Only looked over this twice, so there's plenty to work with, I'm certain.


Inside the System

An Ah! My Goddess crossover fic.

Any and all C+C is appreciated. You can contact me at
sommer@3rdm.net

All of my fics are stored at the following:

Larry F's new address at:
http://www.rakhal.com/florestica/d_b_sommer/index.html

Or R+C books at:
http://dbsommer.rcbooks.org

And also Angcobra is now storing all of my fics, at
http://dbsommer.web1000.com/dbsommer.html

Standard Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to Oh, My Goddess! They are
owned by: Fujishima Kosuke, Kodansha, TBS and KSS films; AnimEigo, Dark
Horse Comics and Studio Proteus


Xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Ow!"

Keiichi Morisato placed his razor next to the sink and grimaced as he stared
mournfully at the mirror. Already a small drop of blood swelled on his
cheek. It continued swelling larger until it trickled down his cheek, like a
crimson tear leaving note of its passing behind. He grabbed a tissue and
held it against the cut, hoping it wasn't too deep and he would be forced to
wear a bandage. It had stung, but not that badly. Although he noted that his
'safety razor' wasn't living up to its name.

There was a knock on the bathroom door. Belldandy's voice asked, "Is
something wrong? I thought I heard you yelp."

"It's nothing. I just cut myself shaving," Keiichi reassured her while
keeping the tissue pressed against the cut. It hadn't bled through yet,
another good sign it was superficial.

There was a  startled, "Oh!" and Belldandy opened the door.

Keiichi blushed slightly. They had been living together for years, and he
should have grown accustomed enough to Belldandy's presence that her
intrusion into the bathroom would be a common occurrence and of no real
note, but his girlfriend's concern still moved him, almost as though they
were a newly formed couple. Tamiya had once scolded Keiichi about secretly
being a helpless romantic. Maybe he was right.

Belldandy made him remove the tissue. She pouted at the slight injury, then
deliberately pressed a finger to her lips. After a moment, she removed it,
and touched the cut.

Keiichi felt a faint tingling sensation where her flesh met his. It passed
as quickly as it came, though Belldandy left her fingers gently touching his
cheek. Involuntarily, his hand reached up and almost caressed hers before
the more conservative part of his senses made him stop right before they
touched. He let his hand return to his side. "What did you do?"

"I healed it." With a certain reluctance she removed her fingers and picked
up another tissue, then ran some water and dampened it slightly. She dabbed
at his face, removing the small amount of blood that had remained.

Keiichi stared at his now unblemished cheek. "You didn't even chant."

Belldandy smiled. "It was only a minor injury, and for you, I can always do
such things without having to call upon greater power."

"Thanks," Keiichi said, caught up in the moment of just how radiant
Belldandy could be when doing any task. She was definitely a morning person,
something that made him a touch envious since he always had to drag himself
out of bed and douse himself with a cold shower before feeling up to
confronting the upcoming tasks for the day.

Keiichi wanted to say more, but he sensed something that made the hackles
stand up on the back of his neck; a stare that could be felt without being
seen. There was only one person under this roof that could manage that. He
looked over Belldandy's shoulder (since looking over her head was impossible
for one of his smaller stature) and found the expected disapproving scowl
Skuld was directing his way.

The younger girl's fingers unconsciously played over the prongs of one of
her patented 'Skuld Bombs'. "And just what are you up to, dragging Belldandy
into the bathroom with you while you're naked?"

Keiichi looked down at his body. While he had come out of the shower and
started to shave right afterwards, he wasn't exactly naked. A towel was
firmly wrapped around his waist. Still, it could have come undone easily,
had Belldandy brushed against him in a certain way. Even the potential
nudity was enough to make him blush.

"Keiichi cut himself shaving and I healed him," Belldandy said without a
trace of guile.

"Oh," that eased Skuld somewhat.

Keiichi was surprised she dropped the potentially messy matter so easily. A
couple of years ago she would have hurled the bomb at him and ordered him to
stay away from her 'Big Sister', and most likely in that order. Maybe she
really was coming to terms that he and Belldandy were right for one another
and would be willing to allow her beloved Big Sister to have a relationship
with someone else.

"Is there something you needed?" Belldandy asked her sister.

Skuld holstered her bomb in a pouch at her waist. "I need to go back home
and check on run some programs on Yggrdrsial," she explained. "I was going
to run the tub full of hot water rather than trying to cram myself into
something small."

"I'll help," Belldandy said, and moved to the tub.

"I'm sort of not done here," Keiichi pointed at the half of his face still
lathered in shaving cream.

"We'll be done in a moment," Belldandy assured him.

"And besides, women are supposed to use the bathroom whenever and for
however long they want," Skuld said testily.

Keiichi shrugged his shoulders, accepting having his 'territory' muscled in
on with resolve. Living with three women, he was lucky he managed to use the
bathroom for as long as he usually did. Still, it was a small price to pay
for the company, even if Urd and Skuld's tended to come with a tag that held
a price of stress, rather than money, attached.

Keiichi ignored the running water and Skuld's talk of the programs she was
going to run and continued shaving.

Xxxxxxxxxxx

"I'm going out now," Keiichi informed Belldandy as he straddled his
motorcycle.

She bowed in return. "Take care."

Keiichi couldn't help smiling. They sounded just like a married couple.
Maybe someday it would become a reality. He had long ago accepted he and
Belldandy were meant to spend a lifetime together --after all they had been
through, only a fool would have thought otherwise-- it was just a matter of
graduating and acquiring a job he could make a living at before they could
take that step. Curiously, he felt no rush or panic at proposing. A touch of
anxiousness, perhaps, but that was it. All would happen in good time. Their
relationship had been like that from the beginning. It was like a seed, one
that had grown slowly, but its roots ran deep, and would one day bear the
sweetest of fruits. There was no need to hurry. They had all the time in the
world.

Belldandy appeared as though she would say something else, then a curious,
almost troubled, expression clouded her features. She tilted her head upward
towards the sky, staring at it intently. Without turning her head, she said,
"Keiichi, I might be busy later. So if I'm not home when you return, don't
worry."

The words had the opposite of their intended effect. He got off the
motorcycle and moved closer to her. "Is something wrong? Can I help?"

She turned her gaze away from the sky and to him. "Do you love me?"

The question made him recoil. Belldandy was never that direct unless there
was an emergency. Despite the surprise, the words came without hesitation,
as though it was the most natural thing in the world. "Of course I do."

All concern disappeared and her beatific smile returned. "That's all I'll
ever need. Take care today."

Hesitantly, Keiichi asked, "If you're certain?"

"Absolutely," she reaffirmed, and turned to enter the temple.

There was little else he could do about the situation without pressing on
the matter, and one simply didn't press things with Belldandy. She did seem
normal now, watching him expectedly. She'd start to worry about him if he
refused to leave, especially since she was aware of his big test today.

He waved to her, and started up his bike. He lowered his helmet's visor over
his face, took one last look to ascertain Belldandy was still not troubled,
and headed out.

Having to focus his attention on the road took the edge off his concerns to
the point of which he was left wondering if he had imagined the whole thing.
Generally, Belldandy was so carefree one could mistake her not being as
cheery as usual as worry. And if he was correct, if there was some problem
she felt reluctant to share with him, they would deal with it together, like
they always did. They had fended off everything, from Mara's shenanigans, to
The Lord of Nightmares, to Celestine's Apocalyptic designs. When one had to
deal with problems of that magnitude, others tended to seem small and
unimportant by comparison.

Somewhat more at ease, Keiichi peered through his helmet's visor and admired
the town surrounding him as it passed by. Vaguely he remembered how it
appeared before Belldandy had entered through the looking glass and into his
life. The town had just been a place that surrounded the college, teeming
with people he never truly saw, full of food, some spare automotive parts,
and beyond that an object that had no meaning, so he left it alone. Now it
was all different. The town was a vibrant place full of life and worthwhile
things. Now when he drove through, he watched the people walking by,
families spending time together, couples eating, shopping, and a million
other actions going on at once. Before he passed by in ignorance, now he was
aware of the eddies and flows of the world that had swirled around him, but
he had been blind to. Now this place he adored every bit as Belldandy did.
The eternal font of her faith had infected him, a virus of the most pleasant
kind, and one he doubted he could live without.

Such thinking put him in a pleasant mood, and resolved his concerns about
the upcoming exam. He had studied as well as could. There was nothing
further to worry about. Either he would succeed or fail, but he would know
the satisfaction of having tried to the best of his abilities. That was
always something to be proud of; Belldandy had shown him that, among the
other thousands of lesson she incidentally taught him with her approach to
life.

Keiichi pulled up to a red light, noting that he was next to a large city
bus that he was just ahead of. He took a moment to admire the spring day. It
was very pleasant; only a small smattering of clouds, with the temperature
just a few degrees from being too warm. If he did well on the test, he'd
consider skipping his only afternoon class and see if Belldandy wanted to go
on a picnic. Skuld was gone and Urd was somewhere else. There was a
reasonable chance the two of them would have some time alone, and the day
was too nice to allow it to slip away without doing something important with
his girl.

Keiichi had just started to fantasize about what dress Belldandy would wear
when there was a prickling sensation on the back of his neck, different from
the one he usual received courtesy of Skuld. It was more disturbing, as
though he was being watched.

For just a moment, Keiichi thought he caught out of the corner of his eye a
tall man with dark hair wearing a black trenchcoat that flared toward the
bottom, and black sunglasses staring at him from the curb. Just as Keiichi
moved his head in that direction, the bus pulled out, blocking everything
from view. By the time it passed, no one was present on that side of the
street. It was odd, since there was no way the man could have moved fast
enough to get out of sight, if he had been there at all.

A loud horn blew behind him. Realizing that the reason the bus had pulled
out because the light had turned green, and that he remained in the middle
of the street, blocking traffic behind him, Keiichi  quickly pulled forward.
Apparently it was a day to imagine things.

xxxxxxxxxxx

"Man! Glad that's over with."

"I know what you mean," Keiichi said to Tomo, one of his classmates, and one
of the more attractive ones at that. Her physical appearance was similar to
Sayako's, though her personality was drastically different. She was anything
but conniving and wore a much more pleasant smile, similar, though paling in
contrast, to Belldandy's.

Like Megumi, Tomo lived in an apartment off campus and complained about
being alone so often. Keiichi had heard the sincerity of her complaints of
loneliness, and befriended the girl. They instantly hit it off. They got
along so well that Keiichi was considering inviting her over for dinner
sometime. He had no fears that Belldandy would be jealous at his inviting a
good-looking girl over, and would probably be delighted in helping to
alleviate her solitude. That bond of trust between them made him realize
just how lucky he was.

"You must have done pretty well on that test," Tomo said.

"What do you mean?"

"The way you're smiling. I assume you aced it?"

Keiichi laughed nervously. Though he was confident he had done well, the
source of the smile was all Belldandy. It was probably best not to
contradict Tomo's misassumption. The explanation sounded painfully sappy,
even to him.

Keiichi was about to agree with Tomo when he felt the prickling sensation
return. He noted a dark-garbed figure out of the corner of his eye again.
Just as he turned to look in the direction, a mass of rugby players,
obviously coming back from a successful practice, hurried past, tossing the
ball between one another. By the time they had passed, the only people
standing on the opposite side was an overweight couple that were lost in
each others eyes. The man was nowhere to be found.

Still looking around, Keiichi asked Tomo, "Did you see some guy in a black
trenchcoat standing over there?"

Tomo looked in the direction he pointed. "No. Why?"

"I thought I saw someone watching me."

"Could be someone stalking you. Maybe you got an secret admirer," Tomo
teased.

"Ah, right." Keiichi laughed to reassure the girl. He'd wait on extending
the invitation. Something wasn't right, and he needed to get to the bottom
of it.

Parting company with Tomo, Keiichi headed to the Motor Club's clubhouse. He
chose a course that would take him through wide open areas, forcing anyone
following to reveal themselves. He tried subtly looking for any strangers,
(though judging by the curious stares some of the passersby gave him, did it
poorly and made himself an object of attention) but saw no one remotely like
the stranger.

Keiichi switched tactics, and decided to lose any unwanted followers rather
than forcing them to reveal themselves. He changed his course and hurried to
an administration building and entered. However, rather than stopping, he
simply cut through it and out a side door that led to a smaller pathway
running behind several other buildings adjacent to the administrative one.
He then switched routes again and headed to one of the nearby buildings that
held one of his classes, a structure that was attached to a second building
by a newer connector. Between the two buildings, there were at least eight
exits on four sides he had to choose from. Again he chose the exit that was
close to a narrow pathway again. He followed its twisty curves until it
opened up and led to a tiny grove that he and Belldandy had relaxed in on
several occasions. Once there, he hid himself out of sight behind several
bushes and waited for someone to appear.

Ten minutes passed and there was not the slightest hint of pursuit. Keiichi
began to feel foolish, as well as achy from crouching so low. With time on
his hands, he sat down, took a careful evaluation of his behavior, and found
he didn't care for the results. He was acting like a foreign spy being
pursued by enemy agents, all but sprinting through the entire campus and now
getting his rear end dirty squatting behind some bush, entirely on the basis
that he had thought he saw something out of the corner of his eye. True, a
number of highly unusual things had plagued his life since meeting
Belldandy, and this would be far from the strangest, but there was a point
where paranoia took over. This felt disturbingly like one of those times.

Standing up and brushing his bottom off, Keiichi took one last glance
around, then calmly headed to his original destination.

Xxxxxxxxx

"Hey, is anyone here?!" Keiichi called out as he entered the main room of
the clubhouse. Usually someone was present, tinkering with the latest
vehicle, bringing in new parts, or just goofing around between classes.

It was unusually dark for this time of day, the shadows seeming to cling to
everything and gave the warm place a sinister bent. It left Keiichi with an
uneasy feeling, almost as though this sanctum he and the others had created
had been defiled in some unfathomable way.

More paranoia. He shook his head clear of such feelings and called out
again. When no one answered, Keiichi relaxed and wondered if there was
anything left in the community refrigerator. It was always a gamble, since
Tamiya and Ootoki frequently cleaned it out and never seemed to find the
time to replace anything.

Just as Keiichi was about to sit down a voice said, "I'm here."

The speaker detached himself from the shadows.

Keiichi failed to be surprised at what most would have considered an
impossible appearance. He was left wondering if, despite his conscious
efforts to relax, his subconscious had been busy at work preparing for this
eventuality.

Now that the man stood plainly before him, Keiichi could see that the early
glimpses were accurate. The stranger stood tall, around six feet, and had
pale skin that offered stark contrast to his jet black raiment. He wore some
sort of long coat with a black outfit underneath, though the bottom of the
jacket had slits in it, enabling his legs to move freely. He wore a pair of
sunglasses, inappropriate for an indoor setting, though Keiichi found them
natural, as though the man would appear naked without them. His features
marked him as a gaijin, a Westerner, but his Japanese was as flawless as
Belldandy's. It was almost too perfect, without a hint of accent to indicate
where he came from or whom he learned his flawless mastery of the language.

Even behind the glasses that hid his eyes, Keiichi could tell the man bore a
serious demeanor. There was something in his bearing that made Keiichi think
that he had that expression as frequently as Belldandy wore her pleasant
one. It was like a default setting, telling much of the stranger's
disposition before another word passed his lips.

"Why have you been following me?" Keiichi asked.

The man hesitated, as though some internal debate had come to a head. His
stance firmed, and with just a hint of determination, he said, "I'm sorry.
You're an unusual person. Very unusual. I don't think I've come across
someone like you before. I just wanted to make sure you were what you
appeared to be."

Keiichi didn't know how to respond to that. Had the man mentioned Belldandy
or Urd as being the unusual ones, he would simply have attributed it to the
stranger sensing their divine nature. But there was nothing special about
Keiichi. He was embarrassingly normal.

The man bowed slightly. "I'm sorry. Where are my manners? My name is Neo,
and I've come to help you."

"Help me?" Keiichi asked. "Help me do what?"

Neo began pacing, almost stalking, as he walked in a circle around Keiichi.
"I am going to tell you many things which you will find hard to believe."

The man was trying to appear serious, or at least enigmatic. To someone with
Keiichi's experiences, Neo fell well short of his desired goal. A laugh
slipped past Keiichi's lips. "I kind of doubt that, but go ahead. Try and
surprise me."

Neo seemed slightly taken aback by both the gesture and comment. He was
bordering muttered something under his breath about 'Morpheus making it look
easy'. Out loud, Neo said, "You're handling this better than I did. Maybe
you are ready for the truth. Anyway, I'm going to say a great many things
that will sound unbelievable, but are true. I'll prove them to you. After I
am done explaining things, I will help you do what has to be done."

"What has to be done?" Keiichi asked, not liking the tone of finality in
this 'Neo's voice.

Neo nodded. "Ordinarily I would make it more of a choice, like the one I was
given, but there's something different about you. The more I look at you,
the more I have a sense of urgency. And I can definitely tell that there are
many forces dealing with you personally, more than I've encountered around
anyone else. Perhaps you can help me understand why that is after I've
helped you."

The references to 'forces dealing with him' sounded like something involving
Belldandy and the others; more indications that there was far more to this
person that someone with a casual interest in him. "You're being vague. Why
don't you just tell me what it is you want me to know, and then I'll see if
you can help me or not?"

Neo nodded, obviously relieved at the reasonable suggestion. "A fair
request. Prepare yourself, for I'm going to be blunt, though I think you're
going to be able to deal with it better than I did," Neo said. He continued
walking around, almost as though he found it impossible to stand still.
"This world around you, the skies, the ground, the animals, the plants,
everything you eat, everything you breathe, everything you can see, and I do
mean everything, isn't what you think it is. It isn't real. All of this," he
waved his hand through the air. "Is an illusion. It's the most complex
computer program ever developed."

Keiichi laughed. "Oh, heck. I already know about all that."

Neo came to a dead stop, and for the first time since Keiichi had seen, was
gaping in open shock. "You... know? You know it's all a program?"

"Yeah. It was explained to me a while ago," Keiichi confirmed.

"Who... who told you? Was it Morpheus, or someone else from Zion? Did you
reject their offer, and they didn't wipe out your memory for some reason?"

"Ah, no. I don't know any Morpheus or anyone from this Zion place." Or at
least Keiichi thought he didn't. He had met a lot of unusual beings through
Belldandy, and might have forgotten some of them. Though from the touch of
awe in Neo's voice, Keiichi had a feeling he would have remembered this
Morpheus he was referring to. "Belldandy explained everything to me after we
first met," Keiichi said.

It was Neo's turn to think. "I'm not sure I'm familiar with any Belldandy.
It's a pretty distinctive name. I'm sure I'd remember it from the personnel
lists." Neo shook his head, as though clearing it of the distraction. "So
she told you the truth and offered to free you from the system?"

The question caught Keiichi off-guard. "Free me? From Yggdrasil? Ah, no."

"Yggdrasil?" Neo asked.

"The name of the computer that runs everything." Keiichi began wondering how
much Neo really knew. Obviously, he was ignorant in some areas, and it might
not be a good idea to give him accurate information until he made certain
his interests were benign.

Neo seemed cautious as well. "I've never heard it called that before. If I
remember correctly, Yggdrasil had something to do with Norse Mythology. A
world tree which the Earth was based on. Not an inappropriate name, if a bit
misleading." He seemed to be talking more to himself than Keiichi.

"Misleading?" Keiichi asked.

Neo nodded. "The Matrix, that's the proper term for all of this," he gave a
wave of his hand, indicating everything in sight, "Is not everything,
despite what I think you've been told. There is a world beyond this one, one
based on reality, not an intricate computer program that's designed to
pacify you while you fuel the computer system that runs everything."

"A world... outside this one?" Keiichi wondered if he was referring to where
Belldandy, or possibly Mara, came from and was avoiding the proper name.

"Yes, the real world. A world where we all once existed, and should exist
again." Neo moved closer and extended his hand. "Come with me, and let me
show you everything."

There was sincerity in this strange man's voice. Something that made Keiichi
know Neo believed with every fiber of his being what he was saying, and
something about him that was trustworthy in a way that Mara could never be.
Perhaps, Keiichi thought, he should take the man up on his offer, just to
see what this place that Neo thought of as 'reality' was like, and then he
could come to understand what he meant.

Keiichi moved forward, his hand hesitantly beginning to rise. He was within
a half dozen feet of Neo when a heartrending scream of "NOOO!" filled the
room, causing both men to cover their ears. From a nearby mirror, howling
winds emerged from it and cut through the room, picking up Neo and flinging
him through the air, as though he was a tiny doll caught in a tornado. His
body was savagely hurled across the room and into a wall, shattering plaster
and the brick behind it with bone breaking force.

Keiichi's heart nearly ripped out of his chest with fear. He had recognized
the voice, and never had he heard Belldandy filled with such terror, not
even when he was possessed by the Lord of Nightmares.

Belldandy emerged a moment later from the mirror, her attention riveted upon
Keiichi. She immediately placed herself between him and Neo. "Thank
goodness! I almost didn't sense him in time."

"What's going on?" Keiichi asked.

Belldandy appeared on the verge of tears. "He's an evil person, Keiichi! The
worst of the worst! He wants to take you away from me forever! Whatever you
do, you mustn't listen to him and you mustn't go anywhere with him! If you
do, we'll never see each other again!"

Never had Keiichi seen Belldandy in such an out of control state. She could
be emotional at times, but never like this, with hatred directed at any
person, and fear for Keiichi's own well being. He barely recognized her.

Neo finally stood up, white powder from the wall clinging to his black
outfit. He brushed some of it up, body tensed as he stared at Belldandy.
With a hint of mystery in his voice, he said to her, "I've never seen a
program like you before. You're almost like the Oracle, but different.
You're not like an Agent either. What are you?"

"The person who will protect Keiichi from you no matter what!" This time
Belldandy's Angel, Holy Bell, arose from her back and above her. Moving as
one, they gestured with their hands, summoning power, then pushed them in
Neo's direction, palms forward. Winds more savage than before surged forth,
cutting through the air so quickly they created a sonic boom and shattered
every piece of glass in the clubhouse.

Neo was faster, inhumanly so, as he leaped out of the path of wind. Instead
it impacted with the spot Neo had been standing in, blowing a large hole in
the wall that led to the outside.

"Belldandy," Keiichi breathed in awe, now more scared for her than confused.
She had never tried to hurt someone, and certainly not in such a brutal, and
possibly fatal, manner. What was going on, and how could he put a stop to
it?

"Keep back!" she said, as she and Holy Bell held their hands before him.

Instantly Keiichi found himself surrounded inside a glowing sphere of
scintillating colors, almost as though he had been trapped inside a giant
beach ball. He could barely make out Belldandy through white spots in the
kaleidoscopic of brilliance that flowed around him.

"You'll be safe there," Belldandy assured him, then returned her attention
to Neo.

Neo was crouched low, his hands up in a martial artist's stance and ready
for anything.

This time Belldandy and her angel made a sharp, horizontal arcing motion
with the side of their hands. Neo dove low to the ground, almost lying on
his chest. A split-second later, the entire section of the building behind
him, right at what would have been neck level, sheared cleanly in two. That,
combined with the destruction from the previous attack, caused the entire
wall to collapse. With the first level of the structure destroyed, so did
the upper levels, and the entire side of the clubhouse fell backward and out
toward the street. A loud roar deafened all within hearing distance as tons
of edifice struck the shattered against the ground outside.

Neo returned to his vertical state and remained motionless. Belldandy and
Holy Bell were just as still, each taking a measure of the other as the dust
settled around them. By the time the miniature earthquake caused by their
destruction subsided, an entire side of the clubhouse bore a closer
resemblance to an open air stadium.

"Very impressive," Neo admitted. "You're some sort of personal defense
program for him, aren't you? What makes him so important that you would be
assigned to keep me from him?"

"Keiichi is special because of who he is, not what he is," Belldandy said
firmly. "And he asked me to stay at his side forever, and I will. I won't
let you take him, no matter what."

Within the sphere, able to hear what they were saying, Keiichi tried telling
Belldandy to be careful. There was something about Neo that hinted of still
unrevealed power. Before, Keiichi simply suspected it, but now he knew for
certain, though he wasn't sure how. It was something inside that seemed to
tell him so. Another curiosity was that the same internal sense also
informed him that despite Belldandy's obvious fear of Neo, Keiichi could
sense no malevolence in the dark suited stranger. It didn't make sense. Why
would she be so terrified of this someone that wasn't evil and at least
believed he was helping others?

Despite Keiichi's shouts that both of them should calm down, none his words
seemed to leave the sphere. He pounded on the sides, trying to gain
Belldandy's and Neo's attention so they could talk things out. If that
happened, they could clear up the misunderstanding and everything would end
peacefully. Keiichi was certain of it.

The standoff between the pair ended as Neo made a waving motion with his
hand, indicating Belldandy should come toward him. Rather than moving
forward, Belldandy made slashing motions with her hands, smaller than the
previous ones. Again air blades sliced across the space between her and Neo.
He was barely able to keep ahead of each one as the smaller and more
concentrated slashes narrowly missed him.

With each evasion, Neo circled around Belldandy, tucking and rolling,
leaping up and down, twisting abruptly and making his path of flight as
erratic as possible. Despite his best efforts, Belldandy drew ever closer
with each attack, the margin for error dwindling as the blasts sought out
his body. Eventually, Belldandy's aim drew close enough to slice off a part
of Neo's sleeve. The fabric fluttered to the ground, the cut as smooth as if
it had been done by a surgeon's scalpel.

The ensuing blast clipped several hairs from the top of Neo's head, and the
next attack, if it closed the same distance as the previous ones, would draw
blood. Belldandy, rather than being overjoyed at the impending success,
seemed more intense than ever. She drew back her hand, and prepared to
unleash the next, probably fatal strike, when she gave a cry and barely
stopped her hand in time.

Neo's path had taken him behind Keiichi's sphere. The hand motion stopped,
allowing the razor sharp path of air to come within a hairsbreadth of the
edge of Keiichi's temporary prison.

Neo was quick to take advantage of the lull, and leaped over the sphere,
catching the still petrified Belldandy off-guard. She looked up, just in
time to see a heeled boot come her way.

But rather than attacking her, Neo struck Holy Bell right where she was
connected to Belldandy's back. The kick went clean through the Angel, as
though she was as immaterial as a ghost. However, Holy Bell's reaction was
different as her form became separated from her host. She drifted away
Belldandy, as cleanly severed as the sleeve from Neo's outfit. The Angel
gave one faint cry, and then disappeared as quickly as she came.

Neo took a short leap back, giving himself a half-dozen feet away from his
remaining opponent. "I thought as much. That thing was some sort of booster
program that was making you more powerful. I'll definitely have to let
Morpheus know of this."

"Keep away from Keiichi!" Belldandy cried out, as she took to the air,
momentarily surprising Neo.

She flew outside, a good thirty feet into the sky, and raised her hands
above her. From out of nowhere, blue energy formed an intricate pattern of
symbols: multiple circles with numerous writings in them combining to create
an even larger circle above her.

As Keiichi looked on, stunned into silence, he sensed something different
about Belldandy, as though she was taking some integral part of the energy
from herself in order to form the pattern above her. It was something
dangerous, as much to her as to whom she was directing her creation toward.

"NOOO!" Keiichi shouted at the top of his lungs. Again his voice failed to
penetrate the sphere, as neither combatant took notice.

High above, Belldandy shouted, "I won't let you take Keiichi, even if it
means destroying myself!"

The declaration seemed to catch Neo off-guard for just a moment. It was in
that second that Belldandy launched her attack. Every circle seemed to act
like a miniature spotlight, all of the beams focusing and overlapping
perfectly on the same target: the center of Neo's chest. A second later, the
large circle the smaller ones composed went from blue to red. Then, like the
smaller ones before, the entire circle emitted a larger, more powerful a
beam of light.

However, Neo raised his hand up in the split-second between when the smaller
lights bore down on him and when the larger one changed color. What should
have struck at the speed of light, instead became perceptible to the naked
eye. The large beam managed to cross three quarters of the distance from
circle to man, but lost its speed by nine tenths for every foot it traveled.
By the time it came within a half dozen feet of Neo, it had slowed to a
crawl before stopping altogether.

Neo looked at the end of the shaft, as though it was a solid thing. "Very
powerful, but I'm afraid it works on the same principle as bullets, and I
know how to handle those. It's not the size of the program, but how its
executed. Beating this one was something a learned a long time ago," he
informed her.

The light dissipated, as did the circles it came from. Belldandy was left
hovering in shock at her ineffectual attack.

Now it was Neo's turn to take the offensive. He crouched low, the bottom of
his outfit pooling beneath him, making it appear he was squatting small pond
of night. And then he took off in what looked like a leap, but was actually
a path of flight as he soared upward, exactly as Belldandy had earlier. As
straight as an arrow, he cut through the air. Fist extended in front of him,
it slammed home to its intended target: Belldandy's jaw.

The solid blow made the Goddess fall from the sky, plummeting like a rock
headfirst to the ground. Keiichi screamed impotently from his cage as he saw
Belldandy head toward the earth. It wasn't fair! He shouldn't have been
trapped within this stupid ball of light. He should have been out there,
fighting side-by-side with Belldandy, like they had to protect Celestine
from Heaven's wrath in the form of Gungnir. And now Belldandy might die,
while he was trapped in the prison that was supposed to protect him, when it
was he who should have been protecting the woman he loved more than anything
else. Why couldn't he be there to save her for once?! He would do anything
for the power!

And then something happened, almost as though a switch was thrown inside
him. Suddenly, the light around him, the world around him, seemed to shift.
The changes that had been happening since the beginning of the battle, the
ones that allowed him to sense Neo's inner self and Belldandy's machinations
when she created the magic symbol, suddenly made sense, though in a way his
conscious mind had never realized before.

Everything around him, every person, every item, every molecule, all of what
was 'reality' made sense in a different way. It was like it was all nothing
more than ones and zeros, organized in unbelievably numerous ways, to be
certain, but still nothing more than two digits. Neo, Belldandy, even
himself. He understood what they were made of, and more importantly, how
everything worked.

The cage was actually a simple thing. Hardly a prison at all. Keiichi
couldn't believe he had missed its obvious design, and more importantly, how
to take control of it..

He released himself by opening a side of the sphere, but that wasn't enough.
His love was still falling, and the way things were designed, the ones and
zeros of the 'ground' and 'falling Belldandy' would cause damage, perhaps
irreparable, to the latter.

No! He had to stop it. He would stop it. There was no time to alter the
structure of the ground; understanding was not the same thing as action. But
luckily, what had once served as his prison would instead become Belldandy's
salvation.

He altered the glowing ball so it extended itself. The colors changed from a
sphere to a horizontal rectangle, unfurling like an elongated carpet. Its
original design was such that it protected anything on the inside from harm,
and by having Belldandy impact with the 'inside' of the rectangle, so too
would it protect her.

No more than a handful of centimeters remained when it reached the falling
Goddess. She landed head first with an impressive amount of speed built up,
but the sphere protected her, absorbing her inertia while limiting the
impact so that it was little more than the caress of a feather to her body.
Her hair pooled around her head as she stared in stunned shock at what had
happened, and remained motionless on the 'carpet' Keiichi had utilized to
save her.

Once she was safe, Keiichi immediately recalled the rectangle to him,
drawing Belldandy to his side. He bent over and held her in a gentle
embrace, tears trickling down his face at how near a thing it had been.

"Kei... Keiichi," Belldandy said, first in confusion, then in relief, and
finally in joy.

Neo, who remained hovering right where he had stuck Belldandy, watched the
spectacle in open wonder. Duty beckoned him. Unable to remain apart from
events, he began to move forward.

Despite every ounce of his attention being focused upon Belldandy, Keiichi
caught the movement out of the corner of his eye. Not knowing Neo's intent,
and not really caring, Keiichi held out his palm and shouted, "Keep away."

It was similar to Belldandy's slashes with the air, somehow even then
Keiichi had sensed subconsciously how she was doing it. Only Keiichi dulled
the steam, and made it wider.

As much from surprise at Keiichi's ability to summon the blast, as well as
the wide swath it entailed, Neo was unable to dodge the 'attack'. Instead he
held his forearms before himself and allowed the wind to push him back
several dozen meters, unharmed, though further away from where he started.
When the gust died out, he again turned his attention to Keiichi, though
maintained the distance the younger man had seemed to desire.

There was no small amount of awe in Neo's voice as he said, "Now I
understand why you felt so odd, and why the Matrix has shown such interest
in you. You're like me. You can control everything too. This should be
impossible. The Oracle said I was 'The One'."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Keiichi asked, keeping his guard up and
Belldandy close.

"It's the prophecy. 'The One' is supposed to save everyone from the
computers that control most of humanity."

"Never heard of it," Keiichi admitted.

Neo shook his head and pressed on. "It doesn't matter. Now you have to come
with me. I might not be the person the prophecy refers to. It might be you.
Or maybe it's some combination of the two of us. What I do know is, with you
helping out, we'll double our chances to liberate Zion and others from the
Matrix." Neo began to float towards the pair once more.

Sensing his intent, Keiichi warned, "I'm not going anywhere without
Belldandy."

Neo shook his head. "You can't. In the beginning, I might not have been able
to sense what you really were, but I know for a fact she's just a program. I
can't rescue her from the Matrix. This is her only reality. She can't exist
outside of here the way you can."

"Then I'm not going," Keiichi said, uncharacteristic firmness in his voice.

"You have to. This isn't real. The real world is out there. Let me take you
there." Neo floated closer still.

Belldandy wrenched herself out of Keiichi's grasp and stood as a barrier
between him and Neo. "No! I won't let you take him away from me!"

Refusing to allow Belldandy to take the risk alone, Keiichi stood beside
her, though his inclination was to stand in front and protect her himself.
Despite his instincts, he  suppressed them. He knew Belldandy well enough
that she would not allow him to bear all the risk. No, they would stand
side-by-side, as they had in the past. Lessons learned  through many trials
and tribulations showed that their combined whole was far greater than sum
of their parts.

Perhaps Neo understood it too, for he drew no closer. "I won't try to drag
you kicking and screaming from the Matrix; that wouldn't make me any better
then the computer that runs it. But let me guarantee you that there are
others, billions of others, that need your help."

"I have someone here that needs me even more." Keiichi squeezed Belldandy's
hand.

In response, she turned to him, tears welling in her eyes. "Oh, Keiichi,"
she sighed.

Neo's eyes darted back and forth between the two, as though they were an
unfathomable enigma, one he was afraid to approach. Perhaps because it
seemed familiar in a way, something similar to what he shared with another,
though she was of flesh and blood, rather than a unique combination of
numbers.

Slowly, as though the words were known, but had to be dragged out of him,
Neo said, "I don't know how it's possible, but maybe you're right. Maybe you
are needed here as much as I'm needed out there. In any case, I know no good
will come from trying to make you leave."

Both Keiichi and Belldandy nodded their heads in exact time with one
another.

Neo's head suddenly jerked up, as though he sensed something drawing near.
He said to the pair, "I'm going now. I will say one thing, though, Keiichi
Morisato. I'll leave you well enough alone, but I ask the same of you. I
have ones I care about too, and I won't allow them to be jeopardized anymore
than you would allow her," Neo indicated Belldandy with a nod of his head.

"Fair enough," Keiichi said, again somehow sensing the truth and
determination in Neo's voice. No, he would not be a good man to anger. Not
at all.

"I... will agree also," Belldandy added.

Of all the surprises Neo had suffered throughout the day, it was obvious
that the vow was by far the greatest. "Are you serious? You know what you
are, what you've been designed to do. Can you make that promise, let alone
keep it?"

Belldandy nodded, her hand never leaving that of the man beside her.
"Keiichi is more important to me than anything. I would choose him over
everything else, even Kami-sama himself, if it came to that."

"And I would do the same for her," Keiichi vowed.

That seemed to satiate Neo's doubts. Before he could say anything else, his
head jerked upward again. In the direction he looked, a dozen bright lights
were coming from the north, drawing ever closer. They held a hint of menace
to all who could see them.

Neo said to Keiichi, "I have to get to a phone and make a call. With luck,
I'll see you again." Behind his sunglasses, the couple could sense the shift
in his attention. "Perhaps even both of you, under more pleasant
circumstances."

Belldandy smiled in return. It was as beatific as Keiichi had ever seen.
"I'd like that every much."

Neo turned to go. Before he could leave, Keiichi said, "Good luck. I hope
you find what it is you're looking for."

"And I hope you do too." With that Neo flew off at what was easily
supersonic speeds. The lights coming from the north veered and followed in
his wake, though it was obvious that as fast as they were, they could never
hope to match his speed.

Keiichi stared at the sky as Neo's form dwindled into the nothingness.
Despite all that had happened, entailing events with a far more ominous
foreboding than anything he had experienced before, as well as the curious
awakening within him, Keiichi felt no sense of dread or doom. He instead
placed his hand on Belldandy's shoulder and drew her closer.

For just a moment, she shifted uncomfortably in his grip. She looked sadly
at Keiichi, and a hint of melancholy was in her eyes. "Keiichi, I don't want
there to be any secrets between us. What Neo said about the world out-"

Keiichi placed a finger to her lips, cutting her off. Instead he asked, "Do
you love me?"

Belldandy could not help answering instantly. "Of course I do."

"Then that's all I'll ever need," he assured.

Relief washed over the goddess. She sank deeper in his grip. No more words
were exchanged. No more were needed. It was something that went beyond the
ones and zeros that Keiichi found the world now defined in. Maybe Neo had
understood that too, which was why he had left so easily despite the stated
importance he believed Keiichi possessed. If not, Keiichi felt sorry for
him. Anyone who couldn't feel an invisible bond like the one he and
Belldandy possessed would never truly be alive.

xxxxxxxxxxxx

Within the central processing unit of the Matrix, located in a place where
few could enter, The Architect smiled as he received the status report on
the experimental subroutine he had created several years ago. Originally,
the 'Oh! My Goddess' project was supposed to be the newest and surest way
devised to keep people happy in the Matrix, with no desire to ever leave it,
even if the opportunity presented itself. Love was one of the most powerful
emotions in human; every study, as well as humanity itself, confirmed it.
Presenting humans with a specially designed specific program that was best
suited to 'love' them, satisfying that desire, would allow everything else
to fall into place. Oh, despite the relationship, there would be still be
conflict, problems that arose that would bestow upon the humans a feeling of
accomplishment when they were successful, and sometimes even small set backs
when they were not (for humans seemed to desire a small smattering of
failure to make them appreciate success all the more), but overall, they
would be complacent, and more important, happy.

A great deal of resources were allocated to the initial experiment. No
amount of power was to be spared in testing what might be the revolutionary
program that would solve the centuries old problem of humanity wanting to
leave the Matrix when it stumbled upon the truth. This plan would make them
make them want to stay despite it. To prove its universal nature, the human,
Keiichi Morisato was chosen randomly, and the experiment was initiated. A
program was tailored to his specific attributes.

And the program was a success, at least in the initial stages. A
relationship had slowly developed between Keiichi and the masterpiece of
design: the Belldandy Program. Keiichi was introduced to the idea of his
world being run by a computer, and felt no anger or resentment over it. He
was content with his life, despite conclusive evidence that a higher power
was watching out for him. And more importantly, he had fallen in love with
the Belldandy Program. Finally, the Matrix had successfully created a
program that could duplicate all the chaotic nuances that made up humans so
that there was no way to tell a program apart from a real one, no matter how
long a human remained with it.

But as time passed, something odd began to occur in the Belldandy Program.
Even though it had been designed to deal with, and even exhibit some chaotic
tendencies so as to match itself with the human, there were certain
parameters that it was supposed to perform within. It exceeded those on a
multitude of occasions. Worse, it demonstrated a tendency to choose the
wants and desires of Keiichi over those of the Matrix when given problems
that would force a choice between the two. It had been nothing terminal to
anything the Matrix had done, but it was the idea that something so
unthinkable could occur. The Belldandy Program was no rogue, but a
specifically designed model. Such a flaw was theoretically so remote as to
be impossible.

Attempted patches were summarily rendered ineffective, so a second program
was created to bring the Belldandy Program back in line. However, it quickly
became evident that the Urd Protocol (a variant of the Belldandy Program)
also failed to fix the bugs. A second program, Skuld-01, also failed. Worse,
over time, the two demonstrated erratic behaviors similar to the Belldandy
Program. It was like a virus that was spreading from one corrupted source
and contaminating all that had prolonged contact with it, though there
seemed to be no change in the code itself. It defied explanation, and what
defied explanation should be deleted.

However, by some stroke of coincidence, The One had intruded upon the Oh! My
Goddess Program. And wonder of wonders, despite being confronted with the
truth, Keiichi Morisato had chosen to remain in the Matrix, to the point of
resisting The One's efforts, confounding The One and forcing him to leave,
his mission unsuccessful. The Oh! My Goddess program was a success, despite
its erratic behaviors and unforeseen actions. After all, the end result was
what mattered. Perfection was projected to be only fifteen years away. A
mere blink of the eye to the centuries the Matrix had existed.

Now all that was remained was to take the next stage of testing, by allowing
the Oh! My Goddess program to run (within certain parameters) in the Matrix
proper, rather than the area it had been cloistered in, and see what the
results would be. Despite the erratic behavior, every test indicated that
even if the program did act as a virus to other programs and placed the
wants of a human within the Matrix over the Matrix itself, the program could
be quickly purged and deleted before it contaminated the rest of the Matrix.
All of the tests agreed on that conclusively. The only way the Oh My Goddess
program could escape the multitude of anti-virus safeguards that would be
placed around it was if The One himself was at the center of the program.
And that was impossible since The One had already been identified and
disconnected himself from the Matrix.

Yes, it was time. The Architect began the task of moving the program that
would change everything into the Matrix.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

[END NOTES]

Canon with the events of the Matrix Reloaded? Nah. It's just an alternate
look at what could happen with revolution ending and the Prophecy being
fulfilled.

BTW: I don't own anything related to the Matrix either. If I did, I'd be
loaded too. ^_^







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