----- Original Message -----
From: "Brian Randall" <brian@azurite.org>
To: "FFML" <ffml@anifics.com>
Sent: Sunday, August 19, 2001 11:43 AM
Subject: [FFML] [A!MG][Dark] Fate and Destiny: Part One
Fate and Destiny: Part One
Dormio Animus
Disclaimer: The paints (A!MG) are the property of Kousuke Fujishima,
the easel is mine, and that's all.
Notes: It's an alt, as should become apparent shortly, since I've
read most of the U.S. manga, seen some of the OAVs, and not watched the
movie.
------------------------------
"Keiichi?"
He nodded, pulling the blanket further up around his waist as
Belldandy smiled at him gently, placing a tray with a warm pot of tea
and a pair of cups on the floor.
He scooted to one side, making room for her, and she sat near him,
leaving the hall light on, and door ajar, but the main light off.
Blinking away the confusion and fatigue, he tried to focus on her. She
was clearly defined in her bedclothes, with the light behind her, only
turning soft and indistinct where the illumination was not shining on
her... but she was familiar nonetheless. "Thank you, Belldandy... Why
are you awake?"
She shook her head, sitting on his futon neatly, and carefully
pouring a measured cup of tea for Keiichi. "I... had a bad dream. I was
hoping you wouldn't mind..."
Keiichi's heart skipped a beat, and he managed a soft laugh. "Ah, no
problem. What was the dream about?"
Her eyes become distant, staring at a point in the darkened corners
of Keiichi's room as she pressed the warm teacup into his hands. "It
was... something that happened a long time ago, Keiichi. Something that
happened before this incarnation."
He sipped at the tea -- Belldandy's normal excellence easily
apparent when he tasted it -- and put a hand atop hers, his heart
jumping again as he did so. The memory of the last time they had kissed
was clearer in his mind than any half-remembered dream. "Incarnation?"
he asked, driving away the thoughts of kissing. Now was not the time for
that...
She nodded, her eyes fixed on some faraway point. "Yes... My sisters
and I were alive long ago, but we're also fairly young. Before we became
as we are now, we had prior incarnations." She pursed her lips
thoughtfully, parting them to sip absently at her own tea, then set it
on the floor, and shifted her position to face Keiichi. "It's not
important, I suppose... I just like to be with you when something
troubles me." She smiled endearingly, and Keiichi tried to force down
the grin he felt building. She always just knew what to say to make his
worries pass... if only he could do the same for her.
Interesting.. were you perhaps influenced by the Reconfiguration??. :)
He tightened his grip on her hand, leaning towards her seriously.
"Belldandy, if there's ever anything you need, just ask me, okay? If
there's anything I can do..." he trailed off, seeing the way her face
lit up at those words, and she seemed to simply... glow.
One hand went to her lower lip, as though she was half trying to
hide her own smile. "Keiichi," she said warmly. "Thank you. Just you
being there is enough for me..." Keiichi smiled once more, ignoring a
sudden feeling of apprehension. As long as they had each other...
I wonder what would happen if she knew... <shudder>
***
The wind whistled across the empty lot, tossing loose trash and
papers about, but Keiichi's attention was elsewhere. Things were in a
constant state of flux. Something was going to happen.
That much was a given. He'd led an odd life even before Belldandy
had come onto the scene.
It had escalated in oddity as time progressed, with three goddesses
living under the same roof with him, and he didn't really expect it to
stop anytime soon. But behind the constant chaos that he expected to dog
him until his eventual grave, he wanted to take things another step with
Belldandy.
Megumi had spent a long hour some months ago suggesting very plainly
that he needed to 'make a move' on the goddess, lest he lose her... And
that didn't seem to be right, to him. When he seriously considered, it
just... didn't feel right yet. He needed something more, before he could
do that, and it had come to him when he was filing one edge of a washer
in the machine shop earlier that day.
He spent a long minute staring at the washer dumbly before its true
significance hit him.
He wanted to marry Belldandy.
He stumbled to his knees right there in the empty lot, his bike a
few paces away, as the enormity of the thought nearly bowled him over
anew. He wanted to marry her.
Stifling a laugh, he shook his head, staring heavenward. "What am I
thinking?" he asked himself. Could he marry her? Want to, certainly,
but... she was a goddess, and he was just... He cut that line of thought
short. She loved him. He knew, as easily as he could admit to himself,
at least, that he loved her.
But marriage? He'd have to ask her, first... and that was the
stumbling block he hit. Could he? He had lived with her for so long...
what would truly be changed?
He is far more than the ordinary man he thinks he is. :)
But then again,
Have you read the Together Again series by Chris Davies?? Now, that is the
darkest of cross-overs I have ever read... :p
They'd share a single room instead of separate rooms. That
realization made him wonder. Aside from the other intimacies that it
entailed, so little would change... They were already so close. "Yeah,"
he mumbled stumbling to his feet again. "Just gotta ask her."
He shook his head, climbing onto his bicycle, and starting the
engine. But first... he would need a ring. A ring worthy of her, and
that would entail money, which he had precious little of. Perhaps he
could ask Megumi for help or ideas...
A smile grew on his face as he headed towards the temple he shared
with the sisters. An excuse to invite Megumi over should be simple, and
then to ask her a few questions while they were alone... and maybe a
trip with her to pick the ring out...
He snapped his attention to the road as he narrowly missed hitting a
stone barrier, and berated himself. Attention on the road, he could
worry about the ring later.
***
<snip>
"Keiichi?" Megumi smiled inwardly, cradling the receiver against her
ear as she poked at the stove in an attempt to make it function. It was
gas, and she was reasonably sure she understood what it was supposed to
do, but it was not working, and she couldn't cook without it... She
grumbled an obscenity beneath her breath as her hand slipped, and she
scraped her fingers painfully on the edge of the stove.
"Megumi," Keiichi warned over the phone, "this isn't funny. Megumi?
Megumi!"
He distantly heard her voice in the background, as he strained to
make out her words, "... pesky little--" The rest of the speech was cut
off with a decidedly worrisome rushing noise, followed by an increase of
static. Not even pausing to think, he dropped the telephone, running
full tilt towards his bicycle, shouting, "Megumi!"
The goddesses merely had time to blink as he thoughtlessly vaulted
over the table in the front room, sliding across the final tatami mat to
land roughly in his shoes. From there, a precarious leap across the
stairs, and then a quick dash, and he was halfway down the street before
he remembered starting his bike, the sidecar empty beside him.
Heart racing, the streets passed in a blur of confused lights and
faint screeching tire sounds, until he skidded to a sudden halt before
her apartment, thick smoke and flames obscuring the upper levels. He
vaulted from the motorcycle, ignoring a sharp pain in his ankle as he
charged up the stairs, sliding past a startled woman and a pair of
wailing children. "Megumi!" he yelled, shocking himself when he collided
with a badly singed and coughing girl at the top of the landing.
She latched onto him, whimpering, "Keiichi?"
He nodded, gathering her up in his arms and stumbling down the
steps. "Ugh," he said, not thinking about his words as he navigated the
slowly smoke-filling stairwell, "you're heavy!"
She coughed, still clinging to him, wearing an oddly serene smile as
she shook her head. "Thanks... Keiichi..." With that, she seemed to fall
limp, breathing uneasily and coughing slightly, until he had managed to
wrestle her unresisting form into the motorcycle's sidecar. He turned
back to face the building, and it seemed to... shudder... for a moment,
the power of the conflagration suddenly increasing tenfold, making all
of the windows shatter as the fire greedily sucked in more air.
Keiichi shook his head dumbly, hearing the faint keen of approaching
sirens, and deciding that getting Megumi to the temple, and the
goddesses, was the most important thing for the time.
The Alpha and the Omega... it has begun...
Pray tell, who is the Once and Future King here?? :)
I sense another cameo here... :p the Once and Future Queen?? :p
***
<snip>
Unbidden, a memory returned, causing her to shiver. She wouldn't
want to follow up on it without asking Urd, and she couldn't do it
alone... "Oh, no," she whispered softly.
It is beginning. Once it starts... it will never stop... <insert sounds of
ominous thunder and flashes of lightning>
***
Urd drummed her fingers against the table softly. "So..." she began
slowly, thinking of the pair of unconscious Morisatos, and her sleeping
sister. "What do you think?"
Skuld stared at the table before her, thinking. "I think... I can
remember..." she said, concentrating. "But it's too far past. I can't
name him without risking... or the Lady. If we name her..." she fell
silent, scowling at the table.
Unable to help herself, Urd smiled softly. "True enough." The smile
faded quickly. "If it is him, and he is back... what do you think he
would do?"
Skuld scowled, crossing her arms unhappily. "Well," she began
thoughtfully, "he said he would destroy us, somehow... I think it's
obvious. He'll kill the Once and Future King again."
Urd nodded at that. "You're right. It's what he does. We... we need
to check in Yggdrasil to be sure... But that's something that's governed
by... The Lady."
"And him," Skuld chided. "But if he _is_ back, then so is _she_. The
doublet system would make it so."
"But I didn't feel a single trace of his power..."
Destiny and Fate... hmmm
***
She shivered, cold and alone. Abandoned by her sister unfairly in
two incarnations. Abandoned by her master, even as he had willingly
unmade himself. Alone.
The abyss echoed as emptily as it had since he had quit this
reality, when she had fled, tears streaking down her face, hot burning
shame trailing her cheeks as she left the void and came here. And now
she was 'home' again, sulking amongst the ruins of what had been his
palace, along among the demonic spider webs and ancient dust.
Poorly remembered crumbling monuments to victory, heroes destroyed
to spite the foe from her master's eternal conflict.
And unbidden, the tears came again. How cruel, how unfair that all
of the love that Belldandy felt was echoed so hollowly through her, her
partner in the doublet system. She giggled harshly at that. Demons
weren't supposed to know who their partners were, anymore than the gods
and goddesses were. But she knew. The entire thing was too neat and
orderly to be any other way, and once she was aware of it, the link
assaulted her.
non-canon for I have read till volume 22 of the A!MG manga...
but since its an alt... what the heck...
all this trivial details doesn't matter.. :)
"Oh, master... I will find you again!"
it seems Destiny and Fate are on opposite sides though... demon v.s goddess?
:)
although from the prelude I thought Fate was also a demoness?? Wierd... :p
somehow, it feels inappropriate.. perhaps I read too much of the Vertigo
series.. :)
***
With that fateful invocation, subtle ripples were sent careening
through the very fabric of reality itself, whispering across the spaces
between its multiple levels, god and demon alike pausing to feel the
changes that it warned of.
***
And in a temple, a brother and sister began to dream.
Heh, another reference to dreams... perhaps u can have a cameo appearance by
Morpheus.. :)
The Dreaming, where the forgotton gods go to die... ;)
-------------------------------------
--
I write fanfiction. Too much of it. You can read it here, thanks to a kind
grant from the Larry F foundation:
http://members.tripod.com/lwf58/fan_fiction/durandall/index.html
--
Haiku of my lament:
Forgive my spelling,
my U.S. education,
is the source of blame.
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