101
Tense Rendezvous
"I…could not of course escape a hideous sense of dread and peril and cosmic abnormality as I thought of the place I was in and the forces I was meeting." – H. P. Lovecraft, "The Whisperer in Darkness"
The Yurikamome's few passengers had read the situation quickly, and waited uneasily in their seats by the car's windows, leaving the aisle to Taichi and the two Digimon. BlackTailmon stood still, prepared to react to whatever movement the other two might make first. True to her word, she remembered this human from the previous day, and knew that the situation was a dangerous one. He hadn't attacked her then because he'd needed her to show him to Lilithmon. Now Lilithmon had been faced, and perhaps even defeated, so he could only be here to carry out his earlier threat.
Taichi's eyes left her for a moment to glance around the rest of the train. He wondered offhand if any of the other passengers recognized him, but knew that he couldn't worry about maintaining anonymity with the stakes as high as they were. He was, however, responsible for the safety of these other people. He wanted a fight, but realized it would be better to settle things without one.
"Will you come with us?" he asked.
"Why?" BlackTailmon responded, a little surprised at the question.
"You might be able to help us."
BlackTailmon glanced aside, though she kept the pair in her peripheral vision. "I don't see how. I took you to Lilithmon. My job's over. What happened back there, anyways?"
"We beat Lilithmon—" Agumon began.
"But… our friends weren't there," Taichi finished for him.
Again BlackTailmon turned her head to face them. She was on the verge of saying that she had no idea where the missing ones were, but caught herself. She disliked nothing more than a fight she had a chance of losing, and if she admitted that she couldn't be of any use to the Chosen Children there would be nothing stopping this human from lashing out with the anger he was now so obviously repressing.
She thought fast. Escape wasn't impossible, but it would be much more difficult on the train than it might be later, in the open. Playing along with the Chosen Child's offer would have risks of its own, but if things went wrong she would always have escape as a backup plan. Taichi's voice broke in on her thoughts.
"Well, so?" His impatience came through in the words, but BlackTailmon didn't detect what else lay behind them. Now that the moment of confrontation had come, Taichi's adrenaline was slowly draining from him. What exactly, he wondered, would he do if this Digimon didn't cooperate? If Agumon killed her, there would be other leads remaining… but would it be the right thing to do? His partner's power would doubtless be enough to take her out. Angry as he was, hurt as he and the others had been, was he justified in attacking what was no real threat to him?
"If I do help you," she said, "then I'll have the Chosen Children's protection from…" She wasn't sure what to call her collective masters. "…them?"
Taichi felt both relief and irritation. His dilemma was solved, though the request for protection irked him coming from this Digimon that had taunted him. He didn't know that the question wasn't really serious. BlackTailmon was a little superstitious when it came to the people she worked for, who could command even Lilithmon and company. She didn't expect the Chosen Children to win out in the end.
"If you can help us," Taichi said at last. It sounded like only the beginning of a sentence, but if it was he didn't finish it. BlackTailmon, her course of action already decided, made a show of considering long and hard.
"Alright," she said, finally. "I could tell you what I know, but what do I get in return?" Taichi's face darkened. "Oh, all right," BlackTailmon continued with a little smile. "I get it. I guess when the train stops, we can find a place to talk."
Taichi glanced out the window, across the bay, trying to think ahead. He didn't trust this Digimon. Things might get out of hand once they were off the Yurikamome. He and Agumon would have to be careful, on the lookout for signs of trouble. He looked back to BlackTailmon. She sat where she was, still as a sphinx, gazing back at him. No, he didn't trust her at all.
The two of them had walked on for a long time without speaking. Anubimon wondered why the Dark Man did not tear a hole in space as he usually did to get where he was going, but kept the question to himself. Perhaps this was merely a way of keeping him from snooping around the black prison… yet he was sure that the Dark One could achieve the same end in some much simpler way. Their way lay through a kind of winding ditch, one of many in the surface of the plateau rendered almost invisible by the uniform color of the eternally-shadowed rock. The path rose and fell, and turned at sharp angles. Now they walked in a shallow ditch, now with the walls of a ravine narrowing their view of the dusky sky overhead, and at times almost through a tunnel formed by beetling outcrops.
At last the Dark Man stopped walking. Anubimon paused as well, though he didn't see any cause for it. They stood on a kind of promontory, which, like the paths through the rock, could not have been distinguished from the rest of the area by a distant observer. Examining his surroundings more closely, Anubimon determined that the ditch they'd been following went around on both sides of the raised place where they now waited.
"Well, now, Anubimon," the Dark Man said, breaking the long silence. "What do you think of this World of Darkness? I believe this is the first time you've had the pleasure of visiting."
"What do I think of it…?" Anubimon repeated.
"Do you like it?"
"No," Anubimon answered, closing his weary eyes. He wasn't in the mood for any of the Dark One's games.
"'No!?'" the Dark Man exclaimed. "But don't you think it's a great place for an afterlife?"
"Only for those who deserve it," the Digimon said, solemnly.
"Which doesn't include you, I suppose."
Anubimon pondered on this a few moments, then shrugged. By now, perhaps it did.
"You might never leave it, you know," the Dark One continued. "There would be some irony in that."
Anubimon didn't respond. He recognized the possibility, and had nothing to say. He waited several moments. The Dark Man, who had been facing away from him, smiling at the horizon, now turned around with a grin. But if he was looking for a reaction to his words Anubimon was resolved to disappoint him.
"Why are we here?" he asked instead.
"Looking for livelier company," the Dark Man answered. "We're almost there. Come take a look." He pointed downwards, over the edge of the promontory. Anubimon stepped forward and peered down. It took a few moments, but his eyes were keen enough to make out that what lay before him was not another ditch but a large circular chasm carved deep into the plateau. "After you," the Dark Man said.
Swallowing his misgivings, Anubimon stepped off the ledge, his darkness-tarnished wings slowing his descent. Setting down on the bottom he heard a light step behind him, and the Dark One strode past him and up to one of the rock walls. At a wave of his hand the stone surface before him seemed to melt away into violet vapors – a door was there where none had been a moment before.
"My refrigerator," the Dark One said, smile broadening. "Step inside, please." As he spoke the door swung slowly open, and Anubimon could indeed feel a rush of chill air from within. With a sense of foreboding, he obeyed. He was somewhat surprised to find that instead of the black cave he'd expected he was apparently back out in the open air. The darkness above him was that of the night sky, in which hung a few stars like specks of frost. Everything was enveloped in a numbing coldness. The floor of this place was solid ice.
Peering ahead, Anubimon began to make out something paler than the sky – it resolved itself into a large, asymmetrical building. As he gazed the Dark One strode past and headed towards it. Anubimon turned his head to see if the doorway was still open, but there was only sky behind him. After a moment's hesitation he followed his guide, wondering what all this was leading to.
Coming closer to the structure didn't help to define it. It was an irregular ruin of a building, apparently made of stone or concrete, most of it coated in frost and ice. Anubimon followed the Dark Man through a doorway and into a hall. Here there was a greater diversity of materials: a hardwood floor, plaster walls, and a few odds and ends such as busted picture frames. Terrible damage must have been done to the building at some time. There were great holes in the wall, and places where there was no longer any ceiling. As with the space outside, there were occasional patches of snow that had never had a chance to thaw.
Anubimon found himself wondering what had happened to this place, and whether it had always been this way. The destruction didn't seem to be particularly recent in most places, but in the gloom it was hard to tell. Once he noticed several long scratches in a wall, apparently carved by enormous claws, and wondered what sort of Dark World monster might have left them.
"Oh my," the Dark Man murmured, a little ahead of where the other had paused to examine the damage. Anubimon caught up at the entrance to another room, larger than the rest. Following the Dark One's gaze to a corner of the room, Anubimon was surprised to see the steady, inadequate glow of a small flame. He was more surprised to notice that something sat huddled in the corner, taking what little benefit it could from the meager heat and light.
The figure's strangeness lay in its being human. If the gloom wasn't playing tricks with his vision, Anubimon was looking at a girl of roughly the same age as the Chosen Children. As he watched she raised her head; the eyes that had been hidden behind bangs looked up from the fire to the dark figure standing over her. Seeing the Dark Man's face she visibly shivered and looked quickly back to the flame.
"How did you ever manage a fire?" the Dark Man said, getting no answer.
"Is… she human?" Anubimon asked. Besides the oddity of there being a human in this strange place, he sensed something else that bothered him.
"She's not much at all by this point," the Dark One answered. "But she's no more human than I am." Anubimon knelt and studied the silent figure, not getting any closer. For the first time he recognized a familiar scent in the still air.
"A Digimon!" he said, eyes widening. "But how?"
"Oh, everything in the Digital World is malleable," the Dark One said. "You know that." The object of discussion paid no apparent attention to what was being said. She remained motionless, watching her little fire. "Come on, Natsu," the Dark Man addressed her, chuckling as if at a joke. "We're going on a little trip."
"I don't want to go with you," she answered, stealing another glance up at him. Anubimon could see the anger in her eyes, and the fear just behind it, and realized that here was a fellow creature whose feelings toward the Dark One matched his own. "I'm waiting for someone," she said.
"Actually, 'someone' is waiting for you," the Dark Man smiled. "Your wait's over. Get up."
"No," she said, shaking her head. "Go away."
Instead, the Dark Man stepped forward and set his foot down on the flame, snuffing it out and leaving the room in deeper darkness. With a hurt, angry whimper the Digimon called Natsu jumped to her feet. There was just light enough left for Anubimon to see her turn on the Dark One, little fists raised, and to see the other grasp her arms. Instantly the fight went out of her. Anubimon cringed, remembering the baleful effects of the Dark One's touch.
"Don't do anything stupid," the Dark One said, looking at him. "Or do. I don't care." Smiling, he turned round and shoved the girl from him, sending her stumbling towards the doorway. As she fell to her hands and knees, Anubimon noticed for the first time that there were objects in the air about them – little points of floating light. And he also saw, looking at the girl, that one seemed to have attached itself to the back of her neck, glowing through the pale blue of her short hair.
"Go on," the Dark Man said. After a moment the girl slowly stood, and moved reluctantly through the doorway and down the passage. The Dark Man beckoned to Anubimon, and followed her.