"Let go!"
"No, you let go! Those are my toys!"
"They're mine! Go search your own!"
"Now, now kiddos, settle down! Can't you just share and..."
"You're just a stupid girl!" the little boy shouted and shoved the dark-skinned Digimon in the direction of his sister. "Impmon, take it back from her!"
"No!" his sister protested. "Impmon's my Digimon friend, so he does what I'm telling him! Impmon, teach him a lesson!"
"No, he's listening to me!"
"No, to me!"
"Heeeeellllppp!" Impmon yelled as the two twins began pulling on his arms from both sides. As he was pulled back and forth, his body was lifted off the ground. Now he felt like the stuffed bear the siblings had been fought over must have felt.
"Let go of me! LET GOOOOOO!!!"
Lucemon opened her eyes with a gasp. She looked around. There was nobody around. She was all alone in her personal chamber.
She rubbed her head. "This vision..." she murmured. "Just remains of a past that's no longer my own..." She then smiled. "Oh no, there won't be any fighting in my own family... in my new, improved family. And there will be no fighting anywhere within my perfect world. Impmon is much happier as Garmon... and my brother will see the errors of his ways soon enough. He can't do anything but join me when he sees the results."
She nodded to herself as she stood up from her seat and walked towards the window. "Yes... they will all join me."
She looked down at the perfect world she had created. Laughing children running through the streets, humans hand in hand with Digimon, no animosity between them, not even between Vaccine and Virus Digimon. No crimes, no politics, no corruption, no pollution.
And it was all hers to control. Everyone adored her and listened to her. Why, if she'd give them an order, everyone would listen to her without thinking about it. It was just a matter of time before the Digital World would fall under her control as well. All she had to do was to command an attack...
She blinked and shook her head. Where did that thought come from? No, this was something that couldn't be solved by brutish force. Why else did she have her controlling and transforming forces of Succubimon, Azraelmon, KidDevimon and SmallLadyDevimon? Only to show others the happiness everyone deserved to have.
She recalled the moment when she had last talked to Twilimon. She remembered the words she had said to him. That she only did all this to control everyone. That she didn't care about her former mother, turned daughter.
This wasn't true. She was like a loving mother... no, she WAS a loving mother now. She would never do anything to harm them. And she would make sure that her children wouldn't do the same mistake she did back when she was little Ai. She didn't know why she said those things to Mako. Did she lose her temper? Or was it just to convince Twilimon that his sister wasn't the same anymore?
Either way, she had to make sure that...
"MOMMY!" a pair of high-pitched voices yelled when her two daughters, ChibiD'Arcmon and LassDramon, came running into her room.
She smiled and sat down on her seat. "Hello, daughters!" she said. "Do you have any reports?"
ChibiD'Arcmon nodded eagerly. "Riley has almost reached the upper floor. The Digi-Chrome gate is giving her trouble, but she's almost through."
"Well then, we'll have to make sure to give her a warm welcome," Lucemon smirked.
"Leave it to me, Mommy!" LassDramon squealed. "Sweetie and me are gonna take care of that mean ol' witch!"
"No way!" ChibiD'Arcmon protested. "Fluffy can deal with her much better!"
"Fluffy? Don't get me wrong, sis, he's cool and all, but... it's just that Sweetie's cooler!" The dragon-girl grinned.
"No, he's not!" the little angel protested angrily. "Fluffy's cooler!"
"No, Sweetie's cooler!"
"No, Fluffy!"
"Sweetie!"
"Fluffy!"
And then the yelling match turned into a little brawl, when the two little girls began to shove each other around, tearing at each others hair and wings and calling each other names.
"Girls, stop that," Lucemon said calm, but with a firm voice. "There's no time for that... girls, did you not hear me? Stop it! GIRLS!"
But ChibiD'Arcmon and LassDramon did not listen, and their high-pitched yells became unbearable for Lucemon. She pressed her hands on her ears and closed her eyes, but that only brought up the memory of little Ai and Mako, fighting over the possession of their toys and their Digimon partner.
'They can't make the same mistake Mako and I did,' she thought to herself. 'I WON'T let them make the same mistake!'
"STOP IT!" she shouted, and spread her wings. A powerful shove of sheer power pushed her daughters to the ground, and with a frightened squeak, the Rookies stopped their prattling. With scared whimpers, they looked up to their angry mother.
Ai breathed heavily. Her hands were shaking. She then looked down at the two scared, little girls in front of her. She raised her hands and looked at them. 'No... I wanted them to be happy, not to be scared...' she thought. Quickly, she turned her back to them.
After a while, she felt a soft tugging on her robe. When she looked down, she saw the big eyes of ChibiD'Arcmon looking up at her with worry.
"Mom? You... you're mad with us, aren't you? I... I'm sorry..."
"Yeah, me too," LassDramon nodded as she stepped up to her, coming from the other side. "Please don't be angry... we'll be good!"
Lucemon hesitantly reached out and touched their heads. Then, with a sigh, she ruffled their hair. "It's all right, girls..." she murmured. "Mommy's just a bit stressed, that's all."
"No way!" Chibi protested. "You can't be stressed!"
"Yeah, you're Lucemon!" LassDramon nodded. "Lucemon is never stressed!" And they hugged her from both sides.
"You're good girls," Lucemon sighed. "Don't worry, I'm not mad at you... but listen, I don't want either Fluffy or Sweetie to take care of Riley. I want her to come in. So, if she still has trouble getting through that gate... feel free to open it for her. And tell your brother to bring Yamaki to me."
"Okay, Mom!" they said and ran out of the room.
Lucemon sighed again as she sat down. She gasped when, all of a sudden, something wet trickled down her cheek.
She reached up to touch it... and brought it in front of her face.
It was a single tear.
With spread wings, Riley came bursting forth from the elevator shaft. Right in front of her, the LadyDevimon could see the straight hallway, with a big door on its end. She could feel the enormous power behind this door... the power that Lucemon was radiating.
That was where her beloved Yamaki had to be.
A pair of Succubimon was standing guard left and right of the door. Seeing Riley, they stepped in front of her and blocked the door with their wings.
"Hold it! No one can enter the great Lucemon's domain uninvited!"
Letting out a feral growl, Riley did not even slow down. "Out of my way, you cheap copies!" she shouted. "DARKNESS WAVE!"
Bats made of pure darkness came flying forth from her wings. The Succubimons didn't even have the chance to use their hypnotic powers as they got blasted out of the way.
With one solid kick, Riley opened the door and came to the stop in the middle of the big room that had opened up to her.
Soft clapping was coming from the big, throne-like chair that was standing at the far end of the room. There, Lucemon was sitting. A small dragon-girl and an equally small angel-girl were crouching next to her, smiling up at the fallen angel adoringly.
"An impressive display of power, I must say," Lucemon smiled. "For one who isn't a Tamer, Hybrid, Souvereign or Digital Champion, you show the promise to be quite a strong warrior."
"Stuff it!" Riley yelled. "You took my man away from me! I know he's here! Release him, or else..."
"Or else?" Lucemon repeated, raising one of her eyebrows with amusement. "May I remind you that you are just an Ultimate, while I am the Mistress of Pride?"
"Do I look like I care?" Riley growled. "I carry the power of a Demon Lord within me as well, and help me, I'm gonna use it if you force me to!"
"The power of Lust, so I've heard, Lucemon nodded. "Tell me, Riley... you must have known that taking Yamaki was just a plan to lure you here. Still, you took the bait like an inexperienced Rookie. Why is that?"
"How can you know?" Riley hissed. "You know nothing of love! You're just an immature, little BRAT!"
"Did you take a look around?" Lucemon asked while making a wide gesture with both arms. "This whole town, yes, all of Japan, is my family. I love them, and they love me. Then take my loving daughters, my son, my loyal servants and my adoring brother."
Ai did not mention the fact that the last time she had met Mako, he had stated clearly he didn't want to have anything to do with her idea of a paradise.
"Have you ever loved a MAN?" Riley asked, her eyes glowing red with fury and the intense feelings she felt for Yamaki. "THAT'S what pure Lust is... and I am not surprised that my Demon Lord data is the only one you're missing. After all, what would a little girl understand of LUST?"
The satisfied smile on Lucemon's face had disappeared. "Very well," she said. "You have come for your boyfriend? Here he is!"
A flick of her wrist, and a hidden hatch in the ceiling opened. Through a circular opening, a big cage was lowered, carried by a single dragon-boy who looked like he shouldn't be able to carry such an immense weight.
Within the golden cage, Yamaki was standing, staring down at his beloved.
When the cage was standing on the ground, LadDramon flitted over to his mother and grinned. "There he is, Mom!"
"Well done, honey!" Lucemon smiled.
Riley flew over to the cage. Lucemon didn't stop her as she tried to open the cage. It was a futile effort, since the cage did not even have a lock.
"Riley..." Yamaki murmured. "You shouldn't have come..."
"Don't say anything, love! I'll get you out of here. Somehow..."
Riley was convinced that she, using her full powers, could easily blast the cage apart. But that would endanger Yamaki, naturally.
With fierce eyes, she turned back to Lucemon. "Let him go!"
"See? And this is the part where I say: Only if you willingly surrender your Demon Lord data to me!" She smiled, and her children giggled at each other, as if they were sharing a private joke.
"Forget it!" Riley grumbled. For some reason, she knew that it was her powers of Lust that had given her enough power to get here. Giving them up would be equal with surrendering to Lucemon on the spot.
There was only one way she could get out of this. Lucemon would never give Yamaki up willingly, so...
"Fight me!" she growled, baring her claws. "We are both Demon Lords, so we are equal. You win, and my Demon Lord data is yours. I win..."
Lucemon sneered. "You're not thinking that I'm going to give up my perfect world just like that?"
Riley shook her head. "No. All I want is Yamaki. We'll leave your twisted idea of a nightmare world alone and go somewhere else to live. You can play queen as long as you like, I don't care! JUST GIVE ME MY MAN!"
"Riley, you don't have to do this," Yamaki spoke up. "Remember all the mistakes we did back when I was 'Dark Lord Yamacus'? Do you want to repeat them?"
"I told you to stay out of this, I got it under control!" Riley shouted.
For a moment, Lucemon seemed to seriously ponder the offer. Then she smiled. "Fine! I accept your terms." She gave her children a quick pet, and the two dragons and the angel left the room. Yamaki's cage floated up to the ceiling.
Casually, Lucemon strode through the room, circling Riley. The LadyDevimon was on edge, always expecting her opponent to strike first.
"You know this battle can only have one outcome," Lucemon said. "Pride is the most powerful of all sins... Lucemon has always been the master of all the other Demon Lords... you are not at your full power... I have absorbed the powers of all the other Demon Lords... what chances do you have?"
"The opportunity to rip you to shreds is all I need..." Riley hissed. "Now attack me already!"
Suddenly, Lucemon stopped and tapped her finger against her chin. "There's one other thing that proves I'm going to win... something I almost forgot about."
"And what's that?"
Lucemon lowered her voice to almost a whisper. "Your lust to Yamaki is a weak one. The love my former parents felt to each other was stronger than your silly crush. Just look at what it did to you... Face it, you're not in love. You're just obsessed!"
"I'LL KILL YOU!" Riley roared, and her powers seemed to explode. Her rage, her thirst for Lucemon's blood and her lust for Yamaki fueled her Demon Lord data, which once again, triggered the Digivolution that Riley had sworn to never make use of again in her life.
"LADYDEVIMON DIGIVOLVE TO... LILITHMON!"
"RILEY, NO!" Yamaki yelled. With a groan, he sunk to the bottom of his cage. What he had been afraid of all the time had finally happened: Riley had succumbed to her old feelings of dark, raw lust and turned back into a Demon Lord.
Lilithmon, the Lady of Lust, hovered in the middle of the room. Her rotten arm was dripping with poison, while dark shadows were circling her. "It's over, little girl!" she whispered. "I reached my Mega Level... and now, I'm gonna reduce you into dust!"
She hadn't realized that this was exactly what Lucemon had been waiting for.
Lucemon stretched out her palm. "Ultimate Sacrifice!"
Out of nowhere, an orb of light appeared. It held the surprised Riley in place and then, an orb of darkness appeared as well, trapping Lilithmon within the two rotating spheres. The spheres then exploded, severely injuring the Lady of Lust.
Riley cried out when the explosion of light and darkness made her sink to the floor. She was overwhelmed. Never before in her life had she believed the Master of Pride to be THIS powerful.
Lucemon calmly stepped up to the twitching form of Lilithmon and held out her hand. "You are right about one thing, Riley," she said. "I will never allow the kind of lust you've been feeling in my kingdom. It will be sealed away in my body. I will never allow you or anyone else to make use of it again. Such feelings... are nothing but poison for a happy family life!"
And then, she reached out to touch Riley's forehead, to suck all the Demon Lord data out of her.
Riley felt how she was drained of all her power. She could do nothing but succumb. All her feelings of wrath, fury, anger and lust were washed away to nothing. She felt empty and alone. She was small, and weak. She felt herself shrinking, and when the last bit of dark sin data was drained from her body, she digivolved all the way back into a Nyaromon.
Lucemon picked the helpless In-Training Digimon up with her powers and levitated her up to the floating cage. Riley felt how she was passing through the solid bars as if she were nothing but a ghost. She then was gently dropped on the cage's floor, next to Yamaki. She felt so helpless. She just wanted to be picked up and cuddled.
"There! Take care of her. While I'm not happy with what she wanted to do, I'm not a cruel person. Since there's no lust in her left, she'll be allowed to love you as family. Maybe I'll even leave you as a human adult, Yamaki. But for now, I need to think. Out of my sight, both of you!"
And with one shove of power, the cage was pushed back into the ceiling shaft where it had come from. The hatch closed itself, and Lucemon sat down in her chair with a content sigh.
'And once again, I took another step towards my perfect world, helping a lost soul understand the feelings of a child's love...'
Read the comments on this episode
See other episodes by Shritistrang
(Posted Sun, 05 Apr 2009 16:19)
Questions? Problems? Suggestions?
Send a mail to addventure@bast-enterprises.de
or use the contact form.
らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
All other series and their characters are © by their respective creators or owners. No claims of ownership of these characters are implied by the authors of this Addventure, or should be inferred.
The Anime Addventure is a non-profit site.