Episode 6 – Sofi

Sofi had been sighing a lot, but for plenty of reasons.
It was already the last week of March, which meant the holidays were soon coming up. That meant the end of her actual lessons, and moving onto revision for the final Exams. Her piano diploma result was due that day, and she was getting increasingly nervous. It also meant they were getting ever closer to finishing in the Digiworld, and Amy still hadn't achieved Champion Digivolution since the first time. Her notes sat on her desk, and hadn't had much added to them in weeks now, they hadn't managed to call any other Digidestined back to the Digiworld since Yolei Inoue. She had also met some very big discrepancies with the notes, such as timings that didn't make sense.
Apparently Yolei had come to the Digiworld only a few years ago, however, she was sure she had read somewhere the last group of Digidestined to have appeared in the Digiworld had come at least 10 years ago.
Rika, the girl Talyn had met by himself, had also mentioned some terms that she'd never heard of, such as Tamer, and a Digimon card game that apparently didn't exist. She had also learned of new forms of Digivolution, such as Armour, DNA, and Biomerge.
'So many questions,' she thought. It seemed every new Digidestined she'd met so far had bought another set of mysteries for her to solve.
Apparently one of Yolei's friends was also writing a book about the Digiworld; maybe she could meet this T.K?
Fortunately, Amy had improved; if only slowly. She'd still not Digivolved Salamon to Gatomon again yet, but her confidence in the Digiworld, and her opinion of her role as a Guardian was much more optimistic, Sofi thought, and that was half the battle.
Talyn remained subdued. Sofi sensed he was still not comfortable with Amy round, yet he would not say why.
It was a Tuesday, which meant she could possibly sneak into the Digiworld for an hour during third period, after a double Maths lesson, and before double English in the afternoon. An hour however, was not enough time, she intended to go back to the Digiworld temples to try and smooth out some of the creases in her notes. They had never explored all of the temples and a lot was left untouched; they'd just never had the chance to go back.
She sighed again as she remembered a time when all this work didn't exist, before sixth form. She almost missed those times. Of course, she regretted her final years in the lower school; she hadn't been as bothered as she should have been; something her Dad never let her forget.
Still, it was a challenge she had conquered, with the best results in the year. She had grown a lot during those years, becoming who she was today. In her opinion, it was justified.

At breakfast, all was quiet again; her Dad was reading the paper, as he always did before he went to work, and her Mum prepared things for the bakery she worked at.
"Morning!" Sofi said happily. Today was a lot warmer than usual for March, and the sun was already up, it seemed like they were in for a good summer that year.
"Morning dear, did you hear? Your cousins are coming for the weekend," her Mum said.
"They are? Awesome!" she enjoyed spending time with them, they lived quite far away, a good car journey, so it was always difficult to get to see them, but since her Grandparents lived in the same town as Sofi, her cousins regularly made the trip.
"Will they be staying with us?" she asked.
"We'll have one, the other will be staying with my Mum and Dad," her Mum explained.
"You don't want to get too distracted," her Dad warned.
"Give me a break! It's one weekend," Sofi said.
"I'm sure you don't want another exam like I.T do you?" he retorted.
GCSE I.T, the black scorch on her otherwise remarkable grade sheet. Her Dad had never stopped mentioning it, he'd almost been furious. What she didn't have the heart to do was tell him she hadn't even tried. She hated herself for it, but it was the exam he'd wanted her most to pass, and had become insufferable during the weeks leading up to it. She'd just given up, and now regretted it.
"One weekend with my cousins will not ruin my chances at these exams," she explained.
"Fine, then do what you want," he said, returning to his paper.
Her Mum gave her a sympathetic look, she understood how pushy her husband could be, but as she kept telling Sofi, "He's only doing it for your own good."
Sofi finished her breakfast in silence, too distracted to care about what her Dad had said. Without saying anything, he handed her the newspaper's intermediate Sudoku, which she finished within a matter of minutes.
"How is the studying going, dear?" her Mum perked up.
"It's fine thanks, I've just about finished most of the courses in school now, so it'll all be revision," she replied.
She couldn't hate her Dad, he was the one who had taught her a lot when she was a child, and she wouldn't be who she was without him. He had allowed her to try a lot of things, such as the piano, and had started her off with badminton. It had been between the year of the final GCSEs and the start of A-Levels that her love of learning really took off however, but it wasn't because of her Dad, but his Dad; her Granddad. She could see where her Dad got it from, but her Granddad approached learning in a whole different way, not with strictness, but with the curiosity a child may have. He was apparently constantly learning new things according to her Grandmother. Sofi had visited them a couple of times during the holidays, and had learned so much from the man that when she got back to school she raided the library of books from every topic one could think of.
She laughed as she remembered trying to haul several heavy books home, and had then decided to pace herself a bit more.
Smiling, she retuned upstairs to get ready for another long day ahead.


A diploma cost a lot of money those days. Sofi had had to work extra hours at her shop to save up enough for her half of it; her parents had paid the other half. She certainly didn't want to go through it again, and felt her nerves rising as she got closer to school.
Her oldest friend, Zoe, was walking with her; she too was waiting on results.
"We don't see you enough anymore!" Zoe complained.
Sofi hadn't been back to the music block since her exam, since she hadn't taken Music as an A-Level.
"You see me in English," Sofi replied.
"I know but, we never hang out," Zoe said.
It was true, with so much going on; Sofi barely had time for her own friends anymore. She'd been going to the Digiworld as much as possible with Talyn and Amy, had been in meetings with the head girl team, or was studying.
"I'm sorry Zoe, it's just getting close to the end of school, everything starts piling up; you know what I mean?" she said.
"Maybe for you, you're like some robot that just works all the time," Zoe joked, "Do you have a free lesson today? We should hang out!"
"I do but, I've got to go see Mr Lee about this Chemistry stuff, and then there's somewhere I've got to be," she replied. She hated lying, but she couldn't tell her friends about the Digiworld, they'd think she'd have finally lost it.
Zoe however, didn't hide her disappointment, "When are you getting your results?"
"Might go in after I see Mr. Lee," Sofi replied.
"Not first thing?!"
"No, I also need to see my Maths teacher before the lesson," Sofi replied.
"I wonder what you'll be like at Uni," Zoe laughed, "You'll drive the tutors crazy!"
"Probably," Sofi agreed, "You've applied this year haven't you?"
"Yeah, going to do Music hopefully, have you still not decided what you want to do?" Zoe asked.
"I think I want to teach… I just don't know what," Sofi admitted.
"Well that's a start," Zoe replied.
"You'll have to let me know how you did when we're in English," Sofi said.
"Yeah, unless I see you earlier, but you seem to be hard to find recently," Zoe said.
Sofi smiled to herself.
"You've not got a boyfriend have you? Is he keeping you away?" Zoe asked.
"No, not after the last one," Sofi replied.
"It's been a good 2 years since he turned into a jerk; you're not still upset about it, are you?" Zoe asked.
"I haven't actually thought about it in any way, shape or form, and I don't intend to until at least these exams are over," Sofi replied, "I guess he put me off dating completely."
It was nice that she could still talk with Zoe about things like that, Sofi thought, despite how little time they actually saw each other. Her last boyfriend had turned into a mess, and Sofi had been the one to end it, she hadn't bothered with dating since.
"You're very quiet this morning," Zoe noticed, after they'd walked a little further; the school was in sight now.
"I'm nervous," Sofi replied, which was true. Her stomach sat unsettled, and thinking of all the work she'd put into the diploma made it twist even more.
"You'll be fine!" Zoe tried to reassure her.
"I hope so, because I can't upset my Dad anymore, he'll walk out on me," she smiled.
Zoe was the only one who knew of what she'd done during the I.T exam, and had laughed out loud when Sofi had told her.
"He's still mad about it?"
"He hasn't dropped it, he actually thinks I'm computer illiterate," Sofi laughed, "I can't tell him I failed it on purpose, it'd crush him."
"Maybe you could take it again if it bothers you that much?" Zoe said.
Sofi considered this, "That's… not a bad idea."


They parted at the gate, Zoe going straight to the music block, Sofi heading in the other direction to the maths rooms.
For the next two hours she distractedly worked through the questions her teacher set and waited patiently for the lesson to end.
Some good news had come her way, her English teacher wasn't in school today, and so her time in the Digiworld had tripled, meaning she had the perfect opportunity to explore the temples more thoroughly; Talyn would be in Physics, and Amy was preoccupied.
Before she could go however, she had to go to Chemistry.
Mr. Lee sat at his desk, organising some papers. The classroom smelt terrible.
"Ammonia," he explained, noticing her sniffing, "What can I do for you Sofi?"
She smiled, for some reason her constant appearances with misunderstood topics never bothered the kind teacher, he always took the time to help her.
She explained her problem, and he sat attentively listening.
"Come and sit," he moved from behind his desk and indicated one of the desks. He retrieved a pen and paper, and started to go through the topic again, periodically checking to make sure she was following.
Eventually, the other three members of the class joined, including Amy.
When Mr. Lee had finished helping everyone, he addressed them all, "Well, how's it all going then?"
"It's hard work," one of the guys, Tim, replied.
Mr. Lee laughed, "You're right about that, I remember my A-Levels, but at least they fly by."
"I can't believe it's almost April," Amy exclaimed.
"Another year, coming to an end," Mr. Lee said, "I'll tell you what though, when you get to my age, you'll wonder where it all went."
"You're not that old, sir," Tim said.
"But being a teacher, you notice these things more than other people," he said, "Take you four for example, I've known you since you came here, I've watched you grow and learn, and now you're about to leave me! In that time, I hope I've become a friend to you, or else I haven't done my job right, teaching isn't just about standing in front of the class, it's getting to know and helping young people like yourselves get to where you want to go."
"We're like a little family," Amy joked.
"No you're right, and it happens year after year, I've had… going on for fourteen A-Level classes now in my life, you know, you teach and learn yourself, you watch people grow, and then you watch them leave, going into the wider world, and all you can do is hope you've set them on the right path," he explained, he appeared lost in thought, "But anyway, that's another story! Is that everything you guys needed?"
"Actually," Amy interjected, "Could you just go over entropy again, I know it but I'm just not a hundred percent."
"I assume you all have earphones with your phones these days?" Mr. Lee asked, "Well, no matter how hard you try, earphones always seem to get in a tangle, right?"
They all nodded.
"That's like entropy, earphones go from the ordered state you left them in, to somehow a disordered jumble of wires, and if you measured the number of knots or twists, that's how entropic the system has become. More entropy means more randomness, make sense?" he asked.
"Oh yeah, I guess so," Amy said.
"Well, I guess I'll see you all at the next lesson," Mr. Lee finished.
"Cheers sir."
"Bye sir."
"Remember, my door's always open!" Mr. Lee called after them.
Sofi and Amy finished packing their books away and left the class together.
"Where are you going now?" Amy asked.
"Digiworld, I've got two and a half hours, I'm going to the temples," Sofi said.
"I wish I could come with you, I'd love to see them," Amy said, "But I really need to get this work done."
"No worries, I can probably get a lot more done by myself, no offence," Sofi said.
Amy walked into the library with her, but sat down at a desk and got to work. Sofi headed up the stairs and checked all was clear before she slipped into the dark room.
She thought back to the times the access points had temporarily broke, wondering if the same could happen in the real world; it hadn't so far.
She took out her orange and silver Digivice and left the real world. Lopmon waited on the other side; she had signalled her on the way over from the Chemistry class.
"You're late," Lopmon noticed.
"I had stuff to do," Sofi replied, "Damn! I forgot to get my diploma result." She thought about it for a minute, "I'm here now, it'll only waste time. I'll get it at the end of the day. New plan! We're going to the temples."
"You mean you're not hunting innocent Digidestined?" Patamon asked from atop a tree.
"Very funny, and no, I've got some research to finish off," she said.
"Is Amy coming?" Salamon bounded into the clearing.
"Sorry Salamon, she's busy today," Sofi replied, to which the Digimon moaned and returned to the bushes.
"Come on then, we're wasting daylight," Lopmon said.

The temples were a far enough walk from the forest clearing. Once outside of the boundary of trees, Lopmon Digivolved into Turuiemon and ran the rest of the way there, Sofi clinging onto her back.
A square mouth had been formed in an otherwise uniform wall of trees leading into a dense forest, and within the large mouth stood 5 temples, each Japanese in design. The two at the front were wide, only a single storey high, but the styled roof and spire on top of it made it taller. The walls were white outlined with a dark brown wood, and the structure was built on grey a grey rock base. These formed a pseudo-entrance to a courtyard. At the back corners, furthest into the forest stood two taller structures, at least four floors each, with a small balcony wrapped around each floor. In the middle was a three storey temple, larger than the ones at the back, but not as wide as the front two. A small wall protected the enclosure from the forest. Turuiemon stopped at the entrance under the large archway Sofi had later discovered to be called a Japanese torii.
"Are you going to explain to me what we're looking for?" Turuiemon asked.
"There are a couple of things, Yolei said her adventure was a few years ago right?" Sofi asked.
"Yeah, assuming she meant adventure, and not the last time she visited," Lopmon said.
"She visits every month," Sofi reminded her, "Well, I can't find it in my notes, but I'm sure I read somewhere the last Digidestined who were here came over ten years ago. I'm looking for that first."
"Where do we start?" Turuiemon asked.
I guess, the first temple," Sofi replied, walking over to the entrance to the front temple on the left.
Inside the air was cold, and felt ancient. Light managed to find its way around, but Sofi had packed a couple of torches, as some bits were difficult to read.
The first time they had come, Angemon had tried to light it up; his body gave off a bright aura.
The temples opened up to a corridor spanning the length of the temple, from which rooms branched off. Each room looked to be a place or relaxation, or meditation, set out more or less in the same way. What they were originally used for was anyones guess, but someone had taken it upon themselves to ensure each had a bit of information, a legend or a myth, written somewhere within the structure. They were ordered randomly though, making them difficult to glean a timeline from.
Sofi entered the first room on the right, and looked at the walls. Someone, long ago she guessed, had first tried to inscribe into the clay-like walls; these at least had stood the test of time.
She ran her finger delicately across the carvings; they were particularly difficult to read.
"I think this one is about Sora and her adventure," she muttered to Lopmon, who stood next to her.
"It does talk about 8 Digidestined," Lopmon said, pointing to an obvious figure 8.
"Keep an eye out for the word Tamer," Sofi added.
"Give me a torch, I'll go look in some of the other rooms," Lopmon suggested.
Sofi explained exactly what she was looking for, and the Digimon took off. She couldn't write down what she saw, so would have to come back and fetch Sofi if she found anything.
Sofi was more than surprised when she returned not five minutes later.
"I've found something, but it's nothing you were asking about," Lopmon exclaimed.
Sofi put her things on the ground and rushed to follow her, Lopmon led her to another room, much further down the corridor.
"How far did you go?"
"I figured you could tackle the first half, and I'd tackle the second," her Digimon explained.
"We should have brought Patamon and Salamon along, they could have helped us, I might actually signal them," she said.
"It'll take too long, plus they may run into danger along the way," Lopmon replied, then said, "Shh."
Sofi slowed to a walk and kept her voice silent, Lopmon peered around a door and pointed inside.
Sofi took a look and her eyes widened with surprise, there was another human in there, a Digidestined, guessing by the yellow Digimon at his feet.
"We've got company," said the Digimon, noticing them.
The boy looked young, or maybe it was because he was small, but as he turned around Sofi could guess he was her age, "Hello."
"Hi," she replied.
"My name's Cody, who are you?" he asked.
"I'm Sofi," She replied.
"I can see by your Digimon that you must also be a Digidestined, Sofi," Cody said, "We heard you coming, but I didn't want to startle you."
"To be honest I didn't know if I should disturb you," Sofi said, "What are you doing here?"
"I decided to spend the afternoon with Armadillomon," Cody replied, "We were walking and found these temples, which I haven't seen before, so I thought we could have a look around."
Sofi didn't bother telling him she wasn't a Digidestined, "Who were your Digidestined partners? We've met a couple over the past few months."
"Davis, Yolei, T.K, Kari and Ken," he said.
"Yolei Inoue? She came here recently; you must have been the Digidestined who faced… the Emperor if I remember correctly?" Sofi asked.
"How do you know that?" Cody asked.
"These temples contain information about most Digidestined, and Yolei cleared a few things up for me," Sofi replied.
"Yes, I've heard she comes here more often than I do, I haven't seen her for a while however," Cody said, "Do you have partners?"
"Yes, but they're not here at the moment, there are three of us," Sofi said.
"Only three?" Cody asked.
"We're not exactly Digidestined, the Digimon call us Digi-Guardians, it was, for most of the time, only two of us, but a few months ago the third one joined," Sofi explained.
"How did you come to that conclusion? I assume you all have Digimon?" Cody said.
"Actually, we first learned it when we came here," Sofi started, "I'll show you."
She beckoned for him to follow, leading him through the corridors and rooms, pointing out certain things.
"The first thing I noticed about Digidestined was that they always faced great challenges, or impossible odds, the fate of the Digiworld rested on their hands, and nothing like that has happened to us so far," Sofi explained, as she pointed down the list of events Digidestined had been a part of, "The next thing, was that they always came in groups greater than 4, I don't think I've heard of any with as little as two or three, that could easily be coincidence. The next, was all these weird Digivolutions, Armour, Biomerge, stuff like that, we just follow the single Digivolution line."
"I've never heard of Biomerge," Cody admitted.
"We've been coming here for almost two years, and no immediate threat has ever occurred, usually the legends say the 'problem' presents itself quite early," she continued, "Each series of Digidestined brings something different to this world, but there has been nothing out of the ordinary for us, just the odd squabble, or dark Digimon going rogue."
"We did face Myotismon, he's probably our worst so far," Lopmon interjected.
"None of it points to the fact that we're Digidestined, and to be honest, I'm not really upset about that. Being a Digidestined usually ends in some great triumph, but at a cost, for example, Rika said she wasn't able to get back into the Digiworld for some time, and most Digidestined do have to leave here eventually, though you seem to be coming back," Sofi finished.
"Well, those are some strong arguments," Cody replied.
They were stood in a different room in another temple altogether, and Sofi looked around the walls.
"There!" she shouted triumphantly, pointing to what looked like a recent text.
The person who had made these temples had moved from inscriptions to actual writings on the walls, the trouble was the oldest of these were fading fast. This particular text wasn't as faded.
"I have ended my writings here, for the past decade no Digidestined have entered the Digiworld, after the… it seems… Digiworld… peace…" Sofi read, "A decade since the last cycle of Digidestined."
"You don't know when these were written," Lopmon pointed out.
"That doesn't matter, Cody, how long ago did you come here as a Digidestined?" she asked.
"About four years," Cody said, puzzlement on his face, "We came after Tai and his team."
"And these couldn't have been written before them, because there are legends after you," Sofi said, "Something does not make sense."
"This whole thing could be a lie then," Lopmon said.
"It can't be, various pieces have been confirmed by Digimon," Sofi said, frustrated, "The Digiworld was created at least thirty years ago. We don't know much about the first set of Digidestined here; chances are they were probably artificial history programmed into it."
"I always thought Tai, Matt, Sora, Izzy, Joe, Mimi, T.K and Kari were the first?" Cody asked.
"Apparently not," Sofi replied. She walked back out of the room, and returned to where she'd left her notes, "According to Sora, they learned about earlier Digidestined from Leomon, who sealed way this Apocalymon."
She scratched her head, and Cody laughed.
"History can get very complicated, especially when it's a whole different world of history, let's get some fresh air," he offered.
"I can't! I need to work," Sofi replied.
"She gets like this," Lopmon said to Cody, as he frowned.
"Why are you doing this?" he wondered.
"Because whoever made these temples didn't have enough information, and I've come so far with so little! It's fascinating, I could be the first human to completely chronicle the Digiworld," Sofi said, bemused.
"That's a lot of responsibility," Cody replied.
"You're sure it was four years ago? Not fourteen?" Sofi asked.
"I honestly think I'd realize if I was fourteen years older," Cody joked.
"Yes, I suppose so," Sofi said, "That means that these temples are either seriously uninformed, or time travels much faster here than the real world."
"I don't like that term 'real world'," Lopmon interjected, "Makes us seem fake."
"Alternate world then," Sofi corrected, studying her notes, "Time can't travel faster, because the Digiworld is built on the networks of the alternate world. Cody, can you reach Mega Digivolution?"
"Me? No, but two of my partners could when they DNA Digivolved," he said.
"Mega doesn't seem to be a normal Digivolution, I wonder if it somehow distorts everything?" Sofi thought.
"What makes you say that?"
"Normal Digimon hardly ever reaches Mega level, and only a handful of Digidestined throughout time have ever been referenced to achieve it. It also seems most evil Digimon are Mega," she explained.
"Azulongmon was Mega," Cody pointed out.
"Gahh, why doesn't it make sense?!" she cursed.
"Rika became Mega with her Digimon," Lopmon added.
"Exactly, it seems like a 'special' stage."
"You know Sofi, sometimes it's good to take a break and let your subconscious mind work over it for a while," Cody exclaimed.
She paused and looked at him, thinking. "Fine, let's go," she replied.
"Are all you Digi-Guardians like this?" Cody asked once they were outside. The daylight was temporarily blinding, but the fresh air was welcome.
"Only Sofi," Lopmon answered.
"What I don't get is why it is so important to understand it? Why not just collect it?" Armadillomon asked.
"How will it be helpful if I can't explain it to people? If it's just a collection of legends and myths, it could just be a story book," Sofi explained.
"But people interpret things differently," Cody pointed out, "There are probably a lot of explanations."
"It seemed whoever wrote them had a hard time doing so anyway," Armadillomon added.
"You make it sound like I shouldn't try," Sofi noted.
Cody went red, "No, I don't mean that. Just don't give yourself a headache over something which probably can't be solved. You've already amassed an impressive collection of notes."
Sofi shook her head, "No, whoever, or whatever created these temples did so for a reason, they were on to something, and I'm going to find out."
Cody's shoulders slumped, but he remained smiling, "You're as determined as my friend Davis was anyway, that's a good trait."
"There's got to be something here, I haven't explored everything yet, we've only covered three out of the five temples," Sofi said, "I could do with your help."
"Five? There are six," Cody pointed out.
She looked at him, and then turned to face the temples, counting again in her head. Talyn and she had only discovered five the first time, but as she counted, it seemed one more had appeared.
Her heart skipped a beat and she ran back inside to fetch the sketch she had made the first time of the area, and noticed there were still only five temples drawn on it.
"Was it always there?" she pondered, taking the map outside to locate the missing temple.
It was a smaller structure to the right of the back right temple, much smaller, though appeared above all else, ordinary.
She and Lopmon walked towards it, but Cody and Armadillomon stayed behind. She hadn't noticed the additional one when they'd arrived, so it was possible in her excitement the first time she'd missed it completely.
The inside was as dark as the others, but the structure was different, there were no odd rooms breaking away from the corridor, just one long passageway leading gently downwards.
"Did we miss this?" Sofi asked Lopmon.
"I can't remember, it is a little bit away from the others, could have been hidden from view behind one," she replied.
The corridor eventually opened up to a large room, larger than any of the others in the other temples, and Sofi realised they were also below the forest, no longer within the encampment of Temples. Sofi's torch illuminated a single circle of light, but the features were unremarkable at best, stone walls stared back at her. The room was square, but seemed to close in on itself as they looked higher; like a pyramid would. Their faint footsteps on the cold stone floor echoed around the empty room, but it was as devoid of life as all the rest.
She swung her torch around looking for any texts the walls may have held; she couldn't see any at first.
"Over here," Lopmon had wandered off to the right of the room, and held a torch up, illuminating a text on the wall. It was newer than any she had seen before, though was fading slightly.
Sofi read it out loud:

"How do we know the outcome of the choices we make? How can we consider every possibility? I have formed these temples so that our failure will not be forgotten, and if the Digital World should choose our successors, they will learn from the past. I have sat here for ten years, building this monument, and no humans have visited the Digital World since. Are we the last? This history of the Digital World is incomplete, for I have not been able to extract as much information as I would have liked to. I have recorded the ten tales of the Digidestined, but I fear I may not have much time to write our own adventure before it finds me.

To whoever reads this, we were the last Digidestined. We couldn't defeat the Evil. It waited for all of us; it still waits, in everyone, as I fear it will do for everyone else who comes here.

We failed."

"Is this the only script in here?" Lopmon wondered.
Sofi didn't answer; she couldn't tear her eyes away from the message. This wasn't just a tale, or a legend, it was a message, a warning, from the last Digidestined.
"They failed?" she whispered, "How do Digidestined fail?"
"I've never heard of such an event," Lopmon said dubiously.
Sofi took out her notebook and copied it down, underlining parts she would need more information on.
"Whoever wrote this was hiding," she muttered, "from 'it'. 'Something that was waiting for them.' What does he mean by 'in'?"
"Sofi, more text," Lopmon called, "You're not going to like this one."
She skipped over hurriedly and crouched down next to her partner. Scribbled, obviously hastily, on the wall was one word: Revolt.
"We've heard a Digimon say this," she noticed.
"Two Digimon," Lopmon corrected.
"Maybe this is linked to the other text? There's nothing else here," Sofi quickly looked over all the walls, "It has to be something to do with that message."
Cody had wandered in and was reading over the message, "The last Digidestined?"
"The threats in the Digidestined stories seem to follow the pattern of getting larger till at least the world is in peril, maybe I can use this to count how many tales are written about in the other temples," Sofi remarked.
"How long do you have left?" Lopmon asked.
"An hour and a half," Sofi replied, "Come on, we have work to do."


Forty minutes later, they were stood outside again, having meticulously studied every text in each of the temples. With the work split between them, Sofi had taken the temples she hadn't been in before, in case any new information popped up, whilst Cody, Armadillomon and Lopmon took familiar ground.
"Overall, there's a possible nine or ten stories then excluding the supposed 'last Digidestined'," she concluded.
Cody looked over all the collaborated information, and though some of them weren't all too clear where the line between two adventures were, he agreed with her.
"That means then, that since the beginning of the Digiworld, over thirty years ago, we think, there have been eleven teams of Digidestined, the last ones apparently failing," she continued.
"I have another question though," Lopmon interjected, "How did the writer know about all of this? There weren't some other temples he could just look at."
"In the space of ten years he or she supposedly gathered all this information," Sofi said, "I don't think we can find that out without meeting whoever it was."
"But we're sure it was a human?" Cody asked.
"I didn't think Digimon could write, plus he refers to himself as a Digidestined," Sofi said, "Unless something went completely twisted and 'fate' chose Digimon?"
They stared at the notes for a while, till Sofi burst out laughing.
"What's wrong?" Cody asked.
"One mystery leads to two more, it's so frustrating but it's so interesting at the same time," she said.
"And that's funny?" Lopmon asked.
"It's a good way to avoid boredom," she giggled, "I'm sorry Cody, you came here for a nice day with Armadillomon and I've dragged you backwards and forwards through these temples all day long, and I've only just met you."
He smiled, "It was fun."
"Well, if it's any consolation, that's as worse as I get… I hope," she replied.
"I still don't understand why you have to do this so… meticulously," he said.
"Because I'll be useless if I don't," she answered. They stared at her.
"What do you mean?" Lopmon asked.
Sofi paused, "Talyn doesn't need me."
"Of course he does," Cody exclaimed.
"Talyn's… smart, and strong. He took on a Mega level Digimon! What am I? Lopmon, none of your Digivolutions can fly, we're always grounding him. No, the only reason we're still here, the only reason I'm still here, is because of my brain. Because of what I know. If I didn't have that, then I would be more of a hindrance."
"Sofi, you know that's not true," Lopmon interrupted, "He didn't take on the Mega Digimon alone. We've been through a lot with Talyn, and we're here because of what you brought to this trio. We need each other."
"Do we? Do we really? It seems to me like he doesn't want to know me outside of this world. After two years, I still hardly know him! And what about Amy? She comes in right at the end, and now I've got to figure a way out to bring her up to standard!"
"Why do you?" Cody said.
Sofi stopped and looked at him, but he didn't let her answer.
"I don't know you Sofi, but it seems like you're trying to shoulder a lot of responsibility for fear of losing your place in your team," he said, "It's not my place to say, but maybe the reason Talyn doesn't want you around is because you push him away trying to do all this work?"
"What do you mean?"
"You three should work together to help the Digiworld. Just because you're not as powerful as Talyn doesn't mean you aren't of value. You're strengths quite obviously lie in your knowledge, so maybe you're not supposed to 'Guard' the Digiworld physically, maybe you're meant to be the Guardian of knowledge?" he said.
"He's got a point Sofi," Lopmon said, "Plus I like the sound of that. It kind of gives us a reason to do what we're doing."
"Guardian of knowledge?" she repeated.
"I was always afraid to be who I was because I didn't fit in with my team, but you have to get over that and just be yourself. A few hours ago I saw a responsible but slightly obsessive person," Cody said, "But now I've gotten to know you somewhat, I can see you're passionate about all this. Think of how Talyn now sees you after two years of working together. Being a Digidestined is not all about fighting and power, it's about understanding your role in this world, and that's why Talyn probably needs you more than you know."
Sofi sat on the floor and held her head in her hands, "You're right. Damn it, I'm such an idiot."
"You're not, Sofi, you just think too much," Lopmon hugged her.
"All this stuff just gets lodged in my head, you know?"
"The human brain can't sort out so many issues all at once," Cody said, "You're trying to do too much, you'll just overwork yourself. I can't even believe how well you speak Japanese."
"Japanese?" she asked, "I'm not, you're speaking English."
"I'm not," Cody argued.
She looked up at the sky, "This damn world probably has a translation programme! Yolei must have thought I spoke Japanese too."
"It is full of mysteries," Cody laughed.
"Ahh, I've had enough for today, come on Lopmon, time to go," Sofi exclaimed.


A golden digital sun shone through the gaps in the trees as they slowly made their way through the forest. The air was cooling slightly, the breeze just lifting Sofi's hair slightly as she moved through it, breathing calmly trying to quieten her mind.
"I'm sorry about today Lopmon, I almost broke down," Sofi muttered.
Her Digimon looked up at her, "It's ok."
"And I didn't mean to say you were weak or anything, I know it may have come across like that but… I'm really glad I have you as a partner," she added.
The Digimon smiled, "Likewise."
Cody had returned the way he had come, Sofi had apologised to him too, but he assured her anything in the Digiworld held responsibility and she was allowed to let it get to her every now and then.
"At least you managed to 'purge' the temples," Lopmon said, "I bet they've never had such an enthusiastic human in them."
"You're right, but it seems like it didn't get me very far," she replied, "But I guess the answers will only come with time."
"You may not even discover half the answers," Lopmon said.
"Maybe not… but as the guardian of knowledge, I have to take it upon myself to gather as much as possible!" Sofi joked.
The clearing opened up before them, and they found Patamon slunked over his favourite branch.
"Do you stay there all the time?" Sofi asked.
"No, but if one of you comes in without Talyn, I stay here in case I need to activate a distress beacon," Patamon replied.
"That's a really good idea actually," Sofi admitted.
"I'm full of them, you just don't take me seriously," Patamon said, "How was your day?"
"Enlightening… but otherwise confusing," Lopmon answered.
"Sounds about right for a day with Sofi," Patamon mused.
"Patamon, does Talyn ever talk about me?" Sofi asked.
"You bet."
Sofi waited for a response, but Patamon was distracted by a flying seed.
She huffed, "Well, I've got twenty minutes left, better go and get my diploma result."
"Good luck Sofi!" Salamon shouted from the trees.
She giggled and said goodbye to the other Digimon. Her Digivice opened the portal and the real world flashed into darkness around her. As usual, she had to wait to get herself orientated in the pitch black.

The library was almost empty as she walked through it. Amy was nowhere in sight, whilst Talyn would be in Physics. Outside of the building it was just as quiet, and the quaint warmness of the air made her feel like they were in for a good April. She thought back over the events of the day, her mind skimming over the notes she now carried in her bag needing to be sorted. If their time in the Digiworld was going to end, at least she'd have something to do after it all.
The music block was as noisy as always with students practising.
She assumed Zoe would be in there somewhere, playing the piano like she used to. She wondered if her friend had passed or not, and felt her stomach clench again, the rising panic slowly building up inside of her.
The Head of Music's office was at the end of the main hall, which seemed to stretch on for an eternity. Her footsteps were surprisingly noisy, and as she reached the door and saw the teacher inside, she began to contemplate running.
No, there was only one course of action; she quietly knocked on the door.
"Sofi! Come in!" The Head of Music, Mrs McGeeney called.
Sofi closed the door behind her and noticed a yellow envelope in the small woman's hand.
"Here you are," she said, giving away nothing but the paper.
Sofi took a deep breath and took the envelope. Mrs McGeeney already knew the result, but her disciplined face betrayed nothing.
The letters were jumbled. Sofi couldn't make sense of them. She frowned, trying to make sense of the information, until she heard Mrs McGeeney speak.
"Congratulations," she said.
Then Sofi could see the small word printed at the bottom right: Pass.


That night, as she sat like always in the living room, on the chair furthest away from the TV, reading whatever took her fancy, her parents held a celebration. She couldn't help but smile, letting all her worries of the Digiworld, her exams, and now finally her diploma slide away for one night. Only one thing surfaced that night, the last Digidestined failed, meaning the evil they faced was out there somewhere. But like always, Sofi knew it would all come, with time.