Chapter 38: The Enemy of my Enemy
The room was unusually cold, even for Myotismon's old castle. Perhaps it was just because I felt so helpless, sitting in that room for hours and hours, doing nothing but throwing little rocks at the wall o out the bared window. I had tried to break the thing almost a hundred times already, but it seemed indestructible. Even if I could have broken through the bars, I knew that I couldn't have escaped. The tower was perched several hundred feet above an outcropping of sharp rocks that even I couldn't have landed on and lived. The endless hours spent staring blankly into space were terrible, but they weren't as bad as the knowledge that Kari might be in danger, and that I wasn't there to help her.
I climbed up to the window again and stared out at the vastness of the digital world. Far away in the distance, I could see a Kuwagamon flying away, probably chasing something down on the ground. The sun was shining brightly on the wide open landscape, making the small lakes scattered throughout the surrounding forest seem to shimmer like immense piles of diamond. The sun seemed to fill the entire world, with the exception of my little freezing cold room. Only a few streaks of sunlight splashed in through the window, and sitting beneath them was my only source of heat. Of course, they would be gone in a few hours, and then I would be left to freeze in this tiny little cell.
As far as I knew, I was only being kept alive so that Daemon or one of his minions could trick the digidestined into giving up Shark's earring, which was apparently the one that Daemon was looking for. I wished that I could somehow get the message to them, but there was no chance of that.
Sitting in the waning sunlight, I tried to think of a good plan. The door was made of wood, but it was thick, solid wood and there were guards posted right outside of it. If I tried to break out, they would know long before I could produce a hole large enough to escape through, and I would be caught for sure. Other than that, the only available route was the window, which I had already failed to smash open.
I considered trying to trick the guard somehow, but I knew that it wouldn't work. Daemon had promised that if they opened the door for any reason at all he would kill them personally, so it was rather unlikely that anything I said would convince them to disobey his orders.
Still sitting in the sun and soaking up whatever heat I could from it, I began to doze off. I drifted in and out of sleep for a long time, half conscious of the sun moving steadily farther past the window until it ceased the spray into the room at all. This didn't bother me as much as I thought it would have, mostly because of my half-asleep state. I was about to fall into a much deeper sleep when my sensitive ears picked up flapping outside the window.
"Gatomon," someone whispered outside the window. "Are you in here? Say something if you're in here."
"Who's there?" I said groggily, stretching my claws. I didn't really expect any help, and so I figured it was just someone old friend who had heard of my plight and wanted to find me. As I looked up to the window, however, I found not an old friend, but quite the opposite.
"What are you doing here?" I demanded, instantly awake and angry at being disturbed, even more so because the digimon was Demidevimon.
"I'm trying to get you out of here," he said, gripping one of the bars with one talon and stretching a vial of liquid through the window with the other.
"I'm sure you are," I said sarcastically. "How about you get out of here before I slice you to ribbons," I said, brandishing my claws.
"You're not in a position to slice anyone to ribbons. I'm trying to help you and your dead beat friends, but if you don't want my help, they screw it, I don't care if they all die," he said, releasing the bar and fluttering away from the window.
"Wait," I said, "What's in that vial?"
"It's acid. I was going to give it to you to melt through those bars, but if you can't accept my help then so be it," he said, turning around and hovering with his back to me.
"And how exactly am I supposed to escape once I'm trough the bars. I can't fly," I reminded him.
"Oh, so the mighty Gatomon is afraid of a little fall," Demidevimon sneered. "Don't cats always land on their feet?"
"You're proving less and less helpful by the second," I growled at him.
"Well, I guess you could beg me to fly you down to the ground," Demidevimon laughed again. "But only if you ask really nicely," he mocked.
"And maybe if I use my Cat's Eye Hypnosis you'll fall asleep in mid air and crash onto those rocks yourself," I replied angrily.
"That won't save you little friends, now will it? I bet by now Daemon has the earring. He's probably roasting all their little . . ."
"Stop it!" I screamed at him. As much as I hated him, he was the only chance that I would have to escape, and save Kari. Swallowing my pride, I jumped up to the window.
"Fine, give me the acid," I demanded. He passed the vial through the bars to me, and I opened it. It smelled disgusting, but I grit my teeth and spilled a little bit onto one of the bars, near the bottom. The acid ate right through, creating a small gap in the metal. I spilled a little on the top of the same bar, and in less than a second, the bar fell down, out the window and all the way to the sharp rocks below, where it bounce around with several loud clangs before settling somewhere among the crags. I repeated the process with a second bar, right next to the first, and this time I held the middle of the bar so that I could set it down quietly back in the room. I now had a big enough hole to squeeze through, and I climbed out onto the sill of the window.
"Alright, let's go," I said, taking a deep breath.
"I haven't heard you beg me to carry you yet," Demidevimon mocked me again.
"Just shut up and take me down there already!" I yelled at him. He silently turned his nose up at me.
I sighed heavily, staring at the little digimon with absolute hatred.
"Fine. Demidevimon, will you please fly me down to the ground?" I said, angrily.
"I don't know, that was pretty weak," he laughed at me again.
"What do you want, a poem?" I yelled at him.
"How about you admit that I'm saving all your little friends and so you owe me big time when this is over," he laughed.
"Alright, I'll be in your debt if you'll fly me down there so that I can save my friends,' I said, practically shaking with anger and humiliation. There was nothing else I could do. He was the only escape route that I had.
"Fine, but as soon as Daemon's dead, you're gonna pay me back. You'll follow my every order for a week, no matter what it is!" he laughed hysterically
I almost leapt at him in my anger, but I managed to calm myself down. "I won't do anything to hurt my friends," I told him.
"Fine by me, I just want to humiliate you for a week," he grinned.
"Does today count?"
"No."
"Okay, it's a deal, now get me down from here," I said, still barely able to control myself.
"You got it, kitty cat!' he cried with glee as he swooped down to the window. His talons gripped my shoulders and he took off.
We soared high over the sharp crags far below the tower, and slowly descended as we passed out over the forest. We began to streak across the tops of the trees at high speed.
"Aren't you going to put me down now?" I questioned him as we flew along.
"I'm taking you right to an open gate. Daemon is already in the human world, and he's got his earring," Demidevimon told me.
"And you wasted all that time arguing with me!" I yelled at him, now completely losing my cool and trying to swat at him with my claws.
"Whoa, slow down, Gatomon! You wasted the time arguing, not me. Do you want to get to that gate or not?" he asked. Once again, I was forced to quietly accept the free trip he was giving me across the forest.
"Alright, there's the gate," he told me as we approached a large lake. In the middle of the lake was a large swirling portal which pulsed with an odd yet familiar energy.
"I just have one more question,' I said as we dove toward the portal. "Why are you helping us so much?"
"Well, you know the old saying, the enemy of my enemy is my, well, you get the idea," he said as he dropped me into the portal.
I spiraled through the link between the two worlds, now praying that I wasn't too late. Somehow, I sensed that I had to be the one to stop Daemon, and as soon as I got there, I had to find Kari. I didn't have to search very long. I appeared on top of a skyscraper, staring at a massive monster behind a wall of fire which could only be Daemon. I stared at him for a few seconds, in awe of how powerful he seemed to be, and unsure of what I could do to stop him. Then I felt Kari's light flowing through me, and all my doubts were instantly erased. I had to stop him, for Kari and for everyone.