Hopelight: Yes, I realize that the last chapter was extremely short compared to some of the previous chapters. But…I had this amazing, huge idea in the middle of Chapter 18 that I had to introduce as quickly as possible!
PerniciousTrixie: Ack! The evil bitch is still alive!
Hopelight: That she is.
PerniciousTrixie: I was talking about you, evil one!
Hopelight: Drat. I really must get a new apprentice…
PredestinedChapter Nineteen: Under her Skin
Jenna pulled away from Leon and looked at him lovingly. "How long have you been waiting to ask me that?" she asked.
He smiled sheepishly. "Two years. I was just that sure…"
"I'm glad you were!" She hugged him tightly. "Oh my gosh, we're getting married!"
"Dibs on maid of honor!" Cleo called out. "Seeing as I'm your only sister and all."
"I wanna be the flower girl!" Tania declared, causing everyone to erupt into a fit of giggles.
Kinaka set Julian down. "How about it, squirt? Want to be the ring bearer?" she asked him.
"Whassat?" he asked.
"It's where you carry the rings up on a pretty little pillow. The pillow is usually made out of satin and lace, and maybe pink or red."
"Then…no." Julian made a face. "Pink is for girls!"
Tina grinned. "Can I design the dresses? Mom's letting me have her sewing machine, so I can even make them!"
Lauren groaned. "Anything but pink! Mom's driving me crazy with her pink fetish! Pink this, pink that…even Mike's baby clothes were pink."
"Not as pink as his face is right now!" Kiko pointed out. It was true; Mike was blushing at the mention of his less-than-masculine baby clothes.
"Babies!" Lee cried out suddenly. "If you guys have kids, I'm gonna be an auntie!"
"I'll be an auntie too!" Cleo and Holly said at the same time.
Leon and Jenna both blushed. "Hello, we're not even married yet, you guys!" Jenna chastised them. "And we probably can't get married for a while, at least not until I graduate from college. That's like four or five years away."
"Plus we have to plan it and all," Leon put in. "Weddings are a lot of work."
"Exactly. So hold your horses, guys!" she laughed. "All we have to do right now is open the Port and go home, so we can tell everyone our good news!"
At that moment, a bone-chilling laugh pierced the air. "Why go home and celebrate? The party's just getting started here!" Then came the sound of a whip cracking, and the all-too-familiar whiz of a throwing blade slicing the air.
"Duck!" Lee screamed, diving for the ground. Everyone followed suit, just as Lady Kazuma's throwing blade whizzed toward them. It flew around like a boomerang back into her hand.
"Did you really think you could get rid of me so easily?" the woman continued. She sheathed the blade and stood at the edge of the pit, her hands on her hips. "After all, I have conquered six worlds. Now I can add this seventh, and might I add powerful, world to my little collection!"
"Wait." This was from Jenna, who had her brow furrowed. "I recognize you somehow. I must have seen you somewhere before, and I think it was in this world…"
The woman laughed out loud. "How could you? I've been in my own world for most of my life. But my mother lives here, on Corona Island. Mummy dearest wasn't so pleased to see me, but I got rid of her. Just like I got rid of Corona Island, and all her despicable worshippers of the Fire Cloud."
"Oh my God." Kinaka gently touched her flame pendant. "You're…you're…"
"My mother's name is Cassamon. Yes, Digidestined—that makes me a Digimon. Well," she added blithely, "half Digimon."
Nobody could speak, remembering the events of four years ago. They had nearly been executed at Fire Cloud Mountain, the gigantic volcano that was also used in Virus rituals. Everyone remembered too clearly how they had barely come away from it with their lives.
"Don't stand there with your mouths open," the woman snapped. "And don't look so surprised, either. How else do you think I gained such easy access to this world? My own mother let me in here, thinking foolishly that I was coming to join the Dark Order on Corona Island. Instead, I did what she did to me millennia ago—I betrayed her, and I sent her to die like she did to me! And I took over the dark forces from her. Do you not see yet, kiddies? I am the one who holds the true power here. Not you, nor that gigantic floating snake up there, nor those pitiful Gatemasters or that decrepit Gennai. Not any of you. Me!"
Lady Kazuma leaped straight into the air. Her slim, lithe form was seen silhouetted against the slowly lightening sky. For some reason, the sun was beginning to rise, like a bloody red sovereign in the sky. She drifted upward until she was face to face with Azulongmon.
"What does she think she's doing?" Rachael cried indignantly.
"You're insane!" Jenna screamed at her. "You're even more pathetic than I thought! What do you have to gain from all of this, but darkness that will rip you apart? Nothing!"
Lady Kazuma's eyes narrowed. "You annoy me. And people who annoy me never live long." She drew her blade out again, and her orange and yellow eyes glowed with terrible ferocity. Her arm reared back, and she threw it down as hard as she could.
Jenna felt the blade enter her body before she even saw it coming. It was a strange sensation: of sudden, burning heat—then a cold tingling—the feeling of being whisked up into the air, then plummeted down again at dizzying speed—and finally, a strange sensation of warmth spreading from the wound in her side. She brought her left hand to her ribs on her right side and felt the handle of the blade sticking out between them. Hot blood poured from it, covering her hand almost immediately. Somehow, the sight of her blood struck her funny, and she laughed.
Red blood, red sky, red ground. More blood to soak into the soil of this damned world.
"Let this be a lesson to you," the woman growled. "Are you all going to listen to me now, or do I have to kill more of you?"
"Jenna!" Leon cried, catching her just as she fell. He laid her down onto the grass, watching in horror as her blood flowed in a river down her side into the ground. Her hand still clutched at the hilt of the blade.
"Take it out," she murmured. "Take it out…"
"Don't touch it," he told her firmly. "If you take it out, you might damage your lung or something."
She gave a bitter laugh, almost like a cough. Blood trickled from between her lips. "A bit late for that."
"Hush, Jenna, you'll be fine," he told her, although he could tell she wasn't going to be. Already her breaths were becoming longer, and her chest wasn't rising and falling as often as it should be. She was bleeding out onto the ground, and it was hard to tell where the blood left off and the ground began.
"Leon." His name was hard for her to speak. "I'm…I'm cold."
He knew what that meant, and he started to cry. "Jenna, you can't die! I love you too much to let you die! You just can't!"
She closed her eyes. "I wanted to marry you. I wanted to be your wife…have your children…grow—old with you—" A sudden spasm of coughing burst from her, spraying flecks of blood from her mouth.
"Kinaka!" he yelled. "Or Tania, I don't care, get over here and help her!"
Lady Kazuma laughed wildly, mocking him. "It's too late. Can't you see that, boy? She's already dead!"
"She is not! She's not going to die!" he yelled back at her. "Tania! KINAKA!"
Both girls came running, almost slipping on the slick grass. "Leon, I don't know…" Kinaka began, but he cut her short.
"Damn it, Kinaka! I love her, and I'm not going to watch her die like this! Now help her!" he demanded.
She took a deep breath, and motioned to Tania. I've never done this before, she confessed to her cousin, her thoughts taking on a bitter edge of embarrassment.
That's OK, Kina. I have. Remember when I helped Kanejamon?
But this is different! She's dying! Her life is leaving her fast. Even Leon can feel it, and he's not like us. And then there's the blade in her side…
Just relax, and do as I do, Tania sent back.
"Jenna?" a tiny voice from above them called down. It was Pikkimon, and her voice was filled with fear. "Jenna, I'm coming, hold on!"
"No!" the other Digimon inside of Azulongmon cried out. But Pikkimon somehow pulled herself out of their many-bodied entity and sped down to the ground at Jenna's side in a yellow and black streak. She landed with a thump right next to her beloved human partner.
"Jenna," she cried. "Oh no…"
One by one, the rest of them fell like shooting stars from the sky. All of them landed with painful thumps next to their partners, looking dazed.
"What happened?" Lee cried out. She gathered Starymon in her arms and hugged her tightly.
"The power—it just left us," she gasped. "I don't know why. It felt like someone came along and pulled the plug out of the bath."
Rachael groaned, "There goes our shot at winning."
Above them, Lady Kazuma cackled. "And your last hope for survival."
Nearby, Kinaka had placed her trembling hands over the slick wound and tried to focus. Her head was buzzing as though it was stuffed with a hive of bees. Tania, sensing her disquiet, laid one small hand over her big cousin's.
Listen to me. Hold on to my voice. Now…feel how the warmth of her body is suddenly going away. Feel how she's getting colder.
It was like trying to stumble through a thick fog. Kinaka shook her head to clear it and concentrated. She could feel how warm Jenna's blood was, how it was the life-giving heat that kept the other girl alive.
Now, concentrate on her blood. It's flowing like a river right now, a river that was pulsating against a dam that finally broke. It's said that if you wanted to change the course of a fast-moving river you could do it—even if you just had a tiny pebble in your hand. All you have to do is put it in the right spot, and you can make it flow backward if you want.
"Send it the other way," Kinaka mumbled. Leon looked at her strangely, but continued to hold Jenna as tightly as he could.
I feel it now, she sent to Tania. It feels as though I've tapped into a keg that's running dry. I suppose the first thing I have to do is stop the rest of her blood from leaving her body…right?
Right! Tania's thoughts took on an almost self-satisfied edge. I'm glad I get to teach you something for once.
I'll ignore that.
Too right you will.
Geez. You're four years old and already you're acting like an adult!
Her hands suddenly went hot. Jenna, who was barely conscious by now, let out a shriek and writhed in agony.
"What the hell are you doing to her?" Leon said angrily, nearly wrenching his fiancée away from her. But Kinaka took no notice and gripped the throwing blade firmly by the hilt. It began to melt in her hands, puddling in a molten silver lake on the ground.
Jenna's left hand came up then, trembling and bloodstained to touch her wound…except now there was no wound, only a slick patch of blood over her unbroken skin. "How…" she began to say, her eyes puzzled. "I was dying, I could hear Leon's voice getting farther and farther away—"
"I'm not done yet," Kinaka said crisply. She looked at the blood on the ground and made a motion with her hand. In a flash, it was gone.
Jenna tried to stand up, but lurched to the side right into Leon's arms. "Easy," he told her, sitting her down. "Don't make any sudden movements. You just bled out about five quarts of blood, you know."
"About five and a half, actually," Kinaka said.
"Kinaka, what the hell did you do?" he asked her, looking completely bamboozled.
She grinned. "Tania gave me the idea," she said simply. "She told me that I could divert a mighty river with a pebble. But I thought, perhaps I had to take the pebble away to stop it."
He stared at her. "Now you're just talking gibberish."
She shrugged. "Who's the fantastic magical healer here, me or you?" Tania cleared her throat so she tacked on, "And her equally talented baby cousin."
Tania stuck her tongue out at her.
Lady Kazuma gently floated down, and landed on the soft red grass with no noise at all. "You may have healed the girl, but you haven't won yet!"
"As much as I hate to admit it, she's right," Rachael said, looking from the pile of Rookie Digimon to the maniacal woman in front of them.
"That's what you think," a voice boomed out. Everyone turned around to see who was talking, but nobody was there.
"Great. First my baby sister and my cousin do some bibbity-bobbity-boo, then a bodiless voice comes out of nowhere. What's gonna pop up next, a leprechaun?" Hikaru grumped.