Digimon Fan Fiction ❯ Zones: Alaskan Diaries ❯ Entry 2 - The City of Machines ( Chapter 2 )

by Canis Black

When the light faded Sarah found herself lying on top of Toy Agumon in a dark dirty place that was definitely NOT her room. Moving slowly to ward off the threatening dizziness, she carefully got off of her partner then looked around while Toy Agumon also found her feet. "Do you know where we are?" she enquired of her partner after a few moments.

"No, I haven't a clue where we are," responded Toy Agumon, "But I bet that light down there would be a great place to start looking."

A few moments later the two stepped out of the alley and looked around. Sarah was surprised to see a large city full of run down, skeletal towers and skyscrapers. After a few moments she noticed a strange whining sound and heard felt slight tremors under her feet. "Toy Agumon, do you feel that?"

Toy Agumon HAD felt it, she had also seen the cause of it, and it had her immensely worried. So much so that she didn't even bother to acknowledge her partner's question. Not immediately anyway. However, as she observed she saw that the source of the sounds and the vibrations was coming their way. "Sarah get down!" she shouted, then proceeded to tackle her surprised partner to the ground just in time to avoid getting run down by the speeding Mechanorimon and its pursuers.

Although the two had managed to avoid physical contact with the machines, the pursuing Guardromon WERE firing at the Mechanorimon, and several of their shots hit in the vicinity of Sarah and Toy Agumon revealing just WHY there had been tremors in the ground and showering the two with debris. The proximity of the explosions also caused the two to be quite deaf for a little while, so they simply laid there in the street until the ringing in their ears subsided enough for them to be certain that the Mechanorimon and his 'friends' were no longer in the area.

Brushing the dust and debris off of herself Sarah mused aloud, "I wonder what was up with those digimon?"

Her voice dry as the desert noon, Toy Agumon responded, "The Mechanorimon? Fleeing for its life. The Guardromon? Trying their damndest to kill it."

Directing a glare at the offending digimon, Sarah opened her mouth to snap at her partner about the unappreciated use of sarcasm when her D3 beeped. Loudly.

Digging the small device out of her pocket she looked at it then blinked once. Then she blinked twice. Then she shrugged, muttered "What the hell," and addressed Toy Agumon. "Looks like there's someone or something of interest here. Let's go find it."

Several hours later Sarah winced as she felt the shockwaves from where the metal pterodactyl that she had allowed Tankmon to shoot down crashed and exploded. Feeling a wave of naseau and bile try to overtake her, she visibly fought it back and shoved EVERYTHING to the back of her mind to deal with at a later date.

Walking over to where Tankmon was approaching their rescuee, she overheard it exclaim in incredulity, "But you're a Tankmon!?"

"Why would that matter?" she asked as she stepped into the injured digimon's field of vision and looked it over once more taking in it's freakish appearance. Although she had seen some weird things since becoming a Digi-Destined, this took the cake. The long spindly arms and legs that protruded from a central body cylinder weren't too bad, nor was it the oversized hands and feet that were attached to the limbs, no it was the brain in the jar that made up the majority of the central cylinder that had her marking this as the new number one in her list of weird stuff that she had encountered.

The mystery digimon on the other hand found itself wondering what this new creature that was apparently with the Tankmon that had saved it was. He knew almost instinctively that it wasn't a digimon and so drew the logical conclusion that neither of them were 'from around here'. "Well, it's a bit of a long story, if you would be so kind as to escort me home, I will gladly tell you and give you lodgings for the night?"

Sarah considered for a moment then acceded. "Alright, if you'll show us the way we'll take you home."

"Thank you."

Sitting against the floor of the basement that was the home of the digimon they had rescued, Nanomon he had said he was, Sarah watched as Toy Agumon saw his wounds. When Toy Agumon had finished, Nanomon shifted a little uncomfortably before locking eyes with Sarah and smiling sheepishly.

"I promised an explanation," he began, "But I have no idea where to start? Would you perhaps ask questions and allow me to answer them to the best of my ability?"

Seeing no problem with that Sarah thought for a few moments before asking her first question. "What is this place?"

Nanomon appeared surprised but then answered, "This place is a self contained 'level' of the Digital World. There are several of these 'levels' or zones as most refer to them, but I myself do not know how many. The one you are currently in is known as the Metal City."

Mulling over that information she allowed Toy Agumon to ask the next question, knowing that her partner would ask the kinds of questions that she herself had, and was not disappointed.

"Why are all the digimon fighting?"

"Scarce resources," Nanomon sighed. "For many long years I worked as chief assistant to Lord Chaos Dramon before she never returned from a mission for her master, Lord Xuanwumon. During that time I made sure that resources were evenly and fairly distributed among all the residents of Metal City, but several years ago the resources started to dry up. I enacted a rationing plan while trying to find a way to renew our dwindling resources. However, it wasn't enough, and the residents started dividing into groups, Tankmon with Tankmon, Mechanorimon with Mechanorimon, etc. and started fighting over the resources. It wasn't long before even I and my staff were drawn into the struggle and now here you find me."

Sarah shuddered, his story sounded too much like what was happening on Earth though things were much worse here. "Why didn't you leave? You said this place was connected to the Digital World didn't you?"

"Yes, I did say that. Unfortunately for me and all of those that were counting on me, I did not know of any way to leave nor was I able to find a way to do so."

Sarah suddenly felt very tired, and could see that Toy Agumon felt the same. Making a decision she addressed Nanomon, "Sir, thank you for telling us what we have asked. Why don't you get some sleep while we digest this new information."

Nanomon smiled and inclined his body in a sort of nod then closed his eyes and drifted to sleep.

All around her a fire burned. It burned as intensely as the sun yet she felt no heat. Turning in place the only thing she could see was the all-consuming fire. Not knowing where she was or how she got there she decided to pick a direction and walk. As she took her first step it came.

"You killed me..."

The voice came from nowhere and everywhere. It was softer than an echo yet it froze her in place, a cold dread seeping down her spine. Whipping her head about and frantically looking around her she questioned the voice. "Who are you? Where are you?"

The voice did not answer. After a long tense period of waiting and listening she began to move again. Again the voice came.

"You killed me..."

Again she felt the fear, the cold dread, but this time there was something else. A small niggling feeling of guilt that was slowly making it's way up from the depths of her mind. "Who are you? Why are you saying this? I haven't done anything to you!"

But again, the voice did not answer. And again she waited. This time she called out again before attempting to move. "Are you there?" When she received no response she took a shaking step forward. Nothing happened. Still nervous she took another step. Again nothing happened. With increasing confidence she began to walk steadily forwards. For hours she walked until the voice returned.

"YOU KILLED ME!" it screamed at her.

Snapping she screamed back, "SHUT UP!" and whirled around only to come face to face with it.

It was a hideous and deformed mockery of a pterodactyl. Made entirely of metal and once resembling something of a cross between a dinosaur and a jet fighter the metal was running, and it's eyes were glowing with a sickly green light. Before her eyes the right half of it's face proceeded to liquefy and fall to the ground with a wet "plop" right in front of her feet leaving behind a neon green frame of it's face surrounding a darkness of infinite depths. It's dragging wings left trails of metal and blood-like oil on the ground behind it. And it spoke.

"You killed me...You killed me...YOU KILLED MEEEEEEEEEEEE!"

She was unable to stop it, she did not want to stop it, and as the guilt came crashing over her like tsunami Sarah Langley screamed the tortured scream of the damned.

Toy Agumon jerked awake as she heard the tortured scream of her partner. Before her conscious mind could even begin processing information she was up and in motion, moving to Sarah's side. As her mind began to catch up with her body she noticed that Sarah, though now quiet was obviously in distress, her eyes wide and unfocused, her brow covered in sweat, and her chest heaving as she sucked in breath in large gulps. "Sarah? Sarah." she prompted.

Sarah was vaguely aware of Toy Agumon at her side as her mind struggled with the realization that she was safe in Nanomon's hidey-hole, but her thoughts were troubled and turbulent, her heart racing. At hearing her partner's voice prompting her name, she turned her haunted eyes to her digimon and said in barely a whisper, "I killed it."

Toy Agumon frowned as she heard Sarah's words. "What did she kill I wonder? Was it..." struck by a thought Toy Agumon directed her words outward. "Are you talking about that Pteranomon?"

Sarah, heart still pounding and head still messed up merely nodded.

Toy Agumon was worried. while not as...exuberant...as her teammate James, Sarah was rarely what one would describe as soft spoken, yet now she seemed to be so quiet and withdrawn. Deciding that more information was needed Toy Agumon prompted her again, "What do you mean by that? Why do you say that?"

"I," Sarah began, voice shaky and uncertain, "I let you shoot him down, and he died. I killed him."

It was times like this that Toy Agumon wished her mouth had more range of movement as she desperately wished to truly frown. "Sarah, what was it doing when you let me shoot him down?"

"Attacking Nanomon?"

There it was again, that uncertainty. Toy Agumon knew she needed to do something about that, but didn't know what else to try so she forged on ahead. "What would it have done if you hadn't let me shoot it down?"

A pause, "Live?"

Toy Agumon winced internally at that. It was true, but she had to make Sarah see the other side of it as well. "I suppose you have a point Sarah, but try to look at it from a different angle. What would have happened to Nanomon if you hadn't let me shoot it down?"

Eyes wide in sudden understanding Sarah, softly said, "He would have died..."

"That's right, Pteramon may have died, but you saved Nanomon. You saved a life. Do you understand now?"

"I think so..."

"Are you going to be alright?"

Nodding her head a little uncertainly Sarah said, "I think so...In time..."

"That's good. You think you can sleep now?"

"Yeah, I think so," Sarah replied, but as Toy Agumon turned to walk away, Sarah spoke up again, "Toy Agumon, do you think you could, uh..." she trailed off not knowing how to continued.

Toy Agumon looked at her, smiled and said, "Sure."

As the two curled up together, Nanomon smiled to himself and closed his own eyes.

"Ooooooooookay, how did we get ourselves into this mess again?" Sarah asked rhetorically as she desperately tried to find a out of the room she was currently locked in...without Toy Agumon.

As if in response to her frustrated query, the walls seemed to ripple and revealed a series of glowing pictograms. Surprised Sarah "eeped" and jumped back a space. Then, after looking at them a while she realized that they were a type of puzzle. After many long minutes spent studying each one she smiled to herself. "The logical way of doing it would be to decipher the pictograms, but that's too easy...Sooooo, I'll just do this." She walked over to one of the walls and punched a one of the pictograms, the one that looked suspiciously like a bull's eye.

"OUCH! Shit that hurt!" she cried as she shook her hand out and wondered if she had made a mistake...at least until the room started to shake and then two of the walls shimmered and disappeared.

"Sarah!" cried Toy Agumon. "You're alright!"

Sarah laughed. "Of course I'm alright, I'm The Great Sarah!"

Toy Agumon laughed at Sarah's joke, then laughed even harder as the girl struck a haughty pose. "You...You...look so silly!"

Grinning Sarah stuck her tongue out at Toy Agumon and said, "So?"

After a few moments the two managed to get their laughter under control and Sarah gestured towards the new passageway. "Care to move on?"

"Of course."

Over the course of the next day and a half Toy Agumon and Sarah worked their way down and through increasingly difficult traps and challenges. By the time they finally made it to the source of the signal that Sarah's D3 was receiving they were tired, hungry, bruised, battered, and completely and totally speechless with awe at what they had found.

It was a stone structure in a cavern in the belly of the earth. The building had a flat roof supported by a set of stone pillars that ringed their way all around the building with the exception of the two that would have stood in front of the arching doorway to the building.

"Well, I guess that's where we go huh?" stated Sarah as she moved towards the temple in the back of the cavern.

Next time on Zones:

Sarah enters the temple and gets far more than she bargained for.

Author's Notes:

Been a while in coming this one has. Hopefully it won't take me as long to get the next one out.