DISCLAIMER: Digimon isn't mine; it belongs to Saban, Toei and Bandai (Mean things that they are won't let me have a piece of the action!) However, this fic is completely mine and if I catch NE1 even sniffing around with the intent to pilfer then I will personally tie them up and make them watch Kevin Costner's 'The Postman' until they beg 4 mercy! (Bwahahahahaaaaa!)
Mandatory blech finished (a slight variation on the usual 'blurb') here is the tenth instalment of my saga, with thanks to all those who have stuck with it thus far. This one's 4 U!
BTW, I suggest that anyone who doesn't know what the Tokyo Tower looks like should find a picture; otherwise I'm afraid the rest of this fic won't have the desired effect. Sorry.
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"The Darkness Within" By Scribbler
Chapter Ten ~ "Small Sacrifices"
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"If we would build on a sure foundation in friendship, we must love friends for their sake rather than for our own."-- Charlotte Bronte
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A cold wind blew, snatching beads of water from the air mere seconds after they left the swelled underbelly of the storm clouds. Sheets of driving rain battered the sides of buildings, slamming against the concrete surfaces as if trying to knock them down. Overhead a deep rumbling reverberated across the dark sky like a caged monster's roar.
Tai gazed numbly at the sodden city, his own eyes moist - but not from rain. Flecks of water sprayed through the gaping hole before him, hitting his face like a volley of needles. He made no effort to move as the cloud's tears slowly saturated him, instead slumping weakly to his knees under the harsh droplets. Fragments of crumbling building broke away only inches from him, tumbling on their deadly descent to the street far below. Their landing was deadened by the incessant beating of the rain.
A groan set up a little way behind him, but he paid it no heed. The blonde boy at his side, however, turned at the familiar noise. Matt watched through pained eyes at a red haired boy coming towards them, leaning heavily on another blonde youth wearing a fishing hat. Izzy looked dazedly at the collection of teenagers clustered around the rough aperture hewn into the side of the apartment. His eyes became wide with shock.
"What the - " He began, but halted at the expression of raw agony evident in his friend's blue eyes. His voice became serious. "What happened?"
In few words Matt told him, the younger boy's eyes widening with every phrase. At the end of the update Izzy's face was pale, all the colour having drained from his cheeks. He gazed worriedly at the sagging figure facing him.
"So, what do we do now?"
Matt was at a loss. His mind felt frozen, his tongue thick. Explaining the situation had brought home to him the events he had just witnessed in their truest sense, and shock permeated his being in a way he'd never thought it could. Even in the Digital World, when confronted with all the pain and cost of being a Digidestined, he'd never experienced such intense hopelessness. It was as if all the strength he'd acquired during that time had been stripped away, leaving nothing but his naked emotions, at the mercy of fate's cruel hand. He felt alone, and totally.... totally helpless.
Another voice broke in, filled with all the pain and all the anguish Matt couldn't put into words. This voice sliced through the air like a blade, cleaving aside all doubts as to the sincerity of the speaker.
"You do nothing." It said. "I go to Tokyo Tower."
Everyone looked at Tai, identical surprise mixed with horror embedded in their expressions. The brown haired boy simply stared out of the gap into the night, visage unwavering. Matt's tongue loosened itself slightly at his friend's statement.
"You can't!" He croaked. "We're not about to let you go off on your own Tai, not again."
"It's me the darkness wants." Tai's tone was flat, testifying facts they all knew were true but resisted accepting.
"Tai, you can't do this - "
"I'm afraid you don't have a say in the matter - any of you." Tai rose unsteadily to his feet, shaking off Davis and Joe's attempts to aid him. He breathed a deep sigh for strength. Matt started forward, but without turning around Tai sensed his action.
"Don't try to stop me." He snapped. "Too many people have been hurt or.... or died because of me already. I'm not about to let Sora become one of them."
"But Tai, we can help you." Yolei whined. Tai whirled on her, the smouldering embers in his hazel eyes so powerful that the pink haired girl had to take a step backwards.
"No, you can't!" He practically spat. "*She* tried to help me, and look what happened!" He gestured wildly at the pounding rain outside. "I'm not going to let it happen again! I won't! Not to her! Not to any of you!"
"But Tai," Ken's lilting voice tried to soothe the older boy, to talk some of his trademark good-sense into him. "If you do what the entity wants then it'll take control again."
A pause as this statement was digested by all. Then Tai spoke, his voice scant above a whisper, yet reverberating among them like he'd bellowed.
"No.... it won't."
Something in Tai's tone prevented further comment. An underlying fierceness that defied description. It was as if all the pain and all the emotion bottled up inside him for so long without an outlet had risen to the surface, bubbling beneath his skin until, finally, it was wrapped around his tongue and fired from his mouth in that one, simple sentence. He truly believed what he was saying, and for some inexplicable reason, the other Digidestined did too.
"How will you get to Tokyo Tower?" Izzy asked huskily. Tai looked sadly at him, and the younger boy could have bitten back the words as sudden insight permeated his astute brain. Tai didn't have to speak, but did anyway.
"I.... can do things that...." He paused, searching for an appropriate word. "....normal people can't." There was no need to say more, his own memories burning brightly where they'd been implanted inside the minds of his comrades.
Tai turned to go, but another voice caught around him like a lasso, pulling him back inside the apartment.
"You're gonna need back-up." Said Gatomon from Kari's arms. Her blue eyes locked expectantly with Tai's as he swivelled to face her, silently disallowing him the right to argue. An unspoken agreement passed between the human and Digimon, and he consummated it with a single, curt nod.
Kari stepped forward. "If Gatomon goes, then so do I."
"No." Her brother replied softly, not meeting her gaze.
"I'm not asking for your permission, Tai." Kari shot back, voice equally as soft. "I'm telling you."
"And I said no." Tai reiterated. "I'm not putting your life at risk, Kari."
"You wouldn't be. This is my decision, not yours. I know you're my brother, but you can't decide my life for me. I choose to go, and I'll deal with the consequences if there are any. Sora's my friend, and Gatomon needs me there to digievolve, and.... and I want to be there.... with you."
Tai lifted his line of vision, meeting his sister's eyes as she stared intently at him. Those hazel orbs were filled with a determination and grit he'd seen there before. Memories of a small child, gaudy pink scarf tied loosely round her neck, facing off against a vampire-like Digimon at least three times her size rose lucidly in Tai's psyche. She hadn't backed down then, or ever since. Now was not going to be an exception no matter what he said. Kari's mind was made up.
Despite himself, Tai gave her a small, lopsided grin. His face showed a smidgen of what his eyes blazed. The rest of the Digidestined team saw the tenderness in their leader's face, but only Kari really understood the bond showing through in the depths of his hazel spheres. Her allegiance had touched him to the bottom of his very soul, and his love for his baby sister burned in turn into hers. A year of separation suddenly meant nothing, as the two siblings reforged the link that had once been so strong between them, strengthening it until naught - not distance, not discord, not even death itself - would ever be able to breach it again.
Silently, the pair turned towards the gaping cavity before them. Gatomon leapt gracefully - if a little shakily - from her partner's embrace, to land delicately on the debris-strewn floor. Kari stepped in front of her brother, detaching the pink D-3 from her belt in preparation for the feline's needs. Numerous eyes watched her fixedly, and Tai hung back slightly, not wanting to impose on his sister's moment.
Suddenly, he felt someone grasp his arm. The brown haired youth twisted around to stare into twin pools of ice. Matt looked at Tai. Tai looked at Matt. Each quiescently read the impossible questions in the other's eyes, neither speaking a word, yet saying a thousand apiece.
A nagging feeling had plagued Matt for a long while now. Such a feeling as can be ignored and repressed, but never truly forgotten. It gnawed at his gut every moment he was awake, and haunted his dreams in slumber. However, ever since Tai's miraculous return from 'death', the odd sensation had never left him alone. It pervaded his mind when he remembered the events a year ago. It pushed itself to the fore whenever he saw the 'resurrected' boy himself. But all that paled to when he looked upon a certain face. A face with gentle, serious eyes, framed by soft chestnut tresses. A face he adored more than anything else in the world.
Matt's eyes burned with the question he yearned to ask, trusting that his suspicions were right and Tai would understand what he barely did himself. Matt wasn't a fool. He saw what flitted across that face he cared about whenever its hazel eyes rested on his long-lost friend. He discerned the emotion in that gaze which had never been present when looking at him. True, he'd seen sparks directed his way, but not the burning flames so obviously directed at his returned comrade. Not the venerated fires behind his own cerulean stare. Matt wanted - no, needed - to know if his suspicions were rooted in truth. He had to know if the fire burned also in Tai's hazel eyes. Had to see whether his was the love destined to be unrequited.
Tai read the plea in his closest friend's azure tarns. The raw agony of uncertainty there cut him to the quick, unspoken queries buzzing inside his mind like a swarm of irresolute bees. Emotion swelled within his heart, seeking solace in his hazel gaze and travelling silently along this visual link to its required destination. Tai didn't know how to put into words what he felt when he thought of that lovely face in question, with its compassionate hazel eyes, but the images which sprang unbidden to his resolved mind spoke for themselves. Years of secret devotion pulsed through him, making themselves known the only way they knew how.
Matt dropped his gaze. He'd seen the luminescent inferno blazing in the centre of Tai's hazel orbs. Now he knew. Tai was the one, the single individual whom that beautiful face had been unconsciously waiting for. The mind within that mop of silky auburn hair may not yet have fully realized it, but Matt discerned it clearly in his friend's gaze. Emotions so ancient they transcended the flimsy barriers of time and space, instead stretching out across their own universe, a gift to those lucky enough to realize them. Matt had found the emotions, but not the other half of the equation to share them with. Tai, however, had. Sighing, Matt dropped his arm to his side. He loved her, but that didn't mean he was the one; and he knew that if he was ever to truly see a smile on that face then he would have to make the ultimate sacrifice - he would have to break his own heart.
All this passed without an audible sound, and Tai rested a grateful hand on Matt's shoulder. He knew the sacrifice the blonde youth was making, and gratitude mixed with camaraderie radiated from every pore of his being. Matt jerked a short glance at his appreciative companion, before pulling himself out from under Tai's fingertips.
Tension hung in the air like a cloying fog, and Tai whirled around and sprinted through it towards the aperture in the wall. He breezed past his companions, not stopping until he reached the gaping opening. With an aptitude borne from his time under the dark entity he launched himself out into the night, flying high into the air, higher than should be possible for a human to go. Through the sheets of rain he soared, before plummeting down onto the neighbouring rooftop to land running, not even winded by the action.
On he sped. Onward towards his destination. Towards the brightly lit monolith shining even through the cascading droplets. Tai gritted his teeth as he leaped onto another rooftop, feet slapping slightly against its wet surface.
I'm coming, Sora. Don't you worry. I won't let it hurt you, I swear. Thoughts swirled within him like a torrent of anger directed at the darkness that dared to threaten the one he cared about. Choler massed about his vision, but piercing these enraged feelings sliced one sentient promise, which rolled from his psyche like the thunder across the sky.
Whatever happens, this ends tonight!
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Pain.
That was the first thing to register in Sora's fuddled brain. Searing, suffocating pain. Tendrils of unseen agony snaked their way around her neck and down into her throat itself. She coughed, retching up both the spittle catching in her gullet and the memory of sharp claws clamped around her slender neck.
Groaning slightly, the girl's wits slowly returned to her. She determined she was on her back, her spine pressed against a hard, cold surface. Metal of some sort. A biting wind buffeted her face, beating frostily against the closed lids, and water splashed heavily against her skin. Rain. So she was outside too.
Gradually she recalled what had happened before she lost consciousness. The entity taking on her form, trying to attack Tai. Herself shielding him, then being captured by the incarnate darkness. A blast of raindrops against her skin, followed by an agonizingly painful scream in the distance. Tai's scream.
Tai....
Through her befuddled stupor his face rose to meet Sora's mind's eye. The fear of being reinfested by the darkness shining white hot in his sparkling hazel eyes. Then him trying to rise, to attack his demon as it clutched at her. To save her despite his terror.
Sora tried to roll over, turning to her right to avoid leaning on her injured arm. Suddenly, a hard object connected with her midriff, sending her back onto her spine, the breath driven from her lungs. Her eyes snapped open at this, and she stared up at the tall figure that had kicked her, standing over her prone body.
To Sora, it was as if she was looking into a mirror - but a bewitched mirror from some hellish carnival. Locks of loose, chestnut hair blew across the individual's face. Her hair. Her face. Fangs indented the lower lip of her twin as it twisted its mouth into a malicious smile. Red eyes gazed unblinkingly at her, hatred glowing as clearly as the sun during the day. It viewed its prisoner through harsh, unforgiving eyelets, malice dripping like an almost tangible ooze from its false skin. A feral growl escaped its throat as it drew back its foot - her foot - and kicked her again.
Sora released a muffled 'oomph' as a copy of her own shoe buried itself in her gut. She tried to curl up in pain, but the creature bearing her face bent down and swiftly pulled her up by the collar of her pink pyjamas. Sora stumbled slightly, eliciting a shake by the evil entity that rattled her teeth within her head. When the world stopped moving, the teenager found herself face to face with.... herself.
The entity grinned at her. A leering, rancorous grin, which sent chills running up and down her spine. Either that, or the intense cold assaulting her body through the thin veneer of her nightclothes was making itself known. Clone-Sora pushed its face into the original's until its breath blew into her nose.
"Are you scared?"
Sora didn't know whether to be shocked or repulsed by the fact that the thing could talk. When it had been just a driving force inside Tai, some inexplicable entity without shape or name, it had been easier to comprehend, to accept. Now though.... now it had a voice, and a mouth with which to use it - hers. It made her feel.... violated somehow. But the sound which emanated from her twin's lips wasn't *her* sound. This was a terrible noise that seared her brain with its proximity and volume like a million knitting needles forcing their way through her very skull. A horrendous vocalization, which reminded her of Tai's agonized screams when faced with his own inner demons earlier.
Was she scared? Yes. Was she going to show it? No.
Desperately, Sora swung at the clone grasping her collar with her good arm, intending to smack its head and then run away whilst it was disorientated. However, with inhuman speed the thing released her lapels, shoving her backward so that she fell onto her rear with a metallic thud. Even as the hazel-eyed girl tried to scramble to her aching bare feet, it shot forward and kicked her squarely in her chest. Sora yelled loudly as she landed on her injured arm, jarring the torn muscles beneath the white bandage. A crimson flower blossomed through the pallid fabric as the wound was reopened, and all trace of colour drained from the girl's face as this dark stain spread.
With a sniggering growl, the dark entity loomed over her. It spoke again with its awful voice, slicing her ears like a wicked dagger.
"Stupid human. You don't realise what you're messing with."
Through the wave of nausea sweeping over her from the pain in her arm, Sora spat at it. It noted the gesture, but seemed unaffected. Tokens of human contempt were beneath its notice, but it took the opportunity of her agony to yank her upright by her hair. Sora yelped as she was forced to stand on tiptoes, cold metal numbing her already frozen feet.
"Look!" Her counterpart commanded, physically twisting her head round to stare out across.... the city.
Sora blinked. But, how could she be seeing an aerial view of the city? She was standing on solid ground. Solid.... metal ground....
At once her head whipped round, unheedful of the clump of hair lost to the entity's claws in the process. She noted the orange bars behind her; rivulets of rainwater running freely down their vivid hides. Through these strips of metal she could see a large, thin structure. More of a pole with windows than a building, really. Faces were vaguely visible through the windows, tiny at this distance, but decipherable nonetheless.
With a sickening lurch, Sora realised that she was standing on the huge metal platform encircling the Tokyo Tower. Rain slicked her hair against her head and a chilly wind pummelled her barely covered body as she gaped openly at their location.
The entity, still with a handful of detached chestnut hair, kneed its captive hard in the stomach. She went down, but was disallowed the right to crumple onto the floor in a heap, instead being forced up again, a fresh amount of hair firmly clutched in the clone's talons. Sora yelped, meeting its crimson gaze.
"Why?" She gasped out, many questions contained with that one word.
"Because you forced me from my host." It replied, practically lacerating her ears with its tone. "Because I was denied my vessel and now I want it back. Because you crossed me. Because you were born. Because I can."
Tears sprang to Sora's eyes, brought on by the intense pains located in her arm and scalp, but she wilfully shoved them back down inside herself, forcing them to return to the pool of unshed emotions they'd swum from. She gagged as a fresh surge of nausea engulfed her, retching slightly as bile crept up her craw. The entity, disgusted by her weakness, threw the heaving teenager to the floor, receiving another agonized cry for its efforts. This was the human who'd forced it so brutally from its vessel? This pathetic.... thing clasping her gut in front of it? The darkness could hardly believe its glowing, red eyes. Hatred and contempt flared within its gaze. It should kill her now, put her out of her misery. But this idea was swiftly rejected from its twisted mind. If she were to die prematurely, then the boy would never allow himself to succumb to reinfestation. Never. No, the girl was a necessary inconvenience.... at least for the moment. Cruelly, the creature ran its tongue across its serrated maw in anticipation of the blood fest that would follow soon after. Let them think they could defeat it. Those puny humans had no clue of the enormity of their situation. It could crush them easily, like bugs if it wanted to.
Sora's mind whirled at a sudden maelstrom of thoughts that weren't her own. Necessary inconvenience. Puny humans. Blood fest. Like bugs. Random images too terrible to comprehend flashed through her brain, and she gasped at their lucidity. The entity jerked its head up, stalking over and pulling her up by her hair once more. Sora gazed into its curious red spheres, wondering what the strange expression she could read there was. More odd thoughts crowded into her feverish brain. Empathy. A link. The boy. Connected. She winced under the onslaught of unexpected schizophrenia, shying away from the more violent pictures flooding her psyche.
The entity narrowed its eyes at her, and Sora stared into their ruby depths, having no other place to look from where her head was positioned. Buried in the scarlet emptiness of those orbs was an emotion Sora never believed the creature could even know, let alone experience. She studied this presence, probing it with her mind. At once another eddy of thoughts entered her. Sora blinked rainwater from her eyelashes as realization dawned upon her. They were linked. Tai and the entity shared a psychic bond because of being melded as one for so long. She could sense the underlying residue of him inside its core, as probably was the case within him. But somehow, Sora was also able to sense the entity's mind. Her part in liberating Tai's essence had somehow bonded her to him in a way never before done, and consequently she now felt everything the personified darkness before her felt. Thoughts, disjointed but intelligible, flowed into her head, winding their way around her contemplations as she called them to her.
The entity started as its internee turned to it with a superior expression it her hazel eyes. She smiled, a mischievous smile of one who knows more than they're telling.
"You're scared."
It hissed at her, taken aback by the conviction in her words, unaware yet as to the full extent of their mental link.
"What?"
"You're scared." Sora repeated smugly. "You don't have much time left, do you?"
How could this be? How could this scrawny human know?
Sora continued, the light of knowledge shining in her eyes. "You have to reinfest your host or else you'll shrivel up and die, don't you? You're a parasite. You can't survive for long without someone to live off!"
The doppelganger growled menacingly, the first tendrils of her coherent thought weaving their way through their bond towards it. So that was how she knew! But she knew too much. She didn't have the barriers against clandestine data that had been embedded in the boy. If she found out all its weaknesses and transferred them to him then everything would be finished. It would all be over. No! No, it couldn't let that happen. Better to fight the boy with his new defences then suffer defeat because of this.... this upstart girl.
Roaring with rage, the incensed creature tossed Sora across the length of the metal structure. She bounced, one, twice, three times, before rolling to a halt at the edge of the steel precipice. At some point during her inadvertent flight her bleeding arm had come loose of its fastenings, and now hung lazily over the rim, red droplets mixing with clear as the rain beat incessantly down on her already saturated form. Her body felt as if it was on fire, but she struggled to get up as she sensed the entity drawing closer. Sora squinted through the downpour, trying to make out the familiar shape of her own body through the near-blinding murk, not knowing which way to run until she was aware of its position.
A bolt of pure darkness heralded its location, speeding out of the gloom to explode just inches away from her foot. Apparently the falling water was also impeding its vision as well as her own. Sora thanked heaven for small mercies as she scrambled to her bitterly cold feet and limped off in the other direction, not really knowing what she'd do if she came to the end of the platform. At least its accuracy wasn't up to scratch. If she could just keep dodging it until....
Until what? Until Tai arrived? She'd read in the creature's mind the conviction it held that he would come, and had to admit, that was exactly the kind of thing Tai would do. Rush into a situation without bothering to think of the penalty for himself. That was what had gotten him into this predicament in the first place nine years ago, protecting Kari.
A second explosion knocked her from her feet to sprawl unceremoniously on her backside. Sora noted that she was too close to the edge for comfort, and scudded away from the brink before clambering to her deadened feet once more.
But those few seconds were to prove priceless. Before she even knew what was going on, the clone was at Sora's side, hissing and spitting like an infuriated feline. It grabbed her roughly by the shoulders, jarring her wounded arm in the process but taking little heed of her pained shout. The only thought filling its auburn-clad head was to get rid of this annoying girl before she caused any more problems. Before Sora even had time to register its thoughts through their psychic link, it had stepped forward to the periphery of the platform and savagely thrown her off it into the all-consuming blackness beyond.
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AUTHOR'S NOTES: Short, I know, but believe me, this wouldn't have worked any other way. I've been coerced by many a friendly persuasion from 'Ralph Wiggum' (don't underestimate the death threats, violent tendencies, and promise of bodily harm either!) not to grovel 4 reviews this time, and because I now fear 4 my safety, I won't. I'd still like them (please don't hurt me Ralph!) but I won't beg.
'Till next time peeps!
Scribbler ^_^
Mandatory blech finished (a slight variation on the usual 'blurb') here is the tenth instalment of my saga, with thanks to all those who have stuck with it thus far. This one's 4 U!
BTW, I suggest that anyone who doesn't know what the Tokyo Tower looks like should find a picture; otherwise I'm afraid the rest of this fic won't have the desired effect. Sorry.
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"The Darkness Within" By Scribbler
Chapter Ten ~ "Small Sacrifices"
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"If we would build on a sure foundation in friendship, we must love friends for their sake rather than for our own."-- Charlotte Bronte
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A cold wind blew, snatching beads of water from the air mere seconds after they left the swelled underbelly of the storm clouds. Sheets of driving rain battered the sides of buildings, slamming against the concrete surfaces as if trying to knock them down. Overhead a deep rumbling reverberated across the dark sky like a caged monster's roar.
Tai gazed numbly at the sodden city, his own eyes moist - but not from rain. Flecks of water sprayed through the gaping hole before him, hitting his face like a volley of needles. He made no effort to move as the cloud's tears slowly saturated him, instead slumping weakly to his knees under the harsh droplets. Fragments of crumbling building broke away only inches from him, tumbling on their deadly descent to the street far below. Their landing was deadened by the incessant beating of the rain.
A groan set up a little way behind him, but he paid it no heed. The blonde boy at his side, however, turned at the familiar noise. Matt watched through pained eyes at a red haired boy coming towards them, leaning heavily on another blonde youth wearing a fishing hat. Izzy looked dazedly at the collection of teenagers clustered around the rough aperture hewn into the side of the apartment. His eyes became wide with shock.
"What the - " He began, but halted at the expression of raw agony evident in his friend's blue eyes. His voice became serious. "What happened?"
In few words Matt told him, the younger boy's eyes widening with every phrase. At the end of the update Izzy's face was pale, all the colour having drained from his cheeks. He gazed worriedly at the sagging figure facing him.
"So, what do we do now?"
Matt was at a loss. His mind felt frozen, his tongue thick. Explaining the situation had brought home to him the events he had just witnessed in their truest sense, and shock permeated his being in a way he'd never thought it could. Even in the Digital World, when confronted with all the pain and cost of being a Digidestined, he'd never experienced such intense hopelessness. It was as if all the strength he'd acquired during that time had been stripped away, leaving nothing but his naked emotions, at the mercy of fate's cruel hand. He felt alone, and totally.... totally helpless.
Another voice broke in, filled with all the pain and all the anguish Matt couldn't put into words. This voice sliced through the air like a blade, cleaving aside all doubts as to the sincerity of the speaker.
"You do nothing." It said. "I go to Tokyo Tower."
Everyone looked at Tai, identical surprise mixed with horror embedded in their expressions. The brown haired boy simply stared out of the gap into the night, visage unwavering. Matt's tongue loosened itself slightly at his friend's statement.
"You can't!" He croaked. "We're not about to let you go off on your own Tai, not again."
"It's me the darkness wants." Tai's tone was flat, testifying facts they all knew were true but resisted accepting.
"Tai, you can't do this - "
"I'm afraid you don't have a say in the matter - any of you." Tai rose unsteadily to his feet, shaking off Davis and Joe's attempts to aid him. He breathed a deep sigh for strength. Matt started forward, but without turning around Tai sensed his action.
"Don't try to stop me." He snapped. "Too many people have been hurt or.... or died because of me already. I'm not about to let Sora become one of them."
"But Tai, we can help you." Yolei whined. Tai whirled on her, the smouldering embers in his hazel eyes so powerful that the pink haired girl had to take a step backwards.
"No, you can't!" He practically spat. "*She* tried to help me, and look what happened!" He gestured wildly at the pounding rain outside. "I'm not going to let it happen again! I won't! Not to her! Not to any of you!"
"But Tai," Ken's lilting voice tried to soothe the older boy, to talk some of his trademark good-sense into him. "If you do what the entity wants then it'll take control again."
A pause as this statement was digested by all. Then Tai spoke, his voice scant above a whisper, yet reverberating among them like he'd bellowed.
"No.... it won't."
Something in Tai's tone prevented further comment. An underlying fierceness that defied description. It was as if all the pain and all the emotion bottled up inside him for so long without an outlet had risen to the surface, bubbling beneath his skin until, finally, it was wrapped around his tongue and fired from his mouth in that one, simple sentence. He truly believed what he was saying, and for some inexplicable reason, the other Digidestined did too.
"How will you get to Tokyo Tower?" Izzy asked huskily. Tai looked sadly at him, and the younger boy could have bitten back the words as sudden insight permeated his astute brain. Tai didn't have to speak, but did anyway.
"I.... can do things that...." He paused, searching for an appropriate word. "....normal people can't." There was no need to say more, his own memories burning brightly where they'd been implanted inside the minds of his comrades.
Tai turned to go, but another voice caught around him like a lasso, pulling him back inside the apartment.
"You're gonna need back-up." Said Gatomon from Kari's arms. Her blue eyes locked expectantly with Tai's as he swivelled to face her, silently disallowing him the right to argue. An unspoken agreement passed between the human and Digimon, and he consummated it with a single, curt nod.
Kari stepped forward. "If Gatomon goes, then so do I."
"No." Her brother replied softly, not meeting her gaze.
"I'm not asking for your permission, Tai." Kari shot back, voice equally as soft. "I'm telling you."
"And I said no." Tai reiterated. "I'm not putting your life at risk, Kari."
"You wouldn't be. This is my decision, not yours. I know you're my brother, but you can't decide my life for me. I choose to go, and I'll deal with the consequences if there are any. Sora's my friend, and Gatomon needs me there to digievolve, and.... and I want to be there.... with you."
Tai lifted his line of vision, meeting his sister's eyes as she stared intently at him. Those hazel orbs were filled with a determination and grit he'd seen there before. Memories of a small child, gaudy pink scarf tied loosely round her neck, facing off against a vampire-like Digimon at least three times her size rose lucidly in Tai's psyche. She hadn't backed down then, or ever since. Now was not going to be an exception no matter what he said. Kari's mind was made up.
Despite himself, Tai gave her a small, lopsided grin. His face showed a smidgen of what his eyes blazed. The rest of the Digidestined team saw the tenderness in their leader's face, but only Kari really understood the bond showing through in the depths of his hazel spheres. Her allegiance had touched him to the bottom of his very soul, and his love for his baby sister burned in turn into hers. A year of separation suddenly meant nothing, as the two siblings reforged the link that had once been so strong between them, strengthening it until naught - not distance, not discord, not even death itself - would ever be able to breach it again.
Silently, the pair turned towards the gaping cavity before them. Gatomon leapt gracefully - if a little shakily - from her partner's embrace, to land delicately on the debris-strewn floor. Kari stepped in front of her brother, detaching the pink D-3 from her belt in preparation for the feline's needs. Numerous eyes watched her fixedly, and Tai hung back slightly, not wanting to impose on his sister's moment.
Suddenly, he felt someone grasp his arm. The brown haired youth twisted around to stare into twin pools of ice. Matt looked at Tai. Tai looked at Matt. Each quiescently read the impossible questions in the other's eyes, neither speaking a word, yet saying a thousand apiece.
A nagging feeling had plagued Matt for a long while now. Such a feeling as can be ignored and repressed, but never truly forgotten. It gnawed at his gut every moment he was awake, and haunted his dreams in slumber. However, ever since Tai's miraculous return from 'death', the odd sensation had never left him alone. It pervaded his mind when he remembered the events a year ago. It pushed itself to the fore whenever he saw the 'resurrected' boy himself. But all that paled to when he looked upon a certain face. A face with gentle, serious eyes, framed by soft chestnut tresses. A face he adored more than anything else in the world.
Matt's eyes burned with the question he yearned to ask, trusting that his suspicions were right and Tai would understand what he barely did himself. Matt wasn't a fool. He saw what flitted across that face he cared about whenever its hazel eyes rested on his long-lost friend. He discerned the emotion in that gaze which had never been present when looking at him. True, he'd seen sparks directed his way, but not the burning flames so obviously directed at his returned comrade. Not the venerated fires behind his own cerulean stare. Matt wanted - no, needed - to know if his suspicions were rooted in truth. He had to know if the fire burned also in Tai's hazel eyes. Had to see whether his was the love destined to be unrequited.
Tai read the plea in his closest friend's azure tarns. The raw agony of uncertainty there cut him to the quick, unspoken queries buzzing inside his mind like a swarm of irresolute bees. Emotion swelled within his heart, seeking solace in his hazel gaze and travelling silently along this visual link to its required destination. Tai didn't know how to put into words what he felt when he thought of that lovely face in question, with its compassionate hazel eyes, but the images which sprang unbidden to his resolved mind spoke for themselves. Years of secret devotion pulsed through him, making themselves known the only way they knew how.
Matt dropped his gaze. He'd seen the luminescent inferno blazing in the centre of Tai's hazel orbs. Now he knew. Tai was the one, the single individual whom that beautiful face had been unconsciously waiting for. The mind within that mop of silky auburn hair may not yet have fully realized it, but Matt discerned it clearly in his friend's gaze. Emotions so ancient they transcended the flimsy barriers of time and space, instead stretching out across their own universe, a gift to those lucky enough to realize them. Matt had found the emotions, but not the other half of the equation to share them with. Tai, however, had. Sighing, Matt dropped his arm to his side. He loved her, but that didn't mean he was the one; and he knew that if he was ever to truly see a smile on that face then he would have to make the ultimate sacrifice - he would have to break his own heart.
All this passed without an audible sound, and Tai rested a grateful hand on Matt's shoulder. He knew the sacrifice the blonde youth was making, and gratitude mixed with camaraderie radiated from every pore of his being. Matt jerked a short glance at his appreciative companion, before pulling himself out from under Tai's fingertips.
Tension hung in the air like a cloying fog, and Tai whirled around and sprinted through it towards the aperture in the wall. He breezed past his companions, not stopping until he reached the gaping opening. With an aptitude borne from his time under the dark entity he launched himself out into the night, flying high into the air, higher than should be possible for a human to go. Through the sheets of rain he soared, before plummeting down onto the neighbouring rooftop to land running, not even winded by the action.
On he sped. Onward towards his destination. Towards the brightly lit monolith shining even through the cascading droplets. Tai gritted his teeth as he leaped onto another rooftop, feet slapping slightly against its wet surface.
I'm coming, Sora. Don't you worry. I won't let it hurt you, I swear. Thoughts swirled within him like a torrent of anger directed at the darkness that dared to threaten the one he cared about. Choler massed about his vision, but piercing these enraged feelings sliced one sentient promise, which rolled from his psyche like the thunder across the sky.
Whatever happens, this ends tonight!
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Pain.
That was the first thing to register in Sora's fuddled brain. Searing, suffocating pain. Tendrils of unseen agony snaked their way around her neck and down into her throat itself. She coughed, retching up both the spittle catching in her gullet and the memory of sharp claws clamped around her slender neck.
Groaning slightly, the girl's wits slowly returned to her. She determined she was on her back, her spine pressed against a hard, cold surface. Metal of some sort. A biting wind buffeted her face, beating frostily against the closed lids, and water splashed heavily against her skin. Rain. So she was outside too.
Gradually she recalled what had happened before she lost consciousness. The entity taking on her form, trying to attack Tai. Herself shielding him, then being captured by the incarnate darkness. A blast of raindrops against her skin, followed by an agonizingly painful scream in the distance. Tai's scream.
Tai....
Through her befuddled stupor his face rose to meet Sora's mind's eye. The fear of being reinfested by the darkness shining white hot in his sparkling hazel eyes. Then him trying to rise, to attack his demon as it clutched at her. To save her despite his terror.
Sora tried to roll over, turning to her right to avoid leaning on her injured arm. Suddenly, a hard object connected with her midriff, sending her back onto her spine, the breath driven from her lungs. Her eyes snapped open at this, and she stared up at the tall figure that had kicked her, standing over her prone body.
To Sora, it was as if she was looking into a mirror - but a bewitched mirror from some hellish carnival. Locks of loose, chestnut hair blew across the individual's face. Her hair. Her face. Fangs indented the lower lip of her twin as it twisted its mouth into a malicious smile. Red eyes gazed unblinkingly at her, hatred glowing as clearly as the sun during the day. It viewed its prisoner through harsh, unforgiving eyelets, malice dripping like an almost tangible ooze from its false skin. A feral growl escaped its throat as it drew back its foot - her foot - and kicked her again.
Sora released a muffled 'oomph' as a copy of her own shoe buried itself in her gut. She tried to curl up in pain, but the creature bearing her face bent down and swiftly pulled her up by the collar of her pink pyjamas. Sora stumbled slightly, eliciting a shake by the evil entity that rattled her teeth within her head. When the world stopped moving, the teenager found herself face to face with.... herself.
The entity grinned at her. A leering, rancorous grin, which sent chills running up and down her spine. Either that, or the intense cold assaulting her body through the thin veneer of her nightclothes was making itself known. Clone-Sora pushed its face into the original's until its breath blew into her nose.
"Are you scared?"
Sora didn't know whether to be shocked or repulsed by the fact that the thing could talk. When it had been just a driving force inside Tai, some inexplicable entity without shape or name, it had been easier to comprehend, to accept. Now though.... now it had a voice, and a mouth with which to use it - hers. It made her feel.... violated somehow. But the sound which emanated from her twin's lips wasn't *her* sound. This was a terrible noise that seared her brain with its proximity and volume like a million knitting needles forcing their way through her very skull. A horrendous vocalization, which reminded her of Tai's agonized screams when faced with his own inner demons earlier.
Was she scared? Yes. Was she going to show it? No.
Desperately, Sora swung at the clone grasping her collar with her good arm, intending to smack its head and then run away whilst it was disorientated. However, with inhuman speed the thing released her lapels, shoving her backward so that she fell onto her rear with a metallic thud. Even as the hazel-eyed girl tried to scramble to her aching bare feet, it shot forward and kicked her squarely in her chest. Sora yelled loudly as she landed on her injured arm, jarring the torn muscles beneath the white bandage. A crimson flower blossomed through the pallid fabric as the wound was reopened, and all trace of colour drained from the girl's face as this dark stain spread.
With a sniggering growl, the dark entity loomed over her. It spoke again with its awful voice, slicing her ears like a wicked dagger.
"Stupid human. You don't realise what you're messing with."
Through the wave of nausea sweeping over her from the pain in her arm, Sora spat at it. It noted the gesture, but seemed unaffected. Tokens of human contempt were beneath its notice, but it took the opportunity of her agony to yank her upright by her hair. Sora yelped as she was forced to stand on tiptoes, cold metal numbing her already frozen feet.
"Look!" Her counterpart commanded, physically twisting her head round to stare out across.... the city.
Sora blinked. But, how could she be seeing an aerial view of the city? She was standing on solid ground. Solid.... metal ground....
At once her head whipped round, unheedful of the clump of hair lost to the entity's claws in the process. She noted the orange bars behind her; rivulets of rainwater running freely down their vivid hides. Through these strips of metal she could see a large, thin structure. More of a pole with windows than a building, really. Faces were vaguely visible through the windows, tiny at this distance, but decipherable nonetheless.
With a sickening lurch, Sora realised that she was standing on the huge metal platform encircling the Tokyo Tower. Rain slicked her hair against her head and a chilly wind pummelled her barely covered body as she gaped openly at their location.
The entity, still with a handful of detached chestnut hair, kneed its captive hard in the stomach. She went down, but was disallowed the right to crumple onto the floor in a heap, instead being forced up again, a fresh amount of hair firmly clutched in the clone's talons. Sora yelped, meeting its crimson gaze.
"Why?" She gasped out, many questions contained with that one word.
"Because you forced me from my host." It replied, practically lacerating her ears with its tone. "Because I was denied my vessel and now I want it back. Because you crossed me. Because you were born. Because I can."
Tears sprang to Sora's eyes, brought on by the intense pains located in her arm and scalp, but she wilfully shoved them back down inside herself, forcing them to return to the pool of unshed emotions they'd swum from. She gagged as a fresh surge of nausea engulfed her, retching slightly as bile crept up her craw. The entity, disgusted by her weakness, threw the heaving teenager to the floor, receiving another agonized cry for its efforts. This was the human who'd forced it so brutally from its vessel? This pathetic.... thing clasping her gut in front of it? The darkness could hardly believe its glowing, red eyes. Hatred and contempt flared within its gaze. It should kill her now, put her out of her misery. But this idea was swiftly rejected from its twisted mind. If she were to die prematurely, then the boy would never allow himself to succumb to reinfestation. Never. No, the girl was a necessary inconvenience.... at least for the moment. Cruelly, the creature ran its tongue across its serrated maw in anticipation of the blood fest that would follow soon after. Let them think they could defeat it. Those puny humans had no clue of the enormity of their situation. It could crush them easily, like bugs if it wanted to.
Sora's mind whirled at a sudden maelstrom of thoughts that weren't her own. Necessary inconvenience. Puny humans. Blood fest. Like bugs. Random images too terrible to comprehend flashed through her brain, and she gasped at their lucidity. The entity jerked its head up, stalking over and pulling her up by her hair once more. Sora gazed into its curious red spheres, wondering what the strange expression she could read there was. More odd thoughts crowded into her feverish brain. Empathy. A link. The boy. Connected. She winced under the onslaught of unexpected schizophrenia, shying away from the more violent pictures flooding her psyche.
The entity narrowed its eyes at her, and Sora stared into their ruby depths, having no other place to look from where her head was positioned. Buried in the scarlet emptiness of those orbs was an emotion Sora never believed the creature could even know, let alone experience. She studied this presence, probing it with her mind. At once another eddy of thoughts entered her. Sora blinked rainwater from her eyelashes as realization dawned upon her. They were linked. Tai and the entity shared a psychic bond because of being melded as one for so long. She could sense the underlying residue of him inside its core, as probably was the case within him. But somehow, Sora was also able to sense the entity's mind. Her part in liberating Tai's essence had somehow bonded her to him in a way never before done, and consequently she now felt everything the personified darkness before her felt. Thoughts, disjointed but intelligible, flowed into her head, winding their way around her contemplations as she called them to her.
The entity started as its internee turned to it with a superior expression it her hazel eyes. She smiled, a mischievous smile of one who knows more than they're telling.
"You're scared."
It hissed at her, taken aback by the conviction in her words, unaware yet as to the full extent of their mental link.
"What?"
"You're scared." Sora repeated smugly. "You don't have much time left, do you?"
How could this be? How could this scrawny human know?
Sora continued, the light of knowledge shining in her eyes. "You have to reinfest your host or else you'll shrivel up and die, don't you? You're a parasite. You can't survive for long without someone to live off!"
The doppelganger growled menacingly, the first tendrils of her coherent thought weaving their way through their bond towards it. So that was how she knew! But she knew too much. She didn't have the barriers against clandestine data that had been embedded in the boy. If she found out all its weaknesses and transferred them to him then everything would be finished. It would all be over. No! No, it couldn't let that happen. Better to fight the boy with his new defences then suffer defeat because of this.... this upstart girl.
Roaring with rage, the incensed creature tossed Sora across the length of the metal structure. She bounced, one, twice, three times, before rolling to a halt at the edge of the steel precipice. At some point during her inadvertent flight her bleeding arm had come loose of its fastenings, and now hung lazily over the rim, red droplets mixing with clear as the rain beat incessantly down on her already saturated form. Her body felt as if it was on fire, but she struggled to get up as she sensed the entity drawing closer. Sora squinted through the downpour, trying to make out the familiar shape of her own body through the near-blinding murk, not knowing which way to run until she was aware of its position.
A bolt of pure darkness heralded its location, speeding out of the gloom to explode just inches away from her foot. Apparently the falling water was also impeding its vision as well as her own. Sora thanked heaven for small mercies as she scrambled to her bitterly cold feet and limped off in the other direction, not really knowing what she'd do if she came to the end of the platform. At least its accuracy wasn't up to scratch. If she could just keep dodging it until....
Until what? Until Tai arrived? She'd read in the creature's mind the conviction it held that he would come, and had to admit, that was exactly the kind of thing Tai would do. Rush into a situation without bothering to think of the penalty for himself. That was what had gotten him into this predicament in the first place nine years ago, protecting Kari.
A second explosion knocked her from her feet to sprawl unceremoniously on her backside. Sora noted that she was too close to the edge for comfort, and scudded away from the brink before clambering to her deadened feet once more.
But those few seconds were to prove priceless. Before she even knew what was going on, the clone was at Sora's side, hissing and spitting like an infuriated feline. It grabbed her roughly by the shoulders, jarring her wounded arm in the process but taking little heed of her pained shout. The only thought filling its auburn-clad head was to get rid of this annoying girl before she caused any more problems. Before Sora even had time to register its thoughts through their psychic link, it had stepped forward to the periphery of the platform and savagely thrown her off it into the all-consuming blackness beyond.
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AUTHOR'S NOTES: Short, I know, but believe me, this wouldn't have worked any other way. I've been coerced by many a friendly persuasion from 'Ralph Wiggum' (don't underestimate the death threats, violent tendencies, and promise of bodily harm either!) not to grovel 4 reviews this time, and because I now fear 4 my safety, I won't. I'd still like them (please don't hurt me Ralph!) but I won't beg.
'Till next time peeps!
Scribbler ^_^
