AN: Aloha again! Didn't expect to see me twice in one day, did you? Nya-nya! Actually, this isn't my doing. It's my muse's doing. It's all his fault. I've been *obsessed* with this story. Literally. Every time I turned on the computer, I'd pull this thing up. My other stories are getting mad. (No, these 'other stories' are not on FF.net. They're on my web page, and they're all Ranma 1/2. G'wan and read, if you want. BWA-hahaha!) Anyway, if you're just coming in the story, prepare to be utterly lost and confused. You won't understand, I'm telling you that right now. So, I suggest you go check out my other chapters and find out what hundreds of other FF.net peoples have found out already! I'm truly insane, I love Matt, and I have an obsession with obsessions and ulterior motives. I also like character development and strange twists. I am insane. Anyway, I have to move on.
(Note: I'm really tired. Really, really, really tired. Yesterday was one of the Worst Days Ever. It was such a bad day. And I didn't get much sleep last night because my cats are bad, naughty kittens. I am tired, and thusly am slightly deranged. Go easy on me, here. I have NOT been having a nice time lately. Please, try to relate here. Thank you.)
Ok. Once again, I'm going to explain. Those of you who have read all the other chapters should know what I'm talking about here. Humor me. The @*@ things mean a break in scenes. I.E. a shift in place, time, or POV. Ok? Ok. Single stars will mean thoughts in paragraphs and Italics or emphasis in speech or text. For instance, (I'll be nice and change this for you) *I am so tired!* would be a thought, as it's an entire section. But "I am *so* tired!" would put an emphasis on so'. Get it? You have to just read the passage in text and it'll usually be pretty plain as to which it is. That's the idea, anyway. Also, things that say *FLASHBACK* mean the beginning of a flashback. A thing that says *END FLASHBACK* will tell you when the flashback ends. Just thought I'd let you know.
If you took the time to notice, the rating is still PG-13. That's because Matt wakes up in this chapter, and we *all* remember how he has to be woken up. Yes, another VenomCobrmon bite. Don't you just hate him? I do, and I wrote him into existence! Heavens...anyway, we also meet Meloremon. I know, I know! *Finally*! This will probably be my last post for a while, because I'm starting school soon. I'm gonna be in tenth grade! Yeah! Huzzah! (Translation? This will probably be my last post for a while, because I'm going into hell soon. Kill me now! I beg you! Please!) Anyway, as always, READ (well, duh, Angel! What *else* are they here for?) and REVIEW!!! (Please. I'm serious. Please. I'm getting really depressed over here. Please. Thank you.)
Many thank yous and alohas!
-Angel Baby
@*@
VenomCobrmon led them to a gigantic room, empty save the huge crystal chandelier that hung from the high ceiling. The doors, two magnificently carved pieces of art that swung in, reached to the roof, and all the Digidestined lined up together, finger tips to finger tips, couldn't have reached the walls on either side of the doors. As WereGarurumon strode into the room, still carefully caring his Digidestined, the great doors swung closed, seemingly of their own accord. They hadn't been in the room long when a dark, cold voice, that seemed to be from nowhere and everywhere whispered,
"Wake the boy." WereGarurumon leapt backwards as the VenomCobrmon slithered forward. Almost impatiently, the giant snake, dwarfed by the sheer size of the room, hissed,
"Give the boy to me and I will sssee to it that he awakensss. Keep him from me and Meloremon will sssee to it that I wake him anyway, but you will be dead. Meloremon doesss not like waiting."
WereGarurumon still didn't seem willing to give Matt over to the snake, so T.K. came over and whispered, "You have to let it do this, WereGarurumon." It felt odd saying that name. Usually it was Matt who asked the werewolf Digimon to do things. T.K. continued. "It's the only one that can wake Matt up. I don't want to do this anymore than you do. Believe me, I don't. But we have to. We don't know what the long term affects are. What if there's a time limit and if we don't wake him up in time he sleeps forever? We just don't have any choice." Slowly, cautiously, unwillingly, the wolf Digimon set Matt down. Once he had lost contact with his Digidestined, WereGarurumon de-Digivolved back down to Gabumon and sat glowering at VenomCobrmon, who slithered up to Matt and hissed at T.K.,
"Take off the bandagesss, ssso I can sssee my beautiful work." Unhappily, T.K. removed the bandage and revealed VenomCobrmon's handiwork. The snake lowered itself and peered down at the unconscious boy's wound. "Ah..." it hissed, "ssstitchesss. I had wondered how you intended to keep him alive. Oh, well. Thisss doesss complicate thingsss sssomewhat. Hmm..." Then, before anyone could react, VenomCobrmon snatched Matt up in its coils and slithered quickly to the other side of the huge room. Gabumon cried out in indignation and fear and charged forward. T.K. yelled,
"What are you doing?! Bring him back here!" The Digimon hissed a laugh.
"Oh, I *had* wondered how I would be able to inflict any pain with my Missstresss telling me I had to use the sssame wound. Thisss isss wonderful. Now I get to take ssstitchesss out." It picked up its huge cobra head and hissed at Gabumon, "Ssstay where you are, or I will injure him. Jussst one sssqueeze and..." Gabumon froze and the hissing laugh sounded again. "Perfect. Now, ssstay there." It looked down at Matt again, at his neck. A light of hunger barely tempered with a fear of Meloremon shown dangerously in the Digimon's snake eyes. It's tongue flicked out, testing the wound. Then again the tongue flicked out, but this time it wrapped around the first of Matt's stitches and pulled it out. One at a time it pulled the fifteen stitched out, pausing to hiss a laugh every few minutes.
The others tried not to watch, but Joe growled, "You monster." T.K., clutching his brother's jacket and T-shirt, was only grateful as his stomach tried to rebel against him that he hadn't had any breakfast.
Mimi was whispering, over and over, very low and soft, "Please don't feel it. Don't let him be able to feel it. Oh, please, don't feel it." Tai could only agree with her. Gabumon looked murderous. Kari was clutching a wet towel that she had brought with her for when VenomCobrmon woke Matt up with another piercing bite, trying very hard to *not* look at Matt. Sora was on her knees, trying to keep the Digimon calm. Izzy was staring at the laptop in his hands, furious but unable to do anything.
Finally, the snake Digimon hissed, "Too bad there were *only* thessse fifteen. Ah, well. Now for my sssweet bite. *Revival Fang*." Everyone's head snapped up at this, and they looked on in abhorrence as the tip of the deadly fang plunged into the now open and bleeding wound. After a few moments, Matt's horror filled eyes flashed open, but the Digimon continued biting the Digidestined. Mouth hanging open in a silent scream, Matt could do nothing but hang in the VenomCobrmon's coils. Every few seconds, his body would convulse in a small spasm of pain. Finally, the bite ended, and as Matt slid off the blood-tinted fang onto the ground a few drops of the anti-venom dropped onto his wound, and it healed instantly, leaving a multi-pronged star scar in its place. The boy lay on the ground where he was allowed to drop, eyes glazed in pain as the VenomCobrmon hissed another laugh and slithered away. The others raced to be by Matt's side and once there Izzy threw his laptop open and began typing.
"The venom and anti-venom are warring. The anti-venom is winning, but it's still not a pleasant feeling. The scar shouldn't pose any future problem, but I suggest we monitor it anyway." Kari's hands were shaking too badly to wipe the blood off Matt so T.K. took over. T.K. stared at his brother as he wiped off the last bit of blood. Matt's blond hair was tousled, making him look several years younger. The multi-pronged star-shaped scar was painfully apparent against Matt's pale skin. In a synchronized pattern, tremors of pain wracked Matt's body. His ice blue eyes were glazed and staring, unblinking, at the ceiling. Finally, the tremors lessened, and he blinked very slowly. After the initial blink, he closed his eyes and took a deep breath.
The tremors had almost stopped completely when Matt opened his eyes again and asked, "Where am I? And where's my shirt?" T.K. sighed and smiled at him.
"You're at Meloremon's castle with us and your T-shirt is with me. So is your jacket. They got...kind of dirty when VenomCobrmon...attacked you. So while you were sleeping we cleaned them up."
Matt, still staring at the ceiling, asked very calmly, "So that huge snake thing's called VenomCobrmon?"
T.K. nodded, then realized that Matt couldn't see him and said, "Yes."
Matt made a considering sound in the back of his throat, then said composedly, "I'm not sure I like VenomCobrmon. The battle was going our way before it showed up. We were at the point I wasn't even worried anymore. And then..." He closed his eyes again. Tai wanted to know exactly what Matt remembered.
"And then what?" He asked, as gently as he could.
Matt opened his eyes again and stared at the ceiling a while before answering, "And then...pain." He blinked up at the ceiling as the other Digidestined shifted uncomfortably. They had all hoped very desperately that Matt wouldn't be able to remember any pain. But it looked as though that wasn't going to happen.
Finally Joe asked in a doctoral, kind manner, "Can you get up?" Matt considered.
"I don't think so." He said honestly. "I could try, but I'm not sure." They decided to let him rest a while longer. One of Matt's hands moved toward where he thought the Digimon were standing. "Gabumon?" He called softly. "Are you there?" Gabumon stepped forward and stood by Matt.
"Yes. I am here." Matt 'hmm'ed and closed his eyes again. Finally T.K., wanting to know if Matt was really ok, asked,
"Hey, Matt?" Matt opened his eyes.
"Yes, T.K.?"
"Can you see me?"
"No, T.K." Someone gasped. T.K. ignored that person.
"Why not?"
"Because I can't move my neck." T.K.'s heart leapt into his throat. Was Matt's back broken?
"Why not, Matt?" He asked as calmly as he could.
"Because it hurts very badly." There was a collective sigh from everyone but Matt. A hurting neck was to be expected. After a while, Matt attempted propping himself up on one of his arms. With Gabumon and T.K.'s help, he got himself into a sitting position. He turned towards his younger brother.
"Can I have my shirt back?" T.K. laughed and handed it to him. Slowly, and probably painfully, but surely, Matt pulled on first his T-shirt then his wind-breaker. He tilted his head to one side and poked at his new scar through the holes that had been pierced into his shirt and jacket.
"Hmm..." he said thoughtfully, "that's where it hurts worst. I guess that makes a certain amount of sense." Suddenly the same cold, emotionless female voice that had ordered the snake Digimon into attacking filled the room again.
"Are you hurt, boy?" Everyone but Matt shrunk back slightly from the voice that sounded of silence.
"It depends," he answered coolly, turning his aching neck to look around the room, "on whose asking." There was a terrifying laugh that left a feeling of desolation in its wake. It didn't seem to bother Matt.
"Pain, while not necessarily a bad thing, is not a part of silence. Indeed, it sometimes invokes screams, and those are the opposite of silence. Poor VenomCobrmon, last of the Cobrmon I have not destroyed, you have blundered again." The VenomCobrmon's eyes filled with fear.
"Missstresss! Missstresss, I live only to ssserve you. I sssought only to fulfill your will the bessst I could! Sssurely you underssstand that I mussst caussse a cccertain amount of pain with all my attackkksss! I am a sssnake! Pleassse, Missstresss!" The cold laugh sounded again.
"Stupid, stupid VenomCobrmon. Your whining only makes me dislike you more." The VenomCobrmon was frantic with fear.
"Pleassse, Missstresss! Mercccy!" There was a pause.
Then, "Mercy and silence cannot exist together." There was a great flash of light and before it could even scream the VenomCobrmon was gone. A set of doors opposite the ones the Digidestined had come in began to silently inch open. Matt and the others stood up and their Digimon fell in place behind them. The voice was coming from behind the doors. "Hee-hee. You don't have to be on guard with *me*. It's really quite pointless. I will send you all to your death in silence whether or not you stand ready!" Matt watched the doors with the cold distaste he usually saved for dentists, cliffs, and cockroaches.
"You talk too much," he said, and the doors stopped moving.
"I talk too much?" There was utter disbelief in the cold voice now. "*I*? *I* talk too much?" Matt nodded, masking his pain perfectly.
"You repeated the same thing three times."
"I do *not* talk too much!"
"Point and case." There was a pause then the cold laugh sounded again. "And your laugh is annoying," he added as an after thought. The doors flew open with a loud BANG and Matt smirked. He had made it angry. Good. When the dust settled, the thing had regained its composure. She, for it was definitely a she, was humanoid except for her features. Her mid-back dark black hair bled to a blood red six inches from the tips. Her slight smile was accented by two tiny, delicate fangs. Instead of pupils, her eyes were a glowing, bright red. Long, slender arms ended in elegant fingers tipped with claws in place of nails. Cloths of blood red, black, and midnight blue draped about her slender figure in swirls, creating the illusion of a full dress. Held by her own power, she hovered inches above the ground.
Smiling darkly, she introduced itself, "I am the one you have come for. I am the Mistress of Silence, the Lady of Emptiness. I am-"
"You still talk too much."
"ARGH! I am Meloremon! Prepare to face your death in the black pits of silence!"
"If you're Meloremon, you should have said so at the beginning. The Mistress of Silence shouldn't talk so much."
"Shut up, shut up!"
"And you're loud, too."
"Aaah!"
"Matt," T.K. whispered nervously, "I don't think you should be making her mad. It'll only make things worse."
"Yea, but look at her," he said, indicating Meloremon with a hand. "She's so *pompous*. She could use a nock down once in a while." He cocked a tiny half-grin. "And I haven't been able to nock someone down for a *long* time. I want to see if I can still do it." T.K. stared at his brother in awe.
"You're not afraid of her," he whispered. Matt shrugged, then winced slightly.
"Nah," he replied. "If she's got the power to kill us, we're dead anyway, so why not annoy her first? Who knows, she might just get so sick of us she'll throw us out."
Meloremon cleared her throat and spoke again, "Despite your brave words, I know you fear me." She either didn't catch or chose to ignore Matt's cocked eyebrow. She tilted her head and smiled coldly. "I have your lives in the palm of my hand. I could kill you with a blast..." To demonstrate, she shot a despair-black ball of energy at Tai. When Tai jumped quickly aside to dodge the power, he bumped into Matt, who gave a muffled cry and fell to one knee, shaking and panting hard. The other Digidestined stared at him. T.K. whirled on Tai.
"What'd you do?" Tai blinked at him, wide eyed and confused.
"I didn't do anything to him! I barely touched him!" Meloremon laughed again.
"Don't you know? The late VenomCobrmon's venom and anti-venom are still warring in his blood. He hides the burning sensation well enough for a human, but allow me to explain what he feels. His blood boils! The slightest touch...the lightest breath against his skin aggravates the war and causes unbearable pain! He feels-"
"Couldn't you have just smirked, you twittering idiot?" Meloremon gasped and faced Matt, who had forced himself to stand and fight. Anyone who had wanted to help Matt didn't, simply because it would hurt him. "This is what I meant," he gasped as he locked his knees into a standing position, "when I said you talked too much. Why explain everything? Why not just smirk and watch? It's what I would do." He took a deep breath and then turned to face her, smirking slightly. "Is that why you need me? For lessons on how to be silent? You could use them." Meloremon, face burning with embarrassment and fury, took a menacing step towards Matt. Then she seemed to catch herself, and she coughed, her face becoming a cool mask of nothingness.
"Say what you will, Digidestin of Friendship. You are in pain and weak. I will destroy you." Matt's only reaction was to stare at Meloremon with such sheer indifference that she found herself squirming. Angrily shaking her head, she snapped, "I don't care *what* you are! I don't care if you *are* both music and silence! I don't care! You won't defeat me!"
"Ah, so that's it." Matt remarked casually. "I am both music and silence. Which means that your first form was music. Interesting." Meloremon gaped and blinked at him. Then she shook her head violently.
"No! I won't let you screw up my plans! The plans my Master set up for me! I won't, I won't!" Matt shrugged. Meloremon felt herself developing a nervous tick around her eyes as she stared at the dispassionate boy. "Don't...you care that I'm going to kill you?" Matt shrugged again. Meloremon screamed. "Stop that! Stop shrugging! A shrug is not an answer!" T.K. leaned towards Matt.
"I told you," he said smugly. Matt faced T.K.
"You told me that 'because' is not an answer. 'Because' and a shrug are two different things."
"Ah. Sorry." Matt nodded and turned back to Meloremon, who was staring at the two in shock.
"Aren't...aren't you afraid of me?" Matt shook his head. "Why not?" Matt cocked his strange half-grin and looked at T.K.
"Because," he answered. Meloremon waited for more, but when Matt looked back at her, she realized the 'because' was it. She screamed again and powered another blast, this time to shoot at Matt.
The tall blond arched an eyebrow and said calmly, "The worst you can do is kill me." Meloremon froze and stared at him.
"W-what?" She stammered, disbelieving. Matt shrugged.
"The worst you can do is kill me. And after that," he half-grinned at her maliciously, "I can haunt you." Meloremon dropped her attack and stared at him with open disbelief.
"I can't kill you," she said hopelessly. Then she seemed to brighten. "But I can take away your music!" She shot a ball of energy at Matt, but it was much smaller than the one she shot at Tai, and dark purple, not black. Matt watched it, unflinching, until it was right on top of him. Then, unexpectedly, the ball zoomed around to Matt's back. Confused, Matt pulled his hands out of his pockets and half turned, but it was too late. The power zipped back to Meloremon, and Matt tried desperately to snatch his harmonica back, but it was useless. The ball was too fast.
"No!" He cried. Meloremon took the harmonica in her hand and smirked at Matt. The blond glared at her through ice blue eyes, and she found herself squirming again. She quickly shook the bad feeling he was giving her off and pressed the harmonica lightly to her cheek.
Rubbing it against her skin very slowly she whispered, "Is this it? Is this all the music you have? This tiny instrument..."
"Well, excuse *me* for not bringing my baby grand," Matt bit out angrily. Meloremon laughed once, quietly.
"I won't hurt it...if it's precious to you," she purred softly. Her eyes narrowed and her small smile grew spiteful. The hand holding the harmonica tightened; there was the sound of crunching metal. Meloremon's eyes widened, and she looked at the crushed harmonica in bewilderment.
"Oops!" She said in mock surprise. "Guess I don't know my own strength." She looked at Matt and smiled at him evilly. Matt was staring at his bent and broken harmonica in disbelief. Meloremon held it out to him. "Here," she said, "you can have this now. I'm done with it." She tossed it lightly to Matt. Numb with shock, he reached one hand out to his harmonica, but before it could reach him, Meloremon's eyes narrowed and the tiny bent instrument exploded into millions of particles of dust. Matt's hand dropped to his side, and he watched the dust float down to the ground. The other Digidestined looked at Matt with compassion and worry. His head was bent, his fists were curled into balls, and he was shaking. Meloremon giggled. "Aww..." she mocked, "are you *mad* at me, little Digidestined? The instrument must have been *special* to you! Poor little boy...now you have no music with which to defy and challenge me! Well what do you have to say now, O One who is Silence and *Music*?" She laughed cruelly. With growing concern, the others (including Gabumon) watched Matt's shaking getting more and more violent until finally...it stopped. His shoulders stopped trembling and instead bunched up and were very tight. Like water flowing over glass, his composure seemed to pour back over him until he stood almost lazily, staring at the pile of ashes that had been his harmonica. He bent down on one knee easily picked up a handful of ashes, then blew lightly on them, causing them to swirl around the room. Finally he stood back up and clapped his hands together, getting the dust off. Meloremon laughed. "Do you surrender, then?"
Head still bent, he replied coolly, "Two hundred and thirty-six." Everyone in the room, including Meloremon and Gabumon, stared at him. Meloremon blinked.
"What's *that* supposed to mean?"
"Two hundred and thirty-six." Matt replied, still not looking up. "There were two hundred and thirty-six songs composed on that harmonica." Everyone stared at him again. Finally, he looked up, and Meloremon was afraid. Matt's eyes had lost the icy indifference that had bothered Meloremon so few minutes ago. Now they were empty, devoid of all emotions. Except...Meloremon thought she saw, burning in the cold, blank depths of this boy's eyes, a fantastic rage. A fury more raw and powerful than his indifference could ever have been. And she was frightened. To cover her fear, she spoke.
"I-is that all you have to say? You do nothing but add to my happiness and triumph! In one act of power, I have destroyed not only the instrument of the one said to be a threat to me, but the songs of two hundred and thirty-six people!" Matt stared at her, and she forced herself not to squirm.
"Not two hundred and thirty-six other people's songs. Two hundred and thirty-six of mine. No one else has ever touched that harmonica to play it. It was mine." He lowered his head slightly, maintaining eye contact. "For destroying it..." In a voice devoid of emotion but ringing of promise he whispered, "I won't forgive you...ever." Meloremon shivered, then lashed out in her fear. She threw a ball of darkness at the blond boy, but as it came to him he simply...moved. The energy whizzed past him, and Meloremon cursed.
"Fine!" She yelled, floating back into the room she had come from. "If you think you can beat the Mistress of Silence, follow me!" Without hesitation or any sign of fear, and ignoring the protests of the others, Matt followed Meloremon into the room. Gabumon ran to follow his Digidestined, but he was too late. Just as he reached the door, it closed.
"No..." Gabumon whispered, pounding on the door, "no..." The others clustered at the door and traded helpless looks.
"I guess it's all up to Matt, now." Tai said confidently. "No problem, right? Right?" The dark looks passed between the Digidestined and their Digimon didn't seem to agree with Tai's statement. He deflated. "Aw, who am I kidding? There isn't a snowflake's chance in hell that he'll survive, is there, Izzy?"
The boy opened his laptop hesitantly and typed at it a while before saying slowly, "Well, Matt didn't seem too afraid...on the contrary, *Meloremon* is the one who seemed afraid of *Matt*. However...with all his wounds...and the pain and trauma his system is facing...along with the shock of losing his harmonica...it seems a little biased towards Meloremon, in this case." He cursed angrily and closed his laptop with a snap. "We're all helpless again! It seems every time things have gone askew, we're all rendered helpless while Matt fights for his life! There is something not right about all of this!" The others said nothing, agreeing with Izzy.
To break the dominating silence, Tai asked T.K., "So, did you know that Matt had composed two hundred and thirty-six songs on his harmonica?" T.K. shook his head.
"I asked him how many songs he had made up before he and Dad moved. I only thought he was gonna say one or two. He said he had thought up fifty-eight songs. I didn't believe him, but now...he just might have been telling the truth." Joe whistled.
"Wow. That's one hundred and seventy-eight songs he's made up the last five years. Per year, that's..."
"Thirty-five point six songs per year," Izzy supplied instantly. "Fifty-two weeks in a year, that's approximately point six eight songs per week, excluding days he did not compose. He's either a musical genius, or all his songs are the exact same thing."
"I'm voting on musical genius," said T.K. dryly. "There was never a day I saw him that he wasn't either playing music or listening to music. Of course," he grinned wryly, "I was always begging him to come out and play with me. And he always dropped whatever he was doing and did." T.K. sighed and gazed up at the huge doors. "Looking back on it, Matt was the smart one."
Desperate to keep conversation going Mimi asked, "What do you mean, T.K.?" The blond sighed and looked down.
"Out of all of us, Matt was the only one who seemed to know that we wouldn't always be together. I asked him once. I was about...eight or nine, maybe. I walked up to him as he was getting ready to go do something with someone; I don't really remember who. I think it was Joe. He was at my house because it was a Sunday, and he always came over from Saturday to Sunday to be with Mom and me. I remember that he had at least three parties he could have gone to, but he didn't. He said he wanted to be with us as long as he could."
*FLASHBACK*
T.K. watched his older brother as he got ready to go out. After a few minutes of this, he asked, "Where're you going, Matt? Not back to Dad yet?" Matt smiled down at T.K. and grabbed some sneakers from the closet.
"Nah. I don't go back to Dad's till tomorrow." T.K. watched his brother fish socks out from his dresser with wide eyes.
"Then where're you goin'?" Matt plopped down on the floor next to his brother and began pulling his socks and shoes on.
"Joe has entrance exams for a really tough junior high today. The school he's trying to get in transfers directly into a high school that has a pre-med program. Joe wants to be a doctor, T.K., and so this entrance exam is really important to him. I'm gonna go down and be moral support in case he needs it. We don't need reliable Joe fainting because of nerves, do we?" T.K. shook his head.
"But, Matt, don't you have a party today?" Matt smiled and ruffled T.K.'s hair as he stood up.
"I have three, T.K." The little boy watched his brother grab a jacket and his set of keys.
"Why don't you want to go to your parties, Matt? Aren't you popular yet?" Matt laughed and swung his jacket over his shoulder, facing T.K.
"I do want to go to the parties, T.K. And I am kind of popular." T.K. looked confused. Folding himself down to his little brother's level, Matt asked kindly, "What's the matter, T.K.?"
"I don't get it, Matt."
"What don't you get?"
"Well, if you're popular, and you want to go to the parties, why don't you? Are they after Joe's big test?"
"No," Matt said casually, resting his chin in his hand and propping his arm on one of his bent knees, "the parties will all be over before Joe is done with his big test."
"Then why don't you just go to your parties?" Matt smiled softly at T.K. and smoothed his little brother's hair.
"Well, Joe needs his friends right now, and I'm his friend. There will always be parties, but I might not always have friends." T.K. blinked at his much-idolized older brother's words.
"What do you mean? Joe will still be here tomorrow and the next day. Why do you have to miss all your fun to watch him take a test? None of the others will be there, will they? And I'm not big enough to come. So why are you going?" Matt smiled again.
"I'm not going because anyone else will be there. And I am gonna miss going to my parties a little bit. But Joe is my friend. Nothing is more important to me than my friends."
"Yes," T.K. insisted in a childlike way, "but Joe will be here tomorrow, and all your parties won't be. So why aren't you going to your parties?" Matt checked his watch and stood up.
"There will always be parties, T.K., and to someone I will always be popular. But I don't know how long we'll all be together. Someday we all might move. And then I'll be sad that I didn't take the time to see you guys more. Or maybe I'll move." Matt looked troubled for a moment, as he sometimes did lately. "Or maybe Dad'll move," he murmured to himself, "and I'll be forced to go along." He sighed and looked at his watch again. "Gad, I've gotta go or I'll be late. Can't let Joe go in thinking no one's out there for him. Bye, T.K.!" T.K. waved as Matt left the house.
"I'll see you next Sunday!" T.K. called after his brother. Matt turned around and walked backwards for a few seconds.
"Not if I see you first!" He replied, and was gone.
*END FLASHBACK*
The Digidestined and their Digimon all sat in a long row, leaning against the huge door that separated them from the Chosen Child of Friendship. T.K. was sitting, with Patamon on one side and Gabumon on the other, in the exact place where the two doors met. They were all thinking about T.K.'s latest memory of Matt before he had moved.
"I am learning more about who Matt was from T.K.," Joe commented from somewhere down the ranks of children and Digimon, "than I ever knew when he was with us. I didn't know that he missed three parties to come cheer me on. But I'm glad he did. I was just about dead when I saw Matt. Then he waved at me and gave me a thumbs-up and just knowing someone was there, cheering for me, helped a lot. I did all right, though. I passed, didn't I?"
"Hey, T.K.?" Sora asked from towards the end of the line. "What did Matt give up to come and see our championship game?"
"Yea," Tai prompted, "what did he give up? Another three parties? I mean, it *was* a Saturday, and he *was* the most popular guy in school." T.K. sighed.
"I think that time it was two parties and an invitation from someone to stay the weekend at a beach house."
"He picked both of us up from school almost every day, T.K." Kari began. "What was he giving up for that?"
"A variety of things," T.K. commented. "There were always things for him to do and people for him to hang out with after school."
"What about my flash-cards?" Izzy inquired. "I am perfectly aware that he hadn't the slightest clue what he was drilling me on, but he help me at least fifteen times. However, it was always during the week. What could he give up for that?" T.K. thought.
"Well...sometimes there were group movies...and sometimes there were study sessions. I think that a few times some girls asked him to go to the pool. I'm not sure though. There was always so much he could have been doing."
"What'd he give up to go to my fashion show?" Mimi asked softly.
"Hmm...a pool party, a backyard BBQ with the school band, and a date with the entire cheer-leading team, with them in their uniforms. They wanted to make him their mascot." There was a stir of laughter from all the Digidestined. The Digimon didn't know what a 'cheerleader' was, and so they missed the humor.
"Are you serious?" asked Izzy. "Did they literally desire to make him their mascot?" A few heads bobbed up and down.
"Yea," said Joe, "I remember bumping into him in the halls that day. He looked kinda frazzled and mildly afraid. I asked him what he was running from and he just panted, 'They're coming. They're coming. Don't tell them where I went,' and ran off again. When the *entire* cheerleading team came flying around the corner screaming 'Where is he? Where is he?' I almost died laughing. Naturally, being a good friend, I sent them after him. It was so funny. But it was also the first time I realized that being popular isn't all it's cracked up to be. Of course, I only realized it when I saw him later that day, all his cloths ripped and tattered." Joe laughed at the memory. "He looked dazed, like he had just come from a war."
"I don't think he wanted to be," T.K. said thoughtfully. Joe blinked.
"What, the cheerleading mascot? No joke on that one."
"No, I mean, I don't think he wanted to be popular. I don't think he liked people he didn't know pretending to be his friend, just because it would make *them* popular, too. He always took friendship very seriously."
"Gee," commented Tai a little sarcastically, "I wonder why." There was a collective sigh.
"Is he gonna die?" T.K. asked suddenly. There was a depressing silence. T.K. put his face in his hands and moaned, "I can't believe he's gonna die. After all we did to find him, after all we did to keep him alive, after all he's been through, his luck finally ran out. Are we all gonna die, too, then?"
"Not without a fight," Tai growled. Sora opened her mouth, then closed it and cocked her head to the side.
"Does...does anyone else hear...that...?"
"Music..." Izzy murmured. "I hear music. But..." he looked confused, "it sounds like a piano. Does Matt know how to play piano?" T.K shrugged.
"Not that I remember, but you never know. It's been five years, who can tell what he's picked up in all this time." Suddenly, the music stopped. The seven Digidestined scrambled up and pressed their ears to the door. The Digimon watched them, curious. What was a piano?
"It stopped," Tai murmured.
"Yea, but that doesn't mean anything," insisted Kari. They all jumped back with a gasp as a loud boom shook the doors.
"Th-that doesn't mean anything, either," Mimi said shakily, growing pale. There was another boom and the doors creaked on their hinges. The Digidestined looked at each other. Another boom sounded. There was a fourth and final boom and the doors flew open.
@*@
Matt followed Meloremon into her chamber with coolness borne of a lack of feelings. The only other time in Matt's life that he had felt this emptiness was when his father had declared once and for all that they were not ever going home, and to stop being a baby and accept that. This cold disregard for everything was both a blessing and a curse. Matt was not afraid of Meloremon, and that was a blessing. But also, he was not afraid of dying, and that was a curse. The only feeling was a deep, dark anger, and that was good. It kept him going. When he entered the room, the huge metal doors swung closed with a loud BANG. Matt didn't flinch; he had been expecting that. Meloremon turned on him.
"I don't see what's so special about you," she commented, looking him up and down. "Other than that scar *my* VenomCobrmon gave you, you're really quite ordinary. What music do you possess that they don't?" Matt didn't reply; he just simply stared at her. "Answer me," she said pleasantly, "or I will kill the small blond boy." The hate-fire in Matt's eyes flashed dangerously. However, it quelled so quickly that Meloremon thought she had imagined it.
"All they can do is listen to and sing music. I don't think any of them play instruments. And I know for a fact that none of them compose music."
"And you?" She questioned. "You compose music?"
"I do."
"Other than the music on the tiny instrument?"
"Yes." Meloremon seemed to consider this.
"What other instruments do you play?"
"I play a few."
"No, no. Not *how many*. *What kind* of instruments?" Matt half turned to look at a shape covered in cloth that was hidden by shadows in the corner of the room.
"I play piano." Meloremon flinched.
"How interesting."
"I could play that piano." Matt strode over to the shape and pulled the dust-covered cloth off. The piano was beautiful. Made of a dark wood, it flowed along the same lines of a baby grand. Matt stroked the key-case almost lovingly. "It's a beautiful piano," he complimented.
"Get away from it!" Meloremon yelled, landing on the ground and running toward him. "Don't touch it! Don't play it!" Matt opened the key case and stroked the keys.
"If you can give me back my harmonica," he said softly, "I won't play this piano." Meloremon froze and watched as Matt looked at her, shrugged, and began playing. "Interesting," he commented as he switched from warm-up exercises to one of his own compositions, "this piano is covered in dust...but it's masterfully tuned. That makes me think...are you really only Silence?" Meloremon jerked as if slapped and glared at Matt as he played.
"Of course I'm all Silence," she snapped. "What else would I be?"
"I don't know how a creature of Music was perverted into a creature of Silence, but whatever method your boss used, he didn't finish the job. Or else this wouldn't be tuned." He struck a powerful cord. "And you wouldn't talk so much." Meloremon blushed angrily.
"I do *not* talk too much. And it's only tune it because...because...it's a special piano! It doesn't need to be tuned!" Matt stroked the keys in a scale and sighed.
"There is no way this piano self-tunes."
"Oh?" questioned Meloremon. "And how do you know that?" Continuing to play, Matt's eye's flicked to her.
"Because a piano that is not tuned by its owner does not play a music filled with love." Meloremon sputtered, then she got mad.
"It doesn't matter! As soon as I get rid of *you* my Master will finish the process and make me a creature made completely of silence! And then...I will be the most powerful creature in the Digiworld!"
"Not as powerful as your master." Meloremon blinked.
"Of course I will be. He said so himself." Matt's eyes turned back to the piano, and he shook his head.
"If the guy could make you, he can unmake you."
"No..." Meloremon whispered, "no...he wouldn't-"
"The way I see it," Matt continued, "all you are is a gate keeper. He's using you to keep him safe because he doesn't want to waste his time dealing with riffraff. So he's making you do his dirty work."
"No," she insisted. "*No*."
"You're his silence gate-keeper. But what I don't understand is," his playing became sorrowful, "how could anyone turn away from music? It's life and joy and peace. Silence...silence is death and sorrow and loneliness. Why would you turn to silence?" Meloremon stared at Matt as he played, watching his passion as he wove a melody he had only just created. This boy had a kind soul, and only his music could fully disclose that fact. Meloremon watched Matt close his eyes and smile softly, all his anger forgotten... and she remembered. She remembered simply *existing*, for and of music. She remembered feeling a song on the wind and chasing it to a sorrowful funeral. Another song caught her and she went to a wedding, the song one of joy this time. Another song...another place. Long ago...a boy with wild blond hair sat alone in a strange world, playing a melody of sorrow and confusion and hurt. Another song called her, but she enjoyed this one so much...she stayed. For a long time she stayed as his instrument whispered a song. Long after his companions had fallen to sleep, he sat, playing his song. Soon, the confusion laid way to acceptance, followed by peace. Meloremon sighed in memory as the boy's song slowly died down and he smiled slightly, at peace again. In her castle, in the present, Meloremon shook and remembered the boy playing the piano in front of her. It was the same boy...several years later...and the music was the same. It came from a different instrument, but it was the same.
"Do you remember me?" she asked softly, afraid of the answer. He half-smiled, his eyes still closed, his fingers still coaxing a peaceful melody from the piano.
"You were different then," he murmured in response, "I never saw you, but I knew you were there. Not what you were, just that you were there. You loved my music as much as I did. I used to think I was imagining you, but when I went back to my home...it just wasn't the same anymore. I didn't sense anyone there, feeling the same things from my music that I was. Oh, my brother knew there were emotions behind my music, but he couldn't pick them out. You...you were all around me when I played. You made maps of my emotions and helped me play the music that calmed me down. You were my closest friend here, and I never even saw you. Someone who understood...and someone who cared." Meloremon took a shaky breath.
"You were the only one who understood," she whispered, "my one and only friend. I couldn't get to you in that cave where the Despair lived...because you dropped your harmonica. You didn't play, so I couldn't help you. Oh, I thought of you as a second Music. I wasn't alone. Someone knew what I knew. You played like it was another way of talking, a better way than talking. It hurt so much when you left. Your last song...it was so sad. And I hurt because I couldn't help you weave a song of peace. I couldn't.... I was just as sad as you were. And then you were gone, and I was alone again. No one else played music like my fellow Music had...no one had your soul. So I turned away from music. But, oh, how I've wished I could hear you play just once more. Just... once...more." Matt smiled fully, a rich sight, an extension of the music he played.
"Yes. And I've wanted to play for you. But I can't if you're still of Silence. Come on; let me try to help you. Please? It just isn't the same here without you...music isn't the same. It never will be. What is a world without music?" Meloremon began nodding her head, but then she remembered. He would go again. And all that would be left is silence.
"No!" She screamed. "No! I won't become Music again! I will remain Silence! Silence is safe! No one can hurt you in silence! But...I don't want to be alone." Suddenly, she looked at him, and already she was so consumed with her insanity and desperation that she didn't realize he had stopped playing and was watching her with compassion and pity. "I won't be alone!" she cried. "And you won't go away! I'll make you just like me! Another Silence! Then...then I'll be able to keep you here with me! It won't matter that you're dead!" So saying, she threw a ball of power at him, and he jumped to the side to avoid it. With a huge BOOM it hit the wall above the piano. Matt smashed into the floor from his leap and cried out in pain. Everything hurt...his blood *burned* where his skin smacked the floor. Looking up, Matt saw Meloremon readying another blast.
"This won't solve anything!" he yelled at her, desperate to make her understand. "All this will do is leave this world with a little less music! I can't stop from ever leaving you again, but I'm only truly gone if you forget the sound of my music!" He leapt to his feet and to the side to avoid another blast, but he noticed with a feeling of triumph that the blast was smaller. He hit the ground and struggled painfully to his feet. Every inch of his skin tingled and burned; his neck and scar were absolutely killing him, but he forced himself to face Meloremon. "Listen to me! Please! I know what it feels like to be alone! I've been alone, too! So alone...the silence hurts sometimes, but you can't give up! You just can't!" Matt hurled himself to the side as a third blast flew at him. Trying to back away, he realized that he was in the exact middle of the two doors, where they met, trapped. He faced Meloremon, who was crying and gathering energy at the same time.
"You don't understand," Meloremon sobbed. "I was all alone! No one cared about me! No one understood music. No one played from his soul! No one could capture feelings...in all the millennia that I have lived, so few could capture their feelings. It was thousands of years between you and the last one. And then you left! I had no more music to listen to...people played other people's music, but it wasn't the same." Meloremon seemed to brighten. "And now I've got a music right here in the room with me that is filled with emotions! All I have to do is make you Silence, and I'll have a friend forever! I'm so happy! I'll never let you go! I'll never be alone again! Never!" She threw the blast at Matt, expecting him to dodge, but she didn't notice the compassion that filled his eyes.
"I understand," he whispered, and she was confused. "I hate being alone, too. More than anything in the world. If this is what you need to come back to music, then that's all right." He smiled at her. "I don't mind." Terror gripped her as the energy closed in on him.
"You idiot!" She screamed, running towards him. "It's not a game if you don't dodge! Move, move, it'll hit you!"
"My friend," he murmured finally, "please don't forget my music. Please." The blast connected. Meloremon screamed. The force of the blast threw the doors open. Registering something like shock, T.K. felt something moving very fast plow into him. The thing had so much momentum it smacked into T.K. and kept moving, taking the blond with it. T.K. smashed into the far wall and the other thing smashed into him. Falling to the ground, T.K. realized that he was lying on the thing that had squashed him into the wall and rolled off it. Gasping in his breath, T.K. opened one eye and looked at the thing. He cursed mentally. It was Matt. Gabumon and the others were running over. As they reached the brothers, T.K. was sitting up, and Matt was opening his eyes. Before anyone could stop him, Matt hauled himself into a standing positing and turned around. Meloremon was standing on the ground, dwarfed by her own huge doors. Her hands were over her mouth, and she was crying silently.
"Why?" She whispered. "Why? You could have moved. Why?" Matt smiled peacefully at her.
"Because you are my friend." Meloremon lost her control, then, and sank to the floor, sobbing uncontrollably. Matt hobbled over to her as fast as he could, which wasn't very fast. When he reached her, he put his hands on her shoulders, and she looked up. He wiped the tears off her face and said, "You are my friend, the only friend who fully understands my music. If you want, I will be the only one who understands you. Would you please play me a song on your piano? Only the one who takes care of an instrument can truly play it." Meloremon smiled at her friend and nodded. Matt hugged Meloremon tightly, wrapping his arms all the way around her, and her tears soaked through his tattered shirt to touch the dormant sigh of Friendship. The sign flared and released a blue light that surrounded the two. Meloremon's voice echoed throughout the room.
"What are you?" After a slight pause, Matt's voice answered, echoing in the same way.
"I am Friendship."
"What is Friendship?"
"Friendship is the Music of life. Will you live?" There was another slight pause. Then Meloremon's voice resounded proudly throughout the room.
"I will." The light exploded until no one in the room could see. When at last they regained the use of their eyes, they blinked. Matt was standing where he had been kneeling with Meloremon, his hands behind his back. He was smiling slightly and there was still a blue aura of light around him.
"I present to you," he said proudly, his voice loud in the usually silent room, "the Mistress of Music, the Lady of Song. My friend, Meloremon." From behind him, he pulled a girl. She seemed very shy. Her mid-back hair was silvery white and shone with starlight when she moved. Her eyes were a very soft blue, so light they were almost transparent. The girl was a few inches shorter than Matt and wore a silver-blue dress that ended a few inches before her knee and seemed to float on the breeze. It accented her petite figure perfectly. The girl was breathtaking, but definitely not Meloremon. Meloremon was dark, with blood red and black colors, and this girl was light, with white and remarkably light blue tones. There was a striking difference.
"*That* is *not* Meloremon," insisted Mimi. "She doesn't look anything *like* Meloremon." This seemed to distress the girl. She took a step away from Matt and pleaded with her eyes.
"Oh, but I am Meloremon!" Her voice was like music and floated about the room. "I'm just more like the Meloremon I used to be. I used to be the basic Digimon of Music. But then I got very lonely, being the only one of my kind, and I was offered a chance to get even with all the people who had left me." Her shoulders drooped, and she sighed. "I'm afraid I wasn't very strong." She looked up again. "But I am now! I want to help you. I'm *desperately* sorry for causing you so much trouble...I really am." She looked so sad...Tai smiled and stepped forward, extending his hand for a shake.
"I'm Tai," he introduced. "These are the other Digidestined, and we're very pleased to meet you, Meloremon!" Meloremon smiled, her eyes filled with tears, and accepted the handshake. There was a muffled gasp from behind where the Digidestined were greeting Meloremon, and they all turned in time to see Matt's knees fold. The Chosen Child of Friendship looked mildly shocked to find himself lying on the ground, as if he wasn't there from personal choice.
"Oh!" Meloremon exclaimed in surprise, running to Matt's side with the others. She knelt next to him and laid his head on her lap. Stroking his hair gently, she continued, "Of course, how terribly foolish of me! You would be very tired right now, wouldn't you? I'm so sorry. Come, let me lead you to a room where you can be more-"
"No!" Meloremon jumped slightly at the exclamation and turned to the Digidestined.
"What's the matter?" She asked them. They looked at each other, considering on how best to phrase whatever it was they had to say.
They all looked meaningfully at Tai, who cleared his throat and said, "Well, Meloremon, we understand that Matt is tired. Very, very tired and very, very, *very* sore. And we just want to thank you for your hospitality, but...but, well, to be perfectly honest, it's like this. We've only had bad experiences in this castle- your castle- and it *is* a nice castle, but...well, the only room we'd be comfortable enough to sleep in is the one we spent last night in. And last night...wasn't the greatest night in the history of the Digiworld. We had a really, really bad time in there and...well, we'd just rather not go back. It seems like...like a back track in progress. Not that your castle isn't nice! Please don't think we don't like your castle! It's just...well...you know. I hope." Meloremon stared at Tai, then smiled knowingly.
"I understand," she murmured, her beautiful voice echoing comfort and sympathy. "Your only night here was...very bad. And that was all my fault."
"No!" Tai insisted strongly. "No, that's not it. It wasn't your fault, it's just that-"
"I understand, Tai," Meloremon assured gently. "In fact, I have to agree. I don't really care for this castle, either." Tai blinked at her.
"Excuse me," Izzy began politely, "but we were under the impression that this manor was...yours. Is this a falsehood?" Meloremon giggled into one of her hands and rubbed Matt's temple with the other.
"No, no!" She laughed softly. "This castle isn't *mine*. It's far too quiet. No, this castle was assigned to me when I...when I became..."
"When that what's-his-name-mon tricked you into becoming Silence," Mimi finished gently, picking up on Meloremon's discomfort. The Music Digimon smiled gratefully.
"Yes," she said, "something like that. Anyway, the point is, this isn't *my* castle. It's his. And I don't like or want it. I want to get out of here as soon as I can." T.K. stared at her, immensely confused.
"If...if it's not *your* castle...if it's *his*...why did he put you here?"
"This castle is the First Gate. I was sent here to guard it."
"Oh...then...where did you live before?" Her expression turned black and she stopped fluffing Matt's hair.
"The place I lived was the first to fall to him."
"So...so he took your home?" Sora asked hesitantly. Meloremon nodded darkly. "I hope you don't mind me asking, but...why?" Meloremon sighed.
"The castle he took is called Central Fortress. It is the home of the Four Basic Digimon and the exact center of the Digiworld."
"I thought that was File Island," Izzy interjected. Meloremon smiled at him.
"File Island is the center of *life* in the Digiworld. Central Fortress is the center of Digiworld itself."
"Then what happened to it when the Digiworld was destroyed by Apoclimon?" Asked Sora.
"Nothing. Through the battle, through the struggle, through the destruction, through the rebirth, Central Fortress remained unaffected."
"Then why didn't we *see* it?" Tai questioned. Meloremon shrugged.
"Because it is hidden. Not even Digimon know where Central Fortress is."
"I thought it was a legend," breathed Gatomon, looking as shocked as all the other Digimon. "There are stories about Central Fortress...about how it holds the Ultimate Power, but they're only rumors and stories. Are you telling me they're *real*?" Meloremon smiled.
"As real as I and my sisters." The Digimon laughed nervously.
"Basic Digimon were just stories, too," Gomamon explained to the Digidestined. Izzy nodded and then turned to Meloremon, a passion and quest for knowledge burning in his eyes.
"But this Central Fortress...why is it so important? What is the Ultimate Power?" Meloremon sighed and seemed to be considering for a moment, trailing her fingers through Matt's soft blond hair absently. Finally, she spoke.
"The first question is simple. Central Fortress is important because it holds the secret to the Ultimate Power, as well as the Four Basic Digimon. But the second..." she paused, considering again, and continued hesitantly, "the Ultimate Power...isn't really a power as much as...a Principle." Joe blinked.
"A...a Principle."
"Yes..." Meloremon continued slowly, "a Principal. Like...like the Principle of Gravity. Or the Principle of the Tides."
"So the definition of Principle here is like a Natural Law back in our world," Izzy translated. Meloremon considered.
"I think so," she agreed, "only they're not really laws. They're more like...more like concepts or theories, accepted by only the educated and those Digimon who have the ability to see beyond what others do." Izzy 'hmm'ed.
"So Central Fortress is the center of the Digiworld and the original home of the Four Basic Digimon. It also contains the secret to the 'Ultimate Power', which is more accurately termed a 'Principle' or a concept of some sort."
"Exactly," Meloremon agreed.
"All right," continued Izzy, "but what *is* that hidden Principle?" Meloremon shifted slightly under Matt's head.
"It...it is called the 'Principle of Eight'. It is the best hidden of secrets and most important of all the Principles. We four Basics alone know for certain that it exists. Only the most knowledgeable of Digimon even dream of it being a reality, and all they can base their dreams on are guesses and stories." The Digidestined and their Digimon were enthralled.
"What is it?" Whispered Tai. "What *is* the 'Principle of Eight'?" Meloremon sighed.
"The Principle of Eight is-" a deep, peaceful intake of breath and long sigh drew Meloremon's attention back to the boy that was lying on her lap. She blinked down at him. "Oh! It seems Matt has fallen asleep." She looked up at the others. "Does anyone know how long he's been out?" They shook their heads in unison. Meloremon sighed. "Well, it's extremely hard to explain the Principle of Eight, so could we please wait until the morning to talk about it? I'd rather just tell you all about it once." They nodded and she smiled. "Oh, thank you! Um...do any of you have something he can use for a pillow? Moving his head from my lap to something else won't wake him up- *nothing* will wake him up at this point- and my legs are falling asleep. Ow! Ow! Needles!" The others laughed. Sifting through his bag, Joe produced a thick, winter jacket. It was big, but not big enough for everyone. So Sora and Tai volunteered to go back to the room of the night before and grab some pillows and blankets. Sighing in relief, the others accepted. Meloremon said thank you, but no. She was taken care of. In fact, if they didn't mind missing their walk back through the castle at night, they could come and get some blankets and pillows from her room, which was, after all, a doorway away. Laughingly accepting, Sora and Tai followed Meloremon into her chambers to get night supplies for the Digidestined, their Digimon, and a yet-again-unconscious Matt.
@*@
AN: I'm sorry about the way I spelled Apoclimon. I couldn't find the spelling, and so I had to guess. Please don't flame me! Please, please, please, PLEASE don't flame meeee!!! But DO review! (*giggle* I rhymed! Oy...I've been up waaaaay too long. Youch! No, no, kitty!! Get off my back! Yow!! PAIN!) I mean it. Review. Tell me what you liked. Even "Wah! I love Matt, too! Nice job!" is good enough for me. I just need to know that you people out there like what I'm doing over here. Also, the more you review, the more insistent my muse gets that I come back to this story, the more I *work* on this story. It's a give and take. You give me reviews, my muse takes away my freedom of choice on which story I want to work on. *sigh* My Ranma 1/2 fans...they're ready to kill me. *glares at angry mob**they glare, too, and wave their pitchforks and torches**shrinks back and hugs Matt and Gabumon stuffed dolls* Save me, Matt...help him save me, Gabumon. *Mob advances**Fake smile* Well, it's been *so* nice talking to you, and I'm glad you read my story. Please review. Gotta go! *Dashes away from mob flailing Matt and Gabumon over her head* Run awayyyyyyyy...
Aloha and thank you! REVIEW!!!!!
-Angel Baby
PS Review and tell me if you like Meloremon! My first Digimon...(that survives O_o) Do you like her? Do you? Huh, huh????? Tell meeeee!!
(Note: I'm really tired. Really, really, really tired. Yesterday was one of the Worst Days Ever. It was such a bad day. And I didn't get much sleep last night because my cats are bad, naughty kittens. I am tired, and thusly am slightly deranged. Go easy on me, here. I have NOT been having a nice time lately. Please, try to relate here. Thank you.)
Ok. Once again, I'm going to explain. Those of you who have read all the other chapters should know what I'm talking about here. Humor me. The @*@ things mean a break in scenes. I.E. a shift in place, time, or POV. Ok? Ok. Single stars will mean thoughts in paragraphs and Italics or emphasis in speech or text. For instance, (I'll be nice and change this for you) *I am so tired!* would be a thought, as it's an entire section. But "I am *so* tired!" would put an emphasis on so'. Get it? You have to just read the passage in text and it'll usually be pretty plain as to which it is. That's the idea, anyway. Also, things that say *FLASHBACK* mean the beginning of a flashback. A thing that says *END FLASHBACK* will tell you when the flashback ends. Just thought I'd let you know.
If you took the time to notice, the rating is still PG-13. That's because Matt wakes up in this chapter, and we *all* remember how he has to be woken up. Yes, another VenomCobrmon bite. Don't you just hate him? I do, and I wrote him into existence! Heavens...anyway, we also meet Meloremon. I know, I know! *Finally*! This will probably be my last post for a while, because I'm starting school soon. I'm gonna be in tenth grade! Yeah! Huzzah! (Translation? This will probably be my last post for a while, because I'm going into hell soon. Kill me now! I beg you! Please!) Anyway, as always, READ (well, duh, Angel! What *else* are they here for?) and REVIEW!!! (Please. I'm serious. Please. I'm getting really depressed over here. Please. Thank you.)
Many thank yous and alohas!
-Angel Baby
@*@
VenomCobrmon led them to a gigantic room, empty save the huge crystal chandelier that hung from the high ceiling. The doors, two magnificently carved pieces of art that swung in, reached to the roof, and all the Digidestined lined up together, finger tips to finger tips, couldn't have reached the walls on either side of the doors. As WereGarurumon strode into the room, still carefully caring his Digidestined, the great doors swung closed, seemingly of their own accord. They hadn't been in the room long when a dark, cold voice, that seemed to be from nowhere and everywhere whispered,
"Wake the boy." WereGarurumon leapt backwards as the VenomCobrmon slithered forward. Almost impatiently, the giant snake, dwarfed by the sheer size of the room, hissed,
"Give the boy to me and I will sssee to it that he awakensss. Keep him from me and Meloremon will sssee to it that I wake him anyway, but you will be dead. Meloremon doesss not like waiting."
WereGarurumon still didn't seem willing to give Matt over to the snake, so T.K. came over and whispered, "You have to let it do this, WereGarurumon." It felt odd saying that name. Usually it was Matt who asked the werewolf Digimon to do things. T.K. continued. "It's the only one that can wake Matt up. I don't want to do this anymore than you do. Believe me, I don't. But we have to. We don't know what the long term affects are. What if there's a time limit and if we don't wake him up in time he sleeps forever? We just don't have any choice." Slowly, cautiously, unwillingly, the wolf Digimon set Matt down. Once he had lost contact with his Digidestined, WereGarurumon de-Digivolved back down to Gabumon and sat glowering at VenomCobrmon, who slithered up to Matt and hissed at T.K.,
"Take off the bandagesss, ssso I can sssee my beautiful work." Unhappily, T.K. removed the bandage and revealed VenomCobrmon's handiwork. The snake lowered itself and peered down at the unconscious boy's wound. "Ah..." it hissed, "ssstitchesss. I had wondered how you intended to keep him alive. Oh, well. Thisss doesss complicate thingsss sssomewhat. Hmm..." Then, before anyone could react, VenomCobrmon snatched Matt up in its coils and slithered quickly to the other side of the huge room. Gabumon cried out in indignation and fear and charged forward. T.K. yelled,
"What are you doing?! Bring him back here!" The Digimon hissed a laugh.
"Oh, I *had* wondered how I would be able to inflict any pain with my Missstresss telling me I had to use the sssame wound. Thisss isss wonderful. Now I get to take ssstitchesss out." It picked up its huge cobra head and hissed at Gabumon, "Ssstay where you are, or I will injure him. Jussst one sssqueeze and..." Gabumon froze and the hissing laugh sounded again. "Perfect. Now, ssstay there." It looked down at Matt again, at his neck. A light of hunger barely tempered with a fear of Meloremon shown dangerously in the Digimon's snake eyes. It's tongue flicked out, testing the wound. Then again the tongue flicked out, but this time it wrapped around the first of Matt's stitches and pulled it out. One at a time it pulled the fifteen stitched out, pausing to hiss a laugh every few minutes.
The others tried not to watch, but Joe growled, "You monster." T.K., clutching his brother's jacket and T-shirt, was only grateful as his stomach tried to rebel against him that he hadn't had any breakfast.
Mimi was whispering, over and over, very low and soft, "Please don't feel it. Don't let him be able to feel it. Oh, please, don't feel it." Tai could only agree with her. Gabumon looked murderous. Kari was clutching a wet towel that she had brought with her for when VenomCobrmon woke Matt up with another piercing bite, trying very hard to *not* look at Matt. Sora was on her knees, trying to keep the Digimon calm. Izzy was staring at the laptop in his hands, furious but unable to do anything.
Finally, the snake Digimon hissed, "Too bad there were *only* thessse fifteen. Ah, well. Now for my sssweet bite. *Revival Fang*." Everyone's head snapped up at this, and they looked on in abhorrence as the tip of the deadly fang plunged into the now open and bleeding wound. After a few moments, Matt's horror filled eyes flashed open, but the Digimon continued biting the Digidestined. Mouth hanging open in a silent scream, Matt could do nothing but hang in the VenomCobrmon's coils. Every few seconds, his body would convulse in a small spasm of pain. Finally, the bite ended, and as Matt slid off the blood-tinted fang onto the ground a few drops of the anti-venom dropped onto his wound, and it healed instantly, leaving a multi-pronged star scar in its place. The boy lay on the ground where he was allowed to drop, eyes glazed in pain as the VenomCobrmon hissed another laugh and slithered away. The others raced to be by Matt's side and once there Izzy threw his laptop open and began typing.
"The venom and anti-venom are warring. The anti-venom is winning, but it's still not a pleasant feeling. The scar shouldn't pose any future problem, but I suggest we monitor it anyway." Kari's hands were shaking too badly to wipe the blood off Matt so T.K. took over. T.K. stared at his brother as he wiped off the last bit of blood. Matt's blond hair was tousled, making him look several years younger. The multi-pronged star-shaped scar was painfully apparent against Matt's pale skin. In a synchronized pattern, tremors of pain wracked Matt's body. His ice blue eyes were glazed and staring, unblinking, at the ceiling. Finally, the tremors lessened, and he blinked very slowly. After the initial blink, he closed his eyes and took a deep breath.
The tremors had almost stopped completely when Matt opened his eyes again and asked, "Where am I? And where's my shirt?" T.K. sighed and smiled at him.
"You're at Meloremon's castle with us and your T-shirt is with me. So is your jacket. They got...kind of dirty when VenomCobrmon...attacked you. So while you were sleeping we cleaned them up."
Matt, still staring at the ceiling, asked very calmly, "So that huge snake thing's called VenomCobrmon?"
T.K. nodded, then realized that Matt couldn't see him and said, "Yes."
Matt made a considering sound in the back of his throat, then said composedly, "I'm not sure I like VenomCobrmon. The battle was going our way before it showed up. We were at the point I wasn't even worried anymore. And then..." He closed his eyes again. Tai wanted to know exactly what Matt remembered.
"And then what?" He asked, as gently as he could.
Matt opened his eyes again and stared at the ceiling a while before answering, "And then...pain." He blinked up at the ceiling as the other Digidestined shifted uncomfortably. They had all hoped very desperately that Matt wouldn't be able to remember any pain. But it looked as though that wasn't going to happen.
Finally Joe asked in a doctoral, kind manner, "Can you get up?" Matt considered.
"I don't think so." He said honestly. "I could try, but I'm not sure." They decided to let him rest a while longer. One of Matt's hands moved toward where he thought the Digimon were standing. "Gabumon?" He called softly. "Are you there?" Gabumon stepped forward and stood by Matt.
"Yes. I am here." Matt 'hmm'ed and closed his eyes again. Finally T.K., wanting to know if Matt was really ok, asked,
"Hey, Matt?" Matt opened his eyes.
"Yes, T.K.?"
"Can you see me?"
"No, T.K." Someone gasped. T.K. ignored that person.
"Why not?"
"Because I can't move my neck." T.K.'s heart leapt into his throat. Was Matt's back broken?
"Why not, Matt?" He asked as calmly as he could.
"Because it hurts very badly." There was a collective sigh from everyone but Matt. A hurting neck was to be expected. After a while, Matt attempted propping himself up on one of his arms. With Gabumon and T.K.'s help, he got himself into a sitting position. He turned towards his younger brother.
"Can I have my shirt back?" T.K. laughed and handed it to him. Slowly, and probably painfully, but surely, Matt pulled on first his T-shirt then his wind-breaker. He tilted his head to one side and poked at his new scar through the holes that had been pierced into his shirt and jacket.
"Hmm..." he said thoughtfully, "that's where it hurts worst. I guess that makes a certain amount of sense." Suddenly the same cold, emotionless female voice that had ordered the snake Digimon into attacking filled the room again.
"Are you hurt, boy?" Everyone but Matt shrunk back slightly from the voice that sounded of silence.
"It depends," he answered coolly, turning his aching neck to look around the room, "on whose asking." There was a terrifying laugh that left a feeling of desolation in its wake. It didn't seem to bother Matt.
"Pain, while not necessarily a bad thing, is not a part of silence. Indeed, it sometimes invokes screams, and those are the opposite of silence. Poor VenomCobrmon, last of the Cobrmon I have not destroyed, you have blundered again." The VenomCobrmon's eyes filled with fear.
"Missstresss! Missstresss, I live only to ssserve you. I sssought only to fulfill your will the bessst I could! Sssurely you underssstand that I mussst caussse a cccertain amount of pain with all my attackkksss! I am a sssnake! Pleassse, Missstresss!" The cold laugh sounded again.
"Stupid, stupid VenomCobrmon. Your whining only makes me dislike you more." The VenomCobrmon was frantic with fear.
"Pleassse, Missstresss! Mercccy!" There was a pause.
Then, "Mercy and silence cannot exist together." There was a great flash of light and before it could even scream the VenomCobrmon was gone. A set of doors opposite the ones the Digidestined had come in began to silently inch open. Matt and the others stood up and their Digimon fell in place behind them. The voice was coming from behind the doors. "Hee-hee. You don't have to be on guard with *me*. It's really quite pointless. I will send you all to your death in silence whether or not you stand ready!" Matt watched the doors with the cold distaste he usually saved for dentists, cliffs, and cockroaches.
"You talk too much," he said, and the doors stopped moving.
"I talk too much?" There was utter disbelief in the cold voice now. "*I*? *I* talk too much?" Matt nodded, masking his pain perfectly.
"You repeated the same thing three times."
"I do *not* talk too much!"
"Point and case." There was a pause then the cold laugh sounded again. "And your laugh is annoying," he added as an after thought. The doors flew open with a loud BANG and Matt smirked. He had made it angry. Good. When the dust settled, the thing had regained its composure. She, for it was definitely a she, was humanoid except for her features. Her mid-back dark black hair bled to a blood red six inches from the tips. Her slight smile was accented by two tiny, delicate fangs. Instead of pupils, her eyes were a glowing, bright red. Long, slender arms ended in elegant fingers tipped with claws in place of nails. Cloths of blood red, black, and midnight blue draped about her slender figure in swirls, creating the illusion of a full dress. Held by her own power, she hovered inches above the ground.
Smiling darkly, she introduced itself, "I am the one you have come for. I am the Mistress of Silence, the Lady of Emptiness. I am-"
"You still talk too much."
"ARGH! I am Meloremon! Prepare to face your death in the black pits of silence!"
"If you're Meloremon, you should have said so at the beginning. The Mistress of Silence shouldn't talk so much."
"Shut up, shut up!"
"And you're loud, too."
"Aaah!"
"Matt," T.K. whispered nervously, "I don't think you should be making her mad. It'll only make things worse."
"Yea, but look at her," he said, indicating Meloremon with a hand. "She's so *pompous*. She could use a nock down once in a while." He cocked a tiny half-grin. "And I haven't been able to nock someone down for a *long* time. I want to see if I can still do it." T.K. stared at his brother in awe.
"You're not afraid of her," he whispered. Matt shrugged, then winced slightly.
"Nah," he replied. "If she's got the power to kill us, we're dead anyway, so why not annoy her first? Who knows, she might just get so sick of us she'll throw us out."
Meloremon cleared her throat and spoke again, "Despite your brave words, I know you fear me." She either didn't catch or chose to ignore Matt's cocked eyebrow. She tilted her head and smiled coldly. "I have your lives in the palm of my hand. I could kill you with a blast..." To demonstrate, she shot a despair-black ball of energy at Tai. When Tai jumped quickly aside to dodge the power, he bumped into Matt, who gave a muffled cry and fell to one knee, shaking and panting hard. The other Digidestined stared at him. T.K. whirled on Tai.
"What'd you do?" Tai blinked at him, wide eyed and confused.
"I didn't do anything to him! I barely touched him!" Meloremon laughed again.
"Don't you know? The late VenomCobrmon's venom and anti-venom are still warring in his blood. He hides the burning sensation well enough for a human, but allow me to explain what he feels. His blood boils! The slightest touch...the lightest breath against his skin aggravates the war and causes unbearable pain! He feels-"
"Couldn't you have just smirked, you twittering idiot?" Meloremon gasped and faced Matt, who had forced himself to stand and fight. Anyone who had wanted to help Matt didn't, simply because it would hurt him. "This is what I meant," he gasped as he locked his knees into a standing position, "when I said you talked too much. Why explain everything? Why not just smirk and watch? It's what I would do." He took a deep breath and then turned to face her, smirking slightly. "Is that why you need me? For lessons on how to be silent? You could use them." Meloremon, face burning with embarrassment and fury, took a menacing step towards Matt. Then she seemed to catch herself, and she coughed, her face becoming a cool mask of nothingness.
"Say what you will, Digidestin of Friendship. You are in pain and weak. I will destroy you." Matt's only reaction was to stare at Meloremon with such sheer indifference that she found herself squirming. Angrily shaking her head, she snapped, "I don't care *what* you are! I don't care if you *are* both music and silence! I don't care! You won't defeat me!"
"Ah, so that's it." Matt remarked casually. "I am both music and silence. Which means that your first form was music. Interesting." Meloremon gaped and blinked at him. Then she shook her head violently.
"No! I won't let you screw up my plans! The plans my Master set up for me! I won't, I won't!" Matt shrugged. Meloremon felt herself developing a nervous tick around her eyes as she stared at the dispassionate boy. "Don't...you care that I'm going to kill you?" Matt shrugged again. Meloremon screamed. "Stop that! Stop shrugging! A shrug is not an answer!" T.K. leaned towards Matt.
"I told you," he said smugly. Matt faced T.K.
"You told me that 'because' is not an answer. 'Because' and a shrug are two different things."
"Ah. Sorry." Matt nodded and turned back to Meloremon, who was staring at the two in shock.
"Aren't...aren't you afraid of me?" Matt shook his head. "Why not?" Matt cocked his strange half-grin and looked at T.K.
"Because," he answered. Meloremon waited for more, but when Matt looked back at her, she realized the 'because' was it. She screamed again and powered another blast, this time to shoot at Matt.
The tall blond arched an eyebrow and said calmly, "The worst you can do is kill me." Meloremon froze and stared at him.
"W-what?" She stammered, disbelieving. Matt shrugged.
"The worst you can do is kill me. And after that," he half-grinned at her maliciously, "I can haunt you." Meloremon dropped her attack and stared at him with open disbelief.
"I can't kill you," she said hopelessly. Then she seemed to brighten. "But I can take away your music!" She shot a ball of energy at Matt, but it was much smaller than the one she shot at Tai, and dark purple, not black. Matt watched it, unflinching, until it was right on top of him. Then, unexpectedly, the ball zoomed around to Matt's back. Confused, Matt pulled his hands out of his pockets and half turned, but it was too late. The power zipped back to Meloremon, and Matt tried desperately to snatch his harmonica back, but it was useless. The ball was too fast.
"No!" He cried. Meloremon took the harmonica in her hand and smirked at Matt. The blond glared at her through ice blue eyes, and she found herself squirming again. She quickly shook the bad feeling he was giving her off and pressed the harmonica lightly to her cheek.
Rubbing it against her skin very slowly she whispered, "Is this it? Is this all the music you have? This tiny instrument..."
"Well, excuse *me* for not bringing my baby grand," Matt bit out angrily. Meloremon laughed once, quietly.
"I won't hurt it...if it's precious to you," she purred softly. Her eyes narrowed and her small smile grew spiteful. The hand holding the harmonica tightened; there was the sound of crunching metal. Meloremon's eyes widened, and she looked at the crushed harmonica in bewilderment.
"Oops!" She said in mock surprise. "Guess I don't know my own strength." She looked at Matt and smiled at him evilly. Matt was staring at his bent and broken harmonica in disbelief. Meloremon held it out to him. "Here," she said, "you can have this now. I'm done with it." She tossed it lightly to Matt. Numb with shock, he reached one hand out to his harmonica, but before it could reach him, Meloremon's eyes narrowed and the tiny bent instrument exploded into millions of particles of dust. Matt's hand dropped to his side, and he watched the dust float down to the ground. The other Digidestined looked at Matt with compassion and worry. His head was bent, his fists were curled into balls, and he was shaking. Meloremon giggled. "Aww..." she mocked, "are you *mad* at me, little Digidestined? The instrument must have been *special* to you! Poor little boy...now you have no music with which to defy and challenge me! Well what do you have to say now, O One who is Silence and *Music*?" She laughed cruelly. With growing concern, the others (including Gabumon) watched Matt's shaking getting more and more violent until finally...it stopped. His shoulders stopped trembling and instead bunched up and were very tight. Like water flowing over glass, his composure seemed to pour back over him until he stood almost lazily, staring at the pile of ashes that had been his harmonica. He bent down on one knee easily picked up a handful of ashes, then blew lightly on them, causing them to swirl around the room. Finally he stood back up and clapped his hands together, getting the dust off. Meloremon laughed. "Do you surrender, then?"
Head still bent, he replied coolly, "Two hundred and thirty-six." Everyone in the room, including Meloremon and Gabumon, stared at him. Meloremon blinked.
"What's *that* supposed to mean?"
"Two hundred and thirty-six." Matt replied, still not looking up. "There were two hundred and thirty-six songs composed on that harmonica." Everyone stared at him again. Finally, he looked up, and Meloremon was afraid. Matt's eyes had lost the icy indifference that had bothered Meloremon so few minutes ago. Now they were empty, devoid of all emotions. Except...Meloremon thought she saw, burning in the cold, blank depths of this boy's eyes, a fantastic rage. A fury more raw and powerful than his indifference could ever have been. And she was frightened. To cover her fear, she spoke.
"I-is that all you have to say? You do nothing but add to my happiness and triumph! In one act of power, I have destroyed not only the instrument of the one said to be a threat to me, but the songs of two hundred and thirty-six people!" Matt stared at her, and she forced herself not to squirm.
"Not two hundred and thirty-six other people's songs. Two hundred and thirty-six of mine. No one else has ever touched that harmonica to play it. It was mine." He lowered his head slightly, maintaining eye contact. "For destroying it..." In a voice devoid of emotion but ringing of promise he whispered, "I won't forgive you...ever." Meloremon shivered, then lashed out in her fear. She threw a ball of darkness at the blond boy, but as it came to him he simply...moved. The energy whizzed past him, and Meloremon cursed.
"Fine!" She yelled, floating back into the room she had come from. "If you think you can beat the Mistress of Silence, follow me!" Without hesitation or any sign of fear, and ignoring the protests of the others, Matt followed Meloremon into the room. Gabumon ran to follow his Digidestined, but he was too late. Just as he reached the door, it closed.
"No..." Gabumon whispered, pounding on the door, "no..." The others clustered at the door and traded helpless looks.
"I guess it's all up to Matt, now." Tai said confidently. "No problem, right? Right?" The dark looks passed between the Digidestined and their Digimon didn't seem to agree with Tai's statement. He deflated. "Aw, who am I kidding? There isn't a snowflake's chance in hell that he'll survive, is there, Izzy?"
The boy opened his laptop hesitantly and typed at it a while before saying slowly, "Well, Matt didn't seem too afraid...on the contrary, *Meloremon* is the one who seemed afraid of *Matt*. However...with all his wounds...and the pain and trauma his system is facing...along with the shock of losing his harmonica...it seems a little biased towards Meloremon, in this case." He cursed angrily and closed his laptop with a snap. "We're all helpless again! It seems every time things have gone askew, we're all rendered helpless while Matt fights for his life! There is something not right about all of this!" The others said nothing, agreeing with Izzy.
To break the dominating silence, Tai asked T.K., "So, did you know that Matt had composed two hundred and thirty-six songs on his harmonica?" T.K. shook his head.
"I asked him how many songs he had made up before he and Dad moved. I only thought he was gonna say one or two. He said he had thought up fifty-eight songs. I didn't believe him, but now...he just might have been telling the truth." Joe whistled.
"Wow. That's one hundred and seventy-eight songs he's made up the last five years. Per year, that's..."
"Thirty-five point six songs per year," Izzy supplied instantly. "Fifty-two weeks in a year, that's approximately point six eight songs per week, excluding days he did not compose. He's either a musical genius, or all his songs are the exact same thing."
"I'm voting on musical genius," said T.K. dryly. "There was never a day I saw him that he wasn't either playing music or listening to music. Of course," he grinned wryly, "I was always begging him to come out and play with me. And he always dropped whatever he was doing and did." T.K. sighed and gazed up at the huge doors. "Looking back on it, Matt was the smart one."
Desperate to keep conversation going Mimi asked, "What do you mean, T.K.?" The blond sighed and looked down.
"Out of all of us, Matt was the only one who seemed to know that we wouldn't always be together. I asked him once. I was about...eight or nine, maybe. I walked up to him as he was getting ready to go do something with someone; I don't really remember who. I think it was Joe. He was at my house because it was a Sunday, and he always came over from Saturday to Sunday to be with Mom and me. I remember that he had at least three parties he could have gone to, but he didn't. He said he wanted to be with us as long as he could."
*FLASHBACK*
T.K. watched his older brother as he got ready to go out. After a few minutes of this, he asked, "Where're you going, Matt? Not back to Dad yet?" Matt smiled down at T.K. and grabbed some sneakers from the closet.
"Nah. I don't go back to Dad's till tomorrow." T.K. watched his brother fish socks out from his dresser with wide eyes.
"Then where're you goin'?" Matt plopped down on the floor next to his brother and began pulling his socks and shoes on.
"Joe has entrance exams for a really tough junior high today. The school he's trying to get in transfers directly into a high school that has a pre-med program. Joe wants to be a doctor, T.K., and so this entrance exam is really important to him. I'm gonna go down and be moral support in case he needs it. We don't need reliable Joe fainting because of nerves, do we?" T.K. shook his head.
"But, Matt, don't you have a party today?" Matt smiled and ruffled T.K.'s hair as he stood up.
"I have three, T.K." The little boy watched his brother grab a jacket and his set of keys.
"Why don't you want to go to your parties, Matt? Aren't you popular yet?" Matt laughed and swung his jacket over his shoulder, facing T.K.
"I do want to go to the parties, T.K. And I am kind of popular." T.K. looked confused. Folding himself down to his little brother's level, Matt asked kindly, "What's the matter, T.K.?"
"I don't get it, Matt."
"What don't you get?"
"Well, if you're popular, and you want to go to the parties, why don't you? Are they after Joe's big test?"
"No," Matt said casually, resting his chin in his hand and propping his arm on one of his bent knees, "the parties will all be over before Joe is done with his big test."
"Then why don't you just go to your parties?" Matt smiled softly at T.K. and smoothed his little brother's hair.
"Well, Joe needs his friends right now, and I'm his friend. There will always be parties, but I might not always have friends." T.K. blinked at his much-idolized older brother's words.
"What do you mean? Joe will still be here tomorrow and the next day. Why do you have to miss all your fun to watch him take a test? None of the others will be there, will they? And I'm not big enough to come. So why are you going?" Matt smiled again.
"I'm not going because anyone else will be there. And I am gonna miss going to my parties a little bit. But Joe is my friend. Nothing is more important to me than my friends."
"Yes," T.K. insisted in a childlike way, "but Joe will be here tomorrow, and all your parties won't be. So why aren't you going to your parties?" Matt checked his watch and stood up.
"There will always be parties, T.K., and to someone I will always be popular. But I don't know how long we'll all be together. Someday we all might move. And then I'll be sad that I didn't take the time to see you guys more. Or maybe I'll move." Matt looked troubled for a moment, as he sometimes did lately. "Or maybe Dad'll move," he murmured to himself, "and I'll be forced to go along." He sighed and looked at his watch again. "Gad, I've gotta go or I'll be late. Can't let Joe go in thinking no one's out there for him. Bye, T.K.!" T.K. waved as Matt left the house.
"I'll see you next Sunday!" T.K. called after his brother. Matt turned around and walked backwards for a few seconds.
"Not if I see you first!" He replied, and was gone.
*END FLASHBACK*
The Digidestined and their Digimon all sat in a long row, leaning against the huge door that separated them from the Chosen Child of Friendship. T.K. was sitting, with Patamon on one side and Gabumon on the other, in the exact place where the two doors met. They were all thinking about T.K.'s latest memory of Matt before he had moved.
"I am learning more about who Matt was from T.K.," Joe commented from somewhere down the ranks of children and Digimon, "than I ever knew when he was with us. I didn't know that he missed three parties to come cheer me on. But I'm glad he did. I was just about dead when I saw Matt. Then he waved at me and gave me a thumbs-up and just knowing someone was there, cheering for me, helped a lot. I did all right, though. I passed, didn't I?"
"Hey, T.K.?" Sora asked from towards the end of the line. "What did Matt give up to come and see our championship game?"
"Yea," Tai prompted, "what did he give up? Another three parties? I mean, it *was* a Saturday, and he *was* the most popular guy in school." T.K. sighed.
"I think that time it was two parties and an invitation from someone to stay the weekend at a beach house."
"He picked both of us up from school almost every day, T.K." Kari began. "What was he giving up for that?"
"A variety of things," T.K. commented. "There were always things for him to do and people for him to hang out with after school."
"What about my flash-cards?" Izzy inquired. "I am perfectly aware that he hadn't the slightest clue what he was drilling me on, but he help me at least fifteen times. However, it was always during the week. What could he give up for that?" T.K. thought.
"Well...sometimes there were group movies...and sometimes there were study sessions. I think that a few times some girls asked him to go to the pool. I'm not sure though. There was always so much he could have been doing."
"What'd he give up to go to my fashion show?" Mimi asked softly.
"Hmm...a pool party, a backyard BBQ with the school band, and a date with the entire cheer-leading team, with them in their uniforms. They wanted to make him their mascot." There was a stir of laughter from all the Digidestined. The Digimon didn't know what a 'cheerleader' was, and so they missed the humor.
"Are you serious?" asked Izzy. "Did they literally desire to make him their mascot?" A few heads bobbed up and down.
"Yea," said Joe, "I remember bumping into him in the halls that day. He looked kinda frazzled and mildly afraid. I asked him what he was running from and he just panted, 'They're coming. They're coming. Don't tell them where I went,' and ran off again. When the *entire* cheerleading team came flying around the corner screaming 'Where is he? Where is he?' I almost died laughing. Naturally, being a good friend, I sent them after him. It was so funny. But it was also the first time I realized that being popular isn't all it's cracked up to be. Of course, I only realized it when I saw him later that day, all his cloths ripped and tattered." Joe laughed at the memory. "He looked dazed, like he had just come from a war."
"I don't think he wanted to be," T.K. said thoughtfully. Joe blinked.
"What, the cheerleading mascot? No joke on that one."
"No, I mean, I don't think he wanted to be popular. I don't think he liked people he didn't know pretending to be his friend, just because it would make *them* popular, too. He always took friendship very seriously."
"Gee," commented Tai a little sarcastically, "I wonder why." There was a collective sigh.
"Is he gonna die?" T.K. asked suddenly. There was a depressing silence. T.K. put his face in his hands and moaned, "I can't believe he's gonna die. After all we did to find him, after all we did to keep him alive, after all he's been through, his luck finally ran out. Are we all gonna die, too, then?"
"Not without a fight," Tai growled. Sora opened her mouth, then closed it and cocked her head to the side.
"Does...does anyone else hear...that...?"
"Music..." Izzy murmured. "I hear music. But..." he looked confused, "it sounds like a piano. Does Matt know how to play piano?" T.K shrugged.
"Not that I remember, but you never know. It's been five years, who can tell what he's picked up in all this time." Suddenly, the music stopped. The seven Digidestined scrambled up and pressed their ears to the door. The Digimon watched them, curious. What was a piano?
"It stopped," Tai murmured.
"Yea, but that doesn't mean anything," insisted Kari. They all jumped back with a gasp as a loud boom shook the doors.
"Th-that doesn't mean anything, either," Mimi said shakily, growing pale. There was another boom and the doors creaked on their hinges. The Digidestined looked at each other. Another boom sounded. There was a fourth and final boom and the doors flew open.
@*@
Matt followed Meloremon into her chamber with coolness borne of a lack of feelings. The only other time in Matt's life that he had felt this emptiness was when his father had declared once and for all that they were not ever going home, and to stop being a baby and accept that. This cold disregard for everything was both a blessing and a curse. Matt was not afraid of Meloremon, and that was a blessing. But also, he was not afraid of dying, and that was a curse. The only feeling was a deep, dark anger, and that was good. It kept him going. When he entered the room, the huge metal doors swung closed with a loud BANG. Matt didn't flinch; he had been expecting that. Meloremon turned on him.
"I don't see what's so special about you," she commented, looking him up and down. "Other than that scar *my* VenomCobrmon gave you, you're really quite ordinary. What music do you possess that they don't?" Matt didn't reply; he just simply stared at her. "Answer me," she said pleasantly, "or I will kill the small blond boy." The hate-fire in Matt's eyes flashed dangerously. However, it quelled so quickly that Meloremon thought she had imagined it.
"All they can do is listen to and sing music. I don't think any of them play instruments. And I know for a fact that none of them compose music."
"And you?" She questioned. "You compose music?"
"I do."
"Other than the music on the tiny instrument?"
"Yes." Meloremon seemed to consider this.
"What other instruments do you play?"
"I play a few."
"No, no. Not *how many*. *What kind* of instruments?" Matt half turned to look at a shape covered in cloth that was hidden by shadows in the corner of the room.
"I play piano." Meloremon flinched.
"How interesting."
"I could play that piano." Matt strode over to the shape and pulled the dust-covered cloth off. The piano was beautiful. Made of a dark wood, it flowed along the same lines of a baby grand. Matt stroked the key-case almost lovingly. "It's a beautiful piano," he complimented.
"Get away from it!" Meloremon yelled, landing on the ground and running toward him. "Don't touch it! Don't play it!" Matt opened the key case and stroked the keys.
"If you can give me back my harmonica," he said softly, "I won't play this piano." Meloremon froze and watched as Matt looked at her, shrugged, and began playing. "Interesting," he commented as he switched from warm-up exercises to one of his own compositions, "this piano is covered in dust...but it's masterfully tuned. That makes me think...are you really only Silence?" Meloremon jerked as if slapped and glared at Matt as he played.
"Of course I'm all Silence," she snapped. "What else would I be?"
"I don't know how a creature of Music was perverted into a creature of Silence, but whatever method your boss used, he didn't finish the job. Or else this wouldn't be tuned." He struck a powerful cord. "And you wouldn't talk so much." Meloremon blushed angrily.
"I do *not* talk too much. And it's only tune it because...because...it's a special piano! It doesn't need to be tuned!" Matt stroked the keys in a scale and sighed.
"There is no way this piano self-tunes."
"Oh?" questioned Meloremon. "And how do you know that?" Continuing to play, Matt's eye's flicked to her.
"Because a piano that is not tuned by its owner does not play a music filled with love." Meloremon sputtered, then she got mad.
"It doesn't matter! As soon as I get rid of *you* my Master will finish the process and make me a creature made completely of silence! And then...I will be the most powerful creature in the Digiworld!"
"Not as powerful as your master." Meloremon blinked.
"Of course I will be. He said so himself." Matt's eyes turned back to the piano, and he shook his head.
"If the guy could make you, he can unmake you."
"No..." Meloremon whispered, "no...he wouldn't-"
"The way I see it," Matt continued, "all you are is a gate keeper. He's using you to keep him safe because he doesn't want to waste his time dealing with riffraff. So he's making you do his dirty work."
"No," she insisted. "*No*."
"You're his silence gate-keeper. But what I don't understand is," his playing became sorrowful, "how could anyone turn away from music? It's life and joy and peace. Silence...silence is death and sorrow and loneliness. Why would you turn to silence?" Meloremon stared at Matt as he played, watching his passion as he wove a melody he had only just created. This boy had a kind soul, and only his music could fully disclose that fact. Meloremon watched Matt close his eyes and smile softly, all his anger forgotten... and she remembered. She remembered simply *existing*, for and of music. She remembered feeling a song on the wind and chasing it to a sorrowful funeral. Another song caught her and she went to a wedding, the song one of joy this time. Another song...another place. Long ago...a boy with wild blond hair sat alone in a strange world, playing a melody of sorrow and confusion and hurt. Another song called her, but she enjoyed this one so much...she stayed. For a long time she stayed as his instrument whispered a song. Long after his companions had fallen to sleep, he sat, playing his song. Soon, the confusion laid way to acceptance, followed by peace. Meloremon sighed in memory as the boy's song slowly died down and he smiled slightly, at peace again. In her castle, in the present, Meloremon shook and remembered the boy playing the piano in front of her. It was the same boy...several years later...and the music was the same. It came from a different instrument, but it was the same.
"Do you remember me?" she asked softly, afraid of the answer. He half-smiled, his eyes still closed, his fingers still coaxing a peaceful melody from the piano.
"You were different then," he murmured in response, "I never saw you, but I knew you were there. Not what you were, just that you were there. You loved my music as much as I did. I used to think I was imagining you, but when I went back to my home...it just wasn't the same anymore. I didn't sense anyone there, feeling the same things from my music that I was. Oh, my brother knew there were emotions behind my music, but he couldn't pick them out. You...you were all around me when I played. You made maps of my emotions and helped me play the music that calmed me down. You were my closest friend here, and I never even saw you. Someone who understood...and someone who cared." Meloremon took a shaky breath.
"You were the only one who understood," she whispered, "my one and only friend. I couldn't get to you in that cave where the Despair lived...because you dropped your harmonica. You didn't play, so I couldn't help you. Oh, I thought of you as a second Music. I wasn't alone. Someone knew what I knew. You played like it was another way of talking, a better way than talking. It hurt so much when you left. Your last song...it was so sad. And I hurt because I couldn't help you weave a song of peace. I couldn't.... I was just as sad as you were. And then you were gone, and I was alone again. No one else played music like my fellow Music had...no one had your soul. So I turned away from music. But, oh, how I've wished I could hear you play just once more. Just... once...more." Matt smiled fully, a rich sight, an extension of the music he played.
"Yes. And I've wanted to play for you. But I can't if you're still of Silence. Come on; let me try to help you. Please? It just isn't the same here without you...music isn't the same. It never will be. What is a world without music?" Meloremon began nodding her head, but then she remembered. He would go again. And all that would be left is silence.
"No!" She screamed. "No! I won't become Music again! I will remain Silence! Silence is safe! No one can hurt you in silence! But...I don't want to be alone." Suddenly, she looked at him, and already she was so consumed with her insanity and desperation that she didn't realize he had stopped playing and was watching her with compassion and pity. "I won't be alone!" she cried. "And you won't go away! I'll make you just like me! Another Silence! Then...then I'll be able to keep you here with me! It won't matter that you're dead!" So saying, she threw a ball of power at him, and he jumped to the side to avoid it. With a huge BOOM it hit the wall above the piano. Matt smashed into the floor from his leap and cried out in pain. Everything hurt...his blood *burned* where his skin smacked the floor. Looking up, Matt saw Meloremon readying another blast.
"This won't solve anything!" he yelled at her, desperate to make her understand. "All this will do is leave this world with a little less music! I can't stop from ever leaving you again, but I'm only truly gone if you forget the sound of my music!" He leapt to his feet and to the side to avoid another blast, but he noticed with a feeling of triumph that the blast was smaller. He hit the ground and struggled painfully to his feet. Every inch of his skin tingled and burned; his neck and scar were absolutely killing him, but he forced himself to face Meloremon. "Listen to me! Please! I know what it feels like to be alone! I've been alone, too! So alone...the silence hurts sometimes, but you can't give up! You just can't!" Matt hurled himself to the side as a third blast flew at him. Trying to back away, he realized that he was in the exact middle of the two doors, where they met, trapped. He faced Meloremon, who was crying and gathering energy at the same time.
"You don't understand," Meloremon sobbed. "I was all alone! No one cared about me! No one understood music. No one played from his soul! No one could capture feelings...in all the millennia that I have lived, so few could capture their feelings. It was thousands of years between you and the last one. And then you left! I had no more music to listen to...people played other people's music, but it wasn't the same." Meloremon seemed to brighten. "And now I've got a music right here in the room with me that is filled with emotions! All I have to do is make you Silence, and I'll have a friend forever! I'm so happy! I'll never let you go! I'll never be alone again! Never!" She threw the blast at Matt, expecting him to dodge, but she didn't notice the compassion that filled his eyes.
"I understand," he whispered, and she was confused. "I hate being alone, too. More than anything in the world. If this is what you need to come back to music, then that's all right." He smiled at her. "I don't mind." Terror gripped her as the energy closed in on him.
"You idiot!" She screamed, running towards him. "It's not a game if you don't dodge! Move, move, it'll hit you!"
"My friend," he murmured finally, "please don't forget my music. Please." The blast connected. Meloremon screamed. The force of the blast threw the doors open. Registering something like shock, T.K. felt something moving very fast plow into him. The thing had so much momentum it smacked into T.K. and kept moving, taking the blond with it. T.K. smashed into the far wall and the other thing smashed into him. Falling to the ground, T.K. realized that he was lying on the thing that had squashed him into the wall and rolled off it. Gasping in his breath, T.K. opened one eye and looked at the thing. He cursed mentally. It was Matt. Gabumon and the others were running over. As they reached the brothers, T.K. was sitting up, and Matt was opening his eyes. Before anyone could stop him, Matt hauled himself into a standing positing and turned around. Meloremon was standing on the ground, dwarfed by her own huge doors. Her hands were over her mouth, and she was crying silently.
"Why?" She whispered. "Why? You could have moved. Why?" Matt smiled peacefully at her.
"Because you are my friend." Meloremon lost her control, then, and sank to the floor, sobbing uncontrollably. Matt hobbled over to her as fast as he could, which wasn't very fast. When he reached her, he put his hands on her shoulders, and she looked up. He wiped the tears off her face and said, "You are my friend, the only friend who fully understands my music. If you want, I will be the only one who understands you. Would you please play me a song on your piano? Only the one who takes care of an instrument can truly play it." Meloremon smiled at her friend and nodded. Matt hugged Meloremon tightly, wrapping his arms all the way around her, and her tears soaked through his tattered shirt to touch the dormant sigh of Friendship. The sign flared and released a blue light that surrounded the two. Meloremon's voice echoed throughout the room.
"What are you?" After a slight pause, Matt's voice answered, echoing in the same way.
"I am Friendship."
"What is Friendship?"
"Friendship is the Music of life. Will you live?" There was another slight pause. Then Meloremon's voice resounded proudly throughout the room.
"I will." The light exploded until no one in the room could see. When at last they regained the use of their eyes, they blinked. Matt was standing where he had been kneeling with Meloremon, his hands behind his back. He was smiling slightly and there was still a blue aura of light around him.
"I present to you," he said proudly, his voice loud in the usually silent room, "the Mistress of Music, the Lady of Song. My friend, Meloremon." From behind him, he pulled a girl. She seemed very shy. Her mid-back hair was silvery white and shone with starlight when she moved. Her eyes were a very soft blue, so light they were almost transparent. The girl was a few inches shorter than Matt and wore a silver-blue dress that ended a few inches before her knee and seemed to float on the breeze. It accented her petite figure perfectly. The girl was breathtaking, but definitely not Meloremon. Meloremon was dark, with blood red and black colors, and this girl was light, with white and remarkably light blue tones. There was a striking difference.
"*That* is *not* Meloremon," insisted Mimi. "She doesn't look anything *like* Meloremon." This seemed to distress the girl. She took a step away from Matt and pleaded with her eyes.
"Oh, but I am Meloremon!" Her voice was like music and floated about the room. "I'm just more like the Meloremon I used to be. I used to be the basic Digimon of Music. But then I got very lonely, being the only one of my kind, and I was offered a chance to get even with all the people who had left me." Her shoulders drooped, and she sighed. "I'm afraid I wasn't very strong." She looked up again. "But I am now! I want to help you. I'm *desperately* sorry for causing you so much trouble...I really am." She looked so sad...Tai smiled and stepped forward, extending his hand for a shake.
"I'm Tai," he introduced. "These are the other Digidestined, and we're very pleased to meet you, Meloremon!" Meloremon smiled, her eyes filled with tears, and accepted the handshake. There was a muffled gasp from behind where the Digidestined were greeting Meloremon, and they all turned in time to see Matt's knees fold. The Chosen Child of Friendship looked mildly shocked to find himself lying on the ground, as if he wasn't there from personal choice.
"Oh!" Meloremon exclaimed in surprise, running to Matt's side with the others. She knelt next to him and laid his head on her lap. Stroking his hair gently, she continued, "Of course, how terribly foolish of me! You would be very tired right now, wouldn't you? I'm so sorry. Come, let me lead you to a room where you can be more-"
"No!" Meloremon jumped slightly at the exclamation and turned to the Digidestined.
"What's the matter?" She asked them. They looked at each other, considering on how best to phrase whatever it was they had to say.
They all looked meaningfully at Tai, who cleared his throat and said, "Well, Meloremon, we understand that Matt is tired. Very, very tired and very, very, *very* sore. And we just want to thank you for your hospitality, but...but, well, to be perfectly honest, it's like this. We've only had bad experiences in this castle- your castle- and it *is* a nice castle, but...well, the only room we'd be comfortable enough to sleep in is the one we spent last night in. And last night...wasn't the greatest night in the history of the Digiworld. We had a really, really bad time in there and...well, we'd just rather not go back. It seems like...like a back track in progress. Not that your castle isn't nice! Please don't think we don't like your castle! It's just...well...you know. I hope." Meloremon stared at Tai, then smiled knowingly.
"I understand," she murmured, her beautiful voice echoing comfort and sympathy. "Your only night here was...very bad. And that was all my fault."
"No!" Tai insisted strongly. "No, that's not it. It wasn't your fault, it's just that-"
"I understand, Tai," Meloremon assured gently. "In fact, I have to agree. I don't really care for this castle, either." Tai blinked at her.
"Excuse me," Izzy began politely, "but we were under the impression that this manor was...yours. Is this a falsehood?" Meloremon giggled into one of her hands and rubbed Matt's temple with the other.
"No, no!" She laughed softly. "This castle isn't *mine*. It's far too quiet. No, this castle was assigned to me when I...when I became..."
"When that what's-his-name-mon tricked you into becoming Silence," Mimi finished gently, picking up on Meloremon's discomfort. The Music Digimon smiled gratefully.
"Yes," she said, "something like that. Anyway, the point is, this isn't *my* castle. It's his. And I don't like or want it. I want to get out of here as soon as I can." T.K. stared at her, immensely confused.
"If...if it's not *your* castle...if it's *his*...why did he put you here?"
"This castle is the First Gate. I was sent here to guard it."
"Oh...then...where did you live before?" Her expression turned black and she stopped fluffing Matt's hair.
"The place I lived was the first to fall to him."
"So...so he took your home?" Sora asked hesitantly. Meloremon nodded darkly. "I hope you don't mind me asking, but...why?" Meloremon sighed.
"The castle he took is called Central Fortress. It is the home of the Four Basic Digimon and the exact center of the Digiworld."
"I thought that was File Island," Izzy interjected. Meloremon smiled at him.
"File Island is the center of *life* in the Digiworld. Central Fortress is the center of Digiworld itself."
"Then what happened to it when the Digiworld was destroyed by Apoclimon?" Asked Sora.
"Nothing. Through the battle, through the struggle, through the destruction, through the rebirth, Central Fortress remained unaffected."
"Then why didn't we *see* it?" Tai questioned. Meloremon shrugged.
"Because it is hidden. Not even Digimon know where Central Fortress is."
"I thought it was a legend," breathed Gatomon, looking as shocked as all the other Digimon. "There are stories about Central Fortress...about how it holds the Ultimate Power, but they're only rumors and stories. Are you telling me they're *real*?" Meloremon smiled.
"As real as I and my sisters." The Digimon laughed nervously.
"Basic Digimon were just stories, too," Gomamon explained to the Digidestined. Izzy nodded and then turned to Meloremon, a passion and quest for knowledge burning in his eyes.
"But this Central Fortress...why is it so important? What is the Ultimate Power?" Meloremon sighed and seemed to be considering for a moment, trailing her fingers through Matt's soft blond hair absently. Finally, she spoke.
"The first question is simple. Central Fortress is important because it holds the secret to the Ultimate Power, as well as the Four Basic Digimon. But the second..." she paused, considering again, and continued hesitantly, "the Ultimate Power...isn't really a power as much as...a Principle." Joe blinked.
"A...a Principle."
"Yes..." Meloremon continued slowly, "a Principal. Like...like the Principle of Gravity. Or the Principle of the Tides."
"So the definition of Principle here is like a Natural Law back in our world," Izzy translated. Meloremon considered.
"I think so," she agreed, "only they're not really laws. They're more like...more like concepts or theories, accepted by only the educated and those Digimon who have the ability to see beyond what others do." Izzy 'hmm'ed.
"So Central Fortress is the center of the Digiworld and the original home of the Four Basic Digimon. It also contains the secret to the 'Ultimate Power', which is more accurately termed a 'Principle' or a concept of some sort."
"Exactly," Meloremon agreed.
"All right," continued Izzy, "but what *is* that hidden Principle?" Meloremon shifted slightly under Matt's head.
"It...it is called the 'Principle of Eight'. It is the best hidden of secrets and most important of all the Principles. We four Basics alone know for certain that it exists. Only the most knowledgeable of Digimon even dream of it being a reality, and all they can base their dreams on are guesses and stories." The Digidestined and their Digimon were enthralled.
"What is it?" Whispered Tai. "What *is* the 'Principle of Eight'?" Meloremon sighed.
"The Principle of Eight is-" a deep, peaceful intake of breath and long sigh drew Meloremon's attention back to the boy that was lying on her lap. She blinked down at him. "Oh! It seems Matt has fallen asleep." She looked up at the others. "Does anyone know how long he's been out?" They shook their heads in unison. Meloremon sighed. "Well, it's extremely hard to explain the Principle of Eight, so could we please wait until the morning to talk about it? I'd rather just tell you all about it once." They nodded and she smiled. "Oh, thank you! Um...do any of you have something he can use for a pillow? Moving his head from my lap to something else won't wake him up- *nothing* will wake him up at this point- and my legs are falling asleep. Ow! Ow! Needles!" The others laughed. Sifting through his bag, Joe produced a thick, winter jacket. It was big, but not big enough for everyone. So Sora and Tai volunteered to go back to the room of the night before and grab some pillows and blankets. Sighing in relief, the others accepted. Meloremon said thank you, but no. She was taken care of. In fact, if they didn't mind missing their walk back through the castle at night, they could come and get some blankets and pillows from her room, which was, after all, a doorway away. Laughingly accepting, Sora and Tai followed Meloremon into her chambers to get night supplies for the Digidestined, their Digimon, and a yet-again-unconscious Matt.
@*@
AN: I'm sorry about the way I spelled Apoclimon. I couldn't find the spelling, and so I had to guess. Please don't flame me! Please, please, please, PLEASE don't flame meeee!!! But DO review! (*giggle* I rhymed! Oy...I've been up waaaaay too long. Youch! No, no, kitty!! Get off my back! Yow!! PAIN!) I mean it. Review. Tell me what you liked. Even "Wah! I love Matt, too! Nice job!" is good enough for me. I just need to know that you people out there like what I'm doing over here. Also, the more you review, the more insistent my muse gets that I come back to this story, the more I *work* on this story. It's a give and take. You give me reviews, my muse takes away my freedom of choice on which story I want to work on. *sigh* My Ranma 1/2 fans...they're ready to kill me. *glares at angry mob**they glare, too, and wave their pitchforks and torches**shrinks back and hugs Matt and Gabumon stuffed dolls* Save me, Matt...help him save me, Gabumon. *Mob advances**Fake smile* Well, it's been *so* nice talking to you, and I'm glad you read my story. Please review. Gotta go! *Dashes away from mob flailing Matt and Gabumon over her head* Run awayyyyyyyy...
Aloha and thank you! REVIEW!!!!!
-Angel Baby
PS Review and tell me if you like Meloremon! My first Digimon...(that survives O_o) Do you like her? Do you? Huh, huh????? Tell meeeee!!