The Goddess Exchange Program (part 8 of 19)

a Ah My Goddess fanfiction by JustJun

Back to Part 7
Peorth

Lind was in trouble. Even before I had received word from Urd, I could 
sense something bad was about to happen. I had already met up with 
Senya's and Mist's teams when we were intercepted by Lind's team. 
Without second thought the moment they saw me they drew their weapons at 
me.

"What do you think your doing?" Yelled Senya, furiously stopping 
mid-flight.

"Captain, we've already seen First class goddess Peorth. This must be a 
doppelganger," exclaimed one of the Valkyrie's, she looked at me 
fiercely and awaited her orders from Senya.

"I'm not a doppelganger for god's sake! I'm real!"

"Nonsense. I can sense the evil aura coming from you," replied the same 
Valkyrie.

"EVIL AURA?! I have no evil aura" I said and glared at the foolish 
Valkyrie. Senya flew towards the Valkyrie and slapped her on the head, 
causing the other two to quickly drop their weapons.

"I haven't the time for this nonsense. You may kill her later if you 
still think she's a doppelganger. Right now we need to capture The 
Baron" she exclaimed then flew off at top speed. I suppose I'll thank 
her later for that.

Upon entering sector 9 a bright flash of light was seen in the distance. 
It caused an energy surge to pass through the skies and we all knew who 
had caused it. Flying faster I saw Lind struggling to stay in the air. 
It seemed her angel was flying for her, but she was running out of 
energy fast and cool mint looked like she was struggling.

"Gorgeous rose" I yelled and my angel appeared behind me. With my 
partner my full strength was released. I flew past the others in a 
flash; all I cared about was Lind. She wasn't going to fall on my watch.

The clouds shredded as I passed them and birds scattered, my vision of 
Lind became clearer and larger with each passing second. Then I saw it, 
the red hue of blood. Lind had been stabbed and was bordering the fine 
line between unconsciousness and consciousness. How? This is Lind! She 
is an elite warrior!

"Lind!" I shouted, she looked up with hazy eyes at me. Then all of a 
sudden her angel disappeared and she began to fall. It was a horrid 
thing to watch. I dashed downwards with all my might and somehow managed 
to catch her. I held her like a rag doll; my arms surrounded her midriff 
whilst hers were limp against her body. With a thud, she rested her head 
on my right shoulder. She was still bleeding heavily, I could feel it on 
my stomach. But I don't matter right now, all that matters is Lind.

"Lind! Wake up! Please!" She rustled in my arms slightly and lifted her 
head up.

"Peorth." She whispered and stared at me. I felt one of hers arms slowly 
rise up and she placed it on my cheek. What is she doing? This is no 
time for games. Her head slowly inched towards mine, our faces becoming 
closer with each passing second. I blushed instantly but didn't move out 
of fear of hurting her. She closed her eyes and moved in to kiss me. 
Seconds before she did though, she passed out on my shoulder again.

"Peorth! Take care of Lind. We're going to deal with The Baron!" Shouted 
Mist before flying off to do battle with the others. What just happened? 
Did she really try to kiss...me? I shook my head furiously, now wasn't 
the time for such thoughts.

I closed my eyes and pressed one of my hands on Lind's back where her 
wound was

"Spirits of air and light, who dwell in all beings. With your powers 
heal your servant, Lind. You, the power that lives in all."

Gorgeous rose extended her wings around the two of us and my spell was 
amplified, I smiled in gratitude knowing that my angel loved Lind as 
well. I green glow emitted from my hand and I felt Lind's wound slowly 
closing. This was going to take a long time, she had lost so much blood. 
I placed my other hand on top and used more of my energy to heal her. 
She slowly raised her head up and looked around unsure of what had just 
taken place. Gorgeous rose retreated back into me since her job was done 
and I removed my hands. We separated for a brief moment but then Lind 
gave me an unexpected hug. Maybe the blood loss was getting to her head.

"I knew it wasn't you." said Lind as she pulled back from me, but left 
her hands on my waist.

"Who wasn't me?"

"I'll explain the situation to you later. Right now we aid our 
comrades." She said and pointed towards a high cloud in the sky. It 
seemed the battle had moved up and only Senya and Mist were left 
fighting The Baron. Great surges of power passed by us as Senya's 
attacks were parried and blocked. Even with their angels, they still 
seemed to be struggling. Lind nodded at me and we both took flight.

"HAHAHA are you the best Valkyrie's heaven has to offer? You might as 
well submit to me now!" Yelled The Baron.

"Lord of terror! Admit defeat now!" shouted Lind. Her entire body 
started to glow a golden hue, the aura I felt from her was amazing. No 
wonder Kami-sama put a once a day restriction on her.

"Lind are you making this your fight, because I'm not done yet" panted a 
tired Mist, her body was full of scratches and her fore head bled 
slightly.

"Do you think I'll give up because you're glowing? HA! Tsukaima come 
forth!" A large dark shadow emerged from his back, and it slowly 
morphed, first its wings spread out then its main body. It smiled 
wickedly then clapped its hands together with a loud bang. At first I 
thought it was nothing, then I realised my own shadow was growing behind 
me. It grew and became a solid form of darkness, and then it changed its 
features completely mirroring me. So this is my doppelganger. Suddenly 
it lunged at me and tackled me downwards. With the sudden attack, I lost 
my concentration so we both fell at a rapid pace. My doppelganger 
brought forth large claws and tried to attack me viciously but I managed 
to evade it.

"Peorth!" two voice yelled. With one strike the doppelganger was knocked 
off my body and Mist caught me. Senya had slashed it completely in its 
stomach, if that had happened to anyone else they would have been dead, 
but this was a shadow. My friends charged at the shadow and they started 
to battle. Valkyrie's as strong as they were didn't seem to realise 
important strategic decisions during battle sometimes. The shadow 
wouldn't die as long as its master still controlled it. I looked up to 
see only blurs in the sky. Clouds were torn in half and mini tornado's 
formed, the skies trembled in fear from the display of power the two 
were fighting with.

The trembling stopped and Lind's eyes changed back to its normal blue, 
the fight had been won. The Baron, no The lord of Terror retreated 
several steps and clutched his chest in pain.

"Curses! This body is useless I must transfer." A dark fog left The 
Baron's body and floated in the air. I quickly threw a rose at him and 
stupidly The lord of terror entered the Rose.

"Lucky!" He shouted. Lind caught the rose before it fell and Senya and 
Mist quickly went to catch The Baron's unconscious body. We all laughed 
hardly at our enemy's stupidity. "Wait a moment. NO! This wasn't meant 
to happen! Let me out of here I'm the Lord of terror!" He shouted.

The fight was over, and all would return to normal. I looked at Lind and 
smiled widely

"My rose came in handy huh?"

"For once" Replied Lind before flying off. The nerve of that woman I 
practically save her life and she's sarcastic towards me. Oh well, I 
suppose that's how it'll always be. I shrugged my shoulders and flew off 
after her.

----------

All was calm, Urd bellowed at people to get repairs done and Senya 
yelled at people to tighten security. All was calm except for the 
bellowing really. The injured valkyrie's were being healed even Lind, it 
seemed no one but Lind trusted my healing abilities. So there I was 
waiting for the Valkyrie outside of the healer's station. I was now 
clean with no blood and in a fresh set of clothes.

"Hey Peorth, you ok?" I turned my head to see the Operations leader walk 
toward me calmly with a clipboard in hand.

"Yes I'm fine just a bit tired though."

"That's great...PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE take back your job! I can't take 
crises! I'm missing my dramas because of this." She begged and knelt 
down before me.

"HA and you think I want to deal with crises? No thank you, I'll wait my 
turn to be operations leader again." She looked up at me with big teary 
eyes; she was doing 'the face' but no no no it wasn't going to work.

"Peorth" Lind called, I saw she had already left the healer's station 
and was waiting outside the portal.

"Now Urd I must go."

"Wait Peorth."

"What?" I said slightly annoyed.

"If Lind was in the healer's station just now they might have gotten rid 
of her curse."

"You don't think they told her about it do you?"

"I'm not sure, but I still have some more chocolates ready to poison her 
if you're still interested. Now go." Exclaimed Urd as she pushed me 
forward. I walked towards Lind and received evil glances from the 
Valkyrie's that had earlier proclaimed me as evil. They looked like they 
wanted to skin me alive for being so close to their dear Lind-sensei.

----------

"I stabbed you!?" I yelled out to Lind. We were in the gardens in our 
usual spot near the great oak tree. Lind lay down beside me and 
stretched out before placing her arms on her stomach. She hadn't changed 
her uniform yet, she had gotten rid of the blood stains but the tear was 
still there. I couldn't help but stare at the small section of porcelain 
skin it revealed.

"Correct. Technically it wasn't you, it was a doppelganger created by 
The Baron's powers."

"Why didn't you retaliate? You've been known to take a stab wound before 
and still defeat your opponent."

"Correct again, however this time circumstances were different." She sat 
up properly and leant against the tree like how I was. "I was unsure if 
it was a doppelganger, or if it was you being controlled. Either way I 
can't attack you."

"Lind-chan..."

"I cannot explain it but ever since I kissed you the other day I've been 
acting weird. I know what my feelings are, but I was worried about you. 
I was worried that I might have scared you away. It's probably the 
reason why I didn't know if that thing was really you or a 
doppelganger."

"You can never scare me away Lind." She looked at me and smiled a 
genuine Lind smile, sure her hair was messy, her face scruffy but it 
didn't matter. Lind was showing me her true self, it was wonderful.

"Yokatta. At least now I know that I can say this without you running 
away."

"Say what?" My heart pounded wildly against my chest. Is she saying what 
I think she's saying? Please don't let this be another dream.

"For my peace of mind you must know... Aishiteru." Her eyes were both 
full of fear and yet confidence, she looked as though she wanted to run 
away. Even I felt the temptation of running away, to long for something 
for so long and then to suddenly obtain it, I didn't know how to react.

She laced her fingers with my own and looked at me, asking and unspoken 
question, 'do you feel the same?' With that I was just suddenly aware of 
her closeness, her mouth and the general closeness caused so many 
emotions to run rampant through my mind. But I knew I was safe, I'll 
always be safe with her.

With tears welling up in my eyes, I leaned in closer to Lind. I kissed 
her, pouring all my emotions into it, letting her know how I really 
felt. Years of love and devotion all conveyed through one kiss. It 
wasn't long however until Lind responded with equal vigour. Slowly we 
parted but our foreheads remained touching. A small content smile 
appeared on her face, then she raised her hand and caressed my cheek.

"Our second kiss." I giggled, "Beat the first one don't you think?"

"It did. However, you are incorrect. That was our third kiss." She 
replied like the usual Lind.

"Third?" I exclaimed and pulled back raising my eyebrow at her.

"I kissed once whilst you were asleep." Well since she was telling me 
the truth I suppose I should really tell her my plan about the cursed 
chocolates, its only fair really.

"IgaveyoucursedchocolatesandwantedyouandMisttogettogether" I said 
quickly. It took her a moment to decipher what I said but she eventually 
understood. She seemed slightly annoyed but before she could give me 
another lecture, I kissed her again. It feels good to be able to do this 
now.

"Forgive me?" I whispered into her ear.

"You are forgiven" she grumpily but happily replied.

----------

We sat there for only god knows how long. Time didn't matter all we 
cared about was each other. We laid our souls bear for the other to 
witness and talked till night. Never before had I felt so content, so 
happy with things in life. Now I think, I really am complete. No more 
dreaming or wishing, I was living it. Lind loves me and that's all I'll 
ever need.

Of course, things were never easy; our happy ever after wasn't going to 
come that quickly. News of our relationship reached the dating polls and 
suffice to say Mist and Urd cashed in big. It seemed a little bird 
strapped with a camera recorded everything, and Urd was showing the 
footage non-stop on all the big screens in heaven. Even Belldandy and 
Skuld on earth sent me and Lind a congratulations card. Oh, Urd shall 
pay.

I suppose it made things easier, it saved Lind the trouble of explaining 
it to her fan club. They got the message when they saw Lind and I 
together, and no way was I going to let them near her. My modestly sized 
fan club hounded me for questions but before I could answer anything 
Lind covered my mouth and pushed me away. I'm not that bad now am I?

"Amusing. Did you two know that you're the number one couple in heaven 
now?" Asked Senya.

"Such trivial things do not interest me," exclaimed Lind. The three 
valkyries were on their lunch break, and like a dutiful girlfriend, I 
had made a bento box for Lind. Just like in those mangas I borrowed from 
Skuld.

"Say Ahhh." I asked and held a salmon nigiri with my chopsticks in front 
of Lind's mouth. She looked at the food first but opened her mouth 
automatically and ate it.

"Oh, this is unexpected. Your food is really good Peorth."

"See I told you" I exclaimed with pride and quickly kissed Lind on the 
cheek.

"Bleh. You lovey dovey people make me sick." Said Mist as she drank her 
tea.

"Silence your complaining, you jealous fool" said Senya. A quiet beeping 
came from her desk and she quickly opened a screen. Her eyes scanned the 
message and she stood up.

"Mist and I are leaving for a mission. Lind you are not needed since you 
still have a magic ban." She left and Mist quickly followed after.

"Whatever as long as I don't see the lovey dovey twins" she said loudly 
from the hall. I looked at Lind and we both laughed. She grabbed my hand 
and caressed it with her thumb. I knew that look, she wanted something.

"What do you want to do now?" She asked.

"I would like to go to sector 7 to do some shopping, but I have a 
feeling you want to do something else."

"Want to practice your battle tactics? Join me, its no fun without a 
partner." I rolled my eyes, she only thinks of a few things, fighting, 
eating, work, and now me. I grinned slightly when I thought of the last 
reason.

"Fine" I said and got up. "You're so romantic you know?"

"I'll go shopping with you if you win."

"Ara, if I win? Lind dear I AM going to win."

We left the office and walked to the training room. Her hand held around 
my waist and mine around hers. I loved it; this was the kind 
affectionate Lind only I was able to see.

Hmm I wonder what I should make her buy for me later.

Onwards to Part 9


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