Digimon Fan Fiction ❯ The Children Of Fate ❯ 15 ( Chapter 16 )
[ 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: 10 | Words: 3.4K | Visits: 278 | Status: Completed
Anime/Manga: Digimon Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Action / Adventure / Romance | Type: Other | Uploaded On: 08.01.2005 | Pages: 10 | Words: 3.4K | Visits: 278 | Status: Completed
Chapter 15:
*********
The troopers crouched behind the rocks on the dormant volcano, and looked down calmly at the citadel of the dragon-lords. Liam’s eyes scanned their target, and he grimaced. This wasn’t gonna be easy. Beside him, Nick gave a low snort of laughter.
“Hell, I didn’t want to live forever anyway.”
Liam grinned at his friend in return. And then he looked back down at the fortress. He sighed.
“Davis, I sure as hell hope you know what you’re doing. Lets move out, lads.”
The mixture of SAS, DWDF, and GSG-9 troopers started their way down the hill, stealthily moving into position.
=============================================================
“This is the third time this has happened this week!” Taythe fumed.
“It doesn’t really matter.” Derron replied.
The dark haired girl spun on her father, a dark fire burning in her eyes.
“It matters to me, Father. I don’t want Davis to regain any kind of hold on the digital world. Nothing at all!”
“What have I told you about being greedy? Let the dogs have the scraps from the table. We can manage just fine with the main meal.”
She glared at him, and then turned away. He grinned at her back.
“Why Taythe, I’d almost think that you weren’t ready to meet him.”
“I’m ready!”
“Then act like it. Why don’t you have another chat with your little friend Hikari? I’m sure she can offer you some insight.”
She glared at him again. He stared right back levelly.
“It wasn’t a request, Taythe. Remember what I once told you. You obey my orders.”
“Because I’m easy to replace, right?” she snarled.
“Easy enough. I’d miss you, of course, but I’d probably get over it. Talk to Hikari. It’s almost your last chance.”
She stared at him.
“You mean…?”
“yes. Daisuke has become aware. He now has the power within him. I think it might be politic to start treating the Digidestined humanely.”
Taythe shrugged.
“Why bother? Might as well let them know how their gonna live from now on – as slaves.”
She turned and stalked away. Derron laughed quietly to himself.
“You’re still unsure of your identity, aren’t you, my little champion?”
=============================================================
“Who is she?” Davis asked Gennai.
The ancient-youthful man had stayed behind after the rest of the group, including Dartha, the Guardians, Willis, Michael and Jun, had left to perform the first attack on the citadel of the dragon lords.
“Taythe? She is a champion, much like yourself, only she serves…”
“That’s not what I meant, Gennai.” Davis said firmly. DemiVeemon dozed lightly on his partners shoulder.
“Oh?”
“I want to know who she IS, not what she represents. Despite it all, there’s got to be a personality underneath all the bluster. I could almost feel it when we fought. It was so…”
“Angry? Offensive? Evil?”
“…Sad.”
“That’s a strange choice of words.”
“She’s a strange lady. I’ve been closer to her than you have, remember?”
Gennai sighed.
“I know. And I also know how that turned out. Maybe you do need to know more about her. If you understand her…”
“Then I can defeat her.”
“Possibly.” The guardian of the digital world sighed again.
“Taythe is an enigma. Unlike you, she’s never had an ounce of free will in her life. That’s the way our sides opposite works. He doesn’t like to let people out from under his thumb. Taythe is probably his proudest creation. Not only did she defeat you once, but also she has almost fulfilled her side of the prophecy. She’s not just like you in that she’s a champion; she’s also like you in that she has no fate. But whilst you write your own path, Taythe is so closely manipulated by the enemy and Derron, her fate is being written for her.” he stopped. “I see what you mean. She is kind of sad, isn’t she? Her soul must be screaming.”
“Why?”
“Your souls are very similar. They’re almost completely pure. Oh, don’t get me wrong, Taythe’s on the side of evil, but only a pure soul can be completely compelled by either evil or good. Your souls are like eagles, but whilst yours flies free, Taythe’s is locked in a cage created by her masters.”
He glanced at his watch; Davis was surprised to notice that it was a Rolex.
“Its time for us to go.”
“Alright. Where’s Dayla?”
“Right here.” Came a sleepy voice. Davis looked at the little girl critically.
“Here.” He commanded.
She walked over, and he picked the six-year-old up. She giggled slightly.
“Don’t be silly, Dayla. I can move faster if I’m carrying you.”
“Yes Daddy.”
“Don’t do that.”
“Yes Daddy.”
He sighed.
“I give up. Open the Digiport, Gennai.”
The grinning digital master opened a shining portal in the air, and Davis stepped through it…
=============================================================
“How are you doing, Gatomon?”
“It’d be easier if you didn’t keep calling me every ten minutes.”
The group of Digimon stopped, and turned round to look at her as Gatomon engaged in one of her regular conversations with Kari.
“Stop complaining. This is important.”
“that’d be a first.”
There was a slightly huffy silence on the contact line, and then Kari continued.
“Look, I’ve just gotten word that Taythe wants me to go and talk to her again. Will you be all right?”
“You mean, ‘will I survive doing the stuff that I’ve been doing for the past week WITHOUT you looking over my shoulder?’ ooh, I dunno. Could be hard.”
“Stop being a smartass.” And then Kari’s presence in her head was gone.
“Finally!” Gatomon said in relief. She turned to the others. “any luck?”
“Nothing. We’re looking through most of the tunnels, and we’ve found a few of the other Digidestined, but we haven’t been able tot rack down Ken and Yolei yet.” Salamandramon replied.
“How many tunnels we got left?”
“About ten of them, on this level. Armadillomon found Cody, and he’s sticking with him for a while, to get an update on their situation.”
Gatomon nodded. She couldn’t really begrudge her friend. She’d have dearly loved to spend some quality time with Kari right about now. That, however, wasn’t really gonna happen, since Taythe had formed a small attachment to the Cat-Digimon’s partner. She looked around at her friends.
“Okay. Lets take a tunnel each, and then meet back here.”
As they moved of, Gatomon muttered to herself.
“You’d better be taking care of yourself, Veemon.”
=============================================================
“Team one in transit. Lockbuster in place.”
“Affirmative, team one. Stand by on signal.”
“Roger.”
The voices over the radio sounded strangely muted to Liam’s ears. Along with the mental reports of the Guardians, The amount of voices travelling into his head at the moment was annoying, to say the least.
“How can you put up with this?” he said to Dartha.
The other man grinned.
“I’ve had two-thousand-odd years to get used to it. Of course I have the advantage of only knowing about half of what they’re saying means.”
Liam grinned wryly. When Dartha had passed the mantle of the knight onto him, he’d promised Liam that he wouldn’t have the immortality that had come with Dartha’s deal. He didn’t particularly care at this moment, though. He was more concerned with the attack that he was about to make on the fortified building beneath him. And after that… he was very deeply concerned with a certain person in the mines underneath the building. Almost subconsciously, he turned to look at Michael. Despite the fact that his wounds had only recently healed, the blonde man had insisted upon accompanying them on this mission. After a very harrowing argument with him, Jun had given into this, providing that she could come along.
“What?” Michael said.
“Huh?”
“You were staring at me, Liam.”
The big Irishman laughed.
“And I guess I was, at that. Are you sure you’re ready for this?”
“I don’t think that’s the reason, but I’m as ready as I’ll ever be. There’s someone very important to me in those mines.”
Liam nodded, and turned away. He came to a resolution in his mind. Mimi was a good eight years younger than him. Despite the fact that he could still remember the taste and feel of her lips on his, he wasn’t going to do anything about it. She needed to be with someone who could offer her the things Michael could. A decent life. Not a relationship with a killer who just happened to moonlight as a bartender. Deep in his mind, he once again saw that rainy Belfast Street, the teenage boy falling to the ground. The slight tinkle of the two spent shells from the silenced beretta. He closed his eyes, and when he opened them again, the world shifted sharply into focus.
“All teams, report in.”
“team one, standing by. Lockbreaker is ready.”
“Team two, standing by. Lockbuster is prepared.”
“Alright, lads. If I were Davis, I’d make a speech. But I’m not. Lets move out.”
He heard a couple of small laughs, and he picked up his rifle. Turning, he glanced at Jun, Willis and Michael.
“You people come in with the Guardians. We’re gonna clear them a path throught he commandos, into the fortress. You guys clear.”
‘We are, Knight. We will defeat any Shadowmon who are near the entrance to the fortress.’
“Alright then.”
He toggled the microphone on his radio headset.
“GO, GO, GO!!!”
And the first explosion shattered the calm at the citadel of the Dragon-lords.
=============================================================
The Office was smaller than the ones that appeared on TV. The men sitting around the small table looked only slightly surprised to see Davis.
“Good afternoon, Mr Motomiya.” The first man said in only slightly accented Japanese. “This is a pleasant surprise.”
“I’m afraid I’m going to make it less pleasant for you, Mr Prime Minister.” Davis said. He put Darla down on the floor, where she stood looking at the two men with a look of mild curiosity.
“I’m sure that you’ve heard about the situation in the digital world?”
“I’m afraid so.” The British Prime minister replied. “I gather you’re not n control any more?”
“it’s a temporary situation, sir. There are events coming that will decide whether it remains that way.”
“Ah. One of those things.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Then sit down, Representative Motomiya, and tell us what we need to know.”
“Thank you, Mr Prime minister.”
He sat down at the head of the table.
“What is the situation, representative?” the second man asked.
“Its very simple. We’re fucked.” He caught the looks from the other two. “I’m not a diplomat, sirs, so I have to speak my mind. We weren’t meant to win the battle at coast town, but that isn’t really a comforting thought. The Shadowmon population is so large, that they could easily overwhelm the Digiports if they could get to them at the moment. Fortunately, they’re locked down in a fortified position at the moment.” He glanced at the prime minister. “I’m afraid that most of the SAS squadron you sent through were lost, Mr Prime minister.”
“I’m sorry to hear that, Representative. That makes it personal.” The British leader grinned. “Whatever it is you need, we’re in.”
“Thankyou sir.”
The second man glared at his companion.
“It seems I’ve been strong-armed. Our forces will also help your cause, representative Motomiya.”
“Thankyou. It’s nice to see you so enthusiastic about my cause… Mr President.”
The President of the United States laughed wryly.
“I’m only sorry it didn’t come sooner.”
“These things happen.”
“So you’d better tell us what we need to do now, Representative.”
=============================================================
Taythe was sitting in her lounge when Kari came in, escorted by two guards.
“What do you want now, Taythe? I thought you’d bled me dry of information.”
“Not quite. I want to talk to you again… about Davis.”
Kari gave her a strange look.
“What?”
“That’s the first time you’ve called him by his nickname.”
Taythe’s eyes narrowed.
“He’s getting inside my head!”
“Yeah. He does that.” Kari laughed, despite herself.
Taythe looked up at her.
“Please sit down, Hikari.” She said quietly.
Kari sat down opposite the girl. There was something in Taythe’s voice.
“I… want to apologise to you. I want to apologise for everything that’s happened since you got here. Especially for your friend.”
“Michael?”
“Yes. If I’d have known, I wouldn’t have let Wentela do that. But father interfered. He said that you Digidestined needed to learn your place.”
Kari looked at her strangely.
“You’re lonely, aren’t you, Taythe?”
The raven-haired girls eyes snapped up to her.
“I…”
“You’ve never had anyone you could call a friend.”
“…Friends make you weak.”
“You know that isn’t true. You’ve met Davis, so I KNOW that you don’t believe that.”
Taythe turned away. Kari, on some wild impulse, got up, walked over, and sat next to her on the sofa. She put a hand on the girls shoulder.
“You’ve always been alone, haven’t you? You’ve never let anyone get close.”
“Why do you support Davis the way you do?”
Kari shrugged.
“Because I love him. All of us do. Of course, my feelings run a little deeper than the others.”
“How does that make him stronger? I beat him!”
“But you didn’t, did you? You failed to kill him. All you did was free him.”
“What?”
“Before, Davis was fighting for his own life, but in a scary way, his own life isn’t that important to him. But his friend’s lives… he would die for us. As we would for him.” Kari laughed bitterly. “Why am I telling you this?”
“I don’t know. Get away from me.”
Taythe shook of the hand on her shoulder.
“I was just…”
“GET AWAY!” the girl yelled.
Kari sighed, stood, and returned to her own seat.
“I told you! Friends are a weakness! I don’t have any attachments! That’s why I can fight and win.”
“What an empty existence.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“I can’t tell you Taythe. You have to find your own path.”
The black-haired girl looked at her, a stricken look in her eyes.
“That’s what he said…”
Whatever Kari might have said was cut off by a monstrous explosion.
=============================================================
Gatomon dug her way through the last few inches of dirt, cursing all the time. This stuff was never going to wash out, no matter how many baths she had, she was convinced of it.
She cheered up, however, as the dirt fell through the hole, revealing dim light. She stuck her head through, and looked around. In the upside down view, it took a couple of seconds to orientate herself.
“Gatomon? Is that you???” came a familiar voice.
She twisted around.
“Oh. Hey Ken. Is Yolei with you?”
“Right here. What the hell are you doing there?”
“I was looking for you. the Digimon escaped a while ago, and we’ve been acting on Kari’s orders ever since.”
Yolei looked into the little cat face.
“Is it true what we’ve heard about Davis?”
“I don’t know. What have you heard?”
“We heard from the guards… and that Wentela bitch… that he was killed?”
“Yolei, this is DAVIS we’re talking about. You know he’s invincible.” Gatomon smiled. “He’s still alive. Trust me. Who else is here?”
“Izzy. He’s over in the corner, but he’s sleeping. Joe’s around too.”
“Okay, I’ll report back to Kari…”
A low rumble, followed by a shattering explosion, shook the cave.
“Oh. Never mind. I think it may now be a moot point.”
=============================================================
*********
The troopers crouched behind the rocks on the dormant volcano, and looked down calmly at the citadel of the dragon-lords. Liam’s eyes scanned their target, and he grimaced. This wasn’t gonna be easy. Beside him, Nick gave a low snort of laughter.
“Hell, I didn’t want to live forever anyway.”
Liam grinned at his friend in return. And then he looked back down at the fortress. He sighed.
“Davis, I sure as hell hope you know what you’re doing. Lets move out, lads.”
The mixture of SAS, DWDF, and GSG-9 troopers started their way down the hill, stealthily moving into position.
=============================================================
“This is the third time this has happened this week!” Taythe fumed.
“It doesn’t really matter.” Derron replied.
The dark haired girl spun on her father, a dark fire burning in her eyes.
“It matters to me, Father. I don’t want Davis to regain any kind of hold on the digital world. Nothing at all!”
“What have I told you about being greedy? Let the dogs have the scraps from the table. We can manage just fine with the main meal.”
She glared at him, and then turned away. He grinned at her back.
“Why Taythe, I’d almost think that you weren’t ready to meet him.”
“I’m ready!”
“Then act like it. Why don’t you have another chat with your little friend Hikari? I’m sure she can offer you some insight.”
She glared at him again. He stared right back levelly.
“It wasn’t a request, Taythe. Remember what I once told you. You obey my orders.”
“Because I’m easy to replace, right?” she snarled.
“Easy enough. I’d miss you, of course, but I’d probably get over it. Talk to Hikari. It’s almost your last chance.”
She stared at him.
“You mean…?”
“yes. Daisuke has become aware. He now has the power within him. I think it might be politic to start treating the Digidestined humanely.”
Taythe shrugged.
“Why bother? Might as well let them know how their gonna live from now on – as slaves.”
She turned and stalked away. Derron laughed quietly to himself.
“You’re still unsure of your identity, aren’t you, my little champion?”
=============================================================
“Who is she?” Davis asked Gennai.
The ancient-youthful man had stayed behind after the rest of the group, including Dartha, the Guardians, Willis, Michael and Jun, had left to perform the first attack on the citadel of the dragon lords.
“Taythe? She is a champion, much like yourself, only she serves…”
“That’s not what I meant, Gennai.” Davis said firmly. DemiVeemon dozed lightly on his partners shoulder.
“Oh?”
“I want to know who she IS, not what she represents. Despite it all, there’s got to be a personality underneath all the bluster. I could almost feel it when we fought. It was so…”
“Angry? Offensive? Evil?”
“…Sad.”
“That’s a strange choice of words.”
“She’s a strange lady. I’ve been closer to her than you have, remember?”
Gennai sighed.
“I know. And I also know how that turned out. Maybe you do need to know more about her. If you understand her…”
“Then I can defeat her.”
“Possibly.” The guardian of the digital world sighed again.
“Taythe is an enigma. Unlike you, she’s never had an ounce of free will in her life. That’s the way our sides opposite works. He doesn’t like to let people out from under his thumb. Taythe is probably his proudest creation. Not only did she defeat you once, but also she has almost fulfilled her side of the prophecy. She’s not just like you in that she’s a champion; she’s also like you in that she has no fate. But whilst you write your own path, Taythe is so closely manipulated by the enemy and Derron, her fate is being written for her.” he stopped. “I see what you mean. She is kind of sad, isn’t she? Her soul must be screaming.”
“Why?”
“Your souls are very similar. They’re almost completely pure. Oh, don’t get me wrong, Taythe’s on the side of evil, but only a pure soul can be completely compelled by either evil or good. Your souls are like eagles, but whilst yours flies free, Taythe’s is locked in a cage created by her masters.”
He glanced at his watch; Davis was surprised to notice that it was a Rolex.
“Its time for us to go.”
“Alright. Where’s Dayla?”
“Right here.” Came a sleepy voice. Davis looked at the little girl critically.
“Here.” He commanded.
She walked over, and he picked the six-year-old up. She giggled slightly.
“Don’t be silly, Dayla. I can move faster if I’m carrying you.”
“Yes Daddy.”
“Don’t do that.”
“Yes Daddy.”
He sighed.
“I give up. Open the Digiport, Gennai.”
The grinning digital master opened a shining portal in the air, and Davis stepped through it…
=============================================================
“How are you doing, Gatomon?”
“It’d be easier if you didn’t keep calling me every ten minutes.”
The group of Digimon stopped, and turned round to look at her as Gatomon engaged in one of her regular conversations with Kari.
“Stop complaining. This is important.”
“that’d be a first.”
There was a slightly huffy silence on the contact line, and then Kari continued.
“Look, I’ve just gotten word that Taythe wants me to go and talk to her again. Will you be all right?”
“You mean, ‘will I survive doing the stuff that I’ve been doing for the past week WITHOUT you looking over my shoulder?’ ooh, I dunno. Could be hard.”
“Stop being a smartass.” And then Kari’s presence in her head was gone.
“Finally!” Gatomon said in relief. She turned to the others. “any luck?”
“Nothing. We’re looking through most of the tunnels, and we’ve found a few of the other Digidestined, but we haven’t been able tot rack down Ken and Yolei yet.” Salamandramon replied.
“How many tunnels we got left?”
“About ten of them, on this level. Armadillomon found Cody, and he’s sticking with him for a while, to get an update on their situation.”
Gatomon nodded. She couldn’t really begrudge her friend. She’d have dearly loved to spend some quality time with Kari right about now. That, however, wasn’t really gonna happen, since Taythe had formed a small attachment to the Cat-Digimon’s partner. She looked around at her friends.
“Okay. Lets take a tunnel each, and then meet back here.”
As they moved of, Gatomon muttered to herself.
“You’d better be taking care of yourself, Veemon.”
=============================================================
“Team one in transit. Lockbuster in place.”
“Affirmative, team one. Stand by on signal.”
“Roger.”
The voices over the radio sounded strangely muted to Liam’s ears. Along with the mental reports of the Guardians, The amount of voices travelling into his head at the moment was annoying, to say the least.
“How can you put up with this?” he said to Dartha.
The other man grinned.
“I’ve had two-thousand-odd years to get used to it. Of course I have the advantage of only knowing about half of what they’re saying means.”
Liam grinned wryly. When Dartha had passed the mantle of the knight onto him, he’d promised Liam that he wouldn’t have the immortality that had come with Dartha’s deal. He didn’t particularly care at this moment, though. He was more concerned with the attack that he was about to make on the fortified building beneath him. And after that… he was very deeply concerned with a certain person in the mines underneath the building. Almost subconsciously, he turned to look at Michael. Despite the fact that his wounds had only recently healed, the blonde man had insisted upon accompanying them on this mission. After a very harrowing argument with him, Jun had given into this, providing that she could come along.
“What?” Michael said.
“Huh?”
“You were staring at me, Liam.”
The big Irishman laughed.
“And I guess I was, at that. Are you sure you’re ready for this?”
“I don’t think that’s the reason, but I’m as ready as I’ll ever be. There’s someone very important to me in those mines.”
Liam nodded, and turned away. He came to a resolution in his mind. Mimi was a good eight years younger than him. Despite the fact that he could still remember the taste and feel of her lips on his, he wasn’t going to do anything about it. She needed to be with someone who could offer her the things Michael could. A decent life. Not a relationship with a killer who just happened to moonlight as a bartender. Deep in his mind, he once again saw that rainy Belfast Street, the teenage boy falling to the ground. The slight tinkle of the two spent shells from the silenced beretta. He closed his eyes, and when he opened them again, the world shifted sharply into focus.
“All teams, report in.”
“team one, standing by. Lockbreaker is ready.”
“Team two, standing by. Lockbuster is prepared.”
“Alright, lads. If I were Davis, I’d make a speech. But I’m not. Lets move out.”
He heard a couple of small laughs, and he picked up his rifle. Turning, he glanced at Jun, Willis and Michael.
“You people come in with the Guardians. We’re gonna clear them a path throught he commandos, into the fortress. You guys clear.”
‘We are, Knight. We will defeat any Shadowmon who are near the entrance to the fortress.’
“Alright then.”
He toggled the microphone on his radio headset.
“GO, GO, GO!!!”
And the first explosion shattered the calm at the citadel of the Dragon-lords.
=============================================================
The Office was smaller than the ones that appeared on TV. The men sitting around the small table looked only slightly surprised to see Davis.
“Good afternoon, Mr Motomiya.” The first man said in only slightly accented Japanese. “This is a pleasant surprise.”
“I’m afraid I’m going to make it less pleasant for you, Mr Prime Minister.” Davis said. He put Darla down on the floor, where she stood looking at the two men with a look of mild curiosity.
“I’m sure that you’ve heard about the situation in the digital world?”
“I’m afraid so.” The British Prime minister replied. “I gather you’re not n control any more?”
“it’s a temporary situation, sir. There are events coming that will decide whether it remains that way.”
“Ah. One of those things.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Then sit down, Representative Motomiya, and tell us what we need to know.”
“Thank you, Mr Prime minister.”
He sat down at the head of the table.
“What is the situation, representative?” the second man asked.
“Its very simple. We’re fucked.” He caught the looks from the other two. “I’m not a diplomat, sirs, so I have to speak my mind. We weren’t meant to win the battle at coast town, but that isn’t really a comforting thought. The Shadowmon population is so large, that they could easily overwhelm the Digiports if they could get to them at the moment. Fortunately, they’re locked down in a fortified position at the moment.” He glanced at the prime minister. “I’m afraid that most of the SAS squadron you sent through were lost, Mr Prime minister.”
“I’m sorry to hear that, Representative. That makes it personal.” The British leader grinned. “Whatever it is you need, we’re in.”
“Thankyou sir.”
The second man glared at his companion.
“It seems I’ve been strong-armed. Our forces will also help your cause, representative Motomiya.”
“Thankyou. It’s nice to see you so enthusiastic about my cause… Mr President.”
The President of the United States laughed wryly.
“I’m only sorry it didn’t come sooner.”
“These things happen.”
“So you’d better tell us what we need to do now, Representative.”
=============================================================
Taythe was sitting in her lounge when Kari came in, escorted by two guards.
“What do you want now, Taythe? I thought you’d bled me dry of information.”
“Not quite. I want to talk to you again… about Davis.”
Kari gave her a strange look.
“What?”
“That’s the first time you’ve called him by his nickname.”
Taythe’s eyes narrowed.
“He’s getting inside my head!”
“Yeah. He does that.” Kari laughed, despite herself.
Taythe looked up at her.
“Please sit down, Hikari.” She said quietly.
Kari sat down opposite the girl. There was something in Taythe’s voice.
“I… want to apologise to you. I want to apologise for everything that’s happened since you got here. Especially for your friend.”
“Michael?”
“Yes. If I’d have known, I wouldn’t have let Wentela do that. But father interfered. He said that you Digidestined needed to learn your place.”
Kari looked at her strangely.
“You’re lonely, aren’t you, Taythe?”
The raven-haired girls eyes snapped up to her.
“I…”
“You’ve never had anyone you could call a friend.”
“…Friends make you weak.”
“You know that isn’t true. You’ve met Davis, so I KNOW that you don’t believe that.”
Taythe turned away. Kari, on some wild impulse, got up, walked over, and sat next to her on the sofa. She put a hand on the girls shoulder.
“You’ve always been alone, haven’t you? You’ve never let anyone get close.”
“Why do you support Davis the way you do?”
Kari shrugged.
“Because I love him. All of us do. Of course, my feelings run a little deeper than the others.”
“How does that make him stronger? I beat him!”
“But you didn’t, did you? You failed to kill him. All you did was free him.”
“What?”
“Before, Davis was fighting for his own life, but in a scary way, his own life isn’t that important to him. But his friend’s lives… he would die for us. As we would for him.” Kari laughed bitterly. “Why am I telling you this?”
“I don’t know. Get away from me.”
Taythe shook of the hand on her shoulder.
“I was just…”
“GET AWAY!” the girl yelled.
Kari sighed, stood, and returned to her own seat.
“I told you! Friends are a weakness! I don’t have any attachments! That’s why I can fight and win.”
“What an empty existence.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“I can’t tell you Taythe. You have to find your own path.”
The black-haired girl looked at her, a stricken look in her eyes.
“That’s what he said…”
Whatever Kari might have said was cut off by a monstrous explosion.
=============================================================
Gatomon dug her way through the last few inches of dirt, cursing all the time. This stuff was never going to wash out, no matter how many baths she had, she was convinced of it.
She cheered up, however, as the dirt fell through the hole, revealing dim light. She stuck her head through, and looked around. In the upside down view, it took a couple of seconds to orientate herself.
“Gatomon? Is that you???” came a familiar voice.
She twisted around.
“Oh. Hey Ken. Is Yolei with you?”
“Right here. What the hell are you doing there?”
“I was looking for you. the Digimon escaped a while ago, and we’ve been acting on Kari’s orders ever since.”
Yolei looked into the little cat face.
“Is it true what we’ve heard about Davis?”
“I don’t know. What have you heard?”
“We heard from the guards… and that Wentela bitch… that he was killed?”
“Yolei, this is DAVIS we’re talking about. You know he’s invincible.” Gatomon smiled. “He’s still alive. Trust me. Who else is here?”
“Izzy. He’s over in the corner, but he’s sleeping. Joe’s around too.”
“Okay, I’ll report back to Kari…”
A low rumble, followed by a shattering explosion, shook the cave.
“Oh. Never mind. I think it may now be a moot point.”
=============================================================