Disclaimer: I do not own digimon and I am not making money off this fanfic. I do not own/make money off of any companies/music/shows/etc I mention. No infringement intended. A few lines of dubbed dialogue were used from Episode 17 ("Ghost of a Chance") of Digimon Adventure 02. Thank you.
Story Themes: "They Came In" by Butthole Surfers
(-'010102000'-)
The Lighthouse
Saga I Session IV
... The Inevitable ...
Gatomon's back smashed against the wall.
"Gatomon!" cried Birdramon, motioning to help her, only to be crushed by a wave of supersonic waves that sent her barreling back through several walls. Screams filtered the halls of the flats.
"No fighting!" one of them screeched. "Digimon aren't allowed to fight in here!"
But no one was listening. Most of the residents – or at least the sensible ones – rushed out of the apartment building quick enough to flatten a rookie digimon. Stampedes of people – not just from Sora and Matt's flat – funneled through the streets.
Birdramon winced, but didn't allow the attack to thwart her. "You okay, Gatomon?" Only silence answered her. "Gatomon?" she repeated.
When there was still no answer, she peered up to see the unfamiliar woman holding Gatomon up by the face, her feet dangling in the air.
"This is exquisite!" the woman said with a bark of laughter. "My Atanasoff, I didn't think he could actually do it! Papa is such a genius, oh yes he is!"
Papa?
"He has no name," the woman said, craning her neck to look at Birdramon. Could she hear Birdramon's thoughts? No, that was impossible. Could it be? The woman smiled. "He is my master, my creator. He is the lord of shadows, the Soul-Sucker. Some call him Jackal, some call him Father, some call him Destroyer.
"But he is simply my master, and soon he will be yours, too.
"Now pucker up, kitty, my master wants ya!"
"Geddophfeh," muttered Gatomon in a muffled voice.
"What was that?" the woman said, leaning her ear toward Gatomon's face. "I'm sorry, I was too busy suffocating you."
"I said..." Gatomon hissed, a paw reaching up to grip the woman's wrist. "...Light..." Her claws broke skin. "...ning..." Her fangs clenched together. "PAW!"
A spark of light careened against the unfamiliar figure's face. She immediately bolted back, tossing Gatomon into a charging-up Kabuterimon, knocking them both aside. With a grunt, she plowed through another wall and grabbed her bleeding shoulder where Gatomon struck her.
She wasn't smiling anymore. "This body's new. I don't think Master will be pleased if it gets ruined."
"Well, I don't give a flying frick what pleases your master," Gatomon bellowed, rushing to the door. "I gotta find Kari!"
"Well, well," the woman said, finally breaking out a smile again. "Don't we all?"
Reaching out to Gatomon, the digimon came to a skidding halt. Her paw grazed the knob, but she didn't clasp it. It wasn't as though the woman had some great power over her. In all actuality, that had nothing to do with it. It was the thought that this woman was looking for Kari. The thought that this woman not only smelled like Kari, but felt like Kari. Gatomon could sense Kari oozing from the woman. If it weren't for the woman's looks, her demeanor, Gatomon would have expected the woman to be identical to Kari in every single way.
And this unfamiliar woman was looking for Kari, sent from the heavens.
"I don't have a name yet," the woman said with a frown. "But at one time, I liked martinis. And everyday for a week, I had Spam for dinner. These are a few details I remember of a time when I had a name. When I had two. So maybe that should be my name. What do you think? Martini Spam. Yes. That is what I will call myself!" She threw her head back in a manic cackle.
Sora gave a glance toward Matt, who shook his head. Despite the seriousness of the situation, Gatomon hesitated for a moment, unsure how to respond, then she, too, laughed, shaking her head. "You can't be serious."
"Welllll..." the woman immediately stopped laughing. "I suppose Mara for short will do. Yes. You can call me Mara. Because I'm amazing like that. And I have to make you take me at least a little bit seriously."
Then her outstretched hand crackled, split; a dark orb made of light bubbled from her palm and encased her hand. Seconds later, the light traveled up her arm and armored her body, filtering like a mask over her face. The last thing Gatomon saw of her was a bright grin.
Then the woman's body began boiling. Her skin flashed bright. Boils the size of tangerines bulged from her arms and legs and chest and face. She screamed, laughing, as tears ran rivers down her cheeks. Her gleaming scarlet coils of hair flared into a fierce fire that enveloped her entire head.
"THE HUMANS MUST DIE LIKE CATTLE TO THE SLAUGHTER..." she said, bursting into flame. "...THE DEMON LORDS MUST RISE AGAIN..." And the flame burst into blue, then into white. "...AND THE COUNCIL MUST FALL..." And then she exploded. "THE SAD GHOST GODS WILL HAVE THEIR VENGEANCE."
As the blast of energy struck Gatomon, a flash of dazzling light infiltrated her vision. A face manifested in her mind, surrounded by the light. She didn't recognize it, just that it had glowing yellow eyes and a smile that was hidden by the shadows cast from his hood. Orbs of red and yellow energy buzzed by his head, core ringed by blue glowing threads. He stood above a massive book that encased his feet like a pedestal.
As Gatomon fell through the white light, she felt him smiling at her, even though she couldn't see it.
A scene played through her mind. She hadn't thought about the moment in years, but she knew the exact time it came from. It was five years ago, during the Digimon Emperor's reign.
"Will we ever see him again?"
The ghost of Wizardmon had warned them of the coming evil. He had said it was not Ken who was the true enemy, but the darkness inside of him. That in order to stop him, they would need to unravel the evil. The true evil, what had made him evil, what had manipulated him into becoming the thing who killed and harmed so many digimon in such ways they could never quite heal from.
"I'm sure we will, Kari," Tai had answered his sister's question.
But Gatomon wasn't really listening. Instead, she was staring out the window where Wizardmon had faded into thin air, now gone. She had hoped Tai was right, that it wouldn't be the last time she saw her old friend. Yet in the past five years, though she visited that spot at least once a month, she had not seen him, not once. Not even a murmur. In that moment five years ago, she managed to say a single thing. "That Wizardmon... What a friend. Even from beyond, he's still watching over me."
She couldn't touch him then. And she couldn't touch him now.
"I may have failed to protect you from them, but it's not over," the figure in the white light told her, his yellow eyes glowing, his hand reaching out as Wizardmon's had so many years ago. Gatomon, too, reached out for him, but the distance was too great between them. "It's never over. Don't stop fighting. You can save her, Gatomon... You can save yourself. I've done all that I can."
"Wizardmon," Gatomon whispered, tears stinging her eyes. He might have had a different body, perhaps even a different mind. He could not appear on Earth where he died, and maybe it was even impossible for him to manifest in the Digital World, since he died in the human world. But on another plain of existence, in another world, perhaps the world he truly belonged to, he was alive. And not even the boundaries between realms could keep him from her.
Across the stars and across the universes and across the very bounds of realms and dreams and nightmares and reality and data and light and darkness, the bounds of life and death themselves, Wizardmon was still watching over Gatomon.
"Don't go," she pleaded.
But before he could respond, the white light faded with a punch, and Gatomon was back in reality. She didn't know what caused the white light to envelop her. Maybe it had something to do with the unfamiliar woman's attack, or maybe it was simply Wizardmon calling out to her at the moment when her mind was weakest. All she knew was that a moment later, she was shrugging off bits of debris and concrete from the explosion, peering up at the woman's grinning face.
No flame. No blisters. The woman – Mara – looked completely repaired. She was even clothed in shawls of purple and black.
"Now, tell me," she said, leaning over the damaged digital feline. Gatomon winced, trying to stand, but her muscles wouldn't cooperate. The woman smelled so strongly like Kari, yet Gatomon wanted to attack her. But how could she really, truly attack someone whose scent resembled her partner's? Mara's smile widened. "Tell me... Where is Cody Hida?"
Cody?
Gatomon never responded in time. The next second, the woman was blown through several walls by a massive duo-combo attack of needles and missiles.
"Togemon! Ikkakumon!" Gatomon called, looking in the direction of the door where the two creatures had ripped it open.
"Mimi!" Sora cried, helping her wounded mother to her feet, looking at the near-sobbing girl.
"Soraaaaa!" Mimi sniffled, jumping off Ikkakumon's shoulder. "You look hurt!"
"Joe," Izzy muttered, standing with a wince. "Where is everyone?"
"We're not sure," Joe said, shifting his glasses. He glanced in the direction Mara plowed through, then back to Izzy. "But I have a good idea."
"Let's go," Izzy said tiredly. "Before she gets back here..."
"Too late," came a voice behind them. Both young men jumped and twisted around, but it was too late. Mara had surfaced from the mist of floating white particles. Though Ikkakumon must have been ten times her size, she managed to lift him off his feet and chuck him directly into Togemon, who fell through the window and down, down, down to the ground outside. Mimi and Joe shouted their partners' names.
Mara screamed something unintelligible and burst into flame again.
(-1010201-)
Yolei had been having one hell of a hangover when the thunder awoke her. At first, she thought it was simply a storm and rolled over, giving a light groan. She considered puking, but was able to snuff the urge. Then she thought about drinking a little water and maybe eating a slice of bread, but that would mean getting off the couch and walking to the kitchen. Well, stumbling to the kitchen anyway, maybe knocking a few things over on the way, perhaps stubbing a toe or two, and don't forget running into the wall a couple of times, much to her partner's half-amusement half-concern. And if her parents or siblings were around, she'd never hear the end of it.
In the end, Yolei opted to simply fall back asleep and ignore the storm.
But that was before Hawkmon walloped her over the head.
"OUCH. What the hell?" she barked, bolting upright. "You have no respect for boozies!"
Hawkmon didn't indulge her. Instead, she found him staring up at the window. "It's time to wake up," Hawkmon told her. He then turned around and dumped a cup full of ice water on her head. Yolei shrieked, shocked, and motioned to strangle him. "They're here."
If there was ever a more sobering two words, Yolei did not know them. Well, maybe "he's dead" or "don't love" or "I'm late" or ... She shook her head. God, why was she thinking about that when there was a world-consuming, stirring cauldron of dark digital energy unfurling in the clouds? An agonizing pang struck her stomach and Yolei really did keel over, emptying the contents of her stomach. Of all the days for the Endless Ones to arrive, why did it have to be on a day she was still smashed from the night before?
Hawkmon followed her track of mind and listened silently to her 5-minute rant before speaking up. "We should get going. We don't know how much time we have before..."
Before the end of the world?
Already it was chaos outside. People screaming and running through the streets, carrying bags of food and wrapped-up babies (wait, people actually do that? Yolei thought with a raised eyebrow) and digimon buckling to their knees, holding their hands to the sky. Some were sobbing. Some weren't. Most of them were simply trying to evacuate to a safer location. Sirens sounded off in the distance; Yolei was sure an army was assembling to combat the creatures.
Little few could forget that day six months before, when the legions of Dark Area digimon descended from the skies and decimated large amounts of Earth's population. It was a miracle the world was able to stabilize itself half as well and half as quickly as it did, but how could it handle another attack of that sort?
But we've had six months to prepare, she thought, looking toward Hawkmon, who looked back at her. We'll do all that we can.
But then a thought occurred to her.
Sure, they had six months to prepare for the enemy's attack. But then again... the enemy had six months to prepare for theirs, and they seemed to know their opponents a whole lot better than the Destined knew theirs.
She felt Hawkmon's wing gently clasp her hand. She looked down to see his smiling face. "I'll protect you," he said.
She smiled back at him. "And now I have the power to protect you, too."
That was when a bright flash of blue light struck severely close to their quarters. She jumped, thinking it might have struck her house, when instead she saw a smoking crater outside her bedroom window. Wow, how did that get there? Hawkmon must have had a similar thought process because the next thing she knew, he was pointing up at the sky, where they saw Davis and Ken flying in the arms of ExVeemon and Stingmon.
"That's convenient," Hawkmon muttered.
"Let's go," she told Hawkmon. He swiftly digivolved into Halsemon and, with his beak, tossed her on his back. Bucking, he took off into the sky, soaring, gliding. Neither of them had any time to really notice what was in the center of the smoking crater, of the man in the core of the smoke and blistering cracks, of the mysteries that man held and the influence he would bestow. Of his bloody past of mayhem and slaughter and genocide and control.
All she knew was that Davis looked very concerned as he glanced down at the coughing man.
Yolei, too, followed his gaze, and Halsemon right after her.
They knew it before Davis did.
He was going to attack, no hesitation, no second thoughts.
"Halsemon—" was all Yolei managed to get out before a beam of bright green light burst from the man's palm, headed directly for Davis and ExVeemon. Though neither Yolei or Halsemon confirmed it, they both knew it without any questions asked:
Yolei and her partner leaped in front of the beam, protecting Davis and his partner from a blast that would have most certainly killed them both.
As the beam smashed through Halsemon's lungs, as blood splattered Yolei's face, as she twisted around on Halsemon's back and plummeted to the ground, she saw his face. Staring at her. Pale and sad.
Ken was crying her name, but his voice fell on deaf ears.
(-1020101-)
"Halsemon?" Davis stuttered, eyes widening. He paled and looked around for where the digimon came from, and saw Yolei descending quickly through the air, her hand reaching out for a Halsemon that screeched at the sky. He was bleeding. Yolei was falling.
Halsemon took a hit for him and ExVeemon. And now Yolei was falling to her death, and Halsemon's data was wavering, his beak tipped to the clouds, crying out Yolei's name... but he couldn't save her, he was quickly fainting.
Davis did not even have time to question where the two came from. All he knew was that if he didn't move, Yolei and Halsemon would die. And neither of them even knew who the strange man was.
Ken and Stingmon reacted first. They whipped through the air, catching Yolei slowly enough so that, as they approached the ground, the sudden stop wouldn't liquefy her internal organs. Davis and ExVeemon supposed that meant it was their responsibility to catch Halsemon, which proved difficult to do without injuring him any more than he was already. As they nabbed him, he hissed in pain, grimacing.
"Hold on, it'll be okay," Davis whispered, coming to a halt on the ground as he cradled Halsemon's head in his lap. ExVeemon set them down carefully.
"Halsemon!" Yolei screamed, struggling to get out of Ken's arms.
"Yolei?" Halsemon's eyes rolled up. He was fading. But he couldn't die— not yet. There was still so much to do.
Yolei skidded to a stop beside Davis and Halsemon. A gentle white glow eclipsed Halsemon and, when the light faded, he had de-digivolved back into Hawkmon. She softly took him away from Davis and held him tightly to her chest, resting her temple against his. "Hawkmon...? Are you going to be okay...? Please tell me you'll be okay!"
"He won't be," said a voice behind them. All six figures – though Hawkmon much more hazily than the rest – looked toward the man in the crater. "Nothing will ever be okay again. I'm sorry."
And he held up his palm to the six figures. "You're simply delaying the inevitable. But then again," the blond-haired, blue-eyed man said, "What else are Destined good for?"
Then a green light illuminated his face, and exploded in the direction of all six Chosen.
"Nope," said a voice. At first, Davis almost didn't recognize it. Almost. "Nope, nope, nope. Not today, I'm afraid."
And a barrage of rapid fire, metal, and heat collided with the green light, deflecting it from the Chosen. Davis looked up with a wide grin at their savior.
Tai Kamiya stood on the head of Greymon, an entire army of champion and ultimate digimon marching behind him.
(-'1010201'-)
The inevitable...
He cleared his throat as he thought about what his comrade had told Davis. It was true. This was inevitable. Too bad it would have to cost them so much to do it, though.
The man walked carelessly through the Kamiya Residence. He didn't know why the parents weren't at home. He nearly had Gatomon, if Kabuterimon and Izzy hadn't randomly shown up to save her. They must have seen the DigiPort he used to arrive; it wasn't quite as flashy as the other two's, but that suited him just fine. They could take on the Chosen for now, distract them. The Destined were not his target.
Gatomon. Kari. Sure, they were big fish. He arrived in this apartment because he knew it would be beneficial to capture them now rather than later. But they were not his objective.
His objective was someone completely different, someone not human or digimon. He'd never personally met the man, but suffice to say, there was much to know about him. He had lived so long and through so many perils, it was hard not to admire the target.
He took off his glasses and shined them, thinking about the target. Would he have to kill the target, or would it be okay if he simply held the target captive? The Endless Ones would probably prefer the target alive. Well, the inferior two would care less – said a lot about them being the inferior ones – and the Wrathful Demon might feel sentimental, but the Dreamless Dreamer would mourn the permanent loss of his target.
"Ahh... milk," he said, going through the Kamiya fridge. Smiling, he pulled out the entire two-percent gallon, slid off the lid, brought it to his lips, and took a couple of large, cold gulps. It glided down his throat easily. How much he'd missed milk. How long had it been since he had milk? Years... so many years... As his eyes went over the contents of the stuffed fridge – it was nearly overstocked (Oh the fun it would be to have Tai for a son...) – he frowned.
People took food for granted. But then again, so had he, once upon a time.
"Food!" he exclaimed, picking up a half-eaten sandwich and leftover wet kitty chow (probably Gatomon's). "Hmmmm... experimentation!" he went on, dumping the cat food onto the sandwich. He then grabbed a handful of hardboiled eggs, beef jerky strips, and a cup of yogurt, threw them in a bowl, and sat down at the table with a fork, spoon, and knife. "This is going to taste horrible," he said, eyeing the food. He then smiled. "And I am going to love every second of it ever."
Just like it was inevitable he would enjoy every icky bite, it was inevitable that the Destined could no longer delay the apocalypse. They could not defy the true reason they were defined as Destined.
('01001210')
Next Chapter Preview: The world is going to hell. The odd man is too strong. Nothing seems to be going right... and Devimon isn't the only old friend back in town.
Next time, things start heating up in "Session V: Cataclysm of Odaiba, Part One"!