NOTE: Christian content in the first scene, and it would be especially offensive to people who believe that there are many ways to get what you want, spiritually. Reader discretion advised.
Chapter 6: Shock
BAM!!
The flick of a light switch was usually the quietest thing Rika ever heard, but the noise of this switch felt as loud and as shocking as a gunshot. She looked up, and felt like she'd been seen naked. It was Tina, the core of hatred in Rika's mind, and she had discovered Rika. And Tina was smart enough to realize in a second that Rika was trying to kill herself with chlorine fumes, and that she'd caught her just in the nick of time…she hoped.
Rika's hand shook as she tried to hold on to what hope she had left: dying would free her from the shame and guilt of having been discovered trying to kill herself. She tried to pour out the bleach.
Tina lunged at Rika the same way Rika had lunged at her, but this time, it was out of love, not hatred, and it was to protect, not to hurt. The bottle of bleach went flying out of Rika's hand into a toilet, and Tina fell on top of Rika like a lioness on a gazelle. Rika struggled against Tina, but Tina was older and stronger than she was, and Rika only succeeded in getting her blouse wet with window cleaner in struggling to get free.
Finally, Rika felt too weak to struggle any more. Her face was pressed against the tile floor, and she could feel Tina hanging on to her, keeping her arms behind her back in a painful twist, and keeping her legs from moving, too. Rika was tired and in a lethally depressed rage: her ground had been torn out from under her. She had nothing, and she had been reduced to nothing. She started sobbing loudly, and her sobbing echoed through the bathroom and through her mind. "You're killing me!" Rika moaned through her sobs.
"I'm saving your life!"
"I don't want my stupid life!"
"Jesus didn't give you your life so that you could throw it away just because you got scared and chickened out on living!"
"I don't believe in your God! You don't believe in your God!"
"I do too! …I admit it, I've had my doubts, but why else would I come in here the minute you decided to kill yourself, unless God wanted that to happen?"
"That's not the work of a good God, that's the work of some demon! I don't want to live, now let me die! Let me go and let me kill myself!!!"
"Is that what you want? Because I haven't been able to get two words out of you about what you want! Tell me what you want! Tell me!!"
"I want to kill myself; I want to kill you; I want to kill everyone!!" Rika sobbed. "I hate you! I hate your stupid God for keeping me from dying! I hate your stupid dad for whipping me!! I hate everything!!!" Rika broke into sobs that slowly wound down.
Tina rested her head next to Rika's as she calmed down. "There. You said it."
"Said what? What are words worth?" Rika thundered.
"You got a lot off your chest. …But you're wrong. What you said was all wrong."
Rika didn't answer.
"Rika, you were wrong to think that killing yourself would solve anything. You don't know what being dead is like. I don't want to sound like I'm preaching fire and brimstone at you, but hell is no fun, and…and that's just the way things are with death. There's only one way out of hell, and that's Jesus."
"Your God? ...He kept me from dying?"
"You don't know anything about him, do you? For all you know, he might've lived in Australia."
"All I know is He's the only thing between me and what I want."
"You don't want to die."
"Yes...I...DO!!!" Rika said that with such force that Tina wrenched her arm into the pain position to discipline her.
"Rika, you have no clue what you're saying. You're so mixed up that Ingrid is doing better than you are."
"I don't know who Ingrid is, either."
"You don't have to. But it's time you heard the truth about what you're going through: you have been alone all your life. You don't open up to anyone. It wasn't until you told me how you felt that you finally calmed down. It's not opening up that would've killed you: not me, not my dad, and definitely not Jesus---my God."
"You're saying that I'm doing this to myself?" Rika asked. Tina couldn't tell from Rika's tone whether she believed it or not.
Tina sighed. "Yes…you're doing this to yourself. And…maybe I did a little, too…I'm sorry." A warm tear fell out of Tina's eye and fell on Rika's neck.
Rika's head spun. She'd felt so confused and so beaten that she couldn't think anymore, and she wouldn't be able to accept anything as true either way: she didn't have the brainpower to accept that she didn't have to die, but she didn't have the brainpower to accept that she would have to die, either.
Tina waited for Rika to say something, but Rika didn't say anything for a long time. So Tina broke the silence and said to her, "I know you're scared and alone. But you need to sleep. Please…come with me, back out into the room, and I'll be right next to you, so that you won't be alone. And Jesus is here, too, and He loves you...He just wants the best for you...trust Him when He says you don't have to die...please..."
Rika sniffled.
Tina slowly loosed her grip on Rika, and extended her hand down to her. Rika looked up at her with uncertainty… what was the right choice? This was her time: which path would she take, and would that path lead to happiness or tears?
Finally, Rika made her decision, and took hold of Tina's hand.
******
"Golden armor, energize!"
"Gatomon, golden-armor digivolve to…Quadrigamon, the chariot of light!" Quadrigamon's shields glowed yellow as she flew up into the air. "Golden hubcaps!" She fired a pair of yellow discs at her counterpart.
Without digivolving, Blackgatomon smacked the discs with its paws and knocked them back at her. Quadrigamon dodged under the returned discs.
"This doesn't look good, Kari," Quadrigamon thought aloud, landing next to her.
"This looked bad from the minute they dragged me out of my kindergarten class!" Kari answered. "Don't give up get; she's a champion and you're a golden armor digimon!"
"Don't get overconfident!" The Unnamed Figure shot back. "Jaymon, are you ready?"
"Ready as I'll ever be."
"Then let's go for it! Digi-modify! Digivolution, activate!"
"Jaymon, digivolve to…Nekhbetmon!"
"And now, for something you'll enjoy…Digi-modify! DNA digivolution, activate!"
"Nekhbetmon!"
"Blackgatomon!"
"DNA digivolve to…Silphymon!" This version of Silphymon looked like the first, but only in that it was the same size and human-like. But it was different in other ways: its skin was black, and its hair was dyed an unnatural neon green. Through its hair were laced several poisonous flowers. It wore a camouflage, studded jacket, and it had white wading boots covering its feet. Its feathers were blue-green, like Jaymon's had been. On the whole, it looked like a precise reversal of Swampangemon.
"Now that looks really off!" Quadrigamon thought aloud.
"Amen," Suezo agreed. "I've seen some pretty tough monsters with my one eye, but this one takes the cake…after that Imperialdramon guy."
"Astro laser!" Silphymon shouted, hurling a ball of green, electric flame at them. Suezo beamed himself, Takato, Moochi, and Yolei out of the way of the blast.
Quadrigamon shouted, "Kari, if that thing can do everything I could as Swampangemon, you and Yolei will have to DNA digivolve!"
"Can this get any worse?" Kari moaned.
"Let's not wait to find out, chi!" Moochi yelled. "Cherry blossom blizzard!" He fired a blast of flower petals at Silphymon.
Silphymon plucked a flower out of its hair. "Lily umbrage!" it shouted, growing the flower to a one-meter diameter and blocking the blast from itself.
"Great, they improved on the form, while they were at it!" Yolei spat.
"Which one of us fights?" Takato asked.
Yolei answered, "Kari and I will take this guy! Ready, Hawkmon?"
"Indubitably!"
"Stay ready," Quadrigamon insisted. "We should wait for a DNA digivolution until after what we've already tried fails! Plasma Lash!" Quadrigamon cracked her whip at Silphymon's shield. Black ash-marks appeared on the organic shield, but the whip didn't penetrate.
"I'm getting tired of this!" The Unnamed Figure muttered. "Digi-modify! Speed, activate!"
Silphymon circled around Quadrigamon and tore her whip out of her hands. "Now let's see how you like this!" Silphymon sneered. It wound up for a slash, but the fiery whip disappeared, leaving only a golden handle in Silphymon's hands.
"That's part of my body," Quadrigamon explained. "You can't control that attack; I still control it!" A spurt of flame from the whip jumped out at Silphymon's face as Silphymon was looking at the whip. Quadrigamon chuckled as Silphymon hurled the weapon away. "And I thought this would be a tough battle! Looks like they sacrificed brains for brawn when they cranked you out of the old mainframe, huh?"
"I'll make you regret saying that!" Silphymon shouted as it lunged at her. Quadrigamon and Silphymon got into a fistfight, and ended up strangling each other.
"This doesn't look good!"
Moochi stepped forward again. "Moochi cannon!" he shouted as he spat a red laser beam in Silphymon's face. Silphymon's grip came loose, and Quadrigamon quickly got the upper hand and hurled her opponent to the ground.
"Not so fast," The Unnamed Figure sneered. "Digi-modify! Recovery, activate!" Silphymon's wounds sealed and it got up for another fight.
"This isn't getting us anywhere," Yolei shouted. "We need to take that thing out, and we need to do it now!"
"There's another option," Suezo answered.
"What's that?" Quadrigamon asked.
"We can…Teleport!" They all vanished in a flash of purple light.
The Unnamed Figure frowned. "Well, now we know who to take out first, don't we?" he asked Silphymon.
"I'll make it a point next time I see them," it answered.
The heroes and the orphans they were defending fell out of the teleport attack in a heap not far away. Groaning, Quadrigamon asked, "Is your teleport attack always this flaky?"
"Hey, it got us away from them, didn't it?"
Quadrigamon regressed back to Gatomon. "You know, I'm starting to get sick of that guy," she thought aloud. "He's the one who trashed the nuke plant, and he probably killed all those refugees, too!"
Yolei moaned. "If only Imperialdramon had been there! Or if more people from the navy ship were alive!"
"Relax, Yolei. There's not much that can take Imperialdramon down. Even if they don't come back before we die of old age---or whatever---then they'll be in good hands."
Yolei sighed and covered her face.
"It does you no good to worry like this."
"I know, I know…"
"Come on. Let's get to some place where we can sleep out of the elements. Hopefully, he won't find us there."