Disclaimer: I do not own Digimon or any of the main characters except for Rime and Phloem.
Warnings: None for this chapter.
Chapter 8: Where the Weremon Are
The thief-turned-Digidestined was sulking around the campfire. After meeting back up with the others (and having to carry an unconscious Phloem the whole way), both Kurai and Rime were grouchy and high-strung. There had been many arguments as they had walked back, followed by periods of uncomfortable silence.
"My clothes are going to be bloodstained after this one," Rime had said while it was his turn to carry Phloem. The Ultimate-level Digimon had not been able to maintain their form for long, and now they were all back at Rookie.
"You're such a stuck-up jerk," Kurai had replied acidly. "You care more about your clothes than anything else, don't you?"
"No, but you seem to have such an idiotic sense of pride that you can't even try to care about anything!"
"I bet that you care more about yourself than anyone else!"
"I would do anything to fix the sins that I have done in the past! And at least I care about my Digimon!"
Both of them had shut up after that, and the Digimon had made no comments except to throw worried glances their way. And now Kurai was doing nothing but fume as the rest made sure that Phloem was okay. His thoughts slid back to Rime. He is so annoying!
Kurai is infuriating, Rime thought as he watched the shadowy figure stalk around the edges of the camp. You would think that a normal person wouldn't act like that, but he doesn't even respect his Digimon. I didn't, either, he amended his thoughts, but I don't think that I could control that. He went back to watching Phloem.
He had somehow managed to take the brunt of Tapirmon's injuries on himself. The wounds had somehow been transferred to him, and now they would not stop bleeding. His skin was growing paler by the minute. "How much longer will he last?" Rime asked Sakura quietly.
"I don't know. I don't often take care of injured people, and he's worse off than anyone I've ever seen. But I think that he must be determined to live if he's lasted this long." She was tired; they all were tired. Phloem's Tapirmon had curled up by his partner's body to comfort his friend, even if some of the blood did leak onto him.
Tapirmon lifted his head. "We won't last much longer," he said in a hoarse voice.
A wave of surprise went through the group. Tapirmon had never spoken before.
"Do you know how long he'll last?" asked Rime's partner quietly.
The other Tapirmon shook his head. "No, but when he dies, I'll die with him." He shivered; his body grew slightly colder. "I guess my coming back was useless after all. All I ever do is cause my friends pain."
"What do you mean by 'coming back?'" asked Tsukaimon. "Were you killed once before you found Rime or something?"
"I think… It's more than that, right?" Brian guessed.
Tapirmon nodded. "It all started… a very long time ago…
"It was the time of the original Digidestined, the Chosen Children of Japan. It was not the first set of Digidestined that I helped, but the second. By my time, the first set was merely a legend about a group of strange creatures called 'humans' that had helped the Digiworld evolve into what it was. I was around for the second set of Digidestined, a group that included one of my friends.
"At the time, I was a Wizardmon. She was a Gatomon, and she worked with the Chosen Child of Light. To protect her from Vamdemon, I sacrificed myself by throwing my body in front of Vamdemon's attack. It saved her, but destroyed me. But I still hung around…
"Years later, the Digimon guardian called Quinlongmon asked me to deliver a warning to Gatomon. Though I was little more than a soul, I did so gladly, just to be able to see Gatomon again. In the end, however, I was not able to stay around. I began to work for the Guardians. However, I was never able to come back completely. I stayed around until I was needed again.
"Baihumon said that I was part of a prophecy that had been around since the Digiworld was formed. It was said that one day, there would be a regular Digimon who would be a protector to those who saved the world. That it would die, but then live through a horrendous merging of both worlds, and when a great evil reappeared, the Digimon would find his partner. That person would be chosen to become the leader of the new Digidestined, and only through him could the Digidestined be fully gathered.
"And that is how I went on to find Phloem and become his partner." Tapirmon was beginning to fade now. He gritted his teeth and concentrated on staying alive. "I don't know how much longer I can hold on! Was this all for nothing?"
Sho was wondering all that himself. In the few days that they all had known each other, everyone was finally starting to become closer. He had almost not minded traveling with them. But if one of their group died, everything would be useless. He clenched his fist angrily. SnowAgumon looked up at him.
"I think you might be able to help."
He didn't see any way he possibly could. "How?"
SnowAgumon nudged him. "Just try. I have a feeling that you can. Concentrate on his wounds healing quickly."
He closed his eyes and did as his Digimon advised. As he grew more focused, a curious sensation began to grow in the back of his mind, almost like an itch. His body began to glow with a blue light, and then the light slowly spread to Phloem.
Slowly, blood stopped leaking spreading across the bandages. Bloodstains in the area completely vanished, and color slowly returned to Phloem's skin, and slowly the glowing dimmed until it as gone as the blood that had been coming out of Phloem.
Sho opened his eyes, which widened slightly when he saw that Phloem and Tapirmon now looked completely healthy. "It worked," he murmured.
"I knew you could do it," SnowAgumon said proudly.
Tapirmon said to Sho, "Thank you for saving our lives, Sho. We were truly about to die."
He shrugged. "It was nothing. I think that I'll go wander for a while." He got up and made as if to leave.
"Wait, please," a new voice called out. A boy around Phloem's age, but taller, stepped out of the woods. He had blonde hair, emerald green eyes, and a well-built, but slightly thin, figure. No Digimon walked beside him. "I need to speak to you."
Magnus's hand immediately went to his gun, and the Digimon went into defensive positions. "Who are you?" the bodyguard growled. He hadn't drawn his weapon yet.
"I'm here to talk. I know who you all are, and I want to offer you my assistance. Rumors that you were here have spread even to the ears of the weremon. An ambush has been prepared by the one known as 'Lady Haven' and her so-called Piximon."
"The weremon?"
After sniffing the air, Guilmon said, "He doesn't smell like a human, Magnus. He smells like a Digimon."
Tapirmon floated away from Rime and towards the mysterious boy. "We will gladly accept your assistance. The Guardians have told me about your kind."
The boy nodded. "Then carry the one of Friendship and follow me. We must hurry. A search party is approaching, though my men are delaying them as much as they can. Follow me if you choose to trust me." He vanished into the trees.
With a yawn, Brian stood. "Let's go. I think it's the right choice." There were a few cautious nods around the clearing, and then they got ready to go and followed the boy out. Tapirmon Digivolved to Apemon and picked up the still-unconscious Phloem before carrying him out of the clearing.
&*&*&*&*&
It was a while before they reached the River, though the boy seemed to have chosen the easiest path for the horses to take. Across this part of the River was an old rusted bridge that was in poor condition. It looked as if it had been abandoned long ago.
"This was a famous bridge that used to lead to a bustling city on the other side," the boy said quietly as he paused at the start of it. "But, long ago, the Great River flooded quickly and almost completely destroyed the city. The people survived, for the most part, and left to go to places that did not hold frightening memories." He continued to walk, and the others followed him slowly. Their feet clanked against the metal in the silence that only the rushing of the River filled.
As soon as they were on the other side, the bridge dissolved like a deleted Digimon and its data merged with that of the River. Seeing that they had noticed, the boy said, "The bridge was abandoned after the flood, and it collapsed because it was not repaired. But the River took the bridge into itself, and now the bridge appears for any that the River wants to cross over it. Where we stepped onto it was where the original bridge was. We are now much further up the River because it knew that I wanted to be here." No one knew what to say to that.
Soon they came upon a bustling village. It was full of men and women and happy children, but no Digimon. "What is this place?" wondered Alan. "There aren't any Digimon anywhere…"
"And just who are you?" asked Pixie. She looked at his silk shirt and blue shorts. "Those look normal, but those styles are ancient history."
The boy smiled kindly. "I am Vahn til' Galendros, and this is the Village of the Weremon."
"Yes, but what are 'weremon?'" asked Otamamon. "I can tell that there are no Digimon here."
"What I want to know is why he brought us here," Relaina said stiffly. What the heck are these people? What do they want with us?
"I understand that you are confused by all of this. Let's continue on to my house before I explain."
They continued to walk through the village, and at the center was a building that was much larger than those around it. It was made of wood and stone, like the others, but this one seemed finer somehow. Vahn showed them inside after showing Sakura and Tatsu where to leave their horses, and then he led them to a spacious meeting room. Four tables were in a square formation in there, and on each side were large, comfortable chairs. One was larger than most, and in that one Vahn was about to sit when he looked at Phloem.
"You can set him down in this chair," Vahn said to Apemon. "He's still recovering from that sudden healing, so it would be better for him in this one."
Apemon nodded and followed Vahn's advice. "Thank you," he said when he had devolved once again.
"Don't mention it." He looked around to see that everyone was still standing. "You can stand if you want to, but sitting down is much more comfortable after a long hike," Vahn said as he chose a chair for himself. Slowly, everyone else sat down, too. "Now I'll explain just what weremon are."
He took a deep breath. "A very long time ago, during the Digital Realization where everything changed, a few men and women who had had partners in the opposite world then the one that they were in at the time became caught in a warp of sorts. Because the Realization was the merging of the two worlds and the Digimon partners were the counterparts of the people, the people and the Digimon became merged into one being.
"However, these people were not a hybrid between Digimon and humans. The new-formed world still had a clear separation between the two, so the newly formed beings could not show traits of both species at once. The ones that survived looked either completely human or completely Digimon.
"Eventually, one of these beings discovered that it was able to change its shape from human to Digimon and back again. This person was old at the time, and he was the son of the Digidestined of Light, Kari Kamiya. His human form was that of an old man, and his Digimon form was a Gatomon.
"He worked to discover others who had been merged similarly. However, as their group became larger, they were persecuted and had to flee from the anarchy-suffering countries many times. Many of their group survived and came to rest at this space, where they eventually built this village. They came to call themselves 'weremon,' as they were neither human or Digimon and could change their shape like the humans in the legends of the werewolves.
"The village continued to grow and prosper, and weremon who heard about the village went to it to live there. The area had someone come to accept the weremon so much that it is impossible for any that will cause harm to the weremon to find their way here. The weremon, closer to Digimon than most, were also called on by the Holy and Guardian Digimon to guard the land. It was prophesized that one day, new Digidestined would come and help to create a world protected from evil; it would be a world where human, weremon, and Digimon are all equal. And then the Guardians told us that they had come, and that we should watch for people with powers that we weremon thought only us were capable of. And so we watched and waited, and we have found you."
Kurai looked unhappy. "I don't believe that I could've been prophesized in anything. This is probably just a load of bull, or an excuse as to why some humans don't have partner Digimon or something. I don't believe any of it."
Vahn sighed sadly. "There's only one way to convince you, then. As the prince of the weremon, I will show you my other form." He began to glow brightly, and the light became too bright to see through. It began to dim, and then a human was no longer sitting where Vahn had been. In his place was a Lucemon, one of the most powerful and most rare Digimon in the world.
&*&*&*&*&
Phloem opened his eyes slowly. He was in a warm, plushy seat, and there was a comforting voice telling a story to his friends. Across from him, he saw the owner of the voice. It was a handsome boy his own age, but he did not feel quite human to Phloem's senses. He finished his story, and then Kurai made a disparaging remark. The boy sighed and said something. Phloem's hearing was slightly fuzzy; he was not completely awake yet. But his sight was fine, and he saw the boy glow and change into a Lucemon.
It's beautiful, was his first coherent thought. Lucemon was an awe-inspiring Digimon. He had six sets of wings, blue eyes, and blonde hair. His skin was pale and covered with blue tattoos, and he wore a garment somewhat like a toga. On his wrists and ankles were large bracelets. Not only was he a striking and powerful Digimon, he was one of the most human-like Digimon in existence.
He sat up. "That's amazing…"
The Lucemon smiled shyly. "Thanks for the compliment."
"It's good to see that you're okay, Phloem," Pixie told him. "You had us really worried for a while, but then Sho was able to heal you."
"Where are we?"
"The Village of the Weremon," Alan said. "This is apparently the prince of the weremon, and his name is Vahn til' Galendros. The weremon are a people who have been able to transform between human and Digimon since the Digital Realization, and Vahn said that they could use abilities like your empathy and Sho's healing, too. Vahn led us here because he said that there were search parties out looking for us, and the land around the village won't let them find us."
"How did people and Digimon merge?"
"I'll tell you later," Vahn said. He transformed back into his human self. "Right now, I think that we have to find a way for you to be able to travel around unnoticed. Weremon have spies everywhere. Let me explain the situation in the outside world right now.
"The Lady Haven that is currently manipulating Lord Haven is not the real Lady Haven. Every once in a while, a child is born in our village who is not a weremon, but a normal human with a Digimon partner. We give these a name, and then we leave them with a normal human couple. The first Lady Haven was one of those, but then her twin, a weremon, saw a way to gain power and freedom in the outside world and had her twin sister assassinated. She took her sister's place.
"The 'Piximon' that is supposed to be her partner is actually a Bakemon that is under the Lady's control. It only appears to be a Piximon because of a Bakemon's power to change its appearance.
"Somehow, the weremon Lady Haven has also coerced the Lord Haven into following her every whim. Her dream is to take the throne, and she has planned to have the Emperor, Princess Pixie, and Prince Rime killed the entire time she has been in her position. When the High Princess disappeared, the soldiers reported that she had been killed so that the Lady would not punish them for losing track of her. I myself did not know that was a lie until I saw the Princess alive and unharmed. On top of that, the search for the prince is actually a scam so that the soldiers she has bought can kill him, but you probably already know that.
"In other words, you need to somehow be able to pull a coup on the Lady so that she does not take over the state. We believe her intentions are for power only, and she would not hesitate at torturing or killing any who got in her way. And, unless you have more than one Ultimate on you team, you will find it difficult to destroy her."
"What's her Digimon form?" Sakura asked.
"Arukenimon."
"I don't see of a way we can get anywhere close to her," Alan said slowly. "There's bound to be leaks as long as everyone else thinks that Rime or Phloem is still alive."
Nobody could disagree with that, and after a few minutes, Phloem suggested tentatively that they just hide in the house for two or more months before trying to get Rime into the capital.
Rime dismissed the idea immediately. "There's no way that I'm staying in a house for that long, no matter how large it is." The wanted "kidnapper" had to agree with him.
If anybody had asked Relaina, she could have suggested something. However, no one would ever ask her because of her cold and unfriendly attitude. After listening to many pointless suggestions, and getting tired of having to sit in the room listening to pointless jabbering, she finally stood up. "When would Kurai stop bugging Rime?" she asked after the thief had done just that.
"When he's dead," most of the people and Digimon in the room promptly replied. She smiled – which was more like a slight tugging at the corners of her mouth than a full smile – and left the room with Gabumon.
"I'm going to sit outside. This room's too full of idiots." Some didn't know which would surprise them more: that she had insulted them, that she had left, that she had talked, or that she had almost smiled.
The first one did not surprise them that much, but the last three left most speechless. Only Magnus, Brian, and Sho fully understood her point, and the Magnus's respect for Relaina grew immensely as he realized that she had seen a way to do it that no one else had.
"What did she mean by that?" Vahn asked, slightly disturbed by the hint about killing Rime, a few minutes later.
Then Sho smiled. Is this the international Have-Antisocial-People-Smile Day? Brian wondered as Sho spoke.
"It means that they won't stop chasing after Rime and Phloem until that they think both are dead," he explained patiently to the part of the room that hadn't understood.
"I know that," Brian said seriously as he folded his hands on the table, "and I have a plan." Everyone's attention was riveted on him. He smiled as if this was all a big prank to play. "And here is what we'll do… I'll need everyone's full support on this one."
Patamon's ears shot up. "Who are we playing the joke on?"
"It's not a joke. I think I know the way to make everyone stop looking for Phloem."
"Just get to the point already," grumbled Kurai. He followed the thief's advice and began to lay out his plan…
&*&*Three days later…*&*&
It was a dark and moonless night near the dimly lit city of Haven. Both Phloem and Rime walked quietly up to the city gates. Two sleepy guards were watching on top of the barrier walls, and one languidly elbowed the other.
"Hey," he yawned, "that one looks a bit like High Prince Rime…"
The other guard shot awake. "W-what? You two down there! Halt!" he ordered the wandering pair.
Suddenly, a wild Growlmon burst out of the wilderness of trees that lay to either side of the city.. With one quick leap, it landed near Rime and promptly ate him in one single gulp. Phloem seemed to be frozen in his tracks with fear that showed over every inch of his face. The Growlmon made another short snack out of him before being attacked by the two enraged Tapirmon of the former prince and soldier duo.
The Champion Level Digimon also made quick work of the two Digimon. With one bite, each one dissolved into data that easily dispersed into the air. Then the guards were up and chasing the Growlmon, and it was running away through the forest. They followed in his wake with their Agumon, but when they got to the River, the Growlmon was suddenly not there.
One of the soldiers bent down to examine the tracks – it was the same one who had pointed Rime out. "His tracks disappear into the River."
The other soldier also examined them. "That's not our problem. And if we claim the credit for getting rid of that soldier kid and Rime, then the Lord and Lady of this city will reward us greatly."
On the way back to the city, they found a few scraps of clothing with blood on them stuck on the bushes near the main road. "This is even better," proclaimed the guard who had been sleeping. "These look like they came from the clothing of His Late Highness and the other kid. His Lordship and Her Ladyship will have to believe us now." The two now-contented guards walked back to the city, dreaming of the rich rewards that they would get for "destroying" their masters' chief problem.
Akugi
Vahn: I will show you my other form. *Begins his transformation scene. Bright light glows and dims, revealing him as…*
Phloem: Roachmon?! Gross! What a scary sight…
Vahn: *Looks down at himself.* WHAT?! Who changed my costume? I want answers, now! (How am I supposed to impress Phloem if I don't?)
Rime: *whistles innocently*
Patamon: I need to take prank lessons from him…
Brian: Bad idea, buddy. Chibigreen would kill you and find a new actor.
Relaina: It's amazing how much muses can get away with. *Evil grin.*
Chibigreen's Ending Notes: Ooh, I bet you loved that ending. Who wants me to explain? *sees many hands raised* Well, sorry, but I can't yet. That's for the next chapter! ^___^ You can try to explain if you want…
Sorry for the delay. My weeklong vacation doubled itself somehow, and then I started school. _ My English teacher scared everyone the first day by saying, "If you manage to get a 70…" But my art teacher likes anime. ^___^
I'm not accepting any more characters.
Tell me your opinion! REVIEW!