Nuri's Past

In Tibet, a friend of Carmine's has arrived to take her guests to a lower altitude village to get further treatment and recover. He will be transporting them via a magic bubble. Nuri will be going with them. She stares in the direction of Gangkhar Puensum. "It won't be long;" she says to Carmine.

"The prophecy is coming true;" adds the priestess. It won't be long until the gates open again, and everybody can ron-de-vu. Then you, Jasmine and ...."

"I don't want to get them involved again!" snaps Nuri. "They never would've gotten involved if me and Azareth hadn't asked them."

"Nobody asked them. They made that decision on their own remember."

"I'll kill that stuff myself, no matter what it takes."

"You can't Nuria, not alone."

"I don't want to talk about this anymore."

"Quick being so stubborn;" scolds Carmine. "You're not alone anymore Nuria, stop acting like you are. She can still break that curse, stop resisting! And look over there, somebody's been looking to reunite with you this whole time. Remember, it's your choice to remain alone."

"She doesn't deserve me, and I don't deserve anybody;" Nuri turns to walk away. "Tell the others not to bother trying to open those gates. Everybody will be reunited soon, then I'll send them back to Britannia and I'll never hear from them again."

"Nuria..."

"Stop Carmine! After this, I promise I'll never bother you again. Just forget about me."

"Are you going to leave without giving me a hug."

Nuri exhales heavily, then gives her daughter/sister/mother/guardian a genuine hug.

"Make me a promise Nuria Shila. You will be by my side when I die. I was by your side 3 times, and I want you by my side when my time comes. Deal."

Nuri is stunned, that's something she knows she can't say no too. Reluctantly, she promises that she'll try (however, she has a secret plan that will surely break that promise). After thanking Carmine for everything she's done for them; Merlin, King, Gelda and Nuri enter the magic bubble that will take them to the village in the lower ridge valley. Norberta the phoenixgon must also be transported by magic bubble as she can't fly at this cold altitude for long. Nuri stares at the priestess as she gets smaller and smaller until she can no longer see her.

Merlin moves next to her sister.

"The Himalayas are so beautiful from this view."

"I suppose so."

"I know you need help. I'm willing to listen to..."

"I DON'T ANY HELP! Especially YOURS!"

Everybody is stunned by that statement.

Merlin siges. "I'm sorry. I just thought that after earlier..."

"We may have had moment, but don't think for a second that I'll ever trust you. EVER!"

King whispers for Merlin to join them on their side. Reluctantly, Merlin sits down next to him and Gelda.

"You can't force it, Merlin;" says King; "You need to give her space."

"We've had so much space between us for so long;" explains Merlin; "I want to fix this now and make it up to her."

"How?" asks King.

"By helping her, to finally be the sister to her I should've been."

"Merlin;" replies King; "Sometimes you've got to quite sticking your nose into somebody else's business. That'll make her trust you even less."

"I agree to a certain point;" adds Gelda; "but she reminds me so much of Zel, too stubborn to ask for help, especially when she really needs it."

Nuri can hear them but doesn't care what they say. She will not allow her sister to stop her from doing what she intends to do. As much as she wants to, she can't say goodbye to Merlin for good, that will give her plan away. The fact is she has discovered a way that can stop everything and end her curse as well, without involving anybody else. However, it requires her sacrificing herself, alone, which will finally end her horrible reincarnation cycle in this wretched world.

"Nuri;" Gelda ask suddenly; "I know you're probably annoyed by our questions, but I can't help but wonder how you became a...volcano lady."

The vulacish really doesn't want to answer, but she hears something in her head and realizes that it wasn't Gelda who thought of that question, but Norberta, who's looking intently at her with curiosity. All four of them can now communicate somewhat with the phoenixgon, and she wants to break the tension. "Alright, you win." Nuri huffs then sits down, facing the others but remaining several feet from them. She might as well share a few details about her 3,000-year. Although instead of outright telling them, she takes out a crystal orb, which will access her memories, and then show them on a projected screen.

Originally, she had been reincarnated into the exact same savage tribe that Elizabeth would also reincarnate into after her original death about a year later. Merlin had left Britannia right after the holy war ended to gather knowledge from other parts of the world, so she had absolutely no clue that her sister had reincarnated. Still going by her original name of Lilith, she remembered her former life in fragments from toddlerhood, and completely regained all her memories by age 6, the exact same age as her original death. She and Elizabeth knew each other, but weren't too close. Lilith had suspected she might be the former goddess, but she never brought it up. When Meliodas found them, Lilith had tried to reach out to him and tell him who she was, but he was so fixated on Elizabeth that he never even noticed her.

After her memories returned, Elizabeth tried to reach out to the former daughter of Belialuin, who was 17 at the time, but she refused. Two days later, she witnessed Elizabeth's second death, blaming herself as she had been the one to accidently cause the wooden fence stakes to fall while letting off some steam. Afterward, she killed herself with part of the stake that had pierced Elizabeth, only to be reincarnated again into a nearby village. She would soon encounter a child Elizabeth again at the age of 10. Knowing of Elizabeth's curse this time, she could no longer face the horrible memoires of Britannia and ran away.

It took her nearly a year to reach the channel, stowaway on a supply ship, and reach the mainland. She was hoping to leave the past behind for good, including her name. She continued to move east, dying and reincarnating over and over again, with several different names. Unlike Elizabeth, who always looked and sounded identical with each incarnation, Nuri's looks, and voice adapted and change over time. A couple of times, she fell in love and even became engaged at one point. Unfortunately, her lovers would soon die horrific deaths right in front of her after confessing their love to her. Others would fall for her, and they too would die weather or not she returned their love.

Nuri's aware that Willie is attracted to her, and vice versa, however, she had to reveal her curse to him, something she had never done to any of her suitors in the past, forcing her to admit to herself that she may care deeper for Willie than anybody else before. Thus, she can't allow him to become another victim of her curse. Since then, Willie has consciously suppressed his growing feelings, more so to spare her any additional suffering on his part rather than being willing to sacrifice himself for her.

1,000 years after she was cursed and desperately looking for ways to break it, she was in the land of Isarel and heard of "the miracle worker" Jesus of Nazareth. Nuri decided to seek him out and found him in Galilee. He saw her in the crowd and approached her, however, Nuri became by frightened and ran away instead, far away. She cries as this memory is shown and reveals that after running away from the Son of God, she decided that she didn't deserve love, didn't deserve to have her curse removed. She resolved to her "fate" to walk this world alone, refusing any and all chances that her curse could be broken, with one recent exception, but she waited too long to surrender the curse.

600 years ago, Nuri was living in Indonesia on the island of Java when the legendary volcano Krakotoa became active again after being quite for a few centuries. She was selected to be a sacrifice to the volcano and was thrown into it at the summit. Krakotoa erupted anyway, and by Nuri's next incarnation, she discovered that the volcano had excepted her, and she was reborn as a vulacish, retaining the powers ever since. She remained in the Pacific Islands for the next three centuries, traveling from one active volcano to another until an underwater fault line suddenly opened up during a multiple trench chain reaction and transported her back to Krakotoa. She learned something drastic that set her on a new journey that led her to Gangkhar Puensum.

Nuri stops there, not revealing her more recent memories. Merlin, Gelda, King, as well as Norberta, are all in tears. Nuri is currently on her 78th incarnation, as opposed to Elizabeth's 107 due to her have longer average lifespans. However, she feels envious of the goddess because each of her lives were happy and she got to spend them all, for the most part, burden free and with her true love, while Nuri's existence has been lonely, dark and miserable.

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It is daytime in Japan, Elaine and Diane have been updated on the situation. They are over the moon that their loved ones are safe and to be reunited with them soon. That task, however, is much easier said than done. Uda can't open the gate on her own so far, and duing so might be a great risk. Herman largely just minds his own business, aside from "cooking" his own food, which is extremely gross and inedible to anybody else, but he mysteriously loves.

For the most part, they've been enjoying their new friends. However, this Miroku guy gives them the creeps. He's obviously been trying to flirt not only with them, but with Kikyo as well, as well as randomly grabbing their behinds. He asks each woman if they'll bear his children. Kikyo aggressively flips him over and points to her husband and 3 children, after which Miroku backs off. The roughest hits he suffers come from Sango. Diane and Eliane wish they could tell this fool that they are married too, at least Diane officially. Elaine and Ban declare themselves married and have made their vows to each other but haven't actually had an official ceremony. Neither of them is big on ceremony nor would they like to take their vows in front of people. Although they have been considering having a private blessing, they don't know whom they'd like to perform it.

Kagome has been worrying about Inuyasha since he disappeared, and has been next to inconsolable, although her friends have been trying to bring her some comfort. Shippo spends most of his time with the kids, although the Britannians, especially Diane, think that the young fox-demon is just so adorable. Diane grabbed him and played with his fuzzy fox tail and tiny fox teeth, as well as tickle his tiny hands and feet, even his tummy. Both he and Kirara are more comfortable around the gentler Elaine then the overly excited Diane. Neither of them wants to be anywhere near Herman as he was too 'rough' with them, trying to pull off their tails and even jumping on top Kirara and trying to force her to transform, also trying to be 'inappropriate" with the poor nekomata.

After a while Kagome finally pays some attention to their hosts and realizes that she recognizes the language the giant and fairy are speaking, even understanding a few words. She asks them if they are speaking English. They somewhat understand her words but have no idea what she means. Kagome reveals that she knows a few of their words, which shocks them, but not really enough to hold a basic conversation. She takes out a book from a large backpack and uses it to try to communicate with them better. Elaine takes a look and realizes about half of the words are in their language, however, Kagome refers to their language as English, rather than Britannian. She also manages to ask to them if they are from England. The sisters-in-law look at each other awkwardly.

"Oh no;" replies Diane; "I'm from Megadozer and Eliane's from the Fairy King's Forest. Never heard of England."

Kagome had momentarily forgot what century she's in, and remembers from a history lesson that England, or rather Great Britian, used to be known as Britannia during King Arthur's day (although his actual existence is heavily debated in the modern era). They get interested in the items that Kagome has in her bag, Diane much bolder about touching them then Elaine. Kagome isn't comfortable with letting them go through her stuff, but she carefully supervises them. The bag contains food and medical supplies that don't yet exist with strange labels on them. They look through Kagome's textbooks, which are extremely wired, but some contain pictures from other parts of the world. There's even a manga amongst her possessions, however, Diane thinks that the artwork is strange and ugly. The most fascinating thing that Kagome has, however, is this strange "magical" device that she calls a cell phone, which can flip open and close like a book. Diane playfully flips and closes the phone several times, Kagome finally snatching it back from her.

"Now that was so rude!" Diane is about to tear up, but Elaine says that the thing might be fragile, and Kagome must need to protect it. Later, Diane gets on Kagome's bike and figures out how to paddle it, much to Kagome's dismay. Diane can't figure out how to stop it and nearly crashes it into a tree, but the chain breaks before that can happened and the serpent sin and the bike tumble over. Diane is fine, but Kagome isn't too thrilled and now must repair her bike. Diane tries to apologize but Kagome is clearly mad and snaps at her. Elaine gets her sister-in-law to move away from the "girl from the future" before she has a tantrum.

"Don't take it personally Diane, I'm sure she's upset about her boyfriend being lost."

Diane stops pounding the ground and finishes her cry. "Yeah, I guess so.

You're right, I should be more understanding of her. But how did she get here from hundreds of years in the future? That's impossible."

"Well, me getting pregnant is supposed to be impossible, but I am."

Diane thinks for a moment; "Yea, I guess so."

Uda returns to the shrine. She hasn't slept since the night before last and needs to lay down. She really doesn't know how those gates work. Carmine knows a lot more then she does and informed her that they must wait as the gates will all open on their own. Herman had offered to help, but his powers are too dangerous and probably not worth the risks to harvest them. All they can do right now is wait and hope for the best.

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Gowther has yet to locate the copycat or anybody suspicious. While he has no problem reading the minds of the humans, the 6 demons in the monastery prove to be much more difficult to read then the demons in Britannia, as well as a couple monks who belong to humanoid races/species unique to northern Africa. Gowther's pretty certain by now, however, that none of them are involved. Jericho, Guila, and Margaret have fallen asleep. Azarath is still awake and despite repeated attempts with his own private orb and tele-line, he still can't make contact with his granddaughter's clan. Something must be interfering with his own private transmission. Gowther enters after another unsuccessful mind probe attempt. The only information he's gotten is people not only seeing the 'new guy' Bela around, but also that a strang girl that nobody knows had been seen hanging out around the communications chamber. Several people in the monastery, as well as people who work and deliver there, match the descriptions Gowther's gotten, and none of them have any knowledge of what's going on.

A few minutes later, Princess Margaret enters Azarath's chambers, unable to sleep. She informs them that she spotted what looked like a salamander spying on her in the shadows, which reminds her of the salamander spy that Vivian had used to curse her and Gilthunder and to keep them under her control.

"Salamander?" both Gowther and Azarath say in unison. Gowther hadn't thought to look for an animal and decides to expand his search. Margaret shows them where it had been, but it was no longer there. Gowther dose a psychic swipe of the area and does catch on to something running away from them, but he can't read any of its actual thoughts.

"Gowther, where is it?" ask Azarath. It's heading for the front gate. The archbishop goes that way and can just barely pick up on the energy. He uses a lightning bolt and hits the target. The salamander screams and changes into a young woman. She tries to disappear in a cloud of smoke, but Gowther is able to put her under nightmare terror despite not being able to read her mind. Azarath puts a prison barrier around her. One of the monks on the night watch gasp when he sees her.

"(In Arabic) I recognize that face! It's on wanted posters all over the city. She has many aliases, but her main one is Big Daddy-Mama Sugar. She's a spy, bounty hunter, con-artist, copycat, and prostitute. Her specialty is supposed to be shapeshifting and copy magic."

"So, it was a copycat;" says Azarath; "Gowther, you may free her from whatever mind trap you got her under."

"Roger." The goat sin releases her. A couple of the monks start to question her, but she just calmly glares at them.

"We'll integrate her in the morning;" says Azarath. They search her to make sure she doesn't have any escape devices on her, which she does, then transport her to a holding cell. Azarath knows that it's late, but he decides to give his granddaughter a ring and leave her a message.

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Inuyasha is wide awake. Meliodas and Willie are sound asleep, but it's morning in Japan as he was informed and besides, he's had plenty of rest the last 24 hours. He and Meliodas had gotten into a friendly drinking contest. Both of them can consume staggering amounts of alcohol without getting tipsy, but Meliodas declared himself the winner since the half-demon did get just a little tipsy in the end while the dragon sin didn't in the slightest.

Inuyasha goes for a walk. The next to no patience he has is wearing even thinner. While he could maybe almost be friends with Meliodas, and Willie and Cleo are "interesting" people, he's ready to get home and get back to Kagome.

Inuyasha had unintentionally admitted his feelings for her while he was tipsy, much too his dismay and Meliodas's teasing. He found the gates and attempted to open one on his own, which nearly caused a black hole suction. Luckly, Scout sensed it and was able to intervene before a disaster occurred. Cleo was awakened and informed Inuyasha that those gates are code operated and only lead to a few locations within one hundred miles around, including Luxor. The demon queen promises Inuyasha to send somebody to Cario in the morning to get her grandfather, unless she can make contact before then.

Inuyasha wonders about the tropical demon realm, trying to keep himself busy. The lights have been dimmed to artificially changed the place to night, and it seems so eerily empty since practically all the inhabitants are in bed in these wee morning hours. He finds a few cat demons and attempts to integrate them, but none of them understand him and prove to be powerful opponents with their claws', something Ramesses doesn't have. Speaking of Ramesses, Inuyasha spots him digging out scrapes from a dumpster across from the chapel he had declared sanctuary at. He spots the half-demon and runs back inside. Inuyasha doesn't know why, but he feels the urge to enter. It slightly resembles a Buddhist Temple, and it's not like he has anything better to do. The inside certainly isn't anything Inuyasha's familiar with. There are strange symbols, rows of high benches with backs (pews), and a strange circle high on the wall above the cross with a rainbow pattern that glows and shines. Ramesses is hiding underneath one of the pews, while a single person is kneeling at a railing near the front. It appears to be the same person who showed up and prevented the gate disaster. Inuyasha decides to sit down for a few minutes and just reflect, again since he has nothing better to do. After several minutes, the person starts humming, beautifully. A few more minutes afterward Scout, with her shoulder blade length, natural curly auburn hair hanging loose, gets up and turns around.

Having been caught off guard, Inuyasha briefly sees her face before she quickly covers it with her hands. Inuyasha's eyes widen. Not only did he catch what appears to be maybe a beautiful female, but the face seems strikingly familiar. Having learned of Meliodas's previously unknown relation to the demon queen, Inuyasha wouldn't be surprised if this person could also be related to him.

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In the Transylvania Alps, Madame Artemis is meeting with her council. They are coming up with new plans to retrieve the remaining relics, perhaps having to use more sleuth as well as fewer people. Several once again suggests reaching out for certain help. Unfortunately, Artemis is stubborn and refuses. She's willing to take much more self-scarifying risks to free her beloved son, whom 1,000 years ago had sacrifice himself to re-trap at the time an unkillable evil entity by allowing himself to be sealed along with it. Her son's soul may still be alive in there after all this time as he led the entity to the seal rather than preplanned to sacrifice his life and soul, which would kill anybody who does it that way. She's waited long enough to set him free. She could sacrifice herself to free him, however, she knows that he would then do the same to free her, so would her daughters.

Centuries after initially giving up on that goal and trying to kill herself, Artemis found true love (with a demon, which would've made her older sister despise little sister even more if she had known), along with a stepdaughter, Stormy (a demon/dwarf/human hybrid), who brought new joy and purpose into her life. Soon afterwards, she unexpectedly became pregnant again with her biological daughter, hundreds of years after she was supposed to be able to bear any more children, giving birth to Apolline. Her husband died just 20 years ago, but her daughters still helped her through the grief.

17 years ago, Stormy and Apolline found an abandoned baby elf near death. At first, they tried to hide her and raise her themselves. Soon however, their mother discovered what they had been up to. She wouldn't allow them to be the infant's primary caregivers but adopted Arwin herself. All she wants in life now is to unite her children and complete her family. She's confident that her research will pay off and that her son can escape the seal without releasing the entity.

After dismissing the council, Artemis is walking down the hall towards her chambers, her stoic light purple lips and silver hair showing underneath her cloak. She opens the door and is shocked to see her sister sitting on her bed in a gray cloak.

"What are you doing here?" asks Artemis in shock; "How did you get out of the barrier?"

Her sister stands up with a smug look on her dark red lips, seen underneath the shadow from her hood. "Did you really think that pathetic thing would hold me much longer? This is it little sister."

"Wrong." Artemis reaches into her cloak, but unfortunately, can't find what she needs.

"Looking for this?" The gray hooded woman holds up a device with a black jewel on it.

"HOW DID YOU GET THAT?! It was in my sealed pocket."

"I have my ways. Well now Artemis, let's see if you can escape the trap you intend for me."

"Caelestis, NO!" A black mass comes from the device and sucks Madame Artemis in. Her sister gives an evil chuckle and removes her hood. It is the Supreme Deity. "I'm finally near full power again. I never should have tried to restart the holy war at less than half strength like that. We can finally proceed, right lover?"

Artemis's right hand personal assistant, Vlad, emerges from the wardrobe. "Right babe. Remember, I demand what you promised me."

"In due time my dear Vlad, in due time."