The Truth
It seemed to Silverangewomon that she fell for a long time. Her silver hair floated around her in the water. For a while she could see the glimmer of moonlight on the surface, but eventually it faded away and she was left in total darkness.
She found that she did not need to breath under the water; as a matter of fact it felt as though she were not in water at all.
After a length of time she felt her feet touch the bottom. She still could not see, but her feet were braced on a smooth, flat surface and she was standing upright.
"Hello, my child."
She whirled in the darkness to see the speaker, only to find a wide monitor screen built into a wall. It shed a small amount of light into the room as it stirred into life, revealing to her the polished black walls and floor within reach of the light. The words which had been spoken scrolled across the screen.
"Who are you?" Silverangewomon asked warily.
"I am the supercomputer of this facility." The words scrolled across the screen, but they were also voiced audibly.
"What do you want with me?"
"Nothing, although it is nice to see you my dear."
"You called me your child earlier; why?"
"I hope you don't mind, but I think of you as my child. I made you after all."
"What?"
"Well, not in the form you wear now. That is not your true form, by an accident I helped shape your true form. When you truly become the Master of Balance you will be in the form I unwittingly helped create."*
"I don't understand."
"I will try to help you understand. Balance is only present when there are equal amounts of two things. Rocks and sand, wheat and water, or light and dark. Being raised only by angel type digimon you were only being taught of light. Without understanding darkness also you never would have been able to truly measure out balance. Your scales would have been unequally weighted. By an accident I exposed you to the true essence of darkness. You lived also in the world of darkness, and so represent both equally."
"I don't understand, I don't remember any of this."
"No. The forces of light, the angel digimon, do not understand balance. For them, there is only balance when light reigns over all. They were afraid that the time spent in darkness would prevent you from fulfilling the prophecy. They manipulated your memories so you would not remember, never realizing that they were working against the prophecy."
"I still don't understand, what was your part in this?"
"That my dear is a long story, you see, I was built by a digimon named Datamon. Datamon was an evil virus in search of power. He believed, and rightly so, that humans could give digimon greater power. However, he was unable to reach the real world to procure a child, and so tried to manufacture one instead. He built and designed the pool above and myself for this purpose.
"It was his belief that he could use the pool to delete a digimon and reconfigure it into a human child. Many digimon entered the pool, but they were not strong enough to survive, they deleted permanently and their data remained trapped in the depths of the pool.
"Then, unexpectedly you fell into the pool. You were a champion, strong and almost ready to digivolve into ultimate. You had just enough strength to survive, but just barely. You lost all memory of who you were...*
*******
"I WON'T FAIL TO DEFEAT YOU THIS TIME! SHE WILL BE AVENGED!"
Myotismon hurled himself through the air to meet Goldangemon. Goldangemon raised his gold staff to defend himself.
"LIGHTNING CLAW!"
"GOLDEN ILLUMINATION!"
As the two attacks clashed in the air they caused a brilliant explosion, which temporarily blinded Myotismon, seeing this weakness Goldangemon rushed to attack, Myotismon barely dodged to the side, the powerful attack clipping his side.
Righting himself in the air he noticed that about a dozen angel digimon floated through the air to watch this battle. Myotismon knew of course that he was outclassed by the mega, but he had no intention of letting that stop him.
"NIGHTMARE WING!"
*******
As the supercomputer spoke hundreds of forgotten memories crashed into Silverangewomon's head, she dropped to the floor clutching at her head.
Lying in the cold mud, unable to understand why she hurt. Master's strong arms wrapping around her fragile body as his teeth sank beneath her skin, the wickedly pleasurable sensation of his rough tongue as it licked across her throat; both terrible and wonderful at the same time.
Claws raking across her back and tongue lapping the wounds.
Horrible pain mixed with pleasure as Master's strong tongue forced its way into her mouth, mirroring the forceful actions taking place in the lower regions of her body.
Trying so hard to please Master.
Making Master a gift, bringing him something he could never have. Sudden fear that she had displeased Master. Master's strong hands caressing in a way she had never even imagined before, pleasure drowning all consciousness.
Brilliant light washing everything away.
Primary village, Dameangemon.
Flying to the heavenly city. Growing, ever growing.
Trying to escape, to return to Master. He needed her. She could feel it. Knew he was longing for her.
If she stopped trying to escape and digivolved instead, they would let her go. She would be free to leave them. Trying hard, oh so hard.
Success. Can't leave. I did what you asked. NO! Please, don't make me forget!
Silverangewomon's silver eyes opened with a start, glimmering terribly in the darkness. She rose to her feet in anger, unaware of the power she was emanating, or the changes it wrought.
How dare they make her forget part of her life. A part of who she was.
*******
"EVANGELIC SWORD!"
A soundless cry came from Myotismon's throat as Goldangemon's sword thrust through his body and protruded from his back. Goldangemon freed the sword and Myotismon tumbled from the air, he struck the ground with a resounding thud. His blood spilled on the grass, turning it black.
"You lose virus."
Myotismon managed to find his voice and cursed Goldangemon vociferously. "You killed her! You took her away from me!"
"Yes. And I would again in a heartbeat. I was never there for you; I came specifically to take her away, one way or another."
"WHAT?"
Myotismon realized he would die with the question unanswered as Goldangemon raised his sword for the final blow. He closed his eyes against the inevitable, his very existence was baneful, the only thing he had ever loved torn away from him and his only goal ever out of his reach. Even death would not change that. He would just have to start over from scratch.
He forced his eyes open; he would not die like a coward.
Just as Goldangemon prepared to deliver his blow power like nothing Myotismon had ever seen poured from the pool and shot upward; forming a column first of sheer white power, then with an occasional trace of black, continually the black grew until there were equal amounts of black and white power. The column continued to grow in size and power, causing many of the angel digimon to back swiftly away.
As unexpectedly as it had appeared the column burst outward; the sheer power of the blast knocking several angel types from the sky. Goldangemon was knocked from the sky and crashed to the ground a few yards from where Myotismon lay.
Floating in the center of the exploding power, apparently sheltered by the eye of the storm, was Silverangewomon, as he had never seen her before. Her body suit had changed to black and her fluttering dress and boots had changed from white to silver. Her long silver hair floated on the air around her as if it had a mind of its own, it burned with an eerie silver fire that did not consume it. The silver feathers of her wings burned with the same fire. Her skin glimmered like moonlight; terrible fire, like the power which surrounded her burned in her eyes. She was terrible and beautiful simultaneously, and he knew instantly that this must be her true ultimate form.
"YOU!" she pointed at Goldangemon, her voice was low but the power amplified it a thousand fold and rocked the sky. "You tried to tip the balance in your favor. You refused to see the truth. You do not seek to maintain balance. You seek to define balance. You tried to change me, to change my destiny. You tried to take something very precious away from me. You tried to make me forget what I was. This is unforgivable."
"You think you can stop me. Silverangewomon, you misunderstand balance. In this fight I far overpower you and I can do as I please you have no power over me."
He rose to his feet and fought his way back to Myotismon. He raised his sword to finish him off, but Myotismon gathered what little strength he had and rolled out of the way. The sword missed him by inches and broke the thin chain he wore clasped about his neck. Snowgatomon's tail ring, which he had kept, and the worn crystal Angel had given him scattered clinked onto the grass.
Before he could reach them both objects floated up into the air, Silverangewomon caught them in one slender hand.
"Do not underestimate me, Goldangemon. I am the harbinger and instrument of balance. I am not confined by or to the rules which constrict other digimon. I can destroy you as easily as I can destroy any other."
As she spoke a glimmer of silver shone from her closed fist. The tail ring clasped inside expanded and changed; becoming a long silver staff, topped at one end by an ornate set of scales. One platter hung from each side of the staff. She lowered the staff at Goldangemon.
"BALANCE OF POWER!"
Her voice was dreadful and condemning as she spoke.
The scales on the staff began to move as if weighing invisible weights. Up and down, faster and faster until they began spinning around the staff. Silver energy built up within the circumference of their reach then suddenly shot out in several bolts. Goldangemon was blown away by the attack, deleting instantly.
Myotismon took extreme pleasure in watching that. He felt somehow that Angel had been avenged, even if he himself had not struck the final blow. Silver light surrounded him as well and he wondered why he had not also been deleted.
Silverangewomon addressed the other angel digimon without looking at them. "I have discovered the cause of the absolution. There is a terrible unbalance in the digital world. I know why Darkforest is the one place in all of server that does not suffer from absolution.
"Here in Darkforest there is still darkness. Without some small amount of darkness, without some challenge to overcome, the purpose of life vanishes, and so life fades and vanishes. Darkforest is the one place in the digital world where light does not reign supreme. You have erased the darkness from the rest of the world, and prevent it from regrowing, the digimon in those areas have become complacent. They have lost the will to grow, to digivolve.
"This is an imbalance as terrible as when the Dark Master's destroyed the angel and vaccine digimon. It is intolerable and the damage that has been done may take years to heal. It is my duty to do everything in my power to restore the balance.
"Perhaps in time, when balance has been restored, we shall again be allies; but for the time at hand, I must do my duty. BALANCE OF POWER!"
Dameangemon and a few of the wiser angel types had seen what was coming and fled, escaping the blast. The others were deleted in the wave of silver light which swept the sky.
When the light died the sky was clear. No angel digimon and no visible sign that a fierce battle had been waged only moments before.
Myotismon searched about the sky for her, but she was nowhere to be found. He pushed himself to his feet, the wound in his chest already healing. A silver glow shone out behind him and he whirled to find the angel digimon landing on a boulder behind him.
"Now it's time for our battle," he sneered at her. "And I intend to win!"
"I wish to speak with you Myotismon." Her voice was soft, but commanded attention. Myotismon however had never taken well to commands.
"NIGHTMARE WING!"
Silverangewomon easily dodged his attack, drifting effortlessly out of the way.
"Indeed little angel, what is it you think you can make me talk about?"
He charged towards her claws extended towards her chest. With lightning speed she moved out of his way apparently without trying.
"Angel."
Myotismon's world stopped spinning for a moment.
"What?"
"I wish to speak with you about Angel."
He turned slowly to face her, brilliant silver eyes clashing directly with cold blue ones in a battle of wills.
"You dare speak of her to me. You who are my enemy. It was your kind who took her away from me. I watched her die at the hands of an angel digimon. You would dare to speak of her."
His hard eyes bore into hers trying to force her into submission. Her eyes remained just as calmly defiant, staring unafraid into his eyes.
"I must speak of her. Goldangemon took her away from you, that is true. But I may be able to bring her back to you. But I won't bring her back just to become a slave to you again."
"If you can do that, then BRING HER BACK NOW!" Lightning flashed from his eyes as he poured his power into the command, he was strong enough, he could force her to do it.
"Why, so you can beat her again? The child may not have minded, her devotion to you may have blinded her to the abuse she was suffering, but I have a responsibility to the girl. She will not defend herself, and it falls to me to protect her best interests."
"You gave her nothing but pain and misery. Do you know how many times you brought her to death's door then dragged her back again. She lived on a roller coaster of fear and hope, dejection and devotion, hatred and love. I see no reason to subject her to that again."
Something snapped deep in his eyes, despair, defeat, a hidden pain of his own.
"Do you think you are telling me something I don't already know. I have lived with that knowledge for the last twelve years. It haunts me every day. Ever regretting, hoping that had I been given another chance, I might have done something different." He closed his eyes and looked away, "I never got the chance to tell her what she meant, what she was. I loved her."
Silence he dared not turn to face her again, not yet. She had seen something in him he had never allowed anyone else to see.
"She was my mate, I can't gaurantee I would never hurt her, but I could try."
The battle of wills was over, he had lost. It was several minutes before he heard her soft voice, she rested a hand consolingly on his shoulder; "Never has there been love without pain. All people at some time in their lives have hurt someone they loved. You are no exception. It does not matter that you hurt her, only that you love her. I would not bring her back to suffer a loveless life."
He glanced over his shoulder at her as she removed her hand from his shoulder and backed away from him, she gave him a small smile before she burst into silver flames.
He turned to face her but stayed a safe distance. Silver flames danced across her skin and her face contorted in agony as it burned and consumed her flesh growing continually brighter. At the point where it seemed it would explode and consume everything is suddenly vanished, leaving the woods dark once again. Silverangewomon had vanished.
It seemed to Silverangewomon that she fell for a long time. Her silver hair floated around her in the water. For a while she could see the glimmer of moonlight on the surface, but eventually it faded away and she was left in total darkness.
She found that she did not need to breath under the water; as a matter of fact it felt as though she were not in water at all.
After a length of time she felt her feet touch the bottom. She still could not see, but her feet were braced on a smooth, flat surface and she was standing upright.
"Hello, my child."
She whirled in the darkness to see the speaker, only to find a wide monitor screen built into a wall. It shed a small amount of light into the room as it stirred into life, revealing to her the polished black walls and floor within reach of the light. The words which had been spoken scrolled across the screen.
"Who are you?" Silverangewomon asked warily.
"I am the supercomputer of this facility." The words scrolled across the screen, but they were also voiced audibly.
"What do you want with me?"
"Nothing, although it is nice to see you my dear."
"You called me your child earlier; why?"
"I hope you don't mind, but I think of you as my child. I made you after all."
"What?"
"Well, not in the form you wear now. That is not your true form, by an accident I helped shape your true form. When you truly become the Master of Balance you will be in the form I unwittingly helped create."*
"I don't understand."
"I will try to help you understand. Balance is only present when there are equal amounts of two things. Rocks and sand, wheat and water, or light and dark. Being raised only by angel type digimon you were only being taught of light. Without understanding darkness also you never would have been able to truly measure out balance. Your scales would have been unequally weighted. By an accident I exposed you to the true essence of darkness. You lived also in the world of darkness, and so represent both equally."
"I don't understand, I don't remember any of this."
"No. The forces of light, the angel digimon, do not understand balance. For them, there is only balance when light reigns over all. They were afraid that the time spent in darkness would prevent you from fulfilling the prophecy. They manipulated your memories so you would not remember, never realizing that they were working against the prophecy."
"I still don't understand, what was your part in this?"
"That my dear is a long story, you see, I was built by a digimon named Datamon. Datamon was an evil virus in search of power. He believed, and rightly so, that humans could give digimon greater power. However, he was unable to reach the real world to procure a child, and so tried to manufacture one instead. He built and designed the pool above and myself for this purpose.
"It was his belief that he could use the pool to delete a digimon and reconfigure it into a human child. Many digimon entered the pool, but they were not strong enough to survive, they deleted permanently and their data remained trapped in the depths of the pool.
"Then, unexpectedly you fell into the pool. You were a champion, strong and almost ready to digivolve into ultimate. You had just enough strength to survive, but just barely. You lost all memory of who you were...*
*******
"I WON'T FAIL TO DEFEAT YOU THIS TIME! SHE WILL BE AVENGED!"
Myotismon hurled himself through the air to meet Goldangemon. Goldangemon raised his gold staff to defend himself.
"LIGHTNING CLAW!"
"GOLDEN ILLUMINATION!"
As the two attacks clashed in the air they caused a brilliant explosion, which temporarily blinded Myotismon, seeing this weakness Goldangemon rushed to attack, Myotismon barely dodged to the side, the powerful attack clipping his side.
Righting himself in the air he noticed that about a dozen angel digimon floated through the air to watch this battle. Myotismon knew of course that he was outclassed by the mega, but he had no intention of letting that stop him.
"NIGHTMARE WING!"
*******
As the supercomputer spoke hundreds of forgotten memories crashed into Silverangewomon's head, she dropped to the floor clutching at her head.
Lying in the cold mud, unable to understand why she hurt. Master's strong arms wrapping around her fragile body as his teeth sank beneath her skin, the wickedly pleasurable sensation of his rough tongue as it licked across her throat; both terrible and wonderful at the same time.
Claws raking across her back and tongue lapping the wounds.
Horrible pain mixed with pleasure as Master's strong tongue forced its way into her mouth, mirroring the forceful actions taking place in the lower regions of her body.
Trying so hard to please Master.
Making Master a gift, bringing him something he could never have. Sudden fear that she had displeased Master. Master's strong hands caressing in a way she had never even imagined before, pleasure drowning all consciousness.
Brilliant light washing everything away.
Primary village, Dameangemon.
Flying to the heavenly city. Growing, ever growing.
Trying to escape, to return to Master. He needed her. She could feel it. Knew he was longing for her.
If she stopped trying to escape and digivolved instead, they would let her go. She would be free to leave them. Trying hard, oh so hard.
Success. Can't leave. I did what you asked. NO! Please, don't make me forget!
Silverangewomon's silver eyes opened with a start, glimmering terribly in the darkness. She rose to her feet in anger, unaware of the power she was emanating, or the changes it wrought.
How dare they make her forget part of her life. A part of who she was.
*******
"EVANGELIC SWORD!"
A soundless cry came from Myotismon's throat as Goldangemon's sword thrust through his body and protruded from his back. Goldangemon freed the sword and Myotismon tumbled from the air, he struck the ground with a resounding thud. His blood spilled on the grass, turning it black.
"You lose virus."
Myotismon managed to find his voice and cursed Goldangemon vociferously. "You killed her! You took her away from me!"
"Yes. And I would again in a heartbeat. I was never there for you; I came specifically to take her away, one way or another."
"WHAT?"
Myotismon realized he would die with the question unanswered as Goldangemon raised his sword for the final blow. He closed his eyes against the inevitable, his very existence was baneful, the only thing he had ever loved torn away from him and his only goal ever out of his reach. Even death would not change that. He would just have to start over from scratch.
He forced his eyes open; he would not die like a coward.
Just as Goldangemon prepared to deliver his blow power like nothing Myotismon had ever seen poured from the pool and shot upward; forming a column first of sheer white power, then with an occasional trace of black, continually the black grew until there were equal amounts of black and white power. The column continued to grow in size and power, causing many of the angel digimon to back swiftly away.
As unexpectedly as it had appeared the column burst outward; the sheer power of the blast knocking several angel types from the sky. Goldangemon was knocked from the sky and crashed to the ground a few yards from where Myotismon lay.
Floating in the center of the exploding power, apparently sheltered by the eye of the storm, was Silverangewomon, as he had never seen her before. Her body suit had changed to black and her fluttering dress and boots had changed from white to silver. Her long silver hair floated on the air around her as if it had a mind of its own, it burned with an eerie silver fire that did not consume it. The silver feathers of her wings burned with the same fire. Her skin glimmered like moonlight; terrible fire, like the power which surrounded her burned in her eyes. She was terrible and beautiful simultaneously, and he knew instantly that this must be her true ultimate form.
"YOU!" she pointed at Goldangemon, her voice was low but the power amplified it a thousand fold and rocked the sky. "You tried to tip the balance in your favor. You refused to see the truth. You do not seek to maintain balance. You seek to define balance. You tried to change me, to change my destiny. You tried to take something very precious away from me. You tried to make me forget what I was. This is unforgivable."
"You think you can stop me. Silverangewomon, you misunderstand balance. In this fight I far overpower you and I can do as I please you have no power over me."
He rose to his feet and fought his way back to Myotismon. He raised his sword to finish him off, but Myotismon gathered what little strength he had and rolled out of the way. The sword missed him by inches and broke the thin chain he wore clasped about his neck. Snowgatomon's tail ring, which he had kept, and the worn crystal Angel had given him scattered clinked onto the grass.
Before he could reach them both objects floated up into the air, Silverangewomon caught them in one slender hand.
"Do not underestimate me, Goldangemon. I am the harbinger and instrument of balance. I am not confined by or to the rules which constrict other digimon. I can destroy you as easily as I can destroy any other."
As she spoke a glimmer of silver shone from her closed fist. The tail ring clasped inside expanded and changed; becoming a long silver staff, topped at one end by an ornate set of scales. One platter hung from each side of the staff. She lowered the staff at Goldangemon.
"BALANCE OF POWER!"
Her voice was dreadful and condemning as she spoke.
The scales on the staff began to move as if weighing invisible weights. Up and down, faster and faster until they began spinning around the staff. Silver energy built up within the circumference of their reach then suddenly shot out in several bolts. Goldangemon was blown away by the attack, deleting instantly.
Myotismon took extreme pleasure in watching that. He felt somehow that Angel had been avenged, even if he himself had not struck the final blow. Silver light surrounded him as well and he wondered why he had not also been deleted.
Silverangewomon addressed the other angel digimon without looking at them. "I have discovered the cause of the absolution. There is a terrible unbalance in the digital world. I know why Darkforest is the one place in all of server that does not suffer from absolution.
"Here in Darkforest there is still darkness. Without some small amount of darkness, without some challenge to overcome, the purpose of life vanishes, and so life fades and vanishes. Darkforest is the one place in the digital world where light does not reign supreme. You have erased the darkness from the rest of the world, and prevent it from regrowing, the digimon in those areas have become complacent. They have lost the will to grow, to digivolve.
"This is an imbalance as terrible as when the Dark Master's destroyed the angel and vaccine digimon. It is intolerable and the damage that has been done may take years to heal. It is my duty to do everything in my power to restore the balance.
"Perhaps in time, when balance has been restored, we shall again be allies; but for the time at hand, I must do my duty. BALANCE OF POWER!"
Dameangemon and a few of the wiser angel types had seen what was coming and fled, escaping the blast. The others were deleted in the wave of silver light which swept the sky.
When the light died the sky was clear. No angel digimon and no visible sign that a fierce battle had been waged only moments before.
Myotismon searched about the sky for her, but she was nowhere to be found. He pushed himself to his feet, the wound in his chest already healing. A silver glow shone out behind him and he whirled to find the angel digimon landing on a boulder behind him.
"Now it's time for our battle," he sneered at her. "And I intend to win!"
"I wish to speak with you Myotismon." Her voice was soft, but commanded attention. Myotismon however had never taken well to commands.
"NIGHTMARE WING!"
Silverangewomon easily dodged his attack, drifting effortlessly out of the way.
"Indeed little angel, what is it you think you can make me talk about?"
He charged towards her claws extended towards her chest. With lightning speed she moved out of his way apparently without trying.
"Angel."
Myotismon's world stopped spinning for a moment.
"What?"
"I wish to speak with you about Angel."
He turned slowly to face her, brilliant silver eyes clashing directly with cold blue ones in a battle of wills.
"You dare speak of her to me. You who are my enemy. It was your kind who took her away from me. I watched her die at the hands of an angel digimon. You would dare to speak of her."
His hard eyes bore into hers trying to force her into submission. Her eyes remained just as calmly defiant, staring unafraid into his eyes.
"I must speak of her. Goldangemon took her away from you, that is true. But I may be able to bring her back to you. But I won't bring her back just to become a slave to you again."
"If you can do that, then BRING HER BACK NOW!" Lightning flashed from his eyes as he poured his power into the command, he was strong enough, he could force her to do it.
"Why, so you can beat her again? The child may not have minded, her devotion to you may have blinded her to the abuse she was suffering, but I have a responsibility to the girl. She will not defend herself, and it falls to me to protect her best interests."
"You gave her nothing but pain and misery. Do you know how many times you brought her to death's door then dragged her back again. She lived on a roller coaster of fear and hope, dejection and devotion, hatred and love. I see no reason to subject her to that again."
Something snapped deep in his eyes, despair, defeat, a hidden pain of his own.
"Do you think you are telling me something I don't already know. I have lived with that knowledge for the last twelve years. It haunts me every day. Ever regretting, hoping that had I been given another chance, I might have done something different." He closed his eyes and looked away, "I never got the chance to tell her what she meant, what she was. I loved her."
Silence he dared not turn to face her again, not yet. She had seen something in him he had never allowed anyone else to see.
"She was my mate, I can't gaurantee I would never hurt her, but I could try."
The battle of wills was over, he had lost. It was several minutes before he heard her soft voice, she rested a hand consolingly on his shoulder; "Never has there been love without pain. All people at some time in their lives have hurt someone they loved. You are no exception. It does not matter that you hurt her, only that you love her. I would not bring her back to suffer a loveless life."
He glanced over his shoulder at her as she removed her hand from his shoulder and backed away from him, she gave him a small smile before she burst into silver flames.
He turned to face her but stayed a safe distance. Silver flames danced across her skin and her face contorted in agony as it burned and consumed her flesh growing continually brighter. At the point where it seemed it would explode and consume everything is suddenly vanished, leaving the woods dark once again. Silverangewomon had vanished.