Defenders Keep V

"You know, don't you?" Joe asked as he helped Raven up a rocky outcropping.

"Yes. When we went for your glasses." He said drawing on a canteen.

"Yet another argument for contacts." Joe chuckled mirthlessly. "Why haven't you told the others?"

"Why haven't you?"

"If I do, they'll either be coddling me all the time or they'll think I'm being a hypochondriac again. I mean how many people my age do you know with stomach ulcers?"

"It's very rare. I've come across maybe a dozen over many centuries."

"You're an angel. Can't you do something?"

"I can, but not yet. This venom is taking everything I've got. Once I get my strength back up, I can ease some of your pain, but Joe, it's just a quick fix, not a solution and you're doing yourself more harm than good by hiding it from your friends."

"I know and I hate myself for it." Joe said miserably. "Not even Gomamon knows. He suspects I'm hiding something, but he doesn't know what."

"Joe, everyone has some kind of secret. As long as they don't hurt anyone, fine. But your secret is hurting you. At least think about telling someone."

"I'll take him from here." Sora said as they stopped to refill their canteens from a spring. 

"You'll be okay?" Joe asked. Raven nodded. "All right. I'll think about what you said." He promised. 

"What was that about?" Sora asked.

"Joe wanted my help with a problem." Raven said vaguely as they started up the slope. "Have you eaten anything?"

"Not since the eye." She shuddered.

"Hey you guys had the cheap seats."

"And I for one don't envy you your seats."

"Stop here a second." Raven said peering into the trees. "You're going to have to support my full weight for a minute."

"I can do that." She said.

"Good." He said spinning his cane up into the nearest tree, dislodging dozens of juicy plum like fruits.

"You guys okay?" Tai called.

"Yes." Sora laughed as Raven caught his cane. "Come help us gather these fruits."

"Hey Gabumon, do you recognize these?" Matt asked.

"No Matt, but I'm not a plant. What do you make of these, Palmon?"

"Chortle fruits." Palmon said authoritatively. "They're very sweet and a great source of energy, but after you eat them you laugh uncontrollably for about half an hour."

"An half hour long laughing fit?" Matt said, a smile crossing his usually stern face. "That could be amusing."

"You're sure these are safe Palmon?" Mimi asked.

"Nope." Palmon said calmly. "I'm trying to poison you all."

"Palmon!" Kari exclaimed.

"Kidding!" Palmon said looking at their horrified faces. "We would never do anything to hurt you guys."

"Much." Shadowmon said from her perch on Raven's shoulder.
 
"What a droll sense of humor." Raven said dryly. "Perhaps we should have roast Shadowmon for dinner."

"I recant my statement."

?Smart bird.? He said.

?As I was saying before low talent comedians interrupted me,? Palmon continued with a glare. ?We?d never do anything to hurt you guys. These are perfectly safe. I give you my word?

?Good enough for me.? Raven said with a chuckle that ignited a fresh spasm of pain. ?But I?ll eat mine later, when it doesn?t hurt to laugh.?

?Oh, I forgot about that.? Palmon said apologetically.

?I?ll just eat them later." He said scooping some into his bag.

"Me too." Sora said. "Once this water stays down."

"Are you all right, Sora?" Tai asked.

"No, Tai. I'm cursed with a full color, highly detailed, extremely graphic memory."

"That eye?" Tai asked. Sora responded by vomiting her water into the nearby bushes.

"Are you sure you can't eat something?" Biyomon asked. "I don't think I have enough energy to digivolve if something happens to you."

Sora shook her head and shouldered her bag. "I'll be okay." She said, reaching for Raven.

"Wait a minute." Raven said. "I may not be the best qualified to judge this, but does Kari look taller?"

"Not taller." Tai said scrutinizing his sister. "Older. She looks to be about ten or eleven."

"I'm only nine." Kari said frowning. 

"You know, " Matt said looking closely at his brother. "T.K.'s looking older too."

"You too, Matt." T.K. said quietly.

"We're growing up." Mimi said.

"Why didn't we notice it?" Joe asked as they resumed walking.

"Objectivity." Raven said. "I'm new now but one day, I won't notice either."

"But why so fast?" Sora asked.

"Digitime." Izzy mused.

"Beg your pardon?" Raven said.

"Time in the digiworld runs faster than in the real world. It seems after spending so much time here, our bodies are acclimating to it."

"You mean this is natural?" Mimi asked.

"As near as I can figure." Izzy said.

"There's a cliff up ahead." Sora told Raven.

"You want to go around?"

"No." She said. "I'm living on my own terms."

"BOMBASTIC BLAST!" A voice shouted. A heartbeat later the ground was blasted apart scattering the kids. As Sora and Raven were blasted back he saw T.K. tackle Kari as Joe appeared and pulled Mimi back. Tai and Matt glanced around briefly before catching Izzy in a flying tackle.

"Shad! What are those things?" Raven called as he peered through the smoke at the round squat digimon. "They look like cartoon bombs from American animators."

"They're bombermon. High explosive with a bad attitude. In addition to creating and hurling explosives, they blow up if you blast them the wrong way."

"And what would be the wrong way?"

"Just about any way. BRIMSTONE BLAST!" She shouted.

"PEPPER BREATH!" Agumon shouted. Seconds later the two fireballs found their marks taking out two bombermon, and creating a chain reaction that engulfed a dozen who failed to scramble out of the way. 

"Keep it up, Agumon!" Tai yelled.

"Way to go Shad!" Raven shouted, looking around at the others. Mimi, Joe, Palmon, and Gomamon were crouched together under a rock face, Izzy, Tai and Matt were crouched behind a fallen tree as Tentomon joined Shadowmon and Agumon. To his surprise, T.K. and Kari were crouching under a ledge giggling. "What are those two up to?" He mused. Seconds later he got an answer.

"PATAMON DIGIVOLVE TO...ANGEMON!"

"GATOMON DIGIVOLVE TO ANGEWOMON!"

"You digibrats will have to do better than that." A bombermon sneered. "BOMBASTIC BLAST!"

Sora had just helped Raven back to his feet when the explosion disintegrated the ledge they were standing on, sending them plummeting to the ground.

"NO! SHADOWMON DIGIVOLVE TO... TERRORMON!" An instant later Shadowmon was gone, replaced by a black dragon right out of a storybook. With a black streak and a sonic boom, she plunged after Raven and Sora.

"She does seem fond of those, doesn't she?" Matt asked.

"Can you fly us out, Raven?" Sora yelled.

"Me yes, us no. I'm not strong enough."

"So this is how it ends."

"It's not the fall that kills you. It's the sudden stop-oof!" He grunted hitting a leathery black wing and rolling down.

"Need a lift?" Terrormon asked. 

"Shadowmon?" Sora asked.

"Nope. I'm Terrormon." She said flapping back up to the fight. "Allow me to show you why." She said with an evil grin as they slid down her back and off her tail.

"Sora!" Tai shouted nearly knocking her off her feet. Regaining his composure, he continued. "I'm glad we didn't lose a valuable member of the team."

Sora was about to reply to that but Terrormon suddenly commanded all attention. "I am really tired of you jackasses making me look incompetent. DARKFIRE NOVA!" She roared laying down a blast of black fire that incinerated most of the bombermon leaving about a dozen scrambling for their lives. "Angewomon, you  want to finish them off?"

"Do it!" Kari yelled.

Angewomon shrugged. "Celestial ARROW!" She shouted destroying the remaining bombermon. "Senseless violence. Oddly therapeutic." She mused digivolving back to Gatomon.

"Are you all right, Sora?" Kari said struggling not to laugh.

"Yeah. {giggle} We thought {giggle} you were {snicker} goners." T.K. managed.

"T.K.," Sora said sternly. "That wasn't funny."

"{Ha ha} I know, {snicker} but I can't {hee hee} help it." he replied.

"{Chuckle} We had to eat some {hoo hoo} chortle fruits, so we'd {ha ha ha} have the energy to digivolve." Gatomon explained

"Yeah {heh hee}, or else we couldn't {chuckle} help." Patamon chimed in.

"Well, I appreciate it." Raven said as his knees buckled.

"Whoa!" Sora said catching him. "You okay?"

"He expended too much energy." A unknown woman's voice said. "We both did."

"Shadowmon?" Tai said.

"No." Raven said as a black shadow the size of a soccer ball floated up to him. "This is Voidmon, her training stage. She's a sentient black hole, capable of controlling her gravitational fields."

"Will you be all right?" Izzy asked her.

"Oh I absorb anything. She said. "I'll be able to recover my energy quickly, but without Raven's energy I don't think I can digivolve."

"So you're stuck like that for two weeks?" Raven asked as they resumed the trek.

"It's not that bad. In this stage I just exist."

The trek continued in silence and as they spread farther apart, Sora confided to Raven. "I don't get it. Tai came the closest he ever has to losing me today, and the best he could come up with was 'a valued member of the team'. I know there's something between us, but he still isn't saying anything. It's enough to make a girl scream."

"I know. Sometimes men are a little dense and we don't recognize a good thing until it's gone."

"You sound like you're speaking from experience." Sora said quietly.

"I am. I had a... friend, when I was still in heaven. We had something going but I never told her and then..."

"Address change?" She asked gently.

"Yeah." He choked out. Clearing his throat he continued. "I might be able to help you two."

"You can make Tai admit that he loves me?"

"No. Love is Cupid's department. I can, however, bind you two together. You'll always know where the other is, and you'll always know when they're in danger."

"Sounds good. What's the catch?"

"This is more binding than a wedding vow. We angels don't usually do it because you're bound until death, and the survivor usually dies of a broken heart."

"Why?"

"It's like living with a twin all your life. They have a set place."

"And when they die, they leave a void." Sora said.

"Right." Raven said. "Some get over it and move on, but most lose the will to live and waste away. If you don't want to do it, I'll understand, but I'd just thought I'd bring the option to your attention."

"I'll think about it, but let me tell Tai, okay?"

"As you like. Just do it before we split up."

"Sure thing." They continued in silence for a moment, then Sora said, "Can I ask you a personal question?"

Raven thought a moment. "Sure. I don't have anything to hide."

"Your friend?"

"Angelique. She was my friend, mentor, confidant..." Raven trailed off blushing at a memory. "among other things."

"I understand." Sora said as he drained a canteen. "Do you think you'll ever see her again?"

"I might. I'm allowed to see heaven, but not enter it."

"It's like a schoolyard romance through a chain link fence."

"Hey Sora." Kari said giggling. "I can support him for a while."

"How long are you going to be giggling?" Sora asked.

"Let's {snicker} see." She checked her digivice. "At least {hee hee} another ten minutes."

"You gonna be okay, Raven?"  Sora asked.

"Yeah." He lied, looking at his digivice setting off a fresh explosion of pain. "We're almost there."

"All right." Sora said trailing back as Kari took her place.

"You shouldn't have {ha ha} lied to her." Kari said calmly as they moved out of earshot.

"True." He said noncommittally. 

"{Ho Ho} How do you really feel?" she asked.

Raven was about to tell her an edited version but looking in her brown eyes, he felt he had to tell her the truth. "I hurt in places I forgot I had, I'm burning up, my mouth is dry no matter how much I drink, the light is too bright, the sounds are too loud, I'm having trouble keeping focused, I have a splitting headache." He stopped as his left hand suddenly clenched into a fist. With a supreme effort he forced it open again. "And now these uncontrollable muscle spasms."

"You need to rest." Kari said swallowing an involuntary laugh.

"I know." He said, taking a painful rattling breath. "So why'd you volunteer?"

"I don't know." She laughed but her face had no mirth in it. "It's like I couldn't help myself.  There's something different about me. I guess I wanted some time to figure myself out."

"Hmm." Raven said. "I can sense you're more than you appear, but I'm not sure what."

They continued, the silence broken only by Kari's infrequent giggles. "Can you teach me the Once Speech?" She asked after a while.

"No Kari. The Once Speech is the language of angels and it can't be taught."

"Oh." She said casting her eyes her eyes down with a rueful laugh.

"Hey, I said it can't be taught, but that doesn't mean it can't be learned."

"I don't understand."

"Who taught you how to speak?"

"No one. I listened and tried to make the same sounds myself."

"Right. The only difference is the mouth has nothing to do with the Once Speech." Raven said. "Most angels just move there lips out of habit. To truly speak the Once Speech involves  the soul, the mind, and the heart. You can understand  the Speech, so your soul is attuned."

"Is that why Tai couldn't understand it?"

"That's part of it." Raven said. "Tai's soul lies elsewhere. When your soul is attuned, you can hear and understand the Speech. If you're just slightly out of tune as I suspect some of you to be, you hear the Speech, but it sounds like a breeze through trees, or wind chimes, or raindrops hitting a lake, or any of a thousand  other things." 

"Oh." Kari said thoughtfully as her giggles subsided.

"You're still young and open minded, so your mind is more than ready to pick it up."

"Cool." She said brightening.  "What about my heart?"

"Ah. The heart is the seat of true emotion."

"True emotion?" She asked with a perplexed frown.

"True love, true happiness, "Raven said. "And other darker emotions."

"True hate, true anger." Kari said.

"Right." Raven said. "Your heart is still pure."

"But I've experienced emotion before."

"Ah, but was it an emotion so raw and powerful you couldn't put it into words?"

"No, I guess not." She said shaking her head sadly.

"Don't worry."  He said braving another bout of pain to pat her on the head. "You will."

"But how will I learn the Once Speech?"

"The same way you learned to speak, listen and repeat."

"That's all?" She said skeptically. 

"More or less." Raven said. "The hardest part is getting the three in sync so you don't echo. Once you master that you're set. Distance, time, space... that all ceases to matter."

Suddenly a commotion drifted back from around a bend. "Who are you?" Tai snapped.

"Stand aside child." A familiar voice said. " I have no quarrel with you."

"Stay here, Kari." Raven said limping around the corner. 

"I'm not a child." Tai snarled as Raven placed a hand on his shoulder. 

"Cool it Tai." Raven said addressing the figure who hovered in the road before them. "Steve."

"Stephan." He corrected coolly.

"You look good." He said looking the over the figure, who was dressed in simple white slacks and a tunic with a white cape draped over his arm. "White was always your color." He said as Stephan folded his wings and drifted gracefully to the ground.

"You've looked better." He replied casually.

"I won't fight you, Stephan." 

"I hope it won't come to that."

"Who is this guy, Raven?" Matt asked.

"This is Stephan, angelic mediator. His decisions can only be overturned by God Himself."

"Who is none too pleased." Stephan said. "The Dark Walker is behind schedule."

"Have him rework his schedule." Raven said coolly. "He's done it before."

"Riven is pulling his feathers out."

"Stephan, I don't like Riven. You don't like Riven. Hell,  God doesn't even like him. If he wasn't the Walker's nephew, God would have cast him out on general principle when he washed out of every other job in heaven."

"Look at yourself, Raven. You're coming apart at the seams and for what?"

 "For life." Raven said limping up to Sora. "I've seen too much death in my exile. Hell is still scrambling for souls, and between famines, plagues, and wars we should set up a central office on earth. Here it's simpler. It's just survival. These eight have the chance to grow old and die in their sleep."

"Or they could be drowned, fall off a cliff, or crushed by a falling tree." Stephan said. "I know that she was supposed to die yesterday."

"And she's still alive today. She's only 14 for Christ's sake. She's never known love, never been kissed, never held her child in her arms. Why would you deny her that?"

"For duty." Stephan said.

"Duty be damned!" Raven snapped. "I went off a cliff with Sora today. That's duty." He limped over to Mimi. "This is Mimi. I took a dose of poison that would have surely killed her. That's duty." He circled around to Joe. "Meet Joe. I volunteered to crushed by an overgrown sushi platter for this guy. That's duty." Ignoring the pain he swept an arm to indicate the group. "I know things about these guys that they don't even suspect about themselves. They should be allowed to reach their full potential. Here," Raven paused a moment to limp to back of the group. " we have T.K. and Kari. I know they may not look like it, but he's eight and she's nine. They have their whole lives ahead of them. You still want to talk about duty? This is Biyomon, Sora's digimon."

"Digi what?" 

"Digimon." Raven repeated. "She exists solely to protect Sora. That's her duty. If we let the Walker take Sora it would break Biyomon's heart. She waited her whole life for Sora and who are we to take away her purpose?"

"Raven you can't protect her forever."

"And I wouldn't want to."

"We were never meant to live forever," Sora said quietly. "but our descendants are our immortality. Would you deny me that?"

"I have no choice." Stephan said.

"There is always a choice." Raven said.

"You can't possibly make a difference." Stephan said.

"'As long as you are making a difference, you mean something to someone.' I mean something to these guys. Stephan, you know this isn't right. Go back, say you couldn't find us, anything."

"I can't do that. Heaven is going to Hell in a hand basket."

"Isn't that an oxymoron?" Joe asked.

"Fortuitously for us it is a mere idiom, for Heaven and hell did meet in the insinuated manner, many theologists believe that to be the commencement of Armageddon." Izzy said.

"What did he say?" Kari asked.

"That it's lucky Stephan's just using a figure of speech or it would be the beginning of the end." Raven explained briefly. "What happened?"

"Too few souls and too many defections. Even Angelique went awol."

"Angelique is an Angel of Vengeance." Raven said. "She doesn't owe her allegiance to anyone." 

"She took the sword." 

"Not His sword?" Steve nodded. "Well I can see how that would make him more than a little pissed."

"What's so special about this sword thingy?" T.K. asked.

"Have you ever read the Bible?"  

"A little, near the beginning." T.K. said.

"Okay. Did you get to the part where Adam and Eve made the big mistake and they had to leave Eden?"

"I think I see where this is going." Sora said. "Didn't God leave a blazing sword at the gate?"

"Not just any sword. That was His sword." Raven explained. "Do you know where she went?"

"Angelique isn't the reason I'm here. You are. I want your word you won't intervene."

"You know I cant do that." Raven said.

"Stay here with us Mr. Stephan." T.K. said.

"I-I-I can't." He stammered turning away. "God would strip me of my powers in a mortal heartbeat."

"And would that be so bad?" Kari asked softly.

"You don't understand." He said. "My powers are what I am. I'd be lost without them."

"You know how long I've been without my powers." Raven said as a statement, instead of a question. "All that time I had to pass as human, slow, weak, clumsy. I adapted and I could teach you."

"Maybe I ..."

"ET TU, STEPHAN?" A voice boomed sadly.

"No Lord!"

"THEN LIVE AS THE FALLEN ONE LIVES. BE BOUND TO THIS LAND FOR THE REST OF YOUR DAYS."

"NOOOOOO!" Stephan screamed as a blast of light engulfed him.

"IT IS DONE" God said impassively.

"You bastard!" Raven shouted. "He didn't betray you!"

"HE MIGHT HAVE." God said coldly.

Raven stared mutely at the pillar of light in shock, then reached up to his neck and pulled a small silver cross out of his shirt. He contemplated it a moment before ripping it off. "I RENOUNCE YOU." He said loudly, the cold words echoing with power as a fierce wind blew up whipping Raven's cloak away from him. "DO YOU HEAR ME? MY POWERS ARE MY OWN. I RENOUNCE YOU AS MY LORD AND MASTER! I RENOUNCE YOU!" He roared hurling  the cross into the beam with all the strength his aching body could muster. As the cross hit the beam, a brilliant soundless explosion rocked the landscape bowling the 'destined over while Raven barely stayed on his feet. "Get out of my life."

"SO BE IT." God said sadly. "YOUR POWERS ARE YOUR OWN." 

Then God and the pillar were gone, leaving only a white garbed figure kneeling in the dust.

"Stephan?" Raven said. 

"Maybe the Once Speech." Kari whispered as she pulled herself to a standing position.

"Stephan?"

"Don't talk to me!" He exploded. "I heard what you did. What right did you have?"

"Don't speak to me of rights. What right did they have to say Sora must die? What right did He have to brand you a traitor? What right did He have to strip you of your powers?"

"Not all my powers. I have the same powers you do." Stephan laughed bitterly. "And now I'm trapped here. Immortal and eternally bound to this mad world. All because of you. You'd be better off dead."

"Stephan, my friend-" Raven began.

"No! I'm no friend of yours." He snarled, grabbing up his cape and a white cane that had not been there moments before. As he launched himself into the air, he snarled. "I never want to see you again."

"Stephan!" Raven called but he was already gone.

"I don't-" Kari paused a moment to get rid of her echo. "I don't think you should have done that."

"No, I shouldn't have." Raven said, impressed by her speed and proficiency. "I was trying to present him with options but.."

"Will we ever see him again?" She asked gazing at the spot he had last been.

"Heaven only knows." Raven said, a single tear rolling down his face.