kale's Once and For All: The Takari Saga

by Eowyn the Fair

Book 7, the conclusion of kale's saga. Takeru learns of a plot against Hikari's soul from the forces of Hell, and alone journeys towards his decisive battle. But Kari follows, playing into the hands of the other side to pit the two against one another...

6. The Depravity of King Jeron

"Eloan... Ene aterdes yi moreves."

"Just let me die, Eloan..."

But neither the red-haired boy nor his fair-haired human partner could hear the whispered plea above the din of combat. Nor, of course, would they have given any thought to heed it if they had. But as Shay watched the battle unfolding before him, knew it to be the wisest course of action... as well the one that he himself would most desire. The hulking behemoth that they were engaged in battle with could never catch the pair of them if they should flee. Indeed, now that they had succeeded in luring it away from the mountain, they could very easily just move around it and into the cave mouth that it had been blocking. That had been their original destination anyway, and the creature was so terrifyingly large that it certainly could not follow.

But no. They weren't leaving. They were staying to fight. To save him. They were heedlessly risking their own lives for his, even when he didn't want to be saved in the first place.

A pale-greenish ichor was now seeping from the creature's flanks where Eloan's sword had penetrated its scale-like flesh, leaving the ground literally awash with both that sticky substance as well as the clear, slick gel that the creature was leaving behind in its wake. It thrashed about in colossal misery at the wounds in its side but still would not give way, desperate as it was to feast on the adventurers.

Meanwhile, over at the head of the creature, T.K. was beginning to get angry. His fever had returned with a vengeance, and despite the chill of the mountain air a sweat of heavy exertion was running in torrents down his face and into his eyes. Another stupid fight. Just how was this helping Kari?

Now T.K. swung the crown of his heavy rod again at colossal worm's side, only this time the Crest of Hope involved itself as well. It had sensed T.K.'s growing irritation, and as the boy's calm fell away from him, so did his unwavering control over the intense power that was held within. The boy Paragon was concerned over the use of its might, that the joy of channeling the divine power might prove too strong for him to resist. The little relic was not so concerned. It would win the boy's freedom through honest love, not trickery.

A golden inferno of holiness passed through T.K.'s arm and down the length of the weapon in his hand, setting it ablaze and cutting through the dank grayness of the mountainside like the sun brought to earth. And then, as the blunt end of the weapon struck the head of the great worm in a veritable explosion of white sparks, the beast suddenly let out a great wail of agony and began lurching backwards and away from the boy.

Eloan looked on in alarm, trembling at the angry reflection of fire in the eyes of the Lord Takeru as he advanced, the burning staff still locked in his hands and the golden flames licking affectionately at him. "Begone!" the young human shouted at the beast, and the roar of an explosive inferno was in his voice as it echoed off the mountain and into the valley at his back. "No more will you service evil!"

Now Eloan was forced to throw himself to the side as the beast moved to attack him, lowering its massive head and scooping up a great circular mouthful of dirt and stones where he had been standing only moments before. With a stupid look of satisfaction in its eyes the creature began to chew upon the soil that had been caught up in its maw, as if expecting the young creature to have been consumed as well. It was only when Eloan caught the colossal worm with a quick blow across the side of its head that it came to the conclusion that it had not eaten the boy after all.

Even Shay, in his petulant misery, was forced to wince at the long, ugly welt that Takeru's fiery staff had raised on the creature's flesh. Bits of scales and flesh were crumbling off now, blackened and dead from the single blow.

T.K. was no longer attempting to evade the beast. Now he simply walked alongside of it, the weapon in his fist a brand afire with which he continually struck at the flanks of the worm, each time shouting "Begone!". And each time he struck the creature it flinched, but in its unthinking stupidity continued in its pursuit of the smaller, red-haired a'ladon boy.

T.K. grimaced, but knew what needed to be done. In its ignorance the leviathan simply could not be made to give in, and while there was no real evil in it, it remained a danger to be dealt with. And so, regretfully, the human Paragon drew his staff back like a spear and thrust it forcefully into the creature's body directly beside its vestigial legs.

The worm gave a mad, howling cry of agony as the fiery brand seared through its protective shell, driven into its interior by the irresistible force of the boy's thrust. Like a warm knife through butter did T.K.'s weapon cut through the iron-hard scales on the chest of the beast, until virtually the entire length of the weapon was within, leaving only a handsbreadth of its handle for the boy to hold on to. Then his arm shivered as he felt the Crest of Hope send yet another flood of holy fury coursing down it, again through the long rod in his hand and into the heart of the beast. And as the golden fire charred the insides of the creature it gave a howl and one last, plaintive wail before allowing its head to fall down upon the cold earth for the final time.

T.K. exhaled a short sigh of fatigue and bowed his head, then removed the length of his weapon from the belly of the beast. And to the amazement of both Eloan and Shay (though not T.K.) the weapon had none of the blood nor innards of the creature covering it when the boy pulled it free. The young human was almost self-conscious as he placed the Crest of Hope (which had seemingly worked its way free from beneath his shirt) back down in its place against his chest.

Eloan was panting heavily, and kept his eyes warily on the carcass of the creature as he made his way to T.K.'s side. He looked up at the other, trying to ignore the single tear that was slowly rolling down the human's flushed cheek. "Taker-- Tekay?" the little creature ventured, fumbling to push his sword into the scabbard at his side. "Are you... well?"

T.K. barely heard, his eyes closed in denial and his soul locked in a silent battle with the Crest of Hope. They were partners in this, and would not ascend until they could agree. But the strangest part of the boy's struggle was that both the Crest and his immortal soul desired the exact same thing from him. It was only T.K.'s stubborn, human sentiment that interceded on the opposite side, demanding that his soul keep the Crest from remaking him into something else, something greater. But he was well aware that he did not have the strength to fight against that one true desire for much longer, and the realization alarmed him terribly.

The mountain air was frigid in T.K.'s lungs, though his skin still burned with fever and the vigor of the battle. The human boy exhaled a frosty breath. "I'm... fine, Eloan. It isn't my fate to die inside the belly of such a beast. There's nothing wrong now that hasn't been wrong from the outset."

Eloan lowered his eyes in respect of the other. "You are as great a warrior as the legends tell, Lord."

T.K. placed a gentle hand on the other's furry head. "I think a truly great warrior would be able to stay out of trouble easier than I do. I'm fine, Eloan. Go see about Shay."

Eloan nodded and turned on his heel, quickly making his way over to Shay's side, and T.K. watched as the silvery-haired prince turned his back on his younger friend in standoffish distress. Then the human boy moved wordlessly out of sight of the pair and looked down at his arm as he flexed it once, then twice, and closed his eyes and nodded in relief at the still human feel of it. The Crest still waited, if impatiently, for his ascension. It would not finish what it had begun in him until the boy himself gave the word.

He felt so terribly alone like this, left clinging to his humanity by only the bare threads of his wavering emotions. And the spirit of the Crest... it wanted him to leave that humanity behind and embrace its holy power on a permanent basis. It would become a part of him, and he a part of it. It had happened to him once before, and as such he could not help but look on the next time with apprehension.

The power... the power that he'd had then had been so unspeakably great. He had worn the armor of the Paragon and, for a few moments, had been one. Not the shadow of one that he was now, but a living, breathing, holy Paragon. Very nearly angelic. In the end he had managed, just barely, to surrender the holy vigor again when the time came. But while doing so, he had physically experienced the tangible loss and grief that both the angels and the celestial Paragons felt at his leaving. They wanted... no, needed him to remain with them, and the very rightness of it all had nearly swayed him into doing so. It was only the vague lack of totality that he felt without Kari at his side that enabled him to set aside that spirit.

Back in his earthly body, T.K. had felt almost... crippled. Lethargic. Dead, in a way, and so very, very weak. In time and with Kari's help the feeling had passed, but he had still lost something that day that he had never gotten back. He had not been whole since, because in those brief moments he had been so very, very much more than whole.

It remained a great possibility that, in order to keep Kari from the clutches of the demon, T.K. might once again have to don the armor of the Paragon... might once again have to embrace the spirit of the Crest of Heroes as his own. And it haunted him to think that, if he should, he would not have the strength to return to his mortality ever again.

*********

Aine stepped to the edge of the precipice on which she had called a halt and gave a long stare down into the abyss to where she was leading her troops. The heat in the cavern was sweltering, and even the stubborn and reclusive girl was finally forced to draw back her black satin hood to catch her breath. And as she looked, she saw the place that the dark spirit residing inside of her body told her that she would see. A small cave far below, whose crown had been shorn off during the great battle between Da'saan and the Paragons.

She gave an unintelligible grunt to the men in front of her to get them moving again. Owing to the excessive slenderness of the trail that led down into the abyss, her group was forced to march in a single-file line. This meant that Jeron could no longer be toted down on the shoulders of his Saurian porters, and was forced to march at the rear of the company with only Kueren at his back.

"M... Majesty?" Kueren murmured at the back of his friend.

The king gave a weak, wheezing cough, then took a small sip from a flask dangling from a cord at his side.

"Majesty? Jeron?" the old sergeant repeated.

"Mmm... yes, Kueren. What is it?" the other replied huskily, as if reluctant to speak at the moment.

Over the shoulder of his king, Kueren could see that the head of the line was approaching the massive cave with the sheared-off crown. He winced. That was their destination. He had put this off for far too long, and now had only seconds left to do what had to be done. "Majesty... Jeron... my friend..." it had been over a decade since the sergeant had spoken to him thus. "Jeron, come with me. Leave this place. I come to you with no proof or evidence of any sort, but you must believe when I say that this will be our undoing. Aine cares nothing for you or your safety, no matter what lies she has told you. This venture is at best a fatal mistake... at worst, it is a trap."

The king, even on the narrow ledge and in his sorry condition, risked a glance back over his shoulder at the other. "So they were right. I didn't believe them, but the girls had told me that you were becoming jealous that I was listening to their counsels more than your own now. Would you now give me a lie even to my face to betray them?"

The other drew back, and even in the heat of the cave felt his blood go cold. In his estimation, he had remained calm quite long enough. But still, he managed to hold his temper as he pleaded with the other. "Jeron, I'm not coming to you now as your counselor. I'm coming to you as your friend... maybe the only real friend that you have left. Believe me, if there was proof of what I say I would have found it and made this all the more easier on both of us. But for now just listen to a friend who is worried about you. Look around you," he said, waving an arm across the chasm and down into the sulfurous abyss. "Does this pit look like the home of salvation for you? Or for any of us?"

From her position near the front of the line, Aine gave a small smile. She knew what was happening at the rear, if she didn't have the pleasure of seeing it herself.

"'Best to hide from the hunting cat in the house of the chained dog,'" Jeron answered proverbially and with an ugly glare in his eyes. "Even if what you say is true. None of the wise dispute the fact that Takeru is returning... perhaps is even here now! Would you have me simply wait until he comes upon me to destroy me? At least the girls have taken the responsibility to try to keep me safe! You've counseled nothing at all!"

Kueren looked almost hurt. "I... I have no counsel to give on this matter, Majesty, but that the sisters are misleading you. Though, yes, I come without proof. But think on this. If all agree that Takeru's return is nigh, do all agree that he would do you harm? Or is it only Aine and Moya that have told you so?"

"I killed T'Kai, Kueren!" the king hissed back, and then blinked at the volume of his own raspy voice. But the only creatures in earshot of the pair were two bored-looking Saurians, who didn't appear to think that any single killing was anything to boast of. Nevertheless, Jeron lowered his voice. "As surely as if I'd taken a knife and slit his throat myself, I killed him. Do you think that Takeru is going to exalt me for that? You, as well as anyone, know how close the two were."

"But Takeru is good, Jeron," Kueren tried desperately, as the two now stepped onto the level base of the cave. Ahead the sergeant could see what could only be described as an infinite orb of darkness that was seemingly held in a finite existence, and the sulfury thickness of the air was almost choking him now. "He wouldn't kill you out of vengeance. What's the worst that could happen?"

The king paused for a moment, and didn't answer.

"Very well. Then what's the worst that could happen down here?" The pair were the only two still walking forward, as the troops had fallen into two lazy lines of attention. "That thing in there terrorized our people for long centuries, and now you're going to try to haggle with it for protection?"

"Aine and Moya have nothing to gain by betraying me, Kueren," Jeron snapped, switching his mindset. "They are in positions of some wealth and greater power now only because of me. I doubt that they could find anyone who would offer them more in another king." And now he looked suspiciously at his old friend. "But you... you, on the other hand... I wonder, what would be your ambition if Takeru should take his vengeance out upon me? Regent for my son until he comes of age, perhaps? Even a full blown military coup? Is that where all of this counsel of inaction comes from, Kueren? Do you want my crown?"

The eyes of the sergeant fell away from his king... his friend. As his gaze trailed down he looked at the ragged, dirty clothes on the man and the battered and dull medals and insignia of his office. His once fine, auburn hair was gnarled and twisted and now more a dull gray than red. The thin crown still sitting awkwardly on top of his head had lost all of its luster. Were Kueren not a full grown man, and a soldier as well, he might have felt like crying.

But then a great and tremendous burden was lifted from his shoulders as he spoke, though the words themselves were soft and barely audible. "No, Majesty. I want neither your crown nor your throne. All I ever wanted was your friendship, but now the witches have robbed me of that as well. And so, in the unlikely event that we should leave this place alive, you will have my resignation. This is a new age that we're entering into, Jeron, and there are younger men who will serve you far better than I."

The king blinked back astonishment, and for the first time in what seemed like ages, a look of acuity finally reappeared in his eyes. And in that one, brief moment of cognizance, he almost made the entire trip back to sanity from the edge of depravity to which he had been driven. In that moment, he very nearly ordered his entire procession to turn around and leave the cave at once. To beg Kueren's forgiveness, and order Aine seized and held until some truth could be wrung from her. Almost. But in that moment, the girl in her black velvet costume approached the pair at Jeron's back.

"Truer words were never spoken, Sergeant. Now if you are through trying to interfere in this matter which is far beyond your comprehension, it is time for his Majesty to fulfill the task which he has been called to complete. If you feel up to it, you may come with us to do so. Otherwise, I will appoint one of the other men to guard his king."

Kueren glanced to the side at the pulsating... almost sentient darkness that existed barely twenty feet away from them. He knew that it was evil, and knew that it would mean his death to enter there. But still, he had sworn an oath to his king, and would not fail that oath while he still drew breath. And so the old solider drew himself up to his full height and placed a single paw on the hilt of the sheathed sword at his side. "Very well. If his Majesty remains insistent, I will cleave to what remains of my pledge and follow him wherever he leads."

"Excellent," Aine nodded, then turned her head. She smiled in satisfaction at what she saw. "And just in time, too, for here come two others who have parts to play as well."

And at these words from the girl both Kueren and Jeron turned to look over their shoulders, their argument forgotten for the moment, as they saw a strange sight. For at their backs a hazy cloud had formed in the center of the cavern for no apparent reason, and a moment later, Aine's sister Moya stepped from the center of that cloud. And in her paw was a short length of chain, at the other end of which, bound and struggling, came the not unfamiliar form of the Lady Hikari.

************

Kari's emotions were a jumble inside of her as she continued to strain against the thick manacles around her wrists. It seemed to the girl that there was no reason why she shouldn't be able to pull the chains with which she was bound away from the paws of the willowy a'ladon magistrate, but every time she tried she found that the creature's strength was like an unyielding bar of iron. It was impossible that such a small, seemingly fragile girl like Moya should have the strength not only to continue to hold the chains, but also to not even seem to notice when she tried to pull them from her grasp.

Kari was understandably nervous after all she had seen and been told, but now she was becoming angry as well. Moya had as of yet given no indication to her whether Patamon and Gatomon were even still alive, nor had she given any great detail as to why she had taken her in the first place... outside of the repeated and ambiguous remarks about a pending 'marriage'. And so the human girl remained almost entirely in ignorance as they passed into the hazy darkness that Kari had to assume was another gateway, after having watched Moya conjure it from the thin air of the stone room that they'd been in.

But still, she was not without hope... rather, not without Hope. Because, somewhere out there, T.K. was already planning to put a stop to this. She was sure of it.

"He will come for me, you know," the girl said to Moya's back.

"Mmm?" the other answered. "Come for you? Oh, Takeru?" She paused and seemed to flinch, the paw with which she held her end of the chain beginning to quiver for just a moment. And for a moment, it sounded to Kari as if the other were quietly coughing... or perhaps wheezing a bit. But then, a moment later, Moya continued. "He may indeed. We would be more the fools not to consider the possibility and prepare for it. But when... if... he does come for you, are you certain that he'll still want you?"

A look of confusion veiled Kari's eyes before Moya continued. "You see, Hikari, we know what Takeru is. Better that you do, certainly. Perhaps even better than he does. And if we should ever learn just what it is that attracted him to you in the first place then we would have won a great victory. Alas, that is unlikely to happen. But it is your purity and goodness that keeps him bound to you, child. Of that we are certain. And, I can assure you, that when next he sees you, he is unlikely to see anything 'good' about you. And you most certainly will no longer be pure." And the creature turned only her head towards the girl and gave a feral, villainous grin.

Kari felt her blood run cold, but she kept her head high. "You don't know a thing about T.K.," she snapped defiantly. "He's too far beyond your understanding." And now, as she passed through the last wisps of the veil of smoke, she realized that the smooth stones beneath her feet had become a rough, gravelly kind of surface instead. She bit her lip. "T.K., where are you?" she whispered to no one in particular.

The girl recognized the place at once when the veil of smoke cleared. Recognized the view, the smell... even the oppressive feel of the cavern without hesitation. "Oh no," she murmured.

Moya was dragging her forward now as the magistrate was approached by another a'ladon... one so similar to her that Kari had very little difficulty identifying them as close kin. Perhaps even sisters.

This feeling was confirmed when the two embraced, Moya still keeping a tight, one-handed grip on the chain that bound Kari despite the girl's continued efforts to pull away. "Aine," Moya said fondly, pressing one furry cheek against the other's.

"Moya. Dearest sister," Aine answered, returning the embrace. Then the second looked over her sister's shoulder to see Kari at her back. She nodded. "And the Lady Hikari. Welcome, child."

Kari said nothing in response, moodily turning her head away from the other's eyes. She stopped her futile struggling and let her arms fall in front of her, the chains and manacles around her wrists clanking noisily. She'd have to find another way out, because trying to pull the length of chain from the other's grasp was clearly an exercise in futility. Better now to listen and learn what she could.

Moya glanced at her sister. "Takeru?"

Aine looked at their captive for a moment, as if trying to decide just what she should be allowed to hear. Then she shrugged. It mattered little. They were in complete control at the moment. The knowledge that the human Paragon was still in pursuit remained insignificant. "Still alive, as near as I can tell," she answered. "I had used your concoction to create some rather nasty sentinels for the outside of the cave, but it seems to me that they've already been eliminated."

Moya looked pained. "All of it?" she returned.

The other again shrugged her indifference. "It was necessary."

The look in Moya's eyes turned to a frown. "How great was his delay? Do we have time still?"

Aine smiled, and lovingly placed a single paw upon her stomach. "You feel His anxiousness too, yes, sister? Don't worry. Jeron is ready... at least, as ready as he will allow, and the body that awaits the Master is now only steps away. Takeru... Takeru is no longer of any concern. Let the mountain fall and the skies burn with his holy wrath, for it is our time that is nigh."

Moya nodded, but it was clear that she was anxious to get the rites underway as soon as possible. For while her sister may have enjoyed the feeling of the dark spirit dwelling within her, she was rapidly losing any sense of self that she had left. Even when she concentrated, she could now barely tell where she left off and the demonic creature began. It was an feeling beyond discomfort for her, and she felt certain that she would vomit the thing up if she were not rid of it soon. "Very well then. Get Jeron and... the other... ready, and explain to him what has to be done. I'll don Hikari in something more appropriate for her nuptials, and then we go. Thirty minutes. No more."

Aine turned to look at the seething darkness that had now captured the morbid attention of nearly all of the soldiers in their group. "Aye," she murmured. "Thirty minutes."

************

Ailora clung tightly to the neck of Pesasusmon as the stallion of Heroes soared high above the treetops of her home. His mane was whipping violently against her face, repeatedly stinging it, but still she strained to see whatever she could from this height. It was amazing to the girl, and despite knowing the desperateness of the situation she wanted to savor every moment of it that she could.

As she rode she considered the creature, and the other at her back. Never did she think that she would have the chance to meet with the legendary familiars... in their time, not even her father and mother had done that. Yet now she had not only met them, now she was flying with them as well.

"Nefertimon?" Pegasusmon sounded, his deep voice echoing past her ears on the wind. "How does it go with you? Can you keep up with this pace?"

Ailora glanced over her shoulder to see the flying, feline creature behind them give a weak smile in response. "If you can set it, I can keep it, Pata," she returned.

It seemed to Ailora that her steed was not quite satisfied with his partner's response, but he seemed to shake it off with a turn of his head as he plowed forth into the wind. Ailora, too, had heard the weakness in the other's words. And she frowned. She was, for the moment at least, in a position of authority here. Well, if not authority, then certainly in one with some clout. She was the only one who knew exactly where it was that they were going, and she wondered if she shouldn't call a halt for a time to allow the cat-like creature to rest.

Nefertimon herself wouldn't do so, probably out of pride, judging by her last words. Pegasusmon? Was he so worried about the Lord Takeru that he would push his female partner to exhaustion? Or was it something else? Back at her mother's home as they were about to leave, she'd sensed a great deal of affection between the pair. Perhaps he was scared to confront her?

The girl tugged on the mane of the golden stallion. "Uhm... hoi, Pegasusmon? Don't you think we should stop? She's not looking too well."

The other seemed surprised at that. "You have heard me ask if she is well enough to keep the pace, child. It is enough that she has said yes. If it were otherwise, she would have said so."

Ailora was struggling to keep the sword belted to her side from repeatedly slamming into the flanks of the golden stallion. She gripped the hilt tightly. "But is she really? What if she's just trying to push herself too hard to try to get to Takeru faster?"

"I think you have much to learn, Ailora, about trust. Nefertimon knows the limits of her own strength, and though she will push them, she will not cause us to fail by denying them. We have been companions for a long time, she and I, and both know that an effort such as this can only be fulfilled when all members of a company are completely open and honest with one another. Yes, she is concerned about T.K.... he and Kari both. And she therefore will not put them in any greater danger by pushing herself beyond her limits and slowing us down further. She is proud, yes, but reliable first. Concern yourself with more important things than her... if she is in need of help, she will ask for it."

Ailora heard it in his voice... she was very knowledgeable about such things in others. He did care for the other creature. Greatly. And his care for her was so great that he trusted she would reveal to him any weakness that she may have had. The girl thought hard. She'd had few enough chances during her life to witness how adults who cared about one another behaved, but had been certain that it always involved some sort of secrecy.

She blinked. It was something to consider. That there were adults so secure in themselves and their friends that there was never any sort of deceit between them.

Ailora pulled on the other's mane again. "There!" she shouted above the sound of the wind in her ears. "That's it. That's Cypress."

Pegasusmon looked down to where the girl pointed, his spirits falling. The mountainous area was enormous. And though the woman Kiara had already explained the precise route to her daughter before the three had left, the girl had already explained that she knew little enough of the local geography to know exactly where the three boys were heading. This search was likely enough to take a very long time.

"Pata... Pegasusmon?"

The golden stallion again turned his head, hearing the weakness in the breathless words as he looked past the a'ladon girl on his back to Nefertimon. "Is it time?" he asked.

The other nodded, already beginning a barely controlled spiral down towards a small clearing in the arboreal mountain area beneath them. Pegasusmon folded his wings against his side and gave a startling (to Ailora, at least) plunge until he was a good twenty feet beneath his partner, then started a similar downwards spiral.

Ailora hopped off the side of the creature as soon as he touched earth, then moved away so that Nefertimon would have plenty of room to land... just in case her great fatigue allowed that she was not in total control of her body at the time. And as she stood, Ailora glanced at the threatening storm clouds gathering on the far horizon. A late winter deluge looked to be brewing, and the girl did not relish the idea of being out in the cold rain this far from home.

Nefertimon was far from graceful as she landed. But then, she did keep enough control over herself to keep from doing any of them any harm as she skidded to a stop, her long claws digging trenches into the dark soil. Pegasusmon stepped to her side and placed his equine head alongside hers in a kind of embrace, then murmured a few words in her ear before stepping away to rejoin Ailora.

"Trouble?" he asked.

"It's still a good ways off," Ailora answered. "But it's coming this way, I think."

"How long?"

"A few hours... perhaps. Or less. We'll have to find shelter before too long. It isn't safe to be out in one of those." She paused, then glanced sideways at the golden stallion. "Pegasusmon? Tell me about Lord Takeru."

The winged creature, still focused on the storm, blinked in surprise. "About T.K.? What would you have me tell you?"

"Why is he... like he is? He seemed... he seemed almost sad when we were back at my mother's house. All of the time. Whether he was happy or angry or worried or anything, it always seemed that there was something sad about him. It's not like any creature that I've ever met. Does it have something to do with Hikari?"

Pegasusmon's eyes focused on the other, a discernable smile in them. "You have a surprising wisdom, Ailora. Even among those who know him best, only Kari sees the sadness. And it may be that only she knows the reason, for he will not speak of it himself. But I have my own guess."

"You see, Ailora, T.K. is full of a hope of goodness for the future. He believes the best of all creatures and in all things. That hope buoyed him best when he was a child. But as he has begun to leave childhood behind and enter adulthood, he has become wise to the world as well. And with that wisdom, he has seen that very rarely does good truly prevail. He has been let down again and again by his world and its people, and it is beginning to wear on him."

"More than any creature I have ever met, T.K. cannot abide evil. When he was younger it was more visible than it is now, and appeared to us as anger instead of sadness. There were times when he was so gripped by righteous anger that his friends had thought some madness had taken him. He became almost obsessed with halting the cause of the most evil of creatures, even when it was beyond his strength to do so."

"And lately... lately he has begun to see the bad in his world much more than the good. Believe me when I say that is not difficult where he comes from. And he wants to do a thousand little things to change it, to give goodness and hope back some of what it has lost, only to find that there is not enough time in the day to do all that he would. And so each day he loses a little more of his hope for mankind. And each night he calls on his God... sometimes asking Him to make a change in things; sometimes asking to have the evil hidden from his eyes."

"And what is worst for him, I think, is that he knows he has the power to make a change. It will cost him everything that he has and everything that he loves, but the power for change awaits his call and will come to him at a moment's notice."

Ailora, having been caught in the words and the other's deep, baritone voice, looked up. "But... but that would seem to be the answer to his prayers... wouldn't it?"

"It would be. But there is so much that he would have to forfeit that he hesitates. He would have to forsake not only all of his family, who he cares for deeply, but his friends as well. He would have to give up everything that he has known about the world since birth. He would have to surrender his home... indeed, his entire world. And in the end, his very mortality as well. It happened to him once, though for a brief time only. He became a singular instrument of righteousness, and in that time struck a great blow against evil and saved thousands upon thousands of lives. But in that instant, he was also forced to give up his humanity."

Pegasusmon had long ago stopped thinking about Ailora as he spoke, and now that he trailed off he looked back to her as if remembering that he had an audience. He smiled. "But do not be troubled. If his God be willing, it will not come to that again."

The wind was beginning to swirl about them now, and tiny flakes of snow were driven alongside it. Ailora looked up. "It's starting. We'd better decide now if we want to try to find the entrance or if we need to search for shelter. This is going to be a bad one."

There was a brief flash of golden light, and the noble figure of Pegasusmon was replaced by the small, fluttering Patamon once again. Glancing over her shoulder, Ailora found that the little feline Gatomon had also returned as well. "Shelter, then?" she concluded.

Patamon shook his head. "I don't think so. They're already too far in front of us as it is, and the storm won't make them stop if they're already inside the mountain. So we can't afford to either. There's going to be little enough chance to make up time once we're inside. But we can't risk flying in that kind of weather with Gatomon so tired, so we're going to have to be content with walking for a while. It won't be fast, but at least it will get us somewhere."

*************

"For the last time, Shay, no. We're not leaving you here, and that's final."

The silver-haired prince looked across the cavern entrance at the Lord Takeru, who stood with his arms folded across his chest and his eyes focused back outside where a light drizzle had just started to fall. And now, the young a'ladon was not only angry with himself for getting injured, he was humiliated that his inability to move on his own was causing their journey to go awry. His brow furrowed. "Weren't you the one who insisted that this depended on all speed, Takeru? How much time have we already wasted here? How much more will I slow you down on the way?" The frown on the human's face deepened, but he did not answer. Shay was right, of course, but he was not about to admit any of it.

"Eloan? Anything?" T.K. asked, looking to the red-haired a'ladon boy.

The other, his head bowed over his book, shook his head in evident frustration. "I'm sorry Lord Take-- Tekay. Dad just didn't leave very detailed descriptions of what any of these songs do, and there's just too many to read through. I know 'Great Peace' will dull the hurt, but I can't find anything to mend the wound." He glanced over his shoulder at his friend, then lowered his voice. "Have you considered that he may be right?"

T.K. looked down at the boy, somewhat taken aback. "We can't just abandon him here, Eloan. With his leg as it is, he can't defend himself."

Eloan hated to argue with the human, but... "Tekay, I don't think that there's anything here left to hurt him. Certainly, nothing could live around here that that thing," he pointed to the husk of the slain worm outside, "wouldn't have already eaten or scared away. And you're right: He's not able to defend himself anymore. If it should come to a fight down there, we won't be able to defend against Da'saan while protecting him at the same time. We only have two logical choices, Tekay. We can either let him stay here on his own, or we can abandon the journey and take him back to the valley."

"He's right, Takeru," Shay called from across the cavern to the pair. "I knew what I was getting into when this started, and I'm enough of a warrior to recognize when I'm more a liability than an asset to you. I'm also warrior enough to take care of myself right here if the need arises."

T.K.'s eyes were closed now, and he barely heard the words of the two boys. Instead, he was listening to a second heartbeat that echoed in his ears as clearly as his own. It was the powerful voice of the Crest of Hope, telling him to move onward. That this was not his decision to make. Shay had joined him of his own volition, he was free to leave of it as well. And it chastised him for arguing against what it acknowledged as Shay's very honorable request to be left behind, at risk, so that their task might not fail. It was the Crest of Heroes, and saw with the detached eyes of a military tactician what needed to be done to achieve the goal.

And then, slowly, T.K. nodded. All of these facts overwhelmed his one lone thrust that he, solely, was responsible for Shay's safety. As a caring human alone, he might have stayed behind and ferried the injured boy back to Kiara's house. As a leader and a Paragon as well, he had other responsibilities. "Agreed, Shay. Stay here. Stay hidden. And God willing, we'll be back for you soon."

The a'ladon prince nodded, a focused look in his eyes. But as Eloan set to dividing between the packs what they would take with them and what would be left behind, Shay motioned T.K. to his side. "But Takeru," he murmured in a low voice. "Please... if you can, don't let my father come to any harm. I know you've every right to, if what those raiders back at the village told us was true, but I won't believe that he's completely gone. My father is bad in many ways, Takeru, but he's never been evil."

T.K. covered Shay's paw with his hand and looked the creature in the eye. "You have my word, Shay. It's a demon that I'm after, not your father. I'm not the one that will be his judge, and if I can return him safely to you when this is all over, then I swear that I will."

Shay studied the young human carefully, a strange look in his eyes. "Takeru...? I... I need to confess something to you. Before this all started and before you came here, I didn't think much of you. I hated the old stories. I fought with Ailora when she revered you and praised you like she did, and I laughed at Eloan for learning about his 'honor' through visions of you. But you... you're so different than what I'd thought. You have power unlike anything that I've ever even imagined, along with the justification to use it to punish those who by all counts should be punished, and then... and then you don't."

T.K. gave a very weak smile in response. "It's not for me to punish, Shay. I only fight because it's what has to be done, and because it's a duty that's been laid on me... a duty that I must obey. Believe me when I say I'd rather not. But I wasn't told to mete out punishment or sit in judgment, and for that I'm exceedingly grateful. Let someone wiser than me carry that burden."

"Wiser?" the other asked as the human Paragon stood. "Does such a one exist?"

T.K. nodded, a wistful look in his eyes that suddenly seemed very far away. "You have my word on it, Shay. Be safe," he murmured, then turned as Eloan approached and thrust one of the packs into his hands. The red-haired boy exchanged a single glance with his silver-haired friend, one that spoke a thousand words of closeness and farewell, then turned his away in preparation to leave and to hide the tears that he felt beginning to well up in his eyes.

Shay raised a paw in parting as well, but it was only a half-hearted one as he alone noticed the look that his last question had brought into Takeru's eyes. It was a look of intense loneliness and grief; of one who has suffered much to fight his way to the doorstep of his heart's desire and then been unwillingly forced to turn his back on it. The look of such agonizing loss on such a noble face physically affected Shay, and the memory of it stayed with him for the rest of his life.

************

Jeron was aghast at what he saw as he inched forward into the murky depths of the cavern, Aine close at his heels. It was as through the darkness swirling around him was alive and was desperate to take form and to grasp him with something more manifest than the empty nothingness. There was a lump in the man's throat that he could not swallow, one that he was certain would take hold and strangle him any moment now. At his back he could hear Aine, and behind her the struggles as the Lady Hikari tried to pull away from Moya's hands.

A surreal feeling took hold of the king, as if he were only a marionette in the hands of a strange and unseen puppeteer as he continued to walk forward into the cool shadows. Far off in the distance, or perhaps it was only a single step away, was the form of a single, shining star glimmering in the black depths. The sight of the object transfixed the man, and he knew that it held great significance.

"Now, Majesty," Aine whispered into his ear, her paws reaching around and caressing his torso in a most inappropriate and seductive manner, "step forward and take what is offered to you. Free your soul from the fear of what Takeru will bring. Submit yourself to the safety of oblivion."

The sight of the star was beautiful, and held the king riveted. It was so, so exquisite there in the darkness, and he longed to touch it and claim it for his own, if just for a moment. All would be right with the world, and he would willingly die a thousand deaths if he could just take hold of that shining star for the most brief second.

"Yes, Majesty," Aine's words wrapped themselves about his soul in a warm, comforting manner. "That is what you've come for. The answer to everything that you've ever wanted. Take it... it's yours."

Jeron could hear the loud murmuring of his men at the mouth of the looming cavern, and could even faintly discern the voice of Hikari as she screamed unintelligible words at him. But nothing mattered at that point besides that beauty of that little star and what it offered to him. Hikari. Moya. Aine. Kueren. Nothing mattered. The king of the a'ladon reached a single, trembling paw forward...

"Jeron! Stop!"

The king turned in alarm as the thunderous shout of power and undeniable authority shook the cavern and split the smothering darkness surrounding him. The sound was like an audible, golden lance, stabbing through his bemusement and straight into his consciousness where nothing else would, and he trembled as he recognized the voice of the speaker.

Moya's breath caught in her throat at the sound, and she turned in horror. Craning her head towards the cliffs towering above them, she could see the lanky form of the Lord Takeru standing at the very precipice of the shattered cliff wall with a young a'ladon male at his side. "Y... You!" she hissed, and the throaty voice that sprang from her lips was most definitely not her own.

"T.K.!" Kari shouted, struggling anew against the chains that bound her wrists. "T.K., I'm here!"

From his perch high upon the cliff, the young human blinked in astonishment. Kari...? Here? No, that couldn't be. Kari was safe at home, in the other world. He'd left her there to be away from this when it happened. How could she be here... now...?

Aine remained in control of herself where her sister no longer could, forcing the demonic presence in her belly back down until it was ready to emerge. Her paw was now on Jeron's shoulder, and her claws dug deeply into his flesh as she hissed into his ear, "Now, now do you see, Majesty? He has come! Takeru has come for his vengeance and has brought with him the heir of T'Kai the martyr as witness to his retribution. Your life is forfeit to his wrath, king, unless you act now. Reach your paw forward and take hold of the star, the broken shard of T'Kai's blade! It is your only hope for salvation from your fate, Jeron!"

The king of the a'ladon stared blankly at the girl, the last spark of his sanity having fled at the sound of Takeru's voice. The other voices echoing through the cavern, whether human, Saurian or a'ladon, no longer mattered to him. Out of all the chaos he latched himself onto Aine's command, and acted accordingly. And then, with seemingly no resistance whatsoever, the razor-sharp shard slid willingly into his grasp.

Time seemed to grind unwillingly to a halt as the commotion and chaos in the cavern ended at once, with each individual therein sensing that something of note had just occurred. Kari felt her blood run cold and something unpleasant tickle her shoulder, and she turned around with a start.

The creature was thin and underdeveloped, and not so outwardly terrifying as she might have expected. It was the size and roughly the shape of a human child, and staggered towards her on two shiny hooves which were partially obscured behind a thick, trailing mist. But it was the skin of the thing which held her attention. It was a perfect and glossy black color, and showed no hint of any individual features. Instead it reflected the surrounding area, and Kari was horrified to see her own, distorted image echoed in the area where its face should be.

But now, at her side, Moya had dropped to her knees and was holding her stomach, coughing and retching and with a terrified look in her eyes. At that moment Kari gave the manacles binding her wrist one final, powerful tug and pulled them free from the grasp of the a'ladon girl. But as much as she wanted to flee back up the spiral path to the safety of T.K.'s arms, she found that she could do little more than stare in horror at what was beginning to happen at her side.

Black fluid was literally gushing from the open mouth of Moya the a'ladon; a thick, oily goo that was bursting forth from her body in copious amounts and pooling together on the stone floor of the cavern. The girl was shuddering with a seemingly incontrollable palsy, and her screams of pain were interrupted and muffled only when a new flood of the black solution emerged from her body to choke them off.

Something similar was happening to Aine, but the stronger of the two girls stayed on her feet and spit the substance from her mouth instead of simply vomiting it up.

T.K.'s eyes narrowed dangerously as he reached down and pulled the Crest of Hope from beneath his shirt, tearing it from around his neck and holding it tightly within his clenched fist. Eloan, at his side, wrapped a trembling paw tight around the hilt of his own little sword. Even though he was far away, he had never in his life imagined anything so outwardly horrific as what was taking place right in front of his eyes.

Now the shadowy figure of the demon Da'saan had stepped forward, and glanced down with interest at the fluid that the a'ladon sisters had vomited up. There was a lingering moment of silence, violated only by the sound of the creature's tortured breathing, before it horrified all present by speaking.

"Yes," it murmured, and in its seeming care to enunciate the word properly, the word almost dribbled off of its lips. "Yes, this was all foretold. How you would come to me in the guise of the a'ladon children who would deliver up to me the human bitch Hikari. How your blood would mingle with mine to restore this body that was broken by the Exemplar, and how that union would exalt us. Together, you and I shall become we, and will take what has been promised us."

It was as though a deal had been struck between the two entities, for now the pool of dark vomit on the floor began to dissolve into an equally dark gas; a thick mist which surrounded and obscured the equally dark Fiend from sight as he approached the motionless Kari. Reaching forward, he brushed a single claw against her cheek in an obscene caress. "We will enjoy you, Hikari. We will enjoy your body and gorge ourselves upon your mortal soul until there is nothing left of you but the barest threads of flesh wafting away on a gentle breeze. Your life will give us strength anew; a strength greater than any of our brethren have known in millennia." And as the creature spoke he continued to inhale deeply the black mist that was now churning around them both.

"Not another step, beast," T.K. called coldly from above, effectively freezing the demon in its tracks. It knew this voice as well, but he had not been predestined to be here at this meeting. In fact, he was to have joined the heavenly host long ago, after foiling their Master's most recent attempt at intrusion into the human realm. The creature felt its newly-won blood turn to ice in its veins...

Now the confrontation was joined, and there was complete silence in the room outside of the principles. Moya and Jeron were completely incapacitated, by nausea and madness, respectively. The army of Saurian and a'ladon soldiers were too terrified to move, caught in between what each recognized as an enormous power. Kari stood transfixed by the power of the beast; Eloan by his nearness to T.K.'s, and Aine was still struggling to regain what strength she'd lost by giving up the demon spirit.

The demon was not such a fool to attempt a single combat at that moment. Not against the last of the Exemplar. True, it was a union of two greater demons of much strength and tenacity, but its body was still horribly damaged and its new blood had not yet had time to endow it with the greater power that it promised. And it recognized all too well the weapon in the child's hand...

But yet... it needed Hikari's life. It could hear the girl's heart pounding out a rhythm in its head, and the sound was maddening. It looked up at the golden-haired human boy so far above. "Else what, child? Will you strike me down with Michael's Sword of Ages? Can you even make the throw at such a distance? You are not, after all, Michael himself."

"I'm of the mind that it can find its way to your heart without any help from me, demon. But I offer you this one chance: Let her go and return to Hell where you belong, or you and I will fight to an end."

A message of sorts, unseen and unnoticed by T.K., passed between the creature and Aine at that moment, and the witch leaned over and began whispering into the furry ear of King Jeron. And then the demon gave a deep, throaty growl as it drew in the last of the dark vapors surrounding it. "Then let us do battle, Exemplar!" the creature roared with a feral cry, and now several things began to happen at once.

In an instant, the demon reached out to seize Kari, engulfing her face with one large claw and drawing her close to his body. From his back, a set of bat-like, leathery wings sprouted and surrounded the girl... almost in a protective manner. At the same time, T.K. took aim with the Sword of Ages and sent it falling towards the beast like a golden ray of light from above.

But now Jeron, at Aine's command, had thrown himself directly into the path of the holy blade and took the full, fiery force of it against his furry chest. The explosive impact hurled the king all the way to the back wall of the cavern, and his body bounced off of the stone wall with the sickening sound of a bone-shattering thud. T.K., momentarily absent of the Crest of Heroes' certainty of right and wrong, was horrified to see Jeron take the devastating blow that he had all but promised Shay that he would not deliver.

And now, a mere instant later, dozens of chattering tiny imps winked into existence at the side of the demon lord. (Many of these were in fact the same creatures which had haunted T.K. with their hatred in this same cavern years earlier.) The creatures instinctively knew their tasks, and without a word of command spoken fell upon the king's little army of Saurians and a'ladon, each entering the body and displacing the soul of its chosen host with very little difficulty. Now both Moya and Aine were also at the side of the demon, each seemingly recovered from her earlier indisposition and ready to see that they were, in fact, on the winning side.

The army of spellbound warriors turned to their master, now awaiting his word. The dark beast nodded once at them, then once at T.K. and Eloan. "Now we will bring an end, child," he hissed in his coarse voice. "And that end will be one of my making, not yours. The Lady Hikari was preordained to be my bride, and she will fulfill that lot without any interference from you, I think."

And with that the wicked creature gathered Kari's limp form into his arms and turned his back on the cavern, pausing briefly by the fallen body of Jeron only to murmur some unintelligible word and spit on the king's now bloodstained fur. Aine and Moya marched diligently alongside the beast as he opened a narrow fissure in the cavern wall with a wave of his clawed hand, then disappeared through it.

****************

"Here?" Patamon asked Gatomon, his eyes narrowing at the crumbling husk of a giant worm that partially blocked the opening into the side of the mountain. "Are you sure?"

"Pata, something killed it. And killed it with a pretty neat use of fire, too. I think we both know that if it got between T.K. and Kari..." She trailed off, then turned to Ailora, who was breathing heavily from having carried her heavy blade up the mountainside. "I don't suppose that there are many weapons in your world that can flay a creature like that very easily, are there?"

"I certainly hope not," Ailora answered, barely suppressing an involuntary shiver. The burns covering the massive bulk of its body looked vicious in their infliction, and she could see where the leviathan had cracked the granite of the mountain with its death throes. Lord Takeru had done something like this?

Gatomon glanced at Patamon, whose long ears had fallen limp at his side. "Worried?"

The small, orangish creature bit his lip in concern. "He's using the Crest to fight. That hasn't happened since Iwaki. He'd always said that he couldn't do that ever again unless he was willing to... to stop being human again."

There was a sudden silence in the air, as the significance of Patamon's words occurred to his feline counterpart. She, too, had seen the beauty of what T.K. had become in his last battle against Roan, and had also been witness as Kari had helped him 'learn to be human again' in the months following. It had been a difficult and ofttimes painful process, but in the end...

Gatomon's face fell into sadness and pity for her young human friends. "He won't be able to make it back a second time, Kari or no. It hurt him too much before. And what about her? How much worse will she be, knowing that it was she that forced him into it?" She looked at the cave entrance again, and sighed. "Come on. It won't get us any closer to him by standing here talking about it."

Patamon fluttered into the cave behind the two girls, his head down. He had seen the ultimate disaster which was about to occur here, no matter the outcome. T.K. was lost to them now. He alone had been with the human boy on the nights following the great battle, and he alone had tried to ease him through the excruciating grief that he suffered through after surrendering his celestial home. Kari had helped during the day, when T.K. had tried his best not to display his suffering, but at night...

*

T.K. fell against the side of his bed, holding two hands tightly against the chest beneath which his very human heart beat, and his eyes were closed against the pain and the tears that would not cease. But the dread of seeing his partner in such pain became far worse for Patamon when he realized that the boy was not wounded. His injuries had vanished with his exaltation, and had not returned with his human body. The pain that he suffered now was of loss, of rejection, of a return to the human burden after having known the freedom of the heavenly host.

The boy's hand was trembling as he held the Crest of Hope in a tight embrace, as if he would draw the little piece of heaven inside his soul to compensate for what he had willingly given up. Everything... everything was so wrong here now! The music that he'd enjoyed listening to before was little better than discordant noise that rung through his head and pounded against his brain like a hammer. The cleanest, the most fresh gust of air that blew through his room on a spring day choked him with pollution and an angry burning inside of his lungs. Even the food... the food that he'd found delicious and nourishing only the week before now tasted like ashes in his mouth and sat hollow in the pit of his stomach, making him want to retch each time that he started to eat.

"Please... please forgive me," the boy pleaded from his knees, his face pressed flat against the floor. "I could not leave her. Forgive..." And Patamon, eavesdropping, did not honestly know if he begged forgiveness from his God or from himself, nor did he intrude to ask. Friendship and love could cover a great deal of pain with their presence... a great deal, but nothing such as this.

*

The little mammal was drawn back to the present. Gatomon now led the way, her feline eyes much more accustomed to the dim light in here than his own, and Ailora followed closely behind with the ungainly sword held tight in two trembling paws.

T.K.'s suffering had lasted for a great length of time, and it was not something that the boy could learn to live with. Both Kari and the Crest of Hope had treated him with great tenderness during that period, and after two torturous months T.K. had seemed to be recovering a portion of his strength. But though wholeness of body had returned, very little joy came with it. Oh he could smile tolerantly when the situation called for it, and he could embrace his mother tightly when she asked or slap hands with a basketball teammate who'd just given a great effort. But there was no joy in any of it.

Around Kari, though, there had been at least something of the sort. It was a mirror image of what had happened all those years ago when Piedmon had infected the girl with the frailty of hopelessness, and T.K.'s presence was all that had stood between her and death. Now it was he that could only be whole when she was near, and only her touch that could light the spark of humanity in his eyes once again. With her he was free to laugh; free to accept his place in the mortal world once again.

But still, there was always a glimpse of longing in his eyes if ever they should turn skywards, and it was at that point that Patamon had honestly considered what the boy had given up to stay with Kari.

Now Gatomon and Ailora came to a halt in front of him, the young a'ladon girl raising a paw to call for silence as she leaned her head to one side. Then she held the point of the sword in front of her and looked further into the cavern. "Who's there?" she demanded.

There was a strained sort of silence for a few moments as their little party continued to listen for a response, and Ailora's evident confidence in her own sharp hearing made them wait a little bit longer than they ordinarily would have. "I know you're there! You're breathing too heavily to hide!" she called again, and as her voice echoed into the long tunnel she knelt down and lowered her voice, whispering to the pair at her side. "Cover your eyes."

Patamon and Gatomon both did so without questioning, and then the a'ladon girl dropped her sword with a clatter and leapt to her feet. She then raised her right paw and faced her palm towards the tunnel down which she been shouting. "A'hoem Ailora!" she called, and then shielded her eyes with her forearm as a blinding burst of white energy sprung from her palm and arced into the darkness of the tunnel. "Look again," she murmured to the two digimon, "but not directly at the light."

But as it happened, the light was not at all necessary. While it was true that the inside of the cavern was now lit up as though it were daytime and outdoors, their hidden observer had well recognized that call. "Ailora?" he returned, hobbling to his feet and peering over a large boulder at the three.

"Shay?" the girl called, holding a paw over her eyes to shield them against the glare from the dazzling light. It would only last for a few moments, but...

"Go away, Ailora. Takeru and your mother left you in the Valley for a reason. This is no place for a girl."

The girl's brow furrowed, and behind her back Patamon and Gatomon nodded to one another. The little feline, staying in Ailora's shadow the entire way, crept to the far side of the cavern wall and began to inch along it towards the other a'ladon. "What's that supposed to mean? 'No place for a girl'?" the lithe creature demanded. "Where are Lord Takeru and Eloan?"

Gatomon was a mistress of stealth, and had thus far escaped the boy's attention. She was almost halfway to the boulder behind which the other knelt and had managed to stay hidden in the shadows the entire time. "Ailora, don't you get it? People... people are gonna get hurt down here, and I won't let you be one of them. You've got too much to live for to risk your life by being in this place. I'm asking you... no, I'm ordering you to go back home!"

Even Patamon, who had never met the other creature before in his life, could hear the flustered stammering in the boy's words. Ailora's eyes widened at bit at this last demand and the whiskers on her nose quivered in irritation. "You what? I'm not yours to order around, Shay! You're not my father and you're not my husband, so you can just keep your orders to yourself!"

"Damn it, Ailora! This isn't one of our games!" The boy sounded for a moment as if he were going to choke on the word, and it was delivered through clenched teeth that were obviously biting back something more than irritation. "This isn't a game, and it isn't safe, and it isn't fun. If you won't do it because I tell you to then I'll beg. Is that what you want, 'lora? To see me beg? Because I will if you don't go back on your own. I'll get down on my knees and crawl out there and beg it of you."

This gave the girl serious pause, knowing the boy as she did, because she knew Shay to be proud. Very proud... almost to a fault. Even at times when they'd had an argument and she had most clearly won, still she'd never heard the words 'I'm sorry' pass his lips. Even the Shay that he showed around adults, the charming a'ladon that even her mother trusted without reason, even then she'd never heard him admit to being wrong or apologize or anything of that nature. To hear him now threatening to beg her to leave... on his knees...

"Hah!" the girl heard a shout from across the way, interrupting her reverie, and as she turned she saw Gatomon leap from the top of the rock to land on the boy a'ladon and pull him down to the floor. Shay gave a sharp cry of pain as his legs gave way beneath him, and he struggled to pull the feline off of him.

But if even Gatomon had been weakened by her battle with the demon when Kari had been taken, Shay remained in a much more desperate condition. In a short moment the feline had overcome the struggling boy, and Ailora and Patamon rushed to her side. She was leering down at him as the pair arrived, sitting on his chest. "No place for a girl, is it?"

But the only response that Shay could muster was a stifled whimpering noise as he turned his head to the side and bit down on his tongue to keep from shaming himself by bawling like a little kit. Hot tears of pain poured freely from his eyes and pooled on the floor, and his paws were trembling as he clutched his closed fists to his mouth.

Gatomon was aghast, and moved quickly off the fallen boy. She glanced up at the other two, claws held up defensively. "But I... I didn't hit him that hard!" she protested.

Ailora dropped her sword to the ground and knelt at Shay's side, taking the boy's quivering paw in one of her own and lightly stroking his forehead with the other. "Ai... Ailora, please go," the young creature implored of the other, weakly trying to brush her away with claws that just would not stop shaking. "I meant what I said. It's bad enough that Takeru and Eloan are going to fight, and it's worse that I can't go with them, but it will be worse yet if--"

"Can't go?" The girl looked seriously at the boy, then was struck with a horrid fear. "Shay? What... what happened to you?"

Shay closed his eyes with a sigh, then allowed his head to fall back into her lap in resignation. His heart felt as though it would shatter within his chest as he lay there, feeling her delicate paw winding its way through the fur atop his head. It was a moment that he wanted to hold on to in its entirety, but that he knew could not last. At first it had just been his leg that he could no longer feel or control, but now it was spreading to other limbs as well. And quickly. Even if he survived he would be crippled for life, and he would not even consider asking Ailora to be with him as his wife in that condition. She deserved so much more...

Shay opened his eyes and glanced at Patamon. "You... you are the Lord Takeru's familiar. The one he calls 'Pata'. I would have none but Ailora learn of my shame. Will you give us a moment alone?"

Patamon's eyes locked with the boy's, the grief in his words raw and unmistakable. A deep sorrow and shame, as if events beyond his control would forever restrict his pursuit of his heart's desire. And the little creature was certain that he knew where he'd seen that look and heard that sorrow before: to a much greater extent, it had been present in T.K. as the boy had sent him away to Kari in anticipation of his battle against the crystalline Fiend of Hatred, Roan. "We will," he nodded in respect, his long ears drooping just a bit to the side as the enormity of what the boy was going through became apparent to him. "Gatomon?"

The little feline frowned in response. "But what about T--"

Patamon shook his head to interrupt and moved to the far side of the cavern, and after a moment the other followed as well. If her counterpart had indeed developed the maturity that he'd exhibited earlier in the day, respect for that wisdom demanded that she trust his judgment in this matter. He'd obviously seen something here that she had not.

Shay craned his head to watch as the pair departed, then looked up at Ailora once again. He even managed to force a smile even as the muscles in his back continued to twitch uncomfortably and uncontrollably. "Should've known you wouldn't stay where you were supposed to, 'lora. Your mother should have, too. I would have reminded her to lock you in your room until this was all over if I'd known she wouldn't think of it on her own."

Time was pressing and the girl's mouth was dry with worry about what was wrong with the boy, but he'd always felt more comfortable at play than at being serious. And so Ailora smiled teasingly in response. "And have her cut down the tree on that side of the house too, I'll bet. Maybe put iron bars across the window and dig a moat in front of the door?"

Shay grimaced, shifting uncomfortably on the ground. His breath was coming in short gasps now. "Still wouldn't work, I guess. You'd just chew through the walls."

The girl smiled once more, then allowed it to fade to concern as she stroked his hair lightly. "Shay, what's wrong? Are you hurt?"

The boy's teeth were chattering, almost as if he were cold, and his words sounded stammered as a result. "If... if I say no... will you go back home?"

She placed a paw against his furry cheek. "I'm not going to leave you, Shay. You're a great liar, but I know the real you. Now what happened?"

The warrior a'ladon's head lolled to the side. "I... I started a fight that I couldn't finish, Ailora. Hurt...? I guess you could say that. And it's getting worse, too." He winced as he looked up at the girl. "You remember the story that your mother told us about when your father died?"

The girl bowed her head just a bit at the memory, then licked her lips to moisten them. "Your... back?"

"Among other things. It's already bad enough that I can't feel my legs, and my paws are tingling pretty seriously now, too. If I hadn't had to pull myself up to lean against that rock when you three came in, you never would've heard me. I sent Takeru and your brother away so they wouldn't waste their time on me. I don't think I'm going to last much longer."

The girl's face was expressionless for just a moment, then her mouth slowly opened in horror. "Last much... Shay! You're not hurt that bad! You're not going to die down here!"

"I though you... said I couldn't lie to you, 'lora. Listen to me. I'm not lying now. It's all I can do to stay conscious, and I have to keep reminding myself to breathe. There's some things you can break and still function pretty well without. This isn't one of them."

"But... but... you can't die."

The boy smiled. "I'll admit, the timing isn't very appropriate." Then he became gravely serious. "Do you know what I did two nights ago?"

Ailora swallowed. The question seemed completely out of place at the moment, but--

"I stayed up all night, standing in front of a mirror and talking to myself. Practicing, I guess... rehearsing what I was going to tell you the next day. I was going to leave home then and had no intention of ever going back. I... I'd lived my whole life looking for some place to fit in, and I was sure that I'd found it then. I left behind everything that I owned and that I couldn't carry in my little pack and took a vow to never set foot in my father's house again, because the life I found didn't include him. I'd never felt like family there. Never like I did around your mother, and Eloan... and you."

Tears were welling up in the young girl's eyes, because now she knew that the boy truly believed what he had said. And he'd almost just admitted to... "Shay? Will you tell me... tell me now what you were going to tell me then?"

Patamon and Gatomon were approaching them now, apparently having convinced themselves that time had run out on the conversation. But Shay now managed to shake his head in denial at the girl. His voice had lowered to a whisper, as if he did not want this most private of information passed on to any but her. "No, I won't Ailora. It would be wholly dishonorable for any dying man to ever repeat to anyone what I had planned to say."

But that had been as much as a confirmation for the girl, and she felt as if some giant hand had been placed around her heart and was squeezing hard. "T...Takeru's Vows? You were memorizing Takeru's Vows? Even though you didn't believe?"

"It was enough that you believed, 'lora. Even if I didn't. I do now, you know, and I think I could say it today with the conviction that my belief brought. But it wouldn't make me honor them any better."

Ailora's lips were quivering wildly and her face was furrowed tightly to prevent the onrush of tears. She turned her head in desperation, and very nearly bumped onto Patamon's head. She stared desperately at the little flying mammal. "Change," she said curtly.

Patamon looked askew at the girl.

"Please, change back to Pegasusmon. Shay's dying, and I have to take him out of here. If I can get him back to mother in time then maybe..."

But Gatomon stopped the a'ladon girl by grabbing her paw tightly. "Ailora... we know. But I haven't got the strength left to change, and Pata can't carry the two of you on his own. Not as weak as he is. And... and there are just some injuries that can't be fixed. Your mother is a gifted woman, but her skill is not meant for something like this."

There was a fire kindled in the girl's eyes as the little feline spoke. "I'm not going to let him die. I'm not... and neither are you."

Patamon had kept silent up until that moment, but now he moved in between the pair to stop the pending conflict. "Bring him with us," he suggested.

Gatomon turned to her counterpart in surprise. "Again, Pata?"

"He can ride on my back. And T.K.... well, the first time he was here, he saved one of them from death by making him evolve. If there's a chance..."

Gatomon's eyes focused more closely on the little mammal. That was a false hope, and both of them knew it. If T.K. had left the boy here in such a condition then he must have already discounted that possibility. But then she stopped, seeing that he did not believe it either. Was it merely an excuse to stop the argument, or perhaps something else? Another idea that had occurred to him that he was unwilling to voice for whatever reason? And so she decided to go along with whatever the other was planning, at least for now. "Agreed," she returned.

Shay grabbed feebly at Ailora's paw. "Ailora... don't do this. I can't help you down there. If you won't turn around and leave then don't make this harder on yourself than it already is. Don't shame us both by burdening yourself with me. All of us can accept that I'm going to die no matter what anyone does. Can't you do the same?"

The girl looked down at him, and there was a marked seriousness in her eyes. "No Shay, I won't. Even if you won't say them, I still expect you to live up to your vows. If I have to make you, then so be it. But if you won't do it for yourself, then I expect you to guard your own life in my honor. That was to be your vow, Shay, and I'm going to hold you to it."