Digimon Fan Fiction ❯ For They Shall Be Filled ❯ A Crossroads: The Sand ( Chapter 7 )

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For They Shall Be Filled

The future is only a reaction to the past.

By: Vain (Vainglorious696) 5/31/2001-1/26/2002

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I do not own Digimon, Ichijouji Ken, the Digidestined, or the Digital World, nor am I making any money off of this. Kazunori, Sanghee, the Golden Triangle, the Revelationas Arch, all its OC's and original concepts all belong to me.

Please DO NOT use or "borrow" them without my written permission.

Special Thanks goes to Herongale and the Guardian for betaing and thank you's are extended to everyone who reviewed on FF.net, especially Athena, ShinniJekka, KA, Pan-chan, Crew of the Clow, Mink, and Soulfull Ishida.

Because of the FF.net situation, this story will be posted here gradually. The entire fic and its sequel can be found here: http://www.fanfiction.net/profile.php?userid=91738

Thank you and please read and review.

~ Vain

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~Serpents, brood of vipers! How can you escape the condemnation of hell?

-Matthew 23: 33

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Chapter Seven

A Crossroads: The Sand

Kari Yagami was the Child of Light. Not in some abstract, mysterious way, but in a very literal sense. She was the Digidestined who was chosen to bear the Crest of Light and thus bring Light to the Digital World. Unfortunately for her, Light cannot exist without Darkness, and so, for all the Light in her soul (and there was a great deal) there was also an equal share of Darkness. As a result, Kari had long been prone to periods of overwhelming darkness from which she found it more and more difficult to escape as time passed. There were, naturally, good days and bad days, but tonight definitely fell under the category of the latter.

The problem was this: Kari was dreaming.

The beach was familiar as she looked out over the black waves. The wind carried a faintly stagnant odor, like something dying, offensive to her delicate nose. The Child of Light grimaced.

Her voice sounded hollow and small. "The Dark Ocean?" She looked around, confused, her hand instinctively reaching up for the Tag and Crest that should not have been there, but somehow were. "Gatomon?"

There was no reply.

"Gatomon, are you here?"

In the distance water boomed loudly.

Why have I been called here again? Is it those weird digimon? She shivered, not from the cold-for it was neither cold nor hot there-but from the utter emptiness she felt invading her. "I want to go home . . ."

The wind blew, carrying away the scent of death and tossing her hair about, and she turned to face it. That was when she heard the humming. It was a very quiet sound, the only reason the she had heard it had been because of the wind, but she felt drawn to it.

That music . . . I'm not alone here!

Suddenly relieved, the girl began to walk into the waning wind, eager to find companionship. I wonder who it is. I hope that they know how to get me home again.

It did not occur to her that the source of the music could be hostile-but, then, Kari was also just a little naive, too.

She walked a long way up the beach until she cam to the base of a cliff. The humming was loudest here, so logically, its source was very close. As she rounded to bend, she saw that she had been correct.

Sitting in the sand was a small boy, roughly the age of six. He was a tiny waif with longish indigo hair and still slightly chubby with baby fat. His back to her, he sat halfway down the beach in the water, so that when the tide came up it swirled all the way up past his waist before returning to the oozing gray water from whence it came. It was also knocking down the sand castle the little boy was trying to build. The child would get a tower of damp gray sand built and begin to shape it, molding it into the form he desired, when the icy water would rush in and dissolve the base, collapsing the little boy's masterpiece as he sat soaked in the liquid perpetrator and desperately attempting to save the structure.

This happened four separate times as Kari watched, eyes wide. Why doesn't he move? Can't he see that the water will always come and wreck the tower? Doesn't he see that the water surrounds him?

Finally, after the water washed away the child's edifice a fifth time, the little boy threw down the little plastic pail he was using, looked up at the un-sky-like sky and wailed with a child's despair, "I'm not good enough! I CAN'T DO IT!!"

Suddenly, Kari's conscience and common sense kicked in and she moved forward with the intent of taking the wailing child up in her arms. She stopped when she heard a slightly scornful voice emerge from her left.

"What's all this? Crying, Kenny-boy?"

Kari's eyes widened as she looked at the source of the voice. Ken?

The young man speaking appeared to be a little bit older than her and his blue hair was worn in a familiar looking spiked style. He wore the same gray school uniform that Ken wore and gold-rimmed glasses rested on his finely carved nose, slightly magnifying blue-violet eyes.

Kari frowned, trying to get a better view of the young man's face instead of the side view she was forced to endure as he approached the little boy. Ken? No . . . That can't be him. The smile, the body language all look similar to Ken's, but there's something different about him . . . Something . . . odd. Hmmm. Her soft brown eyes shifted from the boy to the scene before as the Ken-look-alike began to address the child.

"Now what's with the waterworks, bro.? Can't even handle something this easy?"

The boy looked up, giving Kari a glimpse of shining blue-violet eyes and a delicate, tear-streaked, face. They look so similar . . .

The child struggled a moment to get enough air to speak. "I can't do it, Sam. It's just too hard."

"Nonsense," responded the older boy briskly. "And stop all that blubbering; crying will never get you anywhere in life, Kenny-boy."

The child sniffled, but did as he was told. With the tears properly under control, Sam resumed. "You're just not trying hard enough. Now I want you to do it again, but this time: think! Don't just use your hands, baby brother, use your mind! There must be a balance, Ken. That's what you are lacking. That's why, no matter how high you build your tower, you will never be able to build it as high as it can go. You lack balance. Not everything is black and white, you know. Now try again. Balance!"

That child . . . , Kari thought. "That child is Ken . . ." She jumped, frightened by the sound of her own voice.

The boy standing over Ken gently laid his hands on the child's shoulders, and smiled slightly, but didn't turn his head. He nodded. "Yes Kari; this is little Ken Ichijouji."

Kari stepped forward out of the protection of the cliff wall to where she could be seen. Ken's pail, she suddenly noticed, bore the Crest of Kindness, his Crest, on the front in colors that were too bright for the world they were all in. The child hummed to himself and seemed oblivious to her presence.

What does all this mean?

"What do you want this to mean, Child of Light?" the Ken-look-alike asked in response to her thoughts, still looking straight forward and avoiding her gaze. "This could mean nothing or everything. It all depends on what Kenny-boy wants to do. Or what you and the other Digidestined allow him to do . . . Will you permit him to do what is necessary?"

Unbidden, Ken's words from earlier that day returned. "Understand, I am seeking neither your blessing nor your appreciation for what I am doing, I only ask that you do not interfere. I must do what is necessary to rectify past mistakes."

Fear slid up and down Kari's spine like a leach beneath her skin. "Who are you?" she whispered. "Why did you bring me here?"

"To see."

"To see what?!" Her voice rose as she became angrier. "Who are you?"

The older boy seemed to sigh, as if reaching a conclusion he was not particularly pleased with. He stood for a moment with his eyes closed. His expression was so peaceful that Kari thought he might have gone to sleep.

"My name," he began in a cracked voice, "is Osamu Ichijouji, only Ken can call me Sam, and I have brought you here to see my little brother."

Kari took a few more steps forward and her eyes fell upon Ken, still trying to build his castle despite the black waves. She looked back to Osamu. "What are you? What am I supposed to see?"

"That . . . That, I cannot tell you. You have to find the truth your own way."

Kari clenched her hands into fists. She could feel her temper slipping. "Liar," she hissed in fury. "Look at me!"

Osamu didn't move.

"I said look at me!"

"No," he said slowly, shaking his head ever so slightly. "You don't want me to do that--"

Kari took another step forward, placing herself less than a foot from the two Ichijouji brothers. "Look. At. Me. Now."

He smiled, a Ken smirk, and closed his eyes. "You really are a fool. You shouldn't mess with things you don't understand, little girl."

Kari stiffened. Ken's words again . . . "Look at me. Please? Just look at me."

The eldest Ichijouji opened his eyes, "Very well," and slowly turned his head to face Kari. The Digidestined of the Light choked back a scream and covered her mouth in a desperate attempt to stop herself from vomiting.

The left half of Osamu Ichijouji's head was missing.

From his left cheek to his temple, the skin was brush burnt and torn away in some places, revealing the mealy-looking oozing muscle stretched tight beneath. The entire left eyelid was missing and the bone just above the eye gleamed through. The nose was mangled and the young man's lower lip and a chunk of flesh from his chin hung downward by a thin red strip of abuse flesh, swinging crazily as the right half of his mouth continued to smirk. Most of the skin on the forehead was gone, ripped away to display bashed and cracked bone. Towards the ridge of the skull, above the eye and over the left ear, a large plate of the skull bone was gone; this left the upper right side of his head open to view and the brain within was ripped and wet-looking, a mashed red-gray mush piled into the gaping hole.

Ichijouji grinned. "I told you you didn't want me to do that."

Kari stumbled backwards and fell. Her eyes widened as something small and red pushed itself out of his eye cavity, slipping its way between the bone and slick eyeball loosed from its lid. It looked like . . . rice? No, she realized, not rice . . . It was . . . It was . . .

"Oh my god, they're maggots!!!"

As if on cue, more of the wriggling larva began pushing themselves through various places on his face, punching tiny holes through the tissue and slipping down the bloody face to land on the ground and wriggle their fat bodies in the sand. One burst through his cheek. Another came out of his forehead. They rained from his open skull, making wet sticking and sucking noises and they pushed against one another to be free of his body. They were huge and wet and red and . . .

"Oh, lord . . ."

His left eye, that hellishly glowing blue-violet and white orb, twitched.

Osamu laughed maniacally. "What's wrong, Kari?"

Ken continued to hum innocently as the waves wrecked his castle.

Shut up, shut up! Why won't he shut up?!?!

Osamu's eye began to stretch and distend as a maggot began to struggle against the fragile membrane. Ken began to sing softly in English with his child's voice.

"I've got nothing on my mind-"

The eye exploded outward, splattering Kari with blood and fluid. She screamed.

"Nothing to remember-"

A huge maggot revealed itself, pushing its way out of Osamu's head, stretching the eye cavity until the surrounding bone creaked in protest and then gave way as Osamu's head exploded with a hollow red pop.

"Nothing to forget . . . And I've got nothing to regret."

Ken's next words were lost beneath Kari's shriek as Osamu Ichijouji's body collapsed to the ground and the huge maggot continued to slide out, its girth tearing the fragile skin at the neck. The maggot began to move towards her.

Kari's eyes darted to Ken who was still building. The child was covered in blood and the fallen maggots as he used the pail next to him to scoop up the now red sand. His lips were still moving as he sung, but she couldn't hear the words.

"Ken! Ken, get up! Run! Run!!"

Ken didn't move.

And then . . . Then the monstrous maggot was free of his brother's corpse and moving towards Kari. A slit appeared in the end moving towards her. It was a mouth. "Run, little girl. Run far, far away. This one will be ours soon . . . As you shall be . . ."

Kari tried to scream again. She tried to move. She tried to do anything but sit there as the thing drug itself towards her. But she couldn't do anything; she was trapped.

"STOP IT!!!!"

The enraged voice snapped the Child of Light out of her funk and she twisted her head to see . . . "Osamu?!"

Yes, it was unmistakably the boy who had identified himself as Osamu Ichijouji standing next to her and blocking the maggot's path, but he was different from the boy the maggot had hatched out of. This boy felt . . . real. She didn't feel the disjointed sensation she felt when she saw the first Sam. This boy, she knew, belonged here.

"STOP IT!!!!" he ordered the maggot, darting between them. "These are not for you!"

Outraged, the monstrosity reared up and screamed in fury. Then, faster than Kari would have thought possible, it flipped over and lunged towards an oblivious Ken.

"No!!!" shrieked Osamu. The older boy leapt onto the creature's back and began to hit it. "Ken! Run! RUN!"

Startled, the child looked up with wide, innocent eyes. "Sam . . .?"

Kari pushed herself to her feet and darted forward to grab the child. She was shocked to see Ken vanish as if he had never been there. A wave came up, destroying Ken's castle before triumphantly lifting up the bucket and carrying it swiftly back to the Black Ocean.

Osamu glared down at her as he wrestled with the maggot. "Run, girl! Go home!"

Hands raised defensively, she staggered backwards. Then she turned and ran for her life.

"Tai!!" she cried to the skies. "Tai, I want to go home! T.K.! Gatomon! Help me! HELP ME!"

"Kari!" a voice answered.

She sobbed in relief. "Tai! Tai!" Her Crest began to glow brightly and a light appeared in front of her. She hurled herself through the light and fell straight into . . . No . . . sat bolt upright and straight into her brother's waiting arms.

Kari clung to him and opened her eyes fearfully. There was no desert. There were no Black Oceans and no maggots. There were only Tai and Gatomon. Her digimon looked at her with large blue eyes and Kari buried herself in her brother's warm arms. Sobs shook her frail body as the events of the dream rolled through her mind with renewed horror.

"Kari?" he whispered softly, rubbing her back. "It's okay, Kari. It's alright now. You're safe. You're home and you're safe again."

Gradually, her sobs and tremors lessened until she merely lay against him in silence. He continued to hold her. Finally, he ran a hand through his wild hair and then pushed her gently away from him so he could look her in the eye. "What happened?"

She inhaled a shaky breath. "It was . . . Nothing . . . It was just a dream." She pushed him away and pulled back her blankets. "I need a drin--"

Tai looked at her sharply as she stopped speaking. Her face was deadly pale and her brown eyes were fully dilated as she stared in horror at the bed. He followed her gaze. There was sand in her bed. Not normal sand like near Rainbow Bridge, though. This sand was gray and washed-out looking, like ash.

Tai's forehead wrinkled in confusion. "How did that--"

Suddenly, Kari leapt to her feet and began to frantically dust herself off. "Tai, e-mail the others and tell them to meet at the Betamon village tomorrow at five.

"But, Kari," he protested, "It's 5:30 in the morning! Can't it wait?"

"Don't argue with me! Just do it. Please."

"And what are you going to be doing?"

"I need to take a shower." She stopped at the door. "And Tai?"

"What?"

"E-mail Ken, too."

He eyed her dubiously. "And what exactly thinks makes you think he'll even come?"

"Oh, he'll come alright." Kari replied grimly. "I know that he'll come." She closed the door behind her.

"But how--?" He sighed at the door and then looked at Gatomon. "What the hell is going on here?"

The Champion digimon shrugged. "I'm not sure, but Kari knows what she's doing. Just do what she says."

"Fine . . . But I sure as hell don't have to like it!"

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Ken's D-Terminal beeped noisily from his desk, rudely intruding on his thoughts. The former Emperor turned away from the city stretched out below his balcony to regard the darkened interior with a frown. He hoped that noise hadn't awoken Leafmon; with all Ken's tossing and turning, the poor little digimon barely got enough sleep as it was.

He entered the room quietly and slid the glass door closed behind him. The D-Terminal beeped again insistently and he turned on a small lamp. After a careful glance up at the bed to check Leafmon, he opened the device and read the messages. The first was a mass e-mail.

Everyone,

There's an emergency. Please meet Kari at the Betamon village at 5:00tomorrow.

I stress EMERGENCY!!!!!!!

-Tai Yagami

The second e-mail was private, addressed to Ken alone:

That includes you, Ichijouji. 5:00. Betamon Village. For Kari.

-Tai Yagami

Leafmon blinked sleepily in the dim light. "Ken? What's wrong?"

For Kari? What does the Child of Light have to do with me? The boy looked at the D-Terminal with a dark frown. "Apparently, my friend, I've got mail."

Leafmon blinked again, this time in confusion. "So?"

His partner looked up at him and the baby digimon frowned at the dark circles beneath his eyes. Ken sounded tired. "We have a meeting to attend."

Ken set the Terminal down with a small sigh and walked back out onto the balcony. The sun was rising. He began to sing under his breath. "But I'm all tied up on the inside / No one knows quite what I've got / And I know that on the outside / what I used to be, I'm not / Anymore."

"Ken?" question Leafmon from within the room. "Ken what are you singing?"

There was no response. Ken had barely heard the question and it didn't register. In fact, Ken wasn't even really aware that he was singing, let alone of what he was singing. "You know, I've heard about people like me, / But I never made the connection. /They walk one road to set them free / Then find they've gone the wrong direction. / But there's no need for turning back, / 'Cuz all roads lead to where I stand . . ."

" . . . Ken? You should come back to bed, Ken. You have school tomorrow."

" . . . In a minute, Leafmon. I want to watch the sun rise." And I believe I'll walk them all / No matter what I may have planned.

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