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: "Zombie" by The Cranberries
Author's Note: Yep, two year wait. I apologize. I've actually been revamping the entire series and that's what is taking so long. Between that, my original stories, and certain real life adventures, I haven't had a load of time to upload this. However, I figure the next draft is different enough that I might as well finish this one so you all aren't left on the hook for forever! I'll try to upload a couple chapters every few days so we can finish this up. As for the revamped version, I agree that this draft got a bit too big for its britches. I feel I linger too long on certain things, and not enough on others, and I wait too long to give answers. I hope to correct this in the revised version, which is... pretty badass, actually. It will contain a lot of the same ideas as this one, but it will be different enough to still enjoy. Much different. I found that while writing Saga II, I was having a lot more fun with the twists than I did in this one, and that the second saga was about a million notches better than the first saga. Soooo I want to correct that in this draft, so that both sagas are pretty damn awesome.
I'm going to finish posting this version of Saga I. Saga II will for the most part be left unchanged except for a few key differences (but the structure and certain twists will remain unchanged), so I will wait to finish posting the revamped Saga I before posting Saga II. HOWEVER, for fans of this version, the revamped Saga I will have immediate answers within the first few chapters that are left hanging in this version. So never fear! You won't have to wait for the revamped version to be finished before finally getting answers. I just think a lot of reveals in Saga I would pack a bigger punch if readers already knew what I reveal in Gennai's Gaiden, which was scheduled to be released in-between Saga I and Saga II. Instead the revamp will begin with Gennai's Gaiden (as a prologue) and build from there.
It will be rated R with a bigger focus on the Seven Great Demon Lords, the Royal Knights, Olympus Twelve, and of course, the characterization of our lovely main Destined characters. Couples will remain the same as this one, but it will hopefully be explored more thoroughly with a bigger emphasis on the Davis/Kari/TK and Matt/Sora/Tai love triangles (but don't worry, lots of battling as well. It won't be a complete lovefest).
(-'010102000'-)
The Lighthouse
Saga I Session XXVI
... Believe ...
The vortex shifted, darkened. The swirling, bruised blues and purples swelled, blending, and the Dark Area digimon ceased falling. For a second it seemed that everything had stopped; the vortex was clearing, the clouds (though gray) were building at the apex.
Then there was a rumble. A soft rumble at first, like the thunder of a far away storm. But then it grew closer, more guttural, louder. It made the people and the digimon shiver just at its sound, like a ravenous beast come to swallow them all whole.
The group of humans and Azulongmon's reinforcements Kari had led to the shore were staring up at the hungry vortex. Silence set in.
I can't, said a voice in Jun's memories. It was her own. I'm no good, I can't—
Then another voice answered in her memories, this one male, You can. I know it's hard, but you have to. Don't ever think it's impossible. You can do this. You're one of the few Destined on this planet so it's your responsibility to protect the townspeople.
Stuttering, she'd agreed to help protect her people. As she thought deeply, the face connected to the voice smiled at her. That's the Motomiya spirit.
Her resolve strengthened at that moment. It was a resolve that carried her through the bloodshed and mayhem of Odaiba's core and brought her to this shore, where she could protect the defenseless people. Her friends, her neighbors. Children who sniffled and cried, asking where their parents were. Elderly who hardly got out of town in time. Parents looking for lost children. Men and women worrying for their significant other's safety.
The DigiPort bellowed above them. Thunder lit up the sky.
"Junie..." Firamon, her partner, lightly tugged at her side.
Earlier, she'd seen Kari running like crazy through the city. Kari had instructed her to come here and do everything she could to help, but what could Jun do except stand and watch?
Her brother was in there. Her brother was in that burning city, facing horrors Jun could hardly comprehend.
It made her nerves shiver inside her arms. Davis...
TK had given her the resolve to protect herself and all the people she found. But he had not given her the resolve to abandon her brother.
How could she leave him to face it alone?
Sure, when she was just a normal girl in a normal world, no one could blame her for never helping her brother fight the forces of evil. When she was a normal teenage girl whose biggest worries were boys and gossip, she was not expected to save the world... but she wasn't weak anymore. She wasn't a little girl in a little world anymore. She wasn't just Jun Motomiya anymore.
She was a Destined now.
"Don't even think about it," Shuu said beside her, reaching out to clasp her wrist. "There's nothing we can do. We're not powerful enough; we'd just get in the way."
"For the first time in my life, ever since I became this person five years ago, I can feel it, Kido," she said, still looking up at the stirring cauldron in the sky. "I feel like a Destined."
A white glow illuminated her chest.
"I have to go," Jun continued, fisting her hands. "I can't let them face this alone." She finally turned to him. "Come with me, Shuu. I refuse to sit back and let my little brother do everything for me again. He's my little brother, it's my responsibility to protect him. Not the other way around. Can you stand letting Joe face this alone?"
Shuu's stern expression softened.
"Or what about you, Momoe?" Jun swiftly glanced in Momoe's direction. "How do you feel about Yolei and Chizuru facing all these evil digimon by themselves?"
Ever since that moment hours ago when Momoe felt a strange force pulling her in, she hadn't spoken much. She continued staring out at the center of the city, unshed tears in her eyes. Though she'd only said it once, Jun knew she was thinking about Devimon. What happened to the poor dark angel?
Jun hadn't been fond of the guy, but Momoe liked him for some morbid reason. Though TK seemed to despise Devimon on the surface, Jun had sensed something beyond his face, something deep inside him that had fallen away to affection. Devimon at least had TK. But who did TK have?
Matt, Jun thought, resting a hand over her chest. Ever since I realized you were in love with Sora, I swore I would never ask you for another thing. I swore I would never owe you a favor. But this time... just this once... I'm asking you.
Do what I can't. Protect your little brother.
"Chizuru and Mantarou aren't here." Momoe's voice was hoarse. "Maybe they're in the shelter with our parents... but I don't see either of them waiting in there very long without Yolei and me. Maybe they're there, too. Maybe they're fighting bad guys, and here I am, standing, doing nothing... letting Devimon die..."
Her partner, Cyclonemon, reached out to pat her shoulder, but she lowered her hands to her side and ducked her head in the opposite direction.
"Don't comfort me," she told him. "I'm not the one who's dead. But I am the one who will deliver death."
Her gaze snapped in Jun and Shuu's direction. "Okay," she said, "Let's go. Azulongmon's reinforcements are here and they'll protect these people. I think the only thing we can really do is aid our siblings. No— I'm not even going to do this for them. All three of them can take care of themselves just fine. Yolei's a little brash and hardheaded, but she's still the strongest. No, I'm doing this for myself. I'm doing this for Devimon.
"I'm doing this to avenge the dead ones who can't avenge themselves."
An orange glow, too, illuminated her chest.
"Come with us, Shuu," Jun said, now looking at him. They connected gazes. She offered her hand. Firamon clustered behind her, nudging at her elbow. She grinned. "We've gotten this far. You gonna divide us now?"
Shuu continued staring at the hand for a couple of seconds. He remembered back when his brother Joe was still a boy... but he was always so responsible, even back then. Sometimes Shuu wanted to tell him to just relax and sit back a little, be a kid, but he knew Joe would never listen to him. Because that was who Joe was. He never relied on anyone, but everyone could always rely on him. He never stopped, and even though he was a nervous breakdown waiting to happen, he got the job done.
No matter the odds, no matter how much he complained, Joe never stopped, never hesitated as long as there were things to be done.
In a way, Shuu had always admired his little brother. He had helped all those people during VenomMyotismon's rise, and Shin had encouraged him to take his own path and to not let anyone force him to do what he didn't want to do. When Joe related this story to him, Shuu always wondered if perhaps Shin had been speaking more to himself in that moment than to Joe.
Shuu had always depended on Joe to save the world. Maybe this time, just this once, Joe would be able to depend on Shuu to do the same.
Pulling his lips back into a grin, he looked into Jun's eyes and whisked his bottle of brandy between their faces. What little was left of the bronze-tinted alcohol swished at the bottom of the bottle.
"Well what the hell, ladies," he said, swigging the last of the alcohol and tossing the bottle over his shoulder. It shattered on the ground. "Let's do it."
Momoe applauded. "Wonderful! Bravo! Encore! ...Well an encore would be a little hard I guess, what with that being your last bottle and everything, but nonetheless... bravo! Bravo!"
Shuu gave a low bow, then snickered and unsheathed another bottle of brandy out of nowhere.
Jun snickered. "A little showy," she said.
Still bowing, he grinned up at her. "You should talk."
Her hand remained offered. "You coming or not? 'Cause if you are, I wouldn't mind stopping at my place to get my Hotties Shirt. It's been awhile since I let anyone sign it."
"It would be my honor," Shuu replied, taking her offered hand.
Jun's grip tightened around him and pulled him into her. Standing on her tippy toes, she kissed him, her free hand entangling within his hair. He almost laughed as she did it; he hadn't been expecting that.
When she pulled away, her cheeks redder than any blush Shuu had ever seen before, she nodded. "Let's get going, slowpoke!"
"Junie-Junebug, what were you doing?!" said Firamon, nudging her again. "What was that?"
Jun and Shuu looked at each other, then burst into laughter.
"Uuuuggghhhhh..." Momoe gagged as she climbed atop Cyclonemon. "You two should really get a room!"
"Maybe later," Jun winked at Shuu.
"AHHHH I dun wanna heeeeeear!" Momoe then paused. "But you will fill me in on details, right, bestie? Huh, huh, huh?"
Before Jun could answer, dark tendrils unfolded from the core of the vortex. With a groundshaking grumble, four of the tendrils latched to the ground beneath and tore into the roads. Entire craters exploded when they unraveled, carving canyons at least three miles long each. Momoe tripped in her ascent to Cyclonemon's shoulder. Cyclonemon caught her in his bigger hand, his brow furrowed as he turned to look up.
Even though the digimon had quit descending, there were four more shapes forming on the horizon. Even squinting, none of the six could distinguish their shapes— they were too far away.
"What is it?" Jun said, glancing at Shuu's partner, a blue Wingdramon.
Every single strand of fur on Firamon's body stood on end. His claws sunk into the sand. His lips curled into a ravenous, rabid snarl. Jun jumped to the side, afraid he was about to bite her.
"Firamon, what's—"
"Her," he growled.
Jun's normally cute and gentle partner had immediately transformed into a beast most terrifying. He grabbed Jun by the arm and pulled her onto his back without a moment's hesitation, then lurched in the direction of the four solid tendrils.
Shuu reached out to stop them. "Hey, wait— ah, dammit!"
He jumped on Wingdramon's back and took off, Cyclonemon and Momoe not far behind.
(-'102010120'-)
"I'll be taking my body back now," said Kari in the meadow of flowers. She looked off into the ocean, up at the cloudless sky, the cliff with its jungle and its shining, sparkling lighthouse. She breathed in the sweet scent of fresh honeysuckle and catnip. Catnip... Gatomon...
She stared off into the distant waters. "You see, don't you? My ocean is blue, not gray."
"Insolent girl," said the other voice inside of her, the virus. The dark side. Though she couldn't see who the voice belonged to, she knew it was the Queen in Yellow. "But don't feel too cozy in your paradise... It isn't over... For you, it'll never be over."
"Doesn't have to be over," Kari said, smiling. "I've found the strength to stop you. No matter how often you rise, just like Ken suppresses the urges of the Dark Spore, I will suppress you. That's what she was trying to tell me, right?" Kari looked beside her in the meadow. She could see the girl from earlier, the girl who cried for her as she fell into a berserk madness.
The girl – with her hair the color of gold and her almond-shaped eyes that looked like the eyes of a hawk – smiled back at Kari. She nodded. "Right."
"I'm taking back what is mine," Kari continued, holding her hands out to the lighthouse above her head. "My body, my mind, my soul."
The Lighthouse's light shined against her face.
Then Kari opened her eyes to the world she had almost left behind.
(-'1020102'-)
Yolei squinted.
I can't see anything in this smog... The purple gas extinguished any shapes in the near distance. Several times Valdurmon swerved to the side just in time to avoid the charred skeletons of broken beams and towering debris. The smoke burned Yolei's skin, but she ignored the pain. She didn't plan on being in the smoke much longer.
A bristling heat smeared her sweat.
It felt familiar.
That vision... But before Yolei could fully recall her vivid coma dream, the silhouette of a woman caught both Yolei and Valdurmon's attention. The woman was dashing on foot through the smog, the effects of the smoke itself bearing no weight on the woman's movements.
She was fast, Yolei decided. Could she be Kari, under the influence of the Enigma Evolution? And if she was, would she also still be under the influence of the virus?
Yolei felt Valdurmon's wings shift direction. He was heading in the woman's direction.
As they approached, Yolei quickly realized it couldn't be Kari. The shapes were too different, even in Kari's quadruped form. There were thick chords trailing from the woman's lower-back – tails? – and her arms were longer and thicker than any human's. The anatomy was too off for a human of any sort. Not to mention the woman's hips and bosom were far fuller than Kari's.
Yolei was about to tell Valdurmon to use caution when nearing the figure, but as she opened her mouth, the woman stopped mid-step and shivered. There was a pause. Then Yolei saw a flick of the woman's wrist and a torrent of green energy surged in her and Valdurmon's direction.
Valdurmon swerved to the right just in time to avoid the attack. He then opened his beak to hurl his own attack when Yolei stopped him. "No, if it's Gatomon, you could hurt her!"
Valdurmon hesitated, then ignored Yolei's order and threw a beam of light directly at the figure's chest. It struck its target. The woman skidded back, smoking; the golden light cleared away most of the smog enough for them to see her face.
She resembled an anthropomorphic feline, but Yolei didn't recognize the digimon. Pulling out her D3, Yolei read aloud to Valdurmon, "Bastemon. She's a beast man type and an ultimate level digimon. Virus. Great, just great. Her claws are sharp enough to slice through rock and she has the ability to bewitch any opponent, male or female. It says here that she is the antithesis of..." Nefertimon.
"It's Gatomon," Yolei said, her brow furrowing. "It's Gatomon's forced evolution. I'm sure if Kari tried to evolve Gatomon into Angewomon, she would have become LadyDevimon instead— but because Kari tried to force armor evolve her into Nefertimon, she instead became this: Bastemon, the cat goddess."
Valdurmon hummed beneath Yolei, then hurled another attack in Bastemon's direction. Yolei fumbled and fell on her face, then grappled with Valdurmon's feathers to steady herself. "What are you doing!" she barked, "I just told you she's Kari's partner! You can't hurt her! We came here to save her!"
"You can't save someone who's not in danger," said a voice behind Yolei. Yolei's eyes went frantically from Valdurmon to the area where Bastemon had just vanished seconds prior, to Valdurmon's back where Bastemon had reappeared.
"Shit!" Yolei nearly rolled off Valdurmon's back to evade Bastemon's claws. They launched through Valdurmon's feathers and connected in-between his shoulder blades, where a spray of blood scattered in the wind. Yolei grimaced as she felt a rip tear through her own shoulders as well.
This whole connection thing is getting a little irritating, she thought, glancing to Valdurmon who cawed irritably and shifted his shoulders.
Yolei looked back at Bastemon. "The older generation once told me they were able to cure Leomon of his virus by shining their digivices on him. By shining our digivices on Kari, we were able to vaccinate her as well. Theoretically, I can do the same to you, right?"
She unbuckled the digivice and flicked it in Bastemon's direction. Just as she readied herself to expel what little energy she had left, the back of Bastemon's hand swatted the digivice out of Yolei's hand, then lunged forward and grabbed Yolei by the throat. Yolei snarled and reached up to grab Bastemon's wrist.
"You shouldn't have come here," Bastemon said, her golden-colored eyes leering in the purple smoke.
"You're my friend, practically family," Yolei replied through a snarling grin. "You expect me to abandon you? Doesn't really suit the girl who embodies love."
"You do not embody love," Bastemon replied. In the dim light, Yolei could see her eyes twinkling. "I do."
She then threw Yolei off the side of Valdurmon and plunged her hand through Valdurmon's back.
(-'10201012'-)
Kari was kneeling in the broken-up concrete of the road, surrounded by pools of her own blood. Her wounds had healed and her skin was far more flawless than it had been for years, but it still remained that she was surrounded by her own blood.
Kari tried to recall why she was surrounded by her own blood. She remembered Gatomon. Then she remembered BlackGatomon.
Then the cold gripped Kari's chest. I got possessed... again, she thought, But... this entity was evil. This entity was me, another me... It was like... a past life. Who I was before I became this. But why can't I access her memories, if she was me? Why was she so upset? What made her so evil?
Her face is fading in my memory... Seconds later, Kari no longer remembered the woman's name, or the words she'd whispered to Kari in the ocean depths. She remembered the Queen in Yellow and the fear her face distilled in Kari's heart, but she did not remember why. She could not remember how the woman knew Bastemon, or why she'd chosen Gatomon to infect.
All she knew was that the woman had done it by Kari's hand.
Gatomon... Kari collapsed, fingers digging into the ground. Her energy fled her. I hurt you... You tried to protect me... I've done so much to gain the strength to protect you, yet I...
This can't be happening.
She had to move.
She had to catch Bastemon before Bastemon escaped. If she didn't move, Bastemon would be lost to her forever. She would never get her best friend back, she would lose the one person she could rely on more than anyone else.
"I won't stop," she muttered between gritting teeth, sinking her fingers into the soil and dragging herself forward. "This wouldn't stop Gatomon... she'd save me..."
Pulling herself through the burning smoke, she reached out to caress the dark shapes in the distance.
The fog was clearing, but she still couldn't make them out. They had to be Bastemon and someone else, but who? Where was everyone?
Can't stay here... have to keep moving...
Her knees scraped against the pavement. Her flesh peeled, her raw elbows bleeding. Gritting her teeth, Kari snarled.
"I'M COMING, GATOMON!"
"FFUUUUUUU—" came another voice from above Kari. She craned her neck just in time to see a purple-haired girl whipping through the air. From several stories above, Yolei whirled through the wind with a wrinkled, angry expression. Then, flipping so she was kneeling midair, she fanned her hands outward to form wings. Wind tugged at her hair and loose bits of clothing, then flapped around her shoulder blades.
With a thud, Yolei landed on the ground, her knuckles cracking the concrete. Her wind had allowed her to soften the impact, enough so that she hadn't suffered internal damage, but she was still wobbly as she tried to stand and glare up above them at her partner.
"She shouldn't have done that," Yolei said. A grin passed her lips. "Now Valdurmon can fight without worrying about my safety."
"It's my fault..." Kari said through gritting teeth, peering up at the raging battle above her. There was a flash of brilliant, dazzling light; green and golden beams of energy crackled in the air. Bastemon slashed at Valdurmon's head, but Valdurmon ducked and shifted sharply enough to knock her off his back. Her claws sank into the ruins of a nearby building and used her momentum to fling herself back up in the air, where she plunged her claws through one of his wings. His balance knocked off-course, Valdurmon swiped his talons at her. They scraped her shoulder, but she shoved her palm into his leg and knocked him flipping through the air.
Kari's eyes swerved to everything surrounding her: ruined buildings, scattered wreckage, injured people, digimon dissolving into data... moaning, sobbing.
Kari squeezed her eyes shut. "I did this..."
"Kari, is that you...?" Yolei mumbled, turning her attention from the battle. "Oh, it is! I didn't know you were there...! Sorry you had to listen to my ramble... oh... you're injured... but you're back... YOU'RE BACK!"
Yolei nearly crushed Kari as she flopped on top of her in a sloppy embrace. Kari groaned as the back-breaking hug popped her spine. Sighing, Kari smiled tiredly at her friend. "Is this really the time?"
"YES!" Yolei said, pulling away just slightly so they could see each other's faces. "It's the perfect time! We're going to get Gatomon back, Kari. Let's point our D3s at her!"
Valdurmon's body trembled as he gathered the energy for a massive light attack. Bastemon's arms glowed with a malignant green data stream that evolved until it enveloped her entire body as well. As the air screamed around Valdurmon and he released everything inside, Bastemon's arms deflected the attack just as it reached her. It instead struck ground in-between Kari and Yolei, separating them.
Kari flung into the ground several feet back. Yolei's back cracked against a metal pole.
As Yolei fell to her knees, panting, she heard the crunch of Bastemon's foot against the gravel in front of her. Staring up at the feline through blood-stained clumps of purple hair, Yolei grit her teeth. "Smooth move, but it won't stop me from saving you."
"Geneva already saved me," Bastemon replied, one-handedly cracking her knuckles. "You cannot understand now, but someday you will."
"FUCK UNDERSTANDING THIS SHIT." Yolei whipped her D3 in Bastemon's direction. Bastemon bolted forward and grabbed the human by her wrist, swinging her back into the pole and redirecting the digital light. "Ugh!"
Yolei half-winced.
Bastemon's careless expression lifted from Yolei's face to the sky above them. "Give up trying to get the Gatomon you knew back. She'll never be the same, because... now her eyes are open."
"That doesn't mean I can't try to get her back, and make your life a living hell in the process," Yolei replied, nerve endings twitching as she tried to realign her body into facing Bastemon. Bastemon twisted her arm until Yolei sunk to her knees, wincing. "You can hurt me all you want... but my friend's inside there, deep down... and I love her... I love you... and as long as that's true, you will never have the power to kill me."
Bastemon hadn't glanced away from the sky, even to address Yolei. "Take care of her," she said. And though she hadn't looked in Kari's direction, Yolei knew who she was referring to.
Just then, Bastemon jumped away hardly in time to dodge another light attack from Valdurmon. It bludgeoned the ground where she stood seconds before, creating a crater.
"Gatomon!" Kari gave a weak cry.
Like a speeding bullet, Bastemon grabbed Kari by her jaw and picked her off the ground. Their eyes inches apart, Bastemon said, "Don't come looking for me. Don't trust anyone. Not the Destined. Not me. No one. Or you'll end up just like Geneva... dead."
Then her lips pressed against Kari's, smearing blood and dust and ash across her face.
"I'll always love you. That's why I have to do this." Bastemon's voice was hoarse as her soft breath brushed Kari's lips. "Goodbye."
Whump, Bastemon shoved Kari away and bolted into the smoke.
"Gatomon!" Kari cried, her tears cutting trails through the blood and dirt smudging her cheeks. "GATOMON!"
Black smoke hurled from the attacked soil, billowing in the wind. Yolei looked up in time to see Bastemon's silhouette staring at her from the distance, then the woman disappeared out of sight, out of mind. Valdurmon looked frantically in every direction, but even he could not find the feline.
Kari was pale and limp on the ground. "She's gone," she said, her voice trembling. She buried her face in her hands. "Gatomon's gone..."
A memory of Bastemon's face tipped to the clouds brought Yolei's own gaze skyward.
"And that's why she left in such a hurry." Yolei stepped next to the younger girl to rest a hand on her shoulder. When Kari looked up at her, Yolei pointed to the vortex where Bastemon's stare traced the clouds.
Above their heads, the ominous vortex stirred. Its cauldron revealed four pairs of venomous eyes, then hurling black tendrils that unfolded into stairs.
The Endless Ones were descending.