Disclaimer: I own….nothing but do we have to keep rubbing that in my face? .
A/N: This chapter was easier to write so here we go…and thank you to all the people who reviewed your lovely! P.S. A lot of the little issues of life seem to be resolving themselves so the next chapter is not too far off. ENJOY!
Yamato writhed on the jagged stone floor. Days had come and gone, Yamato fading in and out of consciousness, not knowing whether it was day or night or if an eternity had passed while he slept. There was nothing, no distraction, no humans or digimon or even rats for they had long ago been consumed in a fit of desperation. He had not fed in days, the thirst consumed him, in the precious time his mind was awake he could not think of escape or his endangered friends. A second might come by where he would think of Taichi and his heart would break all over again because he was not even thinking of the loved ones he had damned. But then the second would pass and another excruciating pain of hunger that no mortal could ever know would strangle his lithe body. All strength had long ago left him, Yamato could not capture the weakest victim even if it was set in his small prison, he could scarce move his hand from the biting floor.
On and on this went and time was lost to Yamato, when Myotismon finally came to him he could not tell dream from reality or whether a lifetime had passed and all his beloved mortals had died a century ago. All that was left was pain. One night in this personal hell of repetitive nothingness a gift came to him, a cold dead creature that in the digital world should have scattered into data long ago. Before he had even decided what it was Yamatos body had pounced on it with strength he had not known he still possessed, sucking greedily at the cold nauseating blood he knew he should not drink. Like an insect, a parasite of the grave he sucked the corpse of all its nauseating blood.
The pain was worse than it had ever been. Instead of the gnawing hunger in his gut there was stabbing pain that felt as if it tore at his very innards. Blood vial rose in his throat and half the sad contents of his stomach emptied onto the floor in a puddle Yamato didn't have strength to rise out of. His vision blurred, only faint blobs of dark color remained to him, his head felt as if it were tearing in two. Laughter accompanied this hellish gift, weak voices of living creatures laughing from above but one of the voices was not laughing, it was speaking to him.
"Yamato, are you ready to join me?" The voice was kind; gentle on his throbbing head where the laughter made the pounding increase. He tried to speak although he didn't know what he was saying, but it didn't matter, nothing came out. More blood bile spilled from his mouth and he expected this voice to join the laughter but instead it stepped forth. Myotismon. Myotismon opened the heavy metal door and took Yamato into his arms, ignoring the blood seeping into his own elegant clothing. "We will see if things are easier on you now."
Yamato nodded, or at least tried to. He knew he was being taken back up all those stairs, back to the world above. But long before he made the journey all strength the sickening blood gave him abandoned him and he slipped back into darkness.
When Yamato awoke once more he found himself in the little room that had become his own, lying inside the open coffin. The window showed that it was early in the night; the sun still clung to window and crimson cloth with its forbidden warmth. Absently he wondered if he would ever miss the sun of the real world, after all he could walk about in day here and the digital sun was almost real enough. But the thought was quickly swept away; the mundane trials of eternity could undoubtedly wait.
The hunger pain was no longer enveloping him and the dead blood had left his system, he could remember feeding before, half awake and half unconscious, his body acting without thought beyond primal survival. Still he could feel that his body was weaker, not mortal but not superb either. Cautiously, almost timidly Yamato walked up to the full-length mirror, avoiding the reflection until he was directly in front of it.
His body was shrunken, skin pulled tight over less flesh but still beautiful, his cheeks had sunken and his eyes bulged from his face. Dried blood clung to his lips and ran down his throat and onto cloths that he could no longer recognize, so covered in filth and blood. In all he was not as bad off as he would have imagined, he was glad no to have seen himself in the cell. Yamato knew that seeing himself in that state would be as horrifying to him as it would be to a child, an undead thing gifted with unnatural beauty feasting on the corpses of the dead. Now that was truly horrifying.
He had taken in the blood of those long dead, he was not surprised that he had lived but that they had not scattered their data. Myotismon was more powerful and crueler than Yamato had thought possible. He could go into the very code of the digital world and extend the existence of a body before it went back into the digital world just to make Yamatos punishment that much more excruciating. Myotismon had no remorse. No sympathy, things were undoubtedly darker than they had been before this revelation, for what held him from killing those Yamato held dear?
Yamato ignored the fresh cloths laid out for him and ran from the room, pushing past heavy wooden doors that he barely saw. He knew where Myotismon was, felt his presence two floors down and would find him now. Little sniveling digimon flashed by him but he ignored the easy victims, there would be time for that when he knew what had happened to his friends.
Myotismon was leaning against the far wall, watching with interest as Yamato burst into the room. He grinned, his sharp white fangs falling just over his bottom lip.
"What did you do to them?" Yamato stalked up to the imposing figure and growled out the words.
"You have not even bothered to change, do you like the feel of dried blood on your skin?" Myotismon looked over the raggedy figure before him. Yamato fumed, the bastard was dragging this out on purpose.
"The digidestined, what happened to them after you threw me in that prison? Takeru, Taichi, where are they?" His voice dripped with hatred, the memories of excruciating pain fresh in his mind and worry for his friends clutching painfully at his heart.
"They are no longer your concern, you lost that privilege when you went against me and made another."
"Where are they?" Matt had long ago lost his temper and his voice filled the room.
"I did what you failed to do. I sent them home, far away from here."
"Home…" Yamatos breath caught in his throat. If Taichi had been dumped back in the real world in the sun…"and Tai?" Myotismons face went to one of slight amusement to sorrowful empathy.
"The child of courage no longer exists." Myotismon put a comforting hand on Yamatos shoulder but the blond tore away from him.
"What?" Yamato breathed the word, Taichi was not dead, his heart and mind failed to accept the simple fact so that all he could do was whisper the soft question. If Myotismon had truly been the end of Tai there was all of eternity to seek revenge but now there was still hope that the other still lived if living is what you could call this existence.
"I had nothing to do with the boys demise. I sent all of them home, into the dark sanctuary of an abandon warehouse where he would have been safe if only he had stayed there." Myotismon stepped closer to the other but did not reach out to him. "I would have spared him so that you could live as you were meant to here without his death hanging over your head. The moment he arrived in the real world he ran outside just behind the others to escape me although I did them no harm." Yamato took a shaky step backwards, his hand clutching compulsively at his heart. "I don't think he even knew the light would burn him."
"No." Yamato couldn't breath, couldn't see. Crimson tears streamed down his face, it was not true, it couldn't be. "You're lying. If he was dead I would know it!" He screamed desperately, lashing out as Myotismon tried to calm him.
"I saw it myself, he died instantly, a ball of fire and then nothing." Myotismons voice did not gloat or drag out the words to cause unnecessary pain, there would be no point.
"I don't believe you! I want to see the others, to speak with them!" Yamato thought of nothing now, his mind was gone, shut down to halt the pain threatening to tear him apart; he would not survive the death of Taichi. There was only one way to survive, this ordeal, to not believe Myotismon, to hope that such beauty as Tais face still lived on in the universe. He would trust in his heart, the heart that told him, screamed at him, that Tai was alive and all he had to do was find him.
"It is impossible for you to speak to them. Remember that the time in the real world is different, if you waited out the day in the warehouse they were left in and then under the cover of darkness found the digidestined you would return to find the digital world demolished, Years would have passed here with no one to rule because I would need to be with you, to open the gate to this world once more."
"But…" Yamato fell to his knees and buried his tear stained face in his hands. This was too much, he could not just abandon this world but to watch over it he would not be able to return home or even visit with his little brother or search for Taichi in the real world.
"Go, feed and change, tonight I will tell you anything you ask of me and tomorrow night we will begin to take back the digital world together." Unnaturally gentle hands ushered Yamato out the door and all the way to his little room where he was left alone.
"No." Yamato wanted to collapse on his bed and never get up again but there was no bed, only a coffin. He knew this, it was a fact he was use to by now, but it didn't make it hurt any less. This was a horrible nightmare and he would wake up alone in his bed at home any moment now, none of this could really happen. He could not have turned into a vampire, he would not have fallen in love and he would certainly not have lost that love before saying anything about it although it enveloped everything that he is. Only, this hell is by no means a dream, it is the sad collaboration of truths that make up Yamatos life but he would not accept that. All of the evil things that had been done to him his entire life would not compare to the loss of Taichi, it was an unfathomable evil to even think of one so perfect gone forever, to never hold Taichi in his arms, never tell him all the things he had longed to say but out of fear stayed quiet. Yamato thought that news of Taichis death would have destroyed him instantly, that he would have simply stopped living and fallen to the ground dead but he knew that the truth had not sunk in and probably never would, Taichi could not be gone.
Yamato slid out of the soiled cloths and into the soft black outfit that lay folded neatly near by. He wiped the blood from his pallid skin with ease; dirt did not cling to this preternatural skin as it did to mortal skin. He was becoming more like himself with every moment, gone was the whimpering boy of hours ago, replaced by the appealingly self confident cold Yamato Ishida. It took only minutes to find a suitable victim, an evil digimon whose thoughts were shallow and dark, no real loss of the digital world, just another flutter of data lost in the mix.
Myotismon was waiting for him when he entered the room. Yamato walked up to him silently, ignoring the others eyes searching the newly cleaned body and apparently approving.
"I don't believe you. Even if you did send the digidestined back I do not believe Tai is dead, I am going to look for him." His voice and face were trained now; they gave away nothing of his thoughts.
"And how long will you search for something that is not there? How many years will it take for you to believe?"
"The rest of eternity." The answer came out as easy as the rest of it, Yamato knew as he said it that he would search until the end of the world itself and then he would move on to the next world and continue his search there. No creature, mortal or no could hinder his quest, death could try to grab him, steal him away with burning light but he would escape it because somewhere he knew Tai was doing the same even if it was not for him.
"It comes as no surprise to me that you would say that but all to soon you will forget. You can stay here in your quest and help when it catches your fancy to do so."
"Why? Why would you help me like that instead of locking me away again?"
"Because I know that you will give in and that one day you will be the companion I want you to be. Because this will train you as well as anything of what we are. Go off and look for your friend, suffer the injustices of the digital world, in the end you will come back to me."
Yamato turned and walked from the room, he did not need to hear this from someone he hated; he knew he was right and no one would convince him otherwise.
Myotismon smiled as Yamato walked out the door. He would never know the truth, never know what really happened to Taichi. He had almost been sorry to give up on the child of courage. He was the exact opposite of Yamato but held a beauty all his own, a beauty he did not think could exist in the world of the undead. If Yamato was dark than Tai was light. Of course both boys hated him with a passion but that would all change in time. Disappointments after disappointment would send Yamato back to him, desperate to cling onto anything that would have him and Myotismon would be waiting. In the blink of an eye when all of time lay before you Yamato would be dependent on him, unable to leave and Myotismon would no longer be alone. He would be the oldest and wisest and most powerful but he would not be alone.
Thanks again for all of you who reviewed and liked my story! (You guys rock!) The next few chapters are all planned out, inspiration has struck, so please, REVIEW! Our poor tortured Yamato wants you to!