Series: Division of Destiny||Story: Reign of the Undead King||Chapter: The Return
Characters: Piemon, Vamdemon, Chosen Children, others||Pairings: Ken x Daisuke/Daisuke x Ken, Mimi x Sora/Sora x Mimi
Chapters: 18-40||Words: 2,553||Total: 47,926
Genre: Romance, Drama||Rated: PG-13
Summary: Vamdemon and Piemon rule supreme. Only now, ten years after their victory, are things about to change. For good or for ill.

She swept along with all possible speed, not caring if anyone saw her. There were only humans out here, and it was hardly a secret where a Digimon returned to whenever they left the castle. She wanted to return to those thick stone walls and to the peace of the underground cell and to set guards to make certain that no one dared to come between her and her charge ever again.

LadyDevimon did her best not to think of the fact that the human hadn't made any moves to take Hikari from her. But he'd wanted to, she told herself. Any human who knew of the girl's importance would want to take her away from all Digimon and use her to defeat Vamdemon.

The fact she couldn't blame them at all didn't matter to her. She refused to let the girl out of her sight, much less her grip. Hikari was hers to protect and defend, and she would let no one else do it.

"He was nice," the girl murmured, and LadyDevimon tightened her grip.

"Don't speak of him." The Digimon warned her quickly. "No one must know that we met him at all." Vamdemon would be furious at the breach of his orders, no matter how slight they were.

Hikari leaned in closer and nodded, her hair a soft brush across LadyDevimon's armored chest. It wasn't a hard promise to make; Vamdemon would never stoop to asking the human what happened directly. She was the one who would have to take care with her answers to make certain their little indiscretion wasn't uncovered.

"Why did you say anything to him?" LadyDevimon murmured the question as they drew closer to the castle. They didn't have much time, but out here was safer to speak of such things than it would be once they passed the gates.

Again her hair brushed against LadyDevimon, but this time in a shake of negation. "I don't know. I…" She struggled for words that didn't come, and the Digimon could feel her frustration. "It was right." There were other questions that LadyDevimon wanted to ask, such as how Hikari had even seen him with how hidden he was, and how unused she was to seeing in places like this. The dungeon was somewhat brighter, but not by much, but the shadows he'd hid in were deep and concealing. Why was he even there? Humans didn't normally just hide, and he'd looked …not starving, though she wouldn't say he was as well-fed as the humans kept in the castle.

A rebel of some kind? Perhaps he was the one who'd attacked the flock? Even if he wasn't, he was clearly a wild human, given his wariness around Digimon in general. Those humans who weren't kept in the pens tended toward more submissiveness in general, or so she'd gathered from the few times she'd encountered such humans. This one looked as if he expected her to go for his throat at a moment's notice.

It was just as well that he kept that kind of attitude. He might live somewhat longer with it.

Turning her thoughts to more important matters, she landed just outside the gates and stalked toward them. The guards glanced from her to the girl in her arms and both nodded, saying nothing more. She caught a glimpse of a Candmon rushing off moments later, and knew he was on the way to alert Vamdemon that they'd returned. She wasn't questioned on her comings and goings, but that didn't mean Vamdemon never knew what was going on himself.

She made her way through the corridors, a hint more of relief filling her now that they were home again. Going out had been far more stressful than she'd thought it would be.

I don't regret it. Because even with the encounter with that human, Hikari looked so much better. Her eyes warmed with more life, and there wasn't nearly the same sense of apathetic disregard there'd been before this. It might not last; it might only be a remnant from the trip itself, but right now, it was there, and she enjoyed it.

She hated having to take Hikari back into the cell itself. If this were more of a room and less of a prison, perhaps it wouldn't be so bad. But the cell bars and the bare emptiness reminded them both of what her life truly was like. Little visits outside couldn't compare to the open freedom of the skies.

LadyDevimon wondered briefly who was more of a prisoner between the two of them.

"I see you've returned." Vamdemon spoke from only a short distance away. She turned, closing the cell behind her as she did, and locking it. Hikari moved back over to her bed and lay down without another word, returning to her usual position.

"Thank you for allowing us to have this trip, my lord." LadyDevimon bent her head, already missing the warmth of Hikari being so close to her.

Strange. She used the girl's name far more in her own thoughts now than she had before.

Best not to dwell on that, not with the master right here.

Vamdemon nodded, and LadyDevimon noticed as she straightened that he held something in his hands. She hadn't seen that collar in years, not since his blood pet had run away.

"Vamdemon-sama?" She gestured toward the circle of leather with one hand. "Are you taking a new blood pet?" She knew it couldn't be Hikari, not with how her blood flowed with the power of the Light. But he'd never seemed interested in having another one.

"No, I'm going to find my old one." Vamdemon ran his gloved hands over the leather, breathing in the scent, a dark amusement showing in his expression. "The danger that I spoke of before you left?" He waited only long enough for her to indicate she remembered before he continued. "I believe he may be involved."

LadyDevimon's fingers tightened for a moment. She hadn't met his former blood pet more than once or twice and she scrambled after those memories now, faded and weak as they were. She didn't want to think that the young human they'd met out there could possibly be that same pet, but she didn't want to dismiss the thought out of hand. At the same time, she couldn't decide if it would be safer if the two were the same or not.

"Is something wrong?" He eyed her for a moment, one graceful eyebrow cocked in curiosity. Quickly she shook her head.

"I had thought you'd given up on him." Though she'd always held a scrap of pity for the human if he'd ever managed to fall back into Vamdemon's hands. It was likely enough that Hikari's fate would seem pleasant in comparison to whatever the vampire lord had in mind for him.

Vamdemon admired the collar for a few moments, and she found herself quite pleased that she couldn't read whatever thoughts moved through his mind. "I was willing to let him go, so long as he didn't cause any further trouble. But he's taken to shooting arrows at my pack." That would explain a great deal. Vamdemon held all the lives within his realm as his to give or take or twist in whatever fashion he chose. If the pet dared to attempt to kill part of the pack itself, those closest to Vamdemon, then he would have to be dealt with.

"I saw nothing that I feel could help you in your search." She chose her words with great care. From what she remembered from the pet's time here and those rare occasions she'd seen him, he had been a redhead, and the one she'd seen wasn't. She hadn't paid enough attention to really notice what he was, but she remembered enough of what she had seen to know what he wasn't.

She also didn't want to consider that the human she'd seen might know the blood pet. Almost anything was possible, but if she didn't know, then what she said wasn't a lie. Lying to Vamdemon resulted in the most horrifying of agonies.

She'd learned that the hard way, so very long ago, in a time she did her best not to remember at all anymore.

Vamdemon nodded, sliding the collar out of sight beneath his cape. She'd wondered before how much he could keep in there. Even after all this time as his servant, much of what he did was a complete mystery to her.

"It's nothing you need to worry yourself over. I'll take care of this."

And that itself surprised her. He very seldom took matters into his own hands, preferring to work through other Digimon. She only nodded now, however.

"Vamdemon-sama, I feel that our trip outside did what I wanted with the girl," she spoke instead of something else that preyed at the depths of her thoughts. "Would we be allowed to make further trips in the future?" She would make certain none of them came anywhere near where they'd met that human as well. She wouldn't take risks like that. Hikari was hers.

Vamdemon tilted his head in consideration. "Perhaps. But no more until after I've dealt with this situation."

She wanted to protest that nothing at all had happened for them to worry about. The fact of that boy's presence cropped up in her mind again and she sealed her lips, nodding in acquiescence. "Yes, Vamdemon-sama."

The vampire lord smiled, a slash of fangs and fury. "You need not worry. This won't take me long at all."

That worried her for reasons she didn't understand and refused to examine closely. This wasn't any of her concern. The only human she needed to worry herself about was the one who lay on her bed right now, staring blankly at the ceiling, as if the whole trip outside hadn't happened at all.

She could hear them talking to each other, for all the world as if she didn't exist, or existed only in the barest sense of the word. That wasn't unusual. If anything, to have more focus on her would've been out of the ordinary. Normally she hated it, insomuch as she had the strength to hate anything at all.

Today she welcomed it, since it gave her a chance to think about what happened. The fact something had happened at all that she could think about sent odd thrills through her.

She'd gone outside. Not to be displayed before the assembled Digimon army as Vamdemon's prize captive. Not even to be killed, something she'd worried about now and then. But an actual trip outside, where there was fresh air and …well, not much else. The ruins of the city didn't entirely match up to her memories and she didn't know if it were her memories that were faulty, the city itself somehow, or something else altogether.

So she didn't worry about those, really. She relived the trip in her mind in glorious detail, the way the cool air –was it autumn? Spring? There hadn't been enough of a tang to the air for her to guess – brushed against her, the feel of LadyDevimon's arms around supporting her and protecting her from all harm.

And then there had been the boy. She repeated his name in her mind. Ichijouji Ken. She hadn't heard another's name in so long. I wish I could've told him mine.

Sometimes she wondered if LadyDevimon had told her the truth, that she didn't even know her name. She wanted to think that she had. She wanted to believe that her guardian hadn't lied about anything in their time together. But another, deeper part of herself, one that remembered that her guardian was her jailer, no matter how sweet she was about it, told her that LadyDevimon would do anything that Vamdemon commanded, no matter her own opinion on the matter, and if he'd told her not to reveal the prisoner's name, then she wouldn't do it.

Sometimes she hated being a prisoner. It had been so long since she wasn't, she only vaguely remembered not being one, but she knew it had been better than this. She remembered warm sunlight and something fuzzy in her arms.

Miko…

She hoped that her cat had survived the damage somehow and found someone to live with.

She wanted to think that her parents had somehow escaped from all of this, but she remembered the look on Taichi's face, so twisted and hungry, and in the dark nights when she dreamed, she knew that they hadn't.

There were other people she remembered, faint images of people who had lived in their apartment building or that she'd gone to school with. Some were clearer than others, though names always escaped her. There'd been a girl with the bluest, clearest eyes that she could ever remember seeing, and a boy with red hair who always made her laugh.

She hadn't laughed, really and truly laughed, in so long that it hurt to think about. Like so much else, she decided thinking about it wasn't worth the pain, and turned her thoughts elsewhere.

What had that boy, Ken, been doing there anyway? She wanted to ask LadyDevimon, but a quick peek showed that her guardian wasn't there. She'd likely gone to her own room to rest after their trip. She couldn't think of where else she might be.

She was more than a little tired herself. As much as she'd enjoyed it all, she wasn't used to travel outside. She wanted to get used to it, and from what she'd overheard between them, she might have the chance.

Maybe I'll see him again. Or other humans. The thought of actually talking to someone who wasn't LadyDevimon, or seeing people who weren't Wizarmon or the Veggimon workers, struck a chord deep within her. Perhaps they'd even talk to her, like Ken had. Wrapping her mind around someone directing questions toward her would take some effort, but she wanted to do it. She wanted it more than anything she could think of right now.

But that would somehow mean getting away from LadyDevimon, because while the Digimon guarded her, there was no way at all that she'd be able to talk to humans. Those had been the terms of the first trip, and she doubted that Vamdemon would change them for future ones. She wanted so much to talk to other people, but the more she thought about it, the more impossible it seemed.

I'll figure out something. Maybe she will let me if I ask nicely enough. LadyDevimon wasn't cruel. She was just very obedient to Vamdemon. She could've punished her for being the one to speak first to Ken and she hadn't. So, maybe, just maybe, there was something of a small chance.

She decided that getting some rest now was a very good idea. Meal time would come sooner or later, and maybe there would be time for other questions.

Slowly she let her eyes slide closed, reaching back to those days before the darkness descended on the world, when there'd been light and dreams of a future that didn't involve a destroyed world. When everything had been innocent and she'd loved her brother instead of fearing the thing that wore his face.

To Be Continued