Serues Title: Scars of Victory||Story Title: Temper, Temper
Characters: Chosen Children||Relationship: N/A (small hints of possible future Taichi x Yamato)
Chapter Word Count: 1,563||Story Word Count: 1,563||Chapter Count: 1/3
Genre: Drama||Rated: PG-13
Challenge: Diversity Writing, G23, fic that is T rated; Word Count Set Boot Camp, #33, 4,692 words; Include The Word Boot Camp, #9, volcano; Chapter Set Boot Camp, #39, 3 chapters; Update The Old Stuff Bingo, #6, Scars of Victory
Notes: If you haven't yet, I suggest reading the first three Scars of Victory stories to get an idea of what's been going on. Be warned of off-screen character death and mind control.
Summary: It's been seven years since the Digimon Kaiser's conquest of the Digital World and defeat of the Chosen fighting him. Those who fought the first fight have not forgotten, however. They say revenge is best served cold. Seven years of cooling is about to come crashing down.
Yamato tried not to think about the mountain of homework that awaited him. In the long run, he hadn't yet convinced himself that it really mattered a lot. He'd wanted it to matter, once. He'd thought it mattered, once.
Then that happened and it took him years to decide if anything would ever matter again.
But right now, he couldn't really think of a reason to do it that wasn't 'I was assigned it and I need to do it'. He'd work his way around to it, sooner or later, but that wasn't now, and right now he didn't have anything else to do. Time hung on his hands on days like today, when the sun sparkled overhead in a cloudless blue sky and he could hear kids laughing and playing in a nearby park.
He steeled himself for the strike of grief and was more than a little surprised when it didn't come. He didn't think he was 'getting better', since this wasn't something that could get better from. But it was different. He thought maybe he could handle different.
For a while, at least.
Closing his eyes, he wondered if he could rest for a little while. Maybe once he got through a nap, he could look at all of his unfinished work and think about doing it with a little more seriousness.
He kind of doubted it, but maybe it was worth a try. He needed to do something and a nap was as good as anything else.
His D-Terminal beeped. He ignored it. He knew who it wouldn't be, who it couldn't be, and whatever else anyone had to say wasn't something he wanted to look at right now. It was probably just Mimi, anyway, telling them when her flight would be in. Sora could probably go pick her up. That was good enough.
He settled himself on his sofa more comfortably and let himself drift away. He hoped he wouldn't have nightmares this time. They'd lessened over the years but every now and then they sparked up as if it were That Day all over again.
It looked like this was going to be one of those times.
He slid into the dark waters of sleep and he was fourteen again, fourteen and he was immortal, they were all immortal, and fighting a war they didn't even understand.
Koushirou kept them advised on what was going on in the Digital World. Their new friends, and Takeru and Hikari, fought this new Digimon Kaiser, Ichijouji Ken, and the worst anyone ever came back with was a few bruises and scrapes, and maybe a bad dream or two. Yamato hadn't ever asked, but he kinda had the idea that Daisuke had a few nightmares after finding out the Kaiser and Ichijouji were the same person.
But none of them felt the burning need to go to the Digital World on a regular basis with them. It wouldn't do much good, since they couldn't properly evolve unless one of those towers got brought down. Which the new kids did with enthusiastic frequency, in fairness. Nothing very important had happened since that entire mess with Agumon and the Kaiser inventing Evil Spirals. They knew he had to be up to something but what it was, no one could offer any hard guesses on.
So when his D-Terminal began beeping during band practice, Yamato's only thought was that the Kaiser had made his move at long last. He expected word of a battle. He expected a request for help of some kind, if it were really bad.
What he didn't expect was what he read.
Come help! Kaiser's throwing everything he's got at us!
It was from his brother.
It was the last thing Takeru sent. It was the last thing any of them sent.
"One of those towers was in this canyon," Koushirou told the six of them, gathered together in his room. Taichi sat next to Yamato, both of them far more stunned than they could've possibly let on. Yamato had no idea of what to think. He more or less thought he'd forgotten how to think. "It had two side tunnels a few days ago, but it looks like the Kaiser cut those off as soon as the battle started."
His eyes, as tear-reddened as the rest of theirs, shifted from one of them to the other. "He planned this. This wasn't an accident."
Taichi's voice broke the silence that followed. "How soon can you get a gate open to get us in there?"
"Are they all… all…?" Mimi's words failed her and Sora wrapped an arm around her, doing her best to soothe her, and not having much success. None of them had much success with anything right now.
"To answer Mimi first, as far as I can tell. The signals from their D-3s … they started to fail not that long after Takeru-kun's message." Koushirou fiddled with a pen, not meeting Yamato's eyes, or anyone else's. "Daisuke was the last one."
Taichi grated out his question. "How soon can you get a gate open?"
"I can't." Koushirou kept looking down at the pen in his hands. "I'm still working on it. I might be able to later, but right now? There's something blocking the way and I don't know what it is. It could be the Kaiser. It could be whatever prevents our Digivices from creating gates, as opposed to their D-3s. I'm trying to get in touch with Gennai, but I haven't heard back from him."
Taichi's hands balled up and he slammed one fist into the wall, sending a few stray pieces of paper floating. Yamato caught his wrist before he could do it again.
"The wall didn't do anything."
"Yeah, I know. It's going to have to fill in until I can get my hands on Ichijouji." Taichi all but snarled the words out before he snapped his attention towards Koushirou again. "Can you at least get in touch with Agumon or one of the others?"
"I'll do my best. Communication doesn't especially appear to be down, but it depends on if they're anywhere near a gate and if I can get their attention." Koushirou looked back at his laptop. "I'm surprised I was even able to get this map up here. Everything seemed to be connected to the school computer, but I was trying to get some work done here, and it just showed up. I wonder if it's Gennai trying to help somehow."
Another silence fell. Yamato couldn't think of what could fill it. He couldn't imagine a world that didn't have Takeru in it, and he was pretty sure that Taichi felt the same way about Hikari. How could it happen like this? How could some kid do all of this? How could he just… order Digimon to kill people and not care?
We have to stop him. I don't know how. But we have to. Somehow they had to do what the people who could have their partners evolve couldn't. The Digital World needed them again, and as his attention moved from one to the other of his friends, he knew that they felt the same way about it that he did.
It wasn't that easy. It could never have been that easy, especially not after four people died. Plans had to be made. People had to be told.
Such as their parents.
Yamato hadn't felt close to his mother in a long time. Seeing her sitting next to his father, both of them pale as ice, didn't help at all. Hearing the words fall from his lips made it all feel real in a way that he didn't want.
The world didn't seem all that inclined to give him anything he wanted anymore. Koushirou still hadn't been able to get in touch with any of their partners or any of the stray Digimon they knew. More and more it seemed as if the small television-like gates didn't exist in the numbers they had before.
It was Sora who came up with the conclusion they suspected was the right one.
"The Kaiser's destroying them. He knows we'll come if we can, so he's making sure that we can't."
Taichi slammed his hand into a wall again. He'd done it so much when Yamato wasn't around that his knuckles existed in a constant state of bruised and battered. "So now what do we do?"
"The same thing we've been doing. I'm going to keep trying to find a way to open a gate, get in touch with Gennai, and get us over there." Koushirou didn't lift his eyes from his laptop. "I don't care how long it takes me. We're going to do it."
Yamato's eyes fluttered. Had he heard something? He started to go back to sleep when a very familiar voice came from the other side of his apartment door.
"Yamato, if you don't open this door, I'm going to knock it down! Get your stuff together! We're going!"
Taichi? Yamato blinked, trying to get his brain working again, and got to his feet. "Going?" He hurried over to open the door, staring into a pair of furious brown eyes.
Furious, beautiful, and far more alive than they'd been for the last few years. Taichi grinned maniacally at him.
"Koushirou got a gate open. We're going to the Digital World."
To Be Continued
Notes: Trust me, it won't be as easy as walking back into the Digital World and their partners are there with party hats. As stated in Interruptions & Annoyances the Kaiser is very aware of their attempts to get through.