A/N: From this chapter on, we'll just call the spirit of the Kaiser by his
nickname - Kai. For the record, Keiran and Keaira both mean "little and
dark." Than means "death" and Cillian means "war." Jiki means "despair."
Jikimon is vaguely based on Marvin the Depressed Robot from "The
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy." In fact, one of the conversations in
this part is vaguely based on an excerpt from "The Restaurant at the End of
the Universe." Funny books. Run off 'n' read them once you're done here.
Sorry for the sudden influx of OC's...most of them aren't very important.
Chapter Five: Family Reunion/General Shizuko
Immediately upon arrival in the Dark Ocean, Kai found himself tackled by two small, giggling forms. "You're back!" the little girl cried, planting sweet, ice-cold kisses on his face.
"Yes, I'm back," he said, pushing his siblings off. The twins grinned at him, and Kai found himself laughing. This must be one of their better days.
The twins looked to be no more than seven. Both had raven-black hair, although the girl grew it long and styled it dramatically. Both had dark eyes and wore black, a sharp contrast to their luminously pale skin. The girl chose to wear a long black dress, while the boy tripped repeatedly over the hem of his black robes.
"Where are our brothers?" Kai asked, glancing around.
The boy shrugged and said, with malicious innocence, "I guess Than's off killing somebody again."
The girl brushed a stray wisp of blue-black hair behind her ear. "Welcome to our realm, Amador," she said grandly, in a strange accent.
"Amador?" Kai objected mildly. It was impossible to take a harsh or angry tone with the joint Spirits of Darkness - their whimsical, innocent natures were not without evil intent, certainly, but they also held the power of influencing people's attitudes toward them.
The girl said something unintelligible in an ancient language to her brother, who chuckled. Kai rolled his eyes. Great. It was one of their /best/ days.
The boy turned his doe-like eyes on his brother. "Keaira says, 'Better to hate as Cillian does than to love and be unaware.'"
"Keaira says many things that no one understands," Kai muttered.
The small girl laughed and whispered something to her brother, still in a language long forgotten. The boy grinned as he translated, "She says, 'I am the Darkness of the Future, thus I see many things better left unseen.'"
At that moment, an old man appeared beside Kai. "Well met, my brother," the man said in a deep, almost sorrowful voice.
Kai inclined his head. "Well met, Than."
Keaira lifted her dark eyes to the old man's face, ran forward, and threw herself into his arms. "Cearo!" she cried, burying her face in his beard.
"Yes, sister dear, I know," Than said, running his wrinkled hands through her luxurious hair. He looked at Kai and said in a stage whisper, "Do you have any idea what she's talking about?"
"Not at all," Kai replied. "Where's Cillian?"
/Kai?/
The Kaiser sighed and turned his thoughts back to Shizu. //What do you want?//
/Jyou came back...what should I do with him?/
//I don't know...try to seduce him again. I'm busy.//
Keaira stopped weeping long enough to glance at Kai. "Amador," she said. "Keiran, tsai est mairae-el amadi keirl'na rei cillian syu cearo."
Keiran looked confused. "She says that love will bring only war and sorrow to the lands of darkness."
"All that?" Kai asked mildly, having learned long ago to pretty much ignore anything his sister said. In fact, he had almost succeeded in forgetting her existence entirely.
There was a slight ripple in the air, and the form of a tall, muscular warrior appeared, shining with an almost tangible darkness. "Hail, my brothers...and my sister."
Keaira sneered, her innocence vanishing in the instant that her other brother appeared. "Cillian," she acknowledged.
"Well met, Cillian," Kai said, sinking deeper into the despair he felt whenever he saw his family.
The vague form of the Dark Spirit of Hatred shrugged. "I don't call this a meeting, since I'll be leaving in a few moments. Mortals /do/ seem to hate a lot, don't they?"
"They're only mortals," Than said.
Keaira said something in her native tongue, something probably very rude. Keiran delicately translated, "They may be mortals, but we must remember that without them, our plane would not exist."
Kai sighed. "Why did you summon us?" he asked his sister, knowing that she was the only one who had time to do such a thing.
She spoke carefully. "I have heard of the one you have chosen to receive your power, and I wished to offer you my assistance in your plans."
"Then why call all of us?"
Keiran coughed uncomfortably. "Well, we don't talk much anymore. I just wanted to say hi."
Cillian snorted. "Well, then, bye. We have better things to do, Keiran." His already shadowy form faded out. Than sighed.
"I will go on with my sorrowful work," he said mournfully. "Did you want my help with that Digidestined who is dying?"
Keaira shook her head before Kai could answer and said something in her strange language. Than nodded and vanished. The small girl stared at her brother and then spoke. Keiran haltingly translated.
"She wishes for you to remember this: love brings delirious happiness for a short while, but a simple wish can tear apart a soul. Be careful what you wish for."
Then the Spirit of Darkness turned and walked off, the two children seeming eventually to melt into one form. Kai sighed, rubbing his suddenly aching head. Encounters with his younger siblings always drove him to the point of insanity. Keaira and Keiran were only one soul embodied in two people, and that sense of visual illusion only heightened the lulling sound of Keaira's language.
Amador. Why had she called him that?
Amador. One of the few words he understood.
Amador. Lover.
What could it possibly mean?
~~
Shizu stood on a cliff, overlooking what Gazimon called the "Empress's Army." No matter how many times she insisted that she wasn't an empress, the Digimon continued to ignore her. She watched as several Woodmon milled around harassing the Gotsumon.
"Gazimon," she murmured. "Bring Jikimon to me."
"Yes, General." The gray rabbit-like creature scampered off as Shizu continued to stare down. It was a good thing she wasn't afraid of heights.
A mournful voice said, "You called, General Shizuko?"
Shizu turned to the Ultimate and groaned inwardly at the mere thought of talking to her. Jikimon was a very intelligent Digimon. She had somehow digivolved from a snake into a cat-like human carrying a staff with a dark jewel on the top. She wore a green hourglass around her neck and a permanently morose expression.
"What's the best way to deploy the troops? I want to knock down Infinity Mountain."
Jikimon sighed, gazing upon her fellow Digimon with undisguised tragedy written on her features. "They'll all die. Rocks to the head - maybe thrown off the top..."
Shizu closed her eyes. "Jikimon, I just want to know the best way of going about it."
The Ultimate turned to the human, her blue eyes sad. "The best way is not to do it at all, because if you do, they'll all die. It's so depressing." Then, very worried, "I'm not getting you down at all, am I? I'd hate to think I was getting you down."
Shizu grit her teeth. "I'm happy. I'm elated. Can you just advise me like you're supposed to do?" Immediately she knew that she had made a mistake in that particular phrasing.
"Advice! You want advice, go to Gennai. My advice will just get us all killed. I'd hate to be responsible for the deaths and/or homicides of several hundred Digimon. This whole war is so depressing. Is it getting you down? It's getting me down, oh, God, I'm /so/ depressed...life! Don't talk to me about life!" She stalked off, presumably to find Gennai, leaving a very confused general behind.
"I wasn't aware that anyone had mentioned life..."
~~
Kai stood beside Cillian, staring down at a very gruesome battlefield and feeling ill. "What plane is this, again?"
"I dunno. A plane." Cillian had an expression of joy on his face. "Those people /hate/ each other. Mostly my work."
"What started this stupid war, again?" Kai asked, wincing as steel flashed in the brightness of the reddish-purple sun.
"One of the black-robed magicians accidentally poisoned the daughter of the king. The girl isn't dead, but the king declared war on all the magicians. The one who started it all is right...there." Cillian pointed at a tall man standing on a hill nearby, concentrating very hard on a writhing column of sand that was decimating the left flank of the attacking army. Kai sighed.
"So it's all over a misunderstanding that wasn't even fatal? I hate war."
"I /love/ it."
Kai snapped then, already feeling more than a little sick from the battle. "Ironic, as you're the Spirit of Hatred!"
Cillian shrugged. "Everyone has to love /something/. I love my job, that's all."
"It's an awful job," Kai muttered. The red-violet sun dropped behind the mountains as night crept up on the armies. The magician on the hill collapsed and was carried off. Kai continued, "I'm glad that my only job is Earth and the Digiworld. These other planes are so..."
"Corrupt? But, dear brother, Earth is far more corrupt than Astaorik. These people kill with magic and swords. Earthlings murder without cause, using guns and nuclear weapons."
"A good point," Kai conceded. "I like Earth, though. At least they think. They've invented plumbing, electricity...which is more than I can say for these people."
Cillian smirked. "But is technology such a good thing? Run along, brother. I have work to do."
Kai turned away from the graphic violence and stepped into a void that would bring him to Shizu's side. He definitely had to stop her from turning the Digiworld into a place like this.
But first, a little side trip. He definitely wanted to talk to Keaira about corruptness...maybe even ask her to contact their father.
~~
Jikimon tapped persistently on the window until the girl inside opened the door. "Can I help you?" Shizu asked irritably, ready to slam the door again.
"Not really," Jikimon replied miserably. "I doubt that very much."
Shizu started to close her office door, but Jikimon stopped her. "No one can help me," she intoned desperately.
"Yes, well, I have a war to plan, and..."
"Not that very many Digimon have tried," the Ultimate went on, completely ignoring Shizu. She slumped forward, her head resting on the door.
Shizu sighed and said crossly, "Is that so?"
"Hardly worth anything to help a depressed Digimon, is it..."
"I'm sorry, Jikimon, but there's not much I can do for you..."
"I mean, what's the point in being kind to a poor, pitiful Digimon without the potential for gratitude?"
"And...you don't have any?" Shizu asked, beginning to be slightly interested. She glanced back at her computer, which was still clicking happily away, and decided to waste a few more seconds on Jikimon.
"I've never had occasion to find out," the Digimon replied dejectedly, banging her head against the door.
Shizu looked at the computer, which beeped insistently in her general direction. "Look, you hopeless piece of digital particles - "
"Aren't you going to ask me what I want?"
Shizu groaned. "Is it worth it?"
"Is anything?" Jikimon responded immediately.
To cut off another rant about life, Shizu quickly snapped, "What do you /want/?"
Jikimon raised her head and gazed mournfully at Shizu. "I'm looking for someone."
"Who?" Shizu hissed.
Jikimon nodded toward the open door a few feet away. "Gazimon. He's out there."
Shizu trembled with barely suppressed rage. "Then why...in God's name...did you ask /me/?"
"I just wanted someone to talk to."
"/What/?"
"Pathetic, isn't it."
Shizu stared in amazement as the catlike humanoid turned and trotted out the door, forgetting to shut it. The blonde girl sighed and collapsed into her swivel chair.
The past few hours had been a nightmare for Shizu. It had only been eight months since she had discovered the Digiworld, and now she was suddenly in charge of an army designed mostly for...absolutely nothing. Apparently, Kai just wanted to mess around with the Digidestined, and he had put her in charge of the army.
First, there had been something resembling a riot when the Woodmon "accidentally" attacked several Gotsumon. It had taken Jikimon's haunted mutterings to calm everyone down, although the general concensus at this point was that the paranoid, depressed Ultimate had to die...preferably very soon. After Shizu had calmed everyone down, Gazimon had reported that Jyou was bored - should they play board games? So, for the past three hours, three Gazimon and a Kiwimon had been playing Monopoly, Twister, and most recently Scrabble with the captive.
Shizu grabbed her glass of Pepsi and took a long drink. Caffeine was very good in a situation like this. She grabbed the mouse and started to plot the best course to Infinity Mountain.
It took a very short time for the effects of the caffeine to wear off, and the girl found herself becoming very, very tired. She picked up her glass and stared in detached wonder at her trembling hand. Then she sighed and slumped forward. The glass tumbled from her nerveless fingers and shattered on the floor.
~~
Jyou sighed as Kiwimon spelled the word "since." Unfortunately, he added about five extra letters, and the human really didn't feel like fixing the mistakes. "Could we play Monopoly again?"
Quite suddenly, a dark-haired young man materialized, looking flustered. "Gazimon, do you know any good doctors?"
"I'm a doctor," Jyou offered. "Well, sort of, anyway..."
The other boy looked him over. "I'm...not sure that's such a good idea. The young lady in question wasn't intending to let you see her..."
"Oh. The psycho chick." Jyou had lost all enthusiasm for Scrabble. "If there's any way I can help..."
After a few moments, the boy sighed. "I'll describe her condition. She apparently collapsed when drinking some kind of carbonated water..."
"Someone spiked her soda?"
"...if that's how you want to say it. Anyway, now she's unconscious and her skin is cold...and she's mumbling in her sleep. Is that a good thing?"
"No, definitely not." Jyou thought that over for a few moments. "There was probably something in her drink, then. Maybe poison? I'm thinking something slow-acting..."
The other boy bit his lip. "Then the universal cure should work?"
"What universal cure?"
"Oh, some plant that grows by the escarpment, which incidentally is about ten feet from here..."
Jyou nodded, then decided to try bargaining. "I'll get this plant for you and help whoever it is that's sick...but you have to let me go give some to my friend."
"If you think it'll help," Kai muttered under his breath. "Okay, we'll get Jikimon to help us, then."
The three Gazimon collapsed in hysterical giggles. "You think she'll help you?" one of them asked. "Even for the general?"
"Ha!" another one laughed. "You know her, she'll say something like death is good, at least it's not as depressing as her life..."
"/Please/..." Kai said, nearly in tears and trying very hard not to break down. "I'm not having a very good day, I don't need Sh - her to die..."
Jyou nodded, satisfied. "My freedom for her life. A good trade." He suddenly thought of something. "Why can't you go get it and leave me here?" Then he hit himself for saying something so stupid.
Kai coughed delicately. "It acts like poison ivy to Digimon, and me...well, I'm allergic. But don't tell anyone..."
~~~~
A/N: That was an abrupt ending...sorry. It gets better next chapter... Here's a little impromptu survey-type thing. We who are Digimon-lovers call our romantic pairings things like "Kensuke" and "Taiora." However, those in the Pokemon fandom say "Rocketshippy" or "Neoshippy." And now I've found out that some Yu-Gi-Oh people are beginning to do "shippy" things as well. Why are we different? Should we remain different? Which is better? Do people /really/ still watch Pokemon? ;)
Chapter Five: Family Reunion/General Shizuko
Immediately upon arrival in the Dark Ocean, Kai found himself tackled by two small, giggling forms. "You're back!" the little girl cried, planting sweet, ice-cold kisses on his face.
"Yes, I'm back," he said, pushing his siblings off. The twins grinned at him, and Kai found himself laughing. This must be one of their better days.
The twins looked to be no more than seven. Both had raven-black hair, although the girl grew it long and styled it dramatically. Both had dark eyes and wore black, a sharp contrast to their luminously pale skin. The girl chose to wear a long black dress, while the boy tripped repeatedly over the hem of his black robes.
"Where are our brothers?" Kai asked, glancing around.
The boy shrugged and said, with malicious innocence, "I guess Than's off killing somebody again."
The girl brushed a stray wisp of blue-black hair behind her ear. "Welcome to our realm, Amador," she said grandly, in a strange accent.
"Amador?" Kai objected mildly. It was impossible to take a harsh or angry tone with the joint Spirits of Darkness - their whimsical, innocent natures were not without evil intent, certainly, but they also held the power of influencing people's attitudes toward them.
The girl said something unintelligible in an ancient language to her brother, who chuckled. Kai rolled his eyes. Great. It was one of their /best/ days.
The boy turned his doe-like eyes on his brother. "Keaira says, 'Better to hate as Cillian does than to love and be unaware.'"
"Keaira says many things that no one understands," Kai muttered.
The small girl laughed and whispered something to her brother, still in a language long forgotten. The boy grinned as he translated, "She says, 'I am the Darkness of the Future, thus I see many things better left unseen.'"
At that moment, an old man appeared beside Kai. "Well met, my brother," the man said in a deep, almost sorrowful voice.
Kai inclined his head. "Well met, Than."
Keaira lifted her dark eyes to the old man's face, ran forward, and threw herself into his arms. "Cearo!" she cried, burying her face in his beard.
"Yes, sister dear, I know," Than said, running his wrinkled hands through her luxurious hair. He looked at Kai and said in a stage whisper, "Do you have any idea what she's talking about?"
"Not at all," Kai replied. "Where's Cillian?"
/Kai?/
The Kaiser sighed and turned his thoughts back to Shizu. //What do you want?//
/Jyou came back...what should I do with him?/
//I don't know...try to seduce him again. I'm busy.//
Keaira stopped weeping long enough to glance at Kai. "Amador," she said. "Keiran, tsai est mairae-el amadi keirl'na rei cillian syu cearo."
Keiran looked confused. "She says that love will bring only war and sorrow to the lands of darkness."
"All that?" Kai asked mildly, having learned long ago to pretty much ignore anything his sister said. In fact, he had almost succeeded in forgetting her existence entirely.
There was a slight ripple in the air, and the form of a tall, muscular warrior appeared, shining with an almost tangible darkness. "Hail, my brothers...and my sister."
Keaira sneered, her innocence vanishing in the instant that her other brother appeared. "Cillian," she acknowledged.
"Well met, Cillian," Kai said, sinking deeper into the despair he felt whenever he saw his family.
The vague form of the Dark Spirit of Hatred shrugged. "I don't call this a meeting, since I'll be leaving in a few moments. Mortals /do/ seem to hate a lot, don't they?"
"They're only mortals," Than said.
Keaira said something in her native tongue, something probably very rude. Keiran delicately translated, "They may be mortals, but we must remember that without them, our plane would not exist."
Kai sighed. "Why did you summon us?" he asked his sister, knowing that she was the only one who had time to do such a thing.
She spoke carefully. "I have heard of the one you have chosen to receive your power, and I wished to offer you my assistance in your plans."
"Then why call all of us?"
Keiran coughed uncomfortably. "Well, we don't talk much anymore. I just wanted to say hi."
Cillian snorted. "Well, then, bye. We have better things to do, Keiran." His already shadowy form faded out. Than sighed.
"I will go on with my sorrowful work," he said mournfully. "Did you want my help with that Digidestined who is dying?"
Keaira shook her head before Kai could answer and said something in her strange language. Than nodded and vanished. The small girl stared at her brother and then spoke. Keiran haltingly translated.
"She wishes for you to remember this: love brings delirious happiness for a short while, but a simple wish can tear apart a soul. Be careful what you wish for."
Then the Spirit of Darkness turned and walked off, the two children seeming eventually to melt into one form. Kai sighed, rubbing his suddenly aching head. Encounters with his younger siblings always drove him to the point of insanity. Keaira and Keiran were only one soul embodied in two people, and that sense of visual illusion only heightened the lulling sound of Keaira's language.
Amador. Why had she called him that?
Amador. One of the few words he understood.
Amador. Lover.
What could it possibly mean?
~~
Shizu stood on a cliff, overlooking what Gazimon called the "Empress's Army." No matter how many times she insisted that she wasn't an empress, the Digimon continued to ignore her. She watched as several Woodmon milled around harassing the Gotsumon.
"Gazimon," she murmured. "Bring Jikimon to me."
"Yes, General." The gray rabbit-like creature scampered off as Shizu continued to stare down. It was a good thing she wasn't afraid of heights.
A mournful voice said, "You called, General Shizuko?"
Shizu turned to the Ultimate and groaned inwardly at the mere thought of talking to her. Jikimon was a very intelligent Digimon. She had somehow digivolved from a snake into a cat-like human carrying a staff with a dark jewel on the top. She wore a green hourglass around her neck and a permanently morose expression.
"What's the best way to deploy the troops? I want to knock down Infinity Mountain."
Jikimon sighed, gazing upon her fellow Digimon with undisguised tragedy written on her features. "They'll all die. Rocks to the head - maybe thrown off the top..."
Shizu closed her eyes. "Jikimon, I just want to know the best way of going about it."
The Ultimate turned to the human, her blue eyes sad. "The best way is not to do it at all, because if you do, they'll all die. It's so depressing." Then, very worried, "I'm not getting you down at all, am I? I'd hate to think I was getting you down."
Shizu grit her teeth. "I'm happy. I'm elated. Can you just advise me like you're supposed to do?" Immediately she knew that she had made a mistake in that particular phrasing.
"Advice! You want advice, go to Gennai. My advice will just get us all killed. I'd hate to be responsible for the deaths and/or homicides of several hundred Digimon. This whole war is so depressing. Is it getting you down? It's getting me down, oh, God, I'm /so/ depressed...life! Don't talk to me about life!" She stalked off, presumably to find Gennai, leaving a very confused general behind.
"I wasn't aware that anyone had mentioned life..."
~~
Kai stood beside Cillian, staring down at a very gruesome battlefield and feeling ill. "What plane is this, again?"
"I dunno. A plane." Cillian had an expression of joy on his face. "Those people /hate/ each other. Mostly my work."
"What started this stupid war, again?" Kai asked, wincing as steel flashed in the brightness of the reddish-purple sun.
"One of the black-robed magicians accidentally poisoned the daughter of the king. The girl isn't dead, but the king declared war on all the magicians. The one who started it all is right...there." Cillian pointed at a tall man standing on a hill nearby, concentrating very hard on a writhing column of sand that was decimating the left flank of the attacking army. Kai sighed.
"So it's all over a misunderstanding that wasn't even fatal? I hate war."
"I /love/ it."
Kai snapped then, already feeling more than a little sick from the battle. "Ironic, as you're the Spirit of Hatred!"
Cillian shrugged. "Everyone has to love /something/. I love my job, that's all."
"It's an awful job," Kai muttered. The red-violet sun dropped behind the mountains as night crept up on the armies. The magician on the hill collapsed and was carried off. Kai continued, "I'm glad that my only job is Earth and the Digiworld. These other planes are so..."
"Corrupt? But, dear brother, Earth is far more corrupt than Astaorik. These people kill with magic and swords. Earthlings murder without cause, using guns and nuclear weapons."
"A good point," Kai conceded. "I like Earth, though. At least they think. They've invented plumbing, electricity...which is more than I can say for these people."
Cillian smirked. "But is technology such a good thing? Run along, brother. I have work to do."
Kai turned away from the graphic violence and stepped into a void that would bring him to Shizu's side. He definitely had to stop her from turning the Digiworld into a place like this.
But first, a little side trip. He definitely wanted to talk to Keaira about corruptness...maybe even ask her to contact their father.
~~
Jikimon tapped persistently on the window until the girl inside opened the door. "Can I help you?" Shizu asked irritably, ready to slam the door again.
"Not really," Jikimon replied miserably. "I doubt that very much."
Shizu started to close her office door, but Jikimon stopped her. "No one can help me," she intoned desperately.
"Yes, well, I have a war to plan, and..."
"Not that very many Digimon have tried," the Ultimate went on, completely ignoring Shizu. She slumped forward, her head resting on the door.
Shizu sighed and said crossly, "Is that so?"
"Hardly worth anything to help a depressed Digimon, is it..."
"I'm sorry, Jikimon, but there's not much I can do for you..."
"I mean, what's the point in being kind to a poor, pitiful Digimon without the potential for gratitude?"
"And...you don't have any?" Shizu asked, beginning to be slightly interested. She glanced back at her computer, which was still clicking happily away, and decided to waste a few more seconds on Jikimon.
"I've never had occasion to find out," the Digimon replied dejectedly, banging her head against the door.
Shizu looked at the computer, which beeped insistently in her general direction. "Look, you hopeless piece of digital particles - "
"Aren't you going to ask me what I want?"
Shizu groaned. "Is it worth it?"
"Is anything?" Jikimon responded immediately.
To cut off another rant about life, Shizu quickly snapped, "What do you /want/?"
Jikimon raised her head and gazed mournfully at Shizu. "I'm looking for someone."
"Who?" Shizu hissed.
Jikimon nodded toward the open door a few feet away. "Gazimon. He's out there."
Shizu trembled with barely suppressed rage. "Then why...in God's name...did you ask /me/?"
"I just wanted someone to talk to."
"/What/?"
"Pathetic, isn't it."
Shizu stared in amazement as the catlike humanoid turned and trotted out the door, forgetting to shut it. The blonde girl sighed and collapsed into her swivel chair.
The past few hours had been a nightmare for Shizu. It had only been eight months since she had discovered the Digiworld, and now she was suddenly in charge of an army designed mostly for...absolutely nothing. Apparently, Kai just wanted to mess around with the Digidestined, and he had put her in charge of the army.
First, there had been something resembling a riot when the Woodmon "accidentally" attacked several Gotsumon. It had taken Jikimon's haunted mutterings to calm everyone down, although the general concensus at this point was that the paranoid, depressed Ultimate had to die...preferably very soon. After Shizu had calmed everyone down, Gazimon had reported that Jyou was bored - should they play board games? So, for the past three hours, three Gazimon and a Kiwimon had been playing Monopoly, Twister, and most recently Scrabble with the captive.
Shizu grabbed her glass of Pepsi and took a long drink. Caffeine was very good in a situation like this. She grabbed the mouse and started to plot the best course to Infinity Mountain.
It took a very short time for the effects of the caffeine to wear off, and the girl found herself becoming very, very tired. She picked up her glass and stared in detached wonder at her trembling hand. Then she sighed and slumped forward. The glass tumbled from her nerveless fingers and shattered on the floor.
~~
Jyou sighed as Kiwimon spelled the word "since." Unfortunately, he added about five extra letters, and the human really didn't feel like fixing the mistakes. "Could we play Monopoly again?"
Quite suddenly, a dark-haired young man materialized, looking flustered. "Gazimon, do you know any good doctors?"
"I'm a doctor," Jyou offered. "Well, sort of, anyway..."
The other boy looked him over. "I'm...not sure that's such a good idea. The young lady in question wasn't intending to let you see her..."
"Oh. The psycho chick." Jyou had lost all enthusiasm for Scrabble. "If there's any way I can help..."
After a few moments, the boy sighed. "I'll describe her condition. She apparently collapsed when drinking some kind of carbonated water..."
"Someone spiked her soda?"
"...if that's how you want to say it. Anyway, now she's unconscious and her skin is cold...and she's mumbling in her sleep. Is that a good thing?"
"No, definitely not." Jyou thought that over for a few moments. "There was probably something in her drink, then. Maybe poison? I'm thinking something slow-acting..."
The other boy bit his lip. "Then the universal cure should work?"
"What universal cure?"
"Oh, some plant that grows by the escarpment, which incidentally is about ten feet from here..."
Jyou nodded, then decided to try bargaining. "I'll get this plant for you and help whoever it is that's sick...but you have to let me go give some to my friend."
"If you think it'll help," Kai muttered under his breath. "Okay, we'll get Jikimon to help us, then."
The three Gazimon collapsed in hysterical giggles. "You think she'll help you?" one of them asked. "Even for the general?"
"Ha!" another one laughed. "You know her, she'll say something like death is good, at least it's not as depressing as her life..."
"/Please/..." Kai said, nearly in tears and trying very hard not to break down. "I'm not having a very good day, I don't need Sh - her to die..."
Jyou nodded, satisfied. "My freedom for her life. A good trade." He suddenly thought of something. "Why can't you go get it and leave me here?" Then he hit himself for saying something so stupid.
Kai coughed delicately. "It acts like poison ivy to Digimon, and me...well, I'm allergic. But don't tell anyone..."
~~~~
A/N: That was an abrupt ending...sorry. It gets better next chapter... Here's a little impromptu survey-type thing. We who are Digimon-lovers call our romantic pairings things like "Kensuke" and "Taiora." However, those in the Pokemon fandom say "Rocketshippy" or "Neoshippy." And now I've found out that some Yu-Gi-Oh people are beginning to do "shippy" things as well. Why are we different? Should we remain different? Which is better? Do people /really/ still watch Pokemon? ;)