Hey, all! I'm back with another chapter of Destiny's Reverse! This is basically a bit of boring talk, Gennai trying to find a way to help the Digidestined avoid more Separations, so sorry it's not action-packed. That'll come soon though.
This chapter got out so fast because I have basically been hit by the writing bug, but I'm expecting to slow down to a steadier pace within the next chapter or so.
Gennai's Advice
"So, you have a need to evade talking about your problems. Sometimes with a smile."
Gennai sat across from today's subject: the boy with strawberry-blonde hair. The kotatsu table stood between them. The layout actually reminded T.K. a bit of his grandmother's home, out in the country. Perhaps that was Gennai's intent: a small piece of familiarity to ease things. Patamon was lying beside him, staring up at T.K. with those big blue eyes. He had agreed to let T.K. talk to Gennai without adding anything. It was a 'him' thing.
Gennai had said it so matter-of-factly.
"They're my problems," T.K. replied defensively. "I don't want to drag the others into them. And I kind of… just end up trying to make it seem like nothing's wrong at all."
"You feel you can take care of things by yourself?" Gennai asked.
"It's… complicated."
Each of the Digidestined had their own issues. They weren't disasters by any stretch of the imagination, but they had all agreed with each other that they still needed to be addressed. Especially in the wake of the Separations certain Digidestined had suffered.
Gennai had no desire to see another Menoa, so he had agreed when the idea was brought before him.
"Well, T.K., I can tell you that keeping things to yourself in the belief that you can take care of them yourself isn't always the best course of action. Can you think of a time when that need to deal with it yourself made things worse?"
T.K. thought for a moment. He looked down towards Patamon.
"I guess… after Patamon got infected… if I had been honest, maybe…"
"T.K…" Patamon's ears sank a little.
"Don't second-guess what you did. You should accept it and learn from it. I think that, when you keep whatever's troubling you to yourself, then it just starts eating away at you."
"Years ago, I kept my problems with seeing Devimon in the Dark Whirlpool to myself, and then when I saw what Ken was going to do with it, I… tried to confront him myself."
"Devimon must be a touchy subject for you."
"It was his fault that Patamon died."
"Do you think that experience might have influenced how you act?"
T.K. thought for a moment.
"I don't think it's possible for anyone to not be affected by that," he said carefully.
Gennai nodded.
"That is true. Everybody is touched by their experiences, and sometimes the negative ones create stronger impressions on us. However, I asked if it was you that was affected by Devimon's actions."
"When my parents separated, I tried to be brave without Matt. What Devimon did… it did affect me. I felt the same as I did when my parents divorced and me and Matt separated."
"You felt you had to be brave by yourself again. I think that's probably the problem. You can be brave alone, but sometimes you need the strength of others. In its own way, belief in others is just as important as belief in oneself."
Gennai placed a thoughtful hand on his chin.
"Well…" T.K. stood up. Patamon flew onto his shoulder.
"… do you think Matt will see Gabumon again?" T.K. asked.
"I think the answer lies within him, as it does with Tai and Sora," Gennai answered cryptically. "Nobody has the exact same experiences, and they still need to address the why. I can't help them find those answers. I think they've already begun the journey to finding them, and when they do, they'll see their Digimon again."
Gennai leaned forward.
"Let me ask you a question that's related to my last one," he said. "Given everything that's happened… given your experiences with losing Patamon during the battle to Devimon, and again during the Digimon Infections, do you see yourself ever separating from Patamon?"
"No. Never." T.K. answered firmly. It was the one thing he had no hesitation in answering.
Somewhere on the Internet, a Digi-egg appeared. It wouldn't go unnoticed for long. But that was fine. After all, it was supposed to be noticed. And it would be, once it started eating data like its predecessor had.
For the Digi-egg belonged to Diaboromon, a foe the Digidestined had defeated twice at that point. It was made from a conglomeration of corrupted data brought to life by the machinations of a dark power. It wasn't the same Diaboromon as before. After all, that one had been beaten twice by the Digidestined, with its last defeat being so complete that it was incapable of reforming. Perhaps that was due to it no longer carrying the virus that had created it in the first place.
It didn't take long for Kuramon to hatch from it, and it began devouring data almost immediately. With all the data it had consumed in a short space of time after hatching, Kuramon quickly Digivolved to Tsumemon.
"I'm haunted."
It was Ken's turn.
"Haunted?" Gennai repeated.
"I see him a lot in my dreams. Sometimes, I am him. You know… the Digimon Emperor."
Ken had suffered occasional nightmares in which he was confronted by none other than himself – in his old Digimon Emperor persona. The dreams had really started following his rescue from King Drasil. At times, he dreamed he was the Digimon Emperor, kidnapping a cat Digimon while his friends watched on in horror.
"I carry him with me everywhere I go. I know what I did. I know it was wrong, and I've come so far… so why? I wake up every day and I think that I'm lucky to have my friends, but that I don't deserve them. Not after what I did."
"You still feel guilty?"
"Yes. Even if I know now that everything that happened to me was orchestrated by Myotismon, I'm the one who did those horrible things. Every time I think I might get some peace, I see him again in my dreams."
"Whether you like it or not, it's a part of your past you can't go back and change," Gennai said. "It sounds like you're still trying to come to terms with it. But I think the big thing there is that you are trying. You've come so far. Despite what you did, there's a reason you hold the Crest of Kindness. Even back then, I think, deep down, a small part of you knew that wasn't the real you. And when you accepted that, Wormmon was brought back to you."
Something pinged on Izzy's computer. Izzy skidded his chair over to it and started typing away.
"No way… why now?"
"What's wrong, Izzy?" Tentomon flitted behind him and asked.
"It's… Diaboromon! He's back! But that's impossible! We destroyed him completely last time, and we dealt with his Kuramon spawn too!"
Frantically typing away, Izzy logged into the server and checked the containment status.
"Still encrypted, and no change in the data in there, so it can't be an escaped Kuramon…" Izzy said.
"Well, he's back anyway, so we've gotta do something about it!" Tentomon remarked.
"I know! But we don't have the strength we did back then. Omnimon's out of the question now that both Agumon and Gabumon have vanished. We're going to have to think this through before we engage him this time."
"Nice pad!" Davis remarked.
"Glad you approve," Gennai answered.
"So, uh… where do we start?"
"Let's start with something easy. How your day's going."
"It's going great! I'm planning on another trip to America soon."
"Still got plans to open up a ramen cart in New York?"
"Yep, that's the plan."
"That's good. You have a dream, and you're chasing it."
"Yeah, well… sometimes, I think about what happened to Tai and I don't want that to happen."
"Aw, Davis! It ain't gonna happen to us!" came the voice of the miniature dragon Digimon beside him. "We're partners!"
"You bet, Veemon," Davis agreed.
"So… do you have anything you need to discuss?"
"Well… it'd be nice if I could kickstart my idea for real. Man, I didn't think it'd be so expensive."
"I'm sorry, Davis, even if I had money, Digi-dollars won't be any good in your world."
"Yeah, yeah," Davis grinned sheepishly.
"Well… I'm not going to be too upset to cut this short, if you think you're fine."
"Yeah, I'd say I am. Even after everything… I still feel I'm chasing my goal. One day, I will have that ramen cart! I'm not gonna forget myself along the way. Hey, erm… you got any advice on… relationships?"
Gennai was caught slightly off-guard.
"I assume you mean partnering in a non-Digimon way."
"Yeah, uh… there's somebody I've kinda liked for a long time. I don't think she likes me in that way. I mean, I don't know. I hope she does, and she's just playing hard-to-get, or something, but… argh! Why do girls have to be so complicated!"
Gennai chuckled.
"Davis, I'm not a love guru. But it sounds like you need to make your move and accept the answer, whatever it is. If she likes you, then go for it. If not… well, try not to make the rejection result in a loss of confidence. There's a human phrase I've heard on my travels: 'everybody has someone out there meant for them'. I've seen you grow, and I think a lot of your problem when you were younger was a need for validation from others, and you didn't believe in yourself as much as you do now. That took the form of the need to get attention, and I think that need manifested itself in a very specific way. You learned during the course of your first adventure to have more faith in yourself. If you didn't, you'd never have defeated MaloMyotismon."
It had quickly cycled through its evolutions as it consumed data. Now, it was at its Ultimate level.
Infermon was no longer concerned with just consuming data to grow. It was powerful enough to now go for its real target, a target programmed into it by the one who had put it on the Internet. As it left the remains of the server it had consumed behind, it targeted one address, which flashed up on the screens above it as it soared past.
'izumi. . .'
It planned on going for Izzy's server.
Izzy typed frantically, trying to keep Infermon out of his server.
"Why come here?" Izzy wondered.
"Maybe he just wants to say hello and not destroy anything this time?" Tentomon suggested.
"I don't think so," Izzy replied. "He's looking for something. After our last battle with him, and the whole mess with the Kuramon he released into the Real World, I constructed a server to keep them in. He couldn't be after them, could he? It'd be easier to just do what he did last time and create new ones by himself."
Izzy continued typing as Infermon continued trying to break in.
"I might be able to force a temporary disconnect of the server. That should slow him down, but he might be able to get it back online. It'll be long enough to get a message out to the others to get over here."
Typing a command into the computer, Izzy hit enter. The status of the server switched to 'offline'. Breathing a sigh of relief and the momentary reprieve, Izzy opened a new window and began typing a message to the other Digidestined.
"Well, I am a bit surprised to see you here," Gennai remarked. "Out of all the Digidestined, I think you've got the least to talk to me about, Yolei."
The young woman sat at the kotatsu, staring at Gennai behind her glasses. Hawkmon sat beside her.
"Though maybe you're not here to talk about your problems," Gennai mused.
"You got me," Yolei replied, shrugging with a sheepish smile. "After Tai, Matt and Sora lost their Digimon, everybody else started trying to figure out why and what to do. Tai and Matt are doing their own thing, but I spent some time with Sora lately, and I think I might be on to why Biyomon disappeared."
"Go on."
"From what Sora told me, it sounded like she thought Biyomon was getting in her way. She's been sort of… taken by what she thinks she should be. If I'm being honest, that's not the Sora I remember. The Sora I remember didn't care about what was expected of her, she did what she wanted to do. That 'potential' you told us about? I think our Digimon are that potential. I think that if we start setting them aside, we start to lose ourselves. We're basically tossing aside a part of us. I know when we're kids, we all want to grow up, and that means we leave some things behind. I know that. But… we're not supposed to leave ourselves behind. Our hopes and dreams. Even if we choose what path we're on, we're supposed to still have those, right?"
"I think… you're on to something. Have you tried telling the others this?"
"Sora didn't take it too well," Yolei shrugged. "But she needed to hear it. The seed is in her flower pot now."
A beeping sounded from Yolei's D-Terminal. She picked it up.
"It's Izzy," she said, frowning.
"What's wrong, Yolei?" Hawkmon asked.
"Diaboromon… he's back! And he's trying to break into Izzy's server! He needs us all over there!"
"Go," Gennai stood.
Izzy had put a call out to the Digidestined to assemble at his place. Sora had declined – she was busy. Matt hadn't answered immediately, because he was in a meeting with his lecturers regarding his thesis, though he said he would try and make it. Joe and Mimi were on their way but would take some time to get there. Tai had arrived with Kari – shocking everybody in the room with his much-shortened hair.
"You look… so weird!" Davis piped up.
"Don't be rude," Kari whispered to him in response.
"Erm, right… sorry, Tai," Davis apologised bashfully.
"Besides, I cut it."
"You look great, Tai!" Davis quipped. Kari facepalmed, shaking her head. Tai laughed awkwardly.
"Sorry, there's not much I can do," Tai said. "I'd help if I could, but without Agumon here…"
Tai looked down towards his side mournfully, imagining his old partner there for a fleeting moment.
"Aw, don't be sad, Tai! Agumon will come back some day! You'll see!" Tentomon piped up.
"So, this is us," Izzy said, looking around the room. "Seven able Digimon."
He turned away and began typing on the computer.
"Well, you know why we're here," Izzy said. "Diaboromon has returned."
"Aw, man, not this guy again," Davis groaned.
"This time, he's trying to break into my server here, which makes it easy to locate him. I've shut the server off for now, but in the past half an hour, he's been trying to reactivate it so he can gain entry. It's a bit easier at the moment because it looks like he's not evolved past the Ultimate level for now."
"Wait… wasn't Diaboromon at Mega last time he reassembled himself?" Yolei asked.
"He was, and that's what makes me think this might not be the same Diaboromon we've fought before. He's certainly never tried to hack into something as specific as this before."
"Sure, if you're not counting the time he launched two nuclear missiles at us," Tai piped up.
"The point is that he could have hacked into any military system in the world," Izzy clarified. "He just happened to be closest to the U.S. system. This time, he's made a deliberate attempt to break into this system."
"Is there anything in there he would be after?" Cody asked.
"There's a space in the server where we stored the Kuramon that escaped into the Real World in our last battle. I built this entire system off of that server, but it's many times larger now. It doesn't just contain that data. It contains the programs I wrote for accessing the Digital World without the need for a Digivice, as well as all the data we've collected over the years on the Digimon."
"It'd be bad if he got his hands on that," Patamon said.
"He'd be able to learn all our weaknesses!" Veemon piped up.
"There's no telling what he'd do if he got into the Digital World either," Gatomon added.
"We gotta smash him before he gets it," Davis said, smacking his fist into his open palm.
"That in of itself presents another challenge," Izzy said. "In our previous two encounters, we have relied on Omnimon to defeat Diaboromon."
"And we don't have access to Omnimon anymore," Tai added glumly.
"No, but we do have Imperialdramon," Izzy countered. "In his Fighter Mode, he should be powerful enough to destroy Diaboromon, even if he reaches the Mega level."
"What if he Digivolves into Armageddemon again?" Ken asked.
"We'll just have to stop him before he does," Davis said. "You all with me?"
"I don't think we have to worry about that unless he manages to break into the Kuramon storage, and that does have a high level of encryption," Izzy explained. "You should be able to stop him before then."
"So, what's the plan?" T.K. asked.
"Based upon what happened last time, with Omnimon needing support from Angemon and Angewomon, we'll send all six of you in there," Izzy said. "Imperialdramon might not need the backup, but if he does, it's there."
"We can take him!" Veemon clenched both fists.
"That's the attitude, buddy!" Davis grinned.
"Plus, you get the chance to impress Kari again," Veemon whispered.
"Urk!" Davis grimaced. A collective chuckle rippled through the room.
"We need to stop him before he gets too powerful," Wormmon added.
"Well, I don't want to go chasing Kuramon through the city again, so let's stop him," Hawkmon said.
"We'll crack through his shell before he even has a chance to do anything!" Armadillomon said.
"We'll make him learn that only cats get to have nine lives!" Gatomon added.
"We'll get him for real this time!" Patamon finished.
"Well, I'll take that as unanimous approval of the plan," Izzy remarked. "I'll get a Digital gate open and then restart the server. Get there quick, and take him out."
"Davis?" Tai called. Davis turned around.
"Yeah, what's up?"
"I want you to take these," Tai pulled something from his pocket and passed it to Davis.
His goggles.
Davis took them and examined them. This was familiar: it reminded him of when he first joined the Digidestined. Tai had done exactly the same thing. Only now, it was because Tai couldn't fight, and therefore couldn't lead the Digidestined.
"Go smash him up," Tai said. Davis stared at Tai for a brief moment, and then nodded in affirmation.
So, there's a possibility that they have found the path to reversing the Separation!
The interesting thing here is that a lot of this leapfrogs off the characters' attitudes as shown in tri. and Last Evolution Kizuna – while those characterisations stick truer to the Japanese versions, they can be seen as being a tad jarring in comparison to how the characters are shown in the English version of Zero Two. I chalk it up to growing up a bit personally (IE Davis has grown out of deliberately mispronouncing T.K.'s name) but it was interesting to explore a bit of that side of them. It wasn't absent entirely, but it did get a bit muddied in my opinion in the dub of Zero Two.
In any case, I wanted a moment to see into where the Digidestined are mentally after the Separation. I also wanted to answer the Separation in my own way, and why some of the Digidestined were already on their way to reversing it. I should really thank shihalyfie on tumblr for their brilliant explorations into the stories and characters of Digimon, which basically inspired me to include this.
Next chapter: the Digidestined face off against Diaboromon, but are they falling into a trap?