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.
A/N – I am so sorry this chapter is late x-x I originally finished editing it during October to keep from what has happened happening. Obviously it did not work. I am in the middle of participating in NaNoWriMo; that's National Novel Writing Month for those who might not know and it kind of ate my brain. There may still be mistakes in this chapter that I will look into during December but if I don't post it now it won't be posted this month at all. Now to go work on the LOZ: Dark Rain fan fiction x-x
Edited July 25. 2014 – Errors, grammar, word flow and other things that was missed the first time around.
Chapter Eleven Time to Say Good Bye
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 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.
After what had happened the small group decided it would be best to get off the streets since they now only had one Digimon with them that could evolve to Ultimate. Takeru also wanted to treat Patamon's injuries even though the small Digimon had told them they didn't really hurt all the much. They decided it would probably be best to head back to Takeru's apartment and despite his protests they dropped Lee off at the hotel since they couldn't say for certain if they could actually keep him safe if Kitsumon did happen to attack them now. By then Natsuko was back from visiting her friend so she made everyone something to eat while Takeru attended to Patamon's wounds as well as what little wounds Nyaromon had.
"It's strange that you don't really have any wounds," Takeru commented as he placed a bandage on Nyaromon's cheek.
"Except for the double torrent attacks he used on me I didn't really get hurt all that much," she told Takeru as both him and Hikari looked her over carefully to make sure they hadn't missed any injuries.
"But he slashed you with his Grey Sword…" Hikari pointed out.
"Twice if you count what happened to my javelin, but it didn't hurt when he hit me and I devolved," Nyaromon said.
"I wonder if it has anything to do with the Digi-code on his sword? Omegamon's Grey Sword reads All Delete while Omegamon Zwarts reads Termination," Patamon told them.
"To me with it reading Termination it should hurt since to terminate something means to bring to an end. While All Delete would mean to remove everything or erase everything," Kohana said glancing at them from where she sat on the couch.
"When you put it that way though couldn't he have just brought her evolution to an end?" Trace asked. He was sitting on the floor his back against Rascmon side who was sound asleep.
"Then wouldn't I have just gone back to Tailmon?" Nyaromon questioned looking at him.
Trace shrugged. "I'm just guessing here but if you think about it maybe he did enough damage to you earlier when he hit you with both attacks from the double torrent to where you couldn't just devolve down to Tailmon. I mean look how much trouble the ice attack gave Patamon when he was hit with it alone," Trace pointed out causing the small Digimon to look at his hands.
"Maybe," Nyaromon conceded.
"Whatever the reason its obvious just having Nyaromon and me here isn't going to cut it. Daisuke and Ken are going to have to stay back and help us since we already know Omegamon Zwart is stronger than Omegamon," Hikari told them.
"I wonder if we'll find out know which one of our evolutions is stronger now," Patamon joked though he didn't think it was all that funny. He would have been happy if they never had to figure it out.
"I doubt we will it's already been proven that the best way to handle him is in groups. That is if we can manage to stop him from running," Tsumon said as Takeru stood up to go and put the rest of the bandages up. Kohana picked up the rest of it for him and began to follow after him. Then suddenly he felt an intense pain from his head and a wave of dizziness as he shut his eyes tightly because of the pain.
When he opened them again he was a bit surprised when he realized he was face to face with a very concerned Kohana especially since he was taller than her. It took him a moment to figure out that she was the only thing that was currently preventing him from falling since he was heavily leaning into her hands that where on his shoulders explaining just why he was face to face with her. "Takeru-kun are you alright?" she asked him.
He was about to answer yes since the pain had gone away but another wave of it hit him causing him to wince. "No," he choked out. His knees were about to give out on him and he was afraid he might accidentally hurt Kohana when Trace walked up and slung one of Takeru's arms over his shoulder effectively keeping him upright.
"Hikari go open a Digi-portal," Trace told her and she quickly nodded running into Takeru's room.
"Trace what's going on?" Takeru heard his mother ask from somewhere behind him.
"I promise I'll explain when we come back. Kohana help me get him to his laptop," Trace said and Kohana moved to the other side of Takeru doing the same thing Trace had done. It was probably a good thing that she had because when the next wave of pang hit him Takeru blacked out.
When Takeru came around again the first thing he realized was he was holding someone's hand pretty tightly so he forced his hand to relax somewhat since the tight grip probably was hurting them. "Takeru-kun are you awake?" he heard Kohana asked. Takeru opened his eyes noticing that while he was sitting up he was leaning against her with his head on her shoulder.
"Yeah I'm awake," Takeru told her not moving for the moment since his head hurt so much. He could see Tsumon standing a few feet away from them keeping an eye out with Patamon on top of his head. They were in some type of forest somewhere in the Digital World. Hikari and Trace, however, he couldn't see the same with their two Digimon. "Where are Trace and Hikari?" Takeru asked.
"Since Trace-kun seemed to know what was going on Hikari-chan dragged him off to get answers out of him. They're not too far since I can see light from Rascmon's flames," she said pointing towards a strangely lighted area.
"I didn't know his flames produced light at least they didn't from what I've seen," Takeru mumbled suddenly feeling tired.
"I think he's doing it so I'll know where they're at," Kohana told her voice dropping in volume since she realized he was probably going to fall asleep again.
"I'm sorry, Kohana," Takeru mumbled as he closed his eyes. Whatever her response might have been he didn't hear it because he fell asleep.
The next time he awoke there was a new surprise waiting for him. They must have been here for awhile now because both Taichi and Yamato where there with their Digimon. Hikari, Trace, and Taichi where talking in whispers while Yamato was sitting close to him and Kohana. Gabumon was sitting beside him with Rascmon laying down near him. As for Patamon the small Digimon was leaning back against Rascmon sound asleep. When Yamato saw that his brother was awake he placed a finger on his mouth and pointed to Kohana. It was then Takeru realized that Kohana was also leaning against him now and with what his brother had done he was guessing she was asleep. He also noted that his brother was holding Hikari's digital camera.
Great, Takeru thought as he slowly moved in an attempt to keep from waking the sleeping girl. He managed to sit up straight without waking her, but she did shift in her sleep to where her head was now on his shoulder.
Yamato stood and walked over to him sitting down beside Takeru. "How do you feel?" he whispered.
"Better though my head still hurts slightly," Takeru whispered back looking at his brother. "Just what time is it?"
Yamato pulled his cell phone out of his pocket and checked the time on it. "Almost midnight," he answered keeping his voice low. "Hikari already had Miyako call Haru-chan's parents so you don't have to worry about that." Takeru nodded as he glanced at the group still talking.
"Their talking about what happened earlier today since Trace has already filled us in on what was going on with you," Yamato answered his unspoken question. "Mind telling me when exactly you were going to tell us what was going on?"
"I was trying to figure out just how I was going to explain it. I didn't think this would happen so soon," Takeru told him a slightly annoyed look on his face. Before he could get to upset with his brother, Yamato reached up and ruffled his hair.
"Don't worry I'm not mad that you didn't tell me. It just wasn't nice coming back to the voicemail our mother left on my cell phone. One of the reasons we're here was so Trace could go back and explain everything would be alright," Yamato told him.
"Any chance you're not going to use those photo's you taken to tease me?" Takeru asked changing the subject.
"Actually I took them because I thought the two of you might actually want them," Yamato told him, but Takeru wasn't too sure if he believed him or not. "You do realize you're still holding her hand right?"
"Yes I know."
"Well if you want you can go ahead and go back to sleep since I have a feeling we'll be staying here all night since we have no idea just how long you have to stay here," Yamato told him. He was of course still tired, but he wasn't too keen on the idea of sleeping since he was technically losing the only defense he ever had from Kitsumon's nightmares. "Just sleep Takeru if it seems something isn't right I'll wake you up," Yamato promised.
"What's to guarantee you won't fall asleep?" Takeru asked as he shifted slightly to where he was now leaning against his older brother.
"I won't and even if I do there is one person in this group who we know won't sleep," Yamato reminded him as he gestured over to where the three where still talking. Takeru closed his eyes, but unlike last time it took him awhile before he actually fell asleep.
He saw Calilimon standing in nothing but whiteness a grin on her face. "Thank you Takeru for everything and I am sorry," she told him as she began to fade. He was about to reach for her but stopped himself and smiled sadly.
"Good bye Calilimon and thank you…"
When he awoke this time it was easy to tell it was morning with how bright it was. Almost everyone was asleep now except of course Trace, who was laying on the ground starring up at the sky, and since his brother was playing games on his cell phone he wasn't either. Hikari had decided to copy what Patamon had done and used the dog Digimon as a convenient pillow, not that Rascmon would mind any way. As for Taichi he was leaning with his back against a tree and Agumon right next to him. While Gabumon was on the other side of Yamato asleep and Tsumon was leaning up against Kohana asleep.
"How's your head feeling?" Yamato asked as he closed his cell phone once he realized his brother was awake.
"It doesn't hurt anymore," Takeru told him.
"I'm going to guess that means is safe for you to leave here now," Yamato told him pocketing his cell phone. He gently shook Gabumon awake and once both Takeru and Gabumon weren't leaning against him he went to go wake Taichi up.
Takeru turned to look at Kohana wondering just how to go about waking her up. Thankfully he got lucky since Tsumon woke up and upon seeing Yamato waking up Taichi the angelic Digimon turned to his human partner and gently shook her shoulder. "Kohana~" he called.
Kohana slowly opened her eyes looking at Tsumon for a moment confused before she remembered exactly what was going on. Then she realized she was leaning against Takeru and quickly sat up her cheeks slightly pink. "Are you alright now, Takeru-kun?" she asked letting go of his hand so she could turn and face him easier.
"Yes," Takeru told her as he stood up and stretched. He found it kind of funny there was a part of him that wished Tsumon hadn't woke her up. He helped her stand up and she pulled the band that kept her hair up in a ponytail out rubbing the back of her head where it had been.
"It hurts to keep it up that long," she explained when she noticed Takeru was watching her and he nodded.
By then Yamato had manage to wake Taichi up so he was now waking his sister up. After she had sat up Rascmon turned to nudge Patamon awake with his noise. Trace stood up brushing his clothes off then turned to look at Yamato. "Are you guys going to the Redwood realm again today?"
"Yeah we're trying to find just where he was planning to take you guys," Yamato answered.
"Since we didn't have any luck yesterday," Taichi added.
"Good luck with that," Trace told them as they all began walking towards the portal they used to get here. "You guys are studying today right?" Trace asked glancing over his shoulder at the three younger teens.
"Right we have a test tomorrow," Hikari told him as she was looking at the display on her digital camera looking at the photo's on it. Takeru glanced over her shoulder noting there were also a couple that had been taken after Yamato had sat beside him so Hikari must have retrieved her camera after he had fallen asleep and taken them then.
Once they had reached the portal Hikari opened it up and they all went through it ending up at Yamato's apartment instead of Takeru's like Takeru had expected. It was probably better any ways since Yamato's computer was set up in his living room making more room for them. "Why did we end up here?" Takeru asked turning to look at his brother.
"It's because Taichi and I went to where you from here and even when I had Trace come back he came back here and went to explain what was going on to our mother," Yamato answered as he closed the gate down on his computer.
"Takeru, Kohana and I are going to go back to our apartments. We'll go over to your apartment in a couple of hours alright?" Hikari told him as Kohana was keeping Tsumon from picking up one of Yamato's guitars that he had left out.
"Alright," Takeru told her and Hikari helped Kohana drag Tsumon out of the apartment.
"I swear that Digimon is ADD," Yamato said shaking his head.
Yamato and Taichi walked back with Takeru and Trace with their Digimon. When they reached the apartment Yamato and Taichi went in with them Natsuko meeting them at the door. "Takeru are you alright?" she asked looking at her youngest son.
"Yeah I'm fine now," he told her as he walked over to her. Despite what he said it didn't prevent his mother looking over him just to make sure he was alright.
"Where are Hikari and Kohana-chan?" she asked noting they weren't with them.
"They went home. Kohana-chan's parents are probably worried about her and Hikari had to get her school notes for their study session their having today," Taichi answered her.
"Well come on I'll make you all something to eat," she told them motioning them to come inside. They did as they were told. Takeru and Yamato followed their mother into the kitchen to help her while Taichi and Trace settled in the living room. After they had eaten Taichi and Yamato left to go meet up with Luna and the others. Since he now had a bit of time before the others where to show up he changed his cloths then checked on Patamon's hands and ear. While he was doing this Trace and Rascmon sat in the living room trying to stay out of the way while they talked to each other.
Ken was the first one to show up which didn't really surprise Takeru that much. "I'm actually kind of surprised Daisuke isn't with you," Takeru told him as they walked towards his room.
"I texted him a few times, but I have a feeling he's sleeping," Ken informed him.
"Why am I not surprised," Takeru said shaking his head. Daisuke loved to sleep in when he could and thanks to not having to meet up with Luna and the others he got the perfect chance to do so.
"What are you guys studying any way?" Trace asked as they walked past.
"History," Ken answered stopping.
"Heh, I was figuring if it was math or something I could try and help you guys, but not if it's history," Trace told him.
"Lee told us your home schooled so do you guys have to learn history?" Takeru asked.
"Yeah we do except it's mainly focused on what we do. For example I get to learn about the people who held the nightmare key before me while the others learn about the ones they hold. We also learn about the history of where we live, but most of the schooling we have is so we can fit in when we come to places like this," Trace told them. "In fact, Krista actually has some of the text books in the duffel bag if you ever want to look at them, but just don't tell Krista if you do I'll get in trouble."
"Why would you get in trouble?" Patamon asked wondering why he would even offer to let them read it if it would get him in trouble.
"It's because she's written them," Trace said grinning. "Well the newer stuff any way the older stuff is written by whoever held her key before her, but she isn't very confident in her writing skills." Rascmon shook his head knowing Trace was in a pretty good mood since he was back to being his mischievous self.
"No thanks I don't want your realms history somehow popping up when I need an answer for one of the questions," Takeru told him.
"Heh, you'd defiantly get an interesting note from your teacher if you did," Trace said agreeing with him.
The two teens continued on their way to Takeru's room and waited for the others to show up. Kohana was the next one who arrived with Tsumon followed shortly by Hikari and Nyaromon. Since Tsumon would be counterproductive to their studying the Digimon decided it would be best to hang out in the living room with Trace and Rascmon. They were about an hour into studying when Daisuke finally showed up with V-mon who joined the rest of the Digimon in the living room.
"How come you started without me?" Daisuke asked as he sat in between Takeru and Ken.
"Your phone is off isn't it?" Hikari asked her eyes slightly narrowed. Daisuke blinked and pulled his cell phone out of his pocket turning it on. Instantly the phone alerted him to a few dozen texts and voicemails.
"Ehhh, sorry I went to the movies with my girlfriend last night. I must have forgotten to turn it back on once it was over," Daisuke apologized rubbing the back of his head. He quickly pocketed his phone and got his books out. "I don't see why we have to study any ways couldn't we do something else?"
"No some of us do actually care about our grades," Ken told him and Daisuke sighed miserably."Oh come on Daisuke it isn't like we don't always do something after we study."
"Yeah, but studying has to be done first," Daisuke said as he pulled out his books from his bags.
The funny thing even with all his complaining beforehand once he got started he was pretty into it. At least with history the teens had long ago decided that studying for math tests with Daisuke was impossible since it was almost always non-stop complaining from him even the few times Taichi or Yamato had been helping them with it. Despite this Daisuke managed to have a passing grade in math which always shocked them when they talked about the grades they got.
::Redwood Realm::
"Are you positive we're in the right area?" Yamato asked looking back over his shoulder at Luna. The girl had finally gave up wearing the skirts she had favored and had switched to wearing jean pants and hiking boots.
"Yes I am! Where we arrived at was the same exact place we ran into Kitsumon at or did you miss the large damaged area caused by the fight with him?" Luna asked back. For the past few days she hadn't been in a good mood and the others ignored it for the most part since they had no idea what had upset her in the first place. They had split into three groups: Lexi, Sora, and Miyako in one group, then Krista Jou, Iori and Koushirou in another and the last one had Luna, Yamato and Taichi. Their group was currently heading in the direction they believed Kitsumon had been going.
"I hope Nyaromon hurry up and evolves I don't like the fact only our two Digimon can evolve to Ultimate," Taichi called back being in front of the group.
"Even if she was still at her adult stage Daisuke and Ken wouldn't be here since their studying," Yamato pointed out and he saw Taichi nod. They continued walking for a bit when Taichi all of a sudden stopped and Yamato heard him curse or something similar he wasn't quite sure. "Oi, what's wrong?" Yamato asked running over to his friend.
"I think I just found the kid that attacked Hikari and Takeru the other day," Taichi told him. The brown haired teen had a strong grip on the upper arm of a red headed teen that did appear to be the same age as Hikari and Takeru. He was even wearing the black hooded sweater that Takeru said he seemed to favor.
"Let go of me!" the teen snapped at Taichi attempting to punch him. Yamato interfered before he could grabbing a hold of the red head's wrist. He glared at Yamato, but he didn't do anything else to try and free himself.
"I don't see his Digimon," Agumon told Taichi having looked around for them.
"They're not here," he said looking at Agumon.
"Sorry if we don't exactly believe you," Yamato told him.
"Do you really think they would let you hold me captive like this if they were with me, especially since my Omegamon Zwart is stronger than you Omegamon?" Aiden questioned them and Yamato noticed he seemed nervous about something.
I doubt it has anything to do with us so what exactly is it, Yamato wondered then looked at Taichi. "He has a point," Yamato said as he let the teen's wrist go.
"Fine," Taichi said letting the teen go. Instead of running off like Yamato had expected Aiden just stood there rubbing his arm where Taichi had held on. "Why exactly are you here any way?"
"None of your business," Aiden answered as he pulled his hood up. It had fallen off when Taichi had suddenly grabbed him.
"Well if nothing else it's a good guess to say we're in the right area since he's here," Luna said and the others had to agree with her.
"You're still looking around here? I'd figure you would have given up already since there's nothing here it's just all ruins and trees," Aiden said grinning slightly.
"Unless you're going to tell us something useful you better leave before I decide that bodily harm to you is good enough revenge for what you did to my sisters Digimon," Taichi threatened though he didn't really mean it even if he wanted to. It was obvious Aiden didn't believe Taichi by the way he rolled his eyes before walking off.
"You remember what Takeru told us about him this morning?" Yamato asked Taichi as they continued to walk.
"You mean about how he doesn't really seem to be fit at being a bad guy?" Taichi asked and Yamato nodded. "I kind of agree with him I mean it was pretty stupid for him to tell us his Digimon weren't with him especially since he had no clue what we might have done once we found out."
"I also found it weird that he didn't take off as soon as we let him go," Yamato added glancing back at Luna to make sure she was keeping up with them.
"Are you sure you guys aren't getting it wrong? There is always the possibility you knew how you would react if he told you his Digimon weren't here and decided it was safer to tell you the truth then to lie about it. I mean if you thought Omegamon Zwart would pop up at any minute wouldn't you have your Digimon evolve?" Luna asked them as she picked Bithamon up who was the one having trouble keeping up with them. "There is also the possibility he was afraid that if you thought his Digimon were around you would pull a stunt off similar to what my brother did yesterday." Taichi and Yamato had told her what had happened while they were walking.
"Who knows," Yamato said still curious as to why Aiden was nervous. Maybe he really was just scared of us after all…
::Real World::
"Takeru I just got a text from Luna. It seems they ran into Aiden," Trace said leaning against the doorpost his cell phone in hand and opened as he starred at it.
Takeru looked up from his notes at Trace. "Did they end up fighting him?"
"Apparently his Digimon weren't even there. He even told them so himself," Trace answered then tossed his cell phone to Takeru so he could read it. Takeru barely manage to catch it, but when he did he looked at the text message.
"Maybe they're finally heading in the right direction?" Daisuke suggested leaning towards Takeru so he could read the text as well.
"That's what they think to," Trace told him.
"He apparently acted differently than they were expecting as well," Takeru said tossing the phone back to Trace who had no problems catching it.
"What do you mean?" Hikari asked looking at Takeru.
"I don't think Aiden really wants to harm Digimon. I mean Nyaromon barely got hurt after all the hits she took and Patamon only got hurt because of the ice. Black War Greymon even broke the ice off his arms for him before he left," Takeru told her knowing she probably hadn't seen that since she would have been looking Nyaromon over.
"Then why is he helping Kitsumon? He's going to end up having to harm Digimon if he is," Daisuke pointed out.
"But we don't know if he is helping Kitsumon or not. He never actually said he was and we're just assuming he is because he attacked us," Kohana countered. "Though even I think he is, but it'll probably be best to get him to say he is instead of just assuming."
"I think the comment he made to Yamato and Taichi means he is, but it'll probably be best to find out for certain since you guys will probably feel better fighting against him if you knew for certain," Trace told them as he pushed away from the door post. "If he has the guts to show up to school tomorrow you can ask him then."
"With just transferring he'll show. Unless he wants to get in major trouble which he might not care about," Ken said as he took his notebook back from Daisuke. He had been copying Ken's notes from it since Ken and Kohana where the ones that took the best notes in the group it was safer for Daisuke to use Ken's since Kohana and him still clashed at times though not so much now. The group studied for a few more hours before stopping and deciding to do something else.
When the group walked into the living room to get their Digimon they were greeted with the Digimon and Trace sitting around in a circle on the floor with a pile of playing cards in the center. Rascmon and Wormmon weren't playing since they couldn't hold the cards but they were watching alone with Takeru's mother, Natsuko. "What are you playing?" Takeru asked noticing there had to be more than one deck of playing cards involved since those playing also had cards in their hands.
"A game called by a name that isn't that nice so I just introduced it to them as Liar. Any way you usually only play with one deck, but the more cards there are the more interesting it is. The cards are then evenly split amongst the players and the object of the game is to get rid of as many cards as you can. They way you do that is you say what cards you're going to set down, but the trick is you can be setting down those cards or completely different cards. Your opponents job is to figure out whether or not you're telling the truth. If they think you're not they call you a liar and your cards are checked. If you told the truth the one who called you a liar has to add the entire pile of cards to their hand however if you did lie you have to add the pile to your hand," Trace explained. It was obvious that for the moment Trace was winning since he had the least amount of cards while Tsumon was losing since he had the most. Takeru wasn't really surprised by this since he could imagine Tsumon claiming Lair every few turns.
"So what exactly are you guys planning to do now that you're done studying?" Natsuko asked used to them doing this as a type of reward for themselves after each study session.
"We're actually trying to figure that out since with what all we've been doing lately we're not too sure just what we can afford," Takeru answered looking at his mom.
"Just what where you wanting to do?" Natsuko asked.
"Just something special to eat nothing else really," Hikari answered.
"You could always cook something," Natsuko suggested.
"The problem is making something to where there would be enough for everyone," Ken told her and she nodded in agreement.
"You could always do a type of potluck thing," Trace suggested.
"Actually that's a pretty good idea," Ken said the group having done it once before last year. It had worked out pretty well then so it would work now. The others agreed it would be a good idea and they headed to their individual homes to get it set up. When Daisuke and Ken had finished what they were making they came to pick up Takeru and Trace. It had actually surprised Takeru when Trace had asked to be able to use the kitchen as well even more so when he realized the teen was a better cook then he was which Takeru was pretty good at it thanks to his mother doing overtime a lot. They met up at the park as planned and hung out for awhile, but when it began to get late they all headed home making sure to drop Takeru and Trace off first.
"So what are you going to do now?" Trace asked from where he sat on the futon he had been borrowing while he stayed there. Rascmon was lying down beside him and Trace was running one of his hands down the Digimon's back.
"What do you mean?" Takeru asked back not sure what Trace was meaning. He was sitting at his desk his chair turned around to face Trace. Patamon was on the bed playing around with his DS lite.
"Well now that Calilimon is gone what are you going to do since Kitsumon can now reach you in your dreams?" he rephrased the question and Rascmon opened his eyes to look at Takeru.
"The only successful way I know how to avoid them without her is not sleep all together," Takeru told him.
"Yeah, but just how many days can you go like that? I mean not sleeping can actually kill you which is why despite hating it I still do it," Trace told him and Takeru knew he was right. He had gotten an e-mail from Jou warning him about the side effects of sleep deprivation. None of them sounded like something he was willing to try.
"Two, maybe three days," Takeru answered thinking back to when this had happened last time. At that Trace seemed to be lost in thought so Takeru had turned the chair back around to face the desk and began working on writing on his book. He had gotten a few chapters of it done during winter and spring, but it wasn't near done yet.
"You know I'm beginning to think someone with a key that isn't part of my family may actually be helping Kitsumon," Trace said out of the blue. Takeru turned to look at him glad his chair could spin around since he didn't keep having to pick it up.
"I thought you said there wasn't anyone who would do that," Takeru pointed out. Trace looked down at the floor for a moment before looking up at Takeru.
"I said no one who had the nightmare key before me could be helping him I didn't say anything else about someone else helping him," Trace countered and Takeru realized he was right.
"Why?" Patamon asked having closed the DS Lite now.
"Too many things are working in his favor. Like your dream island being disconnected from Luna's realm. If it was still there Luna could have protected you from Kitsumon influence nightmares. She could have made sure it was impossible for you to have nightmares yet now she can't because the island was disconnected something that has never happened before from what Krista can tell," Trace said then starred at his hands for a moment before releasing the buckles on one of his gloves and tossed it at Takeru. He caught it and starred at it for a moment trying to figure out just why Trace had tossed it to him.
"That glove is made out of material that can't be found in the Digital World, your world and I highly doubt it could be found in the redwood forest realm," Trace explained keeping his ungloved hand sitting ontop of his still gloved one to keep from accidentally destroying something.
"Yet Kitsumon somehow was able to use it," Takeru said realizing what Trace was getting at.
"Exactly! At first I thought he had managed to somehow copy it, but that would require him having some type of ability similar to Luna's which I highly doubt he does. I already know it can't be someone who once held the dream key as well since the last one to hold it was my mother and she died not to long after Lee was born," Trace told him and Takeru tossed the glove back to Trace so he could put it back on.
"What about the person who held it before your mother?" Rascmon asked lifting his head. The Digimon knew more about Trace's world when compared to Takeru, but he didn't know everything. Trace thought for a moment before pulling his ruffle bag towards him and pulled a book out of it flipping through a couple of pages.
"According to the history book it belonged to a man who was my great-grandfather. I remember Krista and Luna talking about it one time. It had actually caused a lot of people to panic when no one from the generation before my mother showed any signs of inheriting the key. It isn't unheard of but it's even rarer then so many people in one family having as many keys as we do. He died before Luna and I were born so it couldn't be him either," Trace said as he starred at the page he had found the information on.
"Which is why you think it's someone else who has a key like you guys do?" Takeru asked and Trace nodded. "Just what other keys are there?"
"Well the ones we siblings own then one of my cousins has one that is closely related to Lexi's Time Key which is meant to keep alternate realities from somehow coming in contact with one another. He has an easy job since that doesn't happen often. Then there is the Balance Key which the holder is supposed to make sure what happened to me with my key being taken doesn't happen. Krista is pretty pissed off at him at the moment, but she never really liked him any way. Um… Then there is a couple of low rank keys that are specifically tied with my home realm so we really don't have to worry about those ones they can't even use them to come here even if they wanted to," he listed off as he tried to recall just what all there was.
"Are there more?" Patamon asked.
Trace's faced suddenly paled as his eyes widen. "There are, but I think I already know who it might be… There is only one key stronger then Krista's that could do everything we can," Trace said looking at Takeru. "It's the Law Key. It's job is to make sure people don't break the rules of the keys and in order to do that the person who hold it has the ability to copy every key holders ability so they could easily have recreated the material my gloves are made out of," Trace told him.
"Why do you keep saying 'they'?" Takeru asked.
"That's because the only time someone actually see's the holder of the Law Key is if they have broken one of the law and that hasn't happen in quite some time from what I understand so no one knows just what they look like or who they are, but damn if it's really them then things might be a lot more complicated then what we first thought," Trace said not liking the idea of it at all.
"Just how complicated?"
"Well if it's really the holder of the Law Key helping Kitsumon then there is a good chance he already knows I suspect him since he can freely access Krista and Lexi's realm or find out later by using Lee's realm. It's also safe to assume that if we do somehow manage to confirm that it's them any plan we may come up with to beat them they'll also know…" Trace told him.
"Great just what we need," Takeru sighed feeling things just could have gotten ten times harder for them.
"There is something else… If it's really them then we, my siblings and I, can't help you with them Takeru. The Law Key has one more ability and that is to strip the power of the other key holders. I mean a fight with Digimon we could help with, but ours are pretty useless compared to your since only mine has so far been able to evolve," Trace informed him.
"Thanks," Rascmon muttered laying his head down glaring slightly at Trace.
"This just keeps getting worse and worse," Takeru said with a sigh. "Well even if the Law Key holder is helping since like you've already pointed out there is nothing we can do let's just keep our focus on Aiden and Kitsumon for now." Things should have been looking a bit more hopeless after what Trace had just told him, but it took more than assumptions to make Takeru's hope wavier. That didn't mean he didn't feel a bit of despair from what Trace had just told him. Still, he wasn't one that gave up easily…