Next Generation: And So It Begins Again Chapter 7: Seek and Destroy, a digimon fanfic

We should all know by now that Digimon is SO not mine, so why do I bother with these disclaimers We should all know by now that Digimon is SO not mine, so why do I bother with these disclaimers?
Next Generation:

…And So It Begins (Again)

CHAPTER SEVEN: SEEK AND DESTROY

"She's beautiful, TK," Ken said softly to his friend. He and Yolei and TK were standing outside the glass that separated them from the room with all the newborns in it. Beside them, proud fathers were peering through the glass and pointing their new babies out to the other dads.

"Thanks," TK said, staring at his new baby girl, Tania Riki Takaishi. She looked almost like Hikaru had when she was a baby.

Yolei looked extremely worried. "What did the doctor say?" she asked.

TK sighed. "Kari had a seizure almost directly after Tania was born. She went into a coma right after it. He has no clue if she'll wake up, considering her medical history and that."

Yolei's hand flew to her mouth to keep her from crying out.

"I hope she'll be all right," Ken said, his hand on TK's shoulder.

"I hope so too," TK said quietly, his eyes fixed on Tania.

"Are we there yet?" Mike groaned. "I'm tired, and my feet are sore! When can we stop and take a break?"

Hikaru was huffing and puffing. "Yeah, Lee. I know Leon's your big brother and all, but can we please stop before my lungs burst?"

"And my hands sorta hurt, what with all this climbing," Jenna added. Her hands were wrapped in thick spider webs and ooze from a plant that John assured would heal the burns.

Lee sighed. "I suppose we all deserve a little break. Let's sit down."

Kiko sat on a rock close to the edge of a cliff and looked down eagerly. "Ooh!" he exclaimed, his eyes wide. "We're really high up, Hikaru! Take a look!"

"Kiko, get away from there!" Hikaru said sharply. "That's a long way from the bottom, and I don't want to be the one to explain to Mom and Dad that we let you fall off a cliff!"

"Let who fall off a cliff?" Izzy's voice asked from the laptop. Tina had just set it up.

"Oh, nothing," Lauren said. "So, how's it going, Dad?"

"As well as can be expected."

Hikaru almost tripped trying to get to the laptop. "Have you heard anything from my father yet?" she asked breathlessly, steeling herself for the worst.

"You have a baby sister, Hikaru," Matt told her. "Her name is Tania."

"What about my mom?"

"She's…in a coma," Matt said with some difficulty.

Hikaru suddenly found it hard to breathe. Luckily, Kiko hadn't heard this. He was too busy playing around with Mike to notice anything.

Kinaka's eyes were wide. "Is she going to be all right?"

"They don't know."

Sora scanned the group quickly. "Lee, where's your brother?" she asked suspiciously.

Holly answered her. "Mom, he…he got taken again."

Tai swore so badly then that Sora hit him in the back of the head.

"Sorry!" he cried, his hands up in defense. "It's just…God, first my own kid gets kidnapped—twice—and now my sister's in the hospital in a coma!"

"We're going to go look for him today," Lee added hurriedly. "We're bringing Deanna's uncle, John Lavois. He used to be a prisoner there, before Leon busted him out of it."

Tai gave Sora a lopsided grin. "That's my boy!"

"Your dad did something like that for me once," Sora explained to her daughters.

"Well, you can tell us about it later. We've just stopped for a break," Holly said.

"Say hi to my parents for me if they call," Cleo called out.

Once Tina had the laptop closed, she sighed heavily. "I almost didn't want to say goodbye to them. I mean, this battle could be it. I don't know if we'll lose or not, but if we do…"

"Don't think about that," Kinaka said sharply. Those were the first words she'd said all day.

Kiko and Mike came over then, Mike with fresh rips in the knees of his jeans, and Kiko with dirt smeared on his face. Both were grinning widely.

"Mike taught me how to play Statues," Kiko explained, as Hikaru rubbed frantically at his face with the hem of her tank top.

"I don't see how a statue could get so dirty," she commented. She was rubbing his face so hard that she was leaving red marks on his cheeks.

"OW!" he complained. "Hikaru, don't rub so hard!"

"Sorry," she muttered. "I just have a lot on my mind."

"Is it about Mommy? Is she OK?"

Hikaru sighed. "Well, Mommy is very sick," she said. "But she'll be better soon, OK? There's some good news though, Kiko! We have a baby sister!"

Kiko stood there, pondering this. Finally he said, "But I wanted a brother!"

Everyone laughed. It was good to have something to laugh about again.

"Sixteen hundred new Black Domes were built today," Sabinemon cackled. "He's doing great! And his Fangmon is so much more stronger. I can't believe the Dark Amulets caused him to digivolve! This is just terrific!"

MetalDevimon nodded. "It sure is." He uncorked a fresh bottle of blood and poured it into two tall glass carafes.

Sabinemon raised her glass. "A toast, my love," she said. "To our success, to the Black Domes, and to evil."

"Hear, hear!" MetalDevimon said, clinking his glass to hers.

"Everywhere we go," Lee sang, slightly off key.

"Everywhere we go," everyone else chorused behind her.

"People always ask us…"

"Who we are…"

"So we tell them…"

"We're the Digidestined!"

"Mighty Digidestined!"

"And if you don't believe us…"

"We'll shout a little louder…"

"Augh! Shut up, shut up, shut up! We've been singing this song for half an hour already!" Kim shrieked, her hands pressed to her ears.

"All right," Lee laughed. "I was starting to get sick of it myself!"

"That makes two of us," Lauren added.

Tina looked around at all the sour faces and laughed. "I think that makes all of us!"

Even Kinaka cracked a smile at that.

"Are we there yet?" Kiko asked.

Holly tipped her head back and stared straight at a gigantic black stone castle looming above them. "Nearly," she told her little cousin. "All we have to do is climb a little more higher, and there we are."

A little over fifteen minutes later, they reached a drawbridge. Under it, about fifty or so feet down, was a series of long, cruel spikes. Most of them were stained a rusty red.

"Is that blood?" Jenna murmured to Cleo.

"I don't think I want to know," Cleo shuddered. "Just be careful crossing it!"

Kiko clutched Hikaru's hand so hard he nearly crushed it. "What if we fall?" he whimpered.

"Don't even think about it!"

Cautiously, they eased across the bridge. From time to time, Mike or Kiko would let out a little squeak of fear, but they got across all right. They ended up right at the threshold of the castle.

"Well, that was easy," Chris declared.

"A little too easy," Holly said, her brow furrowed. "Isn't this the part where the whole threshold collapses in on us?"

They waited a few minutes, but nothing happened.

"Let's go in, then," Kim said, pulling on the large bronze ring that served as a doorknob.

The door didn't open.

"It's stuck," she reported. "Stuck, or locked. We should try to break it down."

Lee, Jenna, Cleo, Hikaru, Deanna, Kim, Kinaka, Lauren and Tina all kicked the door as hard as they could at the same time. It stayed shut.

"Step aside, ladies," Chris said, pushing toward the door.

But before he could try his hand at breaking the door down, a loud yell pierced the air. Next thing they knew, Holly had kicked the door so hard that she got her foot stuck in it.

"Hey! Someone help me!" she squealed, trying to wrench her foot free.

Laughing, Lee helped her big sister out. "Kicked it hard enough, Holl?"

"Shut up," she grumbled. "At least we can try to force it open now."

With a little muscle power and a few more kicks at the door from Holly, they finally managed to break the huge wooden door down.

"I think I have a splinter in my foot," Holly complained as they crept along the hallway. The hallway was long and dank, with only half-melted candles for light. Cleo had her penlight out, but it was starting to run out of batteries.

Kiko wrinkled his nose. "It smells funny in here," he said. "Kind of like the fridge when there's a piece of rotten meat in it."

"Ew! Kiko!" Mike squealed. "That's just gross!"

"You know, he's right," Deanna agreed. She wrinkled her nose too. "Yuck. Coelamon once dragged a bone full of meat under my parents' bed. It made the whole house stink like a dead body for months!"

"That's what it smells like in here," Kinaka said softly. "A dead body."

"Kinaka," Hikaru warned, pressing her hands over Kiko's ears.

About half an hour passed, and they were still walking along the long, winding corridor. By then, there were no more candles. The only light was from Cleo's penlight.

"Uh, Lee?" Kim piped up. "Where are we going, exactly?"

"Um…" Lee stopped walking and gazed around. "I have no idea."

Cleo's penlight chose that moment to die out completely.

"We have some guests, Masters," Leon announced over the intercom from the glass chamber he was encased in. He was seated at a control panel with numerous buttons, levers and dials, keeping the Black Domes powered.

"Damn. It's those kids," Sabinemon hissed. "You go take care of them, MetalDevimon."

"Why me?" he asked.

"Because I say so! Now move it!"

"Wow! What is this place?" Mike asked, his eyes wide. They had just stumbled upon a gigantic room with all sorts of glass boxes in it. Most of them held cryogenically frozen Digimon.

"It's just sickening," Jenna said softly, pressing her hand to the glass. "Why would anyone put these Digimon on display like this?"

"I dunno," Holly said.

Then her face went slack as she stared at the biggest glass case, right in the middle of the room.

"I don't believe it!" she cried. "Lee, look! Leon's in that thing!"

It was true. They could see him working the dials and levers of a huge control panel. His dead black eyes showed practically no life. On his chest, the Dark Amulet he wore pulsated with a shimmering green light. At his side, Fangmon was standing still like a statue, his eyes a flaming red.

"We've got to get him out of there!" Holly cried. She ran up to the glass and pounded on it. "Leon! Leon, can you hear me?"

He didn't even turn his head.

Lee came up beside her and slammed her fists on the glass. "Dammit, Bubby! Answer us!" she screamed, beating on the glass as hard as she could.

While the others tried beating on the glass to try and break it, Kinaka started to examine every inch of the glass box with her fingertips.

Lauren stopped what she was doing and watched her. "What are you doing?" she asked.

"Trying to find a crack or something," she replied.

What she eventually found was an indentation shaped like a tongue of flame.

"Is that what I think it is?" Lauren asked quietly. "It looks almost like someone took your flame pendant and pressed it into the glass."

"I thought so, too." Kinaka took off her necklace and pressed the pendant right into the indentation on the glass. It was a perfect fit.

Suddenly, the glass box started to shake, while the glass itself turned a fiery red.

"Everyone hit the dirt!" Lauren yelled, pulling Kinaka to the floor.

Five seconds later, the glass exploded outwards. It was amazing that none of them got hit with any shards of glass.

"Nice work, Kinaka," Lauren said, picking the necklace up and handing it to Kinaka. It was still intact.

As Kinaka finished fastening the clasp on her necklace, there came an unearthly yell from Fangmon.

"How dare you try and stop us from helping to take over the Digital World?" he yelled at them. "Fangmon digivolve to…Darkmon!"

Darkmon let out a roar. "Dark Slide!" he yelled, sending a wave of darkness at them. It crashed into the stone floor and made a huge crater.

"Oh no you don't!" Pikkimon yelled from Jenna's arms. She broke free and stood right in front of Jenna. "Pikkimon digivolve to…Ditramon!"

Ditramon was a very large wolfish creature, with bluish-black fur streaked red. A glowing ember burned at the end of her tail.

"How did she digivolve?" Minomon groaned.

"I bet she snuck some of the rations," Chris said. "None of us have eaten since breakfast. That was, let's see, eight hours ago?"

"Who cares? Kick his ass, Ditramon!" Jenna yelled. She ran past the two Digimon and right up to Leon.

"What is she doing?" Lee asked.

She was going to say more, but she was interrupted by Ditramon yelling, "Dancing Embers!" She shot a series of gigantic fireballs from the end of her tail right at Darkmon.

Darkmon retaliated by attacking. "Jet Wing!" he cried out. Gigantic bats flew at Ditramon, but she threw fire at them and they dissolved into data.

While the others watched as the battle went on, Jenna was furiously trying to yank the Dark Amulet off of Leon, while screaming at him at the same time.

"Fight it!" she yelled, tugging hard on the chain. "I know you can! You can do it, Leon, just try! I know you're not evil! They've got you under a spell, can't you see?" Her hands began to throb incessantly with burning pain.

Leon's black eyes showed no expression while she screamed at him.

Finally, frustrated, she brought her injured hand back and WHAM! She slapped him in the face with all the strength she could muster. Her hand screamed with pain, but she didn't care.

A tiny spark appeared in his eyes, and he stood up and looked at her.

"Now you listen to me, Leon Kamiya!" she yelled. "We did not just come all this way just so you could sit there like a lump on a log and be ruled by a pair of evil Digimon and some stupid necklace with a dumb rock on it! If you have any human left in you, fight the evil! Because I'm not about to believe that someone who saved my life would be so easily influenced to the darkness! FIGHT IT ALREADY!"

She grabbed hold of his hands. "I don't believe you're evil," she repeated softly. "I don't. Come back to us, Leon, please."

She stood there with bated breath, waiting.

Leon's eyes flashed a brilliant, dazzling white, and so did his D-X. Jenna's D-X began to shine, and the light engulfed them both.

"What's happening?" Cleo screamed. "Jenna? JENNA!"

"LEON!" Holly and Lee yelled.

They had nothing to be afraid of. While their D-X's shone, Jenna's injured hands healed up without leaving any scars, and the Dark Amulets on both Leon and Darkmon burst apart into a thousand pieces. As for Leon's eyes, they changed from obsidian black to their regular ruby red color.

The light receded, and there they were. Jenna was still holding Leon's hands tightly.

"Uh, I think maybe you oughta let go of me now," he said pointedly.

Blushing, she released his hands and looked at her own. They no longer were red and raw, and they didn't have blisters on them either.

"That was amazing!" Lee exclaimed. "Bubby, you're back!"

"Aw, Lee," he groaned. But he didn't tell her to stop calling him Bubby.

Suddenly, the far wall cracked open. From the huge hole created, MetalDevimon burst out. His face was contorted with rage.

"My plan was perfect!" he roared. The floor shook. "How could you let me down, boy?"

Leon's arm went around Jenna's waist. "I had help," he said coldly. "And now I see that I should have destroyed you when I first had the Dark Spiral taken off of me. Oh, yes," he said, at the startled look on MetalDevimon's face. "I remember. I remembered everything the moment the Dark Amulet was destroyed. Now I will destroy you. Got any last words?"

"Certainly. Devil's Snare!" He sent long, black ropes of fire at them.

"Get out of the way!" Jenna yelled, pushing Leon to the ground. The ropes wrapped themselves around her, and she was lifted into the air.

"Someone help me!" she screamed, as tongues of flame licked at her. They burned her clothing and singed her hair.

"Jenna!" Leon yelled.

He shut his eyes tight. She saved my life, he thought. She saved my life, even after all the things I've done. I've got to help her!

His D-X began to beep incessantly, as did Jenna's. Ditramon and Darkmon began to glow with a pure white light, almost as intense as the light that broke the powers of the Dark Amulets.

"What's happening now?" Holly cried.

The others watched, their mouths agape, as the first DNA digivolution began.

"Ditramon…"

"Darkmon…"

"DNA Digivolve to…"

"AVIVAMON!"

"Whoa! What is that thing?" Leon cried out when he'd finally found his voice.

Avivamon looked pretty bizarre. It looked almost like a cross between a dragon and a wolf. It had a helmet with a large crescent moon on it that went over its eyes, a wolf's head, a dragon's torso, a wolf's legs and four gigantic dragon wings.

"I am Avivamon," the Digimon said. Strangely, it sounded like two Digimon speaking together, with Darkmon's and Ditramon's voices. "Don't worry, we'll beat him."

MetalDevimon laughed. "Fat chance!"

"You'll be eating your words. Crescent Beam!"

From the crescent moon on its helmet, a beam of light shot straight at MetalDevimon. It froze him right in his tracks, and he stood there like statue.

"He's frozen, everyone," Avivamon called to the little Rookies on the ground. "Help us out here!"

"All right. Starymon digivolve to…Planamon!" Planamon was twice as big as Starymon, was greenish reddish brown and had dark spots all over it like a planet.

"Usaiamon digivolve to…Bukaramon!" Bukaramon was a huge yellow sea lion with a horn on its head and yellow balls going down in a line down its back and tail.

"Auroramon digivolve to…Iceamon!" Iceamon was a cross between a big wolf and a panther. She was blue with a silver Digi-necklace around her neck and silver bracelets around her paws.

"Mikomon digivolve to…Purzinmon!" Purzimon was a lion with gleaming metal armor, with a sapphire jewel on her forehead.

"Thimon digivolve to…Thigermon!" Thigermon was a gigantic tiger that stood on two legs. He had dark yellow fur, orange eyes, green reptile skin on his snout, paws, chest and half of his tail, and three small blades at the end of his tail.

"Minomon digivolve to…Psymon!" Psymon became a large sphere with arms like Darkmon's, a longer tail, and a white stripe of fur down his back. He had large bat wings and a single red eye. His fur grew thicker and covered his whole body.

"Syramon digivolve to…Wolfmon!" Wolfmon was a large yellow wolf with a white furry mane and red stripes across his back. His legs were black and his belly was white.

"Rubymon digivolve to…Faeradramon!" Faeradramon was a huge red dragon with fairy-like wings.

"Mousiemon digivolve to…Kimmimon!" Kimmimon was a black, sleek panther-like creature with long sharp claws.

"Tyumon digivolve to…Kenkamon!" Kenkamon was a metal samurai with a gold helmet. He had a long silver sword with rubies on the hilt.

"Empramon digivolve to…Spartimon!" Spartimon looked just like a Spartan soldier, except he had a metal face guard and two red antennae-like things sticking out of his helmet.

"Donamon digivolve to…Entrancedmon!" Entrancedmon was a big yellow, blue and purple firebird with a metal band around its ankle. On its chest was a thick chain with a gigantic ruby on it that glowed.

All of them watched as their Digimon also DNA Digivolved.

Hikaru's Purzinmon and Chris's Psymon became Setramon, a black metal lion with bat-like wings and a single blue eye in the middle of its forehead.

Kim's Entrancedmon and Lee's Planamon became Ilandramon, a cherubim with golden wings and ruby-like eyes glowing all around it. (For those of you who have never read "A Wind In the Door", a cherubim is a big round thing with lots of wings and eyes on it.)

Kiko's Spartimon and Mike's Kenkamon became Tsukimon, an angel with a sword and a long, white robe. His face was made completely out of metal, and so were his wings.

Holly's Wolfmon and Tina's Faeradramon became Minamimon, an ice-blue wolf with dragon wings and scales all over its body. At its sides were two immense cannons.

Deanna's Thigermon and Cleo's Kimmimon became Coeurimon, a red and black panther that stood on two legs. It had a metal helmet that went over its eyes.

Lauren's Bukaramon and Kinaka's Iceamon became Pandoramon. She wore a ragged silver dress stained with red at the hem, a chain-mail necklace that looked almost like a breastplate, and had a silver helmet that went over her eyes. On the top of the helmet were three sharp spikes tipped with red. Her skin was a pale, shimmery blue, and on a pouch at her side was an ornate box decked out in gems.

Kiko and Mike began to jump up and down and hug eachother. "Those are our Digmon! They're partners!" Mike squealed.

Chris and Hikaru were just standing there with their mouths open. "Huh? How come we're partners?" they wondered aloud.

Lauren and Kinaka looked at eachother and collapsed to the floor, laughing.

Deanna looked over at Cleo, who simply said, "Don't look at me. I don't get it either."

Holly and Tina were busy commenting on how cool their partner Digimon was.

"That is so cool!" Lee said. Kim nodded her head.

As for Leon and Jenna, they just stood their with smiles on their faces as the seven DNA Digimon began to wipe the floor with MetalDevimon.

"Crescent Beam!" Avivamon cried. The crescent moon-shaped beam hit him again.

"Seraph Flame!" Ilandramon called out. Its wings began to beat rapidly, and green fire shot out of each of its eyes.

"Aerial Bomb!" Setramon yelled, flying high into the air and dropping a green fireball onto MetalDevimon's head.

"Ice Jet Cannon!" Minamimon yelled. Blasts of silvery blue ice shot from its cannons.

"Love Storm!" Coeurimon shouted. It spun around and around, and created a red swirling vortex that almost bowled MetalDevimon right over.

"Light Speed!" Tsukimon yelled. It swished its sword through the air, and a beam of light hurtled into MetalDevimon's chest.

Pandoramon saved the best for last. "Spirit's Wrath!" she shouted, opening the box at her side.

All at once, a whole barrage of spirits came out of the box. They all seemed to resemble Digimon. They shot straight at MetalDevimon and knocked him down, and began to eat away at him.

"AAAAAAAARRRRRRRRGGGGGGHHHHH! NOOOOOOOOO!" MetalDevimon screamed. But it was no use. He was slowly beginning to dissolve into data.

"You won't get away with this, Digidestined!" he swore as the last bits of him exploded into nothing.

Holly let out her breath. She hadn't even realized she was holding it.

"Whoa! Was that cool or what?" Kinaka trilled.

Pandoramon whistled once, high and shrill. All of the spirits of the Digimon came back into the box…except for one. This one went right up to Deanna's uncle and stood before him.

"Hello, John," it said.

John trembled all over. "K-Ki-Kibomon?" he said quietly. "Is that you?"

"John, you must go back home to your wife," the shadowy form of Kibomon said. "Catherine needs you."

With that, he flew back to Pandoramon and straight into her box.

As if that whole thing wasn't weird enough, the Digimon began to separate from their shared bodies and de-digivolve back to the Rookie level. They all ran back to their human partners, who promptly swept them up into big hugs.

"You were awesome, Pikkimon!" Jenna told her little yellow mouse-like Digimon. "I don't get it, though. How come you digivolved with Leon's Digimon?"

Pikkimon shrugged. "If I knew, I would tell you."

Once they'd all finished hugging, they stood up.

"We ought to leave now," Lee said. "Who knows, that freaky Sabinemon chick might be hanging around. And we've just been battling with her partner, so we should hightail it out of here."

Everyone was all too happy to agree. They picked up their tired Digimon and began to leave.

"Wait!" Leon said before they left. He ran to a case near where the control panel used to be and opened it. Inside were fourteen eggs shaped…well, strangely.

"Come over here!" he told them. "These things are called Digi-Eggs, but they're not the kind that hatch. They can help our Digimon digivolve. I overheard Sabinemon telling MetalDevimon about them. Maybe if we take them out of here, these things can help us!"

They didn't even need to go over to the case. All at once, each egg lifted off the shelf it was resting on and floated over to each of the Digidestined.

Kinaka examined hers. "I don't get this symbol," she complained. There was a strange insignia on it that she had never seen before. Her egg was shaped like a flip-flop sandal with a bent silver and gold nail in it.

"We'll worry about them later," Lee said, putting her star-shaped egg into her sports bag. "Let's just go."

As the kids walked out of the room, Sabinemon watched through her telescope.

"Those little brats," she hissed.

Then she suddenly caught sight of Kinaka, who was carrying Auroramon in her knapsack and playing with her necklace. Sabinemon gave a choked cry and pulled her face away from the telescope.

"I don't believe it," she said hoarsely. "After six years…it can't be…that's not Kinaka, is it? Is she?"

She looked again. But there was no mistaking her.

There, walking out of the castle, was Kinaka. Sabinemon's daughter.