Hugs and puppies to Jared Head and KanashiixKioku for beta-ing and putting up with my ADD, OCD, and random catty bitching.
Previously:
Ryo was staring at Takato hard. "Where's Will?"
"He's in there, talking to Giz."
Takato was seeing some more of that angry-frustrated-energy on Ryo again.
"And he's not at home resting because…?"
Takato felt horrible, but he struggled with his justification. "I thought it would help him deal with—with everything." He said finally.
"Takato, he's not even supposed to be out of the hospital right now." Ryo challenged in disbelief. "What's wrong with you?"
Breaking Point:
"This world's history is much more—expansive than we thought…but it hasn't changed much since the beginning. I've looked back, and seen everything…the laughter, the sadness, the love, and the betrayals. What caught my attention, though, were the humans. You weren't the first, you already knew…before you, there were dozens from all around the world. Among them, there were Reed, 'Delta', and their friends…but Reed was one of the first: the original eight—Carter's father and mother included. For no reason other than nobility, they all fought bravely to save this ungrateful, dying world. They were young, and resourceful, and righteous—just like you. They were heroes."
"But what's happening now—it was meant for you to resolve, not them. Of all the children who were chosen to protect this world, you alone are capable of preventing the coming apocalypse. Because there's something that only you have, that nobody else—human or digital—ever did, and ever will. Do you know what it is? Me."
"…Cronus?"
Takato opened his eyes.
Everything came rushing in as Cronus's voice faded to the back of Takato's mind and then away entirely—but Takato saw something more than just the sight of the digital world's sky and the shockingly bright light—he saw water.
He coughed, an uncomfortable feeling rushing through him as some water escaped his lungs. He was facing the sky, but he wasn't sinking—not that he wasn't grateful for it, but it was both confusing and disorienting, to say the least.
When he felt the pressure on his chest he was certain he'd breathed in more water—and he probably had, but that wasn't what he'd been feeling—it was Rika's arm. He couldn't see her face, but he recognized her watch—probably ruined—but he confirmed his hope by rolling his head slightly to the side—far enough to see her out of the corner of his eye, but not far enough he'd have to worry about drowning. She was clinging onto him so tightly that it hurt him, panting for air as the waves smacked at her face as she swam them both—somewhere.
Takato hadn't fully regained control of himself, and the throbbing pain just behind his left temple told him that he'd probably knocked his head off of something. But even if he didn't know what was happening, he knew that he had to kick to help paddle. So he did.
He couldn't tell how much time had passed between then and when Kazu arrived—and he could feel solid—albeit uneven—ground beneath his feet. He fell to his knees, breathing deeply. He wiped the water out of his eyes, and after the stinging sensation ebbed, he looked around.
Each member of the team who'd come through the portal was still with him, for which he was grateful. But of them, Kazu was the only one standing, and he was stumbling far too much for it to be a real accomplishment. Rika'd fallen to her backside, her fingers clenched into the wet sand at her sides in an intense struggle not to tip the remaining thirty-five degrees. A ways in front of him, Ryo was on all fours coughing, while Jeri knelt at his side, flashing a nervous look to Takato as she rubbed Ryo's back.
Everyone was wet and miserable—especially the soaking-wet-Renamon, Takato suspected. Several long minutes passed, the only words spoken were the occasional 'fuck' coming from both Kazu and Rika as they each realized something of theirs had been ruined—Kazu's mp3 player seemed to have gone missing, and he cursed again as he threw his earphones back out into the water, stumbling backwards clumsily on the wet sand as he did so.
Rika, however had lost her entire backpack. It triggered Takato's own realization that he didn't have his either, but he was too busy enjoying breathing something other than water to care at the time. After finally managing to sit up, he saw that Guardromon, Cyberdramon, and Giz seemed to have dried off quickly—Guardromon probably just heated himself up, Cyberdramon—well, Takato never did know what exactly Cyberdramon's skin was made of, but he was probably dry. And Giz was simply little—probably just shook a bit. Renamon, however, looked as awful as Takato felt.
Takato turned to see the others—Ryo'd finally stopped coughing and was on his feet, heading towards Rika. Jeri's arms were crossed, heading to Takato.
"Ever get the feeling that the day's just gonna suck?" Takato groaned as she approached, his voice sounding strange to him for the first few words.
"Seems that happens a lot these days." Jeri said spiritlessly, arms still crossed. "Gimme your sweater, will ya?"
He tilted his head slightly, trying to figure out what she was getting at. He raised both his arms parallel to the ground to look at the sleeves, though he already knew what he was checking for.
"Why? It's soaking wet, just like everything el—" he paused. At first, he thought Jeri's arms were crossed because she was as pissed as Rika and Kazu were. It wasn't until he saw the pattern of her bra strap above her shoulder that he realized she was wearing a white shirt. "Oh. Right." He finished absentmindedly.
"Thanks."
He struggled as he tried to separate the fabric of his sweater and his t-shirt, and wound up removing both anyways to squeeze as much water out as he could. When he'd done all he could, he was slightly drier, but had sand in his socks, shoes, in his hair, and on his back under his shirt, which irritated him profusely.
Takato climbed to his feet—only to nearly fall onto Jeri, who managed to catch him. She turned his head to the right to examine it. He winced as her fingers brushed against what was an obvious lump. He wanted to make some kind of joke about being disfigured to let Jeri know that he was at least well enough to make bad jokes, but nothing came to him—maybe he wasn't fine.
Not important. I'll bleed out my ears when I don't have things to do.
He walked towards Ryo, Rika, Kazu, and the digimon—with Jeri's help, of course. When he got there, Ryo looked at him nervously.
"You okay?"
"Peachy." Takato lied with a nod.
Ryo kept staring at him, and it made Takato feel nervous. Why would he feel uncomfortable around Ryo? They hadn't been fighting or anything—and they were back to the digital world. Near-drowning or not, it was a good day.
"So what the hell just happened?" Takato asked nobody in particular.
When escaping Valn's underground lab through a portal, Takato had wound up falling through every branch of a very tall tree. He'd been unconscious for three weeks. If they still had three weeks to spare, Takato would have preferred going through that again rather than waking up underwater—if he was unconscious, then at least he didn't have to deal with feeling like crap.
"Do you copy?" a young woman's voice called from the communicator Ryo held. Mala. Takato hadn't realized that she'd given Ryo one as well—but he was glad she did, since Takato's was long gone.
Ryo sighed, shaking his head as he hit the buttons that were supposed to open the channel.
"No good." He grumbled.
"Anyone else noticing a pattern with Hypnos gadgets not living up to all the hype?" Kazu asked innocently.
Mala repeated her request, immediately followed by Ryo hitting the same buttons again. Takato stared at the device. He knew that it wasn't the one that had been given to him, since his had been in his backpack which was missing, but he still hoped his last-resort effort for dealing with crappy electronics would work—he snatched the device from Ryo and threw it to the ground hard. His friends protested—at least, they started to, but before any of them could finish their thoughts the communicator hummed to life, a bright light projecting to the side from it.
Takato didn't bother seeing what kinds of looks everyone was giving him, and instead he hurried to where he'd thrown the device, stumbling on the way as the bump on his head reminded him of its presence. He stood the device upright and took a step back as the hologram flared up. It was almost a sphere, though a little wide at the sides, roughly a meter in diameter. The grid-lines on it were the next part to light up, and then finally the strange arm-like machines in the center, which supported two seats—originally Tally and Riley, though currently there was a young woman and a one-armed boy.
"We're here." Takato said flatly before repeating his initial question. "What the hell just happened?"
Both seats moved, Mala's much more frequently than Will's, who was probably still learning how to operate it. Still, it wasn't something Takato cared about at that time, as he was more concerned with having someone answer his question.
"Still trying to figure that out." Mala grumbled. "All the diagnostics we've run say the portal opened at the exact coordinates it should have."
Sweet.
"Is everyone okay?" Will spoke up.
"Barely." Jeri replied. Takato felt her eyes on him but didn't answer. "Takato almost drowned."
Right. Rika.
He turned to the redhead, and flashed a smile. "Thanks for that, by the way. I owe you one."
Rika smirked. "A few."
"We tried opening a portal to pull you back when Takato's communicator went offline." Mala explained. "But the only thing that came through to this end was a whole lot of water."
"Basement floors six and five are completely flooded. Just activated the backup generator for when the primary inevitably fails on us." Will grumbled, not bothering to hide his cynicism. Will was a self-conscious perfectionist, so Takato suspected that watching everyone nearly drown on his watch probably bothered the guy as much as it did everyone else.
Takato flashed a look at Ryo. He saw his friend's mouth open to say something to his brother, but it closed quickly, and Takato looked back to the image before Ryo could notice him staring.
"Question…" Kazu said, raising his hand. "Say Takato did drown. If Ryo gets the leadership, do I get Jeri?"
"Obviously." Jeri answered simply, her poker-face still on. Takato wanted to say something, but the conversation had already ended before Takato realized what Kazu'd even said. He'd heard everything, he just didn't bother to process it until several seconds later, but by then Mala had started speaking again.
"We've got this theory that whatever Cronus did affected more than just Hyperion." She explained. "We're still checking other verified coordinates, but nothing is where it was before. At least, as far as our records show. We're trying to match your current location with something we have on file to get some sense of where you are."
Takato suppressed his paranoia of Mala using Cronus's name while inside Hypnos. Still, he knew that she knew what she was doing. Yamaki was out of the country, doing something or other that would make the money that would be funding the team's very expensive communication with the real world. Takato knew that Mala would be writing Yamaki doctored reports to keep Cronus and Henry's roles quiet, but he still didn't like the idea of Cronus's name being said there.
"Coordinates confirmed." Will reported, his seat raising slightly. "You're about four hundred kilometers east-southeast of Thalami."
"Thalami?" Jeri asked.
Takato'd heard the name before, but all he knew of it was that he was near there when he and Cronus were captured—when Henry was 'extracted'. Takato himself had been mostly unconscious, so all he really knew was that it was a city.
"It's one of the three main cities—bigger than Sarian, smaller than Hyperion." The Gazimon explained quickly.
"We should head there, warn them about Armageddemon." Ryo added.
"No." Takato countered flatly, staring at the hologram without really focusing on it.
He usually would have put more effort into shooting down one of his friend's ideas, but he didn't have time for that—just like he didn't have time to go to a city that would ignore them for being human anyways.
From what everyone had told him—incessantly—getting Hyperion to rally its forces had taken several days. Its army was by a wide margin, the largest force in the digital world, and it had barely survived the attack Henry had ordered. But next time it wouldn't just be an army—it would be Armageddemon itself, plus whatever new heralds it would create before then.
"If the next attack is going to be anything like the last one, Thalami's forces won't do us any good." Takato explained. "We go back to Hyperion. Find survivors—find Cronus. It's not like anyone at Thalami will listen to us anyways."
Though all of his friends were staring at him, only one of them was gutsy enough to reply right away.
"They'll listen." Rika said calmly before turning to her partner. "Renamon was appointed the fifth seat in the Circle. Remember?"
Right. That.
"And any survivors of Hyperion would most likely head there…" Giz added thoughtfully.
"My point still stands. Even if their army supports us fully, it won't be any use when the real fighting starts." Takato declared quickly. "We head towards Hyperion, and track down Cronus."
Ryo scratched the back of his head, and Takato readied himself for the next objection.
Why are they all being so difficult about this?
"Look, uh, I know nobody really wants to bring this up, but should we really be betting everything on the hope that Cronus is actually going to help us?"
Takato's gut twisted.
"Excuse me?"
Ryo sighed, apparently regretting his choice of words—Takato was glad that his friend was at least trying to rephrase it.
"Like, I know he wants to do what's best and all that, but you saw him back underneath the city." Ryo went on. "He was so—"
"Absorbing that much power was probably disorienting." Will spoke up. Takato was grateful that at least one of them was sort-of on his side.
"I'm not talking about that—" Ryo elaborated. "Right before he took all that power. He was damn near out of his mind. He wants Henry dead, and unless I'm mistaken, we don't."
Takato recalled it very well, since he'd been thinking about it nearly every hour of every day for the better part of a week.
A week.
A whole week of absolutely no surveillance on the two most volatile powers in both worlds. Takato'd spent most of the time wondering whether or not they'd even be too late getting back to the digital world—was that something else that nobody wanted to bring up? Henry might be dead already—or Cronus—
Cronus.
Takato had heard his voice right before he woke up in the water. He tried to remember that his friend had said, but it was gone—just like a dream. It very well could have been a dream. There certainly had been a lot of them, after all.
"Cronus is our best chance of making a stand against Henry." Takato declared, hiding his growing frustration. "He'll listen to me."
He was sure of it. Cronus was Guilmon, and Guilmon was a part of Takato. They were connected.
"What about Reed?" Ryo then sighed, clearly not wanting to bring that up.
Takato raised an eyebrow. "What about him?"
"Takato and I've narrowed the search to somewhere in Odaiba," Will reported. "but there's still a lot of names and addresses to sift through. I can pick up the search later."
Everyone looked confused.
"Odaiba…?" Jeri asked, clearly waiting for Takato to finish her thought.
He'd completely forgotten to tell them—Will had discovered reports of what was probably a digimon sighting in Odaiba years ago—and someone who'd been involved in the resulting cover-up shared the last name Ishida. It wasn't that Takato was hiding it, he just didn't think it was worth telling everyone. Besides, Will could very well have told everyone himself.
Doubtful.
The boy'd become more and more reclusive—aside from brief messages to Takato, Kazu was the only one he spoke with regularly. Just because Will lived with Ryo doesn't mean they exchanged complete sentences.
"It doesn't matter." Takato tried to change the subject. "Even if we found Reed we can't trust he'd come down on our side."
Again, there was the increasingly familiar silence which seemed to occur every time Takato said anything. He knew all his friends well—so while Kazu was the only one to actually say that he didn't think Takato's plan was a good one, he could tell that the others felt the same way.
But what they felt didn't matter.
He recalled a conversation with Ryo he'd had a few days before, when they were discussing whether or not Ryo would be returning to the digital world with Takato. Sure, alcohol had been an influence in the evening, but Ryo was his best friend, and had made it clear that he understood the situation—Cronus was their priority. Not Henry, and not Thalami.
"Let's go." Takato said flatly, picking the direction he knew was southwest, away from Thalami.
He'd already taken four steps forward before he heard any movement begin to follow him from behind. It made him nervous—didn't they trust him? Didn't they agree with him? He knew he was right…Cronus was the only one who stood a chance against Henry, but even Takato doubted he could do it alone. They needed to find him. He was all that mattered.
"Takato?" Mala's voice spoke up. He turned to see the device in Rika's hand, hologram shut off, but the machine itself turned on. "Your vitals look—off."
Takato figured she was talking about his headache, and that—what he could only imagine was unsightly—lump.
"I'm fine." He said, staring at the small machine as if it were actually her.
"Could be a concussion." Will's voice suggested. "Whiplash from the portal in, maybe?"
"You should wait there for a few minutes while we make sure you're not in any—"
His friend stopped mid-sentence. To anyone just listening, it would have sounded like the device cut out—what Kazu would have declared 'Hypnos technology at its finest'. But anyone watching would have seen Takato take the device from Rika's hand, and power it down.
"Let's get to work."
"Communication terminated." A polite male voice informed the room.
Mala blinked twice. Her immediate reaction was the thought that the main generator had failed, just like Will anticipated. But everything was still running fine, so she knew it wasn't that. The communicator failed on their end, maybe?
It's waterproof, that wouldn't be an issue.
"Pull up the log of what just happened, please?" Mala asked Will politely. Though his back was towards her, she imagined he was just as confused as she was.
"Yeah—how?" Will asked slowly.
Right.
He hadn't been through any actual training. He'd spent a few hours early that morning working with one of the technicians to optimize the terminal's performance to his expectations—he'd made a device that performed a similar function from materials in the digital world, and insisted it was the most effective way of monitoring.
It had been a change of plans, as originally the equipment was to be sent over to Ryo's apartment and Will would work from there, but it had been decided at the last minute that he'd be better off under Mala's supervision.
I could have told them that.
Still, they didn't have time to completely redesign the interface, and while Mala wasn't one to argue with a genius, the boy had been a bit pushier than she'd expected. She'd only met him a few times—mostly when she went to visit Henry, as Will was in the class he tutored, but Will had always seemed more—timid than he'd been recently.
Then again, after everything he's been through…
Sure, Mala had spent a year in the digital dimension, living in a village where people thought she was crazy for insisting they weren't in the 'real' world…but even with the random monster attacks, she'd never come to any real harm—aside from one injury on her way out, that is—let alone suffered any life-changing physical trauma. So yeah, as far as Mala was concerned, the guy was entitled to be as bitter as he wanted. Her mind started to wander to what exactly had happened between him and Ryo, but she mentally slapped herself and reoriented herself to the task at hand.
She pulled up the logs herself, hit a few keys to separate the processes that were run in the real and digital worlds, and then forwarded a copy to Will's visor. The raw data scrolled up—it usually took a few seconds before the system could translate it to something meaningful, but—
"There—doesn't that one mean a manual shutdown?" Will asked, pausing the feed.
Uh, sure?
The data translated itself, and the lines of code were replaced by coherent text—among them, the words 'manual shutdown'. She was too dumbfounded to even be impressed by the fact that Will recognized the code before the computer did—she was too busy being furious at the fact that Takato had cut the channel.
"He cut us off." She said aloud as if it wasn't obvious.
She hit the sequence which would raise the visor part off, and she clenched her eyes shut in preparation of actually seeing what was around her rather than what was being directed to her. Mala hadn't been on the terminal much, and even the short exposures to it were giving her a headache. Still, she'd do what she could to help the others—to help Henry.
"What the hell is he thinking?" she asked aloud, more to herself than to Will.
"He's got a lot on his mind." The only other person in the room answered with a shrug as he turned leant around the back of the seat to face her. She smiled thoughtfully and punched in the override of his station, turning him so he'd be able to face her without as much discomfort.
"We've all got a lot on our minds, he's just the only one who doesn't actually realize it." Mala muttered.
The boy didn't say anything. Mala hadn't noticed it until just then, but she finally realized that what Will wore around his neck were a pair of goggles.
To each their own, I guess.
She figured she should probably stop talking about Takato—it wasn't right for her to be venting about him to someone she didn't really know well. She loved Takato like an idol—after all, when she met him in the digital world, a part of her realized that he'd help her get out—and he had.
Mala wasn't exactly 'part of the team'. She doubted anyone other than Takato or Henry even knew she ever had a partner. Technically, she was more a part of Hypnos' team than the others'. But even if she hadn't been on the 'inside' of Hypnos long, she knew from both the time she'd spent there and from what Henry told her that Takato was Hypnos' ace in the hole.
He was smart, resourceful, dealt with stress well, and could always seem to resolve any situation that came at him. From what she'd read in the reports she'd snooped through that Yamaki'd sent to his superiors, Takato was someone who could handle any contingency.
But since Cronus had abandoned everyone—Takato had been different. He'd barely left his room, wouldn't return anybody's calls—he just didn't seem to be himself. Yamaki complained he'd been easily distracted in their meetings. She'd even heard talk from the security staff that Ryo had actually snapped at him for taking Will out of the apartment so shortly after the accident.
She sighed as the system went into standby mode from her inactivity, both seats slowly being lowered towards the ground. Unbuckling herself, she hopped out before she was supposed to, bouncing a little as she landed before holding her arms above her head and stretching.
"So what now?" Will asked, struggling to undo the strap with his left hand. She was ready to help him before he managed to get it himself.
"Now we go get some coffee, then wait for Takato to return our calls." She said enthusiastically, hoping she might even fool herself into believing it would be enjoyable.
No such luck.
Most people agreed that one could often 'feel' another's eyes on them. But at that moment, Ryo was convinced it wasn't true, because he'd been staring at the back of Takato's head for an hour, and his friend hadn't so much as wavered. Takato was at the the head of the group. Behind him and a few paces to the right was Ryo, and to the left was Jeri and Renamon. The others were behind him, so Ryo couldn't really see in what order they were in.
Ryo could, however, feel everyone else's eyes on himself. Well, Rika and Kazu, anyways. He figured they were either wondering what Ryo was staring at, or expecting him to say something about the fact that Takato had just shut down their only communication with the real world—the communication Mala was placing herself at risk by providing. Jeri was staring at Takato just as much as Ryo was, clearly lost in thought.
Seeing Will on the display had been awkward. Still, Ryo found some comfort in the fact that even if Will wouldn't speak to him directly, he was at least being—professional, if one could call it that. Mostly, he was just glad that Will hadn't chewed him out in front of everyone.
Ryo's shirt had dried, but the amount of dirt and sand that had been rubbed into it was itchy and uncomfortable. He knew his jeans were also going to be wet for a long while, and so he'd changed into some blue camouflage shorts. After the initial critique from Jeri about wearing a green pinstripe dress shirt with those shorts, he was at least more comfortable than he would have been.
Maybe 'comfortable' isn't the word I'm looking for.
In fact, Ryo was very uncomfortable just then. An hour of silence with a group of nine would do that.
That, and his feet hurt—while there were several small patches of grass around, the ground itself was still sandy and uneven, making even walking a chore. Well, it probably wouldn't have been so bad if Ryo was actually watching where he was going, but his attention was locked on the person directly in front of him.
Maybe if I just pull him aside and talked to him.
Takato had completely shot down everyone else's ideas. Not even ideas—suggestions. No—opinions. Takato had completely shot down everyone else's opinions. Something he'd never done before.
Ryo trusted Takato, but was just wishing he could find the logic in Takato's plan—why in two worlds would they go back to Hyperion? Henry would attack Thalami. It would make sense to do it. If Ryo himself were possessed by an ancient megalomaniacal evil, he would want to attack Thalami. It was the most likely place they could find Henry—and therefore, the most likely place they could find Cronus.
Hey man, can I talk to you for a second?
A simple question. Not too upfront, not at all aggressive. Passive, friendly, respectful.
Right, then what?
He hadn't thought that far ahead, but that's what all the planning was for. He decided he should start off with something—happy. Hopeful.
So, when this is all over…
Ryo shook his head to himself. No, that would be far too patronizing, Takato would see right through it.
If we find Reed, we'll all have a better chance at getting through this—Cronus included.
Again, a horrible idea. Takato rightfully wanted nothing to do with that man, which was reasonable considering what Reed had done to him and Cronus.
Ryo knew he shouldn't have brought up the possibility that Cronus wouldn't help them—that maybe Cronus didn't want to be found. But he should have used more tact than he did in bringing it up. He just hadn't been as—considerate of Takato's feelings, perhaps.
Cronus was like a brother to him, Ryo knew that.
Brother—
A memory rushed back to Ryo's mind—Takato had taken Will to see Giz in the Hypnos building the day before. Ryo'd stormed off…he felt bad about it later, but had been too busy to get ahold of Takato.
Maybe if I apologize he'll actually listen to me.
A long shot, but still worth the effort. But he had one more thing to do before he'd try—he took his backpack off and almost put it on backwards, quietly unzipping it. He reached in and felt the cool metal of the communications device, fumbling for the switches and buttons needed to turn it on—at least, for a one-way channel. It took him a while, but he remembered what he should have been pressing, and did it slowly so as not to make any mistakes, compensating for the fact that he couldn't actually see what he was doing.
After putting the backpack on properly again, Ryo dug into his pocket and felt the cool metal of the 'Sarcasm Society' lighter Takato had given him as an early birthday present the day before. He clenched it tightly, preparing to make his move. He'd been in more battles than a soon-to-be-eighteen-year-old should have been in, but preparing for that conversation was just as intimidating.
Okay. Go time.
He jogged a few paces ahead so that he was even with Takato's right side. He flashed his friend a smile, but Takato didn't seem to notice.
"Uh, hey." Ryo said, gently nudging Takato with his shoulder, speaking quietly so that the others couldn't hear. "Can I talk to you for a second?"
Maybe Takato had been planning the for conversation as well, because his answer came both quickly, and with confidence.
"No."
"Anything?"
"No." Will shook his head. "I think something may have happened to them."
"Happy thoughts." Mala murmured spiritlessly. "As much as I hate that place, I'm ready to portal in myself just to pound on Takato a little bit."
Will would have smiled politely if she could have seen his face past his visor, but she couldn't, so he didn't bother.
Disconnecting the channel had been a pretty dumb move on Takato's part. Aside from it meaning the team wouldn't get any support from the real world, it was a huge slap in the face to Mala and Will, whose whole purpose was to provide them with support.
He leaned back in the chair—it was actually quite comfortable, but it wasn't think taking a nap was an option. Will's hand had found its way to the goggles draped around his neck that Takato had given him just after the accident. The gesture had meant a lot to Will—and it bothered him that he could tell Takato was now the one who was upset, and there was nothing that could be done to help change it.
They simply couldn't even find them without the communicator being active. In addition to communicating with the real world, it sent out a sort of pulse—it read physiological activity in humans that were too specific and undetectable for the ones at Hypnos, which were meant to monitor the world as a whole—even if Will was staring at the ground the Tamers were on, he wouldn't be able to see them.
"Ideas?" he asked with a sigh.
He heard Mala let out a 'hmm' noise that he assumed meant 'no'.
"We could do a sweep for some low-level readouts…" she started. "Hope that Rika's toxic or something."
Rika.
Will had nearly forgotten that she had some of Armageddemon's data in her, too. It was a better idea than anything Will had come up with…but still, he was doubtful.
"The data she absorbed is virtually undetectable…" he replied glumly. "Besides, we didn't even notice anything wrong with Henry, and—"
He stopped. After everything that had happened to Will over the last few days he'd become slightly more forthright, but he still knew he didn't have any right to say what he had—at least, not like that.
Will didn't know Mala very well, but he knew that she cared about Henry a lot—and that Henry—the real Henry cared about her, too.
"I'm sorry." Will said quickly, taking off his visor.
Mala didn't take off hers, however, instead hitting buttons that Will expected did nothing, as she was probably just pretending to look too busy to be bothered. Still, he felt bad.
"Don't worry about it." Mala said flatly. "With the work we've got ahead of us…and after everything the Destroyer's done in his name—I'm well-prepared to hear worse than that."
Will frowned, still feeling guilty. He started to put his visor back on when he noticed something blink out of the corner of his eye—something he wouldn't have seen if he hadn't taken his helmet off.
"There's an open connection in area X564." Will declared hastily, struggling to pull the machine back over his head. It was a little lopsided—well,very lopsided—enough that he was only able to see out of his right eye as the strap was covering his left.
But still, it was enough for him to see what he was doing, and without asking for Mala's help, he was able to lock in on the signal. It was southwest-ish of where their portal opened—they were headed towards Hyperion, where Takato insisted they go.
"Takato, this is Will." Will said aloud. "Can you hear me?"
Sure, he wasn't using proper protocol, but he didn't really care, and he suspected that Mala didn't either. Several seconds passed.
"Maybe the communicator did short out." He suggested, a hint of curiosity in his voice.
Mala was hitting buttons, but he didn't realize exactly what until the same diagnostics as before were forwarded to his visor, which he had since adjusted to fit his head properly.
The data rolled up as before, but there was nothing he recognized that time, and it bothered him having to wait the extra six seconds for the computers to process the data.
It was just system specs, though—data he hadn't seen enough of to make any good sense of it.
The girl on the seat behind him, however, did seem to know what was going on.
"Speakers are off." She declared. "Maybe someone doesn't want Takato to know we're listening in?"
He frowned, still unsure of what was going on with everybody. "So what do we do?"
"I guess watching and listening is all we can do."
The boy nodded to himself, and began to adjust some switches, doing his best to clear out the interference.
"Hold."
Jeri couldn't see anything, but she did as Renamon ordered, stopping in place, albeit curiously.
There was still sand underfoot, but far more grass than there had been an hour and a half earlier. Her feet hurt, but she didn't say anything, given the fact that they clearly had bigger things to worry about—such as whatever Renamon had suggested everyone stop for.
Jeri could tell that the others were as confused as she was. Kazu and Rika both looked ready for a fight, Ryo looked as curious as Jeri felt, and Takato just looked impatient. But whatever Renamon noticed, Guardromon, Cyberdramon, and Giz all seemed to have noticed as well.
Clearly a digimon-thing.
She wanted to ask what had happened, but didn't want to risk speaking—just in case being silent was part of some combat instinct that Renamon would rather not have Jeri defy. Instead she glanced at the digimon, trying to read some body language—which turned out to be incredibly easy, given the fact that they were all staring at something at the top of a very small hill—a stick.
As far as Jeri could tell from her position, it was about two inches in diameter, and at least a foot of it was sticking out of the ground, plus however much was buried. But it stood perfectly upright—a marker.
"Something's there." Renamon said calmly, fists clenched, clearly ready to pounce.
"It's a stick." Kazu declared.
"No." the Gazimon murmured. "There's something there…something—"
"Powerful." Guardromon finished.
She looked to Takato, and the others did the same shortly after. Takato looked thoughtful for a moment, before letting out a sigh. "Spread out."
They had five people and only four digimon, but they did their best to even it out as they circled around the mound of dirt, Jeri winding up with Guardromon to her left and Takato to her right. Part of her expected something to burst out of the earth and maim them all—not that she was becoming pessimistic.
Everyone stared at it for several seconds before Giz finally advanced, the small digimon standing at the top of the little hill, putting him just above eye-level with Jeri. He was examining the stick, which seemed bare, and sniffing around.
"Maybe you were wrong." Takato said aloud, looking to Renamon.
Before the fox could answer, though, Giz started digging.
"This is strange." Mala said nervously.
"Tell me about it…" Will murmured. "These readings don't make any sense."
Mala just stared at the information projected on her visor. The data that made up digital life had almost a tag on it—an extra little bit of code at the end of every line that was what separated them from objects in the world—what made Renamon's readings different from Takato's shoes.
But whatever Mala and Will were detecting—whatever the Tamers were digging for had that tag, but that was it—it was a digimon, but at the same time, it wasn't reading like any digimon they'd ever detected.
Something powerful, but not quite a digimon…
She saw Will lean over the side of his seat, looking at her through his visor. "Do you think it might be…?"
It could be Cronus, but somehow, she doubted it. She had a bad feeling, but she knew that one way or another, she was about to find out what was there—and even if she were able to get data that would confirm some kind of danger, it wasn't like she could tell them about it anyways.
Okay. So the Sit-And-Do-Nothing game continues.
Rika was getting impatient, but she was getting worried, too. Giz and Guardromon were the only ones digging—Renamon and Cyberdramon were both ready to kill whatever was down there—besides, Cyberdramon probably didn't have the—finesse required to unearth something intact.
They'd only been digging for a few minutes, but they were certainly making progress. Rika's curiosity was leaning more towards wondering why they were digging. If the digimon was underground and not coming after them, then it probably wasn't a threat. Also, Renamon and the others seemed to think it was powerful, but they didn't sound as alarmed as if it had been one of the Destroyer's heralds. In Rika's opinion, it was a waste of time.
But on the other hand, there was a part of her that wanted to see the digimon there—because of something she'd noticed—something nobody had brought up yet: that they'd been in the digital world for almost two hours, and haven't seen any digimon. Nothing in the distance, nothing flying. Just—nothing. Something wasn't right.
Her thoughts were cut short by a silence—Giz and Guardromon had stopped digging. Rika was at the bottom of the mound, and therefore couldn't see down into the hole—she was mostly ready to slash a card, as Ryo was, but she dropped her guard when she saw the digimon all do the same.
She glanced at Ryo, who returned the look before taking a nervous few steps to see what the fuss was about. What she saw in the hole, however, was cloth, wrapped around something round. Something the size of a human head. Something that was—
"Oh, God…" Rika gasped, realizing it was a body down there, turning around and taking a few steps away.
When she turned to see the others she could tell that Ryo had done the same, and was walking towards her, while everyone else still up there—starting to dig again.
"You okay?" Ryo asked.
She wasn't—not because it was a body, but because it didn't make any sense.
"Something's not right." She said simply. "That's a body."
He nodded slowly. "I know. It's pretty awful—"
"No, I mean it's a body." She repeated herself, Ryo obviously not following. "Things in this world don't leave bodies."
Ryo looked thoughtful, before his expression turned grim. "If it's a human, then—I mean, we don't have any experiences with humans dying in—"
She didn't have to remind him, as he cut himself off. They did have experience with a human dying in the digital world—Adrie. And just like every other life in the digital world, when she died, she broke apart into data.
"Something's up." She blurted out, her mind racing too quickly to even regret how inarticulate she was being. "This just—it doesn't make any sense. All the coordinates are different than they should be, and now—a body."
The thought bothered her, a lot. However serious things were in the digital world, it was never as—real as it was in the other world. Most of the Tamers had been beaten and stabbed and worse while in the digital world, but—
Get over it.
It even surprised herself that she was able to make it that simple. She simply had to get over it. The uncomfortable feeling in her stomach went away, and her breathing returned to a normal pace. But she wasn't just repressing everything—she remained well-aware of the situation.
It was only one body they'd seen, so it wasn't even a pattern yet, but she was prepared for it—that it might be corpses that they're dealing with, not data. It was a morbid thought, but it didn't change anything—the goals were still clear. Stop Henry. Save Henry.
Ryo was still looking at her nervously—maybe it wasn't obvious from looking at her that she'd pulled herself together. Rika nodded at him.
"I'm okay." She reassured him. "Just—surprised, that's all."
Ryo nodded back. "The fifth Sovereign's power probably was responsible for a lot of the things that happen 'naturally' in this world…we'll have to keep our eyes peeled."
She smiled at him, and a wave of gratitude washed over her. It had been an awkward fight they'd had when she'd told him that she didn't want him going back to the digital world—a fight they'd never even talked about afterwards. But if it were to come up, Rika was ready to apologize for it, because as much as she loved Ryo and didn't want him in danger, she was infinitely grateful for being able to know that he was right there with her.
"Guys…" Jeri's voice called nervously.
Ryo turned around to see her, while Rika simply had to step to the side to see past him. Jeri was visibly upset, and the uncomfortable feeling in Rika's stomach returned when she opened her hand to reveal a small silver pin with an insignia on it.
Ryo picked it up and examined it closer, while Rika took a step forward to get a better look. She recognized the design of it, but she couldn't recall exactly where.
"Circle…?" Ryo asked carefully, earning himself a nod from Jeri.
It came back to Rika with that—the members of the Circle of Telesto had them. The insignia was Hyperion's crest. But if it was on a body—
"It's Wisemon." Jeri said solemnly. "Th—the body. It's him."
Rika swallowed hard as the uncomfortable feeling in her stomach came back.
Everyone had gathered back next to the mound after the digimon finished reburying the body. Takato was still stuck on the fact that there was a body, however. Not just that it was Wisemon's, but that it was there. Henry must have done something to the world that—
"So what do we do?" Kazu asked nobody in particular, breaking Takato's thoughts.
"We keep going." He replied instantly.
Of course they'd keep going. Just because Henry's screwed up the digital world to the point that bodies don't—
"You don't think this changes anything?" Ryo spoke up, evidently concerned. "This is big news. We need to find out more about this—what it means—and going to Thalami is our best chance at finding someone who can tell us what the hell's going on."
Takato took a deep breath, but it didn't calm him as much as he'd hoped it would—not that he'd expected it to. That was the second time that day alone that Ryo'd called him out on a decision—in fact, it was the second time he'd done it in a very long time. Whatever Ryo had up his ass didn't matter—Takato wasn't going to be undermined by someone who was in a crabby mood.
"We know what's going on." Takato retorted. "Henry's growing more powerful, and is—"
"We don't know that." Ryo protested once more. "The power Henry took was Armageddemon's—the power that Cronus took was what kept this world—"
He could feel his heart rate increasing, and it wasn't an entirely enjoyable experience.
"Don't put this on him!" Takato said sternly, though he hadn't actually lost his temper. He was just really pissed that they—no, that Ryo was blaming Cronus for what Henry had done. "Henry's the one on the killing spree, not Cronus. Henry's the one who attacked Hyperion—twice. Henry's the one who—"
Takato froze, however, the instant he heard a voice behind him belonging to someone that it couldn't possibly.
"Everything's going to be all right, Takato." Cronus said soothingly.
"W—what?" he stammered, spinning around to see only Kazu, Jeri, and Rika.
Jeri stepped forward and touched his shoulder gently, giving him what he recognized as her most reassuring smile. "I said, everything's going to be all right."
But—how…?
"Takato." Ryo said simply.
Takato would have turned to face Ryo, but he was caught on the look of sadness on Jeri's face. What was she sad about…?
"We've been gone from this world longer than we should have, I know." Ryo explained. "And we both know that our next move is crucial, but you haven't even been listening to any suggestions we've made since we got here. So I just want you to look me in the eye and tell me you're sure this is where we should be going."
And that was it.
"That an order?" Takato sneered, spinning around to face Ryo directly. "Boss? My boss?"
To his surprise, everyone actually shut up. For whatever reason, his friends had picked that time to actually pay attention. Takato took two slow steps towards his friend.
Why am I so mad at him…? He's my—
Ryo looked confused, and for a half second Takato actually believed that Ryo didn't realize what he'd been doing—calling him out like that…in front of everybody. Again. Takato was the leader, and seeing that everybody was wet, tired, confused, and scared, the last thing they needed to see was Ryo questioning his ability to do his damn job.
"Oh, wait—you're not the one in charge of this whole thing…are ya?" Takato went on thoughtfully. He suddenly raised his hands in front of his chest and held them together, speaking with the joy and innocence as if he'd made an insightful discovery. "We're not playing a stupid card game! And we're not trying to impress random fan girls…"
Takato started to pace in a tight circle around his original position, meeting all of his friends and the digimon in the eye as he spoke.
"So who around here is actually in charge…who here actually makes the decisions? No, no—now don't tell me, don't tell me…" He gave a sarcastic chuckle as he started to turn back towards Ryo, his voice sharpening with every word. "Let's see, hmm—I think it's coming to me—yeah, I'm pretty sure that would be, uh—me."
By the end he was nearly snarling, but Ryo was still looking innocent. Or pretending to look innocent, Takato really wasn't sure anymore.
"I know that you're in charge!" Ryo protested. "And I know that you're good at making decisions—but the choices you've been making have been impulsive, and they've been shortsighted."
"I'm shortsighted?" Takato scoffed, barely containing a laugh before his tone shifted back. "Because your decisions have really been a shining example lately."
Ryo froze. "What's that supposed to mean?"
Takato scoffed at the audacity of Ryo's denial. He didn't even know where to begin.
"How about thinking you're qualified to be in command of an army?" Takato suggested, letting a laugh escape. He knew Ryo'd done exceptionally well given the circumstances, but Cerberumon and Grademon were the militant forces in Hyperion—not a guy from Shinjuku.
Takato took a step forward, staring his friend down hard.
"Or working with Reed?" Takato went on. "Way I recall, he told you that Rika was in danger, and instead of actually warning her when you see her, you just get in one of your little squabbles you seem to find so fun?"
Ryo held his ground strong, but his demeanor wasn't holding quite as firmly. "Reed's been working against Henry all this time, he's not—"
Again, Takato couldn't help but laugh. Sure, Ryo hadn't been personally tortured and taken captive by Reed, but Takato had a distinct memory of it, so his bitterness was pretty much justified. And hey, asking for a little support in that situation wasn't asking for too much.
"Right, right, right—you and Reed go way back." Takato recalled. "You think anyone here actually believes that you don't remember what happened with you two back then? Y'know, maybe it's not Cronus everyone should be suspecting, Ryo. I mean really, you've been just as suspicious as he has."
Ryo scoffed at him, clearly not taking him seriously. "What are you talking about?"
"Gee, I don't know, Ryo. Have you died lately?" Takato asked indignantly.
Kazu finally spoke up with a shrug.
"Yeah, but really, who here hasn't?" Kazu said, no doubt referring to his own death-or-near-death experience at the hand of Reed's and Henry's underlings.
Takato just ignored him. It was true; everybody except Jeri had been frighteningly close to death at one point or another. Takato and Cronus had been captured by Reed's soldiers, Kazu'd been missing for about a week, Rika'd been critically injured in the fight against Gigadramon…
"Look Takato," Ryo started slowly, his palms facing Takato as if making a peace offering. "I'm just saying we should take some time to think about this."
Ryo didn't trust Cronus—Takato knew it. Not just from what Ryo was saying then, but back when everyone'd been split up, it had been Ryo that put the thought into his friends' minds that Cronus was the Destroyer. Ryo was supposed to be Takato's friend—how could he have—no, he wouldn't have. Not unless he'd been lying about understanding.
After they'd gone back to the real world, Ryo'd told Takato that he understood his need to find Cronus—because if it had been Ryo's family who was lost, alone—trapped in the digital world, then he'd go without question. He just—no, that couldn't be what this was about…
Takato'd taken Will to see his partner for the first time since he'd received his D-Arc. Ryo'd been pissed about it—he'd been mad that Takato'd taken him out of the house so soon after the accident, but they'd apologized to each other right after, and—
—No, we didn't apologize, Ryo just took off. And then Renamon said that I was the only one she'd never seen him fight with.
Takato was sure that Ryo wasn't petty enough to use that as the fuel for his behavior. Pretty sure, at the very least.
Breathe.
Finally, a good idea. He inhaled deeply, and exhaled quietly. But however quietly he'd done it didn't matter, because the sound of a pin dropping would have been deafening in that atmosphere.
He felt everyone's eyes on him, but he locked his stare on Ryo, who was doing the same.
"What I do here is my job." Takato said calmly. "You don't like how I do it, you can leave."
Of course, it wasn't what Takato wanted—but it was what he'd said. It had been a while since he'd succumbed to that whole human tendency to get caught up in 'the moment'. Still, though, at that moment, Takato couldn't feel anything but anger towards Ryo. It had been a long time since he'd felt that kind of fury—he was pretty sure he didn't even hate Reed—the pompous bastard—that much.
But—why's Ryo acting like this?
"Takato, it's me." Ryo protested. "You know I only want to help you—"
Now he's just being patronizing.
"Well don't." Takato barked. "I don't care if you think you're helping—you're not. You think the guilt from everything is getting to me? You're the one who feels guilty!"
Please don't make me say this—
Takato didn't want to. He knew he shouldn't have even blurted that much out. But a part of him wanted to say it. A part of him wanted to hurt Ryo.
"What the hell are you going on about now?" Ryo asked, frustrated, impatient.
"You know damn well what I'm talking about." Takato growled. "If you hadn't lied to him so fucking much, he wouldn't have been in that car!"
Will's mouth went dry. He didn't feel much at the time, but he knew he didn't want to listen to any more of it. He hit a few buttons, trying to make the sounds of the arguing stop, but he didn't remember what they were—rather, he hadn't yet learned how to fully operate the channels. He did, however, remember how to control the station, and he pressed the combination of three keys that lowered both him and Mala to the floor.
He lowered his head to pull himself out of the visor, the noises of everyone shouting still audible as he climbed to his feet. He stepped around to see Mala in the station behind him. He was ready to apologize for lowering her, too, but she spoke first.
"You okay?" she asked in a calming voice.
Will wasn't, but he didn't feel like talking about it, especially to someone he barely knew—however nice she was. First he'd learned of the death of a digimon who had been nice to him, and then he'd become an excuse for people to start yelling at each other. He'd simply had enough for one day.
"Can you drive me home?"
Kazu managed to keep his grip on Takato's arms despite how much force he was putting into moving forward. Directly behind him was Rika, who was keeping Ryo back at arm's length in order to keep as much distance between the pair. Takato was probably more pissed about the fact that Kazu was restraining him, while Ryo's anger was most likely from the verbal assault Takato had been going on with. At least Ryo hadn't appeared to have completely lost his mind.
"You need to back off, right now." Ryo said, clearly close to losing it.
Of course, Takato took that as more provocation, and lunged again. It took Kazu by surprise, and he managed to get his arms free. But Kazu moved quickly enough, wrapping his right arm around Takato's torso at the elbow, holding him in place with the left. When Takato inevitably moved again, his head hit Kazu's jaw, which hurt like a bitch, but at least he wasn't going anywhere.
If they were doing things Kazu's way, he'd have knocked them both out. Well, maybe just Takato, but Ryo deserved a good smack—not for questioning Takato, but for not bringing everything up before they got to the digital world.
Kazu wouldn't admit it, but he was a little disappointed in Jeri, too. She probably should have said something instead of leaving it all to Ryo. Maybe she just didn't want to it to seem like everyone was ganging up on him, but still—both her and Ryo saw Takato more than anyone else had—knew him even better than everyone else did. He'd expect that at least one of them would know how to calm him down.
As for the situation itself—Kazu actually agreed with Takato—he suspected that Wisemon's body—and what he could only imagine were countless other ones—was the result of Henry, not Cronus. As for where to go, Thalami or Hyperion, he didn't really care—rather, he was unsure of the benefits of either. But as far as Takato's behavior was concerned, Kazu had worries about everyone's safety being in Takato's hands for the time. He'd understandably been under a lot of stress. Even someone as great a leader as Takato had a breaking point.
Then again, Takato'd been right out of line suggesting that Will's accident was Ryo's fault—Kazu only ever thought that. It was quieter, and less of a jackass-y thing to do that way.
Kazu could hear Rika saying something, but he was too focused on what he was doing to pay attention. Whatever she was saying, he was pretty sure she was saying it to Ryo, so at least she wasn't directly contributing to Kazu being headbutted in the jaw again.
Ryo, however, was just making Kazu's job more difficult.
"You're out of your mind." Ryo said with a little laugh of disbelief. "You're actually out of your mind."
Kazu was fast, but Takato was faster. He should have noticed the pressure behind his right ankle, but before he realized that Takato had placed his foot behind Kazu, it was too late, and Takato pushed free—pushed back, and Kazu fell to the ground.
The ground was soft, so neither the push or the fall provided any pain, but Kazu was irritated by the large, jagged rock he'd nearly smashed his head off of on the way down. He was helped up by Rika, but by the time he actually looked, however, Ryo had already taken a punch to the face, and was on the ground.
Cyberdramon growled, but Takato didn't waver, and Ryo held up a hand to call his partner off.
Takato was just looking at him. He almost looked lost. If Kazu hadn't just been thrown into a pile of uncomfortable digital dirt, he'd actually feel sorry for him.
"You're attacking your friends now?" Ryo said it as more of a statement than a question, but it was obvious he was trying to appeal to something in Takato.
"Ryo…" Jeri said finally, approaching the taller boy as he climbed to his feet.
"Why are you still standing up for him?" Ryo demanded furiously.
Jeri's voice was somber.
"I'm not."
Two words. That was all it took. Kazu'd exhausted himself holding Takato in place, and nearly had his head bashed off of a rock, but with those two words, it was almost as if Jeri's fired a tranquilizer at Takato, because he just stopped. And that was before she actually looked at him.
She turned slowly, and Kazu was impressed that her eyes weren't even watering.
"Takato, I love you." She said simply. "I really do…please believe me. Whatever happens, I want you to know—"
Might not be short on tears after all.
Takato looked absolutely devastated. "What are you saying?"
"We've got a mission. We've got friends on the line—we've got worlds on the line." The redhead didn't waver. "But we can't do that if you're in charge."
Kazu noticed that Rika was staring at him, and he nodded back to her—a signal that in the off-chance Takato tried anything, he was in a position to tackle him down.
Not that he would. It would take more than going-crazy-with-stress for Takato to ever lay a hand on Jeri.
And as Kazu expected, Takato took a step back. He covered his face in his hands while breathing deeply, all the while those tears Kazu'd been wondering about started welling up in Jeri's eyes.
Takato took a few more steps, walking in a half-circle, before he seemed to have finally collected himself.
"I'm going after Cronus." Takato said, some of only a few words he'd said in the conversation sounding actually civil. It was also only the second time in the conversation that Takato actually looked Kazu in the eye—granted, he'd looked at all of them in turn, ending with Jeri. "Don't follow me."
With that, Takato turned, and he walked away. Kazu started walking after him to bring him back, but was halted by a grip on his arm. He looked at the trembling hand belonging to Jeri, whose wet eyes were still locked on Takato as he stalked off alone. No supplies. No friends.
"Don't." she whimpered. "Just—"
Kazu was hesitant, but he finally nodded, and her hand let him go, before Jeri turned and buried her face in Rika's shoulder, sobbing.
He thought about following Takato, he really did. He knew he wasn't going to, though. He even knew he'd probably regret it, since with those odds he might not ever even see Takato again—not alive.
Kazu glanced to Ryo, who had the cuff of his jacket pressed against his lip, soaking up some of the blood that Kazu hadn't noticed until then. But after a few seconds Ryo turned away and began to walk, Cyberdramon and Giz at his sides.
Rika gently pulled Jeri away—Kazu couldn't see her face from where he was standing, but he could only assume she was still crying. The two girls then turned to follow Ryo.
He then looked to his partner, who seemed to understand that Kazu was still contemplating following Takato. He hated having to choose, but he shook his head, and Guardromon nodded, and proceeded to go after the others.
Kazu took one last look at the team's former leader before he turned and did the same.
"I'm so sorry it had to happen like that, Takato…but they can't help you. Not Ryo, not Jeri—not any of them. I told you once that I'd be there for you. I am. But for now, you know where you need to go. Don't stop, and don't look back. Your friends are in your past—your future is at Hyperion. Now go."
Wow, be sure to stay the hell out of Takato's way when he snaps.
Takato was out of his mind there, but I'm sure everyone can relate to saying something they shouldn't have—to someone you shouldn't have—in a moment of frustration.
Over and out,
-N