Disclaimer: I do not own digimon. I lay no claim to any artifact that appears in this story.
Episode XXXIX
Fortress of Ages
TK stared. They had descended from the lofty hall in a group, entering a vast courtyard, roofed by glass to prevent the elements from entering, filled with golden sunlight, and people and creatures that he could not even begin to name. He recognized what appeared to be a Terriermon actually wearing a uniform of sorts standing in one corner at attention. He recognized a huge Mekanorimon standing on another side of the courtyard. In between here was what TK could not place, huge crowds of digimon meandering through the green shrubs and blooming flowers, some looking like insanely powerful Megas, some looking almost like they were only Champions, but they all carried themselves confidently.
Asked one of the digimon that neither TK nor Kari could place, a huge mechanized version of Leomon. Do you want one of the upper rooms opened? The massive digimon was standing so close that TK could smell the highly polished black and silver metal, but the digimon appeared to be paying little attention to them, almost as if this was an ordinary occasion.
No thanks. Adam replied. We'll use one of the council chambers.
As you wish. The mechanized digimon moved off. Adam and Gennai, now walking side by side, led their unlikely contingent off to one side, approaching a marble encrusted wall. Kari marveled at the smooth surface, and was still marveling when Gennai approached a darkened patch of the wall and placed his hand around it. There was a slight tingle through all of them as the wall glowed for a second, and then it slid apart, revealing a well-lit opening. None of the other beings in the room seemed to find this at all unusual, as if it happened every day, which, TK supposed, maybe it did.
The hallway they entered was long and white, not decorated and not green, merely functional, but the plain architecture also held in it a majesty that impressed Kari greatly as they entered it fully, leaving the sunlight and the garden behind. The plain white walls almost seemed to shift as she approached them, changing as she touched them into a different spectrum of colors.
Greetings Gennai, Andrel, company...the Council Westwatch has been cleared as requested. TK, Kari, Gatomon and Patamon jerked around at the suddenness of the voice. There, standing in a recess in the wall, just out of the sight of the door a tall digimon, looking like a blackened, taller and meaner version of Andromon stood almost at attention, speaking as though he were a great deal farther away than he was.
Thank you HighAndromon. Gennai spoke. Did they have a chance to provide refreshments?
I do believe that Jijimon said something to that effect. HighAndromon did not even turn at that question.
Very good. Gennai continued walked, before he asked Adam, So, did we get out of that godawful mess on time?
Barely. I have three squadron of fliers perched on mountain tops all over the western half of the continent. If that fleet twitches, I'll know about it as soon as you can blink. If they break through containment they'll be able to harass our supply lines, but we'll still have them pinned against the ocean, and they really want to avoid that this time.
Gennai appeared to be considering something for a long moment before he turned back to look at the tall woman. Do we have anything that we could borrow for coverage on this?
Well, that depends. I have a squadron of Yanmamon cooling their heels back at the transit point, and a Parrotmon that just got off the injured list, but that's all. I checked.
What about the 587th? Adam asked.
Still off-duty until we can figure out what happened to their planes. We should have them back in the air in a week, but they won't add much to the line of battle.
Ahead of them there was a whoosh and a door that Kari had not even seen slid open, revealing a plain room with spartan decorations but comfortable black chairs sitting around a black-painted wooden table. Around the side of the room complicated electronic devices remained sunk into the corners. TK brushed up against one, looked down at the plain green screen, and then kept walking, unable to determine its function.
I suppose you have questions. Gennai stated as he dropped into the head chair, the others dropping into chairs around them. Upon examining the chairs closer TK suddenly realized that some of them were clearly a different size, pandering to digimon rather than humans.
First, I suspect that they're hungry. The woman pushed a button to the side of the tray and watched without surprise as a portion of the table shimmered and a large plate of breads, cheeses and vegetables materialized in the middle of the table. TK and Kari felt a little nervous about taking food so soon after their scare, but apparently Patamon and Gatomon had no such reservations.
Well, we do have some questions. TK started, hesitantly.
And we have some answers. But I guess I should fill you in. Adam stood up, and for a moment TK was suddenly aware of how different he was here, at the heart of his power.
Everything I told you about the essence crystals, about the formation of Helios Ascendent was completely true. Every part of that. I suppose that Hideo told you about that hike that we took that Jan and Jessica never returned from.
TK and Kari both nodded.
Well, I guess I'm elected to tell the story. See, it starts with the Digital World. As you know the Digital World is not simply one world, but many, thousands of worlds connected to each other through a variety of portals and gateways. The only thing that unites them is that each world is populated by the creatures we call digimon. Digimon are peculiar, they are beings whose substance is created out of electronically stored and communicated information. Today that means binary computer data, but before then it was something else, information taken directly from human brains. If you think about it, a human mind is like a giant computer, an efficient computer, but still a giant one. It leaks some information, and this appears to be where that data collects, turning into the basis for the creatures we call digimon. This of course creates a whole series of problems for those creatures, because they are shaped and influenced by beings they have never met.
We believe what happened is that these creatures roamed the land as souls, as spiritual essences, beings in a land of thought, until the electronic revolution reached the computer age. At that point the worlds changed. Electronics were a lot less efficient, and soon the building blocks for digital life lay scattered about. Then computer programmers on many different worlds began to construct artificial life programs. These programs interconnected with each other, providing the host bodies for these entities to dwell in. Then things got complicated. It's nearly impossible for computer programmers to create a soul, but that's essentially what they tried to do. The problem was all they managed to draw down into the more complex digimon were those essences of thought that had been buzzing around for hundreds of years. They were not uniform, not quite what the programmers wanted, some were dreams, some nightmares. When digital information multiplied by so much that the digimon multiplied by the thousands, they spilled over into many different digital planes through the gateways, always seeking worlds where they could replenish themselves from digital data.
The problem was that as soon as they could organize, they immediately went to war. Good fighting evil, order fighting chaos, digimon running around randomly killing each other. On dozens of now separate planes there was now war. The great Sovereign Guardians who originally came into being to protect the Digital World were powerless, more or less confined to a single worldplane. They attempted a desperate maneuver, to assemble to them an army of good digimon, but the problem was that the good digimon really were not good fighters, and were not ready for it. Within a year the forces of evil had discovered the true nightmares, those creatures who were beyond digimon, powers of evil that dwelled in different worldplanes far away from your reality, who bent these evil digimon to their will almost as soon as those digimon emerged in those other worlds. Together, those armies of the great evil ones, digimon reinforced with demons and armies of the wicked from a hundred worldplanes had laid waste to the majority of the planes, had conquered their way across the Interconnected Worlds, had sent the forces of Light into hiding, and had conquered this plane.
We have no true understanding of how the Digital World itself works, but all we understand is that somehow it attempted to act to redress the shift in the balance. By some miracle the Sovereign Guardians were given the ability to create a single being who might have the power to aid them. From their experiment was born Gennai, a being whose power already rivaled that of the Gods. But the Digital World was wiser and far more powerful than the Sovereign Guardians, for it recognized that only by reuniting digimon with their makers, by uniting dreams and dreamers could a force be created strong enough to shift the balance.
Across a hundred worlds the Digital Plane sought out those who might be made to serve its purposes. And it grabbed them, perfectly ordinary children and adults yanked out of their lifestyles and planted into the Digital World. I still shudder to think how many arrived in the middle of enemy territory and were hunted to extinction. It came for me, for Jessica and for Jan here on our hike, about twenty years ago. One minute we were walking along, the next we were seized by a great force, and hauled into a strange world. We weren't the only ones of course. Cortell here arrived the same day, and Amanda and Mike, the kid, arrived almost in the same place. We of course did not speak the same language, because it turned out we were from different versions of Earth. But it was not half-an-hour before we were attacked.
The battle had a foregone conclusion. The attackers were rookie and champion digimon used to attacking unarmed humans. But we had between us four swords, and we had Jan, wielding the awesome power of the Divine Blade, and myself with the Ascendent half of the Philosopher's Stone. We tossed around the digimon like they were in a hurricane, so impressing a group of freedom fighters that they took us in, no questions asked, and took us directly to their leader, Gennai.
As it turned out later all the bearers of what would later become crests arrived on the same day, and we all arrived in more or less the same place. Whether this was the will of the Digital Plane, or just sheer dumb luck, I still don't know. But what Jan and I discovered was interesting. The essence crystals occur often in the Digital World, perhaps because they seem to be some sort of accumulation of sentient thought, and perhaps because the Digital World is the center of where sentient thought seems to go. Well, they had a strange property. Although it took years to teach one how to use the stone the way we were using it, a human, concentrating, could use it to give power to a digimon.
The Digital World is modeled almost exclusively on a computer system. Power is two things, memory and processing power. The more program you can run, the more things a digimon can do, the more capacity they have for multi-tasking. With an essence crystal it appears that a human can donate some of their mind, allow a digimon to run their program on the dormant processing power of the human mind. This allowed them to become larger, in essence to digivolve. The second thing we discovered is that we could use them to Program. By that I mean that, as Izzy's probably told you, programs in the Digital World have more effect than programming in the real world. A programmer, using the essence crystal to run the program not only on a computer device but on their own mental power can create anything they concentrate on. In essence they can do anything they think of, simply by programming. Prolonged exposure to the crystal and to the programming method allows a human being to change, to become even more powerful. First they learn how to write the code inside their head, and then they learn how to make things happen simply by willing them to happen. And then finally they learn to Program without crystals, without anything but their disciplined mind.
Of course, when we found out that this works in the Real worlds as well as the Digital, I think you can imagine the sudden realization of how much power we had stumbled into. Real world power is not quite processing power, but once you learn in the Digital World, you can learn in the Real world.
But the battle was far from over. Together we managed to liberate certain areas of the place that is now Server. And then we managed to free File Island. On File Island we managed to capture enough essence crystals that we were actually able to do something with them. We were able to create the first digivices, mechanical devices designed through elaborate programming to channel the energies of an essence crystal, making it easier to digivolve, easier to Program. It was there, in the vast fiery chambers of that factory that Andromon guards in his free time that we first discovered the true nature of the power we had been entrusted to guard.
It seems that over thousands of years the positive energies of sentient minds as well as their negative counterparts have built up. Together they have filled a higher plane, a place filled with nothing put pure positive emotion and intellect. But, when we connect to that place what comes down to us is the same energy we used to Program, the same energy that allowed us to communicate with our digimon. Some digimon and some humans showed affinities to different types of energy, and we began creting devices that would allow us to channel that awesome, near-infinite power down into human hosts, and from them into digimon. Our first crest as they came to be called was given to Jan, to him we gave the connection of courage that allowed him to draw upon the powers of the higher planes, and to allow his friend Agumon to draw off his power and become MetalGreymon for the first time. But it also gave Jan that ability, however unlooked for, to essentially digivolve himself to the Champion level, where he was more powerful than ever before. Digivolved humans, we quickly discovered, were much more powerful than their digimon counterparts.
But even with the crests, it still wasn't enough. We needed something powerful enough that we could drive off the forces of darkness. It was clear that this would be a long war, we had already discovered that we were not aging in the Digital World, which we later discovered was a side effect of the fact that time was passing much faster, and that we were aging as if we were still in the Real world. We were also fortunate that the forces of Darkness were fighting each other much more than they were fighting us. So we took the most insane risk we ever had. We had discovered four slightly different strands of power, all insanely powerful, all connecting almost directly to the heart of the Light. So we took the final step and created a conjunction. Two digimon were found in egg form who showed a remarkable affinity to two of the powers, and they were injected forcefully with a shard of attuned essence crystal. It was quite possibly the most insane risk that any of us ever took, and I'm not terribly proud of it. Together those two digimon, a Patamon and a Gatomon were bonded to the bearers of Hope and Light, those with the greatest affinity to those mighty powers. Together they were able to emerge as digimon more powerful than any we had ever seen before. Along with them we were able to finally challenge the full might of the greater powers of darkness.
But I mention only two of the four powers that we found. The other two were more difficult to bear, and more difficult to control, because they involved both great evil and great temptation. Gennai and I myself chose to take upon us these crests because we showed the greatest affinity for them. But when a crest is forged, digimon are required to stabilize it. As you might suppose only a truly special digimon can hope to withstand being bound to a power of this magnitude. So we took our most powerful digimon and bonded to them ourselves. Gennai bears the crest of power, and is bound to Zhuqaimon and Ebonwumon, the Soverign Guardians of the south and the north. I in turn am bound to Azulongmon and Baihumon. These of course were the original versions, there are many other versions of the Sovereign Guardians, and the Azulongmon you met was not the Azulongmon bonded to me, but was rather the reformatted embodiment of the Guardian of the East. And that completed it, we had created the four greater seals by uniting those crests with special balancing crests, designed to keep us from going insane.
With that kind of power we created a new world, the world on which you now stand, and built Citadel. We spent twenty years driving the Darkness away from the immediate lands, but we did not threaten the powers of the Lords of Darkness at all. Then we disappeared for ten years, waiting for the appropriate time.
Ten years later, during another civil war between the powers of Darkness, we re-emerged, but this time we were greater than we ever had been. I have abbreviated the story of fifty years of war already, the hundreds, the thousands of deaths. The annihilation of whole cities, the death of digimon and humans alike standing up to evil. Our desparate battles and campaigns across the Digital World, bringing along with us the greatest armies the world had ever seen. But this time it was different. The army we brought out numbered in the hundreds of thousands, disciplined, well-led, energetic and ready for battle. This time we were covered in the shadows of flying fighter planes and huge floating fortresses as well as flying digimon. This time we had more human-digimon pairs than ever before.
The war raged for fifty more years, with us gradually taking more and more territory, worlds falling to us, rebelling against their dark overlords to join our cause. Armies were assembled that dwarfed the might of the Darkness. I have fought wars on three hundred worlds. I have had six of my flagships shot out from under me. I have personally destroyed entire fleets using the power of my crest. Our weapons were vast and devastating, and worlds died before our might.
But our sciences and our passion had discovered something else, the highest forms of digivolution. There exists a level beyond Mega, but only years of careful training can propel a digimon to those extremes. Years of careful work allowed our digimon, and eventually ourselves to Omega Evolve to Master. But beyond that was the power known as biomerging. A biomerge digivolution combines a human and digimon pair together. Just for comparison by biomerging a human and his rookie partner together, you end up with a Mega. I don't suppose you need any instruction on how powerful the biomerge between a human and a digimon who are both at the Master level is. That's a permanent tranformation, once that has occurred, it cannot be undone. All those in this room are the result of a biomerge, have reached the Avatar level. There is sufficient skill to disguise our nature, and even, after some time in the Avatar period to temporarily undo the transformation just like Cortell has here with Tentomon.
Of course, you're probably wondering what your role is in all of this. When the war ended there was no victory, for the forces of Darkness cannot be totally overcome lest the balance swing awry. All that happened was a stalemate. During that time we managed to reach unto far-flung worlds and found that we were not alone, that there were many nations of the Light sprawled across space, and we were only the latest to emerge. So at a certain point we ended the war, and a truce set in, uneasy as it was. But we were faced with problems, how were we supposed to protect all these worlds, especially the ones where the threat was small. A single squadron of Mega level digimon would have defeated the power of Myotismon, but that would have made the world you call the Digital World solely dependent upon us for protection. So we tried another track.
We picked the Digital World because it had just been reformatted after suffering devastating losses in the war. It was also closest to the world we came from, Earth, which, unlike some other parallel worlds like Gaea and Forsot remained blissfully unaware of the great battles being fought for survival across the dimensions. The plan was simple, create an automated defense system, something that would automatically summon humans with special properties and bond them with digimon should the need arise. To assist them we created copies of ourselves, an ability that Gennai picked up from who knows where, and left these pale copies of ourselves to monitor the system.
However, in the first encounter we were, let us say, less than successful. We were forced to interfere too often for the digidestined to succeed. But there was an anomaly during that struggle, a digimon falling through a dimensional rift, ending up in your hands Kari, and those of your brother. That let us examine eight prospective new recruits. This time we grew the eggs and the digimon with their own imitation crest, an object that allowed you to tap the power drawn down by the major crests, the ones we still carry. Unfortunately the Dark Masters attacked early, and managed to destroy the production facility. After all, we had not endowed the copies of ourselves with our own powers.
Of course the Dark Masters knew that they could never stand up to us, so they went immediately into hiding. Gennai had salvaged an important part of the project, so we felt reluctant to interfere, because that interference would mean that the digidestined that we called upon would depend upon us to get them out of jams. We really could not act to help any of you because what would happen is that our aid would become necessary. You had to do things on your own.
Despite the sudden rush of feelings conjured up in him TK forced himself to nod. He understood, it was what he would have done himself.
Adam continued speaking. So seven of you were found and brought into the digital world through an elaborate portal system. I bet you never even felt yourself herded toward that summer camp. However, we did not have a digimon for Kari, so we stepped back, depending on the natural attraction between bonded partners to bring them together. The Dark Masters had forseen this, and had left the world filled with their servants as they gathered their armies under the dark mountains in the north. But you triumphed. Not only did you defeat Devimon, you did what they least expected. They had hidden the crests, as they lacked the power to destroy them, hidden them in the inhospitable deserts of Server, but you wandered those deserts and found them all. You defeated Etemon and then attacked their greatest servant. Myostismon fooled you for a while, but the discovery of the eighth child changed all that. Myostismon knew that if he could tap the power of the eighth child, that he would be powerful beyond belief. He also understood that without the last digidestined you stood no chance of winning.
So Myostismon did the one thing even we barely suspected. He had access to an ancient prophecy, which told that his passage into the Real world would result in the greatest power he had ever known, in his death and rebirth. So he betrayed the Dark Masters. The plan was that he would find the Gate and open it and take his army through, and then the Dark Masters would come through behind him and conquer that world as well. But Myotismon sealed the Gate behind him, locking both digidestined and Dark Master alike in the Digital World. In an act to correct that, Gennai gave you the key to open the gate and you returned to the Real world, destroying access to the Gate as you went, and leaving the Dark Masters stranded once again. So they conquered the Digital World and prepared for the return of their rogue disciple.
But they were unprepared for what happened. Myotismon had intended to return as an equal to the Dark Masters, but he was defeated, his spirit taking up residence in Yukio Oikawa. Instead it was the eight of you that returned, finally bearing enough power to defeat them. And, by finding your own strengths, you finally triumphed.
Likewise there were troubles caused by the return of Myostismon, but this time the system instantly recognized that new digidestined were needed, so it activated itself and chose Davis, Yolei and Cody. It was Citadel who transformed the latent Crest of Kindness into the Digi-Egg of Miracles, but all else was your work. And then, when the true danger of Myotismon was unleashed again you were able to defeat Daemon and MaloMyotismon and restore order to the universe. We manipulated this opportunity to be sure to unite your world with the Digital World, like so many other worlds, because humans and digimon working together are much more powerful than they are separately. But we had difficulties, because of the presence of Utopia on your world, and of the influences of the darkness. After the war I returned to Earth alone, but only hours had passed on Earth, where I had spent a century fighting. Fortunately time was no longer out of whack, so I was able to mix time between all the worlds, so I was sent to keep an eye on Utopia, and to keep an eye on you guys in my spare time.
When hostilities erupted again after so many years of truce, we were ready. We anticipated their attack and launched a staggering counteroffensive. The explosion that allowed you to escape from Parsifal was actually an aftershock of our destruction of their main mobile forces. But the Darkness is vast and huge, and they have managed finally to bring up more reinforcements. We have managed to take one of their greatest nexus points, a world that connects to many other worlds, but we need to hold the worlds that we spread out and conquered from there.
However the forces of Darkness have a plan. They plan the conquest of your world, and with it they also plan to unite a new army, conscripted from enslaved humans, Titan units and the digimon Khartan took with him, unite it with the remnants of Daemon's army, and move out in a concentrated attempt to distract us. Unfortunately your world is strategically placed near some of our supply lines. Once they move out we have to move in response. The good news is that they have to move on Earth before their regular army begins its attack. I've been waiting patiently on Earth for them to make their move, knowing that once they did I could return to Citadel immediately and command our own defenses.
Adam sat down. Patamon was staring around with an open mouth. Gatomon was pretending to be unaffected by the whole lesson. Kari claimed no such innocence. TK however had some questions.
How does Khartan plan to overcome our world? TK asked.
I don't know. Adam shrugged. And this time that's for real. I just know that he's probably up to something big. You've barely seen a fraction of his strength. I truly don't know how much power he actually has, but rest assured, when he shows up, you'll know it.
Second. Is there actually a traitor in the group? TK asked.
Adam smiled grimly at that. You forget that you aren't the only ones who can detect the unique signature of essence crystals, or of digivices. He knew where you were the moment you entered any compound he was looking at. You can't hide from him very well, you know.
Third. What time is it? TK looked around worriedly.
Oh. Well here it's getting toward late evening, but time flows differently here depending on what you want. Essentially no time has passed in the real world since you left it. In fact, if you returned through the gateway now, you would be right back where you were, no danger. It's a tricky thing to explain, because obviously I haven't been waiting for you for years. Just assume that we can take care of the time thing.
When's dinner? Patamon suddenly found himself asking.
Everybody laughed at that, and then Adam grinned. Well TK, I expect that you might be living here at some point, and I expect to find Kari wandering these halls some day soon. In that case I better show you some of the things here. We can go down...to...dinner...
Suddenly everyone but TK and Kari were on their feet and, if they were not exactly kneeling, they were wearing expressions of profound reverence, of willingness, of obedience. Even Adam looked like he was on the verge of genuflecting, and the look in his eyes could only be described as awe. At the same time Kari felt that something was behind her, and she turned around.
Once Kari had possessed a great-aunt who thought that the little girl would need a near perfect command of manners, a near-perfect knowledge of how and when and where to offer congratulations and obedience. As a result Kari had spent many dusty afternoons learning proper behavior to function in modern and ancient society. She knew everything from how to properly speak to an elder person to how to give a tea ceremony for the Emperor himself. But nothing in all her great-aunt's lessons had ever taught Kari anything that would have prepared her to encounter a God.
Absently she wondered if this is what people had seen in the beginning. If, back when they were living in dry and dirty huts and caves if they had seen beings such as these, all silver light and ephemeral cloth, descend from the heavens. If they too had stared, necks bent up, making out the shape of wings as white as a dove's, but strong too, greater than the great wings of the mightiest eagles. If they had seen in that cloud of white light the arms and armor of the warrior archangels of heaven, who must have been cast in their image. The sense of power was intoxicating and terrifying all at once, and Kari knew instinctively that she, Hikari Kamiya, was now standing in the presence of a being that was the sun to her candle, to whom the fires of the sun were nothing save a momentary flicker, and perhaps a temporary inconvenience. No eyes stared at her, but this creature, this magnificent sculpture of fire and light needed none, there was no mistaking the brilliance of the gaze that had descended upon her. For a moment it stood like a sculpture, but even then it was not completely still, for motes of light still moved within its being, illuminating the room with eldritch flames.
Then it let one hand raise toward the others in the room, an arm forged of the stuff of dreams, and Kari, looking to see where the being pointed, watched as the others, except for TK, Patamon and Gatomon, jerked as if they had been slapped, temporarily reeling around the room. Kari tore her gaze away from them for the split second necessary to see the greater being raise the same arm in what was unmistakably a gesture of farewell and then disappear as silently as it had come.
Well...now you have seen. Gennai had staggered upright once more, his hand pressing to his forehead. They are the embodiments of the Light, and we call them angels, Seraphi, Cherubim and Archangels. That was one of the greatest of the Seraphi, come to give us tidings of war beyond our border. She also wished to give you a lesson, that no matter how far you go, there are powers beyond you, so far beyond you that you cannot imagine, that will always seek to aid you.
Something in that last sentence stirred TK from his temporary stupor. There is something greater than that? He blurted out.
Adam had also regained his footing, his face dark and foreboding. Once, and once only I was unfortunate enough to witness combat between the ones known as the Archangel Michael and the Fallen Lucifer. I still have nightmares about that sometimes. I have walked among both men and Gods. I still find it disconcerting.
Hey, you're pretty cute. You know that. The kid, whom TK had pegged as Mike, had managed to come up upon a still gaping Patamon.
Huh? What? Patamon jerked out of his shock with a start which set the rest of them giggling.
Let's go down to dinner, we can watch the practice fields from there. The woman, Amanda, suggested.
It's huge. Kari remarked, pausing in the middle of eating her bowl of rice. I mean, it's actually gigantic.
TK was watching the practices going on below under the glare of harsh artificial lights. Humans in armored suits and digimon panting and carrying weights jogged around the mock battlefield in ranks and different formations. Sometimes they would break up and dive for cover as a flying digimon from a group training outside of the field of view through the window dove on them, spitting fire. Beyond they could see huge towers, gangways and connections extended to vessels larger then some of the cities they had seen, the flare of torches visible from even here.
Patamon and Gatomon were staring the other way with even wider eyes. Every kind of digimon imaginable was here. There were tiny in-training digimon, and then, looming above them the bulk of Mega level digimon stalking around. At the next table a bouncy Veggiemon was chatting animatedly with an attentive group of friends, one of which was a huge SaberLeomon. A few tables away there was a much larger table at which sat a reclining Zudomon, head inclined so that he could converse with a WarGreymon standing on his stomach. The digimon were different then anything that Patamon and Gatomon had ever seen, all wearing armor of some kind, some mark of station, and all of them looking youthfully and exuberantly alive.
The Citadel contingent, sensing the unease that ran among them, did their best to make the newcomers feel at home, but they were still to alien to truly do this. Finally TK asked a question that he had been wondering for quite a while.
What kind of powers can we use? TK spoke, and the table fell silent as people began to stare at each other.
I guess I'll start. Cortell stood up, knocking Tentomon off the back of his chair. I have the crest of Knowledge, and here it seems that the system is like the human brain, knowledge is stored in electricity. I can manipulate electricity and electromagnetic phenomena to the point of being able to control the entire electromagnetic spectrum. If pressed I have to admit that I can manipulate electricity stored in people's minds in sort of an imitation telepathy.
I'm Jessica Wright in case you hadn't guessed. Jessica stood up next, blonde hair shaking out of her eyes. Friendship is my domain, and Friendship solidifies things, so I have powers over ice. Even though that sometimes sounds lame next to some of these others trust me, after being frozen for a few years, most enemies don't come back for anything.
That makes me Jan. Jan stood up as Jessica sat down. I'm Courage, and that means fire, and lots of it. I can do anything from lighting the candles on your birthday cake to thermonuclear detonation. I can also create an aura that enhances both my speed and my physical combat abilities.
As for the rest of us... Adam waved as he stood up. Well, the three of us here, myself, Amanda as Light and Mike as Hope all possess seals. Mike can influence nations by spreading Hope, Amanda can control the enlightenment of truth using Light, and I am given special abilities with which to combat evil and bring it to Justice. As for the rest, well, the seals can duplicate the power of any of the other crests.
Gennai stood up suddenly, no hint of a smile on his face. My name truly is Gennai. I carry the seal of power. I can do anything I want.
As he sat down again Jan rolled his eyes and remonstrated, in a voice filled with mock exasperation. That's Gennai all right. There was a loud round of laughter.
So does this explain why Gennai was so hard to get information out of back on our first journey in the Digital World? TK asked innocently.
That was Amanda rolling her eyes. He's always that way.
Hey Jan. Adam grinned. Remember that time he told us to find that stash of portable generators, the one he told us was buried under an oak tree five kilometers south of Rashfoster?
Oh, do I ever. Jan groaned. There was a forest five kilometers south of Rashfoster. Do you have any idea how many trees we dug under that night?"
You needed the exercise. Gennai grinned at them slyly.
So now what do we do? TK asked, finishing shoveling rice and stir-fry into his face. I mean it's far from over yet, isn't it.
It is. The table was suddenly solemn again, solemn and quiet. Gennai remained the only one speaking. I think maybe I should show you the Eternal Garden.
By Such as These are we Sheltered.
Those were the only inscription over the door as they entered, but TK immediately sensed something different about the set of rooms. It became apparent what the difference was as soon as he, Kari, their digimon, and Gennai walked through the door. There was only a set of walls here, rather like a library, filled with many different smaller walls that turned the place into an organized maze.
TK walked up to one and saw that the faceplate was covered, not with pictures, or even with blank plate, but with names. He touched one name in particular and the wall he was facing suddenly came alive with an image, a holographic sculpture of a young man with dark hair and glasses, staring solemnly out at TK. Other things floated by him, name, age, birthplace, home, date of birth, date of death.
Gennai confirmed as TK turned around. This is where we bury our dead.
Kari looked up, and sudden shock and disbelief set in as she realized the dimensions of the room. It stretched on into infinity, wall after wall, name after name. In some places she watched the names until they grew so close together that they blurred into a somber mess. In others she looked to see what the end of the corridors looked like, but could see nothing, except for markers, grim and silent, stretching off until she lost sight of them. There were guides posted on the walls, computer terminals that displayed the way back to the entrance, and Kari quickly realized that these were to keep people from getting lost wandering these vast halls.
How many? TK asked quietly after a few moments.
These mark only our casualties, military and civilian alike, so they only show one part of the story. But to answer your question nine billion seven hundred twenty three million six hundred fifty two thousand two hundred forty two. Gennai looked and sounded in that moment old, old, sad and broken.
You remember that? Patamon sounded incredulous.
That number is burned into my brain by a brand far fiercer than any forged by mortal man. There is no way I could ever forget that number. Gennai looked away for a moment.
And they all died? Gatomon jumped up on Kari's shoulder.
Let me show you something. Gennai waved them on. You may wonder why Adam goes as Adam on Earth, and Andrel here. The short answer is that Adam is his given name, but when he arrived at camp they already had an Adam there, and an Andrew, so jokingly Adam took the name of Andrel as a nickname. Adam and Andrew both were fatally injured in the battle that won us File Island. Adam died in Andrel's arms, and Andrel, who both directed and commanded the battle, has never truly forgiven himself for letting them die.
Was it his fault? TK asked quietly.
He did not anticipate the impossible. He was not prepared for an enemy that numbered four times their original might. That he won the battle at all was a miracle, and perhaps a testament to his ability, but that does not guarantee a free lunch. He will never forgive himself for any of those lives lost, and perhaps it makes him the best general we've ever had.
But he can't help us can he? Kari asked seriously.
No. As soon as the Dark attacks your world he must return to the front lines. Thirty worlds hang on this campaign, billions of lives, maybe even hundreds of billions. I don't think he can risk them for your campaign. The battle you will have to win by yourself.
Can we defeat Khartan? TK asked. His eyes had sparked for some reason.
No. You aren't strong enough. Gennai suddenly grew incredibly serious.
I suspected that. Is there a way for us to beat him? TK asked cautiously.
The means to that have already been given. Gennai looked very serious.
Then we'll have to make do. TK grinned at Gennai, confidence returning to him. So, the question is, what do we do now?
You learn. We teach. Gennai pointed back to the exit, and they left the dead behind.
It might have been the tension, it might have been the knowledge that the test on these subjects would involve life and death. It might have been any of a number of things. It could have been because Adam was the best teacher that TK and Kari had ever had, but he taught them more in one evening than they had ever known before.
That evening he, backed up by Gennai, taught them everything they ever needed to know about digimon. He taught them fully about every digimon they might encounter, how they behaved, what their attacks were, their fears, their weaknesses and all their other constraints. He told them about the variety of effects of electric attacks, fire attacks, ice attacks and a million other methods by which digimon could use. His lecture was filled with illusions created with the wave of his hand, illustrating the most gruesome effects of various attacks and how to counter them, burning them into their brains.
By the time they were tired they were given rooms fit for a king, rich satin sheets, soft mattresses, and left them to sleep.
The next day the lessons were more intense. Adam revealed that he was only going to have them stay here a short while, returning them to his apartment about an hour after they had left. But that meant that he was going to make their only days of instruction count. He was going to teach them how to make war.
He gave a single lecture that day, but this one was attended by many people, most of them people TK and Kari did not recognize. This time Adam stood in the front of a huge lecture all, and they all had front row seats. Digimon and humans alike sat in rows, staring down at Adam standing at the front of the room.
The first thing he wrote on the board was short and simple. KISS. Keep it Simple, Stupid. Which, he pointed out meant many things, including that you should keep it simple because people were generally stupid, because you were stupid for not keeping it simple, or any other one of a dozen meanings. TK had expected the lecture to cover complicated flanking maneuvers, huge and intricate plans for battle. He let his pen twitch across a pad of borrowed paper nervously at the start.
But Adam did not teach that way at all. He taught using examples from a subject that TK and Kari both knew about, Japanese history. He supplemented it with battles from his own past. He taught them the three ways to defeat an enemy, fire, maneuver and shock effect, the ways to achieve them through surprise, deception, numerical and technological superiority and terrain advantages. Diagrams appeared that covered the most simple of maneuvers, the flanking maneuver, the charge, the solid and elastic defense. Then the diagrams appeared differently. They illustrated great battles of the past, complicated swirls of different colors moving across the world, marching in formation across a hundred different terrains.
Then Adam, speaking sometimes softly, sometimes loudly and with vigor, would point out how these hundreds of complicated battles would be won by the correct application of those simple maneuvers that were instinctive for them. He would point out how seemingly simple maneuvers could win a war. Then he would explain that the key had been knowing when to attack and when to give ground, and where to do it, and how. A thousand different scenarios must have gone by while TK and Kari sat entranced, and all the other students busily took notes.
After a quick break for lunch they were back, but the topic was different. Adam was teaching about how to organize an army. It took almost a whole hour of lecture before TK could begin to grasp the massive complexity of the task, why Adam claimed that it had cost armies wars before. The idea of feeding, moving, of commanding thousands of men was so complicated that Kari could not even begin to imagine how it was done. Adam outlined leadership requirements, morale requirements, and then begin to talk about different ways that they applied to an army. He spoke of logistics, of how to operate, of how to command. Of why a general could never lead the charge unless he was supremely confident of his men, and why even then it was a bad idea. He talked about methods of war that TK could never have learned on Earth, because he talked about how to employ different types of digimon, and how they worked best in battle. He spoke until they were sure that he would be too hoarse to go on. And they he spoke more.
Others would come in and give lectures. Cortell talked to a crowded room for hours on the benefits and perils of logistics, on how lack of supplies could be used as a weapons against the other side, and how it had been applied before. One day there was only a long argument between many different veterans, some high-level digimon and others grizzled old humans, about what made the best leaders in a combat situation, and how they treated their men. Every one of them seemed to remember some time or other when they had truly been inspired by someone, yet the traits differed from person to person. Some traits emerged, confidence, determination and a quick wit were essential, but they were lost in a sea of debate.
Cortell and Adam came in and argued about a variety of different weapons systems, digimon, powers, and how to employ them. Diagrams, charts, maps and video files made up the background for that long and overdrawn debate, but the key lay in the different views. Both of them presented reasonable plans for offensive and defensive action that were completely opposite, illustrating the most important lesson of all, that it was only inventiveness and foresight that really counted. TK and Kari learned more about the different ways to approach conflict in those few hours then they had in their entire lives.
Even Gennai put in an apparently rare appearance, to talk about the hazards and duties of command from the perspective of a leader. His words were quiet and calm, but they carried great weight behind them. TK wondered, for a moment, how he had ever thought of this figure as a foolish old man.
And then, at the end, once days and nights in this fortress in paradise had seemed to blend together, it was time to go home.
The four of them stood there as Gennai smiled at them one last time, Adam standing beside him.
Gennai spoke up. This won't be a pretty war. It won't be a happy one. What is happening tomorrow will be beyond anything you've ever seen. But trust yourself, you're strong enough to take it.
Trust me too when I say that you're ready. Adam smiled at them. I won't be there to help you, but I will be there in spirit, and I think you'll be able to handle it.
TK shook Adam's hand and bowed. Kari did the same.
Gennai raised a hand in farewell.
TK and Kari stepped through the doorway home and did not look back as heaven fell away behind them.
Fortress of Ages
Asked one of the digimon that neither TK nor Kari could place, a huge mechanized version of Leomon. Do you want one of the upper rooms opened? The massive digimon was standing so close that TK could smell the highly polished black and silver metal, but the digimon appeared to be paying little attention to them, almost as if this was an ordinary occasion.
No thanks. Adam replied. We'll use one of the council chambers.
As you wish. The mechanized digimon moved off. Adam and Gennai, now walking side by side, led their unlikely contingent off to one side, approaching a marble encrusted wall. Kari marveled at the smooth surface, and was still marveling when Gennai approached a darkened patch of the wall and placed his hand around it. There was a slight tingle through all of them as the wall glowed for a second, and then it slid apart, revealing a well-lit opening. None of the other beings in the room seemed to find this at all unusual, as if it happened every day, which, TK supposed, maybe it did.
The hallway they entered was long and white, not decorated and not green, merely functional, but the plain architecture also held in it a majesty that impressed Kari greatly as they entered it fully, leaving the sunlight and the garden behind. The plain white walls almost seemed to shift as she approached them, changing as she touched them into a different spectrum of colors.
Greetings Gennai, Andrel, company...the Council Westwatch has been cleared as requested. TK, Kari, Gatomon and Patamon jerked around at the suddenness of the voice. There, standing in a recess in the wall, just out of the sight of the door a tall digimon, looking like a blackened, taller and meaner version of Andromon stood almost at attention, speaking as though he were a great deal farther away than he was.
Thank you HighAndromon. Gennai spoke. Did they have a chance to provide refreshments?
I do believe that Jijimon said something to that effect. HighAndromon did not even turn at that question.
Very good. Gennai continued walked, before he asked Adam, So, did we get out of that godawful mess on time?
Barely. I have three squadron of fliers perched on mountain tops all over the western half of the continent. If that fleet twitches, I'll know about it as soon as you can blink. If they break through containment they'll be able to harass our supply lines, but we'll still have them pinned against the ocean, and they really want to avoid that this time.
Gennai appeared to be considering something for a long moment before he turned back to look at the tall woman. Do we have anything that we could borrow for coverage on this?
Well, that depends. I have a squadron of Yanmamon cooling their heels back at the transit point, and a Parrotmon that just got off the injured list, but that's all. I checked.
What about the 587th? Adam asked.
Still off-duty until we can figure out what happened to their planes. We should have them back in the air in a week, but they won't add much to the line of battle.
Ahead of them there was a whoosh and a door that Kari had not even seen slid open, revealing a plain room with spartan decorations but comfortable black chairs sitting around a black-painted wooden table. Around the side of the room complicated electronic devices remained sunk into the corners. TK brushed up against one, looked down at the plain green screen, and then kept walking, unable to determine its function.
I suppose you have questions. Gennai stated as he dropped into the head chair, the others dropping into chairs around them. Upon examining the chairs closer TK suddenly realized that some of them were clearly a different size, pandering to digimon rather than humans.
First, I suspect that they're hungry. The woman pushed a button to the side of the tray and watched without surprise as a portion of the table shimmered and a large plate of breads, cheeses and vegetables materialized in the middle of the table. TK and Kari felt a little nervous about taking food so soon after their scare, but apparently Patamon and Gatomon had no such reservations.
Well, we do have some questions. TK started, hesitantly.
And we have some answers. But I guess I should fill you in. Adam stood up, and for a moment TK was suddenly aware of how different he was here, at the heart of his power.
Everything I told you about the essence crystals, about the formation of Helios Ascendent was completely true. Every part of that. I suppose that Hideo told you about that hike that we took that Jan and Jessica never returned from.
TK and Kari both nodded.
Well, I guess I'm elected to tell the story. See, it starts with the Digital World. As you know the Digital World is not simply one world, but many, thousands of worlds connected to each other through a variety of portals and gateways. The only thing that unites them is that each world is populated by the creatures we call digimon. Digimon are peculiar, they are beings whose substance is created out of electronically stored and communicated information. Today that means binary computer data, but before then it was something else, information taken directly from human brains. If you think about it, a human mind is like a giant computer, an efficient computer, but still a giant one. It leaks some information, and this appears to be where that data collects, turning into the basis for the creatures we call digimon. This of course creates a whole series of problems for those creatures, because they are shaped and influenced by beings they have never met.
We believe what happened is that these creatures roamed the land as souls, as spiritual essences, beings in a land of thought, until the electronic revolution reached the computer age. At that point the worlds changed. Electronics were a lot less efficient, and soon the building blocks for digital life lay scattered about. Then computer programmers on many different worlds began to construct artificial life programs. These programs interconnected with each other, providing the host bodies for these entities to dwell in. Then things got complicated. It's nearly impossible for computer programmers to create a soul, but that's essentially what they tried to do. The problem was all they managed to draw down into the more complex digimon were those essences of thought that had been buzzing around for hundreds of years. They were not uniform, not quite what the programmers wanted, some were dreams, some nightmares. When digital information multiplied by so much that the digimon multiplied by the thousands, they spilled over into many different digital planes through the gateways, always seeking worlds where they could replenish themselves from digital data.
The problem was that as soon as they could organize, they immediately went to war. Good fighting evil, order fighting chaos, digimon running around randomly killing each other. On dozens of now separate planes there was now war. The great Sovereign Guardians who originally came into being to protect the Digital World were powerless, more or less confined to a single worldplane. They attempted a desperate maneuver, to assemble to them an army of good digimon, but the problem was that the good digimon really were not good fighters, and were not ready for it. Within a year the forces of evil had discovered the true nightmares, those creatures who were beyond digimon, powers of evil that dwelled in different worldplanes far away from your reality, who bent these evil digimon to their will almost as soon as those digimon emerged in those other worlds. Together, those armies of the great evil ones, digimon reinforced with demons and armies of the wicked from a hundred worldplanes had laid waste to the majority of the planes, had conquered their way across the Interconnected Worlds, had sent the forces of Light into hiding, and had conquered this plane.
We have no true understanding of how the Digital World itself works, but all we understand is that somehow it attempted to act to redress the shift in the balance. By some miracle the Sovereign Guardians were given the ability to create a single being who might have the power to aid them. From their experiment was born Gennai, a being whose power already rivaled that of the Gods. But the Digital World was wiser and far more powerful than the Sovereign Guardians, for it recognized that only by reuniting digimon with their makers, by uniting dreams and dreamers could a force be created strong enough to shift the balance.
Across a hundred worlds the Digital Plane sought out those who might be made to serve its purposes. And it grabbed them, perfectly ordinary children and adults yanked out of their lifestyles and planted into the Digital World. I still shudder to think how many arrived in the middle of enemy territory and were hunted to extinction. It came for me, for Jessica and for Jan here on our hike, about twenty years ago. One minute we were walking along, the next we were seized by a great force, and hauled into a strange world. We weren't the only ones of course. Cortell here arrived the same day, and Amanda and Mike, the kid, arrived almost in the same place. We of course did not speak the same language, because it turned out we were from different versions of Earth. But it was not half-an-hour before we were attacked.
The battle had a foregone conclusion. The attackers were rookie and champion digimon used to attacking unarmed humans. But we had between us four swords, and we had Jan, wielding the awesome power of the Divine Blade, and myself with the Ascendent half of the Philosopher's Stone. We tossed around the digimon like they were in a hurricane, so impressing a group of freedom fighters that they took us in, no questions asked, and took us directly to their leader, Gennai.
As it turned out later all the bearers of what would later become crests arrived on the same day, and we all arrived in more or less the same place. Whether this was the will of the Digital Plane, or just sheer dumb luck, I still don't know. But what Jan and I discovered was interesting. The essence crystals occur often in the Digital World, perhaps because they seem to be some sort of accumulation of sentient thought, and perhaps because the Digital World is the center of where sentient thought seems to go. Well, they had a strange property. Although it took years to teach one how to use the stone the way we were using it, a human, concentrating, could use it to give power to a digimon.
The Digital World is modeled almost exclusively on a computer system. Power is two things, memory and processing power. The more program you can run, the more things a digimon can do, the more capacity they have for multi-tasking. With an essence crystal it appears that a human can donate some of their mind, allow a digimon to run their program on the dormant processing power of the human mind. This allowed them to become larger, in essence to digivolve. The second thing we discovered is that we could use them to Program. By that I mean that, as Izzy's probably told you, programs in the Digital World have more effect than programming in the real world. A programmer, using the essence crystal to run the program not only on a computer device but on their own mental power can create anything they concentrate on. In essence they can do anything they think of, simply by programming. Prolonged exposure to the crystal and to the programming method allows a human being to change, to become even more powerful. First they learn how to write the code inside their head, and then they learn how to make things happen simply by willing them to happen. And then finally they learn to Program without crystals, without anything but their disciplined mind.
Of course, when we found out that this works in the Real worlds as well as the Digital, I think you can imagine the sudden realization of how much power we had stumbled into. Real world power is not quite processing power, but once you learn in the Digital World, you can learn in the Real world.
But the battle was far from over. Together we managed to liberate certain areas of the place that is now Server. And then we managed to free File Island. On File Island we managed to capture enough essence crystals that we were actually able to do something with them. We were able to create the first digivices, mechanical devices designed through elaborate programming to channel the energies of an essence crystal, making it easier to digivolve, easier to Program. It was there, in the vast fiery chambers of that factory that Andromon guards in his free time that we first discovered the true nature of the power we had been entrusted to guard.
It seems that over thousands of years the positive energies of sentient minds as well as their negative counterparts have built up. Together they have filled a higher plane, a place filled with nothing put pure positive emotion and intellect. But, when we connect to that place what comes down to us is the same energy we used to Program, the same energy that allowed us to communicate with our digimon. Some digimon and some humans showed affinities to different types of energy, and we began creting devices that would allow us to channel that awesome, near-infinite power down into human hosts, and from them into digimon. Our first crest as they came to be called was given to Jan, to him we gave the connection of courage that allowed him to draw upon the powers of the higher planes, and to allow his friend Agumon to draw off his power and become MetalGreymon for the first time. But it also gave Jan that ability, however unlooked for, to essentially digivolve himself to the Champion level, where he was more powerful than ever before. Digivolved humans, we quickly discovered, were much more powerful than their digimon counterparts.
But even with the crests, it still wasn't enough. We needed something powerful enough that we could drive off the forces of darkness. It was clear that this would be a long war, we had already discovered that we were not aging in the Digital World, which we later discovered was a side effect of the fact that time was passing much faster, and that we were aging as if we were still in the Real world. We were also fortunate that the forces of Darkness were fighting each other much more than they were fighting us. So we took the most insane risk we ever had. We had discovered four slightly different strands of power, all insanely powerful, all connecting almost directly to the heart of the Light. So we took the final step and created a conjunction. Two digimon were found in egg form who showed a remarkable affinity to two of the powers, and they were injected forcefully with a shard of attuned essence crystal. It was quite possibly the most insane risk that any of us ever took, and I'm not terribly proud of it. Together those two digimon, a Patamon and a Gatomon were bonded to the bearers of Hope and Light, those with the greatest affinity to those mighty powers. Together they were able to emerge as digimon more powerful than any we had ever seen before. Along with them we were able to finally challenge the full might of the greater powers of darkness.
But I mention only two of the four powers that we found. The other two were more difficult to bear, and more difficult to control, because they involved both great evil and great temptation. Gennai and I myself chose to take upon us these crests because we showed the greatest affinity for them. But when a crest is forged, digimon are required to stabilize it. As you might suppose only a truly special digimon can hope to withstand being bound to a power of this magnitude. So we took our most powerful digimon and bonded to them ourselves. Gennai bears the crest of power, and is bound to Zhuqaimon and Ebonwumon, the Soverign Guardians of the south and the north. I in turn am bound to Azulongmon and Baihumon. These of course were the original versions, there are many other versions of the Sovereign Guardians, and the Azulongmon you met was not the Azulongmon bonded to me, but was rather the reformatted embodiment of the Guardian of the East. And that completed it, we had created the four greater seals by uniting those crests with special balancing crests, designed to keep us from going insane.
With that kind of power we created a new world, the world on which you now stand, and built Citadel. We spent twenty years driving the Darkness away from the immediate lands, but we did not threaten the powers of the Lords of Darkness at all. Then we disappeared for ten years, waiting for the appropriate time.
Ten years later, during another civil war between the powers of Darkness, we re-emerged, but this time we were greater than we ever had been. I have abbreviated the story of fifty years of war already, the hundreds, the thousands of deaths. The annihilation of whole cities, the death of digimon and humans alike standing up to evil. Our desparate battles and campaigns across the Digital World, bringing along with us the greatest armies the world had ever seen. But this time it was different. The army we brought out numbered in the hundreds of thousands, disciplined, well-led, energetic and ready for battle. This time we were covered in the shadows of flying fighter planes and huge floating fortresses as well as flying digimon. This time we had more human-digimon pairs than ever before.
The war raged for fifty more years, with us gradually taking more and more territory, worlds falling to us, rebelling against their dark overlords to join our cause. Armies were assembled that dwarfed the might of the Darkness. I have fought wars on three hundred worlds. I have had six of my flagships shot out from under me. I have personally destroyed entire fleets using the power of my crest. Our weapons were vast and devastating, and worlds died before our might.
But our sciences and our passion had discovered something else, the highest forms of digivolution. There exists a level beyond Mega, but only years of careful training can propel a digimon to those extremes. Years of careful work allowed our digimon, and eventually ourselves to Omega Evolve to Master. But beyond that was the power known as biomerging. A biomerge digivolution combines a human and digimon pair together. Just for comparison by biomerging a human and his rookie partner together, you end up with a Mega. I don't suppose you need any instruction on how powerful the biomerge between a human and a digimon who are both at the Master level is. That's a permanent tranformation, once that has occurred, it cannot be undone. All those in this room are the result of a biomerge, have reached the Avatar level. There is sufficient skill to disguise our nature, and even, after some time in the Avatar period to temporarily undo the transformation just like Cortell has here with Tentomon.
Of course, you're probably wondering what your role is in all of this. When the war ended there was no victory, for the forces of Darkness cannot be totally overcome lest the balance swing awry. All that happened was a stalemate. During that time we managed to reach unto far-flung worlds and found that we were not alone, that there were many nations of the Light sprawled across space, and we were only the latest to emerge. So at a certain point we ended the war, and a truce set in, uneasy as it was. But we were faced with problems, how were we supposed to protect all these worlds, especially the ones where the threat was small. A single squadron of Mega level digimon would have defeated the power of Myotismon, but that would have made the world you call the Digital World solely dependent upon us for protection. So we tried another track.
We picked the Digital World because it had just been reformatted after suffering devastating losses in the war. It was also closest to the world we came from, Earth, which, unlike some other parallel worlds like Gaea and Forsot remained blissfully unaware of the great battles being fought for survival across the dimensions. The plan was simple, create an automated defense system, something that would automatically summon humans with special properties and bond them with digimon should the need arise. To assist them we created copies of ourselves, an ability that Gennai picked up from who knows where, and left these pale copies of ourselves to monitor the system.
However, in the first encounter we were, let us say, less than successful. We were forced to interfere too often for the digidestined to succeed. But there was an anomaly during that struggle, a digimon falling through a dimensional rift, ending up in your hands Kari, and those of your brother. That let us examine eight prospective new recruits. This time we grew the eggs and the digimon with their own imitation crest, an object that allowed you to tap the power drawn down by the major crests, the ones we still carry. Unfortunately the Dark Masters attacked early, and managed to destroy the production facility. After all, we had not endowed the copies of ourselves with our own powers.
Of course the Dark Masters knew that they could never stand up to us, so they went immediately into hiding. Gennai had salvaged an important part of the project, so we felt reluctant to interfere, because that interference would mean that the digidestined that we called upon would depend upon us to get them out of jams. We really could not act to help any of you because what would happen is that our aid would become necessary. You had to do things on your own.
Despite the sudden rush of feelings conjured up in him TK forced himself to nod. He understood, it was what he would have done himself.
Adam continued speaking. So seven of you were found and brought into the digital world through an elaborate portal system. I bet you never even felt yourself herded toward that summer camp. However, we did not have a digimon for Kari, so we stepped back, depending on the natural attraction between bonded partners to bring them together. The Dark Masters had forseen this, and had left the world filled with their servants as they gathered their armies under the dark mountains in the north. But you triumphed. Not only did you defeat Devimon, you did what they least expected. They had hidden the crests, as they lacked the power to destroy them, hidden them in the inhospitable deserts of Server, but you wandered those deserts and found them all. You defeated Etemon and then attacked their greatest servant. Myostismon fooled you for a while, but the discovery of the eighth child changed all that. Myostismon knew that if he could tap the power of the eighth child, that he would be powerful beyond belief. He also understood that without the last digidestined you stood no chance of winning.
So Myostismon did the one thing even we barely suspected. He had access to an ancient prophecy, which told that his passage into the Real world would result in the greatest power he had ever known, in his death and rebirth. So he betrayed the Dark Masters. The plan was that he would find the Gate and open it and take his army through, and then the Dark Masters would come through behind him and conquer that world as well. But Myotismon sealed the Gate behind him, locking both digidestined and Dark Master alike in the Digital World. In an act to correct that, Gennai gave you the key to open the gate and you returned to the Real world, destroying access to the Gate as you went, and leaving the Dark Masters stranded once again. So they conquered the Digital World and prepared for the return of their rogue disciple.
But they were unprepared for what happened. Myotismon had intended to return as an equal to the Dark Masters, but he was defeated, his spirit taking up residence in Yukio Oikawa. Instead it was the eight of you that returned, finally bearing enough power to defeat them. And, by finding your own strengths, you finally triumphed.
Likewise there were troubles caused by the return of Myostismon, but this time the system instantly recognized that new digidestined were needed, so it activated itself and chose Davis, Yolei and Cody. It was Citadel who transformed the latent Crest of Kindness into the Digi-Egg of Miracles, but all else was your work. And then, when the true danger of Myotismon was unleashed again you were able to defeat Daemon and MaloMyotismon and restore order to the universe. We manipulated this opportunity to be sure to unite your world with the Digital World, like so many other worlds, because humans and digimon working together are much more powerful than they are separately. But we had difficulties, because of the presence of Utopia on your world, and of the influences of the darkness. After the war I returned to Earth alone, but only hours had passed on Earth, where I had spent a century fighting. Fortunately time was no longer out of whack, so I was able to mix time between all the worlds, so I was sent to keep an eye on Utopia, and to keep an eye on you guys in my spare time.
When hostilities erupted again after so many years of truce, we were ready. We anticipated their attack and launched a staggering counteroffensive. The explosion that allowed you to escape from Parsifal was actually an aftershock of our destruction of their main mobile forces. But the Darkness is vast and huge, and they have managed finally to bring up more reinforcements. We have managed to take one of their greatest nexus points, a world that connects to many other worlds, but we need to hold the worlds that we spread out and conquered from there.
However the forces of Darkness have a plan. They plan the conquest of your world, and with it they also plan to unite a new army, conscripted from enslaved humans, Titan units and the digimon Khartan took with him, unite it with the remnants of Daemon's army, and move out in a concentrated attempt to distract us. Unfortunately your world is strategically placed near some of our supply lines. Once they move out we have to move in response. The good news is that they have to move on Earth before their regular army begins its attack. I've been waiting patiently on Earth for them to make their move, knowing that once they did I could return to Citadel immediately and command our own defenses.
Adam sat down. Patamon was staring around with an open mouth. Gatomon was pretending to be unaffected by the whole lesson. Kari claimed no such innocence. TK however had some questions.
How does Khartan plan to overcome our world? TK asked.
I don't know. Adam shrugged. And this time that's for real. I just know that he's probably up to something big. You've barely seen a fraction of his strength. I truly don't know how much power he actually has, but rest assured, when he shows up, you'll know it.
Second. Is there actually a traitor in the group? TK asked.
Adam smiled grimly at that. You forget that you aren't the only ones who can detect the unique signature of essence crystals, or of digivices. He knew where you were the moment you entered any compound he was looking at. You can't hide from him very well, you know.
Third. What time is it? TK looked around worriedly.
Oh. Well here it's getting toward late evening, but time flows differently here depending on what you want. Essentially no time has passed in the real world since you left it. In fact, if you returned through the gateway now, you would be right back where you were, no danger. It's a tricky thing to explain, because obviously I haven't been waiting for you for years. Just assume that we can take care of the time thing.
When's dinner? Patamon suddenly found himself asking.
Everybody laughed at that, and then Adam grinned. Well TK, I expect that you might be living here at some point, and I expect to find Kari wandering these halls some day soon. In that case I better show you some of the things here. We can go down...to...dinner...
Suddenly everyone but TK and Kari were on their feet and, if they were not exactly kneeling, they were wearing expressions of profound reverence, of willingness, of obedience. Even Adam looked like he was on the verge of genuflecting, and the look in his eyes could only be described as awe. At the same time Kari felt that something was behind her, and she turned around.
Once Kari had possessed a great-aunt who thought that the little girl would need a near perfect command of manners, a near-perfect knowledge of how and when and where to offer congratulations and obedience. As a result Kari had spent many dusty afternoons learning proper behavior to function in modern and ancient society. She knew everything from how to properly speak to an elder person to how to give a tea ceremony for the Emperor himself. But nothing in all her great-aunt's lessons had ever taught Kari anything that would have prepared her to encounter a God.
Absently she wondered if this is what people had seen in the beginning. If, back when they were living in dry and dirty huts and caves if they had seen beings such as these, all silver light and ephemeral cloth, descend from the heavens. If they too had stared, necks bent up, making out the shape of wings as white as a dove's, but strong too, greater than the great wings of the mightiest eagles. If they had seen in that cloud of white light the arms and armor of the warrior archangels of heaven, who must have been cast in their image. The sense of power was intoxicating and terrifying all at once, and Kari knew instinctively that she, Hikari Kamiya, was now standing in the presence of a being that was the sun to her candle, to whom the fires of the sun were nothing save a momentary flicker, and perhaps a temporary inconvenience. No eyes stared at her, but this creature, this magnificent sculpture of fire and light needed none, there was no mistaking the brilliance of the gaze that had descended upon her. For a moment it stood like a sculpture, but even then it was not completely still, for motes of light still moved within its being, illuminating the room with eldritch flames.
Then it let one hand raise toward the others in the room, an arm forged of the stuff of dreams, and Kari, looking to see where the being pointed, watched as the others, except for TK, Patamon and Gatomon, jerked as if they had been slapped, temporarily reeling around the room. Kari tore her gaze away from them for the split second necessary to see the greater being raise the same arm in what was unmistakably a gesture of farewell and then disappear as silently as it had come.
Well...now you have seen. Gennai had staggered upright once more, his hand pressing to his forehead. They are the embodiments of the Light, and we call them angels, Seraphi, Cherubim and Archangels. That was one of the greatest of the Seraphi, come to give us tidings of war beyond our border. She also wished to give you a lesson, that no matter how far you go, there are powers beyond you, so far beyond you that you cannot imagine, that will always seek to aid you.
Something in that last sentence stirred TK from his temporary stupor. There is something greater than that? He blurted out.
Adam had also regained his footing, his face dark and foreboding. Once, and once only I was unfortunate enough to witness combat between the ones known as the Archangel Michael and the Fallen Lucifer. I still have nightmares about that sometimes. I have walked among both men and Gods. I still find it disconcerting.
Hey, you're pretty cute. You know that. The kid, whom TK had pegged as Mike, had managed to come up upon a still gaping Patamon.
Huh? What? Patamon jerked out of his shock with a start which set the rest of them giggling.
Let's go down to dinner, we can watch the practice fields from there. The woman, Amanda, suggested.
It's huge. Kari remarked, pausing in the middle of eating her bowl of rice. I mean, it's actually gigantic.
TK was watching the practices going on below under the glare of harsh artificial lights. Humans in armored suits and digimon panting and carrying weights jogged around the mock battlefield in ranks and different formations. Sometimes they would break up and dive for cover as a flying digimon from a group training outside of the field of view through the window dove on them, spitting fire. Beyond they could see huge towers, gangways and connections extended to vessels larger then some of the cities they had seen, the flare of torches visible from even here.
Patamon and Gatomon were staring the other way with even wider eyes. Every kind of digimon imaginable was here. There were tiny in-training digimon, and then, looming above them the bulk of Mega level digimon stalking around. At the next table a bouncy Veggiemon was chatting animatedly with an attentive group of friends, one of which was a huge SaberLeomon. A few tables away there was a much larger table at which sat a reclining Zudomon, head inclined so that he could converse with a WarGreymon standing on his stomach. The digimon were different then anything that Patamon and Gatomon had ever seen, all wearing armor of some kind, some mark of station, and all of them looking youthfully and exuberantly alive.
The Citadel contingent, sensing the unease that ran among them, did their best to make the newcomers feel at home, but they were still to alien to truly do this. Finally TK asked a question that he had been wondering for quite a while.
What kind of powers can we use? TK spoke, and the table fell silent as people began to stare at each other.
I guess I'll start. Cortell stood up, knocking Tentomon off the back of his chair. I have the crest of Knowledge, and here it seems that the system is like the human brain, knowledge is stored in electricity. I can manipulate electricity and electromagnetic phenomena to the point of being able to control the entire electromagnetic spectrum. If pressed I have to admit that I can manipulate electricity stored in people's minds in sort of an imitation telepathy.
I'm Jessica Wright in case you hadn't guessed. Jessica stood up next, blonde hair shaking out of her eyes. Friendship is my domain, and Friendship solidifies things, so I have powers over ice. Even though that sometimes sounds lame next to some of these others trust me, after being frozen for a few years, most enemies don't come back for anything.
That makes me Jan. Jan stood up as Jessica sat down. I'm Courage, and that means fire, and lots of it. I can do anything from lighting the candles on your birthday cake to thermonuclear detonation. I can also create an aura that enhances both my speed and my physical combat abilities.
As for the rest of us... Adam waved as he stood up. Well, the three of us here, myself, Amanda as Light and Mike as Hope all possess seals. Mike can influence nations by spreading Hope, Amanda can control the enlightenment of truth using Light, and I am given special abilities with which to combat evil and bring it to Justice. As for the rest, well, the seals can duplicate the power of any of the other crests.
Gennai stood up suddenly, no hint of a smile on his face. My name truly is Gennai. I carry the seal of power. I can do anything I want.
As he sat down again Jan rolled his eyes and remonstrated, in a voice filled with mock exasperation. That's Gennai all right. There was a loud round of laughter.
So does this explain why Gennai was so hard to get information out of back on our first journey in the Digital World? TK asked innocently.
That was Amanda rolling her eyes. He's always that way.
Hey Jan. Adam grinned. Remember that time he told us to find that stash of portable generators, the one he told us was buried under an oak tree five kilometers south of Rashfoster?
Oh, do I ever. Jan groaned. There was a forest five kilometers south of Rashfoster. Do you have any idea how many trees we dug under that night?"
You needed the exercise. Gennai grinned at them slyly.
So now what do we do? TK asked, finishing shoveling rice and stir-fry into his face. I mean it's far from over yet, isn't it.
It is. The table was suddenly solemn again, solemn and quiet. Gennai remained the only one speaking. I think maybe I should show you the Eternal Garden.
By Such as These are we Sheltered.
Those were the only inscription over the door as they entered, but TK immediately sensed something different about the set of rooms. It became apparent what the difference was as soon as he, Kari, their digimon, and Gennai walked through the door. There was only a set of walls here, rather like a library, filled with many different smaller walls that turned the place into an organized maze.
TK walked up to one and saw that the faceplate was covered, not with pictures, or even with blank plate, but with names. He touched one name in particular and the wall he was facing suddenly came alive with an image, a holographic sculpture of a young man with dark hair and glasses, staring solemnly out at TK. Other things floated by him, name, age, birthplace, home, date of birth, date of death.
Gennai confirmed as TK turned around. This is where we bury our dead.
Kari looked up, and sudden shock and disbelief set in as she realized the dimensions of the room. It stretched on into infinity, wall after wall, name after name. In some places she watched the names until they grew so close together that they blurred into a somber mess. In others she looked to see what the end of the corridors looked like, but could see nothing, except for markers, grim and silent, stretching off until she lost sight of them. There were guides posted on the walls, computer terminals that displayed the way back to the entrance, and Kari quickly realized that these were to keep people from getting lost wandering these vast halls.
How many? TK asked quietly after a few moments.
These mark only our casualties, military and civilian alike, so they only show one part of the story. But to answer your question nine billion seven hundred twenty three million six hundred fifty two thousand two hundred forty two. Gennai looked and sounded in that moment old, old, sad and broken.
You remember that? Patamon sounded incredulous.
That number is burned into my brain by a brand far fiercer than any forged by mortal man. There is no way I could ever forget that number. Gennai looked away for a moment.
And they all died? Gatomon jumped up on Kari's shoulder.
Let me show you something. Gennai waved them on. You may wonder why Adam goes as Adam on Earth, and Andrel here. The short answer is that Adam is his given name, but when he arrived at camp they already had an Adam there, and an Andrew, so jokingly Adam took the name of Andrel as a nickname. Adam and Andrew both were fatally injured in the battle that won us File Island. Adam died in Andrel's arms, and Andrel, who both directed and commanded the battle, has never truly forgiven himself for letting them die.
Was it his fault? TK asked quietly.
He did not anticipate the impossible. He was not prepared for an enemy that numbered four times their original might. That he won the battle at all was a miracle, and perhaps a testament to his ability, but that does not guarantee a free lunch. He will never forgive himself for any of those lives lost, and perhaps it makes him the best general we've ever had.
But he can't help us can he? Kari asked seriously.
No. As soon as the Dark attacks your world he must return to the front lines. Thirty worlds hang on this campaign, billions of lives, maybe even hundreds of billions. I don't think he can risk them for your campaign. The battle you will have to win by yourself.
Can we defeat Khartan? TK asked. His eyes had sparked for some reason.
No. You aren't strong enough. Gennai suddenly grew incredibly serious.
I suspected that. Is there a way for us to beat him? TK asked cautiously.
The means to that have already been given. Gennai looked very serious.
Then we'll have to make do. TK grinned at Gennai, confidence returning to him. So, the question is, what do we do now?
You learn. We teach. Gennai pointed back to the exit, and they left the dead behind.
It might have been the tension, it might have been the knowledge that the test on these subjects would involve life and death. It might have been any of a number of things. It could have been because Adam was the best teacher that TK and Kari had ever had, but he taught them more in one evening than they had ever known before.
That evening he, backed up by Gennai, taught them everything they ever needed to know about digimon. He taught them fully about every digimon they might encounter, how they behaved, what their attacks were, their fears, their weaknesses and all their other constraints. He told them about the variety of effects of electric attacks, fire attacks, ice attacks and a million other methods by which digimon could use. His lecture was filled with illusions created with the wave of his hand, illustrating the most gruesome effects of various attacks and how to counter them, burning them into their brains.
By the time they were tired they were given rooms fit for a king, rich satin sheets, soft mattresses, and left them to sleep.
The next day the lessons were more intense. Adam revealed that he was only going to have them stay here a short while, returning them to his apartment about an hour after they had left. But that meant that he was going to make their only days of instruction count. He was going to teach them how to make war.
He gave a single lecture that day, but this one was attended by many people, most of them people TK and Kari did not recognize. This time Adam stood in the front of a huge lecture all, and they all had front row seats. Digimon and humans alike sat in rows, staring down at Adam standing at the front of the room.
The first thing he wrote on the board was short and simple. KISS. Keep it Simple, Stupid. Which, he pointed out meant many things, including that you should keep it simple because people were generally stupid, because you were stupid for not keeping it simple, or any other one of a dozen meanings. TK had expected the lecture to cover complicated flanking maneuvers, huge and intricate plans for battle. He let his pen twitch across a pad of borrowed paper nervously at the start.
But Adam did not teach that way at all. He taught using examples from a subject that TK and Kari both knew about, Japanese history. He supplemented it with battles from his own past. He taught them the three ways to defeat an enemy, fire, maneuver and shock effect, the ways to achieve them through surprise, deception, numerical and technological superiority and terrain advantages. Diagrams appeared that covered the most simple of maneuvers, the flanking maneuver, the charge, the solid and elastic defense. Then the diagrams appeared differently. They illustrated great battles of the past, complicated swirls of different colors moving across the world, marching in formation across a hundred different terrains.
Then Adam, speaking sometimes softly, sometimes loudly and with vigor, would point out how these hundreds of complicated battles would be won by the correct application of those simple maneuvers that were instinctive for them. He would point out how seemingly simple maneuvers could win a war. Then he would explain that the key had been knowing when to attack and when to give ground, and where to do it, and how. A thousand different scenarios must have gone by while TK and Kari sat entranced, and all the other students busily took notes.
After a quick break for lunch they were back, but the topic was different. Adam was teaching about how to organize an army. It took almost a whole hour of lecture before TK could begin to grasp the massive complexity of the task, why Adam claimed that it had cost armies wars before. The idea of feeding, moving, of commanding thousands of men was so complicated that Kari could not even begin to imagine how it was done. Adam outlined leadership requirements, morale requirements, and then begin to talk about different ways that they applied to an army. He spoke of logistics, of how to operate, of how to command. Of why a general could never lead the charge unless he was supremely confident of his men, and why even then it was a bad idea. He talked about methods of war that TK could never have learned on Earth, because he talked about how to employ different types of digimon, and how they worked best in battle. He spoke until they were sure that he would be too hoarse to go on. And they he spoke more.
Others would come in and give lectures. Cortell talked to a crowded room for hours on the benefits and perils of logistics, on how lack of supplies could be used as a weapons against the other side, and how it had been applied before. One day there was only a long argument between many different veterans, some high-level digimon and others grizzled old humans, about what made the best leaders in a combat situation, and how they treated their men. Every one of them seemed to remember some time or other when they had truly been inspired by someone, yet the traits differed from person to person. Some traits emerged, confidence, determination and a quick wit were essential, but they were lost in a sea of debate.
Cortell and Adam came in and argued about a variety of different weapons systems, digimon, powers, and how to employ them. Diagrams, charts, maps and video files made up the background for that long and overdrawn debate, but the key lay in the different views. Both of them presented reasonable plans for offensive and defensive action that were completely opposite, illustrating the most important lesson of all, that it was only inventiveness and foresight that really counted. TK and Kari learned more about the different ways to approach conflict in those few hours then they had in their entire lives.
Even Gennai put in an apparently rare appearance, to talk about the hazards and duties of command from the perspective of a leader. His words were quiet and calm, but they carried great weight behind them. TK wondered, for a moment, how he had ever thought of this figure as a foolish old man.
And then, at the end, once days and nights in this fortress in paradise had seemed to blend together, it was time to go home.
The four of them stood there as Gennai smiled at them one last time, Adam standing beside him.
Gennai spoke up. This won't be a pretty war. It won't be a happy one. What is happening tomorrow will be beyond anything you've ever seen. But trust yourself, you're strong enough to take it.
Trust me too when I say that you're ready. Adam smiled at them. I won't be there to help you, but I will be there in spirit, and I think you'll be able to handle it.
TK shook Adam's hand and bowed. Kari did the same.
Gennai raised a hand in farewell.
TK and Kari stepped through the doorway home and did not look back as heaven fell away behind them.