It was dark, the room was chilly. But then it seemed that they all were. Pipermon didn't care, she didn't even feel the cold anymore. The chill in her heart was far colder than the chill in the air. She had really trapped herself in a corner this time...Kurarimon would never trust her again...and the children certainly wouldn't... Kurarimon would probably kill her for her disobedience...but she didn't care anymore, it didn't matter. It just didn't matter.
She let out a gusty sigh.
She hadn't imagined it ending like this...she never expected thing to happen the way they did.
It doesn't matter now, she thought sadly, sitting down against the wall. She drew her knees up to her chest and rested her forehead on them. Nothing matters anymore...
She snapped her head up when she suddenly heard footsteps. Short, fast footfalls from somewhere beyond her line of sight. She tensed, and quickly jumped to her feet, her flute shimmering into existence in her right hand. She spun it quickly, and the footsteps came to an abrupt halt. Pipermon bared her teeth.
"I know you're there!" she shouted, surprised by the volume of the echo that reverberated off the old stone walls of the corridor. "I know you're there," she said again, "show yourself! Or are you too much of a coward to step into the light?"
She gasped when she saw who the footsteps belonged to.
"Hikari-san?" she said as Kari stepped out into the pale flickering candlelight illuminating the room. "Hikari-san...how did you find me?"
Kari frowned.
"I dunno..." she said honestly. "I just walked. I wasn't quite sure where I was going, but I followed my heart... I had to find you, Pipermon...I couldn't let it end this way..."
Pipermon didn't quite know what she was talking about, but was touched by the child's actions.
"Hikari-san...but what are you doing here? Why didn't you stay with the others? It's not safe to wander around by yourself down here."
Kari frowned and clasped her hands together behind her back.
"I wanted to talk to you, Pipermon," she said softly.
Pipermon's eyebrows shot up.
"You DID?" she said in disbelief. She paused, and leaned back against the wall. "What for?" she added. "It's a crime to consort with the enemy, you know..."
Kari's expression hardened.
"I don't believe that," the young girl said, fisting her hands. "I don't believe for one minute that you’re our enemy, Pipermon!"
Pipermon was a little taken aback by Kari's faith.
"You don't?" she asked, startled. Kari nodded, and Pipermon let out a sigh and slid to the floor, "Well, thank you, Hikari-san," she said, her voice melancholy, "but try convincing the others of that..."
"I won't have to," Kari said.
Pipermon looked up at her.
"Nani?"
"I won't have to convince them, Pipermon," she said again, "because YOU'RE going to."
Pipermon threw her head back and laughed bitterly.
"You're joking, ne?" she snickered. "Oh, don't be ridiculous, Hikari-san...even if I TRIED talking to them, you really think they would listen?"
"Pipermon, PLEASE," Hikari implored. "We need your help if we ever hope to defeat Kurarimon... Please, Pipermon, won't you come back with me?"
Pipermon hesitated. Kari had come all this way...had somehow managed to follow her through the maze of tunnels beneath the castle... She couldn't understand how Kari could still have even a shred of respect for her after what she had done... She sighed and shook her head.
"Hikari-san...I...I can't."
Kari frowned.
"How come?"
Pipermon knit her brow.
"I just...can't," she said. "Please, Hikari-san, please try to understand...I don't want to be your enemy...but I just can't help you destroy Kurarimon... I cannot fight alongside you, I'm sorry."
Kari looked disappointed.
"I...think I understand," Kari said haltingly.
Pipermon took the child’s hand.
"Hikari-san, I am sorry," she said again, "I'm so sorry that things turned out the way they did...I...I never wanted--"
"It's okay, Pipermon," Kari said, slowly pulling her hand from the digimon's grasp. "You've already rescued us half a dozen times, anyway...we can't really ask you to do anything more for us..." She paused. "I really wish you would reconsider, though," she added after a moment of pensive silence. "We really need your help, we're lost without you, Pipermon, you have to know that..."
Pipermon smiled weakly, and held up her index finger, slowly shaking her head.
"Iie, Hikari-san," she said, getting to her feet, "that's where you’re wrong."
Kari blinked.
"You kids DON'T need me anymore," Pipermon went on. "I've gotten you to where you need to be...you're out of the woods now...literally..." She grimaced at her own bad joke. Then her expression sobered as she looked into Kari's sad chestnut eyes. "I've taken you as far as I can on this journey."
"But--"
Pipermon placed one finger over Kari's lips to silence her.
"I told you, I can't, Hikari-san," she reiterated. "I've reached the end of the line on this one. From this point forward, you'll have to go it alone." She smiled secretively and leaned down, her hands on Kari's shoulders. She looked the girl in the eyes, and continued. "You have the power to defeat her, Hikari-san," she went on, and tapped two fingers on Kari's chest, just below her collarbone, "you just have to find it." She stood up straight, and blinked slowly.
Kari scrunched up her nose.
"Whaddya mean?" she asked.
"Hikari-san, how do you get rid of darkness?" Pipermon asked.
Kari frowned.
"Ne?" the child said.
Pipermon smiled a cryptic smile, and softly recited,
"There is one way to beat the darkness,
One way to lift the black of night.
The only way to destroy a shadow
Is to use the powers of--"
She stopped short with a soft gasp, and spun quickly, twirling her flute and whispering something Kari couldn't hear.
"Powers of what, Pipermon?" she asked as Pipermon's cloak materialized in the air. The digimon quickly wrapped the cape around her shoulders and moved in front of Kari. "Pipermon--?"
"Hush!" Pipermon hissed, flicking her wrist and fanning the floor-length cape out a bit. "Don't move, Hikari-san, and don't make a sound..."
Kari obeyed, confused and a little frightened. She suddenly understood what was happening when an unfelt breeze ruffled the cloak and made her hair twitch, like static electricity had just been pumped into the room, causing her hair to stand on end. The intangible silent wind blew past again, and the bells at the bottoms of Pipermon’s ponytails jangled softly, like far off sleighbells, as her hair swayed.
"I know you're here, Kurarimon," Pipermon said softly, "stop lurking in the shadows."
There was a flash of light, and a silhouette appeared in the corner of the room. Kari forbade herself to gasp when Kurarimon's low, unctuous voice filled the air.
"I thought I might find you here, Little One," Kurarimon said softly. "Ever since you fist came to be in my service, you would always come here"--she spread her arms in a grand sweeping gesture--"to these cold, dark catacombs beneath my castle, to think." She paused, and lowered her arms. "I am lost, Pipermon," she went on slowly. "After I've done so much for you...after I rescued you...after everything I have tried to help you with...you would still betray me?"
"I never intended for things to go the way they have, Kurarimon," Pipermon said quickly, sounding rather like a teenager who had just been caught red-handed by her angry father.
"Nevertheless," Kurarimon interjected before Pipermon could continue, "they have." She paused, and a frown crept across her thin face. "Might I ask you, Pipermon, WHY things happened as they did? Why you found it acceptable or necessary to go against what I told you and help these children?" She narrowed her eyes. "Why you felt you had to protect them rather than obey me?"
Pipermon looked at the floor, and mumbled something indecipherable. Kurarimon lifted her golden eyebrows.
"Come again?" she asked haughtily. "What'd you say?"
Pipermon snapped her chin up.
"I said 'because you're WRONG'!" she shouted. The echoes bounced off the wall and left her ears ringing. "You're wrong," she went on a little more softly. "You're wrong about them. They aren't the cause of you're being what you are, Kurarimon, YOU are!"
"What??"
Pipermon clenched her fists.
"You blame the Digidestined for your becoming the monster you have, Kurarimon, but that's just not true!" she cried. "No one is born evil, Kurarimon, it's the choices you make that shape and decide who you are!"
Kurarimon's scarlet eyes narrowed angrily.
"Had it not been for the Digidestined," Kurarimon said, raising her arms out to her sides, "I never would have been completed. I would have remained incomplete and inanimate, I never would have had to live out this wretched existence as a mismatched, patchwork digimon created of stolen parts!"
"Had it not been for the Digidestined," Pipermon said icily, "you would not be ALIVE, Kurarimon. You should be thanking them for giving you the chance to live, not trying to annihilate them!"
"Why should I thank them for giving me this miserable course of life?" Kurarimon demanded.
"YOU'RE the one who chose to make it miserable, not them!" Pipermon shouted. "No one made you what you are, Kurarimon, except you. Nobody is born into this world, or any other world, a demon...we are all born the same. We are all born innocent."
"That's just the problem, Pipermon," Kurarimon wailed, "we WEREN'T born! You, and me, and Hollymon and Ivymon--we weren’t born. We didn't COME from digi-eggs, we did not lie in cradles in the Primary Village, we've never even set FOOT there! We weren't born, Pipermon, we were CREATED!"
"Born or created, Kurarimon, a life is a life," Pipermon said coldly. "Strip away all the horrible things we are guilty of, and we are the same as those kids and their digimon. Beneath your skin, a heart beats in YOUR chest, too, somewhere, even if you don't remember it's purpose! Beneath all the evil on the outside you are a creature just as worthy of life in this world as any of them!"
"Don't you DARE compare me to those creatures!" Kurarimon seethed angrily, baring her teeth. "I'm not like them, and neither are you!"
Pipermon shook her head.
"You're wrong," she said. "Regardless of what you may think, our lifeblood is the same as theirs. Digital, real, or otherwise, a living creature is a living creature and nothing makes that living creature who it is but itself. No one made you the monster you are, Kurarimon...except you."
Kurarimon paused, and, for a moment, Pipermon thought she had gotten through to the more powerful digimon. She quickly found she was wrong when Kurarimon slowly began to advance toward her.
Pipermon's heart skipped a beat.
If Kurarimon discovered Kari behind her, the child would be killed. There was no way Pipermon could stand up to Kurarimon's attacks, not here, not in this castle. She tensed, holding her ground, a prayer running loops through her mind.
Please, she thought, please stop. Please don't find Hikari-san...
She couldn't bear the thought of anything happening to the children. Even though she was sure they must have hated her now, she couldn't stand the thought of their downfall being at the hands of Kurarimon. And Kari... Kari still had faith in her...after everything she had done...after all the deception...Kari still believed...
No, she would not let Kurarimon win...Kurarimon would not take Kari...not here...not now...
Not ever.
Kurarimon stopped, as though Pipermon's thoughts had reached her. The two powerful digimon stood silent and still, in checkmate, it seemed, as neither one appeared able to make the next move. Kurarimon narrowed her eyes again, glaring daggers at Pipermon.
"Those children destroyed Piedmon, your master, your creator," she said, a low throaty growl in her voice, "and that alone should be reason enough to destroy them--that was the reason you joined me in the first place!"
"Piedmon got what he deserved," Pipermon said, her voice equally as icy. "He may have been the one to create us...we may be here by his hands...but he would have destroyed this world, given the chance. Piedmon got what was coming to him...and you may well, too." Her voice was low and malevolent. "It was too late for Piedmon...his soul was too far gone, his heart too long forgotten..." She frowned. "But it's not necessarily too late for you, Kurarimon." She paused, and a lump formed in her throat. "I blew my chance..." she whispered. "I blew my chance at redemption...but you don't have to."
"What are you babbling about?" Kurarimon growled.
"Those kids are the most amazing creatures I've ever encountered," Pipermon said. "They are kind, they are gentle, and they're open-minded...Kurarimon, they KNEW of my reputation, they KNEW what I had done...they knew...and yet..." She paused. "And yet, they gave me a chance anyway. I may have lost that chance forever, I betrayed their trust just as I have betrayed yours...but they gave me a chance, Kurarimon..." She fisted her hands. "And if you tried...if you really tried..." She grit her teeth. "If you wanted another chance, Kurarimon, I'm sure they would give YOU one, too... It's...it's not too late."
"It's ALWAYS too late!" Kurarimon screamed. "When you have nothing, it's always too late!"
"Nothing??" Pipermon cried. "You think you've got NOTHING? You could have anything you wanted! You could have everything, Kurarimon, you have powers beyond imagination, and yet you use them for nothing but destruction!" Her eyes flashed, enraged. "I'M the one with nothing...without Piedmon, I was lost! I was totally lost, Kurarimon, you said it yourself--I was a basketcase! You saved me...you saved me from myself, and now I have lost everything! I've lost my master, my savior, AND the children." She knit her brow. "You saved ME, Kurarimon...now all you have to learn is how to save your OWN soul."
"Soul?" she repeated. "I HAVE no soul to speak of, Little One...for I am a monster!"
"A DIGITAL monster, Kurarimon," she corrected desperately, "and DIGITAL monsters have souls!" Her eyes were wet with unshed tears of hopeless despondency. "Digimon DO have souls..."
Kurarimon made a soft scoffing sort of noise, and Pipermon squared her shoulders.
"I don't care what you think, Kurarimon," Pipermon said, "it's not too late for you. It's never too late to say you’re sorry."
"What if I'm not sorry?" she challenged, a bloodthirsty look in her scarlet eyes. Pipermon refused to falter. Her blue eyes turned steely.
"Then YOU should be the one who is hunted, Kurarimon, not them," she hissed, "for if you are not sorry for what you've done then you truly ARE a monster..."
"Why should I ask forgiveness from those who are my bane?" Kurarimon demanded.
"Why are you being so stubborn about this??" Pipermon shouted in response. "Why can't you understand?? The solution to everything--to all your problems, all your pain and suffering... It's all right in front of you, Kurarimon, as plain as the scar on your face!"
Kurarimon flinched, and her hand moved to her jawline.
The scar.
It was like a constant reminder to her what an abomination she was.
It was about four inches long, and right down the middle of her left eye. She wore her hair as she did in an effort to hide it...but she had yet to figure out how to hide it from herself. She stroked it softly, as though she could will it away, and then clenched her fist.
Pipermon had seen Kurarimon cringe, and knew she had hit a nerve.
"That scar blinded more than just your left eye, Kurarimon," she growled menacingly. "You let your hatred consume you, and now you're too afraid to allow yourself to change!"
Kurarimon lunged forward and grabbed the neck of Pipermon’s unitard.
"If I hadn't sworn to myself two years ago that I would not kill you in a fit if anger," she snarled, "I would snap your neck."
Pipermon inhaled sharply, but her eyes betrayed no fear.
"And you swore that for why, Kurarimon?" she said through clenched teeth. "Because you knew you would need me to get to the children??"
Kurarimon let out a furious growl, and dropped her hold on Pipermon's neckline, causing her to stumble backward. With a silent gasp, Kari moved quickly, remaining just barely hidden from sight.
"I will not help you, Kurarimon," Pipermon went on firmly, "I will not harm those children." She scowled. "I won't hurt them," she repeated, "so please do not ask me to."
"And if I ORDER you to?" Kurarimon dared, taking a small step back.
Pipermon shook her head.
"Then I will disobey those orders."
Kurarimon scowled.
"Very well, Little Piper," she said softly, "if that is the way things are to be..." She turned on her heels and started to slowly walk down the hall, back into the shadows from whence she had appeared, her cape swishing behind her like a silver ghost.
Pipermon let out the breath she had been holding, and lowered her head, relieved.
"Oh, and Piper," Kurarimon called back over her shoulder. Pipermon snapped her chin up and straightened her back, startled. Kurarimon's ruby eyes glowed like incandescent scarlet stars in the shadows of the chilly corridor. "Pipermon, heed my advice, and do not leave this place," the eyes said slowly. "If you value your life, you will remain here. After I am finished destroying those children, I shall have a few words with you." The eyes widened, then narrowed to venomous slits. "And so, farewell for now, Little One," she said quietly. "I've got a date with Digi-Destiny!"
With that, she was gone with a flash of silver-white light and a loud, triumphant laugh.
"A few words, ne?" Pipermon growled in a mocking tone. "Oh, yeah, a few words..." She hesitated, then shook her fist in the air. "I've got a few words for you, too, Kurarimon, most of them consisting of four letters!" she grumbled. "'A date with Digi-Destiny', puh!" she repeated, and made a disgusted scoffing sound. "Oooh, she's so BAD! Even her CLICHÉS are bad!"
"Pipermon?" Kari suddenly whispered, and Pipermon jumped with a short cry.
"Hikari-san!" she said, spinning around. A smile split her face. "Gomen...I had forgotten for a moment that you were there!" She laughed, and patted Kari on the head. "I guess we fooled Kurarimon, ne, konezumi?"
Kari grinned.
"Do you really mean that, Pipermon?" she asked. "You really won't help her anymore?"
"I meant every word of it, Hikari-san," she said slowly. "I refuse to help her in hurting any of you, I swear it." Then she snapped her head up. "But we are running short of time. She's going to look for the others." She hesitated. "We have to get to them before she does...we have to warn them...if Kurarimon finds your brother and the other children and catches them unawares, they'll all be killed before they even have a chance to retaliate! She'll...she'll..."
Pipermon didn't finish her sentence, rather grabbed Hikari under the arms and lifted her off the ground, holding her tightly against her side.
"Come on, Hikari-san," she said, and jumped into the air, "there's no time to lose."
"But I thought you couldn't fly," Kari protested. "Tai said--"
"Have you forgotten?" Pipermon said, and started to move forward. "Within the stones of this mountain lie magic more powerful than you can imagine, child. The rules I was bound by out in the forest have no meaning here. Here, a digimon who knows how to use the magic that is hidden in the very air we breathe can do near about anything... Here..."--she paused, and winked--"here, I can fly."
She grinned cryptically, and they zipped down the hallway.
"Ara...Pipermon?" Kari said, and Pipermon looked at her. "Where are we going? This isn't the corridor I came down before..."
"We'll never get there in time if we take the hallway you used," she said. "Ii yo, I know this castle like the back of my hand, Hikari-san, I know a shortcut." She paused. "You'll just have to trust me."
"I trust you."
Pipermon nearly choked.
She hadn't even hesitated.
I trust you. I TRUST you?
Had she really said that so unquestioningly? She felt a sudden pang of guilt as she began to wonder if maybe she had misjudged the children. Perhaps humans weren't so quick to jump to conclusions after all. If Kari still had faith...could it be possible the others did, too? She supposed it didn't really matter. Whether they regarded her as friend or foe, Pipermon refused to let Kurarimon get the upper hand. If she could warn them, that might give them a fighting chance. But, even so...Pipermon feared that was all she could allow herself to do to aide the children. Though she did not have any intention of HELPING Kurarimon, she found she just couldn't fight AGAINST Kurarimon either. She sighed, cursing her foul luck. Why did it have to be such that, as soon as she found creatures with enough heart and soul to give her another CHANCE at life...that she would be forced to choose between them...and the digimon who had given her BACK her life...?
Kari took a deep breath as they raced through the air, moving so quickly that she couldn't watch the walls as they flew past, for fear she would become dizzy. She gulped, and tightly clutched Pipermon's arm as they sped down the corridors.
Please let us get there in time, Kari thought, and she could tell by the look on Pipermon's face that the digimon was thinking the same thing. Please don't let us be too late!
What, you were expecting it *not* to be a cliffhanger?? ::shakes head:: You know me better than that, minna....
~~hikari
PS: "konezumi" means "little mouse", for anyone who wondered. ^_^
Back to the First Part of Chapter 13
