Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon.
Author's Note: IMPORTANT: To spread things out and to keep my chapter menu from becoming ridiculously long, I am going to bring this story arc to an end and continue things in a story called Storming the Gates, which should start appearing in less than a month. I hope this won't confuse too many people. I also hope that you enjoyed this section of the story. I welcome any comments and/or reviews. On with the tale!
Episode XIII
The Sky Asunder
"Definition: Coward: Someone who runs away.
Definition: Hero: Someone who runs away in the wrong direction"
Cortell, Notes on the Great War
"For those of us on whose shoulders rests the weight of worlds, we must remember one truth. No matter how much the weight, how deep our roots, we are born to soar."
Justice, Musings
The edge loomed invitingly before TK, stretching out, with its view of the ground below. For a moment, he could feel something try and compel him to pause in his steady tread, but something else, stronger now and burning the colors of the sunrise before him, pressured him on. And, one step after another, the edge loomed closer.
Patamon screamed until he was hoarse, tears flying from his eyes as he struggled against the chain that clamped him in place, trying desperately to get his human to listen to him. Everything he did seemed in vain however, as if whatever task he had been entrusted with in caring for his human companion, he had been judged unworthy, and could not be allowed to save him anymore. Everything the panicky Digimon tried had no effect on the outcome of this dreadful scene.
Kari had been, if anything, worse. Her mental situation had prompted her to yell and scream and throw herself mercilessly against the metal that held her in place until her wrists were cut and bleeding against cold edges. She had screamed until her voice was raw, torn with edges of pain and suffering on a level that she had barely comprehended before. Everything she did was in a desperate attempt to alert her best friend to the fact that everyone cared about him, wanted him to come back, but nothing came of it. And deep inside, a treacherous voice was whispering, maybe if he had known that you wanted him to come back, he wouldn't have done this. And she could not drown it out.
Ken, who had struggled with his own inner depression tried desperately to find some way to overcome the tragedy he could see coming. But like the proverbial man whose foot was caught in the railway tracks, all he could do was watch the oncoming train and wait.
This was it.
He was afraid. He could feel it. He was afraid of the height, of the fall, of what would happen. He was afraid of hitting the bottom. He was afraid of death. TK knew it and he still walked forward.
There was a moment when the universe held its breath, where everything fell silent, when the whole world strained to hear what was coming next, as he stood poised on the edge of the rim, the world and all its environs spread out below like some multi-colored tapestry of ages, woven by a hand finer than any mortal's. For a single instant it was if nothing moved, the wind ceased to breathe, the water ceased to flow, the dust ceased to dance, and everything was watching with baited breath the scene that was unfolding, waiting with unsurpassed wonder for the next event.
He was still scared. What did it mean?
It meant that, at last, he was doing the right thing.
And then the world below was jumping toward him with the speed of an oncoming train, and all he could do was relax and wait for what came next.
There was a moment when it stood still, all of it, and it looked like he might have heard one of their curses, prayers, hurried shouts or whispered benedictions. But then there he was, silhouetted for one dreadful instant in the fullness of the rising sun, a terrible, glorious figure in the heart of a burning star, waiting for his inevitable demise.
And then he was gone.
A man who has no fear of fire, who rushes in to a burning building to save children, has no courage either. A man who is afraid of fire, who worries about it, who has nightmares about it constantly that leaves him wringing his sheets in anxiety, and who rushes into the building anyway, that man has courage.
Courage is looking fear in the face, and then, not laughing, but doing what has to be done.
Hope is not thinking that everything will come out for the best. No, Hope is not that at all.
Kari stopped for one moment, staring as if she could not believe that he was finally gone, some part of her rejecting sanity and the terrible present. Patamon just collapsed against Gatomon in tears. Davis mouthed one, tear filled sentence. "I killed him." Everyone stood still, silent, watching the horrible scene. None of them moved.
"Well, that turned out rather well." Reaver noted. "He may have found a way to keep us from gathering his power, but he can no longer use it against us either. Come, let's go."
Time stopped.
Hope is nothing.
Consider it, Hope is nothing, it cannot be measured by any instrument, it cannot shine in the darkness under its own power, it is, by itself, nothing. It has no physical semblance, no effects that can be seen and observed by those of discerning eye. It is, to all effects, a non-entity.
Hope is like what those who have spent all their lives near the sea may feel about the waves. Sometimes there is very little indication that the small swell that barely creases the water out there may turn into a rather large wave, but those for whom the ocean is life know, perhaps somehow measuring and sampling that force that is so intangible yet so essential, perhaps reacting to some principle yet undiscovered.
A tidal force swept the Crusaders into Jerusalem, and then swept them out again. It posted a list of words on a cathedral door and set the west on fire. Out of nothing it forged empires, shattered worlds. Something sent a young man from Macedonia to conquer all of the known world. Something raised empires from nothing, and ground them back into dust when their time was over.
No, Hope is nothing, but what it brings with it is everything.
Hope is like jumping off a cliff
"Time to get going." Reaver pulled on the chains and the other Digimon that were guarding them started pulling as well. "You might as well give in now, it won't get any better."
Kari glared up at him, a glare that should have, had there been any justice in the universe, burned the dark figure to a crisp. Reaver merely looked down at her magnanimously and shook his head in reproof.
"Ah, now being stubborn I see. And defiant too. Well, you see, there is only one sort of reward for that sort of behavior." From the belt at his side he took a coil, which swiftly cracked into a whip of the sort that made Ken's old one look like a limp piece of rope. Throughout the ends little pieces of metal and glass glimmered.
"Oh, don't worry about your precious face. We can heal you up as good as new afterwards. Consider it a little lesson."
He raised the whip.
and remembering how to fly.
Time started again.
The ground rushed forward at a rate of speed that should have panicked everyone, but TK was not paying attention anymore. He left his body behind as it plummeted toward the earth far below, and let his spirit begin to walk toward the Heart of the World.
Kari moved.
Ken never would have suspected that she could move so fast, but she was doing it, spinning up and out despite the chains, whirling like a miniature thunderstorm, one hand reaching out in what would have killed any normal human.
Reaver caught the hand in midair.
For a moment Kari dangled, trying to kick out, but Reaver threw her backwards, slamming her into the ground, knocking the breathe out of her. Then, while everyone else stood stunned, he raised a finger and shook it at her.
"Naughty, naughty. And you know what happens to naughty little girls." The whip rose again.
Something caught his hand. Reaver turned angrily to find another hand there. Everybody gasped in complete and total shock.
"Why is it?" TK asked, "That nobody ever pays attention to me?"
After a moment of surprise, Reaver tried to stare down at him angrily, but there is a limit to how angry one can look when the person who one is trying to look angry at is force-feeding one a knuckle sandwich.
Reaver jerked back, which meant that TK could knee him in the gut, and then kick him straight out in the jaw when he doubled over. The impacts happened so fast that Ken thought he was witnessing a karate match fast forwarded. Only Reaver's ungainly fall seemed real, and even that seemed different somehow.
It was then that everybody got their second shock. TK was standing in a perfectly relaxed fighting stance, something that would not look that much out of place on a busy city street. It looked natural and completely normal, something that Ken had seen at a dozen different Dojos and gyms across Japan. What everybody noticed next was that he was standing, feet planted firmly, about a half meter above the ground. Ken looked at that, blinked a few times, and then looked back. There was still a considerable gap between the ground and TK's boots.
"Get him!" Reaver shouted from the ground, and all the chained Digidestined and Digimon screamed in warning as the guards, a half-dozen RedVeggiemon, leapt at him, flying through the air, prickly arms outstretched. For a moment they were poised to beat TK to a bloody pulp, and Patamon was exhorting his human partner to move away.
It took several hours of discussion later to pin down what happened next. A prodigious leap took TK temporarily clear of the combat zone, and then a series of midair flips that Ken would have sworn should have required three sets of ropes and a trampoline to perform took care of the rest. No matter how fast the pummeling clubs, TK simply was not where they were trying to hammer him to pieces. Two of the RedVeggiemon hammered each other senseless on the spot. The other four tried again, but TK was somehow inside of the range of their pounding, and this time he was striking back, feet and fists flying with deadly precision. Within a few seconds, so fast that Ken would have missed most of it if he had blinked too much, all six RedVeggiemon were lying unconscious on the ground.
"So, a practitioner of the Asrana'Dactal. Well, your art against mine. And I should warn you" Reaver, who had watched the last moments of the fight, walked forward, and Ken could feel the arrogant grin. "I don't play nice."
Ken could only gape. This was the true power of the Asrana'Dactal. No wonder Angemon thought it was important.
TK just grinned back. "I don't play nice either." His voice deepened at the end of that, and his feet dug in to nothingness as both of his arms came up in a peculiar position, both hands cupped in front of him. "Maybe you'll remember this one from the stories your mother used to tell you." Something crackled inbetween his hands, as if there was a miniature lightning bolt on the loose in there, and TK grinned even wider, while Reaver's confident advance stopped for a moment. And then he opened his mouth and screamed out a single word.
"Silverbolt!"
For a moment it was as if a thousand crackling thunderstorms had unleashed their bolts of lightning directly into TK's hands, for he was holding a small round sphere, a shape defined by the silver lightnings crackling inside, driving against the invisible field. There must have been thousands of them, and the patterns as they struggled against each other, and smashed against each other in dreadful harmony, like the crashing of ten thousand pairs of giant teeth, stretched on into infinity. For a moment it was as if he was holding energy incarnate in his hands, in sort of a crackling, wriggling mess. Then they leapt out. One end of the lightning burst out and struck Reaver in the chest, creating a little spark of light, a little miniature sun on his armor. And the rest of them jumped across to that point in one long stream. Gatomon later described it as a string, both ends fixed to different people, but the middle jerking and juggling all over the place.
And Reaver, a being who had almost carelessly defeated a powerful Ultimate a few days before, a being who even seemed to intimidate Megas, screamed in horrible, awful agony. The power that ripped through him, held by the incarnate sun in the hands of one small, little boy, was too much for his armor to withstand, and the blast sent him flying to the edge of the mountain, tearing at him from within.
"You have unlocked the power of the crest! You cannot be permitted to survive." Reaver struggled back upright.
"Survival is no longer a certainty." TK rose off the ground even higher, now surrounded by a gentle golden nimbus like the corona of a star. "History has yet to be written this day."
"You fool! Did you not think we were prepared for this eventuality. You cannot control the full power of your crest in any amount, and you cannot even draw upon its greatest strengths. I have been given the power that can defeat you here and now. Come and watch me crush you!"
"We shall see." TK help up his hands and a bright light appeared in them, resolving into his staff. "We shall see!"
Reaver snarled and leapt at him but TK dodged back and hurled the staff to the ground, where it easily pierced the metal chain holding the Digidestined together. Golden energy spewed from the staff and then swirled outward along the chains, quickly unlocking everybody from their bonds. Reaver was paying no attention because he was busy swinging a massive, spiked fist against TK's side.
TK bounced forward this time, one arm swinging up like a hammer and smashing into Reaver's spikes. The sharp metal points tried to edge forward to taste flesh and blood, but they slammed into TK's corona of golden fire and stopped dead. TK used the other hand to try and punch Reaver in the mouth, but Reaver blocked that with his free hand. Arms locked, both of them kicked at the same time, and the resulting smash as both of them slammed their shins together nearly made Ken bite his own tongue off in sympathy with what they must be feeling. For a moment they hovered, static, before they were moving again, fluidity marking their competition, dynamism their movements. Reaver depended on power hits, striking from the outside in, with rapid jabs from his arms and massive, powerful kicks striking from his legs. TK, in reverse of what Ken had been taught, used his legs almost entirely as defense, even managing to bring them up to block hand attacks. His strikes were small and deadly, rising from the waist and shoulder, and plunging outward. Together they were locked for a few moments before kicking free of each other and circling wearily.
He's right you know. I can't beat him. Not yet, I'm still too new to this, I'm still lacking too much of my power, too much of my many abilities. I'm sorry, but the only thing we can do is that I can hold him off while the rest of you get away. That's it. TK's voice rang in everyone's heads.
"We don't have the D3s, he's got them." Davis shouted back.
TK's face assumed an expression of concentration and he jerked one hand upward. For a moment this seemed to have no perceptible effect and then a pine tree, shrieking like a banshee, burst up from the depths below and into Reaver like a rabid battering ram.
I'm sorry. I can't help you there. You have to get out of here while I can still hold him off. That's all you can do.
Reaver streaked in close to TK and the two exchanged kicks, both of them flying back in pain from the dual impact, both of them sent hurtling through space.
"TK, we can help you!" Cody screamed.
Fists met in midair with a sickening crunch, then the two were apart again.
No, you can't. Even if you could Digivolve, you need to save your strength. You have to get away from here. Nothing can help me now, and I want my life to mean something. That means that I fight here.
"Black Spike." A blast of darkness erupted from Reaver. "Silverbolt!" A blast of silver lightning met it halfway, detonating it in a spectacular show of fireworks.
"TK, I can't lose you again." Kari sounded like she was going to curl up and die right there.
You never lost me the first time, and you won't lose me now, I promise. We will meet again, all of us, now go!
The two crashed into each other and a cloud formed, a continuing struggle between glowing, blazing golden fire and overwhelming, enveloping darkness. Inside that struggle one could hear the impacts of the two exchanging blows at incredible speeds.
"TK, don't leave me!" Patamon shrieked, Gatomon having to hold him down to keep him from flying into the heart of the maelstrom.
I'll never leave you. Any of you. You were the best friends I ever could have had. Good bye and good luck on all your future ventures.
Fire blazed in the sky for a single moment. The two fighters rose on wings of air, continuing their battle high in the sky.
"I won't go." Kari screamed and stubbornly held her ground. "You can't make me!"
Kari, the power that I have here is something that you have inside of yourself. If you only knew the glory inside of you, the power that I see shining through. Together you and the others can win this war, but you avail yourself of nothing if you die here with me. Go, and remember me always.
Explosions began to shake the rocks under them, but the two combatants were no longer paying any attention, fire rising off them like from a volcano, light and shadow warring with each other in great gouts of fire.
"I can't lose you again. None of us can. Not when we never really found you." Kari was crying openly now as the two figures rose higher and higher, leaving all of them behind, moving out into the open terrain, hundreds of meters above the ground, as the struggle continued.
Kari, you have to. I know the paths that you must walk in the future, and I would have been glad to walk them with you, be that as a friend, or as something greater. I would be honored if you would take the love I have for all of you, but especially you old companion, and take it with you forever. Take what I have and remember that it will always stay in your heart, and I'll always be there with it. Now go, go!
The last sound was a frantic cry, and from the sound above it seemed that TK was being steadily pushed back, that even his great power could not resist that which was being pushed upon him from above. But still he fought and struggled against the darkness that threatened to absorb them all.
"Good-bye Takeru." Davis whispered in the end, bowing his head silently.
"No, I won't let him go!" Kari stood up suddenly and power flared in his chest, and light reached out to touch TK and lend him some of her strength.
"I won't abandon a friend either!" Ken felt fire in his bones as his own power reached up to prop up their friend.
"I'm not giving up now!" Davis screamed defiantly, and power rose from him too, reaching toward the sky.
"All for one" Yolei began as her crest flared with a thousand shades and another beam of light rose unerringly into the battle above.
"and one for all!" Cody finished, his own light snaking up to join the others.
In a single instant, they were all connected, and they all knew the truth.
They could not win. Even all their power together could not prevent TK from falling before Reaver. And, even worse, they could not pull out. They were locked together, one entity, standing against the power that was driving against them, and they were all going to die now. One stand against the darkness, one last glorious battle before death would come to take them all.
GO, get away from here! TK howled in vain, he knew as well as they that none of them would ever leave that place.
Good-bye guys. It was, well, a real pleasure working with all of you. Davis thought to all of them.
We did what we had to do. And we fought the fights we had to fight. And then, in the end, we fell. It was fun. Ken thought to them.
And I would do it all over again in a minute. Kari finished, somehow wiping the tears in her eyes away with joy. I'll see you guys on the other side.
But at that moment Ken was aware of something moving into the link between them.
He knew, from the moment they all linked together, what was going to happen. Waves of unimaginable energy bound them all together, and none of them could get lose before they died. He could feel the energy too, how powerful it was, and understood that the power that Reaver bore with him was more powerful still.
At the same time, he knew how to save them, some of them at least. If the link could be broken, they would be released to their bodies, still have time to run, to escape and get away before darkness and death overcame them all. One could break the link, but one would be subject to waves of energy beyond comprehension, be torn apart by the tides of forces beyond mortal ken. If someone could jump into the link they could break it, but only by dying themselves. Then TK could hold off Reaver until the others could escape, and death would be a welcome embrace for both of them.
No one else should, but TK was half of him. Without TK he was nothing, useless and powerless, a waste of time and space and a reminder of the friend long gone. By sacrificing himself, they would lose nothing, and possibly gain everything. With a thought he hurled himself aloft, despair and pain shooting him faster than he had ever gone before, tearing a hole in the air on his way aloft. He shot forward on wings that had never been built for speed, screaming upward, a phoenix rising for the last time, emblazoned in the rays of the rising sun.
As he flew his last flight he watched the memories slide by. A warm stomach and the inside of a strange bus, wandering through a foreign jungle with his one companion, the moment of strange change while facing Devimon. Rising from the shell of his egg again, walking through a vast continent, seeing the real world for the first time. A moment of transformation as his charge fell to the earth, a second of transcendent glory in a darkened sky in another time and world. An emperor and an egg, a combination, the end of an era. More memories intruded, a hand scratching him behind the ears, flying through the wind, sitting on a familiar hat, being tickled by familiar hands. The scents and smells of hundreds of days of life together echoed in his brain, and in the center of his stomach was the icy cold feeling that told him that things would never be the same.
Then he entered the stream of energy.
The sensation was like being thrown into an ice-cold mountain stream, only amplified a hundred, a thousand, times. Power swelled through his body, pulverizing his defenses, overwhelming him in an instant. It raged and bullied its way through him, tearing his body apart in its progress. For a moment it felt like his ears had caught on fire while his legs were freezing off into small tiny chunks. A second later it just felt like he had eaten something that kept expanding inside of him, tearing him apart and into pieces. Then again there were moments where he was shrinking, so fast that he knew that soon his insides would explode out through his skin. There was a sensation of being spitted on a thousand extremely sharp needles. All this passed in an instant. And the link was broken.
The power flowed through him still, coursing through his bones like a miniature tornado stalking the streets. He could feel it tear him apart. He tried to open his mouth, to give his friend one last thing to remember him by into eternity, a tearful farewell, a brave cry, a final gesture. But some other power, both dreadfully mysterious and horribly familiar rose out from the depths like the fists of a thousand galaxies and tore away his heart and his voice, and all that rose from his mouth were the words of fire it brought with it.
It was a moment that Ken would remember forever. Everything was frozen, flash-frozen as if the man operating the universe had pushed pause because he could not believe his eyes. Everything hung, as if painted there.
TK and Reaver were clearly visible in their battling auras, both staring downward in shock. Light and shadow had coalesced around them, and was struggling even then, but the attention of the entities in control had been dragged downward. Now there was only a feeling of monumental conflict from where they stood, a sense of power in motion, even though they stood frozen.
Kari was there too, lying beneath on the ground, looking as if she were about to collapse. She knew, somewhere inside of her what was about to happen. The others were also all spread around, sprawling against rocks or on the ground with the shock of the link breaking. The lines of power still reached out and up, but they were being intercepted, and they were no longer trapped. By all rights they should be running for their lives, but they seemed mesmerized by what was happening overhead.
Above, there was Patamon, a silhouette of power in the middle of the lines of light criss-crossing the sky. His form was spread wide, the ears plunging out, the arms and legs, or were they all legs, outstretched in a pose that Ken had seen only a few times before. Every molecule of his being radiated the terrible agony that he was in as he severed the link, and everyone could feel the pain of his sacrifice. But in his eyes there was an expression that he had never seen before, something that reflected the light created when a ball of gas decided to spontaneously erupt and form a galaxy of stars and swirling clouds of light.
For one moment the universe stood still, and there was only the sense of expectation, that something important was about to happen. Then Patamon screamed, and with the scream came words, hurled carelessly out of the depths as the fire consumed the little Digimon, and his body disintegrated into light.
"Patamonwarp digivolve to"
And then everything blew up.
"How much farther Leomon?" Tai asked. "We have been walking for days."
"I don't know, I'll have to find them first."
"Hold up everybody." Izzy sat down and began scanning through his laptop even faster than normal.
"What is it Izzy?" Sora asked.
"I'm getting a signal, like a new Digimon appearing."
"You mean coming near?" Agumon looked around. "I don't see anybody."
"No, they just digivolved and they aren't near here at all."
"Then why are we worried?" Tai asked impatiently, earning him a glare from Matt. Izzy was too busy to notice any of this. When he finally sat back from the computer the grin on his face was so big that Joe was afraid it might fall off.
"Go for it TK!" he yelled at the computer as the image resolved from its flickering. "Give him a kinetics lesson he'll never forget!"
"Huh, what?" And then everyone was scrambling to look as the picture of a huge angel dominated the computer screen.
It was just before dinner time in New York, which meant quite a lot. Willis was sitting at his desk, the one without the computer, absently doing sums on his paper when Terriermon burst through the door like a run away freight train and jumped right at him.
"Whoa boy, what is it? Is Lopmon into the cookie jar again?"
"No Willis, look!" Terriermon was more aggravated than Willis had seen him in years. He was also ecstatically bouncing on top of Willis' head and pointing at the computer with both arms.
The computer was going partly crazy, and Willis recognized the programs that he and Izzy had set up, the ones that were supposed to warn them when large energies emerged in the Digital World, going off all over the place. Hurriedly he scooted his wheeled chair across the hardwood floor and hit the buttons that triggered the zoom function, and let the computer try and isolate the signature. A moment later a familiar image began to form on the monitor.
Willis stared at it for only a second before spinning halfway around in his chair. "Terriermon!" he barked so loudly that his Digimon fell of his head. "Get on the phone and call Michael right now! If I'm seeing this, Izzy's seeing this too, so Japan's alerted, but we need the others to contact me right now!" Then, while Terriermon jumped off to do his bidding, he minimized the search window and opened up an email list that he only ever used once.
For a moment everything went white. There was order in the whiteness, a method to the madness perhaps, a sense that there was not just random color, that the color was anything but random. But the brightness was so intense that it was impossible to make out what the pattern actually was, or what it might do. Then the light was rushing, a sensation that confused everyone on the ground to no end, into one compact, but still gigantic figure. For a moment, everyone was sure that the world would end in a burst of white fire, but then the picture changed yet again.
From out of nowhere, there was a brighter light, and the edges of the bundle of whiteness hardened into enameled blue armor, containing the force within. Gold fire wrote words and symbols in hard to understand languages along the edges that were available and a set of ten golden wings lifted from the back. Gargantuan, the huge angel, dwarfing Patamon's other evolutions, towered above the landscape, dominating it by sheer presence.
"SERAPHIMON!"
A vast golden light shone out from the angel when his name rang through the world, spreading out like a tidal wave, or the light of the sun, which was still rising in the distance. When it struck the other Digimon, they stood up a little straighter and a little taller.
"Payback time!" Davis howled.
But the Digimon had just been staring at each other. "Even with his help it may not be enough. We've got to attack, all of us!" Veemon yelled.
"Right!" the others called.
"Guys, come back, that's a Mega, and without the D3s you can't digivolve!" Yolei yelled.
"Don't be foolish!" Cody screamed.
"You don't understand!" Gatomon yelled back as they charged forward, "It's the golden light, it's re-energized us, it's"
"Veemon.digivolves to.ExVeemon!"
"Wormmondigivolves to.Stingmon!"
"Hawkmondigivolves toAquilamon!"
"Armadillomondigivolves toAnkylomon!"
"The light, it re-energized them!" Ken howled exuberantly. "Go and get him!"
"Right, what are you waiting for?" Davis gestured wildly at the Champions still sitting there.
"This! ExVeemonDNA Digivolve toPaildramon!"
"Aquilamon.digivolve toSilphymon!"
"Ankylomondigivolve toShakkuomon!"
"Gatomondigivolve toAngewomon."
"You think that will stop me?" Reaver yelled, but his voice was higher pitched now.
"I think it might." TK responded, laughing easily. He grinned eagerly and fire snapped up around him again from within as Silphymon, Shakkuomon and Angewomon leaped up to attack.
"What are you waiting for?" Ken asked Paildramon.
"I think that, if he feeds us just a little moreyes, I think this is it. Stand back everybody, let's give it a go"
"Paildramonmega digivolve toImperialDramon!"
"All right!" Davis did a little victory dance.
"Don't celebrate yet Davis." Ken reminded him.
"ImperialDramonmode change toFighter Mode!"
"Okay, now you can celebrate." Ken grinned.
"Mind if we crash your party?" ImperialDramon asked Seraphimon.
"Be my guest." The angel's voice was unexpectedly deep and echoed like he was standing in the bottom of a deep canyon, not in the middle of an open field.
"Stand back TK!" Angewomon barked. "Celestial Arrow!"
"Static Force!" "Kachina Bombs!"
Reaver howled as the attacks roared in and pounded away at his armor, cutting away at the shadow he had surrounded himself with, tearing apart his defenses.
"Thanks for opening it up. Now it's our turn! Positron Laser!"
Seraphimon opened up his ten golden wings wide and six spheres of golden light formed in a circle around him, with a final one forming at his very heart. As he roared out, the spheres of light shot out, coalescing into a single beam that stabbed at Reaver with a force that could have easily shattered the earth below. "Seven Heavens!"
Reaver howled backward, staggering from the multiple attacks, his armor torn through with holes from which his own darkness poured forth like clouds of fog. He began to stagger away as if he was trying to escape.
"Parallax Beam!" TK thrust one hand with only two fingers extended down to point at Reaver's shifting form. A beam that looked like a spatial distortion, the kind you see on Sci-Fi shows, shot out, apparently doing a lot of damage to Reaver in its passing straight through him.
"Time to pay the piper. Static Force!" Silphymon swept in, ignoring the waving blackness to tear at it with red-white light. Angewomon followed directly behind, blonde hair flying out as she brought up a brace of arrows and fired them, tearing up pieces of the darkness that Reaver was hiding in. Reaver lashed out with waves of darkness that emanated from his tattered mantle, but ImperialDramon was there, blocking the attack with a shield of blue force, and responding to it with a single blast from the cannon mount on his arm. Reaver dodged that one, but it still ripped away a corner of his body, something that distracted him enough for the razor edged Kachina Bombs to nail him to the air itself. Seraphimon, moving impossible fast for something that looked a lot like a huge statue, something you might see on display in some museum in an ancient palace, came riding in like a tornado, slicing away at the darkness with the spokes of light that rose from his wings. Reaver struggled with him for a moment before TK kicked him in the jaw, then in the gut, and then in the back of the head. While he was recovering from that Silphymon and Angewomon flew back in and hit him in the back a few times, while Shakkuomon and ImperialDramon moved up to cover him. Then Reaver unleashed a blanket of darkness that should have covered him up, but it was only halfway across when Seraphimon began to repel it with his great light.
"We've got to finish him before he gets away!" Kari called from below.
"Everybody!" Seraphimon's voice rose in volume about six notches. "Concentrate all your power on TK!"
"Got it!" They all repeated while inside they were thinking, on TK?
"Celestial Arrow!"
"Static Force!"
"Harmonious Spirit!"
"Positron Laser!"
"Seven Heavens!"
All the attacks rushed at TK and stopped, somehow absorbed by his golden aura that was now pulsing stronger and stronger, almost as if it were a living thing. Even standing far away as they were, the other Digidestined could feel the gentle light warming them down to their toes. It pushed at all living things, igniting the fire within if they were good, pushing them away if they were evil. Reaver was sent hurtling backward by the sheer power inherent there. For a moment TK looked like a star himself, outlined with golden fire that jumped for joy as if it were dancing to the tune of some celestial music that nobody else could hear.
"Starblade!" One hand shot up with a manner befitting a king and pointed imperiously. From it emerged what looked like a sword-blade made out of shining golden light, that flashed along, expanding always, as if the blade could go forever. Shining in the sunlight and from within, the point slammed into Reaver full in the chest, and power swelled and crashed, irreversible and unstoppable like the mighty ocean, down the blade of that sword into his chest. There was a scream, one that trailed off in a sickly fashion, and then Reaver exploded into a thousand, thousand pieces, each one shattering in a wave of darkness that left them all feeling rather ill.
Then there was nothing but the specks of light of their D3s, returning like the errant stars they were to the hands of their owners.
Then Angewomon had to sweep in to catch TK and Patamon as they collapsed back into their normal state, Silphymon caught Wormmon and Veemon as they went back to Rookie, and then they had to start running.
"Is he all right?" Cody asked Ken nervously after awhile. They were sitting deep in the woods, next to a huge collapsed pile of trees that Silphymon had torn down into a make-shift shelter. Inside, the branches kept the wind and the cold out, while a little hole in one corner let what little smoke there was leach from the small fire that they had going. It looked like a good place to spend the night.
TK, however, did not look the same. He had been lying, collapsed on the ground, in the same position, ever since they had gotten there. He was still breathing, still sipping the water they occasionally poured into his mouth, but beyond that, he showed no response to anything.
"I think so. I think he's just tired." Ken looked over to where Kari was sitting next to TK, and to where Yolei was feeding the fire they had erected next to him. Everything in the little encampment was arranged around the fallen boy, whom they had all seen rise from the depths like an angel afire.
"Tired?" Davis had come up next to them. He had seemed happier after shedding the load of guilt he had been carrying about TK all through the trip. Now that TK was lying alive, if comatose, his natural cheerfulness and determination were beginning to re-assert themselves.
"Well, think about it. The first time that our Digimon DNA Digivolved, they returned to their Baby stage after that. In fact, I expect that even after being trained up so long, they still might have to return to their in-Training forms if we did everything the old fashioned way. Well, TK did something that was just as difficult, but he can't return to a lower stage, can he? I mean, what would he do, get younger?"
"Right, so he's just resting until he recovers his power?" Davis continued the line of thought.
"I think so, yes. And if this is true, then he may not be able to use the power again when he wakes up. Think about it, if he were a Digimon, he would have to re-digivolve to do it."
"So he's not really TK anymore!" Veemon exclaimed, smiling widely. "He's more likeDemi-TK!"
There was a moment while everyone stared at the blue lizard, and then they all began to laugh. At first it was quiet laughter, and then it grew louder and louder until it threatened to shake apart the very foundations of their hasty structure. They laughed with the joy of being alive and of defeating the darkness one more time. But when three more voices joined in, the laughter suddenly stopped.
Gennai, young and fresh as ever, flanked by two different glowing figures, stood in one corner of the shelter. Smiling genially, he looked down at TK with an expression of fatherish pride. The other two figures moved quickly and decisively to TK's side and began to examine him closely. After a moment, the taller one spoke.
"You have done well, young Paladin. I've given you a gift and blocked away your powers until you need them again. You will have to depend on your other skills now, but I think they are more than adequate. Good luck and sleep well." He rose then, and the other rose with him. They bowed curiously to Gennai, who bowed back, and then they vanished in a flare of light.
"Well Ken, you've already figured out most of it. I'm staying around, at least, part of me is, to answer any questions you might have." Gennai sat down carefully on the ground next to TK.
"Will TK be all right?" Kari asked first, beating everyone else to the question that was looming foremost in their minds.
"Yes, most definitely. He's just recovering his energies for now, resting easily and gently. At least, we hope that's what he's doing. Mike would warn us if he wasn't though, so there's no need to worry. And before you ask, he will not be able to do that for a very long time. His power, like all your powers, is immense, but it was brought out prematurely and will be contained for now until he can bring it out, one piece at a time."
"Why not let his power out now?" Davis wanted to know.
"Because he isn't quite ready for them yet. If they emerged in his everyday life, well, it could be catastrophic until he can control them. Have you ever sat in class and wished that there would be some distraction to get you out?"
"Well, yes" Davis admitted.
"I bet TK has done the same thing. The problem is, without proper control over that power he may act upon that, and subconsciously initiate the destruction of an entire building to stop the lesson. Something like that could cause hundreds of casualties and would probably drive him mad. And too much before he's ready would probably drive him mad anyway. That's why we locked his power away. When he truly needs it, he'll be able to use it again. But that, hopefully, won't be for a long time. So don't think he'll save you if you get into trouble. You have to save each other."
"How long will he be like this?" Ken asked next.
"Less then a week."
"Will you be around to guide us?"
"No, in fact, if you don't have any more questions, I should be getting back to work. You're heading in the right direction, and your friends in the Digital World are doing the same. You might win this yet."
"Thanks Gennai." Cody grinned.
"Gennai, are the crests created to do what TK did with it?" Kari focused her eyes entirely on him.
"In a way." Gennai admitted cautiously. "They are supposed to focus power on their bearer, not on a Digimon, and they do give their bearer tremendous power. I suppose that you could consider this their purpose, but they have other uses. You are close to understanding."
"I see."
"Well, then, good-bye and good luck."
For a moment his image faded and then it cleared up again. "Oh yes, and by the way, Kari, you should hide that crystal that you picked up the other day. It might be useful some day." And then he was gone.
Kari stared at where the image had been for a moment, and then picked up the crystal from where she had placed it in her gear and gave it wordlessly to Davis, who placed it in his special box.
"Should I go back to the Heart of the World?" TK asked.
"Not yet." Mike replied. He glanced around the soft, endless beaches, and toward the waves. Above one suspiciously still patch of water hovered another figure that TK did not recognize in a meditation posture, harmoniously hovering about two meters above the water. "There's still so much to do here."
"It was the most beautiful thing I've ever seen." TK sighed wistfully.
"Yes, it is impressive, isn't it?" Mike noted cheerfully.
"But I won't see it again for awhile yet, will I?"
"No, but don't worry, you'll carry it with you always."
It was approaching evening of the next day when TK woke up. There was the delicious smell of frying fish in the air, and the accompanying smell of roasting vegetables, both of which awoke a ravenous hunger in his stomach. On top of his stomach Patamon dropped, both ears down as he snored away contentedly.
He was only awake and blinking a few seconds when Kari appeared in his field of vision upside down. It took TK a moment to realize that he was lying down, and that Kari was looking at him from behind his head.
"Hey everybody, TK's awake."
"And hungry." TK croaked. "Glad to see you all. How are we doing?"
"Same old, same old." Ken told him, grinning.
"That bad? Ah well, I really am glad to see you all. And thanks for sticking around back there. I would have been in real trouble without you."
"Thanks for being there." Davis told him, clasping TK's hand in his own. There was a moment of silence as everyone felt the bonds of friendship between them harden into something greater and stronger than before, unyielding as cold steel, warm as the summer sun. Then TK's stomach growled. Everybody laughed.
"Here you go." Gatomon was trying to juggle a platter of something that looked highly edible in his direction.
Veemon peered his way into TK's field of view. "Well," he announced after a moment of study. "Demi-TK looks just like TK to me!"
"Demi-TK?" TK asked, and then cut off as everyone else started to grin. He just sighed a lot after that.
"I hope this doesn't happen again. TK might save us from evil, but I think he might eat us now." Davis was taken aback by the sheer amount of food that TK had consumed. And they had thought the Digimon had voracious appetites.
"I'm hungry." TK mumbled defensively through a mouth full of something.
"We noticed." Yolei replied.
"Don't attack him." Veemon piped up. "Everyone knows that in-training Digimon like Demi-TK need lots of food in order to Digivolve."
Everybody started giggling. TK put down his plate, apparently finished at last, and then just stared at Veemon.
"Are you done TK?" Kari asked.
"Yeah." TK was still staring sulkily at Veemon, who was grinning impudently back.
"Wellthat is" for some reason Kari was beginning to turn more pink than her crest ever made her.
"What Kari means to say is that she thinks that she should have a talk with you somewhere private. Don't worry about the mess. We'll clean it up, our treat." Yolei popped up suddenly. TK and Kari stared at her, but Yolei and Ken, assisted by Gatomon and Hawkmon, managed to bundle the two up and essentially shove them out the door together.
"Well, that ought to take care of things." Yolei sighed in relief once the two were out the door.
"You hope." Ken replied.
Suddenly Yolei shot bolt upright, her eyes as wide as dinner plates. "Oh No! WHERE'S DAVIS!?"
Kari and TK walked for several minutes before settling themselves down on a large pile of smooth rocks to watch the stars come out above. They moved with the jerky, complicated gait of two people who are determined not to make eye contact with the other person they are walking with. Above them the endless points of light whispered their secrets to each other, ignorant of, or ignoring, the ephemeral mortals on the surface below who watched them.
"Well" Kari began, and stopped.
TK blushed, which, although invisible, made Kari blush.
"Is this about what I said earlier, back there?" TK asked after a few moments.
"Yes." Kari replied.
"Well," TK felt like he was riding an avalanche, and his words gained speed with every word he said until he felt like he was going to ram into the bottom at any moment. "I did mean it. I don't care where you walk, I will walk with you, because I am your friend. And you aren't just a friend, you're someone I want to share my life with, a lot of my life with, and if you're willing, I will walk with you."
"Wherever I go?"
"Wherever."
"I've wanted that for awhile. Even before all this silliness with girls and boys started I wanted someone to share my life with, to lean on when the darkness tried to overcome me, to be there when I needed them. And I always wanted you to do it, to come with me wherever I went. And I wanted to go with you wherever you needed me."
"Anywhere?"
"Everywhere."
For a moment it was silent, and they both self-consciously scooted closer to each other, eyes still fixed on the constant stars.
"This isn't a crush or something, like the other kids have, is it?" TK wanted to know after a moment.
"I don't think so, I think this is a lot deeper than that." Kari watched a star move slowly across the sky as the world turned beneath her. "I think we just need someone to be there for, and who will be there for us, forever. And we need someone who can see into our hearts."
There was a moment's pause, as the stars continued their divine whispering, and then TK raised a hand in front of Kari. "I would be honored to share my life with you."
Kari took the hand in her own, gently, an effect that sent shivers down TK's spine as warmth met warmth, completing the circle. "And I yours."
"Forever?"
"Forever."
There was a sudden rustling in the bushes, and then up popped Davis. He was covered in bits of twigs and branches, dimly visible by moonlight, but one thing was very clear. He was wearing a grin so big that it would have made whole battalions of used-car salesmen turn green with envy.
"Davis!" TK and Kari shouted at the same time, and tried to jump apart, which was a mistake because, in their hurry, they forgot to let go of each other's hands. The result was a sudden lurch that rebounded back on them. Davis grinned at that and raised one clenched fist.
"I thought I might find you tangled up here in some sort of stare-into-each-others-eyes thing, so I thought I might hurry things up a bit."
"Huh, what?"
"Now it goes like this TK, you have two choices. You can lean over and give Kari the best kiss she'll have in her life, or you can stand there while I scatter your teeth all over this forest."
For a moment there was stupefied silence and then TK, imitating something he had once seen his brother do (and then had been expressly warned to keep to himself) to a fan who kept bugging him. He wrapped one arm around Kari and swung her around fast, waiting for her to gasp in surprise. Then, when her mouth opened, he pressed his mouth to hers, and then stars began to explode in front of their eyes.
It was probably a good thing that neither of them had ever kissed before, because all the drama made TK lose track of what was going on, and Kari was clearly too caught up in the shock and beauty of the sudden moment, and as a result it turned into a mess. But, from inside, one could almost feel the sudden surge in energies, the sudden flare of power, and then the sudden outpouring of love as the two were joined into a stronger one.
The kiss broke off as suddenly as it started, both of them gasping for air and trying to deal with the sudden boatload of new sensations that it brought along. For a few moments the universe contained only them, two people alone with each other in the beating of a set of hearts, and then it expanded to reveal four other humans and six Digimon watching them curiously. The two immediately changed hue to a bright fluorescent red.
"Congrats TK. You too Kari." Davis hugged both of them enthusiastically, almost crushing TK into very small pieces.
"So, how long did it take you to admit that you really didn't want Kari?" TK asked after a moment.
"Huh? You knew?" Davis looked puzzled.
TK smiled enigmatically. "I knew the moment that I realized that MaloMyotismon had no illusion to show you. If that had no effect on you, I reasoned that it was probably because of something like this."
"Yeah, well" Davis broke off as Kari gave him a peck on the cheek, which made him go bright red.
"Hey." TK grinned and nudged Kari in the shoulder. "Watch it, I might get jealous."
"Oh yeah?" She responded and sent him a look that was positively smoldering. TK's eyes expanded fast. It really was going to be an interesting relationship.
"I guess it's official." Yolei gasped out, and then started crying, just a little. Then she hugged Kari tight.
"Well TK, glad to have you back. And we already decided that we'll help pay for your tombstone." Ken had an odd glint in his eye.
"My tombstone?" TK asked suspiciously.
There was no doubt about it now, the gleam in Ken's eye would have alerted a blind rhinoceros that something was coming. That and the schoolboyish smile. "You may have found a way to fight the powers of darkness and win TK, but that's not going to help you. When he finds out about this, Tai is going to kill you."
TK gulped at the thought of Tai's overprotective attitude. "I would have done just fine if you hadn't mentioned that part."
Everyone laughed as Kari put an arm around him and responded. "Don't worry, I'll keep Tai off of you."
"Congratulations on your achievement of happiness. Long life and good fortune." Cody bowed, very formally, but there was a hint of laughter running loose inside of his eyes.
"Hooray!" The Digimon all shouted spontaneously, although most of them appeared to be confused with what they were cheering about.
TK just wrapped an arm around Kari and let her melt into him for a moment.
"Look up there." Yolei shouted, pointing upward. There, high above them, a huge light, a giant comet, was outlined against the horizon, rising above far away mountains like a star returning to its rightful place in the heavens. A strange, silvery eerie light began to cover the entire land, illuminating them, every last blade of grass and every leaf, in startling detail.
TK leaned back against a rock, and let Kari's warm weight settle on him, and one arm wrap around him in pleasure. Together they leaned back. TK's other arm went down to rest on Cody's shoulder. Armadillomon came up behind Cody, sitting back to watch the comet, and Patamon resumed his normal spot on TK's head. Gatomon crawled up on Kari's shoulder. Yolei and Ken hovered, perhaps unconsciously, much closer together, with Hawkmon and Wormmon in their arms. Davis, standing just in front of them, had his hands in his pockets in a jaunty pose which Veemon was imitating. For a moment they were all warm and protected, together, all twelve of them. Connected by bonds that were beyond the abilities of most people walking the world, bonds forged in the fires of conflict and disaster, they were now stronger together than ever. Confidence and assurance, friendship and love flowed full circle, locking them all together in one wheel, one fortress of Light in the midst of the waves of darkness.
Together, united, they stood and watched a star ascend the heavens.
To Be Continued....
We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender.
Winston Churchill
4 June 1940
If you do swear to put a tyrant down,
You sleep in peace, the tyrant being slain
If you do fight against your country's foes,
Your country's fat shall pay the hire;
If you do safeguard of your wives,
Your wives shall welcome home the conquerors;
If you do free your children from the sword,
Your children's children quits it in your age.
Then, in the name of God and all these rights,
Advance your standards, draw your willing swords.
For me, the ransom of my bold attempt
Shall be this cold corpse on the earth's cold face;
But if I thrive, the gain of my attempt
The least of you shall share his part thereof.
Sound drums and trumpets, boldly and cheerfully;
God and Saint George! Richmond and victory!
Richard the Third, Act V, Scene III
William Shakespeare
Last Word: Remember, this will be continued in Storming the Gates, not here. If you think this is a stupid idea (which it might be), feel free to tell me in a review. Thanks for reading! -danAlwyn
Author's Note: IMPORTANT: To spread things out and to keep my chapter menu from becoming ridiculously long, I am going to bring this story arc to an end and continue things in a story called Storming the Gates, which should start appearing in less than a month. I hope this won't confuse too many people. I also hope that you enjoyed this section of the story. I welcome any comments and/or reviews. On with the tale!
The Sky Asunder
"Definition: Coward: Someone who runs away.
Definition: Hero: Someone who runs away in the wrong direction"
Cortell, Notes on the Great War
"For those of us on whose shoulders rests the weight of worlds, we must remember one truth. No matter how much the weight, how deep our roots, we are born to soar."
Justice, Musings
Patamon screamed until he was hoarse, tears flying from his eyes as he struggled against the chain that clamped him in place, trying desperately to get his human to listen to him. Everything he did seemed in vain however, as if whatever task he had been entrusted with in caring for his human companion, he had been judged unworthy, and could not be allowed to save him anymore. Everything the panicky Digimon tried had no effect on the outcome of this dreadful scene.
Kari had been, if anything, worse. Her mental situation had prompted her to yell and scream and throw herself mercilessly against the metal that held her in place until her wrists were cut and bleeding against cold edges. She had screamed until her voice was raw, torn with edges of pain and suffering on a level that she had barely comprehended before. Everything she did was in a desperate attempt to alert her best friend to the fact that everyone cared about him, wanted him to come back, but nothing came of it. And deep inside, a treacherous voice was whispering, maybe if he had known that you wanted him to come back, he wouldn't have done this. And she could not drown it out.
Ken, who had struggled with his own inner depression tried desperately to find some way to overcome the tragedy he could see coming. But like the proverbial man whose foot was caught in the railway tracks, all he could do was watch the oncoming train and wait.
This was it.
He was afraid. He could feel it. He was afraid of the height, of the fall, of what would happen. He was afraid of hitting the bottom. He was afraid of death. TK knew it and he still walked forward.
There was a moment when the universe held its breath, where everything fell silent, when the whole world strained to hear what was coming next, as he stood poised on the edge of the rim, the world and all its environs spread out below like some multi-colored tapestry of ages, woven by a hand finer than any mortal's. For a single instant it was if nothing moved, the wind ceased to breathe, the water ceased to flow, the dust ceased to dance, and everything was watching with baited breath the scene that was unfolding, waiting with unsurpassed wonder for the next event.
He was still scared. What did it mean?
It meant that, at last, he was doing the right thing.
And then the world below was jumping toward him with the speed of an oncoming train, and all he could do was relax and wait for what came next.
There was a moment when it stood still, all of it, and it looked like he might have heard one of their curses, prayers, hurried shouts or whispered benedictions. But then there he was, silhouetted for one dreadful instant in the fullness of the rising sun, a terrible, glorious figure in the heart of a burning star, waiting for his inevitable demise.
And then he was gone.
A man who has no fear of fire, who rushes in to a burning building to save children, has no courage either. A man who is afraid of fire, who worries about it, who has nightmares about it constantly that leaves him wringing his sheets in anxiety, and who rushes into the building anyway, that man has courage.
Courage is looking fear in the face, and then, not laughing, but doing what has to be done.
Hope is not thinking that everything will come out for the best. No, Hope is not that at all.
Kari stopped for one moment, staring as if she could not believe that he was finally gone, some part of her rejecting sanity and the terrible present. Patamon just collapsed against Gatomon in tears. Davis mouthed one, tear filled sentence. "I killed him." Everyone stood still, silent, watching the horrible scene. None of them moved.
"Well, that turned out rather well." Reaver noted. "He may have found a way to keep us from gathering his power, but he can no longer use it against us either. Come, let's go."
Time stopped.
Hope is nothing.
Consider it, Hope is nothing, it cannot be measured by any instrument, it cannot shine in the darkness under its own power, it is, by itself, nothing. It has no physical semblance, no effects that can be seen and observed by those of discerning eye. It is, to all effects, a non-entity.
Hope is like what those who have spent all their lives near the sea may feel about the waves. Sometimes there is very little indication that the small swell that barely creases the water out there may turn into a rather large wave, but those for whom the ocean is life know, perhaps somehow measuring and sampling that force that is so intangible yet so essential, perhaps reacting to some principle yet undiscovered.
A tidal force swept the Crusaders into Jerusalem, and then swept them out again. It posted a list of words on a cathedral door and set the west on fire. Out of nothing it forged empires, shattered worlds. Something sent a young man from Macedonia to conquer all of the known world. Something raised empires from nothing, and ground them back into dust when their time was over.
No, Hope is nothing, but what it brings with it is everything.
Hope is like jumping off a cliff
"Time to get going." Reaver pulled on the chains and the other Digimon that were guarding them started pulling as well. "You might as well give in now, it won't get any better."
Kari glared up at him, a glare that should have, had there been any justice in the universe, burned the dark figure to a crisp. Reaver merely looked down at her magnanimously and shook his head in reproof.
"Ah, now being stubborn I see. And defiant too. Well, you see, there is only one sort of reward for that sort of behavior." From the belt at his side he took a coil, which swiftly cracked into a whip of the sort that made Ken's old one look like a limp piece of rope. Throughout the ends little pieces of metal and glass glimmered.
"Oh, don't worry about your precious face. We can heal you up as good as new afterwards. Consider it a little lesson."
He raised the whip.
and remembering how to fly.
Time started again.
The ground rushed forward at a rate of speed that should have panicked everyone, but TK was not paying attention anymore. He left his body behind as it plummeted toward the earth far below, and let his spirit begin to walk toward the Heart of the World.
Kari moved.
Ken never would have suspected that she could move so fast, but she was doing it, spinning up and out despite the chains, whirling like a miniature thunderstorm, one hand reaching out in what would have killed any normal human.
Reaver caught the hand in midair.
For a moment Kari dangled, trying to kick out, but Reaver threw her backwards, slamming her into the ground, knocking the breathe out of her. Then, while everyone else stood stunned, he raised a finger and shook it at her.
"Naughty, naughty. And you know what happens to naughty little girls." The whip rose again.
Something caught his hand. Reaver turned angrily to find another hand there. Everybody gasped in complete and total shock.
"Why is it?" TK asked, "That nobody ever pays attention to me?"
After a moment of surprise, Reaver tried to stare down at him angrily, but there is a limit to how angry one can look when the person who one is trying to look angry at is force-feeding one a knuckle sandwich.
Reaver jerked back, which meant that TK could knee him in the gut, and then kick him straight out in the jaw when he doubled over. The impacts happened so fast that Ken thought he was witnessing a karate match fast forwarded. Only Reaver's ungainly fall seemed real, and even that seemed different somehow.
It was then that everybody got their second shock. TK was standing in a perfectly relaxed fighting stance, something that would not look that much out of place on a busy city street. It looked natural and completely normal, something that Ken had seen at a dozen different Dojos and gyms across Japan. What everybody noticed next was that he was standing, feet planted firmly, about a half meter above the ground. Ken looked at that, blinked a few times, and then looked back. There was still a considerable gap between the ground and TK's boots.
"Get him!" Reaver shouted from the ground, and all the chained Digidestined and Digimon screamed in warning as the guards, a half-dozen RedVeggiemon, leapt at him, flying through the air, prickly arms outstretched. For a moment they were poised to beat TK to a bloody pulp, and Patamon was exhorting his human partner to move away.
It took several hours of discussion later to pin down what happened next. A prodigious leap took TK temporarily clear of the combat zone, and then a series of midair flips that Ken would have sworn should have required three sets of ropes and a trampoline to perform took care of the rest. No matter how fast the pummeling clubs, TK simply was not where they were trying to hammer him to pieces. Two of the RedVeggiemon hammered each other senseless on the spot. The other four tried again, but TK was somehow inside of the range of their pounding, and this time he was striking back, feet and fists flying with deadly precision. Within a few seconds, so fast that Ken would have missed most of it if he had blinked too much, all six RedVeggiemon were lying unconscious on the ground.
"So, a practitioner of the Asrana'Dactal. Well, your art against mine. And I should warn you" Reaver, who had watched the last moments of the fight, walked forward, and Ken could feel the arrogant grin. "I don't play nice."
Ken could only gape. This was the true power of the Asrana'Dactal. No wonder Angemon thought it was important.
TK just grinned back. "I don't play nice either." His voice deepened at the end of that, and his feet dug in to nothingness as both of his arms came up in a peculiar position, both hands cupped in front of him. "Maybe you'll remember this one from the stories your mother used to tell you." Something crackled inbetween his hands, as if there was a miniature lightning bolt on the loose in there, and TK grinned even wider, while Reaver's confident advance stopped for a moment. And then he opened his mouth and screamed out a single word.
"Silverbolt!"
For a moment it was as if a thousand crackling thunderstorms had unleashed their bolts of lightning directly into TK's hands, for he was holding a small round sphere, a shape defined by the silver lightnings crackling inside, driving against the invisible field. There must have been thousands of them, and the patterns as they struggled against each other, and smashed against each other in dreadful harmony, like the crashing of ten thousand pairs of giant teeth, stretched on into infinity. For a moment it was as if he was holding energy incarnate in his hands, in sort of a crackling, wriggling mess. Then they leapt out. One end of the lightning burst out and struck Reaver in the chest, creating a little spark of light, a little miniature sun on his armor. And the rest of them jumped across to that point in one long stream. Gatomon later described it as a string, both ends fixed to different people, but the middle jerking and juggling all over the place.
And Reaver, a being who had almost carelessly defeated a powerful Ultimate a few days before, a being who even seemed to intimidate Megas, screamed in horrible, awful agony. The power that ripped through him, held by the incarnate sun in the hands of one small, little boy, was too much for his armor to withstand, and the blast sent him flying to the edge of the mountain, tearing at him from within.
"You have unlocked the power of the crest! You cannot be permitted to survive." Reaver struggled back upright.
"Survival is no longer a certainty." TK rose off the ground even higher, now surrounded by a gentle golden nimbus like the corona of a star. "History has yet to be written this day."
"You fool! Did you not think we were prepared for this eventuality. You cannot control the full power of your crest in any amount, and you cannot even draw upon its greatest strengths. I have been given the power that can defeat you here and now. Come and watch me crush you!"
"We shall see." TK help up his hands and a bright light appeared in them, resolving into his staff. "We shall see!"
Reaver snarled and leapt at him but TK dodged back and hurled the staff to the ground, where it easily pierced the metal chain holding the Digidestined together. Golden energy spewed from the staff and then swirled outward along the chains, quickly unlocking everybody from their bonds. Reaver was paying no attention because he was busy swinging a massive, spiked fist against TK's side.
TK bounced forward this time, one arm swinging up like a hammer and smashing into Reaver's spikes. The sharp metal points tried to edge forward to taste flesh and blood, but they slammed into TK's corona of golden fire and stopped dead. TK used the other hand to try and punch Reaver in the mouth, but Reaver blocked that with his free hand. Arms locked, both of them kicked at the same time, and the resulting smash as both of them slammed their shins together nearly made Ken bite his own tongue off in sympathy with what they must be feeling. For a moment they hovered, static, before they were moving again, fluidity marking their competition, dynamism their movements. Reaver depended on power hits, striking from the outside in, with rapid jabs from his arms and massive, powerful kicks striking from his legs. TK, in reverse of what Ken had been taught, used his legs almost entirely as defense, even managing to bring them up to block hand attacks. His strikes were small and deadly, rising from the waist and shoulder, and plunging outward. Together they were locked for a few moments before kicking free of each other and circling wearily.
He's right you know. I can't beat him. Not yet, I'm still too new to this, I'm still lacking too much of my power, too much of my many abilities. I'm sorry, but the only thing we can do is that I can hold him off while the rest of you get away. That's it. TK's voice rang in everyone's heads.
"We don't have the D3s, he's got them." Davis shouted back.
TK's face assumed an expression of concentration and he jerked one hand upward. For a moment this seemed to have no perceptible effect and then a pine tree, shrieking like a banshee, burst up from the depths below and into Reaver like a rabid battering ram.
I'm sorry. I can't help you there. You have to get out of here while I can still hold him off. That's all you can do.
Reaver streaked in close to TK and the two exchanged kicks, both of them flying back in pain from the dual impact, both of them sent hurtling through space.
"TK, we can help you!" Cody screamed.
Fists met in midair with a sickening crunch, then the two were apart again.
No, you can't. Even if you could Digivolve, you need to save your strength. You have to get away from here. Nothing can help me now, and I want my life to mean something. That means that I fight here.
"Black Spike." A blast of darkness erupted from Reaver. "Silverbolt!" A blast of silver lightning met it halfway, detonating it in a spectacular show of fireworks.
"TK, I can't lose you again." Kari sounded like she was going to curl up and die right there.
You never lost me the first time, and you won't lose me now, I promise. We will meet again, all of us, now go!
The two crashed into each other and a cloud formed, a continuing struggle between glowing, blazing golden fire and overwhelming, enveloping darkness. Inside that struggle one could hear the impacts of the two exchanging blows at incredible speeds.
"TK, don't leave me!" Patamon shrieked, Gatomon having to hold him down to keep him from flying into the heart of the maelstrom.
I'll never leave you. Any of you. You were the best friends I ever could have had. Good bye and good luck on all your future ventures.
Fire blazed in the sky for a single moment. The two fighters rose on wings of air, continuing their battle high in the sky.
"I won't go." Kari screamed and stubbornly held her ground. "You can't make me!"
Kari, the power that I have here is something that you have inside of yourself. If you only knew the glory inside of you, the power that I see shining through. Together you and the others can win this war, but you avail yourself of nothing if you die here with me. Go, and remember me always.
Explosions began to shake the rocks under them, but the two combatants were no longer paying any attention, fire rising off them like from a volcano, light and shadow warring with each other in great gouts of fire.
"I can't lose you again. None of us can. Not when we never really found you." Kari was crying openly now as the two figures rose higher and higher, leaving all of them behind, moving out into the open terrain, hundreds of meters above the ground, as the struggle continued.
Kari, you have to. I know the paths that you must walk in the future, and I would have been glad to walk them with you, be that as a friend, or as something greater. I would be honored if you would take the love I have for all of you, but especially you old companion, and take it with you forever. Take what I have and remember that it will always stay in your heart, and I'll always be there with it. Now go, go!
The last sound was a frantic cry, and from the sound above it seemed that TK was being steadily pushed back, that even his great power could not resist that which was being pushed upon him from above. But still he fought and struggled against the darkness that threatened to absorb them all.
"Good-bye Takeru." Davis whispered in the end, bowing his head silently.
"No, I won't let him go!" Kari stood up suddenly and power flared in his chest, and light reached out to touch TK and lend him some of her strength.
"I won't abandon a friend either!" Ken felt fire in his bones as his own power reached up to prop up their friend.
"I'm not giving up now!" Davis screamed defiantly, and power rose from him too, reaching toward the sky.
"All for one" Yolei began as her crest flared with a thousand shades and another beam of light rose unerringly into the battle above.
"and one for all!" Cody finished, his own light snaking up to join the others.
In a single instant, they were all connected, and they all knew the truth.
They could not win. Even all their power together could not prevent TK from falling before Reaver. And, even worse, they could not pull out. They were locked together, one entity, standing against the power that was driving against them, and they were all going to die now. One stand against the darkness, one last glorious battle before death would come to take them all.
GO, get away from here! TK howled in vain, he knew as well as they that none of them would ever leave that place.
Good-bye guys. It was, well, a real pleasure working with all of you. Davis thought to all of them.
We did what we had to do. And we fought the fights we had to fight. And then, in the end, we fell. It was fun. Ken thought to them.
And I would do it all over again in a minute. Kari finished, somehow wiping the tears in her eyes away with joy. I'll see you guys on the other side.
But at that moment Ken was aware of something moving into the link between them.
He knew, from the moment they all linked together, what was going to happen. Waves of unimaginable energy bound them all together, and none of them could get lose before they died. He could feel the energy too, how powerful it was, and understood that the power that Reaver bore with him was more powerful still.
At the same time, he knew how to save them, some of them at least. If the link could be broken, they would be released to their bodies, still have time to run, to escape and get away before darkness and death overcame them all. One could break the link, but one would be subject to waves of energy beyond comprehension, be torn apart by the tides of forces beyond mortal ken. If someone could jump into the link they could break it, but only by dying themselves. Then TK could hold off Reaver until the others could escape, and death would be a welcome embrace for both of them.
No one else should, but TK was half of him. Without TK he was nothing, useless and powerless, a waste of time and space and a reminder of the friend long gone. By sacrificing himself, they would lose nothing, and possibly gain everything. With a thought he hurled himself aloft, despair and pain shooting him faster than he had ever gone before, tearing a hole in the air on his way aloft. He shot forward on wings that had never been built for speed, screaming upward, a phoenix rising for the last time, emblazoned in the rays of the rising sun.
As he flew his last flight he watched the memories slide by. A warm stomach and the inside of a strange bus, wandering through a foreign jungle with his one companion, the moment of strange change while facing Devimon. Rising from the shell of his egg again, walking through a vast continent, seeing the real world for the first time. A moment of transformation as his charge fell to the earth, a second of transcendent glory in a darkened sky in another time and world. An emperor and an egg, a combination, the end of an era. More memories intruded, a hand scratching him behind the ears, flying through the wind, sitting on a familiar hat, being tickled by familiar hands. The scents and smells of hundreds of days of life together echoed in his brain, and in the center of his stomach was the icy cold feeling that told him that things would never be the same.
Then he entered the stream of energy.
The sensation was like being thrown into an ice-cold mountain stream, only amplified a hundred, a thousand, times. Power swelled through his body, pulverizing his defenses, overwhelming him in an instant. It raged and bullied its way through him, tearing his body apart in its progress. For a moment it felt like his ears had caught on fire while his legs were freezing off into small tiny chunks. A second later it just felt like he had eaten something that kept expanding inside of him, tearing him apart and into pieces. Then again there were moments where he was shrinking, so fast that he knew that soon his insides would explode out through his skin. There was a sensation of being spitted on a thousand extremely sharp needles. All this passed in an instant. And the link was broken.
The power flowed through him still, coursing through his bones like a miniature tornado stalking the streets. He could feel it tear him apart. He tried to open his mouth, to give his friend one last thing to remember him by into eternity, a tearful farewell, a brave cry, a final gesture. But some other power, both dreadfully mysterious and horribly familiar rose out from the depths like the fists of a thousand galaxies and tore away his heart and his voice, and all that rose from his mouth were the words of fire it brought with it.
It was a moment that Ken would remember forever. Everything was frozen, flash-frozen as if the man operating the universe had pushed pause because he could not believe his eyes. Everything hung, as if painted there.
TK and Reaver were clearly visible in their battling auras, both staring downward in shock. Light and shadow had coalesced around them, and was struggling even then, but the attention of the entities in control had been dragged downward. Now there was only a feeling of monumental conflict from where they stood, a sense of power in motion, even though they stood frozen.
Kari was there too, lying beneath on the ground, looking as if she were about to collapse. She knew, somewhere inside of her what was about to happen. The others were also all spread around, sprawling against rocks or on the ground with the shock of the link breaking. The lines of power still reached out and up, but they were being intercepted, and they were no longer trapped. By all rights they should be running for their lives, but they seemed mesmerized by what was happening overhead.
Above, there was Patamon, a silhouette of power in the middle of the lines of light criss-crossing the sky. His form was spread wide, the ears plunging out, the arms and legs, or were they all legs, outstretched in a pose that Ken had seen only a few times before. Every molecule of his being radiated the terrible agony that he was in as he severed the link, and everyone could feel the pain of his sacrifice. But in his eyes there was an expression that he had never seen before, something that reflected the light created when a ball of gas decided to spontaneously erupt and form a galaxy of stars and swirling clouds of light.
For one moment the universe stood still, and there was only the sense of expectation, that something important was about to happen. Then Patamon screamed, and with the scream came words, hurled carelessly out of the depths as the fire consumed the little Digimon, and his body disintegrated into light.
"Patamonwarp digivolve to"
And then everything blew up.
"How much farther Leomon?" Tai asked. "We have been walking for days."
"I don't know, I'll have to find them first."
"Hold up everybody." Izzy sat down and began scanning through his laptop even faster than normal.
"What is it Izzy?" Sora asked.
"I'm getting a signal, like a new Digimon appearing."
"You mean coming near?" Agumon looked around. "I don't see anybody."
"No, they just digivolved and they aren't near here at all."
"Then why are we worried?" Tai asked impatiently, earning him a glare from Matt. Izzy was too busy to notice any of this. When he finally sat back from the computer the grin on his face was so big that Joe was afraid it might fall off.
"Go for it TK!" he yelled at the computer as the image resolved from its flickering. "Give him a kinetics lesson he'll never forget!"
"Huh, what?" And then everyone was scrambling to look as the picture of a huge angel dominated the computer screen.
It was just before dinner time in New York, which meant quite a lot. Willis was sitting at his desk, the one without the computer, absently doing sums on his paper when Terriermon burst through the door like a run away freight train and jumped right at him.
"Whoa boy, what is it? Is Lopmon into the cookie jar again?"
"No Willis, look!" Terriermon was more aggravated than Willis had seen him in years. He was also ecstatically bouncing on top of Willis' head and pointing at the computer with both arms.
The computer was going partly crazy, and Willis recognized the programs that he and Izzy had set up, the ones that were supposed to warn them when large energies emerged in the Digital World, going off all over the place. Hurriedly he scooted his wheeled chair across the hardwood floor and hit the buttons that triggered the zoom function, and let the computer try and isolate the signature. A moment later a familiar image began to form on the monitor.
Willis stared at it for only a second before spinning halfway around in his chair. "Terriermon!" he barked so loudly that his Digimon fell of his head. "Get on the phone and call Michael right now! If I'm seeing this, Izzy's seeing this too, so Japan's alerted, but we need the others to contact me right now!" Then, while Terriermon jumped off to do his bidding, he minimized the search window and opened up an email list that he only ever used once.
For a moment everything went white. There was order in the whiteness, a method to the madness perhaps, a sense that there was not just random color, that the color was anything but random. But the brightness was so intense that it was impossible to make out what the pattern actually was, or what it might do. Then the light was rushing, a sensation that confused everyone on the ground to no end, into one compact, but still gigantic figure. For a moment, everyone was sure that the world would end in a burst of white fire, but then the picture changed yet again.
From out of nowhere, there was a brighter light, and the edges of the bundle of whiteness hardened into enameled blue armor, containing the force within. Gold fire wrote words and symbols in hard to understand languages along the edges that were available and a set of ten golden wings lifted from the back. Gargantuan, the huge angel, dwarfing Patamon's other evolutions, towered above the landscape, dominating it by sheer presence.
"SERAPHIMON!"
A vast golden light shone out from the angel when his name rang through the world, spreading out like a tidal wave, or the light of the sun, which was still rising in the distance. When it struck the other Digimon, they stood up a little straighter and a little taller.
"Payback time!" Davis howled.
But the Digimon had just been staring at each other. "Even with his help it may not be enough. We've got to attack, all of us!" Veemon yelled.
"Right!" the others called.
"Guys, come back, that's a Mega, and without the D3s you can't digivolve!" Yolei yelled.
"Don't be foolish!" Cody screamed.
"You don't understand!" Gatomon yelled back as they charged forward, "It's the golden light, it's re-energized us, it's"
"Veemon.digivolves to.ExVeemon!"
"Wormmondigivolves to.Stingmon!"
"Hawkmondigivolves toAquilamon!"
"Armadillomondigivolves toAnkylomon!"
"The light, it re-energized them!" Ken howled exuberantly. "Go and get him!"
"Right, what are you waiting for?" Davis gestured wildly at the Champions still sitting there.
"This! ExVeemonDNA Digivolve toPaildramon!"
"Aquilamon.digivolve toSilphymon!"
"Ankylomondigivolve toShakkuomon!"
"Gatomondigivolve toAngewomon."
"You think that will stop me?" Reaver yelled, but his voice was higher pitched now.
"I think it might." TK responded, laughing easily. He grinned eagerly and fire snapped up around him again from within as Silphymon, Shakkuomon and Angewomon leaped up to attack.
"What are you waiting for?" Ken asked Paildramon.
"I think that, if he feeds us just a little moreyes, I think this is it. Stand back everybody, let's give it a go"
"Paildramonmega digivolve toImperialDramon!"
"All right!" Davis did a little victory dance.
"Don't celebrate yet Davis." Ken reminded him.
"ImperialDramonmode change toFighter Mode!"
"Okay, now you can celebrate." Ken grinned.
"Mind if we crash your party?" ImperialDramon asked Seraphimon.
"Be my guest." The angel's voice was unexpectedly deep and echoed like he was standing in the bottom of a deep canyon, not in the middle of an open field.
"Stand back TK!" Angewomon barked. "Celestial Arrow!"
"Static Force!" "Kachina Bombs!"
Reaver howled as the attacks roared in and pounded away at his armor, cutting away at the shadow he had surrounded himself with, tearing apart his defenses.
"Thanks for opening it up. Now it's our turn! Positron Laser!"
Seraphimon opened up his ten golden wings wide and six spheres of golden light formed in a circle around him, with a final one forming at his very heart. As he roared out, the spheres of light shot out, coalescing into a single beam that stabbed at Reaver with a force that could have easily shattered the earth below. "Seven Heavens!"
Reaver howled backward, staggering from the multiple attacks, his armor torn through with holes from which his own darkness poured forth like clouds of fog. He began to stagger away as if he was trying to escape.
"Parallax Beam!" TK thrust one hand with only two fingers extended down to point at Reaver's shifting form. A beam that looked like a spatial distortion, the kind you see on Sci-Fi shows, shot out, apparently doing a lot of damage to Reaver in its passing straight through him.
"Time to pay the piper. Static Force!" Silphymon swept in, ignoring the waving blackness to tear at it with red-white light. Angewomon followed directly behind, blonde hair flying out as she brought up a brace of arrows and fired them, tearing up pieces of the darkness that Reaver was hiding in. Reaver lashed out with waves of darkness that emanated from his tattered mantle, but ImperialDramon was there, blocking the attack with a shield of blue force, and responding to it with a single blast from the cannon mount on his arm. Reaver dodged that one, but it still ripped away a corner of his body, something that distracted him enough for the razor edged Kachina Bombs to nail him to the air itself. Seraphimon, moving impossible fast for something that looked a lot like a huge statue, something you might see on display in some museum in an ancient palace, came riding in like a tornado, slicing away at the darkness with the spokes of light that rose from his wings. Reaver struggled with him for a moment before TK kicked him in the jaw, then in the gut, and then in the back of the head. While he was recovering from that Silphymon and Angewomon flew back in and hit him in the back a few times, while Shakkuomon and ImperialDramon moved up to cover him. Then Reaver unleashed a blanket of darkness that should have covered him up, but it was only halfway across when Seraphimon began to repel it with his great light.
"We've got to finish him before he gets away!" Kari called from below.
"Everybody!" Seraphimon's voice rose in volume about six notches. "Concentrate all your power on TK!"
"Got it!" They all repeated while inside they were thinking, on TK?
"Celestial Arrow!"
"Static Force!"
"Harmonious Spirit!"
"Positron Laser!"
"Seven Heavens!"
All the attacks rushed at TK and stopped, somehow absorbed by his golden aura that was now pulsing stronger and stronger, almost as if it were a living thing. Even standing far away as they were, the other Digidestined could feel the gentle light warming them down to their toes. It pushed at all living things, igniting the fire within if they were good, pushing them away if they were evil. Reaver was sent hurtling backward by the sheer power inherent there. For a moment TK looked like a star himself, outlined with golden fire that jumped for joy as if it were dancing to the tune of some celestial music that nobody else could hear.
"Starblade!" One hand shot up with a manner befitting a king and pointed imperiously. From it emerged what looked like a sword-blade made out of shining golden light, that flashed along, expanding always, as if the blade could go forever. Shining in the sunlight and from within, the point slammed into Reaver full in the chest, and power swelled and crashed, irreversible and unstoppable like the mighty ocean, down the blade of that sword into his chest. There was a scream, one that trailed off in a sickly fashion, and then Reaver exploded into a thousand, thousand pieces, each one shattering in a wave of darkness that left them all feeling rather ill.
Then there was nothing but the specks of light of their D3s, returning like the errant stars they were to the hands of their owners.
Then Angewomon had to sweep in to catch TK and Patamon as they collapsed back into their normal state, Silphymon caught Wormmon and Veemon as they went back to Rookie, and then they had to start running.
"Is he all right?" Cody asked Ken nervously after awhile. They were sitting deep in the woods, next to a huge collapsed pile of trees that Silphymon had torn down into a make-shift shelter. Inside, the branches kept the wind and the cold out, while a little hole in one corner let what little smoke there was leach from the small fire that they had going. It looked like a good place to spend the night.
TK, however, did not look the same. He had been lying, collapsed on the ground, in the same position, ever since they had gotten there. He was still breathing, still sipping the water they occasionally poured into his mouth, but beyond that, he showed no response to anything.
"I think so. I think he's just tired." Ken looked over to where Kari was sitting next to TK, and to where Yolei was feeding the fire they had erected next to him. Everything in the little encampment was arranged around the fallen boy, whom they had all seen rise from the depths like an angel afire.
"Tired?" Davis had come up next to them. He had seemed happier after shedding the load of guilt he had been carrying about TK all through the trip. Now that TK was lying alive, if comatose, his natural cheerfulness and determination were beginning to re-assert themselves.
"Well, think about it. The first time that our Digimon DNA Digivolved, they returned to their Baby stage after that. In fact, I expect that even after being trained up so long, they still might have to return to their in-Training forms if we did everything the old fashioned way. Well, TK did something that was just as difficult, but he can't return to a lower stage, can he? I mean, what would he do, get younger?"
"Right, so he's just resting until he recovers his power?" Davis continued the line of thought.
"I think so, yes. And if this is true, then he may not be able to use the power again when he wakes up. Think about it, if he were a Digimon, he would have to re-digivolve to do it."
"So he's not really TK anymore!" Veemon exclaimed, smiling widely. "He's more likeDemi-TK!"
There was a moment while everyone stared at the blue lizard, and then they all began to laugh. At first it was quiet laughter, and then it grew louder and louder until it threatened to shake apart the very foundations of their hasty structure. They laughed with the joy of being alive and of defeating the darkness one more time. But when three more voices joined in, the laughter suddenly stopped.
Gennai, young and fresh as ever, flanked by two different glowing figures, stood in one corner of the shelter. Smiling genially, he looked down at TK with an expression of fatherish pride. The other two figures moved quickly and decisively to TK's side and began to examine him closely. After a moment, the taller one spoke.
"You have done well, young Paladin. I've given you a gift and blocked away your powers until you need them again. You will have to depend on your other skills now, but I think they are more than adequate. Good luck and sleep well." He rose then, and the other rose with him. They bowed curiously to Gennai, who bowed back, and then they vanished in a flare of light.
"Well Ken, you've already figured out most of it. I'm staying around, at least, part of me is, to answer any questions you might have." Gennai sat down carefully on the ground next to TK.
"Will TK be all right?" Kari asked first, beating everyone else to the question that was looming foremost in their minds.
"Yes, most definitely. He's just recovering his energies for now, resting easily and gently. At least, we hope that's what he's doing. Mike would warn us if he wasn't though, so there's no need to worry. And before you ask, he will not be able to do that for a very long time. His power, like all your powers, is immense, but it was brought out prematurely and will be contained for now until he can bring it out, one piece at a time."
"Why not let his power out now?" Davis wanted to know.
"Because he isn't quite ready for them yet. If they emerged in his everyday life, well, it could be catastrophic until he can control them. Have you ever sat in class and wished that there would be some distraction to get you out?"
"Well, yes" Davis admitted.
"I bet TK has done the same thing. The problem is, without proper control over that power he may act upon that, and subconsciously initiate the destruction of an entire building to stop the lesson. Something like that could cause hundreds of casualties and would probably drive him mad. And too much before he's ready would probably drive him mad anyway. That's why we locked his power away. When he truly needs it, he'll be able to use it again. But that, hopefully, won't be for a long time. So don't think he'll save you if you get into trouble. You have to save each other."
"How long will he be like this?" Ken asked next.
"Less then a week."
"Will you be around to guide us?"
"No, in fact, if you don't have any more questions, I should be getting back to work. You're heading in the right direction, and your friends in the Digital World are doing the same. You might win this yet."
"Thanks Gennai." Cody grinned.
"Gennai, are the crests created to do what TK did with it?" Kari focused her eyes entirely on him.
"In a way." Gennai admitted cautiously. "They are supposed to focus power on their bearer, not on a Digimon, and they do give their bearer tremendous power. I suppose that you could consider this their purpose, but they have other uses. You are close to understanding."
"I see."
"Well, then, good-bye and good luck."
For a moment his image faded and then it cleared up again. "Oh yes, and by the way, Kari, you should hide that crystal that you picked up the other day. It might be useful some day." And then he was gone.
Kari stared at where the image had been for a moment, and then picked up the crystal from where she had placed it in her gear and gave it wordlessly to Davis, who placed it in his special box.
"Should I go back to the Heart of the World?" TK asked.
"Not yet." Mike replied. He glanced around the soft, endless beaches, and toward the waves. Above one suspiciously still patch of water hovered another figure that TK did not recognize in a meditation posture, harmoniously hovering about two meters above the water. "There's still so much to do here."
"It was the most beautiful thing I've ever seen." TK sighed wistfully.
"Yes, it is impressive, isn't it?" Mike noted cheerfully.
"But I won't see it again for awhile yet, will I?"
"No, but don't worry, you'll carry it with you always."
It was approaching evening of the next day when TK woke up. There was the delicious smell of frying fish in the air, and the accompanying smell of roasting vegetables, both of which awoke a ravenous hunger in his stomach. On top of his stomach Patamon dropped, both ears down as he snored away contentedly.
He was only awake and blinking a few seconds when Kari appeared in his field of vision upside down. It took TK a moment to realize that he was lying down, and that Kari was looking at him from behind his head.
"Hey everybody, TK's awake."
"And hungry." TK croaked. "Glad to see you all. How are we doing?"
"Same old, same old." Ken told him, grinning.
"That bad? Ah well, I really am glad to see you all. And thanks for sticking around back there. I would have been in real trouble without you."
"Thanks for being there." Davis told him, clasping TK's hand in his own. There was a moment of silence as everyone felt the bonds of friendship between them harden into something greater and stronger than before, unyielding as cold steel, warm as the summer sun. Then TK's stomach growled. Everybody laughed.
"Here you go." Gatomon was trying to juggle a platter of something that looked highly edible in his direction.
Veemon peered his way into TK's field of view. "Well," he announced after a moment of study. "Demi-TK looks just like TK to me!"
"Demi-TK?" TK asked, and then cut off as everyone else started to grin. He just sighed a lot after that.
"I hope this doesn't happen again. TK might save us from evil, but I think he might eat us now." Davis was taken aback by the sheer amount of food that TK had consumed. And they had thought the Digimon had voracious appetites.
"I'm hungry." TK mumbled defensively through a mouth full of something.
"We noticed." Yolei replied.
"Don't attack him." Veemon piped up. "Everyone knows that in-training Digimon like Demi-TK need lots of food in order to Digivolve."
Everybody started giggling. TK put down his plate, apparently finished at last, and then just stared at Veemon.
"Are you done TK?" Kari asked.
"Yeah." TK was still staring sulkily at Veemon, who was grinning impudently back.
"Wellthat is" for some reason Kari was beginning to turn more pink than her crest ever made her.
"What Kari means to say is that she thinks that she should have a talk with you somewhere private. Don't worry about the mess. We'll clean it up, our treat." Yolei popped up suddenly. TK and Kari stared at her, but Yolei and Ken, assisted by Gatomon and Hawkmon, managed to bundle the two up and essentially shove them out the door together.
"Well, that ought to take care of things." Yolei sighed in relief once the two were out the door.
"You hope." Ken replied.
Suddenly Yolei shot bolt upright, her eyes as wide as dinner plates. "Oh No! WHERE'S DAVIS!?"
Kari and TK walked for several minutes before settling themselves down on a large pile of smooth rocks to watch the stars come out above. They moved with the jerky, complicated gait of two people who are determined not to make eye contact with the other person they are walking with. Above them the endless points of light whispered their secrets to each other, ignorant of, or ignoring, the ephemeral mortals on the surface below who watched them.
"Well" Kari began, and stopped.
TK blushed, which, although invisible, made Kari blush.
"Is this about what I said earlier, back there?" TK asked after a few moments.
"Yes." Kari replied.
"Well," TK felt like he was riding an avalanche, and his words gained speed with every word he said until he felt like he was going to ram into the bottom at any moment. "I did mean it. I don't care where you walk, I will walk with you, because I am your friend. And you aren't just a friend, you're someone I want to share my life with, a lot of my life with, and if you're willing, I will walk with you."
"Wherever I go?"
"Wherever."
"I've wanted that for awhile. Even before all this silliness with girls and boys started I wanted someone to share my life with, to lean on when the darkness tried to overcome me, to be there when I needed them. And I always wanted you to do it, to come with me wherever I went. And I wanted to go with you wherever you needed me."
"Anywhere?"
"Everywhere."
For a moment it was silent, and they both self-consciously scooted closer to each other, eyes still fixed on the constant stars.
"This isn't a crush or something, like the other kids have, is it?" TK wanted to know after a moment.
"I don't think so, I think this is a lot deeper than that." Kari watched a star move slowly across the sky as the world turned beneath her. "I think we just need someone to be there for, and who will be there for us, forever. And we need someone who can see into our hearts."
There was a moment's pause, as the stars continued their divine whispering, and then TK raised a hand in front of Kari. "I would be honored to share my life with you."
Kari took the hand in her own, gently, an effect that sent shivers down TK's spine as warmth met warmth, completing the circle. "And I yours."
"Forever?"
"Forever."
There was a sudden rustling in the bushes, and then up popped Davis. He was covered in bits of twigs and branches, dimly visible by moonlight, but one thing was very clear. He was wearing a grin so big that it would have made whole battalions of used-car salesmen turn green with envy.
"Davis!" TK and Kari shouted at the same time, and tried to jump apart, which was a mistake because, in their hurry, they forgot to let go of each other's hands. The result was a sudden lurch that rebounded back on them. Davis grinned at that and raised one clenched fist.
"I thought I might find you tangled up here in some sort of stare-into-each-others-eyes thing, so I thought I might hurry things up a bit."
"Huh, what?"
"Now it goes like this TK, you have two choices. You can lean over and give Kari the best kiss she'll have in her life, or you can stand there while I scatter your teeth all over this forest."
For a moment there was stupefied silence and then TK, imitating something he had once seen his brother do (and then had been expressly warned to keep to himself) to a fan who kept bugging him. He wrapped one arm around Kari and swung her around fast, waiting for her to gasp in surprise. Then, when her mouth opened, he pressed his mouth to hers, and then stars began to explode in front of their eyes.
It was probably a good thing that neither of them had ever kissed before, because all the drama made TK lose track of what was going on, and Kari was clearly too caught up in the shock and beauty of the sudden moment, and as a result it turned into a mess. But, from inside, one could almost feel the sudden surge in energies, the sudden flare of power, and then the sudden outpouring of love as the two were joined into a stronger one.
The kiss broke off as suddenly as it started, both of them gasping for air and trying to deal with the sudden boatload of new sensations that it brought along. For a few moments the universe contained only them, two people alone with each other in the beating of a set of hearts, and then it expanded to reveal four other humans and six Digimon watching them curiously. The two immediately changed hue to a bright fluorescent red.
"Congrats TK. You too Kari." Davis hugged both of them enthusiastically, almost crushing TK into very small pieces.
"So, how long did it take you to admit that you really didn't want Kari?" TK asked after a moment.
"Huh? You knew?" Davis looked puzzled.
TK smiled enigmatically. "I knew the moment that I realized that MaloMyotismon had no illusion to show you. If that had no effect on you, I reasoned that it was probably because of something like this."
"Yeah, well" Davis broke off as Kari gave him a peck on the cheek, which made him go bright red.
"Hey." TK grinned and nudged Kari in the shoulder. "Watch it, I might get jealous."
"Oh yeah?" She responded and sent him a look that was positively smoldering. TK's eyes expanded fast. It really was going to be an interesting relationship.
"I guess it's official." Yolei gasped out, and then started crying, just a little. Then she hugged Kari tight.
"Well TK, glad to have you back. And we already decided that we'll help pay for your tombstone." Ken had an odd glint in his eye.
"My tombstone?" TK asked suspiciously.
There was no doubt about it now, the gleam in Ken's eye would have alerted a blind rhinoceros that something was coming. That and the schoolboyish smile. "You may have found a way to fight the powers of darkness and win TK, but that's not going to help you. When he finds out about this, Tai is going to kill you."
TK gulped at the thought of Tai's overprotective attitude. "I would have done just fine if you hadn't mentioned that part."
Everyone laughed as Kari put an arm around him and responded. "Don't worry, I'll keep Tai off of you."
"Congratulations on your achievement of happiness. Long life and good fortune." Cody bowed, very formally, but there was a hint of laughter running loose inside of his eyes.
"Hooray!" The Digimon all shouted spontaneously, although most of them appeared to be confused with what they were cheering about.
TK just wrapped an arm around Kari and let her melt into him for a moment.
"Look up there." Yolei shouted, pointing upward. There, high above them, a huge light, a giant comet, was outlined against the horizon, rising above far away mountains like a star returning to its rightful place in the heavens. A strange, silvery eerie light began to cover the entire land, illuminating them, every last blade of grass and every leaf, in startling detail.
TK leaned back against a rock, and let Kari's warm weight settle on him, and one arm wrap around him in pleasure. Together they leaned back. TK's other arm went down to rest on Cody's shoulder. Armadillomon came up behind Cody, sitting back to watch the comet, and Patamon resumed his normal spot on TK's head. Gatomon crawled up on Kari's shoulder. Yolei and Ken hovered, perhaps unconsciously, much closer together, with Hawkmon and Wormmon in their arms. Davis, standing just in front of them, had his hands in his pockets in a jaunty pose which Veemon was imitating. For a moment they were all warm and protected, together, all twelve of them. Connected by bonds that were beyond the abilities of most people walking the world, bonds forged in the fires of conflict and disaster, they were now stronger together than ever. Confidence and assurance, friendship and love flowed full circle, locking them all together in one wheel, one fortress of Light in the midst of the waves of darkness.
Together, united, they stood and watched a star ascend the heavens.
To Be Continued....
We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender.
Winston Churchill
4 June 1940
If you do swear to put a tyrant down,
You sleep in peace, the tyrant being slain
If you do fight against your country's foes,
Your country's fat shall pay the hire;
If you do safeguard of your wives,
Your wives shall welcome home the conquerors;
If you do free your children from the sword,
Your children's children quits it in your age.
Then, in the name of God and all these rights,
Advance your standards, draw your willing swords.
For me, the ransom of my bold attempt
Shall be this cold corpse on the earth's cold face;
But if I thrive, the gain of my attempt
The least of you shall share his part thereof.
Sound drums and trumpets, boldly and cheerfully;
God and Saint George! Richmond and victory!
Richard the Third, Act V, Scene III
William Shakespeare
Last Word: Remember, this will be continued in Storming the Gates, not here. If you think this is a stupid idea (which it might be), feel free to tell me in a review. Thanks for reading! -danAlwyn