Series: Division of Destiny||Story: Reign of the Undead King||Chapter: The Argument
Characters: Piemon, Vamdemon, Chosen Children, others||Pairings: Ken x Daisuke/Daisuke x Ken, Mimi x Sora/Sora x Mimi
Chapters: 27-40||Words: 2,622||Total: 71,479
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.
Ishida. The name rang in Daisuke's memories, but he couldn't make the connection. He hated when that sort of thing happened; the feeling of something being just on the tip of his tongue always distracted him from whatever else it was he was supposed to be doing.
"Your name's familiar," Jun said, mirroring her brother's thoughts. "Where have I heard it before?"
"I have a few ideas, but here and now isn't the best place or time to discuss them." The man called Ishida gestured to them. "We have a safer place where we can talk about all of this."
Osamu didn't move an inch. "Why should we trust you?"
Daisuke didn't disagree; being human didn't mean that they could be trusted. There were plenty of humans who gleefully worked for Vamdemon in any position he would permit them in, and were no more to be trusted than any Digimon who truly served him.
"Because your other option is to try to get out there." The woman gestured toward the outside. "That vampire might be gone, but he could come back at any moment, and bring his 'friends' with him."
The rebels cast a few quick glances among one another; whether they liked it or not, these two did have a point of some kind.
Ishida turned around and started back the way that he'd come. "Follow us, then. The sooner we get out of here, the better."
None of the rebels could argue with that, even if they wanted to. If Taichi tried to get in here, none of them wanted to still be around, much less to leave a trail he could follow.
At the far end of the tunnel the two had emerged from there stood a solid steel door, half-hidden by rocks and rubble, and the parts that weren't hidden held a good coating of rust. Osamu bent closer to give it a better look before they opened it.
"Camouflage," he murmured, touching one finger to it. "It's just camouflage."
"What?" Ken stepped up next to him and pressed a finger to it as well before nodded. "The rust is just paint."
"The vampires and the Digimon haven't found their way down here yet, but just in case they ever do, this should keep them away," Ishida said with a thin smile. "And if it doesn't, we'll have enough time to either leave or find a way to bring the whole tunnel down on top of them."
"Would that work?" Daisuke wondered. The idea of dumping a few hundred tons of rock and earth on Vamdemon's undead slaves hadn't ever occurred to him. It did sound interesting, though. Maybe this time, they'd actually stay buried.
Takaishi shrugged. "We don't know. I hope we don't ever have to find out."
Daisuke wasn't going to argue over that, either.
Ishida touched a small spot on the wall, which looked no different from any other, and as he did, a panel slid back at about eye level on the door itself. He leaned forward, letting a small beam of light touch his eyes, then stepped back and gestured for Takaishi to take his place.
Retinal scan, Osamu realized, mentally salivating at the idea of what kind of protective technology they could have down here. He didn't know how they powered it or where they'd scrounged it from, but he wanted to see it and see if there was any way he could copy it or improve on it. Their own defenses were nothing to sneeze at, but every little bit could help.
"If you weren't with us, then you could sit here forever, and absolutely nothing would happen," Ishida said, as rolling noises echoed from somewhere. Instead of the large rusted door moving to the side, the floor itself began to move backward, revealing a thin, narrow staircase.
They followed the two down the stairs, which weren't lit well at all, only a few guttering lightbulbs every hundred yards or so. The staircase led into a maze of tunnels, which wasn't any more well-lit, and before very long, Osamu didn't think he could've found his way back to the top even if he'd had a map.
"Where are we?" Iori wondered, staring around as much as he could.
"Just where we were. Only deeper," Ishida said. "This is part of the old subway system, actually. The storage rooms underneath Fuji TV weren't connected here originally, but you'd be surprised at what ten years of effort can create."
Osamu wasn't sure if he would be or not, but he could see why they'd do it. "Why would you pick here for your hideout?"
Ishida and Takaishi exchanged quick glances, with Ishida laughing a small, rueful laugh. "She always told me I was married to my work. So when the world came to an end, I couldn't think of a better place to go."
"Think you could say that in a way that makes sense?" Daisuke muttered, not liking being so far underground. It called up memories he chose not to think about, of thick walls and cold rooms, of being trapped and on a leash he couldn't break.
Ken rested one hand on his shoulder and Daisuke turned grateful eyes toward him. No matter what else happened, as long as he had Ken around, Daisuke knew that he'd be all right.
"I used to work here," Ishida said after a few silent moments. "Natsuko and I were married once upon a time as well. But it...didn't end well."
Takaishi shrugged. "That was a long time ago. There are more important things to worry about now. Like..." She shook her head as her voice trailed off, but said nothing more.
Her ex apparently had other ideas. "We want to find a way to destroy that monster ruling our world and see if we can find our sons."
"Sons?" Daisuke winced; he couldn't imagine how many people had been lost to the feeding pens. He'd been there himself and he didn't want to imagine it. He didn't really need to anyway.
No answer came for a few moments. Daisuke wondered if something worse than being in the pens had happened to their children. There wasn't much he could think of that was worse, but maybe...
"As far as we know, they're in the Digital World." Ishida pronounced the words carefully, as if they left a bad taste in his mouth.
"And we only know that because we heard some of the Digimon talking about visitors who might come sooner or later. Something about a 'Piemon-sama' and who he'd bring with him." Takaishi spoke quietly. "We can't even be certain if that's who they meant, but we don't have any other clues."
"We can ask Wizarmon if you like. He might know something," Osamu offered. He still couldn't shake the delighted thrill that ran through him at the thought of seeing Wizarmon again. He didn't want to, if all truth were to be known.
No answer came for that, and Osamu decided to ask the Digimon the next time he got the chance anyway. It wouldn't do any harm and perhaps could help. Whatever else these people had done, they'd at least managed to get them out of there before Taichi could get close enough to know they'd been there at all. Whatever tale Wizarmon spun would hold water, so long as they weren't actually seen.
The narrow corridor they ended up walking through after the maze widened out without warning, and the only hint they had that something was going to happen was when their guides both threw up their hands over their eyes. Brilliant light, the kind that none of them could remember seeing even in their own base, blazed on overhead.
"What the-" Osamu stopped in his tracks, shuddering, unable to move without fear of tripping over something since he couldn't see where he was going. "What is this?"
There wasn't any sound of weapons, but he could hear more people there suddenly, the shuffling of feet and sharp, nervous breathing, and he knew without a doubt they were all pointing something at them anyway.
"This is who we saw talking to that Digimon. They say that they're trying to help get rid of Vamdemon." Takaishi's voice cracked cold and harsh. "I still don't know if we can trust them, but I don't think we have any choices, either."
A strange voice answered her. "Do you really think that this could work?"
"Something has to." Ishida sounded far more tired than he ever had before. "We've tried everything else that we could think of."
Feet moved forward from behind Osamu, and he recognized Daisuke's tread. "Do you think someone could turn the lights down in here? I didn't think I'd ever say it, but they suck."
Low-voiced murmurs came from between the others, and moments later, the lights dimmed down enough so it wasn't blinding to have one's eyes open. Osamu still would've given a respectable chunk of money, if money had meant anything anymore, for a pair of sunglasses. There were more important matters at hand, however.
"Who are you, what do you want, and what in the world is going on here?" Osamu wanted to know, taking a firm step forward, staring at all of those he could see now.
"Most of these were my co-workers," Ishida said, settling down on a battered office chair that still seemed able to roll a little. "We all ended up back here sooner or later and decided to stay together."
One of the others, armed with what looked like an oversized kitchen knife with a razor's edge of sharpness, brought a cup of something that smelled vaguely like coffee once had over to Ishida. "We've been doing everything we can to find out how to defeat Vamdemon. But he doesn't have many weaknesses that we can tell."
"Wizarmon said that the best chance he knew of would be an Angel Digimon. But those are hard to find these days," Osamu said. None of these new people looked all that thrilled by any of that.
"I still don't think it's a good idea to trust a Digimon," one of the others said. "What have they ever done but cause us trouble?"
"If we can trust Wizarmon, and I think that we can, not all of them like Vamdemon anyway. If we can get rid of him, most of them will probably go back to their world and not bother us anymore," Ken pointed out. "Our best chance is to keep working with him. He'll be able to give us information and assistance that we can't get on our own."
The one with the coffee shrugged, settling down on a half of a desk, careful to sit so he didn't knock it over. "Maybe for you. But we want something else, too."
"What?" Miyako's gaze flickered from one to the other of them, not having relaxed at all since they'd entered here. Osamu applauded that. This was nearly as dangerous as going out where the vampires could get them would have been.
"Our sons," Ishida said quietly. "We've been working to find a way into the Digital World. We couldn't build one ourselves, but they have a gate that can be used to cross over."
A thread of curiosity and fear made its way down Osamu's spine. "You're going to the Digital World?"
"No. We're going to send someone else there. Someone who can find our sons and bring them home," Takaishi said, her eyes sharp and determined. "We would go ourselves, but passing through that gate is dangerous."
Another person spoke up. "What information we've gathered indicates that only certain people can do so and not be harmed by it in some way. We don't know what the requirements are, but none of us can do it."
"How do you know that if you don't know what they are?" Ken pointed out with a hint of twisted amusement.
"Just admit it. You're too scared to try," Iori said, giving them all his best disappointed look, the one that could make even Miyako try something she wasn't inclined to. "So you want us to do it for you."
Nervous shuffles came from everyone else who called this their base. Ishida was the one who spoke up. "I want to go. That place took my sons from me and I want them back. But we sent someone through once and we haven't heard back from him at all. He promised to send a message, but nothing. There's a good chance he didn't survive."
The words fell heavily from his lips, as if he didn't want to say them at all.
"What makes you think we could do any better?" Miyako wanted to know. "We don't know anything more about that world than you do."
"Because there are more of you. If whatever attacks him attacks you, you have better chances of fighting it off. He wasn't a very good fighter, which is why we sent him in the first place. We thought he'd go under their radar," Ishida said, his attention more on his hands than on them. "We don't know what happened to him, but he's not telling us anything, and we have to assume the worst."
Osamu could think of a lot more things worse than being dead, especially in the Digital World, but now didn't seem like the time to mention any of them.
"I still think it's a better idea to talk to Wizarmon about this. He can find out what's going on without lives being risked again," Osamu said. They had enough to do saving their own world. Trying to get into another world's politics, more than they already were, seemed like stretching themselves far too thin for comfort.
Takaishi opened her mouth to say something, quite likely about the idea of talking to a Digimon about this, when the entire room shook and the lights sparked once, twice, and then went out, plunging everything into a deep darkness.
"I think we have bigger problems on our hands," one of the other ex-reporters snapped amid the shouting and clashing of people getting to their feet and trying to find their way.
"What's going on?" Osamu shouted, taking a step back and reaching for where he knew Ken had been moments before. "Earthquake?" The Digimon invasion hadn't changed the fact Japan had earthquakes, but this didn't feel like one at all.
"I don't know, I can't get to the security system!" Someone else shouted, the sound of multiple feet coming from everywhere. "But this shouldn't happen even in an earthquake! Not unless we were at the center of it!"
"Amazing what can happen when someone puts their mind to wrecking your little 'security system', isn't it?"
The voice wasn't one that Osamu had heard many times, but he recognized it anyway. He wasn't certain if the sharp breath indrawn were his own or Daisuke's. Either one was perfectly understandable at this point.
"Yagami." It was Ken who spoke the name, giving it a level of loathing that most of them reserved for Vamdemon. Ever since he and Osamu had rescued Daisuke from Vamdemon, the monster's chief minion rang second on his list of the enemies he hated.
"So glad you know me. It saves on all of those boring introductions." Footsteps, calm and measured and crunching against the rubble on the floor, moved forward. "I don't really know who any of you are, and I don't care. Though I think I smell an exception. Vamdemon-sama wants you all, but he will be very pleased to have you back, Motomiya Daisuke. He's been looking for you."
And with that, all hell broke loose.
To Be Continued