Okay! This happens after The Digimon Emperor's Revenge, but before anything else really happens. First off, you need to know the basics about a couple of the characters I'm going to be showing ye, because there's no where besides this current fan-fiction that you're likely to have found out about them. Unless you know me or my friends, and have been told about this already, then you can just skip over this part.
A brief (as I can make it) run through:
1. The main, good guys that you'll need to know about are the three Chaos Lords: D'nea, Rahvin and Ae'ros. They have other names, but I'm going to refrain from using them in this fic, as it would cause confusion (and I'm sure it's going to be confusing enough already).
2. They try and keep their Diadem (a series of worlds, in a system that resembles the layers of an onion. The closer to the center world you get, the stronger magic becomes) from colliding/melding with the other Diadems by simply being present. They don't rule, they're like...plugs. Or, maybe, a safety net. Or, locks. D'nea and Ae'ros travel through the Diadem using Gateways, which look like large holes in the air. Rahvin can teleport, and so she doesn't need to build Gates (Lucky).
3. Their main enemy is Enime (pronounced "Enemy"), who wants (following the rules of a typical bad guy) to kill the Chaos Lords, take over Chaos (the center world) and rule the Diadem. An all around nasty guy, he has a lot of henchmen, but all you need to know about is Shaidow, his shape shifting-telepathic lackey. Shaidow will be explained in the story.
4. Each Chaos Lord has their own separate elements. Ex: D'nea controls water, illusion and plant magic. Her portion of the day is the Noon-Afternoon, and she's telekinetic.
5. The Lords of Chaos (L.O.C.s for short) have a bunch of friends: Min, Avi, Oracle, Jack, and especially Dementia Moonstruck (who has a strong dislike of Carrots, and a love of explosives). These guys will also be explained in the fic.
Alright! Yay! You can continue now, if I haven't scared you off!
Digimon, etc. belong to whoever created them and the L.O.C.s & Co. belong to me and my dear friends Azzie/Rahvin and Dementia. They cannot belong to Ae'ros, because despite the fact he is our friend, he's still fictional. *G*
************************************************************************
June knocked on her brother's door. "Da-vis! Mom says to come and eat your dinner!" There was no response from inside, so she pushed the door open. Davis was slumped on the ground, his head resting on an open textbook. June giggled. He must have fallen asleep in the middle of his homework. Nudging him in the side with her toe, she chimed. "Wake up sleepy head!" June frowned when he didn't respond. In fact...he didn't even seem to be breathing. "D...Davis?" Kneeling down beside him, she held a hand in front of his mouth, but she didn't feel any breath. Staring in shock for a moment, she opened her mouth to scream.
A hand covered her mouth before she could start. "Shhh...don't worry. This is only temporary."
June looked up, eyes wide, at a tall, blonde girl, and pried her hand away from her mouth. "B-but...he's dead."
"Like I said, it's only temporary." Seeing June's bewildered look the girl added, patronizingly, "Just trust me. It'll all turn out fine."
Tai knocked on his sister's door. "Kari? You in there?" When there was no response, so he opened the door. Kari was lying on her side on her bed, Gatomon curled next to her. Both seemed to be asleep, but he couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong. Looking closer, he realized they didn't seem to be breathing. "Kari!"
"S'alright. She'll be okay."
Tai spun around to face the girl who stood in the doorway. "What do you mean, she'll be okay?! She's-"
"It's temporary. My friend is already going to find her and the others and bring them back."
"What do you mean....wait. The others? Cody, Yolei, Davis, and T.K.? Do you mean to say that they're-"
"Unfortunately. But, hey, no worries. I have full confidence in D'nea.
Tai was getting frustrated. "Who's this D'nea? And why is my sister-"
The girl shook her head. "All you really need to know is that because this evil Mage is being a jerk and involving innocent bystanders in our fight, your sister is as she is."
"That doesn't explain much."
The girl shrugged. "Tough. I have a tight schedule right now. I have to go and tell the other families that things are alright. I might have to wipe a few memories or something." Tai started to protest, but she cut him off. "I'll send word to you the second we get them back, alright?"
"But...hey...wait! Why didn't Gatomon disappear?"
The girl shrugged. "Dunno." With that, she disappeared.
Tai looked back at his sister's still form. "What am I going to tell Mom?"
D'nea ducked into a small alcove as one of the ghouls that inhabited the fortress of the underworld, dubbed simply "Eternity," turned a corner and floated silently past her hiding place. This place gives me the creeps. The sooner I find the DigiDestined, the sooner I can get out of here. She emerged from her hiding place and nearly slipped on a patch of greenish ooze. And I'm going ta take a nice, long, relaxing bath when I get to back Chaos, that's for sure.
Actually, the underworld that "Eternity" was located was only the afterlife for a little known dimension. And, it actually was mostly a nice, cheerful place. 99% of the dead population lived in the nicer valleys and plains, and lazed their eternity away in peace and happiness. Only a small number of unlucky souls were kept in "Eternity", most of them the prisoners of Mages who had the power to send them there, or dangerous criminals from the underworld's dimensional counterpart of the living. But this didn't really matter to D'nea at the moment. All she knew was that she was going to give Enime a piece of her mind the next time he showed his face.
Turning a corner, she ran face to skull into a small possé of warrior skeletons. Backtracking quickly, she ducked into another alcove and sent an illusion running down the corridor, back the way she came. The skeletons opened their jaws in a silent battle cry, and took off after the illusion.
After they'd left, D'nea breathed a sigh of relief, and hurried on her way.
T.K. woke up, and groaned. "I feel like I've been hit by a truck..." He tried to open his eyes, and suddenly realized he already had them open. He yelped, and sat up, and his head collided with something soft.
"Ouch!" It yelped. "T.K! Is that you?"
"Patamon!" As his friend perched on his head, he asked, "Can you see anything?"
"Nope. I was hoping you could."
"Well...at least it means that we're probably not blind."
"Unless we're both blind."
"Well, aren't you just the ray of sunshine."
Something moved beside him, and he scrambled to his feet. "Wha...where am I?" wondered a groggy voice.
T.K. squinted. Now he could almost make out a few shapes, and now he addressed the one that was dragging itself to its feet. "Davis?"
"Who else is it gonna be? Who's that? T.K?"
"Someone get the license of the truck that hit me?" wondered a voice at their feet.
"Veemon?"
"Present and accounted for," agreed Davis's Digimon partner.
"Where are the others, then?"
As if on cue, the other shapes that T.K. could half see, half sense around them stirred and groaned as they woke up. In a few minutes Yolei and Hawkmon, Kari and Gatomon, and Cody and Armadillomon had all been accounted for.
"Where are we?" Yolei wondered, feeling her way around in the darkness.
Davis crashed into a wall, and yelped in pain. Kari and the others felt their way over to him. Following the wall that Davis had found they'd discovered another wall and a half before Kari found the door. "I think we're in a cell of some kind," she commented, trying to shove the door open without any luck.
"Well, the least they could do was give us a window."
"I don't think they, whoever they are, are real interested in being hospitable."
There was a depressed silence, which was suddenly interrupted by a soft moan behind them, and the soft rustle of cloth on stone.
They strained their eyes to try and see who (or what) was there, but it was next to impossible. "Who's there?" Gatomon inquired, finding Kari and positioning herself between her DigiDestined friend and the sound.
"Gatomon?" Whoever it was sounded like they were getting to their feet, and Kari thought she could see a shadow move.
Gatomon gasped. It wasn't....it couldn't be..."Wizardmon?" Skittering forward, she found her friend's hand and grabbed it. "How'd you get here?"
"I was about to ask you the same thing..." He sounded worried.
"What is it?"
"Well...this place, as far as I can tell, is something of an...afterlife."
T.K. finished the thought for him. "So if we're here....we must be dead?"
The statement brought on pandemonium.
"I'm to young to die!"
"I'm going to miss all my soaps!"
"What am I going to tell my parents?!"
"Quiet!" Kari suddenly yelped. She had one ear pressed up against the door, and, after a few moments of listening, she gasped. "Someone's coming!"
"Are you sure?"
"Positive."
"Only fools are-"
"Don't start."
Then suddenly they could all hear the sound of hurried footsteps. They listened as the sound got louder, until it stopped right in front of the door. There was a moment's pause, and then a slight knock, accompanied by a muffled "Hello?"
Davis lunged for the door, and pounded back on it. "Hey! Let us-"
He was pushed away by Cody, who addressed the voice on the other side of the door. "Hello! Can you help us?"
"Are you the DigiDestined?"
"Yeah, that's us. Who wants to know?"
"Questions later, let me get this door open. Step out of the way, please." A small, square patch next to Cody suddenly started to glow with a soft violet light. The DigiDestined and their friends backed away quickly as the glow became stronger. Then, quite suddenly, there was a yelp and the glow disappeared. "Curse it! Curse it curse it curse it!!!" The door blew open, and disintegrated, letting some dim light into the cell. A short-ish girl was silhouetted in the doorway, and she held out a palm. A small ball of lavender light appeared above it and lit up her face, which held a "Guess I showed that door who was boss!" expression.
"Who are you?" Davis yelped.
"D'nea. And this is a jailbreak." She frowned a little and glanced at the cell. "In a manner of speaking."
"But-"
D'nea shook her head. "I'll explain as we go. But we don't have a bunch of time. If Enime didn't already know I was here, he does now."
"You've lost me," T.K. shook his head.
"I said I'll explain. If we could go now?"
"How do we know we can trust you, anyway?" Davis asked, glaring.
D'nea backed up a pace and spread her arms with a hurt expression, while the small ball of light floated where she left it. "I'm getting you people out of Eternity, here! You can decide weather or not to trust me later, but I for one don't want to stay here any longer than I have to."
The DigiDestined looked at each other, and then one by one they nodded. "What have we got to lose, anyway?" Kari pointed out.
A few minutes later they were hurrying down a labyrinth like set of passages, and everyone had questions, which D'nea was trying to answer the best she could.
"So, who are you anyway? And why are you helping us?"
"I already told you. I'm D'nea. One of the three Chaos Lords. I'm helping you because it's partially our fault you're in this mess." She paused to peer around a corner. Seeing the next passageway was empty, she nodded and led them down it. The DigiDestined waited for her to continue. "See, not to long ago, our friend Ae'ros was kidnapped by an evil Mage named Enime, and I already know how ironic that name is, thank you very much. Anyhow, he then captured my friend Dementia Moonstruck, converted her to data and scattered her pixels across the digital world. Then, to make matters worse, he sent us a challenge, and told us he was going to capture you people and hide you somewhere. If we couldn't find you in a specific time limit, he'd get to keep you. Which means it would have been even harder to find Dementia."
"Oooookay.....so what are Chaos Lords, then?"
"We live on Castle Chaos, on Chaos, in the center of the Diadem. Think 'Universal Onion'. Each layer of the 'Onion' contains hundreds of hundreds of worlds, except for the center, which is simply a world of its own. That's Chaos. As you go deeper through the levels, the stronger magic becomes. The Chaos Lords keep this Diadem from colliding with the other Diadems, because many of the worlds are very similar to worlds in other Diadems, and they want to meld. Our job is pretty much to add some element of chaos into these worlds and give them some variations so they're not so much alike."
"And Enime? Is he a Chaos Lord?"
"Blasphemed!" D'nea shuddered. "I don't even want to think about that scenario." Shaking her head, and leading them down another passage way, she added, "He's the exact opposite of us. He's logical, arrogant, self-centered, and bad to the bone."
A voice cackled from behind them. "And he's found you."
They spun around. A purple-black blob with a vaguely humanoid shape leered at them through a jagged gash that it used for a mouth. D'nea scowled. "Shaidow!"
"In the flesh. So nice to see you again, D'nea," As it spoke, two fiery eyes appeared in it's face, and claws resembling Wolverine's slid out of it's hands.
D'nea answered by pulling power. A torrent of water cascaded down onto the shape shifter, and froze into a large block of ice. Turning away, she hurried them forward. "That won't hold it long, so we'll have to put a lot of distance between it and us. Hurry!"
"That was Enime?" Wizardmon asked as they hurried. D'nea shook her head.
"That was Shaidow, one of his henchmen. It's a shape shifter, and a telepath. A really nasty combination, that. It means it can find out what could most hurt you, and then change into that thing. And he's practically unstoppable, which doesn't help much." There was a glimmer of sunlight, and D'nea pointed ahead. "There we go! The exit!"
The words were barely out of her mouth when evil laugher echoed around them. D'nea groaned, and broke into a run. The DigiDestined followed suit.
The sunlight momentarily blinded them when they scrambled out the door. "Look out for the three-headed dog!" D'nea yelped, and pushed them forward. Behind them they heard the rattle of a large chain, and three canine snarls. A glance behind them showed a very large dog, with three heads full of very white, very sharp teeth. Behind them stood a figure that seemed to be made of darkness. D'nea pointed forward into the forest that rose out in front of them, where a path wound through the trees. "Follow that, until you come to a clearing with a crystal embedded in a large rock! Gather around the crystal and grab each other's hands, then wait for me. I don't think Rahvin will leave anyone out, but it's better to take a few precautions. Go!" She stopped and turned to face her foe.
It felt like they ran for ages, hearing the occasional yell, followed by an explosion of either sound or light. It had been a few minutes since the last explosion when at last they came to a clearing, with a large, white crystal in the very middle. The DigiDestined and their friends gathered around and held hands. D'nea came running after them, and as soon as she reached them, she put her hand on the crystal, yelling, "Rahvin! Now!"
A dark ball of energy zoomed through the air to bury itself in her back. The Chaos Lord screamed as the world suddenly disappeared around them, to be replaced by a brilliant light. Kari noticed it managed to look white, while looking purple, green and blue at the same time. *It's making my eyes hurt...* "D'nea, are you alright?"
"Y...yeah." She sounded dazed, but unhurt. The others chimed in, confirming that they were also okay.
Satisfied her friends were safe for now, she was just about to ask someone what was going on, when the ground that they couldn't see dropped out from under their feet and they fell...a total of two feet, three and 1/4 inches.
"Ouch!"
"Yeow!"
"Argh! Ooooh, I think I just landed on my Digivice..."
Then everything went black.
When she woke up, Yolei felt as if she were one, big ache. The others' mixed moans and groans told her that they were awake also, and probably in the same condition. They picked themselves up, looking around in confusion. D'nea was nowhere to be seen.
Davis was gaping. "Where are we?"
"I think we must be at that Castle Chaos that D'nea was talking about. You know, where the Chaos Lords lived."
Veemon whistled softly. "This is some place they got here!"
They stood in the middle of a large hall. The walls were of gray stone, and there were various hanging on the walls. There was a large, circular table in front of them, in the middle of the room, and a large chandelier, light with candles, hung over it. They looked around, but they seemed to be alone.
A brown-and black tabby cat hurtled past them, nearly colliding with Kari's legs, but scrabbling to one side just in time. -'Scuse me! Comin'' through! Outta th' way! Innocent bystander running for her dear little life!- A voice rang in their heads as the cat passed them. It barely slowed down until it reached the table, where it crouched beneath a chair, it's tail bushed up and it's eyes wide.
"Did that cat just talk?" Yolei gasped.
"Watch out! Comin' through!"
The group spun around just as a small, blond haired girl followed the path of the cat. She carried a large sword but, while it looked heavy, she carried its weight easily. She leapt onto the table, and turned to face them, her sword up in "guard" position. Gatomon and the other Digimon stepped in front of their partners, ready to fight to protect them. But the girl didn't seem to be interested in them.
A war cry sounded behind them, and they scrambled out of the way as an older blond pursued the smaller one. "Ha! Avi! You cannot escape my wrath! Etc. etc. etc!!!" She leapt up on the table, and swung her own sword. The smaller girl, who they supposed was Avi, ducked and lunged in with her own sword.
"That's what you think! Take that, Rahvin!"
The older girl, Rahvin, blocked the blow and laughed. "Oh please! That was the first move I learned! Try this on for size!" She slid her own blade up Avi's sword, aiming for her neck. Avi flung her sword off the table, dropped and rolled after it. Rahvin's sword dug into the wood of the table, and she struggled a moment or two to free her blade. During that time, Avi had retrieved her own blade. She spun around, her blade up, and just in time to block Rahvin's blow. They locked blades, and strained against each other, teeth bared in determined grimaces. But gradually, because of her advantage of height, Rahvin began to win. Avi was forced backwards, until she suddenly tripped over one of the flagstones of the floor. She shrieked and landed flat on her back, her sword flying out of her grip and clattering across the room. Rahvin smirked, the tip of her blade just touching Avi's chest. "Ha!" And with that, she thrust down with her blade.
Depending on their natures, the DigiDestined gasped, or looked away. But there was no spray of blood, and no scream of pain from Avi. Instead, there was just a sigh of frustration. "Aw man! I thought I had you this time!"
They looked up, confused. Avi, still with the blade pinning her like a bug to the ground, was frowning up at Rahvin, who was leaning on said blade and smiling patronizingly. "Hey, cheer up Avi. You're definitely getting better. If you hadn't nearly tripped over Chris you might have got me back there on the stairs."
"Sure. Says you, Miss Best-Swordsperson-in-the-Entire-Diadem-Without-Even-Practicing-Because-My-Former-Selves-Learned-It-All," Avi muttered, and tapped the blade. "Can I get up, now?"
Rahvin stepped back and tapped the blade herself. The sword disappeared, and suddenly looked up at the stunned DigiDestined. "Oh! You're awake!" She grinned at them. "Feeling better? Less dead, maybe?"
Yolei wasn't sure about the others, but she was a little speechless. "Uh..."
The tabby was obviously feeling calmer, because it hopped up onto the tabletop and began nonchalantly washing a paw. -Rahvin, you really need to work on your people skills. -
Rahvin frowned. "What I say?"
-You just stabbed your cousin through the chest, and then asked if your guests felt "less dead." Biiiiig social no-no's.-
"Liar." D'nea's voice commented from behind them.
"D'nea!"
She rubbed her ear and wobbled over to the table. "Yes. It's me. Give me a moment, though, please? I'm just not a morning person." She slumped into a chair, which immediately turned into a large, purple, plush recliner. A mug appeared in front of her, and she tapped it. "Cappuccino." When nothing happened, she rolled her eyes. "Please."
The mug filled, and she took a sip. And made a face. "Excuse moi! This isn't cappuccino!"
Rahvin avoided her friends eyes. "Uhh...I kinda already drank it all."
"All of it?"
"Uh-huh."
"And that was like, what, three coffee pots full?"
"Uh...yep."
D'nea appealed to the heavens. "I'm living in a nightmare!"
Gatomon cleared her throat pointedly. "Are we invisible, or something?"
D'nea, glowering at the mug, shrugged. "I doubt it. I could arrange that for you, if you'd like."
"That's not what I meant."
Rahvin rolled her eyes at her friend and turned to the DigiDestined. "Don't mind her. She's not a morning person. Neither am I, really, unless I've had coffee." She ignored D'nea's glare, and continued. "Actually, now that I think about it, Ae'ros is the only one who's a morning person around here, and Enime has him."
-Which takes us to the reason you people are here, which is probably what you wanted to know in the first place. Don't mind them. This is normal. Uh...well...as normal as these guys are gonna get. - The cat padded over to D'nea's mug and sniffed at it.
"Look who's talking, Chris," D'nea retorted, pulling the mug away from the cat's inquisitive nose.
-Okay, so I'm a telepathic talking cat. It does not mean that I can't be normal.-
"Whatever." She leaned over, and stage whispered confidentially. "She sings. Annoying little ditties. And show tunes. Twenty three hours a day. The rest of the time she sleeps."
-Liar! It's only twenty two hours.- Chris looked indignant, and appealed to the kids. -See what I have to put up with? -
Avi, who had disappeared through a doorway, suddenly materialized behind D'nea's chair, and set a big glass of some dark liquid in front of her. "Here you go. Barqs. I thought you could use the caffeine.
D'nea nodded her thanks, already gulping root beer.
"Can we get back to why we're here?" T.K. asked, pointedly.
-They have short attention spans,- agreed Chris, nodding. -You're here, because Rahvin teleported you from that afterlife-dimension back to here. Mind you, if you die the usual way, we can't actually bring you back. It was just that the afterlife that you were in wasn't one that you belonged in. You were in that dimension, because Enime, their greatest enemy, was being a jerk.-
"We know that part already," Davis interjected. "But why was he going after us? What'd we ever do to him?"
"He was going after you, because we were going to get your help to try and find Dementia," Rahvin, who seemed to have lapsed into a brief period of calm, answered.
"She's the one that got changed into data, and scattered, right?" Yolei asked.
Rahvin nodded.
"So why'd he scatter her?" Cody wondered.
-Because he's a cruel, evil, power-hungry mage who wants to take over Chaos?-
Rahvin tweaked the cat's tail. "Because she's the one who usually bails us out when he's captured one of us. See, Dem's one of the only ones who could probably totally destroy Enime. Even I couldn't do it alone. D'nea, Ae'ros, and I, we wouldn't stand a chance if we faced him one on one."
"But D'nea did, back on that world you rescued us from," Kari pointed out.
D'nea finished her root beer, and put the glass down. "That was because he was drained from bringing you there. Also, we were both low on power, because that dimension mutes magic."
"But you blew up a door."
Rahvin's eyes grew wide, and she whirled on D'nea. "You blew up a door?!"
D'nea looked sheepish, and stared intently at her mug. "It was evil," she muttered, like that was an explanation. Rahvin tapped her foot, wearing an expression that meant she definitely wanted some elaboration. D'nea sighed. "The lock had a backlash on it, so no one could pick it."
"Even with magic?"
"Especially with magic." D'nea shrugged. "I got a little mad. That place was wreaking havoc on my emotions."
"And then you took on Enime? No wonder you were tired!"
D'nea grinned nonchalantly. "Yeah, well...I'm feeling much better now."
"What about that thing he hit you with, before we came here?" Kari asked. She couldn't help but get the feeling the Chaos Lord was lying through her teeth. "It looked like a ball of black lightning."
D'nea suddenly looked very uncomfortable. "Uhh..."
Rahvin narrowed her eyes, and scowled at D'nea. "He hit you with a spell?"
"Um..."
"D'nea!" Rahvin scowl increased. "What spell did he hit you with?!"
"Dunno." It was a lie, and all the DigiDestined could see it. Rahvin opened her mouth to interrogate her friend further, when D'nea coughed. And coughed again. After the third cough, she managed to gasp in a breath of air, and muttered "Shoot" before she collapsed into a full-fledged coughing fit.
"Sh**t," Rahvin corrected. "D'nea! When were you going to tell me about this?!"
"Uh...when we..." She coughed, and grabbed the glass, which was suddenly filled with water. Taking a few gulps, she continued. "When we found Ae'ros and defeated Enime?"
"D'nea!" Rahvin scowled furiously. "Open up. Right now."
D'nea sighed, and closed her eyes. A second later, all her details had disappeared. She was a humanoid figure made up of purple light, or perhaps energy. In the center of her chest was a brilliant white glow. The DigiDestined gasped.
"What's she doing?" T.K. gaped.
"It's her essence," Rahvin explained, still scowling.
"It looks like she's digivolving," commented Kari.
This got an echoing giggle from D'nea. "D'nea digivolve toooo...." Her voice echoed as she spoke, the same way the Digimon did when they digivolved.
"...In-giganticaly-big-trouble-mon." Rahvin supplied. "Hold up your hands...what's that on them?"
D'nea held out her hands. Tendrils of black were very, very slowly winding around them, and starting down her arms. Rahvin frowned. "And there's some on your neck, too."
"And my head. Or, there should be. I've a major headache right now."
Rahvin kicked one of the chairs. "I'm gonna kill him!"
"What?" The DigiDestined burst out, simultaneously.
"He's @#*! poisoning her with his @#*! magic!!!"
To be continued...
Mwee hee hee...y'like so far? Anyhow, more's coming.
A brief (as I can make it) run through:
1. The main, good guys that you'll need to know about are the three Chaos Lords: D'nea, Rahvin and Ae'ros. They have other names, but I'm going to refrain from using them in this fic, as it would cause confusion (and I'm sure it's going to be confusing enough already).
2. They try and keep their Diadem (a series of worlds, in a system that resembles the layers of an onion. The closer to the center world you get, the stronger magic becomes) from colliding/melding with the other Diadems by simply being present. They don't rule, they're like...plugs. Or, maybe, a safety net. Or, locks. D'nea and Ae'ros travel through the Diadem using Gateways, which look like large holes in the air. Rahvin can teleport, and so she doesn't need to build Gates (Lucky).
3. Their main enemy is Enime (pronounced "Enemy"), who wants (following the rules of a typical bad guy) to kill the Chaos Lords, take over Chaos (the center world) and rule the Diadem. An all around nasty guy, he has a lot of henchmen, but all you need to know about is Shaidow, his shape shifting-telepathic lackey. Shaidow will be explained in the story.
4. Each Chaos Lord has their own separate elements. Ex: D'nea controls water, illusion and plant magic. Her portion of the day is the Noon-Afternoon, and she's telekinetic.
5. The Lords of Chaos (L.O.C.s for short) have a bunch of friends: Min, Avi, Oracle, Jack, and especially Dementia Moonstruck (who has a strong dislike of Carrots, and a love of explosives). These guys will also be explained in the fic.
Alright! Yay! You can continue now, if I haven't scared you off!
Digimon, etc. belong to whoever created them and the L.O.C.s & Co. belong to me and my dear friends Azzie/Rahvin and Dementia. They cannot belong to Ae'ros, because despite the fact he is our friend, he's still fictional. *G*
************************************************************************
June knocked on her brother's door. "Da-vis! Mom says to come and eat your dinner!" There was no response from inside, so she pushed the door open. Davis was slumped on the ground, his head resting on an open textbook. June giggled. He must have fallen asleep in the middle of his homework. Nudging him in the side with her toe, she chimed. "Wake up sleepy head!" June frowned when he didn't respond. In fact...he didn't even seem to be breathing. "D...Davis?" Kneeling down beside him, she held a hand in front of his mouth, but she didn't feel any breath. Staring in shock for a moment, she opened her mouth to scream.
A hand covered her mouth before she could start. "Shhh...don't worry. This is only temporary."
June looked up, eyes wide, at a tall, blonde girl, and pried her hand away from her mouth. "B-but...he's dead."
"Like I said, it's only temporary." Seeing June's bewildered look the girl added, patronizingly, "Just trust me. It'll all turn out fine."
Tai knocked on his sister's door. "Kari? You in there?" When there was no response, so he opened the door. Kari was lying on her side on her bed, Gatomon curled next to her. Both seemed to be asleep, but he couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong. Looking closer, he realized they didn't seem to be breathing. "Kari!"
"S'alright. She'll be okay."
Tai spun around to face the girl who stood in the doorway. "What do you mean, she'll be okay?! She's-"
"It's temporary. My friend is already going to find her and the others and bring them back."
"What do you mean....wait. The others? Cody, Yolei, Davis, and T.K.? Do you mean to say that they're-"
"Unfortunately. But, hey, no worries. I have full confidence in D'nea.
Tai was getting frustrated. "Who's this D'nea? And why is my sister-"
The girl shook her head. "All you really need to know is that because this evil Mage is being a jerk and involving innocent bystanders in our fight, your sister is as she is."
"That doesn't explain much."
The girl shrugged. "Tough. I have a tight schedule right now. I have to go and tell the other families that things are alright. I might have to wipe a few memories or something." Tai started to protest, but she cut him off. "I'll send word to you the second we get them back, alright?"
"But...hey...wait! Why didn't Gatomon disappear?"
The girl shrugged. "Dunno." With that, she disappeared.
Tai looked back at his sister's still form. "What am I going to tell Mom?"
D'nea ducked into a small alcove as one of the ghouls that inhabited the fortress of the underworld, dubbed simply "Eternity," turned a corner and floated silently past her hiding place. This place gives me the creeps. The sooner I find the DigiDestined, the sooner I can get out of here. She emerged from her hiding place and nearly slipped on a patch of greenish ooze. And I'm going ta take a nice, long, relaxing bath when I get to back Chaos, that's for sure.
Actually, the underworld that "Eternity" was located was only the afterlife for a little known dimension. And, it actually was mostly a nice, cheerful place. 99% of the dead population lived in the nicer valleys and plains, and lazed their eternity away in peace and happiness. Only a small number of unlucky souls were kept in "Eternity", most of them the prisoners of Mages who had the power to send them there, or dangerous criminals from the underworld's dimensional counterpart of the living. But this didn't really matter to D'nea at the moment. All she knew was that she was going to give Enime a piece of her mind the next time he showed his face.
Turning a corner, she ran face to skull into a small possé of warrior skeletons. Backtracking quickly, she ducked into another alcove and sent an illusion running down the corridor, back the way she came. The skeletons opened their jaws in a silent battle cry, and took off after the illusion.
After they'd left, D'nea breathed a sigh of relief, and hurried on her way.
T.K. woke up, and groaned. "I feel like I've been hit by a truck..." He tried to open his eyes, and suddenly realized he already had them open. He yelped, and sat up, and his head collided with something soft.
"Ouch!" It yelped. "T.K! Is that you?"
"Patamon!" As his friend perched on his head, he asked, "Can you see anything?"
"Nope. I was hoping you could."
"Well...at least it means that we're probably not blind."
"Unless we're both blind."
"Well, aren't you just the ray of sunshine."
Something moved beside him, and he scrambled to his feet. "Wha...where am I?" wondered a groggy voice.
T.K. squinted. Now he could almost make out a few shapes, and now he addressed the one that was dragging itself to its feet. "Davis?"
"Who else is it gonna be? Who's that? T.K?"
"Someone get the license of the truck that hit me?" wondered a voice at their feet.
"Veemon?"
"Present and accounted for," agreed Davis's Digimon partner.
"Where are the others, then?"
As if on cue, the other shapes that T.K. could half see, half sense around them stirred and groaned as they woke up. In a few minutes Yolei and Hawkmon, Kari and Gatomon, and Cody and Armadillomon had all been accounted for.
"Where are we?" Yolei wondered, feeling her way around in the darkness.
Davis crashed into a wall, and yelped in pain. Kari and the others felt their way over to him. Following the wall that Davis had found they'd discovered another wall and a half before Kari found the door. "I think we're in a cell of some kind," she commented, trying to shove the door open without any luck.
"Well, the least they could do was give us a window."
"I don't think they, whoever they are, are real interested in being hospitable."
There was a depressed silence, which was suddenly interrupted by a soft moan behind them, and the soft rustle of cloth on stone.
They strained their eyes to try and see who (or what) was there, but it was next to impossible. "Who's there?" Gatomon inquired, finding Kari and positioning herself between her DigiDestined friend and the sound.
"Gatomon?" Whoever it was sounded like they were getting to their feet, and Kari thought she could see a shadow move.
Gatomon gasped. It wasn't....it couldn't be..."Wizardmon?" Skittering forward, she found her friend's hand and grabbed it. "How'd you get here?"
"I was about to ask you the same thing..." He sounded worried.
"What is it?"
"Well...this place, as far as I can tell, is something of an...afterlife."
T.K. finished the thought for him. "So if we're here....we must be dead?"
The statement brought on pandemonium.
"I'm to young to die!"
"I'm going to miss all my soaps!"
"What am I going to tell my parents?!"
"Quiet!" Kari suddenly yelped. She had one ear pressed up against the door, and, after a few moments of listening, she gasped. "Someone's coming!"
"Are you sure?"
"Positive."
"Only fools are-"
"Don't start."
Then suddenly they could all hear the sound of hurried footsteps. They listened as the sound got louder, until it stopped right in front of the door. There was a moment's pause, and then a slight knock, accompanied by a muffled "Hello?"
Davis lunged for the door, and pounded back on it. "Hey! Let us-"
He was pushed away by Cody, who addressed the voice on the other side of the door. "Hello! Can you help us?"
"Are you the DigiDestined?"
"Yeah, that's us. Who wants to know?"
"Questions later, let me get this door open. Step out of the way, please." A small, square patch next to Cody suddenly started to glow with a soft violet light. The DigiDestined and their friends backed away quickly as the glow became stronger. Then, quite suddenly, there was a yelp and the glow disappeared. "Curse it! Curse it curse it curse it!!!" The door blew open, and disintegrated, letting some dim light into the cell. A short-ish girl was silhouetted in the doorway, and she held out a palm. A small ball of lavender light appeared above it and lit up her face, which held a "Guess I showed that door who was boss!" expression.
"Who are you?" Davis yelped.
"D'nea. And this is a jailbreak." She frowned a little and glanced at the cell. "In a manner of speaking."
"But-"
D'nea shook her head. "I'll explain as we go. But we don't have a bunch of time. If Enime didn't already know I was here, he does now."
"You've lost me," T.K. shook his head.
"I said I'll explain. If we could go now?"
"How do we know we can trust you, anyway?" Davis asked, glaring.
D'nea backed up a pace and spread her arms with a hurt expression, while the small ball of light floated where she left it. "I'm getting you people out of Eternity, here! You can decide weather or not to trust me later, but I for one don't want to stay here any longer than I have to."
The DigiDestined looked at each other, and then one by one they nodded. "What have we got to lose, anyway?" Kari pointed out.
A few minutes later they were hurrying down a labyrinth like set of passages, and everyone had questions, which D'nea was trying to answer the best she could.
"So, who are you anyway? And why are you helping us?"
"I already told you. I'm D'nea. One of the three Chaos Lords. I'm helping you because it's partially our fault you're in this mess." She paused to peer around a corner. Seeing the next passageway was empty, she nodded and led them down it. The DigiDestined waited for her to continue. "See, not to long ago, our friend Ae'ros was kidnapped by an evil Mage named Enime, and I already know how ironic that name is, thank you very much. Anyhow, he then captured my friend Dementia Moonstruck, converted her to data and scattered her pixels across the digital world. Then, to make matters worse, he sent us a challenge, and told us he was going to capture you people and hide you somewhere. If we couldn't find you in a specific time limit, he'd get to keep you. Which means it would have been even harder to find Dementia."
"Oooookay.....so what are Chaos Lords, then?"
"We live on Castle Chaos, on Chaos, in the center of the Diadem. Think 'Universal Onion'. Each layer of the 'Onion' contains hundreds of hundreds of worlds, except for the center, which is simply a world of its own. That's Chaos. As you go deeper through the levels, the stronger magic becomes. The Chaos Lords keep this Diadem from colliding with the other Diadems, because many of the worlds are very similar to worlds in other Diadems, and they want to meld. Our job is pretty much to add some element of chaos into these worlds and give them some variations so they're not so much alike."
"And Enime? Is he a Chaos Lord?"
"Blasphemed!" D'nea shuddered. "I don't even want to think about that scenario." Shaking her head, and leading them down another passage way, she added, "He's the exact opposite of us. He's logical, arrogant, self-centered, and bad to the bone."
A voice cackled from behind them. "And he's found you."
They spun around. A purple-black blob with a vaguely humanoid shape leered at them through a jagged gash that it used for a mouth. D'nea scowled. "Shaidow!"
"In the flesh. So nice to see you again, D'nea," As it spoke, two fiery eyes appeared in it's face, and claws resembling Wolverine's slid out of it's hands.
D'nea answered by pulling power. A torrent of water cascaded down onto the shape shifter, and froze into a large block of ice. Turning away, she hurried them forward. "That won't hold it long, so we'll have to put a lot of distance between it and us. Hurry!"
"That was Enime?" Wizardmon asked as they hurried. D'nea shook her head.
"That was Shaidow, one of his henchmen. It's a shape shifter, and a telepath. A really nasty combination, that. It means it can find out what could most hurt you, and then change into that thing. And he's practically unstoppable, which doesn't help much." There was a glimmer of sunlight, and D'nea pointed ahead. "There we go! The exit!"
The words were barely out of her mouth when evil laugher echoed around them. D'nea groaned, and broke into a run. The DigiDestined followed suit.
The sunlight momentarily blinded them when they scrambled out the door. "Look out for the three-headed dog!" D'nea yelped, and pushed them forward. Behind them they heard the rattle of a large chain, and three canine snarls. A glance behind them showed a very large dog, with three heads full of very white, very sharp teeth. Behind them stood a figure that seemed to be made of darkness. D'nea pointed forward into the forest that rose out in front of them, where a path wound through the trees. "Follow that, until you come to a clearing with a crystal embedded in a large rock! Gather around the crystal and grab each other's hands, then wait for me. I don't think Rahvin will leave anyone out, but it's better to take a few precautions. Go!" She stopped and turned to face her foe.
It felt like they ran for ages, hearing the occasional yell, followed by an explosion of either sound or light. It had been a few minutes since the last explosion when at last they came to a clearing, with a large, white crystal in the very middle. The DigiDestined and their friends gathered around and held hands. D'nea came running after them, and as soon as she reached them, she put her hand on the crystal, yelling, "Rahvin! Now!"
A dark ball of energy zoomed through the air to bury itself in her back. The Chaos Lord screamed as the world suddenly disappeared around them, to be replaced by a brilliant light. Kari noticed it managed to look white, while looking purple, green and blue at the same time. *It's making my eyes hurt...* "D'nea, are you alright?"
"Y...yeah." She sounded dazed, but unhurt. The others chimed in, confirming that they were also okay.
Satisfied her friends were safe for now, she was just about to ask someone what was going on, when the ground that they couldn't see dropped out from under their feet and they fell...a total of two feet, three and 1/4 inches.
"Ouch!"
"Yeow!"
"Argh! Ooooh, I think I just landed on my Digivice..."
Then everything went black.
When she woke up, Yolei felt as if she were one, big ache. The others' mixed moans and groans told her that they were awake also, and probably in the same condition. They picked themselves up, looking around in confusion. D'nea was nowhere to be seen.
Davis was gaping. "Where are we?"
"I think we must be at that Castle Chaos that D'nea was talking about. You know, where the Chaos Lords lived."
Veemon whistled softly. "This is some place they got here!"
They stood in the middle of a large hall. The walls were of gray stone, and there were various hanging on the walls. There was a large, circular table in front of them, in the middle of the room, and a large chandelier, light with candles, hung over it. They looked around, but they seemed to be alone.
A brown-and black tabby cat hurtled past them, nearly colliding with Kari's legs, but scrabbling to one side just in time. -'Scuse me! Comin'' through! Outta th' way! Innocent bystander running for her dear little life!- A voice rang in their heads as the cat passed them. It barely slowed down until it reached the table, where it crouched beneath a chair, it's tail bushed up and it's eyes wide.
"Did that cat just talk?" Yolei gasped.
"Watch out! Comin' through!"
The group spun around just as a small, blond haired girl followed the path of the cat. She carried a large sword but, while it looked heavy, she carried its weight easily. She leapt onto the table, and turned to face them, her sword up in "guard" position. Gatomon and the other Digimon stepped in front of their partners, ready to fight to protect them. But the girl didn't seem to be interested in them.
A war cry sounded behind them, and they scrambled out of the way as an older blond pursued the smaller one. "Ha! Avi! You cannot escape my wrath! Etc. etc. etc!!!" She leapt up on the table, and swung her own sword. The smaller girl, who they supposed was Avi, ducked and lunged in with her own sword.
"That's what you think! Take that, Rahvin!"
The older girl, Rahvin, blocked the blow and laughed. "Oh please! That was the first move I learned! Try this on for size!" She slid her own blade up Avi's sword, aiming for her neck. Avi flung her sword off the table, dropped and rolled after it. Rahvin's sword dug into the wood of the table, and she struggled a moment or two to free her blade. During that time, Avi had retrieved her own blade. She spun around, her blade up, and just in time to block Rahvin's blow. They locked blades, and strained against each other, teeth bared in determined grimaces. But gradually, because of her advantage of height, Rahvin began to win. Avi was forced backwards, until she suddenly tripped over one of the flagstones of the floor. She shrieked and landed flat on her back, her sword flying out of her grip and clattering across the room. Rahvin smirked, the tip of her blade just touching Avi's chest. "Ha!" And with that, she thrust down with her blade.
Depending on their natures, the DigiDestined gasped, or looked away. But there was no spray of blood, and no scream of pain from Avi. Instead, there was just a sigh of frustration. "Aw man! I thought I had you this time!"
They looked up, confused. Avi, still with the blade pinning her like a bug to the ground, was frowning up at Rahvin, who was leaning on said blade and smiling patronizingly. "Hey, cheer up Avi. You're definitely getting better. If you hadn't nearly tripped over Chris you might have got me back there on the stairs."
"Sure. Says you, Miss Best-Swordsperson-in-the-Entire-Diadem-Without-Even-Practicing-Because-My-Former-Selves-Learned-It-All," Avi muttered, and tapped the blade. "Can I get up, now?"
Rahvin stepped back and tapped the blade herself. The sword disappeared, and suddenly looked up at the stunned DigiDestined. "Oh! You're awake!" She grinned at them. "Feeling better? Less dead, maybe?"
Yolei wasn't sure about the others, but she was a little speechless. "Uh..."
The tabby was obviously feeling calmer, because it hopped up onto the tabletop and began nonchalantly washing a paw. -Rahvin, you really need to work on your people skills. -
Rahvin frowned. "What I say?"
-You just stabbed your cousin through the chest, and then asked if your guests felt "less dead." Biiiiig social no-no's.-
"Liar." D'nea's voice commented from behind them.
"D'nea!"
She rubbed her ear and wobbled over to the table. "Yes. It's me. Give me a moment, though, please? I'm just not a morning person." She slumped into a chair, which immediately turned into a large, purple, plush recliner. A mug appeared in front of her, and she tapped it. "Cappuccino." When nothing happened, she rolled her eyes. "Please."
The mug filled, and she took a sip. And made a face. "Excuse moi! This isn't cappuccino!"
Rahvin avoided her friends eyes. "Uhh...I kinda already drank it all."
"All of it?"
"Uh-huh."
"And that was like, what, three coffee pots full?"
"Uh...yep."
D'nea appealed to the heavens. "I'm living in a nightmare!"
Gatomon cleared her throat pointedly. "Are we invisible, or something?"
D'nea, glowering at the mug, shrugged. "I doubt it. I could arrange that for you, if you'd like."
"That's not what I meant."
Rahvin rolled her eyes at her friend and turned to the DigiDestined. "Don't mind her. She's not a morning person. Neither am I, really, unless I've had coffee." She ignored D'nea's glare, and continued. "Actually, now that I think about it, Ae'ros is the only one who's a morning person around here, and Enime has him."
-Which takes us to the reason you people are here, which is probably what you wanted to know in the first place. Don't mind them. This is normal. Uh...well...as normal as these guys are gonna get. - The cat padded over to D'nea's mug and sniffed at it.
"Look who's talking, Chris," D'nea retorted, pulling the mug away from the cat's inquisitive nose.
-Okay, so I'm a telepathic talking cat. It does not mean that I can't be normal.-
"Whatever." She leaned over, and stage whispered confidentially. "She sings. Annoying little ditties. And show tunes. Twenty three hours a day. The rest of the time she sleeps."
-Liar! It's only twenty two hours.- Chris looked indignant, and appealed to the kids. -See what I have to put up with? -
Avi, who had disappeared through a doorway, suddenly materialized behind D'nea's chair, and set a big glass of some dark liquid in front of her. "Here you go. Barqs. I thought you could use the caffeine.
D'nea nodded her thanks, already gulping root beer.
"Can we get back to why we're here?" T.K. asked, pointedly.
-They have short attention spans,- agreed Chris, nodding. -You're here, because Rahvin teleported you from that afterlife-dimension back to here. Mind you, if you die the usual way, we can't actually bring you back. It was just that the afterlife that you were in wasn't one that you belonged in. You were in that dimension, because Enime, their greatest enemy, was being a jerk.-
"We know that part already," Davis interjected. "But why was he going after us? What'd we ever do to him?"
"He was going after you, because we were going to get your help to try and find Dementia," Rahvin, who seemed to have lapsed into a brief period of calm, answered.
"She's the one that got changed into data, and scattered, right?" Yolei asked.
Rahvin nodded.
"So why'd he scatter her?" Cody wondered.
-Because he's a cruel, evil, power-hungry mage who wants to take over Chaos?-
Rahvin tweaked the cat's tail. "Because she's the one who usually bails us out when he's captured one of us. See, Dem's one of the only ones who could probably totally destroy Enime. Even I couldn't do it alone. D'nea, Ae'ros, and I, we wouldn't stand a chance if we faced him one on one."
"But D'nea did, back on that world you rescued us from," Kari pointed out.
D'nea finished her root beer, and put the glass down. "That was because he was drained from bringing you there. Also, we were both low on power, because that dimension mutes magic."
"But you blew up a door."
Rahvin's eyes grew wide, and she whirled on D'nea. "You blew up a door?!"
D'nea looked sheepish, and stared intently at her mug. "It was evil," she muttered, like that was an explanation. Rahvin tapped her foot, wearing an expression that meant she definitely wanted some elaboration. D'nea sighed. "The lock had a backlash on it, so no one could pick it."
"Even with magic?"
"Especially with magic." D'nea shrugged. "I got a little mad. That place was wreaking havoc on my emotions."
"And then you took on Enime? No wonder you were tired!"
D'nea grinned nonchalantly. "Yeah, well...I'm feeling much better now."
"What about that thing he hit you with, before we came here?" Kari asked. She couldn't help but get the feeling the Chaos Lord was lying through her teeth. "It looked like a ball of black lightning."
D'nea suddenly looked very uncomfortable. "Uhh..."
Rahvin narrowed her eyes, and scowled at D'nea. "He hit you with a spell?"
"Um..."
"D'nea!" Rahvin scowl increased. "What spell did he hit you with?!"
"Dunno." It was a lie, and all the DigiDestined could see it. Rahvin opened her mouth to interrogate her friend further, when D'nea coughed. And coughed again. After the third cough, she managed to gasp in a breath of air, and muttered "Shoot" before she collapsed into a full-fledged coughing fit.
"Sh**t," Rahvin corrected. "D'nea! When were you going to tell me about this?!"
"Uh...when we..." She coughed, and grabbed the glass, which was suddenly filled with water. Taking a few gulps, she continued. "When we found Ae'ros and defeated Enime?"
"D'nea!" Rahvin scowled furiously. "Open up. Right now."
D'nea sighed, and closed her eyes. A second later, all her details had disappeared. She was a humanoid figure made up of purple light, or perhaps energy. In the center of her chest was a brilliant white glow. The DigiDestined gasped.
"What's she doing?" T.K. gaped.
"It's her essence," Rahvin explained, still scowling.
"It looks like she's digivolving," commented Kari.
This got an echoing giggle from D'nea. "D'nea digivolve toooo...." Her voice echoed as she spoke, the same way the Digimon did when they digivolved.
"...In-giganticaly-big-trouble-mon." Rahvin supplied. "Hold up your hands...what's that on them?"
D'nea held out her hands. Tendrils of black were very, very slowly winding around them, and starting down her arms. Rahvin frowned. "And there's some on your neck, too."
"And my head. Or, there should be. I've a major headache right now."
Rahvin kicked one of the chairs. "I'm gonna kill him!"
"What?" The DigiDestined burst out, simultaneously.
"He's @#*! poisoning her with his @#*! magic!!!"
To be continued...
Mwee hee hee...y'like so far? Anyhow, more's coming.