The first thing that Daisuke noticed when he next woke up was the pain that had bloomed dull and hot across his stomach.
The second thing that he noticed was the fact that he was on something that felt sandy in texture. This was the opening fact that prompted him to determine the truth behind what had happened for this confusion to occur to begin with. He was in the Dark Ocean, and he had been there for much of the day. He had been hit by an attack from Dagomon just like the rest of the group, and the cliffside that they had been standing on was completely destroyed in the process. After that, Daisuke's memory had gone completely dark, and it was easy enough to assume that this was where he had lost consciousness. Everything had faded away from him after the attack made contact, and judging by the fact that he was just starting to wake up, it had been wickedly awful.
"Daisuke! Daisuke!"
A familiar voice cut through the cloud of fog that had come to rest over Daisuke's mind, and he groaned as he forced his eyes open. Everything was fuzzy at first before the details came into view with striking clarity. It was Ken that had called his name, and the dark-haired boy was sitting off to one side as he leaned over Daisuke with concern in his eyes. Ken's hair had fallen free of its regular ponytail, and the band sat abandoned to the side of Ken's knee a few inches away.
Daisuke groaned and pushed himself up into a sitting position. The ache across his stomach returned with renewed brutality when he did so, and he instinctively wrapped an arm around the injury. He had done what he could to make sure that the wound healed itself, but he supposed that there was nothing that he or anyone else could have done to know that he was going to be attacked by a giant monster intent on nothing short of complete destruction. That was something that his body hadn't been ready for. It would have been damaging to anyone, but given Daisuke's recent state of injury, it only made the problem worse.
Daisuke looked down at his stomach carefully, not wanting to look at the injury in detail if he could avoid it. He didn't think that it had reopened, not that he feared such a thing to begin with. He doubted that such a thing was even possible without something truly awful taking place, but Daisuke was still marking it down as a positive for the time being.
With this realization, Daisuke remembered the fact that Daemon was gone. The one who had caused such an injury to appear in the first place would no longer be causing any problems for him. Daemon had been defeated thanks to GrandisKuwagamon combining his power with the rest of the Digimon in the party, and from there, Daemon was left to spiral into the sky as little more than data. In a way, it was a relief to Daisuke, but there was still something uneasy at the core of his stomach. Perhaps it was because he knew that even if Daemon was gone, there was still something dangerous that they had to deal with. Dagomon was hardly going to be defeated easily if their first encounter was anything to go off.
But that could wait. Ken brought Daisuke back down to earth with a heavy sigh of relief, and he practically threw himself into Daisuke's arms. Daisuke wondered if the sudden liquid that peppered the shoulder area of his shirt was caused by tears or perhaps water from the ocean that was lapping nearby. "Thank goodness you're alright," Ken murmured under his breath. He remained close with Daisuke for a long moment, allowing Daisuke the chance to return the gesture with the one hand that wasn't nursing at his injury. He applied as much pressure as he could to the source of his pain without making it too obvious that he was doing such a thing. After all, that would undoubtedly frighten Ken, and that was the last thing that Daisuke wanted to do given the circumstances.
"I'm fine," Daisuke muttered into Ken's shoulder. His eyes fell shut, and there was a tempting urge at the back of his mind to roll over and go back to sleep. His body was nothing short of completely exhausted, as if it was going to give in under even the slightest amount of pressure. Daisuke knew that he was stronger than that in all truth, but he didn't feel like it in that moment. His fall to the beach from Dagomon's attack had seemingly left him bruised from head to toe, and Daisuke didn't know how to make the pain go away. He doubted that there was even an easy way to dispel the ache as long as they were in the Dark Ocean. It wasn't as if they could rest in a bed or take medication for pain as long as they were in another world.
Ken pulled away carefully, reaching for his ponytail before starting to finger at it nervously. "Chibimon and Minomon are together over there," he explained to Daisuke carefully. "They're wiped out after that fight, and I didn't want them to crowd you or anything when you woke up."
Daisuke nodded to Ken, and he saw that Chibimon and Minomon were eating the snacks that Ken had given them, though their attention was locked solely on the conversation between their human partners a few feet away. Daisuke smiled and slid across the sand in the direction of the two Digimon. His clothing was covered in small scuff marks, and a few patches were even wet from the waves that rolled against the shore nearby.
"Good to know that you two aren't getting into any trouble," Daisuke teased with his trademark smile as he reached one hand out to rub at the top of Chibimon's head affectionately.
"The only one who's going to be in trouble is Dagomon!" Chibimon proclaimed firmly as he took another bite of the candy that he had gotten his hands on. "As soon as we get back with the rest of the group, we're going to have to give him a run for his money! He's going to regret fighting against us in the first place!"
"The problem is going to be getting back together with them," Minomon pointed out. "There's no one else anywhere near here, so how are we supposed to reunite the full group if we don't even know where they are?"
Daisuke hissed at the realization, and he wondered if perhaps his mind was more clouded than he initially thought. He reached for where his Digivice was resting in his pocket and examined its screen. It was pulled up with a radar of the immediate area, and there were no signals anywhere close to him or Ken. In fact, it seemed as if much of the rest of the group was clustered together in other groups that were far out of reach. Daisuke resisted the urge to hiss as he shook his head. "Ouch," he muttered. It was going to take ages for the group to come back together in full, and that wasn't even taking into account that they were in an unfamiliar environment.
"We're going to have to start moving sooner rather than later," Ken pointed out. "Staying here isn't going to get anything accomplished. If we're close to the oceanside, then we could wind up being attacked by the Deep Ones, and I don't think that any of us are ready to potentially have to fight back against them again so soon."
"I know that I'm not," Daisuke sighed. "I doubt that all the Deep Ones in the Dark Ocean were with Daemon given that we're talking about the occupants of an entire world, so we're probably going to run into them again. I hope that you two are going to be ready to evolve again soon."
"We should be ready soon enough," Chibimon replied with a bright smile, but Daisuke could see that he was still somewhat stressed about something. When Chibimon's eyes drifted down to Daisuke's torso where his arm was latched around his injury's outline, Daisuke knew exactly what it was that was on his mind. It wasn't as if Daisuke should have expected anything else. What could have been on Chibimon's mind at a time like this anyway?
"How is your wound?" Ken questioned, his voice shaky and uncertain as he looked down at Daisuke's defensive arm. "If you're hurting, we don't have to start walking yet. The last thing that I want to do is put any type of pressure on you. Finding the rest of the group isn't going to be easy, so I only want us to leave when you're truly ready for it."
"The pain will go away soon enough," Daisuke assured Ken with a nonchalant wave of his hand. That had happened in the past, hadn't it? He had been able to push through the phantom aches before, though he supposed that it wasn't exactly a ghost of a pain this time around. Instead, he was actually feeling something dreadful as a result of the attack that Dagomon had led against the group.
"Are you sure about that?" Minomon asked, his eyes clouded with uncertainty. "I don't want you to get hurt because you're pushing yourself too hard... That will only make things harder for us in going ahead."
Daisuke shook his head, resisting the urge at the back of his mind that told him he had to lay down as soon as possible and wait until the ache went away. For all he knew, that was only going to put everyone in more danger. It was impossible to tell night from day in a place like this, and for all he knew, this was one of the riskier times to be dormant and resting. Daisuke didn't want to take a chance that he didn't have to if it could be avoided. Plus, the rest of the group had to be located sooner rather than later if the group was going to be leaving the Dark Ocean. Koushiro was the only one with a computer on him, after all. The group hadn't been expecting to be divided, so there hadn't been a reason for all of them to bring laptops with them to the other world. Besides, his was the only one that could operate without the need of a charger, so it would have been redundant and pointless anyways.
"We have to keep going," Daisuke insisted, trying his best to not pay attention to the way that his words attempted to slide together when he didn't put enough effort into seeming composed. He could feel the precursory poundings that indicated a migraine was coming soon, and he did his best to try and ignore the pain that intruded on his mind so suddenly and ruthlessly. They had to continue moving if they were going to find their destination.
"But we don't want you to get hurt," Ken told Daisuke, his eyes narrowing with a numb and sobering type of insistence and determination. He got to his feet to look around the area. "We should be fine to stay here for a little bit longer if you need to rest until you're feeling better."
Daisuke shook his head. When he looked out at the horizon, the only thing he saw was the ocean and the way that it attempted to swallow the edge of the shore. In the back of his mind, the images of the Deep Ones rising out of the sea in Odaiba returned to his memory. Daisuke didn't want to have to deal with that a second time, especially if the group was separated into smaller chunks scattered across the Dark Ocean. He could barely gauge how far away everybody else was from his current location, and he knew that was a bad sign.
Daisuke pressed his hands against the sand below and rose to his feet. Part of being a leader meant having to do things that were difficult at times. Daisuke hardly felt like a leader in that moment, and that was one of the many hard to define reasons that he had left the goggles with Taichi for just a while longer. Even so, he was trying to live up to the title, and as it turned out, trying to reach such an ideal was much more painful than Daisuke ever could have expected it to be.
When he returned to his full height, Daisuke was practically punched in the stomach with the overwhelming sensation of his own pain. He nearly stumbled under the weight of the strain that his torso brought to him. He had been trying hard to not push himself harder than he had to, and simply walking didn't seem to do anything to shove him over the edge. However, moving when he had been hit by an attack from an Ultimate-level Digimon and then falling down to the shoreline below was sure to fall into the category of something that would bring him pain despite his attempts of rest.
"Daisuke..." Ken cautioned, his eyes vulnerable in a way that seemed to strip Daisuke bare of all his emotional defenses in the blink of an eye. "I don't want you to get hurt because you're trying to look out for the rest of us. We're trying to look after you too, you know."
Daisuke shook his head and took a first step in the direction of a few clusters of signals. He looked down at his Digivice because he didn't want to look up and meet Ken's eyes. He knew that there were more important things to focus on than his own feelings and worries. The sea nearby seemed like it was telling him constantly that it was going to be disposing either a herd of Deep Ones or Dagomon himself in their direction.
Daisuke's mind was briefly cast back to the scene of the attack when the group had been hit by Dagomon's strike. Dagomon had seemed to focus in on Hikari briefly while the rest of the group was scattered and weakened. Daisuke had been able to see such a thing because he was able to fully concentrate on Dagomon's actions at the time even while others were focused on Koushiro's actions or something else taking place. Daisuke's stomach sunk into his feet, and he concentrated once again on stepping forward. He had to stay focused to make sure that he didn't lose track of what was important.
Ken picked up both Minomon and Chibimon, his eyes laced with concern. Guilt stabbed at Daisuke with more force than a claw ever could have, and he continued to stare down at the Digivice in his hand so that he wouldn't lose his focus. Everyone was counting on him, and in a way, Daisuke was counting on himself in much the same way. If he gave in for even a moment, he wasn't going to be able to put himself back together, so he was just going to have to keep going for better or worse.
No matter how hard he tried, Taichi couldn't bring himself to look up and away from his Digivice where it rested between his fingers. The radar had been pulled up ever since he returned to the land of the waking, and he was desperate to follow the path that it was outlining for him. There were five other clusters of signals and one that was isolated from the rest. This made it relatively easy for him to figure out who everyone was with among the members of the Chosen Children party, but that didn't stop his nerves from clattering away and threatening to consume him.
Taichi had initially come to in the shadow of a few trees near the cliffside. Yamato had been with him along with both of their partners, and it didn't take long for them to come to the conclusion that they had to do what they could in order to meet up with the rest of the group. Most of the signals were down below on the line near the water, and that had prompted them to slide down the side of the cliff to the sands below. As far as Taichi could tell, nearly the entire Dark Ocean consisted of simply water, and he didn't think that there were any signs of land on the other side of the sea. He certainly couldn't see any islands from where he stood on the edge of the cliff before he slid down to ground level.
The anxiety in the air was almost suffocating, and Taichi decided that he absolutely detested it. The situation was so beyond nerve-wracking that Taichi felt like his agitation was going to find a way to eat him alive. Koromon and Tsunomon were both safely resting in the arms of their partners, eyes shut in something resembling peace. They were absolutely exhausted after their encounter against Daemon, not that Taichi was particularly surprised.
It was hard to gauge how much time had passed since he and the rest of the group first arrived in the Dark Ocean. In part, that was because Taichi was almost afraid of the answer that he was going to find when he opened his D-Terminal. Using his phone in the Dark Ocean was ineffective at best because the device was resistant to proper and full operation anywhere aside from Earth, but D-Terminals worked everywhere. He would be able to see the time if he unfolded the device, but at the same time, doing so sounded absolutely dreadful to Taichi. He didn't want to do anything that would tell him just how awful the situation had gotten.
Koromon's gentle snores reached Taichi's ears once more, and he smiled down at his partner. The things he wouldn't do to be sleeping like his partner right then. Taichi didn't feel safe resting at all though. They were too close to the ocean, and he couldn't bring himself to not think about the danger that came with close proximity under these circumstances. It wouldn't be hard for Deep Ones or Dagomon himself to come out of the sea to wreak even more havoc, and Taichi didn't want to be caught by surprise when that time came. His eyes felt like they were on the verge of falling shut constantly, but he forced himself to keep them open.
"You seem different."
Those words were more than enough to snap Taichi out of his trance, and he stopped walking to turn and face Yamato, who was walking a few feet behind him. They had both been absorbed in their own private thoughts up to that point, perhaps too scared to say anything too loud in case it attracted the attention of their shadowy foes. Yamato had overcome that concern, it seemed, and he was watching Taichi with such sudden solemnity that it was almost jarring. Taichi didn't think that Yamato had looked at him that way in years, and in a way, it felt like he had been pierced through the heart by something that he hadn't even realized was a weapon to begin with.
"What do you mean?" Taichi asked. He did his best to focus on remaining conscious by latching onto the words that he was speaking with every bit of concentration that he had in his body.
"You've been different for a while, and I think that it's time that you talk about it," Yamato continued. "Sora can see it, I can see it, and I know that other people can too. Hikari hasn't mentioned it, but I can tell that she's worried. You're hiding something, and I think that it's time for you to start talking about what is on your mind before it eats you alive."
Taichi would never admit it openly, but he was taken aback by Yamato's words. His eyes going wide most certainly gave him away though, and all Taichi could do was stare for a long moment. "I... I don't know what you're talking about," he lied, but he knew well enough that Yamato wasn't going to be giving up quite so easily. Beyond that, he knew that he wasn't doing anything to convince the other boy. Yamato had already set his mind on figuring out the truth, and he knew better than anyone that Taichi was hiding something.
Taichi hated the fact that Yamato was right more than he could ever hope to say. The goggles atop his head suddenly felt so immensely heavy. They seemed to be trying to drag him down into the ground until he was unable to find a way to escape. Taichi resisted the urge to reach up and pull them free of his head before throwing them into the sand. They belonged to Daisuke, not him. He hated that Daisuke wasn't letting him give the goggles back, and beyond that Taichi hated that he had to look after them for so long. Yamato would never take the goggles; it simply wasn't in his nature. Yamato had struggled six years prior to find a place in the world where he was not known as an echo of Taichi in his own mind, and it would be wrong of Taichi to give Yamato the goggles that he had worn for so many years.
Unfortunately though, that meant that Taichi was left with the goggles until he could find Daisuke again, assuming that Daisuke was even going to take them back. Taichi knew that they belonged with Daisuke above anyone else, and it still felt wrong of him to hold onto the goggles when they were a mark of something that he had given up years ago. Daisuke was his heir and successor, and Taichi couldn't help but wish that he had done something more to keep all of this from spiraling out of control in the first place.
"You're being reckless," Yamato told Taichi, his eyes narrowing into a glare at his companion's denial. "You're putting yourself in more danger than you usually do, and you're... You're angry at the world. You can try to hide it all you want, but I can see it in the way that you're carrying yourself."
Taichi stared at Yamato for a long moment, not sure of how he was meant to respond to that. It wasn't as if Yamato was wrong, and that was the frustrating part; Taichi knew that Yamato had a point. He had been acting recklessly, but it was because he was trying to look after everyone. He had failed to help Daisuke as the one that everyone looked up to as a leader. Taichi hadn't expected to fall into this position when they were children, but he had stepped into it whether he wanted it or not. As a leader figure, it was his job to protect those around him, and he hadn't even been able to look after the second leader of the team. He had failed the successor to the Crest of Courage, and he would never be able to tear the guilt free of his chest at this rate.
Yamato wasn't wrong about the part where he was mad at the world either. Taichi was upset with the universe around him in a way that he hadn't been in a long time. Taichi had always known how to keep his rage in check, but it felt like this situation was different somehow. There was too much stress being piled on his shoulders, and this was just the start of it all. The attacks had been taking place on Earth for ages, and it was getting to be too much for him when combined with his overwhelming guilt from what had happened to Daisuke.
Taichi was mad. He was upset that Daemon had done so much to hurt his team. He was enraged that the Emissaries of Chaos were moving between worlds to harm everyone in Odaiba. He was mad that he hadn't been able to protect some of the most important people in his life. Worse, everyone else was noticing it, and Taichi detested it.
But they weren't the only ones catching on to the behavior of those around them. In fact, Taichi had also recognized a few things about the people that surrounded him. He had recognized shifts in Yamato's behavior as well. The group hadn't spent much time together while they were getting ready to travel to the Dark Ocean, all finding their own ways to cope with the sudden and shattering string of events that had followed Daemon's initial attack. Even so, when the group was together, Taichi could see changes in Yamato's demeanor. Everyone was changing in their own ways, and Taichi knew that it was hardly for the best.
"What about you?" Taichi asked, practically desperate to get the subject of conversation off him as soon as possible. "I know that you've been worried too. The attacks on Odaiba have been hurting you whether you want to admit it or not."
This time around, it was Yamato's turn to gape at the other boy. "I..." he began to say. He looked at Taichi for a long moment before he looked down at the sand below. Taichi could see the tension appearing at the edges of Yamato's expression, and he knew that everything was having a much greater impact on him than he was willing to admit openly. Then again, Taichi was guilty of much the same sins, wasn't he? Who was he to call Yamato out on such a thing?
Taichi hesitated for a moment, trying to figure out how he was going to phrase all of this. He knew that Yamato was empathetic despite the seemingly unapproachable aura he put off. He felt everything with much more strength than most other people did, and that included both positive and negative emotions. "Everything is wearing on you, isn't it?" Taichi asked of him. "You're changing too. All of this is hurting you, isn't it?"
Yamato didn't look up to meet the gaze of his Jogress partner. Instead, he simply sighed and reached for his Digivice, undoubtedly searching for a distraction. He didn't know how to respond to Taichi's words, so he was trying to shove the thoughts from his mind as soon as possible. Yamato felt everything strongly, but that didn't mean that he knew how to discuss them perfectly under all circumstances. In fact, at times, it seemed that just the opposite was true when Yamato truly began to feel at his worst.
"We should try to meet up with the rest of the group," Yamato murmured under his breath. He started walking once again, carefully taking his steps so that he wouldn't run into Taichi directly on his way to the front of the group. He began to line the pathway that would take them to the nearest pair of signals, no doubt expecting Taichi to trail after him soon afterward.
Taichi stared at Yamato for a moment before he forced himself to start walking as well. He didn't know when everything had gotten to be so complicated, but he was confident that he wanted it to stop being this way as soon as possible. Why did it seem as if the world itself was spiraling out of his control? He and the rest of the Chosen Children had seen danger countless times in the past, but this time somehow seemed different. Why was it that there was a shift between past and present that made everything so much harder to deal with?
Taichi spared Yamato a brief glance before he shifted his own attention back down to his Digivice. He knew that they were going to have to work this out at some point. They were Jogress partners, after all, and any emotional barriers between the two would likely impact their chances of being able to rely on Omegamon. Since their group of two was much smaller than the thirteen fighters that they regularly had access to as part of the full team of Chosen Children, they were going to need as much strength as they could get their hands on. If they were attacked by a large number of Deep Ones or, heaven forbid, Dagomon himself, Omegamon would practically be necessary to keep them out of trouble.
And yet, there was a wall that had appeared between them. It wasn't as if it had been unintentional. The circumstances that they had seen as of late had simply constructed a barrier that would be difficult at best for them to break through. Times had been rough ever since the Emissaries of Chaos first began sending their monsters through the gateway with the power that could force evolution and strengthen Digimon in the process. The sudden surge from the larger Digimon attack had only made things worse with its excessive damages against the city. It seemed like every new event just sent things spiraling out of control all over again.
In a way, it was much like what had happened during their first adventure in the Digital World. Taichi had seen the emotional turmoil that came with the stakes elevating themselves over the course of their many battles, but this time, it seemed to be even more real than before. Perhaps that was simply the price of getting older and recognizing more about the world at large. Taichi didn't know how he had done it the first time all of a sudden. He had certainly survived, but the methods of doing so seemed impossible for him to determine.
Once again, Taichi's vision drifted down to the Digivice pressed at the center of his palm. They had to find the rest of the group and get out of there as soon as possible, hopefully without coming to arms against Dagomon once again. His desperation was starting to bother him, and he prayed that the other members of the team weren't getting into too much trouble.
"Meiko! Meiko, wake up!"
The distant call of her name stirred Meiko from her slumber, and the sound of the ocean practically screaming as it slammed against the shoreline reached her ears a moment later. It was like an endless echo of static in the back of her mind, and somehow, it made the world seem to want to blur until it floated away from her grasp entirely. As a result, she took much longer than she would have liked to bring herself to full concentration, practically having to latch onto her consciousness with every ounce of strength in her body.
Meiko's entire body ached when she forced herself into a sitting position. When she did so, Meiamon practically launched herself at her chest, tears in her eyes. "I was so worried! I'm so glad that you're alright, Meiko!" Meiamon cried out. Meiko didn't think that she had ever seen her partner this upset and fearful, and it made her heart feel like it was being ripped in half in her chest.
"I'm here, Mei," Meiko whispered into the top of her partner's head. She pulled Meiamon as close to her body as she could, relishing in the familiar sensation of being so close to her partner. It was something that she could use to ground herself, forcing her mind to focus on the situation at hand rather than the mortifying terror that she last remembered feeling before she fell asleep.
As soon as Meiko's memories of the battle came rushing back, her eyes went wide. She glanced around the area, still holding Meiamon tightly. "Where are we?" she questioned, a note of agitation starting to find its way into her tone. She couldn't see anyone in the immediate area, and everything nearby was simply open sand. Her skin was marred by countless darkened bruises, undoubtedly a result of her rough fall after Dagomon's final attack.
"I don't know," Meiamon confessed as Meiko gently pulled her back from her torso. "I woke up, and we were alone like this. I don't know where the others could possibly be, but they're nowhere near here. I'm sorry to say this, Meiko... But it seems like we're on our own for the time being."
"No!" Meiko gasped sharply, her eyes going wide. As far as she was concerned, that was as good as a death sentence. She shook her head and tried to force herself to her feet. She had to find the other members of the group as soon as possible. She wasn't a fighter, and she had been hiding behind the other Chosen Children ever since Mimi first gave her the chance to join them. Meiko wasn't anywhere near as powerful as they were even if Meiamon had the ability to evolve to Meicrackmon. If they were attacked, they wouldn't be able to win the battle. The Deep Ones were strong, and if they transformed, then they were as good as dead.
"Meiko, it's going to be fine," Meiamon murmured to her partner. Her voice had evened out from its previous panic to something soothing, but it did little to calm the vibrating nerves of her human companion. "We're going to be able to find them soon enough, and when we do, we'll make sure that we get back to Earth."
"We can't even go back right now," Meiko realized, her eyes going wide. "Koushiro is the only one with a laptop, and there's no way for us to return as long as he isn't around here. That means that we're going to have to wander around the Dark Ocean by ourselves until we can find the rest of the group... This can't be happening. Somebody has to be around here somewhere."
"Check your Digivice," Meiamon told her. "That should show you the radar of the area, and if anyone is close to us, then we'll know it sooner rather than later. We can start walking in the direction of whoever we think is closest, and that will let us go back to Earth sooner rather than later. We're going to be fine. Deep breaths."
Meiko nodded, though it was easier said than done for her to calm her nerves. She was prone to bouts of anxiety and had been for much of her life, but none of those previous episodes seemed to be anything compared to what she was going through alone in the Dark Ocean. She reached shakily for her Digivice where it rested clipped to her belt and stared down at it.
The first thing that she noticed was that it had somehow been chipped during the fall, and some of the blue material the lined the device had fallen away. She didn't know where the shard of cerulean had disappeared to, but she did know that there was a gentle view of something black underneath where the blue should have been. A single line of dark mahogany energy ran through the darkness, and Meiko found herself frowning at the sight of it. She knew that mahogany seemed to be the color of her Crest, but she also didn't think that she had ever heard of a broken Digivice. Everyone else's had been intact when she last saw them, almost as if the devices were indestructible. Then again, perhaps theirs had seen damage during the fall after Dagomon's attack as well. She didn't know for sure with nobody around to compare Digivices with. It was a miracle that her glasses hadn't been completely eviscerated in the fall given the damage to her Digivice.
Meiko did her best to shake off those thoughts as she pulled up the radar on the screen. Her dark red signal flashed on its own far from any others. Her eyes went wide, and Meiko swallowed dryly. There was nobody in the immediate area, and she didn't know how she was supposed to get back to them. Where would she even begin in terms of reuniting with the other Chosen Children? She didn't even know where she was supposed to be going, and that didn't even factor in the fact that she was close to the ocean line where the Deep Ones could appear at any moment.
As soon as that realization hit her, Meiko felt as if she had been punched in the stomach. Her mind showed her countless visualizations of what could happen if the Deep Ones did appear from the ocean. She would be toast immediately. Meicrackmon would only be able to do so much to look after her. Meiko had been hiding behind the other Chosen Children for ages whether she wanted to admit it or not, and she wouldn't be able to use them as a shield as long as the group was separated.
Meiko's knees pulled up to her chest, and Meiamon jumped free of her grasp. Meiko hugged her legs close to her body, the true fear starting to set in. She didn't know what she was supposed to do in terms of staying safe under the influence of what was bound to happen if she stayed where she was. She was going to be attacked at some point, and she had no ways of defending herself. Meicrackmon wouldn't be able to take care of an entire faction of Deep Ones by herself. The Deep Ones had been a problem for the entire team's combined strength when they were back in Odaiba, so what chance did she have? She was going to die in the Dark Ocean, never able to return to Earth again. She wasn't going to be able to see her friends again, and everything was going to fall apart while she was on the beachside in a world she didn't even know or understand.
"Meiko, deep breaths," came Meiamon's voice above the screaming at the back of Meiko's mind. The small dog Digimon moved in her direction, pressing her head against her partner's side. "Everything is going to be alright. I'm here for you, and we're going to find a way back to the rest of the group. We'll avoid conflict where we can to make sure that everything is alright."
Meiko's chest still felt tight, as if there was something pressing down on her lungs to keep her from breathing too deeply. She gripped at her Digivice with all the force that she had in her body, and the chipped edges around the broken blue corner were digging into her skin, but she tried her best to not focus on it. Everything felt wrong in some way or another, and she wanted nothing more than to be back with the rest of her team. They would be able to look after her and make sure that nothing bad happened while she was terrified of the place that she had found herself in, and she wouldn't have to be so afraid.
"Meiko!" Meiamon repeated, her voice louder to pull her partner out of her daze. Meiko snapped back to reality all of a sudden, and she glanced down at the small dog Digimon at her side. "Everything is going to be fine. I know it doesn't seem like it now, but we're going to find a way to get back to the rest of the group. They aren't going to be leaving until they know that everything is alright, and they're going to make sure that we get out of here without any issues. It might seem impossible right now, but you have to hold on for just a bit longer. There is hope for us to get back to them and return to Earth too. Just try to focus on the fact that we're going to be okay."
That was much easier said than done, but Meiko was slowly but surely able to calm her ragged breathing and drag it back to a somewhat regular pace. It seemed to be much harder than it had any right to be, but Meiko was able to get at least some air into her lungs after a few moments of uncertainty. Meiko let out a heavy sigh as soon as she was given the chance to do so, and the world around her seemed even more empty and desolate than it had been before. She glanced around one last time just to make sure that she truly was alone as she feared so terribly, but she was met with nothing but the undeniable truth of the situation. There was nobody around for her to latch onto, and that meant that she and Meiamon were going to have to find a way to survive on their own terms.
"Thank you," Meiko murmured under her breath as she reached for her partner. She pressed Meiamon against her chest once again. The two of them truly were good for one another in ways that Meiko would never be able to articulate with word. Meiamon was regularly so stoic and detached, always remaining quiet and keeping to herself if she wasn't around Meiko. She was independent and solemn, but at the same time, her care for those around her was something that could hardly be denied. Meiko didn't think that she was ever going to be able to forget the panicked look in her partner's eyes when Meiamon saw her sprawled out on the sands of the Dark Ocean just a few short minutes ago.
At the same time, Meiko undeniably needed her partner in return. Meiko was far from being an independent person, and she was fully aware of such a fact. She feared having to be on her own, and if she could rely on others, then she most certainly would. Before she had met the rest of the Chosen Children, Meiamon had been the one for her to depend on above all else. Meiko grew up lonely due to a history as a victim of bullying, but Meiamon offered her a chance to be happy and free of the other worries that confined her. Meiamon gave Meiko the ability to be joyful and exuberant about life, and it was something that Meiko would never be able to thank her enough for. She needed Meiamon, and Meiamon needed her too.
If she couldn't count on the rest of the team to defend her, then Meiko was going to have to try and figure out how to break through her dependent habits, at least temporarily. The rest of the team was out there, and she had to meet up with them as soon as possible. She hated the idea of wandering alone through the Dark Ocean, but that didn't mean that she was going to roll over and give up. Meiamon would never let her do such a thing, and Meiko wasn't going to let her partner down. She was going to have to swallow her doubts and see what she was capable of accomplishing when everything went back to the way that it once was: just Meiko and Meiamon facing the rest of the world on their own terms.
Meiko looked down at the radar of her Digivice, Meiamon still in her grasp. The mahogany vein of energy through the device's corner flashed all of a sudden, and a wave of nausea slammed into Meiko briefly. Her eyes went wide, and she found herself using all of the energy that she had in her body to stay upright. This had happened once before too, though Meiko didn't know why it was that this happened to her of all people. Back during the mass invasion of Odaiba, she had gotten sick seemingly out of nowhere and almost collapsed. She hadn't been able to afford to stop and rest back then, and she wouldn't be able to do it this time around either.
Meiko shook her head to get rid of the lingering traces of illness as she looked down at the dots that lined the radar on the screen. There were signals scattered in a radius of multiple miles, but her priority had to be moving in the direction of whoever was closest by. She let out a sigh and began to walk in the direction of the nearest signals. She kept Meiamon close to her chest the whole way, her black hair rustling in the breeze that ran through the area.
Meiko chose to not think about how much she hated this situation any more than she absolutely had to. After all, she had a mission to focus on. The chip in her Digivice didn't matter. The sudden flash of nausea wasn't important either. She just had to find the rest of the members of the team, and everything else could wait until after that had been resolved. She had to keep her priorities straight if she wanted to find a way to get out of the Dark Ocean alive.
The sound of Hiraku's pacing echoed throughout the office once again, another step in the continuous loop that had been going on for the past hour and a half. It was nearing two in the morning by this point, and Maki's headache was beyond scathing. Hiraku's constant tapping against the floor was only making things worse, an extra irritant against her mind that made her feel like she was going to explode if this continued on any longer.
"Hiraku, running a rut into the floor isn't going to help us," Maki told him, her words slurring together from her exhaustion and irritation. It wasn't that she was particularly upset with Hiraku, Daigo, or anyone else; in fact, it was the exact opposite of that. She was just beyond sick of having to be so overly worried for the rest of the group. She knew that the ruler of the Dark Ocean was likely the culprit, and that only left her even more upset. She had detested the Digimon ever since her first adventure to the Digital World fifteen years prior, and such a hatred had not been dulled as time went on.
"I know, but I'm getting worried," Hiraku replied, his voice shaking more with every new syllable. "It's been ages, and we haven't gotten an explanation on what happened to make them want to come back to Earth in the first place. It's not as if we can just open our own gate to get them back here either; Koushiro hasn't tried to establish communication between our groups in the first place, and that must mean that something has gone seriously wrong. I'm really starting to wish that we had done something to throw in a backup plan in case something happened to everybody..."
"It's frustrating, to say the least," Daigo agreed. He was standing against the wall and leaning his head back, his lips turned downward in a notable frown. He rubbed at his temples to try and banish what Maki suspected was the warning of a migraine. They hadn't slept in ages, and they were exhausted beyond description. Daigo's notable sleepiness had only grown worse, and it wouldn't at all surprise Maki if he wound up falling over in his drowsiness at some point. The only thing keeping him upright was adrenaline, and if that failed, Daigo would have nothing but his own determination keeping him tethered to the land of the waking.
"Sitting around here and waiting for them to respond isn't going to be able to help us," Maki declared. "We're only going to stress ourselves out, and I don't think it's going to be a good idea for us to sit here and wait for Koushiro to open the gate. There has to be something that we can do to reach out to them. The gate isn't going to be opening from this side if Koushiro isn't reaching out; Hiraku has already tried that five times, and it hasn't done anything to help us."
"Let's start off by trying to track their Digivice signals," Daigo suggested. "The gate might not be opening, but we do have their signals on hand from when we were preparing for all of this. If we can track those down, then that will at least give us something to do, and we can formulate a plan for what we're going to do to fix this."
"Are you thinking that we should go to the Dark Ocean?" Hiraku questioned. "I suppose that we would be able to do that as long as we brought a device along so that we could come back. After all, we have figured out how to program the gate so that the portal device is going to come back to us. We can certainly thank Koushiro for being able to pitch in on something like that."
"Leaving the Digital World unprotected could be risky. Bringing our partners along could cause problems for the Digital World," Maki pointed out. "I'm not trying to say that we should just abandon the kids over there, but we have to think this out as much as possible to make sure that we're making the best choice before we do anything."
"I agree," Hiraku nodded. "Plus, the gate that we made to go to the Dark Ocean... It's not something that we should abuse too much if we have the ability to avoid it. I mean, the gate that we made wasn't one that was meant to exist. There isn't a solid gate to the Dark Ocean anymore, and the one that we engineered could cause damage to the barrier between the worlds, as much as I hate to say it, that could leave us at risk from another invasion from the Dark Ocean."
"And that would mean that the ruler of the Dark Ocean would be able to come to both the Digital World and Earth, and that would only halt our progress once again on something that we can't afford to be held back on. We're operating under a time constraint while the Emissaries of Chaos are preoccupied, and if there's another issue for us to take care of, that's only going to hold us back further," Daigo said with a shake of his head. "We have to tamper with the Dark Ocean's barrier as little as possible."
"It sounds to me like the Chosen Children are going to wind up having to defeat the ruler of the Dark Ocean whether they want to or not," Maki snarled, trying her best to beat back the newer pounds of her migraine. "I don't think that leaving him alone is going to be the best idea for us, especially if the gate that we've constructed is somewhat unstable. That would eliminate the risk of the Dark Ocean leading any other invasions against us in the future too, wouldn't you say? I doubt that there are any other superpowers in the Dark Ocean aside from Daemon or the ruler of the world. If there is something, then we probably would have at least an inkling of it by now, wouldn't you say?"
"We'll have to see the cause of the attack against the Chosen Children was," Daigo told her. "For all we know, it could have been an outside force that we haven't heard of that caused all these problems to begin with. I'm not trying to say that I think it's likely, but it could be the case, and... It's something that we're going to have to be careful about."
"It seems like no matter what we try to do, there's always something to get in our way," Hiraku said softly. "I hate that it seems like we aren't going to be able to accomplish this easily... Then again, I guess that just sort of comes with the territory. We're in a difficult situation no matter how we look at this, and as much as I hate to say it, the Dark Ocean is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of all this."
"For now, let's try to focus on taking things one step at a time," Daigo said, though Maki could tell that he was in part saying this because he was trying to convince himself to not be driven over the edge by his general stress. Daigo had never been able to handle stress well, and that had been the case ever since they were children. Maki didn't know what to do to help him though; she had done what she could over the course of their years together, but she was never able to fully resolve the issue. She didn't think that there was anything that would be able to fix this, as much as she hated to say it.
But she was getting in over her head. Daigo had a point in terms of taking things one step at a time. For the moment, the group had to concentrate on the Dark Ocean, and they were going to have to be careful with all that was involved with the shadowed sea. The younger Chosen Children were in a dangerous place, and they had to be ready to look after them when the opportunity arose for them to do so. There was too much for the group to focus on, and regardless of the generation, the collective Chosen Children were going to have to be careful.
"Aha!" Hiraku exclaimed. He had been typing away at his computer throughout much of this conversation, and he drew his clicking to a close with a final authoritative hit against his enter key. Daigo walked away from the wall and moved in the direction of the computer screen. Maki found herself doing the same from her place on the couch. She knew that staring at the screen in the darkness was only going to worsen her headache, but she couldn't bring herself to care. Her agitation and desperation were getting on her nerves, and gleaning new information would do at least a little something to calm her raging upset.
There was a map of the immediate area where the Chosen Children were located pulled up on the screen. The map held no details as to the layout of the space, only being a vague mass of land with an outline of the shoreline. There were seven different clusters of signals, most of them groups of two with one exception, that being Meiko. They were notably far apart, and it was easy to conclude that it was going to be a while before the groups started to get closer in a meaningful way.
"Whatever happened must have been bad for them to be this split up," Maki muttered under her breath. There was no way for her to know anything about what had happened after Koushiro sent the initial message asking to be brought back to Earth, and she hated that more than she could ever hope to describe. Her theory about the ruler of the Dark Ocean attacking was seeming more and more probable, and that only made her feel worse, somehow. She knew what terrors he was capable of bringing down upon others, and she didn't want people so young to be left as the victims of a monster so gruesome.
It was ironic, in a way. Maki and the rest of her team had been even younger when they first made contact with the Digital World and came to blows against the ruler of the Dark Ocean. They had been about the same age as the Chosen Children had been when they first appeared in the Digital World. Maki was glad that she had been able to meet her partner, and she was relieved to have such a firm support system by her side, but at the same time, she knew that the damage would never be undone. She wasn't going to be able to break free of the Digital World and the hold that it had on her regardless of if she wanted to do such a thing. She had chosen this path, but at the same time, she knew that it was hardly the easiest path for a person to follow.
"It's easy to pick out who is with who depending on the colors of the signals, but there's no way for us to find other information given the circumstances. We don't know details about the lay of the land, and we aren't sure if they're in trouble right now either. On a similar note, we don't even know if their partners are still with them after the attack that sent them scattering," Daigo said, pulling Maki free of her bitter yet concerned thought process. "All we can do for now is send out a message to all of them and hope that they respond sooner rather than later to say that they're doing at least somewhat well. The sooner that we can get an answer, the better, but we don't have a way of saying for sure that they're going to respond in a timely manner. They are in an alternate world filled with monsters and destruction, after all."
"The other thing is that the Dark Ocean wears on people," Maki frowned. "If you're there for a while, then you're going to start feeling the pull of the world. It happened when I was there back when we were kids. Anyone who stays there or is at all adjacent to the Dark Ocean thanks to blurring barriers or something similar will feel the sting. The Dark Ocean is inherently dangerous, and we can't discredit what it could be capable of doing on a psychological and emotional level. It can cause damage if the group isn't careful enough to look after themselves."
"They're strong kids," Hiraku told Maki. He had picked up a pen and was scrawling out the names of the Chosen Children in their small groups for easy access. "We have to trust that they'll be able to look after themselves. They know how to look after each other, and we have to beileve that they can make sure that everything is going to be alright. I know that it isn't quite what we want to do, but... For the time being, it seems to be our best idea."
"I think that we should at least try to catch a bit of sleep while we're here," Daigo suggested. "I know that it doesn't seem like it'll be easy to rest right now, but... We have to try and take care of ourselves. One of us can stay awake and see if we get any messages from the Chosen Children. We can take turns looking after the chat log to see what response we may or may not get while the other two are sleeping."
"I'll take the first shift. You two look awfully tired, no offense intended," Hiraku offered. "I'll wake you up if I hear anything. In two hours, I'll wake you up for the second shift, Daigo. How does that sound?"
Daigo nodded. "Got it. Maki, you'll take the third shift. I can tell that you have a migraine, and you need as much rest as you can get. I'll get you up when the time is right, but for the time being, we can get our supplies out of your office. I'm glad that we remembered to bring sleeping bags and such in preparation for all of this," he told her.
Maki nodded, walking away from the computer screen. Her feet were shuffling against the ground below, and she could barely keep her eyes open. She hadn't realized that she was so tired until the idea of sleep was proposed, but now, she was going to take advantage of the time that she had been given. She needed to rest sooner rather than later, and when she woke, there would hopefully be news of the Chosen Children finding victory. That was what she was hoping for, at the very least, and all she could do was hold onto that optimism and pray it paid dividends.
Poor Chosen Children. They really can't catch a break, can they?
This chapter is moving us into the second half of the third arc, and if you thought that things were angsty before, know that it's only going to be downhill from here. The cast has a lot to go through before they're going to be ready to come back together, and there's tons of character development that has to be carried out before that point too. I'll just say that these groups were definitely intentional, and they're going to be playing an important part in the plot of this chunk. Where is this going to lead us? That's a little secret of mine, and we'll just have to see where it goes from here.
There's definitely going to be a heavier focus on the Chosen Children of the current generation though as opposed to the past team from here on out. I mean, the current team was always the focus of the story, but they'll be taking up even more screen time from now on. They've got a lot to go through after all, and there's only so much sitting and pacing in an office that the previous team can do, you know? They'll all get their chances to shine when the time is right though; you'll just have to see what that entails.
Anyway, I'm going to leave things off here. The first half of the story has officially been completed, so this is cause for celebration! Next week, we'll continue with the division of the team and see where it brings us from here. Until then, I hope you all enjoyed. Feedback is always appreciated. Have a nice day, everyone!
-Digital