A/N: A very special chapter dedication is given to HunterHQ for being the 1000th reviewer of this story. Thank you for your continued support. :)
Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon.
Digimon Trinity
Chapter: 132/ Episode 19: Forward Stagnation
Bokomon awoke with a start as a loud, stinging pain slapped across his belly. He screamed. Such pain was intolerable. The worst kind of torment, save that is from the horrors he escaped from.
The horrors… He looked about him in confusion. The air was strangely calm, and even full of laughter while the land itself was forested to a degree. At least in the sense that there were trees presence as opposed to barren and lifeless. The air was clean and…and…
"Bokomon!" shouted a voice belonging to a stick-thin, rat-like face as it swung into his vision. "Are you awake now?"
Bokomon screamed again, attempting to scramble away from the creature, only to hit his head against the tree behind him, sending a spray of stars across his vision. Satisfied, the yellow-furred, rodent digimon smiled, its eyes falling into a restful position.
"He's awake," the digimon nodded sagely to itself. "Looks like I don't have to snap his belt again."
"Snap my bel-?" Bokomon began in complete confusion at the situation he found himself in. He looked down at himself and sure enough found a red welt spreading across the length of his stomach where his purple belt lay. Indignantly, he jumped to his feet and snatched hold of his companion's waistband, stretching it as far as it could go before releasing. A loud snap struck the air and the rodent digimon yelped in pain. Bokomon didn't care in the least for his suffering though. He had endured his presence long enough, and to suffer something as humiliating as his belt being pulled back on him?
"It cannot be endured," he said to himself with a nod of his head.
"Glad to see you're doing better," came another voice, breaking him out of his thoughts. Whirling about, he saw a young human boy standing behind him. One that he recognized all too well.
"Koji!" he exclaimed.
"Easy there," the boy soothed, holding up his hands in a placating gesture. "You and Neemon have been through a lot."
"Oh, if only you knew…" Bokomon gasped, all but breaking down into tears then and there. It worked! They had actually made it to the human world in spite of all perils that lay in their way. Memories were swiftly coming back to him now. The council that had been held by the Celestials. The frantic race to escape… Neemon's innumerable pants snapping… "The Chaos… The Chaos…"
"Slow down," Koji said, bringing a hand to rest on Bokomon's tiny shoulder. "Take a second and then start at the beginning. What's going on in the digital world? I thought you said that you guys weren't supposed to come over to this side."
"W-We're not," Bokomon replied, taking a shaky breath to steady himself. "B-But… The digital world… The Celestial Kingdom… I'm afraid it's been destroyed!"
Koji felt a rush of ice slide into his veins at that. In a flash, he saw in his mind's eye all the battles he and his friends had fought in the defense of that digital realm. All the allies and friends they had made. The Autumn Leaf Festival… The redemption of Cherubimon and the defeat of the corrupted Royal Knights.
Takuya's brief breakdown during their final battle with Lucemon.
"We're done… We're all out of miracles. …I mean… Who are we kidding?! Trying to save the Digital World, what a joke!"
"No…" Koji whispered, retracting his hand from the Rookie. "Ophanimon? Seraphimon? The…Spirits?"
"I'm…I'm sorry, Koji…" Bokomon continued, collapsing to his knees. "There was just no time. The Chaos broke into our world before the Celestials had returned to their full might. They were completely overwhelmed and…lost." He shuddered. "I don't even know where the Spirits went after you departed. The Trailmon were all that were left. We evacuated whoever we could and I had Angler take us here. It…It took him everything he had to do it."
Koji knelt there in front of his friend, at a loss for words on how to respond. It was over. Everything they fought for had been for nothing. What was he going to say to the others? How would they react? Takuya would be angry no doubt. His endless optimism had carried them through defeat after defeat in the thin hopes of stealing victory from the forces of Darkness and they had done it!
Except we didn't, he thought. In the end, we lost.
No. They hadn't quite lost. The rest of the Digital World was still out there.
We have to save whatever's left, he thought with renewed determination. Focused on his new goal, he clasped hold of Bokomon and lifted him up.
"Bokomon," he began. "The digimon that destroyed the Celestial Kingdom. Were they called…Devas?"
"Devas…?" Bokomon blinked. "N-No. Koji… I don't know what destroyed the Celestial Kingdom, but it wasn't a digimon!"
Wasn't a digimon?! Koji frantically glanced over in the direction of Takato, who was still goofing off with his partner and friends. He frowned, debating whether he should call him over, doubts about the boy and his friend Rika playing through his mind.
If Henry were here…
No. He couldn't think like that. Releasing Bokomon, he raised a hand and waved it. "Takato!" he called out. Straight away, the boy halted dead in his tracks and looked in his direction, eyebrow raised. "You need to get over here! Bokomon's awake and he's got something to tell you!"
###
"How do you activate your crest?"
From their seat outside a restaurant, Sora looked up at Rika, pausing in feeding the still-exhausted Biyomon. The girl was frowning slightly, not liking the hesitation.
"Your crest," she repeated. "I know it's your strongest trait, but…how do you activate it?"
Sora gave a soft smile and looked away, running a hand over her feathered friend's head. Questions about Flash Digivolution and now Crests. Rika was rarely a curious girl, but once her attention had been caught, she could ask with the best of them.
"That's not an easy answer," she replied. Rika's frown deepened, clearly not liking that response. Sora gave a light chuckle and slipped a rice ball into Biyomon's beak. "Your face will freeze if you keep that up, you know."
"Are you making fun of me?" Rika demanded.
"Only a little," Sora smiled. "Sorry. I know you don't like that. About your question, it's as I said. It's not an easy answer. I had to go through a lot of soul searching to discover that I was only holding myself back because I didn't understand my mom's love for me. But realization… That's only half the battle. It's not like a cellphone you turn on." She looked back at Rika. "A better question to ask would be what you felt when Renamon digivolved. What was that like?"
"What I felt when Renamon digivolved…" Rika glanced down at the table, thinking back on that night at the stadium. "I remember…being angry," she said. "Vajramon kept talking about how we looked at digimon like they're our pets and he was trying to stomp out a little digimon named Calumon… Telling Renamon that she had to join him and serve his Sovereign or he would destroy her."
"Seems a bit hypocritical," Sora noted, taking a soda and presenting it to her partner. The pink-feathered bird took it gratefully and sipped.
Rika grimaced. "It…kind of reminded me of what I used to be like. How I used to treat Renamon and the others. I hate that I used to be that way. I would have thought digimon like Vajramon would have known better if they were so mad at us for treating them like things."
"I can't say what the deal is with these Devas, but that's awfully big of you to admit," Sora smiled. Rika blushed and fidgeted slightly in her seat.
"But I was that way," she grumbled. "Why is that such a big deal? I'm not happy about it, but it's what it is."
"To me, that just means that you've taken the first step to being able to digivolve."
Rika looked up at Sora, eyebrows raised.
"You mean digivolving Renamon," she said. Sora laughed.
"Well, that too. But I also mean you as well. Digimon aren't the only ones who change you know. That feeling you had… That wasn't just anger, was it?"
"No," Rika frowned, confused. "Not…Not really, but that was part of it. Renamon means a lot to me. She's my friend."
In the back of her mind, she felt a swell of appreciative emotion emanating from the link she shared with her partner. Her blush deepened along with her discomfort, but she didn't shy away from the kitsune.
Why…is it always so hard for me to say it? she thought to herself. Why is it so hard for me to say how much she means to me?
Sora leaned forward on the table, threading her hands beneath her chin. "How long ago was it that you asked me if digimon could have feelings?"
"What are you getting at?" Rika huffed in annoyance.
"Just that you've changed a lot from that time. But change isn't easy either."
"That's right," said Biyomon, now joining the conversation. "You've turned over a new leaf!"
"Yeah," Sora nodded. "But that's a face you're not used to showing. Digivolving is going to be a bit of a bumpy ride for a while because of that. Scary even. But don't let that be a reason for you to hold back or stop from trying something new. Because as you get used to showing and feeling this part of yourself, digivolving will get easier and feel more natural. But…don't rush it either. My old friend Tai could tell you a thing or two about how forcing digivolution can make a pretty bad mess of things."
"I've heard about that from the documentaries," Rika grumped, not sure if she understood – or liked – what Sora was telling her. But she had no trouble believing the effect forcing digivolution had on a digimon. "No need to worry about that."
"I'm glad to hear that…" Sora began, only to for her to be interrupted by the sound of Rika's digivice going off. Taking it out, the young girl sighed in exasperation before getting up from her seat.
"Looks pretty close," she said. "I've got to check this one out."
"We can help," Biyomon said, fluttering her wings. Sora looked at her with concern.
"Are you sure you're up to it, Biyomon?" she asked. The bird-digimon nodded.
"If it's a Deva, Rika and Renamon are going to need all the help they can get!"
Rika frowned at Biyomon in brief hesitation, but soon enough shook her head.
"Sorry," she said. "But if it's a Deva, you're too tired to take it on. We'll handle it. Renamon?"
At her words, the vulpine digimon materialized directly behind Rika. Without needing any further orders, she took the girl into her arms and together they vanished into thin air, leaving Sora and Biyomon gaping at empty air.
"Rika!" Sora shouted, scrambling out of her seat, one hand fumbling for her wallet.
###
Impmon hopped from rooftop to rooftop, frustration growing in the back of his mind as, behind him, Calumon did likewise, as he had been ever since leaving the park. Finally, having had enough, Impmon halted on the next roof and whirled about on the tiny-creampuff of a digimon.
"Stop following me!" he shouted. Calumon drew to a halt, looking at him with his big, green eyes curiously.
"But I want to see if you're gonna scare any more little girls," he said. Impmon nearly palmed his face at that. It hadn't been all that long ago that he had nearly loaded the In-Training digimon, yet Calumon seemed to have completely forgotten the threat that he was to him and his continued existence.
Well, not like I want a weakling like him being a part of my data, he thought irritably. He'd probably make me weak by giving me stomach cramps or something.
"Listen!" Impmon snapped, shaking a fist at Calumon. "Those little girls started it! I…"
A loud laugh broke across Impmon's words just then and he turned, startled and angry at its sound.
"That laugh!" he said in a hushed voice, his eyes hunting about for its source. Laughing… It always felt like someone was laughing at him! What was more, as the laughing continued and grew, he felt something tickle at the back of his mind. Some memory perhaps? Or just nothing more than déjà vu?
"I've heard that before!" he continued, feeling more and more certain that this was more than just a trick of the mind. Coming up behind him, Calumon looked about with him.
"People laugh at you a lot, huh?"
Zeroing in on a digital field that had sprung up in a nearby parking lot, Impmon let out an angry yell and hopped off the roof and into the dank fog that lay below.
"I'll give you something to laugh about if you keep following me!" he shouted at Calumon as he disappeared inside. The mist enveloped him and he felt his data tingle in response, becoming almost refreshed by the organizing data. Landing atop a car, he bounded off and touched down on pavement below, fists raised. He looked up, ready to fight whatever – whoever – dared to mock him. Him, the great Impmon! Handpicked by Apocalymon himself!
The digimon in question, who still continued to laugh, was tall. Towering in fact. Some kind of purple-furred horse standing up on its hind legs, white hair covering its eyes and what appeared to be a seashell strapped to its back. Bronze armor covered its chest and hooves, giving it the appearance of some sort of warrior. Impmon sneered at the ridiculousness of the getup, not in the least bit intimidated.
"So, you laughing at me, huh mule-face?" he demanded, his tone challenging.
The horse smirked. "You mean this?" he asked before laughing again, this time louder and longer. His voice thundered and Impmon felt as though a heavy weight had landed upon his tiny shoulders. He held firm however, glaring in defiance up at the beast.
"Would you stop doing that already? Sheesh!"
###
Within the depths of Hypnos, Takeru oversaw a pair of technicians as they worked on Juggernaut, attempting to correct the flaws that allowed the latest wave of digimon to enter into the human world. His phone went off and he hit the reply button on the receiver in his ear, knowing full well who it was without even having to check.
"What is it, Ichijouji?" he asked.
"Sir, another Wild One has just bio-emerged. It came from the Juggernaut core again."
Takeru hmphed mentally at that. "Send out the word," he said. "We'll leave this one in the hands of our associates."
At least this way they'll see up close and personal what danger I protect them from, he thought, about to return his attention to his work. Then perhaps they'll be more inclined to give me the resources I need to solve this threat.
"Yes sir," Yolei replied.
"We must find a way to teach these interlopers once and for all that Juggernaut isn't just some kind of revolving door inviting them to enter our world," he continued to himself, his voice growing agitated at how these dark digimon were breaking through the barriers of his programs. "They must be stopped!"
"Sir," Yolei continued on the other end. "I'm getting some…uh…strange readings here. Very strange, really. It seems that there's another signal coming from the Juggernaut core and it has the same frequency."
Takeru started at that. "It's got what?!"
###
"What else could I do but laugh at you, pitiful digimon?" the horse digimon asked. "You're just like all the rest of the tainted ones."
"What do you mean?" Impmon growled, his fists clenched tightly together.
"I mean, there's a stench on you," the horse replied, as though he were speaking to a slow student. "The stink of being kept by humans."
"Huh?" Impmon's eyes went wide at that. Unbidden, a pair of voices from the past spoke up from the depths of his thoughts.
"You're a big liar! Mako was a bad boy and broke my toys, so go and teach him a lesson, you hear me?"
"Impmon! She's a big brat and she's telling nothing but lies!"
"Don't believe that weasel. Now get him before he breaks something else!"
"IMPMON!"
Shuddering as he imagined a ghostly yank on his arms, he quickly shook his head, forcing the memory away. Quickly, he sniffed his arm, half-expecting to find the smell of two children there. Plenty of city scents reached him, but nothing of what he expected the horse to have detected. Nothing of them.
How did he know?
"Kept by a human like the others, yet still unable to digivolve," the horse continued, his voice mocking.
"Shut your trap!" Impmon shouted, shaking his fist at the towering digimon. "I can digivolve if I want to!"
The horse however appeared to have lost interest in him, instead looking off behind him. Impmon felt a disturbance in the digital field and he turned to find Renamon and her partner breaking inside.
"Ah, more odiferous ones," he greeted in the same mocking tone as Rika took her sunglasses off and brought out her digivice. Renamon vaulted past her and landed in front of Impmon, her azure eyes looking the horse over. He stood there, allowing her to do so, not appearing the least bit concerned.
"Well, Rika?" the kitsune asked as the holographic circle rose above Rika's digivice.
"Come on… Come on…" the girl growled as her digivice clicked and beeped, not giving her any data. The horse grinned.
"Having trouble, weakling?" he asked. "Here. Let me make it easy for you."
His body glowed briefly, and then the display on Rika's digivice changed. The horse's image appeared, along with its name and statistics.
"Indramon!" she reported. "Virus type. Ultimate level. He's a Deva! His Horn of Desolation is something you don't want to hear."
"What a foolish little Digimon," Indramon said sternly, glaring down at Renamon. "You shouldn't be digivolving at all. You don't even belong on this plane of existence! Remember that."
With that, the Deva receded and faded from view, the digital field dissipating along with it. Howling in anger, Impmon turned on Renamon, furiously glaring at her.
"Why'd you have to show up? I don't need your help! I could've defeated him by myself!"
Rika blinked in bewilderment at the ungrateful Rookie. Defeat a Deva by himself? At his level? "You're kidding, right?"
"Impmon, you're not strong enough to battle a Deva," Renamon said, frowning down at him. "You can't even digivolve. You wouldn't stand a chance."
"That's not true!" Impmon shouted, swatting at the air. "I don't need to digivolve! I don't even wanna digivolve! I am so strong I don't have to hang around humans like you weaklings! I'm the strongest around! I'm the limburger cheese of Digimon!" His voice suddenly choking, he broke away and took off at a run. "And I don't need any help from anyone, anytime, anywhere!"
Rika shook her head as the diminutive troublemaker hopped over the fence. "He's going to get the tar beaten out of him, then put back in and beaten out again." Turning away, she dismissed him, thoughts shifting to returning to Sora and getting a hold of the others. "Come on, let's go."
Renamon moved to follow, only to hesitate as Impmon shouted from beyond the fence, crying out in frustration as Calumon, apparently, resumed following him. She considered this curiosity, as well as why Impmon was sounding as though he were about to break down crying.
Indramon… You were talking before our arrival. He said something to you, didn't he? Something set you off. Hurt you…
"Renamonnn…" came Rika's call, breaking her out of her thoughts. Turning away, she followed after her partner without another thought.
###
Takeru flicked his father's lighter open and closed in rapid succession. Not in anxiety however, as was normal for him, but rather in excitement. The forces of Darkness – the digimon – that infiltrated the human world and waged war upon it had committed a grossly fatal error in using Juggernaut as their means of dimensional access. The signal that Yolei had discovered coming from the Juggernaut core; the one that had the same frequency… It was a communication between whoever their agent had breached the firewall and their central hub. He smirked. Because of their mistake, he would soon be able to get all the information that he would need to counter their next invasion. Perhaps even find a way to learn all of their plans so that he could end the war entirely.
"I want a tap on their communications," he ordered. "Now!"
"Yes sir," Yolei replied. "I'm launching a surveillance worm virus now. It's infiltrating their transmissions."
Her chair swiveling, Tally came into view, her hands moving across her control panel.
"It's on the screen, sir," she reported.
This is too easy, he thought, approaching his station. The forces of Darkness have fallen far if they allowed a single slipup like this to occur. Not even Etemon was this foolish to allow us to make use of his network so easily. Could this be a trap?
It was possible. Anything was when it came to war, and where the forces of Darkness were concerned, quite probable. Still, nothing ventured, nothing gained. Many conflicts had been decided in the past because of one mistake along the chain of command. Perhaps this was one such incident.
"Let's see what these troublemakers are talking about."
His screen lit up and he watched as a series of zeroes and ones began to appear. He furrowed his brow, confused at first. What…? This… This can't be right. Can it?
"Binary machine language...between Devas?" His hands flew across his control panel, scanning through more and more of the transmission. This couldn't be right! There was just no way, and yet… "Is this a pathetic attempt to confuse us? Do they think we can't…decipher this?!"
Of course… Of course! It all made sense now! The powers of Darkness always looked down on humanity, believing them to be little more than…than apes, unable to handle more than the most basic of instructions. They were so confident in their victory that they felt that there was no need to hide or encrypt their transmissions. They believed they had already won!
His anger rising suddenly, he spun about and there came a loud crash as he kicked a chair across the room, startling Tally and Yolei above him. Giving a loud yell, he slammed his hands onto his panel, breathing heavily. Breath that quickly turned into a dark laugh. Looking up, he reread the transmission.
"How dare they…? Is this some kind of challenge?! Fine then… To think they would only use the artificial language written by the old people… A primitive machine language any ape could understand! Well, we'll show them exactly how far past them human beings have evolved."
With a lurch, he pushed away from his station and glared defiantly at the screen.
"Oh, you'll see," he promised the message. "Devas or Darkness… You haven't yet begun to see what humans are capable of. But I promise you, before I'm done with you, you'll have wished you stayed in your Dark Ocean, for I will bring you nightmares beyond your imagination!"
Taking a deep, shuddering breath, he smoothed out his suit and took up his lighter again.
"Ichijouji," he said. "Continue monitoring their transmissions. I'll be preparing a full report to the Chief Cabinet Secretary and advise him on the appropriate course of action."
Swallowing, Yolei nodded. "Yes sir."
7