Chapter Four
Roan Kuroda was trembling with poorly suppressed excitement as he stood before the three crystalline, humanoid-like automatons that Myotismon had ordered crafted by his slaves in the little village below. In his hand he held the second of the three crimson shards that encompassed the lifeforce of his victims, and on his lips he wore a self-satisfied smirk. He had been successful yet again, and the glimmering proof was within his grasp.
The teen brought the dagger-sized gem up to the level of his eye and peered closely at it. Inside he watched as the swirling, crimson mist that represented the littlest boy's surrendered essence drifted about on unseen winds, waiting to be released. Roan was ecstatic. He could almost feel the overpowering might of the jagged piece, and he longed to be able to place it inside the torso of the second of his little army of crystalline warriors, that it might live as did the first.
After several minutes of waiting, Roan started to tap his foot impatiently. Where was Myotismon? The dark creature had warned him not to attempt this operation on his own, but this waiting was just intolerable... and Roan had never been all that good at taking orders, anyway. He had seen how the other had forced the first engorged shard inside of the previous creature... he saw no reason that he should not do the second one on his own. With an unwavering glare in his eyes, the white-haired boy slowly started to move the crystal towards the diamond-hard shell of the second figure...
"Unless you are looking to make that particular body your permanent home, I suggest that you stop."
Roan whirled about at the voice, a menacing glare in his eyes. Myotismon stood right behind him, answering his gaze with one that was just as lethal. The tall teen smirked, but did not ask the meaning for the other's warning. That, he supposed, would become clear enough in time anyway. "Where have you been?"
"I had a little matter to be disposed of," the undead creature responded, his cloak billowing about him as he stepped inside the teen's room. One of Roan's eyebrows went up at the answer, another question in his dark eyes. "The imbecile that the little boy thrashed," the other clarified.
Roan grimaced, knowing the other's penchant for human blood. "You... you ate of him?"
Myotismon snorted in response. "Of course not. My tastes tend to run toward those of the opposite gender and purer blood. That one I simply took to the wastelands and left there, lest others among my people waste their time and energy in attempting to treat his wounds. We are done with him anyway, and after the damage that he suffered at the hands of the child there was little hope for his survival."
Roan gave a shrug. The creature was right, of course. He could imagine no circumstances under which he would have been able to make use of the human vegetable again. Of course, he had needed someone to take that brutal beating, and he had no intention of allowing it to be himself. Then, turning to more important matters, he passed the crimson gem in his hands to his partner.
Myotismon's lips betrayed a vicious grin as he examined the crystal. It was, if anything, a bit larger than the first, the smaller boy having given more freely of his soul as he had mercilessly beaten the retarded man to unconsciousness. In order to steal the life-force of the older boy, the one called Davis, Myotismon himself had been forced to utilize every trick that he had ever learned about humans to get him to deny his courage and to show fear. Yet still their leader had not given in sufficient amounts to make the first gem grow to the size of the second. Roan, the creature had to grudgingly admit, had been more successful than he himself had.
But just who had accomplished what with the gems was unimportant for the moment. For now, at least, the two were allies. Grudging allies, to be certain, since neither of them was seeing this partnership turn out as he had expected, but allies nonetheless. Their goals remained one in the same: to cause these invincible, statue-like creatures to live and use them to return to and devastate the world of both the humans and the Digimon.
A pool of nervous sweat started to amass on Roan's forehead as he watched his pale-skinned partner begin to press the glimmering ruby crystal against the chest of the second automaton. It seemed impossible to the teen that the gem could simply be pushed through that diamond-hard shell and into the creature's body, but he had already seen it done with the first.
Then Myotismon gave a brief grunt of triumph, as the crimson jewel was seemingly absorbed into the creature's transparent skin, passing slowly through its body until finally it came to a rest in the center of the torso. And then, as had the first, the reddish mist that was visible evidence of the crystal's energy slowly started to circulate throughout the thing's body, bringing with it life... and power.
Roan looked on almost hungrily. He and his partner had briefly taken the first of the creatures out with them to the wastelands that surrounded the village on the previous day, the other wanting to demonstrate to the teen just how invincible these creatures were.
The young man had repeatedly blinked in astonishment as the crystalline beast, half again his own size and probably three times his weight, had engaged in a battle with a dozen or so of the monsters that had been banished to this world along with Myotismon, the tattered remains of the army of invasion that he had taken to the real world initially.
The teen watched in morbid fascination as the little army set upon his creation, loosing attacks against it that might well have razed a small village. Yet the crystalline beast, the bane of courage, stood impassively against the crushing onslaught. Deadly bolts of raw energy, the searing heat of blue flames, and vicious, sky-borne scythes all dissipated harmlessly against its shell. Nothing, it seemed could damage the beast.
And then the other had let loose with an attack of its own, gathering shimmering balls of crimson light in his hands and hurling them with surgical precision at his assailants. Roan would have thought with the other's girth that he would have been slow, or even clumsy, but that was far from the truth. In all honesty, the creature was demonstrating a dexterity and agility that would have been impressive for a creature half its size.
The attackers were being routed, and their numbers had been reduced to five when the creature ceased throwing his balls of pure energy and turned his gaze upon three of them, an almost blinding red light emanating from its eyes. As that light washed over the three, all instantly stopped in their tracks with a look of stark terror in their eyes. Here was a group of beings that purportedly had never known fear, yet after that light fell upon them, the two on the ends turned and fled further into the wastelands, gibbering in panic.
The one in the center, however, did not turn and run. It only continued to look into that deadly gaze with terror in its eyes, yet it was seemingly unable to move. Roan watched, a cruel grin on his lips as the insect-like creature's extremities began to quiver, as though it would turn and flee if only given the chance. But after only a very few moments of being having its eyes locked against the other's, the creature gave a shrill cry and collapsed to the ground... it had been literally scared to death. The capacity to cause fear that the creature had dominion over was as powerful a weapon as Roan had ever seen...
And now the second of the crystalline warriors was being created; the crimson energy flowing through its body like liquid blood through human veins. And if the first could use the power of fear in such a way, imagine what this one could do with the with the merciless power of a demon's brutality...
*****
Now Yolei had two wards in the cell with her, and the girl was becoming more terrified by the moment. She had laid both boys out on the cold stone floor, sitting between them and gripping their hands tightly as she rocked back and forth. Cody... she thought. Poor, poor Cody. This had befallen him because of her, she was certain of it. She still didn't know exactly what had happened to the little child, only that in the moment that he had been acting distinctly un-Cody like, Roan's crystal had shimmered and the little boy had collapsed beside the bloody form that man that he had just beaten half to death.
She shivered, though not from the cold, and pulled Davis' jacket tightly around her. She had been forced to take the other's coat to cover her bare chest upon returning to the cell, the loathsome man that Cody had beaten having torn her own shirt to shreds. She was sure that Davis wouldn't mind, after all...
"What I wouldn't give to trade places with you right now," she murmured in the older boy's ear, at the same time running her finger slowly down his cheek. Yolei had always been terrified of being alone, and she truly meant those words. Even if Davis had been rendered unconscious, she would much rather be wrapped safely in the veil of oblivion than to be here to face whatever Roan had planned for her... alone.
The boy gave a faint stir at hearing the other's voice, but it was all too brief. Yolei sighed. She almost hated it when he did that... giving her hope that he would finally come awake again before settling back into his comfortable nest of unconsciousness. Still, though, it was a sign that he was at least fighting to remain alive, or so the girl told herself. Turning her back on Cody for the moment, Yolei added her second hand to the tight grip that her first had on the boy's limp fingers.
She smiled, though the look on her face was still somewhat bleak. With all that was going on around her she found it hard to believe that she was thinking as she was, but it seemed impossible for her to stop. Her newfound, or rather, newly admitted to emotions concerning the boy that lay on the ground in front of her were wonderful, yet worrying at the same time.
Would he feel the same way? He had always, as long as she had known him, been in hot pursuit of Kari, who had done everything except knee him in the groin to let him know that she wasn't interested. Yet oddly, during the past couple of weeks, he had been almost civil around the other girl, finally deferring to T.K. The dark-haired boy would not tell her why, except to say that it was between 'me and them'. T.K. and Kari had been equally reticent about the matter, but whatever had happened, the girl had noticed that the bond of friendship between the two boys was finally starting to solidify.
Curiously, it was at almost the same time that Yolei's interest in other boys had started to wane. Oh, she still enjoyed flirting with nearly every single one who walked across her path, but for some reason it just wasn't the same anymore. Izzy was still fascinating, Matt still intense and distant, and Ken was still... well, Ken, but those things were now shuffling off to a forgotten corner of her mind. Taking their place was a stirring, larger-than-life image of Davis.
She had spent much more time with him in the couple of weeks since his return from the world of the a'ladon, which Davis had described as a race of large, squirrel-like creatures. As a result, the habitual banter between the two had increased substantially, only now there was a distinct air of flirtation accompanying it. Or, at least, Yolei hoped that was what it was.
"What are you going to say when I tell you about this?" she whispered quietly in his ear. "You'll probably just tell me that it bound to happen, that since I'd fallen in love with everyone else that it just happened to be your turn. How am I going to explain to you that it's not the same? All the other times it was fun. It was fun to be in love with Ken, it was fun to be in love with Michael." She paused, the look in her eyes becoming frightened. "This isn't fun, Davis. This is scary. I'm scared that you're not going to wake up from this, I'm scared that I'm going to die before you do. I'm scared that even if everything does turn out okay, like it always does for you, that you're going to tell me that you could never love someone like me."
Tears were cascading in a torrent down Yolei's face now, and she dropped the boy's hand and grabbed two handfuls of his shirt, her voice becoming frantic. "Don't leave me like this, Davis!" she wailed, leaning over him and locking her eyes on his pale face. "Don't you leave me without letting me tell you how I feel! You owe me that! Even if you tell me that you won't love me back, don't you go without at least letting me say it!"
Now the girl's face was leaning over the boy's, her tears falling like rain upon his closed eyes. She was choking uncontrollably on her sobs, but still she bent down and pressed her lips against his. It was a clumsy kiss, since Davis was unconscious and Yolei was too upset to make a good go of it, but no one who had seen it could deny the emotion that had been behind it.
After a few moments, Yolei sat back up, her sobs now trailing off into a whimpering, choking sound. His lips had been cold, too cold, and the girl knew that she was losing him. It wasn't fair... it really wasn't. All of this time that she'd had to tell him about this, and now with time running out, she was unable to. Covering her mouth with her hand to keep from bursting out in another round of tears, she continued to shiver as she looked at his cold, dirty... beautiful face.
The sound of a measured clapping reached her ears, and Yolei whirled about, a hateful glare in her eyes. "Pretty little speech," Roan said blandly, without an ounce of human emotion in his voice. "Pity that he won't be around to hear you give it."
Fury raged in Yolei's eyes, and Roan smirked at the look. The last of the crystal shards, clutched tightly in his hand, began to warm ever so slightly under the girl's intense gaze. He watched with idle amusement as the girl sat down between both of the boys and took one of each of theirs in hers. It was all that she could do to steel her courage now. "Why are you doing this?" she demanded, her emotions calming a bit from the touch of her friends.
Roan frowned, the gem in his hand cooling down again as the girl's temper did as well. "Because it amuses me to do so." He paused for a moment, and then a calculating look appeared in his eyes. "They won't ever recover, you know. Not while they're here. You can beg and scream and kiss on them all you like, but they'll still die. They were surprisingly strong, actually, and if they were back in our world, I don't doubt that they'd live. But you see, as I understand it, only those with evil in their hearts can recover their strength in this place. Once life is gone from those who might be considered 'good', it does not come back."
Yolei's eyes opened a bit wider at the teen's disclosure that they were indeed no longer in the real world, but she covered her surprise quickly. "Then why don't you send them back?" she asked, a pleading tone in her voice. "You've got what you wanted from them, and you'll still have me. Just let them go..."
"Oh, and wouldn't that be altruistic of me?" the other responded with a snicker. "No. No, I think that it'll be more amusing to watch you sit beside them as they die, not able to do a damned thing about it. That should provide for rare entertainment."
Anger started to build in the girl's chest at the other's words. It was impossible for a human to be that evil... it just could not be true. Even Ken, when he had been the Emperor, had at least had a reason for his cruel deeds. Roan, apparently, was so malicious that he would let them die just for the very sake of the evil itself. Yolei's blood ran cold as she stared at him. "You won't win. Whatever it is that you're doing, you won't get away with it. Somebody will stop you."
The other didn't answer, except to throw his head back with a roar of laughter. Yolei's teeth snapped together, and she quickly got to her feet and rushed to the bars of her cell, thrusting a hand through them in an attempt to grab the dark teen. Davis and Cody were going to die because of him, just for the very fact that he wanted them to die. Two souls who she cared about more than any other two in the world were going to be lost...
And suddenly, Yolei hated the other more fervently than she could have imagined possible.
Roan continued his infuriating laughter, though the knowledge was in the back of his head that it was now working. The crimson shard in his hand had become so hot that it felt like it was burning through his flesh... a fact that did not really bother the boy. The pain was intense, yes, but it signified that his plan was coming to fruition. The third gem would soon be formed if he could keep the little girl angry with him long enough. Now, it was just a matter of time...
*****
The little band of heroes had stopped to rest after several hours of uninterrupted travel, led by the increasingly nervous Wizardmon. None of them had brought anything to eat with them, nor was there any to be found in this barren land, but their guide was able to solve that problem, at least.
Removing his battered hat, the little creature had reached inside and pulled several food items from it, distributing them to the other members of the little group. Gatomon looked on, slightly amused as he did so. "I didn't know you could do that," the little feline purred at him as she munched on a sorry looking piece of jerky. "For your next trick, do you think you could pull a fluffy white bunny out of there too?"
Wizardmon looked back at her mischievously. "I suppose that I could, if I worked on it for a while. Are you really that hungry?"
Gatomon chuckled in response, then went back to attacking the tough piece of meat with her sharp teeth. Nearby, Patamon was on his back, wrestling with a loaf of dark bread that was almost as large as he was. After distributing the rest of the food, Wizardmon came over and looked down at the little orange creature, extending a hand. "Here. Do you want a hand with th--"
"No," the little creature piped at the other, placing the corner of the loaf in his mouth and indignantly chewing on while he continued to lay on his back. Wizardmon, sensing that the other was upset with him for some reason, refused to mention how utterly ridiculous Patamon looked in that position, and instead sat down beside him.
"I wanted to thank you, Patamon, for watching out for Gatomon for the last few years."
The little creature didn't respond, and continued to gnaw furiously at the little corner of the bread that he had managed to work into his mouth. Finally, with a prolonged and substantial effort, Patamon managed to tear the piece from the rest of the loaf. Unfortunately, the effort had been so substantial that what remained of the bread was hurled through the air away from the little creature and ended up smacking Matt solidly in the back of his head. "Hey!" the boy cried, wheeling about.
Wizardmon looked briefly at Matt, then turned back to the little Digimon. "You don't like me very much, do you?" he asked.
Patamon chomped angrily on the bread, as if he were upset with it for some reason or other. "I hardly know you," he countered, trying his best to ignore the other. If he were to acknowledge him, then he'd also have to acknowledge that he was behaving rather badly, almost childishly. It was so much easier to work on the mouthful of food that he had just taken.
"Is it Gatomon?"
The other's answer came quickly... very quickly. "I don't know what you're talking about," Patamon responded in a huff, averting his eyes from the other's. Still, as he looked away his eyes did fall on Gatomon and Kari who had curled up and dozed off nearby, both using T.K.'s winter coat (which he had no need for here) as a pillow.
Wizardmon followed the other's gaze. "I think you do," he insisted, and trailed off into a momentary, awkward silence. Both of the creatures sat there, backs to one another as they thought, until moments later Wizardmon looked over his shoulder and continued. "Look... Patamon. About Gato--"
"I don't want to talk about it," the other piped up, then spread his wings and fluttered over to land on T.K.'s shoulder. The blond-haired boy was sitting very close to Kari, his gentle blue eyes caressing her motionless face with quiet adoration.
"Hi, Pata," the boy welcomed, feeling the familiar weight of the little creature settle onto his shoulder. Regretfully, he pulled his eyes off of the girl lying beside him and turned to his partner, sensing his distress. "Are you okay?"
"Yes," the creature responded shortly.
One of T.K.'s eyebrows went up at the curt answer.
Patamon gave a little sniff. "No," he amended, looking over at Wizardmon, who was apparently trying to decide whether to go after the little orange creature to force him to finish the conversation or whether to rejoin his partner at her meal. Then, after a moment, he turned his eyes to the ground in failure and tromped off to Rio's side.
Patamon stared after the other, a little sigh escaping his lips. "I feel... I feel..."
"Like a jerk?" T.K. suggested helpfully.
The other's mouth dropped open in a betrayed astonishment. After a few moments his lips started to move, but no sound was coming from them. No sound until... "You think I'm acting like a jerk?"
T.K. smiled, the warm, gentle smile that made almost everyone openly friendly to him. "Well, you haven't been very polite to him, let's just say that," he said good-naturedly. "What's wrong?"
Patamon's eyes went to Gatomon instinctively, but he just as quickly caught himself and looked down at the ground. "It's... it's nothing," he murmured lamely.
T.K., nevertheless, had seen the look and preceded to lift the creature from his shoulder and put him into his lap, staring down at him. "Nothing, huh?"
"Yeah... nothing."
"This 'nothing'... wouldn't happen to have a tail and whiskers and impeccable timing for a well thought-up quip, would she?" the boy said, mercilessly interrogating the little creature.
T.K. watched as a slow flush crept over his partner's furry cheeks. "That's... that's silly," Patamon responded, refusing to meet the other's eyes. "Gatomon's just a friend, that's all." The words sounded certain... the tone, anything but.
"That's how it usually starts. So you're trying not to fall in love with her, is that it?"
Patamon looked ready to respond, but at that moment Gatomon's eyes popped open and she sat up with a yawn. "You guys can sure make a lot of noise when someone's trying to take a cat nap," she said irritably, glaring at the two. "Hey, who were you talking to?" she asked T.K. "I thought I heard you asking if someone was in love with--"
"'scuse me," Patamon said quickly, his eyes wide in alarm as he leapt from T.K.'s arms and fluttered off to join the other group.
Gatomon looked taken aback at the other's rapid departure, then glanced at T.K. with confusion in her eyes. "What'd I say?"
T.K. winked at the little feline and gave a smile. "I think that you overheard a portion of that conversation that Pata hadn't planned on making common knowledge just yet."
"Oh. Oh!" the other returned with an astonished blink, then turned and glanced over her shoulder to where the other four sat, Rio popping bits of food into the little orange creature's open mouth while Patamon continued to cast nervous glances at the pair. "Does that mean... did he finally..."
T.K. grinned freely. "Maybe you'd better go talk to him about it," he suggested.
Gatomon bit her bottom lip nervously. She had been planning for years what she would say when this moment finally came about, but for some reason, at that moment she could not think of one single thing to say to the little flying mammal. "Uhm... yeah... I should just... just go talk to him about it..." And with those stammering words still hanging in the air, the nervous feline turned and marched off in that direction, her back straight but her tail limp and dragging in the dirt behind her.
T.K. watched her go, and also took in Patamon's panicked look as he saw her approaching. The boy beamed. That little scene was absolutely adorable.
And then he allowed his eyes to once again drop gently onto Kari's face. At one point in the past he had caught himself doing this and wondered about the normalcy of it, just watching the girl as she slept. He found that it brought him immense pleasure to do so, just looking at the brown-haired girl's flawless and innocent face as she lay there. Once or twice he caught his hand in its attempt to reach forward and touch the girl's cheek. Also (and this required a more substantial effort), he was forced to resist the urge to lay down beside her and place his arms around her and doze off as well.
This thought had been occurring to T.K. quite often lately. It seemed to the boy that lately sleeping in his own bed had been strangely unfulfilling without Kari at his side. The two had slept together several times during the past few years out of necessity, and though they had never, of course, engaged in any of the... adult expressions of their love while doing so, the boy always found that he just seemed to sleep better while beside her. He had no explanation for it, really. It was just that having her warm body next to his and his arm draped over her and his face buried in her fragrant hair was just the most enjoyable experience that he had ever had.
Of course they were not alone now, and though he was certain that Kari wouldn't mind if he did join her(quite the opposite in fact. The boy was well aware that she enjoyed sleeping next to him just as much as he did next to her), he was fairly certain that Matt would be launched headlong into conniptions if he did. For some reason, the older boy just did not seem to be able to separate the simple act of sleeping together from sex. T.K. blushed a bit as the word entered his head, but still he did not take his eyes off of his beloved.
And then, a troubled look appeared on Kari's face as she slept, her eyes darting about rapidly beneath her closed lids and her breathing becoming more brisk. T.K. reached out to wake the girl, then drew his hand back. She really did need her rest, after all, and if it was just a bad dream then it'd certainly pass in a few moments anyway.
But it didn't. Over the next few moments the girl's breathing became more and more labored and her face scrunched up in fear. T.K. frowned, then reached forward and grabbed the little girl's shoulder. "Kari?" he whispered, leaning down next to her. When his query received no response, the boy tried again, this time a bit more loudly. "Kari. Wake up," he said, gently shaking her.
The girl bolted upright in alarm. "Davis! Cody!" she exclaimed, her eyes wide open and her forehead breaking out in sweat. Panting heavily for a moment she looked around, as if momentarily disoriented and uncertain of where she was. Then he eyes fell on the attractive face of the worried boy at her side. "T.K..." she murmured with a relieved sigh, throwing her arms around his neck and burying her face in his shoulder.
The boy held the girl closely, squeezing her tightly. An extremely strong, almost fierce feeling of protectiveness arose in his chest as he hugged her against his chest, his hands petting her back soothingly. After a few moments had passed, he pulled back and placed his hand gently upon her cheek, looking deeply into her soft brown eyes. "Are you okay, Kari?" he whispered quietly.
"T.K.!" she whispered urgently. "Cody... and Davis. We've got to get going. They're in trouble."
It never even entered into the boy's mind to question the girl. Within seconds he was on his feet and at his brother's side. Matt and Rio were sitting together on the ground, hand-in-hand as they watched the three Digimon engaged in a discussion a short distance away. Despite his urgent news, T.K. was overjoyed to see the happy look of contentment on Matt's face. Ever since Rio had left before he had almost started to revert back to the moody boy that he had been on their first trip to the digital world. Not quite, of course, but he was getting rather close.
But all that had changed when the dark-haired girl had come back. His faith in her had proven to be justified, and the spark of love in his heart that had never really died had burst forth with tremendous heat at her return, taking all of the boy's standoffish traits and incinerating them in the fires of passion.
Rio seemed to be equally pleased, despite her evident concern about what was to come. T.K. was happy for her as well. Though she had tried to kill him once, the boy curiously felt absolutely no ill-will towards her... her actions had been explained well enough for him, after all. Sometimes terror could make people do strange things.
"Matt," T.K. said urgently, coming up behind the pair. Both turned at his words, blue eyes and black looking pointedly at him as they heard the concern in his voice. "We've got to get going. Something's happened with Davis and Cody."
The older boy quickly glanced from his little brother to Kari and back again, then nodded once in understanding. "C'mon, you three. You can finish it later," he said to the three Digimon, climbing to his feet and grabbing Rio's hand again to help her up as well.
The girl, in turn, moved closer to T.K. "You know, I think that Patamon is in love with Kari's cat."
T.K. only grinned in response, moving quickly back to the side of his beloved.
*****
"I... I don't know exactly how to explain it," Kari said to the others when they had finally gotten underway again, the girl giving T.K.'s hand a hard squeeze. "It's... it's like they're screaming at me from the bottom of a well or something, their voices are so weak and distant. Before it was just Davis, but then Cody joined him too. And I keep having this vision of a man attacking Yolei... a big, violent man."
Wizardmon scuffed his feet along the ground as he walked, his eyes down. "We should be there tonight. Most of the people that live over there aren't violent by nature, but there are a few. Can you remember what he looked like?"
Kari frowned, looking down as well. After a moment she looked up again, then blinked as she pointed directly ahead into the distance.
Six pairs of eyes followed her finger to a spot perhaps a hundred yards in front of them. It was hard to make out what exactly they were seeing, but it appeared to be a limp figure bound to a large wooden pole, which had been driven into the ground by some enormous force. "Davis? Cody?" T.K. whispered at the sight, then took off in a dash towards the distant object.
"T.K.!" Patamon exclaimed, then fluttered off in pursuit of the blond-haired boy.
The pair were at the side of the figure in a few short moments, and together peered down at him. It was not Cody, nor was it Davis. It was a human, male and adult, but anything beyond that was difficult to ascertain. The man had been evidently beaten very badly, bruises and dried blood covering him all the way from his forehead to his lower legs, which were bare. His back was set against a thick wooden pole, his hands bound together on the opposite side of it. He was clearly unconscious, saliva drooling from his open mouth as his head lay across his shoulder. T.K. was no doctor, but even he could tell that the other was very near death.
Rio caught her hands to her mouth as she caught sight of the man when the rest of the group caught up with the pair. "Oh my--!" the older girl began, then stopped in horror.
"Gatomon!" T.K. called, indicating the thick ropes binding the man to the wooden stump.
The little feline nodded, and nipped over to the man's back. Swiping twice with her ferocious claws, she severed the thick ropes holding the man against the pole and allowed him to slump forward to the ground.
Matt and Rio knelt at his side, looking at the terrible wounds scattered around his body. The man's breathing was terribly shallow, as if a vague will to live was all that kept his lungs active. "What happened to him?" Matt murmured, an ugly look of revulsion in his eyes.
Rio examined the bruises, both their size and location. Then she turned to the boy and frowned. "Roan. These bruises happened during a Kendo match; you can see the marks from the serrated bamboo of the Shinai here, and here," she pointed twice. Her eyes were dark at the memory of her brother. "I've seen him do this to others before, but never so brutally as this. You'd think that he beat him as bad as he could while keeping him alive so that he could just bleed to death."
Matt shook his head in disgust and started to reply, but his words were interrupted before they could even leave his lips. "Roan didn't do this..." Kari whispered from behind the older girl.
Matt and Rio both turned as one. "He had to have," the older girl insisted. "I've seen the marks from enough Kendo spars to recognize the signs... and like I said, he's done this before."
T.K., Patamon and Gatomon were standing over the man now, the boy holding his partner as the little creature used his orange wings to fan the stranger's face. Gatomon turned. "Wait a minute. Kari, you sounded awfully sure about that. How do you know Roan didn't do this? After all, I think we know him enough to know what kind of a heartless bastard he is."
Kari shook her head. "This was the man that was attacking Yolei... I saw it. I think... no, I'm sure: Cody did this to him."
The others stopped, stunned into silence. "C... Cody?" T.K. stammered after a moment, Patamon's wings soon slowing to a stop at the revelation.
The girl nodded sadly, her brown bangs caressing her face as she did so. Gatomon frowned, then moved away from the fallen stranger as if she were loathe to be near him any longer, and Wizardmon was soon at her side.
Matt and Rio looked at one another, the boy looking slightly sick. Rio, of course, did not know the youngest boy, and so had no idea just what the revelation that he had been the cause of the destruction before them meant. The others, however, and particularly the younger children, were horrified. Calm, tender Cody... the cause of this? "Kari?" T.K. whispered, moving to her side and taking both of her hands in his.
"It's the truth, T.K. I don't know why, but he did."
"Very well," murmured Wizardmon, raising his staff high over his head as he stood over the fallen man.
"What are you doing?" Patamon squeaked.
"I'm finishing what your friend started," the other replied coolly.
"No!" the little orangish creature protested. "T.K... T.K., stop him!"
At the creature's high-pitched squeal, however, the man at their feet blinked open his blood encrusted eyes and looked vaguely at the group. "W... water?" he asked, his voice pleading.
The others all looked around at one another, each looking for someone else to make a decision about the man. After a few moments, Wizardmon was again prepared to simply continue and end the man's life when T.K. stepped forward, placing a hand gently on the creature's upraised weapon. "No. Wizardmon, please. Can you give him what he wants?"
The other looked a bit upset, but then nodded and lowered his staff and once again removed his hat. After a few moments of concentrating, a trickle of water started to drip from the battered object of apparel. T.K. smiled a 'thank-you' at the creature, then cupped his hands beneath the flow and allowed them to fill with the lukewarm liquid.
Kari knelt and tilted the man's head back, as he seemed unable to do it himself, and T.K. poured a few drops of the water from his hands into the other's open mouth. The man coughed and sputtered for a while, as if he were having trouble swallowing, but in the end the young boy did manage to get a goodly amount of it into his mouth. "T... thank you," the man murmured with a cough, then sipped again. He attempted a smile, but it only served to make his bloodstained face more hideous. "I... I've never had such tasty water..."
"Who did this to you?" Kari asked, though of course she already knew the answer to the question.
The other stared at her blankly. "Who beat you like this?" she clarified.
The look in the man's eyes was vacant. "A... a little boy... He seemed mad at me. So mad... I just wanted his friend, the little girl, to love me. She was pretty, and the master told me that she wanted me to kiss her. So I did... lots. But she was yelling at me when I did, so I guessed that I wasn't trying hard enough, but when I tried harder to make her happy with me, like the master told me to, the little boy started to hit me with his stick. Could I have some more of that water? That was very tasty..." he asked of T.K.
T.K. cupped his hands beneath Wizardmon's hat again and poured more water into the other's mouth. The man swallowed and then smacked his lips, falling back into Kari's lap and again closing his eyes. "But I think she really did love me. That was nice. At least somebody does." And then he once again lapsed into unconsciousness.
Gatomon looked at the others. "What was that all about?"
T.K. bit his lip, his brow furrowing. "I think he's feebleminded," the boy answered, looking down at the other.
The little feline's jaw dropped open. "Did I just hear you say that?" she asked, astonished.
T.K. looked grim, expanding on his words. "No, I think he has a mental handicap of some kind. Weren't you listening to him? He sounded like a child."
Matt turned to his little brother, then nodded slowly. "Yeah... yeah, he did."
Wizardmon looked at the rest of the group. "That still doesn't help us decide what we're going to do with him."
T.K. frowned. "We'll have to take him with us."
At those words Wizardmon snorted, and even Matt and Rio seemed somewhat indecisive. "T.K.," Matt started. "We... I mean, I know that you want to help, but just how do you want us to bring him along? Look at him. He can't walk, and neither Patamon or Gatomon can evolve to carry him. We don't have any way to help him, and if Kari's right, we don't have time to wait."
T.K. looked down at the unconscious man's immobile form. It was true that bringing him along would cause a great many more problems than it would solve, and that he had likely been the one who had attacked Yolei. Looking at his wounds, there was a good chance that he would not make it no matter what they did, yet the boy just could not see leaving him here to die... alone. "I... I think that the two of us could carry him, Matt," he pleaded, looking at his older brother.
Matt started to shake his head, to say unequivocally 'no'. But as he glanced at his little brother standing there, he found that he could not force the word past his lips. He thought that by looking away he could make himself refuse, but as he did his eyes encountered Rio's, now begging for much the same thing. Matt sighed. If it were only one or the other, he felt that he might be able to refuse, but not with both of them teaming up against him. Rolling his eyes away from those he loved more deeply than any other in the world, the boy muttered. "Okay, fine. I mean, this was all turning out too easy anyway. I guess if the bad guys aren't going to make it hard on us, we can make it hard on ourselves, right?" He had lost, and so would capitulate, but he swore that he would make it up by agreeing just as sullenly as possible.
Rio threw herself into the boy's arms, wrapping her arms around his neck and kissing him soundly on the lips. "Oh, Matt! I'm so, so proud of you!" she exclaimed.
Matt was still upset at the thought of dragging the man's dead weight for the remainder of their trip with only his little brother to assist him, but the kiss raised his spirits exponentially. Suppressing a smile, the teen made up his mind to milk this situation for all that it was worth if he was going to have to end up doing it in the end anyway. "As if I wasn't tired enough already," he sighed theatrically.
The boy was a horrid actor, so of course all of the others instantly picked up on what he was doing. Wizardmon even rolled his eyes and turned away with a snort. Still, Rio had no qualms about doing whatever she had to in order to bring down that wall of hastily constructed resistance. "Oh, Matt," she repeated for his benefit, still keeping her arms tightly around his neck. "I'm so, so, so proud of you!" she gushed, then kissed the boy again, pressing her lips tightly against his and embracing him with a fervency that almost bordered on indecency.
T.K. saw both the kiss and the embrace, then turned away as a fevered blush engulfed his face. As he turned, however, Kari was there and was watching him intensely. She knew, of course, how good T.K. was. There was never any question about it in her mind. But then, every so often the boy would do something like this that would instantly remind her of it. With her eyes locked on his, the girl stepped forward and gently brushed her fingertips against his cheek.
T.K. felt warm all over when she looked at him like that, and the boy felt a delightful tingling sensation on the back of his neck. It was though she were looking through his eyes directly into his soul and reveling in what she found there, longing for a way to convey what she felt for him yet seemingly unable to do so within the limits of human expression. Yet with that one look, the brown-haired girl somehow managed to make the boy understand just what it was that he meant to her, and T.K. could not help but blush at that understanding.
Neither of the children spoke... no words were necessary. Both of them understood the promise that existed between them, she perhaps a little bit better than he. "We should go," she whispered quietly, not taking her eyes off of his even for a moment, her fingers still resting against his cheek.
The boy nodded reluctantly, and forcibly tore his eyes off of hers. It almost hurt him to do so, and for just a moment afterwards he felt uncomfortably cool, as if he had left the comfort of a warm bath to step forward into the chill air.
The two looked around for a moment after they separated, finding the eyes of the rest of the group locked on them in amazement. "Wow," Rio said, her eyes wide in astonishment as she held Matt's hand tightly. "I felt that way over here."
Matt licked his lips, which were suddenly feeling somewhat dry. "T.K.?" he said, staring at his little brother. Suddenly shame washed over him at what he accused the pair of doing two weeks prior to that, when he had found the boy naked in his bedroom and Kari blushing at his side. "I'm... I'm sorry. I didn't understand..."
T.K. blinked. "Huh?"
Gatomon stepped in between the two couples. "Come on," she said, immediately taking charge. "You humans can talk about this later. We were in a hurry, right Kari?"
Kari nodded down at the little feline. "Sorry, Gatomon. That needed to be done."
The other sniffed. "You can tell him later." The she turned her eyes on the two blond boys. "Well, come on you big, strong guys. Pick him up," she said, indicating the limp form of the man at Wizardmon's feet.
T.K. and Matt both nodded, then stepped forward and hoisted the man up, each of the brothers placing one of his arms over their shoulders. "Geez, this guy's heavy," Matt groaned, bracing his legs underneath him.
"Well that doesn't mean you've got to shove him all on me," T.K. replied, just as breathless and his knees wobbly.
Patamon grabbed the back of the man's collar and fluttered behind him, trying his best to take some of the weight from the boys, but the relief was insubstantial.
Behind them, the two girls walked side-by-side with their partners, and Kari looked down at Gatomon. "You've got absolutely no romance in your soul at all, you know that?"
The other shrugged. "I'm a cat. So sue me."
Kari smiled secretly as she looked away from the other. "I just hope that I'm there to see it when your turn comes around."
"Mmm?"
"Nothing," the girl replied casually. "Nothing at all."
*****
"Mother? Mother, come here!" Rena exclaimed excitedly, displaying an energy that only a nine-year-old could muster in that place.
The blond-haired woman gave a lethargic sigh, but stumbled towards the doorway as her daughter bade her. While she moved, she peered at the enormous, grotesque statue of Myotismon in the center of their village, the stone giant that towered over all of the little hovels that had been constructed for the human population there. In an hour, the humans would once again be ordered to gather at that statue, to worship and pay homage to the one who kept them all alive in this dead place. The ritual was galling, but still, for her daughter's sake, she would attend.
The woman blinked at what little Rena was indicating, rubbing at her eyes to make certain that she was not hallucinating. For there, in the distance and walking from the wastelands towards their village, was a group of humans that she had never seen before. Four humans, two girls and a pair of blond teenage boys, who looked to be dragging a limp figure in between them. But what was strange about this group, outside of the fact that they were new here, was that not one of them looked to be affected with the lethargy of the dead that cursed all humans in the Void. The boys looked tired, probably from carrying the heavy thing between them, but they were all clearly alive.
"Rena?" the woman murmured quietly to the child at her side. "Go tell Katrina's parents that we're going to be a little bit late in joining them tonight, will you?"
The little blond-haired girl looked up questioningly. "Go dear, don't ask questions. Just go tell them."
