Crystal Tamers
by Tremor3258
Lady Devimon's Secret! A Quiet Respite
(Chibi-Author note: For the record, I like that title even though it sounds like someone should be saying it while their lips aren't moving. Also, if you like this story, please review!)
Comprehensive Disclaimer: Crystal Tamers is set in the Digimon Adventures universe (that's Seasons 1 and 2). No profit is intended from this work. Some elements are taken from Tamers, and quite a bit of my information comes from the card game for attacks. I'm not sure WHO owns the Digimon rights on this side of the Pacific. Disney, maybe? I DO know I don't own it, with the exception of the poor Tamers that have had a really rough few days.
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Wednesday, October 18, 2051. Last weekend, a massive disturbance was recorded on almost all Net activities. The Digital World's Guardians continue to defeat our attempts to monitor the situation there, but considering all Digital Gates were down for almost an hour leading up to the final burst, something happened. Mr. Kamiya has gone on record as requesting we subpoena Gennai, the head of the Guardians, to appear here in response to this incident, but no one has been able to contact Gennai for almost three weeks.
In something that is apparently linked to this, eighty-five percent of the children who disappeared in the area centered upon Odaiba ward in the last few months have returned over the last few days. They have no memory of whatever experiences happened in the Digital World, however some observation has shown that they are treating their Digimon less as a status symbol as they are usually seen and more on an equal level. While it is too early to say if this is merely an aberration, these children spent a month in the Digital World, and so perhaps gained a greater appreciation.
I apologize, Mrs. Secretary-General, for getting off topic.
Transcript of Koushiro Izumi, making an emergency report to the UN Security Council in response to the events on the previous Sunday. This report is sealed under the Council's emergency by-laws, and unauthorized persons viewing it may be charged with high treason.
(Note: released to the general public in 2078)
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"Well, young lady," said the dietary specialist to Jessica, " I'm forced to admit you have me completely baffled. There's no way you should have dropped ten kilos in a few days. Your body shows no signs of malnourishment, and your tooth structure is fine, which rules out most eating disorders. Your charts indicate you tend to be a bit underweight, but your parents say that you've been doing better recently. It's like part of your body was consumed."
"Something like that," murmured Jessica into her hands. She was sitting upright in a hospital bed, head resting against her knees. The IV was just long enough to allow her to fold her arms over her legs. Her condition had been physics proving there was no free lunch. With Kindness's ability to channel energy so limited, Jessica herself had paid the price for Crystalmon's digivolution, and the victory in the Digital World. The heart had been willing, but the body had been drained. Crystalmon currently was sleeping on a chair, having suffered no ill effects from the unusual situation. Her wounds had healed up nicely.
Jessica, though, under intensive eating and tubes running into her, had gotten back up to the weight she had been when she had been suffering from her near-terminal depression. She was as white as a sheet and tired, but hopefully another week would get her back in shape. The heavy training she had been going through had helped her get accustomed to being drained of almost all her energy.
Still, she had been glued to the news and books for the last few days. Her parents wouldn't let her have a computer, as it was possible that with the passage between worlds being so unstable recently, her D-Power might actually work as a transfer. The news stories of people being back cheered her up immensely, but she was worried, as Allen and Hikari had been on their short visits, about the remaining people. It seemed for the time being the world was ready to breathe a sigh of relief and let them be swept under the rug of public opinion.
Hikari's Digivice transformation had been unexpected. Hikari hadn't been able to really describe the situation, being scared out of her mind and worried for her partner. That was a normal state for plenty of people with Digimon always engaging in brawls. It also didn't help that Hikari had gotten a little of what Jessica had, and was sensing the flow of Digital power. It was useful for detecting evil Constructs, Digimon hiding in shadows, and instabilities in the fabric of space and time, but it was also akin to having rain occasionally pelt you on a clear day. It didn't do any damage, but it was enough to make you stop and look around. Hikari had confided, once she knew Jessica would recover, that she had been having serious trouble sleeping in the last few days.
Jessica noted the bags hanging under her eyes, and said warmly, "Relax. I'll be out of here and getting you the training for this." Hikari nodded eagerly in relief. Allen was willing to help her focus and recover more quickly from the various little jolts (some of the nastier people at school were starting to wonder if she had come down with epilepsy), but he experienced a twinge when a Construct showed up, but generally unless there was a major disruption, the Digital World didn't bother him.
Jessica was glad for the gifts the D-Power had given her. The bond she shared with Crystalmon was far deeper than with Slithermon, and she could even occasionally hear the Vaccine's thoughts. In Jessica's mind, the bizarre Digivice had been the light that had guided her out of her own personnel hell. Breaking the never-ending chain of depression that probably would have ended with her fished out of Tokyo Bay was a miracle, and even worth the price she was paying: Her sensitivities were expanding from merely feeling nearby Constructs. Most of it wasn't bad. Crystalmon and most other Digimon in the real world had a nice warm feeling from knowing they were with their soul mate. Unfortunately, the tears in space-time that humanity used felt like a dagger in her gut. The D-3s tore reality asunder temporarily, breaching the barrier that had been established between the two worlds for millennia. The fact that the Gates weren't on-line and transport didn't seem possible didn't mean that reality on this side was warped. Jessica wasn't sure why the barrier was there, as whenever something major offset one world, the other world was heavily affected. There had been near continuous thunder storms since the disastrous Sunday, and metrology around the world was only now settling back into definable patterns.
Still, though D-3s were being less commonly introduced, there were still plenty of them, and each one felt like a little canker sore in her mind. Though the pattern was worrisome. Angie had said that the mythical Holy Beasts were draining energy, which is why the Digital World had seemed lifeless, and may even explain why partner Digimon, at each level, were barely stronger than the wild sort in general. No one really knew where the Digivices got their power. Jessica thought she knew where the D-Powers operated from, but they were under a different set of rules.
None the less, if the Holy Beasts were cutting back energy expenditures for partners AND were connected to the D-3s, why did they create objects that continued to disrupt the Digital World. The balance of that plane had been the whole reason the Digidestined had fought and nearly died across several years. If the Holy Beasts were willing to toss that goal out the window (rather than go draft the humans, which had seemed the preferred approach) , it meant a profound change in the Digital World's administration. Considering the entire Digital World had nearly died last weekend, with humans being barely aware of the situation, was terrifying from a humanitarian point of view to their sentient data-formed counterparts, as well as self-interest. They could easily be next.
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Demon, partly recovered from the second worse experience in his life (the first had been a realization that he had accidently traveled within a hundred meters of the Dark Ocean's master) was busy sulking. It wasn't easy to tell, as the thick, rune-embroidered robes the Viral Mega favored swathed everything but his sky-blue eyes into shadow. Still, Marinedevimon had spent the last few years working for Demon, and the way Demon was irritably fiddling with what he was carrying screamed out that Demon really wanted to break something.
Still, Marinedevimon couldn't leave the area and let Demon vent. In the process of healing, Demon's dark energies were more prominent than usual, and someone needed to obscure the Mega's signature. Lady Devimon was working on helping the Tamers (the name the older group was calling themselves after the weekend, for some reason) achieve focus. Skullsatomon was busy baby-sitting the younger four, who were already displaying impressive powers. Though Skullsatomon was lousy with children and teaching, he was the only one strong enough to survive Hope, Light, Miracles, and Fate if they got annoyed with their keeper on the long march.
With that irritable thought in mind, Demon considered letting go of the patience that had kept him alive for the last fifty years just for blowing something up really good. He didn't though, as the last time he had gotten cocky, the Digidestined had blown him into the Dark Ocean. Still, the Digimental of Darkness was making a very tempting target right now for a little high intensity hellfire barbecue.
Demon sighed and stuck the orb back into the pack that was on his back. The group had hitched a lift on a group of Ikkakoumon that Marinedevimon knew. Now they were marching across Server to one of Demon's prepared backup bases. He had an old, well, comrade-in-arms was the best term, there ready to continue the training.
(Chibi Author's Note: Convenient Packs of Marine Digimon: A staple feature on Digimon since about Adventures 01)
Still, the Digimental was problem after problem. After being forced to evacuate Demon's base, the one he had hoped to use as his army's staging ground later, and leaving behind a great deal of supplies as well, nearly dying was a drag. Finding out that the Guardian had nearly killed them all while they were incapacitated was horrifying. Still, finding that the Digimental of Darkness, connected vaguely by prophecy to what was happening now, had stopped responding to any stimulus left the group in mild confusion.
The danger couldn't be past. The Guardian had seen them all, and the Holy Beasts still lived. Even if they were weakened, they would soon recover their strength. Not even Demon and all the troops he had gathered could stop the four Megas with all their Digicores when the Holy Beasts were at full power, and no one knew where the Holy Beasts slept and rested when they weren't out draining the Digital World's energy to attack a realm that was safely secured from the Digital World by the Firewall.
For that matter, Demon had seen their power progression so far, and by his calculations, it would be several months before Demon could risk putting his human/partner Digimon forces against the Holy Beasts with them even standing a chance of them winning. Demon's eyes narrowed as he focused on the groups up ahead. One group, had a few children walking steadily, trying very hard not to think about all the hell they'd been through the last few days. Lady Devimon hovered protectively in the air, arm-blades ready. The other group was smaller with shorter children. They crackled with energy, lighting the area around them slightly with an aura. If they were affected by the last few days, no one had the guts to ask them.
"You're worried for them, aren't you?" Marinedevimon asked quietly. Demon had been more emotional and less coldly logical since waking up. Marinedevimon was elated, remembering that fiery speaker that had recruited him to the current cause.
Demon waited for a group of Vilemon to wander their way past. Demon's eyes closed, the only real sign of emotion that could be seen due to his robes. "I'm worried about me because of a few of them." Marinedevimon nodded in response. "I'm responsible for them being here, and I feel guilty for that. Everyone else chose to join our crusade. I can't alienate them, and I can't get too close. If they're protected to strongly, their powers will develop about as well as most File Island Digimon did, prior to the Digital World rebooting fifty years ago. Leomon constantly guarded and kept the Digimon fat, happy, and mainly in-training. If he hadn't been there as the Island's paladin, Devimon probably would have faced enough decent opposition, instead of one moderately powerful champion, and never been able to gain control."
Demon groaned slightly at himself and shifted the pack, "It's a great metaphor for the Digital World. The Holy Beasts thought the danger was past, and worked on making sure no one developed. Then someone corrupted the Digital World's giant reset button to breach the Wall of Fire. I think Peidmon did it, myself. He was more powerful than I was during his reign, though I've probably caught up by now, reformatting or no."
Marinedevimon was surprised, "You don't think it was the Digital World's boogymon?"
Demon laughed out loud, and stopped dead in his tracks as he tried to regain his composure. It took several minutes. "The lord of the Dark Ocean?" he said shakily, before coughing a few times. His voice was firmer as he continued, "You weren't there. I was. I'm not sure the dark lord is even a Digimon. He had enough power to take scraps from the Data World and create a twisted version of our home plane. He's managed to actually overlap that realm onto our own, though admittedly the Firewall wasn't at full integrity then. He unleashed the Dark Masters, and converted our entire plane into a form that would make conquering the Earth easier." Demon shook his head, and finished quietly, "Apocalypmon's power works only when no hope is left. The greatest power of the Digivices comes as extensions of the will of their holders. The activated Digivices filtered Apocalypmon's power, allowing the Dark Masters' traces to be wiped away while retaining the current framework of our home. The 'undersea lord' would not use something so easy to counter. Apocalypmon may have been the first to cross the Wall, but something big and bad had to activate the Lord of the Endless Night."
"Wait: you're saying that, just possibly, the mere presence of the Dark Ocean's leader in the general area of the Digital World was considered a great enough threat to activate the Digital World's final subroutine?" Marinedevimon asked. The Ultimate shrugged and said happily, "I'm glad we only have to fight the Holy Beasts. After all, they lost to Darkness before."
"Agreed," noted Demon, "And I hoped the children would overcome the Darkness that gave them time to develop their minds, but after seeing the result," Demon waved at the glowing four, and said glumly, "Frankly, humans accepting the Darkness may be less dangerous in the long run, even if it keeps the Holy Beasts in charge."
Demon started to walk faster, as he noted the general pace had slowed to match his while he talked. Marinedevimon scurried to keep up and obscure the injured Mega's aura. Demon asked over his shoulder, "As for not fighting that foe of all life in the Dark Ocean? Marinedevimon, I found a spell that allowed me to easily corrupt regular humans and partners in the real world. With the Digital World's in equilibrium, at least for the moment, I can no longer remember that spell." Marinedevimon gulped. Their hopes to defeat shadowy figures and bright tyrannical Megas were children, the most powerful of which now seemed mere mouthpieces for larger forces. How safe were they?
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"I fear for my very existence," Koji Amerats said, gesturing at the group of younger children. He was about 156 cm, and maybe 63 kilos, with sandy brown hair and dark, almond eyes. His expression was almost permanently worried. At eleven, he was the youngest in Lady Devimon's group of Tamers. He was, also, apparently, the holder of Knowledge's spirit. That was another worry. He was, supposedly, supposed to know what to do with the thing, but not one of the older kids had been able to reconstruct the sequence that led to victory last weekend. Koji was having trouble keeping the younger ones separated, but he was pretty sure it was Hope who said, "The spirits provide," and then left it at that. His Agumon thoughtfully reached up and patted him on the back reassuringly.
"Yup!" said John Matthias cheerfully, though quietly, "They give me chills too!" Thirteen years old, tall, muscular, and another Odaiba resident, being the person whom Angie and Jessica had admired for his body but not his intelligence a month ago. He was the bearer of Courage. His bravado quickly deflated when one of the four looked over at them. John took a deep breath, though the air was suddenly colder, and called out, "Listen, we're supposed to be a team, right? This is kind of embarrassing to say, but I think I don't remember your names. All I know is Light and Fate are girls, and Hope and Miracles are guys."
Lady Devimon, flapping around slowly, smirked, "Is there going to be a test on this later, John?" Veemon shot an angry glare up at her, and she shrugged. "Sorry," she said, more apologetically, "Being around a bunch of people you recently brainwashed makes you nervous." She muttered more quietly, "And then there's the fact that YOU'RE all partnered."
One of the children by Skullsatomon intoned, loud enough to make everyone jump, "Names matter not. When the time comes, you will know." The small group sped up ahead, Skullsatomon racing to keep up and try and keep them from being tracked.
"For the love of the kami, they're scaring me almost as much as what went on this weekend!" said Eiko, shivering. When everyone glared at her, she said defensively, "I forgot the current rules in effect. Sorry. Um, pretty nice weather?" she said.
"We can't keep it ignoring it for ever," Michael Saeki said. He had been caught up in a craze for Westernized first names, and was the oldest of the bunch. "Or would you rather deal with it all at once like we did at the fire wall?" Everyone winced at the memories of being exposed to all the wrong decisions and regrets of years in just a few moments.
Lady Devimon said it bluntly, "This whole situation sucks." Eiko's eyes opened wider at the profanity, but Lady Devimon didn't see and probably didn't care. "You're too young for this. We're all to young for this," she muttered darkly. Due to the reformatting, you could count the number of Digimon older than fifty-three on both fingers and toes. While there had been enough of an energy burst left over to get quite a few former ultimates back up to their former levels, they were lacking in battle experience. It was possible that the Holy Beasts were older than the existence of a numbering system in the Digital World.
Lady Devimon knew Demon and probably Skullsatomon were from that group. She had been picked up, as a mere Nyaramon, confused and helpless in a slowly dying world, several years ago. She had volunteered, and she had done massive amounts of training to work her way up to one of his top agents. These children had the potential for great power, but they were drafted. True, it was a time-honored Digital World tradition, but Lady Devimon had been torn away from everything she was expecting once.
Demon knew, though no one else did. Primary Village was still the source for Digimon, even those to be born to a partner. The connection was set at birth, and a tiny Snowbotamon had been hopping towards Primary Village's link up. Something had failed at the last moment, and the connections went down. When they came up again two days later, Snowbotamon reached out, only to find her connection to her partner had been blocked. Destiny is something Digimon believe in far more than humanity, as a whole. To be cut off from it was a terrible thing.
Demon, however, had happened by the young Digimon upon his return from the Dark Ocean. His attempt to gather the Dark Spores to match the Holy Beasts power had failed disastrously. His few henchmon had been destroyed brutally by the Digidestined, and he had barely escaped with his life from Imperialdramon, fighter mode. The powers the 'undersea master' possessed would have impressed Peidmon, who had once claimed total dominion of the entire Digital World. However, there had also been several small artifacts and scrolls that showed Demon a way to open the Digital World administration to new comers, as well as deal with certain disquieting overheard remarks that the Digital World was dying.
Demon had his own strengths driven home to him by his failure. He could organize quite a bit better than most Viral Megas. Most of the Viruses (Viri?) who got to that level were fairly rational individuals, but Demon achieved far greater loyalty from his minions. That has inspired a small In-training to work her way up to Ultimate, the highest level could hope to achieve. Having power was a perk of that level, the Viruses were just generally a bit more open about it.
Lady Devimon grinned, showing a few small fangs. And when you got a Virus with the raw ferocity of that type, combined with an ability to work in groups like the Datas, and as inspired as the Vaccines, really good things happened, like getting the traditional enemy of evil Digimon agreeing to work towards defeating the Holy Beasts. This move would probably put Demon in charge, but he was most definitely the lesser of five evils.
"You're thinking about Demon, aren't you? You're blushing," said Eiko, who was standing near her Palmon. A green-tinted D-Power was wrapped around her wrist, as she lacked a belt for the clip. After the rather bizarre series of events, the Tamers and Digidestineds clothes had been reformed to their thoughts, leaving them wearing Shinto-style robes, though they were all completely bleached white. Most still had D-3s, but Angie was wearing a D-Power as well. No one wanted to ask the younger four.
Margaret Downing huffed irritably, "I thought Digimon couldn't do that." She wasn't adapting well to the situation. She had been highly respected and powerful back in the real world. She had been doing real good. Now she was going for some bizarre training and being thought of as a neophyte. A potentially very talented one, but still, a mere newbie. The fact that Allen had suddenly stepped into the limelight, and thrown everything away to be gallivanting with card games was double annoying.
Lady Devimon settled down on the ground with a whisper of wings, and spitted Margaret with a glare. "No, not really," she said. "I was mainly thinking about our crusade, and how you've been drafted." The children looked down as the term was finally spoken aloud. Lady Devimon said desperately, "I know you got thrown into this right when you could reason clearly, and we need to work hard if we're even going to survive, but is there anything I can get you? It'd be nice to send you home, but the Guardian has ties with Earth's governments."
Everyone was quiet for several more minutes of walking. "Where to begin?" said Angie, "I'd like to see our families again. I mean, yes they've made a mess of things, but still," Angie trailed off sadly. It was worrying that she still called herself Darkness, when the others insisted that wasn't the proper term. The dark angel nodded in agreement. She wasn't quite familiar with the feelings, but she had read up on the term. "Cards, come to think of it, would be good. Jessica's mind wasn't clear, but these things," she gestured to the D-Power, "Need them to work."
"It's not going to be easy to get you back. Defending yourselves isn't enough. You need control to not be snapped up by one of the Holy Beasts, or their agents," mused Lady Devimon. Noting the dark glares they cast down, she added, "Yes, it's a little manipulative of me to bring up that energy drain. But it's what we're fighting. We have to be better than them and focused, dreams can wait," she snapped. She said more softly, as a thought occurred to her, "I'll see about getting something set up, but it's not my decision. I'll do what I can," she promised.
Glumly, the group continued on. There wasn't a lot of light left. Thinking about what the Digidestined had gone through, on the run from Etemon, was a lot different than living it. Lady Devimon's thoughts were elsewhere. She had once dreamed of angels, but darkness had proven her duty. Still, for a moment she saw white flashing wings as she looked towards the sun, and a tear trickled down from her eye. Who knew what things might have been if she had made it to her partner?
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In a far calmer part of the Digital World, though on the same continent, lay a small house. Built under a lake, it was incredibly hard to detect, as even Megas had overlooked it. The house was the home of the Guardian of the Digital World, and the last of the group that had created the original tags and crests, as well as creating copies of the ancient Digivices.
Gennai was one of the oldest creatures in the Digital World who was publicly known. The Holy Beasts, most of them, were dismissed as idle legends, but everyone knew how Gennai had guided the Digidestined to their victory over Myotismon (twice) and the Dark Masters. Gods listened when he spoke.
Right now, liver-spotted hands could barely be kept from shaking as Gennai searched through the scrolls in the basement. Gennai hadn't looked through some of this information since his early training. However, he needed something to redeem himself in the eyes of the Holy Beasts, or he would have only a few months of life left, at the outside.
The Holy Beasts did not give back easily what they had taken, and no one had expected such a clever diversion as to get the Holy Beasts to begin to drain their own appointed intermediary. That would have been taken care of, but the Crests suddenly returning to replenish the Digital World meant years of work tracking them down again, when Gennai had sworn he had easily grabbed them up when the Digidestined had released them over fifty years before.
While the Holy Beasts infinite (presumably) life spans meant they could just try again, having lost an important tie in to those crests - the amplified powers of hope and light that had activated the Mega sequence, meant the spell was unusable. Gennai, however, had gotten a glimpse of something he half-remembered during the split second before the Holy Beast began to drain him. Combining that knowledge with the quick exposure to those D-Powers in the Real World gave him something to work on.
Several fruitless hours were spent in the search. Finally, in a fading scroll that the order had taken as a useful guide for their Digidestined blueprint, he found what he was looking for. It was seriously likely this was the only one of its kind on the entire plane. The scroll predated Gennai's massively extended lifespan several times over, and it was a miracle it was intact.
What was left of it, anyway. It was half gone, decaying with age, and a few pixels floated off even as Gennai looked at it. Despite this, a Digivice, with a card slot on one side and an odd button in the middle, was clearly visible. Golden light looped the D-Power to several figures before the power flowed back into the Digivice, which shone with light.
"Isn't that interesting?" Gennai mused to himself, before cursing at how decrepit his voice sounded. "The Holy Beasts will like this! Amazing! Did the Digital World even think before it unleashed these?" he asked rhetorically. "It's given us the tool to ultimate domination!" Gennai cackled momentarily before he set himself to the task of recopying the scroll. His next meeting with the four would be... interesting.
To be continued.
Author's notes:
After the climatic events last chapter (if the entire Digital World ready to fall apart at the seams doesn't qualify, I don't know what does...), it's time to deal with the lingering complications, as well as move the story forward. I'm not sure anything actually happened, before showing that Serenity (aka Angie Misamaru, aka Darkness) and Sincerity had upgraded to D-power, as it were. Of course, the Digital World doesn't think these things through: they don't have cards!
Oh yes, I also introduced FOUR new characters with maybe three or four lines each. Well, two new characters. John Matthias (no last name) and Margaret Downing showed up in the very first chapter. John was the basketball star that Angie and Jessica wished had a brain, and participated in the big battle where almost everyone was possessed. Margaret has a Piddomon, who dark digivolved on a regular basis. The other two were throwing some names together. For the record, if Jessica was the result of a classical naming trend (which would explain Allen, Margaret and Angie, at about the same age), I'd like to know how someone with the last name 'Silphius' is apparent pure Japanese.
You know, when these people have time to sit down and think, they're going to have the mother of all nervous breakdowns. All of them. Probably even the Digimon.
It should be noted that the Tamers have forgiven Lady Devimon for her involvement. Evidently, considering the fact they barely pulled off a save lacking training, they feel that the rather... forced nature of their recruitment was called for. I'll go into more depth next time, but this was a quiet reflection chapter.
Okay reviewers, people who can guess whose Lady Devimon's trainer should have been (there are a couple good, possible options) as well as who Demon's old friend that the Tamers will be training under will get big brownie points. Even if you don't have a clue, be sure to drop me a line and tell me how you think the story's going.
I do have this almost all planned out, and let me say, it's about to get even more hectic than just beating down the occasional Construct from here on out. THIS was their week of breathing space.
Next time: The two worlds need saving once again as the tamers, at least partly recovered from the hectic events of the last few chapters, are back on duty. Confrontations abound as the two sides prepare to make contact with each other!