Digimon Fan Fiction ❯ Passage Through Shadow - Prelude to a Storm ❯ Chapter 2

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.

Please R&R

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Passage Through Shadow

Prelude to a Storm

Part Two

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"So what are we going to do now?" Miyako asked. The digidestined had spent the day knocking down control spires and trying to avoid discussing their confrontation with Hikari.

"Depends what she does. If she wanders around in that outfit being sarcastic we grin and bear it. If she tries to take over the Digital World we'll have to fight her. If nothing else we owe it to her as a friend."

"Former friend." Takeru said in a dead tone. Daisuke put a hand on his shoulder.

"She'll come to her senses, Takeru."

Takeru gave him a startled look at the genuine sympathy but then sank back into his depression. "I wish I could believe that!" He said sadly. Then jumped as Miyako reached over and rapped his head sharply with her knuckles.

"Excuse me, is there a Child of Hope in there or is he on holiday?" she asked. Takeru couldn't help snorting.

"Sorry."

"Get your head together Takeru," She told him. "Or you won't be able to help us sort this mess out."

"I know. It's just hard, Miyako-chan."

"I've emailed Gennai." Koushiro interrupted. "Hopefully he'll be able to give us some advice."

"Well it can't hurt." Daisuke looked over at Taichi. "Are you okay?"

Hikari's brother looked up. "We're missing something. What did she mean by hoping she could talk some sense into us? She couldn't possibly think that we wouldn't fight her."

"Maybe the darkness has made her arrogant?" Ken suggested. "Maybe she thought that she could persuade us that we couldn't win."

"No… it seemed deeper than that." Iori said thoughtfully. "Taichi-san is right I think. There's something here we're missing. After all she is his sister. He can probably read her better than any of us."

"And what did the Devidramon mean?" Taichi added.

"Assuming that it was telling the truth about not being under control rather than just saying whatever she wanted? I have no idea." Koushiro said. "I'm hoping Gennai will be able to shed some light on it." He looked down as his laptop made a pinging sound. "Ah… a reply." He opened the message and began to read.

"Well? What does he say?" Daisuke asked impatiently.

"Let me read it first." Koushiro replied irritably as he scanned the reply. "Basically he says very little in a lot of words."

"That's Gennai alright." Sora smiled briefly.

"What he does say is that while we aren't wrong to view Hikari as our enemy now we mustn't get so focused on her that we miss the other mutual enemies we have."

"Oh great." Muttered Ken. "A war on at least two fronts."

"Ahem!" Koushiro scowled at the continued interruptions. "He also says that all this appears to be related to an obscure prophecy he once heard. He's going to try and track it down and send it to us. He also says that there are some more Digimentals to be found and you'll need them all before this is over."

"Hmmm." Daisuke leant over and read the message on the screen. "This guy knows more about all this than he's telling us."

"I used to get that feeling sometimes." Koushiro agreed. "Occasionally he'd almost let something slip then correct himself. I'm sure that he was never as senile as he made out. Unfortunately this is all we have for now."

"I hate being led around by the nose." Daisuke growled.

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This was going to be really hard, Taichi realized. How was he supposed to cope with living in the same flat as someone who was an enemy? Hell, how was he supposed to cope with the fact that she was his sister? He didn't know but he did know one thing. They couldn't let their parents realise that anything was wrong. So he was actually quite glad to find only Hikari at home when he got there that evening. She was sitting watching her favourite anime with Gatomon curled up in her lap. She looked so normal that the events of earlier were hard to believe. He took a deep breath.

"We need to talk." He said firmly. She looked up at him and smiled.

"Okay, I'll talk… but you aren't going to talk me out of this."

"Why are you doing this?" He asked as her sat down. The question earned him a thoughtful look followed by a sigh.

"You wouldn't understand yet but I'm doing it because it is necessary. If you never believe another word I say believe that."

"Necessary?" He repeated dubiously. "I don't understand what you mean by that but I promise that I'll bear it in mind." He chewed his lip. "We have got to act normal around mom and dad you know."

She nodded. "I don't have a problem with that if you don't." She said mildly. He couldn't help staring at her which made her laugh softly. "I don't have intention of upsetting mom and dad."

"Good." He wasn't sure what else he could say.

"Is Takeru okay?" she asked suddenly in a hesitant tone.

"He's very upset." Taichi replied bluntly. "What else did you expect?"

"Just that I guess." She said in a subdued tone. "I am sorry about that."

"You can't be surprised… I mean how did you think he'd react?"

"Like I said just like that… but I'm still sorry about it."

"I…" Taichi began and the broke off as their mother came in.

"Hi, Mom!" Hikari said as Gatomon hid.

"Hey, Kids!" She replied. "Anybody want some cake? I got a chocolate cake on the way home."

"Yes, please." Hikari smiled.

"Taichi?" His mother looked over at him.

"Yes, please." He said and she went into the kitchen to get it.

"So what are you kids up to?" she called through to them. They looked at each other for a moment before Hikari replied.

"Nothing much. Just talking." Her happy tone made Taichi blink.

"Ah," Their mother said sagely as she returned with the cake. "Kids' stuff of the sort that parents wouldn't understand."

"Exactly!" Hikari replied as she took her plate. "Thank you."

"Okay, I'll leave you to it. I need a good long soak." She said after Taichi took his cake with a thank you. They both watched as their mother disappeared into the bathroom and then he looked back it his sister who was eating her chocolate cake.

"What are you up to?"

"Hmmm…" Hikari swallowed a mouthful of chocolate cake. "You'll find out soon enough. I really wish you'd keep out of this, onii-chan."

"I can't, you should know that." He replied softly.

"I do know unfortunately." She finished her cake and headed for her room. "I'll figure out someway to stop you getting hurt." For some reason calm tone alarmed him.

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"Did she manage to get everything?" Daisuke asked as Ken searched his room.

"It looks like it. Though there wasn't that much left. Most of it was only on my base's computer and that was destroyed." He turned on his computer and looked at the files. "Odd she took the disks but didn't delete the copies of the files that were on here." He brought one of them up and then hissed and closed it quickly. One hand shot up to his neck.

"Are you alright?" Daisuke asked as he remembered what Ken had said about his neck.

"Not really. Even looking at the code makes my neck hurt. I wish that I knew why … it used to hurt all the time when I was Kaiser."

"Let me see…" Daisuke moved round behind Ken. He couldn't see anything so he felt it carefully. "There's tiny lump here. It's not visible but I can feel it…" He looked over at Wormmon and Veemon. "Something happened to his neck?"

"He was so sick afterwards." Wormmon said quietly. "I thought that he was going to die."

Ken looked up as a vague memory stirred. "I thought that I was going to die as well…" He frowned in concentration. "We were fighting this really strong evil digimon and…"

"… Something hit you in the neck just as it disintegrated!" Daisuke gasped as the same memory surfaced in his mind. "Given the way it seems to pull you towards the dark whatever hit you must be being used to influence you by someone… and it must be energised by the dark ocean. Which is why it's started to trouble you again."

"At least I know enough to resist it this time. He reached into his pocket and fetched out his crest. "I wish I had the tag to this. When I picked it up I discarded the tag."

"The crest helps you resist the darkness?"

Ken nodded. "And since I don't know if we can get this thing out of me it's what I've got. Anyway we need to concentrate on what Hikari might be going to do next."

"What did she get."

"My diary, the plans for my base, a load of ideas I had but never used and most seriously the code for the dark rings and the control spires. I don't think she'll use the control spires as the stand but she might be able to alter the code with Devimon's help."

"Huh… why wouldn't she use them as they stand?"

"They come from the Dark World and you saw how she behaved there. She was not at all happy there. I can't see her doing anything that might even remotely give that Dagomon creature an easy route into the Digital World."

"You're right." Daisuke mused. "The dark does seems to be split up into a lot of factions doesn't it?"

"A lot." Ken agreed.

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"Are you sure that you want me to do this, Kari-chan?" Gatomon asked.

"Of course I'm sure." Her partner replied. "If Taichi won't stay out of harm's way of his own free will I'll just have to make sure that he can't put himself there." She sighed. "I just hope he comes to his senses soon."

"Alright then." Gatomon crept towards Taichi's room while Hikari turned on the computer. Moments later her digimon returned with Taichi's digivice. "He's not going to be happy about this."

"Not happy, Gatomon-chan? He'll be mad! But he'll be safer for being stuck here until he's willing to listen. It's not as if I'm taking him prisoner or anything."

"I don't think he'll see it that way."

"Probably not." Hikari agreed as she opened a port and they passed through it. Devimon looked surprised to see them.

"You're here late." He noted.

"I'm not stopping. I just came to drop this off."

"Your brother's digivice?"

She nodded. "I don't want him getting hurt in the chaos."

"I see… you do know that he might be needed."

Hikari nodded sombrely. "It's only until he agrees to focus his attention elsewhere."

"Ah. I see." He paused. "It's a good thing you came actually. Have you ever heard of Athenamon."

"No, I don't think so."

"I have." Gatomon said. "She's an insane vaccine. Hates humans and thinks all viral digimon should be permanently deleted. She even has a small following."

"She's not insane exactly. She's not native." Devimon said. "She's every bit as dangerous as Dagomon in her own way."

"I can see that." Hikari murmured. "So why bring this up now?"

"She's started agitating again."

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"My vaccine brothers and sisters." Athenamon climbed onto a stump and addressed the small gathering in front of her. Most of them were newcomers but she had carefully seeded the crowd with her followers. "Once more we see the results of allowing humans into our midst! Corruption! Corruption and Tyranny! We do not need help from such impure creatures to defend ourselves but from other pure ones. The corrupt ones… the virii… and the so-called digidestined must be deleted…"

"But the Holy Beasts…" One of her followers began his prepared heckling.

"The Holy Beasts? Who are they… one of their number is even a virus! No doubt it was he who came up with this foolish plan to bring humans in. All virii are evil, why should this one be any different just because we call him a Holy Beast. Do you doubt that they are evil? You have seen the evidence with your own eyes." She paused for effect. "Tell me, do you truly believe that the Kaiser has repented? And who chose him? The Holy Beasts! And now the so-called Child of Light is consorting with Devimon. She has even caused a digimon -- one of your own vaccine sisters -- to digivolve to a viral form! How long before the rest of these so-called Chosen Children show their true colours? We must act now before it is too late and we are all corrupted or enslaved."

"But… how can we fight the Holy Beasts unaided?" Her plant continued. "They are so powerful!"

"I never said we didn't need help. As there are worlds of darkness there are worlds of light. Worlds that have already purged themselves and stand ready to help us. The Data and Vaccine Holy Beasts must listen to reason or be supplanted and the Viral one must be deleted. The code shall be purified!"

"I would not doubt your words, Athenamon." A small digimon spoke up much to her surprise. This wasn't in the script. "But if the humans are pawns of the dark why did it create the counter-destined."

"Erm… Erm…" She hesitated momentarily. Most digimon didn't even know of the counter-destined and somehow she'd found a crowd who did. The only ones confused by the question were her own followers. "To be honest, little one, I don't know." She lied quickly. "Some sort of double bluff I guess." She looked around. She needed to end this quickly. "Go to your homes and think about my words." She watched as her audience split up and went away. Then she opened a gate to her own world. Hopefully she'd won enough support in spite of the little wobble. "Yes." she murmured as she returned home. "This world will be cleansed! I will prevail!"

She didn't see the small digimon who had questioned her watching from behind a tree.

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R&R