The Powers Within: Brightness of Cinder

by Creedogmon

edited by Godeerc VanDrey

Category: Digimon

Genre: Fantasy, General

Rating: PG

Language: English

Summery: A new DigiDestined joins the group.

A/N: I would like to applaud all those readers who realized that so far, there are only seven DigiDestined. I would like to further applaud those who acknowledged the fact that the title of the story resembles another chapter where someone gets their power.


Chapter 9: Brightnessof Cinder

I pull the notebook out of my backpack and leaf through it. I turn to the page where I have drawn the crest with a symbol of an eye. Jessica, who is sitting beside me, points toward the symbol. Hey, you drew my crest."

"Yeah, I saw it on a bluff coming down here."

Matt, who comes to my other side, comments, flipping the pages, "Wait a sec. I count nine crests. There are only six of us with powers… seven. Sorry, I always forget to count your cat."

Phillip turns his head abruptly, as does Katmondu. What have they heard? "Guys?" I said, closing my notebook.

"I heard something," Phillip responds. Katmondu walks into the woods, stalking carefully. "I'll go check it out," Justine offers. They walked into the thin woods, the light of the fire slowly becoming less illuminating. The glow from their crests is sufficient.

Justine stops, I swear I saw something orange back there. She quietly creeps toward it. It's a girl. She has fiery red hair. Justine kneels down beside her, seeing an yellow-orange D-3 on her waist. She nudged the girl. The redhead moans and pushes herself up. Anna Lee. A fellow eighth grader. Her digivice is still glowing with orange light.

She becomes alert… and bewildered. "What's… what's going on? Where am I?"

"Shhh, Anna, calm down," She turned to Justine, seeing her, her hands shaking wildly. "Justine? What's happening? This thing" she motions toward the digivice "flew through my window and landed on my desk… right in front of me!"

"It's okay, it's okay… You're in the DigiWorld. You are DigiDestined. Destined to save this world and our own. There are others. Come see and it'll all be explained to you."

"Okay…"

: : :

The three girls in the group have taken a lot of the responsibility of Virginia off my hands. We are now even starting to have fun in our little group. But a question is still floating in everyone's mind: "How do we get home?"

The next day, we leave the forest region. The vegetation disappears and we enter a desert of sorts. The sun is blazing. It is hot! I don't feel the burning effect, my invisible misty aura absorbing it all, but I do feel the heat. The axiom, "It's not the heat; it's the humidity." comes to mind. We even see a cactus on fire. We seek shade in a nearby cave. We are content with talking for a while in the cool shadows, but I swear Anna perks up for a moment, as if she's heard something.

'The Sanguine, isn't it? Always late. Always empty-headed. Blissful, but never really happy.'

Before we know it, it is late afternoon. Daniel volunteers to take a brief excursion, gladly returning with news of coolness. We evacuate the cave, enjoying the cooler air. We progress to climb a hill, only to find a huge… hole… a basin. Where a river should ideally be. But instead, nothing but a sunken ship. Something familiar about the area.

"Phillip, do you recognize this?"

"Wait, yeah! From the Birdramon episode. The lake. Hey, where are those little huts that the Yokomon made?" Usually, we would get strange looks, but now, we are a great source of information.

"I think I know. Look."

Sure enough, in the distance are little huts. Burnt-down little huts. We run over there. No Yokomon, fortunately. The huts were definitely severely singed. "My gah…" Anna whispers, "What destroyed the little houses of, from what I understand, little creatures?"

"Who knows?" Phillip comments.

Anna leaned over to touch one of the huts, one that is still smoking. She pulls her hand up after a while, putting in to her chin. She pulls it away confused. "Aack! My hand… it's red hot. But it doesn't hurt."

"Doesn't hurt?" Matt commented, "The only burns that don't hurt are third degree. Chris, check her hand."

I hold Anna's offered palm. It's not burned, but it should be. I can feel the heat radiating off it. "And it doesn't hurt?"

"No. Not at all. It just felt a little warm against my cheek." I touch the burned area, my mist sizzling an inch away from it. "Strange, very strange. Maybe you have a power like us."

'What do have to be happy about, anyway? None of your friends really likes you. You just came late and they're being nice.'

"Power, like you guys? And doesn't anybody here that voice?" Anna asks, looking around.

Daniel sighs, "A voice? You should have told us earlier. We forgot to tell you. Hearing a voice is a sign that you'll get a power."

Jessica screams. Now the center of attention, Jessica is pulled into the sandy ground. I try to grab at her, but before I can get very far, Matt starts to sink, then Daniel, Phillip, Katmondu, everybody is suddenly sinking. Justine, who's closest, grabs Anna and start running. Something catches Anna's ankle. Justine stops, turns, and grabs it, pulling it out of the ground. It is some mole-like digimon emerges.

"No, no, don't hurt me. Please!"

"What are you doing with our friends?" Anna asks angrily.

"We Molemon don't know what the great lord's plan is, we were just told to execute it."

Justine leaps, feeling a vibration under her. Soon, it becomes a small earthquake. She falls over, as does Anna, dropping the underground varmint. They see an indention of sinking sand. A figure rises from it. He appears to be made of sand, but his entire body is flaming. "So, if it isn't the DigiDestined. Well, the ones we missed. Stupid, worthless Molemon. Allow me to introduce myself, I am TerraMeramon."

(A/N: Hahaha, that rhymes. Terra Mera. Oh, shoot, I ruined the moment, didn't I?)

"What have you done with our friends?" Justine asks bravely. "That voice," Anna starts, "that's the voice that was mocking me! Saying I had no friends. That none of you guys like me."

"Well, you don't, do you, Inquirer. You are jealous on Anna, aren't you?"

"Of course I like her! What do I have to be jealous of?" In a flash, she finds herself in his arms, feeling the extreme heat against her skin. Anna rushes him like a football player, and Justine falls from his arms. But she's too late. Justine is on the ground, unconscious, her skin sickly red.

Anna starts to weep. "No, you didn't." but she has disbelief in her voice. She covers her eyes, crying. TerraMeramon laughs evilly. Anna hears a sizzling sound of her hand. She looks down, her red burn spot sizzling against her tears. She then looks at her shirt. The shoulder is singed and blackened, but she rubs her shoulder, not wincing. She pulls up the sleeve. Her shoulder looks sunburned, but does not ache. She smiles. She reaches down and touches Justine. Immediately the redness fades and her hand absorbs it. She wipes her eyes and touches Justine with her tear-wetted hands. Justine sharply inhales. Anna smiles again and looks back up. "Whoops, seems like you've made a boo-boo. You messed with the wrong DigiDestined."

Her digivice glows with a red-orange light. Justine stands beside her, much to TerraMeramon's surprise. Justine looks over to see Anna's hair fluttering in the wind. Her hemispherical aura ignites, burning like the red coals of a campfire. Justine feels the warmth radiating from it. Anna's crest materializes from her D-3, and places itself with the brief golden glow around her neck. Her body seems to ignite, quietly burning. The orange shape changes. When it extinguishes, a figure emerges. She is Anna, but clothed only in a sleeveless, knee-length dress of fire. Her hair appears aflame.

Frightened, the Molemon come from the ground. This time, they're not submissive, but savage. Several attack Anna at one time, covering her. She ducks down, covering her face. Suddenly, the pile is a burning inferno. When the flames subside, only Anna is left. She turns her attention to TerraMeramon, who shoots a blast of fire at her with a scream of "Desert Inferno." Anna leans her head back and the fire passes her like a strong breeze. Anna now speaks to the fire monster in a loud, wispy voice. Two wing of fire emerge from Anna's back. She jumps into the air, a large cloud of fire surrounding her.

"Brightness of Cinder!" she screams. The Sanguine is overcome with flames again, and a fiery beam strikes TerraMeramon, who turns black. A obsidian statue is all that remains. The Sanguine dives, grasps the rock in her arms, and heads toward the empty lake. At the edge of the basin, the statue is released, shattering as it hits the side, completely dedigitalizing. The Sanguine glows orange again as she lands. Her aura leaves and she faints, never getting the chance to stand up straight, but Justine is there to catch her from behind. She's feverishly warm, but soon cools.

Justine lowers her to the ground. The sweating redhead looks up to her friend, breathing heavily, "Justine, did that just happen?"

"Yeah it did, Ember."

"Ember?"

"Nice name for a fire goddess."

"And what shall I call my starry friend? Nova?"

Justine smiles, as does Anna. "Have I changed?" the redhead prompts.

"Yeah, your hair is now fiery red."

"Very funny, Nova."

"All right, Ember, you have ash gray and deep red streak in your hair. Right here." she says, showing the two mingled tresses to her. As Anna looks up, Justine can see, around Anna's emerald green eyes, an orange ring with a small flicker at the top.

Several pops from the ground alert them. The two girls see their fellow DigiDestined dig their half-buried bodies out from the sand, giving us their arms to pull up with. I give a sigh of relief seeing Virginia still safe, though sandy, in Jessica's arms. After brushing off, we walk toward a forest in the distance, hoping to get there before dark, silenting wondering about Anna's transformation.

I walk near the back beside Jessica and watch Justine help to support the tired Anna. Justine marvels at her friend's crest. On a light orange background reminiscent of Anna's ember-red hair, there is a semicircle, base down, with a band curved over it and a small flame on top with small rectangles on either side. We hear her whisper, dreamily…

"I am the Sanguine."

: : :

That night, we made a large campfire. We pulled up logs to sit on, around the campfire. Anna is lying sleepily in Justine's lap. I start, "Anna, you listening?" She nods, her eyelids heavy, then yawns. I continue, "Well, I'm sure you all wanting a more realistic story that Phillip told you. It's not Phillip's fault; I'm can just tell it in a more objective way. And I'm going to try something with Jessica here. We're going to animate it."

I put my hand palm to palm to Jessica's. "Okay," I tell her, "Just try to sense what I am thinking."

She closes her eyes and calls upon her power, her crest glowing beneath her tee shirt.

My Crest of Paternity hovers holographically above the campfire. Jessica turns to me, and I smile knowingly. She smiles back. I looked to the campfire and announced to the silent, anticipating audience, "Okay here it goes…"

: : :

A/N: Okay, who's counting. Yes, there's eight now. So, unless you've read the old series, you don't know what going to happen next. How's that for a cliffhanger? Duh, it's a horrible cliffhanger. Tell me you didn't think in your mind, "Wow, good cliffhanger."

(Sonriso) - Yo, Creedogmon, watch the sarcastic comments. I don't get paid for nothing here. Hold it, I get paid nothing. I'm calling my lawyer… who I can't pay for. Oh, well.