RING!

It was the phone.

Celly mumbled a quiet curse and blinked her eyes sleepily. A she rubbed the sleep from her eyes, she noticed that something warm and heavy was across her stomach, pinning her down. Celly belatedly recognized the weight as Dion's arm as her hand fumbled on the nightstand for the constantly ringing phone. Ah... success. Celly punched the ON button, put the cellphone to her ear, and ground out: "This better be good..."

The voice on the other end startled her and Celly yelped, sitting up quickly and throwing Dion aside in the process. "MOM?!?" she exclaimed as Dion looked at her dazedly. He mouthed the question: "What's wrong?" She waved him back as she listened to the ranting on the other end of the phone.

"Uh... I'm--I'm sorry, mom. I wasn't expecting you to call. You woke me up."

>"Woke you up? Do you know what time it is, young lady?"<

"Of course I know what time it is... it's... uh... it's... uh..." Kuso! What time was it in California?!?

>"It's 10:30 am Pacific Standard Time,"< her mother answered for her. Then the voice turned worried. >"Were you studying all night again? Your last grade report was wonderful, but you know you shouldn't stay up so late."<

"Yeah. I was studying. I've, uhmm, got to stay at least fifty pages ahead." Celly bit her lip as her mother continued to talk. Grades? What grades? Celly hadn't stepped a *foot* on her college campus since the Game had started. Of course, being possessed by and evil entity, going crazy, helping blow up Disneyland, trying to kill people, and almost being killed herself, as well as plotting world domination, had all attributed to her confusion. Dion sensed her confusion through their Bond and said softly, "It'll be alright," and squeezed her hand. She smiled at him and squeezed back.

>"Celeste? Did you hear what I said?"<

Her attention snapped back. What had her mother been saying again? "Uhm. Yeah," she answered automatically.

>"Good. You'll do it then? We'll be expecting you this afternoon. Goodbye, Celeste."<

And her mother hung up.

And Celly realized what her mother wanted her to do.

She groaned and collapsed backwards onto the bed. Even with her eyes shut tight, she knew what Dion was going to ask. So, she spoke before him.

"Dion... how do you feel about housesitting?"

**************************************************************

Celeste and Dionysus entered Special Ops together, and were confronted by Pokemon, which was blazing on the viewscreen in all its saccharine glory. The appearance of Pikachu larger than life startled Celeste, until Sorano bounced up from her chair and attached herself to Celeste's leg.

"Hahaue! Chichiue! Ohayo gozaimasu!"

Celeste felt all of her tension leave her as she bent to pick the girl up in her arms. "Ohayo, Sorano-chan. Did you have breakfast already?" she asked.

Sorano happily nodded her head. "Hai! Bob-san made me waffles! And I got to put syrup on them and it was sticky and sweet and it was real good. And I had orange juice and milk, 'cuz Bob-san says little girls need to drink milk." Sorano spotted the man she was currently talking about and waved to him. "Ne, ne, Bob-san? I ate it all up! Ne?"

Bob smiled and patted Sorano on the head. "Sou desu, Sorano-chan. You were a very good girl."

No one seemed to notice how Dionysus had stiffened and narrowed his eyes at the brown-haired man. An Unnamed Otaku had stopped him, asking him to look over some reports, so he watched from the background as both his daughter and his woman smiled at the major domo. Dion snarled a curse, pitched it at Bob, and grinned in delight as the man was suddenly stricken with leprosy and his parts fell off. Of course, this was just in his wonderfully violent imagination, but it made Dion feel better. He turned his scowl at the papers in his hand.

"Arigatou, Bob, for taking care of my little mesume. She's a lot to handle, but Sorano seems to like you." Celeste absently stroked the side of Sorano's face and the girl giggled.

Bob flushed red. "It--it was really no problem, Mistress Celeste. She really is a sweet girl." Sorano finally squirmed to be let down and plopped herself in Celly's chair, singing along to the opening of Pokemon. Bob watched as Celeste's eyes softened as she watched her daughter, then shook himself out of his little daydream. "Anou... what are the plans for today, Mistress Celeste?"

Celeste looked back at Bob and crossed her arms. "Well, SERA hasn't found the presence of any Otaku, has it?"

"Not exactly. There were some small blips but they fuzzed out. Something is interfering with SERA. It seems as if all of the Otaku except for you, Remy-sama, and Mercy-sama are no longer in this time period. The Game seems to be at a standstill."

Celly frowned. "I don't like this. I'm not sure, but I don't think that the Game is just supposed to stop like this. Gah, I hate time users." Celeste clutched the Key around her neck. "It's a good thing I have this Space-Time Key. I never did like time-travel in the first place. Sorano... She's from Crystal Tokyo, Bob..."

"Hai, Mistress Celeste. All evidence seems to indicate that. What's the point?"

"The point, Bob, is that I'm still around to be her mother. So, that means either I won the Game, or..."

"Soretomo...?"

Celeste sighed. "Or the Game is still going on. That's a long time for the Game to go on, Bob." Celeste frowned. Or maybe I did die, she thought. And was reincarnated. I am Senshi, after all. It wouldn't be that strange. Dying... would I really lose? Her eyes flickered to Dionysus, who was reading from a manila folder. Would I really lose everything? No. I won't think like that. Celeste gave herself a mental shake. "Well, let's let time flow normally, ne, Bob? We've gotten our major objectives accomplished, thanks to the Bishounen. I think it's about time to let them go on their merry little ways."

"So would you like me to gather all the Bishounen into the War Room?"

"Yes. And make sure my 'nii-chan is there. I need to talk to him."

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

"So what mischief and mayhem are we plotting today, imouto-chan?" Mamoru asked offhandedly as he sat down.

All members of Lambda Project, the Otaku, and their respective Guardians were all in attendance in the War Room. Celly folded her fingers together and leaned her chin against her hands. As her eyes wandered down the long table, she resisted the urge to giggle as she saw that Eagle-sama was already starting to nod off. She also noted that Kagetsuya-sama was, for some unknown reason, standing slightly behind Mercy's chair. Protectively, perhaps? Mercy's face even had a faint blush over it. Maybe that was why Orion was in the shadows of the far corner, huffing quietly to himself? Information to note for later. Remy, of course, was surrounded by Aoshi-sama, Sanosuke-sama, and Mikagami-sama, while P-kun sat on her right. Celly just thanked whatever gods there were that the Bishounen had been restored to their original bodies, instead of remaining in Remy's head. Taking a breath, Celly beamed at her brother to answer his question.

"None at all, actually. The main missions have been accomplished. I just called you all here to say that you're free to leave. You'll always be welcome here at Castle Anthrax and at the Otaku no Mori, but officially, our work here is done. Domo arigato gozaimasu, minna-sama."

The room broke out into individual conversation as Celeste snagged Dionysus and Mamoru.

"Chiba Mamoru, you've just help further world domination. What are you going to do next?" Celeste giggled.

"I'm going to see Usako. I've been away for far too long," Mamoru replied.

"Hey, good answer! I'm going to have to tell Usagi-imouto-chan that the next time I see her. Actually, because of the apparent halt in the Game, I have to go home."

"Home? LA?" Mamoru asked. "Why? I thought that you would rather stay here with Unnamed Otaku at your beck and call."

Celly razzed Mamoru as Dionysus answered. "Well, her mom called to check up on her. By the way, Ce-ko, you have to tell me what kind of service you use that has HammerSpace in its calling area."

"Yeah, I have to housesit while my parents go off on some business trip. I'll be able to pop back and forth between there, here, and the Mori, anyway. And for some reason, they're still getting my grades and stuff, and I haven't been to classes in over a semester!"

"Strange... but what are you planning to do with Sorano? I'd think your parents would be suspicious, imouto- chan."

"Suspicious? They don't even know that I live with Dion! Uh... I mean... uhhh..." Celly broke down into incoherent babbling as Mamoru shot Dion the Over-Protective-Brother-of-Doom-glare. Dion held his hands in front of him and took a few steps away. "Oh, grow up, 'nii-chan! I'm twenty-one for crying out loud! Besides, I know that you gave Usagi a key to your apartment, and I haven't tried to kill you for that, so there!"

Mamoru blushed, then shook his head. "Well, I guess I can't stop you. But remember, LA is Nyx's territory. Be on your toes."

"I always am," Celly answered, then stretched up on her tiptoes to give her brother a peck on the cheek. "Tell everyone hello for me." Then she looked at a clock and screamed: "Kyaa!!! Dion! I'm going to be late!!!"

TBC...