Author's Notes

The 04 gang will start playing a more active role eventually. And I had to completely rewrite this chapter after getting almost all of the way too, forgetting entirely that Ken actually had his crest from two chapters ago. Total oversight on my part; it's a good thing I went back and checked before posting.

Enjoy.

Crests of Origin

02/04 x-over. Everything came from somewhere. They knew the crest power came from their hearts, but before that they came from the hearts of others. Now they're learning that story as they fight for the future…and the past.

Daisuke M/Davis & Takuya K

Chapter 10

Searching for a Crest and an Answer

'So where do we start?' Yolei asked. She was eager to get going, but the task was a large one, and not one where they could succeed by aimlessly wandering about. 'And who gets the crests anyway?'

The Digidestined, old and new, looked at each other blankly.

'Ken retrieved his own crest,' Izzy said thoughtfully, 'but that doesn't tell us anything about our crests at all. TK and Kari should be in the same boat, but as for the rest of us, it's a bit of a gamble at this stage.'

'Not necessarily,' Tai pointed out. 'What's stopping all of us from going?' After a brief pause, he amended: 'besides time that is.'

'Isn't time enough?' The original Digidestined of Knowledge raised a brow. 'My calculus assignment is due in next week and I haven't even touched it.'

'If that was all I had to worry about…'

Davis and Kari would have probably snickered at that comment, but neither of them were in the room to do so.

'Honestly,' Tai continued. 'A week is plenty of time.'

'That's not important right now,' Cody cut in before the goodnatured squabble could escalate. 'How about places to look instead of who's looking?'

'Hmm…' With a few taps, Izzy pulled up his map of the Digital World, taken from Yolei's D-3 the previous year and then further modified. 'I wonder if it's possible to track their signals somehow.' He thought for a moment, then groaned. 'I should have scanned them back then.'

Evidently, that was a no-go.

'Perhaps you could scan mine,' Ken offered. 'There must be similarities between the crests, and that might be enough to find them.'

'Good idea,' Izzy agreed, and the Digidestined of Kindness began to take the crest out of his pocket before the other stopped him. 'Right now, Wormmon's the only Digimon that can reach Ultimate Level, so hang on to that for now.'

TK sighed. 'All that talking and we haven't gotten nowhere.'

'It's not a lot,' Patamon said from his usual perch on TK's head.

'It's a long day,' the blond pointed out.

'True.'

Silence fell after that, as everyone thought of their next route.

'What about where the old crests were found?' Ken asked finally. 'The base should have absorbed my crest, but it was in roughly the same place when we found it today.'

'A possibility,' Izzy agreed thoughtfully. 'Trouble is, we didn't see the Digital World in its entirety when we went the first time, and some of the locations were rather…vague.'

'Like inside Piximon's barrier,' TK laughed, remembering how his brother and Izzy had happened about their crests. 'Not to mention Myotismon had Kari's crest, so goodness knows where that is now.'

'How about yours then?' Yolei asked, making a mental note of the information.

'In the mouth of a stone Sphinx,' TK replied promptly, before growing more thoughtful. 'Let's see…I haven't seen that place since. The Pyramids aren't there any more to serve as a landmark either.'

'The Egyptian Pyramids?' Cody asked, and Upamon blinked.

'The ones from your story? Where they wrap the king in bandages.'

'That's not exactly what happens, but yes.'

Patamon blinked down at his human. 'You haven't mentioned this story TK.'

'It's a bit of a long one,' TK sighed. 'And I never was good at history. But we're getting off topic again.' He thought for a moment. 'It's somewhere in Server Desert, but not near where Machine City is, or the Koromon Village.' He shook his head after mulling it over for a bit. 'I've got no idea. Izzy?'

Izzy looked carefully at the map. 'I'd say it's about here,' he said, tracing out a large circle. 'It's hard to say exactly where, as Tai's crest transported us some distance and we didn't have the map function back then. There's no use looking for it though; the entire thing got blown up in the fight between Etemon and MetalGreymon. TK's digivice is really the only way we'll be able to track it.'

'So they wander aimlessly about the desert until TK's digivice picks something up,' Tai surmised. 'Good luck with that. I don't envy you lot one bit.'

'Especially since the nearest Gate was blown up by Paildramon when he destroyed the base,' Izzy added, half smiling at the collective groans. 'Look on the bright side; you don't have to cross the entire desert.'

'I don't see the problem,' Upamon blinked.

'Yes, well,' Poromon said pettily, 'the rest of us are a little bothered by sand and heat.'

The desert was as dismal as they remembered, stretching on for miles with no end in sight and no landmarks to ease their way. The computer inside the base had been destroyed when Paildramon had blasted its remains, so the next nearest computer was quite a distance. And they walked it, namely because no-one wanted to be caught unaware should an enemy strike, and asking their digimon to evolve for transport now that their digivolutions were limited didn't seem like a good idea.

So they were tired and rather hot by the time they arrived at their rough destination, and there they were presented with a new problem.

'Are we going to be tunnelling for the crest?' Armadillamon asked, looking at the huge mountain of sand that marked the place where the base had made its final stand.

There were several groans from the humans, and Hawkmon cringed at the idea of getting all that sand out of his wings.

'I guess there isn't a whole lot we can do,' TK sighed. 'My digivice digivice can probably track it, but I doubt it'll get the crest out of the sand…if it's in the sand of course.'

'It can't hurt to try,' Cody pointed out. 'At least we'll know where to dig.'

'Or it could be on the surface.'

Yolei nudged Ken when he said nothing. 'Is something the matter?' the girl asked curiously.

'Uhh…no…' Ken replied, picking up Wormmon when the other hobbled awkwardly in the sand. 'Nothing's the matter.' It's an odd twist of fate though, he thought to himself, that my base would go down near where the Crest of Hope had originally been found.

Yolei raised a sceptical eyebrow.

'Really, Yolei,' Hawkmon sighed quietly, enough so that neither Ken nor Wormmon would overhear. 'It's quite understandable that Ken feels uncomfortable here, if you take into consideration what has occurred here and what this place represents.'

'Ah, right,' her partner mumbled, a little embarrassed. 'Urgh, I really need to think about what I say.'

'If you did that,' Hawkmon said wisely, 'you wouldn't be Yolei.'

'Yeah, I guess not.'

Davis stared blankly after the Koromon as it bounced happily about, messing up everything it could find.

'Is this for real?' he mumbled to himself, as DemiVeemon buried himself into a basket filled with freshly washed clothes. Naturally, the washing machine took most of the credit, but Davis was known to be a klutz with electronics at times and so it was a huge relief the chore had gone without a hitch. Of course, what with the vacuuming, the cooking and what-not, he was starting to get more proficient with them…even if his father still refused to let him within three inches of his work computer. 'And for once my room was neat too.'

Anyone looking at his bedroom would find it very difficult to believe that, as clothes, math worksheets, candy wrappers and pillow feathers were strewn everywhere, with a lamp rolled into a corner, its chord stretching across the floor until it reached the powerpoint. It was only his soccer reflexes that had saved it from being a broken lamp, but the Koromon had good reflexes too because it refused to be caught.

Well, at least he had managed to keep the collateral damage to his room and the laundry room…though lot of good that would do, because it didn't look like the clothes were getting hung any time soon, and it was a miracle there weren't soap bubbles and detergent flying about. Or just his awesomeness. But he wasn't feeling very awesome at that moment. It was hard to when an in-training digimon managed to undo three hours of hard work and was on his way of adding to that. Or her, though according to Jun girls had more finesse than that.

But when the clothes went scattering about the carpet, Davis decided he could no longer try to be Mister Nice Guy. At this rate he would wind up cleaning until the end of time, and for someone who wasn't accustomed to cleaning as a general chore, things couldn't really get much worse. Especially since it looked as though he would be needed in the Digital World more often due to a new and undefined threat, but to have a free reign he would have to convince his parents that he really had gotten more responsible, and that meant collecting the money to pay for a new set of prescription glasses –

Davis shook his head, then kicked the almost empty laundry basket over the Koromon. While grabbing with bare hands didn't work, Koromon still had a limited range of movement and the basket was big enough to compensate for it. It was also high enough to make a mini playground of sorts, and the Digidestined of Courage and Friendship watched with a mix of expasperation and amusement before heading for his D-terminal and penning a message to Izzy.

Hopefully, the resident genius knew how to calm hyperactive in training digimon that weren't one's own partner.

'Hey,' TK said suddenly. 'This might sound like a stupid question, but what happened to that crater?'

The others stopped their aimless poking. They'd surveyed the entire area Izzy had marked for them in a more methodological manner, and now they were just stopping in random places in the hopes that TK's crest would have some mercy on them and make its presence known.

'What crater?' Yolei asked.

'The one we met Crusadermon in,' the blond replied, waving an arm. 'It should have been right over there, right? We should have passed it on the way here.'

The four looked around, finding the sand smooth and undisturbed.

'I completely forgot,' Ken said, his tone a little wondrous. 'That dark energy's vanished without a trace as well.' He frowned a little. 'Energy shouldn't vanish like that…unless…' His voice trailed off.

'Unless Elecmon was correct,' Cody finished. 'And time has passed between our two trips today. Enough to make this place look like nothing happened at all.'

'But how can we know what's happened?' Patamon asked. 'There aren't any digimon this far out.'

'We can guess,' Cody pointed out. 'The sand has settled and it seems firm enough, all things considered. That doesn't happen overnight. And if TK's D-3 isn't picking anything up, that means the crest must be pretty deep under.'

'Couldn't we just be in the wrong place?' TK asked. 'It's not like there are any landmarks over here.'

'We better be in the right place,' Yolei said. 'Not only do my boots, filled with sand I might add, protest, but the map on our D-terminals says this is the sector. So if that's wrong…'

'I hope this isn't a repeat of Spiral Mountain,' Patamon said, flying off his partner's head to hover in front of him. 'It was bad enough how crazy everything was.'

'Though we lucked out with the pharmacy being in the same place as the Royal Palace,' TK pointed out.

'And almost getting fried by Machindramon's goons?' the orange bat asked rhetorically.

'Well…not that part, but you did save the day.'

Patamon puffed his chest. 'I sure did,' he said proudly, before deflating a little. 'But if the desert has shifted around like that –'

'I don't think so,' Yolei interrupted before TK could come up with a witty retort. 'If that was the case, I don't think the TV would have been the exact distance away from the edge of the desert as the D-terminal says.'

'That's true,' Ken agreed. 'I think we can pretty safely say this is the right place.'

'Load of good that does though,' Armadillamon said, covering his mouth with a paw as he yawned. 'We still haven't found the crest, and this is biting into my afternoon nap.'

Koji double-checked the address purely out of habit before knocking on the door. It never did to go to the wrong apartment or house after all; a man in a police uniform knocking on your door could cause a little panic if they weren't expecting him. Of course, Zoe would have once been quick to remind him, an unexpected woman in a police uniform would cause exactly the same response.

A weary woman answered the door. 'Good afternoon, Inspector,' she said politely. 'I'm afraid I have to apologize for the mess. Nyokimon has done wonders for my son, but he certainly adds to the housework.'

'It's not a problem,' Kouji replied, stepping indoors as the woman gestured him inside. 'I can't stay for too long in any case.'

It was the truth; he had several other families to visit, each pertaining to the same overall case. While they still had no idea who was responsible for the kidnappings – though he had his suspicions that those kids knew and were protecting him – they knew now more than they originally had. The connections to the Digital World had been kept secret until the sky had opened up for the second time, and after that moment information began to spread like wildfire…at least through several extra families and the Japanese Police Force. Naturally, the officers on duty at the time (and he didn't pity them a single bit) had been rather shocked when several in-training digimon had appeared along with the missing children. So of course there had to be some explanation to cover how they'd floated down the sky and what the little talking blobs were.

He had kept his mouth shut about the fact that he already knew the latter and the rest of the apartment had been clued in. The tale of the Ten Legendary Warriors was still something only six – five now – people knew, and it wasn't something he was privy to sharing with his colleagues. It wasn't as though he was particularly close to them anyway. Even now, he wasn't close to too many people…but it suited him. Every week with the police force gave a reminder as to why he couldn't keep everyone in his heart.

Except when he was doing the more social aspect on things, like checking on a bunch of children to make sure everything was alright. It was a nice switch, but he couldn't say he was pleased…particularly as they too had the ability to go to the Digital World whenever they pleased. They must, as they had the same digivice model as the other group (and it was his business to notice such things) and they had no problem getting through his computer. Though it was also possible that any digivice would do the trick; their own ones had been converted back into their original cell phones, except Koichi's which had been lost in the Digital Space during the battle with Lucemon. While it saved them the trouble of having to explain their absence, now it was something that was hurting them.

But Koji had found that a lot of these seemingly little things hurt when one grew older and got to know more of the world.

'Officer?' a young yet deep voice piped up, and Koji found himself looking at the boy in the file and his Nyokimon. 'Is something the matter?'

'Just routine,' Koji said, keeping the sigh out of his voice. 'How are you and Nyokimon holding up?' Absentmindedly, he petted the green plant on the neck when it hopped onto his arm.

Hino, surprisingly, started giggling. 'The other officer almost ran screaming out of the apartment,' he managed to stay without stuttering, before coherence took a leave of absence and the giggles turned into full blown laughter.

'Yes, well the task force isn't exactly trained in dealing with hyperactive in training digimon.' Most of them in any case; Koji might be the only one who was, if only because he and the others had helped babysit with Swannmon during their time in the Digital World. Not to mention the babies and in-training digimon that had been evacuated to the three moons before Lucemon blew them all up.

'You're alright though,' the other commented, taking back his Nyokimon. 'Ken's parents are alright too – I went over there last week – but other adults still seem to have trouble.' Nyokimon purred happily as his neck was stroked. 'This little fella's just like a kid, causing trouble but making you grin all the same.'

Koji, who had frowned at the mention of the boy-genius, fixed his facial features into a mask of neutrality. 'I hope you haven't been taking him out too freely in public.'

The boy shook his head. 'I take him to school sometimes; there are a few other kids in Tamachi who have Digimon too, and they just occupy the janitor's closet while we're in classes.'

'The janitor's closet.' Koji shook his head. 'And couples sneaking around?'

'Oh, they take the roof nowadays. The closet's not really romantic anymore.' That all was said in a matter-of-fact voice, and the officer had to wonder where shame was going. The younger generation certainly seemed more open about things than they had been.

And there was no scratching of the neck as another officer had noted in their last visit.

'You're neck?' Koji asked, when Hino seemingly continued on his tangent. The officer had long since learnt to tune out the likes from Takuya.

'Uh – ' The boy stumbled on his words, before shrugging. 'I haven't really been noticing it. That's not bad, is it?'

'Not at all,' Koji said in his most assuring voice…which he had lots of practice in his line of work in perfecting. The task force wasn't so sure, but they couldn't spend the rest of eternity chasing after something that didn't show up in ultrasounds or X-rays, although Professor Takenouchi had managed to get a skeleton structure that resembled a digital barcode. The police had left the man to do his research and were just finishing follow-ups. Often, follow-ups were left undone, but they had a little more time than they usually had, thanks to the fright from the sky cracking open and the world descending into its fifteen minutes of darkness. 'It's good the…' One of the kids had called it a spore in their statement. '…the spore's not bothering you at all.'

'Hmm…' The boy hummed, as if debating with something. 'Officer? Do you think it's fair?' He suddenly looked a little insecure. 'I mean, we've got digimon partners but most of the world doesn't. I mean, it makes sense for the others, like Ken and Davis and everyone. They save the world, but us? We just got kidnapped and caused trouble for everyone.' When Koji hesitated, he quickly added: 'The truth please. I don't need to be patronised.'

Koji nodded at that; it made sense after all. 'I don't, he said simply.

The boy nodded at that. He seemed to have expected that answer. 'I'm glad I've been lucky,' he said after a brief moment of silence. 'I don't deserve it, but I'm glad.'

It was an incredibly mature thing to say, but Digimon were more than just innocent playmates.

Izzy expected pandemonium when he knocked on the door of the Motomiya's apartment, but what he couldn't hear anything that affirmed that assumption. He wasn't particularly pleased; he had started studying as soon as the others had left for the Digital World and wasn't too thrilled by the interruption. Still, he was flattered Davis had called and he couldn't possibly deny the request for help.

DemiVeemon pushed the door open for him. 'Help,' he pleaded, eyes wide. 'That Koromon is a nightmare.'

'Koromon?' Izzy repeated. 'It's at the in-training level already?'

'It's about to knock over the laundry basket,' Davis' basket said, hopping to Davis' bedroom. Izzy followed, slightly bemused – until he stopped in the doorway and saw the stack of things crushing the laundry basket…with Koromon bouncing and swinging happily inside.

'It ate all the chocolate too.' DemiVeemon's small ears drooped as he thought of the delicious bars he had been planning to enjoy later in the day.

'Yes, that is a tragedy,' Izzy said distractedly. 'Where's Davis?'

'Hanging up the washing,' the in-training digimon replied. 'I'm on guard duty.'

Davis appeared at that moment, though Izzy hadn't been planning on saying anything as to the lack of guarding in any case. 'Thank goodness,' he said with a bit of a pant, before quickly rushing in to stop the pile of books and weights from crashing onto his floor. 'Not even DemiVeemon's this hyper.'

'I'm nowhere near that bad,' the blue digimon pouted.

Izzy looked thoughtfully at the Koromon. 'When exactly did he hatch?' he asked.

Davis tried to shrug, having to resort to a verbal negative when the action failed. Steadying the laundry basket with the Koromon's enthusiastic bouncing took more muscles than he had initially realised. 'You'll have to ask Matt,' he answered. 'Some time after the others left I think.'

'Still, that's pretty fast.'

After another minute of thinking, Davis grew exasperated. 'Izzy, mind actually helping instead of standing there! I've got other chores I need to get done before Mum gets home.'

Izzy wasn't paying attention, looking at the chocolate wrappers. 'Did you give him the chocolate?'

'No!' came two voices at once, before Davis did a double-take. 'When did that happen?'

'About the time when you were hanging up your boxers next to your sister's –'

Davis quickly grabbed the in-training digimon. 'Remind me to teach you what not to say in outside company,' he sighed, a little red at the thought of his sister's undergarments. That was one of the more awkward aspects of the chores, but Jun claimed he was old enough to be mature about it.

He hoped awkward blushes counted as maturity…and it was a good thing she didn't get much exposure to DemiVeemon's naiveté.

'So this was after he digivolved?' Izzy successfully got the conversation back on track.

'He came here as a Koromon,' Davis replied. 'And he hasn't stopped bouncing and swinging si – woah!' He lost his balance at a particularly strong bounce from Koromon, and the avalanche of things came crashing down on top of him as the pink blob happily bounced through the doorway.

Izzy blinked, then groaned. This was not what he had signed up for.

Koji's couch cushions were nothing to be interested by…except in Terukazu's eyes it seemed, because the toddler had latched onto a couple of them and was happily alternating between stacking them, squashing them and spreading himself on them. The others had gotten tired waiting for Koji – though he had told them he'd be late – and gone home after noting the Digital World gate had closed, but Zoe was stuck with her only child refused to leave the cousins in peace.

Zoe considered leaving a note for Koji and just borrowing the cushions, but decided they weren't in any particular hurry after all and left Terukazu be. Her own head lounged on the edge of the sofa, not as comfortable as her pillow at home but enough for her to rest her head on. JP had left the earliest of all of them, having work to get back to since he had only managed to get half a day off.

Which reminds me, she mused, I thought Koji said he had the whole day off. Though, when she thought further, she realised Koji hadn't specified how much of the day he had off. Since he was just visiting houses, the times could have probably been shifted around…or dumped on some-one else's shoulders. Though she could have sworn she asked if he was still on surveillance…though the meanings differed between a civilian and a police officer she assumed.

She let a smile grace her face. Typical Koji, being selfless and never admitting it. Suddenly though, she thinking instead of Kouichi, of little things from how he always drew her hair in motion to big things like how he'd given his life for all of them and then called it selfish in retrospect, and she found herself missing him dearly.

Terukazu crawled onto her lap, as though he sensed her sudden sadness.

'Aren't I being silly?' she said to him. 'That just came out of no-where, didn't it?'

The boy happily gurgled, though he was capable of speaking as eloquently as any three year old, before crawling over to the table leg – and the laptop, now in hibernation.

'Over here honey.' The blonde held out an arm and Terukazu considered a moment, before crawling over. 'Uncle Koji won't be too happy if you break his laptop.'

Terokazu came into his mother's hold, but he found himself staring after the computer too. Zoe followed his line of vision, thinking only the Digital Gate was a new source of fascination. Terukazu had certainly never been interested in computers before.

'Can I play?' he asked solemnly.

'Play what sweetie?'

'Your game.' He paused, looking up at her with bright eyes. 'And Papa's, and Uncle Tommy and Uncle 'kuya and Uncle Koji and Uncle Koichi –' who had just as much as a presence in little Terukazu's life as the others despite his physical absence from it, ' – and Aunty Kazemom –'

'That's Kazemon.' But Zoe couldn't help but smile. The little slip-up always brought a smile to her face, but this time it brought another thought as well. 'Shall we go home then and play together?'

She could have just booted up Koji's copy of the disk, but it wouldn't feel right. There were six copies, one for each of them (even if two were now in Koji's possession) and they were precious. Records of their adventures in the Digital World, obscured so only they could see the truth between animated little blobs and their adventures. The design she knew was far more intricate than it appeared; large forms that had been hidden behind a firewall of intense security in a matter she could never hope to understand. She wasn't a designer after all, but Tommy understood even at that age how to lock their precious memories away while sharing them with the world. Her role in that creation had been something else entirely, but each of them had pulled their strengths and created the memento.

An enthusiastic nod from Terukazu answered her suggestion, and the cushions were forgotten. The trail of thought remained, and Zoe carried it with her as she left. None of them had thought to get some form of contact details from the group of Digidestined that had fallen into her lap, but they could have answered questions that had long since plagued them. Part of her wondered if she truly wanted them answered; some of them would be cruel no matter what happened thereafter. At least they could imagine the best scenario…but the inverse was also true, in that they could dread the worst of all…

But there was one that was reasonably safe, and that was what had happened to Lowemon, and the other Legendary Warriors.

Yolei plopped down onto the sand, ignoring its scorching heat. Armadillamon's shell looked more inviting, but he was already housing a bedraggled Hawkmon and Patamon so that was out of the question. Wormmon still seemed okay; while he wasn't a desert-dwelling creature by nature, its hard exterior skeleton was proving to be a great advantage as he hurried after his brother. Ken was still rather silent, pausing every now and then to shake his head but otherwise diligently tracing tracks into the sand.

TK was starting to wonder if the crest really was around; they'd yet to even find a trace of the Sphinx that had once housed it or the Pyramids that marked its location. His feet were killing him, and the endless searching was exceedingly frustrating. The sun would be setting soon as well, and he didn't want to see how cold the desert turned in the night.

He opened his mouth to suggest turning back and heading to the Real World after declaring defeat, before stopping as he felt a sudden chill. 'Guys,' he said slowly, wrapping his arms around himself. 'Did you feel that?'

Patamon nodded but the others shook their heads…except for Wormmon and Ken. The former, having finally latched onto the latter's pant leg, was shaking it gently. Ken didn't seem to notice however, continuing to walk methodologically until he covered every square inch of sand with his footprints.