"Yes... I am a Digi." Mizumi stood straight, relaxing, and so did the reaction caused on the poor laptop.
"But why?" Kenji stared at her sadly, "Why have you thrown your life off board like that?" he inquired.
"I didn't choose this, Onii-chan!" Mizumi deffended herself, looking slightly annoyed at her brother's disgust, "But, to be honest, this last year has been the best of my life!"
"Sorry, Mizumi, but I don't have a sister any more." Kenji snapped coldly, retreating through the door and vanishing into the darkness of the corridor.
Mizumi let her shoulders fall tired. This was not what she had expected, this wasn't going the way she would have wanted. Mizumi always thought her brother would get to know it, eventually, and he would be by her side. Who would have thought she would be enemy with her brother, her only brother. With a sigh, Mizumi sat once again in front of her computer. There was a lot of work to do, and the sooner, the better. Suddenly, the computer's screen faded into a total darkness, as if she had turned it of. At first, the woman got scared, thinking that her uncontrolled anger might have ruined the laptop, and all the contents in it.
"Mizumi!" green letters began to appear.
"What?" Mizumi gasped watching how her laptop was comunicating with her.
"Mizumi, are you there? I'm Ryu!" the letters spoke.
"Ryu..." Mizumi laughed softly, glancing at the letters with a smile, "How are you doing this?" Mizumi typed on her screen, trying the most obvious solution.
"No time to explain now. Come to the Hideout inmediatly, it's urgent!" Ruy typed furiously, the green words looking desperate.
"On my way." Was Mizumi's concise and direct answer.
Without loosing a single second of her time, Mizumi picked her laptop and penetrated The Line. Whatever was going on, it was bad, very bad. The red headed woman rushed across the digital ways at a fast run, loosing her breath and waisting no time. There was the door, flashing white and bright as always. Mizumi's heart started beating rapidly, worry freezing her veins. Something was wrong, she could sense it.
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Ryu stood before the computer screen, at a good distance, observing it through his bright, blue eyes and with his arms crossed. Although the man looked impassive, the shadow floating over his eyes demonstrated he was worried. The wait wasn't long, for minutes later the screen began to glow a blinding white light, and the figure of a woman materialized in front of Ryu.
"I got the data!" Mizumi exclaimed as she regained her phisical matter, "What happened?" she questioned, glancing around fearfully, expecting to see Agents coming from behind the wires and the thick tubes.
"That's great, Mizumi." Ryu said, though his voice denoted he was troubled by something.
"What happened, Ryu? Where is Tk?" Mizumi inquired more preocupied, realizing that the man was nowhere in the room. Nor were Mia, Takato and Chiyo, but that was not that special.
"Takeru... was captured by the Agents." Ryu sigued, shaking his head sadly, "I'm sorry."
"No..." Mizumi's voice was weak and strangled, "NO..." the woman's voice became a mixture between a desperate yell and beastly shriek, which sent goosebumps coursing through Ryu's skin.
Mizumi collapsed on a heap. Hugging her laptop strongly, as if that was the last achor to the great life she had just lost, Mizumi let her grief flow in the form of large tears. Not only had she lost her father deffinitely, but her brother was her enemy, and Takeru had been captured. Tk, her friend, mentor, and the only man she had truly loved.
"I believe this is the end. We should tell the people and leave the Hideout. Travel somewhere else, perhaps rustic China, somewhere where the Agents can't detect us." Ryu suggested, while clearing his throat several times to maintain a control over his emotions.
"NO!" Mizumi snapped severely all of a sudden, raising her eyes and caressing the laptop, "It is not the end. We have the cure, and we have the power. It is time to fight!" Mizumi affirmed valiantly, standing up and looking serious and determined.
"But how? The good players are on the other team!" Ryu said sardonically.
"Making them from our team once again!" Mizumi said with a clever smile, situating her laptop on the table and sitting before it.
Ryu thought she had gone bonkers. However, he knew better than to go against the principles of an enamoured woman. Turning around to leave Mizumi at some peace, the blond man went to check on Chiyo, who was guarding her father's caje.
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Mizumi had been working all night. The black, gentle eyes, were all trailed with red veins, puffy, and had began to ache. Dark rings were crowning the puffy, swollen skin below her eyes. A rather nasty headache was puncturing her forehead and her temples. It was no secret that she was exhausted, but a pleased, happy smile was crossing her lips. There, she had managed it, the antivirus had been created. It was simple now, just materialize this antivirus in the form of injections, the same the Agents had done with the virus. That last thought made Mizumi think, if only Digis could materialize digital data, how could they have materialized the virus?
"There, done." The woman said through a stiffled yawn while picking one of the large shots.
"Is this the Hideout?" the laptop's screen went black again, and green letters began to appear.
"Depends. Who are you?" Mizumi typed suspiciously, although Digis could do this, the Agents had now a whole team of Digis under their control.
"I've got inportant information about the virus." The stranger typed, rapid and creating various typos.
"I listen." The woman answered dryly, yet interested.
"The antivirus might be enough. However it will take some time to work. To make things faster, a significant word, something important, will make the affected recover full mind control. However, that is not enough, the virus is still inside and the affected might fall again." The stranger typed, the sentences so rushed they ran over each other confusingly.
"Thank you for the information. Are you a Digi?" Mizumi inquired curiously, smiling gently, more animated than she had been at the beggining of the night.
"Yes. Listen, I don't have much time. They might discover me." The stranger was, apparently, worried.
"Just one thing, how did you discover that significant word?" Mizumi quiestioned, as fast has her fingers could write.
"Because Takeru pronounced it." The computer responded, more slowly.
"Takeru? He is alive!" Mizumi shrieked with joy, yet she had always been hopeful, "One last thing, out of curiosity, which was that significant word?" Mizumi inquired, smiling softly.
"You." The stranger typed after several seconds of silence, which made Mizumi believe that the Digi had left the line.
"Daddy?" Mizumi whispered, realizing now who the stranger was.
The computer returned to normal. Izzy had left the line, and Mizumi simply prayed that he had vanished for his own security. It didn't matter, he was alive and it was all that Mizumi cared for at the moment. Tears of joy were falling through her cheeks in rivers, and a happy smile was spreading across her lips. Glancing at the shots, the woman understood now what had to be done. Determined, rubbing her cheeks and eyes rapidly, Mizumi picked one of the injections and walked out of the room.
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Depressive looking, saddened, seated on the floor with her arms hugging her knees, Chiyo vigilated her father's uneasy slumber. It was like watching a man at a hospital, who has most chances of passing away. Jake was looking so ill, his skin was gray, and his hair was a night, bluish black. Slowly, his eyes, now closed, had turned hollow and souless. Chiyo was desperate, in her blank and impassive features was hidden a stumbling hope.
"Chiyo..." whispered Mizumi, not too sure of how to enter the woman's intense concentration.
"Hum?" Chiyo turned to look at Mizumi, her eyes so swollen it almost seemed that she hadn't slept in days. "Oh, hi Mizumi." The woman said lacking all sentiment, turning once again to watch the sleeping man.
Mizumi approached the woman timidly. It didn't take her long to see that, curled in a corner, on the floor, was Ryu deep asleep. It seemed that he had tried to give Chiyo some company, but eventually he hadn't been able to keep his body functioning. It was odd. The man was sleeping on the floor like an animal, and he didn't seem to care any bit. Shrugging, Mizumi returned her attention to Chiyo.
"Chiyo, I've got the antivirus." The younger Digi said with a smile, showing Chiyo a shot on the palm of her open hand.
"Mizumi..." Chiyo said, staring at it with bright, hopeful eyes. "You did it!" it was the first time Mizumi had seen Chiyo smile with so much sincerity.
With a smile, Mizumi nodded proudly. No more words were crossed, and the red headed opened the metallic barred door to enter into the jail like room. Jake oppened his eyes and eyed Mizumi with studious glances, like a bad tempered feline, waiting to see what the woman would do. Mizumi stopped, stared at Jake for a moment, cold, nervous yet keeping herself as tranquil as possible.
Suddenly, Mizumi leapt forward and injected the shot on Jake's left shoulder, the same one where he had been punctured to introduce the virus. The man growled like a wounded beast, and stood up, glaring at the woman angrily. A beam of shadow was shot at Mizumi, who leapt aside and rolled on the floor, evading it easily. However, that movment got her cornered against two walls, trapped into the fussion of the two lovers. Jake was aproaching slowly, like a cat, calculating, knowing that the last blow would be the triumph for him.
"Chiyo, tell him something, HURRY!" Mizumi shrieked desperately, staring at Jake with slight fear.
"But what? Why is it not working?" Chiyo questioned, looking worried at the situation inside.
"It does, just takes it time..." Mizumi explained through a high pitched voice, pressing her back harder against the cold, greasy wall. "CHIYO!"
"Papa, daddy, it's me! Chiyo!" the woman attempted, lookign with horrifed eyes that it wasn't working.
"Think something that might have been important for him!" Mizumi yelled, turning her head sideways as the man approached, crouched on the floor, ready to kill.
"Something important, something important..." Chiyo mumbled, looking at the interesting tiles on the floor, licking the index finger of her right hand.
"CHIYO!" Mizumi was desperate now, her eyes had been shut tightly as Jake pounced on her.
"I know!" Chiyo exclaimed, raising her humid finger to point at the ceiling, "I knew you'd return, Papa!" the woman said, putting the most innocent and childish voice she could manage.
As soon as if started, it stopped. Jake's body sparkled for several minutes, engulfed in a current of bluish and purple electricity, lightning circling his body. The healthy, creamy colour returned to his cheeks and skin, and the night hair was replaced by his normal, chocolate hair. The most important fact was that he had recovered that glimmer, that spark of life in the depths of his eyes.
"Where am I? What happened?" Jake inquired, looking at his untidy body, and staring at the jail.
"You are at the Hideout!" Mizumi said through ragged breaths, gasping to recover the air, and to calm her beating heart.
"Mizumi... what?" Jake questioned, before turning around and seeing Chiyo.
"You are cured..." the woman affirmed, seeing how her father looked healthier than ever.
Suddenly, Jake remembered everything to the point where the virus took control of him, activating his most primordial instincts. With a bright smile, the man exited the jail and embraced Chiyo tightly, kissing her cheek lovingly and feeling the woman's tears moistening his rusty shirt. Mizumi smiled at the two, now half recovered from the tension and the knowledge that she was going to perish. Now she was eager to live that reincounter with her father... with Tk. As her heart twsted with a sharp ache, Mizumi knew certainly that she loved him much more than she had expected.
"Who is that?" Jake asked, watching the sleeping form of Ryu, still curled in a ball, and still on the floor.
"That? It's Ryu!" Chiyo said with a gentle smile, knowing her father was very forgetful sometimes, "Ignore him." She finished.
Mizumi laughed, covering her mouth with her hand. It was odd to see Chiyo behaving like a proud teenager, instead of the dry, cold and distant woman she was normally. Shaking her head, Mizumi walked out of the jail towards her chambers. Tomorrow would be a busy day, and they all had to rest. In the morning she would inform them of the plan she had in mind.
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To Be Continued...
AN: Which is the plan? Will it work? Will the Digis manage to save the other ones? Who created the shots? Deffinitely this is having more chapters than I expected. And I still didn't get any responses about THE CAR, the fic I was planning on writting. Also I'm not sure if you people are liking it, because none of the readers reviews to tell me. Well... guess I'll have to stop writting this, like I did two years ago. sigh