Kari placed her hand near her heart. "Because it is the power of my crest, Tai," she said, smiling at the others. "It's like you said to me before, Pipermon:" she went on, "'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 paused--"light."
"Light?" Yamato echoed incredulously. He scowled at Pipermon. "And how hard would it have been to tell us that, like...YESTERDAY?"
"Once and a thousand times," Pipermon said in exasperation, "I couldn't have." She suddenly looked as though the weight of the world had been lifted from her shoulders. She was so happy that they had finally discovered what they needed to. Maybe now things would end up the way they were supposed to. "The power of light over darkness is a fragile one...the balance is delicate. It is something that must be discovered, not something that can be told. For the power to work, not only must that person's heart be filled with light and hope...but so, too, must their mind."
"So...it was like the light had to come on in our brains before the power would work?" Mimi guessed.
"Exactly."
Yamato scoffed.
Pipermon gave him a sidelong glance. "If you kids hadn't discovered it on your own...brought it to light, if you will," she continued, "then the power would not have worked."
"So why didn't Kurarimon just tell us?" Yamato sneered. "If that would have screwed us over, why didn't she just tell us 'it's light!' ?"
"Because she didn't know," Pipermon snapped. "She didn't know that telling you would mean your destruction. She had no idea that all she had to do to thwart all your efforts was tell you exactly what I had so often refused."
Yamato narrowed his eyes. "Why?" he demanded. "if you knew, why didn’t she?"
"Because she never bothered to think about it," Pipermon shot back. "She never stopped to think that the obvious answer might be the wrong one. It never occurred to her that the beaten path would lead her to destruction...she never stopped to think that the ..." She paused. "It doesn't matter," she went on after a moment. "You have the key now, and that's what counts."
"But why Kari?" Tai asked, clenching his fists. "Why does she have to be the one to do it?"
Pipermon frowned. "That is her crest, Kamiya-san, and the power within her spirit." She paused. "It wasn't her choice," she continued, "nor anyone else's really... She bears the crest. She has the power, and the light within that can save you all."
"But what do I do now?" Hikari asked softly. "Now that we know it's up to me...what am I supposed to do? I dunno how to use my light against her."
"You WILL, Hikari-san," Pipermon assured her. "When the time comes, you will know what to do."
Tai scowled. Why can't it be me? he fumed silently. This had happened once before, when a magical entity had taken control of Kari's body to give the Digidestined some much-needed information about their pasts...how they had witnessed the fantastic battle between Greymon and Parrotmon six years ago at Heighton View Terrace...how that had been the night they had been chosen to be the Digidestined... The creature had only been able to communicate with the bearer of the crest of light, and hence, it had no choice but to borrow Kari's body for its informational purposes. It was then that they had first learned the power of the crest of light. How, within the heart of one of the group's youngest members, slept a power more awesome than any of the others. It had infuriated Tai that such responsibility should rest upon the fragile shoulders of his little sister. How he had wished desperately that he could take those responsibilities upon himself and save Kari from them, knowing very well he could not. One could not choose the crest they bore, it was simply a reflection of the strongest trait within that person's heart.
He sighed.
Not again, he thought. Why did it have to be Kari?
"Kamiya-san?" Pipermon said, and he glanced up at her, again reveling, for just a moment, at how wonderful it was to be able to see again. Pipermon leaned down slightly and gave him a small smile. "Kamiya-san, she won't be fighting all alone," she told him, as though she could read his thoughts. He raised his eyebrows in question. "You'll all be helping her," she continued. "For, just as Courage alone would never be able to destroy Kurarimon, neither would Light." She paused dramatically. "It's going to take all of you,"--she glanced at Kari--"but, Hikari-san, you must be the catalyst. YOU must knock over the first domino."
"Domino?" she echoed, scrunching up her nose. "But how?" she asked again.
Pipermon smiled cryptically. "You'll know when you need to," she said, and stood up straight, looking to Tai again. Taichi gave her a somber look, then glanced back at his friends. A smile crept its way across his face. How he had missed them. There was just something so reassuring about their faces...even when they were frightened, or hurt, or lost...it was comforting to see that, as long as the Digidestined were a team, no one would be afraid or injured alone. Oh, it was true, they had been there the whole time, but it just wasn't the same, being able to hear them but not see them...to feel their presence and yet never see their faces... He made a promise to never again take his sight for granted, for he had seen how quickly it could be snatched away.
Tai was so busy studying their faces, that he failed to see the movement just off to his left. He didn't see Kurarimon's single red eye blaze in fury as she slowly, painfully, pushed to her hands and knees. he didn't notice as she drew her hands up to her chest, didn't realize what she was doing as a dark sphere gathered between her palms. No one saw the black orb between her hands until it was too late to stop it.
"Obsidian Sphere!"
"Tai, watch out!!"
"Huh--?"
Tai whirled to his left and saw the sphere of dark energy flying toward him. Time seemed to stop, and Tai finally saw his enemy. He gasped at the sight of her; the single blood-red eye, the bloodthirsty snarl on her face... As the seconds seemed to protract to minutes...to hours, Tai saw the crackling orb of black lightning hurtling his way. With a startled cry, he threw his arms up in front of his face in an effort to shield himself.
Then suddenly he was shoved hard to the side.
Time resumed its normal speed.
Tai hit the ground hard, snapping his head up quickly to see who had pushed him out of the way. He let out a strangled cry of horror.
"Izzy--NO!"
Koushiro had seen what the enemy was up to just in time to push Tai out of the way...but there hadn't been enough time...he hadn't been fats enough...to save himself. Now he jerked and convulsed in the black energy of Kurarimon's wicked spell.
"Izzy!" Tai cried, leaping to his feet, ignoring the pain in his side where he had hit the ground. "Dammit!"
"No!! Izumi-san!!" Pipermon shrieked. "Deuces Wild!" she shouted, sending the cards flying at Kurarimon, screaming vile curses at the digimon she had once called master. She gasped as Kurarimon's lightning ball fizzled and popped, then died out when its creator was bombarded with the charged cards and fell, reeling, to her knees, her power momentarily lost. "Izumi-san!" Pipermon choked out, lunging forward to catch the auburn-haired boy's lifeless body as he crumpled to the ground. She gripped his shoulders tightly and shook him gingerly in an effort to revive him. "Izumi-san! Izumi-san, come on, wake up!"
The others gathered in a tight circle around them, leaning in close to see what had happened. Tentomon was paralyzed, too stunned and shocked to move. Could...could Izzy really be...be dead? Could he really have sacrificed himself?
Pipermon shook him again, not even glancing up into the horrified eyes of the seven other Digidestined as they gazed, terrified by what had just happened, at their unmoving comrade.
"Izumi-san," Pipermon begged, "please...please open your eyes! Izumi-san!!" She shook his shoulders again. "Koushiro-chan!" she cried desperately, her heart pounding in her throat. Oh, god, she thought, tell me he's not gone... Tell me we haven't lost him... "Izzy..." she whispered, a single tear sliding down her cheek, "Izzy...you can't be dead..."
Cradling his body, Pipermon lifted her head to glare in the direction of Kurarimon's battered form. Tai saw a furious flame in her eyes like nothing he had ever seen before. There was a deep, raw, burning hatred in her kind blue eyes now, a loathing like no other. For a split second, he felt a twinge of fear, and was suddenly very glad he was not the one on the receiving end of that fiery glare. She looked at Jyou and gave an almost imperceptible nod of her head, and he dropped to one knee to take Izzy's lifeless body from her grasp. She started to shift the boy's weight to the arms of his friend, but stopped suddenly, glancing down. She gasped as Izzy suddenly twitched in her arms and sucked in a ragged breath, then contorted into a racking fit of coughing.
"Izumi-san!" she cried, helping him sit up. She slid one arm around his heaving shoulders as Jyou took the boy's forearm, supporting him as he attempted to get the air back into his lungs. "Izumi-san, thank god you're all right,' she said, more to herself than anyone else. Koushiro glanced up at her, but said nothing, as though afraid to open his mouth to speak. His dark eyes were wide in fear, his heart thudding loudly in his throat.
"Wh...what happened?" he finally managed to rasp out.
"We thought you were a goner!" Tentomon said, relived, lifting off the ground, his insect-like wings buzzing softly.
Izzy grinned. "Tentom--" he started to say, then nearly collapsed in another fit of coughing.
"What the hell kind of stunt was that to pull, Izzy?" Tai demanded, too relieved to see Koushiro was okay to really be sore with him. "You about got yourself KILLED!"
Izzy locked eyes with Tai.
"You would have done the same for any of us, Tai," he said with a wan smile, and Tai's breath caught in his throat. He gave a half-grin.
"Glad you're okay, buddy," he said, clapping Izzy lightly on the shoulder.
Pipermon and Jyou helped Izzy to his feet, and then Pipermon turned, her eyes narrowed severely.
"Let's do it, then," she said icily.
"Pipermon?" Jyou asked.
She gave the Digidestined a look of pure determination. "I'm going to help you," she said without any hint of a waver in her voice. "If it takes my final breath to do so, I will help you destroy her." She fisted her hands and continued in a frigid whisper, "Kurarimon has hurt me for the last time..." She looked at Izzy, who appeared a little worse-for-wear. "I will not see any of you children killed because of the ambiguity of my actions... I won't watch you be defeated because I hesitated."
There was a moment of stunned silence, then Tai clenched his hands.
"All right then," he said, pumping one fist into the air, "let's go take back the Digital World!"
Wellll...okay, here's the deal, I tried to post this last night...but my computer was being retarded and wouldn't do it (as I
proceeded to shake the monitor back and forth a la Tai from the movie), so I said "fine, screw you then," and went to
bed. So here I am, posting it this afternoon instead. Hah hah, stupid computer...Hikari is not so easily deterred, you
dumb piece of machiney! Muhuhahahaha!!! ::gak:: Okay, sorry, I got a little carried away...must be this Tropical
Strawberry Guava juice I bought at Food Lion. ~_^ Well, gang, we've reached the home stretch! Please review!! What
do you think?? Who will triumph?? Ack! It's so exciting!!
~~hikari
Back to the First Part of Chapter 16
