Summary: The Demon Lords have received their 7th member-as an egg. They must now contend with raising him into the Demon Lord of Gluttony, Beezlemon... Canon-compliant AU, Impmon-origin prequel to season 3 Tamers. (With some elements from the Adventure seasons.)
Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon or anything related to it.
Notes: Sorry for the long wait for an update, I should've made a warning for a hiatus. Anyway, hope you liked the latest chapter, and though updates will come slow, I'll try not to get into another large hiatus without warning anytime soon. Also, thanks so much for the Lost/Digimon Tamers plotbunny support. I'll have to let you know if anything comes of that.
Ch. 12
Impmon realized he had been a spoiled child the whole time.
At first, he thought the island was filled with psychotic Digimon. Lilith had not exaggerated, everyone attacked him. And when they didn't attack him, they were attacking each other, and Impmon would just get the hell out of there just the same. Maybe some of it was just because of growing paranoid delusions all alone in a jungle that seemed too dark and creepy at all times, but it really felt like everyone was nuts…and then the thought occurred to him that maybe this was normal. The young Digimon was aware he still didn't know much, but at least he knew not everyone lived in a fortress concerned with defense against outsiders and keeping relative peace within its walls…and it was just beginning to register with him how different that would make their lives. Everyone killin' each other for their data, to evolve, grow stronger. To survive.
Impmon still hadn't absorbed another's data. He hadn't worked up the nerve to do what most others on the Island did, hunt down a Digimon and make the first move. And he hadn't managed to kill in self-defense either, it seemed like he barely made it out alive from each encounter. He could, maybe, wait hidden while other Digimon fought it out, instead of running the hell away from the action-wait until one fell, then quickly absorbing his data before the victor could reap the reward.
The child Digimon hadn't worked up the nerve to try that either yet.
###
"Stupid obsessed Weregarurumon," muttered Impmon into the dirt, for one blissful second lying pretty still and peaceful, before picking himself back up again and moving into another fighting stance against said wolf Digimon. Even though arms and legs and a tail were new to him, Impmon had gotten pretty used to them almost immediately. Lilith had said Digimon possessed particularly special and swift instincts for adapting to new physical features as they were meant to evolve abruptly even if the time leading up to that could take a while-but still, they were new, and if not for the fact that he had seen Lilith and now this freakin' Weregarurmon fight, he wouldn't really know how to do an even marginally effective battle stance. Lucky me.
Impmon had eventually gotten the psycho wolf's name when the guy kept chasing him around, undoubtedly annoyed at letting him live, and wanting to finish the job. Except he hadn't. And Impmon knew with a now numb certainty that he could kill him very easily. So it was very weird when the Ultimate level Digimon kept passing up the chance, and even let him dodge and get in a couple of hits. The only explanation the child could come up with was that Weregarurumon was just toying with him now.
The larger Digimon snapped out a fast kick, sending him flying into a tree, making its bark crack a little as he bounced off it gagging. The child gained as much control over himself as fast as he possibly could, readying to-there: Weregarurmon shot out a fist, and Impmon jumped above it, and landed roughly on top before madly running up the long arm. When he got high enough, the child Digimon jumped and did his best imitation of one of the kicks he'd seen (and felt) the wolf Digimon dish out. He felt some small satisfaction when it was a direct hit, but it only made Weregarurmon shut his eyes as if irritated and he barely flinched. But Impmon was shocked when the claws on his foot actually raked bloody lines through the fur of his enemy's cheek.
With the momentum of his kick, Impmon landed back on the ground none too gracefully, stumbling before completely falling flat on his tail. Impmon flushed with embarrassment, then immediately scrambled to his feet, assuming another fighting stance. At least Weregarurumon took his time wiping at his red scratch and marveling at it (apparently he was just as surprised at something so small leaving behind such a visible mark). The child Digimon stayed still with a tension in his body he had yet to master, waiting for his opponent's next move; he'd react accordingly. It wasn't a good idea to strike again so soon (Weregarurmon had the annoying habit of looking distracted only to react with, for example, a blinding fist to the gut) and running away wasn't very effective ever. His earlier, totally panicked attempts at that before always resulted in Weregarurmon blocking his path with blinding speed and sending him flying back with some part of his body or all of it feeling like it was run over by a Trailmon. That, and he was just growing sick and tired of running away from a fight with this bastard. It soon felt like such an escape (if ever successful) was more likely to make him throw up in disgust, instead of from cracked ribs making his insides ache and act funny.
Finally the wolf Digimon struck out, and even though Impmon had tried to prepare himself, he found in a split second dread that he couldn't dodge the punch-immediately, he desperately tried to block the strike instead, crossing and locking his arms in front. Weregarurmon was definitely holding back, toying with him-if he'd been really trying, that punch would have sent him flying again, block or no. Instead it only made him feel like his arms were shattered and left him swaying, but remain standing.
"Pathetic defense," sneered the larger Digimon, before delivering a kick that did send him slamming back down to the ground. The way he landed on his head made it ache and his sight go dizzy and swim with damn it pained tears and he fought to get back up, he really did-
After managing to get his pounding head up for a second, Impmon plopped back down and fell unconscious.
Later he woke up, alone, and thankful to find that his arms weren't broken after all, just hurting like hell, along with a bunch of other stuff.
This was another reason behind the increasingly plausible idea that stupid obsessed Weregarurumon was toying with him-the wolf Digimon made it a pattern, kept leaving him alive even when he faded to unconsciousness and was completely at the other's mercy, completely helpless to stop his own deletion. Instead, this would happen, the same thing over and over again, until Weregarurmon showed up to repeat everything, the whole stupid circle of humiliation.
He knew about and had seen Digimon stalk each other, but this was getting freakin' ridiculous.
###
Lilithmon, the rest of her fellow Demon Lords, and their servants and soldiers soon found their fortress too quiet. Though they mused about this with varying levels of honesty: some were open about it, others...not so much.
###
Of course, when Lilith had first aban-left her hybrid with every intention of returning later, she had to inform her forces of his absence, especially since most of them had grown used to Yaamon's presence. She did not gather everyone, just a group of messengers, who would pass the news around.
Pumpkinmon had glanced at his fellow messengers, then sighed and said, "Everyone's thinking it, I'm just asking-you truly left our young Lord all alone-?"
(Quietly, Gotsumon was relieved at his friend's shift into formality, and Gazimon felt nothing but impressed marvel at the way the plant Digimon mixed bluntness with attempts at tact.)
The Demon Lord of Lust shook her head, "Of course not-Captain Garurumon is looking after him."
Now it was Gotsumon's turn: "Um…doesn't that defeat the purpose? I mean, what you said you wanted to do, your Lordship?..."
Lilithmon arched a brow. "You would rather I left him with no protection at all?"
The rock Digimon's eyes widening, he scrambled, "No, never, of course not, I'd never want Yaa-that is, Lord Gluttony to be hurt or-"
The taller humanoid Digimon shook her head. "I have ordered the Captain to only intervene when he must, where the young Lord would die otherwise. Barring that, he must let the child fight his own battles, and under no circumstances must he learn that anyone is looking out for him."
"Wait, how could he do that if he's met-have the young Lord and Captain Garurumon met-?"
"No," and Lilithmon glanced to Gotsumon as she answered his question, "they have not. Captain Garurumon has seen Lord Gluttony from a distance, but the two have never formally met-the Captain has been too focused on the investigations in the lower levels to do anything else, until now."
"If the Captain's not heading the investigation for three months, then does that mean," and Pumpkinmon shot an annoyed look at Gazimon, who was starting to smirk a little.
"Yes, his Second will take over." Calmly observing their minor quarrel, Lilithmon added, "Though for an extra level of secrecy, I've ordered the Captain to evolve to his ultimate level."
"But I thought he was supposed to be covert-y'know, the unseen bodyguard? What's it matter if he evolved or not?" Pumpkinmon wondered aloud.
"I've ordered the Captain to also pick up where I left off in training the child, in which case him being seen will be unavoidable."
"So…the Captain's gonna pretend to just be an island native out for the kid's-er, the young Lord's data?" Gotsumon tried not to look so nervous questioning one of his masters.
"That is correct."
"That's a tough act to balance," murmured Pumpkinmon. Gotsumon looked up to the ceiling in despair; the few bird Digimon chosen as messengers for their flight skills silently stared at him; Bokomon shoved a hand over whatever reply Neemon had, and Gazimon immediately bared her fangs at him.
"My Captain is more than up to the task," snarled Gazimon, her eyes narrowed at Pumpkinmon.
"Why else would I choose him?" Lilithmon said aloud, and immediately her messengers snapped to attention, silent. "Inform everyone now-except my fellow Lords, they already know."
They all bowed before her, then were off, already knowing who covered which area. These particular Digimon had done messenger duty before.
###
"Really, Sister, he'll be so far behind when he returns-"
Lilithmon rolled her eyes at Barbamon. "He'll just work harder once he's back." Turning her back on the Demon Lord of Greed, she reminded him, "I want my hybrid to at least reach Rookie level, he can learn to read later-"
"Since when have you underestimated such knowledge?" That made Lilith pause, and she turned back, and found Barbamon not even looking at her. He had already busied himself with reading a screen.
"Don't you want him to be independent in every possible way? Take this correspondence from the Human World for instance," and he gestured to the screen.
"Who is it? Not our agents from U.S. Defense again-"
"I was under the impression we were following all leads in regards to the odd sentient substance in the lower levels-if they have information, we should always be willing to list-"
"Too many times it seems like they're crying wolf, or whatever their phrase is."
"You are in a foul mood." When Lilith shot him a glare, Barbamon shook his head, adding, "And no, it isn't them. It's our agent at Shibumi's hospital, with another update on him."
"Is he up and walking again?"
"No."
"Then tell her to not report anything unless something major happens-"
"I think not." Lilithmon just rolled her eyes. "Now Sister, you don't even look over the reports on Shibumi, so it shouldn't try your patience-"
"Why even bother with them? Shibumi can tell us himself how his physical body is doing-"
"And I thought you said he didn't make sense." The Demon Lord of Lust growled at Barb's teasing. "Look, it still pays to have multiple perspectives on anything, this human's status included-"
Lilith gave an irritable sigh. "As long as our agents guard him from any harm and you field all their status reports, I'll be-how did you put it?-less 'impatient' about our personal God."
Barbamon actually chuckled at that. Then he clicked a button, minimizing the message, and continued, "Back to what I was saying-do you want Yaamon to have everything read to him? To have him gain knowledge constantly filtered through someone else?"
"It certainly makes him more malleable," replied Lilith humorlessly.
Yet the Demon Lord of Greed laughed, "You do have a point about that."
###
Impmon had found some caves on the Island, near a running stream. If he was just careful about picking an unoccupied one, it was good shelter.
He didn't feel much like exploring today, and he wasn't even really physically up for it-he had to nurse his wounds at least for a little while. The bare minimum anyway, Impmon was still impatient and found he disliked waiting around more and more as time went by-but sometimes really unexpected shit happened to him, whether his body was ready for self-defense or not. In that case, he really should spend as much time healing whenever he had the chance, and not be so quick to get up and roam around at the smallest hint he could walk fast enough.
Instead, he scrawled words Barb had taught him, though he had never written them before, as he had been handless then. Now he traced them into the dirt with a stick, doing his best to remember them all, at least how they were spelled. "Island" was an easy word now. He made sure to practice his alphabet, and even tried some of the arithmetic Barb taught him a few days before Lilith ditched him. Just the real simple stuff with addition and subtraction and even some multiplication.
When his attention wandered or he just got frustrated at reviewing all this crap, Impmon would start using his stick to make stuff that looked like everyone back home. Pictures of his procreator, of Belph and Barb and the other Lords, of Pumpkinmon and Gotsumon. The child Digimon soon found he liked drawing, and thought this was one of the great things about having hands, it would be really tough to doodle without them.
Impmon had enough presence of mind not to tighten too hard around his stick and have it make an audible crack when a large shadow drifted over the cave entrance. He did swiftly and quietly move into a fighting stance, but his chest pounded-
The child kept his presence of mind, enough to avoid breathing a relieved sigh when the shadow left. Whatever big Digimon it was, the thing was heading someplace else.
After a minute more of nervous energy, Impmon went back to his pictures, labeling them. He could spell the names of his family and friends perfectly now.