Digimon Fan Fiction ❯ Descent into Darkness ❯ CHAPTER SIX ( Chapter 6 )

Disclaimer: I do not own Digimon. I do not claim to own Digimon. Toei own Digimon and Sensation Animation (formally known as Saban) make the dub. This is for fun not profit.

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Descent into Darkness

Part Six

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As Ken read Hikari's reply his frown grew.

"What does she say? Is she okay?" Takeru asked impatiently. Ken sighed and turned the d-terminal over to the other boy. The blonde scanned the message and began to frown as well. "Oh dear." His tone made the others crowd round to read it. After everyone had absorbed it contents they all sat in silence for a few moments.

"She's so… matter of fact about it." Miyako said finally.

"That's what scares me most about the whole message." Taichi agreed. "How can she be so calm about the fact that she's falling so fast?"

"She doesn't really have much choice." Daisuke said mildly. The others stared at him. "She's trapped by the situation she's in and panicking is not going to help her. It would probably make things worse."

"Evil can wear many faces." Iori sounded thoughtful. "At least Hikari's Darkness seems more civilised than most peoples and she is not without honour." The youngest chosen child shivered. "That's why she says so bluntly that it would be better for us not to rescue her because even if we succeed she will probably be our enemy."

"I don't care what she says." Taichi clenched his fists. "We have to go after her. My sister is not going to become anyone's brood mare." He looked around and everyone nodded.

"I agree." Iori said then looked at Ken. "It's time to try that last resort."

Ken nodded and lifted his digivice. He just hoped that this worked.

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Gatomon placed herself between Hikari and Devimon. "What do you want?" she hissed.

"The same thing as the two of you do. To get out of this hellhole of a world without giving Dagomon what he wants. There's a gate to the Digital World but I lack the power to break Dagomon's hold and escape through it."

"So you want my help?" Hikari leant against the cave wall. She would have folded her arms but the plaster cast made that difficult. "Give me a good reason why I should help you?"

"I'll give you two, Kamiya-san. Firstly, I know where it is and you don't. Secondly, it opens in mid-air. Can you fly?"

Hikari considered for a moment. "Fair reasons." She moved away from the wall. "No, we can't fly unless I can figure out how to help Gatomon to digivolve."

"Even if you do will probably not turn out as you expect." He told her. "Things are different now. There is one more reason to help me. I may be of the Dark but I don't want the Digital World to turn into something like this… and neither do you I think. It is however precisely what Dagomon wants."

Hikari glanced around and shuddered. This world was still making her feel physically ill. "Who could like a place like this? It just feels wrong."

"It's out of balance. It would feel just as wrong if there was too much Light. And Dagomon doesn't like it. He hates it with a passion. This place is born of his pain. He came from outside to destroy here and now he wants to taint everywhere else as well. Not because he likes it but because…"

"Misery loves company?" Gatomon suggested.

"Exactly."

"He sounds a lot like Apocalymon." Hikari mused.

"They knew each other. All three of the Dark Lords from the void did. They weren't related in any meaningful sense and they hated each other but they always did call each other brother."

Hikari would have replied but the feeling of wrongness to this weird place suddenly intensified behind her and turned in time to dodge the two frog-like creatures that tried to grab her. She could see more of them pouring in through the entrance. Dagomon, it seemed, had sent a virtual army after her. Gatomon leapt to her defence, of course, fighting her way to her partner's side with a ferocity that deleted half a dozen of her assailants. Hikari was trying to fight as well. She kicked and punched at the creatures but she had no formal fighting training and the effect of their presence was actually making her heave. All too soon she found herself collapsing to her knees and trying to crawl out of the way. Glancing round she was mildly surprised to see that Devimon had joined the fray beside Gatomon.

"What are they?" Gatomon asked as she felled another of the strange creatures.

"Scubamon." Devimon supplied. "Dagomon's foot soldiers. He mostly sends them against the few vaccines that are left in this world." As he spoke his death claw slammed several into a wall and they disintegrated. "These are supposed to be Ultimates? Not exactly tough are they?"

"Not at all but there are so many of them." Gatomon had felled at least two dozen of the Scubamon but their ranks didn't seem significantly thinned. Hikari could see that the sheer number of opponents was gradually overwhelming the two Champion level digimon.

"Gatomon!" she yelled fearfully as she clutched her useless digivice tightly. There was nothing she could do to help her partner… or was there? Hikari pulled away from another two would be captors and risked closing her eyes. She reached inside herself for the darkness she had begun to feel inside. Unlike that all around her it felt warm and comfortable. It belonged to her and using it seemed to come as naturally as using her Light had. She pulled on it instinctively and something happened. As she began to black out she heard Gatomon's voice.

"Gatomon digivolve to… Bastemon."

"Bastemon?" She managed to say before passing out. Inside her head the darkness was warm and teeming with possibilities.

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Ken collapsed to his knees as he arrived at the Dark Ocean. It wasn't a smooth landing and he soon found himself being squashed under the others. After they had disentangled themselves they all looked around.

"Ugh." Miyako said quietly. "This place is even uglier than your old base, Ken." She shuddered. "How can anything live here?"

"The evil in this place is absolutely palpable isn't it?" Takeru agreed in an equally subdued tone. The others nodded except for Daisuke who had a determined expression on his face.

"She mentioned a cave and I can only see one." He pointed towards the cliffs. "So that should be a good place to start. Come on." As he headed towards it Ken stared at him in disbelief.

"Daisuke-kun, can't you feel it?" He asked.

"Of course I can!" The red haired boy replied. "All the more reason to get in and out of this place as soon as possible." He adjusted the goggles on his head. "How are you doing? Is it effecting you?"

Ken considered the question as he climbed up after Daisuke. He could feel the prickling in the back of his neck that over the last few days he had already begun to associate with the Dark trying to influence him again but it was nothing that he couldn't handle, for now anyway. "It's trying to get in to my head but I'm holding my own. Don't worry you'll get warning if I'm going to revert. If nothing else you'll see me holding the back of my neck and quite possibly screaming."

"Your neck?" Daisuke asked in an odd tone of voice. "I'm sure that I should remember something about your neck." He frowned and shook his head. "Never mind… I'll chase it down later. Still that's just more reason to get out of here as soon as we can."

"That's true." Ken said hesitantly. Now that Daisuke mentioned it he had some vague memory of something happening to his neck as well. He paused at the entrance of the cave and all thoughts of the past vanished. "It looks like we've walked into a fight."

"I see what you mean." Daisuke agreed as the others came up behind them.

"Oh no! Not him!" Takeru yelled as he took in the sight before him. Ken noticed that he was hugging Patamon protectively. Patamon however seemed more distressed by the aura of the place than the sight of the digimon that had provoked the reaction. "What is he doing here?"

"Who?" Daisuke asked. His eyes were riveted to the battle. The frog-like creatures appeared to be in full retreat. They were fleeing past the digidestined without paying them any heed. "Do you mean that guy with the bat wings?"

"Devimon!" Takeru spat the name. Ken glanced at the blonde boy and was shocked by the hatred in his eyes. He was glad the look Takeru was aiming at the digimon had never been aimed at him.

"But why is he protecting Hikari?" Taichi asked. He sounded confused.

"And who's that?" Yamato asked. He pointed to the red-haired digimon fighting along side Devimon. If you ignored the claws, the black fur on her arms, the cat's ears and the two cat's tails she would be able to pass for human. "Was that Gatomon at some point?"

"That's Bastemon." Tentomon confirmed. "One of Gatomon's alternative Ultimate digivolutions."

"A cat woman with two tails." Iori murmured to himself. "Is she a vampire?"

"Not quite like Vamdemon but I'd have to say yes." Tentomon replied.

As the last of the Scubamon fled the two digimon left in the cave turned to the digidestined. Bastemon knelt down and lifted an unconscious Hikari into her furry arms.

"Would either of you like to tell me what's going on?" Daisuke asked.

"I'm not sure that I want to know." Taichi had gone pale.

"She fainted." Bastemon offered.

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Black Gatomon knew that something else had gone wrong for him as soon as she returned. Dagomon had gone beyond his earlier cold rage into a fiery rage that she had never seen before. His recent strange moods made her uncertain -- visible emotion was not something she associated with him and this unpredictability endangered her mission.

"Master?" She asked nervously. She was certain that he wouldn't think twice about taking his anger out on her at the moment. He whirled and looked at her.

"Oh, it's you! For your sake I hope you can tell me how the Chosen Children managed to get here?"

"The Child of Kindness opened a gate. I don't know how but only he could do it. It was also him who was receiving her emails and getting emails through to her. The others couldn't."

"That boy is becoming a menace!" Dagomon growled but he seemed satisfied with her answer.

"Is that why you're so angry?" she risked asking. He shook his head.

"Now that's just annoying it's HER. Somehow she digivolved her Gatomon into Bastemon … and Devimon was helping her. They decimated the Scubamon and forced them to retreat."

"I did warn you not to underestimate my sister." She said without thinking and then cowered back when he hissed at her. "Sorry, master." She whimpered as he lifted her up by the throat.

"How did she get her to digivolve?"

"I don't know, master." She replied truthfully enough but she followed it up with a lie. "I'd tell you if I did."

"Useless!" He threw her into a wall and she landed in a heap. Well at least she was still alive to serve her mistress, who's growing interest in this situation she could feel in the back of her mind.

"Digivolving takes a lot of energy, master." She noted as she climbed to her feet.

"I know that, bakamon, but where is she getting it from?" He hissed and stalked over to her. "Think!"

"Could she be drawing it from here? You did pour a lot of energy into her."

"No. I set things up carefully so Hikari can't draw on my energy until she comes over to my side."

"This is very confusing. The only other source is Hikari … but that shouldn't work. Should it?" Unless there was more to that girl than met the eye.

"No. It shouldn't." Dagomon confirmed. The anger seemed to be beginning to abate.

"What the hell is going on?"

"I don't know." The last vestiges of his fury slipped back beneath his normal icy demeanour but she knew that it had not truly abated. She would have to tread very carefully for the next few days. He produced a black crystal that seemed to absorb what little light there was and yet remained visible. "Shall we go and find out, little one?" She shuddered at the sight of what he was holding.

"Yes, master." She said submissively.

"Good girl." He chuckled and pocketed the crystal. "I think we'll save that little surprise until after they discover their little problem." He picked her up in one hand and strode to the doors. A division of Scubamon immediately appeared to flank him. "Let's go and fetch my bride."

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