Revised on 28/05/2018 to better reflect the original intent.
Hikari and Myotismon spontaneously appeared. The brunette looked curiously around, first seeing the fortress, then the landscape beyond. Myotismon joined her in looking out there.
The ground beyond the hill seemed scorched, pitch-black. The sky was covered by a sea of black clouds. In places, they saw lightning erupt. A fireball that reminded Myotismon of WarGreymon's Terra Force attack suddenly shot out of the sky, lighting everything around it up.
"Nice weather around here," remarked Myotismon, a moment later, while another ball of fire was coming down.
Hikari silently agreed, turning around to the building. "This place, Myotismon, is where the Dark Digidestined live."
"The 'dark' Digidestined," parroted Myotismon. The name sort-of said everything, she remarked mentally. "I think I can guess who they are and what they're about."
"You are likely close, but only that," she disclosed. Myotismon anticipated another lecture.
"They are the creations of a Gulfmon who lived long ago. It is far from a new idea," she related, conversationally. Myotismon suspected she was telling her this just to show off. "ZeedMillenniummon, during his war, made himself a squad of Tamers and Digimon as weapons against ENIAC. I imagine that Gulfmon thought he could do it better."
Myotismon couldn't disagree with that. She gave an indifferent shrug.
"Or perhaps he was inspired to make them because of Lilithmon, another demon lord who has managed her own faction of Dark Digidestined for... I will call it an eternity," Hikari disclosed. "Perhaps, Gulfmon was inspired by them both."
Myotismon rolled her eyes. "What, all three of them just decided to make their own evil twin armies? They've never heard of the word 'original', have they?"
Hikari smiled. "I cannot disagree, but to subvert the good and the heroic is a classic evil tactic, as you well know," Myotismon didn't see a reason to argue with that. "Besides which, I find that Gulfmon's way of going about the idea of a fallen Sora and Takeru is more imaginative than Lilithmon's. This is the one that I far prefer," she said. Myotismon looked intrigued.
"They show their corruption, and wear it proudly. The Sora that Gulfmon constructed walks with the demon bird Ornismon as her companion, where the one that Lilithmon recruited still has Phoenixmon like the one who lives on our earth," Hikari informed Myotismon.
"Their Cody has a companion in Leviamon the sea devil, while Sayo has Dianamon Whispered, and Takato has an demon dragon called Megidramon, Yoshi and Rosemon Ruin Mode, Neo and Arkadimon, and so onward," she listed off to the vampire, who grinned so widely that her fangs were laid bare. Hikari thought about mentioning the Jeri-Reaper, quickly deciding there was no reason to; Myotismon would meet her later, and the rest of them.
Her smile dimmed. "Now, as I was saying, the guild is one of Hell's greater powers. Not least among their talents is their access to all times and spaces, thanks to their Mastemon and DarkKnightmon."
Myotismon recognized neither of those, but she got the message. "I'm sold. So, we're here to recruit them?"
"Only the ones of them we would know from our world, at most," she said, and began walking towards the building, towards the section at the very middle of the front wall. The wall spontaneously slid to the left, and the inside of the room was revealed. The chamber that was now open to them was fairly unremarkable, not particularly large, and the interior decor was neither abundant nor extravagant.
"NeneShademon," Hikari called, sternly. Shadows began to pour into the room, leaking across the floor and walls from behind every door.
Eyes covered the shadow, faintly glowing a deeper red than Hikari's own. Hikari stood at ease, glancing with mild interest at the thousands of eyes that were now stared her down. Myotismon studied the shadow-covered room, with an amused grin.
"The eternal dance has entered another round," said Hikari, "and I wish to see the ones from my birth-world accompany me back home."
Of course it had, NeneShademon mentally sighed. What other reason would she have to come, after all these years?"
"I am afraid that will not be possible," a voice came from the shadows, almost perfectly calm to Myotismon's ear. "Only Takeru, TyrantKabuterimon, Raguelmon, and Cody are currently here. The others have all departed."
"If that is how it is, I will simply take my leave," Hikari answerred neutrally. "Live well, NeneShademon, until we once more meet," the Queen in Yellow turned to leave.
"Same to you," said NeneShademon while she walked, "and good luck to you as well."
"Perhaps the Seven Great Demon Lords will be suitable as replacements," she considered it in the moment it took to step outside, dismissing it.
Their seven virtues did not contrast their seven vices, beyond the dichotomy of Sora's Love and Lilithmon's Lust, and they didn't have a reflection for Yolei and the others. On top of that, she doubted she could control them all, especially if Ogudomon reunited.
"Another tactic, then," she thought.
Dagomon spontaneously appeared, his body momentarily flickering, the sound of static coming off him. A bit to his right was a tall-backed couch, a soft blue color, whereupon the two humans sat, relaxing into each-other, watching a movie with a pair of Veemon who sat on the other end on the sofa with the popcorn bowl they had hogged.
Rina silently resolved to ignore him. Noting her silence, Davis decided against giving Dagomon the satisfaction. At once, their contented smile evaporated. Veemon sighed, loud. Veevee decided that whatever he wanted was probably more important, and got up.
"What is it this time?" the blue dragon asked wearily while he turned Dagomon's way. Veemon focused on the movie, tossing another lump of popcorn in-doors.
Davis sighed mentally. "If it isn't Mastemon and Mirei coming with shit to straighten out, it's the others-" now that he thought about it, where were they? Those people were all so entrenched in the timelines that nothing could kill them in any way that mattered. "That rules big stuff out."
"A matter not quite as grandiose as normal, even somewhat mundane," Dagomon said, matter-of-factly.
Davis rolled his eyes at that, and Veemon mirrored that expression.
"The Digidestined of your alternate biverse is organizing a rescue mission," he didn't know that for certain, he mentally amended at Veevee's stare, but it was what he expected of them. Certainly, from his brother-in-law. "Their Kari has been summoned back to our realm and taken her throne there. Your strength, and knowledge of Hell, could greatly benefit them."
Davis began to remember, almost fifteen years back, how much of a mess that had been.
"You know today is our first day off from everything in two months, right?" Rina returned, annoyed. "Not that this doesn't sound fun and all..."
"My apologies," said Dagomon, giving a shrug of his shoulders. He doubted that it would help if he tried to rationalize matters, but perhaps it could. "If it would help you decide, I anticipate that it would only take you less than an hour to resolve this matter, at most two or three if everything should go wrong."
Veemon rolled his eyes again.
"Okay, fine," Davis said with a sigh, getting up. He walked over to Veevee, and faced him. "I'll help out. Just promise you'll knock this off sometime."
Unease filled Dagomon's eyes, even as he smirked back. "He makes it sound as though we repeat the exact same eternal drama every time..."
In that memory, Dagomon found a bit of relief - that they had solved that was all the proof needed that they had not yet succumbed to stagnation. A dreadful thing, that was. He scoffed mentally, amused by a thought.
"That is not dead which can eternal lie, and with strange aeons even death may die," Dagomon recited to himself. "My progenitor was more right than he could know, but I doubt he meant her with that bit," he felt inclined to wax poetic about her, and decided to indulge himself.
Hikari. Kari Kamiya. A complex individual in the way that all humans were, yet the most wondrous and terrible one he had ever found on any earth. Her eyes, her beautiful red eyes alone, so often haunted his dreams, a sensation he speculated Davis would know as well.
Such was the power that was Kari Kamiya that spacetime could bend if she willed it to, be ripped into bloody chunks under the full force of her. She burned so brightly that the veils and membranes between planes could not shield his senses from her, that her reality could not ever contain her glory.
A memory, accompanied by a sour mood, came to Dagomon; one of a time when he had conquered planets across the dimensions for its own sake, tortured and enslaved people for its own sake.
The irony, Dagomon mused with mild amusement, was really quite remarkable. Some of Lovecraft's writings dealt with the topic of human sanity collapsing in the face of the otherworldly, yet here was a construct made to give the Cthulhu Mythos life, currently contemplating how he had been driven to madness by her mere existence.
Another memory returned to him, one of him in a cave deep in the sea. He was thrashing about, screaming for mercy in his madness, begging her to just die and leave him in peace. He silenced the memory, embarrassed by that fit of madness.
Veevee stared, wondering why Dagomon had spaced out, then decided it wasn't important.
"Any objections to calling Kari and Gatomon?" voiced Veemon, breaking Dagomon's reverie.
"Yes," Dagomon voiced. He wouldn't deny it was tactically sound. "Need I tell any of you my rationale?"
"No," it was Rina who answered, "but I agree it's a good call," she stood up.
Dagomon sighed. "If that is your decision, I will not belabor the point."
Elsewhere in Tokyo, in an apartment's bedroom, tranquility reigned. Beneath the bedsheets, wife and husband laid, smiling at one another, resting off his peaks. The phone on the bed-stand promptly rang.
Sighing in irritation, she grabbed it, and saw her caller was Davis.
"Your timing really isn't great," she told him. "What is this about?" Davis filled her in. "Right, same old. I'll ask Gatomon. If we're not there in five minutes, leave without us," she hung up.
Concern filled his eyes. She looked apologetically back at him.
"Another mission?" he wished to Heaven that she wouldn't go.
"You accepted it when you married me," she returned, semi-playfully. He wouldn't deny that.
He sat up. "You know what I mean, K."
"Yeah, just like you know I'm coming home without a scratch," she told him firmly, and got out of bed.