AN: Hi there!! First off, I'd like to take this opportunity to give MANY MAHALOS to those who reviewed! Thank you, thank you, thank you!!
Now, then. Some of you may be sitting there, dumb with awe, thinking "My God. She posted again. It's the apocalypse!" Fear not! It's just that, I told myself I'd post one chapter of this story each Saturday from now until it's finished. Only: problem! This Saturday I'm camping. So I'm being very, very nice (or maybe it's very, very meeeean) and posting now. Tonight. Right this very moment. Ta-da!
And now, a song: Yoouuuu puuut ttheee…good stuff in! You pull the bad stuff out! You put the angst stuff in and you shake it all about! You do the Disclaimer Poky and you turn it all around. That's what it's all about!
…C'mon. If I were rich enough to own Digimon, I'd hire a lyrist and crap like that wouldn't come forth from my mind and fingers. Suing me would be a waist of time and recourses.
Moving on! Please enjoy and, as always, REVIEW!!
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Chapter Eleven
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T.K. glared at Tai, who looked properly ashamed and sheepish as he lowered his eyes. "What have I said about making him laugh?" the young blond demanded, a comforting hand on his brother's back as he coughed violently. "I've gone over this and over this, especially with you. Stop making him laugh; he can't take it!"
"I wasn't trying to be funny. Honest. I was completely serious."
Matt, coughing just barely under control, heard this last comment and gave a short, diverse laugh that, naturally, made him cough again.
T.K. launched himself at Tai, which only made Matt laugh and cough harder.
"Stop it," Mimi hissed, glaring at the two as she steadied Matt while Joe helped him take a few sips of water. "You're not helping, Takeru! This is your brother's health we're dealing with here; try to be a little more mature, can't you? You too, Taichi."
They both winced.
"Are you ok, Matt?" T.K. asked, looking worried and nervous as he usually did recently.
Matt nodded but didn't say anything as he drank both water and the medicine Joe gave him. He pulled a face. "That's disgusting," he gasped in a raspy voice.
"Well," Joe agreed pleasantly, smiling, "you know what they say. The more foul the better for you."
"Who says that?"
"My dad."
"Ah."
T.K., catching the tiny yawn that escaped his brother, was immediately by his side, fretting. "Are you ok?"
Matt shot him a tolerant, tired look. "Is that a joke?"
The younger boy winced again. "Not very considerate of me, is it?"
"No, not really."
"Ok," Joe instructed, shoving a bunch of assorted foods into Matt's hands, "enough talking. Eat this and go to bed."
Yes, sir, Matt mouthed, grinning sleepily. In a surprisingly short amount of time, the blond was tucked against Garurumon's warm, soft side, slumbering deeply, if a little fitfully.
"I just wish he'd eat more," T.K. sighed quietly as the remaining seven picked at their dinners. "He barely had half of what you gave him, Joe, and it wasn't much in the first place. How can we make him eat more?"
"We can't."
Tai looked up at that, frowning slightly. "So is it something he's gotta decide to do for himself? He has to make himself eat more?"
"No, it's not like that at all. He can't eat any more than he's been eating; actually, I'm surprised he's been able to get down as much as he has. He can't have any kind of appetite, not as sick as he is. Frankly I'm proud of the effort he's making."
"Well, ditto," T.K. defended, "but I'm still concerned."
"You can be concerned," Mimi assured, "there just isn't much else you can do at this point."
"Which is sad," Izzy sighed. "It's really sad when the best a genius can do is just sit back and watch and worry."
At that moment, Kari and Sora shrieked. Everyone looked over in startled surprise. Kari was sitting on the ground by the fire the two had built while Sora knelt by her and tried to smother the flames on the edge of her jacket. They were making enough noise to rouse the sick member of the team, and that was not going to be allowed to happen. Tai and T.K. moved at the same moment, T.K. to clasp a hand over Kari's mouth as Tai pushed Sora out of the way as gently as he could to cover the small flame in dirt. Afterwards the quartet turned their attention toward the great blue striped white wolf, whose Digidestined murmured fitfully once before shifting his weight a tiny bit and stilling with a sigh. The remaining Digidestined and their Digimon released their collective breath.
Garurumon, head resting sedately on his front paws, opened and narrowed one eye at the two girls who had caused the commotion. They grinned apologetically and the wolf Digimon closed his eye again, growling very gently and very low in his throat. It was a clear warning for them to shape up.
T.K. glared at them, too. "What happened?" he demanded in a whisper.
"Something was put in the fire that popped. It landed on Kari's jacket and caught it on fire."
"You couldn't have been more quiet about it?"
"It was a crisis!"
"Crises can't be quiet?"
"Shh!" Kari hushed. "It was a mistake. We're sorry. It won't happen again. We'll be quiet if you're quiet, ok?"
"Ok."
Silence reigned. No one spoke for fear of waking Matt, who needed all the sleep he could get. Eventually, with nothing else to do, the Digidestined drifted away from the fire and went to sleep.
An added job to standing watch was a routine checking of Matt's condition. They were about a week away from Piatymon's palace, and though so far no one thought Matt knew what they were doing, they remained cautious. The Chosen Child of Friendship still greatly disliked the fuss that came with being taken care of.
Kari stared at the flickering light of the fire, the world around her tuned out completely as she thought.
After a long while of this, a groggy voice observed in a low, tired tone, "That's not a very safe way to stand a watch."
The Chosen Child of Light jumped slightly, spinning around to gasp at the figure that had spoken. "Matt!" she cried in a hushed voice. "What are you doing up? T.K.'s gonna kill you!"
"Not if he never knows I woke up."
Kari's eyes narrowed slightly as she stood over the gently grinning boy with her hands on her hips. "Have you been keeping secrets?"
"Yes," he admitted, the grin turning into an almost apologetic smile.
"Why?" She plopped down next to him, leaning against Garurumon, who shook his great head tolerantly before settling again. He took a deep breath and released it in a long sigh, which made the boy cushioned against his chest rise and fall slowly.
"Why what?" Matt returned, grinning and reaching up to scratch Garurumon deliberately behind the closest ear.
"Why are you keeping secrets?"
Matt considered how best to respond as he continued scratching behind his Digimon's ear. "There's no reason T.K. has to know I'm not always sleeping. It'll just worry him more. What's the point of doing that to him? He's already giving himself headaches and such; I don't want to add to that if I don't have to."
"But you have to at least tell Joe or-"
"Joe, Mimi, and Tai all already know."
"Wh-what?"
"Everyone who has to know knows. Izzy doesn't, Sora doesn't, T.K. doesn't, and you didn't use to. I'm already a burden; I already worry everyone every time I take a breath or miss a breath or cough or laugh. Why would I add to that if I didn't have to?"
Kari sighed. "I see the logic."
"And you won't tell T.K."
"And I won't tell T.K.," she agreed, sighing again. "Now go back to sleep."
"I can only say I'll try."
Kari sighed again, standing and moving back to the fire. "How often do you sit up awake?" she murmured after a while.
There was a pause when she didn't think he'd answer. Then, just as softly, "A lot."
"So you probably know we've been keeping an eye on you at night."
"The cold hands on my forehead every fifteen minutes were a clue, so yeah. I figured it out."
"Why don't you complain?"
"It wouldn't do any good, and it seems to make you guys feel better about the whole situation."
Another laps of silence. "What was it like?"
"What was what like?"
"Dying."
A pause. Then, carefully, "Which time?"
"Both."
"They were different."
"How?"
"In the hospital, it was like being shut in a dark room and dragged away. I was angry but I was tired and…and afraid. Then Garurumon came and got me- he was in this form, not his Rookie form. It felt like being saved, like getting a second chance, and it hurt a little, but it was a relief. This last time was…very different. It hurt. I wasn't ready for the pain, because it came so suddenly. Then I felt like I was being dragged away from everything I'd just barely gotten back. But…something happened. Something strange. Tsunomon was with me, and T.K. was with me, and my friends were with me, and…I wasn't scared." He smiled softly and closed his eyes, sinking further back into Garurumon's soft, warm fur. "It was wonderful. I was at perfect peace. It sound strange, but it's true. I floated in eternity and I was loved. Sakura was there. Not physically, but there all the same. She and something else sent me back. That hurt, by the way. Then I was back and T.K. was crying and he's been crying pretty steadily since. I think he's going to need psychiatric help when we get back."
Kari chuckled. "Yeah, probably. He loves you, though. He really missed you, and missing you was hard for him, and he doesn't ever want to have to miss you again."
"Yeah…I thought it was something like that."
They lapsed into silence again and Kari began hoping Matt would get more sleep. It was not to be as the boy asked, eyes still closed, "What was it for you?"
She jumped a little and turned to blink at him. "What?"
"Your fear." His eyes remained closed. "What was it?"
"I-" She gulped. "I don't-"
"Of course, you don't have to tell me. You could just let it fester and tear at your sanity. If that's what you really want."
Pause. "Everyone was…dead. You, Izzy, Sora, Joe, Mimi…T.K. Everyone but Tai and me… Loyarimon had her sisters in their perverted forms and…they were torturing him. Physically, mentally, emotionally…every way possible. I could tell…they'd done it to all of you, too. It was so horrible. They ignored me. It was as if I wasn't there. If I tried to fight them, nothing happened. There wasn't a thing I could do, and you were all so…so broken. It was terrible. It was so terrible. I was scared because I was going to be all alone forever in a room where I had been powerless to prevent the murders of my closest friends. I was useless, I was terrified, and somehow it was all my fault. After Tai died…my parents showed up. They were killed. Then…just as you really…died…they went back to you. Suddenly you weren't dead or they'd brought you back or something and it all started again. It was different from Tai and my parents, though. You were hurt, but…you weren't fighting. Then you sighed and were gone. I could hear Tai. He told me you were dead and T.K. was facing her alone and I knew. I knew I couldn't let that happen, so I faced her. I faced her, Matt. In my dream and in reality, I took her power from her. I changed it. I had power. I was power. I was Light again, and undefeatable. And I think…if we can all become things like I was, we're going to win this thing, Matt. We're going to win. Do you understand?" She turned from the fire again and found him asleep, his breathing shallow but even, a tiny, satisfied smile softening his face. Kari felt a smile melt her own tense expression. He'd listened and understood her. She knew he had. And now…the last of her residual fear had been bled away.
He was the perfect friend, even when he was so sick.
"Goodnight, Matt," Kari murmured, smiling at the fire, content to carry on the rest of her watch in silence.
From where Matt lay against Garurumon, he smiled. "Goodnight, Kari."
Yamato Ishida, sitting astride the great Champion Digimon wolf, Garurumon, took a ragged breath and winced. Oh, that hurt. That really, really hurt.
Obviously he was getting worse as the days dragged on. T.K. hadn't guessed yet how much worse, exactly, he was, but it wouldn't be long till he figured it out. Then there was going to be a mess.
They were five days from Piatymon's palace. Matt didn't think he was going to be able to make it much farther. The plan was to have him waiting with some of the other Digimon about an hour's walk from the castle. Frankly the Chosen Child of Friendship didn't see it happening. How was he going to break the news to T.K.?
"You ok up there, Matt?"
The blond looked over to see Sora smiling up at him from where she walked just a few feet away.
"It must be nice to not be walking."
Matt winced, curling the fingers of his right hand in Garurumon's coat.
"Er…never mind."
He nodded. Joe had given him many strict instructions as his illness developed, one of which was to talk as little as possible. He was a smart boy, the young almost-doctor said. He could pantomime and get his messages across just fine without words. And it was true. Since his last conversation with Kari that had left his sore throat aching, he hadn't really done much talking, but everyone got the idea of what he wanted eventually.
"So…how're you holding up?"
Arching an eyebrow, Matt studied her out of the corner of one eye and made a so-so motion.
She smiled again. "That's good. I
only asked because you look a little flushed."
Matt gave the barest
half-smile and fanned himself gently with one hand.
"Are you hot?"
Nod.
"That's probably because of your fever."
Nod.
"Do you want me to tell Joe?"
He shook his head.
"Why not?"
Matt pointed at his throat, then at Joe, then at his hot forehead, then at Joe again. He shrugged.
"He already knows?"
Nod.
"And there's nothing he can do?"
No. Nothing.
"I'm sorry, Matt. It must be hard to be so sick in the Digital World."
A smile, faint but sincere.
"Hey, do you-"
Then T.K. showed up. "Sora, why're you bothering Matt?"
She shrugged, surprised. "He looked bored."
"Yeah, but he's-"
Matt cut T.K. off by waving a hand until he got his brother's attention. He shook his head once firmly, frowning very slightly. The message was clear. Don't be a fuss-bucket. Nothing was wrong with pantomiming; it took very little energy. He shouldn't be making a problem where there wasn't one. Fretting was a bad habit.
All communicated with a shake of the head and a frown.
T.K. winced. "Sorry. I'm being a pain again. It's just hard!" he burst out suddenly. "It's hard when your only brother whom you've already lost a lot in the past is sick and there's nothing you can do! Every time I glance back you look worse. I mean, no offence, but it's true! I know you're not going to be able to go much father- I just know it- and then what? I have to leave and go fight this evil Digimon that has the ability to destroy us all, and if I'm destroyed, who's gonna take care of you? You need someone to fish for you and gather fruit for you and make a fire and pick a campsite and stand watch and-"
Matt- careful of his left arm- leaned over to rap his brother's skull with his knuckles.
Surprised, T.K. stared at him.
The older boy motioned to his Digimon, then forward to the other Destined and their Digimon, and smiled reassuringly. "We'll be fine," he whispered. "Keep your faith, T.K."
Oddly humbled and relieved, T.K. found himself returning the smile.
Then Joe- who had the hearing of a doctor- was walking with them and lecturing them both for Matt's whispered words and Sora was trying not to laugh and Tai was urging them to go faster and the day melted away.
Matt knew that night, as he lay shivering from the heat of his own fever, that he wasn't going to be able to go very much farther.
When T.K. woke the next morning, he knew immediately that something was wrong. Something…
When Matt was pulling himself onto Garurumon, that something came into sharp focus.
His brother was drastically worse than he had been. He winced as he curled his fingers into the wolf's soft fur, his breathing was fast and labored, his eyes glazed by fever, and his right hand, when he released the fur, curled into a fist over his heart.
Garurumon refused to stand.
T.K. turned to call Joe's attention to his patient, but the doctor was already studying the older blond, conversing quietly with Izzy.
Finally the older boy approached Tai and showed him the information on the laptop screen.
Tai looked immediately concerned and murmured something to Joe, who replied in a voice equally low and soft. Growing resolute, their leader nodded and turned to talk to the knot of girls a few feet away.
Matt was leaning forward, his face pressed into his wolf Digimon's cool fur, when hands grabbed purchases of his jacket and dragged him gently but firmly from Garurumon's back.
"Wha," he demanded weakly as he was pillowed against his Digimon and bundled in blankets carried from Loyarimon's castle when they left all those days ago. "What's going on?"
"You're not coming."
He blinked at his brother. "What?"
"You're staying here. We're going to keep heading to Piatymon's castle, but you can't come anymore."
"But-"
"You're going to get a heart complication, Matt," Joe warned in a low voice even as the blond began slipping into a deep sleep. "Heart complications don't go away. It's safer if we leave you here."
"But…"
T.K., smiling sadly, tucked the last blanket around Matt, and stood. "Sleep well and deeply, brother. We'll be back as soon as we can."
The last words the blond heard were Tai's, and even those seemed to come from a great distance. "Ok. So Garurumon's staying. Any more volunteers?"
Then darkness.
When he woke again in a fit of fever, his brother and friends were gone. But he knew they'd be back. Even in his world of hurting, he knew that much, and continued to sleep.
It was almost surprising how much faster travel was without Matt. Though they were one member and two Digimon down, they still made excellent time, arriving at Piatymon's house in less than half of Izzy's projected time.
Even with all that, T.K. was deeply unhappy. He wanted his brother, and he wanted him now. Leaving him- even in the capable care of Garurumon and Gatomon, two Champion Digimon- went against everything he had ever believed about what it meant to be a brother. Matt was sick, immersed in an illness that had killed him twice, and he was alone. T.K., his brother, was not there. Was not. As in, currently almost a day and a half away from where his sick brother lay exposed to the elements without other human contact. By himself.
It made the usually complacent T.K. irritable and angry.
Piatymon would have to face his wrath, even if he wasn't the one who would change her back. Someone had to pay for the temporary abandonment of his older brother.
"That's her castle," Izzy announced, pointing to a dark tower in the distance.
T.K. glared at it.
"How much longer until we get there?" Tai asked, crossing his arms as he studied the structure in the fading evening light.
"Not much. We could get there by mid-morning if we woke up early."
"And if we just keep going?"
The remaining six Digidestined and their Digimon- Patamon included- stared at T.K.
"You mean," Kari began slowly, testing the idea, "what if we don't stop for the night?"
"Yes. How soon will we get there if we don't stop for the night. That's exactly what I mean."
Izzy considered. "We'd be there by midnight, tops."
Tai frowned at the younger blond. "T.K., I know you want to get back to Matt, believe me, we all do, but I can't condone rushing into a battle headlong without any sleep. We'd be inviting failure. I can't do that. It would do more harm than good."
T.K.'s eyes were narrowed and locked on the building, his arms crossed, his mouth pursed. "I want to get this over with and get back to my brother."
The leader sighed. "I know but-"
"No buts, Tai. I want to be with my brother."
"T.K.," Tai said with exaggerated patience between clenched teeth, "you can't go back to your brother if you hurl yourself unprepared into a battle and get your ass kicked."
"Watch your mouth, Tai," Kari instructed, stepping in front of T.K. She leaned forward, her arms crossed over her chest. "T.K., I have something to say. Look at me." He refused so she grabbed his shoulders and shook him once. "Look at me." Finally he did. "I know this is hard, especially for you. I know you hate this, and I know you're afraid, but I am not- absolutely not- going into a battle tired and unprepared. I am not going to get myself killed just to save a few hours. I know that's hard for you to accept, and I know you'll never like it, but it's just the way it's got to be. We can walk until it's dark and we can get up early and we can run all the way back to your brother's side, but we've got to get some sleep, even a little, if we have any intention of winning, and I, for one, am not going into this to lose. Please, T.K. Try to understand."
His jaw remained hard and set.
"Please." Kari shook him again. "Please. Matt told me what it was like and I really don't want to die. Please. At least try."
The blond stepped back, out of her reach. "If I get back and anything has happened to him," he began slowly, hands clenched into fists by his side, "I will never…never…" He didn't say what he would never, possibly because he would never be able to form it into words. Striding past her into the forest, he worked on getting as far as he could before they made their camp.
Kari sighed, watching him go.
Sora and Mimi came up on either side of her, resting comforting hands on her shoulders.
"It's ok," Mimi assured. "You did the right thing."
"It's hard for him," Sora agreed, "but I think he's at least trying to understand where we're coming from."
"Yeah." Kari sighed again. "But I hope for our sakes nothing does happen to Matt. I don't know how T.K. would handle that, but I don't think he'd survive it. There's just no way…"
"Then let's get walking," Joe suggested, moving past them into the forest.
"You girls are burning twilight," Izzy added, grinning, joining Joe and T.K. in the greenery.
"Need I say more?" Tai asked the boys in front of him, passing the girls as well. "I think the movement speaks for itself. Don't you?"
"Definitely," Izzy responded seriously from somewhere in the tree's shadows.
"Come on, ladies!" Joe's receding voice called. "You'll loose T.K.!"
Sighing, the trio slipped into the forest, muttering under their breaths darkly about boys and their overpowering need to be first.
The boys- with the obvious exception of T.K.- heard the girls and grinned, mentally agreeing.
The Mistress of Pain, under the guidance of her minions, trailed almost lazily along the path of an agony so great the mere smell of it made her head spin.
Ah, it was wonderful, this pain. The barer must be just dying.
How excellent!
If she were really lucky, she'd find it before its death-throws began.
Oh, what was this? Something was linked to the pain-being, taking a portion of the hurt into itself. Odd. Why were they doing that?
Not that it mattered. There was certainly enough pain to go around!
It was potent and heady, like hard whisky and bubbly campaign combined. It intoxicated her, drawing her closer and closer to her One.
Finally she hovered above him, inhaling his anguish like a perfume. It colored every aspect of his being, twisting his beautiful face and quickening his warm breath. A shot of pain raced through him and he moaned. Which was wonderful.
Piatymon stifled a squeal of delight. It would not due for these others to wake as she took her Strange One back with her.
Because, oh. He had to come to her castle. He had to live there in his suffering until finally he died. His misery was simply perfect. There was no way she could just…let him go. No, his fate was sealed.
Wrapping him almost tenderly into the folds of her cloak, she silently thanked her minions and melted into the night.
The travel, though swift and smooth, hurt him, which was positively…delicious.
Gatomon jerked awake.
Something was wrong.
Looking around, she spotted it immediately.
At about that time, Garurumon arose and, deeply disturbed, began howling.
Oh…damn.
T.K. woke everyone up at what had to be- maximum- five o'clock in the morning.
His determination was catchy, though, and very soon they were all up and moving. Really, the world was a lovely place the few hours before sunrise. Very quiet and almost serene.
They reached the castle in record time, approaching the gate just as the sun rose. Of course, they were out of breath and favoring sides with stitches in them, but they were there all the same.
"Ok," T.K. gasped, "someone had better let me in or-"
The gate swung open.
They stared at it.
"That works," the blond admitted, stepping into the tower-castle's surrounding property.
Kari rolled her eyes at his bullheadedness and followed him, flanked by everyone else. Where had his sense of caution gone? Apparently he left it with his brother, which was a very not good sign.
The inside of the castle was darkly beautiful, filled with jagged columns, semi-shattered windows, and a spiral staircase that wound around a central pillar to touch the ceiling. Why, exactly, it spiraled to the ceiling was a mystery, but it was a fascinating mystery.
Piatymon was nowhere in sight. That, T.K. decided, simply would not do. They couldn't defeat her if she wasn't present, and they couldn't return to Matt until they defeated her.
All right, then.
Leaning back, T.K. took a deep breath in preparation to call for her.
Guessing what he was going to do the instant before he did it, Mimi gave a muffled cry and leapt to cover his mouth with her hand, stifling his stupidity. "What are you doing?" she squeaked in shock. "Do you want to get us killed?"
"No," he mumbled around her hand. "I want to get this over with and I want-"
"To get back to Matt," she finished in a soft, sharp tone. "Yes, I know. What you don't seem to be realizing is that you're not- not- immortal! You can't go back if you're dead! And I'm telling you right now, T.K., if we're caught unprepared because of you and end up mashed on the floor of this castle, I'll kill you. Plus, I'll never forgive you. So I strongly suggest you get over whatever mental block you've set up against us surviving and exercise some common sense. Ok?"
He nodded.
"Good. Now, let's think a second and figure out what we're gonna do."
When she took her hand away, he sighed. "Sorry," he murmured, looking apologetic and more like himself. "I'm just so worried."
"I know."
"Pst! You guys!" The duo looked toward the voice to find Tai motioning them over. "C'mere. Don't you think it's weird," he continued once everyone was gathered, "that Piatymon didn't have any henchmons?"
"I was waiting for someone to bring that up," Izzy began eagerly. "And actually, I'm not all that sure she doesn't."
Tai blinked at him. "What?"
"Yes! Consider the facts. Meloremon's Digimon cohorts were the Cobrmon and VenomCobrmon. Right? Right. They attacked us long before we ever made it to the castle, and rather bluntly, too. They were also easily defeated."
"Except for VenomCobrmon," Sora pointed out.
"Exactly," the genius agreed. "Now, next we had Anamnemon's Araknamon, which were stealthier and deadlier, but were just a little bit easier to destroy." At T.K.'s astounded expression, Izzy shrugged. "None of us died and we wiped them all out, which is better than what we did with VenomCobrmon. Anyway, finally we had the Shadoramon, which barely laid a hand on us. The pattern that I noticed emerging was a separation between the Digimon and us. The worse their Mistresses become, the less dangerous they are to us. So technically, Piatymon could have henchmons that just don't do anything. Maybe they're spies, maybe they're maids, maybe they're-"
"Maybe they're little purple fluffy monkeys with really long tails that hang above people's heads when they're not paying attention."
"That's possible, Sora, but not very likely as-"
"Don't tell me." She pointed above the genius's head. "Tell it."
Izzy looked up.
It was, indeed, a small, bright purple monkey looking creature, dangling above his head by a tail easily twice as long as it was.
"Hello," Izzy greeted.
It grinned.
"Hold still, please," the genius requested, opening his laptop. "This will only take a second." After scanning the creature in, Izzy sat and tried to figure out just what kind of Digimon it was they were dealing with. "It's an Emisamon," he said after a short while. As if in agreement, the Emisamon dropped down onto Izzy's head, studying his laptop's screen with huge luminescent brown eyes. "Emisamon are supposedly the…you couldn't really refer to them as spies, per se; they're more like…information gatherers."
"So…" Kari hesitated, looking at the adorable little Digimon that had curled its tail playfully around Izzy's neck as it crouched on his head. "So has it been watching us all this time?"
"Probably," Tentomon offered, sitting by his Destined as he pointedly ignored the Emisamon. "It's probably been telling Piatymon every little thing we've been doing."
T.K. paled suddenly and gripped Tai's shoulder, turning him to make eye contact. "Matt," he hissed, and Tai winced.
"Oh, no," the leader moaned. "Piatymon probably knows that he's not with us."
"Gatomon and Garurumon stayed with him," Mimi pointed out, and Palmon nodded energetically.
"Gatomon and Garurumon against the Basic Digimon of Pain?" T.K. asked bleakly.
"If she's here with us," Sora pointed out in an attempt to calm the younger blond, "then she can't possibly be bothering him. He'll be fine."
Joe, who was reading about Emisamons over Izzy's shoulder, traded a look with the genius. If Piatymon had wanted Matt, alive or dead, there wasn't really anything saying she couldn't have gotten him overnight.
T.K.'s pallor as he picked up Patamon and began to pace showed that he'd come to the same conclusion.
Glancing around, Joe realized that no one had swallowed Sora's hopeful prediction, not even Sora herself. But it was something to say other than, "Oh, my God, we left him to die."
"One good point on the side of Matt," Kari began, crossing her arms. "Gatomon's fine. I don't sense that anything's wrong with her. And if something had happened, I'd know."
"That's reassuring," T.K. lied, smiling and looking sick.
"How do we get Piatymon to show herself?" Tai asked, arms crossed. Though his face didn't show his mounting desperation, Agumon was leaning against his legs, offering strength. The simple motion spoke volumes.
"I don't know," Izzy admitted, hands trembling. What if Matt had really been…hurt…by Piatymon?
Logically speaking, another part of him argued, why would she bother with him?
Because she was the Basic Digimon of Pain, the other side snapped in worried irritation. Then he realized he was arguing with himself and went back to his laptop.
The Emisamon crept slowly down to Izzy's shoulder, and Tentomon glared at it.
Meanwhile, Biyomon was pacing circles around Sora, thinking. Emisamon, Emisamon…where had she heard that name before? Weren't those…bad Digimon?
"Maybe Piatymon's in some other part of the castle," Sora suggested as she watched Biyomon pace around her legs. It wasn't certain that Piatymon had gone after Matt; there was that shadow of a doubt. Right?
"It is possible," Izzy agreed, accessing a blueprint of the castle. "She could be in the wing adjacent to ours. Assuming we can find the access way from this room, we could probably go looking for- ow! Hey, stop that!"
The Emisamon had suddenly and inexplicably bitten into the meat of Izzy's right shoulder with a set of teeth that were like rows of little daggers.
"Get off him!" Tentomon demanded, electricity fizzing angrily around him.
"Don't!" Izzy gasped, trying to push the monkey-type Digimon away but failing. His hands were becoming blood-slick and couldn't find purchases on the Digimon to get a grip. "If you electrocute this organism, you'll get me, too! Ow, though. Does somebody want to lend some assistance over here?"
Finally the Digidestined were jogged out of their shocked stupor. Mimi grabbed the Emisamon's hind feet and pulled, dragging the creature off him. It refused to pull its teeth out of Izzy as it went, resulting in a row of long, shallow cuts.
"Ow," Izzy hissed as Joe examined the wound.
"Hey!" Mimi squeaked in surprise. The Emisamon was trying to run up her arms even as Palmon was pulling it away. The exposed flesh of Mimi's arms was being torn to ribbons by the Digimon's needle-like claws.
"Poison Ivy!" Palmon wrapped the Digimon up and pulled it firmly away. "I'm sorry," she apologized to her Digidestined, looking miserably at the scratches.
"It's no problem," she assured, her smile wavering only slightly as she dug through Joe's bag in search of some bandages.
Palmon gave a sharp cry suddenly and released the Emisamon. Its fur was bristled and standing on end like a porcupine.
"The definition of an Emisamon did not inform me of any sadistic tendencies!" Izzy raged as every back away from the growling, ferocious looking little purple monkey.
Two or three more Emisamon dropped to the ground by their companion, calm and cute. The original Emisamon was instantly just as adorable and harmless as it had appeared when they first saw it.
"I don't think I like those very much," Joe offered easily as he accepted some bandaging from Gomamon.
"No kidding," the seal-like Digimon muttered.
"They can't be that hard to destroy," Tai said, frowning slightly. "Agumon, one Pepper Breath and these things would probably-"
"Oh? Guests? How unexpected."
The Digidestined and their Digimon traded an astounded look as the Emisamon scampered away. As one they turned to see if who they thought had spoken had really spoken.
Piatymon was as lovely as her Emisamon were cute. The beauty fooled no one. Her hair was a dark, dark blue, her eyes large and innocent and the darkest purple imaginable. The cloth that floated about her petite form like a dress was deep silver.
Clasped possessively against her chest, silver cloth wrapped lightly around him, breathing labored, was the unconscious form of Matt.
AN: I am so, so cruel. See, Yamatoforever, you were totally correct! Matt DIDN'T stay behind! For long, anyhow… Want to see how I resolve this mess?? You gotta say please…
Aloha, pineapples, and penguins!
-Angel Baby (And why, if I'm searching specifically for MY name on FF.net, does my name come up as the 41st result?!)