"Born Again"

Part 1 
Chapter 4 
"Ender's Game"

By Brian Welch 
bwelchz7@yahoo.com

Based on the manga Aa! Megami-sama 
(Ah! My Goddess!/Oh My Goddess!)

The wonderful world of Aa! Megami-sama was created by
Fujishima Kosuke.  Aa! Megami-sama/Oh My Goddess!
characters are copyright Kodansha Ltd. Tokyo, Studio
Proteus, and Dark Horse Comics, Inc.

-----

Throne Room of the Almighty

-----

"Almighty One, you requested that I inform you of
changes in the condition of the mortal, Eric Donovan."

"Proceed, Belldandy."

"Almighty One, he has apparently... somehow... become
able to interrupt the execution of certain programs
running within Yggdrasil."  I did not say that well at
all, but how does one explain such a thing?

"Mmm.  What is the extent of this ability?" the
Almighty inquired.

"As nearly as Urd and Skuld can tell, Almighty One, he
can terminate any spell program which targets him or
which will affect him significantly."

"How is his condition, otherwise?"

"He is still weakened but in good health otherwise,
Almighty One."

"Thank you, Belldandy.  You may return to your duties,
now."

"Yes, Almighty One."

The Almighty stroked his chin in contemplation.

-----

Skuld was pulling her shift of baby-sitting, though
she
wouldn't have called it that, and Eric was, as usual
lately, resting in the garden.

'Holding for observation, my foot!' Eric groused.
Urd's just trying to keep me from touching a terminal.
I'm in perfectly good shape.  I need to get back to
work!  He was still sulking when the garden exploded
in
front of him.  At least that's what it looked like as
Eric shielded his eyes.

The god who appeared out of the chaotic display was
even taller than Troubadour had been.  Where
Troubadour
was thin, however, this god was powerfully, almost
massively built.  Yet, as he walked to where Eric was
sitting, he moved with a measured grace.  The most
arresting thing about him, though, was an overwhelming
sense of PRESENCE.  When he looked at Eric, his
eyes...
well, Eric couldn't quite make out any details of his
face, but his gaze certainly seemed to penetrate deep
into Eric's psyche.

Eric shifted uncomfortably.  Not again, I should have
run while I had the chance!

"Eric Donovan."  It was a statement rather than a
question.

"Y-yes, sir?"

The god raised an eyebrow.  "I must say I am surprised
to find you in such a humble, even ignominious state.
I trust this bodes well for all that is?"

"Ah, er," Eric replied, brilliantly.  Was what he just
said supposed to mean something to me?  Who is this
person, and why do I feel like I'm sitting here in my
underwear?

"I had expected someone more... brash.  If I may, I
would like to ask a question of you."

"Yes, sir?"  Uh-oh, here it comes.  I'll bet this is
about that Troubadour thing.

"Have you completed all you set out to do, here?"

Huh!?  How does he know?  Eric shook his head,
gathered
his courage, and answered.  "No, sir, I haven't yet."

"I surmised as much.  Very well, I leave you to
complete your duty.  I will make certain that you are
not further interfered with.  Until our fates cross
again."  The god nodded his head to Eric, and faded
from view.

Eric deflated into his chair.  Wow.  I haven't been
affected like this since I first met Belldandy.  Who
was that guy, and why does he want me to try to hack
Nidhog again?

"Eric!"

"Waa!"

"What was HE doing here?  What did he say to you?"

"Oh, hi, Skuld."  Pardon me while I go into cardiac
arrest, girl!  "I'm not sure why he was here.  He
asked
me if I had completed my work, then told me it was my
duty to finish it."

"That was all?"

"Yes, though I think he was surprised that I had been
beaten up by Troubadour."

"Oh, that was all Urd's fault!  She's always getting
us
into trouble!"

"Well, I don't think you're in trouble, he actually
seemed kind of pleased, maybe more like relieved that
I
had been beaten up."

"What!?"

"Doesn't make any sense to me, either.  So, do you
mind
telling me who that guy was?"

"You mean you don't know!?  That was the Almighty!"

-----

"Look at him," Urd gestured to where Eric sat hunched
over his terminal.  "You'd think the end of the world
was around the corner."

"Why don't you just for once cut the poor kid some
slack?" Peorth replied.

"There's something different with him since that
fiasco
trying to hack Nidhog. It's almost like he's racing
against some deadline.  Why don't you go talk to him,
see if you can find anything out?"

"I won't spy for you, Urd.  If you want to interrogate
him, you'll have to do it yourself."

"He won't open up to me.  Every time I come around now
he clams up."

"If you weren't so hostile towards him, he might trust
you more."

"I don't have time to be lovey dovey, I have a system
to run."

"I'm not suggesting you seduce him," leave that to me,
"I'm just saying you could give him the respect he
deserves."

"He's a hacker!  With root privileges on my system!"

"In the few weeks he's been here he's done an
extraordinary amount of work to fix 'your' system for
you.  He also has the backing of the Almighty."

"I know all that, but I still think he's too dangerous
to be left running around doing who knows what to
Yggdrasil."

"What's gotten into you, Urd?"

"What if he tries to hack into Nidhog again?  We're
lucky the demon admins didn't notice the last time."

Peorth sighed.  "That's not what I'm talking about,
Urd. You've changed, and it's not for the better."

"Even worse, we have no idea what's driving him,
giving
him these ideas," Urd continued, ignoring Peorth.
"Heck, he even has the Almighty spooked enough to
check
him out personally."

"Stop being so anal, Urd.  How long has it been since
you went on a date?  There's more to life than being
sys admin and hanging around your sisters all the
time."

"Don't try to change the subject."

"Why don't you break with that old boyfriend of yours
once and for all and start enjoying life?"

"I don't need advice about my love life, and
especially
not from you."

"Urd, believe it or not, I really hate seeing you this
way.  You're a free spirit.  You were never meant to
be
celibate."

"I still enjoy myself."

"Yeah, sure you do.  Celibacy is Belldandy's thing,
not
yours."

Urd sighed.  "In case you haven't noticed, Belldandy
isn't any more."

"Which makes your case all the more tragic, Urd."

Urd sighed again.  "Point taken.  You can drop the
lecture now, Flower Girl."

"OK, OK, but Urd... you really need to ditch
Troubadour. He's like a lead weight around your neck."

"We've been through for a long time."

"He doesn't think so."

"Let's stop this line of questioning now, all right?"

"Sure.  You stay here and plot away as you turn into a
bitter old maid. I'm going to have some fun."

Urd growled.

I hate this, Eric thought.  It isn't like I don't know
how important it is to fix this problem once and for
all, but I don't like being a pawn in some gigantic
chess match.  At least it'll be over soon enough,
assuming it works this time and I don't get toasted.
With any luck I'll have the code finished in an hour.
With a little more luck, this won't start a war.  The
knot in his stomach reminded him the odds might not be
so good.

"Bon jour, mon cherie," Peorth said as she settled
beside his terminal.

Eric nearly jumped out of his skin.  After a few
moments of recovery, he managed to reply "H-hi,
Peorth."

She leaned forward and sighed.  "You have the most
beautiful eyes, cherie."

"Th-thanks," Eric replied, leaning as far back in his
chair as he could.  His gaze came to rest on the
considerable amount of cleavage she was showing.  WHAT
ARE YOU DOING!? a part of his mind screamed as he
wrenched his eyes away from Peorth's chest and locked
them onto her face.

"So you find me attractive after all?" Peorth purred.
"I was beginning to wonder."

Eric opened his mouth, but nothing came out.

Peorth chuckled.  "Penny for your thoughts."

"Ah... um... gazelles?"

"Excuse me?"

"I was thinking about gazelles."

"Gazelles?  As in antelope?"  He's African... are
gazelles considered to be fertility symbols in his
culture?  Yes, of course they are!  It's obvious! 
"Oh,
yes... gazelles bounding across the African savannah,
so full of life, energy, passion..."

"Hello, Peorth."  Skuld trotted up the steps to where
Eric was working.

"Hello, Skuld," Peorth replied.  How does she always
manage to show up at times like this?

"Hi, Skuld!" Eric said.  I'm saved!

Skuld reached the platform and looked suspiciously at
Peorth.

"Don't worry, I was just leaving," Peorth said.  "See
you later, blue eyes."

When Peorth had gone, Skuld peeked over Eric's
shoulder. "Wow!" she exclaimed.  "What a cool looking
program! You know, I've seen a picture of that,
somewhere."

"Oh, this?  I got it out of a book I once read."

"That's it!  It was in Mom's 'Big Picture Book of
Supernatural Beasts'!"  Skuld looked at Eric.  "How
did
you get ahold of that book? Did you read it while you
were recuperating at home?"

"No, the book I'm talking about was written a long
time
ago by a man named Tolkein.  This thing's called a
Balrog.  Well, it's a Balrog without the wings and a
little more fiery.  Oh, yeah, and a sword instead of a
whip."

"Wow, it looks just the same.  Freaky.  So, are you
almost done?"

"Getting there."

"OK, just let me know when it's ready, because I want
to be here when you activate it."

"Will do."

"Well, I'm going to go talk to Urd.  I just came by to
save you from Peorth."

"For that you have my undying gratitude."

"Hey, I had to save Keiichi from her too, once, so I
knew what to expect."  Skuld summoned her command
chair
and joined Urd and Peorth.

Eric sighed.  I hated lying to you, Skuld, but when
this thing goes off, you can't be associated with it.
The least I can do is take the blame for this.  Just a
few more minutes...

"Did you see what he was working on?" Urd asked Skuld

"Of course I did!"

"Honestly, Urd, now you're picking on the child?"
Peorth asked.

"Child?"  Skuld bristled at the "C" word.

"Well she, at least, took a look at what Donovan was
doing while she was down there.  So, dear sister, why
don't you tell me all about it?" Urd asked sweetly.

"If you want to know what he's working on, you should
ask him yourself," Skuld replied.

Now Urd bristled.  "You know he won't talk to me.  And
I was trying to be nice to you, too!"

"You've got to be kidding.  My nice and sweet sister
isn't here right now.  And anyway, it's not what I
came
to talk to you about."

"Oh?  What did you want to tell me?"

"The Ultimate Force program has been checked out. 
It's
ready to go."

"Well, well, well.  That's the best news I've heard
all
day!" Urd said.

"I can go back to the Earth Help Center!" Peorth
cried.

"And get out of my hair!" Urd added.

"Hey, now..." Peorth warned.

Urd smirked.

"Well I'm in such a good mood I'll forgive you this
once," Peorth said. "I'd better go make sure
everything's ready.  I want to open the phone lines as
soon as the Ultimate Force is running.  Oh, I can
already feel those desperate voices crying out for
assistance from the number one Earth Help Center."

"Mmf!" Urd stifled a laugh.  "You'd better hurry,
then.
As soon as I run these final checks I'm going to fire
it up."

Peorth left.

"Hehe," Urd shook her head.  "You know, Skuld, the
last
few years with Flower Girl have made me realize how
good it's going to be to have you back."

"Well, I'll be glad to be off of debugging detail for
at least a little while," Skuld answered hesitantly,
not sure how to take what sounded like an honest
compliment from her eldest sister.

"Speaking of that, you've done a fine job through all
of this, Skuld, heading the debugging effort.  Still,
it's going to be even better to see you back in an
admin's chair.  Welcome back, kid."  Urd extended her
hand.

Skuld stared at Urd's hand for a moment before shaking
it.  "Thanks, sis.  Um, you aren't just buttering me
up
so that I'll spy on Eric, are you?"

"What?"  Urd looked upwards.  "I try to give her a
compliment and look what it gets me!"  She turned back
to Skuld.  "Believe it or not, that was honest.  Right
now, getting the Ultimate Force online is more
important even than keeping an eye on Donovan."

"Peorth wants to keep more than just her eyes on him."

Urd chuckled.  "Yeah, I almost feel sorry for the guy.
Being the object of Peorth's attention is never a good
thing, no matter what her mood is.  Speaking of
Peorth,
let's see if we can have the Ultimate Force running
before Peorth gets her phone lines open."  Urd cracked
her knuckles.  Besides, you'll be in a better mood
after this and it'll be easier to get you to spy on
Donovan for me.

"Hey, I'm on it!" Skuld cried, calling up control
panels on both sides of her.

"Ere, get your tail in gear!  The rest of you look
sharp!" Urd called to the operators as her fingers
began flying across the panels surrounding her.

Below the goddesses, off to the side of the operators,
Eric stared at his terminal.  This isn't your
decision,
Eric, so stop acting like you have a say in it.
Besides, even if this is viewed by the other side as
some kind of attack... at least you've made sure Skuld
and the others won't be blamed.  So, just do it. 
Angst
ain't your thing.

Alarms blared.

"Of all the lousy timing!" Urd cursed.

"What happened!?"

"I'll give you one good guess!"

"But Eric said he'd tell me before he tried anything!"

"Looks like he lied."

-----

The Balrog invoked inside the Nidhog Maintenance
Facility in an exploding ring of flame, sending demon
operators scattering and alarms screaming.

Garm, the watchdog defender of Hell, snapped to
alertness, his senses tingling.  Something had invaded
the realm he was sworn to protect, and that something
would pay.

"Nidhog root level access confirmed," the Balrog
reported.

Three meters tall, its body blackened by the flames
which licked across it, the Balrog roared, swinging
its
flaming sword, sending fire cascading about the room.

"Worm delivered.  Awaiting final status."

Garm announced his arrival in a howling ring of fire,
much like the Balrog.  The invader was larger than he,
but it mattered not to the hell hound.

Balrog stalked through the maintenance facility,
making
impressive waves of its sword, waiting for the Worm to
report back its final status.  It only needed to keep
the admins and operators distracted for a few more
moments.  As soon as that final status was logged, it
could terminate.

Hidden within Nidhog, the Worm reported success back
to
the Balrog.

"Worm successful," the Balrog reported.  "Patch in
place."  The next log entry would announce
termination.

It never got the chance.  Garm hit it from the side,
his great jaws rending the form into pieces as the
Balrog program crashed.  In a moment the watchdog of
Hell stood alone in the facility with the taste of
victory in his mouth.

-----

"Well, no sparks this time, at least," Eric noted with
relief.

Urd landed beside him.  "You hacked Nidhog again,
didn't you?"

"Of course I did.  The error still existed on the
Nidhog side."

"Don't get smart with me."

"Sorry," Eric sighed, "you're right.  I shouldn't have
been flippant with you."

Urd looked suspicious.  "Why the sudden courtesy,
Donovan?"

"Because I'm done, and I'd prefer not to leave on a
sour note."

"You've eliminated the problem between Nidhog and
Yggdrasil?"

"Yeah.  I have to verify it from the logs, but things
should be running a lot smoother, now."

"Did you use that... Balrog, did you call it?  The
thing that looked like Surt?" Skuld asked.

"Yes, I used the Balrog.  It..." Eric began.

"Hey, hold up a minute, what's this about Surt?" Urd
asked.

Eric shrugged.

"The Balrog program he was working on looked just like
Surt," Skuld said.

"What do you mean 'looked just like Surt'?" Urd asked.

"I mean it looked just like the picture of Surt in
Mom's 'Big Picture Book of Supernatural Beasts'."

"And you hacked this thing into Nidhog!?" Urd turned
to
Eric.

"I needed a diversion while the worm completed the
repairs."

"So you sent them Surt!?"

"I sent them a fictional creature out of a book I read
once.  I wanted it to look big and impressive to keep
them distracted.  I didn't know that it looked like
anything real."

"They must be freaking, right now.  So, what exactly
does your little diversion do?"

"Nothing, really.  It just walks around and looks
fierce.  I didn't give it any offensive capabilities
other than some low level flame effects.  I didn't
want
to damage anything on the other side.  I only needed
the diversion for a few seconds."

"Can you prove that's all it did?"

"Sure, it logged everything."

"Skuld, get those logs.  I have a phone call to make."

"Sure," Skuld said.

Urd summoned a phone and began dialing a number.

"Hi, it's me."

"I'm a little busy now, Urd dear," the ruler of Hell
answered.

"Let me guess.  You've had reported sightings of Surt
down there."

"... How did you know?"  Hild's voice betrayed
suspicion.

"It wasn't really Surt that you saw.  Somebody here
hacked into Nidhog and planted that Surt look-alike."

Hild's voice went icy.  "Have you caught the hacker?"

"Yes, and we're investigating just what happened."

"Who is it?"

"I'm not at liberty to say."

"This is serious, Urd.  I need to know who did this."

"Take it up with the big guy, then.  This isn't the
first time someone from the other side has hacked one
of our systems, you know.  In fact, this should just
about even the score between us for that Welsper
incident."

Hild made an exaggerated sigh.  "Then can I at least
expect that the hacker will receive the standard
punishment?  Will he, she or it be stripped of all
powers and reincarnated as a low order life form?"

"Well, I'm not so sure about that."

"WHAT!?"

"You may have to settle for a memory erasure."

"Memory erasure?  A slap on the wrist?  For hacking
our
system?  That's completely unacceptable!  You know the
standard procedures for an infraction of this
magnitude
as well as I do."

"Those rules only apply to divine beings."

"Divine beings?  Urd, dear, are you withholding
information from me, again?  You should show more
respect to your mother."

"Withholding information!?  I've been trying to tell
you, you old cow, but you keep interrupting me!"

"Then tell me, Urd, dear."

"Gaah!  You're so..."

"So much like an eldest sister I know," Skuld
remarked.

Urd glared daggers at Skuld before turning back to the
phone.  "The hacker is a mortal."

"... A mortal?"

"Yes, so reincarnation as a lower order life form
would
be tantamount to a life sentence, and it's not like
it'd be that much of a demotion anyway.  He'll be
punished," she gave Eric a level stare, "but our
options are kind of limited."  Besides, the Almighty
has been so protective of him, there's no telling how
he might intervene in the judicial process.

"Very well, then."  Hild suddenly sounded preoccupied.
"You will inform me of the hacker's final status?"

"Yeah, I'll let you know.  But only if you stop
pissing
me off."

"You really are too much like me sometimes, Urd dear."
Despite her words, Hild's voice held a trace of pride.
"Well, give me that call as soon as you know
something."

"Bye."  Urd slammed the phone down.  Why does she
always gets to me like that?

"How could you say we would erase Eric's memories?"
Skuld demanded.

"Like I said," Urd looked at Eric, again, "the
standard
punishment of reincarnation as a Level 4 life form
would be either too harsh or not harsh enough,
depending upon how you look at it.  Besides, this
isn't
our decision. The council will decide what happens to
him.  Now, what about those log files?"

"There's a problem," Eric said.

"I didn't ask you."

"The log stops before the program terminated," Skuld
said.

"What do you mean, 'before the program terminated'?
How can you tell?"

"They just stop.  They could have been truncated or
the
program could have stopped logging prematurely."

"Let me see them."

She was still examining the log when Belldandy walked
up.

"What's happened?" Belldandy asked.

"Donovan hacked Nidhog with a program which looked a
lot like Surt, Hild about blew her top, and now
Donovan's program has gone off to who knows where,"
Urd
replied, her attention on the log.

"It wasn't Surt," Eric protested.  "It was just
something I made up to distract the admins and
operators while the worm patched the synchronization
errors."

"Does Hild know this?" Belldandy asked.

Who's Hild? Eric wondered.

"I told her.  She wasn't happy, but at least she isn't
doing anything drastic," Urd said.

"That's why I didn't tell any of you what I was doing
or when I was going to do it," Eric said.  "I didn't
want you to be involved if this thing created an
incident." So Hild is the demon admin Urd was talking
to on the phone?

"You still should have told us," Skuld said.

"And now we have a high level program running amok on
Nidhog," Urd added.

"It isn't still running.  I programmed it to terminate
once the worm had patched the system."

"Except your own logs don't show it ever terminating,"
Urd said.

"Even if it didn't terminate, it was designed only to
look menacing. It isn't going to crash anything."

"Donovan, every time you do something on the system,
impossible things happen.  I know you say your program
won't misbehave, and I may even believe you're
sincere,
but the fact of the matter is that nobody can predict
the consequences of your actions."

"I can," Eric said.

"Like the first time you hacked Nidhog?" Urd replied.

Eric looked at his hands for a moment.  She's right,
of
course.  How do I know for sure my program isn't still
sitting in the process table on Nidhog?  "I've
finished
what you brought me here to do.  I'd like to go home,
now."

"That'll be up to the judicial council, though even
considering the severity of your crime I think they'll
let you go back.  You're too dangerous to have around
here," Urd said.

"I don't trust those old fogeys," Skuld said.

"The Council will be fair..." Belldandy was
interrupted
by the phone ringing.

Urd answered.  "Hello? ... Yes, sir, he said he's
ready
to go back. ... Sir? ... Yes, sir."  She hung up the
phone.  "The big guy said we're to handle this
ourselves, in a manner that we deem appropriate."

"Then he doesn't have to have his memory erased after
all!" Skuld said.

"I don't know, it's still probably a good idea."  Urd
looked to Belldandy.

"What do you mean, a good idea!?" Skuld asked.

"Perhaps we should ask Eric?" Belldandy offered.

The three goddesses turned to face the mortal.

"Since that's the penalty, I think it'd probably be a
good idea to go ahead and erase my memories.  Will it
just be the ones from here?"

"We could erase just your memories of us and of
Heaven," Belldandy suggested.

"We don't have to erase anything!" Skuld said.  "Eric,
tell her you don't want your memory erased!"

"No, this needs to be done," Eric said.

"Needs to be?  Intuition, again?" Urd asked.

"Yeah.  Besides, it could make trouble for you if you
made the punishment too light."

"What could they do to us?" Skuld argued.

"Skuld does have a point, Eric," Belldandy said.  "You
shouldn't worry about us.  We'll be fine regardless of
the action we take here."

"Yeah, well, it just needs to be done.  Besides, I've
made a jerk of myself while I was here, and I'm not
sure I want to remember it."

"An apology?" Urd asked.

"No you haven't!" Skuld said.

"Yeah, I have, Skuld.  Maybe I needed to be one, or
maybe I was just too lazy to find a better way to get
the job done.  Regardless, I'm sorry for running rogue
on all of you like this."

"Eric, so you are serious about this?" Belldandy
asked.

"Yes, I am."

"Then, perhaps it is for the best."  Belldandy began
to
prepare a spell.

"One thing, though, could you take me back to my
apartment in Berkeley instead of the Blacktail B&B?  I
sent my car back, and it would be hard explaining a
sudden arrival to the Schefflers."

Belldandy nodded.  A sphere appeared in her hand.

"Sis!" Skuld protested.

"It's OK, Skuld.  I really do want this," Eric assured
her.

Skuld looked at Eric, then dropped her gaze to the
floor.  "Goodbye, Eric."

Eric seem to fall asleep as energy from sphere in
Belldandy's hand washed across him.

"Sis, how could you?" Skuld whispered.

"I only sealed them, Skuld," Belldandy said as she
looked at the seal sphere.  "They haven't been erased,
and I think perhaps he will have a chance to be at
peace, now." Belldandy said as tears welled up into
her
eyes.

"Hey, don't take it so hard," Urd counseled.  "Here,
I'll take him back myself.  You aren't in any
condition
right now."  She placed a hand on Belldandy's
shoulder.
"Don't be so down, Bell.  You did what had to be
done."

"It's not that, so much."

"Oh, then what?"

A tear slid down Belldandy's cheek. "He never got his
wish."

-----

The holovision blazed for a moment as Urd stepped
through.  She walked to the couch and dumped her
burden
unceremoniously.  "So, this is your apartment."  She
looked around at the food wrappers, computer equipment
and occasional article of clothing scattered about the
room.  "Yeesh, what a dump."

She walked to the holovision and paused.  Turning, she
looked at the unconscious Eric.

"Try to be a good boy this time, Donovan."

Then she was gone.

-----

EPILOGUE to Part 1:

Urd heard the music before she saw him.  Fortunately,
he wasn't singing.  For a moment, the simple beauty of
the piece almost made her reconsider this.

"Urd!" Troubadour cried, setting aside his instrument
as she landed beside him.

"Hi, Troub, nice tune."

"Thank you.  Why do you look so serious, Urd my love?"

"We need to talk.  No, it's more like I need to talk."

"Oh?  What about?"

"About us.  I've been doing a lot of thinking about
our
old relationship and, well, it's time we formally
called it off."

"Why, Urd?  I'm here, now.  I can give you all the
attention you deserve!"

"It isn't you, it's me, Troub.  I can't stand the fact
that you ever put anything ahead of me.  There was a
time when I wondered if after you had your license and
we had more time together, if I could put aside my
anger.  But I can't."

"Urd..."

"If we were together, I'd always be remembering the
past.  Every time you had to renew your license or
somebody mentioned it, it would remind me, and I'd
hate
you for it.  You don't deserve that.  It's like you
said the first time you left.  Pursuing your license
is
what plum tree spirits do.  Just like all the gods and
goddesses, they are expected to get their licenses."

"I would support you in getting your license, Urd. 
You
wouldn't have to do it alone."

"We aren't talking about my license here, Troubadour.
I'm talking about us finding our places in the grand
scheme of things.  You play by the rules, do what's
expected of a loyal plum tree spirit.  I can't be like
that.  If I have to spend the rest of eternity as a
Goddess Second Class then so be it, but I will never
be
a regular goddess."  Even the Almighty couldn't seal
away my demonic heritage.  "You need to find yourself
a
regular goddess, one who can do regular goddess things
with you.  I'll never be that goddess, and if we're
together I'll hate both of us every day because I'm
not."

Troubadour sighed.  "I think I always knew the time
would come when your heart would have no more room for
me.  I wish I could have been what you wanted, Urd."

"You're too hard on yourself.  Other than that
jealousy
thing you're a nice guy, Troub.  You'll find someone
else."

"And what kind of god are you looking for, Urd?"

"I don't know."  Have I been spoiled by Belldandy and
Keiichi?  Are my expectations too high?  "I haven't
really given it much thought."

"You've always stood out from the other goddesses in
Heaven, Urd.  You're exotic.  You won't have any
trouble finding another god who's tired of ordinary
goddesses." Troubadour began to remove a ring from his
finger.  "I suppose you'll want this back?"

"No, keep it.  I still have mine, you know," she said,
holding up her arm so his bracelet caught the light.

"Well, then," Troubadour stood, his smile belied by
the
sadness in his eyes, and embraced her, "don't forget
me, Urd."

Urd hugged him back.  "I won't.  We're still friends,
right?  It won't be like we won't see each other any
more."

Urd returned to the home she shared with her sisters
and walked to her room.  "Well, I guess it's time to
move on," she said before removing the bracelet
Troubadour had given her.  "I only wish I knew where
to." She read the inscription 'To Urd from Troubadour'
one last time before putting it away.

-----

THE END of Part I

AUTHOR'S NOTES:

The biggest surprise for me in Part 1 was how much fun
I had writing Peorth.  She makes a wonderful foil for
both Belldandy and Urd, since she combines the
carefree
nature of Urd with some of the insightfulness of
Belldandy and isn't afraid to use both to the
consternation of those around her.  I've never been
much of a Peorth fan, but she's definitely growing on
me while I've been writing her here.

When did Skuld save Keiichi from Peorth?  Well,
Skuld's
memory of events may be a little colored, here.
Actually she tried to Skuld bomb both Peorth and
Keiichi when she discovered Peorth waking Keiichi up
in
her usual manner.  However, the end result was that
Keiichi was able to escape.

For those who have read the Dark Horse translation,
Troubadour was incorrectly described as a cherry tree
spirit upon his first appearance in the manga.  The
second time he appeared in DH he was correctly
described as a plum tree spirit, giving the impression
it was 2 different guys when actually it was
Troubadour
both times.


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