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For They Shall Be Filled

By: Vain  5/31/2001-1/26/2002

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Vain:  Dadada!!!!

Tsuzuki:  Oi . . . How much of that Vick 44 have you drank now, Vain-chan?

Vain:  *grins and bounces up and down*  Ah!  I don't know Zuki-saaaaaaaaaaan.  Hmm?  Two bottles?  Hehehehehehe.  I can't feel my elbows!!!!

Watari:  *to Tsuzuki*  You made her eat your curry chicken again, didn't you?

Tsuzuki:  Me?!  It's the Vicks!!

Vain: *singsongs* Read and review.  Ari~gato and ja ne!!!!!!

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~"But when they deliver you up, do not worry about how or what you should speak.

 For it will be given to you in that hour what you should speak."

-Matthew 10: 19

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Part Thirty-Four

What Was Given and What Was Taken Away

"You should have seen it, Tai!!  It looked like the whole sky just got ripped open and then this dragon-thing comes out of nowhere and slams right into the Dagy-thing-"

"Dagomon."

"That's what I said.  Who's telling this story anyway, Yolei?"

Kari squeezed her eyes shut, tucked her head in her hands, pushed herself farther down into the sleeping bag, and tried to block out the voices.  She didn't want to wake up yet.

"Well, if you'd tell it right-"

"So what happened then, Davis?"

"Hey!  I was talking—"

"Well then, Kari and TK and Ken are still holding hands and doing the freaky glowing thing and the dragon hit the baddie and WHAM!!!"

"Wham?"

"Co~dy!"

"It didn't wham."

Kari groaned softly and curled up into a ball with a dark scowl.

"Get your own story, Yolei!  This one is mine!"

"But it didn't wham, Davis."

"Who's side are you on, Demiveemon?"

Somebody echoed her groan nearby and then she heard TK's voice, thick with sleep.  "Kari?"

"What?"

"Do you think if we "whammed" again we could make Davis shut up?"

She chuckled and shifted a bit, trying to reclaim the comfort of her sleep.

"I don't care what Davis is doing," Ken muttered irritably from somewhere to her left.  "Short of the Armageddon, I am never, ever, ever doing that again.  I feel horrid."

The girl rolled over and opened her eyes, blinking as the last vestiges of sleep fell off.  Ken was curled up in his sleeping bag in a fetal position facing her with Leafmon held close to his chest.  A dark frowned marred his face and his eyes were shut in a fashion that could only be described as stubborn; he had almost looked like he was pouting.  Behind him, Takeru was lying on his back with both hands beneath his head and staring at the ceiling of the tent.

Outside the tent, Demiveemon muttered an apology and Davis resumed his story.  Kari smiled faintly; she could almost see him gesturing with the particular earnest and somehow confused animation that could only belong to Davis Motomiya.  For a moment she felt as though she were something treasured and precious simply because she was considered his friend.

"So any~way . . . like I was saying before, the dragon-thing slams right into the bad guy and he like splits in two!  You should have seen it!  There was the digimon, but then there was the man part.  And then it looked like they both got swallowed by all this silver light that the dragon was made of.  It was awesome!!"

"But what happened to the woman with no eyes?"

"I dunno.  Ken said he did something with her."

"Never mind then . . ."

"What?  I'm sure it wasn't anything really, really bad . . ."

Someone sighed.

"What?!"

"You're too innocent, Davis."

Ken growled and pulled his knees up closer to his chest. 

TK stretched.  "Well, I really don't see any of us going back to sleep any time soon, so we may as well get up."

Kari watched him through half-open eyes as he stood and pulled his hat over his rumpled bed hair.

"I'm not going anywhere, Takaishi," Ken groused.  Leafmon wiggled in his arms as he started to wake up as well.

Kari rolled over again and was somewhat surprised to find herself staring at Gatomon's sleeping form.  "I have to agree with Ken on this one."  The girl yawn, demurely covering her mouth with one hand as she closed her eyes again.  "It is way too early to get up."

TK chuckled.  "It's two o'clock."

Ken sat up so fast that Leafmon fell.  "It's what?"

"Ken!"

The dark-haired boy lifted his now-alert and highly annoyed partner up almost absently as he pushed himself to his feet.  He winced as his stiff muscles protested the sudden demands of movement. 

Kari burrowed deeper into her sleeping bag.  "I don't want to get up."

Gatomon tickled her girl's nose with the tip of her tail until Kari opened her eyes to frown at the digimon who, for all appearances, seemed to still be asleep.  The Champion's large blue eyes opened and she stretched lazily before walking over to the tent flap.  "The others have been really worried about you three.  Especially your brothers."  Ken's flinch did not go unnoticed by anyone in the tent.  "Besides, everyone has a ton of questions for you and Ken."  She vanished before Kari could say anything.

Ken shrugged and followed her outside, blinking at the sun.

Kari stared at the tent flap for a moment looked up at her friend.  For a moment the pair stared at one another in silence.  TK's blues eyes flickered and he looked away.  "What happened to you two?  You're both a little bit . . . off."

The girl pushed herself to her feet and smoothed out her clothes.  They were wearing the same outfits they had been wearing before they had entered the Digital World.  Delicate fingers smoothed back her hair and readjusted her hair clips.  "I . . ." Her right clip made a popping sound as she opened it.  "I don't know.  I . . . saw something, TK."  She replaced the clip in her hair and shivered.  "There's something in my head.  It's like . . . a bruise on my mind.  A kind of itching underneath the skin . . ." She trailed and gave him a lopsided smile.  "I guess I'm not really explaining this all that well, am I?"

He took two swift steps and wrapped his arms around her.  "Then we'll all just have to help you figure it out, then, okay?"

Kari sighed and leaned back into TK's arm.  "Thanks TK . . . You're a real friend."

"That's what I'm here for."

**************

Ken scowled as the sun struck him in the eyes and for just a moment he considered crawling back into the tent and sleeping for the rest of the day.  His head felt like it was packed with sawdust.  A muscle in his cheek twitched, and a dull ache reminded him of the forgotten bruise on his cheek.  He hadn't looked in the mirror since Friday morning and imagined that he looked rather unattractive.  It seemed grossly inappropriate that only three days had passed.

Someone grabbed his wrist and yanked him over to somewhere before his eyes could adjust, but he didn't need to see to recognize Davis's voice.

"Dude, come sit down over here!"

He reflexively clutched his digimon tighter as he was jerked down to the ground and when his eyes cleared he found himself sitting on his knees in a loose circle between Davis and Cody.  The digimon were in the center of the circle, stuffing themselves with what appeared to be California rolls, rice balls, and various chocolate confections.  Leafmon happily bounced over to the pile and shoved his face into a container of sushi and began eating loudly.  Ken stared at his partner, momentarily bemused, and then shook his head ruefully.

He turned to Davis.  "So what happened?"

"Hmm?"  The other boy stopped in mid-reach for a rice ball and looked up at Ken.  A smile lit his face and he turned back to the rice balls.  "You three collapsed just about the second you came out of the Digiport-fell like stones.  You really gave us a scare until Izzy said that you were probably just exhausted."

Ken nodded and filed the information away.  He shifted his legs to a more comfortable position and a rice ball and juice box was shoved into his hands.  He shot Cody a surprised look that the other boy brushed aside by lifting up his own juice box and taking a sip.  "Thank you."

Cody nodded.

"So, Ken . . ." At the sound of Izzy's voice, his eye flickered to the other side of the circle where the Child of Knowledge sat between Matt and Yolei.  "Maybe you can help us sort out our confusion."

Ken eyed his rice ball in an attempt to find a way to eat it as demurely and obtrusively as possible.  "How's that?"

Next to him, Davis shoved the last half of his rice ball into his mouth without a thought.  "Dey vunt jew know 'bout gee dimimon."

Ken blinked.

"They want to know about the digimon," Yolei translated.

Ken shrugged and fiddled with his straw.  "Near as I can tell, he wasn't really a digimon.  Or even a human by that point in time."

Kari's voiced sounded from somewhere behind and he relaxed, grateful to no longer be the center of attention.  "He was a renegade guardian."

He didn't turn around when Kari and TK emerged from the tent and came to sit in the circle.  Ken settled back and frowned slightly when he saw how washed out Kari looked in the pale yellow sunlight.

She sat down between Yolei and Tai and gratefully accepted the rice ball the other girl offered her.  Takeru sat between Matt and Izzy and picked at a sushi roll his brother handed him.

Tai eyed his sister in concern.  "A what?" 

Sunlight bounced off her silver hairclips as she dropped her head and sighed.  Kari set down her food and pulled her knees up close to her chest before she continued.  "Like Gennai.  He was supposed to be one of the Guardians of the Original Digidestined, but something happened and he went crazy.  There were originally four guardians, one for each Holy Beast and every two Children, except for Miracles.  But this one-Kazunori Saito . . . something went wrong.  He . . . went insane . . . killed two of the others . . . and took Sanghee away with him.  He cast a spell to join him with a Dagomon because he wanted its power, but Gennai and the Digidestined interrupted the ceremony and the two fused incorrectly.  That's why the Dagomon looked so deformed.  The spell was losing hold and killing them-he was literally falling apart at the seams."  She shivered.

Yolei frowned and fidgeted uncomfortably in the silence that followed.  "How do you know all this, Kari . . .?  Did someone tell you, or-"

Kari shook her head.  "I don't know," she muttered miserably.  "It's all in my head.  I can see it all, just like I was there when it happened.  Gennai had been Kazunori's apprentice.  When his master turned on the Holy Beasts . . ." She paused for a moment and closed her eyes.  "It nearly killed him."

For a moment no one said anything else, then Tai gently put an arm around his sister's shoulders.  "Do you remember what happened to you while you were missing?"

She shook her head and he bit his lower lip, scowling at whatever had his sister so distraught.  He shot a dark look across the circle.  "Ken?"

The younger boy stared back at him emotionlessly. 

"Do you remember anything?"

He shook his head.  A touch of pain entered the young prodigy's eyes when they flickered to Kari.  "I just remember waking up in a dark room.  The woman, Sanghee, was already dead."

Tai's face tightened a bit.  Ken was lying-he could feel it in his bones.  "Are you sure?"

The Child of Kindness and Miracles nodded and took a sip of juice.  "All I remember is waking up in a room with a headache and a corpse and then finding Kari laying in the hall.  Nothing more."

Tai scowled and opened his mouth, but Izzy suddenly talked over him.  "This is odd."

Everyone turned to the senior genius curiously. TK swallowed a bite of sushi.  "What is it?'

Izzy scowled down at the screen of his D-Terminal.  "This just can't be right at all.  Are you guys sure that the base was destroyed."

One of Ken's eyebrows lifted ever so slightly.  "We were on it at the time."

"Hmph.  Then how did it end up in the Server Desert?"

"What?"  Ken pulled out his own D-Terminal and opened it, his eyes widening as they flickered over the small screen.  "This isn't possible."

Davis frowned at the perplexed look on the other boy's face.  "Ken?"

"This just isn't possible," he repeated.  "The core blew out.  The base dropped like a stone."

"Well, if the core blew out, then how did you survive?"

Ken looked up at Izzy.  "I beg your pardon?"

"Well if the base went down," the Child of Knowledge reasoned, "then you all should have been blown up."

Kari shifted restlessly and looked troubled.  "It could have been Sanghee."

Izzy blinked.  "How so?"

"Sanghee didn't really have any solid or combative power, but I'm pretty sure that she could cast illusions.  She could also supposedly read the future and send out her spirit, but I don't know."  The girl shook her head and frowned.  "It's all fuzzy.  I can't really see."

Cody turned Kari to Ken.  "Then she might not be dead."

"What?"

The younger boy shrugged.  "You might have just woken up to an illusion.  After all, how else do you explain everything?  The base?  You waking up and just happening to find Kari outside?  She could have set it up."

TK shook his head and looked perplexed.  "But that doesn't make any sense.  Why would she do that?  I don't buy it."

Cody's green eyes remained on Ken, holding his gaze.  "I don't know.  Maybe she got tired of him.  Maybe she wanted to betray him and get away with it.  Dagomon thinks she dead, he gets sloppy in battle—careless.  Plus, she gets away scott free.  What do you think?"

Ken held his gaze for a moment before tearing his eyes away to study his rice ball.  After a moment of investigation, he looked back at Cody.  "I think your reading into things.  I think that she's dead, he's dead, and this was all a monumental waste of time.  I think that it's over."

"But why would the base show up on Server again?" Matt pressed.

Ken's eyes flickered over to the other boy and a faint shadow of a scowl danced over his face before vanishing.  "It was a return protocol I built into the original system.  In case the base ever became damaged and for some reason I or Wormmon were unable to respond, it was programmed to return to the Server Desert."

"Why there?"

"Because that's where I built it."

"Oh."

For a moment no one said anything and the silence grew until it was something loud and obnoxious.  Davis fidgeted and sighed and even the digimon seemed to grow quiet and still.

"So that's it then?"  Izzy looked around the circle as he tried to process all the data he had heard.  "It's over?"

The Children all nodded wearily, all of them looking suddenly drained.

"We killed him," Yolei said, tears building in her eyes.  "We killed a human being."

"He wasn't," Kari repeated with a sigh.  "I don't know what he was, but it wasn't human anymore."

"He was an abomination."

All eyes flickered to Ken and Cody frowned.  Ken's face softened then.  He didn't really show more emotion, he just didn't look quite so harsh.

"But it's over now," he reiterated.  "We're done with all this."  He took a tiny bite out of his rice ball and lay down on his back to stare at the sky. 

The birds chirped and the wind blew, but despite a general feeling of dissatisfaction and incompletion, nobody said anything.  There was nothing really left to say.

**************

Gennai stood next to the lake and sighed heavily.  Too much. Too much to do.  Too much done . . . far, far too much left undone.  His stomach was sore, but he knew better than to complain.  If he was still fully human, not even the Guardian's magic could have saved him.  It had taken a lot of their strength to even transport him across dimensions.

He took a step onto the pinkish surface of the water and the waves spread apart to reveal a neatly cut staircase leading down to the floor of the lake.  It would be nice to go home.  He'd take off his shoes, clean up his filthy robes, and maybe talk to a few fish.  And there would be tea.  He could hardly wait to have a nice hot cup of green tea with just a tiny bit of honey.  He smiled and began to descend the stairs.  It would be nice.  He'd have an evening to himself at long last.  Another sigh escaped him.

Fish darted past him as he walked down the smooth walk to his neat, Japanese style home.  A few of the fish swam close and waved to him from the watery wall, welcoming him home after so very long.  He smiled a tired smile and waved back.  Yes, it was definitely good to be back.

He opened the door and closed it behind him silently, oblivious to the water as it returned to its original state. 

"So just where have you been?"

Gennai paused from taking off his shoes and looked up.  A rookie digimon was in the water right outside his window, staring at him with practiced nonchalance.  The Betamon, a green attitude with flippers that doubled as claws and a red dorsal fin that doubled as a Mohawk, blinked his amber eyes and grinned, an unpleasant expression that prominently displayed his many sharp teeth.  Most Betamon were placid and sedate until angered, but this one was a firecracker no matter what mood he was in.  Gennai had known him for quite a while, long before the rest of his clan had digivolved and moved on.  This one stayed behind to guard Gennai's home after the traveler had saved the creature from a very angry Elecmon.

The traveler smiled as his friend leapt through the window to land with a wet splat on the floor.  "So where were you?" the digimon grated as it clicked its little body across the floor.  "And how did you get hurt?"

Gennai blinked, startled.  "How did you know I was hurt?"

"You smell like pain.  Let's have tea.  I haven't had tea in quite a while."

"Alright."

The Betamon made his way over to the low-set table and watched as Gennai bustled around.  "Out screwing up again, were you?"

"Something like that."

Gennai returned a few minutes later carrying a tea tray.  There was one teacup and one shallow, wide bowl for the digimon.  The tray was set down and china clinked for several quiet minutes as everything was prepared.  When the two were both settled in with their tea, Gennai heaved a heavy sigh.

"Well?" demanded the digimon a third time.

The man cracked his neck and settled back a bit.  "Ken opened the Radiance."

"I thought the Davis kid did that already."

Gennai took a sip.  "Mmm?  Sort of.  Plus the Sacred Triangle has been activated and Kazunori and Sanghee are dead."

The Betamon absorbed this all without blinking.  "So?  I'm sure you didn't do anything to really help them, and probably only hindered them.  You didn't come clean about Ryou and Myotismon, did you?  You probably just tried to play it down the center and ended up making an even bigger mess than was there in the first place.  You usually do."

If his words offended the traveler, there was no indication.  "They're alive, aren't they?  The Holy Beasts underestimate the true value of the Children.  They are not expendable.  If I get into hot water with the Masters or you don't approve of my methods . . ." He trailed off with a shrug.

The Betamon finished off his bowl and Gennai refilled it.  "You should quit," the digimon advised after his bowl was ready.  "This isn't the first time you've done something stupid and nearly died for it.  The Holy Beasts don't even bother punishing you for your indiscretions anymore.  Quit.  Take an extended vacation or something.  Once the boy is ready, they won't keep standing for your pigheadedness."

Gennai sighed and poured himself another cup of tea.  "Betamon?"

"Mmm?"

"Shut up."

The Betamon slurped loudly.  When he didn't respond the traveler set down his teacup, steepled his hands, and stared darkly out the window.  A school of fish swam past.  "And what am I supposed to do, Betamon?  I have to protect the Digidestined.  I have to keep them safe.  That's what I was trained to do.  That is what I will do."

Betamon sighed.  "You're a nimrod, traveler."

"We all have our shortcomings, my friend."

**************

He loved her.  Oh, he was a fool and he knew it, but he loved her still.  He was made for it.  It was in his blood.  She was a part of him-the best of him.  So when he had found her alone and battered in the forest, he had felt it acutely with every part of his being.  He would care for her, nurse her, ignore her violent rebuffs . . . But he would not rage near her.  He had rage, mountains of it, for whoever had dared harm his beloved-his Arukenimon-but she would never see it.  She raged, so he would not.  She hated, so he would not.  She feared, so he would not.  She led, so he would not.

He would always be what she could not.  He made her perfect that way-took the ugliness that marred her beauty into himself and completed her in this fashion.  This was how he worship her-his quiet and eternal benediction to her.  His devotion.  He would complete her and thus be a part of her, just as she was a part of him.  He loved her utterly and until the end.

"What are you staring at, you bumbling moron?!  Quit oggling me and get your bones over here before I give you a reason to wear all those bandages!"

He cringed and ran over to her side.  "Yes, my-"

She slapped him hard, knocking him to the ground.  

He was still for a moment, blinking his one good eye at the dirt, and more than a little confused by the ringing in his ears.

"Those brats succeeded," she growled, tugging at her precious long white hair so roughly she nearly ripped it out by the roots.  "Betrayal after betrayal," the woman hissed, giving her hair another tug.  "From the beginning this was supposed to be fixed.  Ichijouji was to build the Spires, the Master was supposed open the digital gates, nobody else was supposed to be involved!!"  Another tug.  "Not the Chosen Children, not the Dark Undersea Master, not Gennai, not Daemon . . . No one!  What went wrong?!"  There came a sudden ripping noise as she pulled out a considerable section of the hair in the back. 

Mummymon flinched, but she didn't seem to notice the results of her own actions.

"Well, pumpkin, it seems to me that Ichijouji has been the cause of all this misfortune.  If we kill him-"

She glared at him through her purple sunglasses and he nearly swallowed his own tongue.

"Ichijouji," she spat out the name like a curse, "is not the cause, he is the focus, you brainless dithering pathetic excuse for a male specimen of any species!!"

"But if the Boss wants us to eliminate the problems we've encountered, then why don't we just kill him, poppet?"

She wheeled on him and for an instant he thought she would strike him again.  Instead she merely strode past him to the jeep.  "The Boss favors him.  Besides, that would best be done by finding out what has caused the problems and eliminating them from the root.  You don't rip out the entire garden to weed.  Now get over here.  The Boss wants to see us.  We have new orders."

"But what about the boy, my love?"

"What about him?" she snapped irritably.  "He's the Boss's problem now.  Let him deal with it.  Besides, he wants us to ensure that his plan encounters no more difficulties.  That means that the Digidestined are our targets, not the boy.  And anybody else who wants to stand in our way."

Mummymon climbed into the jeep and fastened his seatbelt.  "And the boy?"

"That is not our concern.  Get that through your head."

He nodded, confused.  "Does that mean that we can stop protecting him now, too?"

She grimaced.  "How should I know?"

Her companion bit one of his lips and started the engine.  For a moment the two were silent and then he slid her a sidelong glance.  She ignored him.

"Sugar muffin?"

". . ."

"Dear heart?"

" . . ."

"My odiferous little cabbage . . .?"

Arukenimon gave him a look that could peel paint.  "Is this important?"

"I'm still afraid I don't really understand.  What's changed between today and yesterday?"

She looked away from and twirled a bit of hair anxiously around her pointer finger.  When she didn't respond, he hazarded another glance in her direction.  "Arukenimon?"

A noise of disgust left her.  "Nothing.  Everything.  I don't know."

"Arukenimon?"

"What?"

"Has anything really changed?"

"Not as far as I can tell."

"Then what was all the fuss about?"

She turned back to him and dropped her head a bit so that she could stare at him over the rims of her purple sunglasses.  Her ivory-white irises dilated slightly.  "How should I know?  Just shut up and drive, Mummymon."

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