A/N: Some of you already know that my phone broke at the beginning of this month and left me without the Internet. Not so great to get chapters through Grammarly or check facts from Google, even less so for my Internet-addiction (or any aspect of modern-life to be exact, starting from the news and weather forecast). One month later, my phone is still somewhere but at least I finally got a loan phone from the shop to get a viable Internet connection.
This ch is a personal crusade to tackle my pet peeve in time-travel fics — the skipping of the show and tell. I hate it when revelations are replaced by time-skips and the characters just instantaneously know more stuff, even if the readers never find out what the characters actually got to know. Maybe the time-skip is to avoid repetition when the readers already know the backstory? I genuinely don't know. But at least I've been a bitch when writing this so you don't know everything. And as a warning, I'm going to continue on the same line and cut this chapter in half to keep the length reasonable.
Stay safe!
It was well into the next day when Angemon dared to test the distance between himself and Takeru by taking the used dishes back to the kitchen and pick-up more food. Many tired heads turned to his direction but the silence carried on as he made no effort to elicit the questions that had been formed last night. In any other circumstances, he would have found it amusing at how easy it was to manipulate the young teens to act according to his will, but now the fact merely passed as an irrelevant shrug in his mind.
Affected by Angemon's indifferent attitude the kids and Digimons looked at each other to see who would break the muteness. Finally, it was Taichi, "How is Takeru?"
Angemon gave the brown-haired boy no acknowledgment and continued to gather food on to a tray in silence for good twenty seconds. "We should discuss our next move tonight," he stated finally.
No-one had time to issue any more questions before Angemon used the recurring silence to escape the room. However, before he reached his destination, there was a more persistent and less easily frightened being ahead of him.
Patamon.
Patamon had taken a spot on top of the old wooden drawer that sat in the hallway. The small Digimon waited for him eyes closed but it was simply feigned sleep as the child-Digimon instantly reacted to his return.
There was a characteristic look in the child-Digimon's eyes: not the sparkling welcoming look but something more solemn. Still holding the tray, Angemon didn't know how to feel. He had learned from the start that it was much more difficult for Takeru to interact with TK than it was for him, but so far he had managed to sidestep his own younger version quite well thanks to the circumstances. He didn't resent Patamon but the feeling wasn't too far off the mark either.
He couldn't shake off the impression of naivety — of hope — and he didn't want to come face to face with those qualities in his younger self, or the bitterness towards them now.
"Not naïve," Takeru had chuckled at him earlier. "And certainly not out of touch with the reality."
"You speak too kindly, Takeru."
"No, I'm not. Bright yes, and an optimist, too. ‑ ‑But immensely alert. You could always tell what was wrong and how things were going to go even if you rarely made an issue out of it," Takeru had said turning serious.
Angemon stared at Patamon, a hunch over Takeru's intuition told him that he wouldn't be able to disregard Patamon before letting the small Digimon get the answers it sought. He could give the Digimon hard shoulder, try to leave Patamon into the hallway, and easily label his younger self to be fallible and prone to give up but Takeru knew him and would tell him not to underestimate Patamon. Furthermore, Patamon would not care about his behavior, not when Takeru was involved. Not to mention, Patamon knew that he wouldn't start a fight over the matter in the current situation.
Angemon felt trapped by the realization.
In the end, defeated, Angemon held the bedroom door open before him to let the small Digimon in.
"He looks bad," Patamon stated quietly after flying next to the bed as Angemon set the tray on the desk. "Why doesn't he respond?" Patamon stared at the half-bare, disheveled human.
"He is unconscious."
"I've never seen human being unconscious for this long."
"They can be, and a lot longer too," Angemon replied to Patamon who didn't look any more convinced that things were under control. Not even remotely hungry, Angemon began to eat anyway: it wasn't about his appetite, it was about his battle stamina. Patamon landed on the desk with eyes still on Takeru and back against Angemon. Neither of them said anything for some time.
"Where is the infection from?" Patamon eventually asked masking the serious question with an almost airy tone. There was a lot of Takeru in the action.
To be fair, Patamon had already inquired the question from Takeru but had refused to press his partner for answers, his own self was, however, fair play for guilt and probing for unwanted memories. "If you were me, you'd want to know, too."
Angemon straightened his pose and leaned away from the meal. In the end, he couldn't find a reason not to answer, he knew the need to know everything about his partner, and when the need was present, ignorance was worse than hearing bad news.
"They predisposed him to darkness," Angemon said with his voice low.
"HolyAngemon can't cure it?"
"It's in his system; it's not a foreign thing to remove any more. Takeru's immune system has to learn to expel it or deal with it. So far, neither is happening."
"It's wrong."
Angemon nodded curtly at the discontent behind the smaller Digimon's words. Patamon fell quiet again to ponder how to put his thoughts into words.
"You know, he isn't trying to fix whatever is wrong."
Angemon turned to look at the child-Digimon's back, surprised to see the strong hesitancy in Patamon's posture. Furthermore, Patamon turned to look at Angemon with mistrust that aced to an accusation.
Why are you letting this happen?
"Takeru is still fighting."
Patamon shook his head. "He may not admit it to himself but he isn't. Hoping for things to clear up and to survive through that are two different things," Patamon reprimanded. "I don't think he is honest with himself or aware of what he wants. Knowing Takeru, it's a dangerous combination because you know as well I do that his hopes usually come to fruition."
Angemon stared at the unconscious human and tried to wrap his head around the message Patamon was trying to make across.
"You have to talk to him," the small Digimon continued pressing the issue. "‑ ‑Takeru deserves to be happy. Takeru deserves the whole world."
"He'll get it."
Patamon just stared at Angemon with solemnity and a warning of contempt making the angel-type Digimon repeat his words.
"You want it?" Angemon asked.
Takeru thought for a moment before nodding reluctantly.
Angemon made no notion of the fact that they had already passed the limit that Takeru's liver could sustain without damages. He was certain Takeru knew the fact, but, at least on the surface, neither of them said the fact out loud.
About six hours had passed after Patamon had left the room and left him with a doubt he couldn't grasp and throw away. It was now raining heavily against the roof tiles but at least Takeru was finally awake again. Sore and incognizant but awake.
Angemon was in his all-business -mode even if Patamon's words had hit deep and begged for more contemplation.
In Patamon's eyes, he was running from the responsibility of keeping Takeru on the right track. That it was his job to reprimand the human: like he had tried with PicoDevimon, had tried before the Kaiser-fight, and on countless other events.
Somewhere along the line, he had stopped doing that. They argued, yes, but it had been arguing for the sake of arguing not to change things, least Takeru himself. So much had been decided for Takeru without permission — he had decided for his partner before they had properly met.
And without realizing it, he had become scared.
He could carry his past, had to, but he didn't want to add anything to it.
He hadn't made a single move to stop Takeru from moving back into the Human World despite knowing fully well, like Yamato, that Takeru would only end up coming back. He had tried to fight desperately for his partner's chance to escape this mess and live his life according to the original stars. He wanted Takeru to be free of the effects of his choices.
And now, according to Patamon, he was making a mistake at that too.
And as he waited for Takeru to sort out the events and timeline of the past few days in his tormented brain, Angemon couldn't stop looking at the withered human with new eyes: spot the signs he had closed his eyes from.
What was his role at the end of the day?
"What is it?"
And somehow Takeru was still aware enough to guess his mind.
He couldn't answer the truth and expose the fears in his mind. He had thought that he could support Takeru in whatever decision the human made, but now, when the turning point was becoming closer — he wasn't so sure anymore. Moreover, he could predict the hurt Takeru would try to hide from him if he asked the human about his long-term plans.
And lying would result in the same effect. Logically speaking, Takeru would understand that he didn't want to burden the human, but right now, Takeru wasn't driven by logic but by his co-dependency. Threatening Takeru's trust, the day would become a lot sulkier and a lot less predictable.
"I got ambushed by myself," Angemon eventually admitted keeping in with the truth, or at least the part of it he could hold onto.
The mirth rose immediately to his partner's face. "Not surprised. — How?"
"He was waiting for me outside the door when I went to pick-up food."
Takeru gave a deep nod with a knowing smile still on his face. He knew how much Patamon's behavior rubbed against Angemon. Someone smaller, less experienced, more exuberant, was coming to boss the angel-Digimon around and, in the end, with all the right to do so. One of the first things Takeru had learned from his partner had been Patamon's self-righteousness: not the Daisuke type that was very humble and fragile in its core, but the completely another end of the spectrum that passed as humble at first but harbored ire for being the center of the joke.
"Of course, you two choose the moment when I'm not present to see it."
"Knock it off," Angemon scolded without true force behind the words. "Patamon was very worried about you."
"He saw me?" Takeru countered, his mood changing almost in an instant.
Angemon just nodded at him, and conciliated, "He already guessed."
Despite the knowledge, Takeru didn't look comforted.
It was already late when Takeru exited their room and entered the half-crowded kitchen. Press releases or public speaking, nor talking yourself away from Puppetmon's gunpoint was nothing compared to his displeasure on meeting the kids who had seen him crumble. His composure, his whole show, and the order of things had lost their creditability. And people could see him and would think they knew him, and maybe even support him, try to get close.
It angered him greatly for reasons he didn't know.
But as surely as he knew how to keep his walls up, as surely he knew how to do damage control. How to keep people happy, how to diminish their worries, how to take the attention away from himself.
At least he thought he did, or thought he had, or had thought he did. And the briefest of moments, there was the confusion of what kind of person he was to be, or at least had been before this, but he pushed it all down because he knew, he didn't have the time for the doubt.
"Takeru, how are you feeling?"
"Do you want to eat? We made some curry rice."
"I'll go get Miyako and the rest from the living room."
Seeing that it was best just to accept the situation, Takeru stayed silent apart from a small nod and focused on the meal Angemon and Sora fussed in front of him. Shortly after, Angemon took himself a massive plate.
The kids and the teens stayed a while in awkward silence to give the two a chance to eat.
"So, what are we going to do now?" Taichi finally asked.
Welcoming the break from eating under the stares, Takeru replied, "We'll leave around 9 o'clock. Because we couldn't cut the energy transmission from the Base, we'll break the connection between the Digital World and the Human World. It should prevent all this from crashing onto the Human World."
For once again, it was silent.
"Break the connection?" Taichi finally echoed flabbergasted and eyeing at Koushirou for an explanation. For whatever possibilities the kids had talked between themselves, this clearly came as a surprise.
"At this rate, the distortions are too large to suppress, the Guard Levels will break here eventually, so we'll take the emergency measure to protect the Human World from it."
"Can we do that? ‑‑ I mean how does that work?" Joe asked.
Takeru tapped his spoon against the table lazily, "The Digital World and its connection to our world is based on coding. The core-programming resides on a few strategic places: we go there and then we just rewrite it." Takeru hummed plainly. "You've seen the more specific coding, the Sphinx at the edge of Datamon's Pyramids for example."
Daisuke, Miyako, Hikari, Iori, and Ken turned to look at the older kids as these tried to bring the event back into their minds.
"Just like that?"
Takeru hummed again to answer Taichi's question, "Koushirou turned the electricity off on the factory on File Island; it's the same principle in effect."
"But that was simply lights, not…" Koushirou sputtered looking at others alarmed. "And I don't know anything about this level of stuff‑"
"—We know, so, you don't have to," Takeru pressed on but the mood only intensified despite his sketchy efforts to soothe it.
Taichi searched for words for a long while, "We can't… And that will crash the Digital World? What about Human World, I mean, to cut off the connection, it can't do good, right? ‑‑ I'm sorry, we talked about this last night and you two need to allow us to help. We are in a war without knowing anything. We can't continue like this."
Takeru gazed at the leader of the group and respected the teen's negotiation skills. He had witnessed Taichi's talents many times in high-ranking official meetings and public instances where he had sometimes participated as a guest expert. He could never stretch to the marathons Taichi had been ready to tackle. And despite their clashing views, he had to appreciate the man's skills.
And now, the kids were basically asking for a reason to be able to trust him and Angemon — the truth or enough of an equivalent. And even if possibly redundant, the kids were too much of loose cannon to be left behind. Takeru had witnessed too many last-minute digivolutions and unpredictable instances to believe otherwise.
Takeru tapped the spoon once on the air with letting the movement veneer to the right.
Maybe he should have kept his head but he didn't have the energy to care anymore — there were bigger foes to fight against. Or maybe he wasn't thinking straight thanks to the medication but, all in all, he could sense that Angemon quietly approved his decision.
"Tea," Angemon stated tersely and got up.
"You are not in a condition to fight, and we can help," Taichi continued as his last tactic before resolving to threats, unaware that he had already gotten an approval.
"Alright, so be it. But only for the oldest."
"Eh! Why can't we hear?"
"You don't need to," Angemon commented amidst pouring the hot water to the teapot and turned to look at Daisuke, just enough long to make his point across.
"You'll get the recap from the others," Takeru added. He didn't want to resort to the 'You're too young' -approach he had gotten from the group in his childhood. They had all seen and done way too many things unsuitable for their age. The kids could take it, he knew that, but it was an agenda he could use to cut people out of the conversation, to have fewer people to argue with if it came down to that. And less bad news to tell if it came down to that.
"Future."
"In some parts, and if and when we get this mess sorted out, you'll forget all about it," Takeru clarified. "Whether that is then a good or a bad thing."
For Takeru and Angemon's luck, the older kids supported the idea of protecting the youngest (when had they not?) and did much of the arguing on their behalf.
"Not even me?"
Takeru glanced at Angemon for an opinion only to receive a sympathetic nod. "Not even you," the angel-type Digimon clarified for TK.
"Will you discuss our future?" Even as the rest of the younger group was starting to move outside the room, Ken wavered by the door.
Takeru blinked, unable to fully see why Ken was asking this. "No, if it isn't important to the problem at hand‑ ‑," Takeru began but never adding the secondary bit to the assurance. However, his words seemed to be enough as Ken nodded briefly.
In the end, Mimi also excluded herself from the discussion. The Digimons in the younger group left with their partners, except Tailmon who was keen to hear the plan; in the opposite, Piyomon and Gomamon left to sleep, leaving only Agumon, Gabumon and Tentomon present.
Angemon had stayed on his tea-making spot next to the countertop behind Takeru, thus leaving more room for the teens to gather around the table.
Against his expectations, Takeru felt elevated, almost an out of body experience. In times like this, his own persona was always pushed back to give him room to focus on the task at hand. Moreover, maybe he should have worried how this was going to affect their overall dynamics if the challenges in his relationships with the others in the future would recur here but now he didn't care. For the next hour or so, he would have the others' attention, he could scare them, horrify them, make them feel, and think what he wanted.
For a little while, he would be a storyteller.
"What do you want to know?" Takeru asked, picking up the spoon again after the door had closed and they had waited for a minute in silence for the kids to move out of the earshot.
"What is going on?"
Takeru took about seven seconds to collect his thoughts, "The Digital World has been around for a very long time. About forty years in our perspective, in the Digital World an enormous time longer thanks to the distortions. From the dawn of history, the Digital World has had different… institutions, so to say. Virus-type Digimons, holy-Digimons, so forth," Takeru explained making a small gesture towards Angemon behind him. "One of the institutions constituted of the inventors — I think, you're more familiar with the term agents. The agents started as neither good nor bad: their primary role to help the Digital World to evolve and do research, things like that. However, the experiments they did weren't always successful which, at some point, left them infected with virus qualities. They started to become more power-hungry and less a neutral character in the Digital World." Takeru explained his voice gaining a distant edge.
"Their goals become blurred and their methods more and more questionable," Angemon continued surprising the teens. "Either they started as a human group or started to acquire humans to give a better position to study and affect the Digital World. They also acquired Digimons to help them, aided their evolution and return got access to the Digimons' powers. — There are Digimons whose skills are connected to other worlds, and Digimons, such as Wizardmon, originating from neighboring worlds. Wisemons, for example, were harnessed for their ability to foresee the future. The prophecy of your Megaevolution by Angewomon and my arrows is one example of that."
The teens looked perplexed and reserved as the pair's story was not what they had expected. Takeru had drawn to his self, right arm crossed over his midsection as he let Angemon have the floor.
"At some point, there was a prophecy of data-DNA -configuration that it would secure their status. Even if being a completely ambiguous expression, naturally, it initiated an obsession," Angemon concluded sourly.
"As you already know, we aren't the first Chosen children. There have been others, a lot of them. Dozens of kids and before that, adults. On later stages united with partner Digimons," Takeru continued solemnly.
"But we have never met them," Sora said with an expression that varied between a worried inquiry and hesitant skepticism.
"There is very little left to meet," Angemon stated causing Takeru to grimace at the words.
"They started from zero with trying to bring DNA to Digimons data, trying to transfer data into a genetic format, trying to merge the two — everything you can imagine. Pure majority of the experiments turned into full-blown catastrophes, the rest morphed into living nightmares for those who survived. — You've met Gennai."
"Gennai?"
"What did Gennai say to you Koushirou when you asked about him?" Takeru asked.
The red-headed boy just blinked, "Said?"
"When we first visited his house, the rest of us were asleep but you stayed up to talk with him."
Everyone turned to look at Koushirou who just blinked again. Koushirou racked his brains and pulled the memory to the forefront of his mind, but when he spoke, his voice told that he wasn't sure if he was giving the answer the older man sought, "I asked him whether he was human. He said that he wasn't really a human or a Digimon."
Takeru nodded, "Something that is not fully anything. Gennai was human before, he was supposed to be turned into data-form but the experiment failed. They couldn't form Gennai a proper DigiCore but his mind got transferred enough well to imprison him to the Digital World. Because the process wasn't completed his digital form isn't stable causing his physical form to degrade and age too rapidly, and on the other hand preventing him from dying." Takeru explained detached. He had been horrified by the man's fate a long time ago, but he couldn't bring himself to care anymore. "And you saw Maki not too long ago, the woman with dark cropped hair. She was a Chosen in the late '80s, she was partnered with Tapirmon but the test to use Tapirmon's REM dream -qualities caused a chain-reaction that mutated Tapirmon's data and imprisoned it into a dream world. It made Maki a little bit of a snappy person."
"She caused her partner's death?" Taichi asked voice hollow from shock.
Takeru just hummed in response before continuing, "We, including Hikari, were the first generation to have crests. A way to channel our way energy to our partners and our partners were programmed to respond to those qualities."
"Programmed?" Joe asked.
Takeru hummed again, "You saw in the memory they showed us through Hikari at the time of the Dark Masters. — After us… they got very interested in Agumon's Dark Digivolution to SkullGreymon. Completely out of control but in their eyes very fascinating. Dark Digivolutions are usually a bit stronger, more megalomaniac, than the evolutions that happen under our crests. Therefore, they wanted to test that line of thought."
Taichi was very quiet, very white at this point. However, Koushirou already guessed how this was getting from bad to worse, "Ichijouji."
"Correct. They wanted to mold someone to use only the adverse side of their crest, so, they manipulated Ken. They also planted a dark seed in him to promote the effect and help him take control of the Digital World. For some reason or another, Ken, however, never tried to dark evolve Wormmon, so his role was limited only to support the agents' other goals: Dark Towers and experimenting with trying to Dark Digivolve Digimons with more control," Takeru explained with a small smile on his face in appreciation to Ken's kindness. "And Willis a little bit later on. Two identical partners, one vaccine, one virus, and see how they'd respond to Willis' energy. We already know the result of that," Takeru sighed.
"So, they are just using…?"
"Just using," Takeru repeated Joe's words.
"But what about the Dark Masters, Etemon, Vandemon… We were needed," Taichi exclaimed trying to turn the situation for their favor.
"We wouldn't have been needed if the agents hadn't disrupted the powers of the Digital World and let the darkness have a chance to gain power," Angemon retorted, picking the tea-cup from the counter.
The young teens turned to look at Takeru for confirmation.
"And Daisuke and the others?"
"They wanted to test if the Digimons would gain more power if the energy was channeled through two crests. Hikari and I had gotten enough of their attention to get a ticket to round two," Takeru explained not sounding grateful for the opportunity. "One of the main reasons to make Ken build the towers was to get you out of the equation. They were no longer interested in you, so you would have been mostly a distraction."
Yamato finally broke his silence with a clipped question, "And after this?"
Takeru met his older brother's averted gaze, Yamato's whole posture screaming how the teen had already come to terms with the fact that they would only hear bad news. Yamato was so much more adept of the two of them to just swallow the adversities of life and move on, whereas he always tried to turn them around, fix things. But, in the end, there was little he could do to deny facts, "Angemon and I still had their interest."