Disclaimer- I do not own Digimon or the idea of Digimon I only own the characters I make up and this storyline. Digimon is copy righted to Bandai, Toei, and of course it's Original Creator and anyone else who might hold the copy right for it.
Edited July 25. 2014 – Errors, grammar, word flow and other things that was missed the first time around.
Chapter Ten No Thanks Needed
"The idea that those two could have a fight that made one of them want to avoid the other when possible seems strange. I mean could you ever see yourself and Tsumon having a fight that would make you react the same way?" he asked her.
Calilimon shook her head as she carefully replaced the frame in its original spot. "No, not really. I mean even after he became Shaitanmon I was trying to hunt him down to help him. Not once did I try to avoid my brother though there were times I found myself glad that I didn't find him since I knew it would end in fighting," she answered as she turned to look at him. "At least not everything is bad right now."
Takeru nodded. "You must be relieved to have heard about Tsumon."
"For the most part yes since I don't like the fact that he still has some damage to him."
"As Gennai said there isn't anything we can do about it we'll just have to wait and see what happens," Takeru reminded her and she slowly nodded.
"Takeru?"
"Hm?"
"Sorry that the two of us have caused you so much trouble…"
Takeru slowly opened his eyes then sat up in bed as his alarm went off. He turned slightly so he could turn it off then looked towards his desk. Last night Trace had decided to set the futon up that Takeru had brought him in front of it. Since it was instead in the corner of his room folded up he guessed Trace and Rascmon where already up. "Somehow I didn't think he was the type to get up early," Patamon said as he walked to the foot of the bed then hopped down to the floor to head for the door.
"He probably didn't sleep," Takeru told him as he stood up and went to fetch his uniform. After Takeru had changed into it he went to find Trace. He ended up finding the older teen sitting at the table speaking with his mom. Since he was actually speaking to her Takeru figured he had guessed correctly about Trace not sleeping. Patamon was there as well talking to Rascmon. When Takeru joined them Natsuko began to serve breakfast.
"Trace what are going to do until school gets out?" Takeru asked after they had eaten. They had gone back to his room so Takeru could fetch his school bag.
"Dunno haven't really thought about it," Trace answered shrugging his shoulders. "I'll probably go see if Krista needs any help with what she's doing or spend the day with Lee." Takeru nodded wondering if he was still going to avoid Luna or if he was actually going to attempt to talk to her. "After your school gets out is it alright if I come back here? I want to talk to you about something…"
Takeru turned to look at Trace as he adjusted the strap on his messenger bag. "Sure that's fine," Takeru told him and Trace nodded before standing up and leaving Rascmon following after him.
"I wonder what he wants to talk about," Patamon said as he flew over to Takeru landing on his shoulder.
"Hopefully about what happened between him and Luna," Takeru said as he walked towards the door.
Takeru walked with Miyako, Iori, Hawkmon and Armadimon towards the high school talking with the two and their DIgimon. Of course Iori and Armadimon couldn't go with them the entire way since Iori was still in middle school, but he did go as far as he could with them before the two wen on their way to the middle school. Then Miyako, Takeru and their Digimon meet up with Kohana and Tsumon on the way and when they reached the school they ran into Daisuke and Ken who were talking about their soccer club meeting they had before school their Digimon already off to their normal place and would soon be joined by Hawkmon, Tsumon and Patamon. After everyone had switched to their indoor shoes they walked to their classes Hikari joining up with them in the hallway.
Takeru and Hikari where both surprised at the start of class when, their homeroom teacher walked in followed by a familiar redhead. "Class we have a transfer student joining us today," the teacher announced while Aiden began to write his name on the chalkboard. He was slow at writing the Kanji for his name showing he wasn't that used to writing it which Takeru found strange with how fluently he had been speaking Japanese when they had met him. He had actually thought he might have had a Japanese parent like Kohana. Now he was wondering if maybe his parents were from the United State's of America's army base.
"Hello my name is Aiden McTroy please to meet you all," Aiden introduced himself after he finished writing his name on the board and bowed. Nothing else was really said except the teacher telling Aiden to take one of the empty seats near the back of the classroom then the class really began. By the time lunch came around more than one student in the classroom had become curious about the transfer student. Thus when the bell rang to signify the beginning of the lunch period Aiden found himself in the center of a large group of his classmates.
Hikari, Takeru, Kohana and Ken on the other hand had gathered around Daisuke's desk. "Isn't he the boy you ran into yesterday?" Kohana asked Hikari, who, had told her about the encounter while they had played monopoly yesterday.
"Yeah it is. It's kind of strange to meet him yesterday only to find out today he's transferred into our class," Hikari told her.
"I wonder if Patamon and the others happened to run into his Digimon," Takeru said off-handily. Most likely if they had there was a good chance the small Digimon was looking for Takeru to tell him since there would be no way for Patamon to know that Aiden had transferred into his class.
"I actually thought he was younger than us. Like around Iori's age or something," Hikari stated.
"Why's that?" Ken asked as he turned to look at her.
"I don't know. I guess it was just the way he had acted," Hikari answered not entirely sure herself as to why she had thought that.
"Why don't we go over there and talk to him?" Daisuke asked looking at the others.
"Because right now he's dealing with most of the class and it would be hard to actually talk to him with them all wanting to ask him questions," Takeru pointed out. He couldn't really blame them since it was quite obvious that Aiden wasn't from Japan. It wasn't very often that their school had students like that though it wasn't unheard of occurrence due to the before mentioned base.
"Well we won't be able to try after school at least Ken I won't because we have to help Taichi and the others," Daisuke said.
Takeru had an idea of what Daisuke was trying for so he spoke up, "I can't either. Trace wants to talk to me about something after school."
"It'll probably be best to just wait until Monday then," Hikari said and the others agreed with her. For now they collected their bento boxes up wand went to join their Digimon for lunch. Surprisingly enough Patamon and Tailmon hadn't seen Aiden's two Digimon. After he had finished eating Patamon flew around the school to see if there was a chance they were here, but he didn't spot them.
"It's probably because he doesn't realize they could have come with him," Ken said as they walked back to class.
"Why wouldn't he?" Daisuke said glancing at Ken.
"From what I've heard it's actually not common for schools to allow Digimon to come. The one he attended before coming here probably didn't allow them."
"I wonder how many of those schools have trouble with Digimon sneaking in."
"Probably quite a few since Digimon don't like being separated from their partners very long."
-X-
After school let out, Takeru walked home accompanied by Hikari and Kohana as well as Miyako since she had to help her parents out today in the store. With how little they had been finding in the Redwood Realm it wasn't going to interfere with the search as far as the others where concern. When they reached the apartment complex Miyako and Takeru lived in Hikari and Kohana said goodbye since they would be going over to Hikari's apartment to hang out for awhile. Miyako walked with Takeru as far as her floor then said goodbye as well.
Takeru was a bit surprise to see Trace and Rascmon waiting for him and Patamon outside of his apartment. He had actually expected to have to wait a bit before the other teen had arrived. When Trace noticed Takeru he gently nudged Rascmon who was asleep making both Takeru and Patamon wonder just how long they had been waiting for them. "Anything interesting happen at school?" Trace asked as Takeru walked over to the door to unlock it.
"If you're asking about if Kitsumon happened to attack no, but we did get a foreign transfer student today," Takeru said as he unlocked the door and walked inside.
"Kind of strange that someone transferred in at the end of the week. I wonder why they didn't just wait until Monday," Trace wondered as he waited until Takeru motioned him to follow before actually entering the apartment.
"Maybe his parents didn't want to wait?" Patamon suggested as he hopped down onto Rascmon's back. Rascmon glanced at Patamon before heading into the living room to wait for the two teenagers that had to change their shoes for slippers.
"I guess that's possible especially if they had to work today," Trace conceded.
After the two teens had the slippers on they followed after the two Digimon and sat down. Takeru then waited for Trace to say something since it was him that was wanting to talk and it took a bit but the older teen finally spoke, "I never did tell the two of you why I wear these gloves, did I?" He held his hands up so Takeru could see his gloves.
Takeru shook his head. "No I just always figured you wore them because you liked them," Takeru answered wondering what was special about them. He seemed to remember hearing something about them, but it was a bit hard to recall so he figured it had to have happened when Kitsumon had the two of them captured.
"When I was younger and my parents was still alive I was playing out with some of my cousins and Luna in the realm my family originates from. I know I told you my uncle was the one who held the key before me and because of that most people believed it would be one of his children that would show signs of being the ones who were supposed to be the next owners of the key. My parents only had one key between the two of them and since Luna had already showed she was going to get it they thought that the rest of us wouldn't have any," Trace told them.
"But they were wrong since all of you have a key… Unless you have more siblings that I don't know about," Takeru said and Trace shook his head.
"No Lee is the youngest of us so you won't see any more siblings popping up, but it's actually quite rare what happened. For every child of one key wielder to end up with a key, but granted we don't have them all since one of our cousins did get one and some of the other families involved with the key's had kids inherit some," Trace informed him and Takeru nodded. It made him wonder if any of the other key wielders where going to show up. He hoped not because it was confusing enough as it is.
"Any way the realm we grew up in had troubles of its own that I won't go into detail about, but we were supposed to stay within the backyard since it was safe or at least it was supposed to be. Somehow something that wasn't supposed to be able to get in did. The best way to describe it would be a monster kind of like the ones you see in movies or read about in books. My cousin's spotted it first and took off for the house while Luna and I didn't realize it was there too caught up in the game we were playing until it was almost on top of us. We ran heading for the house as well, but Luna ended up tripping half way there and I went back for her. The monster got to her first and managed to hurt her pretty badly before my uncle showed up and killed it. My uncle picked Luna up and ran past me intending to take her inside and call for help. The instant he ran past me I saw just how badly she had been injured and I lost it," Trace explained looking at his hands before looking at Takeru.
"Normally only the palms of my hands can actually do any damage with my ability, but there are times when my emotions affect this and anything near me could be harmed. That's what happened back then and since no one had expected it to happen no one was prepared to deal with it. I actually ended up hurting my uncle badly which was why I got the key as early as I did. The only reason I didn't hurt Luna and my cousins as well was because my uncle was able to counteract what I was doing with his own ability. By then my parents who where next door had arrived and my mom used her ability to make these gloves which at the time drained me of what power I had to where I couldn't really do anything. Later on she was able to modify them to where this only happened if I lost control again and kept accidents from happening as I grew up and learned how to control it."
"I'm guessing you're telling me this because something similar happened recently?" Takeru guessed and Trace nodded.
"Up until now Luna had been the only one that was safe around me all the time because of the fact we're twins and as twins we're very close to one another. If something big happened that upset me that would cause me to lose control she always managed to help me keep my emotions in check to where I wouldn't and if she couldn't she was there to either repair whatever I might have accidentally destroyed or keep me from somehow harming others until the gloves could drain enough power from me to stop me. Until now she was also the only person that has seen me lose control and wasn't somehow afraid of me," Trace answered.
"What exactly happened?" Takeru asked noting that both Rascmon and Patamon had left at some point.
"After we left your apartment Luna confronted me about something. It was something that Kitsumon had been using to torment me while he held me captive before he got a hold of you so it was a bit of a sore spot for me. I didn't want to talk about it and I had hoped she would drop it all together, but she didn't and kept pushing. I got upset and at that moment when I lost control she realized two things; one that she most likely couldn't calm me down easily since she was the one who had upset me and two I was now stronger then her because of what happened and she was most likely going to end up hurt because she couldn't counteract what was going to happen. So she did what everyone else has done when facing me like this. She became scared of me…"
Takeru wasn't quite sure what to say at this point. He had never seen Trace lose control or what could happen when he did so he couldn't argue for or against what had happened with Luna. There was one thing that he was sure of though. Luna hadn't been hurt in the end. "At least you didn't end up hurting her," Takeru told him.
Trace smiled though it was a sad one and said, "Only because the idea that I might actually hurt her and the realization she was scared was enough for me to gain control long enough to get away from her. A couple of trees didn't survive because of it though."
"So are you avoiding her now because you're afraid you might hurt or something else?" Takeru asked him.
Trace thought over the question for a moment before he answered Takeru, "I don't know. If I was afraid of hurting her then I probably would be avoiding everyone even Rascmon so I wouldn't hurt anyone, but that obviously isn't happening."
"Then shouldn't you try talking to her? I called her yesterday to tell her you where here and she seemed pretty worried about you. Krista seems to be as well since she was the one who suggested letting you stay here since you obviously wanted some time away from Luna," Takeru told him and Trace just shrugged. Takeru felt like sighing, but didn't to keep from Trace interpreting wrong. He was frustrated with himself because he had never been good dealing with situations like these and he wanted to help his friend, but he didn't know how. "My mom told me last night you can stay here for as long as you like but I honestly think the longer you put off talking to her the harder it's going to be."
"Thanks, Takeru," Trace told him and this time Takeru shrugged. Another thank you he wasn't quite sure why he had gotten it. He'd been getting them a lot lately since this whole thing with Shaitanmon and Kitsumon started.
By the time Takeru had started dinner since his mother was coming home late tonight Trace had decided to stay another night. This resulted in Krista stopping by in order to drop off a duffel bag for Trace. "I talked to Kohana earlier today at Hikari's," Krista told Takeru and Trace while Trace dug through the duffel back to see if his sister had forgotten anything.
"About what?" Takeru asked her.
"About what I found out about her getting a crest or not," Krista told him watching her brother thinking it was amusing that he believed she would forget something after taking care of him so long. Between the two of them he was more likely to forget something in his own packing then for her to do it.
"What did you find out?" Patamon asked from where he sat on Rascmon's back. The small Digimon was beginning to like riding around on the dog Digimon's back since his fur was soft. The only problem he had found so far was Rascmon put off a lot of heat. So far Rascmon hadn't been bothered by him and after what Trace had said about him the small Digimon doubted that he would be.
"I can't give her one," Krista told them.
"Why not?" Trace asked as he looked up from the duffel bag at her.
"It'll do just what you feared it would. It'll destroy the protection Takeru's and the others crest added to the Digital World. However I might be able to come up with a different way for Tsumon to be able to evolve and if it works others could use it as well," Krista told them.
"I hope you can," Takeru told her causing Krista to smile. "What?"
"Nothing," Krista told him and Trace chuckled slightly knowing what Krista was thinking. It was almost like a guarantee it could happen now after what Takeru had said.
"Somehow I have a feeling I missed something," Takeru muttered as he went to check on what he was cooking.
"You did," Trace called after him as he stood up satisfied with what his sister had packed. She had even remembered something he kept leaving behind lately on accident; his mp3 player. "Just what are you thinking of having Luna make?"
"Well I thought about what you told me and what the others have told me about what Gennai had said not to mention what I already know. Crest and Digivices harness the feelings of the users to help the Digimon evolve. While Digivices use every day feelings the crest use the feelings and attributes the holder of the crest happens to feel, express and believe in better and more clearly than the others. All in all the purpose is to provide power to the Digimon to speed up what they would have at some point have naturally attained," Krista explained.
"And now that it helped them they can easily do it on their own," Trace realized since he had seen Patamon and the others evolve to higher forms without the help of the Digivice's anymore.
"Yes but this is also thanks to the core Qinglongmon gave them since it was used to unlock their evolutions so they would no longer need them unless in an emergency like say Patamon had evolved to Seraphimon the day before and needed to again today," Krista told him.
"So what are you going to try and make something like Qinglongmon's core? Or something else entirely?" Patamon asked following the conversation somewhat.
"No nothing like that since it would probably risk causing some damage to the Digital World when it was brought there. I'm going with the second option making something else entirely. Something that'll connect to the Digivice somehow since that is crucial that'll somehow unlock Tsumon's higher stages without causing harm to the Digital World. The problem is figuring out just how to do it," Krista told him and Patamon slowly nodded not quite sure he understood what she meant.
"Good luck with it Kris since from what I can see you are aiming for an impossible goal," Trace told her.
Krista rolled her eyes at Trace's comment. "Yeah well achieving the impossible seems to happen a lot when you hang out with these kids," Krista commented while pointing in the direction Takeru had gone.
"Good point," Trace conceded.
Krista took a few steps towards her brother and ruffled his hair a bit until he pushed her hand away. "I still can't believe you cut it off like this. You use to fight us all the time to keep it long," Krista said smiling a bit at him.
"Yeah well things change," Trace mumbled and Krista nodded in agreement but the smile disappeared.
"Try not to cause too much trouble for him Trace. Both him and Patamon are trying their best to help you even though they probably can't really understand what has happened between you and Luna," Krista told him and he nodded.
"So she told you?"
"Nope she refused to tell me what had happened, but it isn't too hard to figure out. Any way I better go now," Krista told him as she headed for the door. Wizarmon hadn't followed her inside, but had waited for her outside by the door.
"Thanks for dropping this off Krista," Trace told her pointing to the duffel bag.
"No problem Trace," Krista said then left.
-X-
The next morning Takeru found out just what Luna had meant when she had warned him Trace would probably act distant upon waking up. He had actually been a bit surprised to wake up and see that the older teen was actually asleep with Rascmon lying next to him. Both he and Patamon had left the room as quietly as they could so not to wake them. About an hour later had Rascmon walking out of the room followed by Trace, who was obviously still half asleep. Takeru had gotten the two of them something to eat and while Rascmon had thanked him and even started a conversation with Takeru and Patamon, Trace remained silent while he ate.
"Did Luna happen to warn you about this?" Rascmon asked Takeru as he and Patamon washed dishes.
"Yeah she did though I didn't actually think he'd come out of the room until he was sure he was really awake," Takeru told Rascmon as he glanced at Trace who was still sitting at the table and obviously trying not to fall back asleep. His headphones where rested around his neck and his Mp3 player was set on the table.
"It seems to take longer if he avoids everyone entirely from what I've been able to tell," Rascmon told him as he also glanced over at Trace.
"I didn't think it would be so hard for him to wake up with how little he does sleep," Patamon commented as he put a dish back up in the cabinet.
"The more screwed up your sleep schedule is the harder it is to wake the fuck up when you want to," Trace said causing both Takeru and Patamon to look at him. They didn't realize he could hear them.
"He's still adjusting," Rascmon informed them. "It's obvious because of the cursing. Since you two are his friends the only time he'd curse around you is if he was cursing someone out or in instances like this." Trace mumbled something in remarks to what Rascmon had said, but Takeru was unable to hear him. It was obvious Patamon was trying to pretend he hadn't and Rascmon just shook his head slowly. "Trace if you don't keep your mouth shut until your fully awake I am going to prove this is the waking world and I promise you, you won't be happy by how I do it," Rascmon threatened growling slightly at Trace. After that Takeru decided he didn't want to know just what Trace had said.
Trace seemed to have decided it was a good idea to keep his mouth shut after Rascmon's threat because Takeru didn't hear anything from him for half an hour and when he did speak there was no cursing involved. "Sorry Takeru, normally I don't sleep when I'm at someone else's house, but I kind of passed out last night after the lights went off," Trace apologized as Takeru sat down at the table.
"Don't worry though I am kind of shocked Rascmon actually threatened you," Takeru said looking at the dog Digimon.
Trace shrugged not really caring that Rascmon had and said, "He'd only actually carry out on his threat if he thought he really had to." Trace looked at the dog Digimon as well and patted him on the head.
"Do I want to know just why he'd have to carry out a threat?" Takeru asked and Trace shook his head. "Thought so, any way I got a call from Lee while you and Rascmon where still asleep. He wants to go hang out at the arcade with us since your sisters went to help Taichi and the others find where exactly Kitsumon was trying to take us before we managed to escape. From what I can tell he's a bit upset that they didn't let him come along to help."
"It's fine with me are Hikari and Kohana going to come with us?" Trace asked as he stood up to go change into everyday cloths since he was still in his pajama's unlike Takeru who had changed in the half hour Trace had been quiet.
"Yep since I'll get chewed out if I go anywhere without someone else that has a Digimon that can evolved to Ultimate," Takeru told him as he texted Hikari.
"Can't be too bad since you get to spend all this time with Kohana," Trace said off offhandedly as he walked towards Takeru's room.
Takeru groaned a slight pink tint to his cheeks, "I get enough of those type of comments from my brother don't you start up as well!"
"But that won't be any fun!"
"Yeah well I know the reason why you keep going to this certain arcade so watch it!"
That caused Trace to open the door up as he finished pulling his t-shirt on. "I am going to teach Lee what it means when I tell him to keep his mouth shut!" Trace growled as he stuffed his wallet into his back pocket.
Takeru, on the other hand, grinned. "Not so fun when you're the one being teased is it?" Takeru asked and Trace just ignored him.
"So we're waiting for Hikari and Kohana to show up I take it?" Trace asked changing the subject.
"Yep it might take them a bit since I just texted Hikari," Takeru answered.
When Hikari and Kohana arrived Takeru and Trace quickly pulled their shoes on while Rascmon and Patamon walked out to join them. Once the two teens where done they began walking towards the hotel in order to pick up Lee, who was waiting from them outside with Bearmon. Once the younger teen had joined their group they made their way to the arcade.
"Did Krista give you an allowance yet?" Trace asked Lee who was starring at what was inside one of the crane machines.
"Yep!" Lee happily declared as he pulled out his wallet then pulled some money out of it. With that in hand he began glancing around at the different crane machines.
"He seems to really like crane machines," Hikari commented as she watched him.
"Yeah well it didn't take him very long to figure out that our sisters are suckers for what you can win from them," Trace told her as he kept an eye on his brother. "It doesn't hurt that girls his age also happen to like them."
"So he's going to be a heart breaker huh?" Hikari asked watching as Lee attempted to win a small plushie out of the crane machine.
"I hope not ," Trace said as he pulled his wallet out to take some money out. "So Tsumon wanna try a racing game?" Trace asked the angelic Digimon.
"Sure!" Tsumon said before running off towards the racing games Trace and Rascmon following.
"Takeru I want to play a fighting game," Patamon told him hopping off Takeru's head onto his shoulder.
"Alright," Takeru said as he walked towards them.
"I bet I could beat you," Tailmon challenged as she walked to the machine on the other side of the one Takeru had sat at since Patamon needed to stand on Takeru's lap to actually be able to play. The cat Digimon had an advantage to him on that since she only had to stand on the seat. As for Kohana she stood behind Takeru so she could watch.
"Can you even play with those claws of yours?" Patamon asked.
"Yes I can," Tailmon told him as she got money from Hikari to pay.
"Alright then," Patamon said as Takeru put the money into the game for him. The small Digimon selected a random fighter since he didn't really play these types of games much which is why he wanted to try it out. As for Tailmon, she picked a magical girl type wanting to play a female character.
Takeru glanced over to where Lee was at noticing the boy had a couple of girls his age watching him play one of them holding the plushie Lee must have won. Takeru shook his head slightly as he turned to watch Patamon and Tailmon's game. It was pretty obvious neither one of them where really used to playing this type of game, but for the moment Patamon was in the lead. "I thought you were going to beat me," Patamon teased the cat Digimon.
"It isn't over yet!" Tailmon reminded him. At that moment she managed to get lucky with the button mashing she was doing and the magical girl character she was playing unleashed its finisher move which as the name would suggest KO'ed Patamon's character. "Ha! Told you so!" Tailmon cheered.
"How did you do that?" Patamon questioned hopping on top of the machine so he could look at her.
"Don't know just got lucky," she told him grinning.
"One more time!" Patamon said jumping back down into Takeru's lap. "Please?" he added looking up at the blonde teen.
Takeru smiled as he added more money to the machine. "Alright just try not to get beaten this time," he told him.
"Hikari?" Tailmon asked looking at her. Hikari stepped forward to put more money in for her.
"There you go," she told her. The two Digimon then selected the same fighters they had been using before.
"So who won?" Takeru heard Kohana ask and he looked over his shoulder as Trace, Rascmon and Tsumon came back.
"He did," Tsumon said pointing to Trace.
"I am so glad Digimon can't get licenses," Trace said causing the angelic Digimon to stick his tongue out at him.
"That bad huh?" Kohana asked smiling slightly.
"I manage to lap him," Trace told her then he glanced over towards his brother. "I'm going to go check up on Lee," he told them as he went to join his little brother at the crane machines.
"Takeru look I won!" Patamon cheered and Takeru looked back at the game.
"Yep you did," Takeru said then patted the small Digimon on the head. Since Patamon didn't seem to want to play another game Takeru stood up and glanced around the arcade wondering what to play next.
They continued to play various games for a few hours. It was soon proven between the two brothers Trace was the better at the crane machine as Lee only managed to get the one prize he had given to the girl while Trace had managed to win five all together so the three middle school girls that had been watching Lee each got two in the end. Takeru also tried out the crane machines since he hadn't played them since he was in middle school. Unlike the two brothers Takeru didn't manage to win anything which Tsumon found funny even more so when he won a plush Kohana had thought was cute. They had decided to go and get something to eat around noon. As they were walking Trace stopped looking up at the sky.
"Something's wrong," Trace commented causing the others to look at him.
"What do you mean?" Takeru questioned as he walked back over to him and looked up in the same general direction as Trace. It didn't take him long to spot what had Trace worried. It was Omegamon, or at least it appeared to look like Omegamon, but this one was pure black except his red eyes, a red gem below the chest armor and the crests markings. The black Omegamon aimed the Gururu Cannon at Takeru and Trace firing off a shot.
"Shit!" Trace shouted as Patamon jumped off Takeru's shoulder evolving into Seraphimon to block the attack. Rascmon also evolved to Kusarimon when he noticed Seraphimon being pushed back by the attack and stood behind the angelic Digimon in attempt to help Seraphimon. Takeru could tell it wasn't working so he quickly got out from behind the two Digimon pulling Trace with him just as they were sent flying.
The combined efforts of Ofanimon, Gryzmon, and En'zakamon kept the two Digimon from crashing into anything. "He's stronger then our Omegamon," Seraphimon warned both his arms frozen from the attack.
"Of course he is! He's been exposed to Black Digitron," Takeru heard someone shout and he turned to look at who it was. There, standing a few yards away from them was Aiden the hood of his sleeveless sweater pulled up and he was grinning. In each hand was what Takeru assumed where Digivices, but they didn't look like any he had seen before. They where rectangle in shape with a small screen in the center of them and buttons on both sides of the screens with a wire coming from the top of each one of them connected to an armlet that was on the arm that was holding the respective Digivice. One of the Digivice's was red while the other was blue and the armlets they were hooked to where black.
"Aiden! Why did you attack us?" Hikari shouted stepping out from behind Ofanimon. At the moment Kusarimon was attempting to melt the ice off Seraphimon's arms, but was failing.
"Take a guess," he sneered as the black Omegamon flew at the group of Digimon with his Grey Sword extended. The group of Digimon scattered in order to avoid the attack and so the black Omegamon turned his focus on Ofanimon slashing his sword at her. The angelic Digimon blocked with her javelin, but as soon as the Grey Sword touched it the javelin vanished causing Ofanimon to retreat from him quickly.
"How?" Ofanimon questioned looking at her hands.
"Simple," was the only thing the black Omegamon said before trying to attack her.
"Ascension Hallow!" Seraphimon shouted sending several bolts of lightning at the black Omegamon since this was about the only attack he could use with his arms frozen like they were. Aiden's two Digivice's flashed and in a flash of light the black Omegamon devolved to Black War Greymon and Black Metal Garurumon effectively avoiding Seraphimon's attack to where Ofanimon ended up having to dodge it to avoid being hit by it.
"By the way his name is Omegamon Zwart when they're Jogress evolved," Aiden said grinning.
"Cocytus Breath!" Black Metal Garurumon shouted firing off an icy attack at Seraphimon attempting to freeze him further.
"Dark Gaia Force!" Black War Greymon shouted throwing the large orb at Ofanimon. The two angelic Digimon dodged the attack.
"You two obviously know him so who the heck is he?" Trace asked Takeru as he watched the fight.
"Remember that transfer student I told you about?"
"Yeah."
"That's him," Takeru answered glancing over at Aiden.
"Damn why the hell is he attacking us…" Trace wondered.
"I can take a guess," Takeru said the tone of voice he used made Trace look at him and it wasn't hard to see Takeru was mad. "Seraphimon try using Excalibur maybe it'll free up one of your arms!" Takeru shouted up at his Digimon as he dodged another attack from Black Metal Garurumon.
"Alright, Excalibur!" Seraphimon shouted the energy sword extending from his right arm. It managed to shatter the ice that was covering his hand and lower arm, but the ice that had formed above Excalibur remained. Seraphimon flew at Black Metal Garurumon swinging the holy sword at the Digimon.
"Sefirot Crystal!" Ofanimon shouted attacking Black War Greymon at the same time Seraphimon was attacking. The two Digimon dodged ending up back to back.
Aiden's Digivices flashed again and the two Digimon Jogress evolved to Omegamon Zwart. "Double Torrent!" Omegamon Zwart shouted sending a blast of flames at Ofanimon with the Black War Greymon head and an icy torrent at Seraphimon with the Black Metal Garurumon head. The sudden evolution and attack from Omegamon Zwart took the two Digimon by surprise, but they managed to dodge the attacks for the most parts only being partially clipped by them which meant more ice on Seraphimon's part having some of his wings partially frozen while Ofanimon's were singed.
"He's slower than our Omegamon," Ofanimon said and flew at the Holy Knight Digimon. "Sefirot Crystal!" she shouted firing the attack at him. Omegamon Zwart dodged it only to run into Seraphimon who slashed at him with Excalibur. Omegamon Zwart couldn't dodge so instead he blocked the attack with his arms. Seraphimon pulled back after his attack hit and from what he could see it hadn't caused a whole lot of damage to the knight.
"He has a higher defense though," Seraphimon said and flew at the Holy Knight Digimon ignoring the added weight of the ice. "Excalibur!" he shouted slashing at him. Omegamon Zwart dodged it only to attack himself, but not Seraphimon.
"Double Torrent!" Omegamon Zwart shouted firing both fire and ice attacks at Ofanimon sending the angelic Digimon flying. He flew after her and before she could recover from the attack he attacked again. "Grey Sword!" he shouted slashing Ofanimon with the sword. This caused her to devolve down to Nyaromon.
"No!" Hikari shouted.
"Seraphimon stop him now!" Takeru shouted afraid of what was about to happen to the small cat Digimon.
"Excalibur!" Seraphimon shouted as he flew at Omegamon Zwart's back in an attempt to attack him. Once again Aiden's Digivices flashed causing Omegamon Zwart to devolve back down to Black War Greymon and Black Metal Garurumon again. Black War Greymon quickly grabbed hold of Nyaromon and kicked Seraphimon away.
"Oi Black War Greymon you damn well better hand that Digimon over to Hikari now!" Trace shouted causing everyone to turn and look at him. Trace pointed over his shoulder to Aiden who was down on one knee his face pale and breathing heavily and behind him stood Kusarimon. "Your damn partner can't handle anymore of your fucking tricks and Kusarimon would be more than happy to add further persuasion."
"You wouldn't hurt him!" Black War Greymon shouted eyes narrowing.
"Black War Greymon," Black Metal Garurumon warned turning to look at the other Digimon.
"Just fucking try me," Trace said a dangerous tone in his voice as he motioned towards Kusarimon. The fiery dog Digimon opened his mouth and began moving to bite Aiden his sharp teeth more than enough to cause serious harm.
"Stop! Black War Greymon give the cat Digimon back now!" Black Metal Garurumon shouted at him.
"She wasn't in any danger in the first place…" Black War Greymon told his partner.
"I know, but in this type of situation they're not going to believe us so give her back before Aiden gets hurt."
"Alright but you keep an eye on the fiery mutt," Black War Greymon told his friend who nodded as Black War Greymon flew down and landed.
Hikari started to run towards him, but En'zakamon stopped her. "Wait let me go just in case," he told her and walked over to him. Black War Greymon slowly opened his hands revealing Nyaromon. En'zakamon took the small Digimon from him and ran over to Hikari handing her Nyaromon.
Black Metal Garurumon landed next to Aiden. "Move," he told Kusarimon who took a few steps back. "Aiden I'm sorry we didn't-" Black Metal Garurumon began only to have Aiden interrupt him.
"Don't it's not your fault I shouldn't have revealed myself like I did," Aiden told him then climbed onto his Digimon's back.
Black War Greymon flew towards them but paused in front of Seraphimon. "Dramon Killer!" he shouted slashing at the angelic Digimon. Seraphimon blocked the attack with his arms, but was a bit shocked when the attack didn't cause him any harm. Instead it just shattered the ice and Black War Greymon quickly followed after Black Metal Garurumon who was already flying off.
Why did he do that? Takeru wondered then turned to look when Hikari ran over to them cradling her Digimon in her arms.
"Thank you Tr-" Hikari began but Trace turned glaring at her for a moment before looking away.
"Don't… Doing something like that doesn't deserve thanks," Trace told her as he walked over to Kusarimon as he devolved to Rascmon. Trace's comment made Takeru think back to when he had thanked Trace for helping them beat Shaitanmon because the older teen hadn't been to happy being thanked then either.
"How is she?" Kohana asked when she joined Takeru and Hikari.
"She's fine for the most part, but she won't be able to evolve for a few days," Hikari told her as she looked at Nyaromon. The three looked upwards as Seraphimon began flying down to them devolving to Patamon on the way. Takeru could spot a few burns on Patamon's arms from the ice as well as some on his back. The small Digimon landed on Takeru's shoulder and Takeru walked towards Trace.
"Takeru if Black War Greymon hadn't grabbed Nyaromon and kicked me away like he had I would have hit her," Patamon told him sadness marring his voice.
"Don't blame yourself Patamon if I hadn't panicked and told you to attack… Never mind let's just remember this for when we fight him again," Takeru told him.
"So you think he's going to attack us again?" Patamon asked.
"Yes," Takeru said as he reached Trace. The older teen was petting the dog Digimon on the head and was whispering something in his ear. "You alright?" Takeru asked as he stuffed his hands in his pockets.
"I'm fine," Trace snapped then closed his eyes remembering what Krista had told him and sighed then more calmly said, "I'm fine…"
"You know Kusarimon wouldn't have gone through with it Trace," Takeru told him looking at the dog Digimon who was starring at the ground. It was obvious he did not like what Trace had him do, but he had done it any ways.
"Yeah well that doesn't mean I didn't want him to do it!" Trace said turning his back to Takeru.
"Well at that moment you weren't the only one that wanted to hurt him," Takeru confessed and Trace turned to look at him. "Remember I'm the one out of all of us who knows what it means to lose a Digimon and I would do a lot of things to keep my friends from experiencing the same thing I did… And it doesn't matter if you wanted him to or not. You had Rascmon hold him hostage like that because you knew he wouldn't do anything. I mean if what I suspect to be true those Digimon would have known your ability and you could have just as easily threatened them with that instead, but you didn't because you knew you could trust Rascmon not to do something more than yourself at that moment."
Trace sighed, "I really don't get you Takeru… Why the hell are you trying so hard to help me?"
"Because the way your acting kind of reminds me of how someone else behaved when I was younger and because I was too young to realize what was happening I couldn't help them. I was just lucky someone else could before they fell too far and right now since your pushing everyone else away so I'm the only one that can help you," Takeru told him. Trace looked away from him down at Rascmon.
"I just really hope you don't regret this later," Trace told him before he walked over to his brother who Bearmon had kept from approaching him while Takeru was talking to him. Rascmon looked at Takeru then followed after Trace.
Regret? Takeru wondered glancing at Trace for a moment before going to join Kohana and Hikari.
A/N – So far this is like one of my favorite chapters to write :3 I don't know why really it just is. If you can't figure out why Trace and Krista where laughing at what Takeru had said they just found it funny that he had said hope right after they had been talking about crests. As for the person Takeru was referring to it's obviously Yamato and how Taichi as well as others helped him. Much like Gabumon, Rascmon is kind of clueless on how to help him so is Takeru really, but he's willing to give it a shot.
As for the one thing of people neither understanding nor wanting to be thanked seems to be common in this story. Takeru doesn't feel thanks are necessary because he does what he does because he cares for his friends. As for Trace he doesn't think he deserves thanks for the things he does because they seem like evil deeds to him not good ones despite the results he gets. So I decided to title the chapter what I did because of this.
Any review of any kind is greatly appreciated :3. I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter ^-^.