Okay, here's chapter nine. Uh...not much to say, except, uh...thanks for
sticking with me! Luv you guys!
Games of the Mind *Chapter Nine*
Yamato cried out sharply and jerked awake from a deep sleep. Breathing
heavily, he clutched his chest and sat up, leaning forward. He wiped the
cold sweat from his forehead and took a deep breath, trying to slow his
racing heartbeat.
"Yama-chan?" came a sleepy voice. Yamato turned.
"TK," the older boy gasped. His expression turned sheepish. "Sorry I
woke you."
Takeru sat up and rubbed his eyes. He stared hard at his brother.
Something wasn't right. TK narrowed his large eyes and frowned.
"What happened, Yama-chan?" he asked softly. "Are you okay?"
Yamato's face flushed when he saw that he had not only awakened TK, but
Patamon and Gabumon as well. He stared at the ground to avoid the three
sets of worried eyes now gazing fixedly at him. He winced inwardly.
"I'm fine now, TK," Yama replied quietly. He shifted positions and sat
on his knees, took a deep breath, held it for a second, then let it out
in a gusty sigh. "I'm okay."
"Did you have a bad dream?" TK asked innocently, his large eyes full of
concern. Yama winced again.
"Yeah, TK," he admitted, avoiding his brother's eyes, "yeah, I did." He
looked up and grinned. "But it's cool now. Everything's fine, it was
just a dream, and I'm awake now." He moved toward the opening of the
tent.
"Where are you going?" Gabumon asked, rapidly blinking his round ruby
eyes. Yamato looked back at him.
"I think I'll go see if Pipermon needs someone to relieve her on the
watch," he replied, and frowned when Gabumon got to his feet.
"I'll go with you," the digimon said.
"No, Gabumon," Yamato insisted firmly, "you stay here with TK."
"But--"
"No buts," Yama enforced, "I said I was fine, and I am. You stay here
and protect TK."
"But that's MY job..." Patamon pouted. Yamato did not respond. Gabumon
looked oddly at his human, then frowned in concern.
"Whatever you say, Yamato," the digimon obeyed, and retreated back to
the spot where Yamato had been sleeping. He sat down beside TK and
watched the older boy leave the tent.
TK turned to his brother's digimon with a frown.
"He's lying," TK said sadly. Gabumon snapped his attention to TK.
"What'd you say?" Patamon asked, startled. TK fisted his hands.
"He's NOT fine," he declared, "he was really scared."
Gabumon twitched his nose.
"I know, TK, I know," Gabumon replied, "but you know your brother.
Sometimes, Yamato just needs to be left alone..."
TK sighed and lay back down, pulling the blanket up to his chin, with
Patamon curled up by his knees. Gabumon flopped backward and stared at
the inside of the tent.
What's wrong, my friend? he wondered, the image of Yamato's terrified
blue eyes still running laps in his mind. What did you see that
frightened you so?
Stepping outside into the chilly night air, Yamato looked up at the sky.
He wondered what time it was. The Arashii had already come and gone, he
could see, as the sky was now clear, and the strange constellations in
the digital heavens twinkled down at him. The grass was wet from the
rain, and sparkled in the moonlight as though someone had scattered a
million diamonds across the land. He sighed, and watched as his breath
made a puff of condensation in the brisk air before his face. Rubbing
his forearms, he slowly made his way to the tree where Pipermon was
perched. All he could see was one foot, dangling down below the
branches, but he could hear her playing her flute.
She was playing softly, a sad, slow melody. It was a somber and wistful
tune, deep and husky in some parts, high and delicate in others. The
very sound of it made Yamato's heart ache. It was a song he was all too
familiar with...it was the song of a misunderstood soul. He stood
beneath the tree for a moment, just watching her.
When her song was done, Pipermon lowered her flute, and was a little
startled to hear applause. Glancing down below her, she was even more
startled to see that it was Yamato standing at the base of the tree,
clapping for her. She lifted one purple eyebrow and leaned over.
"Yamato-san?" she queried. "What are you doing awake?"
He smiled and put his arms behind his head.
"I thought I'd come see if you needed a break," he said. "I'm here to
take over guard duty."
Pipermon balked.
"Oh," she said after a moment. "Ara...are you sure, Yamato-san? You
don't have to do that."
He gave a rakish smile.
"I know," he said, "but you have to sleep, too, don't you?"
She hesitated, and narrowed one blue eye. Something was wrong. Yamato
had always been so suspicious of her, and now he was acting as though
they were old friends. Pipermon looked at him, frowning.
"Yamato-san," she said, "are you all right?"
He blinked up at her.
"Sure," he replied, "why do you ask?"
"Well, you were looking rather ghostly for a minute there," she told him
with a frown.
"Naw," he said quickly, "everything's cool." He paused. "You go get some
sleep, I'll take everything from here."
She gave a half-grin.
"Okay, Yamato-san," she said, leaning back against the tree, "okay,
whatever you say."
He waited a moment, as though expecting her to leave. Then he gave her
an odd look and knit his brow.
"You're...you're not gonna sleep in that TREE...are you?" he asked.
Pipermon laughed.
"You forget, Yamato-san," she told him, leaning down to look at him over
the branch, "this forest is my home. It's all I know." She winked at
him. "I've been sleeping in trees for two years."
"Oh," he replied, and shrugged. "Suit yourself, I guess, but you're
welcome to one of the tents--"
"No, no, no," she insisted, turning onto her stomach on the branch, "the
tents are already crowded, and I'm taller than any of you, I'd take up
more than my fair share of room."
"But...won't you be cold?" he asked, trying to sound nonchalant. One
corner of Pipermon's mouth curled up in a small smile.
"Don't you worry about me, Yamato-san," she assured him, "I've lived in
this forest for so long now, that I don't even notice the cold. You get
used to it." She frowned and looked away. "This forest is my home," she
said again after a moment, her voice softer now, "it's the only place
that's ever really FELT like home, anyway." She dug her fingernails into
the bark of the old tree. "After Piedmon was defeated, I tried to hard
to make up for what I had done while I was under his
control...but...nobody would let me. No one would even give me the
chance to redeem myself, they were all too afraid...and so"--she looked
at him again--"I came here, where I figured I wouldn't be bothering
anyone. I've lived in these woods ever since."
Yamato frowned.
"I'm...sorry..." he said, a little unsure of how to respond. She
chuckled, a little bitterly.
"It's okay," she said, looking down at the bark of the tree again, "one
learns to put the past behind them..."
There was a moment of tense, awkward silence, and then Yamato shoved his
hands deep into his pockets and shuddered in the chilly night breeze.
Pipermon knit her brow.
"Go back to your tent, Yamato-san," she yawned, sitting up again, "it's
too cold for humans."
He shook his head obstinately.
"I'm not cold," he stubbornly insisted, "and you've been on watch half
the night. You can't be our guide if you're too tired to walk."
She blinked.
He plunked down under the sheltering branches of the tree, and leaned
his back up against it.
"Get some sleep, Pipermon," he ordered, pulling out his harmonica, "I've
got it covered."
She smiled prettily, and pulled out her flute. She twirled it in the air
and said something Yamato couldn't quite make out. He glanced up in time
to see a flash of light come from the flute, and suddenly Pipermon had a
dark teal colored cloak fisted in one hand.
"Neat trick, Pipermon," he said with a grin, "where did the cape come
from? Is that like one of those sleight-of-hand tricks where you pull a
quarter out from behind someone's ear?"
She smiled.
"Not really," she said, "legerdemain was never really my forte, and I
don't excel in prestidigitation... Magic is what I do...REAL magic. I've
always had this cloak...as long as I can remember..." she went on,
sounding a trifle miffed by the situation, "I had just forgotten where I
put it."
Yamato laughed, confused.
"You forgot where you PUT it?" he echoed. "What in the world are you
talking about?"
She spun the flute again, then pressed it between her palms till it
vanished into the night air.
"I learned a spell quite some time ago that allowed me to store things
inside my flute," she explained. Then she made a face. "Well, okay,
maybe they're not really INSIDE the flute, that would certainly make it
difficult to play...but the spell made it so I could use the flute as
sort of a doorway into adjoining dimensions. Basically, I could use my
flute to store anything I might need in a separate dimension, and pull
it out whenever I needed it. It's like the ultimate backpack, because I
can store anything anyone might ever need...and I don't have to carry
anything!" She paused. "I put that cloak away AGES ago...and then I
forgot what dimension I had stuck it in... I suddenly remembered this
morning... Isn't it always the way? Why do I always find stuff AFTER I
really need it?" I could have given it to Kamiya-san the other night to
help him keep warm, she added silently, feeling a twinge of guilt. She
tossed the cape up in the air, then again flopped down onto here stomach
on the tree branch, and the cloak settled down on her like a blanket.
She crossed her wrists under her chin and looked down at Yamato as he
returned his gaze to his harmonica.
"You're sure about this?" she asked him one last time.
He nodded without looking at her.
"Go to sleep," he said, and lifted the small silvery instrument to his
lips.
Pipermon smiled down at him, shaking her head at his tenacity. Then she
sighed and closed her eyes, slipping into a light sleep as the pensive
notes from Yamato’s harmonica lilted through the air on the wings of the
night breeze.
With a soft gasp, Pipermon snapped her eyes open. She blinked rapidly,
unsure of why she had woken up. The sky was still dark, but the far
horizon was just starting to hint at a golden hue, signaling sunrise
wasn't far away. She pushed up to her hands and knees on the tree
branch, and the cloak slid off her shoulders, fluttering to the ground
below. As she jumped down to retrieve it, she glanced over at Yamato--
--and did a double-take.
"Yamato-san?" she cried softly.
He didn't move from where he sat beneath the tree. He didn't even
acknowledge that he had been addressed. Pipermon hurried over to him and
dropped to one knee, fearing something had happened to him. She touched
his shoulder and leaned over to look at his face.
She sighed with relief.
He was only sleeping. He'd fallen asleep.
Wait a second!
With a soft gasp, she snapped her head up. If he had fallen asleep, and
she, too, had been sleeping, that meant the camp had been left
unguarded! But for how long? This was just the sort of opportunity
Hollymon and Ivymon could have taken full advantage of--!
Jumping into the air, Pipermon hovered above Yamato for just a moment,
then darted over to where the tents were. She peeked silently into each
one, making certain every child and every digimon were present and
accounted for.
They were.
Breathing a gusty sigh of relief, Pipermon headed back to the tree. She
stooped down to pick up the cloak from where it had fallen. Shaking the
dirt from it, she turned and raised one arm.
"Yamato-san--"
She stopped, looking at him, sadness in her eyes. She dropped her arm
back to her side. The night wind rushed past her, and she saw Yamato
cringe against it and stir in his sleep. He shivered once, then fell
still. She couldn't do it...she just couldn't wake him. She shook the
cloak again, and walked up beside him, dropping to her knees. Pipermon
remembered wondering to herself if all human children looked like little
angels when they slept... They did, she realized. They were like angels.
Her face contorted in anger and guilt. She couldn't believe what she was
doing...how could she have let Kurarimon convince her that these
children were the enemy? Then something blinked at her, a quick flash of
blue light, like a firefly in the darkness. She leaned down. Yamato's
digivice. Pipermon reeled back, a sudden sense of deja-vu sweeping over
her. She reached out and plucked the small device from the cold ground
and looked hard at it as it flickered and the azure light flashed
erratically, as though it were coughing. Just like Kamiya-san's...she
though, perplexed. What did it all mean? She looked at it a moment
longer, as though willing the light to strengthen and, when it didn't,
she closed her fingers around it. She then dropped it into Yamato's lap
and stood up, draping the teal cloak around his shoulders.
"You need this more than I do, Yamato-san," she whispered, and gently
placed one hand atop the boy's tousled blond hair, letting it linger
there for just a moment. With a small smile, she then returned to her
watchful perch in the tree.
"Two hours of sleep will just have to do," she told herself, and
stretched, leaning back against the trunk. She watched the leaves of the
old tree twitch in the wind and waited for the sunrise.
"Yamato-san?" Pipermon called, gently shaking his shoulders. "Yamato-
san, wake up!"
He stirred, and slowly opened his eyes, squinting against the morning
sunlight. He blinked at Pipermon, not recognizing her for a second, then
he looked up at the sky. He yelped and lunged forward.
"It's MORNING??" he cried, his eyes wide. "I fell asleep!? Ohmigosh--the
others--!"
"Calm down, kiddo," Pipermon laughed, "calm down. The others are fine.
They're fine, Yamato-san, I woke up a couple hours after you had taken
over the watch and I noticed that you had nodded off, so I went and made
sure that everyone was all right."
Yamato ripped the cloak from his shoulders and scowled, furious at
himself for having fallen asleep. He had let them down--he could have
gotten them all killed! He clenched his fingers around the slick fabric
of the cloak.
"Why didn't you wake me up, Pipermon?" he demanded angrily.
She frowned.
"I...I was going to," she said, "but I just couldn't do it. You were
sleeping so peacefully, and...well...I just...didn't have the heart to
disturb you."
He looked down at his hands, squeezing the cloak and gritting his teeth.
"But that means you didn't get any sleep," he said softly.
Pipermon blinked, a little startled at first by his concern. Then she
smiled, and dropped to one knee beside him.
"I got a couple hours," she said, "that's all I really need."
He stared at the cape a moment longer, then slowly got to his feet.
Pipermon stood up, and he handed the cloak back to her with a soft,
bashful word of thanks. She pulled out her flute and twirled it expertly
between her fingers. Then she tossed the cape up in the air, and
whispered something in a language Yamato couldn't decipher. As the cloak
fell back down toward the ground, it shattered into a million sparkling
pieces of dust that swirled into a twirling, shifting stream, flowing
into the end of the flute and vanishing out of sight. Yamato blinked,
amazed, then snapped out of his stupor.
"Where are the others?" he asked, stretching his arms.
She pointed the end of the flute toward the camp.
"Still sleeping," she said. "I figured I should wake you up first," she
added with a wink.
He smiled.
"Thanks," he said, feeling a little awkward. She made a V with her
fingers.
"No problem," she said, and turned over her shoulder toward the tents.
"Hey, Yamato-san," she said, a mischievous grin on her face, "get a load
of this."
She spun the flute again, then held it up to her mouth. Taking a deep
breath, she leapt up into the air and played an impressive reveille in
the morning sunlight. Jyou poked his head out of his tent and moaned,
adjusting his glasses on the bridge of his nose.
"How does she DO that?" he groaned. "How does she stand watch all night,
and then still have the energy to wake us all up at the crack of dawn?"
"Okay," Pipermon called, clapping her hands together, "up and at 'em,
gang, rise and shine, let's go, one, two..."
As Pipermon continued her wake-up call, Yamato watched her from a
distance, a frown on his face. She was so hard to read, this one...she
seemed genuine, but there was something...something in her eyes...
Something in the back of Yamato's mind told him not to put his complete
trust in her yet. Or was it just that his little mental voice of
admonition was hypersensitive? Yamato was never the type to trust
someone right away, he admitted that. No, it took a tenacious and
persistent soul to win over Yamato Ishida. Perhaps, he thought, it's
better that way...when you don't trust people, they don't put their
trust in you...and if they don't put their trust in you, then you can't
let them down. He checked himself. Dammit, Yamato, he thought, maybe
it's time you started putting a little more faith in YOURSELF. Not only
was Yamato suspicious and mistrustful of others, he also had a
repertoire of hesitancies and doubts about himself, to boot. And he
hated it, he hated always doubting and suspecting others...and he wished
to God that he could just give someone the benefit of the doubt and
trust them from the beginning...but he just couldn't... That was just
the way he was. And he wasn't about to undergo a total change of heart
now...not now, when so much was riding on the digidestined and their
ability to succeed. That was the way he had always been, even as a young
boy. His parents had separated when he was but a child...tearing he and
TK apart to live in separate houses on opposing sides of town... It was
there that his cynicism and mistrust of his fellow man had begun. He had
been only a child, but even a child knows that when two people are
married, the last five words said before the union is sealed are "till
death do us part". His parents...had they lied, then? They HAD lied, he
had convinced himself, looking fruitlessly for an answer to something he
was much too young to understand, they lied, right there, at the altar,
they had lied. They had broken their eternal promise to one another, and
in doing that they had broken Yamato’s spirit...how could he ever
believe anything they told him when he knew that they couldn't even keep
one simple promise to one another? How could he believed anything ANYONE
told him? Had his misgivings and suspicions of others made him
heartless? Would he ever be able to trust someone completely, or had he
been poisoned from the beginning by those he cared about most? He just
didn't know.
He decided that now was not the time to think such things, and headed
toward his tent to retrieve the bag of rice to make breakfast. Once all
the children had been roused and rallied in the clearing, they set to
packing up camp. Jyou began folding up the tents with Izzy's help, and
they tried, with a little difficulty, to cram all four back into Jyou's
duffel. Pipermon watched with a frown as Tai plunked down on a rock and
ran his hands over his face, like he had a headache. She hovered over to
him, and called his name. He snapped his head up.
"Kamiya-san," she said, "are you okay?"
He leaned his elbows on his knees, letting his wrists dangle.
"I dunno," he replied honestly, "I feel real weird. I feel like I didn't
sleep at all last night."
"Did you?" she asked.
He rubbed one finger under his nose.
"I dunno," he said again, "I think so. Kari had to poke me really hard
in the ribs to wake me up this morning, I think she gave me a bruise!"
He grinned.
Pipermon twitched her nose.
"Well, we'll keep an easy pace today, okay?" she said, squeezing his
shoulder.
"Yeah," he said uneasily, rubbing the back of his neck. "Thanks,
Pipermon."
Pipermon tugged at her ponytails, then hovered over to her tree again.
She watched as Kari took her brother a soda from Mimi's purse and handed
him one of Yamato's riceballs. She frowned as she watched the siblings
eat, wondering what was wrong with him. He HAD slept last night, she
knew he had. He'd been out like a light when she had checked on all the
children the night before. She sighed and leaned back in the tree, her
hands clasped behind her head. Closing her eyes, she listened to the
rustle of the leaves in the morning breeze, debating over whether or not
to go down and try one of these riceballs Yamato seemed to be so proud
of. Being the type of digimon she was, she really had no need to eat.
Piedmon had created her that way, to be a low-maintenance creature with
amazing powers and an obedience to him alone.
She opened one eye when she heard a soft sort of plop noise come from
below. Glancing down, she saw a single riceball had been dropped to the
ground, grains of rice scattered out around it like a sunburst.
"Yama-chan?"
Pipermon snapped her chin up when she heard Takeru's frightened call.
She let out a yelp when a shudder ran up the tree and nearly shook her
from her perch. Gripping the branch, she leaned down to see what was
going on. A gasp escaped her throat at what she saw.
"Yamato-san?" she cried.
He was backed up against the tree. He had backed up so fast that a
shockwave had shuddered up the tree trunk when he slammed into it. His
eyes were wide and full of terror, his chest was heaving, and sweat
covered his brow. Pipermon felt a jolt of fear shoot through her body.
What had happened to him? Her thoughts immediately snapped back to the
digivice--it had been flickering, just like Tai's, hadn't it?
What...what did it mean? Then Kurarimon's ruby eyes flashed through her
mind, and she felt her blood boil at the idea that Kurarimon had gotten
to Yamato, too. She launched herself from the branch and dropped to the
ground, staring hard at his face.
His kind blue eyes were now wide and wild, like those of a creature who
knew the predator was nearby but knew not where it lurked. It was a look
of desperate terror. His face was covered in a cold sweat, and his
breath came in ragged gasps as though he were having trouble inhaling.
Pipermon furrowed her brow and took a step closer to the frightened
child.
"Yamato-san," she said, her eyes fixed on his, "Yamato-san, what's
wrong?"
He didn't even seem to see her, he looked right through her.
"Yama-chan?" TK cried softly, his voice cracking. "Yama, what
happened??" The younger boy stepped toward his brother.
Yamato seemed to snap out of his trance, and his eyes narrowed as TK got
closer. He pressed back against the tree, baring his teeth.
"Stay away from me," he snarled. Pipermon gasped at the inhuman growl in
his voice. Something was terribly wrong.
Takeru hesitated, then took another step.
"I said stay AWAY!!" Yamato screamed, fisting his hands. He lunged
forward in preparation to strike the smaller boy.
Takeru shrieked in fear and flinched.
Pipermon darted in front of Takeru, her hands out in front of her. She
caught Yamato's fist in her open palm, surprising even herself. She
fixed her eyes on him, and squeezed her fingers around his fist. The
others watched in fear and shock as Pipermon stood between Yamato and
his brother, shielding the younger child.
"Yamato-san!" she yelled, trying to get through to him. She set her jaw.
"Yamato-san, what's the matter? What's wrong with you?"
He let out a furious growl and fisted his other hand, drawing back to
punch her. She caught that hand, too, and they stood at a stalemate. She
struggled, trying to push him backward, to break free. He was a lot
stronger than she had first thought...or was it fear that made him
stronger? She wasn't sure. She tossed her head to flip her bangs out of
her face, and looked into Yamato's eyes. She was frightened by what she
saw...no longer did his kind azure eyes betray a cool and calm spirit
behind them, rather they were the eyes of a crazed and terrified young
man whose only interest was hurting who and whatever was in his way. She
bit her lower lip and then shouted his name again.
"Yamato-san, what's happened to you?" she cried. "What's wrong? What do
you see??"
He gasped like she had slapped him, and recoiled quickly. His face
contorted in terror.
"Faces..." he rasped, "I see...faces...so many faces...trying
to...they're all...and their voices...I can hear them
screaming...and..." Suddenly his expression hardened. "No!" he screamed,
backing up against the tree again. "You stay away from me!!" He lunged
forward again, shoving past Pipermon and the rest of the group.
"Yamato-san!" she called after him, zooming over to block his path.
"Yamato-san, stop!" She spread her arms to blockade him. "Stoppit,
Yamato-san, you're--ullp!"
She cried out and clutched her stomach as Yamato landed a hard punch to
her abdomen. She coughed and dropped to her knees as he sprinted past
her.
"Pipermon!" Kari shouted, and took her arm to help her to her feet.
"Pipermon, are you okay?"
Without replying, Pipermon turned to look to where Yamato had run. She
held her stomach with one hand, still smarting from where his fist had
hit her, and she swallowed hard.
"Yamato-san!" she shouted, and the single echo that returned to her made
her blood run cold. She looked severely at the rest of the children. "I
think Kurarimon got to him," she said, "he's hallucinating. More of her
tricks...he's lost all grip on reality." She tensed, prepared to go
after him. Kari grabbed Pipermon’s arm. Pipermon looked down. "Hikari-
san?"
"He's stronger than he looks, Pipermon," Kari said, "he could really
hurt you if he tried. If he's lost sense of what's real and what's not,
he could really hurt you..."
Pipermon pulled free of the girl's grip and hovered a few inches above
the ground.
"Well, we have to do SOMETHING!" she shouted. "If he keeps running that
way, he'll fall into the Shin'en!"
"The Shin'en?" the children echoed.
Pipermon nodded gravely.
"The Shin'en is another creation courtesy of the Kurarimon's powers,"
she said, "it's a deep chasm, it marks the edge of the forest, it serves
as a boundary. It's at least twenty feet across--farther than any human
could jump without help...and nobody's certain how deep it is...no one
has ever been down there and returned to tell about it." She scowled.
"It was put there to prevent anyone who couldn't fly from leaving these
woods."
Gabumon leapt forward.
"I'll catch him," he shouted. "Gabumon digivolve to--"
No change.
"That's not going to work," Pipermon interjected, "the light from
Yamato's digivice is fading, just like Kamiya-san's. You won't be able
to digivolve until that is rectified. We have to stop the
hallucinations!"
"I think I saw something like this on an episode of The X-Files once,"
Jyou said.
Tai lifted one eyebrow, floored at the idea that squeamish Jyou, who got
nauseous just at the THOUGHT of blood, and chickened out at the mere
MENTION of danger, would watch a creepy series like The X-Files.
"YOU watch The X-Files??" he demanded.
Jyou shook his head.
"No, but Shin does," he replied. "He likes to turn it on whenever I'm in
the room just to see if I'll turn green."
"Okay, so what happened in the episode?" Sora asked. "How did they fix
the problem?"
Jyou looked sheepish.
"I...I dunno," he admitted, "it got gory and I left the room."
Nobody liked the sound of where this was headed. Tense silence filled
the air. Pipermon looked at the children again, and set her jaw.
"I'm going after him," she told then simply, and darted away before any
of them could reply. She heard them gasp as she disappeared into the
thick trees after Yamato. "I'm sorry, kids," she said softly, "this is
my fault. I won't let Kurarimon's games go any further, I promise you
that!" She zipped through the woods, following the trail she had seen
Yamato run down. Accelerating until she was going faster than even she
believed she could fly, she quickly caught up with him.
Damn, he's fast for a human! she thought. He was almost to the hill that
dropped off steeply into the gaping canyon of the Shin'en below.
"Yamato-san!" she shouted. "Yamato-san, stop! Please, stop! You have to
stop! You're hallucinating!" She put on a burst of speed. "Whatever
you're seeing, Yamato-san, whatever you're running from--it's not REAL!"
She caught up with him and reached out, grabbing his arm. He twisted
away with a cry like a frightened animal. Pipermon sqinted.
"Yamato-san, I'm sorry!" she whispered, and tackled him from behind,
throwing her arms around his shoulders and pitching them both to the
ground. With a startled cry, she found herself falling, spinning, and
realized they were tumbling down the hill at an alarming speed,
somersaulting and tumbling through the dirt and grass. Yamato struggled
against her grip, still swept up in the delusions Kurarimon had trapped
him in. She squeezed her arms tight around his chest, refusing to let
him go, and used her powers of levitation to slow their rapid descent
toward the Shin'en. She let out a shriek as the crevice of the Shin'en
came closer and closer, and then--
--they stopped, just inches from the edge. Breathing heavily, Pipermon
sighed, relieved, and she felt her arms quivering as she loosened her
grip on Yamato's torso. He still struggled against her touch, apparently
still seeing something she couldn't. She cried out as he lurched to the
side, coming dangerously close to the edge of the Shin'en.
"Yamato-san, stop! Stop struggling!" she scolded. "For God's sake, STOP!
You'll fall if you don't stay still!" She kept a firm grip on his
forearms and shook him, looking into his eyes. "Yamato-san, it's ME!
It's Pipermon! Stop--PLEASE!"
She let out a shriek of fear as he wrenched free of her grasp and
stumbled backward, shoving away from her, blinded by his sheer terror.
The ground at the edge of the Shin'en began to crumble beneath his feet.
"Yamato-san, get away from the edge!" she cried, grabbing for his shirt
as he floundered backward, off-balance, and tottered on the edge. He let
out a terrified yelp as the unsteady ground gave way under his weight
and he plunged down ward into the abyss below.
"YAMATO-SAN!!"
Pipermon hurled herself toward the edge and snapped her arm out. Her
fingers grasped the fabric of Yamato's shirt, and she held fast.
Breathing a sigh of relief, she quickly tried to pull him back up onto
solid ground. He still resisted, frightened, against her clutch, even
though she was the only thing preventing him from plummeting to his
death. Pipermon silently damned Kurarimon for doing this to him. She had
poisoned his mind, and nearly killed him! Kurarimon knew now, that
Pipermon was walking the line between the two sides...though she didn't
want to betray Kurarimon, Pipermon just couldn't bring herself to hurt
these children, nor could she bear to see any harm come to them! Was
Kurarimon doing this merely to torture her now?
"Yamato-san, PLEASE!" she begged, struggling to pull him up over the
edge. "Please, stop squirming!" She felt her heart jerk in her chest as
he twisted and writhed in her grasp, seemingly unaware that, if
Pipermon's grip failed, he was done for, he would plummet to an unseen
death a distance no one had ever traveled. Oh, no, no way, Pipermon
thought, angrily, determined, setting her jaw. Like hell he will. With a
cry of exasperation, she gave his shirt a sharp yank, pulling him up
over the lip of the Shin'en. Before he had the chance to put up a fight,
Pipermon ran one hand down his face.
"Mists of Morpheus!" she whispered, and a sparkling lavender fog
billowed all around them.
"Pipermon!!"
With a strangled cry, Koushiro rushed down the hill, the rest of the
children hot on his heels, their digimon not far behind. They all
stopped short at the sight of the purplish haze.
"Pipermon?" Koushiro called her name again, and took a step forward,
waving his hands in the air in front of him in an attempt to dispel the
thick fog.
When the violet vapor lifted, the children saw Pipermon near the edge of
the deep black chasm she had warned them about, cradling Yamato's head
in her lap. She looked up at them, tears clouding her bright blue eyes.
"I'm sorry," she said as they stepped closer to her. Her voice trembled.
"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry...I had to...I just had to...he wouldn’t...he
wouldn't stop struggling, so I..."
Jyou dropped to one knee and took Yamato’s wrist. He glanced at his
watch, concentrating.
"He's okay, Pipermon," Jyou told her, letting go of the boy's wrist.
"His pulse is a little fast, but he's all right. Why are you
apologizing?"
"You probably just saved his life," Izzy said.
Pipermon squeezed her eyes shut.
"But I had to use one of my attacks on him," she said softly. "I used a
sleeping spell...I had to...I had to attack him..."
"He would have fallen otherwise," Gabumon said as the rest of the
digimon gathered around their human companions.
"No need to apologize," Patamon said with a smile, "you didn't hurt
him."
She looked up at the children, and smiled faintly.
"Ohmigosh, Pipermon!" Mimi gasped. Pipermon snapped her head up as Mimi
pointed. "You're bleeding!"
"I'm..."
Pipermon looked down at her arm. Indeed, she had a scratch on her left
forearm. The fabric of her sleeve was torn, and blood was slowly oozing
from the wound. She touched the blood gingerly, as though she didn't
believe it was real, then winced and hissed in pain. It stung!
"I didn't think that digimon bled," Jyou said, lifting one eyebrow.
Pipermon frowned.
"Most don't," she admitted, "but I do. So do Hollymon and Ivymon...so
does Kurarimon... It comes from being what we are...we're more than just
digimon...we're...we're almost real. The combination of virus, data, and
vaccine create a creature that totters on the fine line between reality
and virtual reality. We're digital, and yet we're real enough to bleed."
She twitched her nose. "Pretty freaky, ne?" she added with a small
smile.
The children looked a little startled by this late-breaking news. It had
never even occurred to them before that digimon were completely digital,
and they themselves were real...the digimon had come into the real world
with them so many times that they had never given it a second thought.
They were as real as any human, as far as the digidestined were
concerned. But it was true, none of the digimon had really bled...Mimi
had bandaged Ogremon once after a bad fall, and he'd had a gash across
his face...but there really hadn’t been any blood. Kari had patched up a
wound on Agumon after a fight, but it hadn't really bled, just sort of
emitted a black steam. Was that digital blood? Usually, when the digimon
were injured, they just devolved back to their Rookie or In-Training
state...but none of them could think of a time when a digimon had really
bled.
Pipermon looked down at Yamato, and her smile faded.
"Come on, kids," she said, moving to stand up, "we have to get off the
Shin'en and back to the trail. The sleep spell I used doesn't last very
long, and if Yamato-san wakes up and starts freaking out again, I might
not be able to stop him."
She scooped him up, one arm behind his neck and the other beneath his
knees, and started up the hill, following Jyou and Gomamon's lead. She
looked up toward the top of the hill and noticed that Tai and Kari had
just caught up with all of them. Kari looked down and saw the rest of
the group trudging their way back up the hill, and she squeezed her
brother’s hand.
"He's all right, Tai," Kari told him, "Pipermon caught him. He's okay."
She smiled as she heard Tai breathe a sigh of relief. Tai admitted, to
anyone who asked, that he and Yamato often locked horns when it came to
making decisions, but he was still Tai's best friend, even if they found
it hard to agree on anything. Tai wasn't sure what he would do if
something were to happen to Yamato--or any of the digidestined, for that
matter. They were more than just a group of friends, they were almost
like a single unit...they could almost read one another’s thoughts. A
single unit...yes, that's what it was...a unit that would fall apart at
the seams if any one of its components were lost.
Pipermon followed the rest of the children up to the top of the hill
where they reunited with Tai and Kari. There was excited chatter as the
children told Taichi what had happened to Pipermon, and how she had
explained that she and the enemy were almost as real as anyone from
their own world. Stepping into the clearing atop the hill, Pipermon
shifted Yamato's weight in her arms, and she paused, her eyes narrowed.
She silently dropped to one knee and placed the palm of her hand on his
cheek.
He's very warm, she thought, frowning.
"Watcha doin', Pipermon?"
She looked up into TK's curiously anxious eyes, and impulsively reached
out and brushed his golden hair off his forehead, her palm on his brow.
She placed her other hand across Yamato's forehead again.
"Pipermon," TK said, "what are you--?"
"Jyou-san," Pipermon called, and the chatter in the clearing stopped as
he looked at her. She pulled her hand away from Takeru's face. "Jyou-
san, what's a human's normal temperature?"
He blinked.
"Ninety-eight point six degrees Fahrenheit," he recited, "why do you
ask?"
"Does Yamato have a fever?" Sora queried, worried.
Pipermon didn't reply. She looked at TK, then at Yamato, then back to
Jyou.
"Ninety-eight point six?" she said. "You're certain?"
He nodded, and the children and digimon fanned out around her and Yamato
as she pressed her palm a little harder against his forehead, and felt
TK's brow one more time. She shook her head and looked at Jyou. "Ninety-
eight point six," she whispered, and worry flooded her eyes. "If you're
right, Jyou-san, then Yamato's temperature is dangerously high. It must
be at least a hundred and six."
There was a collective gasp.
"A hundred and SIX?" Jyou cried.
"Inconceivable!" Izzy shouted.
Gabumon hurried over to his human's side.
"How can it be so high?" he asked, afraid. He had almost lost Yamato
once because he had gone out in a snowstorm to look for TK and nearly
frozen to death. And there was the time Yamato had almost lost HIMSELF
in a cave of darkness created by the fears in his own heart. Both times,
however, Gabumon had been able to save him...to bring him back...but
this time... What would happen this time?
"A hundred and six?" Jyou asked again. "That's...that's just...not
possible! A temperature of a hundred and four is enough to send a human
to the hospital! A hundred and six...that could...could..." He refused
to say the words... That could kill him, he thought.
"I KNEW he was lying!" Takeru wailed suddenly, dropping hard to his
knees beside his brother. Patamon fluttered up to the young boy's
shoulder. "I knew he was lying, I knew he wasn't okay!"
Pipermon looked at him.
"Takeru-san," she said, "whaddya mean?"
TK flinched and squeezed his eyes shut.
"Last night he woke up in the middle of the night cuz he'd had a bad
dream," he said, near tears, and Pipermon's fists clenched as she
realized she had been right...Kurarimon had gotten to Yamato, and badly,
at that. "He was all scared, but he insisted that he was okay. He said
he was fine--but I knew he was lying!"
Tai snapped to attention.
"TK!" he shouted, and TK looked at him. "TK, did you say Yama had a
dream last night?"
TK sniffed, and then nodded.
"Uh huh," he affirmed, "a really scary one, too. He was really freaked
out!"
Tai's mind was starting to put the pieces together.
"Sora," he said, and didn't even wait for her to acknowledge, "the night
before you got that headache...you had a dream, too...didn't you?"
She blinked.
"Well, actually...yeah, I did," she admitted, sounding a little
sheepish, "but I blamed it on being worried about you, Tai..."
Tai felt his face flush crimson, but continued quickly, "Sora, quick,
tell me what you saw in the dream."
"Well," she said, "it was almost as if the dream started in the
middle...like it was already going on when I became a part of it. We
were running...all of us, running...running from something--I dunno what
it was... It was some sort of a strange black cloud... But, we were too
slow...and it..." Her voice trailed off.
"It swallowed you up, didn't it?" he asked seriously, and she snapped
her head up, her eyes bulging.
"Yes!" she cried. "Yes, it did! But--how did you--?"
"Because I had the same dream," he said, and tapped one finger beside
his left eye, "the night before I lost my sight."
"That was the weird part, though, Tai," Sora went on, "you weren't in
the dream at all."
"Of course not," he said, slapping his fist into his palm, "because the
dream had already gotten me." He paused. "You were right in front of me,
Sora," he added, then hesitated. "Yamato was...he was in front of
you...wasn't he?"
Sora gasped.
"He was...ohmigosh--!"
"Then I'll bet you my allowance for the next three weeks that neither
you nor me was in the dream Yamato saw," Tai said.
"So whoever was in front of him will most likely be the next one on
Kurarimon's list!" Sora said.
Izzy was fascinated.
"So," he said, "it stands to reason that Yamato would be able to
correctly identify the person who will most likely be hit next." He
paused. "We'll just have to ask him who was in front of him when he
wakes up."
"IF he wakes up..."
All eyes turned to Pipermon.
"What??" they all cried.
Pipermon was holding Yamato's head in her lap again, and she brushed a
golden strand of hair out of his face.
"My spell should have worn off by now," she explained with a frown. "The
magic is only supposed to last maybe five or six minutes..." She gnawed
on her lip. "I think that, whatever Kurarimon has done to him, it's made
him too weak to awaken from the spell." She draped the back of her hand
across his forehead again. "His temperature is so high..." she said,
sounding fearful. She looked up at the rest of the group. "We have to
find a way to bring the fever down."
Jyou dug through his pockets.
"I think I have some Aspirin," he mumbled.
"I think this is a little beyond the bounds of conventional medicines,
Jyou," Gomamon said, waving a flipper.
"Gomamon's right," Pipermon said, and lay Yamato's head back down on the
forest floor. Gabumon stood beside his fallen partner and looked at
Pipermon with anxiety in his large round eyes.
"What do we do?" he asked. The look in Pipermon's eyes was a grave one.
"There's only one thing we CAN do," she said, and she placed two fingers
on Yamato's forehead. Kari quickly slapped Pipermon's hand away.
"Hikari-san--?"
"Pipermon, you CAN'T," Kari protested, "it's too dangerous!"
"A headache is one thing," Sora added, her hands clasped together
uncomfortably, "but Yamato's situation is really bad."
Pipermon was taken aback.
"But we have to do SOMETHING," she cried, "we can't just leave him like
this! If something isn't done to break the fever...he could...he
could..." She clenched her fists. "He could DIE!" She glared at the
children. "Who are you more worried about, anyway" she demanded, "me, or
your friend??"
Hikari lowered her eyes.
"But...you're our friend, too, Pipermon," she said softly.
Pipermon sucked in a sharp breath, feeling rather like she had been
slapped across the face. She cringed and looked away.
Oh, how I wish you hadn't said that, Hikari-san, she thought. It's just
going to make everything harder...
She looked up at the children again.
"Listen to me," she said, "this isn't as dangerous as you may think. I
can regulate my internal body temperature, I can raise or lower it up to
seven degrees from my normal temperature, which makes a hundred and six
degree fever a lot less dangerous for me than for Yamato-san." She
locked eyes with Kari. "Please," she implored, "please, let me try...let
me help him..." This is partially my fault anyway... she added silently.
Tai frowned.
"You really think it's safe?" he asked. He wanted to help Yama, but he
didn't want anything to happen to Pipermon. Yama was his best friend,
but Pipermon was their guide...without her, they would be lost, but
without him, they would be incomplete...oh, what to do? It was times
like this that Tai despised being the leader...because when you're the
leader, the final say on big decisions rests on your shoulders...and so,
too, does the responsibility should something go wrong. Tai grit his
teeth. "You're confident you'll be all right?" he went on.
She nodded.
"Piece of cake," she said. "We'll both be fit as a fiddle when I'm
through." She winked, and hoped she knew what she was talking about.
Tai sighed gustily, then slowly nodded his head.
"Then do it, Pipermon," he said. "Help Yama...but be careful."
She nodded once, crisply, then again placed two fingers on Yamato's
forehead. She placed two from her other hand on her own brow, and closed
her eyes.
"Rains from Heaven, Winds from the West,
Come forth, O power with which I was blest.
Bring back this child from the thresh hold of death,
Let him be saved by these words Magic saith:
Breath of Restoration!"
Again, the wind that seemed to originate nowhere swirled around the
children, sparkling as though the air were full of diamond dust.
Pipermon opened her palms and pressed her hand against Yamato’s'
forehead. There was a flash of light--
--and then something went wrong. Pipermon felt suddenly dizzy as the
sickness Yamato had been stricken with was yanked from his body and
slammed into hers. Something was very wrong--it wasn't supposed to--
something wasn't right at all! It wasn't supposed to happen like this--!
"Pipermon..."
She leapt back away from Yamato, nearly colliding with Jyou. Her eyes
scanned the trees.
"Pipermon...what do you think you're doing?"
Kurarimon's voice filled her head, hissing like a serpent. Pipermon let
out a shriek and stumbled backward, trying to escape the voice in her
mind.
"What are you doing, Pipermon...?" the disembodied voice demanded.
Pipermon cried out and dropped to her knees, pressing her hands over her
ears as though she could block out the voice invading her thoughts. Her
eyes were wild with terror. Was this what Kurarimon had done to Yamato?
No wonder he had run! "So, you're helping them now?" Kurarimon
whispered, her voice dripping with fury and resent. "How noble...taking
the punishment meant to be theirs... This has gone far beyond the bounds
of simply earning their trust, Little Piper..."
Pipermon screamed in terror and lunged backward as Kurarimon's ruby red
eyes flashed before hers, narrowed to angry slits and burning with the
fires of rage.
"So...you wish to be their ally now?" the eyes bellowed accusingly. "Not
a very wise choice, child...I strongly suggest you rethink your plans.
Perhaps I can help you make the right decision, Pipermon...perhaps I
shall give you a sample of what I do to my enemies... I will give you
another chance, Pipermon--but one, and only one--to choose...but maybe
I'll let you experience what it is like to be my enemy before you make a
final determination of whose side you're really on..."
With that, a searing white-hot pain shot through Pipermon's head, and
she felt woozy and faint. She swayed unsteadily, and vaguely heard the
frightened shouts of the digidestined children as her knees gave out
from under her. She felt herself falling, and tried to cry out, but
before she could do anything else, the world went black and silent
around her.
Waiiii, this is *not* good! What'll happen to Pipermon? And what about
Yamato? ::bounce:: Eeee...I'm all excited--and I already know the
ending. O_o; Okay, hikari, no more Coca Cola for breakfast. "..." Well,
anyway, there ya go... please review! Arigato! Ja ne, minna-san!
~~hikari
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