Death
Shadow- "Hello, again! I'm working on ideas for part four... and it will be posted soon."
Renamon- "Shadow does not own digimon."
Shadow- "Please R&R, people. Get into the habit of doing it! It makes both of us feel happy!"
mainframe, sacred sanctuary
The intense beam of light slowly condensed into the bodies of their four friends and their digimon. After flickering for a moment, the light went out, leaving Trish, Izzy, Botta, and Takato behind. The six digidestined who wished for their return nearly cried with relief.
Their friends were safe again.
dark ocean
Savadramon coughed and growled, angry that the digidestineds' attacks had so easily cracked his neck guard. He shook his head, climbed to his feet, and angled his head downward to protect his new weakness. He roared at the digidestined "You insolent little brats! That hurt! I'll kill every one of you for that! Darkness Flare!"
The pure black fire roared through the air, striking Blastingreymon in the chest, slamming him into the ground, and causing him to de-digivolve.
His friends immediately moved to protect Tai and Agumon, and quickly carried him to safety.
"You bastard!" Matt yelled. "You nearly killed him."
Savadramon snorted. "Nearly? Shame. I wanted to kill him, but not delete him, so I could slowly disintegrate him!" His eyes gleamed evilly "Just like I'll do to you! Vicious Flame!"
The digidestined dodged his attack, and fired back one of their own. Their attacks combined into a stream of brilliant light, stabbing through Savadramon's chest, ripping him in half, before deleting him.
The digidestined cheered. Their battle was over.
mainframe, sacred sanctuary
For those in the spire, however, things were very different.
The attack that had killed Savadramon had caused another earthquake, and this one had caused some of the lower walls of the spire to collapse inward, trapping everyone inside.
Rika pounded her fist on the wall in frustration. "Damn it!" she shouted. "We're trapped!"
"Not for long..." Huanglongmon growled. "Back away from the wall."
Rika and the others hurried to comply, and Huanglongmon fired off a devastating attack. "Sacred Blaster!"
The wall vaporized. Literally. The attack was powerful enough to smash through the wall and kept on going, impacting on a far wall, leaving an easily visible scar.
Huanglongmon sighed. "Come on... I'll take you down to the surface. I'm sure you have some catching up to do..."
mainframe, sacred spire
"...and that's what happened after you were deleted by that dragon." said Kouji.
Trish nodded. "Wow... sounds like you guys had a rough time."
Huanglongmon interrupted them. "Digidestined, it is time for you to leave."
Izzy looked around. "Umm... where's Takato?"
Everyone looked around. Both Takato and Jeri had vanished. Rika sighed. "I'll go get them. I saw Takato leave earlier, and Jeri followed him."
The others nodded, and watched Rika disappear into the forest.
mainframe, sacred forest
Takato sighed as he walked further from the group into the forest. He had already known about the earlier things that had happened, and wanted to spend some time alone to think over what had happened.
Unfortunately, that wasn't meant to be. Jeri walked up behind Takato, took out her hand puppet, and said in the puppet's voice "Wuff! Whfuf's Wfong. Twfawfato?"
Takato jumped a little bit when Jero stuck the puppet in his ear, but realized who it was. "Jeri... please don't do that..."
Jeri sighed, obviously disappointed. "What's wrong , Takato? You usually laugh at that."
Takato sighed. "I guess... this whole thing, coming back to life, seems really weird. It almost... doesn't seem real..."
Jeri nodded. "I know, Takato. When... when I saw you ... get stabbed..." Jeri sniffed, and Takato turned around, surprised.
"Jeri, wha-"
"When I saw you get stabbed... I just thought... What if I never see him again? What if I never hear his voice again? What..." she gulped, then continued almost in a whisper. "What if I never got to tell you how I feel about you?"
Takato blinked, then blushed. Did she just say what I thought she just said?
Jeri looked into Takato's eyes. "I... I love you, Takato."
Takato was speechless. Jeri suddenly fell into Takato's arms, sobbing and murmuring "I thought I'd never see you again..." Takato, though unsure at first, quickly wrapped his arms around Jeri and held her close. "I love you too, Jeri..."
Rika, who had watched the entire thing from nearby, slowly, quietly slunk off, trying hard to hold back the tears that threatened to fall.
mainframe, sacred forest
Justin sighed, waiting for Rika to bring back Takato and Jeri. He, too, had gone a little ways off to think about what had happened.
He shook his head. Something isn't right... why were those earthquakes affecting us here if this place only controls the digital world? He shook his head again, and sighed. Maybe Huanglongmon doesn't understand this place as well as he thinks he does... or maybe he's not telling us everything...
He got no further in his thoughts, as Rika walked slowly into the clearing where he was. Her head was down, and he couldn't see her face.
"Rika, did you find them?" Justin asked.
He was surprised when he heard Rika make an odd noise. Is... she sobbing? he wondered. Before he could ask anything, Rika started speaking in a low voice.
"I... saw them..." she gulped. "They were talking... then Jeri told Takato she loved him, then..." She sat down hard on the ground, putting all her effort into just holding back her tears, putting up her icy shield around her heart.
Justin knelt down next her. He whispered "Rika... are you okay?" When she didn't answer, he put his hand on her shoulder. "Rika..."
She looked into his eyes, and saw that he cared for her, and was very concerned. She felt her icy shield break, and she put her head on his shoulders, and began to cry.
mainframe, sacred spire
Kouji sighed, very annoyed. We've been waiting for ten minutes... how long does it take to find a stupid kid? he wondered.
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw someone. He turned, and saw Justin, supporting Rika, who was still crying, approaching. "Where have you been?" Kouji asked Rika. "Where are those two?"
When she heard this, Rika buried her face in Justin's shoulder, and sobbed. Justin hesitated for a moment, then realized that Kouji would probably ask again if he didn't saw something.
"I'm... not sure you want to ask her that right now." Justin said.
"Why not?" Kouji asked.
Justin looked and Rika, still crying gently into his shoulder, looked back at Kouji, and shot him a look that said 'do you really need to ask?'
Kouji shook his head, but didn't say anything else.
Rika sniffed, gulped, seemed to realize what she was doing, and took her head off Justin's shoulder. She let go of Justin's arm, and sat down nearby, trying to dry the tears off her face.
Just as she finished, Takato and Jeri walked into camp, arm in arm with each other. Takato asked. "Are we ready to go?"
Justin looked over at Rika, who sighed, got up and nodded to him. "We're ready." Justin said.
dark ocean
The digidestined waded out of the water and took a look around. The darkness still oppressively hung about them. Tai was the first to voice what they were all thinking. "How are going to get home?"
"I think we may be of use there." said a voice from the sky.
The digidestined looked up, and saw the four god digimon fly (A/N: or in two cases, fall) out of a portal and regally came near them.
"Azulongmon?" Henry said incredulously "Why are you here?"
Azulongmon smiled. "You saved us from being deleted in the destruction of our world. This is the least we can do."
Henry was about to thank them, when the entire planet seemed to shudder. Though it only lasted a moment, the digidestined were worried. Is this another evil digimon? they wondered.
"Quickly!" said Zhuqiamon. "This world is collapsing! We must move quickly!"
The digidestined, their digimon, and the digital gods hurried back through the portal as the world began to shake again.
mainframe, sacred spire
The mainframe shook in sympathy with the dark world, and Huanglongmon swooped down hurriedly. "Quickly, children, get on my back! This world is being cut off!"
"How?" Zoe asked
Huanglongmon seemed embarrassed. "...remember when I said I needed to step up security...?"
Rika groaned. "...don't tell me..."
Huanglongmon nodded. "I'm afraid so. Quickly, though! Your lives depend on it! There's no telling when the doors might open again!"
Everyone climbed onto Huanglongmon's back, and they rode off towards the entrance.
n. digital world
The portal opened, spewing the digidestined back into the digital plains. As they got to their feet, Tai again asked the obvious question. "Where are the others?"
mainframe, main hallway
The golden dragon dropped off the digidestined at the entrance of the hall where they had started, saying "This hallway is too tight for me to fly through, and I run very slowly. You must travel the rest of the way your self.
The digidestined ran down the hallway. Though they ran hard, it was obvious that it wouldn't be enough.
"We need to DNA Biomerge!" yelled Justin. Everyone except Takato and Botta took out their digivices.
BIOMERGE DIGIVOLUTION
"Electrokabuterimon!"
"Voltedramon!"
"Sepctraseraphimon!"
"Sakuyamon!"
"Hurricamon!"
"Bladeleomon!"
"Shinimon!"
"Twilimon!"
DNA BIOMERGE DIGIVOLUTION
"Electrokabuterimon... Voltedramon... DNA Biomerge to... Hercuvoltamon!"
"Sepctraseraphimon... Sakuyamon... DNA Biomerge to... Eternalseraphimon!"
"Hurricamon... Bladeleomon... DNA Biomerge to... Areoleodramon!"
"Shinimon... Twilimon... DNA Biomerge to... Hypolighmon!"
Areoleodramon picked up Takato, Hypolighmon pick up Guilmon, Hercuvoltamon picked up Botta, and they all flew off towards they closing tunnel-like entrance, which was slowly closing.
As they reached the door, there was barely any room to spare, and Eternalseraphimon stopped, and braced the doors with his hands. The others turned around.
"Come on, you two!" yelled Zoe "Let's go!"
"You wouldn't make it!" shouted Justin, "We'll hold the door open so you can escape!"
"But..."
"GO!" Justin yelled. "I'm not sure how long we can hold the door!"
With a final backward glance, the others flew off towards the opening. After about twenty seconds, Justin turned to Rika.
"Rika, if we de-digivolve, I can still hold the door open so you can get out."
Rika stared at him incredulously. "And what would happen to you?"
Justin hesitated. "I... might be able to escape back-"
Rika cut him off. "You know that's not true. I'm not leaving, and that's final!"
Justin sighed, muttered something about stubborn people, and looked away.
After a moment, Rika chuckled. Justin looked back. "What's so funny?"
She smiled. "Isn't it ironic how we don't realize our feelings until it's too late?"
Justin shrugged. "I guess..."
"Just like I realized I loved Takato too late, I'm realizing that... I ... love you..."
Jutsin blushed. "Wh-what?"
Rika blushed as well, and moved closer to Justin. "I... love you, Justin..."
The two hugged each other, then kissed for the first time as the walls slowly, inexorably, closed in on them.
n. digital world
The eight digidestined sprawled out onto the grass, much to the surprise of the other digidestined who were already standing there. After untangling the pile, the others noticed two of them were missing. For the third time that day, Tai asked the obvious question "Where are Justin and Rika?"
The others hesitated for a moment, then Koichi said "They... gave up their lives... so we could get out safely..."
Everyone's mood, which had been happy because of Savadramon's defeat, suddenly drooped, as they remembered their comrades, and made silent promises never to forget them, as the sun slowly climbed over the horizon.
