Chapter 16
When there was silence again, Pipermon turned back to frown at the empty air, cursing herself for having just committed the heinous act she had.
She was a murderer.
She sank slowly back to the ground, her mind a mix of a myriad of horrible emotions...anger, fear, hatred... She had killed two of her fellow digimon... She never imagined that taking a life would feel this way...she felt as though her heart had been torn from her chest by way of her own hands. She clenched her fists in rage and guilt, condemning her very name for the perpetual bloodstains she would now bear on her soul. She slumped to the ground, and her legs gave out from under her. Falling forward on her hands and knees, she squeezed her eyes shut, feeling weak and sick.
"What...what have I done...?" she whispered, staring at her fingers as they dug into the dirt beneath her. "What have I DONE??"
She sucked in a sharp breath when she saw a pair of feet approach and stop just before her. She didn't look up. She didn't have to, she already knew who it was.
"Pipermon..." Yamato said softly.
"Pipermon!" Jyou gasped, running up behind Yamato. "Pipermon, you're BLEEDING!"
There were cries of shock and surprise as the rest of the children gathered around the wounded Pipermon. Yamato gnawed on his lower lip, feeling guilty for having said so many awful things about her before.
He dropped to one knee. "You...you saved us, Pipermon," he said. "You destroyed them...destroyed your own comrades...to save all of us..."
She looked up at him, her stomach reeling. He did not smile, but there was gratitude in his eyes that said much more than a smile ever could have. Glancing around, Pipermon saw the rest of the children had all gathered around her, all looking quite like they had seen better days. Jyou's glasses were bent and resting rather sideways on the bridge of his nose, and his duffel was covered in dust, the strap fraying near one end. Mimi's hair was all disheveled (and she was rapidly trying to remedy that), and she had scrapes on her knees. Plus, all of the digimon were back in their Rookie forms, save Gatomon who remained in Champion. Pipermon shook her head. Children should not be subjected to such things, she thought. These are horrors that would bring most adults to their knees, and yet, somehow...these children remained standing, ready for more, ready to throw down their lives to save this world and their own. Ready to do whatever it took to brink Kurarimon down. She shook her head again.
TK looked all around them, his large blue eyes scanning the damage surrounding them. "Does this mean we won?" he asked timidly.
"Iie, Takeru-san," Pipermon said, "we haven't won anything..."
"But Kurarimon is--"
"Temporarily out of commission," she interrupted Sora, quickly getting to her feet, wincing as the pain in her cut shoulder screamed when she moved. She grit her teeth. "I've bought you some time, that's all."
Yamato stood up and spread his arms to his sides. "So what do we do now?" he asked. "Tell us what we need to do, Pipermon."
"We'll get her while she's down and be done with it," Jyou said.
"Quick and painless," Gomamon added.
"That's all she wrote," a newly recovered Tentomon concluded.
"I didn't see her write anything," TK whispered to Patamon, who shrugged.
Suddenly, Pipermon found ever pair of eyes was upon her. She fidgeted.
"Well?" Tai coaxed.
"I can't," she whispered.
Yamato fisted his hands and growled angrily. "Not this again," he snarled. "What's wrong NOW?"
"Clearly your intentions lean toward helping us," Izzy noted, "so why do you refuse to do that?"
Pipermon shook her head. "No, you've got it all backwards," she told them, wringing her hands. "It's not that I won't...it's that I CAN'T."
"You've told us that a dozen times," Gabumon accused, "and you've yet to explain the reasons behind that statement."
"Why is it that you will fight Kurarimon FOR us," Patamon asked, "but refuse to tell us how WE can destroy her?"
"Because if I tell you then it won't work," she said, gritting her teeth.
"Nanda?!" Yamato exclaimed.
"I can't tell you anything more than I already have," she said firmly. "This is something you kids must discover on your own. I have evened the odds as much as I--" She paused, and her eyes fell on Taichi. "Oh, wait," she whispered, "I forgot..." She paused, then crossed her wrists in front of her, twisting them inward until her fingertips touched. Whispering something the children couldn't quite hear, she then cupped her right hand in the palm of her left, and the glowing blue sphere faithfully returned, reappearing safely in her hand. She smiled at it, then looked up, slowly walking toward Tai. "Kamiya-san," she said, cupping the sphere gingerly, as though afraid it would break, "close your eyes."
He snorted. "Like it makes a difference..." he groused.
"It will," she replied hotly, dropping to one knee in front of him. "Trust me, just close your eyes."
Rather perplexed, Tai did as she said, and closed his eyes. He was momentarily startled by the fact that there was no difference. He was looking at the same blackness he saw when his eyes were open, which was quite a troubling prospect. He uncomfortably shifted his weight from one foot to the other, and then he heard Pipermon slowly begin to chant something; soft, rhyming stanzas that almost sounded as if they could have been song lyrics.
"Through eyes that can't see, on wings that can't fly;
in a voice that can't speak lives a song that won't die.
"Turning hatred to friendship, forging courage from dread,
it takes your very deepest fears and makes them strengths instead.
"The song is called Hope, and Hope is eternal
as long as it lives in a heart filled with light.
It will let the lame walk, bring faith to the lost,
and return to the blinded their heaven-sent sight!"
She flattened out her palms and blew softly on the sphere, which had darkened to a deep indigo color. The glowing globe of blue light lifted silently from her hand and hovered in front of Tai's nose. He scrunched up his mouth when he felt a strange sort of warmth across his face as the sphere floated closer. Pipermon splayed her fingers, angling them inward, and guided the little orb closer to Tai's face. The second the glowing ball of light touched the bridge of the boy's nose, the blue radiance exploded, spreading across his eyes until there was a bright patch of blue running horizontally across his cheekbones that spread quickly up to his brow.
He let out a strangled cry and clapped his palms over his eyes as a strange sensation rippled across his face. It didn't hurt, not really, it felt more like the prickly pins-and-needles sensation one feels after their foot has fallen asleep. However, as the feeling intensified, it began to burn...
Yamato started to step forward when Tai let out another yelp and dropped to his knees, pressing the heels of his hands into the hollows of his eyes. Pipermon frowned, looking away, then lifted a few inches off the ground and floated slowly backward until she was several feet behind the group of children, none of whom seemed to notice she had left. The Digidestined gathered, anxious, in a horseshoe shape around Tai. He squeezed his eyes shut and lurched forward, catching himself on his right arm, his left hand now covering both eyes. He grit his teeth against the burning in his eyes.
What've you DONE to me? he cried silently. Pipermon...what did you DO?!
Then suddenly, the pain was gone. As quickly as it had stricken him, the burning pain had vanished. With his left hand still covering them, Tai slowly opened his eyes--
--and yelped as a brilliant white light flooded them. He cringed and clamped his eyes closed again to block out the bright whiteness. What had happened? It was like the complete opposite of what had happened to him before!!
"Tai?" came a frightened voice, and he felt Kari's touch lightly on his shoulder.
"I'm okay, Kari," he said softly, though he wasn't certain he believed it himself. He carefully trying to open his eyes again, half expecting the white light to greet him a second time, instead of the blackness he had become so accustomed to. He slowly opened one eye. The white light had dimmed so it wasn't quite so bright, and he looked down at the palm of his hand that he still had up near his face. Looked at his--? Hey--wait a second!!
He blinked rapidly, then pulled his hand away from his face. Waggling his fingers, he let out a startled shout of sheer delight as his eyes saw his fingers move. He snapped his head up sharply and saw Kari's concerned eyes looking straight into his. He SAW them. Still reeling with disbelief, he leapt to his feet, nearly knocking Kari backward. He stood up straight, and scanned the faces of the other children slowly. Sora, a look of panic in her lovely green eyes, was fearfully clutching her forearms, as though she were cold. Jyou, beside her, looked about ready to vomit...but, then again, he tended to look that way frequently... Yamato and TK stood next to him, Yamato's fists clenched in hopeful anxiety. Nearby stood Mimi, her large eyes glazed with tears, and Izzy, clutching his computer tightly to his chest. Scattered in between the children were their digimon, similar expressions of fear and hope in their eyes. Tai looked at Agumon, who looked more despondent than he had seen the little dragon look in a long time. Agumon, he thought to himself, and a small smile crossed his lips. He looked back down at Kari, who had backed up a little bit, and he reached his arm out to her.
"Kari...?" he said, as though he wasn't quite certain it was really her. She blinked. A huge grin suddenly split his face. "Don't look so worried, Li'l Sis," he chided, winking at her.
"Look so...?" she echoed almost inaudibly, and then she beamed. "Tai!" she cried, rushing forward. "You can see again!!"
He stooped over and spread his arms, wrapping her in a tight embrace, then he lifted her high in the air, spinning her around and around, laughing--something he hadn't really done since this whole ordeal had begun. He had forgotten how good it felt to really laugh. He brought his arms down and hugged his sister again, tightly, almost desperately. "I thought I would never see you again, Kar," he said softly, his voice cracking. "Literally..." he added dryly as she pulled her face back to look at him. His signature lopsided grin was wider than ever, and his warm brown eyes had that mischievous sparkle in them again. "The goggles look good on you, Kar," he added after a pause, and she laughed. The old Tai was back.
He looked past her at the others, beaming, and the expressions of the Digidestined turned from those of fear and concern to relieved joy as they rushed forward toward the friend and leader they had been so worried about for the past four days. Sora took his arm in hers and hugged it tightly to her side, and Kari threw her arms around his neck, the smile never leaving her face. Tai clasped hands with Yamato, and the blond boy gave him a look that betrayed so many emotions at once it could not quite be interpreted to mean one thing or another.
"Welcome back, Tai," he said.
Betwixt all the laughter and clamoring of voices, Tai had a strange feeling that something was missing. With a small frown, he set his sister back down on the ground and lifted his head. The voices died down as all eyes turned to Tai, who was surveying their surrounding as though looking for something he had lost.
"Tai, what is it?" Sora asked softly. "What's wrong?"
And then he noticed, off to the right, a lone figure standing, her hands clasped behind her back, a pair of ponytails crowning her head. Tai took a tentative step toward her. "Pipermon?" he asked, and suddenly felt stupid. As if it could have been anyone else, he told himself wryly.
She met his eyes, and smiled broadly. "A face to go with the voice, ne?"
A smile split the boy's face as he was finally able to look at the digimon who had done so much for him--for all of them. His eyes had only been dark for four days, but he felt as though he had missed a lifetime of things in that time span. She approached the children again, and Tai struggled to stammer a thank you, but Pipermon waved her hand as a sign that he really needed say nothing.
"I believe it was the least I could have done, for all the trouble I caused you," she said. "I merely gave back what was stolen away from you."
"You've done a lot more than that, Pipermon," Tai said, smiling gratefully.
"How did you do it?" Jyou asked eagerly. "I thought you said you couldn't!"
"I said I couldn't unless I got his sight back from Kurarimon," she corrected with a sly smile. "I did just that."
"What did you mean?" Yamato suddenly piped up, slicing through the happy chatter like a jagged knife. She looked at him. He squinted. "You said before that you couldn’t tell us what to do, that if you did, it wouldn’t work." He paused. "What did you mean?"
She frowned. "Listen to me," she said, "I can't tell you how to destroy Kurarimon. I just can't. If I tell you how to do it, then you won't be able to. You have to find out for yourselves." Yamato gave her a skeptical look, and she narrowed her eyes at him. "Haven't you figured it out yet?" she asked, spreading her arms. "Everything she's done has been a clue. Everything that's happened to you has been a clue. Haven't you seen the connections?"
"Connections?" Agumon echoed.
"Is that like what you do with the dots in those activity books they give you on airplanes?" Mimi asked facetiously.
"I prefer an internet connection," Izzy mumbled.
Pipermon let out an exasperated sigh. "She's been TOYING with all of you!" she cried. "This whole time, she's been toying with you! It's just another one of her games! The entire ordeal, everything--they've all been pointing to one thing! Have you all been blind!?" She gasped when she realized what she had said, and looked at Tai. He blinked at her, and she floundered. "Sorry," she mumbled, feeling like an idiot. Recovering quickly, she looked at Yamato. "Think about this," she instructed, "what was the first thing that happened? The first event that alerted you that something wasn't right?"
"The fact that I had gone blind..." Tai said without hesitation, a little bitterness in his voice. "And the nightmare."
Pipermon smacked her fist into her palm. "Exactly!" she shouted. "So what do you see when you can't? What stands before the eyes of the blind?"
"Nothing," Kari said.
"Uhn-uhn," Pipermon said, shaking her head. "Guess again...it's not that nothing is there, its' just that all they see is--"
"Blackness," Tai said quietly. "Nothingness..."
"Keep going," Pipermon urged, gesturing with her hands.
"Darkness!" he said.
"Bingo!" she exulted. "And what was it in the nightmare that you ran from?"
"The darkness," he said again. "The cloud...it was so dark..."
Her face broke into a wide grin. "You're getting it," she said. "And what happened then?"
"The storms," Kari said, pointing skyward. "The huge storms over Odaiba."
"Uh-huh," Pipermon affirmed, "and what was unusual about them?"
"There was no lightning," Jyou said after a moment of silence. "No lightning at all!"
"But what does it all mean?" Mimi asked.
"Haven't you kids noticed the changes around here?" Pipermon asked. "How the air has grown so cold, how the sky grows dark so fast?" She turned and looked at Sora. "Sora-san, when you were hit with Kurarimon's magic, what happened? What did you feel?"
"I was cold,” Sora said. "It was like my blood had gone cold. The pain was so intense, I couldn't even see! It was like everything had gone"--she gasped at the realization of what she was about to say.
"Dark..." Pipermon concluded slowly, and Sora nodded eagerly. Pipermon looked at Yamato. "Yamato-san, the hallucinations you experienced," she continued, "the faces you saw, the voices you heard...what was it that caused their pain? What was it that was driving them mad?"
"The darkness..." he said slowly. "Everything...everything I saw...around them...it was jet black..."
"Hai," she said, clasping her hands together. She gestured off to one side. "Look over there," she went on, pointing, "look at those trees, what is strange about them?"
The children all turned their eyes to the grove of trees off to their left. They were small, with thick trunks and low, flat, skeletal branches. But--wait a second--they were all--!
"Dead!" TK gasped. "they're all dead!"
"Yes!" Pipermon responded. "And what must a tree have in order to live? What does it need that it doesn't get here?"
"Sunlight," Jyou answered quickly.
"So what made these trees die?" Pipermon prodded further.
"The darkness," Izzy said. "Trees can't live in darkness, they need sunlight for photosynthesis. Without light, they cannot produce the energy they need to live."
Kari inhaled sharply as something clicked in the back of her mind.
Darkness, she thought, and furrowed her brow. There is one way to beat the darkness...
"Right, Izumi-san," Pipermon told him. She gave Yamato a pointed look. "The whole time, Kurarimon has been flaunting her strength...but at the same time, she was betraying her weakness."
Yamato scowled at her. "Will you knock off the Obi-wan Kenobi BS?" he growled. "Just give us a straight answer for once, dammit!"
"I've already told you," Pipermon snapped back. "I CAN'T do that, Yamato-san, why won't you LISTEN??" She fisted her hands. "I've gotten the twins out of the way,"--her breath caught in her throat, and she looked down and briefly squinted her eyes shut--"Kurarimon is all yours now, with no distractions." She lifted her head. "All you have to do now is figure out what it is you're supposed to do..."
"But we already hit her with everything we had," Tai said softly, "and it wasn't enough."
"What more can we do?" Mimi asked.
The darkness... The wheels in Kari’s head were turning as her mind put the pieces together. Kurarimon's strength lies in the darkness... One way to lift the black of night...
"I told you children already..." Pipermon said firmly.
The only way to destroy a shadow...
"...that strength alone would not be enough."
...is to use...
"Then what is??" Yamato demanded.
...the powers of...
"Light!" Kari cried suddenly, startling everyone, including Pipermon. "The powers of light!" She looked at Pipermon. "You've been trying to tell us that the entire time, haven't you? Her weakness is light!" Her eyes moved to her brother. "It's...it's me..."
