Holiday – Chapter 7: Secret's Out

madjack89: Hey there, chumigos!

JP: Chumigos?

madjack89: It's time for chapter 7 of the super spectacular awesomeness that is Holiday! Woohoo!

Takuya: Cool! So, reviews and then chapter?

madjack89: And cake! Reviewers are always generous with cake!

Takuya and JP: Hooray for reviewers that don't give a crap about the health risks of eating cake constantly!

madjack89: And hooray for anime anorexia defying the laws of the world as we know it!

JP: Except in my case!

madjack89: Good point!

Everyone: Hooray!

madjack89: Okay, review time!

*break*

Aldamonburst: Oh Hunny. He's a funny, funny bunny. (It's true because he has a bunny! XD I'm hyper…) I can party for a little while, but I usually end up gravitating toward the snack table until my friends drag me into the thick of things. Ah, my crazy friends. :) Thanks for reviewing!

Slop Doggy: Yay, Sloppy shall save me! :D Thanks Slop!

GoldenDragon326: Yay, you didn't notice me blatantly copying Ouran, so maybe it's not so blatant after all! (Maybe…) I know, I must be really important for Ilsemon to have gotten her lazy butt out of the RMS. (lol) Thanks for reviewing, and sorry for the wait! ^.^' (Black Cat is awesome, though I've only read the manga so far. But that was awesome, so the anime might be too!)

DigiBleach: I've only read the Black Cat manga, and I LUFFLES IT! :) Well, it IS a Light Saber! You can't call it anything BUT that! Thanks for reviewing and for the treats!

silver fire wolf: That was an odd saying, but it was awesome! :D Thanks for reviewing, guys!

fg1fg: It is fun, and anime characters make it too easy! There should totally be a movie called "Thunder Fist," because I'd definitely go see it. XD Thanks for reviewing!

13wolfsbane: (Takuya: Yay, treat kabobs! *sticks treats on sword*) Ouran and Chrono Crusade are awesome, but I'll admit to having to watch C.C. with a light on. (The demons do get pretty scary…) (JP: *shrugs* You know what they say. "Voice actors of a feather stick together.") (Takuya: …What?) Thanks for reviewing, girls!

Dawn of Glory: Yay for understandable references! Warning though, even just the mention of Ouran can cause severe giggle fits. (lol) Thanks for reviewing!

Musical Darkness: Thanks! :)

*break*

madjack89: Alright, let's see what Ilsemon and Hallucimon will do next!

Disclaimer: I don't even own a fraction of Digimon, not even a tiny sliver! *sniffle* My OCs are all I have left! (Takuya: Overly dramatic much?)

"Hey!" Shino exclaimed, glaring at Ilsemon. "Let her go!"

As cool as watching Shino be all macho was (Tee hee…), he was definitely messing with the wrong psycho Digimon. I started shaking my head frantically, trying to convey to him and, for that matter, everyone else, that they should back off and let me handle the situation. However, my head shaking only caused Ilsemon to clamp down more firmly on my mouth, and I was pretty sure the others could tell from my expression that she was hurting me.

"I said let her go!" Shino repeated, grabbing his D-Tector from his pocket.

No, red light, red light! No doing that! I really wished I could've yelled that, but Ilsemon had me pinned against her, with one hand I might add. (I tried prying her arm off me, but I'm not exactly a body builder…) Too late, I realized that left her one free hand.

Now, for those that don't know, Ilsemon's mind-scrambling powers don't work over extremely long distances, hence why she needed Wizardmon's help in screwing with Kouji's mind in F2HF. In the Digital World, it's a little easier for her to maintain long distance connections, but it takes a lot of concentration on her part. Her powers work better when she's in close proximity to her victim. But the best results come from physically channeling her powers into someone else. In other words, her mind-rape is strongest when she's touching you.

I could only watch, horrified, as Ilsemon placed her finger on Shino's forehead, smiling wickedly. He looked confused for a second, but then an unmistakable expression of utter agony took over his features.

Ilsemon let him fall to the ground, clutching his head in pain. She didn't need to have physical contact anymore. She had him.

I struggled furiously again, ignoring the pain caused by Ilsemon's fingers digging into my cheeks. I had to do something. I couldn't let Ilsemon have her way like this. This was my story, right? I'm in charge here!

Apparently, Ilsemon had other ideas. "Don't worry. I won't be TOO rough on him." Liar-pants! "I just wanted to have a bit of fun while I was here, and his mind is so cloudy and dark at the moment that I couldn't resist the chance to exploit it…but you'd know all about that, wouldn't you? After all, YOU made him that way."

Tearing my gaze away from Shino's twitching form, I turned toward the rest of the gang, wondering why they weren't trying to help their friend. Then I remembered that Hallucimon had joined the party, too. Crap.

Once again, I could only watch as the gang barely managed to dodge Lobomon's (or should I say, Hallucimon's) Light Saber, which cut the deck table we'd been using as a snack table in half. (Fun Fact: Hallucimon considers Lobomon the most formidable of the Legendary Warriors and, therefore, tends to transform into him a lot when fighting. Plus, who wouldn't want a Light Saber?)

"Aw, damn it! That was a rental!" Takuya shouted angrily, glaring at Hallucimon. "You are so paying for that!"

"Yeah right," Hallucimon retorted in a perfect imitation of Lobomon's voice.

"Whoa, that is really creepy," JP muttered, glancing between Kouji and the fake Lobomon.

"I don't know, this guy's pretty good at capturing pretty boy's inner asshole," Kira said, chuckling to herself.

Kouji sighed. "Maybe he should turn into Ranamon next so he can capture your crazy Yankee bitchiness."

"Not a Yankee, pretty boy!" Kira retorted, sticking her tongue out at Kouji.

"Guys, I don't think now's the time to get into an argument!" Zoe yelled just as Hallucimon charged again, brandishing his Light Saber threateningly. If the guys weren't running around the yard for their lives and all, this moment would've been pretty funny. It was like Pac-Man between the Frontier kids and Hallucimon. Funny mental picture, huh?

Eventually, someone with mad skizzles (a.k.a. Taru) took a brief opportunity between dodging Hallucimon's Light Saber to Spirit Evolve into Mercurymon. Then he turned on his heel in a way that only a coordinated person could (a.k.a. not me) and put his mirror between Hallucimon and the rest of the gang, shielding himself and them. Nice going, Taru!

Unfortunately, Hallucimon's got pretty fast reflexes and he's perfected his transformations to a tee. One second he was charging at Mercurymon brandishing a Light Saber, the next he was a little sparrow flying harmlessly, but evasively, over Taru's head.

Luckily, the others had taken this moment to Spirit Evolve and help Taru out. Too bad Hallucimon had taken the opportunity to fly over their heads and transform into MetalKabuterimon. Y'know, JP's giant, heavy, metal Beast Spirit? Yeah, not good.

"Damn it!" Ranamon shouted, narrowly jumping out of the way as MetalKabuterimon landed with a resounding thud on the ground where they'd stood, putting a huge dent in Shino's yard. Geez, his parents were gonna kill him when they found this.

I scanned the yard anxiously, making sure that the others had managed to dodge Hallucimon's crushing weight as well. Luckily, they had.

"Quick, hit him with everything you've got!" Agunimon shouted, getting ready for a good old-fashioned Pyro Punch! (For some reason, the only attack names I can ever remember from Frontier are Pyro Punch, Draining Rain, Crystal Freeze, and Thunder Fist. I always have to look the rest up. Not sure why.)

The others followed suit and tried to attack while Hallucimon was still disoriented from the impact of colliding with the ground. But Hallucimon had already changed by the time the attacks collided with each other, exploding harmlessly in mid-air. Sigh. Explosions.

Hallucimon must've transformed into a fly or something, because Ranamon suddenly appeared behind Grumblemon, fist raised. He even exclaimed, "Take this, bitch!" in homage to Kira.

"Stop…"

Grumblemon managed to block the blow with his hammer, but that was the last I saw of the battle before Shino's pained plea caught my attention. Ilsemon let me turn my head to stare down at him, probably because it gave her some sick satisfaction to watch how much it hurt me to see Shino like this, tortured and demonized by his past. But…hadn't I done this to him in the first place?

Ilsemon only smirked at Shino's pain. Geez, I really went all-out on her sadisticalness, didn't I? "It all hurts so much, doesn't it? Well, I'm sorry to inform you that your pain is my pleasure." She tilted my head up forcefully and added with a wink, "That goes for the both of us, right Madjack?"

Oh, she was asking for it now! My guilt was instantly replaced by a fiery rage, directed at my annoyingly arrogant OC. I needed to put Ilsemon in her place and remind her that I was her creator and that she would never have existed without me. However, Ilsemon had other plans.

I watched warily as she turned to stare at the ensuing fight between the gang and Hallucimon with a certain gleam in her eye. Oh no. She wasn't going to…

"I think I'd like to join the game now," she stated, rummaging around in her robe before pulling out a, oddly enough, human item. It was a roll of duct tape.

I barely had time to wonder where Ilsemon could've gotten duct tape before she turned me sharply toward her and punched me in the gut. I could only let out a choked gasp as I fell to my knees, clutching my stomach. Ilsemon wasted no time in rolling out the tape and sticking in over my mouth, once again muting me. I guess that was why she'd punched me, to knock the wind out of me so I wouldn't be able to give a command while she secured the tape. Darn her.

She tied up my arms and legs to restrain me, then turned back toward the fight, that excited gleam still in her eye. Oh great, she wanted to join the fun.

Okay, now I KNOW I stated in F2R that Ilsemon is not a fighter by nature, like Masumon. But that in no way meant she couldn't learn to fight. In fact, her powers were originally meant for harmless memory recollection, before she'd taken them too far.

That being said, I really started panicking when Ilsemon flitted toward the battle, placing her hand on Hallucimon's (now disguised as Agunimon) shoulder. This stopped him momentarily, along with the others. Dang it, why can't anime characters ever take advantage of the situation?

"Milady?" Hallucimon said curiously, glancing up at his lady.

Ilsemon smiled darkly, staring hungrily at the gang. "I think that I will take it from here, Hallucimon."

Hallucimon smiled slowly, making his stolen guise look positively evil. "Of course, milady."

Then he turned back into his cat form and darted out of the yard, probably not wanting to get caught up in the fight now that Ilsemon had joined in. Ilsemon just kept her gaze fixed on the gang, grinning devilishly.

Aw, crap. This was not going to end well.

"Oh joy. Tall, dark, and creepy joined the party," Beetlemon muttered sarcastically, raising his fists. "What do you do, shoot lasers from your eyes?"

"Hardly," Ilsemon scoffed, glancing at each member of the gang in turn. "Why don't you step forward and see for yourself what my powers entail?"

"If you insist!" Agunimon cried, taking Ilsemon's obvious bait.

Bad Taki, bad! I thought as the ridiculously impulsive Warrior of Fire charged toward Ilsemon, fist raised and flaming. I easily predicted what happened next. Agunimon realized too late that his adversary was no longer in front of him, but behind him. A quick kick to the spine on Ilsemon's part, and Agunimon was on the ground, Fractal Code glowing.

Why did I have to make Ilsemon so freakin' powerful? Well, I knew why. An adventure story is only as good as its antagonist, after all. Still, actually seeing first-hand what my own creation was capable of was a bit much for me. It wasn't just some words on a piece of paper anymore. This was real.

But Ilsemon didn't even stop there. After practically breaking Agunimon's spine in half, she leaned down and whispered something in his ear. Then the Legendary Warrior's hands shot to his head as he let out a cry of pain, quickly reverting to his human form in his agonized state.

I tried breaking through my restraints, but it was pointless. Ilsemon had me under her thumb, just like Shino…and now Takuya. The others looked between Takuya and Ilsemon for a moment, eyes wide with shock. As always, Ranamon was the first to recover.

"What'd you do to him, you bitch?" the Warrior of Water exclaimed angrily, charging blindly at Ilsemon. Of course, the results of this attack were more of the same, and soon Kira lay next to her boyfriend, teeth gritted as she underwent Ilsemon's torture.

"Guys, get back!" Lobomon shouted, realizing that trying to attack Ilsemon head-on was useless. Well, at least someone was using his brain today. However, that plan didn't account for Ilsemon's speed.

"Howling Laser!"

"Shadow Meteor!"

The twins both released their attacks, aiming at Ilsemon from a supposedly safe distance. It was a good effort on their part, but their adversary wasn't gonna be taken down that easily.

"Oh, so close." And like that, Lowemon was down, de-evolving in the process. However, Kouichi didn't hold his head or scream when Ilsemon's power took effect. The only indication that anything was even wrong with him was the pain showing plainly in his eyes.

"Kouichi!" When Lobomon shouted his brother's name, I shut my eyes. I didn't want to see any more of this. It was enough to have to watch the gang get tortured and not be able to do anything about it, but I had the added knowledge that I'd essentially caused all of this to happen to them in the first place. For the first time since I'd arrived in this universe, I wished I could go home.

"Maddie…" My eyes snapped open when I heard Shino whisper my name. It sounded like he was behind me. But hadn't he been next to me a second ago…? "D-don't draw any attention our w-way," he continued quietly, a bit of a stutter in his voice. "I'm g-gonna free you while Ilsemon isn't looking. I j-just n-need to break this tape…"

After he whispered this to me, I felt Shino's hands gripping the tape around my wrists, trying to pull or twist it apart. It was a hard task to perform by itself, but what made it worse was the fact that Shino's hands were shaking like crazy. The stuttery voice, the trembling hands; Shino was obviously still under Ilsemon's influence. Yet he was trying to fight against the pain…to save me.

Sympathy welled up in me, and before I knew it, I'd reached up and grabbed one of Shino's hands in my own, squeezing it tightly as a sign of reassurance. He didn't need to free me. All this torture that Ilsemon was putting the rest of them through was wasted effort. If she really wanted to talk, she could've just come and asked me from the get-go. I would have gone willingly, and she probably knew that. After all, I didn't have anything to fear from her, my creation. She'd just done all this for her own sick pleasure.

But soon she'd get bored. Soon she'd take me back with her, probably to the RMS. Then we could settle all this, and I could get things back on track. Everything would be fine soon. I was gonna fix everything…

"I don't think that is a wise thing to be doing, Shino."

…Darn you, Ilsemon.

I managed to roll sideways and watch as Shino got to his feet, glaring up at his adversary. Ilsemon didn't try to stop him when he said, "Let her go. Maddie has nothing to do with this. She's innocent!"

"You have quite the nerve ordering me around in your condition," Ilsemon replied haughtily, tapping her temple for emphasis.

Shino smirked in response. "It seems like your power weakens when it's being used on more people at once. It's more of a dull ache now than an all-encompassing pain. Now release my friends, untie Maddie, and leave right now."

Ilsemon had looked a bit troubled by Shino's comment about her powers, but that was quickly replaced by a wicked smile when he mentioned me again. "'Maddie,' is it? That is the name you've chosen to go by, Madjack?"

"None of your business, crazy." That would have been my response if there wasn't still a piece of tape stuck to my mouth. Instead, I gave my creation an indignant look.

Ilsemon barely flinched under my gaze. (No respect for her mommy at all, this one…) Instead, she turned to look at the rest of the gang, all of whom were slowly rising to their feet, their painful memories dim and manageable thanks to the division of Ilsemon's power. But I knew she wasn't done yet.

Especially since she had back-up. "Hallucimon, come!"

Quick as a flash, the black cat hopped over Shino's fence and landed in the yard, rushing over to Ilsemon. "Milady," he muttered respectfully, bowing his head.

Then Ilsemon did something surprising. She knelt down to her lackey, took her pointer finger, and placed it right between his ears. Not even Hallucimon could disguise the shock he felt at his mistress's actions, which strengthened my confusion. Why was Ilsemon doing this to Hallucimon, the only servant she'd ever truly trusted?

She stopped a moment later, though, rising to her full height. Hallucimon shook his little cat head vigorously, almost as if he were clearing his mind. When he opened his eyes, there was no longer a look of confusion in them. Rather, he looked like he'd just heard the punch line to a hilarious joke. He even chuckled as he turned to stare at me, cat eyes gleaming. "Ditto of the Digital World, huh?"

That comment surprised me more than anything else that had happened up to this point. Ditto of the Digital World? That was a sort of nickname I'd come up with for my creation. But how did he know it without my telling him face-to-face?

It was obvious that, despite my constant breaking of the fourth wall in Frontier 02, these guys had no clue that they were actually fictional, and that I was their creator. (At least, the creator of the OCs.) That's what I'd thought, anyway. But Ilsemon seemed to know everything. She knew she wasn't real, and she knew I controlled everyone's fates, being the author of this story. But until this moment, I hadn't stopped to wonder why only SHE knew all of this. Not even her lackeys seemed to possess this knowledge. But Ilsemon knew it all.

And now Hallucimon did too. "Your powers are quite formidable, milady," he continued, blinking slowly. "My memories are still a bit foggy…"

"A side effect of being suppressed for several days. It will wear off soon," Ilsemon said. Wait, Ilsemon had suppressed Hallucimon's memories? Why? For what purpose?

My ponderings were interrupted when Ilsemon stated, "I believe it is time for all of you to find out who 'Maddie' really is." With that, she snapped her fingers.

The gang jumped in response, as if a shock wave had jolted through them. I watched Shino as his eyes lost some of the fogginess I hadn't even realized was there. When he noticed me staring at him, he returned the stare, a shocked look on his face. I quickly glanced at the others and found them all giving me weird looks, like I'd just sprouted a tail or something. Wait. What had Ilsemon said? "It is time for all of you to find out who 'Maddie' really is…"

No way. No freaking way. How could Ilsemon have pulled this off? Was she seriously this powerful? And if she was this powerful, why was I so surprised by it?

"I knew it." I turned my attention back to Kouji, who seemed to have recovered from his shock first. He was also glaring at me. Gulp. "I knew you had something to do with all this, but I didn't realize how big a part you actually play…Madjack."

There he was, using my internet handle again. But it was different this time. He wasn't just using "Madjack" as an insult. He knew who I really was. He'd finally remembered. Or rather, Ilsemon had allowed him to remember.

And the fact that he did remember me made his words sting even worse. "You said you'd never make me a pawn," he muttered, hands clenching into fists. "You said you didn't have anything to do with what happened between Takuya and me. You flat-out lied to me!"

I wanted to protest, but 1) I still had the tape over my mouth, and 2) he had a good point. He deserved to be a little ticked off at me for what had just happened to him. Still, I was the author of this story! All the plot decisions were under my jurisdiction and he, whether he liked it or not, had to play by my rules! If I were a little more assertive, maybe I would have felt that way. Instead, I crumpled under Kouji's glare. And it only got worse when the others joined in.

"What the hell is going on, Mad?" Kira asked, confusion and anger mixing in her expression. "You sicked psycho chick and her merry band of monsters on us? The hell did you do that for?"

"Is this your idea of a joke?" JP said, the good-natured gleam leaving his eyes when he looked at me. "Sorry to say it's not all that funny."

"You bully," Tommy added, eyes mercilessly cold in a way that was unbefitting of his age. The others didn't even say anything, they just glared at me. Well, Dai wasn't glaring, he was giving his friends surprised looks. It's not in his nature to hate easily. But even Shino was giving me a hard look, when just a moment ago he'd been defending me from a foe three times his strength and speed without hesitating. But it was different now. I was no longer helpless.

I wanted to correct them, to tell them this hadn't been my doing, to explain that this wasn't a joke set up by me and that Ilsemon was acting on her own. But would they have believed me even if I'd told them? Had I ever given them a reason to trust me? Not really, no.

I hadn't thought they'd go this far, though. "Your name's Ilsemon, right?" Takuya asked, glancing at his adversary. The Digimon nodded. "And you're here for Madjack?" Another nod. Takuya stared at me for a long moment, his expression betraying nothing. Then he smirked. "Ilsemon…you can go ahead and have her!"

"What?" Dai voiced my surprise for me. "We can't just let that Digimon take Madjack!"

"She created Ilsemon, Dai," Zoe stated, not giving me a second glance. "She'll be fine."

"But she doesn't want to go!" Dai protested. I could tell he wanted to say more on my behalf, but Hotaru halted him by grabbing his arm, shaking his head sternly at his cousin. You didn't mess with Taru when he got serious like that, and Dai quickly fell silent.

Ilsemon didn't waste any more time. "Well, you heard the boy, Hallucimon. Let's be on our way." Hallucimon dipped his head in agreement and, taking on the form of a large human dressed in an overcoat and hat, the same disguise he'd soon wear when kidnapping Shinya, he hoisted me over his shoulder (rather roughly) and followed his mistress back to whatever portal they'd come from.

Dai actually had tears in his eyes as they took me away. I appreciated his concern, especially since the others weren't even bothering to glance my way. They'd all turned their backs on me. They'd abandoned their author.

madjack89: And with that, I end the chapter!

Takuya and JP: Aw…

Takuya: We wouldn't be that mean to you!

JP: Yeah, you're only a little sadistic!

madjack89: Thanks guys! And actually, there's a reason behind your douchiness in this chapter, but I can't say anything about it yet.

Takuya: Figures…

madjack89: Alright, see ya next time, everyone!