A collection of pedestals filled the hall, mirrored in the floor. Almost nothing but them for what looked like one-hundred square meters worth of room. Different sorts of object laid upon them - a yellow book that was marked with the Digital World's symbols for shadow and light on the third row up, a pair of fingerless gloves bearing the Crest of Light on the second row down, a sword on the fifth row down and a bow on the fourth. Support columns in many different colors were scattered around as well.
Hikari stood deep in that expanse, motionless and silent with thought. A very different set of surroundings were visible to her mind's eye - namely, the outside of an apartment building in Odaiba. The image was unsteady, constantly in motion. Gatomon was running across it, a resolute look on her face.
Gatomon came to a dead stop, seeing a familiar sight. A short moment passed before she vanished from the empty area. The hall met her eyes, bringing shock to her face. Biting down her disorientation, Gatomon surveyed the area. On her left, she saw a familiar brunette in unfamiliar clothes a bit away.
Smiling, Hikari turned to face Gatomon. Joy erupted on Gatomon's face, and she broke into a sprint. She held her arms out, catching the cat. Gatomon held her tightly, soon breaking away.
"Kari, I'm so glad to see you're..." Gatomon trailed off when blue eyes met radiant brown-red, relief draining away with every word.
"I am glad to see you too," Hikari replied. Gatomon shrunk from her embrace and stepped away from her. Hikari scrutinized her, mildly taken aback.
"Don't take this personally, Kari, but you're freaking me out," Gatomon said. "What's happened to you? And what's with the outfit?"
Hikari leaned down, to her eye-level. "I have been reborn, just like you every time you take your Angewomon form." Shock flared up on Gatomon's face when she cottoned on. She breathed a 'no', almost so slight it was inaudible. "You are correct, but do not trouble yourself about failing to save me. I happen to like what I am now."
Gatomon gasped. "Y-you can't mean that!" That clinched it - the Dark Ocean had brainwashed her.
"To answer your other question, if you wish to see me in more familiar clothes, very well." This body was a matter of preference, but she would gladly adjust it for Gatomon.
Around her left wrist, Gatomon saw some kind of dark ring form. Almost immediately, it began to trail up her arm, yellow robe sleeve replaced by a long pink fingerless glove. In crossing over her torso, a soft-pink shirt emblazoned with three burgundy diamonds was formed. Trailing further down her right arm and lower body, a pair of yellow shorts familiar to the cat appeared, as well as a matching glove.
Gatomon watched with an arched eyebrow, concluding she was trying to change the subject with that display.
"And there is something else I feel that you should know, Gatomon," Hikari said. "The full story about this little drama, from me before anyone else. Simply said, I have been called to the Dark Ocean more times than the few we know," Hikari trailed off at that point.
"Thousands of times, and not just from the universe that you and I know," she said after a moment, a mood that Gatomon couldn't identify in her voice. "Dagomon reaches out to me on occasion. We fight for a time. Eventually, it all comes undone so that a new round can begin."
The image of Millenniummon, then Cocomon, then the old man with the Clockmon surfaced in Gatomon's mind. She still didn't want to believe it.
"I also know everything about what happened the day I came here three years ago. What the Scubamon became are creatures called Deep Ones," she stressed the name. Gatomon's expression didn't change. "The ones we met were imprisoned in the tunnel for their attempt to molest me, and the Airdramon was their jailer. The light was sent by another version of me."
Something about the way Kari said that felt weird to Gatomon. It reminded her of somebody reading a pre-made speech. "I guess that makes sense, given the topic." Annoyance broke out on her face when a thought occurred. Hikari gave her a knowing smile.
"So that means, those Deep Ones trying to take you away as their bride has happened before too?" Gatomon demanded, with as much calm as she could manage. "And that all he does about it is put them back where you find them?"
"And the three of you come to my rescue every time," Hikari affirmed. Gatomon's frown lingered. "Now, I believe there is another matter we should attend to."
Gatomon stared puzzled and not a little unnerved by her statement. Hikari reached left, arm stretching over to a pedestal four away and three down from them, and collecting the artifact on it. Gatomon stepped back, anxiously watching the arm.
Pulling back, Gatomon saw an unfamiliar object in her partner's hand - a blue jewel, half-way covered in white veiny flesh that led down into a flat round base. She inferred its identity when she saw the violet eight-points symbol.
Inspecting the Digiegg, Hikari thought about telling her more - perhaps brag that she had created the Digiegg of Darkness and every other item here with her Crest, her DigiSoul energies, the power that made her worthy of the Dark Ocean's throne. Perhaps stress her powerlessness.
"As I said, Gatomon, I know the motions to this little drama," Hikari said, softly. "I know that the others are going to come with aspirations to save me, and how best to deal with you all."
Gatomon lost all doubts as to what she meant. She looked plaintively at Hikari, almost unable to wrap her mind around the idea that Kari was doing this.
"I promise you," Gatomon said, as firmly as she could. "We'll find a way to save you, Kari."
Hikari smiled at that. Last time, Dagomon had restrained her for this. She welcomed the change of pace. Faintly, Gatomon heard Hikari say, "Gatomon, Digiarmor Energize."
Rays of obsidian light flared from the crystal. Gatomon felt an inrush of power, at once hotter and colder than anything she had ever experienced, the item hurtling itself towards her. In the moment it merged with her understanding of its power dawned, and she felt only the urge to use it.
The shadow-light erupting from her, her form began to shift, emerging as a knight in dark armor. Long blonde hair fell from her head, and blood-red eyes covered her armaments. Hikari watched, appreciative.
With the next change, there was now a shadow with nobody to cast it, dozens of red luminant eyes watching her. With another such shift, she had gained red skin, wings with raven feathers, a brawny crocodile's tail - the form of D'arcdemon.
A blonde gun-woman with impressive stature and pale-blue skin, dressed in black leather, with two pairs of raven wings and a spiked tail longer than she was tall. a winged skeleton brandishing a jewel-tipped staff.
A green eight-eyed worm, bigger than it had any business being. A masked man in a pinstripe mobster-suit and trench coat, with a machine gun. Then a three-headed dog and a three-headed cat.
"You are amazing," Hikari murmured with heartfelt awe. Myotismon flexed her fingers, speechless and quite pleased with the sheer amount of power that she could feel within her. Nothing was beyond her now, she thought with glee.
Looking Hikari's way, the vampire relished in the mental image of her blood spilling free. Hikari mentally debated telling her partner about the other effect of the Darkness Digiegg.
"There is another thing I feel that you should know," Hikari said. Myotismon told her with a look that her patience was running thin. "The Darkness Digiegg is designed to be a tainting influence on the user, so you have a choice to make."
Myotismon's smirk abated. The dilemma was straight-forward, she mused. Leave Kari, or become what she had fought for so long. "Then again, would that really be so bad?" The smile that thought brought on dimmed at the memory of Wizardmon. Hikari looked uncertainly at her, expectantly, scrutinizing the shifting look on Myotismon's face.
Myotismon's smirk returned. "Not a problem."
Hikari smiled. "Thank you."
Dagomon appeared in the living room. There was a tall-backed couch draped in blue, a bit to his right, where a woman and man sat together, relaxing into one another while they watched the movie. A pair of Veemon sat on the other end of the sofa, with the popcorn bowl they had hogged.
Rina silently resolved to ignore him. Noting her silence, Davis decided to follow her lead. At once, their smiles died down. Veemon sighed loudly. Veevee decided that whatever he wanted was probably important, and got up.
"What is it this time?" Veevee asked wearily. Veemon focused on the movie, tossing more popcorn aboard.
Davis sighed mentally. "If it isn't Mastemon and Mirei coming with things to straighten out..."
"A rather mundane matter," Dagomon told them. Davis rolled his eyes, and Veemon mirrored that expression. "The Digidestined of your neighbor biverse is organizing a rescue mission for their Kari." Dagomon didn't know for sure, he mentally amended at Veevee's stare, but he expected that. Certainly, from his brother-in-law. "Your strength and knowledge of Hell would be of great use for them."
Davis remembered almost fifteen years back, how much of a mess that had been. He could agree.
"You know today is our first day off from everything in two months, right?" Rina returned, annoyed. "Not that this doesn't sound fun and all..."
"My apologies," Dagomon said. He doubted that it would help if he tried to rationalize it, but perhaps... "If it would help you decide, I expect that it would only take you less than an hour to resolve this matter, at most two or three if everything should go wrong."
Veemon rolled his eyes again.
"Okay, fine," Davis said with a sigh, getting up. He walked over to Veevee, and faced him. "I'll help out. Once more in the breach."
Unease filled Dagomon's eyes, even as he smirked back. Memories of past battles surfaced. He scoffed mentally, amused by a thought that occurred.
"That is not dead which can eternal lie, and with strange aeons, even death may die," Dagomon recited to himself. "My progenitor was more right than he could know, but I doubt he meant her with that bit." He felt inclined to wax poetic about her and decided to indulge himself.
Hikari. Kari Kamiya. The Dark Ocean Queen. The Lady of Light. A complex individual in the way that all humans were, yet the most wondrous and terrible one he had ever found on any plane. Her beautiful red eyes alone so often haunted his dreams. Dagomon speculated Davis would understand that particular feeling.
Such was the power that was Kari Kamiya that spacetime could bend if she willed it to, be ripped into bloody chunks under her full force. She burned so brightly that the veils and membranes that divided universes could not shield his senses from her, that her reality could not ever contain her glory.
Such irony, Dagomon mused with mild amusement. Some of the writings covered the topic of the human mind collapsing in the face of the otherworldly, yet here he was, currently contemplating how he had been driven to madness by her.
A memory came to Dagomon - one of a time when he had conquered planets and universes for its own sake, enslaved people. Another memory returned to him, one of him thrashing about in a cave deep in the sea, screaming for mercy in his madness, begging her to just die and leave him in peace. He silenced the memory, embarrassed by that fit of madness.
Veevee wondered why Dagomon had spaced out, then decided it wasn't important.
"Any objections to calling Kari and Gatomon?" voiced Veemon, breaking Dagomon's reverie.
"Yes," Dagomon voiced. He wouldn't deny it was tactically sound. "Need I tell any of you my rationale?"
"No," Rina answered, "but I agree it's a good call."
Dagomon sighed. "If that is your decision, I will not belabor the point."
Elsewhere in Tokyo, in an apartment's bedroom, tranquility reigned. Wife and husband laid beneath the sheets, sharing a smile, resting off his peak. The phone on the bed-stand rang. Sighing in irritation, she grabbed it, the screen naming her caller.
"Your timing really isn't great," she told him. "What is this about?" Davis filled her in. "Right, same old. I'll ask Gatomon. we'd be there in twenty minutes."
Concern filled his eyes as she hung up. She looked apologetically back at him.
"Another mission?" he wished to Heaven that she wouldn't go, not now.
"You accepted it when you married me," she returned, semi-playfully. He wouldn't deny that.
"You know what I mean, K."
"Yeah, just like you know I'm coming home without a scratch," she told him firmly and got out of bed.
"Still gonna worry," he replied, smiling wistfully.