DIGIMON WORLD

CHILDREN OF DESTINY

A Fan Fiction By DaekerCroft

-CHAPTER ONE-

-Revised Edition-

There was nothing left to say that hadn't been said a thousand times over, yet more news reports continued to flood the airwaves every day. More children between the ages of ten and seventeen reported missing within Japan, fowl play suspected, no evidence left behind of any kind. Meanwhile, nobody payed any attention to the silent invasion that was happening right in front of them, attacking the world at it's very core. Few noticed, and the ones who did passed it off as a minor technical malfunction, while others wrote it off completely. These errors and malfunctions were happening all over the globe, harmless at first, but slowly beginning to cripple major systems. No one had any idea what was truly going on...

It had been well over a month since Shion's disappearance, but to Jeishita it seemed like only yesterday that the two of them were running around Odaiba thick as thieves. At first Shion's parents had told him that she was away at camp for the summer, but in reality they were trying to spare Jei the horrible truth. The last night he saw Shion, the two of them had fighting, but he couldn't remember why. Perhaps he didn't want to. He had stormed off and left her to walk home by herself. She was sixteen, nearly two and a half years older than fourteen year old Jei, but she had the emotional maturity of a nine year old. Since that night, Jei spent every waking moment wondering if maybe things would have turned out differently had he stayed with her.

There was a knock on Jei's bedroom door, snapping him out of his trance of self pitty and returning him to cruel reality. He got up from the chair where he had spent the better part of a month moping and opened the door to find his Mother, standing there with the same worried expression that had been etched onto her face since all of this started. From her point of view, it very well could have been her own son that had gone missing that night, and even though he had come home just fine, she still felt like she had lost him. She hated watching him waste away like this, knowing that he blamed for what had happened.

"Jeishita, sweety" his mother began has she stepped into the room "I know your still upset, but Shion wouldn't want you to waste away in here like this".

"Yeah?" Jei snapped back "and how would you know? You never liked her anway! You said you didn't want her here! You're probably happy she's gone!"

It was true that Shion had never been on the best of terms with Jei's family. For one thing, she was older, a fact his father very much disliked, and for another, her emotional maturity had landed both her and Jei in hot water on more than one occasion. His mother stood there for a moment, completely unsure what to say. She eventually gave a defeated sigh and started for the door.

"Shion's father called, they are cleaning out her room later today" she said as she left the room, "I thought you might want to know".

Jei's eyes widened as his mother closed the door behind her. What!? he thought to himself She's only been gone a month! How could they do this!?. Jei ran to his dresser and grabbed the first items of clothing he could find; plain black jeans, a white shirt, and a dark red jacket that had been hanging on his bedpost. He sped out the front door of his house, hopped on his bike and began tearing down the road towards Shion's apartment.

When Jei arrived, he hit the breaks so hard that he nearly flew over his handle bars. He ran up to the front door and began frantically buzzing Shion's apartment number, hoping that there would be a reply.

"H-Hello...?" came a tired female voice "who is there?"

"It's Jeishita Homaji!" Jei yelled into the voice box "Please, you gotta let me in!".

There was a long pause. Jei began to wonder if they had decided to just ignore his request, but just as he was about to turn away, there came a loud buzzing sound as the electronic lifted and the door gave way. He swung it open and wasted no time making for the elevator just down the hall, only to find that it had apparently been out of service for quite some time. Just another minor technical malfunction he supposed. Jei ran up about twelve flights of stairs and was nearly out of breath by the time he had arrived at the right floor. He made his way down to the end of the hall where Shion's appartment was and knocked on the door. He waited some time, and was about to knock again when the door flew open and there stood Shion's mother. She had a miserable defeated look about her, but managed to greet her guest with a smile all the same.

"Mrs. Yamamura!" Jei said bowing respectfully, "You're not really clearing out Shion's room already, are you? You can't have given up hope so easily!".

"It's not that we've given up hope" Shion's mother said, her forced smile fading into a sad expression, "It's just that every little thing reminds us of her and we just can't bare it".

The door opened wider as a man quite a bit taller than Mrs. Yamamura stepped into the doorway. It was shion's father, Hideki Yamamura. He was a bit older than Mrs. Yamamura, but was still very strong and wise looking. He gave Jei a smile when he saw him, which seemed less forced than his wife's. Hideki had always liked having Jei around, he felt that he was good for Shion and had once even told him that he was like the son he never had.

"Jei" he said trying his best to sound upbeat, "It's good to see you around, your mother said that you haven't been out of your room for some time. Please, come in!" Mr. Yamamura opened the door the rest of the way and led Jei inside.

"I had a feeling that you might want to take a look around Shion's room before we finish clearing everything out" Hideki continued, "Thats why I gave your mother a call".

Mr. Yamamura escorted Jei down to Shion's room while his wife put on a kettle of tea. The room already looked very different. Most of the posters had been removed from the walls and boxes of Shion's books were stacked in the corner.

"Take all the time you need" Hideki said, "I will go see how the tea is coming".

Shion's father left to check on his wife, closing the door behind him and leaving Jei alone with his thoughts. His eyes scanned the room, looking for any part of it that still looked familier. Shion's desk was still littered with her notes and drawings, as well as pieces of a card game that the two had often played together. Where could you have gone? Jei thought with a deep sigh. He began looking through the drawings on the desk. Shion had always been a much better artist than him, but she was a good sport when it came to her talents and never rubbed it in anyone's face. Jei began to notice, that the deeper he looked, the stranger the drawings became. Vast landscapes being taken over by some kind of darkness, and mysterious creatures running in terror. One in particular caught his eye, a drawing of a strange blue creature with remarkable attention to detail.

"You always did have an amazing imagination" Jei said to himself, "Please be okay, wherever you are".

A sudden and strange noise from behind him made him jump, almost toppling over as he spun around to investigate, but there was nothing there. Placing the drawings back on Shion's desk, Jei decided to investigate further, heading in the direction of the sound. It seemed like it had to have come from Shion's bed, or rather, from under it. Jei kneeled down and reached underneath. At first, all he could find was crumpled paper, likely half finished drawings that Shion decided weren't good enough to bother finishing. Suddenly, the sound came again, clearer and louder this time, high pitched like some kind of electronic chirp. Startled, Jei ended up bumping his head on the wooden bedframe, causing him a few brief seconds of disorientation. He squinted his eyes to try to adjust to the darkness and noticed a faint light that was just out of reach. He pulled himself out from under the bed and looked around for something to reach it with. He saw a long wooden sword resting in the corner and grabbed it by the end, reaching back under the bed and using the handle to pull the glowing object towards him. Once it was close enough, Jei grabbed it with his free hand and pulled it the rest of the way out.

It was some kind of device, almost like a cell phone but smaller. It had only a small square screen and three buttons on it, and though it had been lit up just a moment before, it now seemed to be dead. With a loud click, the door to Shion's room began to open. Jei didn't have much time to react. He didn't know why, but he chose to hide the strange device in his pocket rather than showing it to Shion's parents. Jei got to his feet and just a momen't later, Hideki stepped into the room.

"The tea is almost ready if you would like some" he said with a smile "It's lemon ginger, best served piping hot!"

Jeishita took a look out the window and saw that the sun was already sinking beneath the horizon. Soon it would be pitch black, and with everything that had been going on, walking home in the dark was the very last thing that he wanted to do.

"Than you Mr. Yamamura," Jei began "But it's getting pretty late, I should probably get home"

"Fair enough, you don't want to be walking around after dark" Mr. Yamamura replied, "Especially not now. Just be careful out there, okay?"

By the time Jei had gotten down stairs, it was almost completely dark. Although there was still a faint glimmer of sunlight on the horizon, the shadows cast by the tall buildings lining the street had cloaked everything around them in darkness. Luckily, some of the street lights were already on, giving Jei a partially lit path to follow home. He looked and looked but soon realised that he couldn't find his bike anywhere. It certainly wasn't where he had left it, nor did it seem to be anywhere nearby. Seriously? he thought to himself, as if this day wasn't bad enough. He began walking back in the direction of his house. From here, it was all up hill and he would have ended up walking his bike up anyway, but he still resented that fact that someone had apparently stolen it. It had once belonged to Shion who had given it to Jei as a gift when she got a new one for her fifteenth birthday. It wasn't the most functional bike, but he cherished it deeply.

Jei was about halfway home when he noticed the sound of footsteps close behind him. At first, he thought nothing of it, he guessed that it was pobably just someone walking their dog, but for some reason he couldn't bring himself to look. After a while, the footsteps became louder and closer, it sounded as if there were at least two sets of steps following, so finally he worked up the courage to look behind him, and immediately wished he hadn't. Two figures dressed all in black, their faces completely hidden behind dark hoods were keeping pace behind him, slowly gaining momentum and drawing closer as he noticed them. Jei tried to remain calm, walking casually for another block or so, but as soon as he was around the corner, he made a break for it, hoping that he could gain some ground while he was out of their line of sight. To his dismay, they were almost immediately on his tail and there was no longer any doubt that they were after him. As he ran, Jei saw a huge storage warehouse just up ahead and the first chance he got, Jei ducked inside, hoping to lose his persuers inside. It seemed to be some kind of old tech warehouse. Computers, monitors and other pieces of machinery were piled high on large shelves and scattered on the floor, creating a dark, narrow maze in which he became immediately lost. Though he could no longer see them, he still heard their footsteps of his followers close behind him, even as he bobbed and weaved a frantic trail through the maze of old disguarded tech. He rounded a corner and found himself at a dead between a wall of old monitors and shelves tighly packed with old motherboards and other useless junk. He turned arouned in hopes of finding another route only to discover the two figures blocking his path, they had cornered him like a rat.

The first of the two figures spoke in a deep, raspy, clearly masculine voice; "This human, he has the digivice, I can sense it".

While the second figure spoke in a much lighter and distinctly femanine voice. "I sense it too, but I also sense that it doesn't belong to him. He knows not the power contained within, nor can he hope to possess it".

"Wh-Who are you!?" Jei said stepping back against the wall "What do you want!?".

"We wan't the digivice" the female figure said, "hand it over human!".

"Post haste" Said the male, "and perhaps we will give you a merciful end".

At first, Jei couldn't figured out what they meant. He was just terrified and confused, wishing more than anything that he had just stayed in his room, but then suddenly it came to him. Digivice? he thought to himself, could they mean the thing from Shion's room?. He pulled the strange device out of his pocket and shakily held it out in front of him.

"This?" he asked "Is this what you're after!?".

"Yes" The female hissed, "hand it over now and your death will be painless".

Despite the situation, Jei suddenly found himself unusually calm, terrified of course, but calm. Normally in any given situation, Shion was the brave one, but she wasn't here now, and so this time Jei had to be the brave one. As far as he could tell, they intended to kill him either way, so why should he make it easy for them?

"Th-Then come get it!" Jei squeaked as he tried in vein to at least pretend that he wasn't afriad, "c-come on, take it from me you big hooded freak!".

"Pathetic fool, false bravery will get you nowhere!" snapped the female figure "now you will suffer by our hands!"

The two figures suddenly removed their hoods, revealing creatures with pale, bluish-gray skin and piercing red eyes. Jei's bravery gave way to fear as he gazed upon the two horrifying figures' true appearances. They began to charge him, moving so swiftly that their feet hardly touched the ground. Just as Jei thought that he was surely about to perish, he heard a familier electronic chirping sound. The "digivice" as the two figures had called it, suddenly sprung to life, glowing even brighter than it had before and the two creatures suddenly stopped in their tracks, looking just as surprised as he did.

"Impossible!" said the male "He shouldn't be able to use the device!"

"It isn't him" the female hissed, "I sense the presence of another!"

Jei cringed as the two creatures screeched and an even brighter light erupted from behind him. He turned around to see the wall of monitors behind him bursting with light. The two figures fled, but Jei couldn't move. He didn't feel right, his arms and legs were buzzing as if they had fallen asleep. He looked down to see them slowly dematerializing before his eyes, as the particles that remained were sucked into the monitors like a vaccum. Before he even knew what was happening, Jei found himself somewhere else, surrounded by darkness, a faint light underneath him far in the distance. Before he had time to react to what was happening, he plumited, spiraling out of control as he fell towards the light.

To be continued...