Part 8: In the Dark of the Night
Tai walked quickly, holding the beaten up Salamon close, trying to hide the tears that streamed down his face. He didn't want to hurt Kari, but her cat didn't have much chance of living. It was very obvious.
"Tai? Is Salamon okay?"
Tai closed his eyes in anguish. How could he answer his sweet sister? She was eight years old, and her partner, her friend for life, the one she had a special bond with, could depart at any moment. Tai couldn't speak. He turned to Sora and opened his mouth.
Sora nodded and took Kari's hand. "We'll fix Salamon up, don't worry," she said. She glanced back at Tai and saw the trails his tears had taken. Her heart beat faster as she realized what Tai knew already. There was practically no hope for Salamon.
Tai felt a weight lift from his arms and whirled to see Joe. The older boy smiled. "Don't worry, Tai," he said, cradling the kitten. "I'll help Salamon."
Tai nodded and the ache of months of fighting and death finally overcame him. "I'm tired, let's rest for a while."
"Tai? You actually *want* to rest?" Mimi said. He nodded and the group stopped for the night. Agumon curled up next to Tai, who took off his goggles and twirled them on his finger.
Izzy watched Tai. He looked much shorter without those awful goggles holding his hair up.
"Izz-y," the boy heard Joe call. "Get your laptop over here."
Tai and Izzy both ran to Joe's side, Tai still with his soft brown hair tumbling into his eyes. "Is she okay?"
"Izzy, look up how to treat a comatose cat," Joe said. He cast a worried glance at the small creature lying before the three boys.
"Awwwwwwww," Four female voices whispered. Mimi, Sora, Palmon, and Biyomon were sitting nearby, watching the youngest children. T.K. was cradling Kari, trying to comfort her.
"Those two would make a great couple," Mimi sighed.
"Are you nuts? I would be almost related to MATT!" Tai said, forgetting his sister's wounded digimon for a moment and coming over to the girls and Patamon.
"Well, if they like each other--" Biyomon began.
"No. I am not becoming part of some crazy, girlish scheme to get them closer together. Nope. I will NOT be related to Matt. I mean, just LOOK at that hair of his!"
"His isn't so bad, Tai," Sora said, giggling. "I mean, no offense, but how DO you see from under there?"
"*That* is why I have my trusty goggles!" Tai said.
"Trusty? Then where are they?" Mimi asked.
Tai brushed his hair back. "Girls!" He returned to Izzy and Joe.
~*~
Gavinmon watched the sleeping children through his magical mirror two hours later. Then he smiled. "Servant, this will be your first target," he said, pointing to one of them.
Matt blinked. "Her? Why would you want *her* to go first? What about Tai? Can't I please kill Tai first?"
"She'll be my prisoner, bait for the rest." Suddenly the girl opened her eyes and sat up, not knowing the danger she faced. She started talking to the plant which sat next to her. Gavinmon smiled. "Strike when she is tired."
"How do I get past Palmon?"
"That's my job," Gabumon said. "Blue Blaster!" He fired an experimental shot at the ceiling.
"I'll tell the others to prepare the arena," Tigreromon said.
"Good, good. Those little chosen brats will never escape me! I have one of them on my side already, and with the girl..."
Matt nodded. "But, my lord, why would you want Mimi?"
"It has to do with her past...and my future..."
Matt leaned forward as a new image came into the mirror. "This is why. Watch while I find Etemon. I need him to write me a victory song..."
"Uh, only one problem, sir, Etemon's dead. All his helpers are dead. They're just plain dead! Dead, dead, dead--"
"Oh, what would YOU know, Servant Child? WATCH!"
"Okay, okay, don't hold your breath."
Matt watched as a much younger Mimi backed away from a shadow that was advancing on her. "NO! What do you want from us? We're kids!"
"I want your lives!"
Mimi was thrown backwards by a blast from the shadow-creature. Stunned, she fell to the ground. A white glow suddenly surrounded the creature. Matt looked away from the intense light on the screen. When he glanced back, she was gone.
"What did Gavinmon want with her anyway?" Matt wondered.
Ten minutes later Gavinmon returned. "Uh, I found some old music," he said, embarrassed that his servant was right about Etemon's death. "I'll be putting on a concert now--"
"We won't be able to get Mimi, we'll be deaf," Gabumon whispered. Matt stifled a laugh as very horrifying music played in the background.
"If we live through this, remind me to go get my money and buy him singing lessons," Matt said to Gabumon as their master began.
"In the dark of the night I was tossing and turning,
And the nightmare I had was as bad as can be,
It scared me out of my wits,
A corpse falling to bits,
Then I opened my eyes and the nightmare was me!
I was once the most mystical man in all Russia ("He
was in Russia?" Matt asked.)
When the Royals betrayed me they made a mistake,
My curse made each of them pay,
But one little girl got away,
Little Mimi beware, the shadow's awake,
In the dark of the night, evil will find her
In the dark of the night weakness will show,
Revenge will be sweet
When the curse is complete
In the dark of the night, she'll be gone!
I could feel that my powers are slowly returning,
Tie my sash and a dash of cologne for the smell
As the pieces fall into place,
I'll see her crawl on her face,
They'll say, Mimi, Mimi, your grace, farewell,
In the dark of the night, terror will strike her,
In the dark of the night, evil will doom her,
Soon she will feel,
That her nightmares are real,
In the dark of the night,
She'll be through!
In the dark of the night, evil will find her,
In the dark of the night, evil will doom her,
My dear, here's a sign,
It's the end of the line,
In the dark of the night,
In the dark of the night,
Come my minions, rise for your master,
Let your evil shine,
In the dark of the night,
In the dark of the night,
Find her now, yes, fly ever faster,
In the dark of the night,
In the dark of the night,
In the dark of the night,
She'll be mine!
"Well?" Gavinmon asked, waiting for an answer.
"I think the performance was good," Matt said slowly, "but it isn't an original work. That song is from the movie Anastasia. You know, from Earth? Etemon didn't write it."
"And I should believe *you*?"
"That's the problem with you Digiworld rock stars," Matt muttered. "Never write your *own* songs."
"Go kill her. NOW!" Gavinmon said impatiently.
"Yes, your honor." Matt and Gabumon bowed and left.
~*~
Izzy softly closed his laptop and walked over to Tai.
"Hey, wake up. It's your turn to be on watch."
"Just five more minutes. I'm so tired," Tai mumbled.
"Yeah, sure. I'm more tired than you are. Get up."
Tai rolled over and yawned. His hand flew out and smacked Izzy, who tumbled backwards.
"OW! What was THAT for?" Izzy asked angrily.
"Fine. I'll get up. Just QUIT your yapping, 'kay?" Tai said, standing up.
Izzy glared at Tai. "Good-night!"
"Sweet dreams to you, too." Tai walked over to a tree to begin his watch.
About an hour later Tai heard a soft whimper. Then Mimi sat up, breathing hard. "Hey, what's wrong, Mimi? Bad dream?" he asked.
"More like a bad memory," she answered.
"Oh. Ya wanna tell me about it?"
Mimi hesitated, but then nodded. "It started when I was four or five. We lived in Russia, and I was already a social butterfly. I was in a sort of club, and we called ourselves the Royals. I was the queen, sorta like our president. We were just little kids, and we saw monsters--digital monsters."
Tai's eyes couldn't possibly get any wider, but somehow, they did.
"One of the monsters was a shadow. My friends began to disappear, and one day the four of us who were left decided to sleep in a real palace. It was just a big house, but to us it was a mansion.
"So, we got permission and brought sleeping bags and everything. And that night, the shadow got all of them--except, of course, me. And that was when Gavinmon--I think it was him--decided that the queen, me, had to go. I escaped."
"Obviously."
"Yeah. And now Gavinmon's back."
"I didn't know you lived in Russia."
"When I was five we moved to Heighton, and just before I turned seven we moved to Odaiba," Mimi said.
"Oh. So Gavinmon is this shadow that wants to kill you?"
"Precisely."
"Now you sound like Izzy. Stop it!"
" 'Kay," Mimi replied. She yawned and rolled over to go to sleep.
Three pairs of piercing black eyes watched the scene.
"Now, Servant Child. Kill her now."
"No, my liege. No. We won't kill her immediately,"
Matt answered. Gabumon nodded. "It is better for her to...suffer."
~*~
An hour or two later, Tai was about to wake Joe up when he heard a soft moan. "Hey, Mimi, you all right?" he asked, walking over to her.
Tai blinked when he saw how sweaty she was. "It isn't *that* hot out here," he thought out loud.
Placing his hand against her forehead, Tai soon yanked it away in pain. "This is not natural. This is more than not natural, this is...an unexplained something-or-other." Tai snapped his fingers when he recalled how sick Kari had been only a few days before.
"Hey, Kari. Get up."
The eight-year-old yawned. "What's wrong, Tai?"
"Where's the medicine I gave you?"
Kari thought about it for a minute. "I think...I...gave it to...Sora! I gave it to Sora so she could keep it safe!"
"All right. Sora!"
But this search also proved fruitless, since Sora had given it to T.K. "He had a bigger bag," she explained. T.K. was much harder to wake up, but eventually he said, "Okay, I'm up," and then, "Oops!" as he accidentally kicked his bag. The bottle of pills wasn't in it.
"Okay, Joe, do you still have Kari's medicine?" Tai asked. "No, wait, you gave it to Izzy, right?"
Joe shook his head. "It's right here."
"Well," Tai said, "I'll wake Izzy up since the rest of us are already awake."
"Oh, no need to do *that*, Tai. I'm awake and attentive," Izzy said.
Sora tapped her foot on the ground impatiently. "So why are you waking us all up?"
"Mimi has a fever or something." Tai turned to Izzy. "And you better tell us what's wrong, because she's burning up!"
Seven long minutes later Joe and Izzy walked over to the rest of them. "We can't explain this. It's an unnatural phenomenon," Izzy said.
"I've never seen anything like it," Joe added. "And my dad's a doctor!"
There wasn't really much that the digidestined could do after giving Mimi some of the pills. They were just kids, after all. Joe was the oldest, and probably the one most experienced in doctoring, but he was only twelve.
Mimi slowly opened her eyes a few hours later. She sat straight up and stared into the trees at the soft white glow that seemed to burn into her very soul. She quietly got up and slipped into the forest. When she reached the glow her eyes flew open. That--that couldn't possibly be--could it? She pocketed the glowing thing and hurried back to the campsite.
Tai sighed in relief when he saw her. "I was about to wake the others, Mimi. Do you feel better now?" "Oh, much better," she assured him, rubbing the glow with her thumb. "In fact, I feel wonderful!"
~&~
"ARGH! How can she have it? Now we will never defeat her, or the rest of those digidestined brats!" Gavinmon screamed, banging his head on the wall.
"Pray tell, what in Digiworld IS it?" Gabumon asked.
Tigreromon snarled. "That, my--ur--*friends*, is the mystical gem that saved the maiden over, um, oh yeah! Over five years ago. Sorry, I suck at math."
"Exactly! Get it from the girl, Servant Child."
"Sure, whatever. Come on, Gabby."
"GABBY?! I resent that!"
"Fine, then. Gabu-san."
"Much better."
~*~
Mimi rolled the stone around in her palm as soon as she was left on guard. "I never thought I'd see you again. Come out, Hiromon."
A soft white smoke came from the stone and formed a figure about the size of Garurumon. It had long ears and a slender body. Its tail was long and had four red stripes on it. Other than that and the big green eyes, it was a smoky blue, even its wings.
Hiromon smiled. "Lady Mimi, you've returned. But you have grown."
"And you, Hiromon. I suppose the others didn't notice you in the great Heighton battle. But I did."
"Yes, mistress. If I had only been a girl, I'd have been your digimon." He bared his teeth. "BUT, that ugly little PLANT got to be the protector of the Guardian of Sincerity."
"Don't call Palmon ugly. And what are guardians? Aren't we the digidestined?"
"Once you received the crests you became guardians. You, the Guardian of Sincerity. That one, Guardian of Knowledge. And the one who has disappeared from the face of the planet, seemingly, is the Guardian of Friendship. Beware the Guardian of Friendship, child, and when you wage the great battle, do not digivolve without using--"
Hiromon vanished into the glimmering white gem at that point, and suddenly it was pulled from her hand.
"Mimi, where'd you get this?" the Guardian of Love asked.
"Oh, that saved me a while ago. Ask Tai to tell you my stor--SORA, LOOK OUT!!!!"
The girl crumpled to the ground and a familiar figure snatched Hiromon's refuge from her fingers. "Dear little princess," the form said sarcastically.
Mimi couldn't move. Those eyes...they were pitch black with an odd red glow. And Gabumon's...a terrifying similarity! She reached out and managed to drag her fingers across the jewel's surface. "Come out, Hiromon!"
The smoke took shape and faced the Guardian of Friendship. "Human, you will not harm the Guardian of Sincerity. Ice Crusher!"
Matt and Gabumon dodged the ice that meant certain death. Throwing Mimi the stone, Matt hissed, "You won't escape!" and ran.
"Thank you, Hiromon," Mimi whispered as her little friend returned to his home. Mimi turned to Sora. "Oh, no, this is bad."
She got everyone except Kari and T.K. to wake up and help Sora. "That's it," Tai said fiercely when he heard how Sora got to be that way. "I am going to wring his neck with my bare hands! Or something. Let's go!"
~*~
"Per-fection," Masakimon said. His bright green body was like that of a rabbit, but his ears were short and pointed, and his tail was thick and could squeeze anything to death. He had a bright orange bird's beak, and he was covered in scales. He reminded Matt of a dragon. A dragon with a peace symbol inscribed on his chest.
"Let's go out to meet them," Arachnamon hissed. She had a human figure, but for hair she had spiderwebs. Her clothing was ragged and black, and her arms--well, there were eight of them.
"Wait for meeeeeeee!" a high-pitched voice squealed. It was Glebimon, a babyish blob of purple goo. He was stronger than he seemed, although not so bright. The three digimon left and Matt smiled. "We'll be waiting if they make it to the arena!"
"I'll guard the entrance," Tigreromon said.
"With me," Eaglomon insisted. He was a large eagle with extremely sharp talons.
"Wonderful," a voice said. "And now, the main event: the downfall of the digi-doomed!"
~*~
"How much farther, Tai?" T.K. asked sleepily. The sun was setting in the west--or what they thought was the west--and they had been walking all day. Sora was better, although her head still hurt.
"I dunno," Tai answered. His digivice hadn't beeped yet, and he was determined to find Matt, somehow.
"Yo, dudes, what's up?" a voice asked.
"Let's get ready to rumble!" a more feminine voice called.
"Come on, let's go, movin' right along folks--"
"W-what's that?" Kari asked.
Izzy opened his Digimon Analyzer file. "The first one is Masakimon," he said as the bright green creature stepped out of the shadows. "He's a mega digimon who thinks he rules the world."
"Just like Matt," Tai mumbled.
"Next is...uh-oh, Arachnamon. Another mega. She's really strong, and she's poisonous." The figure clothed in black stood next to Masakimon. Her skin was a pale gray color.
"Third one's called Glebimon. With the mind of a baby digimon, or possibly an in-training, he'll be easiest to beat. He's only an ultimate." Izzy paused and then added, "Did I mention they all work for Gavinmon?" Within seconds all the champions were fighting, except Salamon, who was too weak. Togemon battled Masakimon. Her Needle Spray crashed into his skin. He laughed. "Crazy plant! Death Ram!" Togemon was grabbed by his tail and squeezed--hard. He tossed her against a tree. "NO, TOGEMON!!" Mimi screamed.
The other five were struggling with Arachnamon. Already Ikkakumon and Kabuterimon had been poisoned. "Poison Beam!" Arachnamon cried, sending Birdramon to the ground.
"HELLLLLLLLP!!!" T.K. shouted. Glebimon had grabbed his foot. Angemon whirled around as the blob sucked T.K. toward it.
"T.K!" Angemon yelled. He flew at Glebimon, who stopped him. "Glob Shield," he said calmly. Angemon bounced off the purple shield that appeared.
"Angemon, you've got to digivolve!" Greymon yelled. "Nova Blast!"
"I can't, I can't!" Suddenly Glebimon started to shake T.K., who screamed for help. His digivice began to glow. "Oh, well, maybe I CAN! All right!"
"Angemon, digivolve to...MagnaAngemon!" He zipped at the shield and broke through. Glebimon stared at him with big puppy eyes. "Gate of Destiny!!!"
Glebimon was sucked into the gate that appeared before them. MagnaAngemon grabbed T.K. and flew him away. Then he dedigivolved to Patamon.
All the digimon digivolved to ultimate except Salamon, but before long all but Lillymon were poisoned, and that was because she was fighting Masakimon. He laughed harder than ever. "Whoa, flower child, don't break a stem! Peace, baby! And the 'baby' I mean literally!"
"Oh, you--" She dove for him and missed, wrapped again in his deadly tail. She wriggled free and screamed, "Flower Cannon!"
The petals hit their mark. Masakimon was down; the cannon had hit him in his beak, which was open with laughter. He disintegrated, and Lillymon turned to face Arachnamon.
Time after time, Lillymon dodged the beam and hit Arachnamon with her Flower Cannon. Finally, Arachnamon said, "You're too good for my Poison Beam...so take this, little daisy! Spiderweb of Doom!"
A net enclosed Lillymon, and though she tried, she was soon reduced to Palmon. The same net caught all the others except MetalGreymon and MegaKabuterimon. They attacked full force.
"Giga Blaster!"
"Horn Buster!"
Arachnamon just smiled and retaliated with a Poison Beam. Tai set his jaw and ran forward. "Arachnamon, you're crazy!" he yelled, an idea forming in his mind.
She whirled around. "How dare you!"
"You're an absolute loon! You only work for Gavinmon because--"
Tai never finished as a spiderweb landed on top of him and he heard Arachnamon's laugh. "Keep your comments to yourself!"
Tai started to laugh when his plan worked. MetalGreymon hit Arachnamon with his Mega Claw, and she faded away. The spiderweb dissipated and Tai stood up.
"Prodigious!" Izzy shouted as MegaKabuterimon returned to Tentomon and the same thing happened to MetalGreymon.
The digimon, though weak, were still willing to head on, so they did. They all hurried in the direction of the digivice signal, which they had finally found. "Come, little prey," a shadowy form said, watching them through an enchanted mirror. "You have the rest of my minions to reckon with! Ha ha ha!" His evil laughter echoed through the halls of his dark castle as the digidestined came closer...closer to what might very well be their doom...their downfall...and their death...
