Yeah, so it's been forever, and I'm sorry for that. Actually, I want to apologize for this chapter taking so, so long to get up. BUT, I think it's one of the better chapters I've done, that would only have been better if I could have put some Ryuki in there. Maybe next time?
Anyways, to try to make it up for you, read on after this chapter for some sneaks at what's to come. Please review, but try not to post anything spoiler-y in them incase anyone wants to avoid them. Thanks!
Hope everyone had a happy holiday!
-N
Previously:
Ryo hugged his little brother before a smile and a wave, and he hurried to catch up.
Rika approached the portal, but stopped, and turned to Will.
"Don't worry." She told him. "I'll look after him for you." She gave him her most reassuring smile, and entered the portal, hoping he believed her—but more so hoping she'll be able to keep the promise.
/ / /
The Betamon made some sort of gurgling noise. "Raiders came through here."
"What were they? Gaogamon?"
"No, the Gaogamon are on our side. They did what they could to fight them off, and most of them died because of it."
/ / /
Ryo felt his heart stop as he ran to Rika, and didn't feel his heart start beating again until he felt her pulse.
"She's alive." He called to them. "Henry?"
"Alive, but he's out." Takato called back.
"R-Ryo?" the girl in his arms whispered weakly.
"Rika?" he replied in disbelief. "Rika!"
The disbelief turned to panic, however, when she suddenly grabbed his head with all her might, and stared at him, and he saw the terror on her face.
"It's coming, Ryo." She whispered. "It's coming."
"Rika!" he called to her, shaking her gently.
/ / /
"I am what I am because of him." Cronus retorted uneasily.
"Weak." Reed replied disgusted. "Depressed. Useless. Overshadowed. You're alone because of him."
/ / /
He held his hand out, as Cronus stared on blankly. But as Takato awaited his demise, he stared at his friend, and and he once again saw another flicker of expression on his face…but this time, Reed saw something too, and his head turned away from Takato, to something on his right—something that Takato didn't see.
"You…" Reed whispered, his hand dropping to his side, speaking to someone or something that just wasn't there. "Carter, how are you here…?"
There was simply nobody there. But while Takato didn't have the power to question it, Cronus apparently did, and he swung his elbow hard into the back of Reed's head, knocking him down and unconscious.
/ / /
"You saved me." Rika said plainly. "I owe you one."
Ryo looked her quizzically. "We're not keeping score, Rika—"
"Yeah, well, still." She smiled, but went on. "Whenever you need help, I promise I'll be there, okay?"
Ryo smiled heartily. "Deal."
Tracked Down:
The song started to skip, then stopped altogether. Rika winced a little, and carefully pulled out her mp3 player. She knew the battery was dead, but she looked anyways.
Dead.
"Damn it." She muttered.
"Something wrong?" Renamon asked. The trip had been nearly entirely quiet until then. To anybody watching, anyways. Rika herself had been quite content listening to her music, but it looked like that wasn't an option anymore. She grimaced. It had been right in the middle of one of her favorite songs, too. Then again, it would be expected that that's where it would be when the battery died—Rika was one of those people who could listen to the same song over and over again.
"Nah, my battery on this thing just died." Rika explained. She hadn't been using it at all since they arrived in the digital world, she'd even had it turned off until that morning, when she remembered she'd brought it with her. But even though she'd charged it fully before embarking on their little mission, the power had continued to drain from it, and it had only been at one-quarter left when she actually started using it. It probably didn't help that she kept manually switching the songs, but it was a habit of hers she just couldn't break.
Not stopping, she swung off her backpack and put the player in it. There wasn't a whole lot in the bag, but she was getting sick of carrying it—perhaps sick wasn't the best way she'd describe it—bored, maybe? Inside it she had two data spikes, a change of jeans, two shirts, some binoculars, a large kitchen knife she'd snagged from home, and—of course, the charger cable for her mp3 player—not that she was able to use it. She hadn't actually made a conscious decision to bring it, but it was in one of the side pouches that she forgot to unload before packing on the trip.
Her actual packing process had taken all of three minutes, thirty seconds of which involved her grabbing a knife from the kitchen that she hoped her grandmother wouldn't be planning on using for a while. There had still been some of her physics homework in her backpack, too, which she'd happily donated to a garbage bucket in Sarian.
Rika and Renamon had been making good pace in the three days since everyone had split up. Their stops had been kept to a minimum, and they both walked quickly anyways. Well, she assumed that that was a good pace. Her legs were sort of tired, but she realized that was to be expected. Walking for eighteen hours a day would do that to someone. It was a workout, at least.
Hell, it still beats going to the gym.
The pair hadn't had any success in getting any information on the Sovereign. They'd past a sort of village who knew nothing, and a sort of caravan, who knew plenty, just nothing about the Sovereign, the Destroyer, or Reed.
"Renamon, want to call it a night?" asked after two more hours of walking. She was actually getting tired.
"Very well, Rika." Renamon accepted. "If we leave early tomorrow morning we'll be in the city by the afternoon."
They set up their camp—which basically consisted of Rika taking off her sweater and using it as a pillow.
Everything had been so strange—much more so than the level of strange she was used to. There was that tree city, Sarian, that got attacked for no reason, then there was—something that made her and Henry get sick until Ryo and Cronus saved them…then the Sovereign, and Reed, and that little boy that led her to Giz, then disappeared without a trace.
Rika knew that there was something bigger going on, maybe even bigger than the Destroyer and the Sovereign. She just didn't have enough information to put everything together. Not yet. But what she did know was that they were all a part of it. Reed. Her friends. The little boy. Cronus. The Sovereign. Everything was happening so that something else would happen. Which bothered Rika, because she didn't believe in destiny. Her actions were her own.
"Rika?" Renamon's voice caused her to open her eyes. Rika didn't sit up, but opened her eyes, staring at the sky, as she'd once done with Ryo.
"Yeah?"
"May I ask you something?" Renamon sounded—worried, which of course, made Rika nervous too.
"'Course." Rika declared, still staring at the sky. She closed her eyes as a breeze went by, then reopened them as it passed.
"What is your opinion of Cronus?" the fox asked her.
"Cute, and pretty sweet, but definitely not happening." She blinked, remembering that she wasn't talking to Jeri. "That—not what you meant, is it?"
"No." Renamon verified. "I mean, what is your opinion of him?"
She shrugged.
"He's Guilmon." Rika said casually. "Why?"
"There's something about him that isn't right, but I can't quite figure out what it is." Renamon explained.
"What do you mean?" Rika asked, sitting up.
There was a pause, during which Rika waited for Renamon to find the words she was searching for.
"The way he moves—and the way he behaves." Renamon started. "Something about it—something about him. It isn't right."
"I know he can come off as a little—strange sometimes," Rika said thoughtfully. "But he hasn't been human all that long. He's just trying to figure things out for himself, and he has all these questions that he can't explain."
Rika recalled his questioning her about love. She knew that digital life felt emotions, but she realized it must not be the same thing—because Cronus didn't understand what was happening to him. In a way, she pitied him.
"Mark me." Renamon finally said. "He can't be trust—"
Renamon froze mid-word, and it took Rika several seconds before she realized that Renamon literally froze. Her mouth was still open, and her gaze was still locked.
Rika raised an eyebrow worriedly, and looked around. The grass around them was bent as if in the wind, though not moving. Nothing was moving. It was eerily beautiful, but Rika was leaning more towards the eerie. Especially when Renamon began to glow.
"Renamon…?" she whispered, nervous.
No, she's not glowing.
She wasn't. Rika knew, because Rika suddenly saw her own shadow next to Renamon. There was something glowing behind Rika, not in front of her. She spun around, and saw a sad-looking little boy. A little Cronus.
"You…" Rika whispered, unsure—uneasy.
That boy…I saw him in my dream…?
"Rika…" the boy spoke softly. Rika was taken aback—his voice didn't seem to come from him, it—it surrounded her. It was clear, though it almost had a sort of echo to it. She was a little freaked out—she'd admit it if she had to—but she wasn't ready to take her eyes off of him. Back when she'd seen him before, the instant she looked away, he'd vanished, and Jeri and Renamon didn't believe he was ever there. "You must hurry."
Hurry?
"Who are you?"
He looked down to the ground, sadly, and then turned his face away from her, as if in shame. Rika sighed in frustration as she realized that she wasn't going to get an answer.
"You must hurry." He repeated.
"Hurry where?" Rika spoke slowly and coldly.
"To the capital." He answered. "The capital of the digital world—to Hyperion."
Rika hated being led around like he was doing. It had happened to her in the past far too many times—by Icedevimon, by Adam—she had to get some answers or she wasn't going to play his game.
"You showed me where Giz was hurt." Rika said tactfully. "Why?"
He looked at her thoughtfully for a few seconds, and Rika was ready to just walk away when he answered her. "It was important that you found him."
"Important?" Rika repeated quietly as she tried to figure it out. After Takato, Ryo, and Cronus had nursed him back to health, he'd been the one to tell them about—"you're talking about what he knew about the Sovereign?"
"Yes." The small Cronus stated. "Even right now…both worlds are being led down a path to destruction by someone who does not understand what he is doing."
"You mean the Destroyer?"
The boy lowered his gaze. "You know him as Reed."
Rika's eyes widened. "Reed is the Destroyer?"
"No." the boy spoke louder, and Rika realized soon tat he was being defensive. "He thinks he can control the Destroyer—control what the Destroyer is trying to do, but he—" he trailed off.
Control…the Destroyer…?
Rika didn't believe it, not yet. Reed had tried to trade her, Ryo, and Cronus to some—thing. Rika shifted uncomfortably as she recalled the event.
"Here they are." Reed had said calmly. "Now, tell me where."
The creature had just laughed at Reed, and even though Rika had been suspended, helpless—she could see the anger in Reed's face as he was faced with his own betrayal.
"Tell me!" Reed screamed as he advanced on the creature. Rika noticed his hand begin to glow red…
"Do you really think he'd be safer?" the creature snickered. "With you?"
"Why would Reed try to control the Destroyer?"
The boy met her gaze again. "Because he believes it's the only way to stop it."
An invisible hand tightened its grip on her stomach. "Wait a second—are you saying Reed's on our side?"
"He holds the secrets of this world, but in guarding them, has been betrayed by his friends, his family…been betrayed by his heart—and has betrayed others in turn." The boy's gaze once again hit the floor hard. "He is angry at this world—for what it did to his partner, for what it did to him. And to me."
Partner. So Reed had been a Tamer before he went super-villain.
Rika was starting to figure things out. Reed hadn't been trying to get to the Sovereign when he turned on Rika and her friends—he was trying to get to him. That boy. He was who Reed tried to trade her, Cronus, and Ryo for…
"Who are you…?" Rika finally repeated. "Why are you telling me all this now? And why do you look like Cronus?" But the boy looked to her quickly, powerfully, and took a step forward, a look of urgency on his face.
"Please hurry, there is not much time left. There is another crisis in the capital that requires your urgent attention."
Rika sighed again as she tried to let it sink in—why should she believe him? He was there when she saved Giz, sure, but she had no reason to let him order her around. He wasn't giving her anything—no reason to trust him.
The boy turned, and took a step away from her, as the light around him started to fade—he looked at her.
"My name is Carter."
With that, he, too, faded.
"—trusted." Renamon 'finished'.
What the hell...?
"Renamon?" she asked hopefully.
"Yes?"
"You—didn't hear any of that, did you?"
"Any of what, Rika?"
Rika bit her lip, then closed her eyes. She knew she wouldn't sleep, but she had some things to think about.
"Nevermind, let's just get some sleep." Rika finished. "We can talk about Cronus tomorrow, okay?"
They didn't, as neither of them brought it up. Rika only managed to get a few hours of sleep in, but she felt pretty refreshed when the morning came. A few hours of walking later, and Rika saw giant grey walls in the horizon.
"Renamon, what is that?"
Rika stared at what lay in front of her. She could barely conceive it…giant stone walls, a dark tower in the middle of it climbing towards the sky…it looked like a fortress.
"That's the capital. Hyperion."
"The capital?"
"It's the biggest city in the digital world, and in turn, the place with the most inhabitants. It has been years since I've been here, but the population was nearing forty thousand then, and I imagine it has grown in that time."
"You've been here before?"
"Yes." Renamon nodded. "Most digimon have."
"So there's a whole city behind those walls?"
Renamon nodded, and Rika turned back to it, quickening her pace towards it. If there were really that many digimon there that lived together peacefully, then it would have to have some that knew something about the Sovereign.
As they continued to head towards the capital of Hyperion, Renamon continued to give Rika more details of the city itself. In addition to being the largest settlement, it was also one of, if not the oldest of them, as well. That big tower that Rika could see was some kind of castle-church. The city used to be governed by the Devas, who reported anything important to the Sovereign. But after the Sovereign sent the Devas after Calumon so they could fight the D-Reaper, and the Devas were all defeated or deleted, then the city—quite democratically—quickly elected five digimon to ensure the city functioned smoothly and safely: they were titled the Circle of Telesto.
In addition to five leaders, the city also had five towers; one in each of the four corners, and another in the center. Clockwise from the front-left, were Methone, Helene, Janus, and Tethys, while the tower in the center was called Atlas. It was in Atlas that the Circle convened to govern the city.
One of the leaders, however—a Gaogamon—led a team to protect Sarian from its attacks two weeks prior. He never came back. The Circle of Telesto didn't replace him, though, and even with an even-number of members in it, any decision they made had always been unanimous, so they were able to leave his seat empty out of respect for what he tried to do.
It wasn't long before they approached the open gates. Rika could hear that it was extremely loud in there, like there was some sort of party. The creatures were cheering, and laughing and singing and dancing.
Yeah, Carter. This place really looks like it's in trouble.
Rika had never seen so many happy creatures in the digital world, let alone in one place.
Rika pushed through the cheering crowd, carefully and, when she needed to be, forcefully. She asked nearly a dozen different citizens what was going on, but yielded no results. She simply couldn't see up to what they were all looking at, as several very tall digimon were among the crowd, as well.
She spotted a Dorumon, far shorter than Rika herself, who she knew had no chance of seeing the stage.
"Hey." She called hopelessly, realizing it was ridiculous to call over all the noise. She turned to see that Renamon was still behind her, then moved forward and put her hand on the Dorumon's shoulder. "Hey!"
"What do you want?" he snorted, offended, as he jerked his shoulder back.
"What's going on here?" Rika asked loudly, trying unsuccessfully to drown out the sound of the crowd with her own voice.
"You don't know?" the small digimon turned to her fully, it's voice clearly ringing with excitement. "The Destroyer is here!"
Rika's stomach tightened. The city was excited for the Destroyer? She had to get out of there—fast. There were way to many digimon here to fight their way out—she and Renamon needed to run. Fast.
At least, that was what Rika thought until she heard what the creature said gleefully next . "They're going to execute him in just a few minutes! Looks like you got here just in time!"
Execute him…?
"Wait—what did you just say?" Rika demanded.
"What do you think I said?" The Dorumon snorted excitedly. "The Circle captured the Destroyer!"
The Circle?
From what Rika understood Renamon had said; the members of the Circle of Telesto—the rulers of the capital—were indeed powerful, but their power wasn't remarkable—it was their wisdom that earned them their positions. If the Destroyer had the power to take out the Sovereign—and Rika believed it did—then the rulers of Hyperion alone simply didn't have the capacity to fight something that big and bad.
Rika turned to the tall golden fox who stood behind her silently, even though Rika knew Renamon was just as worries as Rika herself was.
"Renamon?" Rika said quietly, but loud enough for her to hear. "Something's not right here. Either the Destroyer's not so tough, or they've got the wrong digimon."
"Let's see if we can get closer."
Rika pushed quickly, turning as she sidestepped through the crowd despite the complaints and creatures yelling at her as she moved them out of her way. She knew it was rude, but what she was doing was important. The pace was slower than she'd have liked, but she was getting closer to the center—to the 'Destroyer'.
"Let me go!"
That voice…that's…?
Rika hurried her pace, pushing through the crowd angrily, frustrated, and worried.
Please don't let this be happening…
Rika actually felt her lips move as if she was speaking her silent prayer, though no sound passed out. She could tell that Renamon was behind her, though a glance behind her told her that a gap in the crowd that Rika herself had slipped through had since closed in, and Renamon would have to push through to catch up.
But Rika didn't have time to go back for Renamon—Renamon could handle herself. Rika had a different worry.
She looked to the stage, and caught a glimpse of a small blonde male on it, surrounded by digimon.
Carter?
No, it wasn't Carter, this person was taller than Carter, but shorter than Cronus. She lost sight of him though as the crowd shifted in front of her, and she very nearly lost her sense of direction, but she pushed forward, slipping between as many people as she could, as quickly as she could, until she got a better view, when her jaw dropped.
Oh my God…
She was still far away from the stage, but she was finally close enough that she could see the stage. Close enough to see the 'Destroyer', bound, and bruised. Close enough to see Will.
He looked even smaller next to the enormous creatures that loomed over him, shouted at him, pushed him, and taunted him. Rika flashed back to a description Ryo had given her of Will's first night in Shinjuku—when Rika's boyfriend at the time, Adam, along with a group of his friends, had done the same thing to Will: surrounded him, and beaten him. He was only a few years younger than Rika herself, but he was defenseless then, and he was defenseless now. Rika pushed harder, grabbing the knife from her backpack as she moved.
A Golemon was towering over him, and by the time Rika made it to the stage it started to raise it's gigantic rock fist into the air, charging up for an attack—no, to pause the crowd in anticipation. It was making a show out of it. It would either crush Will, or burn him alive.
It's stone. No good.
It suddenly lowered its fist slowly, before inhaling deeply.
Gonna be the fire.
"Please!" Will called to it. "Stop this—I didn't do anything!"
"You won't get to." Golemon replied, getting a cheer from just about everyone in the crowd except Rika.
The knife wouldn't help her, but it didn't matter, because she was close enough to Will that she was thankful the Golemon was showboating. She stepped on a short digimon, boosting herself onto the stage, and threw herself into Will's side, knocking him out of the way.
"Sulphure Plume!" it called. It missed.
Rika had gotten him out of the way, but her plan didn't have an ending. She was surrounded by an angry-looking mob.
"Get her!" the digimon called, indicating Rika fiercely. "She's trying to help the Destroyer!"
Renamon leapt to Rika's side.
"Renamon!" Rika called. "Run!"
She grabbed Will's arm and took a step back, trying to turn, but she was surrounded on all sides.
The Golemon swung a fiery fist sideways, and Rika's stomach sank.
"Get down!" Rika threw herself to the ground as the attack went inches over her hair, the heat of it warming the top of her head.
She stared at the enormous crowd ahead of them, staring at her, bloodlust in their eyes. "Uh, Renamon?" she asked. "What do we do now?"
Pulling him to his feet, Rika moved Will behind her, but she doubted the good it would do—this crowd would be able to tear through her in two seconds flat.
"This is a misunderstanding…" Renamon tried. "Please allow me an audience with the Circle so that this might be explained without needless violence."
Rika shot a glance back to Renamon, who was staring them down. Fortunately, they weren't advancing, so Rika began to hope that they might actually get out of there alive.
"Alright." The Golemon agreed. "You can speak to the Circle." He then indicated Rika and Will. "But they stay in custody."
"I can't allow that." Renamon grunted.
"You have no choice."
Damn it.
Rika knew it was right…there was no way they could fight their way out, and the crowd had literally surrounded them, so there was no hope of running. She looked around for options, but came up with none…the only way she pictured escaping was if someone came to rescue them, but the team had split up and gone in different directions, of course.
Thanks a lot, Takato.
She knew it wasn't really his fault, but she felt slightly better having someone to blame.
Rika grit her teeth as she was thrown into the cell.
It was dark, but she could tell that Will was there, trying to stand up.
"Will, are you alright?" Rika asked, rushing over.
"Yeah, I think so. What now?"
"Well, now you tell me how the hell you got here." She replied abruptly. Rika looked at him for a moment as she waited for his answer.
"Ryo was supposed to visit a few days ago." Will answered. "But he never came, so I got worried that something happened. So I went to talk to Yamaki, but he wouldn't tell me anything."
"And?" Rika asked impatiently. "He sent you in here to find Ryo?"
"I tried using the place in the park that you guys used, but it didn't work." Will almost protested. "It just kept pushing me back when I got close to it. Then I remembered that Ryo said it had to be stabilized from the terminals at Hypnos, so I broke into their server and set it up remotely."
Rika raised an eyebrow. "You broke through Hypnos's security?" She actually laughed. Ryo had told her that Will was bright, but—damn. Even Henry wasn't able to play around with Hypnos's capabilities without getting caught.
"I—I needed to know that everyone was okay." He murmured guiltily. "I wasn't planning on staying very long…but then these people started saying I was trying to destroy the world, then they tied me up and then you came."
Something wasn't making sense to Rika—either Will wasn't telling her something, or there was a huge piece of the story missing that needed to be found.
"Why did they think you were the Destroyer?" she asked him.
"I—I don't know, they just—grabbed me."
"You didn't do anything that made them suspicious?" she asked doubtfully.
"No, I swear!" he protested. "I was just trying to find Ryo…" he paused, looking at her, even more worried. "Have you heard from him? About him?"
Rika bit her lip, her suspicion dropping. She believed that Will didn't know any more than what he said…not that she didn't think he was hiding something to begin with, just that there might have been something he hadn't thought of—it wasn't like he'd been in the digital world before. She could see easily that, plain and simple, he was just worried about Ryo. She could tell, because she felt the same way herself.
"We had to cover more ground, so everyone split up."
"He's by himself?" Will looked confused.
"Cyberdramon, his partner, is with him." Rika answered clearly, looking around, remembering that she should be trying to escape right now.
"Who is your partner? That fox one?" Will asked, appearing to do the same.
"Yeah." Rika nodded. "Her name's Renamon."
Rika bit her lip again as she stopped herself from worrying about her. Renamon had been held back when Rika and Will were being taken away. She actually wasn't that worried about Renamon—she was quick-thinking enough to get away from them, be it sneaking, talking, or fighting.
Renamon'd be okay. Rika had to make sure that herself and Will would be alright, too. After all, she owed Ryo one.
Not that we're keeping score.
"Hmm." Rika mumbled. Was this the crisis that Carter had told her about time running out on? If he hadn't told her—if she hadn't started moving then—if she was just a minute late, Will would've…
"What's up?"
"Just wondering about something someone told me earlier."
"Which was?"
Rika mentally shrugged, figuring there was no harm in telling him. "Really early this morning, I was told that I had to hurry here. So I did, and it looks like you'd have been in trouble if I was much later."
"Yeah." Will nodded, before adding awkwardly. "Thanks."
"Nothing to worry about." Rika shrugged. "I was in the neighborhood."
"Uh huh." Will said with some disbelief. "So who told you?"
"Told me what?"
"To hurry." Will replied curiously. "Did they know I was in trouble?"
Rika thought a moment. "Maybe." She admitted. "He really wasn't clear."
Realizing she hadn't actually answered his question of 'who', she bit her lower lip. "And I'm not sure who."
She held back a shiver as she remembered what Carter had said about the worlds being led towards a certain destruction, leading her to remember everything else that had happened. The papers they'd found with Reed talked about the Destroyer, but there wasn't anything else useful that anybody was able to translate from them. When Rika and Henry had fallen sick, everyone told her that Rika had said to Ryo that 'something was coming'. Sarian, that village in the trees, had been attacked because the Destroyer was looking for Giz, because Giz knew about the Sovereign. Then, for some reason, a place that was supposed to be a peaceful city thought that Will, of all people, was the Destroyer.
"Do you know anything about this place?" Will asked.
"It's a jail cell." Rika answered sarcastically.
"I mean the city." Will clarified. If he was annoyed with her sarcasm, he hid it well.
"It's called Hyperion, and it's the biggest city in the digital world. The leaders call themselves the Circle of Telesto, and there should be five, but one was killed recently."
A Gaogamon, that had been near Sarian. Didn't Ryo…?
Had that been the Gaogamon that Ryo had killed? She figured it would be best not to mention it—it wouldn't help with their case of not-being-evil.
"Anyways," Rika went on. "There's a tower in each of the four corners of the city— Methone, Helene, Janus, and Tethys. Then there's one big one in the middle called Atlas, which is where we are right now. The population's—" Rika tried to remember what Renamon had said. "somewhere over forty thousand, and it looks like most of them were out to see you today."
"Huh."
"What?"
"The names…Hyperion, Telesto, Methone…" Will repeated softly.
"Yeah." Rika nodded. She knew that she'd heard them before, too. "Greek mythology."
It had been one of the few topics of history she actually found interesting, and therefore how she was able to remember the names that Renamon had mentioned to her.
"Yeah, but they're all moons of Saturn."
"Oh." Astronomy had never been her favorite subject.
"Isn't that kind of weird?"
"I guess." Rika shrugged. "I doubt it means anything, though—this world was basically created by humans, so it's pretty obvious that there'd be elements of human history in it."
"Oh." Will said, realizing. "Right. Why'd you guys have to split up?"
She sighed, wishing she understood enough of it herself to be able to give him a real explanation. "What did Ryo tell you about why we came here?"
"He said that the worlds were slipping into each other."
"Right." Rika confirmed. "Now the digital world's got four rulers, called the Sovereign. They're these four digimon based off of Chinese astronomy. Anyways, they pretty much keep this world in check, keep it separate from our own. Now, the Destroyer—that guy that everyone seems to think is you—is killing them off."
"…so there'll be nothing protecting this world." Will finished as he figured it out.
"Bingo." Rika pushed one of the bars of the cell gently, hoping hopelessly that it would move.
"Has the Destroyer actually gotten to any of the Sovereign?"
Rika sighed. "We've lost two—maybe three."
"So when the last one's—"
"It won't." she cut him short.
"Hypothetically, then." He pleaded.
"Then yeah, we'd be in trouble." She admitted. She looked around, remembering she was in a damn cell. "More than this, even."
"So where's Ryo and everyone else?" Will asked again.
"We split up to find whatever's left of the Sovereign." She sighed.
"When?"
"This is—" Rika had to pause to think about it. "day four?" she recalled, sounding less sure than she was.
"Do you think they're alright?"
Rika cut the question off by kicking the gate to the cell hard. It didn't do much other than make a lot of noise. A startled Will looked around, and Rika eventually did the same again.
Two windows and the gate. That's all.
The bars were all thicker than Rika was strong enough to do any damage to, and the windows were too high up for her to see. She took a step back, and stood on her toes to try to get any glimpse, but all she could see was a pair of legs.
"What're you—" Will asked.
"Shh." Rika whispered louder than she should have. Then, quieter, "There's someone out there."
Will hurried to her side, but apparently couldn't see. "Where?"
"Right at that window. See? Legs."
They weren't moving. Probably a guard. They were purple-ish, but it wasn't enough for Rika to know what type of digimon it was.
"I think I recognize it." Will chirped quietly.
Before Rika could question him, Will suddenly walked quickly to the wall the window was on, and put one foot on top of the lock.
What's he…?
He pushed himself up so that he was standing on the lock, balancing himself by grabbing the bars of the gate. He leaned to the window, eventually getting a hand on the ledge, then pulling the rest of his body over so that he was hanging from the bars of the window. Rika watched on curiously.
Will carefully reached one arm through the bars towards the creature, and suddenly wrapped his arm around its right leg, pulling it closer, before grabbing the left leg with his other hand.
Rika's eyes widened in shock, but she had no idea what to do—there was nothing she could do. She saw the digimon turn its head around as it fell to the ground, and ready an attack as it's mouth suddenly lit up red.
"Will!" she finally called.
He let go, dropping to the ground, landing on his feet, but still tipping backwards. Rika suddenly understood what the hell Will was doing. The attack came through the window, and hit one of the bars of the cell at the bottom, completely destroying a segment of it. Enough that Rika knew she could fit through.
She saw that the digimon was a Starmon, and it was peering into the window looking downwards for Will, who pressed himself up against the wall. Rika quickly stepped in front of the hole in the bars, hoping it hadn't noticed it yet.
"Uh—" she stammered. "Sorry about that, he's—" she paused, trying to come up with something. "hungry."
Hungry?
Wishing she'd come up with something better, she glanced to Will, who silently mouthed the word to her, a confused look on his face.
"Feeding time isn't for two hours." It growled.
"Right, sorry about that, it won't happen again." She said quickly, tempted to move to not look so damn suspicious, but knowing she had to keep her escape route covered. "Bad Destroyer." She said somewhat convincingly, waving a finger. "Bad." She trailed off. Rika sucked at acting, but she was counting on the Starmon not being able to tell when a human was lying. "We'll stay quiet from now on, promise."
"Your execution will be in an hour anyways." With that, it stood up and resumed its post—this time standing away from arm's reach of the window.
Execution?
Not taking her eyes off of the window, she hurried to Will, who looked terrified at the mention of 'execution', and helped him to his feet. She pulled him back towards the broken bar, but not before whispering to him. "That was awesome, but it looks like we're on the clock. Let's get out of here."
He was smiling when she indicated that he crawl under first. He was pretty small, and managed to struggle underneath the bar in just a few seconds. Rika was doing well before she twisted the wrong way and the bar scraped against her back. It hurt like hell, and she knew her shirt was ruined, but she just grit her teeth and crawled the rest of the way.
"You okay?" he whispered as he helped her to her feet.
"Yeah, I'm fine." She grunted, glad to know it didn't hurt for her to move. "Let's go."
"Okay." He said quietly, looking around, but not moving. "I was pretty out of it when they brought us in, did you get a look of the place?"
"Not really…" she started, quietly, seeing Will's expression sink. "But it's dark, so we can at least take advantage of that. It'll be easier to hide."
They carefully crept out of the room, but were soon faced with an intersection. They could go straight, or turn right.
"Which way?" Will asked.
"I have no idea." She admitted.
She headed right. There was less light. Will followed behind her, treading as lightly as she did—she didn't hear that he was right behind her. The hallway bent left, this time leading to a short staircase that led up a little bit.
Looks like the right direction.
The halls were eerily empty, but Rika knew they didn't have much choice but to move. They wandered for at least twenty minutes, encountering absolutely nobody.
"Something's going on." Rika mumbled.
"There were a lot of them outside, since I'm such a public display." Will noted. "Maybe they're all still out there.
Rika smirked grimly, wishing she believed it. But the wish wasn't granted, because when she took one more step she was forced against the wall by a digimon.
It was a Knightmon, and it had a cold metal hand around her neck, lifting her against the wall and pushing. Rika kicked it in the chest hard, but it didn't do anything. She grabbed at its hand furiously, trying to pull it off of her neck, but she just wasn't strong enough.
"Hey!" Will shouted as he stepped into view. To Rika's surprise—but apparently not to Will's—the creature dropped Rika, and took a step back.
"Will…?" Rika coughed as she fell to her knees, her right hand rubbing her sore neck. "Get—get away…"
But the smaller teen advanced on the monster, which took a hesitant step back, not breaking eye contact with Will.
"Get away from her before I go Godzilla on this city and lay waste to everything and everyone."
"W—what?" The Knightmon asked, fear present in its voice. Rika would have laughed if her neck didn't hurt so damn much…Will was playing up their belief that he was the Destroyer.
"You wouldn't." it challenged, clearly uneasily.
Will took a step forward, defiant. "What would the Destroyer do?"
He was definitely a better actor than Rika was.
The moment of silence seemed to last forever.
"What do you want?" it finally asked.
"When you locked me up, you took away a red backpack that I had." Will said, stepping forward. "I want it back, as well as safe passage out of here for myself, Rika, and Remanon."
"Renamon." Rika mumbled, not taking her eyes off of their captor.
"Right. Renamon." He corrected himself, sounding nowhere-near-threatening.
"Rika!" Renamon called an instant after Will mentioned her name. Behind her was a Meteormon, which was a smaller, cuter, but more powerful level of a Golemon; a Grademon, which looked sort of like a person wearing a golden suit of armor and a blue cape; a Cerberumon, a black three-headed dog, and a Wisemon, who looked like a person wearing crimson robes with a yellow-ish hood covering his face.
The Circle of Telesto. Minus one.
Rika and Will froze, but so did their pursuer.
"Renamon has explained everything." Grademon said, his voice echoing in the hall.
"Are you gonna execute us?" Will asked, worried.
"Of course not." Wisemon answered. "Actually…"
"Can I have my backpack back?" Will asked quickly, nervously.
"Absolutely." Meteormon said with a smile.
"We'd like for you to stay with us for a while longer." Cerberumon continued. "With more comfortable accommodations, of course."
"Why?" Rika asked curiously.
"They want to help us on our mission, Rika." Renamon explained. "They'll help us locate the Sovereign."
Rika grinned.
Maybe Takato had it right after all.
The Circle really knew how to apologize. The room they'd set Rika up in was gorgeous. It was in the Atlas tower, which she was told had the nicest, biggest rooms. It turned out that she was actually a sort of celebrity in the city—even Will was getting the royal treatment just because he was 'related' to Ryo. Every single thing in the room was nicer than what she had back at home, and her family was well-off. The bed was huge, and more comfortable than she imagined possible, there was a big dresser full of clothes in it which the Circle had specially made for her. There was even a whole table of hair crap that Rika had no idea how to use.
She'd spent the night there, and she was told Will's room was just a few floors below.
She stood in front of the mirror, brushing her previously messy hair when a knock came to the door.
"It's open." Rika called.
"Hey." Will called, stepping into the room.
"Hey, Will." Rika said, turning around.
"Wow." Will exclaimed as he looked around. "Think they offer room service here?"
Rika laughed. "I really wouldn't doubt it. How's your room?"
"Good, but I have a favor to ask."
"Sure." She answered, forcing her way through a knot in her hair. "What's up?"
"You know how they made us clothes?" Will asked, tossing her a piece of clothing. "Can you give them a talk about how genders work? They made me like nine dresses and I really don't wanna wear 'em."
She unfolding the fabric and looked it over. Her eyebrows raised. "Woah. They must think you're pretty slutty." She declared with a laugh. "Is it all stuff like this?"
"Some of it." He confirmed. "They make a good pair of jeans though. How'd they do it so fast?"
Rika shrugged. "Free clothes." She declared as she looked around the table of bottles and creams. "As long as there's no Cinderella crap where it disappears at midnight I don't really think it matters."
She settled on a bottle of hair spray, and picked it up.
"I guess that's true." Will said thoughtfully. "Oh, brought you something."
She turned, putting down the bottle down without using any.
He handed her a small black rectangle. Her mp3 player.
"Renamon said the battery was dead, so I charged it." Will said shyly.
Her eyebrows raised. "You have outlets in your room?"
"No," he admitted. "but I asked that guy with the hood—Wisemon? I asked him how they managed to get by without electricity, and he explained to me how there's this sort of energy that flows through them, so I got him to show me how they can direct the energy in controlled amounts and—there ya go."
Considering the boy was adopted, the boy sure had a hell of a lot in common with Ryo. It made sense since they lived together, she supposed.
She smiled "Thanks Will, that was really nice of you."
"Oh, it was no problem." Will scratched his head with a grin. "I don't know much about the things that live in this world, but the principles behind it are all just science, and that's easy."
"To you, maybe." Rika challenged. "I'd have much better luck in a fight than charging this thing."
"I'm good with numbers and wires and stuff." Will said, contemplative. "But a lot of the people here are really scary."
"Well, you get used to it." Rika replied, picking up the hair spray again.
"I wouldn't have gotten the chance to—" he stammered, uneasy. "I mean, if you hadn't gotten here when you did…"
"We all look out for each other." Rika explained. "Hell, Ryo's saved my ass more times than I can count."
"I guess that makes sense." He replied. "But still…thank you, I'm really grateful."
"My pleasure. Pretty gutsy of you to get that Starmon to attack you—when you got him to break the bars?"
It was the kind of ridiculous stunt that Ryo or Takato would try to pull. The kind that usually had Rika glaring at them, thinking they were being idiots.
"He was one of the ones that found me." Will explained. "I saw that he was really jumpy, so I figured it was worth a shot."
"Well, it worked out well." Rika replied. "So what are you gonna do now?"
"Huh?"
"Are you gonna stick around in the digital world, or head back?"
Will paused for a moment. "You're not gonna tell me to get out?"
Rika shrugged. "I'm not your m—" she bit her tongue, and her eyes widened. "Sorry." She added, guiltily, turning to him. "What I mean is that it's your choice."
Will looked around for a second. "I think I'll stay for a while."
She smiled a little. "Seen too much to go back, huh?"
"Not enough, actually." He corrected her. "I mean, I believed Ryo that this world existed, but it's just—it's so different being here, you know?"
"Yeah, I do." She nodded.
"You think Ryo will be mad?" Will sounded nervous.
"Oh, he's gonna be pissed." Rika confirmed. "But he'll get over it. I'll beat him up if he doesn't."
"Uh, then," the boy stammered. "is there any chance we can not tell Ryo about all this?"
"Well, we can leave out the people-trying-to-kill-you part until he's ready." Rika nodded as she finished her hair. "Now, let's go."
"Huh?" he mumbled. "Where?
"Well, we've got the most connected group of beings in this world on the case, so there isn't much we can do to help, right?" she said as she grabbed a jacket from the closet. "So let's go explore this city! Come on, you've got to be a little curious about this place. It might be fun."
"Yeah, okay." Will agreed after a moment. "What do they eat around here?"
Reed gently rubbed the back of his head as he stepped into the room where the silhouette of the Destroyer was ready to yell at him. He really wasn't in the mood for it, but he had to go anyways. He was tired and his clothes were dirty—he hadn't had a chance to get changed since he'd woken up after Cronus knocked him out. Now he had to deal with explaining himself to the 'boss'.
"Do you know why you're here?" it asked.
"Because you're going to kill me?" Reed replied coldly. He was in pain, but he had the power of three Sovereign. He was ready for a fight.
A snicker. "If I was going to kill you I'd have had your throat cut while you lay unconscious."
Reed had to restrain himself from rolling his eyes. He might not be able to see details in the screen, but he knew the screen could see him back.
"So why am I here?" he asked, unsure.
"Because it has come to my intention that while your work has been a great asset, you're not reliable for my operations."
Reed heard the door open behind him, and his own hands began to glow red as he readied the attacks he'd absorbed—readied himself for a fight.
Two figured stepped into the room—well, one stepped, the other slithered. The first was a BlueMeramon, the second a Gigadramon.
"I'm not going to kill you." The figure on the screen reassured him. But Reed didn't drop his guard.
"Then get them out of here." Reed ordered.
Reed dropped to all fours, the attacks he'd charged up receding, as an invisible hand pushed him to the floor.
"Keep in mind who is in charge here." The Destroyer growled.
The force let up, and Reed climbed to his feet silently, masking his fury. He reminded himself to refrain from giving attitude for the next while.
"I'm removing you from the assignment." the voice explained calmly. "You didn't kill Takato, and you haven't eliminated Rika yet, either."
"I took out Baihumon." Reed reminded him. "And two other ones, for that matter. I'm one Ebonwumon away from getting you your precious apocalypse."
"Which is much appreciated." The response was friendlier than before, but the tone quickly changed back. "But your instructions were to kill Rika."
"I'll work on it."
"No, you won't." it said coldly. "You're being replaced."
"They're only Ultimate level." Reed said grimly, through grit teeth. "I have the strength of the three most powerful Mega levels in this world."
"I assure you that they're more capable than even you." The figure snickered. "I've granted them access to some of my power."
You never gave me any of your power.
Reed didn't have a response that wouldn't get his head cut off, so he didn't speak.
"Regardless, your sole duty now is to gather me intelligence on the Tamers' activities."
"Very well." Reed growled.
He turned and left the room, clenching a fist as the BlueMeramon and Gigadramon smirked at him.
His blood was boiling, but he didn't let it show. He waited until he was back at his room before he slammed his fist into the wall twice.
Surveillance.
Reed hit the wall again, before grabbing a towel from the dresser to wipe the blood off his knuckles.
Frustrated, he rushed to the nightstand, and grabbed one of the two pictures—the one of himself and the boy. It was the same as he'd left it. The boy at the top of the slide, grinning, and Reed waiting to catch him. Little Carter. At three and a half years old.
What are you planning?
For six months, Reed hadn't found a trace of the boy. But in the last few days, he'd seen him twice. Not only that, Ryo had seen him. And so had Rika—he'd led her right to where that Gazimon had been hiding.
Why now?
He looked around the room, part of him hoping that the boy would be there.
He bit his lip. When Reed had confronted Takato and Cronus, he'd seen Carter again. It was what threw Reed off—distracted him. It was enough opportunity for Cronus to knock him out. Carter had betrayed him. The Destroyer replaced him. Reed hadn't counted on it, and his plans were ruined because of it.
Fine. Change of plans.
He tossed the towel to the ground.
"Time to pay a visit to Ryo." Reed thought grimly.
So, I hope that's some indication that I haven't been avoiding this story completely. I've just been having trouble writing this chapter, since it brings Will into the spotlight more than he was in Diminuendo. I knew I wanted to bring him into this story since the beginning, but I didn't count on it being so difficult.
Please review!
-N