I don't own Digimon (Big Surprise), Toei and Saban do, so don't sue me. I can assure you that I'm not making any money off this, just the opposite. I have the results of my contest in. ~Lys~, you've been given a small cameo in this one. Enjoy. Anyway, the usual OOC (Out Of Character) alert is up, and you definitely want to read "The hour of the wolf" and the first three acts of Darkness Rising. A lot of stuff from those fanfics are touched upon in this one.
Darkness Rising, act 4
"It's time for you to go to work Tentomon. Remember Gennai is a crafty one, he won't be fooled easily. He must suspect nothing, or he won't locate Matt for us. Act as if you've been playing along with us the whole time, trying to destroy Eviltarimon from the inside, only to be caught in the act of trying to destroy the crystal obelisk. These injuries that Tk, Kari, and I have given you, should give your alibi an extra boost. Say that you received them trying to escape, and only managed to get to Server using this telestone…" Izzy held up a round stone that had ancient Digi-script etched all over its smooth surface. "He of course won't buy this at first, but given time…perhaps the credibility of your story will convince him. Mimi, Tai and Joe are now spreading the lie all around File Island. Soon the story of your "treachery" will reach Gennai's ears, and that old fool will eagerly lap it up, desperate for anything to use against our master."
Izzy paused, as if remembering some half-important fact. "Oh yes, just in case he finds out, use this…"he tossed Tentomon a small crystal. " This will activate the dark sphere placed in Gennai by Piedmon. Once activated, the sphere will cause Gennai to experience fits of uncontrollable pain. He will do anything to make it stop. Even hand Matt over to us. Although it's preferable that he doesn't find out. The irony would be so much sweeter that way. You will contact me through our link when you find something."
Tentomon nodded silently. He gripped the telestone tightly as it began to give off a faint pearly light. The light began to outline Tentomon's insectiod form as well. The light intensified as the telestone began its task of bringing him to Server, to Gennai, and to Matt's end. Izzy had to squint as the light reached its peak, and then was gone.
Now it was only a matter of time.
"How was your night?"
Gabumon only growled, and began to search the table for the bacon he knew was there. What a stupid question to ask. They knew perfectly well how he was feeling. Trying to sleep with stinky fur after that…that…that…bath had been completely impossible, and being woken up by what sounded like a small explosion didn't help either. At least there had been no enemy, only a fist through the wall by an extremely upset Matt. Of course he couldn't blame him; the news from File Island was enough to make anyone go through the roof. Or a wall. Just the thought of most of File Island's Digimon being deleted made Gabumon want to Blue Blaster a few walls himself. He sniffed around for the bacon, and finally located it behind a stack of pancakes that threatened to fall over at any moment. With a small sigh of satisfaction, he began to wolf down the strips of steaming meat. With a glance he saw Matt eating his own breakfast of scrambled eggs and salsa, in an unusually refined manner, unlike himself, where he was just content to stuff his face. Gabumon frowned. Matt certainly seemed different. Maybe it was the situation, the full emergence of his powers, or maybe he just did his hair differently that morning. He didn't know. All he did know, as he watched Matt nibble at a piece of egg, was that he wasn't the same person he had been when this mess began.
Matt shifted slightly on his cushion and delicately plucked a few pancakes from the warmer. Gabumon's mouth began to water once more as he caught a whiff of subtle, earthy smell of wheat and the rich, creamy scent of butter. His stomach grumbled jealously, and Matt, raising an eyebrow, forked over a few to him too. Giving a thankful smile, Gabumon dug into the pancakes with delight.
"So what have you heard from File Island lately Gennai?" Matt said tentatively. His eyes were haunted, ghosts dancing in those glacier blue depths. Gabumon was sure that he hadn't gotten the trauma of the last week. The "what ifs" and the "why didn'ts" must still be running through Matt's head. Poor guy. He needed some peace from his inner demons. If only he could go into Matt's heart and destroy them like he had destroyed all the evil Digimon who had dared even lay a hand on his best friend. But the only one who could successfully battle them was Matt himself. The only thing Gabumon could do was be there, and try to be a pillar of support when Matt needed him most. Which, he had a sneaking suspicion, would be often in the next few days.
"A very interesting story if I do say so myself. It seems like Tentomon was never under Eviltarimon's control after all. He was just playing along till he got a chance to go after the crystal obelisk. But unfortunately he was discovered in the attempt and was badly beaten up. He just managed to escape with the aid of a telestone. Now he's somewhere on Server with the rest of them hot on his heels. Quite a pickle he's in, isn't he."
"He escaped with a…. telestone?" Matt asked, the slightest bit of confusion apparent in his voice.
Gabumon smiled slightly. For all his time in the Digiworld, Matt still was in the dark about a lot of things. Like telestones. Oh well, time to educate him.
Gennai beat him to it. "Telestones are ancient transportation devices. They instantly get the user from point A to point B. Very easy to use, all you have to do is think of where you want to go and you're there. In fact, I have a couple of my own. They certainly save me all that time waiting at the airport."
Gabumon and Matt both sweatdropped at that. Gennai's humor was questionable at best, and at times it just plain stunk. This was one of them.
Matt frowned and got the far away gleam of introspection. He bit his lip and began to tap his fingertips on the smooth black lacquered tabletop. Tap, Tap, Tap. Gabumon wondered whatever he could be thinking about. Nothing good by the way he was scowling.
Beep. Beep. Beep.
An alarm sounded within the confines of Gennai's underwater home causing Gennai to suddenly spit out the coffee he had been enjoying. Matt lurched up startled, his new midnight blue cloak flying out behind him, the silver threads woven about sparkling like stars. Gabumon did the same. They were ready to deal with the danger, whatever it might be.
Gennai bounded through the halls to a small room neither Matt nor Gabumon had seen before. He skidded to a stop before a violently flashing console and madly began pushing buttons left and right. Gabumon peered closely at the console along with Matt.
Something was emerging from the woods.
It was short and squat and insectiod. A pair of wavy yellow antennae sprouted from its head. Large green compound eyes dominated its face. Its body was battered and bruised. There was no mistaking this Digimon.
There was no mistaking Tentomon.
Matt stared in quiet shock as he looked at the monitor. It was Tentomon all right but as Matt probed the area, he detected the whiff of something just not right. The same aura he got whenever he came in contact with another of the Digidestroyers. It could be just the lingering presence of Izzy and the others, or it could be the warning of another trap ahead. Either way, it was wise to keep his guard up, even though he could sense none of the others anywhere. Something about Tentomon didn't seem right.
Oh no.
The crystal obelisk had held fourteen souls. FOURTEEN! And since Gabumon and he were in possession of theirs at the moment, that meant….
TRAP!
Good Lord! Gennai didn't know how exactly how many souls were captured. Matt knew, as did Gennai, that if anybody had been spared, they would play along and try to free the others. And that's what made it the perfect plan. If Tentomon had been really spared, then he would have done the same thing as the rumor purported him to do. It was genius really. Izzy's handiwork of course. It could be no one else's.
Tentomon had come to Gennai's to find Matt and Gabumon by using his friendship with Gennai to have him locate them. And that was what was just going to happen if he came in there. He had to warn Gennai…
Matt whirled and opened his mouth to scream out a warning to Gennai but too late. The hum of a teleport began to fill the room and then…
Tentomon was there, and looking like he had just won the lottery.
Tentomon felt the tingle as Gennai teleported him in. The old man really was a fool. He had lapped up that false story about he "betraying" his master, just as Izzy predicted. Tentomon would never betray his lord. It was unthinkable. This had been so easy. Now just to convince the idiot to find Matt and Gabumon and the master would be pleased. So very pleased.
Tentomon always pleased his master.
He appeared in a small room ringed in consoles and monitors; Gennai at the controls. Sucker. A flick of dark blue cloth with silver threads caught his multifaceted eyes. Of all the odds…
Them.
Matt and Gabumon stood at one side of the room. Matt had a fierce scowl and was in a fighting stance, cold blue and silver energy flickering around him. Gabumon looking uncertainly at Matt, but also ready for battle. A crackling sound was heard as ice blades formed at Matt's wrists and the blue and silver fire increased. He certainly looked menacing as the dark cloak billowed around him, the hood shadowing his face.
Tentomon winced. Now Gennai had caught on. He punched at the controls like his life depended on it, and it did. There could be none of that. He concentrated and activated the crystal that controlled the dark sphere.
"ARRRRRRGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!"
Matt and Gabumon jerked as they heard Gennai scream in agony. Tentomon smiled secretly to himself. Now, while they were distracted, he would contact Izzy through the link that they shared and bring all the Digidestroyers down upon their heads.
All he had to do was concentrate once more.
Izzy's head snapped up as he felt Tentomon's beckon in the back of his mind. Matt had been found at last! He had been at Gennai's all along! He gave a wide grin and motioned to the others milling around Eviltarimon's throne room.
"Matt's been found. At Gennai's."
"Come on, let's go. Matt and Gabumon have dallied long enough." Tai chuckled coldly. Then he smiled. It was the grin of a predator looking at its next meal.
Izzy agreed. The hunt had gone on too long.
They disappeared.
Time for the kill.
Matt cursed himself for not acting sooner. Tentomon was backing into a wall, and Gennai was still screaming in pain. What could be causing it? Then he noticed the glowing in one of Tentomon's hands. Whatever it was, it was the source of Gennai's agony.
One of Matt's fists glowed brighter and brighter with the cold energy of his aura. Whatever it was, it wasn't going to be around long. He took aim and…
The room suddenly got a whole lot more crowded.
Matt felt the air rushing out of him as two somethings pinned him to the wall, and landed two fists to his gut. Matt broke one arm free and slashed with his ice blades. He was rewarded with another punch.
Gabumon was being similarly treated and despite his repeated attacks of "Blue Blaster", was quickly overpowered. He was just as helpless as Matt.
Gennai through it all was writhing in pain on the floor and being thoroughly ignored. That was until he tried to get up to help, and received a foot to the face. He didn't move since.
There was no mistaking whom his assailants were.
The Digidestroyers.
His friends.
Matt had to get out of there. Now! He turned his thoughts to ice, and thought cold. Cold. He imagined his attackers as blocks of ice. Surprised shrieks of pain greeted his ears but he didn't stop. All he thought was cold.
Something smashed into the back of his skull, and rocked him forward. Black took him on silent, peaceful wings to dreamless sleep. Matt fought against it but he couldn't. It was too powerful. As he swooned and fell to darkness, he whispered one final defiant cry…
"Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo………………………………………!"
Gennai stumbled to his feet after what seemed like hours, and gasped at what he saw. The place was in shambles. But even worse, Matt and Gabumon were gone. No doubt taken by the Digidestroyers.
He had failed.
He had failed to protect them from Eviltarimon and he had failed to recognize the trap that was Tentomon. He had been fooled by the bonds of friendship. And now both of them were in Eviltarimon's clutches. And there was no way to get them back. The underwater villa now seemed very small as the magnitude of what had happened weighed down on Gennai.
"May I be forgiven for what I have done." He sobbed to the empty house.
The Digiworld was doomed.
"Uhhhh…"
Matt forced open his eyes to find himself lying on the cold floor of a small cell. Alone. Gabumon was not there. Matt immediately probed the area with his mind and found him. He was being led to somewhere, and with a sinking heart Matt realized that somewhere had to be the crystal obelisk. His fists clenched as his eyes flared with rage; Eviltarimon was going to pay for this. As soon as he got to Gabumon, and freed him, that is.
Matt got up and dusted off his new dark purple shirt and blue pants. His eyes, now burning silver and blue, glowed as beacons in the dark cell, as Matt brought every bit of his power to bear for an instantaneous teleportation to his friend. He would not let Gabumon be taken too. Not if he could help it.
He went nowhere.
Frustrated Matt kicked the side of the wall and said some inappropriate things. What in heaven's name was selectively blocking his powers? He could sense them, but not do anything about it. He furiously whipped his head up to the ceiling. There, sitting mockingly in the center, was a large hunk of the same crystal that the obelisk was made of. Matt swore violently. What was with this guy and crystals, huh? Matt was getting sick of the clear, shiny rocks. At least Devimon's thing with gears was proper villain behavior, but this guy…?
A crackling sound and a choking cloud of dust derailed Matt's little slamming of Eviltarimon. Looking down, he saw he had kicked his foot through the wall. Matt chuckled a little. First Gennai's, now this; it had to be his day for walls. Crouching down a bit, Matt went to work on widening the hole. As soon as he had widened it enough, he would slip out, rescue Gabumon, free his friends' souls, and then… Matt coldly smirked. And then…
…Eviltarimon was going to learn what happens when you mess with the Digidestined.
Eviltarimon waited impatiently in his innermost sanctum, the crystal obelisk glowing faintly. He silently kneeled before the obelisk, as a black mist formed around it, and congealed into a sphere of slightly luminescent black. Eviltarimon winced, the creator of Apocalymon, of Myotismon, of him, was here at last. This was the thing where everything vile, and sick and nasty- most definitely evil, flowed from. The spring of darkness.
Source.
Eviltarimon shuddered as every joyful thought was sucked away, and despair welled up inside of him. Source fed on despair and suffering. Like one of those Dementors from that wildly popular Earth book series Harry Potter. He could hear the Seeramon's distant voices mocking him.
You will fail. The prophecy will be fulfilled and you will die! The voices hissed.
Eviltarimon shook the voices off. If that Digi-brat Matt could over come Source's effect during that fateful walk in the cave before Piedmon's final battle, than so could he. Suddenly the room felt less confining but still as icy cold.
Source flickered with amusement. Eviltarimon felt a jolt that roughly translated into the human vernacular was a job well done. Eviltarimon breathed in relief. If Source had been angry, he would be Digidust, floating on some forgotten wind.
Source melted its way back into the shadows. Eviltarimon slowly got up, not wanting to think about the matter. Things that involved Source were usually best forgotten anyway. His eyes glowed crimson; there was a lot to do. Take over the Digital World, take over Earth, and take over Matt and Gabumon's souls. There sure was a lot to take over. Where he would find the time, he didn't know. Ah well, he would make due.
He always had.
Matt raced down the hallways in hot pursuit of Gabumon. Every so often, he'd teleport, but the crystal's effects lingered on him and he couldn't get very far. Not to mention Eviltarimon's servants kept getting in the way. He impaled another DeviDramon with a spear of ice, and hurdled over it, not sparing it a second glance. Time was of the essence, and his might already be out. His day was really sucking so far. But as his Internet pen pal ~Lys~ always said, "Stop complaining, and DO it." Matt realized that he had to stop grumbling about what had happened, and start concentrating fully on rescuing the others, and kicking Eviltarimon's @$$ all the way to the Data World and back.
A ripple of fear forced its way into Matt's mind. Not his fear, someone else's. Gabumon's. They must be starting the process of stealing Gabu's soul to feed to that demonic icon. Matt sprinted faster than even he found possible, sending a horde of Blossomon flying. Curse him. Eviltarimon will rue the day he ever dared lay hands on his best friend…. He will RUE it.
He was going to tear him apart. Piece by little piece. Boiling anger hissed in his ears and he did not deny it. He embraced it. Anger was good, anger was clean; it served to squash all the other emotions of worry, fear, and grief that were threatening to overwhelm him. Power flowed through his veins, burning hotter than a million suns, churning and building; screaming to get out. Out. OUT!
Matt half ran, half flew through a set of ornately inscribed doors into a hallway of gleaming mirrors that threw blinding rays of light from the room beyond. Matt knew that that's where his friends were. And Eviltarimon too.
Suddenly a scream pierced the ominous silence.
Gabumon!
He burst into the room at top speed, shocking all present. Matt was shocked too. There was Gabumon, chained by the obelisk with streamers of light, and a thin spiral of shadow moving it's way to his chest, to gouge out and consume his soul. Matt's fury increased tenfold, and before anyone could move, much less utter a cry of protest, he launched himself and a scathing blast of ice-cold blue and silver energy.
Things seemed to move in slow motion, as Eviltarimon wailed, the Digidestroyers began charging Gabumon was freed thanks to the impact of the beam, and Matt slammed into the obelisk, bringing it smashing to the ground. Eviltarimon swore in horror and began moving as fast as he could toward Matt. But it was too late for all of them. Matt was flaming with his aura failing about, concentrating all his power, every drop of what he had, into the crystal obelisk. Wild energy filled the room as a crack appeared. And then another. Another. Matt strained even harder and…
The supposedly indestructible obelisk shattered into a million pieces of useless crystal.
Fourteen trapped souls spiraled out of the ruins of the icon. Two of each color. Orange, red, purple, green, gray, gold, pink. They spun around the room, emitting multicolored sparks, until they found their other halves. A thousand branches of light encased each body, as the souls reintegrated themselves in a burst of fireworks. Each person's eyes glowed brightly, then dimmed as body and soul was reunited at last.
Everybody was back to normal.
Eviltarimon was looking not so good however. He was slumped against a far wall, looking a mixture of sick, terrified, and plain pissed off. His hood had fallen off and his face was even more chalk white than usual. But he resolutely pried himself off the floor, and stood tall (though wobbly) facing the Digidestined. He looked ten times more insane than he usually was.
"Damn you Guardian of Friendship! Damn you and your accursed race! You have cost me my servants, and maybe my very LIFE, but this will not go unanswered. Your world and my world will become one, and then all shall see you ground like the very worms you are! IT'S OVER!"
With a mighty yell, Eviltarimon thrust his hand to the sky and the whole building began to shake and rumble. Matt was thrown sideways as the world lost its grip on reality and was thrown end over end. Everything seemed to blur and fuzz out of focus, then snapped back with alarming clarity. What he saw made him pitch forwards in horrified amazement.
He was home.
But not the home he knew and loved.
It was Odiaba of course. Except now Odiaba had a large mountain in the middle of it and an actual jungle, opposed to the urban jungle it had possessed before. Here and there, there were signs of the Digiworld mixed in; some obvious, some not. Everywhere Digimon and human alike looked in terror at their new surroundings…and at each other. Matt was frightened, aside from Eviltarimon killing everyone, that they would start a fight out of fear and suspicion. The humans still remembered Myotismon's rampage through the city with vivid detail, and the Digimon had had no reason to trust humans lately cause of Eviltarimon's schemes. Even if they defeated him, they were going to have other problems to deal with. Problems that were more complex than just simply going in and kicking the bad guy's but.
Eviltarimon was smirking slightly, as everybody glowered at him, faces showing varying degrees of horror and fury. Fists were balled, auras blazing, and he seemed to treat it as a joke. It wasn't very funny to Matt.
"Now…"he said softly, smiling the lunatic's smile "Now you all die. And this time…this time, there's no coming back."
To be continued…
So what's going to happen now? Are they going to defeat Eviltarimon? Are they going to save the day? Who is this mysterious Source, and what relevance is he? And what are the lasting repercussions for the merged worlds? Tune in for the… "Ack" ~ Gets whapped in the head ~ I swear it wasn't me! I swear it wasn't me! The spirit of the evil narrator possessed me! ~ Gets suspicious looks ~ It's true. Anyway what did you think? Hmmm? Please Review.