I don't own Digimon.
Twilight of Power
Italics In head/thoughts/dreams
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Kari snapped awake. A sudden chill filled her body as hand slid under her chin. "Ah, my pretty, awake from your nap?" said a cold yet refined voice.
Kari's eyes widened in surprise. The dim fire light shifted to reveal a hooded figure in the shadows. Kari shivered as two blue eyes glimmered watching her. Two ivory white incisors twinkled as the candle flame flickered over them. The light seemed to grow and it filled the area revealing a tattered figure standing in front of her. He was at least seven feet tall. What used to be golden locks; were now a matted, caramel mess. A gloved hand with the glove's fingers burned off lifted to reveal bubbly putrefied fingers with creamy pustules exposed to the air. The hand moved up to the figure's hood and removed it. Kari took a deep breath trying to hold down whatever contents were in her stomach. Portions of the face were gone leaving looming gaps in the cheeks and nose and forehead. The crimson lips were now pale and thin. One of the blue eyes lacked an eyelid, so it was perpetually staring at its target. A burned cloak fell aside to reveal a blotchy blood stained, double breasted, faded blue jacket. Golden trim along the edges of the button down edges were frayed. The bat clip at the top of the entity's vest was chipped and a portion of its right wing was missing all together.
The left hand was still on Kari's chin. It was cold and slimy and Kari feared what was holding her jaw. The fingers slid away from her skin and she shuddered as a thin, bony, five fingered appendage drew up in front of her eyes. The skin seemed to give out at the joints and knuckles were visible in their pure whiteness. Something was slithering underneath the figure's left hand; and then a white worm, a maggot, writhed from the joint and wriggled in Kari's direction.
"I think he likes you," said the cold refined voice. "It's been so long, my pretty, it's a shame we couldn't find your cat too…."
"Let me go…" Kari closed her eyes and tried to will him away. "Myotismon…"
"Yes my dear…" the figure's face drew in close. Kari could feel its cold, death ridden breath on her face and she recoiled.
"You are not real…" hissed Kari quietly.
"I am not real?" replied the voice with a little bit of surprise. She could smell it retreat. "I feel real…and you are responding to me as if I were real; it surprises me, my pretty, that you, a woman of such strength and intelligence, would deny my reality in view of such evidence. Maybe you just need to be persuaded…"
Kari willed her eyes open. Why; she did not know. She saw the right hand, the gloved one, as it flickered with some crimson energy. She struggled; but cursed herself for still being chained to the wall.
"We destroyed you!" screamed Kari as the red ribbon of lightning slashed painfully across her legs.
"Oh, you never really believed me to be destroyed so easily," whispered the form calmly as he lifted his hand again bringing up the scarlet stream of lightning mixed with blood. "I know dear little Gatomon doesn't believe me gone…far from gone…" The voice of Kari's nemesis chuckled evilly. Kari closed her eyes and braced her body against the wall as second flash of red slashed towards her; this time targeting her chest. The creature drew in close to Kari again and listened to her hisses of pain and smiled, "Yes, my pretty, you are allowed to feel pain, to be afraid, it makes your soul just that much more delicious…" Kari truly shuddered at what the villain did next. A cold, clammy, rubbery tongue slid up the side of her neck. Kari couldn't take it any more; she screamed.
"TK! TAI! DAVIS! YOLEI! GATOMON!" screamed Kari as the creature lifted its lips up to her cheek and kissed her. A smile curled across his cheeks.
"Scream, my child, scream for all its worth, just don't forget how to," whispered the voice of Myotismon as it seemed to fade away, "for I will be in every nightmare you ever have. I will live again; but not in a way that your pathetic friends or your digimon, can save you. I will live in your mind, in the deepest darkest recesses of your subconscious…and you can never escape the sand man…"
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"Ah, our guest is awake," chuckled a haunting voice in the distance. "Bakemon, I think it's time for the blue vial…"
"Go away, Myotismon!" shouted Kari as she tried to lash out at her attacker.
"How fitting you dream of Master Myotismon," chuckled the voice quietly. Sharp, inhuman, blue eyes glowed softly in the darkness. "Now, dear Hikari, this blue vial will need a little cooperation…" Kari shifted her face and closed her mouth tightly. "Tis a pity…Bakemon grab her head and pour it down her nose!" Kari struggled but the Bakemon's grasp held her head firm. The liquid slid down her right nostril. It was so cold that it burned. She then noticed that a warm liquid was seeping from her nose. The voice seemed closer as it spoke again, "Awe, what a mess you've made by your insufferable unruliness; the cold has caused you to rupture blood vessels…"
The freezing liquid slid down her neck. It felt like someone was driving thousands and thousands of needles down her throat and then down her chest. Her lungs felt like rocks as she tried to fill them with air. The liquid settled in her stomach were it seemed to cause the organ to implode on itself. Kari tried but failed to hold in the contents of her stomach.
"Bakemon…clean up Miss Kamaiya…" growled the voice of her assailant. Kari opened her eyes weakly and caught a brief glimpse of crimson hood and the glint of a metal blade.
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"Her D-3 signal comes from down below…" said Yolei as she looked down at a manhole cover.
Silphymon grabbed the metal barrier and threw aside. The digimon leapt down and sloshed, "Ugh…" A light flickered on. "Double ugh, I think we were better with the visor light off…"
Yolei looked down and grasped her stomach. She crept slowly down the hole. She landed on the edge of an underground canal. Silphymon, though, was hip deep in sewer water. The light from the digimon's visor shined in all directions as the head of the creature turned and pivoted to find the D-3 and hopefully its owner.
"There it is…" grumbled Yolei as she pointed down to the device that floated on a raft of something that Yolei decided was better left unidentified. Silphymon looked up at Yolei and Yolei looked at Silphymon, "What? You don't actually think I'm getting in there to get it do you? Plus it will teach you to be less impulsive…"
The cybernetic digimon waded through the liquid with the melted peanut butter consistency. Ever so daintily, it lifted the D-3 between its fore claw and its thumb claw. The digimon then sloshed slowly to Yolei and handed the D-3 over to the woman. Yolei searched her long red coat and produced a hanky and wiped off the device and then flung the hanky into the sewer.
"She's not anywhere near here…" growled Silphymon.
"They must have discarded it," Yolei looked around.
"We're not alone…" Silphymon cracked its knuckles and flexed its fingers. A shadow scurried passed Silphymon's visor light. The cyborg leapt and snagged the shadow and lifted it up to the light. "Numemon…More controlled digimon from Lucemon I bet…"
"Wait!" Yolei skidded forward trying very determinedly not to fall into the sewer water. "Its eyes aren't red!"
"No, I'm not an agent of Lucemon!" yelped the green pile of sludge as its two eyestalks squirmed in Silphymon's grasp. "Black King Numemon, and the rest of us were trying to escape a Raremon when we popped through a digi-port…we ran into a group of Bakemon; they had Queen Kari!"
"Queen Kari?" Yolei looked at Silphymon.
"Long story," grumbled Gatomon's voice. Silphymon pulled the green digimon closer, "Do you know where they took Kari?"
"Yep, Black King Numemon, sent me to find someone," replied the digimon. Silphymon dropped the Numemon and looked forward.
"Lead us to her!" growled Silphymon. The green digimon slid forward.
"Be careful around this next turn…" whispered the Numemon as he turned.
"Why?" Yolei asked as she turned. Suddenly, the pipes leading into the section of the sewer spewed with viscous, green brown liquid. Yolei stopped inches from one of the geysers of goop.
"Because the pipes here are near their release cycle," replied the Numemon. Yolei and Silphymon looked down at their guide in astonishment. The green digimon looked up and frowned, "What? It's a Numemon's place to know the sewers…" with that the green sludge digimon glided forward.
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"Why do you do this?" whimpered Kari softly as the agonizing deep freeze in her stomach started to subside. "Who, who are you?"
"I should feel slightly offended that you don't remember me," chuckled the haunting voice. "The one that presented you to darkness…the one that gathered you up like a fragile egg and carried you to my master, but then again you are the child that destroyed my lord and master…it's unlikely you'd remember one of his employs." The figure floated forward. He was a ghost literally. Swathed in grey robes and a red cloak his hands held a long golden scythe. Two blue piercing eyes flashed out from under the hood.
"No…you were destroyed," Kari looked up in surprise as the ghost tilted its head in a bemused fashion. "Angemon…"
"Oh dear girl," chuckled the voice. "I could not be destroyed by the backwash of an angel's light…you give precious Angemon too much credit…I merely side stepped the attack…"
"Then why didn't you return to help Myotismon, if you're such a loyal servant!" Kari was feeling a building bravado.
"I knew nothing could impede the will of the digi-destined," replied the ghost calmly. "I knew however that I could stop lord Myotismon from dying completely, I knew I could find him a host…"
"You…" Kari was seething now; and even chained the human caused the ghost to recoil slightly. "You are the one that drew Myotismon to Oikawa!"
"Of course…" replied the ghost quietly. He lifted his scythe, "I, Phantomon, ghostly moderator of time and life; gave a pathetic, sniveling human his greatest chance to attain power!"
"You allowed a monster to live dormant in a human soul for four years!" shouted Kari in return.
"You shouldn't be so brave, woman!" shouted Phantomon as he lifted his scythe. "You are still chained to a wall! It would not be difficult to cut you down!" He lowered his scythe against Kari's neck. "Not difficult at all…"
"Master Phantomon!" hissed the voice of a Bakemon.
"What!? Can't you see I am busy entertaining our guest?" growled Phantomon. He drew back from Kari.
"We are having a bit of a problem…" hissed the Bakemon.
"Queen Kari! Queen Kari!" chanted the rasping voices in the background.
"Nu-Numemon?" Kari looked up weakly.
"You fools, you can't deal with those collections of dung!" roared Phantomon. He turned to Kari. "So you think you can marshal salvation from the cesspools? You shall not succeed!" He swept around and disappeared, following the Bakemon. Kari cringed as she heard his haunting voice call out, "Shadow Scythe!" It was followed by a purple glow and the shriek of Numemon.
"No, Numemon! No…not again…" Kari cried softly. "Please…no…"
"Shadow Scythe!" hummed Phantomon's voice.
"We must free Queen…." Shouted the voice of a Numemon.
"Dark Claw!" The Bakemon growled.
"Father TIME!" golden bursts slapped in the hidden tunnels that the battle had erupted in. Phantomon could be heard laughing as more Numemon screeched in pain.
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Finally the digi-destined were together again; in fact the group had grown by two. Reese and Carlyle were astounded to say the least; to be in the presence of the children of THE digi-destined was not something one would normally take lightly.
"Right…" Sumi started the discussion on the group's next move. "What do we do now?"
"Let's consider what we know…" said Noriko quietly. She looked over at the others. "Now, we have six Ultimate digimon…"
"Ahem!" coughed Kiyoshi and Hiroshi. Everyone looked at them.
"I think my brothers mean to say, we have two Megas and four Ultimates," said Ai angrily. She looked at them with contempt.
"Well, we also know we zapped Lucemon to kingdom come!" said Kougi. He smiled broadly and looked at Noriko.
"That hasn't been proven," replied Sumi quietly. "All we know is that it looked like you blasted Lucemon…"
"Oh come on!" Isamu leapt up. "The American army couldn't take a face full of Imperialdramon's Positron Laser, and the last time I checked Lucemon was no American Army…"
"No, he just manipulated it to do his dirty work," returned Noriko coldly.
"Right, right I think we're getting a little off topic," said Reese quietly as he held up his hands.
"Right…" Sumi took a deep breath. "What else, we can at least agree that we may have Lucemon licking his wounds…" The others nodded.
"Well…" Datirimon looked at Hiroshi, "RhodoKnightmon has the Gospel of the Fallen Angel…"
"I see…" whispered Noriko quietly. "Gennai said that the gospel was something that could give Lucemon increased power…"
"But if Lucemon is hurt…" Akeno whispered.
"He may not be in Chuuten City," said Kitai. The others looked at him. "That's where Lucemon has set up his base right…?"
"Yeah…" Sumi said quietly. She furrowed her brows. "The knights may have returned…even if Lucemon is not there; the four of them together will be formidable…"
"It will be like eight on one!" yelped Kougi. "I mean, Imperialdramon and…"
"Tiger Vespamon," added FanBeemon.
"Can take two of the knights on and the rest of you can keep the other two busy as we defeat the knights then we can finish the two your keeping busy off together…" Kougi was formulating his plan as he spoke.
"And if Lucemon attacks us while we're fighting?" asked Sumi quietly.
"He'll be too scared…" said Kougi. He smiled charismatically. "I mean he's hurt at best, so even if he fights its nothing we can't handle…plus I'd like to see him take another blast of Positron Laser in the face…"
"Yeah Losermon is as good as toast in a toaster," said Kiyoshi as he stuck his thumb down. "Plus if we rattle his hold on Chuuten we may break him up completely…"
"I'm getting kind of tired of these maybes and ifs!" Isamu was hopping around now. "Let's go and evict this winged dork!"
"I don't feel ultimately comfortable with the facts provided," whispered Sumi quietly. She looked over the others. Noriko and maybe the boy, Carlyle, were with her, "but ultimately we have to face Lucemon, we may as well test the waters…"
"You mean?" Kitai looked up. "We're going…?"
"Yes," replied Sumi quietly.
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"Where is lord Lucemon!?" growled Alforce Veedramon quietly. He looked unpleasantly at RhodoKnightmon.
"It is not wise, dear dragon, to question our lord's placement…" said Dynasmon quietly. The large, white armored digimon gave a side long look to his dragon companion. "As a fellow dragon knight, I sympathize with your need for blood…but Lord Lucemon will not tolerate your impatience!"
"Both of you…" Medieval Dukemon walked forward, "be silent! Lord Lucemon will not wish to have your voices disturb his meditations. I doubt either of you would wish to incur the wrath of Lord Lucemon."
The white, winged, humanoid dragon and the blue, winged, humanoid dragon turned their heads to the grey armored knight whose crimson cloak was drawn close around his body. His axe blade was poking diagonally, over his right shoulder, out of his cloak. They growled in response and turned to look at the door in which Lucemon had hidden himself after their return to Chuuten City. They were in a grey hall with brick in lays. Lucemon was boarded up behind a heavy wooden door. No window showed the room beyond the door.
Lucemon had been locked in the room all the afternoon after RhodoKnightmon's delivery and then all that night. The knights had been attentive and Lucemon had specified that he wished not to hear reports from them; not even if something important were to happen. It was growing towards noon again and the knights were growing anxious, not since their detainment within the cave they were born in had they spent so much time not striking fear in their inferiors. The sound of the door knob clicked. The four knights, possibly the four most powerful digimon in two worlds, quite nearly leapt out of their armor.
"Go…they draw close…" whispered the voice of their lord. "The digi-destined wish to shake us from Chuuten City…"
"Lord Lucemon…" RhodoKnightmon stepped forward. "Do you not wish to vanquish the digi-destined yourself?"
A single blue eye pierced the shadowed confines of the room at about eye level with RhodoKnightmon. "I am not yet complete here; soon I will be. Go, they draw ever closer, I will join you when I am finished…"
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AN: Holy crud… Lucemon is in seclusion, with the digi-destined baring down; is he going to be able to defeat them, now that they are together? Will the kids even get to him, or will the knights leave them in tatters? Kari's at the mercy of a being thought long dead!
The Crepuscular Count strikes in the next chapter, Power of Twilight!