Chapter 32: Digital World: Dark Evolution III
There were five screens in front of him with two keyboards each and Gennai had his fingers race over them so fast they were almost blurring. And yet he wasn't satisfied; the data he processed at lighting speed became graver by the second no matter how fast he and all of his copies were working.
His focus had tunnel vision, blocking everything and all out except his hacking of the system.
They, him and his copies, all in similar situations, were going to keep working on hacking the server, creating firewalls, viruses and, decoys until it was over. Giving up was not in their programming even when it was their fallen Lord who they were fighting against.
The invasion had to be prevented at all cost. With the Digital World already thrown into chaos and the Chosen Children lost within it, the one thing that could make the situation even worse had to be stopped.
Maybe if they re-booted the connection and switched targets, then...
Five seconds later Gennai was back to working on the original path, the other having proven fruitless. But still…
Not yet, he thought, there is still time.
Little did he know that their work was not going unnoticed, that Izzy sat in front of his own screen and frowned and the display.
Kari stared at Gatomon, not trusting her ears and eyes.
Gatomon's expression, blank, didn't show any indication of having spoken, of being conscious, or of being there and yet Kari was sure she hadn't imagined the voice.
If she had, then surely Gatomon would have spoken kinder. Not harsh and indifferent.
Kari stared and that was the only reason she indeed didn't pull a muscle as she had been told.
To Kari time seemed to move much slower as she rationalized, convinced herself, forced her mind and heart into a state of cold preparation to finally come to the conclusion that, imagination or not, she had to be composed enough to keep her expression and posture exactly like it was no matter what. Because otherwise she might never find out who it was that spoke to her with her partner's voice.
Minutes had to pass until the other finally decided Kari was in sound enough state of mind to not give herself away.
Gatomon stared back at her, her yellow –why were the usually blue ones yellow?- impassive and Kari felt like she was being observed like and animal in a zoo.
"I have a proposal to make."
Reflexively, Kari swallowed, but not even daring to breathe for fear that she…
"I'll be able to get you out of here if you can cooperate."
She tried to give no indication that she was listening.
Almost unnoticed, Gatomon sighed. "Calm down. We are only under visual observation so as long as you aren't too obvious no one will care if you seemingly speak to yourself."
"Who are you?" If she was able to speak, then that was what she had to know first and foremost. Not particularly to be able to judge how truthful the words were, but rather to know if Gatomon was in danger.
Gatomon's tail twitched. "Koji."
Kari fought not to have her feelings show on her face. "The one who possessed that Labramon?"
Gatomon's –Koji's- expression didn't change. "It couldn't be helped," he said emotionlessly, and forestalling her next question or maybe seeing the fear that worked its way out of Kari's control, the other added, "I'm not so cruel as to do that to a partner digimon."
"That makes it right?" She asked, but without fire, knowing it wasn't her fight. She thought it was wrong, she understood and agreed with Yolei's anger, but Kari wasn't one to anger over things long in the past.
"I had Labramon's full agreement," the chosen child in Kari's partner replied. "Anyway, that isn't important. Important is that Phelesmon didn't lie to you about your...influence. As we speak digimon are darkevolving thanks to you and if this goes on then soon no sane digimon will be left and you will be dead."
The message of her death didn't come as much as a shock to her as the knowledge of what she was doing to the world. Kari had expected to be killed from the moment she had been caught, maybe even from the moment she realized where she had landed. "But if they need…me," she started, her head still wraping around what was her fault, "to make digimon evolve, doesn't that mean they can't kill me? Because they need me?"
"There are many ways to kill someone. One of these doesn't include you taking your ability with you," was explained from Gatomon's lips. "Look at your body. This damned fortress it devouring you."
Kari risked a glance at her torso. It took a moment in the flickering and scarce light of torches, but she thought she saw the black stone being unnaturally close to her; closer than should be possible.
And now that she saw, she felt it too, the stone not simply touching her so much as that she was slowly sinking into it.
"It tried to do the same to us," her fellow digidestined continued, unconcerned by the third shock Kari received in short order. "But we managed to work around complete absorption. But the same can't be said for you and there is nothing to be done about it other than getting you out of here fast."
Kari still hadn't taken her eyes of her body. Absorption. Never had she dreamed of it being possible, of…of it happening to her, of being dissolved instead of right out killed…Never had she been so hopelessly lost as to have time to think about the threat of death looming over her. Nervously she swallowed, suddenly feeling cold.
"That is also why they have put your partner to watch." And that, quite like nothing else had the power to wipe everything else from the girl's mind. Her head snapped up, eyes wide. "They want her to watch you die without doing anything and push her towards her dark evolution."The other paused as horror sunk into Kari and fear, not for her, never for her, but for her partner drowned out everything else. "The partners of Chosen Children are much stronger than your average digimon after all."
"What do I have to do?" Kari asked, the words quickly stumbling past her lip before she even registered them. More than her own death she was scared of leaving Gatomon to despair. And for Gatomon, who has waited all her life to meet Kari, who has suffered in darkness all alone for so long….there was nothing worse than being left behind. "How can we escape?"
"O-of course, Lord," he said, bowing and stepping aside, while inside terror was ripping him apart. He shouldn't have done it. He shouldn't have interfered. Now they will know…
If only he hadn't, then at least he…
...
Then what?
Then everything would return to normal?
Then there would only be more on his mountain of regrets?
Suddenly he was so tired of regretting.
It felt like he had spent his entire life doing nothing else. And now he didn't even have anything left regretting for; nothing other than his life and how much was that worth?
As long as you are alive, things can better. That is what he had been telling himself for so long already. Whose last words were they? He couldn't remember.
But now he had the chance to make it better. If not his life, then at least…
That was why he was here in the first place, wasn't it? He did his job to protect what had been most important to him, and that had been cruelly taken from him when his back was turned.
But now…one of those was…
"If- if I may, Lord Phelesmon…" If he couldn't, didn't do anything now, then what he had promised himself to be an eternity ago would be broken…the promise that made him decide to be here, to work, to be a slave, would be gone. His life would lose what little meaning it still carried.
He couldn't let Phelesmon see, watch, listen in.
"Operation Nobel Revival is off schedule," he blurted out, lying. It wasn't.
But Phelesmon turned, and while cold sweat broke out on his skin, he had done it. Behind the digimon on a monitor, the girl's lips were moving and her expression was troubled.
"What?" Demanded Phelesmon, eyes flashing and to his horror he had to fight the sudden urge not to cower under the gaze.
"I-I mean…" he stuttered. "It is ahead of schedule." Then he added submitting, knowing from his years of servitude in which direction the comment would work, "I was just about to inform His Majesty of it."
Glee, greed, and some other things quickly replaced rage and were shown unabashed on Phelesmon's expression. "Tell me more," the dark creature almost purred, stepping closer to him.
"Th-the statistics sh-show an increase since- since yesterday at afternoon time. The timing coincides with the complement of His Majesty's rule over Light." That wasn't true either, but…
...but he was too far gone to not take this step now.
"A-At this rate I su-suspect about a week earlier before the beginning of the Final Phase…" Against his own inclinations he closed his eyes. A gesture of surrender. An acceptance of just having signed his death warrant.
Already he regretted it again. Why did he do what he did? Why didn't he think of something else? Why did something that was supposed to be long gone and dead inside him and never properly been there in the first place turn up in him now?
Or maybe it wasn't and he just wanted to die.
"I shall tell His Majesty." Phelesmon said, as he had known it would, and it stepped by him out of the room. His very own work station. "Filthy human."
But he hardly listened, his eyes nailed to the monitor showing a different column; a currently empty one.
I will die, he thought, but he was living past his time already.
Standing behind a pile of heavy metal crates, Ken was watching the chamber's entrance with sharp eyes.
Almost completely filled with darkness, the only light source was the TV. It had to be enough for him to see when he and Wormmon were no longer alone.
With the resounding steps already very close, he didn't much doubt it, but Ken still didn't want to risk eliminating one of his friends by mistake.
He was tense and a bit jumpy; shadows moved around, always, and one was easily fooled into believing things that weren't. One moment he thought the other was there, the next he thought he still had a few minutes and could plant a trap, but he was never sure and stayed in place in fear of giving his position away.
He swallowed, briefly glancing into the direction he knew Wormmon to be even if he couldn't see his partner, as the steps got ever louder.
It sounded like a -just one- heavy, possibly metallic digimon and automatically he ran down a list of them that naturally lived in the desert.
It was close now, very close. Ken strained his eyes. There!
It was a bulky form, too angular to be anything human or any evolutions of his friends'.
Not wasting a second he pushed the top crate off the pile and, attached to the ceiling with one of Wormmon's strings, it swung through the chamber like a swing. It hit the digimon with a loud crash.
Metal typed digimon weren't Ken's strong point as Stingmon was more developed in the agile direction than in the power, but he hadn't anticipated a favourable match in the first place and he had had time to plan.
The crate came swinging back and Ken gave it another push, in hopes of it hitting the digimon once more, but opponent didn't seem to be stupid or weak, and was not being caught off guard as it attacked the crate.
The chamber was lit by a flash and the Ken's makeshift weapon crashed uselessly to the ground, glimmering orange form melting metal.
Ken swallowed, his muscles tensing in preparation. That hadn't been simple return fire; no explosion and too pinpointed, and the result was…
His hand closed around his digivice, but not yet. Not yet.
The digimon's eyes, looking directly at Ken, glowed red.
The boy dropped to the floor, disappearing completely behind the crates, knowing when he felt heat against his back that whatever covers he had meant nothing.
He could feel Wormmon's eyes on him in the split second where he lay on the ground, motionless, and Ken begged his partner in his mind to stay in position.
He rolled over the floor, getting up into a crouch with is head spinning, but he ignored it and set of running.
The digimon wasn't even properly in the chamber yet and Ken could use that to get it to…
A small red dot raced across the floor right before his feet. Nerves jumping, Ken changed direction, throwing himself behind some debris. His heart beating rapidly in his chest, he waited to throw off a possible motion calculator, before he, carefully creeping along on the ground, prepared himself to sneak another look. Then he had to start running again…
He bit his lip, reminding himself of his goal in the rush of adrenaline; he only had to get into the corner to force the digimon to take another step forward to enter the battle field fully.
Truthfully, he knew, the digimon was probably only a champion level and Stingmon could beat most of them, but Ken understood, as it was right now, they had to use every advantage to its fullest, even if that meant recklessness. Because as long as they were in the digital world, there was no way of knowing for how long they were on their own and how many enemies they had to fight.
Just he was about to take off again, the granting sound of metallic steps filled the chamber and Ken's breath caught.
For an infinite moment, there was silence, then high screeching drowned everything out, followed by deafening crashes that shook the ground. Metal still creaked for a long time, but Ken breathed a sigh of relief.
He dug out his D-terminal, with which he has previously hacked into the pyramid's system, and flickered the lights on.
"Ken!" Wormmon swung from the ceiling where he had waited in ambush position into Ken's face. "Are you hurt? You aren't hurt, are you, Ken?"
The genius chuckled, pulling his partner from his face to catch his breath. "I'm all right. You did very well, Wormmon."
The little digimon squirmed embarrassedly at the praise. "I didn't do anything," he protested weakly, his green skin turning an interesting shade of violet as he blushed.
"But you did," returned Ken kindly, "If you hadn't tied the crane and framework so perfectly together, they wouldn't have fallen correctly." The chamber was filled will all kinds of stuff; stuff that had no logical place in a pyramid. It almost looked like a building site crossed with a high-tech lab. Ken of course had used that to his advantage and built a trap. "And you waited patiently."
Looking at the mess they had made, Ken stepped a bit closer to the pile under which they had buried their opponent. He couldn't see the digimon, but he hoped it was still there and not broken up into data.
"It was a Guardromon," whispered Wormmon. Wormmon, as based of bug data, had eyes that weren't working as well as Ken's, but in exchange his sight wasn't as hampered by day and night, and he didn't rely on them as much as on his other senses.
"It still is a Guardomon then." Ken considered; on the one hand Ken didn't know when he'd stumble over the next TV, but on the other hand there was a chance of the Guardromon recovering enough to continue fighting since being buried underneath piles of metal was not enough to do any lasting damage to a Guardromon.
As if in response to his unspoken worries, the pile creaked ominously. Ken took a cautious step back from it.
It didn't end with just one creak. The pile trembled, shook and bars crashed to the ground.
Wasting no time, Ken jumped back, bringing more distance between them. If it was him, then he'd die from having one metal bar lying on top of him.
He saw the core move, the brown metal skin of Guardomon being set apart from the surrounding natural gray now that it was no longer completely buried from sight.
Taking more steps back, to the opposite end of the chamber, Ken felt his focus sharpening as he held his digivice steady in hand. "Wormmon!"
The evolution came as easy as always. His digivice glowed, transferring to Wormmon, and his partner changed form.
The pile gave one last creak before it was violently thrown outwards, digging into the stone walls, floor and ceiling.
Stingmon swiped one bar coming at them to the side, but Ken's eyes were drawn to the Guardromon.
There was something wrong with it. Its eyes were expressionless, blank, and completely black and yet it released an aura of such darkness that it made Ken shudder. It was the kind of Darkness Ken was used to, the one he hated and feared; it was evil. Cold, but full of power, emotionless, yet obsessed.
Too familiar, far too familiar.
"Ken…?"
Evil was oozing in the air, making the well-lit chamber seemingly dark. Stingmon sensed it too; this, whatever it was, was not natural in any sense; not even natural evil.
"Wait, Stingmon. Wait." Ken whispered, hesitating.
The darkness, the evil, was all focused around Guardromon, giving him an aura of purplish, black energy. It became thicker with every moment, crawling between the layers of Guardromon's iron skin until it was obscured by darkness and shadows.
Ken swallowed, a flicker of recognition tickling at the back of his mind. Misty and clouded, it was recollection from his time as Digimon Kaiser.
Dark Evolution!
"Attack, Stingmon!"
His partner surged ahead, attacking without hesitation, spike extended for a deep impact. "Spiking finish!"
Ken hardly dared to watch as Stingmon's spike was swallowed by the darkness, not even a glow left behind. But his partner wasn't stopped, preparing his second hand as well and stabbing into the evolution. Then he pulled his arms out, piercing his foe again, once, twice, thrice, before he backed up, flying back to Ken's side. His form was tense, agitated, and apprehensive, but Ken was first and foremost relieved to see that the sheen-like light of the dark evolution hadn't harmed his partner's limbs.
"It's strong," Stingmon hissed, and Ken's eyes automatically flashed back to their opponent.
The darkness had become less oppressive, more focused and, Ken knew, that wasn't a good thing when the evolution finally finished forming a tall, humanoid figure.
The chosen child drew in a sharp breath when he recognized it.
Wearing a red-black cloak, a half-face mask, a blue body suit, pale greyish skin, violet lips with fangs poking out; Guardromon had darkevolved into a Vamdemon.
Ken stepped back on instinct.
Except for the mask and the blond hair, there was hardly any similarity between it and BelialVamdemon, but those few common features were enough to remind Ken of the overwhelming power the digimon had possessed and the despair it had nurtured in every heart.
"Ken," said Stingmon, his voice concerned, even daring a short glance away from Vamdemon to make sure of Ken's safety.
"I'm all right." Ken was aware his voice was shaking and he closed his eyes for a brief second, clenching his digivice almost painfully in his hand to anchor himself back into the present. "I'm fine." He swallowed. "But that is…"
Vamdemon was a powerful digimon with a dark nature, strong enough to take on several ultra-level digimon and win. It had been a terrifying enemy of the first generation and brought chaos to the real world; an incident Ken remembered only fleetingly.
Without Davis and Veemon Ken and Stingmon couldn't even reach the same level.
The Vamdemon had yet to make a move, seemingly inspecting its body with a black expression.
Ken gulped down a bitter taste of defeat as he muttered his next words to Stingmon in a low voice. "We have to escape."
Stingmon nodded, unperceived and lifted Ken to his shoulders. Fighting when Ken was directly involved was always a double bladed sword to Stingmon. On the one hand it made him do better; fight better, hit harder, dodge more carefully, more determined, but on the other hand it put Ken in the direct line of fire. However in this case there was no choice and while Ken felt for his partner he trusted him to do his absolute best as long as the boy held on tight and didn't make Stingmon worry more.
It was lucky, Ken supposed, that Stingmon's skin and muscle tissue was extremely hard and that even when the teen held onto the neck for life, the digimon would hardly notice, never mind be choked.
The pair was ready just in time. Vamdemon had them in their sight now, properly, and the fight began.
Kari drifted between dream and reality; fleetingly, she was able to distinguish between the two, but soon the boundaries blurred again, and she couldn't tell them apart.
Her dreams as well as her present were equally dark. Shades of darkness were looming in every corner, every thought. Some had power, some were the simple absence of light, and some were her nightmares personified, while others carried a pleasant numbness with them.
She knew, when she was able to say she was awake, that she was still captured, that Gatomon was still standing impassively in front of her and that she felt the skin on her back was dissolving in acid. She couldn't even shrug her shoulders anymore, too tied into the pillar against her back as she was. The rest of her body felt painfully stiff, her throat ached with thirst and her stomach curled in hunger. She couldn't tell for how long she had been clad in chains.
Her dreams on the other hand turned steadily darker, paling from absurd nonsense her subconscious spun and her wishes to a sheen of grey and black mists, smothering her active thoughts.
She tried to fight it; not only for the death she feared the gathering darkness symbolized, but also, more simply and yet so much more complex, that it was her duty. Kari was light. She was always light and darkness wasn't supposed to be in her heart, because it went against her nature.
But before long her will was weakened, drowned to semi-consciousness along with her mind. Sluggishly she wondered if she lost her light, her influence over evolution was also lost. Maybe it was a good thing, then?
Ken was pressed against Stingmon's back as his partner narrowly avoided a bloody whip before he had to fight for his hold when the bug digimon suddenly accelerated to high speed, attacking.
But before Stingmon even crossed half way of the distance, Vamdemon released a shower of bats, engulfing them and scratching both their skins with sharp little claws.
Vamdemon followed the attack in quick succession with another lash. The red energy dug into the though skin on Stingmon's forearms and pushed him back. With a second strike, blood tainted the green skin and after a third the bug digimon was finally thrown back. Attempting to absorb some of the damage, Stingmon moved with the motion, simply angling his body and his wings to the impact point. He landed feet first against a wall with one hand going to his back to secure Ken, whose human body was unable to keep up with the pressure of the impact otherwise, while, knees bent, he vibrated his wings.
Stingmon took off into the air, playing on his superior agility and speed once more, the only thing he could play on.
"Dead scream!" Even with the great distance between them, the ghost like wave of malicious energy wasn't easy to avoid and it scratched him, before hitting the ceiling behind them with a hissing impact, dissolving stone.
"Stay at distance," Ken breathed quickly. They were unable to get past Vamdemon into the corridor, having tried it. There was no use in trying again and getting more damage. Just one full hit by that last attack and the battle would be over.
At the distance however, at last fifty feet, Vamdemon's attacks were limited, dodging was easier and Ken hoped to come up with a stratgy they could use.
Another bat-shaped wave brushed past them, hitting the same spot and disintegrated more stone. There was something they might be able to do with that, but not now.
"Moon Shooter!" The pressured air raced towards the vampire digimon, ripping the bats of Nightly Raid apart in a bloody mess, but was harmlessly swiped aside with a lazy wave of one hand from the target.
No matter what Stingmon tired, it seemed, nothing had even the smallest effect on Vamdemon. Stingmon however was growing tired, was hurt and his moves used.
The deathly game of dodging continued and while Ken struggled to hold on, his eyes caught sight of a growing reddish strain on its torso. For a moment the Digidestiend thought it was nothing more than décor, influenced by the vampire data, but he saw more than a few similar spots, all in the same area and it left him no doubt that Vamdemon was bleeding from a wound.
Hope bloomed in Ken's chest only to be squashed again when he realized that they were the stab wounds inflicted by Stingmon during the dark evolution. That didn't help.
Didn't they have any more options? Had they no chance?
At least Vamdemon couldn't seem to finish them of either, bound to earth as it was.
No sooner than Ken had thought this, the red whip lashed past them, digging with a grating noise into the stone and Vamdemon launched into the air after it, pulling itself up.
Startled, Stingmon failed to react and with a cry of "Bloody Punch" a fist dug in Stingmon's torso. The force of the punch was so strong, that Stingmon crashed into the ceiling and only managed to prevent crushing Ken with a desperate twist in the air.
Instead, it were Stingmon's claws that dug into the stone. The pressure on his awkwardly turned and wounded limps was almost too much and a cry of pain escaped him. But Stingmon's voice was was drowned out by a scream from Ken. Ken's weight had disappeared from his back.
Blood rushed to Stingmon's head and his vision tunneled, forgetting all about the enemy he was turning his back on. Ken and the quickly approaching ground was all he saw. Shooting towards his partner at the highest speed yet, Stingmon prayed to make it in time.
Vamdemon attacked.
Twin whips broke the bug's wings and ripped into his skin. Stingmon felt his evolution unravel, his body change and weaken, but all he thought about was catching Ken. Ken, who had one arm extended towards him, whose expression was set in one of fear and surprise, whose lips were parted into a by now silent scream, whose hair was blowing into his face and who had helplessness stitched into his body.
Stingmon caught his partner only a split second before his evolution was completely erased and even shorter before Ken crashed into the ground.
The landing still hurt, was still by far too fast to be save, but they were both alive and Wormmon crawled out from under Ken, struggling as his body protested in pain. "Ken? Ken? Are you hurt? Ken?"
The dark haired boy groaned, rolling of his partner as he gasped for breath. His eyes wide and whole body shaking he still attempted to give the little digimon a reassuring smile. Failing, his arms gave way under him and he collapse onto his back.
He got a clear view of both Wormmon, who worriedly crawled into his sight and Vamdemon.
Ken snatched Wormmon to his chest, twisting to the side and rolling.
"Bloody Punch." The impact resounded eerily in the otherwise silent chamber and stone splitters blasted all around, cutting into Ken's skin with superficial wounds.
Vamdemon's fist was buried up to his elbow in stone, but the digimon's eyes never left Ken. the Digidestined scrambled to his feet, swaying, his legs were still weak from his almost-death experience just second's earlier.
Wormmon had devolved, and Vamdemon, eyes never leaving Ken's form, tracking his movements with disquieting precision, showed no sign of even having been in a fight.
Takuya was undeniably smug when just one day after Sora had stumbled into the central of borderline idiotic fanatics he had managed to get the Council to agree to all of his demands. Reluctantly maybe, on trial time maybe, but he had not desired or expected anything more.
His primary role was as an offensive battle force and while he did agree to push that purpose into the background when it wasn't needed or another option was more promising, it did not mean that Takuya was happy about it. Neither did it mean that he was good at it or that it was his duty. Mostly, his goal had been to talk the Fire Sect out of going to war noe; more precisely as long as there was still another war going on. That he had done.
Anything more was the resident Chosen Chidren's duty when the crisis with a giant moving fortress and element controlling enemy was over.
So the next day, shortly before noon he waved his farewell committee goodbye, his expression set on solemn-very-important-person expression before he, Sora and Piyomon were released into the upwards world.
And by released he meant lead to an exit -one of the only exits at that- that reminded Takuya more of a chimney than of anything else. It had the same size and the same form, though it was indefinitely longer than any chimney Takuya had ever seen and it had a ladder attached to its insides.
It was almost funny, he supposed.
They had both been given backpacks with food rations, too. Takuya's was almost twice the size of Sora's despite hers being made for her and her partner, but it didn't take long to figure out why. Prejudice didn't disappear within a day.
Takuya thanked all gods, digital and otherwise, that firetypes even, or rather especially, down here had a great sense of honour. The decision had been made and now Asuramon would argue Takuya's point of view if some digimon still opposed the new motion to help refugees.
He was also infinitely grateful that the digimon allowed him to leave despite being one of their two respected 'Avatar of Fire'. The stupid title.
In the human world it was a unthinkable to send a leader of any kind into danger, a war even more so, but that was simply a great difference, also called strangeness or backwards-logic by others. Takuya didn't see anything odd about it, since to be called odd one first had to have a sense of what was normal or natural and Takuya was opposed to labelling the Real World as the standard.
To Takuya the Real World and the Digital World simply were. Each in their own unique way and equal.
Still Takuya had to grin, when in typical digital logic the chimney ended not just anywhere, but in a volcanic crater.
As keeping his hand burning to give light while they were climbing upwards -how long was it anyway? A mile? Two?- was no longer necessary and, as he climbed out of the hole and got a good look at the bubbling masses below, he stifled the small flames licking at his skin without a look. Instead he directed his control to the girl following him. He pushed the heat away from her with great precision;a task that was much more difficult now than before as the temperature he had to keep away from her was much higher up here.
Sora's expression was a suppressed grimace; sweat was running down her skin, her breath uneven and her face was red, probably from burns, but she didn't complain a bit.
Takuya had no idea how hot it was usually in a crater of a still active volcano, but he did know that it was more than enough to cook a normal human within seconds.
With that in mind he quickly scanned the surrounding cliff.
"Looks like we have no choice but to fly." Predictably there was no quick, save or easy way upwards. If there were, the Fire Sect would have had a lot more visitors over the millennia.
"Sora." When the girl didn't immediately reach for her digivice for Birdramon, Pyiomon poked her partner, conveying worry and confusion all in one. The red head was instead leaning on her knees, swaying a bit with labored breath. "Sora? What's wrong?"
Understanding, Takuya frowned, focusing harder, willing the heat away, away, away. Takuya wasn't sure if it was working, but Sora managed a small smile at her partner and contact with her digivice.
Birdramon flew them out and while Takuya would have liked to fly out of the crater himself, practice to familiarize himself with the change and Vitramon's body, he feared his focus on Sora would break during the still not exactly comfortable or easy evolution.
So he let himself be carried, held in the bird's claws and he observed with perfect view the sea of lava beneath them. Meramon and PetiMeramon were –he'd like to try that too one day- bathing in the lava.
But how strange. How come they never found the entrance to the underground city?
Or maybe they did, he thought, and they only kept it a secret from everyone not like themselves? Or maybe those digimon do belong to the Fire Sect and the vulcano is something like a swimming pool for them? Maybe the Fire Sect wasn't as closed off as he had believed. That could explain where the Meramon, PetiMeramon and the Skullmeramon attacking the real world had come from.
But never mind that, he reminded himself, they had more important things to worry about. Like what they were supposed to do now, where they should go to, where the others were, if the other side had a way of tracking them…
He paused. Squinting, Takuya tried to see past the blinding glow of liquid stone, looking at one of two Meramon that suddenly had another colour. Dark, almost black points instead of the normal orange.
At first he thought they had simply changed colour to their blue counterparts, but then they seemed to move with a desperate quickness before suddenly disappearing completely. Like into thin air. Or into data.
He turned to the side, intent on asking Sora if she had seen the same, but one look at her made it clear she wasn't noticing much of anything beyond the claw holding her, if that.
Glancing back down, Takuya ran different possibilities through is head.
That, in contrast to what he had told Sora, took some time, because he in fact didn't have three minds to work with anymore. In the week he had been separated from the other he had had enough time and enough sleep to work through Agnimon and Vitramon's memories.
In other words, now he was only one mind; a fusion of Takuya, Agnimon, Vitramon. Which meant when he dug in his memories, he even remembered fighting Lucemon. For the first time.
But that was nothing the other chosen children had to know. They'd feel unnecessarily guilty about things that were not only not their fault but also not their business.
And besides, what else should he have said to Sora? Well, I might not be good with politics and speeches and such, but I do have two times three thousand years of life experience and even when they were spend mostly in a sluggish state of consciousness I had had to think about something during it.
Yeah, like that would have worked out well.
Despite what Takuya had decided about this world and the people, he was of the belief of being mostly on need-to-know basis concerning everything personal with the digidestined. Everything else would be a bother and translate into trouble thanks to the children's emotional actions.
Takuya would rather not have that, thank you very much.
Anyway, back to the point, the only possibilities Takuya saw for digimon to suddenly disappear in a way that might or might not be bursting into data, was under this circumstances that they suddenly decided to evolve. Evolve into forms that couldn't endure a lava bath and died.
But that was stupid, wasn't it?
That would be suicide. Unless they were made to evolve by outside forces. But capable of that were only partners and except the twelve that Takuya knew, not a single one was supposed to be in the digiworld. And partners wouldn't kill partners.
So, then what, mused Takuya as the crater disappeared with Birdramon's descend into the trees.
The chapter for September.
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