Chapter 12
The Chosen Children and their Digimon partners watch as BlackWarGreymon pulverized GrimPhantomon. All of them, including Hikari who believes in second chances for Digimons, supposes while this is cruel, it's not exactly wrong either.
But the thought of Phantom's excruciating death quickly went passed their minds when they saw their leader's knees buckled as he crumbles to the ground.
"Taichi!" "Onii-chan!" shouted the females of the group as they run towards their fallen leader along with the rest of them.
"Jyou, is he alright?" the de-Digivolved Gomamon asked from near his partner's knees who was crouched next to the unconscious Taichi and Koromon.
Jyou answered, "I think so… let me just check for sure. Sora-san, can you help me move Koromon from Taichi's hold please?" With a nod, Sora went to gently pick Koromon up.
"Hey, Koromon's passed out too.", noted Tailmon in wonder while the other de-Digivolved Digimons nodded, agreeing with her.
"He must be exhausted after being Digivolved against his will." murmured Hikari.
"Not to mention he Digivolved into SkullGreymon, one of the strongest Virus Digimon." Ken added.
"Umm, guys? I don't think I can move Koromon here. Taichi's got a pretty hard grip on him." claimed Sora with an eyebrow rose.
"And is it me, or Koromon's got a tight grip on Taichi too?" The group contemplated Biyomon's words while staring at Koromon's long ears which were put around Taichi's neck; not tight enough to choke him, but tight enough so he couldn't be separated from his partner.
"Maa, maa. It's okay, I can make do. And I think their subconscious and instincts put them in this position." the oldest of the group said with a chuckle.
"Mou, even when they're both passed out they refuse to stop being stubborn." Hikari huffed, not quite sure to be angry or glad at the situation. Her frustration made Sora giggle.
"I think it's cute how even when unconscious they still try to protect one another."
"You'd do the same with me, right Sora?"
She kneeled down to smile at Biyomon, "Of course, Biyomon!" making her Digimon grin in happiness.
"Umm, Ken-chan? I know we're happy and all that Taichi-san and Koromon are now alright, but aren't we forgetting something really important?" At Wormmon's statement, the Chosen Children and their Digimons tensed. Each of them cursed themselves before turning around to find Yamato and Daisuke who were currently facing BlackWarGreymon.
"Yamato-san! Daisuke-kun!" While the others were celebrating their victory over GrimPhantomon, it seems the Child of Friendship with his successor were still being careful of their original enemy.
BlackWarGreymon's form was covered with shadow, his expression unreadable because of the darkness of the forest. Although GrimPhantomon had been defeated, the fog covering the Digital World has not disappeared so they concluded that he was not the reason for the darkness surrounding them.
Yamato and Daisuke stood in front of BlackWarGreymon with their partners MetalGarurumon and Flamedramon in tow.
"Whoa! Even after fighting SkullGreymon they both didn't de-Digivolve." Gomamon stated.
"I guess they're still fueled with power…" murmured Hikari.
"And it seems that power comes from Yamato and Daisuke's anger…" Tailmon concluded as she and the others stare at the duo who, even in the distance can be seen with wrath written on their faces.
BlackWarGreymon took a few steps forward and as his face became clearer, the group had to take a second look at him. They could see that a serious expression was masked on his face, but his eyes… his eyes which were so blank and cold, which were frightening and could send chills to their backs were now… normal. His golden eyes weren't full of malice. They were like the ones BlackWarGreymon, the one who used his last strength to seal the Highton View Terrace Gate a few years ago had had. And also, his posture doesn't seem as threatening as before.
Still, the Chosen Children knew not to take light of this enemy, so Yamato chose to broke the ice. "Don't come any closer." he scowled, his partner who was next to him growled threateningly. BlackWarGreymon frowned, but he stayed nonetheless.
Well, this is new.
"You may have helped us save Taichi, but don't think we forgot you were the reason all this mess started in the first place." At that, BlackWarGreymon smirked,
"Hmph." he said.
Well, they couldn't be sure if he was smirking or not because they couldn't see his mouth, but his tone was a definite clue.
Yamato twitched with anger. 'Did- did he just say 'hmph'!?'
"What's so funny!?" Daisuke roared. If the kid wasn't so impulsive, Yamato would've yelled the same thing.
"Nothing. It's just that my master had said the same thing." That took everyone off guard.
"Oh yeah, I forgot about that whole 'mastery' thing!"
"It's 'master', Daisuke…"
"Shush, Ken!" He hissed before turning back to the offending Digimon. "And you! What's that about master, huh!? Taichi-senpai already said he's not your master, so back off!"
"Wow Daisuke, I really admire you bravery." commented FlameDramon while carefully still being in his stance should BlackWarGreymon make a sudden attack.
"Thanks!"
Yamato shook his head in frustration before focusing his attention back at the Dragon Man Digimon. "Look, all we wanna know is your intentions with Taichi."
BlackWarGreymon went back to frowning. "My intentions with him has nothing with you."
"It has everything to do with us, you jackass! First of all, he's my awesome senpai!" started Daisuke before he was interrupted.
"Second of all, he's my brother!" Hikari said to support her friend's statement.
"And he's our best friend!" Yamato and Sora both claimed.
"He is important to all of us." Ken calmly said, but with determination nonetheless. The Digimons around him agreed with a choruses of 'yes!' and 'that's right!'
"Hear that, BlackWarGreymon! No matter how many times you try to take Taichi-senpai, we're not gonna let you take him again, because he's our important friend!" at Daisuke's exclamation, BlackWarGreymon's eyes widened. A series of memories filled with a brown haired boy came rushing in his head, and in all of them, the boy was angry.
'You hurt my friends… asshole…'
'Don't… touch Hikari…'
'Let go of him you bastard!'
'Let him go… you're after me, right? Let Agumon and my friends go. If you do that, I promise to come with you quietly.'
'If you don't leave my friends alone then I'll kill myself!'
As the last bit of memory crossed his mind, BlackWarGreymon found himself staring pass the Children and Digimon to gaze at whom he called master. The boy who had given him so much power, made him feel something other than nothing, yet all this time he was the target of the boy's wrath. How can one boy be so protective of other humans and can hate him so much when the boy was supposed to be his source of power? His answer to the purpose of him being created to this world.
Seeing BlackWarGreymon becoming quiet yet again, Daisuke was about to call him out again- only to be cut off by a voice calling out for their attention.
"Guys! Guys!" It was Koushiro who was running towards them with Miyako, Takeru, Mimi, Iori with their Digimon partners in tow.
"Koushirou! Everyone!"
"Boy, am I glad to see you guys-" Daisuke almost sighed in relieved, but he quickly tensed when he saw the expressions of the other group. "Hey, what's wrong?"
"Hurry up! We all have to get out of here!" Miyako said, anxious for some reason.
The Taichi retrieval group and BlackWarGreymon stood in confusion for only a few seconds before they hear a rumbling sound coming from beneath them.
"Wh, what?"
"What is going on!"
"The ground, it's shaking!" Jyou yelled after he felt the ground around him shaking hard.
"Earthquake!" Daisuke and FlameDramon shouted.
Before they knew it, the ground beneath the Chosen Children and the Digimons tore open and one by one they started to fall down into the darkness. The flight Digimons only managed to pull their own partners away for a few seconds before they fell in as well because they were in their Rookie Forms and the humans were too heavy to hold up.
As the ground swallowed them all, a faded laugh can be heard from the dark mountains.
Taichi woke up in darkness.
His head was pounding hard, no surprise there he thought, and he felt sore all over. When he felt intense pain going through both of his arms, he realized that he was tied up with his hands above his head and his feet a few inches from the ground. This hurts a lot. While groaning in pain, the brunette tried to take in his surroundings. He could see his friends -whose amount had increased with Koushirou and the others, he noticed- inside a grey colored cube. The cube was giant but he had no doubt if the Digimons were to Digivolve, it would be quite cramped in there.
He forced himself to calm down because even if none of them were awake, he could see that they were all breathing. He began to panic though when he could see no sign of Koromon.
At the realization, Taichi began to struggle. 'I just got him back… where the hell is he!?' While trying to get out of his bindings, Taichi looked around again to search for his pink partner. But all he found was a familiar face smiling darkly at him.
"DarkCherrymon" he growled at the smiling tree. It was then that Taichi realized he was being levitated by a long vine coming from DarkCherrymon.
The Digimon chuckled as a response. "Kukukukuku, it is nice to see you again, Child of Courage. I do thank you for convincing BlackWarGreymon to spare my life."
"Load of good that did me…" grumbled the soccer player, for once he thought back on his decision of fighting BlackWarGreymon from killing the plant. If only he could curse himself or BlackWarGreymon for actually listening to him for once. "'guess you're still alive thanks to me, huh? I don't suppose you can let me and my friends free as thanks?" He asked to which the plant Digimon gave a chuckle again.
"I'm afraid I can't do that, boy. I'm not one to defy my master's orders you see."
"Again with the master" Taichi closed his eyes and shook his head in frustration. "who the hell is he anyway! And could you cut the crap and tell me what the hell he wants from me!?" He angrily demands while starting to struggle again, but his body froze when he heard a cold, dark laugh clouding his surroundings. He couldn't see where the laugh was coming from but it was loud enough to make the Chosen and the Digimons wake up one by one.
"Damn, my head…" Yamato groaned as he slowly got up. "Is everybody okay?" His response were murmurs and groans of unconvincing 'yeah' and 'we're okay'.
"Where are we?" Mimi asked with worry yet she calmed down when she saw Palmon next to her.
"Onii-chan!" at Hikari's sudden shout, they all turned to look at the tied up boy and a familiar Digimon. With haste, they all tried to ran to him but were blocked by a wall.
"What's this?" Daisuke groaned while hitting the offending wall and trying to make his way through it. "A barrier again? Dammit!"
"And this time we're trapped in it, not outside of it." Ken hissed, his eyes glaring towards the Digimon holding Taichi. "Who are you?"
"That looks like Cherrymon." Jyou said in remembrance.
"Who?" asked Iori and Armadillomon.
Koushirou opened his laptop. "Cherrymon is a Vegetation Digimon and he's some kind of master of some forest, but this one is called DarkCherrymon. There's not much of a difference aside that he's stronger than a normal Cherrymon." He turned to Yamato. "You've met Cherrymon before, right Yamato-san?"
Yamato nodded solemnly, "Yeah. He's an awful Digimon. 'He even gave me the boost to have that fight with Taichi all those years ago.' he thought in shame.
"Oi! What the heck are you doing with Taichi-senpai!? Let him go!"
"Now, now, there is no need to rush. It is time for the main event anyway." The plant Digimon snapped his fingers and suddenly, another cube appear. Inside were BlackWarGreymon and Koromon.
"Taichi!" Koromon shouted, worried and angry seeing his partner in such position. BlackWarGreymon stayed quiet but he has a murderous look on his face.
"Koromon! BlackWarGreymon!" Seeing the two Digimon safe, Taichi forgot his pain for a moment and smiled in relief.
"Master! I have retrieved the Child of Courage, along with his Digimon and BlackWarGreymon!" After DarkCherrymon's declaration, they all went quiet with anticipation of finally knowing this evil Digimon.
Soon, the same cold laugh was surrounding them again, and this time something appeared. Firstly, something like a small smoke began to appear, then little by little it began to change into a bigger form of dark mist, darker than the darkness they were in. When the mist stopped growing, a pair of eyes appeared on what's supposed to be it's face. The pair of eyes were similar to GrimPhantomon, they were red but much, much more evil looking.
No one had the courage to say anything out of fear.
"I see you have done well, my servant." DarkCherrymon smirked but he kept his mouth shut to avoid interrupting his master. "So this is the Child of Courage?" The figure floated slowly towards Taichi, making the latter gulp. It didn't stop until it was right in front of him.
"Get away from me" Taichi hissed, only to receive a laugh of amusement from the dark creature. "Truly, the Child of Courage. Most beings would be too afraid to speak in my presence."
'Taichi, don't say anything stupid now…' Prayed all the original Chosen Children in their minds.
The boy could feel sweat running through his back. He needs to get all his friends away from him, battered up as he is, he has to think of some way. 'Stalling again it is.' "Who are you anyway?" His voice challenging.
The figure had no mouth, but Taichi swears he can see it smiling. "My name… is Caligomon."
"'Caligo'?" Ken raised an eyebrow. "As in Latin for 'mist'?"
"Man, how do you know this stuff?" Daisuke asked, not really expecting an answer.
"You…" Everyone turned to Koushirou. "You're the one Gennai was talking about!" A chorus of confusion as well as realization started at the red hair's statement.
"What does he mean, Mimi?" asked Sora when she saw the pinkette's realization.
"Well, before we rushed over here Gennai had contacted us…"
o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
'I'm afraid the situation is much more grim than I had thought.' Koushirou, Mimi, Miyako, Takeru, Iori and their Digimons could see the stress in the old man's face and they began to panic.
"What do you mean, Gennai-san?" Koushirou tried to asked calmly.
"Yeah, what could be worse than having BlackWarGreymon and an unknown object out there plotting something against the Digital World?" Takeru frowned.
"Not to mention targeting Taichi-san without a clear reason." added Iori.
Miyako nodded in agreement. "Yeah! Aside from taking his energy and stuff…"
'You see… as soon as I separated from Tentomon and Agumon, I began to start searching for the answer to this phenomenon, including the fog currently covering the Digital World, the black object, and BlackWarGreymon. I thought that the black object had been the one to create the fog and BlackWarGreymon but I was wrong…'
'Go on, Gennai-san.'
Nodding, Gennai continued on. 'It is fade, but… I have found a dark presence coming from the mountains. Before these recent events it's presence was small, but as BlackWarGreymon became stronger and stronger, the presence also became stronger. This is when I picked up the whereabouts of the dark energy. And it is currently stronger than the fog and BlackWarGreymon's. What's more is that I think the black object and the fog were created by this dark presence.'
"But how did it became so strong?" Patamon asked while floating.
"I'm not certain, but…" The group snapped towards Koushirou, "BlackWarGreymon and the fog was created by that dark presence from the mountains. BlackWarGreymon who then consumes dark energy from the fog also needs life energy…"
Miyako continued, "and that light energy is from Taichi-san, because Taichi-san is Agumon's partner and Agumon basically triggered the black object to transform into BlackWarGreymon…"
Mimi gathered, "...and BlackWarGreymon was getting stronger from those dark energy and life energy,"
"If BlackWarGreymon was getting stronger and the dark presence is also getting stronger as Gennai-san has said, then what if BlackWarGreymon is the middleman!" Iori concluded.
Takeru's head snapped up. "Gennai-san! Which mountains is the dark presence at?"
When Gennai took a few moments to answer, the Children and Digimon already assumed the worst.
'It's in File Island…'
o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
"You children are so smart, it sickens me." Caligomon sneered.
"So you created the black object and the fog so you have an intermediary to feed you energy! And that intermediary is BlackWarGreymon?"
"That bastard is basically feeding off Taichi!" Yamato gritted his teeth in anger.
"That's right. One more thing about my servant BlackWarGreymon," BlackWarGreymon turned to look at the form of Caligomon. "you feel attracted to this mountain right?" The armored Digimon blankly nodded. "That is because my orders to you when you were still an animate object was to bring me the Chosen Child you were feeding off and have him killed in front of me."
His blood went cold.
Everybody else went quiet. Before, they still have hope to save Taichi because BlackWarGreymon had stated that he didn't know why he wanted their leader, but now when they have finally been told what the Dragon Man Digimon's purpose was, the could only assume the worst.
"DarkCherrymon, you told me BlackWarGreymon had attacked you and instead protected the boy when you meant to kill him?"
"M, my mistake, master! He simply put me off guard, I did not mean to kill the boy without your conscience!"
"Hmm… no matter. It seemed BlackWarGreymon subconscious was to save the boy until I was present. That is his order, after all… isn't that right, BlackWarGreymon?" At the remark, BlackWarGreymon was sent out of the cube that was holding him and Koromon. He landed on the ground at ease, the expression on his face unreadable as he started walking towards Taichi.
In the background he can hear the distress and curses thrown at him from the Chosen Children and their Digimons.
"No! Please, no!" the girl -Hikari was it?- pleaded.
"Dammit! Guys, Digivolve!" the boy with the goggles shouted frustratingly.
"We're trying, Daisuke!"
"We can't though! What's going on?"
He could also hear the laughter coming from DarkCherrymon and his… master. Caligomon was his true master, now he knows. Caligomon was the one who gave him power. All this power.
"BlackWarGreymon, stop!"
"BlackWarGreymon, don't hurt him! If you really see Taichi-kun as your master as you've said before then don't do it!" cried the glasses boy.
And he had been wrong.
The boy… Taichi wasn't his master. He was just a life force to feed off, to make him grow stronger for his true master. Besides, the boy treats him as an enemy doesn't he?
All the anger towards him…
'You hurt my friends… asshole…'
'Don't… touch Hikari…'
'Let go of him you bastard!'
his annoyance at the boy and their fights…
'Everything irritates you…'
'BlackWarGreymon, wait! Don't kill him!'
'My life wouldn't even be in danger if you hadn't kidnapped me in the first place, you big, stupid oaf!'
'I said you're stupid! A stupid Digimon who can't even light a campfire properly!'
'DON'T TELL ME WHAT TO DO.'
his sacrificial tendencies which were downright idiotic…
'Let him go… you're after me, right? Let Agumon and my friends go. If you do that, I promise to come with you quietly.'
'If you don't leave my friends alone then I'll kill myself!'
all of that combined was a wonder how he himself could think that the boy was his master.
…
…
BlackWarGreymon finally stood in front of the boy who was hanging with his hands bounded by the plant Digimon who was standing next to him.
"This is the end… boy." The Digimon raised his arm high above the boy' head, ready to struck down. Golden eyes meet the unafraid pair of brown. To his surprise, the boy smirked.
"You know… I think I prefer you calling me 'boy' than 'master'." He said, making BlackWarGreymon even more surprised, like the other times the boy had surprised him:
'When you can't do something, you should let others do it for you.'
'Were you cold?'
'Hey! I said wait!'
'Stay down, BlackWarGreymon. I got this.'
'BlackWarGreymon!'
Those times, BlackWarGreymon felt…
Warmth.
With his clawed hand high in the sky, with the screaming, yelling and laughter in the background, as he stares right in the unwavering eyes of the bearer of the Crest of Courage, a voice boomed;
"BLACKWARGREYMON! DON'T HURT OUR PARTNER!"
And BlackWarGreymon struck down.
.
..
...tbc
.
(A/N):
Oh... my... gosh... I left this fic ongoing for more than two months! It's basically temporary hiatus! DX
Gosh... really.. OK! Ok, to my readers and the reviewers, thank you so so much for reading and reviewing. You don't know how grateful I am to come back to this fic and see your responses.
There are just too much assignments and exams and I haven't had the time to continue this fic (the struggles of a university student, I know..) :"(
But I hope you all will still read this fanfic until the end. I promise the next update won't be as long!
Please review, and sorry for bad grammar!
Arigatou.