~* Darkness Rising, Silence Falls *~
A Digimon 02 Fanfic by Bandit, ©2000
Chapter 7- The Harvest of Darkness, the Portal in the Air
~*~*~*~
By the time Mimi and Mrs. Takenouchi returned home, it was morning. The diagnosis had been the same as that of all the others who had been struck down by this terrible, invisible attacker; the police were sure now that it was a person doing this, and not a strange illness or some such thing. Mimi's terrified screams at the scene of the crime had put the clincher on that. The officers that had heard the testimonies of the bystanders had repeatedly told her that she had been very brave, and a great help to them.
But...I can't remember even a bit of that now... All I get is waking up in the hospital. They told me I was incoherent, that I screamed about someone holding me, not letting me go, about butterflies and terrible blue eyes hurting me, killing me... The doctors said my shock symptoms were like those of a rape victim, but there were no signs of molestation on either of us. I can't remember any of it; it's like every time I try to remember, someone slams a heavy door on the knowledge and locks me out...
What is happening to me?!
She'd been kept a few hours for observation, and then let go. She was still numb and stunned as Mrs. Takenouchi loaded her into the car and took her home, as she called TK and Matt's mom to come over and keep a close, protective eye on Mimi, as Nancy arrived and Mrs. Takenouchi left again to return to the hospital.
Tai had stayed behind to be with Sora, 'in case she wakes up and wants to see a familiar face,' as he had put it. That forlornly hopeful statement had come the closest of anything that night to making Mimi burst into tears, but it seemed as though she couldn't cry...nothing that had happened had brought a single tear to her eyes. Mrs. Takenouchi, Nancy, even Tai, had all shed tears, but Mimi's eyes were dry. She felt detached from the things around her, somehow. This might have been shock, but it might also have been that her headache had gotten to the point where she was having difficulty thinking. She did not tell this to the doctors, however, and they put her shakiness down to lingering symptoms of shock.
My legs feel like a newborn calf's...but my soul feels a thousand years old. What is wrong with me?
Standing in her room dressed in her nightgown, Mimi stared into her mirror, her bare feet cold in the chilly room. Nancy had settled herself in the living room with a book, having dropped TK's off at his father's for the night, and had put Mimi to bed early. Somehow, the kind woman's usually comforting presence made no more dent in Mimi's shell of numbness than her tears had.
As she looked at her face, Mimi found herself seeing a different girl than the one she had seen two weeks before. Her face was thin and drawn, waiflike and pale against the bright green of her nightgown. Her hair hung limply, looking dull and tired, and there were shadows beneath her eyes. The color had gone out of her lips and cheeks, and she stood like someone trying to stay on their feet in the midst of a hurricane, about to fall and be swept away, screaming into the uncaring wind.
What happened to Tachikawa Mimi, the happy, healthy girl who was giggling about vacation and secret admirers just a few days ago? she thought forlornly, a wretched wish to lie down and never get up again washing over her in a wave of desperation...
Suddenly, it was as if a light had turned on in her mind. "Secret admirer..." she whispered, her staring gaze moving from her face...to the hollow of her neck. Her face went from gray to white with sudden enlightenment and fear, and her hand went up to touch the stones of the beautiful necklace.
"You," she said softly. The necklace suddenly seemed sinister, somehow, as it gleamed bloodily up at her from around her neck. "All this began after I found you. Somehow, you've been doing this to me! The headache, the attacks, the dreams..."
Turning from the mirror, she reached for the clasp.
"The nightmare ends here," she whispered, and pressed the catch.
Nothing happened. "What?" Mimi exclaimed, fiddling with the clasp. "Come on, you stupid thing, open!" she wailed, her voice rising to a desperate squeak as she worried at the stuck catch. Giving up on the catch, she yanked on the necklace itself, trying to break it. No luck. Her eyes scanned the room despondently...and lit on a pair of sewing scissors, sitting on her dressing table.
"Aha!" she cried triumphantly, and snatched them up, grabbing the necklace and facing the mirror. Opening them and positioning them around the necklace's soft yellow braid, she snipped-
And a flash of light exploded behind her eyelids as she was thrown backward onto the bed. Shaking her head in a stupor, she sat up dizzily, reaching up to feel the severed ends of the necklace falling from her neck...
It was still there, lying whole in a snake's embrace around her neck.
Stumbling to her feet with a wail, Mimi grabbed the scissors and hacked at the necklace futilely. It did not shock her again, but the sharp blades made as much progress as if the necklace had been woven of strands of diamond. Frantic tears welled up in her eyes, and she began to sob, sawing hopelessly at her shackle. Dropping to her knees before the mirror, the scissors tumbled from her suddenly limp hands and slid across the carpet to a stop against the bureau. She covered her hands with her face, breathing the heavy, sobbing breaths of fear and helplessness.
"Please..." she cried brokenly into her hands, "just leave me alone! Just leave me alone..."
A dark light lit the room for a moment, and she looked up, startled...
To see, not her own tear-streaked reflection in the mirror, but a pair of malicious blue eyes looking back at her with twisted pleasure shining in them like a cold flame, and the three stones of the necklace burning beneath them.
Her scream brought Nancy running, and as light flooded the room, the image in the mirror vanished as if it had never been.
Mimi's prone body lay across the floor, dry sobs racking it as she ran out of tears to shed. Nancy knelt next to her, gently touching her shoulder.
"Mimi, sweetie, what happened?"
Mimi looked up at her kind babysitter, her face wet and splotchy. "He's got me, Nancy," she whispered, her eyes hopeless. "He's got me, and he'll never let me go. Not me, or Sora, or Aika, or anybody. Ever..."
"Oh, sweetie, I'm so sorry," Nancy said, gathering the girl into her kneeling lap and rocking her lanky form slowly. "I'm so sorry this happened to you... You must have had a nightmare. I could just obliterate that man right now for what he did to you two..." She sighed, regaining her composure. "But that's not in my jurisdiction. Well, whoever he was, he won't hurt you anymore. We're all watching out for you. I promise, you're safe now. I promise."
Mimi looked up at her with lonely eyes. "You don't understand..."
"But I'm trying, sweetie, I really am. And when you feel better, you can try to explain it to me, but for now, you need your rest. A nightmare won't hurt you. Now please, go to sleep. If you're better by tomorrow, Sora's mother and I think you should go to that lock-in. It'll take your mind off of all of this for a while."
She picked up the physically and spiritually exhausted girl and carried her to her bed, setting her down and tucking her in like a little child. Mimi wanted to protest, to shout, 'No, you truly don't understand, you're all in danger, I can't go to that sleepover, stop treating me like a child and listen to me!', but her body had gone limp, and she could hardly move for tiredness.
Please, Nancy, stop and listen...for Matt and TK's sake, don't try to mother me too! she thought desperately, but Nancy couldn't hear her, and her mouth would not respond. Fighting tooth and nail against the force dragging her down, she lost her grip on the last strand of the world left in her grasp and fell spiraling into the abyss of sleep...
Brushing a strand of hair out of the sleeping girl's eyes, Nancy smiled sadly down at her. "Sleep, sweet, and dream of a kinder world than this one," she whispered, and left the room, closing the door softly behind her.
Staring out the window of the car, Mimi watched the streets of Tokyo whiz by, only half listening to the quiet talk of the rest of the teens stuffed into the back seat with her. The city streaming away behind her almost before she saw it approaching held her mind with a strange fascination.
The story of my life, she thought ironically. Swept along without time to react, like a water-skier being dragged along on the end of her rope, unable to get my feet back under me...helpless. Sighing, she let her eyes drift shut. She had not dreamt at all the afternoon and night before, and had slept in that morning. Oddly enough, her head had stopped hurting since the night before, and while she was glad it hadn't gotten worse, she wasn't sure that the dull numbness she felt now was really an improvement, or just a sign of more injury... Nancy had proclaimed her ok to go, and she had been packed up and packed off before she could say 'Wait a minute...'
And here she was, on her way to the lock-in with the rest of the high school Digidestined, piled in the back of Joe's friend's brother's car. The friend herself, a girl Mimi didn't know that the others called Satsuma, was driving and eating an orange at the same time: a juggling act that made Mimi's hair stand on end, but that her friends appeared to be used to. Everyone else was talking in hushed tones about trivial things, carefully avoiding the subject of Sora.
None of the Digidestined had quite gotten over the loss of one of their own; the attacks happening around the city had been tragic, but they had also been comfortably distant for everyone but Joe, who had had to deal with Satsuma. Suddenly, they were real to them...all too real.
They pulled up in front of the high school as the edge of the sun touched the cityscape horizon, letting loose a wash of blood-red light to fill the sky. Piling out of the car, the sight of their friends milling around the front door cheered them all up immensely-all but Mimi-and they hurried forward to greet them. Izzy, Joe, Satsuma and Matt disappeared quickly into the crowd, but Tai hung back for a minute. He hadn't had a chance to talk to Mimi since the hospital people had spirited her away the day before.
"Mimi?" he said hesitantly, reaching out to touch her shoulder. She looked up at him, her eyes beginning to fill again.
"I'm sorry," she whispered, her voice choked, and he pulled her into a hug.
"Don't be," he said as gently as he could. Mimi swallowed hard.
"I have to be," she said in return. Tai pulled back, confused. The look in her eyes was genuine; she wasn't making fun of him.
"Then I do, too," he said. Mimi sighed.
"But it wasn't your fault," she said. Tai blinked, now completely bewildered.
"It wasn't yours either."
Mimi only looked at him. Tai swallowed.
"I...don't understand..."
Mimi started to turn away, but stopped and glanced back at him.
"I need to talk to you. I'll explain...later. In the staff room?"
Tai opened his mouth to reply, just as Matt ran up and grabbed his arm.
"Come on, Tai, they're opening the doors! If you want a good place to stake out camp with the rest of us, we have to hurry!"
The trio ducked into the flow of people crushing through the front doors, even Mimi almost getting caught up in the party atmosphere for the moment. Tai managed a nod and thumbs-up to Mimi before they were swept into the foyer and met up with Joe, Izzy, and Satsuma keeping space for them. They'd managed to lay claim to and defend a nice little corner, complete with a small bench bolted to the floor, and had spread their blankets and camping mattresses all around it.
"A little help here?" Satsuma said cheerfully, beating off a would-be squatter with a pillow. Tai and Matt grinned and dropped their gear against the wall, joining her with their own pillows to defend the borders of their 'territory' from the surge and flow of kids trying to find a place to stash their stuff. Joe and Izzy were working on home improvement, setting up the blankets and mattresses in a good six-person configuration around the bench, with room for backpacks and the bench itself left clear for playing slap-in card games.
Mimi sank down in the very corner, hugging her little pink duffel to her stomach. She had tapped the very dregs of her resolve to get up the nerve to talk to Tai, but she knew she had to tell somebody her suspicions, and he was the most likely to listen, and to believe...
A pillow flew past her, hitting the wall and sliding down into her lap, and a second later was almost joined there by Matt as he stumbled and came close to falling at a particularly vicious blow from the guy he was holding off. He managed to land in an awkward sitting position next to her, instead, and grinned sheepishly.
"Sorry about that...can I have my pillow back?"
Mimi looked down at the pillow in her lap, and up at the slightly breathless boy sitting next to her. Shrugging, she handed it to him and went back to staring up at the skylight that filled the ceiling of the foyer, her eyes blank and sad.
Matt frowned. He opened his mouth to ask, shut it again, and sighed and stood up. Something is wrong...but I guess it's not really any of my business to ask her about it. It's probably Sora; if she's half as miserable as Tai's been about that whole business, then I can understand why she seems a little distant. Still, Tai is loosening up...you know, healing. From the way Mimi's acting, she isn't. I hope she'll be okay...
A pillow to the back of the head shattered his worried thoughts, and he whirled, menacingly brandishing his pillow at the foyer in general.
"You want a piece of me?" he bellowed to the guy who'd beaned him, who now seemed to be seriously reconsidering his actions...either that, or trying not to wet himself. "Come and get it!"
The ensuing mayhem blended right into the rest of the craziness going on in the foyer, which was all beginning to blur into one mass of moving color in Mimi's tired eyes...
The little wench is more powerful than I expected...and she has scored a victory against me, unless I can stop her in time. I cannot let her inform the Digibrats' leader of my existence before I can make my harvest!
But wait... I intended to take control as she slept, as usual...but why can I not force her to the Shadowlands while she is conscious, as I did to capture her friend? My strength is far more than halfway returned to me, and it will not bear any differently on the execution of my plan.
Very well. It will take reserves of my power, but I can easily replenish them once I am in control. I am as strong as you now, sweet Mimi, and stronger with every soul I take. You are weakening, your body breaking at the seams from the burden of too many souls fighting to be free. Your use to me is only as a conveyance and a container, and both uses are almost at an end.
Soon the container will be allowed to spill free...
The foyer had settled into relative calm as the students all found their own little niches, either there or in the gym or the auditorium, and the Digidestined and Satsuma were engaged in a riotous game of Spoons, playing with pencils as the 'spoons'. As Satsuma dove for the last pencil along with Matt and Joe, Tai and Izzy laughed hysterically at the heap of struggling teenagers. Mimi was staring off into space, not really seeing the fight. The sunset was almost dead, leaving only faint trails of bloody light across the sky, and the first of the stars were winking through the dark blue curtain of the night.
Emerging at the top of the heap with the pencil clenched triumphantly in her fist, Satsuma let out a jubilant victory cry...and glanced down to see what Tai and Izzy were rolling around laughing at, to realize that the three of them were stacked tangled together, Matt on the bottom, sprawled gasping flat on his stomach, with Joe sitting squarely on his back, still grabbing for the pencil, and Satsuma in his lap, holding it high above their heads in a game of keep-away.
Joe noticed this amusing arrangement at about the same time that she did, and the pyramid disintegrated in a mad scramble to opposite sides of the circle of players, with Joe blushing furiously and Satsuma helplessly laughing at the expression on his face while Matt lay gasping like a beached fish, trying to force the air back into his lungs. Tai and Izzy completely broke up at this, and the circle took several minutes to calm down.
Lying back on his inflatable mattress and grinning, his stomach comfortably sore from laughter, Tai noticed Mimi still sitting staring into space, her face solemn.
"Hey, Mimi, what's wrong?" he said concernedly. "You haven't gotten a single spoon all this time, and you're not even smiling at these bozos' antics!" He accompanied the words with a gesture toward Satsuma and Joe, who glanced at each other and snorted.
"Nothing's wrong," Mimi insisted vaguely. "Izzy hasn't gotten any spoons either, anyway."
"Yeah, but at least I've been trying," Izzy said, rubbing ruefully at a sore spot on his arm from an accidental kneeing by Satsuma, who had most of the pencils. Joe had one, and Matt and Tai each had a few, but Izzy had neither Matt and Tai's athletic strength nor Joe's reach nor Satsuma's free-for-all fighting abilities, and therefore had no pencils, either.
"Hey, if at first you don't succeed..." Satsuma said with a grin. Izzy scowled at her.
"What if you're in danger of being seriously maimed if you try again?"
Satsuma shot back something sarcastic, and an argument began in full force. Mimi took advantage of the distraction to lean over and whisper to Tai.
"Can we have that talk now?"
Satsuma froze instantly mid-sentence, a grin a mile wide on her face.
"Hey, all right! We'll guard the door, hmm?"
Joe rolled his eyes. "Ignore Satsuma. It's past her bedtime, and she's a little woozy." Satsuma glowered at him, and he flinched. "Hey, sorry, sorry..."
"Well, aren't you interested?" Satsuma inquired.
"I didn't hear what she said," Joe said pointedly. Satsuma shrugged.
"Just because you're not good at eavesdropping doesn't mean you get out of helping me guard the door. They want to have a talk." She smiled sweetly at Mimi.
Mimi groaned, but Tai caught her arm and spoke under his breath. "I don't care what she thinks we're doing, having anyone as a door guard would be good if you want privacy."
Glancing up to see if Satsuma had heard this, Mimi saw Joe holding both hands over the struggling girl's ears. Noticing her looking at them, he let go of one ear to give her a thumbs-up, and quickly clapped it back into place as Satsuma made a bid for freedom. "And Joe won't let her listen in on us," Mimi said with a smile, catching on. "Okay, then, let's go."
Standing up, they beckoned to the others, who stood up with them, and slipped out of the foyer toward the teachers' lounge.
Closing the door softly behind him on the other four playing Egyptian Rat Screw with Satsuma's cards, having deemed it less dangerous than Spoons (but not by much, given a general tendency to slap in too hard), Tai turned to Mimi, who was sitting on the sofa, hugging her knees.
"So, you wanted to tell me something?" he said, walking over and taking a seat next to her.
Mimi took a deep breath. This was harder than she had thought it would be. It was as though some force was physically holding back her words. Swallowing convulsively, she forced them out.
"I...I wanted to tell you..."
"Yeah?" Tai said, looking confused.
"I..." Her hand involuntarily reached up to play with the necklace. Realizing what she was doing, she jerked her hand away as if stung. "I wanted to say that...that..." Come on, Mimi, spit it out! she rebuked herself. "That...I'm really sorry about what happened to Sora." Moron!
"But...you already said that," Tai said, frowning. What is wrong with her? She's been hiding something, these last few days...is she trying to tell me what it is?
"And..." Her throat seized up for a minute, and she scowled furiously. It's trying to shut me up! Bug off, you bastidge piece of jewelry! A surge of strength ran through her. "And I think I know what caused it," she said in a rush.
Tai's eyes widened. "What?!" he exclaimed, grabbing her shoulders, hope flaring in his eyes. "What was it? What happened? Did you remember?"
"No, I...I deduced it. I figured it out," she explained, seeing the confusion in his eyes. "See, I...found this necklace, and I think..." She paused for a minute, seeming to be struggling with something.
"You think what?" Tai said, giving her a little shake. "Say it, Mimi!"
"I think..." The force was no longer trying to shut her up, it was trying to...expand, somehow. Like...like the night before, when it had pulled her down into sleep, only this time it wasn't pulling, it was pushing...
Pushing her out...of herself?!
Panicking, she blurted, trying to get the words out in time, before it completed its task...
"Tai, you're in danger, you have to get out of here! I think *I'm* the-"
The terror and desperation on her face suddenly vanished, as suddenly as her voice had stopped a split second before. Tai frowned, drawing back at the suddenly smug expression she now wore.
I've never seen Mimi smile like that...
"Mimi?"
The smile that wasn't Mimi's widened. "Mimi isn't here right now."
"What?!"
"That's what those so-called frightening movies you humans watch would have me say, isn't that right, Taichi?"
Tai stood slowly up, staring at his friend. "What's wrong with you? Is this your idea of a joke? It's not like you to kid about something like this!"
"Oh, Taichi, I've already explained this to you. I'm not Mimi."
Tai stared at her face for a long moment. That smile was definitely not Mimi's. Was she possessed, or something? That sort of thing happened in the movies; he'd seen it, but it was supposed to stay there, not happen to real people. Then again, things had a way of happening to him and his friends; look at the Digital World...
"Then...who are you?" Tai said guardedly. This was getting creepier by the second. Mimi's face became solemn.
"Why should I tell you? I think it should be obvious."
"Look, leave her alone, okay?" Tai said angrily. "Get...get out of her, or whatever. She never did anything to you!"
"Oh, but she did. All of you did..." the thing in Mimi said, with an angry, smug satisfaction in 'her' voice. "Or don't you remember?"
"No," Tai said, frowning. Gotta get out of here... What's this thing planning to do to us? To me? To Mimi?!
"I'm starting to think you don't know who you're dealing with, Taichi," 'Mimi' said reproachfully. Tai blinked. Something had just flown past the window.
Was that a...bat?
"I don't," he said bluntly. "All right, let's play your game. Who am I dealing with?"
'Mimi' paused, leaning back leisurely against the couch, seeming to savor the moment...and then her sweet hazel eyes flared red, as a black form landed on the sill.
"The Digimon that wouldn't die," she drawled, with a soft, all-too-familiar chuckle.
Tai's eyes widened, and he took a stumbling step back in spite of himself. Another black, winged shape landed on the sill, and another. He backed toward the door, hoping for a chance to make a break for it...
"I don't think so, Taichi...Crimson Lightning!"
Leaping from the sofa in a swift, fluid motion, a pair of crackling red whips shot from Mimi's hands. Tai turned and ran. He made it almost to the door before the whips snapped around him, yanking him backwards. His chin snapped forward, and he saw stars for a second...and as they cleared, he saw Mimi's face, blazing eyes boring into him. He had been pulled right back to the couch, and was held tightly against her, unable to escape.
"It's very rude to run out on a lady, Taichi," it hissed through Mimi's teeth, as a flock of bats rose behind the glass of the window, blotting out the moonlight. "I think you need to be taught a lesson in chivalry."
Tai felt something pull at him, at a part of him that wasn't physically existent, and the being grinned. A faint, warm red light-the light of his soul-began to coalesce around his face, being pulled toward the necklace Mimi wore...
"No!!" he yelled, and pulled away, just far enough to free one arm and slam it with all his strength into her head. Mimi staggered back, hand to her head; the lightning whips retracted into her palms, leaving scorch marks on skin not meant to withstand the use of such powers. Turning, Tai bolted out of the room and slammed the door, leaning against it and shouting at the top of his lungs.
"Run, you guys, run! He's back, Myotismon is back, he's got Mimi, you've got to get out of here!"
"What?!"
"You're kidding!"
"Mimi?!"
"What's a Myotismon-hey!"
Joe had jerked Satsuma to her feet, sending cards flying, before she could finish her sentence.
"C'mon, we've got to move! Don't ask, just run!"
"What, you're just going to leave Mimi?" Matt yelled angrily. Tai turned to glower at him.
"There's nothing we can do for her right now, Matt! You would have to wait for the worst possible time for you to decide you want to be a rebel again!"
"I'm not going anywhere!" Matt said, crossing his arms. Izzy and the others were sending nervous looks at the closed door behind Tai, from which were coming eerie squeaks and fluttering noises.
"You're coming with us and that's final, now get your butt in gear!" Tai yelled, and grabbed his arm, taking off down the hallway. Izzy grabbed his other arm, and between them they bodily dragged Matt off down the hallway, with Joe and Satsuma at their heels.
"What the heck is a Myotismon?!" Satsuma said angrily to Joe, who was looking more frightened than she was.
"It's a-"
The door exploded outward, and a cloud of bats spilled into the corridor, screaming and squeaking as they flew toward the fleeing teens.
"Never mind," Joe gasped, running faster.
"Gross!" Satsuma shrieked as she spotted the bats. "Okay, I'm done asking! Let's get out of here!"
Matt was still struggling, slowing Tai and Izzy down. They were losing the bats, but way too slowly... "Let...me...go!" he yelled, trying to wrench out of their grip.
"Matt, if you don't shut up and run, I'm going to knock you out, or something!" Tai yelled back. "We're practically carrying you anyway, and at least you won't be trying to escape anymore!"
Izzy dug in his feet, trying to lever Matt along the corridor faster. "Matt, you know I mean this in the nicest of ways, but right now, you're being a real pain in the-"
A cry from behind them made Izzy stop talking and look over his shoulder. They'd gotten a good three hallways between them and the bat cloud, so how could it have caught up fast enough to reach them?
One look answered him; it hadn't. Joe, however, had tripped and was sprawled across the linoleum, gasping for air with the breath knocked out of him. Satsuma skidded to a stop next to Tai and Co., looking terrified.
"Joe!"
"You guys...go!" Joe gasped, waving them on. "I'll catch up..."
"No way, Jyou Kido!" Satsuma cried, planting her feet. "I'm not going anywhere until you do!"
"Don't be stupid...go, you guys!"
Tai looked torn, but he knew they couldn't waste precious seconds deliberating. He nodded. "Right. C'mon, Izzy!" They took off down the hallway with Matt in tow.
"Tai, by the time we get back, we're not going to *have* a team anymore!" Matt bellowed angrily.
"You think I wanted to leave Joe back there? We didn't have a choice-hey, where's Satsuma?!"
A slender figure was sprinting back the way they'd come, orange hair flying out behind her.
"Satsuma, you little idiot, what do you think you're doing?!" Tai yelled after her. She paused for a minute at the corner they'd just rounded.
"Joe's my friend, Tai, and I can't leave him!"
"Do you want me to come after you?"
She laughed. "I'd like to see you try! I'm still champion of Spoons, Tai, and I can take you down any day!" Her face became solemn. "Good luck, guys. See you later-I hope."
She was gone before any of them could answer. Tai and Izzy started off down the corridor again, Tai shaking his head, Izzy just looking shaken.
We're losing everyone... Izzy thought dazedly. Where did this 'team' go wrong? When did we lose sight of teamwork?
He'd stopped thinking about running by the time they reached a break in the linoleum. Stumbling, he almost fell...but a strong arm caught him and propelled him onwards.
"Thanks a million, Tai..." Looking up, Izzy stared. "Matt?"
Matt grinned; he was running on his own. "Satsuma has her own path, Izzy. Her harebrained ideas make Tai's point pretty clear, though. We have to cut our losses; we can make rescues later. We're almost there, now show us how fast a short guy can run!"
Okay, so maybe teamwork isn't *completely* forgotten.
Bolstered by friendship, all three boys took off down the corridor.
Satsuma tore back towards the place they'd left Joe, fear warring with the decision she'd made as she'd blindly followed Tai away from her fallen friend.
Friendship is not running away to save yourself...at least, not for me. Hold on, Joe!
Rounding the last corner, she fell to her knees next to Joe, who still hadn't stood up.
"Joe!"
"Satsuma Taiyo, you moron, what do you think you're doing here?!" Joe yelled, sitting up, angry at himself for being traitorously happy to see her. The others had only disappeared from sight a few seconds ago, but it had seemed like hours...and he could already hear the bats getting closer...
"I couldn't leave you," she said breathlessly, and gave him a quick hug that immediately shut him up. "Come on," she said, standing up and offering him a hand, "let's blow this Popsicle stand!"
Joe leapt to his feet, wincing a little but willing to try. "Right. The others can't be too far ahead!"
Satsuma was frowning, listening. "Joe..."
"What?"
"Joe..." she said edgily, looking nervous.
"Why are you just standing there? We've got to escape!"
Satsuma blanched at something behind him. "It's a little late for that!" she yelled, and he whirled around to see a mass of black wings and beady, blood-red eyes boiling into view not ten feet behind them.
"RUN!" he shouted, and grabbed her hand, taking off away from the bats with her in tow. Dark laughter that no longer sounded a bit like Mimi's was bubbling sickly from somewhere behind them, and Satsuma was beginning to gasp with weariness...
It can't end like this! Joe thought desperately, watching the bats slowly gaining on them from over his shoulder. We can't lose now! We can't!
Beads of sweat were beginning to break out on Satsuma's forehead; running away, then towards, and then away from this thing for these crucial moments was taking its toll on her, and she was already exhausted from playing Spoons. "I can't run...much further..." she gasped, trying futilely to keep up.
"Hold on," Joe panted back, giving her hand a squeeze. "Just a little...more..."
As they reached that break in the linoleum that had almost undone Izzy, Satsuma's toe caught against the ragged edge. Her feet skidded out from under her, and she was flung forward painfully, her hand tearing loose from Joe's grip. Struggling to get back to her feet, she waved to Joe not to slow down. He stopped, ten feet away, hesitating.
"Keep going!" she yelled.
"You didn't abandon me, and I won't abandon you!"
"You still had a chance! If you get caught and I did all that running for squat, I will never forgive you, Jyou Kido! GO!"
The bats were flocking down the hallway in a black wave. Satsuma's bright green eyes caught Joe's, and he saw the pleading in them. Save yourself, Joe...for me. Slowly, he began to walk backwards, still only half decided...
As the first of the bats reached her, Satsuma managed to stumble to her feet...but it was too late. All at once, they were around her, obscuring her from sight. She reached out to him, her hand piercing the mass of black fur and leathery wings...
Then, as the bats began to move toward him, their mass swallowing her up, Joe watched the slender hand disappear from sight.
Breathing in frantic gasps, he wheeled around and fled, tears blurring his vision as his sheer desperation pushed him onward...
Tai and the others reached the foyer as the last scraps of light faded from the sky. The room was echoing with screams and terrified sobbing, and they had only to look up to see why. The glass of the skylight was black with bats, fluttering in droves just above the window and bumping up against the glass, trying to get in.
Almost a minute of stunned silence later, Joe slid up behind them, sweating and breathing hard. Satsuma was nowhere to be seen. Tai sucked in his breath, fear ramming an icicle through his heart.
"Where is she?!" he asked frantically. Joe swallowed convulsively.
"She's...she..." He couldn't finish, but the haunted, anguished look on his face answered him as clearly as words. All three boys looked at each other wretchedly, but there was no time for grieving. They could already hear the squeaking of the bats.
"Come on! We've got to hide!" Dashing over to their corner with Joe in tow, Tai yelled a warning.
"Everybody hide! If you think those bats are bad, you ain't seen nothing yet!" Reaching their hideout, they ducked under their sleeping bags, covering their heads with their hands and shielding themselves as best they could from the eyes of the bats.
They were only just in time; a split second later, the shrieks of the other teenagers and the chittering of bats filled the room, un-muffled by the layers of blankets and sleeping bags. Joe was shaking, and Matt reached over under the cover of blankets to pat his shoulder in sympathy. Tai was visibly fighting a perverse desire to look out and see what was going on.
Suddenly, a piercing scream ripped through the air, and Matt and Tai's heads came up.
"Mimi..." Matt whispered, looking as haunted as Joe.
"I can't stand it anymore!" Tai yelled, and pulled the blankets from his head, looking out at the roiling mass of bats and fleeing children. Matt joined him a second later, wielding a pillow to beat off wayward bats.
Out in the confusion, a frail figure was just visible, with a glow of purple light around her. Even as they watched, the light seemed to fall away from her, puddling on the floor, and suddenly disappearing into a prostrate figure nearby with a sound like the last drops of a milkshake being sucked through a straw.
Mimi wavered, swayed, and collapsed in a heap, caught by a hundred bats before she hit the floor. More bats nearby moved to help, and Mimi rose into the air, her limbs limp and dangling, and hung in space above their heads as she was borne up toward the ceiling. The bats outside fluttered around, agitated by something...
And suddenly, the flying rodents inside and out gathered themselves and drove toward the glass of the skylight in one concerted motion. The glass shattered under the multiple impact, falling in a rain of razor-sharp, prickly hail to crunch among the feet of the screaming humans below. The bats disappeared through the newly-created exit, joining their fellows and soaring upward into the sky, taking Mimi with them.
A sound like a dull explosion above them made everyone in the trashed foyer look up. The night sky seemed to have torn asunder, leaving a rift that glowed blood red with a light that hurt the eyes. The bats fluttered up into it, disappearing from view, as it hung there in space.
Before the rest of the Digidestined could cry out, Mimi was gone.
"No!" Matt yelled, slamming his fist into the floor. "No, no, no!"
Joe was sitting stunned, as if in shock. Izzy put a hand on his shoulder, and he shook him off, turning away. Taken aback, Izzy stared at his friend.
Tai was gazing after the bats, looking at the red wound in the sky with an I'm-up-to-something look in his eyes. It was the look that usually preceded most of his plans.
"Izzy," he said quietly, but with a note of command in his voice that made the teenage tech pay attention, "how long would you say we have before that portal closes?"
Izzy blinked, trying to calculate through a fog of shock. "Uhm...I'd say about an hour?"
"That's long enough," Tai said decisively, standing up with purpose gleaming in his expression. "Get whatever you think will help, Matt. We're going to war."
Twelve...twelve! Blast her weak human shell! One more soul and I am free...but she cannot hold even an insect's! Her pain wrenched her from my control...not for long, but for long enough. I cannot let her win! I will triumph! I must!
But wait...why do I worry myself for nothing? I have my thirteenth soul, here and ready for the taking...
Sweet Mimi, you have proved useful in yet another way...your last way. I am almost to my stronghold, and there I will finish what I started three Earth years ago. The altar is ready, and the bats are swift in their flight.
Soon the rebirth will be complete.
~*~*~*~
A Digimon 02 Fanfic by Bandit, ©2000
Chapter 7- The Harvest of Darkness, the Portal in the Air
~*~*~*~
By the time Mimi and Mrs. Takenouchi returned home, it was morning. The diagnosis had been the same as that of all the others who had been struck down by this terrible, invisible attacker; the police were sure now that it was a person doing this, and not a strange illness or some such thing. Mimi's terrified screams at the scene of the crime had put the clincher on that. The officers that had heard the testimonies of the bystanders had repeatedly told her that she had been very brave, and a great help to them.
But...I can't remember even a bit of that now... All I get is waking up in the hospital. They told me I was incoherent, that I screamed about someone holding me, not letting me go, about butterflies and terrible blue eyes hurting me, killing me... The doctors said my shock symptoms were like those of a rape victim, but there were no signs of molestation on either of us. I can't remember any of it; it's like every time I try to remember, someone slams a heavy door on the knowledge and locks me out...
What is happening to me?!
She'd been kept a few hours for observation, and then let go. She was still numb and stunned as Mrs. Takenouchi loaded her into the car and took her home, as she called TK and Matt's mom to come over and keep a close, protective eye on Mimi, as Nancy arrived and Mrs. Takenouchi left again to return to the hospital.
Tai had stayed behind to be with Sora, 'in case she wakes up and wants to see a familiar face,' as he had put it. That forlornly hopeful statement had come the closest of anything that night to making Mimi burst into tears, but it seemed as though she couldn't cry...nothing that had happened had brought a single tear to her eyes. Mrs. Takenouchi, Nancy, even Tai, had all shed tears, but Mimi's eyes were dry. She felt detached from the things around her, somehow. This might have been shock, but it might also have been that her headache had gotten to the point where she was having difficulty thinking. She did not tell this to the doctors, however, and they put her shakiness down to lingering symptoms of shock.
My legs feel like a newborn calf's...but my soul feels a thousand years old. What is wrong with me?
Standing in her room dressed in her nightgown, Mimi stared into her mirror, her bare feet cold in the chilly room. Nancy had settled herself in the living room with a book, having dropped TK's off at his father's for the night, and had put Mimi to bed early. Somehow, the kind woman's usually comforting presence made no more dent in Mimi's shell of numbness than her tears had.
As she looked at her face, Mimi found herself seeing a different girl than the one she had seen two weeks before. Her face was thin and drawn, waiflike and pale against the bright green of her nightgown. Her hair hung limply, looking dull and tired, and there were shadows beneath her eyes. The color had gone out of her lips and cheeks, and she stood like someone trying to stay on their feet in the midst of a hurricane, about to fall and be swept away, screaming into the uncaring wind.
What happened to Tachikawa Mimi, the happy, healthy girl who was giggling about vacation and secret admirers just a few days ago? she thought forlornly, a wretched wish to lie down and never get up again washing over her in a wave of desperation...
Suddenly, it was as if a light had turned on in her mind. "Secret admirer..." she whispered, her staring gaze moving from her face...to the hollow of her neck. Her face went from gray to white with sudden enlightenment and fear, and her hand went up to touch the stones of the beautiful necklace.
"You," she said softly. The necklace suddenly seemed sinister, somehow, as it gleamed bloodily up at her from around her neck. "All this began after I found you. Somehow, you've been doing this to me! The headache, the attacks, the dreams..."
Turning from the mirror, she reached for the clasp.
"The nightmare ends here," she whispered, and pressed the catch.
Nothing happened. "What?" Mimi exclaimed, fiddling with the clasp. "Come on, you stupid thing, open!" she wailed, her voice rising to a desperate squeak as she worried at the stuck catch. Giving up on the catch, she yanked on the necklace itself, trying to break it. No luck. Her eyes scanned the room despondently...and lit on a pair of sewing scissors, sitting on her dressing table.
"Aha!" she cried triumphantly, and snatched them up, grabbing the necklace and facing the mirror. Opening them and positioning them around the necklace's soft yellow braid, she snipped-
And a flash of light exploded behind her eyelids as she was thrown backward onto the bed. Shaking her head in a stupor, she sat up dizzily, reaching up to feel the severed ends of the necklace falling from her neck...
It was still there, lying whole in a snake's embrace around her neck.
Stumbling to her feet with a wail, Mimi grabbed the scissors and hacked at the necklace futilely. It did not shock her again, but the sharp blades made as much progress as if the necklace had been woven of strands of diamond. Frantic tears welled up in her eyes, and she began to sob, sawing hopelessly at her shackle. Dropping to her knees before the mirror, the scissors tumbled from her suddenly limp hands and slid across the carpet to a stop against the bureau. She covered her hands with her face, breathing the heavy, sobbing breaths of fear and helplessness.
"Please..." she cried brokenly into her hands, "just leave me alone! Just leave me alone..."
A dark light lit the room for a moment, and she looked up, startled...
To see, not her own tear-streaked reflection in the mirror, but a pair of malicious blue eyes looking back at her with twisted pleasure shining in them like a cold flame, and the three stones of the necklace burning beneath them.
Her scream brought Nancy running, and as light flooded the room, the image in the mirror vanished as if it had never been.
Mimi's prone body lay across the floor, dry sobs racking it as she ran out of tears to shed. Nancy knelt next to her, gently touching her shoulder.
"Mimi, sweetie, what happened?"
Mimi looked up at her kind babysitter, her face wet and splotchy. "He's got me, Nancy," she whispered, her eyes hopeless. "He's got me, and he'll never let me go. Not me, or Sora, or Aika, or anybody. Ever..."
"Oh, sweetie, I'm so sorry," Nancy said, gathering the girl into her kneeling lap and rocking her lanky form slowly. "I'm so sorry this happened to you... You must have had a nightmare. I could just obliterate that man right now for what he did to you two..." She sighed, regaining her composure. "But that's not in my jurisdiction. Well, whoever he was, he won't hurt you anymore. We're all watching out for you. I promise, you're safe now. I promise."
Mimi looked up at her with lonely eyes. "You don't understand..."
"But I'm trying, sweetie, I really am. And when you feel better, you can try to explain it to me, but for now, you need your rest. A nightmare won't hurt you. Now please, go to sleep. If you're better by tomorrow, Sora's mother and I think you should go to that lock-in. It'll take your mind off of all of this for a while."
She picked up the physically and spiritually exhausted girl and carried her to her bed, setting her down and tucking her in like a little child. Mimi wanted to protest, to shout, 'No, you truly don't understand, you're all in danger, I can't go to that sleepover, stop treating me like a child and listen to me!', but her body had gone limp, and she could hardly move for tiredness.
Please, Nancy, stop and listen...for Matt and TK's sake, don't try to mother me too! she thought desperately, but Nancy couldn't hear her, and her mouth would not respond. Fighting tooth and nail against the force dragging her down, she lost her grip on the last strand of the world left in her grasp and fell spiraling into the abyss of sleep...
Brushing a strand of hair out of the sleeping girl's eyes, Nancy smiled sadly down at her. "Sleep, sweet, and dream of a kinder world than this one," she whispered, and left the room, closing the door softly behind her.
Staring out the window of the car, Mimi watched the streets of Tokyo whiz by, only half listening to the quiet talk of the rest of the teens stuffed into the back seat with her. The city streaming away behind her almost before she saw it approaching held her mind with a strange fascination.
The story of my life, she thought ironically. Swept along without time to react, like a water-skier being dragged along on the end of her rope, unable to get my feet back under me...helpless. Sighing, she let her eyes drift shut. She had not dreamt at all the afternoon and night before, and had slept in that morning. Oddly enough, her head had stopped hurting since the night before, and while she was glad it hadn't gotten worse, she wasn't sure that the dull numbness she felt now was really an improvement, or just a sign of more injury... Nancy had proclaimed her ok to go, and she had been packed up and packed off before she could say 'Wait a minute...'
And here she was, on her way to the lock-in with the rest of the high school Digidestined, piled in the back of Joe's friend's brother's car. The friend herself, a girl Mimi didn't know that the others called Satsuma, was driving and eating an orange at the same time: a juggling act that made Mimi's hair stand on end, but that her friends appeared to be used to. Everyone else was talking in hushed tones about trivial things, carefully avoiding the subject of Sora.
None of the Digidestined had quite gotten over the loss of one of their own; the attacks happening around the city had been tragic, but they had also been comfortably distant for everyone but Joe, who had had to deal with Satsuma. Suddenly, they were real to them...all too real.
They pulled up in front of the high school as the edge of the sun touched the cityscape horizon, letting loose a wash of blood-red light to fill the sky. Piling out of the car, the sight of their friends milling around the front door cheered them all up immensely-all but Mimi-and they hurried forward to greet them. Izzy, Joe, Satsuma and Matt disappeared quickly into the crowd, but Tai hung back for a minute. He hadn't had a chance to talk to Mimi since the hospital people had spirited her away the day before.
"Mimi?" he said hesitantly, reaching out to touch her shoulder. She looked up at him, her eyes beginning to fill again.
"I'm sorry," she whispered, her voice choked, and he pulled her into a hug.
"Don't be," he said as gently as he could. Mimi swallowed hard.
"I have to be," she said in return. Tai pulled back, confused. The look in her eyes was genuine; she wasn't making fun of him.
"Then I do, too," he said. Mimi sighed.
"But it wasn't your fault," she said. Tai blinked, now completely bewildered.
"It wasn't yours either."
Mimi only looked at him. Tai swallowed.
"I...don't understand..."
Mimi started to turn away, but stopped and glanced back at him.
"I need to talk to you. I'll explain...later. In the staff room?"
Tai opened his mouth to reply, just as Matt ran up and grabbed his arm.
"Come on, Tai, they're opening the doors! If you want a good place to stake out camp with the rest of us, we have to hurry!"
The trio ducked into the flow of people crushing through the front doors, even Mimi almost getting caught up in the party atmosphere for the moment. Tai managed a nod and thumbs-up to Mimi before they were swept into the foyer and met up with Joe, Izzy, and Satsuma keeping space for them. They'd managed to lay claim to and defend a nice little corner, complete with a small bench bolted to the floor, and had spread their blankets and camping mattresses all around it.
"A little help here?" Satsuma said cheerfully, beating off a would-be squatter with a pillow. Tai and Matt grinned and dropped their gear against the wall, joining her with their own pillows to defend the borders of their 'territory' from the surge and flow of kids trying to find a place to stash their stuff. Joe and Izzy were working on home improvement, setting up the blankets and mattresses in a good six-person configuration around the bench, with room for backpacks and the bench itself left clear for playing slap-in card games.
Mimi sank down in the very corner, hugging her little pink duffel to her stomach. She had tapped the very dregs of her resolve to get up the nerve to talk to Tai, but she knew she had to tell somebody her suspicions, and he was the most likely to listen, and to believe...
A pillow flew past her, hitting the wall and sliding down into her lap, and a second later was almost joined there by Matt as he stumbled and came close to falling at a particularly vicious blow from the guy he was holding off. He managed to land in an awkward sitting position next to her, instead, and grinned sheepishly.
"Sorry about that...can I have my pillow back?"
Mimi looked down at the pillow in her lap, and up at the slightly breathless boy sitting next to her. Shrugging, she handed it to him and went back to staring up at the skylight that filled the ceiling of the foyer, her eyes blank and sad.
Matt frowned. He opened his mouth to ask, shut it again, and sighed and stood up. Something is wrong...but I guess it's not really any of my business to ask her about it. It's probably Sora; if she's half as miserable as Tai's been about that whole business, then I can understand why she seems a little distant. Still, Tai is loosening up...you know, healing. From the way Mimi's acting, she isn't. I hope she'll be okay...
A pillow to the back of the head shattered his worried thoughts, and he whirled, menacingly brandishing his pillow at the foyer in general.
"You want a piece of me?" he bellowed to the guy who'd beaned him, who now seemed to be seriously reconsidering his actions...either that, or trying not to wet himself. "Come and get it!"
The ensuing mayhem blended right into the rest of the craziness going on in the foyer, which was all beginning to blur into one mass of moving color in Mimi's tired eyes...
The little wench is more powerful than I expected...and she has scored a victory against me, unless I can stop her in time. I cannot let her inform the Digibrats' leader of my existence before I can make my harvest!
But wait... I intended to take control as she slept, as usual...but why can I not force her to the Shadowlands while she is conscious, as I did to capture her friend? My strength is far more than halfway returned to me, and it will not bear any differently on the execution of my plan.
Very well. It will take reserves of my power, but I can easily replenish them once I am in control. I am as strong as you now, sweet Mimi, and stronger with every soul I take. You are weakening, your body breaking at the seams from the burden of too many souls fighting to be free. Your use to me is only as a conveyance and a container, and both uses are almost at an end.
Soon the container will be allowed to spill free...
The foyer had settled into relative calm as the students all found their own little niches, either there or in the gym or the auditorium, and the Digidestined and Satsuma were engaged in a riotous game of Spoons, playing with pencils as the 'spoons'. As Satsuma dove for the last pencil along with Matt and Joe, Tai and Izzy laughed hysterically at the heap of struggling teenagers. Mimi was staring off into space, not really seeing the fight. The sunset was almost dead, leaving only faint trails of bloody light across the sky, and the first of the stars were winking through the dark blue curtain of the night.
Emerging at the top of the heap with the pencil clenched triumphantly in her fist, Satsuma let out a jubilant victory cry...and glanced down to see what Tai and Izzy were rolling around laughing at, to realize that the three of them were stacked tangled together, Matt on the bottom, sprawled gasping flat on his stomach, with Joe sitting squarely on his back, still grabbing for the pencil, and Satsuma in his lap, holding it high above their heads in a game of keep-away.
Joe noticed this amusing arrangement at about the same time that she did, and the pyramid disintegrated in a mad scramble to opposite sides of the circle of players, with Joe blushing furiously and Satsuma helplessly laughing at the expression on his face while Matt lay gasping like a beached fish, trying to force the air back into his lungs. Tai and Izzy completely broke up at this, and the circle took several minutes to calm down.
Lying back on his inflatable mattress and grinning, his stomach comfortably sore from laughter, Tai noticed Mimi still sitting staring into space, her face solemn.
"Hey, Mimi, what's wrong?" he said concernedly. "You haven't gotten a single spoon all this time, and you're not even smiling at these bozos' antics!" He accompanied the words with a gesture toward Satsuma and Joe, who glanced at each other and snorted.
"Nothing's wrong," Mimi insisted vaguely. "Izzy hasn't gotten any spoons either, anyway."
"Yeah, but at least I've been trying," Izzy said, rubbing ruefully at a sore spot on his arm from an accidental kneeing by Satsuma, who had most of the pencils. Joe had one, and Matt and Tai each had a few, but Izzy had neither Matt and Tai's athletic strength nor Joe's reach nor Satsuma's free-for-all fighting abilities, and therefore had no pencils, either.
"Hey, if at first you don't succeed..." Satsuma said with a grin. Izzy scowled at her.
"What if you're in danger of being seriously maimed if you try again?"
Satsuma shot back something sarcastic, and an argument began in full force. Mimi took advantage of the distraction to lean over and whisper to Tai.
"Can we have that talk now?"
Satsuma froze instantly mid-sentence, a grin a mile wide on her face.
"Hey, all right! We'll guard the door, hmm?"
Joe rolled his eyes. "Ignore Satsuma. It's past her bedtime, and she's a little woozy." Satsuma glowered at him, and he flinched. "Hey, sorry, sorry..."
"Well, aren't you interested?" Satsuma inquired.
"I didn't hear what she said," Joe said pointedly. Satsuma shrugged.
"Just because you're not good at eavesdropping doesn't mean you get out of helping me guard the door. They want to have a talk." She smiled sweetly at Mimi.
Mimi groaned, but Tai caught her arm and spoke under his breath. "I don't care what she thinks we're doing, having anyone as a door guard would be good if you want privacy."
Glancing up to see if Satsuma had heard this, Mimi saw Joe holding both hands over the struggling girl's ears. Noticing her looking at them, he let go of one ear to give her a thumbs-up, and quickly clapped it back into place as Satsuma made a bid for freedom. "And Joe won't let her listen in on us," Mimi said with a smile, catching on. "Okay, then, let's go."
Standing up, they beckoned to the others, who stood up with them, and slipped out of the foyer toward the teachers' lounge.
Closing the door softly behind him on the other four playing Egyptian Rat Screw with Satsuma's cards, having deemed it less dangerous than Spoons (but not by much, given a general tendency to slap in too hard), Tai turned to Mimi, who was sitting on the sofa, hugging her knees.
"So, you wanted to tell me something?" he said, walking over and taking a seat next to her.
Mimi took a deep breath. This was harder than she had thought it would be. It was as though some force was physically holding back her words. Swallowing convulsively, she forced them out.
"I...I wanted to tell you..."
"Yeah?" Tai said, looking confused.
"I..." Her hand involuntarily reached up to play with the necklace. Realizing what she was doing, she jerked her hand away as if stung. "I wanted to say that...that..." Come on, Mimi, spit it out! she rebuked herself. "That...I'm really sorry about what happened to Sora." Moron!
"But...you already said that," Tai said, frowning. What is wrong with her? She's been hiding something, these last few days...is she trying to tell me what it is?
"And..." Her throat seized up for a minute, and she scowled furiously. It's trying to shut me up! Bug off, you bastidge piece of jewelry! A surge of strength ran through her. "And I think I know what caused it," she said in a rush.
Tai's eyes widened. "What?!" he exclaimed, grabbing her shoulders, hope flaring in his eyes. "What was it? What happened? Did you remember?"
"No, I...I deduced it. I figured it out," she explained, seeing the confusion in his eyes. "See, I...found this necklace, and I think..." She paused for a minute, seeming to be struggling with something.
"You think what?" Tai said, giving her a little shake. "Say it, Mimi!"
"I think..." The force was no longer trying to shut her up, it was trying to...expand, somehow. Like...like the night before, when it had pulled her down into sleep, only this time it wasn't pulling, it was pushing...
Pushing her out...of herself?!
Panicking, she blurted, trying to get the words out in time, before it completed its task...
"Tai, you're in danger, you have to get out of here! I think *I'm* the-"
The terror and desperation on her face suddenly vanished, as suddenly as her voice had stopped a split second before. Tai frowned, drawing back at the suddenly smug expression she now wore.
I've never seen Mimi smile like that...
"Mimi?"
The smile that wasn't Mimi's widened. "Mimi isn't here right now."
"What?!"
"That's what those so-called frightening movies you humans watch would have me say, isn't that right, Taichi?"
Tai stood slowly up, staring at his friend. "What's wrong with you? Is this your idea of a joke? It's not like you to kid about something like this!"
"Oh, Taichi, I've already explained this to you. I'm not Mimi."
Tai stared at her face for a long moment. That smile was definitely not Mimi's. Was she possessed, or something? That sort of thing happened in the movies; he'd seen it, but it was supposed to stay there, not happen to real people. Then again, things had a way of happening to him and his friends; look at the Digital World...
"Then...who are you?" Tai said guardedly. This was getting creepier by the second. Mimi's face became solemn.
"Why should I tell you? I think it should be obvious."
"Look, leave her alone, okay?" Tai said angrily. "Get...get out of her, or whatever. She never did anything to you!"
"Oh, but she did. All of you did..." the thing in Mimi said, with an angry, smug satisfaction in 'her' voice. "Or don't you remember?"
"No," Tai said, frowning. Gotta get out of here... What's this thing planning to do to us? To me? To Mimi?!
"I'm starting to think you don't know who you're dealing with, Taichi," 'Mimi' said reproachfully. Tai blinked. Something had just flown past the window.
Was that a...bat?
"I don't," he said bluntly. "All right, let's play your game. Who am I dealing with?"
'Mimi' paused, leaning back leisurely against the couch, seeming to savor the moment...and then her sweet hazel eyes flared red, as a black form landed on the sill.
"The Digimon that wouldn't die," she drawled, with a soft, all-too-familiar chuckle.
Tai's eyes widened, and he took a stumbling step back in spite of himself. Another black, winged shape landed on the sill, and another. He backed toward the door, hoping for a chance to make a break for it...
"I don't think so, Taichi...Crimson Lightning!"
Leaping from the sofa in a swift, fluid motion, a pair of crackling red whips shot from Mimi's hands. Tai turned and ran. He made it almost to the door before the whips snapped around him, yanking him backwards. His chin snapped forward, and he saw stars for a second...and as they cleared, he saw Mimi's face, blazing eyes boring into him. He had been pulled right back to the couch, and was held tightly against her, unable to escape.
"It's very rude to run out on a lady, Taichi," it hissed through Mimi's teeth, as a flock of bats rose behind the glass of the window, blotting out the moonlight. "I think you need to be taught a lesson in chivalry."
Tai felt something pull at him, at a part of him that wasn't physically existent, and the being grinned. A faint, warm red light-the light of his soul-began to coalesce around his face, being pulled toward the necklace Mimi wore...
"No!!" he yelled, and pulled away, just far enough to free one arm and slam it with all his strength into her head. Mimi staggered back, hand to her head; the lightning whips retracted into her palms, leaving scorch marks on skin not meant to withstand the use of such powers. Turning, Tai bolted out of the room and slammed the door, leaning against it and shouting at the top of his lungs.
"Run, you guys, run! He's back, Myotismon is back, he's got Mimi, you've got to get out of here!"
"What?!"
"You're kidding!"
"Mimi?!"
"What's a Myotismon-hey!"
Joe had jerked Satsuma to her feet, sending cards flying, before she could finish her sentence.
"C'mon, we've got to move! Don't ask, just run!"
"What, you're just going to leave Mimi?" Matt yelled angrily. Tai turned to glower at him.
"There's nothing we can do for her right now, Matt! You would have to wait for the worst possible time for you to decide you want to be a rebel again!"
"I'm not going anywhere!" Matt said, crossing his arms. Izzy and the others were sending nervous looks at the closed door behind Tai, from which were coming eerie squeaks and fluttering noises.
"You're coming with us and that's final, now get your butt in gear!" Tai yelled, and grabbed his arm, taking off down the hallway. Izzy grabbed his other arm, and between them they bodily dragged Matt off down the hallway, with Joe and Satsuma at their heels.
"What the heck is a Myotismon?!" Satsuma said angrily to Joe, who was looking more frightened than she was.
"It's a-"
The door exploded outward, and a cloud of bats spilled into the corridor, screaming and squeaking as they flew toward the fleeing teens.
"Never mind," Joe gasped, running faster.
"Gross!" Satsuma shrieked as she spotted the bats. "Okay, I'm done asking! Let's get out of here!"
Matt was still struggling, slowing Tai and Izzy down. They were losing the bats, but way too slowly... "Let...me...go!" he yelled, trying to wrench out of their grip.
"Matt, if you don't shut up and run, I'm going to knock you out, or something!" Tai yelled back. "We're practically carrying you anyway, and at least you won't be trying to escape anymore!"
Izzy dug in his feet, trying to lever Matt along the corridor faster. "Matt, you know I mean this in the nicest of ways, but right now, you're being a real pain in the-"
A cry from behind them made Izzy stop talking and look over his shoulder. They'd gotten a good three hallways between them and the bat cloud, so how could it have caught up fast enough to reach them?
One look answered him; it hadn't. Joe, however, had tripped and was sprawled across the linoleum, gasping for air with the breath knocked out of him. Satsuma skidded to a stop next to Tai and Co., looking terrified.
"Joe!"
"You guys...go!" Joe gasped, waving them on. "I'll catch up..."
"No way, Jyou Kido!" Satsuma cried, planting her feet. "I'm not going anywhere until you do!"
"Don't be stupid...go, you guys!"
Tai looked torn, but he knew they couldn't waste precious seconds deliberating. He nodded. "Right. C'mon, Izzy!" They took off down the hallway with Matt in tow.
"Tai, by the time we get back, we're not going to *have* a team anymore!" Matt bellowed angrily.
"You think I wanted to leave Joe back there? We didn't have a choice-hey, where's Satsuma?!"
A slender figure was sprinting back the way they'd come, orange hair flying out behind her.
"Satsuma, you little idiot, what do you think you're doing?!" Tai yelled after her. She paused for a minute at the corner they'd just rounded.
"Joe's my friend, Tai, and I can't leave him!"
"Do you want me to come after you?"
She laughed. "I'd like to see you try! I'm still champion of Spoons, Tai, and I can take you down any day!" Her face became solemn. "Good luck, guys. See you later-I hope."
She was gone before any of them could answer. Tai and Izzy started off down the corridor again, Tai shaking his head, Izzy just looking shaken.
We're losing everyone... Izzy thought dazedly. Where did this 'team' go wrong? When did we lose sight of teamwork?
He'd stopped thinking about running by the time they reached a break in the linoleum. Stumbling, he almost fell...but a strong arm caught him and propelled him onwards.
"Thanks a million, Tai..." Looking up, Izzy stared. "Matt?"
Matt grinned; he was running on his own. "Satsuma has her own path, Izzy. Her harebrained ideas make Tai's point pretty clear, though. We have to cut our losses; we can make rescues later. We're almost there, now show us how fast a short guy can run!"
Okay, so maybe teamwork isn't *completely* forgotten.
Bolstered by friendship, all three boys took off down the corridor.
Satsuma tore back towards the place they'd left Joe, fear warring with the decision she'd made as she'd blindly followed Tai away from her fallen friend.
Friendship is not running away to save yourself...at least, not for me. Hold on, Joe!
Rounding the last corner, she fell to her knees next to Joe, who still hadn't stood up.
"Joe!"
"Satsuma Taiyo, you moron, what do you think you're doing here?!" Joe yelled, sitting up, angry at himself for being traitorously happy to see her. The others had only disappeared from sight a few seconds ago, but it had seemed like hours...and he could already hear the bats getting closer...
"I couldn't leave you," she said breathlessly, and gave him a quick hug that immediately shut him up. "Come on," she said, standing up and offering him a hand, "let's blow this Popsicle stand!"
Joe leapt to his feet, wincing a little but willing to try. "Right. The others can't be too far ahead!"
Satsuma was frowning, listening. "Joe..."
"What?"
"Joe..." she said edgily, looking nervous.
"Why are you just standing there? We've got to escape!"
Satsuma blanched at something behind him. "It's a little late for that!" she yelled, and he whirled around to see a mass of black wings and beady, blood-red eyes boiling into view not ten feet behind them.
"RUN!" he shouted, and grabbed her hand, taking off away from the bats with her in tow. Dark laughter that no longer sounded a bit like Mimi's was bubbling sickly from somewhere behind them, and Satsuma was beginning to gasp with weariness...
It can't end like this! Joe thought desperately, watching the bats slowly gaining on them from over his shoulder. We can't lose now! We can't!
Beads of sweat were beginning to break out on Satsuma's forehead; running away, then towards, and then away from this thing for these crucial moments was taking its toll on her, and she was already exhausted from playing Spoons. "I can't run...much further..." she gasped, trying futilely to keep up.
"Hold on," Joe panted back, giving her hand a squeeze. "Just a little...more..."
As they reached that break in the linoleum that had almost undone Izzy, Satsuma's toe caught against the ragged edge. Her feet skidded out from under her, and she was flung forward painfully, her hand tearing loose from Joe's grip. Struggling to get back to her feet, she waved to Joe not to slow down. He stopped, ten feet away, hesitating.
"Keep going!" she yelled.
"You didn't abandon me, and I won't abandon you!"
"You still had a chance! If you get caught and I did all that running for squat, I will never forgive you, Jyou Kido! GO!"
The bats were flocking down the hallway in a black wave. Satsuma's bright green eyes caught Joe's, and he saw the pleading in them. Save yourself, Joe...for me. Slowly, he began to walk backwards, still only half decided...
As the first of the bats reached her, Satsuma managed to stumble to her feet...but it was too late. All at once, they were around her, obscuring her from sight. She reached out to him, her hand piercing the mass of black fur and leathery wings...
Then, as the bats began to move toward him, their mass swallowing her up, Joe watched the slender hand disappear from sight.
Breathing in frantic gasps, he wheeled around and fled, tears blurring his vision as his sheer desperation pushed him onward...
Tai and the others reached the foyer as the last scraps of light faded from the sky. The room was echoing with screams and terrified sobbing, and they had only to look up to see why. The glass of the skylight was black with bats, fluttering in droves just above the window and bumping up against the glass, trying to get in.
Almost a minute of stunned silence later, Joe slid up behind them, sweating and breathing hard. Satsuma was nowhere to be seen. Tai sucked in his breath, fear ramming an icicle through his heart.
"Where is she?!" he asked frantically. Joe swallowed convulsively.
"She's...she..." He couldn't finish, but the haunted, anguished look on his face answered him as clearly as words. All three boys looked at each other wretchedly, but there was no time for grieving. They could already hear the squeaking of the bats.
"Come on! We've got to hide!" Dashing over to their corner with Joe in tow, Tai yelled a warning.
"Everybody hide! If you think those bats are bad, you ain't seen nothing yet!" Reaching their hideout, they ducked under their sleeping bags, covering their heads with their hands and shielding themselves as best they could from the eyes of the bats.
They were only just in time; a split second later, the shrieks of the other teenagers and the chittering of bats filled the room, un-muffled by the layers of blankets and sleeping bags. Joe was shaking, and Matt reached over under the cover of blankets to pat his shoulder in sympathy. Tai was visibly fighting a perverse desire to look out and see what was going on.
Suddenly, a piercing scream ripped through the air, and Matt and Tai's heads came up.
"Mimi..." Matt whispered, looking as haunted as Joe.
"I can't stand it anymore!" Tai yelled, and pulled the blankets from his head, looking out at the roiling mass of bats and fleeing children. Matt joined him a second later, wielding a pillow to beat off wayward bats.
Out in the confusion, a frail figure was just visible, with a glow of purple light around her. Even as they watched, the light seemed to fall away from her, puddling on the floor, and suddenly disappearing into a prostrate figure nearby with a sound like the last drops of a milkshake being sucked through a straw.
Mimi wavered, swayed, and collapsed in a heap, caught by a hundred bats before she hit the floor. More bats nearby moved to help, and Mimi rose into the air, her limbs limp and dangling, and hung in space above their heads as she was borne up toward the ceiling. The bats outside fluttered around, agitated by something...
And suddenly, the flying rodents inside and out gathered themselves and drove toward the glass of the skylight in one concerted motion. The glass shattered under the multiple impact, falling in a rain of razor-sharp, prickly hail to crunch among the feet of the screaming humans below. The bats disappeared through the newly-created exit, joining their fellows and soaring upward into the sky, taking Mimi with them.
A sound like a dull explosion above them made everyone in the trashed foyer look up. The night sky seemed to have torn asunder, leaving a rift that glowed blood red with a light that hurt the eyes. The bats fluttered up into it, disappearing from view, as it hung there in space.
Before the rest of the Digidestined could cry out, Mimi was gone.
"No!" Matt yelled, slamming his fist into the floor. "No, no, no!"
Joe was sitting stunned, as if in shock. Izzy put a hand on his shoulder, and he shook him off, turning away. Taken aback, Izzy stared at his friend.
Tai was gazing after the bats, looking at the red wound in the sky with an I'm-up-to-something look in his eyes. It was the look that usually preceded most of his plans.
"Izzy," he said quietly, but with a note of command in his voice that made the teenage tech pay attention, "how long would you say we have before that portal closes?"
Izzy blinked, trying to calculate through a fog of shock. "Uhm...I'd say about an hour?"
"That's long enough," Tai said decisively, standing up with purpose gleaming in his expression. "Get whatever you think will help, Matt. We're going to war."
Twelve...twelve! Blast her weak human shell! One more soul and I am free...but she cannot hold even an insect's! Her pain wrenched her from my control...not for long, but for long enough. I cannot let her win! I will triumph! I must!
But wait...why do I worry myself for nothing? I have my thirteenth soul, here and ready for the taking...
Sweet Mimi, you have proved useful in yet another way...your last way. I am almost to my stronghold, and there I will finish what I started three Earth years ago. The altar is ready, and the bats are swift in their flight.
Soon the rebirth will be complete.
~*~*~*~