Disclaimer: Oh! My Goddess © Fujishima Kosuke, Kodansha, TBS and KSS films; AnimEigo, Studio Proteus, and Dark Horse Comics. Tenkuu no Escaflowne is owned by Sunrise, TEREBI Tokyo, Kadokawa Comics, and Bandai Entertainment. Babylon 5 is owned by J. Michael Straczynski, PTN Consortium, and Warner Bros / Time Warner Entertainment Co. This is used without permission. This disclaimer also applies to several intellectual properties referred to in the text. Please be guided accordingly.

999,999 BCE:

The patriarch of House Fanel looked on in wonder at his guest after it had discarded the bulky encounter suit that it had used for the majority of its time with him. The Old One had presented itself to him when the colony ships where about to leave, and had proven itself a boon companion in the long voyage towards the Periphery.

"You're…you're…" The white-haired old man dithered as he tried to voice his mind.

"Expectations are always shattered." The voice was strangely melodic. Crenis was having difficulty equating it with the distorted voice that had always seemed to boom from the hulking encounter suit.

"…You're one of us!" The statement came out in a surprised exclamation. It was quite true. 'It' was no 'it', but rather a 'she'. A rather beautiful and young 'she' at that: a fine example of a Draconian in her prime. Auburn hair framed a beautiful face, while magnificent wings were folded at her back. She was rather on the short side, nothing like the hulking size of her encounter suit.

"I look like one of you. It is important that I be as unobtrusive as possible for the rest of my stay." The being before him brushed away a stray lock of auburn hair. Crenis chuckled lightly in response.

"Old friend, if you think looking like that is being unobtrusive, then I worry what you would look like if you were trying to be noticed."

Her gentle smile was not exactly appropriate for her answer. "I would manifest my true self, and drive you all mad with a glimpse of eternity."

"Er…" The old man blinked, not knowing how to answer. Groping for a safe topic to cover his faux pas, he noted what she had said earlier.

"Your stay? You will be leaving us? I thought the Lady—"

"You and your people are just one of many, Crenis. And the Lady did a great wrong by binding us to you; she could only do so much. The Defiance is scattered across the Periphery like shattered glass. The Lady could not risk it like Hari Seldon, and only have one Foundation."

"Eh…who is this Hari Seldon and this 'Foundation'?" Crenis was a Royal Historian, and he had not heard of anything that had threatened humanity like what the Defiance faced.

The Old One looked at him. Her face was slightly troubled. "A name from a story to be…"

She turned to look at her encounter suit, her gaze held a tinge of worry. "I had forgotten what it is to be free, old friend. Past, present, and future tumbling through the mind. Even shattered as I am by the Lady's working…"

A smile lit upon her lips as Crenis heard her sing words of a song unknown to him. "There's no time for us. There's no place for us. What is this thing that builds our dreams, yet slips away from us?"

His old friend looked at him with sad eyes. "It is a terrible, terrible thing to be one of the things you call gods, Crenis."

She sighed and shook her head. "Already I see the eternal present. I had gotten used to your mortal invention of Time, it seems."

"Old One, I know we of the Empire of Man are great, but I would not hazard to say that we invented Time."

"Ah, the arrogant assumptions, as always." The woman before him smiled. "I thought I had destroyed such assumptions in your mind. When I say 'mortal', I mean all that is sentient and lives and dies. You are creatures who have need of Time, so you make it. As a philosopher would say, Time only exists so that things do not happen all at once. The seals over me have been broken, and the Eternal Present roars inside my thoughts. For me there is neither Past nor Future; there is only now. It will help greatly in what we need to do."

"And what is that, Old One?"

"The Defiance will face many trials and many pains. It is a painfully long and tortuous path before your people. A few guideposts are in order. The setting up of these guideposts is my doing. My otherselves will be doing the other tasks, for they have been cast into the river of mortality by the lady and they are cursed to be born and reborn across the stars. I set the signs, and they will show the way."

Crenis considered this and nodded in agreement. "You will be meeting the Council then?"

"No, old friend. You will be the one who will be meeting the Council. I will be showing you what is needed during my stay, and once that is done the stars will be my destination."

Crenis shook his head in disbelief "How will you travel? All the ships have been grounded—"

He was interrupted as his companion exploded into a pillar of light. It was horrifyingly beautiful, the eternal beauty of the universe made manifest, a swirling galaxy in miniature… A cold light disturbing in its power and its implications, of worlds and worlds and unending histories in all their glorious variations. The vision took him to the knife-edge of sanity. That was where the voice whisper-boomed into his ears, heart, and mind. It was the delicate lover's caress and the whip of the overseer.

"i Am tHe sTaRs. ThE UnIvErSe MaDe MaNiFeSt. tHiS iS wHaT tHe lAdY wAnTs fOr yOu aLl. In ThE EnD."

The harshest and most painful way to achieve Enlightenment is always the easiest.

Then the endless moment was over, and before him was the beautiful young woman that had taken off the encounter suit.

"I understand now," he whispered in awe.

"Not totally, but one day you will."

Crenis smiled. "Yes. I think I will."

He looked at the encounter suit. "It seems you will not be needing that anymore."

"Yes."

"Then it seems I won't be calling you Kosh anymore. Where did you pick up that name, anyway?"

"It is a name I have heard… will hear of… it is from the future and the past and the present. I thought it would be appropriate."

"I assume that you will be using a new name, then?"

"Of course."

"Then what will it be, old friend?"

The woman smiled lightly.

"Another name from the Eternal Present. I would like to be called Belldandy."

Author's notes: Well, added another series to the 'Dances' sequence. ^_^

Escaflowne is cool, plus the background for it spans the right amount of time for sticking things in my timeline. The technical inclusion of O!MG and Babylon 5 via 'Belldandy' / 'Kosh' is another cute thing I've always thought of. Besides, the Old One of the Present is a bit of a joker. Personally, I think it would have been cooler to have Belldandy in that Kosh outfit. ^_^

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Last revision: May 21, 2007