96

Sinking

"I was engulfed by a piteous lethargic fear of some ineluctable doom which would be, I felt, the completed hate of the peering stars and of the black enormous waves that hoped to clasp my bones within them – the vengeance of all the indifferent, horrendous majesty of the night ocean." – R. H. Barlow, "The Night Ocean"

A number of messages went from D-Terminal to D-Terminal that morning. But none were sent to the six missing devices, and no more were received from them. The suspense that the six Chosen Children had been in regarding their younger friends was now total. Takeru, Hikari, and the others had vanished entirely, with no word from the enemy to even suggest that they still existed.

There was no general assembly. Taichi had sent Koshiro a message asking if there was any further news, prompting Koshiro to send messages to all his friends telling them that, although there were no updates yet, he intended to meet with Gennai in the hope of clearing up some questions. Jou offered to join him, but Taichi was set on looking for BlackTailmon, and began his search without delay.

All six of the teens checked in with each of the others. Typing messages gave them something to do, but more than that it felt necessary, when so much was in doubt, to give assurance that they were alright. The night had passed without any new tragedy befalling them or the people they knew. It was small comfort, but it was something.

Hikari knelt, motionless, with her head drooping forward. The stone floor was cold against her shins, but she barely noticed. She had remained that way for an unknown length of time, unable to see her surroundings and caring nothing for them. She'd woken up from her exhausting dream to find that her legs – and most other parts of her body – really were aching, doubtless because of the unforgiving surface she had spent the night on. Her hands were cuffed behind her back, securing her to a slender column that apparently went from floor to ceiling. But none of that mattered.

On an intellectual level, she knew that there were things her captors could do to hurt her even further, but she couldn't really believe it with her heart. Tailmon was dead. The other Digimon were dead also, and for all she knew her human friends might be as well. If not… then she didn't want to think about what might happen to them. But she did think about it. She couldn't help it. She sat where she was in a hell of grief and speculation, time measured only by the fall of a few intermittent tears.

Then, finally, there was a change. She didn't hear anything, but some movement of the air must have told her she was no longer alone. Something was standing behind her. For the first time since waking up, the fear she felt became fear on her own account. Slowly, unsteadily, she stood, trying to prevent the handcuffs from clinking against the column. She had no idea who the intruder was. She thought back to her dream and the black monstrosities she had so desperately fled from. Panic rose within her. Not like this, she thought. Please, not like this…

"Hello, Yagami-san."

She knew that voice. She'd heard it first in her nightmares – if only this was a nightmare! But she knew it wasn't. She had met Sato Katsu in person just before the battle that had taken Tailmon's life, and now he was here in the room with her. She didn't know why, but he had always seemed to take a greater interest in her than in the other Chosen Children. Maybe it shouldn't have come as a surprise that he would come to see her himself before giving her over to the dark powers he worked for.

Hikari said nothing, unsure of what would happen. Should she turn and face him? As she stood there, waiting, it seemed that the darkness lessened, though without a source of illumination. She could make out the dark stone walls of the room. They reminded her uncomfortably of the black room she'd been unable to enter in the underground base. Was that where she was? In her grief and fear for the others' safety it hadn't occurred to her to wonder.

Sato's shoes clicked on the stone as he approached. Still he said nothing. Hikari's nerves were fraying under suspense – before long she would have to try to turn and face him. But before she determined to make the effort he had come up behind her, and with an unpleasant thrill she felt him lay his hands on her shoulders. Startled by the contact, she made an automatic effort to squirm out of his grip. He let go… then one of his hands fastened on her shoulder near the neck and pushed her roughly forward. Her arms fully extended, the chain of the handcuffs pulled taut against the column.

"I don't think there's any more need for these," Sato said, his voice calm and cold as ever despite his violence. With his free hand he unlocked the cuffs. Once the second bracelet was off Hikari managed to pull away from him again and, putting a meter or so between them, turned to face him, her feet prepared to flee despite her being able to see that the room had no visible exit.

He stepped away from the column and stood still, regarding her. It was the first time she had seen him up close. She might have noticed that his height was perhaps a little above average, or that he was dressed in nondescript but well-made clothing of a uniform dark gray color that suited his surroundings, but what held her attention was his face. It was pale and gaunt, the clean-shaven face of an ascetic, framed by dark hair that was uncombed and without style. His gaze was cold and expressionless. It gave no indication of what he was thinking, but the longer his eyes examined her, the colder she felt inside.

"So the day has come," he said at last, when she had begun working up the courage to break the silence herself. "As on the night we met, I welcome you back. For the last time." And he gave her what for other people would have been a smile – a silent snarl that transformed the priestly graveness of his normal expression into the face of a predatory beast whose kill is imminent. The smile was gone in another moment, though it did not entirely leave his eyes.

In the meantime she had realized what his words meant, and looked at the black walls of her prison with a mounting terror. She must have suspected it from the first, but this sudden confirmation…

"I… I'm here…" she said. "In this world…!"

"Yes, it's true," Sato said. "Your friends are elsewhere in this building, in other cells."

"Takeru-kun and the others?" she said.

"Yes, all as helpless as you yourself, of course. You remember, don't you? I can tell by looking at your face."

"T-Tailmon…" she stuttered, the tears ready to flow back into her eyes. She squeezed them tight, as if it would help, and tried to reason with herself. Tailmon might return someday. Digimon always did, didn't they? No, she thought, seeing Wizarmon's transparent body fade in her mind's eye. Not always.

Her thoughts turned to the others. It was a relief to know that they were still alive, but after seeing the generator room and what the bat-like Digimon had done to Takeru, she trembled at what her friends might be put through. If she could do something for them… if she could sacrifice herself to prevent their suffering as when she had turned herself over to Vamdemon… But she saw that was impossible. She and they were already at Sato Katsu's mercy, and mercy was the last thing she expected from him.

"What a burden it is to have a friend's best interest at heart," Sato said, as if he read her thoughts. Hikari opened her eyes and looked at him. "That's all you ever think about, isn't it? You are a rarity in many ways, Yagami-san."

He began walking towards her. Instinctively she backed away, slowly, until she felt the wall at her back and had to stop. Sato stopped also. Again his searching gaze went over her.

"It is because of your special properties that He took an interest in you."

"He…" Hikari whispered.

"Yes. The god I serve. The High Priest of Darkness. Dagomon."

There it was. Finally the name had been spoken. Hikari had had her suspicions for a long time – ever since all this had started – but here was the confirmation. The power behind Sato was one with the ruler of the Dark Ocean and the god of its inhabitants, the faceless Thing that had come to signify all her fears and shortcomings.

A mist was over her vision. Or was there really fog leaking into this airtight room? She felt a coldness like seawater about her feet, and her legs began to tremble. She was growing faint; the distant surge of waves was in her ears.

Then a sudden pain brought everything back into focus. She realized that Sato had stepped forward and grabbed her by the arm, digging his fingers into the flesh. She gasped a little at the way it hurt, but at least the room was again clear of mist, and the sensations of that dark ocean had vanished.

"Don't start sinking just yet," Sato said, looking down at her. "I've waited a long while to have this conversation."

She returned his gaze. His eyes both drew and terrified her. What their color was she couldn't have said; the dark atmosphere of this world had drained their color to the point that she could only tell that they were as dark and cold and empty as everything else about him. He's insane, she thought. Is he really human? She thought of the things that had masqueraded as Hangyomon, and her stomach turned.

"What do you want?" she managed, her voice sounding so small that she wasn't sure he would hear it.

"What I want doesn't really matter," he said. "My orders are to destroy the Chosen Children by wringing from them as much pain as they are capable of suffering. It has been a long process, but I assure you that this is only the beginning."

"Why?" Hikari asked. "Why are you doing this to us?"

"To bring about the final triumph of Darkness," he answered, the first trace of emotion entering his voice as fanatical exultation. "Long have we waited. Too long. Ia! Kutouruu futagun!"

"'No'…?" she repeated, mistaking his exclamation for Japanese.

"'Ia,'" he corrected her. "A word used by the organization I am a part of to give praise to the High Priest." His terrible smile returned. Hikari looked to the floor to avoid it. "Before long, you, the Chosen Children, will praise him too… with your tears, your screams in the darkness."

With a quick motion he grabbed a fistful of her hair and yanked her head back, forcing her to look at him once more. Another cry of pain escaped her. "That's a good start. Tell me, Yagami-san," Sato continued, releasing her hair and arm, "if I gave you the chance to forsake your friends, to save your body and mind from my master and aid the dark power in its conquest of all worlds, would you take it?"

"No," Hikari answered without hesitation. Her indignation at the suggestion gave her courage, and she went on. "I could never help you. You're the worst person I've ever met. All those poor Digimon… All you've done to my friends… I…I can't understand."

"I knew that would be your answer, and I'm glad that you would refuse," Sato said, unmoved. "Even if you begged to join me and my master, I would not spare you from what is in store for you. However, I will use you to illustrate a truth that you and your friends have never suspected. The true Darkness is not something that can be fought. In the end, you will be its ally, or you will be its slave."

Under normal circumstances, beneath the sun or the electric lights of Odaiba, the assertion would have only been grotesque, even laughable. But spoken here, in the unrelenting gloom of the Dark World, with Sato Katsu's cold eyes fixed on her, Hikari could almost believe it to be true. She said nothing, only shook her head slightly as a feeble show of resistance. The mistiness threatened to return to the room. She didn't look down, not just to avoid further violence, but because she half expected to see a film of gray water rushing over the floor towards her shoes.

"The time is coming, Yagami-san. Now that we have you and your friends, we may not need Taichi-san and the others. Even if they do not fall to the Digimon that have already been allowed to enter your world, they will still succumb to the darkness that has yet to be unleashed."

Hikari tried to concentrate in spite of the black tides rumbling in her mind. She had to keep fighting, like her beloved brother was, even in this terrible place.

"Isn't our world your world?" she asked Sato. "Why would you want to let the dark power into the Real World?"

"Maybe once I wouldn't have, but long ago I learned the lesson that I'm going to teach you and the other Chosen Children." He took a step closer. Hikari closed her eyes as he slowly lifted a hand and brushed the lock of hair from one side of her face. She was trembling now. In the blackness behind her eyelids she thought she could detect movement, like the lapping of waves.

"I've waited a long time for this," Sato said. He seized her by both arms, pressing into her skin with his fingernails, slamming her back against the wall. She tried to break free but he pulled and twisted and shook her. Again she cried out. "To clutch you, to watch you writhe… From the moment I heard your name, knew your purpose, what you represented. Here, finally, was something tangible, something I could punish, for every false hope, and every broken promise."

"I – I don't—" Hikari choked out through her tears.

"You don't understand? Of course not. But I will make you understand. I will make you!"

Again he threw her against the wall, then allowed her to slump halfway to the floor. She would have crumpled entirely, but the water was there, she knew it was. It was up to her ankles. The sound of the waves was insistent, but there was a more terrible sound behind it – what must be the voice of Darkness itself. She opened her eyes, but could see very little. The gloom seemed to have deepened tenfold. Sato held her where she was. He leaned forward to whisper in her ear.

"I know what you're feeling. Even so early, you think you can't possibly take any more. Maybe you can't. We'll find out. When they take you…"

"Please…" she whispered. "Stop…"

"Yes, you'll say something like that, but louder – shriller. And just as now, your pleas will be in vain. But this is nothing. Think of it… when you finally stand before Him…"

The water was rising… still rising. She couldn't see at all. Without warning Sato released her, and she nearly fell. The wall was still at her back. She turned and clung to it, left alone in the blackness. The waves pounded in her brain.

"No… Don't… Please… No!"

Sato Katsu heard the echoes of her scream from where he stood out in the corridor. He smiled, hearing what the girl in the empty room didn't realize she was saying.

"Ia!" he repeated in a feverish whisper. "Ia!"