Note: I do not own Digimon
Well here is the next chapter :}
Sorry I wavered so much about who to put as Osamu's partner. I now have someone who I believe (and I hope you will too) is actually rather perfect, all things considered. My only clue is that they are not one of the ones on the list last chapter...
I really want to thank everyone who helped me make the final decision, your willingness to bounce ideas with me was so helpful!
So NoRatCat, Naomi Shihoin, oOShinahiOo, Substitute Deathberry, Neko Haruko and NatNicole as well as LostCriesofTime, thank you for everything and this chapter is for you!
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Chapter Three ~
Nyaromon cried out as her best friend, DemiMeramon, was flogged before her eyes.
"No!" she snarled, shielding him with her body by jumping in the way. Her eyes glared with fury at the Ultimate level digimon who held the handle of the whip casually as he flicked back the red cords ready to strike again.
"Those eyes," he smiled humourlessly at the tiny creature before him, "must be taught a lesson."
He batted the fur ball shaped digimon out of the way with ease and struck her friend with barely disguised satisfaction. He would teach them both a lesson this day; Vamdemon did not tolerate insubordination, whether in action or attitude, in his underlings. He would extinguish the spark from those eyes if he had to stand here flogging digimon until his arms fell off.
These two were too useful to destroy, so break them he must.
"Who are you?" Osamu demanded, shaking slightly, a reaction due only in part to the chill in the air. "What do you want?"
"We want you," the whisper surrounded him, caressing and soft.
He reeled back at that, unsure of how to respond.
For the last few hours or days, he was unsure of which as time seemed distorted in this place and he was having trouble keeping track of its passage, Osamu had been drifting in and out of consciousness. At times he actually doubted whether he was conscious at all or whether this strange, dark place he found himself in was all nothing more than a dream. Or a nightmare. It certainly had a surreal quality to it and although he felt aware he also knew his senses were being messed with in ways which made him on edge.
For a start he was completely enveloped in darkness, he could see nothing and no matter how long he kept his eyes open his vision hadn't been able to adjust in the least. It was pitch black. An empty void.
For another thing sounds seemed to have no specific origin, it was more as if they were surrounding him, coming from all directions.
These factors were able to disorient the child, robbing him of two of the senses he relied on the most in life.
Yet if someone thought they could throw him off his game with some sensory manipulation then they had clearly underestimated who it was they were dealing with here. Osamu clenched his jaw, he would adapt.
All he had to do was slowly get his bearings while figuring out where he was and who held him here.
Engaging the strange, oddly seductive voice in conversation was a means to that end. As much as the answers may disturb him he knew he had to find out more. It could be his only way to find out what had happened to Ken. It could be the key to formulating a way to escape.
He just had to keep his wits about him and not let the voice get under his skin.
"We want you," it repeated intimately. "You were made for us..."
The hairs on the back of his neck stood up. He had to fight this and staying calm was the key, but he could already feel the bubble of panic rising in his gut and wasn't sure how long he could fight it off.
As long as I have to, he frowned, taking in a deep breath to steady his nerves.
"Who wants me? Who are you?" he asked, speaking as confidently as he could into the darkness in the hope they would not sense his weakness. His fear.
"We are Lucemon," came the reply in what sounded eerily like a young child's voice, melodic and full of innocence. Just like Ken. "And you are the vessel for our plans. We have such beautiful plans for you, our sweet."
As Osamu digested this information he was surrounded by an unnerving childlike laughter, ringing out around the darkness with delight.
"Your intellect makes you perfect for the role we have in mind for you, youngling," Lucemon then revealed himself, lighting up their surroundings with his very presence. "You are our chosen and through you we will do great things."
Osamu jammed his eyes shut and covered his face with his hands to protect against the sudden rush of light on his unprepared senses.
He felt a small hand, no larger than Ken's, come to rest gently on his shoulder as if trying to comfort him. He took strength from the gesture and the panic building up within him was quietened.
As his eyes adjusted to the light he was able to slowly open them and stare into the face of the creature he now knew as Lucemon. He was the most beautiful thing Osamu had ever seen, throwing him off guard as he stared into those perfect blue eyes.
"You're an angel?" he gasped, staring with wide eyes at the creature before him. It was a white-blonde haired, fair skinned child who had eight large, pure white wings on his body and two on his head as well as strangely beautiful purple markings down the left side of his body. Its pale skin seemed to glow with the purest of light, mesmerising the boy with its radiance.
He was standing before a heavenly messenger; was he dead? Maybe this was the stopping off lounge before being allowed into heaven.
"Yes," Lucemon smiled warmly at the human before frowning in concentration and waving his hands slowly in the air.
Osamu watched with fascination as Lucemon's slow, circular hand motions actually began forming a spark of light which glowed with darkness. Osamu frowned at such a though, nothing could glow with a dark light, that was scientifically inaccurate, yet here before his very eyes this angel was creating a dark spark of hovering energy.
"What is that?" Osamu queried, his curiosity overcoming everything else as he leaned in close to watch Lucemon at work.
"We call it a dark spore," Lucemon replied, his eyes never leaving the entity forming between his hands. "It is our gift to you."
"What is it for?" Osamu asked eagerly, his previous distrust of Lucemon seemingly pushed to one side.
After a short pause Lucemon's gaze flickered back up at Osamu and bared his teeth in a smile. "This!" his voice distorted from childlike to venomous for a second and his irises turned such a light blue they almost seemed white. He thrust out his arms in Osamu's direction and the momentum caused the dark spore to fly out of his grasp and hit Osamu in the chest.
Osamu's eyes widened in shock and he let out a small gasp as his body absorbed the spore. He heard Lucemon's child like laughter fade as everything once more returned to darkness.
His head lolled forward as he struggled to control it and he fell to his knees on the cold, hard floor.
What was happening to him?
The last thing he remembered before he was once more overcome by unconsciousness was the bile rise in his throat as all of the negative and destructive emotions he had ever felt were brought to the surface.
Hatred, jealousy, anger, fear, loneliness, pride, arrogance, despair.
They all washed over him and he felt as if he were drowning in a sea of darkness as he tried to grasp a hold of some redeeming thought, but found he could think of none.
What was love? a joke...
Friendship? he hadn't had a true friend since Gennai. Unless you count Ken, a small part of him argued.
Happiness? a fleeting state induced by brain chemicals, nothing more.
What then could he hold on to as the swirling eddies of darkness threatened to engulf him?
Ken.
The dark spore inside his chest pulsed and pain gripped Osamu as a sensation like fire dancing up and down his nerves struck with force.
Ken..
Osamu was desperate to hold on to the one thing which he truly cared about, now more than ever he needed his younger brother.
Pain racked his body once more as he tried to focus on the smiling, sweet face of his brother.
The dark spore pulsed again and again as Osamu writhed and screamed in pain. He stubbornly refused to surrender the image of his brother that he was clinging desperately to, as he figured that was what this spore wanted. He would not give in, he would not break.
Losing his brother was not an option.
Ken...
The pain intensified and he once more cried out in agony, scrabbling to recall something that was important, something of Ken. Anything at all. A memory flashed in his mind and he gratefully embraced it, hoping it would give him the strength that he needed to fight this. What else could motivate him more than his own flesh and blood...?
"Pst," Ken interrupted his thoughts with a conspiratorial smile. "Want some peanut-cake?" He whispered, holding out a sticky hand with an even stickier offering of mutilated cake smothered in stomach turning globs of peanut butter.
Only the scene which had, at the time, caused him amusement now only added to the hurt and desperation as the dark spore wriggled its way further into his mind, twisting the memory and associating it with the horror of the pain he was now experiencing.
Ken's beaming face, cheeks filled with smarties.
Pain. Burning. Fire. Agony.
Ken's hand slotted into his as they walked down the street.
His skin searing. Pain. Burning. His nerves on fire.
Ken as an infant looking up to him and managing to say "Oniisan". Their parents' pride. Osamu's joy.
His lungs burning as the sensation crawled further into his body, inflaming him from the outside in and back again. Agony. Fire. Burning.
His resolved was weakening but he managed to dredge up one final memory. Showing Ken how to blow bubbles...
Pain, burning twisting pain. It coursed through him with renewed vigour. His screams took on an animal quality now as he broke down, weeping and screaming simultaneously.
He couldn't stand it any more, he craved relief from the intensity of this nightmare and eventually he stopped fighting.
Everybody broke.
"Vamdemon," the voice, which seemed to be coming from all around him at once, took the Demon Lord by surprise as he turned around to see his master hovering behind him, blinding him with the light of his child like body. "We have someone here you may want to meet."
A smile played across the child form digimon's lips and Vamdemon raised an eyebrow before bowing low in reverence.
A small boy, human if Vamdemon didn't know any better, walked out of the shadows with a smirk on his face as he appraised the Vampire-esque digimon and his lair. Vamdemon scowled, disliking the air with which this being held himself in the presence of such powerful digimon as himself and his master.
The boy wore a dark blue suit with a high waisted belt, covered in a cape which billowed around his shoulders dramatically as he walked, causing Vamdemon to bite down the urge to laugh. If anyone knew melodramatic dressing it was him, yet even by his standards this human was trying too hard. Although the golden shoulder pads did succeed in giving the scrawny child more of a menacing appearance, he had to admit.
Still, who did this rugrat think he was?
Vamdemon bared his teeth in a grimace which passed as a smile, looking down at Osamu and then up as Lucemon with a trace of amusement.
"So who have we here then, my Lord?" he addressed the angelic digimon, ignoring Osamu.
Osamu bristled and stuck his chest out with confidence but it was Lucemon who was the one to answer.
"This is our newest creature," he beamed. "We call it the Digimon Kaiser."
"Interesting," Vamdemon appraised the human once more, wondering what his master had in mind for such a scrawny, pitiful thing.
"Yes," Lucemon's voice was soft and lilting. "We have the boy, now all we must do is turn the girl..."
In the corner, out of sight of the other digimon, DemiMeramon and Nyaromon exchanged worried glances.
"I have a funny feeling about this," whispered DemiMeramon as his flames flickered with nerves.
"Me too," admitted Nyaromon quietly.
They remained in silence for a while as DemiMeramon watched the strange, cape wearing creature intently. He had a strange desire to approach him, yet some instinct warned him to stay put. Probably common sense. Yet the feeling of being drawn to this creature was so strong and so deep within him that it soon overrode his survival instinct.
"DemiMeramon!" Nyaromon hissed in panic as her friend suddenly made a break for it out of the safety of their corner and towards the evil digimon as they conversed. Instinctively she snapped her teeth at him in a futile attempt to prevent him going anywhere by force, but his flames danced just out of her reach and before she knew it he was half way across the room.
What has gotten into him? she wondered briefly, before heading straight after him. She was usually the rash, impulsive one of the two of them, while he was averse to risk of any kind. Yet here he was running towards Vamdemon-sama for no apparent reason. Has he gone completely nuts?!
He may have gone completely nuts, he didn't quite know. All he knew was that he had to get to that boy, whom Lucemon had called the 'Digimon Kaiser' but whom DemiMeramon knew in his heart had a different name. A wonderful name. A name DemiMeramon had been searching for his whole life. A name to give him purpose.
Don't worry, I'm coming for you Osamu...
A/N~ Thank you to anyone who has been reading this, I hope you're enjoying it so far!