Legend of the Digidestined
Book 1
Chapter 12
You're lost, little girl
You're lost, little girl
You're lost
Tell me who are you?
Think that you know what to do
Impossible, yes
But it's true
I Think that you know what to do
Yeah, sure that you know what to do
You're lost, little girl
You're lost, little girl
You're lost
Tell me who are you?
Think that you know what to do
Impossible, yes
But it's true
I think that you know what to do
Girl, sure that you know what to do
You're lost, little girl
You're lost, little girl
You're lost
"You're Lost, Little Girl"
lyrics by Jim Morrison
from the album Strange Days
by The Doors
Book 1
Chapter 12
All Together Now
It was all about to come to a head now. Everything Devimon had planed for, everything he hadn't planed for, it was all about to take place. The labyrinth idea had failed. Without interruption, the humans would most likely make it to the peak of Infinity Mountain in just over two hours; and with Centarumon and Unimon bringing their Digimon companions into the Labyrinth as well, there was little chance of interrupting them. There was no doubt that, in roughly an hour, Devimon would have to personally face the Digidestined. He should have been concerned; in fact, he should have been terrified. But he simply didn't care.
The only think that mattered was that Pandoramon had betrayed him. Devimon knew he should have been concentrating on the looming confrontation, but his mind was totally preoccupied by the blow that little Digimon had dealt him. How could she do this to him? How could he have let her do it? What could he have done differently to change her mind? His failure to contain the Digidestined meant nothing compared to his failure to keep Pandoramon from turning her back on him.
Chances were Pandoramon didn't even know what kind of effect her betrayal would have on him. Devimon had been given a tremendous position by The Darkness and he always had to act in a manner befitting that position; he could not allow himself the luxury of expressing much fondness for any one of his followers. But there was no denying that, from the first time Devimon saw her, he had been very fond of Pandoramon. "Had been" were the important words, as, even if Devimon could avoid punishing Pandoramon for her betrayal, there was no way he would ever get her back. He knew for certain now that she did, in fact, attempt to contact The Darkness, which meant that the Digimon he had known for so many years before had been virtually destroyed; her mind shattered beyond repair.
Devimon clenched his fists tightly at the thought, driving his lengthy claws deep into his own palms. He felt like he had to hurt something. In fact, for a second, he almost cursed The Darkness itself for taking Pandoramon away from him. How could something be right and just and then...No, that was pointless. The Darkness had warned repeatedly about the dangers of another Digimon attempting to contact It, and Pandoramon knew it. There was no use in blaming It for what she had done; Pandoramon's fate was of her own making.
Now, more than ever, Devimon hoped that The Darkness would utterly erase the Digital World from existence. There was nothing left for him in it any more.
"Watch it," Centarumon whispered, holding Gabumon and Gomamon behind him "There's four more guards up at that crossing."
"Oh, I'm sick of all this sneaking around!" Gomamon grunted trying to peak around the legs of the much larger Digimon "Let's go bust some heads!"
"I agree!" Gabumon added "Who knows what danger Matt could be in right now? We need to hurry up and get down to the labyrinth!"
"Quite true." Centarumon said, slightly amused "But just how quickly do you think we'll be moving if we have to step over the fading bodies of ever single Digimon in Infinity Mountain to get there?"
"Centarumon's right!" Biyomon scolded "We need to get as far as we can before we start wasting time fighting!"
"Whatever," Gomamon sighed "but I'd still feel a lot better if I was hitting something."
"You can hit me if you want!" Patamon offered.
"That's enough of that." Unimon interrupted "You should save up that fighting spirit for when we're in a real fight."
"Yeah, but that'll take forever at this rate." Palmon whined.
"Just hold on." Centarumon said, peaking around the corner at the guards milling about down the hall "Those four are clearly not planning on sticking around for long, they're waiting for someone to come get them. We'll go when the coast is clear."
"But there's just four of them!" Agumon objected "Why do we have to wait?"
"Because, little one," Centarumon answered, quietly yet imposing "we have been training and practicing the arts of war since a time that even we barely remember, we stood on the ruined plains of Server before whole armies during the revolution, we looked into the eyes of the Dark Masters themselves, and we walked away in one piece to tell the tale. You, on the other hand, have not, so you will do as we tell you too."
"That sounds like a good plan." Agumon said, timidly.
"Of course it does." Centarumon grunted, contentedly.
"Here they come." Unimon whispered, pushing the Digimon near him back down the side passage they had been in "Back into the hall, all of you!"
"but I thought the whole idea was to let the labyrinth take care of the humans by itself." one of the guards said to its companions.
"But that was when the humans were alone down there." the leader of the group explained "Now that Pandoramon's down there too, the plans have changed, so let's get into position."
"Wait a minute" Unimon whispered, genuinely startled "Did I just here what I thought I heard?"
"I never though I'd see they day;" Centarumon said, trying hard to suppress the urge to laugh out loud "Devimon's pet angel has flown the coop!"
"Pandoramon" Tentomon muttered to himself "I've heard that name before."
"A know-nothing know-it-all like you sure ought to have." Centarumon replied "Lesser minds have called her the most brilliant Digimon who ever lived."
"Oh yeah!" Tentomon exclaimed "Now I remember; she's the one who designed the system of platforms back at Systems Canyon! Wow, she must be brilliant to throw something like that together!"
"Especially seeing that she did most of it just to kill time while all the stronger Digimon were off in Server." Unimon added "I think she may actually have done some work on the Temple of Quadra, too."
"So, you two knew this Pandoramon?" Biyomon asked.
"Well, not personally, at least." Unimon added "But we're all very well acquainted with her handiwork, the Black Gears."
"You mean, the same" Tentomon stuttered "Well, maybe she's not that brilliant."
"No one ever said that intelligence equaled common sense." Unimon explained "When Myotismon first named Devimon regent of File Island, he was basically a big, winged figurehead on top of a mountain who didn't have any real power. But somehow he managed to sweet talk Pandoramon into building Black Gears for him, and...Well, you know the rest just as well as anyone."
"Then what convinced her to help us?" Palmon asked.
"Who cares? We need all the help we can get!" Gomamon scolded, as if he feared Pandoramon would hear and change her mind "Let's not look a gift Unimon in the mouth...Um, pardon the expression, sir."
"I wouldn't be so sure about that." Centarumon said, going over the situation in his head "A character with a history like Pandoramon's doesn't inspire much trust right away. She might be a part of some kind of scheme Devimon's got cooking in that horned head of his."
"I doubt that." Unimon replied "Sneaky, backstabbing plans aren't Devimon's style."
"What, sneaky and backstabbing like setting up nice warm beds of us and dragging us into this dungeon in our sleep?" Centarumon snickered.
"Of course!" Unimon laughed "If it was his style, he'd have done a better job at it and we wouldn't be having such an easy time screwing it up!"
"Speaking of which, can we go now?" Patamon asked "I wanna find T.K.!"
"Alright, I think the coast is clear." Centarumon said, taking a quick look around "Let's go."
"I still would like to know why Pandoramon is helping us if she's supposed to be Devimon's pal." Palmon piped up as the group moved down the hall.
"Hopefully, she just came to her senses." Gabumon answered.
"Or she came up with a better plan than Devimon's." Centarumon muttered.
"That would require Devimon admitting that his first idea was wrong, and what are the chances of that?" Unimon pointed out "No, if she's really helping them down there, it can't be with Devimon's permission, and no one would risk Devimon's wrath by disobeying him like that without hoping that he wouldn't be in a position to punish for very much longer."
"I sure hope you're right." Centarumon sighed "I wonder just what it is she's doing down there, anyway?"
"It was really hard working out just what kind of... um, oh yeah, waves... or even if they were waves, the transmitter needed to be designed to use, so I started out just making it sensitive to them all, but that would have fried even Devimon's brain, so I ever even bothered testing it that way. So, I finally figured out that the Darkness must be a kind of a Digimon like consciousness, or maybe a human like consciousness, boy wouldn't it be something if all this time Devimon has been talking to a human like you all of this time? Well, no probably not. If it is a human, it's nothing like you at all, but then you're the only humans I've ever met, so I'm not sure...At least, I think you're the only humans I've ever met."
"Okay, Sora, what did I say that sounded like `please tell me a story'?" Matt asked, growing weary of Pandoramon's stream of consciousness chatter.
"Well, look at it this way;" Sora said "at least she's getting words out easier now."
"Yeah, but it'd be nice if she was actually saying something that mattered." Matt replied, having gave up on making any sense out of her ramblings some time ago.
"Speak for yourself, this stuff sounds pretty important to me." Joe interrupted "I have no idea what it means, but it sounds important anyway."
"Oh, I'm sorry!" Pandoramon apologized, looking a little embarrassed "Am I boring you?"
"Oh, NO!" Sora insisted, not wanting Pandoramon to get depressed again "You just go on talking about...whatever it was."
"Okay...Um" Pandoramon muttered "What was I talking about, anyway?"
"Oh, come on!" Matt groaned "You mean you weren't paying attention either?"
"I don't know!" Pandoramon whimpered "It's hard-"
"It's hard to concentrate, I know." Matt interrupted "Never mind, talk about whatever you want, just don't start crying again!"
"Hey, Pandoramon?" Joe asked "Do you know how Devimon wound up on File island?"
"Huh? What do you mean?" Matt asked.
"Well, I mean, we're supposed to be destined to defeat the guy, right?" Joe explained "If we're going to do that, it'd probably be helpful if we knew where he came from."
"Well, I guess that could be important." Sora mused.
"Oh, sure! Sure!" Pandoramon shouted, happily "I can tell you anything you want to know about Devimon!"
"Oh boy." Matt sighed "Let's see how long it takes this train of thought to get lost."
"Okay, Devimon used to live out on the continent of Server somewhere in the Memory Wastelands, I'm not really sure, since I've never been off File Island before." Pandoramon began "Anyway, he was one of the first to join Myotismon in deposing the Dark Masters. After that-"
"Whoa, who's that?" Sora interrupted.
"Huh? Who? Where?" Pandoramon shouted, looking around nervously.
"No, I mean what you were talking about." Sora laughed.
"Oh, but you already know about Myotismon and the Dark Masters and all that- " Pandoramon began, somewhat confused "Oh, wait! No you don't, not yet! Sorry about that, it's just so hard to keep it all straight. Well, first things first. The Dark Masters used to rule the Digiworld, and now Myotismon, Devimon, and a bunch of other Digimon do instead. So, Myotismon gave Devimon File Island, Devimon says its so that Myotismon could keep him away from The Darkness."
"Now, what's the deal with this `Darkness' business, anyway?" Joe asked "You keep mentioning it like it's some kind of person or Digimon or something."
"Oh, THAT'S what I was talking about before!" Pandoramon said with a laugh "Thanks! Devimon found The Darkness out in the Wastelands in this really big special rift. Devimon thought that The Darkness was some kind of being that lived in the rift, but that's not what I think. I think that it's actually living some kind of parallel world to the Digital World and the rift is a distortion of the barriers between those world and that's how it's communication with Devimon."
"Okay, I'm lost now." Sora whispered to Matt.
"I haven't even tried to keep up." Matt replied.
"Wait a minute." Joe interrupted again "You just spent thirty minute going on about this transmitter or whatever it was that you built for Devimon to talk to this thing. Why did you need to do that if the guy can just waltz up to it and talk that way?"
"Because he can't because Myotismon won't let him near it!" Pandoramon answered.
"But of course!" Sora said.
"Anyway, Devimon came here and told everyone that Myotismon had put him in charge. Nobody really paid much attention to him at first, actually." Pandoramon continued, beginning to look downcast again "Nobody wanted to risk war by throwing him out, and he really didn't have enough supporters to make anyone do anything."
"Then why did you start helping him?" Matt asked, absent mindedly.
"I was stupid, that's why" Pandoramon sighed "I was stupid and I wanted to feel smart, so I went and did the opposite of what everyone else said I should have done...Look what it got me: File Island is a ghetto, the whole Digital World is about to be destroyed, I can't even remember what I was talking about a minute ago...and now you all are having to suffer for it all too."
"Don't start apologizing again." Matt warned her "We really do believe that you're sorry, okay?"
"Okay" Pandoramon sighed "What was I talking about?"
"Nothing." Matt told her "Just keep an eye out, or whatever you use, for any more Digimon."
"But I haven't sensed any more in ages!" Pandoramon said "It's like everyone's pulled back to the peak of the mountain, that's really weird."
"Maybe we've got Devimon spooked?" Joe suggested "That's good right?"
"Not good enough." Matt complained, looking at the map on his Digivice "Even at this rate Tai and Mimi will get to T.K. before we do."
"Hey, that's better than Leomon getting there first, right?" Sora pointed out.
"Only by a little bit." Matt grumbled.
"Tai...That's the creepy one with the weird hair, right?" Pandoramon asked.
"There, see? You're not that crazy!" Matt replied with a laugh.
"Oh, man. Matt is going to be so jealous that we're gonna get to T.K. and Izzy first!" Tai laughed "I bet he's talking all kinds of trash about me right now!"
"Why are you happy that he's probably talking trash about you?" Mimi asked.
"Because it's fun to get under his skin, that's why!" Tai replied.
"That's just stupid." Mimi sighed "I mean, do you like it when he gets under you skin?"
"Of course not!" Tai explained "That's why I always try to get under his first!"
"Like I said, stupid." Mimi groaned "What is it about the guy that you don't like?"
"Mimi, there are some things in this life that just are." Tai answered "It's best that we don't waste time questioning them."
"You mean like why there's no brain underneath all that hair?" Mimi asked.
"Ha ha ha." Tai snickered "Well, it looks like we're coming up on our long lost travel buddies. Better get ready to catch some falling kids."
"Oh, yeah. That'll be the day." Mimi scoffed.
"Hey, is someone down there?" a voice called from above.
"Yeah, but one half of this someone doesn't feel like helping you guys get down from there." Tai shouted back.
"Don't listen to him!" Mimi interrupted "Izzy? T.K.? Is that you?"
"Hi Mimi! Hi Tai!" T.K. answered "It's us!"
"You know, we've been looking all over for you clowns, where ya been?" Tai asked.
"Well, I don't believe that it would be fair to say that you've found us yet." Izzy said "There are still quite a few feet between us."
"Oh, don't worry about that, we can catch ya!" Tai assured them "Just aim for our digivices!"
"Excuse me!" Mimi protested "But I never agreed to that plan!"
"Oh, come on!" Tai replied "Why do have to complain about everything?"
"Because I've got good reasons to!" Mimi informed him "I mean, I can't catch a beach ball in broad daylight! How am I supposed to catch a kid?"
"There shouldn't be any need for you to worry." Izzy said "We're the ones who will have to aim, you can simply stay in one spot."
"Aim's not what I'm worried about!" Mimi protested "Just how much do you guys weigh? I mean, I'm not a body builder or anything!"
"Oh, yeah. I forgot about that." Tai muttered.
"Obviously, you need to catch both of them then!" Mimi continued.
"But Mimi, Tai's just as skinny as you are!" T.K. pointed out "If he can do it, why can't you?"
"Hey, yeah!" Tai laughed "He's got ya there!"
"Oh, thanks a lot T.K." Mimi grumbled "Fine, fine. Let's just get this over with then."
"Okay, can you two see our digivices all right?" Tai asked.
"I believe so." Izzy answered "Let us know when you're ready for us to jump."
"All right, on the count of three." Tai announced "One, two, THREE!"
In a moment, Tai saw T.K. falling out of the think darkness straight towards him. Well, not exactly straight; if that were the case, he would have landed safely in Tai's arms. Instead, T.K. arived with just enough of a curve that he landed right on top of Tai's head, sending them both tumbling to the floor in a heap.
"Ow... I guess the digivices aren't as bright as I thought." Tai groaned, peeling T.K. off of his head.
"Hehehe, I guess you're hair's not at thick as I thought." T.K. laughed.
"Well, at least it wasn't Izzy flying at my head. That would have hurt a lot more. Speaking of whom-" Tai said, starting to look over to see if Izzy had made it down all right. Before he had a chance to turn his head, though, a red faced and clearly unhappy Mimi stormed past him.
"Uh, Mimi?" Tai started to ask before a withering glance shut him up. Finally looking over to where Mimi had been standing, he found an equally embarrassed and somewhat dazed Izzy sitting quietly on the floor.
"Uh oh." Tai asked "Did you land in a bad place?"
"I believe that was a situation in which there was no such thing as a good place." Izzy moaned, trying to figure out just what happened himself.
"Well, that's it." Matt sighed, looking at his map "Tai found `em. Looks like they're heading back this way."
"Hurrah!" Pandoramon briefly cheered before she could catch herself "OH! Sorry, I forgot!"
"Whatever, let's just see if we can wind up in the same place." Matt groaned.
"So, what'll we do when we actually are all together?" Joe asked "I don't think we ever figured that out."
"We'll get up to toe top of this dumb mountain and find where they're keeping Biyomon and the others, that's what we'll do." Sora answered "You can take us there, right Pandoramon?"
"Absolutely." Pandoramon declared "They didn't move a thing up at the top, so it'll a lot easier to get around than it is down here."
"Or a lot easier for Devimon's goons to get us." Matt added "You said that he'd pulled everyone out of this maze; what if he's waiting for us?"
"He probably will be, especially now that he knows I'm down here with you." Pandoramon admitted.
"HUH?" Joe shrieked "But you never said anything about...I mean, there's just the seven of us and...Oh man, we're doomed!"
"Yep, you just get more and more useful." Matt grunted, not quite aware that he'd said it out loud "Thanks for everything."
"Oh, real nice, Matt." Sora sighed.
"I know...I'm sorry" Pandoramon moaned "Even when I help I just make things worse, huh?"
"I FORBID YOU TO START CRYING AGAIN!" Matt bellowed.
"I know, but I can't help it" Pandoramon whimpered.
"Well, try!" Matt replied, curtly.
"You're not going to help things any by shouting at her!" Sora scolded "That's just going to make her feel worse!"
"And what'll letting her go off on a crying fit do?" Matt asked.
"A little crying fit will make her feel a lot better than a big one, which is what will happen if you keep yelling at her!" Sora shouted "Maybe if you'd consider the feeling of someone other than yourself, you'd realize it!"
"STOP IT, BOTH OF YOU!!!" Pandoramon shouted, covering her ears "Just stop...I can't take fighting right now"
"Okay, okay, I'm sorry" Sora apologized, rather embarrassed at herself for raising her voice like that "That was pretty sooth of me, huh? I try to stop you from yelling, and what do I start doing?"
"Something like that." Matt muttered.
"Okay, this is the part where you say it's all right since you weren't acting much better and apologize for it." Sora whispered, giving him a slight nudge on the shoulder. Matt didn't respond outside of a grunt, but the truth was that he wanted to apologize. Not just for that little spat, either, he wanted to apologize for the way he'd been acting ever since they'd arived in Infinity Mountain, especially to Pandoramon. Why was he always giving her such a hard time? Matt usually had no regrets whatsoever for cutting people down (something he had gotten pretty good at), but that was because he knew they all had it coming. As much as he would have liked it, he knew there was no way he could say that about Pandoramon.
Matt didn't pretend to understand just what had happened to Pandoramon to make her so loopy, but he knew that she wasn't trying to be a pain. In fact, she hadn't tried to be anything but helpful the whole time, and she really had been far more help than she had been a hindrance. It should have been easy for Matt to put up with her at least until they were out of the mountain, so why did he keep loosing his cool? Matt was starting to loose track of the times he'd spouted off before he even had a chance to think about what he was saying. It almost felt like he was turning into Tai, a thought that made him physically ill. Matt knew he wasn't a thoughtless clod like Tai, so why was he acting like it? He knew Pandoramon didn't deserved to be shouted at; in fact... well...The fact was, if Matt heard someone else talk to her the way he had been, he'd break half the bones in their body. So why couldn't he keep himself from doing it? He'd never had this much trouble keeping himself under control before
Probably because he had never really tried it before. When Matt actually made himself think about it, he realized this was the first time he'd actually been in a situation where he had to put up with someone without getting angry at the. Mom was never around, of course, so he'd never had to put up with her, and Dad just caved in and ignored it whenever Matt got mad at him, so there was never any reason not to. Nobody ever cared about him getting mad at teachers, so he hid that, and his friends...well, that hadn't been an issue in many years. The only person alive that Matt could conceivably have held his tongue in front of was T.K., but he'd never needed to. After all, it had been years since he'd seen him for more than an afternoon at a time. T.K. was always gone well before Matt would have had a chance to get angry about something. What if he really couldn't keep his mouth shut?
And, to top it all off, why couldn't he bring himself to apologize to her?
"Um, not to complain or anything" Joe said meekly "But when are we going to come up with a plan for dealing with all of the mean, bloodthirsty Digimon that are apparently waiting for us at the top of this stupid mountain?"
"Well, let's see, there's seven of you" Pandoramon thought aloud, apparently having already forgot about her latest depression "And there are twelve Digimon up there...No, what am I saying, there are twelve commanders, and they all have...Well, actually, Devimon is the only commander, so really all those guys aren't much different from any of the foot solders. Well, sure, there are some varying levels of intelligence depending on the programming of the Black Gear in their system-"
"Pandoramon?" Matt interrupted "The point?"
"What point?" Pandoramon asked.
"That's what I thought." Matt sighed, reminding himself not to strangle her as long as he could.
"Oh, right! A plan!" Pandoramon exclaimed "Now let's see...How many of you are there again?"
"So, THIS is what Devimon has been up to." Centarumon muttered, glancing around the grimy, hastily arranged hallways before turning to Unimon "Anything?"
"I THINK I've got their sent, but it's a long way off." Unimon said, taking several sniffs of the air "They must be quite a few levels down."
"Not to mention the fact that this place stinks." Gomamon said, covering his nose to get his point across "How can you smell anything else?"
"I got used to all sorts of bad smells a long time ago." Unimon explained "Now I can just filter them out."
"Well that's a neat trick." Gabumon said "How can I learn to do that?"
"Spend a lot of time babysitting little Rookie Digimon." Unimon said, trying hard not to grin "It's worked wonders for me!"
"Hey, that's not funny!" Palmon objected "Well, not very funny, anyway."
"Well, we'd better hurry up and start moving along." Centarumon said "I've been getting a very bad feeling about things lately."
"No kidding." Gomamon laughed "Which one of us hasn't been having a bad feeling since we went into the stupid mountain?"
"I mean a worse feeling than usual." Centarumon corrected "Warrior's intuition. If you spend enough time around enemy attacks, you start to smell them coming."
"Like Unimon?" Patamon asked.
"Never mind, let's just get going." Centarumon said "We'd better find those kids before something else does."
Ogermon entered the command room absolutely convinced that he would never leave it again. He was sure that Devimon was going to end it all right there. He'd seen him do it to dozens of other Digimon who had screwed up in one way or another, and boy had Ogermon screwed up. Not that he couldn't have found the Digidestined eventually, of course, Ogermon could have found anything given enough time; but Devimon wasn't interested in giving Ogermon enough time. Now this was it; Ogermon's glorious, amazing, beautiful life was about to end.
"Ogermon" Devimon quietly said, keeping his back turned to the Digimon.
"I can still find them, master! I just need a little more time!" Ogermon pleaded "A few more hours, that's all!"
"Shut up." Devimon hissed "You couldn't find Centarumon and Unimon if they were hiding in an empty room and you had a year to do it. What good will a few more hours do?"
"Well, you never know" Ogermon whimpered.
"There's an army of Digimon in the mountain who are far better equipped to do that than you. In fact, they're better equipped to do ANYTHING than you are." Devimon continued "But, believe it or not, I've actually found a task that only you can perform."
"HUH?" Ogermon gasped, grasping anxiously at any chance of extending his life a little longer "ALL RIGHT!!! Sure thing, boss! You just name it and I'll be all over it! What do I need to do?"
"Take whatever support you need and go down into the labyrinth and find Pandoramon." Devimon instructed "I want her brought back alive and unharmed, understood?"
"Huh? Well, I guess, but I thought that when Leomon" Ogermon began to ask before a rare flood of understanding flooded his modestly sized brain "Hey, YEAH! That's right! Great plan, Boss! I'll get right on it!"
"You had better." Devimon warned "And if you find a way to screw this one up, it will be the last thing you ever do."
"Uh, yeah, I kinda figured that." Ogermon gulped as he ran off to find some support.
"Ya know, Izzy," Tai grunted "if you just weren't so smart, your brain would be lighter and you wouldn't weigh this much."
"Even if a level of intelligence could somehow affect the weight of my gray matter," Izzy objected from his perch on Tai's back "I doubt that a matter of a few pounds would be enough that you would not be complaining anyway."
"Besides, you're not the one with a screwed up ankle, Tai." Mimi pointed out "How would YOU like it if you couldn't walk and WE were complaining about how much you weigh?"
"First of all, I have had a screwed up ankle before, thank you." Tai answered "And any way, you just plain wouldn't carry me even if I really COULDN'T walk!"
"That's not true!" Mimi insisted "I'd be happy to carry you if there was no possible other way and I absolutely, positively, had to!"
"In that case, why don't YOU carry our little cripple for a while?" Tai asked.
"Because I don't absolutely, positively have to!" Mimi answered, matter-of- factly "We've got you!"
"You know, for such a lazy girl, she certainly has a knack for producing impeccable logic." Izzy commented.
"I guess that's a sort of a comment, so thank, I guess." Mimi responded.
"What about me?" T.K. asked from below "Would you carry me?"
"You bet I would!' Mimi said with a grin "Want a ride right now?"
"Sure!" T.K. laughed as Mimi lifted him up onto her shoulders.
"HEY!" Tai shouted "Why are you so much nicer to him?"
"Because he's a lot cuter than you, that's why!" Mimi declared "I'm much more likely to cooperate with a boy if he's cute."
"Well that figures" Tai sighed.
"You really think I'm cute?" T.K. asked.
"You bet I do, ya big stud!" Mimi said with a wink.
"Hehehe, thanks!" T.K. laughed, briefly turning around to stick his tongue out at Tai.
"Yeah, real cute." Tai muttered.
"What a devious little child," Izzy commented "manipulating Mimi like that."
"Yeah, I'm jealous too." Tai responded.
"Hey, do you hear something?" Mimi asked, coming to a stop.
"Huh?" Tai said, looking around by reflex "What do you mean?"
"I'm not sure, but it kind of sounds like there's a commotion up ahead." Mimi whispered.
"You think it's Matt?" T.K. asked, excitedly.
"Not according to the Digivices," Izzy answered, checking the little contraption "all the other dots are still a while away."
"Then...that means" Tai nervously started to say.
"No, not any of Devimon's solders either." Izzy interrupted "If it were, there would be a change on the danger gauge by now. So far, it's at pretty much the same level it's always been."
"Then, who could it be?" Mimi asked.
"Awww, you can't have forgotten me already!" a familiar voice called out from the darkness.
"PALMON?" Mimi shouted in disbelief "IS THAT YOU?"
"It sure is!" Palmon cried, her short, running outline slowly becoming visible before her "Are you all right?"
"I am now!" Mimi wept, scooping the little, leafy Digimon up in her arms "I didn't think I'd ever see you again!"
"T.K.!" Patamon shouted, flying at T.K. who had somehow managed to remain perched on Mimi's shoulders when she leaned over to grab Palmon.
"Hey Patamon!" T.K. laughed, hugging the furry little Digimon "Where ya been?"
"We've been looking all over for you!" Patamon said "Did ya miss us?"
"You bet we did! Right Mimi?" T.K. said, looking to the girl under him.
"This is the happiest moment of my life, Palmon!" Mimi bawled, her tears splashing all over the Digimon.
"I know, I don't think I've ever been as happy as I am right now!" Palmon sobbed, crying even more than Mimi.
"I'm just so...so HAPPY!" Mimi cried again, choking for a moment on an extra large wad of tears.
"Happy happy happy!" Palmon continued between sniffs and sobs.
"Okay...That's just kinda weird." T.K. muttered, watching the strange spectacle.
"Kinda really weird." Patamon agreed.
"TAI!" Agumon shouted, running up to his partner "How about you? Are you okay?"
"Sure I am!" Tai laughed "Don't take it personally if I don't hug you, though, my hands are a little full."
"Hey, don't look now, Tai, but you've got something growing on your back!" Gomamon snickered, pointing at Izzy.
"Oh my heavens! IZZY!" Tentomon shouted, flying over to Izzy and frantically looking him over "What's the matter? Are you injured? If you've been wounded in my absence, I'll never forgive myself!"
"It's nothing to worry yourself over," Izzy assured him "Just a slight twist of the ankle."
"Really?" Centarumon said, walking over "Let me have a look at that."
"Oh, hey! Now you can carry Izzy!" Tai suggested.
"I think Izzy would prefer it if no one has to carry him." Centarumon said, placing his hand over the sore ankle "Healing Touch."
"Um, I don't really...Hey, wait a minute!" Izzy stuttered, gingerly touching his suddenly fine leg "That's...I mean...WOW!"
"What? " Tai asked "Is it better?"
"Completely!" Izzy said, quite amazed.
"Well, in that case, this is where you get off!" Tai declared, unceremoniously dropping Izzy onto the floor.
"Hey, I just got finished putting him back together!" Centarumon scolded "Don't break him already!"
"Whoa...That was pretty cool!" Patamon said.
"I'll say." Unimon said "Since when do you know how to do that?"
"Since I taught myself how in the bowels of that factory." Centarumon answered "That Black Gear didn't drive me completely insane, after all, I had to pass the time somehow."
"So, where's Matt?" Gabumon asked, looking around.
"Sorry," Tai answered "Matt, Sora, and Joe are off that way."
"Dang it!" Gomamon whined "Looks like I owe you dinner, Tentomon."
"That you do." Tentomon laughed triumphantly "You see, Unimon could tell that you had been divided into two groups, but he wasn't sure who was where, so we had a little bet going."
"Why exactly are you split up, anyway?" Unimon asked "That's not a very good idea, given your current situation."
"Well, it sure wasn't our idea." Tai said "It was pretty much Pandoramon's fault."
"Oh really." Centarumon muttered, suspiciously "How so?"
"Don't listen to Tai, it was HIS fault!" Mimi objected "We ran into this big ugly dragon thinggie and ran away and I was following Tai but Tai ran the wrong way and got us lost!"
"I did NOT go the wrong way!" Tai countered "Everybody else went the wrong way! If we'd gone the wrong way, we wouldn't have caught up with Izzy and T.K. first!"
"So you two have actually seen Pandoramon?" Centarumon asked.
"Yeah...Hey, wait minute. How do you know who we're talking about?" Tai asked.
"Oh, she's quite famous around here." Unimon said "What do you think of her?"
"Huh? What do you mean?" Mimi asked.
"Is she trustworthy?" Centarumon demanded.
"Oh sure." Mimi said "I mean, she's totally nuts, but she's basically harmless. Why?"
"It's not worth going into now." Unimon replied "Let's just hurry up and find the others."
"The sooner the better." Centarumon grunted "Who knows what fiendish scheme that Digimon could be acting out as we speak?"
"What's it like in your dimensional plane, Matt?" Pandoramon asked.
"Huh?" Matt muttered "What's that?"
"I think she means Earth." Sora said.
"Oh, is that what you call it?" Pandoramon asked.
"Well, I don't know" Matt said, trying to think of something intelligent to say "Well, I mean I do, but I'm not sure how I'm supposed to explain it to you. In some ways, it's not that different from this place, but it's also really different."
"So...They don't have any Digimon there?" Pandoramon asked.
"Nope." Matt answered "There are a bunch of different kinds of animals that kind of look like Digimon, but none of them can talk or throw fireballs or do any of the stuff you guys do."
"Well, what do they do?" she asked.
"Eat, mostly." Matt said, with a slight grin "That or be eaten by something else."
"What about humans?" Pandoramon continued "Is that what they- um, I mean you do to?"
"Well, we don't eat each other, I'll have you know." Matt laughed "Not most of the time, at least. Actually, humans are lot like Digimon...Aside from the throwing fireballs and Digivolving and stuff."
"Nothing digivolves?" Pandoramon asked, fascinated "But...How do you change from one form to another?"
"We don't." Matt explained "I mean, we grow bigger as we get older, but we don't have any big transformation like that. The form we start with is pretty much the one we're stuck with."
"Wow...That must...I can't imagine what that must be like." Pandoramon muttered "Stuck in one shape for your whole life"
"Well, it's pretty hard for us to imagine turning into something totally different that we used to be." Sora pointed out.
"So, tell me more." Pandoramon asked, ignoring Sora "What does...Um...Earth, right? What does it look like."
"Like I said, it's kind of like this place, but kind of not." Matt said, trying to come up with some points of reference "I mean, there are trees and grass and stuff like hear, though the look a lot different. Oh, and cities, do you have any cities around here?"
"You mean big ones?" Pandoramon asked.
"Yeah, we've seen the Biyomon village and stuff like that, but I mean big cities."
"Not on File Island." Pandoramon answered "I've heard about a few on Server, but the closest thing we have to that here is System Canyon."
"That's what I figured." Matt sighed "Never mind then."
"There's also a little matter of the sky, in case you forgot." Joe pointed out.
"Oh yeah!" Matt piped up "It's nothing like the stuff that's going on upstairs around here."
"Huh?" Pandoramon said, startled "You don't have a sky?"
"Sure we do!" Matt answered "It's a lot different than this one, though. There's no mess of colors swirling around all the time or anything, it's just blue."
"Nothing but blue?" Pandoramon laughed, as if Matt had said the whole sky was made out of old socks or something like that "All the time?"
"Well, it's not always blue, but most of it..." Matt tried to explain "Well...There's this big thing call the sun that's a long way out from the Earth, that's where we get our light from."
"Huh?" Pandoramon asked "We get our light from the sky."
"Well, so do we...Sort of." Matt muttered, realizing that he'd never make it as a school teacher "See, the Sun is this one really bright glowing ball in the sky, that lights up everything else and when it's out the sky looks blue. Get it?"
"Not really" Pandoramon confessed "But go on anyway."
"Well, um, the Earth kind of...Well, it turns and stops pointing towards the sun, that's when night happens."
"Oh, we've got night here too!" Pandoramon exclaimed.
"Yeah, but it's a lot different." Matt interrupted "Here all the swirlly stuff is still there, but there's none of that stuff in our world, remember? When we have night, the sky just goes black."
"ALL black?" Pandoramon asked "How do you see anything?"
"Well, there's the moon." Matt said, glad that Pandoramon had asked, because he'd have totally forgotten about it otherwise "It kind of looks like the sun, but it's different. It's this big white ball that's closer to the Earth, but isn't very bright and sometimes you can't see it at all. And there's also the stars."
"The what?" Pandoramon asked.
"They're more things like the sun, but so far away that our Sun outshines them during the day. At night, though, you can see hundreds of them: tiny little white dots shinning in the middle of all the black night."
"Wow" Pandoramon mussed "We have legends about things like that here, but... I never imagined that any of them actually existed someplace"
"Well, if it makes you feel any better, we'd have never believed that this place existed if we hadn't been thrown right in the middle of it." Matt pointed out.
"Do you think I might ever see it?" Pandoramon asked.
"Huh? What-?" Matt asked, startled "You mean go to Earth?"
"Maybe, I'm not sure." Pandoramon said, looking like she was trying to recall something "Maybe I just mean seeing it from here, I'm not sure. I really don't understand it, but...I think we will see your world...but not the sky."
"Well, they kind of go together." Joe said.
"I know, I don't understand it" Pandoramon said, hitting her head slightly "I saw all these things in The Darkness, but It didn't explain any of it, and I don't know how I'm supposed to figure out things that I haven't seen...or is it haven't happened? It was so hard to tell which was which."
"Well, we'll worry about that latter." Matt said "I think that not getting killed by Devimon is probably a little more important at the moment."
"Maybe" Pandoramon said with a smile, resting her head on Matt's shoulder "I'd love for you to show me your sky"
"Eer...Why are we talking about this, anyway? We've got more important things to do!" Matt gruffly asked, trying to hold back a blush. In a few hours, they would be face to face with a few thousand Digimon waiting for a chance to kill them, and there they were talking about the dumb sky. But the truth was, Matt really didn't mind. In fact, he was actually enjoying talking to Pandoramon, and Matt didn't enjoy talking to anything. Why was Pandoramon any different? Maybe it was the slightly innocent honesty about her. She didn't always make since, in fact she usually didn't, but she never seemed to say anything that she didn't mean. There just didn't seem to be any hidden agendas with Pandoramon, and that was one of the things Matt hated the most about talking to people. Maybe that was why it was getting easier not to be annoyed by her chatter.
Of course, it didn't hurt that she had such a pretty voice, either
"WHOA! Where'd they come from?" Pandoramon suddenly shouted, nearly dragging Matt to the ground as she whirled around to look behind her "They're back!"
"Huh? Who's back?" Joe shouted "Where?"
"Is it Leomon again?" Matt demanded.
"I...I don't know." Pandoramon said, beginning to look very frightened "I don't think...Wait that can't be...OH NO!!! THEY'RE ALL AROUND US!!!"
"WHAT?" the three children shouted in unison.
"There are three, no five of them behind us" Pandoramon whispered, her entire body starting to tremble "And just as many in front of us, too."
"On this level?" Sora asked "Where did they come from?"
"I-I don't know" Pandoramon whimpered, looking at the floor in shame "I...I wasn't paying attention"
"YOU WHAT?" Matt shouted, whatever affection which might have been there a moment ago now buried under a wave of rage.
"I'm sorry! I forgot all about it!" Pandoramon wept, clearly disgusted with herself.
"How could you have forgotten to look for those things?" Matt demanded, shaking Pandoramon violently "What do you think we're keeping you around for, anyway?"
"I didn't mean to!" Pandoramon pleaded, trying to convince herself more than Matt "I just...I couldn't"
"Never mind that now!" Sora interrupted "Right now we just need to find a way out-"
"There isn't a way out!" Pandoramon wept "There's only one exit for this hall, and that's where they're waiting!"
"Only one...Well what did you lead us in here for?" Matt yelled "Didn't it ever occur to you that we might need to get out of here really quick?"
"I wasn't thinking about it" Pandoramon sobbed "I'm sorry, it was stupid-"
"You can say that again!" Matt said, exasperated "Why didn't you just hand us to Devimon on a platter?"
"MATT, STOP IT!" Sora shouted, giving Matt a hard slap in the face "That's not going to help us now!"
"Nothing's going to help us now," Matt shot back "thanks to out stellar guide here!"
"It's not her fault-" Sora started to protest.
"YES IT IS!" Pandoramon interrupted, pulling herself away from Matt's grip and staggering back from the humans "It's all my fault! EVERYTHING'S my fault! Even when I try to help I make things worse!"
"Hey, wait a minute!" Joe asked, nervously "Where are you going?" if Pandoramon even hear him, she gave no indication of it. Instead she simply charged down the hallway sobbing.
"Pandoramon! Come back! We're not mad at you!" Sora pleaded, starting to run after her before turning back to Joe and Matt "WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR? COME ON!"
"I know, I know!" Matt shouted, running past Sora.
"Wow, for someone who can't walk on her own, she sure runs fast!" Joe commented, trying to keep up.
"Hey, Pandoramon!" Matt shouted "I didn't mean that stuff, all right? You're a good guide!"
But Pandoramon refused to listen, she was too busy cursing herself for her own stupidity. How could she have been so stupid? How could anyone miss so many Black Gears for so long? That was the only thing she was good for to anyone and she couldn't even do that! And why not? Because she was being a little idiot, yaking with a Digidestined like a friend, of all things! What business did she have even being around someone like that? She was nothing but a pathetic joke who'd handed the entire Digital World over to pure destruction; the Digidestined were supposed to get rid of Digimon like her, not run around with her! How could she have been stupid enough to believe that she could ever have anything in common with someone like Matt? She didn't belong anywhere near him; she didn't belong anywhere anymore.
There was no way that Pandoramon could have known it, but Matt was cursing himself just as much as she was as he tried to catch up. He had really screwed things up this time. How could he have been so stupid? Pandoramon was their only chance at getting around Devimon's goons, and he'd shot his mouth of like a maniac and scared her away! There was no way they were going to convince her to keep helping them now, at least, there should have been. Matt knew he wouldn't forgive a jerk like him, even Pandoramon did, and seeing that she wasn't answering their shouting, he didn't think she would. For what little good it would do, at least they were catching up with her.
Then, without warning, she stoped.
"All right!" Sora said, relieved "I think she's finally listening to us!"
"Stop right there!" Pandoramon commanded "Don't come any closer!"
"Well, so much for that." Matt sighed.
"Come on, Pandoramon!" Sora pleaded "We're not mad at you! I promise!"
"I'm not talking about that! Just hold still!" Pandoramon said, holding her staff out in front of her "And you'd probably better close your eyes this time." Before any of the humans had a chance to ask what she was doing, the entire hall had been swallowed up in a blinding, but familiar, flash of light. When their eyes had adjusted, they found themselves once again surrounded by a glowing barrier. On the outside, only a matter of feet away from Pandoramon, they could see a pack of Devidramon starring hungrily at them, but not daring to touch the barrier.
"Hey, yeah!" Joe happily exclaimed "I forgot you could do that!"
"There, see?" Sora shouted, happily "You really are a lot of help!"
"Well, if you say so" Pandoramon replied "Maybe just a little. Sorry about that back there."
"YOU'RE sorry?" Matt laughed "I'M the one who yelled at you."
"Awwww, isn't that sweet." a grotesque voice laughed from behind the Devidramon "Did you and your friends have a little fight?"
"W-W-WHAT?" Pandoramon stuttered, suddenly looking very afraid "No, that can't be-"
"What, me?" asked a disgusting, scab covered Digimon with a giant club as it squeezed between two of the Devidramon "You think little old me can come down here and do a good job where Leomon screwed up?"
"Ogermon" Pandoramon replied, nervously "Don't come any closer!"
"Hey, you sound a little scared over there." Ogermon snickered, poking the barrier with his claw "What's the matter? Don't trust you fancy shmancy barrier deal?"
"Please, Ogermon," Pandoramon pleaded "don't do this!"
"Do what? THIS?" Ogermon asked, effortlessly stepping through the barrier as if it wasn't even there.
"Wha- But- How- What's going on?" Sora stammered.
"We are dead." Joe whimpered "We are so so so dead!"
"Hey, how did I do that? OH YEAH! It'd because that dumb excuse for a barrier will only stop Black Gears! It's worthless against a real Digimon like me!" Ogermon laughed, striking Pandoramon in the head with his club and knocking her to the ground. As so as she let go of her staff, the barrier vanished and the pack of Devidramon charged ahead to surround the two Digimon.
"Devimon's really ticked off with you, angel girl!" Ogermon said, tossing the struggling Digimon over his shoulder "Even I don't want to think about what he's got in store for you, and that's really something!"
"MATT!" Pandoramon screamed, frantically beating at Ogermon's shoulder "HELP ME!!!"
"HEY!" Matt demanded, trying to look past the row of Devidramon in front of him "Let her go, you overgrown scab!"
"Oh, shut up kid!" Ogermon replied, annoyed "You're not my problem, she is."
"Well, I just became your problem!" Matt shouted back "You're not taking Pandoramon anywhere!"
"Uh huh, yeah, that's great, Bub." Ogermon laughed, walking away "Come and get her, if you're so hot." At that, Matt tried to charge through the space between two of the Devidramon. Before he was even close, however, one of them whipped out and struck him in the face, promptly knocking him to the floor.
"Matt, no!" Sora yelped, running to help him up "Are you alright?"
"You know what?" Ogermon called from somewhere in the darkness beyond them "I should probably do Devimon a favor and get rid of you three while I'm down here."
"NO!" Pandoramon screamed "Leave them alone!"
"Hey, shut up!" Ogermon growled, apparently striking his captive "SIC `EM, BOYS!" As soon as those words left Ogermon's mouth, the Devidramon formed a circle around the three humans, glaring at them hungrily.
"Oh no oh no oh no oh no!" Joe stammered "What do we do?"
"I don't know" Matt confessed, cradling his busted lip. Suddenly, unleashing an ear -piercing screech, one of the Devidramon behind Sora reared up to strike, and the three children braced themselves to be torn to bits. Before the attack had a chance to come, however, the hallway was lit up by a burning orange flash and the Devidramon vanished. The would-be victims would have looked to see what caused the sudden blast, but another of the Devidramon took the moment of surprise to leap headfirst at Matt. Before it had a chance to get all the way off hid legs, a small, blue blast of energy flew over their heads and struck it square in the face. The attack didn't seem to actually hurt the creature, but it startled it enough to bring it to a stop directly in front of its intended victim.
"Whew! that was close!" a familiar, horned form draped in fur sighed behind Matt.
"Gabumon?" Matt muttered, not entirely sure what had happened.
"Yep!" Gabumon laughed "And I brought a few friends with me!"
"SORA!" Biyomon shouted, leaping at her partner and wrapping her wings around her neck "Thank goodness we got here in time! I was so worried about you!"
"I'll say, I can't leave you alone for a second, can I?" Gomamon asked, giving Joe a hearty slap on the back "I turn my back and look at you: surrounded by Devidramon!"
"Well, I think we can put a stop to that without too much trouble." Centarumon called out, picking out which one he would destroy next. The Devidramon must have realized what he was up to, because they quickly backed away from the humans and formed a line facing them.
"Um...What are they doing?" Joe asked, confused.
"They're shaking in their boots, that's what they're doing!" Tai declared from behind Centarumon "If you were face to face with the mighty Digidestined, you'd be scared too!"
"Then why are the mighty Digidestined hiding behind their hoofed babysitters?" Matt asked.
"You'll have time to fight with each other later!" Gabumon interrupted, pointing at the Devidramon "Don't you think we'd better fight them first?"
"I totally concur." Matt answered, brandishing his Digivice "Let's see if we remember how to do this."
"Sounds good to me, though you'd probably better stand back." Gabumon said "There's not a whole lot of room in here, after all."
"Sure thing!" Matt said, taking several steps back and activating the Digivice "DO IT GABUMON!"
"Gabumon digivolve to... GARURUMON!" the Digimon shouted, vanishing behind a cloak of blue light and emerging a giant wolf who took up nearly half the wall. "All right, who wants to die first?"
"All right!" T.K. cheered from his perch on Unimon's back "Go get `em Garurumon!"
"Hey, we're not gonna let those two get all the glory, are we?" Tai asked Agumon.
"I'd be just fine with that, actually." Agumon answered "But I bet you're not."
"Smart Digimon." Tai said, pulling his Digivice out of his pocket and giving his partner a gently but firm shove towards the action "Time to digivolve!"
"Agumon digivolve to...GREYMON- OW!" he shouted, transforming into a large, orange dinosaur, and promptly hitting his horned head on the suddenly close ceiling "Man, it got small in here fast!"
"Are any of you going to go help?" Unimon asked the other Digimon.
"Where?" Palmon asked "There's barely room for the two of them."
"Besides, I believe they can handle themselves." Tentomon said.
"Yeah, and we, uh, need to save our strength for Devimon, right?" Gomamon added.
"But we need to rescue Pandoramon!" Sora protested "Some thing called Ogermon took her!"
"TOOK her?" Unimon asked "Just now?"
"Yeah!" Joe explained "She was trying to hold off those whatever-you-called- them, but Ogermon beat her up and took her!"
"I see" Unimon muttered "Well, I guess that settles the question of who's side she was on."
"Maybe." Centarumon, with a hint of regret "It's really a moot point now."
Pandoramon had long since given up struggling against Ogermon, not so much because she knew it was useless but because she was simply to terrified to move any more. Her life was over, there was no question about it. She wasn't sure just what the outcome of the Digidestined's battle with Devimon would be, she wasn't sure of a great many things, but she was absolutely certain that she was about to die. Pandoramon couldn't help but be amazed at how ingeniously cruel her fate had become. There was still so much knowledge floating around in her head that the had no way of even comprehending, even her own life was a nearly incomprehensible blur, but the knowledge that it was all about to end shone through the tattered mess of her consciousness like a beacon. She would never see her old home in the world outside Infinity Mountain again. She would never have a chance to repair all the damage she had wrought on the Digiworld. She would never see Matt again. It just wasn't fair!
Of course, as clear as the knowledge of her fate might have been, the means were a complete mystery. Devimon had a multitude of ways to punish traitors and they all were carefully planned to keep their victims alive for as possible, even if that life did not extend farther than the perception of pain. For years Pandoramon had known about every one of Devimon's forms of torture but never had to think about them; now they were all she could think about. Her wings would probably be the first to go, or maybe her fingers. No, first he'd gouge out her eyes so she wouldn't know where he was going to cut next. Then, slowly, he'd tear her apart from the inside out. The more she imagined it, the more the quaking little Digimon's frame stung with absolute terror.
The irony was sickening. Here was a Digimon that only a few days ago Pandoramon would have gladly given up her life for, and now she was horrified of him demanding just that. Well, no; that wasn't quite right. It wasn't just Devimon that she was afraid of, but that...that thing that was behind him. The pure malevolence her mind had touched through the transmitter was what she feared most of all. The thought of being anywhere near anything that had ever been touched by such an unspeakable disease of a being was more repulsive that Pandoramon had ever thought possible, nearly as strong as the primal fear of her own demise. What if Devimon didn't kill her at all? It wasn't totally implausible; he might decide to keep her around to mind the transmitter, at least until he had conquered Server and had access to the rift directly. But there was no chance that he would let her escape unharmed; even then he would probably fit her with a Black Gear. She would have the very essence of The Darkness invading her body, her mind. All but the faintest traces of her individuality would be blanketed of existence underneath the will of that...thing...Even if she did live, she would be in a state even worse than death, horrible as that may have been.
As the giant, imposing doors to Devimon's lair slowly creaked open, Pandoramon felt more lost than any being should have been capable of feeling. There was absolutely no hope whatsoever now. All was lost.
"Well, I did it!" Ogermon declared, dropping Pandoramon to the floor "Here's Pandoramon for ya!"
Looking up from the floor, Pandoramon saw Devimon's tall, impossibly thing frame standing at the far end of the room with his back to her, staring into the fire. For a minute that felt like a thousand eternities there was no sound in the bleak catacomb. Pandoramon knew that there was nothing she could possibly say that would sway Devimon from whatever he had already decided, even if wasn't terrified far beyond the capacity of speech. As for Devimon, he simply stood with his back to the fallen Digimon in deadly silence.
"Uh...Sh-should I leave?" Ogermon asked, afraid he was doing something he shouldn't.
"No." Devimon finally muttered.
"Oh" Ogermon stuttered "I mean...Well, I just thought that-"
"There is nothing here I am ashamed of." Devimon said, finally turning to look at Pandoramon, his eyes burning with the range of betrayal "Nothing other than the traitor at our feet."
"Oh boy, here it comes." Ogermon whispered, licking his lips with his massive tongue.
"Out of all the Digimon under my command, I gave you unparalleled freedom." Devimon hissed at Pandoramon, who was curled up on the floor like a wounded animal "I actually trusted you! Now you have blatantly defiled that trust. Why?"
Pandoramon tried to answer him, to tell him that he was being deceived, that The Darkness had no intention of giving him anything other than death along with the rest of the Digital World, but she couldn't. No matter how hard she tried, she simply couldn't make words appear in her mind, much less her mouth. Instead, she simply trembled in painful silence.
"ANSWER ME!!!" Devimon howled, erupting in an explosion of rage. He grabbed Pandoramon and pulled her from the floor, tearing both her clothes and her delicate skin with his claws as he did so "WHY DID YOU DO THIS TO ME?" The only response Pandoramon could give was a shriek of pain as the claws slid through her skin, so Devimon threw her back to the ground.
"At the moment, I don't have time to deal with you in the way you deserve." Devimon said, unsteadily, as he tried to regain his composure "Lock her in a cell until the Digidestined are taken care of. I'll see to Pandoramon then."
"Uh... Sure" Ogermon muttered, almost as afraid for his life as Pandoramon.
"And don't come back!" Tai shouted at the remaining Devidramon as they ran down the hall.
"You just be glad I kept bumping my head," Greymon added "otherwise I would have really let you have it!"
"Okay, come on!" Matt commanded, running down the hall.
"Where do you think you're going?" Centarumon asked.
"Ogermon took Pandoramon this way!" Matt explained "Maybe we can still catch up with him!"
"I hate to disappoint you, but Ogermon can move through this maze a lot faster than you." Centarumon replied "He's long since dropped Pandoramon off at where she's going."
"Well then, that's where we're going!" Matt insisted "Come on!"
"Are you joking?" Centarumon laughed "The whole top of this mountain is crawling with Digimon, especially the parts that are there to keep people from breaking through! You'd never get close!"
"Well then, what the heck did come up here for?" Matt asked, getting frustrated.
"To get Devimon, that's what." Centarumon answered "And the only way you'll live to do that is if you head straight for Devimon and don't waste time looking for anything else!"
"But...We can't just leave her!" Matt protested, aghast.
"You can and you will." Centarumon insisted.
"Look, Devimon's not going to do anything to Pandoramon as long as he knows you're still here." Unimon explained "He takes punishment very seriously and devotes a lot of time to it. As long as he knows the Digidestined are at his doorstep, he's not going to get caught up in anything else."
"Now, come on!" Centarumon insisted "We've figured out a way to get as close as possible to Devimon without having to fight through anything."
"Please Matt!" Sora pleaded "The only way we can help Pandoramon now is to get rid of Devimon before he can do anything to her!"
"But...What if" Matt stammered "What if we can't?"
"We will." Garurumon assured him "We'll defeat Devimon and get your friend back."
"But...Alright, fine." Matt sighed "Sorry, Pandoramon"
To Be Continued...
Book 1
Chapter 12
You're lost, little girl
You're lost, little girl
You're lost
Tell me who are you?
Think that you know what to do
Impossible, yes
But it's true
I Think that you know what to do
Yeah, sure that you know what to do
You're lost, little girl
You're lost, little girl
You're lost
Tell me who are you?
Think that you know what to do
Impossible, yes
But it's true
I think that you know what to do
Girl, sure that you know what to do
You're lost, little girl
You're lost, little girl
You're lost
"You're Lost, Little Girl"
lyrics by Jim Morrison
from the album Strange Days
by The Doors
Book 1
Chapter 12
All Together Now
It was all about to come to a head now. Everything Devimon had planed for, everything he hadn't planed for, it was all about to take place. The labyrinth idea had failed. Without interruption, the humans would most likely make it to the peak of Infinity Mountain in just over two hours; and with Centarumon and Unimon bringing their Digimon companions into the Labyrinth as well, there was little chance of interrupting them. There was no doubt that, in roughly an hour, Devimon would have to personally face the Digidestined. He should have been concerned; in fact, he should have been terrified. But he simply didn't care.
The only think that mattered was that Pandoramon had betrayed him. Devimon knew he should have been concentrating on the looming confrontation, but his mind was totally preoccupied by the blow that little Digimon had dealt him. How could she do this to him? How could he have let her do it? What could he have done differently to change her mind? His failure to contain the Digidestined meant nothing compared to his failure to keep Pandoramon from turning her back on him.
Chances were Pandoramon didn't even know what kind of effect her betrayal would have on him. Devimon had been given a tremendous position by The Darkness and he always had to act in a manner befitting that position; he could not allow himself the luxury of expressing much fondness for any one of his followers. But there was no denying that, from the first time Devimon saw her, he had been very fond of Pandoramon. "Had been" were the important words, as, even if Devimon could avoid punishing Pandoramon for her betrayal, there was no way he would ever get her back. He knew for certain now that she did, in fact, attempt to contact The Darkness, which meant that the Digimon he had known for so many years before had been virtually destroyed; her mind shattered beyond repair.
Devimon clenched his fists tightly at the thought, driving his lengthy claws deep into his own palms. He felt like he had to hurt something. In fact, for a second, he almost cursed The Darkness itself for taking Pandoramon away from him. How could something be right and just and then...No, that was pointless. The Darkness had warned repeatedly about the dangers of another Digimon attempting to contact It, and Pandoramon knew it. There was no use in blaming It for what she had done; Pandoramon's fate was of her own making.
Now, more than ever, Devimon hoped that The Darkness would utterly erase the Digital World from existence. There was nothing left for him in it any more.
"Watch it," Centarumon whispered, holding Gabumon and Gomamon behind him "There's four more guards up at that crossing."
"Oh, I'm sick of all this sneaking around!" Gomamon grunted trying to peak around the legs of the much larger Digimon "Let's go bust some heads!"
"I agree!" Gabumon added "Who knows what danger Matt could be in right now? We need to hurry up and get down to the labyrinth!"
"Quite true." Centarumon said, slightly amused "But just how quickly do you think we'll be moving if we have to step over the fading bodies of ever single Digimon in Infinity Mountain to get there?"
"Centarumon's right!" Biyomon scolded "We need to get as far as we can before we start wasting time fighting!"
"Whatever," Gomamon sighed "but I'd still feel a lot better if I was hitting something."
"You can hit me if you want!" Patamon offered.
"That's enough of that." Unimon interrupted "You should save up that fighting spirit for when we're in a real fight."
"Yeah, but that'll take forever at this rate." Palmon whined.
"Just hold on." Centarumon said, peaking around the corner at the guards milling about down the hall "Those four are clearly not planning on sticking around for long, they're waiting for someone to come get them. We'll go when the coast is clear."
"But there's just four of them!" Agumon objected "Why do we have to wait?"
"Because, little one," Centarumon answered, quietly yet imposing "we have been training and practicing the arts of war since a time that even we barely remember, we stood on the ruined plains of Server before whole armies during the revolution, we looked into the eyes of the Dark Masters themselves, and we walked away in one piece to tell the tale. You, on the other hand, have not, so you will do as we tell you too."
"That sounds like a good plan." Agumon said, timidly.
"Of course it does." Centarumon grunted, contentedly.
"Here they come." Unimon whispered, pushing the Digimon near him back down the side passage they had been in "Back into the hall, all of you!"
"but I thought the whole idea was to let the labyrinth take care of the humans by itself." one of the guards said to its companions.
"But that was when the humans were alone down there." the leader of the group explained "Now that Pandoramon's down there too, the plans have changed, so let's get into position."
"Wait a minute" Unimon whispered, genuinely startled "Did I just here what I thought I heard?"
"I never though I'd see they day;" Centarumon said, trying hard to suppress the urge to laugh out loud "Devimon's pet angel has flown the coop!"
"Pandoramon" Tentomon muttered to himself "I've heard that name before."
"A know-nothing know-it-all like you sure ought to have." Centarumon replied "Lesser minds have called her the most brilliant Digimon who ever lived."
"Oh yeah!" Tentomon exclaimed "Now I remember; she's the one who designed the system of platforms back at Systems Canyon! Wow, she must be brilliant to throw something like that together!"
"Especially seeing that she did most of it just to kill time while all the stronger Digimon were off in Server." Unimon added "I think she may actually have done some work on the Temple of Quadra, too."
"So, you two knew this Pandoramon?" Biyomon asked.
"Well, not personally, at least." Unimon added "But we're all very well acquainted with her handiwork, the Black Gears."
"You mean, the same" Tentomon stuttered "Well, maybe she's not that brilliant."
"No one ever said that intelligence equaled common sense." Unimon explained "When Myotismon first named Devimon regent of File Island, he was basically a big, winged figurehead on top of a mountain who didn't have any real power. But somehow he managed to sweet talk Pandoramon into building Black Gears for him, and...Well, you know the rest just as well as anyone."
"Then what convinced her to help us?" Palmon asked.
"Who cares? We need all the help we can get!" Gomamon scolded, as if he feared Pandoramon would hear and change her mind "Let's not look a gift Unimon in the mouth...Um, pardon the expression, sir."
"I wouldn't be so sure about that." Centarumon said, going over the situation in his head "A character with a history like Pandoramon's doesn't inspire much trust right away. She might be a part of some kind of scheme Devimon's got cooking in that horned head of his."
"I doubt that." Unimon replied "Sneaky, backstabbing plans aren't Devimon's style."
"What, sneaky and backstabbing like setting up nice warm beds of us and dragging us into this dungeon in our sleep?" Centarumon snickered.
"Of course!" Unimon laughed "If it was his style, he'd have done a better job at it and we wouldn't be having such an easy time screwing it up!"
"Speaking of which, can we go now?" Patamon asked "I wanna find T.K.!"
"Alright, I think the coast is clear." Centarumon said, taking a quick look around "Let's go."
"I still would like to know why Pandoramon is helping us if she's supposed to be Devimon's pal." Palmon piped up as the group moved down the hall.
"Hopefully, she just came to her senses." Gabumon answered.
"Or she came up with a better plan than Devimon's." Centarumon muttered.
"That would require Devimon admitting that his first idea was wrong, and what are the chances of that?" Unimon pointed out "No, if she's really helping them down there, it can't be with Devimon's permission, and no one would risk Devimon's wrath by disobeying him like that without hoping that he wouldn't be in a position to punish for very much longer."
"I sure hope you're right." Centarumon sighed "I wonder just what it is she's doing down there, anyway?"
"It was really hard working out just what kind of... um, oh yeah, waves... or even if they were waves, the transmitter needed to be designed to use, so I started out just making it sensitive to them all, but that would have fried even Devimon's brain, so I ever even bothered testing it that way. So, I finally figured out that the Darkness must be a kind of a Digimon like consciousness, or maybe a human like consciousness, boy wouldn't it be something if all this time Devimon has been talking to a human like you all of this time? Well, no probably not. If it is a human, it's nothing like you at all, but then you're the only humans I've ever met, so I'm not sure...At least, I think you're the only humans I've ever met."
"Okay, Sora, what did I say that sounded like `please tell me a story'?" Matt asked, growing weary of Pandoramon's stream of consciousness chatter.
"Well, look at it this way;" Sora said "at least she's getting words out easier now."
"Yeah, but it'd be nice if she was actually saying something that mattered." Matt replied, having gave up on making any sense out of her ramblings some time ago.
"Speak for yourself, this stuff sounds pretty important to me." Joe interrupted "I have no idea what it means, but it sounds important anyway."
"Oh, I'm sorry!" Pandoramon apologized, looking a little embarrassed "Am I boring you?"
"Oh, NO!" Sora insisted, not wanting Pandoramon to get depressed again "You just go on talking about...whatever it was."
"Okay...Um" Pandoramon muttered "What was I talking about, anyway?"
"Oh, come on!" Matt groaned "You mean you weren't paying attention either?"
"I don't know!" Pandoramon whimpered "It's hard-"
"It's hard to concentrate, I know." Matt interrupted "Never mind, talk about whatever you want, just don't start crying again!"
"Hey, Pandoramon?" Joe asked "Do you know how Devimon wound up on File island?"
"Huh? What do you mean?" Matt asked.
"Well, I mean, we're supposed to be destined to defeat the guy, right?" Joe explained "If we're going to do that, it'd probably be helpful if we knew where he came from."
"Well, I guess that could be important." Sora mused.
"Oh, sure! Sure!" Pandoramon shouted, happily "I can tell you anything you want to know about Devimon!"
"Oh boy." Matt sighed "Let's see how long it takes this train of thought to get lost."
"Okay, Devimon used to live out on the continent of Server somewhere in the Memory Wastelands, I'm not really sure, since I've never been off File Island before." Pandoramon began "Anyway, he was one of the first to join Myotismon in deposing the Dark Masters. After that-"
"Whoa, who's that?" Sora interrupted.
"Huh? Who? Where?" Pandoramon shouted, looking around nervously.
"No, I mean what you were talking about." Sora laughed.
"Oh, but you already know about Myotismon and the Dark Masters and all that- " Pandoramon began, somewhat confused "Oh, wait! No you don't, not yet! Sorry about that, it's just so hard to keep it all straight. Well, first things first. The Dark Masters used to rule the Digiworld, and now Myotismon, Devimon, and a bunch of other Digimon do instead. So, Myotismon gave Devimon File Island, Devimon says its so that Myotismon could keep him away from The Darkness."
"Now, what's the deal with this `Darkness' business, anyway?" Joe asked "You keep mentioning it like it's some kind of person or Digimon or something."
"Oh, THAT'S what I was talking about before!" Pandoramon said with a laugh "Thanks! Devimon found The Darkness out in the Wastelands in this really big special rift. Devimon thought that The Darkness was some kind of being that lived in the rift, but that's not what I think. I think that it's actually living some kind of parallel world to the Digital World and the rift is a distortion of the barriers between those world and that's how it's communication with Devimon."
"Okay, I'm lost now." Sora whispered to Matt.
"I haven't even tried to keep up." Matt replied.
"Wait a minute." Joe interrupted again "You just spent thirty minute going on about this transmitter or whatever it was that you built for Devimon to talk to this thing. Why did you need to do that if the guy can just waltz up to it and talk that way?"
"Because he can't because Myotismon won't let him near it!" Pandoramon answered.
"But of course!" Sora said.
"Anyway, Devimon came here and told everyone that Myotismon had put him in charge. Nobody really paid much attention to him at first, actually." Pandoramon continued, beginning to look downcast again "Nobody wanted to risk war by throwing him out, and he really didn't have enough supporters to make anyone do anything."
"Then why did you start helping him?" Matt asked, absent mindedly.
"I was stupid, that's why" Pandoramon sighed "I was stupid and I wanted to feel smart, so I went and did the opposite of what everyone else said I should have done...Look what it got me: File Island is a ghetto, the whole Digital World is about to be destroyed, I can't even remember what I was talking about a minute ago...and now you all are having to suffer for it all too."
"Don't start apologizing again." Matt warned her "We really do believe that you're sorry, okay?"
"Okay" Pandoramon sighed "What was I talking about?"
"Nothing." Matt told her "Just keep an eye out, or whatever you use, for any more Digimon."
"But I haven't sensed any more in ages!" Pandoramon said "It's like everyone's pulled back to the peak of the mountain, that's really weird."
"Maybe we've got Devimon spooked?" Joe suggested "That's good right?"
"Not good enough." Matt complained, looking at the map on his Digivice "Even at this rate Tai and Mimi will get to T.K. before we do."
"Hey, that's better than Leomon getting there first, right?" Sora pointed out.
"Only by a little bit." Matt grumbled.
"Tai...That's the creepy one with the weird hair, right?" Pandoramon asked.
"There, see? You're not that crazy!" Matt replied with a laugh.
"Oh, man. Matt is going to be so jealous that we're gonna get to T.K. and Izzy first!" Tai laughed "I bet he's talking all kinds of trash about me right now!"
"Why are you happy that he's probably talking trash about you?" Mimi asked.
"Because it's fun to get under his skin, that's why!" Tai replied.
"That's just stupid." Mimi sighed "I mean, do you like it when he gets under you skin?"
"Of course not!" Tai explained "That's why I always try to get under his first!"
"Like I said, stupid." Mimi groaned "What is it about the guy that you don't like?"
"Mimi, there are some things in this life that just are." Tai answered "It's best that we don't waste time questioning them."
"You mean like why there's no brain underneath all that hair?" Mimi asked.
"Ha ha ha." Tai snickered "Well, it looks like we're coming up on our long lost travel buddies. Better get ready to catch some falling kids."
"Oh, yeah. That'll be the day." Mimi scoffed.
"Hey, is someone down there?" a voice called from above.
"Yeah, but one half of this someone doesn't feel like helping you guys get down from there." Tai shouted back.
"Don't listen to him!" Mimi interrupted "Izzy? T.K.? Is that you?"
"Hi Mimi! Hi Tai!" T.K. answered "It's us!"
"You know, we've been looking all over for you clowns, where ya been?" Tai asked.
"Well, I don't believe that it would be fair to say that you've found us yet." Izzy said "There are still quite a few feet between us."
"Oh, don't worry about that, we can catch ya!" Tai assured them "Just aim for our digivices!"
"Excuse me!" Mimi protested "But I never agreed to that plan!"
"Oh, come on!" Tai replied "Why do have to complain about everything?"
"Because I've got good reasons to!" Mimi informed him "I mean, I can't catch a beach ball in broad daylight! How am I supposed to catch a kid?"
"There shouldn't be any need for you to worry." Izzy said "We're the ones who will have to aim, you can simply stay in one spot."
"Aim's not what I'm worried about!" Mimi protested "Just how much do you guys weigh? I mean, I'm not a body builder or anything!"
"Oh, yeah. I forgot about that." Tai muttered.
"Obviously, you need to catch both of them then!" Mimi continued.
"But Mimi, Tai's just as skinny as you are!" T.K. pointed out "If he can do it, why can't you?"
"Hey, yeah!" Tai laughed "He's got ya there!"
"Oh, thanks a lot T.K." Mimi grumbled "Fine, fine. Let's just get this over with then."
"Okay, can you two see our digivices all right?" Tai asked.
"I believe so." Izzy answered "Let us know when you're ready for us to jump."
"All right, on the count of three." Tai announced "One, two, THREE!"
In a moment, Tai saw T.K. falling out of the think darkness straight towards him. Well, not exactly straight; if that were the case, he would have landed safely in Tai's arms. Instead, T.K. arived with just enough of a curve that he landed right on top of Tai's head, sending them both tumbling to the floor in a heap.
"Ow... I guess the digivices aren't as bright as I thought." Tai groaned, peeling T.K. off of his head.
"Hehehe, I guess you're hair's not at thick as I thought." T.K. laughed.
"Well, at least it wasn't Izzy flying at my head. That would have hurt a lot more. Speaking of whom-" Tai said, starting to look over to see if Izzy had made it down all right. Before he had a chance to turn his head, though, a red faced and clearly unhappy Mimi stormed past him.
"Uh, Mimi?" Tai started to ask before a withering glance shut him up. Finally looking over to where Mimi had been standing, he found an equally embarrassed and somewhat dazed Izzy sitting quietly on the floor.
"Uh oh." Tai asked "Did you land in a bad place?"
"I believe that was a situation in which there was no such thing as a good place." Izzy moaned, trying to figure out just what happened himself.
"Well, that's it." Matt sighed, looking at his map "Tai found `em. Looks like they're heading back this way."
"Hurrah!" Pandoramon briefly cheered before she could catch herself "OH! Sorry, I forgot!"
"Whatever, let's just see if we can wind up in the same place." Matt groaned.
"So, what'll we do when we actually are all together?" Joe asked "I don't think we ever figured that out."
"We'll get up to toe top of this dumb mountain and find where they're keeping Biyomon and the others, that's what we'll do." Sora answered "You can take us there, right Pandoramon?"
"Absolutely." Pandoramon declared "They didn't move a thing up at the top, so it'll a lot easier to get around than it is down here."
"Or a lot easier for Devimon's goons to get us." Matt added "You said that he'd pulled everyone out of this maze; what if he's waiting for us?"
"He probably will be, especially now that he knows I'm down here with you." Pandoramon admitted.
"HUH?" Joe shrieked "But you never said anything about...I mean, there's just the seven of us and...Oh man, we're doomed!"
"Yep, you just get more and more useful." Matt grunted, not quite aware that he'd said it out loud "Thanks for everything."
"Oh, real nice, Matt." Sora sighed.
"I know...I'm sorry" Pandoramon moaned "Even when I help I just make things worse, huh?"
"I FORBID YOU TO START CRYING AGAIN!" Matt bellowed.
"I know, but I can't help it" Pandoramon whimpered.
"Well, try!" Matt replied, curtly.
"You're not going to help things any by shouting at her!" Sora scolded "That's just going to make her feel worse!"
"And what'll letting her go off on a crying fit do?" Matt asked.
"A little crying fit will make her feel a lot better than a big one, which is what will happen if you keep yelling at her!" Sora shouted "Maybe if you'd consider the feeling of someone other than yourself, you'd realize it!"
"STOP IT, BOTH OF YOU!!!" Pandoramon shouted, covering her ears "Just stop...I can't take fighting right now"
"Okay, okay, I'm sorry" Sora apologized, rather embarrassed at herself for raising her voice like that "That was pretty sooth of me, huh? I try to stop you from yelling, and what do I start doing?"
"Something like that." Matt muttered.
"Okay, this is the part where you say it's all right since you weren't acting much better and apologize for it." Sora whispered, giving him a slight nudge on the shoulder. Matt didn't respond outside of a grunt, but the truth was that he wanted to apologize. Not just for that little spat, either, he wanted to apologize for the way he'd been acting ever since they'd arived in Infinity Mountain, especially to Pandoramon. Why was he always giving her such a hard time? Matt usually had no regrets whatsoever for cutting people down (something he had gotten pretty good at), but that was because he knew they all had it coming. As much as he would have liked it, he knew there was no way he could say that about Pandoramon.
Matt didn't pretend to understand just what had happened to Pandoramon to make her so loopy, but he knew that she wasn't trying to be a pain. In fact, she hadn't tried to be anything but helpful the whole time, and she really had been far more help than she had been a hindrance. It should have been easy for Matt to put up with her at least until they were out of the mountain, so why did he keep loosing his cool? Matt was starting to loose track of the times he'd spouted off before he even had a chance to think about what he was saying. It almost felt like he was turning into Tai, a thought that made him physically ill. Matt knew he wasn't a thoughtless clod like Tai, so why was he acting like it? He knew Pandoramon didn't deserved to be shouted at; in fact... well...The fact was, if Matt heard someone else talk to her the way he had been, he'd break half the bones in their body. So why couldn't he keep himself from doing it? He'd never had this much trouble keeping himself under control before
Probably because he had never really tried it before. When Matt actually made himself think about it, he realized this was the first time he'd actually been in a situation where he had to put up with someone without getting angry at the. Mom was never around, of course, so he'd never had to put up with her, and Dad just caved in and ignored it whenever Matt got mad at him, so there was never any reason not to. Nobody ever cared about him getting mad at teachers, so he hid that, and his friends...well, that hadn't been an issue in many years. The only person alive that Matt could conceivably have held his tongue in front of was T.K., but he'd never needed to. After all, it had been years since he'd seen him for more than an afternoon at a time. T.K. was always gone well before Matt would have had a chance to get angry about something. What if he really couldn't keep his mouth shut?
And, to top it all off, why couldn't he bring himself to apologize to her?
"Um, not to complain or anything" Joe said meekly "But when are we going to come up with a plan for dealing with all of the mean, bloodthirsty Digimon that are apparently waiting for us at the top of this stupid mountain?"
"Well, let's see, there's seven of you" Pandoramon thought aloud, apparently having already forgot about her latest depression "And there are twelve Digimon up there...No, what am I saying, there are twelve commanders, and they all have...Well, actually, Devimon is the only commander, so really all those guys aren't much different from any of the foot solders. Well, sure, there are some varying levels of intelligence depending on the programming of the Black Gear in their system-"
"Pandoramon?" Matt interrupted "The point?"
"What point?" Pandoramon asked.
"That's what I thought." Matt sighed, reminding himself not to strangle her as long as he could.
"Oh, right! A plan!" Pandoramon exclaimed "Now let's see...How many of you are there again?"
"So, THIS is what Devimon has been up to." Centarumon muttered, glancing around the grimy, hastily arranged hallways before turning to Unimon "Anything?"
"I THINK I've got their sent, but it's a long way off." Unimon said, taking several sniffs of the air "They must be quite a few levels down."
"Not to mention the fact that this place stinks." Gomamon said, covering his nose to get his point across "How can you smell anything else?"
"I got used to all sorts of bad smells a long time ago." Unimon explained "Now I can just filter them out."
"Well that's a neat trick." Gabumon said "How can I learn to do that?"
"Spend a lot of time babysitting little Rookie Digimon." Unimon said, trying hard not to grin "It's worked wonders for me!"
"Hey, that's not funny!" Palmon objected "Well, not very funny, anyway."
"Well, we'd better hurry up and start moving along." Centarumon said "I've been getting a very bad feeling about things lately."
"No kidding." Gomamon laughed "Which one of us hasn't been having a bad feeling since we went into the stupid mountain?"
"I mean a worse feeling than usual." Centarumon corrected "Warrior's intuition. If you spend enough time around enemy attacks, you start to smell them coming."
"Like Unimon?" Patamon asked.
"Never mind, let's just get going." Centarumon said "We'd better find those kids before something else does."
Ogermon entered the command room absolutely convinced that he would never leave it again. He was sure that Devimon was going to end it all right there. He'd seen him do it to dozens of other Digimon who had screwed up in one way or another, and boy had Ogermon screwed up. Not that he couldn't have found the Digidestined eventually, of course, Ogermon could have found anything given enough time; but Devimon wasn't interested in giving Ogermon enough time. Now this was it; Ogermon's glorious, amazing, beautiful life was about to end.
"Ogermon" Devimon quietly said, keeping his back turned to the Digimon.
"I can still find them, master! I just need a little more time!" Ogermon pleaded "A few more hours, that's all!"
"Shut up." Devimon hissed "You couldn't find Centarumon and Unimon if they were hiding in an empty room and you had a year to do it. What good will a few more hours do?"
"Well, you never know" Ogermon whimpered.
"There's an army of Digimon in the mountain who are far better equipped to do that than you. In fact, they're better equipped to do ANYTHING than you are." Devimon continued "But, believe it or not, I've actually found a task that only you can perform."
"HUH?" Ogermon gasped, grasping anxiously at any chance of extending his life a little longer "ALL RIGHT!!! Sure thing, boss! You just name it and I'll be all over it! What do I need to do?"
"Take whatever support you need and go down into the labyrinth and find Pandoramon." Devimon instructed "I want her brought back alive and unharmed, understood?"
"Huh? Well, I guess, but I thought that when Leomon" Ogermon began to ask before a rare flood of understanding flooded his modestly sized brain "Hey, YEAH! That's right! Great plan, Boss! I'll get right on it!"
"You had better." Devimon warned "And if you find a way to screw this one up, it will be the last thing you ever do."
"Uh, yeah, I kinda figured that." Ogermon gulped as he ran off to find some support.
"Ya know, Izzy," Tai grunted "if you just weren't so smart, your brain would be lighter and you wouldn't weigh this much."
"Even if a level of intelligence could somehow affect the weight of my gray matter," Izzy objected from his perch on Tai's back "I doubt that a matter of a few pounds would be enough that you would not be complaining anyway."
"Besides, you're not the one with a screwed up ankle, Tai." Mimi pointed out "How would YOU like it if you couldn't walk and WE were complaining about how much you weigh?"
"First of all, I have had a screwed up ankle before, thank you." Tai answered "And any way, you just plain wouldn't carry me even if I really COULDN'T walk!"
"That's not true!" Mimi insisted "I'd be happy to carry you if there was no possible other way and I absolutely, positively, had to!"
"In that case, why don't YOU carry our little cripple for a while?" Tai asked.
"Because I don't absolutely, positively have to!" Mimi answered, matter-of- factly "We've got you!"
"You know, for such a lazy girl, she certainly has a knack for producing impeccable logic." Izzy commented.
"I guess that's a sort of a comment, so thank, I guess." Mimi responded.
"What about me?" T.K. asked from below "Would you carry me?"
"You bet I would!' Mimi said with a grin "Want a ride right now?"
"Sure!" T.K. laughed as Mimi lifted him up onto her shoulders.
"HEY!" Tai shouted "Why are you so much nicer to him?"
"Because he's a lot cuter than you, that's why!" Mimi declared "I'm much more likely to cooperate with a boy if he's cute."
"Well that figures" Tai sighed.
"You really think I'm cute?" T.K. asked.
"You bet I do, ya big stud!" Mimi said with a wink.
"Hehehe, thanks!" T.K. laughed, briefly turning around to stick his tongue out at Tai.
"Yeah, real cute." Tai muttered.
"What a devious little child," Izzy commented "manipulating Mimi like that."
"Yeah, I'm jealous too." Tai responded.
"Hey, do you hear something?" Mimi asked, coming to a stop.
"Huh?" Tai said, looking around by reflex "What do you mean?"
"I'm not sure, but it kind of sounds like there's a commotion up ahead." Mimi whispered.
"You think it's Matt?" T.K. asked, excitedly.
"Not according to the Digivices," Izzy answered, checking the little contraption "all the other dots are still a while away."
"Then...that means" Tai nervously started to say.
"No, not any of Devimon's solders either." Izzy interrupted "If it were, there would be a change on the danger gauge by now. So far, it's at pretty much the same level it's always been."
"Then, who could it be?" Mimi asked.
"Awww, you can't have forgotten me already!" a familiar voice called out from the darkness.
"PALMON?" Mimi shouted in disbelief "IS THAT YOU?"
"It sure is!" Palmon cried, her short, running outline slowly becoming visible before her "Are you all right?"
"I am now!" Mimi wept, scooping the little, leafy Digimon up in her arms "I didn't think I'd ever see you again!"
"T.K.!" Patamon shouted, flying at T.K. who had somehow managed to remain perched on Mimi's shoulders when she leaned over to grab Palmon.
"Hey Patamon!" T.K. laughed, hugging the furry little Digimon "Where ya been?"
"We've been looking all over for you!" Patamon said "Did ya miss us?"
"You bet we did! Right Mimi?" T.K. said, looking to the girl under him.
"This is the happiest moment of my life, Palmon!" Mimi bawled, her tears splashing all over the Digimon.
"I know, I don't think I've ever been as happy as I am right now!" Palmon sobbed, crying even more than Mimi.
"I'm just so...so HAPPY!" Mimi cried again, choking for a moment on an extra large wad of tears.
"Happy happy happy!" Palmon continued between sniffs and sobs.
"Okay...That's just kinda weird." T.K. muttered, watching the strange spectacle.
"Kinda really weird." Patamon agreed.
"TAI!" Agumon shouted, running up to his partner "How about you? Are you okay?"
"Sure I am!" Tai laughed "Don't take it personally if I don't hug you, though, my hands are a little full."
"Hey, don't look now, Tai, but you've got something growing on your back!" Gomamon snickered, pointing at Izzy.
"Oh my heavens! IZZY!" Tentomon shouted, flying over to Izzy and frantically looking him over "What's the matter? Are you injured? If you've been wounded in my absence, I'll never forgive myself!"
"It's nothing to worry yourself over," Izzy assured him "Just a slight twist of the ankle."
"Really?" Centarumon said, walking over "Let me have a look at that."
"Oh, hey! Now you can carry Izzy!" Tai suggested.
"I think Izzy would prefer it if no one has to carry him." Centarumon said, placing his hand over the sore ankle "Healing Touch."
"Um, I don't really...Hey, wait a minute!" Izzy stuttered, gingerly touching his suddenly fine leg "That's...I mean...WOW!"
"What? " Tai asked "Is it better?"
"Completely!" Izzy said, quite amazed.
"Well, in that case, this is where you get off!" Tai declared, unceremoniously dropping Izzy onto the floor.
"Hey, I just got finished putting him back together!" Centarumon scolded "Don't break him already!"
"Whoa...That was pretty cool!" Patamon said.
"I'll say." Unimon said "Since when do you know how to do that?"
"Since I taught myself how in the bowels of that factory." Centarumon answered "That Black Gear didn't drive me completely insane, after all, I had to pass the time somehow."
"So, where's Matt?" Gabumon asked, looking around.
"Sorry," Tai answered "Matt, Sora, and Joe are off that way."
"Dang it!" Gomamon whined "Looks like I owe you dinner, Tentomon."
"That you do." Tentomon laughed triumphantly "You see, Unimon could tell that you had been divided into two groups, but he wasn't sure who was where, so we had a little bet going."
"Why exactly are you split up, anyway?" Unimon asked "That's not a very good idea, given your current situation."
"Well, it sure wasn't our idea." Tai said "It was pretty much Pandoramon's fault."
"Oh really." Centarumon muttered, suspiciously "How so?"
"Don't listen to Tai, it was HIS fault!" Mimi objected "We ran into this big ugly dragon thinggie and ran away and I was following Tai but Tai ran the wrong way and got us lost!"
"I did NOT go the wrong way!" Tai countered "Everybody else went the wrong way! If we'd gone the wrong way, we wouldn't have caught up with Izzy and T.K. first!"
"So you two have actually seen Pandoramon?" Centarumon asked.
"Yeah...Hey, wait minute. How do you know who we're talking about?" Tai asked.
"Oh, she's quite famous around here." Unimon said "What do you think of her?"
"Huh? What do you mean?" Mimi asked.
"Is she trustworthy?" Centarumon demanded.
"Oh sure." Mimi said "I mean, she's totally nuts, but she's basically harmless. Why?"
"It's not worth going into now." Unimon replied "Let's just hurry up and find the others."
"The sooner the better." Centarumon grunted "Who knows what fiendish scheme that Digimon could be acting out as we speak?"
"What's it like in your dimensional plane, Matt?" Pandoramon asked.
"Huh?" Matt muttered "What's that?"
"I think she means Earth." Sora said.
"Oh, is that what you call it?" Pandoramon asked.
"Well, I don't know" Matt said, trying to think of something intelligent to say "Well, I mean I do, but I'm not sure how I'm supposed to explain it to you. In some ways, it's not that different from this place, but it's also really different."
"So...They don't have any Digimon there?" Pandoramon asked.
"Nope." Matt answered "There are a bunch of different kinds of animals that kind of look like Digimon, but none of them can talk or throw fireballs or do any of the stuff you guys do."
"Well, what do they do?" she asked.
"Eat, mostly." Matt said, with a slight grin "That or be eaten by something else."
"What about humans?" Pandoramon continued "Is that what they- um, I mean you do to?"
"Well, we don't eat each other, I'll have you know." Matt laughed "Not most of the time, at least. Actually, humans are lot like Digimon...Aside from the throwing fireballs and Digivolving and stuff."
"Nothing digivolves?" Pandoramon asked, fascinated "But...How do you change from one form to another?"
"We don't." Matt explained "I mean, we grow bigger as we get older, but we don't have any big transformation like that. The form we start with is pretty much the one we're stuck with."
"Wow...That must...I can't imagine what that must be like." Pandoramon muttered "Stuck in one shape for your whole life"
"Well, it's pretty hard for us to imagine turning into something totally different that we used to be." Sora pointed out.
"So, tell me more." Pandoramon asked, ignoring Sora "What does...Um...Earth, right? What does it look like."
"Like I said, it's kind of like this place, but kind of not." Matt said, trying to come up with some points of reference "I mean, there are trees and grass and stuff like hear, though the look a lot different. Oh, and cities, do you have any cities around here?"
"You mean big ones?" Pandoramon asked.
"Yeah, we've seen the Biyomon village and stuff like that, but I mean big cities."
"Not on File Island." Pandoramon answered "I've heard about a few on Server, but the closest thing we have to that here is System Canyon."
"That's what I figured." Matt sighed "Never mind then."
"There's also a little matter of the sky, in case you forgot." Joe pointed out.
"Oh yeah!" Matt piped up "It's nothing like the stuff that's going on upstairs around here."
"Huh?" Pandoramon said, startled "You don't have a sky?"
"Sure we do!" Matt answered "It's a lot different than this one, though. There's no mess of colors swirling around all the time or anything, it's just blue."
"Nothing but blue?" Pandoramon laughed, as if Matt had said the whole sky was made out of old socks or something like that "All the time?"
"Well, it's not always blue, but most of it..." Matt tried to explain "Well...There's this big thing call the sun that's a long way out from the Earth, that's where we get our light from."
"Huh?" Pandoramon asked "We get our light from the sky."
"Well, so do we...Sort of." Matt muttered, realizing that he'd never make it as a school teacher "See, the Sun is this one really bright glowing ball in the sky, that lights up everything else and when it's out the sky looks blue. Get it?"
"Not really" Pandoramon confessed "But go on anyway."
"Well, um, the Earth kind of...Well, it turns and stops pointing towards the sun, that's when night happens."
"Oh, we've got night here too!" Pandoramon exclaimed.
"Yeah, but it's a lot different." Matt interrupted "Here all the swirlly stuff is still there, but there's none of that stuff in our world, remember? When we have night, the sky just goes black."
"ALL black?" Pandoramon asked "How do you see anything?"
"Well, there's the moon." Matt said, glad that Pandoramon had asked, because he'd have totally forgotten about it otherwise "It kind of looks like the sun, but it's different. It's this big white ball that's closer to the Earth, but isn't very bright and sometimes you can't see it at all. And there's also the stars."
"The what?" Pandoramon asked.
"They're more things like the sun, but so far away that our Sun outshines them during the day. At night, though, you can see hundreds of them: tiny little white dots shinning in the middle of all the black night."
"Wow" Pandoramon mussed "We have legends about things like that here, but... I never imagined that any of them actually existed someplace"
"Well, if it makes you feel any better, we'd have never believed that this place existed if we hadn't been thrown right in the middle of it." Matt pointed out.
"Do you think I might ever see it?" Pandoramon asked.
"Huh? What-?" Matt asked, startled "You mean go to Earth?"
"Maybe, I'm not sure." Pandoramon said, looking like she was trying to recall something "Maybe I just mean seeing it from here, I'm not sure. I really don't understand it, but...I think we will see your world...but not the sky."
"Well, they kind of go together." Joe said.
"I know, I don't understand it" Pandoramon said, hitting her head slightly "I saw all these things in The Darkness, but It didn't explain any of it, and I don't know how I'm supposed to figure out things that I haven't seen...or is it haven't happened? It was so hard to tell which was which."
"Well, we'll worry about that latter." Matt said "I think that not getting killed by Devimon is probably a little more important at the moment."
"Maybe" Pandoramon said with a smile, resting her head on Matt's shoulder "I'd love for you to show me your sky"
"Eer...Why are we talking about this, anyway? We've got more important things to do!" Matt gruffly asked, trying to hold back a blush. In a few hours, they would be face to face with a few thousand Digimon waiting for a chance to kill them, and there they were talking about the dumb sky. But the truth was, Matt really didn't mind. In fact, he was actually enjoying talking to Pandoramon, and Matt didn't enjoy talking to anything. Why was Pandoramon any different? Maybe it was the slightly innocent honesty about her. She didn't always make since, in fact she usually didn't, but she never seemed to say anything that she didn't mean. There just didn't seem to be any hidden agendas with Pandoramon, and that was one of the things Matt hated the most about talking to people. Maybe that was why it was getting easier not to be annoyed by her chatter.
Of course, it didn't hurt that she had such a pretty voice, either
"WHOA! Where'd they come from?" Pandoramon suddenly shouted, nearly dragging Matt to the ground as she whirled around to look behind her "They're back!"
"Huh? Who's back?" Joe shouted "Where?"
"Is it Leomon again?" Matt demanded.
"I...I don't know." Pandoramon said, beginning to look very frightened "I don't think...Wait that can't be...OH NO!!! THEY'RE ALL AROUND US!!!"
"WHAT?" the three children shouted in unison.
"There are three, no five of them behind us" Pandoramon whispered, her entire body starting to tremble "And just as many in front of us, too."
"On this level?" Sora asked "Where did they come from?"
"I-I don't know" Pandoramon whimpered, looking at the floor in shame "I...I wasn't paying attention"
"YOU WHAT?" Matt shouted, whatever affection which might have been there a moment ago now buried under a wave of rage.
"I'm sorry! I forgot all about it!" Pandoramon wept, clearly disgusted with herself.
"How could you have forgotten to look for those things?" Matt demanded, shaking Pandoramon violently "What do you think we're keeping you around for, anyway?"
"I didn't mean to!" Pandoramon pleaded, trying to convince herself more than Matt "I just...I couldn't"
"Never mind that now!" Sora interrupted "Right now we just need to find a way out-"
"There isn't a way out!" Pandoramon wept "There's only one exit for this hall, and that's where they're waiting!"
"Only one...Well what did you lead us in here for?" Matt yelled "Didn't it ever occur to you that we might need to get out of here really quick?"
"I wasn't thinking about it" Pandoramon sobbed "I'm sorry, it was stupid-"
"You can say that again!" Matt said, exasperated "Why didn't you just hand us to Devimon on a platter?"
"MATT, STOP IT!" Sora shouted, giving Matt a hard slap in the face "That's not going to help us now!"
"Nothing's going to help us now," Matt shot back "thanks to out stellar guide here!"
"It's not her fault-" Sora started to protest.
"YES IT IS!" Pandoramon interrupted, pulling herself away from Matt's grip and staggering back from the humans "It's all my fault! EVERYTHING'S my fault! Even when I try to help I make things worse!"
"Hey, wait a minute!" Joe asked, nervously "Where are you going?" if Pandoramon even hear him, she gave no indication of it. Instead she simply charged down the hallway sobbing.
"Pandoramon! Come back! We're not mad at you!" Sora pleaded, starting to run after her before turning back to Joe and Matt "WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR? COME ON!"
"I know, I know!" Matt shouted, running past Sora.
"Wow, for someone who can't walk on her own, she sure runs fast!" Joe commented, trying to keep up.
"Hey, Pandoramon!" Matt shouted "I didn't mean that stuff, all right? You're a good guide!"
But Pandoramon refused to listen, she was too busy cursing herself for her own stupidity. How could she have been so stupid? How could anyone miss so many Black Gears for so long? That was the only thing she was good for to anyone and she couldn't even do that! And why not? Because she was being a little idiot, yaking with a Digidestined like a friend, of all things! What business did she have even being around someone like that? She was nothing but a pathetic joke who'd handed the entire Digital World over to pure destruction; the Digidestined were supposed to get rid of Digimon like her, not run around with her! How could she have been stupid enough to believe that she could ever have anything in common with someone like Matt? She didn't belong anywhere near him; she didn't belong anywhere anymore.
There was no way that Pandoramon could have known it, but Matt was cursing himself just as much as she was as he tried to catch up. He had really screwed things up this time. How could he have been so stupid? Pandoramon was their only chance at getting around Devimon's goons, and he'd shot his mouth of like a maniac and scared her away! There was no way they were going to convince her to keep helping them now, at least, there should have been. Matt knew he wouldn't forgive a jerk like him, even Pandoramon did, and seeing that she wasn't answering their shouting, he didn't think she would. For what little good it would do, at least they were catching up with her.
Then, without warning, she stoped.
"All right!" Sora said, relieved "I think she's finally listening to us!"
"Stop right there!" Pandoramon commanded "Don't come any closer!"
"Well, so much for that." Matt sighed.
"Come on, Pandoramon!" Sora pleaded "We're not mad at you! I promise!"
"I'm not talking about that! Just hold still!" Pandoramon said, holding her staff out in front of her "And you'd probably better close your eyes this time." Before any of the humans had a chance to ask what she was doing, the entire hall had been swallowed up in a blinding, but familiar, flash of light. When their eyes had adjusted, they found themselves once again surrounded by a glowing barrier. On the outside, only a matter of feet away from Pandoramon, they could see a pack of Devidramon starring hungrily at them, but not daring to touch the barrier.
"Hey, yeah!" Joe happily exclaimed "I forgot you could do that!"
"There, see?" Sora shouted, happily "You really are a lot of help!"
"Well, if you say so" Pandoramon replied "Maybe just a little. Sorry about that back there."
"YOU'RE sorry?" Matt laughed "I'M the one who yelled at you."
"Awwww, isn't that sweet." a grotesque voice laughed from behind the Devidramon "Did you and your friends have a little fight?"
"W-W-WHAT?" Pandoramon stuttered, suddenly looking very afraid "No, that can't be-"
"What, me?" asked a disgusting, scab covered Digimon with a giant club as it squeezed between two of the Devidramon "You think little old me can come down here and do a good job where Leomon screwed up?"
"Ogermon" Pandoramon replied, nervously "Don't come any closer!"
"Hey, you sound a little scared over there." Ogermon snickered, poking the barrier with his claw "What's the matter? Don't trust you fancy shmancy barrier deal?"
"Please, Ogermon," Pandoramon pleaded "don't do this!"
"Do what? THIS?" Ogermon asked, effortlessly stepping through the barrier as if it wasn't even there.
"Wha- But- How- What's going on?" Sora stammered.
"We are dead." Joe whimpered "We are so so so dead!"
"Hey, how did I do that? OH YEAH! It'd because that dumb excuse for a barrier will only stop Black Gears! It's worthless against a real Digimon like me!" Ogermon laughed, striking Pandoramon in the head with his club and knocking her to the ground. As so as she let go of her staff, the barrier vanished and the pack of Devidramon charged ahead to surround the two Digimon.
"Devimon's really ticked off with you, angel girl!" Ogermon said, tossing the struggling Digimon over his shoulder "Even I don't want to think about what he's got in store for you, and that's really something!"
"MATT!" Pandoramon screamed, frantically beating at Ogermon's shoulder "HELP ME!!!"
"HEY!" Matt demanded, trying to look past the row of Devidramon in front of him "Let her go, you overgrown scab!"
"Oh, shut up kid!" Ogermon replied, annoyed "You're not my problem, she is."
"Well, I just became your problem!" Matt shouted back "You're not taking Pandoramon anywhere!"
"Uh huh, yeah, that's great, Bub." Ogermon laughed, walking away "Come and get her, if you're so hot." At that, Matt tried to charge through the space between two of the Devidramon. Before he was even close, however, one of them whipped out and struck him in the face, promptly knocking him to the floor.
"Matt, no!" Sora yelped, running to help him up "Are you alright?"
"You know what?" Ogermon called from somewhere in the darkness beyond them "I should probably do Devimon a favor and get rid of you three while I'm down here."
"NO!" Pandoramon screamed "Leave them alone!"
"Hey, shut up!" Ogermon growled, apparently striking his captive "SIC `EM, BOYS!" As soon as those words left Ogermon's mouth, the Devidramon formed a circle around the three humans, glaring at them hungrily.
"Oh no oh no oh no oh no!" Joe stammered "What do we do?"
"I don't know" Matt confessed, cradling his busted lip. Suddenly, unleashing an ear -piercing screech, one of the Devidramon behind Sora reared up to strike, and the three children braced themselves to be torn to bits. Before the attack had a chance to come, however, the hallway was lit up by a burning orange flash and the Devidramon vanished. The would-be victims would have looked to see what caused the sudden blast, but another of the Devidramon took the moment of surprise to leap headfirst at Matt. Before it had a chance to get all the way off hid legs, a small, blue blast of energy flew over their heads and struck it square in the face. The attack didn't seem to actually hurt the creature, but it startled it enough to bring it to a stop directly in front of its intended victim.
"Whew! that was close!" a familiar, horned form draped in fur sighed behind Matt.
"Gabumon?" Matt muttered, not entirely sure what had happened.
"Yep!" Gabumon laughed "And I brought a few friends with me!"
"SORA!" Biyomon shouted, leaping at her partner and wrapping her wings around her neck "Thank goodness we got here in time! I was so worried about you!"
"I'll say, I can't leave you alone for a second, can I?" Gomamon asked, giving Joe a hearty slap on the back "I turn my back and look at you: surrounded by Devidramon!"
"Well, I think we can put a stop to that without too much trouble." Centarumon called out, picking out which one he would destroy next. The Devidramon must have realized what he was up to, because they quickly backed away from the humans and formed a line facing them.
"Um...What are they doing?" Joe asked, confused.
"They're shaking in their boots, that's what they're doing!" Tai declared from behind Centarumon "If you were face to face with the mighty Digidestined, you'd be scared too!"
"Then why are the mighty Digidestined hiding behind their hoofed babysitters?" Matt asked.
"You'll have time to fight with each other later!" Gabumon interrupted, pointing at the Devidramon "Don't you think we'd better fight them first?"
"I totally concur." Matt answered, brandishing his Digivice "Let's see if we remember how to do this."
"Sounds good to me, though you'd probably better stand back." Gabumon said "There's not a whole lot of room in here, after all."
"Sure thing!" Matt said, taking several steps back and activating the Digivice "DO IT GABUMON!"
"Gabumon digivolve to... GARURUMON!" the Digimon shouted, vanishing behind a cloak of blue light and emerging a giant wolf who took up nearly half the wall. "All right, who wants to die first?"
"All right!" T.K. cheered from his perch on Unimon's back "Go get `em Garurumon!"
"Hey, we're not gonna let those two get all the glory, are we?" Tai asked Agumon.
"I'd be just fine with that, actually." Agumon answered "But I bet you're not."
"Smart Digimon." Tai said, pulling his Digivice out of his pocket and giving his partner a gently but firm shove towards the action "Time to digivolve!"
"Agumon digivolve to...GREYMON- OW!" he shouted, transforming into a large, orange dinosaur, and promptly hitting his horned head on the suddenly close ceiling "Man, it got small in here fast!"
"Are any of you going to go help?" Unimon asked the other Digimon.
"Where?" Palmon asked "There's barely room for the two of them."
"Besides, I believe they can handle themselves." Tentomon said.
"Yeah, and we, uh, need to save our strength for Devimon, right?" Gomamon added.
"But we need to rescue Pandoramon!" Sora protested "Some thing called Ogermon took her!"
"TOOK her?" Unimon asked "Just now?"
"Yeah!" Joe explained "She was trying to hold off those whatever-you-called- them, but Ogermon beat her up and took her!"
"I see" Unimon muttered "Well, I guess that settles the question of who's side she was on."
"Maybe." Centarumon, with a hint of regret "It's really a moot point now."
Pandoramon had long since given up struggling against Ogermon, not so much because she knew it was useless but because she was simply to terrified to move any more. Her life was over, there was no question about it. She wasn't sure just what the outcome of the Digidestined's battle with Devimon would be, she wasn't sure of a great many things, but she was absolutely certain that she was about to die. Pandoramon couldn't help but be amazed at how ingeniously cruel her fate had become. There was still so much knowledge floating around in her head that the had no way of even comprehending, even her own life was a nearly incomprehensible blur, but the knowledge that it was all about to end shone through the tattered mess of her consciousness like a beacon. She would never see her old home in the world outside Infinity Mountain again. She would never have a chance to repair all the damage she had wrought on the Digiworld. She would never see Matt again. It just wasn't fair!
Of course, as clear as the knowledge of her fate might have been, the means were a complete mystery. Devimon had a multitude of ways to punish traitors and they all were carefully planned to keep their victims alive for as possible, even if that life did not extend farther than the perception of pain. For years Pandoramon had known about every one of Devimon's forms of torture but never had to think about them; now they were all she could think about. Her wings would probably be the first to go, or maybe her fingers. No, first he'd gouge out her eyes so she wouldn't know where he was going to cut next. Then, slowly, he'd tear her apart from the inside out. The more she imagined it, the more the quaking little Digimon's frame stung with absolute terror.
The irony was sickening. Here was a Digimon that only a few days ago Pandoramon would have gladly given up her life for, and now she was horrified of him demanding just that. Well, no; that wasn't quite right. It wasn't just Devimon that she was afraid of, but that...that thing that was behind him. The pure malevolence her mind had touched through the transmitter was what she feared most of all. The thought of being anywhere near anything that had ever been touched by such an unspeakable disease of a being was more repulsive that Pandoramon had ever thought possible, nearly as strong as the primal fear of her own demise. What if Devimon didn't kill her at all? It wasn't totally implausible; he might decide to keep her around to mind the transmitter, at least until he had conquered Server and had access to the rift directly. But there was no chance that he would let her escape unharmed; even then he would probably fit her with a Black Gear. She would have the very essence of The Darkness invading her body, her mind. All but the faintest traces of her individuality would be blanketed of existence underneath the will of that...thing...Even if she did live, she would be in a state even worse than death, horrible as that may have been.
As the giant, imposing doors to Devimon's lair slowly creaked open, Pandoramon felt more lost than any being should have been capable of feeling. There was absolutely no hope whatsoever now. All was lost.
"Well, I did it!" Ogermon declared, dropping Pandoramon to the floor "Here's Pandoramon for ya!"
Looking up from the floor, Pandoramon saw Devimon's tall, impossibly thing frame standing at the far end of the room with his back to her, staring into the fire. For a minute that felt like a thousand eternities there was no sound in the bleak catacomb. Pandoramon knew that there was nothing she could possibly say that would sway Devimon from whatever he had already decided, even if wasn't terrified far beyond the capacity of speech. As for Devimon, he simply stood with his back to the fallen Digimon in deadly silence.
"Uh...Sh-should I leave?" Ogermon asked, afraid he was doing something he shouldn't.
"No." Devimon finally muttered.
"Oh" Ogermon stuttered "I mean...Well, I just thought that-"
"There is nothing here I am ashamed of." Devimon said, finally turning to look at Pandoramon, his eyes burning with the range of betrayal "Nothing other than the traitor at our feet."
"Oh boy, here it comes." Ogermon whispered, licking his lips with his massive tongue.
"Out of all the Digimon under my command, I gave you unparalleled freedom." Devimon hissed at Pandoramon, who was curled up on the floor like a wounded animal "I actually trusted you! Now you have blatantly defiled that trust. Why?"
Pandoramon tried to answer him, to tell him that he was being deceived, that The Darkness had no intention of giving him anything other than death along with the rest of the Digital World, but she couldn't. No matter how hard she tried, she simply couldn't make words appear in her mind, much less her mouth. Instead, she simply trembled in painful silence.
"ANSWER ME!!!" Devimon howled, erupting in an explosion of rage. He grabbed Pandoramon and pulled her from the floor, tearing both her clothes and her delicate skin with his claws as he did so "WHY DID YOU DO THIS TO ME?" The only response Pandoramon could give was a shriek of pain as the claws slid through her skin, so Devimon threw her back to the ground.
"At the moment, I don't have time to deal with you in the way you deserve." Devimon said, unsteadily, as he tried to regain his composure "Lock her in a cell until the Digidestined are taken care of. I'll see to Pandoramon then."
"Uh... Sure" Ogermon muttered, almost as afraid for his life as Pandoramon.
"And don't come back!" Tai shouted at the remaining Devidramon as they ran down the hall.
"You just be glad I kept bumping my head," Greymon added "otherwise I would have really let you have it!"
"Okay, come on!" Matt commanded, running down the hall.
"Where do you think you're going?" Centarumon asked.
"Ogermon took Pandoramon this way!" Matt explained "Maybe we can still catch up with him!"
"I hate to disappoint you, but Ogermon can move through this maze a lot faster than you." Centarumon replied "He's long since dropped Pandoramon off at where she's going."
"Well then, that's where we're going!" Matt insisted "Come on!"
"Are you joking?" Centarumon laughed "The whole top of this mountain is crawling with Digimon, especially the parts that are there to keep people from breaking through! You'd never get close!"
"Well then, what the heck did come up here for?" Matt asked, getting frustrated.
"To get Devimon, that's what." Centarumon answered "And the only way you'll live to do that is if you head straight for Devimon and don't waste time looking for anything else!"
"But...We can't just leave her!" Matt protested, aghast.
"You can and you will." Centarumon insisted.
"Look, Devimon's not going to do anything to Pandoramon as long as he knows you're still here." Unimon explained "He takes punishment very seriously and devotes a lot of time to it. As long as he knows the Digidestined are at his doorstep, he's not going to get caught up in anything else."
"Now, come on!" Centarumon insisted "We've figured out a way to get as close as possible to Devimon without having to fight through anything."
"Please Matt!" Sora pleaded "The only way we can help Pandoramon now is to get rid of Devimon before he can do anything to her!"
"But...What if" Matt stammered "What if we can't?"
"We will." Garurumon assured him "We'll defeat Devimon and get your friend back."
"But...Alright, fine." Matt sighed "Sorry, Pandoramon"
To Be Continued...