A/N: Sorry for the lack-of-a-post last time. This, my dear readers, is what we call the worst time of the year: finals week. In light of finals, I opted to study rather than write, and because I didn't write, I didn't upload. Even though this chapter was finished in September. Yeah.
In my Files, this is labelled: "DA ch. 9 rewrite." In other words, it took one (or more...I think this one took three) tries to get this to work out the way I wanted it to. But! But but but! I'm squealing a little, just posting this, because...because this is when things start getting interesting! (Actually, I'm a little overwhelmed...it just really hit me, a few weeks ago, that I'm working with an insanely large cast. Trying to place them all and give them all screen time is proving increasingly difficult...I know, it'll only get worse, as the cast gets bigger - yeah, in case you Digimon fans didn't figure it out, it has to double, what with all of the partners...eek! Eek eek eek!)
Anyway. Enjoy! Review if you feel so inclined!
"Do you think this is really necessary?"
"Well, at the moment, you all kind of stand out."
"But..."
"What material is this? Strange; it doesn't feel like anything back at home."
"It's walrus-bear fur. Joe, don't look so shocked. We don't kill the walrus-bear! We shear them, like koala-sheep."
"...I think I'm allergic to walrus-bear..."
"I'm more interested in the koala-sheep..."
"Just choose something already. Is this really that difficult?"
"Yes, Toph, it is."
"I'm going outside. Call me if you need some Earth Bending done."
"...is this how shopping normally works here?"
"...kind of?"
The sun was just beginning to set by the time the overlarge group finished its activities, namely shopping. They had purchased new clothing for the foreigners-sturdy, if less than fancy, cloth for the Earthbenders; waterproof fur for the Waterbenders; light Fire Nation-imported fabric for the Firebenders; and simple shifts for the Airbenders.
Then, of course, they had to look at hats. The yellow-haired boys each received one-"no one has sun-colored hair," Sokka had warned, "it's a dead giveaway that you're strange,"-as well as blue-haired Joe.
And, by the time all of that wonderful shopping was done, it was time to return to the tea shop for the night.
At least, it would have been, if Katara wasn't insane.
"Are you kidding?"
"Come on, Sokka. Now's the best time to get them started."
Sokka crossed his arms. "No. No way. I need my beauty sleep."
Across the room Suki called. "Beauty sleep? Is that what you call it?" Sokka ignored that comment. She hadn't seen him in a while, after all.
"Please, Sokka?" Katara put her hands together and widened her eyes. Groaning, her brother put a hand on his head as he thought. If he went with her, he'd be sacrificing beloved sleep and he'd probably be forced to babysit her Digimon thing. But he'd also get to see the newcomers try to Waterbend, which could give him perfect ammunition for later...
The fact that Katara was doing her most innocent impression didn't affect him in the slightest, of course.
"All right, all right, fine." Katara smiled as Sokka sighed and nodded his head. "On one condition. I get to wear my new cloak."
A few minutes later, the four of them took to the streets of Ba Sing Seh. Katara, the Waterbending master. Matt and Joe, her newest students. And Sokka, the brother/defender/awesome-cloak-wearer.
"So. You were up early this morning," he said to Matt, letting his long brown cloak float around in the imaginary wind. He'd have to talk to Aang about helping him create the right setting later to properly show off his newest buy.
Matt didn't look at him. "Mm-hmm."
A tough guy. This required expertise. "So. What were you doing, up so early?"
The yellow-haired boy kept walking forward. "Wandering."
"Wandering? So. What were you wandering for?"
At this, Matt didn't even pretend to give an answer. He just started walking faster, now standing beside Katara.
The blue-haired boy slowed down, adjusting his spectacles. "Sorry about him. He's not usually this taciturn."
"Really. That's very...interesting." Maybe Matt was hiding something! Maybe he worked for the invading zombies...they should appear any moment now...
"Yeah. I think he's just a little overwhelmed. We all are. You'd think we'd be used to this sort of thing by now, but that just goes to show."
Sokka blinked. "You make it sound as if you've done this before."
"Well, we did, in a way. Three years ago. We're not really new to world-hopping, as hard as that is to believe." Joe smirked a little.
The Water Tribe warrior thought. Earlier, when Toph had taken away Aang and her two Earthbending pupils, the remaining eleven hadn't really talked; they had watched the Baby Digimon run around, and discussed the plant life in the garden. Not exactly interesting, but it was the best conversation they could come up with. But it seemed as though these strangers had a lot of explaining to do.
Before Sokka could ask any more questions, however, Katara was motioning the group down off of the path, under a bridge.
"So. Waterbending. It's..." Katara started, stopping when Sokka raised his hand. "What?"
"Why isn't Aang here?" he asked, as innocently as he could.
Katara cocked her had at her brother. "Why would Aang be here?"
Sokka inspected his nails, a picture of nonchalance. "Well, you're teaching him as well. Shouldn't he be learning this crucial knowledge instead of me?"
"Well, Aang already covered basics years ago."
"But Toph took him along."
"...we all know Toph's methods are far from common..."
Raising his hands in mock-defeat, Sokka grinned. "I'm just saying, I think he should be here."
Katara looked ready to strangle her brother, but Sokka was used to that expression. He was quite fond of it, in fact. "I'm letting him rest, after helping Toph train the Earthbenders. I think he deserves the break." She spoke each word curtly, as though trying to leave Sokka with no room to retaliate.
During this time, Matt and Joe were watching the proceedings with curiosity and more than a little amusement.
"Go ahead, go ahead. Teach them all you know, sister." His work was done.
Katara cleared her throat, shooting Sokka another glare before turning back to her pupils. "Okay. Waterbending."
Before she could speak, Matt raised his hand.
The Waterbending master nodded at her new pupil. "Yes?"
He looked between her and the familiar face of Joe, who was yawning. "Why are we doing this at night?"
Katara seemed taken aback for a moment before smiling.
Joe was slightly scared of Waterbending.
Sure, it would be great to be able to be closer to Gomamon, who loved the water-and he would see him again, because doubting was a waste of energy. But...
Katara was talking. A lot. Something about the moon and energy and tides and...something. Joe had tried to pay attention, he really had. He was a good student at school, the kind that fretted over tests and talked to the teachers after class had ended, to make sure he understood everything.
But this was too strange. Could they really expect him to believe that a moon spirit and an ocean spirit gave them their powers? Spirits? Really?
Then again, there was a world of data that somehow existed.
He'd have to ask Izzy about this later. That was safe. If confused, ask Izzy, and hope that he didn't make things more confusing.
"...so it's important to not go too fast, or you could lose your control," Katara was saying now. Not go too fast. Joe could do that.
Katara slowly bent over, reaching toward the stream below them. A few feet from the surface, she pulled back, her hands moving in winding circles.
Up came two strings of water, pulsing strangely in the nocturnal light.
"Why don't you two try this?" the Waterbending teacher asked, smiling.
Matt gave Joe a look that he couldn't quite interpret. It looked amused and slightly anxious. Wonderful...that was how Joe felt, minus the 'amused' bit.
"Okay," he heard himself say. This would be like riding Ikkakumon for the first time...yeah...
He and Matt both mimicked Katara's motions.
Unbelievably, the water followed them up out of its flow. Joe felt it, someplace he wouldn't be able to describe. But he knew it was there, and that he was in charge of it.
A dry clap came from behind, startling Joe, making him drop his water string. Matt nearly did the same, managing to catch his after a moment of its fall.
It was Sokka. He normally seemed slightly annoyed, slightly bored, but right now, he seemed genuinely serious. "Nice," he said, still clapping. "That's just the first step, but nice."
Back at the Jasmine Dragon, Suki was glaring at her egg.
"What are you doing?" Mai asked as she came over to sit next to the warrior. She didn't sound particularly interested, but just asking meant she was curious.
"Thinking," was the simple response Suki gave.
After a few minutes of silence, Suki decided to continue. "I mean, we've only known of the existence of other worlds for one day now."
"We knew there was a spirit world."
Suki couldn't argue with that. "Yes, sure, we knew about that, but that was a part of this world, just slightly disconnected. But...the worlds these kids come from..."
"We're not kids," came a voice from behind her. Suki didn't jump-she had known he was there-and Mai just rolled her eyes. "At least, I would guess we're not any younger than you are."
It was Tai.
"What were you saying about a spirit world?"
"You come from two worlds, correct?" Suki questioned.
"We come from one world, but we hop over to another to help out when it needs us. There's a spirit world?"
"How many other worlds are there?"
"You'd have to ask Izzy. I only knew about two, but...well, we're here now." The boy-teenager, Suki supposed, was a more accurate statement-stretched. "Now, are you done with the inquisition?"
She didn't reply.
Tai rolled his eyes and rubbed his hands together. "So. Aang's your leader, then?"
"What of it?" Mai asked, slightly defensive.
Tai raised his hands. "Nothing. He just seems young."
"He's a lot older than you think. And you're younger than...what was his name, the Waterbender? Joe?"
"Point taken," he acquiesced. "Are you ever going to hatch your eggs?"
Suki smirked; he was questioning her now. It reminded her of when she and Sokka and his group had reunited, by the ferry to Ba Sing Seh.
She decided to shoot a question back at him. "Do you guys have eggs as well?"
The teenager straightened, almost imperceptibly. "We have Digimon."
"Where are they?"
"In their own world."
Ah. Now he was on the defensive. Suki could easily compare this to a battle, herself armed with fans, himself armed with something less than satisfactory. "And why aren't they with you?"
Tai glared at her. She was breaking into his shell, slowly, but there it was, that little crack that showed what he really felt. "Because instead of joining them, we were sent here."
Suki couldn't wait to share this with Sokka. He may have an overactive imagination at times, but he also created pretty good theories.
Before Suki could ask any more questions-and she had a lot more answers she intended to receive before the night was through-Mai spoke. "What did we have to do to hatch these Digieggs, again?"
This was...interesting. Controlling water. Joe would have liked to call it impossible, but here he was, and here the water was, and it definitely wasn't floating in the air by its own accord. If he moved his hand this way...yep. It followed, as though attached by invisible strings. As though each water droplet was attached to his own willpower.
They probably were.
It was also slightly frightening, because, for some unexplainable reason, Joe kept imagining the water leaping out and attacking him.
Maybe he was a bit stressed.
But still, he had to admit, there was something...uplifting...about this new power.
Katara had taught them a few stances and patterns, which they were now practicing individually. They were pushing and pulling the water, creating a mini-tide in the stream.
"This is..." Joe said, unable to find the right word to complete his sentence.
Beside him, Matt smirked. "Yeah."
They were still working on the tides when a man came running toward them.
Joe didn't notice at first, that there was someone behind him. The water needed prodding, and he was determined to become a master. Gomamon would enjoy this.
He first noticed something when Matt straightened next to him and stopped his own bending.
"Huh? Matt, why..." And that was when he saw a shadow covering his own.
Joe jumped forward, away from the shadow, into the stream. He landed on his knees, quickly turning around.
There had been a man behind him. Directly behind him. That was a little strange, but stranger still was the expression of panic on the stranger's face.
"Dude, back off," Matt said, glaring. Katara and Sokka were beside him, looking distrustfully at the stranger.
"I'm sorry," the man said in a deep voice. "But are you the Chosen?"
"Who are you?" Katara commanded, a water whip at her side. "Why are you here so late?"
"You can't really ask that, since we were here this late..." Sokka mumbled; but he had a hand on his boomerang.
"I'm not important. I'm a guard at a nearby prison. But I hear things."
"Great. Go back to hearing them," Sokka said.
"Things about the Chosen."
"What chosen?" Katara asked, standing out of her fighting stance. "What have you heard?"
"That the spirits are angry. That something is disrupting them."
Joe didn't understand the conversation, but Katara and Sokka shared a look of skepticism. "And why would we know anything about the spirits?"
"You're friends of the Avatar, are you not? And they," he motioned at Matt and the water-sodden Joe, "they, in the hats, they are not from here, are they?"
Well, that settled things: Joe didn't like this conversation, and judging by the expressions of his friends up above, they didn't either. But then something occurred to him: the stranger hadn't answered the question yet. "Excuse me..." he started to ask, "but who are the chosen?"
"The Chosen are those that will save the Spirit World. I haven't heard much, but they will fix the boundaries." The man looked around, hurriedly. "I must go. But I have to warn you: there were eight."
"Eight what?" Sokka asked, but the man was running, back up the slope, back toward the street. Katara tried to trip him with her Bending, but he pulled up an earth wall to intercept the water. By the time Sokka and Matt climbed up to look, and Joe had gotten himself out of the water, the man was nowhere to be seen.
Suki had stopped glaring at her egg. She wished she hadn't stopped. She could understand that feeling.
Actually, she kind of missed having an egg to glare at.
Tai had helped them hatch their eggs; he had showed them how to rub them gently until they grew imperceptibly warmer and started shaking, and then...
Well, the result was in front of her. And Suki couldn't really glare at it, because then she'd feel...guilty.
Hers was small and cute in a slightly eccentric way. It had thick white hairs flourishing around its body, with grey ear-like things and grey skin around its overly large eyes. Tai didn't know its name, but he said Izzy or T.K. would, and they could ask in the morning.
Mai's was a Mokumon. Just like Zuko's. That was a nice irony.
"So."
"Yep," Mai responded, staring at her own Digimon.
Tai was grinning widely. Suki suddenly felt like hitting him, but that wouldn't accomplish much.
And her Digimon was staring at her with those enormous eyes.
"You say it'll get bigger?"
Tai nodded. "Not gradually...it's sort of a shock, the first time. You'll see what I mean. Probably." He thought for a moment. "But you guys don't have Digivices, so...hmmm. I'm sure Izzy will have an idea."
Suki's little Digimon hadn't blinked yet. Neither had Suki. If this little thing could stare at her, she could stare right back.
"...anyway, I wouldn't be too worried about having the same Digimon as Zuko," Tai was saying to Mai. "We once came upon an entire village of identical Yokomon. They get more diverse as they Digivolve..."
Suki felt Mai shrug beside her before gently putting her hand on her young Digimon's head. The creature cooed in delight, a strange, wispy sound that had probably never been heard in the Four Nations before then.
That was an interesting thought.
At some point Tai went upstairs, and Mai followed a bit later, holding Mokumon in her arms.
Suki didn't. The monster still hadn't blinked.
Shortly after the strange arrival of the man, Katara decided to end the lesson for the night.
She hated being worried, least of all worried about the stranger's abnormal message. But he had seemed so avid in telling them...well, whatever he wanted to tell them, and she wanted to get back to the rest of the group.
"So, are we having a battle meeting in the middle of the night?" Sokka asked, rubbing his hands together.
Katara rolled her eyes. "What battle?"
"Yeah, I didn't hear anything about fighting," Joe jutted in. "Saving the world, sure, that's fine. But no fighting."
"Joe, usually we have to fight to save the world," Matt pointed out. Joe seemed to deflate a bit before sighing.
"I was ignoring that fact."
"Anyway, there's no use waking everyone up. It'll be morning in a few hours, and then we can discuss this over breakfast," Katara said, turning a corner.
"But what if Aang needs to repair the Spirit World right away?" Sokka asked.
"Well, do you want to be the one who wakes up Toph?"
Sokka gulped, to Katara's pleasure. "Listen, I'm not saying that this isn't urgent. I just know that we never work well when we're tired. So we'll talk in the morning."
They finally arrived at the Jasmine Dragon, tired and, in Joe's case, wet-now that Katara thought about it, she could have dried him off instantly, but she hadn't noticed until now. The lights were dim; everyone would be asleep in their shared rooms upstairs.
One person wasn't. Suki was sitting in the dimly lit main room, staring at something on the ground, something small and hairy...
"Suki! Not you, too!"
Suki didn't blink at Sokka's outcry. "It won't blink. It challenged me."
"...I think it wants you to hold it..." Matt muttered, smirking.
"That'd be too easy," Suki whispered back. She stretched without taking her gaze from her Digimon. "It just won't stop staring."
Katara sighed. Her Puttimon was with Toph and Zurumon in her room, hopefully asleep by now. It didn't seem to like to be parted from Katara, but she hadn't wanted to risk it running off while she was teaching Waterbending. Now she was glad she didn't take it, because of the strange encounter.
"So you're just going to stare at it all night?" Katara asked.
Suki nodded. "Until it gives up."
It was a baby. Katara was pretty sure that it hadn't intentionally challenged a Kyoshi warrior. However, she decided to just shake her head and start up the stairs. "Call if you need anything. And try to get some sleep tonight. We're having a meeting in the morning."
"Oh, really? What about?"
"The Spirit World's in trouble."
