The word destined is rather like purity: Pure what? Chosen for what?
I know I'm going to regret this, but I have yielded the temptation to post the first couple chapters of a fic as a standalone.
The overall fic is a For Want Of A Nail AU of the first Wonderswan game, Anode/Cathode Tamer, which takes place after Digimon Adventure but before Gennai used up the Digidestined's crests freeing the Sovereign, so they could still reach Ultimate and Mega. What I'm posting now, possibly as a standalone, is an attempt at a prologue to that game, covering the Digidestined's return to the Digital World and such and such. Ryo won't be getting dragged into part one of his four-game-long Break The Cutie until the third chapter at the earliest, should I ever post it. Probably more like the fourth chapter, since Agumon...
For now, I hope you enjoy the fluff. And worldbuilding, because I like my worldbuilding and since the magic in Adventure is magitech...
It's been a few years since I've seen Digimon Adventure and 02: I'm in the process of marathoning them for fact and characterization checking now that I've finished Tamers, but it's more than a hundred episodes. I will be editing (for insufficient Gatomon at the absolute minimum), so please let me know if you spot any errors/if anyone's OOC (for post-Adventure pre-02, since these characters have character development and so IC for the beginning of Adventure would be OOC here), and especially let me know if you're willing to pre-read chapters and let me know what's wrong with them. The larger plot is currently on hold until I can write Gatomon, since she's one of the main characters along with Izzy and I currently have the best memories of how she acted in 02 when I need her Adventure characterization, especially when she'll be falling back on Myotismon-handling skills.
I really do recommend looking up the Wonderswan games and reading the translations: Digimon 02 makes so much more sense now. An incredible amount of what happened in there happened for a reason. If the Adventure Digidestined and Wormmon had ripple-proof memories, Digimon 02 would also be about three episodes long.(Veemon may have gotten blown up and lost all his memories when he returned to the egg, and Ken did get a flash of what happened, probably because of the Dark Spore).
The mind control tech in the games doesn't have a visible indicator like the Dark Rings/Spirals, which makes sense since the Digimon Emperor is a watered-down version of the person who made the mind control device that's inside him. Not having a visible indicator of who was being controlled would make spying easier, and make it impossible to cure victims by just breaking the ring - you'd be stuck without a Digidestined with a Digivice.
I needed a reason for why the enemy let the Digidestined live, though, when Machinedramon tried to Just Shoot Him in Digimon Adventure. The fact he didn't stick mind control tech into them implies he didn't have stuff that could work on Digidestined... until after he captured Digidestined that he could have experimented on. The main reason, though, is that I can have some scenes with a visible control object that I couldn't have without one, so even though this is a prologue, it is still a (hopefully slight) AU even at this point, since the games don't really have room for the Adventure cast to be themselves and I want to do an ensemble piece.
"HiMrs. Inoue!" she heard a breathless voice gasp out, dumping a shopping basket full of candy on the check-out counter.
"Hello, Tai," she said, starting to scan it even though the amount made her raise an eyebrow. "Are your parents letting you buy all this?"
"It's for the New Years' Party, I've got to run to make it in time," Tai said, words coming almost as fast. "Can I bag it?" So it would go faster.
"Of course," she said, hands moving quickly as Tai dumped the candy bars and bags of chips into bags. "The total is 38-"
Tai dumped a mass of bills and coins on the counter. "It's forty thousand yen, keep the change!" he told her, and grabbed the bags, making a dash for the door.
She could have told one of her daughters to stop him, but everyone knew the Kamiya boy was responsible – most of the kids in the neighborhood idolized him – and if the amount was wrong, she knew where he lived. She could have Yolei go by later with the change.
Time was passing at a rate of one day in the digital world for one minute in the human world. Destroying Apocalymon had set Digital World time equivalent to human world time, but if Machinedramon's new digivolution could do the same thing, how powerful was it relative to Apocalymon?
Later. Not enough data right now.
Two months per hour. Under four years per day, but that was irrelevant. Everyone would want to hurry, so he could safely assume that the arrival window would be between five and ten minutes, with most of them aiming more for five so whoever did go through in only five minutes wouldn't be there alone – especially Matt – and Joe probably taking as much as ten to make sure he had the right supplies, because even now he wouldn't think he'd be that useful without the supplies.
Izzy wasn't all that useful without supplies either, but the important thing was: His Pineapple laptop. Also a few changes of clothes, because laundry was a nightmare in the digital world. Should he try to find laundry soap? No, they could count on Mimi for a bottle of that.
He ran to his dresser and grabbed clothes, putting them in his laptop bag around his laptop as extra padding. What else, what else… He couldn't weigh himself down too much, he wasn't an athlete like Matt, Tai and Sora and he had the laptop to manage.
Matt was the one who always wanted to go out camping with TK, if they were lucky he might even have a bag ready. TK would be one of the people to take a little extra time so he could tell Matt that see, he was prepared, and Matt shouldn't worry about him.
Tai… had probably stuffed a backpack full of clothes and dived in, Izzy realized with a sigh, scanning his room. Headphones, right, so it would be harder for people to hear them if he had a conversation with Gennai or one of the others in a Hiding Tree or an evil Digimon's base.
Actually no, not with his sister there. Tai and Kari might be late because they would want to check over each others' preparations.
"Ugh, what else should I get?" he wondered, frustrated. "All that time in the digital world thinking of the stuff I wished we had, and now my mind's blanking?"
Kitchen, right. They'd have to forage while they were there – or no, Gennai said he was in a city, maybe they could even have regular cooked meals while they were fighting – but energy bars and things.
Oh, good, Mom was there. "Mom, do we have any candy?" he asked her, hopeful, even though they really didn't keep candy in the house.
She looked up at him, and he saw her notice that he was in a rush. "There's a box of chocolates your father got me…" Why?
Izzy clasped his hands together and gave her a pleading look. "Can I have it? I just got called into the Digital world, and I don't have time to run to the store."
"For Tentomon?" she asked him, and when he nodded, said, "Of course, Izzy." She got up, walking towards one of the cupboards. "Anything else?"
"I'm not sure," he said. "It won't be like last time, we'll have a place to stay while we're there, in a city." That wasn't Machinedramon's. He knew from Gatomon's stories of when she was looking for Kari that there used to be cities in the Digital World, that there used to be trade instead of caravans and cities that weren't hidden just begging for evil Digimon to loot them.
She handed him the red foil-wrapped box with its elegant ribbon. "I'm sure you packed extra socks…"
Izzy nodded. "I definitely remembered how valuable extra socks were," he said, and wrapped his arms around her, one hand still holding the box of chocolates. "I can't leave the others waiting for days, I have to hurry, I should be back before it gets dark! Love you Mom, and tell Dad I love him too!"
Box of chocolates tucked under his arm, bag over his shoulder, digivice held out to the computer and go.
Matt glared at his bag. He should have known better from Joe, that sometimes it was actually inconvenient to be too thoroughly prepared.
If he got there too fast and TK found out how long he'd been waiting, it would tick off his brother, so here he was leaning against the wall in the kitchen, anchored to it by the phone cord. "Come on, pick up pick up," he chanted, even though he was trying to kill time here. "This is Matt, can you get my dad?"
And now he was on hold, but fortunately not for long.
"Son?" his father said, sounding worried. He knew Matt wouldn't call him at work unless it was important.
"Digital world. Time's gotten messed up again, so I shouldn't be gone too long." Even if it took months like last time. Gennai said they were only dealing with one enemy they'd beaten before, but that might just be the one enemy Gennai knew about.
Well, if there was a new threat, it was a better idea to call them in early to nip the thing in the bud. Andromon and the others should have a few days to find more out by the time everyone got there.
There was a pause, and Matt begrudged every second even though he knew he shouldn't. "Do you want to take my overnight bag?"
"I've got my camping bag still packed, remember?"
"Are you sure you don't want to take it, just to…"
"I'm not going to be there long enough to need to shave!" They were in the Digital world for months and hadn't aged before. "We'll have a house to stay at, we'll have soap and stuff. I'll see you when you get back from the New Year's Eve party." He paused. "I am stealing all your energy drinks, though."
"Matt, you shouldn't have those at your age!"
Matt hung up on him. Like he cared about stunting his growth when he would probably need to keep watch at some point.
Tai collapsed after he got back in the door, bracing his hand against the wall to take a couple of breaths.
"I knew it," Kari said, sitting by the computer looking pleased with herself. Both of them had bags already packed.
Tai nodded. "Good going, Kari." He'd known to take it seriously when Kari got that feeling, and really it wasn't that much work to pack stuff and it wouldn't have taken that long to unpack it again if it was a false alarm. He'd wondered if he should call the others about it, but from the way Kari looked down at her feet, she hadn't been that certain of what she was sensing, at least not enough to want to either panic everyone or get their hopes up, especially when Sora and Mimi had big New Years' things to get to. "Millenniummon, huh? I thought we were going to have to fight the Y2K bug." He held up the convenience store bags triumphantly. "Thank goodness for all that soccer."
"You got back fast! Just remember, most of that's my allowance," she warned him, taking some of the plastic bags from him and picking up her bag as Tai stumbled over to the computer to pick up his own.
"There wasn't a line. I guess most people thought the stores would be packed on New Years' Eve too," Tai said. "Ready to go?"
Kari nodded. "Um-hum!"
"Ok, I've got my helmet, and cookies for Patamon, and…" TK looked through his school bag. "Oh, I hope Matt didn't tell Dad, I'm going to kill him if he did." His Mom was going to be stuck at the office New Year's party, he should be back way before she knew it, but even though their parents were divorced if Matt told Dad where he was going, Dad would get worried, and want to ask Mom to be sure TK had packed and stuff.
It wasn't that Mom wouldn't let him go, he just didn't want her to be worried until he got back and he would show her he was fine, and tell her that Patamon was ok too.
If Patamon got hurt again… What if Patamon got hurt before TK could even get there?
It was a really good idea of Matt's to have bags ready to go camping together all the time, just in case they ever got to go back and see Patamon!
They were supposed to get ready first, but he didn't want to wait anymore!
TK landed on the lawn in front of a house. "Wow," he exclaimed, looking around. "There really is a city!" With Digimon walking around instead of running from cover to cover, although a lot of them stopped to look at him.
TK waved.
Behind him, the door to the house opened. "Yes, someone's finally here. TK!" Agumon waved at him. "It's TK!"
"TK!" Patamon darted over Agumon's head.
TK dropped the bags and laughed when he caught Patamon, hugging him to his chest. "I missed you, and I brought cookies!"
The others poured out.
"How's Matt?" Gabumon asked.
"Do you know when the others are coming?" Tentomon wondered.
"We've been waiting a really long time!"
"Now, now," Gennai said, following them out of the house slowly, with his cane. "It's only been two minutes and seventeen seconds in the human world."
"Am I really here first?" TK wanted to know. Maybe it was irresponsible not to really do anything but dump the cookies into a bag and grab a couple of things, but it meant he got to spend more time with Patamon! "Can we tell whoever comes next that I just got here, so Matt doesn't find out I was here on my own for too long?" There was a difference between not wanting Matt to be overprotective and making him worry.
"You're not on your own!" Patamon said, wiggling in TK's hands to try to climb up on top of TK's helmet. TK lifted him up.
"Well, since you're here now, would someone mind taking his bags inside, and perhaps showing him around File City?" Gennai asked.
"I'll take those," said Gabumon.
"No way, I can carry my own bags," TK said, not insulted but excited. "See?" he said, although he only lifted the bags up for a second and hoped they didn't ask how long he could hold them up. "I want to see everything and meet everybody!"
Gennai chuckled. "Well, that will certainly give you something to do until the others arrive."
Light appeared over the lawn. "What's that?" TK wondered.
"Someone else is coming through. It takes a couple of seconds in the real world between the digiport activating and the arrival of the Digidestined, so they'll be here in a little under an hour," Gennai told him.
"Oh, I bet it's Tai! Or Sora," since Tai would probably bug Kari to make sure she packed enough. "Maybe Matt," but TK didn't think so.
"Sage Gennai, is this really one of the Digidestined?" asked a Penguinmon.
"He is! It's TK! I saw him at Primary Village!" insisted an Elecmon, running up behind him.
By the time someone dropped out of the light, a lot of other Digimon had gathered around to meet TK. Biyomon and Agumon had to spread out a blanket and warn people not to step on it so whoever was coming through didn't end up falling on top of them.
A familiar yelp let them both know that the person had finally gotten here and exactly who they were before they saw them.
Joe landed on top of his bags, and when he stood up TK saw another messenger bag slung around his shoulder.
"I'm sorry I'm late! I had to dig the bags out of my closet because my brothers piled a bunch of stuff they didn't want Dad to find in there," Joe told them. "I think I broke Shuu's guitar, he's going to kill me…"
'You're the second person here!" TK told him cheerfully. "And I really did just get here a couple seconds ago!" Real world time, anyway.
"I knew you had it in you, Joe!"
"Gomamon!" Joe held his arms out for his partner, grinning. "I brought a lot of stuff you liked with my allowance and hid it in the bags in my closet because we're not supposed to have junk food, I hope I didn't crush everything and ruin it when I landed on the bags…"
Horns resounded through the city. "Mimi!" called the Geckomon. "It's Queen Mimi! She's finally here!"
Mimi waved, setting down her large shoulder bag and another mesh bag filled with bottles and sponges and other mysterious things. "It's so good to see that you're alright! Did everyone who died hatch in Primary Village yet, or is anyone still missing?"
"The evil Digimon kidnapped some of us, but we sent a messenger to Gennai and he ssaid that he'd summoned you, Queen Mimi!" said the leader of the Geckomon. "So we came here to wait for you."
"Why those…" Mimi paused. "Palmon?" she called. "Was that your voice, Palmon?" It was hard to hear over the horns and cheering Geckomon and Otamamon.
"Out of the way, make way for Queen Mimi's Chosen Protector!"
"Mimi!" Palmon said, holding out Mimi's hat. "I still have your hat!"
"Oh, Palmon." Mimi knelt, shaking her head and taking the hat and putting it aside on the ground to take Palmons hands. "That old thing?" She wiped at her eyes with the back of her forearm. She opened up her bag, and took out an ornate box. "Here you go, Palmon, I brought you a much nicer hat. I, I tried to remember exactly what shade of green you were."
Mimi sniffled as Palmon untied the ribbon around the box.
"It's so pretty, Mimi!" Palmon said, putting the hat on immediately.
"Oh, Palmon!" Mimi cried and lunged forward, still on her knees, to wrap her arms around Palmon. "I have so much to tell you!" She felt around in the mesh bag for a bottle and shoved it into Palmon's hands. "I found a liquid fertilizer specially formulated for small palm trees, so if we end up in a desert again or the evil Digimon make the land barren around their fortresses I can apply it to your roots and you won't end up all malnourished and wilted, you poor thing. I found out that Togemon is an Easter Lily Cactus, and I have some fertilizer for them and for Lilymon too, just in case."
Joe stared. "I brought junk food and Mimi brought vitamins?" He blinked. "Vitamins, I knew I was forgetting something. I should have brought vitamins, we never knew what we'd be eating next or when, and that's a varied diet but we really couldn't count on it containing proper nutrition…"
Gomamon reached up to pat his side. "Relax, Joe."
Izzy showed up in the morning three days later, to much less fanfare. After three of them, Gennai was able to figure out how long it would take them to appear after the light appeared in the sky, so he was able to gather the Digimon and other Digidestined at the proper time. Agumon went to fetch Joe from the clinic he'd set up for the wounded Digimon that were arriving at File City. It was harder to tell where Mimi would be from one hour to the next, since the refugee groups didn't have any clear leadership before she got there and took charge of the Geckomon, and someone needed to organize getting them under shelter, so Biyomon, Tentomon and Patamon were sent to fly around looking for her.
Gennai had asked the Digimon to store a lot of food in File City, and there were some powerful Digimon there to protect it when the City had been built to protect Primary Village in the first place. It did have temporary housing, but it was there for Digimon who were just moving out of Primary Village to find their places in the outside world. It just wasn't large enough to hold rookies, much less Champions.
Izzy exclaimed with delight when he saw Tentomon and handed his partner a box of chocolates, but after greeting the others he asked Gennai, "So, we're dealing with Machinedramon?"
"Millenniummon," Gennai corrected him. "Apocalymon warped time just by existing, and it made him stronger because the passage of time meant more and more Digimon could die alone and in despair, granting him more power. Machinedramon combining with Kimeramon gave Millenniummon the power to control time. By accelerating it, he made it harder to gather Digidestined to protect the Digital World. I made my message to you as brief as possible, but even if I've identified several potential Digidestined since the battle against Apocalymon, weeks will pass here before I could possibly bring any of them to assist you, and I've needed to focus my energies on learning more about our enemy."
"Well, I can definitely help you with that," Izzy said, putting a hand on his laptop bag. "So doing this to time is Millenniummon's power, he's not powerful enough that this is just a side effect? That's good."
"Other Digidestined?" Mimi asked. "You mean there are more of us out there?"
Gennai sighed, and bowed his head. "We never meant to burden only the eight of you children with the fate of the entire Digital world. I know that the Order's other temples gathered information on other candidates and prepared partners and digivices to aid them, but then the Dark Masters all but exterminated us. When I took the risk of returning to the Temple I served, by some miracle I was able to retrieve some data from the wreckage, but you were the only Digidestined I had any clue of how to find, and it still took decades in the Digital World for me to study your partners in their digieggs and figure out how to use their bonds to you to find you and bring you to the Digital World."
"Well,"Joe said, "You couldn't exactly wait long enough for us to become adults, not when a day in our world was that long in your world. The Dark Masters already had too much of a head start."
"We definitely can't let Machinedramon-"
"Or the Digimon formerly known as Machinedramon," Mimi interrupted Izzy.
"Right, we can't let Millenniummon get too much time to work with. If he can build one of those factories, he can start churning out brainwashed ultimates again." Izzy looked around at the city and winced. "They'll bomb this place to the ground."
"There are sanctuaries hidden in the nearby mountains," Gennai assured him.
"That's a relief-Wait, then why are we having to build houses for people?" Mimi demanded.
"Spies," Joe said darkly.
Gennai nodded. "Leomon and the others are searching our new arrivals for those Black Rings, but Millenniummon might have one of his loyal underlings damaged enough to de-digivolve into a weaker, less suspicious form and send them in to scout. We can't turn away Digimon in need simply because they could potentially digivolve into a dark or dragon-type Digimon."
"What about virus types?" Izzy asked.
"One of the Digimon Sovereign, the guardian gods of the Digital world, is a virus type," Gennai said, looking very disappointed with Izzy. "One third of all Digimon are. I am concerned that Millenniummon might send dragon types as spies because they were Machinedramon's preferred servants, and I am concerned that dark Digimon might choose to serve evil because they feel they have no alternative. The scars left by the Dark Masters, Myotismon and others still linger, and many young Digimon are treated with contempt or suspicion almost as soon as they hatch. We've had to place the Zurumon under guard for their own protection, even though that feeds the belief that Zurumon are so evil even as babies that they need to be guarded for the protection of other Digimon. That is terrible enough, but if one of the Chosen Children expresses a prejudice against all virus-types? And what of your partner? Most insect Digimon are virus-type. Should we drive other Tentomon out into the wilderness to be abducted by Megadramon patrols?"
Izzy's eyes widened. "Right," he said. "So it's coincidence that none of our partners are virus-type?"
"I would certainly hope so," Gennai sighed. "I was a Temple Guard, not a very highly-ranked member of the Order of Azulongmon. I am aware that as the threat of the Dark Masters grew, some of our brothers…" He pressed his lips together in disapproval. "I'm not surprised it was the temples that took 'reasonable precautions' that were the first to be found and destroyed,'" he said dryly. "Because our temple didn't attack innocent Digimon and turn the survivors into our enemies, we were the last remaining temple for eight years before Piedmon found us." Eight years knowing they were the last hope remaining in a hostile world, while the Digidestined… what? Went to school while people died? "I understand why they were afraid. We artificial humans are the weakest beings in the Digital World. Even a baby Digimon can hope to evolve. That's why I'm afraid I must rely on your strength once again, Chosen Children." Gennai bowed.
Mimi tapped her foot. "Izzy, aren't Otamamon and Geckomon virus-types?"
"But what about dark Digimon, like Devimon?" TK asked. "Even Demidevimon was a bad guy!"
"The worst!" Patamon agreed.
Gennai's shoulders somehow drooped even further. "Judging from the ratio of eggs in Primary Village after your victory over Apocalymon, there were more dark Digimon in Apocalymon than Digimon of the other types. If a Digimon might be killed over and over, without ever having the chance to live long enough to grow up and Digivolve, just because of the form they took? When people looked at them with suspicion, when it was harder for them to make friends, then is it any wonder that so many of those Digimon despaired and were devoured by Apocalymon?" He shook his head. "I have been afraid since you left that history would repeat itself. When time was reordered, at first I feared that it was Apocalymon reborn. That enough of the Digimon you restored had experienced heartbreak to revive him in only the handful of months since you left our world." He looked up at TK. "They were saved because the Chosen Children restored their hope. If even the Child of Hope can't believe in them, if you refuse to give them your Crest's blessing, then what chance do they have?"
"Hey," Matt said, hand on Gabumon's shoulder, and looked past them to see the barriers the Mayor of File City had put up to keep the Chosen Children from getting swarmed. "That's a lot of Digimon. So everyone really could come back after we beat Apocalymon?"
Gabumon nodded. "Um-hum."
"That's a relief."
"Hi, Matt!" TK smiled at him and Matt looked a little relieved.
"Did I miss anything important?" he asked TK.
"Kari, Tai and Sora aren't here yet," TK told him. "So we're helping the Digimon until they get here."
"Kari's name first, huh?" Matt grinned at his little brother teasingly.
"Matt!"
Matt had to be a little relieved, Joe thought. Not that TK might have a crush, but that TK wasn't focused on Tai, when TK had wanted Tai as his big brother for awhile there. What was sad was that Tai was better at not smothering TK than Matt was because Matt cared too much. Tai could be what TK thought he wanted in a brother because Tai saw TK as a friend, not a brother.
…Maybe seeing Tai and Kari had made TK realize that Tai definitely wasn't free of overprotective tendencies.
"Why are you looking so down, Biyomon?" Tai wondered after he and Kari had spread out the contents of his convenience store bags on the carpet and the Digimon had started to dig in.
"I was hoping you'd be Sora."
"Wait, Sora's not here yet?" Sora?
"I know," Matt said, shaking his head. "I thought it was going to be Sora too. I could have sworn you'd either be the first to get here or the last."
Tai threw his arm over Matt's shoulder. "Bet it was a big disappointment to see my ugly face instead, right?"
"Well, I don't know, your sister's…"
The friendly arm instantly became a chokehold.
"I am so, so sorry," Sora said when she finally stopped spinning Biyomon around. "The bathroom had a line, so I ducked into a closet to look at my Digivice, and then I needed to find Reiko to get me out of that kimono."
"Reiko?" Tai asked. "Who's Reiko?"
"One of my cousins from the branch family schools. She really doesn't like me, so I knew she'd just give me a hand right away instead of trying to convince me to stay," Sora told him. "I let her assume I was going to make a big production about not wanting to be the heir like I did a couple of years ago."
"That doesn't sound very nice," Joe said.
Sora shook her head. "She really loves flower arranging, but her branch isn't as prestigious, so her family wants her to study for entrance exams and go to college to have a back-up plan instead of focusing on her flower-arranging studies. She really admires Mom and thinks I'm a big jerk to her – it's really not just jealousy because I'm the heir to the main branch and playing soccer instead is throwing away everything she wants. I was trying to get Mom to adopt her and let her be the heir instead, but now that I'm on better terms with Mom…" She let out a breath. "Not only being the rebel anymore means I have to pay attention to family politics instead of just letting people use me for whatever. I've kind of been messing things up for Mom, but she didn't want to worry me."
"Sounds like you need a break," Tai said sympathetically.
"I know I'm tempting fate," Sora said, "but… at least it's been good to be back in the Digital World so far?"
Mimi and Joe looked at each other, frowning. No, they didn't want to tell her what it was like out there, not yet.
"Well," Gennai said, "It's well past midnight. Mojyamon – you met him as Piximon – will be here tomorrow. The two of us were planning to place a barrier around File City and Primary Village. I know that now that all of you are here, you must want to confer, but I would be honored if you would lend us your power to strengthen the barrier."
"Oh, sure," Sora said.
"That's a relief," Joe agreed.
"Yeah." Tai nodded. "With all the refugees here… I didn't want to leave them sitting ducks, but we have to do something about Millenniummon before he carpet-bombs this place." All these Digimon living peacefully, some of them coming here because they thought Tai and the others would protect them?
"The barrier won't hold up against a mega, but it will negate attacks, even Ultimate attacks, if it draws on the eight of us," Izzy told them excitedly.