Digimon Fan Fiction ❯ Gate of Destiny ❯ The Child of Destiny ( Chapter 5 )

A/N: No, it is not me in the story! *People gasp out of pure surprise. Fireworks go off. A huge band starts playing. Reporters from all over form a circle around me. (J/K).* Heh… school just started but I promise to write as much as I did this summer (cept for the vacation, of course…) Also, band camp was fun! May you like this chapter as well as the first four. Sorry if this chapter sounds a bit weird but it was written the day before, and I was kinda tense about it… I promise I'll give Myotismon more angst in the next few chapters.

Chapter 5

The Child of Destiny

"I've never seen her before," Tai whispered to Matt as a tall, thin girl with auburn hair and green eyes took a seat next to him in his homeroom the day after Myotismon re-visited the real world. He had noticed that there was an extra seat placed in the room. No one was absent. The auburn-haired girl was the last one to arrive.

"Neither have I," Matt whispered back.

The teacher entered the room, and everyone quieted down. "Good morning," said the teacher. "Now I would like to introduce a new student. Everyone meet Thaleia Nadir, who moved here from the UK last summer."

The auburn-haired girl stood up and walked up to the front of the room. She smiled a weak smile at Tai's and Matt's homeroom. She had grown shy ever since her mother died that summer. She was sure that the class was giggling at the way she had dressed, in her secondhand school uniform that was too big for her. Ever since her mother died, her dad missed out on work and forgot to buy her a new uniform. She felt so out of place compared to the richer Japanese kids.

"Why don't you tell the class about yourself, Thaleia?" asked the teacher.

"Uh…" Thaleia looked at her feet, deep in thought. "Well… I am from England, and we moved here because of my dad's job. My mother died a few days ago. She had anemia which she got last summer. She was a novelist. My dad works at a car company. I have a little brother named Julius. Oh, and call me Tali." She sat down.

Tai noticed something she was holding that looked like a digivice. "Oh, what's that in your hand?"

"This?" Tali looked at the digivice. "It's just a silly little toy. It's… um… a belt ornament."

Tai held out his digivice. "I have the same thing. You know what it is?"

Tali blinked. "Actually, no. One day I was in London and going to meet the queen because she was holding the parade, when this ice-blue dot shot through the air into my hands. I thought it was a meteor, but the dot turned into this metal thing. I had no idea why it was here, or even what it was."

"Did anything happen after you got it?" asked Tai.

"No," replied Tali.

"Something happened to me. This thing is called a digivice. It means you are a digi-destined, and you have your own digimon."

"Digi-what?"

"That was my first reaction. It's these little digital creatures that hang out around you. They fight and battle and become your friends. Do you have anything like that in your life?"

"No, not really."

"You don't have a digimon?" Tai's eyes were as wide as dinner plates. "How can you be a digi-destined if you don't have a digimon?"

"No talking, please," said the teacher.

Tai hung around Tali all day just to tell her all the fundamentals of being a digi-destined and having a digivice. He also introduced her to the others. That evening, Tali finally decided to go home. She had the strangest feeling someone was following her.

The night before Tai met Tali, Myotismon already knew about her. He gathered all the energy he could to create a viewing orb that was small but effective. He concentrated, and finally an image of Tali showed up in the middle of the mist in the orb. She was peacefully sleeping in her bed.

"So that's your digi-destined," said Demidevimon. "I can't believe it, this world is getting INFESTED with digi-destined! Pretty soon they'll be living here and what do you know, there goes the neighborhood."

Myotismon gave no answer. He looked over the girl in the orb and finally realized why she looked so familiar. "I remember I spoke to her today… I killed her mother."

Wizardmon had pain in his eyes. "I can't believe you would kill someone's mother!" he exclaimed.

"That wasn't the worst of it," said the vampire. "I once killed a mother AND her daughter in the same night. I horribly regret that and I wish I could make it up to everyone. However, it doesn't matter. I wish that I could change everything…"

"You can't change the past," Wizardmon reminded him. "But you can determine what happens in the future."

"Then, with the girl by my side, I will make sure the world is saved instead of destroyed," declared Myotismon. "I have truly seen the error of my ways, and now I will find more ways to fix the error. Still, I wish I hadn't killed her mother." He gazed at the ceiling, wishing he had never been so evil.

"Who knew your digi-destined would have been connected to you in the strangest way imaginable," mused Wizardmon.

"I will meet her tomorrow," declared the vampire. "I hope she forgives easily…"

The next afternoon, as Tali went home, she had the strangest feeling someone was following her as she walked down the street. She didn't know her way around Tokyo and was afraid she would get lost.

A fog rolled in from the east, blocking everything from view, including the sun. A bunch of people wondered what was going on.

"Lucky for them," grumbled the auburn-haired girl. "They actually know their way around this stupid place." She froze in her position as she looked around and saw nothing but opaque fog. She turned around, then backed into an alley without knowing it. Suddenly she tripped over something that was in the way, and fell to the ground, dropping her book bag. Her books and papers spilled out onto the ground.

As she tried to pick her school things up, Tali saw a shadow looming over her. It looked strangely familiar to her. She thought maybe it was just a friendly person asking her if she was all-right, or seeing who was in there.

"Who are you and what do you want?" Tali asked. She picked up her math book and brandished it like a shield. "I have protection!"

"Relax, I'm a friend to you now," said a deep voice that came from the shadow.

Tali took a closer look at the person who stepped out of the shadow. Then she wondered if he was even human. Still, he was very handsome, with blonde hair and blue eyes… sort of familiar to her in a way, but she forgot how.

"Who are you?" asked Tali.

"I am Myotismon," said Myotismon. "I am your digimon partner."

Tali thought she would like him until she saw his pearly white fangs. Suddenly she remembered the description her mother gave her. He had the face of an angel… blonde hair… blue eyes… a red mask and a black cape… and she said she believed in vampires and that her killer wasn't a psycho who stabbed people for fun, but instead was a vampire… "You can't be my digimon partner," she declared.

"But I am," said the vampire, as gently as possible, as if trying to reassure her.

"You killed my mother!" shouted Tali. "You killed her! YOU KILLED HER!" She hurled her math book at Myotismon, who caught it and set it down. Then she gasped and began to cry.

"I didn't know," said the vampire. "I tried to fix everything, but…"

"You don't understand what it's like to not have a mother," said the auburn-haired girl, her eyes stinging from the tears. "To learn that she was killed by the likes of YOU. You insensitive bastards should stop breathing!" She hurled her history textbook at him, and it hit him in the face. She covered her face and cried, making sure to kick Myotismon in the shins on the way.

This didn't go the way the vampire had expected. He reached out and said, "Come back!"

Tali refused to listen to this… this… she couldn't find words to describe this cruel monster who killed one of the only people in her life she held dear to herself. She ran out into the middle of the street just as a car came zooming down the street. Since the fog was so thick, the driver didn't see her.

"Look out!" shouted Myotismon.

Tali looked in front of herself and saw two bright headlights of a car that was coming down the street. She quickly ran out of the way just as the car passed.

"That was close," she said to herself. "I'm glad that I lost that vampire. That jerk was starting to creep me out. I can't believe he would kill my mother!"

Myo hung his head in shame. This was not the way it was supposed to go at all. He wished there was some way to reverse the course of time, to make sure that no one would get killed. "I do not blame the girl for hating me so," he said to himself. "But still there are some things I have never felt. Her losses… they happened and are so devastating because she had a mother to begin with. I never had a mother. Elecmon never seemed like a mother to me when I was a young digimon. If I had a mother… maybe I would have experienced the exact same loss my digi-destined has experienced. Human emotions are so simple and easily changed… which is why I can never understand them."

"I believe you have already understood them," said Wizardmon, who had materialized next to the vampire in the alley.

"Come again?" asked Myotismon.

"You say you can never understand human emotions, but you cannot unless you experience them for yourself," replied the wizard. "Before you disappeared for that long month, you seemed so cold and emotionless. Your face seemed to be made of stone, for it never changed its expression once. You didn't seem to care about anyone. Nothing could please you no matter what your henchmen did. The only time you ever cracked a smile was when you saw someone get killed, or the like."

"I deeply regret that," replied the vampire. "I remember seeing myself and the story of my life, and how many times I tried to destroy the lives of so many of my innocent henchmen. The only one who could have done such a thing about that was myself. And look where it got me."

"I know, but listen to yourself! You have truly changed for the better. Ever since you returned from wherever you went, your emotions have been enhanced tenfold. You weeped for others. You were happy when the henchmen got what they desired: freedom, healing, and a good meal. And, for once, you are respecting me as if we were equals."

"But Wizardmon, we are equals."

"I saw that you were worried for the digi-destined child when she was about to get run over. You have changed. You know human emotions incredibly well."

"Except for the loss she had. If I had had a mother and she died, then I would have known what it would have been like to lose a piece of my life."

"You have a point there."

The two digimon sat in silence until they heard the wail of ambulance sirens in the distance. They grew closer and closer until it seemed as if they were only down the street from them. Then there was a confused buzzing filling the streets as a crowd of people grew.

"I will find out what is happening," said Myotismon, changing into the boy that he had changed into the day before. Wizardmon transformed into a younger boy with straw-colored hair and wearing a yellow jumpsuit. The two of them pushed their way through the crowd until they saw about four cars that had crashed. Several paramedics were quickly loading about ten people onto stretchers. All of them were covered with their own blood and had bruises and scratches on their face, as well as having legs and arms twisted in different directions. A redheaded man had a huge piece of glass lodged in his forehead. "What's going on?" he asked one of the paramedics.

"These people got into a nasty car accident," replied the paramedic as he loaded an auburn-haired boy onto a stretcher. "It was definitely the fog. They couldn't see in front of them, and I guess one of them didn't know their way around the city, because two cars headed into each other from different directions, and then two more crashed into those."

"That's awful," said Wizardmon.

Myotismon hung his head. It was his fault, and he hadn't intended to do so. "No, it's worse than awful. It's too awful to describe in words."

Sirens and blaring lights were all over the place now. It all seemed to pass in a delirious blur, as if it was a nightmare. Myo couldn't stand it. If hundreds of digimon and several humans were not enough, about ten more had been added to the death toll. Voices were everywhere, echoing in his mind. A flash of auburn hair passed him.

"Who is it?" asked Tali, pushing everyone aside. "Who are they?" She saw the redheaded man and young auburn-haired boy, covered in their own blood and so many cuts and bruises no one could recognize them anymore. "NO!" she screamed. "Mister, do you know who these are?"

The paramedic shook his head. "No we could not," he replied. "No one could identify them, because we have not seen them before. I think they are people new to this town."

Suddenly Tali saw that in the smoking piles of metal, nuts, and bolts, was their license plate that wasn't the Japanese license plate. She recognized it as being from England, where she used to live. It was theirs. "This can't be," she said, her eyes brimming with tears. "This really can't be! My dad and my brother were in the accident!"

"Tali?" her brother asked weakly, looking at her.

"Julius?" Tali said, a tear flowing down her cheek. "Are you… all-right?"

"No," replied Tali's brother. "Everything hurts and I know I'm going to die!" He was loaded onto the ambulance with his and Tali's dad, who wasn't speaking. He had his eyes closed and a mask placed over his face.

"Let me go with them!" shouted Tali. "They're my family!" She reached out, but a policeman grabbed her by the arms.

"Little girl, where are your parents?" asked the policeman.

"MY DAD IS IN THE AMBULANCE!" screamed Tali, trying to break free. "My brother is in there too! LET ME GO! I NEED TO BE WITH THEM!" She started screaming and crying at the same time as tears streamed down her face from her red-rimmed eyes. But she didn't have a chance because the ambulance doors closed and that one drove off, sirens wailing and lights blaring, to the nearest hospital. Tali just gave up.

Myotismon was not able to stand it anymore. The rest of his digi-destined's family was about to die, leaving Tali orphaned and alone in the world, with no one to come with her and guide her. She was eleven, and still young. He also began to cry out of pity for not only himself, but for his digi-destined. He had caused more deaths even in his change of heart. Why did he have to produce the fog?

"Hey kid," he said to Tali, choking back tears.

Tali glared at him, as if she could see right through his disguise. "I have a name. My name is Tali Nadir! And if you haven't seen, my father AND brother are being rushed to the hospital! They are- they are all I have- have left of my family! If I lose them, I lose everything!" She buried her face in her hands and began crying harder than she ever had in her life.

Myotismon put his hand on her shoulder in support, trying to suppress his tears of self-pity and compassion for his friend. "I feel your pain, Tali," he said.

"It's all my fault," she said, hanging her head.

"No, it's all MY fault!" shouted the vampire, scaring her for a second.

"Why do you think that?" asked the auburn-haired girl. "You haven't done anything to hurt me!" She looked at him for a second. "Why is it I have a sense of déjà vu when I see you? I feel as if we met today. Are you from my school?"

"No," replied Myotismon. "I live in a different city. I must leave. Maybe we'll see each other again very soon." He started to walk away, but Tali grabbed him by the wrist.

"Come with me," said Tali. "I don't want to be alone when I'm with my dad and brother. When they die, I will have no one left. I'll… be… alone."

"Alone… alone…" the word echoed in Myotismon's mind as he walked Tali to the emergency room. He had been alone his entire life. Abandoned by his friends… no mother or father to care for him like Tali had… even when he was with his servants he felt a great emptiness inside his blackened heart. He tried to cloud it out with thoughts of ruling the digital world. Sometimes, in the day, he awoke in his coffin feeling an emptiness within himself. He knew it wasn't his cravings for blood. He couldn't tell exactly what it was, for some days he thought he couldn't have emotions like the humans and vaccine and data digimon. But now he understood that he was alone, and his heart ached to heal that deep wound that had always been there.

He held Tali's hand through his wait in the waiting room throughout the night. Sometimes he went into the intensive care unit with her, and saw the sight he had caused. Blood was leaking though the carefully-placed gauze bandages that were everywhere on their bodies. Her father was hooked up to a blood transfusion machine and a respirator, and couldn't move.

"He got brain damage and is paralyzed from the neck down," the doctor informed them. "He might not be able to live too much longer."

"Tali," said Julius Nadir, who was Tali's younger brother. He was also hooked up to a respirator. He tried to stretch out his arms to hug her, but he ached too much to do so. "Will I be fine?"

"I don't know," replied Tali, her eyes brimming with tears.

Suddenly Myotismon felt the urge to go over and comfort Tali's younger brother. He walked over to him and ran his hand across his forehead. "You might be fine if you just hang in there," he told him. "I don't want anyone to die. No matter who it was that was in the accident, I don't want them to die."

"Two of them already died," the doctor replied sullenly. "None of the others have too much longer to live, either."

It was too much for the vampire then. He ran outside and cried, burying his head in his hands. He couldn't believe anything he did anymore. Even unintentionally he left everyone to die. All those "foolish humans," as he once called them, had met their deaths thanks to him.

"What's wrong?" asked Tali, who also ran into the waiting room. "You're lucky to not have all your family taken away from you, just ripped from your life. Do you even have any idea of what it's like to experience a loss like I have? All of my relatives are back in England, and they do not keep in touch with us at all. I doubt they even know my name, or if Julius exists. My mother died thanks to that… that… vampire who confronted me earlier and probably killed everyone thanks to that damn fog of his. And now my father's and brother's lives are hanging by a thread, and you're crying a river for yourself, aren't you?"

"Actually, it's you," said Myotismon. "I know exactly what it's like to be you. I have done so many terrible things, seeming so insensitive. But now that I have started out clean, it's like I'm seeing myself in everyone else's shoes. But everything I do seems to make it worse for everyone."

He and Tali sat in silence for a few minutes. By that time, it was almost midnight. Almost everyone had left the intensive care unit except for the two of them. Finally, at midnight, the doctor entered with a grave expression on his face.

"Tali?" he asked, looking as if he were about to cry as well. "I have some terrible news. Your father has… passed on. He died just one minute ago."

"NO!" Tali shouted. "NO, I WON'T believe it! I won't believe anything you say!" She rushed inside to the intensive care unit, where the machine her dad was hooked up to was off.

"We're sorry," said one of the workers. "We are very, very sorry."

"Will I be fine?" asked Julius, who was struggling to breathe. His eyes were beginning to close.

Tali walked over to him and squeezed his hand. "I promise not to let go. And no matter what happens to you, I will make sure you will stay safe and with me. I love you."

"And I… love you… too…" Tali's brother closed his eyes as he took his last breath. His hand fell limp in his sister's hand. Tali's brother had died.

"He died too?" asked Tali. "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" She cried harder than ever before. "YOU WERE ALL I HAD LEFT!!!!!! WHY DID THIS EVER HAVE TO HAPPEN TO ME? WHY-HI-HIY?????????!!!!!!!" She cried and cried so hard, she drowned out everything else. Tears streamed out of her eyes and splattered on the floor.

I killed her family, thought Myotismon. I took away everything that she loved, and now she has no one left to care for her. There are some human emotions even I cannot feel. How can I experience a great loss if I never had anything to lose to begin with? A tear rolled down his cheek as he saw Tali crying and crying over her drastic loss. He then got an inspiration of how to give Tali inevitable comfort and reassurance.

Tali had cried herself to sleep. As she awoke with her eyes closed, she was thinking, It was all just a horrible nightmare. My parents never died. I never met that creepy man in the street. And I will awaken in my bed in my apartment, ready to start the day. She opened her eyes to find she was in a soft bed with red velvet sheets that had a slightly musty smell, and matching pillows. The ceiling and walls were made of stone, and there was a small chandelier hanging from the ceiling. She realized she was in a castle.

"Good morning, Tali," said a familiar voice. "Did you sleep well?"

"Why am I here?" asked the auburn-haired girl, seeing the boy she was with in the hospital standing by the side of her bed.

"Well, since you have no one left, I have decided to be your guardian as well as your digimon partner."

"What are you talking about?"

"Remember me, the boy you met before your brother and father died? Well I am not really who you think I am." Myotismon removed his image inducer. "I am different," he said in his normal voice. Then he grew taller and transformed back into his true form, as the very ultimate digimon who had taken the lives of everyone in her family.

"YOU!" Tali shouted. She jumped out of her bed. "You can kill everyone I hold dear to me, but you can't kill me!" She ran out of the room and into the hall of the castle. She didn't stop until she tripped over Wizardmon and hit the ground.

"Hello, Tali," said the young wizard. "What can I do for you?"

"Get me out of here, away from this monster!" Tali demanded. "He killed everyone and then lied to me about everything! He disguised himself, and then lured me into his little trap. I knew I shouldn't have trusted ANYONE!"

"Hold on," said Wizardmon. "I know that Myotismon has made a few… mistakes in his lifetime, and by "a few," I mean "so many," but he realized the error of his ways and tried to fix them. He had a thirst for blood, and he couldn't resist human blood with fear in it. He couldn't tell who the woman is, or whether or not she was someone's mother, but he went back and tried to fix everything. And the fog was a pure mistake."

"Are you trying to lure me back into the trap that this Myotismon probably set for me?"

"No. As a matter of fact, I fell into his trap. You would feel lucky after what he did to me. He whipped me just because I EXISTED. He hated Gatomon because of her eyes, and whipped her almost as hard as he whipped me. He killed his servants simply because they wore out their usefulness."

"That's AWFUL! Get me out of here NOW! I'd rather die a thousand deaths than stick around in this hellhole. Please help me out."

"But you have yet to know. After he threw me into the lake, I returned, and he was madder than hell about my return. But an angel trapped him in his Gate of Destiny, and something must have happened to him on the other side that made Myotismon change his ways. Maybe he reflected on his life, or something similar. But whatever it was, he changed his ways. He returned to his castle, considerably thinner and quieter. He freed his servants and gave them a hearty meal. And to all the servants who chose to stay with him simply because they wanted to, he interacted with them and treated them as equals. It's like I'm not a servant at all."

Tali's eyes widened. "You are his servant?"

"But he doesn't think of me as his servant anymore. He doesn't call me 'slave.' He calls me by my true name, Wizardmon. And he doesn't get miffed whenever I don't address him as Master Myotismon or Lord Myotismon. In fact, calling him by the Lord or Master label seems to cause him pain in some way. Here, let me show you what I am talking about. This is what he was like before he went through his change of heart." He waved his staff and conjured a white mist.

"What are you doing?" asked Tali.

"Watch the mist," replied Wizardmon. "This is what Myotismon was like before he went through his change of heart."

An image appeared in the mist. In the image was the vampire holding a whip of Crimson Lightning and confronting an elderly Gazimon.

"Please, Myotismon, spare my life!" adjured the Gazimon, on his knees, shaking, and holding his paws together as if in prayer. "I know I haven't met your standards lately but I'm getting old and weak!"

"Spare me your pleas, SLAVE," said the vampire. "And you will address me as LORD Myotismon!"

"I'm sorry, master," apologized the rabbit digimon. "I want to live! Please don't punish me!"
"You have ten seconds to tell me why you should live," said Myotismon, glaring at his servant with icy blue eyes.

"Well… uh… I must live…" Gazimon stammered, unable to think under this pressure. "DON'T KILL ME!"

"Your time is up," declared the vampire, cracking his whip of Crimson Lightning for practice.

"I'm sorry I was unable to think-"

"I said, your time is UP! FOREVER! CRIMSON LIGHTNING!" He whipped the crying Gazimon. In one blast, he had disintegrated. All Myotismon had done about this was darkly chuckle to himself.

"That is awful, what happened to the poor little bunny," remarked Tali. "Why would he do such a thing to ANYTHING? I mean, the elderly can seem sort of useless at times, but that's no reason to pull the plug on them early!"

"Yes, but Myo realized that as one of the errors of his ways," the young wizard assured Tali. "And now look at him after he returned. And watch as how he's treating his servants." He waved his hand, and the mist spun another picture, from three nights before.

Myotismon came up to Wizardmon in the hallway. "Good day, Wizardmon," he said.

"I am doing just fine today," replied Wizardmon. "I see you're in one of your better moods."

"Yes…" Myotismon sighed. "But sometimes I wish that everyone else was… I'm surprised that everyone is in a good mood after all I put them through. I must have whipped them all at least once. And you… you have been whipped much more than anyone. You have the scars on your back to prove it. But if there was a way to reverse the course of time, I'd do it for everyone in the digital world. Their lives would have been so much better off without me."

"Yes, I do agree, but that is no reason to beat yourself up like that," said Wizardmon. "If it hadn't have been for you, they would have never had such an outlook on life."

"For such a young-looking wizard you are very wise," said the vampire. "Still, the outlook wouldn't have been caused if I hadn't tortured them half to death for such irrelevant reasons. Such as their eyes… I do not blame Gatomon for wanting to leave me." He left.

"He is different, now that you look at him," said Tali. "Maybe he has changed a little…"

"And you know the reason why he took you in?" asked the young wizard as the mist disappeared.

The auburn-haired girl shook her head no.

"Because you lost your family. The closest thing is a digimon partner. I myself have never had a human partner, but I have seen Tai and the other digi-destined. They feel as if their digimon partners are their family. They have established a bond. And… well… when Myotismon saw that your parents and brother were gone, he took you under his cape and into his castle. Why? Because he cares about you, and doesn't want to lose you like you lost your family. Maybe he will seem like a father to you someday, because I know that underneath the fangs and cold eyes, he cares for you deeply."

Tali started to reconsider. She said nothing. Maybe he had done something because he cared.

"And you know what? He traveled to the real world yesterday to do nothing but meet you. The fog was purely an accident, and he had not meant it. All he wanted to do was get to know his human partner, and together you would fix all the damage he caused. And it wasn't anyone who convinced him to fix it, either. It wasn't me, it wasn't you, it was himself. He was trying to do this for the good of the world."

"Fine," said the auburn-haired girl. "Maybe I will give him another chance. Thanks for telling me, Wizardmon. Maybe I've made my first friend since I moved to Japan. Where am I, anyway?"

"You are in the digital world, on a place on Server called Nightmare Castle," replied Wizardmon. "But it is no longer like a nightmare to anyone. It's a place to live a normal life like any other digimon who works here."

"I work here now?" asked Tali.

"If it had been me from any other time," said Myotismon, appearing behind Tali, "I would have made you a servant. But now, we will be human and digimon partners. And I promise we will accomplish great things and fix any terrible things I have done." He smiled at Tali, who looked back at him. He still had the feeling that something wasn't right. And there was something that was not right. Daemon and his demon crew were planning to travel to the real world.

To be continued…

Well I hope you like it! New chapter within a week! I promise to maintain the level of Wiz air time, and to put in a lot more of the Myotismon Angst we all love!