Paths Untaken Part 6

"Ooooh…ooooohhhhh…."

Lilymon winced as she heard Miyako's soft groaning; the violet-haired girl's huge tan eyes were currently locked on the streets so far below them, and she could feel the young human trembling with fear. Not that she blamed her: this was the newly born Ultimate's first flight as well, and she sensed that, all things considered, she was not doing so well. The weight of her three passengers was almost too much for her delicate wings to bear: she weaved and bobbed dangerously through midair, struggling to keep aloft for as long as possible.

In her arms, Mimi moaned as well; however, unlike the younger girl, her cries were not caused by fear, but by pain. Her wounded leg hung limply, unsupported, and the gash in the back of her shoulder, while mercifully shallow, still bled slightly. She needed some sort of medical attention, but Lilymon had no idea where she could find some for her partner. Where could she go that would be safe…?

"…Yeek! Lilymon!" Miyako wailed, tightening her death grip on the pixie digimon as she felt them drop slightly, faltering. "Be careful!"

"Sorry, Miyako," Lilymon replied, and hastily snapped herself back to attention.

I have to focus on what's happening now, she told herself stubbornly. I can't…I won't let Mimi, Iori or Miyako down! I have to protect them…

But it was hard, so hard to keep moving. Her body ached for rest: how much longer could she keep her Ultimate form? Sooner or later, she would have to revert to one of her lower, less draining forms, and from the way her leaf-like wings strained just to keep them in the air, it would have to be sooner…

* * *

"Tai, Tai, slow down!" Agumon called, hurrying after his friend and partner.

The bearer of Courage gave no sign that he had heard the Rookie's cry; Taichi continued to stomp forward, burning brown eyes focused on the road before him. Despite the fact that he was being ignored, Agumon scampered after the boy, nearly tripping over his own two feet in his haste to keep up.

"Come on, Tai, don't leave me behind!"

Still no reply came, no acknowledgement of his existence. The little reptile digimon was starting to get annoyed with his partner, but, luckily for Taichi, concern for his friend came first and foremost in Agumon's mind. He knew what was bothering the boy, but didn't know how he could help.

That sincerely confused and upset Agumon: he was used to threats he could fight, not ones he could do little about. If it had been another evil digimon bothering Taichi, then he could have simply digivolved and wiped it out with his attacks. But no, what Taichi was struggling with was a foe from inside himself, one that the Rookie could not destroy for the boy.

"Tai, please…! I know you're upset about what happened to Matt, but…"

The boy froze in his tracks, whirling around to glare at Agumon with blazing brown eyes, and the Rookie flinched involuntarily, remembering what had happened after their battle with the Bakemon. He was worried about his partner, but at the same time, wasn't really looking forward to possibly getting smacked again…

However, Taichi's shoulders suddenly slumped, and the boy looked away, avoiding the Rookie digimon's worried green eyes.

"…I've been running," he whispered under his breath, so faintly that Agumon wasn't certain that he had heard him correctly.

"What do you mean, Tai…?"

A flicker of movement at the edge of Taichi's line of vision, causing the boy to ignore his friend's question for the moment as he turned and looked around. Seeing that his partner was looking for something, Agumon started scanning the area as well. After a few moments, the digimon happened to glance upward, and his mouth fell open as he saw something extremely unusual…

"Tai, Tai, look up there!" he cried, pointing.

Following his partner's direction, Taichi gazed up into the sky, tensing as he spotted something unfamiliar flying above them. It was too far above them for him to make it out clearly: all he could make out was a vague form flying over their heads, obviously not an airplane or helicopter…

"Is it an enemy?" he wondered aloud, bronze eyes narrowing slightly as he studied the indistinct figure.

Gripping the Crest of Courage tightly in his palm, Taichi gradually realized that the tag was glowing faintly. Staring up at the unfamiliar form so high above them, he made his decision.

"Agumon, do it!" he shouted, whirling to face his partner.

Agumon nodded quickly, even as he shouted, "Agumon digivolve to…"

A bright orange aura pulsed around the digimon's body as he shifted into his Champion stage, every muscle and bone in his small, lizard-like frame expanding and contorting to fit his new form. Brown slash-like stripes appeared on his darkening orange skin; a thick, helmet-like covering outcropping appeared on his head; friendly green eyes became a pale, light reddish hue.

"…Greymon!" he finished with a growl, roaring out a challenge to the unidentified digimon so high above them.

* * *

"…Huh?" Miyako stared down at the ground, tan eyes huge behind her slightly askew glasses.

"What's wrong, Yolei-chan?" Iori queried, using the violet-haired girl's nickname again.

"I don't know, I just thought that I saw this bright light below us," she replied, still staring down at the streets below them. After a few moments, she added, "…But I think it's gone not. Wonder what it was…"

Curious, Iori followed her gaze down to the pavement, jaden eyes narrowing slightly as he strained to make out what the girl could have seen. Suddenly, his eyes widened in shock.

"Oh no!" he cried, his normally whispery voice cracking out of fear.

"What is it?!" Miyako exclaimed, trying to make out what had alarmed the young boy.

"Lilymon, let's get out of here!" he told the Ultimate digimon, ignoring Miyako's startled cry at his frantic tone.

Before Lilymon could react, however, an orange blast of fire shot past them, narrowly missing striking the four head on. The fairy digimon quickly flew to one side, avoiding the streak of flame, wincing as it singed one of her fragile, leaf-like wings.

"KYYYAAAAA!" Miyako wailed, clinging to Iori, Mimi and Lilymon for dear life.

"Hang on!" Lilymon told them unnecessarily, already struggling to fly away.

Mimi moaned slightly, stirring again, and the pixie digimon gritted her teeth in both frustration and determination. Her partner was still unconscious from her wounds, helpless… if Lilymon failed to protect her from this unseen enemy, she would be lost, along with her two friends…

A second stream of white-hot flame seared towards them, and Lilymon twisted to one side desperately, thinking only to get her precious burden out of the line of fire. It worked, but with a grave trade-off: instead of the children getting fried, the orange fireball caught her right wing. Intense pain surged up and down the digimon's side, and she let out an agonized shriek.

"LILYMON!" Miyako and Iori shouted in unison.

Then Miyako's cry of concern rose into a terrified wail as the four plummeted to the ground, no longer fully supported by the digimon's wounded wings. Gritting her teeth, Lilymon struggled to control their rapid descent, but it was a losing battle she fought with gravity.

"Oh-Kami-we're-gonna-die-we're-gonna-die-we're-gonna-die…" Miyako repeated over and over again like some sort of twisted mantra as the ground loomed ever closer.

No, we won't, Lilymon thought grimly, though she couldn't say this reassurance aloud due to the intense pain surging through her body.

With a last burst of strength, the fairy digimon managed to flip herself over, so that now her back was pointed toward the nearing ground. Wings beating feebly, she somehow managed to control their fall just enough to send them crashing into the trees instead of hitting solid, unforgiving concrete.

As the small group slammed into the grass, Lilymon let out a final, strangled cry before darkness flooded her vision, along with a dim tingling sensation that was spreading through her numbing body…

* * *

"Yeah, you nailed them!" Taichi cheered as he saw the strange digimon tumble into the park, already running forward to get a better look.

However, as he neared the crash site, the boy's triumphant expression soon transformed, twisting into first a look of pure disbelief, then growing comprehension and fear. He stopped short, causing Agumon, who had shifted back to his normal body and followed his partner, to crash into the back of the boy's legs.

"Hey, Tai, what's the holdup? Why did you…?"

The little orange dinosaur broke off his query abruptly as he then saw what Taichi was staring at in such horror: there was no sign of the huge, hulking digimon they believed they had been shooting down. Instead, there was a young girl with disheveled violet hair and huge round glasses hanging crookedly on her nose and a little boy with short brown hair and dark jaden eyes sitting there. Both were currently crouched beside a pair of limp bodies, desperately pleading with them to get up.

Both Taichi and Agumon recognized the unconscious forms: two of their teammates and friends, Mimi and Palmon…

"…Oh no. I screwed up again," Taichi murmured sadly, shaking his head slowly, deep bronze eyes filling with self-loathing and sorrow.

"Tai…"

As if suddenly becoming aware of the fact that they were no longer alone, the two young strangers looked up in unison. Seeing Taichi and Agumon standing there, the violet-haired girl with glasses let out a startled yelp and leapt to her feet, staring at them.

"Wh-who are you?" she stammered, obviously horrified.

"It's okay, it's okay, I'm a friend," Taichi replied, holding up his hands to calm her. When she gave him a doubting look, he pointed to Mimi and added, "I'm one of Mimi and Palmon's friends, okay? It's alright… I just want to help you…"

"I think he's okay, Yolei-chan," the little boy spoke up in a quiet, whispery voice. "This must be one of the friends Mimi told us about, the ones she said were fighting against the bad digimon…"

The girl relaxed visibly at his words, as did Taichi. At least they trusted him… although, if they had known that he was the one who had caused their flight to come to an abrupt end, he had little doubt that they would be much more wary of him. He could only hope that Agumon knew enough to keep his mouth shut… if the Rookie attempted to apologize for the incident, it would only make things worse…

Thankfully, Agumon appeared to sense this fact, for he made no indication of planning to say such a thing. Instead, the orange dinosaur walked over to where Palmon was laying and picked her limp form up carefully in both arms, then turned to look at his partner.

Silently, Taichi followed his digimon's lead, and as he lifted Mimi into his arms, the keeper of the Crest of Sincerity and Purity moaned faintly. That was his only warning before he found himself staring into a pair of wavering, pain-filled caramel eyes.

"Tai… Taichi?" the strawberry-blonde haired girl whispered, reaching toward the boy's face with a shaking hand.

"…I'm here, Mimi," Taichi replied simply, grasping her hand tightly in one of his own. "It's okay now. You're safe with me."

"…Palmon is…?"

"Right here, Mimi," Agumon answered quickly, walking into her line of vision.

Iori and Miyako stepped forward as well, so that she could see them easily without having to ask after them. Mimi smiled shakily, missing how the holder of Courage stumbled over these last words, his voice cracking a bit. A few crystalline tears glimmered in her shimmering tan eyes, born partly from pain, partly from relief. At last, she and her new friends were safe… as safe as they could be as long as Myotismon ruled the streets, that was…

"…Say Tai?"

"…Yeah, Mimi?"

"…This'll sound strange, but… do you think we could stop by my house and pick up some different clothes for me? My pajamas are trashed, and I can't let the others see me like this…"

"…Same old Mimi," commented Taichi mildly, shaking his head, but he grinned in relief as he said this.

"…Am I, Taichi?" the bearer of Purity and Sincerity whispered quietly, leaning gently into his chest, caramel eyes wavering and thoughtful. "Are any of us still the same…?"

She thought she felt Taichi stiffen slightly at her soft observation, but could not be absolutely certain. She did not even know if he had overheard her. Instead of asking if he understood, Mimi simply lapsed into silence, allowing herself to drift back into a fitful half-sleep as Taichi instructed Agumon to digivolve and carry them to her home. She had so much to tell the others… but right now, all she wanted to do was rest…

* * *

"I am very disappointed in you, Hawkmon. I thought that you were more capable than this…"

The avian digimon winced, but managed to carefully conceal this reaction from his master by keeping his head lowered, remaining in his respectful kneeling position on the floor, head bowed. Even though his pale ice blue eyes were averted away from his master's face, he could easily picture Myotismon's displeased scowl in his mind's eye: narrow eyes flashing with faint crimson, pale purple lips curled up slightly in disgust, one revealed fang's tip glinting in the room's dim light.

Perched beside the vampire digimon, as usual, was the ugly half-bowling ball, half-bat rookie known as Demidevimon, who was reveling in his perceived rival's apparent fall from grace. An ugly sneer distorted the little creature's already somewhat unpleasant face, and he was hard-pressed to keep his snickering quiet enough to keep from distracting Myotismon from berating Hawkmon. The bird digimon grimaced at the grating sound, and would have glared at the little digimon if he had believed that he might possibly get away with it.

"You see, boss?" Demidevimon crowed, smirking. "Looks like the little birdie's not as useful as you first thought, huh, master? Why, if it had been me, that Digidestined kid would be yours now…"

Oh, please, Hawkmon thought bitterly, ice blue eyes flashing with anger. You stupid little bat, you wouldn't have even noticed anything wrong until later…

At the same time, however, the avian digimon couldn't hide a slight smirk at his rival's bragging. As was usual, his pathetic excuse for a rival was simply digging himself in deeper with his bravado.

"Well, then, Demidevimon, if you don't mind my asking," he replied quietly, voice remarkably calm considering his situation, "just when were you planning on informing Master Myotismon that there was a Digidestined among the children you were guarding? Since you appear to be more attuned to these things than I am, considering my failure, surely you must have been aware of this fact, hmm?"

Again, Hawkmon did not need to raise his head to know how those before him reacted: Demidevimon went sheet white, while Myotismon swung his attention toward the bat-like rookie at once, arching one pencil-thin eyebrow slightly. Without realizing it, the other underling had inadvertently supplied the bird digimon with a way to shift their master's focus from his own shortcomings to the other's failings.

It was not all that easy, of course: Hawkmon knew that he would have to be extremely careful from now on to stay in the vampire digimon's good graces. He had lost one Digidestined child, but he had brought him another before… the keeper of Friendship. Demidevimon did not have that to fall back on, even though he had been making attempts for a longer time than the avian digimon had been. Still, he would be cautious… He couldn't expect to fall back upon that forever…

I will not fail you again, master, he vowed silently, stubbornly pushing the memory of just why he had failed out of his mind. No matter what had caused his hesitation before, he would not fall victim to it again.

He couldn't afford to…

* * *

Mimi turned around and studied her reflection carefully in the mirror before her, taking great care not to lay too much weight on her injured ankle. She was pleased to note that she presented a whole, undamaged appearance on the outside: the bandages wrapped round her injured back and leg were concealed by her outfit, which looked more or less like the one she had worn during her first excursion into the digital world.

It was strange: for once, she did not care that she would be wearing the same thing in front of her friends. Before her adventures in the digital world, she had prided herself somewhat on having an immense wardrobe, with so many possibilities to show off to her classmates and acquaintances. That had been one luxury Mimi had sorely missed while she was traveling with the others, and had always thought would be one of the things she treasured most once she finally got back home.

But now… that simply did not seem to matter anymore to her. It seemed so trivial to be worried about clothing at a time like this… when their home was overrun with evil digimon, and one of their own was…

Caramel eyes wavered with tears again, and Mimi sighed as she turned away from the mirror and walked toward her door. Taichi, Palmon, Agumon, Miyako and Iori were all waiting for her in what remained of her family's trashed living room, and she needed to tell the bearer of Courage what she had learned during her captivity…

Opening the door, she stopped short, eyes widening with surprise. While the room was still in need of repair, it was a lot cleaner than it had been when she had first seen it: apparently the others had not been idle while she was changing. As she stared around in amazement, Miyako walked in and saw her standing there.

"Hey! Are you feeling better, Mimi?" the violet-haired girl asked, smiling happily at seeing the older girl up and about. "Wow, that's a nice outfit you're wearing. Is it new? I can't say I've seen a style like that before…"

"…No, it's not new," Mimi replied after a short pause, still looking around the cleaned-up living room in surprise. Turning toward Miyako, she asked, "You guys did this, right?"

"Eh? Oh… yeah, Taichi said that you might take a while to get changed, and suggested that we get this place cleaned up a little while we waited. It's not quite finished, but…"

"That's okay… thanks," Mimi said, smiling gratefully even as she silently reminded herself to ask Taichi exactly what he had meant by saying that she 'might take a while to get changed'… "Where are the others right now?"

"Hang on, I'll take you to them," replied Miyako, and she ran ahead of the older girl, calling, "Hey guys, Mimi's done!"

"Hey, Mimi. Feeling better now?" Taichi asked as the bearer of Sincerity and Purity walked into his view. Turning away from the wall where he had been straightening a picture, he frowned as he noted a sad expression on his friend's face, and asked, "What's wrong, Mimi?"

The strawberry-blonde haired girl did not answer right away, her gaze focused on something past him, and Taichi turned to see what she was looking at. After a few moments, he sighed silently as he realized what was wrong: the picture he had been adjusting was a photo of Mimi with her mother in her parents' flower garden. It looked fairly recent, and had probably been taken sometime that spring, since Mimi didn't look much younger than she was now. In the photograph, she was kneeling beside a flowering bush, hands cupped around a beautiful pink flower still blossoming on its bush, wide caramel eyes lighting up with delight. Her mother was just behind her, one hand gently clasping her daughter's shoulder, gently smiling at her child's joy.

Taichi had seen the flower garden when they arrived, or rather, what was left of it. The delicate blossoms had been trampled to the ground, the bushes wrecked, some of the plants completely uprooted. It was just another victim to Myotismon's assaults on the city, another causality…

…Just like those children in the building the ones you didn't save Taichi just like Yamato and Jun and Garurumon do you remember Taichi do you…

"…I'm sorry, Tai."

"…Mimi, you don't have to be sorry for anything. None of this was your fault," replied Taichi solemnly, a shadow falling over his shimmering bronze eyes as he bowed his head in remembrance.

…Not like me…

"No… Tai, you don't understand. I… I found out something horrible while I was being held captive with Miyako and Iori, and I… I couldn't do anything about it…"

The holder of Purity and Sincerity trailed off, absently grasping her crest tightly in one hand, tears misting her soft tan eyes. Absently, Taichi reached down and gripped her shoulders firmly in both hands, feeling some need to keep her spirits up. After all, he was supposed to be the leader of the Digidestined… even if only in his own mind.

"Hey, come on, Mimi, what's wrong? You can tell me…" he prompted gently.

Sniffling, Mimi gazed up into his face, tears trickling lightly down her pale cheeks.

"Taichi… Myotismon has Yamato."

"What?!?" Taichi exclaimed without thinking, then mentally kicked himself as Mimi bit back another sob. Forcing himself to calm down, he asked, gently, "Mimi, how do you know this…?"

"I… I heard Myotismon and one of his henchmon talking about it while I was trapped with the other children…" she murmured, stumbling over the words. "I wanted… I wanted to do something, but… I… I didn't have Palmon with me at the time, and I was… so scared…"

Any remaining control the strawberry-blonde haired girl had vanished abruptly, and Taichi stiffened in surprise as she let out an anguished sob and flung her arms around his shoulders, clinging to him as she cried brokenly. Mimi's tears flowed freely down her face, dampening his shirt, though that mattered little to the holder of Courage as he awkwardly attempted to comfort his friend.

"It'll be alright, Mimi," he whispered, absently stroking her back the same way he did his little sister's whenever he was trying to comfort Hikari.

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm sorry," Mimi repeated brokenly over and over again, like a sorrowful mantra.

"It isn't your fault. Mimi, it isn't your fault…"

No. It isn't your fault at all, Mimi, Taichi added silently to himself, bronze eyes shimmering as he stared ahead of them sadly, thoughts far away. It's all mine…

His eyes darkened as he thought of how they had to appear, a girl clinging desperately to a boy just slightly older than her for comfort, and it reminded him of a similar scene that had played out before him only… what? Hours ago? It seemed so much longer since he had last seen Yamato, with the sobbing Jun draped over him, trying to figure out what to do with the near-hysterical girl…

Yamato… I'm sorry… I'll find some way to save you. I promise.

Taichi glanced up toward the ceiling, not really seeing it or the pairs of children and digimon that stood awkwardly a few feet away from where he and Mimi stood, waiting to find out what their next move should be. Miyako and Iori exchanged a worried glance, while Agumon simply gripped Palmon's hand in his own, watching their partners cling to one another. They would wait as long as it took for their friends to calm down enough to tell them they should do next…

I promise…