Erebosmon stood in front of the mirror in his chamber, with his right hand on its surface, his palm reflecting on it. His expression was somber, as he stared at it. A weirdly distorted image creased its surface briefly, then vanished, causing him to pull his hand away, but moments later out in back.
Karone cleared her throat, as she made her presence known, the lack of light made her look like a ghost "Everything is going to plan, oh great old of chaos" she said, running a finger over her lips.
"Why do I tolerate you being in my presence, a lowly human being, representing my sisters, as one of their creations" Erebosmon said, not even looking in Karone's direction.
"I did free you from your eternal prison, and I want to do everything in my ability to help you get your revenge as you humble harbinger, I love chaos, and everything it brings, I might have worshipped Lilithmon, but that died a long time ago, after they made me go down into the bowels of their citadel, where I was reborn" Karone said, with a sick smile crossing her face.
"All the Harbingers were made to suffer that way, Juniko will suffer for being Lilithmon's reincarnation" Said another voice, from the shadows, a man stepped out of them, and he was as pale as Karone, and wore the same cloak, but his were blood red.
"Ezekiel, when did you arrive?" Karone said, a smile crossing her face, as the man walked towards her and Erebosmon.
"Not too long ago, I have been updated on the situation, I am happy, to serve Erebosmon, his glory will reap this world of light" Ezekiel's smile, mirrored Karone's as he spoke.
"Humanity is more twisted than I expected, joining me against your creator, how twisted indeed" Erebosmon said, taking note of both Harbingers he was with. "How many of you are there?"
"About 7 of us, the rest are either spying on our enemies, or doing stuff that will help you make humanity suffer, I have handed out your chaos spirals, they will make stuff interesting for the digidestined, We are hoping to those bastions of Lilithmon's virtues one by one" Ezekiel said, as Karone nodded in agreement and satisfaction. He cracked each knuckle on his right hand, one at a time, each time he cracked one, he said a name of a digidestined, when Erebosmon stopped before he could say Juniko.
"Juniko is mine, I want her to see this world in ruins, and her tears will fall, as things crumble and fade, then I'll let her die surrounded by the pain I have caused her" Erebosmon said, his eyes intense as he looked into the eyes of Karone. "Kill her and I'll make sure you suffer in her place as the world ends"
The Ouroboros Knights, entered the room, one at a time, all except Nyxdramon, who for some reason was absent. Erebosmon noticed this immediately, he frowned and shook his head. "Where is your sister?" He said, asking a question he knew the answer to.
-Arukeni Village Outskirts"
Nyxdramon stood, looking at the village, she was tired of waiting, she wanted to kill some people, namely Lilithmon's chosen, she passed back and forth never taking her eyes off the little village, she charged at with full force, only to hit something that felt like colliding with a brick wall. She screamed and cussed audibly, she backs up enough for her to try again, again the same thing happened, she met with what seemed like a wall of resistance. "What the hell is going, had the hybrids known I was coming, and came here to stop me, " she said, before screaming again violently and vanishing into the night's sky.
Digimon Sync 02 Episode 6 "Spiraling Threads"
Things had settled down, even though the bandage creatures were still surrounded the house, right just now stood there like they knew, those who occupied it, had to eventually leave its confines. They waited patiently as time ticked away.
Juniko peeled back a blind, to look outside, seeing thing haven't improved, as a digidestined, she knew it was wrong to hide in there, they had to stop what was going on, but how do they stop what seemed like a ghost created an army of bandage covered creatures. They needed to get back to the archive, maybe some answers were waiting for them there about all of this. She needed to be strong, she needed to pull herself together, Takajin wouldn't have let himself fall apart like this. But how was going to do that, this place was surrounded by those things, whatever they were. She paced back and forth, heard something that sounded like a distant scream, but dismissed it, and continued to pace.
Yorda calmed herself, seeing her anxiety mirror in the girl that was there to save them, and stress wasn't helping matters "Look things might not look good, but we need to look on the brighter side of things" she said, pushing her stress deep down for the moment.
"We are stuck in here, I am supposed to be out there, I am a digidestined, why did I run in here, I should have stopped and fought them" Juniko said, looking at her feel, as she fought back tears. "Huang fought while I ran for it, maybe I could have stopped this whole thing from continuing"
"Then those things would have gotten you too, and wouldn't have had any digidestined, hope where ever your friend is, that he isn't gone for good" Yorda said, even with the pit of her stomach screaming at her to make a run for it, and get as far away from this village as possible.
"Virgil and Leoben are out in the middle of this, I don't know their situation, we shouldn't have split up, maybe as a team, we wouldn't have gotten stuck in here" Juniko said, trying to pull herself together, that vision of Takajin had rattled her to the core, whatever it felt so real, and it made her worry more. She wasn't paying attention, dark smoke was seeping out of her pocket.
Wilhelm closed his eyes, and let out a sigh, "You didn't know what was going to happen, you came here to help us, splitting seems like the best idea at the time, to get to the truth faster" he said, after a short exhalation.
"If this is Arukenimon, then it is my fault, no one told her she was a hybrid, as Lilithmon's incarnation it was my job to let her know what her destiny was" Juniko said, slamming her hand into the wall. Suddenly she was slapped, Yorda had walked up and slapped her hard in the face.
"Lilithmon sacrificed herself, she didn't know her altruism, would turn her into a monster, she created the Digi chips to save humanity, knowing they needed to help themselves. I hated Lilithmon once upon a time, because of all the things Ankou did in her name, but found out she wasn't exactly to blame for that, the legendary digidestined defeat of her did a lot of damage to this world, her restoration was a blessing even if she hadn't fully awakened yet" Yorda said, as a red throbbing bruise appeared on Juniko's cheek. Ignoring the shocked expression on her face, she continued "one day you are going to take her place, but as yourself not her, you need to wake up and think of the way you are acting now, we need your help, not help from ghosts of the past, and your mistakes that created those"
(Forest near the mansion)
Virgil and Leoben had somehow evaded the Chaos Digidestined, and were hiding a forest in what appeared to be a hollowed out tree, that's when they met up with their digimon partners, Candlemon and Starmon.
"From the looks of things someone use to hang out here like it was some sort of club house" Virgil said, looking around, seeing all the pictures pinned to the trees, walls, other than them there were two makeshift beds, blankets stuff with leaves, and flower pedals. In all the pictures there were only two girls.
"One of them looks like that statue, its Arukenimon, and the other is Tsubara, this was a sanctuary of happiness, before Tsubara tried to destroy the village trying to take revenge on it for how they treated her friend" Leoben said, before taking his place on one of the makeshift beds.
Virgil walked over and did the same, on the other makeshift bed, they needed to rest from all the running they had done. "Tsubara in her opinion, but wrong in how she tried to deal with it, her misguided actions got herself killed.
Around them the tree, creaked and whined, as loud gusts of wind blew on it, in its futile attempt to move the enormous, only managing to flap the trees branches and leaves, it sounded like a tortured animal in the trees confines, an animal that was trying to get in and failing. That's when a voice could it scream startled Virgil and Leoben. Standing in front of them was now a little girl, about the age of Leoben, who now started to cry, it was Tsubara.
"Please help my friend, she is pain, I feel it, something is holding her to this place, spiraling chaos, it holds her and makes her angry" Tsubara said, as she sobbed "Sorry in my part of her death, she might be held here by her anger at me, please tell her I am so sorry" she faded briefly, then appeared, and repeated what she said before.
Leomon walked over to Tsubasa, attempted to put his hand on her shoulder, forgetting it was a ghost for a second, his hand passed right through "spiraling chaos, what is that supposed to mean?" He said confused.
"She is a fragment of the person, that died, a digital after image, being affected by what is going on here, she knows it's her friend doing all this, and doesn't understand why" Virgil said, walking over to where Leoben stood, "Somehow we need to stop, Arukenimon's digital ghost so her friend can rest, and be taken to the door to be reborn, also those bandaged creatures would go away to"
After a few more hours, Tsubara faded, but her crying noise remained, it was hard resting being surrounded by what sounded like someone who was that sad.
When morning came, Virgil stuck his head out of the hollow tree, to see if there was anyone around, they're nothing but the normal trees and wildlife. But in the distance at the villages border the darkness that coated most of the world was visible, it looked like an obsidian curtain, it was still depressing, no matter how many times it was seen, he hoped someday light would come back this world as a digidestined he would do whatever it took to make that happen. He gave the all clear sign to Leoben. Before walking out into the forest, Leoben followed him shortly after.
"We need to make our way to Huang and Juniko, they need to know about the Chaos digidestined, and the part they played in all these, whatever it was, we need to put an end to it before someone gets hurt" Virgil said, trying to think of how to do that, without being spotted by either the bandage creatures or the chaos digidestined"
"I have an idea" Leoben said, taking off his backpack, a thick leather one, filled to the brim with supplies, with a huge plus symbol on it.
-Yorda's house-
Yorda handed Juniko a steaming bowl of soup, she took and ate without saying a word, she was still thinking over the whole previous exchange they had before, she was right and she had been letting the ghosts of her past haunt, and control her actions, trying to not be Lilithmon, she wasn't focusing on the here and now like she should have been doing. "First, we need to leave this house, get through those creatures out there find the source of this, and stop it" Juniko said, mostly thinking out loud.
Without saying anything Wilhelm walked to the front door, kicked it open, and ran outside, before Yorda, and Juniko could react, "Come and get me" he shouted, towards the bandaged creatures, they all came around, "Go out the back door" he shouted back through the front door, as he was being surrounded. Yorda, and Juniko left through the back cellar door, into the forest they ran.
"We need to make our way to the mansion, meet up with Virgil, maybe he will know something that will stop this" Juniko said, as she ran with Yorda, trying not to think of what Wilhelm just did, after hearing his screaming voice coming from behind them. The bandage creatures will soon be following them again.
-Elsewhere-
Sakura and Enna, had followed the thread, and now were in a forest, seemingly look very corrupted, not just the wrongness, eerie feeling it gave off before. It was like the wild woods, near Primary Village, except things looked a lot sharper, but less dark from the taint of Erebosmon, it felt of sadness, and anger, in the distance there was a statue, they couldn't make it out from the distance they were standing in, they decided to check it out, but the moment they made one step in its direction, the forest seemingly sprung to life, sharp spikes shot from the ground, the forest was seemingly protecting the statue, and they weren't allowed to go anywhere near it. The forest now reeked of murderous intent and wanted them to go away. To confirm that a voice shrieked Go away in a voice that ran chills down their spine.
"I am not going anywhere, I am done being told to leave, you go away, I am going wherever I want" Sakura said, as she dodges a ground spike, and another as she walked towards the statue.
"You don't belong here" the voice shrieked again, a wall of spikes forming in front of Enna and Sakura. Sakura jumped through the center, leaving Enna to dodge backwards, and shouting after her friend.
Sakura refocused on the statue, and was determined to make her way toward it, no one will ever tell her again where she shouldn't be, no matter how many things she was a cursed one, and shouldn't be there, to hell with them. This was for all those people that mistreated her as a child. She cart wheel through a bunch of spikes, she sidestepped some more, she was within touching distance, that's when she realized it was the monument for Arukenimon, but wasn't this in the center of the village, it wasn't in a forest that's for sure, but what is going on here, this forest had spontaneously grown up out of nowhere around this monument" her thought was interrupted, by being blasted backwards away from the monument, she landed with a loud thud hitting the forest that sprung up behind her. The Statue of Arukenimon walked off the monument its face that of complete rage, she grabbed Sakura by the neck and picked her off the ground, behind the statue, was a spectral image of Arukenimon, everywhere the statue stepped a web pattern wrote itself into the ground.
"I'll make you one of my mummies, and you suffer like everyone else" the statue and the ghost screamed.
"Do those people truly deserve, what you have done to them?" Sakura asked, pleading to the ghost of digital ghost of Arukenimon.
"I'll show you what they did" Arukenimon screamed, as the hand of the statue glowed, that held Sakura.
-Years ago-
"She is a cursed one, she has brought her curse into the village" Celestine shouted, as he shoved Arukeni to the ground. Thunder and lightning crashed in the distance.
A rock struck Arukeni in the forehead "Go away you monster" screamed the one, who threw the rock, followed by another rock, and another, welts now covered the girls face, she was sobbing, tears flowing down her cheeks. Celestine went to backhand the girl across the face, but she managed to dodge under it, but he tripped her as she tried to run, he kicked her in the rib cage knocking the wind of her lungs.
-Present day-
"Look at me, do you think I got this scar because of kindness, of humanity, I'll tell you how I got this scar" Sakura said, interrupting the vision of the past, Arukenimon was showing her. She was in turn stopped by the statue, who threw her into a tree, before she finished her sentence.
"Leave me alone!" Arukenimon said, looking at Sakura with a harsh expression.
"No, I am not leaving, just listen to me. Once upon a time, there was a girl, she was born with a digimon partner" Sakura said, getting, and walking toward Arukenimon.
"I don't like this story" Arukenimon said, with her statue picking up Sakura and chucking her like a stone.
"Her father raised her, but slowly began to blame the child for everything going wrong in his life, so one drunk out of his mind, smashed a beer bottle in the face of his own daughter, she was 9 years old, he took a piece of glass and tried to slash her throat, she managed to dodge" Sakura continued like nothing had happened, she stood and started walking towards Arukenimon again.
The Statue began to look increasing angry, its features, contorted in complete fury, it back handed Sakura flying, landing back where she started, but she stood up once again, her face covered in bruises, which were turning bright violet.
"She ran from home, she went from village to village, not understanding why she was being treated that way, she became sad and lonely, she turned away from the world, and hid away from it" Sakura said, started up again, wincing from the pain in her back as she stood. "Then she made friends, got a new family, they pulled her out of the darkness, didn't what was wrong with her"
"I had a friend, she killed me, I trusted her" Arukenimon said, shouting as the statue nearly took off Sakura's head, if she didn't dodge it like she did. But the ground, seemingly vanished, and Sakura almost fell into the eerie darkness below, the statue had caught. It's now growing, it's almost the size of a planet.
Sakura looked around, she was standing on what appeared to be the statues ankle, she could not see Arukenimon anywhere, she stepped forward but the tree spikes up in front of her. She dodges spikes as she tried to find her again. She made her way to the face of the statue, and pillar of darkness that looked thread spewed into the sky. It receded and was replaced by Arukenimon coming out of the ground, her hair sparking, which looked like silver.
"I want to make you suffer" Arukenimon said, screeching loudly. The statue started to fragment and shattered
"Why?" Sakura asked, as she backed away from the shatter parts of the statue, show the dark chasm of darkness beneath.
"Because…. Because…" Arukenimon said, showing confusion in her motives, it showed on her face.
"Because you want them to hurt as much as you are" Sakura said, interrupting Arukenimon, jumping across the void to where she was.
"They hurt me" Arukenimon shouted, the statue cracking apart more with the sound of her voice.
"So you hurt them back?" Sakura asked, now within meters of Arukenimon.
"I wanted them to know how rotten they were" Arukenimon said, glaring in Sakura's direction.
"You are just like them, Arukeni, you stopped being yourself, you are a bully" Sakura shouted,
"No, I am not" Arukenimon shrieked, causing everything to shake.
"You are a monster; you became exactly what they thought you were" Sakura said, accusingly, giving Arukenimon a stern look. Arukenimon's spirit plunged into the statue, and it vaporized, and Sakura fell into the darkness
-elsewhere-
Virgil first saw the horde of bandage creatures, looking down at the Chip Detector, that Leoben had given him, he saw Juniko going back in the direction, that Leoben and himself had escaped from, they had to go back, and join up with her before she runs head on into the chaos digidestined they had encountered in the catacombs, his digimon partner was already running in that direction, he had probably spotted her first, he ran to catch up with Starmon, as Leoben and Candlemon ran to catch up with him. He shouted after Juniko and Yorda, but they couldn't hear him. "This is not prodigious" he mumbled to himself. Before they got close they they were, in all their creepy glory, cloaks made from what appeared to be congealed blood, and masks that looked like living creatures, they seemed to mimic the expression of the wearer but in a way it looked refracted with a warped mirror.
"Who the heck are they?" Juniko said, turning to face Virgil, with an expression of relief and confusion.
"We are the chaos digidestined, we are Erebosmon chosen, come to kill you all, actually one thing if you hand over the incarnation of Lilithmon, we will leave, you have my word" said the one, who stepped out from the center of the other two. "We will even call off this whole situation, and everyone can go back like nothing has ever happened.
"No way we're going to do that" Leoben said, nodding towards Candlemon, who looked pissed at the offer.
Juniko ignoring the others, went to step forward, thinking no one else is going to get hurt because of her, this was technically her fault, she was about to say something, when Virgil stepped in her path and shook his head.
"I don't trust this guy, once you are gone, what's stopping him from leaving the rest of us to that" He said pointing to the horde of bandaged creatures.
"What else can we do?" Juniko said, wishing it was Takajin, and not her, she wasn't a leader, she knew that. She hoped Virgil could fill that role, he was older and wiser, much better suited for leadership.
"I see that look, you want me to lead you, I am not a leader, I am more like a mentor and a teammate at the same, we are equals, you lead I advise and help" Virgil said, holding his hand in a halt gesture.
"You intend to resist, be swallowed by your futility" The Chaos digidestined said, his mask smirking. "Three of you, verses us and them?" He gestured to The bandage creatures were right behind the digidestined now. The creature blocking out the horizon, since there were so many of them. The situation looked bad.
"I can't digivolve my partner, I am no leader, even Mikuni was more suited than I am, I wish she was here instead of me" Juniko said, crumpling to knees, her previously renewed confidence failing her. She had been raised as a bodyguard to Subaru family, in that she had failed too, since Takajin was no where to be seen, and probably was dead, even though her feelings told her he wasn't.
"What is your answer do you instead to resist or will you hand over the incarnation" Temujin said, with Phobemon flapping his wings and cracking his knuckles at the same time.
"Forget the incarnation, let's kill them now, I want to kill me digidestined, they aren't the ones who destroyed me before, but they will have to do" Phobemon said, giving a hateful glare at the digidestined.
Temujin just shrugged, and pulled out his digivice, "I am giving you to the count of ten, to surrender her, before I give into my partner's blood thirsty nature, I do want to pave this village with your blood, and wash my hands in it" he said licking his lips, like he was thinking about food, and then starts laughing, then promptly stops. "Yeah, it wasn't that funny" he suddenly the expression on the mask he wore went stone faced "If I prick you, do you not bleed, if I tickle you, could laugh yourself to death, If I swear revenge could I carve you into pieces" while everyone of the digidestined there were staring confusedly, in the blink of an eye, was in Juniko's face, holding her by the neck. A black blade in his hand. She had seen this blade before it was in that vision she had seen, in that vision all her friends had died, and ended with her being stabbed with it. "1, 2, 3, 4, 5, come with us or I'll continue, 6,"
"Stop I'll go…" Juniko said, before being shoved away from Temujin, by Virgil, who took a swing at him, but in the blink of an eye, he was back where he had been standing before, like he hadn't moved from there.
"We know you aren't going to kill her, your master wants her alive, you said so yourself" Virgil said, pulling out of the punch that had been interrupted by Temujin's vanishing act.
Temujin reached under the hood, and brushed his hair back, then ran the blade, under the tongue that had sprouted from the mask he wore. "If I swear revenge can I cut you to pieces" he said, repeating the lines he had said before. "Look they are getting closer; time is running out on me calling off those creatures behind you, 7, 8, buckle my shoes, I just lost my thoughts for a second, where was I oh yeah, 9, 10," he raised his hand, his digivice appeared in it "Erebosmon may want Juniko but I don't really care what he wants, he promised I could do whatever I wanted, times up should I kill you myself or do I let those things tear you to shreds as I watch and enjoy, maybe it will be more entertaining to have them rip you to shreds"
The digidestined turned to see a wall of creatures, they had finally caught up with them, there was nowhere they could, go forward deal with Temujin and his digidestined, go back and deal with the wall of creatures. Things just went from bad to worse, and there was no sign of things improving. But something suddenly happened, the wall of creatures surrounding began to glow, the bandages started to evaporate.
"I guess I'll answer your question now" Juniko said, briefly pausing for effect, the bandaged creatures became normal people, some of them were the missing people they had been looking for, she smiled as the mask showed how angry Temujin was. "We intend to resist you"
"Why the hell did you just turn back to people things were going to get so interesting!" Temujin shouted, the mask's mouth looking as big as his face as his voice got louder.
Huang stepped out of the crowd, and joined Juniko, Virgil, and Leoben, the four digidestined were now reunited. But it was still four against three since Juniko couldn't fight, she even tried again as they stood, the rest of them digivolved their digimon partners but hers just stayed the same.
Temujin put his Digi chip into his digivice, which movement was mimicked by his digidestined standing beside him, their digimon partners digivolved. His mask's face was a sick smile again. Things were back in his favorite again, he really didn't care about the bandage creature anyway, he would deal with things himself.
"Acid Mist" a voice shouted from nowhere, and green smoke divided both digidestined camps, the smoked reeked caused the grass to rot, when it was touched by it. Standing in that smoke was two figures shrouded in it.
-Minutes earlier elsewhere-
Sakura to land on the statue, it was solid once again, she was repeatedly slammed into it, then dropped onto it after the last one. She nearly fell off it, only for her shirt get caught on the nose of the statue.
"They did something awful, doesn't mean you have to too, all that's left of you is mean and horrible" Sakura said, pulling herself to her feet.
"That's not true," Arukenimon said, backing away from Sakura.
"Then stop, this is wrong and you know, you have forgiven them, you sacrificed yourself to save them all" Sakura said, making her way towards Arukenimon again. That's when spotted something she hadn't noticed, on Arukenimon's arm, was something black, which spiral up to her shoulder. "You have to remember," she now reached out for.
"Leave me alone" Arukenimon shout, turning to run from an approaching Sakura
"But you are now alone… you have to remember!" Sakura shouted, as she chased after Arukenimon, focusing on the thing on her arm.
"Keep away from me" Arukenimon shouted, starting to run away.
"Remember!" Sakura said, right before grabbing the ring on Arukenimon, the moment it shattered, everything went white. They were now in a garden surrounded by flowers, of various beautiful flowers, where they stood was a bush of breathtaking roses, Sakura's vision cleared, and instead of Arukenimon, it was Arukeni, a girl her own age in appearance, the one from the vision, all the spider features were gone. She stood there looking at her own hands.
"Aru… my name was Aru…" Aru said, looking up from her hands.
"I remember this was my mothers, she brought me here to help her, while she told me stories, they all had happy endings" Aru said, while walking towards the rosebush, she bent over and smell one of the blossoms. "Then those horrible set fire to this place and killed my mother" her eyes glowed with fury, she cringed and it stopped when she saw Sakura flinch back from it. "My dad went to confront them and I never saw him again," she ran a few feet and dropped to a sitting position sobbing.
"People when scared, can do stupid, horrible things, I once thought the same as you do now, like I said met people, they changed that, by the way I don't think you a monster, not really one at all" Sakura said, walking up to where Aru sat crying.
"You don't?" Aru asked, turning to face Sakura.
"You are special, and exceptional person" Sakura responded, crouching to be at face level, with Aru. "We are the same"
"What about the people that hurt you, don't you ever want to make them suffer?" Aru said, tracing a finger across the scar on the bridge of Sakura's nose.
"Well, yeah, but what good would that do" Sakura said, thinking about it brought forward flashes of all the rocks thrown at her. "Just because there are bad people, doesn't mean there aren't any good, I thought the same thing for a while, but there's always someone out there for you"
Out of nowhere the monument appeared, Arukenimon statue right where it had been before, Aru walked over and sat underneath it. "This was made in my honor out of my remains?" She said, in a happy yet sad tone. "How does my story end?"
"That's up to you" Sakura answered, walking over and sitting beside Aru.
"This is a beautiful, I remember now before I fell into darkness, I watched people from here, as they went around their daily lives I had forgiven them" Aru said, laying her head on Sakura's chest. She started to glow, and dissolve and so did everything else around them, replacing Aru was Digi egg, and a silver chain split itself from it, tracing itself toward and connecting with a chain that had sprouted from Sakura, who now cradled the egg in her arms. Something glowed in her pocket.
-Present time-
The green mist cleared, and it was Sakura, holding a digivice, and beside her was a golden, and purple spider girl digimon, "I am the digidestined of friendship and this is my digimon partner Teotihumon" she said, excitement in her tone. They both, in unison cracked their necks.
-To be Continued-
Will Sakura's sudden appearance save them all, from Temujin, or will she fall with them to answer those questions and more tune in to the next digimon digital monsters.