Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon.
A Story for Suzie
Chapter: 52
The hospital was a mass of chaos.
There was simply no other way to describe it. Bursting out of a stairwell – conveniently, the sign symbolizing the entry to it being the only thing Takato and Rika could understand in this strange world – they found a number of people wearing what they assumed to be uniforms of some kind; reflective, black helmets that appeared to be of glass at first glance and some soft-looking, padded armor over their torso. All of them were carrying a strange weapon that resembled a crossbow, but…different. Lacking in many of the obvious mechanics at the muzzle where the bolt would be loosed, and seemingly unadorned.
Takato recognized them as a longer version of the weapons the guards at Hypnos bore on their person.
What were they called? Oh yeah… Guns I think.
Takato wrinkled his nose, not sure if he liked them. They lacked the civilized grace of a good sword or lance.
"Place the weapon on the floor and put your hands in the air!" one of the guards bellowed, all guns swiveling in their direction. Rika swore under her breath before mouthing a warding spell, but Takato, deciding to take a gamble, did as the officers bid and raised his hands in the air, the ichor-stained sword in his hand clattering to the floor loudly.
"Takato…" Rika began, her tone harsh and guarded, but the knight simply shook his head.
"Might be a better idea to follow their orders," he advised, glancing off to the side. A crow warrior lay crumpled against a wall, a smear of blood running its length. The bird-warrior was most definitely dying – as evidenced by its soft croaking as it twitched – and unable to do anything more than simply lie there, eyes closed as red sparkles flowed out of large, gaping holes in its body.
There were others in a similar condition, and at least one of them in the process of dissolving into innumerable shards of light. However their weapons worked, it seemed these men were willing to use them with extreme prejudice.
Rika glanced at her Brush Knight with a hard, questioning look before lifting her own arms up into the air as well. She still had some magic left to her, but at this point, enough of it had been spent fighting off the crows just to get this far that she knew that she would need to conserve it for the future, given the current situation.
"We're with Hypnos," she said as the dark-clad warriors circled about them and moved them away from the stairwell. "There are others upstairs. They're in danger."
"We understand, ma'am," replied one of the warriors in a quick, almost impatient tone, signaling the others to start heading up through the stairs. "We'll be handling things from here."
"We need to get in touch with Hypnos…" Takato began, but the warrior was already ignoring him, concentrating on getting his men to finish securing the area and take their next position. They moved quickly, and before too long Takato and Rika were left alone with half-panicked hospital staff, some of whom were already making their way towards them.
"Are either of you hurt?" asked a young woman, eyes wide and frantic, yet, surprisingly, in control. Rika shook her head and glanced at her Brush Knight questioningly.
"I'm fine. What about you?" She had used her magic on him to attack his curse and heal the injury that it had given him. So far she appeared to have succeeded as he moved and went about his knightly duties with the same vigor she was accustomed to seeing from him, but the curse had been strong. How long could her magic hold it back?
"I'm fine so far," Takato nodded, rubbing at his side, his brow furrowing. "I think I'm fine anyway."
Grinning uncertainly, he looked up at Rika. "I mean, so far I'm not falling over dead or anything."
"Do not speak like that," Rika scowled before returning her attention to the nurse. "Yes, we're both fine. We…" She glanced around, seeing the number of nurses and patients – some hacked down where they had stood – and the mess of blood-stained papers and destroyed equipment. Thinking of Leo, who remained trapped upstairs, she closed her eyes and took a shuddering breath.
"We need to go. How much further down do we need to go before we reach the ground?"
"Ah…? Well, I think the elevators are still working…" The nurse tilted her head at them, apparently confused by their rather…casual reaction to events. Rika could hardly blame her. Even back home, considerably less safe than this world of light and warmth and fine clothes for everyone, this sort of attack caused considerable stir and upset.
I've really been out in the field for too long, haven't I? Rika thought with a strange sense of amusement.
"What's an elevator?" came Takato's intelligent reply to the nurse, earning him an even more confused look. Shaking her head, she took hold of the nurse by the hand, earning her a sharp blush from the young woman, and looked her in the eyes.
"Show us the elevator," she said. "And please, humor us with this. It's… It's…"
Rika frowned, seeing a curl of electricity crossing her wrist, causing her skin to fade and dissolve into static for a moment before solidifying. Dropping the nurse's hand, she gazed at it for a second before an all too familiar sense, heavy and foreboding, settled on her.
"Again," she said in a hushed voice. "Our memories are changing again."
###
The light from the candles flickered along the apartment walls, the shadows cast by the Wong family wavering. Henry pondered the dark figures surrounding them, and he was reminded of a museum surrounding human evolution; the classic image of a cave man tending to a fire.
Fire stimulated language, he thought. And people told stories around it. Shadow puppets along the cave wall.
He found himself shuddering a little. The telling of the story so far had been…strange to say the least. At first he worried that he wouldn't be able to remember it properly, but as he spoke, he felt himself become wrapped up in the tale, and words fell from his mouth almost completely unbidden. Though summarizing events, it seemed that he knew the tale of the knight and the princess far better than he thought he did.
I didn't get very far when telling Suzie the story, he mused, continuing. Could it be because of the program and its connection to my digivice? Or did the Crow god do something to me when he took over my mind? He had me writing the story after all, and it was well past the point that I left off at…
He glanced over at Suzie, his expression soft. She was still hugging Lopmon close to her, her food largely untouched despite Mayumi's encouragements.
I…hurt her, he thought bitterly, remembering how he had thrown her to the floor. And then, where the Crow had sent one of its minions to kill her and she had been helpless…
"It's not your fault!" he could almost hear Terriermon telling him. "Momentai already! It's all because of the Crow god!"
Still… he thought. I can't just ignore that it happened. That she got hurt because of all of that.
In his mind's eye, he could see Terriermon shaking his head at him, but in the end, he couldn't help the way he felt. He was her older brother! He was supposed to protect her!
"Henry?" came Janyu's voice from across the table, causing the boy to start in surprise, realizing that he had drifted off in a rather Takato-ish manner. Swiftly shaking his head, he sought back the thread of story, grabbing at it and retrieving it.
Suzie's eyes rose up hesitantly as Henry began to detail the events of the Crow god's invasion of the castle and frowned as he reached Motomiya's battle with Ryo. Shifting uncomfortably in her seat, she poked at her dinnerplate and shifted again before finally glaring at her older brother.
"No… Stop!"
Henry blinked as all eyes turned on the diminutive girl.
"Uh…huh?" the boy replied intelligently. Giggling, Terriermon swallowed another manju bun down his throat.
"She told you to stop, Henry. Not that I'm surprised. You really messed up the story after all."
"Terriermon…" Henry gave his partner a quick glower before seizing on the opportunity given to him. Turning to her, he looked at her gravely.
"Am I doing something wrong?" he asked. "I mean…what happened to Ryo is what happened to him before…" He paused, wincing as he remembered that had been the moment he snapped out of the Crow god's mind control. If he hadn't…
Suzie shifted in her spot again hiding everything below her eyes behind Lopmon's soft, brown fur.
"Ryo can't…" she began in a low whisper, only to stop, shuddering. Smiling in understanding, he nodded to her.
"Suzie… You had a part in this story too. Would you like to tell it too?"
"Might as well. I think Henry's getting a little tired from talking so much," Terriermon chipped in before glancing at his partner. "And before you say my name again, momentai!"
"Well, Suzie?" Janyu asked, taking a sip from his drink while the family looked at her, their expressions a mixture of expectation and uncertainty. Jaarin and Rinchei exchanged glances, both of them especially not sure what to expect from the younger girl. If the whole of two…three worlds depended on how a story was being told…
"It's okay, Suzie," Mayumi said, running a hand on the girl's shoulder, massaging it comfortingly. "You don't have to if you don't want to."
"No."
Mayumi blinked, turning to Lopmon, eyebrows rising in surprise, quickly followed by Suzie's own expression of surprise.
"L-Lopmon?" the little girl stammered out. Craning her head as best she could to look at her partner, Lopmon smiled at her partner, but when she spoke, her tone was firm.
"Suzie. You want to be a Tamer, correct?"
"I… Y-Yeah…"
Lopmon's smile grew. "We need your help, Suzie. Help us save the world."
Suzie scrunched her face up, a tear leaking free from one eye and trailing a path down her face. Yet, she didn't break down into her usual sob. Shaken as she was by the earlier encounter and near death of herself and her mother; of her own helplessness in the situation, Suzie desperately wanted to make up for it, rather than hide. Biting her lip, she swallowed her pain and fear before nodding.
"Ryo was not beaten up…"
"Uh…" Henry interrupted. "I'm sorry, he was. That part of the story became real when the Crow god made me write it."
Suzie pouted angrily and then kicked at the air.
"Fine. Then he turned back time."
"Wait, what…?"
###
Ryo gasped as the fires on his skin abruptly vanished. The smell of sizzling fat and baking muscle still filled his nostrils, but death no longer held any claim on him. In fact, he was better than merely being alive! He was…
Back to…normal?
"All these years, and you're still surprised by the powers of a god such as myself."
"Wha…? No!" Ryo struggled into a sitting position, his instincts quickly gauging the area around him. The mess hall was…frankly, a mess. Burnt corpses and tables; fires burning everywhere, climbing up beams and devouring wood hungrily. Ryo coughed, discovering that a hideous black smoke was rapidly filling the room, crowding out the air as it snuck into his lungs.
"Ah… One moment…" the Millenium god's voice chuckled as the crystal on Ryo's chest glowed, and just like that the fires retreated before snuffing out altogether, leaving Ryo alone in an empty, broken room.
"Much better."
"How…?" Ryo took hold of his pendent and lifted it. His eyes went wide with horror, finding long crack winding its way up the length of the crystal, blue light gleaming ominously from within, and with it, a small, thin stray line of mist leaked out.
"Oh gods…"
"Oh yes!" the crystal pulsed with the Millenium god's eager laugh. "My prison was damaged in the fighting. I can flex my muscles a bit more now."
As if to suit action to words, the crystal vibrated and throbbed, the light from within flaring before dimming once more. The Millenium god laughed again, drinking in Ryo's terror as the prince shook violently.
"Well… I think that's enough fun for now. You and I still have work to do. That Dreamer is going to die unless we intervene. I need to be a bit…closer to affect his condition. Do you understand?"
"I…what…?"
"Prince of Legends. Get. Moving. Now! That Chosen Dreamer needs us now or he will die! Worry about me later!"
Ryo felt his attention snap to focus at that and forced himself to his feet. No pains greeted him. The Millenium god had rewound time for his body as well as much of the room. Not for everything, as the presence of the dragon-spirit hadn't returned to the room, and those who had already died to the flames stayed dead, their charred corpses still smoldering.
Ryo frowned at that. Sensing it, the bodies glowed a soft blue and dissolved into ash.
"You didn't…"
"You were distracted and their time was up anyways. Don't make this complicated. Move."
"You're all heart," Ryo said with a shake of his head, starting off at a run.
###
"Takato!"
The knight dove into the flames with Rika's horror-filled shout filling his ears. Fire licked at him from around the edges of his clothes before setting them alight. This, he realized, was decidedly the worst decision he could have made, leaving him to wonder why he made it in the first place. He was going to die before he could even get to the dragon-spirit and cut him down!
Oh gods… Please… Let me survive just long enough to reach it…
The fires hit him like a wave, and Takato screamed…or at least tried to. Meat washed off his bones in a single second, stealing his voice, vision and life from him in one fell swoop…
And then it all came back to him. The fire was gone, the air was cool, and the guard, Motomiya, stood before him, trembling with eyes wide with surprise and confusion.
"What…? How…?" the two stammered out, almost in unison as Takato checked himself over, completely taken aback by his unexpected survival.
"You…You… idiot!"
Takato's questions were interrupted as Rika's fist came crashing into his back, sending pain screaming along his spine. He caught sight of a fury of red hair before he was crushed to the ground, the princess burying him in a wave of fiery hair and angry fists as she slammed them into his chest.
"Brush knight!" she shouted, still pummeling him, this time adding a few hits to his face for good measure. "Idiot! Moron! What were you thinking?! Were you trying to get yourself killed?!"
In the chaos of the fight, Takato caught sight of her face. She wore no mask this time. Every emotion was on full display, and it blazed as brightly as the fire from the dragon-spirit.
Well, she has every reason to be mad at me, he thought, catching hold of her wrists to keep from being struck again. Light burned the length of her arms however as she injected magic into her muscles, forcing her fists to draw slowly and steadily closer, tapping them against his cheekbones as she angrily glared at him, making her displeasure greatly known.
"You swore to me," she hissed, her fists opening and grabbing hold of his face. "I will not let you consign yourself to death without my permission. Do you understand?"
His heart broke at the sight of the anger and pain welling up within the depths of her violet eyes, but as the knight opened his mouth to affirm his understanding, the girl, without caring for who bore witness to her, tightened her grip around his face and pulled him toward her, pressing her lips to his and locking them together in a powerful kiss. Takato's eyes went wide at that, memory from their time in the bath springing to mind and his hands tightened around her wrists in return, not forcing her away or anything. His mind reeled, trying to center itself and find calm in the storm of emotion that broke free. He attempted to draw back, to collect himself, but the girl pressed hard against his lips, and Takato gasped in response.
It struck him, then and there, that regardless of their duties, of her responsibilities as princess to her kingdom, Rika was determined to shred them utterly in the face of losing her Brush Knight. And she would not be denied.
The sound of Ryo's clapping broke the two of them apart and Rika whirled about, violet eyes wide with shock and surprise, suddenly remembering where she was. Upon seeing Ryo, her eyes narrowed, but she didn't don any emotional mask this time. Instead, she sent it blazing at Ryo as she gripped all the more tightly around Takato's face.
"It's about time one of you took the initiative," Ryo grinned before Rika could even make a challenge to him. "I was starting to worry that picking that duel with your dear knight wasn't enough."
Both Rika and Takato's mouths fell open at that, blushes erupting on their faces. Motomiya, who remained completely and utterly lost, could only look between the three, utterly dumbstruck.
"You…You planned that?!" Rika stammered out. "For…For…"
At a loss for words, she glanced at Takato quickly before looking back at Ryo. The prince could only grin and clasp a hand on Motomiya's shoulder.
"We'll talk later," he said. "Right now, we have a situation to deal with…"
The castle wall shuddered violently at that, causing Takato and Rika to scramble to their feet, remembering the warzone that was going on outside. The wall shook again, and Takato pushed Rika behind him protectively, lifting his sword as he angled to get a look out the window. Memory from earlier – of Guilmon being swarmed by the crow warriors – flickered through his mind, and he winced, preparing himself for the sight of his dead horse. A shadow moved through the window, and Takato furrowed his brow.
A gold colored eye, large and reptilian, gazed back at him from the other side.
"Looks like your boy is really liking his newfound powers," Ryo grinned as, outside, Guilmon, now in the form of a dragon, reared up his head and let out a tremendous roar.
"No way…" Takato breathed in utter relief, the tip of his sword lowering. "No…way…"
Stepping up next to him, Rika slipped her fingers around his.
I'm not hungry anymore, she blinked in realization. Turning, she looked at Ryo, and the pulsing crystal that he bore on his chest. He was speaking to Motomiya, explaining to him what had happened. It seemed that he had been possessed by the dragon spirit.
She gave Takato's hand a tight squeeze.
"Come. Let's go support your horse," she said.
Ryo and Motomiya watched them go for a moment before the prince returned their attention to the matter at hand.
"Your spirit was corrupted," he said. "At least…" He fingered his jewel indicatively. "…that's what my companion tells me."
"There can be no question," the Millenium god spoke from within the cracked confines of his prison. "I have looked down his past road. I know it to be true, and I know who it was who corrupted him. He needs to be dealt with."
Davis blinked, his confusion still making a mess of his ability to respond appropriately. "I don't… The last thing I remember…"
"It doesn't matter anymore," Ryo said, gripping the youth on the arm. "Your spirit is awakened now, and thanks to my companion, it is no longer corrupted. Go and rally as many of the castle guards as you can and help the princess and the Hypnos Knight make their stand against the invaders. I'll deal with our traitor. Go!"
Pushing the youth down the hall, Ryo started off in the opposite direction at a rapid pace. In his mind, he heard the Millenium god chuckle dryly.
"So forceful…"
Not now. Ryo grated his teeth together. Gods, this is one hell of a mess we're all in now.
"And I'm not making it easier, am I?" Another light laugh, and the crystal shook. "I'm close to becoming free. You won't be able to fix my prison in time, and then…oh, what fun you and I shall have…"
Gods damn it… Why don't you just do it now?
"For reasons of my own, of course. For reasons of my own. Though, if you would like an explanation, even if it's a false one, perhaps I'd like to see those two lovers you've helped set up actually find themselves their happiness before it's all taken away. Before I remake the world. Could take a while. Ah, they have quite the path ahead of them, and they'll dance it again once I've had my way. They are…so amusing like that."
You have a strange way of showing how you've grown soft since your imprisoning…
Ryo shook his head. He didn't believe the Millenium god's explanation. Not that it mattered. He could only deal with this particular problem at the present.
I just hope that there won't be any complications like the one I'm currently dealing with, he thought, gripping the Millenium god's prison tightly with one hand as he raced down the hall to the chambers of the person he now knew had betrayed the Queen's trust.
7
