Digimon Fan Fiction ❯ The Children Of Fate ❯ 8 ( Chapter 9 )
[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]
By: moose_of_doom 
Anime/Manga: Digimon Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Action / Adventure / Romance | Type: Other | Uploaded On: 08.01.2005 | Pages: 5 | Words: 2.6K | Visits: 274 | Status: Completed
Anime/Manga: Digimon Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Action / Adventure / Romance | Type: Other | Uploaded On: 08.01.2005 | Pages: 5 | Words: 2.6K | Visits: 274 | Status: Completed
Chapter 8:
********
TK wiped the sweat out of his eyes, and looked bleakly at the rock face in front of him. Hoisting his pick again, he slammed it into the obsidian surface, raising sparks from the blade. Beside him, Michael was hoisting his own tool.
“Well, this is fun.” He said.
“Yeah, pretty soon we’ll all start singing.”
“Hi ho, hi ho…”
TK laughed. He was surprised at how good it felt. He’d had very little to laugh about over the past few weeks. Laughing felt somehow alien, a memory from long ago. Again, TK was surprised at how quickly Kari’s invitation for him to rejoin them had extended from the rest of them as well. Except for Mimi. That was going to take some time. He flinched as the bruises on his shoulders started to ache again.
“She isn’t taking it any easier, is she?”
“Heh. Never expected her to.”
The beatings that Wentela inflicted upon him didn’t really bother TK. She was strong, but he could take a few lashes every now and again. The problem was that Wentela was determined to break their spirits. She seemed to know exactly what to do to break down the defences that the Digidestined had built up around themselves, and she was going at it with all her might.
He heard the clanking sound of the Cart coming down the rails, and groaned.
“Here we go again. You ready?”
“You gonna start provoking her again?”
“Hell, yes.”
“Then we’re ready.”
“Good man.”
TK looked up as Wentela stepped down from the cart, her oversized body looking strangely comical in the cramped space of the tunnel. The riding crop was in her hand.
“Is it me, or do you smell something?” he said loudly.
“No. Not really.” Michael replied.
“Yeah, something really foul. Makes me want to throw up…”
He looked the big woman dead in the face.
“Oh. Hello Wentela. Didn’t see you there.”
The riding crop hissed through the air, lashing him across the face. His head snapped to the side.
“You will only speak, slave…”
“When you tell us to speak, yeah, yeah. You know, hitting people is the sign of emotional insecurity.”
=============================================================
“Why have you called me back here again, Taythe?”
“It’s nice to see you too, Hikari.”
“I have nothing more to say to you, or are you gonna try threatening my friends again?”
The black-haired girl turned away from the large fireplace in her chamber, and straightened up to look at Kari, her grey eyes like shadows in the recesses of her face. Kari glared straight back at her nemesis, although she didn’t give Taythe the satisfaction of appearing angry.
“Taythe, I’ve cursed the very day I ever laid eyes on you. What do you want?”
“You to stop being melodramatic for a start.”
“I mean every word.”
“I’m sure you do.”
There was a silence between them, stretching away into the minutes. Finally, Taythe sighed.
“There is someone I’d like you to meet.”
“If they’re anything like you, deeply not caring.”
“This is the person who raised me, Hikari. Watch your mouth.”
She walked to a side door to the room, and gestured for Kari to walk through it. The current leader of the Digidestined did so, and found herself faced with an office. Behind the desk sat a middle-aged man, with his black hair tied neatly in a bunch at the nape of his neck
“Greetings, lady Hikari.”
He wasn’t a large man, but the moment Kari stepped into the same room as him; she felt the overwhelming presence of his personality. Nevertheless, she decided not to let it daunt her.
“I understand you’re the one responsible for Little Miss Sunshine over there.” She said abruptly.
“And so well phrased, too.”
“I told you she was like this, Father.”
Kari’s eyes widened.
“This is your father?”
“Our relationship is slightly more complex than that. But allow me to introduce myself.”
He stood from behind the desk, and directed the full force of his searching gaze on her.
“My name is Derron. Derron Motomiya.”
=============================================================
“When did they come and get her?” Tai demanded.
Tasha looked up, bleary eyed.
“Must’ve been about an hour ago. Seems our most majestic majesty,” her words had a mocking tone. “Felt the need for Kari’s company again.”
They were sitting in the sleeping space that had been provided for them. It was basically a natural cell in the rock, little more than twenty feet square. The seven of them had been cramped into the confined space for over a week now, and no matter how small it was, it was home.
“That’s becoming an appallingly regular occurrence.” Matt said quietly. “Taythe seems to call on Kari at least once a day, and Kari always comes back with no new information.”
“And Taythe always wants to know about Davis.” Tai added thoughtfully. “Do you think she has suspicions that she didn’t kill him?”
“I don’t think its anything like that.” Matt said. “I think that Taythe just doesn’t understand Davis.”
“What do you mean by that?” the usually silent Mimi asked intently.
Matt, to his credit, didn’t show any surprise at Mimi speaking. If anything, he had been waiting for it to happen. Hoping was probably a more correct term, actually. Before he could reply, however, the cart rattled to a halt outside the entrance to their cell. All of the chambers in the mine were connected by that Underground Railroad, and the Digidestined had learned to dread the sound of that rattling approach. Mimi seemed to shrink once more into her shell, and Tai almost groaned when he saw the contents of the cart.
Michael, his shoulders slumped, helped the barely conscious TK down from the cart. The blonde mans hair was stained a dirty reddish colour, matted with blood. Tasha gave a cry and ran to him, helping Michael lower the wounded man to the ground.
Wentela stepped down from the cart, her bulk filling the entrance to the chamber.
“Your friend here…” she tapped TK with her foot, “Thinks that it is smart to insult me.” She grinned maliciously. “Allow me to demonstrate the futility of any such attempts at comedy.”
She scanned the group, and her gaze fell on the huddled form of Mimi.
“Bring her to me.”
One of the guards moved forward, whilst the other two levelled their rifles at the Digidestined. The guard grabbed Mimi by the arm, and dragged her across the floor to Wentela’s feet. The stunned girl looked up at her captor, blinking to clear the dust from her eyes. The big woman reached down and took hold of the girls chin.
“So young, so pretty.” She smiled again. “I used to be a warden at a women’s prison, you know that? I used to have to deal with vapid whores and adulterous wives every day, and I made them see the error of their ways. I’ll do the same for you, honey. You picked the wrong damn side in this war, and you’re going to regret it. Wentela isn’t my really name, y’know. It’s an ancient language, long lost, of a people who lived in the digi-world, and nit means Dark Queen. And that’s what I am, honey, I’m the queen of this place. Taythe may rule me, but this place is mine. And I wont take disrespect from anybody!”
She raised her fist, ready to slam it down into Mimi’s face, but at the last instant, Michael rose from his crouching position beside the unconscious TK, and launched himself at the big woman. He slammed into her, knocking her off balance as he pushed Mimi back and away. he crouched, readying himself.
Wentela stood, pushing herself away from the wall, and her eyes blazed with a red fire of fury.
“How… dare… you…” she panted.
Reaching down to her side, she pulled a Glock 17 automatic from her hip holster. The gun looked strangely like a toy in the big woman’s hand. She levelled the weapon at Michael.
“You pathetic little bastard. You think you can protect her? You think you can protect anyone?”
She pulled the trigger, and the guns report sounded like a thunderclap in the confined space. Michael, his eyes widening, looked down at the red stain that spread on his shirt. Then he collapsed to his knees, and fell face forward into the dust. Wentela waved the gun maniacally at the rest of the Digidestined.
“Any of you who tries something like that will get exactly the same. Get that,” she gestured at Michael’s body with the Glock’s barrel. “Piece of shit out of here. Throw it out with the rest of the trash.”
=============================================================
“Excuse me? Did you say Derron MOTOMIYA?” Kari asked incredulously.
“What, did you think that your boyfriends family were the only ones who still possessed that name?”
Derron laughed at the look of shock on Kari’s face.
“Oh, don’t take it to heart. We haven’t made ourselves know to the rest of the family since the age of the dragon lords. You see, my family is descended from Taneka Motomiya, the older brother of Ichiro Motomiya.”
He looked into Kari’s eyes, and there was a smirk there, something indefinably cruel.
“So you see my dear, Taythe is the one to whom leadership of the digital world truly belongs. Ichiro was a usurper, who through his rebellion against the Dragon-Lords gained the power to conquer the digital world.”
“That’s not how it happened… The Dragon-Lords were tyrants…”
The blow came out of nowhere, and the strength behind it surprised Kari. She staggered, and regained her balance to look into Taythe’s eyes. The black-haired girls face was seething with fury.
“Don’t you ever say that in my presence again, Hikari. The Dragon-Lords were the greatest rulers this world or any other has ever seen.”
It occurred to Kari that the raven-haired girl actually believed every word she was saying. She was staring into the blazing eyes of a fanatic. She could have humoured the girl, played along. But something of Davis sparked deep inside her, and she felt her will solidify.
“Oh, I’m sorry, am I intruding on your mental anguish here Taythe? Get over it. The Dragon-Lords were Tyrants, who ruled with their armies instead of their minds. Ichiro was a brave man who went against them, despite the possibility of losing everything he owned and loved. Gennai wouldn’t have trusted him any other way.”
“Gennai?” Derron spat. “Do not mention that name! He is the man who corrupted a whole generation of my family with his lies! He is the being who plays god over the creatures of the digital world! He manipulates people without conscience! He is worse than the Paladin!”
Kari sensed an opening, and took it.
“And that’s your problem, isn’t it? You fear the Paladin. You fear his strength. You fear the power of all that goodness.”
Derron stood, and suddenly seemed to grow very large. The light sin the room appeared to dim.
“Gennai manipulated Ichiro Motomiya into killing his older brother, Hikari. Gennai is the evil one here, not us. He is the one who needs to be eliminated, along with all his legacy, the Paladin!”
He smiled and laid a hand on his young daughters shoulder.
“And Taythe here will be the one to do it.”
=============================================================
The garbage chute opened directly onto the hillside, made from a natural shaft out of the caves and having been used for precisely the same purpose when the Dragon-Lords were ruling the digital world. now that the fortress of the Dragon-Lords was re-occupied, with all of its slave labour underside back in place, the chute was once again seeing a large amount of use.
From the mouth of the chute, the daily pile of junk – food, bottles and human waste, tumbled unceremoniously down the hillside. Most of the liquid would be absorbed by the porous rock of the hillside, and recycled by the digital-worlds natural functions into nutrients that would feed the plant life on the lower plain.
But from the chute there tumbled something else today. A blonde headed young man fell from the mouth of the open tube, and slammed into the cliff face beneath. His side was a mass of blood, and the stink from the ride down the garbage tube was overpowering.
When he reached a ledge, and rolled to a stop, he started to groan. Lifting his head, the blonde man looked up at the imposing fortress on the mountain above him, and then, with an effort of pure will, got to his feet and started to stagger down the mountain. Wounded, bleeding and raw, Michael had only one thought on his mind.
‘Gotta find help… gotta find Davis…’
=============================================================
********
TK wiped the sweat out of his eyes, and looked bleakly at the rock face in front of him. Hoisting his pick again, he slammed it into the obsidian surface, raising sparks from the blade. Beside him, Michael was hoisting his own tool.
“Well, this is fun.” He said.
“Yeah, pretty soon we’ll all start singing.”
“Hi ho, hi ho…”
TK laughed. He was surprised at how good it felt. He’d had very little to laugh about over the past few weeks. Laughing felt somehow alien, a memory from long ago. Again, TK was surprised at how quickly Kari’s invitation for him to rejoin them had extended from the rest of them as well. Except for Mimi. That was going to take some time. He flinched as the bruises on his shoulders started to ache again.
“She isn’t taking it any easier, is she?”
“Heh. Never expected her to.”
The beatings that Wentela inflicted upon him didn’t really bother TK. She was strong, but he could take a few lashes every now and again. The problem was that Wentela was determined to break their spirits. She seemed to know exactly what to do to break down the defences that the Digidestined had built up around themselves, and she was going at it with all her might.
He heard the clanking sound of the Cart coming down the rails, and groaned.
“Here we go again. You ready?”
“You gonna start provoking her again?”
“Hell, yes.”
“Then we’re ready.”
“Good man.”
TK looked up as Wentela stepped down from the cart, her oversized body looking strangely comical in the cramped space of the tunnel. The riding crop was in her hand.
“Is it me, or do you smell something?” he said loudly.
“No. Not really.” Michael replied.
“Yeah, something really foul. Makes me want to throw up…”
He looked the big woman dead in the face.
“Oh. Hello Wentela. Didn’t see you there.”
The riding crop hissed through the air, lashing him across the face. His head snapped to the side.
“You will only speak, slave…”
“When you tell us to speak, yeah, yeah. You know, hitting people is the sign of emotional insecurity.”
=============================================================
“Why have you called me back here again, Taythe?”
“It’s nice to see you too, Hikari.”
“I have nothing more to say to you, or are you gonna try threatening my friends again?”
The black-haired girl turned away from the large fireplace in her chamber, and straightened up to look at Kari, her grey eyes like shadows in the recesses of her face. Kari glared straight back at her nemesis, although she didn’t give Taythe the satisfaction of appearing angry.
“Taythe, I’ve cursed the very day I ever laid eyes on you. What do you want?”
“You to stop being melodramatic for a start.”
“I mean every word.”
“I’m sure you do.”
There was a silence between them, stretching away into the minutes. Finally, Taythe sighed.
“There is someone I’d like you to meet.”
“If they’re anything like you, deeply not caring.”
“This is the person who raised me, Hikari. Watch your mouth.”
She walked to a side door to the room, and gestured for Kari to walk through it. The current leader of the Digidestined did so, and found herself faced with an office. Behind the desk sat a middle-aged man, with his black hair tied neatly in a bunch at the nape of his neck
“Greetings, lady Hikari.”
He wasn’t a large man, but the moment Kari stepped into the same room as him; she felt the overwhelming presence of his personality. Nevertheless, she decided not to let it daunt her.
“I understand you’re the one responsible for Little Miss Sunshine over there.” She said abruptly.
“And so well phrased, too.”
“I told you she was like this, Father.”
Kari’s eyes widened.
“This is your father?”
“Our relationship is slightly more complex than that. But allow me to introduce myself.”
He stood from behind the desk, and directed the full force of his searching gaze on her.
“My name is Derron. Derron Motomiya.”
=============================================================
“When did they come and get her?” Tai demanded.
Tasha looked up, bleary eyed.
“Must’ve been about an hour ago. Seems our most majestic majesty,” her words had a mocking tone. “Felt the need for Kari’s company again.”
They were sitting in the sleeping space that had been provided for them. It was basically a natural cell in the rock, little more than twenty feet square. The seven of them had been cramped into the confined space for over a week now, and no matter how small it was, it was home.
“That’s becoming an appallingly regular occurrence.” Matt said quietly. “Taythe seems to call on Kari at least once a day, and Kari always comes back with no new information.”
“And Taythe always wants to know about Davis.” Tai added thoughtfully. “Do you think she has suspicions that she didn’t kill him?”
“I don’t think its anything like that.” Matt said. “I think that Taythe just doesn’t understand Davis.”
“What do you mean by that?” the usually silent Mimi asked intently.
Matt, to his credit, didn’t show any surprise at Mimi speaking. If anything, he had been waiting for it to happen. Hoping was probably a more correct term, actually. Before he could reply, however, the cart rattled to a halt outside the entrance to their cell. All of the chambers in the mine were connected by that Underground Railroad, and the Digidestined had learned to dread the sound of that rattling approach. Mimi seemed to shrink once more into her shell, and Tai almost groaned when he saw the contents of the cart.
Michael, his shoulders slumped, helped the barely conscious TK down from the cart. The blonde mans hair was stained a dirty reddish colour, matted with blood. Tasha gave a cry and ran to him, helping Michael lower the wounded man to the ground.
Wentela stepped down from the cart, her bulk filling the entrance to the chamber.
“Your friend here…” she tapped TK with her foot, “Thinks that it is smart to insult me.” She grinned maliciously. “Allow me to demonstrate the futility of any such attempts at comedy.”
She scanned the group, and her gaze fell on the huddled form of Mimi.
“Bring her to me.”
One of the guards moved forward, whilst the other two levelled their rifles at the Digidestined. The guard grabbed Mimi by the arm, and dragged her across the floor to Wentela’s feet. The stunned girl looked up at her captor, blinking to clear the dust from her eyes. The big woman reached down and took hold of the girls chin.
“So young, so pretty.” She smiled again. “I used to be a warden at a women’s prison, you know that? I used to have to deal with vapid whores and adulterous wives every day, and I made them see the error of their ways. I’ll do the same for you, honey. You picked the wrong damn side in this war, and you’re going to regret it. Wentela isn’t my really name, y’know. It’s an ancient language, long lost, of a people who lived in the digi-world, and nit means Dark Queen. And that’s what I am, honey, I’m the queen of this place. Taythe may rule me, but this place is mine. And I wont take disrespect from anybody!”
She raised her fist, ready to slam it down into Mimi’s face, but at the last instant, Michael rose from his crouching position beside the unconscious TK, and launched himself at the big woman. He slammed into her, knocking her off balance as he pushed Mimi back and away. he crouched, readying himself.
Wentela stood, pushing herself away from the wall, and her eyes blazed with a red fire of fury.
“How… dare… you…” she panted.
Reaching down to her side, she pulled a Glock 17 automatic from her hip holster. The gun looked strangely like a toy in the big woman’s hand. She levelled the weapon at Michael.
“You pathetic little bastard. You think you can protect her? You think you can protect anyone?”
She pulled the trigger, and the guns report sounded like a thunderclap in the confined space. Michael, his eyes widening, looked down at the red stain that spread on his shirt. Then he collapsed to his knees, and fell face forward into the dust. Wentela waved the gun maniacally at the rest of the Digidestined.
“Any of you who tries something like that will get exactly the same. Get that,” she gestured at Michael’s body with the Glock’s barrel. “Piece of shit out of here. Throw it out with the rest of the trash.”
=============================================================
“Excuse me? Did you say Derron MOTOMIYA?” Kari asked incredulously.
“What, did you think that your boyfriends family were the only ones who still possessed that name?”
Derron laughed at the look of shock on Kari’s face.
“Oh, don’t take it to heart. We haven’t made ourselves know to the rest of the family since the age of the dragon lords. You see, my family is descended from Taneka Motomiya, the older brother of Ichiro Motomiya.”
He looked into Kari’s eyes, and there was a smirk there, something indefinably cruel.
“So you see my dear, Taythe is the one to whom leadership of the digital world truly belongs. Ichiro was a usurper, who through his rebellion against the Dragon-Lords gained the power to conquer the digital world.”
“That’s not how it happened… The Dragon-Lords were tyrants…”
The blow came out of nowhere, and the strength behind it surprised Kari. She staggered, and regained her balance to look into Taythe’s eyes. The black-haired girls face was seething with fury.
“Don’t you ever say that in my presence again, Hikari. The Dragon-Lords were the greatest rulers this world or any other has ever seen.”
It occurred to Kari that the raven-haired girl actually believed every word she was saying. She was staring into the blazing eyes of a fanatic. She could have humoured the girl, played along. But something of Davis sparked deep inside her, and she felt her will solidify.
“Oh, I’m sorry, am I intruding on your mental anguish here Taythe? Get over it. The Dragon-Lords were Tyrants, who ruled with their armies instead of their minds. Ichiro was a brave man who went against them, despite the possibility of losing everything he owned and loved. Gennai wouldn’t have trusted him any other way.”
“Gennai?” Derron spat. “Do not mention that name! He is the man who corrupted a whole generation of my family with his lies! He is the being who plays god over the creatures of the digital world! He manipulates people without conscience! He is worse than the Paladin!”
Kari sensed an opening, and took it.
“And that’s your problem, isn’t it? You fear the Paladin. You fear his strength. You fear the power of all that goodness.”
Derron stood, and suddenly seemed to grow very large. The light sin the room appeared to dim.
“Gennai manipulated Ichiro Motomiya into killing his older brother, Hikari. Gennai is the evil one here, not us. He is the one who needs to be eliminated, along with all his legacy, the Paladin!”
He smiled and laid a hand on his young daughters shoulder.
“And Taythe here will be the one to do it.”
=============================================================
The garbage chute opened directly onto the hillside, made from a natural shaft out of the caves and having been used for precisely the same purpose when the Dragon-Lords were ruling the digital world. now that the fortress of the Dragon-Lords was re-occupied, with all of its slave labour underside back in place, the chute was once again seeing a large amount of use.
From the mouth of the chute, the daily pile of junk – food, bottles and human waste, tumbled unceremoniously down the hillside. Most of the liquid would be absorbed by the porous rock of the hillside, and recycled by the digital-worlds natural functions into nutrients that would feed the plant life on the lower plain.
But from the chute there tumbled something else today. A blonde headed young man fell from the mouth of the open tube, and slammed into the cliff face beneath. His side was a mass of blood, and the stink from the ride down the garbage tube was overpowering.
When he reached a ledge, and rolled to a stop, he started to groan. Lifting his head, the blonde man looked up at the imposing fortress on the mountain above him, and then, with an effort of pure will, got to his feet and started to stagger down the mountain. Wounded, bleeding and raw, Michael had only one thought on his mind.
‘Gotta find help… gotta find Davis…’
=============================================================