The Incorruptible
Chapter 2 - First Blood
by ainokitsune
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The Incorruptible (2) First Blood
Stop the world.
Turn out the sun.
I'm so tired of it turning
around.
Stop the world.
Call it a day.
Leave it all behind.
Leave it that way.
Not this. Not this.
He stood still, hanging for a moment between terror and awe. The charred land
shifted beneath his feet, pebbles skittering down the side of the hill, and dust
rising in brief clouds to settle again over the blasted earth. In places the
stone had melted and run, then cooled again into smooth, glassy rivulets. He
squatted beside one, ran his fingertips over the surface. A trace of warmth
still lingered.
Takeru stood.
"What happened here?" he asked the empty air.
He wasn't sure how he had come to this place; he vaguely remembered walking,
or rather wandering, aimlessly through a forest of blackened, shattered trees,
across a dry and barren plain and then, somehow, as if guided by a will other
than his own, he had come to this place.
He had seen no Digimon, or life of any kind, and his throat and mouth were
dry and tasted of ashes. He remembered hearing somewhere that the human body
could go only a brief period of time without water, and he wondered suddenly if
he was going to die.
He began to be aware of the fact that his hand was aching, and wondered for a
moment why that would be, until he remembered his digivice. He raised his hand
and when it refused to open on its own Takeru carefully pried the fingers back
with his other hand, and plucked the white mechanism from his palm. He was not
surprised to see that his hand was bleeding.
He wiped his right hand absently on his shorts and hefted the digivice
thoughtfully in his left. It looked and felt the same as it had in the real
world, and Takeru was worrying that he had not come to the Digital World under
his own power at all. He felt as though someone had called him, or worse, that
he'd been commanded.
He started to walk again, choosing a direction at random and picking his way
carefully over the uneven ground. The hilltop was high enough to command a
decent view of the surrounding landscape, but no matter which way Takeru turned
he saw only ashes and black land. The sky, though, was blue, eerily so, and
cloudless, and no wind blew out over the land. There was a sense around him, in
the very air he breathed, that some great thing had ended. Takeru felt tears
spring to his eyes, and as he walked they ran down his face and dripped on his
shirt and on the naked ground. He made no effort to wipe them away.
"It's a horrible sight, isn't it?" a voice behind him said. It was a quiet
voice, almost gentle, but there was something about it which didn't sound quite
right.
Takeru turned.
The boy facing him--if he truly was human, something which Takeru initially
tended to doubt--was one of the most bizarre beings the blonde boy had ever laid
eyes on. He stood out against the landscape, a splash of deep blue and brilliant
gold on a backdrop of endless grey. His hair fell in thick spikes all around his
face, and his eyes smiled on Takeru from behind pale purple lenses. The entire
effect was unsettling and also deeply, fundamentally wrong.
"You're him, aren't you?" Takeru whispered. His voice was hoarse.
The boy gave him an odd look.
"Him who?"
"Him. You know. The Kaizer."
"Am I?" the boy blinked. "I...suppose so. I'd forgotten...." He turned away,
looked around himself as though confused. "Sometimes I...I can't remember things
the way...I used to....It's funny...." he trailed into silence, then looked back
at Takeru. "Have we met, you and I?"
Takeru wasn't in the mood to exchange pleasantries. He stalked closer to the
dark-haired boy.
"Did you do this?" he demanded.
"Do what?"
"This!" He waved a hand at the desolation that surrounded them.
"All...all of it," he finished painfully.
"Your hand is bleeding."
Takeru dropped his hand hurriedly.
"I don't care. Just answer the question."
"I did not...do this," the boy murmured. "I came here...looking for
something...I think...." he reached up, pulled the glasses from his face. "I
can't remember what it was. Do...do you know?" The eyes he turned on Takeru were
full of confusion, and were also, he noted, a pale blue. A most unusual color.
"How would I know?" Takeru was beginning to feel exasperated. Not the sort of
emotion he'd expected to associate with the boy who had terrorized Daisuke and
the others for years.
"I...you...were here too, so...I thought you might...." He was holding the
glasses in both hands and gazing out over the landscape, head turning from side
to side. "I thought you might remember what it was that I'd forgotten." He
turned a radiant smile on Takeru, but when no response was immediately
forthcoming from the blonde boy, his face fell. He sighed and pushed his glasses
back on his face.
"Goodbye," he said quietly, "Whoever you are. I'm sorry we couldn't
have...met under happier circumstances." He turned and started to walk away,
back the way Takeru had come.
"Wait." Takeru's hand shot out, caught the boy's arm. "Wait. Are you really,
really the Kaizer?"
The boy made no response, but regarded Takeru forlornly.
"I'm looking for my friends. Do you know them? Have you seen them?"
"What friends?"
"I need to tell them something. Daisuke, Miyako, Hikari, Iori."
"Oh, them. Yes. Well, you can't talk to them now."
"Why not?"
"They're gone. I don't...I don't think...they'll be coming back; it's really
a shame," the last part he said all in a rush, and his expression became almost
wistful. "Really, a shame. Such noble children...."
"What happened to them?" Takeru felt horror rise and stick in his throat. He
released the Kaizer's arm.
"They're gone. Gone away. And I don't...think they'll be coming back. It
really is a shame. They were here, you see." He turned slightly, spread his
arms, the cape falling away from his body. "They were here."
"And where are they now?" Takeru's breath was harsh. the Kaizer lowered his
arms.
"They're gone."
"Where," he began tightly, "Where did they go?" But the Kaizer turned and
began to walk away, down the hill, stones and ashes shifting under his boots.
"They went away," he called, not turning his head, but the words carried in
the silence, carried over a vast distance. "They went away and left me here, all
alone...." The dark-haired boy was drawing farther away by the moment; soon he
was a figure, dwindling into the distance. Takeru didn't try to follow, for his
legs felt suddenly weak. Slowly he collapsed into a sitting position, there on
the hill, and a cloud of dust rose up around him
"Are they dead?" he asked through stiff, dry lips, but the dust returned no
answer.
Peace is just a word
is just a word.
Peace is just a word
Yea .
He wandered, traversing the land endlessly, crisscrossing and redoubling his
tracks and never, ever stopping. The sense of loss assailed him, though what he
was missing he could not say. It drove him endlessly onward, past the limits of
his exhaustion and the pain in his legs, the blisters on his feet, the ache in
his spine, his shoulders. The hunger. The thirst.
When his strength gave out he wasn't prepared, he had no warning. His body
simply collapsed and left him lying, raging in mute impotence within the
confines of his body. There was a terrible fever in his brain, compelling him to
rise, to stand and go on. But though he tried, he did try, so hard, his body
refused to move. And he could not escape it, not yet.
Alone in the dust of a ruined land, the Kaizer wept.
As the sun was beginning to set, his own eyes began to slide closed. All the
pain in his body had become a dull background ache that blended into the other
sensations around him: the color of the sky and the dryness of the earth, the
smell of the air, the sharp residual tang of burning.
When he was lifted up, he didn't even notice. Not until he became aware of
strong arms holding him, as though he were merely a doll, and the unfamiliar
sense of closeness to another body. A human body. He could hear breathing, a dry
sound, and in a way it was strangely comforting. He had no choice but to accept
his helplessness, yet truthfully the sense of it did not offend him. He
remembered a distant time, another lifetime, when he would have gone mad with
fury at being so helpless in the arms of another. That person was gone, though,
the person he had been. All the people he'd ever been were dead and gone, and he
had no name.
He let his eyes close completely and the sense of peace rose up and
overwhelmed him. He drifted into sleep.
Stop the world.
Just let it be.
Well we've taken more than
everything we need.
Stop the world.
Just shut it down
(Just shut it down, shut it down
Just shut it down, shut it down.)
There's no point in it spinning
around.
In the pale light of the control room, the Kaizer came to.
Takeru was sitting on a stool that he'd dragged in from another room, and had
his fingers laced together, chin resting on his thumbs. He'd deposited the
dark-haired boy in the only chair that was native to the room, and which looked
far less like a throne than Takeru had expected. In face, the entire fortress
looked far different than he'd expected. It was like an echo of the world
outside, dark and dry and bereft of any life whatsoever. Even Takeru's soft
shoes raised echoes in the dim halls, and his breath sounded like thunder.
When the Kaizer's eyes opened they seemed to cast their own pale light into
the darkness, shining from behind the glasses. If he was surprised to see Takeru
it didn't show on his face.
"Water," he murmured through cracked lips.
It had taken some doing for Takeru to locate that simple necessity, and the
quest had taken on a tortuous quality as the night wore on. He'd finally
located, after seemingly endless hours, a small, serviceable shower room and
washroom on a lower level, though he had yet to locate the kitchen. There'd been
a cup in the washroom, though, and after drinking a fair amount of water himself
he'd carried the cup to the control room. He started to hand it over to the boy,
then narrowed his eyes.
"Can you move?" he asked, doubting he would get a positive answer. The
Kaizer took a deep breath and made some attempt to raise his hand, but after a
moment gave up.
"No," he whispered.
"I can't believe I'm doing this," Takeru muttered irritably. He leaned
forward and carefully brought the cup to the other boy's lips. It was a more
difficult proposition than he'd realized, though, to help the other boy drink,
and at first he tipped the glass too far and spilled more water than the boy
could swallow, causing him to inhale sharply, then double over coughing
violently. Takeru grabbed the boy as the spasms wracked his body and he retched,
spilling water from his mouth to the floor. As Takeru's hands closed on the
boy's arms, he was shocked all over again by his unnatural thinness.
"Sorry," Takeru heard himself mutter shamefacedly as the fit subsided. The
Kaizer mumbled something and allowed himself to be pushed back into the chair.
Takeru picked up the cup again and said, "I'll be more careful this time. Come
on."
The second attempt was more successful, and after several sips the Kaizer sat
back and raised a trembling hand to his lips, wiping his mouth weakly.
"How did you get in here?" he asked quietly, after several long minutes of
silence had passed between the two boys. His voice was harsh from coughing.
"It wasn't hard. Some Airdramon was hanging around, following you, I guess.
It was pretty cooperative once I picked you up out of the dust."
"You did...?" His eyes became clouded, confused once again. "Why?"
"Because I figure you're the only one who can help me."
"But--"
"Besides, I wasn't going to let you lie there until you died."
The Kaizer's eyes dropped, then closed, and he sank lower into the chair.
"I'm so tired," he breathed.
Takeru didn't know if it was intended as a hint, or merely a statement of
fact, but he took it as he former, stood up and walked out of the room. Away
from the flickering white eyes, the blank screens that showed nothing but silent
static. He roamed through the base until he came, unexpectedly, to what could
only have been the observation deck. It was broad, empty, and
claustrophobic,with a low ceiling and pale metal floor. Takeru could see clouds
drifting past the window, and crossed the deck to sit staring through the glass.
The floor was cold against his skin.
When he looked out the window he bit his lip unconsciously. The land was
almost physically painful to behold. He'd hoped, from this high place, that he
might see something that the terrestrial perspective had not revealed. To see
some trace of greenery, some evidence of life.
Takeru saw only a flat black land, languishing beneath a merciless blue sky.
The sun was distant but searingly bright. Far, far away he could see a thin dark
line of clouds, and he wondered if the rain that fell would burn and scar the
earth.
"Nothing could live in this place," he said aloud, and felt the despair
settle comfortably within his body.
I tell you that peace
is just a word
is just a word.
Let me tell you that peace
is just a word.
Yea.
He didn't know how long he stayed like that, but after a time he became aware
of a gnawing insistent hunger that was gradually driving away all other
thoughts. It was time to make a renewed effort to find the kitchen, or pantry,
or at least the refrigerator. There had to be some food in this place.
He picked himself up off the floor, cast one last look at the desolation
outside, and started to stride out of the room. Started, but was arrested
mid-motion by the sudden appearance of a figure in the doorway. Gold glittered
palely.
"I thought...you might be hungry," the Kaizer said.
"I am, but," Takeru fixed an appraising eye on the boy. "Should you
be...walking around like that?"
"I'm fine," the boy said with a slight smile. "I just needed to rest." He
gestured with one gloved hand. "There's food, if you like...."
Takeru considered refusing, but to be honest he was having serious doubts
that this boy was a person he ought to fear, despite whatever horrors Daisuke
had recounted to him in the past. Furthermore, he was famished. He realized
suddenly that taking off to the digital World without a word to his Mother, and
then spending the night there might not have been the wisest move on his part.
The woman was probably frantic by now.
He followed the Kaizer through a series of identical corridors, occasionally
trotting to keep up with the taller boy's stride. No words were spoken, on
Takeru's part because he was too tired to speak and hurry in the Kaizer's wake
at the same time--he didn't know what compelled the other boy to silence.
"Isn't there...shouldn't there be someone else here with you?" Takeru asked
after a pause allowed him to catch his breath and break the silence. The Kaizer
turned to regard him with mild curiosity."
"I don't think so."
"But it seems so," he looked around helplessly," So quiet. Don't you ever
get...I don't know...isn't it lonely?" He wondered why he was asking such
ridiculous questions. The problem was that the silence was so vast it was
driving him to project his own emotions out into the void.
"I don't think so," the Kaizer said again.
"Don't you know?" Takeru's voice had more of an edge to it than he'd
intended.
"I don't...really think about it very much." He'd resumed walking and Takeru
fell into step behind him. "I'm sorry," the dark-haired boy went on, "I don't
understand what it is that you're asking. I mean, this is...my home." He led
Takeru down a hall that ended, abruptly, in a small antechamber, a steel-sided
octagon with barely enough room for a low table and a chair. The ceiling was
very high, though, and sunlight poured in through a window at the top. Takeru
guessed that the chamber extended up another level, or two.
"There isn't much...right now I, I" the Kaizer paused, raised a hand halfway
to his head, "I haven't restocked in a while but you can have whatever you
like." He looked away from Takeru, was glancing around the room as he spoke.
Takeru looked at the table; white rice, miso soup, pickles and, much to his
delight, a small bowl of tempura. There was also a pot of tea.
"Aren't you going to eat too?" he asked when he realized there was only one
chair at the small, serviceable table.
"No, I don't eat much anymore....Just take whatever you like," the boy had
turned, was walking back out into the hall, speaking as he went.
"There's no hurry, take your time. But sometime you can come and see me in
the control room and tell me what your name is."
He seemed to dissolve into the waiting darkness beyond the doorway, his
footsteps echoing for a while before they, too, faded into nothingness.
Takeru looked down at the table, not surprised to see that it was made out of
metal, or at least of the same metallic material that composed the...chair...in
the control room.
"Why am I doing this?" the former Child of Hope asked the air. All he needed
were answers; he could march up to the control room at this very moment and
wring the information out of the Kaizer, with his bare hands if necessary. He'd
come here looking for Daisuke and the others, and somehow had become sidetracked
into first looking after, then in turn being treated to breakfast by, the most
destructive being in the entire World. Takeru considered the word "ironic" as a
descriptor for his situation, then realized that "absurd" was really more
accurate.
"Help me to do the right thing, Hikari," he said, turning his eyes to the
empty doorway. "I feel lost."
Stop the world.
Take it anywhere.
It's just that living here
is more than I can bear.
"Takaishi."
"What?" the Kaizer raised heavy-lidded eyes to look up at Takeru, and his
speech was slurred, as though he were only half-awake.
"Takaishi Takeru. That's my name."
"Is...is it? It is?" he blinked rapidly, several times, then sat up
straighter, suddenly, and pointed at Takeru. "It is! I remember...I saw
you! You were one of the first---I remember!" He seemed inordinately proud of
the fact. A breathy giggle escaped his lips. "Takeru," he said, almost fondly.
As though he could hold the name in his hands, a memento of some forgotten era.
"Uh, yeah," Takeru shifted uncomfortably. He'd come to the control room with
a renewed sense of purpose which he now found evaporating in the face of the
other boy's bizarre speech and unpredictable behavior. "That's true, I was
here--"
"But then you went away," The Kaizer was regarding him with that same
expression of mild curiosity that Taker had seen before, and it made the darker
boy look very young. Almost innocent. "You went away a long time ago. Before the
others. Why did you do that?"
"I don't know." Takeru shifted his gaze away, wishing that he was somewhere
else. "I guess I thought it was the right thing to do, at the time."
"Do you still think that?"
Takeru shot a glance at the boy, then sighed heavily.
"I don't know what I think anymore."
The Kaizer regarded Takeru in silence for a while, then nodded. "I
understand," he said gently, in a voice that almost suggested to Takeru that he
did understand.
"I have to, I mean, I need to find out where the others went. Daisuke
and...Iori and Hikari and Miyako. You know where they went, don't you? You must
know what happened."
The Kaizer licked his lips as though they were dry. "Oh Takeru," he said, his
voice brimming over with sorrow, "I don't think you're going to find them in
this place. Not anymore."
"Then where--" Takeru began harshly, but the Kaizer raised a hand,
cutting him off.
"Please don't," he murmured. "Please don't. Don't get angry, it's not worth
it. Just...listen to what I have to say."
You listen. I don't have any time left, and you're the only one who
know. You have to know, I don't believe for one second that you weren't
involved somehow--" He leaned down, laid a hand on the boy's dark cape and
twisted it into his fist.
"Tell me," he growled.
"I could tell you that I don't know, Takeru, if I thought you would believe
me." He raised a gloved hand and closed it over Takeru's wrist. "If I thought it
would make a difference. But what is it that...you think happened?"
"You said they went away," Takeru said fiercely, "you said they were gone--"
"They are." The Kaizer dropped his hand into his lap and turned his head,
gazing off to the side. "They're long gone, Takeru, and I don't know where...."
he shook his head. "I don't. I can't help you with that, though I wish I could."
Takeru drew back slowly, releasing his hold on the other boy. The crushed
fabric shifted slightly but did not resume its shape.
"What are you saying?" he breathed through numb lips.
"Did you eat?"
"I--what?"
"Did you eat?" The Kaizer leaned forward, almost eagerly, as though concern
over Takeru's welfare were the primary driving force in his life. "I want to
know. Did you eat?"
"I...yeah, I did, I um...." It was difficult to maintain his air of
self-righteousness after admitting he'd just eaten the other boy's food. "I
ate," he mumbled.
"I'm glad. I wish I could have offered more, but, well--"
"What are you talking about?" Takeru's voice broke with desperation and rage.
He grabbed the Kaizer, this time with both hands, and locked his gaze with the
other boy's. "Tell me what you were saying! Tell me what you meant! Tell me what
happened to Hikari and the others!" He'd grabbed the boy by the arms, beneath
the shoulder-guards, and in his fear and fury his hands squeezed tightly,
digging into the muscle and driving it against the bone. The boy closed his
eyes, but if he felt the pain Takeru could not tell.
"I don't know," the boy said, "I don't know. I don't know, I don't know. I'm
so sorry...for you. Takeru I'm sorry...."
Takeru stared at the other boy, then released him with a shove and a brief
caustic imprecation.
"I'm going," he said, moving past the Kaizer and crossing the room. He was
afraid to stay, afraid of what he might do. The darkness of the empty halls
swallowed him up, and too quickly he found himself wandering, lost, though a
cold steel maze. The darkness deepened around him until he could see nothing at
all and was forced to feel his way forward blindly, fingers brushing over a
metal surface so cold it burned.
He was thinking about Hikari, about all the things he'd never told the girl.
Wondering what she thought of him now. He wanted to find her, desperately. To
tell her the truth, whatever it was. But here, in this place, there was only
darkness, confusion, and blind despair.
His foot struck an uneven spot on the floor and sent him stumbling. He flung
an arm out but the wall suddenly wasn't there and his knee slammed against the
floor, driving a spike of pain into the bone and cartilage. He cried aloud in
the darkness and at that moment his fingers found the wall, smooth and cold
against his skin. He closed his eyes and leaned against it, and shifted position
so that he was not kneeling but sitting on the floor with his legs stretched out
before him.
"What am I doing?" he murmured, lips barely moving. "This...is insane."
When he heard the sound of footsteps he wasn't even surprised, and opened his
eyes halfway to observe the light that appeared at the end of the hall and began
to bob closer. When the Kaizer came to stand before him Takeru looked up, eyes
half-lidded as though he were bored, or very very tired.
"The Lost," said the Kaizer.
"What?"
"The Lost. The House of the Lost. Come with me into that place. It may
be...that we both find what it is that we're looking for." He stretched forth a
dark-gloved hand, and with the other raised the light to fill the space between
the walls. In the radiance there was something otherworldly about the boy.
Takeru reached up and slid his own pale hand into the Kaizer's, and suffered
himself to be pulled to his feet. The Kaizer gave him a small encouraging smile
which Takeru did not return, then turned to lead the way out of the lightless
corridor, hurrying now with the lantern held high.
Takeru followed the darker boy.
Stop the world.
Just pack it in.
Well we've reached the point
Where no-one ever wins.
No-one ever wins.
Peace is just a word.
Is just a word.
Is just a word.
Peace is just a word.
Is just a word.
Is just a word.
Peace is just a word.
Is just a word.
Is just a word.
lyrics: Peace is Just a Word
Eurythmics
Peace
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Next chapter: Bitter Sweet.