A/N: Part of the journey is the end. Love and be loved. Read… and review!
Alone
As Yamaki approaches the door he pulls his ID card from out of his wallet. He swipes the lock.
Bee-BEEP
Click
The light flashes red and then green. The door unlocks and he pushes it open. Yamaki holds the door a second until Kenta can catch up. They enter a control room, where there are numerous large computers all operating at full capacity. Kenta shakes a little as he walks in, the door closing behind him.
Woosh
Large fans blast through the room, to keep the computers from ever overheating. The fans are so loud that Kenta can't barely hear anything over them.
Knock knock
Before Kenta can step into the room, a knock on the door stops him. Ryo stands out in the hallway. Kenta tries to push the door open, but it doesn't budge. Yamaki steps over, "Here, wait."
Bee-BEEP
Click
The door unlocks and Ryo pulls it open, standing in the doorway. Jeri moves in the back, and leans against the wall behind him. The open door allows for the noise to escape so none of them have to scream over one another. Kenta turns back to the room, as Yamaki continues reviewing some reports. He steps towards the blonde man and asks him, "So what is the system doing?"
Yamaki shakes his head lightly, frustrated. "It's bad. I thought this was the case based on the cloud formations, but-"
"What's bad? What case? What's happening?"
Yamaki isn't sure if it's Kenta or Ryo who asks these questions, he just keeps flipping through settings and programs. Initial diagnostic reports tell him exactly what he feared. His eyes briefly flip to the two boys staring at him.
He finally says, "It's operating Juggernaut."
"Okay?" Kenta asks, confused by Yamaki sharing information they already know. "You said that may be the case at the school."
He nods his head. "Yes. The problem is it's sole purpose is not to just pull Digimon out of our world. It's had other purposes as well."
He pauses a moment to fix his glasses. "The Devas came here with it, and then used it to escape with Calumon."
"I remember. The sky was ripped open."
"The sky was what?" Ryo is in utter shock.
"Oh, yeah, I forget you were already in the Digital World when all of that was going on." Kenta confesses.
Ryo stares at Yamaki, trying to put the pieces together, "So what is… are you saying this thing-"
"Somehow I think the Shadow came here and set the system to run. And now it's being used to bring Digimon here."
"Do we know what kind, how many," Kenta begins to ask.
"I'm still trying to figure that out, but it's… it's not good."
"Well what do we do!" Ryo demands. "They're out there fighting and they're all alone."
"We can reverse it," Yamaki offers hope. A brief moment of excitement overcomes both boys before he continues. "But it won't be instantaneous. And I can't do it alone."
"Whatever you need, I'll do it." Kenta says without hesitation.
Yamaki points across the room to a panel along the wall. He instructs, "We'll need to open that panel, so we can manually override the Hypnos mainframe with the satellites."
Kenta strides across the room without another word. He drops Rika's book bag to the floor. He comes to a stop at it and sees the panel is screwed in. He initially begins to look around, but something hits him.
He looks down at the book bag again. He stoops down to open it. In the front zipper, he finds the screwdriver. She told him it could be a weapon. But he needs a different tool. And right now this is the perfect one.
Ryo's reaction is different as he pleads, "But if it's not instant then what are we going to do if those Digimon-"
BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!
Yamaki looks down at the alert on the monitor, then turns to Ryo. "We're too late. The portal is open."
"It's open?" Ryo asks. An idea takes root in their collective mind.
"Yes, they can come and go as they please right now. And if The Shadow did this, I think that means we're about to be invaded. But that also means-"
"They can come and go as they please?" Ryo asks. The idea begins to blossom between the two. Ryo says, "Okay, I think I know what to do."
Yamaki looks him in the eyes and nods. After a second he gestures with his head for Ryo to take off. "Go on now, you know what to do."
The door closes behind him as Ryo makes his exit.
Woosh
The door shuts behind him and he begins to step away when he remembers that Jeri is standing nearby. The momentum he's feeling right now almost carries him away, but he stops and turns back to her, "Jeri, I-"
She gestures with her hand and dismisses him. "Go on, do whatever you need to do. I just… I need to get some fresh air."
"Are you sure?"
She dons a fake smile, "Of course. Go!"
Against his better judgement, Ryo accepts this outcome. He is too consumed by the moment to think of anything outside of himself. He turns to put his plan into action. Meanwhile, Jeri turns and walks the other away, down a dark corridor, away from the control room.
She walks for a few seconds, and finally stops when she is out of sight of the locked room. The hallways are dark. She leans against a wall and tries to clear her mind. She closes her eyes and tries to think about nothing.
Her mind flashes of her friends, fighting for their lives. How they are all alone, as Ryo said. She thinks of Henry, and Takato, and finally Rika. She wants to help. She is trying to push the pain down when she hears something near her.
". . . bury us deep…"
She turns and looks down the hallway. She swore for a moment she heard Rika's voice. As she stares into the void, the voice whispers again.
". . . we'll get to that day…"
Jeri startles but doesn't run. She can hear Rika. She hears her labored breathing, and the cool demeanor of a warrior.
". . . born out of death…"
Jeri steps into the darkness. She hears Rika getting closer with each step.
'Is this what it was like for Rika? Does the Ocean call to me now?"
". . . ARGH… "
Jeri thinks about how she watched Rika wander off into the classroom, until she just disappeared. She wonders if that will happen to her now. She thinks about what Ryo said to her.
'He said, "We need you. Rika needs you." And now she's calling out for me. I can be the hero. I can save them all.'
Jeri Katou moves towards the darkness until she disappears.
"Grim Slasher!"
The grapple flies out across the distance between them, but this time Rika watches it fly in slow motion. Sakuyamon Maid Mode dodges it with ease, but as it shoots past she reaches up and grabs it with her free hand.
Reapermon watches in surprise as she easily avoids his attack. The next second though he is snapped forward. Sakuyamon Maid Mode pulls the chain and he involuntarily flies forward, towards her. Nearly stumbling to the ground he composes himself just in time. He raises his scythe up to bring down upon her.
Clang
Sakuyamon Maid Mode holds her new staff up and stops the attack in its tracks. Reapermon, shocked by this, takes his eyes off his enemy a moment as he looks up at it. With his eyes averted, Sakuyamon Maid Mode takes advantage. She grabs his chest armor and begins spinning in place.
After sufficiently dizzying her opponent, she tosses him with force. He flies down to the ground and skids several yards away. Sakuyamon Maid Mode floats several feet off the ground and points her staff in his direction.
'I call upon the ancient spirits. Water, Fire, Wind, and Thunder. Come to my aid!'
Reapermon looks up at her from the ground. Bursting forth from her staff and from behind her, a whirlwind of cherry blossom petals shoot forward! They blind Reapermon and push him further back, keeping him pinned to the ground.
"Argh!" He groans from pain and stays down.
Sakuyamon Maid Mode raises her staff. She points it at the sky, up to the clouds, and the moon. She swings the staff downward in his direction.
CRACK
From the heavens a ball of lightning comes down and strikes him where he lies! Sensing the advantage, Sakuyamon Maid Mode soars to him. She rises above him, her staff above her head, and swings it down at his body on the ground.
Crash
At the last second Reapermon rolls away and her staff hits the earth that was beneath him. He rolls for another second and Sakuyamon Maid Mode follows. He tries to get to his feet. As he does, Sakuyamon Maid Mode swings her staff at his head. As he rises he feels her presence and swings his scythe at her.
Slice!
Swip
Both Megas take a step back from each other a moment. Sakuyamon Maid Mode waits to feel pain. He had swung his scythe wildly and missed her completely. But she had not missed him.
Reapermon relaxes a moment. She had nearly decapitated him, but she'd missed. Or so he thought. He lifts his claw hand up and touches his face. He feels something wet to the touch. He blots it and then brings his claw down to look at it. He smirks at it, bemused.
Looking up at Sakuyamon Maid Mode he smiles, "All that for a drop of blood?"
Sakuyamon Maid Mode twirls her staff in hand for a second and prepares to charge. Before she can though, Reapermon raises both of his claw and scythe into the air and yells, "BURNING CYCLONE!"
His body begins spinning in place, gaining speed quickly and all around him a tower of fire begins building! It takes the shape of a tornado and jets of flame spurt out and strike the surrounding trees around them. It spreads quickly, from tree to tree. Rika looks around as he sets the world around her on fire.
Sakuyamon Maid Mode calls for aid, "Izuna!"
From out of the pouch on her hip the four mystical foxes rise. She commands them, "Extinguish the flames."
The foxes leave her side at once and begin working to subdue the inferno. Rika's eyes follow a moment as she watches her world burn. This forest, this park, has been a home for her and now it burns down with fire and blood.
"ARGH!"
Sakuyamon Maid Mode looks up and Reapermon flies above her! He brings his scythe down!
Clang
Quick thinking saves her as she raises her staff up with her left hand to block his attack. She watches him bawl his claw hand into a fist and swing it at her.
Clutch
Sakuyamon Maid Mode catches his fist with her right hand. They stand opposed, the great forces of good and evil, just inches apart.
"I thought you were a formidable Digimon…" he looks down upon her.
She feels him pushing his right fist closer, angling his grapple cannon towards her. Sakuyamon Maid Mode pushes back, but Rika is in a compromised position.
". . . but you're dying like any man."
Reapermon quickly raises his scythe a moment, just to bring it right back down.
Clang
Her staff bounces back towards her. He does it again.
Clang
Sakuyamon Maid Mode recoils a bit, trying to stay in this defensive position. She tries to think of an exit but the grapple cannon gets closer to pointing at her head. He raises his scythe again.
Clang
Now Sakuyamon Maid Mode falls to a knee, desperate to keep his scythe and cannon at bay. He smiles viciously at her, raises his leg and kicks her in the chest.
THUD
Sakuyamon Maid Mode falls down onto her back and skids for a second, pushing into the dirt. Rather than attacking though, Reapermon turns his back on her and walks away. He hisses through the dark, "The shadows betray you because they belong to me."
Suddenly the shadows all around Sakuyamon Maid Mode grab hold of her. They hold her in place and keep her pinned to the ground. Rika struggles against the bindings, but she goes nowhere. They grow tighter around her.
'Get… up! We have… to move!' She tells Renamon.
'I… can't.' Renamon replies weakly.
The defeat in Renamon's voice was defeaning. Rika looks around for help. She sees the shadows wrap around Gallantmon and MegaGargomon. Like a boa constrictor the black shadows loop around her friends and slowly cover them in darkness. She feels it too, the shadows squeezing her tighter, making it harder to breath.
Rika flashes back to a memory that feels more like a nightmare. When The Darkness sprung it's trap on her, Henry, and Ryo in the Dark Ocean World. This is what happened then too, a black cord wrapping around her, squeezing the life from her and her friends. Just like then, she now watches as her friends are devoured. She is powerless to stop it.
Reapermon floats up and turns to her. With a sinister smile he raises his claw and scythe out to his sides and tells her, "You do not have the strength to survive the wrath of the dragon, Rika."
He closes his eyes and feels himself weaken, as if a part of him is unplugged. Rika watches him, unsure of what to expect. In the distance, high above the burning trees, Rika sees it.
Three dragon's rose above the forest, above the metropolitan skyline. Devidramon, Megadramon, and Megidramon. They all loom large and stare down at her. She looks into their purple eyes. The lilac was a raging flame, burning down the white of their eyes like the fire catching throughout the park around her. Beyond them, the wormhole in the sky sparks lightning and the thunder follows.
CRACK
"It's glorious, isn't it?" Reapermon asks her. "Let me tell you something. You humans have a saying, 'faster than the speed of light.' But the only thing faster than the speed of light… is darkness. No matter where you go, or how far you travel…"
Rika watches with horror as shadowy figures begin floating down from the sky above. An untold number of dark Digimon drift towards the pond. Leading the pack is a familiar BlackWarGreymon descending amongst hundreds, maybe thousands of others.
". . . Darkness will always be there first, often waiting for the light to arrive."
CRACK
Reapermon closes his claw into a fist and with that simple motion the light of the moon is extinguished. The stars, the moon, they have all been blown out. He has left her in the dark. They laid in absolute darkness. The only light came from the burning forest, the lightning in the sky, and the city lights in the distance.
"My army of darkness, come to cleanse whatever remains of those who resist," He looks proud and wears victory upon his face, "You said you make your own fate. But this is destiny fulfilled."
Rika's eyes return to Henry, and once again to Takato. Looking for any movement or assistance.
CRACK
"You said before that I didn't bury you deep enough." Rika looks up at her captor. "I won't make the same mistake again. This time you'll all be buried so deep your own ghosts won't be able to find you."
'All of this.'
'All of the fighting.'
'Meeting Kari and Ken.'
'The crests of Fate and Miracles.'
'It has to mean something.'
'It can't be for nothing.'
The Shadow expects her to be anxious, at attention. To face her death with dignity. He is annoyed to find she is desperately looking at her friends instead. The giant rabbit and the white knight. The Shadow looks at her. He sees how she looks at them with such worry and fear.
CRACK
He offers her comforting words, "They'll die alone."
Rika's eyes dart up to him, agast.
In the soft orange-red glow of the burning forest, she sees him points his grapple cannon at her tied down body.
"As will you."
The shot rings out loud above the thunder.
BOOM!
The motionless target takes the full blast head on.
Rika watches a fire of purple energy wash over Reapermon. Suddenly, she felt the shackles of the shadows release. In the blink of an eye, the moon ushers back into the sky.
"She's not alone."
Sakuyamon Maid Mode stands and follows the sound of the voice. She stares into the black and her eyes find it. Jet black wings, three green eyes, a helmet made of violet, dressed in leather and metal, she sees him floating. An angel of darkness.
"Beelzemon?" She asks.
Keeping his blaster trained on Reapermon, he gives a brief moment of eye contact and a head nod. With inhuman swiftness, Reapermon jumps back several yards and floats high above both of them now. Beelzemon repositions his blaster on his target. Sakuyamon Maid Mode stares in absolute disbelief.
She asks him, "You came back?"
"We all came back."
Turning around, high above, Sakuyamon Maid Mode sees all of them begin to appear. Nearly disappearing into the thunder and lighting is the body of a dragon, Azulongmon. Holding tightly to MarineAngemon, Justimon floats down towards her like a parachuter. Hopping through the unburnt forest is Antylamon. An Angewomon and Stingmon. The flaming phoenix of Zhuqiaomon, the white tiger Baihumon, the two headed turtle Ebonwumon. So many others in the distance that she couldn't make out. She watches all of them coming to their aid.
Finally free, conscious, and strong enough, Gallantmon and MegaGargomon rise up and slowly make their way towards Sakuyamon Maid Mode. They nurse their injuries all the way to her, carefully holding their chests at the places they had been carved open. A moment after they arrive, Justimon lands a few feet away and walks towards them with MarineAngemon at his side.
Justimon looks at all of his friends. Smiling he says, "Well, you all look like shit."
The group shares a chuckle for a second before MegaGargomon says, "Please, don't, it hurts to laugh."
Justimon shakes his head, "Yeah, I'm not surprised. Well, maybe we can do something about that. How about it, bud?"
He turns to the tiny Digimon next to him. MarineAngemon smiles widely at his old friends.
"Kahuna Wave!" He squeals.
He blows a flurry of bubble hearts at them. They wash over the three Megas. Their wounds are healed on impact, the damage lessening with each second, the pain ebbing, their strength returning to them.
Justimon looks at each of his friends and then says, "Rika, you look, uh, different."
"I know," she replies, twirling her staff and turning back to look at Reapermon. "Almost did the trick too."
She turns to Gallantmon now, "Any rallying cries you think we should go with this time?"
Justimon offers, "How's about 'Thanks Ryo, You Saved Us!' I like that one, personally."
The group chuckles again, this time painlessly. MegaGargomon though, turns hopefully to the group and offers, "Only Together?"
Rika likes this option, and while Justimon shakes his head in agreement, Takato doesn't respond. Takato briefly recalls leading these same friends into the battle against D-Reaper by telling them it was 'for Jeri.' Gallantmon turns away from the group and faces Reapermon.
"What happened to Kazu in the Digital World was a tragedy. And I blamed myself for it for far too long."
A light begins glowing around Gallantmon's neck. Inside, Takato's courage strikes up. "Kazu made the ultimate sacrifice for us. I needed a little reminder, but Kazu did what he did out of love. For me and for all of us."
The tag and crest around Takato's neck glows brighter and brighter. It envelopes all of Gallantmon's armor. "So now it's our job to return the favor."
The light fades and the Crest of Miracles dulls. He has transformed into Gallantmon Crimson Mode. He white wings spurt out, he holds his new weapons. He stands tall and faces his enemy. "Out of love we do this… for Kazu."
The Scarlet Knight stares down The Shadow. MegaGargomon looks from one side to the next. He steps forward and stands beside Takato and asks, "For Kazu?"
Sakuyamon Maid Mode turns to face Reapermon. She steps up and stands between her friends, "For Kazu."
Justimon moves and stands besides them. Ryo yells out, "FOR KAZU!"
High above them, Beelzemon let's out a guttural roar.
"RAWR!" And all of the light Digimon charge forward.
As they advance, Reapermon points his scythe forward and all of the army of darkness charged as well.
A/N: This Chapter's OST is "A Light On A Hill" by Margaret & The Nuclear So & So's.
Love always. Rukato forever.
Notorious