Digital Crisis

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-Epilogue-
Secrets

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"Secrets are made to be
found out with time."

Charles Stanford (1823 - 1886)

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I'm Marcus. Marcus Damon that is. Or maybe you would prefer Masaru? Daimon? Ultimate Fighter? Either way, you probably know who I am.

No? Well let me explain.

I'm not just a DigiDestined. And I'm not exactly your average human anymore either.

Still following me? Yes? No? Well too bad...

After Thomas Norstein, Yoshino Fujieda, Keenan Crier, the digimon, and every other human lent their power to us in order to defeat King Drasil, my Earth and the Digital World avoided a collision course. And when the time came for the digimon to return to the Digital World to maintain peace, I, not wanting to separate with Agumon, went with them. Together we acted as the peacekeepers for the Digital World, defeating any enemy that threatened its peace.

But only a few weeks after coming to the Digital World, I came across Lilithmon, one of the Seven Great Demon Lords. From what Gaomon told me she was supposed to have been defeated long ago and locked away deep inside the Digital World. Before he could tell me that there were rumors of her escape, she called me by my name. And then she said, "It's me. Kaiya."

For a split second I saw a grown-up form of the little girl I played with as a child. I remembered everything instantly. Including her death. The blast that was created not only destroyed the mountain range where Drasil used to be near, but caused Kaiya to lose her digimon form, and Lilthmon's warped conscience to merge with my own.

Kaiya later explained that I was something called a Bearer, a human granted great power and the ability to cross over into other Worlds, but at the price of a drastically shortened lifespan. She said that as a Bearer it was my duty to protect all the Earths with Digital Worlds, and to help the DigiDestined save all of human existence. Kaiya told me that I would also have to help her find the other Bearers.

There are a maximum of two Bearers that can be born on any of the Earths. When I asked her about the other Bearer for our World, she said, "You're looking at her. But because I died I could no longer hold the power of a Bearer, and since you were the only one left, my power was passed onto you." But then she explained, "But because my power was passed onto you, and not by an act of my free will, your lifespan will be shortened even further. I'm sorry."

When she asked if I wanted to know how much time I had left, I told her that I didn't want to know now. But if she felt that my time would be coming soon, I would want her to tell me. So in the meantime I helped her. Eventually we reached the Tamers' Digital World, and asked the Digimon Sovereign there if they knew anything about where the DigiDestined were. Zhuqiaomon immediately took it the wrong way and began to accuse Takato of betraying his promise to them. Of course Kaiya and I didn't know what they were talking about at the time, but as we later found out, Takato had made a promise to help repair the Digital World in exchange for not telling any other humans of a way to the Digital World. That was the first mistake, and the last one we would ever make.

Takato Woke. It was disastrous. The lowest plane of his Digital World was destroyed, and there was nothing I could have done to stop it. But Alice McCoy, his friend and partner, managed to teleport him away so he didn't destroy the Sovereign instead. Now she regrets that day too, almost as much as Takato.

After the Hazard Incident, which was what several digimon including the Sovereign eventually called it, Kaiya and I decided to do the least we could and help Takato and Alice repair the Digital World.

During that time we learned from the more innocent and kind half of Takato's split personality that the Digital World had been under attack by a program called the D-Reaper, originally designed at the time of the Digital World's creation to ensure that no creature grew outside its original parameters. But the D-Reaper itself soon began to evolve, learning from the data it collected, and wiped out many digimon ancestors, some of which Alice and Takato referred to as DigiGnomes. The D-Reaper's activity declined, until later when the Tamers went to the Digital World to rescue Calumon. A portion of the D-Reaper followed the Tamers back to Earth, and grew to enormous proportions by attaining a human host. Eventually it was sent back to the Digital World and regressed back into its original form. But because of this the Tamers' digimon were also sent back after reverting to their original forms as well.

A few weeks after those events, Takato found the portal his digimon had dug up in the park was still active, and decided to go through. He found the Tamers' digimon and with their help, he located the Sovereign. Wanting to help repair the damage to the Digital World, he promised to never reveal the portal's existence to anyone else. He met Alice, or rather, met her again, and the two have been partners ever since.

Takato said it was funny, really. He never expected how much a few DigiGnomes could affect a single person's life so drastically. I found it funny how such cute little digimon (They are, so don't call me a girl if you know what's good for you) seemed to just love hanging around a guy who could be inhumanly kind one moment and inhumanly cruel the next with the squeeze of a trigger.

Eventually the time came when Takato was able to leave his World entirely. After a few brief lessons, Kaiya and I were confident he was ready. So for his first mission as a Bearer, Takato was supposed to travel to the First World and locate their Bearers. But I think he forgot about the part where he was supposed to leave his weapons behind. Later we found out from the new Bearers, Kari Kamiya and Davis Motomiya, that Takato had brutally destroyed the Agent-level creature that had attacked them. I should have realized then that carrying weapons around was going to be a constant problem for Takato.

After Alice sensed it, she contacted him using their Link and asked if he had completed the mission. Apparently he was going to try and go back to his World and tell his friends where he was for the past two years and where he was going three years before that. But before that could happen he was sent on a mission to one of the lower layers of the Digital World. Then Alice was called to the Sovereign's plane. Apparently Takato had brought up the subject of telling the others Tamers the truth, and they had decided he was right. Alice was given the task of traveling to the gate with help from one Ryo Akiyama, and once arriving in Shinjuku, would meet up with Takato.

About a week later or so, we heard from Alice. About half of the Tamers would go to the Fifth World with us, but the rest would stay and defend Earth. Kaiya and I decided to recruit the remaining DigiDestined to give Alice and Takato a little breathing room. Kaiya used her human form and left for the Third World. When she realized she would need back-up she contacted me and I came right away. That prevented them from killing her, but only a few minutes after I left on an emergency, Kouichi and Kouji tried killing each other. Thankfully their Awakenings only lasted less than two minutes. Any longer and one of them would have actually succeeded.

Once everyone had settled down, Kaiya explained that we needed their help. She told them what was going to happen to the Four Worlds as well as about the Bearers and their roles in all of this. Unfortunately she couldn't hold her human form any longer, and had to retreat to the White World for healing. Before she went she told them to go to Shibuya Station and down the elevator.

"It will take you to your destination," she said before leaving.

Meanwhile, while the twins were busy trying to kill each other, I was using the very much damaged AP in their World to try and get to mine. I got it to transfer me to my World, or at least, part of me. My body didn't make it through the gate since it was closed, but my essence and mind somehow managed to make it through. Thank goodness Thomas was around to help me or I don't know where I'd be now...

After I got my body back, Kaiya and I explained the situation to the rest of my friends.

Eventually, with everyone filled in and our leave set for twenty four hours from that moment, the Bearers settled down and began to talk. We figured we might as well kill some time and get to know each other a little more.

Davis and Kari went first.

They were DigiDestined from the First World: a place where time moved faster on the Digital World than on Earth. In addition to the normal digivolutions their digimon were able to access things called Digi-Eggs, which they would use to armor up their digimon. Apparently one of the DigiDestined used to be out to conquer the Digital World using things called Dark Rings which could control digimon, as well as control spires, and a digivice which kept the uncontrolled digimon from evolving the way they were supposed to. The Digi-Eggs gave power to five digimon: Veemon, Hawkmon, Armadillomon, Gatomon, and Patamon, and were accessed using a device called a D-Terminal.

And when Kari and Davis Woke, their digimon were soon allowed to access these Digi-Eggs without the use of a D-Terminal. But that wasn't the only thing. Apparently, they could also read each other's thoughts and communicate through them, which is why I hear them almost always either speaking at the same time or finishing each other's sentences.

They had already told me, Kaiya, Takato, and Alice about their adventures, but filled in the two brothers shortly.

Soon Kouichi and Kouji went next. They were two of the six DigiDestined from the Third World. There the Digital World was only known to about fifty or so kids, which kept it safe from any adults who could ever become 'interested' in it. But there was no way for them to prove it existed. Not only because the hidden entrances to the Digital World were destroyed, but because you could leave Earth, spend months in the Digital World, and come home at the exact same time you left.

However, only six of the several children became DigiDestined. They didn't fight with partner digimon, but with the spirits of the Legendary Warriors: ten digimon who battled against Lucemon long ago and after defeating him, imprisoned him in the core of the Digital World, supposedly for all time. But he corrupted Cherubimon: one of the three Celestial Digimon chosen to govern the Digital World. Each of them were given some of the Ancient Spirits, and in corrupting Cherubimon, the five Spirits he was given to guard became evil. Kouichi was unlucky enough to receive the Ancient Spirits of Darkness, some of the many spirits Cherubimon had when he was corrupted. And by receiving this power, he too was stained by Lucemon's evil.

After he was freed from his corrupted Spirits by Kouji, Kouichi willingly joined the DigiDestined to defeat Cherubimon, and eventually Lucemon. But when he sacrificed himself to protect his injured friends, his Spirits of Darkness were soon passed to his brother. He became data and was absorbed by Lucemon, and soon after, Susanoomon, a single digimon in possession of all ten Legendary Warrior Spirits, was born. Kouji and Takuya both as Susanoomon managed to defeat Lucemon's Chaos Mode, and scanned all of his good data with their digivices.

But Lucemon's evil data manifested into Lucemon's Shadow Lord Mode and tried to go to the human world. The DigiDestined tried to mount a final assault and were defeated easily. When all seemed lost, all the DigiDestined fused with all the Ancient Spirits to become a completely unified Susanoomon. They dragged Lucemon back to the Digital World and destroyed him for good. All the data he had absorbed was used to restore the Digital World to its natural state. The DigiDestined returned home, the portal to the Digital World closed for good.

When the two were finished, they asked about Takato and Alice.

Alice did most of the talking. She explained that Takato and herself were from a version of Earth where Digimon had become a popular card game among several young children throughout Japan and other parts of the world. But the digimon eventually began to grow and grow until they reached the real world. Some were violent and tried to enter the real world with destructive purposes, while others had wills to evolve that were so strong they appeared and met their Tamer. The Tamers fought with their digimon by using cards from the digimon game to modify their digimon partner. A blue card meant that the receiving Tamer's digimon was ready to evolve to a higher level.

From the beginning life was pretty normal, but soon Earth came under attack by Devas: twelve digimon that served under Digimon Sovereign Zhuqiaomon and were sent to Earth to bring the Catalyst back to the Digital World. It turned out that this Catalyst was a tiny little digimon name Calumon, who had befriended the Tamers during his time on Earth, but also contained within him the ability for a digimon to evolve to powerful new forms should they not have a Tamer. When he was taken back to the Digital World, the Tamers eagerly went after him.

Eventually they discovered that the Digimon Sovereign were in fact not the enemy the Tamers were supposed to fight.

At this point Takato briefly explained what the D-Reaper was and why it had become more aggressive to the point when it started attacking the innocent. When he was done I could hear him whisper he was beginning to wonder whether or not he and the D-Reaper were becoming alike.

Alice continued and finished up the story the way she and Takato had when they met me and Kaiya. She then went on and explained that with her duty to help the Tamers fulfilled, the Sovereign released her from her active duties for the war with the D-Reaper. She then began to help several digimon in lower planes of the Digital World to rebuild their world. She re-met Takato almost a month later and the two from then on would work as partners in repairing the Digital World. While Takato grew mentally and physically, Alice began to come out of her shell and form a close relationship with him as a friend.

Then she said that all changed when Zhuqiaomon accused Takato of being a traitor to the Digital World. Both of them had lost their hearts by the time the explosion was dispersed and the smoke cleared, but Takato lost a vital part of his sanity.

Since that day, I've never seen a person more cruel and kind than him, I said.

"How's that possible?" Kouji of course asked.

She didn't know.

But throughout her time in his company, Alice explained, it seemed that Takato's damaged psyche, in addition to the powers he received as a Bearer, eventually created two seemingly separate personalities: the originally kind and humanitarian half of Takato which she dubbed 'Kiyoshi', or 'pure', and the cold, destructive half which she named 'Takeshi', or 'violent'. Kiyoshi tended to appear in moments of peace and happiness with his friends and the digimon, but Takeshi would be brought out quickly whenever he was required for Takato's survival, the defense of others, or whenever Takato's temper flared to severe enough levels.

Davis and Kari asked which one Takato was right now.

Alice replied that he was neither; when Takato was not Kiyoshi or Takeshi, he was 'Amari' or 'remainder', because she believed he was the result of Takato's Waking. Amari was the rest of Takato's personality without Takeshi and Kiyoshi, as well as the median between the two. Amari provided a safe transition between Takato's other conflicting personalities, and maintained Takato's psychological, spiritual, and physical well-being.

"Thus," she said. "He is Takato whenever he is neither content nor violent, but that's about all I know. However, it seems that Amari is the only one who can use Takato's Bearer abilities, and is the most logical of the three."

"We've known each other for well over a year and you wait until now to tell us this?" I asked her.

"Even I couldn't be sure. Takato was never around enough for me to tell a difference, but with all this inter-World activity going on, it's obvious now, of course..."

"Of course."

But now, I suppose none of that really matters. Ever since the first creature appeared, I knew something was going on, something much bigger than ourselves and our Worlds.

The white, warped creatures I'm sure have appeared dozens of times in all the Worlds are what we have eventually dubbed The Myriad. There are, as of right now, five different levels for these creatures: a Scout, the lowest level, gathers information for its higher-ups and has little to no combat ability; a Drone, a large and formidable foe with various laser attacks, which often hang around in groups; a Scavenger, a creature designed specifically for hunting, tracking down, and killing the Bearers, with highly adaptive capabilities to retrieve the Eyes; an Agent, a typically humanoid being with combat skills rivaling that of Takato's and my own; and finally, a Throne, which according to a report from Alice and Takato, was the highest level of The Myriad which could maintain a physical form on their own.

From what they could gather before the captured Agent self-destructed, the Thrones served their master, a being which the Agent referred to as such.

Eventually, through subsequent captures of various other creatures, we confirmed the existence of the Fifth World: a place where humans and digimon used to live in peace on one world. That was, until a group of scientists created the Chimera Project: a program designed to create a hybrid creature of both digimon and human DNA, with the purpose of studying the experimental subjects to better understand the similarities and differences between humans and digimon.

But there was a fatal back-set: the tenth experiment was a cross between the DNA of a dangerous criminal and that of a powerful angel digimon, to test the reactions between 'evil' and 'good', respectively, in a single being.

The result was a demonic humanoid who called himself The Destroyer. He and three other experiments, all equally hateful of the program which created them, rebelled, defeating all who got in their way. They attacked the Thrones' master, the head scientist of the program, and destroyed his physical form, causing him to become an inanimate creature of pure evil. He corrupted the other experiments by tainting their digimon DNA with his own darkness, thus creating the first Thrones. They attacked the four experiments, sealing their power away in an attempt to destroy all research for the Project.

But the daughter of the head scientist had become attached to one of the beings' human forms and instead cast out the energies to the other Worlds, as if in hopes that somewhere in the universe these beings would regain physical form in new humans. She was subsequently killed for interfering, her body and memories destroyed, and her essence sent away to retrieve the energies she had died to protect.

These energies eventually became what we now call the Eyes. As the Agent revealed, each set belonged to one of the four rebellious experiments. The Eyes of Thought belonged to the 'Warrior of Light'; the Eyes of Hearts to the 'Warrior of Chaos'; the Eyes of Spirits to the 'Warrior of Unity', and the Eyes of Form to the 'Warrior of Darkness'. Kaiya of course asked it what it meant by Warriors, and who they were, but that was the point where it had self-terminated, and left us with more questions than answers.

The four of us (meaning Kaiya, Takato, Alice, and myself) have never mentioned it to the others since.

We have not come up with any answers to explain the information.

I wasn't surprised when Kaiya told us to keep it secret from the other Bearers. After all, she had been hiding the ugly truth from Takato almost a year now.

You see, all Bearers are unique, not just because of the Eyes and the powers we receive, but because of who we are and how we chose to react to the situation. When I Woke, for instance, it was because of the suppressed memories of Kaiya's death that were brought back to the surface of my mind. But on the other hand, Takato Woke because of his most dangerous emotions, his momentarily damaged psyche, and the naturally hazardous energy present in the Eyes of Hearts all reacted together.

My lifespan shortened because of the presence of two Eyes within me at once. Takato's was shortened because of the several conflicting energies within him. I can't even imagine what will happen to the others.

Kaiya said that Davis and Kari would be safe, because their minds were secured in their Wakings. But then there's Alice, Kouji, and Kouichi.

Kouji and Kouichi tried killing each other as soon as they Woke. Negative energy like that would eventually backlash on them, but Kaiya and Alice estimated the average lifespan to be as long as about three more years after having Woken. When factoring in that energy though, they estimated their time left at about two years, give or take a few months.

Alice refused to tell any of us (except for maybe Takato; they're all buddy-buddy with each other and keep secrets they would never tell the rest of us) about how long she had left to live. So I'm guessing about two more years tops.

But even so, the time we have left isn't really all that important, all things considered.

The Bearers gathered the DigiDestined to save all of the Worlds. That was our first task. But now that we've entered the Fifth World, our mission is to aid the DigiDestined on their quest to save their Worlds; to protect them no matter what, even if we have to put our own lives on the line for their sakes.

Still, there's too many unanswered questions.

How did Kaiya know all of this from the start? Sure she was the first Bearer, but that didn't mean she knew it just from that; it didn't happen to me or anyone else either.

Second, why us? Out of everyone in the universe, why were the DigiDestined chosen for this mission? If there is a God, does he hate us? Or is this just another part of the 'natural order' that Alice babbles about sometimes?

And lastly, is it enough? Sure, we have seven super DigiDestined that can actually hold their own against our mysterious enemies. But even if we had an army of them we might not stand a chance.

All this goes through my head as I step into the portal and look back on the White World falling apart around me.

And I realize we don't have any other choice.

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End Epilogue

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