Disclaimer: I do not own Digimon or any Digidestined.
On a separate note, things are really starting to come together. The third novel is nearing completion and I'm nearly done sharing this novel here. The most important thing is to finish what you start. I find myself going back to the past and finishing series I only watched vaguely but was always curious about. Of course, with Digimon this is no different. Finally will see the fourth season and I am cautiously optimistic about it. The relationships in this story are taking off and the drama just keeps building. I can only hope that I have built such suspense as does justice to the Adventure, 02, and Tri Series. We shall see.
Chapter Seventeen: The Ultimate Strategy
Taichi did his best to maintain his composure as Sora explained to him about Takeru and Hikari. He could not believe the words she was telling him, but the way she defended Hikari's honor through all of this how could it sound almost noble? Their was no way he could hate his little sister, could he?
He stared into Sora's eyes who did not flinch away as if to tell him that he had to believe her. Never mind that. What would Hikari's mom think of her? And what were Takeru's plans? And how did all of this just seem to happen all in one night?
He rubbed his head irritated more than angry. "She is her own person Sora," he said. "I understand that. But she has to be pretty committed to him if she is going to go that far in a relationship with him. The proper thing to do would be to have a sit down with his parents and my parents, but that does not seem like such a good idea," he sighed. "My mom would start a war."
"A war?" A familiar voice said, Taichi twisting his neck, the hairs on the back of his neck raised in apprehension. He turned surprised to see Homeostasis, Hikari's skin almost glowing, fierce yellow hued eyes mixing in with her gentle amber ones. He watched her smiling, as if she herself had taken one step further in her schemes.
"That is quite the interesting proposition," she said her own body movement more smooth and having more personality to it which could not have been a good sign.
"Homeostasis," he heard Sora echo out, a slight hush to her voice.
Taichi felt a little more lost than before. He could barely process through how he had lost his little sister. With her relationship with Takeru and Homeostasis possessing her she seemed light years away.
He stared at her eyes, puzzled, unnerved, and as if he had no way to fight. He gritted his hand and punched his palm in the other one. "Dam,"he cursed. "Dam you Homeostasis!"
"Taichi, you should not curse," Sora said. "Your language can come back to you. You still have to be the example. You're still our leader, right?"
Taichi breathed out a bit trying to keep himself composed.
The smug look of Homeostasis irritated the hell out of him as if she was goading him on.
"She's right you know," she said. "Be not idle with your words or they will come back to haunt you."
Sora also seemed irritated and confronted her. "Just what is it you want now Homeostasis? The world is literally shaking with earthquakes every day, the digital world is in a horrible storm, and Takeru and Hikari are nearly under your control. You must be pretty happy," she said as if hating each word she spoke knowing t was the truth. "Aren't you proud of yourself?!" she snapped, her voice rising in agitation.
That smug look never left Homeostasis's face. "Hikari's distraught emotions being my vessel, and Takeru being the record are making this transition even faster," she explained. "She can't handle it. Takeru will also be mine soon, as the digital record's life is linked to hers. In the hands of flesh their is always margin for error," she said, her smile disappearing, staring down at the ground as if she herself was contemplating something.
"Never-the-less as they suffer and become closer to under my control the darkness approaches," she explained. "It is nearly here, only a matter of weeks before the fate of the Digital World and this world will come to a clash."
Just then Yamato entered the room, much to Taichi's surprise. "What's up," he said leaning against the wall. "Don't let me stop you Taichi. I know you are just dying to say something."
Taichi nodded, a little encouraged to have his friend there with him.
"The brother of the digital record," she smiled again, almost sadistically. "This is perfect. I wanted you both to be here so you can truly understand your position and stop your resistance. You all need to work with me in order to defeat the ultimate darkness."
Yamato walked forward his face grimacing. "You talk about fighting the darkness, but your eyes look pretty dark yourself Hikari," he said. "It's a long change from when you were just a little kid crying for your parents when Taichi had to fight Myotismon that one time. Remember?"
Homeostasis seemed to be laughing as if she herself had just completely lost it, not in a mean way, but just as if this was all an innocent game to her and she was winning.
"You two," she said, "you may not know it, but I started this plan a long time ago. From the digital record you remember fighting Devimon, Etemon, Myotismon, the Dark Masters, Apocalymon, and Diaboromon? They are nothing compared to the evil entity Terrormon," she revealed.
"He is the source of darkness at the heart of time itself. Periodically darkness will come up and have to be put down, but he is at the heart of the digital record himself, an entity that, should he be unleashed, he would easily destroy this world; An entity so powerful, that an alternative dimension had to be created just for his power. And from that alternative dimension is where these dark anomalies have come up. But as you can see from the side effects of your own world he is almost here," she said, her face frowning. "Even with all my efforts it may not be enough to stop Terrormon. Even though I planned this ever since he first came into existence."
Taichi hesitated as Sora walked towards Homeostasis, bent down, and put a hand on her shoulder as if consoling her. "How far back does this go?" she asked. "You are so far ahead of us Homeostasis. If we want to work with you, you need to let us know when it started involving Takeru and Hikari. They are the key to all of this right?" she smiled.
Taichi found himself impressed by Sora whose calm and caring attitude seemed to settle Homeostasis. She seemed to be looking inward contemplating something.
"What I will tell you," she said, "is this. Every single moment of Takeru's and Hikari's lives have been calculated. Takeru's crest of hope with his personality. Hikari's crest of light and her personality. They naturally have affinity for each other. The fact that you two are brothers to both of them was also a factor. They both are each other's greatest strength as far as emotional support."
"We know that,"Taichi said. "But even so we-"
"-Quiet!" she snapped. "Listen digidestined how intertwined this actually is."
She continued.
"Their were other factors around this that were taken into account as well. You two were great sources of inspiration for your siblings and excellent guardians. It helped them grow as children into youths and into young adulthood. However, being great sources of light and hope they needed to be tested to go through battles of darkness so they could fully develop into the representatives of light and hope in order to unleash their true power."
"What do you mean by that?" Yamato asked. "Haven't they already been through enough?"
"It is never enough," Homeostasis emphasized, "until Terrormon is no more. The opposite of hope is despair. So we had to have Takeru despairing as much as one possibly can; building up resistance until he could overcome the despair of Terrormon. Do you think it was a coincidence that your father and mother split up and that you are half brothers? Even your births and circumstances as a family were taken into consideration."
"Just wait a-"
"-I did not give you permission to speak," she said stopping him from interrupting her, Yamato's voice freezing in place. "Once more I will continue," she explained.
"Who do you think wrote the prophecy Devimon spoke of about the youngest child defeating him? That was me. The point of the battle was to test you, but on a deeper level plant the despair in Takeru losing Angemon. Going forward as he became independent and stronger we needed him to be an example to the light, someone her age."
Taichi knew he was speaking about Hikari, but could barely comprehend that Homeostasis could put this back so far. He could barely give himself a breath as she kept going on.
"When the two of them met the angels unleashed the power of mega digivolving to Agumon and Gabumon. It was the beginning part of their bond. It was also an example of what could happen if the two of them worked together. On a side note, both of you were unaware of this, but just as Takeru lost Patamon, he was able to console and comfort Hikari for losing her friend Wizardmon, thus, his death becoming an integral part to establishing a relationship."
"I can't believe you have gone back this far!" Sora exclaimed. "Just for this digimon Terrormon? This is so unbelievable!"
"But you have no choice but to believe it," she said. "Just as you were open with me Sora Takenouchi, so am I open with you. I can't use you in my plans if you do not know my reasoning. We will not be in one accord."
Taichi noticed Sora compose herself and look intently, knowing Homeostasis was not done. He could not believe how far back this had gone.
"Homeostasis," he said, "If what you are saying has been planned, then, am I right to think that Piedmon had something to do with this to?"
She nodded. "Correct. I personally ordered the digimon sovereign to let him cause disarray conquering the digital world which I did not tell you before when you were children. He was used as the catalyst for the digidestined's arrival, however, you seem to be starting to understand my plan. That is good," she nodded.
"Piedmon is a dark, evil digimon, but he could not go against myself. I gave him the order to not kill any of you, but to turn you into key chains instead. In doing so, I forced Takeru to take care of Hikari and Hikari to rely on Takeru. As a result, Takeru protecting Hikari, thus utilizing her light gave Angemon the power to digivolve into Magna Angemon extended also by his crest of hope. Are you starting to see the pattern?"
Taichi breathed out, his hands starting to shake as if he himself did not control them. "It all makes sense," he said. "We were used to protect the two of them, and by doing that we protected the digital world and your plan to one day exterminate this ultimate darkness."
"Yes," Yamato added. "But, when it came down to the ultimate fight with Apocalymon we all lost. We did our best, but we still lost to him. I bet that was not a part of your calculations," he contemplated. "But somehow we were able to come back. You must know what happened!"
Those same unflinching eyes stared into Taichi, making his blood run cold.
"The first time you saw when this vessel and I were together had an important impact upon all of your fates. Truly you all should have failed and both worlds should have been lost to Apocalymon, but, a miracle happened. You see, when a digital entity gets deleted, it's supposed to be in pieces. Your mind, your physical description, your voice, everything that makes you who you are would have been absorbed into something else, but the impact of myself merged with Hikari gave her the power to keep you intact as long as you were in line with her. Because your information stayed intact you had the power to return back, stronger than ever. And that is exactly what happened. Had it not been for me, both worlds would be in everlasting darkness, but I would not allow that. And even then he was not the ultimate evil."
Taichi breathed out placing his hands against a wall as if he had raced around the building a million times. Sora and Yamato also seemed to be in a fatigued state, but Homeostasis seemed unfazed. He could not tell if she was a digital goddess or a monster. He still could not believe how far out this was calculated.
Homeostasis smirked and took her hand from behind her back, holding up Hikari's cell phone, the phone being on speaker phone. "Did you get all that everyone?" she asked, the familiar voices of Mimi, Joe, and Koushiro responding simply 'yes,' they're voices shaken.
"In the end," she said, "Well, I'm sure you can figure out the rest in regard to Takeru and Hikari, but they are both 90% mine. Takeru has nearly become of one thought process in mind as me, and Hikari is struggling to return after I control her. Once I have either one of them 100% percent they will be used to obliterate Terrormon..." she said confidently.
Her demeanor became more somber and more open as if contrite for all of her intentions.
"...But, I am asking all of you to make sure it does not come to that. My long term goal of having a bloodline to protect to continually fight against darkness is at stake. I am too invested in this," she confessed. "All my cards are on the table. Their is no more planning."
Taichi felt hesitant to answer as all of the digimon fell silent. No matter what they did they had played themselves along to her plan the whole time. Even Meicoomon and Meiko. The digidestined did her will destroying her to. Knowing her maybe this was also a test for Hikari and Takeru. He never really noticed it before, maybe because he did not want to notice it, but they were always together, almost ever since they met.
"You know what?" Yamato said, his hands clenched into fists. "You may think you have this all figured out, but I don't believe you. You may have planned all of this, but I know Takeru and Hikari are stronger than that just to let you control them. Show me proof Homeostasis," he challenged. "If you can't then everything you have said up to now is suspect! You could just be fooling us to use us!" he exclaimed, breathing out heavily.
Taichi stared at Yamato and then back at Homeostasis. Maybe Yamato had a point. They had all been sucked into her explanation, even the other digidestined on the phone. He wanted to accuse Homeostasis, but wisely backed down as if to give Homeostasis room.
She smirked at all of them and held up Hikari's injured arm. Holding it in place, she touched her other hand to the grievous scar, the scar vanishing in a green mystical light, the arm being able to move once more.
Taichi gasped, his mouth open in disbelief. Hikari's arm had been miraculously healed.
"Let this be the last lesson you learn before we meet for the final time," she said. "With light and hope merged with my will, my power is unstoppable. With the two of them now in sync more than ever because of their physical union the other night, the final curtain will finally be lifted to this drama you have all played a part in."
Her face looked at all of them especially Taichi seriously.
"Koushiro, the crest of knowledge bestowed upon you has told you just now where the final battle will be held. Give the others the details and be prepared to meet your fates. It's either the end of the world or a world redeemed. That, rests in this vessel's hands," she said stretching out her arms to Yamato, Taichi and Sora.
Homeostasis closed her eyes, the limp body of his sister falling in his hands. He grabbed Hikari's cell phone, the speaker on the phone still available.
"Well Koushiro,"he said listening intently, "Where are we going?"
He heard him pause, but reverberate on the line to everyone:
"You're not going to believe this," he said, "But apparently in the real world their is a fully functioning automated hotel called The Digital Sanctum..."
Takeru started packing his things, the light in his room dim, Patamon flitting about as if uneasy.
"Takeru," he said, "Don't worry, we'll be back. Everything will be fine."
"No Patamon," he said slamming a suit case."Even if I come back, this place will be like a cemetery to me. But, at least Hikari made me want to go back and revisit it," he said, feeling like smiling but holding it back. "Even if I come back from this last battle, my life will never be the same again. She is gone forever,"he swallowed bearing the pain of losing his mother.
"But I guess I don't need my mom as much as I thought," he said surprised he was a little emotional. My brother and especially Hikari more than make up for her not being in my life," he smiled. "Strange thing to say huh?
Patamon nodded. "But," he said blinking in his face, "Me to?"
"Of course!" Takeru said cheerfully. "Especially you buddy!"
Just then a knock on the door came from the side and Yamato let himself in. "Hey," he said, "Are you ready to go?"
Takeru zipped his bag holding up his arm, Patamon landing on it like a parrot. "Now more than ever."