Disclaimer: I do not own Digimon. I do own Phloem 'cause he's an original character, but I don't own Digimon. And Pixie Sugienna belongs to yamatos.girl, while Brian O'Conner and Magnus Dean belong to Fallen Angel. AlanAlectai owns Alan Aramyr Gerai.
Notes to People who Submitted Characters/Resubmitted Information
yamatos.girl – I got the new information. Your character's making her appearance this chapter… ^__^ Hope you like it!
Fallen Angel – The new information is fine, except I might change the bit about assassination attempts. Your two characters are appearing in this chapter, too. ^__^ And don't worry; I planned to have some of the characters related to the Digidestined in the first place.
AlanAlectai – Er, there's already a person with AeroVeedramon as the ultimate form, sorry. Maybe you could change it to Paildramon or something else? You don't have to if you don't want to, but it'd be a bit more convenient for me. Alan sounds like a very interesting character. ^___^
Notes to Other Reviewers
BGR – I put italics into my story by using Microsoft Word. Then I use Word to "Save as Web Page", and it just comes out the way it does. ^__^ I hope this helps. And you also made yourself the first person-who-reviewed-my-story-without-submitting-a-character. Congratulations! ^___^
Chapter 2: State of Decay
High Prince Rime stood in a dark room. The only light at all came from an open doorway behind him, and even that seemed to glimmer weakly in the darkness that seemed to be drawn to the powerful prince. His Sorcerymon waited quietly by the door while it waited, completely silent and motionless, for him to finish his business here.
"Have you anything to say?" asked a tired voice feebly, "Or are you just going to stand there and let that painful light in?" The voice sounded slightly grumpy, as if its owner had just been woken from a sleep that was more bearable than life.
"Of course I have something to report," said Prince Rime smoothly and slightly coldly.
"Well, then, get on with it," the voice snapped, still sounding as if it were in a dream. "And be more polite about it."
Rime smiled frostily and bowed slightly. "Of course, Sire. I saw an act today that completely broke the oldest and most sacred of our laws. A boy was speaking of his Digimon as if it were more than a tool granted to the superior human race."
"Ha! I bet that occurs all of the time in the city. It does not matter. Those closest to us will always have our views, and they will protect us from any rebellion that the common folk can take up," the voice scornfully commented. "That is, after all, what the Imperial Guard is for."
The smile on Rime's face became more sarcastic, but not one bit friendlier. "Ah, but that, Sire, is where I witnessed the event. The boy, a young man around fifteen years of age, in the Imperial Guard was arguing that he should take the advice of his Digimon. What is more, he did, and his Digimon, at the time a Rookie, defeated an Armored Digimon! A strong combination of human and Digimon, don't you agree?"
"What?" The voice finally seemed to be awake. "A Rookie defeated an Armored? That is practically unheard of! It is not possible!"
"Ah, true. That is usually correct, Sire, but something about this pair was different."
The voice ignored Rime. "And the boy was treasonous, you say? Well, Rime, you know what to do. It is good to have an example once in a while anyway. It keeps the peasants in line." The voice yawned and grew tired again. "Do go take care of it. But be sure to ask you fiancée's advice before allotting him his punishment!"
A satisfied smirk glanced across Rime's face as the owner of the voice began to snore. "Of course, my dear father, the all powerful emperor of the Angels' Domain." He turned swiftly on his heel, causing his cloak to swirl around him as currents of snow did in the worst winter's blizzard. Within a few steps, the young prince was out of the room. As the Sorcerymon closed the door, the room was left in blackness yet once again.
Outside, Prince Rime walked past the four pairs of white-wearing guards, each with a Terriermon, that watched over his father's room. He paused when he came to the last pair. "You two," he stated. The straightened and saluted. "Go and fetch a Imperial Guard cadet that goes by the name of Phloem and his Tapirmon. Bring him to the court. He has been accused of treasonous beliefs."
"Yes, sir!" they said in unison. They saluted again and went down the hall in a quick march.
Rime allowed one fleeting, cruel smile to cover his face before continuing to walk down the pristine white marble halls.
******
Pixie Sugienna sighed as she looked around the Imperial Court from her place behind a large white marble pillar. It promised to be a long and boring day yet again. "Sometimes I wish I didn't have such a good Digimon," she muttered to no one. The palace was just much too white, she decided as she looked at the gigantic room with her steel blue eyes.
The court was in a huge circular room, and many ornamental pillars, such as the one she was hiding behind, were placed in around the edge of the room. The thrones' circular dais was in the center of the room, and various marble and gold statues were placed about the room. Large windows went from the floor to the ceiling between the pillars, and at night the room was lit by an electrically powered large, hanging crystal chandelier.
The four thrones were white, the floors, walls, and ceilings were white, and the clothes that most of the nobles wore had white in them. The only dominantly non-white objects in the room were the various Digimon, the pale gray curtains, and the light pink dress that she was currently dressed in. Some courtiers considered her the most colorful person in the room with her blonde hair, dyed pink at the tips, and her bright dress.
"You don't really mean that, do you?" said a playfully cheerful voice. Pixie looked down to the ground and saw Otamamon lying there. She was grinning, despite the mock injured tone of her voice.
"Of course not. If I didn't have you, I wouldn't have anyone to talk to on these long, boring days." Pixie grinned back at her Otamamon. It was true that people with virus Digimon usually didn't reach high places, but Otamamon had quite impressive evolutions. More importantly to most of this country, they were impressive Vaccine evolutions. If Otamamon had evolved into Gekomon, as her kind usually did, Pixie would certainly not be in the position she was today. But perhaps that would have been a good thing.
Otamamon smiled sympathetically. "I know what you mean. If you weren't around, this place would be unbearable!"
"I think that most people here would agree with you two." The princess and her Digimon started in surprise and turned to look at who had talked. A young man of average height, dressed in light white armor with a Patamon on his shoulder, was smiling at them. Even his violet eyes seemed to be smiling. He had sandy blonde hair that wasn't short, but it wasn't long, and on his shoulder rested a Patamon, who was also smiling, albeit a bit irritatingly.
"General O'Conner! It's not polite for you to sneak up on people!" she berated the general, who was around five years older than her own fourteen years. The general and her would talk whenever he was at court, which was not that often. He didn't enjoy court overly much, either, except when he could joke around, usually at someone else's expense.
When he was at court, usually Brian O'Conner would talk with Pixie because he claimed that she wasn't as stupid or boring as the others at the court, and she was one of the only people not politically active. He claimed he had enough trouble with politics in the military part of his life and he didn't need any of it in the court.
"Of course," he replied with a slightly sarcastic and innocent drawl to his voice. "I didn't mean to sneak up on you, really. I was just, er…"
"Walking more quietly than you would normally," interjected the Patamon.
"Yeah! I was just walking more quietly that I usually would!" said the general enthusiastically. "Exactly!"
Pixie regarded General Brian with her usually quietness. "Your friend isn't here. Did you have another argument with Rime?"
He looked triumphant, but slightly embarrassed. "Yeah, I did… And I won it, too, but the High Prince got so angry that I actually won that he permanently banned Magnus from acting as my bodyguard inside the Imperial Court." He mimicked the Prince's cold, low voice rather accurately. "He said, "A person with a Virus Digimon has no business guarding you." "
She shook her head with her eyes wide. "Wow. It must have been a huge argument for him to be so angry."
"No kidding. Do you know he actually wanted to round up commoners accused of treasonous beliefs or actions and have them shot or hanged publicly with only a mass trial between all of them?" He rolled his eyes at the stupidity of the plan.
Pixie gasped and covered her mouth with her hands. "He actually wanted to use the Imperial Guards in that way? That's horrible!" She frowned at the thought. "He is supposed to talk to me about plans like that."
"That's true," Brian said with a shrug, "but you know how he is. After all, you're engaged to him."
She glared at him. "Don't remind me. I didn't have a choice, but at least I don't have to marry him until I'm eighteen. Four more years…" she sighed.
"You're marrying a guy about four years older than you. It could be worse," pointed out Brian.
"It could…"
Her thoughts of the future were interrupted as she noticed a quiet air overtake the court. Both she and Brian looked around the edge of the pillar as High Prince Rime and his Sorcerymon entered the court. Behind him was a boy around Pixie's age, but he was handcuffed and flanked by two guards and their Terriermon. He was in the uniform of a cadet for the Imperial Guard, and he had a bewildered look on his face. Behind him floated a Tapirmon, who looked both protective and confused at once.
Rime brought the group to a halt as he walked up to his throne, which was on the right of the larger emperor's throne. He turned and sat comfortably on the padded chair as the cadet was forced to kneel by the guards at the base of the dais. Rime carefully hid a smile, but both Pixie and Brian noticed the cruel look in his eyes and began to speak.
"Today, we have brought Phloem, a cadet in the Imperial Guard, before us. In our hearing, he has spoken treasonous beliefs that he shares with his Tapirmon. He has even followed those beliefs to the point of hesitating at following, as well as not following, the orders of his commanding officer. As usual, the punishment, he should be publicly executed, as the law states."
A curious murmur spread throughout the hall. It was wondered whether this was serious enough to need an execution.
"Of course a public execution is necessary! This should be used as an example to remind the people of Sanctus of the leadership that we possess over those less fortunate. As all of you know, crime rates have begun to climb in the city as more and more people commit crimes. We have reason to believe that it is from the influence of their Digimon."
Pixie walked out from behind the pillar. "That does not give sufficient reason to execute this boy!" She walked over to the dais and took her place on the throne to the left of the queen's throne, which put her on the opposite side of the dais from Rime.
Rime was startled by her appearance, and he did not look happy. "I'm sure you think so, but-"
With a smile, Brian walked slowly out from behind the pillar. "I don't think so, either, Your Highness," being as politely irritating as he could. "The High Princess is quite right when she mentions that this does not give a reason to kill the boy."
Rime glared at Brian. Apparently, he was still annoyed from their last argument. "I am sure that the quality of life in the city will improve once they're given a reason."
A new voice spoke up in a wavering tone. "A-Actually, a public execution may cause them to rebel." Everyone turned to look at a blue-haired boy of around average height with unusually large brown eyes. He was wearing a pristine white shirt with a gold-trimmed blue vest on top of that. He was also wearing gold-trimmed white pants and white shoes. To his side stood a Veemon
Rime gave the boy a glare that caused the fifteen-year-old to begin to turn only a few shades darker than his shirt. "Alan Aramyr Gerai, son of Duke Allen Gerai. Why do you think so?"
Alan gulped. "Ah, um, I kind of polled the people…" he mumbled as he tried to fight the panicky feeling overtaking him.
"What was that?"
"I polled the people," he said in a now-audible voice. He steeled himself, and forced himself to continue speaking. He hated to speak in large public places. "I went out into the city, and I polled them on some questions."
Most of the court was looking at him in disbelief. Both Alan and his Veemon were renowned for stupidity. However, General Brian looked interested. Unlike the other nobles, he had seen Alan carry out plans he had made. He was at the bottom of many of the changes that had taken place recently, especially in the area of the treatment of servants in the castle and the poor outside of the castle. General Brian had even helped him on some of the plans, including one that ended up with leftovers from the imperial kitchen being distributed to people who could not afford food or a place to live. Of course, it had to be covert help, or else Rime would try to stomp out the changes just because Brian was helping to bring them about.
"May I see the results?" Brian asked politely. Alan nodded, and he took a palm pilot out of his pants' pocket. He pressed a few buttons, and then a holographic display appeared over the screen. He positioned it so that it faced the prince, princess, and general, and then he pointed to various parts of the bar graph.
"More than eighty percent of those polled disagreed with the current laws regarding execution and punishment. Seventy percent were unhappy with the current system of government, but ninety-five percent of the people said that they'd be happier with the government if a few moderate changes took place. Also, about fifteen percent of those polled said that they were facing difficult times monetarily. Ten percent of the total polled were already homeless."
Rime sneered, "And did you do this survey in the Recycle Sector?" he said, naming the poorest part of the city.
Alan shook his head. "No. I took the survey in the Light Sector." That made heads turn in the court. Many of the nobles lived in the Light Sector, which was one of the richest parts of Sanctus.
Rime considered this new information. It seemed as if the whole city was in a state of decay that no one had noticed before this. It would be very dangerous to mete out the least bit of public punishment to a cadet, as many of the cadets had been taken from parents in the city. He looked coldly at Phloem, and then addressed the court.
"It seems that perhaps the law needs revision. Guards, take this cadet away. He is not free to go, but his punishment will occur at a later date. Put him in the basement dungeon."
Phloem was brought back to his feet and escorted to the dungeon. A slightly relieved, but worried, look was now on his face.
In Alan's mind, this was still unsatisfactory. He needed a plan, but, with help, Phloem would not be imprisoned long enough to be executed when Rime's "revisions" were finished. Rime most definitely held an unexplainable grudge against Phloem, and Alan doubted that Phloem would even survive his stay in the dungeon if Rime had any say in it.
Unknown to him, and unknown to each other, Pixie and Brian were having similar thoughts. And none of them were going to let even one innocent person die if they could help it.
~TBC~
Author's Notes: A BIG THANKS TO EVERYONE WHO SUBMITTED A CHARACTER! I'm glad I decided to make this fic interactive because of the interesting characters I now get to insert in this fic. Even if there were a couple of things to sort out, the characters were all very neat. ^___^
I didn't get many submissions (I now have a total of five characters), so I'm filling the rest of the cast with original characters. However, if you still want to submit one, you can. I need more girls. Please do it by review; my e-mail has been a bit erratic lately.
I hope I displayed all the characters sent in satisfactorily.