Digimon Tamers 2: The Rise of Zero
Chapter 10
Darkness.
He had been here for a little while now, but he was really sick of the darkness. Nothing to see, nothing to hear and nothing to smell. But he could sense a presence. Someone, or something, that lurked on the edge of his mind.
No, not on the edge. Inside his mind. He was inside his mind with this presence. He called out to it, telling it to show itself. But he made no sound.
Then the darkness lifted and he saw his mind stretched out before him. Memories and thoughts all aligned, waiting to be accessed. Hopes, dreams, fears and desires. And something else. The presence.
His mind cleared and he stood, or so he thought, in an open area. Empty of anything except himself, and the presence. A shrouded silhouette loomed before him as it slowly gained definition. A long reptilian body covered in red and white. Four black wings and claws to match. Yellow eyes regarded him with a look of distaste.
'Worthless digimon. Who are you to challenge me? I control you now. You are mine!'
He froze in fear, a prisoner of his own mind. There was nothing he, someone so young and weak, could do.
Renamon paced around the room, restless. She had been doing this for the last half an hour while the scientists hooked Blood Viximon up to various machines and equipment. She has never felt so useless.
They had brought him straight here and explained what they knew. Yamaki had setup a lab to monitor Blood Viximon's condition, and that's when they saw that his mind activity was racing. Now they were trying to interface directly into him, to see what his mind was doing.
"That should be it. Try it again." One of the scientists began pressing buttons and slowly the displays began to light up. She focused on the main one in front of them, the one that would let them see what he saw in his mind. An image formed slowly, causing a shocked reaction at what they saw.
Blood Viximon was pressed low down in the middle of an open plain, while a large red and white dragon with four wings loomed over him, taunting him with words they couldn't hear. She could see his fear by the way he didn't move or respond. Another scientist pressed a few more buttons and sound came with the image.
"Worthless digimon. Who are you to challenge me? I control you now. You are mine!"
Menacing words dripped from the dragon apparition, instilling a fear into all those present.
Henry broke the fear induced silence.
"If we can hear them, can they hear us?"
"No," came a reply. "We cannot transmit sound into his mind. That would take time, and by the looks of things we don't have much of it."
Renamon spoke next, voicing a possible, but risky solution.
"Since we digimon are data, and you have him linked to your machines, can you send us inside his mind?"
The others looked at her in shock. Why would she suggest such a thing? One of the scientists thought for a second, then shot up.
"Yes! I believe we can! But it is not without risk. We can send your consciousness into his, but you won't have long. If he purges his mind, or if you are gone too long, you will not be able to return to your bodies."
"Do it." Renamon immediately agreed.
"Renamon!" Rika yelled. "What are you thinking? You might not come back." She looked solemnly to her partner, fearing the worst.
Renamon was not deterred.
"I know you don't like this Rika, but I trust Blood Viximon. He won't risk us being separated from our bodies for too long. And I made a vow to protect him. Right now he needs me."
"You mean 'us' right?" Terriermon, Guilmon and Impmon all looked at her, showing their own desire to help him.
"If you're sure on this, then come this way." Another scientist waved them over and placed electrodes on each of their foreheads. "Remember, we can hear you, but you won't hear us. Are you ready?"
They nodded. Renamon cast one last look at Blood Viximon's body before closing her eyes. She felt a weird tingling all over her body, and then nothing. She opened her eyes to find herself inside his mind, looking at the dragon.
In the room, Henry had an idea. He pulled out his digivice waited for Terriermon to look at the dragon. Sure enough, his digivice displayed the dragon as a digimon.
"Woah! Dorugreymon! Ultimate level Data type digimon. I can't seem to get any other information, but that's definitely a digimon."
"No it isn't," said a scientist looking at a readout. "That isn't the actual digimon. Look at this code. It's a virus, or rather a vaccine program. Something that calls itself the X-Antibody. But it's not supposed to affect him. It's design is to target and neutralise a sub program called the X-Program, something no digimon is known to have. Even Blood Viximon doesn't have it in him."
"So why is it there? What is it doing?" Henry asked.
"I think I know," said the same scientist. "There is a chance that Dorugreymon has manipulated the X-Antibody to his will. All digimon have the ability to digivolve, but Blood Viximon's digivolution seems to be frozen. I think Dorugreymon changed the X-Antibody to freeze digivolution to keep it's victims weak, making easy prey."
They all fell silent for a while until Takato spoke.
"So if we remove the program, he can digivolve?"
"I believe so. And we have that chance right here. With the others inside his mind, they can destroy that Dorugreymon and purge him of the infection."
"Then they are going to need help." Rika said, grabbing her digivice and a random card. The others followed her example.
"Wait," Henry said. "Are we even sure this will work?"
"Only one way to find out!" Takato added, and as one they swiped their cards.
"Digi-modify! Matrix Digivolution, activate!"
Renamon, inside Blood Viximon's mind felt something new. A power. Digivolution.
Guilmon and Terriermon felt it too and all three became their Ultimate forms inside his mind, while their bodies remained in their Rookie forms.
"...How?" Taomon began.
"Doesn't matter! Let's use it and ask questions later." Rapidmon interrupted.
They nodded and focused on the Dorugreymon.
"Atomic Blaster!"
"Tri-Beam!"
"Talisman of Light!"
Their attacks struck the dragon digimon and caught him off guard.
"How dare you!"
This made Blood Viximon look and see what was happening. He saw the dragon facing three digimon that vaguely resembled his new friends. He saw the dragon had left himself wide open to him. He took the chance he was offered.
"Blood Shard!"
Normally, an attack from an In-training digimon would have absolutely no effect on a Champion level digimon, let alone an Ultimate. But this Dorugreymon wasn't an actual digimon. Powerful. Yes. Ultimate level powerful. No. And after being weakened by the earlier attacks it wouldn't take much to make an impact.
And this was his mind. His attack was as powerful as he wanted it to be.
His attack struck home, a red crystal twice the size it should have been, and five times the hitting power. A manifestation of the trust he had in his friends, of the fear he did not want to feel. It struck home, hard.
Dorugreymon roared in defiance as he began to fade. He tried to attack before he disappeared, but he didn't have enough time.
"Metal-"
And he was gone. Blood Viximon turned to his friends and smiled. But before any of them could do anything, he winked.
"Your turn."
And they winked out of his mind, returning to their bodies.
Renamon was up first, the others not far behind. She rushed to Blood Viximon to find him in the same place he was before, still unmoving. The screen had gone blank.
"I thought we saved him? What's going on?"
"He is fine," another scientist reassured her. "The infection is gone. He is just sleeping. Poor guy has a lot of energy to recover."
"Infection?"
So they explained what they found out while they were gone while Blood Viximon still slept. They decided he was fit enough to leave and they left for home with him in Renamon's arms again.