s/k: Ok, can anyone give me accurate information on Ryo's digimon partner and his evolutions? I've scoured the internet and gotten at least three different sets of possibilities. It's frustrating, to say the least. That and a quick thanks to Forlorn Melody who corrected me on the colour of Ryo's D-arc, it's always appreciated when you guys review!
Ch. 8
Rika and Renamon had split into their separate forms, and were floating aimlessly in the black void
"Sokoyamon!" A voice echoed faintly. Rika twisted in the blackness to see who it was, not really expecting to see anything. Images began to flash all around the pair, mostly happy memories Rika had of the Tamers. One of the pictures kept coming back; it was one that Henry had on the digital camera he'd been given for his birthday. For the next 3 months he'd been on a practical rampage working on photo composition, lighting, anything he could weasel out of the photography teacher on the second floor. For three weeks he'd done nothing but composition, and had been using Takato, Jeri, Rika, Ryo and Suzi. He even used Kazu once in a while. But the picture that kept appearing was of Rika and Ryo.
Under the large, shady tree that Ryo and Takato had been eating lunch under was where the pair were standing. Rika wrapped in Ryo's jacket and arms. He had a small smile decorating his features, and Rika had her head tucked under his chin, her hair lifting slightly in the wind. It was one of the pictures Henry had carried on about for ages once he'd gotten it printed in sepia.
It was while Rika's thoughts were distracted that her partner disappeared, and that Landersmon let part of his consciousness slip inside her own; because that's where she was, inside her mind.
"You know," He said quietly, making himself a part of the darkness that smothered the girl. "I don't think it will make a difference whether you're there or not."
Rika raised her eyebrows. "You're going to try playing mind games with me?" A small smirk rose to accompany her new expression of… almost amusement.
The essence of Landersmon grinned back. "Why should I not at least try? What makes you so sure that I'm not telling the truth, that I am indeed playing games?" He paused to let the different ideas slip into her conscious thought and stir restlessly. "The silver Tamer himself admitted that it was easier to fight if you were out of the way."
She paused for a second, her mind turning over 'silver Tamer', she decided that the 'silver' part must be referring to Ryo because of the colors on his D-arc. Landersmon grinned evilly as he felt her figure it out. "None of them need you, it's not like you're the elite of the group, if anything that's the silver Tamers role to play. Never yours, he supports the others, you shoot them down. He watches out for them, you look out for yourself. He - "
Rika knew that some of what he said had a kernel of truth to it; she knew that other things he was saying were simply there to make the list seem long. Overall she decided she was doing an excellent job of ignoring him. Eventually, he also noticed her ignoring him. Aggravated, he mentioned something he knew she would not leave alone.
"He remains loyal to the group, you never considered such a thing important. He would never abandon the group, you would leave them the moment it would benefit yourself – "
"You're wrong." Rika said quietly, her eyes betraying her, whispering silently that that comment at least, had hit home. "No one should be abandoned, under any circumstances." She glared at the monstrosity smothering her in blackness. For a moment she felt like a small child trying to prove she was right to a parent, or some other adult that could have cared less, remembering just how much less her father had appeared to care when he'd left. I'm not 4, and this isn't some stupid argument over who ate the last cookie.
"It could be considered an old fashioned concept, but I'm completely loyal to all of them." She looked left and right in her dark expanse of nothing, as if hunting for some physical evidence that Landersmon was really there. When he appeared in front of her, also seeming to float weightless, he was pleased to see that the spark of he'd been aiming for had lit. She was going to fight back.
( & )
Justimon rolled to the side, barely missing the Master's foot as it came crashing down on the floor where his head had been only a moment ago. Sokoyamon, where are you!
"Justimon!" Suzi yelled over the noise that accompanied any battle.
"What?" Justimon growled, trying to pay attention and get out of the way at the same time. They moved to the left trying to dodge another attack, but they were too slow. The blow sent Justimon sailing into the wall; completely out of the pair's control, they split into Cyberdramon and Ryo, then Cyberdramon de-digivolved again to Monodramon. Ryo groaned, he was generally in one piece, a few bruises starting to blossom on his arms from the fight.
The black digimon advanced, showing its pleasure at their situation with a broad smirk. "I knew you couldn't win!" He kicked Ryo over onto his side, breaking a rib in the process.
"Ah!" Ryo gasped, it was like someone had driven a knife into his side. "Rika…" He muttered gritting his teeth, it hurt so much. Don't cry! Don't cry! He thought desperately. That would just put the icing on his cake! Despite himself, the figure above him blurred.
"She can't help you," It said quietly, it seemed to echo in the otherwise silent cell. "She couldn't help you if she wanted to!" The sleek digimon laughed, knowing that its statement had left a gaping hole in Ryo's mind.
( & )
Rika tilted her chin a little, challenging Landersmon openly. Her entire self began to radiate a bright indigo glow.
Landersmon knew what would happen next, so he set out avoiding the inevitable, first by taking away his image and fading into the blackness again. Despite this, he could still feel her subconscious hunting him. "You won't be able to find me…" He declared, making his voice come from several points all around the red-haired Tamer.
"…and you can't keep me here forever. Why don't you just stop hiding and face me instead?"
The hunters she had no idea she'd sent out in her consciousness doubled their efforts, showing her frustration with her opponent. He knew it wouldn't be too much longer until he was found and probably violently forced from her mind.
Bored with his game now, Landersmon let himself be found, and pushed out. He appeared through the black to Rika's left, she turned to watch him as he was deleted, much too both beings surprise. "How can you do this? You don't even know what your power is and you can use it against me." He stated calmly. "It's not possible, but here you are doing it. I didn't think it'd be taken this far."
"Well, it's technically impossible for the bumblebee to fly, it doesn't seem to care," She smiled, wondering why he wasn't putting up a fight if he knew he was being deleted.
As the last of the strange red dragon-ish digimon was deleted, Rika felt herself being released back into her body, and the heavy push of gravity, feeling much stronger then it should have.
( & )
"Why are you doing this!" Suzi screamed, tears of fear sliding unchecked down her cheeks. "We didn't do anything to you!" For a child in fourth grade, Suzi was taking everything around her very well, and proving she was a Tamer.
"Oh, how sweet. Standing up for your friends' boyfriend, I'm touched!" It snarled, and left Ryo to go torment this new prey that had caught its attention.
"Hey!" Ryo shouted from his corner, despite his current state, he was still trying vainly to keep its attention away from the others. "I thought you were going to finish me off!" He had managed to stand, with the help of the wall he'd just been thrown through.
"You're no longer a threat, Tamer." The black digimon spat the last word contemptuously, making Ryo feel just as helpless as he knew he was. "You've three broken ribs, another cracked, a fractured elbow, a twisted ankle, a broken shin, numerous bruises, cuts and lacerations, a whopping of internal damage and to top it off a black eye that must have done you brain damage because you're still after me. What kind of a threat is a Tamer that can hardly stand?" He turned back to Suzi, "Now, where were we? Oh, I remember." he picked up the small girl by her left wrist and snatched the D-arcs from her.
Ryo's mind was chasing its tail in endless circles, what can I do? He looked at his own D-arc loosely in his hand. "Monodramon?" He whispered.
"Yes?"
"We've gotta try and biomerge again." He turned his dirt streaked face to look at his partner.
"We can try, but I don't think it'll work." Monodramon muttered. He knew it wouldn't work, neither of them had anywhere near enough energy to concentrate properly, and Ryo was just shy of beaten to a pulp.
"All right, biomerge!" Ryo tried to stand tall, and hit the ground instead, D-arc flying from his grasp and skittering across the floor. "Ah!" he yelped, curling around himself, trying not to breathe hard or put any pressure on his chest. He wasn't going anywhere. Rika…
( & )
Rika was no longer floating aimlessly in the black void from before, and she could feel herself uncncious in her body, but frankly, she was bored. There wasn't anything she could do here, the others could be in a huge amount of trouble, and there she was, unable to raise a finger.
A point of red light started glowing in front of her, at first she dismissed it as her mind playing tricks on her, but once it was roughly the size of her fist, she couldn't really ignore it any longer as a hallucination. Hesitantly, she reached out mentally and brushed it with her fingers, her world flipped over in a 3.60. She landed on a cold stone floor flat on her back.
"Ouch!" She muttered, her head was throbbing from the impact. She was back inside the cell where they'd been brought by Landersmon. Sitting up, she immediately noticed that the cell was almost completely destroyed. Whole sections of brick looked as if they'd been hit hard enough that they'd fallen out of their places, exposing the bare dirt on the other side. The bars of the door were twisted and warped, but Landersmon was no longer holding Lopmon, he was no where in sight. She felt a brief moment of satisfaction before another thought all together hit her: Where's Ryo?
She whipped around, ignoring her pounding headache as best she could and stood up. She turned her eyes to the back corner of the cell and saw Suzi fly into Jeri, waking the unconscious girl with a shout of terror.
Seeing Rika, it laughed, then turned and left the cell, calling: "You can't help them Tamer! They're beyond your care!"
Rika got up and scrambled over to Ryo, he looked about dead, Monodramon no better. "Ryo? Ryo it's Rika, can you hear me?" Her voice broke, telling her just how scared she was. He didn't respond. "Damnit Akiyama!"
Her D-arc started beeping, breaking the silence that hung over the cell. "Stupid thing!"
"Rika?" A voice crackled. "We've followed your D-arcs signals, and they match up but you not here. If you're getting this, please respond." She recognized the voice, it was Takato.
"We're underground, look for a hole in the rock!" She ended the communication and brutally drove her clenched fist into the wall, trying vainly to vent her frustration. He's breathing, at least he's breathing… she told herself. Forcefully, she transferred her attention to the two others, both sitting silently staring at her on the other side of the cell.
"Suzi?" She asked quietly. "You don't need to say anything, but you should put on this sweater, okey?" The small girl stood up slowly, crossing the distance to Rika and letting the older girl tug the maroon sweater Ryo had given Rika earlier over her head. "There you go. You can stay with Jeri over there if you want." Rika let her eyes fall to the blood and dirt smeared floor stones. There had obviously been quite a battle. She was furious at Landersmon and herself for missing it, she felt responsible for the others injuries.
Suzi pattered away to sit by Jeri again, the four plainly divided. Rika ignored the sick feeling in her core, concentrating harder on the stones in front of her. Beside her, she could feel Ryo stir a little, he tried to cough and she turned him on his side. She knew very, very little about life-saving anything, but choking on your own blood was something she'd learned of herself.
He finished coughing, starting to breath with more command of himself, although the air passing in and out of him gave a rattling, ragged sound. Ryo looked up to see who was supporting his back, helping him to stay on his side. "Rika. . .?" He was certain he was delusional, how could Rika have come back, where Raina had not? His vision swam, he was dizzy from loss of blood, and everything hurt.
She moved a hand to rest on his side, only to whip is back like some sort of snake was waiting when he cried out. "Sorry! Sorry! Sorry!" She panicked a little, backing away, accidentally backing his support away too. He rolled back onto his back, head hitting the floor with a quiet smack. He closed his eyes tightly, faced pulled taunt as he tried not to make a sound.
Rika narrowed her eyes. "You're being stupid now, it hurts, so admit it and stop trying to play the chivalrous knight, immune to pain." She had started as if she was going to lecture him, but she finished softly, almost chiding him.
Footsteps echoed down the stone hall outside the cell, followed by voices all of the battered Tamers recognized. "Hello? Rika? Jeri?" Takato called nervously.
"Suzi? Rika?" Henry added his voice too.
"Guys, it's gotten very, very quiet in there…" Kenta cautioned, the first words he'd spoken since the beach.
"We're down here!" Jeri cried, standing up unsteadily and running out of the cell to Takato. He pulled her into a tight hug, feeling her tears soak through his thin blue hoodie.
"Shhh, it's ok Jeri, I'm here, we're here. It's ok…"
Suzi was only a split second behind Jeri, almost tripping on the long sleeves of Ryos sweater she threw herself at her older brother. Henry caught her up in a hug to rival a bears, she was not leaving his sight in this world again.
Inside the cell, Ryo opened his eye a little, and put a small shadow of his trademark smirk on. "I'm not immune to pain, or something dumb like that. Just a little reckless, that's all." He relaxed, passing out properly as his body settled closer to her. Rika bowed her head, scared, tired… the others would see her in a minute, and they'd know what to do. Henry always had a plan.
Kenta gasped as he came around the corner into the cell and saw the destruction. A lump rose into his throat, cutting off any chance of spoken words. When his eyes finally settled on the only two people remaining in the cell, he wandered quietly over and sat by Rika.
Henry stepped forward and came carefully through the door, still carrying Suzi in a kind of forward piggy-back. Takato and Jeri followed, Jeri tightly gripping her boyfriends hand in boy her own. They stood in a quiet group just inside the twisted and dented remains of the door. Henry finally breaking the silence.
"I think we need to go."
Everyone stared at him, his simple statement forcing someone to answer. "How do you plan on moving Ryo?" Rika asked quietly through gritted teeth, vying not to let her voice waver at all.
"We can use the new cards, I'm pretty sure that so long as we're all physically connected it'll transport everyone." He turned enough to make eye contact with Takato and nod his head towards Rika, Kenta and Ryo in a sort of 'come on' gesture. The pair trailed behind him as he picked his way around a few large chunks of rock and other debris. They assembled around Ryo, and one-by-one turned their heads towards Henry. When everyone looked ready, he swiped the yellow card. "The ocean front!"
