Splitting of the Ways

888

The angel's eyes flickered open. A bolt of sunlight slammed right into his eye. The two head wings reacted and flicked down over his eyes. It was then that he noticed he wasn't alone. One of the head wings slowly unfurled. Standing close to him with his hand open was a short man. He had grey blue skin and hazel eyes. The lower half of his face was concealed by a mouth guard. His golden hair fell from under the brim of a pointed, blue hat.

"You have awakened…" said the man quietly. He drew his cloak together. The different little bits of shapes and stars glowed gold against the morning sun. "I was worried that you had done some serious damage to your head…"

"You were just trying to probe my mind, Wizardmon," growled the angel quietly. His wings flicked sorely and slowly stretched out combating their stiffness. "Your little mind tricks won't work on me…" The angel stood up.

"You still need rest, Lucemon," said the wizard quietly. "You are in no condition to search for Mark…"

The angel's eyes flashed and he turned his head to the wizard, "You…." The angel's fist clenched and glowed a dangerous blue. Wizardmon stood back. Even at a arm's length he could feel the pulsation of energy from Lucemon. The angel took up an aggressive stance, "What have you done to Mark!? So help me if he's hurt, I'll pummel you so bad they won't even remember you existed!"

"Calm down, Lucemon," Wizardmon opened his palms to the angel and took a submissive position. "You were talking in your sleep… I over heard you…" Wizardmon's eyes looked over the angel and waited for the boy to stand down. "You are a digi-destined…partner…so powerful though…."

"Not as powerful as you may think," said Lucemon. The angel relaxed slightly but he didn't stop eyeing the man in blue.

Wizardmon didn't understand. He had just felt that wave of energy. It was then that he noticed. "You have no tattoos or, scars on your body. You're a pure fleshed Lucemon."

"So?" growled Lucemon. He didn't like it and though none of the humans had noticed, he was sure the other digimon had… "Even with a fourth of my power missing I can still wipe the floor with you!"

"Why have you left the digi-destined?" asked Wizardmon. The digimon walked over to a camp fire and sat down and continued to cook something; it looked like eggs.

"It's none of your business," retorted the angel. He flicked his eyes at the eggs.

"On the contrary," said Wizardmon. His eyes didn't move from the fire. "The digi-destined are fated to save this world. All of them, regardless if it's seven or eight or six or four or even four billion, but they all are fated to save this world together. If you do not return you are fating this world to darkness…" The wizard's eyes lifted. "Sit, you will not starve while I am taking care of you…"

Lucemon obliged the wizard with a strange sense of awe at the creature's hidden intensity. The angel narrowed his eyes. The wizard wouldn't understand.

"You, had an immense dark aura when you fell from the sky," Wizardmon said quietly. He gave Lucemon a flat, clean stone, that held two eggs, "but when I came to see what had happened…your aura had changed. Did you dark digivolve?"

"Shut it," growled the angel. He was fighting back the memories. He knew what he had done as that monster. He closed his eyes trying to press the tears back into their ducts.

"What happened?" insisted Wizardmon. The angel's eyes flashed open. Two streams of water ran down his cheeks. Wizardmon was growing more concerned. "Lucemon, what happened?"

"Boogeymon…" was the only thing that escaped his mouth.

"I know of Boogeymon," replied the wizard. "He is trying to take over this island…what did he do?"

"He gave me the…" Lucemon bit his tongue to keep himself from cursing…. "The Gospel of the Fallen Angel…its contamination…I couldn't stop myself….stupid Burgermon, they should have never let us stay there…."

"The Gospel of the Fallen Angel…" Wizardmon's eyes darkened. "That immature fool….he could have destroyed the entire world…."

Lucemon stood up cutting off Wizardmon. "You do not need to finish, I know I am a monster…I left, because I was a monster and I will stay away from them. It is safer that way."

"It won't work," said Wizardmon. His eyes flicked up to the angel. "That's the strange thing about fate…it is persistent. Lucemon your aura shares a portion of Mark's…and when I see it, I see a very large amount of hope….I think you underestimate Mark's ability to forgive and to have faith in you…"

"I tried to kill him," said Lucemon. He turned away from the wizard, "and I destroyed a village of Burgermon. I'm too dangerous."

"You didn't do that," Wizardmon stood up. He walked up behind the angel and spun the boy around to face him. "The viral contamination of the Gospel did that! You were an innocent bystander! It may have been your body but it wasn't you!"

"I should have stopped it…" replied the angel. "I should've been strong enough to stop it…"

"Lucemon," breathed the wizard quietly, "You have greater power than you know, the mere fact that you broke free at all is amazing, you could have resigned yourself to destroying the entire world, but you fought on even after you failed to stop yourself from destroying the village, that is what is going to be remembered."

The angel's eyes looked over the wizard doubtfully. The wizard's gloved hand patted his shoulder.

"But, what if he doesn't want me back…" whispered Lucemon.

"I would not worry, the bond between digi-destined and digimon is strong," said the wizard digimon. He started to return to the campfire and his eggs. "Mark has hope, which is all that matters." The wizard turned. "We will look for him then?"

"Look for him?" asked Lucemon.

"Yes, Mark must be worried sick about you," said Wizardmon. He lifted the brim of his hat, "and I get the sense that you are worried about him," Wizardmon caught the look of worry over Lucemon's face, the look of doubt. "We won't know unless we go to him, hiding will get you no where."

Lucemon looked up. "If he…rejects me, may I…"

"I will not refuse a companion," said Wizardmon.

Lucemon nodded. "Then we go as soon as possible...I remember coming from the Burgermon village…the rest gets very fuzzy."

"Then we go there first, hopefully the children have followed you, and we will meet half way," said Wizardmon. "I must gather some berries and fruit and then we will go."

Lucemon nodded and then Wizardmon took his leave of the angel to search for berries.

888

They were walking again. If there was one thing Kevin had learned in their short period in the Digital World it was that he truly did miss riding the bus. It was one of those things you do, and you don't think about it. Now, they walked places, and when they weren't walking they were running.

Janet hadn't gotten far. She'd broken down into tears. They had found her crying. Amy was the one that consoled her. The two boys were useless in the endeavor, and had opted to find something to eat for a brunch. Their battle with Boogeymon had made them miss breakfast and then Janet ran.

"Do you think we can do this?" asked Jason quietly.

Kevin looked at the scruffier looking boy. "What do you mean Jason?"

"I mean, this Digi-destined thing," said Jason. He pulled an apple from a tree and dropped it down. Kevin caught it. "We're expected to bring order to the whole world…and well, it just seems impossible…"

"We have to keep up our courage is all," said Kevin with a smile he caught a few more. "Man I wish I had a basket."

"It's just everyone's relying on us," said Jason quietly. He jumped down. "What if we can't do it?"

"Don't worry Jason," chirped Otamamon. "We'll clean Boogeymon's clock!"

"Yeah, Youkomon almost had him, if only we could've held Deltamon back a bit longer this would've been over," said Snow Agumon.

"That's another thing that bothers me…" grumbled Jason. He walked with Kevin and the digimon. "That seemed too easy…I was expecting something a bit more…."

"Scary?" offered Kevin.

"Well…yes," replied Jason. "Boogeymon looks like a comic strip bad guy…a low budget comic strip that is…"

Kevin chuckled a bit. "Yeah, but he isn't a comic strip character, he's real, and he is dangerous…so we can't let our guard down."

They came to clearing that they had left the girls in. They were still there. Janet was looking down. Amy was next to her, rubbing her back. Renamon walked up to the boys.

"Janet is feeling better," said the fox. Renamon turned her head and looked at the two girls. "We will be ready to continue soon. Boogeymon's scent, goes to that mountain to the north…I figured it was him causing the plagues that way…"

Kevin and Jason handed over the apples to Renamon and sat down and waited for Janet to feel up to starting off again.

888

"He couldn't have gotten this far!" groaned Stephen. He stomped through the foliage.

"I don't know, Mark can run pretty fast," said Ryuudamon, "and he had a head start and with Labramon…"

"Yeah," grumbled Stephen. It was bad enough he had to baby sit his own brother now he was baby sitting Kevin's sister. He turned his head back to the others. "Come on you guys!"

"We're moving as fast as we can!" retorted Brendan. The boy looked up. The sun was already nearly at noon. "Maybe we should stop…it's almost lunch time."

"No, we keep going until we find him!" said Stephen. He pushed through the ferns.

"It's silly to keep this pace up, when Labramon can track him down," said Michelle, "and if we don't eat and we do find that Mark is in trouble we won't be much use, because our digimon will be too hungry to move a muscle."

"She has a point Stephen," said Ryuudamon. The lizard held Stephen's arm. "I know you feel responsible, and you are scared, but Mark is not a stupid boy, and we can't be that far behind."

Stephen's eyes narrowed. He looked back at the others. He looked at Ryuudamon. He clenched his fists tightly, "You guys stay and rest I'll scout out the area…" With that he pushed into the forest.

888

Mark ran and ran. He ran as fast as he could, and cut straight through the Burgermon village before realizing it. He just kept running towards the rounded mountain.

Time had no meaning for him. Noon came, and it passed. He kept running. His anger and his sadness and his hope were all that fueled him. It was near dusk when he finally felt his body resist the need to go on. He slumped down.

The shadows were lengthening. He wished he knew how to make a fire. He wished he knew which berries were good to eat. He wished he wasn't so afraid of the encroaching dark. Most of all he wished he hadn't run off alone.

Tears filled his eyes. He was alone, in the wilds of a weird world. He didn't know what to do. He was so scared.

"Where are you Lucemon…I really need you now…" whimpered Mark. He curled up in a little ball against a tree.

A figure was in the bushes, a large creature. Mark looked up suddenly. A new, deeper sense of terror cut through him. He pressed up against the tree. The figure pushed through the foliage. It was a large shadow, too large to be one of the kids. The figure pushed into the clearing. It was the largest thing he had ever faced alone. Mark did the first thing he could think of. He screamed bloody murder into dusk air.

888

AN: So this is how Lucemon is not whooping on people. Because if we did use the Lucemon we all know and love…well he can take on an Ultimate quite easily, looking at attack power, he runs even with Magna Angemon. I believe there were a couple of weak Megas that are below Lucemon's rookie form…Ebemon I think, so woo Lucemon…well as long as he has his scars…