Chapter 50: Digital World: red Nightfall II

"Hurry up!" Koji growled.

He was not taking the news that his brother was taken over by an unbalanced, homicidal, mutated power well. Zoe would not have expected anything else. She was not taking it well either.

The Wind Spirits had never had the problem of getting lost down a lane of evil and had never had the dubious experience of having something sneak into their mind and twist every thought into an ugly, dark version of itself and Zoe did not particularly want it either. Not even for the sake of understanding what exactly Koichi went through and had to go through again and again.

That did not mean however that she did not comprehend that it was ranked on their half joking Emergency Scale As Made By Takuya And Tommy about as high as 'world about to be destroyed by, unless'. Also, it was important to Koji. Very important. And Koichi might not ever say anything but Zoe felt reasonably sure that being Duskmon was his own personal hell.

Not to forget was also: saying that they all had a bit of an issue with Koichi's well-being, was understating it. Seeing him lying virtually dead on an operation table was still one of her nightmares. That, or seeing him dissolve into data. The high beeping of a heart monitor-

Being his twin and only sibling and long lost brother, Koji had it worse. Zoe did not want to know what that felt like.

So. Duskmon.

Okay. Duskmon came out. Not good.

Zoe was willing to bet all three of them were thinking the exact same things right now, on Koji's part plus panic. Not that her friend let that show. His expression was dark and just a few degrees off from his own personal version of murderous, but no worry, no fear, no maddening anxiety in his movements.

He was, she reflected, just that good at hiding what he thought. The complete opposite of Koichi who more or less carried his heart on his sleeve; and then sometimes not at all which coincidentally, were those times where they could read Koji's thoughts on his face.

She twirled a strand of hair around her fingers in thought. What they should do, what they could do.

For Zoe it looked like this: should help Koichi, got that, help Koji help Koichi. Could not help Koichi from the other side of the globe and could not get Koji to Koichi either.

It wasn't very promising.

That there was no way to get to Koichi with any relevant speed was the only thing still keeping them there. It had to drive Koji mad since it was almost driving Zoe mad. Even with Shutmon's speed she'd take more than weeks. Garmmon even longer. Bolgmon wasn't even worth talking about. By that time, it would already be too late. Duskmon would have moved on any possibly away and quite possibly, Velgemon would have made an appearance by then, which was just -

And again, whatever she felt, Koji would feel worse, so much worse, because he was naturally the type to take responsibility and blame himself for everything that was wrong in Koichi's life. This too, doubtlessly, because he wasn't there.)

The two girls, Kari and Mimi, darted their eyes anxious and helplessly between, having no idea what to do either and all attempts of trying to spread optimism through the group had been rebuffed by Koji's snappishly absolutely foul mood, JP's silent musings that probably went along the lines of what angle he'd have to hold Bolgmon's barrel and what kind of boost he needed to shoot Koji half way around the globe and Zoe's own (aggressive) restlessness. After a few tries, the girls had wisely decided to keep their silence and to tread on eggshells around Koji when they couldn't avoid him altogether as they pushed through some growing undergrowth.

At the very least, Zoe thought that putting their travel companions among the sparse good things that had happened to them lately was a relief. They were nice and not accidentally or purposefully oblivious to something they did not truly comprehend and didn't try to butt in. Unlike someone else she could name. Like Takuya. That he could pull it off and do it well was just another mystery that Zoe freely wrote off as Takuya being Takuya.

She slowed her steps to match JP and traded a speaking glance with him. He shrugged a shoulder. Zoe sighed, depressed.

Maybe chatting would be a good idea after all. Falling back a bit more, she joined the two girls, who wore a steady mix between concern and confusion for basically hours on end. "How is your Tailmon?" She asked, nodding at the cat.

Kari smiled somewhat. Distantly, Zoe noted that she would be very pretty if not for the dark rings and dirt on her. "Better. What the Sandilyamon gave her really helped. She almost woke up once, I think."

"That's great." Zoe smiled. "Your partner was really brave, you know. When we were all still captured and you were getting troubled as well. Koji won't say it, but he thinks so too." Probably. Maybe. If he thought anything of it at all. "Not everyone can take what this Tailmon took."

Kari's smile became soft and sad as she looked at her cat. "I know."

"Her brother is the guy of our group famed for his courage," Mimi interjected. "Tailmon probably soaked up some recklessness by association. It can be very annoying when he drags us along."

Zoe felt a smile come that wasn't even fake. "I know what you mean. You've met Takuya already, right? He's impossible. There was this one time -"

She ran into someone's back. "Why are you stopping, JP?"

Mutely, he pointed ahead. The tall grass and undergrowth fell away, finally revealing what lay beyond them. On open plains there was no real way to lay a good ambush, even with all the tall grass. Here, where the fauna parted on top of a hill was a different thing altogether.

Zoe stared. There were lots of digimon. There were lots of dangerous digimon. They were also standing in their way and were probably moving to encircle them right now. They were also the guys that could take the immediate blame for the situation they found themselves in, plus one Murmuxmon.

...Seriously?

Her sight swung like a pendulum to Koji.

Koji, who's fists were balled, shoulders so tense they could probably break rock, and who had a look on his face that made horror movie chainsaw murderers look friendly.

Do they have a death wish?

Her own hands twitched into and out of fists, anxiously, aggressively, her anger and fear and frustration sparking up like oil being thrown into a bonfire after she had so painstakingly gone and shoved it all out of her mind.

Once it started, this was not going to end before one side was eliminated, partly because that was what battle was, partly because...

The odds may look grim, positively catastrophic in fact, but she didn't much care.

Anyone say 'misplaced aggression'?

To the two girls, she said, half turning. "I think it's best for you to stand back. We'll do our best to protect you now." Then added after a pause. "I mean, please let us take care of this."

On all fours, they crawled to a spot that allowed them sight of the battle going on. TK pulled out Patamon from under his shirt as they reached the foot of a promising boulder, handing his little partner to Cody with a soft pat and another check of his wounds. Given that both their digimon partners were out and down for the count, they had decided that it was best that one of them stuck with the digimon while the other observed the going ons.

"If we are seen," Cody said, biting his lip. "Duskmon...I don't think it would hesitate, even for us."

TK swallowed a lump of fear in his throat along with second thoughts. "I'd be more surprised if it did. Dark Evolved digimon are like beasts." Cody said nothing in return and TK didn't expect him to, for the both of them knew that they didn't agree on TK's thoughts about Darkness and Dark Digimon, and that is was an old argument.

As he started on the steep climb, an impact not so far away making his foothold unsteady, dark digimon they had faced in the past flashed through his mind. As though to mock him or to remind him that he was right; TK couldn't decide which. Devimon, LadyDevimon, MarineDevimon, and so many more. Those digimon might have been capable of speech and logic, but in their actions they had never been better than rabid animals. Worse, even.

The only exception to that had ever been DarkWarGraymon. Who, now that TK actually thought about it, had been in a very similar situation to Koichi.

TK pulled himself up on an edge that felt like it cut into his hands.

DarkWarGraymon had been created dark, by forcing together countless towers of concentrated dark energy. Koichi was selected to host Darkness Spirits, no choice on his part. DarkWarGarymon had been wild, destructive, definitely not peaceful, but also definitely not evil and capable of both empathy and selfless acts.

DarkWarGraymon had died for a cause that was not even really his. DarkWarGraymon had been a dark digimon, yes, but TK had somewhere along the line stopped seeing Devimon's shadow hanging over him.

It had been a lesson for him then. And now, four years later, he had all but forgotten it. He wanted to hit his head against something. Maybe if TK had seen DarkWarGraymon stand over Koichi's presence instead of Devimon's it wouldn't have come this far.

But then again, he questioned himself, is that even right? Because, as he ascended to the peak of the boulder and gained a look at the battle going on, Duskmon was nothing like DarkWarGraymon and everything like digimon seeking nothing but power and destruction.

It must be stopped. Those dark digimon that sought to increase the darkness in the world had to be destroyed.

Koichi had never wanted what Duskmon was doing. Or perhaps, he had wanted it somewhere inside him, but TK had never bothered exchanging enough words with the dark haired teen to know, to understand what he didn't voice. Still, even if some part of the taciturn stranger had wanted this, Koichi had said himself that he found it difficult to act at all, to find motivation for anything that implied choosing sides. It was in one of those very first discussions, TK remembered, where he had been told that darkness by nature wasn't evil but neutral.

'Passive'. That had been the word.

There was nothing passive about Duskmon as it speared a DarkMetalGraymon and dragged its blade from the shoulder down, down, down, until the dinosaur burst into data. TK felt sick as he saw the shapeless flood of blood covering the rock where a digimon had just stood, and had to fight down bile as Duskmon flicked its sword, adding an arc of splayed droplets to it, like a morbid painting.

There was nothing passive about that.

And if nothing else, Koichi had been passive, something that TK had been able to agree with. Good or evil, Koichi had been passive above all else. In his opinions, in his actions.

Somehow, the realization made what he saw all the worse.

Duskmon hurtled through the air, spinning, landing feet first. The momentum carried it backwards and powered a jump in a different direction. Screeching. Its blade pierced an armored body. Before the body burst into data, Duskmon pushed off from it, using the already provided height to reach digimon it couldn't reach from the ground. It slashed off a wing from a Devimon, then fell, but even then still drove both blades into another body, slowing its descend, changing the direction of its fall and contacting with the ground only after another digimon it had landed on burst into pieces.

Repeat.

If there was an attack from the distance, then it shot energy like beams from the many eyes, intercepting the danger, overpowering it and hitting the digimon on the other side. While at the same time those wicked blades cut through more.

It was a massacre.

Duskmon wasn't undamaged, but it seemed like it. As TK watched it took a heavy blow that sent it crashing. But whatever damage there was, was not enough to hinder it in its killing.

There had been so many digimon. There weren't so many left now.

Everything was getting painted in digital blood.

It was sickening.

It was cruel.

It was evil.

This was what evil wanted.

Death and suffering without reason, destruction without purpose.

It was wrong!

"STOP!"

This wasn't like Koichi at all. And if this was what TK hated, then why had he been resenting Koichi the entire time? This wasn't what TK had wanted to see and this wasn't how he had wanted to be proven wrong.

TK hadn't wanted to be proven wrong at all. Because then where was he supposed to put all his hate and fear? All those feelings of seeing Angemon die diediedie-

"Stop it!"

Before he knew it, TK had scrambled down from his spot on the wrong side and had come closer, much, much too close, dangerously close. He sucked in as much breath as his body could hold and shouted. "STOP IT!" His voice was barely audible over the sound of fighting and those that heard – Duskmon, definitely Duskmon, because the eyes flashed to him – didn't listen.

Duskmon might even be smirking at him as it ended another digimon. The massacre didn't stop, didn't slow, even as TK shouted his voice hoarse, threw stones. He was helpless and for all his struggles he was as useless as though he wasn't even there.

In the end, Duskmon was the only digimon left, deep lines in the armor, more than one giant eyeball closed and red blood tearing down, the black armor as a whole gleaming with dark liquid, the most of which was not Duskmon's. It's face was covered, only red eyes visible, yet TK was sure, as it stood opposite him, watching, observing, it would be wearing the most condescending, amused and triumphant expressions he had ever seen.

It didn't move as though it was hurt, stalking over empty, blood splattered ground towards him.

There was nothing else alive around, nothing else to target and TK was suddenly aware, now that helplessness was retreating enough to for reason to return, that there was nothing stopping Duskmon from doing to TK what it had done to all the digimon. That there was nothing that could stop it. Patamon wasn't with him. Patamon was defeated. Same for Armadimon and Cody shouldn't be watching anyway because that had been left up to TK before he had abandoned his post.

Duskmon could and most likely would kill him. TK stood up straighter.

He hadn't left the relative safety of hiding to let Duskmon kill him.

He had left because he wanted to stop digimon from getting killed which he had failed, because he didn't want someone like Koichi do something like this, because he had something to resolve with himself and for that he needed to face Koichi. Koichi, and not this abomination.

"Return to Koichi," he said, and was proud his voice was only hoarse from shouting and not shaking like his body was when the distance had shrunk down to mere feet, maybe twice the length of Duskmon's blades.

"Why. You don't even like him." Its voice was rough, but unexpectedly quiet. Like Koichi's. And amused. Definitely amused.

It spoke to him, though, and that said a lot. TK seized that hope. "It's not his fault," TK told it, sight fixed on those red, red eyes. "Return to being Koichi."

Duskmon maintained an even distance as it circled him. TK was under no illusions that it was anything other than the stalk of a predator around prey. His body was so tense, he didn't even feel it anymore, but his mind was active and alive and refused to be intimidated.

They weren't animals and TK was not prey.

"Koichi, Koichi, Koichi. Koichi this, Koichi that. It's always Koichi with you people," Duskmon observed, sounding bored and annoyed and still amused, stopping and TK stopped turning to not let it out of his eyes. "Here's something for you, tiny hopeful little human. There is no Koichi! It's only me, Duskmon!" It chuckled, cruelly, then tilted its head. Blond, almost white hair falling over its shoulder and it took a step closer. TK stepped back.

"Koichi, Duskmon," it drawled. Another step closer. TK wanted to take another back, every instinct and every bit of experience screamed at him to run. He didn't. Maybe he was too tense to run. He couldn't afford to either, not if he wanted to achieve anything at all.

"You tiny little humans always obsess so much over the irrelevant differences. About appearances. About names." It lifted its right handed blade to TK chin, holding him and his head in place by that tiny contact alone. The blade was cold to the touch. As cold as the sky, as the night. "We're one and the same. That's all there always is!"

"No."

Duskmon stilled. For the first time, it seemed like it actually bothered it to really see TK, just a bit, like it couldn't decide if TK was a bug that was entertaining in its tiny little insignificant life or if it was disgusting or if he should stomp on it. "Oh?"

TK shivered. "You may be Duskmon," he said, because there was very little denying that when he could smell the blood in the air, "but you evolved from Koichi. That means Koichi was there first. You aren't the same." TK had only the barest idea of what he was arguing, what point he was trying to make. What he did know however was digimon. And Darkness. Evil Darkness. "You aren't interchangeable. If Koichi weren't there, you wouldn't exist. If you didn't exit Koichi would still be there." TK knew where darkness came from. It was born from the darkness in people's – digimon's - hearts, when the light inside was lost.

They had been able to talk with Ken, they had been able to reason with Ken.

If Koichi wasn't likely to be still somewhere inside there, TK would likely be dead already.

What he needed to do was suddenly so very, very obvious that he wondered how he had not seen it before. He knew. Now he only had to survive to do it.

Duskmon's eyes blinked at him, slow, like a very controlled movement as it turned away from him. The sword left TK's throat. "You are wrong," it said, very precise yet managing to sound horribly, horribly bored with it all at the same time, as if it had the conversation many times already. "Koichi. Koichi, Koichi. You don't even know him. Don't know me. There's only ever me. Me and me alone. And I'm Koichi. Just stronger, just better, without those very annoying things tying me down." It looked at TK over its shoulder, expression obscured by its mask, but still managing to look so very, very mocking. "You know, me as Koichi thought you were pitiful, such a very very sad existence. So much darkness around you. So much darkness inside you. Koichi thought that you were blinded by hate, by darkness, to really see him. To see me, that very thing you despise so much. Isn't it ironic?" It chuckled. "Me, who is Koichi and, of course..."

Ribbons spilled out from the joints of its armor.

Or at least, TK had thought they were ribbons before he recognized the alien, yet more and more familiar growing streams of data signaling evolution and deletion.

TK's locked feet regained movement and took a shaking step.

The data wound around Duskmon's form, swallowing it, then growing, and growing more, twice Duskmon's size, and it continued growing. Purple light that was nothing so much as the absence of light (and hope) leaked out.

It wasn't the first time TK saw this. His head and heart finally stopped disagreeing with his body and he turned around and ran.

He only just managed to dive behind the row of rocks surrounding the Drimogemon nest when the horrible rattling sound froze him in place. The data ribbons dispersed -or withdrew under skin – revealing a truly monstrous form of a bird. It had feathers, but reminded TK more of an ancient dinosaur; one of those that had been able to fly, with claws and teeth and bones as skin instead of feathers, large heavy bodies instead of small agile ones. Except for the wings and a spine like tail rooting at the base of its neck, that was exactly what it was too.

The rattling sound, TK realized with shock, was the sound of its breathing. It sounded almost like chains.

"Velgemon." It sounded nothing like Koichi's anymore, with that rattling, and far too deep and loud voice. Nothing. For a breath stopping moment it was as if the last remains of Koichi had been wiped from the world before TK caught his running mind.

Velgemon beat its wings, the sheer size of them blowing, seemingly, the air itself away, along with dust, dirt and rocks the size of TK's head as he hid behind a rock. He didn't dare glance around it until the beat of wings no longer drumming painfully against the insides of his ears.

He felt it in the air when the digimon flew over TK's position. Even though ultimately it wasn't even half the size of Imperialdramon. It flew a low circle, so close to the ground that it disappeared behind the rocks and boulders of the majority of it, but TK still found it easy to know where it was and watched as it finished circling and took higher into the sky, three red eyes gleaming.

It didn't seem to be searching, thank god, just hovering and TK just dared to move enough to breath when its voice vibrated through the air.

"Zone Deleter."

Something black rose out of the ground. Not at TK's feet, but in the distance, eating up space and distance and rock and the entire landscape. Heart in his throat, TK turned and saw the same thing happening in the opposite direction.

Nowhere to run to.

Patamon, Cody and Armadimon were in that direction. Patamon.

The blackness swallowed the sky, came seeping up from under his feet, pressed against his sides. It felt a bit like being caught between two moving walls except it was darkness, energy and devouring more than solid. TK struggled, panicked, tried to push against it, but his hands were eaten up. A feeling like a thousand tiny needles dug into them, then his feet, his arms and legs, his chest and shoulders and his head at last.

Everything disappeared.

It hurt.

It was painful, but unexpectedly not unbearably so. TK had had worse with every broken bone. The most horrible thing was the feeling of suffocating and blindness. And no sooner had he thought it, it was over. Far quicker than it had started.

There was no ground beneath his feet and too much air, letting him fall hard. It was still dark but that was because his eyes were closed, because if he opened them, he'd throw up and possibly lose consciousness from nausea and too sharp senses.

He just breathed until he became aware of the ground being strangely curved and strangely loose, like dirt and not solid rock.

Opening his eyes, the first thing he saw was the brown earth his face was pressed against. Rolling onto his back, he saw the sky. Just as gray and just as filled with heavy clouds as it had been the last time he had seen it. It felt like a long time ago.

The next thing he noticed was that something seemed to be glowing, that there was something warm resting on his skin.

TK reached under his shirt and pulled a glowing pendant into his line of sight. The Crest of Hope was glowing softly golden, exceedingly hot to the touch now that he actually paid attention to it.

He sucked in a breathed of cool air.

Rolling again, he pushed himself somewhat up, looking around.

He was at the bottom of a crater, the rim of it a few hundred feet away and above him. It was empty except him and a glowing spot further up the leaning.

TK managed to get to them somehow, Cody seeming just as out of it as TK was and their digimon partners still not awake. His legs gave out under him and he slumped to the soft earth.

"We're...alive," Cody said, his voice shaking and very soft. "I thought..."

"Just barely," TK managed to voice. "Just because Velgemon didn't bother to stay and check." Looking at the destruction, that much was clear. A tremor of pure emotional and physical exhaustion shook TK's body. He gathered Patamon into his lap. "But I think I know what we need to do to turn Duskmon back into Koichi."

Cody dragged his dry and red eyes to TK, blinking sluggishly. "I don't think we can do anything right now."

"Later," TK voiced, head dropping and even that cost more energy than he had. "Later..."

This is the betaed chapter for August. Thank you smfan!

I've been thinking a lot about the issues the Digidestined drag around with them and for TK personally it is of course seeing Angemon die against Devimon. As a little kid, in a strange place, with a digimon partner as best friend and someone to rely on and seeing that person die in front of him - it's a trauma. And given how badly he reacts to Darkness it isn't a trauma that he has overcome. Koichi, having all his powers from Darkness and Darkness alone, must have been like all those problems thrown in TK's face, especially since he isn't like Ken who had been corrupted by that Darkness. Koichi was chosen by it. But since TK still is an incredibly bright person, all that isn't enough to turn away from someone who needs his help, like Koichi does with Duskmon. It gives TK a different perspective.

Duskmon is a digimon crated quite literally by Koichi's darkness, except twisted. Really, really twisted, but still it all came from Koichi. It's like this: just because a car is upside down, it doesn't stop being a car - It just can't function anymore like a car should. And because Duskmon is always created again, it is in a way always a different Duskmon. The first one was obsessed with serving Cerubimon and finding out the truth about itself and Koji. This one has a less defined role and has sucked in a lot of impressions from the Dark Ocean.

TBC.