Digimon Fan Fiction ❯ Remembering To Burn ❯ Chapter Four ( Chapter 4 )

Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon. Toei does. Certain ideas in this fic inspired by the Empress of the Eclipse's "Entrapped"

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Remembering to Burn

Part Four

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"You know what he meant?" Tai asked Veemon as the Chosen Children made their way to where the missing had last been seen in order to look for the cave. "Don't you."

Veemon nodded. He looked even more worried than he had before Ryo's appearance. "I guess Gennai never told you." It wasn't a question. "Well the short version is the dark isn't united in fact it's positively fragmented and one part of it selected suitable children who embody either oppositions or corruptions of the Crest traits and somehow gave them digivices and dark digimon. Daisuke, Ken and Ryo managed to bar them from the digital world. If they've found a way back in we've got a far more serious enemy than Ken on our hands."

"And they've taken Hikari. She's the Child of Light. I dread to think what that might mean." Wormmon added.

"Chiharu." Veemon managed to spit the name.

"Who?" asked Tai.

"The Child of Dark." Veemon offered.

"I'm guessing that the Child of Dark capturing the Child of Light is a bad thing." Miyako said.

"Well yes in a very nasty prophecy sort of way. Chiharu will want to kill her because if she does they can banish The Light from the digital world forever."

"Oh shit." Tai yelled. "Let's find that cave." He set off at a run. Veemon had to fight to catch up.

"There is some good news. She has to do it on the right day of the year… which isn't for another two days. Also if the three of them can put aside their differences long enough to work together they might be able to bring the whole thing down around the counter-destined ears."

-----

The three prisoners were standing by the bars looking at Black Salomon. She was looking at Hikari.

"You know who I am?" She asked. Hikari nodded. "Then you know you have no reason to trust me but please believe me I have no wish to see the Counter-destined's particular brand of darkness spread over the Digital World."

"That's why they've imprisoned you?" Ken asked when Hikari said nothing.

"It is… they caught me spying on them and they've been starving me which is why I'm stuck in this pathetic form and can't escape from this cell." She paused. "If you will help me escape I know a quick way out of here."

"Like you said we can't trust you." Hikari pointed out.

"True but look at this way. What choice do you have? You've got nothing to lose since they are definitely going to kill you. I'm not on your side but I'm not on their side either. All I'm suggesting is a temporary alliance until we are out of here and then we go our separate ways and the next time we meet…"

"We're enemies again." Hikari nodded slowly. "I think we don't have much choice." She looked at Daisuke. "But you're the official leader."

"And that's mattered since?" He asked, though it was obvious he was joking. He looked across at Black Salomon. "It's a deal." He turned to Ken. "You're the genius can you figure out how we're going to get out of here?"

"Maybe." Ken looked around. "But we don't know if we're being monitored."

"They haven't got the internal monitors working yet." Black Salomon assured him.

"Oh well then. It's quite easy."

-----

"I can smell them!" Veemon yelled excitedly. It had taken them quite a while to locate the correct cave and begin to explore it. "They were taken this way!"

"Great!" Tai headed after him. "Come on!" They all began to follow the little blue digimon.

"Can you smell them too?" Iori asked Gatomon and Wormmon. They both nodded but Gatomon looked uncertain. "What's wrong, Gatomon?" He asked.

"I can smell her but something's wrong. She wasn't walking like the other two."

"That is worrying." Iori admitted. "I hope that she's okay."

"I hope these counter-destined don't know we're here." Koushiro added. ""If they do I'd imagine they could cause us trouble."

-----

"Damn, the Digidestined found the trail." Denbe yelled bringing Chiharu and Ali running.

"How's that possible?" Chiharu asked staring at the screen.

"Someone must have told them." Ali said simultaneously. "Shall I organise a welcoming committee?" She looked over at Chiharu who nodded.

"Deal with it, Ali-chan. I'll send Setmon along."

Ali grinned and turned to her digimon. "Go and delete this annoying invasion, please."

"My pleasure, Ali-sama." He digivolved to Necromon and headed towards the exit. The snake digimon uncoiled itself from round Chiharu, digivolved and followed him.

-----

The digidestined had made it through the tunnel to the cave where the others had been given the meal. They didn't need the digimon to tell them that they had stopped there. No one had bothered to clean up when they moved on.

"It looks like they are feeding them at least." Yamato said, looking at the crumbs of biscuit around where the threesome had apparently been sitting.

"From the remains of the fire I'd say we're gaining on them." Koushiro told them. "It looks like it's only about six hours old. For some reason they are moving quite slowly."

"That's assuming that they haven't reached their destination yet." Iori added.

"Oh we have." Said a cold voice. "And you never will."

"Uh oh!" The digidestined turned round to find a small army of digimon before them.

"The good news is that most of them are rookies only the leader is a ultimate and there aren't any megas." Koushiro told them, "The bad news is that unless our digimon can digivolve here that won't help."

"Looks like we'll have to find out." Tai said looking at Agumon who nodded and digivolved to Greymon. "Yes!"

The older digidestined's digimon all digivolved to their champion forms, as did Patamon, and squared off against the enemy. Miyako and Iori looked at each other then ordered Hawkmon and Armadillamon to armour digivolve.

The digivolved digimon formed a defensive ring round the digidestined and the three undigivolved digimon.

"I don't see any dark rings or similar." Miyako whispered in alarm. "How do we fight them?"

"Welcome to your first encounter with genuinely evil digimon." Matt told her. "We'll have to delete them!"

"What!" The purple-haired girl shrieked. "We can't do that."

"We have to. We've done it before."

"And they'll have no reservations about killing us. At a time like this it's literally kill or be killed." Tai added.

"I can't!" she wailed.

"Well just don't stop the rest of us then!" He snapped back.

Conversation was cut off as battle was joined.

"Death Spear!" Necromon threw his spears in the air where they multiplied into a rain of them that fell towards the digidestined. Their digimon barely blocked them. As other attacks came in it became apparent that their enemy was deliberately aiming for the humans not the Digimon.

"You weren't kidding about them trying to kill us." Miyako gasped as they ran into a tunnel and their digimon formed a perimeter around the entrance.

"We should be safe here while they fight." Takeru told her.

"But why were they aiming for us, TK?" she asked plaintively.

"It's the easiest way to get rid of our digimon." He replied blandly.

From their hiding place it was impossible to see what was happening so after a few minutes they risked looking out. Their digimon were now facing just three opponents -- Necromon, Ledmon and Setmon. Koushiro whispered that all Necromon was an Ultimate and the other two were champions.

"The snakey one doesn't look in good shape." Iori noted.

"That's Setmon, and no he isn't but you still wouldn't want to be on the wrong side of his venom spray attack."

Just then Halsemon hit Setmon with Tempest Wing. The snake digimon shrieked and fled before they could finish it. The other two digimon looked at each other. "We'll be back." They said simultaneously and retreated down the same tunnel.

-----

"They lost!" Chiharu stared at the screen. "They actually lost. That shouldn't have happened."

"They got lucky." Ali reassured her. "There's no way that they should have been able to defeat our little army."

"I don't know." The other two looked at Denbe in surprise. "Their tactics were good and sometimes tactics make all the difference." He folded his arms and leaned back against the wall.

"Of course it would help if you two could get your digimon up to Ultimate again of course." Ali muttered. "Three Ultimates would have ripped them to shreds regardless of tactics."

"Two days." Chiharu said wistfully. "Just two days."

"I told you that we should kill them." Denbe said.

"Stop that, Denbe-kun. You know I can't kill the Child of Light yet. They would have found the trail anyway."

"I know. I'm beginning to wonder if there isn't an easier way to get what we want."

"I wish."

"So what are we going to do about them?" He asked. "They'll be here in less than two hours at the rate they are moving."

"Have our digimon try to lure them off the trail." Ali suggested mildly.

"Or ambushes." Denbe added as he considered his own question.

"Good ideas." Chiharu tapped some instructions on her keyboard. "Plus I'll lock us down I doubt anything they've got could blast through the doors."

"If they don't find one of the damned exits we don't know about." Denbe said sourly.

"That's unlikely. We live here and we've never been able to find them." Chiharu waved aside his concerns. "If they reach the main door there's nowhere to hide. We can grind them up against them like a meat grinder."

Denbe sighed, they never listened to him. He turned and watched as a lone Lakmon rattled towards the dungeon with food for the prisoners.

-----

As soon as the Lakmon entered with their meal Ken leapt on it from behind. The hapless rookie didn't even have time to react let alone get an attack off before it fell unconscious. He bent down and grabbed the keys.

"Well that was even easier than I expected." He unlocked the door to Black Salamon's cell. "I hope you are going to live up to your end of the bargain."

"I may be evil but I keep my word." She replied somewhat huffily. "Can I get some of that food?" She added.

Daisuke picked up the biscuits. "Once we're somewhere more concealed."

"Fair enough." She led them along the tunnel until they reached a hatch in the tunnel wall.

"Ventilation system?" Ken asked as he removed the hatch. He risked a look at Daisuke, the boy was staring at the opening in horror but at least he wasn't hyperventilating this time.

"Yes." The digimon replied.

"Not again." Daisuke sighed. "What did I do to deserve this?" He took a deep breath and looked at Ken. "The same drill as before?"

"Looks like it'll have to be."

"Am I missing something?" Hikari asked.

Ken looked at Daisuke. The red headed boy hung his head and whispered. "I'm claustrophobic."

"Oh." Was all Hikari said but her eyes widened in sympathy as she looked at the tiny hole they had to enter in order to escape.

"We should get moving." Black Salamon said.

"Okay." Daisuke visibly gritted his teeth and Ken could almost hear the internal mantra of {I have to do this. I have to do this.} in the other boy's mind. "You lead, Ken next, me in the middle and Hikari last. And Kari-chan be careful of your arm."

"I will be." She agreed as they clambered into the shaft and began to follow their guide.

------

The digidestined had come to a small cave with several outlets.

"Those digimon went that way." Tai said noting the trail that they'd left.

"It's probably a decoy." Iori offered. "It's a little too obvious."

"Or it might be a bluff." Jyou said.

The digimon however had no doubts. "Daisuke went this way." Veemon indicated a different tunnel. Wormmon and Gatomon nodded their agreement.

"So it's a clumsy attempt to put us off the trail." Jyou nodded.

"I think we're being watched." Koushiro said suddenly. "And probably listened to as well."

"Well obviously they know we're here. So yes." Jyou agreed.

"I hope so." Tai said. "Because I'm coming to get my sister and no one is going to stop me."

-----

"Chiharu-chan?"

"Hmmm." She glanced up from watching the digidestined to see Denbe frowning.

"That Lakmon's been a long time taking the prisoners their food hasn't it?." He said.

"He's right." Ali ran towards the cells and returned moments later swearing sulfureously. "They knocked it out and escaped. They've taken Black Salamon with them."

"I told you live enemies were trouble." Denbe growled.

"And I told you to get the internal monitors up." Chiharu hissed. "This wouldn't have happened if they worked."

"Give me a break." Denbe groaned. "We've only been back a week. It's a miracle that anything works."

"Well just save the 'I told you so's' and find them."

"There's one good thing." He noted. "All the external sensors still work so if they get out we'll know."

----

Ken was about to ask Daisuke is he was all right when the other boy spoke.

"K-Kari-chan, can I ask you something."

"Sure."

"Y-you like Takeru don't you? I mean really like."

"I think so." She admitted. "But I'm not sure that he feels the same way."

"So you're what? Flirting with me to see if you can make him jealous?"

"I-I-I … Erm … I probably deserve that." She said. Ken was certain it wasn't what she had been going to say. He decided to say something.

"I know that I'm probably the last person you want advice from but you should tell him. You aren't being fair by toying with them." To his relief she didn't tell him to butt out

"But what if he says he only wants to be my friend?" She asked plaintively.

"Then at least you'll know. It may hurt but believe me it'll make things easier." Daisuke said in an oddly mild tone.

This time the silence behind him was prolonged and when Hikari finally spoke it was in small voice. "I'm sorry, Daisuke-kun, really I am. I never wanted to hurt you. I always thought you were just flirting too. I honestly never realised just how serious you were."

"I believe you." Daisuke told her.

"Do you think we can be friends after this?" she asked in the same tone. "Even if I do get together with Takeru?"

"We already are, Kari-chan." He reassured her. "I just wish we hadn't had to be in this mess to have this talk." After a few minutes Daisuke spoke again in a stunned tone. "This is easier than last time."

"You're beginning to realize you won't die." Ken told him. "It was easier to get in as well, wasn't it?"

"That was because I was even more scared of that Ali witch. Did you see her eyes? She's insane."

"No argument here." Ken said. He nearly said that she always had been but he couldn't figure out how he knew that so he remained silent.

Just then there was a clanking noise and Black Salamon disappeared through another grate. "Okay." Her voice trailed back to them "We're out of the main base. Now things really get hairy."

The threesome slithered after her. "What do you mean?" Daisuke asked as he finally gave her the biscuits. As the little digimon ate the biscuits Ken checked Kari's arm.

Having eaten she digivolved to Black Gatomon. "Ah that's better." She headed towards an exit. "They monitor the caves. They'll know where we are within 5 minutes so we need to move."

"Oh, great!"

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