Notes: These notes will be wordy by necessity. If you choose to skip them and remain confused as a result, it's on your own head.

Since I've gotten more complaints and questions than actual comments, I decided to add another chapter. But I'm going to stress something that I should've stressed from the start. The "source material" for this story is NOT the manga. It couldn't be, since I've only seen bits and pieces of it. I started this story after watching the subbed anime. Obviously, the anime is nowhere near as detail-heavy and developed as the manga, which actually works to my advantage. There's almost no mention of God, the goddesses as Norns, or demons beyond Hild, Mara, and a few familiars.

In other words, the BEST thing you can do to make this story simpler for your brain is to pretend you never, ever read the manga.

To anyone that made it this far, however, I'd like to thank you for giving this story a chance. If it didn't satisfy you, well, that's not surprising. It's my first (and most definitely last) story for this fandom.

Broken Dreamers

An Oh! My Goddess Miniseries by

Nate Grey (xman0123-at-aol-dot-com)

Part 9: Destination

Hild had never quite understood the Almighty. Really, she had a hard time getting past the name itself: she didn't recall being in on the vote, frankly. On the occasions when they did talk, she almost always left feeling a little annoyed, or at the very least, tricked in some small way.

Maybe it was because He always came off as being so calm and all-knowing. Whether He was or not, He still had a great deal of self control, and it was surprisingly effective on virtually everyone He came in contact with. Hild had tried many times to get under His skin, with varying degrees of success and failure. So far, she had only gotten her visiting privileges revoked for a time, and even now they both understood that as being temporarily forgotten, for the moment.

Hild also did not particularly like tea, or at least not the flavors He always seemed to have on hand. But He always made it seem like she was being terribly rude, without seeming so himself, if she turned him down.

She'd had an appointment today, though. Which was a brief way of saying she'd demanded a meeting. In all likelihood, however, He'd been expecting that, considering recent events.

The meeting so far, though, was not so much a meeting as it was sitting across from each other and staring defiantly. Hild was not really expecting but still hoping for an apology. He, on the other hand, was just waiting for her patience to run out.

Hild sighed. "You're going to make me ask, aren't you?"

God said nothing, although He did take a rather long sip of tea.

"How is it that You don't mind losing the single most powerful angel in Heaven? And how did You know I wouldn't destroy it?"

"Aurvandil is not lost," He replied at once. "I've heard that you are treating it quite well, considering its crimes. As for how I knew you wouldn't destroy it, I suspected you wouldn't be able to resist keeping it for yourself."

"You don't even seem the slightest bit upset, though."

"Should I be?" He asked, seeming surprised. "In all the time that you've known Welsper, has he ever struck you as the sort of demon to follow orders, unless they somehow benefit him? That is his nature, and to expect him to act in any other way is the height of foolishness. It is a leader's task to know the minds of his followers. I am no exception."

Hild frowned at Him. "But that means that Aurvandil... You set it up. You knew it'd go that far. You Made it to do that!"

The Almighty shook His head. "I Made it to love and serve, the same as any of my children. How it chose to do that was solely up to it."

"But you tipped the scales! You made it more likely!"

"Aurvandil did only what I knew it was capable of. I ask that you not blame it for doing what it thought to be right and necessary."

Hild snorted. "Actually, I feel kind of sorry for it. At least Hell doesn't abandon its own."

The Almighty chuckled lightly. "True. You simply punish them, mercilessly if needed, until they learn."

"Well, they do!" Hild protested. "And nothing's worse than being alone!"

He shrugged slightly. "Did you honestly expect to understand or approve of this?"

"No," she sighed. "But it just seems wrong."

"That's to be expected. Try to look at the positive. Aurvandil lives for its purpose. You can give it a reason to go on existing."

"And help you carry out your Master Plan, right? Why would I do that?"

"How can you be so sure you aren't already aiding the Plan, or following it exactly as we speak? You've never seen it."

"Not for lack of trying," she muttered, pouting a little. "Why can't You write it down, or store it in a database like everyone else?"

"That would make things too easy for you. And I know how you love a challenge."

"You big tease. Fine, I guess I can overlook Bil's situation, since it turned out for the best. But I still can't believe you don't mind losing out on all that power. First the Norns and Lind, and now Aurvandil. You're giving up all the good chess pieces!"

"Am I?" the Almighty asked, smiling. "I'd say things are quite even."

Hild froze. "What does THAT mean?" she demanded.

"I expect great things from Bil one day."

"Don't get your hopes up. She's a demon."

"She was born a demon, yes. But she's died since then, and been reborn as an angel."

"But a demonic angel!" Hild insisted.

"True enough. She has properties of both, which, I think, makes her equally inclined to either side."

"Ha! Her parents are demons!"

"Her aunts are not."

Hild's face fell. "You... YOU PLANNED THIS!"

"Which part?" He asked absently.

"The... it... OOOH! I HATE YOU!" she squealed, stomping her foot.

"I'll see you next week, then?"

"Yeah, whatever," Hild grumbled, turning to leave.

"Hild," He added abruptly. "I have no right to ask this, but... please be kind to Aurvandil."

Hild glanced over her shoulder at Him, and was startled to see what might have been regret in His eyes. "You do still care, don't You?"

"A father cannot help but care for his children. Even those that have fallen, and especially those that have been cast down for a greater calling."

"Hey... was that an indirect compliment?"

He turned His back on her. "I'm sure I have no idea what you mean."

Hell was not what Aurvandil had expected.

The angel had been given a small, plain room that was in fairly good condition. It was locked from the outside, and even if it hadn't been, Aurvandil suspected that the new seals on its wrists, which looked like crimson circles, would've prevented escape somehow.

A week passed, slowly but surely, before the door opened again.

Aurvandil looked up (but not that much) to see one of Hild's small clones staring back. It reasoned that even in its present weakened condition, it could destroy the clone with little trouble. But this did not seem a wise course of action. The Daimakaicho would've prepared for that, and had obviously done this as a test.

The mini-Hild stepped in and shut the door behind her. She didn't appear at all alarmed to be alone with the angel.

"What do you want from me?" Aurvandil asked quietly.

"I'm just here to talk," she replied.

"I have nothing to say to you."

"That's fine. I didn't plan on doing too much listening." She paused only briefly before adding, "He won't come for you, you know."

The angel's eyes flashed angrily. "He will."

"But it's been a week."

"A mere test of my faith."

The mini-Hild sighed. "Maybe. But let's say you're wrong. Are you going to sit here and wait forever?"

"If I must."

"Well, that's stupid."

Aurvandil gritted its teeth. "I could destroy you easily."

"I'd be replaced within a few minutes. There would be no point. Do yourself a favor and listen."

"Why should I?"

"Because I know how you lost the Almighty's Favor."

The angel fell silent at that.

"It wasn't entirely your fault. You were Made to be proud of what you are, and to love your Maker. You didn't really do anything wrong... at least, nothing unexpected. And that's the problem, actually. You ended up exactly where you were supposed to."

"You speak nonsense."

She shook her head. "You didn't lose the Almighty's Favor. It was taken from you."

"LIES!" Aurvandil roared.

"Maybe. But how else do you explain losing it?"

"I... must have miscalculated somewhere... made an error in judgment."

"Possible," she allowed. "Where? When?"

"I don't know," the angel admitted softly. "I was certain the deaths of the children would distract the Daimakaicho and allow Heaven to increase its shares on Earth."

"I can see how that would work. And it did, actually. Well, you didn't kill anyone yourself, but we have reported a couple of losses over the past few days. So that's something for you to be happy about."

Aurvandil just stared at her.

"Okay, maybe not."

"Why haven't I been destroyed?" it whispered.

"I told you, none of this was your fault. It'd be like killing an innocent. Which, we're not really beyond, but in this case, I've taken a personal interest. I don't want to kill you. You should come work for me."

The sour expression on the angel's face didn't change at all. "I was meant to carry out my Master's Will. I cannot, will not serve another."

The mini-Hild shrugged. "You can either join up, or sit here and rot waiting on a rescue that may never come. It's up to you."

"I am not so easily swayed. He will come for me."

"Meanwhile, the kids you tried to kill are safe and happy. By the way, is that common practice in Heaven? If you ask me, it kinda has a negative swing to it. I can see how that wouldn't go over too well."

"One such as you could not hope to understand my Master's Will."

She smiled a smile that unnerved the angel on an instinctive level. "Oh, really? If anything, one such as me has the BEST chance of understanding it. I've known Him longer, and I know things about Him even you might not believe. More than that, even I've been one of His pawns before, so what makes you think you're so special? For example, in your heart of hearts, do you genuinely believe that He'd approve of you, or anyone else, killing those kids?"

Aurvandil had had plenty of time to think on that since he'd been brought to Hell. The slaughter of innocents, even those belonging to demonkind, had never been a frequent thing. In most cases, it was just that they got caught up in the punishment of many more wicked people. They were almost never singled out and targeted. Certainly that made sense now, but so had Aurvandil's reasoning back when it was trying to please its Maker. What had changed?

"Don't worry," the mini-Hild said quietly. "If you could answer that question so easily, I'd already have killed you. That you can't means there's something worth salvaging."

The angel shook its head violently. "This IS my purpose. I am to carry out my Master's Will." It sounded less uncertain this time, though.

"Okay," she agreed readily enough. "By the way, what is it, exactly?"

Aurvandil glared at her.

"I'm curious! You really think it's part of His Will that you stay here until He comes to get you?"

"Yes. I already told you, this is a test of my faith. Why do you find that so difficult to believe?"

The mini-Hild shrugged. "Let's face it, kid: my people aren't as trusting as yours. Which might go a long way in explaining why He has never set foot here. Ever. Too much trouble, and far easier for me to go to Him. And it's not like I haven't invited Him over for coffee. So if He wouldn't come for me, one of the few entities that can threaten Him, why would He come for you?"

"He will."

She rolled her eyes. "So He just goes around blabbing His Will to all of His Chosen, is that it?"

"He... no," Aurvandil said quietly.

"Then He only told you, right?"

"...no."

"So you don't actually know for sure what's in His Will, do you?"

"But I was entrusted to carry out my Master's Will!"

"And I'm sure you did that fabulously, for a time. But that either means you're no longer carrying it out, or you still are. So either that means He can't be bothered to correct you on your wrongdoing, or you're exactly where He meant for you to be. Sounds like a brush-off to me no matter how you look at it."

The room suddenly became somewhat darker, and she noticed that whatever heavenly light Aurvandil's body had been giving off all this time had begun to fade. Either it had been away too long, or its faith was failing it. But the angel still had its pride.

Only after she'd left the room did she hear an unearthly shriek of pain, loss, and hopelessness. Had she been a lesser being, she might have shed tears for the next seven years. Instead, the mini-Hild only smiled and skipped off to report to her own maker.

Although Hild had repaired the damage to the temple in just a matter of minutes, Peorth felt there was much more that needed to be done. Aurvandil's attack, as well as Bil's death and rebirth, had opened her eyes. They had been completely unprepared for the angel's attack, and had technically lost Bil, if only for a few moments. But nothing would ever erase the sight of Bil dying from Hjuki's mind, so it had been real enough. No matter how many times they assured him that she was fine now, he would still call her out at random, just to make sure that was true.

That was really only part of the problem. Bil had known she wouldn't survive the fight with Aurvandil. No one had needed to tell her that, either: she'd watched the angel defeat Skuld, and it only took a little common sense to connect the dots from there. But in her last act alive, Bil had instinctively tried to force all of her hidden power into her brother, hoping it would help him survive. Instead, all she'd done was transfer her seals over to him. This turned out to be a good thing, because with Bil's power added to his own, Hjuki was twice as powerful, but even more accident-prone.

Bil appeared to have handled the adjustment better than her brother. Upon being called out, she would immediately drape herself around his shoulders, as if sensing his need to be close to her. Curiously, during the day, she was often tired and reluctant to move much, while at night it was difficult to keep her still for more than a few seconds. Hild reasoned that, similar to Keiichi, Bil drew the bulk of her power from the stars or the moon, to the point where she could stay out and awake while Hjuki slept. Keiichi and Peorth took turns staying up with her, with their own angels out. Bil was especially fond of Broken Dreamer, who had begun to appear exclusively as Peorth since Bil's death. Peorth herself never said anything about the change, and she didn't have to. It was proof enough of who Keiichi's heart belonged to.

Even though Peorth kept a much closer eye on her children now, she had thought the same would apply to the Norns as well. But their visits stopped with no warning. At least, that was what Peorth thought at first. Yet Hjuki's anger at Skuld faded rapidly, and he still talked about his "aunts" as if he saw them all the time. It wasn't until Bil developed an odd fascination for mirrors that Peorth realized the truth. The Norns had been appearing to her children, but allowing no one else around the temple to see them do so. For all she knew, they never left. Peorth wasn't sure if she was relieved that they were still around, annoyed that they were doing it behind her back, or angry that not one of them had visited her yet.

She made a point to mention her feelings to Hild, though, and less than a week later, Peorth walked outside in the middle of the night to find Belldandy, Holy Bell, and Blue Lance admiring the rosebushes. Welsper stood nearby, looking predictably bored.

"You realize that if any of us were normal people," Peorth sighed, "this would be the part where I called the police, right?"

"Call them. Maybe we'll get lucky and they'll chase us away," Welsper murmured, getting a look from both Belldandy and Blue Lance. "I hate that you've trained her to do that, by the way."

Belldandy looked shocked at the accusation. "I did no such thing."

"There's no way you didn't! She gives me that 'Bell' look every time I say three words!"

"Then maybe you should learn to apply a little discipline your mouth." That might have been more convincing, however, if Blue Lance hadn't nodded in perfect time with Belldandy and Holy Bell.

Welsper threw a pitiful look at Peorth. "See what I have to live with?"

Peorth decided to take some pity on him (not that he especially deserved it, but it was three against one) and called out Glamorous Rose. Blue Lance was overjoyed to see an angel so similar to herself, and Holy Bell seemed happy for no other reason than she was Belldandy's angel, so they all got along famously.

"So. You're here," Peorth noted, staring at Belldandy as if she might vanish. "And visible, no less. What, did you flub the spell that makes me unable to see you?"

Belldandy frowned. "Peorth, I came to see you."

"Guess I should be glad you still remember my name."

"I've missed you, too, Peorth."

"Oh, be quiet. It's hard enough to stay mad at you without you being genuinely sorry."

"I am," Belldandy insisted. "It's just that it really is better to limit our interaction with others. We can't really help that in Bil's case, we were all so concerned. But we knew not to worry about you."

Peorth rolled her eyes. "Nice, Belldandy. If this is how our visits are going to go from now on, do me a favor and just stay invisible."

"I know you don't mean that. Glamorous Rose is far too happy to see us, which means you are, too."

Peorth cleared her throat at looked away. "Hild told me something interesting the other day. She said you couldn't have told me that it was okay for Bil to die, because you didn't know she'd be reborn. Is that true?"

Belldandy nodded. "We only handle the lives of mortals on Earth. The moment Bil died, we were no longer allowed to influence her fate. Special cases like that are handled by someone I'm not familiar with. At any rate, Hild-san knew far more than we did. I don't know if it was her right, or if she went to some lengths to obtain the needed information, but I'm glad she knew."

"Whatever happened to Aurvandil? Hild won't tell me."

"I'm fairly certain it's going to work for her for the rest of its existence. But it doesn't go by that name anymore. The last I heard, it was calling itself Lucifer. Or at least Hild-san was."

Peorth shook her head. "I can't say I'm shocked. Hopefully, being on the same side means we aren't targets anymore."

"That reminds me, you should step up Bil's magic training. Through some... trial and error, we discovered that her element is earth, too."

"Right. What did you wreck?"

"Nothing that wasn't immediately repaired or deeply buried."

Peorth took several deep breaths. "Okay. But if you're going to be breaking my stuff, the least you could do is make yourself visible beforehand so I have a chance to see you do it and yell at you."

"I can agree to that. I'm not sure how Urd and Skuld will-"

"Then get them to agree, and I know you can."

"Fair enough."

Peorth stared at her for a moment. "Belldandy, tell me something. When Bil was reborn, Urd and Skuld were really shocked. But you... seemed more composed. Like you weren't all that surprised."

"I was," Belldandy disagreed. "Just not to the extent they were."

"Why is that?"

"You are a former goddess. Keiichi is loved by several goddesses. Virtually anything is possible for your children. I suspect more than a few people are aware of that."

Peorth sighed heavily and rubbed her face. "Belldandy, if you intend to stand there and tell me that this was all planned out by someone, I'm going to hit you."

"I was only going to say that Hjuki and Bil are very special children."

Peorth glared at her. "But you were really going to mean it the first way, right?"

"Actually, I meant that few people ever have personal relationships with both the Daimakaicho and three Fates."

"Yeah. Sure. You still like tea?"

"I do."

"And him?" Peorth asked, nodding at Welsper, who had sat down next to a rosebush and dozed off.

"We should leave him here, but Blue Lance would be lonely." Belldandy nudged Welsper with her foot.

He opened one eye. "Are you in danger?"

"No."

The eye closed. "Good night, then."

Belldandy nudged him a little harder. "You can sleep inside."

"Or I could sleep here."

"I'm not going to ask again."

"That should make it even easier for me to sleep, then."

Belldandy shook her head and whispered something to Peorth, who gave her an odd look.

"What?"

"Just say it as we're walking away. Trust me."

"Okay." Peorth started back towards the temple with Belldandy, calling over her shoulder, "We've got muffins!"

There was a surprisingly loud thump, and then Blue Lance streaked past them, dragging a screaming Welsper by his ankles.

"...do I even want to know?" Peorth asked.

Belldandy smiled. "Probably."

The (Real) End.

Endnotes:

That's it. There's no more. For real this time. If you still have questions, ask them. I only ask that you read the notes at the start of this chapter before you do, if you expect a response.