Disclaimer: Okay, you all know the drill. I'd like to be able to spare you the boredom of reading this, but unfortunately it's necessary. I don't own digimon, I do own Mordremon, the end.

Despite a weekend school trip, a soccer game, a music concert, a maths test and ff.net's 'technical difficulties', I've managed to upload another chapter and the end of an the introduction. This is the point at which (in most stories) the bulk of the Evil Plan is explained by the Bad Guy, who then shoves the Good Guys off somewhere else for a while. Right towards the end the is an Unexpected Twist, which is soon followed by the Startling Conclusion. So it is with this story, so go ahead and read of my dark and sinister Evil Plot!

Edit 1st of June 2003: thoroughly sick and tired of prophecies, so eliminated mine completely

Chapter 5 – six stars and six devices

Gomamon groaned, dragging his drooping body over yet another step of the long spiral staircase. "My legs were just not made for stairs." he panted "Are we there yet?"

"Nearly." Mordremon muttered, gritting her teeth. These Digidestined could be such a nuisance. She'd known about these older six, of course, but had never expected them to show up so soon. Or to show up at all, though she should have thought of it. They were mentioned in the prophecy, after all. They shouldn't be too much of a problem, though. The important part of the prophecy, the younger children and the devices, were already in place. And yet, she couldn't help but worry about what these others could do...

"Don't worry about the children." Cronomon whispered, fluttering to land on her friend's shoulder. "Any of the digimon under your command are well able to handle them."

"Handle the digimon, yes. But the humans? They have achieved incredible things long before anyone had heard of the ones I have captured. These children are blessed with amazing power."

"But every great power has some failing. Every plan has a flaw. And speaking of plan, why are you letting them in on ours?"

"I thought they should know what they were getting thrown into." Mordremon explained, picking at the hem of her robe, "I like to give them a fighting chance."

Cronomon tilted her head and gazed at the other digimon thoughtfully. "You're not at all what you seem, you know, Darcy."

"Don't call me that!" Mordremon hissed, urgently. "Please, don't call me that. And we're here."

Mordremon opened the door at the top of the spiralling stairs to reveal a perfectly round room, and a rather large one at that. They were in a room at the top of the castle's tower. Around the walls were sixteen large windows, aligned with the sixteen points of the compass. (Yes, some people think of the compass as four or eight main points, but I prefer sixteen.) The ceiling was inky black like the sky and studded with stars. In the centre of the room was a round stone pedestal with intricate carvings upon it, and atop the table, in several depressions, sat the six D3 digivices.

The digidestined filed into the room and gazed around. A few were staring out the windows at their surroundings, and Koushiro had begun to tap at the computer already. Perhaps he was analysing the star patterns, or the carvings; maybe even playing minesweeper. You never could tell with these computer types.

Taichi, after glancing quickly around, wandered towards the pedestal to stand beside Yamato and Gabumon. One by one, the other children wandered up to stand beside him. Tai had changed since the first trip to the digital world, growing older and wiser, but he was still, without a doubt, the leader of the band. In some ways, he was even more of an influence now than he was then. With his hands in his pockets, he looked straight at the shadowy figure as he spoke.

"Okay then, great Mordremon." Taichi said, coolly. "Spill the beans. What the hell are we doing here?"

Mordremon nodded her head in approval and spread her arms wide.

"This room is the centre of my work." she began, "My entire plan revolved around the mechanisms I have at my disposal here. I began my scheming when I first realised the power that resides in this turret. It has not been changed in all the time I have spent at the castle. No matter what I have done to the rest of the castle, this tower is exactly as it was when I came here."

"We don't really need to know the history of the castle, Mordremon." Sora said, sounding slightly impatient. "Just get to the point."

"A pleasure." Mordremon nodded, hiding what might have been a smile beneath her hood. "In the digital world, digimon that die are usually reborn again, in the Primary Village. Digimon hatch from their digieggs, grow and digivolve until they eventually die, only to be born again back in the village. A circle, you see. Of course, it doesn't always happen that way, for reasons we cannot understand, but quite often it will.
"I, for one, am sick of it. What I'm going to do is to end this cycle forever, so that the digimon can have more normal, more finite, more real lifespans."

"You're going to just let the digimon die?"

"That's awful!" Mimi gasped, looking shocked. Everyone else agreed, nodding heads and sharing angry looks.

"You can't do that!" Taichi shouted, angrily. He'd lost his imposing coolness now, and was back to the old hothead. "I've met up with some sick and twisted digimon before, but none like you. You're trying to change the natural laws of the Digiworld!"

"Yes. And I have everything I need to do it right here." Mordremon replied, cold and glaring once more. "I need these, for starters," She gestured to the six digivices on the pedestal. "That was why I had to take your young friends prisoner. There was no other way. If they were killed, the digivices would also cease to exist. And besides," she added, in a voice that only Cronomon could hear, "I wouldn't want to kill anyone unless I had to."

"I guess that kind of explains things." Agumon said, thoughtfully, scratching his head, "But why do you have to take the prisoner at all? Why should you kill other digimon at all?"

"Just drop it all here, release the other children, let us go home and we can all live peacefully." Gabumon continued.

Koushiro began to point out that he didn't know if they could get back to the real world, but Mimi discreetly shut him up by kicking his knee. She smiled sweetly at him in apology, while muttering that the less Mordremon knew, the better. It was then that Koushiro realised that being a genius didn't mean you always knew best. Sometimes it was wiser to keep one's mouth shut.

Mordremon, however, missed this exchange and was silently cursing Agumon and Gabumon's words. She hated the way those goody goodies always tried to talk you out of evil schemes. As if that would really work. Someone spends a lifetime plotting and scheming to set these plots up, and then the squeaky clean little good guys come and just think they can talk you out of it. As if! A lifetime of evil was hard work, really hard word, and one had to be completely devoted. You wouldn't just throw is all away because some pansy kids and their cute little digimon come and talk about peace. But that wasn't what was making Mordremon mad.

It was the fact that it was working.

For a moment, Mordremon could see the whole plan laid out in front of her, and she was filled with doubt. How could she even think about risking the lived of so many, to fulfil her own silly wishes? How could she exploit the children like this, when they were only trying to do their job and care for this world, protecting it, which was more than she had ever done.

And worst of all - how could she do this to Cronomon?

But all of Mordremon's doubts were forgotten in a second, when she saw the children looking at her thoughtful face with expressions that were almost understanding, and was filled again with cold anger. They could never begin to understand her, what made her this way and what forced her to do these terrible things, to bring death to a place that hardly knew the meaning of the word.

Never.

And when Mordremon opened her mouth to speak again, her voice was so cold that it would freeze the blood of the angriest Meramon.

"There are six stars up in the sky there," Mordremon remarked glaring around. She pointed to a ring of six stars that were clearly visible against the black of the ceiling. "This tower is magical. It reflects the positions of the stars above us. No matter what the time of day, I always know where the stars are. Soon those six stars will rotate into position above the digivices, an occurrence that is incredibly rare, and then death will finally come to the digital world, and I will be its master. I have waited all my life for this moment," she continued, and only Cronomon noticed the slight tremble in her voice, "And nothing is going to stop me now."

And that's a very long lifetime to wait.

"There's still time to take action." Koushiro told his friends, typing furiously on the laptop. "I think I've got the calculations right, and the stars won't be properly positioned above the digivices for about a week. Maybe a few more days. We've got plenty of time to come back, free the other digidestined and end this hideous scheme."

"Why wait?" Taichi asked. "Lets get rid of this problem right now!"

"Sounds good to me." Yamato agreed, stepping forward.

"Wait!" Sora stepped forward. "I have one more question." She looked at Mordremon curiously. "You still haven't explained why you want to kill all the digimon. All the other villains we've ever fought wanted to rule, not kill. Why is it destruction with you?"

How could that human girl have seen the heart of the story so quickly? It was lucky for Mordremon that she was wearing a hood, because it would have been most unseemly to blush in front of one's enemies. Even so, the girl wasn't spot on. She didn't want to destroy, she just wanted to...

"That's all?" Mordremon asked, carefully avoiding an answer. "It doesn't matter why. The point is, I can win. And if I win, then you won't be able to come back and stop me all over again. Because you'll have to deal with a little problem of being dead."

"That's it!" Taichi exploded. "I've had enough of this. Let's get her!"

The other kids and their digimon agreed. Why wait, when they could get rid of this sick creature right now? What was Mordremon going to do? After all, she hadn't yet shown any sort of special power. As far as the digidestined were concerned, this was just one more bad guy - er, girl - that had to be stopped.

There was so much they still had to learn.

Mordremon realised what was happening when the six children began to reach for their digivices. She glanced around quickly at the solid, black stone walls of the room. the walls were almost half a metre thick, as it often was with old castles, but if the digimon went even just to champion level, there would certainly not be enough room for them. This could not happen, at any costs. Mordremon really didn't care if she was killed. She would only come back again. It was the nature of the digital world. Then she could come back and start over again. But if the castle, or even just the tower, were harmed in any way, then she would never be able to fulfil her plans. She would never be death's master.

"There's still time for us to fight!" Agumon was saying. "Taichi, just say the word and I'll digivolve."

"You're on, buddy." Taichi agreed, holding out his digivice. But before Agumon could move, Mordremon barked a command at Cronomon.

"To the Labyrinth! Now!"

Cronomon's little magic rubber ball began to glow. There was another flash of light, and the Digidestined, and their digimon, were nowhere to be seen.

"That's them taken care of, then." Mordremon commented, going to gaze out of the south-east window at something far away on the horizon. "Cronomon, dear, go and send Tauromon down to the Labyrinth. I've got him some new friends to play with. But tell him not to get anyone killed just yet. I want everyone to have a chance to meet the digidestined."

And besides, she thought, as Cronomon fluttered down the stairs, killing them wouldn't do any good. They'd only come back.

~~~~~~

Well, there you have it. One more evil plot for the record, come to join all the millions of others on fanfiction.net. This chapter probably won't be read until at least a week after I've finished writing it, due to all these technical problems. However, that will give me plenty of time to work on the next chapter! And believe me, it will take some work.

As always, review if you feel like it, flame if you feel like it, and tell me if you think I could improve. I've only had one review since chapter 2 and that was from ::dragonfire::, who had already reviewed twice (not that I have a problem with that at all, ::dragonfire:: has been a great encouragement). So if anyone else is still reading, it would be nice to hear from you. See ya later!