Chapter 7: Just Like in the Movies
Davis:
Davis was more than a bit anxious as he walked home from Matt's house. He still couldn't believe what had just happened... and what he had just done.
"Matt is going to hate us." A part of him said. "Worse, Kari is going to hate us if she finds out."
"She was always going to hate us if she found out" another part replied. "Who says she will anyway?"
"She found out Gatomon and Veemon switched the night it happened. Why would this be any different? Wait! I know exactly how it's different; this time we can't deny our involvement!"
Davis found that hard to argue with. His relationship with Kari was going down in flames. It was unavoidable now.
"If Kari hates me what about Tai? Am I able to visit him anymore? Does he even like me at that point?"
That thought sent shivers down his spine. It was his worst nightmare come to life! Was there any way to stop it?
"Do nothing; stay exactly where you are." the second part of him said "Stay exactly who you are."
He couldn't deny it was the easiest thing he could do. The more he thought about it, the more it seemed like the only thing he could do.
"Could I really do it?" He asked himself. "Could I really be Kari... forever?"
The days he'd spent as Tai's sister had been the best he could remember; it was his dream come true. He wanted to closer to his idol for as long as he'd know him... and now he was closer than he could have ever imagined. He wasn't just his friend anymore; he was his flesh and blood. He lived in his house. He could hang out with him whenever he wanted, and he would be there for him no matter what.
"What about Kari, the real Kari? Can you really take all that from her?"
Davis did not have an answer for that when he arrived... home... at the Kamiyas' apartment at least. When he opened the door, he found Mrs. Kamiya sitting on the couch with Veemon laying on her lap. They were watching TV and she was petting the new cat as they did.
"Veemon would die for my mother to treat him like that." Davis remembered thinking that, the night he first saw Mrs Kamiya... his new mother… doing that to the true Gatomon. Now it was happening. Veemon looked at him; the look of happiness in his eyes was one of the purest he'd ever seen.
"Welcome home sweetie." The human mother said.
The digimon on her lap added "Welcome home, partner."
Davis decided then that whatever he did, he had to do it with Veemon.
"If I lost him and Tai at the same time... I don't know what I would do. I don't know what I could do. Would life even still be worth living?"
"Can I talk to you, Gatomon... alone a for a bit?" He asked.
"Of course," the former dragon said. "That okay with you, mom?"
"Mom?" Davis noted.
"Of course." She said no longer petting.
Veemon seemed a bit disappointed by the end of that, but he climbed down anyway and walked toward his partner. They went up to Kari's room.
"What is it Davis?" Veemon asked once the door was closed.
"Veemon, partner," he began "when we got the rings, I asked you who you would want to be forever if you could be anyone. You told me Patamon. Is that still true?"
"No, it isn't."
That was the last answer Davis wanted to hear.
"He wants to go back." He thought. "I'm going to have to go back to my body with him and lose Tai."
It was relieving in a way... and somehow extremely disappointing, like a realizing a dream would never come true.
The former dragon then said "I want to be Gatomon"
With those words all of the disappointment in him melted away.
"Really?" he asked, "How come?"
"I don't think I've ever felt as happy as I've been in these days as her. I know that I've never felt... I've never been as free. I don't think I've ever been as powerful either. It's like I'm Veemon all the time, never a DemiVeemon, never that helpless creature." He stopped for a moment then continued. "I can do things for myself now; I don't need you to bring me food or to help me use the toilet. I can go outside. I can even talk to a few people besides you. It's like nothing I ever dreamed of. I..." He stuttered again before continuing. "I've been dreading the day I'd have to go back. I wished it would never come, that I could stay this way forever." He sighed.
"I know what you're getting at." the former dragon said, continuing once again "You want us to go back now don't you? I've known it was coming. I've accepted it. Let's go ahead."
"Veemon, I don't know if I want to go back either." Davis said.
"Really?" the digimon asked. "Would you really do that, for me?"
"It's not entirely for you. It's not even entirely for me and you; now I have Jun to consider too."
Davis told his partner everything that had happened that day: Jun's arrival, going to Ken's, even finding out Ken was the Digimon Emperor and that he was a double agent for him now. He had wanted to skip that part, to not mention he had anything to do with him, but with so much on the line, so much changing, his partner had the right to know. He told him that, and he told him of all the conflicting thoughts he had on the way home.
"It sounds to me like you want this too." Veemon said. "Why are you hesitating?"
"Because if we stay like this it means Kari and Gatomon stay in our bodies. I don't know that I can leave Kari like that. What about you? You've told me how you love Gatomon. Can you really do this to her?"
"I do love her." The former dragon said. "But I also envy her. I envy her more than I ever envied anyone, more than even Patamon. All this time she's been living a life I could never have imagined. Why does she get to live like that, while I hide under the bed? Why shouldn't I get a chance to see the world beyond your room?"
The digimon sighed again. "You told Kari multiple times that she needed to learn something about you to switch back. You told Gatomon and I the same thing. I can't speak for you or Kari, but I know Gatomon needs to learn about me, about my life. Maybe after she's been confined as long as I have, maybe then I'll feel obliged to switch back."
"That same night," Davis began "when I asked you who you'd want to be forever, I also asked if you'd actually want to do that. The answer you gave me was that you would only do it if I went with you. Has that answer changed to? If I went back to being Davis, would you come back with me, or would you stay here and be Gatomon?"
"That answer hasn't changed." Veemon said. "I don't think it can ever change. You freed me years of solitude. You taught me almost everything I know. All this time you've fed me, cared for me, even helped me every time I used the bathroom. I couldn't leave you. I will go with you anywhere you go, no matter what monster I have to become."
"Monster" Davis knew what his partner meant by that. To humans it meant an evil inhuman beast, but to digimon it was just part of their name, digital monsters. Davis could not escape the feeling that if he stayed here, if he would be a monster in the sense we always knew, an evil creature not fit to be near the likes of Tai… and yet, the longer Davis started at him, at his digital monster, the longer he looked into his cat like eyes begging him not go, the more evil going felt.
"Don't worry about it partner." He said. "We'll stay like this."
He did not know how he could have described the feeling he had after speaking those words. Part of him still screamed how twisted a thing he had just done, and yet, somehow, he was at peace. All the fear and anxiety that had gripped him since Jun demanded his help had melted away.
Veemon's face lit up. It was like nothing the former boy had ever seen. Those same catlike eyes that begged him to stay, the joy they now conveyed was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen in his life. The new cat hugged him.
"Thank you, partner." He sang.
Perhaps the part of him still protested. Davis decided then that he would never listen to it again. Every other part of him was singing with joy
Jun:
Jun continued to stare at the mirror as the steam faded.
"He's perfect." She thought. "He's even better than I imagined! It's like I stepped inside a Greek statue."
She had felt like a maiden on her wedding night. As far as she was concerned, that was exactly what she was.
"Our marriage has begun at last, my beloved Matt." She said aloud. "'Til death do us part."
Kari:
Kari rang the bell to her former house… no, to her house and waited for a response.
"Coming!" her mother's voice said. The previous night she had been convinced Davis had stolen her body. A part of her still did not believe it, though. She wanted to silence it. She also wanted more than anything to understand why, why the friend she'd had for so long had done this. Surely, he hadn't just turned evil, had he? There had to be a way to get him to give her body back.
Mrs. Kamiya opened the door. "Hey Davis!" she said. "are you here to see Tai?"
"I actually wanted to see Kari." She said. "She is here, correct?"
"She's in the living room." Her mother said, stepping aside. "Come on in."
Kari did so. Sure, enough Davis was there, sitting on the couch, watching TV.
"Hello… Kari." She said.
"Hey Davis."
The former girl turned to Mrs. Kamiya. "Is it okay if I talk to her alone for a bit?"
"I don't see why not." She replied. She went off into another room.
"What's up?" her body asked.
"Davis, please don't pretend to be ignorant anymore. I know what you did to Matt. I know what you did to me."
"Yeah, I was afraid of that." The former boy said. He turned off the TV.
"Why did you do it?" Kari asked. "Why did you steal my body?"
"I never intended to." He said. "I don't know if you'll believe me or not, but I didn't. I gave the ring to TK not you. I was hoping to embarrass him in his body. I didn't think he'd give you the ring, let alone before I got mine on."
It actually did make sense. One of the things fueling her doubt was that the ring did seem to have been intended for TK. Why would Davis have given him the ring if she were his target?
"If you didn't steal my body, can I have it back?" She asked.
"I'm sorry. I really am, but no." the boy she had once trusted said.
"Why are you doing this?"
"I… I really like being you." Davis said. "I never would have guessed I would, but I do. Also, Veemon likes Gatomon's body a lot more than I like this one. I don't think we can go back, sorry."
"Sorry." Kari repeated in her mind. "Really?"
"Davis, please, I know you're not like this." She said. "Just give me my body back. Surely you don't want it forever. Would you really give up everything you had to be me: your friends, your family, even your gender? What do I have that's so valuable you'd give all that up?"
"I'm doing this to keep my friends." He said. "Most of them are still with me here, and I suspect I'm not going to keep them if I go back."
Was that really it?
"As for my, erm, gender, I'll admit that was awkward at first, but I think I'm getting used to it. Are boys and girls really that different? I can live with it. It's worth keeping my friends. It's worth keeping Tai."
Was that really it?
"What about your family?"
"Jun is in on it now; I can visit her whenever." Davis said. "Heck, there's no reason I can't visit my parents anymore either. I still do have my friends after all. You've come my house more than once before. I can keep doing that as you."
"What if I were to object to that?" Kari asked.
"Then I will have to start objecting to you coming over here and seeing yours" He replied.
Was that really what it would come to?
"Please Davis, I don't want to be you." She begged. "You don't have to lose your friends. Just give me my body back, Matt and Gatomon theirs too, and I'll pretend none of this happened. We can still be friends. You and Tai can still be friends."
She didn't know if it was a lie or not. She didn't want it to be, but she didn't know if she could handle making it true.
"I can try." She thought. "If nothing else I can say it to get my body back. I have to."
Whether it was true or not, it was plain Davis did not believe it. "I'm sorry, but I can't accept that."
"You aren't sorry." Kari said. "If you were you would help me."
For a second the look on Davis's face actually made her believe he was sorry.
"How about this," he eventually said. "I'll agree to switch back with you, but only if you agree to marry me when we do."
"What?"
"Marry me. I'll believe you then, and I'll be part of this family no matter what. When we grow up, marry me, and I'll switch us back on our honeymoon."
It was insane.
"Davis, that won't be for years!" She exclaimed. "What about until then? Do we just… stay like this?"
"Yeah, that's what I'm thinking." Davis said.
There was no way she would ever agree to that.
"Davis, you know I can't do that." She said aloud.
"Yeah, I didn't think so." He said.
There was silence for several minutes after that.
The silence was broken when Tai came into the room. "Hey Davis," he said. "what brings you here?"
She had a plan B.
"Tai, I'm not Davis, I'm Kari. You have to help me!"
Tai looked at her visibly confused.
"Davis, are you feeling okay?" He asked. "Kari is right here."
"That's not Kari," she said pointing at her stolen body. "That's Davis!" She pulled her ring out from her pocket and showed it. "He stole my body! He used a ring like this to switch us, and now he won't let me switch back!"
"Is this some kind of joke?" Tai said. "It's really morbid." "
Yeah Davis," the thief interjected. "can we not do that?"
"Shut up!" It was the first time Kari could remember saying those words. "Shut up and stop lying!" She turned back to her brother. "Please, you have to help me! He has to be keeping the other ring around here somewhere. Surely you can find it. Surely you can undo this!"
"Davis, please stop this." He responded. "You're my friend, but you can't talk to my sister like that."
"I am your sister!" She pleaded. "Remember that time you took that ten-thousand-yen dad left out when we were younger? You made me promise not to tell. Only we now about it. I'm Kari!"
"That's a low blow Davis," her brother said. "You know I told about that when you asked me if I regretted anything small. Why are you doing this?"
"Because I am your sister and I need your help!"
The "tell your friend something only you and they would know to convince them of who you are" trick had been what she and Matt had settled on. It worked in the movies, right? She tried it again. "
What about the time I broke your tooth when I gave you that gummy that turned out to be hard candy?"
"I told you about that when you offered me gummies." He replied. "Davis, this is getting really old. You're insulting my intelligence and you're harassing my sister. Please stop this, or I'm going to have to ask you to leave."
"This can't be happening." She thought.
"Please Tai, you have to believe me." His sister pleaded. "I'm telling the truth!"
"That's enough." Tai said firmly. "We can talk again later when you've stopped this sick joke. Please leave now."
"But Tai!"
"No buts." He said. "Leave."
It felt like the world was crashing down on her as she walked back to the door… as she closed it behind her. Her own brother… had just kicked her out of her own house. She couldn't help tearing up as she looked back at it.
"Why is this happening to me?"
When she arrived back at Davis' home… at her new home… she saw her new reflection in the window.
"This is it, isn't it?" She thought. "That's me now. This is home now. I'm stuck this way for the rest of my life."
She opened the door and walked in. Matt was already there.
"From the look on your face I'm gathering you didn't get anywhere with Tai." He said gloomily.
"That's true." She lamented. "Please tell me you had better luck."
"My bandmates didn't buy it either." He replied just as gloomily. "No matter how many of our secrets I knew, they just chalked it up to me being the obsessive stalker I always told them Jun was."
It seemed people were more inclined to believe mundane explanations for strange things than fantastic ones…
"What are we gonna do Matt?" the current gogglehead asked. "Are we stuck like this forever?"
"No way! I can't accept that! There has to be a way to switch back." He sighed. "I just… don't know what it is quite yet."
It was as unsatisfying an answer as she expected.
Davis:
"Two pair!" Deputymon said. "I win again!"
The living gun was the second digimon to hold the digidestined captive since they answered Biyomon's distress call. The first had turned out to be minion of the digimon emperor who put them all in a jail cell. This new captor was… at least more selective. He had only taken the girls captive, which Davis now found himself among.
"Lucky me." He thought.
He actually meant it. Getting to play outside was a step up from being tied up in a cage. It wasn't as far as he'd like, but it was an improvement.
"Sorry Cody."
Sora and Yolie had been whispering about escape when they though Deputymon wasn't listening. They had yet to come up with a good plan. The area they were is completely fenced off and outrunning a campion digimon had already shown itself fool's task with their previous captor.
"Three of a kind! I win yet again."
To add insult to injury the current captor had amazing luck at the game they were playing. He and the other girls were running out of chips. The next hand revealed a 3, an ace, and a 9, all clubs.
"Smells like a flush." Davis thought.
"30 coins" Yolie bid.
"I'm out." Sora responded.
"I'm out too." Deputymon echoed.
"Looks like his luck ran out." The former gogglehead thought. By now he had noticed the revolver did not seem to bluff when that happened.
"At least he's honest." The irony in that thought did not escape him. "…I have to beat him."
First that meant getting through this round. The former gogglehead looked at his hand. He had a 4 and a 10, both spades. In other words, he had nothing.
"I raise to 50" he said anyway. She'd believe he had the flush, wouldn't she?
"I call."
"Drat." He thought.
They revealed their cards. Yolie did not have a flush either, but she did have a 3. Low as that pair was, it won. Yolie had seen through his bluff.
"It's never been something I've been good at." That thought troubled him more now than ever.
They drew their next hand. He had a 2 of diamonds and a 7 of hearts. Literally the worst hand possible in the game.
"Come on!" he thought.
The revealed cards were a 6, two kings, a queen, and a jack. He still had nothing to play. It looked like a very high straight was possible, though.
"I'm out" Sora said again.
Yolie and Deputymon raised. It was back to Davis. He looked at his remaining chips. It was enough to meet the raise, but not much else. He would be able to ante the next hand, but not the following one.
"What have I got to lose?" he thought.
"I'm all in."
Both of his opponents looked at him. He kept his face as blank as he could manage. This bluff could not be called.
"I'm out." Deputymon said. T
hat was the easy part. The revolver always folded when he had too weak of a hand. All that was left was Yolie. The two of them stared at eachother for several seconds.
"I'm out too." She finally said.
"Maybe I'm better a bluffing than I thought."
He pulled his winnings toward him. It was the biggest pile of chips he'd had since the start of the game.
They were about to deal another hand when an unexpected guest arrived. "Well if it isn't my nampy pampy excuse for a sidekick Deputymon!"
They all looked up and saw their original captor, the town's sheriff, Starmon.
His sidekick leapt on top of the table. "You quit that talk!" He said. "You have no right!"
"You're right." The sheriff replied. "The time for talking is over."
Deputymon leapt from the table and approached Starmon. The digidestined gaped. They were about to duel. The group had all stood up by the time the captors met. "
I saw a movie like this once." Yolie commented. "The good guy won."
"Which one is that?" Sora asked.
"Take three steps backward then turn around and fire." Starmon said.
Davis weighed his options as they did. If they were going to make a break for it, now would be the time while the captors were distracted. Of course, they had the same issues to deal with as they had the whole time.
"I wish we could fight them." He thought.
Such was always preferable to running. Unfortunately the sheriff had taken away their D3's when he took them, and Deputymon had left them at the jail. There would be no digivolution going into any fight they had.
"Could we win without digivolution?" the former gogglehead asked himself.
He glaced at his partner. "Gatomon is a champion digimon, just like both of them."
In theory Veemon ought to be able take them on in his current body, no armor needed. He knew why that wouldn't work, though. Kari had explained it to him between her swap and Jun's. Without its tail ring, Gatomon's body was as week as a rookie.
"Go whoever!"
"Ring…" Davis thought.
He brought his hand to Kari's pocket and felt his black ring, the one that had switched him into this body. Gatomon had thought it was just like her tail ring the night she saw it. Would it work? Could it work?
"Win lose or draw, I'll be coming out winning."
He pulled out the ring and looked at it as subtly as he could. Now that it had been compared to a dark ring to him, that was the only thing it reminded him of. He feared it would have a similar effect on the others. Gatomon taking on Starmon while they both seemed to have dark rings would raise far too many questions.
"If only the whole thing were as red as the jewel… wait."
Davis had several reckless ideas in his life. This one took quite a bit of the proverbial cake, even by his standards. He had no better thought. He stepped back behind the other girls. Only Veemon seemed to notice, turning to look at him. His partner put his finger over his mouth, shushing the new cat. Then, he put that finger in his mouth and bit down hard. He ran the ring around the wound as quickly as he could.
"Star Shower!" The sheriff cried out. With that attack the deputy fell.
He turned around to face the digidestined. "One down, three to go." He said.
Starmon then noticed Davis. "What are you doing?"
Everyone present turned to look at the former leader as well. It was now or never. He glanced down at the ring in his hand. It was red everywhere he could see.
"I'm beating you!" Davis exclaimed. He then threw the ring at Veemon's tail. "Get him buddy!"
The ring landed around Veemon's tail like a horseshoe in a game. As if feeling its power, the new cat leapt into the air, very high into the air. It wasn't as high as Rabbitmon had jumped, but it looked like more than Flamedramon ever had. He landed behind Starmon, and before the slave could react he was upon him. "Lightning Paw!" The attack landed, though it missed the dark ring. The sheriff was driven several steps back.
"Why you!" he cursed.
Then he turned around and launched an attack of his own.
"Star Shower!"
Meteors rained down. No one in the group had been able to dodge them when they first encountered Starmon, but now, obviously boosted by the ring, Veemon could. As one meteor hit he leapt out of its way, then the second his foot touched the ground he leapt again and dodged another. It continued until all the meteors were spent.
"Cat's eye hypnotism!"
Veemon's eyes glowed pink, and then, so did Starmon's. The star fish stopped in its tracks.
"Dodge this!" the hypnotist yelled, charging his opponent.
"Lightning Paw!"
This time the attack directly hit the dark ring. It instantly shattered.
"You go Gatomon!" Davis yelled.
Yolie's reaction was instead "What just happened?"
"I saved us." Veemon replied.
"I can see that, but how?"
"Is that… your tail ring?" Sora said pointing at his tail.
"What would that have to do with anything?" Yolie asked in turn.
"Gatomon used to have a ring on her tail that let her fight at champion level." Sora replied. She looked at the supposed tail ring again and said "Though I'm pretty sure it was yellow and not red."
"It's not her old tail ring." Davis said. "It's just a ring I had. I wondered if it would work and it looks like it did."
"Does that mean the power of the ring was just in Gatomon's head?" Sora asked. "What's that called? The placebo effect?"
"That is correct." Yolie answered.
She sat down near Veemon and reached for the ring. "Can I see that? Maybe if you tired that again without the ring we could…"
The new cat pulled his tail away before she could touch it.
"I'd rather not." He said.
"Come on Yolie, plac…ebo or not that ring has always been important to her. Let her keep it." His partner added. He also thought, "Plus I don't want you knowing its covered in blood." but he did not say it. Feeling the blood on the ring might complicate that.
On that thought he hid his wounded finger in his fist… Good thing the others seemed too focused on Veemon's feats to notice it before now.
The would-be experimenter backed down. "Alright, I won't push it."
"Ugh, what happened?" Starmon asked, just now coming out of his hypnotic daze.
"It's kind of a long story." Davis said.
He went on to tell it anyway.
Ken:
"Guys look out! Starmon is behind you!" Cody yelled.
"Don't worry." Sora said. "We broke the dark ring. He's going to let you out now."
Ken watched on his screen as his enemy was released. He had seen everything that had happened to Veemon since he put on the ring.
"Took him long enough." The emperor chuckled.
All a dark ring was, on a fundamental level, was an extension of his dark digivice, and all a digivice was at its core was a machine to exchange information between the minds of humans and digimon. Normally this meant sending emotional energies from the human to aid in digivolution. With a little tweaking however, you could transmit almost any information this way that you wanted, even, he found, a command. That is what the dark rings did. They allowed him to communicate information with more digimon than just his D3 could on its own: emotions, commands, even images, and every good communication worked two ways. The emperor had been seeing through the eyes of his slaves for a long time now. This was the first time, however, see had done this not with a dark ring, but with a gemmed switching ring instead. He knew it had to be possible. These jeweled rings were designed to handle much more information than just commands and images. Anything able to process an entire human mind had to be. This was, however, the first time a digimon had worn such in ring in the same area as a control spire. With that, several hypotheses were confirmed. The irony of it all was not that Ken could see through the jeweled ring's bearer. The unexpected thing was that the bearer was foolish enough to wear it after it had been pointed out how similar its ring was to the dark rings and not before.
"I suppose not everyone is keen on the idiosyncrasies of computer science and mind control."
The children on the screen left the jailhouse, no doubt marching toward the area's control spire. Once the reached it they would certainly destroy it and end the transmission along with his control of the area. Ken did not mind. He had several tricks up his sleeve.
He picked up his D3. "Sneeze." He said.
"Achoo!" Veemon sneezed as commanded.
"Bless You" Davis said.
As expected, commands could also be sent through these new rings. Combine that with Gatomon's champion strength and the emperor knew that, with a thought, he could have the former dragon kill most of the digidested right there.
"Where's the fun in that, though?" he thought.
"Trust but verify." An American president had said that not long ago. It was Ken's attitude toward Davis and Veemon now. He knew better to trust everything they told him. Fortunately, with this ability he did not have to. The things Veemon saw would be worth much more than the words he or his partner said. There was another layer to that attitude as well. Reagan did not defeat his enemies in the Soviet Union by force; he watched them collapse from within. That was what Ken wanted to see happen to his enemies here. That was why, more than anything, he sent them the rings in the first place. He wanted to watch their miserable "friendship" fall in on itself as they tore each other apart with envy. From what he gathered from his meeting with Davis and Jun, that was exactly what was happening. His best-case scenario was coming true! Yes, he could strike a great blow now with a murderous command, but he would have plenty of opportunities to do that. He would save it for a last resort. Why strike a second killing blow when you could just let the first wound fester? The game would be no fun if he could just win it in one move. Let the digimon think it was free. Rule him not as his master but as the devil on his shoulder, whispering in his ear.
"Star Shower!"
Meteors fell upon the dark spire and destroyed it. The transmission abruptly ended. For now, the little digimon was free from him completely.
"If only I had the dark spirals designed before I made those gems!"
The gems were his best marvel of engineering to date. Not only could gems of the same pair communicate with each-other over arbitrarily long distances, they even allowed communication not just between human and digimon, but between digimon and digimon and even between human and human. Unfortunately, the rings attached to them had the same limitations as the dark rings before them. They could not communicate with him, with his dark digivice and all the infrastructure connected to it, unless they were in range of the dark digivice itself or of a dark spire to act as a relay. The dark spirals had the same limitless range as the gems, but it was not a dark spiral connected to this gem. For now, the emperor would have to make do.
"For now." He repeated to himself in his mind.
He pulled up the image of the first dark spiral. The violet gems that had been attached to the dark rings the spiral once was were still visible on it now as a single larger gem. Had he not been able to use the gems as a guide he would not have been able to figure out how to fuse dark rings together in the limited time he had still living with his parents. The gems had already accelerated the development of the dark spirals. Soon the dark spirals would return the favor.