70

Responses

"After that was silence. I know not how many interminable aeons I sat stupefied; whispering, muttering, calling, screaming into that telephone." – H. P. Lovecraft, "The Statement of Randolph Carter"

By the time Sato and the Dark Man had concluded their discussion, the dust had largely settled over what was left of the battlefield. Anubimon could see the Chosen Children lying in the sand, unconscious. He had to fight against the impulse to go to them, help them. He had come to know Sato and his methods too well to doubt that they were about to suffer horrifically. But he also knew that, for the moment, he was no use to them. Any show of resistance from him now and Sato or the Dark Man might decide that he had become a liability. And if he wanted to help the Chosen Children when the time was right, he had to stay alive.

In an attempt to ease his mind he turned from the prostrate children to the ruins of the pyramid. Imperialdramon's attack had left very little of it standing, and the top was wholly demolished. The large black lens had probably disintegrated in the explosion. He thought of Wisemon, whom he had met so recently and watched die so suddenly. The strange Digimon's great Book was destroyed. Either it had been a part of him, and had vanished when he was deleted, or it had survived only long enough to be blasted out of existence by the Ion Blaster.

Perhaps there was some small comfort in what had happened. The Dark One had failed at something. Things had happened which he had not anticipated. It took a weight off of Anubimon's shoulders that had been with him for some time now. Powerful though the Dark One was, he was not infallible. Maybe, with luck, he could even be beaten. The death of Wisemon meant that the world was safe for a little while longer.

But now the Dark One can turn all of his attention upon them, Anubimon thought. With a heavy heart he looked out again towards the motionless Chosen Children.

Sato, too, had his sights on the children, and the expression on his face was little short of predatory.

"How long until they wake up?" he asked the Dark Man at his side.

"As long as necessary," answered the other. "So, since you aren't going to put an end to them, what do you plan on doing?"

"First we need to relocate," Sato said, beginning to walk towards where his enemies lay. "Somehow they discovered where the base is, and as long as the other six have their Digivices we can't be sure that they won't find a way to mount a rescue. I'll decide later what, specifically, to do with these Chosen Children."

"Oh, come on, Sato-kun. You've been looking forward to this day a long time. You already have an idea of what you're going to do."

"Regardless of the details," Sato said, "They will suffer. And their suffering will help to further our goals. Chances are they interfered with the generators, in which case they may prove indispensable. What we lose in quantity we can make up for in quality. I should have thought before of how much more powerful human emotions are than those of Digimon."

He continued walking, and began to draw near the children. After he finished speaking his expression became more thoughtful, and his eyes darted about for a moment.

"Something wrong, Sato-kun?"

"Their partners left no Digitama. But I suppose that isn't too odd." He turned to the Dark Man. "You're sure they won't regain consciousness?"

"Not until I allow them to."

"Then I want you to get in contact with whatever is left of our forces in the Digital World. Tell those of them who can reach File Island to go there and take command of the Village of Beginnings. I don't want anything getting in or out. We must keep the children from being reunited with their partners at all costs."

"I'll get going then, and I'll be taking Anubimon with me to make sure he doesn't do anything stupid."

"Excellent," Sato said, looking again at the Chosen Children. He repeated it as the Dark Man began to walk away. "Excellent."

It was then that he heard an electronic tone, coming from where one of the children lay. He knew the boy to be Hida Iori, age 10, partner of Armadimon, holder of the Digimentals of Knowledge and Sincerity. A dull silver object was lying there, partially hidden by the boy's body – one of the D-Terminals that the Chosen Children used to keep in contact with each other. Sato got a foot under Iori's limp body and rolled it over. Picking the device up and flipping it open, he saw that there were two yet-to-be-opened emails from Izumi Koshiro.

The distortion is gone, read the second. Is everyone okay?

Sato's lips twisted in a sneer as he began to compose a reply.

Koshiro had just finished talking to Gennai, who was using the resources at his disposal in an attempt to discover the cause of the massive distortion and what had happened to it. Neither of them believed it to be a coincidence, especially since the other Chosen Children had somehow been present for it. This was the enemy at work. The distortion had faded very suddenly, but there was no telling what damage it might have caused beforehand. Koshiro's map showed that Daisuke and the others were still in that area. Their safety was the thing of most importance, but at the same time Koshiro's scientific curiosity was beginning to eat away at him, and it was for both reasons that he grabbed the D-Terminal the instant he heard the message arrive.

He read it through once with confusion. What was Iori talking about? Then he saw that the greeting was not the one Iori customarily used, and that the body of the message was unsigned. It had certainly come from Iori's D-Terminal, though if Iori was the one who sent it then he was playing a cruel prank. But from what Koshiro knew of Iori, and after all that had happened, he was led towards a different conclusion, and it chilled him to his core.

Izumi-san:

At the moment, your friends are unharmed, but I can assure you that they will not remain so. I congratulate you on finding us, but please do not waste your time searching for us again. You and your colleagues will be joining us shortly.

For a while Koshiro could only sit there, staring at the screen, paralyzed. Should he reply, just in case? Or try another of the group's D-Terminals? He looked again at the map on his computer. They still hadn't moved. Then, there might be time to get to them. But how? Only the D-3s were capable of opening the Digital Gate. Even if he told the others— The others! Taichi and Yamato. They had siblings out there. Memories of Taichi flashed briefly through his head, tears in the cathedral, anger in the sewers. And Miyako and Iori were out there, and Daisuke, Ken…

Koshiro willed himself to calm down. He would be no help to any of them if he couldn't think straight. If he and his friends couldn't reach them, who could? The answer came to him immediately, and he reopened the window he had been using to chat with Gennai.

Koshiro: Gennai-san, something has happened to Daisuke and the others. Do you have anyone to send to them?

There was a moment of waiting before the answer came.

Gennai: Benjamin is the closest of my partners to that region, but it will take some time for him to get there. What's the situation?

Koshiro: I'm not sure, but I just got mail from the enemy on Iori's D-Terminal. Have you learned anything about the distortion?

Gennai: Just that it was localized to that area. It seems that a gate was opened, but not a gate to any of the worlds we're familiar with.

Koshiro: I see. Please send Benjamin to the area immediately.

Much as he hated it, that was all that he could do to help the Chosen Children in the Digital World. Exiting the chat, Koshiro began deliberating on whether or not he should let the Taichi and the others know. Technically he didn't know for certain that something was wrong, but his heart told him that there was. If he kept what he knew to himself for now, he might save them some worry, but did he have a right to keep them in the dark? They might be angry with him later. But it would make no difference if they knew now. There was nothing they could do.

He was about to settle on waiting for developments when another thought came to him. If whoever had sent him the message had Iori's D-Terminal, that person might have the other five D-Terminals as well. What if they sent a message to Taichi or Yamato? It would probably be better if they first heard of what had happened from a friend, and not this mysterious enemy.

Well, if they were going to hear the news from him first, he had better hurry. He felt that it was really something that should be done in person, but there was no time. The message he sent simultaneously to the five D-Terminals was a kind of compromise:

Everyone, something bad has happened in the Digital World. The Chosen Children there may be in danger. Please come back to Odaiba Mansion so we can decide what to do.

And with the message sent, he could only sit there and wait for something to happen. Was there anything else to do? …Yes, there was, but it was not up to him to do it, at least not until it had been discussed with the others. The parents would have to be notified.

He thought about his own parents. His father was at work, and his mother was in the kitchen fixing something for Tentomon to eat. They had adopted Koshiro, something that had once deeply disturbed him. During that first adventure in 1999 he had realized that he was not a mere parasite, and that his adoptive mother and father loved him as deeply and sincerely as any biological parent. How would they react if he were to vanish under these circumstances?

He didn't want to think about it. He didn't want to think about any of this. It was like one of the nightmares come to life.

That thought took him back to one of the dreams he had had the previous night. Now it seemed eerily prophetic. In it he had been sitting alone at a desk, in a small room without doors or windows. On the desk lay his D-Terminal, and periodically it would beep to let him know of an incoming message. Every time he would open it, hoping to find a reply to one of his pleas for help, and every time he found instead a photograph without caption, the pictures ranging from grotesque to horrifying.

He was called back from the memory when his real D-Terminal beeped. For a brief moment he had the chilling conviction that the new message was a photo, sent to show him exactly what terrible thing had happened to his friends in the Digital World. Then reality asserted itself once more. The D-Terminals could only send text, of course, not pictures. His lack of restful sleep was beginning to tell on him.

Checking the message, he saw that it was from Sora.

Yamato and I are on our way, it read. What has happened?

Please hurry, he replied. It will be easier to explain the situation all at once.

He considered adding, "There's still hope," but it occurred to him that under the circumstances it would only provoke additional worry rather than soothe their concerns. After sending the message as it was, he looked at the screen of his computer. The six younger Chosen Children were still where they had been, but how much longer would that be true?