A/N:This update was written at one in the morning last night and I wasn't sure if I wanted to post it, but I have been easily convinced. Layers within layers of things are happening here and I think it's going to be a lot of fun. It was longer than usual but too short to split. Anyway, read and review and enjoy!
2-3
They want to look around, they all nearly do, but it feels like lead pipes have replaced their bones until the giggle happens again. Hikari smiles and sighs and takes to the air in a smooth motion, and now they can see the trees swishing to a breeze they can't hear.
"Neh, Piemon," whines the giggling voice. "I found one I want. Can I have him? Wait, ooh wait!" What drops in front of them is a boy made of metal and wood. He swings a strange sort of hammer. "There are two of them. Two friends!" He waves at Taichi and Takeru like nothing is wrong and his eyes aren't red and the trees aren't swaying to the sound of his voice. "I want 'em Piemon! You take the others, I want them. Please!"
Another laugh, and this one creaked, the sound old loose floorboards with upturned nails for your foot to step on.
Yamato doesn't think before dragging both boys behind him. "Tunomon," he hisses quickly. "Can you fight?"
"No." Tunomon's voice is exhausted. "I'm sorry, Yamato, but not against all of them."
"All of them?" There is no one there but this inhuman boy and-
Yamato curses and Sora manages to turn her head, the Digimon in their arms bristling with anger and chill. "We're surrounded, aren't we?"
Hikari giggles. "Well, I said "their", didn't I Yamato-kun?"
"Don't call me that," Yamato spits. "You're not Hikari-chan, so quit acting like her."
Hikari sighs. "So dull… I keep saying I'm not going to kill you right now, and you just want me to, right?"
"You aren't killing any of them at all," Gomamon snaps, curling a paw into a fist and only not squirming away because of the way Plotmon glares at him like she would kill him for thinking of hurting her, even if she deserves it.
A swiveling noise points a large gun barrel at all of their heads and a playful snicker comes from above their heads. "If they make it out of this alive, I don't see why not, Pinocchimon."
"Cheh!" the boy huffs. "Spoilsport."
Before they can look around Sora feels the world go out from under her feet and the sky is abruptly a lot closer than she used to be and the wind smells dark.
She only screams after another five seconds when she realizes she has been thrown like a ragdoll into the air and is about to crash into cold hard earth. Then she is caught by a large gloved hand and a masked man smiles into her face. The breath from between his teeth smells like joy and liquified copper.
A sobbing cry a second later says that Mimi is also flying and there is no one to catch her safely but hikari who is watching and the strange thing holding her doesn't seem inclined to do anything but look at her.
Mimi's hat goes flying and Sora squirms and kicks because there is a rumbling from deep below them in the sickly colored sea and that's where Mimi is falling with Palmon flailing in her arms and even if they survive the fall, she doesn't think they can survive what's in there.
Mimi cries out one more time and then she glows with Palmon and her Digivice and Crest are a splash of spring green color in the monochromatic world and they all are washed in it until Mimi drops from sight.
"Oh god," Jyou whispers, and the horror in his voice is nauseating and infectious because all of them are just staring, staring as the newcomers move closer, aim to kill them as they only stare with their jaws dropped open and Jyou just chants his gasped words out in a mantra, like it's somehow denial.
Seconds after, a golden vine wraps around a ragged tree and they hear Mimi whimper. "I don't wanna die."
"I won't let you," a new voice promises, and it's a sweet as Palmon but so much older and so much more confident. "As long as I'm alive, I won't let you die."
Hikari smiles and her eyes are red. "If i could change my destiny," she says, just loud enough for the Digimon to hear. "Then so can you."