take 
oneesama and go find Keiichi!!"

Urd grabbed her little sisters arm.
"Don't be silly, don't you realise it may be a trap? They could have 
left this deliberately to lead us to them..."

Skuld's face fell. I guess it wasn't something that had occurred to her. 
It had to me, and I didn't like it one bit.

"Urd, whoever is doing this, this is the first time they've left their 
tracks uncovered. Either it's a trap, or they don't care any more..."

She startled me by grinned at me.

"Well, it may be a trap, but catching us and dealing with the two of us 
are quite different matters!!"

I gulped, and braced myself.
"Three of us, not two, Urd."

Urd looked at me in surprise, and Skuld dug me in the ribs, hard!
"What do you mean, three! You can't come, you're only a mortal! You'd be 
an encumbrance, just like Keiichi always is!"

I sighed.
"Skuld, Urd, I don't WANT to go with you. The truth is, I'm scared 
stiff, I don't want to mess with anything that powerful and presumably 
that nasty. But we don't have any choice, I'm the only one who can feel 
where they are."

"Are you certain? It could be very dangerous"

I nodded, hoping the sick feeling in my stomach would go away.
"I HAVE to. Not only am I the only one who can trace the power, but its 
all my fault anyway. If it wasn't for me this wouldn't have happened."

Urd looked at me grimly; for a moment I thought she'd stop me coming 
anyway. Part of me was hoping she would, I was getting a really bad 
feeling. Then she nodded, slowly, and made a gesture with her hand; a 
thick coat appeared over it. She tossed it at me.

"Better put this on, its cold outside and I don't think we'll find them 
in the kitchen!" 

************************************************************************

A little while later, I was beginning to regret my chivalrous impulse. 
We'd gone over the temple, the feeling I was 'following' not being very 
accurate, and Skuld was already muttering darkly about all the 
backtracking we had done. Urd wasn't saying anything, which surprised 
me. And worried me. We'd left Belldandy hacking away on the terminal, 
her concentration such she'd barely acknowledged us leaving.

Eventually we found ourselves in a space underneath the main level, in 
what was a basement area of some sort; I never did find out what it was 
for.

I hunched into my borrowed coat. The cold was beginning to get to me, a 
nasty, damp sort of coldness that seemed to burrow its way down into my 
bones, making me wish to be sitting cuddled up to a hot fire. 

I looked down to my side. Skuld was looking uncomfortable, her hands 
clutching her hammer, sliding nervously up and down the shaft. While she 
didn't seem to be suffering from the cold like I was, she didn't seem 
any happier. I began to worry more; if goddesses could get seriously 
worried about what was going on, what the hell was I doing here?

The oppressive silence was broken by Urd drawing in her breath sharply. 
She looked at what looked to me like an ordinary blank wall, her eyes 
narrowed in concentration, then made a peculiar gesture with her right 
hand. The wall slowly... unfolded, I guess you'd call it... the wood 
sliding and opening away to leave a dark, downward-leading passageway. I 
coughed as a gust of cold, fetid air rose from it, and shivered again.

Urd looked back at the two of us. 
"You don't have to come in, I can manage this on my own...

I shook my head.
"Urd, I don't WANT to go in there. But...something is down there, I can 
feel it!

She looked closely at me, then nodded once, abruptly.
"Skuld?"

Skuld just looked up at her eldest sister, and nodded, hand clutching 
her hammer tightly.

Sighing, Urd summoned a pale flickering flame to her hand. It hovered 
gently just above her palm, the soft foxfire leaving writhing, twisting 
shadows on the wall behind us. I hoped that wasn't a portent of what was 
to come...

Slowly, we descended into the darkness of the passage. A faint breath of 
air brushed past us as we did; if it hadn't been for the dank, fetid 
smell of it I would have been glad of it's warmth. The walls of the 
passage were freezing, runnels of faintly glowing greenish slime frozen 
in the act of dripping downwards, their crepuscular light lighting the 
passage without illuminating it. I looked about me and shivered, not 
necessarily from the cold.

"Urd? I didn't know there were passages under the temple? What's it here 
for, where does it lead??"

She stopped for a moment, looking back at me, eyes hooded, face lit 
eerily from beneath by the light in her hand.

"There aren't any passages under the temple."

I gulped. Oh. Silly me.

We walked slowly forward deeper into the darkness, as the passageway 
finally ended, Urd's light slowly revealing a closed wooden door.

Normally I don't mind the dark at all, and certainly I don't find it 
scary.
This time was very different, though.
The air felt greasy, somehow, as if something unclean and very, very 
unpleasant had been here - the equivalent of a slug's track on the 
grass.
Faintly I could smell the aroma of something burnt, or burning. It was 
like a combination of old ashes and burnt meat. I began to dread what we 
were going to find past this doorway.

We all stopped, none of us wanting to be the first one to open that 
portal, and exchanged glances.

Urd spoke first.
"Skuld, I don't think you should go in..."

Skuld scowled, her annoyance for the moment overpowering her queasiness.
"If you and he can go in, so can I! He's only a mortal, I can go 
anywhere he can!"

Urd sighed slowly, and looked much older. This time she didn't seem keen 
on fighting her younger sister.

It was as if she already had an idea what was beyond the door. She was 
the eldest of the Norns, maybe she had.
Looking at us both, she nodded slowly, and then touched the handle. 
Instead of twisting it as I had expected, she drew her breath in 
sharply, making a small disgusted noise.
We both looked at her, curious.
Saying nothing, she held up her hand to us. Sticky crimson liquid 
glisten on the dark skin of her palm.
"Blood. Not too fresh."

I licked my suddenly dry lips.
"Open it, Urd, we have to know what's in there..."

She nodded to me quietly, for once sober and focused, then reached out 
and slowly turned the handle, pushing the door open.
At first, we couldn't see anything but a small puddle of light thrown 
through the doorway by Skuld's torch, which huddled there almost as if 
afraid to venture further inwards and illuminate what was inside. A 
terrible charnel smell wafted to us from the open door. I gagged, and 
nearly lost my last meal. A faint sound, part moan, part chant, part 
faint buzz as of a horde of flies, reached us. It was made more horrible 
by the fact that if you tried to you could almost make out 
understandable words in it.

Urd stepped forward into the room. I was scared of following her, but 
even more afraid of staying where I was, alone. I guess Skuld felt the 
same, because I could feel her body pressing against my back as she 
pressed in close behind me.

I looked into the now-illuminated room, and immediately wished I hadn't. 
Beside me I heard the faint hiss as Urd drew her breath in sharply, her 
face grim and cold as she nodded slowly. Behind, from the noises, Skuld 
was trying not to be sick. Despite her closeness, I didn't even worry 
about that, the sight in front of me was far too horrifically 
compelling.

Stretched out, crucified on a rack, limbs outstretched and tied against 
the top and bottom rails, was a naked body. Blood still ran down slowly, 
making small plopping noises as it fell into the wet pool of ichor 
underneath the rack, but worse was the sight of the open space where the 
abdomen had once been, a void gouged into the eviscerated flesh, a 
gaping hole filled with a terrible burning green phosphorescence, from 
whence came the whispering `tekeli-li' noises we had heard.

The head moved, suddenly, unexpectedly! I jerked, and nearly had a heart 
attack right there. Impossibly the body was still alive. The anguished, 
tortured features turned to face us, the torn, broken lips contorting as 
they tried to frame words past the blood bubbling through them.

We had found Keiichi.

(end of Chapter 8)
(to be continued)