Digimon Fan Fiction ❯ The Mistakes We Make ❯ Epilogue I - Endings and Beginnings ( Chapter 9 )
This chapter begins the infamous "Epilogue" which did, as you can see, turn out to be longer than the original story. HAH! Isn't that funny?
Well, I think it's hilarious.
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EPILOGUE - PART I
In the four months since Daisuke's disappearance, most everyone had apparently given up looking for him. His parents still put up their "missing child" posters, and his sister still scanned the subway for signs of him, but practically everyone else had given up. The police had given up. The kind-hearted efforts of Daisuke's schoolmates to locate him had ceased. Neighbors still offered support to his shattered mother, but no longer offered to help canvas the city in search of him. He was still listed in a missing-person's database somewhere in the Ministry of Something-or-Other, and the computers made a rather automated effort to find him, but aside from that, nobody but his immediate family seemed to really be looking anymore.
Appearances would be deceiving, though.
Takaishi Takeru was still looking. Of course, Takeru had a general idea of where he was in the first place, which was more than the police had to go on. Takeru had seen him fall to the ground when the Tyrannomon hit Raidramon broadside, and he'd seen Daisuke, apparently unconscious, be swept up along with Veemon by a stooping Airdramon. All of the other Digidestined had expected Ken to release Daisuke in only a few days, since the self-styled Digimon Kaizer had never shown any interest in humans before, and keeping a human prisoner had to be a lot more difficult than keeping Digimon. They'd searched for Daisuke, of course; they hadn't counted on the Kaizer's questionable good will, only a fool would. So they'd tracked him as far as they could with their Digivices, and cursed with frustration when the signal from Daisuke's Digivice stopped. They didn't know if it was broken, or destroyed, or if the Kaizer was merely blocking it the way he blocked the signal from his own.
Then they'd searched the hard way, by quartering the land and flying over it, or walking across it, or in Iori's case swimming through it at times. This task was made difficult to the point of impossibility by the thickening of the spires as they progressed deeper into the Kaizer's territory. Destroying the spires and freeing the Digimon was no longer an option, since taking down a single spire was difficult enough, and taking down a half dozen before the Digimon in the area stopped trying to kill them was simply not possible. So they began to run like rabbits from hostile ringed Digimon, and this got them deeper into the Kaizer's held territory than ever before. But even this didn't locate Daisuke, or the Kaizer's base, in which they presumed that Daisuke was being held.
None of them had wanted to give up. Miyako took Daisuke's continued absence particularly hard, and Takeru guessed that she'd been nurturing a crush on the boy. Iori didn't say very much, but became more and more quiet, until Takeru was almost afraid to speak to him for fear that he would pull out a sword and become dangerous. Hikari kept trying to look on the bright side of things, and eventually Takeru stopped hearing her. He didn't personally see a bright side to look on. He wanted Daisuke back, and the longer Daisuke was gone, the more afraid for him Takeru became. It just wasn't like the Kaizer to kidnap someone with a benevolent purpose.
It was Takeru, in fact, who first broached the possibility to the others that Daisuke was dead. Iori was the only one to really take him seriously, though; Miyako immediately went into denial and stormed off in a rage of grief, and Hikari attempted to convince Takeru that Ken wasn't a murderer. Takeru wondered if Hikari was seeing the same Kaizer that he was, the person who frequently sacrificed a dozen Digimon for the purpose of winning a little more territory, the person with the laugh that sent chills up Takeru's spine and the tendency to rant, madly and extensively, on the most insane topics. Takeru was willing to believe almost anything of Ken these days, even that he would kill Daisuke in cold blood. But Hikari would hear none of it.
"He's not evil, Takeru," she finally said, in that tone that meant that she had made up her mind and wasn't going to change it. "He's just damaged. He's hurting. We have to help him, not accuse him of horrible things like that. Besides, what are you saying? Do you want to give up looking?"
No, Takeru did not want to give up looking. He just wanted the others to be prepared, in the event that the worst happened. He might be the child of Hope, but that didn't mean he couldn't be realistic.
His Hope was what allowed him to be here when he was, during mid-winter break from school, prowling the upper skies on the back of Pegasusmon, searching all alone while the others prepared for the school Christmas dance. He wanted to be proven wrong. He wanted to find Daisuke safe and sound, with a story of having been given chocolate cookies and playing soccer with the Kaizer during his stay. More and more, though, he found himself scanning the ground for bones, rather than scanning the horizon for signs of the Kaizer's base.
"What's that?" asked his Digimon, and Takeru felt the words through his thighs more than he heard them above the whistle of the wind. Pegasusmon tilted, altering his flight to circle high over a certain point, and Takeru peered down through the haze and scudding clouds to see what the Digimon wanted him to see.
"What's what?" But as soon as he said this, he saw it. A spot of blue, that certain sky-blue that he'd never seen on a Digimon before or after. "Oh, I see. Let's get a closer look."
Pegasusmon began to circle lower, but warned, "We're awfully deep in the Kaizer's territory right now. Let's be careful."
"Don't worry, I just want to make sure that's who you think it is."
It was. A detachment of Snimon spotted them and took off into the air, but the blue dragon Digimon that they had seen took off as well, snarling after Takeru and Pegasusmon. So they got a really close look at the unknown Digimon while it and the Snimon chased them hither and yon. They finally escaped only by fleeing back to the real world through a monitor.
Takeru tumbled out into the computer lab, Patamon rolling to a stop right beside him. He picked himself up off the floor, and picked up Patamon as well, walking over to the window to look out at the deserted school grounds, whipped by bitterly cold December winds. "Well, what do you think?"
"That was Exveemon," said Patamon. "It must be the same Veemon. There's only one as far as I've ever heard."
"So that means Daisuke is still alive." Takeru was surprised that he wasn't more excited by this conclusion.
"Not necessarily," said Patamon. "But it's a good sign!"
Takeru petted his Digimon's wing-ears, which made the little monster giggle. Assuming that Daisuke was still alive ... it was a good thing, right? But what had he been doing all this time, while a captive of the Kaizer? Why hadn't he escaped by now? Takeru felt that he should be happy, but for some reason he wasn't. He was more afraid for Daisuke now than he had been before, when he had considered it likely that Daisuke was dead.
The instant the Kaizer walked into the bedroom, Daisuke knew that Something was Wrong.
There was nothing metaphysical that told him this. He hadn't developed any sort of psychic link to his master, although he had gotten quite good at reading the dark-haired boy's body language - his master could make him cower in terror or moan with desire with barely more than a glance. None of this subtlety was required this time, however ... the stiff, stalking walk and the way the Kaizer slammed the door shut behind him were clues enough. The Digimon Kaizer was furious.
Intellectually, Daisuke knew that he wasn't at fault. After all, he hadn't done anything today that he hadn't done practically every other day in the four months since his capture, and although fickle and capricious of temper, the Kaizer had never been one to randomly blame his slave for whatever had roused his ire. This lack of blame didn't prevent him from venting his frustrations on Daisuke's body, however, and so Daisuke slid off the bed and onto his hands and knees on the floor, anxious to placate his master as much as possible.
"Master," he said quietly, and was cuffed in the ear for his trouble.
"Get up," the Kaizer snarled, and picked up Daisuke by the collar, throwing him back onto the bed. Daisuke didn't even have time to bounce twice before his master's body landed atop him, pressing him down into the mattress. Reeling with confusion, Daisuke responded automatically to his master's initial, rough kisses and hard strokes down his ribs, which were still sore from what had been done to him a few days earlier. There was no affection in the kisses, though, and the Kaizer's hands contained none of the deceptive tenderness that Daisuke had learned to fear and long for as the precursor to a session of torture. Nor was his master taking the time for the almost-gentle foreplay that he occasionally used when he wanted Daisuke to enjoy the sex. A shiver of terror went through Daisuke as his master rolled him onto his belly at the edge of the bed, and he waited with closed eyes to be penetrated. It had been a long time since this had felt like rape, but this time it did.
When it came, it was rough and painful, and if the Kaizer had bothered to pause for lubrication, Daisuke couldn't tell. He was still a little slick with his master's semen, though, from when he'd been used that morning after breakfast, so he wasn't completely shredded, but it hurt enough anyway. Daisuke classified the pain as being bearable, though, and so he bore it in silence, his fingertips curling into the bedclothes as the Kaizer thrust hard into him.
It seemed to take forever, and Daisuke was on the verge of crying by the time his master fell across his back and came. The Kaizer typically took a long time after orgasm, basking in that endless, all-too-short moment of peace that he seemed to find only in this fashion, but this time he had pulled out of Daisuke and rolled the slave over to face him only a few seconds later.
"Do you know what they've done?" the Kaizer demanded. Daisuke, who had no idea, shook his head. He wasn't even sure who they were. His first guess would be the other Digidestined, but they could just as likely be elusive Data Digimon who wouldn't stand still to be ringed, or a pack of particularly difficult Virii that his master had been complaining about of late.
"They've got Exveemon!" The Kaizer frowned at him as if Daisuke had some kind of explanation for this deviant behavior. "They cracked his spiral and took him, practically right from under my nose!"
"I'm sorry, master," whispered Daisuke, knowing that this wasn't his fault and that his apologies would not improve the Kaizer's temper. Still, it bothered him to see his master so upset. If the Kaizer were ever happy, truly happy, Daisuke had yet to see it.
"Don't be sorry, be constructive! What would they do with him now that they've got him?" Blue lightning seemed to catch in the Kaizer's dark eyes, lighting them from within in a highly unnatural, yet weirdly beautiful way. "Bring him back to send against me? Or hold him in the real world where he's safe from me?"
Daisuke blinked. "I ... don't ... " He floundered. He was never asked to think. Just react, suffer, scream, cry out in passion. He barely remembered what the other children looked like anymore, much less enough about their personalities to be able to be remotely helpful. As the Kaizer held him down and fumed, he wracked his brain for some kind of halfway intelligent answer to the question, but came up blank.
"Useless," said the Kaizer after perhaps thirty seconds. Throwing himself off his slave, the Kaizer paced restlessly across the floor. Daisuke sat up and watched him move for a little while, wanting to help but unsure of what he could do. He had a moment of doubt, wherein some tiny spark of his crushed soul flared up with joy at the idea that Veemon, at least, was finally free from this sadist's control. Not even within that spark, however, did the hope arise that he would, himself, be eventually freed.
Chibimon knew about the Kaizer's slave, of course. All of the Digimon in and around the fortress did, he said, in between bawling disconsolately in Hikari's arms.
"I knew it was Daisuke!" the Digimon wailed. "And I didn't do anything about it!"
"Did you see him?" asked Miyako, from where she crouched near Hikari's lap. They had all assembled in Takeru's living room while his mother was out shopping for dinner. It seemed the best location; in the event a parental unit returned during the questioning of Chibimon, it seemed preferable that it be a parent who already knew all about Digimon.
"No," sniffled Chibimon. Hikari stroked the little blue dragon's head comfortingly while he continued, "He stays in the Kaizer's room all the time and never comes out. Nobody sees him but Wormmon, but we all knew he was there. And I knew it was Daisuke! Daisuke!" He started crying again, hysterically. Hikari looked helplessly up at the others as Chibimon flailed about in her lap in his misery.
Takeru took off his hat and ran a hand through his hair before putting the hat back on, which of course displaced Patamon for a few seconds. The more he heard about this, the less he liked it. Daisuke spent all his time in the Kaizer's room? Was he staying with Ken willingly, or what? "Do you know where Ken's base is?" he asked finally.
"Mmm-hmm," said Chibimon, through his tears. "He can move it, though. He's probably moving it right now. Daisuke's in it. Oh, Daisuke!" Hikari gave a small sound of exasperation as the little Digimon she was trying to comfort again spurned her measures and buried his face in her shirt.
Takeru swore. "We're going to have to go now, then, before Ken can get too far. This might be our only chance to find him."
Iori spoke up for the first time, then. "He'll be expecting us."
"Yeah, and that sucks, but do you have a better idea?"
"No, but I think we should at least have some kind of distraction ready."
"Like what?" Takeru glanced at the smaller boy, who was looking up at him from his place on the floor, unknowable shadows in his serious green eyes.
"I think it's a bad idea to try to take Ken on right now," said Iori quietly. "Our priority should be getting Daisuke out, not giving Ken a slap on the wrist."
"Right," agreed Miyako immediately. "Once we have Daisuke back, we can go kick Ken's butt!"
"So we should distract Ken, sneak in, rescue Daisuke, and leave," said Iori, as if Miyako hadn't spoken. "We can always come back later when we're at full strength again. I don't know if I'm the only one who's noticed this, but we haven't been very effective as a team since we lost Daisuke."
"I've noticed it," said Takeru.
"But what kind of distraction can we use?" asked Hikari. Chibimon was beginning to respond to her attempts to comfort him, and was sobbing into her arm now, instead of into her shirt. Takeru watched the little dragon bawl in self-recrimination for a few seconds before crouching down beside Miyako at Hikari's side.
"Hey, little guy," he said, petting Chibimon on the head. "Cheer up, we're going to get Daisuke back for you. Want to help out?"
The Kaizer had worked out most of his bad mood and, in typical mercurial fashion, had decided to use Daisuke to take his mind off things for a little while, before going back to the serious business of being pissed off. Extreme aggravation called for extreme measures, however, so he had chained Daisuke to the pole, slid him onto the studded phallus, and turned on the power. He was now watching Daisuke as he sweated in his efforts to remain on his toes and avoid for as long as possible the incredible pain that awaited him when his muscles finally gave out.
Daisuke's ribs had been aching for a few days now, and with his arms stretched out above his head like this they hurt even more. He'd attempted to put his weight on his hands once, clutching the wrist chains to take some of the strain off his legs, but the sheet of muscle that wrapped around his ribs had screamed in protest at this and he'd been forced to give it up. Without the sporadic relief that holding himself up by his hands could afford, Daisuke was slipping with unprecedented swiftness toward the point of collapse ... and the agony that his master found so beautiful.
"Please don't do this, master," he begged quietly, hopelessly. "I'm sorry about Veemon, but it's not my fault! I'm sorry ... I'm sorry ... please let me down ... please." He knew that the Kaizer would not release him, but he couldn't help begging anyway. Few types of torture could induce the sheer amplitude of pain that the pole could, and he was terrified. Yet, at the same time, he was powerfully aroused by the promise of that selfsame pain. The feeling of the studded cock inside him, painless at the moment but ready to send him writhing with agony once he slipped, was nearly enough to make him come.
"In a way, it is your fault," said the Kaizer conversationally. He was sitting in a chair at the other table, working on something on his laptop and frequently glancing at Daisuke over the top of the screen. "You gave that Digimon of yours something of a rebellious spirit through his link with you. If not for that, he wouldn't have been able to escape so quickly after his spiral was broken. Usually breaking a spiral sends a Digimon unconscious or into a state of confusion for a few minutes, but yours was off like a shot the instant his was broken. If not for that, I would have been able to at least get another ring on him, and he wouldn't have gotten away."
Daisuke closed his eyes, shaking all over from the effort he was using to remain up on his toes. He wished he could safely come down far enough to make rubbing himself against the cock inside him effective. The feel of something within him, especially something that was going to make him scream soon, was intolerably arousing. He risked an attempt to pull himself up by his hands, and almost screamed from that, as the muscles in his chest and flanks felt like they were tearing off his bones.
He barely noticed it when his master's attention wandered, taking off his glasses and peering closely at the screen of the laptop for a few seconds. He definitely noticed it when the Kaizer leaped to his feet and said, "I'll be right back!" Then he kissed his slave and strode out of the room, leaving Daisuke helpless and teetering on the brink of unimaginable pain.
Tears streamed down Daisuke's face at the inevitability of it all. With the Kaizer gone, it was as if his agony were written in stone now, and the delicious, wiggly feeling of hopeless hope vanished, leaving only despair and a painfully hard erection in its wake. As his legs shook and his knees weakened, he could feel himself giving up, giving himself over to the almost transcendent agony that he knew awaited him.
He didn't know that the fortress was on the move; he wasn't even aware that it could move, as the stately progression of the thing and its sheer mass made the motion impossible to feel from within. He didn't know that the reason the Kaizer had departed so suddenly was that Chibimon had been spotted not far off, attempting to be sneaky on his way back toward the moving base and not succeeding. He especially didn't know that Chibimon was only distracting the Kaizer from the fact that four children and four Armor Digimon were now creeping swiftly through the fortress, following Chibimon's spotty directions toward the control center and the Kaizer's bedroom.
All he knew was that, when his calves finally gave out, he descended instantly into excruciating, cyclic pain and time slowed down, so that his screams seemed endless even to his own ears.
He didn't know that, only two corridors away, Hikari turned white at the sound, and Miyako put a hand over her mouth in horror. Takeru, however, understanding in a flash why he'd been secretly hoping that Daisuke was dead, summed it up best :
"Holy shit."