JMJ

CHAPTER FOURTEEN:

Unfair Bargains

Kojiro dropped instantly to the ground and covered his head against the oncoming attack.

"Shadow glare!" snarled Limomon in return.

Limomon's attack must have worked too, because the deadly explosion just barely missed Kojiro even on the ground as he was. Shivering so hard his teeth started chattering, Kojiro crept carefully to the edge of the cliff once more, but all was silent for a time. Then Limomon appeared, alone and completely unscathed.

Kojiro gulped, pushing up onto his knees. "What did you do to them? Where did they go?"

With a careless shrug Limomon seated himself on the ground and looked over the desert smoothly.

"Well?" Kojiro demanded.

"They fell to the bottom of the cliff, Kojiro," replied Limomon with a satisfied sniff.

"That … that must be some glare then," said Kojiro, and he laughed timidly.

Limomon chose not to respond to the observation. He must not have thought it worth a response, but after a short pause, he said, "We can't stay here long."

"But I'm tired!" whined Kojiro, now seated cross-legged and slumping over his lap. "Can't we rest a little while?"

"Do you want more digimon to come and get us?"

What else could Kojiro answer to such a question? Shaking his head, Kojiro told him that he certainly did not want any such thing.

"Then just catch your breath and let's get going."

Kojiro could only moan as a reply as he dropped onto his back.

Stars peeped out of the quickly blackening sky. It would not be long before night took its full hold.

Every muscle ached from that miserable climb, and Kojiro's bite felt sorer than it had since it had been bandaged by the koemon. He could have easily fallen asleep right then and there and not woken up until late the next morning.

He missed Musashi, he missed Nyaasu, he missed Weezing and Victreebel, and sure Arbok and Lickitongue too. He even missed that kid, Satoshi, that was his name, and Pikachu and those other children that followed them. They weren't so bad really. Seriously, who could blame them for hating Team Rocket and sending them flying. "Yana Kanji," Kojiro could not help but mutter. All Team Rocket ever did was try to steal that Pikachu all the time, stalk those kids around, get into their business, and be just downright creepy. Who wouldn't hate them? But he would give anything to be hated by them now. Just a simple blast off. That's all he wanted. Landing in a tree with a twisted ankle and bump on his head. Sure, he missed those night just sitting in a circle with his team after a miserable day of failure and not having to worry about any more pain until they asked for it. He almost missed home in a strange sort of way. He would not go so far as to say he missed Rumika. He would never go as far as that! But there was just one small part of him now that wished that he had not run away. He almost wished there could have been some way he could have stayed with Chimecho at that summer home without the overhanging fear of Rumika discovering him there … as pointless as such wishing was. As long as he was at it, he might as well wish that Rumika had been what he thought she had been the very first time he had ever met her and that she had not been such a domineering creep that made Musashi look like an angel in comparison. Then there would have been no reason for him to have run away. Then he would have been made master of the family estate and could have lived his whole life in luxury doing whatever he pleased with a family he could have raised the way he wanted (not so stiffly and coldly as his own parents had) and with a caring wife and his loving Gar-chan. The happiest, fairy tale ending in the whole wide world that could never happen in a million …

"Kojiro!" a voice hissed.

Kojiro sprang up off his back.

"What?" he asked groggily, rubbing his head and trying to straighten his eyes.

He almost had fallen asleep.

"Come on, you were starting to snore," said Limomon. "Let's get out of here."

"Yeah," Kojiro muttered, still rather sleepily. "Yeah, okay. I'm coming."

Without another word, he followed blindly after Limomon for some time. Away from the desert and into the dry reeds beyond where they slowly made their way into a valley.

"Do you know where we're going?" asked Kojiro finally, just as he tripped over a root with seemingly no tree attached. Its sole purpose must have been to trip up half-asleep travelers, but he was waking up by now.

"Yeah, I got a destination in mind," said Limomon without looking back. In fact at the thought of this destination, his paced seemed to quicken, and Kojiro lunged to keep up. "We'll be able to lay low there. No one will be able to find us fugitives."

"Then what?" Kojiro wanted to know. "You know, I got friends and—"

"How long have they been looking for you?"

Kojiro stopped. "What?" he demanded, squinting one eye and raising the other.

"I said," said Limomon, stopping now too and swiveling around towards the human, "how long have they been looking for you?"

"Since I got lost in the first place," snapped Kojiro not liking Limomon's tone. "What are you getting at?"

"Well, they might have given up by now," said Limomon with a shrug.

"No!" cried Kojiro defensively. "They're still looking!"

"But they might think you're dead," Limomon pointed out.

"Musashi wouldn't stop looking!" He had to believe that. He could not not believe that! He refused to allow the idea to hold fast in his mind, that she would not still be looking for him.

"It would be pointless to look for someone who is obviously nowhere to be found," said Limomon, "and I heard that you were attacked by megaseadramon."

"Yeah, so?!" Kojiro demanded. He could feel himself shake as the barrier he had put up to guard himself against losing hope slowly melted away, leaving him bare to all dark and miserable doubt and hopelessness. It rose up like a black tidal wave ready to snatch him in its icy, heavy grip and drag him into the sea where Musashi certainly would have thought he spent his last minutes.

"No one's looking for you," said Limomon, his great yellow eyes staring into him, with the backdrop of his swishing tail drawing Kojiro in hypnotically.

"But …" Kojiro tried to remind himself out loud, "But the posters for …"

"The posters for your piggy auction," finished Limomon.

Kojiro lowered his head.

"You're nothing but a piggy poster, aren't you?" pressed Limomon.

"No!" cried Kojiro in a voice that quickly turned into a sob. "I'm … I'm … I'm not …"

"What are you, Kojiro?" asked Limomon lightly with a cock of his head that might have been called playful, but it seemed in reaction to Kojiro's collapsing upon his knees in the mud in the reeds in defeat.

"I'm …" Kojiro said, "I'm … a … an agent. A Team Rocket agent!" His voice was hardly more than a squeak now no matter how desperately he tried to sound bold, daring, his agent-voice he use on the brat boy and other perspective victims of Team Rocket. It was in vain. "I don't take orders from pokémon or digimon. We give the orders. 'For the sake of preventing world destruction, for the sake of protecting world peace, to penetrate the evils of … love and … love and … truth …The lovely and charming villains …'" he choked on the strange lump forming his throat. "Kojiro—!"

Musashi …

He bit his lip and raised his eyes again to Limomon whose face now appeared very close to his, or maybe it was just that all else had become black save for the image of Limomon's eyes, the glint of his teeth, and swishing of his tail. Kojiro felt his beloved motto feel so cold and hallow in his mouth even after they left his lips. What did the words even mean? He did not even know anymore if ever had.

"Love and truth," hissed Limomon. "'The evils of love and truth'? Is that what you're about, lovely and charming villain?" Here Kojiro let out a painfully heavy breath of air. "Then let us do as you propose, Kojiro, Team Rocket agent."

Kojiro had no will to reply but simply stared dejectedly in return as a terrible marine battle took hold in his stomach and made him feel about to throw up, but he didn't. He just continued to stare as Limomon continued to speak.

"Let us plunge into the vacuum of space inside your world," said the digimon. "Let us curb the chaos that is there and bring peace to your mind, Kojiro. Let us penetrate those evils."

He laughed, and he, with a dark blue claw, tapped Kojiro's chest where his heart pounded frantically — the only part of him still panicking with his mind, for the rest of him had already submitted to Limomon's hypnotic darkness.

Then Limomon repeated, "The evils of love and of truth."

#

Nyaasu looked from the queen then back to Tailmon then back to Sandlynxmon again.

Tailmon had made it pretty clear. If the Ashen Queen did not return the human to them forthwith, Tailmon would gather all the vaccine digimon she could to war against the kingdom for him. She meant it too, Nyaasu knew only too well.

Glancing up at Musashi beside him briefly, he tried to get her attention, but decided against it after a time, for it seemed she was purposely ignoring him. Returned to the queen, he awaited her answer, but Musashi finally chose to notice him just as he turned away.

"What?" she whispered.

Nyaasu shrugged but did not raise his eyes to her. "Nya-othing, nya."

"It's a deal," said the queen.

Both he and Musashi looked up in surprise.

"Really?" asked Agumon doubtfully.

"Wow, that was easy!" exclaimed Neamon, yet something in his tone told Nyaasu that the strange digimon felt just as suspicious. This made Nyaasu feel uneasy.

"If you promise to leave this place and never return, I will return to you the human," said Sandlynxmon.

"Fine!" snapped Musashi. "Now give us back Ko—"

"I can't make that promise," Tailmon interrupted calmly.

Although stepping down in silence, Musashi did so only after flashing a sullen leer in Tailmon's direction.

"You have enslaved good digimon here," Agumon added. "So we can't promise not to interfere."

The koromon nodded but were too intimidated to voice their opinion out loud to the queen.

"Then neither can I promise you the human," said the queen. She paused, pursing her lips and looking thoughtfully above her. "Unless …"

"Nyah?" Nyaasu demanded.

"'Unless?'" pushed Musashi.

"We pay you, nya?" asked Nyaasu.

"No, no," muttered the queen.

"You know," said Neamon suddenly, causing the queen's glare to fall upon him. "If you keep the human, really bad viruses will come and wreck the whole place and probably kill you and all your subjects."

Nyaasu could not help a smile. Neamon was not quite as bean-headed as he looked.

The Ashen queen had to think about this one longer than the first thing that Tailmon brought up.

"Okay," she said after a few moments, looking somewhat remorseful as she turned to a gokimon guard beside her. "I suppose you do have a point."

"So can we have Kojiro, nya?" asked Nyaasu.

"Go and get him," Sandlynxmon sniffed, and threw her arm and scepter out toward a doorway. "The guards will take you."

Everyone was hesitant at first, but they could not say 'no' now however uncomfortable the situation was. They allowed the guard to lead them through a dark tunnel and inside the side of a cliff. Up one flight of stairs and down another. Musashi looked on the verge of biting her tails (an activity she was not at all known for), and Nyaasu glancing at his tense teammate decided he would rather be next to Tailmon. He leapt beside her.

Tailmon looked at him a moment but said nothing.

As they walked along the stuffy passage, Nyaasu watched the cells they passed by. Each one had him wondering whether it was occupied by some prisoner or other, and it made him shiver. The occasional echoing moan or cry did not help any either. No prison in his world could possibly be this dirty, cold, and miserable.

Then quite abruptly the gokimon stopped before one cell in particular.

Nyaasu looked up and groaned.

It even read "human" above the cell door in big bold letters.

Without a word, the guard took up his keys and looked through them passively.

"Hurry it up!" cried Musashi.

She made to push past the guard and to grab at the door herself, if not to open it certainly it was to scream for Kojiro and tell him that they had come to get him. However, just as she neared the guard, the guard held up the key, and everyone held their breath as the guard pushed it in the lock and opened the door.

A painful, typical, teeth-clenching creak sounded and revealed the blackness of the cell. No one could see anything, but perhaps Kojiro was in a state of shock, Nyaasu thought.

He did not have long to muse over this, for the moment the door was opened, Musashi leapt inside. The koromon were soon to follow with Neamon, and Nyaasu running inside after them. Only Tailmon and Agumon remained at the entrance, but just as Musashi turned around with the exclamation that Kojiro was not to be found, the guard roughly shoved Agumon and Tailmon inside. It happened so fast, they could not react before the cell door slammed shut and was quickly locked behind them.

"Hey!" cried Agumon.

Neamon scrunched his nose. "That's not very nice!" he pointed out.

Everyone rammed the cell door in fury.

"You can't do this to us, nya!" snarled Nyaasu through the shouts and cries of the koromon.

"You'll be sorry!" Tailmon hissed.

"Let us out!" demanded Agumon.

"Where's Kojiro!?" cried Musashi.

"He's not here," replied the gokimon guard, spitting his words as he spoke, and he promptly turned to leave. "But that's okay, cuz now we have a new human."

Nyaasu turned to Musashi, at first just as horrified as she was, but then he took an involuntary step backwards as he watched his companion's face go from shocked to angry. She turned quite pale for a moment, and then slowly she went from moon colored to the color of beetroot. Closing his eyes, Nyaasu looked away as Musashi threw back her head and let out the anticipated scream.

"Let us out right now, or I'll pop those antennae off your sorry head, you punk!" cried Musashi, reaching through the bars and just missing one of the digimon's antennae.

He let out a yelp.

"Sorry, but orders are orders," said the digimon, quickly backing away, "and now I hardly feel sympathetic for someone who wants to dismember me. Besides, the queen may decide to keep you. After all, she might like your spunk." And with that he started away.

"Come back here, you!" growled Musashi, shaking a fist through the bars. "I'll show you spunk!"

"Musashi, nya," Nyaasu whispered.

He did not know why, but Musashi's screams, as often as he had seen them, were painful to watch now. The frustration and helplessness she expressed in her anger made him feel all the more frustrated and helpless himself.

"What?!" snarled Musashi, turned sharply to Nyaasu who let out a surprised meow.

Nyaasu lowered his head. "Nya-ever mind." He turned to the others.

The koromon were surrounding Agumon and begging him and Tailmon to tell them what they should do now. Nyaasu wished they would tell them too.

#

Picodevimon shook painfully, but he had no time to nurse his wounds as he stared up at his master hidden in the shadows of the darkened room. Vamdemon's power may not have been what it once had been, but he still was as dark and cruel as ever, and failure was not an option unless one wanted pain. Although, the fact that Picodevimon had not informed him about the humans first thing even if his master easily found out on his own, had not made matters any better.

"I can still get him, Vamdemon-sama," said Picodevimon in a shivery squeal, quite unlike his false humility in front of the Ashen Queen. "He's escaped, but the other human and her friends haven't found him yet. I got a plan. I—"

"That human is already being taken care of," interrupted the deep, sinister voice from the shadow of his master.

Picodevimon gulped. "W-w-what do you mean?"

"Your services are required no longer for this human," said the master. "Your failure inspired me to enlist different help."

In shock, Picodevimon's jaw dropped to the ground, and he let out a barely audible squeak.

"But, Vamdemon-sama!" he gasped. "I can get the other human then, right?"

The shadow did not answer but with only the squeaks and shrill cries of the bats that surrounded him.

"She's been captured now by Sandlynxmon, but I can get her and bring her too you as well, oh, master!"

"I do not want to see your face until you have brought her before me or she has been destroyed by some other means."

The shadow disappeared, and Picodevimon could only sigh with relief.