Digimon Fan Fiction ❯ The Dark Maiden of Light ❯ A New World ( Chapter 5 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

I finally managed to make things look the way I want them. At least I think I did.

Don't try to guess what Angewomon's present is. It is something I thought of based on something that happened in Digimon Tamers. I wouldn't call it original because I doubt I'm the first to think of this. It will become clear what it is later in the story.

Disclaimer: I don't own "Digimon" or the characters, used in this story. They belong to someone else (I don't know who and I don't really care), so don't sue.

I own only what I have created (which isn't much).

" " - speech
** ** - thoughts (if any)
< > - change in place and/or time
* * * * * * - prophecy
~ ~ - telepathy
`Zeon's words/thoughts'

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The Dark Maiden of Light

Chapter 4

A New World

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When Alice woke up the next day it was nearly lunchtime. She ate her food and started thinking again. Since Dobermon's second death she had isolated herself from the world again. Now she decided it is time to change this. After all, she needed an explanation for going to the park, something she did very rarely. In fact, she rarely went out on her own and spent most of her time at home either alone or with her family. If now she started going out all of a sudden without any reason, it would bring questions and make her family worried. She would rather avoid both if possible.

**Why do I want to go there so much?** She had no answer to this question. A part of her wanted to go there no matter what. Alice couldn't tell why. But from somewhere deep within her head was coming a strange feeling. The feeling that she has forgotten something important and this trip could help her remember. In her heart she could feel that this is going to be something more than just a trip. It felt more like a journey to her destiny. She had no explanation for either of the two, but together they were enough to overpower her judgement and her rational thinking. In the end she made a decision. She was going to do everything she can to go to the Central sector. But first she had to make sure no one would be asking why was she going out. And there was only one way she could think of: to make it look like it is normal.

It took her two months to do so. But in the end her daily visits to the park were as normal as her black dresses. At first she didn't visit the place the Zeons had told her about. She wanted to get used to her new way of life. Then one day she decided she has waited long enough and went to see the place where the portal was supposed to be. It was a small glade surrounded by trees and bushes. It was beautiful and well hidden. So well in fact that the chances of one finding it without knowing where to look were next to zero. You could walk near it without even suspecting there's something there. The glade didn't look any different from any other glade you could see. Nothing hinted there might be something people can't see. **This is where the portal should be. Now the question is how to open it?**

Time passed. Alice had no luck in finding a way to open the portal. She started bringing her laptop with herself, hoping that she could use it to somehow detect the gate, but without any result. She had no idea what exactly she was trying to detect and that was her biggest problem. After all, it is a lot easier to find anything if you know what it is you're looking for. And if you don't know… well, you better have A LOT of time and helpers. Unfortunately for the blond girl she had neither.

After six fruitless months Alice decided to write down all she could remember from her dreams. Just in case she had forgotten something. Now she was in her room doing just that.

**Finally! Writing it all down took longer than I thought.** She saved the file and closed the program. After that she went to the supposed portal site. She sat down on the ground and started thinking. **There must be a way! Come on, you stupid thing! Open!** Alice had closed her eyes, so she did not see or realize what happened after the last thought. He body glowed with bright white light (kind of like the light coming from Kari when Agumon digivolved to WarGreymon and defeated Machinedramon) and a meter before her the opening of the portal appeared. Fortunately for her there was nobody nearby, so no one noticed. The girl had no idea about this, so she couldn't understand why she felt exhausted all of a sudden. She opened her eyes, but what she saw wasn't what she expected.

"What the…?"

"Yamaki!"

"What is it, Megumi?"

"Um… I don't know. We detected something for a moment, but we can't tell what. And we can't detect it again."

"I don't like this. See if there's anything you can do."

"Okay, boss."

"What the…?"

Before her centimeters above ground level was a circle two meters in diameter made of golden light. Around it was a ring made of white light. Alice walked to its back and saw that the other end is exactly the same. From the side the portal was less than five centimeters wide. She hesitated for a few moments whether or not to put her hand in it, but decided to leave it for later.

**This must be the portal. I wonder how long it will remain open? I better make a decision what am I going to do quickly, while I can. It may close any second.**

Alice and her grandfather were the only people present. The rest of her family had gone on a vacation, but she had decided to stay home, and Mr. McCoy had too much work to do, so he was forced to stay home too. They ate in silence. When they had both finished their meals, the blond girl finally spoke.

"Uh… Grandfather?"

"Yes, Alice? What is it?"

"Well… There is a place I want to visit. Alone. Will that be a problem?"

"Of course not, dear. But why alone? Isn't there anyone you would like to take with you?"

"No, I prefer to be alone."

"Okay, as you wish. Where are you going and how long will you stay there?"

"I haven't decided about the exact place or how much time I'll spend there yet. But I intend to stay at most a month. That much I know already."

"When are you going?"

"I'm not sure yet, but it should be in the next few days if there are no unexpected problems. And don't worry, I'll be fine even though I'll be all alone. I can take care of myself."

"Of course. You're not a kid anymore. Fine. If you're sure about this, feel free to go. It was about time that you go somewhere out of this city."

"I know."

"Is there anything else?"

"No, that was all. Thank you." She hugged him. He returned the hug. **My beautiful little girl. Finally you stopped acting as if you're dead or something.**

The next morning Alice prepared her things. She tried to take everything she could possibly need and at the same time take as fewer things as possible. Because of this conflict of wishes it took her a couple of hours to pack up. When she was ready, she left a note for her grandfather so that he won't worry where she is, took her baggage and went to the portal. She was glad to find it's still where it was the previous day.

**Well, this is it. Let's see what awaits on the other side.** The gothic girl stepped through the circle of yellow light and disappeared. The portal closed behind her and vanished, leaving no trace or any sign that it was ever there.

The sky was blue. Few small clouds could be seen partially hiding the sun. Dirt and small patches of grass covered the ground below. The land was almost completely flat in every direction all the way to the horizon. No living creature could be seen, except for the grass. No trees, bushes or digimon.

At one place in this plain was a portal: a circle of yellow light, surrounded by a ring of white light. Identical to the portal that had opened in the Shinjuku Park. Out of the yellow light came a girl wearing a black dress with a cross around her neck. She had blond hair bound in pigtails and light blue eyes. It was none other than Alice. Behind her the portal flashed and vanished. She took a quick look around and sighed. "Great. I'm in the middle of nowhere. Such a big place and not a single digimon in sight. And the portal closed. Since I have no idea how I opened it, I'm stuck here until I find a way to reopen it. In the mean time I can as well take a look around."

Unknown to Alice she was watched by a certain digimon.

"So, this girl is the one, called "The Dark Maiden of Light?"" Asked a male voice.

~ Most likely. We are not yet certain. It may all be just another one of Huanlongmon's tricks. But if it is not, you know what to do. ~ Answered the Shadows.

"Yes, and I promise you - she will not return home alive. I'll see to that personally if I must."

<Alice's location>

Alice was about to head in the direction she was looking at (she could only guess which one it is) when she noticed a few small dots in the sky up ahead. They were rapidly moving towards where she was and were growing larger while doing so, but for now they were too far so she couldn't tell what they are. "These dots must be digimon. I hope they are not hostile. If they are, I'm in big trouble."

The digimon got closer and turned out to be a group of Birdramon. They flew over the girl without showing that they have noticed her. Her eyes followed the group and she saw that they are headed towards another group of digimon, this one consisting of Halsemon. The two groups met and started fighting. "Champions against Armors. Must be because of the war I was told about. Let them fight." She turned around and started walking in a direction to the right of her original intention (to her left in the moment).

After she walked for fifteen minutes she saw a river in the distance as well as another group of digimon. These however were ground digimon, not flyers. What she didn't see was the data storm behind her. It was headed towards the digimon in the distance, just like her, but was much faster than she was. Suddenly she was encompassed by golden light and before she knew what is happening she was somewhere else.

Alice was looking at the place she had appeared seconds ago. The ground was covered by lush green grass. To her right was a small forest. To her left was another, much larger forest. There were three different groups of armor digimon in sight. They all consisted of five different types of digimon: Halsemon, Shurimon, Harpymon, Raidramon and Flamedramon. Two of them ignored her, but the third one was headed directly to her. The girl knew she had nowhere to run. The digimon surely knew this place so even if she tried to hide in the nearby forests, it would only buy her a little time and would surely anger the digimon because it could be taken as trying to run away. So she patiently waited for the group to reach her.

"Well, well, well. What do we have here?" Spoke one of the Harpymon in the group. She was obviously the leader. "A human girl. It's been years since we've seen a human in our world. What brings you here?"

"I'm beginning to ask myself the same thing."

"Is that so. What is your name, girl?"

"Alice."

"Alice. A nice name. So, how did you get here, Alice?"

"I have no idea."

"Oh? You don't know?"

Alice just nodded in confirmation.

"Alright then. What happened before you found yourself here?"

"I was surrounded by golden light and all of a sudden I was here."

"A data storm. I figured as much. That's the more common of the two ways you could appear here out of nowhere. The other is… extremely rare, so to say. But I'm glad you didn't lie to me. You'd regret it."

"…" The blond girl remained silent.

"How did you get in our world anyway?"

"Through a portal that opened for reason unknown to me and closed after I arrived."

"Why am I not surprised? Now. What to do with you? Surely you're aware of the war in our world. So I can't let you wander around. You might distract us in the worst time."

"Milady!"

"What is it?"

"A data storm is coming."

"Not another one! Scatter, quickly! Try to avoid it if possible."

The group around Alice spread around. She tried to find the cause for this and saw what they called "data storm". Dobermon had told her about data streams so even though she had never seen one, she had a very good idea what they look like and what they do. The data storm looked just like a data stream, only its color was golden. And it was headed her way.

"Not again!" Said the girl figuring that another data storm had teleported her here. A second later the now familiar golden light surrounded her and when it vanished, she was on another place.

On one of the many hills in this world there was a palace. It was built in a depression on top of the hill and was quite small, so it was hard to notice from the ground, especially with the surrounding sheer cliffs. The building was made from some kind of white marble. It was the home of Ophanimon and her servants.

Queen Ophanimon, as she was called by all who served her, was currently lying down on her bed, thinking. Her thoughts were interrupted by the arrival of one Angewomon. Ophanimon had many servants and some of them were Angewomon, but this one was different from the others. She was one of the first who joined the Mega in her quest to gather the Zeons. The two were friends. And more. The appearance of the new arrival was the same as that of any other Angewomon, except for one detail. The small wings on her helmet were golden instead of white, revealing that she is special.

"My Queen!" The angel woman bowed to the Mega.

"Ah, you're back, my dear. What is it? Did you find one of the Zeons?"

"No, not yet. As before, we have no luck in locating any of them."

"Then why are you here? Just because you are one of my best servants and closest friends and my only female lover does not mean you can disturb me without a reason, you know."

"I know. I am here because I have a present for you, my love. Like I said it's not a Zeon. It is something else. Something you'll like, I assure you."

**My love? She rarely calls me that even when we are alone, like now. I wonder what the reason is?** "Well then, don't keep me waiting any longer."

"I never intended to." Angewomon explained what it was.

"And you are sure you are not wrong? Because if you are… Just because I don't like to be disturbed for no reason doesn't mean I want to lose you."

"There's nothing to worry about. I assure you I am not wrong."

"Very well. But as you know there is only one way to find out if you're right. Ready?"

"Ready when you are."

Less than a minute later Ophanimon was happier than she had been in a very long time.

Alice was now standing on a rocky ground. She was on some hill. Not very far from her she could see the entrance of a cave. There was no vegetation anywhere in sight. A group of small creatures glowing with white light made a few circles around her before continuing on their way. She had never seen anything like them before, but she recognized them because of the description she had received from Dobermon. He had told her about a number of things, including digi gnomes.

"Digi gnomes? Here? If it wasn't for what that Harpymon said about a war I would think I'm in the South sector. But of course if that was so I would be able to see our world by looking at the sky."

"Look what we got here."

The girl turned around to see who had spoken. It turned out to be a Flamedramon.

"A human girl. How did you get here?"

"A data storm teleported me."

"There are no data storms in your world, girl."

"No, but there are portals leading to this sector."

"Portals that cannot be opened so easily. And no matter which sector you come from, I'm sure there isn't a single person who knows how to find one, much less open it."

"…"

"Let's try again. How did you get here? And this time you better tell me the whole truth and nothing more, or you'll regret it."

"Is that a threat?"

"Yes. Now answer me!"

"…" The girl made a few steps back and away from the digimon. Unfortunately she couldn't see where she was going, so she tripped on a rock and fell down on her back.

"Don't try to run away. You can't. Now stop trying my patience, it is nearly over. We can do this the easy way or the hard way. Either you tell me what I want to know willingly or I'll make you tell me."

"… You're scaring me." She took some dirt in her hands, but it remained unnoticed by the dragon.

"You should be scared. Last chance. Answer my question."

By now Flamedramon was almost on top of Alice. She took a deep breath and threw the dirt in her hands in his eyes, then started running towards the cave. "Arrght! My eyes! You'll regret this, girl!"

**I just hope there is a place I can hide inside the cave. If there isn't, I can only hope he'll believe I don't know how I opened the portal. But somehow I doubt it.**

The girl reached the cave entrance and entered without even slowing down. It got darker soon after she got in because she was getting away from the entrance and the light. Oddly soon it got brighter again instead of darker. **There must be some light source up ahead. But what? I hope it's not another digimon.**

After walking for a minute Alice reached the source of the light. It was a ball of white light floating in the air.

"What is that? It looks like a Zeon, only white."

`I am a Zeon.' Spoke the ball of light with a feminine voice.

The girl jumped. "Aaaahhh! You scared me!"

`Sorry. I didn't mean to. So, what is your name and how did you get here?'

"I am Alice. As for your second question, I'm beginning to ask myself the same thing. And who are you?"

`I am the light Zeon of projections. A pleasure to meet you. It's been a long time since I met anyone.'

**The light Zeon of projections? The same one I wanted to find? I don't believe it! Of all the Zeons I find this one. Could this be just a coincidence?** Then she remembered something the Zeons of dreams had told her. **Wait. If this is a Zeon, then I can become a digimon and beat that Flamedramon with ease.**

"Is it true that only a digimon can have a Zeon and any human that takes one becomes a Mega level digimon?"

`Yes, but how do you know? How do you know what a Zeon is at all?'

"I met the three Zeons of dreams. They tried to "persuade" me into accepting one of them."

`That explains a lot. Obviously you said "No" to all three. But what about me? Would you like to have my power? Or maybe they didn't tell you about the rest of us?'

"They told me a little. Funny. All of them had the voices of a male person. But not you."

`We don't have sexes, but each of us has a favorite voice. Some, like me, prefer feminine voices, but most use the voice of a male. This way people don't have to wonder whether to use "he" or "she" when speaking to a Zeon. Now about my question…'

"My answer depends on the price I have to pay and whether or not you can give me the modes I want."

`In my case there is no price. I've been waiting here for years. Now I'm ready to offer my power to anyone, even someone who will use it for evil, as long as I get out. As for your modes, you'll have to tell me about them. Remember, I'm not a Zeon of creation, so I can't give you any form you want, or a Zeon of reformatting, so I can't change what I have given you once it is done.'

"I understand. Well, first, I want to have a human form."

`Even if you didn't, that could not be avoided. After all, you are human, so you will have a human mode which looks the way you do now.'

"Fine with me. But no digimon must be able to tell I'm not human when I'm using my human mode. Or anything and anyone else for that matter. In human mode I must be a human for everyone."

`Easy enough. Any requirements about your Mega level?'

"I'll get to that. Next, I want an Ultimate mode. It must be LadyDevimon."

`That's a strange wish.' Why would anyone want an Ultimate mode when they have a Mega mode was completely beyond the understanding of the Zeon. But if this was the price for finally getting out… `Nonetheless, you shall have your Ultimate level.'

"Next, about my Mega level…"

`Let me guess. You want to be a Lilithmon, LadyDevimon's Mega.'

"Correct. But I want to have a few attacks no other Lilithmon has."

`And these are?'

"Eden Lost, Darkness Spear and Hell Storm." She described the three with as much detail as possible.

`No problem. But you have nearly reached my limit.'

"I have also nearly finished the list of my wishes. In fact, I have just one more."

`Let's hear it.'

"I want to be able to use cards to strengthen myself."

`I'm afraid this one will require a bit more explanation. What do you mean?'

Alice told the Zeon everything she knew about digi-modifying. "… That's what I mean."

`No problem. But I can't give you a D-ark. You'll have to find one yourself. Is there anything else?'

"No, that is all I want."

`Then you shall have it if you accept my power. Last chance to change your mind. Are you sure you want this, Alice? Remember that there is no going back. Time to choose.'

This was it. She had a chance to get what she wanted. This was the reason she had come here. But she also knew there was no going back once she accepts the power. Then again, with Flamedramon outside there was no going back the way things were now either. **Well, this is it. It's "Yes" or "No".**

Make your choice, Alice, and accept your destiny.

Time to make a choice…

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By now it should be clear why I said not to judge the story by the first few chapters.