The Crest of The Heavens
By ArchangelUK
I do not own the television program known as Digimon, however I do own a handfull of the new Euro notes - something I took great delight in burning.
Patamon: So Azulongmon appeared and talked with Jarret about what he is here to do, something he's being pretty vague about. We know a bit more about him now anyway, but only because he told Gatomon. What link the two of them have I don't know, I doubt Gatomon even does but I'm sure there's more than Jarret is letting on. Now all we have to do continue what we were doing, and that's get to the next section of forest, only problem is that there's a desert in the way - let's hope that's all there is...
Chapter 5: Goggles Make Not A Man
"On the day there is 13 a choice
is made, a path is taken, and that path shall lead 13 to light and 1 to shadow."
- The Prophecy of The Thirteenth DigiDestined
"Where did they come from?" Palmon squealed as the Mamothmon had appeared on the horizon, no-one knew but the Mamothmon were soon joined by a fleet of Seadramon.
"Why would a bunch of Seadramon and Mamothmon
want to meet up?" mused Izzy, as he tapped rapidly on his laptop.
"I don't know, but I bet they're not here to have a disco!" Tentomon
said, the insect digimon subconsciously flying backwards a couple of metres
away from the distant group. Jarret looked at the slowly approaching digimon
herd and scowled, something wasn't quite right.
"Izzy's right this isn't normal, there's no reason why two such different types would want to meet up in such large numbers."
"Then why would they?" Kari asked, Jarret did not answer her but instead looked back towards the digimon who first spotted them.
"Hawkmon, you've the best sight amongst us, is there anymore you can see."
"I'm not sure." Replied the bird in typical English accent, "All I see are the Mamothmon and Seadramon coming this way." Jarret stared at the dust cloud moving towards them, squinting against the bright sunshine, they were still an awful distance away but still. Jarret walked over to where Tai stood,
"What are you thinking Jarret?"
"There's something wrong here..."
"I see something!" Hawkmon called, "Those digimon have some kind of symbol on their forehead, I can't really make it out. It looks sort of like a - "
" - A circle with a line dividing it in half?"
"Yes... right down the centre from top to bottom." Tai cast a glance towards the swirl of dust then back to Jarret,
"Bad news?"
"You think?"
"Nemisomon?"
"No, but his handiwork all the same." Jarret gestured to Izzy and he joined the small huddle, Davis made to join but was waved away by the three boys.
"Izzy, could either of those digimon herds have spotted us yet?"
"Well, according to my calculations the current velocity of the herds and the all the data I have at present, the simplest answer I can give is -"
"Just get to the point will you Izzy(!)" Tai said impatiently, "A simple yes or no is fine."
"Well, no... but they will in six point three five minutes at their present speed."
"We need to get out of here... now. They haven't spotted us yet and the last thing we need is a draining fight before we find Nemisomon." Jarret yelled as the three rejoined the group.
"But they're looking for us." Davis insisted,
"And they won't find us," Izzy explained, "We'll avoid them and they'll just go right on the way we came."
"Don't you want to fight them or something?"
"Not if we can help it." The boy genius continued.
"But they are evil right?" asked Veemon.
"Yes, but -"
"They're evil, lets go get 'em!" Davis cheered.
"Yeah Davis, lets go!" Veemon encouraged
"Davis wait!"
"Digivolve Veemon!"
"Veemon digivolve too.... ExVeemon!" The typical blue light heralded the success of the digivolution,
"Er, excuse me?" Hawkmon said, "I hate to interrupt but there has been a change with the Mamothmon. They now appear to be charging, straight at us." Everyone looked at Davis and ExVeemon,
"Well done Davis!" Jarret said slapping him on the back, "You've successfully turned a situation where a potentially dangerous fight was easily avoidable into one where a potentially lethal fight is unavoidable. Nice one you."
"I didn't do..."
"Haven't you noticed that digimon when they digivolve produce a lot of light and noise?"
"Oh."
"Oh indeed."
"I didn't mean to -"
"- Just... save it Davis, okay?"
"Tusk Crusher!"
"Tail Hammer!"
"Nova Blast!"
"Vee Laser!"
"Meteor Wing!
"Ice Blast!"
"Blast Rings!"
"I wish we could DNA Digivolve still!" Grumbled Stingmon as he dodged a flying tusk missile, his partner Ken stood well back away from the fight with the others.
"We weren't supposed to need it anymore, besides I'm not losing my tail ring again for anyone." Angewomon replied in a typically Gatomon way, before launching an attack at a Seadramon that happened to annoy her.
"I never suggested it - Spiking Strike!"
"Good. Celestial Arrow!"
"Jarret can we destroy them?" Yolei asked, the young girl of sincerity and love tugging on his shoulder. The young man closed his eyes and concentrated, he could sense the digimon of the DigiDestined but that was all. He opened his eyes again, and ran a hand through his hair and his eyebrows raised as though in a shrug.
"Even if we spared them and then defeated Nemisomon, they would still after his death be servants of evil."
"There's nothing we can do for them?" Cody asked,
"If they still retain even a fraction of what passed for their individuality I certainly can't feel it."
"So what do we do?"
They ducked as a stray Ice Blast peppered the rocky ridge above them with lethally sharp icicles. TK covered his head as pebbles and debris rained down on him, he dived out of the way as a somewhat larger piece of rock and ice crashed downwards in the place he had been standing.
"We end their suffering." Was all Jarret said,
In the battle a trio of Seadramon launched attacks which smashed into Aquilamon, the proud bird crashed into the ground dedigivolving back to it's rookie form. The same happened to Stingmon, Kabuterimon and WereGarurumon, the DigiDestined bravely ran out into the melee to retrieve their partners.
"Okay guys!" Tai yelled, "No-holds barred, lets step it up a gear!"
"You got it Tai. Greymon Warp Digivolve to..... WarGreymon!"
"Angemon digivolve too.... MagnaAngemon!"
"ExVeemon digivolve to.... oh... damn, I forgot I can't..."
And so the digimon pulled out all the stops, released from the burden of knowing they faced digimon who lived and soon the tide of battle turned.
"Vulcan's Hammer!"
"Terra Force!"
"Gate of Destiny!"
The great gate materialised behind the two herds and the digimon of the DigiDestined forced them back into it. With half their number destroyed or already consigned to the gate a combined attack from a dark Seadramon and Mamothmon managed to floor Angewomon. Gatomon fell down onto the sand with a grunt, Kari cried out in alarm and ran out to the cat-digimon, somehow avoiding the grasp of TK, Jarret, Davis and Tai.
As Kari got to her digimon one of the last Mamothmon, before being sent through the gate cried out "Tusk Crusher!" and sent a tusk spiralling outwards before tumbling into the white abyss. The tusk streaked through the sky, and it soon became apparent it was on a direct course for one of them.
"Kari!" TK yelled and began running desperately towards her, a race against a ballistic missile he knew he wouldn't win. She looked up at his call but it was too late to move now, too late to get out of the way. She shrieked, closing her eyes and clutching Gatomon waiting for the sharp ivory to pierce her body, waiting for the burst of pain which signalled her death.
But it didn't come.
Kari opened her eyes, the point of the tusk was barely an inch away from the bridge of her nose, suspended in mid-air by a stream of gold light. Her eyes darted left to see Jarret arm upstretched, palm emitting whatever it was that was keeping the tusk from movement, she gawped at him and his eyes locked with hers.
"Move!" Jarret ordered and slowly Kari's limbs obeyed her brain and she dived out of the way, quickly dragged up and away with Gatomon by TK. The tusk began to move forward again, it was still on a path that took it into the crowd of chosen children; with obvious effort Jarret thrust his hand forward and the tusk rotated 180 degrees. The beam stopped and the tusk propelled itself away from the DigiDestined embedding itself in the sand some 200 yards from the Gate of Destiny.
Jarret fell to the floor clutching his side, it felt as though he had a big stitch combined with pins and needles in his heart. The others made their way over to him, though he shrugged off all help save for Tai and Izzy. He glared daggers at Davis, and if looks could kill Davis would have been wiped from the face of history... rather ironic considering the circumstances. For a moment, and only a moment it was, his vision seemed to blur, Jarret fell from the two boys clutches... or rather fell through their clutches. Jarret looked at his hand in amazement as it seemed to flicker and fade before returning to normal, he grimaced at Izzy who stood with Tai, mouth agape.
"What... the..."
"....hell?" Izzy finished Tai's protracted sentence.
"Something almost happened that almost changed the timeline, that combined with the fact I had to use some of my energy meant I sort of faded out there for a second."
"Faded out?" Joe spluttered, "You fell THROUGH Izzy and Tai."
"Yeah... heh he, sorry about that."
"Well, everything worked out okay." Davis said, picking up Veemon and twirling him in the air, "We did it!"
"No thanks to you." Jarret mumbled, loud enough for Davis to actually hear.
"What do you mean by that? Me an Veemon were kicking ass back there!"
"Ass which didn't need kicking - and because of your recklessness Kari almost got killed."
"I'm fine Jarret." Kari said turning to TK "Really I am." She whispered to her friend, he nodded grimly so she angled her head inquisitively in reply, her eyes intense. TK after a moment seemed to accept that she was telling the truth and finally let go of her.
"See! See! She's fine, what's the big problem?" Davis jumped up and down pointing at Kari. His head snapped back when he saw TK let go of Kari, "HEY WHAT WERE YOU DOING WITH MY GIRL TQ?!?!" He made to leap at the DigiDestined of Hope but was met instead by a veritable verbal broadside...
"DAVIS YOU INSIPID RODENT, WHY CAN'T YOU GET IT INTO YOUR MINUSCULE EXCUSE FOR A CRANIUM THAT THE WORLD - DIGITAL OR OTHER WISE - DOES NOT EVOLVE AROUND YOU, YOU SEPTIC PUSS FILLED LITTLE WORM!" Jarret screamed at the top of his lungs, Davis sweatdropped and backed away nervously.
"You don't deserve to be the leader, you don't have a clue what the Digital World is about! How can you be the great hero you must when you're a complete IDIOT???" Jarret, crimson faced and eyes bulging spun on his heel and marched off in the direction the Mamothmon and Seadramon had come from, Hawkmon had said there was an Oasis around there somewhere and he needed a drink.
"Well." Joe said, picking up Gomamon, "At least he didn't throw you in a river..."
Nemisomon rapped his long thin claws on the screen in front of him, a report was coming in from one of his scouts. The scout had been sent to give him a full report of what happened to the patrol of digimon he had sent out to destroy those miserable children. He stared at the printout, his eyes a mixture of fury and exhilaration, all the digimon he had sent out had been destroyed and his primary targets had eluded destruction. No matter, there were thousands more digimon where those had come from, however there was still a silver lining in his cloud of failure. Jarret had been forced to use his powers, he was weakening it would soon be time to strike the final blow.
He gestured at the possessed Bakemon who hurried off, only to arrive back seconds later with a steaming shank of meat. It smelt wondrous, so he ripped into it with his double rows of teeth, and contemplated his next move. Next move.... the thought brought back a long forgotten memory, something that surprised him greatly, he dismissed the Bakemon with a wave of his clawed hand. The Bakemon bowed and made a hastily retreat outside, taking the bone filled dish which had once contained the meat back with him.
So long ago, it surprised him it really did...
"Why don't you like Davis?"
The question came suddenly, startling Jarret from his contemplation on a rocky outcrop. Infront of him were Biyomon and Palmon, Agumon and Tai stood behind the pair, the question had come from Biyomon. "I don't dislike Davis." Jarret reassured, "It's just that he doesn't realise what it is to be the DigiDestined leader - he still thinks it's a game..."
Jarret paused eying the group of chosen children some two hundred metres away. Davis and TK were fighting again, or rather Davis had launched himself at TK again but the boy of hope had merely side-stepped the lunge and Davis had ended up headbutting the mud. Jarret let a half smile cross his lips when Veemon tried to help his partner up and ended up falling into the mud also.
"...And it's not." He finished, taking his eyes away from the scene, Palmon sighed a deep sigh, Biyomon joined her in it.
"He means well." Tai insisted, "He wouldn't consciously put Kari in harms way, he'd have me to deal with that's if I got to him before TK ever did."
"Oh I know he means well Tai, he's just too recklace though. He'll make mistakes."
"Everyone makes mistakes though." Agumon interrupted,
"I've seen it happen with others like him and eventually they make that one mistake. The mistake that costs them it all."
"You seem to know about this well."
"Agumon, as I've said I've seen it happen."
"You were the DigiDestined leader of your time weren't you?" Tai suddenly realised, Jarret nodded in reply.
"Yes, for a while."
"But, that must mean that you held the Crest of Courage though." Jarret actually laughed at that, Tai looked at him annoyed, the gold clad youth held up a hand in apology.
"I'm sorry Tai, but it's just... having the Crest of Courage, or the DigiMental of Courage doesn't make you DigiDestined leader. Wearing goggles, having brown hair or even being a natural leader doesn't make you DigiDestined leader. Fate makes you DigiDestined leader, the DigiWorld makes you DigiDestined leader... and sometimes even the harmonious ones make mistakes."
"Oh come on now! Davis being made leader after me wasn't a mistake!"
"No." Angemon cried against the powerful
wind, "Terrimon isn't ready to digivolve yet, he couldn't take that amount
of power."
"Yes I can." The little digimon squeaked,
"Good enough for me.." Jarret said,
"No Jarret don't!" Gatomon pleaded,
"..Digivolve!"
"Terrimon Digivolve too..."
"Who said anything about Davis?" Jarret said after a while... and then, he promptly disappeared.
Disappears? Yep, he said that and vanished into thin air - lousy ending I know, guess you'll just have to find out where in the next chapter.
AAUK 0:-)
PS - Look out for "Reality Redux" a new gestalt fic by myself and Digicowboy!