The Rise and Fall- chapter 12
A/N: WHEEEEE (Is high on sugar)
I was planning on cutting the story short but, I'm extending it a bit. :P With a side-quest! It's temporary though, until I can get a bit of an idea on how to do the rest of the story.
PLEASE REVIEW!!!!
Wick lay unconscious on the icy lake, half-covered by snow. The light below him shone a bit brighter and it seemed to call out to him. Seeing he wasn't responding, it moved upwards, out of the ice and into the sky, where it transformed into Renamon. Still in mid-air, the blizzard surrounded her, as if encasing her and emerged as Blizzardmon, otherwise known as Blizz.
The snow fox hovered over Wick's fallen form and turned him so that she could see him. His face was icy cold and it was tinged blue. She touched his cheek and smiled.
'You can't die now. We still have a long way to go.' She then stood up and raised her arms into the air. Slowly, the blizzard died down and they were left on frozen ground. Blizz kneeled down and raised her arm over his frozen body. A soft blue light shone in her palm as Wick's face returned to its normal color. When he finally opened his eyes, he was looking at a smiling Renamon.
"Renamon." Wick smiled at the fox. She simply nodded and slowly disappeared. Wick understood what he had to do next.
"...The rest has to be released from this spell." He walked towards the waterfall, where a portal opened almost instantly. He entered it and had just enough time to block a sword attack with his sword. He looked up and saw Infermon.
"...This is definitely Kotemon..." he sighed. But not for long. His sword had turned white hot and it looked like it would melt.
'Oh great... I've got to get away from his sword...!' he released one hand and found out that his left arm wasn't strong enough to support Infermon's strength. Quickly, he chanted a spell, the best one to help his condition that he knows of and pointed his index and middle finger to Infermon's face. He managed to make Infermon stagger backwards, and that was it.
"Damn...! This spell's draining my magic!!" he cursed out loud and quickly recovered when Infermon had gone out of his daze and started for him again. This time, he HAD to run! It was all empty space around him so he didn't know where was a safe place to head to.
He couldn't use any of his magic now and to think he had only released Renamon. And there are more than seven other digimons to release! Including the kids and himself, he wasn't sure if he could pull through.
Infermon approached him, a few hundred metres away from him. He brandished his sword one more time, pointing it at the flame knight. Instead of coming closer, Infermon stopped and thrust his blade in the air, where half of the saber disappeared into a dimension portal and Wick froze as pain stabbed him from behind, right through his chest.
"Urgh...!!" he gritted his teeth. Infermon had pulled it quarterway out and stabbed again, repeating the whole process numerous time until the dark wizard grabbed the blade behind his back, held it firmly, and pulled it out, drawing more of his blood out.
By the time he had rendered Infermon armless, he was more than ready to succumb to death himself. He had multiple slash wounds and burns to add to the list and still, Infermon wouldn't cease his attacks. Finally, he got frustrated. His arms wouldn't work for him, since they were burned quite badly and he was having trouble moving them, he stepped up to Infermon, up to his full height and did the unexpected,
"WAKE UP, YOU BLOCKHEAD!!!" He threw his head back and headbutted. Both their heads stayed in one position for some time, blood dripping from their foreheads and Infermon's helmet started breaking. It cracked, as if it were a mirror, so did the rest of Infermon's body. And soon, Kotemon was revealed. He looked up at Necromamon, who was far taller than him and gave an apologetic look for inflicting his wounds. Necromamon merely nodded and Kotemon disappeared with a beam of red light.
Wick sat down on the non-existent floor and panted. His head hurt really bad, he thought it was gonna burst. His arms wouldn't move, his legs felt like jelly and in other words, he was exhausted. Just hopefully, he doesn't meet up with the two Beelzemon siblings next.
Drained of any form of energy his body had, he lay down and looked at the blank ceiling, if one would call it a ceiling. His eyelids felt very heavy and soon, he had closed them, in hopes of resting his body enough to stand up and fight once he re-awakens.
'Wick!'
'...Huh...?'
'Wick, answer me!'
'...W-who's... there...?' he focused his mind, which was temporarily weakened from his previous battle and had taken him some time before he could see clearly who had spoken to him. He felt even more tired than ever but nothing pleased him more than seeing Wyna with him.
"...Wy...na...?" the sorceress nodded.
'Thank goodness you're alright. Have you found Neo Crimson yet?' she asked. Slowly, he shook his head, which gave him a headache somehow.
"...No... Why...?"
'I can't find him. Anyway, the rest are fine. They were with me when I first woke up. Wick, do you realize you have just fed the spell?' he didn't understand her.
"...What??..."
'Listen, you're closer to Neo crimson than I am. I can only give you some of my strength but please, make it out of here. I can't bear the thought of the world dying and we can't do anything to help it.'
Wick did a head gesture which would have been called a nod if it wasn't so brief. A cool flow of energy coursed through him, replenishing his lost powers and healing his wounds. When he finally opened his eyes, he heard Wyna one last time,
'Help us get out...'
He stood up from where he lay and looked around. It had changed a bit. The area used to be pitch black. Now it had a bloody tinge to it. And as he stepped a few paces forward, he found himself clutching his head and screaming.
He panted as he recovered from the unknown assault.
"...W-what... WAS that...?" he didn't know how to describe it. It was more painful than what he had ever experienced, it was a mysterious energy that had coursed out, making a sound that touches the soul, tortures it and leaves with whatever it had caused as its source of strength. Friction between layers of magic and pain, some may call it.
The more pain a person experiences, the stronger it gets. And he had a strange feeling he was close to the person, because the pain was getting even more frequent. As he came closer, he though he heard someone scream. When he looked up, he realized he had just entered a new area.
It looked like an endless space, filled with blood-red crystals which shone in an unknown source of light. He looked everywhere and soon learnt that the place was a huge hall and what surprised him more was the creature embedded halfway into a ruby pillar in front of him.
Blood-red hair covered half of his face, eyes closed. His pale face looked fatigued and his arms, along with the lower half of his body were embedded into the pillar. Wick looked on, eyes wide. A liquid flowed from the corners of the digimon's eyes, which he recognized as blood.
"Neo Crimson..." He froze when something rang in his mind; a pulse. It could have been Neo Crimson but, the pulse had a familiar presence to it. Taking a deep breath, Wick looked at a large crystal to the left of the pillar. He was really shocked when he found out Lars was in it, in his VanGuard form. His usually lively green eyes were closed in seemingly deep meditation, head slightly bent down, bat-like wings spread behind him like a cape. A hook-like sword was what he grasped in his right hand (think Tidus'(Final Fantasy 10) weapon) and the other was holding his cannon.
"...I can't believe this..." The pale crimson glow of the crystals suddenly halted, the area turning black. Wick looked up, where a cloud was collecting above Neo Crimson's head. The Noble was gritting his teeth now. Suddenly, an eye opened up in the middle of the cloud, which now spread a web which flowed like silky spider's web.
A black beam shot out of the eye, hitting the top of Neo's head. He merely twitched at first and Wick, from where he was standing, heard a familiar screech. The black beam suddenly turned red from absorbing the Crimson's powers and that was when Neo started screaming in agony. His arms wouldn't move, neither would his legs as they were frozen in place.
Wick too, felt the familiar magic surge as Neo's energy was passed on to the web, flowing outside of the spell and within it. Clutching his head, it grew louder and louder and at one point, broke to silence.
Wick opened his eyes slowly. He was in a castle of some sort and it looked familiar.
"...Am I dreaming...? Isn't this... the Crimson Fortress...?" Wick looked around and entered a small room. There was a female Noble in it, who was giving her back to a black-clad character. They were talking about something he couldn't really make out but as the female Noble was searching for something on her table, the character in black leaned over a crib. What a surprise Wick had when he saw that the character was Crescent!
"My, what a healthy baby you bore, Miluda!" Crescent cooed as she picked up the said child. It had fiery red hair, best described as bloody and big red eyes stared up at the witch. The Noble, Miluda, laughed and nodded, pushing a lock of loose copper hair behind her ear.
"Why thank you, Crescent. It was very nice of you to come and drop by for our little Neo's birthday. Now, where did I keep the ceremonial elexier...?" She said, only turning her head to look at Crescent over her shoulder before resuming her search. Crescent smiled and ran a hand over the baby's cheek.
'Now, my child... One day, you shall become the core of my greatest spell... The Demon Summoning...' she ran a finger from the top of the child's forehead, down past his left eye and continued down to his cheek, where a magical pattern lay. (Imagine the design on Horo Horo(Shaman King)'s head band and put it up vertically.)
'The core...!? A child of that age!!?' Wick shouted. Unfortunately, they couldn't hear him and before he knew it, the friction started again and when he blinked, he was back with the present Neo Crimson and Lars, and much to his surprise, E-vie.
He looked up at Neo sadly, noting the scar-like mark where Crescent has made him the core of the Demon Summoning. He pondered for a while, thinking of a way to get all three of them out at once and as he was thinking, he thought he saw Lars move at the corner of his eyes.
"...Lars? Is that you?" Wick looked into Lars' crystal prison and saw no movement. He scratched his cheek and was about to shrug the thought off when Lars moved, cracking the crystal this time. Wick jumped back in surprise and looked on, where both Lars and E-vie's 'chambers' started to break.
Wyna rubbed her temples.
"Ow..." she mumbled something else under her breath that the others couldn't hear and as she was about to attempt to break out of the spell, Ronfar collapsed on the ground.
"Ronfar! You okay?" Jake looked at his friend and as the rest started crowding around him, he started thrashing about in a childish manner.
"I CAN'T TAKE THIS!!! How long are we supposed to stay here!?" he yelled, deciding that he wanted to throw a tantrum.
Nina, getting REALLY annoyed, walked over to the boy, pulled him in a sitting position by the collar and slapped him a couple of times.
"Snap out of it, will you? While you're there throwing a tantrum, why don't you think of something like, how to get us out!" she released her grip on him and Ronfar whimpered, rubbing his sore cheeks.
Rico looked up. Flashes of red light flew past.
"I wonder what those are. They've been buzzing over our heads the whole time." He noted, looking at the direction they were headed to. Chaos Lord took one look at them and sighed,
"It's most probably Crescent's work."
"Pff, yeah and for all we know, it's most probably from that Crimson guy, whoever his name was." Bee quipped, lying down with his hands behind his head. He had his eyes closed but kept his third eye open, obviously curious about the exact same thing Rico had mentioned. Black, who had been zoning out for the past few minutes suddenly felt drained. Before he knew it, he was looking up at Nina.
"Huh?" he looked down at his hands, which were now claws and he could've sworn his jaw dropped to the ground.
"Oh my god." BlackAgumon stated, still looking at his claws. Nina looked behind her, where she heard Black and found him missing. Oops, she looked down and saw him as BlackAgumon.
"Black, stop fooling around. Before Wick finds Neo and the Beelze- siblings we can't get out of here." Nina said, picking Black up and looking at him from head to toe.
"Heh, whaddya know? Big ol' Black's finally settling down." Bee smirked, sitting up. Black turned to the joker and frowned.
"It's not that!! If I wanted to, I would've digivolved back to the way I was but for some reason, I can't now!" Black wriggled out of Nina's hold and dropped to the floor. The ground suddenly shook and everyone who was standing lost their balance. Thus, falling on the floor.
"What WAS that!?" Impmon(?) yelled, sitting up. He blinked a couple of times and looked down, where he saw his scarf around his neck.
"HEY! I didn't de-digivolve!!!" Impmon started running around in circles. The others have turned to their In-Training forms by now.
"If the normal digimons turn back to babies then..." Nina turned to Chaos Lord. He was turning to stone!
"Chaos Lord!" Nina cried. He looked up at her, breathing hard.
"I never expected to die in a place like this in the first place." Chaos Lord mumbled, shaking his head. His legs were useless now.
"Rico, when's Wick gonna come back?" Kimber asked, huddled to her twin brother. He wanted to give her a positive answer. Unfortunately, all he could do was shake his head and say,
"I don't know... Let's just hope this isn't the end for us."
"Damn it!! Break, I said!!! BREAK!!!!!" Lars bellowed, kicking at the pillar Neo Crimson was embedded to. He had broken his crystal himself, being in his stronger VanGuard form. E-vie however, had to be aided by Wick. He was halfway done with her by now and the pillar was breaking. The eye was hovering over Neo at the moment, ready to open anytime soon. Lars kept on hitting the base and looked up. It was going to open. Grabbing his newly acquired sword, he held it over his head and made a clean horizontal cut right through the crystal pillar.
Unfortunately, the pillar hasn't toppled over yet. E-vie pulled out her new pair of guns and shot the pillar so that it would fall over.
"Pulse Shot!!" the bullets exploded after making contact with the object and to prevent Neo from killing himself, Lars caught him. (along with the thing he's stuck to.) The eye opened and the familiar black beam shot out, hitting the crystal, which made it bounce back on itself due to the mirror-like surface. The amber iris suddenly turned red and the web turned black as they burned themselves.
"...This doesn't look good..." Lars said as the eye shone white and exploded.
Crescent frowned. The spell she had casted was now dissipating. However, the hole the spell had created had grown bigger, now making the sky look like a cracked mirror, ready to break.
"...The spell is... broken!?" she bit her lip hard. It was bleeding, but she didn't care. How could a digimon be able to break it so easily? And when she just gained control of the titans. Now she was sure as hell they were going to go haywire. The bishop digimon that had bothered her was right behind her, looking at the sky as well.
"Hm... wow. What a view. Nice job Crescent, you blew up your own plans." He said, his voice dripping with sarcasm. She turned to him and slapped the bishop across the face with all her might.
"Shut up Frenbren. My strength may not be as how it was before, but I can still kill you. If you have a problem with me, then I'd be more than glad to feed you to the titans!" she glared at the bishop digimon, who was still recovering from her slap.
[A/N: The titans look like the Viguro in Legend of Legaia. Hey, I didn't have a very good sketch of the titans!]
Frenbren said nothing but countered her glare. They both had a glaring competition for a while before Crescent turned away from him and spoke up,
"Is MoonMachinedramon prepared for teleportation?" Frenbren didn't reply immediately but instead, walked towards the door, opened it and looked at her,
"Yeah." Then, he closed the door.
Meanwhile, everyone just warped back to where they last saw each other and the digimons were glad they're back to normal. E-vie was busy looking at herself.
"...Wow... Kind of makes me wonder if mom and dad were like this before..." she pulled out her rapier, which was sheathed behind her. (Think Rutee from Tales of Destiny.) Lars shrugged and Chaos Lord spoke up,
"No, they weren't VanGuards. The previous VanGuards we had here were both born here. They were exceptionally good in everything they do, but their drawback is that they didn't care much of the digimon here. Quite selfish, if I may add."
"...Chaos Lord, is there any way for us to remove the scar on Neo Crimson's face?" Wick suddenly asked. Chaos Lord raised an eyebrow.
"None that I know of, no. Why is that?" Wick dropped his gaze to the ground and shook his head, a bit disappointed.
"No, it's nothing."
"...Hey, someone's coming!" Rico alerted everyone and the very first person to recognize it was Chaos Lord.
"Zedomon? Is that you?" The creature in front of them smiled innocently and scratched the back of his head, one hand holding a silver sword and he had multiple wounds on him.
"Ha, ha... didn't expect to see you guys here. How's everything on your side?"
"How's on our side? Zedomon, you're wounded!" Zedomon pouted and patted Chaos Lord's thick armor.
"Don't worry about me, I'm not the little brat you used to tutor!" he gave the Mega digimon an angelic smile, just to hide his wounds from looking very painful. But, much to his dismay, they started stinging. He winced slightly and looked up at Chaos Lord, in high hopes his former 'tutor' wouldn't notice. Luckily, he was too busy rubbing his temples. Zedomon smiled at the taller mon and turned to the rest.
"So, what do you guys intend on doing now?" he asked, hands on his hips.
"...Well, I for one want to beat the hell out of Crescent..." Nina quipped, crossing her arms across her chest. Zedomon smiled at her, laughing nervously and scratching his cheek at her frankness. Just as suddenly as he had appeared, he drew his sword out.
"Whoa! Hold it! Aren't you helping us!?" Tosh shouted at the Deva. The Deva still had that innocent smile on his face and whirled around, slashing something behind him in half. The rest gasped.
"...Can't believe it followed me all the way here..." he said, starting to breath heavily. Renamon raised an eyebrow.
"Followed you? Whatever for? Besides, how in the world did that titan get here? They were banished a few good thousand of years ago." Zedomon pointed a finger at Nina.
"The person she mentioned can give you an answer. For now, I'm glad you guys are here because we have to stop Crescent before she brings MoonMachinedramon here. If we don't hurry and she does, we don't stand a chance. Now, hurry!" he looked at them over his shoulder and spread his wings, immediately taking flight.
"Neo, get up!! I still don't get a damn thing that guy just said!" Lars started slapping the unconscious digimon lightly, just enough to make your cheek sting after a few slaps. It worked like a charm. Neo got up with a red cheek and in return, he punched the Beelzemon.
"I'm up already!!"
"That took long enough. Now, where can we find Crescent?" Lars rubbed his cheek, where Neo had punched him.
"THINK, will you!? OF COURSE SHE'S IN THE GRAND HALL!! That stupid phoenix Zhuqiaomon must've died from the sudden distortion over the land!!" Neo practically screamed, stood up and started heading for the Sanctuary.
The rest followed him but before they reached the main entrance, strange creatures with long arms and claws stopped them. One of them swiped at Neo, who reflexively jumped a step back and summoned his weapon,
"RED CROSS!!!" The titan in front of him was split in four parts and they fell onto the ground with loud thuds. Behind them, more were coming and they were even more agile than the one they just fought so they decided to head into the Sanctuary. Before the doors closed, Nina noticed someone was missing.
"Chaos Lord...? Chaos Lord!" She looked outside. He was using his huge shield to hold the titans off and in the meantime, Lars, Bee, Black and Lucifer were closing the huge double doors.
"Just go on without me!! I'll hold them off here!" he shouted over the racket the titans were making. Nina almost cried and before she could go back out, the four Mega digimons had closed the door and Bee had wrapped an arm around her waist and ran off with her, knowing she was going to retaliate sooner or later.
"Bee, LET GO!! He's gonna die if we leave him there!!!" she practically shrieked at the biker. Bee shook his head.
"No can do Nina. At this point, we can't afford to turn back, risk our lives and get killed on the way just to get someone else to live. You heard him, he'll hold them off! And I'm pretty confident with his skills so, just stop fidgeting and let's find that psycho-dad of yours!"
Nina lowered her head and looked again at the main door. Battle cries echoed through the halls and all Nina could do was pray he would be fine.
"Crescent, why are these two dead mons here???" Frenbren nearly choked the first time he saw the two familiar digimons standing in magic circles, eyes closed and head bent down. Crescent sighed. She stood up from her sitting position and brushed her skirt off.
"They somehow got caught in my summoning spell. So, I just brought them over." Frenbren glanced sideways at the two 'dead' digimon and cringed. He gently touched the half- mask on his cheek and looked away. Crescent saw this.
"As long as you can defend your ground, they won't be able to stop MoonMachinedramon. As long as you can control yourself, that is. I don't want you ending up like Stigma. Albinnass, the Queen of the chess pieces said so herself."
"I know that! ...Send in both Rooks, I'll hold them off for sure."
"Why? Don't you have confidence in yourself?"
"Don't you have confidence in your precious titans??"
Crescent frowned.
"Truth be told, no. I didn't actually want those things back here. But, Master Elrond wishes it so." Frenbren huffed.
"What made him all powerful again?" Crescent rolled her eyes.
"Have you forgotten? He took the Crimson Shield, silly! And that shield so happened to be the Nobles' enchanted weapon, where they sealed the portal to the Dark Ocean!" Frenbren kept quiet after Crescent's explanation.
"Just send the Rooks out."
"Yo! Took you guys long enough! " They saw a familiar smiling face.
"Zedomon! What are you doing to yourself!?" Neo asked, running up and stopping next to the Deva. Zedomon looked at the younger mon with his usual innocent look and laughed nervously.
"Nothing really. Just getting a few cuts and bruises along the way here. I was hoping to share the 'party' with you."
"Um, exactly, what party are we talking about here??" Dae queried, folding his arms. Zedomon blinked.
"The titans you've been fighting must have beaten you quite badly, and yet you still say you're fine and that they could be made target practice?? Admit it, you're tired." Dae finished his sentence by walking over to Zedomon and patted him lightly on the back. The other digimon staggered forwards and winced in pain.
"Oh, my..." Heather covered her mouth as she saw two of the deepest cuts anyone has ever seen embedded to Zedomon's back. The two gashes started from his shoulder down to his waist and they had actually stained the top of Zedomon's pants red.
Bee sighed.
"Y'know, if that tutor of yours saw this, he would've killed you by now. Li'l liar..." Lucifer whacked him up the head for being rude and Nina nudged him in the ribs for being insensitive.
Strangely, Zedomon still had a weak smile on his face. He shook his head slowly.
"This world means everything to me... And yet, I can't defend it... So, I have a small favour to ask of you," he looked up at the kids and said,
"Make sure you defend yours well." They didn't understand but before they could ask any further, titans started pouring in from the main corridor. Zedomon recovered from his crouching position up to his battle position and drew his sword.
"...Go left on this crossroad. Just keep going into the corridor until you see a silver double door. Now go!!" In their state of confusion and shock, they managed to make it to the directions Zedomon told them.
Once they were at the double doors, both Bee and Lars, who were the fastest in the group, rammed the doors open and unfortunately, some of the titans slipped away from Zedomon's defence and started attacking the one at the back; Neo Crimson.
The Noble dove to the ground to evade a slash and turned over to his back, sword in hand. In the blink of an eye, the titan in front of him had knocked his weapon out of his grip and now, it lay helplessly on the floor, yards away from it's owner. The monster had it's clawed arm raised, ready to thrust and as Neo closed his eyes, waiting for the blow, nothing came. Instead, someone else screamed.
Opening his eyes slowly, he immediately sat up as he recognized the mon in front of him.
"ZEDOMON!!" The said digimon had both hands on the claw, trying to pull it out of his body. He spat out blood and that only caused the titan to push its claw in a few more inches.
"Neo, you and your friends are my last hope of defending us. Make the best of it...!" Zedomon grunted as the titan in front of him dug its claw deeper in his chest. Neo's eyes widened and he could've sworn he himself was crying.
"No, I'll stay and fight with you!!!" he insisted. He couldn't lose Zedomon. They were like brothers but unfortunately, the Deva shook his head.
"Go... And Neo, you've grown up..." Those were Zedomon's final words. He smiled at the Crimson one last time before picking him up with one arm and flung him past the closing doors of the throne room.
"NOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" The silver doors slammed shut and now, the titan was getting irritated. Zedomon looked at his feet and thought out loud,
"...There was never... a twelfth Deva..." tears fell from his eyes, rolled down his cheeks and finally dropped to the floor.
"The reason... was because... I'm an accursed beast... with strength so great, I could kill anything, single-handedly..." his human-like hands suddenly grew to claws, with grayish scales running up his arms, ending just above the elbows.
His elf-like ears disappeared, replaced by horns which protruded from his temples, a dark gray tail and black scales where his pants would have been. Fangs poked out of his lips, completing his beastly form.
'And with this battle, I shall return to whence I came...' with a mighty roar, he broke the titan's arm off and started slashing away at the titans, though outnumbered.
'Hell.'
Neo dug his claws into the heavy silver doors, which used to be protected by Zedomon.
'This room, is the throne room. I protect it. So, one day, should I die, this door will never open, ever.'
Those were what Zedomon told him when he was younger. His claws were bleeding now and as he noticed it, he pulled his hands out of the door.
"Let's go... The grand hall is after the throne room's many doors." Neo said, wiping his tears with the back of his hands.
"Exactly how many doors?" Rico asked.
"...Three."
"Well, it shouldn't be a problem. Let's move out." Black voiced out. Everyone agreed.
They came across a bronze door, which they opened easily. Inside, everyone except for Neo had the shock of their lives.
"...Rouge..." Rico whispered.
"... And Alara..." Kimber finished, just as surprised as her brother was. The said digimon didn't move from their positions, Rouge, as casual as ever, was leaning at the door, arms crossed and eyes closed. Alara was sitting on the steps, leading to the door. She had her head bent down, and her eyes closed as well.
Neo cautiously took a step closer and gunshot ripped through the air. A few inches away from where Neo's foot was a small hole. And it appeared to be from a gunshot. Looking up, he saw Rouge's arm extended, gun in hand and his eyes still closed.
"Who are you!? How did you get in!?" Neo shouted. Rouge opened his eyes, which were an odd red, the same glow the titans had.
"We've been here the whole time." Rouge said, his face not showing any emotion at all. Alara stood up, her eyes glowing red as well.
"This place shall be your grave..." Alara said, drawing her guns.
How will the team parry with the two legendary fighters? Only in chapter 13.
My longest chapter!!!!
Okies, as usual, read and review...
Chapter 13 preview:-
"Infermon, Digivice-breaker power-up!! ASHURA!!" Infermon's huge armor melted into a mere shield and he had gained a more human-like body. His helmet changed as well, turning to a less heavy-looking one. His sword was now a double-edged flame saber. (Think Zidane's synthesized weapons. (FF9)
Tosh's digivice glowed bright red and floated into the sky. It radiated a red light once and shattered, just like Ronfar's. By now, it looked like they had a chance of beating the two dead digimons.
"NOW!!" Neo evaded both Rouge and Alara's attacks while the rest, except Cannondramon's powered-up form and Ashura.
"We'll take it from here, Crimson. Go now!!" Ashura shouted, knocking Rouge off balance and throwing him into a wall. Neo did as he was told and went into the next room, door closed tight.
"So... looks like a death match, doesn't it?" Ashura asked. His cannon-bearing companion nodded.
"If we die here, all our efforts will be meaningless. LET'S DO IT!!"
Hahahaha!!! I shall start writing chapter 13 after more reviews come in!!!
A/N: WHEEEEE (Is high on sugar)
I was planning on cutting the story short but, I'm extending it a bit. :P With a side-quest! It's temporary though, until I can get a bit of an idea on how to do the rest of the story.
PLEASE REVIEW!!!!
Wick lay unconscious on the icy lake, half-covered by snow. The light below him shone a bit brighter and it seemed to call out to him. Seeing he wasn't responding, it moved upwards, out of the ice and into the sky, where it transformed into Renamon. Still in mid-air, the blizzard surrounded her, as if encasing her and emerged as Blizzardmon, otherwise known as Blizz.
The snow fox hovered over Wick's fallen form and turned him so that she could see him. His face was icy cold and it was tinged blue. She touched his cheek and smiled.
'You can't die now. We still have a long way to go.' She then stood up and raised her arms into the air. Slowly, the blizzard died down and they were left on frozen ground. Blizz kneeled down and raised her arm over his frozen body. A soft blue light shone in her palm as Wick's face returned to its normal color. When he finally opened his eyes, he was looking at a smiling Renamon.
"Renamon." Wick smiled at the fox. She simply nodded and slowly disappeared. Wick understood what he had to do next.
"...The rest has to be released from this spell." He walked towards the waterfall, where a portal opened almost instantly. He entered it and had just enough time to block a sword attack with his sword. He looked up and saw Infermon.
"...This is definitely Kotemon..." he sighed. But not for long. His sword had turned white hot and it looked like it would melt.
'Oh great... I've got to get away from his sword...!' he released one hand and found out that his left arm wasn't strong enough to support Infermon's strength. Quickly, he chanted a spell, the best one to help his condition that he knows of and pointed his index and middle finger to Infermon's face. He managed to make Infermon stagger backwards, and that was it.
"Damn...! This spell's draining my magic!!" he cursed out loud and quickly recovered when Infermon had gone out of his daze and started for him again. This time, he HAD to run! It was all empty space around him so he didn't know where was a safe place to head to.
He couldn't use any of his magic now and to think he had only released Renamon. And there are more than seven other digimons to release! Including the kids and himself, he wasn't sure if he could pull through.
Infermon approached him, a few hundred metres away from him. He brandished his sword one more time, pointing it at the flame knight. Instead of coming closer, Infermon stopped and thrust his blade in the air, where half of the saber disappeared into a dimension portal and Wick froze as pain stabbed him from behind, right through his chest.
"Urgh...!!" he gritted his teeth. Infermon had pulled it quarterway out and stabbed again, repeating the whole process numerous time until the dark wizard grabbed the blade behind his back, held it firmly, and pulled it out, drawing more of his blood out.
By the time he had rendered Infermon armless, he was more than ready to succumb to death himself. He had multiple slash wounds and burns to add to the list and still, Infermon wouldn't cease his attacks. Finally, he got frustrated. His arms wouldn't work for him, since they were burned quite badly and he was having trouble moving them, he stepped up to Infermon, up to his full height and did the unexpected,
"WAKE UP, YOU BLOCKHEAD!!!" He threw his head back and headbutted. Both their heads stayed in one position for some time, blood dripping from their foreheads and Infermon's helmet started breaking. It cracked, as if it were a mirror, so did the rest of Infermon's body. And soon, Kotemon was revealed. He looked up at Necromamon, who was far taller than him and gave an apologetic look for inflicting his wounds. Necromamon merely nodded and Kotemon disappeared with a beam of red light.
Wick sat down on the non-existent floor and panted. His head hurt really bad, he thought it was gonna burst. His arms wouldn't move, his legs felt like jelly and in other words, he was exhausted. Just hopefully, he doesn't meet up with the two Beelzemon siblings next.
Drained of any form of energy his body had, he lay down and looked at the blank ceiling, if one would call it a ceiling. His eyelids felt very heavy and soon, he had closed them, in hopes of resting his body enough to stand up and fight once he re-awakens.
'Wick!'
'...Huh...?'
'Wick, answer me!'
'...W-who's... there...?' he focused his mind, which was temporarily weakened from his previous battle and had taken him some time before he could see clearly who had spoken to him. He felt even more tired than ever but nothing pleased him more than seeing Wyna with him.
"...Wy...na...?" the sorceress nodded.
'Thank goodness you're alright. Have you found Neo Crimson yet?' she asked. Slowly, he shook his head, which gave him a headache somehow.
"...No... Why...?"
'I can't find him. Anyway, the rest are fine. They were with me when I first woke up. Wick, do you realize you have just fed the spell?' he didn't understand her.
"...What??..."
'Listen, you're closer to Neo crimson than I am. I can only give you some of my strength but please, make it out of here. I can't bear the thought of the world dying and we can't do anything to help it.'
Wick did a head gesture which would have been called a nod if it wasn't so brief. A cool flow of energy coursed through him, replenishing his lost powers and healing his wounds. When he finally opened his eyes, he heard Wyna one last time,
'Help us get out...'
He stood up from where he lay and looked around. It had changed a bit. The area used to be pitch black. Now it had a bloody tinge to it. And as he stepped a few paces forward, he found himself clutching his head and screaming.
He panted as he recovered from the unknown assault.
"...W-what... WAS that...?" he didn't know how to describe it. It was more painful than what he had ever experienced, it was a mysterious energy that had coursed out, making a sound that touches the soul, tortures it and leaves with whatever it had caused as its source of strength. Friction between layers of magic and pain, some may call it.
The more pain a person experiences, the stronger it gets. And he had a strange feeling he was close to the person, because the pain was getting even more frequent. As he came closer, he though he heard someone scream. When he looked up, he realized he had just entered a new area.
It looked like an endless space, filled with blood-red crystals which shone in an unknown source of light. He looked everywhere and soon learnt that the place was a huge hall and what surprised him more was the creature embedded halfway into a ruby pillar in front of him.
Blood-red hair covered half of his face, eyes closed. His pale face looked fatigued and his arms, along with the lower half of his body were embedded into the pillar. Wick looked on, eyes wide. A liquid flowed from the corners of the digimon's eyes, which he recognized as blood.
"Neo Crimson..." He froze when something rang in his mind; a pulse. It could have been Neo Crimson but, the pulse had a familiar presence to it. Taking a deep breath, Wick looked at a large crystal to the left of the pillar. He was really shocked when he found out Lars was in it, in his VanGuard form. His usually lively green eyes were closed in seemingly deep meditation, head slightly bent down, bat-like wings spread behind him like a cape. A hook-like sword was what he grasped in his right hand (think Tidus'(Final Fantasy 10) weapon) and the other was holding his cannon.
"...I can't believe this..." The pale crimson glow of the crystals suddenly halted, the area turning black. Wick looked up, where a cloud was collecting above Neo Crimson's head. The Noble was gritting his teeth now. Suddenly, an eye opened up in the middle of the cloud, which now spread a web which flowed like silky spider's web.
A black beam shot out of the eye, hitting the top of Neo's head. He merely twitched at first and Wick, from where he was standing, heard a familiar screech. The black beam suddenly turned red from absorbing the Crimson's powers and that was when Neo started screaming in agony. His arms wouldn't move, neither would his legs as they were frozen in place.
Wick too, felt the familiar magic surge as Neo's energy was passed on to the web, flowing outside of the spell and within it. Clutching his head, it grew louder and louder and at one point, broke to silence.
Wick opened his eyes slowly. He was in a castle of some sort and it looked familiar.
"...Am I dreaming...? Isn't this... the Crimson Fortress...?" Wick looked around and entered a small room. There was a female Noble in it, who was giving her back to a black-clad character. They were talking about something he couldn't really make out but as the female Noble was searching for something on her table, the character in black leaned over a crib. What a surprise Wick had when he saw that the character was Crescent!
"My, what a healthy baby you bore, Miluda!" Crescent cooed as she picked up the said child. It had fiery red hair, best described as bloody and big red eyes stared up at the witch. The Noble, Miluda, laughed and nodded, pushing a lock of loose copper hair behind her ear.
"Why thank you, Crescent. It was very nice of you to come and drop by for our little Neo's birthday. Now, where did I keep the ceremonial elexier...?" She said, only turning her head to look at Crescent over her shoulder before resuming her search. Crescent smiled and ran a hand over the baby's cheek.
'Now, my child... One day, you shall become the core of my greatest spell... The Demon Summoning...' she ran a finger from the top of the child's forehead, down past his left eye and continued down to his cheek, where a magical pattern lay. (Imagine the design on Horo Horo(Shaman King)'s head band and put it up vertically.)
'The core...!? A child of that age!!?' Wick shouted. Unfortunately, they couldn't hear him and before he knew it, the friction started again and when he blinked, he was back with the present Neo Crimson and Lars, and much to his surprise, E-vie.
He looked up at Neo sadly, noting the scar-like mark where Crescent has made him the core of the Demon Summoning. He pondered for a while, thinking of a way to get all three of them out at once and as he was thinking, he thought he saw Lars move at the corner of his eyes.
"...Lars? Is that you?" Wick looked into Lars' crystal prison and saw no movement. He scratched his cheek and was about to shrug the thought off when Lars moved, cracking the crystal this time. Wick jumped back in surprise and looked on, where both Lars and E-vie's 'chambers' started to break.
Wyna rubbed her temples.
"Ow..." she mumbled something else under her breath that the others couldn't hear and as she was about to attempt to break out of the spell, Ronfar collapsed on the ground.
"Ronfar! You okay?" Jake looked at his friend and as the rest started crowding around him, he started thrashing about in a childish manner.
"I CAN'T TAKE THIS!!! How long are we supposed to stay here!?" he yelled, deciding that he wanted to throw a tantrum.
Nina, getting REALLY annoyed, walked over to the boy, pulled him in a sitting position by the collar and slapped him a couple of times.
"Snap out of it, will you? While you're there throwing a tantrum, why don't you think of something like, how to get us out!" she released her grip on him and Ronfar whimpered, rubbing his sore cheeks.
Rico looked up. Flashes of red light flew past.
"I wonder what those are. They've been buzzing over our heads the whole time." He noted, looking at the direction they were headed to. Chaos Lord took one look at them and sighed,
"It's most probably Crescent's work."
"Pff, yeah and for all we know, it's most probably from that Crimson guy, whoever his name was." Bee quipped, lying down with his hands behind his head. He had his eyes closed but kept his third eye open, obviously curious about the exact same thing Rico had mentioned. Black, who had been zoning out for the past few minutes suddenly felt drained. Before he knew it, he was looking up at Nina.
"Huh?" he looked down at his hands, which were now claws and he could've sworn his jaw dropped to the ground.
"Oh my god." BlackAgumon stated, still looking at his claws. Nina looked behind her, where she heard Black and found him missing. Oops, she looked down and saw him as BlackAgumon.
"Black, stop fooling around. Before Wick finds Neo and the Beelze- siblings we can't get out of here." Nina said, picking Black up and looking at him from head to toe.
"Heh, whaddya know? Big ol' Black's finally settling down." Bee smirked, sitting up. Black turned to the joker and frowned.
"It's not that!! If I wanted to, I would've digivolved back to the way I was but for some reason, I can't now!" Black wriggled out of Nina's hold and dropped to the floor. The ground suddenly shook and everyone who was standing lost their balance. Thus, falling on the floor.
"What WAS that!?" Impmon(?) yelled, sitting up. He blinked a couple of times and looked down, where he saw his scarf around his neck.
"HEY! I didn't de-digivolve!!!" Impmon started running around in circles. The others have turned to their In-Training forms by now.
"If the normal digimons turn back to babies then..." Nina turned to Chaos Lord. He was turning to stone!
"Chaos Lord!" Nina cried. He looked up at her, breathing hard.
"I never expected to die in a place like this in the first place." Chaos Lord mumbled, shaking his head. His legs were useless now.
"Rico, when's Wick gonna come back?" Kimber asked, huddled to her twin brother. He wanted to give her a positive answer. Unfortunately, all he could do was shake his head and say,
"I don't know... Let's just hope this isn't the end for us."
"Damn it!! Break, I said!!! BREAK!!!!!" Lars bellowed, kicking at the pillar Neo Crimson was embedded to. He had broken his crystal himself, being in his stronger VanGuard form. E-vie however, had to be aided by Wick. He was halfway done with her by now and the pillar was breaking. The eye was hovering over Neo at the moment, ready to open anytime soon. Lars kept on hitting the base and looked up. It was going to open. Grabbing his newly acquired sword, he held it over his head and made a clean horizontal cut right through the crystal pillar.
Unfortunately, the pillar hasn't toppled over yet. E-vie pulled out her new pair of guns and shot the pillar so that it would fall over.
"Pulse Shot!!" the bullets exploded after making contact with the object and to prevent Neo from killing himself, Lars caught him. (along with the thing he's stuck to.) The eye opened and the familiar black beam shot out, hitting the crystal, which made it bounce back on itself due to the mirror-like surface. The amber iris suddenly turned red and the web turned black as they burned themselves.
"...This doesn't look good..." Lars said as the eye shone white and exploded.
Crescent frowned. The spell she had casted was now dissipating. However, the hole the spell had created had grown bigger, now making the sky look like a cracked mirror, ready to break.
"...The spell is... broken!?" she bit her lip hard. It was bleeding, but she didn't care. How could a digimon be able to break it so easily? And when she just gained control of the titans. Now she was sure as hell they were going to go haywire. The bishop digimon that had bothered her was right behind her, looking at the sky as well.
"Hm... wow. What a view. Nice job Crescent, you blew up your own plans." He said, his voice dripping with sarcasm. She turned to him and slapped the bishop across the face with all her might.
"Shut up Frenbren. My strength may not be as how it was before, but I can still kill you. If you have a problem with me, then I'd be more than glad to feed you to the titans!" she glared at the bishop digimon, who was still recovering from her slap.
[A/N: The titans look like the Viguro in Legend of Legaia. Hey, I didn't have a very good sketch of the titans!]
Frenbren said nothing but countered her glare. They both had a glaring competition for a while before Crescent turned away from him and spoke up,
"Is MoonMachinedramon prepared for teleportation?" Frenbren didn't reply immediately but instead, walked towards the door, opened it and looked at her,
"Yeah." Then, he closed the door.
Meanwhile, everyone just warped back to where they last saw each other and the digimons were glad they're back to normal. E-vie was busy looking at herself.
"...Wow... Kind of makes me wonder if mom and dad were like this before..." she pulled out her rapier, which was sheathed behind her. (Think Rutee from Tales of Destiny.) Lars shrugged and Chaos Lord spoke up,
"No, they weren't VanGuards. The previous VanGuards we had here were both born here. They were exceptionally good in everything they do, but their drawback is that they didn't care much of the digimon here. Quite selfish, if I may add."
"...Chaos Lord, is there any way for us to remove the scar on Neo Crimson's face?" Wick suddenly asked. Chaos Lord raised an eyebrow.
"None that I know of, no. Why is that?" Wick dropped his gaze to the ground and shook his head, a bit disappointed.
"No, it's nothing."
"...Hey, someone's coming!" Rico alerted everyone and the very first person to recognize it was Chaos Lord.
"Zedomon? Is that you?" The creature in front of them smiled innocently and scratched the back of his head, one hand holding a silver sword and he had multiple wounds on him.
"Ha, ha... didn't expect to see you guys here. How's everything on your side?"
"How's on our side? Zedomon, you're wounded!" Zedomon pouted and patted Chaos Lord's thick armor.
"Don't worry about me, I'm not the little brat you used to tutor!" he gave the Mega digimon an angelic smile, just to hide his wounds from looking very painful. But, much to his dismay, they started stinging. He winced slightly and looked up at Chaos Lord, in high hopes his former 'tutor' wouldn't notice. Luckily, he was too busy rubbing his temples. Zedomon smiled at the taller mon and turned to the rest.
"So, what do you guys intend on doing now?" he asked, hands on his hips.
"...Well, I for one want to beat the hell out of Crescent..." Nina quipped, crossing her arms across her chest. Zedomon smiled at her, laughing nervously and scratching his cheek at her frankness. Just as suddenly as he had appeared, he drew his sword out.
"Whoa! Hold it! Aren't you helping us!?" Tosh shouted at the Deva. The Deva still had that innocent smile on his face and whirled around, slashing something behind him in half. The rest gasped.
"...Can't believe it followed me all the way here..." he said, starting to breath heavily. Renamon raised an eyebrow.
"Followed you? Whatever for? Besides, how in the world did that titan get here? They were banished a few good thousand of years ago." Zedomon pointed a finger at Nina.
"The person she mentioned can give you an answer. For now, I'm glad you guys are here because we have to stop Crescent before she brings MoonMachinedramon here. If we don't hurry and she does, we don't stand a chance. Now, hurry!" he looked at them over his shoulder and spread his wings, immediately taking flight.
"Neo, get up!! I still don't get a damn thing that guy just said!" Lars started slapping the unconscious digimon lightly, just enough to make your cheek sting after a few slaps. It worked like a charm. Neo got up with a red cheek and in return, he punched the Beelzemon.
"I'm up already!!"
"That took long enough. Now, where can we find Crescent?" Lars rubbed his cheek, where Neo had punched him.
"THINK, will you!? OF COURSE SHE'S IN THE GRAND HALL!! That stupid phoenix Zhuqiaomon must've died from the sudden distortion over the land!!" Neo practically screamed, stood up and started heading for the Sanctuary.
The rest followed him but before they reached the main entrance, strange creatures with long arms and claws stopped them. One of them swiped at Neo, who reflexively jumped a step back and summoned his weapon,
"RED CROSS!!!" The titan in front of him was split in four parts and they fell onto the ground with loud thuds. Behind them, more were coming and they were even more agile than the one they just fought so they decided to head into the Sanctuary. Before the doors closed, Nina noticed someone was missing.
"Chaos Lord...? Chaos Lord!" She looked outside. He was using his huge shield to hold the titans off and in the meantime, Lars, Bee, Black and Lucifer were closing the huge double doors.
"Just go on without me!! I'll hold them off here!" he shouted over the racket the titans were making. Nina almost cried and before she could go back out, the four Mega digimons had closed the door and Bee had wrapped an arm around her waist and ran off with her, knowing she was going to retaliate sooner or later.
"Bee, LET GO!! He's gonna die if we leave him there!!!" she practically shrieked at the biker. Bee shook his head.
"No can do Nina. At this point, we can't afford to turn back, risk our lives and get killed on the way just to get someone else to live. You heard him, he'll hold them off! And I'm pretty confident with his skills so, just stop fidgeting and let's find that psycho-dad of yours!"
Nina lowered her head and looked again at the main door. Battle cries echoed through the halls and all Nina could do was pray he would be fine.
"Crescent, why are these two dead mons here???" Frenbren nearly choked the first time he saw the two familiar digimons standing in magic circles, eyes closed and head bent down. Crescent sighed. She stood up from her sitting position and brushed her skirt off.
"They somehow got caught in my summoning spell. So, I just brought them over." Frenbren glanced sideways at the two 'dead' digimon and cringed. He gently touched the half- mask on his cheek and looked away. Crescent saw this.
"As long as you can defend your ground, they won't be able to stop MoonMachinedramon. As long as you can control yourself, that is. I don't want you ending up like Stigma. Albinnass, the Queen of the chess pieces said so herself."
"I know that! ...Send in both Rooks, I'll hold them off for sure."
"Why? Don't you have confidence in yourself?"
"Don't you have confidence in your precious titans??"
Crescent frowned.
"Truth be told, no. I didn't actually want those things back here. But, Master Elrond wishes it so." Frenbren huffed.
"What made him all powerful again?" Crescent rolled her eyes.
"Have you forgotten? He took the Crimson Shield, silly! And that shield so happened to be the Nobles' enchanted weapon, where they sealed the portal to the Dark Ocean!" Frenbren kept quiet after Crescent's explanation.
"Just send the Rooks out."
"Yo! Took you guys long enough! " They saw a familiar smiling face.
"Zedomon! What are you doing to yourself!?" Neo asked, running up and stopping next to the Deva. Zedomon looked at the younger mon with his usual innocent look and laughed nervously.
"Nothing really. Just getting a few cuts and bruises along the way here. I was hoping to share the 'party' with you."
"Um, exactly, what party are we talking about here??" Dae queried, folding his arms. Zedomon blinked.
"The titans you've been fighting must have beaten you quite badly, and yet you still say you're fine and that they could be made target practice?? Admit it, you're tired." Dae finished his sentence by walking over to Zedomon and patted him lightly on the back. The other digimon staggered forwards and winced in pain.
"Oh, my..." Heather covered her mouth as she saw two of the deepest cuts anyone has ever seen embedded to Zedomon's back. The two gashes started from his shoulder down to his waist and they had actually stained the top of Zedomon's pants red.
Bee sighed.
"Y'know, if that tutor of yours saw this, he would've killed you by now. Li'l liar..." Lucifer whacked him up the head for being rude and Nina nudged him in the ribs for being insensitive.
Strangely, Zedomon still had a weak smile on his face. He shook his head slowly.
"This world means everything to me... And yet, I can't defend it... So, I have a small favour to ask of you," he looked up at the kids and said,
"Make sure you defend yours well." They didn't understand but before they could ask any further, titans started pouring in from the main corridor. Zedomon recovered from his crouching position up to his battle position and drew his sword.
"...Go left on this crossroad. Just keep going into the corridor until you see a silver double door. Now go!!" In their state of confusion and shock, they managed to make it to the directions Zedomon told them.
Once they were at the double doors, both Bee and Lars, who were the fastest in the group, rammed the doors open and unfortunately, some of the titans slipped away from Zedomon's defence and started attacking the one at the back; Neo Crimson.
The Noble dove to the ground to evade a slash and turned over to his back, sword in hand. In the blink of an eye, the titan in front of him had knocked his weapon out of his grip and now, it lay helplessly on the floor, yards away from it's owner. The monster had it's clawed arm raised, ready to thrust and as Neo closed his eyes, waiting for the blow, nothing came. Instead, someone else screamed.
Opening his eyes slowly, he immediately sat up as he recognized the mon in front of him.
"ZEDOMON!!" The said digimon had both hands on the claw, trying to pull it out of his body. He spat out blood and that only caused the titan to push its claw in a few more inches.
"Neo, you and your friends are my last hope of defending us. Make the best of it...!" Zedomon grunted as the titan in front of him dug its claw deeper in his chest. Neo's eyes widened and he could've sworn he himself was crying.
"No, I'll stay and fight with you!!!" he insisted. He couldn't lose Zedomon. They were like brothers but unfortunately, the Deva shook his head.
"Go... And Neo, you've grown up..." Those were Zedomon's final words. He smiled at the Crimson one last time before picking him up with one arm and flung him past the closing doors of the throne room.
"NOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" The silver doors slammed shut and now, the titan was getting irritated. Zedomon looked at his feet and thought out loud,
"...There was never... a twelfth Deva..." tears fell from his eyes, rolled down his cheeks and finally dropped to the floor.
"The reason... was because... I'm an accursed beast... with strength so great, I could kill anything, single-handedly..." his human-like hands suddenly grew to claws, with grayish scales running up his arms, ending just above the elbows.
His elf-like ears disappeared, replaced by horns which protruded from his temples, a dark gray tail and black scales where his pants would have been. Fangs poked out of his lips, completing his beastly form.
'And with this battle, I shall return to whence I came...' with a mighty roar, he broke the titan's arm off and started slashing away at the titans, though outnumbered.
'Hell.'
Neo dug his claws into the heavy silver doors, which used to be protected by Zedomon.
'This room, is the throne room. I protect it. So, one day, should I die, this door will never open, ever.'
Those were what Zedomon told him when he was younger. His claws were bleeding now and as he noticed it, he pulled his hands out of the door.
"Let's go... The grand hall is after the throne room's many doors." Neo said, wiping his tears with the back of his hands.
"Exactly how many doors?" Rico asked.
"...Three."
"Well, it shouldn't be a problem. Let's move out." Black voiced out. Everyone agreed.
They came across a bronze door, which they opened easily. Inside, everyone except for Neo had the shock of their lives.
"...Rouge..." Rico whispered.
"... And Alara..." Kimber finished, just as surprised as her brother was. The said digimon didn't move from their positions, Rouge, as casual as ever, was leaning at the door, arms crossed and eyes closed. Alara was sitting on the steps, leading to the door. She had her head bent down, and her eyes closed as well.
Neo cautiously took a step closer and gunshot ripped through the air. A few inches away from where Neo's foot was a small hole. And it appeared to be from a gunshot. Looking up, he saw Rouge's arm extended, gun in hand and his eyes still closed.
"Who are you!? How did you get in!?" Neo shouted. Rouge opened his eyes, which were an odd red, the same glow the titans had.
"We've been here the whole time." Rouge said, his face not showing any emotion at all. Alara stood up, her eyes glowing red as well.
"This place shall be your grave..." Alara said, drawing her guns.
How will the team parry with the two legendary fighters? Only in chapter 13.
My longest chapter!!!!
Okies, as usual, read and review...
Chapter 13 preview:-
"Infermon, Digivice-breaker power-up!! ASHURA!!" Infermon's huge armor melted into a mere shield and he had gained a more human-like body. His helmet changed as well, turning to a less heavy-looking one. His sword was now a double-edged flame saber. (Think Zidane's synthesized weapons. (FF9)
Tosh's digivice glowed bright red and floated into the sky. It radiated a red light once and shattered, just like Ronfar's. By now, it looked like they had a chance of beating the two dead digimons.
"NOW!!" Neo evaded both Rouge and Alara's attacks while the rest, except Cannondramon's powered-up form and Ashura.
"We'll take it from here, Crimson. Go now!!" Ashura shouted, knocking Rouge off balance and throwing him into a wall. Neo did as he was told and went into the next room, door closed tight.
"So... looks like a death match, doesn't it?" Ashura asked. His cannon-bearing companion nodded.
"If we die here, all our efforts will be meaningless. LET'S DO IT!!"
Hahahaha!!! I shall start writing chapter 13 after more reviews come in!!!