Chapter 3
Kouji and Tommy stepped off of the Trailmon Angler some time later. They hadn't been able to make the lazy trailmon go any faster than normal, so it had taken a lot longer. In fact, when they asked him to speed up, he slowed down.
Now they were racing along, Tommy and Kouji at the same pace, towards the digimon palace. They ran past the scorched front lawn and inside. Freyja flew ahead of them, leading them on the shortest route back to Valkyrimon's room. She fluttered outside the door until Kouji and Tommy ran into them, making them swing open suddenly.
The first thing Kouji noticed was that the casket was gone. The second was a certain brunette leaning against the wall across the room. Takuya's arms were crossed, his eyes closed, head pointed to the ground, but he was standing up. The former digi-leader appeared to be deep in thought and hadn't noticed them come in.
"Takuya!" Tommy yelled, as both he and Kouji ran over to the brunette. Takuya looked up in surprise just in time to be hugged by the two ex-digidestined.
"Whoa!" He almost fell over, but held himself up as Kouji hugged him from in front and Tommy from behind. "Guys?!"
"Did I not tell you that they would be glad to see you alive again?" Valkyrimon asked from his spot in the middle of the room. He didn't care much that the two kids hadn't noticed him when they came in.
"We thought you were dead!" Tommy shook his head, "You were dead!"
Takuya pat them each on the head as best he could, because he couldn't hug both of them at once. "It's alright. I'm alive now, so we can save the digidestined. Right?"
"Huh?" Tommy asked. Kouji didn't even seem to have heard him, he was still holding Takuya tightly.
"I never got the chance to inform the other warriors, as they were fully focused on your status." Valkyrimon explained.
"Well tell us now." Kouji's voice was muffled as he spoke. He turned his head so that he could glare at Valkyrimon, but never relented his hold on Takuya. Tommy had already let go and was now looking nervous as to Kouji's behavior. "And no more holding out on us. Tell us everything."
Valkyrimon lifted his right arm and Freyja landed on his forearm. He was silent for a moment, appearing to be talking mentally with his falcon, before he answered them.
"I intend to," he said, letting Freyja fly off again, "As you all know, you were chosen to be the digidestined, the chosen children, the legendary warriors. Every time a new evil comes to our world, a new set of digidestined is chosen. But they must be of the age where they are still young enough to care about what happens to our world, even if they don't care about their own."
"Many times, especially in the beginning, there were several generations of digidestined alive at the same time. In the beginning, the chosen children were given digimon partners, whereas your destined group was given the power to become your digimon partners. The ancient digimon, the holders of your powers and those of all digimon, began to realize how costly this was on the possible strength of a destined child's power. The main ancient digimon, the ancestors of the legendary warriors, decided that only one set of digidestined should have their power at one time, for it would increase their power potential a great deal."
"When the first set of digidestined had nearly died off, a great evil attacked our world and a new set of digidestined was called forth. They had partners and could morph into their partners to create stronger beings. This was thought to be the best that could ever be. But that power was not used to it's full potential either, and the ancient digimon had to change their plans once again. The legendary warriors were the next to save our world, but as you know they gave up their lives to do it. Your group of destined children were given the power to become the legendary warriors, your digimon partners, and to give them more power than they had ever had before."
Kouji released Takuya most of the way and stood next to him, with his right arm around Takuya's waist. Takuya had obviously heard all of this before, so he was nodding as Valkyrimon spoke, while Tommy and Kouji listened with rapt attention.
"But every digimon can only have one partner. The next generation will revert back to the method of partner digimon that can fuse with their child. The next generation is coming close. Freyja can already tell that something is coming. It is a far time off, but not for your world. Soon, everything will be set and we will need the digidestined again. But you, as older destined children, are no longer able to call upon as much power as you could, while in the digital world. In your world, your powers are great and have saved you in the past…but the digital world needs humans of relatively the same age as you appear now."
"So what does this have to do with you bringing us back?" Kouji asked, and Takuya smacked him lightly over the head.
"He's getting to that." he said. Valkyrimon paused for a moment before continuing.
"There is a group of children in your world that is close to the right age. All that is needed is for the leader, the next chosen of fire, to come of the right age, eleven, and all will be set for them to journey here. Likewise, if the next leader dies before that time, the next group will be left without any way to come here, as they will be incomplete until another soul like the leader's is found. Evil will be permitted to rampage across the digital world, and we may lose our ability to call to anyone for help."
"Basically, what he's saying is," Takuya took over, feeling that Kouji was getting bored with Valkyrimon's voice. "Some evil digimon is planning to kill the next fire digidestined before he can get his digimon. All we have to do is find out who the kid is, and stop the murder attempt."
Valkyrimon seemed a bit miffed at being interrupted, but kept quiet. Takuya had finished off his explanation quickly and precisely. Kouji and Tommy didn't talk for awhile, taking everything in before speaking.
"So how do we find this kid?" Tommy asked. Takuya opened his mouth but Kouji spoke.
"It's that kid." he said, and everyone in the room looked at him. "The kid from Takuya's dream. The one my brother said he knew. His hair looked red in the light, even though it was black, because he's the fire digidestined."
"Yes." Valkyrimon nodded his head. "According to Takuya's description of the boy from his dreams, he is already the oddest leader we've ever had. His hair is black, and most digidestined leaders have had brown hair." he seemed to find this amusing.
"But how do we find him? Kouichi isn't here and we have no way of getting to him!" Tommy pointed out. Valkyrimon shook his head.
"You must go to the center cave of the digital world. There you will find Fanglongmon, who will show you the child and send you back to your world. You must stop Gaiomon, or soon our world will cease to exist." Valkyrimon went to the wall across from the ex-digidestined and placed his hands against it, no longer facing them. "Gaiomon will not be alone. He will have help. Freyja tells me of rumors. They say he has a Locomon, and several Sangloupmon with him. I will not bother with specifics now, you will learn of those digimon later in your final trial. I will merely warn you of the danger and hope that the ancients will help you."
'I will go with you.' Freyja said. 'To warn you of when danger is near. I will do my best to help you in saving our world, though I have no attacks of my own.'
"Thanks Freyja." Tommy smiled at the falcon. Takuya looked at his two, now three, companions.
"Ready to go?" he asked. They all nodded and he smirked, "Then what are we waiting for? Let's go!"
"Wait." Valkyrimon said. "I wish to show you a door to the center cave where Fanglongmon awaits you." He pressed on an apparently random piece of wall and a screen appeared on the wall. On screen was a cave surrounded by snow. Kouji and Takuya both blushed. "You recognize it then?" he asked.
"Y-yea…I'm pretty sure we can find it." Takuya assured him, while Tommy looked pitifully lost.
The cave was the one in which Takuya and Kouji had been trapped during an avalanche. The cave where they had admitted that they thought of each other in a sense of more than friendship. Tommy had only seen it with snow covering the front, and had only been there for a short period of time. It was acceptable that he didn't remember the place. But for the couple, it was a place they'd never forget.
Sorry about how short these chapters are!