Disclaimer: I don't own, nor do I claim to own Digimon or its associated products. This was not written for financial gain or for any type of commercial advantage.
Author's Note: Well, here I am again, despite my theories running far behind schedule. So it goes I guess. Anyway, this here is the real kick-off for the rest of the plot. I hope it does a good job. Remember to review.
Episode XXIV
The Other Side of the Door
"'Thus we meet again, though all the hosts of Mordor lay between us,' said Aragorn. 'Did I not say so at the Hornburg?'"
J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings part three, The Return of the King
"At least it's brighter in here." Yolei pointed out as they walked up the hallways. There was, as Ken had pointed out, no point in sneaking, or creeping or anything of the sort. The hallways were brightly lit, and simple now. Plated in gold and marble they reflected light everywhere, and anything trying to walk across the floors would be instantly revealed. Stealth was useless, but it seemed that there was no need. After all, the place was still deserted.
"I don't like this." Sorcerymon admitted. "We've been following these tracks all day, but I don't know where all the people who should be here are."
"How many did Leomon have?" Gatomon asked, sitting down on a statue.
"Hundreds." Sorcerymon replied, puzzled. "I could have sworn that you couldn't run this castle without them."
"It can't take that many, can it?" Kari asked, sounding puzzled.
"You might be surprised." Sorcerymon pointed at the light globes now illuminating the area. "It used to take six digimon alone to replace used up globes. It takes about twenty to dig the dirt out of the underground wells, lest they fill up on us again. It takes all kinds to keep this place running, and here it seems to be running without them."
"I don't like it either." Ken muttered. "I have a feeling we're walking into a trap."
"It won't be the first one." Patamon pointed out in a rather singsong voice.
"Yes, but I don't want it to be the last one either." Ken sounded frustrated. "I just wonder what's happening."
"And who makes these." Kari pointed down at the tracks they had been following. Everywhere on the polished floors the ground was heaped with dust and dirt except for one track. Almost as if a river had poured through here they could see the traces of people, or creatures, having passed here before. From the depth of the tracks, the passage looked quite recent, but there was no sign of anybody around. If anything it just looked quieter and more desolate than ever before, something that was beginning to make all of them very, very nervous.
"So now where?" Cody peered down the hallways, looking a bit confused. "I think we've been everywhere."
"We have been nearly everywhere." Sorcerymon was considering the doors ahead of them, huge paneled oak constructs that were large enough to admit any digimon they could think of. They had to admit that the doors were impressive. "The castle is built on defensible lines. The only areas left are either the grand hall here, or the stairs to the upper levels that go through the grand hall. If you want to go anywhere else in the castle, you'll have to go through there."
"So now what?" Yolei sat down on a handy statue. "I don't want to walk into another trap."
"Or stand around here forever." Armadillomon joined in.
"Only one way to end this." Davis pointed. "We go in."
"So is this it?" Tai asked, examining the strange structure.
"It sure looks like it." Agumon confirmed, peering at it from a number of different directions. Joe had to admit that the dinosaur had a point. The huge doorway sat in the middle of a room, the doorframe made of solid white stone. In between, where a door should have stood there was only golden light, outlining rapidly shifting patterns of a hundred different places. From where they were they could not make out anything clearly through the door, but the surface shimmered like the ocean in full daylight.
"So how do we operate it?" Sora wanted to know, peering at it curiously. It had no buttons, no controls, no visible means of altering its status.
"Haven't a clue." Tentomon finally admitted, buzzing around the structure. Izzy said nothing, he had been focused almost entirely on his computer since the moment he had found this.
"How are we doing on time?" Joe asked.
"Not bad. At least not bad yet." Agumon replied. He still looked tired, but better. The digidestined had slept long that night, having spent most of their energies in the battles of the previous day. Fortunately Piximon, Leomon and the others had led a thorough reconaissance of the Pinnacle, and had dug through every concealed room they could find before finding this one. By the time the others, including a battered Tai and Matt, had managed to wake up, they had already found this room.
But that had truly gotten them nowhere. No digimon appeared to have the faintest idea what they were supposed to do now. There appeared to have been legends about the gate, but none that told them how to operate it. Izzy had already admitted that he was at a bit of a loss when confronted with this one, and now the rest of the digidestined sat back, feeling a profound sense of uselessness when faced with this problem.
Matt shrugged and sat down on a handy stool, jumping back up when something pricked him in the side. He pulled out the harmonica he had gotten on their first day and looked at it as if he expected it to bite him.
"Play a song for us, for old time's sake." Gabumon suggested.
"All right." Matt smiled at them and raised the harmonica to his lips.
It had been years since he had last touched his old favorite instrument, but as soon as he set it to his lips his old skill returned. This time, for some reason, instead of playing the old blues tunes that he had been so fond of, he tried playing something else. It came out, not like a harmonica, or anything that he had ever heard. It sounded like he was blowing on an old horn, something out of a movie. And beneath his expert fingers the harmonica suddenly changed, become unfamiliar, but not uncomfortable.
His eyes widened, but his lips did not cease to blow. Where a moment before he had held a harmonica it now looked like a trumpet, an old one, from ages before, before they had heard of electric guitars and rock music, from an age when blowing a trumpet had meant calling people to battle. The instrument was not curved, but was rather long, full necked and large belled. The sound it emitted was not sweet or soothing, not even the squealing of a jazz trumped in the wrong hands. It was sharp and clear, a sound to bring out valiance in all who heard it, a challenge to a contest of arms. The room rang with the echoes, and still the blast continued, rising ever higher and higher into the sky until it seemed like the Pinnacle itself might fall under the rumbling.
In the doorway the golden light that had obscured the myriad destinations they might have seen changed. Like someone had dropped a ripple in the pond, as if they had suddenly peeled back the layer of mystery the view changed. Now the images that had been shifting almost too fast to interpret slowed down. Behind them they could see a room taking shape, a room that looked like it was in an old palace somewhere. Crimson carpets and ivory floors shone with an inner light and, as Matt finally ran out of breath and put the horn down, the image stayed, waving there in the doorway.
"Well," Izzy looked astonished. "I suppose that's that."
"Let's go before it closes." Agumon suggested.
"Are you guys up to it?" Tai asked everyone.
"C'mon Tai. Let's go." Joe pointed. "We may not have a lot of time."
"Good luck you guys." Piximon called as they prepared to enter the portal. "You are truly the digidestined, perhaps the greatest heroes this world will ever know. Even you have yet to plumb the true depth of your powers, the true strength you bear within. United there's nothing you can't do."
"Go get 'em guys." Leomon rumbled. Ogremon just grinned at them.
Sora squeezed Biyomon's wing reassuringly. Tentomon and Izzy gazed at the doorway in rapt fascination. Gomamon jumped up on Joe's shoulders. Mimi and Palmon grinned at each other. Tai and Matt just looked at each other and shrugged while Gabumon and Agumon grinned at their expressions. Then, together, they started to walk forward.
"Let's do this all at once." Matt suggested, and impishly broke into a run, with Tai coming right behind him.
Running all out, the six children and the six digimon hit the doorway and disappeared into another world.
"Now this is impressive." Yolei noticed, looking around. "I haven't ever seen anything like this."
The Grand Hall reached above them, curving upward almost out of sight in the glare of the thousands of globes that emitted a bright, nearly painful golden light all over the hall. The supports, vast arches, seemed to be carved from white marble, while the floors were a polished, smooth gray stone that almost sparkled with the reflections from above. Everywhere there was gold and silver inlay, decorating wherever some previous ruler had thought was necessary. To the side they could see small rooms leading off from the great hall, some decorated with even more bewildering collections of gold and silver. Staring at the reflections and refractions from the golden light was like looking at a rainbow from up close, and the size dwarfed them.
"Well, we're inside." Armadillomon breathed out in relief.
Everyone else was too busy being awed at the size and the decorations.
"I'd forgotten how big this was." Sorcerymon whispered.
"At least we're safe here." Davis joined in after gaping some more at a particularly impressive statue some meters away.
SLAM!
The massive doors they just passed through slammed shut with a noise that made them all jump, their hearts pounding up into their throats. From the inside they could see that the door was lined with steel and iron, and all over massive intricate locks were slamming shut, isolating them off from the outside world. Even more deadbolts began to click. Doors they had not noticed, to the small rooms leading off the Grand Hall shut quickly and efficiently, with every crash trapping them even further in the echoing cavern.
The lights went out all of a sudden, but there was only a moment of consternation before screens popped up, almost like TV screens except for the fact that they were hovering in midair, with no actual screens behind the images themselves. In each of them the mobile blackness they associated with Khartan peered out at them.
"Ah, the digidestined. I had hoped that you would arrive sooner or later. In fact I counted on it. I think you'll find yourself trapped in here for quite a while. Just a note before you try to blast your way out, the place is trapped. Any attempt to blow through the walls releases a cloud of poison gas into this room.
"I suppose you want to know why nobody is here to welcome you. Well, the answer is simple. We've been all called away on urgent business. Business that you might think to concern yourself with after all. You see, we've gone to visit your world. I hear that it's a delightful place, and I'm starting to think of retirement. I don't think it would be a bad place to conquer, do you?" Suddenly all of the digidestined felt a chill fall over them as they realized what he was actually implying.
"After all, one can't think to far in the future, can they? It will be fun conquering your little world. I think I might even name something after you once you're safely dead. But if you start to feel bored, don't worry. I left my friends Ravisher and Sickle in the castle. They'll come play with you if you want."
There was a snap as Khartan's image vanished, and the lights went back on, revealing six humans who had turned noticeably more pale. Each of them were suddenly presented with sudden terrible visions, huge digimon rampaging through the streets of Earth, tearing the world apart with their anger, shattering tall buildings with their monstrous appendages, rending cities into dust with their fury. And there they were, the only ones who could stop the disaster, who even knew about it, trapped so far away from home that they might as well not be able to exist.
"What do we do? What do we do!" Yolei nearly tore her hair out in frustration.
"Wait!" TK threw up a hand. "Courage told us that time was different again. This means that, even if Khartan left earlier this week or something only seconds have passed in the real world. He has no way of carrying out his threats yet. We just have to find the gate. We need to get out of here."
"I second that." Ken checked out the room. "I think that even if this place is trapped it might be possible to do something about it. The door looks strong, but what about the ceiling."
"What about the ceiling?" Yolei looked up, peering silently at the imposing structure.
"Well, if it really is poison gas, can we fly our way out through the ceiling?"
"Maybe," TK rubbed his chin. "Then again, maybe not. You guys up to it?"
"Sure!" Veemon glanced up. "I guess we'll do the honors here."
"Veemondigivolves toExVeemon!"
"Wormmondigivolves toStingmon!"
"ExVeemonDNA Digivolve toPaildramon!"
"Paildramonmega digivolves toImperialDramon!"
The massive digimon glanced upward. "Everybody aboard." He called, and, as the others scrambled up top, began to rise toward the ceiling in a column of glowing blue light.
"This place sure is empty. Maybe it's abandoned." Sora suggested.
"Maybe we came to the wrong place." Joe sounded pessimistic again.
"No, definitely not." Surprisingly it was Agumon who said this, looking as he was down a stairwell that descended, ill-lit, down to unknown depths.
"How can you tell?" Tai was quick to ask.
"Well, I smell things. Like right now, I can tell that there are humans somewhere down there, and there were digimon. Two of them smell like Patamon and Gatomon, and Veemon's scent is definitely down there, but the others are mixed up."
"Down where?" Tai demanded.
"Well, that's definitely them." Izzy confirmed.
"I don't know Tai. It's like the smells were cut off somehow. Not killed or anything, but like they went in a room and closed the door."
Suddenly the whole building rocked in a tremendous explosion. Dust and plaster bounced off of the walls, the ceiling looked like it was about to fall in on itself, and all hell started to break loose.
"What's going on?" Mimi yelled as she held onto a pillar and Joe at the same time.
"I don't know!" Sora yelled back.
"Agumon!"
"Got it! Agumonwarp digivolves toWarGreymon!"
"Wait up! Gabumonwarp digivolves toMetalGarurumon!"
"Quickly, we've got to get down there!" Matt jumped on MetalGarurumon's back as Tai leapt into the arms of his own partner. "You guys take care of yourselves!"
And then they were gone.
The light had barely faded and ImperialDramon had barely stopped shaking from the recoil when he was shooting aloft, battering through the opening he had just forced in the ceiling. The beauty of the grand hall was suddenly obscured by massive clouds of poison gas, but whatever had armored the walls had not been applied to the ceiling, and the huge Mega managed to break through five levels of the palace without encountering a single person. That was when a huge blast of black energies caught him in the side, sending him sprawling, and everything got even more chaotic.
"Which way did those two go?" Sora asked, looking around anxiously. "I can't see any sign of them anywhere."
"I'm sure we'll find out soon enough." Mimi replied. "They always cause havoc wherever they end up."
Another explosion, low and almost subsonic began to shake the castle.
"That's usually a good clue." Izzy pointed. "Charge!"
"Things just keep getting better." TK dove straight over a boulder and landed painfully on one shoulder as the massive blade slammed down right behind him.
"Well, we know why they call him Sickle." Silphymon backed up almost immediately, trying to stay out of the way of the pair of blades that the darkly armored figure wore instead of hands. Angemon showed no hesitation.
"Hand of Fate!"
"Deathscythe!" The two shots clashed together in midair. Angemon was thrown backwards against a wall. It collapsed on him, painfully.
"Angemon, get clear!" Angewomon circled her new opponent at a safer distance, trying to keep her distance. "Somebody see to ImperialDramon!"
"We're all over it." Cody and Ken leapt to the aid of their fallen companion, who had been tipped over by the first shot. He was lying half buried in the rubble of the castle wall they had ended up crashing through, eyes shut tight in agony, a deep cut on his side. Davis was already at his side, frantically trying to move rubble off of the huge digimon, freeing room to move.
"C'mon ImperialDramon." He seemed to be near to tears. "You've got to get up again."
"You're the only one who can do it." Ken yelled.
"Angemon, go for it!" TK was yelling in the background.
"Angemondigivolves toMagnaAngemon!"
"Everybody, help out!"
"Kachina Bombs!"
"Static Force!"
"Celestial Arrow!"
"Excalibur!"
The blasts of liquid fire turned the air white, but they only threw Sickle back a bit, lacking the power needed to truly defeat the monstrosity bearing down on them. Twin blades flashed in the air, cracking like whips instead of sword blades, but they missed the rapidly fleeing digimon.
"Not so fast!" MagnaAngemon was back in the fight, sword spinning through the air, sending lightnings crackling down the blade. A dozen strokes almost painted on the surface of the sky itself, vast rents opening through the air, sparking fire behind. Each blow seemed to be driving Sickle back, but it was easy to see that the powerful opponent simply was not backing down.
There was a moment in which the battle held in the balance and then, unexpectedly Sickle gestured and the world rocked beneath them. A sudden storm roared through the corridor and MagnaAngemon, wings spread, was thrown violently backward, each gust knocking him further off balance. He tumbled helplessly, head over heels as the winds blew him backwards, tossing and turning with an expression of near-panic on his face.
"Look out!" Yolei screamed, but there was nothing to do, and Sickle was already leaping forward. As he got close he seemed to blur, and then the already battered castle erupted in another shower of dust and masonry. Everything became obscured in a cloud of suspended particles, and those on the ground held their breath in hope.
The dust faded as a wind blew it through the ruined walls of the castle, wind that flapped clothes of ivory and crimson. There, his cape still blowing around him, but otherwise fixed, like a statue of white marble, eyes gleaming with a burning light, stood Omnimon, both massive hands out in front of him. On his shoulders Tai and Matt stood perched, looking forward like hunting hawks preparing to strike, awaiting Sickle's next move. Sickle himself had stopped in the presence of the massive warrior, regarding his new foe with interest, and the slightest hint of dismay. Around them the dust scattered in waves, as if trying to find a way to escape the field of battle.
Tai and Matt jumped off of the shoulders of their mount, running forward, arms stretched out wide, even as Omnimon remained carefully immobile.
On the other side two ran to meet them. TK and Kari swept up to their brothers, throwing arms around them, yelling and shouting and cheering like they never had before. All the others felt themselves relax. They had been so used to being a team that they had never realized how much they missed their other half.
Now it looked like they were being reunited after all this time. Warriors joined back together, soldiers merging with their own ranks, friends returning home. Prospects went from being dim to being unstoppable. Hopes brightened and flared. Even as greetings were yelled, as Omnimon stood there like some great immobile statue, the focus of everyone's hopes, everything changed.
The digidestined were back.
"Your presence here can no longer be tolerated." Omnimon rumbled, and the great sword blasted free of WarGreymon's jaw once more, rising vertically until it was ready for battle once more. "Prepare to be returned to the darkness that made you."
"Perhaps it is you who will be leaving." Sickle returned, double blades moving to block his powerful adversary. Neither moved for a moment.
"So how have you guys been?" Tai asked TK out of the corner of his mouth as they watched the battle proceed.
"Same old, same old. You know how it is, save the world, find dinner, run away from huge monsters...the usual."
"That bad, eh?" Matt asked lightly, and then flushed. "I'm sorry I wasn't here TK."
"That's okay. You guys tried your best probably. That's all that we can ask." TK tried to get another foot away from the battleground.
"It's not okay, blast it!" Matt responded heatedly.
"Uh...so where are the others?" Yolei asked.
"They were right behind us, but I guess they must have gotten delayed. It looks like there've been some changes for both of us, eh?"
"Sure looks like it." Kari smiled. "But it looks like everything changed for the better."
"Touch of Death!" Sickle's blades glowed with unholy green flame for an instant while he whirled closer.
"Transcendent Sword!" Omnimon rose to meet him, blade flashing brilliant white, illuminating the corridor. The clash of steel on steel filled the entire room as digimon met evil force in a shower of sparks. Stroke after stroke was countered evenly, but it looked like Sickle was doing all the swinging. Omnimon was simply countering blows, Sickle's double blades giving him a pronounced advantage over his opponent. The massive sword countered one stroke, sending it awry, but another one would already be coming in and Omnimon would shift to meet it. Slowly, slowly, the white knight was being forced back.
Clash after clash, careful footstep after careful footstep, blow after blow, Omnimon was leaning closer and closer to the children he was trying to protect. With each moment he loomed, the immensity of his struggle reflecting itself more and more on those watching him.
"We can't just stand here!" Davis yelled, snapping his goggles back on.
"Well, what do you suggest?" Yolei snapped at him.
"I have an idea." Ken and Davis exchanged looks, and then both of them turned to their fallen mega digimon. "ImperialDramon, it's all up to you."
"Rrrrrr...." The hump moved, and this time it rose, plaster falling to the ground as the huge digimon managed to leverage himself around. His eyes were glowing scarlet.
"That's it. This is one team that's never going down." Davis cheered.
"Rrrrrr...." With each step the huge digimon seemed to grow larger, to rise higher in the sky, towering above the landscape. His jaws glinted, and his eyes burned as he watched the clash of blades ahead, and then, he began to glow white.
"ImperialDramon...mode change to...Fighter Mode!" Legs and arms snapped into place, armor descended to fit snuggly around torso and legs. A skeleton that was more like a steel wardrobe solidified around the towering figure. ImperialDramon FighterMode stretched, as if removing the feel of disuse from his limbs, and then turned to face his foe.
"We have to finish him." ImperialDramon rumbled, his voice deep and gruff, as deep as it had ever been before. Light glowed off his armor and from his eyes. "The children could be hurt by an extended struggle."
"I agree with you." Omnimon shifted his weight subtly and Sickle fell back, cautiously appraising this new threat. "But I would welcome any assistance that you would care to offer. I seem to be in need of it."
"I would be glad to offer assistance. At once?"
"Of course." Both fighters twisted to be facing Sickle square on. He began to look nervous about something.
ImperialDramon raised both hands, and let motes of light congregate between them, shaping themselves into a construct of steel and fire. Two massive hands closed on the handles of the huge cannon, griping it tightly between them, blue-white light gathering in the maw of the giant weapon. Omnimon raised his right arm and MetalGarurumon's jaws snapped open, revealing the cannon hidden within, already glowing white-hot with power that nobody could have born to look at.
"Supreme Cannon!" A bolt of light blasted free like a miniature sun, blazing away at the enemy standing in front of them.
"Positron Laser!" Swirls of flourescent color gathered in the muzzle of ImperialDramon's great weapon, forming a solid white core, and from it a torrent of energy exploded forward, burning like a great sword.
The two blasts met as one, in the middle of the room, and fire blazed like the dawn, sending each of the digidestined down to the ground to avoid the backblast of the explosion. Digimon were thrown helter skelter by the explosion, falling like rain. But, when the dust cleared and the fireworks faded into the memory of echoes, there was nothing left of Sickle but a black shadow on the floor.
"We did it!" Tai yelled. At the same moment the forms of ImperialDramon and Omnimon were surrounded by a bright light, and then Koromon, Tsunumon, Veemon and Wormmon bounced to the ground. They rushed into the arms of their companions.
"Mjolnir is standing ready. Operations are planned to commence tomorrow." Justice looked up from the latest report on his datapad to where Gennai and Courage stood solemnly examining him. "I hope you understand the wrestling with my conscience that is going on even now."
"Indeed." Gennai leaned back and stared at the sky. "We've cut loose all of Fourth and Fifth Wing for this operation. We won't have that luxury again. But if it works we can buy the time we need for this plan to work."
"At least we're not flying by the seat of our pants. I hate doing that." Justice muttered, looking out a window at the landscape floating around them. "You realize that what we're going to do will probably go down in history as the bloodiest battle ever."
"Indeed I do." Gennai pointed at the crewmen moving around in the operations pit below them. "But hopefully most of the blood shed will not be ours."
"Right. Back to business. Courage, I want you to run through operations with Fifth Wing's reintegrated carrier arm again. I really want those fighters..."
Babamon stroked the ground at her feet with her staff and the patterns of destiny emerged for a split second before being reabsorbed by the flow of time.
The ceiling in front of the digidestined fell apart with a crash, and something else, a dark twisting shadow, wrapped in a billowing black cape, dropped onto the ground. The only light from it was reflected from the armor that gleamed darkly around its midsection.
"Uh-oh. Khartan did say something about leaving two of these guys." TK mused, a bit belatedly. He looked around for a quick way out.
"You guys up to another digivolution?" Tai asked, but the exhausted digimon simply shook their heads and sighed. Tai rolled his eyes at his luck and tried to come up with a plan.
"Horn Buster!" The entire wall blew apart all at once, explosions tossing stonework around like children's toys. A bolt of yellow energy removed a large portion of the wall, sending the new figure flying backwards under the force of the blow. The entire corridor, not that there was much left, erupted in debris one more time. MegaKabuterimon zoomed in with Garudamon right behind him, the empty sky looming behind them.
"Everybody up!" Izzy yelled at them from his digimon's back. "I think it's time to go. We've got company out here."
"And in here!" Tai yelled as he and Matt jumped onto MegaKabuterimon's back.
"Don't forget us!" Yolei and Ken were right behind him.
"Good to see you again." Izzy nodded at them. "We got everybody?"
"Sure do." Armadillomon settled down on the back of the giant red beetle as the shadow warrior staggered to his feet once more.
"Time to jet." Izzy flattened himself against the back of his companion as the beetle shot up once more, blasting its way toward the heavens.
Tai took one look back as they took off at the dark figure of the one called Ravisher, standing there calmly watching them. Both sides knew that they would soon be back.
"I thought you might come here." Babamon remarked, calmly looking up from the rock she had been sitting on as the giant bird and beetle dropped out of the sky almost on top of her.
"Who's this?" Matt asked. The ride had been relatively short and noisy, and besides counting to make sure that nobody had been lost along the way, not much in the way of a reunion had been accomplished.
"Babamon. She's a friend of ours." TK stepped forward and bowed to the ancient digimon, who inclined her head in recognition. He was a little puzzled about how she had managed to figure out where they were headed, but he had caught sight of her house from affar and had managed to guide MegaKabuterimon down in an open clearing.
"Greetings Takeru. I had wondered when you might arrive however." Babamon smiled at them, and even as she did the world around them seemed to shimmer, like they were standing in the heat of summer and not in a chilly mountain valley. "I have laid protections over this place, protections such that nobody will every be able to find you if I do not wish it. For now. I suspect you will not stay here for long."
"You've got that right." Tai muttered.
"Ah, and you would be the elder Kamiya, no?" Babamon looked him up and down. "You have the look of your sister perhaps, but you are not much else alike, eh? But I expect you are tired of hearing your parents say much the same thing. Come, come..." And just like that her familiar house appeared out of the underbrush, acting innocently like it had been there all along.
"Nice house." Joe commented as they went inside, trying to ignore the strangeness of it all.
"Now, I believe I shall busy myself outside." Babamon smiled at them again, a kind but disconcertingly knowing smile. "I believe that you have some catching up to do, no?"
They talked for hours. And then for hours more, and then until it felt like they would exhaust themselves simply through talking.
They were a good audience too. They laughed at the humorous moments in others' tales, but they grew silent as the stories of their different trials and horrors came to life. Sometimes they gasped, and sometimes they seemed like they were going to cry. Stories filled the old house, stories of bravery in the face of almost unimaginable danger, stories of desperation, of horror, and of success and indomitable will.
When the older kids told of their reunion with old friends TK and Kari's eyes filled with tears, long unshed. When they talked of the assault on Datamon's fortress, on the midair battle to free Piximon the younger set ducked and dodged in symphony, almost as if they were going through the battle themselves. And then, when Tai and Izzy described the final battle between Omnimon and Daemon they were frozen, completely entrapped in the story, hardly able to move.
In their turn, the older kids were petrified at the dangers their younger companions had run through. The description of Khartan and his plans nearly made Mimi scream, and the series of battles throughout Parsifal made them tremble. Everyone shivered when Kari described, in perfect detail, the spooky nature of the deserted city.
But everyone was shocked and astonished, nearly beyond belief, when he described his ascendence and his catastrophic battle with Reaver. They stared, astonished, part horrified, part filled with respect beyond imagination as TK described, step by step, blow by blow, the battle he had controlled and waged with the tremendous darkness. Even when he said that he had lost control over those powers they were still wide-eyed, as if waiting for him to perform some magic to impress them.
They were also impressed by Ken's revelations considering the battle against MachineDramon, and his speculations on the nature of the Digital World, or Digital Worlds. Quickly he and Izzy had stuck their heads together and were eagerly exploring all the possibilities of their theories. Their conversation exceeded the capacity of everyone in the group except for Yolei, but even her eyes were starting to blur as they shot off at rapid speed.
Tai was beginning to chew his lip at the thought of Khartan and the others loose in the real world. Fortunately Gennai's assurance, or the assurance of his associates, that time was passing differently again calmed him somewhat. He just hoped that Khartan would be unable to do anything before they could stop him. TK was unconsciously mirroring his thought pattern.
It was Sora who, of course, spotted the change that they had all been trying to either hide or expose. Quickly, and shrewdly, surveying the newer digidestined her eye came to rest on TK and then Kari in quick succession, something that both digidestined noticed almost immediately. Her eyes flicked back and forth, and she smiled lightly as TK nodded back every so slightly.
Unfortunately Tai caught the movement and his suspicious gaze centered on TK and Sora, one eyebrow reaching high. "What are you guys going on about?"
"Nothing." TK was quick to say, but a quick glance at Tai's increasingly thunderous expression persuaded all of them that nothing was going to stay hidden for long. "All right, there is something..."
"Tai." Kari interrupted him, shooting visual daggers at her brother. "TK and I are...involved...that is we've decided to..." She floundered for a moment, but was saved from the embaressment of losing her confidence by the others.
"Congratulations!" Sora reached out and gave both of them a quick hug, something she rarely did. Mimi jumped up and down excitedly. Joe stood and, unconsciously mirroring Cody, shook both of their hands very formally, bowing to each of them, but he was smiling as well. Izzy gave them both a grin.
Matt slapped TK on the back, nearly causing his brother to lose his balance.
Tai stared. For a moment it looked like he was going to be angry, but the others quickly realized that what was actually happening was that he was trying to be angry. After a minute or so he abandoned this attempt as futile, rolled his eyes and sighed resignedly.
"All right Kari. It's your life..."
"Are you saying that something's wrong with my brother?" Matt yelled.
"No, I just meant that..."
As they started fighting TK and Kari shared a knowing look. It was good to be back together again.
Questions, comments or protests? Review it!
Author's Note: Well, here I am again, despite my theories running far behind schedule. So it goes I guess. Anyway, this here is the real kick-off for the rest of the plot. I hope it does a good job. Remember to review.
The Other Side of the Door
"'Thus we meet again, though all the hosts of Mordor lay between us,' said Aragorn. 'Did I not say so at the Hornburg?'"
J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings part three, The Return of the King
"I don't like this." Sorcerymon admitted. "We've been following these tracks all day, but I don't know where all the people who should be here are."
"How many did Leomon have?" Gatomon asked, sitting down on a statue.
"Hundreds." Sorcerymon replied, puzzled. "I could have sworn that you couldn't run this castle without them."
"It can't take that many, can it?" Kari asked, sounding puzzled.
"You might be surprised." Sorcerymon pointed at the light globes now illuminating the area. "It used to take six digimon alone to replace used up globes. It takes about twenty to dig the dirt out of the underground wells, lest they fill up on us again. It takes all kinds to keep this place running, and here it seems to be running without them."
"I don't like it either." Ken muttered. "I have a feeling we're walking into a trap."
"It won't be the first one." Patamon pointed out in a rather singsong voice.
"Yes, but I don't want it to be the last one either." Ken sounded frustrated. "I just wonder what's happening."
"And who makes these." Kari pointed down at the tracks they had been following. Everywhere on the polished floors the ground was heaped with dust and dirt except for one track. Almost as if a river had poured through here they could see the traces of people, or creatures, having passed here before. From the depth of the tracks, the passage looked quite recent, but there was no sign of anybody around. If anything it just looked quieter and more desolate than ever before, something that was beginning to make all of them very, very nervous.
"So now where?" Cody peered down the hallways, looking a bit confused. "I think we've been everywhere."
"We have been nearly everywhere." Sorcerymon was considering the doors ahead of them, huge paneled oak constructs that were large enough to admit any digimon they could think of. They had to admit that the doors were impressive. "The castle is built on defensible lines. The only areas left are either the grand hall here, or the stairs to the upper levels that go through the grand hall. If you want to go anywhere else in the castle, you'll have to go through there."
"So now what?" Yolei sat down on a handy statue. "I don't want to walk into another trap."
"Or stand around here forever." Armadillomon joined in.
"Only one way to end this." Davis pointed. "We go in."
"So is this it?" Tai asked, examining the strange structure.
"It sure looks like it." Agumon confirmed, peering at it from a number of different directions. Joe had to admit that the dinosaur had a point. The huge doorway sat in the middle of a room, the doorframe made of solid white stone. In between, where a door should have stood there was only golden light, outlining rapidly shifting patterns of a hundred different places. From where they were they could not make out anything clearly through the door, but the surface shimmered like the ocean in full daylight.
"So how do we operate it?" Sora wanted to know, peering at it curiously. It had no buttons, no controls, no visible means of altering its status.
"Haven't a clue." Tentomon finally admitted, buzzing around the structure. Izzy said nothing, he had been focused almost entirely on his computer since the moment he had found this.
"How are we doing on time?" Joe asked.
"Not bad. At least not bad yet." Agumon replied. He still looked tired, but better. The digidestined had slept long that night, having spent most of their energies in the battles of the previous day. Fortunately Piximon, Leomon and the others had led a thorough reconaissance of the Pinnacle, and had dug through every concealed room they could find before finding this one. By the time the others, including a battered Tai and Matt, had managed to wake up, they had already found this room.
But that had truly gotten them nowhere. No digimon appeared to have the faintest idea what they were supposed to do now. There appeared to have been legends about the gate, but none that told them how to operate it. Izzy had already admitted that he was at a bit of a loss when confronted with this one, and now the rest of the digidestined sat back, feeling a profound sense of uselessness when faced with this problem.
Matt shrugged and sat down on a handy stool, jumping back up when something pricked him in the side. He pulled out the harmonica he had gotten on their first day and looked at it as if he expected it to bite him.
"Play a song for us, for old time's sake." Gabumon suggested.
"All right." Matt smiled at them and raised the harmonica to his lips.
It had been years since he had last touched his old favorite instrument, but as soon as he set it to his lips his old skill returned. This time, for some reason, instead of playing the old blues tunes that he had been so fond of, he tried playing something else. It came out, not like a harmonica, or anything that he had ever heard. It sounded like he was blowing on an old horn, something out of a movie. And beneath his expert fingers the harmonica suddenly changed, become unfamiliar, but not uncomfortable.
His eyes widened, but his lips did not cease to blow. Where a moment before he had held a harmonica it now looked like a trumpet, an old one, from ages before, before they had heard of electric guitars and rock music, from an age when blowing a trumpet had meant calling people to battle. The instrument was not curved, but was rather long, full necked and large belled. The sound it emitted was not sweet or soothing, not even the squealing of a jazz trumped in the wrong hands. It was sharp and clear, a sound to bring out valiance in all who heard it, a challenge to a contest of arms. The room rang with the echoes, and still the blast continued, rising ever higher and higher into the sky until it seemed like the Pinnacle itself might fall under the rumbling.
In the doorway the golden light that had obscured the myriad destinations they might have seen changed. Like someone had dropped a ripple in the pond, as if they had suddenly peeled back the layer of mystery the view changed. Now the images that had been shifting almost too fast to interpret slowed down. Behind them they could see a room taking shape, a room that looked like it was in an old palace somewhere. Crimson carpets and ivory floors shone with an inner light and, as Matt finally ran out of breath and put the horn down, the image stayed, waving there in the doorway.
"Well," Izzy looked astonished. "I suppose that's that."
"Let's go before it closes." Agumon suggested.
"Are you guys up to it?" Tai asked everyone.
"C'mon Tai. Let's go." Joe pointed. "We may not have a lot of time."
"Good luck you guys." Piximon called as they prepared to enter the portal. "You are truly the digidestined, perhaps the greatest heroes this world will ever know. Even you have yet to plumb the true depth of your powers, the true strength you bear within. United there's nothing you can't do."
"Go get 'em guys." Leomon rumbled. Ogremon just grinned at them.
Sora squeezed Biyomon's wing reassuringly. Tentomon and Izzy gazed at the doorway in rapt fascination. Gomamon jumped up on Joe's shoulders. Mimi and Palmon grinned at each other. Tai and Matt just looked at each other and shrugged while Gabumon and Agumon grinned at their expressions. Then, together, they started to walk forward.
"Let's do this all at once." Matt suggested, and impishly broke into a run, with Tai coming right behind him.
Running all out, the six children and the six digimon hit the doorway and disappeared into another world.
"Now this is impressive." Yolei noticed, looking around. "I haven't ever seen anything like this."
The Grand Hall reached above them, curving upward almost out of sight in the glare of the thousands of globes that emitted a bright, nearly painful golden light all over the hall. The supports, vast arches, seemed to be carved from white marble, while the floors were a polished, smooth gray stone that almost sparkled with the reflections from above. Everywhere there was gold and silver inlay, decorating wherever some previous ruler had thought was necessary. To the side they could see small rooms leading off from the great hall, some decorated with even more bewildering collections of gold and silver. Staring at the reflections and refractions from the golden light was like looking at a rainbow from up close, and the size dwarfed them.
"Well, we're inside." Armadillomon breathed out in relief.
Everyone else was too busy being awed at the size and the decorations.
"I'd forgotten how big this was." Sorcerymon whispered.
"At least we're safe here." Davis joined in after gaping some more at a particularly impressive statue some meters away.
SLAM!
The massive doors they just passed through slammed shut with a noise that made them all jump, their hearts pounding up into their throats. From the inside they could see that the door was lined with steel and iron, and all over massive intricate locks were slamming shut, isolating them off from the outside world. Even more deadbolts began to click. Doors they had not noticed, to the small rooms leading off the Grand Hall shut quickly and efficiently, with every crash trapping them even further in the echoing cavern.
The lights went out all of a sudden, but there was only a moment of consternation before screens popped up, almost like TV screens except for the fact that they were hovering in midair, with no actual screens behind the images themselves. In each of them the mobile blackness they associated with Khartan peered out at them.
"Ah, the digidestined. I had hoped that you would arrive sooner or later. In fact I counted on it. I think you'll find yourself trapped in here for quite a while. Just a note before you try to blast your way out, the place is trapped. Any attempt to blow through the walls releases a cloud of poison gas into this room.
"I suppose you want to know why nobody is here to welcome you. Well, the answer is simple. We've been all called away on urgent business. Business that you might think to concern yourself with after all. You see, we've gone to visit your world. I hear that it's a delightful place, and I'm starting to think of retirement. I don't think it would be a bad place to conquer, do you?" Suddenly all of the digidestined felt a chill fall over them as they realized what he was actually implying.
"After all, one can't think to far in the future, can they? It will be fun conquering your little world. I think I might even name something after you once you're safely dead. But if you start to feel bored, don't worry. I left my friends Ravisher and Sickle in the castle. They'll come play with you if you want."
There was a snap as Khartan's image vanished, and the lights went back on, revealing six humans who had turned noticeably more pale. Each of them were suddenly presented with sudden terrible visions, huge digimon rampaging through the streets of Earth, tearing the world apart with their anger, shattering tall buildings with their monstrous appendages, rending cities into dust with their fury. And there they were, the only ones who could stop the disaster, who even knew about it, trapped so far away from home that they might as well not be able to exist.
"What do we do? What do we do!" Yolei nearly tore her hair out in frustration.
"Wait!" TK threw up a hand. "Courage told us that time was different again. This means that, even if Khartan left earlier this week or something only seconds have passed in the real world. He has no way of carrying out his threats yet. We just have to find the gate. We need to get out of here."
"I second that." Ken checked out the room. "I think that even if this place is trapped it might be possible to do something about it. The door looks strong, but what about the ceiling."
"What about the ceiling?" Yolei looked up, peering silently at the imposing structure.
"Well, if it really is poison gas, can we fly our way out through the ceiling?"
"Maybe," TK rubbed his chin. "Then again, maybe not. You guys up to it?"
"Sure!" Veemon glanced up. "I guess we'll do the honors here."
"Veemondigivolves toExVeemon!"
"Wormmondigivolves toStingmon!"
"ExVeemonDNA Digivolve toPaildramon!"
"Paildramonmega digivolves toImperialDramon!"
The massive digimon glanced upward. "Everybody aboard." He called, and, as the others scrambled up top, began to rise toward the ceiling in a column of glowing blue light.
"This place sure is empty. Maybe it's abandoned." Sora suggested.
"Maybe we came to the wrong place." Joe sounded pessimistic again.
"No, definitely not." Surprisingly it was Agumon who said this, looking as he was down a stairwell that descended, ill-lit, down to unknown depths.
"How can you tell?" Tai was quick to ask.
"Well, I smell things. Like right now, I can tell that there are humans somewhere down there, and there were digimon. Two of them smell like Patamon and Gatomon, and Veemon's scent is definitely down there, but the others are mixed up."
"Down where?" Tai demanded.
"Well, that's definitely them." Izzy confirmed.
"I don't know Tai. It's like the smells were cut off somehow. Not killed or anything, but like they went in a room and closed the door."
Suddenly the whole building rocked in a tremendous explosion. Dust and plaster bounced off of the walls, the ceiling looked like it was about to fall in on itself, and all hell started to break loose.
"What's going on?" Mimi yelled as she held onto a pillar and Joe at the same time.
"I don't know!" Sora yelled back.
"Agumon!"
"Got it! Agumonwarp digivolves toWarGreymon!"
"Wait up! Gabumonwarp digivolves toMetalGarurumon!"
"Quickly, we've got to get down there!" Matt jumped on MetalGarurumon's back as Tai leapt into the arms of his own partner. "You guys take care of yourselves!"
And then they were gone.
The light had barely faded and ImperialDramon had barely stopped shaking from the recoil when he was shooting aloft, battering through the opening he had just forced in the ceiling. The beauty of the grand hall was suddenly obscured by massive clouds of poison gas, but whatever had armored the walls had not been applied to the ceiling, and the huge Mega managed to break through five levels of the palace without encountering a single person. That was when a huge blast of black energies caught him in the side, sending him sprawling, and everything got even more chaotic.
"Which way did those two go?" Sora asked, looking around anxiously. "I can't see any sign of them anywhere."
"I'm sure we'll find out soon enough." Mimi replied. "They always cause havoc wherever they end up."
Another explosion, low and almost subsonic began to shake the castle.
"That's usually a good clue." Izzy pointed. "Charge!"
"Things just keep getting better." TK dove straight over a boulder and landed painfully on one shoulder as the massive blade slammed down right behind him.
"Well, we know why they call him Sickle." Silphymon backed up almost immediately, trying to stay out of the way of the pair of blades that the darkly armored figure wore instead of hands. Angemon showed no hesitation.
"Hand of Fate!"
"Deathscythe!" The two shots clashed together in midair. Angemon was thrown backwards against a wall. It collapsed on him, painfully.
"Angemon, get clear!" Angewomon circled her new opponent at a safer distance, trying to keep her distance. "Somebody see to ImperialDramon!"
"We're all over it." Cody and Ken leapt to the aid of their fallen companion, who had been tipped over by the first shot. He was lying half buried in the rubble of the castle wall they had ended up crashing through, eyes shut tight in agony, a deep cut on his side. Davis was already at his side, frantically trying to move rubble off of the huge digimon, freeing room to move.
"C'mon ImperialDramon." He seemed to be near to tears. "You've got to get up again."
"You're the only one who can do it." Ken yelled.
"Angemon, go for it!" TK was yelling in the background.
"Angemondigivolves toMagnaAngemon!"
"Everybody, help out!"
"Kachina Bombs!"
"Static Force!"
"Celestial Arrow!"
"Excalibur!"
The blasts of liquid fire turned the air white, but they only threw Sickle back a bit, lacking the power needed to truly defeat the monstrosity bearing down on them. Twin blades flashed in the air, cracking like whips instead of sword blades, but they missed the rapidly fleeing digimon.
"Not so fast!" MagnaAngemon was back in the fight, sword spinning through the air, sending lightnings crackling down the blade. A dozen strokes almost painted on the surface of the sky itself, vast rents opening through the air, sparking fire behind. Each blow seemed to be driving Sickle back, but it was easy to see that the powerful opponent simply was not backing down.
There was a moment in which the battle held in the balance and then, unexpectedly Sickle gestured and the world rocked beneath them. A sudden storm roared through the corridor and MagnaAngemon, wings spread, was thrown violently backward, each gust knocking him further off balance. He tumbled helplessly, head over heels as the winds blew him backwards, tossing and turning with an expression of near-panic on his face.
"Look out!" Yolei screamed, but there was nothing to do, and Sickle was already leaping forward. As he got close he seemed to blur, and then the already battered castle erupted in another shower of dust and masonry. Everything became obscured in a cloud of suspended particles, and those on the ground held their breath in hope.
The dust faded as a wind blew it through the ruined walls of the castle, wind that flapped clothes of ivory and crimson. There, his cape still blowing around him, but otherwise fixed, like a statue of white marble, eyes gleaming with a burning light, stood Omnimon, both massive hands out in front of him. On his shoulders Tai and Matt stood perched, looking forward like hunting hawks preparing to strike, awaiting Sickle's next move. Sickle himself had stopped in the presence of the massive warrior, regarding his new foe with interest, and the slightest hint of dismay. Around them the dust scattered in waves, as if trying to find a way to escape the field of battle.
Tai and Matt jumped off of the shoulders of their mount, running forward, arms stretched out wide, even as Omnimon remained carefully immobile.
On the other side two ran to meet them. TK and Kari swept up to their brothers, throwing arms around them, yelling and shouting and cheering like they never had before. All the others felt themselves relax. They had been so used to being a team that they had never realized how much they missed their other half.
Now it looked like they were being reunited after all this time. Warriors joined back together, soldiers merging with their own ranks, friends returning home. Prospects went from being dim to being unstoppable. Hopes brightened and flared. Even as greetings were yelled, as Omnimon stood there like some great immobile statue, the focus of everyone's hopes, everything changed.
The digidestined were back.
"Your presence here can no longer be tolerated." Omnimon rumbled, and the great sword blasted free of WarGreymon's jaw once more, rising vertically until it was ready for battle once more. "Prepare to be returned to the darkness that made you."
"Perhaps it is you who will be leaving." Sickle returned, double blades moving to block his powerful adversary. Neither moved for a moment.
"So how have you guys been?" Tai asked TK out of the corner of his mouth as they watched the battle proceed.
"Same old, same old. You know how it is, save the world, find dinner, run away from huge monsters...the usual."
"That bad, eh?" Matt asked lightly, and then flushed. "I'm sorry I wasn't here TK."
"That's okay. You guys tried your best probably. That's all that we can ask." TK tried to get another foot away from the battleground.
"It's not okay, blast it!" Matt responded heatedly.
"Uh...so where are the others?" Yolei asked.
"They were right behind us, but I guess they must have gotten delayed. It looks like there've been some changes for both of us, eh?"
"Sure looks like it." Kari smiled. "But it looks like everything changed for the better."
"Touch of Death!" Sickle's blades glowed with unholy green flame for an instant while he whirled closer.
"Transcendent Sword!" Omnimon rose to meet him, blade flashing brilliant white, illuminating the corridor. The clash of steel on steel filled the entire room as digimon met evil force in a shower of sparks. Stroke after stroke was countered evenly, but it looked like Sickle was doing all the swinging. Omnimon was simply countering blows, Sickle's double blades giving him a pronounced advantage over his opponent. The massive sword countered one stroke, sending it awry, but another one would already be coming in and Omnimon would shift to meet it. Slowly, slowly, the white knight was being forced back.
Clash after clash, careful footstep after careful footstep, blow after blow, Omnimon was leaning closer and closer to the children he was trying to protect. With each moment he loomed, the immensity of his struggle reflecting itself more and more on those watching him.
"We can't just stand here!" Davis yelled, snapping his goggles back on.
"Well, what do you suggest?" Yolei snapped at him.
"I have an idea." Ken and Davis exchanged looks, and then both of them turned to their fallen mega digimon. "ImperialDramon, it's all up to you."
"Rrrrrr...." The hump moved, and this time it rose, plaster falling to the ground as the huge digimon managed to leverage himself around. His eyes were glowing scarlet.
"That's it. This is one team that's never going down." Davis cheered.
"Rrrrrr...." With each step the huge digimon seemed to grow larger, to rise higher in the sky, towering above the landscape. His jaws glinted, and his eyes burned as he watched the clash of blades ahead, and then, he began to glow white.
"ImperialDramon...mode change to...Fighter Mode!" Legs and arms snapped into place, armor descended to fit snuggly around torso and legs. A skeleton that was more like a steel wardrobe solidified around the towering figure. ImperialDramon FighterMode stretched, as if removing the feel of disuse from his limbs, and then turned to face his foe.
"We have to finish him." ImperialDramon rumbled, his voice deep and gruff, as deep as it had ever been before. Light glowed off his armor and from his eyes. "The children could be hurt by an extended struggle."
"I agree with you." Omnimon shifted his weight subtly and Sickle fell back, cautiously appraising this new threat. "But I would welcome any assistance that you would care to offer. I seem to be in need of it."
"I would be glad to offer assistance. At once?"
"Of course." Both fighters twisted to be facing Sickle square on. He began to look nervous about something.
ImperialDramon raised both hands, and let motes of light congregate between them, shaping themselves into a construct of steel and fire. Two massive hands closed on the handles of the huge cannon, griping it tightly between them, blue-white light gathering in the maw of the giant weapon. Omnimon raised his right arm and MetalGarurumon's jaws snapped open, revealing the cannon hidden within, already glowing white-hot with power that nobody could have born to look at.
"Supreme Cannon!" A bolt of light blasted free like a miniature sun, blazing away at the enemy standing in front of them.
"Positron Laser!" Swirls of flourescent color gathered in the muzzle of ImperialDramon's great weapon, forming a solid white core, and from it a torrent of energy exploded forward, burning like a great sword.
The two blasts met as one, in the middle of the room, and fire blazed like the dawn, sending each of the digidestined down to the ground to avoid the backblast of the explosion. Digimon were thrown helter skelter by the explosion, falling like rain. But, when the dust cleared and the fireworks faded into the memory of echoes, there was nothing left of Sickle but a black shadow on the floor.
"We did it!" Tai yelled. At the same moment the forms of ImperialDramon and Omnimon were surrounded by a bright light, and then Koromon, Tsunumon, Veemon and Wormmon bounced to the ground. They rushed into the arms of their companions.
"Mjolnir is standing ready. Operations are planned to commence tomorrow." Justice looked up from the latest report on his datapad to where Gennai and Courage stood solemnly examining him. "I hope you understand the wrestling with my conscience that is going on even now."
"Indeed." Gennai leaned back and stared at the sky. "We've cut loose all of Fourth and Fifth Wing for this operation. We won't have that luxury again. But if it works we can buy the time we need for this plan to work."
"At least we're not flying by the seat of our pants. I hate doing that." Justice muttered, looking out a window at the landscape floating around them. "You realize that what we're going to do will probably go down in history as the bloodiest battle ever."
"Indeed I do." Gennai pointed at the crewmen moving around in the operations pit below them. "But hopefully most of the blood shed will not be ours."
"Right. Back to business. Courage, I want you to run through operations with Fifth Wing's reintegrated carrier arm again. I really want those fighters..."
Babamon stroked the ground at her feet with her staff and the patterns of destiny emerged for a split second before being reabsorbed by the flow of time.
The ceiling in front of the digidestined fell apart with a crash, and something else, a dark twisting shadow, wrapped in a billowing black cape, dropped onto the ground. The only light from it was reflected from the armor that gleamed darkly around its midsection.
"Uh-oh. Khartan did say something about leaving two of these guys." TK mused, a bit belatedly. He looked around for a quick way out.
"You guys up to another digivolution?" Tai asked, but the exhausted digimon simply shook their heads and sighed. Tai rolled his eyes at his luck and tried to come up with a plan.
"Horn Buster!" The entire wall blew apart all at once, explosions tossing stonework around like children's toys. A bolt of yellow energy removed a large portion of the wall, sending the new figure flying backwards under the force of the blow. The entire corridor, not that there was much left, erupted in debris one more time. MegaKabuterimon zoomed in with Garudamon right behind him, the empty sky looming behind them.
"Everybody up!" Izzy yelled at them from his digimon's back. "I think it's time to go. We've got company out here."
"And in here!" Tai yelled as he and Matt jumped onto MegaKabuterimon's back.
"Don't forget us!" Yolei and Ken were right behind him.
"Good to see you again." Izzy nodded at them. "We got everybody?"
"Sure do." Armadillomon settled down on the back of the giant red beetle as the shadow warrior staggered to his feet once more.
"Time to jet." Izzy flattened himself against the back of his companion as the beetle shot up once more, blasting its way toward the heavens.
Tai took one look back as they took off at the dark figure of the one called Ravisher, standing there calmly watching them. Both sides knew that they would soon be back.
"I thought you might come here." Babamon remarked, calmly looking up from the rock she had been sitting on as the giant bird and beetle dropped out of the sky almost on top of her.
"Who's this?" Matt asked. The ride had been relatively short and noisy, and besides counting to make sure that nobody had been lost along the way, not much in the way of a reunion had been accomplished.
"Babamon. She's a friend of ours." TK stepped forward and bowed to the ancient digimon, who inclined her head in recognition. He was a little puzzled about how she had managed to figure out where they were headed, but he had caught sight of her house from affar and had managed to guide MegaKabuterimon down in an open clearing.
"Greetings Takeru. I had wondered when you might arrive however." Babamon smiled at them, and even as she did the world around them seemed to shimmer, like they were standing in the heat of summer and not in a chilly mountain valley. "I have laid protections over this place, protections such that nobody will every be able to find you if I do not wish it. For now. I suspect you will not stay here for long."
"You've got that right." Tai muttered.
"Ah, and you would be the elder Kamiya, no?" Babamon looked him up and down. "You have the look of your sister perhaps, but you are not much else alike, eh? But I expect you are tired of hearing your parents say much the same thing. Come, come..." And just like that her familiar house appeared out of the underbrush, acting innocently like it had been there all along.
"Nice house." Joe commented as they went inside, trying to ignore the strangeness of it all.
"Now, I believe I shall busy myself outside." Babamon smiled at them again, a kind but disconcertingly knowing smile. "I believe that you have some catching up to do, no?"
They talked for hours. And then for hours more, and then until it felt like they would exhaust themselves simply through talking.
They were a good audience too. They laughed at the humorous moments in others' tales, but they grew silent as the stories of their different trials and horrors came to life. Sometimes they gasped, and sometimes they seemed like they were going to cry. Stories filled the old house, stories of bravery in the face of almost unimaginable danger, stories of desperation, of horror, and of success and indomitable will.
When the older kids told of their reunion with old friends TK and Kari's eyes filled with tears, long unshed. When they talked of the assault on Datamon's fortress, on the midair battle to free Piximon the younger set ducked and dodged in symphony, almost as if they were going through the battle themselves. And then, when Tai and Izzy described the final battle between Omnimon and Daemon they were frozen, completely entrapped in the story, hardly able to move.
In their turn, the older kids were petrified at the dangers their younger companions had run through. The description of Khartan and his plans nearly made Mimi scream, and the series of battles throughout Parsifal made them tremble. Everyone shivered when Kari described, in perfect detail, the spooky nature of the deserted city.
But everyone was shocked and astonished, nearly beyond belief, when he described his ascendence and his catastrophic battle with Reaver. They stared, astonished, part horrified, part filled with respect beyond imagination as TK described, step by step, blow by blow, the battle he had controlled and waged with the tremendous darkness. Even when he said that he had lost control over those powers they were still wide-eyed, as if waiting for him to perform some magic to impress them.
They were also impressed by Ken's revelations considering the battle against MachineDramon, and his speculations on the nature of the Digital World, or Digital Worlds. Quickly he and Izzy had stuck their heads together and were eagerly exploring all the possibilities of their theories. Their conversation exceeded the capacity of everyone in the group except for Yolei, but even her eyes were starting to blur as they shot off at rapid speed.
Tai was beginning to chew his lip at the thought of Khartan and the others loose in the real world. Fortunately Gennai's assurance, or the assurance of his associates, that time was passing differently again calmed him somewhat. He just hoped that Khartan would be unable to do anything before they could stop him. TK was unconsciously mirroring his thought pattern.
It was Sora who, of course, spotted the change that they had all been trying to either hide or expose. Quickly, and shrewdly, surveying the newer digidestined her eye came to rest on TK and then Kari in quick succession, something that both digidestined noticed almost immediately. Her eyes flicked back and forth, and she smiled lightly as TK nodded back every so slightly.
Unfortunately Tai caught the movement and his suspicious gaze centered on TK and Sora, one eyebrow reaching high. "What are you guys going on about?"
"Nothing." TK was quick to say, but a quick glance at Tai's increasingly thunderous expression persuaded all of them that nothing was going to stay hidden for long. "All right, there is something..."
"Tai." Kari interrupted him, shooting visual daggers at her brother. "TK and I are...involved...that is we've decided to..." She floundered for a moment, but was saved from the embaressment of losing her confidence by the others.
"Congratulations!" Sora reached out and gave both of them a quick hug, something she rarely did. Mimi jumped up and down excitedly. Joe stood and, unconsciously mirroring Cody, shook both of their hands very formally, bowing to each of them, but he was smiling as well. Izzy gave them both a grin.
Matt slapped TK on the back, nearly causing his brother to lose his balance.
Tai stared. For a moment it looked like he was going to be angry, but the others quickly realized that what was actually happening was that he was trying to be angry. After a minute or so he abandoned this attempt as futile, rolled his eyes and sighed resignedly.
"All right Kari. It's your life..."
"Are you saying that something's wrong with my brother?" Matt yelled.
"No, I just meant that..."
As they started fighting TK and Kari shared a knowing look. It was good to be back together again.
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