*****
"Mom?"
The Digimon Mistress stood there, facing her daughter, and still aiming the gun at Kazu and Kenta.
"Jeri, darling, is that you? Oh my, you've grown to quite a lady."
"H-how, w-what, w-when, I-I, y-you..." Jeri stuttered. She just couldn't believe that her mother, her real mother, was alive. She had thought that she had died when she was three years old, but no, she was here, in the Digital World.
"Shocked darling?" The mistress said, "You thought I was dead, didn't you? Well I'm not. Honestly, darling, I would have thought you would have found my diary by now."
A realization came to Jeri. 'The Diary! The one I found this morning before I left! I haven't read it yet.'
Kazu and Kenta wanted so much to get free from the Digimon Mistress's clutch, so they tried to get away.
"Uh uh boys, I can sense your movements. Don't even think about moving." The older woman said still aiming her flamethrower and still facing Jeri.
Jeri came out of her state of shock when she saw that her friends were still in danger. "Please! Don't hurt them!" She cried out.
"Are these pathetic boys your friends? How shameful, my daughter, friends with two idiotic, bumbling fools," her mother said shaking her head.
"Hey! You-" Kazu yelled out.
"I suggest you realize the situation you're in before you open your mouth at me, boy!" the mistress said facing the two boys.
"Kazu, shut up, you're going to get us killed!" Kenta shouted at his friend.
Jeri just couldn't believe that all this was happening. The woman in front of her wasn't what she pictured her mother to be. She had always pictured her mother kind, loving, with flowers all around her. That image shattered in Jeri's mind. The flowers slowly withered to death and the kind, loving person turned into the woman standing in front of her. This woman was cruel, sinister, and had a dark look to her.
"Why?" Jeri croaked out.
"Why? Why what, darling?"
"Why all this? Why capture all the digimon? Why are you attacking them and my friends?" Tears were rolling down Jeri's cheeks like waterfalls. She didn't know why she was crying.
"Because, humans and digimon are cruel. All of them are. That's why I was happy when the D-Reaper evolved and caused so much destruction for them."
"What?"
"I should have known you would have so many questions, after all I was gone for thirteen years."
"Humans and digimon aren't cruel, mom," Jeri said.
"Yes they are."
"Not all of them! My friends are no such things and so are a lot of others!"
"You are yelling at your own mother. That just shows me how bad a parent your father is."
"Do you want to kill dad too? What about me?" Jeri said, tears continuing to fall.
"I have no intention of killing either of you; it's everyone else that I'm going to kill."
'She must still care about us, but that doesn't explain why she left us.' Jeri thought wiping her face with her hand. "Why did you leave us? Why did you make us believe that you died?"
"I wanted to leave that life behind. I wanted to leave that cruel world and move to some place new, some place more kind. But I was wrong; this world is just as cruel as the real world." The great Digimon Mistress looked as if she were going to cry. She saw Kazu and Kenta trying to make a run for it again. "Move again and I will fire!" She was now shaking.
Jeri saw this. "Mom-"
"Jeri!" Takato, Rika, Henry, and Ryo ran into the room.
"Takato!" Jeri turned her head to see her boyfriend. The Digimon Mistress did the same.
Using this as a chance to get away, Kazu and Kenta ran towards the others. The Digimon Mistress aimed her flamethrower at the two boys.
Jeri turned to them and shouted, "NO!"
"I told you not to MOVE!!!" The Digimon Mistress pulled the trigger, but nothing came out. "Damn! Out of ammo!"
"Make a run for it you guys!" Kazu and Kenta shouted, pushing everyone out the doorway. Takato grabbed a hold of Jeri's hand and started to pull her along. Jeri looked back at her mother and then turned away when Takato started to run faster.
"I'll let them go this time," the Digimon Mistress said with an icy tone.
*****
"Is everyone all right?" Henry asked looking around the room. The tamers had gone back to the real world and were back in the cabin. Everyone except Jeri nodded his or her head. They were all tired, they had ran the whole way back.
“Man, Jeri, your mom is crazier than, well, she is just plain crazy!” Kazu said throwing his arms in the air.
"I think she's psycho!" Kenta agreed.
Jeri looked down. Takato turned to her. "Wait, the Digimon Mistress is your mother?"
Jeri slowly nodded.
Everyone except Jeri, Kazu, and Kenta shrieked out, "WHAT?!"
"I thought your mom died when you were little." Rika said.
"So did I." Jeri said with a small quiet voice never looking up.
"Look, we need to think up a new plan on how to get Terriermon and the others out of there." Henry said to everyone.
"Well you can count me out! I'm not going back there near that psycho!" Kazu yelled.
"Me neither!" Kenta once again agreed.
"I can't believe you guys!" Takato yelled out facing his two friends.
"You guys are going whether you like it or not!" Rika yelled also.
"No way!" They said in unison.
"Yes!" Everyone but Jeri yelled at the two boys.
Jeri couldn't take it anymore. Her friends continued to argue. She needed some air. Jeri slipped away, unnoticed bye everyone except for one. She went outside and sat down near the edge of the pond. Jeri hugged her legs to her chest and rested her chin on top of her knees. She stared out onto the pond, out into the distance. It was early evening so it was dark outside. Crickets could be heard around but Jeri saw none. Takato had seen her leave the house and had followed her.
"Jeri, are you all right?" He asked as he sat next to her.
Jeri shook her head and said, "All my life, everyone told me how nice and kind of a person my mother was. The woman we met today wasn't nice or kind."
Jeri kept looking into the distance. Takato was worried about his girlfriend. 'Jeri has already been put through a lot of bad stuff and now this happens.' He placed his arm around her shoulders and pulled her closer, trying to comfort her. Jeri leaned her head on his shoulder.
"Takato?"
"Yeah?"
"What are we going to do now?"
"I don't know. We still have to rescue Guilmon and the other digimon, but to do that, we'll have to go through your mother."
Jeri let out a sigh. "I understand."
Takato hated seeing Jeri sad and depressed. A crash was heard from inside. Takato let out a frustrated sigh. "We should check on the others."
"You go, I want to stay out here." Jeri said lifting her head from Takato's shoulders.
"Are you going to be okay out here?"
"Yeah," Jeri said. Another crash was heard. "You should go before they kill each other." Jeri said with a weak smile.
Takato smiled back and got up. He headed inside. Jeri once again looked out into the distance.
“My mother’s alive and she’s holding my friends as prisoners.” Jeri let out another sigh. She played back the time when she met her mother in the fortress in her mind. "You thought I was dead, didn't you? Well I'm not. Honestly, darling, I would have thought you would have found my diary by now."
Jeri shot up. 'The diary!' She rushed to Ryo's van. The door was unlocked. The tamers hadn't had a chance to unload and unpack their stuff. It was still in the van. Jeri rummaged through everything trying to find her bag. She finally found it and opened it up. Jeri took the little book out, shut the door, and went to sit on a rock.
"Maybe this will explain everything." She opened the diary and started reading.
To Be Continued
