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. ChibiSora and SteelKnight own their respective characters, Relaina Michet and Sho Kania. PrincessKitty-Chan and I made Kurai Happatai a while ago.
Warnings: None! Except for extreme silliness in the outtakes… And maybe it gets slightly angsty in the story.
Important Notes: This chapter was delayed because I was moving. And in the meantime, I received some more character submissions. The ones from Midnight Guardian and Ichi-kun I didn't accept because I didn't plan to add in new characters, and their characters were both too, ah, b***** to fit into the fic. And then Zelinko submitted Duo Maxwell from Gundam Wing, which I am not using because this fic is for original characters and this is not a Digimon/GW crossover (though that would be interesting). But then Takeru and Hikari (that's one person) submitted Vahn, and he's actually a homosexual character! Wanting as I did to put shounen ai (guy-guy pairings) into this fic, I accepted the character. But to those with male characters in the fic, don't worry. Vahn will be paired up with a character that I made.
Curse words are starred out, except for the first letter.
Italics are thoughts, except for the following cases:
~*~Italics~*~ marks flashbacks.
--Italics-- marks dream sequences.
//Italics// marks telepathy.
"Italics" mark disembodied voices
Chapter 5: Shadows and Light
Again Phloem was inside a limitless expanse of space. This time, however, it was a dull white, and no voice spoke inside his mind. But, like last time, the Digimental of Friendship was before him. Tapirmon floated serenely at his side.
"Do you suppose we're dead?" He didn't feel quite the same as he had during the dream.
Tapirmon shook his head. //We're not dead. I think we are inside the River's data. We have become data ourselves.//
"I thought that only Digimon were data."
//Data and DNA are almost the same thing in this world. Many humans and Digimon now have a data and DNA hybrid.//
"We have Digital DNA. That should just show that humans and Digimon are equal even more, but some are scared of becoming similar to something not human." But already Digimon think and sometimes even look just like humans. "I think that we humans need to get rid of our prejudices and not just the unfairness of the systems we use to govern ourselves."
//The inequalities begin in the prejudices.//
Phloem smiled. "That's right. And that's what we need to change, together."
//Together,// agreed Tapirmon.
Then other people began to appear out of the infinite void. In a small circle, everyone who had jumped into the River began to appear, along with his or her Digimon and a Digimental. To his right he saw Sho with a SnowAgumon and Reliability, Relaina with a Gabumon and Love, followed by Magnus and Guilmon with the Digimental of Courage. Then came Brian and Patamon with Hope, Pixie and Otamamon with Light, Alan and Veemon with Knowledge, and Kurai with Sincerity, but no Digimon, before the circle went back to him. And in the center of the circle was Rime and Sorcerymon with Kindness.
Before anyone could react to seeing the others, a booming voice somehow echoed around the void. "Chosen Children and Digimon. You are the bearers of the seeds that can grow to save humanity. Courage, Love, Reliability, Friendship, Sincerity, Knowledge, Hope, Light, and Kindness; it is your destiny to fight for the good of Digimon and human alike." The void acquired a bluish tint to it.
"Digimon should only fight for the good of humans!" protested the High Prince.
"Human and Digimon are equals and have always been equals!" replied another booming voice. The tint of the space changed to red.
Another voice spoke, and the void became a shining white. "And you are an example of the problem. Many humans, and even some Digimon, have forgotten that neither is higher than the other."
"I can't fight!" Everyone's attention was pulled to Kurai. "I don't even have a Digimon to fight with!"
The void switched colors to green. "Every human has a partner, but some partners don't find each other right away. You, Kurai, are an example of this. But I have called your partner here so that he could finally find you." The voice paused. "He's late."
"I'm here! I'm here!" shouted a breathless voice. A black-and-gray blur latched onto Kurai's chest. "Sorry for being so late! Sorry! I had to find Phloem first, and then I was deleted and got reconfigured as a Rookie, and it's that stupid turtle's entire fault in the first place! And his tiger friend, too!" The hysterical, tired Digimon burst out crying. It looked just like Patamon, but it was a very dark purple on the top and a grayish color on the bottom. It also had yellow eyes.
Kurai glared at him and pushed him off. "Get off me, you stupid Tsukaimon! If you really were my partner, you would have found me years ago!"
Tsukaimon landed on the ground and sniffed, turning his head away from his partner. "I am your partner, but if you don't care, fine. I can get along fine without you." A rift formed between the two partners, which they obviously were. Even the disgusted expressions that they were giving to each other were almost identical.
Pixie giggled. "What's so funny?" asked Otamamon.
"What's funny is that the Tsukaimon looks like a guy while the guy who he's partnered with looks like a girl," she explained with a smile.
The thief in question immediately glared at Pixie and demanded, "Are you saying that I'm a girl?"
Guilmon said, "Your voice is very high, and you do kind of smell like one…"
"I stole some rich lady's perfume earlier today. And do you have a problem with my voice?" He looked like he was appalled with the very idea of being a girl.
Brian made a soothing motion with his hands. "Now, now, children," said the oldest member of the group, "let's not fight now. I'm sure that the nice, disembodied voices have something else to say." Magnus stared at his friend in disbelief.
"You're taking this pretty well," he remarked quietly.
The young general grinned. "Of course. It's fun."
They're all morons. They're all a bunch of idiotic morons to listen to this crap. Rime frowned at what was happening. It sounded as if he was going to be losing control of what was obviously his birthright. I won't let this stop me! I am going to be Emperor! "I am not going to help. This will soon be my empire, and I will rule it as I see fit," he sneered at the world. "Once my father dies, it won't matter what I do. And this country will be better off we me than with that senile old fool."
A deadly silence pervaded the area. The two guards and the thief, who had never seen the prince, were wondering just who the pale boy was. Everyone else was trying to figure out what course of action that they should take.
"But I may want to get rid of you nuisances. I can't have you spread my opinions, now can I?" Rime smiled a grim, cold smile. He motioned with his hand towards Phloem, and then the area around him turned black. "Sorcerymon, destroy them." The wizard Digimon took his snowflake-capped staff and was about to attack when the data void turned a bright shade of pink. It was centered strongly on Rime, and another voice spoke.
"Poor child. You do not even realize that you are not in control because of the wounds of your heart that have still not healed." The pink light wrapped around the prince in a motherly embrace. "You are not controlling the darkness. It has been planted inside of your heart so that its master could use you."
The light slowly ate away at the darkness until the light's opposite was only a thin, dirty layer around the bearer of Kindness. His eyes widened as the Digimental responded to the glow by sending out a piercing ray of light that broke through the last bit of darkness. Around his right wrist formed a pale yellow Digivice just like the one Phloem had received. And that is when the frost prince realized that some of the darkness had truly been his own; his hatred and his arrogance that he had used to protect himself from the world when his mother, who had been the only person to truly love him, had died.
And for the first time in many, many years, Rime began to cry. Sorcerymon looked both relieved and sad with him, and the Digimon put a comforting hand on his human's shoulder. It showed just how much Rime had altered in those few minutes in that he allowed both the sympathy and the touch.
The pink light dimmed and formed a small circle around Rime that ended at the Digimentals surrounding him. Then the area from the edge of the circle to the end of the void around the Digimentals of Hope and Light turned blue. To the south, the section with Courage and Love glowed a brilliant red, and the western portion with Friendship and Reliability became a shining white. The northern part with Knowledge and Sincerity gave off a green light, and the effect made the void look like a flower with four petals that spread infinitely in all directions.
"Do you now accept the power that we now offer you?" asked the five voices in unison. "Speak your name to complete the agreement."
To some people's surprise, Kurai was the first one to speak. "I'll agree to this because no one should be called an outlaw just because they are alone in the world. My name is Kurai Happatai."
Pixie nodded and spoke her reason. "In this world, people and Digimon are forced into rank unfairly. My name is Pixie Sugienna, and I accept." Her face had a stubborn set that said she would fight forever if she had to.
"The ruling class is mostly corrupt, and that needs to change. I am Magnus Dean." A burning light came into the eyes of the usually reserved fighter.
"Digimon are treated like stupid animals, and that's not right. My name is Phloem."
A shadow seemed to come into Relaina's eyes. Nikki, this is for you. "My name is Relaina Michet."
"Maybe some changes will make this world happier. I'm Brian O'Conner." His grin was only slightly dampened by the situation's seriousness.
"I am Sho Kania." He looked like he didn't really care too much to join in. I guess that this is the right thing to do…
Alan was the next to agree. "It's only right to help. I a-am Alan Gerai," he said in his somewhat nervous manner. He knew that if new Digidestined were being chosen, then there was more at stake then it seemed. The original Digidestined had to save the world several times. Will we be able to?
Rime hadn't stopped crying yet, but it still was completely silent. "I will fight to get rid of the weakness that darkness can bring to this country," he said through his tears, "My name is Rime." For once, he did not say his rank like it was as much rightfully his as his name itself.
The Digimentals began to glow. All of them, except for Friendship and Kindness, sent out a beam of light that turned into a Digivice and wrapped around the humans' wrists. To Phloem the movement seemed gentle, like a vine wrapping slowly around a support. The glow from Kindness and Friendship powered up the Digivices and activated them. Slowly the glowing stopped, and then the Digimentals faded with their brightness.
So did the data world around the Chosen.
~TBC~
Akugi (this is the Fushigi Yuugi way of saying outtakes)
Phloem: Do you suppose we're dead?
Tapirmon: *shakes his head* //I think that we're just-//
Rime: In hell! *the void changes to look like it is full of high flames, Meramon, and evil dark Digimon (Beelzemon, Phelesmon, Mephismon, Devimon, and so forth)* MWAHAHAHAHA!
Entire cast & Chibigreen: RIME!!! *Alan is hiding behind Veemon as a Devimon walks up to him… and then through him.*
Chibigreen: That's it! No more playing with the holographic projector's remote control after eating white chocolate for you!
Rime: I don't listen to Digimon.
Chibigreen: *bonks Rime over the head with her staff* I only dress like one and have a name that ends in "mon," baka! [Baka=Idiot/Stupid]
Rime: *has a bandage around his head* Darn. *kicks over the Digimental of Kindness*
Notes to People who Submitted CharactersTakeru and Hikari – Thank you for submitting a great character. Your story is very nice, too.
Tatsu-No-Houou – You need to select powers for your characters. See the previous chapter for more details.
Author's Notes: Thanks to everyone for giving me so many reviews! I can't believe that I have 28!!! A big thanks to Takeru and Hikari for putting me on a Favorite Authors list. Yay!
I'm sorry that this chapter is a bit short, but I felt that this would be a good time to stop the chapter. I don't know when the next one will be up because this is being typed up on my parents' computer. I'm glad that this is a PG fic because of that fact. I can't wait until I can get back to my own computer.
Darn it, Rime turned good. I suppose he's my muse now…
Chibi Rime: Yep, I am.
Chibigreen: …so he's probably my main character now.
Chibi Phloem: Aren't I the main character?
Chibi Rime: No, I am. Nyah! *makes a face at Phloem*
Chibi Phloem: I'm so sad now! *does anime-style crying*
I am accepting no more characters! None! So don't submit one! Thank you for your time.
Please click on the itsy bitsy button that says REVIEW!