Celly and Dionysus sat together on a couch in one of the private areas of the Mori. Though the Mori was by and large a public area, Celly always kept her upstairs offices and a few back rooms restricted, for her own personal use or to be rented out for private parties. But now, Celly and Dionysus were just relaxing, talking about inconsequential things.

Okay... they were really watching reruns of the Twilight Zone.

"Isn't that just creepy?" Celly commented. "I mean, the poor guy! All he wanted to do was read a couple of books. They didn't have to be so mean to him."

"I just want to know how blind he really is. Sure he broke his glasses... but can't he just hold the book really close to his face or something?" Dionysus and Celly laughed a little over this before turning back to the TV to see what else was going to show next. Dionysus watched Celly from the corner of his eye. She's smiling... that's good. I don't want to worry about anything anymore. Just take her mind off of all of these things that have been happening. Dionysus frowned slightly as he felt a faint tug on his mind. Dare?

Get your butt out here!

Onii-sama?!? Dionysus thought, shocked.

Not the brightest crayon in the box are you, little brother? Who else would be calling you this way? Now haul ass and get out here. I've got stuff to tell you.

Demo... I'm with Ce-ko right now. I don't want to--

Will you listen to me for once? I'll be waiting for you in the gaming room downstairs. Hurry up!

Dionysus sighed to himself. And looked at Celly, still engrossed on the episode of Biography that was on the TV. She noticed his intent gaze and turned to him, worry on her features.

"Dion? Daijoubou?"

Damn... gotta think fast. What will she believe? I guess I can stretch the truth a little. "It's okay, Ce-ko. I need to take off for a bit, you know the reasons."

Celly frowned. "The Council? Would they really hurt you, Dion?"

"I'm not sure. They've got a rather large bounty on my head. I better get them off my trail. You can stay here and wait for Remy and P-kun to show up."

"All right," Celly sighed. She grasped his hand tightly in hers and bent down his head to kiss him lightly. "Just be safe, itooshii... come back to me."

"Always."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Dionysus was kicking himself for being several types of fools as he stalked out to where his brother was waiting. "Kuso, this had better be important," he muttered.

"It is, little brother," Artemis answered. "It has to do with the Council."

"Well, duh! I sorta figured that one out on my own. Now what do those blowhards want?"

"Well, they've reinstated Roger to his original position, but that was your intent, wasn't it?" Dionysus just smiled, pissing off his brother.

Artemis shifted to his human form and grabbed his brother by the collar and shook his roughly. "Don't you get it, baka?!? You set it up, didn't you!?! You were the one who took out Christopher! Admit it!"

Dionysus pushed his brother aside. "Hotohori no Otaku asked me herself. Besides, none of you in the Council understand what's going on here. The Game is seriously f-ing things up!"

"What I do know is that the Policy is being torn to shreds here! Just because you chose to leave everything behind doesn't mean you can corrupt all of the other Guardians as well."

"Corrupt them? CORRUPT THEM?!? Is that what you think I've been doing here, onii-sama? Boy have you got it wrong. You can't stop the other Guardians from straying from the fold. Not under these circumstances."

"Well then, what exactly are you doing here? You're not even a true Guardian. You shouldn't have felt the call."

"Huh. Goes to show how far the Council is out of the loop. The Moderator called me herself, to act as proxy for her since she can't do her job."

"The Moderator? Gods, little brother. What have you gotten into? Who is the Moderator for the Game? Why can't she do her job?"

Dionysus hung his head. "Ce-ko is supposed to be the Moderator." Artemis stared at his brother in shock, unable to say anything. Dionysus continued. "But the process of taking her from her 'normal' life and the process of the Moderator melding with her has put a strain on Ce-ko. She can't remember her past, and..."

"And what?"

"And everyday she loses more and more of herself. She's slipping into Terra more and more often."

"Kami-sama! Do you know what the consequences would be if she forgot herself totally?"

"Of course I know! I'm trying to keep her together, but it just keeps coming out."

"Why don't you tell her the truth then, and fight it together?"

"The truth? What truth? The whole truth?" Dionysus began pacing rapidly back and forth across the room. "Yeah, I can just see it now. Oh, konnichiwa, Ce-ko. I should've told you the truth from the outset, but instead I decided to trick and decieve you for the past week and a half. I was really sent here to take over your position because you've been declared unfit for your job. I've betrayed you and have been secretly meeting with the other Otaku behind your back." Dionysus turned on his brother furiously, the anger clearly sparking in his eye. "Why don't just tell her the whole shebang too? Why don't I tell her, remember all those times I said I loved you? Well, it was all a lie. I just said it because I enjoyed having a girl who didn't mind me copping a feel every now and then! That would go over *real* well!!!"

"Nani?"

Dionysus froze in mid-rant, as did Artemis. Both of the silver-haired men turned and saw the form of Celly hovering in the doorway. The blood drained from their faces. Celly stood there, pale and disbelieving, tears filling her eyes and her fists clenched.

"Nani?!?" she screamed.

TBC...