First, a small dedication: To Catherine, our dear Dementia Moonstruck. Thanks for your help, I couldn't ask for a better beta reader, or muse!
And, at last I get the hang of this formatting thing!
News flash! I'm doing it a bit differently this time...different POVs. First section's T.K.'s. Enjoy!
Chaos ensued. Everyone started talking at once, and my head was swimming with questions. *Poisoning her with his magic? And I thought the Digital World was strange!*
D'nea hid her essence, returning to the way she looked before. I glanced over at Patamon and he nodded. It wasn't just me: D'nea looked tired and, most of all, afraid. My friends kept trying to get some answers, while Rahvin looked worried and furious at the same time.
"I'll be up in my room," D'nea stated and, standing, headed to one side of the Great Hall, where three doors stood, each marked with either an "A", an "R", or a "D". The door marked "D" (*D for D'nea?* I guessed) slid open when she approached it, and
stepped inside. I caught a glimpse of lavender-tinted glass, and D'nea pushing a button on the other side, before the doors slid shut again.
"You have elevators?" Davis commented, after a few moments of somewhat stunned silence.
"Do you have phones, too? I really should be contacting Tai. I'll bet Mom's worried sick," Kari added.
Avi grinned brightly. "We have something better. Rahvin, snap out of it and set these guys up a communication spell."
I looked over at Rahvin, who was glaring at the ground in front of her, deep in thought. Avi cleared her throat, and Rahvin looked up. "What?"
"Set them up a communication spell!"
"Oh..." Turning to me, Rahvin asked, "What's the location?"
"What?" I responded, hoping she'd elaborate.
"The location! You know. That you're trying to contact?" She said it like it was obvious, and I felt a little embarrassed.
Trying to make up for it, I responded (looking like I did this sort of thing all the time) "Oh...my mom, I guess."
Rahvin looked frustrated, and retorted flatly, "You're mother is not a location."
"Er, our apartment, I mean." Second goof up. This magic stuff was getting me whacked out. Wizardmon, however, was soaking it all up; maybe it was a magician thing. I saw Gatomon, Chris, and Wizardmon deep in conversation, and I could just barely make out Chris's voice, a steady buzz in the back of my mind.
Rahvin seemed to be waiting for me to continue, and I blinked. "What?"
"Elaborate, please."
"Oh!" *Strike three...I'm never going to get the hang of this.* I quickly gave her the street address of the apartment building, and the apartment number. Rahvin frowned in concentration, and held her palms parallel to each other. A forest green ball of light swirled between them, and as it grew, Rahvin repeated the address. The ball of light suddenly grew about plate-sized, and just as flat. And, quite suddenly, my mom's face appeared in it. She shrieked, and then, seeing my face, shrieked again. "T.K.!"
*Oh boy...here we go...* "Hi, Mom."
"You were...you were..." Mom looked like she'd just seen a ghost. Then again, I guess she technically did.
"Dead? Yeah...but I'm not now."
Chris yawned, somewhere behind him. -Oh, yeah, like that's reassuring.- Rahvin shushed her. I had to agree, but I didn't know what else to tell her. It's not something that they usually cover in school.
"This blonde girl came, and said they were taking care of it...and then you disappeared...Could you please explain what's going on?!"
I winced. *She's survived Myotismon's attack, and finding out about the Digital World. This wont be too hard. I hope.* "It's...kind of a long story."
***
I edged the other DigiDestined away while T.K. tried to explain and calm down his mother at the same time. "Who's next?" I asked. "Kari?" Kari shrugged, and gave me her address. I closed my eyes, and concentrated. Using magic came naturally to me. Of course, it came naturally to all of us, here on Chaos, but that's beside the point. Focusing my energy, I reached through the boundaries between the worlds, and sent a bit of awareness out to their Earth. Zooming along streets, I muttered the address again, to make sure I remembered it. Finding the right place, I found the nearest contact, make a temporary anchor, and completed the spell. All this occurred in a manner of seconds.
I opened my eyes to see the boy called Tai's face in the communication spell's window. Leaving Kari to talk to her brother, I went about setting up communication spells for the rest of the DigiDestined, and left them to explain, calm, and comfort their families.
Going over to the elevators, I took the one up to D'nea's quarters. I found her in
her garden. Being a plant mage, D'nea had used her magic to create and help maintain the numerous flowers, ferns, ivy, bonsai trees, and other miscellaneous plants that grew there. And throughout the garden was a network of fountains, waterfalls, and streams, that all eventually led back to the pool in the middle. Sometimes, when she thought about it, D'nea used the pool to scry with, but we hadn't used it recently for anything really important. Besides, it had the tendency to be somewhat temperamental.
D'nea was perched beside the pool, her feet dangling in the water. Aiiya, her sphinx familiar and the first familiar we'd met when we first discovered that we were Chaos Lords, was stretched out behind her, and D'nea was leaning against Aiiya's side.
"Why didn't you tell me?" I demanded, coming over and sitting next to her.
She wasn't startled at my sudden appearance, but that didn't surprise me. We joked a lot that we were on the same brainwave, and we could usually tell when the other was nearby.
"Because..." D'nea stared at her feet and sent ripples across the water with her magic, making patterns with them. "...I was afraid. And...I figured you would make me stay here, while you went out looking for Ae'ros and Dem."
"Well, you're right, I am." I continued before she could protest. "What if you get worse, while we're searching? We have to find Dem and Ae'ros, and if you get really sick we might not be able to find them in time." -And I don't want to lose both of you.- I added, through our mind-link. Too bad we couldn't reach Ae'ros through it.
D'nea scowled. "So I stay here, while you're off risking your life for our friends?" She knew I was right, but couldn't help feeling guilty.
I hugged her. "Hey, it'll be okay. I'll tell you the moment we find Enime. And if I get in trouble, I'll just yell and you can pop right on over there."
D'nea hugged me back, and coughed. "I'm gonna kill him," she told me, more angry than I was used to her being. But it suddenly passed, and turned into curiosity as something occurred to her. "Out of curiosity, why do you suppose Enime always takes Ae'ros first?"
"His fatal flaw that will lead to his downfall?"
A grin threatened to appear on her face. "Then why haven't we beaten him yet?"
"Good point. I dunno...maybe he finds Ae'ros as a better target?"
A communication spell, with Avi's trademark red magic on it, opened up in front of us. "They're done, and a couple of them want you to set up another spell for them."
"Why don't you do it, Avi?" I pointed out. "It'll be good practice." Avi was getting a real knack with spells, but since she'd started later than we did, she couldn't do quite as many things.
"Because you know I can't do inter-dimensional communication spells." Avi pulled a face at me.
Aiiya yawned, and stood up. "You might as well go back down. There must be oodles of things to tie up, sending them home and all."
D'nea frowned, and I could almost see the little light bulb go off over her head. "We can't send them home."
I stared at her. "What? Why?"
"Because Enime will just kidnap them again. At least, what's to stop him?"
-Good point, Chi,- I grumbled, frowning at this new dilemma, and suddenly realized that the communication spell with Avi was still up. My cousin shrugged. "Come down, and we'll figure it all out, alright?"
***
Meeting downstairs again, and taking a moment to introduce Aiiya to the kids and Digimon, I explained the new dilemma.
"We couldn't go home anyway," replied Kari, her grin matching the rest of the DigiDestined's. Rahvin and I blinked in confusion. Kari elaborated. "After all, the whole reason D'nea's in trouble is because she had to come and rescue us."
"One good turn deserves another," Gatomon added.
"But..." Rahvin spluttered.
"But..." I agreed.
"But nothing. And better yet, if you'll set up a few more of those communication thingies, we can contact the older kids," Davis pointed out. "I'll bet they help out, too."
"Yeah! And, Joe's studying to be a doctor! I'll bet he could help with D'nea's problem!" Yolei piped up.
"But..."
"But..."
"Just accept our help," Wizardmon suggested.
Rahvin and I looked at each other, sighed simultaneously, and shrugged. "It can't hurt, I guess," Rahvin decided, hesitantly.
"Of course not. And besides, if you're going to be looking for your friends in the Digital World you'll need our help anyway," Cody told us, speaking up for the first time. He'd seemed busy earlier, studying the Great Hall with a measuring eye. "And the older DigiDestined will be a big help with that, too."
I nodded, and the itch that signaled a coughing fit returned. Through coughs, I called up a glass of water, minus the glass. It's lack of a container didn't faze me, and I grabbed it, trying to sooth the itch with it. While I was doing this, Chris padded over to us and yowled. -Enough yapping, let's get with it!-
***
After a few hurried "calls" around, they'd finally located all of the original DigiDestined. Rahvin set up the spells in a circle, so Tai, Matt, Sora, Mimi, Joe and Izzy could see each other as well as us Chaos Lords and the new DigiDestined. Matt and Tai were visibly relieved to have Kari and T.K. back and breathing again, Sora, Joe, Izzy, and Mimi were a little ticked that Tai and Matt hadn't told them about it, and they all were startled to see Wizardmon. At last, though, T.K. and the others explained what was going on.
"So you need our help?" Joe, craned his neck, trying to see me. I realized I was standing just out of his line of sight.
Sidestepped so he could see me I shrugged. "They said you could help us."
"Not," Rahvin added, hurriedly, "that we can't take care of this ourselves."
I nodded, agreeing wholeheartedly, and continuing. "It's just it would be a lot easier with your help."
"Exactly." We nodded at each other.
The DigiDestined, new and old, tried their best to hide their grins, and we pretended not to notice them. "You did save our friends," Tai told them. "The least we can do is help you save yours."
"True."
"Alright then." Rahvin rubbed her hands together. "A quick teleportation spell, and you'll all be here in a jiffy."
"Wait!" Joe yelped. "Let me get some stuff first!" His face disappeared from his "window."
"Just let me get my laptop," Izzy told Rahvin, and he, too, disappeared. Mimi quickly followed suit, giving an quick explanation involving make-up and her hat.
"Well, I'm ready. Beam me up, Scotty!" Tai grinned.
Rahvin winced. "Ouch. Alright, one teleportation, coming up." The communication disappeared, and Tai suddenly stood in its place.
"Whoa! Talk about fast transportation!"
A few moments later, Matt and Sora also were there, and Izzy had returned. "Alright. Beam me u-"
"That joke's been used."
"Darn it."
***
The new and old DigiDestined, their Digimon friends, the Chaos Lords, and a small assortment of their friends gathered around the large table in the center of the great hall. The table had become round, so they could all see each other without being left out. D'nea started to introduce one of the newcomers, but suddenly broke down into a coughing fit, so Rahvin had to take over for her. "That's Min," she explained, gesturing towards me, and I took a little pleasure at the startled expressions on both the humans and the digimons faces. After all, I'll admit I'm somewhat striking when you first meet me. I've been told I look like "a living Ying-Yang." I'm still trying to decide if this is a compliment or not. To be more specific, I am split in half, my right side is a beautiful ebony black, down to the smallest detail. And the left side the same, only a brilliant snow white. My sword hangs at my side, and it was also split down the middle in a similar fashion. "She's a chaos being, one that our former self created."
"Created?" One of the DigiDestined, the one they'd called Yolei frowned, and I picked up a faint idea from her: This sounds a little like Ken and Kimeramon.
The human called Izzy had, however, picked up on something else. "Former self?"
I smirked.
Rahvin sighed. "Long story there. I'll explain later."
D'nea's coughing fit subsided, and she wore a scowl. "Can we get started? The sooner we find Dem, the sooner we find Enime, and the sooner I can punch his face in."
"Who's Dem?" Another boy, supposedly one of the older DigiDestined, called "Matt" asked.
"Dementia Moonstruck," D'nea answered.
-Borderline! Borderline! Borderline!- Chris hopped up onto D'nea's shoulders, who rubbed the cat's chin, and continued. I grinned. Dementia had added that last part to her name, after one run in with Enime.
"She...uh...has a thing against Carrots, and an obsession with explosives. She also has a floating volleyball minion. Not to mention an umbrella named Schnookums."
I bit back the urge to point out the obvious, only because someone else was about to for me. "That doesn't help."
"Um...she's, like, the original Chaos Being," D'nea explained, and I fought back a wave of jealousy.
The Digimon introduced as Wizardmon turned just a little paler, and made an odd choking sound. "The one who has various religious sects popping up and worshipping her? The one who half a cell block in Eternity was setting up the cult about?"
Rahvin and D'nea winced simultaneously. "Um...we haven't heard as much, but it's pretty likely. She seems to have that effect on people."
"Actually," I spoke up, "She usually has them running in terror. Though, they have occasionally
D'nea tried to continue her explanation. "Dementia's probably the only Chaos Being we didn't create. In fact, there's only three Chaos Beings that we know of, and Min and Ego were created by us."
"You've...lost me. Totally and completely."
D'nea winced. "Erm...okay, Dementia is the one who usually bails us out, because her natural chaotic and lunatic-ness wreaks havoc with Enime's logic. And so, he's got to her first, before she can help us out. And, we're hoping, she knows where he is, thus we could find Enime when we find Dementia. And wherever Enime is Ae'ros is probably somewhere nearby. And once we find him, it'll be no problem royally kicking Enime's-"
"D'nea!"
"-arse."
Another of the older DigiDestined, this one a boy named "Tai," tried to take control of the situation. "Alright then. So, we all go searching the Digital World until we find this Dementia person."
"It'll be harder than it sounds. She's a handful of scattered pixels right now," Rahvin pointed out. "And besides, we're not all going?"
"What?"
D'nea suddenly looked sullen. Rahvin continued. "D'nea's staying here. I'm not going to take the chance that she'll get any sicker."
"I'll stay here with her," The girl called Kari volunteered.
"If Kari's staying, then me an' Veemon will, too," A boy introduced to me as "Davis" piped up immediately, before Kari's Digimon friend, Gatomon, could volunteer also. I pondered potential emotional tensions going on.
"Ditto," the cat Digimon added.
"I'll stay, also." Wizardmon volunteered.
The "pre-doctor" boy, Joe, looked almost relieved. "And I'll stay, too. It'll be good practice, if she does get any worse."
D'nea made a face. "Glad someone will be enjoying this."
Rahvin nodded. "Alright. The rest of us will search for Dementia. D'nea, if anything happens just tell me, alright?"
D'nea nodded. At the confused looks of the humans and Digimon, she explained. "We're mind-linked. It's one of the perks of being a Chaos Lord. We usually can sense Ae'ros, too, but he's either stone or, maybe, reverted into his essence, or..."
"Okay, okay!" I interrupted. "I know you could go on all day. When do we head out?"
"How's now sound?" Rahvin suggested.
"Good for me." I grinned, if a little manically.
***
The English teacher, dubbed Herr Huke by some of his less sane students, sat in one corner of the large-ish cell, trying to grade papers while blocking out the noise made by the chanting prisoners who occupied the same cell as he did. It didn't help that the one they were chanting about (or to. He couldn't figure out which one) was one of his former students. It also didn't help that one of her old papers happened to float to the surface of his grading stack. He didn't realize until he was half way through that he was reading Paris's formal lawsuit against the characters of Romeo and Juliet until it was too late.
Resisting the urge to throw the red grading pen across the room, Dementia's ninth grade English teacher took a few moments to deep breath, calm down, and try to smite something. Millions of miles away, across the fabric of time and space, a lightning bolt came out of no where and struck an innocent particle of dust. However, since Herr Huke was oblivious to this, he couldn't get any satisfaction from it.
Flipping to the next paper, he read it through, and then scrawled the grade and a small note beside it. "A. Because, despite the fact that I'm being held captive in the same cell as a bunch of loonies who are worshipping one of my former students, I must rise above the need to make others as miserable as I am right now. Nice paper. Well written."
"D. Because the paper is lacking something, and thus is grinding my nerves at this totally inopportune time. Rewrite this later, when I'm no longer trapped in some afterworld prison, and I'll give you more credit."
The chanting grew louder. Herr Huke tried humming a few Lorena McKennet songs, trying to drown out the chanting and, when that didn't work, started singing all her CDs, in alphabetical order. It worked only because of the fact some of the chanters heard him, and started singing along. Soon the whole group were listening, and belting out the choruses with him.
And so, Herr Huke gave up trying to grade papers and began to direct the prisoners in a chorus of "Green sleeves", oblivious to the presence of a small, pixie-shaped handful of pixels, which flittered above him.
***
"Ken...I think we're lost."
I stopped and looked around. I had to agree. "I think you're right. But, how can we be? I thought I knew the Digital World like the back of my hand!"
Wormon wiggled his front feet in a shrug. "Maybe we could ask someone for directions?"
I shook my head, and sighed. "Like anyone would help me. I was the Digimon Emperor, remember? They all hate me."
"They just don't know you. Who could not like you, Ken?"
Before I could answer, piercing squeals reached my ears. Wormon and I exchanged looks, and ran towards the direction of the sound. Stumbling through some bushes, we came into a clearing where a small group of baby Digimon were clustered together, squeaking in terror. In front of them stood a semi-transparent....Darth Vader?!
"Hey!" I yelled, trying to figure out what was going on. "Why don't you pick on someone your own size!"
Darth Vader turned to look at me, and disintergrated. His pixels scattered, and then grouped again, to form a large, blue golf umbrella, which waved at me threateningly. I blinked, and shrugged. Well, Darth Vader or blue golf umbrella, those Digimon looked terrified and I wasn't going to let anything happen to them. "Wormon, Digivolve!" I held out my digivice, and Wormon started to glow.
The umbrella positioned itself between me and the Digimon babies, opening and closing with sharp, snapping sounds. The little Digimon were squeaking, and trying to hide behind the umbrella. A light bulb flickered on in my brain. "Wormon! Wait!" He stopped glowing, and looked at me like I was crazy.
The umbrella vanished, and the words "Grrrrrr..." appeared where it had been.
"See? It's just trying to protect them."
The words disappeared, to be replaced with new once, "It? Excuse me? It?! I am woman, hear me roar, thank you!"
"Hey, I'm sorry. But, you were an umbrella a few seconds ago."
The pixels re-arranged themselves into a reply. "So? Are you saying that umbrellas cant have genders? Just wait 'till I find Schnookums!"
"*Look*. I'm sorry, alright? I thought you were attacking those baby Digimon."
"Well, I wasn't. I was teaching them of the great works of Star Wars. So nyah."
I was beginning to question the sanity of this person. Pixels. Whatever. Wormon blinked at her. "What's Star Wars?"
The words suddenly became a small, transparent TV screen. On it, Episode 1's trailer flickered across it, and then switched to brief summaries of the last three Episodes. After this, the screen disappeared, and the words "Any more questions?" appeared where it had been.
My partner blinked a few times. "No."
I had one, though. "Who are you, anyway?"
"Dementia Moonstruck!" Below this, in smaller letters, was the words "Borderline! Borderline! Borderline!" Inside joke? Maybe...
"I'm Ken."
There was a pause, and then she responded. "The Digimon Emperor?"
My spirits sank. Was that going to follow me everywhere? Probably.... "Yeah."
"Cool!"
Both Wormon and I were taken aback. "What?"
"You heard me. You haven't had much experience with explosives, though, have you? Like...any current access to them?" Despite the fact they were words made of pixels, I detected a hopeful tone to them. Maybe it was the image of a begging puppy hovering around the L and the question mark.
"Not...really." I didn't remember blowing anything up...usually it was the other kids who did that, and usually it was one of the control spires.
The words "Sigh" appeared, and then a pair of arms appeared, and shrugged. "Oh well. You'll tell me if you get some, though, right?"
I wasn't sure if that was a good idea, but since I never counted on getting any explosives, I didn't think it would hurt. "Uh...sure."
The baby Digimon, tired of being ignored, simultaneously burst into a chorus of tiny wails. "Ack!" Dementia wrote, and her pixels zipped down to them and made little spirals in the air, with small explosions of color. The babies stopped their cries, and "ooh"ed at the display.
"Where'd they come from, anyway?"
"Dunno. They're lost."
Wormon scuttled over to the babies. "Then we should get them home, shouldn't we? Maybe they live in Primary Village."
The little creatures nodded, with a chorus of "Yep!"
A small, pouting face appeared, with more words. "I'm lost too."
"You're in the Digital World..."
The answer appeared before I could finish. "I know that. But I'm really, totally and completely lost!"
"Well, so are Wormon and I."
"But you haven't lost your body!" came the heated reply, with small, see-through flames on either side of the words.
I winced. "Oh...that's what you mean."
"Duh."
Wormon scrambled over to me. "We can help! Can't we, Ken?"
The begging puppy appeared again, and its expression mirrored the one that Wormon wore. Like I could say no to this... "Of course we can. As soon as we get these babies back to their home."
"Whoohooo!" The umbrella appeared again, and swung itself in a happy circle.
I think this is a good place to stop, don't you? *EG* Ahem....anyhow....Review, please! It'll make me so happy! I'll be posting the next part ASAP, as soon as it's written. Thanks again, Dem!