10.
"Lucemon?"
Tailmon sounds positively nauseous. The other Digimon don't look much better, especially from the other side of the gate. Chibimon even drops his cookies.
"That bad?" Miyako's voice quakes a little, despite her best efforts. Her eyes are darting between Tailmon and Takeru. She avoids Ken's eyes and Takeru thinks Ken is doing the same. He can't blame them. However, there are, surprisingly, more important things.
"He's a Demon Lord, and the Seven Demon Lords are a bad sign to anyone you ask," Tailmon replies, scratching one ear. "They were all supposedly sealed behind the Gate of Sins during the great war thousands of cycles ago. Maybe even tens of thousands, the history's been eroded away. Vamdemon had a nice, beautiful-" she pauses to sneer. "-bookshelf about them. Together, and with the right evolution, they can be just as powerful as Apokarimon. They'd probably make the Dark Masters look like an untrained Greymon."
"They're based off of the Seven Deadly Sins, at least in terms of power," Poromon adds. His squeak of a voice is thoughtful, wary. "Lucemon is based on the sin of pride, as well as the human mythology of Lucifer."
Takeru feels his blood chill. He looks at Ken, who nods. He has no memory of it, but somehow, that fits.
"And you're saying that he has some of Ichijouji's memories somehow." Daisuke picks up the bag Chibimon dropped. His brown gaze looks at them like he can pull the things he wants to hear out of their heads.
"Feelings, more or less." Those were the first words Ken had spoken since they had arrived at Daisuke's home. The Kaiser would have been cocky or furious to be here, speaking like equals with his rivals, his enemies. Ken is not. He is just uncomfortable because of what he is, who he is. He is still the Kaiser. He still acted. He just doesn't remember. "My feelings from the past. I'm not a good person, after all."
"We have to work to be good," Hikari says and her voice is softer than his. It cuts through the rising tension of 'what do we do with this person who committed evil and is suddenly not straightforward evil' and replaces it with a grim reminder to them that they are not innocent people either.
Just like Lucemon had said to Takeru himself.
"It was likely Falldown Mode," Tailmon muses, eventually breaking the silence. Her voice is monotone, speaking from a time only a few steps away from her. "He is strongest of the Demon Lords, intent on both loving the world and desiring its end. He will destroy the universe and create a new one, as per his sentiments of revolution against the god of our world."
"Digimon… have a god?" Iori is broken from his pensive thoughts. The humans are all staring at Tailmon now, who shrinks back against Hikari's chest with irritation. She puffs up, hackles rising for a moment. Then she calms.
"We do," Chibimon says suddenly and now everyone looks at him because they never expected him to say something like that. "We have the Creators, who are the Original two, and we have our God, Yggdrasil, who moderates our world. They and Homeostasis maintain the balance however they can."
Daisuke blinks at his Chibimon, who munches a cookie. "Chibimon?"
"We met, once," Chibimon says with a bright grin. "Before I was sent to meet Daisuke! The god was very sad at the time. There were a lot of things happening. They wanted to meet you, Ken!"
Takeru feels like his eyes are ping pong balls. Ken looks suitably terrified. "W-What…?"
"But..." Chibimon swallows chocolate, wiping his face with his flippers. "I think you got hurt… or something. I dunno. It was so long ago that my head hurts to think of it. But they had something important for me to do and I met them once. They met Hikari-chan once too, didn't they?"
Takeru is suddenly, vividly reminded of the vision of being scanned, of Hikari-san's strange power, and the battles in the middle of Hikarigaoka.
The newer children look confused and Takeru opens his mouth to explain. Before he can however, Hikari sags in her seat and hits the floor.
A/N: Hey guys, it's back! Still stubborn but it's my fic and I'mma tell it what to do! Now that we are working at the unveiling, it's time to head toward that pretty "the end" mark.