In The Dark

Part Four: Hope Arrives

***

Standard Disclaimer Thingy: Does Digimon belong to me? Unfortunately not, that means none of the characters in this story are mine. Why am I using them? Because I want to. Is this plot mine? Yes. Do I get any money for this? No. If you sue me, will you get anything? No, I have no money. Thank you.

***

It was mid-day, and Iori was eating a meal. From the grim look on the boy's face, Miyako guessed that Daisuke wasn't doing much better.

"Not good?" she questioned, sitting beside him. Iori slowly chewed the food he had just taken a bite of before responding.

"Not very," he replied. "Hikari wouldn't come out to eat," he gestured to the tent she was now in, "so the medics brought the food in. Daisuke's been asleep since this afternoon." He sighed deeply. "He's not doing well."

"I hope Jyou gets back soon," Miyako replied, beginning on her own food.

"He'd better," Hawkmon nodded in agreement. "Otherwise I don't think he has much hope."

"Hey – what's that up there?" Armadimon called, pointing towards a shape in the sky.

"Is that - ?" Iori wondered, but didn't finish his sentence because Miyako interrupted.

"Sora? That is! That's Birdramon!" Miyako stood up, forgetting her meal for the moment, and waved. "Sora!"

The fiery bird digimon landed a moment later, with Sora clutching one leg and Jyou another. Birdramon de-evolved to Piyomon, looking a bit tired. Jyou looked a bit nauseous.

"You all right?" Sora asked.

"Oh, fine, fine. I was just not made to fly through the air, that's all," the doctor replied. Gomamon, who'd ridden in his partner's backpack, laughed, somewhat embarrassed.

"Don't mind him," the small digimon jokingly advised Sora. "He's got a very sensitive stomach."

"You can say that again," Jyou moaned.

"You've arrived just in time," Iori told them. He pointed toward the tent. "He's in there."

Jyou nodded, taking a lung-full of fresh air before entering the tent.

"How's he doing?" Sora questioned.

"Not well," Miyako replied.

"Been asleep since this morning," Iori agreed.

"Join us for lunch, won't you?" Hawkmon offered.

***

Two hours later, Jyou emerged from the tent looking very tired but a bit more alive. Iori, Miyako, Sora, and Yamato were sitting around the fire, talking, and drinking some tea. When the doctor emerged, Sora offered him a cup and a seat.

"Thanks," he replied. "It's been a long day." He took a long gulp of tea and sat down on the log beside Yamato.

"How'd it go?" Yamato questioned.

"I think very well," the doctor answered as Miyako poured him a refill. "He hasn't awakened yet, but he already looks more alive."

"So then he'll be all right?" Iori asked.

"It's still too early to say, but I think, yes." He finished the second cup of tea in two gulps and yawned.. "I think I'll get some sleep. I've been awake for much too long." With that, the doctor was gone, disappearing into his own tent to fall asleep.

***

"Hikari?" Miyako slipped into the tent. It was nearly dark now, and the only candle in the tent was not providing much light. "Are you in here?"

"She's asleep," a voice warned her, and Miyako was surprised to see that Daisuke was awake. "I wouldn't move her."

"You're awake?"

"Yeah, have been for about a few minutes," he answered in a very quiet voice, and pointed one arm across the tent. Hikari was slumped in a chair, asleep. "I wouldn't move her if I were you," he repeated.

"Why not?"

"She'll probably just wake up confused and run back in here," he told her. "Save yourself the time." He shut his eyes and for a moment she guessed he'd fallen asleep again.

"I suppose…," she agreed hesitantly, glancing back towards the girl. "I'll find her a blanket."

***

Takeru cautiously steered the Monochromon through the brush. Thanks to a detour due to a fire and a very stubborn Monochromon, he'd taken longer to make it to the Primary Village than expected. Now he led the large digimon through the grass.

"Takeru?" Patamon questioned sleepily from his perch atop the wagon. He'd fallen asleep.

"Yes?" Takeru asked, sounding distracted because he was trying to pull the Monochromon past a mud puddle.

"Are we almost there?"

"I think so," he replied, pausing momentarily in his struggles to rest. "I hope so."
"Would have been faster if we'd just walked, you know," Patamon noted.

"Yeah, but then how would Sora get back? The whole point was to bring the carriage. I think. I don't know anymore." With a sigh, he sat on the ground for a moment and removed the canteen he carried in the bag on his back. Taking a cool drink, Takeru felt a bit more refreshed. It was now very late at night again, and he'd been on the road since the night before. "This was not supposed to take this long," he sighed.

Patamon flapped his ears and flew from the top of the carriage down to meet his partner. He landed softly on the boy's head. Suddenly, there was a beeping from somewhere. "What's that?" the digimon questioned.

"My digivice," Takeru realized, pulling the object from his pocket. "I'm reading something…"

"The others?" Patamon suggested.
"We're close enough," he nodded. "But that's not it. I only see one thing." Takeru pointed to the screen of his digivice. "See? One dot. And it's farther away than the village."

"It is," Patamon nodded. "Beyond it."

Takeru frowned. "I wonder what it is?" He stood up, putting the canteen of water in his bag. "Only one way to find out."

"We follow it?" his partner guessed.

"Precisely. But first I'd better figure out what to do with this thing. " He gestured towards the Monochromon, who was munching slowly on some grass.

"If we leave him here, I don't think he'll go far," Patamon whispered conspiratorially.

***

It was not yet sunrise when Hikari awoke again. She noted that Daisuke was asleep and the sky had only just begun to lighten. Someone had pulled a blanket over her shoulders.

Yawning and stretching, she sleepily rubbed her eyes and peered through the dim light at the sleeping patient. The candle had gone out long ago, but there was light enough so that she could see he appeared to be in less pain than before.

The flap of the tent parted slightly, and Tailmon entered. "Hikari?"

She yawned before she answered. "He's doing better."

The small feline nodded. "I see," she observed. "It's too early in the morning. Why are you awake?"

"I'm not sure," Hikari replied with a confused expression. "I just am."

"Do you think it has anything to do with that noise?"

"Noise -?" she repeated blankly, and became aware of a noise coming from somewhere in the blanket she'd been sleeping with. "My digivice!" she realized once she'd located the object. "It's reading something."

"I figured that's why it was making the noise," Tailmon commented dryly. "Shall we figure out what it is?"

"I think so," Hikari replied. "But there's a problem."

"What problem?"

"It's in that direction." She pointed away from the tent, away from camp, away from the village…

Into the Kaiser's territory.

***

"I'm not so sure this was such a good idea," Takeru commented as he and Patamon made their way through the dense foliage. "It's dark in here, and I have a bad feeling about this place."

"Maybe we should come back later…when it's lighter and less evil-feeling," Patamon suggested, clutching tightly to his partner's head.

"We can't turn back now. We're almost there!" Takeru disagreed. "Besides…I, kind of don't know how to get back."

"We have taken a lot of turns," the small digimon noted with a sigh.

"And we've gone very far," Takeru agreed. "At least we're not pulling that Monochromon. I'm glad we left him and the carriage behind. I'm sure Sora can find another way to -."

He was cut off just then because he noticed a light coming from a place not too far from where he was.

***

Cautiously, Hikari stepped over the twigs and leaves on the ground, trying to make as little noise as possible. Tailmon, silent as every feline is, followed behind her like a shadow, her big blue eyes peering around, constantly alert. Her large ears were raised high, attuned to even the slightest noise. Now that they were in the Kaiser's territory, they needed to take every precaution so as not to be found.

Neither partner spoke. Absolute silence was unquestionably necessary. Hikari kept one eye on her digivice and the other on where her feet were stepping. She didn't look around her for danger, because she knew that Tailmon would alert her. Instead she concentrated entirely on avoiding the noisy leaves and twigs covering the forest floor.

'I can't believe I'm doing this,' she thought silently as she walked. 'If Taichi found out -?'  She shuddered mentally when she thought of her brother's reaction. She hadn't spoken to Sora yet, but she was certain he'd gone completely out of his mind when she'd left the palace without notifying anyone of her departure or destination.

'But I'm not a child anymore,'  Hikari reminded herself.  A cool wind blew past her, and she shivered slightly. 'My brother can worry all he wants, but some things change. I'm old enough to decide what I can do.'

She stopped walking abruptly when she heard a noise. Tailmon paused behind her, mid-step. In the distance, they could hear two voices.

"…I thought it was coming from over here, but it looks like it's gone…" the first voice said.

"Maybe we imagined it after all," the second replied.

"No! Look! There it is again!"

The third comment was shouted in astonishment. Hikari turned her head around, wondering if she could see what was being seen. Her eyes locked on a pillar of light that seemed, for a moment, to be coming from a part of the forest. 'Is that what I'm searching for?' she wondered.

"Let's go!" the voice shouted.

Hikari turned briefly to look at Tailmon. The feline digimon peered back at her, and she could tell immediately that they were of the same mind. Quickly, they abandoned all attempts at further silence, and began running after the light and the other two voices.

'Who could they be?' Hikari wondered as she ran through the woods. 'They certainly didn't sound like they would be the Kaiser's slaves. Too cheerful. But there are no humans or free digimon in these woods. Who would be so stupid as to come in here without protection?' She paused that train of thought abruptly, remembering then that she, too, was in the woods with little protection. But she, at least, was aware of the dangers and taking precautions.

'So then they must not know this is the Kaiser's forest,' she concluded. 'They don't know they're in danger.' She began to ponder on who would be in this part of the woods – outside the border of the kingdom, away from most human civilization. If the voices were digimon, then they certainly would have known, either from other digimon or from simply the nature of these woods, that something was wrong.

Hikari concluded then that the intruders must have not know about the danger of this area, and therefore, it must have been a human and, most likely, his or her partner. She soon found that her conclusion was correct, because she emerged into a small clearing surrounding a cave.

Across the clearing, a half-second behind her, emerged Takeru.

"Hikari?" the boy blurted, stunned to find her there.

There was no more time for words though, because the noise of the four creatures barreling through the woods had awakened a nearby group of a dozen or so Bakemon that were standing guard over the cave. "Hey!" the lead Bakemon shouted.

"Hide!" Tailmon advised quickly, and ushered her partner in the direction of the cave.

"Go!" Patamon shouted at his partner. "Air shot!"  Quickly, he fired his attack at one of the ghost-like creatures. A black band around his waist fell to the ground and quickly disintegrated.

"What is that thing?" Takeru wondered, having noticed the deletion.

"No time to explain. Just get in the cave, you'll be safe there. We've got to free them before he sends reinforcements," Tailmon shouted. "Cat Punch!" She then quickly pounced on a few of the Bakemon, clawing fiercely.

"Hell's Hand!" the Bakemon shouted in reply, his own dark attack forcing Takeru to dodge quickly.

"Can't we just evolve?" Takeru asked, rolling to avoid the giant ghostly hand and reaching for his digivice.

Tailmon laughed somewhat derisively. "Try it. Won't work. Your brother's failed."

"Why?" Patamon questioned, avoiding a Bakemon of his own.

"Because of the dark magic in the area," Tailmon replied. "There's not time to explain, I told you. Just hide while Patamon and I take care of this."

Against what ordinarily would have been his better judgment, Takeru quickly ducked into the cave Hikari had entered. "What's happening?" he wondered.

"Takeru – how did you get here?" Hikari questioned, and the boy turned to take a look at his surroundings just then. The cave, though small in appearance, was actually rather large on the inside. Hikari was kneeling beside him, peering out the entrance and watching the battle.

 "I was on my way to Primary Village," he replied. "For some reason, Taichi said I might be needed, so that's where I was headed. But then I got this signal." He held up his digivice as proof.

"You've got to be careful around here," she told him, slightly admonishing in her tone. "This is the Kaiser's territory."

"Kaiser?" he repeated blankly. 'Gomamon mentioned something about him.'

"You got something from your digivice too?" Hikari questioned, half-ignoring his question.

"Yeah – this one blinking dot," he held out his digivice as proof.

"Strange. So do I. And it's closer now that we're in this cave." She stood up and peered into the cave. "It's dark…I wish we had a light."

"I see one…" Takeru squinted his eyes. "At the end of the cave."

There was no debate about whether or not to follow the light. Wordlessly, Hikari and Takeru both wandered into the darkness at the back of the cave. The light grew stronger as they got further from the entrance. After a short walk, they could see a raised stone platform with two objects on it.

"Oh my!" Hikari gasped.

"What? What is it?" Takeru questioned. He was beginning to feel very lost. In front of the platform were two signs. "'Digimental Kibou'," he read. "'Only the true owner can raise the digimental'. But that's the same as - ."

"It's your digimental," Hikari realized, interrupting. "When Daisuke found his, it was in a cave just like this one. I should have known that's what the digivices were leading us to."

"'Digimental Hikari'," Takeru read from the second sign. "I'm guessing this one belongs to you."

"I suppose so -," she replied hesitantly, glancing towards the egg-shaped white object on the stone platform. It had a flower-like symbol on it. "So Hope must be yours."

"It would make sense," he agreed, reaching for the string he wore around his neck. "I almost forgot about this."

"A crest? Takeru – you didn't tell anyone you had a crest!"

"I guess I forgot," he replied sheepishly. "I never even remembered to ask Koushiro about it. But it's the same symbol. So I guess this is the crest of Hope."

"You should have said something," she told him. "Crests are important!"

 "I found it when we were fighting Devimon. Or, rather, Nanomon. My crest was the door which led us into the building where Sora was. After the others arrived, I guess I just was so caught up in what was going on that I didn't have time to mention it. And then we got back and there was so much happening…" Takeru shrugged. "I guess I forgot."

Hikari looked as though she was about to say something more, when suddenly, an earth-shattering crash was heard outside. "Fire Breath!"

"Tyrannomon!" she realized. "Let's go."

Quickly, they both stepped up to the platform and lifted the digimentals with ease. "I think these will be needed," Takeru noted.

***

Miyako arose shortly after the sun and immediately decided to get some breakfast. Though the camp was small, it had many occupants, and she was certain someone had managed to make some food for the morning meal by that point.

However, when she stepped out of her tent, she noted that the place where the fire was usually blazing was nothing more than a cold pile of smoldering ashes and sticks. Medics, doctors, nurses, and the rest of the camp's occupants were dashing about, looking frantic.

"What's going on?" she questioned. Hawkmon, standing sleepily beside her, shrugged.

"It would appear they're having a crisis," he noted.

"…Got to be around here somewhere…" a doctor muttered under his breath as he rushed past.

"Excuse me -," Miyako questioned, but he paid no attention.

"…He'll have my head!" Jyou exclaimed nervously as he exited one of the tents and quickly dashed into another.

"Jyou?" Miyako tried, but he was gone.

"Jyou, I'm sure it'll be fine," Sora was trying to console him, as she followed him into the tent a moment later.

"…Somewhere," another doctor was saying as he rushed past Miyako into her tent and emerged a moment later.

"Excuse me, sir," Hawkmon tried, politely, but there was still no response.

"What's going on?" Miyako demanded, half-shouting, but still the frantic searchers paid no attention.

"It would appear they're searching for something," Hawkmon stated. "But I haven't a clue what."

"Whatever it is, it's very important. I haven't seen anyone go in to see Daisuke. Yesterday there was a whole crowd of them," Miyako observed. "Maybe he knows what's going on."

***

Tailmon fell, hard, to the ground after the fiery attack from the large red dinosaur. "Looks like he's brought the reinforcements," she observed, getting up again. Suddenly, she noticed that something felt  - different. Lighter. "My tail ring!" she gasped, looking backward to find the ornamental ring was gone.

"Where did it go?" Patamon wondered, dodging one of the fireball attacks.

"I don't know!" she shouted. "This is horrible."

"Not so horrible as this," the Bakemon called, firing his attack. Quickly, both digimon dodged out of the way.

"Tailmon!"

"Patamon!"

"Hikari!" Tailmon shouted. "We've got to get out of here!"

"It's all right, Tailmon," the girl assured her, holding up the egg shaped item. "Digimental up!"

The digimental glowed brightly, and for a moment, there was nothing to be seen. "Tailmon armor evolve!" the feline digimon shouted from somewhere within the light. "Nefertimon!" The light faded, and a white, winged, four-legged creature emerged with armor on its feet and an armor mask over its face.

"I've got one, too!" Takeru grinned triumphantly at his partner. "Digimental up!"

Again there was a bright, glowing light. "Patamon armor evolve!" the tiny flying digimon shouted. "Pegasmon!" Again the light faded, and a golden-brown four-legged creature appeared with armor on its feet and wings on its back.

Immediately, both the newly-formed digimon took to the air. "Ready?" Pegasmon shouted.

"Ready!" Nefertimon called in response, flying past him.

Together, they both called out: "Golden Noose!" and between them formed a large golden rope. Then they flew past the two Tyrannomon and the group of Bakemon and surrounded them with the rope. Tangled within the rope, the Tyrannomon tried desperately to break free, injuring the Bakemon.

"Can't we set them free?" Hikari questioned.

"I'm afraid that might have to wait," Nefertimon called as she landed on the ground beside her partner. "Company's arrived."

Takeru glanced to the sky and noticed a group of about five Airdramon soaring towards them. "More Airdramon?" he questioned.

"No, different ones," Hikari replied. "We'd better go. We're not strong enough, just two of us."

"I'm not sure who that guy is, but I have a feeling he's bad news," Pegasmon said, noting the figure atop one of the Airdramon.

"We'll explain everything when we get back," Hikari promised, climbing on to her partner's back and holding tight. "Just trust me, we don't want to tangle with him."

"That's the Kaiser?" Takeru questioned, climbing aboard Pegasmon. "You said this was his territory."
"It is," Nefertimon replied as they took to the air. "We've got to get back to the Village. Everything will be explained there."

***

Well, now the team is completed, but they're still down one. Will Daisuke recover enough to help the others? Will Takeru and Hikari be able to help enough? Will Taichi go completely crazy with worrying about his sister? And how will everyone react when they learn who the Kaiser really is?

Still tons more to happen, and as usual, I don't know how it'll end! Keep reading, that's your only choice! Thanks to everyone for all the reviews! ^_^