A/N: I stalled on this, I admit it. But despite how much revising this whole thing needs, I still keep going back to it ^^; hopefully it's not in vain. *shrugs*

Just in writing this I'm beginning to realize how this comes together, and how easy its gonna be to misinterpret. There are reasons for most everything, and when this is over (soon! 3-4 more parts, I think) I'll include some end notes to clarify.

part seven :: on the diagnol

What started out as just an adventure spiraled out of control into some kind of nightmare. As soon as Hikari and Daisuke set outside, the reality kicked in. They started to worry. The streets were completely abandoned as before, but now the surrounding buildings were trashed and even the sun seemed to be hiding behind the above cloud cover.

"Whoa, its like the apocolypse," Daisuke had commented, earning a scowl from Hikari while Veemon hid his head.

"Everyone's just inside," Hikari had said, but she didn't seem very sure.

"Mmhm…"

They passed by a huge pile of broken glass, then had to go around some twisted metal. They walked in the direction Daisuke pointed out, the direction where Ken and Takeru were, but they walked in hopes of leaving the trashed city block behind. They talked about their friends back in the drugstore, and hoped they were all right, but neither could bring themselves to speculate on the others.

The "others" meaning Ken and Takeru. Hikari was silently kicking herself for agreeing to the split, and from the look on Daisuke's face, he wasn't very happy either. The Digimon followed a few paces behind, stealing glimpses to eachother, but not to much else.

"We should be getting close," Daisuke muttered, pushing back hair from his forhead. It was about time, Hikari thought, "Just a little father. Up ahead."

"Yeah."

A few more steps, another chunk of silence.

"Do you think they're alright?" The boy blurted.

"Yes," Hikari said, but she had paused too long. Daisuke's face fell.

"Let's go," he said, "go" meaning "go fast", "speed up", and "hope you weren't too late". And that's what they did.

--

Their reaction to the dark and endless warehouse didn't bear resemblance to Takeru's and Ken's one bit. They rushed right in. They weren't afraid, at this point, of the dark unknown. And what they were afraid of, was something neither could bring themselves to say.

"Let's stop for a second," Hikari said, between large gulps of air. She leaned an arm against the wall and tried to steady her breathing.

"I think we all need a rest," Tailmon supplied, "But I don't like the looks of this place."

"Here's a good a place as any," Daisuke said, shining Hikari's emergency flashlight around, "Its an open room. Not like that corridor from before."

"We're practiclly on top of them," Hikari said, pointing to his digivice. She took in a few more breaths, "Okay, okay, I'm fine now."

"We're slowing down anyway. Now, we have to be quiet. I have no idea what we're up against."

"Vamdemon?" Veemon supplied, which only earned him a look of tired disbelief from Hikari.

"We're walking straight into a trap, then, aren't we? Straight into a fight."

"We don't know that, 'Kari…"

"We are, we are. What do you think, they just got lost in here?"

It was almost snapped, and it caught the other three by surprise. She was losing hope. And Daisuke wasn't going to let her.

"We can't turn back! We're really close, and if we know it's a trap, we have the upper hand, right?"

"Right!" (that was from Veemon.)

"It's not that simple…"

"It is! Geez, buck up or something, Yagami. We're the good guys, that's what counts."

"Are we really?" Hikari had pushed away from the wall, and it seemed she had had all the rest she needed, "Or is the destruction of the city really our fault? Parrotmon could have hurt innocent people just because we stood in his way. This IS our fault, Daisuke. We're not the good guys."

"So now you want to stop?" it was the most dangerous tone she had ever heard Daisuke hear. He didn't move, but his body seemed to tense up, "Just because of what some idiots have been saying about us? You want to let our friends down."

"No, I didn't say that!"

"I thought you were one of us. You sound like Yagiko."

"Maybe Yagiko was right! We're cursed, we're freaks, and all this death and destruction IS our fault!"

The two wavered against eachother, unsure whether to advance or retreat. The digimon stayed silent.

"But we stopped it! We saved the fucking world, Yagami! Were you there? Weren't you there?"

As his temper flared, Hikari found that hers was suddenly distinguished. She was weak. She couldn't even win this fight.

"I'm no hero."

The quiet response knocked Daisuke off balanace. He let out an angry stutter, as some of his rage seeped away as well.

"But you will be," he said.

She eyed him oddly with a frown, recalling some Star Wars scene in the back of her mind. What had Yoda said to Luke? "I'm not afraid." "You will be.". Daisuke might as well have told her this.

"What do you mean?"

"Remember how you said you just…know stuff? And I said Takeru did too?"

"Yeah…"

"Right now I know something too…I know that even if you don't come along, I'm going in there to help our friends or die trying. I'm serious. But I also know I will die trying if I go alone. Because I know you're going to save us, Hikari…"

"Daisuke…"

"No, shut up, I'm right. It doesn't matter if I'm the leader or how crafty Miyako and Takeru can be. You're going to make the difference."

And it was silent again.

"But I'm not a hero."

"You're wrong."

--

Hikari would have laughed at the dramatic speech in different circumstances, but he was too intense, too sincere. And for some reason, she believed him.

"We'll do it together," Tailmon had told her quietly after Daisuke had finished ranting.

"I hope so," Hikari said. It was all she could say.

"Now are we ready to go?" Veemon asked, his voice holding a trace of "I hope not". Daisuke had turned his back on the trio after the argument, but now he looked over his shoulder to his partener.

"I think we are," he said. Hikari locked eyes with him.

"Let's go," she said.

They consulted the digivice again, and decided they were practiclly on top of the other two, or at least their digivices. Daisuke pointed the flashlight down a final corridor, and the others followed. They stepped lightly, but quicker than originally planned. They had lost too much time.

When Daisuke stopped, Veemon bumped into his legs, and would have let out a surprised yelp if Tailmon hadn't grabbed him and silenced him. Hikari drew as close to the boy in front of her as she could. She pressed up against his back. The flashlight was off, and she was about to ask what he was doing when the lights came on.

The lights weren't bright at all, and left the corners of the room a mystery, but it was enough to blind the four for a couple of seconds. Hikari had thrown both hands over her face, but now she tried to squint, just enough to see where they were and what was going on.

"What the hell??" she heard Daisuke yell, while Tailmon let fly a similar sentiment. The dots stopped dancing in front of their eyes just in time for the group to see a shape slipping down the through the ceiling.

Tailmon was either the first to see, or the first to recognize the thing.

"Vamdemon!" she exclaimed, with as much contempt as she could muster.

"Vamdemon?" the others repeated, a little out of synch, then proceeded to stand there and boggle at both the cloaked figure and eachother. When the figure opened its arms in bleak presentation, all doubts of identity were removed. Tailmon was right. He stood before them, in a sort of morbidly majestic glory, black coatails spread and a scarlet mask across his face.

"You! I hate you!" Tailmon was yelling, and Hikari had never seen her so upset, "You enslave me and kill my best friend! And that's not enough! Come on, Hikari, I want to fight!"

Hikari found this exchange a little shocking, but nodded dumbly and pulled out her digivice. Daisuke's was already in his hand.

"Now, Now," Vamdemon said, and he was just so loud. His voice boomed, and echoed through every inch of the underground room, "Not so fast."

Hikari recoiled, but her companions weren't fazed.

"Oh yeah?" Daisuke shot back, digivice bared like a weapon, "You can't stop us. We came prepared for a fight!"

"As did I," was the response, and to Hikari, anything this guy could say could say counted as eerie. Somehow, more lights turned on, but the group was more prepared this time. On one level. On another level they were almost floored.

Hikari did suspect Vamdemon had Takeru and Ken in his…well, clutches, but she hadn't really expected to see both boys hanging like pendulums straight in front of them, digimon at their sides. Neither looked hurt (Vamdemon had been so kind as to tie them around the waists), but both looked pretty scared and angry. But there wasn't much fight left in their bodies, and they hung limply, as if unconcious. The digimon looked equally defeated, and were certainly too wrapped up in black cord to move. Hikari wondered how long they had been there, and a guiltly pang touched her heart.

"Aw…fuck…" Daisuke said, lowering the digivice. They were stuck. Check. Checkmate, even. Hikari scrambled for some possible strategy.

But it was Tailmon that came up with the plan.

"You think we care about them? We're going to FLOOR you!" she yelled, "Let's take him, Hikari!"

Well, it wasn't much of a plan, but Hikari did pick up and play along.

"Right!" she said, "A couple of kids aren't going to get in our way. Go ahead, Tailmon!"

And the white cat sprung.

And was knocked down.

"I didn't even see him touch her!" Daisuke exclaimed, as Tailmon rose back up slowly.

"I think we're going to have to fight smart," Hikari added, teeth clenched. She couldn't take her eyes off Vamdemon's four captives.

"He's not playing fair!" Tailmon lamented, which only earned a laugh from the virus Digimon. Vamdemon towered over all of them.

"Don't care about them afterall?" he asked, tossing a clawed hand in the direction, "Well, I'll just delete them then. No use to me. They'll just get in the way."

At this point Daisuke freaked out, yelling things that Hikari couldn't even make out and holding his head so tightly in his hands. The girl noticed Vamdemon turning to the captives, but suddenly it was all a game.

Her mind wouldn't make it real.

Takeru and Ken were throwing heated words at eachother, and it looked like they were trying to kick and tangle limbs. She could hardly hear them.

And the finality wasn't kicking in. If Vamdemon deleted them, so to speak, that would be the end of it. Game over. Chosen lose. She'd never see Takeru shrug off Daisuke's advances again, and she'd never see Ken sketch or shyly smile at her again. And there was nothing she could do about it. Daisuke was screaming and Takeru and Ken were yelling ("If you miss, Takaishi…" You just have to trust me!"), but everything inside her was blank.

Then it exploded.

"BLOODY STREAM!" Vamdemon bellowed, and Hikari cried out when she saw the scarlet energy flow from his hands. Towards the two boys and their digimons.

"No!" she cried. Daisuke had covered his face already and fallen to the ground.

But…

The tangled figures of her two friends suddenly seperated, propelled away from the concentrated blast. The attack hit the ceiling, which shook and crumbled, knocking the hooks holding the captives and their digimon loose. Four figures started a long fall to the ground, followed by bits of rubble. The ceiling was fairly high.

Seconds later, Hikari would realize that the exchanged kicks she had seen earlier were just desperate attempts to get in a position where they could push away from eachother with their legs. With enough force to avoid the powerful but concentrated attack. Daisuke peeled his hands away from his eyes, and he virtually lit up when he saw the two were still alive. He took off for the rubble pile immediately, leaving Hikari and her digimon to stand alone in front of a currently fuming Vamdemon.

"Why are you making this so difficult?" he spat at the children, "Its impossible to stop me now!"

But Vamdemon had lost something important. Takeru and Ken could no longer be used as pawns, bargaining pieces.

Daisuke had rushed to the side of the fallen quartet, and had propped both Takeru and Ken up in seating positions against his own body. Both looked a little worse for the wear, but they didn't look half as defeated as they had from their pendulum positions. They were defiant, and, Hikari realized, so was she.

Vamdemon still had the upper hand of course, but they had leveled the playing field and captured his pawns. It was no longer a checkmate.

So Hikari smiled.

Eviiil cliff hanger, I know. This part was a lot darker then the others, and wound up quite a bit shorter as well. I'm really sorry it took so long to get out, and I'm hoping the eighth (8 parts! aah, commitment!) will come out much faster. And yeah, the title is a description of how pawns capture. Review? Review for me, dahling?

coming up next rip and split