Author's note: I know, I know, I'm a terrible person and haven't updated in two days. Sadly, I have no excuse whatsoever. It's finals week?
Thanks to everyone who reviewed, especially to Jade Starr, who reviewed four times in one day and made my email inbox overflow with happiness.
Enjoy the chapter! I think this is my least favorite one, personally, but hopefully you all will think otherwise.
"We're walking into a trap?" Sora says flatly. She and the others are gathered in Koushiro's apartment again, waiting for Takeru, Ken and Daisuke to return with Yamato.
"What else are we supposed to do?" says Miyako, looking grumpy. "There wasn't a single Digimon in the entire place. The only thing we've got to go on is Gabumon's scent."
"Yeah, and I'm sure whoever set the trap made sure to make it that way," Sora returns.
"Do you have a suggestion, Sora?" Taichi asks, looking exasperated.
"No," she admits. "I just don't like this. It's too neat."
Taichi nods. "It is. But we're going in anyway."
An almost contemplative silence falls over the group, broken only by the constant tap of Koushiro's fingers on his keyboard.
"It's never this quiet when Daisuke's here," Tailmon points out, and the others laugh good-naturedly. This seems to break the mood, and everyone falls to chatting among themselves.
Sora studies Taichi quietly. His face is set in the same expression of determination and courage as it always was, back during that first trip to the Digiworld, but there's a strain there, so slight that you wouldn't notice it if you weren't looking, and he's holding himself with far more tension than his loose body usually holds. So she steps closer to him and rests a comforting hand on his shoulder.
Taichi turns and flashes her a quick smile, but it's not quite genuine. Sora gives him one of her own small sad ones in return. It's not that Taichi can't hide his emotions, but if you know what you're looking for he's easier to read than a picture book.
"Okay," says Koushiro suddenly. The entire room shifts to look at him. "This may sound obvious, but what we need to do is try to determine the source of this Digimon's power."
"I thought electricity was the source of its power?" says Tentomon, confused.
"Well, yes. What I mean is, we need to determine what exactly is absorbing that electricity into the digital world. If we can destroy that, our enemy will be greatly weakened."
"How do we find it?" Hikari asks.
"I can track it with my computer," Koushiro replies, 'but it will take a while."
"We'll probably find it inadvertently anyway when we set off this stupid trap," says Jyou. Everyone looks at him for clarification, and Jyou makes a face. "What? It's true! Evil Digimon aren't very subtle, you know. There's probably some giant evil-looking central base where the power is housed and where this new Digimon is, and I'll bet you anything that's where he's keeping Gabumon."
Sora blinks. It's a good point.
"Oh, it's automatically a he, is it," Mimi says jokingly, trying to lighten the mood, but even her smile is strained.
Just then the door opens and Daisuke flies in, dragging a reluctant-looking Ken behind him. Veemon and Wormmon enter in similar fashion. Yamato himself follows, very carefully not looking at anyone. Sora feels Taichi stiffen next to her and she squeezes his shoulder with the hand that's still resting there. Patamon flaps in and Takeru comes last, gently closing the door behind him.
"We're here!" Daisuke exclaims, striking a pose in typical Daisuke fashion. "Did you miss us?"
"Not you, we didn't," Miyako replies as she goes to stand beside Ken. But she ruffles Daisuke's hair as she passes, revealing an easy affection.
"Hey!" Daisuke protests, trying to get his spikes back into place. "You messed it up!"
"How is it even possible to mess up that - that mess?" Mimi asks, wrinkling up her nose at Daisuke's hairstyle, or lack thereof. Palmon giggles and Sora hides a smile behind her hand.
"Hi, Yamato," says Taichi, very quietly. The entire room tenses, looking at Yamato expectantly. Agumon takes a step closer to his partner, almost protectively.
Yamato lifts his head and looks straight at Taichi. Then his eyes fall onto Sora's hand, still resting on Taichi's shoulder, and he looks away again, his face more angry than hurt, his arms crossed. Takeru scowls in Taichi and Sora's direction, every inch the overprotective younger brother.
Sora starts to lift her hand away guiltily, but Taichi frowns at her. "Leave it," he says in an undertone.
"Okay, now that we're all finally here," he says, facing the group. Sora winces. That last comment is barbed, obviously directed at Yamato.
She glances over at Yamato to gauge his reaction. His face is pale, but he's glaring at Taichi with vigor.
Boys are stupid, she thinks, exasperated. What a mess this is.
"Let's get this over with," Taichi continues, throwing one nasty, annoyed look at Yamato before pulling out his digivice.
In the Digiworld, everyone recollects themselves nervously.
"The castle's over here," says Tailmon, pointing to the east. She and Hawkmon lead the way, Taichi and Agumon close behind. It's a quiet expedition, to be sure, everyone just following wordlessly.
Sora pauses. Piyomon runs into the back of her legs. "Watch where you're going!" her Digimon admonishes.
"Sorry," she says, still thinking. Behind her, Jyou and Mimi are having a whispered yet upbeat conversation.
"Just like old times, huh?" Sora can hear Jyou's smile in his voice.
"Yep," Mimi responds cheerfully. "Taichi and Yamato are even fighting again!"
After a pause, she adds, "And my feet hurt." The two laugh good-naturedly, and Sora smiles along with them.
After another moment's thought, she doubles back to talk to Yamato, who is bringing up the rear with Takeru and Patamon.
"Yamato," she says quietly.
"Go away," he says immediately, his eyes boring harshly into her own.
"Yamato, I - "
"Go. Away."
"No, I won't. I - "
"I don't want to hear it. Now get lost."
Sora sighs and jogs back up to her spot in line reluctantly. Things are worse than she'd thought.
They climb over a grassy knoll and suddenly, there it is.
The castle is huge. It looks as if it was made for something much larger than humans. Sora imagines it's almost as big as the castle in the sky from the Jack and the Beanstalk story.
"That must be one giant Digimon," says Iori from behind her, echoing her thoughts.
They stare in wordless wonder and apprehension for a minute longer before making their way across the castle's drawbridge.
"The drawbridge and moat . . . " mutters Gomamon. Sora barely hears him.
"What about them?" Jyou asks his Digimon softly.
"They weren't here earlier," Gomamon replies.
In front of Sora, Koushiro turns around with interest. "You're saying the castle is still being added to?"
"Yep," Miyako adds in, "when we were here before, there were stones hoisting themselves to the top."
"Interesting," Koushiro says. "Hoisting themselves?"
"We didn't tell you?" says Jyou, looking abashed.
"They were floating," Hawkmon explains.
"That partially explains why all this energy is needed," Koushiro mutters. "To build this castle. But who and why still remains to be seen."
"And how," Tentomon adds helpfully.
Taichi opens the giant double doors and ushers them all in. Sora notices that his eyes linger on Yamato for a minute before he turns away huffily.
"This way," calls Agumon, his giant nose already sniffing away.
They make their way down corridor after long dusty corridor until they reach a plain-looking wall.
"This is it," Agumon says.
Everyone stares skeptically at him.
Hikari steps to the front of the group and presses one stone with the palm of her hand. Sora watches as a normal stone wall is transformed into the glowing door that the others had described.
"Everyone, find your crests," Taichi instructs. They fall into place, Sora, ironically enough, standing between Yamato and Taichi. "On the count of three. One. Two. Three!"
The crests burst into vibrant life, so bright that they are all forced to stand back and shield their eyes from the glare. When they turn back, the wall is gone.
"Gabumon!" shouts Yamato, running into the newly exposed room. It's the first thing he's said in front of the group so far.
Sora stares. The room is an enormous chamber, the ceiling so far over their heads it's almost out of sight. Beams of sunlight stream in from high windows, but the main source of light comes from within the room. The walls are entirely covered with symbols and all of them are awash in the same yellow glow as the crests were.
In the very center of the room, Gabumon is crumpled on the floor, unconscious. Yamato is already beside him, gathering his partner in his arms gently, sorrowfully.
"Gabumon," he's muttering, "wake up, buddy. Gabumon. Gabumon."
"Koushiro, what's written on the walls?" Taichi asks in his most businesslike tone as Jyou steps determinedly up to Yamato and Gabumon, his face falling into its professional-looking doctor expression.
"I don't know," Koushiro replies. "Some of it's kanji - see over there, that's the symbol for change, and over there's transport."
"They're mostly verbs," Ken observes, turning to look at each wall. "But what are the rest of these symbols?"
"That's Greek," says Takeru suddenly, pointing at a spot high above them on the opposite wall. "There's alpha, and there's lambda, and there's a couple in between I can't remember."
"How do you know Greek, Takeru?" Daisuke asks, looking vaguely threatened by Takeru's superior knowledge of languages.
"We're reading the Odyssey in literature," Takeru replies absently, still gazing around the room, transfixed.
"Those are hieroglyphs," Tailmon says, pointing.
"There's Arabic over here!" Miyako shouts from one side of the room.
"This looks like Celtic!" Iori cries from the other.
"This is Tengwar," says Mimi matter-of-factly. Everyone looks at her oddly. "You know, the Elvish language. From Lord of the Rings."
There's a brief, disbelieving silence.
"What?" says Mimi blankly.
Sora shakes her head and returns to staring at the wall.
"Hey, this is binary code!" says Koushiro disbelievingly.
"A lot of it is in our own digital script," says Tentomon. "For example, this reads 'digivolve.""
"What's it all for?" wonders Armadillomon.
"The fact that they're giving off this light energy seems to imply that this is the destination of the energy that has been redirected from our world," Koushiro says, "but as to what their function is, I don't know."
"Is it possible that their purpose is benevolent?" Hikari asks after a moment.
"If they were benevolent, why would Gabumon have been kidnapped?" Takeru replies.
"Good point," Hikari acknowledges.
Sora glances over at Yamato, Jyou and Gabumon. Yamato's still got Gabumon in his lap, and Jyou seems to be checking him for vital signs.
"Hey, this one says explode!" says Piyomon worriedly. Sora's head whips back around. Piyomon is pointing to a symbol written in Digiglyphs near the door.
"This is in romanji," Mimi says, kneeling down besides Piyomon and pointing to a phrase next to the symbol. "But it's not English."
Sora peers at it carefully. "I think it's French," she says.
Takeru makes his way over. "Ce qui est le plus proche à cette porte," he reads. "That which is closest to this door."
"Explode - " says Ken thoughtfully. "Combined with 'that which is closest to the door.'"
"You don't think - " Miyako says, eyes wide.
"Does anyone know what these are?" says Ken, pointing to a pair of brackets that flank the combination.
"It looks like a set," says Koushiro gravely. "An algebraic set."
Ken nods. "That's what I thought."
"Anyone care to explain what in hell you're talking about?" Taichi snaps. looking more irritable than ever.
"Everyone, stand back," says Ken darkly.
"Ken, you're going to set it on yourself!" Miyako wails.
Ken ignores her. "Anyone have something they can spare to lose on them?"
Sora looks down at herself, frowning, but before she can find anything Hikari pulls a light pink handkerchief from her pocket. "Here you go, Ken."
"Thanks," he says. He then places it a small distance from the door, walks calmly over to the explode symbol, and presses his hand against it.
Boom!
Ken dives out of the way just as Hikari's handkerchief explodes into a million pieces. Everyone watches in horror as its tiny ashes flutter back down to the ground and settle on the stone floor peacefully.
"It's like some weird digital land mine," breathes Taichi incredulously. The ensuing silence is one of agreement rather than dissent, and in the quiet of the room, everyone's minds settle on that phrase for the strange, curse-like designs adorning the walls.
"Mines," says Takeru, nodding shortly as if to confirm Taichi's assessment.
Koushiro has his computer out again. "Prodigious," he says, "a small surge of electricity disappeared from Europe right when the explosion occurred."
"This," says Ken slowly, turning back to take in the full glory of the glowing walls surrounding them, "this is amazing. You could do anything with this, to anyone."
"What do you mean?" says Wormmon, eyeing his partner nervously, obviously remembering Ken's days as the Digimon Kaiser.
"All you'd need is a name, or a symbol like the crests, and you'd be able to target them," Ken says. "It's simple, it's brilliant, and it's foolproof."
"If that's true, then why'd whoever it is have to kidnap Gabumon to get us here?" says Miyako.
"In my estimation," Koushiro starts, "these mines only work in the digital world, where their power can be converted from electricity to data - " he gestures to the mines themselves " - and from data into other forms of energy, such as that explosion."
"So they'd need bait to get us to the digital world in the first place," Iori reasons.
"Right," says Koushiro.
"So whoever it is will probably be back soon. To set off one that will kill us," says Takeru grimly.
"We'll just have to destroy it before that happens," Daisuke says, that determined, headstrong look that is so characteristic of him settling squarely on his face.
"Look!" says Palmon, pointing a vine where the explode sign had been. "It's gone!"
It's true. There's a blank spot on the wall instead of the old mine.
"So setting it off deactivates it as well," Tentomon concludes.
"There has to be another way to destroy them," says Ken speculatively.
"Why not just set them off and get it over with?" says Taichi impatiently, breaking his huffy silence and heading towards a mine made up of a set of symbols that look like Celtic knots.
"Taichi, no!" says Hikari, leaping up and grabbing her brother around his torso, effectively halting him.
"And why not?" he says, struggling half-heartedly. He's completely irrational at this point, Sora thinks, and her heart just melts for her poor friend, consumed by helplessness and anger and confusion and hurt.
"You can't set it off if you don't know what it means," Sora says quietly, hoping he'll see logic again.
Ken nods. "I've actually been trying to work out this one. It's rather complicated, but it basically causes slow and painful death to all the loved ones of whoever sets it off."
Taichi pales. "Oh god," he says. His eyes flick towards Yamato, so quickly it's almost imperceptible, and then he looks down at Hikari's pale hands encircling his waist.
"I'm sorry," he says softly.
"It's fine," says Hikari. "Now we know better."
"Have you managed to work any more out?" Koushiro asks Ken.
He nods. "Yeah. There's one that's particularly disturbing."
They follow him to one wall where a complicated set of signs in a large number of languages is enclosed in brackets as tall as Iori.
"There are quite a few that start with this symbol," Ken explains, pointing. It's not a language that Sora even vaguely recognizes. "It basically means 'if.' They act as protective clauses."
"What's it do?" Daisuke's voice.
"If anyone destroys more than five other mines, this one reactivates all of the ones that have been destroyed - and creates new ones."
"It makes more?" Takeru says incredulously.
"How many more?" Sora feels inclined to ask.
Ken swallows nervously. "A hundred."
Silence.
"Fuck," says Taichi vehemently. Sora gives him a disapproving look.
"I guess we'd better not set that one off," says Mimi, somewhat redundantly.
"It's more than that," says Koushiro, looking daunted. "We're going to have to destroy these one by one. In the right order."
The silence that greets his words is immense, but it's interrupted by Yamato's slightly hysterical voice behind them.
"Gabumon! Are you alright? Oh, man, Gabumon, I'm so sorry! I'm sorry I was late, I'm sorry I left you here, I'm sorry I turned off my digivice, I'm sorry I thought I could just abandon you - "
They turn to see that Gabumon is once again sitting upright, Yamato kneeling in front of him and holding both of his furry blue-and-white paws in his hands and Jyou standing triumphantly over the two with the proud look of a doctor who's succeeded in his work.
"Don't be silly, Yamato," chuckles Gabumon. "It's not your fault I was captured. It's just bad luck, is all."
"Bad timing is more like it," says Gomamon from behind Jyou. "If any of us other Digimon had been in the digital world, it could have been us."
"Exactly," says Gabumon, shooting a grateful look at Gomamon.
"Gabumon," says Taichi seriously. "Can you tell us exactly what happened?"
Nobody misses the death glare that Yamato shoots Taichi, but most of them miss the hurt expression that briefly crosses Taichi's face before he returns the look. Looking around, Sora guesses that she, Agumon, Gabumon, Hikari, and of course Tailmon, that oddly observant little Digimon, are the only ones to have noticed. Well, it's possible Piyomon knows by now too.
"To be honest, Taichi, there's not much to tell," Gabumon says with remorse. "I first became aware that there was something wrong when a couple of Monochromon attacked me. I tried to reason with them, but all I could get out of them was that they were working for someone, and that I was to be captured. At that point, I knew that they were too powerful for me to fight on my own, so I starting trying to contact Yamato. When that didn't work, I figured the most likely person to respond would be Koushiro. I managed to send him a message before I was knocked out, and I've been in and out of consciousness ever since."
"Why didn't you revert to your in-training stage?" Tentomon asks. "To save energy?"
"I really don't know," says Gabumon. "For some reason, I couldn't."
"I'll bet you anything we'll find something about it in one of these stupid mines," says Mimi bitterly.
"That's a good point," says Koushiro speculatively. "I suppose that would be the most efficient way to keep Gabumon in his rookie form."
"But why?" says Yamato quietly.
Sora realizes with a start that this is the first time today Yamato has shown any interest in participating in this event. Looking behind her, she sees that Takeru looks about as surprised as she feels. It's a good sign, she decides.
"There are two potential reasons." Koushiro states. "The first is that Gabumon's scent is easier to detect in his rookie form. The second, more likely reason is that there are blocks to keep all of our Digimon from digivolving."
"This just keeps getting better and better," Taichi mutters.
A short silence, like a sudden blast of air, follows as the severity of the situation descends rapidly upon them.
"Okay, now what?" says Mimi.
"Everyone, I need you to find sets that start with if," says Ken in the tone of voice usually reserved for leaders like Taichi or Daisuke, "and anyone who can read digiglyphs, I want you to look for anything relating to digivolving."
"But what happens when we find them?" says Iori logically. "We don't know how to destroy them without setting them off."
"I've actually been thinking about that," Hikari says thoughtfully. "Can't we just make our own mines?"
"What?" says Miyako.
"Why?" says Tailmon.
"Make one that deletes another one," Hikari answers calmly.
Silence.
"That's absolutely brilliant, Hikari," Ken breathes finally. Hikari beams and Miyako shoots her a murderous glare. "Of course it's possible to use whatever it is that's powering these to power something of our own design."
He falls silent again, his face set in a look of intense concentration.
"All right," he says after a moment. "We still need to destroy them one at a time. Everyone, look for this if clause. If you find any, tell me right away."
Everyone defers their gaze to Taichi, who is, after all, officially the leader, seemingly seeking his approval of the plan. He glares at them all balefully. "Well, what are you waiting for? Start looking!"
"Hawkmon, Patamon, Tentomon, come on!" says Piyomon, nodding at Taichi. "We'd better fly up and take a look at the parts of the wall the others can't see."
With that, the group breaks apart. Sora is on her own, since Piyomon's somewhere overhead. She walks from mine to mine slowly, calling for Ken whenever she sees the complicated if symbol. Then Ken translates it and, if necessary, deletes it by having Wormmon carve a name onto the dangerous mine so it can be identified in the new one and then write a simple delete function on an empty patch of wall.
Activating their own mines, however, proves to be a little trickier than any of them had originally thought. Eventually Koushiro, after performing a chemical analysis of the original mines, works out that they are powered with the bio-energy of the Digimon themselves, and Agumon fires a Pepper Breath at a function, causing it to start glowing the same bright orange as Agumon's breath.
Sora pauses to frown at a strange mine written in some language that she doesn't recognize. A hand on her shoulder makes her jump.
"Sora," says Taichi's voice, hoarse and desperate.
Turning, she takes one look at him and flings her arms around him. Yamato's going to take this the wrong way, she knows, but the look on Taichi's face is too much for her to bear.
"Oh, Taichi," she whispers. "I'm so sorry."
They stay like that for a moment. Then Sora pulls away and slaps Taichi across the cheek. It's what Yamato would do in my place, she reasons. Except he'd probably punch Taichi. Slapping is for girls. "Now pull yourself together. We need you."
Taichi places one hand against his cheek, then nods. "You're right."
Sora smiles. "That's the Taichi I know."
They turn back to the wall and resume inspecting the mines.
"Wait a minute," Taichi mutters to himself, and then, "Ken!"
Ken runs over. "What is it?"
"Could you write a set that would delete all the sets that can be deleted without setting off other ones? Or a set that deletes all sets with the if symbol in them?"
Ken frowns. "That's a good idea, Taichi, but I'm not sure. Give me a minute to think about how I could word it."
"What about a set that works like the find function on a computer?" Miyako suggests. "To find all the sets with if in it, or digivolve, or whatever?"
Ken nods. "That will work. Will you do it, Miyako?"
Miyako's grin is enormous. "Yes!" she shouts, pumping her fist into the air. Sora laughs at the other girl's antics. She's glad that particular romantic tension has been decimated.
Hawkmon descends from the ceiling and Miyako begins showing him what symbols to write. As soon as Hawkmon finishes carving the set into the wall with his beak, Miyako steps forwards and activates it.
Suddenly the room is cast in a warm pink glow. Looking around, Sora sees that a good number of the mines are now emitting pink light, and a few are even purple.
"The pink ones are the ones with if," Miyako explains. "The purple are the ones with digivolve."
"Did you have to pick such girly colors?" Daisuke grumbles.
"We've deleted eight mines so far," Ken says. "If any of these are set to go off after ten others have been deleted, we'll need to delete them first." He starts reading the pink sets, Miyako hovering comfortably nearby.
Meanwhile, Koushiro is busy carving a mine of his own into the wall.
"What are you doing?" says Jyou curiously, meandering over from where Yamato and Gabumon are still situated in the center of the room, Yamato's eye trained loyally on his Digimon as if afraid he'll disappear from right in front of him.
"This is the kanji symbol for reveal," Koushiro explains. "It's possible that there are some mines that are being hidden by others."
Daisuke nods. "Good thinking. We might end up setting off a really bad one otherwise."
When Koushiro activates it, a web of light slowly splays itself across the floor.
"Oh dear," says Jyou worriedly. "That's not good."
"I hope we haven't been setting any off by stepping on them," Sora says, looking nervously at the ground around her feet.
"There's more up here too!" cries Patamon. They look up to see him hovering near the ceiling, also aglow now.
"Miyako's set seems to be working on these ones as well," Koushiro says, pointing to a large purple area far above their heads.
"Can you read that one, Patamon?" Takeru yells up to his Digimon.
"No!" he replies. "All I can read is 'digivolve' and 'digidestined.'"
The silence seems to speak. What it says is, "hmm..." in a speculative tone.
It's interrupted by Koushiro, of all people.
"Yes!" he says, jumping around excitedly in a manner more befitting of a small child than a reserved computer analyst. Everyone stares, understandably surprised.
"That's got to be the one that's stopping our Digimon from digivolving! What else could it be?"
The next silence is one of awe and sudden realization.
"Go label it, Hawkmon!" Miyako cries, pointing dramatically upward.
"You got it!" the bird Digimon obeys, flying straight up.
But as he goes, a thin shadow falls across the room, enshrining them all in feathery gray fog.
"Welcome to my lair," says an ominous voice, "you must be the Digidestined."
Author's note: Okay, so there's a line in here that says Yamato's eyes are "boring harshly" into Sora's, and that always makes me think of when I worked at this architecture office, and they'd have to bore into the soil and test it and make sure it could support structures, and the resultant reports were always labeled 'Boring Reports.' Amazing.
