Knight of Swords
Chapter 5: The Hierophant
by Ajora Fravashi

*Disclaimer: I own Digimon. Really. And a bridge in California for anyone who believes that.

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Yoshinaka Reiko thumbed through the readings given to her by the scientists that monitored the Dark Seed's progress. When Oikawa had watched Ichijouji, he had done so alone, without the aid of better technology and only those hybrid mutants he called his creations as his eyes and ears. Now that the syndicate had a greater interest in the Digital World, she had more resources at her disposal.

Her thoughts circled back to the subject of her predecessor. He had been a man driven by obsession and unable to cope with his friend's death. The syndicate had seen him as an easy target and he was so blinded by his obsession that he failed to see that the money they dangled in front of his face to get him to continue his work was nothing but bait. Oikawa had taken the bait and his research used to supplement their own. Did he even know that he had been a puppet?

A frown crossed her face then. She would have to step carefully if she was to avoid being a pawn in whatever the syndicate's plans were. Shaking her head at that thought, she studied the readings in closer detail.

So much new, experimental technology was being used on the Takaishi boy for the sake of their grand plots. One particularly notable device, a neurochip, had been implanted shortly after the sowing of the Dark Seed. Its function may have been simple, but considering the size restrictions and just how much programming was involved just to get the thing to do what was needed when the time came, it was an acceptable limitation. For now, however, it was running its background function: to record the Dark Seed's progress and various brain waves. According to the charts, things seemed to be going as well as they expected. They were still unsure of what the boy was doing with his newfound abilities, but surely information would reach them sooner or later. It was all a matter of time.

.~*~.

"All a matter of time," a hagurumon muttered to himself as he hovered from his console once his replacement showed up. The mushmon waved cheerfully to him as he passed. Before he could exit the monitor room, though, the mushmon paused to grab his attention.

"How goes things on the system?"

Hagurumon hummed thoughtfully at that question. It was difficult keeping tabs on the boy their Tamer asked them to watch, but they had to make do with what little information reached them. "I think he's gathering his forces slowly, but I'm not sure. There's not much information to go on and his loyalists don't like to talk to the likes of us." That last sentence was given with an air of disgust at the arrogance the vaccines were starting to display towards them, causing what passed as the mushmon's eyebrows to rise in surprise. "It's as if he knows we're watching. But I don't know how."

Blinking, the mushmon took a moment to digest that bit of information. "How can he? Our organization has always been one of the best kept secrets in this world. Do you think-"

"No," interrupted the hagurumon, quite emphatically. "Our Tamer never told anyone about us and never would. The only ones who did know have been dead for a very long time."

Mushmon shrugged in dismissal. "If you say so. Better ask the next time our Tamer tries to contact us again."

With what could pass as more of a bow than a nod, the hagurumon resumed his almost lazy hovering out the monitor room doorway and down the corridor.

He was one of the many digimon Ryo trained but had yet to acquire a human partner. Thus, he and his fellow partnerless digimon acted as Ryo's eyes and ears when the Tamer could not watch the proceedings of the Digital World himself. They ended up calling themselves the Furekim, or Autumn Mountain in the Ainu tongue. They were supposed to have gone inactive once Ryo was exiled, but far be it for them to abandon the tasks they took up by choice. This was what they believed they were meant to do.

Then just yesterday their Tamer had contacted Lynxmon, one of the major digimon in their group who was unique because he was a vaccine. Vaccines were rare in the Furekim for their organization was, for some unknown reason, mostly viral. It was the first time since Ryo's exile that any of them heard from him, and a wave of excitement came over them all once Lynxmon replayed a recording of the conversation. They had a real purpose again.

But according to Lynxmon, their Tamer could not yet return to the Digital World. The one communication he opened up with the adult vaccine was audio-only and said to have been possible because Ryo had finally hacked into the only open port in Gennai's computer. It was something substantial though, something they could work with and something that gave hope to the younger, more dependent members of the group.

And so they would wait and watch. Hagurumon paused as he looked out the window of the complex that looked like nothing more than a small mountain of metal parts to the rest of the world. Something out there was making him feel incredibly uncomfortable, something he couldn't quite put a gear on. Whatever it was, he hoped it would go away as soon as possible. The wait was unbearable.

.~*~.

Pegasumon clapped a hoof impatiently on a rock-strewn mountain trail as Takeru kept an eye on some point in the distance. From what his partner said, Pegasumon assumed that this was going to be the day Takeru would show Ken the castle. Takeru had been planning it for a while and Pegasumon was eager to hear Ken's response to their project. It had been built for Ken, after all.

Unlike Wormmon, who had a possessive streak that was downright frightening at times, Pegasumon came to like Ken and liked Ken's relationship with his partner. It had been good for both boys, and for the life of him he couldn't see why Wormmon didn't understand that. Maybe he should have a talk with Wormmon about that at some point. Speaking of, it was probably a good thing Takeru asked Ken to leave Wormmon and Nahualmon with the other kids for the time being. Wormmon would be an annoyance at best.

His partner sat upon a weather-worn boulder, staring at the mysterious silver crest and D-3 he had found after the abduction. Takeru had explained to him not long ago that he felt that they were given to him for a reason, and Pegasumon still wasn't sure what to think of it. His partner had shown him the silver sword, Truth, and said that maybe this was his new attribute.

The wind shifted, carrying with it a familiar scent. Pegasumon tossed his mane in satisfaction as he glanced over to his partner. Takeru looked up curiously at him, and he nodded towards the trail. With thinly veiled excitement, the Child of Hope stood from his boulder and straightened out his clothes before stuffing the silver D-3 and crest into a pocket. Pegasumon didn't quite understand why he did this whenever Ken or the other children were visiting, but humans were just funny that way.

Ken appeared soon enough, dressed in a simple white buttoned shirt and grey slacks. It was hardly a unique outfit, but it was enough to grab Takeru's attention. Of course, as far as Takeru was concerned, Ken looked good in anything. His grin softening to an affectionate smile, Takeru stepped forth to take Ken's hands in his own. "I was hoping you would get here soon."

"I'm sorry I was a bit late. I had some trouble convincing Miyako to take care of Wormmon and Nahualmon for the moment," Ken said with a light smile on his face. With any other person he might have bowed apologetically, but he simply didn't need to do so around Takeru.

"Oh. Well then," Takeru began as he stretched out a hand to gesture towards Pegasumon, "shall we proceed?"

Cocking an eyebrow at this, Ken simply allowed his boyfriend to help him up on Pegasumon's back. He had never been one for surprises, but this seemed to be important to Takeru, so he would simply go along with the game for the time being. Takeru slipped behind him as soon as he made himself comfortable and, as expected, slipped his arms around him to grab hold of the pegasus' mane. It did feel nice having Takeru's arms around him, but he really should save those thoughts for when they were alone.

With the weight of two humans, a vertical take-off would have been difficult for Pegasumon to handle on the best of days. However, the region was well-suited for his other method of achieving flight. There was no shortage of nearby cliffs. As Pegasumon galloped down a trail to build up his momentum, he noticed an airdramon in flight not very far away. Must have been Ken's transportation to this place. His metal-clad hooves clapped loudly against the stones and his breath quickened with effort before he found an outcrop and, with a final burst of adrenaline, launched himself from it.

Ken's heart nearly skipped a beat as his boyfriend's partner dropped off a cliff. The cream-colored wings spread open only a second later to catch an updraft that carried them well away from the mountain. After catching a quick breath to steady himself once Pegasumon's flight evened out, Ken leaned back to make sure Takeru would be able to hear him. "So, what did you want to show me?"

Grinning at that, Takeru rested his chin on his boyfriend's shoulder as he wrapped an arm around Ken in a brief hug. "Oh, you'll see soon enough."

The Child of Kindness gave a noncommittal grunt. What was it about what Takeru needed to show him that was so secretive? More to the point, why was Takeru acting this way of late? While he knew Takeru had a few secrets he was loathe to share with many people, Ken knew them all for the most part. But this was different. It was like Takeru wasn't talking to him as much as usual. This wouldn't bother him so much if it was, say, Hikari or even Iori, but Takeru usually told him everything. Now it seemed like Takeru was hiding something, something greater than what his boyfriend said he would show him.

Maybe it was nothing he had to worry about. This was Takeru, after all. What was there to worry about? Takeru always did what he felt the right thing was. Maybe all the things Takeru wasn't talking to him about recently were related to the kidnapping and Takeru would tell him eventually. Maybe he was just thinking too hard about all this. Sighing, Ken closed his eyes to the wind battering against them as Pegasumon's flight increased in speed.

There was nothing unique about the Segfault mountain range, at least when one considers the natural strangeness of the Digital World. It was as if a great many titans had come along eons ago and raked their claws through wet clay and left it there to harden. Ken had seen them from the air often enough that he didn't bother to open his eyes and take in the view. It was only when Pegasumon began to settle into a slow circling pattern that Ken opened his eyes. Takeru's free hand pulled away from around his midriff to point at a spot nestled against the randomly-situated crags.

Jutting proud and strong from the haphazard granite teeth was a white castle whose beauty was in the orderly construction that contrasted sharply with the mountains' chaotic cliffs and peaks. Ken's eyes widened unconsciously at the idea of just how much work must have been put in to build it on such inhospitable grounds. From a strategic standpoint, it was perfect in its inaccessibility to all but an aerial force. Unless there was an underground passage, though, it could be vulnerable to sieges. However, Takeru was smart and had probably already thought of that. But why would Takeru build this? How had he built it and how long had he been working on it? It certainly wasn't there the last time Ken had been in this region.

"That, my Ken, is for you," Takeru said over the sounds of the wind, his voice tinged with pride.

No response came to Ken's mind for those simple words. This was all so bewildering. What on earth could he possibly say to that? No one had ever gone through such great lengths for him before. But still those questions nagged at the back of his mind. It would be inconsiderate for him to ask them though, at least for now.

Everything about the castle was European in influence. The high curtain walls were thicker than most medieval castles could claim. They circled the inner walls, barracks and courtyards and had a drum tower at every corner. There was a barbican that straddled the single road to the castle, it probably housed an iron portcullis that could block ground-based invasions. In the courtyards were gardens tended to by several digimon he couldn't identify this high above, the castle could probably feed its own and withstand a siege if such a thing happened. There were also various other buildings within the shelter of the curtain walls that he couldn't quite identify at the moment. It was all rather quaint and orderly, moreso than it would have been in medieval Europe, but what was most impressive was the keep. If 'keep' was even the proper term for it. Most castles had a tall circular or square keep, this was instead something that looked like one of the palaces the mad king of Bavaria would build. Ludwig II, wasn't it? The walls were of white stone, the roofs of some sort of dark blue marble-like material. Vaguely gothic in architecture, it had high turrets, steep roofs, and narrow windows. It was breathtaking.

Pegasumon dipped a wing and began spiraling downwards, veering towards the courtyard just outside the keep. Ken remained silent through the uneventful landing process, hopefully Takeru wasn't expecting any coherent response right now. The equine digimon landed gracefully with little more than a clap of hooves signaling that he had indeed touched the ground.

Takeru slipped gracefully from Pegasumon's back and turned to help Ken down. Still baffled by it all, Ken was silent as he took Takeru's hand and dismounted. He glanced around in an attempt to absorb it all. A few unimon and shima unimon passed by with nods of acknowledgement towards Takeru. A group of yuki agumon and other rookies clustered in groups and talked among themselves. There was something odd though, something he couldn't quite put a finger on yet it nagged at the back of his mind. What was it, though?

Before he could go further along this train of thought, Takeru pulled him along to the main palace entrance. The large palace doors swung open before them, revealing the interior in all its splendor. Still speechless, Ken simply allowed Takeru to guide him up several flights of stairs and point to various nearby rooms as he explained what they were. Constantly on his mind was the question of how this place came into being and how long Takeru had been working on it.

It was only when they reached a hallway leading to a single door that Takeru paused and turned to grin cheerfully at Ken. "So, what do you think?"

"Impressive," Ken began. It was true at least, if not an incredibly creative statement. It seemed to be enough for Takeru for the moment, and the other boy took his hand again to lead him to the room at the end of the hall.

The door opened up to an apartment that was larger by far than those normally found in Japan. There was a main common room that doubled as a study and what looked to be a door leading to a bathroom to the right. To the left was another door left ajar to reveal the bedroom. It was there that Takeru led him.

Ken sat on the large, Western-style bed covered with a sky-blue blanket as he noted the white pine and pale gold furnishings. The place had a sunny air about it that was enhanced by the presence of large windows draped with pale, gauzy blue curtains. Takeru kicked off his shoes before sitting cross-legged next to him.

"What's wrong, Ken?"

Shifting his glance from an elegant candelabra set on the dresser's top, Ken sighed as his eyes settled on his boyfriend's worried face. "I probably shouldn't ask such a thing, but how did all this come into being? It couldn't have materialized overnight."

"Oh, is that all?" Takeru smiled pleasantly. "Everyone who lives here has been working on the castle for several months now. We're not done yet, but we're close."

It had been a group effort, then. But there was that other question. "Why? There's no need for a castle like this in the Digital World," Ken inquired. It was worth a shot.

Takeru's voice then took on an air of confidence, as if he had been expecting that question. "It's a precautionary measure, just in case someone like Devimon rises up again. The digimon who live here feel safer than they ever have and it's because of this castle that they can be so certain that they'll have a secure future."

A sigh of relief escaped Ken's lips. Why had he been so worried? What had he been worried about in the first place? This was Takeru, after all. Of course he would do what he felt was right. And here in the Digital World, it was easier to render such things as the ornate decorations that graced the castle than it would be on Earth. "Is it like this throughout the castle?"

"More or less. Those who have been here since the beginning have better accommodations than those who've just joined, but I've heard no complaints so far."

"Ah." Ken leaned back to lay across the mattress, which was much more comfortable than his own bed. He could come to enjoy being here. A smirk tugged at his lips as Takeru laid beside him. "So, you want me to spend summer break with you here?"

Grinning back at that, Takeru reached over to brush his fingers along Ken's cheek in a light caress. "It would be nice, wouldn't it? That is, if you wouldn't prefer to be somewhere else..."

"No, this is perfect," Ken murmured as he gazed up at the canopy that stretched over the bed. It had pale blue privacy curtains cascading from it that were pulled back and tied with tasseled silk ropes. Simple thoughts drifted through his mind, but none were substantial enough to focus on for long. But it was nice of Takeru to bring him here.

Takeru was perfectly happy. Ken liked the castle he had worked so hard on after all. All those hours he spent working with countless digimon to set this place up were finally worth it. Smiling, he shifted close enough to plant a small kiss on Ken's forehead. "Glad you like it."

Yes, everything was perfect.

.~*~.

"Dammit, where the hell is he?!"

Iori didn't bother looking up from his textbook. After all, outbursts from Miyako were perfectly normal. He shrugged nonchalantly as the girl whipped around to face him and allowed a moment to pass before responding in his usual quietly calm voice. "I haven't heard from him since yesterday."

With a grunt of disgust, Miyako returned her attention to the world outside her bedroom window. When the moments passed with nothing else from his friend, Iori glanced up at her in consternation. Worry left its mark in the form of a slight creasing between her brows and the small frown tugging at the corners of her lips. Iori scowled slightly at this. While he was more accepting of Miyako's romantic relationship than he was of Takeru's, it just wasn't like the boy to leave Miyako waiting like this. It was starting to annoy him. He knew Miyako's boyfriend quite well, had for awhile now. This just didn't happen with him. Sporting a frown that now mirrored Miyako's, Iori closed his textbook and rose from his seat on the floor.

"Have you called him yet?"

"Yeah, got in touch with his sister," Miyako began, somewhat grateful that Iori had distracted her from the monotony outside her window for the moment. "She doesn't have a clue where he is either."

The boy looked thoughtfully at Upamon and Poromon, who had been silent since Miyako's outburst. Poromon echoed Miyako's mood but Upamon was fairly unconcerned and casual, which was usual for him. He was at least doing his best to calm Poromon down. A thought soon presented itself to Iori as a possible solution. "We could try tracking down his digivice."

Miyako shook her head. "If it's the same people that kidnapped Takeru, they'd drop off the digivice and that would make a search pointless."

"It doesn't hurt to try, Miyako," Iori offered soothingly. "Where did he say he was going last?"

"The Digital World. He was responding to a distress e-mail that showed up on his D-terminal, and-" Miyako's face lit up as she darted up from her seat on the bed. "He might still be there!"

Her anxiety forgotten, Miyako dug up her D-3 from her dresser and spun to face Iori once she had it in her hands. "I'm going to look for him. Wanna come along?"

Iori nodded in silent agreement. It wasn't long before Miyako had her computer booted up and running. It took even less time for Miyako to open up a digital gate and send them through. And, within the hour, Aquilamon soared high above a digital landscape with two humans and an Armadimon on his back. The younger of the two humans was keeping an eye on the display in his D-3's screen. Not very long ago, Ken and Koushiro had worked together on an expansion plug-in that allowed a greater search range for the tracking system and Iori was now using it to his advantage. However, it had yet to pick up a ping.

There was no real direction to Aquilamon's flight, for they did not know which direction to go. Thus, the great eagle flew in a spiral that expanded ever outwards in hopes that Iori would be able to pick up the signal they were looking for. Time passed slower and slower with each kilometer they covered.

It wasn't until they reached a beach that the ping appeared on Iori's screen. A hint of excitement seeped into the boy's face as he looked up at the girl sitting behind him. The position was to allow him to keep his hands free to work with the digivice while her arms acted as a brace to keep him from falling should a sudden gust of wind interfere with Aquilamon's flight. He wondered if Miyako just needed something to have her arms around to comfort herself. "He seems to be stationary at south by southwest, about three kilometers from here."

He hadn't been in a position where he could easily see his friend's face, but it wasn't hard for him to imagine the smile of relief. Mildly relieved himself, Iori returned his eyes to the screen of his D-3 and watched as they drew closer.

The ping led them to a relatively isolated marshy grassland near a river's delta. Tall grasses obscured the view of the ground itself, but the D-3's ping acted as a beacon to guide them. Aquilamon flew as low as possible, for he did not fancy landing in water and sticky mud unless there were no other options.

Slumped in the murky shallows with only a log holding his head above water was Miyako's boyfriend of the past two months. His breathing was short and hissed with every intake of air, and blood mixed with silt in the water around him. He cracked open a single brown eye when he heard Aquilamon settle beside him and grinned weakly at them. "About damn time you got here, Miyako."

Miyako scrambled from her mount and was soon at her boyfriend's side. Iori followed soon after and helped her bring the teenaged boy to his feet. A sharp gasp of pain escaped his lips and the liquid gurgle in his throat alerted them to the severity of the damage. As the older boy spat out blood from his lungs, Iori frowned and suggested they find a monitor as close to the region as possible, he was sure that more than one rib had penetrated the older boy's lungs and they needed to get him to a hospital immediately. The way the boy limped indicated that his left leg was broken, and the left arm was probably in the same condition considering how Miyako's boyfriend winced when she slung it over her shoulder to offer support.

"Who did this to you, Daisuke?"

Daisuke glanced up from the water, blinking a few times to clear an eye of the blood that leaked into it from a gash on his brow. Speech was hard for him, but he ignored the pain that came with each breath and continued. "I dunno. I was just standing here to answer a distress call, then this psycho unimon came up and trampled us."

Iori's eyes scanned the area for a monitor, disturbed that an unimon had attacked Daisuke. He'd expect this from, say, a virus, but what would make an unimon attack like that? It was completely illogical. Unless... "Did the unimon look like he was being controlled by anything? An evil ring, maybe?"

The older boy simply shook his head. "Nothing I could see. Is V-mon okay?"

"Fine, Dais'ke," the battered little blue blob known as Chibomon squeaked from Armadimon's back. He had been found by Iori's partner as the other humans were busy with Daisuke. His voice soon took on a whine. "Can we go home now?"

"After we take Daisuke to a hospital," Miyako stated sternly. Her features soon softened as she returned her gaze to Daisuke. "You'll be okay there without me, won't you?"

A mock-indignant tone seeped into Daisuke's voice at that. "What, you mean they won't let me have a nurse of my choice? That sucks!"

Iori rolls his eyes as conversation between the two older kids got a bit more personal than he liked and dragged them to a monitor that was several meters away. They got that way a lot since they started dating out of curiosity. Sighing, the youngest child looked away as Miyako started lavishing even more attention on Daisuke. Well, at least Daisuke would live.

.~*~.

The one thing that burned itself into Libra's mind was the desolation she saw. Millenniumon's attack had literally razed the pagumon village to the ground. This was, in and of itself, very unusual. The pagumon were fickle allies at best and would have bowed down to Millenniumon's whim if he were to so much as breathe on them, so why did he attack?

She wandered the ruins of a once prosperous village with her partner close behind. They were supposed to be meeting another human soon, one codenamed by Gennai as Anode. That made sense, she supposed, since Kageko's codename was Cathode. However, it wouldn't hurt to do a bit of investigation first. So here they were, trying to find any survivors amidst the charred remains.

A subtle motion at the corner of Libra's eye drew her attention to a small house that was very much in danger of fully collapsing on top of whatever inhabitants there were within. Curious, she left her partner's side to take a look.

Cringing within the darkness were two young pagumon. One was slightly bigger and situated himself in front of what she assumed was his brother. The larger pagumon soon sported an indignant glare. "Go away and leave us alone," he hissed.

"I'm not going to hurt you," Libra offered reassuringly. "What happened?"

There was a moment of silence before the smaller one spoke up. "We had a pact with Millenniumon. We knew that he rewards loyalty and destroys anyone who betrayed him, so we thought we'd be okay. But, but-"

"But one of our own citizens was leaking information to Gennai's group and Millenniumon found out," the larger finished for his brother. "That's what happened. Now go away! If Millenniumon finds out, he'll kill us too!"

The black tailmon shook her head at this. Wouldn't they want revenge at the least? "It does no good to hide like this. Why not join us? My Tamer and I are are working with others to defeat Millenniumon."

The larger pagumon looked like he was going to protest before a spark of maliciousness glinted in the eyes of his brother. He nipped at the larger's ear to get his attention and they drew away for the moment. Libra's ears perked to catch bits and pieces of the discussion.

"This could benefit us, big brother," the smaller whispered. "And we can have our revenge at the same time."

The larger pagumon snorted. "I don't trust anyone who just comes waltzing up and asks us to join a cause that's doomed to failure."

"Who said we needed to trust them? A human Tamer would help us evolve, right? We don't even need to bond to them or whatever it is that those silly 'partnered' digimon do. Tamers are great that way and we can leave whenever we feel like it."

"Fine. But if we get in trouble it's gonna be your fault, little brother."

A trace of pride wove into the younger's voice. "Of course, it's always my fault."

The pagumon bounced back to her and practically oozed friendliness that she had little doubt was mostly faked. "We'll join," they said at once.

Later, once "Anode" (Akiyama Ryo, she had come to learn) had met with them, they had moved far from the village ruins and were clustered together around an electric lamp in place of a campfire. Kageko and Ryo were talking about what they had gone through so far and compared notes on digimon training, nothing of which interested Libra in the least. Finally discussion came down to nicknames. Ryo hadn't bothered nicknaming the digimon he picked up over time, but Kageko preferred it and said it gave them a greater sense of individuality. Curious, the two pagumon asked what Kageko would name them.

The larger was thus named Loki and he liked it so much that he didn't protest. The smaller however was most displeased with Kaulu, Anansi, Cirapé, Kokopelli, and pretty much any trickster deity name Kageko could recall. Kageko was almost ready to give up until Ryo spoke up for the first time during the naming. "What about Savali? He's a Samoan divine messenger and trickster, if I remember correctly." The newly named pagumon agreed, and Savali stuck.

The two pagumon became like little brothers to her, even after they had evolved to a gazimon and tsukaimon respectively. Then there was the last great battle with Millenniumon. Ken's digimon had jogressed with Ryo's while Loki assumed his devidramon form and Savali his tekkamon form. The strategy was fairly simple: Ken and Ryo's party would head the offensive while Kageko's party would strike from behind. It was supposed to have been flawless. They had fought Millenniumon once before, they were supposed to know what to expect. It was supposed to be easy.

She hadn't been able to see Ken's party, but when Millenniumon struck with two Time Unlimited attacks, twin sprays of data bits swirled in the wind. Ken's Holy Angemon and Angewomon had been killed right before the poor boy's eyes. Kageko ordered her party to attack, and they went to avenge their fallen comrades. And then she saw it, it burned into her memory as the destruction of the pagumon village had so long ago.

Loki had struck at Millenniumon with his Crimson Nail attack and raked his claws deep into Millenniumon's flesh. The synthetic digimon howled in pain and bucked the devidramon from his back. Before Loki could gather himself, Millenniumon gave a cruel grin and literally ripped his head from his shoulders.

The scene replayed itself. Again. Again and again, looping constantly to torment her. Loki was like a little brother to her, they had become attached over time. Over and over again.

Libra woke up screaming in a castle that she had considered somewhat safe, thankful for the fact that the tower she was napping in had thick stone walls and tapestries that muffled sounds. As the scream died down, she shivered and curled back under a quilt. It was suddenly very cold.

Somewhere, in another world, a tsukaimon echoed her nightmare.

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Ajora: Yes, this is only the tip of the iceberg. Things are only going to go downhill from here.