Come back, Sora! Part two: "Prelude to an awakening."
Note: This happens 3 months after Sora disappeared. At this point, Ken is no longer the Digimon Kaizer, and is trying to help find Sora. I also used the Nihongo names (Japanese names). Taichi is Tai, Yamato is Matt, Miyako is Yolei, Iori is Cody, Daisuke is Davis, Hikari is Kari, Jou is Joe. If there is anything else that I forgot to address, I'm sorry. Thanks to the two people who have already reviewed the first part of the fic, here is the second or three parts.
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Taichi looked at Izzy for the hundredth time. Izzy was sitting in the grass typing on his computer, trying to reconfigure the digital world for the hundredth time. Izzy's computer started displaying strange text, which started to scroll faster and faster up the screen. Izzy sighed, and disconnected his computer. He glanced up at Taichi. "I just don't get it, no matter what I do, when I run the program, I get a jumbled mess," Izzy said as he looked at Taichi.
Taichi didn't say anything. He glanced at Izzy, who looked out the window at the scarred remains of Tokyo. Memories flooded through his mind, about what had happened after the Digital world had been destroyed.
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(Flashback)
All of the digidestined, except for Sora who had chosen to remain with her Digimon, Biyomon, to the very end, stood watching the computer screen.
Sora was gone now, and it was up to Izzy to find her again. He frantically began accessing all of the old ports that he remembered that led into the Digital world. Each one was open, and data was flooding in and out of it. He was about to attempt to access one when a frantic cry from Daisuke in the Kamiya's living room distracted him.
Izzy glanced up, annoyed. A sight out the window caught his eye and made him stop. The sky was black, dark black! There were some clouds swirling in the sky, and they didn't look like they belonged on earth. The clouds started to grow, and they quickly blocked out the entire sky. The clouds stopped swirling, and got so thick that they were totally solid. Violent winds started picking up, howling in fury no living thing had beheld before. The wind was so strong, the glass started to bend in on the windows. Everyone moved back from the windows, and people in the street could be seen being blown into the sides of buildings.
After about 20 minutes, things started disappearing. Buildings would simply vanish, leaving empty space behind. First, smaller buildings would disappear, followed by larger buildings. Almost every building in Tokyo had vanished by the time that everything began to settle down.
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(Current day)
Izzy looked up at the still dark sky. Even after months, the sky was still a dark black. Tokyo quickly had emptied of all inhabitants, except for the Digidestined. They alone lived in the once great city of Tokyo.
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(Flashback)
After escaping to the real world, Ken had planned to attack the Digidestined. He wanted to rule everything, and just because his preferred medium to start his takeover was gone didn't mean he would give up. However, the destruction of Tokyo had been daunting indeed. After weeks of searching, Ken gave up being the Kaizer. There wasn't a reason to continue the fight anymore.
Wormmon had noticed a change in Ken. It had been subtle at first. But one day, Wormmon decided to test this change in Ken.
"Hi, Ken. How are you doing today?" Wormmon asked warmly as he walked in to Ken's new office.
Ken stood up suddenly. Wormmon cringed and held back. Ken walked to the window.
"This is not what I planned, Wormmon. This world is useless to me, and everyone else!" Ken looked extremely frustrated.
"What about the Digidestined? You could still destroy them," Wormmon said.
Ken was stunned. He hadn't thought about the other kids that had thwarted him so many times before in a week, since escaping the doomed world he had planned to takeover. "I… I don't know…" he finally stuttered out. "They aren't in the plans anymore," he said.
Wormmon was surprised! "What do you plan to do, Ken?" Wormmon asked.
Ken pulled off his Kaizer glasses and tossed them on the table, where they disintegrated. "I don't know," he said honestly.
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(Present)
Izzy was still getting nowhere. Every attempt he made came up against a brick wall, one way or another. He was beyond frustration, and even Miyako couldn't help. The two were still trying to get into the server that had hosted the Digital world.
"It's no use, Izzy. The digital world is gone, and there is nothing we can do about it," Miyako said.
Izzy was about to reply when a strange voice interrupted his thoughts.
"Maybe I can help," Ken said from the door, startling both Izzy and Miyako.
Tentomon and Hawkmon were quick to react, and were about to attack. "What do you want?" Tentomon demanded.
Ken was startled by Tentomon. "I want to help you find Sora," he said with confidence.
Izzy looked at Miyako, who in turn looked at Izzy. Their eyes met for a moment, before they looked back at Ken.
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(One week ago, flashback, Wormmon's Point Of View)
I stood there, looking up through the crack in the door. I had some old news of little importance to relay to Ken. I was about to push through the door, and speak, but something held me back.
As I got closer to the door, I heard something inside. It's Ken! He's crying, but why?
Gently, I pushed the door open a crack. I looked in to see Ken asleep in a chair. He was crying in his sleep, tossing and turning. He turned so that I could see his face. I gasped at the pained expression on his face. Ken was drenched in a cold sweat.
I pushed the door open more, and walked into the room. Something to my right caught my eye. I turned to look at it, and it disappeared.
"Sora?" I said to myself. Wasn't that the girl who had been destroyed with the rest of the digital world?
"Ken, wake up!" I called.
Ken woke up, and looked around, terror in his eyes. He looked at me. "Oh, Wormmon!" he said. He looked around, then back at me.
"What's wrong, Ken?" I asked.
Ken's face turned an even brighter shade of white. "I saw Sora," he said.
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(Present)
Taichi walked into the room. "Hey, guys," he said. He saw who Izzy and Miyako were looking at and was barely able to contain his rage.
"What do you want?" Taichi demanded of Ken.
Ken looked at Taichi. "I'm here to help," he said.
"You aren't anything but trouble! Go back to your little hideout and leave us alone!" Taichi yelled.
Izzy looked at Taichi. "We need him, Taichi… We won't ever get Sora back if we don't have help. Right now, Ken is the only one who knows how to help," Izzy said.
Taichi felt anger boiling in him. "He's the only one who can help because he's the one who did this to Sora!" Taichi cried. "You've done enough! Just leave us alone!" Taichi yelled again.
Ken blinked. "I didn't do this! I had to flea the Digital World just like you did!"
Taichi wasn't fazed at all by this. "You lie! You were prepared to come here and take over the real world, just like the digital world!"
Ken looked at Taichi. "Why would I do this to a world I wanted to take over?" Ken demanded. "Why would I purposely destroy the exact prize that I wanted? Do you think I wanted to hurt anyone? Why, why…" Ken stuttered out at last, finally breaking down.
Taichi was startled and beside himself. What Ken had said had made too much sense to argue with.
Izzy had grown annoyed with the noise and the yelling, and had started to try to get back into the Digital World. He started where he thought he had left off. He could distantly hear the two other boys, Ken and Taichi arguing over pointless facts. Izzy was looking at a screen he had seen too many times before, the one with the endless scrolling text. He was about to sigh and give up when suddenly Ken yelled his name.
"Izzy! That's it!" he called out.
Izzy looked up, bewildered. "What's what?" he asked.
Ken shoved Izzy out of the way and typed in a program name on a network. Suddenly, a program loaded and ran, and the familiar old Digiport appeared on the computer screen in front of Izzy and Miyako.
Apparently, Hikari had heard the arguing and brought the rest of the Digidestined into the room only to see Ken disappear into the computer, followed by Izzy.
Hikari looked down, grabbed her D3 and held it up. "Digiport, OPEN!" she called, and was joined by all of the others and their Digimon. A moment later, the room was empty.
The group of Digidestined and their Digimon found themselves floating in space, amidst huge amounts of debris. There were all kinds of fragmented images, objects, and even a random Digimon floating around. Trees and rocks floated past, in random directions. Sometimes, two objects would collide and one or both would explode into a million pieces and drift outward.
Ken pulled out his Digivice and looked at it. All of the Digidestined showed up on the screen of his D3, as did their Digimon partners. They were represented as a colored letter, or shape. Well, Ken himself wasn't displayed, because he probably knew exactly where he was in relation to himself. He pushed a button and the screen turned off, and larger graphic appeared in front of everybody. There were millions of images, dots, shapes, and other clutter on it. Slowly, he began eliminating things that he knew weren't Sora or Biyomon. He pulled out a handheld PC and made a list of each thing he removed from the graphic floating in front of him. He actually made three lists. One was of the Digidestined or their Digimon. The other was of objects from the digital world. Trees, rocks, and Digimon went on this list. On the last list, he added everything he couldn't identify. The first list was quickly completed, and had a total of 22 items on it. All of the season 1 digidestined were added first, minus Sora. Then, he added their Digimon, minus Biyomon. Then he added Iori, Miyako, and Daisuke. Then, he added Armadillomon, Hawkmon, and Veemon to the list. Then he eliminated himself and Wormmon.
An hour passed, with all of the digidestined helping out. They all added objects that they could identify to the list. The map only had a few small areas that still were cluttered, and there was still no sign of Sora or Biyomon. As the work went on, Taichi noticed that Ken was working harder than anyone else. This bewildered him, and since Sora wasn't here to talk to, he didn't know whom to ask. Still, after almost an hour and a half, Sora was nowhere to be found.
Wormmon looked up at Ken, noticing Ken's expression of pure determination. Wormmon was about to comment on this when Taichi broke the peace.
"Ken, why do you want to find Sora so much?" he asked quietly.
Ken stopped for a moment and looked up. Normally, if anyone had asked him this in the past, he would respond in a highly negative way. But not today, or tomorrow, or ever again.
"It's Sora," he said simply. "She keeps appearing in my mind, when I'm asleep, when I close my eyes. Seeing her just disappear when the Digiworld was destroyed. Somehow, I feel it's my fault, because I was the Digimon emperor. As the Emperor, I wanted to take over the world, not hurt people. I didn't admit it until now, but when I saw Sora disappear, she took a part of me with her," Ken dropped his head in shame.
Taichi could almost feel a tear on his cheek. He wanted to speak, to be angry with Ken, but realized he didn't know what to say. Taichi was prepared to let an awkward silence fall upon the group when Ken growled at the floating display in front of him. Everyone looked up, and saw that the display was devoid of anything.
Ken started going through the list of "Unknowns" that had accumulated. There were many items on that list, but not nearly as many as on the "Objects" list. Ken displayed all of the "Unknown" objects. Surprisingly, they were all in a small area.
Izzy was looking at the floating display with Miyako and Ken. The three of them started talking about various programs that the others didn't have a clue about. Finally, Izzy turned to the group and sighed.
"We aren't sure what to do, but we need time to think this out. It would be best if all of you went and tried to search this are for Sora." Izzy gestured to the spot on the floating map. "We don't think we can locate her yet, but we have a theory. We need time to work on it, and if you guys go out and check the "Unknown" field, you may be able to help us," Izzy said.
Taichi looked at Ken for a long time. "I want Yamato to stay, just incase Ken tries anything," Taichi said. Yamato nodded at Taichi.
As the small group hopped from object to object, going toward the large concentration of unknown objects, Mimi was getting an idea of how big the digital world really was. After an hour of traveling, they weren't getting anywhere.
Mimi came up to Taichi. "Taichi, we need some faster transportation," she said.
Taichi reflected on how Mimi had changed since Sora had disappeared. At first, she was crushed. She had spent a lot of time alone, or with just Palmon. Even Izzy, who had a crush on Mimi, was pushed away by her. Then, after a week, she had started spending more time with all of the other Digidestined. But, she was more adult, and withdrawn.
'I guess I've been like that, too…' Taichi thought to himself. He remembers how he had been, angry and quick to judgment after Sora was gone. Then, he too, like almost all of the other digidestined, had shut himself off from the world. For a few weeks, he had sat by himself, pondering, crying, angry… Izzy had retreated into his computer. Yamato had disappeared altogether, and nobody had seen him for almost two weeks before he came back. Hikari had been vigilant, watching the computer screen where Sora had last been for hours on end, day after day. Takeru had had to pry poor Hikari away from the screen night after night to get her to sleep. Takeru was the only one in the group that hadn't gone into hiding for a few days, like everyone else had. He had been instrumental in keeping the others going for the first few weeks, finding food, water, and shelter. But something told Taichi deep down that Takeru was the most effected by the loss of Sora. Miyako had worked with Izzy, after her own time alone. Iori had done nothing but play with his Kendo stick for hours on end, never even stopping to rest or eat. He finally had to stop when he collapsed on the floor, tired and hungry. Daisuke had gone out on his own, looking for Ken, whom he thought had somehow captured Sora and Biyomon. He returned several days later, having never even seen another living thing.
"Yeah, any ideas?" Taichi asked Mimi.
Mimi looked at all of the Digimon. Her gaze settled on Patamon, resting next to Takeru. "If Patamon could Digivolve to Angemon, he could fly us there in half the time," she said.
Takeru looked up, and grinned. "How about it, Patamon?" Takeru asked with a grin.
"Sure! Patamon, digivolve to… Angemon!" Angemon flew over and collected the small group. Each Digidestined grabbed onto a part of Angemon, and held onto their Digimon at the same time. Then Angemon blasted his way toward the only obvious area where Sora could possibly be.
After blasting all the way to the strange area in space, the group got a huge surprise. There was nothing there!
"Where are we?" Hikari asked.
Taichi looked around at the nothingness. "I'm not sure…" Taichi said.
Mimi looked like she was about to cry. "Sora's here, I just know it…" she said.
Taichi looked hurt. "I-I'm sorry, Mimi…" he said.
As Mimi opened her mouth to reply, she started to glow green! The crest of Purity was outlined on her chest, startling everyone. "I—I feel her!" Mimi said. "But, not like she's standing next to me, she feels… Different…" she said.
Taichi started feeling it as well. The next thing he knew, he was in a distant memory, seeing Sora again. He could feel the courage she gave him, and how it made him feel. He could remember her smile, the way she walked, the way she smelled. He could remember everything about her, all at once.
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Yes, it is evil of me, but I want to work on something else for a short while, and I do want to give you all another dose of this fic. This is shorter than the first part, sorry. I need to work some kinks out for the rest, though. Don't worry, it only took me two days to write this, and I'm not done yet.
~Biyofan