42

Camaraderie

"And she speaks to me in a tongue I have never heard but have always known; and she tells of deathly things and of things beautiful beyond the ecstatic desires of love." – Clark Ashton Smith, "The Muse of Hyperborea"

Lilithmon sat upon her makeshift throne in the basement of the building Sato's group had transformed into their human world headquarters, idly tapping the armrest with her golden claws. She was waiting impatiently for the coming night, and reflecting on the loss of her minions, Neo- and LadyDevimon. She felt no sorrow for their deaths. She did, however, feel irked. With Astamon included, she had lost half of her gang now to the Chosen Children. She had hand-picked them from the World of Darkness after the Dark Man first spoke to her about Sato Katsu. They were good fighters and consummate fiends, and what most angered her was the idea that she had chosen poorly, her favorites being beaten by brats and their pets. This called for a reaction, for vengeance. If she was going to have any fun in this world, the Chosen Children would have to be defeated first.

"Come on, friends and neighbors," she called into the darkness around her. "Audience time!"

There was fluttering down one of the dim halls, and SkullSatamon swept in, driving the dank air before him. Behind came Baalmon, his long left arm slung back over his shoulder, and finally Phelesmon at a more stately pace. He bowed deeply, and the three demons waited for her to speak.

"You know LadyDevimon and NeoDevimon are dead?" she asked.

SkullSatamon grunted in the affirmative.

"More for us, I guess," he said.

"As if we'd ever run out!" said Baalmon, laughing. "This city alone seems to go on forever in every direction, packed full of game. I was out all last night doing nothing but target practice."

Lilithmon nodded, the trace of a smile on her face.

"And you, Phelesmon?" she asked.

"My soul collection has grown appreciably, my lady. I had heard about our unfortunate brethren the Devimons, but I trust that we shall learn from their mistakes and fare much better."

"But those Chosen Children," Lilithmon continued, "we really can't let them get away with what they've done to our poor comrades. I feel like we should avenge them."

"I'll say!" SkullSatamon spoke up. "It's been forever since I've had a good fight, and these little bastards are starting to look like they can give me one."

"If it pleases your grace," Phelesmon said, "I had already planned an engagement with one of these twelve later this evening."

"We know where they live," said Lilithmon. "I think it would be a good idea to finish things with them tonight. Once we've done our duty, we can relax all we want."

"I'm up for it," Baalmon replied, and SkullSatamon nodded his agreement emphatically.

"It sounds like an excellent idea," said Phelesmon.

Lilithmon stood up from her throne.

"In that case, we'll head for the elevator."

Daisuke went with the Yagami siblings to the door of their apartment. He didn't really have a reason for doing so, other than to stay a while longer in the presence of the girl he liked and the older boy he admired. They said goodbye at the door, where Agumon and Tailmon were waiting in the hall. There was no small talk or conversation as he might have hoped for, just those few words and the door shutting. As Daisuke made his way to his own apartment, he found himself wondering if they had blown him off.

"Nah," he said softly to himself, "I'm sure it's just them thinking about their dreams….now that it's night and all."

As he made his way to his own apartment, his thoughts wandered from his relations with the Yagamis to the day's battle with Wendimon, and the two combined to remind him of his trip to New York earlier in the summer. The first Wendimon he had ever encountered was Wallace's deranged partner, destroyed through the power of the Golden Digimentals in 2002. After that, Daisuke hadn't seen Wallace again until the New York visit.

There still wasn't any explanation for what had happened at that second meeting. Wallace's suggestion that Daisuke's depression had manifested itself as the unnatural winter was the only theory that had been put forward, and Daisuke still wondered if it was true, or if there were some other reason. He had been lonely. Within a few months of the destruction of BelialVamdemon, Daisuke had begun to feel that the group might be drifting apart. They no longer had a common goal, and while their friendship was still strong, they were not the inseparable companions of the 2002 campaign.

In a way, the current crisis had reunited them. Again he was seeing – yeah, he was seeing Hikari-chan on a daily basis. He knew that she was in the Digital World, not off with her female friends – or Takeru. Daisuke had great respect for Takeru, and they were good friends, but to an extent he would always be the great rival for Hikari's attention.

And thinking about Hikari led him naturally, though a little unwillingly, to Nat-chan. Daisuke had been sure that there was a partner for her, somewhere, and the search had been so prolonged that he had almost missed his flight home. Eventually, even he had had to admit that tracking down that one person in a city as large as New York just wasn't possible. In the end, he had no choice but to open the Digital Gate with his D-3, and send her Digitama home.

Where is she now? he wondered. Did she hatch again? Would she remember me if I ran into her again? In the strange cold of empty New York, he had felt her loneliness so keenly. He had recognized it as something that could be his, and that had scared him as no enemy never had.

Stopping just in front of his door, Daisuke leaned on the railing and looked out over the space separating his building from the one Yamato lived in, trying to clear his head. There were still a few people outside, and a splash of pink drew his attention to Sora and Yamato standing at ground level with their partners. As he watched, Yamato put his arm around Sora's shoulder. An odd look, somewhat hurt and bewildered, crossed Daisuke's face. He turned away, and opened the door to the apartment.

Mimi was tired from her long flight, so she and Palmon had no objections when Sora told them she was going down to see Yamato for a while. Piyomon went with her, carried in her arms. Exiting her apartment building, she could look down the wide aisle between the adjacent buildings, a paved space diversified by carefully arranged greenery. Yamato's building was on her left, Taichi's on her right, and she headed for the former, from which Yamato and Gabumon were emerging.

"Hi," Yamato began, "I wanted to say thanks again, for earlier."

"Hey, it wasn't a big deal," she said, setting Piyomon down. "You would have done the same for me, or any of the others."

"It's a good thing you can fly," Gabumon said to Piyomon as they moved away to give their partners space. "I think I really would have lost him."

"Sora was so worried, even after we left," Piyomon said, apropos of nothing.

The two Digimon stopped to watch the humans talk. In the early stages of Yamato and Sora's romantic involvement, the partner Digimon had been excited and too inquisitive for the couple's liking, but as the months passed they had backed off somewhat. At this point they were content simply if Sora and Yamato were content.

"You saved Jou, too," Yamato continued.

"I guess," Sora said. "I wanted to stay with you, though."

Yamato opened his mouth to reply, but saw something in her expression that stopped him. She looked sadly thoughtful.

"Is everything alright?" he asked instead.

"Well…" She hesitated. "I was just thinking that, back when we said how we felt… about each other… we thought that all of the fighting was nearly over. Now things are starting up again, and it just makes me wonder… Is it okay for us to be like this? Doesn't it make it easier for people to attack us?"

"We've always been friends," Yamato said. "Since all this started four years ago, all of us have cared about each other. I used to think that I could get by just by myself, but you and the others taught me that we need friends to keep us strong." He put his arm around her shoulder and gave a reassuring smile. "I don't think this is any different," he finished.

Sora's expression brightened.

"You're right," she said. "I don't know what came over me." Her smile started to fade. "It's been hard on everyone. The dreams, you know."

It was Yamato's turn to look uncomfortable. He remembered his own dream from the previous night, with the thing that had disguised itself as his brother. He wasn't sure how real the whole experience had been. They still didn't know how the nightmares worked, how much was drawn from their own insecurities and how much supplied by external forces. It would be terrible to meet something like that creature in waking reality.

"Yeah," he said, finally. "But let's talk about something else."

It was an empty suggestion. Like Pandora's Box, the topic could not be easily closed once opened. There was silence for long moments, broken at last by Sora.

"It's not right," she said. Some of the old fire had returned to her eyes. "We just want to live, and here come these people and these Digimon trying to hurt us. Why? Why won't they just leave the worlds alone?"

"I don't know," Yamato said grimly. "But we won't stop fighting." He turned to his partner. "Right, Gabumon?"

"Right!" the Digimon answered.

"We won't let anything bad happen," Piyomon chimed in.

She had no idea how soon her statement would be tested. There was a flash from somewhere nearby, and a beam of light struck an upper story of Sora's apartment building. Chunks of debris were blasted from the walls, falling to the ground with a clatter.

"Come on out, Chosen Children! We're just going to finish this here!"

The group of four fixed their eyes on the place where the beam and voice had originated from. A gaunt, inhuman shape was standing in the night among the trees. The figure stepped forward until they could see it clearer and recognize it.

"SkullSatamon!"

The black and red death's head swiveled, trying to place Yamato's voice. It wasn't long before SkullSatamon had located his quarry. Gabumon and Piyomon readied themselves.

"This time we'll fight together," Sora said, raising her Digivice.