In the Control Room, all is quiet.  Mizu and Boggs seem somewhat
hungover.  Boggs is wearing a Dracula costume.  A trident
leans against the centre couch near Mizu.  

Mizu:  Hello and welcome to the show.  My friend with the
bloodshot eyes is Joe Boggs.  Joe, I don't recall you 
having any of the punch.

Boggs:  I didn't.  But I had some of the girl at the punch 
bowl.  

Mizu:  Our subject tonight is "Future Goddess" a "spamfic"
authored by the noted Ranma-hater Henry J. Cobb.  
As ever, our target was chosen by Cog our brilliant, though 
eccentric alien artificial intelligence, and host, 
through rigorously logical criteria.  And tell us, Cog, what 
were those criteria in this case?

Cog:  The brevity of presentation seemed suitable for analysis
by individuals with impaired attention spans due to the 
ingestion of ethanol based compounds.

Boggs;  Hunh?

Cog:  It was short.  

Henry J. Cobb wrote:

[AMS] "Future Goddess"
By Henry J. Cobb
$Id: future_goddess.txt,v 1.2 1997/11/02 17:02:20 hcobb Exp $

The Ah! Megami-sama! characters and situations are the creation of Kosuke
Fujishima.

No infringement of his copyrights is intended.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

In a Buddhist-style temple near Tokyo, behind a door marked "Skuld's
Room", a goddess sulked.  She sat lotus-style on a mat, with her long
black hair spread out to the mat behind her.

"That jerk!  He's using the leverage of that wish to get Oneesama to marry
him.  And she's such a servant to duty that she's going along.  He's not
at all like our father was.  What was father like?  It was so long ago..."

Her large brown eyes closed as she concentrated on her earliest memories.

Cog:  Perhaps Skuld should invent a device for this purpose.

She remembered laying on the steps down to a garage as she sketched
daddy's motorcycle with her paper and crayons.  She had finally gotten the
last detail right when the door opened behind her.

"There you are princess.  You shouldn't stay in here, you'll catch a
cold."  There was such warmth and concern in daddy's voice.  He really did
care a lot.

"Here daddy, I did it."  She picked up the picture as she stood and held
it in front of herself.

"That's very good Skuld."  There was an unexpected sadness in his voice.

The little goddess looked up into daddy's face...

Back in the present, the teenage goddess fell over onto her back.  She
stared up at the ceiling.  "It, it can't be!"

Mizu morphs into Darth Vader:  (ah-huuh-ah)  Feel it in your
heart, you know it to be true!

Slowly she rose to her feet.  "I've got to stop this!"

"Oneesama!"  Skuld flew into Belldandy's room.  "You have to call off the
wedding!"

"Not again!"  As usual Urd was painfully aware that the term did not apply
to her.

"It's OK.  Urd, Megumi, we can finish this later."  Belldandy put her
wedding dress to the side as the other two women left the room.  "Now,
what is the matter Skuld?"

"Oneesama!"  Skuld hugged Belldandy tightly.  "You can't marry Keiichi!
He's our father!"

Mizu:  So?
Boggs:  Whaddaya mean so?  That's incest!
Mizu:  So was Zeus marrying his sister.  The nice thing
about being divine is you don't have to worry about fatal
recessives.

"Wh-what makes you think that Skuld?"  Belldandy held her sister at arm's
length to study her face.

"I remembered from a long time ago.  Keiichi is our father.  I'm sure of
it!"

"Very well.  Could you please go get Keiichi?  I have something very
important to tell you both."

Skuld opened the door to the garage and stopped.  The scene was exactly
the same as she had remembered.  This temple was the home she had
remembered.  No wonder that it had felt so right when she had moved back
in a few years ago.

"Can I help you with something Skuld?"  Keiichi looked up from his
motorcycle.  He looked exactly like the father she remembered, except he
seemed a little bit younger.

"Belldandy needs to talk to you about the wedding."

Mizu: What?  No lightsabre duel?

"Is there something wrong?"

"Yes."  Skuld couldn't bear to say anything more.

As they walked back to Belldandy's room.  Skuld kept looking up at
Keiichi's face.  He had always treated her so nicely and she had always
treated him like scum.  He'd repaid her insults with ice cream and he'd
always been available to talk.  She had been a dreadful daughter, but no
more.  Now that she knew the truth, she'd show proper respect.  He wasn't
going to be her brother-in-law, but at least now they could become
friends.

Boggs:  Ya know, I kinda wonder why Skuld isn't upset about being
half-human, since she always had a bug up her butt about how humans
ain't good enough for her sister.

"I brought Keiichi."  Skuld was followed by Keiichi into Belldandy's room.

"Good, I have something very important to tell you two."  Belldandy
whispered in the goddess tongue and Skuld felt the full power of a Class-1
goddess focused on putting a shield around the room.  Not even Kamisama
could peek through that without alerting Belldandy.

Mizu:  It's probably too busy watching all those sparrows
falling, anyway.

"Now Skuld, could you tell us what you remembered?"  Belldandy asked her
sister.

"It was a long time ago.  I couldn't have been more than three.  I was
living in this temple with my father.  And he was you Keiichi, except
maybe a few years older.  You're our father Keiichi!"

Keiichi backed up a step, his jaw slack from shock.

"That is not true."  Belldandy quietly announced.

"Is my memory a lie?"  Skuld turned to her sister.

"No, it is correct.  Keiichi is your father, but not mine.  You are not my
sister."

Mizu:  Rather a harsh way to put it.
Bogg:  Ah, she's just buildin' up suspense.

"Oneesama!"  Skuld felt the foundation of everything she had believed in
shift.

"Please come here you two."  Belldandy put an arm around each of them and
guided them to her large travel mirror.  "Skuld, do you see how much you
have in common with your father?  Look at the eyes, the eyebrows, the
nose, the chin, the overall shape of your face.  You look a lot like
Keiichi and very little like your mother."

"Who was my mother Belldandy?  Why don't I remember her?"  Skuld asked the
woman she had thought was her sister.

Boggs:  Three guesses dimbulb!
Skuld appears out of a paper cup, hammer in hand.
Boggs:  No offense?

"I will be your mother."  Belldandy held up the other two as they slumped
in shock.  "Well Keiichi, what do you think of our daughter to be?"

"How, how is this possible?"  Keiichi asked, as he looked over their
reflections.

"When Skuld will be very young, she will be sent back in time so that she
can stay with her mother and be available to help with the trials we have
and will face.  I can tell you no more about the future.  Now Keiichi,

Boggs:  Lessee.  Little "princess" with obnoxious attitude sent back
to her mother's earlier self to be raised without knowing her mother's
true I.D.  ...<urk>

 do

you agree.  Will you marry me?"

Cog:  Refusal is now a null option making this question redundant.

"Belldandy, do-do you truly love me?"  Keiichi asked.

"I do."

"Then I will.  How can I turn down the chance to have such a wonderful
goddess for a wife and another one for a daughter?"

Mizu/Boggs (sing):  Having no choice how it goes
                    Talkin' about predestination!

Cog:  One knew you were going to do that.

"Good, now you two must never tell anybody what you have heard here.  The
risk of paradox is too great."

"Oneesama... How can I call you that anymore mother?"

"How about Belldandy?  I think that has a nice ring to it."

"Yes Belldandy."  Skuld hugged her mother tightly, then reached out an arm
to draw her father into the embrace.

        Henry J. Cobb   hcobb@slip.net          http://www.io.com/~hcobb

Mizu:  This was cute and pleasant.
Boggs:  Yeah, cute. (Looks ill)
Mizu:  It's an interesting idea having the goddess of the future
be as yet unborn.  Rather appropriate.
Cog:  It is, however, rather unlikely that Urd would be unaware
that Skuld is not her sister.  Further, it would mean if Belldandy
was aware that Skuld is her daughter, that Belldandy has been
lieing for years to her own daughter, hardly appropriate behavior
for a Goddess 1st Class.
Mizu:  It might work better if it was Urd who knew, since she does
lie, and it would help explain why Urd was always so hellbent on
getting Belldandy and Keeichi over the sexual hump.
Bogs:  You realise I'm going to have to hurt you for that.
Mizu:  No pun intended.