Story: Being of Two Worlds||Chapter: The Neola Jungle
Chapters: 2-3||Chapter: 9,623||Total: 18,519
Ship: Adam x Angewomon
Genre: Romance||Rated: PG
Notes: This is a Power Rangers/Digimon 02 Crossover, taking place after the defeat of BelialVamdemon and ignoring the epilogue & all else.
Summary: One former Power Ranger. One angelic female Digimon. One mission to save the world. And to fall in love with each other
The sun hadn't been up for an hour before soft clad feet and whisper quiet wings were slipping through the jungles of Phaedos, on their way towards the Shrine. When they had awakened, the parchment had been waiting for them along with a hearty breakfast that they'd both devoured with a very good will. Angewomon explained that a Digimon was stronger the more they ate, and it was impossible to attack or evolve without being properly fed. It was most visible when one was a Child level Digimon, but she had made it a point to always be full-fed.
"I think we're going the right way." Adam checked the route that had been marked against the nearest landmarks, and looked up to where Angewomon was perched on a tree, resting briefly from checking ahead of them for anything that could cause trouble. "I'm no expert, but I'm fairly sure."
Angewomon nodded. "That's good enough for me." She spread her wings and started off again. Adam had considered asking her for a lift, but with the map not being drawn for those who traveled by air, he wasn't sure if the landmarks would look quite the same from up there, and he didn't know just how much she could carry for long periods of time. He was going to have to make it on his own.
He rolled up the map and tucked it away in a fold of his uniform, then headed into the jungle. The dreams he'd had the night before were quite the fodder of fantasy, and part of the reason he wanted to stay on the ground wasn't just to spare her an extra weight, but to deal with what he'd been thinking.
Okay, she's gorgeous, what I can see of her, anyway. She's a great fighter. She's a very nice person. Or Digimon. Or whatever. She's very focused on this goal of hers, though. I don't know if there's even a chance that she could want to see me again after this is over with. We only met by chance. It could've been Billy here. He'd go crazy over the chance to talk to a real live Digimon. He could only imagine how much Billy was going to be envying him, not to mention bawling him out for not coming back when he had a chance to.
Adam moved carefully around a thick tree and looked up to see where Angewomon was. She never moved too fast or went too far ahead of him. They'd agreed that she would stay in sight as much as she could for this trip, to make certain they both got where they were going at the same time. She's the one who has to go there. I'm just along as a bodyguard. The Black Ninjetti wanted to be under no illusions about his presence.
I wonder what it's like to fly like that. The thought of being able to fly, without a Zord or anything like that, appealed to him. He had come to terms with being the Frog over the years, but at times he envied those who had been able to fly.
He took a brief moment to pause and catch his breath after hurrying ahead another few yards. He had kept up his martial arts since passing on his powers, but there was a difference in being in fighting trim and being used to walking on, and on, and on for amazing amounts of time. I'm definitely going to start walking more.
It wasn't possible to tell just how far they'd come that morning. He just knew it had been long enough that he couldn't see the mesa any longer, and hadn't been able to for a while. I hope we can find some place to break for lunch. There'd been so much to the breakfast Dulcea had provided that the leftovers had been wrapped up in some handkerchiefs Adam had been able to retrieve that he'd originally had in his regular clothes. I still don't know how I got them since I've changed into my Ninjetti outfit. I guess that's something the Power fixes. If I need it, I'll have it.
He hadn't had a chance to talk to Dulcea about sending any kind of message to Billy yet, and that was starting to nag at him incessantly. He knew that Angewomon had no way of communicating with his friend, so he hadn't bothered her with it. If I could, I'd make it so she could communicate with her partner. She looks really upset about it sometimes. He hadn't been able to see Angewomon close up for very long on this morning's trek, but the few times he'd been able to catch a glimpse of her, she had looked as if something very serious was on her mind.
Far above him, but not too far, Angewomon tilted slightly as the winds wrapped around her. She had tried her best to keep her thoughts on her journey and on her partner, not her companion, but her mind was starting to wander off pathways it had never done before.
She knew exactly how impossible it was. She told herself repeatedly, but her imagination absolutely did not care. Her imagination was busy envisioning taking Adam to all the beautiful spots of the Digital World that she had found and seeing the look of wonder in his rich dark eyes. He'd love the Great Falls. And the Village of Beginnings.
Hearing her imagination make such plans was enough to drive her to madness, but she didn't have time to go crazy. Maybe after she was done with this. After all, it really was a harmless fantasy, as long as she remained aware it was a fantasy and nothing that could actually happen. It would pass the time as they traveled, if nothing else.
This trip is taking longer than I thought. She didn't know if there was any difference in the measurement of time between here and Japan, but she knew how long she'd been gone, and they were going to be at least another day at this, maybe longer. Maybe too long. I'll know if anything happens to Hikari. The bond between partner and Digimon was strong enough for that. They couldn't read each other's minds, but when something fatal happened to one's partner, the other could no longer continue, and would be terminated immediately, in a form of backlash. She shuddered as she recalled the moment that had been proven to them. It had been one of the international Chosen Children, Catherine, who had been the one.
The memory was clear and sharp in her mind. Catherine's Floramon had evolved to Kiwimon, and the two of them had been part of the force fighting some of Demon's minions, a Devidramon and a Phantomon. Hikari and Angewomon had been coming to help their team out, since one of that team had already been knocked out and another was near deletion himself. Angewomon shuddered as she recalled the nightmarish scene they'd come in on. The five member team had been nearly demolished.
It had been Phantomon. They had seen this creature before; it was Demon's most loyal servant. Unlike the one they had fought when Vamdemon was searching for Hikari, this one wasn't prone to talk, only action. As far as she could remember, none of them had ever heard him say anything, really, not even shouting his attack the way so many of them did. He simply Soul Chopped. Over and over.
None of them were prepared for anything like that. A Perfection level and an Adult level, both virus types. They tried, but they didn't have a lot of experience in fighting. They tried.
Viral types, however, were something that she had more than enough experience against, and she knew their weaknesses. She would've been able to handle them with ease, maybe even taking both out at once. Her attack had been getting stronger with age and experience.
Maybe that was why when they'd appeared flying towards the fight, the Devidramon and Phantomon had stepped up the forces. Catherine had been a little apart from the group, and Phantomon had rushed her quickly, knocking Kiwimon out of the way with a backhanded swipe of the scythe he carried, and seizing the blonde in a grip with its free hand.
It was like some kind of a nightmare. As fast as I could fly, I couldn't fly fast enough to get to her. Angewomon refused to think about how the death had happened. One moment Catherine had been a lovely, vibrant girl with her whole life ahead of her, then, with no more than a twist of Phantomon's covered hands, all of that was over with. In that moment, Kiwimon had sent up a howl of agony that seemed to have Catherine's name in it, and then fell over. There was a moment of pure silence, and then Kiwimon had faded away into digital dust. When they had been able to check in with Elecmon at the Village of Beginnings, they'd found that no new egg had appeared there when Kiwimon had vanished.
Angewomon shuddered, thrusting the memory away again as she had so many times before. She didn't want to forget the death, but it was one of those things she didn't want to think about. That's when we all started to get a lot more careful in battles.
She pushed the thoughts away again. The only way they could make certain this didn't happen to anyone else was to stop Demon and all of his troops, once and for all. That's what I'm here for. She twisted a little in the wind, and landed neatly on the branch of a tree. The sun was getting closer and closer to the zenith, which meant it was almost time for lunch.
Where is Adam? She looked down to the ground, checking for her companion. He's got the food. It was harder to see him in his black suit than it had been before, especially since something about being a Ninjetti in the Neola Jungle seemed to make him nearly invisible. She'd almost landed right beside him without seeing him when they'd stopped to check the map together the first time. This jungle and the Ninjetti went hand in hand together, and she was not at all certain that part of the reason they weren't being approached by anything that could attack was because he was a Ninjetti. Though it was unspoken, Dulcea ruled Phaedos, and because she was Ninjetti, the Ninjetti were undisturbed here.
She let her mind drift a little as she waited for him, thinking back to when she'd left the others. The only reason she'd been chosen for this was because she was a Perfection level Digimon. Angemon had wanted to go, but Gennai had told him it was too dangerous for him. At least, that's the only reason I was told. She wouldn't have been all that surprised if there had been other reasons and Gennai simply hadn't told her what they were. He's like that.
"Angewomon?" She almost jumped when Adam almost seemed to appear right next to her. She was supposed to be a warrior, not drifting off into reveries at the drop of a feather! "Angewomon, are you all right?"
"I'm fine." She smiled at him, and she could see something in his eyes, something that could be attraction or who knew what. She couldn't be at all certain what she wanted it to be either. "Come on, let's take a break." She knew she needed it.
They had been told it would take over a day for them to get to where they were going, but being told a trip is long and experiencing a long trip are two very different things. Despite the fact both were battle hardened fighters, by the time the sun was about to set in the western sky, they were both ready to drop over from exhaustion. That in and of itself was the only reason that Angewomon even let them stop.
"We're going to have to eat, too." Adam checked the food situation and wasn't very happy with it. "We cleaned out all the leftovers at lunch."
Angewomon nodded as she thought. "I saw some fruit trees not that far from here, I think. And then there's that stream there. There should be some fish in there." She indicated the glistening and chattering water coursing across the land. "So it shouldn't be a problem to get fed."
"That's the nice part of Phaedos: you can get what you need if you're willing to work for it." He grinned, then frowned. "I don't think I have anything to start a fire with, so how are we going to cook any fish?"
The golden-haired angel frowned, thinking. "I might be able to get something going. I learned about things like this when I was...younger."
He wanted to ask just what she meant by that, but she didn't seem very inclined to answer questions as she headed for the stream. He watched as she hovered over it, her eyes fixing on the twisting forms moving through it. When it looked as if she were going to look and see he wasn't doing anything but watch her, he quickly started to gather up firewood.
"Where did you say those fruit trees were?" He asked once he had laid in a good stock of brush and branches, and made certain there was enough dry space around so they wouldn't set off a mass blaze. "I can be getting them while you're getting the fish. Speaking of that, how's the luck with fishing going?"
A huge silver-sided fish landed on the side of the river even as he spoke. "Very well." She looked over at him, then pointed. "I saw the fruit trees that way. They're not too far, they should be easy to find."
"All right." He headed off that way, feeling glad he could do something to pull his weight on this trek that was more than just being a bodyguard. Of course, she probably could've done all of this without me, it just would have taken her longer. And I could do it without her, too. It's nicer together.
It didn't take very long for them to get everything put together, it turned out. By the time he had gathered up enough fruit, she had a tidy little fire going, and the fish were roasting in it. "You are good." He grinned at her. "How'd you do all of that?"
"Well, I started the fire with these." She tapped a stone he'd not noticed beside her. "Hikari taught me about flint and steel when we would go camping with the others." He was almost certain that she had blushed when she spoke next. "This is flint, and I was able to strike it against my helmet." She tapped her helmet, which definitely looked stronger than steel, certainly able to strike a spark. "It took a couple of tries, but I got it done."
Adam nodded as he divided the fruit into two equal piles. "You're definitely useful to have around." He grinned at her.
She grinned back. "So I've been told."
The two of them chatted in quiet companionship as they waited for the food to cook and then fell into silence during the meal afterwards.
"I don't like taking so much time." Angewomon fidgeted nervously as she lay back against a tree, her white wings folded all around her the best they could. They couldn't flex and bend as much as she would've liked for this, but she needed some kind of covering, and they were all that she had. "Every moment we're here is another that Demon could be murdering people I care about."
Adam found himself perfectly warm and comfortable in his Ninjetti suit, and watched her from the other side of the clearing they'd chosen for their nightly rest. "I know how you feel. That's how I felt when we came here the first time. Ivan Ooze had already attacked our headquarters, and our mentor was in really bad shape."
She looked over at him, a curious tilt to her head. "Tell me how it happened?" Her lips curved into a weak smile lightly. "Maybe it'll get my mind off my problems."
He was more than happy to oblige. "Well, it was a few years ago. I was about fifteen then. I'd been a Ranger for a few months already, along with Tommy, Aisha, Kimberly, Billy, and Rocky. Zordon was our mentor. He was trapped in a time warp that prevented him from aging or dying, and had guided us against a lot of really weird enemies. I was the Black Ranger then. We'd been fighting Zedd and Rita, a married pair of enemies, for a while, and we were fairly used to their actions. They sent down a monster, maybe some foot soldiers, and we defeated them, and they did the same thing a few days later. It was a routine."
Adam sighed briefly, remembering as he talked. "It was a routine that nearly got us killed." He shuddered as the day came back to him in vivid clarity. "We were doing some parachute jumping to raise money for a local charity, and after we'd finished that, we headed out for some roller blading to relax. Right in the middle of our fun, we got a call that something was wrong. It turned out that some construction workers had unearthed something that was supposed to stay buried forever. They didn't know it, but they'd uncovered the hyperlock chamber where Ivan Ooze was contained.
"We pieced the rest of this together later, but that night, Rita and Zedd came to where the chamber was being guarded, and released Ivan. They made an agreement with him to destroy us and Zordon, and he got to work on that right away. We met him there, and had to fight the Ooze things he made to battle us."
Angewomon leaned back and lost herself in the spell of his words as he told of the evil Ivan Ooze's attack on their headquarters, the Command Center, and how he had destroyed the time warp that had kept their mentor safe, and in doing both of those things had destroyed their Ranger powers. The only way to restore those powers, defeat Ooze, and save Zordon had been to make a journey to a planet that they had never heard of before and search for the Great Power, with a very short clock ticking away.
They were just children. Not that much older than Jyou was when he first came to the Digital World. And they had that kind of courage. She liked that, for a lot of reasons. She listened as Adam told of each of their animal spirit guardians, and felt a faint twinge of jealousy as he mentioned the kiss that Dulcea had given him on his forehead.
As the tale wound to it's close, she yawned slightly, her mind starting to edge into the sleep of near exhaustion. Her instincts were keeping her awake, though. This was a strange place, and even with a Ninjetti there, she couldn't quite bring herself to sleep without setting some kind of guard. Legacy of spending nights in the Digital World where you have to guard against everything. She turned slightly and looked at him. "That was a wonderful story. You and your friends were very brave."
Was he blushing? It was too dark to tell, really. "Thanks. But you and your friends have done a lot of brave things as well. Fighting that Demon guy..."
"Fighting is what Digimon are made for. We get stronger as we get older and more experienced, and if we don't have a partner, that's what can make us evolve." She explained. "Most good Digimon just fight to survive, defending themselves and their homes and Digimon they care about. But evil Digimon...they get their experience and strength from hurting others. Vamdemon..." Her voice faltered slightly as she thought back to those long ago days, and she shook her head. "They will hurt others for pleasure, just to see them writhe in pain."
Adam shuddered at the thought. "Sounds like something Zedd would've appreciated back in the old days."
"Old days?" She welcomed the chance to have a slight subject shift. Thinking about her one time master was not something she particularly felt like doing, especially with the darkness pressing in all around them.
"Well, Zordon got captured by his enemy, Dark Spectre, who was the overlord of all the other enemies we'd faced over the years, and some we didn't even know about. Spectre was draining his powers, slowly killing him. The people that my friends and I had passed our powers onto went to look for him." He gave a mirthless chuckle. "As it turned out, they only found him when he was brought back to Earth to have to watch the invasion. All over the universe, as far as we could hear, the forces of evil were conquering and defeating all the fighters that could be brought against them. The only way to save everything was for Andros, the Red Ranger of the moment, to shatter the prison that kept Zordon confined and his power draining away. It killed Zordon, but in the way he wanted to die. He was able to destroy all the powers of evil that were fighting against us, and many of them were reformed, turned into humans the way they had been long ago, given a second chance to live their lives the way they wanted to. Zedd and Rita were two of them." He shrugged into the tree behind him. "The last I heard of them, they'd been living on a farm on Earth somewhere, and had had a couple of kids. They're really nice people now, but they used to be pure evil."
Angewomon felt herself drifting into sleep, and managed to murmur, "Good for them. Everyone should have a second chance." Except Demon. Even if they'd wanted to give the evil Ultimate a second chance, the only thing he'd do with it would be to destroy, wreck, and maim even more.
Adam watched as her breathing became slow and regular, a sure sign that she had went to sleep. He wanted to do the same thing himself, but he couldn't bring himself to just yet. All he wanted to do was sit there and watch her. There wasn't much of her that he could see, but he was enjoying what view he had.
I wonder if she'd tell me about some of the things that have happened to her. He was certain some not very nice things had happened to her, but she hadn't talked that much about them. He couldn't explain why he wanted to learn so much about her, but it was like a hunger inside. She's a mystery wrapped in an enigma, shrouded by confusion. And he'd always enjoyed solving mysteries.
A long stream of golden hair fell away from her as she shifted slightly in her slumber, and he watched it for a moment, his fingers itching to touch it to see if it was as soft and satiny as he remembered from when she'd picked him up in her arms. He hesitated briefly, then reached over to gently tuck it back where it belonged. She shifted a bit towards him, and he froze, wondering if she was going to wake up. And what do I do if she does? The obvious answer was just to tell her the truth, but that wouldn't come anywhere near explaining just how much he'd been itching to touch her hair, to feel his fingers against her smooth cheek, to find out if there was any moral, ethical, religious, cultural, or any other kind of objections that she knew of to them starting to date.
I have to be reasonable. He told himself as he leaned back, the memory of that light touch singing in his fingertips. She's involved in a war anyway, and if something happens...what if she has to sacrifice herself the way Zordon sacrificed himself? Not much of a relationship possible there.
He sighed to himself as he leaned back. Some days, nothing just seemed to work out right.
Pale golden light tapped at a pair of closed eyes, and the owner of said eyes grumbled and turned over, throwing a black clad hand to protect his sleep from the insistent fingers of morning. They succeeded only for a few short minutes, however. The light became too insistent, baking into his retinas and demanding that he move.
Adam sat up, remembering all over again why he hated having his bed anywhere near a window at home. He enjoyed the sunlight, but on those rare mornings when he slept in late enough, he hated being awakened by being too hot to sleep. And that happened all too often in California.
A quick look around told him that Angewomon was already awake, as she was standing in the clearing to one side of the remains of their fire, her wings stretching and bending carefully as she worked any tension out of them from the night before. They gleamed in the morning light, a gleaming whiteness that was more brilliant than anything he could ever remember seeing in his life. He had never really thought that much about Heaven or angels or anything like that before meeting her, but now he could easily see why she was called Angewomon. She was simply beautiful.
"Good morning." He watched her for a few moments before speaking, enjoying seeing her first thing. "Sleep well?"
"As well as I could. I've been used to sleeping on Hikari's bed for the last few years, so this isn't quite what I'm used to." She stretched again, then folded them against her back. "Nothing I can't handle, though. I've had worse beds."
He spoke before really thinking about what he was saying. "What kind of worse beds?"
The angel looked back at him for a moment, and he had the impression if he'd been able to see her full face he would have seen a curious, perhaps debating expression. Then, she seemed to come to a decision and nodded slightly to herself. "When I was growing up, I spent the earliest years of my life alone and without any friends or a place to call my own. Unless you counted the little cave I lived in then."
She watched as he stood up and started over to her, then picked up one of the leftover pieces of fish from the previous night to use as her breakfast. "Is there anything else?" He asked quietly, also snagging a leftover to break his fast with.
"A lot more." She chewed thoughtfully, then continued. "There were eight of us in the beginning. We were being modified to be attached to our partners, their Digivices and Crests. One of our enemies, Piemon, attacked the base where Gennai, our mentor, and those like him were working on us. We were only eggs then. Piemon tried to steal all of it, the eggs, the Crests, everything he could. He only got away with the Crests and Tags. Gennai was able to save the eggs and Digivices, though. As he was taking them to safety, one of the eggs and Digivices fell and was lost." She sighed quietly in memory. Sometimes she thought she could still remember the sensation of falling forever...
He watched her, but said nothing, and soon she continued. "That egg hatched out into Yukimibotamon: me. I was all alone, and I had nothing to tell me what I was for. All I knew was that I was Yukimibotamon and I had to find the person I was meant for. It was like an emptiness in me. A hatchling Digimon has very weak attacks, if any at all, and is one of the most vulnerable creatures imaginable. Think of a human baby, alone and without anyone to take care of it, in the heart of the wilderness, with almost everything out there wanting to destroy it because that will increase their experience."
Adam shuddered just at the thought of it, but she wasn't done. "I managed to stay alive. I had a cave. Small, dirt floor, terrible ventilation, but it was mine. I protected it the only way I could: I hid if anything came near that looked like it might want to try and take it away from me. I didn't have any arms or legs or anything else. I ate what I could, drank the best I could, and just survived. It took a few years, but I managed to evolve up to Nyaromon. I was a little better off. I had an attack that could do a little bit of damage now, but most of the creatures that were around there wouldn't hurt me. I won't say we were friends. I was too busy trying to find what it was I needed to really make friends.
"Evolving without a partner is hard. I finally made it up to Plotmon: my Child stage. I finally had legs and a decent attack, something that could hurt if I needed it to. So I went searching for whatever it was that was making me need someone so very badly. I traveled everywhere, but no one I talked to knew who I needed or what I was even talking about."
He could see the sadness that drooped her wings and took the sparkle away from her slowly enfolding her. "Then I met him. Vamdemon. He took me in and made me his slave. I had nowhere else to go, and I was giving up on ever finding the one I needed. He trained me to serve him in every way he wanted. I had to obey him. I had no choice. It was either that or be destroyed, and I knew I couldn't be. Someone still needed me."
She sighed quietly and walked a few feet away, shaking her head. "I became Tailmon while I was with him. My Adult stage. I hoped if I ever reached Perfection that I'd be able to leave him somehow, but I had no idea of what to do then. But it wasn't all horrible serving him. I made my first friend there. Wizarmon. I saved him from dying, and he joined Vamdemon's troops to keep an eye on me. It was after that happened that Vamdemon started to step up my training. He scarred me." Her bare hand touched the gloved one gently but didn't remove the protecting garment. "I forced myself to forget my past, to only concentrate on what I was learning and how to serve him. I became as hard and cold as I could. I lost myself."
Adam shuddered at the words. I can't even imagine what that must have been like. "What happened then?"
"I lived with Vamdemon for a long time. I have no idea how long. Time didn't mean much to me then. Then Vamdemon ordered me to gather an army of the strongest and most ferocious Digimon I could get. We were going to make a trip to the world of humans. He didn't tell me why right away. He only told me what I needed to know then. He never trusted me fully." Her lips curved into a gentle and amused smile. "And he definitely shouldn't have. Once we got to Earth, we all spread out, searching for the Eighth Chosen Child. Vamdemon told us very little of her, only that the fake Crests he had were going to be able to guide us to her. He didn't tell us that the Crest was the Crest of Light, and that because of that, it was one of the few things that could destroy him. That was why he wanted her gone: she represented the one thing that he, as a vampire Digimon feared: total annihilation."
Adam nodded; he could see why that would be something a vampire wouldn't be too fond of. Maybe she should talk to Carlos one day. She wasn't a vampire, but she had to serve one the way Carlos had to deal with Count Nocturne for a while. "I guess that was when you met Hikari?"
"It was." Angewomon glanced back at him and smiled a little. "It was amazing, really. I felt whole for the first time in my life. Vamdemon was very right not to trust me, like I said. My very first attack was on him. I fired it right into his heart. He couldn't stand up to it, even though he'd been able to wave away every other attack that tried to get through to him. I know all the other Chosen and their partners were getting very tired of seeing him just wave his hands and have their attacks fade away like nothing. Even Angemon couldn't do more than knock him off balance." She shook her head a touch and looked forward. "We can discuss this later, though. We're wasting time."
He wanted to ask a lot more questions, but he knew she was right. Both of them quickly finished their breakfasts, then Adam scattered the remains of the fire and made certain everything was stamped out, and both of them took their direction from the map. "We should get there in a few hours. It doesn't look that far."
Angewomon nodded, checking for air traffic before taking off. There didn't seem to be too many creatures that could fly on Phaedos, so she had the sky almost exclusively to herself, and that was enough of a rarity for her to want to enjoy it as much as she could. The skies of the Digital World and Earth were often clogged with winged things of all kinds, and getting clear air space was the next thing to impossible. I wouldn't mind having Adam with me when I flew, though. She was certain she was blushing, and found herself grateful that she wasn't facing Adam at that moment. "Let's get going." She leaped up, finding her flying height easily, and watched as he started walking, leaping with agile grace over the roots and branches. He looks so handsome. No, not just looks, he is handsome. So different from what I'm used to, but still so similar too. Such a strong, handsome face. A wonderful body. A mind...ohh, that mind.
She was starting to think that it was a face, a body, and a mind she could get very used to having around her.
Adam looked down at the map and frowned. This wasn't really what he'd been expecting, not on Phaedos. Jungles, yes, rivers, yes, maybe even a forest somewhere, or a swamp, sometimes they all came in a mismatched polyglot. You just couldn't be certain. But this was not what he'd been thinking at all.
They'd only been traveling for a short while, less than an hour, and now the trip was taking a turn they hadn't expected with this alteration. Said alteration rose up over them in splendid snow-capped majesty: a mountain that reached up far to the sky. Not a mountain range, but a simple smooth peak unlike anything he'd ever seen in his life.
And I'm willing to bet it's the only one of it's kind. Adam looked over as Angewomon landed beside him and nodded his awareness of her presence. "If I'm reading this map right, the Shrine of Salnos we're looking for is inside this mountain."
Angewomon glanced towards it and frowned. "Well, if that's where it is, then that's where we have to go. But you look upset about it."
"I am and I'm not. I know we have to go there, but well...I've studied geography and mountains like this just do not exist in normal situations. It's situated right in the middle of a jungle, but there's nothing growing on it. A proper jungle mountain would have all kinds of growing things all around it." He shook his head. "I guess I should be used to Phaedos having weird things on it, but it just bothers me."
"Not me. I've seen a lot weirder things in the Digital World. Or what you'd call weird, anyway." She smiled a bit. "There's a place that my friend Yamato calls The Forest of Irrelevant Roadsigns. It never had a name before that, so when he started to call it that, it kind of caught on."
Adam slid his eyes towards her. "Why did he call it that?"
She started towards the mountain, trusting her feet more than her wings in that enclosed area. "Because that's what it is. Road signs grow there, all over the place. Maybe I'll take you to see it one day."
He blinked in surprise, then hurried to catch up with her. "I didn't know anyone could go to the Digital World who wasn't one of your group."
"That's how it was in the old days, and we try to make most people think that now," Angewomon told him. "But really, anyone can go, if they have an open gate near them and someone who is a Chosen Child or a Digimon with them. We don't let most people know that because most people don't need to know that. The Digital World is our home, and you don't invite strangers into your home."
Adam couldn't quite catch a glimpse of her face, but he was certain something special was about to happen. It just rang all through him. "But...I'm a stranger?" It was definitely more of a question than a statement.
"You're not a stranger to me, not anymore." She looked back towards him and smiled warmly. "I think I can take you with me, and I don't think anyone would mind. That is, if you'd like to come. Once this business with Demon is finished, of course."
He nodded slowly. "I think I would like that. Once it's finished, as you said." He bit his lip slightly, wondering if this was supposed to be his cue to try something that would indicate that he liked her a lot more than he liked most people, then hesitated a fraction. I haven't studied that much on the Japanese culture, but I'm fairly sure even friends don't just randomly kiss or something like that. Take it slow. Take it easy. Don't scare her or offend her. Remember that Holy Arrow of hers. I don't think she'd do that to me, but better safe than sorry.
His mind raced for a moment as they walked along, then fastened on something that might help. "If this is rude, feel free to tell me and don't bother answering." He phrased things carefully. "But do Digimon...date or anything like that? You know, fall in love, get married..."
Angewomon turned her head towards him and for a moment he was afraid that he had transgressed somehow. Then she spoke. "Sometimes. It isn't very common, though. As far as I know we don't reproduce the way humans do, but that doesn't mean we can't, just that I haven't ever seen it happen. So if it can, it's really very rare. And at least with humans, reproducing seems to be the main reason they fall in love and things like that."
"That's true." He admitted. "But...okay, this is very forward of me, but do you have a boyfriend? Or someone that you're seeing, that you care about, not as a friend, but as something more?"
"Well, everyone expected me to fall for Angemon." She chuckled quietly. "Just because we're both 'angel types'. But he's got someone else he likes. He's just being very quiet about it because he doesn't like to advertise. We're very close anyway, though, so he told me about them. And I think I almost loved Wizarmon, but it didn't work out right." She would've laughed if it wasn't so completely not funny. "Getting killed does tend to make relationships very unworkable. But to answer your question...no, I don't. It's not easy for partner Digimon to have a relationship, because so much of our lives revolves around our partners already, and a lot of people can't seem to accept that."
Adam nodded quietly. "I think I could. I know what it's like to have a chunk of your life given over to someone or something else, to the exclusion of everything else. That's what it's like to be a Power Ranger."
"Only being a Digimon partner isn't something you can pass on to someone else." Angewomon reminded him. "It's a lifetime commitment. Maybe a lot of lifetimes, we don't know."
"That wouldn't bother me." They were both looking at each other carefully as they headed closer to the mountain, and the small cave they could see at it's base, more as a shadow than anything else at the moment. "Not at all."
Angewomon nodded in acceptance, feeling as if they'd crossed some kind of threshold in whatever it was they had together. She asked her next question carefully. "Adam, there's been something that I was wondering about you." He glanced at her, one eyebrow raised, and she plunged ahead with it. "Are you seeing anyone? Is there someone who has a special place in your heart?"
He took a few extra minutes to think things over, wanting to be honest, checking every female he knew against his internal emotions. "Not in the sense of wanting to date them. All the Rangers...I care about them all, but it's not quite being romantic." He chuckled. "I was almost certain I was going to fall for one of them." He totted the numbers up in his head. "Only two that I can think of haven't fallen in love with another Ranger, of the ones who are in a permanent romantic situation. And considering there's been about twenty or so of us all total, not counting the Aquitian Rangers, I always thought the odds were good it would happen to me." He shrugged. "For a while I did date another Ranger."
"You did? Who?"
"Tanya Sloan. It didn't quite work out, though. She had a music career ahead of her, and I just couldn't quite seem to settle down into anything at the time. I've been thinking about trying to leave Earth permanently. Have you heard of the Terra Venture project?"
The angel considered for a few moments. "I think I heard something, but it's just not coming to mind right now."
"Well, a huge spacecraft is being built. My friend Billy is working on it, that's how I got here in the first place. He was trying to figure out if he could get the old teleportation system we used in the old days to work right, and apparently something went a little haywire." Adam chuckled. "Not that I plan on objecting too much. But anyone who works on the project has the offer to go if they want to. I've been thinking about it."
Angewomon tried not to panic. She hardly knew him and he was thinking about running off the planet? No! He couldn't do that! She hadn't seen nearly as much of him as she wanted to! There had to be a way to keep him here! Wait, what am I thinking? He's a free person, he has the right to choose what he does...but... "I could never leave Earth, or the Digital World, permanently. I belong to both of them. I don't mind visiting, like this here, but there's still so much I want to see and do there. I just couldn't leave."
He didn't say anything for a few moments. "I don't know if I want to. I just know that I want something different. Something that isn't what I've seen and done every day for the last few years."
She laid a hand on his shoulder in a companionable manner. "Have you done things like this every day for years?" He had to admit that he hadn't, and he smiled.
"Maybe I do need a change of scenery...but not that much of one." He smiled even more. "So...just what is the weather like in Japan this time of year?"
From a distance, the mountain had been huge enough. Standing beside it's base, it seemed to touch the sky. Both of them looked up at it in undisguised awe.
"I guess the Shrine is inside." Adam laid a careful hand on the side of the mountain, peering inside the shadowy opening. He couldn't be all that certain, but from this particular angle, it didn't look as if the shadows should be falling quite like this. Actually, I'm almost sure they shouldn't be. It's almost noon, and these shadows shouldn't even be here.
Angewomon nodded, hardly able to get her mind wrapped around the fact she was so near to her goal. She refused to show it, but her nerves were being stretched to their breaking point by how long she'd had to wait and the separation from her partner. "Then let's get to it. Dulcea said we'd be tested...I want to get this done with and go home."
The entrance was just big enough for one of them to pass at a time, and he motioned for her to go first. It wasn't mere courtesy, this was her quest, and he was really just a glorified bodyguard, if that. She entered slowly, her hands touching the sides of the corridor to feel her way in the darkness, and her wings folded closely to her back.
"Does it get any bigger in there?" Adam asked as he started to follow her.
"Not that I can tell right now." Angewomon frowned; it was the next thing to impossible to tell just what was ahead of her. Usually she could see decently no matter how dark it was, but right now, only the deepest of blackness spilled out before her. "I don't like this."
He entered carefully, his fingers and feet gently probing ahead of him, checking for anything that could be a trap or a problem of any kind. "Neither do I. Is there enough room for you to fly if you have to?"
She reached up a hand to feel for the ceiling, and frowned. "I don't think so. The ceiling's not that high. I can touch it with my fingertips."
Adam reached up himself, trusting her word, but wanting to be certain for himself. "That's not good. Be careful, if there's a gap or a chasm or something, this could end up a way that neither one of us would like."
Angemon nodded, feeling ahead of her the best she could, letting one foot probe ahead to make certain the ground was solid and there wasn't anything they would trip over or fall through. "I don't know if I'd be reformatted if I died here, anyway, and I know you wouldn't be, humans never are."
"Reformatted?"
"Digimon don't die, not the way humans do, usually." She moved ahead carefully. "A lot of it depends on just what happens when we die. If we give up all of our energy for something, a final strike attack, then we generally are returned to our Digital Eggs. They can reform in the Village of Beginnings or right where we died. There's no real pattern which, I've heard of it happening both ways. And I've heard that Digimon who don't have partners and are killed to be eaten by other Digimon don't ever come back as eggs."
Adam looked a little startled; that was nothing something he'd ever heard or considered. "You're serious?"
"Of course." She sighed as she probed her way ahead. "I do know that Wizarmon was killed in the human world by Vamdemon, and he never came back, not as an egg."
The qualification caught at his ear. "What did he come back as?"
She didn't answer for a moment, and when she did, he could clearly hear an abiding sadness in her voice. "A ghost. He gave his life to protect me and Hikari from Vamdemon, and his ghost remained where he was. It took three years, but we were able to see him just once more. I've always hoped that since the Digital Gates opened up permanently, his data might find it's way back to the Digital World and be able to reform into an egg, but it hasn't yet."
No one should hurt like that. Adam would've given everything he could for the chance to bring Angewomon's friend back for her. "How would you be able to know if he was...reformatted?" That was definitely an odd way to put it, but if it was what fit...
"Elecmon would know. He can tell if a Digimon has had a life before, and sometimes what they might evolve up into. But there haven't been any Mokumon hatched out in years."
"Mokumon?"
Angewomon nodded, though she knew it was too dark for him to see the motion. "It's Wizarmon's Baby I stage, right out of the egg. He's an Adult level. He goes from Mokumon, Petit Meramon, Bakumon, and finally Wizarmon. He never evolved past that, so I don't know what else his line is."
She might've kept on going, but the fingers that she'd kept trailing carefully on the roof suddenly had nothing underneath them. "Wait a second, Adam." She lifted her hand up carefully, expecting to feel stone touching them at any second. When she didn't, she carefully extended her wings, testing how much space was now around her. "I think I might have enough room to fly."
"Be careful." He advised. "We don't know what's out there. I wish there was some light in here. I don't like not being able to see."
"Neither do I. I'm not going to try and fly yet. I have to see where I'm going."
The two of them inched forward a little more, and as far as Angewomon could tell, the tunnel they were in was widening out with every step, until they had enough space there to walk side by side.
"I'm starting to get a little worried." Adam murmured. "Those tests...why haven't we run into anything yet?"
Angewomon shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe because we haven't actually gotten to the shrine yet?" She winced a little at the tone. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to sound so snippy."
"It's all right, I know you didn't mean..." Adam's voice trailed to a halt as he saw something ahead of them: light. Light that poured down from above, and seemed to be slightly to the side. Questing fingers told them there was a corner to the wall, and carefully they turned...
To see spread out before them a cavern of glittering crystal, the light refracting over and over to create a blinding sparkle of rainbow fire. With their eyes accustomed to the shadows of the corridor they'd followed to get here, it took a few minutes for either of them to be able to see anything more than the dazzle, but once their eyes cleared, it was very obvious what was there.
Hanging in midair, with nothing supporting it that they could see, was a crystal that flashed alternately white, gold, and violet, just the right size to fit into one's hand. Both of them knew just on site that this was what they had come for. This was the Angelic Talisman.
"Welcome to the Shrine of Salnos, Angewomon, Digimon of Light, partner to Yagami Hikari, Chosen Child of Light, and Adam Park, Black Ninjetti, Chosen by the Frog, former Black Ranger, former Green Zeo Ranger, former Green Turbo Ranger." The voice was cool and distant and held no touch of any given gender, and echoed with authority and crispness. "You have come far to claim the Angelic Talisman."
Angewomon stepped forward. "Will you give it to me? The Digital World's been under attack by Demon, anything could've happened while I was gone! We were told we were going to be tested, but nothing's happened. I don't want to steal it. I'll bring it back if I have to, but we need it to save my home!"
There was a pause, and then... "You risked the safety of your partner human to come here without her, an act that could have resulted in her death, and still may. You slowed your pace, despite the risk, to aid a stranger. You entered a strange and unknown place, where you could not fly to fight as you are used to and best at, trusting the directions another stranger gave to you. If you had failed in any of these, then all would have been lost for the Digital World and all that you love."
Adam stepped forward, his eyes flashing with anger. "Don't you even try to deny this to her! Dulcea said that the Talisman was placed here for safety, not to be hidden away forever. Angewomon needs this thing to save her world, and it's not doing anything here besides hanging around gathering dust!"
"You, human, have been careless in sending a proper message to the friend you know is mad with worry over you, and who blames himself over what happened with the transportation device. You aided someone you did not know and did not deny the power granted back to you, though you could have gone on without it."
Both had the mental impression that whoever was speaking was turning to look at them both. "Speak your reasons for these actions. Why have you endangered those who care about you? If a world is worth one person, is not a person worth one world? Angel of the Digital World, speak first."
Angewomon's mind raced, then she spoke. "Yes, a person is worth a world. And a world is worth a person. But not coming to get the Talisman would do more than hurt one person. It would hurt, it would destroy two worlds. I couldn't call myself an angel, or a Chosen Digimon, or the Digimon of Light, if I let myself sit back and do nothing. Demon can't be defeated as long as he has the Talisman of Shadow, unless we have the Angelic Talisman! I won't let the Digital World and everyone I care about be destroyed because I could've went for the one thing that could defeat him and didn't!"
There was a pause, and the air seemed to ring with the truth and passion in her words. No one said anything, then the dispassionate voice spoke again. "Adam Park, Black Frog Ninjetti, speak."
"I know I should've sent a message back to Billy, but I didn't really have a way, or a chance. The communicators don't work well enough right now to send a message with them all the way from Phaedos to Earth, and as far as I know, Dulcea doesn't have any way to contact him either. I would have if I could. But Angewomon needed my help and I won't turn down someone who really needs me." He felt himself blush somewhat. "Plus, I wanted to help her. I've never met anyone like her before, and I want to spend as much time as I can with her. I like her...a lot." He hesitated a moment, then plunged ahead. "I don't know if she likes me the way that I think I like her, but even if she doesn't, I want to be her friend. What she's doing is right, and that's what matters. I'll apologize to Billy when I can, but I don't regret what I've done. It's what's right. And that's what matters."
Once again, the air rang with the conviction in his words, and Angewomon looked at him with an amazed, and tender smile. Anything they might've said was interrupted by the voice.
"And that, dear ones, is why you were chosen to be what you are. You do what is right, not what is convenient or even what seems to be right. Doing the right thing is sometimes hard and can cause pain, but it will sometimes bring joy. Angewomon, hold out your hands." She did so, and the flashing crystal slowly lowered itself to them, resting there like a piece of the sun. There was a sudden flicker of light, and when they both could see clearly, the Talisman was resting against her neck like a pendent. "I believe you'll know what to do with this, warrior who defeated Vamdemon. But be wary: to win this victory, you must defeat the friend who wears an enemy's face."
Angewomon blinked in surprise. "What are you talking about?" There was only silence for an answer, and she and Adam looked at each other in a bit of confusion.
"I think that's it." He said at last. "That's all the answer you're getting."
"And I don't have time to wait around for a new answer." She frowned. "I need to get back to Japan, but I'm not all that certain of how."
Adam grinned. "Don't worry. I am. Just think about where it is you want to go." He reached out to place one hand on her shoulder, and smiled. "To those who are Ninjetti...anything is possible." He thought hard about being where Angewomon needed to go, the image that was forming in her mind, though he couldn't see it for himself, he had faith that the power that he was a part of could see it. For a heartbeat, nothing happened.
And then between one breath and the next, the only things in the cavern were the crystals themselves.
To Be Continued