Strange energy signals in the Digital World were all too common, and all too predictable in that they meant trouble at least. In terms of what kind of trouble, this was harder to guess. Izzy was tracking the energy from his room, and the others were heading to investigate.
"So... What's going to happen this time?" Takeru pondered.
"Doesn't matter, it's all fine as long as we get out of it made of flesh, human, the same ages, same genders, in our own bodies, alive, not on fire..."
"...Miyako, we get it..." Davis noted.
"...Not frozen solid, not turned into different people, not brainwashed, not eaten alive, not smashed into a million pieces, not thrown into a parallel universe where everyone is lizards..."
"Miyako..." Hawkmon sighed.
" ...Not turned into robots, not running into puppetmon, not being sucked into the dark ocean, not being hypnotised by snakes, not seeing a close friend horribly killed in front of us..."
"MIYAKO! KNOCK IT OFF!" Takeru yelled.
"...Oh, and not running into an evil overlord Digimon out to take over the world. Of course." Miyako ended, and looked at her friends. The group had stopped.
Hikari was looking very pale.
"...Oh, sorry, Hikari, I forgot... Um, I didn't mention anything like that nightmare you had?"
Takeru and Davis glared at their purple haired friend. All the Digimon glared too.
"...Given you listed off so much I'm pretty sure the answer is yes." Ken pointed out.
"Crap... Sorry..." Miyako said nervously.
"It... It's okay..." Hikari said softly.
The glares didn't stop.
"Seriously, Miyako, when you're trying to make a joke keep away from the dark humour?" Davis glowered.
"Jeez, I said sorry and Hikari accepted it! Right, 'Kari?" Miyako said, hugging the younger girl for a second.
But at this point, the odd energy manifested in a ball of light about three hundred yards away, a localised lighting storm, and a sound like a cross between thunder and a sheet of paper tearing in half.
They ran towards the event.
"...Wait, why did we just run up? This is what causes us problems!" Davis realised. The group halted.
At the epicentre, there was a crater.
And nothing.
"Huh. Just a random storm that vaporised... the chunk of forest we were about to walk into if Miyako hadn't started an argument..." Ken noted.
Hikari shivered slightly. Gatomon placed a reassuring paw on her legs.
"Great. Well, I vote we go back." Davis muttered.
"Me too." Takeru agreed.
At this, all six of the group beeped. Miyako opened hers first
"...Message from Izzy. It says there's another build-up but smaller. It should stay within the crater."
As she spoke, another glow began, indeed smaller, but about ten feet off the Digidestined drew back to a safe (they hoped) distance.
And when the ball faded, a shape emerged, an adult human.
"You fool, you don't... Oh, craaaaa..."
The woman (judging by her voice) plummeted to digital earth.
The Digidestined ran over, hearing the woman begin to rant. They did not listen closely.
"Ow... That hurt. Wretched boy! After all I did for him he betrays me the first instant someone undoes the brainwashing... Could have killed me destroying the teleporter relay nodes like that..."
She seemed to be a woman in her early twenties or late teens, wearing latex. A lot of latex yet also at the same time not wearing a lot at all. Latex boots, leggings, gloves and a top, a rather skimpy looking strapless top. She had long brown hair with black lines dyed in, and blonde bleached tips.
"Hey, are you okay down there?" Miyako asked loudly.
"...Something seems wrong here." Gatomon whispered.
The woman seemed to freeze, then chuckle.
"...Well, there's a voice I haven't heard in a long time. Shouldn't you and Ken be kissing for all time in the West Wing gallery or did those meddlesome brats ruin that too?" She said, with a harsh yet oddly familiar voice.
"...What?" Ken pondered.
"How do you know their names?" Davis asked.
The woman turned over, and looked up. Her face was covered in mud, as was much of the rest of her front.
"Oh... Oh, I see... They screwed it up. They broke my teleporter and this is what happens..."
She laughed loudly.
"...I think she's evil." Iori whispered.
The Digimon nodded agreement.
"She kind of smells familiar... but she also feels like a Digimon somehow." Veemon noted.
The woman wiped her face, stood up, and leered at the six Digidestined.
"...Oh, this is wonderful." She smirked, staring straight at one person who seemed frozen in place.
"...You... You look like..." Hikari stammered.
"Oh, I don't 'look like', Chibi... I am..."
The others stiffened in surprise as the woman cleaned her front of more mud.
"Come and look into my eyes to know the truth."
"...No, don't!" Hikari shouted, closing her own, turning away... then realising there was silence. She looked out of the corner of her eyes. All the Digimon and other humans had frozen in place, blank eyed.
Hikari heard the sound of footsteps climbing the crater, and quickly tried to shake the person nearest to her awake with her hand, and poke Gatomon with her foot...
...But before she could do anything more, the woman was in front of her.
"Oh, Chibi... How fast witted! Of course, you would know what I was thinking. We are of the same mind... "
"...You can't be... It's impossible!"
The woman grinned.
"Oh, but look at me, Chibi. I'm here. I'm real. And I froze everyone in place with just my eyes."
"You can't be..."
The woman moved over, and grabbed Hikari's hands. The girl tried to struggle, but caught the eyes of the woman by mistake and felt an urge to not resist, but remained able to move and think for herself.
"I want to have a good little chat, Chibi. It's been a long time since I spoke to someone of... potential. And I know your potential... our potential."
"...You can't be me!" Kari shrieked.
The woman laughed again.
"Oh, but I am. The Digimon Empress herself, bearer of the Crest of Darkness... Hikari Yagami."
"...Wait. What?" Hikari frowned, confused.
The self-proclaimed Empress continued.
"I'm your future, girl. Of course we seem to have entered a paradox but... Perhaps, little Chibi me, you as my past self can become... my little sister? I always wanted another little sister... my last one made a better deocration... Try to rescue that oaf Taichi, would she?"
"...What are you talking about? That's..."
The elder Hikari ignored "herself".
"Now though. Let me show you the future..."
And with that, the older woman put a hand in front of Hikari, and a mist came out. Instantly, Hikari felt the world go black..
A second later, she heard the voice of the woman, but saw only blackness.
"Now, Chibi. I will explain. In my rise to power, my crest of Darkness gave me... Wonderful powers. My first to be of use was my eyes, blessed with the ability to freeze any in their tracks, to bend them to my will. To make them mine. Of course, sunglasses ruin everything... but it is a fine gift. And it will be yours... Watch how I used it..."
Hikari now saw Takeru's face through the eyes of another person. He looked older, perhaps about fifteen, and appeared frightened for a second. Then he relaxed.
"Takeru... Can you love me now? Can you admit your love for me?" A voice said. It felt as if it came from the eyes she stared from
"...Yes...Hikari..." He droned.
The eyes glanced him up and down. His shirt was torn and muddied, his cargo pants had fared little better.
"Call me Empress, my love... Call me Empress..."
The eyes leaned towards him. They stayed open as they kissed him. Hikari felt the kiss watching, and was distressed. Did that count as her first kiss?
"That wasn't my special kiss... I won't do that to you my love..."
The eyes looked at Davis. He was also vacant.
"Strike a good pose, fool. You'll hold it forever..."
Davis obeyed, and this time, Hikari, watching through these eyes, felt her lips tingle. And below them, Davis went cold... and hard... and greyed before her eyes.
The kiss had petrified him.
"The second useful power. Ah, so many kisses. Not always on the lips... Any spot I kiss and allow the power in, I petrify my prey... What wonderful art I made. A camera captures a moment forever... This captures forever in a moment..."
The eyes leaned back to inspect her new statue.
"Come, my love. We will get you dressed properly... Something cleaner than that... More fitting for the new Empress Consort..."
And the blackness faded...
"...And the third power. Hallucinations. Combined with the first, I show you what I want you to see. Or I let them run loose and your nightmares show you what you want..."
Unbidden, Hikari saw her nightmare from before in her mind. Not an illusion brought forth by the Empress.
"...but first, I'll remove these Digidestined, my new sister. Then I will make you into the perfect sister. I'll corrupt that crest... I'll give you all my power too. We'll share, like good sisters...
Hikari was frozen in place as the Empress walked to each Digimon, leaned down, and kissed them on the noses.
"Such pitiful things... Only good as cannon fodder..." She smirked as they petrified.
Hikari did not see this. She saw fragments of a statue, one recognisable part... istaring/i at her...
She moved to Iori.
"He was so cute little... but he grew so ugly in spirit. So determined. So aggressive and hating evil... He was so like my...former consort... His role model. " The Empress spat the last words, then leaned down.
With a kiss a statue stood dressed in his clothes.
Hikari saw not this, but more piles of rubble. Rubble in clothing...
"And Ken... He tried this first."
She kissed him.
Hikari saw rubble, not the statue that was made.
"Ah, Daisuke... I want to let him grow a little... He did become rather handsome, but we need him out of the way..."
The Empress kissed her finger, then held it to the boy's lips. He still petrified.
Hikari saw him diving to try and save the other falling shape, failing, and being struck himself, both hitting the ground and...
"And Yolei. Foolish Yolei. She resisted me. But no more then and no more now..."
A kiss on the cheek. A statue.
Hikari saw the broken frames of familiar glasses in a pile of stone.
"Ah... and Takeru... He betrayed me. I gave him freedom from all the disgust he held, from all his worries. He was my rock. Well, now this one can be yours... I have learned my lesson... I need no Consort. We will keep him as a reminder that we can only trust ourselves... While we take over our world that is rightfully ours..."
She leaned in and kissed. On the lips.
Hikari saw... enough.
"No..." She found herself growling.
"Oh? No what, sister?"
"...No. I am not going to be your sister..."
The older woman seemed taken aback.
"...You've freed yourself from... Ah. Your crest, of course. That infernal light. But Chibi, you know the truth. Know what it is like to be the middle child. Not as athletic as Taichi nor as smart as that pathetic little nerdy brat Haruka... I know the darkness you hold. And I know that the light has to burn brighter and brighter until it burns out and when it does... We're born anew. Our true selves. We are what we are in the dark..."
Hikari glared at the woman.
"...NO. Everything you're saying is wrong. All of it! You're not me, and I will never be you! Now, let my friends go and go back where you came from..."
The woman sighed.
"Of course you'd resist. You're such a goody two-shoes right now... but just wait. Wait until Haruka..."
"...I'm the youngest in the family." Hikari snapped.
"...Oh? Well... That is unusual..."
"...My mother miscarried when I was two. Tai only told me the truth about it last year when I noticed she got upset around the date it happened, Dad wouldn't say either. Tai was old enough to remember it better."
"...I can't... Well..." The woman stammered, knocked for six by this claim.
"And my last name isn't Yagami. It's Kamiya."
The woman stared.
"You. Are. Not. Me." Hikari spat, causing even the twisted woman who had claimed to be her to feel a cold sensation up her spine.
Then the woman smirked.
"I see. So this is another world... Well. Maybe that crest is stronger. But how strong will it be if I were to shatter these statues? This statue of this ugly blond? The four-eyed..."
Hikari saw the woman smirking at her threats first. And then the next she knew she was being pulled away from the shrieking woman, who lay back in the crater. She heard someone screaming about killing someone. Other voices pleaded for calm.
She realised eventually it was herself, and the other voices appealing for calm were her friends.
The woman nursed a bloodied nose, but even in panic chuckled.
"You... You're insane, little girl! Threaten a stupid little boyfriend and that's what happens? You start punching a woman far bigger than you? "
"She was kicking your ass!" Davis said from her right, even as he fought to stop the berserk girl he held onto from trying more amateur fist-based Rhinoplasty on the smug but shaken woman.
"Oh, I'll get her back once you all get back to stone. I can fix my nose easily enough but let's see her fix being a pile of pebbles... How the hell that weak little crest undid my own..."
"Get out of here! Whoever, whatever you are, go back to whatever world you came, go somewhere else, I don't care, just get the hell out of MY WORLD!" Hikari screamed.
At this, the Empress glowed.
"...What is... Oh... Oh no. This isn't fair. Your crest is weak! It can't... It can't do this!"
The woman screamed, glowed, and then another ball of light took her away.
For a moment after the thunderclap-tear of paper, there was no sound but Hikari breathing heavily.
And then between breaths, she spoke.
"...Holy crap... Was that me?"
And then she fainted.
She awoke feeling tired, oddly enough. She saw the concerned face of her brother.
"Hikari! You're awake! Are you okay?"
"...Yeah. Sort of... Um, what happened?" She asked.
She did so as she sat up and seeing she was in her own bed, and it appeared to now be late at night. She'd been in the Digital World in mid-afternoon. She raised a hand to run through her hair, noticing two things. She was in her pyjamas, which would have made her think it was some dream and she had been sick in bed, hence her brother's concern.
The second thing was that her right hand was bandaged up, her thumb was in a plaster-cast, and the whole hand just hurt badly.
Davis and Takeru had signed it in tiny, barely legible handwriting.
"Well... Apparently we discovered two things. You really shouldn't be made angry, and you need to learn to punch better. You balled up your fist with your thumb in the middle apparently and punched the ground a few times by mistake. You dislocated it, sprained your wrist, split and bruised your knuckles... " The elder Kamiya explained.
"Oh man... I really lost it didn't I? Was I out the whole day?"
Tai chuckled as Gatomon ran into the room, leaping onto Hikari's chest. She hugged her Digimon with the left hand.
"You're awake!"
"Yeah, I noticed, Gatomon... Nice to see you too..."
"So, yeah. You were out for the whole day all right. Whole two days." Taichi finished.
"Um... What?"
Tai then explained they had brought her to Izzy's place, who then called Joe over. They determined the injuries, treated them, and told the school Hikari had had a dizzy spell at home, injured her hand and began running a fever.
"...How did I manage to send that... woman away though?"
Tai sighed.
"Gennai says your crest has a lot of power. Every crest does. If we're pushed by what our crest opposes and we're strong enough he says, we can do anything. It was like... You were so angry your crest gave you the power to do what you wanted. And you did. And you were out for days, scared the hell out of everyone, especially me, mom, and dad..."
Hikari leaned back.
"...Oh. Sorry I scared you..."
She then yawned. Gatomon chuckled from where she was still snuggled into her chest.
" I guess it took a lot out of me. I still feel sleepy... Can you get Mom and Dad in so they know I'm okay?"
Her brother nodded.
"Sure. I'm sure they'll let you have some real sleep once they know you're okay."
He ruffled her hair, and she only protested out of habit, finding the action strangely comforting tonight. She watched her brother leave to fetch parents she knew loved her, felt the gentle purr from her content Digimon partner...
She thought back on the events of a few days ago and all she wondered was, how had that... woman become like that? She'd saw only a glimpse of what she did and heard only scraps of what she had claimed to have done. Thoughts were swirling in her head. Ifs. Buts. Maybes. She knew that answers would not be likely to the question.
She was fairly sure of one thing though even as she ran through the ultimately hypothetical questions.
She never planned to punch anything ever again...