Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon.
Digimon Trinity
Chapter: 10/ Interlude 2: The Man on the Moon is You.
Slowly… Ever so slowly… Matt cracked his eyes open, finding himself staring up at the starry night sky. He could feel a bone-deep pain in every part of his body, but nothing that prevented him from moving. With a groan, he sat up…and found himself staring at the blue, planetary marble rising over a dust-yellow horizon. His mouth fell open in surprise, and for one long moment he was lost in the tranquil visage that was the rise of a world. The digital world.
That's right… he remembered, finally breaking his gaze away and massaging the back of his neck. We were in a huge fight with an Apocalymon…and… He turned, finding Gabumon, lying on the ground behind him and looking none the worse for wear alongside their spacecraft which was decidedly…the worst end of wear.
"Gabumon!" Matt exclaimed, trying to stand up but nearly collapsing as pain blazed through his body at the motion. He drew in a sharp breath, clutching at an arm. Feels like I broke something…
"You'll be all right," came the voice of Tai as he came out from the wreckage of the spacecraft, bearing a tray of food. "Gabumon too. We're lucky that we're in the digital world. Otherwise we'd be…well…you already know."
"Splat," Matt nodded, still checking on Gabumon just to be sure. He ran a hand through his partner's fur and the digimon responded with a happy sigh and a nuzzle. Smiling, Matt withdrew and set himself back down. "Izzy…?"
"In the spacecraft trying to get things to work so he can touch base with Tentomon." He set the tray down next to Matt. "So… Tentomon is on the Internet now. When did that become a thing?"
"A little while after we were separated. Izzy was…kind of desperate, so he took a page from Diaboromon." He fixed Tai with a hard look. "You missed out on a lot."
"Yeah," Tai nodded in agreement. "I know."
Matt felt a spark of anger at that. "That's it?! That's all you have to say? It's been fifteen years!"
Tai peeled back the wrapping on the food tray and grimaced at how unappetizing the meal looked as a paste. "Do you want to punch me again?"
"You're damned right I do!"
Tai chuckled. "Fine. You can do it later when you don't look like you're ready to fall over. You eat this stuff?"
"Tai… Do you know what you're leaving did to us?! We all thought you were dead!"
"I know," Tai said. "Information comes my way every now and then." He grinned. "Congrats by the way on getting married. You and Sora look great together. Sorry I couldn't make the wedding or send a gift. I saw the pictures though."
"Will you stop trying to change the subject?" Matt demanded heatedly, staggering to his feet. At this rate he was going to end up punching Tai regardless of how he felt. "You owe us an explanation!"
"Yeah…" Tai replied with another nod. "I guess I do." He pointed at the meal. "Are you going to eat that?"
"For the love of…" Matt collapsed back to the ground, kicking up a small cloud of digital moon dust as he did so. Tai was acting…odd to say the least. He wondered if his being in the digital world for so long had anything to do with that. "Why did you leave?"
Tai poked a finger into some brown paste and stuck it in his mouth. His eyebrows lit up in surprise. "This is good! Beef?"
Matt gave him a deadpan look. "Tai… Was this because of Sora?"
He felt his heart thump painfully in his chest at that. The one question whose answer he feared hearing the most. He knew it was Sora's mind too and it left a dark cloud over their marriage that he felt even during their most passionate lovemaking.
Tai took a moment to savor the flavor before swallowing. He looked down longingly at the food, looking as though he were restraining himself from wolfing it down before leaning back, his fingers disappearing into the lunar dust.
"Finally got around to asking that question, huh? Took you long enough."
"You keep dodging mine," Matt shot back. Tai gave him a lazy smile.
"Just a little," he replied before turning his gaze up at the rising digital world. His expression hardened as he continued. "But you know that they weren't going to stop coming. Especially him. Dragomon."
"Don't bullshit me, Tai. Dragomon is dead. We destroyed him."
"How many times did we kill Myotismon?" Tai asked. "How many times did Milleniummon bring back old enemies we destroyed?"
Matt set his teeth together. He couldn't fault him there. Milleniummon was a unique case, but digimon were notoriously difficult to permanently put down, especially at the higher levels where they had greater power and control over the structure of their data.
"Kari misses you, Tai," he said finally. "We all do, but she misses you a lot. She was never the same after you left."
Tai closed his eyes. For a moment, Matt saw Tai's hands shake, but they quickly stilled.
"When I left," he said finally, "I thought she was never going to be the same. Not after what the Dark Ocean tried to do to her. And after what they did to TK when he tried to protect her." He shook his head. "I just remember being angry and wanting to get back at them for everything. The War… Kari… All the people and digimon who were killed. Agumon and I almost lost ourselves doing it… Fighting them I mean." He ran a hand through his hair. "Well… BlackWarGreymon isn't a bad form to take, I mean… We just had to learn the hard way that it wasn't what we needed. Vaccines over Viruses after all…"
"You dark digivolved?!" Matt was aghast.
"By accident," Tai admitted. "Well, the first time was anyway. We didn't know that the digital world had…"
"Tai!" Agumon's voice came from the spacecraft, causing both men to turn, finding the little orange dinosaur standing at the gaping hole of the crew module, waving his claws.
"What's up, Agumon?" Tai called back.
"Izzy says he's connected with Tentomon again!"
Tai and Matt exchanged looks. "Guess we'll have to finish this up later," the Digidestined of Courage said, getting up and dusting himself off. "We still have a war to fight."
"One last thing," Matt said, joining him. "Are you going to come home? The war has been over for fifteen years."
Tai narrowed his eyes at Matt. "What are you on, Matt? You know as well as I do that the War never ended. Only the villains change."
Before Matt could say anything further, Tai headed off to the spacecraft. Shaking his head, Matt quickly fell into step behind him.
I have no idea how I'm going to explain this to the others once we get home, he thought as they crawled into the craft, taking care so as to not upset the ship's balance.
"What's the news, Izzy?" Tai asked, grabbing hold of a chair and hauling himself up. The ship was…difficult to navigate now that it was on a gravitational body. Not impossible, but annoying all the same.
"Tentomon has some news for us," Izzy replied, giving Tai only the briefest of glances before pointing to his laptop. Somehow it had managed to survive the impact.
"It is good to see you all again," Tentomon's image greeted, saluting them with a claw.
"You too," Tai smiled. "I thought for sure you were a goner."
"What can I say? Izzy has a way with numbers. Anyway, I've turned Earth and Lunar satellites to our area. It would appear that there is a dimensional distortion in the area that we were in the real world. Tai, I imagine that it was caused by Apocalymon…?"
Tai nodded. "All Apocalymon do. It…kind of depends on how much power they have or something like that. At least that's what I was told by Gennai…"
"Gennai knew you were in the digital world?" Izzy asked, shocked. "I've kept in touch with him ever since the War ended and he never mentioned you."
"I…asked him not to," Tai said, looking a bit embarrassed. "I was doing a lot of stupid things at the time."
"Like that's anything out of the ordinary," Matt said sardonically, folding his arms together as he took a gander outside of the hole to see how Gabumon was doing. Tai and Agumon shot him a look before returning to Izzy and Tentomon.
"Anyway, I was investigating the distortion. I had heard rumors that the elite group of digimon called The Nightmare Soldiers had survived the War and were up to something. I've been encountering some of them here and there. They're definitely focused on the real world for some reason. I'm not sure why…" He frowned briefly before continuing. "Anyway, Apocalymon got tired of my snooping around and decided to just cut to the chase and take me down personally. I was trying to jump dimensions and then suddenly wound up in here."
He banged his knuckles against the hull of Friendship One for emphasis.
"A good thing you ended up in here," Tentomon pointed out. "I hear it's a bit chilly in space."
Tai gave a sharp laugh.
"It's possible that Apocalymon's presence caused enough of a distortion to weaken the barriers between the worlds," Izzy suggested, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. "Combined with the fact that our digivices normally home in on each other, yours may have attempted to autocorrect and simply found the closest equivalent to a gate signal it could find." He turned toward Tai. "Well, either way, you're here now. It's the getting home that's the problem now. The gates have been closed to us for years."
Tai grinned. "I know of a gate we can use."
Izzy and Matt's eyebrows rose up at that. "Where?"
"Welll…" Tai drawled out, suddenly looking embarrassed. "I do, but I just remembered that it's all the way back in the digital world. We're on a moon."
"Stupid Tai…" Matt sighed.
"I fail to see how that will help us," said Tentomon. "Fortunately breathing in space isn't a problem as long as we're in the digital world's dimension, but getting to the digital world is a different matter."
"Not necessarily. Tai did say that he traveled through different dimensions…"
"Different digital worlds," Tai cut in over Izzy. "It doesn't act like a warp drive or anything either. I'm not sure how it works really. I only know that it gets me from digital dimension to digital dimension, and there are a lot of them."
He glanced out the hole in Friendship One, contemplating the rising digital world. "I think we're in the Realm of the Celestials. If we're lucky we might be able to catch a lift on a Trailmon."
"We can't depend on 'what-ifs' and 'maybe's' right now," Matt said irritably. "Izzy, did you get a hold of JAXA and tell them about our situation?"
"I already took that liberty," Tentomon replied, raising a claw. "I've been sending them regular reports and they've informed me that they're working on a solution. However…"
"…however help may take a while," Izzy finished for his partner. "Like it or not Matt, we're stuck in digital space until we can either get the gates open again or go to where Tai says there's one available. Which means…"
"Which means we'll have to travel the old fashioned way," Matt nodded. "With WarGreymon and MetalGarurumon." He turned toward Gabumon's direction. The wolf-digimon was still unconscious. "That might take a while."
"It's better than nothing," Tai said, dropping down to join him. "It could be worse. I mean…" He stopped and his gaze changed focus, as if spying something off in the distance. A worried expression fell over his face and he immediately pulled back his cloak to dig into his pants pocket.
"Tai?" Matt asked, slightly alarmed at his friend's sudden change in mood.
"Just a second," Tai replied, bringing up his old mini-telescope.
"I can't believe you dragged that old thing with you to the digital world," Matt said with false sarcasm. "And that you haven't destroyed it yet."
"Trying to focus Matt…" Tai grated, adjusting his telescope. Matt squinted his eyes, trying to see whatever it was his friend was seeing. After what felt like an eternity, he thought he saw something moving against the background of the digital world.
"Uh…" began Tentomon, seeming to pick up on the tension in the craft. "I don't mean to alarm anyone, but I'm still detecting the spatial warp left by Apocalymon."
"Wait, does that mean we can go home?" asked Matt. Lowering his telescope, Tai shook his head.
"Here," he said, passing it off to the Digidestined of Friendship. "Take a look."
Tai pointed indicatively as Matt took the telescope and raised it to an eye. "What am I looking for?" he began, swinging it around in the direction Tai was pointing. There didn't seem to be…
Is that…? Oh! Oh… Oh shit…
Matt felt his blood grow cold as the telescope fell squarely on the familiar polygon floating across the sea of digital blue. A remnant of Apocalymon. "How…?" Suddenly he remembered Apocalymon's voice coming from the darkness just before their violent impact with the moon.
"Over…? You believe this to be over?"
"To think my work can be undone by a digimon of his caliber… You know better than that, Digidestined of Knowledge. I shall show you your error!"
"Of course…" Matt grated, lowering the telescope. "Why would it be that easy?"
"We've got to get out there now!" Tai said, pulling out his digivice. "Agumon?"
Agumon nodded fiercely and the pair immediately began to run forward.
"Wha…? Tai! Wait! We need a plan!" Suddenly lashing out, he snatched Tai by the arm and yanked him to a halt. The brown-haired man pulled free and fixed him with a harsh glare, but as yet didn't resume his run.
"Matt…" he began, only for the blond to interrupt him.
"I know you're used to working without us now, but we're here too!"
Tai was silent for a moment before giving a small smile. "No I in team, right?" He turned in the direction of Apocalymon's remaining data. As he watched, a fog of darkness began to grow around it, growing in size until it obscured the digital world.
"We need to wake Gabumon up," he said. "I think Apocalymon's going to reformat."
###
As he walked through the halls of Shinjuku Elementary alongside Ken, Davis looked around furtively, fidgeting a little with his digivice.
"Davis… Will you settle down?" DemiVeemon complained from his spot atop Davis' head. "You're making me dizzy.
"What's wrong Davis?" Ken asked, giving his friend a concerned look as they turned down a corner.
"Nothing," Davis replied, giving his friend a lop-sided grin that fooled no one. Ken let it go however, already guessing as to what was the cause behind the Digidestined's unusual emotional weather. To say that Davis had the jitters was a bit of an understatement.
It's been a while since I last saw Kari, Davis thought. I mean, sure I've kept in touch, it's just that I've been so busy running my business that I've had a hard time seeing her in person. The last time I saw her was… Oh man. When was it? I didn't even make the last Digidestined Reunion.
Davis felt awful. He never missed reunions. Everyone had understood of course as no one could expect to attend every meeting (Kari missed a few herself over the years) but to him it weighed heavily on his conscience. To him, it was the closest to what made him feel like he was accomplishing something by staying connected to everyone—so that they could all be called back together at a moment's notice when the digital world was in danger.
At least, that's what he told himself when he was fifteen years younger. Then fourteen. Then thirteen. Then twelve. And on, and on and on until it was just one year ago.
It just hurt him sometimes to see Kari, and to feel how helpless he was to do anything to help her.
There used to be a time where I was happy being who I was. It's not there anymore.
They arrived at the principal's office finally and opened the door to find Kari and Gatomon, alongside a large crimson dinosaur with a human boy. Putting on a false smile, Davis gave a wave at his friend.
"Hey Kari! How's it hanging?"
Seeing him, Kari gave him a small nod to go with an equally small smile.
"Davis," she greeted. "Fancy seeing you here." She looked at Ken. "You two are working together now?"
"Davis didn't tell you?" Ken asked, glancing at his friend, who merely shrugged his shoulders.
"I…might have forgot. I've been busy."
"Well…either way," Ken resumed. "We are. So what's the situation? A new Wild One?"
"You might say that," Kari said. "Ken, this is Takato Matsuki, a student of mine." She gestured to the boy and the digimon next to him, both of whom were looking at Ken and Davis with wide eyes, though whose were wider was up to debate. "Takato, these are two very good friends of mine, Davis Motomiya and Ken Ichijouji." She chuckled. "You already know them I imagine."
"Ah…" Takato's head went up and down, still in stunned amazement. He knew them all right. Just about everyone knew them. They were legends. Digidestined leaders who fought in the Great War against the Darkness. Their combined digimon, Imperialdramon, was legendary. Words formed in his brain, but his lips could not put them out. He was just so overcome by awe.
Three Digidestined?! Three of the great legends are right here in front of me! C'mon Takato… Say something! Anything!
"Takato?" Guilmon asked, looking at him with a bit of confusion. He couldn't understand why he was suddenly so quiet. Turning toward the taller humans, he saw the blue and white digimon sitting atop one of their heads.
That looks like fun, he thought, trying to imagine himself doing that with Takato. "Hey…" he began, pointing a claw at DemiVeemon. "You're tiny."
"Eh?!" DemiVeemon squeaked before standing up indignantly and folding his small, stumpy arms over his chest. "Hey! I'm just overdue for a growth spurt!"
"Hmmm…" Kari pursed her lips together at the boy's lack of response. "Anyway, It would appear that these two have become partners, but Takato doesn't have a license."
"Hmmm…" Ken nodded. "And this digimon has a Hazard sign on his chest." Takeru wouldn't like that… he added mentally, but chose not to mention that. "Kari, may we speak privately?"
"Of course," Kari said looking down at Gatomon, who nodded.
"Davis, you two can keep an eye on Takato."
"Uh…sure." Raising an eyebrow, Davis' gaze followed the two as they left the room for the hallway. Not exactly the most private of locations, but they were afforded something reminiscent of it for the time being. As the door clicked shut, he turned back toward Takato.
"So…" he began awkwardly. "How'd you two meet?"
"Ah… Um…" Takato squirmed in his seat and scratched the side of his face. "Well… It's a long story…"
###
"You're asking me to run around the usual channels to get him a license for a digimon," Ken said flatly, deciding to cut straight to the chase.
"I…" Kari began before nodding reluctantly. "Yes."
"There's an order to this you know," Ken said. "If I get caught issuing licenses without going through the proper procedures…"
"You've done it before," Kari said, folding her arms over her chest. "There's a student in Mr. Mori's class who has a digimon. You helped him out when his Terriermon bio-emerged." She tilted her head to one side. "I remember Yolei saying something about that."
Ken scowled at Kari. "Yes," he admitted. He was going to have to have a talk with his wife later about discussing his work with others, but for now… "He had a different digivice from our D-3's. I don't trust Hypnos when it comes to dealing with digimon and newly partnered humans. There are limits though. Terriermon digimon tend to be benign. I don't know anything about this digimon. He's…big for starters and I've never seen him in any of our data bases. And he has a Hazard sign on his chest. That is usually bad. Remember Lucemon?"
"I do," Kari nodded, tightening her hands together. "But as far as I know, Lucemon was never partnered with a human. Do you think the digital world would have partnered him with such a digimon if either of them were going to be a danger to it?"
"Takato's a good kid," Gatomon remarked from Kari's ankle, placing her paws on her hips. "He's not the best of Kari's students, but he doesn't have an evil bone in his body."
"But he's also at an age where he's vulnerable to the forces of darkness," Ken pointed out. "We may have won the last war, but it's only a matter of time before the next one. You know as well as I do that digidestined aren't immune to being corrupted."
"It's also not impossible to help them when they are," Kari said pointedly, feeling a little angry. "Or have you forgotten?"
"I didn't, but we were kids then and the digital world was a lot more off the radar then it is now."
"So you won't help me?"
"I didn't say I wouldn't," Ken sighed. "And I didn't say that I can't. But it risks compromising my ability to help other partnered children. I mediate between civilians and Hypnos, but Hypnos has all the power. If I step out of line too far or too much and make broad, risky decisions, they may decide to step in personally and that would be bad. With my record, I have a hard enough time finding wiggle room as it is."
"Ken…" Kari said, her face setting itself in a determined expression. "I will take personal responsibility for Takato's safety and wellbeing. I am his teacher. It won't be difficult to keep an eye on him. If TK…" She nearly caught her breath on his name, but she steeled herself and continued. "If Takeru has a problem with that, he can come see me himself."
For once, she added mentally.
Ken and Kari locked eyes for one long moment before Ken reached into his jacket pocket and withdrew a small card. Taking out a pen, he scribbled a date on it.
"Here," he said, handing it to her. "This is a temporary license. It should keep your student out of trouble while I sort things out…or until time runs out on this. I can't guarantee that I'll be able to help him, and if something serious happens I won't be able to protect him. Keep that in mind, all right?"
Kari breathed a mental sigh of relief. "Thank you Ken."
###
Reentering the Principal's office, they found Davis regaling Takato with a story from his time as a Digidestined.
"…and then Arukenimon ran by telling us that she was going to be back to 'destroy us in a minute' like she was our mom or something!" Davis laughed. "I was like, "Destiny Stones can break my bones but you guys are real losers!"
"It wasn't really your best, Davis," Kari joked as they closed the door behind them. Approaching Takato, she handed him the temporary license. "I've spoken to Ken and he's agreed to work on getting you a permanent license."
"Really?" Takato rose to his feet, a smile growing on his face. Quickly remembering himself he bowed deeply to the three adults. "Thank you! Thank you!"
Guilmon, standing next to him, looked on in confusion for a second before copying the gesture. He didn't understand why Takato was bowing, but since he was doing it, it seemed like something he should do as well.
I've got to listen to Takatomon, he reminded himself. He knows what to do.
"Now there's just the matter of your parents," Kari began thoughtfully, causing Takato's eyes to widen in fear. "Something wrong, Takato?"
"Ah…well… The thing is…my…parents don't know about Guilmon. And they don't think I'm old enough to have pets…not to mention that we can't have pets in our home. Plus my mom is a bit…afraid of digimon."
That wasn't exactly true, at least as far as he knew since she never expressed any fear of digimon, but he had an idea that she would not be thrilled to find out that he had a partner.
"We'll work out something," she said, looking over at Ken, who scowled at her.
"It can be done," he admitted. "But it's going to take longer. And Hypnos is the only place that has shelters for digimon, but they're usually reserved for non-partnered digimon and even then they have to have caused trouble."
"Guilmon won't cause any trouble!" Takato protested heatedly, stepping in front of Guilmon protectively. The dinosaur digimon looked baffled at his partner's sudden distress and not understanding the cause of it. He was quick to add his affirmation though with a rapid nod of his head.
"Uh-huh! I won't do anything bad! I promise!"
"Hey, take it easy there," Davis said, raising his hands in a placating gesture. "We're not saying that we're going to just hand Guilmon over to the government or anything. Are we Ken?"
"No, but he needs a place of residence. Kari?"
"I'm afraid not at my apartment," Kari sighed. "I get by because Gatomon can pretend to be a cat. Digital dinosaurs are a…different story."
"I'll find a way," Takato insisted. "I promise, I won't let you down. I swear! Just give me a chance!"
Davis turned toward the other two adults, smiling at them. "What do you guys think? I'm all for giving them a shot."
Ken and Kari exchanged looks before Ken heaved a heavy sigh.
"All right," he surrendered. "But I want you to report in to your teacher about what you're doing at least once a day and to contact her whenever you have a problem. You have to keep in contact with her. Is that understood?"
"Yes sir!"
Ken nodded, but he wanted to make absolutely sure Takato understood the situation and what he needed to do in order to have a permanent license. "Then here are the rest of the ground rules that we need to lay down…"
###
"Guilmon, stop that!" Takato laughed as he and the crimson dinosaur made their way down the paths of Shinjuku Park.
"But if we're not here to chase squirrels then why are we here?" Guilmon asked, turning away from said animal as it scurried up a tree and chattered angrily at him. "I like squirrels."
"Didn't you hear back at the school? We need a place for you to hide out when I'm at school and stuff." He looked around. "And this place seemed like a good choice because not a lot of people come here."
It was a good idea, though like his license it was not a permanent one. Japanese law could be a bit murky when it came to the rights of digimon—even after fifteen years—but it did recognize partner digimon as living creatures that were entitled to care by their humans. Having shelter was one such right, and until Takato found a way to work things out with his parents, he needed a temporary solution.
I'm glad that I get to keep Guilmon at least, he thought, smiling at his partner as they entered a wide open, sandy field with a metal fence bordering it.
"Hmmm… Pretty," Guilmon observed. Takato nodded, but…
"Nah, this feels too out in the open," he said. "Where can we hide you?" He rested his chin in his hand thoughtfully, starting to regret not waiting for Ms. Kamiya to finish her work so she could help him look. He hadn't wanted to wait though, making this a potential lesson in having patience. Still, he had plenty of time to find a place. "Hmmm… Uh…"
He stopped and looked up at the sky, still pondering. It was at that moment that Guilmon suddenly turned and growled as a shadow fell over them.
"Huh?" Takato said, catching a glimpse of movement just in time to see a yellow blur smash into Guilmon, sending him falling back into the fence, nearly crushing it in the process. The blur flipped away and landed on a tree branch, becoming a bit more readily visible. In his mind, Takato identified it as a Renamon, but so indignant at the unprovoked attack it didn't register.
"Heeey!" Takato exclaimed just as a red-haired girl stepped out from behind the tree line, a cool, almost disdainful look on her face as she eyed the pair.
"What a lousy fighter," she said in disappointment. "But a fight's a fight."
"Wha…?!" Takato's eyes widened as he suddenly recognized the girl. No…no way! This can't be! She's…real?!
"But I… I dreamt you!"
"Hmmm?" The girl raised an eyebrow at him but quickly disregarded his words. "So what?" she asked. "It's time to fight, so clam up!" As Takato looked on in utter confusion and fear, he looked up at the digimon above the girl as she rose to her full height on the branch. "Renamon! Walk all over him!"
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