For What it's Worth
Survival is always the strongest push. Floating timeline, Frontier verse.
Takuya K
Genre/s: Drama/Friendship
Rating: T
'My lord?'
The addressed turned to the speaker, the fire, golden bright tails flickering like a protective barrier and reminiscent of the luminous halo of heat around the epitome of the solar system, fluttered behind him like a cape flowing in a gentle breeze. The rest of him was shielded by the blinding vision, but it mattered not. He was majestic and worship-worthy enough without the full magnitude of his appearance being bestowed upon those in servitude.
He regarded the servant a little curiously, before returning to the rippling water, and the image within he was examining. 'Is it true?' he asked, almost conversationally, but the other quivered slightly at the tone. 'These children from the other world defeated and purified Cherubimon?'
'Y-yes my lord,' she stuttered. 'They did.'
'How?'
'Hybrid-Z. The transcend form sir. The flame child pierced his head with a blade thereafter.'
'Transcend?' A hint of surprise graced the deep voice laced with power, before returning to its normal state with a touch of thoughtfulness. 'This makes things...interesting.'
'Sir. Do you think they can-'
The other cut him off. 'I think this calls for some...investigation.'
The word was almost chilling, but the command that followed was crisp and sharp.
'Send for him. You know what to do with the rest.'
The servant bowed, the four wings spreading out in preparation for flight. 'You wish is my command my lord.'
The sun, the lone figure of light in the night land, smiled content.
Chapter 1
Light
'Wait, what?' Takuya waved his arms frantically, staring rather baffled at the female angel that had suddenly blocked their path with a message. 'Who wants to see me?'
'That is not your concern,' she replied coolly. 'You are simply to be informed that your presence is requested at the Apollon Musegetes near the heart of this continent by the time the first rays of the sun appear on the horizon.'
She pointed with the staff she held in her right hand, and the six children and three accompanying digimon, turned to look.
'Does the sun even rise on this continent?' the brunette had to ask, albeit a little stupidly.
Kouji began to roll his eyes, before realising he wasn't entirely sure himself.
The other three simply looked at the one who should know the answer.
'It does,' Kouichi affirmed. 'But the days are simply far shorter here, and the clouds cover most of the light.'
'The sun always exists,' the angel interjected, a bit of a bite in her tone. 'It would be unnatural otherwise.'
'Unnatural?' Takuya repeated, before the other glared at him. 'Okay, never mind. Who are you anyway?'
It was exceedingly obvious to everyone who had the luxury to watch that exchange that the female was getting rather ticked off, and it was with great visible restraint that she returned to her original message.
'To ensure your presence,' she said, face melding into an expression of stone to mask the frustration the other seemed to naturally bestow. 'I will be taking a boon.'
Takuya opened his mouth again, before his eyes snapped to the end of her line of vision. The three rookies crowded together to the side, one curiously watching the conversation, one napping, and one focusing on something only he understood.
'Hey!' he shouted, snatching up his D-scanner and evolving into Agunimon in an instant, the others following suit as Bokomon muttered an 'Oh dear' under his breath. 'Leave them alone...whoever you are!'
'Darcmon,' the white gnome supplied helpfully, backing out of harms way as the warriors of wind and thunder launched themselves into the air to meet the angel that had taken flight, flame and ice flanking them down below. 'An adult level vaccine digimon who has been known as the Goddess of the Battlefield-'
He was suddenly cut off by an unfamiliar cry of 'Hikari no Imashime' and a cry of pain which was very familiar.
'Ni-san!' That was Kouji's voice; Wolfmon's to be precise, a hint of panic in the tone. Perhaps it was that panic that made the others whip around like they did...momentarily forgetting the Darcmon and her goal, until the cry of 'La Pucelle' caused the four to snap back...too late.
Flecks of dust scattered less than an inch off the ground as Fairymon and Blitzmon rose higher into the air, seeing out into the deep expanses of the Continent of Darkness, spying simply the cascades of folded, fragmented land with the Venus Rose shining above a hole of nothing, and to the edge, the forest which marked its edge. Below them were two warriors awaiting word, the third checking on the unconscious fourth, but that was all that moved. The messenger, the two attackers (assuming there were two of course), were gone, and they had taken their digimon friends with them.
'Nothing,' Fairymon reported, touching down lightly and letting data envelop her as she returned to her human state, the warrior of thunder following suit. 'They're gone.'
Takuya looked in the direction that had been pointed to them. 'At least we know where they're going.'
He looked a moment longer, before turning away and going over to the twins, the younger attempting to hide his worry behind the usual stoic expression and hovering over the elder, repeating his came until he began to stir.
The boy groaned lightly, almost in protest, and a sudden silence greeted him. But already on the path to consciousness, his eyelids fluttered slightly, before opening almost haphazardly, the one closer to the ground more at ease than the other due to the side and rather awkwardly sprawled position he lay in.
The first thing that registered with an unwelcome headache, though not unbearable. The second was that five rather worried faces were staring at him. Despite a rather failed attempt on Kouji's part.
The third...was that it was completely quiet. Unnaturally so, seeing as they had been in the middle of an unexpected battle.
'Where-?' he began, attempting to sit up, only for his head to spin and arms to consequently bulk and drop him gracefully into his brother's ready hold.
'Take it easy,' Kouji said softly, helping him up to lean against him. 'That was a direct hit.'
'Where'd it come from?' Junpei asked. 'I thought we had that Darcmon surrounded.'
'It was someone else,' the younger twin said, pointing in the other direction. 'The light came from over there, but I didn't get a good look at the digimon who attacked except it looked like a woman.'
'Another one.' The eldest of the six groaned, and the warrior of darkness followed suit, though for a different reason.
'It's nothing,' he said immediately to the concern looks that instigated, but the stern glare he received in return made him yield...slightly. 'Just a headache.' He paused slightly, finally registering the absence of their full team. 'Where's Patamon? And Bokomon and Neemon?'
'That Darcmon took them,' Tomoki replied quietly. 'We sort of got distracted, and she used that.'
Kouichi looked away, and his brother growled, before hoisting him to his feet.
'You okay to walk?' he asked, instead of the lecture on misplaced guilt he had intended. The brothers' relationship was still a little too new for them to be able to indulge in deeper connections of that sort. Especially since that 'misplaced' guilt plagued them both.
After all, that attack had been aimed at him.
The elder twin recognised that, and so simply nodded, taking a few steps to stand on his own, absentmindedly rubbing his temple to stem off the headache.
'Where?' he asked quietly. Not why, but where. 'The Apollon Musegetes?'
The other five looked at each other. 'That's the place she wants us to go...right?' Takuya's brow furrowed slightly. 'I guess so; there's no sense going anywhere else. Only I've never heard of the place before. It doesn't even sound Japanese.'
'It's not. I think it's Greek. It translates to the epitaph of Apollo.'
'The Greek God of the Sun?' Izumi asked, surprised. 'And on the Dark continent?'
'It's underground actually.'
'Underground? Talk about messed up.'
Kouichi bit his lip lightly. 'Come on,' he gestured, starting to walk eastward. 'We're wasting time standing here.'
Kouji scrutinised him briefly, before falling into step, and the others caught up a moment later.
'You know where it is?' Junpei asked, having been the only one to pick that point up.
The elder twin shrugged. 'Under the Dark Continent, and a little under the Forest and Earth Continents, there is a labyrinth. The Apollon Musegetes is said to be the one room where the sun shines, but apparently no-one has ever found it.'
Kouji growled, annoyed. 'So we're walking blind.'
'Not necessarily,' the warrior of ice pointed out. 'Darcmon mentioned something about the heart of the continent. Maybe that's some sort of clue.'
'Wasn't the heart the Venus Rose?' the blonde asked.
Kouichi shook his head. 'It's just an area where the flow of the ten elements is the strongest. Minerals from the soil were extracted and taken to the Venus Rose, specifically to the Chamber of Spirits, and utilised. So most digimon assume that that is the heart of the Continent.'
'So,' Takuya frowned. 'You know where this area is? 'cause the rest of us know about as much as where our feet are.'
The boy slipped a hand into his pocket, withdrawing his D-scanner and activating the compass, before frowning. 'It's below an area that has already been scanned,' he noted. 'We'll have to use the labyrinth.'
'Can't we just fly?'
'And how do you suggest we dive through empty space.' Kouji rolled his eyes at the brunette before his brother could speak. 'Inside the labyrinth, remember?'
'Oh yeah...' Takuya rubbed his head sheepishly, before staring at the twins again. 'Hey, how do you know that anyway?'
Kouichi half turned to glance at his expression, reading curiosity, before turning back to the front. 'Cherubimon.'
'Oh.' And sensing he was starting to tread into shallow water, he wisely halted the conversation.
Tomoki ran a few paces ahead to catch up to him. 'Takuya-nii?' he asked. 'Do you think they'll be okay?'
'Sure they will,' the brunette replied, grinning and patting the orange hat. 'She said that she's only taking them as an insurance policy.'
'Do you actually believe that?' the warrior of thunder asked sceptically.
The warriors of flame and light exchanged glances, before Kouji answered. 'Warriors like her follow codes of honour before anything else. I think she will keep her word. If she is a Goddess of the Battlefield, she won't be one to pray on those weak or defenceless.' He turned back, to find his brother had halted and was squinting at something in the distance. 'Ni-san?'
'Can you see that?' he asked, a little distracted.
The other looked too, but saw nothing. 'Nothing out of the ordinary,' he commented, seeing the other frown slightly.
'It's gone now,' he murmured in a faint surprise, moving to walk again. 'But I could have sworn I saw-' He cut himself off suddenly, noticing the purple light reappearing almost at their feet. 'Move!'
Startled by the sudden cry, they obeyed, and the mauve foxes clawed uselessly in the air, before changing cause.
On guard now, they dodged, using any available moment to evolve straight into their beast or fusion forms...except the warrior of Darkness who suddenly found the fox spirit almost upon him.
He used the leftover momentum to roll out of the way of the next strike, before a Zwei Handler knocked it down. Another fox met the wolf, and both streams of light burst into something reminiscent of fireworks as Izumi and Takuya, both airborne, were knocked down by sudden bursts of light.
Kouichi made to sit up again, only to suddenly find himself half pinned under a fox-like woman, armoured in purple and black with silver hair whipping behind her in two separate strands and a silver staff in one hand. Actually, it was the staff trapping his upper body, but he was simply in too awkward a position to do anything.
Until Blizzarmon's flying axes caused the female digimon to remove the staff, giving him enough time to slip out and evolve into KaiserLeomon.
The axes buried themselves into the ground as the lady fox raised her staff and unleashed the spirits she commanded once more. Ardhamon fired his Corona Blasters to counter, amplified by Shutumon's wind, but it was only when another Zwei Handler hit that the purple energy faded into nothingness.
Only, the digimon had used that distraction to return to her parry with the Dark Lion.
'Hikari no Imashime!' she cried, summoning the light to her call.
KaiserLeomon, remembering the attack, summoned his own darkness around himself in a counter, launching himself forward in the same instance the other's attack completed with a cry of Schwarz König. The two conflicting powers collided, and everyone not involved in the collision instinctively covered their faces as dust obscured their vision.
Silence descended after that, before a cry of Hikari no Mandela, which while they understood for the Japanese, they didn't understand the significance of.
That is, until Shutumon blew the wind away and revealed the element of darkness below them, with the silver staff pointed downward to the centre and the lion who embodied it panting at the edge.
Blizzarmon was shifting from foot to foot. 'What do we do?' he muttered. 'The sun would have risen by now in the other continents. We don't have that much time.'
'You have under an hour,' the attacker responded, looking at each of the six warriors, before lifting her staff off the ground, before letting it drop.
It never hit the ground, Beowulfmon having caught it in his twin blade. 'We don't have time for this,' he shouted, as Bolomon and KaiserLeomon knocked the female away with a combination of thunder and darkness, though the circle beneath the warrior of darkness leeched some of that power. 'Kouichi, you're pretty much useless here, and besides, you're the only one who knows the way! Take the others.'
'No way,' the elder twin yelled back. 'I won't just leave you here to fight alone-' He cut himself off when he realised that he was useless, for the same reasons he was more powerful against the cloned Cherubimon and the IceDevimon. The same reason he had been so weak in the Light Chamber. The fox woman's light, leeching off the elemental power of his brother's spirit, was more powerful than his own. It was more powerful than any of them, except perhaps the one whose spirit was directly associated, but more so his own because it was diametrically opposite on the elemental spectra. And he was right on the other account too; they were running out of time.
'All right,' he said in a quieter tone. 'Be careful.'
He fired a round of missiles at the woman, before taking the opportunity to raise two fingers in confidence. 'Don't worry about it.'
Kouichi backed out of the circle, devolving as he did so, before spinning around and grabbing the nearest digimon, Shutumon, and running in the direction they had started in.
'Hey,' she exclaimed, devolving as the other three stared at each other. 'You can't-'
'We have to,' he said firmly, though his voice shook on the undertone. 'We can't all stay and fight, and the rest of us are at a disadvantage against her. Kouji's attacks are the only ones that are working. We'll just be in the way. Kouji will be fine.'
Realising that was true, the other two devolved as well, Takuya, still as Ardhamon, scooping them all up. 'Well be faster flying,' he pointed out. 'Which way?'
'Keep on going straight,' the warrior of darkness said quietly, resisting the urge to turn back to the flashes of white and purple light.
He just had to believe his brother would be fine. Bokomon, Neemon and Patamon were still waiting...and they had three quarters of an hour left.
Below, Beowulfmon watched them go with half an eye. 'Now what?' he asked. 'I don't believe you intend to destroy me, but still you intended this encounter.'
'What tells you so?' the fox asked in a monotone.
'The way you fight,' the wolf replied. 'It was almost as if you meant to drive them away. Why else would you attack my brother directly and no one else; light and darkness make for quite a dangerous combination. You took as much damage as he did, if not more, from that collision.'
'You see well warrior of light,' the female noted in answer. 'You are right, that is not my intention. But damage is inconsequential, for I am Kuzuhamon, and I have the gift of healing at my fingertips.'
'Kuzuhamon...what is it you want from me?'
Post Author's Notes
Timeline: As I mentioned in the summary, this is a floating timeline, so it doesn't really specifically fit in to canon season 4. Parts that follow through: everything up till Cherubimon getting destroyed basically, with the Digital World impersonating Swiss cheese really. Anything else...well, the gaps will be filled in due course. Sort of like a movie continuum. Events from the canon relate to the movie, but not necessarily vice versa, like Digimon Frontier: Revival of the Lost Digimon, or Supreme Evolution: The Golden Digimentals. Or any of the movies from Pokémon for that matter.
Hybrid Z (Zeta)/Transcend Form: It is called unified spirit evolution in the English dub. On that note, Hybrid H is human spirit evolution, Hybrid B is beast spirit evolution and Hybrid A standes for Advanced (ie. Fusion) evolution.
Apollon Musegetes: lit. the epithet of Apollo, Roman (and Greek) God of light and the sun, as well as other things.
Hikari no Imashime – lit. light penalty. Kuzuhamon's attack (the big flash of light) (a God man digimon and a variation of the Sakuyamon species. She's actually got an interesting legend behind her. If you have time, check it out).
La Pucelle – lit. The Maiden. Darcmon's attack (the digimon from Frontier's Movie)
Ura Izuna – lit. Reverse Izuna. Kuzuhamon's attack (the purple fox spirit one)
Zwei hander – lit. Two Handler. Frozen Hunter in English dub.
Schwarz König – lit. Black King. Dark Master in the English dub.
Hikari no Mandela – lit. Mandela of light (Mandela: a schematized representation of the cosmos, chiefly characterized by a bunch of geometric shapes which contain image/attribute of deities/elements). In this fic, I've decided the elements to be the ten elements, ie. light, darkness etc, each which zaps the power of the respective warrior and digimon type.
By the way, as a side note, martial artists tend to be better than the average person at reading their opponents. Hence that last exchange.
The twins sort of dominated this chapter. Don't worry; I don't think that happens again. After all, Takuya is the main character.
