A/N: Hey guys, and welcome back to yet another chapter of Those Linked by Darkness. I don't really have much to say here, other than reminding people that my poll for Veemon's evolution line is still up. Also, I want to mention that I do have a "new" (ah well, I've had it for like 2 years now...) idea for a Digimon Fic that I might just post and see if it receives any interest. If it does, maybe I'll keep working on it. If not, well I got more than enough stories to keep me busy.
Disclaimer: Don't own Digimon, or A LOT would have been different with Adventure 02. And well, you can keep reading this and get an idea of how things would have been if I did own Digimon then.
Chapter Four: Revelations Part 1
The computer lab was lit up by a sudden flash of white light as one of the screens sprung to life. The otherwise dark room was engulfed in the light for a few seconds, before vanishing, leaving the room in complete darkness once again.
"G-gwwwayharrrgggh!" Davis yelped as he landed painfully on his already wounded right shoulder. He had to bite his jaws tight together to keep himself from screaming out in pain. Now that the adrenaline from the fight had left his system completely, the pain that had been bugging him before had become just about 100 times worse, leaving him almost unable to move his upper body without flinching from the wound. He didn't get why it hurt so much, it was just a cut. Admitedly, it was a very deep cut, but still just a cut. It had to be something with that Snimon's sickles that didn't sit well with his body. It would make sense for an insect digimon to have some kind of poison in it's weapon of choice, seeing as most bugs in the real world used poison or some kind of liquid for either defense or offense. But whatever it was, it hurt badly and landing clumsily on the injured shoulder didn't really help, especially not when he had somehow managed to land at the bottom of the pile that was the digidestined, getting Yolei's butt in his face and TK lying flat over the rest of his body.
The entangled pile of limbs gave a collective groan as the digidestined children began to untangle themselves. Izzy was the first one to get free from the mass of limbs and bodies. He had landed on top and only had to get loose hiss right leg from somewhere within the pile, where his shoe had apparently been right next to TK's face, if the surprised "Oumph!" that was heard from the boy in question when Izzy pulled his leg out was any indication.
Next to get loose was Kari, who immediately got back into the pile, trying to give instructions so the others wouldn't make Davis' shoulder injury worse. It was so much unlike her to take charge like this that no one protested against what she told them to do. Davis laid there, stunned, watching Kari tear at Yolei's leg that had been stuck between Cody and TK. Ever since he had injured his shoulder, it was like Kari had become possessed by some kind of hardworking spirit. She had been tense non-stop and had done anything she could to minimize the activity Davis had to perform. Truth to be told, she had fussed over him worse than his mother did when he got injured during a soccer game.
It took them a little while to get back on their feet, but when they finally did they noticed something they hadn't expected. All their digimon except Tentomon had come back to the real world with them. Sitting on the desk by the computer, watching them with amused grins on their faces, were DemiVeemon, Patamon, Gatomon and a digimon that looked like a white head without a body that they assumed was Armadillomon's In-Training form.
"Hi! I'm Upamon!" he piped up, confirming their suspiscions.
As Cody went over to his partner and new friend and expressed his fascination that such a little guy could turn into a fighter like Digmon, DemiVeemon jumped down from the desk and made his way over to Davis , who had sat up and leanded against the wall, feeling the strain from the days activities catch up to him. Kari was sitting by his side, making sure the made-up bandage hadn't been messed up by their bad landing when they returned. Davis was too tired, and admitedly a little scared of Kari after that little snap she had at him back in the Digital World, to argue about being fussed over.
"You okay, Davish?" DemiVeemon asked as he climbed onto his partner's head, just like he used to do in the old times. Davis couldn't help but grin at the gesture, even though Kari gave his partner a sour look.
"DemiVeemon, I am not sure that..." she began, but she was quickly cut off by Davis.
"C'mon Kari, he is just sitting there. I may be unjured, but I'm not made of glass, you know." he said, sincerely hoping that she wouldn't snap at him again.
For a moment, it looked like that was just what she was about to do, but then her gaze softened a little bit as she saw the pleading look Davis gave her. Or well, pleading wasn't really the right word for it, but she could see that he really didn't want to get into an argument about this. After all, DemiVeemon didn't look like he weighed a lot so it wasn't like he would strain Davis' shoulder in any way.
"Alright, he can stay there. Just make sure you don't overexcert that shoulder before we can get you to Joe." she said.
With that, she reach out and helped him get to his feet. The others joined them and together they left the Computer lab. Davis was adamant that he could walk on his own, despite Kari's attempt to get him to lean over her shoulder for support ("Seriously Kari, I'm not walking on my arms!") and so, he and DemiVeemon were strolling down the street towards the meeting. Kari walked beside Cody and Yolei, keeping a close eye on Davis for any sign that his bloodloss was getting to him. A little distance behind them, Izzy and TK were walking with Gatomon and Patamon, the latter sitting on TK's head, similar to DemiVeemon on Davis' head.
"Since when have Kari been one to take charge like that?" Izzy whispered to TK, so that the others wouldn't hear. "I mean, she have always been kind of fussy when it comes to someone injured, but I've never seen her act up like that."
TK just shook his head. He was as lost as Izzy on this one. It was true, Kari could be kind of fussy about people who were injured. Back during their first adventure together, fighting against Myotismon, she had even been willing to give herself up to keep the citizens of Odaiba from getting hurt. But this almost motherly fuss? That was something new to all of them. TK could guess that it was because she had known Davis for so long (even though it hurt to admit it), but still it was almost getting a little overboard. Looking at the two of them now almost made him think about how his own mother usually fussed about him when he had injured himself or done something she considered dangerous.
Down below them, Gatomon looked up at them with a confused look, before just shaking her head.
"Humans are weird." was all she had to say about the matter before she sped up to catch up to her partner in front of them.
Kari in turn had caught up to Davis, whom she had noticed had been trying to sneak back towards his own apartment. While the two of them bickered about Davis' stubbornness and unwillingness to go to the meeting, DemiVeemon jumped down from his partner's head and landed beside Gatomon. The two cast one single glance at each other before sighing.
"Do they usually bicker like this?" Veemon wanted to know, knowing that Gatomon had been around the two for a little longer.
The Cat Digimon nodded reluctantly. Even though she hadn't shown herself to Davis before, she had seen him once or twice when she had visited Kari during the last year, after Gennai had stabilized the Digital World enough for the portal to open up again.
"Yeah, though it's usually not this consistent." she sighed and sat down, deciding to take a little catnap while their partners were bickering about whatever it was they were bickering about. DemiVeemon followed her example and just sat down on the ground.
Behind them, Yolei, Cody, TK, Izzy, Patamon and Upamon were watching their two teammates' interraction with varied feelings. This constant bickering was getting a bit awkward, especially since it really was just the same arguments that kept being repeated. Yolei moved to separate the two, but Izzy put a hand on her shoulder to let her know that she should just let them bicker it out.
"...don't get why you don't want to go to the meeting?! This concerns the entire Digital World and you're part of it now!" Kari told Davis for what had to have been the 10th time since they had rescued her and decided that Davis should come to tonight's meeting to let Joe take a look at the cut he had received from Snimon.
"I thought this meeting was supposed to be between you older kids?!" Davis replied, getting a bit fed up with the situation, while at the same time feeling a bit confused over Kari's strange behavior. It wasn't like her to argue so adamantly about anything. Sure they had had their rows in the past, but she had never been this adamant about that. Well, guess there was kind of a difference between arguing over who stole the last cookie from the jar and arguing over something that could potentially have him killed if it had been done wrong, but still...
"You're older than me!" Kari shot back.
"Only by 2 months! Davis argued back, not even sure why he bothered answering.
Kari looked like she was about to give a snappy reply, most likely about his stubbornnes if Davis knew her correctly, but stopped herself half way and backed down to take a deep breath.
"Please, just come to the meeting so Joe can patch up that cut on your shoulder. You can leave after that if you want, but just let Joe patch up your wound." she said, looking at him with pleading eyes.
Cursing his own disability to look away from his best friend's pleading eyes, Davis felt himself waver. The two of them locked eyes for a moment and after a few seconds of silence, Davis let out his breath and sighed.
"Geez, since when did you get so good at arguing like this, Kari? You've never been this stubborn about anything." he said as he reluctantly turned in the direction Matt's apartment was in, as to show that he would come with her without arguing anymore.
Kari gave him a grateful smile for finally having given in before she answered.
"Well, with Tai as my brother and you as my friend, I've learned from the best." she said, causing TK and Izzy to snort over where they stood.
Even DemiVeemon, who didn't know Tai, couldn't help but laugh at her remark and the face Davis made at the slight but friendly jab he had been given by his friend. Gatomon just lifted one of her eyelocks and looked up at the two humans, before sighing and standing up again.
"She's damn right about that." she mumbled so only DemiVeemon could hear her, causing the little blue digimon to laugh even harder.
Seeing that the little row between their friends had passed, the other Digidestined made their way over to them. Yolei glanced at Davis, silently wondering if this was the right time to ask him what she wanted to ask. How should she say it? It had been bothering her ever since their argument back in the Digital World, but she couldn't for all she was worth come up with a good way to put it. She wasn't cut out for this social stuff.
"Uhm, Davis? Listen, I want to apologize for my behavior earlier. I shouldn't have snapped at you like I did." she said, feeling her chest constrict with nervousity as she said it.
The goggleheaded boy turned to look at her with surprise written all over his face, but before he could answer, TK cut in.
"I should apologize too, Davis. My actions and behavior towards you were completely uncalled for. It's just... well, I can't really explain it, I just got pissed at you this morning and then it kept on growing."
Izzy, being the oldest of the group, just smiled at their confessions. At least they learned from their mistakes and could face the fact that they had done something wrong. That was something that their older group had trouble with in the beginning of their journey, so it made him feel warm inside knowing that these kids showed more promise in the area than they had done. Sure, they had never right out argued, but they hadn't really trusted each other and if someone got pissed at something, it usually took them some time to apologize. Tai of course had been worst of them all in that regard, but they had all held some degree of distrust towards the others when they first entered the Digital World.
Davis blinked. He had completely forgotten that they had argued before they split up. Well, guess fighting for your life and receiving fatal injuries could justify him forgetting about it, but still.
"Don't worry about it, guys. I shouldn't have snapped at you either. If I hadn't left you, you wouldn't have been captured by the emperor." he said.
However, the other two both shook their heads at this.
"You wouldn't have had any reason to snap at us if we hadn't behaved like douchebags towards you. It was our fault to begin with." TK spoke up and Yolei, not trusting her voice at the moment as she was thinking about how she could ask the question she wanted answered, just nodded her head in agreement.
Davis opened his mouth to answer, but surprisingly, they were cut off by the youngest member of their group.
"Enough!"
Everyone, including Yolei who had been standing with her head hanging, stopped in their tracks and stared at Cody, who had been standing slightly behind the group with Izzy and Upamon. Seeing that he had everyone's attention, he kept on talking.
"It's no one's fault and even if it was, it wouldn't matter now! You just have to learn from your mistakes and make sure you don't do them again!" he said as he looked up at all three of the older kids who had been blaming themselves. Behind his back, Izzy smiled as he thought about Joe, whom he remembered saying something similar.
"Cody's right! Let's leave this discussion now!" Kari said cheerfully.
Davis raised an eyebrow at Kari's new change in mood, but decided not to comment on it. Instead, he opted to lean down and pick DemiVeemon off the ground with his good arm and place him on his head. He then caught TK's eye and gave him a short nod, showing that he agreed with the others and that they should just leave the discussion for now. TK gave him a kurt nod of agreement.
"Well, I guess this is it then guys. We'll be going to the meeting from here and it's in the other direction." TK said as he turned to Yolei and Cody. "Will you guys be okay?"
"Yeah, we'll be fine." Cody said. Yolei looked like she wanted to say something but decided against it. TK noticed her hesitation and looked over his shoulder, to where Davis and Kari was standing with their partners. Izzy had walked over to them and was talking with Davis about something. He then turned back towards the insecure girl, having a pretty good idea about what she wanted to ask.
"Is there something on your mind, Yolei?" he asked kindly.
The lavender-haired girl cast a look in Davis direction, as good as confirming TK's suspiscions. He had been bothered by that as well. A lot.
"It's not like me to be this shy about something, but I feel like I really messed this up and it makes me feel bad talking to him after all that. I want to ask if he really was as young as he claimed when he first went to the Digital World, but I'm not sure if it's my place to bring it up with him." she said, scratching her foot in the ground and swallowing nervously.
TK just nodded. Yeah, Davis had claimed that he was 6 years old when he first came to the Digital World. If that was true, then that would mean that he had been there before even Tai and their older group had. TK himself had been 8 when he first entered the Digital World and since he and Davis were equal in age, that would mean Davis went there 2 years prior to their group.
"I'm pretty sure it will be brought up during tonights meeting and since Davis is going to be present, we might get an answer to that question. If so, I'll send you an e-mail over the computer when I get home, Ok?" he said.
Yolei gave him a grateful smile and nodded in thanks. After that, the two groups said their farewells and split up, with Kari, TK, Izzy and Davis heading towards Matt's apartment with their Digimon, while Yolei, Cody and Upamon went back towards their own apartment building. Yolei had offered to take TK's schoolbag home for him, so he wouldn't have to carry it around.
And with that, the Digidestined went their separate ways. Yolei and Cody went back home to their apartment building, and Izzy, Davis, TK and Kari began to walk towards Matt's apartment. All of them were deep in their own thoughts, having gotten a lot to think about from their little adventure. It was so much to take in that it was just now that the reality of all that had happened really hit them. Davis had actually gotten injured, and seriously injured on top of that. TK had to admit that when he went there, he hadn't accounted for someone getting such a serious injury. Looking back, that had been pretty stupid, but during their entire last adventure none of them had actually gotten such a serious injury. The worst that had happened to any of the humans had been Kari's illness and that was a state she had brought with her from the Real World, not something she had received while in the Digital World. Had they just been lucky?
-X-X-X-
Yamato "Matt" Ishida felt drained from the run back to his apartment. His band had been rehearsing for a concert that was coming up soon and they had lost track of time. It wasn't the first time they did that, but of all the nights to do it... Well, there was not much he could do about it. His friends would be here any minute now. Tai had called a meeting for the Digidestined, for ALL of them, so something had to be up. They hadn't had a collective meeting in a very long time, how long he wasn't entirerly sure of, but it didn't really matter. Something was up or Tai wouldn't have called the meeting.
After getting home, Matt had quickly shoved his guitar into his room before setting to clean up the apartment somewhat. Neither he nor his dad spent much time at home so the apartment wasn't exactly in top condition. Some dirty old clothes there... some dishes they hadn't taken care of... well, bottom line was that it wasn't the most guest-friendly place on earth.
Thankfully, he had just managed to hide the last dirty old sock underneath one of the pillows in the sofa when the doorbell rang. He breathed a sigh of relief and went over to open the door only to find a taller teenager standing in the doorway. Even though they hadn't seen each other for a while, there was no mistaking that dark-blue hair and that kind smile from behind the round glasses.
"Hey Joe! How's it goin'?"
The doctor-in-training just smiled at him as Matt stepped aside to let him into the apartment. 'Cool as ever', he thought amused at Matt's greeting. Only the bearer of Friendship would greet an old friend whom he hadn't seen in months with that phrase.
"It's nice to see you too Matt. It's going good, at least in my studies. And from what I've heard around these parts lately, you're doing quite good as well? Your band is gaining recognition." he smiled.
Matt grinned and scratched the back of his head. While he was aware that a lot of people around their blocks had taken notice of them (kind of hard not to when they were rehearsing in someone's garage at full volume), but it still felt slightly awkward that people were talking about him. Well, that was something he had to get used to.
"Yeah, I guess you could say that." he said and was just about to close the door when he heard two voices further down in the stairwells. It sounded like a boy and a girl and when they got closer he could clearly make out their voices and smirked. Those two never changed, did they? At least not in their behavior towards each other. He grinned as Tai Kamiya, his admitedly best friend, and Sora Takenouchi entered his view.
"I told you, I came straight from practice! I was tired and I held back!"
"Yeah suuuuure, you just can't accept you lost to a girl." Sora teased the goggle-headed boy back.
The two came to a stop in front of Matt's door to find their friend leaning against the doorframe, smirking towards Tai. The bearer of Courage turned to look at his friend, who just gave him a smirk. Aside from TK, Tai and Kari were pretty much the only digidestined that Matt had kept in constant contact with outside of school. He still shared some classes with Sora and Izzy, but he and Tai (and by extension Kari) were the only ones that he still met up with outside of school when he wasn't busy.
"What is this I hear? Have our next, big soccer star finally found a worthy adversarie?" he smirked.
Tai gritted his teeth and glared at his best friend. He was about to say something, but stopped himself before he could snap. He knew that Matt was only joking with him, but still he felt a bit sour that Sora had beaten him in a one-on-one game.
After exchanging greetings with each other, the four old friends headed into the apartment and Matt closed the door behind them. As they sat down by the table to catch up with each other, Matt headed out into the kitchen to get them something to drink. When he returned, he found the other three deep in a discussion about their current activities and what was happening in their life.
"... so over the next few weeks, I will be working part time on the clinic downtown to get some practice. All medical students will be doing similar tasks, but on different clinics." Joe finished telling them about his new part-time job.
"Sounds like fun. I would bet my digivice that getting to work part-time for a clinic would beat sitting locked up in a classroom." Tai said as Matt put the glasses of lemonade in front of each of them and sat down. "What about you Matt? You've been practising a lot with your band lately and there have been rumors going around that you guys have been asked to play on some cool event that's coming up. Care to enlighten us?"
Matt took a moment to sit down and take a zip of his lemonade before answering. Sora and Joe followed suit and tasted the sweet liquid, but Tai remained with his eyes fixed on his friend, waiting for an answer.
"Well, this is actually Top Secret Information guys, so I'm not sure if I outta tell ya'." he finally said and smirked in Tai's direction, causing the other boy to scowl at him.
Of course, Matt had never planned on witholding the information from them, but he couldn't resist teasing Tai when he was in this mood. Tai was quite impatient by nature and when he was in a sour mood, it was easy to annoy him by not answering or taking your time to answer. And sure enough...
"Aww, c'mon! Just tell us already!" the goggleheaded boy growled in annoyance.
Matt chuckled at his friend's expense and Sora gigged over by her spot to Tai's right. Joe just smiled. Some things never changed. After smirking at the annoyed digidestined leader, Matt leaned back and set to explaining.
"There is supposed to be a dance for the middle school kids to welcome them to the new year of studies. I think it was Mr Fujiyama's idea. You know how he can be. So he asked us to play on that dance, since we are ex-students of his. Just don't tell Kari about this, I haven't told TK yet. They are supposed to announce it anyday this week." Matt explained the plans they had.
Tai gave a low whistle and Sora congratulated Matt on his success so far with his band. The four old friends kept on talking about trivial things, waiting for the others to arrive for their meeting. 10 minutes later, the doorbell rang. Joe, Tai and Sora all stood up to open it, but Matt just motioned for them to sit down again and went to the door by himself. When the door swung open, he was greeted by a familiar, and very welcome, sight. The sight of his younger brother's face.
"Hey TK! It's been a while, how are you doing? Is mom treating you alright? How is...?" but surprisingly, he got cut off by TK himself.
"Quit the fussing Matt, we got worse things to worry about. Is Joe here?" he asked.
At this exact moment, Izzy and Kari came around the corner, along with a boy Matt didn't recognize. Or well... he kind of recognized him, but he didn't know him. If he wasn't completely out of it, that guy was playing on the same soccer team as Tai did. What was he doing here?
"Who called my name?" came a voice from behind him, startling Matt who jumped to the side.
When he had heard his name being called, Joe had apparently left the table and walked up behind Matt. When the bearer of Friendship jumped out of the way and TK stepped aside to allow Kari and Izzy to enter, Joe immediately recognized the boy they had brought with them.
"Heey, aren't you Jun Motomiya's little brother?" he said,
Davis blinked in surprise, so did everyone else present. How did Joe know Davis? Even Davis had no idea, he was pretty sure that he had never met this guy before. But apparently, he must have had, if he knew that he and Jun were related. But where could he have met him?
"Well, yes I am. Do you know her?" he asked, curious about how this guy, Joe he assumed, knew his older sister.
"We went to summer school together this summer. She had a picture of you in one of her folders."
This caused Davis to sweatdrop. Yeah... that's right, Jun had been away at summer school this last summer... that was why it had been so peaceful at home. That explained it, in a way, though it made him feel weird knowing that Jun had kept a picture of him in one of her folders.
"How did I look in the picture? Was it an old picture?" he asked, anxious to know if he should comment or reprimand Jun for this when he got home.
Everyone sweatdropped. They had just arrived on a meeting concerning the future of an entire world and Davis was worried about how he looked in a picture that his sister kept of him. However, Joe didn't seem to realize how dire the situation was (Davis' wound was hidden underneath his jacket and shirt after all), because he blinked in surprise, but it didn't keep him from answering.
"I think she said it was from your team picture with your soccer team from last year. Why?" he said, not really understandning what Davis was getting at.
However, before Davis could answer the question, Kari cut him off with a strict voice.
"We got more pressing matters! Joe, can you take a look at Davis shoulder?"
Davis couldn't help but feel a little sting of irritation at Kari's continued fussing over him, but he didn't say anything and allowed himself to be led into the apartment. When they entered the livingroom where the others were, Tai looked up and frowned when he saw Davis. Hadn't they agreed that this meeting should only include the older gang?
"Davis? What are you doing here?" he asked, confused.
By now, all of the digidestined present had rose from their seats and was looking at Davis, who was being ushered towards the sofa in front of the TV by Kari. Sora, Tai and Matt couldn't help but sweatdrop at the scene, with the normally so headstrong and stubborn Davis being fussed over by the normally so calm and collected Kari. But despite the obvious irritation Davis felt over her fussing, he didn't move to stop her or even argue with her, as was their usual ritual when there was something they disagreed on.
"We needed to get him some medical attention and Joe was the best bet we had, considering the circumstances." TK filled them in, since Davis was too busy trying to get his jacket off to show Joe his cut.
Tai's eyes widened, as he realized what must have happened. Davis had went after the others to the Digital World and now he was injured? He had been in tip-top shape when he left their soccer practice and thus, the injury must have happened in the Digital World. Had he been wounded by one of the Digimon? Had the Digimon Emperor done something to him?
Sora didn't react in quite the same way as her best friend, as she didn't know the extent of what could have happened. However, when Tai stepped forward with a worried look on his face, something that was not a usual expression to grace his face, she understood something was wrong.
"What happened?" Tai asked as Kari finally managed to get Davis to take off his jacket to show off a deep, still bleeding cut in his right shoulder.
The sight of the wound caused Sora to gasp and Matt and Tai paled. Joe's eyes widened and he quickly sat down next to Davis to take a closer look at it. On Davis' other side, Kari had sat down and seemed to finally relax a little, knowing that Joe was here to take care of the wound now.
"I'm telling you, it's just a flesh wou...YAWORHG!" Davis was interrupted as Kari pinched his healthy arm.
"Just let Joe look it over and you will be out of here in no time." she sighed, though she felt her lips being drawn into a small smile.
While Joe was taking a look at Davis wound and Kari was sitting by his side to "keep him in line", TK and Izzy went on to tell Tai, Matt and Sora what had happened in the Digital World that day and why Davis had received the wound. As they explained to them about the Digimon Emperor and what had befallen the Digital World lately, Sora and Matt got dark looks on their faces, while Tai simply leaned back in his chair once again in a thinking pose.
"But why would someone so young do something like this? I mean, he's a kid, just like us, right?"
Izzy nodded his head and opened up his laptop and began tapping away at it. TK didn't know what to say at this point and waited for one of the older kids to move the discussion along. He had some things he wanted to bring up, but he felt that maybe Izzy was better to bring that particular theory up. After all, he could probably provide more evidence for it than TK could.
"Well, does it matter why? We still need to stop him, no matter what his reasons for doing this." Matt said.
"Right you are, brother. Right you are..." Tk sighed as he leaned back in his own chair and cast a glance at Izzy, who was still typing away at this computer.
The older kids were quiet for a moment, waiting for their computer genius to finish... whatever it was he was doing. They figured it had to be something important, as Izzy didn't even look up from his screen to follow the short conversation they had held. While they waited, Matt decided to rise from his chair again and walk back into the kitchen to prepare some more lemonade for the younger ones (and Izzy, who had arrived after the others).
While the others were waiting for Izzy to finish with his computer and for Matt to return with the lemonade, Joe had managed to get a good idea of what the problem was with Davis' shoulder. Despite the cut's deepness, it should have started to heal slightly by itself during the time it took for them to get to Matt's apartment, yet if you removed the improvized bandage, blood flooded from the wound.
"I believe there must have been something in that Snimon's sickle that was either poisonous or something of the kind. It should have started healing by now." Joe explained to Kari as he began to dig through his bag in search of something bactericidal.
This caused Kari to get a little worried. If there was poison involved, then it had had an awful long time to get around Davis' bloodsystem. She didn't know much about biology and medicin, but she knew that most poisons did their job by spreading through the bloodsystem of a being and doing their damage through that. And considering how much Davis had moved since he got cut, the poison must have had an easy time getting around his entire body by now.
"Is it bad? I mean, do you know what it is?" she asked, worried that Davis was worse off than they had originally thought.
However, to her great relief, Joe shook his head.
"Don't worry. It's nothing a little rest and bactericidal can't handle. However, I am a little curious as to why you four were in the Digital World to begin with."
Kari was about to answer when DemiVeemon reminded them of his presence by jumping up into Kari's lap (as Davis was lying down on the sofa while Joe was looking at his wound). The little blue digimon yawned loudly and then leaned back against Kari's belly and fell asleep, causing all three of them to sweatdrop.
"Eh... and who's that guy, again?" Joe added to his question.
Taking a moment to look down at Davis' partner, Kari sighed. Those two seemed to be more alike than she originally thought. Well, it was understandable that they would share some traits with each other, as they appeared to have been partners during Davis' last trip to the digital world as well, but seeing it in such an obvious fashion still made Kari feel a bit weird. She and Gatomon weren't this much alike and to be honest, the only trait they really shared was the trait of their crest.
"He's Davis' digimon partner. But why don't we get over to the others so you can all have the whole story?"
She stood up to walk over to the table and Joe did the same. Kari was still clutching DemiVeemon in her arms and turned to put him down on the sofa... only to find that Davis still hadn't moved. Frowning, she leant over him to shake him slightly, before she heard it. Snoring. Davis had fallen asleep on the sofa! Well, it wasn't really that strange, considering what he had been through but still, to just fall asleep like that? She sighed as she put DemiVeemon down next to his partner and stood up to look at them. For once, Davis seemed to have relaxed a little. He looked almost peaceful where he laid, a small smile tugging at his lips as she put DemiVeemon down, as if he could feel his partner's presence.
"He must have been through quite a lot lately to just fall asleep like that." Joe said as he too looked down on the boy he had just tended to. He had made a real bandage for the wound and made sure to clean it before putting it on. Now, all they could do was wait and hope that whatever had been on that Snimon's sickle would stop keeping the wound from healing.
Kari just nodded and turned around. It would be better to allow Davis some sleep. God knew he needed it! After all the sleepless night he had had during these last months, Kari didn't have the heart to wake him up and disturb him, now that he finally got some real sleep and, seemingly, slept without nightmares.
Therefore, she instead just motioned for Joe to move on and the older boy seemed to accept it without any problem. It would be good for him if he could relax while they waited to see how his wound healed. So the two of them made their way over to the still quiet kitchen, where Izzy was still working on something. Without a word, Kari sat down next to her brother and gave a quiet "Thanks!" when Matt handed her a glass of lemonade. Joe had retaken his original spot by the table and was sipping his lemonade while waiting for Izzy to finish. After what felt like hours, but was actually only about 10 seconds, Izzy finally leaned back and sighed with relief.
"Ok, there! Mimi finally picked up the Skype call!" he said and turned the screen around so that they could see the face that was displayed in full screen mode. By appearence, Mimi as the one who had changed the most over the 4 years that had passed since their time in the digital world. She had dyed her hair pink and allowed it to float out around her head. She no longer wore her signature hat and her clothes was a lot simplier, yet fashionable. However, at the moment she appeared to be half asleep as she greeted her old friends.
"H-h-h-ii-i-i-i..." she said while trying to stiffle a yawn (and failing miserably).
Everyone just gave her a normal greeting. They had to remember that Mimi was in a different time zone than them. While it was evening for them, it was early in the morning for her (as much was prominent from her look and current attire) so it was just natural that she would be tired. They probably would be too if it was them. As soon as Mimi had woken up enough to at least sit up without yawning and Izzy had placed his computer so it faced all of them so everyone could see everyone, Matt asked the question everyone had been wondering since they got here.
"So Tai, care to enlighten us as to why you called this meeting?"
Tai's expression, that had been jovial and carefree just a moment ago, suddenly turned serious, causing the entire room to tense. Serious Tai meant business. It felt like there was a cloud of dust hanging in the air, every breath they took suddenly felt heavy.
"I got a distress signal form Agumon yesterday and went to investigate. What I found was not pretty. It appears that we are facing a new enemy." he said in a dull voice, looking around the table for reactions.
Of course, those who already knew about this didn't react much. Sora however, tensed and looked at Tai as if she didn't want to believe her ears. Well, she probably didn't want to. Joe's eyes widened in shock and a gasp could be heard from Mimi over the Skype call. Matt didn't give any outward reaction to these news, though his gaze hardened.
"What do you mean "a new enemy"? Is the Digital World in danger?" he asked sharply, as if it was Tai's fault that someone was threatening the Digital World.
However, he didn't need to hear the answer. The mere gaze that Tai cast in his direction let him know exactly what the answer would be. Not wasting any time, Tai turned towards Izzy.
"I have only been there once though and I have yet to encounter this threat, let alone understand it complete. Izzy, did you uncover anything new about this today?"
Having known all along that most of the explaining would be his job, Izzy had mentally gone over everything he knew and had learned about the new threat, the Digimon Emperor, the Dark Rings, the new digivices and his recently developed theory that Davis had been to the Digital world before.
"As a matter of fact, I did. We met the Digimon Emperor in person today. He is just a kid like us, about the same age as Kari and TK. He uses Dark Rings to take control of digimon and uses them as slaves. The rings themselves seems to work in a similar fashion to the Black Gears that Devimon used during his reign at File Island." Izzy explained what he knew.
At this, TK clenched his fist tightly and he seemed to tense. He still had nightmares from that time. It was the one event from his journey in the digital world that he would do anything to have never lived through. Even though Patamon had been reborn just the next day, it was still to this day the most traumatizing experience TK had ever lived through. The others noticed TKs reaction, but decided not to comment on it. Knowing that it was not their place to say anything about it, Izzy kept explaining what they had uncovered today.
"Based on the information we have gathered so far, I have managed to make two things clear. The first is that as long as we are close to the Digimon Emperor, we older kids won't be able to Digivolve our partners and that in turn makes us pretty much a dead weight, seen from a battle stance point of view. The second is that the seemingly only way to get around this is by using these new strange kind of digiegg that some of the younger kids have gotten. For example, Davis over there" he nodded in direction of the sofa, where light snores could now he heard. "has the Digiegg of Courage, which allows his partner, Veemon, to Armor Digivolve into Flamedramon, despite the supposed Digivolution Block."
Here, he made a pause to allow it all to sink in. The tables 5 occupants that didn't already know of this took their time processing this new information. While they were doing this, TK began to calm down and relax a little from his earlier tense moment. It was really not much to get so tensed up over, but he couldn't help it. Whenever he heard Devimon's name, which admitedly wasn't very often, he would always remember those horrible moments when he had really thought that he had lost Patamon forever. And everytime, it made him relive that same feeling of hopelessness.
A/N: Alright, I think I'll cut it there. I'm really sorry that nothing major happened in this chapter, but we did get to see a Kari on her scary side! Thumbs up for a more confident and Taking-Charge Kari! She won't of course always be that adamant and stubborn about things, but well, it's only natural that people get worked up when they are worried about someone that means a lot to them. This portrayal might seem a little OOC, it is a natural reaction for someone who almost lost their best friend.
And yes, this chapter really did lack much progress. It only about moved them along from their return to the Real World and to the meeting. All in all, it's kind of a filler chapter. Hopefully, Part 2 will pack a lot more action (and actual "Revelations").
Until then, I hope you can at least enjoy this in wait for the next chapter! Please leave a review to tell me what you think! =)
