Digimon Fan Fiction ❯ Passage Through Shadow 2 : Heart of Sincerity ❯ Chapter 6

Passage Through Shadow

Heart of Sincerity

Part 6

Miyako was bringing up the rear of the group. Takeru had wanted the position. They'd even argued about it but he was so shaky on his feet that he had had to let her do it in the end. As they rounded a bend she saw Elliot sink to his knees not far in front of her and rushed over to his side as he let out a groan.

"Are you okay?" She asked. Mimi and Michael were walking just ahead and were apparently the only members of the group to hear her.

"It's just my stomach again." He said between taking deep breaths. "It must be something that I ate. Go on… I'll catch up with you in a minute."

"I'm supposed to be coming up the rear. I'll stay with you." She replied. "No one should be on their own in the circumstances."

"I'll go get Jyou." Mimi said. "He'll probably have something with him that'll help."

"Don't bother. It'll pass in a second." He laid a hand on the pink haired girl's arm.

"I don't know, Elliot," Michael said. "If Jyou's got a sachet or something that'll stop these cramps or whatever is wrong with you shouldn't you take it?"

Elliot rummaged around in his bag and produced a bubble pack of pills. "I took one of these before we came. I can take another in about half an hour. I don't think I should mix it with something else."

"That makes sense." Miyako pointed out.

"How very…. Convenient. You always think of everything don't you." Michael said coolly. He turned to Miyako. "We should at least tell the others what's happening. They're expecting you to guard their backs, Miyako."

She frowned. That was true but she wasn't sure what she should do about it. She didn't want to leave Elliot alone. "I… " She looked in the direction the others had gone. They were pretty much out of sight. "Too late."

"Why don't you go and catch up with them?" Mimi glared at Michael. "Convenient indeed. Anyone would think that you think that he's faking this for some reason."

"Actually I'm sure that he is."

"Well why don't you just go to the others then. I'm sure they'll agree with you. We don't need you."

"I'm not leaving you alone with him." The blonde boy glared back.

"Leave it, Mimi." Elliot said softly. "If he wants to stay let him. If he goes to the others they'll just come running back and what they are doing is kind of important. It's hardly news that others don't like me."

"I don't understand it." Miyako protested. "You haven't put a foot wrong but the others don't like or trust you. Michael helps Hikari and they just accept it. What is wrong with everyone today."

"I've been wondering that." Mimi shook her head. "Not why they accepted what Michael did. I understand why he did it. But I can't understand why everyone dislikes Elliot."

"You didn't like me at first as I recall." The red head said ironically. "Maybe I just give off a bad vibe."

"I wonder why." Michael said sarcastically. "I have my suspicions."

"Nonsense." Miyako said. "Not to me anyway."

"Oh, just shut up, Michael!" Mimi snapped simultaneously. "You won't even give him a chance!"

"I don't need to give him a chance, Mimi, I know exactly what he is. I've fought with his kind before…" He was apparently going to say something else but he was interrupted when Betamon yelled his name in warning.

-----

"I don't believe it! He actually did it!" Ali breathed a sigh of relief.

"He got lucky." Logan growled as he hefted a large rock in his hand testing the weight. "If something hadn't been wrong with Hope it'd have been him at the rear not the Inoue girl and I don't think he'd have fallen for that. He's getting sloppy in his old age. I'm pretty sure that Takeru and Michael don't just suspect he's one of us. I think they know somehow!"

"Yes, I noticed that." She agreed. She didn't seem overly surprised. "But that's just another reason to get rid of Michael."

"I don't need another reason."

"No, you wouldn't. Though I could give you several if you did." She laughed affectionately and hefted her Digimental. "Come on let's use these thing."

"Yeah!" he agreed. "Let's do it!"

As they activated the Digimentals she realised that Michael's digimon must have spotted them because she heard it yell a warning. "Damn Betamon always was too damn sharp." She muttered.

-----

"I'm sorry that I let the Parrotmon escape." Bastemon said when Hikari arrived back at the village. "I really tried…"

"I know you did." Hikari told her. "Believe me it's not your fault." She looked at her partner. "I didn't realise it would be there. I would've sent a flying ultimate to support you if I had. You look exhausted. Dedigivolve and get something to eat." She turned a cold glance on a nearby group of captured Penguinmon. "I'm sure that they'll be glad to tell you where their stores are. If they know what's good for them anyway." The Penguinmon backed away from her and one pointed a trembling flipper towards a relatively intact building near the nursery. Hikari walked over and peered inside. It was full of piles of dried and smoke fish and there were also baskets full of nuts and fruit. She looked back at the informant. "Very good." It just trembled some more, terrified by having attracted attention to itself.

"Hikari-sama!" One of the Boogeymon called out. "I've found something that I think that you should see."

Hikari glanced over at Gatomon, who had indeed dedigivolved. "Eat something." She repeated before she turned her attention to the Boogeymon. "So what have you found?"

"I found this, Hikari-sama." He pointed to the ground. There was a thin but visible crack. Hikari was perplexed for only a moment.

"A hidden trap door!" she stared. "We'd better get this uncovered and see what's in it."

The door proved to be locked so they had to blast it open carefully. Underneath it they found an old cellar that had been transformed into a makeshift prison. There were a dozen Penguinmon chained to the walls along with even more Bukamon and Pitchmon. Hikari stared at them for a moment and then climbed down to them. "Let me guess. You're the Dolphmon's young and you refused to support Athenamon."

"The last part is true and for most of us the first part is also true." One of the Penguinmon stepped forward as far as his chains would allow and eyed her thoughtfully. "You're the one they call the Shadow Queen aren't you?"

"That is indeed me." She confirmed. "And provided you agree not to oppose me I'll let you out of here. I have no quarrel with you and I promised the Dolphmon that I wouldn't harm you."

"It's good that you keep you promises, my lady," It replied. "I can't speak for the others but if you're going to fight Athenamon and you will leave us in peace I can live with not opposing you."

"Thank you." Hikari looked at the others who agreed to her terms equally readily. She suspected that the fact they were furious at Athenamon and that it was obvious that they hadn't been fed for several days might well have something to do with that. So while some of her followers were working on freeing them she had others bring them food. After all it was true that she'd catch more wasps with a spoonful of honey than a jar of vinegar.

-----

"They've got Digimentals!" Miyako knew that she was stating the obvious but she found the development so alarming that she couldn't help it. "Who gave them those?" She grabbed her D3 and d-terminal. "You'd better digivolve, Hawkmon."

"I don't know who gave them to them." Michael told her. "But I'm sure that I don't need to tell you that this is very bad." He looked over at Betamon. "Did Hikari reblock your ability to digivolve again?" He asked. His partner concentrated for a moment and then sighed.

"I think so… but I am hungry so it might be that. Either way I can't digivolve."

"They're heading down here." Elliot said. His tone was concerned but Miyako looked over at him as he spoke and saw something else flick across his face so quickly she almost thought that she had imagined it. It passed so swiftly that she couldn't identify it but it wasn't a pleasant expression. For the first time she began to wonder if maybe the others had some reason for not trusting him. She didn't have time to dwell on it or worry about whether she had imagined it or not because at that very moment the two counterdestined digimon attacked Halsemon.

"Do you like our armour digimon? We thought we'd take them for a test run while we were killing the lot of you." The girl laughed as the boy scrambled towards Michael with murder in his eyes. She gestured to one of the digimon. "This is my partner DarkChameleonmon. I'm looking forward to watching his Razor Tongue and Fire Eye shred your digimon slowly." She paused and grinned as the boy swung at Michael with a large rock in his hand. "My single minded colleague's digimon is DarkSagitarimon. I'd really advise you to try and avoid his Vengeance Arrow attack but I must say that I hope that he hits you."

Miyako chewed her lip as Halsemon engaged the two enemy digimon. Even with the three rookies helping this was not looking good. {I'm going to die!} She thought as she typed a desperate email for help to the others and sent it. When she looked up she could see that Michael was fighting back against his assailant and was apparently giving ALMOST as good as he was getting. Almost but not quite. The Counterdestined girl was watching that fight with amusement for a moment Miyako thought about making a run for it and leaving to them to it. It was obvious that Michael was the primary target here. Then she realised that that would not look good to the others and she had to fight. She cautiously edged round behind the girl and leapt onto her back. The girl yelled in surprise and tried to throw her off but Miyako grabbed a clump of her hair in each hand and held on for dear life. Then she used her weight to swing round and send the other girl crashing the ground. The girl managed to roll over as Miyako landed on top her and it degenerated to a cat-fight of hair pulling and scratching in which Miyako gradually gained the upper hand. When the counterdestined girl paused to catch her breath Miyako discovered that she was venting at the top of her lungs.

"How dare you! How dare you cause trouble for me? Who the hell do you think you are? Don't I have enough trouble in my life?" She started shaking the other girl. "Go bother someone else. Go destroy some world that *I* haven't been called to protect and get out of my life…" She trailed off when she saw the stunned look in the other girl's eyes.

"Oh, now I see what he meant about you." The girl said and suddenly threw her off. "I think I'll be *talking* to you again, Inoue, and very soon."

"What?" The winded Miyako managed to ask as she climbed to her hands and knees and tried to catch her breath. She saw Halsemon fall out of the sky and dedigivolve to Hawkmon. "Hawkmon!"

"Come on, Miyako-chan!" Mimi was suddenly pulling at her arm. "We're heading into that cave!" Miyako staggered to her feet and saw that Michael had got loose from the other guy who was holding the back of his head. Mimi followed her gaze. "I… Erm… hit him with a rock." She said somewhat shamefacedly. "I don't think he'll be stunned for long so let's go."

-----

"So, how come Athenamon only had you guys imprisoned?" Hikari asked as the rescued Penguinmon munched on the fish and berries she'd had bought for them.

"She prefers not to kill vaccines if she doesn't have to. She can't believe we won't be persuaded to see things her way eventually… and you would not believe how little she understands the process of digivolution."

"I gathered that from what happened at the Minomon village." Hikari muttered. "What I don't understand is how she persuaded some perfectly sane Digimon to follow her plan."

"She's very… charismatic and earnest." It replied. "And I hate to say it but some of my fellow Vaccines can be very… opinionated. Especially when it comes to Virii. Hell, a lot of us don't even like Datas. She plays on that a lot. And to be fair most Vaccines never actually consider the possibility that they might become a different type when they next digivolve. One of these days someone in her camp is going to get a nasty shock and I'll bet that she tries to blame you for it."

"She probably will." Hikari agreed with a light laugh. "You have considered the possibility haven't you?"

"It's more than that." It replied. "I told you most of us down here will become Dolphmon. This isn't my first life and I know that I don't."

"Ah… I see. So what do you become?" She asked.

"I become a Gesomon. Which is a…"

"Virus. I know. I assume she didn't know that?"

"None of her followers did… they'd have tried to cure me if they had… like it's some sort of disease."

"I knew it was you! I knew it!" One of the other rescued Penguinmon said triumphantly. "I can't believe the others missed it. The whole story is carved into the whistling cliff for heavens sake!"

"You managed to read that?" The first Penguinmon seemed surprised. "It's pretty badly eroded."

"Read what?" Hikari asked. Her eyes were afire with curiosity.

"Erm… I'm the Child of Freedom's partner. He's referring to the fact that there's a story about me and her fighting Athenamon engraved onto a cliff not far from her."

"You were fighting Athenamon?" The other Penguinmon said in surprise. "I never did figure that bit out. She rather old to be so stupid isn't she?"

"I think that in her home world things must work slightly differently. No one could be that stupid without some sort of excuse."

-----

"How could you be so stupid?" Athenamon shrieked at Parrotmon. "That was a blatantly obvious trap."

"I'm sorry, noble Athenamon, We panicked. The loss of our nursery…"

"Is a tragedy, yes. In fact it's a disaster! But did you save it by rushing in? No! You should have waited for me. My air capacity is reduced to you, three Piddomon and myself! She's got goodness knows how many flying virii under her command. I doubt that that was all of them. Even the darned rebels have more flying digimon than I do right now. What with the Unimon and Airdramon refusing to join me. I can't understand what has gotten into them!" She paced up and down the large audience chamber in her base muttering angrily to herself.

"I'm sorry, my lady, it will not happen again." Parrotmon said.

"See that it doesn't!"

"But the nursery…" He added plaintively.

"I'm working on it… we do have to save our brothers and sisters from her but she caught me by surprise as well. I expected an attack here not there."

-----

"We won't be safe here for long." Miyako noted as she examined Michael's injuries.

"You emailed the others didn't you?" Mimi asked. Miyako nodded and she smiled. "Then the cavalry should be coming over the hill soon." She stopped as their digivices started beeping. Miyako looked at hers.

"There's a Digimental in here somewhere." She said in surprise. "It says it's in this tunnel."

"Well what are we waiting for." Mimi said. "Let's find it."

They followed the digivices down a side tunnel into a small cave and found the Digimental sitting on what looked like a small alter. Mimi looked at the Digimental and then tried to lift it without success. "It's got the crest of Sincerity on it but I can't budge it." She turned to the other three. "It must be for one of you."

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Just a reminder at this point folks. Picture of Athenamon on mediaminer.

Please R&R