"I keep telling you," Urd said. "I made a mistake with the potency. You don't really think I wanted this do you?"
This was answered by a number of glares.
"PUT ON SOME CLOTHES!!!" Skuld shouted.
"She's got a point Morisato," Chihrio said. "Let's make ourselves presentable." She glanced to Mara and draped a blanket over her. "What's with her?"
"She's dying," Belldandy said sadly.
"Huh?" Chihiro said.
"We'll expain in a bit," Peorth said, summoning up her goddess robes to the amazement of Sayoko and Chihiro. "Let's just do this the easy way."
"Sounds fine to me," Urd said. Belldandy sighed and nodded, then, in a flash of divine magic, everyone was clothed.
"URD!" three voices cried out angrily.
Not everyone was clothed in a manner they considered appropriate.
"You've been looking at those Frazetta magazines again, haven't you," Keiichi demanded.
"Uh, why do you ask?" Urd said.
"No reason," Chihiro muttered, crossing her arms over her chainmail bikini and tapping her foot irritably.
"At least you got to be a warrior babe," Sayoko said. "I am definitely NOT some harem slave!" She gestured to her...non-outfit.
"Its better than a loin-cloth," Keiichi muttered. All the girls turned to stare at him.
"I'm not certain about that," someone said. There was some snickering, until everyone realized the source of the comment was a very embarrassed Belldandy. "Oh dear, I said that outloud?"
****
Mara lay painfully in a vast gray field watching a stream of blood pour away from her head and wisp off into the featureless environment.
She was going to die.
There was no point in belaboring it.
Her life's essence was pouring away into nothingness, and she felt too weak to even lift a hand to her marks to staunch the flow.
No, she was done for. After her attempt to take Urd with her, she probably had less than a week. A week she'd spend unconscious, when she'd otherwise could have spent that time seeking forgiveness for her crime.
"You can still make amends," a voice, or collection of voices rather, said.
Mara weakly turned her head about seeking the source of the voice. It was funny, but it mostly seemed to sound like her own voice with hints of those from people she knew or had known. Among others, she heard the voices of many of her past victims.
"One can only understand something through one's experiences," the voice explained. "And we have the most experience with ourselves. So I am generally heard through your own voice."
"Uhh, right," Mara said. "I'm hallucinating now."
There was a low chuckle, most of which was one of her evil snickers.
"No daughter," the voice said. "You are just hearing me for the first time. A benefit of the link you share with the Norns and Peorth."
"What link?" Mara asked suspiciously.
Something shimmered in the blank world around her, making Mara blink.
"Look and see your wounds," the voice said as the shimmering resolved into a mirror.
Mara expected to see her marks bleeding freely. Instead she saw cuts slashed in between the two marks on her forehead, and the two marks at either corner of her eyes. Her actual marks were untouched.
"Huh?" Mara asked.
"You have always been bleeding," the voice said. "Since soon after you were born. All Hild did was stop providing you with more. Like putting a stop to an IV on a critically wounded patient."
"But, I've always felt fine," Mara said. "Better than fine...I've never even caught a virus."
"Do you know what a demon is, Mara?" the voice asked.
"We were created by the Prince of Lies to fight against the forces of God," Mara said, as if it were obvious. She had a feeling of someone smiling ruefully.
"And who told you this?" the voice asked. "You trust one that calls himself the Prince of Lies?"
"Well then, you tell me what a demon is," Mara said.
Something raised her up to a seated position and brought her closer to the mirror. An invisible hand wiped the blood away from her marks, and Mara gasped.
Her demon marks, under all the blood...were blue...like...those of the goddesses. Though the bleeding quickly turned them red again.
"You are a goddess," the voice said. "Stolen at birth, lied to, tortured, abused, filled with hate, until you were forged into the weapon you are now. You are a Child of God, like all other beings, including your Prince of Lies."
"But," Mara said. A door appeared before her and opened into a field of light with a shimmering hand extending outward toward her.
"Come," the voice said hand held out. "Be healed."
Mara hesitated a long moment before taking the hand and climbing to her feet, feeling strangely refreshed already.
****
"Eww!" Sayoko gasped. "Umm, somebody, come over here, she's bleeding!"
Urd and Belldandy were quickly at Mara's side and shared a look as they saw the blood that somehow magically appeared over her face. Peorth was a little behind them.
"What the?"
"She's breathing better," Urd noted.
"Sayoko, dear, could you hand me a cloth?" Belldandy asked.
"All I have is this 'outfit,'" Sayoko said. She received a set of looks. "Oh FINE!! But she gets me some decent clothes after this!"
"Your clothes are over there, Sayoko," Keiichi said, and the rich girl noted that she was the only mortal that hadn't located her own clothes as of yet. She handed over her "outfit" in a huff and stomped over to her own dress,
"Ohh," Belldandy said as she wiped away the blood to discover what was beneath. Mara's marks were blue, and the gaps between each pair were filled with a slightly discolored band of the same shade. "She's healed. She's a goddess."
"AAAHHH!" Sayoko cried out, holding up her torn dress for all to see. "Who did this?!"
Everyone paused for a moment, blinking.
"Probably Mara," Urd said.
"Mara," Keiichi agreed.
"I do believe that matches what I can remember," Belldandy agreed.
"The blonde chick," Chihiro said.
"We all have those," Keiichi muttered.
"You mean SHE had me first?" Sayoko said feeling pale.
"As I remember," Peorth said. "You took her down in a half-nelson and started ravishing her about half a minute before she started reacting."
"Uhhh..." Sayoko said. "Right...I remember that now."
See other episodes by Thrythlind
(Posted Mon, 09 Dec 2002 17:04)
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