Chapter 14: Gadgets, Tears, and Goodbyes
"Alright, you saved the world!" Andoru yelled to the digidestined. All the children ran towards their younger parents celebrating. They gave them hugs and said many optimistic words.
"I knew you could do it Mom!" Mara told Sora. Then Gennai appeared.
"Sorry I'm late," He began, he then noticed the small children and the adults with them.
"Who are all of you?" Adult Tai chuckled.
"I guess you don't recognize us Gennai, we're the digidestined, we came from the year 2027, and these children are our kids." He explained. Gennai's eyes popped opened.
"What?!" Gennai cried. The children looked at him awkwardly.
"That's Gennai? He looks so old." Ariyo whispered to Mara. Mara looked angrily at him.
"You shouldn't say that, show some respect!" Ariyo just shrugged.
"I'm just telling the truth." Gennai walked up to the adults observing them.
"My, you've all changed." He said.
"Hey wait, how can you see us but no one else but our parents and their digimon can?" Asked Dakedo.
"Maybe it's because he's neither digimon nor human." Hiroshi said. They all shrugged.
"Uh can we discuss this on solid ground?" Mimi asked.
"Oh I'm sorry, sure." Gennai transported all of them to the primary village. All the digimon reverted to the forms they usually were in. All the in-training digimon, plus the one rookie, that belonged to the children hopped into their partners arms.
"That's better." Mimi said.
"I think now that we know that the world is safe, we can finally get back to our own time." Adult Kari said. The children looked down to the ground sadly.
"First things first, we'll have to modify our younger selves' memories." Adult Izzy explained. The digidestined stared at him inquiringly.
"But why?" Asked Nazo.
"Do you want to be born?" Nazo nodded as well as the other children.
"Then it's best if they had our memories of defeating the Dark Masters and Apocalymon, no one should ever know their future." Adult Joe said.
"Aw!" Said the children and digidestined disappointedly.
"How exactly are you going to do that?" Sora asked.
"Luckily in the future we have more advanced technology." Her older self explained. Adult Izzy had brought a bag. He groped around through it looking for something. He pulled out a device that looked somewhat like a taser.
"Izzy was the one who created the thing." Adult TK said. The digidestined gulped in fear as they gazed at the object. Adult Izzy pushed a small button activating it. It was to copy someone else's memory.
"Who wants to go first?" Adult Tai stepped towards adult Izzy. He dropped his head down so that he was facing the ground. Adult Izzy moved Tai's hair out of the way and held the device to the back of his head. A noise that sounded like a stapler when you push down on it to staple papers was heard as adult Izzy pushed another button. Adult Tai lifted his head rubbing the back of his neck. Adult Izzy then walked up to the younger Tai.
"Wait, can we say goodbye to our kids before we lose our memories?" Tai asked. Adult Izzy smiled and nodded.
"Of course!" Tai knelt down in front of Andoru.
"Well I'm gonna miss you little guy." He said. Andoru hugged him around the neck.
"I'll miss you too." He said. All the children gave their future parents hugs.
"Hope to see you two soon." Sora said. Then she realized what she said and corrected herself.
"But not too soon!" She looked to a smirking Matt and blushed. Matt chuckled and Mara could only giggle, Ariyo was too young and didn't catch what was so funny.
"I don't get it." He said. Sora bent down and gave both of them a small peck on the forehead. When she rose back up she had tears in her eyes. Matt's eyes were getting a little misty as well but he looked away so no one would notice.
"Well, um," He cleared his throat to stop his voice from cracking.
"It was nice meeting you two, and well, we'll see you later." He said trying to hold back his tears.
"Much later." Sora said. Mara hugged both her mom and dad. Ariyo stood aside, he really didn't like to get all mushy like this, he tried to act coolly.
"So I guess this is goodbye for now." He said clutching onto Tsunomon who looked up at him sympathetically. He knew he was sad whenever he held him tightly.
"Yeah." Matt ruffled up his hair. Ariyo tried to look annoyed at Matt while he tried to fix his hair.
"Hey watch the hair man." He said. Matt chuckled. Mimi was hugging Makoto tightly while bawling.
"Mom, could you please loosen your grip a bit? You're kind of stopping me from breathing." He said through a strained voice. Mimi let go and dried her tears.
"Sorry, wow, I'd never thought that I would become my mother, she would always cry like this whenever I had to leave her or when I did something that made her proud." Makoto smiled warmly.
"Yeah, but grandma's still cool, and so are you!" He said. Mimi closed her eyes in order to stop her tears from falling.
"You be careful now." Tanemon hopped onto Makoto's head.
"Don't worry, I'll make sure of that!" She said. Mimi gave him another hug and he returned it. TK looked up to Hiroshi smiling.
"I'm glad I got to meet you, I can't wait till we meet again, I'll miss you!" Hiroshi sadly looked at him.
"I don't think you'll be missing me, you won't even remember me." TK frowned.
"Oh yeah." He said solemnly.
"But don't worry, you'll definitely see me again!" Hiroshi said. TK beamed.
"Right!" Izzy was stuttering as he tried to say goodbye to Nazo. She giggled.
"Well what do you know, for the first time Izzy's at a loss for words." Tentomon said. Izzy scowled at him. He then turned to Nazo.
"Well it's pretty complicated for me to say farewell to you, especially when I know that I won't be on familiar terms with who you are."
"It's okay, you don't have to say it Daddy, I know you mean well." They gave each other a hug. Tentomon began to sniffle.
"I love these family moments!" Joe was having the same problem with saying goodbye as well.
"Well, uh, what can I say to someone I won't see for 20 years?"
"A goodbye would be nice." Gomamon stated.
"I know that!" He said.
"How about I start?" Kado asked.
"See you in 20 years!" He held out his hand. Joe shook it.
"Yeah, see you in 20 years." The two chuckled. Kari hugged Dakedo tightly around the waist. She stepped back smiling warmly at him.
"Take care of yourself, and even if I won't remember you, try visiting me sometime, you know, just to check up on me!" Dakedo chuckled.
"I'll try." Kari giggled with glee. All the digidestined turned to adult Izzy solemnly.
"So are you ready?" They all nodded. Adult Izzy walked behind Tai holding the device up to the back of his head. Adult Izzy pushed a button so that it would alter Tai's memory giving him his future self's memory. A stapler noise was heard and Tai collapsed unconscious. The digidestined and digimon gasped and gawked at the fallen Tai.
"Tai!" Kari cried stretching her arm out to her brother.
"He'll be fine Kari, when he wakes up he won't remember a thing that happened today except that you all defeated the Dark Masters and Apocalymon on your own without our help." Adult Matt told the young girl. Kari slowly pulled her arm back resting it at her side.
"Who's up next?" Adult Izzy asked. Adult TK stood forth as well as his younger self. Adult Izzy repeated the process. Mimi bawled as it was her turn to go next. She hugged Makoto tightly and reluctantly let him go to have her memory altered with tears still streaming down her cheeks. The last person to have their memory changed was Matt. He walked slowly up to Adult Izzy. As he did, Mara quietly snuck up behind him and slipped something into his pocket unnoticed. She ran back to Ariyo resting her hands on his shoulders. Matt fell to the ground when Izzy finished.
"Well that's that!" Adult Mimi said. They then looked towards Gennai.
"Don't worry, I'll tell all the digimon who were involved in the battles about this and not to say a word about what really happened today." They smiled.
"Thank you Gennai." TK said. The children reunited with their parents.
"I'm ready to go home now." Makoto said. Hiroshi looked up at his father.
"How do we get home?" He asked.
"Simple, we use a time machine." TK replied.
"But it stayed home when it sent us back in time." Dakedo said.
"That's why I created another one that travels along with us." Izzy explained pulling out another gadget out of his bag. He put it around his wrist like you would apply a watch on.
"It looks like a cross between a wristwatch and a CD player." Andoru said.
"Nope, believe it or not this doohickey can take us back to our own time." Said Mimi. The children just stared on. Izzy began to push many buttons on his little invention. Everyone huddled together as a large bubble surrounded them. They began to rise into the air. The children held tightly to their parents as they looked down below. Mara gazed at her future mother and father who were sleeping peacefully. She smiled and spoke quietly.
"I hope you will be able to meet me and Ariyo again." She then looked to her younger brother who was waving at Gennai and the digimon.
"Goodbye Gennai, Biyomon, Gabumon!" He yelled. Mara giggled.
"Take care!" She yelled.
"Remember not to say a word about this!" Cried Nazo.
"Hope we will see each other again!" Bellowed Makoto.
"Even though it isn't likely!" Yelled Kado.
"Just kidding!" He yelled out afterwards.
"Goodbye! So long! Fare well! And every other goodbye!" Cried Andoru.