Author's Note: I do not own Digimon yada yada yada, so I'll just get on
with the fic!
A Different Destiny, Chapter 2
Tai groaned as he pulled himself up off the ground.
"Tai, Tai, Tai, I can't believe you're here! Remember me?" Tai smiled at the small pink head with extremely long ears that was bouncing around him, excitement flashing in its eyes.
"How could I forget you Koromon? Long time no see buddy," Tai stood up and Koromon bounced into his arms, "How have you been going?" Koromon beamed up at him, moving himself with his ears to make himself comfortable.
"I've seen better days. The whole place was attacked by an army of evil digimon, and I was lucky to get out alive. Salamon survived too, but she doesn't know that she is supposed to be the Princesses guardian, and she's gone after a little girl who fell down here when you did. Where's the Princess? Is she safe?" Tai sighed, but nodded, which only made Koromon even more excited.
"I have to find the others before they get lost here. Are you ready to help?" Koromon nodded eagerly and they set off to find the other seven children which had been brought to this world.
They hadn't walked very far when they heard a scream that sounded a lot like Mimi. The girl had just awoken from unconsciousness to fins a green plant person staring at her. The plant was small, about only as tall as Mimi's waist. It had big black eyes and a pink flower that was so big it covered all of her head for hair. She had long arms that ended in purple fingers, and Mimi was backing away from her like she was a ghost or something.
"Mimi, I've been waiting for you for ages!" the plantlike person told the screaming girl who was still backing away, "My name is Palmon and I'm your digimon partner!" Palmon tried getting closer to Mimi, but the girl was so frightened that she wouldn't allow the poor digimon to come any closer. Tai and Koromon watched this scene unfold, trying hard to control their laughter. When Mimi backed into a tree though, Tai decided to step in because the poor girl was looking terrified.
"Mimi, it's okay. Palmon isn't going to hurt you, she's your friend. Trust me, she won't hurt you," Mimi looked at Tai, who was still carrying Koromon and nodded.
"O-okay. To tell you the truth I wasn't really too scared, I was just a bit startled," Mimi admitted as she walked back to where Palmon was waiting, "you have a strange creature with you too Tai. Who is it?" Koromon hopped out of Tai's arms and stopped in front of Mimi. He offered her one of his ears to shake and introduced himself.
"My name is Koromon, I'm Tai's digimon partner!" he exclaimed happily. Tai just shook his head slowly. He didn't know where Koromon got his energy, but he sure had a lot of it. Mimi stared at the forest around her as if she was wondering where they were.
"Do you have any idea where we are Tai? This place doesn't look at all like the place where the summer camp is," Mimi was looking confused and Tai didn't really know what to reply.
"Well. we are nowhere near the summer camp, that's why it doesn't look like it. We're actually in a different world, unless these 'digimon' are in our world and we have never seen them before. I think that we have to go this way to get out of the forest, but I'm not too sure," Mimi just nodded in agreement with him and he was a little confused on why she had asked the questions if she already knew the answers.
"Yeah, I think that I saw a clearing in that direction before," she bent down next to Palmon and looked her in the face, "I'm sorry for running away before like that. It was just a shock to see you standing there like that. I'm sure now that we'll be great friends, right Palmon?" the plant digimon looked surprised for a moment before she grinned.
"Of course we will Mimi! That's why I'm here of course! Oh, and to help you and the others try to find the Prince and Princess of the digital world," both Tai and Koromon suddenly turned and looked at Palmon when she had said what they were supposed to be looking for.
"What did you say that we were looking for?"
"The Prince and the Princess of the digital world are the people that we are looking for. They disappeared almost eight years ago, on the Prince's fifth birthday. The King and Queen were found murdered in the forest. Gennai found them as we started to search for the missing children. It looked like a group of digimon of some sort had attacked them. Gennai is leading the search for the missing Royal Children, because he is the only one who knows the signs by which they can be recognised," Tai felt angry as soon as he heard Gennai's name, but he just kept calm. Koromon glanced at him out of the corner of his eye and Tai gave him a warning glance.
"So the children just disappeared without a trace? How sad!" Mimi exclaimed, "and on the Prince's birthday too! Do you think that somebody kidnapped them?"
"We're not entirely sure what happened to them. Renamon, who had been the digimon in charge of them that day, told everybody that she didn't know where they were. She was punished suitably for her failure. Gennai was extremely upset about the disappearance of the children, as he was quite close to them, being the Prince's godfather," Palmon looked really sad when she told this story, but even though tears had begun flowing down her cheeks, she continued on, "This world was safe when the Royal Family was here, but as soon as they disappeared, evil digimon started attacking the rest of the people, and they were forced to leave or die. The situation hasn't improved very much as now it is unsafe to go to certain places at certain times. Evil digimon attack innocent ones and I've lost quite a few friends. We have to help Gennai in his search for the children, they can make the evil digimon turn good again, and I know it! Gennai has been searching and searching for them, without rest, but now that you guys are here, you can help us! We should find the others now and then we can all go to Gennai and see what he thinks!"
"Yes, we can go to Gennai," Tai whispered under his breath, his tone bitter. Mimi looked up from comforting Palmon at his words.
"What did you say Tai?"
"I have to find Kari! She's only young and something bad could happen to her," Tai told her before running off. Mimi screamed at him to slow down, but he ignored her. Sighing she ran after him, making a mental note to hit him once she finally caught up with the running boy. Tai couldn't help but worry about Kari. What would he do if Gennai found her? It was unlikely that he would recognise her, but what if he did? Tai was glad that he had disguised the Princesses key inside a whistle. It would have been bad if he had just given it to her undisguised. He was grateful to Rena for her advice and he hoped that he would be able to help her, whatever situation she was in.
"Tai, wait up! We don't want to get separated again!" Tai had to admit that she had a point there, so he slowed down and waited until she had caught up. As soon as she reached him she hit him over the head with the brown bag that she was carrying, "That was for not waiting! Now we can go." Tai set off again, this time at a slower pace, his eyes scanning the surrounding area for any sign of his little sister.
"Tai! Mimi! Over here!" they turned to see Kari and T.K grinning at them from a clearing that was just off to there left. Tai sighed in relief and raced up to Kari, giving her a great big hug.
"Kari! Don't you ever do that to me again! I thought that you were lost somewhere!" Kari just grinned at her brother's strange behavior.
"Don't worry Tai! I had Salamon here to help me, and I was with T.K, and Patamon was with him. Nothing could have hurt me!" Tai looked and saw Salamon, a digimon that reminded him of a small puppy. She had long ears and a collar was around her neck. She was cream in colour and she looked like she was one tough digimon, but her bright blue eyes were kind, showing that she was a good digimon and faithful to her friends.
Patamon was a golden yellow and white digimon with long crooked ears that acted as wings. He too had bright blue eyes, and looked like a trustworthy digimon. Although he was small, he sure looked like he could win a fight and he would never give up hope. Tai wondered fleetingly why some of the digimon were in their rookie form whilst others were in there in-training form. Koromon was in his in-training form, but Patamon was a rookie. He was distracted by his thoughts by T.K.
"Hey, have you guys seen Matt? We haven't seen him, so I was hoping that you guys have," T.K looked up at them hopefully, and Mimi decided that she would tell him.
"No, we haven't seen him yet, but that's because we were listening to Palmon's explanation of why we are here. I'm sure that Matt's around here somewhere. We'll find him," T.K nodded, determination evident in his eyes.
"Well, let's go then! We have to find Sora, Matt and Joe before they get lost in this forest. We should go this way, the other way can be dangerous and there is thick bushes that are almost impossible to get out of, so if we go that way, we'd get stuck. Let's go!" Tai lead the group, with all of the digimon staring at him except for Koromon.
"How did you know that the other way was blocked? Most digimon don't even know that and some of them have lived in this forest. You've never been here before and yet you know the way!" Patamon asked in his little voice, curiosity getting the best of him. Tai turned for a second to reply.
"I-uh-I don't really know. I just know where I'm going, but I don't know how," the others seemed to be convinced with his response and he felt relieved. The truth was that he remembered the forest; it was the same forest that he had been in on his fifth birthday. It was near the castle, so Tai had often gone there to play with his friends. He shook his memories away and tried to concentrate on where they were going. He knew that when they were found, the other three would also have digimon and he didn't want to come across another digimon that knew who he was. The sky was getting darker as the night began to show itself, and he grew worried that they wouldn't find the others before the night settled in.
"I hope that we find the others before too long. It's not a good thing that we've all split up," Tai looked up as he heard Sora's voice float from a spot in the forest ahead of them.
"I don't care at the minute, I need to find T.K! I only just found him at the camp, and now I have lost him again!" this time it was Matt who had spoken, and T.K ran ahead to find where the voices were coming from.
"T.K, don't go that way! That way is dangerous!" Tai called and he ran after the young boy and Patamon, trying to stop them from entering a big cave, "That's where-" he was cut off by T.K's scream and Patamon's squeal of surprise.
"What's down there?" Kari had appeared at his shoulder and he turned to her, bending down a bit so that she would hear him.
"Something dangerous is in there. Sora and Matt are that way," he told her, pointing in the opposite direction to the one that T.K had gone, "take Salamon and find them, then bring them here to wait outside the cave. Take Mimi with you." Kari was reluctant to leave him, but she nodded anyway and he raced off into the cave, with Koromon in his arms. Inside the cave it was almost pitch black, but Tai could see enough to know what was going on.
The cave that they were in was the home of a very nasty digimon that reminded Tai of a giant spider crossed with a bat. Hence its name was Spiatmon. Spiatmon was just like a giant spider, but it was blind like a bat and it also had wings. It was a navy blue colour, so in the light it would be hard to distinguish. Tai figured that T.K hadn't seen the digimon and had walked straight into it in the darkness. At the moment Patamon was trying to keep Spiatmon from getting to T.K, but his 'boom bubble' attack wasn't even making an impact on the champion digimon. In fact Spiatmon was laughing.
"Come on Koromon, digivolve and help Patamon!" Koromon nodded and hopped down. Tai's digivice activated and Koromon began to glow with an orange light.
"Koromon digivolve to... Agumon!" In Koromon's place stood an orange dinosaur-like digimon which was at the rookie level. Agumon went straight to Patamon's aid and fired at the Spiatmon, surprising the virus type. "Pepper Breath!" Tai went over to T.K and quietly snuck him out of the cave. Spiatmon was too busy warding off the two rookie digimon to notice them escape. He noticed that Kari hadn't gotten back yet, so he turned to T.K.
"Stay here for the minute. I'll be back with Patamon and Agumon in a second. Please stay here, Kari should be back with all of the others soon," T.K nodded, though Tai could tell that he didn't like it. Tai backtracked and was soon back in the cave, making sure that their digimon were okay and motioning to them that they could leave. They had almost reached the exit of the cave when Spiatmon changed his tactic. He had picked up that Tai was standing near where he was fighting the two digimon. He may have been blind, but Spiatmon could still pick up on where things were because of the air wave patterns. He took a guess and attacked Tai instead of Agumon and Patamon.
"Poison web!" Tai froze as he saw the attack coming towards him, but he knew that he couldn't get out of the way anyway. His digivice began to glow again, and Agumon glowed an even brighter orange than he had before.
"Agumon digivolve to.... Greymon!" The smaller orange digimon was replaced by a huge one that was so tall that his head was almost brushing against the roof. He was still orange, but this time his back was covered with horizontal blue stripes. Covering his head was what looked to be a dark brown skull. Greymon was Agumon's champion form.
"Nova Blast!" Spiatmon's attack was burnt to digi-dust.
"You okay Tai?" Greymon asked as he rushed past, carrying Patamon with him. Tai nodded and ran with him, and all three of them managed to escape from the cave unharmed.
"Patamon! You're okay!" T.K exclaimed as he saw the three of them emerge from the cave. Kari and Mimi were with them, with their digimon. Also with them were Sora, Matt, Izzy and Joe. Sora was standing next to a pink bird, which had blue feathers at the top of her head. Matt was holding an in- training digimon that looked like a head with a spike sticking out of the top. Izzy was next to a rookie digimon that looked a lot like a large lady- bird and Joe was next to a rookie too, a digimon that looked like a seal with an orange Mohawk. Greymon de-digivolved back to Agumon and all of the humans except for Tai stared at him.
"That's Koromon?" Kari asked incredulously as she examined Agumon, "I mean, he's grown a LOT from that pink head with ears." Agumon looked extremely put out with her.
"For you information my name is Agumon. Koromon is my in-training form and Greymon is my champion form that I was in just then. And Koromons are not just 'pink heads with ears' thank you very much! We are powerful digimon," he turned his back on Kari, who thought that it just made him even cuter.
"Gomamon? I thought that all of the Gomamon lived near the ocean on the other side of the continent," Tai was surprised to see the seal digimon, they usually preferred the ocean.
"How on Earth did you know that? You sure do seem to know a lot about this place," Mimi commented to Tai, "Firstly you knew which way to go in the forest to avoid the blocked passage, and then you told us that T.K had gone the wrong way and you were right, and now you know where the ocean is! How do you know all of this?" Tai looked uncomfortable or a second, but he answered the question.
"I've been here before. But that doesn't matter and we have to find a place to camp now, before it gets too dark that we can't see a thing. There is a clearing just past these trees here. It's right on the edge of the forest but... I suppose we're going to have to use the clearing. It's just straight ahead that way. You guys go there. I'll get some fire wood," Tai disappeared before they could protest and so the only choice they had was to move towards the clearing.
"Tai's hiding something, I know he is! Kari, do you have any idea when Tai could have come here?" Sora was worried about Tai. He had been her best friend since they were 6 years old and she could tell when he was lying or not telling them everything.
"I don't know. He might have come here when I was really little. I mean, he is four years older than me, he might have come when he was three or four or something," Kari shrugged, worried about her brother too. They soon came to the clearing that Tai had described and Palmon gasped in surprise.
"This is the clearing where the King and Queen-" she was cut off by a mysterious voice.
"Where the King and Queen were murdered," the voice continued. The children and the digimon all stared around, trying to find the source of the voice.
"Who are you? Where are you?" Matt called out, trying to make sure that his voice didn't shake. T.K was clutching his arm tightly, looking around with wide eyes.
"I'm not here to hurt you, so you don't need to worry about that. My name is Deathmon, not a very nice name, but I didn't choose it. I'm standing right in front of you actually, but you can't see me. Only people that have witnessed a murder of someone close to them can see me," the digimon's voice was not evil or sinister; it just sounded like somebody who was used to stating facts, "If I'm right, then none of you will be able to see me. Can anyone see me?" They all shook their heads and that was how Tai found them. He hadn't heard anything that had been said as he had been gathering fire wood, but he saw them shake their heads.
"Why are you all shaking your heads? And who is that digimon that's sitting over there?" he asked as he stacked the fire wood he had gathered at the edge of the clearing. He was trying to push his memories of the murder of his parents out of his head, but as he was in the same clearing they had been killed in, it wasn't very easy.
"You can see him Tai?" Izzy asked him, surprised.
"Yeah, why wouldn't I be able to see him? I'm not blind," Tai said cautiously, wondering where this was going. He had a very bad feeling about it, wherever the conversation was going.
"You must have witnessed a murder then," Deathmon muttered, feeling a bit sorry for the young boy, "And it had to have been someone you cared about. Who did you see get murdered?" Tai stiffened at the question as he felt 16 pairs of eyes on him. He just kept stacking the fire wood for a minute, refusing to answer. Eventually though, he knew he had to answer. And he knew that he had to tell the truth, or at least part of the truth.
"My parents," he mumbled so that they could hardly hear him. They did hear though, and all of them were in shock, except for Kari.
"What are you talking about Tai? Our parents are still alive, we saw them this morning!" Kari was almost hysterical, wondering if their parents had been murdered she hadn't been looking. She was hoping that it wasn't true. Tai sighed before looking up to face Kari.
"Um. you see Kari; the Kamiyas adopted me when I was fi-four. You wouldn't remember it because you were only really little then, about three or four months old," Tai hated having to keep the truth that she was adopted too from her, but at least then if his identity as the prince was revealed, at least Kari would be safe.
"I have to ask this question, I know that it'll cause problems, but I have to ask it. Why did you suggest to the digidestined that you all camp here, when you can barely stand to be in this forest, never mind in this particular clearing?" Deathmon asked, curious to hear the answer. Tai just looked at the ground and shrugged.
"I don't know... it was the first place that popped into my head. And it was nearby. I'll get over it. Why are you here anyway?" Tai headed off any further questions from Palmon and the others. Kari had sat down in the middle of the clearing and looked as if she was trying to tell herself that it was all a dream.
"I'm here to give you these. Of course, you'll have to take them before any of the others will be able to see them. They are your crests, each representing the main characteristic that you possess. You all possess all of these characteristics, but in each of you a different characteristic is stronger than the others. Here, take them, you'll know which crest is who's because they will start to glow when the right person is near. Tai, once you have your crest, I'll need to speak with you for a second," Deathmon's explanation was long and weird, but Tai found that he trusted him. He went over and grabbed 8 long necklaces. One of them immediately started to glow a bright orange. Tai picked that one out of the group and studied it. It was orange and a pointed sun was engraved on it.
"Courage," he mumbled, recognizing the ancient sign for courage. He slipped it around his neck before passing the crests on to Sora. Tai glimpsed that a red glow appeared from the crests, but he didn't get a chance to see what crest she had because he had to talk to Deathmon. They walked to the edge of the clearing where no one would be able to over hear them. Agumon came with them, not willing to leave Tai alone with a force that he himself could not see.
"Prince Tai, I just want to let you know that I know what happened and I'm on your side. Tomorrow Palmon will insist that you go and meet Gennai, so I don't know what'll happen, but do your best to remain undiscovered, okay?" Tai nodded, relieved that someone other than Agumon was on his side.
"Do you know what happened to Rena? Palmon said that she had been suitably punished, but what does that mean?" Tai wanted to know whether he could help out his old nurse, as he was a bit upset at the thought that he had gotten her into trouble. Deathmon nodded.
"She was taken prisoner for a while until she promised that she was loyal to Gennai and to 'the Kingdom.' The promise didn't actually say that she had to be loyal to Gennai, but that was what it meant. She is still loyal to the royal family though, even if she does have to act as though she obeys Gennai's every whim," Deathmon's voice was filled with contempt at what Gennai had done, and Tai was sure that he was on his side.
"Thank you Deathmon, for everything. Now I just have to survive meeting with Gennai without me trying to kill him... I think that that is going to be my toughest test so far," Tai told him, trying to laugh it off, "I'd better get back to the others now, or they'll start to worry. Thank you again Deathmon," Tai started to walk back to the others as Deathmon disappeared into the shadows. As he walked back to the others, Tai sighed and wondered how he had gotten himself into such a big mess...
End of Chapter 2
Well, there's my second installment of A Different Destiny. I hope you enjoyed it. And yes, I do know that it is ironic that a good digimon has an evil name, but sometimes death can be good. Especially when evil dies, so I guess that that was what I was trying to get at. Please review and tell me what you think, I mean, I've typed two chapters in two days. that's 18 pages!! A reviewer has informed me that this story seems to be similar to another fic on the site, but any resemblance to that fic is unintentional, I haven't read any fics quite like this one. This plot is one that I thought of myself and I know of no others that have this storyline. Well, please review, I need your opinions!!! Please!!!!
A Different Destiny, Chapter 2
Tai groaned as he pulled himself up off the ground.
"Tai, Tai, Tai, I can't believe you're here! Remember me?" Tai smiled at the small pink head with extremely long ears that was bouncing around him, excitement flashing in its eyes.
"How could I forget you Koromon? Long time no see buddy," Tai stood up and Koromon bounced into his arms, "How have you been going?" Koromon beamed up at him, moving himself with his ears to make himself comfortable.
"I've seen better days. The whole place was attacked by an army of evil digimon, and I was lucky to get out alive. Salamon survived too, but she doesn't know that she is supposed to be the Princesses guardian, and she's gone after a little girl who fell down here when you did. Where's the Princess? Is she safe?" Tai sighed, but nodded, which only made Koromon even more excited.
"I have to find the others before they get lost here. Are you ready to help?" Koromon nodded eagerly and they set off to find the other seven children which had been brought to this world.
They hadn't walked very far when they heard a scream that sounded a lot like Mimi. The girl had just awoken from unconsciousness to fins a green plant person staring at her. The plant was small, about only as tall as Mimi's waist. It had big black eyes and a pink flower that was so big it covered all of her head for hair. She had long arms that ended in purple fingers, and Mimi was backing away from her like she was a ghost or something.
"Mimi, I've been waiting for you for ages!" the plantlike person told the screaming girl who was still backing away, "My name is Palmon and I'm your digimon partner!" Palmon tried getting closer to Mimi, but the girl was so frightened that she wouldn't allow the poor digimon to come any closer. Tai and Koromon watched this scene unfold, trying hard to control their laughter. When Mimi backed into a tree though, Tai decided to step in because the poor girl was looking terrified.
"Mimi, it's okay. Palmon isn't going to hurt you, she's your friend. Trust me, she won't hurt you," Mimi looked at Tai, who was still carrying Koromon and nodded.
"O-okay. To tell you the truth I wasn't really too scared, I was just a bit startled," Mimi admitted as she walked back to where Palmon was waiting, "you have a strange creature with you too Tai. Who is it?" Koromon hopped out of Tai's arms and stopped in front of Mimi. He offered her one of his ears to shake and introduced himself.
"My name is Koromon, I'm Tai's digimon partner!" he exclaimed happily. Tai just shook his head slowly. He didn't know where Koromon got his energy, but he sure had a lot of it. Mimi stared at the forest around her as if she was wondering where they were.
"Do you have any idea where we are Tai? This place doesn't look at all like the place where the summer camp is," Mimi was looking confused and Tai didn't really know what to reply.
"Well. we are nowhere near the summer camp, that's why it doesn't look like it. We're actually in a different world, unless these 'digimon' are in our world and we have never seen them before. I think that we have to go this way to get out of the forest, but I'm not too sure," Mimi just nodded in agreement with him and he was a little confused on why she had asked the questions if she already knew the answers.
"Yeah, I think that I saw a clearing in that direction before," she bent down next to Palmon and looked her in the face, "I'm sorry for running away before like that. It was just a shock to see you standing there like that. I'm sure now that we'll be great friends, right Palmon?" the plant digimon looked surprised for a moment before she grinned.
"Of course we will Mimi! That's why I'm here of course! Oh, and to help you and the others try to find the Prince and Princess of the digital world," both Tai and Koromon suddenly turned and looked at Palmon when she had said what they were supposed to be looking for.
"What did you say that we were looking for?"
"The Prince and the Princess of the digital world are the people that we are looking for. They disappeared almost eight years ago, on the Prince's fifth birthday. The King and Queen were found murdered in the forest. Gennai found them as we started to search for the missing children. It looked like a group of digimon of some sort had attacked them. Gennai is leading the search for the missing Royal Children, because he is the only one who knows the signs by which they can be recognised," Tai felt angry as soon as he heard Gennai's name, but he just kept calm. Koromon glanced at him out of the corner of his eye and Tai gave him a warning glance.
"So the children just disappeared without a trace? How sad!" Mimi exclaimed, "and on the Prince's birthday too! Do you think that somebody kidnapped them?"
"We're not entirely sure what happened to them. Renamon, who had been the digimon in charge of them that day, told everybody that she didn't know where they were. She was punished suitably for her failure. Gennai was extremely upset about the disappearance of the children, as he was quite close to them, being the Prince's godfather," Palmon looked really sad when she told this story, but even though tears had begun flowing down her cheeks, she continued on, "This world was safe when the Royal Family was here, but as soon as they disappeared, evil digimon started attacking the rest of the people, and they were forced to leave or die. The situation hasn't improved very much as now it is unsafe to go to certain places at certain times. Evil digimon attack innocent ones and I've lost quite a few friends. We have to help Gennai in his search for the children, they can make the evil digimon turn good again, and I know it! Gennai has been searching and searching for them, without rest, but now that you guys are here, you can help us! We should find the others now and then we can all go to Gennai and see what he thinks!"
"Yes, we can go to Gennai," Tai whispered under his breath, his tone bitter. Mimi looked up from comforting Palmon at his words.
"What did you say Tai?"
"I have to find Kari! She's only young and something bad could happen to her," Tai told her before running off. Mimi screamed at him to slow down, but he ignored her. Sighing she ran after him, making a mental note to hit him once she finally caught up with the running boy. Tai couldn't help but worry about Kari. What would he do if Gennai found her? It was unlikely that he would recognise her, but what if he did? Tai was glad that he had disguised the Princesses key inside a whistle. It would have been bad if he had just given it to her undisguised. He was grateful to Rena for her advice and he hoped that he would be able to help her, whatever situation she was in.
"Tai, wait up! We don't want to get separated again!" Tai had to admit that she had a point there, so he slowed down and waited until she had caught up. As soon as she reached him she hit him over the head with the brown bag that she was carrying, "That was for not waiting! Now we can go." Tai set off again, this time at a slower pace, his eyes scanning the surrounding area for any sign of his little sister.
"Tai! Mimi! Over here!" they turned to see Kari and T.K grinning at them from a clearing that was just off to there left. Tai sighed in relief and raced up to Kari, giving her a great big hug.
"Kari! Don't you ever do that to me again! I thought that you were lost somewhere!" Kari just grinned at her brother's strange behavior.
"Don't worry Tai! I had Salamon here to help me, and I was with T.K, and Patamon was with him. Nothing could have hurt me!" Tai looked and saw Salamon, a digimon that reminded him of a small puppy. She had long ears and a collar was around her neck. She was cream in colour and she looked like she was one tough digimon, but her bright blue eyes were kind, showing that she was a good digimon and faithful to her friends.
Patamon was a golden yellow and white digimon with long crooked ears that acted as wings. He too had bright blue eyes, and looked like a trustworthy digimon. Although he was small, he sure looked like he could win a fight and he would never give up hope. Tai wondered fleetingly why some of the digimon were in their rookie form whilst others were in there in-training form. Koromon was in his in-training form, but Patamon was a rookie. He was distracted by his thoughts by T.K.
"Hey, have you guys seen Matt? We haven't seen him, so I was hoping that you guys have," T.K looked up at them hopefully, and Mimi decided that she would tell him.
"No, we haven't seen him yet, but that's because we were listening to Palmon's explanation of why we are here. I'm sure that Matt's around here somewhere. We'll find him," T.K nodded, determination evident in his eyes.
"Well, let's go then! We have to find Sora, Matt and Joe before they get lost in this forest. We should go this way, the other way can be dangerous and there is thick bushes that are almost impossible to get out of, so if we go that way, we'd get stuck. Let's go!" Tai lead the group, with all of the digimon staring at him except for Koromon.
"How did you know that the other way was blocked? Most digimon don't even know that and some of them have lived in this forest. You've never been here before and yet you know the way!" Patamon asked in his little voice, curiosity getting the best of him. Tai turned for a second to reply.
"I-uh-I don't really know. I just know where I'm going, but I don't know how," the others seemed to be convinced with his response and he felt relieved. The truth was that he remembered the forest; it was the same forest that he had been in on his fifth birthday. It was near the castle, so Tai had often gone there to play with his friends. He shook his memories away and tried to concentrate on where they were going. He knew that when they were found, the other three would also have digimon and he didn't want to come across another digimon that knew who he was. The sky was getting darker as the night began to show itself, and he grew worried that they wouldn't find the others before the night settled in.
"I hope that we find the others before too long. It's not a good thing that we've all split up," Tai looked up as he heard Sora's voice float from a spot in the forest ahead of them.
"I don't care at the minute, I need to find T.K! I only just found him at the camp, and now I have lost him again!" this time it was Matt who had spoken, and T.K ran ahead to find where the voices were coming from.
"T.K, don't go that way! That way is dangerous!" Tai called and he ran after the young boy and Patamon, trying to stop them from entering a big cave, "That's where-" he was cut off by T.K's scream and Patamon's squeal of surprise.
"What's down there?" Kari had appeared at his shoulder and he turned to her, bending down a bit so that she would hear him.
"Something dangerous is in there. Sora and Matt are that way," he told her, pointing in the opposite direction to the one that T.K had gone, "take Salamon and find them, then bring them here to wait outside the cave. Take Mimi with you." Kari was reluctant to leave him, but she nodded anyway and he raced off into the cave, with Koromon in his arms. Inside the cave it was almost pitch black, but Tai could see enough to know what was going on.
The cave that they were in was the home of a very nasty digimon that reminded Tai of a giant spider crossed with a bat. Hence its name was Spiatmon. Spiatmon was just like a giant spider, but it was blind like a bat and it also had wings. It was a navy blue colour, so in the light it would be hard to distinguish. Tai figured that T.K hadn't seen the digimon and had walked straight into it in the darkness. At the moment Patamon was trying to keep Spiatmon from getting to T.K, but his 'boom bubble' attack wasn't even making an impact on the champion digimon. In fact Spiatmon was laughing.
"Come on Koromon, digivolve and help Patamon!" Koromon nodded and hopped down. Tai's digivice activated and Koromon began to glow with an orange light.
"Koromon digivolve to... Agumon!" In Koromon's place stood an orange dinosaur-like digimon which was at the rookie level. Agumon went straight to Patamon's aid and fired at the Spiatmon, surprising the virus type. "Pepper Breath!" Tai went over to T.K and quietly snuck him out of the cave. Spiatmon was too busy warding off the two rookie digimon to notice them escape. He noticed that Kari hadn't gotten back yet, so he turned to T.K.
"Stay here for the minute. I'll be back with Patamon and Agumon in a second. Please stay here, Kari should be back with all of the others soon," T.K nodded, though Tai could tell that he didn't like it. Tai backtracked and was soon back in the cave, making sure that their digimon were okay and motioning to them that they could leave. They had almost reached the exit of the cave when Spiatmon changed his tactic. He had picked up that Tai was standing near where he was fighting the two digimon. He may have been blind, but Spiatmon could still pick up on where things were because of the air wave patterns. He took a guess and attacked Tai instead of Agumon and Patamon.
"Poison web!" Tai froze as he saw the attack coming towards him, but he knew that he couldn't get out of the way anyway. His digivice began to glow again, and Agumon glowed an even brighter orange than he had before.
"Agumon digivolve to.... Greymon!" The smaller orange digimon was replaced by a huge one that was so tall that his head was almost brushing against the roof. He was still orange, but this time his back was covered with horizontal blue stripes. Covering his head was what looked to be a dark brown skull. Greymon was Agumon's champion form.
"Nova Blast!" Spiatmon's attack was burnt to digi-dust.
"You okay Tai?" Greymon asked as he rushed past, carrying Patamon with him. Tai nodded and ran with him, and all three of them managed to escape from the cave unharmed.
"Patamon! You're okay!" T.K exclaimed as he saw the three of them emerge from the cave. Kari and Mimi were with them, with their digimon. Also with them were Sora, Matt, Izzy and Joe. Sora was standing next to a pink bird, which had blue feathers at the top of her head. Matt was holding an in- training digimon that looked like a head with a spike sticking out of the top. Izzy was next to a rookie digimon that looked a lot like a large lady- bird and Joe was next to a rookie too, a digimon that looked like a seal with an orange Mohawk. Greymon de-digivolved back to Agumon and all of the humans except for Tai stared at him.
"That's Koromon?" Kari asked incredulously as she examined Agumon, "I mean, he's grown a LOT from that pink head with ears." Agumon looked extremely put out with her.
"For you information my name is Agumon. Koromon is my in-training form and Greymon is my champion form that I was in just then. And Koromons are not just 'pink heads with ears' thank you very much! We are powerful digimon," he turned his back on Kari, who thought that it just made him even cuter.
"Gomamon? I thought that all of the Gomamon lived near the ocean on the other side of the continent," Tai was surprised to see the seal digimon, they usually preferred the ocean.
"How on Earth did you know that? You sure do seem to know a lot about this place," Mimi commented to Tai, "Firstly you knew which way to go in the forest to avoid the blocked passage, and then you told us that T.K had gone the wrong way and you were right, and now you know where the ocean is! How do you know all of this?" Tai looked uncomfortable or a second, but he answered the question.
"I've been here before. But that doesn't matter and we have to find a place to camp now, before it gets too dark that we can't see a thing. There is a clearing just past these trees here. It's right on the edge of the forest but... I suppose we're going to have to use the clearing. It's just straight ahead that way. You guys go there. I'll get some fire wood," Tai disappeared before they could protest and so the only choice they had was to move towards the clearing.
"Tai's hiding something, I know he is! Kari, do you have any idea when Tai could have come here?" Sora was worried about Tai. He had been her best friend since they were 6 years old and she could tell when he was lying or not telling them everything.
"I don't know. He might have come here when I was really little. I mean, he is four years older than me, he might have come when he was three or four or something," Kari shrugged, worried about her brother too. They soon came to the clearing that Tai had described and Palmon gasped in surprise.
"This is the clearing where the King and Queen-" she was cut off by a mysterious voice.
"Where the King and Queen were murdered," the voice continued. The children and the digimon all stared around, trying to find the source of the voice.
"Who are you? Where are you?" Matt called out, trying to make sure that his voice didn't shake. T.K was clutching his arm tightly, looking around with wide eyes.
"I'm not here to hurt you, so you don't need to worry about that. My name is Deathmon, not a very nice name, but I didn't choose it. I'm standing right in front of you actually, but you can't see me. Only people that have witnessed a murder of someone close to them can see me," the digimon's voice was not evil or sinister; it just sounded like somebody who was used to stating facts, "If I'm right, then none of you will be able to see me. Can anyone see me?" They all shook their heads and that was how Tai found them. He hadn't heard anything that had been said as he had been gathering fire wood, but he saw them shake their heads.
"Why are you all shaking your heads? And who is that digimon that's sitting over there?" he asked as he stacked the fire wood he had gathered at the edge of the clearing. He was trying to push his memories of the murder of his parents out of his head, but as he was in the same clearing they had been killed in, it wasn't very easy.
"You can see him Tai?" Izzy asked him, surprised.
"Yeah, why wouldn't I be able to see him? I'm not blind," Tai said cautiously, wondering where this was going. He had a very bad feeling about it, wherever the conversation was going.
"You must have witnessed a murder then," Deathmon muttered, feeling a bit sorry for the young boy, "And it had to have been someone you cared about. Who did you see get murdered?" Tai stiffened at the question as he felt 16 pairs of eyes on him. He just kept stacking the fire wood for a minute, refusing to answer. Eventually though, he knew he had to answer. And he knew that he had to tell the truth, or at least part of the truth.
"My parents," he mumbled so that they could hardly hear him. They did hear though, and all of them were in shock, except for Kari.
"What are you talking about Tai? Our parents are still alive, we saw them this morning!" Kari was almost hysterical, wondering if their parents had been murdered she hadn't been looking. She was hoping that it wasn't true. Tai sighed before looking up to face Kari.
"Um. you see Kari; the Kamiyas adopted me when I was fi-four. You wouldn't remember it because you were only really little then, about three or four months old," Tai hated having to keep the truth that she was adopted too from her, but at least then if his identity as the prince was revealed, at least Kari would be safe.
"I have to ask this question, I know that it'll cause problems, but I have to ask it. Why did you suggest to the digidestined that you all camp here, when you can barely stand to be in this forest, never mind in this particular clearing?" Deathmon asked, curious to hear the answer. Tai just looked at the ground and shrugged.
"I don't know... it was the first place that popped into my head. And it was nearby. I'll get over it. Why are you here anyway?" Tai headed off any further questions from Palmon and the others. Kari had sat down in the middle of the clearing and looked as if she was trying to tell herself that it was all a dream.
"I'm here to give you these. Of course, you'll have to take them before any of the others will be able to see them. They are your crests, each representing the main characteristic that you possess. You all possess all of these characteristics, but in each of you a different characteristic is stronger than the others. Here, take them, you'll know which crest is who's because they will start to glow when the right person is near. Tai, once you have your crest, I'll need to speak with you for a second," Deathmon's explanation was long and weird, but Tai found that he trusted him. He went over and grabbed 8 long necklaces. One of them immediately started to glow a bright orange. Tai picked that one out of the group and studied it. It was orange and a pointed sun was engraved on it.
"Courage," he mumbled, recognizing the ancient sign for courage. He slipped it around his neck before passing the crests on to Sora. Tai glimpsed that a red glow appeared from the crests, but he didn't get a chance to see what crest she had because he had to talk to Deathmon. They walked to the edge of the clearing where no one would be able to over hear them. Agumon came with them, not willing to leave Tai alone with a force that he himself could not see.
"Prince Tai, I just want to let you know that I know what happened and I'm on your side. Tomorrow Palmon will insist that you go and meet Gennai, so I don't know what'll happen, but do your best to remain undiscovered, okay?" Tai nodded, relieved that someone other than Agumon was on his side.
"Do you know what happened to Rena? Palmon said that she had been suitably punished, but what does that mean?" Tai wanted to know whether he could help out his old nurse, as he was a bit upset at the thought that he had gotten her into trouble. Deathmon nodded.
"She was taken prisoner for a while until she promised that she was loyal to Gennai and to 'the Kingdom.' The promise didn't actually say that she had to be loyal to Gennai, but that was what it meant. She is still loyal to the royal family though, even if she does have to act as though she obeys Gennai's every whim," Deathmon's voice was filled with contempt at what Gennai had done, and Tai was sure that he was on his side.
"Thank you Deathmon, for everything. Now I just have to survive meeting with Gennai without me trying to kill him... I think that that is going to be my toughest test so far," Tai told him, trying to laugh it off, "I'd better get back to the others now, or they'll start to worry. Thank you again Deathmon," Tai started to walk back to the others as Deathmon disappeared into the shadows. As he walked back to the others, Tai sighed and wondered how he had gotten himself into such a big mess...
End of Chapter 2
Well, there's my second installment of A Different Destiny. I hope you enjoyed it. And yes, I do know that it is ironic that a good digimon has an evil name, but sometimes death can be good. Especially when evil dies, so I guess that that was what I was trying to get at. Please review and tell me what you think, I mean, I've typed two chapters in two days. that's 18 pages!! A reviewer has informed me that this story seems to be similar to another fic on the site, but any resemblance to that fic is unintentional, I haven't read any fics quite like this one. This plot is one that I thought of myself and I know of no others that have this storyline. Well, please review, I need your opinions!!! Please!!!!