Left Behind: Chapter 8

Episode 36: Minds Under Siege

A/N: This is one of those 'idea' fics where it just gets updated when I get inspiration. Still, please give it a read and let me know what you think so far!

A/N 2: This is my favorite chapter yet~

Jyou, Gomamon, and Gabo walked until they came across a forest. The sun was starting to set and Jyou found it hard to see under the shadow of Spiral Mountain. Then, he heard a familiar sound... Yamato's harmonica.

"Yamato," Jyou breathed, rushing deeper into the forest. I know it's him. No one plays like that. The subtle way he squeaks when he plays a C, the hint of breath between notes... it's him. It's him.

"Eh? Wait!" Gabo cried, wiping away a sweat drop. He turned to Gomamon, "General Yamato isn't exactly someone you go running to."

"Jyou!" Gomamon cried. "We can't keep up with you! Jyou!" The little seal galloped across the brush with Gabo trailing behind him.

The blue haired boy ran as fast as he could towards the sound, but it suddenly stopped. Still, he trusted his heart. He looked around and then heard the sound of a stampede. He went towards it and reached the clearing in front of Pinocchiomon's house. Natsuko was a few feet away, trying not to get trampled. Jyou scanned the area for Yamato and found him riding his BlackGarurumon down the hill. Jyou was breathless. Yamato had aged beautifully, but when he looked into his boyfriend's eyes, he saw nothing.

"Yamato!" he called.

"Oh, the calvary," Yamato muttered, kicking BlackGarurumon in the ribs. He came to a stop and did a quick turn to sneer down at Jyou... then Gomamon and Gabo. The sight of the non-infected Gabumon tugged at him but he distracted himself, turning to Natsuko. "Kill that woman while I take care of these losers!"

"Yamato, I'm so glad you're okay!" Jyou cried, not realizing what the blonde had just ordered or the fact that he had completely been ignored. He rushed over to Yamato, but he was stopped by the heft of BlackGarurumon's snout.

"Go home, Jyou," Yamato ordered.

"I'm here to get you," Jyou said, the wolf snot soaking through his vest. A steam of breath rose from the nostrils and forced him tumbling back. Gabo and Gomamon caught his legs in their flimsy arms.

"Yamato, we need you," Gomamon told him, "Vamdemon is still out there, trying to find the 8th Child!"

The blonde gave a long laugh, "Idiots. Lord Dragomon will stomp all of you before he even gets the chance to find this kid... who probably doesn't even exist anyway."

"Listen!" Jyou pleaded, reaching out and grabbing the other's hand. For only the second time he saw the scars underneath, except now they were long faded. Nearly three years had passed. "I tried to come back sooner..." Jyou continued, trying to control his tears. "I don't care what happened, I just want you back."

Yamato smirked, "I need no one, but if you insist on following me, help me kill that woman."

"No," Jyou breathed. "I promised your father she would come home in one piece."

Yamato kicked BlackGarurumon again and he was off, heading straight for Natsuko, who stood like some maiden waiting to be rescued.

I can't believe I'm doing this. Jyou thought, chasing after him. "Yamato, wait!"

Meanwhile, Pinnochiomon thumped his fingers against his monitor. "I'm tired of waiting. Let's go destroy them all."

"Wait, Lord Pinnochiomon," urged Kiwimon. "That blue haired boy is of signifigance to the child this woman seeks. Let us take him."

"Hmm..." the wooden marrionette watched as the blue haired boy stumbled and struggled across the clearing, following the monstrous BlackGarurumon. "He might be fun... I'm going. Guard my home."

Kiwimon nodded, watching as his master left.

Yamato stopped inches from his mother's face. "You. Does your lust have no end?"

"Listen to me, son," Natsuko started. "What part of me you saw... it isn't the real me. I've done nothing but love you since the day you were born. I came all the way into this strange world to find you, to beg you to come home! Look at you... you're growing into a fine young man."

Yamato chuckled, "Too old for you?"

Natsuko scrunched her eyes, "Please, Yamato. If you won't come home for me, come home for that weird little friend of yours that wants you back. And your brother and father. Please! I don't care if you ignore me the rest of your life, but running from your problems will never help you. Please, hate me if that is the only thing that will make you my son again."

Yamato listened intently, debating his options. He could return home... but should he trust this woman? Long ago he had and it ended disastrously. He was breathing heavy as he weighed betraying himself and Lord Dragomon in one swoop. However, Dragomon wasn't returning. Niether was Daemon, surely.

"I will do one thing," he decided finally as Jyou caught up to him. The blue haired boy caught his breath and reached out for Yamato's hand. He took it, daring the blonde's attention once more. He snickered and turned back to his mother, "I promise to hate you forever."

The blood orange crest around his chest began to glow so brilliantly that anyone in their little circle was blinded. Yamato screamed as he was tossed from his mount and landed near his mother. Jyou rushed over to them, but stopped when he saw Pinnochiomon, wielding his hammer.

"We got trouble," Jyou gulped as Gomamon and Gabo joined him.

Yamato clutched at his collarbone, the light seeping through his fingers. "My dream of seeing you dead will come true... Dragomon promised me this!"

Natsuko stared down at her son, eager to take all blame if he would just come home, but something strange floated over her and she could only see the handsome blonde before her. She pulled him up next to her. Helpless from the pain of his wrath, Yamato couldn't move as his mother brought him close to her and put her lips on his.

"BlackGarurumon-" Gomamon squealed worriedly. He hid behind Jyou and Jyou watched as the Digimon as he was surged with power. He changed into a form niether had seen nor thought imaginable. "He's stronger than an ultimate..."

"BlackMetalGarurumon," Yamato breathed, spitting in Natsuko's face. He pulled away from her grasp for a second and then outstretched his arms, tightening around his mother's neck.

"Yamato, stop!" Jyou breathed. I guess I can bring her back whole this way, but I don't think a corpse made from your hand was what your father had in mind!

"Time for me to get in on this little game!" Pinnochiomon cried. He turned to Yamato's army, brought motionless from the light of his crest, and then wiped out half of them with one blow. Then, he tossed his strings at Natsuko, breaking her free of her son's hatred. She wobbled over to a scared-to-death Jyou and grabbed him quickly before 'flying' off with him towards Pinnochiomon's fortress.

Yamato clenched his fists and gave out an angry yell. "Give them back," he seethed.

Pinnochiomon laughed and danced, "Only if you call off your goons! And promise never to attack me again! I'm not the only Dark Master you know..."

"Done," Yamato hissed.

Pinnochiomon let Natsuko from his grasp and tossed her at her son, before returning to his fortress. Clearly having surrended, the remainder of Yamato's army started to leave. From the sky Pinnochiomon watched as Yamato demanded BlackMetalGarurumon destroy them. "I like his style," the puppet noted with a nod. "A shame that overgrown octopus got a hold of him and not me."

As BlackMetalGarurumon slaughtered what was left of his own army that didn't manage to flee, Yamato watched with a smile as every little thing felt every ounce of his hate.

"Yamato, make him stop," Natsuko pleaded, watching the limbs of dead Digimon fly across the field. She grabbed her son's arm and tugged, still begging him to stop. "Yamato!"

"What do you want?" the blonde remarked, turning to her. Well, as much as seeing the side of his face counted. "You'll be dead next."

Natsuko began to cry and dropped to the ground, "I don't understand what's going on. These feelings were supposed to go away."

Yamato laughed from the back of his throat, "Haven't you figured out your just a very sick human being?"

"I'll lock myself away. I'll never see you again... I can't stand seeing what you are, Yamato." He scoffed at her. "You were a bright kid who loved making friends... then, you decided that you were different and pushed them all away."

The blonde turned and elbowed her in the face, watching her fall to the ground. Natsuko held her nose and Yamato's blue eyes stared with disdain as the blood seeped through to her knuckle, over her wedding ring. "Don't talk to me about friends. They left me here for three years, alone, in this Hell!"

"Have you even wondered why your friend hasn't aged a day?!" Natsuko screamed, sending blood splattering across the grass.

The field was silent outside her breath and BlackMetalGarurumon's footsteps as he walked over beside his tamer, having finished his duty. Yamato didn't flinch the entire time, his hair tossing itself in the wind. He stared down his mother as she struggled to say anything more.

"He's here because he loves you!" she screamed and starting sobbing into the ground. "The same reason I'm here... except... I'm still as tainted as you... I've been denying it for months now, but I'm sick again... I want you to leave me here, Yamato. Go find your friend, because all he did while you two were seperated was count down the seconds that turned to days to years... beating himself up for what felt like more of an eternity to him than you can even comprehend."

"BlackMetalGarurumon, kill her," Yamato breathed, raising his lip at the pathetic form before him.

The Digimon hesitated, raising his paw, opening his jaw, but he couldn't.

"I have you an order," Yamato seethed. "Rip her throat open!"

"No," the Digimon said, backing away. Yamato turned back to the frail woman, a darkness surrounding her body and causing her to scream with pain.

Jyou struggled in the puppet Digimon's strings as he lead them up a huge stairwell. "You'll make a wonderful toy for me," he chuckled, throwing around a magnum against Jyou's cheek with a free string. "Wanna play?"

"Not really," Jyou admitted. "Um, not to sound like Mimi, but Mr. Puppetguy, where are we going?"

"Your room!" the Digimon cackled.

"Oh, great... even in the Digital World I'm grounded," Jyou sighed, giving into the strings holding him. Soon, they came to a door which Pinnochiomon kicked open and then the strings snapped, sending the boy flying.

"I'm keeping you a little while... Piemon demands that General Yamato stop and without his army which he so beautifully destroyed, I am free to kill him! It's going to be so much fun!"

"You can't kill Yamato. That's not..." Jyou tried to defend the boy, but how could he? Jyou kept remembering how he had mercilessly strangled his own mother. She was probably dead by now. Further, Jyou thought, He chose her over me. He'd rather kill his mother himself than rescue the only person he could ever trust... "And Gabumon... what in the world happened to him? How can he allow this?"

"Look, I don't make the rules," Pinnochiomon said, "Well... I do, actually. But I didn't make that kid what he is. Take that up with that barrel of squid ink called Dragomon."

"Dragomon... the guy Yamato works for," Jyou wondered as the door was slammed shut. He heard it lock and took a moment to look around. His room looked like a playground, not a bedroom. In the corner sat a large stuffed bear... a Monzaemon, actually, however, upon closer inspection, Jyou realized he was truly stuffed. Shivering, Jyou opened a large toy trunk.

Wide eyed, he exclaimed, "What kind of toys are these?! Grenades? Knives? Darts? What the Hell is wrong with this place?!"

"Master," started BlackMetalGarurumon.

Gomamon and Gabo watched as a darkness formed a circle around Natsuko. That same darkness, they had witnessed, relenquished Yamato in the form of a spore, although he seemed unaware of it. BlackMetalGarurumon started fading away with the darkness, splitting into a twilight of light and dark. All of the light settled in front of Gabo.

Gomamon glared as he watched the scene before him. His tamer gone, now all this weird darkness that had no place in the Digital World was making up it's own rules. He dug his claws into the dirt.

"Yamato," the human's mother squeaked and for a second, the blonde seemed to remember the part of himself he had tossed away.

"Mom?" he questioned. "Mom?"

"You called me Mom... Yamato..."

"What's wrong with you?" he breathed, leaning down at her side. The dark force surrounding her tossed him back and the general skidded across the open field a good ten feet before he stopped. He groggily picked his head up. In fact, suddenly, he caught himself staring down at his own hands. "What's wrong with me...?"

His Mom cried out and his heart stopped. A dark vortex opened up behind her. Yamato stood on jelly legs and stumbled closer, squinting. There was an ocean behind her. He could see a lighthouse emitting dark light. "Mom!" he called out. "Mom!" He rushed over to her and grabbed her hand, but she slipped from his grasp like a broken doll into a drain. Tears in his eyes, the portal closed in front of him, his mother disappearing with it. Yamato collapsed, wiping his blurred vision away.

"Gabumon..." he whispered, turning to Gabo. "You're Gabumon..."

The light was filling him and slowly his scruffy, somewhat challenged appearance started to look like the old friend Yamato knew well. He rushed over to the Digimon and hugged him and as he did so, the Crest of Wrath shattered. Yamato clutched his chest as the bright blue light returned to him. "My... crest..."

"Yamato," Gomamon said, stamping his foot. "That evil Digimon took Jyou."

"I... I know," Yamato breathed. "What... happened to me...? Everything's hazy. Did I almost kill everyone?" The blonde turned, his blue eyes scanning the field. As he saw the Digimon corpses breaking up into the sky, tears filled his own eyes. "Did I kill all those Digimon?"

"Nevermind that. You're the only one who can save Jyou!" Gomamon demanded, putting his flipper on Yamato's hand. He turned to Gabo... Gabumon. "Glad to have you back, too, buddy."

"Likewise. Well, Yamato?"

"...what the Hell is wrong with you two?" the blonde cried. His heart, once filled with hatred, was now empty. His mind once free of shame and guilt, now weighed itself down with sorrow and regret. "Do you two even give a damn about what I've done?! Whatever had me took my mother!"

Gabumon cringed as his tamer's voice cracked. Tears were flowing down his cheeks freely and it was an odd sight to see. He walked over to Yamato, putting a fluffy paw on his back and giving a gentle nade-nade. "Yamato, I knew you were better than this. I'm proud of you."

"...what?" he sniffled.

"You could have just stayed that part of you forever. I had also found the darkness in myself and overcame it with you. Now, your mother faces that challenge. If you really can forgive her, then surely, she can fight this, too."

"What about JYOU?!" Gomamon barked. "Fuck all of you," he blurted, throwing a hissy fit. "I'll go save him myself!"

"Goma," Gabumon started, walking in the path of the angriest seal ever to exist. "Let Yamato regain his senses... sort this out. For us, it has been two long years of pain. See how fractured he is? He loves Jyou and this is killing him more than it is you."

"I doubt that," Gomamon remarked. "Your tamer is nothing but evil."

"Hey!" Gabumon retorted.

"Stop fighting," Yamato said, spitting up nothing in particular, as if getting a bad taste from his mouth. "Stop... what happened to me could've happened to anyone. Gomamon is right about one thing. We need to find Jyou. There's no time to rest. He was the only one who had the balls to come get me..." The blonde stood and dusted himself off. I had some horrible fashion sense. "I'm going to return the favor."

"That sounds like the Yamato I know," Gabumon nodded.

Gomamon was still unsure, but Yamato wasn't stopping for a rest. Jyou didn't. He marched off in the direction of Pinocchiomon and choked back tears as he hoped his mother would be able to hold on long enough for him to admit his forgiveness.