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Fate--Chapter 9
Rothena glared at the teen in front of her with a contemptuous eye, taking in the disshelved black hair that would have been glossy had it not been so messy and the violet eyes that burned with a fire of hatred. The girl's face was thin and pale from malnutrition and she looked as though she would break if anybody so much as touched her.
The girl glared right back, bony fingers drawn into a tight fist. Although she was rather weak, she wasn't going to let this awful woman intimidate her. Behind her she could feel the glare of the hundreds of pairs of eyes from fellow Droglidites like herself. They all hated her and she hated all of them right back.
After a short silence, Rothena took a deep breath and said: "why do you believe that you should be allowed parole, prisoner 226894?"
The girl laughed a humorless laugh and replied: "so I'm prisoner 226-whatever now? You don't have to be so formal about everything, mom."
The courtroom full of Droglidites was filled with the sound of murmuring following the girl's remark, although Rothena remained silent until it died away. Once the courtroom was silent, Rothena calmly stated: "in the future you would do well not to address me so informally, child" to her daughter.
"I've got a name, you know. It's Nea, in case you've forgotten. And quite frankly I think my entire imprisonment is fraudulent."
"And why would you think that?"
"How can you throw someone in prison for their beliefs? How is that a legitimate arrest?" Nea countered.
Rothena took a deep breath and replied: "you are an endangerment to the entire Droglidite race. Your beliefs are against everything that we as a people stand for. You have attempted to deter several of our sieges on the Ghoulinthians and you have also attempted to deter our progress in taking over the Digital World and Earth. How do you plead to these crimes?"
"Not guilty to the crimes, but certainly guilty of being unique. Is that such an awful thing?" She could feel the eyes of all the other Droglidites boring into her, as if to penetrate through her being.
"In this society, being unique is not a good thing, child. On six different occasions you have knowingly ruined attacks on the Ghoulinthians and on eight other occasions you have ruined our plans to take over both worlds. Now tell me: are you guilty or are you not guilty of the aforementioned crimes?"
There was a silence that rang through the room as Nea considered her answer. Then, she lowered her eyes to the ground and murmured: "guilty."
"Please speak loud enough for the entire courtroom to hear you," Rothena commanded.
"Guilty!"
Rothena smiled ever so slightly and said: "it is just as I thought. You are a traitor to your people and therefore you are to be imprisoned as before. Take her back to her cell."
Nea shot one final hate-filled glare back at her mother as her hands were pulled behind her back and she was lead out of the courtroom….
~*~
"This is crazy. No, this goes way past crazy to just plain insane," Daisuke muttered. Little more than an hour had passed since the incident in the mini-sub and he along with Taichi, Miyako and Hikari were on land again. For some time they had walked away from the lake and eventually they ended up in a forest, which was where they were presently.
"What?" Miyako and Hikari inquired at the same time.
"Everything. I mean we just found out about this war a little over twenty-four hours ago and already we're a group of fugitives. All of our friends are prisoners to one side or the other and somehow we're supposed to free them. Not to mention the teensy little fact that…WE'RE LOST!"
Taichi shrugged and answered: "well, it's better than getting caught by the Ghoulinthians, isn't it?" before falling silent.
Hikari was surprised to hear her brother speak. He hadn't said a word since they'd left the mini-sub. She suspected he felt guilty for leaving Gennai without trying to help and responsible for the imprisonment of their friends. It had been in utter silence he'd led them through the forest and he continued to lead them forward, just as quiet as before.
"Where are the Digimon?" Miyako suddenly questioned.
"What do you mean 'where are the Digimon?'" Daisuke answered with a question of his own.
"Just what I said. Where are they?"
Hikari's eyes grew wide as she realized that Miyako was right. The Digimon should have been with them!
"I don't know," Hikari muttered. That is really strange, she thought. Gatomon should know that I'm here. She glanced at Taichi, walking in front of her, but she couldn't see his face and even if she could she guessed that his expression would probably be unreadable.
She shivered. The sun was beginning to go down and the forest was cold. Abruptly, Taichi stopped and simply said: "we should stop for the night" in a voice so tired and beaten Hikari barely recognized it as her brother's. And what is this war doing to Taichi? I've never heard him sound like that before….
Nobody disagreed and the four of them sat on the packed dirt floor of the forest in a circle. None of them said a word. Taichi noticed that Hikari looked tired and a little sad and Daisuke looked like he was ready to fall asleep right then and there. Even Miyako, who was usually somewhat cheerful, seemed unusually quiet and melancholy. They all looked as bad as he felt.
Daisuke was soon sleeping heavily, mouth pulled down in a slight frown. Miyako was quick to follow once she lay on the hard ground and closed her eyes.
After a couple of minutes, Taichi said: "go ahead, go to sleep, Hikari. You're tired" in that same weary tone.
"No. I'll take the first watch. You deserve some rest," she gently argued.
"I'm not tired," he lied.
Hikari sighed, knowing her brother was lying to her, but replied: "fine then. But don't stay up all night, OK? Wake me up so you can get some sleep soon." And then she lay on the ground and went to sleep.
~*~
Braul nervously entered Corth's office, fearing what was to become of him. He'd royally botched the attack on Gennai's house and allowed the children to escape. Corth was not going to be happy about that.
Corth looked up from the files he was reading through as Braul entered and to the young officer's surprise Corth smiled.
"Sir, you wanted to see me?" he queried, refraining from using telepathy for the more formal verbal method of communication.
Once again, to
Braul's surprise, Corth answered in telepathy: Ah, Braul. I am glad to see you.
Aren't you angry, sir? He inquired, abandoning verbal speech.
Angry? Of course I'm not angry. How old are you now, Braul?
Now Braul was
beginning to worry about the mental stability of Corth. Why do you care?
Just answer the
question, please.
Braul hesitated,
but obediently answered: I'm eighteen. Nineteen in another month. Why
does it concern you?
All shall
reveal itself in due time. Would you be
so kind as to tell me all you know of your family?
Braul furrowed his brow, but truthfully replied: I don't know anything of my family.
Corth nodded and switched to verbal speech: "nothing at all?"
"No. Nothing at all," Braul confirmed, also returning to verbal speech. "Sir, if I can ask a question…why do you want to know?"
"Because I know just about all there is to know about your family."
So this is it, Braul thought. My punishment. I should've known.
Corth was continuing: "yes, I know your mother and your sister and most certainly your father."
"I had a sister?" Braul inquired, incredulous.
"Yes, you had a sister, as you had a mother. You have a father."
"I'm sorry…I don't quite understand what you're trying to get across, sir."
Corth sighed in frustration and stated: "I'm your father!"
The words hit Braul with the impact of a bomb. It was good news, of course it was good news, but it was astounding nonetheless. As long as he could remember he'd had no father, yet here was the man he had most respected his entire life, his father. It seemed natural, yet unnatural. Awkwardly, he left the office and walked down the hall….
~*~
"So does anybody have an idea of when we're going to get out of here?" Iori inquired of his friends from his cell.
"Who knows? Probably never," Jyou answered.
"Could you be any more negative, Jyou?" Sora muttered so quietly nobody else heard.
"I think we can get out of here if we can just figure out how to do it," Takeru declared.
Ken sighed and said: "just because Hikari managed to escape does not mean we will be able to. She's not even being held captive under the same force. Who knows what the conditions were like for her?"
"Still, there's got to be some way we can," Takeru argued.
"Well, if you see an exit sign in the back of your cell be sure to tell us," Jyou dryly replied.
"Yeah…tell us when you think of a way out," Sora chimed in.
"I was just saying it's got to be possible," Takeru muttered.
"Anyone think there's a chance the Ghoulinthian's will let us go?" Iori wondered.
Jyou spoke for everyone when he stated: "no."
"Then how do you suggest we get out of here?" Iori demanded. He was determined on this point and he intended to escape.
"We don't," Ken replied. "Unless…" He examined the ceiling of his cell and found that, as before, it was in bad shape.
"What?" Takeru queried.
"The ceiling. Everybody, look at the ceiling in your cells. If it's as bad as it is in here it should be easy to break through."
Iori looked up to the ceiling of his cell and noted that it was indeed of poor quality. Looks like we're getting out of here after all, he thought as he began to scrape away the rotting wood….