Disclaimer: I do not own digimon and I am not making money off this fanfic. I do not own/make money off of any companies/music/shows/etc I mention. No infringement intended. Feedback is wanted and highly encouraged. Thank you.
Story Themes: "Magia" by Kalafina
Author's Notes: You can listen to each theme song by clicking on a link provided by my profile! It links to The Lighthouse Soundtrack on YouTube.
(-'010102000'-)
"There are two kinds of light – the glow that illumines, and the glare that obscures."
-James Thurber
The Lighthouse
Saga I Session XXI
... Part III: The Glare ...
Tai's words fell on deaf ears.
Kari. Kari. Kari. Kari.
Gatomon's paw reached out for the girl with the demonic smile and the wide eyes and the berserk giggle. Gatomon's partner was alive. She thought she'd died, but here the human girl was, moving, laughing, practically jiving with unbridled energy that seethed out of her hands and feet. Gatomon stumbled toward her partner.
"Kari..." she whispered.
"Gatomon!" Tai was calling out. "Quick, we have to find out what Lucesco did to her! Get him, now!"
"Kari!" Gatomon ran in the opposite direction of Lucesco, straight into Kari's arms. "Kari, I thought... I thought you were dead!"
"GATOMON!" Tai screamed.
"Ga...to...mon...?" Kari tilted her head to the side, her smile vanishing back into that half-blank, half-curious stare. Her neck cracked. "Ga...to...mon... don't go..."
"I'm not going anywhere, Kari," Gatomon said, hugging her, burying her face in Kari's chest. "I love you! I will do anything for you!"
"I'll protect you," Kari said, tilting her head to the other side. "I'll protect you from him." She blinked in Lucesco's direction. "I'll protect you from them all."
Her lips slid into that wide, scarecrow grin, her teeth showing, her fingers crackling.
"GATOMON!" Tai screamed again, rushing in their direction, his hand reaching out for her.
He was too late. When Kari rested her hand on Gatomon's shoulder, jolts of electricity ran down Gatomon's arm and legs, illuminating her eyes. Gatomon shrieked, bouncing back, somehow still alive, and hissed, convulsing. Kari flicked her wrist and strode closer to her digimon partner, still smiling.
Crkcrk. She craned her neck to the other side. "I'm hungry, Gatomon..." she said. "I'm hungry for data..." Her eyes brightened. "I'm hungry for souls. Give me yours."
"K... Kari...?" Gatomon squeezed one eye shut while looking at Kari with the other. Another volt traveled through her body and she threw her head back in a silent scream.
"Do that for me," Kari grinned. "That's all I ask."
Tai made it to Gatomon's side before Kari could. He stood in front of the feline digimon, his arms outspread. "Stop!" he said, "You don't want to do this, sis!"
"But I do..." crkcrk "Why else would I be doing it?" crkcrk "I don't understand you people. You want me to take care of you, don't you?"
"This isn't taking care of us," Tai replied. "This is slaughter!"
"Slaughter..." Kari's smirk widened. "I like slaughter. Bloody, chaotic slaughter."
"You're wrong!" Davis belted, rising from TK's side and clasping Kari by the shoulders. "You like fields, filled with green grass. Children playing on them, side-by-side with their digimon partners. A breeze whistling through tree leaves. Firebugs lighting up warm July nights. The smell of fall and the leather of a soccer ball— it reminds you of Tai. Snuggling into a comforter with a good book and a mug of hot chocolate, in front of a roaring fire. You like smiles. You like peace. You like bouquets of aster flowers and subtle candlelight. You like it when people ask questions, so they do not misunderstand. Your favorite genre is classical music, for frick's sake!"
"Yes... so they do not misunderstand..." Kari nodded. "If there is more chaos, people will ask me many many many questions! And I can help them! I can show them... THAT I CAN SAVE THEM."
The blue lightning crackling around her turned black.
"CHILDREN, LISTEN TO MS. KAMIYA NOW," she said, "...MS. KAMIYA KNOWS BEST."
With a flick of her wrist, it minced the concrete beneath Tai's feet and threw him up in the air. With another flick, a bolt struck through his shoulder, sending tinier volts through his bloodstream as he snarled. He heard Gatomon call out his name, her paw reaching up for him, only for her to be swallowed in another wave of black electricity. Davis went flying back into TK, who barely caught him.
"Kari!" Yolei called. Kari twisted in her direction and sent her, too, spiraling back into Valdurmon and Sora. Whirling in the opposite direction, an attack collided with Matt and Garurumon, who were forced into Joe and Mimi. She flipped another bolt of electricity forward; Izzy caught it with his own Enigma abilities and attempted to turn it on her, but she redirected it into Kabuterimon.
"Kabuterimon!" Izzy cried before Kari caught him in the shoulder and sent him crashing into Cody and Digmon.
With a hard whump, Tai landed beside Gatomon. Both of them were panting, trembling from the aftershocks, unable to control their own limbs. Gatomon managed to get on her hands and knees, grimacing.
"Who are you?" Gatomon hissed.
"Who am I? You don't know? I'm Kari, Gatomon." Her smirk wavered. "You don't recognize me?" Her smirk faded. "I thought I was someone special to you..." Tears filled her eyes. "But then, I'm not your first master... I guess I shouldn't have expected to be the last."
"Master...?" Gatomon gritted her teeth. Don't look at me with those eyes, how many times had Myotismon told her that before she felt his whip slash through her cheek? How many times were her paws rend, shredded, by Myotismon's attacks, just for every defiant look she gave?
Kari wasn't like that... that was why Gatomon loved her, why she chose Kari over Myotismon. Because Kari had shown her a world Gatomon did not even realize existed... or, more like, Gatomon knew that world existed, but she did not know she could grasp it... and the world Gatomon spoke of was not Earth. It was kindness. Compassion. Family. Love, light. Courage and friendship and knowledge, reliability and purity and hope. Miracles. This was a world Gatomon knew other people could embrace whole-heartedly, she had seen it a few times, but she had never thought it possible that she could embrace it.
She never thought she was worthy of that life, no matter how hard she searched, no matter how far she reached, no matter how many times she cried. It would never be hers.
It was Kari, with Wizardmon's kind words of support, who proved to her that it could be. It would be. That Gatomon deserved that world.
Kari taught her that Gatomon needed no master. That it was okay to be her own mon. That it was okay to follow her own rules and live by her own desires. It was okay to love, it was okay to let others in. That not everyone would use her vulnerabilities as a weapon to hurt her.
That was something Gatomon, at the time, had long forgotten.
"You were never my master," Gatomon said between her clenched fangs. She could feel the trembling in her clenched paws jolt up her arms. "Kari never saw herself as my master. She saw herself as my partner. No, not even as my partner... she saw herself as my friend, my equal, my sister, my family. The real Kari would know better than to ever call herself my 'master'."
crkcrk. "But isn't that all that you are?" crkcrk "A pet? A lil kitty-kitty? And I am your owner..."
"I'm not a possession! LIGHTNING PAW!" The attack struck Kari right across the face. Three scratches oozed blood. Kari's eyes snapped wide open. "Wake up!" Gatomon snarled. "Wake up, damn you, and see what you're doing to the people you love! All of these people... these humans and the digimon standing beside them... all of the ones surrounding you... they are all your partners! They are your friends! They are your equals! They are your family! So WAKE UP and SNAP OUT OF IT. LIGHTNING PAW!"
Kari caught Gatomon's paw. Gatomon stumbled. Kari's wide eyes narrowed as she slowly looked back at Gatomon. "You hit me," she said in a low voice. "I didn't like it." SNAP. Her grip tightened around Gatomon's wrist.
"Tch." Gatomon bit down, glaring at Kari.
" 'Wake up, snap out of it!' " Kari mocked. "I am awake. My eyes have never been more open, Gatomon," she said. "Day in, day out, I'm always taking care of all you..." Kari looked up at the sky. What fascination and innocent curiosity lied beneath those doe-browns dissolved into a dull boredom. "I never think of myself. When I have a problem, I don't rely on anyone to help me. Sure, I sometimes call out to Tai or TK or you to save me, but those are moments when I consider myself weak and insubordinate and pathetic. And despite that I hardly call out for help, still you all believe I need to be protected."
"You weren't weak," Gatomon hissed, latching her free hand onto Kari's. "Never weak for needing help. That does not make you weak. That makes you real. We don't protect you because you're weak, we protect you because we love you."
"I was never a selfish girl," Kari whispered, finally looking back at Gatomon. "I rarely asked for help. I took everything onto my shoulders. I told Gennai I was determined to contact the World of Light before this attack happened, and I failed. I have never been the strongest one. I give power, I do not own it.
"I am one of the most experienced Destined, yet Davis, poor, foolish, idiotic Davis surpassed me. Davis, who boasts of a great intelligence and strength he does not possess. Davis, who speaks before he thinks. Davis, who thinks he has far more friends than he in actuality has. And Yolei? Yolei, the girl who always cries and whines, whose greatest dream was eating dessert, how could she surpass me? Cody, the boy who never speaks, the arrogant, stuck-up boy who thinks he is superior to everyone surrounding him, but in actuality he is merely afraid. Afraid of conflict. Afraid of being wrong. Afraid to realize his opinions don't really matter, so he says nothing. An insect, a doormat. Like me. And yet he still rises far above me. And Ken! The malicious, the kind, the mercurial dethroned Emperor who knows nothing of social interaction! How can these people surpass me? Oh yes, that's right...
"The Girl of Light was pathetic."
"That's not true!" Davis shouted. "Kari is just as strong as the rest of us! We're all just... pieces... you know? We each contribute a part to the team!"
"I don't need your pity!" Kari spat, throwing Gatomon into Davis's face. The two rolled over several times and thumped to a stop against a collapsed bank.
(-1020110-)
This power... Davis thought, half-wincing as he tried to stand. Gatomon bent over, hacking, clasping her kneecaps. The wind got knocked out of her. He glanced up at Kari's form. Black energy was simmering around her like a cesspool. I've felt it before...
I know this power...
This energy...
I saw her lose control once, six months ago when we were facing that Jackal enemy in the Dark Ocean...
She nearly killed him until I stopped her, because I knew Kari wouldn't have wanted to abuse her power like that. Defeating the enemy, definitely; but not like that. Not as a bloodthirsty berserker, but as Kari Kamiya.
Back then, she lost herself, just like now...
But somehow, this is different. It's similar, but still... this time it's more... feral.
It's as if...
It's as if Kari's essence in itself has been corrupted.
(-1021010-)
"I'm happy now," Kari told Gatomon. "Now I'll take care of you all... so that I never have to take care of you again."
Darkness exploded beneath the ground. Tendrils of thick, tangible, black heat jutted up to the sky, scraping the vortex. The data of Nightmare Soldiers and Azulongmon Reinforcements alike scattered in the wind, their dying screams fading. Entire buildings were skewered in the ensuing spiking explosions that rattled the city streets.
Sora, Birdramon, Matt, Garurumon, Joe, and Ikkakumon were plowed back into Mimi, Togemon, Yolei, and Valdurmon. Examon and Stingmon collapsed as dark spikes lanced through their stomachs. Nearby, Tai and Ken buckled over. Izzy and Kabuterimon lunged in Kari's direction, but were thrown back by the force of a black explosion beneath their feet. Scalding burns rived their shoulders and thighs, throwing them into an already-injured Davis and Darkdramon. Cody managed to reach Kari and rest a hand on her shoulder, but she grabbed him by the wrist and clasped her other hand against his chest. With a shriek, a beam of black energy punched Cody's chest and sent him flipping, spiraling into Digmon.
The gales of the surrounding explosions whirred around Kari. Her hair – long, crackling with black lightning – billowed like a cape through the coiling smoke. Her lips curled into that grin, eyes glowing black and green in the dark light.
"This is the power I have now..." she said, spreading out her hands. Shooting them in the sky's direction, at least several hundred pillars of black energy harpooned out of the ground and shredded entire barrages of enemies, both Nightmare and Azulongmon. "...This is the power of Kari Kamiya, the girl who radiates light... Queen Kari, who contains so much latent power she alone could access it even as a child... This is me, so watch me burn you all away!"
The Crest of Light illuminated her chest. Black bolts of lightning thundered out of the sky and struck ground, ripping entire canyons through Odaiba and traveling into the ocean itself. Sundering through the wind and water and fire and rain and soil, Kari Kamiya's black beams of energy expanded into black, acid-oozing monoliths that reached the sky, sending millions of bolts of energy screaming to the ground below.
The pink light that permeated her chest darkened, then cracked. Splinters of black light shined through the gentle hues, swallowing them. Black shards of light jutted through her skin, inverting the Crest of Light.
"I will show you..." she growled, black, coiling pedestals of energy that looked like sutures building beneath her feet. "...I will let you know..." She ascended toward the sky, "...The true power I possess, and always have... The power of the light which illuminates, and the glare which obscures... I am not only the Moral Destined of Light..."
Blue thunder shook the heavens above her. The cuts and burns on her face seared with a black light.
"I AM KARI KAMIYA, SIN DESTINED OF DARKNESS."
(-1020101-)
TK was eleven-years-old again. Stumbling through a DigiPort, he found himself lying in a heap on the floor. But rest assured, a hand landed on his shoulder and helped pull him from his tangled heap and onto his feet.
"What were you doing?" Kari asked him with a furrowed brow.
TK hesitated. He was hoping no one would catch his secret venture into the Digital World. He'd even left Patamon behind, fearing his digimon's safety.
That would explain why Kari was here. Patamon must have realized what TK did and got her.
TK glanced to the door of his middle school's computer room, where he saw the silhouette of a hovering, bobbing Patamon outside the window, his ear-wings flapping wildly. TK had no doubt Gatomon was nearby as well, though the two had allowed Kari to go in first. I'll talk to you later, he thought with a glare at the ear-flapping silhouette.
Unsure, and suddenly feeling insecure, TK rubbed the back of his neck. "I..."
When he paused, Kari raised an expectant eyebrow. "You...?"
He took a deep, calm breath, then blurted out, "I was looking for virus digimon!"
"Uh huh." Kari crossed her arms in front of her chest. "And what were you planning to do with them once you found them? You're not a digimon, TK. You're a human. You don't have a 'Boom Bubble' or a 'Hand of Fate' to protect yourself with."
"I don't know..." TK sighed and raked his fingers through his hair. "I just— after Kimeramon..."
Kari's expression softened. Pausing for a second, Kari leaned against a desk and motioned for him to sit down next to her. With a voice as soft as her expression, she replied, "What's wrong, TK? It isn't like we haven't faced digimon like that before. I mean, Kimeramon was really strong, but... I've never seen you act this way."
TK paused for a minute. He and Kari had been through so much that sometimes he forgot even she had not been a Destined as long as he was. Though it only happened a few years ago, TK's memory of his adventures in the Digital World were already blurring. But one memory that would never grow hazy was the memory of losing Angemon, of watching that final feather flutter through the wind before it, too, would disintegrate.
Devimon's cruelty had been imprinted in TK's mind for so long that he'd completely forgotten those who were not there to witness it themselves; they knew nothing of it, because TK did not like to speak about it. In fact, he rarely spoke of it to even Patamon, and only then he only brought it up when he was feeling particularly depressed or stressed out.
It was his worst memory. His lowest point.
"Kari," he started slowly. "The Emperor used Devimon's arms to help create Kimeramon."
Kari's brow furrowed. "Devimon. Wasn't he the first digimon you and the others faced when the Digital World kidnapped you?"
"Well, besides the big red bug and a few digimon controlled by dark gears..." TK gave a half-smile. Kari smiled back.
"So what's so bad about that?" Kari asked as gently as she could manage. "I know it must have brought up memories, but it isn't like we haven't faced other old enemies before."
"No, Kari, Devimon's different," he replied, his voice hardening. He stood and turned his back to her, unsure how to continue. When she said nothing, he sighed. "He killed Patamon."
He heard a gasp behind him. No one told her. He should've known no one would— they told stories about Devimon, but Angemon's sacrifice was an incredibly loaded topic. It wasn't exactly a tale TK would want told over a bonfire and s'mores.
When Kari continued her silence, he finally turned around and relented. For the first time in years, TK went through the entire memory, from beginning to end. She listened carefully, her eyes widening or frowning at the appropriate intervals, occasionally gasping or giving his shoulder a comforting squeeze. When he finished, she took in a big sigh and bowed her head.
"Oh, TK... I had no idea," she finally said. "I'm so sorry."
"I've never hated anyone before..." TK's hands grasped at the air, as if trying to hold it. "But if I ever did, it would be Devimon."
"That's... understandable," Kari replied, rising from her seat. "But TK, you should know— not every digimon aligned with darkness, or even virus types, are evil."
TK snorted. "Just the majority."
Kari sighed, but let it go. She rested a hand on his head and removed his hat so she could rub his hair. It was comforting. She then smiled at him and said, "I know this is something you've had to deal with all this time... I'm sorry I wasn't there before, but now I will be. We'll get through this, TK. I promise. You don't have to face this alone. Patamon, Matt, Gabumon, Gatomon, and I will always be here for you.
"Just don't go off on your own anymore, kay? I know you don't want Patamon to get hurt again, but... we're all in this together. Losing you will hurt us all like losing Patamon hurt you."
Then it was five years later.
TK fumbled back as he watched Kari ascend.
"This isn't Kari..." he muttered. He could feel oxygen rushing through his lungs. He could feel the blood pumping in his legs. He could feel his heart thrashing against his chest. "This isn't her... This isn't my friend...!"
There was a snicker beside him. TK twisted around to see Lucesco, lying flat on his back, staring endlessly up at the sky with a smirk on his face. His arms were spread-eagle and his legs were sprawled out. The cuts and bruises on his face were red-hot and bleeding and pulsating.
The look on Lucesco's face reminded TK all too well of the smirk on Devimon's as Angemon dissolved into data right before his eyes. That look reminded TK of Piemon's as he turned all of TK's friends into keychains, the look the Emperor wore when he imprisoned countless digimon.
TK's teeth clenched.
"You." TK's fingers dug into the collar of Lucesco's shirt as he dragged the blond man to his knees. "What did you do to Kari!"
"Hahahahah... She was dying, Takaishi..." His eyes fell half-lidded as he continued staring up at the sky, his head leaning to the side, his body limp in TK's grip. He was still smiling. "What else could I do? She sacrificed herself to save me, and I have this thing about returning favors..."
"WHAT DID YOU DO, YOU BASTARD?"
"I fixed her." Lucesco finally looked at TK. "Don't you see? I made her aaaaaall better!"
"You call THIS," TK motioned to the hundreds of digimon splattering the roadside, their corpses dissolving, the people falling, the children crying, the buildings exploding and crashing and screaming as shrapnel struck; he motioned to the collapsing dilapidated Odaiba City, "ALL BETTER?"
CRACK
TK's fist landed in Lucesco's nose. Lucesco rolled backwards until his head cracked against the pavement. The blond man-creature cackled, wavering, trying to stand but unable to. He watched as Kari threw her head back in a laugh echoing his own, black electricity unfurling from her palms.
"She looks happy to me," Lucesco snickered.
"YOUR OWN COMRADES ARE DYING," TK snarled, punching him again. Lucesco smacked the pavement. "MY own comrades are dying! How can you laugh at this!"
"They're not my comrades," Lucesco snarled. His grin had finally vanished. Good, TK thought with a glare. "I hate these digimon... these people... this world and the Digital World beside it... At one time, I gave up everything to protect them all, and they spat in my face. Just wait, they'll spit in yours, too. Why do you think the Council, those makers of fate, never reveal themselves? Because they know if they do someone, someday, will defy them, and they will lose everything. That is the cycle of power. You only hold it for so long before someone stronger comes along and takes it from you.
"Everyone would be better off dead."
"That isn't your decision to make!" TK howled. "I don't know what you did to her, but bring Kari back!"
"I can't," Lucesco replied. With heavy steps, he walked toward TK and grabbed him by the shirt. "By awakening the Enigma Evolution, you Destined are beginning to fuse with the soul of the Digital World. All Digital Worlds. You're becoming both flesh and data in one body. And while that gives you the strength of both realities, it also gives you the weaknesses, as well.
"I've corrupted her data, Takaishi. At one time, the Child of Light could be classified as a vaccine...
"But I have made her into a human virus."
A human...virus. TK twisted around to look up at Kari's form. She was infected? Just like when Tai force-digivolved Agumon into SkullGreymon... He wasn't able to stop himself from destroying everything around him; he'd turned into a great virus digimon with amazing, terrifying power. Had something similar happened to Kari?
TK almost laughed. Can't wait to see Kari's face when I tell her she digivolved, he thought with an affectionate grin.
Lucesco's chuckle wiped TK's grin off his face. "How do I stop her?" he asked.
"You can't," Lucesco said. "The forces of darkness aren't necessarily evil. Darkness in itself is a neutral party, but because it so easily conceals and hides, it is a suitable tool for evil to use. Like Motomiya, Inoue, and Hida are able to tap into two separate Eggs, Kari is also the true Destined of Darkness as well. But right now, the corruption is using her power against her.
"That corruption inside Kari is an ancient entity that has been deep inside Kari since the moment she saw Parrotmon and Greymon battling in Highton View Terrace. No, maybe even further back than that... Kari herself is an ancient being—" How was that possible? "—but Kari has no awareness about the things that lie in her soul. That darkness inside of her, however, has been awake for a very long time, waiting, watching. And it knows how to use her powers a whole lot better than she does."
"But it's not really Kari."
"No, Child of Hope, you're wrong." Lucesco sat on the ground and crossed his legs. He frowned up at Kari. "That is Kari. That is every single dark thought she has ever had. Every single sin that has been a whisper in the back of her mind that she never allowed herself to listen to. That is the manifestation of her hate, her pettiness, her sadness. Everything she has never said – everything she has denied, everything she has never allowed herself to believe – is coming to the surface. That is Kari. That is Kari when she relies on her sins. Her pride, her envy, her wrath, her sloth, her greed and gluttony and lust.
"That is the person Kari never allowed herself to be, but who was always a part of her nonetheless."
We all have evil inside of us... TK thought, thinking of his own prejudices against digimon of darkness, of his inability to forgive, of how it took Devimon's death to make him realize how much had changed ("Devimon is the exception, not the rule..." If Virus Kari said that, did that mean she meant it too...? But...).
But it is our duty, our responsibility and even our privilege, to combat that evil, to take a path toward being a better person... He had to save Kari. He had to show her the path he knew she would want to take.
Kari was not alone. If TK had been corrupted, he was sure he would be just as petty, as would Davis, or Tai, or Sora or Matt or even Mimi, the Chosen of Purity. That was their flaw of being living, thinking, breathing creatures of freewill: their ability to sin, their ability to moralize, allowed them two paths to take and one was not as righteous as the other.
All of the Destined were heroes of a Gray Area. But they had to do everything they could not to veer off into the Dark Area.
"One problem, though," Lucesco went on, glancing at TK.
TK craned his neck toward the blond. Lucesco smiled. "Davis and Kari's souls are connected. So if Kari's soul has been corrupted..."
"No," TK said, looking in Davis's direction. "No, you're wrong, it's impossible to corrupt Davis's heart! Instead, we can use that connection to purify Kari!"
"Purify the Child of Light?" Lucesco threw his head back in a bellowing laugh that shook his entire body.
"But you said it yourself." TK grinned. "She's also the Child of Darkness. And Davis... Davis is the Child of Miracles, even if that DigiEgg disappeared to form the DigiEgg of Kindness, it still stands that Davis has that power inside of him. Crests... DigiEggs... in the end, they're just tools to magnify the power already inside of us. And one of Davis's greatest gifts is the power to do the impossible."
"HAND of FATE."
Lucesco jumped up just in time to avoid Angemon's attack. He flipped through the air and barely landed on his feet. Dusting himself off, he looked back up at TK with narrowed eyes and gave a sloppy salute. "Whatever you say," he replied. "Things have already been set in motion. I never intended for that virus to infect Kari, but it'll spread to its intended target soon enough.
"I look forward to this plague. It's the Pale Horse, y'know."
Lucesco vanished in a flash of blinding light. Smoke exposed a curdled and cracked crater where Lucesco had been standing before, but now he was no where in sight. TK's brow furrowed.
How could Lucesco just disappear like that?
"DAVIS," TK called. I can't linger on it now, he thought, rushing in the boy's direction. I couldn't save Devimon... Years ago, when I was a little boy, I couldn't save Angemon... but I will save Kari.
I promise you, Kari. This time, I'll be the one there for you!
(-1021010-)
When Lucesco landed on the rooftop of a two-story house that was half caved-in, he fumbled to find his balance. He was badly wounded. He didn't know how it happened, but he would need some time to regenerate before he could get involved in another battle like that.
That was alright, though. He had accomplished his goal. Now all that remained was opening the rift between dimensions...
"LUCESCO, YOU IDIOT!"
Ah, shit...
THWACK
His face hit the ground with enough force to shatter the plaster. Lifting his head out of the hole in the roof, he groused and rubbed the back of his skull where a massive lump protruded.
"You didn't have to hit me so hard," he grumbled, turning toward the woman who struck him.
Her hair was the shade of red mercury. "Hair of Mars", Kari had described it once... The woman liked that description. It was a constantly shifting shade, always deep and lush, always red, always unsettled and unpredictable like the seas of magma beneath the Earth's crust. Her eyes were as deep as her hair, a royal purple that flashed dangerously as they flickered in Lucesco's direction.
He watched Mara plant her knuckles against her hips as she glared at him. "I was worried about you!"
"Yeah, yeah, blah blah blah," Lucesco grunted as he stood.
Mara reached forward and grabbed his side. He thrust his head back in a half-hiss. It stung.
"Watch it!" he growled. Mara raised an eye ridge and poked the wound again. His bottom lip wibbled. "Maraaaa! Quit it!"
"You two are children," came a third voice. Neither of them needed to turn around to know who spoke. They could feel his approach miles away, seething, oozing with a darkness that crackled around his hands and feet and eyes. Invisible, but there, hair-raising.
Lucesco and Mara glanced at him from the corner of their eyes. Any sense of playfulness faded.
"Did you do it?" the third voice asked.
"Not quite," Lucesco replied, searching the man's gaze. "But the result will be the same."
Three bright lights illuminated their faces. A red glow formed the trident symbol of the Prideful Crest across Lucesco's forehead; the green four-pronged emblem of Lust incandescent over Mara's heart; and the purple light of Greed's sign lit up the palms of the third figure's hands.
Lucesco's voice rose above a whisper to a snarl, then to the thunder that incinerated the sky.
"For the Seven Great Demon Lords..."