Y/N: We're back...! I got to write as Koushiro once again, and while it's not my absolute favourite Koushiro chapter, I still enjoyed having one last real go at it. I hope you enjoy!
U/N: So here is 09. This is the fourth part of our 'trilogy' in a sense. Originally we had planned this to be literally one story. Obviously you can see why that wasn't a possibility. So we sorted the chapters to represent 'Frontier' 'Savers' and all of 'Xros Wars'. When it became painfully clear that we would not have enough room to finish this story off, we decided to create a 'Free' story that had six chapters each to represent one of the tri movies. So the cliffhanger is kind of funny in 'Vaccine' and I hope this makes up for it. It's a bit messy in my own head, but I hope you like it anyway.
Here I wrote Joe's final chapter piece and it was kind of fun to see it all come into place and have his development, and Gomamon's for that matter, come to a safe sort of resolve. Yay.
Title: Digimon Adventure 09: Free
By: YukiraKing and UrazamayKing
Disclaimer: We don't own Digimon or its characters.
Tri-pocalypse
Chapter 01: Send Me On My Way
Koushiro Izumi:
Everything around me was bright. It was as though I was surrounded by pure light. I could not gather my bearings. I was unable to ascertain where I was. One moment the sky was being painted a deep grey, darkening to the purest of blacks, and the next, nothing existed except for white.
The white rescinded, but spots remained dancing in front of my eyes. I could see very little beyond the echo of the flash of light. It was a moment before I was able to wrap my mind around it, but I was soon able to identify the reason that the lights were so prominent in my vision.
There was simply nothing else to see.
"Is everyone okay?" Mimi wanted to know. Her voice wavered, but I couldn't find her in the darkness. She was worried, and afraid. But I couldn't go to her. Not only could I not locate her, but I knew she wouldn't want me there. I wanted to divorce her after all—though she wouldn't allow me to explain my decision. She was as stubborn as I was. I couldn't fault her for that. The choice to avoid me would work far better for her, as one needed both parties to sign a divorce paper, but only one person needed to make the choice to break off a relationship when marriage was not a factor.
But she had to know I loved her. She had to.
"I'm okay," Sora said. "Biyomon? Biyomon, where are you?"
"Agumon?" Taichi's voice was quick to add. Soon the names of all our partners filled the air. Agumon, Palmon, Gomamon, Garurumon, Kabuterimon, Biyomon, Patamon, Gatomon, Veemon, Wormmon, Armadillomon and Hawkmon.
It was helpful, because it allowed us to know which of our friends had been taken by the flash of light into this new realm of darkness. I wasn't sure where we were, honestly. Apocolymon had taken us to a land of white before—which I was now unsure whether it was the In-Between or Theta—but he'd also sent us into our own personal circles of hell, where he played our worst fears against us.
I still felt guilty about my logic overpowering reality. I had chosen to leave Mimi behind, thinking logically that our circumstances wouldn't be able to cross paths. I'd left her alone, which she feared most of all, and once again, she was afraid I would leave her alone with this divorce plan of mine.
But I couldn't allow even a fraction of my mind to fret over such trivial matters—trivial was the wrong word, perhaps personal, was a better fit. My friends needed me. I was able to catalogue a complete list of which friends had made it to this dark expanse, I simply needed to identify it.
It wasn't a new world. Summer, Spring...and Winter, had been quite thorough of their searches. We knew of each and every world that was available to Apocalymon. It was dark, it was cold. There were loud breaths coming from everywhere. I could feel the air grow moist and warm only after the breaths were exhaled.
But it wasn't our partners, and none of my human friends would be able to emit such a powerful breath. Their lungs simply didn't have the capacity for it.
"We're not alone," I announced. Yamato and Jou gasped. I was able to get a rough estimate of their locations. They weren't near me. Only Mimi and Miyako were, as far as I was able to tell. The dancing remnants of the light were fading, though they were still dim.
"Ken, where are you?" Miyako called anxiously. I heard her squeal in fright as someone touched her, but it turned out to be Mimi.
"I've got you," Mimi said, trying to sound confident, and failing drastically. I started moving towards them, hoping they would continue to speak, so that I could find them in this darkness. I tripped over something, and fell to the floor. I discovered it was concrete...and that the thing I tripped over was moving. I tried not to shout in fear, because I knew Mimi and Miyako were close by, and both of them were easily frightened...but it was a close call.
Something that felt like long, straggly hair was under my ankle. I backed away slowly, and clambered to my feet. Trying to get away from whatever it was without drawing attention to myself.
And then the lights turned on.
We were in an abandoned warehouse. It definitely didn't look like anywhere in the Digital World, but there was a distinct possibility we were on Earth—as we had been before the light took us away from the battle.
The assortment of large digimon, however, made me question that deduction.
"Gennai?" Taichi asked, sounding incredibly confused. My eyes were pried away from the large, white, hairy digimon whose tail I'd fallen over. I needed to see Gennai. I had to understand where we were. We couldn't be on Earth or even any living realm if Gennai was there.
Yet he was.
He was standing with his hand on a light switch, looking around the digimon as if we were the strange ones for being here. Though I suspected he was right, as we'd appeared in a large flash of light from seemingly nowhere.
Where was Gaia? Where was Apocalymon? We were fighting them. Where were Willis, Michael and Kurayami, or Neo, or Ryou, or Alice, or Alias III? We were all fighting, yet only twelve of us were here, without our partners, without our enemies. What had Mimi done to us?
"Oh my," Gennai said, looking young and alive, though I knew him to be neither. Perhaps I was wrong. There was a large chance this was simply one of his many clones. There were far more than we actually communicated with. There were hundreds of them once upon a time, and there were still at least a hundred left. Benjamin, Jose, Hogan and Ilya weren't the only ones left, even if they were the only ones sociable enough to introduce themselves. "You seem to know me, yet we have never met. How odd."
"We've met, dozens of times," Mimi said. She and Miyako were incredibly close to me, and I backed towards them, unable to take my eyes off of the clone that claimed he was Gennai.
"I do think I might've remembered," the supposed Gennai insisted. "I do not know how you found me, but we happen to be in the middle of an important and secret meeting, so if you would be kind enough to leave..."
Looking around to the determined and possibly intimidating faces of the surrounding digimon gave the impression that Gennai was not exactly giving us the choice so much as telling us what to do. Old habits die hard.
"What are we doing here?" Daisuke asked, moving to stand with Miyako, Mimi and I. I noticed all of our friends were moving in our direction. There was safety in numbers—for the most part—and the large digimon all around us were unknown. They could be passive or aggressive. We didn't know. We couldn't risk assuming either.
"I was rather hoping you could answer that," Gennai said. "Autumn did not warn me of intruders. She usually warns me of such things you know. I'm not typically caught so unaware."
"So you were never omnipotent," Taichi said. "You just had warning. That's good to know. Here I was thinking you had some sort of superpower."
"Where is Autumn, if you're doing something so important?" Sora asked. I was intrigued myself, and more than a little interested to meet her before she was only a spirit that continually inhabited Hikari's body.
"She's rather indisposed," Gennai said, "bringing new life into this world."
I filed that bit of information into my mind. I would ponder over what that meant later. Autumn had only given birth to two children in her life, which meant that somehow, we were either in the past, or we were in some alternative universe where dead people went after they died.
Considering Mimi's involvement, I was sure the former was more believable.
Out of the corner of my eye I spotted Mimi's hand curled around a blue key, and knew for sure exactly what was going on. The only issue of course, was that I didn't have time to ponder over which child Autumn was delivering.
There were thirteen digimon in this warehouse with us, and I wasn't sure who they were. Though, that wasn't technically true. There was an Ophanimon, a Seraphimon, and a Cherubimon within the warehouse, though they did not seem to recognize Hikari or Takeru at all, which led me to believe that they perhaps weren't the Ophanimon, Seraphimon or Cherubimon that we knew and cared for.
"These digimon," I called, catching sight of a large red dragon with wings of fire and a silver helmet. He was familiar to me. Tentomon had shown me a fragment of a mural during our latest stay at the Temple—before it was destroyed completely. This digimon was one of the ones on display. "Are these the Legendary Warriors?"
"How could you possibly know that?" Gennai asked sharply. Ophanimon reached out a hand towards him to calm him.
"Are you the Holy Three?" Hikari asked softly, looking directly at Ophanimon. Ophanimon nodded solemnly. Hikari smiled, which seemed to put Ophanimon at ease. I remembered, of course, hearing from Izumi that the Holy Digimon had fallen. At one point, they were the enemy. Ophanimon was unsure of our feelings towards them. Hikari's easy acceptance was definitely appreciated.
"Time is running short," Gennai said.
"What are the Ancient warriors doing in an old warehouse?" Taichi wanted to know.
"Who cares about that," Yamato said firmly, glancing apologetically to the digimon. "Apocalymon and Gaia came with us. I saw them get caught in the light."
"I saw our partners too," Hikari said. "I don't know where they are, but we have to find them."
"We will," Jou said firmly.
"Gennai, have you seen any of them?" Ken asked.
"I'm not entirely certain just yet as to who you are," Gennai said slowly. "But if what you say is true, and you have unleashed Apocalymon, then we must act quickly. We cannot allow Apocalymon to wreak havoc on this unsuspecting world."
"He is sealed away," a digimon that looked to be a head atop a large mirror said firmly. "He could not have escaped. The Digidestined assisted us. He is sealed."
"AncientWisetmon is correct, Apocalymon couldn't have escaped so quickly," Seraphimon agreed.
"He's not the same guy," Mimi said, shaking her head. "Well he is, but he's also not, if that makes any sense. Who am I kidding, of course it makes no sense. I brought him here. I didn't mean to. I just panicked. I kept thinking, Gennai would know what to do, and here we are—only we're not all here. Palmon is out there somewhere and so is Kabuterimon and Gomamon and all of the others. I don't know what to do. I messed up. I know I messed up. But I can't change that. I reacted instinctively, and now I've made an even bigger mess."
"It's okay Mimi," Miyako said firmly. "We'll figure this out. We always figure it out."
"Exactly, this group was able to beat MaloMyotismon," Daisuke added. "We'll be fine."
"We had help though," Takeru reminded him. "We had a lot of help, from every Chosen from around the world. It wasn't just us."
"Well...eight of you managed to beat Apocalymon already, we've so got this," Daisuke said, trying to stay upbeat and positive.
"Stop speaking," Gennai ordered. "I cannot hear any of this. It would affect everything too greatly. Apocalymon has yet to be defeated. He is meant to be defeated once. Autumn said his defeat would be the sign of peace. Once peace is brought to our land, then I would be able to seal it off and preserve that peace."
"Sealing the worlds never brings peace," Taichi warned him.
"Stop speaking of this," Gennai insisted. "Apocalymon's defeat will bring peace. Autumn swore to me."
"That's why you did it," Mimi said sounding both horrified and understanding. "You kept kicking us out. You said that we caused everything to go belly up. You said we were the reason for peace not being around, but we all know that destiny will happen no matter what we do to try and stop it. It might've been our fault technically, but we all know it was meant to happen. You were such a jerk to us!"
"I'm not listening," Gennai said, managing to not seem entirely childish in doing so.
"He kicked us out after our first adventure," Sora pointed out, picking up on Mimi's point with ease. "But our journey wasn't done—not according to Destiny. Gennai blamed Ryou, but it wouldn't have mattered anyway, because we all know that Apocalymon wasn't really destroyed."
"No," Daisuke agreed. "He was biding his time, working hand in hand with Fanglongmon and Dragomon—who was possessed by the devil. They were manipulating and controlling Kurayami."
"We defeated him for the second time," Jou said, "and Gennai threw us out again."
"But we wouldn't stay out, because Hikari left the door to the Dark Ocean open," Yamato said. Hikari looked the ground embarrassed.
"That didn't matter though, because Apocalymon wasn't dead anyway," Takeru said quickly.
"No," Daisuke said bitterly. "He's just been haunting Kurayami becoming the physical embodiment of her Darkness. That means that Apocalymon has both helped and hindered us. He was technically the one that kept protecting her."
"And Gaia stole him, and Hikari's light," Ken added, "which meant that he was working for Gaia."
"He was always working for her, in a sense," I pointed out. "He is the chaos of the world. He is the opposite of Yggdrasil, who was the embodiment of peace. Peace and Chaos were born out of the heart that Gaia planted."
"She created them out of her sister's heart," Miyako said horrified.
"That's the kicker," Taichi said, shaking his head. "Her sister never existed in a physical sense. Terra and Gaia are the same. She planted her own heart. Apocalymon is a part of Gaia. The reason Gaia can't die, is—"
"Because her heart needs to be destroyed before she can leave this mortal coil," Iori said. "She is similar to Sigma then, in her methods."
"Keep in mind that she did it first," Hikari said. "We've killed half of her heart. My light and Kurayami's darkness were the only things that were keeping her in balance. Without my light—which took Yggdrasil's place—she's become unstable."
"Great, so we're halfway to ridding the worlds of her," Yamato said. "But we've got no partners, we're in the past at some unknown point in time, and we're meant to defeat Apocalymon yet again. Those odds are far from great."
"It would be best, I think, if you were to leave," Gennai announced, removing his hands from his ears when he was certain no one was talking. "I can't know the future. It would be detrimental to the time stream."
"He's right," Mimi sighed. "And Apocalymon wasn't defeated here in the past. We would've known about it. Gennai wouldn't have kept warning me against using the key. He would've known we needed to."
"Okay, so we just have to gather everyone up and head back to the future," Taichi said. "That should be easy. We just have to follow the sounds of screaming. Humans didn't know about digimon. They'll be freaked out."
"Maybe," Hikari said, trying to seem enthusiastic.
"Gennai, what are you doing?" I asked, having watched him walk purposefully towards Cherubimon and AncientWisetmon, ignoring us—with a lot of effort—in favour of continuing whatever he was doing before we had arrived.
"I am completing the quest we were sent to accomplish," Gennai said. "You'll know all about it, I'm sure, being familiar with me in the future, and knowing who Autumn is. You'll obviously know that I'm meant to prepare these warriors for their new lives. They of course won't remember their time here, or any of their time before this moment."
"But it is a cost we are willing to pay," the large red dragon said, "in order to bring true peace to the world that we love."
"Yes," Gennai said. "It will be difficult to know that none of you will remember your great past. You've fought hand in hand with the Digidestined to save our world from Lucemon, and you won't remember any of those brave actions. You've been spirits, and digimon alike."
"And we will be digimon once more," a female digimon with clawed feet and green wings said firmly. "We will do what is required of us. We know the risks. We will do it anyway."
"AncientKazemon," I murmured. I looked to the dragon, and identified him as AncientGreymon. There was something about this moment that seemed vital to me. The large white, hairy beast was AncientMegatheriummon, and next to him was a volcanic rock digimon, named AncientVolcanomon. AncientSphinxmon was near AncientMermaimon and AncientTroiamon. AncientGarurumon was with AncientBeetlemon and Seraphimon. Ophanimon stood on her own.
Identifying them didn't get rid of the itch in my mind. It wasn't their names that ached of familiarity. No. There was something more.
And I knew what it was, the moment Gennai touched Cherubimon and AncientWisetmon at the same time. They shrank down and formed a single egg. The familiarity I felt from each of them wasn't just some fragment of knowledge in the back of my mind. These were my friends, though they weren't my friends yet.
Terriermon and Lopmon were inside that egg, waiting to be sent to Willis—and Alice, though it was clear to me that Gennai was unaware of their current living situations, and was planning on sending the twins' twin digimon to the same place. My eyes scanned the digimon with a new light. The red dragon was Agumon, while the armoured wolf man was clearly Gabumon. Yamato and Taichi were looking to their future partners, same as I was, as though they too understood their importance. Sora was staring at AncientKazemon, who I knew would become Biyomon in time. AncientMermaimon would one day be Gomamon, as Jou seemed to discover.
Daisuke couldn't seem to look away from AncientSphinxmon, who would one day become Labramon, his wife's partner, and his family. AncientMegatheriummon would become Betamon, and go through far too many painful days in the future under Sigma's command. Hikari and Takeru were easily able to pick out their future partners, as they would become Ophanimon and Seraphimon in the future as well.
Iori, Ken and Miyako wouldn't find their partners, nor was Daisuke's here, as they were ancient digimon themselves, and were chosen by the fairies, rather than Gennai. Similarly, Alias III's partners were created by the fairies, and at this point in time weren't likely to exist.
But Dracomon was here. He looked nothing like the dragon he would become, but AncientVolcanomon was clearly him, just as AncientTroimon would become Palmon and AncientBeetlemon was my own partner. I looked at the large blue digimon. It was hard to see how this ancient being would be the nature documentary loving little ladybug that I called my own. I missed him, even though he was technically standing right in front of me.
"They are ready to be sent," Gennai said loudly, disrupting our peaceful moment staring at our future partners. It was so strange, and such a powerful moment, that I'd nearly forgotten everything that we needed to do.
Nearly.
"We'll finish this," I promised AncientBeetlemon, though he didn't know who I was. "We'll make sure your sacrifices weren't in vain."
"Yeah," Mimi said, looking like she wanted to reach out and touch the large, wooden horse that would one day be our energetic Palmon. This wooden horse wasn't frightening in the least, despite the vessel that Arnold had designed to hold the virus when he launched it towards the Digital World. This was calm, and peaceful, just as Palmon could be.
Daisuke pried his eyes away from the black, sphinx digimon, and nodded. "We really should be going."
"I've said that," Gennai reminded him, though he didn't seem angry, or frustrated. He moved to pick up the egg and walked towards a computer, where he inserted the egg that contained the twins. "Willis and Alice should be getting their partners soon. After we determine their reactions, and if all goes well, you will be meeting your partners as well. Are you ready?"
"Yes," AncientGreymon said. "Begin the process."
"Thank you for all you have done and all you will do," Gennai said, before he touched AncientGreymon and encased him in an egg. He moved on quickly, and soon Biyomon's egg was in his hand as well.
"Why are you doing this here?" Taichi asked. "It's not stable, to be on Earth." He was clearly mocking Gennai, though this Gennai wasn't aware of that slight against him, as he'd yet to make any of those comments.
"It must be done in relative secrecy," Gennai said. "There are many great evils lurking in the Digital World. The Dark Master are trying to break free of their prisons, just as Apocalymon is. Time is running short. You are right, however. It is unstable. More than just us have come through the gateway tonight."
"What are you talking about?" Sora asked, but she shook her head. "Don't worry. It doesn't matter. We really have to get going."
"Get Apocalymon out of my time," Gennai instructed us. I couldn't help but smile. Gennai was giving us one last mission, even though to him, it would be our first.
"We will," Taichi said boldly. He led everyone towards a doorway, but Daisuke stopped and looked to Gennai.
"Um...about Kurayami," he said. "I'd talk to her sooner, rather than later about the darkness. It's really important."
"I will take that into consideration," Gennai promised.
"Good," Daisuke said, and he saluted AncientSphinxmon before Gennai encased him in an egg. He looked longingly at the egg, but he turned to follow Taichi out the door. I waited, because AncientTroimon and AncientBeetlemon were next. It was one of the strangest things I'd ever watched, to see Palmon and Tentomon's eggs come from the giant, ancient warriors. But once I'd seen it, I was able to move on. I ran into Sora's back, when I walked out the door. She was frozen in place looking up to the sky. After a cursory glance, I was alerted to the fact that she wasn't the only one.
"He's still forming," I realized, watching as the darkness spread across the evening sky. "He has yet to complete his physical form. That's an advantage for us."
"Yeah," Takeru said. "But we need to stop it now."
"At least we know which way to go," Hikari said, still staring out towards the swirling darkness that was swallowing the stars.
Jou Kido:
The twelve of us were walking down the streets with the shine from the streetlights casting a warm orange glow along the paved surfaces of the streets we had recently walked. There were not many people who passed us, but there were cars lining the streets as if it were such a normal day. Obviously it was not, but how could they know that?
Somehow only twelve of us had been taken through the time stream—or at least the twelve of us were all that had ended up in this time. Aside from Apocalymon of course who was forming in the skies above. That's where we were going, and that's where we needed to end up. It was going to be the end of it all—Autumn had said so. Autumn had also told us that there was no way to counter the prophecies set in motion... she had always known that we would face Apocalymon in the end.
But she had also known that Mari, Hideto and Kiyoko would die. I wondered vaguely if Autumn had seen us win or lose against Apocalymon and if that vision would have changed after Alias III had been saved. I supposed it didn't matter now, because we didn't have them to help us. We didn't have Neo, or Kurayami or Michael and Willis either. Ryou and Alice's strange earthbound spirit were stuck in our true time as well. As far as we could tell.
"I'm a little confused still," Daisuke admitted as we made our way down the street.
"It's entirely straightforward," Ken moaned as he ran his fingers through his hair. "I've run it over for you ten times now, what part don't you understand?"
Daisuke looked to Ken sheepishly and then sighed, rubbing the back of his head. "All of it, honestly." Ken groaned and Miyako let out a laugh. I was amazed at the sound because she was as much a worrier as I was, and yet even in this situation she was finding time to smile. Perhaps she was underestimating Apocalymon simply because we had defeated him before. Apocalymon was filled with the richest and purest darkness, and even pure light energy would struggle against his force. We had always defeated him with the Crests before, but would he be immune now that he had Kurayami's Crest of Darkness?
"Look guys," Daisuke tried to reason with them. "Travelling through time isn't normal. Even for us. It's confusing and you have to admit that it doesn't make sense."
"But what part is confusing?" Miyako asked, rolling her eyes.
Daisuke looked to her, flabbergasted that she still couldn't see his point. "Uh, okay, so we're not in our own time. Presumably we're in the past, right?" Miyako and Ken both nodded. "But when are we? We are here still—on Earth, in the same neighborhood—but we don't know what time period we landed in."
"That's exactly right," Ken nodded and was happy that Daisuke understood but possibly missed Daisuke's confusion in the process. I understood both sides, but I was leaning more toward Ken because it really was quite simple. Sure we had no idea what time period we were in, but we knew we had travelled through time thanks to Mimi who was staying very quiet during the whole conversation but was obviously listening intently.
"Well," Daisuke shrugged, "were we always here?" The question seemed to somehow go over both Miyako and Ken's heads. "Say we're alive right now, right? In this time—I mean little us. Imagine a little Miyako or Ken running arou—"
"I think we understand, Daisuke," Ken said, bitter that Daisuke was talking down to him, though it seemed unintentional for sure.
"I definitely am alive here in this time," Miyako said aloud, though she was probably saying it to herself more than anything. "Gennai just said he was sending Terriermon and Lopmon to Willis. Willis is alive, and he's only ten days older than me—assuming he didn't receive his partners at such an early time in his life... hmm... maybe he did." She turned to the group. "Does anyone know when Willis got his partners?" I looked around as well, hoping to find the answer in Koushiro or Hikari but they, along with everyone else said nothing. "Does anyone know anything about Willis?" Again, nothing.
Silence overwhelmed us until Hikari broke it. "He loves to bake pie," she said weakly. "And I know he loves parties and watching football even if he doesn't understand what goes on. An—"
Daisuke interrupted Hikari which she seemed relieved about because she really didn't know enough about Willis after dating him for as long as she had. Takeru gripped her hand warmly and comforted her. "Anyway," Daisuke had said, drawing attention back to himself. "So what if the Miyako of this timeline runs into you now. Does that mean she always did? Does that mean you could remember running into an older version of yourself? Or are we creating a new timeline? If that's the case, shouldn't we be really careful and gentle about where we step?"
"Time is very confusing," Iori said calmly, startling me. All eyes rounded on him and I found that he was standing right next to me as we walked onward toward the overhead darkness that was Apocalymon's unfinished body. "Daisuke is right, and we have to be careful. Time travel has no real rules, and while I've never actually taken part myself, I'm familiar with the stories we've heard." Mimi's face turned red when Iori looked directly at her. "When Hikari and Mimi went back to oversee the creation of the Digital World," he said. "We can assume that had already happened. We can also assume that what we change in the past affects our timeline, as seen when Mimi brought Gennai back from the dead, and when she ordered Mari to save me from the knife." Miyako and Ken shared a nervous look because they hadn't realized the varying rules of the time travel. "We may have been here when the year passed normally, or we may be in a time stream we were never meant to return to. We may drastically change our timeline and we may not."
"Miyako," Yamato said quickly. "Do you remember me betting you that I could beat you to Mimi's restaurant on the day that Sora..." his voice trailed off as he looked toward her. Miyako slowly nodded and Yamato looked relieved that our destiny had always been to save Sora and that we hadn't messed with the time stream in order to do any of that.
"Daisuke is also valid in being confused for another very serious reason," Iori added. Once again all eyes turned to Iori and he clearly felt uncomfortable. "When Mimi sent us back in time we were all grouped together, while our partners vanished. At the very least Gomamon and Agumon should be here because Taichi and Jou were holding the two of them." I remembered well that my partner had been wrapped in my arms when I had seen Mimi's flash of light. Iori was not wrong. "And what happened to Gaia—why did Apocalymon end up all the way over there?" he pointed to the distance and sighed. "None of this makes any sense. We're in the past, yes, but what do we do now?"
Everyone was silent and Iori was desperate for someone to take the attention away from him and as much as I wanted to do that for him, I just couldn't find anything to say. "I can't believe Iori just agreed with me," Daisuke laughed, holding his hand up for Iori to give him a high five. Iori looked awkwardly toward him and shied away. Daisuke's face turned red and he dropped his arm. "P-probably because of Kurayami, right?" Iori tried to laugh politely but no sound came out.
I hated seeing him wounded inside and out. It wasn't fair that he had been taken. And it certainly wasn't fair that we still hadn't properly avenged him. Bagramon had to be dealt with in one way or another—sooner rather than later—but right now we had to focus on Apocalymon and nothing else. I was sure Iori understood but that didn't make it fair.
"Speaking of digimon," Sora said, grabbing Taichi's arm. He stopped and turned to look at her, immediately understanding. "Why are we walking toward Apocalymon—?"
"I know," Taichi said sharply.
"But how will—?"
"I don't know." He cut her off again and she seemed to comprehend his feelings well. "I don't know how to fight without them. We need them to fight. How the hell are we supposed to kill the Chaos without our partners?"
"What if we just left them behind?" Takeru asked slowly.
"No," Mimi said. "They were definitely in the light. BurstRosemon was standing right next to me."
Takeru shook his head, "No," he said. "What if we left them behind with Gennai? What if you can't exist in the same place at the same time?"
"Impossible," Koushiro said quickly shutting down Takeru's theory. "Mimi was with us when Piedmon tried to kill Iori and she was with Katsue and Mari when they stopped that from happening. Besides, even if that was true, where would Wormmon, Veemon, Hawkmon or Armadillomon be? They were not resurrected in the same way as the rest of our partners."
"You're right," Takeru said, "but then—"
A horrified scream filled the air and we all immediately turned to Apocalymon in the sky, assuming he had made his first strike, but his overbearingly dark cloud was still swirling in the sky and while there seemed to be dark flashes of what appeared to be lightning in the blackness it didn't seem to be the cause of the commotion. The screams had come from our right. When we turned to look we found the Hikarigaoka park and a crowd of young teenagers running away from something large and blue.
I straightened my glasses to get a closer look and found that it was Kabuterimon, running full speed toward those same teenagers, screaming at them. "I'm not as scary as I look, I promise! Don't run!" Mimi snorted on confined laughter but Koushiro let out a loud groan and immediately set off toward him.
"Well, at least we know they came back," I said aloud. Taichi nodded to me and was already smiling like a crazy person before he set off with Sora as they hurried after Koushiro. Takeru was laughing and set off after them as well, thinking the whole scenario was hilarious, but I stayed back. I did not feel the need to exert myself anymore than I would have to. I wanted to save my energy for the true fight.
The rest of us watched as Kabuterimon wrestled with his partner, attempting to get back to the frightened teens.
"So," Hikari was trying to sound casual but she sounded anything but. She was nervous, scared and worried. "W-Willis... he's okay. I saw him."
"Yeah he's fine," Mimi nodded, confused. She didn't understand why Hikari was worried at all. "He had a pretty close call back at the Coliseum I hear though. Astamon evolved with the power of the Digimental of Destiny and nearly killed him."
Hikari's eyes widened in fear and I felt the same sense of madness overcome me, but there was something about the knowing look written all over Hikari's face that truly frightened me. "I saw him die in a vision," she explained. "I saw him die. Astamon is coming back for him—I saw it."
"No," Mimi said, taking Hikari's hand gently. "Astamon is dead."
"H-how is that possible?" Hikari asked. Miyako and Iori both moved to stand with the girls to help Hikari understand. I was sure I already did. It had to be Mari or Kiyoko, or even Hideto. They were sitting outside of the regular time stream...
Autumn's visions were how Iori and Hikari and Kurayami were able to see the future. Perhaps she always knew Willis would die. Perhaps she knew we would lose against Apocalymon without Willis, and saving the lives of Alias III made it possible for us to win with the power of all Crests. Autumn had to have always known how this would play out... except she could never have seen a future with Willis or even Alias III in it because that simply went against the limitations of her power.
Not even Autumn knew how this battle was going to end. But if there was one thing I was sure of it was that we would need Willis and the others as well. This battle was going to come back to present day, and we had to make sure that happened or we weren't going to stand a chance. This was especially true since we could not win with only Tentomon and Koushiro. We needed the other partners.
My wish came true quite quickly, surprisingly, but it could have come more gracefully.
Fear and panic shot to the core of my being when I saw her rush past. It was Yorokobi and she was at the end of the next street. I was sure she hadn't seen me or the others, but I had seen her. And she was not alone. In her arms was Patamon.
So we weren't alone in the past. Yorokobi had come with us. She couldn't mess with the delicate time stream. We couldn't let her run free. And somehow, I found it to be a good idea to run off without requesting assistance. My anger was clouding my judgement and there I went, running full speed down the street, ignoring my previous decision to save that energy. Patamon needed my help.
I heard someone call my name as I whipped around the corner and I looked back for only a moment and spotted Yamato. There were others as well but I couldn't take the time to investigate. This was important. They would come with me or they wouldn't.
But I had lost sight of Yorokobi.
Yamato slammed into me and Daisuke and Ken both rushed past, sliding to a stop, and turning back to me. "What is it?" Daisuke asked sharply.
I pointed down the street to the place I was sure Yorokobi had gone. "She's here—with Patamon." My words were coming out through pants and deep breaths. I still hadn't had time to rest after our battle in the streets with Gaia, or saving Momoe and fighting Bagramon, or the initial war at the Temple or the fight with Morganna. I needed to sit down and relax. I was getting far too old for this.
"Who?" Yamato asked in a growl. "Who has him?"
"Yoroko—"
My words were cut off by a sharp cry of "Boom Bubble!"
Yamato was running down a street that I would never have guessed, and Ken and Daisuke were going after him a moment later. I wound myself up and felt my back crack and literally felt like an eighty year old man as I chased after the three of them. Patamon was in danger, and sure Yorokobi wasn't the most dangerous enemy we had ever faced, but she certainly wasn't a harmless flower. Patamon wasn't much of a fighter on his own and was probably far too exhausted to evolve to Angemon without Takeru's help.
I was thankful for Yamato's protective instinct for his brother's partner because it led us quickly to the place where Patamon had cried out. We all came around the corner to where Yorokobi was standing, holding Patamon tightly to her chest as she laughed at his attempts to escape her.
Yamato's snarling picked up again and Daisuke's fingers rolled into fists as he stormed forward. My eyes followed him until I caught sight of the digimon tied to a fire hydrant in the distance.
A surge of pure rage filled me as I raced forward, passing Daisuke and catching Yorokobi's attention. I shoved my hands forward and hit both shoulders, causing her to topple backwards before she caught herself and I slid to a stop in front of Gomamon, who looked infinitely relieved to see me. "I can't reach the rope," Gomamon said. "I was trying to bite it—where the heck are we and where on Earth did she get a rope?"
"Valid questions," I assured him as I pulled the cords loose. He was freed a moment later and he ignored my open arms, jumping out toward Yorokobi and prepared himself for a fight.
My mind was as exhausted as my aching body and when I turned to him I found that I was hoping for the fight to go quickly. I didn't have the energy to keep going right now. I needed a nice long bath and some snacks. I needed to relax on a couch with Renjio, Emiko and all the others. I needed Bearmon and Monmon and even MarineAngemon to be there with us as we embraced total stillness—something I was sure I would never get to experience—and of course Momoe as well. I was scared for her and where she stood. I couldn't remember if I had seen her on the battlefield. I could not force my mind to visualize Mimi's arrival. Had she taken Momoe, or left her behind?
It didn't matter because I had to focus on the here and now. Or rather the here and then, because this had probably already happened. But it was happening right now as well.
Yorokobi, like myself, was expecting Gomamon to strike and she flinched away, clamping her eyes shut tight but then, to everyone's surprise, Gomamon chose not to attack at all. "Hideto was always right, you know?"
Yorokobi's eyes opened in a fury as she rounded on him, still holding Patamon close to herself. Yamato looked like he wanted to pin her down and tie her up to stop her from ever harming one of his friends again, and Ken and Daisuke similarly looked prepared to save Patamon from her clutches. Hopefully we would not need their assistance.
"You were wrong, and you know it's true," Gomamon said in his sly little voice. He knew what he was doing and clearly he was deliberately making her angry, but hoping to speak to the inner conscience that she surely had to have. "Everyone always told you that you were wrong, but you didn't believe them. Your parents conditioned you to think you were right no matter what, so when everyone told you that wasn't the case you thought that you were more evolved—you thought you were simply more intelligent than everyone on the planet because you were the only one in the right—"
"No," Yorokobi snapped foolishly. "You're wrong!"
"That's just not true," Gomamon said in a sad, defeated voice. "I was really hoping you'd be able to understand. When you have a different opinion than the majority, that can sometimes mean that you need to speak out and state your opinion... but that's only true if your opinion is helpful, or kind." Gomamon's eyes flicked to Ken and received a smile from our friend. "When your hatred is what helps you stand apart from the crowd you are given a clear view of the world from the underside of someone's dirty boot. Your opinion is mean and you're just not looking at things in a positive way. I'm very sorry, Yorokobi, but I'm not going to let you hurt my friend."
"You can't stop me!" Yorokobi snapped loudly. "I have to do this for Gaia! She will grant me power that my parents no longer can!" Yorokobi's eyes were brimming with tears from Gomamon's words because he had been successful. Whatever inner part of Yorokobi's sanity that held the capacity for comprehension had heard his words and understood. Even if she fought the words away, she knew they had to be true. It was entirely possible that she would convince herself that Gomamon had been wrong, and that he was just stupid, but there was nothing we could do to stop that.
We could do something to stop her from hurting Patamon.
"You need to let him go," Daisuke said in a voice that sounded far too calm to be coming from him in his clearly angered state. Yorokobi was looking to Daisuke from the corner of her eyes but she didn't turn her head away from Patamon. At least she didn't until Yamato spoke up.
"Drop him now, Yorokobi."
Her pure hatred for Yamato, who had been a large participant in ruining the career of her parents by simply representing the digimon, showed its face in that instant and she did as he asked, dropping Patamon who was caught unaware and landed roughly on the paved surface below. Yorokobi wound her foot back and kicked him sharply which angered Yamato further. He let out a cry of anger and stormed toward her but Yorokobi had expected this and drew a knife from the bag at her side.
Yamato staggered to a stop and froze, taking in the sight of Yorokobi and her knife until her beautiful lips curled into a devilish smile and she lunged forward, knife in hand.
"Gomamon," I ordered sharply. He was busy looking over Patamon but obeyed quickly and shot off. I scooped Takeru's fallen partner into my arms and looked to him. He groaned softly but opened his eyes at my touch and smiled. He would be okay.
Gomamon slammed into Yorokobi's legs and she stumbled to the side, but caught herself on the brick wall of the alley next to her and acted quickly, slicing that damned knife in his direction. I tightened my grip on Patamon and he flinched, climbing from my arms. I apologized quickly but he paid me no mind.
With Gomamon having jumped back to avoid her, Yorokobi took her shot at Yamato and he could do nothing but avoid her until he found an open shot at her without fear of her knife.
"Marching Fishes!" Gomamon chanted, motioning toward the fire hydrant. As if it made any sense, the side popped off and several colourful fish began flying out from the opening as the water shot out into the street away from us. The fish began flying toward Yorokobi who slapped foolishly at them until they were all laying helplessly on the ground, flopping around as fish out of water would normally do.
Yorokobi had been distracted though and we tried to slip away, leaving her—even though my heart told me it was a terrible idea—but she screamed loudly and whipped a rock toward Daisuke when she caught sight of us.
"This is ridiculous," Daisuke groaned, stepping into the fight. "There are six of us, and one of her—" Yorokobi let out a shriek as Daisuke came closer and she turned on him instead giving Ken a clear path where he tackled her to the ground.
Yamato and Daisuke let out laughs filled with relief but I was more in tune with Gomamon's sorrow—as he helped his fish friend back to the water. It was just sad that Yorokobi had been conditioned to be this monster her entire life. She did not create this persona herself. It had always been her parents. Sure, she could have fought against it, like Puraido, or Hideto, but as a child, it was not her responsibility. Parenting could be hard—but it was very easy to explain the concept of unconditional love.
The fight had ended quickly, as I had hoped, and Ken had pulled out a set of shimmering silver handcuffs and attached Yorokobi to one of the pipes that ran up the brick wall next to us. I began to plan out what we should do with her, and how we were going to ensure she stayed here until we came back but I didn't get a chance to run my ideas by the others because Yorokobi threw her head back and let out a horrifying scream of agony.
At first I thought it was tactless and formless sounds, but as she continued to scream again and again I heard a single word—a name—in the midst of the distress. "GAIA!" she screamed out. "GAIA! GAIA! GAIA!"
Fear shot through me when the realization truly sank in. We couldn't stick around to watch Gaia save Yorokobi, and the constricted girl seemed so sure Gaia would save her, like she knew she was back in time with the rest of us. I was scared for the others. "We have to go now," Daisuke ordered, without taking our opinions into account. I agreed anyway, and together we ran away from Yorokobi, back the way we had come but this time we had both Patamon and Gomamon by our sides.
We were nearly to the end of the alley when Yorokobi's screams stopped entirely. Together we all stopped in our tracks and turned back to see Yorokobi looking up with great pleasure to the beautiful woman that stood over her, still wearing the bloody armour she had chosen for the war. Gaia smiled to Yorokobi and reached down to the handcuffs trapping the girl and holding her in place. Though she was still very beautiful Gaia looked truly insane now. I had only seen her from afar ever since she had taken the castle in Sidhendor—aside from a quick glimpse in the temple when she took that castle as well. The stark difference between the way she looked then and now was truly amazing.
I wanted to run while she was busy but Daisuke had other ideas and was going to take a stand against her. I was so sure he had lost his senses until I spotted the blue digimon tied up with vines and being dragged behind her.
Veemon.
"Digivolve!" Daisuke ordered quickly, catching Veemon's attention. His eyes lit up and Veemon nodded, leaping to his feet and shifting quickly to his mega form. The vines that held him broke immediately and Gaia stopped hesitating, pulling on the chain that held Yorokobi, breaking it with ease. Yorokobi gasped in pain as the metal scraped her wrist, but she soon found joy in being freed by her queen who turned sharply to UlforceVeedramon and slammed her open hand into his chest.
I let out a strangled yelp as he fell back. I hadn't expected Gaia to be as powerful as she now was.
"Her balance is back in order," Patamon noted along the same lines as my own thoughts. "Yggdrasil's death set her off, but without Apocalymon holding her in the darkness she is perfectly balanced again."
"So what does that mean?" I asked, nervous.
"It means I have to help," Gomamon said, rushing forward without a second thought. He shifted to Plesiomon, pressing against the walls on either side. He just didn't fit. He shot water toward Gaia, but without being able to move further he wasn't going to be able to help much in any sort of combat.
With Plesiomon blocking the path I could not see any of what was happening beyond him, and Daisuke was ready to snap from the fear and nervousness of not being able to find his partner.
When a vine shot from below and wrapped tightly around Plesiomon's neck I understood how Daisuke felt. It wasn't fair that we always had to ask our partners to fight. I felt a sense of anger and determination now, as if I was so sure I would finally fulfill my promise to the world and end this war if we tried hard enough.
"Digivolve again!" I ordered loudly.
"Plesiomon digivolve to... Aegisdramon!"
The golden beast appeared in the alley, snapping the vine and also crushing the walls that had been restricting him. "Tera Hydro Breath!"
Before the high pressured water could strike Gaia she had leapt high into the air with Yorokobi held tightly to her side, landing once on Aegisdramon's head and then, as she kicked off again, it became clear to me that she was coming our way.
Patamon shifted to Angemon but looked rather worn out and when Gaia landed she made quick work of knocking him out of the way, simply brushing him aside. The only positives I could find at that moment were that she was fleeing. She was escaping because she either did not want to bother with my super ultimate partner, or because she couldn't. Either way, I knew that meant we could stand a chance as a team.
Patamon landed in Ken's arms and then Gaia kicked off the ground once more, and she seemed to go in slow motion this time, turning her wicked eyes toward me. Her hair was wild and stringy—far less regal than it had once been, and Yorokobi now looked entirely broken. Gaia was so sure she was going to get away now, and I wanted her to go. I didn't think we would stand enough of a chance against her.
But Yamato thought differently.
He grabbed Yorokobi's dangling foot and he pulled sharply, dragging her from Gaia's hold. Both women came tumbling to the ground, but Gaia managed to catch herself, landing on her feet with bent knees.
With a terrifying calmness she reached back for Yamato and smiled. "How about you then, instead?"
And then she was gone, dragging him into the air as she leapt, leaving Yorokobi stranded.
The girl screamed in terror but struggled to her feet and was running away a moment later.
Somehow she didn't matter anymore. Whatever harm she caused would be remedied later. Right now, Gaia had Yamato, and that was more pressing.
Gaia landed on the top of a building with Yamato struggling to get away, and thankfully we had UlforceVeedramon who was able to follow her quickly. Gaia stalled his pursuit by swinging a foot around and slamming it into his chest, sending him hurdling down toward Aegisdramon.
And then she disappeared, and when UlforceVeedramon followed her once more, there was no sign of her. She was gone, and she had taken Yamato with her.
Next on Digimon Adventure 09: A three part chapter is next with Mimi, Matt and Ken taking us through their final narrations of the series, leading the way through a better understanding of where we are and what we're up to in this time.