Chapter 16: All the Monsters Come Together
Gatomon:
Not for the first time since the switch, the former cat was awakened by the sound of her partner's snoring. In spite of that, it was the first time in 2 months she woke up feeling energized. It was a wonderful omen.
"I'm already half way to getting my body back." She thought.
Having camped out in the Digital World that night, she had remained at rookie level instead of regressing back to a DemiVeemon. That made a world of difference all by itself. She felt like she did in her old body, even if after the loss of her tail ring.
"Nothing like being stuck as an in-training to make you appreciate the power of a rookie."
She remembered how terrible she had felt after losing that ring and dropping down to that childlike weakness... now she was reveling in it. Weakness, it seemed was all relative.
"Good morning to me."
Of course, saying it was morning was something of an exaggeration. The sky was beginning to brighten in the east, but the sun was not yet visible. Still, the full moon in the west provided enough light to see around camp. Looking around, all of the humans were still asleep, as were most of the digimon. The only other person up, she found, was Patamon.
"Good morning to you too." He greeted.
"Oh… thanks. Ugh, you too." Gatomon replied.
He looked over at Kari. From the look on Patamon's face, the former cat could tell her snoring had woken him up too.
"Does she do that every night?" He asked.
"Only since the switch." She answered. "I think Davis's body must have some kind of sinus issue. I'm surprised you're the only other one it woke up."
"It makes sense to me." The other digimon said. "The others don't hear it. You're her partner, so of course you're sleeping closest. Me…" He began flying in place. "I have really big ears."
They both chuckled.
"Seriously, though." He continued. "How do you sleep at night?"
"Honestly… I don't. Not on nights she's like this. We were kind of lucky it didn't happen until so late this time." The sleepless dragon answered. "I think it's why Veemon slept so much during the day."
"That… stinks…" Patamon said.
"Yeah, it does. Hey, don't worry. We're getting my body back now; it's almost over. I…" she paused "I have to thank you for helping with that, especially the other day. Thank you for confronting Veemon back in the human world. I… don't know if the others would have believed us if you didn't."
Gatomon had heard Kari and Matt's conversation about their crushes from the bookbag. Since then, she hadn't been able to help thinking back to it when she saw Patamon. She knew Kari had loved TK for a long time. It was plain, after watching him confront Davis, that she loved the blond now more than ever. After what Pegususmon had done for them, it was a hard feeling for Gatomon not to share, even without being her partner. With it…
"A part of her is in me…"
That was romantic in it's own way... and kind of disturbing as well.
"Don't thank me, it's fine." Patamon answered. "I wouldn't have believed it either without Wizardmon."
"Wizardmon." She thought.
That was the other thing on her mind nowadays. He… Wizardmon… her first best friend, was also the first person she had ever loved. She realized that 4 years and 3 days ago, that day he died saving her from Myotismon. Now, he felt she loved him even more. Even in death, he had still looked out for her.
"...death"
Ever since her first love had died, she had waited for him to return, to be reborn at Primary Village and find her again. 2 years of waiting in the digital world later, and she began searching for him. It was like with her partner before him.
"I was afraid he'd lost his memories when he was reborn… almost like I had forgotten about Kari under Myotismon."
That would have made him next to impossible to find amid the millions of his kind… but it was something she had to try. Even after the war against the Digimon Emperor began and took her from the digital world for most the time, she had planned to resume the search afterward. She had to hope. And now…
"He's gone."
That was the only thing to interpret from what had happened. It was what the group agreed upon. Digimon who died in their own world got to be reborn at Primary Village, but Wizardmon had died on Earth. He would never make it back to Primary Village. He would never be reborn.
She had cried then, when they decided that. It was the first time she had ever experienced the death of a loved one. It might have been the first time any digimon had.
"How can humans live like this?"
It could have been worse… much worse. She had forced herself to hope all these years of searching, because intellectually she had acknowledged that she would not find him again. That did dampen the blow. And of course, the confirmation of that had come with the biggest break she could have asked for toward getting her body back. She had to revel in that.
That revelry however, shamed her. It shamed her to reveal in her friend's demise, a final demise she had never imagined was possible. Even when she knew she would not find him, she still thought he was alive, just beyond her reach. Now she knew better. How could she dare to reveal in that knowledge? And how, in that shame, could she move on? Either from her grief… or from her love?
She stared at Patamon for a fraction of a second. She felt a new love... and a new shame from that.
"I'm sorry, Wizardmon." She thought
She sighed.
"I have a lot to think about."
"Still, thanks." She said aloud.
"You're welcome." Patamon replied.
By now morning was coming in earnest, parts of the sun rising above the horizon. It was something to behold. Hiding out in Davis's old room every morning and evening these last two months, she had not seen the sun rise or set. In her old life, such things had bordered on trivial. Sunsets were easily viewable every day, and consequently sunrises were not worth getting up in time for. Now, in her new life, it was something else to reveal in… and another shame for that revelry.
The brushed it aside. She couldn't let even this basic beauty be taken from her, not right after getting it back. She sat down to watch the dawn.
Patamon landed next to her to join in. "It is pretty, isn't it?" He asked.
"Yes, it is." She answered.
Somehow him joining in made it that much prettier… that much more… romantic. For a second her shame returned…
"ALL RIGHT EVERYONE! LET'S GO!"
With that proclamation, the whole camp was awake. All eyes were on its source, Yolie.
"No time for sleeping in!" She yelled. "Time to go rescue Kari's body. Hoo Ha!"
"Five more minutes, mommy?" Armadillomon murmured. If the excited girl heard him, she gave no indication and began marching in the direction the emperor's base had been heading. None of the other humans were on their feet yet. Neither, for that matter, was her partner digimon.
"And I thought I woke up with energy." Gatomon thought.
Eventually the group caught up with Yolie. When they did, she was waiting impatiently on a beach.
"There you are, Hawkmon!" She exclaimed. "What took you so long?! I need you to armor digivolve now so we can follow the base over the water. Digiarmor Energize!"
"Hawkmon armor digivolve too, Halsemon, the Wings of Love!"
The exited girl practically ran over to her partner to mount him.
"Hurry up and armor up! We have a base to follow."
The boys had barely drawn their D3's by the time she made it.
"Digiarmor Energize!"
"Patamon armor digivolve to Pegususmon, Flying Hope!"
"Armadillomon armor digivolve to, Submarimon the Reliable Guardian of the Sea."
"Veemon armor digivolve to Flamedramon, the Fire of Courage!"
Halsemon was airborne at that point, partner on his back.
"Let's Go!"
And with that she was over the water.
TK and Cody began to mount their digimon as well, but they paused when they looked over at Kari and hers.
"Um..." TK began. "We might have a problem here.
"Yeah." Gatomon sighed. "You guys should go ahead on without us."
"Are you sure?" Cody asked. "We could trade digieggs again and see you can have a form that can fly or swim?"
She looked over at Yolie. It was clear the human had not returned the favor.
"I don't think we have time for that." Gatomon replied. "We kind of lucked out before that Yolie had to stop at the water. You guys should go after her before she gets too far ahead of us. I'm a bit worried she might be herself... hurt."
"Killed" was the first word to come to her mind for the end of that sentence. She dared not say it. Loosing Yolie would be nothing compared to loosing Wizardmon... but it would come with the additional uncertainty of not knowing what would happen to her afterword.
"Humans had stories about being reborn too... Kari believed them... but they also had stories about ghosts. Does Wizardmon's fate mean anyone who dies on Earth becomes a ghost, or is just digimon? Is it ghosts on Earth and rebirth in the Digital World? Does that apply to humans too, if they die here? How does that work? Do they go to Primary Village? As a baby or a digiegg?"
As much as that uncertainy made her worry for the Yolie, it made the former cat pity her as well. Once again, even more deservedly, the thought "How can humans live like this?" crossed her mind. They knew they would die, and yet they did not know what happened next, what would happen to them... forever.
"How do they stay sane?"
She didn't have time to dwell on it.
"Are you okay with staying behind, Kari?"
Her partner nodded. "That's... fine."
She did not look happy about it. Truth be told, she only seemed happy nowadays other people talked with her about getting her body back. She couldn't have appreciated seeming to lose the chance to personally make it happen. For her own part, Gatomon knew she wasn't happy either in this situation... and it got worse as she watched the others depart.
"Now I understand why Veemon envied flight so much..."
As a Flamedramon, her was as power was the same as a Nefertimon's, maybe even greater physically, but as she watched the others disappear over the horizon, she felt was weak a DemiVeemon. She was trapped on this beach, almost like she had been under the bed. She was just as powerless.
She voluntarily regressed back to rookie. Strong as her champion form made her, it was pointless.
"Damnit" She thought.
Her partner seemed to sense her feelings.
"I'm sorry." She said.
"Don't worry about it." Gatomon replied. "It's almost over. The others are getting our bodies back."
"Yeah." Kari almost blushed saying it. "TK is getting my body back, I guess Patamon yours too. Isn't that romantic?"
"Maybe I shouldn't have said that..."
She hesitated to answer her partner's question. This was... another source of her mixed feelings on their current ordeal. Had it come from most anyone else she might have enthusiastically agreed, but with Kari in her current state... their powerlessness could only be worse for her.
There was nothing wrong with accepting help from others... even a crush, but the digmon felt like her partner had just... given up on helping herself, ever since the party. Everything that had happened on Odaiba Memorial Day had made her a lot less gloomy, but she still didn't seem to want to do anything at all anything unless someone else was beckoning her. To say it made the digimon concerned for her was putting it very mildly.
"Would she even want her body back anymore if the others weren't helping?"
The digimon would never forget that day her partner wanted to die. She did not know if that was still in her, but she couldn't take that chance. To lose her... to lose her after losing Wizardmon all over again...
"I'm worthless. You're all better off without me, just like Tai."
For both of their stakes, she could not take any chances. She could not let her partner's self image drop any lower. For more reasons than one, Kari had to aid in getting her own body back.
"Does it count if we go camping with Matt?" she asked herself
Disempowered even more than they were, the former second in command was at least doing as much as everyone else his age. If the other swap victims could no longer pursue the emperor's base, maybe they could at least join in that. It would suck to be a Demi-Veemon again, but it would be worth it if it meant helping her partner. If Tentomon could hide out among the older kids, why couldn't she?
"It won't help." Gatomon decided. "It will make things worse. I can't let her fall any lower, not after all this. She has to stay with this party. She has to stay with the main team." She then looked at the googles still on her head. "And she has to keep those."
"But how?"
Kari was staring at her. She had avoided answering the question to long.
"I... guess so." She said. It seemed noncommittal enough.
The stare changed to a strange mixture of sad and confused.
"Ugh!" Gatomon screamed inside her head. "What do I even say to that?"
She decided the best thing to say would be a plan of action... but try as she might, she couldn't think of one.
"I wish we could have experimented more with the digi-eggs... Yolie! why did you have to run off like that?'
She paced up and down the beach several times. Nothing seemed to come to her as she did. Kari mostly just continued to stare at her while she did.
Eventually the human asked "Are you okay, partner?"
"Ugh!" the digimon thought. "Compared to you, I am."
"I'm fine." She said. "I'm more concerned about you."
"Oh," Kari answered. "Um... I'm fine too."
"I really don't believe that." Gatomon thought.
Awkward silence ensued.
Not knowing how to break it, the former cat just sat down and resumed thinking of a solution in vain. Kari sat down as well, thinking about who knows what. Her partner did not know how long that arrangement continued, but eventually the sun rose high enough in the sky for her to notice its heat.
"It's hot." She realized. Summer sands would do that. Glancing over she saw a palm tree on a small peninsula that poked out into the ocean. She decided that if she would spend more hours thinking in vain, she might as well do it in the shade. Sitting down against the tree, she found it nice as expected.
Kari's attention turned toward her partner. For a while she sat there staring as well, seemingly oblivious to the heat. Then, as the sun drew higher, she eventually decided to come into the shade as well.
"Good to see." Gatomon thought as she came over.
It turned out to be better than that. Neither of them could have seen it coming, but as the depressed girl leaned against the tree with her partner, their combined weight seemed to push the tree back... then, the peninsula broke off from the mainland in the direction the tree leaned, becoming an island... no...
"A boat?"
Both of them stood up in surprise. As was her habit, Kari just keep staring at the disturbance before her, albeit with a look of shock rather than... whatever her default emotion was. Gatomon, enthused by the possibilities pushed the tree in another direction, the one the other digidestined had gone. Sure enough, the island turned and began heading that way. Truly, it was a boat.
"I've been living on Earth too long." The digimon thought. "I forgot how 'weird' this world is."
Humans called her world that, but they didn't realize how useful it could be. This would be a lesson for the others when she and Kari caught up with them. And for her human in particular... she could only hope it was a lesson of another sort.
"You did it Kari!" She said to her. "You were the one that dislodged the tree! We can follow the others now and get our bodies back, all thanks to you!"
"I... didn't mean too..." Her partner mumbled.
"First time I've heard that said for a good thing..." Gatomon thought.
That didn't make it untrue... but it didn't matter either way. The former cat was going to milk this for all it was worth.
"Here's hoping it works."
Veemon:
"Hurry up." Dokugumon barked. "The emperor doesn't have time for me to find you again."
"Um... hurrying." Jun said meekly.
As she came back into view, the spider digimon added "Fall behind like that again and I'll drag you the rest of the way in my web."
Jun obviously stopped herself from screaming then.
"I... please don't."
The Motomiyas' bid to find the Digimon Emperor had been easier than expected, as it turned out they had landed in an area under his control. They barely had to start looking before a digimon with a dark spiral found them, specifically this Dokugumon. Between the fact that they surrendered without a fight and that they claimed to be spies for the emperor, the minion did not bother to restrain them. She seemed to have a limited patience for Jun's antics, however, or the fear that spawned them.
"What is it with humans and spiders?" the new cat asked himself.
One of the first animals the former dragon had ever seen was a spider that got into Davis's old room, not long after he first met him. It was fascinating. He had never seen anything that tiny before, and he hadn't seen anything else with that many legs until today, even in the Digital World.
"If only I could have counted them then!"
It still was one of the most unique things he'd ever seen, something he had not thought was possible. Veemon had been exited to report it to his partner... and very surprised when Davis instantly killed it. He still didn't fully understand why.
Regardless of the cause, the effect had been a very defined marching order today. Dokugumon guided them in front, followed by Veemon, then Davis, then, far behind and at the edge of eyesight, Jun. For a human who feared digimon in general, a giant spider in particular ought to be horrifying, and it plainly was to her. The new cat had never heard blood curdling screams quite like the ones Jun made when the minion first found them...
"God! Oh god! Oh gods! Veemon! Veemon kill it! Veemon please kill it!"
It didn't help their case to be on the same side, to say the least...
"At least we got her to apologize..."
Even now, the romantic wanted as much space between herself and their guide as possible... much more than was practical, in fact. In the dense jungle they were in it was easy to fall out of sight, which she had already done twice. The spider was more than a bit annoyed to have had to go back and find her. Every now and again she turned around to make sure Jun was still in eye sight and glared at her while she did. Every time that happened, Jun would glance over at Veemon, silently begging for his support. At first, he had ignored her... but now, as she did so again, he had to nod and mouth "It's okay." That seemed to calm her a bit. He had even told the truth. There was a reason he was between the humans and Dokugumon. He did not fear the other digimon, but he did not trust her either. The emperor's minions could never be trusted. If this one really did try to make good on her threat to drag the human in her web, he would not allow it.
"Thanks." The former girl mouthed back. The current one nodded in response.
Jun... Veemon did not know what to call her. Family? …Maybe? Davis had told him that marriage made your partner's siblings yours as well; did that apply to digidestined partnerships? Even if it didn't, something of that partnership existed between them now too. If only once, if only for a day, Veemon and Jun had been partners, that day following her botched date. She had even digivolved him then. With that, a part of her was in him, and a part of him in her. It did not compare to what had been exchanged between him and Davis, as many times as they'd done it, but it was there. The former dragon could never escape that, and despite how much as Jun seemed to want to, she could not either.
"Not that she makes it easy."
The former girl's fear of digimon had seemed mostly gone since her first trip to the Digital World. Now, on her second trip, it seemed to be back with a vengeance. Before Dokugumon had shown up it was plainly even directed at Veemon. Now at least she saw him as the lesser of two evils. That was technically an improvement... not that it was exactly flattering. Still, he had no regrets.
"Hit my partner again and you'll have reason to fear me."
Hadn't some book in one of Davis's classes said it was better to be feared than loved?
"Maybe... which book was that? I can't quite remember." He thought "Was it in his class? ...I guess it had to be, where else would I have heard it? ...weird."
He sighed.
Of course, there was a pragmatic bond between them as well. They needed each other. That was obvious now more than ever with the new cat standing between the panicking human and Dokugumon. She needed his power to survive in this world. He wouldn't admit it, but he knew he needed her mind as well. Without it, his partner would still be lost in the Dark Ocean.
"That's assuming Davis had chosen to stay Kari at all! If Jun hadn't taken Matt's body, I'd be back in my old one by now."
He shuttered at the thought.
That was getting a reprisal now. Going to the Digimon Emperor had been Jun's idea. Without it, they'd still be starving in the cave, assuming Davis hadn't given up and given Kari her body back. That thought horrified him even more.
"Another reason to be glad for Jun and her ideas."
Of course… one of those ideas was that Matt would come to love her after she stole his body, and that Kari and her partner would do the same for Davis and him. That was madness. If the situation had been reversed and Gatomon had stolen all this freedom and power from him, the former DemiVeemon knew he would never forgive her. That was even if he were still the one with unrequited romantic feelings for her and not the other way around.
When the former dragon remembered that, his own fears bean to boil up. If this failed…
"It won't fail." Veemon told himself. He glanced over at his partner. "Thank you for showing me that."
The digimon was glad to have humans on his side who understood how sibling relationships worked. If Davis knew Tai would come around and accept him as his brother, and he supposed TK would Jun by extension, who was Veemon to doubt it? As far as he could tell, the closest thing that any digimon ever had known to a such a sibling bond was his own with Jun, and he did not understand that bond either, let alone if was close enough to truly compare.
"Nothing to worry about." He thought.
Davis was the leader of the junior digidestined before he switched with Kari. Now he was the leader of this group of body thieves. He'd won victory after victory in the former role. He could only win more in his new.
"And yet… I can't stop worrying."
The sight of his partner rolling around in the muck, laughing like a lunatic… Veemon did not think he would ever forget it. Could he trust Davis's judgment now?
"What was in that email?" His partner had never let him see it.
It didn't matter. This would work. It was the only thing he could allow himself to think. Anything else made him feel like following in his human's footsteps and making his own laughing roll. This plan… he could not think of any other way Jun or Davis would be able to keep their new bodies. And if Davis was forced back into his old body… he would be forced to be a DemiVeemon again.
"I think I would rather die."
Of course, there was technically one other option at that point.
"Maybe you can."
That is what Davis had pointed out. Even if his humans could not escape the others… he could. The former DemiVeemon knew more numbers now than he had in his old body, but he still did not know one big enough to count all of the Gatomon that must be in the Digital World. All he had to do was paint his tail ring yellow, and he could disappear among them. No one would ever be able to find him then. No one could make him give back the body he deserved.
"Expect then I really think I would rather die."
He could not imagine going through with it. That same image that made him doubt his partner's plan, it made him certain that plan had to work more than anything else. How could he abandon him now, after what he had seen? He had to protect him, now more than ever. He had to protect him: from the other digidestined, from Jun, from the Digimon Emperor, and even from himself.
"I'll figure out what that means as I go."
Eventually, the jungle gave way to cliff overlooking water. Dokugumon stopped them there.
"This is as far as I can take you." She said. "You'll have to fly the rest of the way."
"Fly?" Davis asked "Where?"
The spider raised one of its legs and pointed. "There. That is my master's base."
Looking that direction, Veemon could barely see... something, floating in the distance.
"Are you saying the emperor's base is flying in the air?" The former boy questioned.
"In this crazy world, I wouldn't doubt it." Jun answered for their escort.
"Let's just go there, then." Davis said, apparently convinced. "Digiarmor Energize!"
He had D3 and D-Terminal drawn, but nothing happened.
"Huh? Why didn't that work? ...Let's try it again. Digiarmor Energize!"
Again, nothing happened.
"No way!" Veemon cried "Why can't I armor digivolve?"
"Do you think the emperor found a way to suppress armor digivolution too?" His human asked.
That would... not be good to say the least. Could Ken be stopped at all at that point?
"If he can't, no one can make you give up this body."
That thought was disturbing... but in it's way... kind of comforting.
"No," Dokugumon put in "unfortunately, my master has yet to find a way to circumvent your cheating armor. The problem here is on your end."
"Can I really not armor digivolve?"
The though was more than a bit disheartening to the power loving digimon... strangely, however, it wasn't as much so as he might have thought. He hated to lose the power of flight, as much as a dream as it had been as a dragonspawn, but that really the only advantage the Nefertimon form had over Gatomon's. The power of a champion was, by and large, the power of a champion. If anything, his current form seemed even more physically powerful than the other, as if to balance its lack of flight. Even without that power, the climbing ability of a Gatomon still gave him far more literal upward mobility than he'd ever known in his old body...
"It still doesn't measure up... though."
If all Veemon cared about was power Flamedramon would have been his favorite form. What he cared most about was freedom. Kari's literature class had said flight was often symbolic of freedom in fiction. Having experienced it for himself he knew why. It was the most literal expression of freedom possible, freedom from what they'd called the laws of gravity. To never experience that again...
That train of thought was interrupted when he noticed a stare from Jun... it was directed straight at his tail.
"Your ring," she began. "Didn't you tell me it gave you the power of a... what did you call it? A champion? Isn't that Nefertimon's power too?"
"Yes, what would that have to do with..." Veemon trailed off. It occurred to him as he said it. "Are you saying I can't have both at the same time?"
"That would make sense, actually." Davis agreed.
The former dragon brought his tail to his eyes, looking straight at the ring.
"Why would you betray me like that?"
"Do you mind if I take the ring off, just for the flight?" Davis asked, reaching for his tail. "I can put it back on when we get to the base."
He instantly drew back this tail and cradled it behind his arms. A scream of the word "No!" was forming on his lips… he stopped himself from saying it, however.
He sighed. Decrading the ring he said "I'm sorry.". He knew that was not reasonable. One nod of his head latter and the ring was off.
The former dragon instantly regretted the decision. He had had the full power of a champion for weeks now continuously. Now, in a fraction of a second, he fell to the weakness of a rookie.
"Oh gods! I'm a Veemon again!"
Jun was looking at him with a concerned glance. Could she see how horrified he was?
"Digiarmor Energize!"
"Veemon armor digivolve to Nefertimon, the Angel of Light!"
The dread was gone as instantly as it had came, a moment of ecstasy taking its place. Veemon immediately lifted off the ground and flew around in a circle.
"Freedom, once again."
It had been a while since he had flown, and after the fear of losing it...
"Uh, you okay partner?" Davis asked.
"Oh, sorry."
Snapping back to reality, the sphinx landed and beckoned the humans to climb aboard.
"Let's get going."
The former boy did not need to be asked twice. Jun on the other hand... was shaking.
"She really has regressed, hasn't she."
He could tell she was afraid to fly on his back, even though she had done it already the day they were partners. He was about to say something when the former girl took a deep breath and said "I'm sorry." She climbed on his back as well.
"Okay, we haven't lost all progress, good to know." Veemon thought.
"Ugh, move over, you're in my spot." Davis complained. Veemon could feel little space left once both humans were on it.
"You move over! I'm bigger." Jun barked back.
"No, you're in my spot and you're on my digimon." Turning his head back, their mount could barely see Davis's face. It was looking right back as his with an... interesting grin. "Isn't that right, partner?"
The former dragon could not see Jun well, but he could feel her tense up on his back.
"I... I..." she muttered.
"She's right, Davis." He said. "Scoot over; if you take up that much space Jun is likely to fall off."
He could feel the former girl's tension dissipate.
"Ugh! fine." Her brother bawked. He slid forward, and his sister followed suit."
"I... Veemon, thank you." She said.
"Don't mention it."
As much trouble as Jun gave him, he still couldn't show Davis that much favoritism, even if he was his partner.
"And who knows, maybe we'll get some of that lost progress back." he thought.
With that done, he lifted off. He did notice the extra weight Matt's body provided, but only barely. To the strength of champion digimon, what was one more human? If space on his back weren't so scarce it wasn't hard for him to imagine carrying the whole digidestined team. He reveled in that as he flew.
TK
"UGH!" Yolie screamed in frustration. "How come Submarimon is the only one that can swim!?"
She and TK had been circling over the ocean for close to an hour now. The emperor's base, it seemed, could fly through water as well as air. The Christian was reminded of her earlier assertion that it was underground.
"Hey, if it can fly and swim, burrowing is all that's left." He joked to himself. "It can't do that... right?"
He decided he's cross that bridge if he came to it. Either way, their target was currently as inaccessible to their airborne digimon underwater as it would have been underground. That meant it was Cody's time to shine. Armadillomon and his partner were inside the base, having infiltrated through a cave that, in the water, functioned as a dock. The youngest boy had confirmed as much via e-mail with his D-Terminal. He also confirmed that he had found a prison complex with captive digimon and was working to break them out. That was great news, though even TK had to admit he was vaguely disappointed not to be in there freeing them too. Yolie, in her current state, could only be taking it that much worse.
As if on cue, she demanded "Come on Halsemon! We're going swimming." She moved her hands as if to pull up on reigns. Fortunately, there were no reigns attached to her partner, and he was smarter than a horse.
"No offense, Pegususmon." TK thought.
"What? I... you know I can't swim." Halsemon complained. "I'm a bird, not a fish."
"So? I'm not a fish either and I can swim!"
"Not... not like Submarimon. You don't know how deep it is, and we can't breath water."
"We don't know until we try!" His human responded, ignoring the second part.
TK would have intervened on the digimon's behath, but an observation by his own partner interrupted.
"What is that?" The pegusus interjected.
The group turned to look in the direction he was facing. Sure enough, something... odd was happening on the surface there. A whirlpool that had not been there minutes before was quickly forming.
"All right!" Yolie yelled, not phased by the strangeness of it. "Now you don't have any excuse! Come on partner, we're flying down there!"
Said partner sighed. As if to appease her, the gryphon flew down into the whirlpool. As if to further appease her, he gained speed while while he did.
"You think they'll find anything?" Pegususmon asked?
"I doubt it." TK said. "But we'd better go after them anyway. She might need help out if that vortex closes as quickly as it appeared."
The winged horse nodded. At that point Halsemon was already beginning to enter the top of the whirlpool. They had to hurry to catch up. This made things awkward as they reached the entrance themselves. Despite rushing down as before, Yolie and her partner instead came flying back up with speed that made their original decent look snail-like. It was faster than TK could react too, in fact. Fortunately, the digimon he was riding put his human reaction speed to shame and was able to dodge. They heard a blood curdling scream as they passed.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!"
Pegusumon veered up after them. Eventually he caught up to them as Halsemon struggled to gain further altitude.
"What happened down there!?" TK called out.
Neither Yolie nor her partner answered at first. The digimon regained composure a moment later, knocked back to his senses as he was forced to stabilize his flight.
"I..." He said... "Let's not go back there. I don't know how to begin to describe that whirlpool."
"That's... ominous."
The blond looked down at the vortex. At first it didn't seem that unnerving to him, just another whirlpool, albeit with an usually dark interior, but as he stared into that darkness... a feeling of unease he could not quite explain came over him. It almost felt as if the darkness was staring back at him.
"Let's not go back there indeed." He thought.
He did not have long to dwell on that thought, however. As the group descended to a more manageable height, they saw the emperor's base pass through the wall of the evil vortex, now flying within it.
"Maybe we should go back there after all?" Pegususmon asked.
His partner looked over at the other pair. It was plain neither of them appreciated the idea.
TK looked back down at the base. He could see the cave Cody used, now exposed to the air.
"We can board it now." He thought.
Looking back over at Yolie, the girl was looking were he had been. As she turned to lock eyes with him, it was clear she had drawn the same conclusion. It was also clear she was horrified by it.
"I..." She whined meekly "Do we really have too?"
This was… really not a good sign.
"How bad is it down there?" the blond asked himself.
As recklessly determined as she was to go after the base before, he struggled to imagine how terrifying it had to be to reduce her to this.
"It doesn't matter." He quickly decided. Turning thoughts to words, he said "Yes, we have to, for Kari."
He was her knight. How could he do otherwise?
"And if I'm the knight in this story, the emperor is plainly the dark lord." He looked down at the whirlpool again. "And that looks exactly like a place the villain would find new dark powers."
Yolie took a took a deep, stuttering breath, but she nodded. With that consent, her partner began descending toward the base. His own followed. In spite of everything she had done before, he was proud of her.
"Good job, Yolie."
It reminded him of Tai, that day four years ago when he first activated his crest. He had gone from a reckless charge through the electric fence, to freezing in fear it would kill him, to charging again anyway to rescue Sora. That was the true meaning of courage.
And of course, TK had his own Sora to help out.
"If we can capture Davis and Jun, we can make them switch back." He thought. "If we capture the emperor, we can save the Digital World while we're at it." That goal was not forgotten, even with the new one of reclaiming Kari's and Matt's bodies, in fact it accented it.
"And even if we can't. I still think I can help…"
Then they entered the whirlpool, and TK instantly began to understand Yolie's reaction.
"How much colder did it just get?"
It was like going from a summer's day to a winter's night in one second, and not just in temperature. Looking up, the blond could see still see the sun, but looking forward it was as dark as if the sun were not there. He angled his head down toward the base and could see light it emitted... but somehow it seemed to get darker still, darker than seemed possible. It was as if the darkness itself was replacing the light, rather than the other way around.
"What does it look like if I look straight down then?"
Curiosity getting the better of him, he began to turn his down.
"DON'T LOOK DOWN!" Yolie and her partner screamed in unison. Recalling their horror, he decided to comply.
Despite its relative calm, even looking forward her was... disheartening to say the least. He didn't know how to describe what he saw. He had seen ghosts in movies; the other day he had seen one in real life too, but what he saw now… if the darkness was darker than night, they had to be what ghosts were afraid of. They didn't look that scary... but they didn't exactly "look" at all. He felt them as much as he saw them. It felt like they could "see" him too.
He quickly looked back up and saw Yolie. "Just ignore them." She said. "I... think, they just want to scare us..." Her partner nodded emphatically.
TK did not need to be told twice. He followed her eyes to the cave. He ignored the ghosts. He ignored the bottom of the whirlpool, seemingly drawing his eyes. The cave was the only thing he could allow himself to look at.
Then they were inside the base. The digidestined still could not see any sunlight coming in from the outside, but the lights inside still seemed to work. They were out of the woods.
He breathed a mental sigh of relief. Looking over, he saw the other digidestined and her partner do it physically.
"That wasn't… so bad… this time." She said.
"Please never make to plunge down there at full speed again." Hawkmon asked.
"Happily." His human replied.
The digimon regressed to their rookie forms and the team marched off in the direction Cody had indicated. It didn't take long for them to reach the cell block. Digmon was busy drilling away at the bars of a cage.
"Good to see you guys here." Cody said. "I take it you guys flew in though the whirlpool?"
"Ugh…" Yolie stuttered for a moment, clearly still unnevered by what said flying entailed.
"At least she's over the bravado." TK thought.
"Of course we did!" She then blurted out "You didn't think the whirlpool was scary, did you? Ho ha! Let's go nag Kari's body!"
"Or maybe not..."
"I think we're better off evacuating these prisoners first." Cody responded. "Do you think you can help?"
"I bet I can as Shurimon." Hawkmon answered. "Would you mind armor digivolving me."
His partner nodded. "Digi-armor energize!"
"Hawkmon armor digivolve to, Shurimon the Samurai of Sincerity."
"Double Star!"
He began cutting away at the bars, rotating his shuriken like a buzz saw.
"Clever." TK thought.
Yolie sighed. "We still need to scout out this place." She said. "TK, you should go on ahead while we bust out the digimon."
"She's at least thinking now." TK thought. "Agreed." He said truthfully.
Following the nearest hallway toward the center of the base, the Christian eventually reached an intersection. All directions were labeled by signs: forward was "Engine Room" back was "Cell Block A", left "Storage B" and right "Camera Room"
"Now that's interesting." He thought.
The choice of which way to go was obvious. Cody had already reported on the engine room, and TK had personally seen the cells. Storage was new, and very tempting, but the camera room... not only was it new as well, it might just let him do all of the scouting in one spot.
"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" Patamon asked.
"I think so."
The camera room was the first they'd seen with a locked door... and not a very secure one, just a normal wooden door with a key lock. TK got the impression it had just been added, haphazardly. Either way, it was convenient. Unlike with the hardier cages meant to contain digimon, it only took one "Boom Bubble" from his partner to break this door open. Once inside, they saw security feeds for, if not all of the rooms in the base, certainly a lot of them, each conveniently labeled. There was also a control panel for the cameras making the feeds. Amazingly, they were the only people in the room.
"Jackpot"
"You said it." Patamon replied.
They began surveying the screens and labels. Most of the feeds showed similarly unoccupied rooms, though a few cell blocks held digimon without dark rings or spirals. A few "barracks", distinguishable from the cells only by a lack of chrome digizoid bars, held digimon with them. The only other room that seemed to be occupied was the "Forward Hanger" where the emperor stood sending out some Mechanarimon.
"Darn," Patamon whined. "It doesn't look like Veemon or the others are here."
That was true as far as TK could see too. The only feeds containing humans were the hangar and cell block, nor were any Veemon turned Gatomon in sight. The body thieves were not here.
"Where else would they be? Hiding out in a cave?" the blond thought.
"They aren't here yet." He said. "Look at those."
He saw two adjacent feeds labeled "Guest Room A" and "Guest Room B". They were plainly modeled after fancy hotel rooms, even having walk-in closets and bathrooms connected.
"Think that's for them?" Patamon asked.
"They don't look like they're meant for digimon slaves, that's for sure." TK replied. "Though, speaking of which, I wonder what's planned for Veemon."
"Hopefully a dark ring and a stay in the barracks." Patamon spat.
For a second, the human was surprised to hear the digimon be the one to say that, but only for a second.
"It's not like he doesn't deserve it." He thought.
If Veemon was willing to work for the emperor, he was effectively selling out all of digikind into slavery for his new body. What else would he deserve to but to share in that fate?
"Would Davis be okay with that?" He asked himself. At first the thought of a digidestined, even Davis, betraying his partner like that was unthinkable... but on the other hand, it's not like he hadn't betrayed the girl he supposedly loved already. A healthy partnership, in one form or another, didn't seem to be in him.
"True." TK agreed. "If there's one digimon that needs it, it's him."
"It's still a shame we can't catch them now, though…" Patamon lamented. "Do you think we can intercept them on the way in?"
"Maybe." The Christian said. "We can try that with the others after they break the rest of the digimon out. In the meantime, why don't you keep an eye on the emperor while I see what's in storage."
His partner nodded and turned his gaze to the Forward Hanger feed. TK then turned his attention to that of Storage B. He could almost hear his mother's voice telling him to examine Storage A's first, but given knew how to get to B… well…
"If I don't find any rings in B I'll check A."
Obviously, he wanted to secure Kari's and Matt's bodies more than anything else in this base, sans possibly the emperor. Baring those, however, the next thing on the priority list was another pair of body switching rings. Even if he couldn't return the swap vicitims to their own bodies with that alone, he couldn't help but think of other ways to help his crush and brother with them, most notably giving them a chance to switch with each other. He had to imagine Matt would rather be Davis and Kari be Jun than their current arrangement. Even though that still wouldn't put them in the right bodies, they'd at least be the right genders.
"Sorry Gatomon." He thought. He as not ashamed to help his crush and brother before her, but he didn't see a better option for the former cat without capturing Veemon...
Looking over the B feed… all he saw was broken machine parts. A's feed was similarly disappointing.
"I'm sorry, Matt. I'm sorry, Kari." He thought. He also could not shake off a though more along the lines of "I'm sorry, me." He did want to help the others… but as little as he wanted to admit it, the Christian knew he had also had a selfish motive for wanting to make his crush a girl again…
Brushing that thought aside, his next was "Is there a Storage C?"
If there was it, its feed was not next to A's or B's. He was about to look for one elsewhere when the control panel caught his attention.
"I wonder…"
It didn't take long for him to figure out how to adjust the security cameras.
"Let's see where that gets us."
Moving B's camera, the first new thing was a TV, as far as he could tell one of the ones they used to open a portal back to the Real World from the Digital World. That alone wasn't interesting, but there was also something peculiar wired up to the TV.
"Is that a VCR?" He asked himself. "weird..."
He might have reflected on it more, but, as luck would have it, the camera's moving revealed, a shelf right next to the VCR, exactly what he was looking for. A pair of small dark rings with emerald gems sat there in a bin labeled "Dark Rings of Exchange".
"Perfect!" He thought! "Matt! Kari! I did it!"
"Partner, look at th-"
He turned to tell Patamon the news, but he stopped mid-word when he saw the yellow digimon frozen in horror.
"What are-"
Following his partner's eyes, TK saw the source of his horror, a horror he now shared. The feed he had been watching was not he hanger's anymore, but from outside the base. The emperor was there, apparently having flown out inside one of the Mecharimon... and also in that feed was the monster that had haunted their nightmares.
"Devimon"
The Digimon Emperor seemed not to share in such horror. At most he paused for a moment and looked around. Then he began scanning the devil, sucking him up bit by bit.
"So… that is what he came here for…" The Christian thought "How dare he!"
The blond digidestined did not know what the emperor planned to do with that data… he could not know, but he knew it had to be a nightmare all on its own. It felt like dragging The Devil up out of Hell. Given where they were… it almost was. The monster than had killed his partner, one way or another, was coming back into the world.
He clinched his fist.
"That son of a bitch! I'll make him pay!"
He began storming out. Marching off toward the front of the base, he would teach the emperor a lesson he wouldn't soon forget. The tyrant would suffer releasing this monster again.
He turned back to beckon his partner. "Patamon! Let's-"
Once more he stopped mid-sentence, distracted by the look on his digimon's face. The yellow flyer was not looking at the screen with Devimon anymore. Instead, he was transfixed on the same feed TK had been before: that of Storage B, that of the rings he had found.
"TK, look at those!" He said. The sound was… almost joyous?
"I know; I found them before." He responded. "They can come latter. We need to knock some sense into the Digimon Emperor."
"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Patamon asked. "He at least has a troop of Mechanarimon with him. I don't know that we can take them on our own. We should at least wait for the others if we're doing that."
"The others are busy. Let's hit the emperor now!"
His partner glanced back at the screen.
"I think we might be better off being busy then. If we had those rings, couldn't we help... well, at least Matt, maybe Gatomon or Kari too."
Had his partner been thinking along the same lines as him? It didn't matter.
"But what about the emperor? Didn't you see him upload Devi... mon..."
He stuttered as he said the last word, not from fear or anger, but form realization.
"Patamon's the one that got killed, not me. Why am I the gung ho one?"
It was... more than a bit shameful. He was about to give up his best chance to help Matt and Kari... for what? Revenge? That wasn't righteous... and it even seemed petty now.
"Some knight I am..."
"Patamon, you're right. I'm sorry." He said. "Thank you."
"I'm sorry, Kari." He thought.
"It's okay." The digimon said. "Whatever the emperor is doing... I don't like it either." He shivered. "I'm not saying we do nothing about it, but we beet Devimon before and we can do it again. Let's not be to hasty."
TK nodded. The devil would get his dues yet again. And the emperor...
"If he wants to deal with a devil... that will have its own punishment."
"Let the devils fight among themselves." He said. "Let's go help the others."
"I couldn't have said it better."
Yolie
"It looks like we're leaving the whirlpool." Cody observed.
Looking out through the window, the bespectacled girl could see that as well. For the first time since her arrival, sunlight was coming in.
"Oh gods yes!" Yolie blurted out. The thought of having leave through that vortex… after what she had seen coming in…
"I didn't think you believed in gods?" Shurimon questioned.
She did not. That made for yet another source of embarrassment… she had to make up for it.
"I have to be strong. I have to defeat the Digimon Emperor. I have to save Kari. We have to do it now!"
She had been telling herself that for two days now, ever since the group first discovered the emperor's base. For a time, after she saw the bottom of the Dark Whirlpool… she felt she couldn't. Now she felt she had be strong more than ever.
"I don't need gods." She said. "And neither do these digimon when they have us!"
"That will make up for it, right?"
Cody just rolled his eyes. The encaged digimon just remained silent.
"They clearly aren't buying it."
Yolie ran with it anyway.
"I have too." She thought. "After what I've done I have too."
The silence was quickly broken by the sound of a cell door falling open. The sight of its prisoners running off followed.
"Only a couple more cages to go!" Digmon exclaimed.
"We're almost done!" Yolie added. "Soon we can get back to saving Kari!"
"Kari's in trouble?" On of the remaining captives gasped. "What happened?"
Cody sighed. She had said to much…
"How do I explain that?" Yolie asked herself.
Tai's account of Agumon suggested even digimon who hadn't seen what they had wouldn't believe in body swapping. The Digital World was weird… but even here this was out there.
"They are the emperor's prisoners. Maybe they've seen him use the rings?" She thought. "We know he invented them…"
"Um…" She was about to try to pry on that front when she was interrupted.
"Wait!" Another digimon said. "Isn't that her up there?"
Everyone's eyes turned up toward the window again. There they saw, circling above the base, Kari and Matt on Nefertimon, or as she knew, Jun and Davis on Veemon.
"There they are."
Suddenly, nothing else mattered. Resolve filled her like it never had before.
"Shurimon, come on!" She yelled, turning back the way they had come. "We're retaking Kari's body!"
The bespectacled girl did not wait for response, immediately marching back the way they had come. She was sure the ignorant digimon were even more confused by her comment, but she did not care. Davis would have to come inside the same way they had, and she would cut him off.
Then she heard Cody's voice. "Yolie!"
"What?" Her voice was almost venomous as she turned around to look back at him. She knew it would have to be the small boy doubting her like he had been all day. And yet, his response was "Go get him. I'll catch up with you when I finish up here."
"Thanks."
Her partner departed with her. Before long they made it to the entrance. A bunch of digimon were huddled there, though less than the human remembered from the cages.
"There's no way out!" an Elecmon exclaimed. "Everyone who could fly or swim left, but we're stuck here!"
Yolie ignored that.
"Where is Davis?! …I mean Kari! One of you had to see her land here!"
"I'm the first one to get here, and I didn't see Kari." A Floramon said. "Is she coming!? Awesome! Can she give us a ride down on Nefertimon?"
"Can't you do that too?" the Elecmon from earlier asked.
"Yeah, doesn't your partner have a flying form? Halsemon, right?"
"That's right, he does." Yolie answered, though not to point intended. "Shurimon, you need to regress down to Rookie so I can armor digivole you and we can go after Davis! He must still be looking for the cave if he hasn't landed in it yet."
"You want to go after him in the air?" The ninja questioned. "I… don't think dog fighting him is a good idea; we might really hurt Kari's body. Let's at least wait for him to land here. Maybe Cody and Digmon will catch up by then and it won't even be one on one anymore."
"We don't have time to wait for Cody!" his human almost screamed.
"Wait… you wanna fight Davis?" Elecmon asked. "Why? Isn't he one of you?"
"How would he get here anyway?" Another digimon asked. "Flamedramon can't fly."
"Erm… I mean Kari too." Shurimon replied. "She… um… turned evil."
"What!? No way. Kari can't be evil. She's Kari."
"Yeah! She's perfect" It was a Numemon that said this. "She's a queen! Out of all the digidestined, how could she be the one to go bad?"
"Explaining this alone will take too much time!" Yolie blurted out "You know they're not gonna believe us anyway. I'm going after Davis, and I'm doing it now!"
She then stepped up to the edge,
"With or without you."
And jumped off.
"Yolie!"
As expected, her partner came leaping out after her.
"Perfect." She thought. His hand had been forced. No need to waste time convincing him, let alone the other digimon.
Withing seconds, Shurimon had regressed to Hawkmon and flew the rest of the way down to her.
"Yolie! What are you thinking!?"
She was thinking "Davis is as good as captured." She said. "Digi armour energize!"
"Hawkmon armor digivolve too Halsemon, the Wings of Love!"
Yolie grabbed onto her partner, and then he began pulling up, turning their falling into flight. For a second, the human was scared, but just before they would have hit the water, the gryphon was flying horizontally. It was all the vindication she needed. If anything, she was only upset that she had feared even that.
"After that whirlpool, nothing should scare me anymore."
All of weakness she had felt there, was replaced with strength.
Of course… she was still holding onto her partner for dear life.
"Eh, details."
It didn't take her long to straighten herself out in a sitting position anyway.
"Partner! Are you okay?" Her mount beckoned.
"Perfect." She looked up. "Let's go get him."
Sure enough, the body thieves were above them, and seeming to head their way.
"If they hadn't seen the cave before, they ought to at least be looking this way now." Yolie thought. Her stunt was planed, albeit spur of the moment, to attract his attention. "Just Halsemon's digivolution by itself would be hard to miss, let alone everything else."
Her gryphon pulled up again to meet the thieves. It wasn't long before the two parities were in plain view of each other, and in earshot as well.
"And they said I was reckless." Davis blurted out.
"Shut up pervert!" Yolie spat back. "Give Kari her body back!"
The thief was probably about to make some snide remark when his accuser added. "And you are the reckless one!"
"Is that why you voted me for leader?" He spat back. "Heck, you didn't just vote for me. The whole election was your idea. You were the one that told me I should lead. What was it you said when I won, 'You go goggle girl!'?"
That… was last last thing Yolie wanted to hear.
"Shut up!" She spat back. "I didn't do that for you; I did it for Kari."
Davis laughed at that. Eventually he added. "Come on Yolie, I know you're smarter than that. When do you think we switched? You always wanted me as leader. Even if you didn't know who I was. Kari was the one you lost faith in."
And that was why she didn't want to hear it.
"Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!" She screamed back. "Halsemon, shoot them down!"
"Red Eye!"
As ordered, the gryphon shot his attack. The thief digimon dodged, as if not bothered, but the humans mounted on him….
"AAAAAAAAGGHHH!"
Jun very nearly fell off as her mount jerked.
"Veemon! Don't do that!" She screamed.
"If I don't they'll knock us out of the sky!" He protested.
With that rebuke she redirected her cries. "You… Yolie stop! Make your monster stop! Make it stop before it kills me!"
"Do you intend to give Matt back his body?"
"No! We're married!"
"Halsemon keep up the attack!"
"Red Eye!"
Veemon dodged this attack as easily as the last one, but the humans on his back jerked just as much. This time it was Davis that nearly avoided a fall. Jun was still the one to talk back.
"I… I thought you were my friend! I thought you were just like Monoe!"
"Don't you dare bring my sister into this you pervert! Besides, you're as bad as your disgusting brother!"
"Veemon! You have to counter attack!" Said brother injected.
"Cat's Eye Beam!"
The gryphon dodged his attack as easily as the reverse… or maybe more easily. Yolie had to tighten her grip to stay steady, but she did not think she'd jerked quite as the human thieves had. It seemed like her partner's attacks had been nearer misses too.
"Halsemon is only burdened with one person." She realized. "He can move quicker, and I have more room to hang on."
A think grin covered her face.
"Halsemon! We've got 'em!"
"Tempest Wing!"
Once again the thieves' maneuver of narrowly dodging and hanging on held.
"Rossetta Stone!"
Yolie essentially laid down on her stomach and grabbed her partner with both her arms and legs. He took off like he'd dared not before and dodged the attack by a county mile. The game was tipping even more in their favor.
"Tempest Wing!"
Veemon seemed to be having the same realization as she was. He gave up on dodging, instead angling himself to put his stolen body completely between the attack and his cohorts. He accepted the hit and began pulling up.
"Veemon are you okay!?" Jun screamed.
"It's fine. I'm going to try to land on top the base. I don't think we can get in yet, but at least you guys can dismount."
"They're retreating already!" Yolie thought.
"Tempest Wing!"
Veemon ate another attack as he flew up the side of the base. It rocked the humans on top of him too, but not as much as his dodging.
"Hold on tight!" He cried.
Jun did not need to be told twice. Despite having less room to do so, the other girl did not think she'd ever seen a human hold onto a digimon quite like she did then.
"Tempest Wing!"
With that hit the sphinx seemed to stop flying. For a second he was falling toward the sea… but only for a second. He lunged upward in one final boost, finally arching over the top of the base.
"Tempest Wing!"
Only for one final attack to knock him down for good. He crashed onto the roof, the humans spilling off onto it ahead of him. He regressed down to a Gatomon, and the Digi Egg of Light shoot out into its D-Terminal… a D-Terminal no longer held by Davis. Sent flying from his hand, the device landed toward the far side of the base… and began sliding toward the edge.
"NOOOOO!" Veemon screamed. "Not the digi eggs!"
For a split second, the former dragon seemed to rush towards the other side, but he stopped before he could pass the Motomiyas and turned around to keep himself between them and Halsemon. In his absence, the D-Terminal slid off the far edge, plunging into the water below.
"Looks like there's honor among thieves after all." Yolie japed to herself. "Not that it matters."
"Red Eye!"
Regressed to the power of a rookie, it only took one more well aimed hit to knock him out.
"Veemon!" Davis screamed.
"Checkmate." Yolie cheered. Her partner began swooping down toward the thieves, ready for the capture
Then ground beneath them roared.
Two large hangar doors burst open and a monster began rising up out of them. The gryphon flew out of the way yet again as it went airborne.
"Wha... What is that thing?!" Davis cried out at the sight of the chimera. Jun just fainted. Yolie could hardly blame them.
"Heat Viper!"
Halsemon barely dodged the beam that came from the hybrid creature's mouth, despite easily dodging up until now. Said beam wound up hitting an island behind them, and the island vaporized in a fiery explosion. Yolie could barely move. She was struck with utter terror for the second time in the day.
And she came back with the same resolve as before.
"We were so close!" She screamed in her head.
"Partner, we need to go." Her digimon warned.
"No! I absolutely forbid you to retreat!"
"But... that thing, it has to be at least ultimate..."
"I don't care!" his human interrupted. "We've fought ultimates before and won." She pointed at the Motomiyas. "We've come way to far to turn back now!"
Halsemon looked were she pointed. Davis, Veemon in hand, was trying in vain to lift Jun up on his back. They were so close to beaten... Then the chimera landed in front of them. For a second, Halsemon hesitated, but then he began to swoop toward it.
"Tempest Win-"
His attack was interrupted by a mere swat from the hybrid monster. Both he and Yolie rocketed off course.
For a second, things went black for Yolie. She narrowly avoided joining Jun in unconsciousness, but she managed to come back in time to keep her hold on Halsemon, who was still beneath her. Plainly out cold, however, he was not as lucky. She still held onto him as they tumbled into the sea. When they hit the water, she blackout out in earnest.
...
When Yolie woke up she her friends standing over her.
"Wha… where… where am I?"
She tried to get up but couldn't. Every part of her body hurt as she pushed up from the ground.
"Don't push yourself to hard." Kari said. "You… really took a bad fall."
"Yeah… that makes sense."
Eventually she manged to sit up. Looking around she saw she was on an island… a moving island.
"Am I delirious too?" She asked herself internally. "No… I'm just in the Digital World."
All of the other digidestined were on the island, as were their partners and the ground bound digimon from the base.
Of course, her own partner in particular drew her attention. Hawkmon… looked to be in worse shape than her, both of his wings wrapped up in makeshift bandages.
"Oh my god! Oh my gods Hawkmon! What have I done?!"
"Don't worry about me." He responded. "I can still walk. I tried to take as much of the hit as I could, but… I guess champion digimon are a lot more durable than humans."
"It's still my fault! I'm the one that made you do all this."
The flagellant forced herself to stand. She limped over to her partner and embraced him, tears in her eyes.
"I'm so sorry! I'm so sorry! I... I wanted to be strong, but... I was just awful!"
"It's fine! Really." He answered.
"No it isn't!"
She released him from the embrace anyway. There was someone else she needed to apologize too.
"Kari... Gatomon... I... am so sorry. I... I don't know what I was thinking. If I had won... you... your bodies... this could have happened to you!"
Kari just shrugged apathetically.
"Eh, I had could have done it to Matt's body a few weeks ago. We all could have done it Agumon before that. It borders on job hazard these days."
She remained selfless as always... and it had the usual effect.
"I really am just awful." Yolie thought.
She cried again. "I am sorry! I... I was so mad at you back when you lead us into that trap, just to save your body, and here I am walking into danger after danger after danger! And for what!?"
"To save my body. Thanks your for that, really."
Yolie just cried more.
It stopped when TK put his hand on hand on her shoulder.
"You really are being to hard on yourself." He said.
"How can you say that?"
"I know it sounds cliché, but we all make mistakes."
With that she wanted to laugh as well as cry.
"Really, hear me out. You're not the first digidestined to screw up a mission. This... this is a tense job, and we're just kids. I don't think our parents would handle it perfectly, and I know we haven't, even us veterans. Remember Skull Greymon?"
"That thing the emperor turned Agumon into before he got the Dark Spiral?"
"Yes, the emperor wasn't the first person to make a Skull Greymon out of Agumon. Tai was."
"No way!"
"Really. He... before he mastered the Crest of Courage, he tried to activate it by rushing into danger, not unlike you were doing, and got a rampaging monster out of the deal that attacked our other digimon."
"Tai did that? No way!?"
"He..." Kari began "Didn't tell me about that..."
"That doesn't surprise me." TK responded. "I don't think he ever quite forgave himself for it, even after Agumon did almost immediately. He was probably ashamed to tell you, but it did happened. Trust me. I was there."
Silence fell as Yolie, and the rest of the newer digidestined, processed that. Sans Kari, they did not really know Tai as a leader. He would give them orders from time to time, but with the younger kids the ones on the front lines nowadays, it was mostly Davis they answered too. Tai's authority was more distant. Still, it was there, and in many ways that distance gave it an aura of mystique all of its own, a higher authority his charisma only intensified. If even he could do something like this...
"Am I not so awful?"
She felt less so... She began thinking on the matter... and in the process came to an unrelated realization.
"Crap! We've been talking about the body swaps in front of all these digimon!" She blurted out loud.
Said digimon just started laughing the other digidestined joined in.
"Huh?"
"Talk away." Hawkmon said. "Your erm... performance actually had a positive side effect on that front."
"Yes." Floramon said. "After seeing digidestined fight like that... after hearing Davis admit what he did to you out of Kari's mouth... it was hard not believe the explanation your friends gave."
The others nodded emphatically, Numemon most of all.
"Queen Kari would never do what he did." He said.
"It's just like what happened with Wizardmon." Yolie gasped.
Gatomon agreed this time. "Seeing 'me' attack him did quite a bit, it seems."
That... made her feel even less awful... still not good though. She still wanted to atone for her crime.
Then she sat down, forced to do some by pain standing up caused.
"Maybe I'm doing that anyway..."
TK seemed to understand her feeling.
"As I said, we all make mistakes." He continued. "It's all about if you learn from them, and I think you did. I... think I have too."
"What do you mean?"
"I almost did something very similar to what you did today, believe it or not. While you and Cody were freeing digimon, I saw the emperor... well, what I saw him do really really angered me. I wanted to rush out and jump him like you did Chimeramon. I don't know what would have happened if I did. I could easily have ended up in the same shape you're in. Patamon talked me out of it, though." He turned to his partner. "Thank you for that."
"Don't mention it."
"Anyway," TK continued "I learned a lot from that, and that's what counts. To that point, I think I... we were rewarded handsomely for it."
"How so?" Yolie asked.
The blonde smiled. "The power of body switching is ours now."
"What?"
The rest of the group smiled.
"Show em, partner." Patamon said.
TK dipped his hand into his pocket, and what he pulled out... was glorious. A pair of black rings with green gemstones on top. They could only have been...
"Those... are those?"
"Body switching rings? Yes, absolutely."
Regardless of what she had done, regardless of the pain she was in, regardless of the hybrid monster they had to face now... Yolie had to feel good. Even if they hadn't secured the stolen bodies, even if they hadn't beaten the Digimon Emperor, between this and liberated digimon, this raid was an resounding success.