The Digidestined (without their digimon partners) gathered on the Island of Server, at a predecided meeting point. It was a little while before everybody arrived. By then, Tai was edgier than ever.
"What took you guys so long?! How long does it take to shower and get dressed?!"
"Some of us have kids to take care of Tai!" barked Yolei, who was obviously not fully awake. Ken sighed, as if he had seen this coming.
"Don't you think I know that?" Tai retorted. "I have kids too, you know!"
"Just drop it, you two!" said Kari. "We didn't come here to fight! You're acting like a couple of my students."
"Yeah, don't make her send you to the principal's office!" said Davis jokingly.
Cody put a hand over his eyes to shield the morning sun, and searched the horizon. "Gennai's house should be just north of this spot."
"Then let's go!" ordered Tai, sprinting down the path already. The others followed at a more sedate pace.
"How long do you think he can keep that up?" Mimi asked.
"He's still pretty healthy," said Joe. "He could probably keep that up for a good...twenty minutes."
"Ahh, the joys of aging," Sora muttered. "If it's not one thing, it's another."
"Well, age hasn't changed you a bit," Matt said smiling.
"You're still a flirt, aren't you," she responded, kissing him on the cheek as they walked hand in hand.
"Oi vey," muttered TK.
After a while they caught up with Tai, who had been 'resting' on a boulder on the side of the path. When he joined them in walking, he seemed to do it with a slight limp. Upon questioning, he said it was an 'old soccer injury'. Also, he said, he didn't want to leave the others in the dust. Of course, nobody believed him.
"Hey, look up there," said Izzy as they reached the end of the path. Up the hill before them, they saw a fine piece of housing stylized to look like the old Japanese temples from feudal times. A sign next to them said, 'Gennai's House' in big, bold letters.
"I guess he's not worried about troublemakers," said Sora.
"He keeps getting better and better housing," added Joe. "You'd think he was a millionaire or something."
"Well, he's been around forever," Kari joined in. "Maybe he just has really old stocks and bonds."
"Enough kidding around," Tai said. "Let's go talk to him."
"Yes, your highness," said Mimi sarcastically as Tai half-jogged (full-jogging was impossible with his 'old soccer injury') up the hill. "Man, he's as bossy as he was when we were kids."
"You should talk," said Sora teasingly. "You were just as bad."
"I was not!" she asserted. "I just spoke my mind. I am the bearer of the crest of Sincerity, after all."
"You say it, sistah'!" added Yolei. The two high-fived each other, and the others just groaned.
Tai banged on the large, metallic front door. "Gennai, open up! It's me Tai!" When Tai got no answer, he continued on like this as the others caught up to him.
"By the way, how old is Gennai?" Mimi asked. "Is he still around?"
"Sure he is," Izzy answered. "He was made young again when all those disasters struck the Digital World, so he's probably just starting to get gray hairs again."
Yolei snapped her fingers. "Darn, I was hoping he would still look like a stud."
Ken gave her an odd glance, as did the others.
"Oh, I mean, not as cute as you of course, honey," she added.
"Sure," he said sourly.
"She's just kidding Ken," Cody said. "Sometimes she forgets herself."
Yolei kissed her husband lovingly on the lips. "You know I only have eyes for you, 'my Emperor'."
"'My Emperor'?" Sora said. Ken blushed and looked at the ground shyly, while the others laughed...except for Tai, who had just now stopped beating futily on Gennai's door.
"He must not be home," noted Izzy. "I wonder where he could be?"
"Can't he leave a message before he leaves?!" Tai said angrily.
Joe noticed something on the ground nearby. He picked up a waterlogged piece of paper. "You mean like this?"
Tai took it and read it aloud. "'Going away for the weekend. Will be back Monday. Gennai.' Why would he go on vacation? He doesn't do anything!" said Tai angrily.
"Relax Tai," said Izzy. He walked around the house, and the others followed him curiously. Izzy stopped in front of a large window that was cracked open, most likely to let air inside. "Give me a boost. Gennai won't mind, during an emergency."
"I hope so." Tai stuck a knee out, and the smaller man got on it and climbed to his shoulders. Izzy managed to push the window the rest of the way open and climbed in. There was a loud crash as the redhead clumsily entered the house. The others ran to the front door again.
"I can't believe we're breaking into Gennai's house," TK laughed.
"This isn't going into one of your books, is it?" Kari asked.
"It better not!" Tai said. The others just smiled.
The front door of Gennai's house was unlocked from the inside, and Izzy opened the door. "Come in, ladies and gentle-"
Tai dashed in. "Let's find Gennai's computer and see what he's got in it. Izzy, let's go!"
"...men," finished Izzy. The others came in, and both Tai and Izzy searched high and low for a computer. Unfortunately they weren't sure if he even had one.
"Wow, this is a nice place," Davis said as they all looked in wonder at all the things inside. There were interesting statues, old paintings, and trinkets of all kinds. They found what appeared to be the living room and took their seats while Izzy and Tai combed the house.
"Come on, he's gotta have one," Tai said as he ran by. He backtracked when he noticed them all relaxing. "Why aren't you guys helping?! This house is bigger than it looks you know!"
"Yeah Davis, why aren't you helping?" Kari asked. "You too TK."
"Matt, they need your aeronautic abilities," said Sora innocently.
"Go help them, honey," added Yolei. The four men looked at each other, and sighed in unison. They got up and started working on the basement levels, while the girls chatted about various things and got caught up on the latest gossip. Joe and Cody simply grinned and calmly examined the fine pieces of art around the room.
****
It happened so quickly. A loud cry of anger... a surge of power... a painful scream. Seadramon didn't stand a chance against that skeleton of a digimon. Tohru could do nothing but watch in fear as a creature he couldn't believe was real rended and slashed at his digimon companion.
"Seadramon!" Tohru cried as the final deathblow from Naki's digimon slashed through his opponent. Seadramon burst into a cloud of pixels, and the digimon was no more. For a second, Tohru couldn't comprehend what just happened.
"That was fun."
"Wha...what are you?" Tohru asked in fear. "You're not my sister..."
Naki looked at him, revealing the dramatic change in her features. Her once soft brown eyes hidden behind a pair of thin glasses had been replaced with glowing red irises. Her lips were curled into a satisfied smile at seeing the expression on Tohru's face. She took several steps towards the boy, causing him to stumble backwards in fear. Her giant digimon followed her with a similar expression.
"Of course I am," both seemed to say. The giant digimon and Naki's mouth both moved, but the voice was way too guttural and masculine to be hers. "Who else would I be?" the voice asked mockingly.
Tohru got to his feet, his sadness overpowered by a sense of urgency. Looking left and right, he dashed towards the TV he arrived in. Unfortunately, it was too far away to allow a clean getaway.
"Not so fast." The giant digimon leaped a good thirty feet over the boy and landed where the TV was, crushing it easily. Tohru stared in fear at the massive monster, and stumbled backwards. He bumped into his 'sister', who grabbed him by the throat in a surprisingly strong chokehold.
"Not so fun when you're the one feeling the pain, is it?" they said. Tohru tried to break from Naki's grip, but it was like trying to bend steel.
"Let...*gasp*...me...*gasp*...go!" he managed to say.
Naki smiled, as did her digimon companion. "You know what I want to hear."
Tohru saw red and yellow circles in front of him, and was starting to feel woozy. No amount of struggling seemed to be working, so he simply relented for survival's sake. "You're...*gasp*...better than...*gasp*...me."
"I didn't quite get that," they said. Naki's grip tightened, making Tohru cry out in pain with what little air he had in his lungs.
"You're better- *cough, weeze*-hack, than me!"
Seemingly satisfied, Naki threw the boy to the ground. Tohru took in the precious air that had been denied him, while Naki and her digimon stared icily.
"Now, say that you are a freak, and that your digimon is weak. Or have I already proved that beyond a doubt?" The two laughed simultaneously, while Tohru lay there weakly and praying for dear life.
"Betamon..." he whispered softly. "You were right...I'm so sorry..."
"It's no use apologizing now. You should have listened to him. Perhaps then you wouldn't have gotten him killed."
Tohru managed to get to his feet, open anger on his face. "I don't know what you did to my sister, but I know she would never kill a digimon on purpose! What kind of monster are you?!"
"Next time, be careful who you pick on. Sometimes they'll do something...unexpected." Naki jumped onto the massive digimon's shoulder. "I will spare your life, so that you can always remember this day and feel ashamed of your failure. Thanks to you, the world is now mine."
As that realization sunk in, the Ultimate level digimon stomped off to use another TV. Tohru fell to his knees, and openly cried as he realized that Betamon would never forgive him.
****
"Hey guys, I found it!" said Davis as he ran back up to the main floor. The others met up with him.
"Good, lead us to it," Tai ordered. Davis led them down the basement steps and down a few halls, until finally they came upon a nicely furnished, but small study. In the center of the room was a desk with an 'old-fashioned' Pentium 4 processor, monitor, mouse and keyboard.
Izzy sat at the desk and cracked his knuckles in anticipation. "Ahh, this brings back memories." The computer genius began to type at an incredible pace, each keystroke making a nostalgic *click* each time they were punched.
"Are you sure you know what you're doing?" Matt asked. "Don't you think Gennai would keep the important stuff separate from the computer?"
"I realize that, but in the Digital World that's not really possible," Izzy said. "Data is accessible from just about anywhere. All you need is the right code."
"So what're you looking for?" Cody asked.
"Look for anything that might have to do with the Crests," Tai said. "Ours and the girl's."
Izzy typed the programming code at an incredible speed, showing off his amazing computer skills. Of course, they all knew that computers were his life, so his skill came as no surprise. After about thirty seconds, Izzy proudly said, "Got it."
Images and data concerning each of the nine crests (the eight original, plus the crest of Kindness) were displayed in sequence. The information provided descriptions of each crest's power level, their aspect, and their owner. Amongst this information were several records that detailed when and where they were used, and what they were used for. Needless to say, the records were really long.
"There's plenty of stuff about our crests, but what about Naki's?" Kari asked. As a teacher, she was good at remembering names.
"I'm looking..." Izzy scanned down the list quickly, skipping over the battles with the Dark Masters, and the events with Apocalypmon. Finally, he came to the last few records- the ones detailing when the original Digidestined gave up the power of their crests to create a barrier of good over the Digital World. After that, Ken's crest was the only one.
"There's nothing here about Naki's crest," Izzy said finally. "Either Gennai doesn't no about it, or it's in a different file."
"Wait, what's that," said Yolei. She pointed at the very last record, which didn't have anyone's name on it. It was just a general record concerning all the crests. It said 'Power returned via reverse process'.
"What's that mean?" asked Sora.
Izzy leaned back in his cushioned chair. "Well, if our crests lost their power when we created that barrier over the Digital World, then the reverse would mean the Digital World giving power to us."
"So you're saying that our crests are back because the entire Digital World recharged them?" Joe asked. "That's crazy!"
"As crazy as it sounds, it's a better answer than I can come up with."
Ken put a hand to his chin. "But how could Gennai do that? He doesn't have that kind of power."
"No, but Oikawa does," said Tai.
"Oikawa?!"
"Sure. Who else would have the power of the Digital World at their fingertips? Azulongmon and the other spirits don't, but Oikawa is different. He may not be able to put up much of a fight like Azulongmon, but if he's protecting the Digital World then he probably can manipulate the barrier our crests made."
"I suppose that's a viable solution," Izzy mused.
"But why would he do that?" Cody asked. "Doesn't that mean the barrier of good is gone?"
"It wasn't doing us much good anyway," said TK. "We had all kinds of trouble in the Digital World even after we made it."
"Oikawa can protect the Digital World without the barrier," said Izzy. "That mini-dimension of wishing took care of that."
"So the real question is, why did he do that if Naki's crest was going to drain ours anyway? Why not just give her a crest like ours?"
Izzy looked at the screen curiously, and a thought came to him. "...He must not have known about it. That crest must have come from somewhere else."
"But where could it have come from?" Kari questioned.
"When I first showed the crest to Black Agumon, he didn't recognize it."
"He may have been lying," suggested Cody.
"I know, but he seemed genuinely surprised about the crest," Izzy replied. "I think he was telling the truth about that, if nothing else."
"So...that would mean the crest would have to come from the Dark World then," Ken said softly.
"Can the powers of darkness really create a Crest?" asked Kari. "If they could...then why haven't we seen one until now?"
"It was an accident," said Izzy. The others looked at him, confusion evident in their faces. "It has to be. If Naki has a new digivice, then that means something about her has caused the model to evolve. The same thing happened with Ken."
Ken nodded in agreement. "Right... when I entered the Dark Ocean for the first time, that was when Sam's digivice changed and became mine."
"So then maybe this girl somehow did that as well. The Dark Ocean could have caused not only her digivice to change, but allowed her to create a Crest."
"That can't be good," groaned Matt.
"Her digivice was with her Agumon in the Dark World," Izzy continued. "He must have caused the transformation. The Crest must have been a by-product."
"Do you think she could have been affected by it too?" suggested Joe. "We all know how Ken was affected."
"So we could have an evil girl with a Crest from the Dark Ocean running around?" Davis said.
It was Tai's turn to be inspired. "What if...yeah, that's gotta be it."
"Huh?"
Tai turned to Ken. "Your digivice! It could block our digimons' ability to digivolve, remember?! You used the control spires to make the range bigger, right?!"
Ken didn't like to be reminded of that, but he nodded. "Right."
"So what if this girl's digivice has the power to drain energy?! She could be killing our digimon with help from the powers of darkness! None of this started until her digivice and digimon appeared."
"Tai, you don't know that for sure," Izzy said. "There might be another reason."
"What else could it be?!" he exclaimed.
"But if that were true, why just us?" Joe wondered. "Nobody else has been complaining about weak digimon at the hospitals."
"Maybe it's because we're the biggest threat to the powers of darkness," suggested TK. "We are Digidestined, after all."
"That's it!" exclaimed Tai. "That's gotta be it!"
"Tai, I think I would have noticed something like that when I examined her digivice."
"Izzy, you've never seen a digivice like hers before! How would you know what to look for?! Come on guys, it's gotta be the answer! We've gotta go stop her! Please, you've gotta trust me!" Izzy still didn't seem willing to agree, and the others had similar expressions.
"Guys...don't any of you trust me?" he asked sadly.
Sora slowly put a hand on his shoulder. "I trust him." Tai looked at her and smiled...lovingly. Before he could stop himself, the damage had already been done. She must have noticed something in his expression, because she started to blush.
Matt made his decision. He looked up and nodded in agreement. "I do too." Tai grinned and nodded respectfully to his long-time friend and ally.
"Me too!" said Davis.
"Yeah!" agreed Yolei. The others voiced their sentiments, and before long it was down to just Izzy.
"Come on Izzy...trust me," said Tai. "I may not have all the answers like you do, but I have a feeling in my gut. That girl is killing our best friends. Don't you want to help us save them?"
After a period of thought, Izzy stood up and nodded. "Alright Tai. I'll go with you guys on this hunch of yours. But if you're wrong..."
"Don't worry, I'm not," Tai said seriously. "I knew from the start that something about this girl wasn't right."
"I think it's time we stop playing around and we take care of this!" rallied Davis.
"Let's hurry," said Ken. "If we're lucky, maybe we can save her from the powers of darkness...and save our digimon as well."
