Chapter 15
"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."
