Disclaimer: I own nothing involved in this story unless I invented it myself. This is written for fun, not for profit. All forms of feedback eagerly accepted. Concrit is loved the most, but everything is welcome.
Author: Higuchimon
Fandom: Digimon Adventure 02
Story Title: Broken Siren
Characters: Taichi, Yamato, Chosen Children||Pairing: Taichi x Yamato/Yamato x Taichi
Word Count: chapter: 2,071||story: 16,837||Chapters: 8/15
Genre: Romance, Fantasy|Rated: PG-13
Challenge: Diversity Writing Challenge, J4, 7-15 chapters; New Year's Mini-Advent, fic length determined by dice roll; (10,000-50,000 words); Valentine's Day to White Day Advent 2016, day #23, write a fic where everything turns out alright (no one said it had to start that way); Easter Egg Basket Advent, day #5, include someone almost, but not quite, dying; Word Count Set Boot Camp, #8, 32,589 words; TaiYama/YamaTai Week on Tumblr, prompt #2, bonds
Challenge Location: Diversity Writing, New Year's Mini-Advent, Valentine's Day to White Day Advent 2016, Easter Egg Basket Advent, & Word Count Set Boot Camp may be found at the Digimon Challenge forum on FFnet. TaiYama/YamaTai Week is hosted on Tumblr.
Notes: This is an AU. Things will probably be confusing now, but I will try to explain it all by the end.
Summary: Sirens are forbidden to exist in Prince Taichi's kingdom. He barely even thinks of them. So when a mysterious stranger with a compelling voice arrives at his twenty-first birthday party, Taichi's only desire is to get to know him better, no matter the cost.


Phoenixes. Almost as annoying as angels. Vamdemon conjured a blast of scarlet energy that lashed against the annoying creature's wings and back, sending gold and violet feathers spinning through the early morning air. The phoenix bucked and swirled, wings flapping in a vain attempt to get the air under them once again.

"Release Taichi and Yamato!" The phoenix declared, dropping a little in height to recover balance. "Then we won't have any reason to stay around!"

Vamdemon snorted at the very idea. "Both of them are my property. Do you release your slaves just because some intruder demands it?"

"My people don't have slaves in the first place!" She circled around, gaining height now, but he could see where the marks of his power touched her. Not good enough, he decided. It wouldn't be good enough until she either died or fled his territory never to return.

It would be one or the other. He had no reason to keep someone like her around.

"Regardless, what's mine is mine, and I keep what is mine." He lashed out once again, this time shifting the energy so it came in razor-edged darts, all aimed at her. She dodged, wings flapping even faster, and he directed them to chase her.

She wasn't alone. He'd seen the demon prince and his constructed toy flying along with her. But Yamato would take care of them, if his child knew what was good for him. Vamdemon already had a few words he wished to say to him, concerning why his new pet wasn't there with them.

He gave no more time to bantering with the phoenix. He wanted her out of his airspace before the sun rose. Here the light wouldn't touch until well past then, but he had much that he needed to do and the more time he had to handle matters, the better.

But Miyako wasn't one easily dispatched. She spun and danced with the wind, ignoring the pain as his bloody shards dug deep into her. He could see pain in her eyes and reveled in it. But it wasn't enough, not even close.

He pulled himself back to get a better look at his enemy. In only a few moments, he had her bleeding and pained. He could vanish when he chose, returning to the depths of his hideaway where no one could find him. She might even survive the encounter, and perhaps would be wiser when it came to challenging those greater than she.

But he didn't want that. Not at all.

Between one breath and the next he held long spears of shimmering scarlet energy in his hands. He threw them toward the phoenix as she aimed herself toward him, anticipating the flow of blood and the cries of pain.

Miyako wrenched herself out of the way in seconds, casting herself higher in the air, then folded her wings close against her body and plummeted toward him, talons spread outward.

Glittering golden energy gathered at the tips, energy that sent him spiraling backwards as he realized just what it was: concentrated sunlight. He had no idea of what her range was, but just seeing it sent a howl clawing at his throat. If he'd been closer to human, he might have even sprung into a cold sweat.

As it was, fear and rage both twisted inside of him, the rage stoked by the fear. How dare anyone try this! How dare she bring sunlight so close to his home!

All of that passed through his mind in a matter of instants. He swept backwards, concentrating in an attempt to disrupt the attack before she released it. He could affect the powers of other to some degree; he'd had to work hard with his teacher to accomplish that, but he'd achieved it. If it had been anything else, he had no doubt he could've succeeded.

But sunlight burst forth from her claws and her wings snapped forward, even more light blazing forward, and Vamdemon spun backwards, wordless screeches of impotent fury spewing forth from his lips.

He dropped down farther, but more under his own control. The edges of his cape singed, the mask he'd chosen to wear centuries earlier bent, his uniform crisp in a way he did not approve of. But now they hung over the mountains, with the sunlight creeping up on the farther side, and the shadows stretching farther out beneath them, welcoming him in their embrace.

Always darkest before the dawn. He smiled. He would not take her blood. The blood of a holy creature tasted foul beyond words, but he had more than one way to recover his strength, and he didn't think that she knew about it.

It took a few seconds to focus, and he hated that it took that time at all. Every moment he wasn't fighting her was another moment she spent gathering the energy to strike at him.

He'd never fought a phoenix before. He knew of them only from what the occasional traveler he lured into his lair would speak of, and the stories never were consistent with one another. Add in that she wasn't entirely phoenix and thus could not be as predictable as one who was, and he had a fight on his hands that he didn't like in the slightest.

But he dropped farther into the shadows and called for what he wanted, moments before a sunlight powered beam sliced into the darkness and caught him across the shoulder, sending him spinning and slamming into the mountainside.

Vamdemon breathed harder, though he knew he had no true need to breathe in the first place. But when one has been slammed against a ton of rock by a force that could well kill one and hadn't only by not being hit dead on, then anyone needs a breath.

I'm going to kill her. No. Worse. He would find that which she loved the most and kill them in front of her. He wouldn't even bother to raise them as one of his own. Whoever it was, they would serve as his feast while the phoenix, wings clipped and powers muted by dark chains, watched helplessly.

He would have this and nothing would stop him.


Miyako peered through the shadows, trying her best to ignore the pain. It wasn't easy; it was barely even possible. But focusing on attacking Vamdemon helped. A little. If she didn't need to stop him so much, she would've just spun out of there and returned to get herself patched up. But doing that would unleash him on Ken and Daisuke and she wouldn't do that.

She didn't like fighting. She'd never liked fighting. That was something she and Hikari had in common. But there wasn't any point in trying to reason with someone like Vamdemon. He wouldn't listen and he wouldn't care and he'd only continue to hurt others to get whatever it was that he wanted.

In all truth, she didn't know what he wanted now. Something to do with Taichi, but other than that? That was another reason she wanted to go back to the palace; perhaps the others knew something more, something that would help work through all of this mess.

Yet until she had some way to ensure that Vamdemon wouldn't be able to follow and could do no more damage, at least until after sunrise when he wouldn't be able to get out of his lair, she didn't dare abandon this battle.

She tilted her wings, flexed her claws, and shot another blast of collected sunlight down into the darkness, lighting up the area to see what was down there. She could see in the dark, but there was something different about these shadows. Something that made her wary of moving closer to them.

Her light faded, far too quickly, and fingers of fear ruffled themselves through her wings. Where is he? He should be down there, but I can't see him.

Everything had been at least reasonable so far in this fight. He flinched away from her sunlight. He'd drawn blood from her with his own attacks. She didn't like that part, but it happened, nevertheless. But now he wasn't there. Nowhere for her to see…

Could he have already fled inside, out of sight of the sun? That wasn't such an outrageous idea.

"I should go look for Daisuke and Ken," she muttered to herself, a deep weariness flooding through her. She'd lost him. It wasn't the ending she'd projected; that had involved more sunlight and more utter defeat of him, or at least something she could understand as an ending. Not him just fading out of sight altogether.

She gathered herself up and beat her wings, aiming for the clear sky above her, just a short distance away. She'd flown and fought tonight harder than she ever had before and she looked forward to some rest.

Darkness closed above her, blocking the sight of the morning blue sky. This wasn't the darkness of night, but a choking, thick shadow that wrapped itself around her, tightening to the point she couldn't move her wings or talons or beak.

"You enter my lair uninvited, then you accept the consequences that come," Vamdemon said, rising in front of her. She struggled harder at the sight of him. He smiled at the sight of her resistance, the darkness tightening with little more than a flick of one finger.

When she'd lost sight of him, he'd been injured. Her sunlight strikes scorched him all over. But now he stood as if none of that had ever happened, as if she'd foolishly entered his lair and he'd had the advantage from the start.

That wasn't true and she would not let herself think that at all. No matter what, she wouldn't give in like that.

"I've heard it said that a phoenix can revive from death itself," Vamdemon said. He perched on a rock not that far from her and gave her a thoughtful look. "I find myself quite tempted to find out of that's true."

She could see the darkness around her as something more than darkness now, as thick chains of shadow that bound her all over. No way to move, no way to fly, no way to strike or attack or speak. Here the sun couldn't reach, giving the monster a safe haven to torment her in.

"I could keep you in a cage and make you watch what I have in mind for that little prince. He's going to scream so much before I'm through with him. Just like his ancestor did so long ago. You may rest assured that I will enjoy his pain long before I make him one of my own. But just as his ancestor did, he will kneel at my feet and call me 'master'."

One gloved hand wrapped itself around her beak, tilting her head up forcibly so their eyes met. "But I will do things even worse to you. They will never see their prince again, but I will send a warning back. You, little bird, will carry my warning to them. My warning for what I am capable of and what will happen if they continue to annoy me." He smiled, and she could see fresh blood on his fangs.

He fed! That explained more than she wished it did. A fresh feeding always enhanced a vampire's powers. She wiggled as much as she could, but only a few feathers, loosened by the attacks before, came free. From the way his smile widened, he could feel not only her fear but her rage. How had he done that? Did he have prisoners they didn't know about? So much that they didn't know at all and the idea of what could happen to Ken and Daisuke shot another jolt of terror through her.

"You don't need to worry about me taking your blood. Holy blood is filth to me. But I wish to try an experiment." Vamdemon raised his other hand and clenched it into a fist. The chains around her tightened until it was all she could do to take even the most shallow of breaths. "Let me see how close to death I can take the beast that can't die." He leaned closer, avid cruelty in his eyes, the reek of blood on his breath. "Let me find out what it takes to make you scream."

To Be Continued

Note: Thank you for reading and I hope that you enjoyed the chapter. Please let me know what you thought of it if at all possible.