Summary: The Demon Lords have received their 7th member--as an egg. They must now contend with raising him into the Demon Lord of Gluttony, Beezlemon.... Canon-compliant AU, Impmon-origin prequel to season 3 Tamers. (With some elements from the Adventure seasons.)
Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon or anything related to it.
Notes: I've altered Daemon's appearance—still based on canon though. I'm going with the images we have of him in robes and a hood with only glowing eyes, but his wings still sprout from his back. The image can be found on his wikimon profile.
Ch.8
"You're not seriously considering this?" Lilithmon looked to her brothers with not even the pretense at polite disbelief.
"It would be disrespectful to decline the Floramons' invitation—" began Barbamon, fingering his staff without looking his sister in the eye.
"Please, they're just trying to court our favor, and with soup of all things!..."
"I've heard it's really quite an excellent dish," put in Daemon dryly.
With mirthful wide eyes, Lucemon asked, "I thought that's why we took over their little establishment in the first place—"
The Demon Lord of Pride abruptly stopped to chuckle appreciatively at the way Lilith's Nazar arm flexed compulsively within her sleeve.
"Is that what we were doing with their village?" Belphemon muttered, small and reclining lazily on Leviamon's back.
Lilithmon whirled around on him. As Lilith advanced on Belph, Levia looked pointedly away, wishing for the thousandth time that the Demon Lord of Sloth did not favor him so as his personal palanquin.
"What you were supposed to be doing," she snarled in a low voice, leaning into Belphemon's deceptively soft face. "Not just breeze in and mow down every conceivably useful thing without even leaving any of our forces behind to finalize our control!..."
Her jaw clenched and a vein began to throb somewhere from behind her hair when the currently smaller Demon Lord yawned in her face. He replied, "Not make an example of them?"
"That was only the first part."
"Well then," began Leviamon, interrupting Lilithmon and Belphemon as he turned his head back to his sister, the gesture making the one brother on his back shuffle around into a more comfortable position. "All the more reason for us to visit their village, isn't it? Increase their morale and what not—persuade them that it'll be better for them in the long run to follow our lead."
"We could use some good PR," added Lucemon with an airy wave of his hand.
"We could divine what they specifically want…or what they really desire," Daemon said in too casual a voice.
Barbamon turned to the Demon Lord of Wrath with interest: "You suspect a hidden agenda?" Barb thoughtfully stroked his beard, saying, "Their allies, the Mushroomon, have been oddly excluded from this invitation, and I know Belphemon didn't annihilate all of them...."
Lilithmon flatly glared at the two, then muttered, "He's just hoping for the chance of wine...."
"Not true—I do want to try the soup."
Lilithmon muttered something else under her breath as she rolled her eyes, but neither of her brothers caught the words. She shot one glance around the makeshift circle of her fellow Demon Lords.
"Seems I've been outvoted this time."
&&&
After her grudging assent and their impromptu meeting adjourned, Lilithmon was in another argument with Daemon alone.
"Absolutely not."
"It would do him some good—"
"He hasn't even evolved yet, I'm not taking him along—"
"Have you considered that's precisely the attitude that's keeping him from evolving?"
"Excuse me?"
"I know he's your first and will probably be your only offspring—"
"Let's not get into Barbamon's half-baked idea of repeating the hybridization procedure that resulted in Yaamon's egg—"
"And let's not get distracted!" Daemon stepped directly in Lilithmon's path, and though she shot him an exasperated look, the fair looking Digimon stayed put.
"Now Sister, don't you think that—at the end of the day—you're being too overprotective of Yaamon?"
Lilithmon gave a dark, self-aware laugh: "If this is me being overprotective, I daresay if I were to turn 'tough,' it would be an interesting sight to behold...."
"Indeed," replied Daemon as he gave a curt, mocking nod. In a more serious, persuasive voice, he continued, "We'll all be there, in a village Belphemon thoroughly subdued and demoralized—"
"And made desperate."
Within the shadows of his hood, Daemon smirked slightly. "So you do entertain the possibility of there being more to the Floramons' invitation?"
"It would not do well to be careless."
"To be one iota less paranoid, more like."
"Now you are overly interested in semantics...."
The Demon Lord of Wrath barked out a short laugh, and then continued, "I was under the impression that you wanted Yaamon to follow in your footsteps." Lilithmon opened her mouth, but Daemon cut her off, risking her ire to say, "This is part of what we do, is it not? It would be good for him to see how we handle our business. Not to mention the fresh air—"
"The courtyard—"
"Still all within our fortress. The boy should see a little more of what's outside. He'll enjoy it, and hasn't he been doing better lately? Maybe not as well as you hoped, but still, he's determined. A little reward, a little incentive, would go a long way...."
Lilithmon sighed. Then she slowly nodded her head, but immediately stabbed a threatening finger into Daemon's chest. "None of the wine."
"That can wait until he's older," Daemon agreed smoothly.
&&&
Yaamon had been excited about his very first time out of the fortress, but rapidly deflated as he looked around the burnt down forest and the small empty shells of buildings with solemn green eyes.
"This place is a dump," muttered the infant sadly. He shuffled around in Lilith's grip, and then looked over her shoulder to Belph atop Levia, trailing behind them.
A silent Barbamon, probably busy with some personal theory or observation, was ahead of his procreator and him, and in front of the Demon Lord of Greed was Daemon and Lucemon talking quietly. Yaamon hoped they weren't talking about Lilith. Earlier, it had looked like she and Dae were going to start a huge argument when he remarked that she didn't have to carry Yaamon, they hadn't sparred at all today so he wouldn't be too tired or injured to do so. (Lilith had said he could have a day off because of the occasion.) The infant agreed; he felt he could hop by himself and keep up with the other Demon Lords' longer strides—but he didn't dare voice that after the scathing look Lilith gave Dae. She shot off a clipped retort about 'safety,' then there was Dae's pointed reply about 'paranoia' in unflattering tones. A few more short angry words had passed between them, before Lucemon—of all monsters—had finally dragged Daemon away to the front with him. Granted, Luce was excitedly telling Dae about some exploit he did the other day.
"Belph, did you have to wreck this place so much?" Yaamon whispered his question, but he was certain the Demon Lord of Sloth had heard him, even though he continued to be curled up with his eyes shut on Levia's back. Just when the infant thought Belphemon was just going to ignore him, the older Digimon answered in just one word: "Yes."
Lilith and the others had tried to explain to him what happened to the Floramons' village, what they did and why, the necessity of it, what they were doing there now, blah blah blah—it was all still very confusing to the infant Digimon. They had said the Floramon and their friends, the Mushroomon, didn't want to listen to them. Then they—that is, Belph, representing all of the Demon Lords—made an Example of them. And now they were going to let the Floramon try pleasing them with a feast, after having been made an Example by them, and they were accepting and trying to be gentler in telling them they should follow their Orders always.
Yaamon turned around at Lilith's tap on his ear; he saw a number of small red blossom-headed Digimon walk forward with purple flowers forming their arms, and the rest of their bodies colored a light green. They all knelt before them in a triangle, the one at the head saying, "Welcome my Lords."
&&&
The group of Floramon was able to fit most of the Demon Lords into their former grand hall, the Great Tree, which had remained mostly intact despite Belphemon's swift assault. Lilithmon and Barbamon were able to stay in their highest levels, but Dae and Lucemon devolved into their lower, smaller forms as Patamon and—Yaamon couldn't help but stare at Luce. He still looked like a human, but this time like a child one, though he remained larger than Yaamon himself. He still had his twelve wings, but they were all white now—most of Luce was white now, with what looked like a small white robe covering his body, his dark half pretty much gone. He was still blonde, with pale skin, but now he had big gold bracelets and anklets, and there were purple squiggly marks tattooed on half his face, down half his chest, and on the arm attached to that side.
"Don't stare," snapped Lilith, and Yaamon obediently looked away. Dae and Luce had devolved to make room so that at least half of Leviamon could fit into the Floramons' Great Tree. Except for Levia who coiled comfortably on the ground and Belph who stayed on his back, Lilith, Yaamon, Barb, Dae, and Luce sat at the Floramons' wooden table.
The purple infant sipped from his bowl (he didn't need a spoon anyway) from his place right on the table (he didn't need a chair either) and his eyes brightened. "This is really good!" He told the Floramon standing by, effectively popping their nervous energy. All the Floramon bowed, saying "Thank you, our young Lord is too kind," with an eerie synchronized tone.
"I wish I could have it all the time." But his procreator had told him before they left for the Floramons' feast that Digimon didn't need material food to survive—it was just an extra something they could enjoy. Then Barb had remarked that the situation might change for Digimon in the Human World, but immediately shut up from his impending babble when Lilith had said (in a warning tone) it was only a theory though. "Does it have a name?"
Presumably the head Floramon—she was the one that greeted them and directed all the plant Digimon in seating and serving them—replied, "Oh, it's just called Fruit Soup—simple, direct. But it's our specialty."
"Dae told me so."
The lead Flora pursed her lips, and then asked the infant, "Would you like to see how it's made?"
Yaamon hopped up and down eagerly.
The other Floramon giggled, and the leader said, amused, "Is that a 'yes?'"
"Uh huh!"
"All right," began the chief Flora, and that seemed to be a signal for the rest of her group to go to the baskets alongside the walls, and retrieve shiny golden fruit from them. One grabbed two, handing the second to Flora, who said, "First, we place the fruit inside our head—"
They bent down a little, and their blossom heads unfolded, and they dropped the gold fruit inside.
"—now all together—"
They danced and sang in a moving circle around the Demon Lords' table, making sure not to tread on Leviamon as they went. Yaamon watched with interest, and noticed that though the older Demon Lords weren't as fascinated as him, they did seem somewhat amused by the dance. They were much more aligned with Yaamon's interests when the Floramon stopped and leaned down into their bowls, pouring more soup into them from the red tips of what was equivalent to their noses.
The lead Flora leaned back, satisfied. "They're an ancient ceremonial dance and chant that blesses the food, gives it warmth."
After delightedly slurping at the next helping of soup, Yaamon straightened up and said, "Thanks!"
The Floramon blinked at that—then quickly bowed, and the Flora-in-charge said, "Thank you young Lord, but there's no need to show us gratitude. It is an honor and our duty to serve you and your kin."
Not sure how to reply to that, the infant sipped more at his soup, watching with curious eyes as the Floramon went to the older Demon Lords, checking on their satisfaction.
&&&
It was late, and Lilith wouldn't let Yaamon leave the table or the Great Tree at all, while her and all the adults kept talking on and on, and recently over goblets filled with a deep crimson drink she said he couldn't even try, not until he was older.
His procreator let him rest on her lap, with his eyes closed. But Yaamon was still awake and only pretending. He wondered if this is what Belph felt like 99% of the time—it was still hard to imagine his friend uprooting trees in a place like this, even if he moved super fast. He just seemed too lazy for that, and not cruel—
Yaamon tried to keep his ears from pricking too much when some of the adult talk became more interesting and caught his attention.
"Now my dear, what is it you want exactly?" That was Barbamon's voice.
A brief silence, until finally: "I shall be direct then, my Lords. We were hoping that you would be gracious enough to allow the Lilymon in your employ to come and help rejuvenate our forest. We've heard of her powers in that area, and they sound—"
"Sufficient for your purposes," said Leviamon, making his voice loud so as to be heard over Belph's snoring. When the Demon Lord of Sloth had started that, Yaamon cracked an eye open at the sound of one of the Floramons stifling a shriek—he saw that one with a hand over her mouth, stopping herself in time. Yet the fellow plant Digimon next to her still lightly punched her shoulder, glaring at her. Yaamon saw through one eye how panicked all the Floramon had looked for a moment—they knew exactly who had made that sudden noise—and watched their quick and jerky attempts to go back into something looking calm and servile.
"Yes my Lord—would you ple—"
Then the infant felt things start going very fast. There was a loud boom happening the same time as the Great Tree began to shake wildly, and Yaamon's eyes shot open, ditching his charade. Before he could do or say or really comprehend anything, Lilith picked him up with her good arm, and everyone immediately made their way out after Leviamon slithered out with Belphemon in tow. When Lilith took him out, Yaamon saw Levia (with Belph on top of his head) snap out both his tails, bringing down four purple-and-magenta-and-white Digimon crashing to the ground, shaken from their meager shelter in the bare, skeletal trees.
The Demon Lord of Envy retreated a little, to give them space, letting their assailants rise up, and Yaamon blinked, surprised to find that they were also some sort of plant Digimon too. Each of them had soft squishy, kinda triangular shapes colored purple with yellow spots on top of their white body, and they had magenta boots and gloves. The eyes beneath their purple cap were dark beads glittering with a hate approaching the one Crowmon had once possessed against Lucemon.
The chief Flora immediately shouted in a shocked, pained yowl, "Mushroomon?! What are you—? You said you were leaving—?"
"Rather much for an ultimately futile ambush, wouldn't you think?" Commented Dae in a weird warping voice as he shifted from Patamon to his highest level as the Demon Lord of Wrath. The eyes from within his hood glowed at the Floramon, who had gathered together in between the relatively united front of Demon Lords, and the Mushroomon.
Flora's eyes widening, and with the rest of her soup chefs starting to tremble, she stepped firmly in front of them and found her voice, protesting, "No, no--I swear my Lords, we had nothing to do with this, we had no idea, we thought our friends here had left us, that's why we didn't include them in the invitation, we had no intention of--"
Her voice hitched and stopped altogether when Belphemon slid down Leviamon's back and off his tails onto the ground. Her fellow Floramon huddled closer together and shivered more, and the Mushroomon edged closer to them as well, assuming battle stances--but Belph walked past them and straight to Lilith, who deposited Yaamon in his waiting arms. She left both of them, approaching the Floramon and Mushroomon.
"Wait, what are you gonna—?" but Belph's hand over his mouth cut off Yaamon's question. Belphemon took him back further behind, almost back into the still intact Great Tree (it was surprisingly sturdy). The rest of the Demon Lords advanced closer on all the smaller plant Digimon.
One of the Mushroomon snarled, "Yeah, they had nothing to do with this...."
Another Mushroomon yelled at the Floramon, "You would give in to them?! To him?!"
"You throw a party for them, after what their monster did?!"
"What about those who didn't survive?! You'd provide him with even more nourishment—wasn't their data enough?!"
"A feast over their graves--!"
"Silence!" The woman's command had not been his procreator's, but Chief Flora's. Except for Belph, all the older Demon Lords turned to her with differing levels of undisguised surprise, and Yaamon's eyes widened and stared at her. He couldn't believe something so authoritative and harsh-sounding could come from someone who talked to him in tones both gentle and deferential.
Lucemon, still in his childish form, gleefully remarked, "Ooh, dinner and a show!"
The lead Flora seemed not to hear, advancing toward the Mushroomon with an angry step, her voice rising as she continued, "This is for everyone still alive." Flora's arms stretched out, encompassing what was left of their village, and Yaamon looked around, shrinking as he was reminded again of how sad and pathetic everything looked. "For our home, the forest we lived in and tried to protect for so long--I'll do anything to return it to its former glory--"
"Even become their slaves?"
"If we must! To survive, we'll--"
"Better to die, than to--"
"That's not what everyone wants!"
Leviamon blew out a cloud of smoke shifting from color to color, and the arguing plant Digimon froze, as if remembering who was with them.
"I daresay you Mushroomon are merely…jealous," said Levia as he advanced on the plant Digimon, who managed to stand their ground. Yaamon saw that the child Lucemon was about to laugh, he really did have a weakness for puns—but Dae managed to discreetly stamp on Luce's foot from under the cover of his robes. Luce bit his lip, and then flew into the air, shooting a wounded glance at the Demon Lord of Wrath. Lilith rolled her eyes and Barb just shook his head at the two.
The Demon Lord of Envy continued, "Think about it—before we came along, you were the ones who defended these wretched Floramon. And now here we are, offering them better protection."
"…Your monster destroyed their village and many of their kin." The one Mushroomon who had dared to answer didn't speak of his brothers' own losses, or how the village was theirs too.
"And since we're powerful enough to do that, we could surely turn our considerable energies into purposes more beneficial to them. We wouldn't crumble so easily against enemies, now would we?"
Before that Mushroomon could even feel a volatile anger, there was shouting, shrieking, the sounds of Digimon falling down—it looked down in shock, straight down at the barbed tails sticking through his chest. Leviamon had snapped them out, knocking the Floramon out of the way to get to that one Mushroomon.
Yaamon was snarling and trying to get Belph's arm off his face, he couldn't see anything at all—as his ears picked up the eerie silence, it registered with the infant that the older Digimon probably had a reason for shielding his sight. What happened--?
"And our monster's name is Belphemon, the Demon Lord of Sloth," said Leviamon in that same level tone as he harshly ripped out his tails, and the Mushroomon immediately dispersed into data that he swiftly absorbed.
The remaining Mushroomon just as quickly gave a synchronized roar that shook the purple infant to its core, it sounded so sad and angry and hurt—he struggled instinctively to see all the same (even if maybe he shouldn't) and finally Belph's arm fell away from his eyes, only for them to squint at a horribly bright light.
When that sharp glow soon faded, Yaamon saw in place of the Mushroomon one, much larger Digimon that looked like one of the village's broken trees come to life to settle a grudge.
"How--what--?"
"Ask later," murmured Belph in a tired voice as he carried him further away.
The humongous tree Digimon gave another agonized shout as it lunged toward Lilith and the other Demon Lords. The infant felt a ridiculous jolt of fear, even though Belph acted as if not much was happening at all.
The Floramon seemed to have a more tangible fear, as they ran to the Demon Lords and threw themselves before them, begging, "Please don't be too harsh with them, please spare them--"
Yaamon's eyes widened as he realized his fear was totally stupid, and so utterly misplaced.
Leviamon flung all the Floramon away with a distracted wave of his tails, as Barbamon walked ahead of him, raising his staff. Lilith, Dae, and Luce retreated with a patient, almost bored air, just waiting for the inevitable outcome.
"Wait, do you have to--?!" the purple infant's voice grew muffled when Belph's hand clamped over his mouth, and he struggled and even bit furiously at the offending appendage, but the older Demon Lord wouldn't let go.
Yaamon's concentration drifted, his eyes widening as the head of Barbamon's staff glowed, and fire shot out, slamming into the attacking tree Digimon, igniting it--
The purple infant heard seconds of horrible screaming before Belph clamped his hands over both his ears, saw even less of the tree Digimon writhing, burning on the ground--Belphemon immediately took him to the innermost part of the Great Tree. In the older Demon Lord's attempt to completely cut off Yaamon's senses for the moment, he still kept his hands over the smaller Digimon's ears, but also had him completely bury his face in his chest. The infant ended up helping him with that goal; Yaamon just tried concentrating on the feeling of Belphemon's heart beat vibrating so slowly through his fur....
When Belphemon finally took him back outside, the only difference to the scene before was a dark smear of ash on the ground, and the sobbing, wailing Floramon. The young Digimon couldn't stop staring at the black mark on the ground, or shut out the sounds of their grief.
"Yaamon," called Lilith in an empty voice.
And for some reason, Belph's arms tightened around him. The infant blinked, and then looked up at the Demon Lord of Sloth, confused. He received no inkling of an answer from his face, it was as closed off and sleepy looking as ever. Just as suddenly as the older Digimon's grip had tightened around him, it slackened and Belph let him hop to his procreator.
"You were questioning me." The infant absent-mindedly noted how Lilith wasn't asking, it was a statement.
"I was…I didn't understand…did you have to--you didn't have to, did you--you could've just beat 'em up, not--"
It was too sudden: Lilithmon's foot stomping down on him, Yaamon didn't even have a fast enough reflex to shout. He felt the ground beneath him cave in a little, a small shallow hole shaped around his body, and dimly heard the Floramons' gasps, and to his amazement, heard at least one of them swear a very foul word, if he had used that, his procreator would be mad with him, if she wasn't already very mad with him right now—
No matter how much he really didn't want to, he whimpered when she ground him further into the dirt, increased the pressure—at least the dirt in his mouth muffled the stupid pathetic sound he made.
But then just as suddenly as she struck, Lilith lifted her foot and he struggled up, sneezing and coughing out the dirt—he winced when he spat out some blood. His green eyes weakly, blearily blinked up at her. The infant then felt he'd rather have his eyes squeezed shut against the dirt again, she looked so furious, but he knew he couldn't look away now, not when she let him up specifically so that he could meet her eyes—
"You do not question me."
Immediately, Yaamon was confused, and angrily so. That wasn't fair, she'd let him ask questions before, though she didn't always answer them, but she never hit him over those—why was this different, what had he done wrong—?
Oddly enough, Lucemon's remark started to clarify that for the infant. "Not in front of company, at least," said the Demon Lord of Pride in a light, cheerful voice.
Without looking at Lucemon, Lilith stretched out her good arm toward him, and shot out a bolt of crackling energy stabbing straight through his shoulder.
Yaamon jumped at that; he knew Lilith was always cross with Luce, and would threaten him, but the infant had never seen her actually strike at him before. Yaamon tried not to stare when Luce just laughed and poked at the wound in his shoulder, while Dae and the others just shook their heads, exasperated.
"Go back to Belphemon now, say your farewells--you'll see him later soon," ordered Lilithmon, not even bothering to grace Lucemon with a verbal response or acknowledge him in any other way. Yaamon didn't bother asking another question about her confusing words on Belph. He did an odd limping hop as he returned to the Demon Lord of Sloth.
Then Lilithmon calmly turned to the Floramon, who were all watching Yaamon's retreat with appalled eyes.
"Belphemon and Leviamon will stay with you until Lilymon arrives, accompanied with a team to assist with repairs and defense."
The Floramon looked up at Lilith, and the rest of the Demon Lords, in disbelief.
"The defense-minded portion of her team will remain afterwards to protect your home. Our soldiers will stay here indefinitely until further notice."
The plant Digimon continued to stare; then with trembling knees, they knelt down, and the chief Flora choked out, "Thank you my Lords…for your generosity...."
Yaamon stopped watching, and said a very quiet good-bye to Belph. The Demon Lord of Sloth ran a soothing hand in between his bruised and aching ears, and the infant tried not to imagine that same soft hand tearing through live Digimon here....
&&&
On the way home, Lilithmon explained, "Multiple Digimon can combine together to evolve into one higher level Digimon."
"Oh," was all Yaamon said, still not in the mood to ask anything anymore, not even to wonder if he needed others like that to help him evolve. Besides, he had a feeling his procreator would say no, he could evolve on his own, he was a freakin' Demon Lord after all. Superior over everyone, for all his current weakness—she had said that before.
&&&
"Well, he did get a better idea of what we do."
Lilith still refused to speak with Daemon the day after.
Notes: …So this ended up being Yaamon/Impmon's Suckiest First Field Trip Outside Ever. I wanted to emphasize how the senior Demon Lords aren't really all that nice to anyone outside their circle, even Belphemon can be particularly ruthless, and Yaamon/Impmon's struggle with realizing and dealing with that will be central in this fic. Again, complete images of Floramon, Mushroomon, and the Woodmon they evolved into can be found on the Digimon Wiki. Lucemon's child form can be found under his Frontier listing in the Digimon Wiki. The Floramons' village and the Mushroomon were inspired by, of all things, a Frontier episode. It's not specifically mentioned within the fic, but the Mushroomon evolved into Woodmon. Comments are always appreciated and wanted.
