Digimon Revolt:

Summary- It has been three years since the warriors have returned from the digital world. None of the kids have fully recovered from what they have seen and are all the more freaked out when nightmares of the Digital World, both memories and unlived events invade their minds. What could these dreams mean for our favorite Legendary Warriors?

Disclaimer: Bruh, I wish owned Digimon. (Also, I sensitive topics are present in a portion of this chapter. I have aimed to create a darker storyline than the original season was which means some topics like those mentioned below may be present every so often and felt a warning should be given)

Chapter 16: Baggage

XXXXX

Takuya observed the clearing that wasn't so…clear anymore. Pieces of trees littered the upturned ground, the large one that had fallen on Chiaki standing as a monument to their latest battle. Wiping some blood off his cheek, from a narrowly avoided attack, he made his way over to where he had last seen Katsuharu run off to with the warrior of water. Tommy was right on his heels as he snuffed out a tiny flame that had caught on his hat. JP, Kouji, and Kouichi went off in search of Teppei, who hadn't been seen since they got into formation.

As he got closer, he could hear Teruo softly asking questions, Chiaki's voice answered, but it sounded raw and scratchy. Once him and Tommy found them, he noticed Chiaki had been propped up against a tree. Zoe was finishing wrapping a gash on her arm as Teruo kneeled in front of her, holding her free hand with both of his. Katsuharu stood a few feet behind them, Bokomon and Neemon sitting quietly behind him as they had been hiding near there during the fight.

"You ok?" Tommy asked gently, kneeling by the injured girl's other side, noting Teruo's hands were bandaged in the process.

"I've been better," she sighed out, "My head hurts…"

"She has a concussion," Teruo answered, before lifting up his right hand and asking Chiaki to follow it with her eyes.

"I'm fine," she glared at him.

"I'm just trying to determine how bad the concussion is…" he answered quietly, Chiaki sighed and complied with the vision test he was now conducting.

"You're bleeding," Zoe said, walking over to Takuya and gently grabbing his face to look at the cut.

"It's nothing Z," he said, a small blush dusting his cheeks, well, the none-scratched one at least.

"Takuya…there's a lot of blood…"

Takuya looked at her in confusion as she walked over to the medical kit she had been using. He looked down at his hand he had wiped the blood off with earlier and noticed it was covered. He reached up to his neck realizing it was also coated in the stuff.

"Damn it," he cussed as the blonde came back over, "I didn't even feel it."

"You will once the adrenaline wears off," she said as she began to wipe away the blood.

"Where are the others?" Katsuharu asked as he walked over to the two. Minus a lot of dirt streaking his face and a few scratches here and there, he had made it out with minimal injuries.

"They went to find Teppei," Tommy said walking over as well. Tommy's skin looked practically sunburnt, probably due to the fact that Tommy had barely avoided being barbequed by the giant chicken…a pretty ironic situation if you think about it.

"There's some burn ointment in the med kit, Tommy," Zoe said as she bandaged Takuya's cut with a square of gauze and some medical tape.

"I'll go help them," Katsuharu said, getting a grunt of acknowledgement from the warrior of fire, who was currently finding a very nice bush to stare at instead of the warrior of wood.

"Well…on that note…" Katsuharu said sarcastically, leaving the group to go help the others.

"I've forgiven him you know," Zoe said lightly as Tommy handed her back the burn ointment so she could pack-up her supplies, causing Takuya to stare at her.

"His attitude's changed, he learned his lesson," she listed off as she slung her backpack over her shoulder, placing her free hand on Takuya's arm, "and he did technically save us back there in the woods, who knows what would have happened had he not come to his senses."

Takuya stayed silent for a minute, Tommy, Teruo, and Chiaki, who was being supported by the two, stared at him, waiting for a response. He sighed in defeat, throwing an arm over her shoulders as the group set out to join the others in hunting for Teppei.

"I know your right," he answered while purposefully trying to avoid her smirk, "but it's still going to take me some time to warm-up to him."

"How ironic coming from the fire guy," Chiaki said dryly, causing the others to laugh.

"Hey!"

XXXXX

"Teppei!" JP yelled from the base of the tree the boy had been positioned in, "you ok?"

No answer.

"This is ridiculous," Kouji yelled, "stop playing games and get down here!"

"Calm down brother," Kouichi said, pulling on the back of Kouji's shirt, but quickly letting go when the light twin flinched in pain. Kouichi whispered a quiet sorry, realizing his back was probably torn up from when he got pined against a tree earlier in the fight.

"He's curled up in a ball up there, something's wrong."

"Yeah, somethings wrong all right," Kouji growled out before yelling, "and that somethings that you won't get your ass out of that damn tree!"

Kouji would have gone on longer had he not felt a hand on his shoulder gently pushing him out of the way.

"Let me handle this," Katsuharu said quietly, "Teppei's not really a fan of fighting…"

"He didn't seem that opposed to it the first time you guys were here," Kouji huffed out, "or when we were fighting off Troopmon, or when-"

"Kouji," JP said softly, "They also don't remember the first time they were here; a lot can change in a few years, something must have happened."

"What about in the tunnels?" Kouji quipped back.

JP looked at Katsuharu expectantly, but Katsuharu just shook his head, not really able to explain how Teppei had been in the tunnels, especially considering he hadn't been there for their second go around. He had honestly been surprised when Teppei had been so excited over everything happening, about seeing Digimon…the fighting. He'd assumed this breakdown was going to happen eventually.

Katsuharu sighed exhaustedly, walking to the base of the tree in order to begin his climb up, "mind giving us some space for a bit?"

"Take all the time you need," Kouichi said gently, practically dragging Koji away with him, although JP stayed and stared up at the boy a bit longer.

"How bad is he with all this normally?" JP asked concerned, eliciting a glare from the other boy, "look, I'm not asking for any details, he just…"

"Bad…ok?"

"Look, none of us are here to judge it's just…" JP sighed as he fought for the right words, "like me and Z were telling ya after we escaped, we're all pretty broken, we all have our own baggage, but this world needs help and in order to do that…well…"

"We have to fight, I know," Katsuharu said holding back his rising annoyance at JP still being there as he began climbing, "Just give us some space to talk."

"Right…y-ya sorry, good luck…"

JP gave a small wave goodbye as he turned around to walk towards where he saw the rest of the warriors gathering.

XXXXX

"-and then he went back through the portal," Joe finished off from his spot on Izzy's bed. Tai was next to him, head hanging off the edge. TK and Kari were on the rug while Izzy typed away from his computer chair, partially to record the events, but mostly working on an email to send to the rest of the group not currently present. He felt it was important to keep everyone in the loop.

"So, the barrier is fragile once more with no clear insight on how we can go about fixing it this time," The genius muttered to himself, pausing in his typing, "did Gomamon manage to say how he had a straight path to where you guys and the Gazimon were?"

"Not really," Joe said, "he mentioned that Digimon being here in our world for two long could weaken the barrier though."

"So, what about the other kids," Kari asked worriedly, "are they not able to come back right now? Gomamon said he couldn't stay but if portals are able to be opened…"

Izzy sighed as the girl's sentence ran off, "Kari, their situation may not be so simple."

"How so Izzy," Tai asked, switching to an upright position, "Is it cause of how their digivolving works?"

"Actually, yeah," the red head said sounding impressed as the others also gave slightly bewildered looks in their leader's direction, "how unceremoniously perceptive of you."

The brunette tried to speak up and counter the backhanded compliment but Izzy beat him to it and began again from where his train of thought had left him, " Their digivolution process means, that at the very least, they become either partially or entirely Digimon in order to fight back their enemies. Their partners are just simply not tangible and instead, appear to be some sort of ancient spirits that allow them to do what we ourselves were unable to."

"You mean be in the line of fire?" Joe asked, "so the Digital World called on them to literally fight the battle for them?"

"Everything is a speculation right now of course'," Izzy said, "but one thing's for sure, their situation is quite unique, and right now, it might be rather dangerous for them to move back and forth from both worlds."

"So…" Tk said drawing the others to look at him after a few moments of silence, "what are going to do about the whole missing children thing?"

"One problem at a time TK, we know their alive, so no rush I guess."

"Really Tai!?" Joe practically yelled, "what about all of their loved ones thinking they are still kidnapped, or worse!?"

"…as I said, one problem at a time."

A collective sound of several hands hitting foreheads could be heard over the room.

XXXXX

Katsuharu plopped down next to the younger boy. He could hear some sniffling, indicating the end of a panic attack. He placed his hand on the boy's back in comfort, feeling how much he was still shaking. He sat there for a while in silence, waiting for Teppei to talk first. After a few minutes, the boy lifted up his head, wiping his eyes one last time before placing his glasses back on his face.

"I'm pathetic," he said quietly, looking out across the field to where Takuya, JP, and the twins were currently moving some debris out of the clearing. Chiaki, Teruo, and Zoe sat off to the side. The first two only seemed mildly annoyed at having to sit out whereas the blonde was practically seething with Bokomon and Neemon trying to calm her down.

"You're not pathetic," Katsuharu said simply, "you have your reasons."

Teppei didn't respond as he watched Tommy freeze the giant fallen tree so it would be easy to break down and clear out. Katsuharu sighed and removed his hand before also shifting his gaze out to the others.

"I know your still not over it," Katsuharu said, "I'm not asking you to be…I just want to know if you think that being here, if being a warrior is best for you right now."

Teppei sat still, Katsuharu couldn't even be sure if the boy was listening anymore, but he kept pressing forward, "What about what just happened brought back those memories?"

"What do you think!?" Teppei yelled out, turning his head to glare at Katsuharu. He sighed, quieting down and once again lowering his head onto his knees, "Akatorimon just came out of nowhere and attacked, I…I-I thought Chiaki was a goner…he knocked that tree over in one punch! Not to mention that the other's killed him!"

"They didn't kill him, they took his data," Katsuharu said, "Bokomon was telling me, after the battle, that they took out his bad data so he could be reborn again. They gave him a second chance; you don't always get that back on earth. Besides, that's not the first fight you've witnessed since we all got dragged into this mess. How is this any different from when we tried to save JP, or when you guys tried to follow Kouichi back to this world?"

"Because that didn't feel real!?"

Katsuharu stared at his friend. He repeated those words in his head a few times before asking, "what do you mean, it didn't feel real?"

"It felt like a video game."

"…it felt…like a video game?"

"Violence in video games never really bothered me, not even after what happened. I'm not especially a fan of it anymore, but sometimes there were just really cool characters with cool powers. They usually ended in a puff of dust and the hero would come back unscathed in the next round. When I saw you, JP, and Zoe in those hospital beds…and Chiaki unconscious, Teruo's hands covered in blood…"

Teppei took in a deep and shuddering breath before continuing, "it's all too real now, we can get hurt, it's not just some game. Maybe Bokomon said that Digimon can come back but you were right, people don't get those second chances, I don't want to see my loved ones getting hurt again."

"I don't think the violence is the real problem here bud, I think you're afraid of who you might become if you follow a violent path yourself. What the others did wasn't unnecessary violence; it was out of protection, they saved Chiaki and stopped a bad Digimon from hurting anyone else, Kind of like what you had to do to keep your family safe."

And with that, Teppei watched his friend stand up and climb down, tears of realization falling from his eyes before Katsuharu's feet had even hit the ground. After a while, he wiped his eyes before putting his glasses back on and standing up, trails of determination still staining his cheeks as he worked up the courage to leave his make shift panic room.

XXXXX

Zoe watched as Katsuharu made his way over to her. Stopping a few feet before her and the others deemed "unfit to help" before asking her, Bokomon, and Neemon if he could have a moment with Teruo and Chiaki. She gave him an odd look before complying and walking over to where Kouji and Takuya were working to throw some of the last branches into a pile just past the edge of the clearing.

"Well, we'll definitely have some firewood for tonight," Takuya said as he removed his gloves and placed them in his back pocket, "once their dry at least."

"We should pack some," Kouji said, "Tie up a few bundles in case we get caught somewhere that's far from any trees, it's happened before."

"Sounds like a plan," The blonde said, startling the two as Bokomon, Neemon, and herself walked over to them.

"I thought we agreed that you needed to rest," Kouji said pointedly as he walked over to his backpack to search for something to tie up the loose branches with.

"You guys agreed on that, besides," she said, jabbing a thumb in Katsuharu's direction as Bokomon and Neemon moved to sit down next to Kouji's backpack, "He needed to talk to them in private, probably has to do with Teppei… he hasn't come down yet…"

"Seriously?" Kouji said, as he plucked some twine and a small hunting knife from the backpack before standing up to face her, "How did he get chosen again?"

"They were chosen when you were all chosen actually," Bokomon said as he looked through his book.

"Uh…what?" Takuya answered as intelligently as he could muster.

"They were chosen during their first time here as well," he continued on, "unfortunately, their spirits had already been tainted by Seraphimon at that point so they were never able to actually fight the first time around. That is why Ophanimon sent them Angemon to protect them, without their spirits, they were not able to protect themselves."

"So how come they don't remember anything?" Zoe asked.

"Because they never digivolved," Bokomon said simply, "Their bodies never got mixed with the appropriate data that would allow them to possess the ability to remember."

"Uh-"

"He means, Takuya, that they never became Digimon so they can't remember them," Kouji said simply.

"But they remember some stuff," Zoe said, "Katsuharu said Angemon felt really familiar, and didn't you guys say they all remembered Lucemon?"

"They did…" Takuya said, "You think its 'cause they were here for so long?"

"Most likely," Bokomon said thoughtfully, "They had a lot more memories, but most importantly they had feelings tied to this place…emotions are harder to forget."

Takuya bowed his head thoughtfully in response, looking up in time to watch Teppei make his way across the clearing and over to his friends. He watched a teary-eyed Chiaki give him a hug, while Teuro gave a soft smile. When Chiaki pulled away, Katsuharu placed a hand on his shoulder and said something that was inaudible from their position.

"I guess we really don't know them well enough right now to make any assumptions," Kouji sighed out begrudgingly.

"Give it some time," Takuya said smiling softly, grabbing his backpack and speaking the rest to himself as the others walked out of earshot towards where their group seemed to be gathering to decide their next move, "some people are just harder to get through to, you should now that better than anyone."

Kouji just glared as Takuya and Zoe laughed.

XXXXX

"Wisemon! Elecmon! We have returned!" Bokomon yelled as the he and the rest of the group filled back into the clearing, they originally found themselves in upon entering the underground forest.

"Sorry it took so long," Katsuharu said as he pushed away a few branches in order to fully see the clearing, "I'd like to take partial responsibility…"

"Partial, don't you mean most," Kouji began before pausing at the scene before him, or rather, lack of a scene.

"Hey I resent that! But…hey…what happened to the cloak dude?" Katsuharu said in confusion, noting the lack of anything other than grass and trees. The warriors slowly made their way into the now fully cleared clearing, calling out for Wisemon, or in Katsuharu's words, cloak dude, without much of a result.

"Ya know, this doesn't really surprise me all that much," JP said.

"How so?" Kouji counted.

"Well, Elecmon probably got worried about primary village and headed back, and Wisemon's job was to get the new guys their human spirits, so why would he stay after that?"

"Maybe to tell us what to do next?" Chiaki said disapprovingly walking along the edge of the woods with her arms crossed, "although that would be too helpful wouldn't it."

"Welcome to the digital world," Kouji said smugly, "That's going to happen a lot."

"Well," started Takuya, gathering the attention of the others, "It is what it is right now, we never went off a whole lot of guidance the first time around anyways, so what does it matter right now? We all have our human spirits right now and are able to roughly use our powers without digivolving, so our next game plan should be locating our beast spirits."

"Agreed, but how are we supposed to do that?" JP asked.

"If I may," Bokomon interjected, "Ophanimon provided us with plenty of information regarding the locations of where they are being guarded, as well as speculation as to where the other bases may be."

"Cool," Katsurahu said dismissively, "did she mention how to defeat them?"

"Nope!" He said enthusiastically, causing most of the warriors to either groan, collapse to the floor, or just stare, "But she seemed fully confident you all could figure it out."

"We have time to brainstorm that, but figuring out how are powers work and getting those beast spirits should be a priority. We all tried to digivolve during our fight with Akatorimon and it didn't work, not even for Katsuharu who literally turned into Arbormon 20 minutes before our battle with him," JP said.

"Is that going to be a problem?" Asked Chiaki, "I could try right now if you want, I haven't really needed to yet…"

"No, you have a concussion, I'll do it."

"Teru-"

"EXECUTE! SPIRIT EVOLUTION!"

And with that, a ball of bright data flocked the boys form, falling away moments later to reveal Mercurymon. Chiaki and Katsuharu gushed over how cool it was, while the others looked on, attempting to disassociate their experiences with the evil version they had fought years ago.

The evolution only lasted a few moments before Teruo dropped it, earning confused glances as he once again shouted for an evolution, this time with zero success.

"My theory seems to be spot on so far," He mused, drawing confusion from his friends as he mused at the symbol on his D-Tector, "steel huh?"

With that Teruo focused his attention towards the empty half of the clearing, stretching out his right hand, creating a mirror like apparition for a few seconds, before letting it dissolve only moments later.

"Huh, I was right, we appear to have fused with our human spirits," Teruo said matter-of-fact, missing the shocked expressions on his friends' faces, "Hopefully it's not permanent, let's set up camp here for tonight, it appears to be growing dark."

"Uh…sure." Takuya said, watching as the boy set his bag down before heading over to a nearby tree to gather some branches for wood. The others slowly began to help set up for the night as well, trying to put the stoic boy's thoughts to the back of their minds.

XXXXX

"Is he always like that?" Zoe asked Chiaki. The girls, and JP had gone in search of food near the camp site, the goal being to save whatever provisions they were granted for actual emergencies.

"Pretty much," she answered back, "but he really means well, always does."

"He's very…"

"Stoic," Chiaki finished for the blonde, "he's always been rather quiet, at least since the Shibuya station incident a few years ago. We got used to his bluntness, you will too, eventually."

"We will," JP said smiling, "just like how the six of us had to get used to each other when we first came in, you guys probably didn't get along so great when you were all here either, you just wouldn't remember it."

"I wish I did," she said sadly.

"You'll remember it all this time around for sure, besides, you still stayed friends with those guys, so it still worked out for you all in the end."

"That's a really nice way of putting it JP…"

"Well I'm happy I'm not the only girl anymore," Zoe said lightly, causing Chiaki to chuckle and let out a simple "Me Too."

"The group dynamic will certainly be different," JP said, gathering back the attention of the two girls, "But I think it will be for the better, just like how the original 10 warriors completed each other, I think you guys being here will make us a more complete team."

JP continued on a-head of the girls in his search for food, though a fond look had spread over Chiaki's face.

"He's a really nice guy."

"Always has been," Zoe said back, "though he used to be a huge flirt around me before."

"Huh? Is he still?"

"No," she smiled fondly, "he's had his eyes set on someone else for a while now."

"Do I know her?"

"Her?" Zoe asked in confusion.

"Zoe you'll never guess what I just found!" JP yelled through the woods.

"You did not!" Zoe yelled back in excitement, leaving a confused Chiaki behind as she ran over their conversation a few times in her head.

XXXXX

"I can't believe you found meat apples!" Takuya said happily, taking a bite straight into the one he had just pulled out from the fire, "mine tastes like BBQ ribs!"

The others laughed as their leader pumped his fist into the air in enjoyment from their spots around the fire, all but one at least…

"I don't get it," said Teruo, looking at his own apple that was still stuck into the ground, hanging precariously over the fire from a thin wooden stick, "It's looks like fruit…"

"Just eat it," Chiaki said, ripping from the ground and shoving it towards his face. He blinked a few times before grabbing the stick and taking a small bite.

"Tastes like chicken," he said seriously, face full of contemplation, resulting in more laughs.

The kids fell into small talk as they ate away at the food, though Kouji wasn't talking all too much. What he was doing was trying to hype himself up to finally get what he wanted to say off his chest. It was to the point that if he didn't say it soon, he may never say it at all, so with a big breath, he let the words fall loudly from his mouth.

"I should apologize," said the younger twin, earning himself silence and curious looks, "I don't know anything about your personal life, nor am I asking you to share, I just know that I don't have a right to judge you."

"Thank you," Teppei said sincerely.

"Your four are new," Kouji said quietly, throwing his empty stick into the fire, "I keep forgetting that you're going through all the same things we went through years ago. Just know, that this world has a way of making you face all the bad stuff you left back on Earth, no matter how far away from it you think you are. No matter how hard you pretend that stuff didn't happen. It's important not to forget all that stuff, you just can't let it consume you."

"He's right…" Kouichi said softly, putting his hand gently on his brother's shoulder, reminiscing on his time as Duskmon, "We all dragged a lot of baggage into this world, whether we knew it at the time or not, and at some point or another, we had to face it."

"And it wasn't always pleasant," JP said, his thoughts jumping back to his battle with Volcamon.

"Or private," Zoe added in, remembering her own battle within Sakkakumon against Ranamon.

"And sometimes things got worse before they got better," Takuya said as images of him hopping onto Darktrailmon bounced around his head.

"But we all became better for it," Tommy finished firmly, "and we supported each other along the way. No one ever pushed anyone else to share what they weren't ready to share, but we all stood by each other no matter what."

"No matter how much some of us messed up," Kouichi piped in.

"Just know," Kouji spoke as he walked over to kneel next to the warrior of earth, "that you can either sit around and wait for it to become a problem, or you can choose to face it head on, on your own terms."

Teppei had tears running down his cheeks, Chiaki as well, and Katsuharu and Teruo sat quietly beside them in a thoughtful silence.

"Your right," he said slowly, "I know that now, and I can't change how I reacted with Akatorimon, but I can choose to react differently next time."

Kouji smirked before standing up, his face dropping as he turned to the others, "Now that we got that talk out of the way, how are we figuring out watch shifts for the night?"

The group sweat dropped at the instantaneous change in demeanor.

"Leave it to Kouji to ruin the moment," Bokomon said from beside the warrior of thunder.

"He probably just got uncomfortable with the attention," he said to the small Digimon, "I'm proud of him for talking about his feelings at all."

"I can hear you!" Kouji yelled, pink dusting his cheeks as laughter rose up over the trees,

"STOP LAUGHING!"

XXXXX

Zoe and Takuya had ended up with first watch that night and sat against a tree near the outside of the clearing the gang had settled down in. Not much had been said and Takuya could tell the blonde was exhausted and fighting to stay awake.

"Hey Z," he said earning a mumble in response, "why don't you get some sleep, I can do the rest of the watch myself."

"Nu-uh," she said, pushing back her bangs from her eyes in annoyance, "you'll try and be valiant and not wake up the next two."

"I'd be fine," he said lightly as a lightbulb went off as he saw her bangs fall back into her eyes, "I completely forgot!"

"Shh," Zoe said angrily, "people are sleep- wait…forgot what?"

"Well, last time we were here, you wore a hat ya'know?"

"Yes Takuya, I'm well aware," she said dryly, "something wrong with my hair?"

"What? Of course not, that's not what I meant," he said frantically as he took something out of his back pants pocket, "I realized that the hat had kept your bangs out of-"

"-so it is about my hair?!" she said angrily.

"Will you let me finish?!" he whispered angrily, taking a deep breath after speaking before grabbing her hand and placing a small silver butterfly pin in her hand, "I noticed your hair kept getting in your eyes back at Ophanimon's castle so I grabbed this for you, thought it could help."

Zoe stared wide-eyed at the pin in her hand, "it's really pretty…thank you…"

She smiled up at him as he nervously scratched the back of his neck, "eh-he, thanks, it um-I thought it would…uh-"

"match the necklace," she said, pulling it out from the collar of her shirt after pinning back her hair to show a small silver butterfly charm at the end of it," I think they go together quite nicely."

She leaned over and gave him a light kiss on the cheek, "thank you."

He smiled as he put an arm around her, prompting her to lay her head on his shoulder as they waited for the final hour of their watch to be over.

XXXXX

At this point, just expect random uploads. Hopefully not with years long intervals anymore. I have sat back and read through a lot of the story, obviously had to remind myself of half of what I wrote, I definitely see parts I could have written better, and feel I rushed through some bits at the beginning. I am contemplating rewriting it, but more so to clean it up, not to change much of the story.

I have found myself struggling with integrating the adventure cast though. As much as I love those characters, I don't find myself as excited to write about them, I still plan on them being a part of the story, just not a main one and don't want anyone to get their hopes up in case they thought it was going to be a true crossover where the two groups are equally present. It's important for me to look forward to writing the story if I am to stay focused on it and leave time for myself to write it, and I find most of my excitement to revolve around the frontier gangs ark, and most of my stress and writing blocks stemming from parts with the adventure cast.

Just wanted to be upfront with anyone who has been enjoying the story.

And as always…stay prodigious my friends!