The Golden Goddess

Chapter 5

The Wolf Brigade

"Who is he? Yagean, I mean," Yamaki asked, clicking his lighter as he and Taichi watched the battle between the Jeri Reaper and Dorugamon unfold from the roof of the DPP headquarters.

"Yamato?" Taichi asked solemnly.

"Is he?"

"Yes, and no. He's just like the rest of us who have partners. We used the show as cover."

"Who would believe in a fictional thing?" Yamaki took in this knowledge. "I understand that, but why would you base it off yourselves?"

"Takeru based it off of what he knew and that was the adventures we each had." Taichi's comment was short and to the point.

"So was most everything that happened in the show real to some degree?" Yamaki asked.

"No, the second season was a complete lie. The first season was done too well, and there became tow much interest in digimon, too many fanatics with a one in a hundred chance of finding about real digimon. We ordered Takeru to kill it. So he did with second season; tweaking stuff, adding stuff that wasn't real, just making it a real mess. The adventures actually ended up being some sort of a cross between the V-Tamers comic and Adventure 01," Taichi muttered. He was quiet for a second before going on. "I've often wondered if that was a good idea."

"I don't mean to pry, but exactly, what are you guys? How close was the show to being right?" Yamaki inquired

Taichi's eyes held a deep sadness as the battle went on in the distance. "The wave, the wave took us. In a single day, fifty two kids were reported missing from beaches across the world. Each of us have our story, but in the end it was all the same. We all wound up in the digital world after being swept away. Beyond that, we've never figured out how we got to the digital world."

"A wave?"

"Yeah. I had been out swimming with my date, the one you would know as Sora. I had was thirteen at the time, so it wasn't really a date, per say. Both of our families had known each other for a long time, and we used to get teased about being betrothed at birth. The sun was shining and everything seemed just fine. I had been playing with her in the water, teasing her like any male going through puberty teases a girl. We heard our parents calling and we turned back to see what they were trying to say when the wave hit us. The next thing I knew, I was completely disoriented with what I eventually knew to be Digignomes surrounding me. I wasn't the only one though. There were lots of us. In fact, all fifty-two where there in the beginning."

Taichi stopped for a second as the battle in the distance seemed to halt for a second before resuming itself. He paused, lost in his thoughts. "All of us received our Digimon immediately, but no sooner do two people get together before one tries to dominate the other. Devimon was not this evil thing that took control of monsters through Haguramon's attack." Taichi's voice was filled with disgust and another emotion that Yamaki could not identify. "He was the partner to Heinrich. The fool quickly learned the rules of the digital world and found the strength of downloading digimon. Many thought that this was a despicable idea, but most of us were more worried about trying to survive than anything else. We had all been so young and innocent."

There was an anger in Taichi's voice and a fear in his eyes as he thought back to that time. "Heinrich then caught word that downloading a tamed digimon's data gave more power than just a regular digimon." Taichi's voice grew colder as went on. "He managed to get two people to trust him, Veina and Sam. These three went forward and killed off both Tamers and digimon; downloading the digimon to become stronger. They became so strong so quickly that none could fight against them. They killed fifteen before they were stopped."

Taichi's expression shifted. "Takeru, poor Takeru. Before Heinreich, some of the Tamers had gathered together more for companionship than anything else, but now you had to group to not be murdered by Heinreich. When Heinreich started to kill off people, some very powerful and noticeable alliances were formed. Neo, Hideto, Seiga, Mimi, and Michael became the most powerful group; even Heinreich didn't dare attack them. With six digimon between them, Arkadiamon's Dot Matrix, and Warg and Melga's near flawless teamwork, even he was scared."

"I took it as my responsibility to take care of the younger ones. Our full group finally consisted of Yagean, Sora, Takeru, Jyou, my little sister, Angel, Kelsey, Anna Yuu, Tsurgi, Ami and myself." Taichi thoughts drifted for a sec, "We finally did face Heinreich. Jyou, Tsurgi, Kelsey Takeru my little sister and I all went after Heinreich. Ami, Yuu, Anna and Angel fought Sam, and Yagean went after Veina." Taichi's features became a calm façade; all emotions he had been showing previously were gone. Instead, his once thoughtful and angry face held a quiet peace to it.

"Sam ended up being killed by accident after his digimon had been destroyed, but not before he had slain Anna and mortally wounded Yuu. The younger wolf died a week later. Heinreich beat all of us pretty badly before proceeding to kill Kelsey and her digimon. It was then that Patamon digivolved and used all of his strength against Heinreich's Devimon. He defeated Devimon at the cost of his own life." Taichi's features changed instantly. He no longer held the peace in his face. He was pissed and he was showing it.

"Heinreich still had one more card to play, though. It seemed he had somehow stolen Sora's egg, and since the egg had never been touched by Sora, it had yet to be hatched. He had the egg absorb Devimon's data..." Taichi stopped. "It doesn't matter."

"I'm sorry to have brought up such bad memories," Yamaki apologized, "but why was Yagean the only one to fight Veina."

Yamaki heard some clanking behind him as MetalGarurumon X came walked slowly towards them. "Brother, what big ears you have. Brother what a big nose you have. Brother what big eyes you have. Brother what a big mouth you have. Then the wolf proceeded to gobble up the girl until he was satisfied," came Yagean's cruel voice, void of caring. "Veina was my sister. I didn't kill her at the time, but I could never forgive her for what she did." MetalGarurumon X leapt off the building to go and join the fight.

It was not Taichi, but Agumon who spoke next. "Veina had always been called little Red Riding Hood. She was Suzie's age, and yet, when Heinreich took her from Yagean, he taught her to become a killing machine. She was so sweet and innocent that no one would ever see the dagger in her hand; no one but Yagean."

Yamaki was shocked into silence. He had no words for what he felt; pain, fear, anger, revulsion and yet sympathy. He didn't quite understand, but the feeling was correct as Taichi spoke.

"Kill her. Kill her while you are still a beast and not a man. Kill her now."

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The hospital room was quiet as Henry held his little sister while everyone else in his family had gone for breakfast. The room seemed to reverberate with the little background noise that came from the nurses and doctors going to and from the different available beds. Henry watched the early morning sun come up; its rays laying over him as he sat on the hospital bed holding his youngest sister.

Last night had been such a shock to him that he really hadn't fully comprehended what had happened. His sister went from being dead to being alive. He held her lovingly in his arms. He had always watched over Suzie the best he could, but he couldn't exactly say he had appreciated her. She was always trying to hang out with him and whining when she didn't get her way. She had always been the one that had been catered to, and he had many fights with his parents over her.

Yet, he still knew he had to take care of her. She was so sweet and innocent, if a little devious, but she knew nothing of reality. She was the one who had always added something interesting to his life. Whether it was her latest game of princess pwetty pants or her remarkable skill in the digimon card game, she had always given him something to smile at. Even Terriermon, through all of his antics, didn't seem to bring him as much joy as she had.

He looked down at her as the sun gleamed off her brown hair. She felt his gaze and looked up at him, but worry held the complexion on her face. "Suzie?" Henry asked.

"Henry.... why... why didn't Jeri ever use her blue card?" Suzie asked, almost shamefully. "Why didn't she bring Leomon back?"

"I don't know Suzie," Henry told her. "She was probably scared."

"Of what?"

"Maybe she was afraid that Leomon wouldn't want to be her partner again, or that she would lose him again," Henry said thoughtfully. "If she were to lose him again, I don't think she could handle it, and she was afraid of that. She could have felt that we would have looked down on her if she had created him again. Then again, she could have felt that she wasn't worthy of a partner. Or it could be any combination of these things. Why do you ask?"

"Henry... they... they cured me." Suzie started to bawl as she pushed herself out of her brother's arms. "They fixed me, and they did it by using Lopmon. They studied her and killed her. I saw it! She was in a vat with nothing over her mouth. She would have drowned even if I hadn't killed her earlier. They used her to fix me, Henry."

Henry was startled out of the peaceful mind frame he had been in with his sister just moments before. "Suzie, stop this. There was nothing wrong with you. It's not your fault they killed Lopmon; they probably would have anyway." Henry cursed himself inwardly, what on earth was he supposed to say?

"Shut up!" Suzie yelled at him. "It's not like you didn't know, Henry; my brain tumor. They cured my brain tumor. Why do you think I'm not speaking with a lisp anymore? Why do you think I can actual make coherent thoughts now?! Why do you think I can actually understand things now?! They cured me, Henry. They took the data from Lopmon that has regenerative properties and inserted it into my own nervous system. My own data stream took it to my brain and recopied itself over the brain tumor, Henry! They cured me. They did the one thing I've always wanted. Now I don't have to be picked by kids for being different! Now I don't have to always try to hang out with you because you and your friends are the only ones who can stand me!

"I'm cured, Henry. You and the family don't have to pretend like I'm not different now! You don't have to come down to my level to talk to me. Even better, Henry, the process did more than bring me up to the mental maturity of my age, but it went even farther. I'm cured. Don't you get it? Don't you get it?! I'm finally alright...." Suzie latched onto her brother, her tears streaming down her face as she buried her head into his chest. "But the process killed her, Henry. It killed her. I took too much data from her and it killed her! I killed Lopmon, Henry! I killed her!" Henry's chest was soaked in a matter of seconds as he put his arms around her small frame.

He had always known about Suzie's brain tumor, but the family had made a decision. They had wanted her to live as normal of a life as she could, so they kept quiet about it. It had worked to a degree, but Suzie had always been obviously different. In the beginning it always seemed as if she was going to lead a normal life. It was when she went to school that the differences started to become more and more noticeable. As the other kids grew up and matured, Suzie always seemed to be a bit younger, and yet, was the smartest person in the class. She could understand concepts of science far more quickly than anyone else and math was easy for her.

She had a hard time reading, though. At age eight she was barely able to read her basic characters. Small sounds were difficult and words impossible. She never seemed to understand many emotional feelings. She didn't understand why people wouldn't want to play with her or why she had to do things a certain way. In the beginning, she had been over exuberant, always trying to meet new people, but as people started to turn her away again and again, she stopped trying. Her attitude never changed, but she finally figured out that the result she was getting wasn't one she wanted, so she stopped.

She knew something was different about her. Henry had heard her crying in her room more than once, never knowing what it was about. It was because of her brain tumor that he had always protected her. He didn't want her to suffer anymore then she already had. He wanted her to be protected so she didn't have to cry.

But now, he had no idea of what to say. He merely hugged her and whispered very softly. "It'll be alright. It'll be alright."

Jyou watched from the doorway. He sympathized with Suzie, for he had once felt that the same way. Even today he wondered if he could have done anything different back then. Before Jyou had entered the digital world, he had been a victim, or at least that's what he thought in his mind. Everything had been somebody else's fault. It didn't matter what happened to him, he always put the blame on somebody else. It was his teacher's fault he got the grades he did, they were too hard on him. It was his friends' fault he was home late because they wanted to stay a little bit longer. It was his brother's fault they were fighting because he started it. Ownership was not something he would take.

When he went to the digital world, the idea of things being other people's fault didn't change. There was something else, though. His digimon, Gomamon, always had a good attitude about everything. Even if other digimon and tamers got sick of his teasing and playfulness, his motto had been that life was too short to stress about the big things. You could stress about the little things all you wanted because that's what made people individuals.

Thinking of Gomamon brought a small smile to Jyou's lips. He would have wanted for him to move on, not to stress over him. Jyou never could live by Gomamon's philosophy and the reason was Gomamon himself. Unlike the show, it in fact had been Gomamon who was always sick, chronically sick on top of that. It was some disease that was the digital equivalent was Leprosy, in at least what it did to the body. D-Teriate, as it was called, was an inborn disease that ended up in the digimon's data corrupting out at a young age. Gomamon had always kidded about it aging him quicker than everybody else, making him the oldest and wisest. He would often stand on a small hill waiting for people to come and ask him for his sage advice.

That had been his partner and friend right up until the very end. Everyone else had gone ahead without him to fight Heinrich the second time when Gomamon had run his course through his life. Jyou often played the moment in his head of the small Digimon giving him one final lecture about needing to relax. His final words never changed from who he had been, they were all play and fun, giving hope in what had become Jyou's darkest hour.

When the disease had finally claimed Gomamon's core, the digimon had dissolved into data leaving only his orange mane behind for Jyou to remember him by. Jyou waited in that city for the longest time working in the hospital. At first he had blamed Gomamon for leaving him here like this, but there was a day that all changed when he met two digimon, a Wizardmon and a Witchmon. They exemplified Gomamon's statement that life is short, don't fret about the big things.

Jyou walked into the room in a rather sour mode. It had been a full two years since the others had left to leave him with Gomamon. The reminder did not help how stressed he was. However, the situation in the room surprised him to no end.

"Oh, sure, you just had to be the chivalrous one and get in front of that fireball. Now look, we're stuck in this place because of you. If you wouldn't worry about me, we could get places faster," Witchmon scolded Wizardmon.

"Oh, shut up, you old hag," Wizardmon retorted back. "If I had let you get hit by that fireball, you would have been complaining about for the rest of the trip; requiring us to stop all the time. This helped us to get to your lousy mother's house faster."

"Oh, if you were a real husband, you would know to not call me an old hag," Witchmon scolded him.

"Double double, toil and trouble, fire burn and cauldron bubble," Wizardmon shot at her.

"Oh! You know how much I hate that!" Witchmon yelled at him, bringing her broom down to meet his.

"Honey wait!" Wizardmon spoke.

"Oh no you don't. You're not getting out of this one!" Witchmon said putting more weight onto her broom.

"No, it's not that, honey. I would love to fight with you, but we just seem to have a guest," Wizardmon told her.


"A guest!" Witchmon screeched looking over at Jyou. "Why didn't you say so?! Look at me, I haven't gotten any time to prepare. I look hideous!"

"Of course you look hideous. You're a Witchmon, you're supposed to look hideous."

Jyou stopped his train of thought as Suzie looked up at him, hollowness and pain in her eyes. Jyou knew the feeling, he knew the feeling very well. After meeting those two digimon, something about Gomamon's words finally made sense; too bad Jyou had gone too far the opposite way and blamed himself for Gomamon's death. In fact, he blamed himself for everything now; well, everything that was reasonable. It was the reason he had become a doctor. He had wanted to pay Gomamon back for what he had taught him so that no one would have to go through the same thing as Gomamon did.

"If... if you could go back and never have had your tumor, would you? Would you go back?" Jyou asked.

Henry turned his head to see Jyou there for the first time. Suzie's tear-filled eyes looked at Jyou before letting her head shake a little. She held it still for a second before shaking it as if she really meant it. "No, no I wouldn't."

"He wouldn't have either," Jyou told him. "He, he had no regrets; no reason to regret anything. Maybe that's the final lesson he was trying to teach me. Just maybe." Henry looked at Jyou curiously; confused at where that had come from or who the 'he' was that Jyou was talking about. Suzie just seemed to understand, and let a small smile part her childish lips.

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Takato's body started to shake as Dorogamon's arm slashed through the Jeri-Reaper's body. "No," he yelled, but the beast digimon didn't even miss a beat as he stepped around the Jeri Reaper until he was fully behind it and slammed both of his claws into the creatures back. The Jeri- Reaper shrieked in terror.

"No!"

Dorugamon slammed the Jeri-Reaper into the dirt, leaving a small impression, before leaping into the air. "Power Metal!"

"No! Dorugamon stop! This isn't right!" Takato yelled at his partner. "This isn't how it's supposed to be." Takato fell to his knees. He was losing him, just like Growlmon. He had lost Guilmon, was the same thing going to happen to Dorumon? Takato sobbed as he dropped on his hands. "Please stop, Dorugamon. Stop, this isn't you. I almost lost Guilmon like this; I don't want to lose you, too. Why won't you listen to me? Please just stop. Why won't you lay off? You don't have to fight so hard. Jeri's still in there."

Takato mustered all the strength he had to stand, "Dorugamon, stop. Stop it. You don't have to do this!"

Takato halted as all of the blood rushed to his head and he blacked out.

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Betamon X: Yes, this is a heavy reference to the Movie the wolf Brigade. You would have to see it to fully understand the implication behind Taichi's final comment.

Gomamon: Mon, it's been a while since we've done an author's note.

Betamon X: And this is short and just explanatory at that.... Lame.

Be satisfied you got to show up

Frozen Twins

Betamon X
Gomamon