I don't own Digimon
The Encroaching Darkness
888
The loss of courage encroached around them all. It was odd how the loss of one part of eight changed the finished product.
The seven digi-destined sat around a weakly lit fire somewhere in a forest. They were not speaking, their partners were silent. The fire flickered impotently against the shadows of the trees.
Darkness enclosed their souls. Light left them in the dark to fend for themselves.
Late at night Michelle silently padded into the forest. Labramon was behind her.
"Where are we going?" whispered Labramon as they left the remaining rays of firelight behind a group of bushes.
"I can hear him calling in the night, he's here!" replied Michelle as they walked through the forest.
"Shouldn't we wait for the others?" Labramon queried as they furthered the distance between them and the others.
"We don't have time, he's getting further away!" retorted Michelle with an aggressive edge to her voice.
They pushed a bush aside. Michelle looked up. Black wings unfurled and blunt instrument struck Labramon on the head.
"Ah, the boy's sister," said the figure as it walked forward. Michelle stumbled backward. A hand reached forward grabbing Michelle by the scruff of the neck. A second hand snatched up Labramon.
"Let me go!" hissed Michelle.
"I can't do that," said the voice from a crooked beak. Two small eyes glinted in the starlight. The creature chuckled softly and a dark aura flooded the girl and she slumped forward. "Well, that was easier than I anticipated…" Two black wings flapped and the figure escaped into the forest canopy and then to the freedom of the skies.
They were now disoriented, without the guiding power of light they searched aimlessly through the forest.
"MICHELLE!" shouted Janet through cupped hands. Renamon appeared next to her. Janet looked at the fox with a hopeful gaze, "Please tell me you caught Michelle's or Labramon's scent."
"I'm sorry," The fox looked down. "It's strange. The entire area has this very strange scentlessness. It's as if someone sucked up all the smells in the area."
"Foul play?" asked Janet quietly.
"I fear so…" replied Renamon. "Whoever it is has very powerful magical skills to have leveled a sensory blanket this large."
Janet looked down. She closed her eyes and mustered all her strength to hold back the scream that was welling up in her chest. Michelle had been so sad since Kevin's disappearance. Janet tried to be some sort of filler for the small girl, but Michelle only seemed to feign happiness. The young girl had grown quieter and quieter and then one night she just disappeared with Labramon. Janet let out a shuddery sigh. She'd let another person down.
"Do not worry, Janet, we'll find her and make whoever did this pay," said Renamon as the fox laid its paw on Janet's shoulder.
In the darkness love faded, died and fled. The warmth of the heart froze.
"Otamamon come on!" shouted Jason as he pushed through bushes and trees. "She can't have gone far!"
"I'm hurrying, I'm hurrying but I'm made for lakes and streams not roots and tree trunks!" yelped the purpled tadpole as it chased after the blue eyed boy.
"Dang it, why did Janet have to run off like this?" shouted Jason to the trees as he slammed through a low hanging branch.
"I don't know, she just said she had to make things right," shouted Otamamon as he scampered over the leaf litter.
"We have to find her before that thing that got Michelle does!" shouted Jason as he tore down a large spider web.
Reliability faltered. Trust was lost. Faith disappeared. The shadow grew longer as the strength of sincerity wondered off.
"Is this wise?" whispered Penguinmon as the blue bird looked up at the dark haired girl.
"I can't stand being around those obnoxious boys anymore," retorted the girl loudly. She didn't care who heard her. Steven had just called her a selfish little girl, because she wanted to sit down for ten minutes. Brendan called her an idiot when she happened to knock his computer off of a log. Amy harrumphed, "It serves them right, after calling me those things!"
"I don't think this is a good idea," said Penguinmon quietly.
"Well I don't care if it's a good idea or not, I'm not going back!" shouted Amy loudly. The penguin hopped backwards at the vehement outburst. "If you want to go back, then go! I don't care!"
"I-I think I'm going to stay with you," whispered Penguinmon quietly.
To add to the darkness, the confusion of ignorance fell like a shroud over a lamp.
"WHAT?" shouted Steven loudly as Brendan started to turn to leave.
"Look, I just think it would be easier to search for people if we split up," said Brendan quietly. He looked at Tapirmon.
"And what if we find the others, how are we supposed to get back to each other?" asked the blonde quietly.
"We'll come back to this spot, ok?" Brendan replied and he walked off into the bushes.
"OI! WE'RE NOT DONE TALKING!" shouted Steven as he ran forward. He stopped and looked at Mark and Lucemon. Ryuudamon looked up at him quietly.
"Maybe we should just stay behind in case anyone does come back, we wouldn't want them to think we left them," said the black lizard.
Steven narrowed his eyes. Ryuudamon sighed and went back to poke at the fire.
Finally, like with Pandora and her box, only Hope was left.
"Look, we're only going to be gone a couple of days, just to see if we can find anyone," said Steven quietly.
Mark looked up at his brother. "Why can't I go with you?"
"Because, I don't want you to slow me down, I can move faster and cover more ground alone," Steven looked at his brother quietly.
"But, what if…" Mark looked up at his brother.
"Don't worry, Lucemon will take care of you," said Steven.
"But what if you…" started Mark.
"I'll be fine with Ryuudamon, just stay here!" growled Steven. The young man turned and started to walk away, "Just be careful and don't go wandering off, we'll be back in a couple of days." He disappeared into the shadows of the forest.
"Brother…" whispered Mark quietly. He sniffed quietly. Lucemon put a hand on the boy's shoulder. "Don't worry, they will be back, Ryuudamon is strong."
"Ok," whispered Mark quietly.
888
"You are obsessing," said a male voice quietly to the curvaceous woman that was sprawled out on her futon. She was looking into a pool of light which showed the images of Mark and Lucemon. Her cat like ears flicked backwards.
"Feh, I never said anything when you took that girl," growled the feline woman. "If you're allowed your, interests, then I am allowed mine."
"The Child of Hope?" queried the male quietly, with an intrigued raise of an eyebrow, as he walked forward looking in the small puddle of light.
"Close, the child is not nearly as interesting to me as the angel," smirked the woman quietly. She sat up and her green eyes flickered in the light. "You do know who he is, don't you?"
"Of course, he is Lucemon," said the man quietly as he put a clawed hand on the woman's shoulder.
The woman's green eyes flashed over to man's face. "Do you think my shoulder is a hand rest?"
The man instantly removed his hand. "I am sorry, mistress."
"Of course you are," Her eyes flicked upwards. "Tsukaimon!" A purpled hamster with a white undercarriage and large bat like wings for ears flew out of the shadows.
"Yes mistress," the hamster landed and bowed deeply to the feline woman. The woman stood slowly and walked forward her hips gently swaying back and forth. Her twin tails swept behind her as the rings on the tails jangling softly.
"I wish for you to capture the angel, Lucemon, for me," said the feline in a soft sultry voice. She bent down and stroked the hamster's head gently sliding her claws through the purple digimon's fur.
"Of…course…." Tsukaimon purred loudly, "I'll go...and bring the angel back to you."
The feline let out a pleased purring mmm, and stood again. She turned slowly, walking back to her futon and sitting daintily on the crimson cushion. Her green eyes flashed in the fire light.
"What of the child?" the man asked quietly from behind the feline. His figure was slightly obscured by shadows.
"Leave him to the Digital World, I'm sure one of our, pets, will be hungry enough to take the scrawny human," said the woman with dismissing hand motion.
"Are you sure you wish to do that?" asked the man quietly. "We are talking about Lucemon here. As long as the human is thought to be alive, he will be most adamant about being freed."
"Trust me, Lord Lucemon is not in the condition he was in when he made his bid for the worlds, but I am sure I can persuade him to return to his former glory," purred the woman and she slid a single clawed finger over her ear and flashed an innocent yet dangerous look to the man in the shadow. "And I shall be at his right hand."
"If you believe in your…persuasiveness so much, then I have no recourse then to believe in you myself," replied the man and disappeared into the shadow.
"Someone is getting a little starched in their buffled pants," scowled the feline and she looked down at the floor and narrowed her eyes at the hamster still lying there, "Don't you have to go somewhere?" she growled and flashed a red ribbon at the ground in front of the little digimon. The brickwork was cut and the digimon flashed backwards in fear.
"I'm sorry, mistress!" yelped the digimon as it scrambled out of the room.
888
"He's back," said Michelle in a slow solemn voice from a wooden chair in front of a desk. Her hands were lightly bound by soft silken ropes. Labramon looked up to see their winged captor walking forward from the only door in the room. The retriever struggled against the chains.
"Let us go!" yelped Labramon as the figure moved forward.
"So, the young one is still alive," said the figure quietly. The girl looked up at the man without saying a world, "Such a strong soul in this one, of course I shouldn't be surprised." A long metallic blade slid out from one of the sheaths on the figure's hip. "I'll just have to keep this up until there is nothing but a body left."
A red pulse sprang from the blade and enveloped Michelle. The girl winced as the red burned through her body. The pulse didn't hurt her skin or even the inner organs but something much direr. A portion of the flicker that lived in her heart died. It shriveled up like a spent ember and disappeared into the darkness. The girl sank forward in her chair.
"RRRrrr RETRIEVE BARK!" snarled Labramon. The figure smirked as the pink burst rocketed toward him. The figure lifted its hand and a dark shield flashed up ensnaring the burst and fading it to nothing.
"Fool, do you want more punishment?" asked the figure as a stream of darkness snapped at the retriever like a black viper. Labramon sneered and growled as darkness ravaged the dog digimon.
Michelle looked up blankly at her partner. She knew something wasn't right and that she should be doing something, but why she needed to do something and what exactly was wrong with what was going on seemed to escape her mind. "Labramon?"
"Michelle," hissed the retriever through gritted teeth.
"Please don't be so loud, it's upsetting," whispered the child quietly and then lowered her head as if a great weight had been chained to her ears.
888
Ice Devimon walked slowly through the halls of his mistress's palace. He turned and looked out of a window over the plush city of nurseries that rested beneath the palace. A cold smiled played across his lips.
"HEY YOU!" yelped an annoying voice and he turned slowly to see Tsukaimon, the annoying little pet of his mistress.
"What do you want, wimp?" he growled softly.
"Ice Devimon!" the little hamster growled loudly. "You will not address me so informally! I am Tsukaimon, head archivist and advisor to our mistress!"
"More like head gopher," he replied quietly and lifted his white claws up. "Now, what do you need?"
"I need your help, to procure an angel!" growled the hamster. "I figured you'd be strong enough to deal with Lucemon."
The ice devil narrowed its red eyes and stared at Tsukaimon, "I don't think so…"
"You can't refuse me!" yelped Tsukaimon.
The moonlight slid along the slender white claws of the devil, "Oh I can refuse you, and you wouldn't like it if I got serious about my refusal."
"You wouldn't dare, if you did that, the mistress would cut you to shreds!" growled the hamster loudly.
"Oh I doubt…" The devil moved forward and then sensed something behind him he turned his white, horned head to see a feline woman standing behind him.
"Actually, even though he can be slightly annoying, I do find myself enjoying this little pillow, so don't think about destroying him so, casually," said the female quietly. Ice Devimon let out a small growl. The female let out a little pout, "Oh don't be that way…" She walked forward and laid a clawed hand on his chest. "I care for all my minions, it's just, Tsukaimon is rather cute, in his annoying little way…"
"Somehow I don't feel so proud about that," mumbled Tsukaimon quietly as he glided forward.
"Now, go on," said the female as she past by. "I want my prize."
"Come, I have a plan, but I'll need you and a portion of your data," grumbled Tsukaimon as he glided past the snow devil, "and don't dawdle back there!"
"So help me," grumbled Ice Devimon quietly as he opened his tattered wings, "if I get through this without destroying you, it will make me a Seraphimon."
"You wish," the purple hamster sniped as it glided into the shadows.
888
Lucemon looked at Mark quietly. The boy was eating what was left of their meal that Lucemon had caught earlier that day. The moon was rising slowly over the treetops. The boy's brother was still not back, it had been a week and there was no sign of him even being close by.
"Lucemon…do you think the others are ok?" asked Mark quietly.
"I am sure they are fine," replied the angel quietly. He looked at the blue eyes that were behind glass. "I am more worried about your safety here, alone, with me. I fear that I cannot hold him back indefinitely…I thought after our little scuffle with Ornyxmon…but no, how can I be a partner digimon? I can't trust myself not to destroy my partner…"
"Is something wrong, Lucemon?" asked Mark quietly as he poked at the fire.
"No, just thinking," replied the angel.
"What are you thinking about?" Mark looked up and pushed his glasses up on his nose.
"Nothing important," Lucemon replied softly as he looked into the flames.
"Purple Fog!" a lavender ball exploded into the clearing. A sweeping mist enshrouded Lucemon and Mark.
"LUCEMON!" shouted the boy.
"I'm here, just stay…" A cold sensation ran down his back. The angel looked up and from the billowing mist came a tall white figure with large tattered wings and a horned head.
"Lucemon…finally!" the figure smiled.
"Get back!" growled Lucemon as the figure quirked its head to one side and looked at the angel with a questioning gaze.
888
Mark stepped forward from the mist. Lucemon wasn't far from him or at least Mark had thought so, but the angel was growling at him. A swirl of purple swept between them. Lucemon was no longer Lucemon. A large demon was standing in front of Mark. Large white fingers reached forward.
Mark staggered backwards and fell on his butt. He reached out and his hand grabbed around a large branch and he swung forward. The demon hopped backward.
888
Ice Devimon slashed forward. Lucemon hopped backward and pushed his hand in front of him. A burst of light swept forward and the demon seemed to scramble sideways to miss the attack.
"Something with this is wrong," growled Lucemon as he looked around him into the swirls of dark purple. "Where is Mark?"
"What do you mean?" asked the devil. The claws flashed forward.
888
"Where is Mark?" growled the demon.
"What do you mean?" yelped Mark as he swung around trying to evade bursts of energy. "I'm Mark!"
"I am not an idiot, don't lie to me!" growled the beast. It roared and then pounced slamming Mark to the ground and pinning his shoulders. "Tell me, where he is or I will rip you to shreds!"
"I'm Mark, I'm Mark!" shouted the boy loudly, tears ran down his cheeks. The murky swirls of water and fog twisted across his vision. Finally in one instance of clarity the image of Lucemon was growling over him. The demon was Lucemon. Mark shouted loudly as the angel lifted its glowing fist. "LUCEMON DON'T IT'S ME, IT'S ME!"
"I told you not to lie!" shouted the angel. He was looking around in irritation.
"If I thought Lucemon was a beast, then…" The light in his head flickered to life. "Lucemon it's me, Mark! The fog is making tricks!"
"Lucemon! Get off of him!" shouted a familiar voice. "Hurry, he must have went psycho again!"
"Little Blizzard!" The angel leapt backward as a burst of winter cut the fog. Mark stood in surprise and turned to see… "Kevin…Snow Agumon…."
Kevin held up a wildly beeping digivice that erupted into a blazing light. The fog washed away like silt in a river. Lucemon looked down.
"Mark…" whispered the angel. He was gliding above the scene. Suddenly from behind him came two long white arms.
"Hurry, we haven't much time!" shouted a voice. A purple hamster shot out of the trees.
"Frost Claw!" growled the white devil that followed the long white arms as the claws touched Lucemon in the back. The angel's skin and wings hardened and a blue tinge laced his flesh. The demon snatched up the angel and turned.
"LUCEMON!" shouted Mark loudly.
"Little Blizzard!" A white burst flashed forward but the demon dodged it before disappearing into the trees.
Mark chased after the devil. Snow Agumon and Kevin followed in pursuit. The winged fiends escaped into the sky though. They even left a horrible purple fog in the forest as an ultimate deterrent.
"No…" Mark looked to the sky.
"Don't worry, we'll get him back, no matter what," said Kevin quietly as he placed his hand on Mark's shoulder.
"No, you don't understand," Mark looked up with apprehension. "I'm the only one that hasn't left now."
"What do you mean?" Kevin looked at the boy.
"Everyone else went off," replied the boy. "Michelle disappeared in the night, we think someone caught her, Janet went off to look for Michelle. Jason went after Janet. Amy left because she felt she was being pushed out. Brendan went to search for anyone he could find, and then my brother said he was going to go look for the others as well, but he said he'd be back here in a couple days, it's been almost a week!"
"Maybe he found someone and they had information on someone else," said Kevin with a shrug.
"I don't think Steven would leave his little brother here, alone without at least coming back to tell him where he was going," said Snow Agumon quietly.
Mark nodded slightly. "He left me with Lucemon, but I don't think Steven trusts Lucemon very much, especially with the track record, and I know he thinks I'm being immature for trusting Lucemon, but he's my partner…I doubt he'd willingly let me stay with Lucemon alone for more than a couple of days. He would've found a way to send a message at the very least."
"Then we have no choice," said Kevin quietly. He looked up at the growing night. "We'll stay here for the night, I think those bad digimon got what they wanted, though why they want Lucemon is beyond me. Tomorrow we'll start out together, ok?"
Mark smiled a little and nodded. "Ok, do you really think we'll find Lucemon?"
"No doubt in my mind," smiled Kevin as he drew Mark in close around the shoulders and walked back to the fire.
888
Well, things haven't been going great for everyone, and what will the mistress do when she finally has Lucemon in her grasps?
AN:
Dark Qiviut: Yep, it was supposed to be a bit like Tai's return. If you look things are rather, close to the series, I try to be different, but the problem is, when you kind of template a story things seemed to be happening similarly but they aren't one hundred percent similar. Like the motivations. There are different wants between Assaultmon and Etemon on a character level, Assaultmon wants world domination because he believes Mechanical Digimon are fundamentally superior to organics, Etemon wanted power because he has an inferiority complex and needed his 'fandom' to appease his starving ego.
I hope to show you a massive difference between the coming mistress and villain and Myotismon (the first one is that Myotismon was never subservient to anyone, like the mistress is to Chaos Piedmon), Heck there is also a difference in the way Chaos Piedmon is acting now and the way he acted as Piedmon (Even though they are the same character, Piedmon digivolved or slid digivolved to Chaos Piedmon, if that wasn't apparent in the beginning.) so things may look the same but they are different, rather like a rhombus and a square, they are both equilateral quadrilaterals but a square is also equi-angular and a rhombus isn't.
Anyways, I have a test coming up that will span two days, plus a mediocre paper to write, thusly things may go slow for a couple of days, and since Assaultmon, and my overall disenfranchisement with how that part of the fic went burned up my extra chapters, things will be a bit slow this week.
I also will probably get flack for this, but yes there is more Lucemon angst to come, now I know I've been laying a lot on Lucemon, but, really this is his story, it is as much about his redemption for his deeds in Fall of Harmony as it is about the battle against the overlords of the Digital World, now, really in all essence this arc coming up will be the first time the digi-destined have ever really been separated, even on File Island they were in groups of two and three, so I am hoping to flesh out some of these characters. Part of the reason the heroes haven't been snatched up in as much character development is because I find villains so much more fun to write for, heroes can be, well bluntly put, duller than dishwater; just look at Superman