[Okay, so the updates haven't been coming fast or regularly lately. I'm sorry about that, but I'm not going to bother with making any excuses. It's just the way things work out. I should, however, explain one thing. The webmaster for my website isn't able to get online as frequently or for as long as he used to, so he won't be able to really do a whole lot of updating. That means until further notice, I won't be able to bring you any new pictures. I hope you can bear with me on this, and I'm sure we all hope he can get a reliable connection sometime in the not-too-distant future. I know it sure sucked when I was offline for a good six months or so and I wouldn't want him to endure the same thing. Anyway, now that I've made this whole introduction and managed to prolong your getting to the next part of this fic (which is extra mean considering when I last left you it was a cliffhanger), it's time to get back down to the business of the story. I'm not really sure how much longer I expect it to go on, but rest assured we are nearing the final act.]
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"You know, I always hated you," Mephismon said with a sneer as he towered over the broken and battered SaberSetomon. "You disgusted me since I first laid eyes on you. You're just another weak, pathetic creature bent on getting in my way. You can't imagine how irritating it was being ordered to keep you alive."
"To keep…me…?"
"I don't know what changed his mind, and I don't really give a damn at this point. The point is that I'm going to kill you now, and I'll be made into a living god for it. There is no sweeter prize I could ask for."
"You…bastard…"
"Maybe I'll start by crushing your arms and legs. Then I could tear them off and toss your still-living torso to the hounds. Or maybe I'll reach down your throat and pull out your organs one at a time while you watch. Even better, I could break every bone in your body and then skin you alive. One time I kept someone alive for three days while I did that. I'm hoping to break that record."
SaberSetomon reached forward with his right hand to try to crawl away, but Mephismon saw and his eyes blazed with a dark flame. With one savage motion he slammed his hoof down hard on SaberSetomon's right hand, crushing most of its bones and leaving a growing blood splatter on the ground. SaberSetomon screamed in terrible pain.
"Don't force me to make your death a quick one," Mephismon said with a heartless snarl, "I won't allow that."
Even though Mephismon still stood on his crushed hand, SaberSetomon tried to punch him with his already badly wounded left arm. He swung the massive appendage right toward Mephismon's side, but the satyr caught SaberSetomon's hand in his palm and held it for a moment. Then, with a sadistic grin, he forced the arm back toward SaberSetomon with such force that the bone completely snapped just below the elbow and burst through the skin. SaberSetomon screamed again, a long and agonized howl. Now with one crushed hand and a bone jutting from his other arm, he was ready to give up and simply pass out from the pain. Mephismon looked like he'd just broken his favorite toy.
"I told you not to force me to make this quick."
SaberSetomon went limp. His eyes were frozen open, his tongue lolled out, and the pool of blood that had amassed beneath him stained his fur. There was nothing behind those once shining yellow eyes, which now held shrunken pupils and a glazed appearance. Mephismon looked down on him for a few seconds, a look of anger and disappointment on his face.
"Useless. You couldn't even put up a good fight before you died."
Mephismon lifted his hoof once again and brought it over SaberSetomon's skull.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you…"
Mephismon looked up with a startled expression. "Who said that?!"
A digimon stood before him, surrounded by the flames that leapt off the burning rubble. "Me."
"Wait your turn. I'll just be another second."
Mephismon raised his hoof up once more over SaberSetomon's head and got ready to bring it down as hard as he could. The mystery digimon didn't give him the chance though, quickly grabbing at something on its side and hurling it at him. Mephismon felt an explosion of pain on the left side of his collar bone as he was shoved back from the sheer force of impact. He cried out and his right hand instinctively shot up to the source of his sudden agony. What he felt was an object protruding from his pierced flesh and a lot of warm, dark blood. Pulling his hand away, he stared down at his now stained palm in disbelief. That disbelief instantly turned to seething anger as his eyes shifted back toward the figure in the flame.
"No mercy," he said with a low, rumbling growl.
Without taking his eyes off this new digimon, he reached up to his collar again and grabbed hold of the weapon there. With one torturous jerk he wrenched it from his body and held it in his hand. It was a dagger with a curved, eight-inch blade made from some kind of black metal and a handle done in a traditional Japanese style. He then let it drop to the ground.
Mephismon began walking forward while the mystery digimon remained still. SaberSetomon tried to watch what he could, but shifting around very much was far too painful for him, and he kept on drifting in and out of consciousness. Mephismon made his move.
"Death Cloud!"
Swinging his mammoth arms forward, Mephismon created a strong gust of wind that carried enough of his violet miasma with it to kill everyone in the city. As soon as the cloud hit the fire it ignited and incinerated everything in the area. Even the flames were blown back, which revealed the mystery digimon, who even then stood with her left arm shielding her face and only some burns on her clothes. She lowered her arm and revealed her identity.
She stood roughly six feet tall and was covered from muzzle to tail with bright orange fur. White fur adorned he chest, fingers and toes while red fur decorated the crown of her head and the tip of her tail. The fur atop her head was impeccably groomed and tied together at the base of her skull with a string while that in the front was combed forward in several spiked locks. Her long ears, black on the edges, reached out from the side of her head and her stern, yellow eyes were focused straight forward. Around her left eye was a strange but simple pattern of black fur. She had one protruding tooth on each side of her mouth, just beneath the upturned edges of her lips. She wore strange clothes, including a pair of baggy red pants that reached down to about halfway in between the two joints in her catlike legs, a dark gray belt made of a tough-looking fabric, and some kind of off-white wrapped shirt that was tucked into her belt and covered her limited feminine curves, although barely. Her muscular forearms and lower legs gave her a very tough appearance and were guarded by thick leather pads strapped to them, and at the end of her tail a long brown cloth strap offered limited protection against injury to the appendage. In her belt were tucked a pair of matching sheathes, the one on her left side empty and short while the one on her right was long and currently occupied by a full-length katana. The sheaths were wooden, though covered with turquoise for a blue finish and given gold guards at the top and bottom. Finally, she carried a large flag on her back, which consisted of a long wooden pole, sharpened at the base, tied at a right angle to a shorter one near its top and a loose, triangular red flag tied to the posts at its three corners with the sole kanji symbol "chikara" emblazoned on it in black.
"Oh I get it," Mephismon said with a little smirk. "It's you."
"Back down, goat boy," she said as she advanced toward him.
Mephismon stood several feet taller than his new enemy, but that didn't dampen her confidence in the least. Once she reached him she stood chest-to-chest with him and looked straight up into his eyes.
"As touching as this is, I'm here under orders. Don't even think about getting in my way."
"I'm not here to talk, Mephismon. Leave now or never leave at all."
"I don't want to talk either. That's why I'll just finish this one off and be on my way."
"Touch him and die."
"At whose hands? Yours? Little girl, I can smell how new that flesh of yours is to you. What is a weak and inexperienced Ultimate going to do against me?"
"Actually, I'm a Mega."
"I see," he said with an unbelieving smirk. "I've got a job to do here. We can talk later, after I've claimed my reward."
"You can talk to my blade right now if you'd like."
"Really? I'm willing to bet you're all talk."
"Try me."
"Gladly…"
Mephismon quickly tried to grab her in a bear hug, but he stopped mid-grab when she yanked the butt of her katana up into his chest, right under his bottom ribs. A pained grimace washed over his face, but he endured the jab. His opponent's expression was still calm with those upturned lips.
"You have some skill," Mephismon said as he took a step back.
She seated her blade back in its sheath and brushed some hair out of her eyes. Mephismon didn't much care for her response and attacked immediately by lunging at her head-first so as to crush her with his huge horns. She quickly raised both hands though and caught Mephismon's assault in her palms. Despite Mephismon's incredible strength he could do little more than push her back a few inches at a time.
"Had enough?" she asked, her arms straining against Mephismon's horns.
Mephismon pulled back and snorted angrily. He pawed the ground with his hooves and stared straight into her eyes.
"Maybe killing you will be more pleasurable than I thought."
She bent her knees and grabbed the hilt of her katana in her left hand with her right holding onto the sheath. Her body leaned forward just slightly and she narrowed her eyes almost until the point of being closed.
"Kuroittou Kamisori!"
She drew her katana and slashed at Mephismon's neck with unbelievable speed. A dark trail followed her black blade as it sliced the air, but it was quickly apparent that the air was all it had sliced when Mephismon ducked just under the stroke and lunged. What he didn't account for was that she would keep on slashing and her right hand held her second attack. Before Mephismon could grab his enemy she cracked him across the face with her sheath. He was stunned for a moment and that was all the time she needed to leap up over him, dragging her sword across his left shoulder. As she landed a fine spray of black blood erupted from the long, razor-thin cut that ran from his chest, over his shoulder and halfway down his back.
Mephismon did not cry out, but he looked like he wanted to more than anything. Instead he tried to cover up the long cut with his right arm as best as possible. He turned back to look at her as she started to wipe the blood from her blade.
"If I don't kill him, I'll be lucky to survive my master's wrath…"
"Lay one finger on him and you will NOT survive mine."
"You can't protect him forever."
"One day soon he'll be able to do that himself."
"I will complete my mission now."
"Do it and you'll never collect your reward. I guarantee it."
Mephismon looked into her eyes, her cold, steely eyes. He didn't fear her nearly as much as the Destroyer. But she was perfectly able and willing to kill him right then and there. Only months ago, Mephismon believed himself to be one of the strongest digimon alive, but he was discovering just how low on the charts he was. He knew the rules of the world, he knew that he would have to grow stronger to survive, he knew that the weak would die and the strong would thrive. But now he found himself surrounded by the truly strong, and he would have to become stronger than them to survive. The choice was clear.
"Don't think for a second that this is over. You'll leave his side soon enough, and when you do I'll be right there to crush him. After that, you and I can finish things once and for all."
"Crawl back to the shadows, Mephismon."
Mephismon turned swiftly and strode arrogantly out of town. The sounds of battle were already dying down as the attacking digimon fell to the hands of the town's defenders. The fires still blazed all over the city, but they would run out of fuel soon. SaberSetomon's rescuer returned both her katana and her dagger to their sheaths and calmly walked over to where SaberSetomon lay, momentarily conscious.
"Are you alright?" she asked.
SaberSetomon only returned an angry look to her.
"Stupid question I suppose. Here, let me help." She reached for SaberSetomon's left arm where the bone protruded from the skin. She moved the bone very carefully back to where it belonged. SaberSetomon was in excruciating pain, but he'd long since lost the energy to scream. All he could do was to tear up from the pain. With the bone set she reached to her shirt and tore off three long strips of the off-white fabric. The first she wrapped around right where the bone had snapped. It started to soak up the blood right away. With the other to strips of cloth she tied two sturdy sticks she'd found on the ground to SaberSetomon's arm to act as a splint.
"So what…do I call you…?"
"SamuSetomon," she said cleanly as she moved to examine his right hand.
SaberSetomon said nothing more. He saw nothing more. He simply drifted off.
Day 35The phone rang in the still morning air. A hand reached out from underneath the tan down comforter of a large bed.
"Hello?"
"Hey, Jackrabbit!" Willis hollered on the other end.
Jack sat up in bed and ran his free hand through his tousled hair. "Willis?"
Willis meanwhile walked from his kitchen into his living room, where he gave his Saint Bernard a playful scratch behind the ears and continued his search for his missing shoes. "Yeah, it's me. What's up with you? You sound tired."
Jack let out a long yawn. "I just woke up," he finally said as he turned to look at his bedside clock.
"Well you'd better get moving. You don't want to sleep all day, do you?"
"It's not even nine o'clock yet." Jack scanned the somewhat Spartan room with its earthy-colors. He finally spotted his pants hanging off the dresser and went to retrieve them.
"Saturday is no excuse for being lazy," Willis quipped as he shooed his dog off the sofa and flipped up the cushions with no luck. "I thought that was one of the first things they taught you, Mr. Businessman."
"I take it you're not quite used to this time zone yet."
"Aha!" Willis shouted as he pulled his shoes out from under the chair. His dog barked.
"See? Even your dog thinks it's too early for noise," Jack said as he pulled on his slacks.
"Hey, Bernie thinks you should get up too."
"I'm up, I'm up," Jack said while looking through his closet for a shirt to wear. He finally settled on a light blue one that matched his charcoal-gray slacks well. "So I take it Mimi and Michael didn't mind watching him too much while you were in Hawaii?"
"Let's just say I owe them one really big favor." Willis took a bite of the toast he made himself as he started putting on his shoes.
"If it's half as big as that dog of yours, you might as well say goodbye to one of your kidneys now."
"So how're things with you?" Willis asked as he grabbed a Hawaiian shirt off the floor and pulled it on over his undershirt. "I heard you and Amber broke up."
"Where'd you hear that?"
"Through the grapevine."
"Well it's not true." Jack looked over at his fiancée, who was still dead to the world in bed. "We just had a fight. I'd have to be pretty stupid to give up over one little fight."
"Yeah, it'll take a whole lot more than one thing to make you want to get away from someone and scour them from your memory for all time."
"Huh?"
"Nothing. Hey! Did you get your wedding invitation yet?"
"Yeah, but…"
"Don't tell me you're thinking about not going."
Jack started looking through his ties for something to go with his shirt. "Well come on, our little club isn't exactly super exclusive. Can you imagine what would happen if I went flying halfway around the world every time a former DigiDestined got married? I haven't even talked to most of them in years."
"Come on, don't be such a buzz kill. And don't forget that they did probably save your life at least once. Besides, now's as good a time as any to reconnect."
"Well, I'll think about it. I just always feel like I won't have anything to talk about when I go to one of those things."
"If you need help, I've always got a few suggestions."
"You would." Jack finally decided on a crimson plaid tie.
"You could always tell the story about how we started calling you Jackrabbit." Willis tossed a chewed-up tennis ball past his dog. Bernie went sauntering after it.
"Not a chance."
"Then I could tell it for you."
"You wouldn't dare!"
"Consider it motivation to keep you talking."
"If that's the case, you won't be able to get a word in edgewise during the whole week."
"I really don't understand why you don't like that story." Bernie returned the ball to Willis and he tossed it again.
"It's embarrassing!"
"But it's so funny! And it was just as embarrassing for me, Joe and Michael. Don't forget that all of us were there."
"Don't remind me."
"Well if you do decide to come, I can guarantee I'll be there. I'm hoping to have a repeat of my Hawaii trip."
"What do you mean?"
"A wedding is one of the top five places to meet singles."
"Oh I get it now. You've already batted through the whole lineup here and now you've got to go to other parts of the world to find some action."
"Bingo."
"Good luck with that." Jack finished putting on his shoes, rubbing off a few scuff marks he noticed.
"Good luck with the whole marriage thing. I think you'll need it."
"What's that?"
"Marriage is rough is all."
"Oh yeah, and dating is just a stroll through the meadow."
"Come on, you can't honestly tell me you don't miss the thrill of the hunt. Picking out the right one from the herd, circling your prey until you catch that first smile, the first touch, the mating dance…"
"…The awkwardness, the rejection, the hundreds of dollars worth of wasted drinks. I'm glad I got out when I did."
"Which was about five minutes in. Come on, you've been with Amber since what, before you could walk?"
"We've been together five years and you know that."
"Okay, so before you could drink."
"Right, so what's the problem?"
"The problem is you've only gone out with what, three other women? As I recall, two of those didn't get past the first date and the third lasted for maybe a month."
"Exactly! None of them held a candle to Amber. We've been together for five years, and I don't need experience with dozens of women to know she's the right one for me."
"If you say so."
Jack then noticed Amber beginning to stir in her sleep. "Look, I've gotta go," he whispered.
"You're making her breakfast again, aren't you?"
"What, you think I should just sit around and tell her to make me breakfast?"
"When was the last time she made it for you?"
"That's not the point. It's a partnership, Willis. One of those deals where everyone works together. 'All men are created equal' and so forth."
"In my experience, some are less equal than others."
"Cute."
"Don't get any bacon on that tie you're wearing."
"How'd you know I was wearing a tie?"
"Because you always wear a tie when you're with Amber."
"Look, we'll talk later."
"Alright. See ya."
"Bye."
Willis and Jack hung up their phones and went about their mornings, each in their own way. It was at right about the same time, but quite a few time zones away in Japan that TK received a knock on his apartment door. He looked up from the TV which he'd been staring at blankly for the last few hours and lifted his feet off the coffee table, nearly knocking over a few spent bottles in the process. He shambled over to the door in the wrinkled clothes he'd been wearing for three days and opened it roughly. On the other side out in the hallway stood Tai wearing a pressed suit and sporting his now shortened hair.
"Hey, TK."
"Hi," TK grumbled as he turned to walk back into his and now only his apartment.
"I guess you figured out why I'm here…" Tai said in a subdued tone.
TK nodded. "They're right there by the door."
Tai turned his attention to a stack of boxes standing next to the doorway. "Is that it?"
"If she wants to argue over who gets the couch she can come ask me herself."
"Right…" said Tai. He began to pick up some of the boxes in his arms. "I just got off work and didn't really have time to change. By the looks of it, you haven't had time to change in a week."
Tai strained a smile but TK didn't respond. Instead he just sat back down on the couch. Tai quickly started making trips down to his car with box after box of his sister's stuff. It took about half an hour, but eventually Tai got down to the last two boxes. He wiped the sweat from his brow with his naked forearm before he made an attempt; he'd long since discarded his tie and jacket and rolled up the sleeves of his shirt.
"So what are you up to tonight?" Tai asked to try breaking the silence again.
"Nothing."
"Yeah, sounds like it's about the same for Kari."
TK didn't respond.
"You know she misses you."
"Didn't seem that way the last fifty times I tried calling around to apologize."
"Okay, so she doesn't forgive you. She does miss you though." Tai grabbed the first box in his arms. It was a big one, and even heavier than it looked. "I'm betting this is shoes," he joked.
"Uh-huh…" TK said blankly.
Tai put the box down. "You mind if I grab a Coke or something?"
"Suit yourself."
"Thanks." Tai walked over to the fridge and opened it up. As he rooted through the selection he tried to keep the already one-sided conversation going. "So have you talked to Ken and Yolei lately? I just got my invitation the other day."
"Yeah, I got the invite. It was to the two of us."
Tai flinched. This wasn't going well at all. "Is this orange juice still good?"
"I think so."
"Good, because it'll be all you've got to drink once I finish off this beer you've got in here." Tai shut the door, now holding a bottle of beer in his hand. He grabbed the bottle opener off the counter, popped the top and took a drink. "Damn. This sucks."
"Hey!"
"Relax, you've already had enough." Tai eyed the empty bottles strewn about the living room.
"Just get out of here, okay?"
"Nope," Tai said matter-of-factly as he flopped down on the couch next to TK. "You see, I made a promise."
"A promise?"
"I promised Matt I'd give you a good kick in the butt. He'd do it himself but duty calls you know."
"Look Tai, I just want to be alone, okay?"
Tai smacked TK in the back of the head.
"Ow!" TK shouted. "What was that for?!"
"I just wanted to hit you, okay?"
"That's not funny."
Tai hit him again.
"Ow!"
"That was kind of funny."
"Stop it!"
Tai made another move but this time TK shielded himself with his hands and jumped off the couch away from Tai.
"Good," Tai said with a smile. "Getting off the couch is step one."
"Get outta here, Tai! I don't need this now!"
"Oh get the hell over yourself!" Tai ordered. "You know a few days ago I would've been thrilled to have you as my brother-in-law. But now that I see you sulking around in your hole here, I'm glad Kari said no."
TK turned beet red and clenched his fists.
"So things didn't go your way for once," Tai continued. "And when they didn't you lost it. You could've just accepted her answer and moved on. But you kept pushing and now look where you've ended up. Do you think I acted like this after Sora dumped me?"
TK let out a breath he'd been holding and shut his eyes. "…No."
"Actually, yes."
"Huh?"
"I moped around for a month after she dumped me. I was crushed!"
"So you understand."
"You're damn right I understand. I understand that it doesn't do you any good. After a whole month I finally saw that everything was exactly the same as the night when she'd dumped me! I hadn't done a thing and until I got off my butt and tried living life again, nothing was going to change."
"So you got better just like that?"
"No, it took me a little while. But at least I was getting better. Now do you want to just lie around here for a month doing nothing?"
"I guess not."
"What's that?"
"I said no, alright?!"
"That's better. You could use a little fire in your belly about now."
"But she broke my heart, Tai."
"I've known my sister longer than anybody, and believe me when I say she'd never do anything to hurt anyone, especially you. You know that too."
"I thought I did."
"Stop being such an idiot!" Tai ordered as he took another drink.
TK walked over to the window and looked out on the streets below. "Then tell me what to do because I'm all out of ideas."
"You know I love you like a brother, TK. But Kari's my real sister, and she has to come first."
"So you're not going to tell me how to get her back."
"If you can make her take you back then you're one step ahead of every other guy in history. The only way you two will get back together is if you both want to."
"So is there anything useful you can tell me?"
"Only something I thought you'd have come up with yourself. Get all your crying done tonight, because you can always hope that tomorrow will be better."
"Hope…"TK mused.
"To hope!" Tai raised his bottle and downed another shot.
"So where is Kari staying anyway?"
"One step at a time. Right now you need to spend some time getting back on your feet and getting used to being single again."
"But I don't want to be single again."
"And you might not have to if Kari wants to get back together, but that might not happen. I wish I could tell you it would, but while you can hope for the best you've got to be ready for the worst."
"Yeah, I guess you've got a point."
"I wasn't the president of the debate team for nothing."
"So what now?"
"Now I take down the last two boxes and go home to some real beer. What you do is your decision." Tai stood up, downing the remaining beer, and walked over to where the last two boxes sat.
"You mind if I give you a hand there?" asked TK. "I mean, I'd like to make up for being an idiot earlier."
"Sure thing."
TK helped Tai downstairs with the boxes and saw him off. He had plenty of thinking to do that night. It was the first time in a few days that he'd really sat and thought about what had happened. It was also the first time in that same stretch that he actually showered and had a good, long sleep. Tai had been right. There was always hope for tomorrow.