In The Dark
Part Fourteen: Battle in the Sands
***
Standard Disclaimer Thingy: For the one millionth time, Digimon, all related characters, plotlines, and merchandise are NOT MINE. This plot, however, is. Again, serious borrowing from the original series, but the plot is, believe it or not, MINE. To recap: Characters – not mine, Plot – is mine. Any questions? Tough. Just read. And enjoy, I hope. ^_^
***
There had been little or no wind in the snow-covered woods surrounding the Primary Village. It was cold, despite the constant rays of the sun, but there was no wind. Most of the humans and digimon in the area were grateful to this because they knew that the wind would only lower the temperature and make their lives all the more unbearable.
Now, suddenly, a few stray gusts of wind blew through the trees. Not strong gusts, at first. Only light little wisps of wind. Sora and Jun noticed it floating near their ankles and pushing its way up through their skirts, sending chills down their spines. Then it grew stronger, blowing locks of hair into their faces and whipping their skirts around in the breeze. Even Koushiro and Jyou felt the breeze chill their skin.
Miyako, however, was oblivious.
***
For a few moments, the hot, arid, desert sun paled in comparison to another bright light. Everyone who witnessed it on both sides of the battle was forced to squint or turn away if they did not shield their eyes. From somewhere within that light, a voice could be heard, shouting.
"V-mon armor evolve! Lighdramon!"
The light quickly faded, and in its place stood a four-legged blue and black armored digimon with what appeared to be lightning bolts protruding from the head. Before anyone could voice a reaction to this, however, a powerful gust of wind chose that moment to create a violent sandstorm.
The humans had no choice but to throw themselves to the ground in hopes of avoiding the sand that blew about. With no shelter or protection from the blinding grainy substance, they covered their faces and tried to avoid breathing in too much of it.
"Where did this storm come from?" Takeru shouted over the deafening noise. He had shut his eyes tightly and was crouched on his knees, the only possible defense. All the others had adopted a similar posture.
"Sandstorms often come up with little warning," Iori shouted in response, recalling something he had read. "But there's usually at least some sort of cloud cover."
"There wasn't any warning for that!" Daisuke protested. "There was barely any wind before!"
***
On the opposite side of the battlefield, all of the Airdramon were thrown violently into the ground. The Tyrannomon that had been freed had therefore disappeared, but the other enslaved digimon had to cope with the blowing sand. Golemon and Monochromon were well prepared for the vicious sands, but the smaller Gotsumon didn't have much defense against the powerful winds and were blown violently about, crashing into each other and into the larger Golemon and Monochromon, who were unaffected by the gusts.
All in all, there was only one creature unaffected by the winds. He was surrounded by a dark aura of defense so powerful that even the worst sandstorm could not harm him. Angered by the uselessness of his troops, the Kaiser first shouted to them, angrily:
"You fools! Are you afraid of sand? They'll be disabled in this storm! Destroy them!"
But even he knew that it was pointless to try to continue a battle in the midst of a sandstorm when no one, not even himself, could see anything beyond the blinding, swirling sand. He cursed under his breath, and then louder so that his words could be heard even over the roar of the wind. Even his voice didn't travel far, however. It was swallowed in the maelstrom, and only the digimon that were nearest to him heard his cry of anger.
The element of surprise was lost. His prized slave, the mighty Greymon, had been forced to de-evolve, weakened by the raging sand. There was only one thing to do.
***
Sora, Jun, Koushiro, Yamato, and Jyou gripped tightly to the nearest trees they could find. The violent wind blew snow into the air, causing a moist fog that filled the forest. Sora held tightly to Piyomon in her arms, and Jun held Hawkmon in her own. Being bird digimon, they were more likely to get blown away, and who knew how far this wind might carry them. Alraumon, being blessed with the same gripping fingers as Palmon, who had helped to save Hikari from the blasts of Tonosama Geckomon, gripped tightly to a tree and needed no help from her partner, who was having enough trouble staying land-bound as it was. Koushiro had to adopt a similar tactic as the girls regarding his own flying partner, but Jyou and Yamato had little risk of their own partners sailing away. Nevertheless, all found shelter behind the nearest trees.
Only one person here was unaffected by the wind, and that was the one who was causing it. Through the fog of flying snow, the center of the storm stood. Miyako had little awareness of the winds around her. All she was aware of was the magic flowing through her: the magic carried by that wind.
"Was this supposed to happen?" Sora managed to shout over the roar of the wind to Koushiro, a short distance from her. The wizard nodded calmly while still holding tightly to his partner.
"Everything's proceeding precisely as planned," he called back. "I didn't expect that the wind would be this powerful." He grinned sheepishly. "You'd think by now I would have learned not to underestimate Miyako's abilities, but I do nonetheless."
"What did he say?" Jun shouted from Sora's other side, not having heard the wizard's response over the roar of the wind.
Sora shook her head slightly. "He says this is normal. I think."
"Does he know how much longer this will take?" Piyomon wondered. Her partner glanced back through the cloud of moisture toward where Miyako was standing.
"I hope not much longer," Hawkmon commented worriedly, peering through Jun's arms.
***
"How long will this last?" Hikari shouted. She'd no idea if anyone would hear her response, as even when she dared to open her eyes, she could see nothing but a whirling sand-colored mass.
"Sometimes sandstorms can go on for days," Iori called.
"This one had best not last much longer!" Takeru noted. "We can't survive for days!"
"If only there was some sort of shelter!" Taichi complained. But there was none.
Then, as suddenly as it had come up, the wind stopped. Sand that had been in the air gently floated down to the ground. The roar of the wind that had filled their ears endlessly now ended, leaving a deadened silence hovering in the air. Slowly, those still within the desert stood and surveyed their surroundings.
"Well, that was short," Daisuke observed, scratching his sand-filled hair and looking about. "Hey – what happened? Where'd they go?"
"Where'd who go?" Takeru wondered, rising to his feet. His question was immediately answered. The desert was once again devoid of all signs of life.
"Is it possible that Ken was responsible for the sandstorm?" Hikari wondered from behind him. "Used it to cover his exit?"
Iori shook his head. "Why would he do that?" he questioned. "He was winning…"
"It wouldn't be the first time he took off when he had the upper hand," Hikari answered, recalling the battle she and Miyako had fought directly after the ambush.
"If he couldn't fight in the battle either, it would make sense for him to leave," Takeru noted. "But where - ?"
"Over here!" came Patamon's voice from the middle of the sand. All their digimon, apparently damaged by the sand, had been forced to de-evolve. Scanning the nearby ground, they could immediately see the others lying about, all in various states of re-awakening. All except Agumon.
***
Wormmon watched nervously as the feet of the boy who'd once been his partner stormed down the polished halls. "Not a good day, master?" he questioned.
"Damned sandstorm," the Kaiser muttered, storming into his most used room by means of violently shoving the doors aside.
The small caterpillar digimon sighed, half out of sympathy, half from relief. "Oh," he answered dumbly, following him through the massive doors. "That's terribly unlucky," he added, trying to sound remotely comforting.
"Luck, nothing," was the snapped reply. "That was no ordinary sandstorm. That storm was conjured by magic."
"Magic?" Wormmon tried not to sound disbelieving or skeptical. "But you said yourself there was no magic amongst the chosen…."
"Not amongst, you fool!" Shouting now. Wormmon cringed slightly. "There's someone with magic on their side!" He paused and sat down in a chair near the window, peering out at the woodland scenery. In a calmer, more pensive voice, he said: "They must have commissioned one of the wizards to work with them. Damnit!"
There was a moment of silence after that. Wormmon waited nervously for some further sort of outburst, unwilling to bring it upon himself, but feeling much more anxious regarding the sudden bout of silence.
"Don't just stand there!" his master shouted suddenly, breaking the silence. Wormmon felt relief and panic at the same time, a curious mixture of emotions he'd quickly become accustomed to in the last few months. "Leave me alone. Find something useful to do with yourself."
The small green digimon said nothing that might possibly further antagonize him, and instead left the room, his feet clicking softly on the polished floor as he made his way down the hallway in the direction of the dungeons.
As soon as his partner had left, he who had once been Ken Ichijouji stood and began to peruse his bookshelf in a rather violent fashion, grabbing volume after volume from the shelf and tossing them over his shoulder. Some form of magic grabbed the books in mid air and held them so they wouldn't be damaged. These books, full of the most powerful spells of dark magic, were priceless, and even in his anger he would not permit them to be harmed in any way.
"If they think a sandstorm will protect them, then they're wrong," he muttered under his breath, tossing books aside with a vigorous speed. "Whatever magic they have, I will top!" He shook his head in mocking disgust. "Sandstorm. Hah! You shall not remain safe as long as you are within my territory. I'll see your sandstorm, and give you something much more powerful."
Yes, he thought. That was it. Suddenly, his bad mood died away just as the winds had. He laughed triumphantly, pleased with himself. Pleased with his plan. As he laughed, he searched through his books with greater speed.
A slight draft of air blew through the heavily sealed window. It ruffled the pages of the books and then dissipated.
***
As suddenly as it had begun, the wind was gone. Sora let go of Piyomon, setting her partner on the ground, and instead hurried quickly for Miyako, who was still standing where she had been standing during the windstorm, now looking a bit tired and confused.
Hawkmon beat her to it. "Miyako?" he asked. "Are you all right?"
Miyako didn't speak. She shut her eyes for a moment, appearing as though she was in thought, and then opening them again to focus directly on her partner. "I think so," she answered then.
The others had crowded around. "What did you see?" Yamato questioned.
Sora noticed the younger girl was weak. She looked exhausted. "Maybe we should go inside first," she suggested, intervening. "You could have some tea?"
"No," Miyako shook her head. "No. We have to go. Now."
***
"So now what?" Takeru wondered, peering out over the desolate, yet calm, sands with his partner in his arms.
"I don't know," Hikari admitted. "That sandstorm just came out of nowhere. Threw our plans off. His too, I'd guess." She was seated in the sand, brushing some it from her hair and skin with her hands.
"Is it at all possible that it was simply a storm and nothing more?" Tailmon wondered, busied with brushing the sand from her fur as well.
"I doubt that," Taichi sighed. "But I'm not so sure then where it did come from."
Iori agreed. "Ken couldn't have conjured it. It doesn't make any sense for him to do such a thing. But yet, he's the only one who could have, right?"
Armadimon peered up at his partner. "Says who?" he argued. "Someone else might have caused it."
"But who?" Iori returned. "And why?" Armadimon didn't have a response to that. Nor did any of the others.
"Well, we can't stay here all day," Daisuke said then, standing up. "If we're going to do something, we'd better do it soon."
***
The breeze was cold, and Miyako pulled the hood of her cloak tightly over her ears. "Any sign of them, Holsmon?" she called to her partner.
"Not even a single footprint," the large bird digimon responded. "Anything on the digivice?"
She peered at the small box in her hand and shook her head. "Nothing," she answered. "Where could they have gone?"
"Look!" Yamato called from behind her. He pointed his arm out across the trees. "The edge of the forest."
"I'll be they went that way," Miyako nodded. "I remember Daisuke saying something about a desert on the other side of the woods."
"A desert?" Gabumon echoed.
***
Wormmon rarely ventured down to the dungeon where all the enslaved digimon were kept. Although he would have liked to comfort those in pain, he was too afraid of the dimly lit corridors, the damp walls, and the glowing red eyes of the controlled digimon peering out at him from the darkened cells. He scuttled through the halls, each one of his feet clicking and tapping along the stones of the floor as he went. The magic that had forged this dungeon meant that the floors and walls had been smoothed down and polished so that a dim reflection of the candles posted along the hallway was visible in the floor.
Darkness was not a fan of organization, but in order to get anything done, classification systems needed to be adopted. Records needed to be kept. Ken had realized this when he'd first begun this particular operation, and as the stores of enslaved digimon had become greater, the system to keep them all in order had become more complex. The hallways of the dungeon were organized in such a way so that the digimon required for a particular job could be brought out instantly without much searching. Wormmon, as an observer and sometime participator in this organization system, knew precisely how this worked, even if he'd never had a use for it. Now, however, he was glad that he'd bothered to make sense of it all, because it cut down greatly on the time required for what he was about to do.
At the end of one of the nearly endless hallways, Wormmon found a door. Like most other doors in this building, it had been polished smooth and indestructible by the forces of magic. The small green digimon hesitated outside the door, contemplating what he was about to do. He'd never done anything disloyal before.
The door opened easily and he slipped into the darkened cell beyond. It was a monstrous sized room, large enough to hold the largest of digimon, yet at the moment holding only one: a small yellow dinosaur-like creature who was dwarfed by the immense size of the cell holding it.
***
"Well, it doesn't look as though we have much choice but to go back home." Takeru was frowning as he spoke, an expression that was slowly making itself more and more at home on his ordinarily cheerful face. He held his digivice in front of him, hoping to get some sort of a signal of something – he knew not what – but it was blank. The desert stretched endlessly before them, white sands extending in every direction. The situation did seem hopeless.
The group had been walking for some time now, deeper into the desert, further away from the forest. No one wished to admit that they might possibly be lost, but there was little certainty of what would now happen. The battle had been interrupted, all their enemies gone, and there was little left to do.
Taichi sank into the sand, holding his head in his hands. "This is all my fault," he sighed, thinking about his missing partner. "I never should have come."
There was silence following these statements. No one, not even Hikari, knew what to say to that.
Suddenly, a shadow passed over them. Several digivices sprang to life instantly, wailing their usual noises indicating there was another Chosen in the vicinity. As one, the group of desert wanderers peered up at the sky, expecting, almost hoping, to see another group of Airdramon. But it was not an enemy this time that was responsible for the shadow overhead.
Holsmon landed in the sand and his three passengers dismounted. "Thank goodness we've found you," Miyako stated with relief, wiping the sweat from her brow. She unfastened her cloak and folded it neatly, returning it to the bag she carried with her.
"Miyako? What's happened?" Hikari questioned.
"Is everyone all right?" Yamato asked, climbing carefully down from the large bird and looking about him for signs of serious injury.
"We're all fine, despite a run-in with a rather vicious sandstorm," Iori reported dutifully. "I suppose you have some sort of news?"
"Sandstorm?" Yamato echoed in disbelief. "Those winds were felt all the way out here?"
Miyako nodded dismissively. "Of course. That was the point of the spell."
"You caused that storm?" Takeru gasped in surprise. The others looked equally astonished. "But – why?"
"There's no time to explain that now," she responded. "That storm might have saved you for the moment, but Ken's not going to let this opportunity go to waste. He's making plans right now for a greater attack."
Iori nodded. "We expected that he wouldn't sit around for long," he agreed.
"No, no," she disagreed, shaking her head. "Not simply another attack. A more powerful attack. Listen to me. Didn't it concern you that it was not Agumon who attacked you, but Greymon?"
"He managed to evolve him somehow," Daisuke nodded, speaking for the first time. "So?"
"Well, he's not willing to stop with Greymon," Yamato filled in, seeing that Miyako was getting impatient with the story. "He's trying to push him to a higher level."
"But digimon cannot be pushed to a higher level," Gabumon continued, "or disaster might result."
The audience was finally suitably stunned. "That might be something of a problem," Patamon noted.
***
The small orange-yellow dinosaur digimon knew nothing of what had happened. He recalled very little from the past few days. He felt suddenly as though he was waking up from a long sleep in which some horrific nightmare had occurred that he could remember nothing about. He forced open his tired eyes and peered around, searching for something he could recognize. He saw only sand.
Agumon slowly made his way to his feet, rubbing his eyes, which felt itchy and almost painful in the arid environment of the desert. The tired digimon searched his memory, both recent and far past, for recollections of a desert. He recalled flashes of dream-like images of sand, but nothing certain. For a moment, he concentrated simply upon recalling something, and then remembered his partner. But he remembered nothing about a desert, or how he had come to be there.
Like most digimon (and people as well), Agumon had a few exceptional qualities. First and foremost of course was his loyalty to his partner, which nearly all digimon have. He also possessed a nearly unquenchable sense of humor and good-natured demeanor, but, like his human partner, was able to be serious about things which were deserving of true seriousness. He recognized at this moment that this situation was most definitely serious.
But the most exceptional quality which this particular digimon could boast of was that of his sense of smell. He could smell food cooking in the basement kitchen from the upper levels of the castle. And he could identify what it was. He could identify people and other digimon by their scents. And, most importantly, he relied on this sense much more than he relied upon his eyes, which were relatively weak in comparison to some other digimon.
Thus, without even really trying, he noted a distinctive and unmistakable scent on the wind flowing gently across the arid desert, shifting the sands under the hot sun. His mood greatly improved, Agumon set off running as quickly as possible in the extreme conditions toward that scent.
***
High noon in the desert, like most places, is the warmest part of the day. This is true even in the winter, although we are less apt to notice it because the warmest part of the day then is much colder than the coolest part of the day in midsummer. In the desert, as anyone residing in a part of the world which experiences summer can testify to, it is best not to engage in the most strenuous of activities at noontime.
There is no shelter from the sun in the desert, nor the heat. There are few landmarks to tell anyone their precise location. There are no trees, no distinguishing characteristics of the land. The sands are ever shifting, rolling like waves upon the ocean. The dunes grow and shrink, the sands blow across the surface, and the heat makes one begin to loose one's mind.
Exhaustion, both mentally and physically, had begun to take its toll upon the group of desert wanderers. With Miyako and Yamato's arrival bringing them little hope, none really felt much like continuing through the heat and sand. It was Takeru, ever searching for hope and cheer in a dim situation, who suggested that perhaps they rest and eat, since none of them had partaken of food since quite early that morning.
There was little enthusiasm for Takeru's idea, but most everyone agreed nonetheless, being that they were tired, hungry, and thirsty. They sat in the sand (there being no where else to sit) and ate the rations of food and a bit of the water that each had brought for themselves. There was little conversation.
Daisuke ate some of the fish-meat and several-day-old bread that he'd packed and tried to sip as little of the water as he could, though food like this made one want to drink water to help force it down. He watched Miyako out of the corner of his eye as she spoke with Iori and Takeru, answering their questions about the magic sandstorm she'd conjured. Daisuke listened with half an ear, not wishing to show his interest. In truth, he felt bad about the argument with Miyako earlier. He hadn't been able to imagine the difficulty of fighting one's friends, not simply for fun as he had so many times earlier, but with total gravity. He stared at the sand as he tried to force the food down his throat and wondered how on earth doing such a thing could be considered worthy of the digimental of friendship.
Hikari was trying to help her brother to feel better, though with little success. He felt as though Agumon's capture were his own fault and was busy feeling sorry for himself. He ate little and seemed impatient with even her attempts to cheer him.
"I don't need any help, Hikari," he sighed, sitting in the sand and munching dully on the bread. "I would guess I'm just not worthy of having a partner. It was stupid of me to bring him here, and stupid of me to come at all."
"That's not true and you know it," his sister countered. "Taichi, you couldn't have known this would happen. You mustn't blame yourself."
"Why not?" he wondered, standing up and tossing the inedible piece of bread into the sand. A light breeze lightly shifted the thin sands and buried it easily. "It is my fault." He kicked the sand with his foot, scattering the tiny particles into the breeze to float purposely away.
There was a suddenly sharp cracking sound that filled the air and all conversation halted. Every head in the area turned sharply in the direction from whence it came.
Yamato rubbed the knuckles of his fist lightly with the other hand as though he had struck a much harder object than someone's cheek.
Taichi rubbed the side of his face in surprise. A red mark matching the shape of Yamato's knuckles was embedded in his face.
"Hey!" Takeru shouted, half in stunned surprise, half admonishing his older sibling, an odd sort of role-reversal. "What are you doing?" He dashed forward, ready if necessary to jump in and pull the two apart.
Daisuke stared in astonishment, wondering if he would soon be called upon to stop some sort of fight. There was complete silence all around as everyone waited to see what would happen.
The brown-haired boy laughed slightly, rubbing the back of his head in something of embarrassment – no hint of real pain. He grinned, shocking the others all the more. "Thanks," he said simply, putting out his hand. "I needed that."
Yamato grinned back, smiling through narrowed eyes as though perhaps help were not his true intention. "Of course you did," he answered with some amount of smugness, putting his own hand out in response. "Why do you think I came all the way out to this crazy place?"
The rest of those present only stared in stunned silence. Hikari sighed. "I should have known," she muttered softly. "Should have known that would be the only way to knock sense into you." She shook her head slightly as though she understood and yet didn't at the same time, and turned away from the scene. After a moment, the rest of the group, satisfied that the real action was over, also began to pack up the remains of their meal and move away.
"You thank him?" Daisuke asked in disbelief, completely without that understanding which Hikari (and the others) seemed to somehow have. "I'd hit him back!" He stared blankly at the two boys.
Taichi shrugged lightly. "Maybe later," he answered, turning to walk away.
"I don't understand…"
Yamato folded his arms and peered down at the younger boy. "That's simply the way our friendship works," he explained as though he had somehow come to some conclusion about it. "Sometimes you have to know when some people need a slap in the face." He shook his hand, loosening the tension in the muscles of his hand and moving off to join the others.
Daisuke pondered this for a moment, staring out into the vast emptiness of the sand for a few moments and wondering about the nature of friendship. 'How could I possibly be worthy of such a digimental when I don't understand those things?' he wondered.
***
The picnic lunch was over. The real work was now about to begin. The remains of the meal were repacked into the sacks and bags that it had been carried in. With somewhat lighter burdens, the group prepared to set out once more. Only one thing needed to be decided.
Patamon landed himself securely upon his partner's head, shaking his head slightly. "I see nothing out there," he answered for what felt like the thousandth time that day. "No enemies, no buildings, nothing but sand."
"So whichever way we go, we're going blind?" Yamato interpreted. "Sounds great."
Miyako shook her head and pointed to the north-east, deeper into the wasteland and further from their point of origin near the Primary Village. "It's that way," she stated simply. "That's the direction I sensed with the spell."
"I don't understand," Taichi spoke up then, voicing the confusion of most of the rest of the group. "You caused that storm to get information?"
Miyako nodded. "The wind carries information," she answered. "Since the places I was trying to get the information from were far away, it required a lot of wind. It's not important how. What is important is that I sensed Ken's retreat." She pointed her arm again in the same direction. "He went that way. I'm certain his base is in that direction."
"Hey!" came a shout just then, and several heads turned the same direction at once toward the faint sound.
"I know that voice…" Tailmon commented thoughtfully, her large ears perked up and turned toward the noise.
"I see something," Patamon observed from his vantage point atop Takeru's head. He squinted in the sunlight. "It looks like a yellow blob."
"A yellow blob?" Takeru echoed. "Against the sand that should be really easy to spot." He shielded his eyes with his hand and tried to look in the direction indicated. "I don't see anything. Oh, wait!"
"Is that what I think it is?" Hikari questioned, standing on tip-toes to try to see at the taller boy's eye level.
"Or who…," Yamato corrected.
"Agumon!" Taichi shouted, and at once took off in a run toward what Patamon had described as a yellow blob.
"Taichi!" the small dinosaur called out in response, slowly coming more into focus against the pale sands.
Miyako frowned, and noticed a similar expression on the faces of Yamato and Iori as well, although the others quickly joined in the celebration of Agumon's return.
"It's probably a trap," Yamato muttered, always cynical, cautious. "Too easy. I don't like it."
"Agumon, what happened?" Taichi was eagerly questioning, no doubt eager to hear the tale of how his digimon partner had managed to escape, which promised to be an exciting tale.
The digimon's response, however, was unexpectedly dull. "I dunno," he answered with a shrug. "I fell asleep in the middle of snow – I remember being very cold, and then the next thing I knew, I was awake in the middle of the desert."
Taichi was disbelieving. "That's all you remember?" he echoed blankly. Agumon nodded.
Before anyone else could express their concern about this situation, however, a shadow passed overhead. Expecting what was to come next, five hands went for five different digivices and digimentals, and all seven digimon were immediately on guard.
"Any second now…" Iori whispered, already in fighting stance, waiting for the attack to come.
The sand whirled around them suddenly, more viciously than even Miyako's sandstorm of earlier. It rose above their heads and around them, the air about them clear and safe, but nothing else.
"Not again!" Daisuke shouted in complaint, imagining what was to come next.
"Everyone on the ground!" Takeru advised, throwing his body to the sound and covering his eyes from the assault of sand. He held Patamon in his arms, shielding him with his body.
The sand came a split second later, crashing down on them like a vicious wave of sand, much more damaging and painful than the ordinary attack of water from an ocean, and just as vicious. The blast of sand quickly accomplished the task of burying them, leaving few with time to prepare. Those who had hesitated in the slightest were unprepared, and all were covered with the grainy material.
Takeru pushed his head up out of the sand, finding that to his relief Patamon was still safe in his arms. The wave of sand had passed, but the wind had not. He could see nothing, and no one else. A short distance from him he was able to make out an arm, but he couldn't tell who it belonged to. He managed to unbury himself from the sand – a difficult task indeed since it had dug itself inside his clothes, his ears, and even his throat. His entire body – even the inside – itched and burned with the tiny granules of sand, and movement was slow going. Just when he thought he'd come close to escaping, with all but his feet freed from the prison of sand, another gust of wind blew, and then the sand slammed down atop him again, and he found it next to impossible to see, hear, or breathe. The last thing he heard before the sand filled his ears was some sort of laughter.
The sand hit too fast for Miyako to prepare. After her first instance using magical shields – and seeing how useful they'd been for Koushiro during the ambush – she'd taken it upon herself to practice and memorize the hand movements involved, but even with this awareness in her mind, she didn't have time to execute the spell. She felt rather than saw the others get buried through the sound, and for a moment was too stunned by the unexpected magical attack to move at all.
"Miyako!" Hawkmon yelled to her over the roar of the sound, and the only reason she was able to hear him was because she'd instinctively taken him into her arms when she'd seen the shadow and knew the attack was imminent. "We've got to get out of here!"
His advice, though well intentioned, was easier said than done, unfortunately. The sand hit with such a surprising force that she found herself quickly unable to move. 'I've got to do something or we'll all die,' she thought suddenly, and felt panicked for the first time in a while. She reacted the best way she knew possible, by summoning her magical strength and increasing the power of her aura, which was the first step in creating any sort of magical shield and which was, she thought, her best form of protection against the assault.
As though the storm and the sand were responding to her strength, the wind slowly died down for a moment, long enough for Miyako to see a few heads peeking up above the sand. Armadimon and Iori had been closest to her, and she saw that, though Iori appeared tired and barely able to move in the high sands, his partner was relatively unaffected, being somewhat adapted to the desert as he was. In the opposite direction she could see Takeru pulling himself up out of the sand and trying to make his way towards someone else, though she couldn't tell who. Before she could get a grasp on the situation or even try to figure out what she should do next, however, she heard some sort of laughing, and then behind her sensed some sort of dark concentration of magic. Then the wind empowered the sand once more and she could see and hear nothing but the whirling sand.
Somehow or another, Miyako managed empower the magical aura stronger around her. Although it wasn't strong enough (being not at full shield power) to block the sand entirely, it did manage to filter some of it away from her and Hawkmon, who was still clutched in her arms.
'This isn't good enough,' she scolded herself. 'I've got to create a full shield, and it needs to be large enough to protect everyone, not just me. But do I have the strength for that?' The wind rushed through her ears even with the protection of her aura. Trying as best she knew how to put thoughts of self-doubt out of her mind, Miyako focused on strengthening her aura and attempting to recall exactly how the magic had to be manipulated in order to create the aura because she knew the hand movements usually used to guide the magic would be nearly impossible to perform here.
There had been some brief respite, but only long enough for Daisuke to gather his thoughts about him and attempt to realize precisely what had happened before the sands began again. He didn't know what had happened to the others, if they had been blown days journey away from him or if they, too, were buried in the painful sands. V-mon had been standing near him when the winds had hit, and now he suspected that his partner had been buried in the sand. Before there was a chance to react, however, the sands were lifted again in the wind and all thoughts, voluntary or not, were erased from the brain as air escaped the lungs and was replaced with sand.
For a few tense moments, there was nothing to be seen or heard but sand. It whirled within the ears and stung even the most tightly closed eyes. The second wave of swirling sand showed no sign of pausing, and then…
Hikari had taken Takeru's advice and crouched low to the ground, but now it would appear that advice was not the best to give, because the sand quickly covered her entirely, making breathing next to impossible. Her mind flew quickly as she tried frantically to think of some means of escape, struggling under the surface.
Suddenly, there was a blast of even stronger wind, and then the air grew remarkably still. Hikari found, surprisingly, that she could breathe easily, and that she could move, and she found that, although her skin felt gritty and covered with sand, she was freed of the oppressive substance. She stood, tentatively, and opened her eyes.
The air was indeed still, although she saw that just a short distance away the wind and sand were still raging about viciously. For a moment, Hikari could only stare in surprise. 'What sort of magic…?' she wondered, and then remembered Miyako, who was standing, concentration upon her face, only a short distance away, working valiantly to sustain the shields.
The others began to rise, safe now from the sands, brushing the grainy substance from their bodies and coughing to expel the sand from their lungs. Takeru was grinning as he wiped the sand from his bare arms. "That's it, Miyako," he commented supportively. "He's not the only one with magic." Patamon was attempting to clean the sands from his ears.
Yamato stood up, rubbing his head, which felt sore from the sand having filled his ears. "Sand. Ech," he stated, summing up his whole feelings on the situation by trying to spit the substance from his mouth and making a disgusted face. Taichi coughed the sand successfully from his lungs and throat and then noted with some relief that Agumon was still safely beside him, though covered over with the sand as much as anyone else.
Armadimon emerged from where he'd tunneled for safety, under the sand that still remained. He looked up at his partner and grinned broadly. "This isn't too bad as long as you don't eat it," he commented, having overheard Yamato's comment.
"I wasn't exactly trying to," Yamato answered, taking a small sip of water from his canteen to wash the taste of sand from his mouth. He made several more disgusted faces.
"Don't just stand there!" Miyako shouted suddenly, overhearing the conversation. "I can't hold this shield all day. Fight back or the sand will never stop blowing!"
Takeru made no verbal response to this, he just nodded, and gripped tighter on his digivice, which he still held safely in his hand. "Digimental up!"
"Working on it!" Patamon responded, having finally expelled the sand from his ears. "Patamon armor evolve! Pegasmon!" A flash of light filled the area, and a moment later the small, large-eared digimon was replaced with a larger, winged creature.
"You have sand in your ears too?" Hikari questioned of her partner, whose ears could easily be said to be nearly as large as Patamon's.
Tailmon shook her head. "Nope," she answered confidently, twitching her ears in response. "I'm ready."
"All right, then," Hikari answered, pleased. "Digimental up!"
"Tailmon armor evolve! Nefertimon!" Another flash of light signaled the transformation of the small feline creature into her larger, more powerful form.
Armadimon peered up at his partner, an eager expression on his face. "Let's go, then! I'm ready!"
Iori nodded solemnly. "Digimental up!" he called, gripping his digivice in one hand. Again the flash of light blinded all present momentarily.
"Armadimon armor evolve! Digmon!" The small, armored digimon quickly became his much more formidable form, drills at the ready.
The blowing sand, still visible outside the shield, crashed hard into the invisible walls. "I can't hold much longer," Miyako muttered through the effort of exertion. Beads of sweat had formed on her forehead and they were quickly becoming rivers, streaming down her face. "And you can't get out while they're still up. So if you're going, then you must be ready before they come down!"
V-mon peered up at his partner in expectation, a questioning expression on his face, though he spoke no words.
"Right. Last one, Miyako," Daisuke called in encouragement. He held the digimental container in one hand, an unspoken question entering his mind. He glanced down and saw that there were, in fact, two small eggs visible within the container, where before there had been only one. "A choice then," he muttered to himself. "Digimental up!"
"Yahoo!" his partner cheered. "V-mon armor evolve!" The white light filled the sheltered area one last time. "Lighdramon!"
"All ready, Miyako!" Hikari called. "Lower the shield!"
"Be careful!" Miyako warned. "The sand and wind are strong and I don't think I'll be able to put up another shield!" With great relief, she slowly lowered the shield, reigning in her aura and permitting her strength to slowly return.
Then the protection was gone completely, and the sands rushed in quickly again.
"Get us out of here!" Hikari called to Nefertimon a split second before the blowing sand was to hit them. She'd climbed on her partner's back and gripped tightly. Immediately, the flying digimon took to the skies, narrowly avoiding the assault of sand.
Takeru and Pegasmon were only a split second behind them, also taking to the air to avoid the sand storm. "This is no good!" Takeru called in frustration. "How are the others going to escape?"
"I don't know," Hikari called back. There was little reason for them to worry then, however, because then sand ceased once more, and their attacker could be seen only a short distance away.
"What's this? Magic?" the Kaiser wondered, his voice clear in the resumed silence of the desert. "How is this possible? Which of you has managed to gain the power of magic?" There was no response from his opponents. "Attack them!"
Miyako felt weak, beyond any weakness she'd felt before. Two powerful spells in one day were just too much for her to handle. Her knees gave out suddenly, and she fell backwards into the sand.
"Careful there," Yamato warned, catching her easily.
The assault of Tyrannomon and Golemon began again. As they were the best sort of fighters for the sand, they were again brought out to fight. The Tyrannomon used their powerful fire attacks on sand and before long the desert was made hotter by the flames of fire.
"Fire Breath!" shouted one of the Tyrannomon – there appeared to be four in all – and aimed his attack directly toward where the remaining land-bound chosen were standing.
"Yaah!" Yamato and Taichi both shouted in surprise, and, grabbed Miyako, who'd by default been left in their charge, and hurried quickly out of range.
"Fire Blast!" shouted another creature from behind that they hadn't noticed before. It looked like a typical Tyrannomon, only darker.
"Blue Thunder!" called another voice loudly, and a blast of electric lightning connected with the stomach of the Dark Tyrannomon.
"Ha! Take that!" Daisuke taunted in defiance, riding upon the back of his partner's newest form.
"Need some help, brother?" Takeru called from somewhere overhead.
"Shooting Star!" Pegasmon aimed directly for the ring about the digimon's arm, but his attack did little damage.
"Wasn't that supposed to do something?" Gabumon wondered.
"He's made them stronger," Miyako mumbled from her half-collapsed state within Yamato's arms. "Like I thought he would. So that they can sustain the power of a higher-level digimon."
"You didn't tell us that!" Daisuke shouted in surprise.
There was laughter from somewhere else above them, then. "At least someone within your group has brains!" the Kaiser called from his usual perch atop an Airdramon. "But there's only one digimon I'm interested in bringing to a higher level."
"No!" Taichi shouted in response, immediately forgetting Miyako and stepping in front of his partner, who was glaring with some amount of anger at the Kaiser. "You're not touching him!"
Laughter was again the response to this statement. "You don't have much of a say in the matter, I'm afraid," the Kaiser answered, and raised one gloved hand, twisting his wrist in such a manner as to produce an odd-shaped dark ring.
"What - ?" Iori gasped. "They're different!"
"Spirals," Miyako muttered softly. "Different design."
Before anyone could respond, the spiral flew quickly across the sands and found its target, ignoring completely the obstacle of Taichi standing in its way.
"I-uh-have a feeling that we're going to need to move. Now!" Yamato realized. He stepped back cautiously and then broke into a run, still trying to carry Miyako on his own.
"Digimental up!" Miyako responded, by some miracle still hanging on to consciousness.
"Are you certain you can handle this?" Hawkmon questioned with concern as he flapped alongside Yamato's running steps.
"I'll handle it!" she answered simply, impatient.
"All right. Hawkmon armor evolve! Holsmon!" The final armor evolution was completed quickly, and a few moments later the large bird digimon was in the air, his partner, Yamato, and Gabumon all riding safely on his back.
"Agumon?" Taichi was asking tentatively. His partner didn't respond for a moment. There was a strange expression on his face. And then his eyes glowed red. A low growl emitted from his throat.
"Baby Flame!" he spat, and the small fireball landed at the feet of his partner.
"Taichi! Get out of there!" Hikari called to her brother from the safety of the air.
"Agumon…" Taichi repeated, less of a question than a pleading statement now. He ignored his sister's pleas. Iori gripped his arm and tried to tug him away, but the help was shrugged off with little notice.
"You'd do best to listen," the Kaiser advised, grinning triumphantly now. He gripped something in his right hand, an object surrounded with a tangible black glow, visible to all.
The black glow surrounded Agumon as well and blinded the surrounding people and digimon for a few moments. When it faded, the small digimon had been replaced with his larger version.
Greymon roared loudly and angrily. "Mega Flame!"
Taichi dived quickly out of the way, astonished because his partner's coloring had changed from his usual yellow-orange to a darker tint now, external evidence of the darkness now controlling him.
"Taichi, you've got to get out of there!" Hikari pleaded, and now Yamato joined in:
"Run, you idiot! You'll be killed!"
"I don't think it's over yet…" Miyako muttered softly, fully aware now but still weak.
The glowing aura had not dissipated and now it began to intensify once more. The size grew larger. Iori again grabbed the older boy's arm and pulled hard, but again his efforts weren't much use.
"This can't be happening…" Taichi mumbled vaguely. "Agumon!"
The black dark glowing light filled the area for a moment. When it dissipated, an even larger digimon stood in the middle of the sand, his very existence and power causing a few small granules of sand to fly into the air and whirl about.
"What the -?" Yamato gasped in surprise.
"What is that?" Takeru echoed in astonishment. The creature that stood before them now was like nothing they'd ever seen. He appeared to be constructed of nothing but pure bones, and stood easily twice as tall as Greymon had. Darkness simply emanated from his body, so thick that all could see it, even those with out an ounce of magic blood.
"Skull Greymon," Gabumon whispered from behind his partner.
"I never imagined it would be this…evil," Miyako stammered, the shock of the creation causing her to forget her weakness for the moment. "I thought he would just become Metal Greymon again…"
"This is what happens when digimon are pushed to another level," Gabumon noted wisely.
Yamato shuddered. "Remind me never to do that, then."
Iori had given up attempts to try to drag Taichi from the scene now that the large digimon had appeared, and, as Digmon was not the fastest-moving digimon around, he quickly departed.
"Taichi!" Hikari called, and finally decided to try to pull her brother away from his partner on her own. Before she could, however, the bony digimon waved an arm in her direction, and Nefertimon was forced to swerve midair to avoid a collision with the massive opinion. "Someone do something!" she pleaded, gripping tightly to her partner's neck during the swerve.
Taichi was completely unable to move. He stared up at what had once been his partner, and saw the visible darkness emanating from the bony creature. Connected as he was to his partner even in this instance, he felt for a few brief and scattered moments the dark emotions and dark feelings run through his own blood. At once he understood what it was that had caused this evolution to go in this way, and at once realized how he himself might have caused it. And knew how he could thus prevent it.
Within all this thinking, however, he had little resembling a plan of action. Ordinarily, he was a person who preferred to act and save thinking and debating for later, but now he found himself completely without motive. He stared simply. He couldn't run away, that would be abandoning his partner, and yet he knew that he also could not stay where he was, for that would be suicidal. Before he could come to a decision, however, the massive digimon lifted a foot.
The large bony appendage lifted into the air. Hikari shut her eyes instinctively, not daring to wish to peek and see the flattened pancake that her brother would be if he happened to be standing under that foot when it came down.
Taichi couldn't move, standing, staring at the bones directly over his head. For only about the third time in his entire life, he felt fear, and fear beyond what he had ever felt before.
Suddenly, there was some odd streak of blue that flashed before his eyes before he could identify what it was and then Taichi felt something grip his arm and a few seconds later, he was moving. There was a violent crash that felt much like an earthquake, and he realized that the giant, bony digimon had put his foot down and he was not dead.
"You all right?" a voice questioned a moment later, and he realized then that he had stopped moving and was once again sitting in the sand. Taichi blinked, and saw the face of Daisuke come into view. He turned back toward where he had come from and saw that Skull Greymon was walking about and realized what must have happened.
"I – think so…" he answered hesitantly.
"Close call there, you know! Might want to improve the timing!" Yamato's voice called from nearby as Miyako and he landed safely in the sand nearby.
"Yeah, well, it worked, didn't it?" Daisuke answered, grinning sheepishly.
"Barely. You almost got yourself killed," Miyako replied. She didn't look in his direction, however, and her voice held a hint of a chill in it.
"Taichi!" Hikari's voice called then, interrupting whatever sort of comeback he might have thought of. Nefertimon landed briefly in the sand, long enough for her partner to dismount, before taking off again to aid somehow in the battle. "Are you all right? Don't ever do that again!"
Meanwhile, the battle was continuing. Takeru and Pegasmon were attempting to find a weak spot in the bony digimon's armor, and, hoping that perhaps the head was it, were flying high in the sky.
"Shooting Star!" the flying quadruped called, firing his attack, but it bounced off the bones, appearing not to have even slightly harmed Skull Greymon.
It did, however, serve to annoy him quite a bit, and so the giant digimon responded by waving his claw in the direction of his attackers. Pegasmon was able to avoid the bony arms by only a hair's breadth.
"Rosetta Stone!" Nefertimon shouted, re-joining the battle. Her attack was no more or less effective than the other, and Skull Greymon flailed his other arm in her direction, again barely missing his attacker.
"Let's try this," Digmon suggested. "Gold Rush!" He fired his drills into the bones of the leg, with home that they would at least manage to mar the creature. But they, too, dissipated harmlessly on the hard substance.
Skull Greymon was not in the least hurt, but he was getting quite annoyed. He opened his massive mouth and fired a large blast of flame in Digmon's direction, roaring loudly with anger as he did so. Again, Digmon barely managed to escape.
"How about this?" Lighdramon offered, also joining the battle. "Blue Thunder!" The electrical sparks flew, and connected solidly with a point somewhere on Skull Greymon's thigh. It, too, did little damage.
Seriously angered now, the massive digimon stomped his feet and waved his arms, paying little attention to what he might connect with. One fist struck the side of a Tyrannomon, the other struck the Dark Tyrannomon nearby. This served to have the effect of further angering the Kaiser.
"Have you forgotten what side you're on?!" he shouted to Skull Greymon, forgetting enough his gloating over his success for the moment. Skull Greymon paid no attention to him, and instead growled loudly and began to spit fireballs again, some of which came dangerously close to the Kaiser himself, and one in particular which seriously injured the Dark Tyrannomon.
"You idiot!" Miyako shouted suddenly from the opposite side of the battlefield. "Don't you see you haven't any control over him! He's attacking you as well!"
"If we can't hit him – what are we supposed to do?" Hikari questioned. "It looks like he's totally out of control."
Iori agreed. "Even Ken doesn't have any control over him anymore. He's attacking everything that comes near him. How much longer can he keep this up?"
"Probably not much longer," Miyako sighed. "He's emitting a lot of power. He'll probably wear himself out soon, and then our problems will be over."
"Supposing we don't get killed before that happens, of course," Yamato noted.
****
Okay, then. This section turned out to be a bit longer than I planned. Hope the extra-long chapter makes up for the usual delays. Again, sorry, sorry, sorry, but school is not exactly something I can do in my spare time. Thanks for sticking with me! ^_^
Once more, a lot of action in this chapter. This is a pretty action-filled story, I think, as opposed to some of the earlier ones in this series… One of my personal favorite things to work on (in case you hadn't noticed) is the development of Miyako's magical abilities. They're so much fun to write! ^_^
Let's see, next section…hmm.. well, obviously there will some amount of closure to this section (eventually) and expect very soon for Miyako and Iori to get their second digimentals. That was supposed to start happening in this section, but the battle got drawn out, so it'll have to wait. I don't plan these things out ahead, in case you were wondering. ^_~
Thanks everyone for reading, reviewing, and sticking with this story through all the delays! No end in sight (sorry!) so stay tuned!
Ja-ne! ::waves::