Kinda a slow chapter, but I needed to explain things. It took my a while. I got stuck halfway through for over a week!
Note: In this fic, Rose Morning Star is Ophanimon's castle, and Seraphimon's is the Forest Terminal. Cherubimon doesn't have a specified one, but if he did, it would be something else. The way I see it, the Digital World is new each time it is rebuilt, so this time Rose Morning Star and the Forest Terminal are on opposite sides of the same continent. I know Ophanimon had her own castle, and I'm pretty sure Rose Morning Star could be considered Cherubimon's but things have changed.
Without further ramble, here's the chapter…
Disclaimer: I dOn'T oWn DiGiMoN! lEaVe Me AlOnE! (Is it just me, or does that make your eyes hurt if you stare at it too long?)
Old Demons
Chapter 9: Spirits of Darkness
"Are you going to tell us anything?" Kouji asked. BurningGreymon shook his head. "Come on!"
"We're almost to Rose Morning Star anyway," Zephyrmon said.
Takuya groaned. "We'd better by. My legs are falling asleep!" He and Kouji had been riding on BurningGreymon's shoulders for the last six hours – since they had left at dawn for the Rose Morning Star. BurningGreymon also held Mercurymon in his arms. Zephyrmon flew nearby, holding Zoe, with Tommy and Ranamon clinging to her legs. On the ground below, Gigasmon ran, keeping up surprisingly well. JP bounced along on his back.
"Your legs are – falling as-asleep?" JP cried between Gigasmon's jolting strides. "You're fl-flying! Quit complaining! Hey – Gigasmon? Do ya think – woah! – you could run a – little smoother?"
"You want smooth?" Gigasmon grunted. "Then you run, Gigasmon ride!"
"Okay, okay. I – get it."
Zoe laughed from Zephyrmon's arms. "Poor JP." She looked up at her former Beast Spirit. "I hope you don't plan on carrying me around like this the whole time I'm here."
"Whatever gave you that idea?" Zephyrmon asked in mock innocence.
Zoe smiled. "I know you're worried, but I'm fine. Really. It's just a twisted ankle! You're – " She suddenly choked on her words. Zephyrmon and the other two passengers stared at her. "…Overreacting."
"You alright?" Ranamon asked, genuinely concerned. "Ya sound like you were 'bout ready to –"
"He said we were overreacting," Zoe whispered. "He said they were just dreams. Now look what's happened!"
"He?" BurningGreymon asked, flying closer.
"Kouichi," Takuya said. He shot Kouji a wary glance. "He had been having dreams and ended up going home from school sick. The next day he was fine, so we figured he'd just had a bad day." Kouji glared at him. "Fine – I figured there was nothing wrong. He disappeared that night sometime."
"About what didst he dream?" Mercurymon asked.
"The darkness," Kouji murmured. "That's all I got out of him."
The group settled into an uncomfortable silence. Later in the day, the towers of the rebuilt Rose Morning Star appeared on the horizon. Less than an hour later they landed on the steps outside. BurningGreymon, Zephyrmon, and Gigasmon set down their passengers and Slide Evolved to their Human Spirits. The group walked through the doors.
They made their way through a maze of staircases and hallways. After a long time, they reached a grand hall, entering through one of well over a dozen side corridors. At one end of the hall was the main staircase; the other side featured a pair of regally decorated double doors. Zoe smiled and waved at the Digimon guarding the doors.
"Sorcermon! I thought you worked for Seraphimon at the Forest Terminal."
"I used to," Sorcermon replied. "But Lady Ophanimon needed more protection. She didn't return to her Mega form for some years."
Footsteps echoed into the hall, but no one could tell where they came from. The humans and Digimon scanned the many entrances until…
"Kumamon!" Tommy cried.
"Tommy!" The white bear ran out of a hallway at the far end of the hall, followed by a very confused Beetlemon. Tommy and JP ran to meet them. Seconds later, Arbormon and Lobomon emerged. Kouji and Lobomon barely acknowledged each other.
"When'd you get here?" Beetlemon asked.
"Yesterday," JP said. Sorcermon quietly excused himself to alert Ophanimon to their presence.
Agunimon came over, sending Lobomon a concerned look. "Did you find anything?" Lobomon shook his head.
"What were you looking for?" Kouji demanded. No one answered. "Isn't anyone going to tell us anything? It's my brother who's missing!"
Lobomon looked up sharply. "Kouichi's missing? Since when?"
"Sometime Saturday night."
"And when did you get here?"
"I don't know. We got on the Trailmon…around 4:30 our time on Monday. We got here mid afternoon. Why's that important?"
Lobomon, apparently doing mental calculations, didn't answer, so Arbormon answered. "It's the time difference, y'know? An hour in your world is, like, a day here, right?"
"Six weeks," Lobomon breathed. The other Digimon stiffened. "Give or take. Six weeks today if he disappeared exactly at midnight…"
"Which wouldst be the end of the sync," Mercurymon finished.
"That can't be a coincidence," Kazemon said. "Something strange is going on here."
Kouji punched a wall in frustration, drawing thirteen stares. He clenched his jaw. "What's going on? Tell me."
Lobomon sighed. "Lowemon has been missing for six weeks today – since midnight the night Kouichi disappeared."
"We be searching for Lowemon non-stop," Grumblemon said. "A few days ago we finish last continent we no search yet. Now we start over here."
"Then we found y'all," Ranamon began. "And – oh!" The double doors opened. Sorcermon, standing just inside, beckoned them in.
The chamber was a large crystal dome with predominantly pink hues. Ophanimon sat on a throne on the far side.
"Welcome, DigiDestined. I believe there are things we need to discuss."
Kouji stepped forward. "Since you apparently didn't know about Kouichi, why'd you bring us here?"
"If I'd had my way, you would have come much sooner." Ophanimon sighed. "There is an imbalance. Nothing looks wrong, but we can all feel it. Seraphimon denied it, and told me not to contact you, but even he has to admit it now.
"Lowemon was most sensitive to it. He said an old darkness was growing, coming after Kouichi. He kept mentioning dreams –"
"You seem to know a lot about what's been going on with my brother," Kouji observed. "And yet you had no idea he was missing."
Lobomon put a hand on the boy's shoulder. "Because of the sync. On your one-year anniversary of coming here, the time systems of the worlds synchronized for 24 hours. That was when Lowemon disappeared." He tensed. "And, I believe, when your brother did."
"During the sync," Ophanimon said, picking up the explanation, "all contact between the worlds was cut off. We couldn't sense your presence. But we could sense another."
"Duskmon," Lobomon growled. Kouji jumped, backing out from his former Spirit's comforting hand. Lobomon lowered his gaze.
"Wait!" Takuya cried. "I thought we got rid of Duskmon! How can he and Lowemon both be alive?"
"In the first place, you never completely 'got rid of' Duskmon," Ophanimon explained. "Kouji banished him, freed Kouichi from his power."
"How?" Kouji asked, stepping forward. "How exactly did I 'banish' him?"
"The same way you held off Duskmon this long," Lobomon muttered. He looked up and approached Kouji once more.
"What are you talking about?" Kouji faced Lobomon. The look on his face was one of pure wrath, making everyone except Lobomon and Ophanimon flinch. "All I want is some answers!"
Lobomon nodded. "Alright. Lowemon recognized Duskmon well over a year ago, our time. Duskmon wasn't coming after Lowemon; he was after Kouichi. I believe it took Duskmon this long to succeed in his plans because of you, Kouji."
"You know of your affiliation with the light," Ophanimon said. "As long as you and your brother are physically near each other – perhaps within hearing distance – you have an effect on him, and he on you. For your part, you share your light with him. That light was what freed Kouichi from Duskmon's power the last time you were here. It is also what held off Duskmon until now."
Kouji frowned. "If my light was able to hold him off before, why did it suddenly stop working?"
"The Cycle." All the humans stared at Ophanimon. She sighed. "I don't know how or why, but after you left, a Cycle began. It has just reached the beginning of the first repetition. Basically, the power of everything in the worlds wanes as time passes. At the midpoint – six months for you and twelve years for us – the power begins to grow again."
"So, wait a minute," Zoe interrupted. "Then it shouldn't have mattered. If Kouji held him off all this time, his power would have grown right alongside Duskmon's."
"In theory, that is true," Ophanimon admitted. "But in fact Digimon have a much more drastic Cycle than you do. At the midpoint, our power is only very slightly greater than yours, though at the sync the difference is much greater."
"And you figured all this out after just one time through the Cycle," JP said, sounding skeptical.
Ophanimon smiled faintly. "Let's just call it a gift I possess."
"So why did Duskmon wait so long?" Takuya asked. "You're saying he's always going to be stronger than us but…it doesn't seem like it to me."
"I do not know what goes on in the mind of one so twisted as Duskmon," the great angel said. "There may be many reasons for his delay. Opportunity, for example, or proximity. The worlds are very close together right now, so it is easier to travel between the worlds. Most of all, though, I believe he waited for the Cycle to start over. He is at this point still strong enough to hold his own in a fight, and at the same time we will be weakening. If he succeeds in what he must be planning, I fear he will be unstoppable."
"What's he planning, then?" Kouji asked.
Ophanimon bowed her head. "I hope I'm wrong, for all of our sakes as well as Kouichi's…Duskmon is much more powerful when he is merged with a human, especially Kouichi. There are three beings of darkness: Duskmon, Lowemon and Kouichi. Duskmon is unconditionally evil, and Lowemon is his exact opposite. On their own, both are powerful, but neither can reach their full potential without Kouichi, the soul of darkness. Both Spirits of Darkness will exist and be at odds until Kouichi chooses his destiny."
"He has chosen!" Kouji yelled. Takuya grabbed his shoulder to keep him from attacking Ophanimon. "He's on our side!"
Seemingly unaware of Kouji's mood, the Mega angel said, "For now. But he has not actually decided. If he had, Duskmon wouldn't be here. When he was Duskmon, Kouichi was being controlled, but when you defeated and scanned Duskmon, you merely freed Kouichi to make his choice."
"Are you saying my brother is evil?"
"Of course not, but he does have a corrupt side. It is the effect of his time under Duskmon's power. A time is coming when the two forms of Darkness will clash. Only one can last. Kouichi alone can decide the outcome."
Ooo the fate of the worlds in Kouichi's hands… In the next chapter, Kouichi hears about his corrupt side. How do you think he'll take it?
For any of you who may be wondering about how and when the angels digivolved, here's the Readers' Digest version (Hmmm maybe I need another disclaimer here saying I don't own Readers' Digest...): when the DigiDestined restored the Digital World and left, the rookie angels were given enough power to digivolve into Champion and come close to their Ultimate form. Angemon digivolved first, about seven or eight months later, and a few months later the other two did as well. It took the majority of the 24 years for them all to digivolve to Mega, but Seraphimon reappeared about three or four Digi years ago, Cherubimon did two or three years ago, and Ophanimon did two or two and a half ago.
Since I havenothing else to say, I'll move right along to ATTWT. I did in fact get the next picture done. His name is Naoko. (I think he may be my favorite new character…Yep. He is.)
Review!
-Child of Healing
Word count: 1718 (My chapters are getting kinda short, there, aren't they? Well, I think the next one's longer. Anyway, I like the next chapter. Mwahaha!)