Digimon Fan Fiction ❯ Passage Through Shadow 3: Rain of Mercy ❯ Chapter 5

Disclaimer: I do not own Digimon. Toei do… or perhaps Bandai since Toei have stopped making it… anyway someone does and it's not me.

Gomen nasai, minna-san. I'm sorry this part took a long time. I've been really busy. I won't waste more time writing a musechat. I did consider writing an apologia for some of the things in this part but I think I'll let it stand on its own merits unless people comment on it. And if they do I guess there's a problem no matter how I explain it.

And so onwards.

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Rain of Mercy

Part 5

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Kage frowned at the clock. He was sure that Tsuki should be back from her embroidery club by now but she wasn't. He went into the kitchen where his mother was cooking dinner. "Mom, shouldn't Tsuki-chan be home by now?"

"Tsuki?" His mother looked up from scrubbing the vegetables with an absent frown he recognised all too well. She glanced at the notes on the fridge reflexively and blinked. "I have a daughter?" She frowned deeply. "Oh right I remember." She seemed to think hard. "Hum, she's probably at a friend's house or something?" It was obviously meant to be a suggestion

Kage gritted his teeth and told himself that it wasn't her fault. "She'd have called." He said.

"Maybe she did and I forgot. I'm sure that if you phone round her friends she'll be there. Find out if she'll be home for dinner."

"I'll do that." He muttered and headed into the sitting room. After calling every friend of Tsuki's in the book he soon confirmed his worst fears. None of them had seen her since she left the club that afternoon. He decided not to tell his mother yet. Her illness meant that she'd either shrug it off or fly into a panic depending on how well she was today. Probably the former since she seemed pretty bad today. Either way she wouldn't be much use and the stress could only make things worse. He'd have to look for her himself. Another of his many enemies had probably grabbed her and given that he'd only really been interacting with the other Counterdestined recently he had a bad feeling he knew which one.

"Mom, I'm going out and I'm not sure if I'll be back for dinner." He stuffed his partner in his backpack and then paused by the door. "Did you take your tablets today?"

"I… think so." She replied hesitantly.

"Mom." He said firmly.

"I can't remember." She admitted.

"Ok, I'll check before I go." He walked to the medicine cabinet and looked at his mother's various medications. As he suspected she hadn't taken them. He sighed and took them into the kitchen. "You hadn't." He told and fetched her a glass of water.

"Thank you, dear." His mother took the pills that he put on the table.

"I'll be back as soon as I can." He told her. "But if I am late don't wait up. You need your sleep. I love you, mom."

"I love you too, sweetie. What time will your father be home tonight?"

"He won't be, Mom." He reminded her with a sigh. "It's on your notes remember. He's on a business trip all week."

"Oh."

Kage sighed and made a show of banging the front door so she's think he'd left that way before sneaking into his room and opening a port to the Digital World.

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Logan checked his editing of the video carefully to check it was seamless. He did not want Kage to know it was carefully trimmed to remove the incident with Ali and the subsequent conversation with Tsuki. He did however make sure that Kage would be aware that his sister was wandering around lost in the Digital World. He left the tape in a prominent position in Kage's room, checked his watch and then headed for the digiport. He probably shouldn't be in base when Kage arrived looking for his sister and he wanted to buy a few food supplies and the shops should be open in Canada by now.

He had to duck into a dark alcove just before he got to the port when it sprang to life and a furious looking Kage came howling through it. Apparently the Child of Enmity had figured out who had taken his sister pretty quickly. Especially considering that he was such a dimwit. The other boy didn't notice Logan however. He had no reason to think that the other boy would be near the port. So as soon as Kage was out of earshot Logan headed through the port to the computer room at his school in Vancouver.

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Kage realised pretty quickly that his sister wasn't anywhere in the base. He guessed that that figured. Not even Logan would be stupid enough to keep her here and if Alison was helping him, which she probably was, then she'd have stopped him even if he had been. He frowned to himself and headed to his room in the base to think about it and found the tape on his bed.

"Kage, what's wrong?" Kunemon's head popped out of the backpack part open zipper.

"I think Logan took Tsuki-chan." There was a VCR in the control room so he went there and put the tape in. They watched in stunned silence. "He… he… let Alison… and she's…." Kage finally stumbled incoherently.

"Let's go find her." Kunemon suggested reasonably. "He turned her loose in the digital world with no idea where she is but she can't have gone too far. And I think I know where that place is roughly. I recognised some of the mountains you could see from the door."

"She'll be so scared and what if some digimon attacks her." Kage chewed his lip but did digivolve his partner and let him fly them to where he thought Logan had been keeping her.

"I'll see if I can find her trail." Okuwamon said and then flew off attempting to catch Tsuki's scent.

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It was already morning when they finally found Tsuki curled up under a rocky outcrop. Exhaustion and hunger had forced Okuwamon do dedigivolve to Kunemon several hours previously. Even so they might have found her sooner but Kage had insisted on going home every time they passed a digiport in order to check on his mother.

"I think things just got complicated." Kunemon said as they approached. "Look." Kage looked down at his sister and frowned.

"Oh Lord." He muttered. His sister was curled up with a silver pelted Viximon and had a digivice clutched in one her hands. "She's been Chosen?" He looked skywards. "Why me?"

"Kage, we have to get her out of here before the others find out." Kunemon said. "I mean you aren't going to let the others kill her are you?"

Kage shook his head. "No way." He knelt down by his sister and shook her gently. "Tsuki-chan?"

"Nii-san." She opened her eyes and frowned sleepily. "You feel strange." Oh, wonderful, she'd already noticed the aura clash.

"I'll explain later." He promised. "But first we have to get you out of here." He checked his digivice for the nearest port and sighed. This walk would take a while.

"Okay." She stood up and picked up the silver Viximon who glared at Kage.

"Are you sure we can trust him, Tsuki-san?" The little digimon asked. Tsuki nodded.

"He's my brother. I don't know what's going on but he'd never deliberately hurt me."

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The rebel digimon trudged through the thick underbrush towards Athenamon's fortress with the Tapirmon leading the way. The Chosen Children followed along hoping that they could take it while many of her forces were at the other battles. It did seem like an overwhelmingly easy target but Takeru had an uneasy feeling in the pit of his stomach. A feeling that something was going to happen that would effect everything. He tried to put it down to pre battle nervousness but the tolling bell in depths of his soul would not be silent. He had no sensation that they would loose. He was sure they would win. He had seen them win in his weird vision and yet he was uneasy. This battle was going to change many things beyond what they anticipated he realised but how it would change things was not something he could see. So he gritted his teeth and waited for the battle to commence.

The Tapirmon slipped inside easily and their mass use of Nightmare Syndrome sewed chaos and confusion among the ranks of Athenamon's followers as they fell victim to fever dreams that showed them their compatriots as enemies and fell to fighting among themselves. By the time the Chosen Children and the rest of the rebel army were in position many of Athenamon's followers had fallen to the attacks of their own allies.

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At the viral village that Hikari had sent him to defend Michael surveyed the area trying to predict the enemy so he could be ready to respond. "Let's see. Hills over there and a low coast line. Those hills are hard to pass and they'd be visible from the village far too early for an effective attack, even if it is only a feint, so the chances are they that will strike from there." He pointed towards the forest near the beach. "Flyers, hide in those hills and warn us if they do try and come through there instead. Betamon," He smiled affectionately at his partner, "You lead the ocean digimon. Conceal yourself under the waves for a surprise counterattack. We'll catch them off guard." He turned and glanced over at Daisuke who was sitting with Veemon near the centre of the village. The Child of Mercy seemed to be taking notes."Well he doesn't seem to have lost his head for strategy." Daisuke said to Veemon. Veemon just shrugged.---

Iori and Jyou were sitting on a hill overlooking the Penguinmon Village. "Is that really the same village Hikari flattened?" Iori finally gave voice to his surprise. Jyou rechecked the co-ordinates. "Yes. It's the same village hard as it is to believe." He looked up as a WaruAirdramon flew over their heads with Hikari riding it. "See, it is the right spot." "It's just it's so - so - unflattened." Iori was still staring at the almost totally repaired village. The WaruAirdramon with Hikari was circling over their heads. "Since you're here would it offend you personal morality to guard the nursery from stray shots?" She called down.

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"RETREAT! FORM A BARACADE ON THE INNER WALL! THE COURTYARD IS LOST!" one of Athenamon's supporters yelled as the combination of the rebels and the Chosen Children overwhelmed their troops. The defenders were scattered having been spread out by the Tapirmon's initial attack and a series of well-planned diversions. Takeru was sure that this was a good sign and yet his initial unease would not depart. "They're on the run!" He heard his brother yell from Garurumon's back! "Redouble our attack!" Taichi yelled in agreement. And they pressed onwards.

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Michael almost yawned as the Vaccine army emerged from the forest just as he had predicted. "Right on schedule." He watched as they covered the ground towards the apparently undefended village. When their back ranks reached a small cairn of rocks approximately half way to the village he gave the order. "Ground troops, engage!" One group of land based digimon moved in from just north of the forest blocking any retreat and pushing the vaccines towards the sea. Another group rose out of carefully camouflaged trenches to block them from reaching the village at all. "Air troops and sea troops engage!" As they rose from the water and flew out of the hills closing the trap Michael grinned because it was all was going according to plan. Or he did until he notice Daisuke staring at something and following the other boys gaze he saw something that shouldn't be in the area. Something that could screw everything up.---Jyou nodded towards the tree line from where he and Iori stood by the breakwaters that protected the Penguinmon's nursery from storms. Iori looked up to see a row of vaccine troops heading out of the forest in well-ordered ranks. They obviously weren't expecting much resistance."This is it. Hikari is leading with her troops in defence of the village. Are you sure that you want to do this? Gomamon and I can handle it if you'd rather stick to observing." "No, I said I'd do this and I will."

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Kage swore violently when he realised that he'd run into a battle. He'd been running with Tsuki towards the nearest digiport when they'd suddenly been caught in some crossfire. He pushed his sister to the ground and covered her with his body to protect her from the blast. "Why of all the places for there to be a running battle does it have to be here?" he cursed and waited for a lull in the exchange of attacks before grabbing his sister's hand and running like hell. He really didn't need this. Now not only did he have to get Tsuki out of here before the others found out what had happened but he had not get her accidentally killed by the Chosen Children as well. Michael watched with narrowed eyes as the Child of Enmity tried to get across the field and tried to formulate a plan. It was obvious he was heading for the digiport and equally obvious that he was more concerned about his companion than himself. "Well, well, well. So you do care about someone, Enmity." He murmured. "Who is she and why are you so far from your base?" He wondered and saw the look Daisuke was giving him. "We have to get them out of here. And do you really want them to know that something this serious is grabbing your attention while they are free to concentrate their efforts against you?"---Hikari's Air troops had quickly laid waste to Athenamon's few air troops with the exception of Parrotmon, who looked like he couldn't last much longer, and the ground troops weren't doing much better. Iori began to relax. Perhaps the nursery wouldn't be threatened at all. Of course that proved fatal even as he thought it he heard Hikari yell.

"Incoming!" A stray shot flew towards the nursery from one of the vaccines… that or it had decided that it was better no nursery than one in Hikari's hands!"

"Digmon!" Iori yelled. He didn't want to help Hikari but he couldn't let these eggs and babies be destroyed. Many of them had nothing to do with this whole thing. His partner leapt in front of the blast and took the full force of it. "Digmon." Iori yelled again, this time in fear for partner.---As the Chosen Children pressed onwards Takeru's unease grew into worry. "Nii-san, I think something is wrong." He called down to Yamato. "This is all too easy." Yamato nodded but kept Garurumon on the offensive. "I think your right. They've got something up their sleeve."

"We'll just have to keep going and hope we can handle whatever it is." Taichi added.

"Nah they're running scared!" Miyako said then yelled, "Score for me!" as Halsemon struck down another vaccine group. Takeru rolled his eyes. "Try to be a little more serious Miyako-san." Something is not right here." Even as he spoke there was a sudden burst of radiant light from behind the remaining vaccines. "What is that?" Ken, who was closest to the door, had had to shield his eyes to prevent it blinding him and so missed what the others saw. They didn't reply they merely stared as, surrounded by a halo of coruscating light, Athenamon stepped gracefully out of her keep to enter the fray. ----

R&R please.