Chapter Eighteen: In Times of War
The frigid morning air made Vera shiver as her eyes shot open. Her stomach had never felt emptier and her muscles had never felt more sore as she lay still petting Haomon. She winced as her hand passed over a bruise on his body, one of several injuries from all the fights they'd been involved with lately. The minor cuts and bruises were caused mainly by the Bakemon horde while the heavier wounds were the result of Skullsatamon. Still Haomon had got the lighter end of it compared with Ayden and Piddomon.
Vera sat up and began to stretch glancing across the room at everyone. She glanced up at the shattered glass and out at the dim pre-dawn glow of the morning sky taking a deep breath to calm herself. This whole adventure had begun to weigh on her, on all of them, far more heavily. It had been a life and death struggle since they'd arrived here but for Vera the benefits had outweighed the risks. Meeting new friends, going on adventures, saving a world full of intelligent sentient creatures – it all seemed well worth fighting for and yet they'd come closer and closer to the edge.
"We're just not strong enough," she whispered under her breath as she looked around the room once more, the shadows becoming easier to see through. Her heart nearly leaped from her chest when she saw Adlimon and Ayden. The lightly bruised icy Digimon was fluttering in and out of sleep while Ayden lay still with each breath seeming labored, "We can't keep fighting all the time."
It became apparent that someone else was missing from the room as Vera stood up and washed her face in a basin filled with water. Soulmon was gone! Had their prisoner escaped in the night? And it wasn't just Soulmon who was missing.
"Solara?" Vera asked risking waking the others and letting her voice carry.
Vera heard something from outside the Temple then and pressed aside the door stepping out into the foggy morning air. She could see a shadow in the distance, then a flash of light moving from right to left and a faint cry like that of a Digimon. Vera shut the door behind her and moved out into the fog questioning whether she shouldn't get Haomon first. Was Solara in some sort of a fight?
"I told you I don't know anything!" Vera heard a ghostly voice shout.
"Tell me where my friend was taken," a female voice burning with anger shouted back followed by the sight of a flash of light and a cry of pain, "Tell me who your Master is!"
"I reported to Devimon! He was my superior, we were meant to extract the power of the Spirits!"
"You're repeating yourself... Lobo Kendo!"
Vera reached a small clearing finding Solara standing ten feet tall in dazzling wolf armor and wearing a very angry expression on her face. It didn't take long to recognize what was happening. Soulmon was still bound but he was now bruised and cowering in a field of trampled and scorched grass and flowers. The ghost Digimon wore several new wounds, bruises, and cuts that bled an inky blue fluid as Lobomon lifted her sabers to strike again. Vera cringed as the blow landed but didn't act, not immediately, she merely watched the saber strike as it painfully impacted Soulmon's ectoplasmic skin.
"Now tell me what I want to know or I will end you."
"I can't give your information that I don't possess," the obstinate and barely conscious Digimon replied, "Devimon never told me where he came from. He wanted the Spirits, these were the only that we found in-tact."
"The others were destroyed?" Solara asked thinking she might finally make some progress.
"Not destroyed, but weakened and hidden."
"What was Skullsatamon going to do with the Spirits?"
"I don't know, I've only ever even heard his name mentioned once," Soulmon cried, "We brought some of the villagers here, to try to corrupt the spirits."
"How many did you kill Soulmon?" Lobomon asked, "How many did you maim, how much Digital Data did it take to create the wolf Amulets?"
"Please, I was... I was just following orders!"
Lobomon lifted her swords with murderous rage evident on her face.
"Stop!" Vera shouted but she found her own voice drown out as she turned to see Piddomon limping through the mist leaning heavily on his staff.
"Why should I?" Solara asked with her blade against Soulmon's throat, "He's a monster, they murdered dozens and sent hundreds scattering off into the woods afraid for their lives... and they took Thompson... he deserves it."
"Of course he does," Piddomon admitted and Soulmon shot the angel a worried glance as a bead of blue sweat danced down the Digimon's brow, "but the Bakemon are defeated and scattered and it is clear that Skullsatamon was unknown to him. His death adds nothing to our cause."
"Wrong!" Solara snarled slashing the blade against Soulmon's throat, the swift and violent action sent Soulmon's data spiraling out and as it did Solara lifted her Digivice and collected it feeling a surge of new energy and strength. With her chest heaving in rage Solara dropped to her knees trying to calm herself.
"Now that you've scanned his data?" Piddomon asked putting a hand on her shoulder.
"He knew nothing more," Solara nodded but her eyes shot open with blood-shot anger, "But you most definitely know more than you've let on."
"Solara, what are you doing?" Vera asked getting between the hungry wolf and her angelic prey.
"Why should we wait for the Celestial Palace to give us answers, Piddomon knows more than he's told us!"
"You don't know that!" Vera defended watching as the others had begun to come out clearly awoken by all the noise.
"She's right," Piddomon said hanging his head and caressing one of Vera's cheeks, "Stand down."
"Talk!" Solara demanded allowing herself to devolve.
"More than a century ago the Digital World was at war against Osordramon, an infectious Digimon, he corrupted the inner gears that make the Digital World work, the circuits and cogs at the very foundation of our world. What's more his servants invaded the Earth and nearly destroyed it but the Destined drove them back. When we called them they were only children, even younger than your group, we didn't know then that Osordramon would gain such power... but eventually, after years and years of fighting, they went into the core, and they destroyed him."
Vera held John's hand then and nuzzled him softly until Haomon nuzzled between them and gave both of them a gentle static shock.
"When at last the war was over everything went back to normal, the corruption left our world and most Digimon went back to their lives. The Spirits of the Legendary Warriors were almost used up in the final battle, only the Spirits of Fire and Light remained in their true form, the others were left melted, fragmented into Spirit Shards. A little more than a month ago the first shard went missing, sometime only a few weeks before your arrival."
"Why us?" Solara asked, "Why were we called?"
"The Three Angels, Ophanimon, Seraphimon and Cherubimon are the Guardians of our world, but they are old," Piddomon explained, "They live at the Celestial Palace... I do not know what force it was that drew you here, for you see they have kept secrets even from me."
"None of us understood what we were getting ourselves into," Solara sighed, "We wanted adventure, friendship, even danger..."
"But nobody is supposed to die," Adlimon finished.
"Nobody is going to die," Xander argued, "We're going to get strong and we're gonna kick some Digimon ass!"
"Right!" Bogmon croaked.
"Point us in the right direction boss," Haomon said nuzzling against Solara softly.
"Ophanimon, Seraphimon, Cherubimon," Solara nodded, "They owe us ALL answers and they owe us a better chance at winning this fight. We're no good to Thompson as beat up as we are, we go to the Celestial Palace and get help and then we teach Skullsatamon a lesson."
Thompson fluttered in and out of consciousness every so often catching bright glints of the morning sun. He couldn't tell how long it'd been light out but almost immediately as he woke he could feel how much colder the air was here. Had they gone North all night? A flash of memory told him of the terrain passing beneath him. No, they weren't North, they'd flown South into a range of Mountains that had towered up before them. Now, as he finally shook the agony of that awkward sleep from his body he realized that they had set down on one of those Mountains.
The frigid air was a kick to his lungs as Skullsatamon ushered him into a small tent barely tell enough for the skeletal Digimon to enter. He kicked Thompson into the bars of a cell that swung open far too slowly and far too late for Thompson to avoid hitting them painfully. The demonic Digimon shut the cell door and cackled lightly as he opened the flap of the tent and went outside.
Alone at last Thompson shivered despite the closeness of a fire that was burning in the tent. Above him the tent came to a bit of a point where a hole vented the smoke of that fire. He wondered how far they had gone. His body was tired, sore from the days of hiking, fighting, running and a night being held in the clawed hands of a giant demonic skeleton. He considered the absurdity of that thought, of all of the events that had taken place since they'd entered the Digital World. Maybe he was crazy and this was an all elaborate psychosis, he'd soon awaken in an Asylum with three square meals and a nice cushy rubber room.
He wasn't sure how many hours crawled past squatted in that small cell surrounded by iron bars but eventually the flap opened and in walked a strange bull-man, like a Minotaur of ancient Earth legend, wearing two strange cybernetic devices on its hands and followed by Skullsatamon.
"The excavation has reached a stand still," the Minotaurmon finished saying, "and we have our orders from the Master."
"That explains why they had me keep the little bastard alive," Skullsatamon cackled, "are you sure the ruins will respond to him?"
"Yes but sir there is another development I should have a word with you about," the Minotaurmon growled, this time there was a nervousness in its gravelly bestial voice, "The Master is sending a new General, since you, uh, disagreed with the last one."
"Phantomon had no right outranking me!" Skullsatamon busted out laughing but still managed to menace over Minotaurmon threateningly, "The Master had better be careful or I'll be coming for his job soon enough! Who is this new General?"
"There was no name in the message," Minotaurmon admitted with a gulp, "But he should be here soon enough and is instructed to recover the Shard if you fail."
"Well," Skullsatamon wickedly smiled as he turned to look at Thompson, "we'll be sure not to disappoint him."
"When will it officially be Winter?" John asked Dyrasmon as he huddled in close to the fire they'd built to cook their lunch on.
"Another four weeks of Autumn," Dyrasmon explained examining the trees in the area, many were evergreens but a few of the deciduous trees had just begun to lose their leaves, "It's usually colder this time of year than this."
"I think the crisp air is refreshing," Haomon announced stuffing his face with another helping of food. Solara had removed the limit on their food intake with supplies a short distance away at the Celestial Palace. Rations had been somewhat tight since their arrival on Severa.
"You're also covered in fur," Xander reminded.
"What exactly is the reason for human hair?" Dyrasmon asked curiously ruffling John's hair, Vera joined the fairy when she realized how bothered John was by them messing with his hair.
"We grew out of it," Solara said calmly, "We didn't need it anymore, we adapted to survive without it. Without hair we're faster, we don't overheat but we're also more vulnerable to the cold."
"Right now I'd like to adapt into a warm bed and a couple layers of blankets," Xander joked miming as if he was wrapped up and warm.
"Of all the species you could choose, why did you choose us?" Solara asked aloud although she wasn't sure anyone there had any idea what the answer might be, "Was there no one else in the Cosmos."
"Earth is connected to the Digital World," Piddomon said, "Many Digimon believe that Erebusmon, the primordial chaos that birthed our world, also birthed Earth."
"I think it's more likely that Earthlings invented the Digital World," Anselm mentioned and everyone turned to regard the youngest one of the group, "This world is Digital after all."
"And your world isn't?" Piddomon asked and at that question Anselm merely shrugged.
Solara turned to regard Anselm wondering what wisdom his words held. The origins of the Earth were fairly well understood but there were some back on Earth who believed the whole Universe was Digital, a simulation. Was the Digital World just another dot of light, another planet, or was it a simulation made on Earth, an Earth that might itself be a simulation? She felt Ayden's arm around her then and cuddled into his arms.
"What do you think?" she asked.
"I think once we find Thompson we should go back home," Ayden answered kissing Solara on the forehead, "Whatever we choose to do that is our Destiny, they can't force us to stay and give our lives for this place. I also think you're beautiful."
Solara felt him kiss her then and her whole world lit up. Ayden had only been with them for about a week and yet she felt she'd known him for years. She pulled herself up to her feet and dusted herself off falling into Ayden's embrace and kissing him again as he held her. As she broke away she blushed bright red at the realization that everyone had been watching, her hazel eyes all aglow with the magic of romance as she began packing up their stuff so that they could get back on the road. To her surprise there weren't any sarcastic remarks, not even Xander said a word to poke fun or complain as they set out once more.
"Back home I wasn't sure what I wanted to do with my life," Ayden whispered to Solara once they got moving again, "When I came here and I found the Spirit I realized I could put right wrongs. It started out small, fighting off petty crooks in Harborhail but the Jakimon started showing up. I was a mercenary I guess, fighting for the safety of villages and being paid in hospitality. As time went on I hid. I was more and more afraid I was never going to see another human being... never have a chance at a life... or a love."
"I don't know about love," Solara laughed nervously, "that's a bit much don't you think."
"Well we're at least friends I hope," Ayden chuckled only to have Solara pinch his rear end.
"Is that something friends do?" Patamon asked reaching down and pinching Anselm's butt.
"Hey!" Anselm cried, "Come on, they were just flirting!"
"You humans sure are silly!" Patamon laughed before Anselm grabbed him out of the air and ruffled his fur feverishly petting him until the little Digimon burst out, "No tickle torture! That's not fair!"
"How much farther?" Adlimon asked Piddomon as he strode up to the stalwart angel who was leading the group.
"We may reach it before nightfall."
"Do you think the Angels will help us get Thompson back?" Adlimon inquired, "Do you think Thompson is even alive?"
"The Destined are more powerful than we give them credit for," Piddomon answered, "Despite the physical frailty of the human body they possess great spiritual strength."
"So you think Skullsatamon will try to use my friend?"
"That is my fear Adlimon."
Thompson approached the ruins with Skullsatamon on his heels. The rubble was a rough outline of a building that used to stand here but had now collapsed and shattered. It was clear to Thompson that rather than being indeterminably old the ruins were actually quite new and Skullsatamon soon admitted to having destroyed the temple himself when the Master first sent him here.
At the center of the remaining blocks of stone was a rectangular door of sorts, a vault door built straight down into the mountain and covered with a thin layer of windblown snow. Skullsatamon pointed to it with a cackle demanding that he open the door or find a way inside. Despite the blazing sun the wind was whipping and the air was frigid. Skullsatamon had given him a torch to carry and as Thompson walked forward he did his best to keep the flame close enough to feel that healing heat.
He bent down and wiped away that snow feeling the edge of the rectangle and looking for a handle to open the hatch. There didn't seem to be any way to open it. The door was carved with pictographs, a mural of sorts which Thompson put the torch to see if he could make out the story contained there. The first panel was a progression showing ten Digimon warriors defending a city of towering Skyscrapers and then traveling through a portal into another world. In the second panel they fought a great dragon and then one of them was fallen. In the third panel one of the Warriors, who was now in human form, carried the body of this fallen companion to a temple overgrown with vines. There, in that jungle temple, the companion made a bargain with a monstrous looking Digimon.
Thompson poked and prodded at the beautiful graven images to no avail. There seemed no way to open the trap door. He turned to Skullsatamon and the demonic Digimon lifted him off his feet by his throat and glowered at him with an evil skeletal smile.
"You will open this door or I will open the arteries of your throat and watch you bleed dry!" Skullsatamon dropped him then and gestured for Thompson to go back to work with his forked tongue slipping out between his teeth.
Thompson walked to the other side of the door looking for anything he might have missed. He nearly tripped when an indentation appeared in the rock and threatened to swallow his foot. He bent down then looking into the indentation and trying to grip the sides hoping it was a way inside but there was no rim to grip.
"I found something!" Thompson called and Skullsatamon rushed over swatting him out of the way.
The demon pulled and heaved using the indent but the door still didn't budge. Thompson approached and tried with him knowing that failure might well mean a supremely painful death if he failed. Nothing. No matter how he struggled and pulled the door would not budge.
"This has got to have something to do with it," Thompson said in frustration.
"You'll figure it out," Skullsatamon nodded patting Thompson on the head as if the two were friends, "Or you'll freeze out here trying. Minotaurmon, let me know if there are any developments!"
Suddenly a Digimon came running up over the ridge panting and heaving as he did. Thompson couldn't believe how awkward it looked for the green-skinned dinosaur to run with those ungainly tusks growing out of its back. A sound seemed to be following the creature, wafting into their ears through the haunted howling mountain wind, the sound of an engine.
"Sir! The General, the General is here, he's in camp!"
"Don't be silly Tuskmon," Skullsatamon shook his head calmly, "There's very few ways he could get to the top of this mountain. Remember that you and Minotaurmon had to be flown up."
"I'm not kidding sir, he's here," the dino doubled down, "He says his name is-"
Suddenly Tuskmon's pupils became pinpricks. Thompson watched the scaly Digimon collapse to the snow below as the sound of a gunshot came crashing through the snow-capped peaks of the mountain range. The sound of an engine was getting closer now and in the distance through the windswept snow they could see a shape moving toward them. Tuskmon's data streamed out of him, turning into a pulsing red strand that seemed to be extending out toward that distant shape.
"What is that infernal sound?" Skullsatamon asked, "What is that machine?"
"A motorcycle!" Thompson shouted thinking for a split second that someone had come to rescue him, perhaps the military was here in the Digital World, or his friends had found an arsenal. His premature celebration was crushed when he saw the rider, a demonic Digimon dressed from head-to-toe in a bizarre leather outfit covered in an impractical number of zippers. The rider's head was pale and wore a sickly expression complete with a demonic smile and two rows of razor sharp teeth. Atop his head the rider wore a sort of helmet although as the strange Digimon got closer Thompson could see it was part of his head not a separate thing and could make out three almond shaped eyes sticking out from that helm-like appendage.
The foul rider absorbed the vanishing Tuskmon's data making his disappear completely and then rode in circles kicking up snow in Skullsatamon's face. Skullsatamon shot into the air in a fit of rage and took aim with his Bone Staff but the rider stopped and lifted something from a holster on his bike, a double-barrel shotgun.
"Just try it punk," the rider dared, "You put a Nail Bone to me and I'll put a barrage of bullets in that pathetic brain of yours."
"You killed one of my soldiers," Skullsatamon growled, "Care to tell me who or what you are."
"The name's Beelzemon," the rider introduced climbing from his bike, "and I'm in charge here."
The two Digimon seemed as if they were about to break out into a fight. Thompson took the opportunity to head toward the vault door and continue looking for a way inside. If all hell was about to break loose between these two demonic Digimon the best strategy would be for him to hide and from the looks of it this door locked from the inside. Thompson pressed his palm into the indent once more feeling around on the smooth inside hoping to find something he missed. A faint blue glow appeared in the shape of his palm print as he pulled his hand away. The indentation changed it's shape then, corresponding not to a hand or to a handle but to a Digivice.
Thompson fumbled in his pocket for the relic with his nearly numb hands barely able to grasp it.
"Mistymon sent you?" Skullsatamon inquired keeping his staff leveled at the rider.
"The Master sent me," Beelzemon corrected, "Mistymon and I are the same rank in this ragtag army. Now... I hear tell that you guys are looking for a Spirit Shard here."
Thompson pressed his Digivice into the grooves that had appeared and watched the rim of the door light up. A fine mist emanated from the edges as the door slowly lifted up.
"We were," Skullsatamon shouted, "Until you killed one of my Digimon!"
Suddenly Thompson felt all eyes turn to him as the door opened completely. He darted into the glowing blue portal and grabbed the strange steel wheel on the inside. He heard the revving of the cycle and the whoosh of wings but before either evil Digimon had arrived the door had shut above him and the darkness had swallowed him up.
"There she is," Piddomon said pointing to a golden tower with a dazzling dome on top glowing in the dimming sunlight, "The Celestial Palace."
"Can we make it before nightfall?" Solara asked but Piddomon shook his head.
"No, but this area of the forest may be safe enough to risk walking at night."
"With everyone injured?" Solara asked unconvinced, "You took the worst of it."
"I am strong," Piddomon retorted standing tall despite the numerous singes and bruises his angelic body wore but his visage soon softened, "We will rest easier once we are in the palace, it will only be another two or three hours of hiking."
"Very well," Solara agreed, "we'll need light."
"Piddomon and I have that covered," Patamon said arriving beside the angel.
"Right," Anselm said holding up his Digivice.
"Patamon Digivolve to: Angemon!"
Angemon and Piddomon lifted their staffs and on the end of each formed a strangely translucent flame that cast the entire group with an aura of light.
"I've been thinking about what I did this morning," Solara admitted, "It's been bothering me all day."
"A conscience is a terrifying thing," Piddomon nodded.
"I talked to the others, Dyrasmon was the most understanding... and Ayden but he's biased," Solara smirked thoughtfully, "I've never taken a life, certainly not the life of a thinking feeling creature... and now Soulmon is a part of me, I absorbed his power and his knowledge. I'm afraid I'll go mad."
"Ophanimon may be able to help you," Piddomon reassured, "She has helped many soldiers deal with the bloodshed of war in the centuries that she has lived. Mistakes are not something that just humans make and they are not merely for the evil Digimon. Even the better angels of our nature are sometimes overwhelmed by anger, sorrow, grief, a thirst for revenge, especially in times of war."
"I can never take back those strokes of my blade," Solara said taking a deep calming breath, "but its important that we keep moving and that I don't let it get to me. Thompson is counting on us."
The group arrived at the gate of the castle a few hours after sundown and were welcomed by a pair of Knightmon guards and a Digimon named Terriermon who led them inside. Solara thought to get her answers but then considered the rest of the group, exhausted and in desperate need of rest. Terriermon showed them to their plush and often oversized rooms which had clearly been designed more for Digimon than for humans. Despite the swirling doubt and anger and regret in her mind Solara soon felt an overwhelming peace and that same peculiar electricity, that same inexplicable sensation, that had led her to the Digital World.
Tomorrow they'd get their answers. Tomorrow they'd leave with nothing short of an army. Tomorrow they'd find Thompson, defeat the evil, and set everything right. Then they could all go home and she and Ayden could make a life together. After all of this fighting they deserved no less than the resplendence of a happily ever after.