The Crest of The Heavens
By ArchangelUK

I do not own Digimon - This chapter sponsored (in part) by Gate of Destiny Cleaning Services Plc, their motto - "Waste? What waste?"

Kari: We'd finally defeated Nemisomon, at least that's what we thought. But before his data dissipated, he latched onto the Crest of the Heavens and drained enough of Jarret's energy to reconstitute himself first as a digiegg, then right back up to ultimate. We thought it was impossible, until we learnt that Nemisomon is Jarret's digimon partner Terrimon! We were all too weak to fight, but in a series of revelations we found out that the all of the worlds in existence came to an end when Jarret left for our time - which makes him responsible for innumerable deaths and suffering. Someone's got some explaining to do...

Chapter 11: Sin & Sincerity

"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

"I think I'd... I'd better go for the time being." Jarret's strength seemed to have returned to him, no sign of age suffered at the power transfer between himself and Nemisomon remained. He only looked emotionally drained as opposed to physically now. The other DigiDestined, or the majority of them anyway looked on his comment with disdain.

"Yeah. Don't be in too big a hurry coming back either." Tai growled,

"Oh. Right." Jarret nodded slowly and trudged away. The barer of courage watched the elder male's retreating back with a furious gaze, Jarret could feel it burning into him.

"Tai..."

"Now don't you 'Tai' me Sora."

"But-"

"OR you Kari. If this is all his fault he can go and sort it out for himself, we'll deal with these dark digimon, he can clear up his own mess."

"There was no need to drag us into it." Davis agreed, folding his arms. Veemon copied his gesture and huffed, drawing a sigh of bemusement from Wormmon.

"You're forgetting of course that had he not followed Nemisomon back me and TK would be toast." Ken said trying to stick up for the retreating teenager.

"He's right." The green digimon said, his face looking even more concerned than it usually did - and that's something.

"It doesn't matter." Matt said raising his voice, "He should have told us it was his Digimon."

"And would you have believed him?" TK challenged, "Would you have helped him?"

"Of course." Matt snorted, Gabumon groaned not entirely believing his partner's statement.

"Or would you have said 'this is all his fault he can go and sort it out for himself'." Tai glared at TK which seemed to have no effect for the youngest of the original DigiDestined continued. "So we're going to clean up the stray Digimon are we Tai? I.e. the ones that Nemisomon has corrupted?"

"TK..." Tai began, but Mimi interrupted.

"Why can't you just help him! It's not as if he's risked much coming back here is it?"

"We win anyway!" Tai roared, "And he puts one measly incident against the fate of the entire Universe??"

"It wasn't one measly incident Tai!"

"Oh yeah? So what do you know that we don't? Huh Mimi, what do you know about Jarret."

"I-I-I... know nothing else."

"Precisely Mimi - you... know.... NOTHING. As per usual." Tears began to well in Mimi's eyes, Joe looked as though he was going to explode.

"THERE WAS NO NEED FOR THAT TAI!" He roared, stepping angrily towards the younger male who stepped back in surprise before composing himself.

"Well if she thinks he's so fantastic she can get out of here with him."

"That's ENOUGH!" Sora yelled, Mimi ran off away from Tai tears streaming down her cheeks. Tai instantly looked regretful but that didn't stop Joe having to be restrained. The remaining DigiDestined wandered off in different groups, a period of cooling off was in order.

"Mimi..." A hand appeared on her shoulder, shaking it gently. Mimi jumped in fright at her sudden company, she held a hand to her chest in relief it was only Sora.

"Oh, Sora. Sorry I was miles away."

"Actually I think you were about 500 yards around the corner there." The keeper of love said, jerking her head behind her.

"What?"

"Look Mimi, don't try to fool me. I see the way you look at him."

"I..." She went to protest but realised there wasn't much point in it. "Yeah, okay so I 'like' him."

"So what are you gonna do about it?" The girl put her hands on her hips and looked at Mimi intently, Mimi suddenly found the ground very interesting.

"Huh?"

"Come on Mimi, ignore Tai and Davis. It's not like I'm paying much attention to them by coming over here in the first place, they're wrong but to prove they are we need Jarret back with us. Besides," She paused, "He needs to speak to someone about it," Sora noticed Mimi wasn't looking at her. "You know something don't you? Something else that we don't."

"If I'm right." Mimi said slowly, "Then I can't tell you."

"Well that's helpful." Sora sighed, "I can get TK to go and talk to him if you want, it'd be no trouble."

"No!" Mimi blurted, "Ah, that is, I want to do it." Sora's face went from confused to smiling.

"That's my girl." She pushed Mimi in the direction Jarret went until the strawberry haired girl's legs got the idea of where to go. "Go and tell him, you never know he might feel the same way." She winked at Mimi who grinned back and set off to find Jarret.

"Are you okay TK." Kari put a hand on TK's elbow, he gave her a traditional lopsided grin.

"Yeah... Just a little mad I guess."

"About Jarret?"

"Partly." TK sat down by the base of a nearby tree, Kari sat down next to him and leant her head on his shoulder. TK smiled briefly before going into thought, barely registering the worried brow of Gatomon walk past followed by the concerned face of Patamon.

"Gatomon!" Patamon pleaded, "Tell me what's wrong." She looked around at him, her eyes full of sadness and longing. Longing to tell him what she thought she knew, to tell him what she KNEW she knew. She said neither, but shook her head sadly.

"I can't." She whispered, "It could... Would... affect things." The details about Jarret would affect the timeline, the 'other' thing would affect Patamon. It wasn't the appropriate time.

"Kari." Patamon whined turning towards the teenager, "Make Gatomon stop moping and tell us what's wrong."

"Patamon!" TK scolded, the orange winged digimon snorted.

"It was worth a try."

Despite herself Gatomon giggled, smiling at Patamon's attempted resourcefulness. "If you must know it is Jarret, I think... I think this is all something to do with me." The last part of this was barely a whisper, no one thought to question Gatomon's statement. Kari simply opened her arms and Gatomon bounded over and threw herself into her partner's grasp. Kari petted her friend fondly, she glanced up at Patamon who had perched on TK's head. He wanted to help her but didn't know how. TK took matters into his own hands, or arms rather, picking up the little digimon and placing him in between their laps. Kari found his comforting arm around her and they hugged their Digimon to them, the pair eventually snuggling together for comfort - their Digimon did too.

"So, now you know."

"Why didn't you tell us before."

"Because then you wouldn't have trusted me, and I wouldn't have been able to help you."

"The others don't exactly trust you know though do they."

"Maybe. But then again, maybe I've changed the timeline sufficiently to save my digital world."

"Why did you travel so far back?"

"Because this is where I was told it begun."

Jarret threw a pebble into the lake, skimming it along the surface. Mimi watched as it skipped once, twice, three times along the surface before it disappeared into the water.

"Azulongmon - my Azulongmon, was too weak to even be able to remember what the actual event was. All I know is that Nemisomon started it, the DigiDestined finish it and somewhere in-between then and the final battle something happens which directly leads to the accident. I don't know what, I don't know when, but I will stop it and they will live." He sighed audibly and threw another stone, this one didn't skip and just landed in the lake with a loud 'kaplunk' noise. Jarret watched the ripples, until they disappeared into nothing.

"But why you."

"Terrimon, Nemisomon, whatever he is now he is my digimon partner and therefor my responsibility."

"I don't see how you can blame yourself."

"That no longer matters now."

Jarret sighed and a repressed tear escaped from his eye, meandering down the side of his face.

"You're their son aren't you?" Jarret didn't hear the question at first and he blinked disbelievingly.

"You are TK and Kari's son." Mimi rephrased the question, Jarret shivered though Mimi doubted it was through cold.

"Yes." He croaked. "It was they who perished all those years ago, they who died in that damn car crash." Jarret screwed his eyes shut, more tears escaping the confines of the ducts. Mimi didn't know what to do, she'd comforted TK and Sora before, even Tai and Matt on two different occasions but not someone she cared for this much.

"The cat he referred to was Gatomon wasn't it." Jarret clutched at the heavy gold pendant that hung around his neck next to the tag and crest of the heavens.

"I know she's figured it out as well."

"You do?" Jarret chuckled despite his misery,

"She's one smart pussycat."

"So what did happen with Terriermon?"

"Terrimon."

"Oh, sorry."

"For Gatomon the crash was too much for her, she was so badly scarred mentally by Myotismon that it just took everything out of her. She never fully recovered. Eventually we ended up in that fight and she died."

"Didn't she get reconfigured?"

"No. With Kari gone she simply didn't have the will or strength to live again." Jarret yanked out some grass that was annoying him.

"You have to tell them this. They deserve to know." He shook his head.

"No, to do so would radically change the way the timeline pans out. You all know they love each other, even now, but they must confront each other about it themselves."

Mimi nodded sadly and picked up a stone throwing it also, hers skipped four times before going under the surface. Jarret smiled slightly, "You always could do that."

"What?"

"Beat me by one."

"I don't understand."

"I'm from the future, I know you there, I know all of the guys."

"Are we, you know, close there?" Jarret looked perplexed for a second, wondering what she meant, deciding that the truth is better he replied

"As close as your parent's friends can get to their children."

"Oh." Mimi had forgotten about the fact that she'd be about 45 in Jarret's time.

"You're still as sweet though," Jarret added, causing a small blush to appear on Mimi's cheeks. Jarret pretended not to notice, though his heart jumped a bit in hope.

"He's only around that corner you know." Matt said coolly, Tai grunted in response. "Mimi's round there now too." That DID interest Tai, he made to call for her to get the hell away from Jarret but then he remembered what he'd said earlier and closed his mouth. Davis was as stubborn if not more so than Tai, Matt had discovered. For the last twenty minutes he had been telling anyone who would listen the catalogue of little scrapes, fights and arguments Jarret and he or Veemon had been involved in.

Yolei groaned, "Knock it off already Davis."

"Please Davish! That's run through number three to my knowledge."

"My head hurts." Hawkmon groaned, Davis also groaned but for another reason.

"I don't get it though. Why are you guys still supportive of him."

"It's not that we entirely trust him anymore." Yolei began, "It's just... We know that he's obviously gone through a hell of a lot before coming back here."

"Not only that there's all this stuff he hasn't told us and knows he can't." Matt took over the case for the defence, seemingly having changed his mind about some things.

"He wants to." Sora sighed, "He really does, it's eating him up inside."

"How do we know that what he said before was a lie? About his parents?" Tai protested, this time it was Agumon who spoke up. His voice betrayed an annoyance that surprised the keeper of Courage.

"Do you want to tell Gatomon you think he's lying?" Tai remained silent. "The things he said; you can't fake those kind of feelings, you can't fake THAT level of emotion, THAT level of pain. Something bad happened. So bad as we now know it would have led to the end of everything. The fact Jarret came back, that Azulongmon sent him here - you're not telling me Azulongmon didn't know what he was doing?"

"Yeah." Gabumon agreed, "Azulongmon would have only sent Jarret back here if it was the last remaining option. The fact that Jarret didn't know, or at least didn't seem to know the whole story backs that up."

Sora leaned on Tai's shoulder; "We don't know what hardships he's gone through, we can only imagine."

"That's the whole point though, we can only imagine." He said getting up, "And imaginary things are rarely real."

"Can you - will you return?" A painfully long sigh escaped Jarret's lungs and Mimi wondered if she'd touched a nerve again.

"I don't know, to be honest I doubt it's possible."

"You can't get home?" She asked wide-eyed.

"If I change the timeline enough I wouldn't have had to come back here in the first place. If I were to try to go home I would find another Jarret there, I doubt he'd appreciate a double."

"So you're going to stay?"

"I don't have much of a choice. The future is constantly in motion, the past set, the present caught up in the moment."

His expression of forced happiness collapsed though as a new realisation dawned on him, Mimi saw this rapid swing back to depression and put her arm around his back.

"What is it?"

"He's right." It was not an admission, nor was it anything else but a statement. Jarret moved his head downwards so he was at Mimi's eye level, "Unless I succeed and change the timeline then all those beings will die because of me." Mimi said nothing, but brought her hands up to Jarret's face. Not entirely knowing why and moving completely on instinct she moved her head towards his and gently kissed him on the lips.

"You will succeed Jarret," she said as she moved away.

"No." He corrected, a hand on her cheek halting her retreat "We. We will succeed." And with a calm in his eyes she had never seen before he leant back in, and he kissed her.

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ArchangelUK 0:-)

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