Thank you everyone!
pokemon fan 1991- I laughed when I saw all the reviews. It made my night.
Crestoflight- Thanks, it's hard to be completely omnisciant when writing. If it wasn't for wanting to stick with the way the amine worked, I would probably separate and limit POV more, maybe even to one person per scene.
endlessfun- Well, here it is. "Hey big woman! You made a bad boy outta me!"
TheAmazingOREOman- Thank you! And welcome to the story! I hope you like this chapter too.
The Sushi Monster- You made a great point on the when this is occuring, it influenced how I set up the explaination in this chapter. This would be taking place right after the crew meets Azulongmon, but before Christmas. It's one of my pet peeves of DA02. It went from the start of the start of a school term, through summer, and then into winter in approximately 30 episodes, while the first season ended up being maybe two weeks.
What part of TK's arm was confusing? If it was the pain in his hand, there will be a reason for that soon. If it was about the injury, that'll be covered in here. Basically, he was not completely shielded from the blast.
Okay, now on to the next A/N. When rereading Chapter 13, there were a few things which I was not liking, mainly just how the data that possessed Kari spoke. Also, for some reason the published version did not show the hyphen and closing exclaimation points ( —" ), which is how I prefer to express a pause or an incomplete sentence when a character is speaking. So some of the dialogue doesn't show where it ends. I'll be fixing the things up tomorrow, but the dialogue corrections shouldn't change the general idea.
Enough of my babbling. I hope you like this chapter too! And that the people who own Digimon do not unleash a statement against fanfiction!
It had begun.
In the middle of nowhere, on the continent of Server, a blue light started to pulsate as mourning winds arrived to clear sand off of a stone tablet. A healing glow caressed the broken pillars, as data chip by data chip they grew into the marble glory held once before. Trees began to blossom, a buried ravine cleared and filtered itself to aid in the reawakening of dehydrated plants. The light, coming from a blue crescent moon carved into the stone, grew brighter as the wind calmed into song with the last of the sand evacuating the temple. Its song echoed its way from horizon to horizon to awaken the altars built for the temple's memory, skipping across the Digital World to ignite the blue runes carved to honor the once again sacred Temple of Faith.
Out of all of the sacred tomes, a few had been tainted with such evil the blue light feared to approach. One had been misused to penetrate into a world where data was tainted and could not be reconfigured safely, while one was defiled by incidental acts from a program corrupted by a dark seed. Several altars, which were used by others to enhance a firewall, had simply been destroyed within the past week, and had not the proper time to restore any back-up data. The blue light kept going until it could find another circuit to redirect, merging like an electric charge into a powerful force. The energy needed not only to find the circuit, but one that could be protected from a surge of great magnitude. The Temple could not withstand another failure. The tomes would need to be repaired, lest they continued to be used as the gateways of eternal night.
"Which will awash those Alight—" Ken whispered.
"You are correct," the voice that was not Kari's own replied. It was not the low pitch, but the apathy the voice projected with a sourceless echo that signalled Kari was not the one truely speaking. The voice continued. "There is tainted data overflowing this world, and it will continue to seep through at the phase warps until the firewall can be reconstructed. The motherboard for this was destroyed after Spiral Mountain was completed, and until now there has been no one who can fix it."
"Let us help then," Cody spoke up, eliciting a shock as the normally quiet boy stepped to the front. "We all know what is going to happen. And as you said earlier, Kari would do the same for any of us." The boy swallowed nervously. "Besides, if Kari is the only chance you, whoever you are, have; you need to be careful about what happens to her."
Davis jumped into the discussion.
"We need her too! What good is fixing your program if the DigiWorld is destroyed?" Davis asked.
"Why should we even trust you?" Tai asked. "You sound like you just want to use Kari's power for yourself? Piximon told us about the Children of Faith, and from the way you've been talking, I'm not putting any faith in you."
"Nice one," Sora murmured. Tai looked her way to flash a quick smile.
"I am not the Child of Faith." The voice said.
"What?" Piximon demanded. His expression was a mixture of shock and disappointment.
"No, but Kari is still the Child."
A confused aura settled throughout the group, neither the humans nor digimon knew exactly what was going on. Sora was the first to speak up once a memory stirred.
"Wait! Are you that data that took over Kari's body back when WarGreymon and Metal Garurumon were fighting? The one that showed us how we were chosen and what we were supposed to do?" She inquired.
The figure nodded.
"Yes."
"That voice was creepy back then too," Gomamon whispered to Joe. Joe could not help but to agree. His eyebrows arched as a thought came to him.
"So, if you have nothing to do with Kari being a Child of Faith, what is making her be one? And why are coming to talk to us after all this time?"
"The Children of Faith are the non-digital beings who still hold digital powers."
"But don't we all hold some type of power?" Cody questioned.
"Yes, but how can you access that power? You needed equipment, something to aid you in reaching that power. It is why the four of you," Kari's head tilted towards Veemon, Hawkmon, Amadillomon, and Wormmon, "cannot reach the Ultimate level, and why you could not initially digivolve into Champion. The digivices you found were not programmed for you."
"That's right! You told us how even our digimon had been selected for us original kids before we even first came here!" Sora exclaimed.
"Yeah, and the crests were designed to meet the traits we had which held the most power." Matt added. His eyes narrowed. "I still don't get how I ended up with my crest."
The data within Kari smiled softly.
"We choose Friendship for you because you have the ability that only true friends can share. You can be honest about how you feel, you can share the truth regarding a friend's actions, and you openly challenge the people close to you to do better. That granted you the power to channel the friendship not only you yourself felt; you channeled the friendship of others as well.
"Truthfully, yours was the hardest to assign," the voice chuckled, and the echo surprised the children. "You were about to receive the crest of Honesty, but the way you comforted TK during your parents' divorce showed the friendship you reached with others."
'This woman—or thing, is starting to creep me out. If she knows that much about Matt, who is not the most social, how much does she know about me?' Davis questioned himself.
'So much information, even more than what Azulongmon shared the other day. I can barely keep up,' went through Cody's mind.
'I wish Izzy was here. He would be able to simplify all of this.' Yolei thought. The other five held similar thoughts.
"Wait—" Yolei began aloud. "How does Ken have a crest, but Wormmon cannot digivolve on his own?"
The voice sighed.
"First, the tag is what will first grant access to the power, like the Digi-eggs for the armor digivolving. Second, the power will only emerge once the holder can recognize it within himself. Like when Joe put TK's safety before his own during the battle with MegaSeadramon. You knew TK's mother relied on you to look after him, as you promised her you would. You confirmed it to yourself out-loud, showing you acknowledged the trait behind your power.
"But enough of this, I no longer have the time. I came to assign a new mission; one Azulongmon hinted at but was forbidden to say. The seeds of light which form the Destiny Stones are easily tainted by the dark forces, and the Children of Faith are required to protect them until they sprout. If they are infiltrated with darkness, they can open phase warps that can lock digimon inside, and when one is fully corrupted, can even infiltrate your world. These seeds were managed by various altars; most were destroyed, however, both by the forms of darkness and the unawareness of yourselves. As the Temple can only locate one of its children, Kari's light is being used to help fuel the power of Faith."
"You mean the reason all this is happening to Kari is you guys never told us what we needed to do?" Salamon yelled.
Tai could feel his face scowl. 'I do not know if I can take this anymore—I just cannot see how we are helping, if our actions are causing Kari to wither away.' He bit harshly on the inside of his lip to change his pain from mental and emotional to physical. It was all he could do at the moment.
"It is her destiny." The voice repeated
TK, who was still on the ground next to Kari, began to groan as he regained awareness. He heard bits and pieces of the conversations, but his focus was on the pain of his right shoulder and the returning throb in his left hand.
"Before I leave, I will challenge you to a task. If you want to be of aid to the last Child of Faith, you must do two things. First, you must bring the Vaccine digimon back to their Temple. Then, you need to figure out the prime weakness of your team, and confront it. It can be turned into the most precious of strengths. If you cannot fight this weakness, you may be trapped in this darkness." A hand rose to the sky. "This very darkness that can be defeated by one thing."
"You mean the light?" Yolei asked. Kari's head shook.
"Light and darkness will always be at equilibrium with each other, unless the light can find its shield."
"Why does all this sound familiar?" Tokomon wondered aloud.
The data ignored him.
"I may need this body after this quest is complete. Take care of it for me."
"We'll take care of it for Kari! Not you!" TK stated. His throat was strained, his figure weak, but his eyes burned with an anger only a few his teammates could recognize.
The data nodded once again.
'This thing needs a new gesture.' Davis decided
"I understand. Good-bye, Chosen Children. Good luck." Kari's eyes once again shut, this time tightly as her jaw locked as a reaction to a sudden pain. She sank to her knees, only to be caught by her brother; who had rushed to her side the moment her body was freed.
"Kari? Are you okay?" He asked nervously. His sister, who was still Alight, opened her eyes to turn to him. Her smile was wan as her eyes focused for the first time in hours.
"I'll be well shortly. This just takes so much out of me." She responded. Her voice was still lower than its normal pitch, but had lost the hollow echo of the data. Her mind jumped to the other child who sat weakly on the ground.
"TK! How are you?" Kari insisted. TK smiled his trademark half grin.
"Well, I have been better. But I am glad this day is over." TK told her, after which he scanned the room to see any other issues. "Looks like everyone is ready for this day to be over."
Matt walked to his brother, threw an arm under the shoulders, and hoisted TK up. Joe joined the two and began examining TK's upper right arm.
"It looks like it will be a pretty nasty bruise, but it's not swelling." The future doctor grasped it gently. "Can you rotate your shoulder, TK?"
TK could.
"Did that feel okay?" Joe inquired.
"It aches, but that didn't make it feel any worse." TK replied. Matt grinned tightly.
"Well, that's one problem solved." He looked around. "Now how are we going to clean up this mess?"
The formerly lush field was anything but lush. The only fresh things were the new craters from Megadramon's attacks. Nothing green was left, neither in the forms of grass nor moss.
'That phase warp must have sucked the life out of everything.' Sora thought as her eyes scanned the immediate area. "I guess we have some work to do." She then said aloud. A noise interrupted her next thought.
Gomamon laughed.
"What?" He then asked after Joe and Yolei looked at him. "I'm hungry!"
"I could use some food too, Davis." Chibomon chirped. A general consensus had been met.
"Well guys, we can message Izzy to bring you guys some grub." Tai decided and whipped out his D-terminal.
"Okay, and I'll message Mimi," Sora announced. "We all need to come up with a plan."
"Sure, but let's get out of this space, it's starting to give me the creeps." Davis suggested. He looked at the sky and the dark wave fighting to cover more ground. "Aw man! Can't we ever get a break? We just finished our fight with BlackWarGreymon, and now we have to fight against something that doesn't even have a shape?" He expressed his frustration. Matt's expression hardened.
"Look, just because you guys have been lucky enough to make this an after-school club, doesn't mean you don't still have a full time commitment."
"Matt—" Davis began. "I'm—"
"Don't worry Davis," TK said hoarsely, with a grin on his face nonetheless. "He's just being the stressful self and openly challenging you to perform your greatest without even realizing it. It's his reverse psychology."
"You heard all of what that data talking through Kari said? I didn't even know if you were conscious." Matt remarked, his tone changing to try to withhold the embarrassment of having his character's foil exposed.
"I heard most of it. The initial bit was a bit fuzzy."
"You remember more than I do," Kari's eyes held shame. "Everything from the time I arrived here until just now is fuzzy. It's as if I was watching another person's dream." Her expression then shifted to a firmness the young girl rarely displayed, and her voice regained a force she had not expressed in years. "I know I must do something, but I do not know exactly what. I also know all of you-" she looked around only to lock eyes with her brother, "—have known that something was going on, and how there are things that have been happening, both to this world and to me." The glowing light intensified as the emotions from the past week leaked out. Kari turned to see Andromon and Piximon. "I gather the two of you, as the Vaccines, are well aware of everything that has been going on. What can you tell me about my situation?"
Andromon sank to one knee.
"Queen Kari," it began. "It seems you have been chosen to rebuild what has been destroyed since before the Dark Masters. You are the one for whom we Vaccine digimon have been searching."
"I have been longing for the Temple of Faith to return to us. I will help in what ever means I must." Piximon bowed. "I can hope you will select a Piximon again to be one of the Temple's guards once its awakening has been completed."
While all of the other children appeared confused, the Child of Faith did not.
'This feels so weird, but at the same time, so right.' Kari thought with an internal smile. 'I know once again I have a purpose to fulfill.' Her mental calmness was shot down as a physical pain emerged. She took a deep breath to help focus herself, as Ken had showed her a few hours before. The light finally began to dim. 'I need to learn how to control this odd power I have. Maybe like karate, or—' Kari's eyes shot to Ken, to Tai, then to TK.
"You guys! Why didn't you tell me?" She exclaimed as the light ceased and the color returned to the face. The three boys took on mixed looks of apprehension, entertainment, and shame. Their eyes travelled to one another in attempts to harbor and easy answer.
"You know what? Never mind!" Kari huffed and began the trek away from the battleground.
Davis glared at Yolei as everyone began to follow suit.
"You are such a bad influence on her."
Yolei could only huff in return; her reaction unleashing a laugh that had been needed for days.
Until the story ends, this is the closest I can promise to a cliff-free chapter ending.
How many chapters did I get done this week? Wow. I wonder if I'll be able to keep up at this pace while plot progressing (probably not, so don't get the hopes up).
Thanks for reading, and the reviews. With you guys, I will be able to keep this up as you help me make it better!