Yeesh, okay, note to self: come up with titles for the chapters.
"Default Chapter Title" is getting old... ::sings loudly:: G'day
readers! Hikari here, a-wishin' she was back in Oz...::sigh:: I don't
suppose any of my readers who happen to live in Australia are looking
for a roommate? ~_^ Gyaaah, what I wouldn't give to live in a place like
that. Anyone who hasn't been to that wonderful continent known as
Australia had better get their little butts down there and experience
it. And take me with them. :) Okay, enough about that, on with the
story, ne? Sorry I took so long...that is fast becoming my trademark
phrase, isn't it? Nnngh... -__-
Games of the Mind *Chapter Fifteen*
"Just exactly what do you think you are doing, Little Piper?" Kurarimon
demanded, dropping back to the ground. Her cape ruffled as she rolled
her shoulders backward, as though trying to brush off the fact that she
had just been attacked by one of her own.
Pipermon's arms dropped back to her sides, and she narrowed her eyes
angrily.
"Something I should have done a long time ago, Kurarimon," she shouted
in reply. "I'm stopping you."
"What??" Kurarimon reeled back, a look of absolute disbelief on her
face. "Surely you must be joking, Pipermon," she went on. "You? Stand up
to me? Are you mad? You could never--"
"Don't tell me what I can and can't do, Kurarimon," Pipermon snarled
angrily. "All my life, I've lived under someone else's thumb." She
slowly began to advance on the more powerful digimon. "For as long as I
have been alive, I've been a pawn, a scout. I've lived by someone else's
laws, followed someone else's rules." She bared her teeth. "Well, that
ends NOW!" She spread her arms, and a small smile slid across her face.
"Today is the day the tables get turned."
A scowl crept across Kurarimon's thin lips.
"Is that so?" she asked slowly. She paused. "Pipermon, didn't I tell you
to stay in the catacombs?"
"I don't follow orders anymore, Kurarimon," she screamed, making a
chopping motion with one arm, "no one's, save my OWN! Harlequin Bells!"
With a cry, Pipermon drew up her wrist and the bells around it jangled
softly. She splayed her fingers and braced her other palm against her
wrist. The bells began to glow as she pulled her hand up near her face,
then thrust her arm forward. A beam of golden energy shot forward,
nearly catching Kurarimon unawares. The stronger digimon was fast,
however, and managed to dodge upward, narrowly avoiding the powerful
attack of her disobedient subordinate.
"Foolish Little Piper," Kurarimon sneered, "you dare to defy me?"
"I dare," she replied coldly, curling up her lip. "Didn't I tell you
there's been a slight change of plans?"
Kurarimon lifted one eyebrow.
"What are you talking about?"
"When I said I would not help you hurt these children," Pipermon said,
gesturing to the Digidestined with one arm, "I guess I forgot to mention
that I would not allow YOU to hurt them, either."
"What??" Kurarimon bellowed. "What are you--?"
Pipermon squared her slender shoulders and spread her arms, as though
she could protect the Digidestined with her body alone. "In the four
days I have been in the company of the Digidestined," she said, "they
have taught me more things than I could have ever imagined."
"Taught you?" Kurarimon laughed. "Taught you what? About being WEAK?
About failure??"
"About PURPOSE!" she countered.
"Purpose?"
"Don't you get it, Kurarimon?" Pipermon demanded. "That's what it's all
about! When Piedmon was killed, I lost more than a master, I lost my
purpose."
"So I took his place," Kurarimon said slowly, "so what? What does that
have to do with these Digidestined brats? They've nothing to do with MY
destiny..."
Pipermon grinned wickedly.
"You're wrong, Kurarimon," she growled, "you've been wrong the whole
time! There you were, thinking the Digidestined were the ones causing
your problems when, in reality, it was YOU! You and the fact that you
had forgotten!"
"Forgotten...?" she echoed. "Forgotten what?"
"Forgotten your purpose."
"Purpose?" Kurarimon said, narrowing her eye. "What on earth do you
mean, Pipermon? You're not making any sense."
"Protecting," she replied, "it's what we do. It's our lot in life,
Kurarimon, that’s what digimon are born to do. From the moment we open
our eyes until the second we take our last breath, we are here to
protect." She paused. "Digidestined children have been coming to our
world since time began here, and it has always been the job of their
digimon to protect them from whatever dangers there might be. Whatever
harm might befall them, the digimon would make sure the children were
safe." Pipermon shook her head sadly. "But, then, for a long time, there
really wasn't much threat to speak of, because all the digimon knew
their place. They knew they were there to protect, so protect they did.
However, after a while, complacency began to set in, and the digimon
started to forget. They started to forget their objectives, they lost
sight of what they were there to do, and in that, they became
corrupted."
Tai listened intently as she continued, fascinated by this sudden
revelation. He understood that the digimon had always been rather like
their guardian angels, it had been that way since the first time they
met the whimsical little creatures...but it had never really occurred to
Tai, or any of the others, that maybe that was what ALL digimon did...
"These corrupted digimon, " Pipermon went on, "became the threat.
Devimon...Myotismon...Puppetmon, Piedmon, Apocalymon...they all forgot.
They forgot what they were put here to do. They lost themselves." She
hesitated. "These children...they found me, Kurarimon," she said,
speaking barely above a whisper. "All this time, I've been asking myself
what it was about them that made me act so strangely. I've finally
figured it out." She smiled. "They are my purpose."
The Digidestined gasped, as did Kurarimon.
"You can't be serious," Kurarimon said laughingly.
"All along, I'd been living under the pretense that my purpose was to
help you destroy the Digidestined when, in truth, it was the exact
opposite. I wasn't here to HURT them. Quid pro quo, I was here to
protect them! Protect them from YOU!" She shook her head, and chuckled
to herself. "I never knew it until now..."
"Rubbish," Kurarimon sneered. "Protection? Perhaps that's all well and
good for any NORMAL digimon, but you seem to forget that the rules don't
apply to us. We didn't forget our purpose, Piper, we never HAD one! We
were not brought into this world by the same means as any other digimon.
We were created, we were not born."
"It doesn't matter!" Pipermon shouted. "How many times do I have to TELL
you? Our origins matter not, we're still digimon, just as a diamond
created in a laboratory is just as much a diamond as one that was
crafted in nature over the course of thousands of years! A digimon is a
digimon is a digimon, no matter who or what created it, no matter when
or where it's from." She squinted. "Why can't you understand that?"
"I DO understand, Pipermon," Kurarimon spat in rage. "I understand...I
understand that you're too softhearted to carry out the duties I set for
you. You are a coward, too weak to do what I ask of you--"
"You're wrong," Tai said, standing up. "You're wrong, Kurarimon, you've
got it all backwards."
"You, who found it necessary to weaken the defenses of your enemy before
they got to you," Mimi said disgustedly.
"The enemy who was already at a disadvantage against you anyway," Jyou
added with a scowl.
"YOU are the weak one, Kurarimon," Sora shouted, and Kari nodded.
"YOU'RE the coward!"
Kurarimon, who seemed rather unfazed by the sudden accusations, squinted
at Kari.
"Sticks and stones, Little One," she jeered. "You think you can wear me
down with your childish insulting?" She raised her hands.
Pipermon spread her arms again, her eyes narrowed in fury. "Your quarrel
is with me, now, Kurarimon," she hissed, "not them." She twitched her
fingers. "If you want them, you'll have to get through me first."
Yamato stumbled backward, nearly tripping over his own feet. He couldn't
believe what he was hearing! Could this really be Pipermon? The same
Pipermon who, not half an hour ago, had so bluntly refused to help them
fight Kurarimon? He looked at Kurarimon, who suddenly didn't look so
sure of herself anymore.
With Pipermon on your side, you might actually have actually stood a
chance against me.
He smiled.
Perhaps Kurarimon was about to get a taste of her own medicine.
"Two-faced back-stabbing little jackal!" Kurarimon roared, glaring
daggers with her one good eye. "Is this really what you want, Pipermon?
You would throw your life away to protect these measly little children?
Would you court your doom to save them from me?"
There was no fear in Pipermon's voice as she answered, "I would look
death in the face and laugh if it meant they would survive, Kurarimon."
She spoke so calmly, almost with no emotion at all. "I would pound away
on death's door until he answered it if they would live because I did
so," she went on, "and I find it very sad that you have no one you can
say you would do the same for."
Kurarimon's scarlet eye flashed angrily. "Watch your tongue, you little
traitor," she spat, raising one arm. She snapped her fingers. "Hollymon!
Ivymon! Keep the children busy while I deal with our mole."
Out of the shadows of the room, the twins appeared faithfully, ready to
strike upon Kurarimon's order.
"As you wish," Hollymon said, turning toward the Digidestined with a
malevolent grin.
"Yeah," Ivymon added, flexing his fingers, "it'll be fun to ACTUALLY
pummel them this time."
With that, they sprang forward.
"Binding Tendrils!"
Mimi let out a shriek as Ivymon's vines wrapped themselves tightly
around her, lashing her arms to her sides. She overbalanced and pitched
sideways with a yelp.
"Hey, Buddy!" she protested. "If I get a bruise, I'm holding you
personally responsible!!" She gasped as a few stray locks of hair fell
across her face, having slid down from her twisted updo, loosened by her
fall. "Ohmigosh!" she cried in horror. "My hair! You messed up my HAIR!
Oooh, you're gonna get it now!!"
"Prickly Heat!"
"Yaii!" Jyou shouted, dodging quickly to the left as Hollymon's attack
sailed past him and hit the ground. "Hey, lay off!" he called over his
shoulder as he ran, "I'm allergic to anything burnt!!"
"Flower Cannon!"
Lillymon blasted through Ivymon's vines, and Mimi wriggled away,
flinging off the broken pieces of vine that stubbornly clung to her
arms.
"Thanks, Lillymon," she said.
"Are you all right?" Lillymon asked, scooping Mimi up and zipping off to
the left of Ivymon, leaving him a trifle startled, his mouth ajar.
"This...is...not...good...this...is...not...good...!" Jyou chanted to
himself, desperately dodging Hollymon's onslaught of attacks. "What'd I
ever do to YOU, anyway??" he demanded. He let out a startled cry when he
slammed into a large...green...wall...?? No, wait--it was--
"Zudomon!" Jyou shouted, relieved to see his friend.
"Vulcan's Hammer!"
Hollymon shot upward to avoid being caught in the blast of light from
Zudomon's huge hammer. She spun to her left and zoomed off to tend to
the other children.
Meanwhile, Pipermon was having a little more difficulty dealing with
Kurarimon than she had been expecting. With a grunt, she leapt up into
the air and did a tight somersault over Kurarimon's head. Landing softly
behind her, she spun her flute.
"Dance of Swords!"
Kurarimon ducked low beneath the onslaught of tiny daggers, then snapped
out one leg, kicking Pipermon's feet out from under her. She cried out,
more in surprise than in pain, and quickly rolled to the side when
Kurarimon's foot came down to crush her head. She sprang back to her
feet, and Kurarimon snatched the neck of her unitard.
"Last chance, Little Piper..." the powerful evil digimon warned through
clenched teeth. "This is your last opportunity...before I am forced to
destroy you."
"Opportunity," Pipermon asked coldly, "to do what?"
Kurarimon's right eye glinted. "To make the right choice."
Pipermon gasped silently, then narrowed her eyes in rage.
"I already HAVE!" she hissed, raising her knees and kicking Kurarimon
solidly in the abdomen. The evil digimon dropped her hold on Pipermon's
collar and staggered backward, clutching her stomach, the wind knocked
out of her. Pipermon leapt back, did a handspring, and landed softly
down on one knee, snapping her head up as Kurarimon doubled over,
struggling to breathe. "You're the one who made the bad decision,
Kurarimon," she said in a stony voice, slowly rising to her feet, "the
moment you chose to oppose the Digidestined. In the instant you decided
they were the enemy you sealed your fate." She slowly began to advance
on her foe, her eyes narrowed in livid determination. "You can't win,
you must know that," she said icily. "These kids have gone up against
impossible odds a hundred times, and have come out on top at every
occasion. The Digidestined are here to defend our world, Kurarimon,
against any enemy...including you. As long as they live, you will never
take this world."
"Then I shall just have to kill them, won't I?" Kurarimon growled. "I
WILL defeat them. I WILL win."
Pipermon shook her head. "No," she said simply, "you won't. You will
never win, they're too strong for you. And do you know why that is?"
Kurarimon lifted one pencil-thin eyebrow.
"Because there is one thing that you will never be able to steal from
them," Pipermon told her. She clenched her fists and took another step
closer. "You can steal their eyes, steal their endurance--you may even
steal their very sanity, Kurarimon, but they will always come out on
top, because you cannot steal their spirit. You will never defeat them,
because you will never steal their will to defend this world!"
Kurarimon scowled. "You really think you can frighten me off with your
absurd little pep talks, Pipermon?" she challenged. "I will steal their
little lives right out from under their noses, you just watch!"
Pipermon's eyes narrowed to angry slits. "You have already stolen plenty
that wasn't your for the taking," she snarled, clenching her fists, her
expression stern. "I think it's high time someone took something from
YOU!" She drew up her hands, pressing the heels together and tensing her
fingers so they were curved like claws. A blueish purple globe of light
formed between her palms. "Pickpocket's Fist!" she shouted, and thrust
her hands forward. There was only a small distance between the two
digimon now, not more than three feet, so when the sphere of azure light
hit Kurarimon full in the chest at point-blank range, it sent her
sprawling backward. She was engulfed in the purple-blue brilliance and,
with a shriek of shock and pain, Kurarimon slammed into the ground and
was still. The blue light deepened to the color of the midnight sky, and
slowly began to shrink, until the corona that had surrounded Kurarimon's
body had waned to a single point, a glowing ball of indigo sheen about
the size of an apple.
With a small step forward, Pipermon beckoned with her right hand, and
the glittering orb slowly hovered over to her, landing softly in the
palm of her hand like a drop of water. She closed her fingers over it,
then glanced over her shoulder.
"Yah!!"
With a cry, Izzy dove forward, throwing himself down, rolling quickly to
the right, and flattening his body to the ground as Hollymon's attack
shot overtop of him.
"Need a lift?" a voice asked from above. Izzy lifted his head and
grinned as Megakabuterimon swooped down to help. He hit Hollymon with a
mighty Horn Buster attack, then paused and hovered just long enough for
Koushiro to leap onto his back. Then they zoomed up, up, higher and
higher into the strange, artificial-looking heavens above.
"This is highly illogical," Izzy muttered to his digimon. "Even though
they are a special, highly advanced type of digimon, Hollymon and Ivymon
are only at the Champion level. They should be no match for all of you
in your Ultimate forms."
"Try telling THEM that," a nearby voice groused. Izzy turned to see
Garudamon soaring nearby, with Sora clutched in her mighty talon like
hands. Sora's strawberry blonde hair fluttered near her face as she
looked at Izzy in silent desperation. This was getting them nowhere.
"Binding Tendrils!"
"Incoming!!" Sora shouted, and Garudamon quickly shot up higher.
Megakabuterimon was not as agile as his avian friend, and was half a
second too slow to avoid Ivymon's attack. The vines wrapped themselves
tightly around one of Megakabuterimon's huge, segmented legs, and the
flying insectoid digimon was thrown off-balance, crashing heavily into
one of the low-lying buildings and sending poor Izzy flying head over
feet. He let out a strangled yelp as his side blazed with a screaming
pain where he hit the unforgiving concrete of the building’s roof.
Megakabuterimon, having been weakened earlier by the unrelenting attacks
of the enemy, was now rather completely out of commission... Upon impact
with the building, he quickly de-digivolved back to Tentomon, though the
digimon found he did not have his usual glib remark to the current
situation. He tumbled down beside Izzy, croaked an apology, and promptly
passed out.
"Tentomon!" Izzy cried, getting to his feet, squinting through the pain
in his side. He looked up to see Ivymon had broken off his attack to go
after Garudamon, and had left his malicious twin sister to finish them
off. Izzy inhaled sharply and backstepped, nearly tripping over his
downed digimon. He dropped to one knee and tried to shake Tentomon back
to consciousness. "Tentomon, get up!" he implored. "PLEASE get up!!"
Hollymon licked her lips. This was going to be a cinch. She cracked her
knuckles.
Pipermon snapped her chin up when she heard Izzy's startled shout. She
looked back over her shoulder to make sure Kurarimon was not a threat
for the time being, then looked back up at Koushiro. Hollymon was
preparing to do another attack. At such close range, it would do
significant damage, too...it might even...
Stop it, she told herself, stop thinking things like that. They are my
responsibility. She twisted her wrist and the blue sphere shimmered and
faded away, disappearing into the palm of her hand.
"Izumi-san," she said softly, and her eyes narrowed.
They are my responsibility now, she told herself again, and I will not
watch them die! She leapt into the air and darted off toward him.
"Izumi-san!" she shouted, snapping the fingers of her right hand.
"Catch!" she called, and swung her arm forward as Izzy glanced up. A
tiny pewter-colored ball flew from her grasp and hurtled through the air
toward the child. Hollymon ducked quickly, barely avoiding getting
beaned in the side of the head. Izzy caught the little silver sphere and
looked at it, then shot Pipermon a befuddled glance. "Throw it down!"
she yelled, then zipped off to take care of Ivymon before Izzy had the
chance to respond.
He made a face, then looked down at the sphere and frowned. What do I do
with this? he asked himself. Then he suddenly remembered something. When
Pipermon had disappeared back in the corridors, she had thrown down
something small and silvery. Could this be what she had used? Lifting
his eyes, he saw he really didn't have time for an in-depth analysis--
Hollymon's crimson eyes were upon him, sparkling venomously as she
deliberately began to advance on him again.
"Here goes nothing," he muttered, scooping up the still unconscious
Tentomon into his arms. He raised one hand and threw down the silver orb
onto the roof of the building beneath him.
Hollymon squealed and leapt back as a gray-white fog erupted from the
spot where the pewter ball had hit the concrete. Taking advantage of the
smoke screen, Koushiro sprinted the length of the building and found a
rather rickety-looking metal fire-escape ladder at the far end. Going
against his better judgement, he placed a tentative foot on the ladder,
and sighed when it seemed to be sturdier than it let on. He slowly began
to climb down. It was tricky going, only being able to use one arm, as
the inanimate Tentomon was clutched protectively in the other, but he
really didn't have much of a choice.
"Erm..."
He slowly lifted his head when he heard a loud groaning noise.
"Uh-oh..."
He began to descend more rapidly as the rusty welding on the ladder
began to bend and crack beneath the weight of him and his digimon. He
was still a good fifteen feet up in the air. With a cry, he watched in
horror as the ladder snapped, and he was thrown sideways. Losing his
grip on the rusty metal handhold, he twisted quickly and grabbed at the
open air, but he found nothing to catch himself on.
This was gonna hurt.
He squeezed his eyes shut as he fell through the air, Tentomon still
clutched to his chest. He hesitantly opened one eye when he landed on
something soft.
"Nice swan dive, Izzy," Jyou quipped, leaning down to peer over
Zudomon's shoulder, "but I would wait till next year to try out for the
Japanese Olympic Diving Team."
Izzy grinned up at him, and got to his hands and knees in the palm of
Zudomon's mammoth hands. "Thanks, Jyou," he said, "I owe you one."
At the same time, on the other side of the same building, Tai, Yamato,
Hikari, and Takeru were all having a bit of difficulty themselves.
"Binding Tendrils!" Ivymon shouted, and Kari grabbed her brother's wrist
and yanked him hard to the right, barely dodging the vines, and sending
the two siblings sprawling into a narrow alleyway in the side of the
building.
"Tai!" Yamato shouted, wheeling back.
"Go on ahead!" Tai called back, waving him on. "We'll be harder to catch
if we split up!"
"But--!"
"Just go!" he yelled. "We'll be fine!"
"Pepper Breath--poi!"
Agumon's attack hit Ivymon in the chest, tossing their nemesis backward
and buying them a little time.
"Come on, Tai," Kari urged, helping him to his feet, "hurry!"
"Not...so...fast..." Hollymon sneered, jumping lightly down from where
Izzy had evaded her on the roof. Kari squeezed Tai's hand, and ran her
other hand over the headband beneath the goggles that still crowned her
head. Gatomon, who had reverted to her Champion state after continually
blocking the twins' attacks from hitting the children, tensed by Kari's
side.
"You two go on," she said softly.
"We'll take care of these two jokers," Agumon added.
"But we can't just--"
"Go on," Gatomon hissed before Tai could continue. She flexed her claws.
"We've got it covered."
Kari glanced at Agumon, and the little lizard nodded. She squeezed Tai's
hand again. "Let's go."
"Binding Tendrils!"
"Prickly Heat!"
"Lightning Paw!"
"Pepper Breath--poi!!"
Kari ran as quickly as she could, headed for the small grove of skeletal
trees, but not quite certain what she would do once she and her brother
reached them. She was quickly running out of ideas...she really didn't
know what to do anymore. Pipermon had said that the children had the
power to defeat Kurarimon...but they had yet to discover what it was!
She ignored the burning sensation in her chest as she ran harder, and
tried desperately to block out the sounds of the battle behind them. She
was afraid...afraid for the lives of their digimon...and the lives of
her friends...
"Oh no you don't!" Tai heard Hollymon growl. "Prickly Heat!"
"Kari!" he yelped, and shoved her forward, wrapping his arms around her
to block her from the attack. He let out a cry of surprise when two
hands grabbed his shoulders and yanked him roughly to one side as
Hollymon's attack whizzed past. He could feel the heat of the little
fireballs as they shot past him, barely missing his face. Still clinging
to his sister, he overbalanced and fell sideways, hitting his shoulder
hard against the side of the building.
"Pipermon!" Kari exulted. Pipermon gave a playful salute. Tai quickly
got back to his feet, and gave a wan smile.
"That's twice I owe you now for saving my ass," he said, and Pipermon
winked at Kari.
"It was nothing," she assured them, and then peered around the corner of
the building where Hollymon and Ivymon were searching for their lost
victims. "Now," she went on, "if you'll excuse me..."--she cracked her
knuckles, and snapped her head to either side, and Kari squinted as she
heard the joints in Pipermon's neck pop--"I have to go takeout the
garbage..."
"Be careful!" Kari called as Pipermon flew out to where the twins had
gone back to wrestling with Agumon and Gatomon.
"Prickly Heat!"
"Pepper Breath--poi!!"
"Harlequin Bells!"
Pipermon's attack sliced through the air and hit Hollymon full force.
With a scream, the smaller digimon tumbled head over feet backward into
her brother.
"Playtime is over, you two," Pipermon growled, her flute materializing
in her hands. "It's time you learned some manners, I’d say."
"You really wanna fight with us, Little Piper?" Hollymon sneered.
"Last time, your little feline friend had to come to your rescue..."
Ivymon taunted. Gatomon's claws flexed.
"I was careless," Pipermon snarled testily. "I won't make that mistake
again."
"Very well, then," Ivymon roared, lunging forward. "Binding Tendrils!"
The vines were quite easily deflected with a flick of Pipermon's wrist.
Her flute spun, slicing through the vines as though they were made of
butter.
"Is that all you've got?" she jeered.
"Prickly Heat!"
Pipermon shot upward higher, then dove back down, wielding the flute
like a sword. With a battle cry, she snapped the flute out as she darted
past Hollymon, and Hollymon reeled back, clutching her cheek as blood
seeped through her fingers. Without pausing for a reaction, she
somersaulted, then flipped around to head for Ivymon. Ivymon grunted,
then snapped his vines tightly between his hands. With a loud shriek, he
cracked the vines like a many-tailed whip, catching the end of
Pipermon's flute and ripping it away from her grasp. She gasped, and
spun in midair to try and grab it back, but Hollymon, still recovering
from the shock of being cut, had her wits about her enough to hit Piper
in the back with another Prickly Heat attack. Pipermon let out a cry of
pain and whirled back, deciding she didn't really need the flute. She
would get it later. She drew her right hand up near her face, and
extended her middle and index finger. Lifting her elbow, she pointed the
two fingers downward, then snapped her arm back up again, a single
playing card now clamped between her two outstretched fingers.
"Deuces Wild!" she cried, bombarding Hollymon with a flurry of flying
cards, red and black twos flying from her fingertips. The cards were
difficult to dodge, but Hollymon managed to evade a few of them.
Unfortunately for her, the majority of the electrically-charged cards
hit her, and hit her hard, sparking and crackling as though she had
gotten too close to a severed electrical wire.
"No! Hollymon!" Ivymon bared his teeth and lunged at Pipermon in a
furious rage. "How dare you hurt my sister??" he screamed.
Pipermon yelped as her own flute came down, slicing across the back of
her shoulder. She spun angrily, catching Ivymon in the stomach with her
right fist. He grunted in pain and gasped for breath, doubled over,
clutching his abdomen and coughing hoarsely. Pipermon's flute slid from
his grasp and she darted down to snatch it up--
--and was promptly back-attacked as Hollymon pummeled her with another
Prickly Heat.
"Coward!" Pipermon cried. "You would strike from behind not once--but
TWICE??"
"I'll do whatever it takes to get you out of the way!!" Hollymon
snarled, still furious that Pipermon’d had the audacity to cut her face.
"The feeling," Pipermon responded, spinning her flute, "is MUTUAL!"
She lunged forward again, ready to attack Hollymon head-on, but Ivymon
had managed to recover enough to zip up and block Pipermon's path, his
vine whip taut between his palms as he prepared to defend his alter-ego
and mirror-image sibling. It seemed that it was quite true...the twins
were not much of an adversary on their own, but together, they were
quite a formidable foe. Pipermon hated to admit it, but she was starting
to lose her stamina...she couldn't take much more of this... She looked
at the twins, at Ivymon, who appeared ready to die defending them both,
and Pipermon felt a sudden pang of remorse. She swallowed hard, lowering
her flute.
"What are you doing?" Ivymon demanded harshly, still wheezing from his
blow to the gut.
Pipermon frowned. "It doesn't have to be like this," she said softly,
her eyes narrowed a little, almost as if she were pleading with them.
"It doesn't have to end this way..."
"Yes it does," Hollymon snarled. "You made certain of that."
"Don’t try your pity act on us, Piper," Ivymon warned darkly, "you're
the one who decided this fate for all of us. You are the traitor."
"Please, Hollymon, Ivymon, reconsider," she implored, a desperate
yearning in her voice. "Kurarimon is wrong. She's got it all wrong!
Please don’t make it so I have to destroy you..."
The twins glared at her.
"We will never betray Kurarimon," Hollymon hissed. "We won't sell out to
the enemy."
"We won’t be made into turncoats, Pipermon," Ivymon growled.
"A regular Judas Iscariat you turned out to be," Hollymon added with a
rueful click of her tongue. "I wonder...what were you offered to betray
YOUR friend and master, ne?" She scoffed. "I pray no less than thirty
pieces of silver..."
Pipermon sadly shook her head. "Poor misguided souls," she said, "the
both of you..." She raised her flute level with her eyes and held it
horizontal, gripping the center of it. "Aureus Judicium."
As the Latin words for Golden Judgement fell from her lips, Pipermon and
the whole of her flute were engulfed in a blinding saffron light, and
the twins quickly shielded their eyes. "I’m sorry," she whispered, then
swung her right arm out, the flute still gripped tightly in her left
hand. The golden light intensified, then flowed from the flute into her
arm, shooting from her fingertips like a spear of pure energy.
The twins cried out as they were swallowed by the deep yellow
brilliance, and Pipermon turned her face away, closing her eyes and ears
to the sounds of the final cries of those she had once called comrades.
When there was silence again, Pipermon turned back to frown at the empty
air, cursing herself for having just committed the heinous act she had.
She was a murderer.
She sank slowly back to the ground, her mind a mix of a myriad of
horrible emotions...anger, fear, hatred... She had killed two of her
fellow digimon... She never imagined that taking a life would feel this
way...she felt as though her heart had been torn from her chest by way
of her own hands. She clenched her fists in rage and guilt, condemning
her very name for the perpetual bloodstains she would now bear on her
soul. She slumped to the ground, and her legs gave out from under her.
Falling forward on her hands and knees, she squeezed her eyes shut,
feeling weak and sick.
"What...what have I done...?" she whispered, staring at her fingers as
they dug into the dirt beneath her. "What have I DONE??"
Bwahahaha!! We were not expecting that, now were we? }:D Hikari is never
afraid to kill off a character, remember this! Muhuhahahahaahah!!! Wow,
okay, a good friend just pointed out to me that this story seems to have
a lot of similarities with the whole Blackwargreymon saga...has anybody
else noticed this? I hadn't before, but now that I go back and read it,
it really does! Creepy, ne? I'm psychotic! Er--I mean psychic. ^_^; And
there, tiger, I said "ass", are you happy now? ASS! Yeesh. Kay, ciao for
now, amigos! ::toddles off to type the next chapter before she gets
beaned with random flying objects form her readers::
~~hikari
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