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Okay, Kari, here's that next part for you...except now it's part 8 
instead of 13! It got even weirder when I started combining chapters, 
ne?? Bwahaha! Are you confused yet?? Heh heh heh... Just so everyone 
knows, Kari is awesome, she's been reading my fic and trying to get me 
to post it here for a while now, I just never got around to it till 
now... ::sigh:: She's been ever so patient with me...so go read one of 
her fics and review it for her, that's an order! ~_^ Luv ya, Kar! Domo 
arigatou gozaimasu!! Okay, now when you read this one, make sure you 
read carefully, minna...there's a lot of real important stuff here. 
Enjoy!




Games of the Mind *Chapter Eight*




Pipermon stretched her arms up over her head, then clasped them behind 
her neck, staring up at the sky. She leaned back in the tree and watched 
the swirling reds and golds of the sunset twist and writhe through the 
clouds as the sun sank slowly toward the horizon. The air was chilly, 
but not to the point where it was uncomfortable. It felt like a brisk 
October evening, the kind where you sit out on the front porch swing and 
sip hot cider, or run through piles of raked leaves and scatter them 
into the wind. 

She sighed. 

But it wouldn't last for long. Not long after the fall of darkness, the 
Arashii would again rip their way through the forest, reminding everyone 
who dwelled there that, even in the digital world, no one could match 
the power of Mother Nature. 

She sighed again and reached up to let her hair down from its ponytails. 
As she shook her head to loosen her long hair, she peered down through 
the branches of the tree at the eight children and their digimon. 
Someone had started a small campfire, and Jyou was now poking warily at 
it with a long slender stick, Gomamon chattering at him from his perch 
on the boy's shoulder. Pipermon heard Mimi grumble something to Palmon 
about wishing she had brought some marshmallows, and frowned, wondering 
what on earth a marshmallow was. Whatever it was, she didn't think it 
sounded too friendly. Agumon and Biyomon stood faithfully beside the 
fire near where their human companions were seated, keeping a constant 
eye out for anything suspicious. Pipermon watched Sora and Tai sitting 
near the fire, talking quietly, their faces glowing in the firelight. 
The digimon frowned. These were more than just children, she realized, 
their adventures in the digital world had caused their minds and hearts 
to develop much beyond those of any child. They held the spirits of 
mature adults in their juvenile bodies, having eyes far too wise for 
their youthful faces. These children had seen and done things that 
others only had nightmares about...they had defeated monsters and 
enemies against incredible odds. They had saved their world right under 
everyone's noses...and that was bound to change anyone. 

Pipermon laughed when she saw Kari and TK play-jousting with a couple of 
long sticks, and was reminded that, even though they might have been 
different from other human children, they were still children at heart. 
She giggled as Kari "stabbed" TK, and the blond boy fell over backward 
in a dramatic death pose. Gatomon and Patamon laughed as they watched 
from a nearby boulder, Patamon�s golden wings folded atop his head. 
Gatomon looked at her claws, then at Patamon, then grinned wickedly. 
With a playful snarl, she proceeded to pounce on the small, rodentlike 
digimon. Patamon let out a squeal of protest and launched himself into 
the air, giggling like a maniac.

Then Pipermon's eyes moved to Koushiro. He was seated on the other side 
of the rock where Patamon and Gatomon were wrestling, his Pineapple 
laptop resting on his knees. He was, as usual, typing feverishly at the 
keyboard, as though he could find the meaning to life itself somewhere 
within the machine's binary circuitry. He looked troubled, and Pipermon 
hopped down from her tree, and hovered over to the boulder he sat 
against, laying down across the flat lip of the rock and resting her 
chin on her crossed wrists.

"Watcha doin', Izumi-san?" she asked.

Koushiro jumped, startled, and looked about frantically for a moment 
before realizing the voice had come from above him.

"Oh, it's you, Pipermon," he said, tilting his head back to look up at 
her. "You startled me. I'm trying to create a map of the forest, in case 
you ever get separated from the group again, so at least we'll have some 
sort of idea as to where we're going."

"You look like you're having some trouble there," she said with a frown.

Izzy scowled.

"I am," he admitted, "the program won't load correctly. I created a 
program a while ago, the first time we returned home from the digital 
world, a program that would create maps of where we had been so we could 
easily navigate our way through those areas without trouble."

"But?" she coaxed.

"But," Izzy went on, "I can't get the program to load. Something is 
preventing the computer from opening the map program, and I can't seem 
to find what's wrong."

Pipermon hesitated.

"Can I try?" she asked. 

Izzy looked at her, then at his computer, then back at her. He twitched 
his nose, then hesitantly moved aside so she could sit down on the 
ground next to him. She jumped down from the rock and sat on her knees, 
taking the laptop from Izzy's reluctantly outstretched hands.

"You think you can fix it?" he asked. She didn't reply. He sighed, then 
started to tell her how to locate and open the program when he 
discovered she had already found it, and was now typing at an incredible 
speed, recalibrating and relocating lines of the program's binary 
makeup, changing some of the lines of code and completely deleting 
others.

"Hey!" Izzy cried, lunging forward. "Whaddya think you're doing?? You're 
rewriting the entire pro"--he stopped in mid-word as the map program 
loaded and the navigation bar popped up on the screen--"gram..." He 
quickly took his beloved computer from Pipermon's grasp, and tapped at 
the mousepad, opening each of the maps and making sure the program was 
in full working order. Pipermon hopped back up onto the top of the rock 
and watched Izzy over his shoulder, a grin spreading across her face at 
his amazement. "How...how did you do that?"

Pipermon winked.

"It's simple, really," she said, "every day we move closer to the 
enemy...as we do so...we get closer and closer to the enemy's powers... 
The magic in this area was strong enough to block out some of your 
computer's circuitry. Basically, it hid the program from the hard 
drive...the processor couldn't find the program to open it. I just had 
to rewrite the programming so it was no longer susceptible to the 
enemy's dark energy."

"Prodigious! That was phenomenal, Pipermon," Izzy gushed, "I could 
really use someone with your skills in my computer club at school back 
home!"

She laughed.

"It doesn't have anything to do with skill, really, Izumi-san," she 
said, "it's my nature."

"Your nature?" Tentomon echoed. "Whaddya mean?"

"As a digimon," she told them, "I am made up of the same binary language 
as the circuitry as your computer, Izumi-san. Reconfiguring a computer 
program is like changing my hairstyle, it's easy, because it's made up 
of the same things I am made up of myself."

"Is that how you know so much about this forest?" Izzy asked. 

She nodded.

"I'm a digimon, and all digimon are formed of the same thing that formed 
this forest: Information," she said. "So, in the same way a human doctor 
knows everything there is to know about a human's physiology, any 
digimon with more than a half a byte of a brain can see what makes 
anything in this world tick."

"Then how come the rest of us digimon got lost in the forest?" a new 
voice asked. Pipermon turned to see that Patamon and Gatomon had stopped 
their game, and were now listening intently to the conversation, and the 
rest of the group was making their way over. "We're made of information, 
too," Patamon continued, "why did WE get lost?"

Pipermon frowned.

"All I said was that we could all see what was causing the problem," she 
admitted, "I never said everyone would be able to find the solution..."

"So what makes you so special?" Gatomon asked, leery.

"I've been living in this forest for a little over two years now," she 
told them all, "since you all defeated Piedmon. I learned, after a 
while, that one part of the forest remained constant while everything 
else moved around it. This path we are following right now is that 
constant."

"Nobody else thought to follow a path?" TK asked, lifting his eyebrows.

Pipermon smiled.

"It's not that simple," she said, "this path forks and breaks off in 
many places...only one of a hundred possible paths is the right one."

"So how do we know you're leading us down the right one?" Gatomon 
questioned.

"How do YOU even know you are?" Kari added, giving Gatomon a warning 
glance.

"Once I figured out that this forest was constantly changing," Pipermon 
explained, "I would levitate above the trees for hours at a time, 
watching it, to see if there was any pattern in it...to see a method to 
the madness or an order in the chaos. After a while I noticed that there 
was only one whole section of the forest that never moved...the section 
of the woods at the base of Kuroniji Mountain." 

"Kuroniji Mountain?" the children echoed.

"That is where your enemy dwells," she continued, "in a huge castle atop 
Kuroniji Mountain. The only way out of this forest is through the castle 
on the mountain...and the only way through the castle is through her--"

She stopped short when she realized what she had said.

"Her?" Tai asked.

"The enemy is a female?" Izzy added.

Pipermon balked. She licked her lips, then looked at the group.

"From what I've heard," she began, and paused. "Well, what I've been 
told is..." She hesitated again, then lowered her head. "As far as I 
know...the enemy is a female." She paused. Now she'd done it...how was 
she supposed to explain to them how she knew about Kurarimon?

She was surprised when she was met with enthusiasm rather than 
suspicion.

"What else do you know about her?" Tai asked excitedly. "The more you 
can tell us, the better off we'll be."

Pipermon swallowed hard.

"She...she's called Kurarimon," she said slowly, haltingly. 
"That's...that�s all I can tell you right now..." She looked at her 
hands. 

Traitor, her mind screamed at her. Traitor! She squeezed her hands into 
fists, her nails stabbing at her palms. Traitor...

"That's okay, Pipermon," Sora said quickly, seeing that the current 
subject had made Pipermon anxious. "If that's all you know, that's all 
you know..."

Jyou paused a moment in the awkward silence, then tapped Pipermon on the 
shoulder. She looked up at him.

"I'm dying to know, Pipermon," he said, his dark eyes shining, "how did 
you know what Tylenol was? And what a migraine was? There are HUMANS who 
don't know what those are...how did you know?"

Pipermon smiled.

"The Internet," she said.

"The Internet??" he cried. "Digimon can access the Internet?"

"No way!" Tai and Izzy shouted together.

"Pipermon, how did you do it?" Tai asked, genuinely curious. "When 
Agumon, Gabumon, Patamon, and Tentomon had to go onto the net to defeat 
Diaborumon, they had to be downloaded directly into in, someone had to 
do it for them... How were YOU able to access it?"

"Courtesy of Piedmon," she said, a little bitterly. "He made me that 
way. When he created me, he wanted me to be able to do anything. 
Anything he might have wished."

"Anything?" Gomamon said.

"Anything," Pipermon affirmed. "He made it so that I could find him any 
information he might need. I don't have to be downloaded to the net, all 
I have to do is find a data port, and I'm there." She snapped her 
fingers. "Just like that."

"So you got on the net to access...Tylenol?" TK asked.

Pipermon smiled.

"No, no, no," she said. "After Piedmon was destroyed, it seemed I no 
longer had a purpose...I was created to do his bidding, and when he was 
destroyed, I had no one to give me orders. When his spell over me 
abated, and I was free to command myself, I didn't know how...I had 
never been my own boss before, I had always done what he had told 
me...so after he was gone, I started to wonder...what had I been doing, 
anyway? He was destroyed before he could really put his final plan into 
action...I'm not even certain what it was...but I never got the chance 
to see what a human really looked like, or what they really were. All 
that time he had been telling me that my purpose was to help him destroy 
the digidestined children who came from the real world...but I never 
knew who you were... So, when he was destroyed, I took it upon myself to 
find out just that. I read all about your race...I was fascinated by 
how, among all the creatures in your world, you humans had risen to the 
top. You had done amazing things in your world, like created medicines 
and built huge structures, even in ancient times before you had any idea 
what a computer or databyte was, you were pioneers, always thinking, 
always creating. A prolific race, you humans are... But so destructive 
at the same time. It seemed hypocritical that such a sentient species 
would start wars and destroy countries, and I had supposed that was why 
Piedmon had wished for your destruction. I was so naive though, thinking 
he had our world's best interests in mind..."

"What do you mean?" Mimi asked. "Piedmon was evil, why would you think 
he would ever wish for ANYthing to be in ANYone's best interests but his 
own?"

Pipermon shook her head.

"You just don't understand," she told them, "Piedmon was more than just 
an evil digimon...he was an artist."

Blank stares.

"Yes, yes, I know that isn't exactly the first word to come to your 
minds..." Pipermon admitted.

"It's not even the LAST word..." Jyou muttered. Gomamon snickered.

Pipermon narrowed her eyes ruefully.

"Seriously, though," she went on, "if it's true that there is a little 
evil in even the best of us...then it must too be true that there is a 
little good in the worst of us, no?" She hesitated. "I guess that's what 
I had always believed... I guess I saw him in a different light than 
everyone else did...I couldn't help but admire him, he was my 
master...my creator..." Her voice trailed off. "Everything Piedmon did 
was completely thought out...every move he made, he took into 
consideration the reaction it would get. He always took into account 
what his audience would think...there wasn't a single thing he did that 
wasn't premeditated."

"What I don't quite understand," Tai said after a moment, "is why, if he 
created you to be his pawn, and you were so powerful...why didn't he 
just create like a whole army of digimon like you and destroy us that 
way?"

"He knew better than to try that," Pipermon explained. "By combining the 
three types of digimon into one, Piedmon had created a digimon that, 
even at a lower level than he, was more powerful than he. Even as I am 
now, in my Ultimate form, I would still be more powerful than he ever 
was at his Mega evolution." She frowned. "It took all he had...every 
trick up those ridiculous puffy red sleeves of his...just to keep me 
under his power. He knew that if I learned what he was really 
planning...if I disagreed with his motives...he knew I could have 
blasted him to digital smithereens if I wanted to." Pipermon paused, and 
looked at her hands. "He knew he wouldn't have ever been able to control 
a whole throng of digimon like myself...he never would have been able to 
keep that many creatures at my level of power under his thumb. So, 
rather than build an empire of lower creatures he could have easily 
controlled, he created me, a single being with the power of dozens. One 
digimon who, even in a lower form of evolution, could do more damage 
than he and the other Dark Masters could have done, combined."

The children gasped.

"Are you really that powerful?" Kari asked meekly. Pipermon's shoulders 
sagged a little.

"To be honest, Hikari-san," she said, "I don't know. I've never really 
achieved my highest output level, I never had a need to... I dunno 
exactly how much power I may have." She grinned. "But rest assured, 
digidestined," she went on, "though I may not know my own strength, I DO 
know that there is only one single being in this world who can match me, 
and that is the enemy...Kurarimon."

"So, with you on our side, this should be a piece of cake!" Takeru cried 
in elation.

Pipermon flinched.

"Uh...sure," she said softly, and shifted so she was sitting on her 
knees. She looked down at her hands and fidgeted.

"So...being that you're this sort of...super-digimon," Izzy said after a 
moment, "is it safe to say that you could crack just about any computer 
code? Read any encrypted file?" He grinned as she nodded slowly. "That�s 
amazing, Pipermon," he went on, overjoyed to meet someone whose 
technical aptitude matched--or possibly even exceeded--his own, "is 
there anything you CAN'T do with a computer?"

She coyly lifted one eyebrow.

"Izumi-san," she said, "I can read binary as simple as you can read your 
ABC's. Encryption codes and mainframe data-processing jargon are my 
native tongue. I could do things that the technical engineers in YOUR 
world only DREAM about...things that would make your so-called geniuses 
turn positively verdant with envy." She cracked her knuckles. "Izumi-
san, I could take your computer programs...and make them dance."

Then a new sound caught her ears, and she snapped her head to the side. 
She looked to the other side of the rock, and saw Yamato seated with his 
back up against the boulder, his hands clasped around something silvery, 
held near his mouth. A low, throaty sound was emanating from between his 
fingers. It was an almost ethereal sound, like several voices, all in 
harmony with one another, all coming from the same object. Intrigued, 
Pipermon swiveled her legs around, and then dropped to the ground beside 
Yamato. 

"Yamato-san," she said, "I didn't know you were a musician."

He jumped, startled by how quickly she had appeared, and lowered his 
hands.

"I...I am," he replied slowly, staring down at the instrument.

"You're quite good," Pipermon told him, "but your song is so sad."

Yamato smiled.

"A harmonica usually sounds that way," he explained.

"Har...monica?" she echoed, scrunching up one side of her mouth. "That 
is what your strange fat sideways fife is called?"

Yamato laughed.

"Well, it's not really a fife at all," he said with a grin, "a harmonica 
is just a harmonica."

By now, all the other children had migrated to the other side of the 
rock to watch the exchange between Pipermon and Yamato. She reached out 
to touch the harmonica, and took it gently from Yamato's open palm, 
holding it gingerly between her fingers as though afraid she might break 
it. She ran her fingertips over the shiny silver, then looked at Yamato, 
confusion in her eyes.

"A harmonica can only play a sad song?" she asked quietly. 

He balked.

"Well, uh...no," he responded uneasily, "I would suppose that it depends 
on who's playing it, and what they wanted to hear..."

She smiled a sideways smile.

"So, like any instrument," Pipermon said knowingly, "it reflects the 
heart of whoever plays it."

Yamato felt his face redden. Somehow, even Pipermon seemed able to read 
his soul. All the children knew that Yamato had always been sort of a 
lone wolf. He kept to himself, and preferred it that way. When you keep 
to yourself, he would always tell himself, you never have to worry about 
letting anybody down. When you don't let anyone get too close to you, 
you never have to worry about getting hurt. But when you fear the 
repercussions of friendship so much that you push everyone away, do you 
not damn yourself to a life of loneliness? Yamato had surprised even 
himself when he realized, two years ago, when the digidestined were 
first cast into the digiworld, just how much friendship could mean. 
Never before had he become so close to anyone as he had his fellow 
digidestined. He could honestly say he would do near about anything to 
insure their safety.

And then there was TK. His little brother. That went without saying. 
Time and time again, Yamato had endangered his own safety for Takeru. 
Protecting TK was, at times, the only purpose Yamato could find for 
himself. Sometimes he wondered what would happen on that inevitable day 
when TK grew up and no longer needed Yamato's brotherly advice or 
protection. But he didn't really want to think about that.

That was why he played the harmonica. Its haunting, almost ghostly 
chords somehow helped ease the stormy seas of his heart and, even if no 
one else knew it, it made him happy. Perhaps it was because the 
harmonica was much like Yamato himself; rather awkward when placed in 
the company of others and unusual to be seen in large groups. The 
harmonica, too, was a loner, an often solitary instrument in a world run 
by the orchestra. But, like Yamato, the harmonica, if understood, was 
capable of making beautiful music all by itself.

Pipermon frowned at the look on Yamato's face. Realizing she had struck 
a nerve, she started to say something to retract her previous statement 
when a gust of wind rushed past them, blowing out the campfire like a 
snuffed candle. Pipermon looked up at the blackening sky.

"Come on, guys," Tai said, getting to his feet. Kari took his wrist. 
"Storms are coming," he went on, "let's get to shelter before we all get 
drenched."

As they hurried toward their tents, Jyou turned back over his shoulder.

"Coming, Pipermon?" he asked as she headed toward the tree. She paused 
and looked at him.

"No, thanks," she said with a small sigh. "Now that all your digimon are 
here, the tents will be pretty crowded." She closed her eyes and smiled 
sweetly. "Besides," she added, "someone needs to keep watch."

Koushiro paused by his tent.

"If you need someone to relieve you, Pipermon," he said, "just come and 
wake one of us, okay?"

Pipermon winked at him and held up her fingers in a V.

"You got it, Izumi-san," she said, and watched the children retreat to 
their tents. Then she launched herself into the air and daintily sat 
down in the tree again. As the wind blew through her long hair, she 
watched the clouds slink past the moon, signaling the impending storms. 
She sighed and leaned back in the tree. It was strange...she suddenly 
found herself so drawn to these children...these children she was 
supposed to hate. She laughed softly to herself, shaking her head.

What's wrong with me? she wondered, resting her chin in her hands. I'm 
giving evil digimon a bad name... She chuckled again.

Then she perked up her ears. She had heard something...a giggle? A 
whisper? A voice, in the wind. Pipermon narrowed her blue eyes and 
tensed in the tree. Someone was nearby. She jumped softly down from her 
perch, dropping to the ground.

"Who's there?" she demanded, the wind whipping through her hair. "Show 
yourself!"

Another soft, high-pitched giggle rushed past her on the night wind, and 
she scowled. She knew that laugh. Her mouth twisted up in a sneer as 
Hollymon and Ivymon appeared in the shadows, their long tails twitching 
by their ankles.

"What do you two fools want?" she hissed.

Hollymon's red eyes narrowed to angry slits.

"Now is that any way to talk to your co-conspirators?" she asked 
unctuously.

Pipermon loured.

"Conniving, untrustworthy little weasels is all I would call YOU two..." 
she growled in response. "What do you want?"

"It's not what WE want, Piper," Ivymon said, and grinned when Pipermon 
winced. He knew she hated it when he called her that. "We're here on 
orders." He paused pointedly. "Orders from Kurarimon," he went on after 
a brief silence, "or had you forgotten about her?"

Pipermon's breath caught in her throat.

"What...what orders might those be?" she asked, trying not to sound 
nervous. It wasn't working.

"To find out what the hell you think you're doing," Ivymon said.

Pipermon tucked a stray lock of hair behind her ear.

"Come again?" she asked neutrally, and Hollymon rolled her eyes.

"Come off it, Pipermon," the smaller digimon said, "don't play dumb. 
What's going on with you? Befriending these sniveling, incompetent 
little digidestined brats...you've gone soft on us!"

"Shut up," Pipermon growled in an admonishing tone.

"Is it true, then?" Ivymon prodded. "Have you betrayed Kurarimon?"

"Whose side are you really on, Pipermon?" Hollymon added.

"I don't have to tell you half-witted half-pints ANYTHING!" Pipermon 
shouted, slicing her hand through the air. "You two are MY subordinates, 
and don't you forget it! Know your place!"

"We KNOW our place, Piper..." Ivymon said slowly.

"But do you know yours?" Hollymon concluded.

Pipermon covered her ears with her hands like a child trying to ignore 
insults from the play yard bully.

"Shut up, BOTH of you!" she cried. "I don't have to take this crap from 
you!"

"Is it crap, Pipermon," Ivymon seethed, "or is it the TRUTH?"

"It's true, we've seen that it is," Hollymon sneered, "you've RESCUED 
them, for crying out loud. Why didn't you just let that boy fall into 
the vortex? It would have made things easier!"

Pipermon glared daggers at them.

"Weren't you dimwitted dolts listening?" she fumed. "Kurarimon wants the 
children brought to her...ALIVE. She wants to destroy them with her own 
hands, she doesn't want them damaged by chance or happenstance. She 
doesn't want their demise to be by accident, she would much rather 
defeat them in person."

"So why did you heal the child's headache?" Hollymon asked. "Kurarimon 
was rather having a lot of fun with that one."

Pipermon scowled.

"What's the point of torturing them now?" she shot back. "We're still 
more than a day's walk from Kuroniji, why weaken them so early?" She 
paused. "Besides," she added, folding her arms over her chest and 
turning her back on the twins, "the more I do for them the more willing 
they will be to trust me."

Ivymon threw his hands in the air.

"They ALREADY trust you!" he cried, and Pipermon whirled to face him, 
jabbing one finger at him.

"But their digimon DON'T!" she snapped, curling up her lip in a snarl. 
"And the more I do to convince them I'm their ally, the more likely they 
will be to follow me up the mountain to Kurarimon's castle!"

Hollymon scoffed laughingly.

"Liar," she hissed. "My god, you're such a lousy liar, Pipermon, you 
always WERE...how you convinced those kids of anything is totally beyond 
my comprehension."

"But now," Ivymon added quickly, "you don't even WANT to hurt them 
anymore...do you, Piper?"

"Shut up!" she shouted.

"DO YOU??" Hollymon yelled.

Pipermon whipped out her flute in a sparkling cloud of dust, then spun 
it like a staff.

"I'll rip out your forked little tongues!" she roared in fury.

Ivymon lifted one thin green eyebrow.

"Is that a challenge, Piper?" he asked smoothly.

She gripped the flute between her thin fingers, her knuckles whitening.

"If that's what you lowlife cretins want..."

The two smaller digimon grinned at one another, then nodded in tandem 
and sprang into action.

"Binding Tendrils!" Ivymon shouted.

"Prickly Heat!" Hollymon echoed.

Pipermon laughed off their attacks as though they had been nothing, 
spinning the ammunition away with a flick of her flute.

"You'll have to do better than that," she taunted, and raised the 
instrument to her lips. "Midnight Lightning!"

The purple bands of glowing lightning shot from the flute toward 
Hollymon and Ivymon, but the twins weren't going to fall for that again. 
They dodged the attack, then Ivymon darted into the shadows of the 
darkened trees, disappearing from sight. Pipermon spun, her sharp eyes 
scanning the trees for her invisible menace.

"Binding Tendrils!"

She let out a yelp when vines wrapped themselves tightly around her 
upper torso, binding her arms to her sides, and then slithered around 
her neck, daring to cut off her air. Ivymon chuckled and stepped back 
into the light.

"Not so tough when we're not protecting our precious digidestined, now 
are we, Piper?" he taunted in a syrupy voice.

"Oh, go find some mistletoe and kiss my--" 

"Ah, ah, ah, Pipermon," Hollymon chided, waving one finger in the air, 
"there's no need for vulgar language." She grinned at her brother as he 
approached her slowly, cracking his knuckles.

"I suppose it's like they always say," Ivymon oozed, "two heads really 
ARE better than one, ne?"

"Not when they only have half a brain between the two of them!" Pipermon 
spat, and felt the vines tighten around her neck. She gasped, then 
coughed, and struggled against Ivymon's viselike grip.

"You're trying my patience, Piper," he warned. She ignored him. 

Hollymon grinned like a hyena.

"So easy..." she said softly, cracking her own knuckles in a maliciously 
contemptuous manner. "Like taking candy from a baby." She splayed her 
fingers, then grinned at Pipermon, a wild look in her red eyes. "Prickly 
Heat!"

"Lightning Paw!"

Pipermon let out a squeak of surprise when a flash of white tore through 
the vines constraining her. She tumbled backward, landing hard on the 
forest floor, and then looked up, her jaw dropping in shock at the sight 
of her rescuer.

"Two against one isn't fair," Gatomon growled, flattening her large ears 
against her head and narrowing her blue eyes. "Didn't your mother ever 
tell you that?"

Hollymon leapt backward into the air, and looked at her brother.

"Time to go," she whispered, and he nodded.

"Until we meet again, Little Piper!" Ivymon called, and the two impish 
digimon vanished into the wind in a puff of smoke. Gatomon flexed her 
claws, then glanced back over her shoulder at Pipermon as the fallen 
digimon got to her feet.

"Gatomon?" Pipermon gasped in surprise. She couldn�t believe her eyes.

The catlike digimon turned primly on her heels and headed back toward 
camp. Impulsively, Pipermon reached out and grabbed the end of Gatomon's 
long striped tail. The feline spun back and glared.

"Gatomon...why?" Pipermon asked, genuinely curious. "Why...why did you 
save me?"

Gatomon frowned.

"I heard a noise," she said softly, "so I peeked out of my tent to see 
what was going on. When I saw that you weren't in your tree, I figured I 
had better come and see what was going on." Her blue eyes flashed. "You 
were protecting them, the children," she went on, her words slow and 
articulate, "I wanted to make sure nothing prevented you from doing 
that." She turned again, and started to walk away, pausing only long 
enough to add, "Please let go of my tail."

Pipermon did so, then extended one arm, in a beckoning manner.

"Gatomon!" she called, and Gatomon paused again, but didn�t look back 
this time. Pipermon hesitated. "Thank you, Gatomon."

"Don't mention it," Gatomon replied. She looked pointedly over her 
shoulder. "Ever," she added icily, and headed back to Kari's tent. 
Pipermon watched her go, and a frown slid over her features.

Damn you, Kurarimon, she though bitterly. But she should have seen this 
coming. Kurarimon was too smart, she'd seen right through Pipermon like 
a sheet of glass. She knew now, if she hadn't figured it out already, 
that Pipermon no longer had any desire to harm the digidestined. But 
why? she demanded of herself. WHY don't I desire to destroy them 
anymore? The digidestined destroyed Piedmon...my master...my creator...I 
should HATE them for that...but I...I just can't! I should want nothing 
more than to destroy them to exact revenge for Piedmon's defeat...that 
was why I agreed to join Kurarimon's fight against them in the first 
place...so why am I having second thoughts now?

She shook her head to clear it, and returned to her perch in the tree, 
torn between her head and her heart. One told her to destroy the 
children...and the other told her to protect them. She didn't know which 
one to listen to anymore...she just didn't know. Sitting in the tree, 
Pipermon watched the first downpours of the Arashii fall upon the 
digital earth until she was sure it could have been wrung like a wet 
rag. She let her head fall back against the sturdy timber of the old 
tree and listened to the rain.

What's wrong with me? she asked herself again. Only she wasn�t laughing 
this time. What am I doing...?


O_o Okay, I think it's time for bed... ::points at self:: Okay, hikari, 
no more posting fics at 2am, especially not when you have to work in the 
morning. ::sigh:: But, alas, my public awaits! Well, okay, but that's 
the last one I'm posting tonight....but more will come soon, yakusoku 
shimasen. Aww...poor Pipermon...she's so torn... ::bounce:: It makes my 
fingers all tingly when I type it, it's so exciting! Waiiii, okay, so 
what do we think, ne? Review! Please! :D Kari...come on, now, hun, I 
know you must have *something* to say in regards to this, you've only 
been waiting for it for like...EVER! Smooches!
~~hikari