Disclaimer: I do not own Digimon. I do own Phloem because he's my original character, so that means I also own Rime. 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
First of all, a note to everyone: my e-mail has now changed. If you need to correspond with me about a character, you can contact me at furret05@yahoo.com. The other e-mail address was too unreliable.
Tatsu-no-Houou – Could you describe the clothing for Tatsu in a bit more detail? I looked back at the submission, and I realized that "he mostly wears a cloak" does not help me with what he wears. Therefore, we have the exclusion of your characters Tatsu and Sakura from this chapter. And remember, I need a Digimon besides Guilmon for Tatsu, but Plotmon is fine for Sakura. And Tatsu's Digivice color of blue is too similar to the blue already chosen. Can you choose another color for him, too?
AlanAlectai – Okay, you got Paildramon! Now everything's settled for your character. ^__^
ChibiSora – Fallen Angel said that he wouldn't mind his character being paired up with yours. You'll see his character, Magnus, in this chapter. Do you mind? Keep in mind that I'm not sure of any pairings yet; I just want to get some potential ones yet. And the Digivice color purple/lavender has already been chosen. Can you choose another?
yamatos.girl – Would you mind if Pixie was paired up with Brian?
Fallen Angel – I had to make up most of Magnus's clothes in this chapter. Are they okay, or should I change them?
SteelKnight – Don't worry; your character will be appearing next chapter. Sorry it's taking so long, but your character just wouldn't fit in yet.
And everyone should look at another note near the bottom when you finish reading this chapter. It regards one new thing that you have to choose.
-- -- mark dream sequences.
// // mark telepathy.
Curse words are starred out, except for the first letter. Hey, this is a PG fic!
Chapter 3: The Seed of Change
A silent shadow, followed swiftly by a red blur, walked down the darkened halls of the palace's underground. Though even these were made of white marble, somehow these halls seemed darker than ever because of that. At a corner, the shadow and the red blue carefully hid around a corner when they heard footsteps approaching.
It was only a pair of guards with a flashlight. The Imperial Guards were too lax to even check around with the flashlight, and instead they chatted amiably and passed by without notice. Luckily, the Meramon and the Unimon that were their partners did not notice the pair, either.
When the guards had passed by and could not be heard by the mysterious pair anymore, the mysterious pair walked out into the dim light that was at every pair of crossed hallways, and their true visage were revealed.
The red blur, now visible as a Guilmon, looked up innocently at his very tall partner. "Why are we sneaking around in the basement again?"
The teenaged male sighed and ran a hand through his blue hair. "Because," he said patiently, "Brian wants us to help a prisoner here." He was wearing dark clothing to obscure his figure and a leather vest for protection. His eyes were about the same shade as his Guilmon's.
"But Magnus," protested Guilmon, "aren't prisoners in jail because they did something bad?"
Magnus Dean nodded. "Yes, but in this case, Brian and I agree that the person didn't do anything wrong. Rime just doesn't like him."
"Oh." Guilmon considered this. "How are we going to get him out?" The pair resumed walking and passed back into the shadowy hallways.
"With your help, I think we can knock out any guards and get him out. Though afterwards, we'll have to get him out of the city quickly if he wants to stay alive. Rime will go on a manhunt for this kid if he hates the kid as much as Brian said."
"That'd be bad," said Guilmon. He paused to sniff at a funny smell on the wall, and Magnus waited to see if Guilmon smelled something dangerous. "It's okay," said Guilmon. "I think I got the smell of a Tapirmon."
"The kid was supposed to of had a Tapirmon. Good job, Guilmon! Let's go." They began to run down the long, dark halls with Guilmon leading through the labyrinth of corridors.
******
Phloem shifted uncomfortably on the stiff board that was supposed to serve as a bed. Having nothing better to do, he had decided to try to get some sleep. He knew he had technically done something illegal and treasonous, but that wasn't what was bothering him.
The pure boredom of being in a jail cell – apparently in solitary confinement, even – with no one but Tapirmon to talk to was too much. It didn't help that Tapirmon refused to talk and seemed to be thinking about something. Also, a special collar was restraining Tapirmon's power, so he could not get them out of the dark cell. The only light in the cell was from a pale, glowing, white force field that had replaced the stereotypical metal bars ever since the Realization had occurred.
Not even a guard was standing outside his cell. Eventually, the noiseless, dark surroundings made him drift off to sleep, even if it was on one of the most uncomfortable beds he'd ever slept on. A dream that was an old memory came slipped into his mind.
-- I was tied to a tree in front of a line of soldiers. There was one other kid tied onto a tree to his right. Neither him nor I was making a sound, though I felt as afraid as I think I could be. Tears threatened to leak out of my eyes as I thought about leaving my Mama and Dada forever. I didn't want to, and I knew that they didn't want me to leave, either.
But now the soldiers with their scary Champions looked like they were going to hurt me. I didn't want to be hurt. I didn't know what to do. Mama said that she didn't want them to "kill" me when they tore me away from her. Is "killing" when something stops moving and wilts, like the plants that Dada and Mama grow?
Is this what happened to my older brother two years ago? Mama mentioned him being "dead". I missed him. I still miss him. He was the best big brother in the whole world. Will someone miss me when I'm gone?
I hope nobody does. I don't want anybody to be sad.
Back in the small clearing I was in, a Gorillamon aimed its big gun at me. Its partner, an intimidating man in a white uniform, said, "D*** you and all of you stupid, partnerless brats. Why can't you just be like any normal kid? Instead, you have to make the army go through all this f***ing trouble just to weed out you brats and make sure you don't harm our empire."
A cold, feminine voice in the background said, "There's no point in torturing the kid more. Get it over with already. We're on a tight schedule."
"Go ahead and fire already, Gorillamon," ordered to man.
I think I heard a voice shout, "No! Don't hurt him!" before the gun fired. The next thing I know, the smoke from the blast clears. Somehow I'm still alive.
In front of me is a Tapirmon. It seems… different… than any other Digimon I've ever seen. It's badly injured because… because I think it took the shot for me! Why did it do something like that?
Then the Tapirmon begins to growl like an angry Dobermon. It growls, and growls, and then I realize that it is not a growl. It is an angry sound, as if the Tapirmon is trying to scream at the people, but it can't. Can't it speak?
I guess it can, because the Tapirmon started to glow. As it glowed, it grew larger and said, "Tapirmon Digivolve to… Apemon!" And suddenly it was not a Tapirmon, but a very enraged Apemon standing in front of me. It was holding a large, shiny bone club in its hands, and it was glaring at the soldiers that had tried to kill me.
I closed my eyes, having a horrible feeling that something very bad was going to happen. I heard some noises as red liquid landed on me. What I heard was- --
Phloem sat up in his bed, breathing hard and sweating. He hated that dream. He absolutely hated it. Slowly he calmed down and went back to sleep. This time it was not a memory.
-- An egg is sitting in front of me. I least, I think that it is an egg. It is blue and yellow with a weird, jagged knife-like protrusion coming from its top. On the side facing me, I could see a blue symbol that looked similar to a yin-yang with a curved swish coming from the two halves of it.
I look around at my surroundings. Tapirmon is floating by my side, as he usually is. We seem to be in an endless plane. The floor and sky – if there was a sky, it was the same color as the ground – were a shade of cool, soothing green. However, though green is my favorite color, it was the egg that kept my attention. Tapirmon was also focused on it.
The egg…
It reminded me of Thunderbirdmon's armor. But that's silly, right? Thunderbirdmon is gone…
"What is that?" I asked Tapirmon. Tapirmon knew much more about the world than I did. I have a feeling that he's traveled alone for a long time, until he met me.
To my surprise, he spoke out loud. Usually he only uses the mind-to-mind bond, unless he is attacking or evolving. Perhaps this didn't count as "out loud" as it was in a dream. I knew it was a dream, somehow. Sometimes a person can't tell, but this time it was as clear as if it were written in the air in front of me.
"I think that it's a Digimental…" he said. "But…" He fell silent, but I didn't prompt him. He would continue when he felt like doing so. "Those haven't been seen, let alone used, for hundreds of years." Catching my confusion by reading my thoughts, he elaborated, "A Digimental was once a tool to help a Digimon evolve. It could only be used with the help of a human partner – a Chosen Child or Digidestined."
"Why is it here? I thought that Digidestined were only a legend or a fairy tale."
Tapirmon shook his head. "No, they weren't. I knew one of them; a Gatomon…"
That stunned me. "Tapirmon, just how old are you?"
"That doesn't matter. What matters is that I have no idea why this thing is here!"
//You have been Chosen,// said a voice like wind chimes into their minds.
"What?" Tapirmon asked. Both of us did not understand. The intrusion into their thoughts had startled them.
//You have been Chosen because you carry a seed of change within you. You can change what it wrong…//
We continued to listen as the voice went on. The voice's music was something that calmed the heart and made the body relax. It was something with no malicious intent behind it.
//You can change the world… Right the wrongs… Make it as it once was…//
"How?" I asked to no one in particular. I wanted to help, if I could. That is why I had voiced my beliefs in the first place.
As if in response, the Digimental lifted up from the ground. It began to glow, and its shape began to shift. --
******
Magnus, Pixie, and Alan were looking at a standoff outside Phloem's cell. Both Pixie and Alan looked somewhat shamefaced. "Hello, Magnus," said Pixie to General Brian's tall bodyguard. "What a coincidence…" she trailed off. Otamamon shifted in her arms under Magnus's glare.
"Really," he said sarcastically. Guilmon was just staring between the three humans and their Digimon. "Did both of you come to rescue this kid?" he asked, jerking his thumb towards the kid who was obliviously sleeping in his cell.
"Maybe…" said the princess who was no longer in pink. She was wearing a much more casual black turtleneck and a khaki skirt. "Did you?"
"Who's the other kid?" he asked instead.
Alan stared at him, and the wide, brown eyes shielded by his glasses were slightly creepy looking in the dim light, though a few strands of the shoulder-length hair drifted into them. "My name is Alan Aramyr Gerai. This is my partner, Veemon. It's nice to meet you, Mr. Dean," he said with a friendly and open smile. Veemon was standing protectively in front of Alan.
Magnus was not impressed. Alan was renowned for stupid mistakes, and so was he Veemon. "Okay. You two get out of here." Their looks of protest didn't make him relent a bit. "I can do this better than you two can." And all of them knew it was true. Magnus was well known – and occasionally hated for – his ability to protect Brian from harm and his fighting skills in general.
"I'm not going," said both Pixie and Alan. Magnus sighed; this could make his job much more complicated. All of them wanted to rescue Phloem. Pixie's reason was that she knew his treatment was unfair, Alan just wanted to do what he believed was right, and Magnus was doing this job because Brian had asked him to.
Any fighting was stopped by everyone noticing a green light emitting from the boy and the Tapirmon. It was so bright that they could not see anything through it. Slowly, the bright light faded, leaving only a few things in the room changed. The changes were that the force field seemed to have been turned off, the collar was removed from Tapirmon, and the other was a green, watch-like device strapped around Phloem's wrist.
Slowly Phloem woke up as the other three humans and their Digimon stared as Phloem and Tapirmon simply got up and walked out of the cell. Phloem was examining the device on his wrist and seemed not to notice them until he looked up at them, and then he smiled.
He felt strangely happy for some reason, and he guessed that it might have to do with the dream. In his mind, Tapirmon agreed. //Probably. Now why don't you say "hi" to these people? They're staring at us, you know.//
Phloem turned his attention back to the three humans and three Digimon standing in front of him. "Oh, hello. You're not hostile, are you? Do you know that I just had the strangest dream?" He regarded them closely, but his smiled remained on his face. He looked towards Pixie. "Aren't you the High Princess? Thank you for saving my life earlier." His attention turned to Alan. He didn't recognize him, but Tapirmon told him who Alan was. "Tapirmon is saying that you're the person who did the statistics thing. Thank you, too, for saving my life." He turned to Magnus. "And, uh, you are…?"
"Magnus Dean."
"Uh, okay," said Phloem. He didn't recognize the name from anywhere. "Hello, Mr. Dean. And it's nice to meet all of your Digimon, too. I'm sure that if law didn't require them to act dumb, most of them would have a lot to say. Even Tapirmon has a lot to say."
//Guards are coming in about two minutes. If they came to rescue you, they'd better get you out of here. They seem friendly enough. And I do not have a lot to say.//
"Never mind. Tapirmon says that he doesn't have a lot to say. He also says that guards were coming down here in about two minutes, you seem trustworthy, and he says that if you wanted to rescue me, we might want to leave quickly."
Magnus currently felt that this kid was too insane to bother rescuing if he thought he heard Digimon speak without them opening their mouths, but the kid did seem to know some things that were pretty unusual. He didn't understand how the kid had gotten advice from a silent Digimon, but he seemed to be telling the truth about everything. And if he was right about the guards, then they should leave quickly. "You are one strange kid. Let's go to a place where we can talk this whole "rescue" idea over."
"Okay! Can we go now?" The others nodded in agreement. Something about him reassured them that he was reliable and trustworthy. They began to hurry down the corridors to one of the exits with Pixie in the lead. She knew more about the palace than even Magnus did because of the time she spent exploring it to get away from her duties.
As he ran, Alan wondered at the strange watch the boy was wearing. Its "D" symbol on it he had only seen once before, and he recalled it was in a book about the legend of the Digidestined. The boy, he decided, might be one that should be listened to, if his so-called watch was what Alan thought it was.
If any one of the Digimon or the humans had been asked exactly then about why Phloem and Tapirmon were so different, any one of them would have thought that it was because the pair were somehow different. The duo had a feeling of some mysterious kind that contained an energy that could change the world.
~TBC~
A Few More Notes to People Who Submitted Characters (On the Matter of Digivices)
We have lots of these today. ^__^ Anyway, this has to do with Digivices and such. Basically, you get to choose which Digimental turns into your Digivice. The basic thing is its first come, first serve. There are exactly eight more people that have been submitted, and there are eight more crests for a person to have. Choose one of them. Thank you for participating in this fic.
Digimentals left to choose from: Courage, Reliability/Faith, Sincerity/Purity, Knowledge, Love, Hope, Light, and Kindness
Digivice colors that have been chosen: white, black, pink, blue, silver, purple, green
Author's Notes: ANOTHER HUGE THANKS TO EVERYONE WHO SUBMITTED A CHARACTER! The slots are now filled! I'll be sure to keep it as straight and clear (character-wise) as I can. But expect plot twists!
Bleah. This "seed of change" thing kept on making me think of the Revolutionary Girl Utena movie. Now, that was one freaky movie. People turning into cars and such…
Just a note: If I do a romance in this fic, I'll go maybe as far as kissing, if I feel like it. Otherwise, it just might be a ton of warm-and-fluffy-feeling scenes. I love waff! ^__^