Author's notes: I just realised how huge this is going to be. And how long it's going to take me to finish it! But I will do so, as long as I don't get another case of writer's block.
Tai: Dear God, save us!
Don't be mean and when did you get here?
Tai: I came to tell you to be nicer to everyone.
But the people like seeing you get hurt!
Tai: *Sweat drops*
Anyway, I'm sorry for not updating in a while. But I've been on holiday for two weeks. But I will update as soon as possible.
'Words' like that are telepathic thoughts! Now, on with the story!
Disclaimer: First chapter.
The Crests Within. Chapter Six.
"Tk?" The blonde nodded and laughed as the huge lion digimon looked down on him. "Little Tk that had a habit of looking way to cute for his own good?"
"Get over it kitty kat, of course it's him." Leomon turned to glare at his companion, who was shooting Tk a toothy smile. "How's it going Ogremon?"
"How'd you think when you're taking care of hundreds of little kiddie In-training digimon?"
"Lots of work?"
"Just a bit." Ogremon nodded, gently resting his club on the floor. "How come you're taking care of them? I thought Elecmon took care of newly born digimon?"
"He does, but there's only one of him and so many of those young digimon that it was getting a bit too much for the more digimon to handle. So we offered to take care of the In-Training digimon for him. So once they evolved from fresh he sends them here." Tk nodded and then smiled sheepishly when Leomon's eyes landed on Ken questioningly.
"Oops, forgot my manners. This is Ken, one of the new digidestined. And Ken this is Leomon and Ogremon. Friends of ours from our first trip."
"Pleasure to meet you." Ken said, bowing at the two champions. Leomon nodded at the respect the boy was showing. Good manners, good person or that's what he thought.
"Ha, you're a lot nicer than those other brats! They attacked me when we first met." Ogremon was just an exception. Really, he didn't usually befriend mad insulting digimon. Honest.
"I have to point out that you attacked us first." Tk commented, one golden eyebrow raised as if daring the digimon to try and defend himself. He defiantly took it.
"Well, you little-"
"Ogremon please, be nice we have guests."
"You call him" He pointed at Tk with his club. "A guest?"
"Yes and if you don't then you at least have to count Ken as one." The digimon grumbled to himself as Leomon gestured for Tk and Ken to follow him. Things were looking up if the digidestined were back.
Tk smiled as he leaned back into the comfy armchair, relaxing completely. Something he hadn't done in a while, even when he was with the Tediimon. He glanced over at Ken who was looking slightly nervous, mind you he always was. The boy had never completely forgiven himself for what he had done to the digital world or Wormmon. The blonde turned his eyes back to the two digimon sitting in front of him.
"Do you guys know what's going on?" Leomon looked thoughtful for a moment before he started.
"There is evil around, that is for certain. What it is however, we do not know. There have recently been a lot of digimon deletions, the village has never been this full before. Something is out there killing them for some reason or other. Others disappear completely. A tribe, much like the ones you said you'd been with on your way down, have vanished all together. We have had no word from them in months and the area they usually occupy has been empty for the same amount of time."
A frown crossed Tk's face, this was worse than he thought. "Anything else?" Ogremon nodded and took over.
"We got a message from Gennai a few months back saying that he had discovered some sort of prophecy in a cave. Very much like yours, it was written in ancient digicode on a stone slate. He said he hadn't been able to decipher all of it yet, in fact he could only figure out a few words. But it had something to do with a great war. We think he tried to get in contact with us again a month later but the transmission didn't work."
"In fact come to think of it a lot of the communication systems have been down for a while. It's as if someone's interfering with everything that we try to do."
"Do you think that's why we're here?" Three pairs of eyes looked over at Ken, all confused. "I think Gennai tried to bring us to him, to his house. But whatever's been interfering with the system obviously tried to stop him."
"Nothing can stop the bringing of the chosen to this world." Leomon said, "It is a call for help and will always be obeyed even if said chosen to not want to come."
"Yeah but what if they knew that? And instead of stopping it, sent us to a different place instead? Then tried to kill us before we could find our digimon and help out." Ogremon swore under his breath, a serious look on his face. That in itself was rather odd, the digimon Tk had known was hardly ever serious even when facing Piedmon. He had only gotten a little bit more sober. Apparently the disappearances were taking it's toll on the digimon and his friend.
"What do we do?" Tk asked quietly, turning his gaze to look out the huge window. "You shall stay with us for a few days and then . . ."
"And then?"
"And then we shall get down to business."
~*~
It had now been five days since the ten digidestined had landed in the Digital World and after their first meeting with the rather whacked out digimon they had seen no one. Wandering around the deserted moors for the past three days before entering a rather dense and hot jungle. And apparently the heat was getting to some people.
"Where is everyone?!"
"If I knew Davis, we'd be talking to them." Yolei yelled back, hands on hip.
"I think Matt's found them." Cody said with a small smile, tilting his head to the side where the blonde was bowing to mid-air. "The great and wonderful Digidestined at your service. Please no need for screaming." He said shaking hands with a supposedly invisible digimon.
"Matt, please stop bowing at imaginary Digimon or I might have to get you to a mental home." Sora said dryly as she overtook the blonde and started to climb a steep hill.
"Didn't know there were any of those in the digital world." Matt mused, a hand stroking his chin sarcastically.
"If they had them, they would be full. You know how most digimon around here are crazy." Tai said, patting the blonde's back. Matt laughed and tossed an arm over his friend's shoulder. "You bet ya. So you see Sora, you can't throw be in a mental home."
"I'll put you in one when we get back." Sora declared as the two joined her on top of the hill. "Not if we throw you in one first." Tai said teasingly, wagging a finger at her. She laughed and knocked his hand away. "Alright you two, you've cheered everyone up so can you now tell us where to go?" Tai smiled at her and nodded, looking at the forest below them that seemed to go on forever. "Bugger, we're not going to get out of here quickly are we?"
"Not a chance." Matt said a smile on his face. "But that the whole part of being a digidestined. Getting lost, being attacked and nearly killed all the time." Sora rolled her eyes, they had certainly recovered from their whole new abilities ordeal and were back to being normal. That meant annoying, loud and over confident. She told them this, which is why she ended up running down the other side of the hill with Tai and Matt chasing her.
After Tai and Matt had finished with Sora. (The pair had tried to throw her in a nearby lake but Joe had stopped them saying her clothes would get wet and she didn't have another pair. So they had opted for just hitting her over the head.) The group had continued walking until they stopped for lunch. (A lovely meal of berries, berries and berries!)
"This place looks oddly familiar." Izzy looked up at Tai was looking at the canopy of the forest with a glare. As if trying to get it to tell him where they had met before.
"Well it's been a few years since we last visited the digital world, it might have grown a lot since the last time we came. It may even be a forest we saw first time we came here."
"We saw a lot of forests when we came here first time Izzy." Sora pointed out as she popped a berry in her mouth. "Well then why don't you figure which forest we're in while I go back to my laptop." Tai chuckled as Izzy reverted back to typing furiously, the redhead seemed determined to be quick. He didn't want to waste his battery, so he hated people interrupting him when he was on his laptop. Rolling his eyes he looked over at the younger digidestined who were having a slightly harder time adjusting to being in the digital word all the time. As harsh as it sounded, they would just have to get used to it. His eyes then landed on his sister and they softened. Kari had hardly talked since she had gotten here, her worry for Tk and Ken mounting everyday. Tk especially. The two had a strong bond, which Tai would happily admit, so the pair parting had been very hard on Kari. Light and Hope were truly connected and without her Hope he didn't know how long Kari could last. He hoped wherever Tk was he was doing better. A sudden crashing caught the digidestined's attention. The first seven hadn't spent months in the digital world to not learn anything. They had picked their camp well, equipped with excellent hiding places. Which they dived into at this point. A feathered bird like digimon was leading a pack of what appeared to be In-Training digimon to through the forest. They passed through the digidestined's camp without noticing them. A few minutes later, the sound of feet crushing leave grew quieter and the ten crawled out.
"Do you think we should follow them?" Davis asked looked at the elders for permission.
"Well, they did look like they knew where they were going."
"And even if we don't tell them that we're there they will still lead us out of the forest."
"So what are we waiting for?" Tai demanded as he quickly slipped into the foliage as he went after the group.
~*~
Tk tossed and turned in his bed, pulling the covers right over his head then pulling them back down again. An overwhelming coldness had encased his heart, leaving him feeling as if part of his soul was missing. He knew what it was, he had felt it growing steadily stronger those three long years he had been separated from her, when he and Ken had gone to live in Binshou. The pain of separation was growing much stronger now, maybe it was because they were in different dimensions or he had never gone so long without calling her. He closed his eyes tightly, it had lessened about five days ago. Maybe the other digidestined were back in the digital world. He prayed that they were and that they would meet up again soon. Perhaps on the trip they were going on tomorrow after Leomon and Ogremon had welcomed the new In-Training digimon to the village. The two digimon where then going to take Ken and Tk to Gennai's house. They didn't trust anyone else enough to take care of two of the chosen for so long, so they were doing the job themselves.
"Tk?" The blonde rolled over to see Ken standing by his bed. "You okay?" Tk shook his head and Ken sat down beside the blonde. He didn't ask, he already knew what was troubling his friend. Ken had forced the information about Tk's sleepless nights two years ago. He couldn't say anything that would fix the pain Tk was feeling, he just had to be there and give the boy support to make him feel better. Sitting up, Tk leaned against Ken's shoulder as the boy's arm came round to hug the blonde. He clung to Ken tightly, simply accepting the help he so desperately needed. They sat like that into the early morning where they fell asleep to the birds singing their morning song.
"Up! We have to get going now!" Tk groaned and opened an eye, pulling away from Ken where they had fallen asleep against the headboard. "What? You said we could sleep in." The blonde muttered as he buried his head in his pillow. "I know but the In-Training digimon were supposed to arrive early this morning. They may have been attacked and I don't intend on losing digimon that small. Get up we're going to see what's going on." Groaning, Tk pulled himself out of bed and climbed to his feet.
"Get Ken up." Tk nodded as Leomon left the room. Smiling, now he was slightly more awake, the boy grabbed a pillow and proceeded to hit Ken with it. A lot. The violet haired boy's reply to this action was to do what he did every time Tk woke him up like this. He tackled him. The two landed on the floor and Ken snatched the pillow, tossing it to the side.
"Whaaaaaaaaaaaaat?"
"We have to get up, Leomon thinks that the In-Training digimon have been attacked. We're going to save them."
"Oh."
"Oh, indeed now get off me!"
~*~
"Hey, do you know why Gennai stopped talking to us?"
"Huh? What you on bout Tai?" Matt asked wearily, they had been trailing the digimon for most of the night and appeared to be reaching the end of the forest as the trees were thinning out.
"Well, I mean he was going on about this huge war that was going to come along and how he needed us to fight in it. Why the sudden stop in e-mails?"
"Well, he once mentioned something about other warriors and when I questioned him on it he just acted as if he hadn't said anything. My belief is that there are some sort of other fighters that he believed to help this fight better than we could."
"Yeah but why not just tell that to our faces?" Mimi asked, stomping her foot on he ground for emphasis.
"I don't know! You try to unravel the mysteries of man that can be a 100 years old one year and 20 years old the next! I don't get him and I doubt I ever will."
"Shhhhhh." Sora said, glaring at Izzy and Mimi with a finger to her lips. "We can't alert the digimon to our presence." Nodding Mimi and Izzy quietened down and continued to walk.
It was ten minutes later that the In-Training digimon left the forest and paused suddenly. "What's the matter with them?" Mimi asked from her place, crouched in the bushes. Matt shook his head, indicating he didn't know. But they soon found out. A group of digimon ran forward suddenly, charging at the pretty much defenceless In-Trainings. It was the same group as yesterday, they discovered, when a Drimogemon deleted one of the small digimon with a pained squeal. "They've gone bloody psycho." Mimi hissed as another digimon was deleted. A small sob welled up in Sora's throat as they looked upon the about to be massacre. Fury fed Tai's heart as he looked upon Sora's face. This was properly the reason for his next, very stupid (As Mimi screamed at him later) act.
"Hey you!" All the digimon's heads turned to look at Tai as he stepped out from the bushes. "What do you think you're doing? Leave them alone." The digimon surprisingly enough obeyed Tai, leaving the defenceless squirts (Mimi once again, screaming about how they should be more prepared when walking through a forest) alone and turning to attack their brand new prey.
"Bad idea Tai." Sora whispered as the group of ten screamed and ran.
"Do you think we lost them?"
"No Mimi, we didn't loose them which is why I have a digimon's claws embedded in back." Tai commented sarcastically from his squashed (and rather painful) position in a tree. Mimi scowled, dropping her foot from where she was sat above Tai and kicked him in the head. Causing the brunette to nearly topple out the tree.
"You two, quit it." Sora hissed, her eyes franticly scanning the ground from the branch next to Tai. "Do you want to attract their attention?"
"Surprisingly enough, no I don't." Tai muttered as he rubbed his head.
"Then shut up!" Rolling his eyes and muttering about stupid know-it-all girls Tai settled back. They were obviously going to be here for a while. They had run along side the forest for a while before realising it would be perfect cover against the menacing digimon and dived into it. Thirty seconds later the digimon were still on their tail so they had split up, agreeing to find each other via digivice again. So Tai, Mimi and Sora were now sitting in a tree hoping that their friends were alright. "Ugh, this is ridiculous." Mimi groaned as she fanned her face with her hand. "Matt's not here." Tai declared, the brunette's eye was twitching. Sora shook her head and Mimi sighed, rolling her eyes as she leaned back.
"Go ahead, say it for him seeing as he's not here."
"Poor poor, Ickle Princess Mimi. The sun getting to you, Little Miss Perfect?" As good a friend as Matt and Mimi were, the blonde still had a habit of teasing her when she complained. It was like an old ritual, one that Matt was never going to give up and one that he loved to do.
"Good Tai but Matt could beat you."
"I know, I just felt like I ought to say it in his place."
"You boys are so immature."
"True." Tai said, with a smirk as he looked up at Mimi. "But you love us for it." Sora snorted, "In your dreams Tai."
"I'm offended by that, don't you love me Sora?" Tai asked in a sickly sweet voice. A light blush coloured the girl's cheeks as she opened her mouth to reply when the sound of fighting reached their ears.
"Who'd you think that is?" Mimi asked as she dropped onto Tai's branch. "Dunno, do you think we should go find out?" Sora paused, straining her ears as she listened out.
"It's two digimon fighting. Let's not
bother, I'm sure they can take care of themselves."
~*~
"Fist of The Beast King."
Leomon's attack slammed into the insane Drimogemon, deleting it in the process. The huge lion digimon would have felt sorry for the digimon if it hadn't felt so incredibly . . . wrong. A sense of evil overwhelmed his senses when he first laid eyes on them. There had only been a few attacking the In-Training digimon but it was enough. Him and Ogremon had instantly ran forward, determined to protect them. Tk and Ken were standing behind them, as they had been ordered. Leomon wasn't going to risk two of the chosen's lives. With a final swipe the last digimon fell, turning to dust as Leomon turned round to face the small digimon crowding around him.
"What happened?"
"The bad digimon came and attacked us." A small Koromon piped up, Leomon bent down to hear it better.
"And?"
"A group of kids came out and told them to leave us alone." Tk perked up, trotting over and joining Leomon with the digimon.
"Please tell me what happened next?"
"Well, all of the digimon turned and ran after them. Some came back after they went into the forest though." Tk shared a glance with Ken before they both pelted towards the forest.
"Tk! Come back." The lion growled and started after the pair. What in digiworld did they think they were doing?
~*~
"What was that?" Mimi asked, excited. She jumped up and down slightly on the branch. Looking very much like she was pretending to be a monkey in the process. "Meems?"
"Do you think it was Tk?"
"No you moron." Tai said standing up, "They yelled Tk. But it still means he's here." Mimi squealed and jumped up and down again.
"Mimi . . . Tai . . . ."
"That's great! I can't believe they're here. Matt will be so happy."
"No kidding." Tai said with a snort, as he gently shoved Mimi. "Hey!" She shoved him back and Tai pushed her back and they continued to fight until-
Snap!
The pair fell a few feet to land in a pile of grass. "Oh. Ow." Tai groaned as he lay there, eyes closed against the pain in his head. "I did try and tell you." Sora said as she scrambled down the tree. "But you guys just weren't listening to me."
"You should've tried harder." Mimi complained as Tai rolled over and opened his eyes. To find himself staring into a pair of blood red eyes which blinked rather evilly at him. The first thought to cross Tai's mind was how could blinking be evil? Mind you if the person doing the blinking was evil then he supposed you could blink evilly as well. He would have carried on this debate had not the thought that the owner of the evil blinking eyes probably wanted to kill him. Jumping to his feet Tai yelled, grabbed Sora and Mimi's wrists and ran.
~*~
A smile spread across Tk's face as he heard a terrified yell over to the right, indicating that the digidestined were indeed in the vicinity. The realisation that they were yelling in fright suddenly made him rethink his smile. He and Ken turned and darted off in that direction, Leomon and Ogremon trying to keep up with them as they ran through the undergrowth. "There they are!" Ken cried out, spotting a frantic Tai, Mimi and Sora running and screaming from a digimon that was chasing them.
"Fist of the Best King." The digimon was deleted just as it tried to attack the other three.
"Leomon?" The lion nodded at Mimi, who squealed and ran over throwing her self at the digimon.
"You're alive! I was so worried that I was never going to see you again." The huge lion looked slightly uncomfortable with having Mimi wrapped round his waist, talking about everything and anything. Sora smiled and walked over prying her friend form the digimon's waist.
"You humans are really slow."
"Ogremon." Mimi got ready to launch herself at him, when the digimon pointed at the two standing by his side.
"Tk! Ken!" The pair landed on the floor as the two girls managed to attach themselves to the boys in under a third of a second. Tai rose an eyebrow as Sora and Mimi, who proceeded to kiss and hug the life out of the two. He then turned, smiling, to the two digimon before him.
"Hey, how's it going?"
"At the moment, not too good. But we shall discuss this as we find the others." Tai nodded and followed Leomon as he set off. "Come on you two, leave the boys alone. We're going." Mimi and Sora obeyed Ogremon's words, climbing off Tk and Ken and helping them to their feet as they trudged off to find the others.
Half an hour later and only Matt and Joe were missing. "When we find those two we are having a huge digidestined meeting." Mimi declared as they walked, "I want to know every single little detail of what has happened to you two since you got here."
"Going into the overprotective mother mode?" Sora asked her friend, the girl turned and smiled. "You betcha." A yelp pierced the air and they turned to see Joe and Matt dangling off a cliff, a group of digimon advancing on them.
"Only Matt would fall off a cliff." Mimi stated, her arms crossed as if it was a normal every day thing. Ogremon gave a weird look before running over and smacking the advancing digimon out the way. Seconds later and they were all gone and Ogremon had pulled the pair of the cliff face. Joe uttered a polite thank you while Matt bolted across the grass and tackled Tk. The younger blonde was sent flying as Matt crashed into him.
"Don't you dare ever do that to me again Squirt! I've never been more worried in my life." Matt whispered into Tk's hair as he hugged him tightly. Tk just wrapped his arms round Matt's back. "Fine by me." Tk muttered, burying his face in his brother's shoulder. Ken smiled down at his friend as Yolei hugged him tightly. That was the second time Tk had been tackled, his first tackle coming from Kari.
'You can't talk, both Yolei and Davis tackled you at the same time. I do believe you slammed your head against a tree.'
'Oh, shut up.' Tk smiled brightly at everyone as he and Matt stood up. Chatting happily the group walked off, not realising they were leaving Leomon and Ogremon behind.
"Don't you lot think? You're going the wrong way." They laughed and Tai smiled brightly at their old friends. "Sorry, it's a habit. We never knew our way round places so we always wandered round aimlessly." The group then walked back to the two digimon and past them again.
"You sure these are the kids that saved our world?"
"I think so Ogremon, I think so."
To Be Continued . . .
Okay, some people might take the bit between Tk and Ken oddly. But it's just friendship! Nothing else. Kind of like brotherly love, Tk was in a lot of pain because he was missing Kari and Ken was just comforting him. Nothing else. This is a Takari after all.
Tai: Yeah yeah, we get it. Just go already.
Fine, be that way you stupid brunette,
Tai: Ya know it's the blondes that are stupid.
*Hit's Tai over the head with a frying pan* I'm a blonde thank you very much and no matter what the others say I am not stupid! *smiles brightly at the very small audience* Ta ta!
