A/N: This chapter is dedicated to Keyo-Red Angel of Hope for being the 100th reviewer of this fic. Thanks for making it possible to break that triple-digit barrier. Now, ON WITH THE FIC!
Disclaimer: Thirty-five chapters of saying that I don't own Digimon. Why should this time be any different?
The Four Seasons: Chapter 35
Fourth Arc: Symphony of thirteen/01
The Shadow's Divergence and Tai's Journey: Part 1A soft, cool breeze played across her skin as Jane Dawn, the Raven, slowly began to awaken to the world. She felt exhausted in every sense of the word, and her entire body felt as though it were weighed down with lead. Breathing in the crisp, cool air, Jane sighed and slowly opened her eyes. Her vision was blurry; she could barely see the outline of her hand that lay in front of her, or the boy, Reno, who was also on the ground nearby. Like her, Reno had experienced… whatever it was that had knocked them out at what may have been a crucial moment in a battle alongside the Digidestined. Jane closed her eyes again, and drifted for a bit, trying to sift through her memories so that she could remember just what the heck had happened to her and Reno. To start with, she had arrived in Shinjuku via the FanFic Express in the hopes of hooking up with Ryan and Chris and instead met Reno, a boy who, alongside his wolf-like partner named Dagmon, had fought alongside her two friends. Thinking that he would have an idea as to where they would be she approached him with some questions as to the whereabouts of her friends (and he had been a little rude on that front she thought). Shortly thereafter they were attacked by a strange, static entity that shot them and somehow transported them into the world of the Digimon TV show. While there they had met up with the Digidestined, who had somehow been transported there as well (presumably by the same creature that had attacked both her and Reno, though later they had found out that it was the cause of some bizarre weather phenomenon), and had discovered that the children were without their memories and that both she and Reno had severely altered the events that had been originally portrayed in the shows first episode by destroying the Kuwagamon that attacked them. This divergence had gone on with a quick trek down to the phone booths in a vain attempt to contact home while at the same time try and figure out a way to restore the Digidestined's memories. While the former didn't work out so well, the latter at least gained ground as Reno, who had conceived of the idea that by simply touching their (hers and Reno's that is) digivices their memories would be restored.
And what do you know? It worked. Someone say hallelujah.
From then on, after a brief fight with a Shellmon that enabled most of the other digimon to digivolve to their Rookie forms, and got Tentomon to digivolve to his Champion form of Kabuterimon. After that there was the question of getting the other kids digimon to digivolve to their Champion forms so that they would be at a decent power level to depart the island and head off to the continent of Server where they hoped to use the digi-ports there to get home. Not that any of them had an idea as to how to do that, but Izzy had claimed that he could try by using his computer in conjunction with one of the OC's digivices. And if that failed… well, there was always Gennai.
The last thing that Jane remembered, before ending up in the position that she was in now, involved showing up at the charred ruins of a Yokomon village, being attacked by two Monochromon and a Meramon, and watching Biyomon dark digivolve to Sabredramon…
Jane's eyes snapped open and she forced herself to her knees with a groan. Something was wrong. Very wrong. Something had happened. Looking around Jane could make out the remains of the Yokomon village that they had been in when everything had gone to hell, but there was no one around. They were alone with their partner digimon, and it was night out.
Just how long were we out? Wondered Jane when her digivice beeped and lit up. Taking it out, a halo circle displayed itself above the digivice's screen, showing stats that left the girl confused for a second.
Digimon Adventure
Episode 13: "The Legend of the Digidestined"
Jane's eyes widened in horror as the knowledge settled on her like a pile of wet carpets. Not wasting any time she managed to rouse Munimon and Dagmon. As she and Dagmon struggled to awaken Reno Jane took a quick look around, hearing a sound that could only be described as a mountain exploding.
No… thought Jane. I don't believe this is happening… It can't be!
Minutes later, a large, dark feathered Rocmon soared through the air with Jane, Reno, and Dagmon on her back as they flew across the ocean, heading towards the central island that was the home of the mountain named Infinity, and was the lair of the dark virus Champion digimon known only as Devimon. Jane and Reno were tense. From everything that Jane had surmised, they had somehow been transported across time like the scene selection on a DVD player, and had ended up the thirteenth episode of the first season of Digimon. This was it; final battle with Devimon. Crunch time, ragnarok, doomsday… etc. Whatever noun or adjective you feel is appropriate to describe this situation will do just fine. The main worry that these two OC's had was that when they had disappeared, so to speak, things weren't going at all well. Only two digimon had digivolved to the Champion level, and one of them was going about it the wrong way. And now, if the very large shape of Devimon standing atop Infinity Mountain was any indication, they were about to go at it with neither Jane nor Reno knowing the condition of any of the characters. Heck, for all they knew TK's Tokomon was still stuck at the In-Training level, as he had been when they had gone on hiatus.
Had they stopped to think about the nature of television shows and fictional writing, especially one that's centered on characters who were meant to win, they probably would have stayed out of the fight so that it could continue on towards its destined conclusion.
But then, that would have been completely out of their character, so they just had to get involved and set off a sequence of events that may or may not have been all-together good.'
But I'll let you decide on that.
Tai watched in stunned horror as Devimon ripped open his mountain fortress with his vast size and upon spreading his wings, took to the air to confront the Digidestined. Absently, Tai heard Izzy saying something about how bad guys always seemed to think bigger is better.
What's the point of all this though? Wondered Tai as he watched Devimon descend towards a nearby forest close to the mountain. I know that we'll win, Tai took a quick look at TK's Patamon, who had digivolved during the battle with the Monochromon and Meramon over ten episodes ago. But even though we will, we'll just have to go through the same old song and dance again, with Gennai showing up to tell us that he needs us at Server to fight Etemon and Myotismon, yada, yada, yada. And then what? We go back to our old lives? Or do we continue on to the second season? It's so stupid. No matter what we do we'll still have no freedom over our own lives. It was authors that put us in this mess, and it doesn't seem like they're showing any sign of trying to get us out. And Jane and Reno… I wish I knew what happened to them. Heck, I'd settle for not having to go through all this again, only knowing everything that's going to happen. Knowing that I'll just have my heart ripped out of my chest again, just like last time. I must have been deluding myself to go along with all those authors when I became a part of the FanFic Domain. Sometimes I feel like I'm nothing more than a character that was described in that song by Aqua, Cartoon Heroes instead of a living being. Of course… that's just what I am anyway but still. I'm just here for other people's amusement and my own feelings don't matter. So… why bother?
Tai's thoughts were interrupted as Devimon landed with an earth shaking crash, and instinctively an old line came to his mouth as that sense of self-preservation came into play.
"Uh… Agumon? You'd better digivolve!"
"Right," said the orange dinosaur with that same fear filled awe at the appearance of their enemy. The fact that he had faced scarier opponents than Devimon in the past notwithstanding (even though he was now technically in the past), he could only digivolve to his Champion form of Greymon at the present, and they already knew that until Angemon made his appearance he and the others weren't really going to do much against this guy.
Tough luck, huh?
But before they could do anything, Devimon turned towards the group of children and digimon, a gust of wind caused by his movement slammed into them, forcing them against the wall of the mountain. A second later they were all pinned by a dark energy blast that was being emitted from Devimon's hand. Tai and the others waited as Devimon ranted on about how they were fools and how they shouldn't expect him to play silly games with them because he was far too wise for that. They were waiting for Sora and Joe to show up and start blasting at Devimon so that they could have the breather that they needed to get into action.
"Harpoon Torpedo!"
Right on time.
Ikkakumon's attack hit Devimon dead on, as expected, and was quickly followed up by Sabredramon's Black Saber attack, both stunning the demonic digimon long enough for Sora to come running up the mountain path, just as she had done before in the first season. So far, everything was going according to the script. At least, as it had been originally written. Since their memories were returned to them they had no clue how the story was supposed to unfold this time around, so they figured that until an author showed up to wipe their minds again, it was best to go with the old stand-by. Tai turned to Agumon and was about to order him to digivolve, just as he had done the last time he had gone through this.
He had gotten as far as "digi" before he was interrupted.
"Corona Wing!"
Before the children and digimon, bad guy included, could figure out what was happening, a giant, dark colored bird with blue flaming wings sent out streams of fire that impacted into Devimon, the heat burning data away despite his massive power increase from the Black Gears. With a growl Devimon turned to face his new opponent, just in time to see a glowing object leap off of the digimon and grow larger.
"DAGMON, DIGIVOLVE TOOO… LUNASMON!"
A giant werewolf digimon with bat-like wings crashed onto Devimon, but due to his size Devimon didn't have a chance of getting knocked over. Not that it mattered though. Lunasmon gripped the devil's body with his claws and then sunk his teeth into it in short order.
"Were Bite!"
Before Devimon knew what was going on, a clouding sensation settled over his mind, blanking his thinking and draining his strength and willpower. Devimon struggled against this strange sensation, but knew, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that it was useless. He might as well be trying to reason with a landslide or an avalanche. That is to say, useless.
But then, a voice spoke to him from out of the shadows of his mind. It wasn't the voice of the strange, dark entity that had contacted him earlier. It was something else entirely, and there was something else behind it. Power.
"I can help you," spoke the voice. "I can get you out of this if you like. Send you to those who are stronger than you, where your powers and experience might be of some use. The desert of the Dark Network…"
Devimon paused for a moment, unsure of what he should do for perhaps the first time in his long, dark life. He was used to manipulating and destroying things, whether it was directly or from the shadows. And yet he was now running into dark and powerful forces left and right! He knew of the others that existed beyond the tiny confines of File Island. Etemon, Myotismon, the Dark Masters, and still others that were supposedly beyond them as well, but this one… he was more powerful than any of those entities that he was currently aware of or had met in his long life. Under normal circumstances, he would have questioned this being as to why he didn't handle the situation himself, but seeing that his own situation was currently faltering he decided to put his fate in this being's hands.
He almost felt the being smile as though it had sensed Devimon's decision, and the next thing he knew he was whisked away. To another place, and to another power.
Lunasmon gaped in surprise as Devimon's form suddenly disappeared. Deprived of the massive surface that had kept him from the ground that lay far, far below gravity took over and the werewolf fell.
This is going to hurt… Lunasmon commiserated as the ground came at him in one mad rush.
"FLY YOU FOOL!" Shouted the voice that could only belong to the werewolf's partner, Reno, and the light bulb clicked on upstairs.
Oh, that's right. I do have wings, duh.
Flexing said limb, Lunasmon caught an air current and halted gravities claim on his person, and he soon soared up to the mountain to join the Digidestined.
The shadows of the night sky lifted, and a new day dawned over File Island as Rocmon landed and de-digivolved to Munnimon and dropped off Jane and Reno. The Digidestined turned towards them with surprise and happiness written on their faces.
"Talk about timing!" Exclaimed Matt.
"I'll say," said Mimi. "I didn't break a nail this time."
At this, Jane just rolled her eyes. Izzy was the next to speak up.
"So what happened to you guys? I mean, I am glad to see you again," nods from the other children and digimon followed while nearby, Leomon looked on in confusion at the newcomers who had saved the day.
Well, they did say something about two other children being in their group when they finally freed me from the power of the Black Gears, thought Leomon as he shrugged them off, settling for leaving the children to their own doings and headed off to find his rival, Ogremon. Izzy continued.
"… But I would like to know what happened to you guys back at the Yokomon village."
At the mention of the village, Biyomon and Sora had a dark look appear on their faces, but it was swiftly repressed. Jane and Reno took note of this but decided not to mention it for the time being.
"We have no idea," said Jane, speaking for the both of them. "All we know is that we woke up in the middle of the Yokomon village shortly before you guys got into your big battle with Devimon. And that's something else that's bugging me: what the heck did happen to Devimon. I know that in the series he was deleted, but I don't recall him just disappearing into thin air like that."
"Yeah," said Dagmon. "There was no data dispersal."
"I couldn't even pull anything into my D-Comp," grumbled Reno, sounding a little cross.
No one had any answers. Tai looked out at the ocean, a grim expression set on his face as though it were stone. It didn't take a genius to figure out that he was thinking about the journey across the ocean now. They had to deal with being swallowed by Whamon again, and the journey down to the undersea cavern that contained the tags, the battle with Drimogemon, and then the final sail all the way to Server where most likely they would have to battle Etemon once again and find their crests. But before any of that could take place…
A pile of rocks came apart, and a holographic emitter emerged from its remains. A light of rainbow colors emerged from it and formed the shape of an elderly man.
"…And here's the kindly, wise, old elf character who's supposed to help out the characters of a story," said Jane sarcastically. Reno raised an eyebrow at her. "How's it going, Gennai?"
For the first time, since the Digidestined had known the old man who had been their guide throughout their adventures in the digital world, Gennai looked baffled.
"Pepper Breath!"
A mighty Pine tree crashed to the ground as Agumon's fiery breath tore through its trunk. Shortly afterwards, Gabumon let loose his Blue Blaster, and another one joined it. Reno stood next to Izzy while Dagmon used his Shadow Blaze attack to fell another tree. Izzy was lamenting about how long it would take them to build a raft in order for them to get to Server.
"C'mon Izzy," said Reno. "You should already know that the island's digimon are only a few minutes away from that line you said from joining us and lending a helping hand."
"I know," said Izzy. "That's why I said it."
"Oh," said Reno. "So anyway. There's one thing that's been bothering me…"
"That whole incident back at the Yokomon village?"
"Well, that too," Reno admitted. "But there's something else that currently tops my list. Given that the site we're in is based loosely on a fan fiction format, how is it that the writers haven't paused the story or anything so that they can go back and do some major editing? You'd think that after Jane and I showed up, there would have been a greater effort to do something like that."
"Hmmm… yes, well, I thought that too when you and Jane disappeared. But then I realized that our memories stayed with us and the scene didn't change. Biyomon maintained her digivolution as Saberdramon and Tai has remained in his depressed state that he's been in since before this whole thing got started. Logically I would assume that someone or something wants us to continue as we are. I can't help but wonder if it has something to do with the presence of OC's. I mean, during the Fable War your guy's presence kept the Lord of Fantasy from assuming total control over our characters so it makes sense to think the same thing in this case."
"I suppose… yeah, I guess that makes sense. And then there's my 'disappearing act'. I thought that I was being deleted or something, but instead I show back up in the exact same place that I left, which I find just a tad bit disturbing. Well, not entirely because I was still alive, but I felt horribly exhausted, you know? And I'm still feeling the effects of whatever it was that happened to me, and Jane's hardly any better though she refuses to admit it."
Izzy nodded. "In a lot of ways, she kind of reminds me of Tai, only she's more likely to think than he is."
Reno grinned. "Yeah. I'm still laughing over her conversation with Gennai. I'm sure that had to be the last thing that digital guardian expected."
"No argument here."
The two boys laughed at the memory from yesterday. After Gennai had appeared to give the Digidestined the familiar speech about how they should come and defeat the enemies of Server, complete with vague clues as to the nature of his identity, Jane had basically interrupted him by summing up his entire speech in a nutshell. It was one of the rare moments that Gennai's eyes had ever opened up as an old man. And the surprise didn't end there either as some of the other Digidestined chipped in their two cents as well.
Reno was beginning to think that the old geezer was feeling just a little bit perturbed that the Digidestined knew about him and what he wanted from them before he even had a chance to say anything. Reno had a feeling that, until they restored his memories like they did the original Digidestined, it wouldn't be the last time that he was disturbed in such a manner.
"Well, if nothing else, we should be grateful that Gennai downloaded the map to Server into your laptop. I'd hate to have to rely on another one of Tai's maps just to get around."
"Actually…" said Izzy. "Jane told me once that she has a complete map of the digital world stored on her digivice so chances are we won't even need that map."
"Eh? What? She has a map? Since when?"
"Since she had Tai draw her the map after he came back from that Robinson Kamiya fic about a month before the Fable War. It looks like just scribbles to me, but for some reason she can read it just fine. She was even able to name the longitude and latitude of all the major continents and islands from off that map, and even included the different time zones as well as step-by-step directions to Digitamamon's Diner. Quite impressive actually. I don't know how she does it, but she does it. It certainly makes me feel confident going by her directions."
Reno shivered. "We are so going to die…"
Before Izzy could even ask what it was that Reno was talking about the sound of giant feet hitting the ground came to them. Turning they saw the massive form of Leomon walking towards them.
"Leomon," said Izzy with a smile on his face.
"Heard the gossip, huh? Figures. The only thing that travels faster than the speed of light is gossiping digimon. No doubt Etemon knows that we're building a raft by now."
"I don't know about any Etemon," said Leomon. "But I did come here with a few friends to help you on your way to Server."
Reno took a look behind the lion digimon, taking note of the swarm of digimon, most of them Yokomon, that were coming up behind him.
"By what stretch of the imagination is that a few friends?" Asked Reno with a grin. Leomon chuckled.
Jane found Tai standing at the edge of the beach, looking out over the ocean with a blank look on his face.
"Tai?"
The goggle-wearing boy turned to her.
"Hey, Raven," he said before returning his gaze back to the horizon.
"All right. What's eating you?"
"Huh? What do you mean?"
"I watched the TV show, Tai. Something's bothering you, and it looks like your feeling sorry for yourself. I'm not the only one who's noticed it either. The other Digidestined have picked up on it. Matt, Izzy, Joe, Sora…" Jane stopped with the names when she saw Tai tense up at the mention of Sora's name.
"I see," she said.
"See what?"
"Tai… you've got to get over this. I know that what happened to you during the Fable War wasn't a very fun experience…"
"No," Tai interrupted. "You don't know. You weren't there when it happened."
"All right. So I wasn't there. Big deal. The point that I'm trying to make is, you're letting it continue to affect you…"
"Because I was manipulated by someone that I thought that I could trust!" Exclaimed Tai angrily. "Do you know what that's like?! To think that you can trust someone and then have that trust ripped away from you?"
"No," said Jane. "I can't say that I have."
"Then stay out of my problems, Raven," said Tai bitterly.
Jane glowered at the leader of the Digidestined. He just has to make things difficult doesn't he?
"That raft is going to be ready soon, if I'm any judge of animation when it's in a confined time space. Whether you're over this funk of yours or not, you're going to be on it when we set sail, even if I have to knock you unconscious and tie you to the mast. We have places we have to be, and we don't have time for personal problems right now. Got it?"
Tai didn't answer Jane, and the girl just turned and left. She knew he would come, just as he knew that if he refused, she would live up to her threat. It was in their character. Tai to continue onwards even when he was hurting, and Jane to be forceful and direct in her opinions when she had to be. That was how they were written, and nothing short of a major editing could change that.
The raft hit the water with the digimon on it, and the kids joined them within seconds, everyone climbing aboard and waving goodbye as they slowly began to distance themselves from the island. On the shore, the digimon that they had fought and fought alongside with raised their arms in one final salute to the brave children who were about to set off into the vast unknown, even if it wasn't really unknown to them. They knew what was coming, and this time they were heading towards it with open eyes and hearts full of confidence.
So we sailed away from File Island, where we had some really cool adventures (even though not all of us were a part of them). I remember Tai saying once about how when they were forced to survive on their own they had to grow up very fast. Well, except for Joe. He just threw up very fast, now just as he did the first time around. Lol, right? But of course, even he came around in the end, as always. This time, we know what's waiting for us on the other side of the ocean, and even in between, but no matter what, in the words of the famous Tai Kamiya…
"We'll face it as a team!"
The Digidestined all looked at Reno as if he had just lost his mind.
"What was with the narrating?" Asked Sora, a little perplexed.
"Reno just has a little flare for drama," said Dagmon with a sniff. "Don't worry about it."
"Oookay…"
"You guys just have no sense of adventure," said Reno shaking his head.
Time came and went slowly as the little raft crawled across the ocean, the waves rocking the vessel and bringing out a number of complaints from the children. Some of them were a bit on edge. They knew what was coming, but the waiting was terrible.
"I wonder how much longer it will be until Whamon shows up," wondered Joe.
"Chill out, Joe," said Tai. "We just left! Give him time."
"Yeah, but the salt air is killing my sinuses, and we only have enough food for two weeks."
"Jeez, Joe. In case you forgot this raft doesn't even last us one day. Relax already."
"How can I relax? Whamon's going to be attacking us soon, my clothes are going to get wet and we're going to wind up getting swallowed and nearly digested."
"Man Joe, you complain more than… hmmm… never mind. I can't think of anyone who complains more than you. Except maybe Kenta."
"Ouch."
As the kids joked around a wave rose up in the ocean and surged towards them, almost knocking over their raft. The mood suddenly became serious.
"O-okay…" said Tai a little nervously. "Crunch time folks!"
The massive form of Whamon rose out of the water before sinking back beneath the waves, swimming beneath them. Once his form passed by them his tail emerged and splashed down with ferocious force, nearly upsetting the vessel once again.
"HEADS UP!" Shouted Tai as Whamon leapt out of the water once again before diving right back into it.
"Oooh… can't we just skip the preliminaries and just get down to business already?" Whined Tentomon.
"Never thought that you'd be so eager to get into danger, Tentomon," said Izzy.
"Only when I know it's coming and I can't avoid it!"
"Come on, come on…" whispered Tai underneath his breath. Finally, Whamon emerged once more, his mouth opening up and water began to get sucked into it. The Digidestined's raft being part of the package. Screaming, the children held on for dear life as they went into the huge, gaping maw. As the jaws closed, cutting the children off from the daylight, Sora turned to Izzy, shouting to be heard over the sound of rushing water.
"This time you don't have to tell me that it's the esophagus that leads to the stomach, but I still hope that we don't give him a sore throat!"
Izzy just nodded.
Eventually the raft came out of the end of the tunnel, emerging into what had to be the stomach where soon the digestive juices would be unleashed to dissolve their little vessel.
"You know," said Reno. "It bugs me that there's actually light down here…"
None of the other children gave a response as they immediately began looking around for the Black Gear that they knew had to be there. Jane quickly spotted it.
"There!" She exclaimed. "Palmon, you know what to do!"
The plant digimon nodded as she whipped out her arm, the vines that made up her fingers shooting out and wrapped around the gear that was imbedded in the stomach wall.
That's going to give him serious stomach related problems later, thought Jane.
On the sides of the stomach wall, red lights winked to life and acid began to seep into the water. Jane turned to Tai.
"Okay Kamiya," she said. "This is your spotlight now."
Tai looked like he was about to argue, but then remembered that this was what he had done before, what he was meant to do, even though he was beginning to have doubts about the validity of the whole thing. Grimacing, Tai grabbed hold of Palmon's vines and climbed up to the Black Gear, exposing it to his digivice. Light shone out from its screen and the Black Gear shattered, releasing Palmon's vines and causing Tai to tumble downwards. Of course, just like last time, he landed on the raft, feet first and none the worse for wear.
"Okay, I destroyed it," said Tai.
Suddenly there was a bright light being emitted from the stomach, and then the raft began to defy gravity. Screaming once again the children was forced out of Whamon's stomach and was dumped (vomited) rather unceremoniously back out into the ocean, their raft in pieces, but serving as driftwood for the group of children and digimon. Whamon swam closer to them.
Well, thought Tai a little sullenly, but happy nonetheless to be alive still. Here we go again…
A few hours later, after Whamon volunteered to be their replacement for their shattered raft, and after a brief bout with Drimogemon and recovering the tags, the digidestined were on the road… er… ocean again. They faced the horizon, many of them with a hopeful look on their face as they went down memory lane once more, while others had a grim look on their face, anticipating the dangers that they were to face once again, and wondering if it was all really worth it, just to get back to the FanFic Domain.
These thoughts were especially prevalent in Tai Kamiya, but try as he might, he knew that he would prefer the FanFic Domain to this cheap, copycat version of the website that he had been calling home since his part in the Digimon franchise ended. Gripping his tag in his hand, Tai swore that he'd bring trouble down on whoever it was that orchestrated this whole thing. No matter what the cost.
And out there, back in a version of the real world, his little sister Kari was waiting for them. He had to rescue her too. Even if he was no longer sure of himself, he could at least take up the mantle of Digidestined again. Jane was right; this wasn't the time for personal problems right now.
I'm coming, thought Tai. First Etemon, then Kari. And then we find out whoever it was that was responsible for all this and make them pay.
Whamon swam towards the sunset with his passengers as they thought about the future, and what it held for them.
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