~* Darkness Rising, Silence Falls *~
A Digimon 02 Fanfic by Bandit, ©2000
Chapter 8- The Song in the Darkness, the Thirteenth Soul
~*~*~*~
"Tai! Tai, wait!"
Turning, Tai saw Kari, TK, and the rest of the younger Digidestined pushing through the crowd with their Digimon tagging behind them. His face hardened.
"Kari, what are you doing here?"
"We came as soon as we heard," Kari panted, coming to a stop next to him. "It's all over the news! I knew there was something wrong with Mimi, she hasn't looked right for days..."
"Go home, Kari," Tai said, turning away. Kari looked hurt and confused.
"What? Why? You all need help getting into that portal without your Digimon, and we brought ours!"
"We'll figure out another way," Tai said resolutely. "It's too dangerous. Now go home."
"But..." Kari's lip trembled, and she looked as though she might cry. TK put a sympathetic hand on her shoulder. The effect was immediate; Kari blinked away her tears and squared her shoulders.
"I am not a baby, Tai. Mimi is my friend, and I want to help her. I'm not just playing soldier. And I am coming, so get used to it."
Tai's jaw clenched, but Matt touched his shoulder. "She's right, Tai. She's your little sister, but she's Kari, too. And what Kari needs to do right now is what she feels is right. Okay?"
There was a tense moment, but finally Tai sighed. "Okay." Kari gave a cheer, and TK hugged her. They drew back a minute later, blushing, and their older brothers exchanged a knowing look.
"Thank you thank you thank you!" Kari yelled, getting her composure back and then losing it again as she threw her arms around her brother's neck. Tai frowned.
"I don't think you'll be so keen on thanking me later...and Mom and Dad are going to kill me." Kari glared at him. "Oh, right, right. Well, Hi-chan, I guess you're growing up after all. Good for you. Now let's stop wasting time and go!"
"Right!" the younger crowd chorused, and held up their D3's. Flashes of colored light lit the foyer as their Digimon exploded out of balls of rainbow light in their champion Digivolved forms.
"Veemon, Digivolve to..." An orange explosion sent people ducking for cover as Davis' Digimon burst out of his Digivolving ball. "ExVeemon!"
"Hawkmon, Digivolve to..." *Boom!* "Aquilamon!"
"Gatomon, Digivolve to..." *Wham!* "Nefertimon!"
"Patamon, Digivolve to..." *Bam!* "Pegasusmon!"
"Wormon, Digivolve to..." *Bang!* "Stingmon!"
By now, people were screaming and trying to escape. Tai sighed.
"It's okay, people, they're friendly!" Yolei was yelling, without much success. Kari rolled her eyes.
"Oh, this is good..."
"What else did you expect?" Ken said with a small smile. "They're already scared out of their wits. This was the last straw. At least they're getting out of the way."
"Yeah, I'd be pretty scared, too, if a load of explosions were going off around my ears, popping out monsters right and left," TK agreed.
"Then there really isn't anything we can do about it right now...except go squash those bats and rescue Mimi!" Davis yelled triumphantly, pumping his fist in the air.
"Man, from hearing him talk, you'd think we already won," TK said. Kari shrugged.
"Let's hope we've got as much of a chance as he thinks we do..." she said.
"You have to remember that the three of us have never seen Myotismon," Cody piped up. "We don't know what we're getting into."
"Yeah, well, I've got a score to settle with Fangs there!" Davis said with a dark look. "It's easy to bully a scared eight-year-old, but I'm not eight anymore!"
"Although you still sometimes act like it," Kari quipped.
Yolei blinked. "A score to settle?"
"Davis was one of the kids that Myotismon kidnapped and held captive while he was searching for Kari, back when we didn't know she was a Digidestined," Izzy explained. "I guess he wants revenge."
"Just keep a clear head, Davis," Tai advised. "You'll get your chance, but don't do anything stupid, okay?"
"Hey, this is me you're talking to, Tai," Davis said with a grin. "No worries, huh?"
"No worries...riiight," Tai said uncomfortably.
"Hey, Cody, why hasn't Armadillomon Digivolved?" Yolei asked.
"Well, we're going to have to fly up to that portal, and none of his evolutions can do that," Cody said. "I was hoping to hitch a ride until we reach the Digital World."
"Sure, you can ride Nefertimon with me," Kari said with a smile. "Is that okay, Nefertimon?"
"Of course, Kari," the great sphinx Digimon said, bowing toward Cody and his Digimon. "I can easily carry you three; Cody and Armadillomon together make hardly one of the older kids' weight."
"Great, then let's go!" Tai said, running over to ExVeemon and joining Davis on his back. Cody climbed onto Nefertimon with Armadillomon, and TK gave Matt a hand onto Pegasusmon's back. Izzy and Ken were plenty for Stingmon to carry.
Joe sighed, watching them prepare for battle. He had been through too much...he suddenly knew how Mimi had felt, when she had refused to fight anymore. He was too tired...he couldn't do this anymore. Too many losses, too much sadness...
He sat down on his sleeping bag with a deep sigh of defeat, putting his head in his hands.
"Joe?" Tai called. "Joe, hurry up! You are coming, aren't you?"
Joe didn't answer.
"I guess he chickened out," Davis said in his usual, cluelessly blunt manner. "What were we supposed to expect? He's a chickening-out kind of guy."
"We have to hurry, Tai," Izzy said regretfully. "We only have fifty minutes left before that portal closes.
"Right..." Tai said, looking unhappily over his shoulder at the slumped figure of their resident neurotic. He still hadn't moved. "Okay, you guys...let's go."
Joe heard the Digimon lifting off, but he didn't call after them. His hands fell to his sides. That was that, then. They were leaving...
His fingers brushed something, and he looked down, blinking.
It was a small, orange fruit. One of Satsuma's oranges.
"Hello, where did you come from?" he said, picking it up. "I'll bet you fell out of her pocket when she was playing Spoons, didn't you?" Turning it over in his hands, he grinned, remembering the game. She was a real fighter...
She wouldn't want me to give up.
The thought was sudden, leaping unbidden to his mind, and with it came the picture of Satsuma's face...
'It-it's been such an aw-awful d-day, and now you're being s-so n-nice to me...'
'I couldn't leave you...'
'If you get caught and I did all that running for squat, I will never forgive you, Jyou Kido! GO!'
"I'm going," he whispered. Suddenly, he stood up, putting the orange in his pocket. "I'm going!" he yelled, raising his voice as he ran towards the middle of the room, where the others were just rising through the shattered skylight. "Hey, you guys, wait for me!" he shouted. "I'm coming with you!"
"All right!" Davis jubilated. "I knew you'd come around!"
TK snorted, but made no comment. Diving back to the floor of the foyer, Aquilamon landed in front of Joe, and Yolei gave him a hand up behind her. With a few powerful flaps of his wings, they rose up to meet the others, and in the next instant, all five Digimon and their passengers had disappeared into Myotismon's portal without a trace, with forty-eight minutes left before it closed forever.
They are coming. I can feel their presence, and that alone tells me that I have regained almost my entire range of powers. With this, I can and will crush them. Foolish humans; they have no idea of the hopeless trap they are flying into...
The wasted landscape stretched for miles in every direction, farther than the eye could see. Something was different about it this time...or, perhaps, the same? Mimi's eyes scanned the distant outlines of the rolling hills, perplexed.
I've been here before... This is the place that I found myself in, the first time I came here!
Every time she had come before, it had been to a different part of the endless wastes. This time, however, she recognized the shapes of the skyline that stretched bowl-like around her. Frowning, she scanned the ground around herself.
There! But...that's impossible...
She looked more closely at the sand at her feet, blinking in disbelief, but it was no trick of the light. Clearly marked in the sand at her feet were footprints, forming a line that wandered away into the distance. Tentatively, she stretched out a foot, and placed it gently in the first of the prints.
It fit perfectly.
There really is no wind here, she thought absently. They haven't been destroyed because there is nothing to blow them away. Taking a step forward, then another, she followed the line of prints, knowing somehow that it was important that she reach the end of their guiding trail...
As she walked, she realized that she was barefoot. Her simple, white shift seemed almost to cling to her legs as she moved-had she been wearing it every time she had come here before? If not, when had it first appeared? Why had she never noticed?
I was always too wrapped up in my own fear of pain and isolation to notice anything, she realized. So...why am I not afraid, now?
The memory of the soul-wrenching pain that had torn through her in the moment before she had opened her eyes on the familiar landscape slipped through her mind.
I am beyond pain, she saw, and felt no surprise, only resignation to the fact. I have felt too much for any human to bear, and I have survived. Pain can no longer touch me, here.
The footprints suddenly changed direction, and began to space further apart. She remembered hearing a sound, turning toward it, breaking into a run...
Mimi...
She had never heard the voice in her life, at least not with her ears, and yet it was as familiar as the name it whispered across the wind. Her ears alert, she hurried her steps, still following the line of prints in the dust.
Her shift began to blow gently around her, and then with greater force. She thought nothing of it, until she realized that the footprints were disintegrating, breaking apart, flying away in clouds of dust that rose up to choke her and sting her eyes, rendering her blind and mute...
No! she tried to cry, Not when I'm so close that I can taste it! But the wind was relentless, and whisked the words away before they could sound in the dry, dusty air.
Mimi, trust me...follow my voice...
Shielding her face with one arm, leaning forward into the wind that now threatened to push her off of her feet-she knew that if she fell, she would never be able to rise, and the sands would bury her forever; but she would not fall!-Mimi struggled along, toward the voice that called to her from within the opaque haze of dust and sand that now filled the air like a fog. Her feet stubbed against the ground as she walked, just slightly, and she realized that she was moving uphill now, fighting every inch of the way...
Suddenly, the wind stopped.
The dust and sand in the air settled, and Mimi could feel it trickling across her face as it fell, nothing supporting it any longer. She blinked several time, trying to clear her vision, and looked out across the landscape revealed to her.
She stood at the crest of a hill of sand, higher than the dunes around it. There was no sign of her mysterious guide. A low valley, like the impression of a bowl sunk in the sand, lay below her, and in it were shapes. Shapes made of what seemed to be colored light, and yet as solid as she herself, judging from the way the sand spattered across them as it fell.
And just how solid are you, o mighty example of corporeality? she asked herself, perversely amused for the first time in days. Taking a few steps toward the shapes, she rubbed at her eyes, trying to discern what they were...
And her eyes suddenly cleared of the last specks of dust.
The shapes were animals.
As she stared openly at them, a great burst of multicolored light showered across the landscape, and she stumbled back as the sand before her exploded into a shower of light and sound. Throwing her hands up to shield herself, she fell backwards, catching herself on her elbows with an impact that made her gasp for a moment.
That's going to draw blood, she thought in mild displeasure, thinking of the tender skin of her elbows scraping across the rough sand, and of the pure white cloth of her shift. The injury didn't faze her so much as the thought of ruining her clothes, and that told her once again that something had happened to her perception of pain in that moment of pure, unadulterated agony that had brought her to this familiar landscape.
But her thoughts were quickly recaptured by the wash of light above her, as it hovered in the dry air and began to coalesce into a shape. She recognized patterns of color, and what looked like wings...
And then, very suddenly and with a soft whoosh of whispering sound, it came together and became solid, and she realized what it was.
What...what are you...doing here? she gasped, stunned.
The great butterfly flapped its wings a few times, raising clouds of dust.
Mimi...you have defeated his first line of defense... Its voice boomed softly in her head, and she again was struck by its familiarity.
You sound like someone I know...but I'm not sure who... she said in vague confusion. The butterfly seemed to laugh, but its laugh was a scattering of light from its wings, and not a sound at all.
I am someone you know, or I suppose you could say that.
Who? Mimi said, breathlessly.
I am you, Mimi.
"Where the heck are we?" Matt said, looking around in a perplexed way.
The other Digidestined didn't bother to give him an answer; they knew he didn't expect one, and none of them knew where they were any better than he did, anyway. The place they were in was bleak and plain, a nighttime desert of heavy sand that crunched beneath their feet, covered in a low, drifting fog that came up to their knees. Gnarled, twisted trees, devoid of leaves, thrust upward through the fog at intervals, like old men's fingers pointing up to the blue-black sky.
"We never came here while we were in the Digiworld," Izzy observed.
"Maybe not, but we're definitely somewhere in it," Kari stated. "I recognize the constellations. There's that one that we always thought looked like Whamon." She pointed upward, and TK came to stand next to her, putting his face next to hers to follow her finger with his gaze. It seemed pretty romantic, until Tai joined them on her other side.
"Hmm...'we'? Who's 'we'?" he said, frowning.
"Me and Mimi..." Kari said, her lip suddenly beginning to tremble again. Suddenly, she bit down on it, scowling, and pulled away from both of them. "C'mon, you guys, let's get going! We're wasting our time here, and Mimi needs us!"
"But we don't have any idea of which way to go," TK pointed out with infuriating calmness. "And it won't do Mimi any good if we go dashing off in some random direction and end up hopelessly lost."
"But...but..." Kari stammered, deeply frustrated.
"We should send up one of the Digimon to scout around, or something," TK said. "Isn't that right, Matt?"
His brother didn't answer, and TK frowned and nudged him.
"Matt... Hello! Earth to Matt, come in, Matt!" He gave him a shove, but Matt didn't even blink. TK began to look worried. "Tai, something's wrong with Matt!"
"What?" Tai said, dropping his telescope, which he had been using to scan the horizon. "Aw, shoot!" He knelt and began to search the fog-obscured ground for it. "What do you mean, there's something wrong with him?"
"He won't move! Tai, there's something really wrong here...I don't like this a bit!"
Matt blinked repeatedly, trying to clear his vision. He'd been looking around, trying to find some sort of clue to their whereabouts... The last thing he remembered hearing was Kari saying that they were definitely somewhere in the Digiworld. Then he'd seen something glinting in the branches of one of those gnarled trees, and had taken a few steps toward it...
A flash of light had reflected off of it suddenly, blinding him, and now he was standing here, trying to blink away the sunspots before his eyes...
His vision coming back, he realized that he was alone.
"Hello? Hello..." No one answered, and he shivered. This wasn't the foggy, scraggly forest he'd landed in with the others after navigating the portal. He was still in *a* waste, but not the one he'd been in a moment ago. This waste was more desertlike, more deserted-Something I'd have thought impossible a few minutes ago, he thought ironically-and the sky was gray and devoid of stars.
Suddenly, he heard footsteps, and looked up. A figure was making its way toward him, a slender figure, dressed in white, with long hair blowing about its head and shoulders in the wind. Its bare feet left no footprints in the spectral, silver sand. He took a few steps toward it, then froze, suddenly afraid. What if it wasn't friendly? What if it was downright dangerous?
The figure made no attempt to call out to him, but only continued to come steadily closer. Matt frowned...it didn't look dangerous, but you could never be sure...
As he finally got a good look at it, Matt sucked in his breath, a wash of ice running down his spine. He could see the figure's feet clearly; in fact, he could see it up to its knees. But at about that point, it began to-not fade, not exactly, but-become transparent. By its shoulders, he could see the distant dunes right through it, and its face was so insubstantial that he couldn't make out its features. He began to back away, terrified.
The figure stopped as he began to move, and held out its hands in what looked like a silent plea. The gesture would have been more reassuring if Matt had not been able to see the sands of the desert through the pleading hands, but he was still surprised and, somehow, captivated enough to stop.
As it dropped its hands and began to walk forward again, Matt realized that it was becoming clearer, more opaque, the closer it came. He blinked and squinted, trying to make out the figure's face.
The silhouette's gown whipped around its ankles, alternately pulled tightly against its 'body' and billowed around it by the wind. Definitely female, whatever it is, Matt thought, slightly embarrassed. He forgot his embarrassment, however, when he realized that it was beginning to look very familiar...in fact, it looked almost like...
And at that moment of realization, only a few feet in front of him now, the figure stopped, and its body became instantly as clearly visible and solid as his own.
"Mimi!" he gasped. Her eyes were sad as they looked into his.
I am not the Mimi you search for, came a voice-Mimi's, yet not Mimi's-ringing in his mind. I am...another. The one you seek is further on. I will guide you to her...
"I don't understand..." Matt said softly, looking into her warm hazel eyes. "What do you mean, 'the Mimi I search for'?" The figure began to fade, and he started up in alarm. "Wait! Don't go! MIMI!"
Follow my death.
"What death? I don't understand! Please..." He stretched out a hand, to catch at her arm, but his fingers passed through her as though she were no more substantial than air. As they did, a sort of ripple seemed to pass through the illusion that was her, and she gasped as if in pain.
He drew back, shocked at what his innocent gesture had done, and realized that her face had gone white, as if dead. She began to topple backwards, her eyes not leaving his.
Follow my death...
She made no move to catch herself, but fell proudly, straight and tall, like a sapling cut in two by a single swipe of a careless knife. Matt reached out to her, but her fall was-impossibly-slowing, as her gown floated around her. Less than a foot from the ground, she vanished, dissolving into sparkles of colored light that raced away into the distance.
Follow my death...
"Matt! Wake up!"
Matt shook his head, slowly, as if awakening from a dream. He was drifting back...but from where? All he could see was Mimi's face, paling, dying at his touch...
"Follow my death..." he whispered, staring off into the distance as the world around him came gradually back into focus.
"What? Matt, snap out of it! What death?"
"He's talking! He's coming awake!"
He wanted to come back, he really did, but he was busy now, far too busy to return; maybe later, after he had puzzled out the not-Mimi's riddle...
"Follow my death... Wait for me...I can't...I can't find...help me! I can't-"
*slap!*
He was jolted back to reality with a start. Tai stood before him, his hand still raised.
"Wha...? Tai?"
"Sorry about that, man, but you gave us a real scare there."
"Yeah, Matt, what happened?" TK said, looking rattled. "You looked like a statue, or something...I don't think you could even see me right in front of you, and your eyes were wide open!"
Matt wasn't listening. "Follow her death," he murmured.
"Whose death? Would you mind elucidating on that point for the rest of us?" Izzy said impatiently. Matt was walking away, straight ahead: the direction that the not-Mimi's remains had flown, back in that dream world of a desert.
"Mimi's. I saw Mimi."
"What?!" Kari exclaimed.
"She said to follow her death..." Suddenly, a flash of light caught his eye, and he took several running steps forward. It was the thing in the tree that had sent him into that world in the first place. As he neared it, the others following at his heels with loud complaints, he recognized it; it was a shard of glass from the skylight.
"Matt, what-"
"They've been through here!" he shouted, startling everyone. "Look!" He reached the tree, spotted another bit of glass glinting in the fog a few feet away, ran to it, and saw another. "We have to follow the trail of broken glass they dropped!"
"But, what if they were coming the other direction?" Davis said with a frown.
"The trail only starts here," Matt said. "Besides, I know this is the way to go. I just do, okay?" he said firmly as Davis began to protest. "Don't ask how. Just trust me."
With that, he took off across the foggy ground. The others looked at Tai, who paused, thinking, and then nodded decisively and followed his friend. The others shrugged and followed their leader.
Mimi's mind reeled.
Me? But...you can't be me...I mean, *I'm* me... Aren't I?
The butterfly laughed again, with another scattering of light.
In a way. I am not quite you, Mimi. But neither are you.
What? Mimi stammered.
We, together, are Mimi. You are more of her than I am, but I am her as well.
I...don't understand, Mimi said softly.
I am your subconscious, Mimi. Your soul, so to speak. We are each other.
But...I... About to protest that she still didn't understand, Mimi was suddenly hit with a revelation. Oh... I think I get it, now... I couldn't explain it to someone else, but I think I understand it...
She paused, and looked past the butterfly to the not-quite-animals below.
So who are they? What are they doing here? She paused. Why are they so sad?
The butterfly fluttered lower. Climb onto my back, she sent. I will explain as we go.
Mimi obliged. She was half afraid that the butterfly would prove as insubstantial as it looked, and that her hand would go through it, but it held her weight. They soared down over the basin-like valley. Mimi counted the animals as they passed. There were twelve.
They are other souls, her subconscious said softly. The ones that the Dark Lord has captured, for his own resurrection.
The Dark Lord? You mean Myotismon? Mimi said, a shiver of fear running through her. The butterfly only sighed, a raining of dull blue-green light from its wings, and flew on. But...who are they?
You know four. Find them.
Frowning, Mimi scanned the shapes. A yellow stag, a purple eagle, some sort of lizard in glaring green...
The lizard! she said suddenly. The butterfly nodded.
Your friend, Aika Shanjo.
And... Mimi looked carefully, and saw a small brown shape: a kitten. Kichi! That's Kichi! A bright orange flare caught her eye, and she recognized the form of a tiger. That's...that's Satsuma Taiyo, Joe's friend! Mimi cried in surprise. How did she...I mean...when...?
Just after the Dark Lord forced you here, the butterfly said sadly. She is a very free spirit. It tears at her to be imprisoned here.
Sure enough, as Mimi watched, the tiger reared up and let out a miserable roar, clawing at the air. Falling back to earth, it whimpered and lay down, sounding and looking sad and lost...
Why doesn't she see me? Mimi said, confused.
She cannot see out of the basin, any more than she can leave it. To us, they seem free, but to them, they are trapped in a small patch of the Shadowlands, a prison cell of the soul, unable to escape.
A wash of anger welled up in Mimi's heart. Suddenly, she wanted to destroy Myotismon, longed to crush his cruel head into the dirt...
Kill not in anger, Mimi. Look for your friend.
Mimi's eyes lit on something blue, and her rage faded, replaced by a deep, guilty sadness. A large blue bird perched on a stone outcrop at the side of the basin; as it raised its head momentarily to look dejectedly around itself, its wings stirred, fluttering with blue flame, and she realized that it was a phoenix.
Sora... Mimi whispered, half horrified, half racked with guilt. The butterfly seemed to sense the emotions, and sighed again.
Do not blame yourself, Mimi, she said gently. The Dark Lord did this. Not you.
Why? Mimi wailed. Why did he do this to them? Why did he choose me?
I do not know, the butterfly said. I only know that we are strong, stronger than he knows us to be. He has underestimated us, and that is his weakness and his vital mistake. You can defeat him with it, and free yourself and your friends from his clutches forever.
How? Mimi said in desperation.
I do not know. That is a mystery you will have to unravel yourself. I know one thing that might help you; there is a second prophecy, passed down through the ages, made by the same prophet who helped you against him when he was first defeated...
What is it? Tell me! Mimi insisted. This prophecy might be her only hope...
The butterfly stirred her wings, sending clouds of colored light into the air. From the light, and without making any real sound at all, words reached her ears...or was it her soul?
When darkness shadows the sun
When love seems dead and gone
When winged ones fill the skies
When light falls, and hope cries
In this the darkest hour
A dark one comes to power
A dozen souls enslaved
The thirteenth soul must save
She bears the cruelest pain
But ere the sun shines again
The strong one must win by losing
To e'er again hear the phoenix sing
There was silence for a moment. Then Mimi spoke.
That's all?
The butterfly nodded.
But...but that doesn't tell me anything! I still don't know what to do! Swallowing hard, Mimi struggled against panic. I can't do this! You've got the wrong person-I'm not strong, or any of that! And I'm awful at bearing pain! And how do you win by losing? It makes no sense! Mimi knew she was losing her battle against fear, but she didn't care anymore. This was all wrong!
It is not the best, the butterfly admitted, but it is all we have. You must go forth and use it to the best of your ability, or both worlds are lost.
What?
The butterfly radiated gentle sympathy, instead of the pity or disgust Mimi had been afraid it would feel for her.
Mimi, Myotismon does not mean to sit quietly and smell the roses once he is reborn. He wants power, and he means to obtain that power through conquest. The wish to control eats at his soul, and undermines his wits. When his temper is lost and that insane lust for power is given control, it takes away the facade of civilization he wears and reveals him for the beast he is. That loss of self-control was what destroyed him the last time you fought.
But...we destroyed him!
Because he let his guard down. Because he allowed the madness that lurks within him to break free. He does not intend to allow that again, Mimi, and he knows you all too well now. In that knowledge, that readiness, he believes he can control you all, as well.
The butterfly sighed again.
And he is right.
No! Mimi cried. She felt sick. If this beautiful creature had given in, what chance did a weak, frightened child like her have against the deep-rooted evil that threatened everything she loved? Struggling not to sob or throw up or faint, she clung to the butterfly's back. Then...there is no hope?
Hope will not help us tonight, the butterfly said calmly. It is Sincerity we all look to for salvation. It is purity, and honesty, and good intentions.
Good intentions gone astray, Mimi said bitterly. This is impossible.
Nothing is impossible. He can control what he expects, but there is one thing he has not foreseen, and is not prepared for. You.
Me? What can I do?
You can attack from within. He believes us to be in his control...but he is wrong. He will not think to defend himself against you, and so you will have the one opportunity to strike. Do not waste it.
Wait! Mimi cried, suddenly nervous. Her stomach felt almost as though something pulled at it, and she wondered if she really was going to be sick... When should I strike? How? Explain, please!
The prophecy has told you when, the butterfly said, and Mimi realized that her voice was fading. When darkness shadows the sun, when love seems dead and gone...
But I don't know what the prophecy means! Mimi wailed.
When winged ones fill the skies, when light falls and hope cries...
Stop reciting and listen to me! Help me against him!
The butterfly's wings slowed their beating. I cannot. I am trapped here. It is through me that he controls you...but he may make one mistake. If he lets go his grip on me, then strike. Use your best judgment, and wait until the last possible moment. Attack with your whole heart. Do not forget the prophecy. You are the thirteenth soul. In this the darkest hour, a dark one comes to power...
You can't leave me to face him! Mimi screeched. Don't leave me! She could feel the pulling in her stomach become stronger, dragging her up and out of the Shadowlands. He was summoning her...he could control her...
I will never leave you, Mimi. I am you, and you are me. He may command your body, but he has never controlled your heart. Remember!
And she remembered. She was not a weak, frightened child. She was a butterfly.
That beautiful creature was her.
The knowledge sent a surge of confidence through her. The world depended on them, and while the weak child that she now knew was not her true self would have been afraid, the butterfly that she had realized she truly was would fight the darkness forever to protect that which was dearest to it.
I'll remember, she whispered as the butterfly and the Shadowlands and the trapped souls in their valley all faded from her sight. And I'll do my best. I promise.
~*~*~*~
A Digimon 02 Fanfic by Bandit, ©2000
Chapter 8- The Song in the Darkness, the Thirteenth Soul
~*~*~*~
"Tai! Tai, wait!"
Turning, Tai saw Kari, TK, and the rest of the younger Digidestined pushing through the crowd with their Digimon tagging behind them. His face hardened.
"Kari, what are you doing here?"
"We came as soon as we heard," Kari panted, coming to a stop next to him. "It's all over the news! I knew there was something wrong with Mimi, she hasn't looked right for days..."
"Go home, Kari," Tai said, turning away. Kari looked hurt and confused.
"What? Why? You all need help getting into that portal without your Digimon, and we brought ours!"
"We'll figure out another way," Tai said resolutely. "It's too dangerous. Now go home."
"But..." Kari's lip trembled, and she looked as though she might cry. TK put a sympathetic hand on her shoulder. The effect was immediate; Kari blinked away her tears and squared her shoulders.
"I am not a baby, Tai. Mimi is my friend, and I want to help her. I'm not just playing soldier. And I am coming, so get used to it."
Tai's jaw clenched, but Matt touched his shoulder. "She's right, Tai. She's your little sister, but she's Kari, too. And what Kari needs to do right now is what she feels is right. Okay?"
There was a tense moment, but finally Tai sighed. "Okay." Kari gave a cheer, and TK hugged her. They drew back a minute later, blushing, and their older brothers exchanged a knowing look.
"Thank you thank you thank you!" Kari yelled, getting her composure back and then losing it again as she threw her arms around her brother's neck. Tai frowned.
"I don't think you'll be so keen on thanking me later...and Mom and Dad are going to kill me." Kari glared at him. "Oh, right, right. Well, Hi-chan, I guess you're growing up after all. Good for you. Now let's stop wasting time and go!"
"Right!" the younger crowd chorused, and held up their D3's. Flashes of colored light lit the foyer as their Digimon exploded out of balls of rainbow light in their champion Digivolved forms.
"Veemon, Digivolve to..." An orange explosion sent people ducking for cover as Davis' Digimon burst out of his Digivolving ball. "ExVeemon!"
"Hawkmon, Digivolve to..." *Boom!* "Aquilamon!"
"Gatomon, Digivolve to..." *Wham!* "Nefertimon!"
"Patamon, Digivolve to..." *Bam!* "Pegasusmon!"
"Wormon, Digivolve to..." *Bang!* "Stingmon!"
By now, people were screaming and trying to escape. Tai sighed.
"It's okay, people, they're friendly!" Yolei was yelling, without much success. Kari rolled her eyes.
"Oh, this is good..."
"What else did you expect?" Ken said with a small smile. "They're already scared out of their wits. This was the last straw. At least they're getting out of the way."
"Yeah, I'd be pretty scared, too, if a load of explosions were going off around my ears, popping out monsters right and left," TK agreed.
"Then there really isn't anything we can do about it right now...except go squash those bats and rescue Mimi!" Davis yelled triumphantly, pumping his fist in the air.
"Man, from hearing him talk, you'd think we already won," TK said. Kari shrugged.
"Let's hope we've got as much of a chance as he thinks we do..." she said.
"You have to remember that the three of us have never seen Myotismon," Cody piped up. "We don't know what we're getting into."
"Yeah, well, I've got a score to settle with Fangs there!" Davis said with a dark look. "It's easy to bully a scared eight-year-old, but I'm not eight anymore!"
"Although you still sometimes act like it," Kari quipped.
Yolei blinked. "A score to settle?"
"Davis was one of the kids that Myotismon kidnapped and held captive while he was searching for Kari, back when we didn't know she was a Digidestined," Izzy explained. "I guess he wants revenge."
"Just keep a clear head, Davis," Tai advised. "You'll get your chance, but don't do anything stupid, okay?"
"Hey, this is me you're talking to, Tai," Davis said with a grin. "No worries, huh?"
"No worries...riiight," Tai said uncomfortably.
"Hey, Cody, why hasn't Armadillomon Digivolved?" Yolei asked.
"Well, we're going to have to fly up to that portal, and none of his evolutions can do that," Cody said. "I was hoping to hitch a ride until we reach the Digital World."
"Sure, you can ride Nefertimon with me," Kari said with a smile. "Is that okay, Nefertimon?"
"Of course, Kari," the great sphinx Digimon said, bowing toward Cody and his Digimon. "I can easily carry you three; Cody and Armadillomon together make hardly one of the older kids' weight."
"Great, then let's go!" Tai said, running over to ExVeemon and joining Davis on his back. Cody climbed onto Nefertimon with Armadillomon, and TK gave Matt a hand onto Pegasusmon's back. Izzy and Ken were plenty for Stingmon to carry.
Joe sighed, watching them prepare for battle. He had been through too much...he suddenly knew how Mimi had felt, when she had refused to fight anymore. He was too tired...he couldn't do this anymore. Too many losses, too much sadness...
He sat down on his sleeping bag with a deep sigh of defeat, putting his head in his hands.
"Joe?" Tai called. "Joe, hurry up! You are coming, aren't you?"
Joe didn't answer.
"I guess he chickened out," Davis said in his usual, cluelessly blunt manner. "What were we supposed to expect? He's a chickening-out kind of guy."
"We have to hurry, Tai," Izzy said regretfully. "We only have fifty minutes left before that portal closes.
"Right..." Tai said, looking unhappily over his shoulder at the slumped figure of their resident neurotic. He still hadn't moved. "Okay, you guys...let's go."
Joe heard the Digimon lifting off, but he didn't call after them. His hands fell to his sides. That was that, then. They were leaving...
His fingers brushed something, and he looked down, blinking.
It was a small, orange fruit. One of Satsuma's oranges.
"Hello, where did you come from?" he said, picking it up. "I'll bet you fell out of her pocket when she was playing Spoons, didn't you?" Turning it over in his hands, he grinned, remembering the game. She was a real fighter...
She wouldn't want me to give up.
The thought was sudden, leaping unbidden to his mind, and with it came the picture of Satsuma's face...
'It-it's been such an aw-awful d-day, and now you're being s-so n-nice to me...'
'I couldn't leave you...'
'If you get caught and I did all that running for squat, I will never forgive you, Jyou Kido! GO!'
"I'm going," he whispered. Suddenly, he stood up, putting the orange in his pocket. "I'm going!" he yelled, raising his voice as he ran towards the middle of the room, where the others were just rising through the shattered skylight. "Hey, you guys, wait for me!" he shouted. "I'm coming with you!"
"All right!" Davis jubilated. "I knew you'd come around!"
TK snorted, but made no comment. Diving back to the floor of the foyer, Aquilamon landed in front of Joe, and Yolei gave him a hand up behind her. With a few powerful flaps of his wings, they rose up to meet the others, and in the next instant, all five Digimon and their passengers had disappeared into Myotismon's portal without a trace, with forty-eight minutes left before it closed forever.
They are coming. I can feel their presence, and that alone tells me that I have regained almost my entire range of powers. With this, I can and will crush them. Foolish humans; they have no idea of the hopeless trap they are flying into...
The wasted landscape stretched for miles in every direction, farther than the eye could see. Something was different about it this time...or, perhaps, the same? Mimi's eyes scanned the distant outlines of the rolling hills, perplexed.
I've been here before... This is the place that I found myself in, the first time I came here!
Every time she had come before, it had been to a different part of the endless wastes. This time, however, she recognized the shapes of the skyline that stretched bowl-like around her. Frowning, she scanned the ground around herself.
There! But...that's impossible...
She looked more closely at the sand at her feet, blinking in disbelief, but it was no trick of the light. Clearly marked in the sand at her feet were footprints, forming a line that wandered away into the distance. Tentatively, she stretched out a foot, and placed it gently in the first of the prints.
It fit perfectly.
There really is no wind here, she thought absently. They haven't been destroyed because there is nothing to blow them away. Taking a step forward, then another, she followed the line of prints, knowing somehow that it was important that she reach the end of their guiding trail...
As she walked, she realized that she was barefoot. Her simple, white shift seemed almost to cling to her legs as she moved-had she been wearing it every time she had come here before? If not, when had it first appeared? Why had she never noticed?
I was always too wrapped up in my own fear of pain and isolation to notice anything, she realized. So...why am I not afraid, now?
The memory of the soul-wrenching pain that had torn through her in the moment before she had opened her eyes on the familiar landscape slipped through her mind.
I am beyond pain, she saw, and felt no surprise, only resignation to the fact. I have felt too much for any human to bear, and I have survived. Pain can no longer touch me, here.
The footprints suddenly changed direction, and began to space further apart. She remembered hearing a sound, turning toward it, breaking into a run...
Mimi...
She had never heard the voice in her life, at least not with her ears, and yet it was as familiar as the name it whispered across the wind. Her ears alert, she hurried her steps, still following the line of prints in the dust.
Her shift began to blow gently around her, and then with greater force. She thought nothing of it, until she realized that the footprints were disintegrating, breaking apart, flying away in clouds of dust that rose up to choke her and sting her eyes, rendering her blind and mute...
No! she tried to cry, Not when I'm so close that I can taste it! But the wind was relentless, and whisked the words away before they could sound in the dry, dusty air.
Mimi, trust me...follow my voice...
Shielding her face with one arm, leaning forward into the wind that now threatened to push her off of her feet-she knew that if she fell, she would never be able to rise, and the sands would bury her forever; but she would not fall!-Mimi struggled along, toward the voice that called to her from within the opaque haze of dust and sand that now filled the air like a fog. Her feet stubbed against the ground as she walked, just slightly, and she realized that she was moving uphill now, fighting every inch of the way...
Suddenly, the wind stopped.
The dust and sand in the air settled, and Mimi could feel it trickling across her face as it fell, nothing supporting it any longer. She blinked several time, trying to clear her vision, and looked out across the landscape revealed to her.
She stood at the crest of a hill of sand, higher than the dunes around it. There was no sign of her mysterious guide. A low valley, like the impression of a bowl sunk in the sand, lay below her, and in it were shapes. Shapes made of what seemed to be colored light, and yet as solid as she herself, judging from the way the sand spattered across them as it fell.
And just how solid are you, o mighty example of corporeality? she asked herself, perversely amused for the first time in days. Taking a few steps toward the shapes, she rubbed at her eyes, trying to discern what they were...
And her eyes suddenly cleared of the last specks of dust.
The shapes were animals.
As she stared openly at them, a great burst of multicolored light showered across the landscape, and she stumbled back as the sand before her exploded into a shower of light and sound. Throwing her hands up to shield herself, she fell backwards, catching herself on her elbows with an impact that made her gasp for a moment.
That's going to draw blood, she thought in mild displeasure, thinking of the tender skin of her elbows scraping across the rough sand, and of the pure white cloth of her shift. The injury didn't faze her so much as the thought of ruining her clothes, and that told her once again that something had happened to her perception of pain in that moment of pure, unadulterated agony that had brought her to this familiar landscape.
But her thoughts were quickly recaptured by the wash of light above her, as it hovered in the dry air and began to coalesce into a shape. She recognized patterns of color, and what looked like wings...
And then, very suddenly and with a soft whoosh of whispering sound, it came together and became solid, and she realized what it was.
What...what are you...doing here? she gasped, stunned.
The great butterfly flapped its wings a few times, raising clouds of dust.
Mimi...you have defeated his first line of defense... Its voice boomed softly in her head, and she again was struck by its familiarity.
You sound like someone I know...but I'm not sure who... she said in vague confusion. The butterfly seemed to laugh, but its laugh was a scattering of light from its wings, and not a sound at all.
I am someone you know, or I suppose you could say that.
Who? Mimi said, breathlessly.
I am you, Mimi.
"Where the heck are we?" Matt said, looking around in a perplexed way.
The other Digidestined didn't bother to give him an answer; they knew he didn't expect one, and none of them knew where they were any better than he did, anyway. The place they were in was bleak and plain, a nighttime desert of heavy sand that crunched beneath their feet, covered in a low, drifting fog that came up to their knees. Gnarled, twisted trees, devoid of leaves, thrust upward through the fog at intervals, like old men's fingers pointing up to the blue-black sky.
"We never came here while we were in the Digiworld," Izzy observed.
"Maybe not, but we're definitely somewhere in it," Kari stated. "I recognize the constellations. There's that one that we always thought looked like Whamon." She pointed upward, and TK came to stand next to her, putting his face next to hers to follow her finger with his gaze. It seemed pretty romantic, until Tai joined them on her other side.
"Hmm...'we'? Who's 'we'?" he said, frowning.
"Me and Mimi..." Kari said, her lip suddenly beginning to tremble again. Suddenly, she bit down on it, scowling, and pulled away from both of them. "C'mon, you guys, let's get going! We're wasting our time here, and Mimi needs us!"
"But we don't have any idea of which way to go," TK pointed out with infuriating calmness. "And it won't do Mimi any good if we go dashing off in some random direction and end up hopelessly lost."
"But...but..." Kari stammered, deeply frustrated.
"We should send up one of the Digimon to scout around, or something," TK said. "Isn't that right, Matt?"
His brother didn't answer, and TK frowned and nudged him.
"Matt... Hello! Earth to Matt, come in, Matt!" He gave him a shove, but Matt didn't even blink. TK began to look worried. "Tai, something's wrong with Matt!"
"What?" Tai said, dropping his telescope, which he had been using to scan the horizon. "Aw, shoot!" He knelt and began to search the fog-obscured ground for it. "What do you mean, there's something wrong with him?"
"He won't move! Tai, there's something really wrong here...I don't like this a bit!"
Matt blinked repeatedly, trying to clear his vision. He'd been looking around, trying to find some sort of clue to their whereabouts... The last thing he remembered hearing was Kari saying that they were definitely somewhere in the Digiworld. Then he'd seen something glinting in the branches of one of those gnarled trees, and had taken a few steps toward it...
A flash of light had reflected off of it suddenly, blinding him, and now he was standing here, trying to blink away the sunspots before his eyes...
His vision coming back, he realized that he was alone.
"Hello? Hello..." No one answered, and he shivered. This wasn't the foggy, scraggly forest he'd landed in with the others after navigating the portal. He was still in *a* waste, but not the one he'd been in a moment ago. This waste was more desertlike, more deserted-Something I'd have thought impossible a few minutes ago, he thought ironically-and the sky was gray and devoid of stars.
Suddenly, he heard footsteps, and looked up. A figure was making its way toward him, a slender figure, dressed in white, with long hair blowing about its head and shoulders in the wind. Its bare feet left no footprints in the spectral, silver sand. He took a few steps toward it, then froze, suddenly afraid. What if it wasn't friendly? What if it was downright dangerous?
The figure made no attempt to call out to him, but only continued to come steadily closer. Matt frowned...it didn't look dangerous, but you could never be sure...
As he finally got a good look at it, Matt sucked in his breath, a wash of ice running down his spine. He could see the figure's feet clearly; in fact, he could see it up to its knees. But at about that point, it began to-not fade, not exactly, but-become transparent. By its shoulders, he could see the distant dunes right through it, and its face was so insubstantial that he couldn't make out its features. He began to back away, terrified.
The figure stopped as he began to move, and held out its hands in what looked like a silent plea. The gesture would have been more reassuring if Matt had not been able to see the sands of the desert through the pleading hands, but he was still surprised and, somehow, captivated enough to stop.
As it dropped its hands and began to walk forward again, Matt realized that it was becoming clearer, more opaque, the closer it came. He blinked and squinted, trying to make out the figure's face.
The silhouette's gown whipped around its ankles, alternately pulled tightly against its 'body' and billowed around it by the wind. Definitely female, whatever it is, Matt thought, slightly embarrassed. He forgot his embarrassment, however, when he realized that it was beginning to look very familiar...in fact, it looked almost like...
And at that moment of realization, only a few feet in front of him now, the figure stopped, and its body became instantly as clearly visible and solid as his own.
"Mimi!" he gasped. Her eyes were sad as they looked into his.
I am not the Mimi you search for, came a voice-Mimi's, yet not Mimi's-ringing in his mind. I am...another. The one you seek is further on. I will guide you to her...
"I don't understand..." Matt said softly, looking into her warm hazel eyes. "What do you mean, 'the Mimi I search for'?" The figure began to fade, and he started up in alarm. "Wait! Don't go! MIMI!"
Follow my death.
"What death? I don't understand! Please..." He stretched out a hand, to catch at her arm, but his fingers passed through her as though she were no more substantial than air. As they did, a sort of ripple seemed to pass through the illusion that was her, and she gasped as if in pain.
He drew back, shocked at what his innocent gesture had done, and realized that her face had gone white, as if dead. She began to topple backwards, her eyes not leaving his.
Follow my death...
She made no move to catch herself, but fell proudly, straight and tall, like a sapling cut in two by a single swipe of a careless knife. Matt reached out to her, but her fall was-impossibly-slowing, as her gown floated around her. Less than a foot from the ground, she vanished, dissolving into sparkles of colored light that raced away into the distance.
Follow my death...
"Matt! Wake up!"
Matt shook his head, slowly, as if awakening from a dream. He was drifting back...but from where? All he could see was Mimi's face, paling, dying at his touch...
"Follow my death..." he whispered, staring off into the distance as the world around him came gradually back into focus.
"What? Matt, snap out of it! What death?"
"He's talking! He's coming awake!"
He wanted to come back, he really did, but he was busy now, far too busy to return; maybe later, after he had puzzled out the not-Mimi's riddle...
"Follow my death... Wait for me...I can't...I can't find...help me! I can't-"
*slap!*
He was jolted back to reality with a start. Tai stood before him, his hand still raised.
"Wha...? Tai?"
"Sorry about that, man, but you gave us a real scare there."
"Yeah, Matt, what happened?" TK said, looking rattled. "You looked like a statue, or something...I don't think you could even see me right in front of you, and your eyes were wide open!"
Matt wasn't listening. "Follow her death," he murmured.
"Whose death? Would you mind elucidating on that point for the rest of us?" Izzy said impatiently. Matt was walking away, straight ahead: the direction that the not-Mimi's remains had flown, back in that dream world of a desert.
"Mimi's. I saw Mimi."
"What?!" Kari exclaimed.
"She said to follow her death..." Suddenly, a flash of light caught his eye, and he took several running steps forward. It was the thing in the tree that had sent him into that world in the first place. As he neared it, the others following at his heels with loud complaints, he recognized it; it was a shard of glass from the skylight.
"Matt, what-"
"They've been through here!" he shouted, startling everyone. "Look!" He reached the tree, spotted another bit of glass glinting in the fog a few feet away, ran to it, and saw another. "We have to follow the trail of broken glass they dropped!"
"But, what if they were coming the other direction?" Davis said with a frown.
"The trail only starts here," Matt said. "Besides, I know this is the way to go. I just do, okay?" he said firmly as Davis began to protest. "Don't ask how. Just trust me."
With that, he took off across the foggy ground. The others looked at Tai, who paused, thinking, and then nodded decisively and followed his friend. The others shrugged and followed their leader.
Mimi's mind reeled.
Me? But...you can't be me...I mean, *I'm* me... Aren't I?
The butterfly laughed again, with another scattering of light.
In a way. I am not quite you, Mimi. But neither are you.
What? Mimi stammered.
We, together, are Mimi. You are more of her than I am, but I am her as well.
I...don't understand, Mimi said softly.
I am your subconscious, Mimi. Your soul, so to speak. We are each other.
But...I... About to protest that she still didn't understand, Mimi was suddenly hit with a revelation. Oh... I think I get it, now... I couldn't explain it to someone else, but I think I understand it...
She paused, and looked past the butterfly to the not-quite-animals below.
So who are they? What are they doing here? She paused. Why are they so sad?
The butterfly fluttered lower. Climb onto my back, she sent. I will explain as we go.
Mimi obliged. She was half afraid that the butterfly would prove as insubstantial as it looked, and that her hand would go through it, but it held her weight. They soared down over the basin-like valley. Mimi counted the animals as they passed. There were twelve.
They are other souls, her subconscious said softly. The ones that the Dark Lord has captured, for his own resurrection.
The Dark Lord? You mean Myotismon? Mimi said, a shiver of fear running through her. The butterfly only sighed, a raining of dull blue-green light from its wings, and flew on. But...who are they?
You know four. Find them.
Frowning, Mimi scanned the shapes. A yellow stag, a purple eagle, some sort of lizard in glaring green...
The lizard! she said suddenly. The butterfly nodded.
Your friend, Aika Shanjo.
And... Mimi looked carefully, and saw a small brown shape: a kitten. Kichi! That's Kichi! A bright orange flare caught her eye, and she recognized the form of a tiger. That's...that's Satsuma Taiyo, Joe's friend! Mimi cried in surprise. How did she...I mean...when...?
Just after the Dark Lord forced you here, the butterfly said sadly. She is a very free spirit. It tears at her to be imprisoned here.
Sure enough, as Mimi watched, the tiger reared up and let out a miserable roar, clawing at the air. Falling back to earth, it whimpered and lay down, sounding and looking sad and lost...
Why doesn't she see me? Mimi said, confused.
She cannot see out of the basin, any more than she can leave it. To us, they seem free, but to them, they are trapped in a small patch of the Shadowlands, a prison cell of the soul, unable to escape.
A wash of anger welled up in Mimi's heart. Suddenly, she wanted to destroy Myotismon, longed to crush his cruel head into the dirt...
Kill not in anger, Mimi. Look for your friend.
Mimi's eyes lit on something blue, and her rage faded, replaced by a deep, guilty sadness. A large blue bird perched on a stone outcrop at the side of the basin; as it raised its head momentarily to look dejectedly around itself, its wings stirred, fluttering with blue flame, and she realized that it was a phoenix.
Sora... Mimi whispered, half horrified, half racked with guilt. The butterfly seemed to sense the emotions, and sighed again.
Do not blame yourself, Mimi, she said gently. The Dark Lord did this. Not you.
Why? Mimi wailed. Why did he do this to them? Why did he choose me?
I do not know, the butterfly said. I only know that we are strong, stronger than he knows us to be. He has underestimated us, and that is his weakness and his vital mistake. You can defeat him with it, and free yourself and your friends from his clutches forever.
How? Mimi said in desperation.
I do not know. That is a mystery you will have to unravel yourself. I know one thing that might help you; there is a second prophecy, passed down through the ages, made by the same prophet who helped you against him when he was first defeated...
What is it? Tell me! Mimi insisted. This prophecy might be her only hope...
The butterfly stirred her wings, sending clouds of colored light into the air. From the light, and without making any real sound at all, words reached her ears...or was it her soul?
When darkness shadows the sun
When love seems dead and gone
When winged ones fill the skies
When light falls, and hope cries
In this the darkest hour
A dark one comes to power
A dozen souls enslaved
The thirteenth soul must save
She bears the cruelest pain
But ere the sun shines again
The strong one must win by losing
To e'er again hear the phoenix sing
There was silence for a moment. Then Mimi spoke.
That's all?
The butterfly nodded.
But...but that doesn't tell me anything! I still don't know what to do! Swallowing hard, Mimi struggled against panic. I can't do this! You've got the wrong person-I'm not strong, or any of that! And I'm awful at bearing pain! And how do you win by losing? It makes no sense! Mimi knew she was losing her battle against fear, but she didn't care anymore. This was all wrong!
It is not the best, the butterfly admitted, but it is all we have. You must go forth and use it to the best of your ability, or both worlds are lost.
What?
The butterfly radiated gentle sympathy, instead of the pity or disgust Mimi had been afraid it would feel for her.
Mimi, Myotismon does not mean to sit quietly and smell the roses once he is reborn. He wants power, and he means to obtain that power through conquest. The wish to control eats at his soul, and undermines his wits. When his temper is lost and that insane lust for power is given control, it takes away the facade of civilization he wears and reveals him for the beast he is. That loss of self-control was what destroyed him the last time you fought.
But...we destroyed him!
Because he let his guard down. Because he allowed the madness that lurks within him to break free. He does not intend to allow that again, Mimi, and he knows you all too well now. In that knowledge, that readiness, he believes he can control you all, as well.
The butterfly sighed again.
And he is right.
No! Mimi cried. She felt sick. If this beautiful creature had given in, what chance did a weak, frightened child like her have against the deep-rooted evil that threatened everything she loved? Struggling not to sob or throw up or faint, she clung to the butterfly's back. Then...there is no hope?
Hope will not help us tonight, the butterfly said calmly. It is Sincerity we all look to for salvation. It is purity, and honesty, and good intentions.
Good intentions gone astray, Mimi said bitterly. This is impossible.
Nothing is impossible. He can control what he expects, but there is one thing he has not foreseen, and is not prepared for. You.
Me? What can I do?
You can attack from within. He believes us to be in his control...but he is wrong. He will not think to defend himself against you, and so you will have the one opportunity to strike. Do not waste it.
Wait! Mimi cried, suddenly nervous. Her stomach felt almost as though something pulled at it, and she wondered if she really was going to be sick... When should I strike? How? Explain, please!
The prophecy has told you when, the butterfly said, and Mimi realized that her voice was fading. When darkness shadows the sun, when love seems dead and gone...
But I don't know what the prophecy means! Mimi wailed.
When winged ones fill the skies, when light falls and hope cries...
Stop reciting and listen to me! Help me against him!
The butterfly's wings slowed their beating. I cannot. I am trapped here. It is through me that he controls you...but he may make one mistake. If he lets go his grip on me, then strike. Use your best judgment, and wait until the last possible moment. Attack with your whole heart. Do not forget the prophecy. You are the thirteenth soul. In this the darkest hour, a dark one comes to power...
You can't leave me to face him! Mimi screeched. Don't leave me! She could feel the pulling in her stomach become stronger, dragging her up and out of the Shadowlands. He was summoning her...he could control her...
I will never leave you, Mimi. I am you, and you are me. He may command your body, but he has never controlled your heart. Remember!
And she remembered. She was not a weak, frightened child. She was a butterfly.
That beautiful creature was her.
The knowledge sent a surge of confidence through her. The world depended on them, and while the weak child that she now knew was not her true self would have been afraid, the butterfly that she had realized she truly was would fight the darkness forever to protect that which was dearest to it.
I'll remember, she whispered as the butterfly and the Shadowlands and the trapped souls in their valley all faded from her sight. And I'll do my best. I promise.
~*~*~*~