Okay, here's chapter nine. Uh...not much to say, except, uh...thanks for 
sticking with me! Luv you guys!




Games of the Mind *Chapter Nine*




Yamato cried out sharply and jerked awake from a deep sleep. Breathing 
heavily, he clutched his chest and sat up, leaning forward. He wiped the 
cold sweat from his forehead and took a deep breath, trying to slow his 
racing heartbeat.

"Yama-chan?" came a sleepy voice. Yamato turned.

"TK," the older boy gasped. His expression turned sheepish. "Sorry I 
woke you."

Takeru sat up and rubbed his eyes. He stared hard at his brother. 
Something wasn't right. TK narrowed his large eyes and frowned.

"What happened, Yama-chan?" he asked softly. "Are you okay?"

Yamato's face flushed when he saw that he had not only awakened TK, but 
Patamon and Gabumon as well. He stared at the ground to avoid the three 
sets of worried eyes now gazing fixedly at him. He winced inwardly.

"I'm fine now, TK," Yama replied quietly. He shifted positions and sat 
on his knees, took a deep breath, held it for a second, then let it out 
in a gusty sigh. "I'm okay."

"Did you have a bad dream?" TK asked innocently, his large eyes full of 
concern. Yama winced again.

"Yeah, TK," he admitted, avoiding his brother's eyes, "yeah, I did." He 
looked up and grinned. "But it's cool now. Everything's fine, it was 
just a dream, and I'm awake now." He moved toward the opening of the 
tent.

"Where are you going?" Gabumon asked, rapidly blinking his round ruby 
eyes. Yamato looked back at him.

"I think I'll go see if Pipermon needs someone to relieve her on the 
watch," he replied, and frowned when Gabumon got to his feet.

"I'll go with you," the digimon said.

"No, Gabumon," Yamato insisted firmly, "you stay here with TK."

"But--"

"No buts," Yama enforced, "I said I was fine, and I am. You stay here 
and protect TK."

"But that's MY job..." Patamon pouted. Yamato did not respond. Gabumon 
looked oddly at his human, then frowned in concern.

"Whatever you say, Yamato," the digimon obeyed, and retreated back to 
the spot where Yamato had been sleeping. He sat down beside TK and 
watched the older boy leave the tent.

TK turned to his brother's digimon with a frown.

"He's lying," TK said sadly. Gabumon snapped his attention to TK. 

"What'd you say?" Patamon asked, startled. TK fisted his hands.

"He's NOT fine," he declared, "he was really scared."

Gabumon twitched his nose.

"I know, TK, I know," Gabumon replied, "but you know your brother. 
Sometimes, Yamato just needs to be left alone..." 

TK sighed and lay back down, pulling the blanket up to his chin, with 
Patamon curled up by his knees. Gabumon flopped backward and stared at 
the inside of the tent.

What's wrong, my friend? he wondered, the image of Yamato's terrified 
blue eyes still running laps in his mind. What did you see that 
frightened you so?

Stepping outside into the chilly night air, Yamato looked up at the sky. 
He wondered what time it was. The Arashii had already come and gone, he 
could see, as the sky was now clear, and the strange constellations in 
the digital heavens twinkled down at him. The grass was wet from the 
rain, and sparkled in the moonlight as though someone had scattered a 
million diamonds across the land. He sighed, and watched as his breath 
made a puff of condensation in the brisk air before his face. Rubbing 
his forearms, he slowly made his way to the tree where Pipermon was 
perched. All he could see was one foot, dangling down below the 
branches, but he could hear her playing her flute.

She was playing softly, a sad, slow melody. It was a somber and wistful 
tune, deep and husky in some parts, high and delicate in others. The 
very sound of it made Yamato's heart ache. It was a song he was all too 
familiar with...it was the song of a misunderstood soul. He stood 
beneath the tree for a moment, just watching her.

When her song was done, Pipermon lowered her flute, and was a little 
startled to hear applause. Glancing down below her, she was even more 
startled to see that it was Yamato standing at the base of the tree, 
clapping for her. She lifted one purple eyebrow and leaned over.

"Yamato-san?" she queried. "What are you doing awake?"

He smiled and put his arms behind his head.

"I thought I'd come see if you needed a break," he said. "I'm here to 
take over guard duty." 

Pipermon balked.

"Oh," she said after a moment. "Ara...are you sure, Yamato-san? You 
don't have to do that."

He gave a rakish smile.

"I know," he said, "but you have to sleep, too, don't you?"

She hesitated, and narrowed one blue eye. Something was wrong. Yamato 
had always been so suspicious of her, and now he was acting as though 
they were old friends. Pipermon looked at him, frowning.

"Yamato-san," she said, "are you all right?"

He blinked up at her.

"Sure," he replied, "why do you ask?"

"Well, you were looking rather ghostly for a minute there," she told him 
with a frown.

"Naw," he said quickly, "everything's cool." He paused. "You go get some 
sleep, I'll take everything from here."

She gave a half-grin.

"Okay, Yamato-san," she said, leaning back against the tree, "okay, 
whatever you say."

He waited a moment, as though expecting her to leave. Then he gave her 
an odd look and knit his brow.

"You're...you're not gonna sleep in that TREE...are you?" he asked.

Pipermon laughed.

"You forget, Yamato-san," she told him, leaning down to look at him over 
the branch, "this forest is my home. It's all I know." She winked at 
him. "I've been sleeping in trees for two years."

"Oh," he replied, and shrugged. "Suit yourself, I guess, but you're 
welcome to one of the tents--"

"No, no, no," she insisted, turning onto her stomach on the branch, "the 
tents are already crowded, and I'm taller than any of you, I'd take up 
more than my fair share of room."

"But...won't you be cold?" he asked, trying to sound nonchalant. One 
corner of Pipermon's mouth curled up in a small smile.

"Don't you worry about me, Yamato-san," she assured him, "I've lived in 
this forest for so long now, that I don't even notice the cold. You get 
used to it." She frowned and looked away. "This forest is my home," she 
said again after a moment, her voice softer now, "it's the only place 
that's ever really FELT like home, anyway." She dug her fingernails into 
the bark of the old tree. "After Piedmon was defeated, I tried to hard 
to make up for what I had done while I was under his 
control...but...nobody would let me. No one would even give me the 
chance to redeem myself, they were all too afraid...and so"--she looked 
at him again--"I came here, where I figured I wouldn't be bothering 
anyone. I've lived in these woods ever since."

Yamato frowned.

"I'm...sorry..." he said, a little unsure of how to respond. She 
chuckled, a little bitterly.

"It's okay," she said, looking down at the bark of the tree again, "one 
learns to put the past behind them..."

There was a moment of tense, awkward silence, and then Yamato shoved his 
hands deep into his pockets and shuddered in the chilly night breeze. 
Pipermon knit her brow.

"Go back to your tent, Yamato-san," she yawned, sitting up again, "it's 
too cold for humans."

He shook his head obstinately.

"I'm not cold," he stubbornly insisted, "and you've been on watch half 
the night. You can't be our guide if you're too tired to walk."

She blinked.

He plunked down under the sheltering branches of the tree, and leaned 
his back up against it.

"Get some sleep, Pipermon," he ordered, pulling out his harmonica, "I've 
got it covered."

She smiled prettily, and pulled out her flute. She twirled it in the air 
and said something Yamato couldn't quite make out. He glanced up in time 
to see a flash of light come from the flute, and suddenly Pipermon had a 
dark teal colored cloak fisted in one hand.

"Neat trick, Pipermon," he said with a grin, "where did the cape come 
from? Is that like one of those sleight-of-hand tricks where you pull a 
quarter out from behind someone's ear?"

She smiled.

"Not really," she said, "legerdemain was never really my forte, and I 
don't excel in prestidigitation... Magic is what I do...REAL magic. I've 
always had this cloak...as long as I can remember..." she went on, 
sounding a trifle miffed by the situation, "I had just forgotten where I 
put it."

Yamato laughed, confused.

"You forgot where you PUT it?" he echoed. "What in the world are you 
talking about?"

She spun the flute again, then pressed it between her palms till it 
vanished into the night air.

"I learned a spell quite some time ago that allowed me to store things 
inside my flute," she explained. Then she made a face. "Well, okay, 
maybe they're not really INSIDE the flute, that would certainly make it 
difficult to play...but the spell made it so I could use the flute as 
sort of a doorway into adjoining dimensions. Basically, I could use my 
flute to store anything I might need in a separate dimension, and pull 
it out whenever I needed it. It's like the ultimate backpack, because I 
can store anything anyone might ever need...and I don't have to carry 
anything!" She paused. "I put that cloak away AGES ago...and then I 
forgot what dimension I had stuck it in... I suddenly remembered this 
morning... Isn't it always the way? Why do I always find stuff AFTER I 
really need it?" I could have given it to Kamiya-san the other night to 
help him keep warm, she added silently, feeling a twinge of guilt. She 
tossed the cape up in the air, then again flopped down onto here stomach 
on the tree branch, and the cloak settled down on her like a blanket. 
She crossed her wrists under her chin and looked down at Yamato as he 
returned his gaze to his harmonica. 

"You're sure about this?" she asked him one last time.

He nodded without looking at her.

"Go to sleep," he said, and lifted the small silvery instrument to his 
lips.

Pipermon smiled down at him, shaking her head at his tenacity. Then she 
sighed and closed her eyes, slipping into a light sleep as the pensive 
notes from Yamato’s harmonica lilted through the air on the wings of the 
night breeze.






With a soft gasp, Pipermon snapped her eyes open. She blinked rapidly, 
unsure of why she had woken up. The sky was still dark, but the far 
horizon was just starting to hint at a golden hue, signaling sunrise 
wasn't far away. She pushed up to her hands and knees on the tree 
branch, and the cloak slid off her shoulders, fluttering to the ground 
below. As she jumped down to retrieve it, she glanced over at Yamato--

--and did a double-take.

"Yamato-san?" she cried softly.

He didn't move from where he sat beneath the tree. He didn't even 
acknowledge that he had been addressed. Pipermon hurried over to him and 
dropped to one knee, fearing something had happened to him. She touched 
his shoulder and leaned over to look at his face.

She sighed with relief.

He was only sleeping. He'd fallen asleep. 

Wait a second! 

With a soft gasp, she snapped her head up. If he had fallen asleep, and 
she, too, had been sleeping, that meant the camp had been left 
unguarded! But for how long? This was just the sort of opportunity 
Hollymon and Ivymon could have taken full advantage of--!

Jumping into the air, Pipermon hovered above Yamato for just a moment, 
then darted over to where the tents were. She peeked silently into each 
one, making certain every child and every digimon were present and 
accounted for.

They were.

Breathing a gusty sigh of relief, Pipermon headed back to the tree. She 
stooped down to pick up the cloak from where it had fallen. Shaking the 
dirt from it, she turned and raised one arm.

"Yamato-san--"

She stopped, looking at him, sadness in her eyes. She dropped her arm 
back to her side. The night wind rushed past her, and she saw Yamato 
cringe against it and stir in his sleep. He shivered once, then fell 
still. She couldn't do it...she just couldn't wake him. She shook the 
cloak again, and walked up beside him, dropping to her knees. Pipermon 
remembered wondering to herself if all human children looked like little 
angels when they slept... They did, she realized. They were like angels. 
Her face contorted in anger and guilt. She couldn't believe what she was 
doing...how could she have let Kurarimon convince her that these 
children were the enemy? Then something blinked at her, a quick flash of 
blue light, like a firefly in the darkness. She leaned down. Yamato's 
digivice. Pipermon reeled back, a sudden sense of deja-vu sweeping over 
her. She reached out and plucked the small device from the cold ground 
and looked hard at it as it flickered and the azure light flashed 
erratically, as though it were coughing. Just like Kamiya-san's...she 
though, perplexed. What did it all mean? She looked at it a moment 
longer, as though willing the light to strengthen and, when it didn't, 
she closed her fingers around it. She then dropped it into Yamato's lap 
and stood up, draping the teal cloak around his shoulders.

"You need this more than I do, Yamato-san," she whispered, and gently 
placed one hand atop the boy's tousled blond hair, letting it linger 
there for just a moment. With a small smile, she then returned to her 
watchful perch in the tree.

"Two hours of sleep will just have to do," she told herself, and 
stretched, leaning back against the trunk. She watched the leaves of the 
old tree twitch in the wind and waited for the sunrise.









"Yamato-san?" Pipermon called, gently shaking his shoulders. "Yamato-
san, wake up!"

He stirred, and slowly opened his eyes, squinting against the morning 
sunlight. He blinked at Pipermon, not recognizing her for a second, then 
he looked up at the sky. He yelped and lunged forward.

"It's MORNING??" he cried, his eyes wide. "I fell asleep!? Ohmigosh--the 
others--!"

"Calm down, kiddo," Pipermon laughed, "calm down. The others are fine. 
They're fine, Yamato-san, I woke up a couple hours after you had taken 
over the watch and I noticed that you had nodded off, so I went and made 
sure that everyone was all right."

Yamato ripped the cloak from his shoulders and scowled, furious at 
himself for having fallen asleep. He had let them down--he could have 
gotten them all killed! He clenched his fingers around the slick fabric 
of the cloak.

"Why didn't you wake me up, Pipermon?" he demanded angrily.

She frowned.

"I...I was going to," she said, "but I just couldn't do it. You were 
sleeping so peacefully, and...well...I just...didn't have the heart to 
disturb you."

He looked down at his hands, squeezing the cloak and gritting his teeth.

"But that means you didn't get any sleep," he said softly.

Pipermon blinked, a little startled at first by his concern. Then she 
smiled, and dropped to one knee beside him.

"I got a couple hours," she said, "that's all I really need."

He stared at the cape a moment longer, then slowly got to his feet. 
Pipermon stood up, and he handed the cloak back to her with a soft, 
bashful word of thanks. She pulled out her flute and twirled it expertly 
between her fingers. Then she tossed the cape up in the air, and 
whispered something in a language Yamato couldn't decipher. As the cloak 
fell back down toward the ground, it shattered into a million sparkling 
pieces of dust that swirled into a twirling, shifting stream, flowing 
into the end of the flute and vanishing out of sight. Yamato blinked, 
amazed, then snapped out of his stupor.

"Where are the others?" he asked, stretching his arms.

She pointed the end of the flute toward the camp.

"Still sleeping," she said. "I figured I should wake you up first," she 
added with a wink.

He smiled.

"Thanks," he said, feeling a little awkward. She made a V with her 
fingers.

"No problem," she said, and turned over her shoulder toward the tents. 
"Hey, Yamato-san," she said, a mischievous grin on her face, "get a load 
of this."

She spun the flute again, then held it up to her mouth. Taking a deep 
breath, she leapt up into the air and played an impressive reveille in 
the morning sunlight. Jyou poked his head out of his tent and moaned, 
adjusting his glasses on the bridge of his nose.

"How does she DO that?" he groaned. "How does she stand watch all night, 
and then still have the energy to wake us all up at the crack of dawn?"

"Okay," Pipermon called, clapping her hands together, "up and at 'em, 
gang, rise and shine, let's go, one, two..."

As Pipermon continued her wake-up call, Yamato watched her from a 
distance, a frown on his face. She was so hard to read, this one...she 
seemed genuine, but there was something...something in her eyes... 
Something in the back of Yamato's mind told him not to put his complete 
trust in her yet. Or was it just that his little mental voice of 
admonition was hypersensitive? Yamato was never the type to trust 
someone right away, he admitted that. No, it took a tenacious and 
persistent soul to win over Yamato Ishida. Perhaps, he thought, it's 
better that way...when you don't trust people, they don't put their 
trust in you...and if they don't put their trust in you, then you can't 
let them down. He checked himself. Dammit, Yamato, he thought, maybe 
it's time you started putting a little more faith in YOURSELF. Not only 
was Yamato suspicious and mistrustful of others, he also had a 
repertoire of hesitancies and doubts about himself, to boot. And he 
hated it, he hated always doubting and suspecting others...and he wished 
to God that he could just give someone the benefit of the doubt and 
trust them from the beginning...but he just couldn't... That was just 
the way he was. And he wasn't about to undergo a total change of heart 
now...not now, when so much was riding on the digidestined and their 
ability to succeed. That was the way he had always been, even as a young 
boy. His parents had separated when he was but a child...tearing he and 
TK apart to live in separate houses on opposing sides of town... It was 
there that his cynicism and mistrust of his fellow man had begun. He had 
been only a child, but even a child knows that when two people are 
married, the last five words said before the union is sealed are "till 
death do us part". His parents...had they lied, then? They HAD lied, he 
had convinced himself, looking fruitlessly for an answer to something he 
was much too young to understand, they lied, right there, at the altar, 
they had lied. They had broken their eternal promise to one another, and 
in doing that they had broken Yamato’s spirit...how could he ever 
believe anything they told him when he knew that they couldn't even keep 
one simple promise to one another? How could he believed anything ANYONE 
told him? Had his misgivings and suspicions of others made him 
heartless? Would he ever be able to trust someone completely, or had he 
been poisoned from the beginning by those he cared about most? He just 
didn't know.

He decided that now was not the time to think such things, and headed 
toward his tent to retrieve the bag of rice to make breakfast. Once all 
the children had been roused and rallied in the clearing, they set to 
packing up camp. Jyou began folding up the tents with Izzy's help, and 
they tried, with a little difficulty, to cram all four back into Jyou's 
duffel. Pipermon watched with a frown as Tai plunked down on a rock and 
ran his hands over his face, like he had a headache. She hovered over to 
him, and called his name. He snapped his head up.

"Kamiya-san," she said, "are you okay?"

He leaned his elbows on his knees, letting his wrists dangle.

"I dunno," he replied honestly, "I feel real weird. I feel like I didn't 
sleep at all last night."

"Did you?" she asked. 

He rubbed one finger under his nose.

"I dunno," he said again, "I think so. Kari had to poke me really hard 
in the ribs to wake me up this morning, I think she gave me a bruise!" 
He grinned.

Pipermon twitched her nose. 

"Well, we'll keep an easy pace today, okay?" she said, squeezing his 
shoulder.

"Yeah," he said uneasily, rubbing the back of his neck. "Thanks, 
Pipermon."

Pipermon tugged at her ponytails, then hovered over to her tree again. 
She watched as Kari took her brother a soda from Mimi's purse and handed 
him one of Yamato's riceballs. She frowned as she watched the siblings 
eat, wondering what was wrong with him. He HAD slept last night, she 
knew he had. He'd been out like a light when she had checked on all the 
children the night before. She sighed and leaned back in the tree, her 
hands clasped behind her head. Closing her eyes, she listened to the 
rustle of the leaves in the morning breeze, debating over whether or not 
to go down and try one of these riceballs Yamato seemed to be so proud 
of. Being the type of digimon she was, she really had no need to eat. 
Piedmon had created her that way, to be a low-maintenance creature with 
amazing powers and an obedience to him alone.

She opened one eye when she heard a soft sort of plop noise come from 
below. Glancing down, she saw a single riceball had been dropped to the 
ground, grains of rice scattered out around it like a sunburst.

"Yama-chan?"

Pipermon snapped her chin up when she heard Takeru's frightened call. 
She let out a yelp when a shudder ran up the tree and nearly shook her 
from her perch. Gripping the branch, she leaned down to see what was 
going on. A gasp escaped her throat at what she saw. 

"Yamato-san?" she cried.

He was backed up against the tree. He had backed up so fast that a 
shockwave had shuddered up the tree trunk when he slammed into it. His 
eyes were wide and full of terror, his chest was heaving, and sweat 
covered his brow. Pipermon felt a jolt of fear shoot through her body. 
What had happened to him? Her thoughts immediately snapped back to the 
digivice--it had been flickering, just like Tai's, hadn't it? 
What...what did it mean? Then Kurarimon's ruby eyes flashed through her 
mind, and she felt her blood boil at the idea that Kurarimon had gotten 
to Yamato, too. She launched herself from the branch and dropped to the 
ground, staring hard at his face.

His kind blue eyes were now wide and wild, like those of a creature who 
knew the predator was nearby but knew not where it lurked. It was a look 
of desperate terror. His face was covered in a cold sweat, and his 
breath came in ragged gasps as though he were having trouble inhaling. 
Pipermon furrowed her brow and took a step closer to the frightened 
child.

"Yamato-san," she said, her eyes fixed on his, "Yamato-san, what's 
wrong?"

He didn't even seem to see her, he looked right through her.

"Yama-chan?" TK cried softly, his voice cracking. "Yama, what 
happened??" The younger boy stepped toward his brother.

Yamato seemed to snap out of his trance, and his eyes narrowed as TK got 
closer. He pressed back against the tree, baring his teeth.

"Stay away from me," he snarled. Pipermon gasped at the inhuman growl in 
his voice. Something was terribly wrong.

Takeru hesitated, then took another step.

"I said stay AWAY!!" Yamato screamed, fisting his hands. He lunged 
forward in preparation to strike the smaller boy.

Takeru shrieked in fear and flinched.

Pipermon darted in front of Takeru, her hands out in front of her. She 
caught Yamato's fist in her open palm, surprising even herself. She 
fixed her eyes on him, and squeezed her fingers around his fist. The 
others watched in fear and shock as Pipermon stood between Yamato and 
his brother, shielding the younger child.

"Yamato-san!" she yelled, trying to get through to him. She set her jaw. 
"Yamato-san, what's the matter? What's wrong with you?"

He let out a furious growl and fisted his other hand, drawing back to 
punch her. She caught that hand, too, and they stood at a stalemate. She 
struggled, trying to push him backward, to break free. He was a lot 
stronger than she had first thought...or was it fear that made him 
stronger? She wasn't sure. She tossed her head to flip her bangs out of 
her face, and looked into Yamato's eyes. She was frightened by what she 
saw...no longer did his kind azure eyes betray a cool and calm spirit 
behind them, rather they were the eyes of a crazed and terrified young 
man whose only interest was hurting who and whatever was in his way. She 
bit her lower lip and then shouted his name again.

"Yamato-san, what's happened to you?" she cried. "What's wrong? What do 
you see??"

He gasped like she had slapped him, and recoiled quickly. His face 
contorted in terror.

"Faces..." he rasped, "I see...faces...so many faces...trying 
to...they're all...and their voices...I can hear them 
screaming...and..." Suddenly his expression hardened. "No!" he screamed, 
backing up against the tree again. "You stay away from me!!" He lunged 
forward again, shoving past Pipermon and the rest of the group.

"Yamato-san!" she called after him, zooming over to block his path. 
"Yamato-san, stop!" She spread her arms to blockade him. "Stoppit, 
Yamato-san, you're--ullp!"

She cried out and clutched her stomach as Yamato landed a hard punch to 
her abdomen. She coughed and dropped to her knees as he sprinted past 
her.

"Pipermon!" Kari shouted, and took her arm to help her to her feet. 
"Pipermon, are you okay?"

Without replying, Pipermon turned to look to where Yamato had run. She 
held her stomach with one hand, still smarting from where his fist had 
hit her, and she swallowed hard.

"Yamato-san!" she shouted, and the single echo that returned to her made 
her blood run cold. She looked severely at the rest of the children. "I 
think Kurarimon got to him," she said, "he's hallucinating. More of her 
tricks...he's lost all grip on reality." She tensed, prepared to go 
after him. Kari grabbed Pipermon’s arm. Pipermon looked down. "Hikari-
san?"

"He's stronger than he looks, Pipermon," Kari said, "he could really 
hurt you if he tried. If he's lost sense of what's real and what's not, 
he could really hurt you..."

Pipermon pulled free of the girl's grip and hovered a few inches above 
the ground.

"Well, we have to do SOMETHING!" she shouted. "If he keeps running that 
way, he'll fall into the Shin'en!"

"The Shin'en?" the children echoed.

Pipermon nodded gravely.

"The Shin'en is another creation courtesy of the Kurarimon's powers," 
she said, "it's a deep chasm, it marks the edge of the forest, it serves 
as a boundary. It's at least twenty feet across--farther than any human 
could jump without help...and nobody's certain how deep it is...no one 
has ever been down there and returned to tell about it." She scowled. 
"It was put there to prevent anyone who couldn't fly from leaving these 
woods."

Gabumon leapt forward.

"I'll catch him," he shouted. "Gabumon digivolve to--"

No change.

"That's not going to work," Pipermon interjected, "the light from 
Yamato's digivice is fading, just like Kamiya-san's. You won't be able 
to digivolve until that is rectified. We have to stop the 
hallucinations!"

"I think I saw something like this on an episode of The X-Files once," 
Jyou said.

Tai lifted one eyebrow, floored at the idea that squeamish Jyou, who got 
nauseous just at the THOUGHT of blood, and chickened out at the mere 
MENTION of danger, would watch a creepy series like The X-Files.

"YOU watch The X-Files??" he demanded.

Jyou shook his head.

"No, but Shin does," he replied. "He likes to turn it on whenever I'm in 
the room just to see if I'll turn green."

"Okay, so what happened in the episode?" Sora asked. "How did they fix 
the problem?"

Jyou looked sheepish.

"I...I dunno," he admitted, "it got gory and I left the room."

Nobody liked the sound of where this was headed. Tense silence filled 
the air. Pipermon looked at the children again, and set her jaw.

"I'm going after him," she told then simply, and darted away before any 
of them could reply. She heard them gasp as she disappeared into the 
thick trees after Yamato. "I'm sorry, kids," she said softly, "this is 
my fault. I won't let Kurarimon's games go any further, I promise you 
that!" She zipped through the woods, following the trail she had seen 
Yamato run down. Accelerating until she was going faster than even she 
believed she could fly, she quickly caught up with him.

Damn, he's fast for a human! she thought. He was almost to the hill that 
dropped off steeply into the gaping canyon of the Shin'en below.

"Yamato-san!" she shouted. "Yamato-san, stop! Please, stop! You have to 
stop! You're hallucinating!" She put on a burst of speed. "Whatever 
you're seeing, Yamato-san, whatever you're running from--it's not REAL!"

She caught up with him and reached out, grabbing his arm. He twisted 
away with a cry like a frightened animal. Pipermon sqinted.

"Yamato-san, I'm sorry!" she whispered, and tackled him from behind, 
throwing her arms around his shoulders and pitching them both to the 
ground. With a startled cry, she found herself falling, spinning, and 
realized they were tumbling down the hill at an alarming speed, 
somersaulting and tumbling through the dirt and grass. Yamato struggled 
against her grip, still swept up in the delusions Kurarimon had trapped 
him in. She squeezed her arms tight around his chest, refusing to let 
him go, and used her powers of levitation to slow their rapid descent 
toward the Shin'en. She let out a shriek as the crevice of the Shin'en 
came closer and closer, and then--

--they stopped, just inches from the edge. Breathing heavily, Pipermon 
sighed, relieved, and she felt her arms quivering as she loosened her 
grip on Yamato's torso. He still struggled against her touch, apparently 
still seeing something she couldn't. She cried out as he lurched to the 
side, coming dangerously close to the edge of the Shin'en.

"Yamato-san, stop! Stop struggling!" she scolded. "For God's sake, STOP! 
You'll fall if you don't stay still!" She kept a firm grip on his 
forearms and shook him, looking into his eyes. "Yamato-san, it's ME! 
It's Pipermon! Stop--PLEASE!"

She let out a shriek of fear as he wrenched free of her grasp and 
stumbled backward, shoving away from her, blinded by his sheer terror. 
The ground at the edge of the Shin'en began to crumble beneath his feet.

"Yamato-san, get away from the edge!" she cried, grabbing for his shirt 
as he floundered backward, off-balance, and tottered on the edge. He let 
out a terrified yelp as the unsteady ground gave way under his weight 
and he plunged down ward into the abyss below.

"YAMATO-SAN!!"

Pipermon hurled herself toward the edge and snapped her arm out. Her 
fingers grasped the fabric of Yamato's shirt, and she held fast. 
Breathing a sigh of relief, she quickly tried to pull him back up onto 
solid ground. He still resisted, frightened, against her clutch, even 
though she was the only thing preventing him from plummeting to his 
death. Pipermon silently damned Kurarimon for doing this to him. She had 
poisoned his mind, and nearly killed him! Kurarimon knew now, that 
Pipermon was walking the line between the two sides...though she didn't 
want to betray Kurarimon, Pipermon just couldn't bring herself to hurt 
these children, nor could she bear to see any harm come to them! Was 
Kurarimon doing this merely to torture her now?

"Yamato-san, PLEASE!" she begged, struggling to pull him up over the 
edge. "Please, stop squirming!" She felt her heart jerk in her chest as 
he twisted and writhed in her grasp, seemingly unaware that, if 
Pipermon's grip failed, he was done for, he would plummet to an unseen 
death a distance no one had ever traveled. Oh, no, no way, Pipermon 
thought, angrily, determined, setting her jaw. Like hell he will. With a 
cry of exasperation, she gave his shirt a sharp yank, pulling him up 
over the lip of the Shin'en. Before he had the chance to put up a fight, 
Pipermon ran one hand down his face.

"Mists of Morpheus!" she whispered, and a sparkling lavender fog 
billowed all around them.

"Pipermon!!"

With a strangled cry, Koushiro rushed down the hill, the rest of the 
children hot on his heels, their digimon not far behind. They all 
stopped short at the sight of the purplish haze. 

"Pipermon?" Koushiro called her name again, and took a step forward, 
waving his hands in the air in front of him in an attempt to dispel the 
thick fog.

When the violet vapor lifted, the children saw Pipermon near the edge of 
the deep black chasm she had warned them about, cradling Yamato's head 
in her lap. She looked up at them, tears clouding her bright blue eyes.

"I'm sorry," she said as they stepped closer to her. Her voice trembled. 
"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry...I had to...I just had to...he wouldn’t...he 
wouldn't stop struggling, so I..."

Jyou dropped to one knee and took Yamato’s wrist. He glanced at his 
watch, concentrating.

"He's okay, Pipermon," Jyou told her, letting go of the boy's wrist. 
"His pulse is a little fast, but he's all right. Why are you 
apologizing?"

"You probably just saved his life," Izzy said.

Pipermon squeezed her eyes shut.

"But I had to use one of my attacks on him," she said softly. "I used a 
sleeping spell...I had to...I had to attack him..."

"He would have fallen otherwise," Gabumon said as the rest of the 
digimon gathered around their human companions.

"No need to apologize," Patamon said with a smile, "you didn't hurt 
him."

She looked up at the children, and smiled faintly.

"Ohmigosh, Pipermon!" Mimi gasped. Pipermon snapped her head up as Mimi 
pointed. "You're bleeding!"

"I'm..."

Pipermon looked down at her arm. Indeed, she had a scratch on her left 
forearm. The fabric of her sleeve was torn, and blood was slowly oozing 
from the wound. She touched the blood gingerly, as though she didn't 
believe it was real, then winced and hissed in pain. It stung!

"I didn't think that digimon bled," Jyou said, lifting one eyebrow.

Pipermon frowned.

"Most don't," she admitted, "but I do. So do Hollymon and Ivymon...so 
does Kurarimon... It comes from being what we are...we're more than just 
digimon...we're...we're almost real. The combination of virus, data, and 
vaccine create a creature that totters on the fine line between reality 
and virtual reality. We're digital, and yet we're real enough to bleed." 
She twitched her nose. "Pretty freaky, ne?" she added with a small 
smile.

The children looked a little startled by this late-breaking news. It had 
never even occurred to them before that digimon were completely digital, 
and they themselves were real...the digimon had come into the real world 
with them so many times that they had never given it a second thought. 
They were as real as any human, as far as the digidestined were 
concerned. But it was true, none of the digimon had really bled...Mimi 
had bandaged Ogremon once after a bad fall, and he'd had a gash across 
his face...but there really hadn’t been any blood. Kari had patched up a 
wound on Agumon after a fight, but it hadn't really bled, just sort of 
emitted a black steam. Was that digital blood? Usually, when the digimon 
were injured, they just devolved back to their Rookie or In-Training 
state...but none of them could think of a time when a digimon had really 
bled.

Pipermon looked down at Yamato, and her smile faded.

"Come on, kids," she said, moving to stand up, "we have to get off the 
Shin'en and back to the trail. The sleep spell I used doesn't last very 
long, and if Yamato-san wakes up and starts freaking out again, I might 
not be able to stop him."

She scooped him up, one arm behind his neck and the other beneath his 
knees, and started up the hill, following Jyou and Gomamon's lead. She 
looked up toward the top of the hill and noticed that Tai and Kari had 
just caught up with all of them. Kari looked down and saw the rest of 
the group trudging their way back up the hill, and she squeezed her 
brother’s hand.

"He's all right, Tai," Kari told him, "Pipermon caught him. He's okay." 
She smiled as she heard Tai breathe a sigh of relief. Tai admitted, to 
anyone who asked, that he and Yamato often locked horns when it came to 
making decisions, but he was still Tai's best friend, even if they found 
it hard to agree on anything. Tai wasn't sure what he would do if 
something were to happen to Yamato--or any of the digidestined, for that 
matter. They were more than just a group of friends, they were almost 
like a single unit...they could almost read one another’s thoughts. A 
single unit...yes, that's what it was...a unit that would fall apart at 
the seams if any one of its components were lost.

Pipermon followed the rest of the children up to the top of the hill 
where they reunited with Tai and Kari. There was excited chatter as the 
children told Taichi what had happened to Pipermon, and how she had 
explained that she and the enemy were almost as real as anyone from 
their own world. Stepping into the clearing atop the hill, Pipermon 
shifted Yamato's weight in her arms, and she paused, her eyes narrowed. 
She silently dropped to one knee and placed the palm of her hand on his 
cheek. 

He's very warm, she thought, frowning.

"Watcha doin', Pipermon?" 

She looked up into TK's curiously anxious eyes, and impulsively reached 
out and brushed his golden hair off his forehead, her palm on his brow. 
She placed her other hand across Yamato's forehead again.

"Pipermon," TK said, "what are you--?"

"Jyou-san," Pipermon called, and the chatter in the clearing stopped as 
he looked at her. She pulled her hand away from Takeru's face. "Jyou-
san, what's a human's normal temperature?"

He blinked.

"Ninety-eight point six degrees Fahrenheit," he recited, "why do you 
ask?"

"Does Yamato have a fever?" Sora queried, worried.

Pipermon didn't reply. She looked at TK, then at Yamato, then back to 
Jyou.

"Ninety-eight point six?" she said. "You're certain?"

He nodded, and the children and digimon fanned out around her and Yamato 
as she pressed her palm a little harder against his forehead, and felt 
TK's brow one more time. She shook her head and looked at Jyou. "Ninety-
eight point six," she whispered, and worry flooded her eyes. "If you're 
right, Jyou-san, then Yamato's temperature is dangerously high. It must 
be at least a hundred and six."

There was a collective gasp.

"A hundred and SIX?" Jyou cried.

"Inconceivable!" Izzy shouted.

Gabumon hurried over to his human's side.

"How can it be so high?" he asked, afraid. He had almost lost Yamato 
once because he had gone out in a snowstorm to look for TK and nearly 
frozen to death. And there was the time Yamato had almost lost HIMSELF 
in a cave of darkness created by the fears in his own heart. Both times, 
however, Gabumon had been able to save him...to bring him back...but 
this time... What would happen this time?

"A hundred and six?" Jyou asked again. "That's...that's just...not 
possible! A temperature of a hundred and four is enough to send a human 
to the hospital! A hundred and six...that could...could..." He refused 
to say the words... That could kill him, he thought.

"I KNEW he was lying!" Takeru wailed suddenly, dropping hard to his 
knees beside his brother. Patamon fluttered up to the young boy's 
shoulder. "I knew he was lying, I knew he wasn't okay!"

Pipermon looked at him.

"Takeru-san," she said, "whaddya mean?"

TK flinched and squeezed his eyes shut.

"Last night he woke up in the middle of the night cuz he'd had a bad 
dream," he said, near tears, and Pipermon's fists clenched as she 
realized she had been right...Kurarimon had gotten to Yamato, and badly, 
at that. "He was all scared, but he insisted that he was okay. He said 
he was fine--but I knew he was lying!"

Tai snapped to attention.

"TK!" he shouted, and TK looked at him. "TK, did you say Yama had a 
dream last night?"

TK sniffed, and then nodded.

"Uh huh," he affirmed, "a really scary one, too. He was really freaked 
out!"

Tai's mind was starting to put the pieces together.

"Sora," he said, and didn't even wait for her to acknowledge, "the night 
before you got that headache...you had a dream, too...didn't you?"

She blinked.

"Well, actually...yeah, I did," she admitted, sounding a little 
sheepish, "but I blamed it on being worried about you, Tai..."

Tai felt his face flush crimson, but continued quickly, "Sora, quick, 
tell me what you saw in the dream."

"Well," she said, "it was almost as if the dream started in the 
middle...like it was already going on when I became a part of it. We 
were running...all of us, running...running from something--I dunno what 
it was... It was some sort of a strange black cloud... But, we were too 
slow...and it..." Her voice trailed off.

"It swallowed you up, didn't it?" he asked seriously, and she snapped 
her head up, her eyes bulging.

"Yes!" she cried. "Yes, it did! But--how did you--?"

"Because I had the same dream," he said, and tapped one finger beside 
his left eye, "the night before I lost my sight."

"That was the weird part, though, Tai," Sora went on, "you weren't in 
the dream at all."

"Of course not," he said, slapping his fist into his palm, "because the 
dream had already gotten me." He paused. "You were right in front of me, 
Sora," he added, then hesitated. "Yamato was...he was in front of 
you...wasn't he?"

Sora gasped.

"He was...ohmigosh--!"

"Then I'll bet you my allowance for the next three weeks that neither 
you nor me was in the dream Yamato saw," Tai said.

"So whoever was in front of him will most likely be the next one on 
Kurarimon's list!" Sora said.

Izzy was fascinated.

"So," he said, "it stands to reason that Yamato would be able to 
correctly identify the person who will most likely be hit next." He 
paused. "We'll just have to ask him who was in front of him when he 
wakes up."

"IF he wakes up..."

All eyes turned to Pipermon.

"What??" they all cried.

Pipermon was holding Yamato's head in her lap again, and she brushed a 
golden strand of hair out of his face.

"My spell should have worn off by now," she explained with a frown. "The 
magic is only supposed to last maybe five or six minutes..." She gnawed 
on her lip. "I think that, whatever Kurarimon has done to him, it's made 
him too weak to awaken from the spell." She draped the back of her hand 
across his forehead again. "His temperature is so high..." she said, 
sounding fearful. She looked up at the rest of the group. "We have to 
find a way to bring the fever down."

Jyou dug through his pockets.

"I think I have some Aspirin," he mumbled.

"I think this is a little beyond the bounds of conventional medicines, 
Jyou," Gomamon said, waving a flipper.

"Gomamon's right," Pipermon said, and lay Yamato's head back down on the 
forest floor. Gabumon stood beside his fallen partner and looked at 
Pipermon with anxiety in his large round eyes.

"What do we do?" he asked. The look in Pipermon's eyes was a grave one.

"There's only one thing we CAN do," she said, and she placed two fingers 
on Yamato's forehead. Kari quickly slapped Pipermon's hand away.

"Hikari-san--?"

"Pipermon, you CAN'T," Kari protested, "it's too dangerous!"

"A headache is one thing," Sora added, her hands clasped together 
uncomfortably, "but Yamato's situation is really bad."

Pipermon was taken aback.

"But we have to do SOMETHING," she cried, "we can't just leave him like 
this! If something isn't done to break the fever...he could...he 
could..." She clenched her fists. "He could DIE!" She glared at the 
children. "Who are you more worried about, anyway" she demanded, "me, or 
your friend??"

Hikari lowered her eyes.

"But...you're our friend, too, Pipermon," she said softly.

Pipermon sucked in a sharp breath, feeling rather like she had been 
slapped across the face. She cringed and looked away.

Oh, how I wish you hadn't said that, Hikari-san, she thought. It's just 
going to make everything harder... 

She looked up at the children again.

"Listen to me," she said, "this isn't as dangerous as you may think. I 
can regulate my internal body temperature, I can raise or lower it up to 
seven degrees from my normal temperature, which makes a hundred and six 
degree fever a lot less dangerous for me than for Yamato-san." She 
locked eyes with Kari. "Please," she implored, "please, let me try...let 
me help him..." This is partially my fault anyway... she added silently. 
Tai frowned.

"You really think it's safe?" he asked. He wanted to help Yama, but he 
didn't want anything to happen to Pipermon. Yama was his best friend, 
but Pipermon was their guide...without her, they would be lost, but 
without him, they would be incomplete...oh, what to do? It was times 
like this that Tai despised being the leader...because when you're the 
leader, the final say on big decisions rests on your shoulders...and so, 
too, does the responsibility should something go wrong. Tai grit his 
teeth. "You're confident you'll be all right?" he went on.

She nodded.

"Piece of cake," she said. "We'll both be fit as a fiddle when I'm 
through." She winked, and hoped she knew what she was talking about.

Tai sighed gustily, then slowly nodded his head.

"Then do it, Pipermon," he said. "Help Yama...but be careful."

She nodded once, crisply, then again placed two fingers on Yamato's 
forehead. She placed two from her other hand on her own brow, and closed 
her eyes.


"Rains from Heaven, Winds from the West,
Come forth, O power with which I was blest.
Bring back this child from the thresh hold of death,
Let him be saved by these words Magic saith:
Breath of Restoration!"


Again, the wind that seemed to originate nowhere swirled around the 
children, sparkling as though the air were full of diamond dust. 
Pipermon opened her palms and pressed her hand against Yamato’s' 
forehead. There was a flash of light--

--and then something went wrong. Pipermon felt suddenly dizzy as the 
sickness Yamato had been stricken with was yanked from his body and 
slammed into hers. Something was very wrong--it wasn't supposed to--
something wasn't right at all! It wasn't supposed to happen like this--!

"Pipermon..."

She leapt back away from Yamato, nearly colliding with Jyou. Her eyes 
scanned the trees.

"Pipermon...what do you think you're doing?"

Kurarimon's voice filled her head, hissing like a serpent. Pipermon let 
out a shriek and stumbled backward, trying to escape the voice in her 
mind.

"What are you doing, Pipermon...?" the disembodied voice demanded. 
Pipermon cried out and dropped to her knees, pressing her hands over her 
ears as though she could block out the voice invading her thoughts. Her 
eyes were wild with terror. Was this what Kurarimon had done to Yamato? 
No wonder he had run! "So, you're helping them now?" Kurarimon 
whispered, her voice dripping with fury and resent. "How noble...taking 
the punishment meant to be theirs... This has gone far beyond the bounds 
of simply earning their trust, Little Piper..."

Pipermon screamed in terror and lunged backward as Kurarimon's ruby red 
eyes flashed before hers, narrowed to angry slits and burning with the 
fires of rage.

"So...you wish to be their ally now?" the eyes bellowed accusingly. "Not 
a very wise choice, child...I strongly suggest you rethink your plans. 
Perhaps I can help you make the right decision, Pipermon...perhaps I 
shall give you a sample of what I do to my enemies... I will give you 
another chance, Pipermon--but one, and only one--to choose...but maybe 
I'll let you experience what it is like to be my enemy before you make a 
final determination of whose side you're really on..."

With that, a searing white-hot pain shot through Pipermon's head, and 
she felt woozy and faint. She swayed unsteadily, and vaguely heard the 
frightened shouts of the digidestined children as her knees gave out 
from under her. She felt herself falling, and tried to cry out, but 
before she could do anything else, the world went black and silent 
around her.


Waiiii, this is *not* good! What'll happen to Pipermon? And what about 
Yamato? ::bounce:: Eeee...I'm all excited--and I already know the 
ending. O_o; Okay, hikari, no more Coca Cola for breakfast. "..." Well, 
anyway, there ya go... please review! Arigato! Ja ne, minna-san!
~~hikari