Chapter XI
"Graeme!" a soft, feminine voice called from nearby, "Graeme Hebdon."
The most delicate of touches to his right shoulder, and he knew in an instant it was her. She had leaned in close, her soft, gentle breath billowing lightly across his ear like a faint, warm breeze. The sound of her voice sent a shiver down his spine as all the memories came flooding back.
It was only then that he noticed he was sitting in front of a computer terminal, coding of some kind plastered across his screen in practical mosaic. His mind was too foggy to make much sense of it.
Looking slowly around, he realised that he recognised this place. He knew it from somewhere. The mint-green paint flaking off the walls in disordered blotches; the familiar scents of static discharge from the ancient, whirring CRT monitors; even the bright lighting of the early afternoon sun as it danced through the overly large panel windows in a glorious array of spectrum, it's intense heat mixing with that given off by all the active machinery in the computer lab, turning it into a practical sauna.
Wasn't this his old school?
"Graeme Hebdon, what are you up to now?"
At last, he turned in his chair, the swivel mechanism so worn out that it took all his effort to do so.
And there, right before his eyes, she stood, as large as life.
"I said what are you doing now?" her warm and genuine smile beamed through, the expression meeting with her sparkling grey eyes, turning her little smirk into a beautiful masterpiece. And the way that her dark, raven hair framed her face, it simply took his breath away, just as it always had, for as long as he could remember.
"What's the matter? Cat got your tongue?" she teased with affection, "Or should that be a Gatomon?"
She always had left him speechless.
"Kyna..."
"He speaks!" she raised her arms in mock celebration, "You know, for a moment there, I thought you were broken." There was that trademark grin of hers again.
What was this place?
"Ky... You..." Graeme struggled to find his words, "How?"
She crossed her arms, chuckling in bemusement, "All this time, and that's all you have to say to me? Grae, I'm hurt." She stuck her tongue out playfully.
Graeme wasn't at all pleased, a deep, wrinkled frown settling uneasily across his feature, "This can't be real. This place... You-" his breath caught in his throat, "You're d-d-d..."
"Dead?" she offered.
Graeme simply nodded.
Her soft smile weakened a little at the edges, fading into a sigh as her happy demeanour drifted away, "Yes." She nodded slowly, "I am."
"Then how are you here-"
She raised a hand, forcing him into silence, "I'm not. Think of this as a dream; an echo of the past."
"That's very poetic and all, but why?"
She shrugged, something of her smile returning, "I don't know. It's your mind. You tell me."
Graeme raised a questioning eyebrow. From the tone in her voice, he knew she wasn't telling him everything she knew. She was holding something back.
She read him perfectly, "What was the last thing you remember?"
He had to think hard for a moment. There was Patamon, Gatomon... A large Digimon of pink, green and white, styled in an overly floral manner. She'd moved to attack Jayne, lining up her hands like a cannon. He'd thought quickly, dived forwards, and...
"Ah."
"Ah." Kyna nodded in agreement.
"So I'm unconscious?" Graeme tried to add things up. But his mind felt so disorganised.
"Exactly." She smiled broadly, punching his shoulder, "Now you're getting it, Grae."
He rubbed his shoulder, out of habit rather than pain, "But that still doesn't explain what you're doing here." He was starting to feel exasperated, the tension rising. Of all the things that could surface from within his subconscious mind, why Kyna of all people? He'd gotten over that years ago... And he still got the distinct impression that she wasn't revealing everything she knew. She was holding something back from him, and he was determined to get to the bottom of it.
Kyna sighed. Though her smile remained, the sadness in her eyes revealed a certain degree of nostalgia, "I never could keep a secret from you." She moved forwards, squatting down and leaning her weight against his knees, "OK, here's the deal."
The room around them began to grow fuzzy, every angular corner and sharp edge blurring into darkness until the only definition lay between the pair. It was an unsettling feeling, as if they were simply hanging in a void, surrounded by nothing but cold, empty space.
But here with Kyna, in this bubble of reality, it was safe.
"Your being here; it is no accident," she explained in plain tones, "Creating the gate, summoning Gatomon and Patamon to the human world, even meeting Jayne. It all serves a purpose."
"A purpose?" he frowned disbelievingly, "What purpose? Whose purpose?"
Kyna slapped him on the shoulder in annoyance, "Would you shut up and listen? I'm trying to build up the suspense here."
"Sorry..." Graeme muttered sheepishly.
"Now," she pondered thoughtfully, "Where was I?"
"A purpose." He offered.
"Ah, yes." A shallow cough cleared her throat, "The powers that be summoned you here, to this point in time. Everything you've created in your website - the coding, the detail, the very mechanism – has been engineered to allow you to fulfil a purpose. There's a task which needs to be completed, Grae."
"'Powers that be'? That all sounds very other-world-ish." If he were truly honest, he didn't know what to make of it all. How could a simple memory – as she claimed to be – know so much about all this? How could mere memory know how and why things were happening the way they were, or the way they were going to? Was it simply his memory playing tricks on him, or was there something more to this ghost, this echo, than met the eye?
There was no way he could ever really know.
"You always were one for riddles." He scoffed.
"And you always did love a good quest." She shot back in playful banter.
"I don't suppose there's any way you could tell me a little bit more?" but then, maybe that was too much to hope for.
"I'm afraid not." Kyna admitted, all humour set aside, the serious side of her resurfacing once more, "All I can tell you is that if you do what you have to, it'll all probably turn out ok in the end."
"If? Probably?" Graeme shook his head to clear his thoughts, "That doesn't sound too promising to me."
Kyna nodded, chuckling slightly in agreement, "No, I suppose it doesn't. But it'll have to do for now. It's time to wake up, Graeme Hebdon. You're needed in another world."
Before he could even say goodbye, the darkness – and Kyna along with it – vanished into the ether (or was it his mind?), leaving him alone with his thoughts.
And then, he was somewhere else entirely.
"Is it my imagination, or did it just get colder in here?" Yolei questioned the group as they followed what seemed to be an endlessly long tunnel of gloom through the inner workings of the keep. Dim torches burned weakly along the walls, offering defiant but utterly futile resistance to the dampened walls and the humid air.
"We're going down." Kari answered, from a few metres ahead. She was barely visible though the gloom, despite being so close by, "It's definitely colder."
"I knew it." Yolei shivered, pulling her jacket tighter around herself in a vain attempt to keep warm.
They'd exchanged cold, sodden earth and mud for the dank, bitter chill of this hellish tunnel. Just perfect. And, on top if it all, they had no idea where they were going. Surely they all realised that this tunnel was already longer than the keep had been wide? There was no way they were still inside the same building. No way at all.
Mind you, this was the Digital World. Things often weren't quite what they seemed.
"Does anybody even know where we're going?" Davis asked, bringing up the rear of the group with Veemon.
"It's a bidirectional tunnel." Cody pointed out, "There's only two ways we can go. And since we came from that one..."
"I know that, Cody." Davis rolled his eyes, "I mean, where are we going to?"
"We're going until we find a Digimon we can ask some questions." TK replied from the front of the troop, leading the way.
"I sure hope that's soon. My feet are killing me!"
"So why don't you stop and take quick five minute rest?" Yolei offered with light sarcasm.
"I think that sounds like a perfect idea, Davish." Veemon looked up at his partner eagerly. His feet were so sore from walking on the harsh surface that even his blisters had blisters!
But Kari had her doubts, "I'm not so sure." She seemed very thoughtful for a moment, "We shouldn't split up the team. We don't want anybody getting lost."
"It's a two-way tunnel." Yolei pointed out, looking up and down the passageway, "How lost could anybody get?"
"I don't know..." Ken whistled, "This is Davis."
"Why am I always the butt of everybody's' jokes?" The goggle-wearing teen protested angrily.
Yolei didn't miss a beat, resetting her glasses as she spoke, "Some would call it convenience."
"Grrr..." Davis fumed, his hands clenched into fists by his side, "That's it!" he stopped in his tracks, Veemon almost walking straight into his legs, "Veemon, we're taking a break. Now."
"You're the boss."
Kari was about to protest again about splitting up the group, but she had to admit that Yolei had a point. It was a tunnel with no visible passageways branching off. There were only two directions anybody could go in, so even Davis couldn't get lost... Right?
She dismissed the thought out of mind, "See you when you catch up."
In the shadowy gloom - or was it the actual shadows themselves? – a being of darkness had been following the group of Digidestined, simply keeping silent pace and taking note; watching. Observing.
A pair of eyes, azure set in darkest obsidian, flickered in mimic of the weak torch flames all around, being careful not to stand out and get noticed. One of the humans – the "leader" if the stories she'd heard were to be believed – had stopped to rest his feet, the accompanying little blue lizard, Veemon, joining him for a brief respite.
Orders from the Master had been to collect information, take them prisoner if at all possible. This human would've been perfect, separated from the group and all alone, but for her knowledge of his past. Mind games had never worked on him before, his will too strong to be bent or broken so easily. And since that was her niche, her area of expertise, it made little sense to attack these particular two creatures.
But the others... They were far more susceptible to her particular brand of dark magic. And now, separated from this one resistant human child, was the perfect time to strike the rest of the group.
The game was afoot.
"Urgh..." Graeme groaned loudly as consciousness reclaimed his mind once more. The few lingering wisps of the dream clung, blurred and mysterious, to the back of his mind, slowly drifting away into memory.
Opening his eyes slowly, at first he thought he was blind. But the moment passed, and Graeme soon came to realise that it was darkness – not nothingness – that he could see. The ground beneath him, the air around him, were both as cold as ice, sending a shiver racing down his spine, urging him to sit up.
His movement was stopped only by the wave of dizziness which came and went in less than a moment.
"I was wondering when you were going to wake up." A strangely glee-filled voice etched it's way into his skull like splintered glass, "I was starting to get bored."
"Patamon?" Graeme's head swirled so much that he couldn't make head nor tail of the voice, despite how familiar it sounded.
"Oh, I'm hurt!" the tone was still playful, "To think that you could confuse me with that little rodent? For shame." A very girly giggle accentuated her playfulness.
"Lilamon..." He realised at last, the world swimming fully into focus.
"Bingo." She beamed. She was sitting on an apparently wooden stool, propped back against the rock-face wall opposite, legs crossed and hands perched. The room around him was small, very cave-like in nature. That definitely explained the cold. But there didn't seem to be a way in or out.
"Where am I?" Graeme demanded angrily, sitting fully upright.
"Now, now." The flower fairy teased, "We'll have none of that attitude. If you want to get out of here alive, you'll have to behave."
"Where's Patamon?" Graeme demanded, ignoring the implied threat, "What've you done with him?"
Lilamon's smirk widened, though there was nothing genuine or pleasant about it. Graeme could all but feel the evil radiating off her, "All in due time, human. You'll just have to trust me when I tell you that he's OK."
He had no intention of believing a word she said, let along putting any trust in her. He'd just have to hope that the little orange and cream rookie was still in one piece, wherever he was.
"What do you want from me?" Graeme asked at last.
Lilamon rose to her feet, pacing over to where Graeme sat in his weakened state, and crouched down before him, bringing her face to within an inch of his ear.
She whispered silently into his ear, "Information."
"Doesn't this tunnel ever end?" Yolei whined, the combination of cold, wet feet and all this walking giving her painful blisters on her soles. Being outside had been bad enough, but now, lost in the dank depths of a seemingly endless tunnel, despair was beginning to set in.
"Don't worry, Yolei." Kari turned to face her, walking backwards carefully, "It can't be much further now."
"It can..." she looked down at her aching feet, "We're going to be stuck here forever."
Ken put his arm around her in an attempt to lighten her mood, "Cheer up, Yolei."
She faked a weak smile, but she knew he'd see right through it. Surely the others had to know there was no way they were still inside the keep? Where exactly were they headed?
"Hey, where's Davis?" Kari asked suddenly, noticing that he hadn't caught up with them yet. As she looked back beyond the group, there was no sign of him behind them either, "He should've caught up with us by now."
"Unless he's still taking his break." TK pointed out.
That didn't seem likely. It'd been well over quarter of an hour since they'd parted ways.
"Oh, you needn't worry." An eerie voice with a feminine touch spoke seemingly from all around them, "You have your own problems to deal with."
"I don't understand how they could be this far ahead!" Davis complained to Veemon as they quickly paced down the length of the tunnel. He'd cut the break short a couple of minutes after the others had disappeared from view, an uneasy feeling settling down upon his mind, urging him to do something - anything. He didn't know what it was exactly, but his gut instinct had been right.
The others were nowhere in sight.
"Maybe they're walking really, really fast?" Veemon offered, though it did little to lighten Davis's mood.
"I don't think so." He was starting to genuinely worry about his friends.
Determination overcoming his worries, Davis redoubled his pace, Veemon almost having to trot just to keep up.
"Please tell me I wasn't the only one who heard that..." Kari cringed. The stone expression on the face of the others was enough to tell her they'd all heard the voice too.
Silence hung heavily in the air, descending upon the group like a dense fog. They were all clustered close together, back to back, looking outwards in every direction. The passageway faded away to infinitum along both of its axes, darkness claiming any further vision. Kari felt very short-sighted right then.
A stark laugh of unmistakable evil rang out around them, echoing loudly off the barren stone walls.
Fear gripped Kari's heart, and she clenched her eyes tight shut for a moment, until she felt TK's hand seek out her own, and she drew from his strength, reinforcing his own in doing so. She managed to find her voice.
"Who are you?!" she demanded, "What do you want?"
A pair of gleaming cerulean eyes lit up the dull shadows between the burning torches along the length of one wall. Despite the forewarning, their appearance sent a chill down Kari's spine, resulting in an unsettling shiver.
At first, she wondered if it were a ghost. But as a being of dark grey and white fur seemingly materialised from nothingness, stepping forwards into the relative light of the flickering illumination, Kari realised it could only be a Digimon.
But it was unlike any Digimon she'd ever seen before. It stood easily as tall as any of them, dark and menacing. Tall, pointed ears stood atop its head, dark grey fur tipped with a snowy white, moving this way and that as the creature listened intently to the darkness. It's pale azure eyes were set against the darkest obsidian, offering stark contrast to one-another, though this contrast was not simply limited to the being's eyes. It's entire body, dark, shadowy greys interrupted by a fluffy white brisket, a white furred chest and stomach, and matching pads and paws to boot. Even the tip of its long, soft tail was adorned in this bright snow.
The only variation offered to this monochromatic menace was the dark brown of its gauntlet-covered arms, currently crossed impatiently over the creature's chest as it scrutinised these humans as closely as they did it.
A muzzle of a very vulpine nature did little to disguise it's wicked grin, "You must be the Digidestined." It was clearly female, whatever it was, "And here was I, expecting so much more than a collection of cowering humans and their pets." She added a little venom as she mentioned the partner Digimon, who had all lined up in front of their human companions as this newcomer had emerged, taking a defensive stance.
"What is she?" Ken whispered to TK in question, the blond-haired boy still holding his D-3 and D-Terminal. He tried to scan this new Digimon, but no information was showing up on it. Though whatever it was, it seemed unafraid of the three Digimon attempting to face off against it.
"Allow me to introduce myself." She bowed her head, never breaking eye contact, "I am AneiRenamon, mistress of the shadows and loyal servant of the Dark Lord Darkdramon. And, if I am not mistaken, you are all trespassing."
Suddenly, her arms were flung out wide in a move akin to a star-jump. A ring of dark energy formed behind her, and sharp shards of deep black formed a few inches in front of her face. Panic began to rise in Kari's throat, threatening to choke her.
"Obsidian Hail!"
The shards flew.
Right. Back to where I wanted to be. I've managed to over-write by two chapters; according to my notes, this should still only be chapter nine. Oh well.
Just an FYI on this new Digimon's attack. Obsidian Hail is clearly a (cheap) knockoff of the original Renamon's Diamond Storm. Much as diamond is one of the toughest materials known to humanity, obsidian is a very useful material. When sharpened, a blade of obsidian is sharper than even the highest quality steel scalpel, with a cutting edge that still looks smooth even under and electron microscope.
In short, a hail of obsidian shards would be very damaging, and not at all something you would want to encounter...
It's amazing what you can learn if you just look.
Anyway, let me know how it went. Thanks for reading!
NKC
