Hey people! I took way longer than I expected to update this one. Also, chapters 4 to 6 from the rewritten version are up already on AO3 and chapter 7 will be posted on Tuesday. The link is in my profile. I suggest you go read the rewritten version because the first chapters are completely different from the original ones in here. I hope you like this new one! Please review!
Chapter 21: The Headquarter
Taichi, Yamato, Sora, Mimi, Takeru and me decided to set out a camp for the night and continue our journey early in the morning. The boys went to grab some wood to make a bonfire and also cook some food.
"Why are they taking so long?" Mimi complained. "I can barely see anything here."
"I'm sure they will return soon. It's been a while since they left." Sora looked up at the sky. "I just hope they haven't gotten lost."
"The Digimon went with them. They could have evolved them to get here fast.
Piyomon suddenly turned towards the forest with a suspicious face.
"What happened?"
"Something's coming."
"A bad Digimon?!"
Sora stood up and Piyomon placed herself in front of her in a protective way. She reached out for D-terminal when the sound got louder. She sighed in relief and a smile appeared on her face when she realized who it belonged to.
"Sora, what are you doing?" Mimi asked alarmed. "What if it attacks us?"
"Relax, Mimi. " Sora said calmly as she sat down. "The boys are back."
A few seconds after she sat down, MetalGarurumon stopped a few meters away from us, alongside WarGreymon. Yamato climbed down his partner with a bunch of wood in his arms. Takeru and Taichi quickly followed him suit.
"You guys took a long time."
"You missed me that much?" Taichi said playfully as he dropped the wood and went to sit beside her.
"I did." Mimi kissed him in the cheek and then laced her hand with his.
"Mimi was also freaking out because she's afraid of the dark."
"Sora!"
"I'm sorry! They had to know." Sora said playfully.
"We need to go through our plan again to make sure it all works out." Yamato said very serious.
"I think it's better if we draw as less attention as possible. We want to get into the Kaiser's headquarter, so we can't count on Hououmon and other flying Digimon."
"And that leaves us with restrict choices. We have two Digimon for six people."
"We'll have to split into two groups then." Taichi said. "Mimi and Hikari can go with me on WarGreymon and MetalGarurumon can take Sora and Takeru. How does that sound?"
"It sounds like a plan." Yamato replied. "There's enough space on MetalGarurumon's back for three people, but what about on WarGreymon?"
"I think we'll have to squeeze a little, but we can do it."
"I'm sorry I can't be much help for you two."
"It's okay, Sora." Yamato said in a reassuring tone and placed his hand on her shoulder. "As you said, we want to draw as less attention as we can. I know how much you want to be a part of this as well, but you'll be jumping in before you know it."
Sora gave him a soft smile and received one from him in return. "You're right. Thank you."
"I'll be ready when the time comes."
"We will." Sora laced her hand with Piyomon.
"For now I think we should try to sleep." Takeru said as he looked at a sleepy Patamon. "It's gonna be a long day tomorrow and we need to have as much energy as we can."
"Takeru's right." I said and then grabbed my D-terminal to see the time. "I know it's still rather early to sleep, but it's just temporary. Hopefully this battle will be over before we know it."
"I think I'm going to stay up for a bit more." Taichi said and squeezed Mimi's hand softly.
"Me too."
"You two don't take too long to go to sleep." I said in a motherly tone.
"Who are you and what did you do to my sister?" Taichi joked. "Don't worry, sister. We won't go too far."
"We trust Mimi to keep you on track." Yamato mocked. "Who knows where you would go if it was someone else?"
The five of us started laughing, much to my brother's anger. He folded his arms and pouted, looking at the other side. "First of all, if I was dating someone else, I wouldn't bring her here. It seems like something you would do, though."
"What are you talking about?" Yamato asked nervously.
"Taichi, let's go. Now!" Mimi began to pull him away before something worse happened.
"You would sneak out to here, so your fans wouldn't catch you making out with a girl."
"Taichi!" Mimi yelled and pulled my brother further away.
"I'm sorry about that." I apologized, feeling very embarrassed. "I don't know what…"
"It's okay, Hikari." Yamato cut me off. "It's not your fault."
I smiled warmly at him and then slipped inside my pink sleeping bag. Tailmon curled up beside my head and soon fell asleep. I felt my eyes falling shut.
"Give in to your sleep." Takeru said beside me and I looked at him. "It's been a crazy day."
"That's true." I used my hand to cover a yawn. "Well, good night."
"Good night." He said softly as he continued stroking Patamon's head. Then he turned his head to Yamato. "Well, I'm going to sleep too."
"Okay… Takeru?"
"Yeah?"
"There's something I need to tell you." Yamato quickly glanced at Sora, who had a confused expression first and then nodded affirmatively. He reached out for her hand before returning his attention to his brother. "Sora and I are dating."
"Oh God, you took the first step! I won't have to do anything anymore."
"What do you mean? Were you planning on bringing us together?"
"You've been pining for Sora for who knows how long, brother? Probably at the beginning of the school year."
"What? I have not."
"Please, I've seen the way you've been looking at her. Both of you, actually. I was beginning to think you'd die without confessing to each other." Takeru laughed. "If you ask me, I think you two are perfect for each other. I'm really happy for both of you."
"Thank you, Takeru." Sora said warmly and squeezed Yamato's hand a little tighter.
"Yeah, it means a lot to us. There's just one thing though."
"What is it?"
"We want it to be a secret for now."
"Yeah." Sora nodded. "We don't know if it will work and we want to be sure of that first."
"Alright., I can keep a secret. But I don't think you should. I mean, I think everyone has a suspicion about you two already and I've even seen Taichi hint at it."
"We know, but as Sora said, we want to see how it goes before. We have a lot of friends in common and the last thing we want is to make things awkward for everyone in case it doesn't work out."
"Typical." Takeru shook his head and let out a soft smile before he looked at his brother. "You guys just started dating and are already thinking it's not going to last. I bet everything I have you'll last for many and many years."
"I hope so." Sora blushed and looked down to hide her smile.
"Me too." Yamato also smiled and then turned to his girlfriend. "By the way, I'm sorry about what Taichi said about me bringing a date here, so my fans wouldn't catch us. I hope you didn't feel offended."
"It's okay, I didn't." She said in a reassuringly tone. "Taichi doesn't know about us after all."
"Yeah." Yamato looked at his brother and rolled his eyes at his expression. "Sora did."
"I knew it!"
"I did what?"
"Takeru was dying to know who had the initiative. Every time he has that look on his face is because he wants to know something he knows he shouldn't ask."
"Oh I see. Yeah, it was me."
"But it doesn't matter, really."
"I agree. What matters is that we are together." Sora said softly. "Now we should really get some rest and focus on what's important here."
"That's true."
The clarity was already bright in the first hours of the morning. We were slowing starting to wake up. Yamato was already up because he was watching the place with Gabumon.
"Good morning, brother." Takeru said happily as he sat down, stroking Patamon's soft fur.
"Good morning. Did you sleep well?"
"I did. I'm fully ready to defeat the Digimon Kaiser."
"That's the spirit." Yamato said proudly.
Soon all of us were already up. We had a quick breakfast and immediately got ready to find the Digimon Kaiser's headquarter. We all gathered around my brother after he opened his D-terminal to talk to Koushiro.
"There's an e-mail from Koushiro." Taichi spoke. "It says here that the headquarter is not too far from here and we should go east. Also, Tentomon and Gomamon are heading there and they'll meet us when we arrive there."
"So we should get going. We don't want to waste anymore time."
"Yeah, the sooner we get there, the better."
"Alright." Taichi accessed the Digimental in his D-terminal and stood up. He looked at Agumon, who gave him a nod. "Digimental Up!"
"Agumon warp-evolve to… WarGreymon!"
Beside Takeru, Yamato was also holding his D-terminal in his hands. He was looking at it intently. "Are you ready, Gabumon?"
"Yes, let's go!"
"Digimental Up!"
"Gabumon warp-evolve to… MetalGarurumon!"
Takeru helped Sora climb on MetalGarurumon's back while me, Mimi and Taichi made ourselves comfortable behind WarGreymon's claws.
"Are you ready to go?" Yamato looked at us and Taichi nodded positively.
Sora held tight on MetalGarurumon and Piyomon when Yamato's partner stormed off through the forest. WarGreymon followed him closely.
Koushiro and Jou were keeping close contact with us from Earth as well as with their partners.
"Koushiro, we are here."
"Great. Taichi and the others are already on their way and should be arriving in about half an hour."
"What should we do now?" Gomamon asked when he appeared in the screen alongside Tentomon.
"For now it's better to wait for them to get there first." Jou looked at Koushiro and received a nod before returning his attention to the computer screen. "The next step is to go inside the headquarter, but it's safer to wait for them to arrive. We can't know the Kaiser's plans, so we might be outnumbered if we go inside it now."
"Got it!"
"But we want you to pay attention to everything around there. Any different thing you see, please inform me right away."
"There you go saying difficult words again."
Koushiro let out a soft laugh at his partner's remark. "It surprises me you still haven't known by now this is a habit to me."
"Yes, I know this. But I hope one day you'll be able to use more common words."
"Tentomon." Koushiro said with a smile.
It took us the estimated time to arrive where Gomamon and Tentomon were and I was glad for that because I was beginning not to feel my legs. When my feet touched the ground, I fell down.
"Hikari, are you alright?" Taichi asked as he knelt down beside me.
"I'm fine." I reassured him with a smile. My legs are a little dormant, that's all."
"We should take a break and have some rest." Sora said. "I'm sure MetalGarurumon and WarGreymon must be exhausted from the long walk."
"I am." MetalGarurumon spoke beside her.
"There doesn't seem to be any water supplies over here." Yamato looked around.
"I have some food left in my bag." Sora put her blue bag down and took a few items out, spreading them around. "You two can have some to restore your energy."
"Sora is always so thoughtful and caring!" Mimi said excitedly. "Any boy that wins her heart is a lucky one for life."
"What are you talking about, Mimi?"
"We should really focus on what we have to do here." Yamato's cheeks were a little pink. "We don't have time to waste."
"Yamato's right. After WarGreymon and MetalGarurumon eat, we'll be getting inside the headquarter."
"Got it."
The six of us, our partners, Tentomon and Gomamon silently walked into the Kaiser's headquarters. It was a very dark place with a lot of machineries. I absentmindedly rubbed my arms as if it was winter. From beside me, Sora did the same.
"Are you two alright?" Takeru asked as he looked at us.
"Yeah, I'm just feeling a little cold." Sora replied. "I don't know why."
"It's the energy." I said and then looked at her. "I believe you are more sensible to evil forces because you were in touch with darkness three years ago."
"That would explain why only the two of you felt it." Mimi spoke. "I mean, you've always been more susceptible to it during our adventure in 99."
"We get it, Mimi." Taichi said rather annoyed.
"I'm sorry." She apologized quickly. "I didn't mean to make anyone upset or angry here."
"It's okay, Mimi." I stated with a soft smile.
"There might be something else about it." Yamato glanced at Sora with concerned eyes. "I got in touch with darkness too and I didn't feel anything here."
"Can we not talk about this and focus on what really matters here?" Taichi desperately tried to change the subject.
I looked at him worriedly. I had no idea he still felt something about this after such a long time. I grabbed his right arm and he immediately looked at me. "Hey, can we talk about this?"
"Not now, Hikari." He replied. "There are more important things we need to do now."
"But…"
"Let him." Takeru said and I looked at him. "He'll talk to you when he's ready."
"I know, but it's been three years."
"Some wounds take years to close." Yamato said, making all of us look at him.
"Brother." Takeru said with worry. He was taken aback with his brother's statement.
"Yamato." Sora gently touched his arm. She looked up at him and immediately felt her shoulders relax and a smile appeared on her lips when he smiled reassuringly at her. They silently nodded at each other and then released her grip from him. Sora pulled a lock of her hair behind her ear as she realized how they had just completely understood each other by their eyes.
"We should focus on the fight ahead." Yamato said as he looked away from Sora.
"I think we can evolve already, so we don't run into unexpected situations."
"That's a great idea, Tentomon." Taichi said and then looked over his shoulder towards us. "Are you all ready?"
"Yes!" We replied at the same time.
As soon as Tailmon super-evolved HolyDramon and the other 3 Digimon reached their mega-levels, we resumed our way to find the Digimon Kaiser. The cold sensation Sora and I had felt disappeared. I felt my body vibrating at the same time the Kaiser came to find us, blocking the way of the Digimon that were on the ground. I was more focused on finding the source of the shaking, but still kept some attention to what was happening below.
"What's wrong?" Takeru asked me.
"You're not feeling this?" I looked at him with a scary expression and then the sound of a wall being crashed got my attention and I screamed at the Digimon in front of us.