The Footsteps are Fading
Chapter Four
Out on the cold desert she walked alone in the night, making purposeful leaps to crush any grass. She wanted reform of this god-forsaken place, and here he was, the mightiest of all enemies, giving the digidestined a run for their money. The reformation she wanted was so close, it rested on her tongue, daunting and laughing at her incompetence to find the enemy. She had thought that he was close, but with experience she discovered that his presence filled every nook and cranny of the digital world. To find him would take more than pure hunting skills.
The temperature of that night had dropped to twenty degrees Fahrenheit, as opposed to the high nineties it had climaxed to earlier that day. The weird climate patterns, the complete reversal of scenery: this power was surely the strongest to hit the digital world in a long time. She would have wondered how many other worlds he had destroyed before this, but she was not about wondering, more about action. Still, she snickered often at the digidestineds' loss of their digimon. He had been clever to do that.
The obdurate landscape stretched before her nimble feet, and she willingly answered its call to go.
Daisuke poked at Koushiro until he was sure that the man was ignoring him, then rolled onto his back, wincing in pain. That woman…she was strong, more like a warrior than the beauty that she looked. He did not know that the same woman was the one that Taichi had met, the one that had been stroking his head in the green garden after the fire, or that she had saved his friends from the people that had captured them so long ago. That cell seemed like months ago even though his skin was still pink and fresh, and even fuzzier in his memory was the mesa, the place they had parted at. The mesa…it was a discouraging happening, though it had not been at the time. For his life he couldn't remember any words that had been passed, and he doubted that the others could recall.
The others were resting peacefully next to him, with their breathing light and carefree. Why was it that he was always the exception? They slept there unaware of the danger sleeping inside the room with them, while their leader was in the greatest pain of his life after being beaten and battered by a blonde haired, gorgeous virago. Amazing how invidious he suddenly was of them.
"Izzy," he prodded the man's back again, "Izzy, please, we don't really have time for this."
The man didn't answer. No, no, if he lost Koushiro to this madness then what rational mind would be left? Mimi? He was skeptical about how long she could last if the rest of them lost it. Takeru, now there was someone who had a tight grip on reality. And Hikari, too. Yeah, he could always count on them. Come to think of it, Koushiro had never been the most mentally secure of the bunch, right? Right.
He rolled over towards the others, gritting his teeth. All the bruises he had were dark shades of purple, and the cuts he was lucky enough to posses were deep gorges. Fighting her had been like fighting a wild bull, and it lasted about as long.
"Guys?"
Mimi, propinquity, opened one eye indolently.
"Yeah?" her voice was hazy and thick with sleep.
"We need to get out of here."
"But it's so nice."
"Look around you!" He indicated to their surroundings, which reflected a warehouse. "That's so nice?"
She pushed off the ground with her tired hands and tried to focus her eyes.
"No, I guess not. Davis, what are we doing here? Weren't we outside? In the desert?"
"Yeah, but we all fell asleep or passed out or whatever, but that doesn't matter. What we really need to do is get going."
Then Mimi's eyes became focused and she looked at him in horror.
"Davis! What happened!"
"I'll tell you later, just wake the others up."
She nodded and carried out her duty servant-like. In a minute Takeru and Hikari were sitting on their haunches, rubbing their eyes. Koushiro still refused to get up, and Daisuke squinted at the dead dolphin laying next to him. Weird.
"What's this all about," Takeru yawned, leaning back on his hands. The had made a little circle with Koushiro to one side and the limp dolphin far away from any one of them.
"Well, don't you think we should spend our time looking for the enemy and fighting it, rather than sleeping like drunk homeless people?"
"Oh that's right, I forgot we were supposed to find that guy. Do you know where he is?"
"No, but that's what we need to leave for: to look for him."
"But…where do you, I mean we, start?"
Daisuke eyed Hikari suspiciously. Was this laziness about not being a team? Holy god, just how in the world did Taichi keep them together and thinking. They just seemed so…soporific.
"You idiots!" he screamed, and the sound ricocheted of off the close walls and pounded in their ears. "How many times do I have to tell you all that we need to leave! That we need to find this guy and defeat him! He's ruining the digital world! And haven't we already had this talk before!"
They stared blandly at him, all but Mimi. Her eyes were full of wisdom and understanding, causing Daisuke to make a drastic decision right there.
"Go home, then," he said, "go home and take Izzy with you. I thought that Jenai was right in choosing all of you, but obviously the old man failed, too. If you go I won't hold it against you, but just keep in mind that I'm not giving up. If I can't make you see how important this is to everyone, to yourselves, then what's the point? Just go, and tell the others that I said you could when you see them."
He turned and was walking to the doors when a pale hand touched his shoulder. He first thought of the woman that had just been here, then he remembered what Hikari had looked like before this whole thing, and he smiled a bit.
"Davis," her soft voice whispered, "it's not like you think it is. Haven't you been thinking of anything other than this mission? Don't you feel that something is going wrong at home, too?"
His eyes flashed up to hers in question, and he felt like a kid again, with all his hormones screaming. But the storm soon abated and he furrowed his brow at her.
"No. What's happening?"
She smiled that serene smile she was notorious in his heart for.
"Well, things that can't duly be explained in one breath. I don't think we have time for that talk, so how about this: I'll continue this quest with you, while everyone else goes home to make sure that everything is alright."
How odd. He had unconsciously figured that something of this sort would happen, but he thought that it would be Mimi that tagged along. How…odd. Here was Hikari, saying she'd go on this dangerous journey with him, and also sending a vibe that their home city was in trouble. Wouldn't she rather go to the people that she loved? Taichi, her brother –
"I don't think anyone will be really hurt that we know, and we already said our goodbyes at the mesa, so I'd be glad to join you. Do you think this is okay?"
He nodded dumbly, oblivious to the hard days ahead of no food, constant pain, confusion, and a pale, cruel woman.