Warnings: small spaces, claustrophobia, misery

7. The Color of Power

There was no air in this thing. It was too far from her hands to push it out herself. She couldn't breathe, she couldn't brea-

Like the snap of a glow stick, the small space warmed, flooding her panicked mind and freezing her small limbs. All Hikari could hear was her harsh breathing, her limbs twitching like they had space to give. The walls were so close to her head they almost wanted to crush her.

Calm down, whispered the voice, the voice that came from nowhere and everywhere at once. He won't keep you here. The man's a prideful sort. He'll want to parade you about quite a bit. That is your chance. You must take it.

But how? She was a little girl. How could she take it? What would she even do?

Please trust me. It's worked so far.

Well, she won't do much good not trusting whoever this is or trusting them to begin with. So, Hikari nodded and took a deep breath without quite having to. She was so scared.

She wanted her brother. She wanted Taichi back. And she would do anything for that, even trust voices in her head.

You were supposed to be here at the same time, but things happened. Now breathe, slowly.

Hikari wasn't a person to breathe slowly, but she obeyed. She had to or she would run out of air. As she did, the pink light began to spark once more. Even behind her eyelids, she could see it. It was… beautiful.

This is you, whispered the voice. This is your power. Now hold it tight.

How do you know all of this?

They didn't answer for what felt like forever. Then they said, I made a mistake. The people I worked with cast me out for it. And someone took pity on me. A lot of someones. If it wasn't for one, I wouldn't be here. I love her so very much.

Hikari was very young, but that didn't sound like love to her.

Don't worry about it, they said. You just need to wait and breathe. Wait and breathe. Once you do, the time will come. You'll know it.

She nodded. She didn't know why but this voice sounded like that man with the cat. Wizarmon?

But why would he be helping her?

Agumon had often felt uncertainty, but he'd never felt fear. Well no, he had, a couple of times. But as long as Taichi was with him, it should be okay.

But now Taichi isn't here, and now Hikari's been stolen because he wasn't strong enough. He'd tried chasing them, only to devolve and be too hungry to lift his claws.

If it wasn't for Sora, he'd probably be an egg right now.

Except the only thing keeping her here was that Takeru was alone and crying and not willing to let her go.

Gosh Takeru sure was reliable.

"I can't," she was insisting. "i have to go help everyone! You need to stay here!"

"What good am I staying here?" he shouted. "Let me help! I'm not a baby and Hikari-chan was kidnapped and we have to help her."

"I'm going to take care of it!" Sora shouted and Agumon, for some reason, found himself not believing her.

Not really in a bad way, just… it felt like a bad idea if she did this.

Piyomon looked like she wanted to say something and had wanted to say it for a whole century and was failing to do so. Patamon just looked confused. "Sora," he said. "Piyomon wants to talk."

"I know what she's going to say," Sora replied, hands curling into fists. "And things will be fine. She's worrying too much."

"You can't worry too much for your partner," Patamon reasoned. He flew onto Takeru's hat, settling there. "Even if you humans don't like how much we worry and why we are, we're still going to. You're all we have."

Sora stopped. Agumon tilted his head. "Well we've got each other too."

"Yeah," Patamon agreed. "But that can change. As long as our humans are around, we always have them. It's different."

Ah. Okay. This Agumon understood. "But I don't have Taichi here," he said. "I need him here. It's lonely without him." He tilted his snout at Sora, who for some reason quailed. "I think if you guys work together it'll be better. And I'll keep calling for Taichi and he'll get here and everything will definitely be alright then. But I think it's better if everyone's together. That will definitely make Hikari-chan feel better when we find her."

Something in Sora wilted as he spoke and she seemed to shrink before their eyes. "But…"

"Sora-san!" Takeru had wiped his eyes and climbed off of her.. "Even if you don't want me to come, I'll just be wandering around anyway. If PicoDevimon is working with the cat who took Hikari-chan, he'll know where I am and he could come for us next. And Patamon can't evolve yet and neither can Agumon. We're not safe here. But if we go off on our own, nobody will be able to find us. It's better I go with you at least until we get to my brother, right?"

Sora swallowed, eyes going wide. "You're… you're right… I… I just…"

Piyomon's shoulders relaxed just a little, then went up again as Takeru hugged her shoulders. "Sora-san's working really hard," he said. "It's okay if you rely on me a little. And everyone else too. I think Taichi-san would want that."

Agumon watched Sora's eyes break, almost, then well up with tears. She let out a wail like she was being punched, which was the only reason Agumon could think to cry like that. But as Takeru held her anyway, Agumon wondered if humans had even more reasons to cry than digimon did.

He wished Taichi were here. He understood humans better when Taichi was around.

The air behind him flickered.

Hikari was no longer panicking. Hikari was only breathing slowly and shutting her eyes to the darkness around her. the fear was enough to keep her wanting to throw up and beat her hands. But the voice had told her not to. So she didn't. She didn't want to risk it.

She was glad Taichi wasn't here.

The darkness began to shift.

The voice whispered. It's time, Hikari. Get ready.

Hikari took a deep breath and opened her eyes.

Cold blue and a fanged smile greeted her.

"It's time to introduce you," whispered the man who had thrown her there.

Hikari did not look away.

She was going to get out of here, she could not look away.