WARNING: Vitamin-C fortification is not over, yet. ("C" stands for Christian.)

Chapter 34: The Disguise Is Dropped!

Tina milled around the cemetery with Ingrid holding her hand. She and the rest of the volunteers were wandering around the cemetery, following children as they looked for the candy that she and Hare and Natasha had hidden the day before. She bumped into Sora as she was walking, and she nudged her. "Hey, that was a great performance. It was almost too real, the way you were crying as Mary Magdalene! Forget a company president: you have a promising career ahead of you in acting!"

Sora looked at the ground, still wearing the black mourner's clothes. Another tear fell from her face and made a wet spot on the gravestone beneath her feet.

Looking at the spot, Tina thought that Sora had looked down to see if the gravestone was getting wet to see if it was raining. Tina took off her glove and opened her hand to the sky…not a drop. And yet the gravestone was getting speckled with drops of water. "Does it feel like it's raining, to you?"

"That's not rain," Sora sobbed.

Tina's mouth dropped open as she saw that there was something that was bothering Sora…a lot. Out of sheer pity, Tina lunged for Sora and hugged her tightly. (She had been used to lunging at orphans who were crying in the orphanage.) Sora only sobbed harder, knowing that her secret pain was now known by somebody else. There was nothing but silence for a while, only broken by, "Hey, five more Easter eggs!" from another child.

Tina whispered, "What is it? What's bothering you?"

Sora shook her head.

"You've got to tell me! You've got to tell somebody! I don't want to see you snap!"

"No…please," Sora whispered. She was too shy to open up, and too gentle to push Tina away.

"You don't understand…it doesn't have to be me that you tell, but you need to talk to somebody about what's bothering you."

"It's…it's nothing, I…"

"If it was nothing, you wouldn't be so scared."

Sora looked at the ground. "We're dead."

"…No, we're not!"

"Yes, we are!"

"We can't be. If---"

"Tina, you weren't there when those menace machines attacked the nuke plant." The pain was cutting Sora's heart so badly that she had to sit down on a gravestone. "They were eating the refugees, and I watched while Birdramon and Shakkoumon were fighting, and I was helpless…I couldn't do anything to keep them from dying like that."

"Sora, it wasn't your fault that that happened," Tina insisted, sitting next to Sora.

"I know, but if we can't stop that from happening, then it's useless!"

"We can't save them all, but that's not stopping us. There's something else that Cody never mentioned about the Easter story. Let me explain: Jesus died so that we could be saved from hell. But not everyone is saved from hell."

"I don't need to hear about something even worse than what I saw---"

"You're missing the point, Sora! Jesus didn't save everyone, either… But some of us are saved…better some than none. And the people Jesus saves…He keeps them going. We should do the same thing." Tina picked Ingrid up off the ground and set her on her lap. "I always have to keep a smile on my face so that she won't lose hope. So why don't you at least try to do the same thing?"

"Because I can't!" Sora started crying again, and covered her face.

Tina was at the end of her rope. She began wondering what she could say or do to make Sora feel better. She looked down at her lap…and saw Ingrid climbing onto Sora's lap. Ingrid began to treat Sora the way she had seen Tina treat the other, crying orphans in the orphanage. (In a planet where man-eating robots ruled, it wasn't uncommon for the children to start crying for no apparent reason.) She began with a long hug, and then started crying, herself, to sympathize with Sora. After a little while, she wiped off her own tears, wiped off Sora's, and looked into her eyes. "Yo' go-o' be okay!" she said.

"…W-what?"

"Yo' go-o' be okay!"

Tina whispered, "You're going to be okay."

Sora swallowed hard as the molecules in her soul began to change.

"Yo' go-o' be okay!" Ingrid insisted, just as lovingly as Tina.

"I'm going…to be…okay…"

"Yo' go-o' be okay."

"I'm going to be okay."

"Yo' go-o' be okay."

"I'm gonna be okay!"

"Yo' go-o' be ok-AY!"

Sora giggled, and Ingrid giggled with her. Ingrid finished off her treatment with a kiss on Sora's cheek, and then climbed back into Tina's arms.

"Thank you," Sora whispered to Tina, and then to Ingrid.

"Yo' go-o' be ooookay!" Ingrid answered.

Sora got up and began milling around the cemetery, again, keeping close to children, in case it started to rain.

"You know…that was good," Tina said to Ingrid.

"Go-od!" Ingrid answered.

"And it deserves a reward," Tina added, handing Ingrid an Easter egg.

Just as she finished the egg, a shower of rain instantly started. "Hello!" Tina shouted, opening her carrot. She whistled for the children to come to her, and she got more of a gaggle than her umbrella had room for. "Go over to Sora and Rika…they don't have anybody. They need more people."

This wasn't the only problem they had: The Unnamed Figure was back.

"Oh, it figures it's you," Tina said. "A big rain cloud is always following you around."

"Very funny, Tina. But it's my turn to laugh, now! Digi-modify! Digivolution, activate!"

"Jaymon, digivolve to…Nekhbetmon!"

Yolei came running up next to Tina. "Honey, get away from that guy!"

"I'm heading away, believe me!"

"Hawkmon, I hope you're ready to rumble!"

"I indubitably am!" she answered. "Hawkmon, digivolve to…Altairmon!" Altairmon flew up at Nekhbetmon and the two immediately began to tangle.

"Them up there, and us down here!" The Unnamed Figure said.

"Forget it!" Biyomon shouted as she and Sora ran up to the fight. "Spiral Twister!"

The Unnamed Figure dodged out of the way of the blast of green fire. "You know, your stuffed bird is starting to irritate me," he said to Sora.

"She's not a stuffed bird!" Sora shot back. "A stuffed animal can't hurt you, but she sure can!"

"I wouldn't count in on it!" The Unnamed Figure answered. He opened up his cloak, revealing that the clothes he wore beneath it were the same clothes than Terrance had been wearing. But there was an even more startling revelation: that he could hide a champion-level Blackgatomon in the folds of his cloak.

"Darkening Claw!" Blackgatomon shouted, hurling black bolts of lighting at Biyomon. Biyomon fell to the ground.

"Oh! Biyomon!" Sora shouted, picking up her fallen friend.

"Lightning Claw!" Gatomon answered, squarely hitting Blackgatomon. Blackgatomon went flying into a mud puddle, but it didn't seem to protest at all at the mud. Gatomon would have found the mud disgusting, and it occurred to Gatomon that there was a big difference between herself and this copy. Gatomon was keeping her fur neat and dry under her poncho, while this clone of her wasn't doing anything at all to keep clean or good-looking.

And yet there was a parallel: both of them had---at one time, at least---lived and worked for evil. Maybe Blackgatomon could be convinced to reform itself, too?

But there wasn't time to think about that: Gatomon found herself in a tough fight with a copy of herself.

"Cursed Path!" Blackgatomon shouted, stomping her bare foot on the ground and sending a green bolt of lightning across the ground at Gatomon.

"Step of Cat!" The two attacks looked at first like they would cancel out, but Blackgatomon's attack power was higher than Gatomon's. Gatomon leapt out of the way of the attack and into one of the cemetery trees.

"Darkening Claw!" Gatomon leapt to another branch. "Darkening Claw!" Gatomon leapt to still another branch. "Darkening Claw!" Gatomon climbed out of sight of Blackgatomon. "This isn't working!" Blackgatomon complained.

"You can say that again!" Tai said as he ran to the scene. "You think you can walk into one of our events and just ruin everything? Well, guess again!"

"Okay, here's my second guess: Yes, I can ruin your day in the sun! Digi-modify! DNA Digivolution, activate!"

"Nekhbetmon!"

"Blackgatomon!"

"DNA digivolve to…Silphymon!" Silphymon stretched out its hands. "Marsh Sprites!" A collection of vines and twigs jumped up from the ground and entangled the Digidestined and their digimon.

"Not so fast!" Hare shouted. "Dragon Kick!" He went sailing at a few of the vines and broke Kari free.

Kari ran to Yolei. "Yolei, your digivice! We've got to DNA digivolve!"

"Altairmon!"

"Gatomon!"

"DNA digivolve to…Swampangemon!" Swampangemon flew down at Silphymon. "I hope you're ready for a fight!"

"That I am! Astro Laser!"

"Static Pulse!" The two shots cancelled out.

The Unnamed Figure sneered. "I'll fix this! Digi-modify! Firepower, activate!"

"This isn't good!" Hare said, continuing to burn the vines off the Digidestined. "I think we'll need more fighters against this guy!"

"More they shall have!" Tai said, getting his digivice hand free of the vines.

"Agumon, digivolve to…Greymon! Nova Blast!"

"Lily Umbrage!" Silphymon answered, putting a shield between itself and the flame. "Astro Laser!" it shouted back, throwing a green blast of energy back at him.

Greymon jumped out of the way, but the attack dug into the ground and made a crater big enough to make a swimming pool. "This doesn't look so good, Tai!"

"The looks of it are about to change! Greymon, digivolve!"

"Greymon, digivolve to…Metalgreymon!" Metalgreymon looked at Silphymon with determination and focus. "Giga blaster!" he shouted, firing a pair of torpedoes at it.

"Static pulse!" Swampangemon joined in the attack.

"Lily Umbrage!" Silphymon insisted, and the attacks didn't touch it.

"This is getting old," Metalgreymon sighed.

"Flank her!" Swampangemon suggested.

"Right!" Metalgreymon took off to the left while Swampangemon took off to the right.

Unfortunately, Silphymon knew this one. "Astro Laser!" it shouted, firing at Metalgreymon. The shot hit him squarely, and he regressed back down to Agumon. It kept its shield between itself and Swampangemon, in the meanwhile.

As it turned around, it felt a jab on its face and felt its shield get yanked out of its hands. "I've had enough of you; you're going down! Swampangemon, mode-change to…giga mode!" Swampangemon looked down at her doppelganger. "How do things look now, Tai?"

"Not bad, I'd have to say!"

"Wrong-o!" Silphymon answered, growing itself to a size even bigger than Swampangemon. In a terrible, demonic voice, it sang, "♪♫Any-thing you can be, I can be greater; I can do any-thing better than you! ♫"

Swampangemon shouted back, half not-realizing that she was continuing the song, "No, you can't!"

"Yes, I can!"

Swampangemon didn't shout "No, you can't!" In fact, she didn't say anything, and seemed to shrink into disappearing.

"Wha---?! Hey, I'm supposed to be a better version of her! How come I can't disappear?!" she complained down to Walt.

"We'll have to have those responsible terminated, won't we?"

Swampangemon buttoned up her slicker and pulled up the hood. "This is going to get messy," she warned herself. She was in her micro mode, and Silphymon was in its giga mode, so she was practically microscopic compared to her clone. She flew into its ear, trying to keep away from the walls, where disgusting-looking earwax lay built-up. "Fits in with everything else about this thing!" Swampangemon muttered to herself. "Disgusting, sick, and---ack!" Silphymon must have turned its head, because Swampangemon felt herself get pasted to the wall---right into the thick of the wax.

"Oooo… That does it! Static Pulse!" Swampangemon fired into the wall of the ear.

Outside of Silphymon's body, it looked as though the giant digi-clone was suddenly wrestling with its own head. A beam of orange light burst out of its face, and everyone began to get the idea that Swampangemon was up to something.

Silphymon returned to its original size, as did Swampangemon. Brushing the smudge of earwax off her sleeve that had once been big enough to engulf her, she sneered, "So much for you! …And you're not getting off the hook, either!" she added, looking at The Unnamed Figure.

"Don't count on it! Digi-modify! Counter-crest digivolution, activate!"

"Silphymon, mega-digivolve to…"