Disclaimer: No. Digimon does not belong to me.
ckc: So… What up people? Haha I know it's been forever since I've last updated. And I apologize profusely for this prolonged period of prolific un-updatingness. See, high school kinda claimed my attention and then ACT's and then choosing colleges and then along came a boyfriend and then college. It's been a wild ride for sure. But here's a new chapter for everyone patient enough to wait (although I've probably lost everybody. I apologize again). Anyways, here it is. My writing style may have changed a bit (I hope it has actually. I shudder every time I read the first few chapters from this). But I hope it's still as enjoyable as always. Or at least my cliffhangers leave you all wanting more. Thank you. And goodnight.
They were running for their lives.
Gasping for breath, the teens sprinted pell-mell across the desert, sand kicked up into a crawling cloud. They ran out of fear, out of defeat, out of pure adrenaline-pumped panic. And the thing, the slowly materializing figure of a woman in the cloud of dust travelling towards them was getting closer every second. If they could somehow make it to the forest they would have some sort of cover-
But it was no use. The forest was still but a dark speck on the horizon.
"We're… not… gonna… make it," Kai panted. He was lagging behind the group from the weight of an unconscious Jyro on his shoulders.
Ginta swore in his head, not enough air left in him to speak. No; there was no way they could outrun the thing. They had gotten the lead for the first few minutes, but now it was closing the distance. But they couldn't just fight it; they had decided that within seconds before sprinting off. He was still slightly weak from blood loss (though he hated to admit the fact) and Jyro was dead to the world. This was not good.
He turned to look back at the figure, barely aware of a strange popping noise like a bubble bursting, and then looked forward to see a very blue person coming very close.
Colliding with the person, Ginta hit the floor and rolled in the dust, the wind completely knocked out of him. He was given only a second of respite before three people tripped over him, and he was shoved into the ground in a cloud of dust.
"Ohhh, git off," a voice next to him groaned.
With much groaning and panting, the teens stood up, and underneath them was-
"Dra-Drasheimon!" Saisho gasped.
There sat Drasheimon covered in dust and wearing an expression of utmost misery, her eyes more watery than usual.
Oh man, they couldn't fight two digimon at once! Ginta took a fighting stance ignoring his new bruises.
"Oh d-don't bother," she sobbed. Hiccupping, she picked herself up, wiping a grimy hand across her heavily tear-streaked face.
Ginta blinked in surprise.
Next to him Danny stared, brow furrowed. "What?"
In ill-humor Drasheimon waved her hand at them. "Just go off and do whatever!"
She snuffled, looking around at their surprised, tired faces. Then her gaze focused on the incoming dust cloud and the woman within it; her expression froze, becoming calculating, and then she glared, a positively venomous look.
"Oh, to hell with it!" she shouted, looking around. A stream, albeit a small one, was right next to them. That would do fine.
"Stand close to each other!" she ordered, but the teens stepped back preparing to run again. "I'm gonna help ya'll, okay?"
"How do we know we can trust you?" Ginta fired back.
With an impatient flutter of hands, Drasheimon called the water to her, all the water she could get out of the ground and faraway forest. The sound came first, a distant roar, and then the teenagers turned to see a giant wall of flowing water rushing towards them.
"Run!" Ginta yelled, and the teenagers took off; but it was no use. The giant wall of water overtook them with a roar.
It was cold, dark… but surprisingly dry. Ginta squinted his eyes open to see that he and his friends were trapped in a giant bubble, surrounded by the rushing water. Unable to stand he sat down hard staring at the woman. Drasheimon had her arms outstretched, waving them as if pushing the bubble along.
"Where are you taking us?" Saisho was the first to speak, her voice sounding oddly muffled in the bubble.
Drasheimon shrugged, sniffling.
Sighing, Ginta poked the bubble, stopping when Saisho sent him a don't-do-that-it'll-pop look. "Guess we're stuck here as prisoners."
"I'm not kidnapping you, honey," Drasheimon said loudly with a slightly hiccup. "I'm done with all this fighting, all this bad stuff."
The teens looked at each other with dubious glances. How could they trust her? She worked for Viraonomon. She had tried to kill them before for goodness sakes. They couldn't worry about it now though. If they tried to fight they would be crushed by the water above, below, and beside them.
"So…" Ginta cleared his throat, trying to break the silence. "How's, uh, Jyro doing?"
They all looked to the prostrate form of Jyro lying on the floor of the bubble. She was pale, very pale, and shivering. Danny was staring at the girl, worry clear on his face. What did this?
"Is… s-she okay?"
Danny whipped around when Drasheimon's voice penetrated the air. She was bighting her lip, tears dotting her face.
"Why would you care?" snapped Kai.
Her lower lip quivered as did the bubble. "B-because…. b-because…"
Sensing the danger, Kai tried to calm her. "Sorry! Sorry! Don't worry, just keep the bubble safe!"
The bubble stopped shaking, and they all let out a sigh of relief. All they needed was to be squashed by the water surrounding them. At least they were safe from the woman in the dust cloud.
Ginta played with his goggles, quickly getting bored. "So why'd you save us?"
"Ginta!" Kai hissed. "I just calmed her down!"
Drasheimon gulped. "Told ya. I'm sick of it all."
"What, you didn't get your quota of spirits for the week?" asked the gogglehead. There were many hisses of 'Shut up!' and Saisho slapped his arm, but he ignored them.
The woman was deadly silent, and it sent a chill through the teens. Nobody spoke. And then she brought her arms down slowly; the bubble stopped. Turning to face the humans, Drasheimon stared at them with a cold, striking look, her blue eyes piercing.
"I'm not going to stand around and watch like a helpless girl anymore," she whispered. "He taught me to choose. And I will."
Surprised by the harshness of her voice, Ginta frowned. "Who taught you?"
But she did not answer. Flicking her hands the bubble suddenly popped, and the teens fell to a grassy, wet floor. They were in a thick forest, unlike the one they had been in earlier. It was tropical, tall palm trees stretching over their heads and leafy green plants with brilliantly colored flowers as big as their heads shooting up.
"Don't go East," Drasheimon warned, standing on a pillar of water above their heads. Her eyes flicked to Jyro's face, tears welling up like blue pools. "I'm sorry."
As the water surrounded her the teens stood up quickly, shouting.
"Wait, where are we?" Saisho asked.
"And who taught you? Who is 'He'?" yelled Ginta.
But she was already wrapped in water; and with a pop and a tiny splash she was gone.
The teens stared at the spot where the digimon had been. She saved them. She, Drasheimon, had saved them when only days earlier she was an enemy.
"Okay, I'm completely confused," said Ginta, sitting down again. "One minute she's an enemy and the next she's helping us? What the heck?"
Kai shrugged. "Well, never mind that. We're safe now but… where are we?"
They looked up at the tropical canopy, blinking against the darkness. It was quite warm, almost stifling. But it was an area they had never seen before and they had no idea of where to go.
They were lost.