Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon.
A/N: Ken's POV is up next!
Following the Footsteps of Destiny
"Darkness hides from the light until it is ready to destroy it." -Duskmon (Season Four, Episode 30: Oh Brother, Who Art Thou?)
Chapter 47: Dangerous Minds
Vampiramon
Text, Southern Hemisphere, Digital World
Vampiramon slammed her fist into Dovemon's useless pedestal and let out a snarl of rage.
"You should learn to control your temper," a male voice said softly in her ear.
She whirled around in surprise and glared at DarkAngelicmon, who was standing behind her.
The fallen angel leaned against a tree and smiled in amusement. "That was quite a spectacular fight. Tirimon is an impressive champion, and Dovemon is a powerful rookie."
Vampiramon gave him a dirty look and kicked angrily at her skirts. "Whose side are you on anyway?" she snapped.
"I am loyal to our master, and that is all you need to know," he replied, giving her a faint smile. "I must say, I quite like the Ishida boy. He reminds me a lot of myself. He's a little cold around the edges, but I'm sure we can fix that. The humans may be an annoyance, when it comes to getting in the way of our plans, but that does not make them any less interesting."
Vampiramon sniffed and turned her back on him. "If you think I'm going to let you waste your time with human pets, forget it! We've got more important things to think about!"
He raised an eyebrow at her and smiled. "Really? What could be more important than the Digidestined?"
"The Spirit Chips!" she snapped, her emerald eyes flashing with anger. "Without those D-Coders, we won't be able to find the Spirit Chips!"
DarkAngelicmon seated himself on a rock and began to examine one of his black wings. "You're right, of course, but I wouldn't worry so much, if I were you. We have the Crests that once belonged to their parents. You know what that means, don't you? We're already halfway towards reaching our goal. It is only a matter of time before we have the D-Coders, as well."
"This is all Spritemon's fault!" she shouted, sitting down in the sand and smoothing out her skirts. She rested her cheek against the rock that DarkAngelicmon had chosen for a seat and glared at the pedestal. The object itself was not the actual cause of her problems, but it gave her something to take her anger out on. "Spritemon is too ambitious for her own good! How could she have let Dovemon join Takara? Doesn't she realize what a stupid mistake that was? As if that wasn't bad enough, she caused Alopemon to digivolve, as well! Our master will punish all of us for her failures! This cannot be allowed to happen again! Our master put me in charge, and from now on I expect everyone to obey my orders! If anyone dares to disobey me, I will see to it personally that they are destroyed!"
"Yes, Vampiramon. We would never dream of disobeying you," DarkAngelicmon replied, a small smile playing across his lips.
Vampiramon scowled at him and turned to glare at the pedestal again. She hated the fallen angel with a passion, and she was sure that the feeling was mutual. Unfortunately they had to at least pretend to get along for the sake of their master, but that did not mean she had to sit there and put up with his insults!
Once the Digidestined are out of the way, and I'm standing beside my master, I will be free to utterly destroy this sorry excuse for a fallen angel! Half the time I can't decide whether he wants to kill the Digidestined or adopt one of them as a partner! He must be killed, or he will end up ruining all of my plans. I cannot allow that! He will die at my hands, but first I must find a way to pin his death on someone else. After all, he is one of my master's most valuable servants. I could always blame it on BlackWidowmon, that snippy little-
"What do you suggest we do next?" DarkAngelicmon asked, interrupting her thoughts. "The Digidestined have managed to join up with five of their partners, and we still have not managed to steal any of the D-Coders."
Vampiramon slowly stood up, and she gave him a sweet smile. "We are going to stop Sam Ichijouji from ever getting his hands on his partner!"
DarkAngelicmon ran a hand through his long, black hair and nodded. "Go on."
"When Sam and his friends arrive here tomorrow to search for Glowmon, we will be waiting for them. I'm going to make sure that we destroy them before they have a chance to get anywhere close to that pathetic little rookie! That's when we'll steal the D-Coders, and we will not let Dovemon digivolve, understand?"
"Glowmon?"
DarkAngelicmon stared at her in surprise, and she smiled, pleased to have caught him off guard for once. "It took a while, but I was finally able to get that little piece of information out of Gennai. It's only a matter of time before he tells me everything he knows," she said, a smile of satisfaction slipping across her face.
DarkAngelicmon's green eyes lit up with excitement, and he reached out to take her hand. "The Emperor's son. I am going to enjoy meeting him. It's too bad that I never had the privilege of working with his father. Who knows? Maybe the Emperor would not have failed if I had been there to help him."
She yanked her hand out of his grip and let out a snort. "You are a fool, DarkAngelicmon!"
Her anger seemed to amuse him because he laughed softly, his lips twisting into a small smile. "There's a difference between being arrogant and being confident, Vampiramon. I have a feeling that Sam and I are going to become very good friends in the near future. The same goes for young Masato and his twin brother, only I have something more...special planned for them."
"What did I say about following my orders?" she snapped.
DarkAngelicmon stood up and gently ran his fingers through her dark red hair. "Of course," he said in a soothing tone. "Come. Let's head back to Cyber. Our master is waiting for us, and he can be very impatient."
He held out his arm, and she gave him a suspicious look.
Yes. He must be killed, otherwise we will all end up dying at the hands of the Digidestined.
She hooked her arm through his and gave him a brilliant smile. "For once, I agree with you, DarkAngelicmon. It is not wise to keep our master waiting."
They strolled arm in arm towards the stairs that led up the side of the cliff, and she managed not to flinch at the thought of what their master would do to them when he found out about Spritemon's failed attempt to stop the Digidestined.
Takara 'Kara' Kamiya
Odaiba, Japan, Earth
Takara stood next to Mickey in the computer room and smiled at her digimon partner, who was hopping around on one of the desks. "Dovemon, you've reverted back to your in-training form. Who are you now?" she asked, giving her partner a curious look.
"I'm Fluttermon," the little digimon replied, hopping into her arms.
Fluttermon was a small white head with large, violet eyes and two small wings. Her face resembled that of a bird, and there was a small green jewel in the middle of her forehead.
"I was really worried about you today," Fluttermon said quietly. "Spritemon could have hurt you really bad."
"Don't worry, Fluttermon, I'm fine," she murmured, giving her little partner a warm hug.
"Guys, we have a problem," Dai said, sitting down on a desk and crossing his arms. "We won't be able to use this computer room when we go to the Digital World tomorrow."
Mickey frowned and hugged Palelymon tightly to his chest. "You're right. Tomorrow is the weekend."
"We can use the computer at my house," Ryoko said, sitting down next to Dai and scratching DemiEmbermon's ears. "My parents won't be home tomorrow."
"Sounds good to me," DemiEmbermon said cheerfully. The little digimon was clinging to Dai's shoulder, and he beamed at Ryoko. Ryoko smiled back at DemiEmbermon, and Takara almost laughed at the expression on Dai's face. He looked like his eyes were going to pop out of his head.
Why can't they both see what's right in front of their faces?
"Come on, guys. We should go before Ema suddenly pops up out of nowhere and demands to know what we're doing in here," the goggle headed leader managed to say.
Takara laughed and shook her head. "I don't think that's going to happen, Dai."
"Why not?" Dai asked, frowning at her in confusion.
"My brother is the reason why Ema wasn't able to follow any of us to the computer room today."
She quickly told them about the conversation that she had had with Taysuke the night before, and they stared at her in amazement.
"Wow! I can't believe Tay would risk making Ema angry to help us!" Matty laughed.
"No kidding," Dai replied, grinning from ear to ear. "He's a brave kid!"
"I always knew we could count on him," Ryoko said softly.
Takara nodded in agreement and smiled at Dai. "You should have seen the way he distracted Ema, Taniko, and Kenzo to stop them from following us. We can definitely trust him to keep our secrets, not that he knows very much about what's going on, but you know what I mean!"
For some reason, Mickey and Matty both blushed, and she gave them a suspicious look.
"Remind me to thank your brother later," Dai said, getting to his feet. "Anyone who can manage to get Ema off my back deserves nothing but my utmost respect. I'll be in his debt forever! Come on, guys, let's go."
They were about to leave when Takara realized that Sam was making no effort to follow them out the door.
"Sam, are you okay?" Dai asked, looking concerned.
Apparently she was not the only one who had noticed Sam's strange behaviour.
"The Emperor," Sam whispered, his eyes sparkling with fear. "That's what Sirenmon called me. Why would she say that?"
Dai stared at him in confusion, and Takara let out a sigh. "Sirenmon said the same thing to me when you guys were all unconscious."
Sam's face grew very pale, and he gave her an anxious look. "I don't understand. I have a feeling that this Emperor everyone keeps talking about is a human or a digimon, but according to Andromon, he, or she, is nothing but a distant memory. Why would Sirenmon compare me to someone who existed a long time ago? Why would she compare me to someone who was evil?"
Takara stared at her friend in shock, and she jumped when Ryoko suddenly stepped forward and pulled Sam into a hug.
"Listen, Sam. I wouldn't worry about this too much, if I were you," the blond said softly. "I bet Spritemon and Sirenmon were just trying to mess with your mind so that they could find a way to use you to their advantage. All of this stuff about the Emperor doesn't mean anything. I'm sure of it. They can call you whatever they want, but nothing they say is ever going to change who you are."
Sam took a deep breath and slowly nodded. "You're right, Ryoko. I shouldn't have let them get to me."
"That's more like it!" Ryoko's arms tightened around Sam's shoulders, and the blond smiled. "You're an amazing person, Sam. Don't ever forget that."
Sam's eyes sparkled with sudden tears, and he wrapped his arms around Ryoko's waist. "So are you," he whispered, his voice trembling with emotion.
Takara turned to look at Dai, and she gave him a sympathic smile. The goggle headed leader was doing his best to ignore Ryoko and Sam, but she could see in his eyes that he would have given anything to be in Sam's place.
"Come on, guys, let's get out of here," she said softly, motioning for the others to follow her.
Ryoko's words seemed to have calmed Sam down a bit, but she could tell that her raven haired friend was not going to stop feeling uneasy until he knew for sure whether or not Sirenmon's words had meant anything.
She glanced at her twin cousins and frowned. Mickey and Matty had their heads together, and they were whispering softly to one another. It was obvious that they did not want anyone else to overhear what they were saying.
"What's wrong with you two?" she asked, giving them a suspicious look. "Both of you have been acting really strange today. Is something wrong?"
Mickey's face turned bright red, and he quickly pushed Matty out into the hallway. "No," the older twin stammered, giving her a weak smile. "Everything's fine. Um...see you guys tomorrow."
She watched her cousins leave the room and frowned.
Mickey and Matty are definitely hiding something, but what?
"I guess I'll just have to wait and see," she muttered, following Sam out of the computer room. She closed the door behind herself and frowned again. She had a bad feeling that she did not want to know what their secret was, but she knew that she was going to find out eventually, whether she wanted to or not.