Series: Division of Destiny||Story: Reign of the Undead King||Chapter: The Anger
Characters: Piemon, Vamdemon, Chosen Children, others||Pairings: Ken x Daisuke/Daisuke x Ken, Mimi x Sora/Sora x Mimi
Chapters: 35-40||Words: 2,692||Total: 92,956
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.
"Partner?" Takeru eyed the small green Digimon that now placed itself in between himself, Yamato, and the strange human. "And who are you?" In all of his years in the Digital World, he'd never seen this Digimon, or one like it, before. It had to be young, likely a hatchling. If it had an attack at all, it was something harmless, like bubbles. He could've swatted it to the side and not even raised a bruise on himself.
And yet for all of that, it stared them down as fiercely as if it could take on Piemon himself.
"I'm Pipimon! And Yukio is my partner, and I won't let you hurt him!" The stem-like tip of his head quivered in anger as he glared, and truly, if that glare could've caused death, both of them would've been gone.
Yamato tilted his head, eyeing the small creature thoughtfully, before he reached over to tap Takeru on the shoulder. His lips formed a single silent word, and Takeru nodded, casting a quick glance over to Patamon. The small orange Digimon moved forward, looking as unthreatening as he could.
"We aren't planning on hurting him. We just want to know the truth about who he is and what he's doing here. We didn't know anything about any humans arriving here."
"I didn't tell anyone I was coming," the human said, his eyes more focused on the small green Digimon than on anyone else. "No one was even supposed to know that I was here. And I told you why I was here."
Takeru snorted. "Piemon always knows when someone enters his realm. You should've known better."
"Perhaps. But I came to find those boys, like I told you already." He swallowed some, fingers of one hand reaching forward toward the Digimon. "Are you...are you really my partner?" That seemed to interest him more than anything else.
"Of course I am!" Pipimon giggled, bouncing closer to him. "Don't you remember me, Yukio? I know it's been a long, long time. I didn't think I'd ever see you again."
Oikawa furrowed his brow, eyes distant and slightly confused. "I don't...it really has been a long time. I almost thought that I dreamed you up."
"Well, you didn't." Pipimon moved a bit closer still, though he didn't take his eyes off Yamato, Takeru, or their own partners. No matter how young he was, he had the instincts of a true Digimon partner. "I've been waiting all this time."
Old memories flickered through Takeru's own mind, of a time when he'd stared at his own partner with that kind of wonder. To think that someone had waited that long for him, had waited just for him...
He didn't dare let himself think too much on that. He couldn't get lost in memories, not when they still had this situation to sort out.
"What did you really come here for?" Takeru wanted that settled as quickly as possible. He didn't want to believe that somehow or other their parents were still looking for them. He'd given up on the fantasy of returning to Earth to live an ordinary human's life years ago. It wasn't going to happen. It couldn't happen; neither of them were ordinary humans anymore.
"I told you!" Oikawa glowered at them with far more fire than he'd shown until now. "Ishida Hiroaki and Takaishi Natsuko wanted me to find their sons: to find you."
Yamato only shook his head, gaze flickering to the side where Garurumon waited. He tilted his head, another silent word on his lips, and his partner rose and hurried away with all due speed.
"Where is he going?" Oikawa eyed the departing wolf with trepidation. Takeru approved of that; it showed some kind of sense to be wary of what one's enemies did.
"That's not your concern." He brushed it off for now, though. He had other questions to ask the human. "Do you know anything about Gennai?"
Oikawa, whose gaze had returned to Pipimon almost as soon as Garurumon was out of sight, glanced back toward Takeru. "Who?"
"Gennai!" Takeru didn't want to believe the newcomer could be that useless. Someone sent from Earth, supposedly by their old parents, who knew nothing about Gennai and could give them nothing? Why couldn't this have been someone they could actually work with? He didn't know who, but surely there could be someone who'd be able to lend them in a hand.
Yamato rested his free hand on Takeru's shoulder and the younger blond drew in a breath. He wanted more than anything to take some kind of major steps towards accomplishing their goals. A human arriving from Earth seemed like it would be useful toward that. And to find out that it wasn't didn't sit well with him.
"Well, if they sent you to find us, you've found us. And we are not going to Earth. This is our home now," Takeru said. He forced himself to focus on what he could do for now. There would be time enough later for organizing coups and overthrowing rulers.
"They want to be sure that you're all right," Oikawa said. He extended a hand toward Pipimon, who jumped onto it gleefully. The moment the two of them touched, a small sphere of light burst into existence above them, slowly lowering downward until it reached Oikawa's free hand.
What formed there was as familiar to Takeru and Yamato as their own heartbeats. A Digivice, identical to theirs in every respect, rested there now.
"He really is a Chosen...person?" Takeru murmured under his breath. 'Child' really wasn't a word that could be used in this case. Everything he'd known said that only children were Chosen. But children grew up, as he'd learned personally. Perhaps Oikawa had been Chosen as a child. He didn't know.
Perhaps Gennai would. Yet another reason to find the old bastard and squeeze every last drop of information out of him before finding out what happened to humans, or a reasonable imitation thereof, in the Digital World. Takeru had a lot of those.
"Well, well, what do we have here?" Piemon lowered himself down from above, arms crossed over his chest, staring at the man in front of them. Garurumon moved in closer to Yamato, who reached out to run one callused hand over his partner's head in gratitude.
"He calls himself Oikawa Yukio," Takeru reported at once, drawing himself up into a bit more formal of a stance. "And it looks as if he's a Chosen as well."
"So I see." Piemon drummed his fingers on the side of his arm, staring at the Digivice and the one holding it. "And sent by your human parents." It wasn't a question; Garurumon had told him everything they'd learned from Oikawa before he'd gone to inform Piemon of the other's arrival.
Neither Takeru nor Yamato hurried to reassure Piemon of their loyalty to him. If the past few years didn't prove it to his satisfaction, then no hurried words would do it now. Instead, they waited to see what his decision on this matter would be.
"Well, human?" Piemon turned his scarlet gaze onto the other, who still sat with most of his attention on his partner. "You've passed on the message you came to bring, and found a partner. What do you intend to do now?"
Oikawa tilted his head, brow furrowing. "I hadn't thought about it." From the way he said it and how he'd acted earlier, he hadn't thought about anything at all beyond being in the Digital World.
He reached into his jacket, not noticing how all three of the armed warriors tensed, then pulled out a picture. "I dreamed about coming here for years. My best friend and I learned about the Digital world when we were just children. That's when I first saw Pipimon." He cast a quick smile toward his small partner, who cuddled against him even more. "I wanted to come here to meet you, but I also wanted to come for him. He...he died several years ago. Before..." He waved one hand at the world around them, as if that would explain everything. Perhaps it did, to him.
"How did you get here?" Takeru wanted to know. That bothered him more than he cared to admit. There was only supposed to be one gate between the worlds, and Vamdemon hadn't given them a hint of warning that anyone had come through. If he didn't know, then what else could be going on back there?
Oikawa visibly pulled himself back from wherever his thoughts had wandered off to. "The gate on Earth. It took us a long time to be able to get me through it without anyone knowing."
Piemon's fingers drummed a fraction harder. "Really." If Takeru had heard that tone directed at him, he would've known right away that he was in all manner of trouble. Oikawa didn't seem to pick up on it.
"If I don't get back in touch with them, they're probably going to try to send someone else." His eyes sharpened as he started to stand up. "So I should contact them."
"We can arrange that," Piemon offered, a hint of dark amusement hovering over his lips. Takeru stifled a smirk; any inhabitant of the Digital World would've known better than to accept that. It was the truth, in a manner of speaking, but like virtually anything Piemon said, there were shades of meaning that not everyone understood.
Oikawa glanced toward him, a slight, perhaps wary tilt to his head, especially as Pipimon started to bounce in his hand, shaking his head. Or what Takeru presumed was his head, since the little thing was really all head.
"You can?"
Perhaps he wasn't quite as dense as Takeru thought. He at least didn't immediately accept the offer without questioning it.
"Of course I can." Piemon raised his head in pride. "Communicating with Earth is easy for someone like me."
Takeru stopped himself from snickering. He had to smother at least one, and Oikawa gave him an odd look, but he did it.
"You shouldn't trust him!" Pipimon burst out. "He's Piemon! He's evil!"
Piemon turned a frowning look to the tiny Digimon. "And what, precisely, does that have to do with offering to send a message back that will rid of me of two annoying humans attempting to lure away my two favorite warriors?" He rested one hand each on Takeru and Yamato's shoulders. "They're not the children those humans knew anymore. They are my sons more than they are anyone else's."
In all of Takeru's life, he'd never imagined a flush of warmth at being called Piemon's son. He almost wished that he wore a mask like Yamato's, something to conceal the fiery blush that rose up his cheeks.
"Be that as it may, Piemon, you cannot be trusted," a voice familiar to the three of them spoke up. From out of the brush stepped Leomon, sword already in hand, eyeing them as one might a wild beast ready to attack. Then he glanced at Oikawa. "If you would come with me, sir, then we can arrange a message to your world that will not risk the lives of your companions there."
Takeru rolled his eyes. Leomon always seemed to know when to turn up to be the most annoying he possibly could be. Piemon didn't appear bothered by his arrival, however.
"I said nothing of risking their lives," he said. He even managed to sound offended at the very thought.
"You didn't have to," Leomon said. He moved until he stood between Oikawa and Piemon, sword still at the ready. They all knew that Piemon could destroy him with little more than a flip of one hand, but Leomon stood there regardless. "Gennai and I know what you will do if you have the chance."
"You don't know as much as you think you do," Takeru muttered, one hand closing on his own swordhilt. He hoped Gennai was around there somewhere, though he couldn't entirely bring himself to believe that he would be. Only a complete idiot would face Piemon with anything less than an Ultimate level on their side, and so far as he knew they had nothing of the sort.
"Perhaps we don't," another voice spoke up, and Kentauromon stepped out of the shadows. "But we know who not to trust, and the chief of that list is Piemon."
"More of you," Piemon sneered. "I presume that Gennai thinks numbers can overwhelm me?"
"Gennai believes that you've warped and twisted three of the Chosen Children into your slaves," Kentauromon said. He didn't take his eyes away from Takeru and Yamato as he did. "And I believe him."
The brothers looked at one another, and the noise that Yamato made was his best approximation of a laugh. Takeru's rang deeper and fuller, but both carried the same opinion of the concept. Yamato shook his head, forcing out a word.
"No." The very idea was laughable. Warped? Twisted? What a joke. "He helped us." His voice sounded as harsh as rocks scraping against one another, and Takeru shook his head. It wasn't a good idea for Yamato to strain himself like that. But the elder blond hadn't finished yet. "He's not good. But neither are we."
Leomon and Kentauromon backed up, keeping themselves in between Oikawa and the slowly menacing others. "What did he do to you, Yamato?" Kentauromon asked, keeping his weapon trained on them. "You shouldn't be like this."
For a few moments, all remained silent. Then Yamato slowly reached up and removed his mask. Takeru knew well what he looked like underneath, but he was not at all surprised to hear the gasp from Oikawa, Leomon, and Kentauromon. Old burn scars raced up and down both of Yamato's cheeks, with one sliding inside of his mouth, twisting the right corner up so it gave him a look as if he were smiling eternally. Another scraped close to his left eye, not enough to impair his vision, but it had been a very close shave there. A third creased his forehead, having left a streak where no hair at all grew.
"He did that..." Leomon breathed, and Takeru and Yamato both shook their heads in denial.
"What he did was save Yamato's life! Yamato could've died because of his injuries, and Piemon could've left him to die!" He would never, ever forget the day that he'd seen his big brother burned, battered, and broken, too shattered to even move, enfolded in Piemon's arms. "Where were you then? Where was Gennai then?"
For years Takeru had kept the rage of his words hidden. He'd never needed to express it because those who he spoke to knew it already, and shared it. But now he flared up, as hot and burning as the Flare Lizamon who'd burned his brother.
"All Gennai ever did was tell us to go from here to there, hardly told us why, never told us anything that we really needed to know! And when Sora died?" His eyes flashed with long buried rage. "No, let me say it another way: when Vamdemon killed Sora and made her an unholy abomination, and then it happened to Mimi, Taichi, and Jou? Where was Gennai then?"
Leomon and Kentauromon remained silent. Not that Takeru had expected them to have anything to say, nor would he have listened if they had. There were no answers that he would accept, and the only repayment he could ever want would be Gennai's death, followed swiftly by Vamdemon's.
Piemon's hand on his shoulder tightened briefly and he breathed, trying to get himself under control. It wasn't often that he lashed out like this.
"Whatever you think I've done to them pales to what Gennai didn't do." Piemon bared his teeth in something that wasn't a smile at all. "But that is for him to deal with. Not his servants. If you wish to take the human, then do so. We have other matters to deal with."
He waved one gloved hand elegantly in dismissal before turning to Yamato and Takeru. "Let's go home."
To Be Continued